Vijayadashami Special

Friends Swami Sukhabodhananda*, sees Vijayadashami as an occasion to remind us the need to keep Ego at arms length : Swami actually talks about "Victory Of Awareness Over Ego" Let's make a beginning. The articles at A & B are copied from an email group in which I am a member. M G Warrier *Watch Swami speaking : https://youtu.be/ZqtRr41dUzk?si=G3_fxDsNPzUnGybe Vijayadashami Special Our common aspiration - The Economic Times https://share.google/P1QXiMRfuqaNyCl9y Synopsis Vijayadashami represents the victory of goodness over evil, as seen in various cultural narratives. Ram's defeat of Ravan and Jesus Christ's resurrection reflect similar themes of righteousness triumphing over darkness. Additionally, Michael's defeat of Satan in Christian scripture parallels these tales. Different cultures emphasize the idea that arrogance and injustice ultimately lead to destruction. The stories resonate with a profound human belief in the enduring nature of hope and courage. A Facts & Stories My friend Balasubramanian, Ex-RBI, Coimbatore shared this humorous piece published in the Business Standard of Sept 5, 2026 in another group. The author is Ajanta Krishnamurthy : There was a time when a biscuit had one job : To be eaten. You bought a packet from the neighbourhood kirana, opened it with your teeth, if needed, dunked it into tea and got on with your life. Nobody knew where the wheat came from. Nobody cared about the butter. The only question a biscuit was expected to answer was whether there was another one left in the packet. Explore More Now everything has a backstory. A biscuit is no longer a biscuit. It is handcrafted, slow-baked, perhaps even inspired by some grandmother somewhere. The packet is brown, the lettering is tasteful and the quantity inside is just enough to make you wonder whether you have accidentally bought stationery. The same thing has happened to the rest of the kitchen and, increasingly, the bathroom. Detergent has become laundry care. Pickle is a small-batch preserve. Tea is a single-estate experience. Ice cream is slow-churned. Salt has become strangely ambitious. It can be Himalayan, smoked, pink, infused, mineral-rich, and important enough to deserve a place at the table. Water has perhaps had the greatest career transformation. For most of our lives, water was the one thing nobody had to explain. You drank it. You asked for more. Now there is water that sounds like a minor European aristocrat, comes in a glass bottle, is alkaline, and costs enough to make you briefly consider dehydration. I find the detergent particularly revealing. It used to be powder. You measured it badly, threw it into the bucket and hoped for the best. Now the bottle wants to be taken seriously. It talks about fabric care, fragrance notes, botanical ingredients and mysterious technology designed to make your clothes feel loved. All you want is for it to remove the turmeric stain. None of this is entirely absurd. India has changed. There is more money around, more choice and, for many people, more appetite for things that would once have seemed extravagant. The person who grew up treating a restaurant meal as an occasion can now spend a Sunday afternoon buying coffee beans, sourdough and a jar of something fermented. And so coffee is no longer something you drink; it is a ritual. Clothes are curated. Food is an experience. Soap has a philosophy. Even olive oil arrives with enough information about its grove and its pressing to make you feel undereducated in your own kitchen. Our parents had a simpler vocabulary : Good, bad, lasts long, money's worth. If something worked for 10 years, that was the review. The Tamil kitchen has always been rather good at this. Yesterday's vegetables became today’s poriyal. Leftover rice became curd rice. Pickle was made in quantities that suggested nobody had heard of “small batch”. There was a large jar in the kitchen and the only question was whether it would last until the next summer. Now those very things are returning to us wearing better packaging. Put a samosa on newspaper and it is a samosa. Put it on a handmade ceramic plate, perch a microgreen on top and call it a “deconstructed spud pastry”, and suddenly it is ₹650. A brass lota becomes heritage décor. A cane chair becomes Japandi. A clay pot becomes artisanal serveware. Somewhere in all this, ordinary has acquired a faint smell of embarrassment. We used to admire things because they were useful, sturdy and affordable. Now everything needs provenance. The tomato needs a farmer’s story. The bedsheet needs a thread count. Even the humble candle, which once existed mainly to help when the electricity went out, now requires a mood, a scent profile and, possibly, a wellness objective. The funniest part is that we remain gloriously Indian about money. We will pay ₹800 for a tiny box of craft chocolate and bargain over ₹10 with the sabziwala. We will discuss the ethics of single-origin coffee and argue with an autorickshaw driver over ₹20. We will order imported sparkling Alpine water in a restaurant and doggybag biryani wrapped in foil. We have not stopped being frugal. We have simply become selective about where we are willing to feel extravagant. Premiumisation, after all, is not really about making everything better. Sometimes it is about taking something perfectly ordinary, giving it a backstory, putting it in a beautiful box, and charging us for the privilege of feeling that we have evolved. Perhaps the real luxury now is the freedom to be ordinary: To drink water without knowing its birthplace, eat a cookie without being briefed on its terroir, and use detergent without caring which botanical miracle has gone into it. A biscuit need not be handcrafted; water does not need a biography; and maavadu pickle certainly does not need a founder’s story, a tasting note or a website explaining its journey from farm to jar. It can sit in its reused Horlicks bottle, tasting exactly as it always has. There is something wonderfully subversive about that now: To make, buy or eat something simply because it is good, without elevating it, curating it or giving it a backstory. Not everything needs to be premium. Some things were perfectly fine before we started fixing them. B Right amount of sleep : Getting just the right amount of sleep can literally be a matter of life and death, as per modern research. Scientists have revealed that sleeping less than six hours a night or more than 9 hrs increase the risk of an early death. Dr Kalam was unique when he wanted his countrymen to dream whether they found time to sleep or not. Now it is a mechanical life with stress, strain and disappointments and we cannot get sleep that easily. There are sleep therapists who analyse your sleep pattern and suggest remedies for inadequate sleep. Do you know that there is National Foundation of Sleep functioning from 1990? As we get older, night poses a severe threat. But in total contrast we have another disorder called 'Narcolepsy' that involves excessive, uncontrollable day time sleep. Such patients may havesleep attacks” while in the middle of talking, working, or even while driving. Somnambulism, is a walking or performing other complex activities during sleep. It is a misconception that sleep walker should not be disturbed. Recently a gentleman filed a petition stating that virtual tyranny has been imposed on him after innocently reciting the sacred vows of matrimony and he is totally deprived of 'sleep' as result of ban on his fundamental right of speech. However no law has given a helping hand to the male species so far. Sleep talking formally called 'somniloquy' is a disorder of talking during sleep. It can involve complicated dialogues, monologues or poems or songs. Sleep talkers are not aware of their speech. The language may sound altogether unfamiliar and totally different. It may not have relevance to the present situation. It will not be accepted as evidence in court of law. Not to talk of nightmares which is common in children. We can't but think of Kumbakarna of Ramayana when we talk of 'sleep'. It is stated that while he thought of requesting for "indrsana' to Brahma, his tongue twisted due to the grace of Goddess saraswathi, he actually sought for'NIDRASANA'.There is also a version he said'NIDRATVAM''instead of'NIRDEVATVAM'. Whatever it is the boon ended with 6 months' continuous sleep to Kumbakarna in a year. But modern scientists say that perhaps Kumbakarna suffered a rare disorder 'Sleeping Beauty Syndrome'It is said that a girl of 14 in London slept continuosly for 44 days. In other mythologies too we hear of people sleeping for even years together and have missed important events like wife's death, marriage of son and so on.Since there was a distinct pattern in Kumbakarna's sleep, sleep therapists conclude that it might have been a disorder and not an after effect of a curse. Mahavishnu is famous for his sleep on a bed of rolled snake.But his sleep is his 'yoga nidra'.Yoga nidra has been known for thousands of years for sages.Of the three states of consciousness-waking, dream and Deep sleep,as per Mandukya Upanishad yoga nidra refers to the conscious Awareness of DEEP SLEEP( pragna) state.This is the third of the 4 levels of AUM mantra,relating to the state reprented by the M of AUM.The four states being-waking, dreaming, deep sleep and Turiya. This is subtler than the imagery and mental process. Now a days yoga nidra is a part of yogic exercise just like shavasana. Sleep is not such a simple matter or routine phenomenon in life.Sleep makes one gifted or cursed.That is why lullaby plays an important part in a child's life.A disorganized song mostly composed spontaneously by mothers revealing her emotions and tender heart make infants go to sleep almost immediately.Born in a joint family I have seen nearly fifty children born in our house and Amma used to compose and sing lullabies connected to the education/job of parents/grand parents of the infant. (*Content sourced from a write-up shared by VATHSALA JAYARAMAN, ExRBI, Chennai)