Fast food, tobacco and alcohol are pouring into India, promoting a consumer culture. India should beware. It must not repeat the mistakes of the West, says Andrée-Marie Dussault in his article entitled Cellphone and the Soul, in the Times of India, dated 24th January 2010. Andrée-Marie is a Delhi-based correspondent of a Swiss newspaper.

A sequel to Shri Matsya Narayana

Partha Desikan

If we have read the story of the saving of the Vedas by the direct intervention of the Infinite in the Matsya form and are informed that there could be slightly different versions of the story, if we have learnt that at least for the Matsya manifestation of the Lord, the faithful have built two large temples in India at different times, and if we are able to visit one of these temples and offer our loving homage, then what?

Shri Matsya Narayana

Partha Desikan

Gururgurutamo dhaama satyah satyaparaakramah |
Nimisho (a)nimishah sragvee vaachaspatir udaaradheeh ||
Agraneer graamaneeh shreemaan nyaayo netaa sameeranah |

The above three lines constitute the full shloka 23 and the first half of shloka 24 of Sri Vishnu Sahasranama from the Anushaasanika parva of Maharishi Vedavyasa’s ancient epic. The fifteen names numbering 211 to 225 of the Lord are covered by these lines.

1. The first name consists of two words, Guruh and Gurutamah. Together it means the greatest of Gurus.

Having to do with Jayanth Kaikini's Ondu Jilebi

Partha Desikan

An inspiring contemporary young Kannada poet has recently published a collection of his poems and there was a formal release in Bangalore.

Sri Ashoka reviewed the book for The Hindu offering sincere tribute in sober terms, referring to the poet's humanism as well as his involvement with the here, now and the immediate.

The review has been reproduced below.

Humanism, in the lyrical mode

Ondu Jilebi by Jayanth Kaikini

Rama meets Sharad in the Woods

Partha Desikan

Yesterday was a special day. Throughout the world, followers of the Sikh path celebrated the birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev. It was Ashwin purnima if you computed your months according to the solar calendar and Kartik Purnima for the lunar month observers. Either way, it qualified as Sharad Purnima. Delhi and its neighbourhood had no rains for weeks, and the full moon on a reasonably clear sky would have met the expectations of visitors to Agra and the Taj Mahal or the pilgrims to Amritsar and the golden temple.

Cows, Commodities, Greenhouse Gases
Partha Desikan

Nadaswaram (Nagaswaram) and the US

Partha Desikan

The nadaswaram (sometimes spelt nadhaswaram, and also called nagaswaram) is one of the most popular classical (Carnatic style) instruments of South India and acclaimed as the world's loudest non-brass acoustic instrument. It is similar to the North Indian wind instrument shehnai (shahnai), but larger in size. It has a hardwood body and a large flaring bell made of wood or metal.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's parables are famous and cherished. Little glimpses from the Master's life often read like parables themselves. One such, narrated as a Chinna katha (little story) by Sri Sathya Sai of Puttaparthi, has been republished in the Sai organization's Heart to Heart on line publication this morning. It is my privilege to share it with all of you.

Once in Calcutta (now Kolkata), in the Kali temple constructed by Queen Rasmani, an idol of Lord Krishna fell down and the foot of the Lord was broken a little.

The ultimate Sacrifice.

The vulture had casually watched as a fruit from that free fell down. A wild goat ate it and died. Its flesh tasted good.
This saintly looking man who came by was looking at the fallen goat and the vulture gorging bits of it, with great compassion. Did he understand its great hunger? Did he know how the goat had met its end?
God, is that another fruit being brought down by the breeze?
Vultures do not eat fruit.
But this one swooped down on the fruit and devoured it. And fell dead.
The man was in tears. He understood the ultimate sacrifice.

This blog of Murali's in BCIL blog deserves a good look even outside eco-specialist readership.
It says:

The Best Things in Life are Green -- and Local

* Trust for Public Land