Inclusive society of Sanathana Dharma

We are what we are ...

Many of you would have recited Vishnu Sahasranama and some of you may recite it by heart. As children , in many households in the South , we have witnessed the daily recital of Vishnu Sahasranama either individually or in groups. Some households may play the MS Subbulakshmi's divine rendering of the celestial song and listen to it devoutly. This recital of 1008 namas of Bhagawan Maha Vishnu was orginally done by Bhishma Pitamaha and it appears in Anushasana Parva in Section/Chapter 149, verses 14 to 120.
This prayer praising the Purushothaman, Bhagwan Sriman Narayanan has been the subject matter of detailed commentary/ exposition (bhashya)by Adi Sankara, Sri Parasara Bhattar etc.
I am not competent to write about them. But one thing in the Shasranama prayer stands out. At the end of the Shasranama, Maa Parvati asks Eswar, is there any easy way for a simpleton to recite the name of Bhagawan, as he may not be able to recite the Shasranama. Eswar obliges Her by saying Yes reciting the Ram nama is equal to reciting the Sahasranama and Bhagwan would be pleased to hear Ram nama .

Parvathi:"Keno payane laguna vishnor nama sahasrakaam;
Patyathe pandithair nithyam srodhu micham yaham prabho.
Eswar; "SriRama rama ramethi rame raame manorame,
sahasranama thathulyam rama nama varanane"

The above question and answer is the bedrock of Inclusivity of Sanathana Dharma.Nobody is left out including the last man standing, making it easy for him to reach Bhagwan. Unto the Last !

Is it ok to do anything, if it helps atleast 4 people!!

Some time back , one of the hit Tamil movies, carried a dialogue that goes .."If what you do benefits atleast 4 people around you kindly carry on that work.." justifying all  criminal and anti-social activities like smuggling. In this garb, of delusion you can include every conceivable anti-national , anti-social activity since in any case atleast few people who support these rubbish causes out of personal grudge or grudge against a nation or society will be benefited. I am hearing somebody crying aloud " .. but at what cost or whose cost". Simply this larger question remains unanswered as it provokes awkward and embarrassing introspection for these criminals.

Guided by self proclaimed righteousness the hero of the movie carries out his God father like mafia role with impunity.

Few days back a tamil scholar wearing a dhoti was taking Thirukkural classes to the children of the middle school. He explained at great length the following thirukkural

"ஈன்றாள் பசி காண்பாள் ஆயினும், செய்யற்க சான்றோர் பழித்த வினை" Explanation: "Even if one's mother is struck by hunger due to poverty, one must not do such acts which the wise would treat with contempt".

This aphorism exhorts a person to walk the path of righteousness even in dire straits.

This entirely contradicts the Tamil movie dialogue which shows the path of expediency. This path will lead the entire society to its doomsday. Thirukkural shows the way of building tomorrow's world and society. Great nations are built on sacrifices and certainly not on personal gains with criminal motives.

Chemistry and human existence!

Many biochemistry researchers say that we are chemical beings with neuro transmitters carrying messages within all over our body.Our genes and other body tissues,cells and nerves are made of endogenous chemicals, chemical substances and chemical compositions.

Where from we get these chemicals which conduct us all through our life. Obviously from food , water we consume and air we breathe in.

If that being the case, our ancestors  understood this chemistry very well. They said that we are made of Satthva, Rajas and Tamo gunas as a result of various chemical combinations and which  that dominates the rest of the combinations and secretions. They went one level up and defined that our external vocations must match our inner body resonations. This , they said, will result in specialisation of labour.

According to them , the inner vibrations, the ichcha shakti, and your external kriyas, the kriya shakti, must be in consonance always for our souls to evolve and reach a higher plane, the Gnana shakti.

Therefore, they defined the food habits for each classes of labour. If you follow the path of a brahmin , you must have high Sattva guna and therefore must choose to eat Sattvic food shunning onion and garlic etc.

If you follow the path of Kshatriya, then go ahead and take foods that contain more of Rajas chemicals like onion and garlic with meat.

Now with deep understanding of human body , scientists have understood that our body is nothing but full of chemistry.

Perhaps that is why our ancestors kept "Rasam" as an important dish for nourishing the "Rasayanam"(Chemistry) of the human body.!!

Pendulum effect and our politics

we are what we are..

You all might have heard about Pendulum theory in physics.If my memory serves me right, it was Galileo who understood and codified this Pendulum theory based on gravity and motion and all the clocks in the world had pendulums which go back and forth keeping up the time interval between their swings.

Based on this pendulum movement there is a theory called Pendulum effect. This is applicable for culture, politics, economics and even in our behaviours.When the Pendulum is pulled to one extreme, this Pendulum effect clearly says that pendulum will swing back to the other extreme with force, motion and vengence ! Signs of this effect is most visible in administration. When there is laxity in enforcement of rules of banking norms and when NPAs swelled , RBI and the state banks swung into action. The rules have been overtightened and even good and genuine borrowers are made to feel the heat and sweat so much so that all borrowers are first considered defaulters or atleast potential defaulters. Borrowers with even good standing will have to prove their genuineness ,demonstrate their innocence and prove that they are not guilty ! PSu banks have swung from the other extreme to this extreme.

Same is the case in Politics. When X politician was arrested and jailed there was widespread resentment against the govt. of the day and Politician Y who masterminded it. After elections the politician X gains prominence and seeks revenge on politician Y by putting him behind bars settling his scores.The pendulum has swung to the other extreme.

But when the pendulum will come to rest.This is a million dollar question and pendulum can come to rest only when we follow the foot steps of statesmen saints like Gandhiji who advised that an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

Somebody should have the will to stop the Pendulum.

Astrology and eclipses

We are what we are...

Many of my relatives and friends are interested in Vedic astrology and they used to ask how the gaze of planets affect the mortals like us.And now Dec 26th Solar eclipse has kindled all kinds of predictions incl. earth shattering apocalypses and highly disturbing personal experiences. Is there any scientific basis for this.?

Even those who are otherwise theists, do not believe in this planetary influences as there are no direct scientific proof or evidence for this. However many of them from their personal experiences know that Moon/Lunar movements cause disturbances on the mental health of some of their well acquainted persons. Of course they all have witnessed the rising tides in the sea depending on lunar positions which has scientific proof .

I used to explain them vedic astrology on the basis of both observations i.e pramana as well as inferences i.e anumana. My explanations are like this: 1) Your horoscope is like your SSLC mark sheet. It shows how well or bad is your accumulation of past karma and reveals the structure of your personality based on this.Like saying that in your SSLC exam if you had scored high marks in say English, it would be good if you pursue your higher studies in English, your astrology chart shows the tendencies for future course depending on your karma accumulation. This is the simple way of explaining the horoscope.
2)Also one should remember the interplay of karmas that we continuously accumulate from our 12th year. So, these should be taken in our strides and when there is confusion we can consult our birth horoscope and understand the tendencies projected by planetary positions. 
3)there are many permutations and combinations of planets ,their houses, rules for interpretations and exceptions etc. described in our vedic texts,many schools of vedic astrology have come up  and , therefore, no one person can claim himself a master of all.

Final caveat: As the sanskrit sloka on astrology says, noone except Brahma,the Creator, can make cent percent accurate predictions. An astrologer who has recited Gayathri mantra regularly, who does not take money for astrological consultations and who leads a pious life can be 2/3rds accurate in his predictions, according to the dictum of our rishis.

Banks and the security for the loan

Many a time whenever Banks lend , they try to cover their risk with a primary security as well as a Collateral security. Collateral as the meaning indicates is only  secondary . It is additional to the primary security.

But many banks insist Primary as well as adequate Collateral Security since the Primary security may lose value over time and use. Mostly movable fixed assets like plant and Machinery are given as primary security but these assets get depreciated over the period of their use.As a backup Banks will ask for a Collateral to have sufficient cover for the value of the loan.

Banks in India esp. PSU banks adopted a funny logic while lending to King Fisher airlines which went phut after crash landing some years back. The logic was valuing the brand KingFisher Airlines and use it as a Collateral for the loans extended to the airlines.But when the airlines went down the drain , the Brand also lost its value and as a result Banks lost their money. So such Collateral ingenuity invented by the unscrupulous led to PSU Banks' rut. 3Cs expected of the borrower are presumed to be present with the banker or lender. If they are absent on either side or on both sides then the Tax payer bears the brunt. This is the biggest moral hazard of the financial sector of any country and more so of India.

In Ramayana, when Lord Rama was in the forest, his younger brother Bharatha came to invite him back to the country and anoint himself as the King of Ayodhya.Instead Rama gave his sandals as requested by Bharatha and Rama remained in the forest. the sandals were placed on the throne representing Rama.There is a beautiful hymn sung by Swamy Desika in which he says Sandals of the Lord are valued much more than the Lord Himself because Rama was released by Bharatha by taking his sandals as security!!!Finally Rama kept his word, came back and redeemed his sandals.!!

Therefore one must understand that the security perse is not of much intrinsic value if it is not backed up by the most important C-Character. The security should have a moral binding on the borrower and the value of the security is dependant on the strength of this binding.

My banker friends would vouch for that!

RBI and the Onion!!

We are what we are!!

RBI was widely expected to cut the repo rate yesterday but it refrained from it springing a surprise. Central bank should always use monetary policy as a weapon and it is most effective when weapon is wielded with a veil of secrecy and surprise.

But to some extent RBI's prognosis of inflation seems to have been influenced in general by food inflation and in particular by onion .The skyrocketing prices of onion caught the eyes of the Governor and his monetary policy team to unanimously decide  against rate cut and push the pause button. Governor justified this decision by emphasising that the mandate to RBI given by Parliament is only to contain inflation.

There is a Taylor rule or principle in containing inflation by the Central bank. According to this rule Central bank tends to raise the nominal interest rate by more than 100 bps for every 100bps increase in inflation. So, in simple terms, Central bank will have to use a bigger weapon to tame the animal called inflation. However this can work effectively only in the short or short to medium term. There is a Golden Ratio that exist between the interest rate and the inflation rate and this ratio is delicate , flexible and brittle if not peppered with the element of surprise. If this is not deployed properly Milton Friedman and others cautioned us saying that inflation will tend to catch up with the interest rate which moves at higher proportion, when efficiencies and productivity in the economy are in low key.

Then what is effective in the long run? Keynes comes to our rescue by saying "in the long run we are all dead". Perhaps , that is why Economics is called "Dismal science"!! But Onions keep it lively!!