Shivratri is a combination of stillness and dance, silence and music.
Monday 28 February 2022
Shivaratri – Enlivening the Shiva Tattva- by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Shivaratri – Enlivening the Shiva Tattva
Remarkable 10 short stories .....
Remarkable 10 short stories .....
1) She was very excited
today, after all the
school was re-opening
after a long summer
break. Now, once
again, she could start
selling stationery at
the traffic signal to
feed her family.
2) She, a renowned artist
and a strict mother,
often scolded her 6-
year-old son for he
could never draw a
line straight. As he
breathed slowly into
the ventilator, she
begged him to make
one more crooked line
on the ECG.
3) "Everyone goes with
the flow… but the one
who goes against it
becomes someone
remarkable.” Before I
could explain this to
the traffic police, the
man issued me a fine.
4) Their love was
different. She was
happy every time he
kicked her in the
stomach. Every time
he kicked she loved
him more. She waited
for the time she would
hold her baby for the
first time.
5) All my toys are yours..!
Read her brother’s
death note.
6) They took his father,
and only returned a
flag.
7) At 25, I became a
mother of one; at 27 I
became a mother of
two; and today, at 55, I
have become a
mother of three! My
son got married today,
and brought home his
wife!
8) “Born to rich parents,
this boy is so lucky,”
exclaimed the
neighbors!
Somewhere in
heaven, three unborn
sisters cried.
9) “You ruined my career,
I was supposed to be
an Executive Director,”
she thought to
herself. The little
angel held her finger
tightly and she forgot
everything; A mother
was born.
10) Once a 5-year-old boy
was standing
barefoot in the
shallow water of the
ocean. He was
repeating the same
sentence to the
waves – “Even if you
touch my feet a
thousand times, I
won’t forgive you for
taking my parents
away.
Breath taking! Aren't they?
Saturday 26 February 2022
PRIMING THE PUMP
PRIMING THE PUMP
Around the Year with Emmet Fox
February 26
An understanding faith is the life of prayer.
It is a great mistake, however, to struggle to produce
a lively faith within yourself.
That can only end in failure.
The thing to do is to act as though you had faith.
Act out what you wish to demonstrate,
and you will be expressing true faith.
This is the right use of the will,
scientifically understood.
“Verily I say unto you,
if ye have faith, and doubt not,
ye shall I only do this which
is done to the fig wee,
but also, if ye shall say unto mountain,
Be thou removed,
and be thou cast into the sea;
it shall be”
Matthew 21:21
This statement of Jesus
is perhaps the most tremendous
spiritual pronouncement ever made.
Jesus knew the law of faith
and proved it many times.
We shall move mountains
when we are willing to believe that we can,
and then not only will mountains be moved,
but the whole planet will be redeemed
and re-formed according to the Pattern in the Mount.
Where are the historians when we truly need them? Barry Sahgal
Well worth a read for historical context and how little is appreciated about the history of “Ukraine”.
Agree or disagree, it seems to boil down to whether political or territorial integrity will decide the outcome of the present conflagration.
Where are the historians when we truly need them?
Barry Sahgal
Zaara Management LLC
+1.646.552.3748
By
Russian service members take part in tactical exercises of an assault engineering unit at a training ground in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in Rostov Region, Russia, January 17, 2022. (Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters)
Despite what you think, it’s not about land.
Despite recent reports of a slight lessening in tensions, Russia seems to be on the brink of invading Ukraine, with perhaps 150,000 troops massing on three sides. Americans of both parties are increasingly resolute in their anti-Russian stance, wary of once again appeasing a tyrant with territorial ambitions. But is it really territory that Russia wants now?
For most American experts, the answer is obvious. Putin has already annexed the Crimean peninsula on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. He is supporting the breakaway “people’s republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk in “Donbas,” the Russian-speaking region of eastern Ukraine. The conflict has already killed perhaps 14,000 people. And as we know, Putin considers the fall of the Soviet Union a geopolitical disaster. There is no doubt that he would redraw all of Russia’s frontiers if he could, and he has gone so far as to tell at least one American president that Ukraine “is not a real country.”
And yet things are not what they seem. The more closely you look at the crisis, the more you realize the government of Ukraine has played its own role in bringing matters to a head, for its own reasons. I am not assigning blame, mind you. Kyiv’s motives are entirely justifiable: They’re sick of the Russians pushing them around and have decided to stand up to the bullies in Moscow. In short, Ukraine has been turning the tables on Russia. Hence, Russia is responding to what it sees as a rapidly deteriorating situation in which it is running out of options fast. As America’s politicians are getting ready to unleash full-blown economic warfare against a dangerous adversary that thinks it’s being cornered, it’s important for America to understand a few things about the conflict we are wading into.
The first thing to understand is that Kyiv has apparently decided — with good cause — that it would rather leave Donbas (not to mention Crimea) in Russian hands indefinitely than reintegrate them back into Ukraine on the basis of the Minsk cease-fire agreements of 2014 and 2015. That is the main topic of the crisis diplomatic talks currently being mediated by France and Germany within the “Normandy format.”
Under the terms of the Minsk Agreements, which are enshrined in U.N. Security Council Res. 2202, Ukraine promised to let Luhansk and Donetsk conduct local elections under a special-status law with guarantees of local autonomy, the right to use Russian in official communications, and a general amnesty; Russia’s right to intercede on behalf of Russians inside Ukraine was thereby implicitly recognized. In exchange, the separatists agreed to disband their “people’s republics,” lay down their weapons, and allow the Ukrainian military to regain control of all Ukrainian territory in Donbas to the Russian border.
The Minsk Agreements were not immediately implemented because of disagreements over sequencing. More important, they were deeply unpopular among the more nationalist elements in Ukraine, who thought undue concessions had been made to Moscow.
The years since the agreements were signed have revealed another very good reason for Kyiv to sour on them. Multiple elections have been held in Ukraine since 2015 without the participation of millions of Russian residents of Crimea and Donbas. As a result, it has become impossible for pro-Russian parties to win elections. The era of Ukrainian governments paralyzed by the desire to please both Russia and Europe is over: Unencumbered by Crimea and Donbas, the government of Ukraine has been able to adopt a much more unified Ukrainian identity — and a much more unambiguously European orientation.
I argued in the Federalist recently that, within the artificially enlarged borders left behind by the fall of the Soviet Union, it is almost impossible for Ukraine to preserve both territorial integrity and political independence at the same time. The government in Kyiv has apparently drawn the same conclusion and has opted for political independence, even at the price of territorial integrity.
Kyiv’s decision to prioritize political independence over territory has become clearer as Ukrainian nationalism has grown stronger. A recent Wall Street Journal story shed light on how anti-Moscow sentiment has hardened even among the ethnically Russian population of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. Ukraine’s military, too, is now much stronger than it was in 2014, and not just in terms of men and material: The low-intensity conflict along the frontier of the breakaway provinces in Donbas has left Ukrainian units battle-hardened and ready to fight.
As Ukrainian nationalism has strengthened, so has its defiance of Russia — and its willingness to walk away from the Minsk Agreements. After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine dammed up the canal on which the population of Crimea depends for most of its fresh water. In 2017, Kyiv imposed an economic embargo on the separatist areas of Donbas, leading to their economic collapse; they are now dependent on Moscow, which spends more than $1 billion annually just on humanitarian assistance to the area. In April 2019, Ukraine passed a law establishing Ukrainian as the country’s official language. For the first time in history, Russian is not permitted in official communications and most broadcast media. The most prominent Putin ally in Ukraine, Viktor Medvedchuk, has been under house arrest since May 2021, his television stations and other enterprises shuttered.
Indeed, Kyiv’s provocations are now focusing the attention of European diplomats almost as much as Russia’s threats. Kyiv was advancing a draft law “On the Principles of State Policy of the Transition Period” that would have effectively abrogated the Minsk Agreements. Russia had all but warned that this would be casus belli. Within the “Normandy format” talks, France and Germany basically took Russia’s side on the issue.
President Macron insists that the “strict and total” implementation of Minsk can be the only basis for peace. Under pressure from Paris and Berlin, Ukraine just agreed to withdraw the law. President Macron has not been supportive of Ukraine’s refusal to implement the Minsk Agreements because Moscow would see that as further provocation. But it’s not clear that Macron fully understands the implications of embracing Russia’s demands for strict implementation of the Minsk Agreements. What if Kyiv refuses? Are the Donbas regions to remain in limbo forever? This is simply impossible, so Russia could conclude that Paris and Berlin have already implicitly accepted the predicate for Russia’s annexation of the Donbas.
Notice, however, that if the Russians wanted to annex the Donbas territories, they would have done it years ago when they annexed Crimea in 2014 — both areas declared independence from Ukraine around the same time. Yet while events in Crimea unfolded according to Russian plans, the rebellions in Donbas appear to have been more organic, even if Russian troops quickly invaded and coopted the rebels once those rebels started losing ground. Even so, Moscow hasn’t moved to integrate the area administratively into Russia, instead offering 600,000 passports to the region’s residents, thereby establishing another predicate to intercede on their behalf inside Ukraine.
This is crucial, because the problem Russia is trying to solve — namely, keeping NATO from assuming a stranglehold on Russia’s vital interests along the Black Sea — will not be solved by annexing the Donbas, except to the extent that a territorial dispute prevents Ukraine’s accession to NATO. The point is that what Russia wants is influence over Ukraine. If it has to be satisfied with territory instead, it will almost certainly want more territory than just the Donbas.
Americans may be confused about what Russia wants, but European diplomats are clear that what Russia wants is for Ukraine to implement the Minsk Agreements. Russia wants that for the same reason that Ukraine doesn’t: It wants to maintain a foothold inside Ukraine, to keep Ukraine in Russia’s orbit at least firmly enough to keep it out of NATO.
That is the paradox of the Ukraine conflict. Leaving aside the annexation of Crimea for a moment, Moscow is now more interested in the territorial integrity of Ukraine than Kyiv is, precisely because it knows that in its current borders, with Donbas fully reintegrated, Ukraine cannot be fully independent of Russia.
Crimea is a special case. Moscow might not care that Crimea was part of Ukraine as long as Ukraine was ruled by Moscow. But the notion of Crimea being part of a Ukraine that is totally independent of Moscow and oriented to the west is simply unacceptable to Russia, and American officials should understand why.
Crimea is the site of Sevastopol, Russia’s most important naval base in the world, home base of its vaunted Black Sea fleet. It sits astride Russia’s vital commercial lifeline from the port of Novorossiysk. Indeed, it is only by historical accident that the province was left inside Ukrainian borders after 1991 at all. Crimea came to Russia independently of Ukraine centuries ago, and there were never large numbers of ethnic Ukrainians there. The first time Crimea was administratively part of Ukraine was after Germany dismembered Russia under the terms of the Treaty of Brest–Litovsk in 1918; the Ukrainian rump state under German control overran Crimea and held it briefly in the short period before the Soviet Union was fully consolidated. It was only in 1954 that Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev nominally “transferred” Crimea to the Ukraine S.S.R., and then only to put up appearances of multipolarity.
After the Soviet Union fell, both NATO and Moscow had more pressing issues than the long-term status of Crimea, so that particular issue was kicked down the road with a 20-year lease on Sevastopol signed in 1997. Russia was fine with that, mostly because it continued to exercise preeminent power over Ukraine. Indeed, the Euromaidan protests started when the pro-Russian president pulled off a European Union accession agreement that he had been negotiating with Brussels under pressure from Moscow. And Ukrainian nationalists had made clear their intention not to renew the Sevastopol lease, leaving the Black Sea fleet without a home base. American officials need to understand that offering NATO membership to Ukraine while it still lays claim to a disputed area that was never considered part of Ukraine before 1954 and which contains Russia’s most important naval base in the world is outlandish and dangerously provocative, and serves no obvious American interest.
For American officials, the situation is simply one of standing up for Wilson’s Fourteen Points as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, in particular the principle of “political independence and territorial integrity” of sovereign states. But just as blood is thicker than water, history is heavier than paper. America thinks it’s enforcing the U.N. Charter. What it’s actually enforcing are the terms of Russia’s surrender to Germany in the Treaty of Brest–Litovsk in 1918, terms which were seen as outrageous at the time and were bitterly opposed by the United States.
Since the fall of the Soviet Empire, Russia has continued to cause problems for America and the world, often through opportunism, playing a weak hand for outsized influence. The government of Vladimir Putin is a murderous kleptocracy, a danger to its own people and to all people. Governments in Poland and the Baltic states are understandably wary of the Russian boot, and admitting them to NATO made sense from the point of view of geography and strategy. It is almost certainly true, as Anne Applebaum and others have said, that if Russia were a democracy it would have no problem with NATO’s expansion to Poland and Baltic states, and NATO’s expansion wouldn’t be necessary.
But Ukraine is different. Even if Russia were a democracy, there would be a major conflict over the prospect of NATO membership for Ukraine as long as Ukraine continues to claim the full territory bequeathed to it in 1991. Here, Russia sees itself as trying to solve an existential problem created by its unusual state of weakness in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War.
That problem is potentially explosive and could blow up in America’s face if it is not handled with care, patience, and a much better sense of history than any American official is exhibiting today.
Mario Loyola is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the director of the Environmental Finance and Risk Management Program of Florida International University, and a visiting fellow at the National Security Institute of George Mason University. The opinions expressed in this column are his alone. @Mario_A_Loyola
Wednesday 23 February 2022
The story of the pencil. by Paulo Coelho
The story of the pencil. by Paulo Coelho
A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked:
‘Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’
His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:
I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’
Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.
‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’
‘That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.’
‘First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’
‘Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.
‘Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’
‘Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’
‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action’
source: “Like the Flowing River” by Paulo Coelho
:)
*The Rich Shoeshiner*
*The Rich Shoeshiner*
Every morning, the CEO of a major bank in Manhattan went to the corner where a shoeshine man was always there .
He used to sit on the chair , read the Wall Street Journal , and the shoeshine man gave his shoes a shiny , great look .
One morning, the shoeshine man asks the CEO:
*What do you think of the stock market situation ?*
The CEO arrogantly asks him:
*Why are you so interested in this subject ?*
The shoeshine man replies:
*I have twenty million dollars deposited in your bank and I am thinking about investing part of the money in the stock market*
The CEO of the bank asks:
*What is your name ?*
He replies:
*John Smith H*
The CEO arrives at the bank and asks the Manager of the Major Accounts Department:
*Do we have a customer named John Smith H.?*
The Customer Service Manager for Major Accounts replies:
*We certainly do, Sir! He is an extremely esteemed customer ! He has twenty million dollars in his account*
The CEO leaves the bank , approaches the shoeshine person, and says:
*Mr. Smith , I would like to invite you to be our guest of honor at our board meeting next Monday and tell us your life story . I'm sure we will have a lot to learn from you*
At the board meeting , the CEO introduces him to the board members:
*We all know Mr. Smith , who makes our shoes shine like no one else. But Mr. Smith is also our valued customer , with twenty million dollars in his account* .
*I invited him to tell us the story of his life . I'm sure we can learn a lot from him . Please , Mr. Smith , tell us your life story* ."
Then , Mr. Smith began to narrate his story:
*I came to this country thirty years ago as a young immigrant from Eastern Europe and with an unpronounceable name . I left the ship penniless in my pocket* .
The first thing I did was to change my name to Smith .
I was hungry and exhausted . I started to wander in search for a job , but without success .
One day, I found a coin on the sidewalk with which I bought some apples .
I had two options: eat the apples and quench my hunger or start a business .
I sold the apples for 50 cents and bought more apples with the money .
When I started accumulating dollars, I managed to buy a set of used brushes and shoe polishes and started cleaning shoes .
I didn't spend a dime on fun or clothes. I only bought bread and cheese to survive .
I saved penny by penny and after a while I bought a new set of brushes and shoe polishes in different shades and colors and increased my clientele .
I lived like a monk and saved a penny after penny . After a while , I managed to buy a chair so that my customers could sit comfortably while I cleaned their shoes, which brought me more customers .
I didn't spend a dime on the pleasures of life. I kept saving every penny .
A few years ago, when the corner shoeshine colleague decided to retire, I had already saved enough money to buy his point , which was a better place than mine.
*Finally , three months ago , my brother, who was a drug dealer in Chicago, passed away and left me twenty million dollars*….
*Anyway guys, this is just a campaign to promote reading* ! 
Reading stimulates the mind and imagination and helps communication .
Have a great dayReplyForward |
A beautiful story, do read...it makes a difference
A beautiful story, do read...it makes a difference
One day Maths teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students was killed in 'Kargil' war and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never attended Funeral of a serviceman before. He looked so handsome, so mature.
The place was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk. The teacher was the last one to bless .
As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Sanjay's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Sanjay talked about you a lot.'
After the funeral, most of Sanjay's former classmates were there. Sanjay's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Sanjay when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Sanjay's classmates had said about him.
'Thank you so much for doing that,' Sanjay's mother said. 'As you can see, Sanjay treasured it.'
All of Sanjay's former classmates started to gather around. Arjun smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'
Prithwiraj's wife said, ' Prithwiraj asked me to put his in our wedding album.'
'I have mine too,' Rashmi said. 'It's in my diary'
Then Deepali, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Deepali said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Sanjay and for all his friends who would never see him again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.
May Your Day Be Blessed As Special As You are...
Songs and Lyrics
Elvis made us dislocate our bones. Dylan helped us discover poetry. Abba made us fall in love with blondes and brunettes. Beatles inspired us to imagine and live in an octopus’s garden. Cohen gave us a baritone complex. Marley taught us to stand up and fight. Boney M lit us a rocket to Venus. Osibisa brought us the sounds of Africa. Eagles flew us to a hotel in California. Dire Straits put us with some sultans high up on swings. Jimi Hendrix spoke to us with his guitar. Beegees did us in with very deep love. Carpenters led us to the top of the world. Queen brought us the legend of Mercury. Rainbow invited us to the Temple of the King. Kenny Rogers told us about cowards. Doors opened us to a certain Mr Morrison. Deep Purple set us on fire with smoke on the water. Smokie got us Alice. Don McLean fed us Pie. Cliff Richards congratulated us. Dolly Parton distracted us. Santana hypnotised us. Tull broadsworded us. Floyd pinked us. Michael thrilled us. Kiss kissed us. And Jim Reeves, Harry Belafonte, Tom Jones and others left us with memories that will never leave. For the lot of us who grew our ears in the late 70s, the ride to adulthood was one mind blowing trip on the back of the humble cassette tape. Long Live the Music of our Time!!!   
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