Mc'Donalds and with dear Anju on the Janeu Ceremony



Am in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. The place where I grew up. I studied here until the age of 13...The place is still beautiful. Attended family Janeu Ceremony. It is good to see Hindus striving to keep their identity and remain in touch with their culture, Met friends...who remember me. Saw the spot where my maika shop used to be. Today it is a Macdonalds. It feels good to come back and reminisce about old memories and make new ones...

Went to Salzburg. In the above picture you see the garden in which 'Sound of Music was shot. Salzburg is famous for the fact that Mozart was born and died there!
The way to Salzburg was literally out of this world. It was heavenly. I have traveled extensively but I have never seen the reflection in a lake so crystal clear! It was like a mirror.This is the way Vrindavan should look!
saw the steps which were filmed in the Sound of Music as well as the garden.
The abbey was far from the place so it would require another day of excursion.The gazebo was also 12k out of town.
The house of Baron van Trappe is occupied by people and is rather humble compared to the one they show in the film...it was actually filmed in 3 more palaces...have to go now...shall tell you many more interesting things. Keep visiting...

Photograph alongside shows the birthplace of Mozart!
ok so I am going today for the Sound of Music tour to Salzburg. You know I am still living on Bombay time. It suits me. Here we are 3 hrs behind, so I am going to bed very very early like at 6pm and getting up at 3am Vienna time. Most tours pick me up at 6 am from the hotel. So it is fine!
Life is made up of happy moments that one can pick on when one is feeling blue...So lets stock up on them!

Today explored the city on my own...saw the opera house...do look it up on the internet...walked around the beautiful lanes...the houses are so well kept and beautiful...it is like taking a walk through time...did I tell you that I also saw the yellow palace....there is a room there with Indian miniature paintings...and yes the Opera was frequented more to gossip and see who is there with whom...in the olden days they could eat while opera was on...and the lights were on through the recital.

Am in Vienna!
Beautiful city
In the photograph you will see the famous Opera House in the background!
Tomorrow going to Salzburg to see the Sound of Music sights!
Computer in lobby of hotel so here I am and here you are!

Sigmund Freud worked in Vienna? You think that I should visit? Maybe not...going there to listen to the 'Sound of Music' and see the museums and that should put right whatever may be wrong with my mind!
The hills are alive with the sound of music...When I visited Gangotri the pujari said that I should sing because my voice will vibrate in those mountains forever...Wow!
Keep visiting my blog and maybe you will be with me in spirit as I enjoy the joys of traveling...why is it such fun to see new places? because maybe it fills one with wonder seeing the beautiful planet and what man has achieved...and now he is destroying it...sad is'nt it?

People are hesitating to get married now-a-days and also to have children.
I understand their arguments with my intellect...but not with my heart...anyway...for me I believe that this is the best time in my life...Have done my best bringing up my children. I know that my 'Social activities is what I was meant to do...My children are good human beings and we feel blessed! In the above photograph celebrated my husband's birthday again, this time with my married daughter and her family while she was visiting us and my younger daughter. If you look at my earlier blogs we celebrated my husband's birthday while my son and his family were visiting.
Nazar mat lagaana...Send blessings my way...I will receive them!

(Excerpts from) Jagannath (Lord of the Universe)
Rath Yatra (Chariots of the Gods)
By Damodara Pandita Dasa


Jagat means universe
Naath means Lord
Rath means chariot
Yatra means journey

(During the Rath yatra,)Why is the Lord of the Universe pulled around by ropes, balanced on 12-foot wheels, in a primitive fashion?

Because Lord Jagannath is bound by the ropes of His devotees’ affection. He goes wherever they take Him.

Why does Lord Jagannath have such big round eyes?
Because He is staring wide-eyed at all of us showering everyone with His Love.

One day Krishna’s brother Balarama, and sister Subhadra rushed off with Krishna to Vrindaavan.
When they reached Vrindavan, Balarama and Subhadra are wonderstruck at the deep intense love of the Brijvasis for Krishna…and the latter weeps inconsolably when He sees Radhika lying lifeless and burning with the fire of separation. The siblings’ hands and legs retract into their bodies…Their eyes widen with awe!

Attended a session where the speaker, Rajiv Malhotra claimed that:
some Eminent American academicians are saying that:
Bhagvad Geeta is a dishonest book...
Mantras are moans (sexual)..
Swami Ramakrishna molested Swami Vivekananda...

I felt very disturbed hearing the above...and so much more...
But why hurt feelings when the knowledge is so obviously distorted?
What is the ulterior motive?

The sad situation is that once we (Indians) were knowledge producers, today we have become consumers...eg Yoga...

We, can become modern but retain the best of the Indian way of Life...

We need to feel pride in the fact that we are Hindu Indians and for that we need to understand our culture and experience the richness of our heritage.

My contribution to the cause:
The books that I have written namely Hindu Customs and Beliefs, Symbolisms in the Ramayana, In touch with Masters, Dadi Nani ki kahaani...amongst others are up on my website: Dalsabzi for the Aatman www.dalsabzi.com
Link to books:
http://www.dalsabzi.com/Books/books.htm
They are free for perusal...you may also print them and distribute the knowledge...
Also click on link:
www.invadingthesacred.com

Happiness: a stroke of luck?
Excerpt from 'Eat Pray Love'
Elizabeth Gilbert


…People universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will, maybe descend on you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that is not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.
You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don’t, you will leak away your innate contentment. It’s easy enough to pray when you are in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.

A reader wrote to me, to say 'I wish all these spiritual gyaanis would target the mothers and sons In India to help make them grow up...

I personally feel sorry for the Indian men. If they side their wife they are labelled 'joru ka gulaam'...if they side with their mothers, they are called mama's boys... men are a confused lot between the eastern and western beliefs...A man has to keep a balance if he wants a peaceful household...

It is sad, but, because it is relatively easy to get married one cannot assume that one knows how to be a good spouse...learning to nurture a marriage is an art which requires learning...read on:

ThankGod, I have a husband who did not supress my stories/songs
Go, tell the story, sing a songMarguerite Theophil

…Our grandmothers were our link with the world of story, but these days with the decline in inter-generational living, we lose out on that as well…Many cultures believe that if you have a story to tell-and don’t tell it-strange things will happen. Stories have unique and startling ways of making sure they get told.

A Kannada story narrated by A.K. Ramanujan:

There once lived a woman who knew a story and a song. The story and the song got suffocated inside so they got out so they got out and turned into a coat and a pair of shoes. Seeing this made the husband furious…When the husband’s suspicions were cleared, he woke up his sleeping wife and asked her about her story and her song.
“What story? What song? She asked. She had sadly forgotten both of them.

Among the Cree of Manitoba, there is a similar belief that stories when they are not told, live in their own villages where they go about their own lives.. Every now and then however a story will leave its village and seek a person to inhabit. Some person will abruptly be possessed by the story, and soon will find herself telling the tale, singing it back into active circulation.
Go, tell the story; sing the song
To read my stories, Click:
http://www.dalsabzi.com/Books/kids_kahaani/kahaani_intro.htm

Am in the process of reading an interesting book: 'Eat Pray Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert...
As you read my blog...for those who do, you might be thinking 'What a doing woman, she is' and I know that a lot of people say that I 'have accomplished a lot in my life' Truly? I dont know...I have just flowed along and things came along and doors opened and I walked through...do do I do it all? I dont think so...I read today 'Life's in the Being...not in the doing...Must think about it...or maybe not...Just be!

I love sharing what I find fascinating...

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's recipe to:

Experience peak intensity by simply sitting

…If you want to see more of life, your life energies should function at a higher level of intensity… Most people become intense only when there is danger…Now let’s say you are alive, still you can never forget those moments. Somehow they were so intense that if you just think about it, it comes fully alive. Or let’s say you are standing at the edge of a tall building, just about to fall. Do you see how intense you become? If the consequence of the fall is taken away, the fall is a damn great thing. Is’nt it?

Suppose those consequences are taken away, won’t you like to experience it all the time? All the adventure sports what do you think it is? Accidents without consequences…You jump off an airplane, at the last moment you pull the parachute. But you want to experience the fall because it makes you so intense…
Meditation is about pushing life towards its peak…
Shiva sat like this for millennia…Because He took his voltage up really high, that was how His third eye openend…

ANEKANT VAD

Anekantvad as far as I understand means that there is not only one truth to the matter but various…There can be many points of view and all may be right from a certain perspective.

I was reading an article by Acharya Mahaprajna
He states that Anekant Vad ‘takes into account as many aspects as possible…it does not take a single dimensional view of things that could twist logic…Through Anekant we accept the co-existence of opposites as a fact…Both loss and gain are to be accepted…The two are mutually connected. The two are in fact, one…The same applies to happiness and sorrow, life and death, loss and gain, praise and insult…But we are strange, we usually do not adopt a balanced view. We do not like to move along with the principle of anekanta; we want to move independently.

An individual wants gain but not loss, joy but not sorrow, life but not death, and he wants praise never condemnation. He then forgets the universal rule. In this dualistic world, nothing comes alone…When the world and nature have a rule, how can it be broken? Yet man makes his own single dimensional perspective…

Hiro Shroff's 'Down Memory Lane' is a labour of Love.
I am happy to know that the new/revised edition of the book is out!

Inder Malhotra feels that 'As a people we Indians are strangely disinterested in History'...Journalism, by definition is the art of writing History in haste...Hiro's contribution to Oral History , even on such exciting subjects as the power struggle in Pakistan or the war in Vietnam has the quality of strife and turmoil recollected in tranquility'

My Husband and my visit to Hyderabad Sind in Pakistan and ancestral home is recorded in the book under the title: 'In search of their roots'
Despite partition, despite the passage of 40 years, and despite the fact that the building has new owners, it still displays in solid stone the name: Jhamatmal Kimatrai Building...

Down Memory Lane ~ Hiro Shroff

Anaita Vazifdar writes:

If you’ve always wanted to turn back time or take a trip down memory lane, what better way than through the written word? Whether you’re nostalgic about Alibag’s temples or are reminiscing about Partition, you will treasure Down Memory Lane. A collection of journalist Hiro Shroff’s newspaper columns over the years, the book brings you India in her past glory. And what a glorious past!

For those too young to have read the original columns, this book is a delight. From the Pope’s visit to meeting Chairman Mao, from encounters with Gandhi to photographing the Queen, traditions, customs and habits come alive on every page...

...Short chapters and a simple style make this a light,entertaining read. You could savour it one story at a time, but I’m pretty certain you’ll want to devour it in one go!


For enquiries on the book
email:
hiroshroff@hotmail.com

Attended a meeting in Mani Bhavan which was Gandhiji's residence in Bombay.It is situated at 19 Laburnum Rd, Gamdevi, Mumbai 400007.
Amongst many other activities that took place there...
Gandhiji learned spinning here.
Satyagraha against Rowlatt Act was launched from here in March 1919.
Today Mani Bhavan is a Gandhi Memorial.

The meeting I attended on 9th June 2007 was an Interfaith Dialogue on 'Status of Women in Religion' hosted by 'Centre for Study of Society Seculiarism'

Some of the points discussed by various Religious Scholars...
Shariah Law can be changed since it is an interpretation of the Quran.
Purdah is not advocated in the Quran
If purdah was advocated then why should it be advocated that man should lower gaze in front of the woman.
Female circumcision not advocated in Quran

Status of Women in Jainism
According to Digambaras women cannot get Moksha (Liberation)...Also because women are fickle-minded...a man has to renounce everything including clothes and a woman cannot do that...

...However when Lord Mahavira was asked whether a woman can come in the Sangha, he answered in the affirmative.

According to the Christian Scholar, Christ took water from a Samaritan woman...who was considered 'less priviledged' The Christian Scholar was making the point that Christians do not have a Caste System...

I clarified that the caste system was equivalent to 'professions'. In modern society, the son of a lawyer may decide to become a doctor, or the son of a sweeper, a teacher. Similarly there was no law that insisted that the son of a 'Shudra' remain a 'Shudra' A son of a 'Shudra' could join the army and become a 'Kshatriya' just as easily as the son of a teacher may become a merchant today. Unscrupulous people have the genius to exploit the credulous for their selfish ends, and this is exactly what happened to the 'caste system'. The Brahmins decided that only their sons may have access to the Scriptures, They exploited the 'working class' and even declared that it would amount to a sin to have any contact with them! Nowhere in the scripture is the above expressed!

Education is required, to eradicate ignorance. Desire to learn erases misconceptions.


Hindu women enjoyed a high status in Ancient India...Sadly Manu Smriti lowered her status...Manu was just a law giver and is not the final authority in Hinduism...

The Buddhist woman enjoys a good status...I do hope that it is as much in practice as it is in theory...

We all agreed that the True Masters of each religion respected the position of women...Durga Laxmi Saraswati is a woman...but it was man's insecurity that sometimes interpreted the Holy Books to suit them!
Sad but I believe it to be true!

On the 5th of May 2007 we (Ms Harvinder Bindra and myself) were invited to Sharda Mandir High School for its 75th Anniversary.
The school's founder was Social Activist Ms Champubai Shringarpure.Its sole purpose has been to impart education to the students coming from the weakest section of society. Renowned young magician Ms Kruti Parekh adopted the school when it was in the verge of closing down. Kruti supported the school financially, morally and mentally...The school since then has progressed by leaps and bounds.
Harvinder and myself had a delightful time and wish the ongoing success of good people and their activities.
In the photographs Harvinder participates in the magic show and in the other photographs you will see us along with Jackie Shroff and a young child who happily sat along with us!

Scylla, that charming lady holding my face so lovingly is my Yoga teacher...She introduced me to Kriya Yoga and taught me lessons valuable enough to remember all my life. My childhood friend Asha is also in the picture. We took her out for lunch on the 7th of June 2007, to the charming restaurant Govinda connected to Iskcon, Chowpatty, Mumbai!
Thankyou for coming Scylla, love you too!

SONG OF THE SINDHU HINDU


We of the Sindhi Nation celebrate several events, rejoice in birthdays of great personalities and pay handsome tributes to those who have enriched our lives, culture and heritage across countless centuries since the formation of Bharat Varsha.

Yet one major personality whom our people often forget is Bharat who was the Karkarta (Elected Supreme Chief) of Sindhu Hindu Clan in 5000 BC. It was in Bharat's honour, that the Indian sub-continent was named as BHARAT VARSHA (long after Bharat had retired as a hermit at the age of 60, in accordance with age-old custom).

While much had remained hidden in the graveyard of history for these long centuries, Bhagwan S. Gidwani has, with enormous research, brought to light in his book, Return of the Aryans, the story of Bharat and his life and times. As this masterly book shows, it was Bharat, in whose honour the Indian sub-continent was named as BHARAT VARSHA (long after Bharat had retired as a hermit at the age of 60, in accordance with age-old custom). Gidwanis book brings out the extraordinary and unmatched achievements of this great Sindhi.

Also, as Gidwani shows, it was Karkarta Bharat who had composed in 5085 BC, the SONG OF THE SINDHU HINDU to explain: WHO IS A HINDU? - His Identity, his Duty, and his Mission .

This great Song celebrates the principle of ancient Indian culture of all inclusiveness, excluding none from God's grace whatever their faith. Clearly it says, God's gracious purpose includes all human beings and all Creation, for God is the Creator and God is the Creation, that all are blessed and whatever God you choose he is that God and Dharma, righteousness or good conduct is His will. The Song stresses need for continuing search of truth and knowledge, for we can not be hostage to dogma or custom or present learning, but must strive to enlarge the heritage of mankind, for ours is a growing tradition and not a fixed Revelation. To the present day Indian, whatever his spiritual beliefs, conception of the Divine and his Cosmos, afflicted by misconceived ideas of pacifism and non-violence, the song's message is clear. That he must remain strong and united for he must know that not an external outside force can ever crush him, except when he is divided and betrays his own.

By recalling and singing this Song, we pay respectful homage to the sacred earth of Sindh, which nurtured this breathtakingly advanced civilization of Sindhu-Saraswati. It is the common inheritance and the priceless treasure of both India and Pakistan . - in fact, the whole world.

This scroll is to celebrate the Song of the Sindhu Hindu and to salute its Composer Karkarta Bharat a gallant warrior, great nation-builder, statesman, poet, philosopher, and one who firmly believed in the humane ideals of Sanatan Dharma, particularly his recognition of spiritual nature of man wherever he is from and acceptance of every culture as an expression of eternal values.

Many of you, hopefully, will share my joy in celebrating Song of the Sindhu Hindu and re-affirming our faith in the values that its Composer Bharat put forth for harmony, tolerance, national integration, individual freedom and human rights.



Text of The Song

Reproduced from
Bhagwan Gidwani's Book

Return of The Aryans

"Our desires have grown immeasurable. But they should be desires to give, not merely to receive, to accept and not to reject; to honour and respect, not to deny or belittle...

"God's gracious purpose includes all human beings and all creation…

"For God is the Creator; and God is the Creation...

"Each man has his own stepping stones to reach the One-Supreme...

"God's grace is withdrawn from no one; not even from those who have chosen to withdraw from God's grace...

"How does it matter what idols they worship, or what images they bow to, so long as the conduct remains pure…

"It is conduct then - theirs and ours - that needs to be purified...

"There can be no compulsion; each man must be free to worship his gods as he chooses...

"Does every Hindu worship all the gods of all the Hindus? No, he has a free will; a free choice…

"A Hindu may worship Agni (fire), and ignore other deities. Do we deny that he is a Hindu? ...

"Another may worship God, through an idol of his choosing. Do we deny that he is a Hindu?...

"Yet another will find God everywhere and not in any image or idol. Is he not a Hindu?...

"He who was Karkarta before me was a Sun-worshiper. Did the worshipers of Siva ever say that he was not a good Hindu? ...

"Do the worshipers of Vishnu feel that he who worships before the image of Brahma is not a Hindu ?...

"How can a scheme of salvation be limited to a single view of God's nature and worship?…

"Is then God, not an all-loving Universal God?...

“Know this then, that whatever god you choose, He is that One God,
and Dharma or righteousness is His Will.

"Clearly then, he who seeks to deny protection to another on the basis of his faith, offends against the Hindu way of life, and denies an all-loving God...

"Those who love their own sects, idols and images more than Truth, will end up by loving themselves more than their gods...

"He who seeks to convert another to his own faith, offends against his own soul and the will of God and the law of humanity...

"In the Kingdom of God , there is no higher or lower. The passion for perfection burns equally in all, for there is only one class even as there is only one God...

"The Hindu way of life?... Always it has been and always it shall be...that God wills a rich harmony - not a colorless uniformity...

"A Hindu must enlarge the heritage of mankind…

“For a Hindu is not a mere preserver of custom ...

"For a Hindu is not a mere protector of present knowledge...

"Hinduism is a movement, not a position; a growing tradition and not a fixed revelation...

"A Hindu must grow and evolve, with all that was good in the past, with all that is good in the present, and with all goodness that future ages shall bring. …

"Yet he remains a Hindu…

"Hinduism is the law of life, not a dogma; its aim is not to create a creed but character, and its goal is to achieve perfection through most varied spiritual knowledge which rejects nothing, and yet refines everything, through continuous testing and experiencing...

"Yet a Hindu must remain strong and united, for he must know that not an external, outside force can ever crush him, except when he is divided and betrays his own...

"What then is the final goal of the Hindu? Through strength, unity, discipline, selfless work, to reach the ultimate in being, ultimate in awareness and ultimate in bliss, not for himself alone, but for all...

"This was the silent pledge that our ancient ancestors had taken, when they called themselves the Hindu…

"If I cannot abide by that pledge, how can I retain the right to call myself a Hindu?"

SONG OF THE SINDHU HINDU