Know the Truth and Truth will Set you Free

 

Know the Truth and Truth will set you free

Preface: People treat God after their own tastes and liking. Nobody cares for His opinion. Nobody wants to hear His Master’s Voice. God knows every soul from within, yet he never interferes with the ways of Man. He wants people to come out  of their bondage by their own effort. Read to realize what is His eternal plan for You.

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According to the socio political drama, ‘Nakkash’, religion is a matter between man and his god. http://g.co/kgs/RJ2E6H  True religion depends on an individual’s ‘personal’ faith.  Personal faith comes from what a person experiences himself about God’s interaction with his soul. Personal faith comes from observing and internalizing. For example; a scientists looks at the Universe as an assortment of heavenly bodies and various exciting phenomena to be studied, but on the other hand a believer looks at it as the mighty hand of God at work.

The level of interaction with God defines one’s actual religion. There are different levels of interaction; a large number of people know about God, some – I do not know the number – do not know about god, a very few know god. There is a big difference between knowing ‘about’ god and knowing god.

A large number of people who think they know God , actually know about Him. They have no personal experience of the almighty. They know just what they have been taught , not what they have experienced. They have been following the rituals learnt from their respective religions. They are simply performing those visible acts in order to comply with the norms set by their community. In other words, their so called religious acts are not to appease God but to show their oneness with the people of their community. A person goes to the Temple not to temple, a person goes to the Church not to Church, so on and so forth. I hope the reader is familiar with the use of English article ‘the’?  OK. I will explain. You may go to the bed to chat or play on phone, but you would go to bed to sleep. Sorry for the digression but it is my sincere wish that everyone should understand and reflect. https://www.quora.com , https://ell.stackexchange.com

God , who has created you and me, is much more alive, much more active than what we might think. God is not just a name to take He is a living force to communicate with. How does He communicate? He communicates by means of the same holy words he used in the creation. Some perceive it as ‘Ohm’ or ‘the word’ or the ‘aadi shabd’  that has descended in the form of Scriptures where it is strewn here and there. It is received by those who have ears to listen. Yes, His Holy Self is easily available to us yet He will communicate only with those who have ears to listen.  

God is so wonderful and awesome that he has created us as unique individuals. No two people are exactly similar in their thinking, understanding, and experiencing things. For example; all the siblings have the same parents but their interactions with parents differ. I was never comfortable asking my father  for his consent to go to  theater for a movie while my younger brother readily took his permission.  Yes, each of the siblings perceive the same worldly father in his or her own way that is unique. The same applies to the word of god. When a devotee comes across the word from the scriptures; for example, Vedas, Bible or Kuran, etc., God speaks in a very personal way that is specific from individual to individual.

Everyone understands God in his own way by his own experience of the Almighty Creator. If it was not so, Lord Krishna would never have told Arjuna to ‘go’ and seek that god who could give him absolution from his sin.  It is very clear that Arjuna was in a battle field, he could not undertake a physical journey to a ‘place’ to reach god almighty. Lord Krishana is very clear about reaching the Almighty God. He can be reached any time anywher.  Yes, it is journey but not physical; it is a spiritual journey to be taken to experience god and communicate with Him. No one can help a seeker in this spiritual journey.

Each person is created in a unique way, his experience with god will also be unique.

The greatest problem is, most of us know about god , but we do  not know god. We know about God from our carnal observation of the environment. We know about god from the childhood stories told by our parents and grand parents, we know about god from the religious activities performed at home and in the community and none of them lead us to establish a personal relationship with god.

We are lost in performing rituals at home, temple, church, mosque, synagogue, etc. Saint Kabir says :

Ages passed counting the beads, yet nothing changed/

Drop the beads of hand; count the beads of heart.

We get so busy observing the religious rites, that we are unable to hear His voice. At the most we may hear the voice of middle men and start following them blindly. We keep increasing the gulf between us and god. All the rituals and sermons tell us about god  but do not instruct us to touch and taste god ourselves. Just give it a thought; the Lord who has created the mighty universe including galaxies is so helpless that he cant communicate directly with you!?

Our relation with a person depends upon our perceptions made by our observation and communication with that person. Our behavior with a person is formed on the basis of what he expects, what he likes and dislikes. The same applies to God. If we want a real relationship with Him we must know His expectations; His likes and dislikes for we can’t just perform dumb acts which are not of His liking and taste.

God has given us free will. Why? It is so  because He wants us to be responsible to what we think and act. If god has given us free will, no human agency has the right to take over. If any one does, it can not be godly. God has given us a rational mind that can reason out. If any human agency tries to dictate, it can’t be from god. Free will is our right, freedom is in-built. We can follow or un-follow  god by our conscious choice. He never interferes.

This non-interference is mistaken by atheists for non existence. This makes us feel whatever we do or say is right in His sight. But this is not so. God has kept a micro-chip in all of us. It is our conscience. Yes it reminds us what is holy and what is unholy. It turns a thief into Valmiki the saint. It turns doubting Thomas into St. Thomas.  It turns a passionate husband, Tulsidas into St. Tulsidas. It turns Saul the persecuter into St. Paul. It turns Ramabi Dongre into social reformer Pandita Ramabai. They realize true freedom is in acceptance of God.

What is the conclusion?

1.     God is real and living.  He can be approached by anyone who wants.

2.     God communicates individually. As all individuals are unique, their relation with God differs from other people.

3.     God has left his holy imprint in the scriptures. Anyone who wants can listen to his voice and understand God’s will for himself.

4.     One has to approach God by himself. Others can only show the way but can’t carry a person to God. One has to take the spiritual journey himself for his own absolution and purgation.

5.     Once a person strikes a relationship with God, his life changes.

Be Air Aware

 

Be Air Aware

When we talk about air pollution we must know it in more concrete terms. Today the level of pollution can be measured using AQI or US AQI. This is an index to show the air quality. It is measured on a scale that ranges from 0 to 500.

An  AQI value of 100 normally corresponds with the Air Quality Standard for Protection of Public Health. This means if the ambient air pollution level of your area is 100 or less than 100, you should not be worried, but it is more than 100 than you do need to worry.

The AQI measures Five Major Pollutants. I hope everyone knows what is a pollutant? Well, it is a substance that pollutes or changes the normal/healthy consistency of a given medium, here the air is the medium we are talking about. So the five pollutants are;

1)      1). Ground-level Ozone

2)      2). Particle Pollution: It is measured as PM2.5 and PM10 where PM stands for Particulate Matter.

3)     3).Carbon Monoxide (CO)

4)      4). Sulfur Dioxide

5)    5). Nitrogen Dioxide

The concentration of these pollutants in air is directly related to health issues. Most of them are related to respiratory diseases and death due to over exposure to them.

It must be noted that there are many  particles that are released from terrestrial and marine ecosystems, such as fungi, pollen, bacteria and viruses. They are present in the form of bio-aerosol and transported through wind. AQI measures the particles based on size but does not specify the type.

 

The AQI is user friendly. It is divided into six catagories which are demarcated with a special colour. These colours correspond to a different level of health concern. Let us take a look at it.

Daily AQI Colour	Levels of Concern	Values of Index	Description of Air Quality
Green	Good	0 to 50	Air quality is satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.
Yellow	Moderate	51 to 100	Air quality is acceptable. However there may be a risk for some people, particularly those who are usually sensitive to air pollution.
Orange	Unhealthy for sensitive groups	101 to 150	Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is less likely to be affected.
Red	Unhealthy	151 to 200	Some members of the general pulic may experience helath effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.
Purple	Very unhealthy	201 to 300	Health alert: The risk of health effects is increased for everyone.
Maroon	Hazardous	301 and higher	Health warning of emergency conditions: everyone is more likely to be affected.

 

Let us know a bit more about the pollutants:

1)      Ground Level Ozone

It is quite strange that Ozone layer around the Earth protects us from the harmful radiations of Sun but Ozone in the lower region is a major pollutant that forms Smog and causes respiratory diseases.

How is it formed?

Human activities produce lot of smoke from the vehicles and factories containing primary pollutants in the form of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). When these pollutants react in sunlight and stagnant air, the secondary pollutant, Ground-level Ozone is produced.

2)      Particle Pollution

Suspension of microscopic solid and liquid particles floating in the air refer to particulate  pollution.

How is it formed?

It is formed through natural or anthropogenic sources.

·         Smoke is produced by combustion of organic matter. For example; cigarette, garbage, dry leaves,fossel fuel, oil, forest fire, etc.

·         Dust more than 1 micrometer in diameter originates from grinding and crushing, wood work (saw dust), Pulversization of coal, release of fly ash, cement dust, dust storms.

·         Mist is formed by condensation of vapours in the air containing herbicides and pesticides.

 

3)      Carbon Monoxide

It is a toxic air pollutant.

How is it formed?

It is produced by incomplete combustion of carbon containing fuels, such as natural gas, gasoline, oil, coal, and wood.

It is mostly produced by vehicle emissions.

Sulfer Dioxide SO2

Sulfer Dioxide is a bad smelling toxic gas. It is a part of a bigger group known as Sulfer Oxides (SOx).

These gases are produced by burning of fossil fuels like, coal, oil and diesel.

Sources include power plants, metal processing facilities, and vehicles.

When it is released it forms sceondary pollutants like sufate aerosols, PM, and acid rain.

It contributes in the formation of smog which can impair visibility.

Nitrogen Dioxide NO2

NO2 is a gaseous pollutant. It is part of a bigger group of gases called Nitrogen Oxides or NOX.

These gases are produced by burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, gas, or diesel.

Sources include cars, trucks, buses, etc., which are the main sources.

What have we learnt?

• We can always check the quality of air we are breathing in our respective area. 
• We can analyse the reason or the major pollutants present in our area.
• We can arrive at proper solutions to do away with air pollution in our area.

 

Just_give_it_a_thought

Exam or No Exam

The topic investigates the pros and cons of the sudden dictate of conducting no exams. The article highlights the danger involved in non conduction of exams at present.  

https://www.researchgate.net  , https://link.springer.com , https://pz.harverd.edu ,

Whatever pedagogy the world education system is following, all of them are written exam based. Years of practice has firmly instilled the same in the understanding and behaviour of educationists, teachers, parents and students.

Sudden arrival of Covid-19 has put a big question mark on our exam system. Everyone is compelled to think ‘out of the box’ of other and innovative ways to promote the students to the next standard. This raises many doubts : Are we ready at the moment to promote the students without exams? Is our education system  that much equipped to  change and adopt a new system overnight? Will it be proper from the students’ point of view to do so?

A system without written exam would require entirely a different approach; a special set of tools to assess and check the progress of the students. We will have to follow a task oriented system of education. The tasks should be easy to observe and translate in terms of numbers or grades through out the curriculum.

At present, internal marking focuses on providing maximum benefit to support a ‘good’ final result. We can’t change this mentality overnight. We will have to create new generation teachers, who are good at task management; who know what to observe; how to observe and when to observe; who know how to keep the record in the form of data and transform it for grading.

It is quite clear the current text books should be transformed to Task books or Manuals where learning takes place by accomplishing the graded tasks. The student will ‘learn by doing’ utilizing enquiry and research while completing the given task.

Task based system would also demand removal of time pressure. At present time pressure implies completing the tasks and projects misguides the student to copy-paste or to copy from their friends’ notes.

Dear reader, I hope it is quite clear that at present we are not ready to adopt the new system having no exams or end of the year exam.

In the given circumstance it seems  that we are denying the students the opportunity for their proper growth and development by not letting them appear in the end of the year exam. It is a very lame excuse that we have removed the stressful situation the students were in by promoting them on the basis of internal marking.

Teaching stress management is of prime importance. If the student is ill-equipped he will fail to deal with real life situations. At present we have a workable system of class test, unit test, midterm etc, that help the student to prepare and deal with stressful situations. Geologists know that if a system of induced small earthquakes is generated it can avert a catastrophic earthquake in a fault region.

It is a proven fact that the best in a person surfaces in  a challenging situation. As the exams come closer we observe a marked change in the students. He becomes more focused; he summons all his mental and physical energy to focus on learning. His maximum learning takes place while preparing to face the exams. 

Removal of exams from an exam based system would harm the students more than do any good. It might help the Governments, the planners, and executers to relax  but it will render the system useless for the student. Who would no longer summon up his ability to stretch the horizon of his understanding and learning by preparing for the exam , moreover, he will not at all touch those topics which are important but he has no interest in.

The students from whom we have removed the exam stress might be happy today but, ‘dear all, what will happen tomorrow when the same students will face various entrance exams and fail?’ No one will be able to control their shattered harts; no one will be able to control the suicide rate.  Or this is how we plan to reduce the weaker youth population followed by Covid-19 deaths?

Just give it a thought.

A Letter to Crim-Nulls

 

A Letter to Crim-Nulls

Dear Bereaved                                

I extend my heartfelt sympathy.

The whole world is deeply affected by your diminishing presence. You are no longer lurking out there. The police is turning into couch potatoes. I am really worried about the sordid situation. No, I am not talking about the lax law department, I am rather concerned about your handicap, this ugly master criminal called Covid-19 has wrought.

You may think you have even lost your identity mask, but it is not so. Please don’t nurse any grudge . In fact the mask they are wearing is to show their wee feeling, for your activities are far more innocent games than their tempering with the nature and robbing it off its wealth, polluting it, and stifling it to an early destruction and demise.

Oh! Who would have thought that the situation would be so grim?? However the consolation is: we all are sailing in the same boat; we are losing our livelihood on which you thrive. We had read; ‘All work no play makes Jack a dull boy’. Now it should be reframed; ‘No ply, no work makes Jack  a dead boy’.

Yes my friends we are one in this; ‘Crime of the people, for the people and by the people’. Every one has to pay for his crimes, for the wedges of sin is death. We are quite advanced on this damnation path.

Dear friends, though it seems what we have done cant be undone. But there are things which can still be ‘accomplice’ in, no not the regular blue-collared and the white-collared cr…er! Creative acts . Yes, we can maintain the status quo, we can replenish the pockets we thrive on for no pocket leads to no pickpockets. And who likes famine, manmade or otherwise.

If you agree, we all will have to stop for a while and nurse the situation back to normal to enjoy the good old days. We will have to take a pledge; no more crime against mother earth.

If we do so, I assure you there wont be any capital punishment for the crimes we have committed. No leagally  illegal activities will get our leagally illegal consents. If the environment takes a U-turn to health our invisible enemies the dreadful alpha, beta, etc… will not get a chance to disguise it and become even more dreadful.

It is in the interest of all to join hands to nurse our common mother earth who is like an outcast looking at us expecting help from her own children.

Rest is not fine.

Please do not convey my sympathies to any sharp shooter. Keep practicing social distancing with your famous masks (your high posts , and higher offices you hold).

Closing with affection

Your  Brother  in crime.