Free Food

“Without distribution of food, no function is complete, and that is the way of Vedic culture.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.11.15 Purport) You can never go wrong distributing food for free to guests. Should a person not be hungry they still might indulge in a few delicacies if they are offered them without charge. If the food items look delicious, if they stimulate the taste buds upon first glance, then why not at least try some of the food, see if it is worth tasting? This tendency in the human being can be used to the advantage of the sincere spiritualist looking to revive God consciousness within the society at large. Everyone is hungry, so why not feed them the remnants of sanctified food, items which are offered in a mood of love and devotion? This sort of consumption can start a spiritual revival whose benefits spread throughout the population. The cable television network ESPN years back started running a series of now famous commercials to promote its nightly highlights show called Sportscenter. These advertisements showcased some of the on-air talent, depicting mock scenes from within the offices where the personalities would interact with each other and sometimes with professional athletes. In one of the commercials, one of the anchorpersons for Sportscenter is sitting at his desk, which is in a sort of cubicle area, and watching people run by him, one after another. In a quiet office environment a person running through the halls will garner attention. Similar to hearing the wailing sirens of ambulances, fire trucks and police cars out on the streets, the person whizzing by your desk will not go unnoticed. After a few moments, the man sitting at his desk starts to wonder what the commotion is about. Are people playing a game? Are they running to try to catch the person running away? Is there an emergency situation that one should know about? Next thing you know, the man at the desk checks his email. He has a new note that was sent to the entire office. It reads something like, “Leftover muffins and donuts in the conference room.” As soon as he reads the email he jumps out of his seat and runs towards the conference room, essentially following the same behavior of the other workers in the office. Good humor always has an element of truth to it, and there is no doubt that if you announce that there is free food available to an office full of employees, there will be a mad dash towards the area where the food is sitting. Should you have already eaten your lunch or breakfast, there is no matter, for how often do you get free food? Plus, you better take advantage, as you don’t know when this perk will come around again. Someone else is paying for it, so you wouldn’t want their money to go to waste, would you? In Vedic culture, this tendency in the human being is fully accounted for and taken advantage of at the same time. Yet, just as with the Christmas season it is said that it is better to give than to receive, the initial offering in these Vedic functions is what matters most. The cycle is complete when the remnants are distributed to as many people as possible. So what is the difference between giving out this food right after it is cooked versus offering it to someone else first? The act of love and devotion is what makes the remnants taste so nice. The food turns into a healing potion through the love that goes into the preparation and offering process. The person accepting the offering is pleased not by the amount of food nor its exact makeup but rather by the underlying sentiment. That’s because the person accepting the food is not hungry at all. He has everything He needs; hence one way to describe Him is atmarama, or completely satisfied in the self. If He is in need of nothing, why does He recommend we offer Him things? In the Bhagavad-gita, this recommendation is made by Him in His original form of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Offer Krishna a leaf, a flower, fruit or water with love and devotion and He will gladly accept it. No need to go to great lengths if you don’t have the time. Rich or poor, young or old, anyone can make a simple and sincere offering and purify their consciousness in the process. “If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it.”  (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.26) But Krishna is the superior entity. He possesses the largest wealth, as everything in this world belongs to Him. If He’s got it all, shouldn’t He be the one giving gifts? Shouldn’t we pray to Him to offer us kind rewards such as beauty, good birth, and intelligence? Actually, these kinds of gifts are already available without an explicit request. The animals don’t have the ability to pray, but nature provides for their necessities regardless. The human being also has an abundant supply of water, milk and grains, which are generally easy to procure and relatively inexpensive. The offering is made to Krishna for the benefit of the person doing the offering. As the living entity is the constitutionally subordinate entity, humbly submitting before the superior Krishna is the natural order of things. Through this method one finds the happiness they are looking for. If you think that you’re superior and don’t need to surrender to God, why do you offer so much service to other people already? If you didn’t have the service mentality within you, you wouldn’t be inclined towards the behavior even in the absence of a spiritual awakening. With the process of offering food to Krishna, the service propensity is purified. At the same time, those who may not be willing to hear the truths of Vedanta - whose final conclusion is that one surrender to God in a mood of love and be delivered from all negative reactions - can gradually progress in consciousness by partaking of the remnants of the offerings made to Krishna. Thus the devotee who serves Krishna simultaneously does the best service to mankind through their love. Opening a hospital primarily affects those who will use the facility. The same goes for opening a school. Donating food to the poor and helping the distressed have a temporary influence only on the affected parties. With bringing what remains of offerings to Krishna [prasadam] to as many people as possible, the right consciousness is gradually instilled within the consumers. From a proper consciousness one learns how to shape their activities so that they can simultaneously keep in line with piety and receive repeated happiness. That proper consciousness can then be spread to others as well. At the end of life, the cycle of birth and death is finished for the God conscious soul. If the catalyst for this awakening is the smelling of a flower offered to Krishna or the eating of foodstuff kindly prepared for the Lord, then the person making the offering deserves so much credit for their kind and influential work. This tradition of offering food to Krishna and then distributing it as part of a formal function has been carried out since time immemorial. When the Lord was present on this earth the tradition was also followed. One time He returned home to Dvaraka from Hastinapura, and the citizens laid out all sorts of offerings in His honor. They lived in an opulent city populated by the Yadu dynasty, so no one spared any expense in the celebration. When Krishna arrived to His city, He saw so many nice decorations and offerings of flowers and curd preparations laid out in front of the houses. The same style of offering was seen many thousands of years prior when Krishna in His form of Lord Ramareturned home to Ayodhya. That celebration later turned into the tradition known as Diwali, which is still celebrated today. The “festival of lights” as it is known now, Diwali sees the homes of devotees decorated with many lamps, flowers, and food offerings made to the Supreme Lord. These offerings never go to waste. The people setting them up get to think of their beloved Bhagavan during the work. We have to apply work to support an end, so depending on the nature of that supported structure, our consciousness will have a specific object to focus on. If our work is to support our family, we will have one kind of consciousness. Better than this is to work to support a lifestyle focused on bhakti-yoga, or devotional service. Through this method even routine work such as bathing in the morning and commuting to the office helps to support a purified consciousness. In addition to the purification in consciousness within the workers making the offerings, there is the benefit received from distributing the remnants. In temples devoted to Shri Krishna and His non-different Vishnu forms there is regular distribution of prasadam. Chant the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, and eat prasadam. This formula is simple enough that it can be followed by anyone, and pleasurable enough that it can be repeated day after day. The offerings made to Krishna upon His return to Dvaraka weren’t the first ones He ever accepted, but He still enjoyed them so much because of the love that went into them. To find happiness in this life and the next, think of your home as situated in Dvaraka and pretend that Krishna is returning there today from Hastinapura. Welcome Him nicely with kind offerings and then distribute them to as many people as possible. In this way stay connected with the charming Shyamasundara, from whom the bountiful gifts of nature emanate. In Closing: Everyone running to room meant for a break, So that leftover muffins and donuts they can take. Free food always to put a smile on the face, Sumptuous food to delight buds of taste. Vedas take advantage of this tendency in man, With prasadam distribution help society you can. Take simple flower, water, or make a luscious cake, With love and devotion to Krishna offering make. With sincerity in emotion Lord offering will accept, The kind attention of loving devotees He will never reject.

Breaking The Sound Barrier

Don't know how many of you have seen photos of aircraft "breaking the sound barrier" but it is a strange phenomenon, and interesting how it clings to the aircraft until you can increase your speed to go thru that zone. These pictures do a good job of showing how the "barrier" flows around the plane, although it does not show how the front of the aircraft, typically the nose, or on some fighters, the engine nacelle, hits the front of the "barrier", then slowly leaves the aircraft, and when it does, there is a large "boom", known as "breaking the sound barrier", which some of you have obviously heard.  The Boom happens because the plane catches up to and passes the sound it already has produced. At that point there is a collision between the vibrating air (sound) it has produced and the current sound it is making. Faster than this point, the plane arrives to strike before the warning of it's sound does.

This phenomenon only happens at the instant an aircraft breaks the sound barrier.

And it literally appears like the aircraft goes through a wall.

I hope you find these pictures as fascinating as I do.

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!! Natural Treatments for Diabetes !!

 

Diabetes is a serious illness in which the blood sugar/glucose level is high in the blood vessel or in the urine. There are two types of diabetes. The main causes of diabetes are obesity, Stress, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking and lack of exercise. Here are some natural treatments for diabetes.

Natural Treatment to cure Diabetes

1. Take 2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and mix it in a little amount of salt. Then these ingredients mix in a glass of water and drink it before eating meal.

2. Take 3 teaspoon of cinnamon and mix it in a glass water, then boil for 15 minutes in low flame. Afterward filter the mixture and drink it  daily to cure diabetes.

3. Take1 tablespoon of turmeric, 1 tablespoon of ground bay leaf and add it in 1 tablespoon of aloe vera gel. Take it two times in a day before lunch and dinner.

4. Prepare a solution by mixing of 1 teaspoon turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon of gooseberry powder in honey. Take this solution with empty stomach in the  morning.

5. Make a mixture of an equal amount of turmeric juice and gooseberry juice. Add it in 1 teaspoon of honey. It is an effective treatment of  diabetes.

6. Garlic is an excellent home remedy for healing the diabetes. It is the richest in allicin, which helps for controlling the glucose level in  urine.

7. Take 5-10 curry leave and chew these leaves with an empty stomach. It is very beneficial to control  diabetes.

Cultural Museum Tamilnadu India

Photos by
R. Kaliyugavarathan

Founder

Sivan Human Development Association

48, St. Mary’s Street,

Trincomalee

Why Chinese goods are cheaper (Hard Work) சீனப் பொருட்கள் எப்படி இவ்ளோ கம்மியா நமக்கு கிடைக்கிறது என்ற நீண்ட நாள் கேள்விக்கு பதில்!

சீனப் பொருட்கள் எப்படி இவ்ளோ கம்மியா நமக்கு கிடைக்கிறது என்ற நீண்ட நாள் கேள்விக்கு பதில்!

இந்த புகைப்படங்கள் அனைத்தும் சீனாவில் Alain Delorme என்ற பிரான்ஸ் புகைப்பட கலைஞர் மூலம் எடுக்கப்பட்டவை...  இது போன்று உழைப்பவர்களுக்கு வலிமையான உடல் மட்டும் இருந்தால் போதாது  தன்னம்பிக்கையும் , மனதைரியமும் வேண்டும்.... என்ன ஒரு திறமை !

Homophobia linked to lack of awareness of one's sexual orientation and authoritarian parenting, study shows

Homophobia is more pronounced in individuals with an unacknowledged attraction to the same sex and who grew up with authoritarian parents who forbade such desires, a series of psychology studies demonstrates. The study is the first to document the role that both parenting and sexual orientation play in the formation of intense and visceral fear of homosexuals, including self-reported homophobic attitudes, discriminatory bias, implicit hostility towards gays, and endorsement of anti-gay policies. Conducted by a team from the University of Rochester, the University of Essex, England, and the University of California in Santa Barbara, the research will be published the April issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves," explains Netta Weinstein, a lecturer at the University of Essex and the study's lead author.

"In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward," adds co-author Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester who helped direct the research.

Richard Ryan, professor of clinical and social psychology at the University of Rochester, discusses research on the psychological roots of homophobia. A new study shows that individuals who reported themselves to be more heterosexual than their performance on a psychological test indicated were most likely to react with hostility to gay others. Credit: Matt Mann/University of Rochester

The paper includes four separate experiments, conducted in the United States and Germany, with each study involving an average of 160 college students. The findings provide new empirical evidence to support the psychoanalytic theory that the fear, anxiety, and aversion that some seemingly heterosexual people hold toward gays and lesbians can grow out of their own repressed same-sex desires, Ryan says. The results also support the more modern self-determination theory, developed by Ryan and Edward Deci at the University of Rochester, which links controlling parenting to poorer self-acceptance and difficulty valuing oneself unconditionally.

The findings may help to explain the personal dynamics behind some bullying and hate crimes directed at gays and lesbians, the authors argue. Media coverage of gay-related hate crimes suggests that attackers often perceive some level of threat from homosexuals. People in denial about their sexual orientation may lash out because gay targets threaten and bring this internal conflict to the forefront, the authors write.

The research also sheds light on high profile cases in which anti-gay public figures are caught engaging in same-sex sexual acts. The authors cite such examples as Ted Haggard, the evangelical preacher who opposed gay marriage but was exposed in a gay sex scandal in 2006, and Glenn Murphy, Jr., former chairman of the Young Republican National Federation and vocal opponent of gay marriage, who was accused of sexually assaulting a 22-year-old man in 2007, as potentially reflecting this dynamic.

"We laugh at or make fun of such blatant hypocrisy, but in a real way, these people may often themselves be victims of repression and experience exaggerated feelings of threat," says Ryan. "Homophobia is not a laughing matter. It can sometimes have tragic consequences," Ryan says, pointing to cases such as the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard or the 2011 shooting of Larry King.

To explore participants' explicit and implicit sexual attraction, the researchers measured the discrepancies between what people say about their sexual orientation and how they react during a split-second timed task. Students were shown words and pictures on a computer screen and asked to put these in "gay" or "straight" categories. Before each of the 50 trials, participants were subliminally primed with either the word "me" or "others" flashed on the screen for 35 milliseconds. They were then shown the words "gay," "straight," "homosexual," and "heterosexual" as well as pictures of straight and gay couples, and the computer tracked precisely their response times. A faster association of "me" with "gay" and a slower association of "me" with "straight" indicated an implicit gay orientation.

A second experiment, in which subjects were free to browse same-sex or opposite-sex photos, provided an additional measure of implicit sexual attraction.

Through a series of questionnaires, participants also reported on the type of parenting they experienced growing up, from authoritarian to democratic. Students were asked to agree or disagree with statements like: "I felt controlled and pressured in certain ways," and "I felt free to be who I am." For gauging the level of homophobia in a household, subjects responded to items like: "It would be upsetting for my mom to find out she was alone with a lesbian" or "My dad avoids gay men whenever possible."

Finally, the researcher measured participants' level of homophobia – both overt, as expressed in questionnaires on social policy and beliefs, and implicit, as revealed in word-completion tasks. In the latter, students wrote down the first three words that came to mind, for example for the prompt "k i _ _". The study tracked the increase in the amount of aggressive words elicited after subliminally priming subjects with the word "gay" for 35 milliseconds.

Across all the studies, participants with supportive and accepting parents were more in touch with their implicit sexual orientation, while participants from authoritarian homes revealed the most discrepancy between explicit and implicit attraction.

"In a predominately heterosexual society, 'know thyself' can be a challenge for many gay individuals. But in controlling and homophobic homes, embracing a minority sexual orientation can be terrifying," explains Weinstein. These individuals risk losing the love and approval of their parents if they admit to same sex attractions, so many people deny or repress that part of themselves, she said.

In addition, participants who reported themselves to be more heterosexual than their performance on the reaction time task indicated were most likely to react with hostility to gay others, the studies showed. That incongruence between implicit and explicit measures of sexual orientation predicted a variety of homophobic behaviors, including self-reported anti-gay attitudes, implicit hostility towards gays, endorsement of anti-gay policies, and discriminatory bias such as the assignment of harsher punishments for homosexuals, the authors conclude.

"This study shows that if you are feeling that kind of visceral reaction to an out-group, ask yourself, 'Why?'" says Ryan. "Those intense emotions should serve as a call to self-reflection."

The study had several limitations, the authors write. All participants were college students, so it may be helpful in future research to test these effects in younger adolescents still living at home and in older adults who have had more time to establish lives independent of their parents and to look at attitudes as they change over time.

Provided by University of Rochester

"Homophobia linked to lack of awareness of one's sexual orientation and authoritarian parenting, study shows." April 7th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-homophobia-linked-lack-awareness-sexual.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

முருங்கை மரம்

முருங்கை மரம் முழுவதும் மனிதனுக்கு பயனளிக்கிறது. முருங்கைப் பூ மருத்துவ குணம் கொண்டது. சாதாரணமாக வீடுகளில் தென்படும் முருங்கை மரத்தை, மருத்துவ பொக்கிஷம் என்றே சொல்ல வேண்டும். ஏனெனில் இது எண்ணற்ற வியாதிகளுக்கு பல வகைகளில் மருந்தாகிறது. முருங்கைக் கீரை வாரம் இருமுறை சாப்பிட்டுவர உடல் சூடு தணியும். முருங்கைகீரையில் இரும்புச் சத்து, (iron)சுண்ணாம்புசத்து (calcium)கணிசமாக உள்ளது.

அந்த வகையில் முருங்கைக் கீரையின் பயன்களைப் பார்ப்போம்....

• முருங்கை கீரையை வேகவைத்து அதன் சாற்றை குடித்து வந்தால் உடல் சூடு தணியும். வெப்பத்தின் காரணமாக உடலில் ஏற்படும் மலசிக்கல் நீங்கும்.

• முருங்கை காய் உடலுக்கு நல்ல வலிமையைக் கொடுக்க வல்லது. இதை உண்டால் சிறுநீரகம் பலப்படும் தாதுவும்(sperm)பெருகும். எனவேதான், இக்கீரைக்கு 'விந்து கட்டி' என்ற பெயரும் இருக்கிறது.

• முருங்கை இலையை உருவி காம்புகளை நறுக்கி விட்டு பின் மிளகு ரசம் வைத்து சாப்பாட்டுடன் சேர்த்து உண்டு வந்தால் கை, கால் உடம்பின் வலிகள் யாவும் நீங்கும். முருங்கை இலைகளில் இரும்பு, தாமிரம், சுண்ணாம்புச் சத்து ஆகியவை இருக்கின்றன.

• இந்த இலைகளை நெய்யில் வதக்கி சாப்பிட்டால் ரத்த சோகை உள்ளவர்களின் உடம்பில் நல்ல ரத்தம் ஊறும். பல் கெட்டிப்படும். முடி நீண்டு வளரும். நரை முடி குறையும்.தோல் வியாதிகள் நீங்கும். கடுமையான ரத்த சீதபேதி, வயிற்றுப் புண், தலைவலி, வாய்ப்புண் ஆகிய வியாதிகளுக்கெல்லாம் முருங்கைக்கீரை கை கண்ட மருந்து.

• முருங்கைக் காய் மலச்சிக்கல், வயிற்றுப் புண், கண் நோய் ஆகியவற்றுக்கு மருந்தாகவும் பயன்படுகிறது. வாரத்தில் ஒருமுறையோ இரண்டு முறையோ முருங்கைக் காயை உணவாக உபயோகித்தால், ரத்தமும், சிறுநீரும் சுத்தம் அடைகின்றன. வாய்ப்புண் வராதபடி பாதுகாப்பு உண்டாகிறது. முருங்கைக்காய் சூப் காய்ச்சல், மூட்டு வலியையும் போக்க வல்லது.

• கர்ப்பப்பையின் குறைகளை போக்கி கருத்தரிப்பதை ஊக்குவிக்கும். பிரசவத்தை துரிதப்படுத்தும். முருங்கை இலையை கொண்டு தயாரிக்கப்படும் பதார்த்தம், தாய்ப்பால் சுரப்பதை அதிகப்படுத்தும்.

• ஆஸ்துமா, மார்பு சளி, போன்ற சுவாசக் கோளாறுகளுக்கு முருங்கை கீரை சூப் நல்லது. ஆண், பெண் இருபாலரின் மலட்டுத் தன்மையை அகற்றும். முருங்கை இலை இரத்த விருத்திக்கு நல்ல உணவு.

by: Mohamed Ibrahim