THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF JOINING PALMS OR 'NAMASTE'

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

    The ancient and traditional greeting of ‘namaskar’ or ‘namaste’ is for one and all, and is done reverently by joining the palms at the chest and humbly bowing the head. Namaskar or Namaste is a form of prostration and salutation and has profound spiritual and ego bearing significance.

    In Sanskrit, namah + te = Namaste. It means, ‘I bow to you along with my prostrations and salutations.’ Namah can also be interpreted as na mama, which in the literal sense would mean, “not mine.” The purpose of saying Namaste is thus to negate one’s ego, rather separate yourself from your ego and recognize the Divine in every person we greet. And, as we feel the Lord God residing in us we feel the same for all. The joining of the palms depicts this sense of oneness. When we know this significance, our greeting paves the way for a deeper, divine communion, complete with love and respect.

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DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

DID YOU KNOW?

There are around21.3 million cases currently pending in various courts in India including the Supreme Court. The magnitude of this problem was vividly explained in a magazine article last year which stated “if the nation’s judges attacked their backlog nonstop with no breaks for eating or sleeping and closed 100 cases every hour, it would take more than 35 years to catch up.”

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Food prices in India constitute 46% of the consumer price index.

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There are 8.4 million known living species.

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Trucks in India average just about 270 km in a day as against 800 km in the US because of check-post delays at state borders, and GST would slash that. Economic optimists hope GST will also improve the GDP by over Rs 100000 crore.

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India is now the world’s 3^rd largest economy in purchasing power parity terms.

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India still ranks 130^th among 189 countries in ease of doing business.

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60% of india’s population remains

stuck in the villages which produces only 14% of India’s income.

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India- 138 million people were raised above the poverty line between 2004 and 2012, a world record.

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Municipal capacity: Bengaluru and New York both have approximately 9 million residents—New York employs over 4,00,000 city municipal workers whereas Bengaluru has less than 30,000. So you can understand why Bengaluru is so dirty.

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Sindh: Not a single war weapon came from the excavations of Mohenjo-daro, indicating that more things are wrought by cooperation than confrontation. Perhaps the concept of non-violence came from here.

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India holds the dubious distinction of having one of the highest traffic accident rates in the world.

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Assam produces 52% of India’s tea.

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According to national judicial data grid of India, of the two crore plus cases pending in lower courts till last year 10.83% were pending for over 10 years while 18.1 % cases have been pending for the last 5-10 years.

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Dalits constitute 20% of the population in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

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Aadhar has been issued to nearly 100 crore people, and the benefits of Aadhar-linked payments are evident in the direct cash transfer of cooking fuel subsidy.

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The US has already passed Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer by some measures.

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In India more than a million young persons are joining the workforce each and every month.

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India has fewer doctors than the WHO recommended minimum doctor population ratio of 1:1000.

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UN recommends a ratio of more than 222 policemen/one lakh of population, India has only 106.

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Traffic accidents in India claim a life every three minutes.

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59% of India’s landmass is prone to earthquakes of moderate to very high intensity.

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According to the 2006-07 all India MSME (Medium small and micro enterprises) census, approximately 14% of the total enterprises in the country are owned by SC/ST entrepreneurs, and they generate nearly 8 million jobs.

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Big foreign investments make big headlines. Yet India in itself has a savings rate of 30% of GDP, and this once touched 37%. It is contributed mainly by households and unincorporated businesses. FDI in India is barely 1-2% of GDP.

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R-Vaidyanathan’s Book; India Inc… He estimates that the share of the private corporate sector in GDP is under 18%, while of the non-corporate sector is 45%. The share of the non-corporate sector is 64.6% in construction, 74.2% in trade and hotels, 81.4% in transport (excluding railways), 51.6% in storage and 60.8% in real estate. The services sector is the biggest driver of growth in the last two decades.

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5 lakh children die each year in India of malnutrition and 38% of our children are stunted because of it.

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India’s future prosperity depends on its urban centres which has already contribute a little over two third of its GDP. Between census 2001 and 2011, India witnessed a spurt of urban clusters, with the number of towns increasing from 5161 to 7935 in a decade.

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It takes 3000 extra (unburned) calories to gain a pound of weight.

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The fine particles—1/30^th the width of a human hair—are cross continental travellers. US research shows that the concentration of a particulate matter in parts of the US doubles because of sandstorms in Saharan Africa. The contribution of local dust to fine particles called PM2.5 is 26%. But Saharan storms raise it to 64%.

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A study by IIT showed that dust contributed 35% of particulates in Delhi.

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Iran’s oil production was 2 million barrels per day (mbpd) it has dropped to half. It has the largest oil reserves in the world.

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Indian farm sector provides employment to close to half the workforce in the country.

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Larger allocations should also be made for extending drip irrigation as India now uses up three to four times more water per unit of output as compared to other countries.

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SUPPORT CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

RAMANUJAN DIVYANG REHABILITATION & SKILL DEVELOPMENT CENTER

My mother’s birthday falls on the 15^th of August—that happens to be our Independence Day. She is now no more, but I continue to remember and celebrate her birthday each year in a virtuous manner. And, pursuing the cause as ever, I wanted to do something different again this time, when I came to know that Ramanujan Divyang Rehabilitation & Skill Development Center—located in Palwal is celebrating the Independence Day in a noble manner, so I decided to visit them on that day. The center works for children with special needs. And on the occasion of the Independence Day they had planned for a musical extravaganza where all the protagonists were children who were hearing impaired.

        The programme commenced with the chief guest Shri Vipul Goyal, a cabinet minister in Government of Haryana, in charge for Industries, performing the flag hoisting in the presence of these noble yet daring children, followed by a spell of bright and colourful cultural programmes of dance and music performed by the same children.

    Needless to say it was a tough task for these children to have stepped, toed, and danced to the soothing rhythms of the gentle music that was being played, that provided no hearing stimulus to them, yet the show went off as immaculate.

    Apart from the chief guest the programme was also well attended by Shri Tek Chand Sharma M.L.A.; Shri Deepak Mangla—political secretary to the chief minister; Shri Ashok Kumar Sharma—deputy commissioner Palwal; Shri Rahul Sharma—superintendent of police Palwal; Shri Bijender Saroth—President, District Red Cross Society and Shri Jawahar Singh—district president, BJP. As a kind gesture an amount of Rs 50,000 was announced as donation by the honourable minister who was too moved by the spirits of these children.

    At this august moment Dr Rajeev Mohan Kukreja—founder Chairman, and Dr Sujata Tripathi—Director of the center were also present.

    There isn’t much need for me to describe the function anymore as the pictures will say it all. But what should not go unnoticed is the glimmer of hope in the eyes of both the children and their parents. We all do enough for ourselves and our children but it requires something extra in you to step out and do something for others and especially children with special needs. 

    Below is a synopsis of what the center does and you could join the cause by donating liberally.

Ramanujan Divyang Rehabilitation & Skill Development Center

About Us

         

    We are a self sustained educational society of great repute located in one of the backward districts of Southern Haryana, where we are running a ‘facility center’ for children with special needs since 2013. Through this facility center we are imparting specific therapies along with training and education for their overall betterment, as we want all such children to be cognitively and financially self-reliant. And as a first step towards this goal we are providing them with vocational and computer training. Our center, vow’s for good benchmarks and keeping in line with that we have evolved the values of three “S” that we are currently pursuing: a. Self Confidence b. Skill Enhancement c. Self dependent.

1.      FACILITY FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

The center has identified more than 100 children with special needs from nearby villages & Palwal town, and has started a facility center in order to provide them with therapies, together with training & education. It has two sections namely MR (Mentally Retarded) & HI (Hearing Impaired). And we are happy to inform you that today over 30 such students are training under this noble and demanding mission on a regular basis. The center has also appointed two special educators & a speech therapist registered with RCI having required qualification, along with other support staff.

l VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

      We intend to cover as many Divyang children and adults to bring them under the central umbrella of ‘mainstream earning members’ in the family and society, by imparting vocational & computer training that they are capable of learning. We also intend training rural women who are unable to travel to towns or cities away from their homes. And for the purpose, the center runs the following programs and has simultaneously applied to (NIOS) National Institute of Open Schooling, for affiliation and accreditation of the following courses:

▪    Cutting & Tailoring

▪    Indian Embroidery

▪    Basics & Advance Computer Training

l  Project ‘SWAVALAMBAN’ — FOR WOMEN & DIVYANGS

Rural women and Divyang persons are often exploited since they are financially not independent. Project Swavalamban is a brain child of Ramanujan Foundation to provide employment exclusively to rural women & Divyang

persons. Swavalamban means ‘Self Dependent’ or “Having Freedom of Action or Initiative/Decisions.” Under project ‘Swavalamban’ our center inculcates and develops skills as per capabilities of the learner & subsequently provides them with raw material to work with. Produced artifacts thereafter are retailed in the market under the brand name “Swavalamban”. This makes it convenient for them to work out of their homes and simultaneously facilitates them to even look after their families. Thus: people involved in project Swavalamban will no longer be a liability for their family and society and will earn their livelihood with self respect.

    Currently on a pilot basis following products are being produced by these people:

1.    Hand Knitted Sweaters for ladies, gents, kids and infants.

2.    Embroidered home furnishing such as bed-sheets, pillow covers, table cloths etc.

3.    Handmade dari (rug) from waste wool.

BUT WE NEED HELP

    Most children enrolled in the facility-center are from a very poor background. They are unable to pay any fee for such facilities. Till date Ramanujan Foundation and its team were bearing all the expenses. But due to down turn in education sector leading to severe downturn in our own revenues the foundation for now is finding it difficult to bear the cost of center. Hence the humble request, to all our well wishers, patrons and like-minded people to kindly donate as generously as possible for the noble cause.

    

Our website: www.ramanujan.edu.in

E-mail: info@ramanujan.edu.in

Special significance of number 18 in Hindu scriptures

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

    Number 18 unquestionably has a great significance in Hindu scriptures. Apart from the fact that there are 18 Purans, 18 major Up-purans, and 18 Dharm-Shastras, the importance of number 18 is best explained in the great epic of Mahabharat, which is divided into 18 parvas or sections. The great war of Mahabharat was fought with 18 divisions of army. And out of this 11 were on the side of Kauravas and 7 on the side of Pandavas. The war lasted for 18 days. Finally, it is said that only 18 persons survived the war. The treatise Shrimad Bhagwad Gita is a part of Mahabharat and has 18 chapters. In Gita, Lord Krishna describes the ideal man in 18 verses at the end of Chapter 2, in which he lists the 18 traits that constitute the man with a steady wisdom.

    The central theme of all scriptures of all religions in the world are the same: prime being the victory of the higher being over the lower being, or righteousness over unrighteousness, of good over the evil, of dharma over adharma. Ved Vyas originally titled Mahabharat as Jaya (victory). The word Jaya is in the opening stanzas of both Mahabharat and Gita.

    In the Katapayadi-System (numerical notation system) of Sanskrit numerology each letter has a formula-based numerical value, where the numerical value of the word Jaya is 18. To stress on the importance of the word Jaya the number 18 is given a prominent place not only in Mahabharat, but also throughout various Hindu scriptures. The number 18 is thus repeatedly used as an auspicious reminder to be alert in our constant battle for inner spiritual victory.

 (taken from Hindu scriptures)

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POEM: CLUTTER IN MY EMPTY MIND

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

It springs up every time,

That clutter in my empty mind,

And each time,

It only reminds me of wasted times.

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If empty mind is a devil’s workshop,

A cluttered mind is a spooky den,

Where emptiness is a result of nothingness,

And clutter an offshoot of everything-ness.

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When I began doing things,

 I came out of my empty mind,

But by doing too many things at a time,

I cluttered my mind,

But whether it is the empty or the clutter,

Both smother the poetry of life.

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And in this baffling world of mine,

One wonders at times,

From where to begin,

And where to end the acrobats of life.

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At times even the almighty—the mind fails to act,

And slumps into emptiness,

And succumbs to everything-ness,

And deviates from equilibrium,

Where one only wonders why?

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One day when I opened my eyes to see my mind,

I could only see zigzag and criss-cross of empty lines,

And that revealed the reasons,

For the clutter in my empty mind.

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And thereafter,

I decided each day I would scan my mind,

And would meditate,

To remove,

The malwares floating in my mind.

*****

  

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

RIGHT OR WRONG

I was right and he was wrong,

And that brought about the storm,

No he was wrong and I was right,

And that brought about the lasting strife.

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For in the race of life,

I always made my wrong look like right,

And, his right look like wrong.

But all that required a lot of brainstorm.

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No one realized, in the rhythm of life,

Right and wrong were only two sides of the golden coin,

But what mattered in the cruise of life,

Was the proud possession of the golden coin,

And not the two sides.

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But one day when I turned feeble,

I lost the coin,

And what was left with me were the two sides without the coin,

The right and the wrong.

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I then realized,

In the greed of life,

My wrongs had outweighed my rights,

Therefore God had taken away all my likes.

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And in a jiffy I realized,

While in my twilight,

Neither was right and neither was wrong,

And it was only a battle of rage and storm.

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And one day,

The storm vanished,

The rage retired,

The right prevailed,

And the wrong expired.

But by then it was too late for me to aspire.

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