Ancient Unit of Measurement

Angulas is a widely used unit

 

Riders of the Storm

They are awesome!!!

 

Rhapsody (Streaming)

http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/after-is-here/album/riders-on-the-storm

iTunes (Download)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/riders-on-the-storm/id553872212?i=553872291&uo=4

Amazon (Download)

http://www.amazon.com/Riders-On-the-Storm/dp/B008ZBF07O/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345317560&sr=301-2

Also available for download at Amazon

Amazon (Download)

http://www.amazon.com/Riptide-Fighter/dp/B009IQD5ZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349117429&s=dmusic&sr=1-1

Nice one

Check this out iTunes (Download) http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/riptide-fighter/id566415438?i=566415442&uo=4

I found a nice song

iTunes (Download) http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/riptide-fighter/id566415438?i=566415442&uo=4 Amazon (Download) http://www.amazon.com/Riptide-Fighter/dp/B009IQD5ZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349117429&s=dmusic&sr=1-1

Ignorance and arrogance make for good floods

Editorial of "Down to Earth" magazine on Bihar floods.

=============================

Editorial: Ignorance and arrogance make for good floods
(By Sunita Narain)

=============================

This year, for once, the devastating floods of Bihar seem to have touched us. Last year, when the same region was reeling under what was said to be the worst floods in living history, we simply did not know. Media had flashed a few images, but it was more of the same: rivers flood this region every year, so what's new? What's there to say?

This year there are some differences: first, the breach in the Kosi's protection system of embankments and barrages took place in Nepal, not in India. As maintenance of the embankments was our responsibility, we could not blame Nepal for the floods. We had to look within.

Second, the area, drowned under the flood, was massive and millions were marooned in remote villages. This was partly because this time the river breached upstream of the Kosi barrage and spilled over the land, forgetting that it even had a course to run before it flowed into the Ganga. Remember, this is a river, which has changed its course by 120 km in the past 250 years—satellite images show 12 distinct channels of how the river has moved.

Third, and most important, the flood captured our attention, because of the scale of the human tragedy. It was made clear that in spite of all our big talk and even bigger institutions for disaster management, we remain unprepared, under-staffed and unequipped for a crisis, when it hits. Even as people waited to be rescued we had few boats to bring them to safe places; we had little food, water and shelter to provide for them in the relief camps; and worse, we had no authority to ensure that empty homes would not be ransacked. As a result, people refused to leave. They preferred the swirling water to relief camps. What an indictment of our efforts.

Now the waters are finally receding and before our attention also moves on, let us learn, for once, the hard message of the Kosi floods of 2008. Let us learn because this disaster may not be the first or the last but it tells us of a situation getting out of control. It tells us that we have done so much wrong in the way we have managed our environment. It tells us that we know so little about how climate change and its manifestation of changing intensities of rainfall will exacerbate floods in the future. It also tells that we cannot 'adapt' to these changes, unless we do things differently.

Let's unpack this lesson. For long, we have believed that we can 'conquer' nature, control the flood and emasculate our rivers. In Kosi and its tributaries, we worked this engineering to perfection, by building barrages to hold the river, accompanied with miles of embankments to tie the river down.

It was as far back as 1991, that environmentalist Anil Agarwal published the book, Floods, flood plains and environmental myths. He explained how the engineering solution was in fact increasing both the incidence and intensity of floods. The reason was simple. The rivers brought down huge quantities of silt each year. The Kosi, in particular, was known to bring coarse sediments, which would add to the rate of siltation. Wherever embankments were built, silt got deposited in the river. We forgot that the extraordinary fertility of this region was because of this same alluvial silt, which was spread over the land by the inundating waters. With silt in its bed, the flow was reduced and floods increased. When the embankments broke or breached, flood duration increased because the water could not drain away. Worse, the engineering walls led people to believe that they were protected from floods. As a result, low lying areas got populated. Then when the wall broke, the flood hit hard.

In doing all this, explained Anil Agarwal, we messed up the drainage system of the region. We merrily filled up the water bodies, which were the sponges for its floodwater and forgot the 'dead' channels of the river, through which the water gushed away. We believed these were unnecessary. We forgot how the wetlands provided food in the flood season—from fish to plant biodiversity. We forgot because first, we were hungry for land. Then, we were greedy for the money we would make from these engineering marvels, which were repaired on paper and half built, for full money. Corruption became the way of life. In all this, we forgot that we had once learnt to 'live' with floods.

But when he wrote this, Anil Agarwal was pilloried and mocked; the environmental lobby even accused him of playing into the timber contractor's hand. All because he said that we should stop blaming the mountains for the floods in the plains. It was time we understood that the forests of the Himalayas were needed for the people who lived there. But the forests in this fragile and extremely young and erosion-prone region would not stop the floods in the plains. To 'stop' the floods, we had to re-learn the science and art of water management. The water engineers rubbished this saying they knew better. They had the answers. All I can say, we wish they were right.

We have to now understand that we are faced with a double whammy—floods will increase also because the pattern of rainfall is going on a twist. Climate change is making rain more unseasonal, erratic and intense in many parts of the country. 'Coping' with floods will become even more difficult now.

So what we can do without is the deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance. Instead, we can do with some learning. And a lot of doing.

Deathcold

I feel the cold,
Death is apparent,
I slash my soul,
I am losing control,

I am hated amongst the people,
I’m loved by me ,
Like no one cares,
If I die or I’m alive,
It takes two people to save my life,
And one to take it,

I’m still so cold,
Its death coming to me,
I shall die alone,
In this broken zone.

Floods: Blacked out but real

This is a thought triggering editorial of the current issue of Down To Earth, Science and Environmental online...

read on...

=================================

Editorial: Floods: blacked out but real
By Sunita Narain

=================================

I read newspapers and I watch the news unfold on scores of television channels. But in spite of these sources that keep me informed about current affairs, I would not know that floods are still ravaging vast parts of India. I would not know that over 2,800 people have died in these disasters, which have been termed as the worst ever in living memory. I would not know what is happening in the villages that drowned under the fury of nature or how millions are coping with the water that has swept away crops, livestock, worldly belongings, homes, roads, schools and what not. I would not even know how life continues after the fury, when deadly diseases come in the wake
of the flooding.

In retrospect, I would think that I have seen in the Indian media more images of the recent floods in the UK than in Jammu and Kashmir, in Uttar Pradesh, in Bihar, in Assam, in Orissa, in Andhra Pradesh, in Karnataka and in Gujarat. There are two responses to this observation.

One (cynical) answer is that middle-class India, for whom the media now delivers news (or infotainment), is simply not interested in events that affect poor India. In addition, the advertising revenue of the competitive and consolidated business of the media kicks in when it caters to the purchasing segments of society, not its market-unconnected parts. Floods in non-metropolitan cities don't make the grade, as far as news is concerned.

The other, equally plausible reason could be that floods in India are after all not news. While floods in the UK are unusual; they are increasingly understood to be part of the changing climate system and so they make it to the headlines. But floods in India are annual events. The cycle of devastation is not worth reporting-droughts followed by floods in one region or another, and then water-related diseases, from malaria to cholera. There is no news to tell.

But whatever explanation you choose to believe, we cannot switch off reality. The story of floods is partly usual but also mainly unusual. There is much we know but still do not heed so that devastation is less painful. But equally, there is much that we do
not know because of which the pain is much more frightful.

We know that the areas classified as flood-prone-defined as area affected by overflowing rivers (not areas submerged because of heavy rains)-has progressively increased over the past decades. It was 25 million hectares (mha) in 1960, which went up to 40 mha in 1978 and by the mid-1980s an estimated 58 mha was flood affected. But importantly, over these years the area under floods increased each year even though average rainfall levels did not increase. In other words, we were doing something wrong in the way we manage the spate of water so that rivers would overflow each season.

The answer is not difficult to find. In flood-prone areas-from the flood plains of the mighty Himalayan rivers to many other smaller watersheds-the overflow of the river brought fertile silt and recharged groundwater so the next crop was bountiful.

But over the years, we learnt not to live with floods. We built over the wetlands, we filled up the streams that dispersed and then carried the water of the rivers and we built habitations in lowlands which were bound to be inundated. We cut down our forests, which would to some extent have mitigated the intensity of the flood by impeding the flow of water. All in all, we have become more vulnerable to annual floods.

The current floods are all that, and much more. In recent years, the flood fury has intensified because of the changing intensity of rainfall. The deluge comes more frequently because of the sheer fury of incessant rain, which has nowhere to go. Just last week torrential rain in villages of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka killed over 60 people. We know that climate change models had predicted extreme rain events. Is there a connection here?

Then there is the issue of the release of water from reservoirs into lands, which are already deluged by rain. It is this combo effect that seems to be playing a big role in the floods we see today. There is some evidence that reservoirs-dams upstream of drowned lands-were already full of water at the beginning of the monsoon period. There is no hard evidence, as yet, to link this high reservoir level with increased flow from melting glaciers. But there is a possibility.

We know that dam authorities maintain high reservoir levels because of the uncertainty of rains. We also know that when there are intense bursts of rain and levels of water rise to an extent that could endanger the dam, the gates are opened and the water rushes out. If this flow of water is combined with even more rain in the region, then a deluge becomes inevitable. We know that variability in our rainfall is increasing at the sub-regional level. What then will this mean for the management of our reservoirs in the future? The question is do we understand the phenomenon of floods?

We don't. We have no mechanism to be informed of the changing intensity of rainfall; of the increased inflow into our reservoirs and of the water released by dam authorities. The fact is that today's floods are a double tragedy: of mismanagement of our land and water combined with mismanagement of science and data.

This mismanagement is criminal. Let's at least know that.

Too Possessed......

Feeling the numbness reaching the third eye,

feeling the touch of the next level of the high,

HIGHER i go with every word read,

but the mortal cast i bear bending its head,

i strive to go far ahead,

Alas!!! I have to carry the physique too dead...

Feeling no fear of the task ahead,

i try to derive the power from the dead.

They say he reminds of the christ on the cross,

Only man who was ready to bear every material loss...

They say, he was a Utopian dreamer,

Do dreams still fly from the land of those deceased???

Do the many coloured crow still flies low???

CHE, they call him, as we know...

Yes, dreams still flow when the soul calls Soul...

they make us ready and again i boil,

feeling possessed by the soul of the Star,

Still feeling if he was ever really dead...

the third eye opens and now i can see,

the path so clear to push the mortal ahead...

Is it we who make him live

or he who gives us life???

I don't have the time to answer,

the possession to strong...

Feeling no danger i move ahead,

with my head too high...

And now i get to know why he is always looking towards the skies...

Here i come to embrace the next stage,

Here i am to lead the war i wage...

THE MOMENT REMAINS

The skull begins to shiver
and through the dendrons flows the pain
The pain filling the brain
Every cell burning
Shreiking for survivalS
hreiks louder than a human body to hear
Above the level of any pain it beared
Thou Soul, above the bodily limitations, quivers
the soul ready to bear it once again
Ready to test its limitations to take away the pain
Pushing itself out of the mortal it bears
still trapped n binded by his tears
With no pity but all love for the mortal
it hugs the pain, Stillness remains
Pain becomes the Soul
and Soul becomes the Pain
The mortal left to witness the remains
Wanting to know if its Soul or the Pain
Tormented for rhe first time feeling himself
He feels the Soul, he drinks the Pain
the process of digestion, powered by the soul
Drains the pain but the MOMENT REMAINS...

Having not slept for last complete night, it was tough for me to go to the Lead India contest’s debate phase where I was invited as a jury member. But having taken the responsibility, I carried my mortal self through the power of my soul that was feeling that I m going to find lots n lots of good things there than I can ever find in a movie show or something where we never miss going if we have bought tickets to.
Quite a good number of people had turned up there and many have made a good research on the candidates(or were doing so right then) as it seemed from the TOI copies in there hands.
I got seated in the hall at around 3:40 PM as they had asked us to do so before 3:45 PM. I was almost sleeping when the debate started and to make it worse, the candidates who were the first to speak were singing good night songs in the hall. The topic of the debate was carefully chosen- Which form of democracy you find is more appropriate in a country like India- The Presidential or The Parliamentary?
The first 3 candidates had their view but were almost reading it mechanically from a paper making me feel sleepier. But from the fourth candidate, the momentum got picked up n that woke me up. Most of them were in the favor of Parliamentary system while one candidate said that the debate is irrelevant as both have there pros n cons and cannot be compared. The last candidate upped the ante by saying that as for so long we have had no success with the Parliamentary one, it becomes somewhat necessary to try the Presidential one.
The candidates who I enjoyed were-
Aseem Puri- He seemed clear about his view and had statistics to back his view. He spoke in the favor of the Parliamentary system.
Sanjiv Kaura- Only candidate to have spoken in the favor of the Presidential one was very good with experience, qualifications, knowledge and confidence to back him. He based his thoughts mostly on what he had himself witnessed n not just theory.

My View-
Both Presidential and Parliamentary forms are equally good as what remains to be seen as who is the leader who’ll get the power in the end. It all depends on the Political will of our Leaders.n the people, i.e. you guys. Its not the system that is at fault here, its us.
If a wood is eaten by termites, whose fault is it??? The wood’s or the Termite’s???
Its we who converted the system to what it is now n now we want a change. If after the change too we keep working like this then we’ll make the other system too the same.
Countries of both types have faced both good n bad situations so citing examples will be faulty but what more can we demand than a mixed one that we already have. We have almost all the good features of both and I say as that everything has changed since we first coined these terms, we should first try to find that are these the only two ways???? Why not try to find even a better one if possible.
Hey thinkers, have u stopped writing or is our technology too loud for any of us to hear you??

POST 18- Yet again we cave in to religious bigots (Nick Cohen) (Published in 'The Hindu' on 30th May)

THE SATANIC Verses, Behzti, Theo van Gogh's Submission, Jerry Springer: The Opera, the Danish cartoons of Muhammed ... now we can add the London exhibition of the work of Maqbool Fida Husain to the rapidly expanding list of works of art and satire targeted by militant religion.

For readers interested in Indian culture, the show at the Asia House gallery in the West End's fine art district should have been essential viewing. Husain is the grand old man of Indian art. He began as a boy painting cinema hoardings for six annas per square foot before getting his first break at the Bombay Art Society in 1947. His international appeal lies in his mixing of classical traditions with modern styles. Art from all over the world inspires him — Emil Nolde and Oskar Kokoschka were early influences — but you only have to glance at his pictures to know an Indian must have painted them.

The Indian High Commissioner, Kamalesh Sharma, claimed at the opening that Husain was India's greatest modern artist. The exhibition was to run until August, to allow visitors to decide for themselves if he was right.

They won't be able to now. Asia House closed the show on Monday after threats of violence from anonymous Hindu fundamentalists. Arjun Malik of the Hindu Human Rights campaign assured me they had nothing to do with him, but said his group had been willing to do everything short of violence to stop the public seeing two of Husain's works.

His supporters had already deluged the gallery with letters, phone calls and emails complaining that Husain's "so-called art" offended the "sentiments of the Hindu community of the U.K." (Whether it did is debatable, as no one has elected the Hindu Human Rights campaign to represent the Hindu or any other community.) The protesters also went for Hitachi, which had given Asia House plasma TV screens, and demanded public apologies from everyone involved, including the Indian High Commissioner.

They called off a planned demonstration in London on Sunday because, like the managers of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre who closed Behzti after the demonstrations by conservative Sikhs and the national newspaper editors who refused to publish the Danish cartoons, Asia House buckled under the pressure to censor.

The apparently separate protests from different faiths are connected. What we are seeing is rival fundamentalists egging each other on in a politics of competitive grievance. Every time one secures a victory, the others realise they can't be left behind. If satirists are frightened of having a go at Islam because they believe they may be killed — and they are — why shouldn't Christian fundamentalists decide to become more menacing?

A comedian who takes a pop at the Pope sends the subliminal message: "We can deride your religion as despicable because we know you are not so despicable you will resort to violence." There is a limit to how long the ultras for any religion will put up with that before they change the ground rules.

After abusive Sikh men closed Behzti, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's play about the abuse of Sikh women by Sikh men, Christian Voice upped the ante against Jerry Springer: The Opera. It had previously run at the National Theatre for months without attracting protest. But when BBC2 came to broadcast it, London Christians imitated Birmingham Sikhs and BBC executives suddenly needed the protection of private security guards.
You can see the same pattern in the hounding of M.F. Husain. The paintings the demonstrators targeted were nudes of Draupadi and Durga. Arjun Malik went into all kinds of verbal convolutions when I asked what he had against them, before coming out with the explanation that "according to tradition, they should not be disrobed." The reason for the tongue-twisting is that nude gods and goddesses have been a part of the Indian tradition for 5,000 years. As Husain said: "Here, the nudity is not nakedness; it is a form of innocence and maturity."

It is no longer innocent because, after the state-sponsored violence of the Danish cartoon protests, Hindus from the religious Indian right looked around for a grievance of their own. They picked on Husain — the fact that he was born a Muslim made him a natural target — and began a confessional arms race. In February, a Muslim politician in the Uttar Pradesh offered a large reward to anyone who beheaded the Danish cartoonists. A Hindu politician responded by saying he would pay the same to anyone who would kill Husain.

What is depressing is that, apart from a letter to The Guardian, from Lord Meghnad Desai, the closure of a major exhibition by fanatics has passed without comment. British troops are fighting against forces motivated by the religious fervour of the ultra right. British police officers arrest suspects they claim are inspired to kill because they, too, have a psychotic religious mission. Yet every week, comedians, art gallery owners, TV producers, newspaper editors and Home Office Ministers give in to religious extremists. This is no way to win a war. —

POST 17- Has India fulfilled the "Jai Kisan" commitment made by Lal Bahadur Shastri??(Based on the reports of National Comission on Farmers)

The 4th Report of National Comission on Farmers submitted in April 2006 contains the draft of a National Policy for Farmers, titled "Jai Kisan," for widespread discussion.

For the purpose of this policy, the term "farmer" includes landless agricultural labourers, sharecroppers, tenants, small, marginal and sub-marginal cultivators, farmers with larger holdings, fisher men and women, dairy, sheep, poultry and other farmers involved in animal husbandry, pastoralists, as well as those rural and tribal families engaged in a wide variety of farming related occupations such as sericulture, vermiculture, production of biofertilizers and biopesticides, and agro-processing. The term also includes tribal families sometimes engaged in shifting cultivation, and in the collection and use of non-timber forest products. In all cases, both men and women will receive equal attention.

The Year of Agricultural Renewal, better referred to as the Year of the Farmer, is due to begin on June 1, 2006, with the onset of the South West Monsoon. Soon after Independence in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru remarked: "everything else can wait, but not agriculture." He said this in the context of the Bengal Famine of 1942-43 and the acute food scarcity prevailing in the country in 1947. In 1947, there was a strict rule that not more than 30 guests in a wedding could be provided with food. Our population was then 350 million. Today, our population is over 1.1 billion and thousands of persons are fed in the weddings of the rich, since where there is money, there is food. However, a recent report by UNICEF says India has the largest number of malnourished children in the world, nearly 57 million out of a total world figure of 146 million, an index of widespread poverty and deprivation.

Farmers' indebtedness is rising and farmland even in Punjab, the heartland of the green revolution, is being referred to by the electronic media as "killing fields." Yet, the economy is estimated to have grown at 8.1 per cent during 2005-06, on top of the 7.5 per cent growth recorded in the previous year. The services sector continued to be the major driver of economic activity, accounting for almost three-fourths of overall GDP growth. Indian companies raised an unprecedented $40 billion in equity and debt. Merchandise exports rose by 25 per cent crossing the $100 billion level. Unfortunately, more than 50 per cent of our population living in rural areas have no option except to remain silent onlookers of this new-found urban prosperity, conveyed night and day on television channels. This is the Indian enigma.

Having declared failure in achieving most of the Tenth Plan goals in agriculture, the Union Planning Commission is now busy preparing the Eleventh Plan. The NCF in its 4th report has pointed out that a business as usual approach in agriculture, ignoring Jawaharlal Nehru's "agriculture cannot wait" exhortation, would have at least the following three major consequences:

-Spread of agrarian distress and rural discontent, and spread of the Naxalite movement;
-Returning to a "ship to mouth" era, and the consequent erosion of national sovereignty in foreign policy;
-Jobless or even job-loss growth resulting in the expansion of urban slums.

What then should we do to end this sad chapter in our agricultural history and fulfil the "Jai Kisan" commitment made by Lal Bahadur Sastri? The steps to be taken are simple, doable, and affordable. They, however, need a change in mindset from regarding farmers as "beneficiaries" of small government programmes to treating them as partners in development and custodians of food security. Integrated action on the following five points will help to get our agriculture back on the rails.

Five-point plan

First, undertake soil health enhancement through integrated measures in improving organic matter and macro- and micro-nutrient content, as well as the physics and the microbiology of the soil. Gujarat has already issued soil health cards to farm families and other States can do likewise.

Secondly, promote water harvesting, conservation, and efficient and equitable use by empowering gram sabhas to function as "pani panchayats." Such "pani panchayats" should foster the establishment of community managed water banks and the recharge of the aquifer. A sustainable water security system should be put in place, particularly in rainfed areas lacking assured irrigation facility. This will be facilitated by mandatory water harvesting and greater attention to dryland farming.

Thirdly, initiate immediately credit reforms coupled with credit and insurance literacy. The Finance Minister has announced a reduction in the interest on short-term loans to 7 per cent; this should be regarded as the first step in a series of measures including the revitalisation of the cooperative credit system. The farm families' agricultural, health, and domestic credit needs should be attended to in a holistic manner. Also in chronically drought-prone areas, the repayment cycle should be extended to four to five years. Credit delivery systems should be made gender sensitive — only a small proportion of women cultivators have been issued kisan credit cards. Adequacy and timelines of credit availability are vital for institutional credit to be meaningful to small farmers.

Fourthly, bridge the growing gap between scientific know-how and field level do-how both in production and post-harvest phases of farming. This could be done through a slew of measures including the training of one woman and one man of every panchayat as farm science managers, establishing farm schools in the fields of outstanding growers, adding a post-harvest technology and agro-processing wing in every Krishi Vigyan Kendra, and organising nationwide lab-to-land demonstrations in the areas of agricultural diversification, food processing, and value addition.

Also knowledge connectivity as proposed under Bharat Nirman should be accomplished by establishing village knowledge centres or "gyan chaupals" throughout the country. Small farmers should not be subjected to administrative and academic experiments in the area of crop diversification without first linking the farmers with the market for the new commodities. Crop-livestock-fish integrated production systems are ideal for small farmers since this can also facilitate organic farming. Success in agricultural progress should be measured by the growth rate in farmers' income and not just by production figures. Low economic risk, high factor productivity, avoidance of ecological harm, and assured income must be the bottom line of all agricultural research and development strategies. Had we adopted a pro-small farmer biotechnology strategy, we would by now have had Bt-cotton varieties whose seeds farmers could keep and replant, unlike in the case of the hybrids marketed by private companies.

Scientific strategies should include attention to both on-farm and non-farm livelihoods. We should confer the power and economy of scale on families operating one hectare or less through management structures such as cooperatives or group farming as well as contract cultivation based on a win-win model of partnership for both the producer and the purchaser. Institutional structures such as small holders' cotton, horticulture, poultry, and aquaculture estates can be promoted by stimulating the formation of self-help groups at the farm level. Concurrently, we should launch an integrated rural non-farm livelihood initiative by revamping and integrating numerous isolated non-farm employment and income generation agencies such as the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Small Farmers' Agri-business Consortium (SFAC), textile, leather and food parks, agri-clinics, and agri-business centres.

Unless market-driven multiple livelihood opportunities are created, the pressure of population on land will grow, the indebtedness of small farmers will increase, and the agrarian distress will spread. Poverty will persist so long as asset-less rural families remain illiterate and unskilled. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme provides a unique opportunity for imparting functional literacy using computer-aided joyful learning techniques. We should use new technologies to leapfrog in the area of human development in villages. At the same time, knowledge without access to the inputs to apply that knowledge will have no meaning. Input supply systems need review and reform.

Finally, the gap between what the rural producer gets and the urban consumer pays must be made as narrow as possible, as has been done in the case of milk under Dr. V. Kurien's leadership. The National Horticulture Board was created for this purpose over 23 years ago, but like the SFAC, it also lost its way. It can only be hoped other expensive new programmes such as the Fisheries Development Board, the National Rainfed Area Authority, and the National Horticultural Mission will learn from the success achieved by agencies such as the National Dairy Development Board, the Indian Space Research Organisation, and the Atomic Energy Commission in achieving specific goals in a time-bound manner, and benefit from strong professional leadership.

There is an urgent need for a National Land Use Advisory Service, structured as a virtual organisation on a hub and spokes model. The spokes would cover the major agro-climatic zones and farming systems, for providing proactive advice to farmers on land and water use through an integrated analysis of meteorological, agronomic, and marketing data. There is also need for an Indian Trade Organisation mandated to protect the livelihood and income security of farm and fisher families. At the same time, there should be a risk stabilisation fund and a farmer-centric Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).

Agriculture in our country is based on the technology of production by the masses. As a consequence, it is the backbone of the national livelihood security system. The Indian tragedy of extensive poverty and deprivation persisting under conditions of impressive progress in the industrial and services sectors will continue so long as we refuse to place faces before figures. The NCF has suggested the mainstreaming of the human dimension in all agricultural programmes and policies, the adoption by the National Development Council of a National Policy for Farmers, and the establishment of a State Farmers' Commission by every State Government.

This is to give voice to the voiceless in the formulation of farm policies including the preparation of the 11th Five Year Plan. Let the Year of the Farmer help to shape our agricultural destiny in a manner that farming once again becomes the pride of the nation on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of our Independence on August 15, 2007.

POST 16- Rock!! Music to Liberate(Contributed by Deathglory666)

What are the next words that comes to your mind when you come across these words. Let me guess:- Noise, shit, drugs, sex, violence and filth.
Human behavior and decisions are based on his past experience. Experience constitutes your personal experience and what has been taught to you by society, enviornment and situations.I bet when you blame rock music, it is only a result of what has been taught to you. Because you yourself have never researched deeply and still come out with such harsh words generalising whole community of ROCK MUSIC. I agree that most of the rock stuff that you must have heard displayed drugs, sex, violence and sometimes romance. But it is all about the choice . What form of music is available and what you choose out of it? Let me clarify, here, that I don't want to hurt your feelings and challenge your decisions. And I won't push you to listen to any stuff. These are just personal views.

ROCK MUSIC started out with a form called rock 'n' roll and classical rock with rock stars like Bob marley, Elvis Presley,The Beatles, The Eagles etc. Then it spread like a disease all over the globe with some modifications according to different nations and cultures. Today ROCK MUSIC has many genres that classify it with very thin lines, such as, Death Metal, Hard metal, Soft Metal, Punk, Alternative Rock and Black Metal etc. Each of these is a unique form in itself, displaying different faces of same beast.

The most true and purest thing about ROCK MUSIC is that it requires openness of mind. Openness of mind to grab the music, vocals and the message behind every song.It doesn't aim to make you dance with your gf/bf and turn a deaf ear. It aims to channelise all your senses towards it's core and then it hits your conciousness.
I agree that the lyrics are personal views of the band/writers. But these hard lyrics reflects upon the past, present and future of human civilization,society, nations and much more. We try to face away from them because they are the hardest truths around us. We just don't want to accept the reality.We try to live with our eyes closed to the problems in our society because we think we are not the ones to rectify them. Everybody reads the message on the board but we think, it is meant for someone else. We don't want to take the responsibility.But atleast somebody is watching over the whole scene and trying to tell the truth. The violent music and vocals are just the means to show their wrath, anger, concern and depth of problems.

ROCK MUSIC is not just music. It is fight against war, weapons, capitalism, hegemony, discrimination and religious divisions that are torturing and dividing the society. It describes human behavior and psychology and the causes for it. Yeah, it blames society, it's preachers and leaders for the present situation. And who else is to be blamed. I think only humans are to be blamed, not the animals. So they are targeting the right species. I'm not here to preach you.But the truth is ROCK MUSIC shows us the real scene around the globe. It increases our knowledge, conciousness and awareness. It also plants a sense of responsibility in our minds. It makes you feel special by giving you access to vast reserves of knowledge and showing you the path of transformation. Some drown and fail in life after getting addicted to it. But some realize and help in building a better world. But in this race both kind of people are winners.

POST 15- Freedom?? Read This!!!

What am i doing here??
What's this all about??
Why are we so proud of being called humans, and why do we claim our rationality at a time when we're more animals than most of the species...

Freedom of speech is considered a fundamental right in my country, India. But what if my views are against any religion?? Then I am booked for hurting the religious sentiments of the disciples of that religion. That means that I am booked for exercising one of my rights. Then why was I given the right in the first place?
This country is a secular country so I can follow any religion that I want. What if one of my religious beliefs are totally against some other religion?? What I exactly want to say is that may be some practices of my religion may potray some other practice of some other religion in bad sense. so will i be allowed to practice it?? If yes then as I have seen during all these years is that there will be clashes all over between the disciples of both the religions and at the end I'll be made to stop the practice. But if I consider some practice by some other established religion as hurting my new religion's feelings then will the practice by the other religion be stopped?? No. I'll have to keep my mouth shut only because the other religion is older and have more number of followers. If the number of followers is the deciding factor then how is this country secular?? Many minorities suffer like this.

So it is very clear that there is no room for rational thinking in this country and one has to keep his mouth shut and should not try to speak his mind ad if it hurts the mahority then either hw becomes victim of some militant group or the politicians.

I'll not be able to give solutions to the problems but will atleast start a quest to find them. And will urge people to stop hating each other on different grounds such as caste, creed, sex, religion etc. but try to find better ways of living and progressing together.

For last few days I have been listening about the protests that are going against the release of the movie, Da Vinci Code. It is being said that the movie potrays christ in wrong sense and should not be released.

I thought both ways.

Had the movie potrayed any God of the established religions in India in bad sense, would our religious leaders allowed it to release?? There would've been big protests and bandhs. But as christians are in minority, our country doesn't care much.(Here I am talking only about India) And then we say that it is a secular country.

Thinking in another way, the movie is a work of fiction and no body exactly knows the truth. If Christians feel that Da Vinci Code is against Bible the isn't Bible against Da Vinci Code and shouldn't it also contain a warning that it is a pure work of fiction as it is very clear thst Bible was written by Men??

I am not supporting any side here as both have there own reasons, but personally i'm really looking forward to the movie as enjoyed the book a lot and will surely watch it first day first show.

There was also a big hue and cry against the paintings of M.F. Hussien. It was said that he disrespected India by painting Bharat Mata nude. Will someone ask these people that how do they think that India wears clothes.
We are sent into the world naked, that all the variations of the blood might be made visible. However trite, I cannot avoid quoting here the lines of the most deep-thinking and philosophical of our poets:

We understood
Her by her sight: her pure and eloquent blood
Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought,
That one might almost say her body thought.
Its a work of art and please take it as that.

From all this it is very clear that India still has a long way to go to become a place where a person is allowed to think logically and speak his mind.

POST 14- What is Reality???

When we talk of reality we have formed a habit to think that whatever can be percieved by our five sense is real. Most of the time we take concensus as a proof of what is real. but the material is not the only mode of thought. What is an idea? You have the idea of the home you live in when you are a thousand miles from it, even an image "in your mind." Is that material, i.e. physical. Can anyone prove you have that idea in your mind? Nobody else than you can know what thought you have in your mind at this very second. According to concensus there is no thought in your mind but is it the truth?? Also we know ideas "float around" everywhere all the time, and have great influence on us (called "memes"). Experience itself is not physical, although has physical causes (brain). Everything effects you.

We have a habit of trying to fit everything we see in the 3 Dimensions which we understand. We know about the fourth dimension but we never care much as we have taken it for granted that we won't be able to change it to have any particular effect.

But what are dimensions??

Talking in a very crude language a dimension is something according to which the changes in a system are studied. We study how much does one dimension change with respect to some other dimension. For example when we study motion of a car, we study how much distance it travels in some particular time. So dimensions are somethings according to which a system is studied but what we forget many times is that it is to simplify the study that we consider these dimensions. We decided that we'll study the car with time and distance as dimensions. That doesn't mean that there can't be any other dimensions. We could've selected anything. We could've selected the amount of the reduction of fuel as a dimension or the anytjing else. So it should be clear that the dimensions have nothing to do with what is actually happening. It is just a few variables that are chosen to make a simple study of a system.

But when we talk of the real world, we start thinking that there are only 3 Dimensions(Sometimes we consider 4th, if it answers some contradictions). But can't there be any other dimensions. There can be infinite of them. It depends on the person who is studying the system that how much deeply he wants to study the system. To study what is really happeming, he'll have to consider every dimension. Some of the dimensions can be the thought processes that are running through his mind. All depends on him, how he studies it. While trying to fit anything into the dimesions that we understand, we forget that the dimensions that you see is only the map of reality and the real thing is far much bigger(or may be far smaller). Whatever we percieve with our five senses is just a map of the reality and we start considering it as reality. We start saying to many things-- How is this possible?? These questions only arise when you try to fit things into 3 or 4 Dimensions.

I watched something on discovery that really impressed me. I don't remember the name of the program but do remember the concept he was trying to explain.

• Take a piece of paper and a pin. Consider this piece of paper as a 2 D world. Just imagine that there are people living on the paper who just understand the two dimensions and know nothing about the 3rd dimension. Now hold the pin on the top of the paper. Till the pin is a little far from the paper, the paper people know nothing about it as they can't understand the 3rd dimension. We know that the pin exists. Prick the paper with the pin. What has happened?? As the pin pricks the paper, it enters the paper people's world. Won't they see something appearing through thin air?? When you take out the pin, the paper people will think that the pin just dissappeared in thin air. For you nothing really happened but for the paper people it might have been a rendezvous with what they might consider god.

Similarly we just think that the reality has to fit in the three dimensions that we can understand with our five senses and start considering anything that we don't understand as not real.
What we forget here is that it is not the dimensions that are controlling the system but the system that effects the dimensions. And while talking of reality we try mixing many sytems just to make them fit in the dimensions that we undertstand.

Proof follows scientific methodology. Spiritual "insight" is not subject to proof,...

The only knower of reality is the subject - what can be more real than this?

This is a request to all those who have questions

It is not possible to answer all questions in main so this is a request to immoratal_bhagat and all others who have questions to send in your questions in mail. You can send them at missionmind@gmail.com

Infinite riches are all around you if you will open your mental eyes and behold the treasure house of infinity within you. There is a gold mine within you from which you can extract everything you need to live life gloriously, joyously and abundantly.
- Jeseph Murphy, Ph.D., The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
- George Bernard Shaw

Too many people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
- Oscar Wilde


Looking forward to an enlightened world. Lets shed ignorance once and for all.

POST 13- Are you an Achiever??

In your life you seem to have it all
You seem to have control
But deep within your soul
You're losing it
You never took the time
Assume that you're to blame
You think that you're insane
Won't you spare me
I know the breakdown
Everything is gonna shake now someday
I know the breakdown
Tell me again am i awake now maybe
You can find the reason that no one else is living this way



Do you know what you want???
Have you thought where will u be 5 years from now?? and where you'll be 10 years from now??
Are you on the right path at this moment to achieve the goals that you have set for yourself??

One secret to success is that you decide what you have to do and then channelize all your energy just to do that.

Unfortunately, most people are "wondering generalities". These are the people who wander throught life without direction. They are not reaching for worthwhile goals.

Achievers know exactly what they want and consistently move towards it. There may be many ways to reach it but the goal should be very clear.
Once you are clear about what you want, the universe works day and night to help attract it into your life. Oppurtunities will show up out of nowhere. you'll begin recognizing things that you otherwise never noticed before. In many cases, you will realize that these oppurtunities were right in front of you the whole time.

Our mind has a way of focussing on what we want and filtering out information that is not important to us- it is survival mechanism.

The bottom line is, if you are unclear about what you want out of life, then even if oppurtunities arise, they'll simply go unnoticed. You will unknowingly filter them out. On the other hand, when you are clear about what you want to achieve, you'll notice the slightest oppurtunity that can lead to the accomplishment of your goals.

Goathe writes,

Until one is committed their hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always infectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely comits oneself, then Povidence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events, issues from decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would come his way.Whatever you can do, or you can dream, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Just think once, if money, time, resource, or oppurtunity were not an obstacle--what would i chose to do??

This is one more step in the growth process.

Yeah your lies
Your world is built around
Two faces to a clown
The voices in your head
Think there's four pawns down
Well in this unity
Fate has found the need
So you better check yourself
Before you check out

If you find yourself
Then you might believe
Then within yourself
You just might conceive
You can find the reason that no one else is living this way



Send in your comments and questions at missionmind@gmail.com

It is not possible to answer all questions in main so this is a request to immoratal_bhagat and all others who have questions to send in your questions in mail.

This is in reply to a comment

This is in reply to comment--

Hello Brother..I am quite impressed by your content and style...But wat u write here is not dat practical...Have you ever stopped and sat to think who u really are in this fast track world...have u ever pondered upon the thought that why did God, if there is any sent you here on this Earth. What are you doing and wat r u supposed to do here....Do u think you have the power to change the prevelant thinking of people...?
--Posted by Immortal_Bhagat


If i hadn't stopped and thought that who i really am in this fast track world, then i wouldn't have taken so much pain to start a mission like this.

We are not going to war or anything but this mission is against ignorance and to make lives more meaningful. We all have to live normal lives but that doesn't mean that we should stop trying to find the answers of the bigger questions of lfe.
First of all i want to say that you are again working on the preconcieved notions that you have formed.
I'll quote some things from the blog to clarify.
If you had read and understood the complete blog and tried to understand it then your wouldn't have asked this question.

What is practical?? It is you yourself who set the limits.
We have a habit to try to fit everything within the 3 dimensions that we see. But isn't there a 4th dimension?? We don't see it so we think that it is not affecting our lives. Similarly there are many other dimensions. If you can't make graphs of it then it doesn't mean that they don't exist.
What we see is just a map as the actual things is too big and we start thinking that only what can be fitted in these 3 dimensions is practical.

You can't see, hear, smell, taste or touch what the other person is thinking but does that mean that his thoughts don't exist?? Is his mind non-existant practically??
Everything in the world can't be expressed in words and many things can't be percieved with our 5 senses but have to be felt.

Quotes from the blog-

Suppose that you join a course for mathematics which is about some things that you haven’t studied before. And suppose that on your first day the teacher asks you some question which is based on a formula that you have never seen in your life before. What will be your answer???You’ll surely say that how could you tell as this is your first day at the class.But if I ask your any question like why a human is behaving a certain way, in a certain situation Or any question like how a particular thing is effecting anybody’s life, you’ll pick up your pen and will start filling pages on that and would never say that you can’t tell as this is your first day.

You’ll start working on the preconceived notions that you accept as facts.Explaining this in another way, i can say that how can you pour more coffee in a cup that is already full? You’ll have to empty your cup first to understand properly.
--Post 1

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience which in its nature transcends linguistics --- D.T. Suzuki
--Post 4

Any path is just a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you… Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question… Does this path have a heart?? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t it is of no use-----Carlos Castaneda, The teaching of Don Juan.
--Post 6

Somebody asked me, what'll i gain out of all this?? Hey friends, gain is always not measured in material terms. Even if one soul on the earth changes due to my effort, i'll think that my efforts have been successful.
--Post 8

I want to produce such positive thoughts so that even from the time a child is born, he thinks positively. And it is possible.May be not in my lifetime. Many times the results come much later. When Galileo said that sun is the centre of the solar system, noone believed him but it doesn't prove that he was wrong.sometimes result come much later.Some people say that we don't have time for such things. hey friends, even Einstein, Nostradamus, Plato, Socrates, Newton, Shakespear and many great people who lived in this 3-Dimensional world had 24 hours in a day.
--Post 8

The principles on which your life is based may be entirely sound, but until you've examined them, you can't be certain of this.
--Post 12


And please do read atleast once the complete POST 9 -Believe. Please do read it atleast once and you'll get answers to many of your questions.

Comments and questions can also be sent at missionmind@gmail.com

POST 12- Analyse

Many people say that i talk a lot of philosophy.
But do you know what is Philosophy?? and why do we need it??
Philosophy is an activity: it is a way of thinking about certain sorts of question. Its most distinctive features is its use of logical argument. Philosophers typically deal in arguments: they either invent them, criticise other people's, or do both. They analyse and clarify concepts. The word 'Philosophy' is often used in a much broader sense than this to mean one's general outlook on life, or else rather to some forms of mysticism.

It is sometime argued that there is no point in studying philosophy as all philosophers ever do is sit around quibbling over the meaning of words. They never seem to reach any conclusions of any importance and their contribution to society is virtually non-existent.
The caricature of a philosopher is of someone who is good at dealing with very abstract thoughts.
One important reason for studying philosophy is that it deals with fundamental questions about the meaning of our existence.
Most of us at some time in our lives ask ourselves basic philosophical questions.
Why are we here? Is there any proof that God exists? Is there any purpose to our lives? What makes anything right or wrong? Could we ever be justified in breaking the law? Could our lives be just a dream? Is mind different from body, or are we simply physical beings? How does science progress? What is art? and so on.

Most people who study philosophy believe that it is important that each of us examines such questions. Some even argue that an unexamined life is not worth living. To carry on routine existence without ever examining the principles on which it is based may be like driving a car which has never been serviced. You may be justified in trusting the brakes, the steering, the engine. since they have always worked well enough up until now; but you may be completely unjustified in trust: the brake pads may be faulty and fail you when you most need them.
Similarly the principles on which your life is based may be entirely sound, but until you've examined them, you can't be certain of this.
However, even if you do not seriously doubt the soundness of the assumptions on which your life is based, you may be impoverishing your life by not exercising your power of thought. Many people find it either too much of an effort, or too disturbing to ask themselves such fundamental questions: they may be happy and comfortable with their prejudices and laugh on others who do so but they forget that others have a strong desire to find answers to challenging philosophical questions.

Post questions at missionmind@gmail.com

POST 11- Nobodies??

We are the nobodies
Wanna be Somebodies
We're Dead,
they'll know just who we are

Some children died the other day
we fed machines and then we prayed
puked up and down in morbid faith
you should have seen the ratings that day

When we are small, we have many dreams. But as the time passes many dreams fade away as we start putting limitations to them. We make compromises on various stages of life and according to them our dreams also have to make compromises.
Its not that we should never compromise in our life. We have to make many compromises for our benefit and the benefit of all those who are connected with us.
To explain this i'll tell you a small incident-
Once 3 people died. While dying the first said Jesus. Second said Ram. The third said Potato.
When the postmortem report came out, it was found that the first two had their stomachs full while the third was hungry.
Every person first thinks about food and only after that he can think about God.
While we discuss these things, their are many who are still looking for proper food. The people on the top are just fighting for supremacy and have forgotten that they also have to look down.
US attacked Iraq as they said that people of Iraq were in bad condition under the rule of Saddam Hussein. Is it true?? Is their situation any better today??
And what right does US have to attack any other country when the other country has not even done a single bit to harm US. US said that Iraq had nucleur and chemical weapons but where have they gone?? So US had no base in attacking Iraq, so Why is there no case on US for attacking Iraq, in International Court??
Why the other countries not do anything to stop US?? Why the other countries still have good relations with US. Why US is still a permanent member of UN when it has violated the orders of UN??
This is the perfect example of how we have closed our eyes and have compromised with the situation around the world. But is it right?? Are we the nobodies?? Ask yourself these questions. Don't you wanna be somebody??

POST 9 -Believe

To achieve any goal the first thing that one has to do is believe in himself. Most of our lives, we just play safe as we think that its the best way to avoid the problems that we might face. But we never understand that faluires and frustrations are just a part of the growth process.
From the time when we are very small the world starts teaching us what is easy and what id difficult to achieve. and we start believing what we are told. Many times we are told "you won't be able to do it" or "this has never been done before". But if life was to be lived like this then nobody could have ever climbed great summits like Mount Everest. we also have to climb many summits in the process and for that we need to believe that it is possible. Most of the time we play our own enemies by having negative thoughts, comfort zones, self defeating habits, blame lists etc. The moment you realize and decide that you are the single most determining factor as to whether or not you succeed or fail, only then will your life have a chance to improve.

Carl Joseph was born with one leg. Not using crutches or artificial legs, he decided to play football in high school. He worked so hard that eventually he made to All-State defensive lineman. The local newspapers said, "He ran so smoothly and so effortlessly that when you watch him run you could hardly tell he was missing a leg. Especially when he was chasing down quarterback from behind". In basketball he could dunk the ball, and in track he could jump five feet ten inches-all with one leg. In fact, even with his disadvantage, he went on to recieve a four-year athletic training scolarship from University of Pittsburgh. He said, "It is all in the mind. My mind always told me that i could do things, and i just went and did them. I never worried that i couldn't do something, I just did it. You just keep trying, and you will always get there."

Although inspired by greatness, we sometimes doubt our own potentials. We aren't confident and think,"I don't have special talents." "I don't have what they have." "I could never do that". Extraordinary people are simple ordinary people that do extra ordinary things. Many of them don't have the education, talent, resources or special advantages.

Thomas Edison, who has a great number of discoveries to his credit, only had three months of formal education.
Einstein didn't speak until he was four years old. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams"

But they have belief in themselves and that is the first thing that is required for any possible growth. Once and for all, start believing in yourself.
And don't listen to anyone who tells you anything negative. There are many people who don't want to take the trip themselves, yet pose as experts who criticize the travel of others. They are toxic for you.

Once you start believing in yourself there is no hurdle to high for you to clear, no goal too hard to achieve and no crisis too hot for you to cool down.

POST 8- Evolutionary step

Our mission here is to produce so much positive thoughts that they become an inseperable part of ourselves.
It is really possible.

When you see a person with a torn jean, do you think that he is poor to buy a new jean or do you consider him sporting it as a fashion statement??
If otherwise he looks ok, then there is no wonder that he is sporting it as a fashion statement. But how do we come to think that???
Actually the jeans were developed for the US mine workers as there ordinary pants use to tear soon due to rash usage in mines. Jeans was developed to be more rough and tough than an ordinary jeans. It became famous soon. Now when a person travelled on horse for long duration, the roller(that is behind the shoes to ride horse easily) use to cut the jeans from the lower back end of both legs and due to long distance travel the jeans' colour faded. So the people saw a person with a torn and faded jeans as a brave and strong person. The thought was so strong that now it has built in us. Even when we didn't know why it's fashion, we feel that it looks good.

There is a kind of snake in Australia that on seeing a mongose behave as dead so that the mongose doesn't hurt him. While a study was going, it was seen that the child of the snake while hatching from it's egg saw a mongose and behaved as dead. Who taught him that?? Obviously he had some in built thoughts in itself.

I want to produce such positive thoughts so that even from the time a child is born, he thinks positively. And it is possible.
May be not in my lifetime. Many times the results come much later. When Galileo said that sun is the centre of the solar system, noone believed him but it doesn't prove that he was wrong.
sometimes result come much later.
Some people say that we don't have time for such things. hey friends, even Einstein, Nostradamus, Plato, Socrates, Newton, Shakespear and many great people who lived in this 3-Dimensional world had 24 hours in a day.
Its not how much time that you spend here but its what you do in that much time, that metters.
We spend our day and night to make sure that we live long and easily but do we spend little time to actually live??
Somebody asked me, what'll i gain out of all this?? Hey friends, gain is always not measured in material terms. Even if one soul on the earth changes due to my effort, i'll think that my efforts have been successful.
Even our thoughts have their effect on this world and this world changes continuosly based on them. Suppose i effect the 1 square meter that i stand on, another person will effect another square meter and there are so many thinkers in this world that billions of meters are effected every second. Sometimes small efforts produce great effects in the process of evolution.

While our journey, we'll have to have a clean mind and for that we should know about many things.
To begin with, we'll study all the religions.

I'll start with Hinduism and will then step by step we'll study all possible.

This Blog will continue discussions and for studying of religions we'll make seperate blogs so that its easier to manage.

Keep producing positive thoughts till the world changes.

Questions can be sent to missionmind@gmail.com

POST 7- The Alien Observer

Man considers himself the peak of creation; less, perhaps, than gods, demons, angels and other beings that are more than natural; but certainly greater and more important than anything he can see or touch.
We can say, man expends energy and performs work in order to provide for the future.
But is this truly a distinction between man and other forms of life??
Doesn’t the beaver build dams, the squirrel store nuts, and the spider spins webs??
To us, it would seem there is simply no comparison. In none of these cases, or any others involving the lower animals, is anything like human forethought involved.
So, I repeat, it seems to us. Yet is it possible that this difference so clear to us is a result of mere prejudice and self love??
Would a creature from another world, studying life on earth, really see the difference between a spider building a web and a man casting a net into the sea as anything more than one of degree??

Then we developed tools, but even birds use rocks to break snail shells and even insects may use pebbles to block tunnels.
Our alien observer, watching men swarm over the quarries and deserts of Egypt and the slow, painful stone-by-stone construction of the Great Pyramid, might not see much of a distinction between this and the construction of a termite hill.
In fact the termite hill is larger compared to the insect than is the Great Pyramid compared to a man, and the alien might be more impressed by the termite. To be sure, the man manufactures his simple tools while the termite has his built into his body, but the alien might consider this sign of great ingenuity on the part of man to be interesting but not crucial.

Then man tamed animals to attain more energy and perform even the kind of work which was not possible with the limited energy his body possessed.
Our alien observer might see in our use of animals still another mere extension and elaboration of some of the activities of the lower animals.
To take an example, sea anemones are sometimes fixed by a crab to his shell. This is to the benefit of the sea anemones which, ordinarily quiescent, now finds itself transported from place to place, thus increasing its chances of finding food. This is also to the benefit of crab since the stinging tentacles of the sea anemones keep creatures at a distance which might otherwise prey upon the crab. Moreover, the crab dines upon scraps of food that escape the sea anemone during the latter’s meal.
Will our alien see difference between this and a case of a man who rides a horse and fed and protects the animal in return?

Then man started using other sources of energy like wind and running water.
Undoubtedly, it puzzled early man to find such large quantities of energy in inanimate nature. He resolved it by giving life to apparently inanimate nature and imagining the existence of demons or gods who made themselves manifest in the storm blast. The wind was their breath and waters raged at their command.
However, long before wind and water were even feebly tamed by man, another source of external energy came under his command. This is commonly referred to as the “Discovery of fire”.
Fire itself, of course, was never really discovered since it has always existed. But man came to know how to create fire and so domesticated fire. Fire gave him light, warmth, protection from other animals and increased his food supply as he found that cooked food was easier to chew.

It is beyond doubt that the discovery of fire is the greatest single human achievement. Here at last, our unwearied alien observer can finally find his clear distinction. No other species, however intelligent, makes even the most fumbling attempt to use fire, whereas no tribe of man is known today, however primitive, that doesn’t use fire.
And this is one reason that you can find no place of worship today where fire is not worshipped. In different forms like candles, incense sticks, a lamp etc., in any kind of worship, fire is the main element. The Greeks had their myth of Titan, Promethus, saving the human race from misery by bringing down the celestial gift of fire from sun. The sun as the prototype of fire was worshipped by many.
Most of us light candles, lamps, incense sticks etc. while worshipping, but we never think why we do it.
This is an attempt to make you think.
Discussions will continue till the mind is freed.

Send in your comments and questions at missionmind@gmail.com

POST 3- Do you fear death??

We all say that life is sacred.
All love life.
Everyone says that once we die, we’ll go to heaven but no one wants to die.
Scientific definition of Life is – capacity for growth, functional activity, and continual change until death.
All fear death.
Once one of my friends asked me that is it possible that we become immortal.
It made me think of a story which I heard somewhere.
The story goes like this.
Once somebody told Alexander that there is a waterfall, which has water of immortality.
Alexander sent his army to search for it.
After years of search the army found the waterfall in a cave.
Alexander told his army to stand guard around the cave so that no one other than him can go in. When Alexander went in and was about to drink the water, he heard a voice that said “Please drink the water only after listening to me”. He saw around and saw that it was a pigeon speaking. Seeing a talking pigeon stunned him. The pigeon told him that he drank the water of the waterfall Millions of years back. He said that he was very happy at that time. The pigeon did everything he ever wanted to. When he has done all, he found newer things and even did many things which pigeons can’t even imagine doing, as he was immortal.
He soon got exhausted & then did almost everything that was possible. He understood everything he possibly can but then he was exhausted and wanted to die. He tried everything from drowning to burning but he can’t die, as he was immortal.
He said that at this moment he was very sad & couldn’t enjoy anything, as he knows that he’ll never die.
Alexander threw away the water & ran towards the opening of the cave to never return. He even got the waterfall buried so that no one should suffer.
It should be very clear by now that it is immortality that is more fearful than death. The fear of death drives us daily. Have you ever thought that why humans want there own children?? It may not be the most important reason, but one of it is fear of death. Every human being knows from the core of his heart that he’ll die one day. And the constant urge of immortality leaves him with no other alternative but to live his name through his children.
There is nothing to fear from death.
It is because of death that we enjoy everything we do.
Death is such a thing that’ll relieve all the suffering.
Death is also as sacred as life.

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POST 1- I THINK, THEREFORE I EXIST

The Mission “Cogito Ergo Sum”—I THINK, THEREFORE I EXIST.

You want a revolution?? I am the one who’ll make you witness. I say, will you follow me till there?? Can you handle me?? You crave and I crave like you. If I am not left to guide you, will you survive on the spares which I’ll leave as seeds in your holy brains????

This is an effort to build your mind and make your lives meaningful.

The society is split into different nations, races, religions and political groups. The belief that all these fragments are really separate can be seen as the essential reason for the present series of social, ecological and cultural crises. It has alienated us from nature and from our fellow human beings. It has brought grossly unjust ever rising wave of violence in which life has often become physically and mentally unhealthy.

Our tendency to divide the perceived world into individual and separate things and to experience ourselves as isolated egos in this world is seen as an illusion that comes from our measuring and categorizing mentality. It is called avidya, or ignorance, and is seen as a state of disturbed mind which has to be overcome.

When the mind is disturbed, the multiplicity of things is produced, but when the mind is quieted, the multiplicity of things disappear.

This is an effort to quiet the mind. An effort to LIBERATE.

When you liberate your willpower, you become the master of your own personal world. There is no hurdle too high for you to overcome. There is no challenge too tough for you to surmount and no crises too hot to cool down. LIBERATE….

This will be a series of articles through which we’ll discuss the causes of human misery and the solutions to them. Obviously for this we’ll have to look into a lot of things. We’ll discuss everything from religions to science, from suffering to nirvana. I’ll use my own thoughts combined with the thoughts and writings of many great persons in this world which have helped me form my thoughts. I’ll use everything that helps in the growth of the mind.

Here I’ll be truthful, unafraid and unmerciful.
many things which I write may hurt many but I’ll speak the truth whatever the consequences are and I’ll not say anything that has no logic. I’ll provide you with proofs if you want.

I’ll like to make some things very clear if you want to really learn.

Suppose that you join a course for mathematics which is about some things that you haven’t studied before. And suppose that on your first day the teacher asks you some question which is based on a formula that you have never seen in your life before. What will be your answer???
You’ll surely say that how could you tell as this is your first day at the class.
But if I ask your any question like why a human is behaving a certain way, in a certain situation Or any question like how a particular thing is effecting anybody’s life, you’ll pick up your pen and will start filling pages on that and would never say that you can’t tell as this is your first day. You’ll start working on the preconceived notions that you accept as facts.

Explaining this in another way, i can say that how can you pour more coffee in a cup that is already full. You’ll have to empty your cup first to understand properly.

You can ask me any question if u have regarding any issue or anything that you can’t understand at missionmind@gmail.com

The site will be updated regularly.