 “There are thousands and millions of names of Lord Krishna — Vishnu-sahasra-nama — and all of them are given to Him because of His transcendental qualities.” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 2, Ch 14)
With a deep understanding of the human psyche, including the many ways that the mind challenges pieces of information purported to come from authority and the way it tries to understand higher concepts, the Vedas present the science of self-realization from all angles. The paths to knowing the Supreme Absolute Truth are not singular, though the destination is. Based on the variety in tendencies found within the living spirit, there may be one aspect of the Truth that is more appealing than another. Perhaps one person’s childhood environment completely differs from another’s, thereby leading to a different perspective on the world. Not to fear though, as the many names of address provide limitless ways to both understand and worship that Supreme Person.
Right away we see a way to understand this higher entity. By indicating that He is a person who is supreme we compare Him to an entity type with which we are familiar: people. Also, by using masculine pronouns, we compare the Supreme Absolute Truth to a male, or a member of the more dominant species. The female is the fairer sex, while the male generally has more physical strength. The male is the enjoyer and the female is the enjoyed. The male plants the seed and the female nurtures it until maturation so that it can become a living entity that can independently move about.
 The same parallels can be used to describe God. In the Bhagavad-gita, the Supreme Person’s original form of Shri Krishna explains that it is He who impregnates the total material substance and makes possible the births of the living entities. Therefore God is the father and nature the mother. God is the real enjoyer, orpurusha, and the living entities are the enjoyed, or prakriti. At the local level, the individual spirit soul is the purusha and its body and field of activities the prakriti.
Since Krishna is the Supreme Person, or Supreme Enjoyer, He is sometimes addressed as parama-purushaor maha-purusha. This type of address is both satisfying and helpful in terms of enlightenment. The spirit soul, the essence of identity, is naturally prone to service. Whether someone wants to accept this fact or not is irrelevant, for the penchant for service will be acted upon regardless. Just look around you and observe people’s behavior. Everyone would rather praise someone else than be praised. They would rather try to put a smile on someone else’s face than make themselves happy. Even the most selfish people in the world eventually get so miserable that they try to help others.
Addressing the Lord with names recognizing His superior standing with respect to dominating nature allows the soul to feel the pleasure from divine service. At the same time, the name brings a better understanding of the Absolute Truth’s position. Think of the small child and how they try to understand the parents. The children only know about playing all day and perhaps going to school. The adults are superior because they don’t have to go to school. They also get to do things that kids can’t. Therefore the definition of “adult” to the child incorporates these smaller concepts, whereas for the adult the definition of maturation is much more comprehensive.
The living entity doesn’t remember its many previous lives. Think of a past life as a past day, for the soul does not change in properties with the passage of time. The same soul that resides within the individual now existed within the womb of the mother, so just the outer covering changes. We wouldn’t consider a few weeks ago a past life, but it actually was. The future turns into the past very quickly, so the many previous lives we spent roaming the material land were at one time future lives.
The individual soul is known as the atma, or jivatma. The soul is blissful, knowledgeable and eternal, yet from travels through temporary bodies in a land governed by prakriti, forgetfulness gains strength. This means that the living entity has difficulty remembering things from one day or week ago. Thus when learning about the Supreme Absolute Truth, the living being must use known reference tools to try to make assessments. By addressing God as the Supreme Person, the individual takes their own acquired definition of a “person” and uses it as the basis for their initial assessment of God.
 In the discussion of the soul, we have stumbled upon yet another way to both address and understand God. The individual soul has limitations, but the Supreme Soul does not. Krishna is Paramatma, or the all-pervading witness. He resides within us in this form of spirit, but unlike us, He can remember every past life. Moreover, He lives withinevery living being, so He is aware of the past, present and future for every single instance of spirit.
What if you don’t know God through these methods? What if you’re not interested in making comparisons based on personalities and the differences between matter and spirit? Whatever your preference, whatever your likes and interests, you can still understand God in the way that suits you best. As another example, many worshipers like to honor heavenly figures so that they will bless them with personal rewards. The worship of the abstract concept of God sometimes takes place in this way as well. “O Lord, forgive us for our sins. Please continue to give us Your blessings. Please keep us safe and allow our children to grow up to be happy and healthy. Please give us food to eat and eliminate our troubles.”
In the Vedic tradition, such pleas are typically offered to heavenly figures known as devas. The devas, or gods, are living entities like us but they live for much longer periods of time, and they can give boons to those who worship them. Yet again, the Supreme Lord can be understood through using the established practice as a frame of reference. Shri Krishna is known as the deva-vara, or the chief god. With this address, the same concept of a god is there, but the understanding of Krishna’s position as being the most powerful God or the God of the gods is introduced.
Another way to understand the Supreme Lord’s position is to know that He grants boons to even those who grant boons. This is the point made by Goswami Tulsidas in a couplet that appears in both the Dohavali and theRamacharitamanasa. The poet’s preferred form of Godhead is Lord Rama, the incarnation of Krishna as a warrior prince. The avataras are equal to the original personality, but the outward tendencies may vary so as to attract certain kinds of worshipers and also fit the needs of society at the time. Shri Rama is Krishna and Lord Vishnu too, both of whom are approached by the devas that others worship to get benedictions. Mahadeva, the great god, also worships Shri Rama by regularly chanting His name. Therefore even the greatest boon-donor, Lord Shiva, spends his life worshiping the Supreme Lord.
 What if you are into yoga? You like to sit down in meditation and chant the sacred syllable om, which represents the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord, that which pervades all of nature. Again, you can understand Krishna’s position without leaving your realm of activity. As Yogeshvara, Krishna is the Lord of yoga. He is the greatest mystic, expert at doing whatever the topmost yogi can do, but even better. If you’re interested in achieving the mystic perfections of becoming small or large at the drop of a hat, travelling outside of your body, getting whatever you want, controlling others, or being able to hold your breath for long periods of time, know it for a fact that Krishna can do all of these much better than any other yogi can. This higher position automatically makes Him worshipable.
Even the term “Supreme Lord” is a way to understand God. Every living entity is an ishvara, or lord of their body. We make the decision when to get up and what to do. Material nature has the effect of tricking us into thinking that we are inferior to matter, but in our constitutional state, we are always superior to the external energy. God’s position is higher though. He is Parameshvara, or the chief lord. Therefore through this nice name we can better appreciate His position, how He is fit to be worshiped.
Every living entity likes attractiveness. Search for pleasure through objects and activities that are pleasurable. The very name Krishna indicates that the Supreme Lord is the most attractive. That feature is shared with His many personal forms and names used to address them. That Krishna attracts every living entity shouldn’t surprise us, but the sweetest association, the most lasting form of happiness, comes from His personal self. The material nature is His external energy, so it lacks His personal presence. Therefore we see such things as crime, depression, anger, rage, and tremendous sadness mixed in with short bursts of happiness in the land that we currently occupy.
Through reciting, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, the best names used to address the Lord are invoked, along with a call to His energy that helps the devotees find that highest pleasure. Krishna is all-inclusive, as is the name Rama, which addresses both Shri Rama and the ability of God to give transcendental pleasure to others. Whatever your state in life, chant these names with firm faith, conviction and love. In the end, you’ll know all that there is to know about God and why it is man’s primary duty to worship Him.
In Closing:
Shri Krishna, He of glorious fame,
Limitless attributes give so many names.
Understand Him in ways that you already know,
Through that path let devotion to Him grow.
As ishvara, over decisions you have control,
As Parameshvara, God has powers untold.
Natural beauty appreciate with eyes to see,
Krishna is all-attractive, most beautiful is He.
Demigods to their devotees boons grant,
Krishna is even their lord, so His name always chant.
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Friday, March 16, 2012
Forms of Address
Planning a religious trip to Amarnath via Baltal
| How to Reach Kashmir | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 BY AIRSRINAGAR—The Summer Capital of the State of Jammu & Kashmir—situated at an altitude of 5500 feet has a pleasant climate—neither too hot nor too cold. It is well connected with rest of the country with all major Airlines like Air India, Kingfisher, Jet Airways, Jet-lite, Spice-jet, Go-Air etc. operating daily flights to Srinagar . SHEIKH-UL-ALAM (R.A.) INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (14 Kms from the City) Sheikh-ul-Alam (R.A.) International Airport receives nombers of Charter and International flights. This boasts Tourism to this romantic, enchanting, idyllic yet lively valley besides fulfilling long time aspirations of the people of kashmir. BY RAIL UPTO JAMMU The State of Jammu & Kashmir is connected with rest of the country by Jammu Tawi and Udhampur Railway Station receiving number of regular Trains and Holiday Specials from major towns of the country. Kashmir valley receives a major share of Tourists by Rail/Road through 293 long Jammu—Srinagar National Highway. The Trains operating to Jammu Tawi are listed hereunder for the information of Trade and Tourists.
And Many Many Holiday & Festival Specials BY ROAD FROM JAMMU TO VALLEY There is every mode of Road Transport available at Jammu Railway Station, Tourist Reception Centre and general bus stand viz J&K State Road Transport Coaches, Private Coaches, Taxis of every Make and Model which enroute pass through scenic spots like Kud, Patni Top, Banihal, Jawahar Tunnel. The transport rates are fixed by the authorities and need to be verified .The hilly journey from Jammu to Srinagar takes 8-12 hours and enroute there are eating places like Pida famous for rajma-chawal, Ramban for patisa prepared in desi ghee, private hotels and Tourist huts for rest and relaxation.. |
How do mood and emotional arousal affect consumer choices?
When they're in a positive mood, people tend to choose products that match their mood and their level of emotional arousal, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. But crabby, low-energy people will seek products to reverse those states of mind.
"We examine how consumers' choices are affected by the interplay between their level of arousal (i.e., the intensity of a consumer's mood state) and the valence (the direction of their mood state—whether consumers are in a positive or negative mood) of their current affective state," write authors Fabrizio Di Muro (University of Winnipeg) and Kyle Murray (University of Alberta).
Although the vast majority of products, services, and experiences offered for sale are designed to be pleasant, the authors say there is a much greater variance in the level of arousal to which these offerings are designed to appeal. For example, lying on a beach and surfing are both pleasant, but lying on a beach is a low-arousal activity, as opposed to surfing, a high-arousal (intense) experience. And tea and energy drinks are both pleasant, but one is more arousing than the other.
The authors conducted experiments using scents and music to elicit arousal and mood states among participants. Then they measured people's preferences for experiences and products that are perceived to be either low or high arousal.
They found that in addition to regulating mood (positive or negative), consumers also make choices that are consistent with regulating their level of arousal. "For example, people who are feeling relaxed tend to choose relaxing products, whereas those who are feeling excited tend to choose exciting products," the authors write. On the other hand, when consumers are in a negative mood they prefer products that are incongruent with both their level of arousal and their current mood. "For example, people who are in an unpleasant low-arousal mood will tend to choose pleasant high-arousal products, whereas those who are in an unpleasant high-arousal mood will tend to choose pleasant low-arousal products," the authors write.
"In general, we find that people will demonstrate a strong preference for products that make them 'feel better,'" the authors write. "Consumers' product choices will be consistent with pursuing pleasant moods and mitigating unpleasant moods."
More information: Fabrizio Di Muro and Kyle Murray. "An Arousal Regulation Explanation of Mood Effects on Consumer Choice." Journal of Consumer Research: October 2012.
Provided by University of Chicago
"How do mood and emotional arousal affect consumer choices?." March 15th, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-mood-emotional-arousal-affect-consumer.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
Spotting mental illness in new mothers
A new on-line tool and DVD developed by University experts to help midwives identify and treat new mothers at risk of severe mental illness has been officially launched by the Chief Nursing Officer for Wales and Honorary Visiting University Professor, Jean White.
Maternal Mental Health: A learning Programme for Midwives, has been designed by the All-Wales Perinatal Mental Health Group led by a team from the University’s Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Midwifery.
Central to the new learning module is all healthcare professionals involved in antenatal and postnatal care asking key questions to help predict, as well as detect, those women at risk of severe mental illness during pregnancy and childbirth.
"Some years ago the World Health Organization proposed that there is no health without mental health," said Dr Ian Jones, School of Medicine, and member of the National Centre for Mental Health (NCMH) hosted by Cardiff University, who led the development of the training module.
"Suicide is a leading cause of maternal death in the UK and it is vital that women at high risk of severe mental illness at this time are identified so that appropriate help can be given to help keep them well.
"The mental health and well-being of women in pregnancy is pivotal to ensuring good clinical, social and psychological outcomes for both mother and baby and provide a healthy start to family life.
"In view of this, it is essential that mental health is a central component of midwifery care – which is the primary motivation in developing this new on-line learning tool," he added.
The module covers a variety of different subject areas including: commonly held beliefs about mental health and pregnancy; characteristics of those women most at risk of severe mental illness; help for health care professionals to ask questions about a person’s mental health in the right way and then how to interpret the answers; and when to refer women for more help.
"By developing this new learning programme our aim is to provide the essentials that midwives and, indeed, all healthcare professionals need to identify those women at risk of severe mental illness in the postnatal period or following pregnancy," according to Grace Thomas, School of Nursing and Midwifery, and Consultant Midwife at the Aneurin Bevan Health Board.
"By providing these essential skills we hope to ensure that women will receive timely advice, referral and treatment and access to skilled appropriate care."
The new module available contains a series of on-line resources including videos and learning materials which can be accessed at any time, helping busy midwives and students to fit their training around their working day, as well as being a valuable resource in group and workshop education sessions.
The Chief Nursing Officer for Wales, Professor Jean White and Honorary Visiting University Professor, has been monitoring the progress of the toolkit and welcomes its on-line accessibility.
Professor White said: "Having a baby is a wonderful experience, but for some mothers it can be an overwhelming one. Asking the right questions could mean the difference between a new mum feeling isolated and alone or receiving the help she needs.
"As an on-line resource, it is invaluable. Students, and indeed midwives and other health professionals with many years of experience, can review this training module and make sure they have the tools and understanding to address an individual mother’s level of need."
Helen Rogers, Royal College of Midwives, Director for Wales, said: "The mental health of pregnant and postnatal women is too often neglected and overlooked, so this initiative is a major and positive step.
"There is a real need to raise awareness of this issue among midwives and other health professionals and this toolkit will go a long way towards achieving this. It is so important that we get the support and services in place for women, because the consequences of failing to do so can be disastrous."
The training module is available to view on-line at: www.beatingbipolar.org/perinataltraining/
Provided by Cardiff University
"Spotting mental illness in new mothers." March 15th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-mental-illness-mothers.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
A new approach to faster anticancer drug discovery
Tracking the genetic pathway of a disease offers a powerful, new approach to drug discovery, according to scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine who used the approach to uncover a potential treatment for prostate cancer, using a drug currently marketed for congestive heart failure. Their findings are published in the current online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientist Fechheimer at work in his laboratory. (File Photo)
“The science of genomics – the study of all of the genes in a person and how these genes interact with each other and the environment – has revealed many fundamental aspects of biology, including the mechanisms of diseases like cancer. But it has not yet been truly exploited to find new medicines to treat those diseases,” said Xiang-Dong Fu, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular medicine and senior author of the PNAS paper.
Fu, with colleagues at UC San Diego and elsewhere, describe a unique screening strategy that compares genes associated with specific disease phenotypes (traits) with small molecules capable of intervening with disease-linked gene-expression events. The high-throughput process, capable of analyzing large numbers of genes and drugs simultaneously, emphasizes investigation of the entire genetic pathway of the disease against a large set of internal controls, rather than its limited phenotype or any particular molecular or cellular target.
Historically, drug discovery has been driven by phenotype- or target-based methodologies.
“For 50 years, the standard phenotype approach emphasized the final outcome without worrying about the mechanism,” said Fu. “The process has produced some very good drugs, but researchers often didn’t know exactly how or why the drug worked. Aspirin is an example. It’s been around for more than a century, but we still don’t understand the mechanism in great detail.”
More recently, many drug designers have focused upon targeting particular components of a disease, such as a vital molecule or receptor involved in the pathogenic process. The approach has a stronger, more rational scientific basis, said Fu, but remains beset by two fundamental difficulties: “You can create a drug that disrupts a specific disease target, but you also run the risk of causing unforeseen, adverse side effects that might be worse than the disease. Second, there are many places inside of a cell that are essentially ‘undruggable.’ They are difficult, if not impossible, to intervene with.”
The new approach attempts to avoid these problems by emphasizing investigation of the genetic pathways associated with disease processes and how they might be altered to produce a healthful benefit.
“The idea is to identify the genetic troublemakers associated with a disease and then find a way to contain them, not crush them,” said Fu. “No gene was ever designed to cause disease. The goal is to find new drugs or ways to convert these genes or the affected cells back to a normal state. In many disease paradigms, you don’t want to kill cells. You want to modify them to become healthy again.”
While the idea of conducting multi-target screenings is not new, the technology to do so has been limited. Deep sequencing, said Fu, is ideally suited for the purpose.
To illustrate the efficacy of their high-throughput, gene-sequencing approach, Fu and colleagues applied the strategy to prostate cancer, which sometimes becomes resistant to standard antiandrogen hormone therapy. The scientists found that Peruvoside, a cardiac glycoside, strongly inhibits both androgen-sensitive and androgen-resistant prostate cancer cells without triggering severe side effects. Interestingly, a related cardiac glycoside called Digoxin has been used to treat congestive heart failure. A large epidemiological study found protective effects against prostate cancer on patients treated with Digoxin, compared to control cohorts.
“High-throughput genetic sequencing and screening allows you to look deeply into cells and analyze millions of molecules at the same time. The technology is constantly improving and getting cheaper. We think it’s a promising strategy for drug discovery,” said Fu.
_________
Co-authors include Hairi Li, Dong Wang, Jinsong Qiu, Yu Zhou, UCSD Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine; Hongyan Zhou and Sheng Ding, Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease; Xianqiang Li, Signosis, Inc.; and Michael G. Rosenfeld, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCSD Department of Medicine.
Funding for this research came, in part, from the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Courtesy University of California – San Diego
Childhood trauma exposure is very common among alcohol-dependent inpatients
Accumulating evidence indicates that childhood trauma experience (CTE) may be an environmental susceptibility factor for a variety of psychiatric disorders, including alcohol dependence (AD). CTE can include sexual, physical, and emotional abuse as well as physical or emotional neglect. New research on single and multiple CTE among AD individuals undergoing inpatient detoxification and treatment has found significant rates of reported CTE among these individuals.
Results will be published in the June 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
"Previous studies have found that alcoholic patients self-report higher rates of physical and sexual abuse in childhood compared to the general population," said Markus Heilig, clinical director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). "A recent national survey estimated rates of 8.4 percent for physical abuse and 6.0 percent for sexual abuse in the general population. Among alcoholic patients, rates for physical abuse were reported at 24 percent and 33 percent for men and women, respectively, while rates for sexual abuse were reported at 12 percent and 49 percent for men and women, respectively. Importantly, 5.0 percent of men and 23 percent of women experienced both types of abuse, physical and sexual, suggesting that co-occurrence of different abuse types may be important as well."
However, noted Heilig, who is also the corresponding author for the study, much less is known about rates of other types of abuse and neglect, in particular emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect.
"Because emotional abuse is difficult to define, and is greatly under-reported compared to physical and sexual abuse, true rates of emotional abuse are unknown," Heilig said. "Many recent studies have linked childhood emotional abuse and neglect to the same long-term consequences as physical and sexual abuse, such as increased rates of depression, anxiety, and even suicide."
Heilig added that he and his colleagues also wanted to look at the effects of experiencing multiple trauma types. "A person who experiences more than one type of abuse or neglect may be more severely affected in the long run and develop more problems later in life," he said. "By looking at a broader range of abuse and neglect types, we were able to investigate these questions."
Heilig and his colleagues examined 196 alcohol inpatients (134 men, 62 women) using structured clinical interviews for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - Fourth Edition Axis I disorders as well as the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, which measures all five types of abuse or neglect: physical and sexual abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect.
"We had four key findings," said Heilig. "One, patients being treated for AD are likely to have experienced one or more types of childhood abuse and neglect. Two, sexual abuse increases the likelihood of developing anxiety disorders in addition to AD, while emotional abuse increases the likelihood of developing depression. Three, alcoholics who experienced childhood physical abuse may be more likely to have a history of suicide attempts. Four, alcoholics who experienced more than one type of abuse or neglect are especially at risk for developing a psychiatric disorder or for attempting suicide."
"This study clearly shows substantial rates of reported childhood traumatization in treated AD individuals and confirms previously reported clusters of early adversities in the life histories of these patients," observed Willemien Langeland, a freelance trauma researcher at Vrije University in Amsterdam, and at the University of Amsterdam. "From a research standpoint, it is remarkable to see that even within a population of chronic alcoholics in which co-morbid psychiatric disorders are highly prevalent, those individuals with histories of childhood trauma stand out for their degree of psychopathology."
"Our findings demonstrate that childhood emotional abuse is nearly as prevalent among alcoholic patients as physical and sexual abuse," said Heilig, "which is important because it helps to show that emotionally abused children, like those that have been physically or sexually abused, can develop behavioral and other health problems in adulthood. For example, we show that alcoholics who were emotionally abused may be more likely to have co-morbid depression and PTSD, and thus these individuals may be more difficult to treat than those without these disorders. In addition, we also found that alcoholics who experienced more than one type of CTE in childhood are even more at risk for a broad range of psychiatric disorders and for suicide attempts. We call this a 'dose-response' relationship, which means that with each increase in the number of CTE types experienced – the 'dose' – the likelihood of developing a psychiatric disorder – the 'response' – also increases."
Both Heilig and Langeland believe that clinicians need to take greater care when assessing prior life experiences in AD patients. "These highly co-morbid patients reporting cumulative exposure to traumatic stress in childhood are often seen in routine practice," observed Langeland. "These findings point to the importance of a more systematic trauma assessment in alcohol-treatment services. And I also urge clinicians to address alcohol use at every clinical encounter with children and adolescents that have been identified as victims of childhood trauma, as early interventions in abused children might improve their psychological as well as medical health."
"Members of the public shouldn't take lightly the potential effects of emotional abuse in childhood or in any life stage," said Heilig. "Just because there may not be visible physical scars does not mean that no lasting damage has been done."
Provided by Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
"Childhood trauma exposure is very common among alcohol-dependent inpatients." March 15th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-childhood-trauma-exposure-common-alcohol-dependent.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
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