 “(Hanuman did not see Sita) who was firmly situated on the eternal path of devotion to her husband, had her gaze always fixed on Rama, was always possessed by love for Rama, had entered the glorious mind of her husband, and was always the most exceptional of women.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kand, 5.24)
sanātane vartmāni samniviṣṭām |
rāmekśaṇāṃ tāṃ madanābhiviṣṭām | bharturmanaḥ śrīmadanupraviṣṭām | strībhyo varābhyaśca sadā viśiṣṭām ||
For a government services company, a firm which takes on those tasks which are rarely needed in the private sector, being awarded a no-bid contract is like being sent a lifeline, a gift basket of fruits that continuously yield even more fruits in the future. Whether an oil pipeline needs to be erected offshore or some major construction project needs completing, the task itself is not what benefits the company hired to do the job. Rather, just being chosen to take on the responsibility is reward enough, as the work keeps the company afloat and the employees occupied. Whether the completion of the task takes months or years is really of no concern, as the employment brings renewed opportunity and enthusiasm with each successive day. In a similar manner, a most difficult task was handed to a Vanara warrior many thousands of years ago. Though he was handed the tough assignment of infiltrating enemy lines and gathering intelligence information without being recognized,Hanuman truly benefitted from this gift in the form of a mission because of the person he would be hopefully meeting. Because of her divine qualities, just having the good fortune of remembering her for even one second, let alone meeting with her personally, is the greatest reward. Thus the nature of the mission was the more important benediction for Hanuman, with success in it relegated to secondary importance.
 Who is Hanuman? Who was this lady he had to meet? Many thousands of years ago, during the Treta Yuga, a powerful king by the name of Ravana was wreaking havoc throughout the world. Though he had hundreds of beautiful princesses for wives, he had his mind set on the princess of Videha, Sita Devi, who was the religiously wedded wife of Lord Rama, the jewel of the Raghu dynasty and a powerful prince in His own right. Rama was an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so He was fully endowed with the divine qualities exclusively found in the Supreme Person. Sita, as the wife of Rama, was also perfectly qualified in every way; hence she was the ideal wife for any man. Though her qualities as a princess and woman made her awfully desirable, she is only capable of being married to Rama, or God. She can never be with any other man; something Ravana failed to understand.
Forcibly taking her back to his island kingdom of Lanka while Rama wasn’t by her side, Ravana hoped to win Sita over. As that plan failed pretty quickly, he held her captive in an ashoka garden, where the clock ticked on an ultimatum given to her. She had a set period of time to make up her mind: either agree to become Ravana’s wife or be killed. Meanwhile, Rama set up a massive search for Sita’s whereabouts. Entrusted with the most difficult task was Hanuman, the chief emissary of the Vanara warriors living in Kishkindha. Sugriva was the king of this monkey community, but Hanuman was his most trusted aide and the most capable as far as abilities went.
Sugriva’s tagging of Hanuman as being the best warrior would be validated during the subsequent search. It would be Hanuman alone who would cross over the massive ocean and reach the shores of Lanka. Then taking a diminutive stature, Hanuman scoured the city, searching every inch of space for Sita. Up until this point he had never met the wife of Rama. He knew of her divine qualities though, the foremost being her unbroken link in consciousness to her husband. Imagine if someone had asked us to identify someone unknown to us and the primary characteristic we had to go by was their level of devotion. Obviously such a person would be in a distressed condition, as they would be separated from the person they were always thinking about. When together, thinking of your beloved results in happiness and joy through association. But when apart, the same thought processes bring tremendous pain, grief and fear. Sita would have been terribly afraid of not meeting Rama ever again.
 In his search, Hanuman saw many beautiful princesses. With each one he was hoping that maybe they were Sita, the beloved of Rama. But he found that the princesses were enjoying. Some were getting ready for a night of fun and frolic with their husbands, while others were already having a good time. Hanuman instinctively knew that none of these women could be Sita. Soon afterwards, dejection overcame him, as he had not met the person he was tasked with seeing. In his lamentation, he remembered some of Sita’s foremost qualities. This review, which is provided in the above referenced verse from the Ramayana, also adds a nice contrast between Rama’s wife and the wives of the Rakshasas of Lanka.
Sita was on the eternal road of chastity, which meant that she could never be in a pleasant condition when separated from her husband. These other women were too happy to be Sita, and their chastity could never compare to the princess of Videha’s. Sita always had her gaze fixed on her husband. Yogis, mental speculators and fruitive workers have spent many lifetimes trying to understand the Absolute Truth and find a mental position where all thoughts are focused on Him, but Sita, though in the form of a woman, had already attained this perfectional stage of consciousness. She did so without any extra endeavor as well, as she was not formally educated in the Vedas, nor had she adopted a fixed discipline of meditational yoga and austerity. Her penances came in the form of heaps of tears shed while thinking of her beloved. Though she found herself in the most dangerous situation, she always thought of how her husband might be feeling while separated from her. Sita had firmly entered Rama’s mind, for who could ever forget her level of devotion and her beauty for even a second?
Sita also felt guilty about having chastised Lakshmana, Rama’s younger brother. When Ravana set up the ruse in the Dandaka forest to lure Rama away from the group’s cottage, Lakshmana was still by Sita’s side. Yet she sternly rebuked him when she heard a loud wail that sounded like Rama. Lakshmana knew that Rama couldn’t be hurt, but Sita insisted that he go and check on Him. When Lakshmana still didn’t budge, Sita started to insult him very strongly, enough to the point that Lakshmana finally left to go find Rama. This then allowed Ravana to swoop in and take Sita away while she was unprotected. Knowing that Lakshmana is always sinless, Sita understood that he would feel bad for having left her side.
 Hanuman’s mission was to find Sita, give to her Rama’s ring, and then return to Kishkindha with information of her whereabouts. From the grief he felt over having not found her while in Lanka, we see that Hanuman was fully engrossed in thoughts of Sita and Rama. Just being able to think of the Lord in a mood of pure love and devotion for even one second is enough to secure perfection in consciousness. Hanuman’s devotion to Rama was already well established, but here we see that his love extended to the Lord’s devotees as well. Sita was in a perilous situation, where her life was in danger, but she nevertheless remained steadfast in her devotion.
Since the events of the Ramayana took place many thousands of years ago, it’s a little difficult to relate to Sita’s predicament, especially since we now know that everything would eventually end well. But we know from our own experiences that there is sadness and dejection whenever we have nothing to do, especially during time off from work or school. We work hard during the week and follow routines and disciplines, so we expect to have fun on the weekend. But if we have no friends, family or significant others to share our experiences with, there can be great sadness. Now just imagine if that same dejection was there constantly, day in and day out, month after month. This is what Sita was facing, for she found herself amidst vile creatures who had no respect for her husband. While living in Ayodhya, everyone loved Rama, as He is the Supreme Lord in the guise of a human. Therefore Ayodhya was just like the spiritual world, for wherever devotion to God is strong, the material elements can never have an inhibiting effect.
Sita’s dedication was so strong that even in the face of total despair and utter hopelessness in Lanka, her thoughts never turned away from Rama. The audience of such an exalted person was Hanuman’s reward for taking up Rama’s service. Therefore the ultimate success of coming back to Kishkindha with information wasn’t even the main benefit for Hanuman’s travelling to Lanka. Just meeting Sita and providing her the pleasure of knowing that Rama was looking for her and dedicated to rescuing her were enough gifts to satisfy him.
 What other mission can bring about such benefits? If we are given a task to complete at work, the result is that the boss will be pleased and maybe the profit margin of the company will increase. In the process of successfully completing the job, skills can be acquired and confidence in future tasks can also be increased. With the mission of bhakti-yoga, however, which is best furthered in the modern age by regularly chanting, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, there are benefits to be found in the beginning, middle and end. Never is there a time in the devotional process where the consciousness isn’t steadily being purified. What other discipline allows one to think about Sita Devi in a mood of love and devotion nonstop? Ravana also had the opportunity to meet Sita, but he tried to enjoy her for himself, without pleasing Rama. Hanuman, on the other hand, got the full benefit of Sita’s company even before he met her.
Hanuman would become eternally famous because of what he would do in Lanka. He was a one-man army, a person shouldering the burden of success and failure for all the members in his party. The fame itself would be taken as the greatest reward for anyone, as Hanuman is worshiped regularly to this very day, but the adulation that comes with success was of no concern to the Vanara warrior. When bhakti is practiced perfectly, it is done without motivation and without interruption. Rama wanted to find Sita, and Hanuman took this as his mission, but he was not personally motivated. And after he found Sita and then later played a significant role in her rescue, he continued thinking about both she and Rama. To this day he sings their glories on a daily basis, and his humility and kindness melt the hearts of sincere souls throughout the universe.
 In Closing:
For struggling business, important it is to find work,
To have a source of income, avoid apathy’s murk.
Just having regular tasks is what really counts,
Else the pain of boredom steadily mounts.
With finding a famed princess was Shri Hanuman tasked,
To give to her Rama’s ring and return home was he asked.
Sita was her name, and she was famous for her devotion,
When with her husband Rama, she felt blissful satisfaction.
Entering enemy land of Lanka after assuming a small size,
Hanuman would search for Sita, bewailing princess to recognize.
Surely she would be filled with sadness and dejection,
Not by her husband’s side, she would feel the separation.
By having sadness over not seeing her, one thing we can tell,
That Hanuman was aware of her nature, Sita he knew very well.
Hanuman didn’t need success; chance to think of Sita was reward enough,
But meet her he would, for in persevering no one is more tough.
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Monday, September 5, 2011
Mission Possible
சிறுநீரக கற்களை கரைக்கும் வெங்காயம்
வெங்காயத்தின் காரத்தன்மைக்கு அதில் உள்ள அலைல் புரோப்பைல் டை சல்பைடு என்ற எண்ணையே காரணம். இதுவே வெங்காயத்தின் நெடிக்கும், நமது கண்களில் கண்ணீர் வருவதற்கும் காரணமாக அமைகிறது. வெங்காயத்தில் புரதச்சத்துக்கள், தாது உப்புக்கள், வைட்டமின்கள் ஆகியவை உள்ளன.வெங்காயம் ஒரு நல்ல மருந்துப் பொருள். இதை இதயத்தின் தோழன் என்றும் சொல்லலாம். இதிலுள்ள கூட்டுப் பொருட்கள் ரத்தத்தில் கொழுப்பு சேர்வதை இயல்பாகவே கரைத்து, உடலெங்கும் ரத்தத்தை கொழுப்பு இல்லாமல் ஓட வைக்க உதவி செய்கிறது.
யூரிக் அமிலம் அதிகமாக சிறுநீர்ப்பையில் சேர்ந்தால் கற்கள் தோன்றும். வெங்காயத்தை அடிக்கடி சாப்பிட்டால் அற்த கற்கள் கரைந்துவிடும். முதுமையில் வரும் மூட்டு அழற்சியை கட்டுப்படுத்தும் ஆற்றல் வெங்காயத்திற்கு உண்டு. இதற்கு வெங்காயத்தையும், கடுகு எண்ணையையும் சேர்த்து மூட்டு வலி உள்ள இடத்தில் தடவினால் போதும். வலி குறைந்து விடும்.
செலனியச் சத்து இருப்பவர்களுக்குத்தான் கவலை, மன இறுக்கம், களைப்பு போன்ற பிரச்சினை தோன்றும். இதைத் தவிர்க்க சுலபமான வழி வெங்காயத்தில் இருக்கிறது. வெங்காயத்தை தொடர்ந்து உணவில் எடுத்து வந்தாலே போதும். தேவையான செலினியச்சத்து கிடைத்துவிடும். வெங்காயம் தவிர பூண்டையும் இதற்காக பயன்படுத்தலாம்.
சீதோஷண நிலை மாறும் போது அடிக்கடி இருமல் வரும். நுரையீரல் அழற்சி, மூக்கு எரிச்சல் போன்றவையும் ஏற்படும். சிறிது வெங்காயச்சாற்றில் தேன் கலந்து சாப்பிட்டால் மேற்கண்ட பிரச்சினைகள் நீங்கும். புற்றுநோயைத் தடுக்கும் மருந்துப்பொருள் வெங்காயத்தில் இருப்பதாக சமீபத்திய ஆராய்ச்சியில் கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.
புபைபிடித்தல், காற்று மாசுபடுதல், மன இறுக்கம் போன்றவற்றால் ஏற்படும் செல் இறப்புகள, செல் சிதைவுகளை இது சரிசெய்து விடுகிறது. நாலைந்து வெங்காயத்தை தோலை உரித்து அதோடு சிறிது வெல்லத்தைச் சேர்த்து அரைத்து சாப்பிட பித்தம் குறையும், பித்த ஏப்பம் மறையும். வெங்காயச் சாறு சில வயிற்றுக் கோளாறுகளை நீக்கும்.
இதை மோரில் கலந்து குடிக்க இருமல் குறையும். வெங்காயச்சாற்றையும், வெந்நீரையும் கலந்த வாய் கொப்பளித்து, வெறும் வெங்காயச்சாறை பஞ்சில் நனைத்து பல் ஈறுகளில் தடவி வர வல்வலி, ஈறுவலி குறையும். அடிக்கடி புகைப்பிடிப்பவர்கள் வெங்காயச்சாற்றை நாள் ஒன்றுக்கு அரை அவுன்ஸ் வீதம் 3 வேளை சாப்பிட்டு வர நுரையீரல் சுத்தமாகும்
பொன்மொழிகள்
அறிவை விலை கூறும் அறிவாளிகள்?
  எளிமையும் தூய்மையும் ஒருவனை உயர்ந்த மனிதனாக உயர்த்துகின்றன.
- கெம்பில்.
அன்பைப் பகிர்ந்து கொள்வது வாழ்க்கையில் மிகப் பெரிய சந்தோசம்.
- ஸ்டேபிள்.
சிறப்பான வழியைத் தேர்வு செய்யுங்கள். அது நீங்கள் பெற விரும்பியதைப் பெற்றுத் தரும்.
- ஷீல்லர்.
பாமர மக்களின் நிலையே ஒரு சமுதாயத்தின் உண்மை நிலையாகும்.
- வில்லியம் தர்ஸ்டன்.
உதவியின் மதிப்பு என்பது உதவுகின்றவன் மதிப்பளவே ஆகும்.
- டென்னிசன்.
அநீதியானது மனிதர்களிடையே சச்சரவுகளை விளைவிக்கிறது. நீதியோ தோழமையை வளர்க்கிறது.
- பிளாட்டோ.
அறிவுள்ளவன் தன் செல்வத்தை மூளையில் வைத்திருக்க வேண்டும். தன் இதயத்தில் வைத்திருக்கக் கூடாது.
- ஜோதைன்ஸ்வீப்ட்.
உங்கள் பிரச்சனைகளைத் தீர்க்க வேண்டுமானால் யாருக்காகவும் காத்திருக்காதீர்கள். நேரத்தை வீணாக்காதீர்கள்.
- ராபர்ட் ஷீல்லர்.
சட்டங்கள் ஏழைகளைக் கசக்கிப் பிழிகின்றன. பணக்காரர்களே சட்டத்தை ஆட்சி செய்கின்றனர்.
- கோல்டுஸ்மித்.
- வினோபாஜி.
வேதனையைச் சகித்துக் கொண்டவனே எப்போதும் வெற்றி பெறுவான்.
- பெர்ஸியஸ்.
ஒருவனிடம் அச்சம் கொண்டால், அவனிடம் அன்பு கொள்ள முடியாது.
- அரிஸ்டாட்டில்.
ஒருவனுக்கு நீ செய்த உதவிகளை அவனிடம் அடிக்கடி நினைவூட்டிக் கொண்டிருப்பது அவனைப் பழிப்பது போலாகும்.
- டெமாஸ்தனிஸ்.
சோம்பலும் சோர்வு கொண்டு நூறு ஆண்டு வாழ்வதை விட ஒருநாள் பெருமுயற்சியோடு வாழ்வது மேலானது.
- புத்தர்.
பொய்க்கல்வி பெருமை பேசும். உண்மை அறிவு தன்னடக்கம் சொல்லும்.
- ரஸ்கின்.
கஷ்டத்தோடு போராடுபவனுக்கு நன்மை எது என்று தெரியாது.
- ஹாப்பர்டு.
சுறுசுறுப்புக்கு எல்லா வேலைகளும் எளிது. சோம்பலுக்கு எல்லாமே கடினம்.
- அரோன்புர்.
எழுதப்படும் சொல்லை விட பேசப்படும் சொல்லே வலிமையானது.
- ஹிட்லர்.
வல்லமை அல்லாத நீதி ஆற்றல் அற்றது. நீதி இல்லாத வலிமை கொடுங்கோன்மை.
- பேஸ்டீஸ்.
பண்போடு பொருந்தாத அனுதாபமெல்லாம் மறைமுகமான தன்னலமே.
- கால்ரிட்ஜ்.
தொகுப்பு: தேனி. எஸ். மாரியப்பன்.
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Tiny, Cloud-Powered Desktops
The profusion of mobile devices is driving advances in cloud-based productivity apps built for the small screen.
When smart phones first took off, many software companies figured people might want to view files on the small screens, but few thought anyone would use them for creating, editing, and commenting on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. "We were proven wrong," says Raju Vegesna of Zoho, a company that offers online office tools.
Businesses are demanding things like spreadsheet and document editing tools that work anywhere, on any device. In response, large and small companies are now providing cloud-based office-productivity applications for smart phones and tablets.
It takes creativity to make them work. Web-based word processors such as Google Docs weren't initially able to process touch-screen input. Google had to rework Docs so that it was possible to edit from certain devices, such as those running recent versions of Android. Zoho is building apps for mobile devices to bridge that gap for its products, enabling those programs to interpret users' touch-screen "clicks." Meanwhile, IBM is testing software that can break up large spreadsheets into portions for different users, making them less unwieldy to update and edit on tablets.
Cloud-based office software has been around for several years, making shared editing easier because multiple users need only keep track of one file. But the cloud is even more important when people are working on mobile devices, which are switched or replaced far more often than are desk-bound PCs.
The cloud is the natural central storage site not only for the data but for the productivity applications themselves, says Rick Treitman, entrepreneur in residence at Adobe and director of product marketing for its Acrobat.com cloud-based office applications. Zoho's Vegesna notes that users expect custom apps tailored to the iPhone, the Android tablet, or whatever device they're working on.
Scott Johnston, group product manager for Google Docs and Sites, says that while the interfaces will look different on phones, tablets, and PCs, "I suspect we're going full-featured on every device." He believes that workers will eventually use tablets in place of laptops and demand productivity software that works just as well on them. Potential advances in touch-screen technology—such as ways to give users more tactile feedback—could also accelerate demand for such apps.
While Google offers primarily cloud-based apps with light offline capabilities, Microsoft recently launched a cloud-based version of its Office productivity software called Office 365, betting that users will see advantages in full-featured offline software that also allows for accessibility in the cloud. Microsoft reasons that people want more features than most cloud apps offer, and want to be able to work when network access is unavailable.
New Technology Brings Offshoring to Villages
The Xerox CTO describes research that allows manufacturing and office workers to avoid commuting to traffic-choked Indian cities.
The next decade will bring remarkable changes in the way office work is done. Perhaps nowhere will change be more profound than in countries such as India, where improved network access and smart technologies could make it possible for certain tasks to be divided among people working in rural areas and other places outside major city centers.
Xerox is one of many companies researching this trend and developing the technologies that will pave the way. CTO Sophie Vandebroek described some of the efforts of the company's two-year-old Xerox Research Center in India with Technology Review's chief correspondent, David Talbot.
TR: Offshoring is already a big business in India. What's coming?
Vandebroek: India today has large office buildings where you might find 3,000 people coming to a crowded urban area to perform tasks like document management or to staff a customer-call center. They have low incomes and sometimes commute for hours. It is better to spread that work into the villages—better for business efficiency, for sustainability, and for improving the health and happiness of the employees and their families.
Xerox employs ethnographers to study such problems. What's an example of what they've discovered?
One involves distributed manufacturing. In Chennai we studied a mass-producer of baskets and other woven goods. A rural coördinator would go around all week to the villages where the products were made, and on weekends he would enter production data into an Excel spreadsheet back in Chennai. He needed a way of entering and accessing data with his mobile phone in real time.
Such technology doesn't exist already?
If you are somewhere with sufficient bandwidth and a smart phone, you can access databases and even enterprise resource management systems. Innovation in the developing world is often about doing more with less—in this case doing specific things with less bandwidth on more phones. The new tool enabled access to only the specific real-time data he needed, which had been entered in Chennai.
Are such innovations applicable outside the developing world?
If you can do things in a simpler and more efficient way, it's always good. In the medical field, for example, there is a lot of innovation on low-cost devices that nurses can use in villages. Similar low-cost technologies could be used by people in the developed world to report their own medical information from their homes.
How can you break up the tasks of those massive offshoring centers and do it in villages, especially if the work involves sensitive financial or health information?
You need to do it securely, and in a way that can withstand breakdowns in village power and cellular or Internet connections. We are in the middle of crafting the solutions. For example, if the job involves managing your health-care payments—900 million health-insurance payments are processed by Xerox every year—we make sure we split the job, so that no one person knows your name, your medical condition, and your Social Security number.
How soon can such office solutions be widely implemented—and what's the ultimate vision?
My hope and goal is that this works and is scalable. We are initiating a pilot with one of the startups in the Indian Institute of Technology Madras's Rural Technology and Business Incubator. If it is successful, the future of work in India and in all developing nations will be radically different. It will allow people to make a living in their village and create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world.
Smashing the Cubicles
By designing new spaces around tablets, smart phones, and social technologies, companies can operate with far fewer desks.
The quick expansion of social and mobile technologies is creating a widely distributed workforce. To better suit employees who come into offices more sporadically, some companies and design firms are testing radically new and more efficient configurations for physical offices, betting that improved technology will make the experiment more successful than similar ones in the 1990s.
A project at the headquarters of Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, for example, overthrows decades-old conventions about office space. Called Connected Workplace, it replaces individual cubicles with open clusters of wheeled desks that belong to groups, not individuals; personal belongings are largely confined to lockers.
There are no PCs at the desks, because employees use mobile technologies, including the Cius tablet, which Cisco recently began selling to businesses. Rick Hutley, a Cisco vice president, chooses his desk according to which colleagues are present and what's on the day's agenda. Then he docks his Cius to a desktop port that includes a phone handset. The tablet handles voice and video calls whether it's docked or mobile, and it can be used to share documents at meetings.
It can also be plugged into a monitor and keyboard to be used like a full PC. "You can walk around with your entire world with you in this device," Hutley says. "My laptop would often stay on my desk, but the tablet never does." If he needs to make a private voice or video call, he can step into one of the rooms at the edges of the cluster.
Employees can also participate in the company's corporate social network, Quad, which is accessible on the Web or through the iPhone, iPad, or Cius. People can post meeting requests, give status updates on projects, and quickly get in touch via instant messages, voice calls, or e-mail.
Cisco's vision is an example of a broader effort to reshape office technologies and environments. "We used to have boring stuff at work and more interesting technology at home," says Prith Banerjee, leader of Hewlett-Packard's research arm. "Now office technology will make use of the same cool experiences and interfaces."
Among other things, Banerjee predicts that flexible, paperlike color displays will eventually blur the boundary between phones and tablets, creating mobile devices better suited to serving as an entire office.
Such changes could save a lot of money. Cisco's project, for example, was launched after an internal study found that cubicles were vacant two-thirds of the time while people roamed the campus or worked remotely. Company calculations show that the building used for the project can accommodate 140 employees, up from 88 in designs used in traditional Cisco buildings, and that real-estate costs should drop by 37 percent.
Over the long term, Cisco hopes to save on health costs, too, because people who move around more frequently are less likely to suffer health problems. The company is planning to study whether the more mature technology of today can conquer resistance that hobbled previous attempts to build offices with little private space.
Meanwhile, office design firms are stepping in with complementary ideas. Steelcase, for example, is building office installations that allow for spontaneous meetings and collaboration. Mobile-device ports are built into conference tables or semiprivate pods, and some allow people to take turns projecting data on a common screen.
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