Vedanta - Know Not You Know

SH VENKATRAMANI





The complexity of life bewilders us. Whether it be selecting and pursuing a career, deciding on a holiday destination or even the way you want to spend an evening, the plethora of options that stares you in the face is staggering. At some point, we are eager to run away from it all. To destress, we suddenly want to renounce all worldly desires and retire to a simple life.Which is why all philosophies and religions preach austerity . But is renouncing the desire for worldly possessions all that there is to simplicity? Should we aspire for intellectual joys that will sustain longer? To equate spirituality with saintly renunciation and religious penance is delusional. As you don the mantle of the spiritual seek er, you contin ue to be a pris oner of your ego, nurtur ing grandiose notions about yourself. True spiritual quest involves our going much further.
As the 13th-14th century German theologian-priest Master Eckhart explained, “Man ought to live as if he did not live, neither for self, nor for the truth, nor for God.'' He added, “A man ought to be empty of his own knowledge, as he was when he did not exist, and let God achieve what he will and man be unfettered.“ This is not being mired in ignorance. This is about not knowing that we know, not feeling any exultation in our knowledge. When we bask in the glory of our knowledge, we are trapped. The boundaries of the ego are the most formidable barriers to selfrealisation.

the speaking tree - Who Killed Young Achiever Sarvshreshth Gupta?

M Rajaque Rahman





The story of Sarvshreshth Gupta, a 22-year-old high flying investment banker from Delhi who was found dead in a parking lot in San Francisco, was splashed across the media recently . It is not only tragic but also a warning of what can happen to any youngster chasing a dream at the cost of everything else.Who killed Sarvshreshth? All evidence points to the culprit being stress. Predictably , it has kicked off a debate on how stressful working conditions are in the US financial sector.And this kind of work environment is spreading across the world.
That stress can kill is common knowledge, yet many tend to ignore it or brush it aside. And there are those who get addicted to it. Adrenalin junkies actually seek out stressful experiences as a source of motivation or fun.But when chronically exposed to a state of `fight or flight', stress takes its toll. An estimated three out of four visits to the doctor are stress related.Lissa Rankin, author of Mind Over Medicine, writes, “Our bodies know how to fix broken proteins, kill cancer cells, retard ageing, and fight infection. They even know how to heal ulcers, make skin lesions disappear and knit together broken bones! But here's the kicker: those natural self-repair mechanisms don't work if you're stressed!“ Above all, stress impacts the way we think, feel and behave, leading to a negative self-perpetuating cycle that is hard to escape. In the award-winning documentary Stress Portrait of a Killer, neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky reckons, “Stress is ...dangerous and humans can't seem to find their off-switch.“ When his stress was peaking, Sarvshreshth reportedly wrote to his father, “This job is not for me. There's too much work, and too little time. I want to come back home.“ I wish Sarvshreshth knew the other way of getting `home' and resting, without flying from San Francisco to Delhi.Meditation and other spiritual practices help you to do just that.
“As it's almost impossible to reduce the workload and increase the time, the only option we are left is to increase the energy level within us. When we have enough energy and enthusi asm, we are able to handle any challenge,“ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says.
With practise of yoga and meditation one can turn the body into a powerhouse by tapping the inner source of energy . It's now known that the amount of energy that one gets tation is much more than in in meditation is much more than in sleep. Twenty minutes of meditation can equal to eight hours of good sleep.This formula could have easily solved one of Sarvshreshth's problems that he was working 20 hours at a stretch and not getting enough sleep.
True to his name, Sarvshreshth has left behind the best lesson how not to become a victim of stress and die an immature death. Before he gave up, he reportedly contemplated quitting his job and rejuvenating himself. I again wish the outstanding education he received also taught him how to invest and divest in life! Indic spirituality offers plenty of ways of rejuvenating oneself without quitting the world! Like Sri Sri often says, “The body dropping you is death; and you dropping the body is meditation.“
It's time we all learn the art of dropping the world for a few minutes every day before it drops us. And its rejuvenating effect can only make us a better player in the world. Let us hope youngsters today learn how to overcome stress. Kill stress before stress kills you.
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Only 9 Indian univs make it to Times Asia rankings 2015

Manash Gohain

New Delhi:





China Beats Japan, Heads Top-100 List

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore upstaged Panjab University as India's number one university, while IISc and IIT,Bombay , were the two new entrants in the top 100 of the Times Higher Education University Asia Rankings 2015, released on Wednesday .However, there is cause for concern as this year only nine Indian universities made it to the top 100, down from 10, whereas IIT-Guwahati, IIT-Kanpur and Jadavpur University-which made it to the top 100 comfortably last year-have exited the rankings altogether this time. Meanwhile, China has overtaken Japan as the Asian power house in education, but Japan's University of Tokyo is still in the numero uno position.
IISc-Bangalore entered the table at 37th, one place ahead of last year's leader, Panjab University , whose rank fell from 32. Five IITs, led by IIT-Roorkee (joint 55th) formed the lion's share of the country's representation, although Aligarh Muslim University (90th) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (96th) too made it to the top 100.
Phil Baty , editor of The Times Higher Education Rankings, said, “It is cause for concern that India has lost ground in the league ta ble. Most of last year's representatives have fallen down the list. With India's major chunk of population under 25 years of age, it is more crucial than ever for India to invest in research and strengthen its academic links with other nations. “ The Asia rankings use 13 performance indicators to examine each university's strengths against its core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.Besides seeding its position to China, many of Japan's representatives have lost ground, with only 19 universities in the list, down from 20 last year and 22 in 2013.
China now has 21 representatives in the top 100, going past Japan for the first time, with three of its universities as new entrants. Last year China had 18 universities and 15 in 2013. Both Peking University (fourth) and Tsinghua University (fifth) have moved up a place.
Hong Kong University managed to retain its third place and had a strong presence from the Chinese special administrative region, with all six of its universities in the top 50. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology rose from ninth to seventh, while the Chinese University of Hong Kong stood at 13th.
“The world expects Asia to be the next global higher education superpower after Europe and North America.Times Higher Education data shows many of the continent's leading universities competing on equal terms with the best in the West,“ said Baty .

Convocation of TISS Guwahati heldStaff Reporter
 GUWAHATI, June 9 – The magnitude of the cultural diversity of the Northeast almost defies imagination. Perhaps there is no comparable geographical area in the world which is home to cultural diversity of such magnitude. The linguistic diversity of the region is an inalienable part of this cultural diversity. The diversity of cultures in the Northeast is of the enormous significance for the national life of India.
This was the observation made by noted scholar, chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research and member of Rajya Sabha, Prof Mrinal Miri. He was delivering the convocation address at the 2nd convocation of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati at the Pragjyoti ITA Centre for Performing Arts at Machkhowa here today.
There may be, on a strict count, close to two hundred languages spoken in the Northeast. Many of these languages are on the UNESCO list of endangered languages, he said.
He observed that the concepts such as equality, decency, civilized, free, ugly, welfare, promiscuity, justice, etc., are generally used in abstraction from the density of contexts and their variety and thus very often end up with only a surface and frequently distorted. Therefore, dangerous assessments are done of a community’s life, etc., he said.
He maintained that he has the belief that this has happened with communities, particularly, tribal communities in the Northeast and that substantial part of the anxiety of the people of the region arises from this fact.
He reminded that the commitment to a nation faces a powerful challenge. He described the challenge as the challenge of developing respect for diversity. This challenge should be met with much ethical energy and sensibility, he maintained.
The TISS, Guwahati convocation was also attended by Additional Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar Bora as the guest of honour, besides Dr S Parasuraman and it was chaired by chairman of the TISS governing board S Ramadorai.

Two students were awarded MPhil degree, 109 were awarded MA degrees in different specialisations and 59 were conferred BA degree in the convocation.

Vedanta - Life, and More Lives

CHITRANJAN SAWANT





Long ago in the Kashmir Valley, the purohit of the Arya Samaj was blessed with a daughter. When she was 4, she told her parents that she belonged to a village and was the daughter of a senior officer in the Jammu and Kashmir government. She insisted on being taken to the village of her previous birth.Her parents obliged. On reaching the village, she identified her `old' friends, relatives as well as property . However, these `friends' and `relatives' and her parents chose to discourage her from visiting these old sites. Over time, memories of her previous life were obliterated.
Lord Krishna, while boost ing Arjuna's morale just before the war at Kurukshetra, told the warrior-prince that this was neither his first life nor his last one. It is only the body that perishes and not the soul. Sooner or later, the soul finds another body .
Krishna said he remembered his previous lives but a man in this mundane world does not.Otherwise, utter confusion would follow.
The immortality of the soul as well as its transmigration are underlined in all world religions. There is an equal emphasis on the present life as on the life beyond death. When a soul enters a body , it is called birth. When the same soul departs from the body , it is called death. This process goes on and on. The cycle of birth and death, or the transmigration of soul, comes to an end only when the soul attains moksha, or liberation from this cycle.This is salvation.

the speaking tree - That Space Beyond Age And Infirmity

Narayani Ganesh





The Mahabharata has an interesting story about King Yayati, who married Sukracharya's daughter, Devayani. Yayati wangled a boon for himself from Sukracharya who had cursed him with old age for consorting with another woman, Harmishta. At the king's pleading, Sukracharya relented and said that Yayati could postpone his ageing if he could convince a youngster to take the curse upon himself in his place for 1,000 years, after which Yayati would have to hand over his kingdom to him for this sacrifice.Puru, one of Yayati's sons adhering to the dharma of obeying one's parents, willingly accepted his father's old age upon himself, whereupon the king, youth restored, lived a life of pleasure and went about satisfying his desires for 1,000 long years. At the end of the stipulated period, Yayati was still loath to give up his life of pleasure. Better sense prevailed after long and painful soul-searching, and he went up to Puru, his faithful son, and took back his old age and returned to Puru his youth.Legend has it that following his son's coronation Yayati went into renunciation, living the rest of his life in the forest. In a way , today, we are trying to recreate the miracle in Yayati's story , to stay youthful for as long as possible, but without having to `trade' our old age with a younger person! There are many ways to get into the anti-ageing zone, the most obvious one being stateof-the-art medical technology , largely understood to be the domain of plastic surgery and cosmetology . While these may cosmetology . While these may contribute a great deal to making one's physical appearance seem younger than it actually is, there is the more important and infinitely larger dimension to antiageing. This includes thinking and feeling young that comes from moving from the negative to the positive. In cutting-edge biological science, the Common Fund's Human Microbiome Project (HMP) in the US is “developing research resources to enable the study of the microbial communities that live in and on our bodies and the roles they play in human health and disease“. A parallel, privately funded effort led by Francis Collins is striving for the same goals. When one day our microbiome and the already decoded human genome blueprints present our past, present and potential future state of health, could we succeed in reversing the biological clock ­ or at least, slow it down considerably?
If that happens, remaining forever young might not be impossible. Then Yayati could simply hold old age in abeyance with special spa and alternative therapies while co-opting the latest medical treatments. Human endeavour since long has been directed towards finding ways to remain `immortal' ­ to not only postpone that final curtain call for as long as possible, but also ensure a life of good health and cheer.
There is a difference in the way we perceive life and death and the way the rest of the world looks at them. Most of us in the subcontinent believe that when this life ends, another life awaits us, as part of the grand cosmic cycle of destruction and regeneration. Yet, since the current life is the only life we experience and know, there is the intense urge to make it worthwhile, by striving for better health, wealth and contentment. Hence, perhaps, the renewed focus on anti-ageing practices and therapies, treatments and technological aids.
(If you have something special to share on how best to face challenges of the ageing process, do log on to speakingtree.in and post your blog there. To read more, go to speakingtree.intopicsantiageing)

DU, JNU among 4,000 bodies barred from foreign funding

Bharti Jain@ timesgroup com

New Delhi:





Crackdown Follows FCRA Violations

In a fresh crackdown on non-profit organizations for alleged violation of provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010, the Union home ministry has cancelled the FCRA registration of over 4,000 organizations over the last couple of months.Of these, the licence of 971 organizations to receive foreign contributions under FCRA was cancelled on Tuesday . Among the prominent non-profit bodies stripped of their registration since May are the Supreme Court Bar Association, University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Indian Law Institute, Panjab University , Gujarat National Law University , School of Planning and Architecture, Escorts Heart Institute, Vikram Sarabhai Foundation and Kabir founded by Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. This means that they can no longer receive contributions from foreign donors.
Sources in the Union home ministry said the cancellation of FCRA registration of the errant NGOs was ordered after giving them due notice and following the laid down procedures. The grounds for cancellation of licences included non-filing of annual returns and other anomalies.
As many as 3,035 NGOs based in Delhi, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Manipur, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have lost their registration over the first nine days of this month alone. Similarly , nearly 1,100 NGOs were stripped of their FCRA licence in May . In an earlier crackdown, licences of nearly 8,975 NGOs were cancelled in April last for their failure to file annual returns for three years in a row. A series of actions by the Modi government against foreign-funded organizations and their donors has had the NGO community up in arms, which had accused the regime of trying to stifle the voice of dissent. This charge has been denied by the government, which insists that all actions were taken in line with FCRA provisions.
While the FCRA registration of Greenpeace was suspended and its bank accounts frozen in April, as many as 16 foreign donors, including Ford Foundation and Greenpeace International, have been put on prior permission list since last year. The action against Greenpeace also included offloading of its staffer Priya Pillai from a London-bound flight in January . The Delhi high court had slammed the action and ordered removal of “offloaded“ stamp from her passport.