Tuesday 26 February 2013

Consciousness


Krishna Consciousness establishes the most opulent ,the most powerful,the most influential and the most effective culture

Let all our decisions be made by consciousness
 not corrupted by mind, intellect or body

Let our reponse to situations be of kuruna.
 Let not anger ,greed ,lust corrupt our minds.

Like a mirror once broken has  to be replaced,
consciousness once lost cannot be replaced.

So let our thoughts , words and actions
reflect consciousness rather than hollowness .

Let all our decisions  reflect  fundamentals  of consciousness
and not motivated by  personal profits.

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Ayalum Njanum Thammil- A bond between him and me.



Today was  watching a  movie named Ayalum Nyanum Thamil, my imagination and emotion was caught by the story of the film , which  mainly questions the ethical  practices in the medical profession.A truly good film in all respects.

The way the actor Ravi Tharakan  loses his girlfriend as he is unable to attend his marriage  on time due to personal vedanta with a police officer ,the police officer not letting him pass the traffic , though not having  left  a patient to die just prior to him leaving.

Later Dr Tharakan refusing to cure the daughter of the same police officer,also reflects that whatever one sows he  does reap, and the love shown by the Senior doctor Samuel by uttering a lie to protect Tharakan from losing his medical practioning licence, also shows the power of love,though after having slapped Tharakan for not compling with medical ethics.

Why this film caught my attention was because my mother was also admitted in to a  major private  hospital in Mumbai some time ago and a junior doctor was very much interested in his material prospects and of the hospital rather than his ethics . I hope he watched the film.



The reflection of the film in the society takes lot of importance into the profession of medicine,in the way the hospital tries to save itself ,from any malice,and also the ethics of the medical practioners,who ignore their ethics completely, by stealing organs like kidneys from non influential ,ignorant and poor patients without their knowledge and making money.  


They say that films are a reflection of the society ,after seeing Ayalum nyanum thaamil,how i wish it were.

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Degeneration of religion

God has no religion-M K Gandhi


Religion is based on faith and

-Like Vivekananda said ---

Faith its degeneration when alone –bigotry,fanaticism-sectarianism.
Narrowing finite therefore cannot get to the infinite.
Sometimes gain in intensity but loses in extensity-
and in bigots & fanatics become worship of his own pride & vanity.

Religion did not consist of pamphlets or books; it consisted of looking into the human heart, and finding there the truths of God and immortality.

The fundamental of all religions happens to be “Not to injure others is the highest good”
Religion never has been forced on to people,but has taught self sacrifice and to be tolerant.
The  fatherest point of religion is spiritual, acceptance to all situations in life.
Religions heads from all religions need to move beyond faith, to love.

Religion has a job at hand to elevate persons of brutish habits to better character.

Many recent events have been a reflection of degeneration of religion.
  • The Kashmiri band girls being issued a fatwa by the grand Mufti .
  • Anirudh’s painting being removed from the banglore art exhibition after complaint by a BJP MLA.
  • Vishwaroopan being delayed in its release after protests by few Muslim groups objecting to some scenes even after being cleared by the censor board.
  • Prof. Ashis Nandi being arrested for his remarks on dalits ,and obtaining a stay by SC.

Amidst this chaos there is harmony, throughout these discordant sounds there is a note of concord; and he who is prepared to listen to it will catch the tone.It is religion, the inquiry into the beyond,that makes the difference between man and an animal.

Wisdom  is the goal of all life. We find that man enjoys his intellect more than an animal enjoys its senses; and we see that man enjoys his spiritual nature even more than his rational nature. So the highest wisdom must be this spiritual knowledge.The end and aim of all religions is to realise God.

Since the aim and end of all religions is to realise god ,I do not know how the Kashmiri band girls or the paintings by Anirudh were any different in their aims for realizing god in their own ways.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Education for Character development


                  Character education not only cultivates minds, it nurtures hearts




Swami Vivekananda on Character:
Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge. Pleasure and happiness come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that pleasure is the goal. The cause of all the miseries we have in the world is that men foolishly think pleasure to be the ideal to strive for. After a time man finds that it is not pleasure, but knowledge, towards which he is going, and that both pleasure and pain are great teachers, and that he learns as much from evil as from good. As pleasure and pain pass before his soul they have upon it different pictures, and the result of these combined impressions is what is called man's "character".If you take the character of any man, it really is but the aggregate of tendencies, the sum total of the bent of his mind; you will find that
misery and happiness are equal factors in the formation of that character. Good and evil have an equal share in moulding character, and in some instances misery is a greater teacher than happiness.

If you really want to judge of the character of a man, look not at his
great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one time or another.
Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which
will tell you the real character of a great man. Great occasions rouse even the
lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he alone is the really
great man whose character is great always, the same wherever he be.

How to work?
A fool may buy all the books in the world, and they will be in his library;
but he will be able to read only those that he deserves to; and this deserving is
produced by Karma. Our Karma determines what we deserve and what we can
assimilate. We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish
ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has
been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we
wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to
know how to act. You will say, “What is the use of learning how to work?
Everyone works in some way or other in this world.” But there is such a thing
as frittering away our energies. With regard to Karma-Yoga, the Gita says that
it is doing work with cleverness and as a science; by knowing how to work, one
can obtain the greatest results.

Man works with various motives. There cannot be work without motive. Some
people want to get fame, and they work for fame. Others want money, and they
work for money. Others want to have power, and they work for power.
Others work as a penance; do all sorts of wicked things, then erect a temple, or
give something to the priests to buy them off and obtain from them a passport
to heaven. They think that this kind of beneficence will clear them and they will
go scot-free in spite of their sinfulness. Such are some of the various motives
for work.

Work for work's sake. There are some who work for work's sake, who do not care for name, or
fame, or even to go to heaven. They work just because good will come of it.
There are others who do good to the poor and help mankind from still higher
motives, because they believe in doing good and love good.
The motive for name and fame seldom brings immediate results, as a rule. If a man works without any selfish motive in view, does he not gain anything? Yes, he gains the highest.
Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practice it
 Love, truth, and unselfishness are not merely moral figures of speech, but they form our highest
ideal, because in them lies such a manifestation of power.

In the first place, a man who can work for five days, or even for five minutes, without any selfish
motive whatever, without thinking of future, of heaven, of punishment, or
anything of the kind, has in him the capacity to become a powerful moral giant.
It is hard to do it, but in the heart of our hearts we know its value, and the good
it brings. This self-control will tend to produce a mighty
will, a character which makes a Vivekanand or a Buddha.

Foolish men do not know this secret; they nevertheless want to rule mankind. Even a fool may rule the
whole world if he works and waits. Let him wait a few years, restrain that
foolish idea of governing; and when that idea is wholly gone, he will be a
power in the world. The majority of us cannot see beyond a few years, just as
some animals cannot see beyond a few steps. Just a little narrow circle — that
is our world. We have not the patience to look beyond, and thus become
immoral and wicked.

Even the lowest forms of work are not to be despised. Let the man, who knows
no better, work for selfish ends, for name and fame; but everyone should
always try to get towards higher and higher motives and to understand them.

If you wish to help a man, never think what that 
man's attitude should be towards you. If you want to do a great or a good work,
do not trouble to think what the result will be.

My thoughts:
What is character?
Character is the sigma of good and bad experiences. The persons actions and karma decides his character. The person with who applies his intelligence and knowledge to actions, both in good and bad experiences  determines his character.

How to identify a person which good character?
A persons central theme decides his charater.eg. Mother Teresa is compassionate.
In a Mirabai is devotion,many politicians today are morally corrupt .

Why is character Education important?
Today educations only fosters education for livelihood
Character education empower students to think critically, feel deeply and act wisely –
·         Society at large is with lot of hollow ,and scruples people.
·         Television is the maximum time children spent with rather than with parents therefore is exposed to lot of junk info.
·         Excess  of violent behaviours in society at large.

How to impart character education?
http://www.character.org/lessons/lesson-plans/

 How to measure character development  in a student?
·         student discipline;
·         student suicide rates;
·         crimes: assault, burglary, homicides;
·         prosocial activities.

Please Note:Swami vivekananda article on character has been produced from his complete works