Beauty of Hinduism, has been and will ever be based on "freedom of choice to believe in" for it's followers. Has any other religion on this earth has ever dared to provide that freedom to it's followers?
When a foreigner can recognize the strength of hinduism why not we Indians?
PTI has reported the following:
The blessings of Lord Hanuman seem to be with Barack Obama as a temple consecrated to the Hindu deity is organising a prayer meeting on Sunday 22nd June 2008, to ensure his victory in the US Presidential election.
Priests of Sankat Mochan Dham Hanuman temple have organised a prayer for the success of the Democratic party's presidential nominee and will gift him a 15 kg gold-plated statute of Hanuman.
"We are praying for his success. Carolene Saurce, a representative of Democratic Party will attend the meeting on his (Obama's) behalf," Brij Mohan Dhama, a member of the temple told PTI.
He said his organisation was impressed with the ideology of the 46-year-old senator from Illinois. “He is a great believer in Lord Hanuman. His victory will benefit India,” he said.
Obama who defeated his rival Hillary Clinton in an epic 17-month long electoral battle for the Democratic party nomination, carries a "tiny monkey god" apparently representing 'Hanuman' with him for good luck.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Politics - It's the same world over!
I was literally agitated over the recent remarks of US President Bush.After a news conference in Missouri on May 2, he was quoted as saying of India’s burgeoning middle class, “When you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.” The comments followed a statement on the subject by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Explaining the food price increases, Indian politicians and academics cite consumption in the United States; the West’s diversion of arable land into the production of ethanol and other biofuels; agricultural subsidies and trade barriers from Washington and the European Union; and finally the decline in the exchange rate of the dollar.
There are some foundation to Indians’ accusations of hypocrisy by the West. The United States uses — or throws away — 3,770 calories a person each day, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization collected in 2001-3, compared with 2,440 calories per person in India. Americans are also the largest per capita consumers in any major economy of the most energy-intensive common food source, beef, the Agriculture Department says.
And the United States and Canada lead the world in oil consumption per person, according to the Energy Information Administration, an Energy Department agency.
When it comes to trade, Western farming subsidies undercut agricultural production in fertile areas of Africa, India’s commerce minister, Kamal Nath, said in a telephone interview, repeating the point that Americans waste more food than people in many other countries.
The United States is responsible “many times more” than India for the world food crisis, said Ramesh Chand, an economist with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, which advises the government on farm policy.
The Bush administration has called for a truce. President Bush is a “great friend and admirer” of India, the United States ambassador here, David C. Mulford, said last week. He added that “this is a time for increased cooperation among nations to solve this problem and that hostile political commentary is not productive.”
A White House spokesman, Scott Stanzel, said, “We think it is a good thing countries are developing, that more and more people have higher standards of living.”
Some economists argue that blaming India’s growth is not only unfair, but makes little sense.
Food prices have not been rising continually as developing nations grew, said Ramgopal Agarwala, a former World Bank economist and senior adviser at RIS, a research institute in New Delhi. “They were static until 2006, then in 2007 and 2008 there was a sudden spark,” he said. But India has been growing for the last decade. This is “not last year’s phenomena,” he said.
Well, inspite of the differences in opinions, I strongly believe in Change as Mr. Obama does. I wish he becomes the next US president!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Heights of Commercialisation...God Save us from Spurious Media!
Just for the heck of cooking up News the Media is showing counterfactual and false information...It's height of Commercialisation!
How can the Media be so irresponsible???
Judge yourself....
Please watch this video posted on ibnlive claiming that they have Decoded Dawood the most wanted.... You will find a picture claiming to be wedding snap of Dawood's daughter but in reality it is my friend's wedding snap - He is not Javed Miandad's son or Dawood's son-in-law.
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/63608/04_2008/30min_dawood2/30-minutes-dawood-decoded.html
Friend's photo in flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/aejazahamed/1365406993/
Horrible fact is...in 2006 Indiatimes carried a similar gossip. Refer to this blog: http://toufeeq.blogspot.com/2006/07/javed-miandads-son-is-my-classmate.html
How can we trust the NEWS reported by such irresponsible Media?
Friday, April 18, 2008
You Can't Ignore!
If the response to the Welcome Mailer is any indication, I am convinced that most of them can't ignore, not only the Change Agents, but also the Change Catalysts!!! Do watch this video which candidly illustrates the fact that often Change Agents are considered crazy by others. Lets get crazy and look within us...who knows one of us might be one of them tomorrow!
The misfits...
the rebels...
the trouble makers...
the Change-Agents!!!
The misfits...
the rebels...
the trouble makers...
the Change-Agents!!!
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They are not fond of for rules,
and they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them,
Disagree with them
Glorify or vilify them
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Swami Vivekananda's Chicago Speech
WELCOME ADDRESS - Chicago, Sept 11, 1893
Sisters and Brothers of America,It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.
CONCLUDING ADDRESS - Chicago, Sept 27, 1893
The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who laboured to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labour.My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter.Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: "Help and not fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Is Secularism in Indian sheer Anti-Hinduism?
Every Indian should read Swami Vivekananda's Speech at The World Parliament of Religions, Chicago. Today we are facing threat to our Society in the form of Pseudo-Secularism. The Telegraph reports about this threat.Do check out the review on another site.
Please click on the Swami Vivekananda's Speech / reports / review link to read the article.
Before I express my view on this issue, Let me clarify to all of you who are reading this - I am not a Hindu Fanatic. But I am being driven to question the Hindu tolerance??? I have close friends across all religions. I have always been proud, and have boasted myself for being SECULAR, despite being a Hindu by birth, I was comfortable attending primary school in a Muslim Institution and high school in a Christian Institution. I use to celebrate both Ramzan and Christmas with my friends with equal vigor as that of Deepvali.
Will Karunanidhi Dare to Change the Christian or Muslim Calendar ? Are Hindu's being targetted for petty political interests of these divisive politicians? I am worried because these actions are unwarranted and is going to hinder the development of an inclusive society.
Rattles of Change in Our Minds
I am pretty confident that all of us have heard the inherent rattles of change for Our Motherland, within our minds, at one point or other in our life.
- How many of us have questioned ourselves about the state of affairs in our country?
- How many of us have felt that we need to do something about poverty, illiteracy, corruption... but we can't?
- How many of us have been deceived by the skewed view of Indian Media?
- How many of us are fed up with pseudo-secularism practised by politicians?
- How many of us want to bring about a social change in India for progression with equality?
For all of you who have had such questions in your minds and for all others who have been immunized to the state of affairs in our country...Welcome to this blog!!!
Striding forward to be a Social Entrepreneur in the future, my ramblings in this blog will strive to ensure that we are well informed to take up those imminent changes within ourselves which should in turn impact our country and then the world as such!!!
I aspire to make this the most interactive forum which will help each other to understand and critically analyze the views on various topics affecting our home country.
I aspire to make this the most interactive forum which will help each other to understand and critically analyze the views on various topics affecting our home country.
Reason for naming this blog 'Change-Catalyst': Change is not just sufficient, we need an accelerated change in the minds of people on several areas that will ensure progression for our country and I am sure this blog will act as a catalyst to spread the voice and provide the needed acceleration.
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