Warrier's Collage on February 18, 2024

Welcome To Warrier's COLLAGE On Sunday, February 18, 2024 Quotes from Mahabharata Bheeshmastuti : https://youtu.be/qxsYvD52vsk?feature=shared Friends Good Morning Happy Birthday to all readers having Birthday during the week ending Saturday, February 24, 2024. Ayurarogyasaukhyam and Best Wishes to all readers. Nice Day M G Warrier A Collage Valentine's Day Message https://m.economictimes.com/opinion/speaking-tree/the-love-of-your-life/articleshow/107668842.cms "Learn to love yourself first, then, you will be able to love and be loved by the entire world." - RM, the leader of BTS, the Korean seven-member boy band B Collage Poetry : My Soul Is In A Hurry* https://ronvanes.medium.com/my-soul-is-in-a-hurry-836409e86ce4 *Poem shared by Dr T V Surendran, Mananthavady C Collage Books Book on my table : "Santhwana Paricharanam Darshanam Jeevita Dautyam"* By Dr E Divakaran Santhwana Paricharanam https://amzn.eu/d/6d259yX Book Review : https://www.amazon.in/review/R37187BUW31XND/ref=pe_1640331_66412301_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv Amazon Review A handbook on Palliative Care This book covers several aspects of caregiving and approach to life in general which we are not taught in classes anywhere. Dr Divakaran doesn't take positions and guide you to follow him. Instead, as a good teacher, he takes you to vast unexplored areas of life, leaving decision-making and further exploration of subjects to you. I'm impressed by the way he mixes science, medicine and philosophy/spirituality to analyse the relevance of life. Though I have been trying to understand the vedantic approach to existence, I got some clarification on separating me from my body after reading this book. Wish this book gets translated into many languages. M G Warrier *In Malayalam Link support : Open Book of Happy Memories: ( and Other Stories ) https://amzn.eu/d/c2K2ZVf Book overview Open Book of Happy Memories (And Other Stories) as the title suggests is a compilation of random essays on a variety of subjects. Recent pandemic, impact of which lasted for more than three years unsettled our life. Most of the lifelines breaking, many of us, especially elders, found our life approaching a grinding halt, not only for health or economic reasons. Communication links got reduced to television and internet, as doors closed and even newspapers and magazines, bookstores and libraries were out of reach. To help those friends and relatives who were not tech-savvy or were not comfortable with routine social media interaction, I tried a shortcut through a consolidated daily personal message. The modern social media routes came in handy. Short essays which covered nostalgic memories and brief pieces on current issues became part of my daily messages. This book is a compilation of select pieces from those stories and select essays written by me during recent years. Note : Those who buy books from Amazon.in may kindly post reviews which can help others. D Collage Relaxation Come, let us niksen! https://m.economictimes.com/opinion/speaking-tree/come-let-us-niksen/articleshow/107731925.cms Bonus : 1) Remembering Nagasaki https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/5001311/ Without comments 😭 2) From the Mainstream Weekly : Life in prisons https://mainstreamweekly.net/article14303.html Excerpts : "When and how have prisons and torture originated among humans? What is the purpose of prisons in the so called civilized nations including ours? Prisons and torture mean nothing else but human right violations and both of them are there with us from time immemorial. Of course, the born-criminals and anti-social elements have to be imprisoned for the safety of the people who live peacefully. But the fact that people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. spent many years in prisons points to the reality that prisons haven’t originated to safeguard the peace and well-being of the people as there are no people who worked for peace as the Mahatma and Mr.King did." E What's Collage reading https://m.economictimes.com/opinion/speaking-tree/dont-lose-yourself/articleshow/107700960.cms More about Buddha : https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/buda/hd_buda.htm#:~:text=According%20to%20tradition%2C%20the%20historical,much%20as%20a%20century%20later. F Media Response 1) Electoral Bonds Streamline election funding process This refers to your editorial "Unfinished agenda" (The Hindu Business Line, February 17). As the Apex Court seems to have limited the scrutiny to the transparency angle in election funding through electoral bonds, the ball is back in the government's court. Perhaps a situation of 'back to basics' Elections are integral part of any democratic system and for contesting elections candidates and political parties need funds. The introduction of electoral bonds served the limited purpose of contributions to political parties getting accounted. The secrecy part and the chances of funding influencing government's policies and the genuine apprehension that the political parties with a higher chance to win more numbers grabbing disproportionate share of corporate donations are the factors that weighed against the electoral bond scheme. Now it is for the government to reintroduce the scheme with appropriate safeguards to ensure transparency. Among other things, review of the following aspects may be necessary : a) The ceiling on contribution as a percentage of profit of a company or group of companies. b) Linking vote share in the previous election to aggregate donation each political party can receive during every five-year period. c) Delegating the responsibility of ensuring transparent accounting to existing statutory bodies like CAG. d) Removing the secrecy. M G Warrier Mumbai 2) State of resources management* This refers to your editorial "States of the Union" (The Hindu Business Line, February 15, 2024). The issues raised need to be addressed by government at the Centre from multiple angles considering the changes in the equations of political power and governance in the last two decades. As is evident from the near helplessness expressed by the Apex Court the other day, there are situations in which the law of the land and the rule books may need quick revision. In the absence of the concept of Five Year Plans now there is no centralised architecture for resources mapping and reallocation. The plea for equitable distribution of available funds gets another dimension in this context. Centre will have to take the responsibility of ensuring equity in mobilization and reallocation of resources across geographies. M G Warrier Mumbai *Published on February 16, 2024 G Collage Cover Story : The Atheist Professor* An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, The Almighty. He asks one of his new students to stand up and ..... Prof : So you believe in God? Student : Absolutely, sir. Prof : Is God good? Student : Sure. Prof : Is God all-powerful? Student : Yes. Prof : My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm? (Student is silent.) Prof : You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fellow. Is God good? Student : Yes. Prof : Is Satan good? Student: No. Prof : Where does Satan come from? Student: From...God... Prof : That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world? Student: Yes. Prof : Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct? Student: Yes. Prof : So who created evil? Student does not answer. Prof : Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they? Student: Yes, sir. Prof : So, who created them? Student has no answer. Prof : Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God? Student : No, sir. Prof : Tell us if you have ever heard your God? Student : No, sir. Prof : Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter? Student : No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't. Prof : Yet you still believe in Him? Student : Yes. Prof : According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son? Student : Nothing. I only have my faith. Prof : Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has. Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat? Prof : Yes. Student : And is there such a thing as cold? Prof : Yes. Student : No sir. There isn't. (The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.) Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it. (There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.) Student : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness? Prof : Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness? Student : You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you? Prof : So what is the point you are making, young man? Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed. Prof : Flawed? Can you explain how? Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life : just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey? Prof : If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do. Student : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir? (The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.) Student : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher? (The class is in uproar.) Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain? (The class breaks out into laughter.) Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir? (The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.) Prof : I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son. Student : That is it sir...The link between man & God is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving & alive. This is a true story, and the student was none other than...Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the former president of India. *Shared By VATHSALA JAYARAMAN H Kabir's Doha* दुःख में सुमिरन सब करे सुख में करै न कोय। जो सुख में सुमिरन करे दुःख काहे को होय ॥ Dukh Mein Simran Sab Karen, Sukh Mein Karay Na Koye Jo Sukh Mein Simran Karay, To Dukh Kahay Ko Hoye. कबीरजी कहते हैं कि दुःख में तो परमात्मा को सभी याद करते हैं सुख में कोई याद नहीं करता, सुख में भी यदि स्मरण करते तो दुःख क्यूँ होगा ... While suffering all remember (God) and during in peace no one, If think (of God) in peace why will the suffering come? *Shared by Vathsala Jayaraman