Fame Spread in the World

Meaning: According to the line of Athervaved 6/39/3 — may my fame spread in the world, in the same way as the fame of Sun, Moon and Fire. May I be more famous than all persons?

Message: We feel the brightness of some person by the light in his heart. Some person's face shines with the brightness of knowledge and good deeds, whereas the speech of someone is so profound and exciting that it goes straight to the heart of the listener. Some people's walk is such that with their every step, the earth shakes, and some people have such a sharp graze that just by a mere look from them the arrogant enemy's pride is shattered. Only such bright men automatically receive honor, trust, respect, fame and supremacy in this world. Does Sun ever have to give a lecture about his own excellence? Does Moon ever have to declare his cooling pleasantness? Does deity of fire ever have to plead not to be crushed? Does lion, the king of the jungle, ever have to beg for votes to be elected as the undisputed leader of the jungle? They are all famous only because of their qualities. The Sun and the Moon are constantly working for the benefit of the whole world. With brightness, heat and energy, the Sun vitalizes the living beings. Along with it, the Sun also dries up the filth and thereby destroys it. Their only aim is nurturing of good qualities and eradication of bad tendencies and they achieve fame because they are constantly busy in trying to achieve this objective. The same is the objective of human life. Real spirituality lies in working for the welfare of the world till one's last breath.

A spiritual life is extremely necessary and important from the view-point of human glory, bright future, societal organization, spiritual bliss and inner satisfaction. Those who become inspired for and aspire for such a life should be called lucky and far-sighted in real sense. For leading such a divine life, nobody has to wear monk's robes or leave the home, nor beg for food like a monk, nor is it necessary to be involved throughout the day in recitation (of God's name or mantra), austerity, observing vrat (a combination of fasting and worship), ritual baths, visiting temples for bowing down before the icon of God and in singing psalms and hymns. It is enough to do spiritual thinking or self study and worship. But the main point is to implement in our thinking, faith and work-system, the spiritual principles and ideals. Man's life becomes successful only with that.

The meaningfulness of spiritual life lies in putting into conduct the principle of 'simple living and high thinking' and simultaneously observing in the life the principle of every woman is my mother, the wealth of others is for me like dust and that every living being has the soul similar to mine. It is both necessary as well as natural for men of excellence to look with purity of heart upon all women. With the necessity for procreation, there is bound to be sexual desire between husband and wife, but during the ordinary times there is no such thinking for each other, and it helps in maintaining this attitude of purity (i.e. men looking upon other women as their mothers or sisters, women looking upon other men as their brothers). The basis of a healthy society will be created only when men and women maintain this purity of outlook and all citizens have the strength of character. Every woman must be looked upon as mother, sister or daughter depending upon the age.

Gambling is not Good

Meaning: According to the line of Rigved 10/34/10 — the wife of a gambler suffers grave hardships. His mother keeps weeping. He is always sunk under debt and entering other people's homes, steals money from there, Gambling is a very obscene adduction. One must also save himself from it.

Message: Superficially it appears that dishonesty is necessary for earning quickly and more. Most wealthy person seems to be working with dishonesty in their work. Most honest persons appear poor. Therefore, by ordinary understanding it appears that if we also remain honest then we shall become poor. There is tremendous importance of money in the present times and only with money can comforts, facilities, means success and honor be achieved. That is why people are busy in becoming wealthy very quickly through dishonesty or some such means.

But if the situation is studied closely, this distortion in thinking vanishes and we come to know that we made a great mistake in accepting the glory of dishonesty. Wealth cannot be earned in this way and if earned so, then it cannot be maintained steadily. When does not mean that the result will be beneficial only. Daring, hard work, insight and understanding, pleasant talk and organizing ability are the qualities which contribute to earning. The earning with the sweat of one's brow is pure as nectar. Only bad name, non cooperation, distrust, hatred, state punishment, dejection etc, result from money earned through dishonest and improper means. Real earning is made only through good qualities contain the elements of productivity. Big projects, big trades, big plans in this world have been established and succeeded only on the basis of honesty. Not with wealth, but with good intelligence and good activity only progress is achieved. A man of good character (and not a man with wealth) becomes happy.

The addictions of gambling and lottery are also spreading wide on the basis of quick money through any means. Every man wishes to become wealthy by earning the maximum money in the shortest time. This act goes against the tenets of religious book and is a condemnable act. It leads to internal division and leads to quarrel. To bet with one another on the slightest excuse, and speculation and similar act re various forms of gambling only. Its addiction destroys the essential purpose of man's life. He is busy only with one thought that, if not today, certainly tomorrow the number on which he bets, will win and whirling in this vicious circle, he bets more and more. As a result he goes on wasting away his wealth. Whereas he does not get the wealth of a win, he loses whatever he has got. In the ensuing hopelessness man starts sealing his family's ornaments, utensils, and even clothes and puts the money on bets. Becoming poverty stricken, the person even resorts to suicide. In addition, the family undergoes hell.

Because of gambling only, Dharmaraj Yudhishthir along with his brothers had to become a slave of Duryodhan and had to undergo the terrible torture of witnessing the evil Duryodhan trying to disrobe his wife Draupadi. Gambling produces such horrendous results only.

If you wish personal welfare, never gamble in any way. Reject it completely.

Gender bender in a Unisex World

The other day I read that in some cold and organized part of the first world, a group of over funded, under worked engineers had managed to put a female mind into a male body. No, It wasn't Hollywood production. They apparently inserted a chip which was programmed to be a female mind into a hapless male and checked if he stopped watching the sports channel or playing pocket billiards. (Not really, I just made that bit up).

Actually, it was a much duller research project to see whether the technology of gene transfer could be extended into the area of brain. Functions concerning perception. At least that is what I understood, but then I can't add fractions so don't count on me. Now if you have no time for unscientific drivel, go away. But if you have an unfettered imagination, and a propensity to worry about none is sues read on.

Imagine the implications of putting a female mind into male body. If you survive the shock of finding yourself wearing unflattering colors, you may collapse once you've calculated the financial implications of hair removal. The only thing likely to because you joy is the presence of slimmer things narrower hips and hopefully, no stretch marks.

Let's see the impact this would have on society. What would you do if a man walked into the room and, in 10 minutes, no t gets petty bout a new ear that somebody else had bought? Worse still, he won't be smiling foolishly at young women and ignoring the older women. Instead, he would be finding out where you bought that sari, and what the best place to look for throw cushions was.

One could go on making lists of things that a Man with a Woman in his Head (very different from a Man with Woman on his Mind) would be doing but hang on. There are many subjects that have become unisex now. You wouldn't know if it's the chip speaking or whether the original brain has re-asserted itself if he starts talking about cricket, wine or Shashi Tharoor : You will be foxed if he knows the calorific value of cup of sprouts and the long term benefits of Tai Chi.

The truth is that the unisex mind is already among us. We have nurtured it because life now demands that you don the male and female that. If you have reached the age of 50 and believe that the gender of our brains is the gender of our body, then please check out the BBC website. There is a quiz that allows you to find out the gender of your brain. I won't tell you my results but I can tell you that one of my men friends was a borderline male.

It's all very well for men to talk about nurturing their female side, and for women ot believe that they are "man enough". But what if you would happen if men didn't know that when they are being sensitive, it's their female side at work and women didn't know that they were being man enough when they switch off in the middle of a conversation? Losing your gender can be as scary as your hard disk crashing without having saved your files. All the women will break into a cold sweat at the thought of losing their capacity to color coordinate or detect a lie. And you men out there, would you survive if you couldn't compartmentalize your lives and continue to believe that you are emotionally stable? So hang onto your gender because you may be already gender because you may be already on you way to losing it.

Glory of the Lady-of-the-house

Meaning: According to the line of Rigved 10/85/46 — O daughter-in-law! Lead you, life in such a way that your mother-in-law all respect and honor you.

Message: After the marriage, the wife leaves behind everything in her father's home and comes to her husband's home. Everything is left behind including her mother, father, brothers, sisters, family home- everything. She leaves behind the entire milieu of love where she was born, spent her childhood, studies and entered her youth and after becoming related to an unknown stranger, goes to his home. Is she at a loss by this renunciation of her previous family? No. In return for her renunciation, her total surrender to her husband's family, she becomes a very important member of her new family. Now that family becomes her own family, where she gets the status of the lady-of-the-house. She becomes the owner of the family and the entire responsibility of the family comes on her head.

In this new family she becomes the Empress over her mother-inn-law, father-in-law, and sister-in-law. Just as an Emperor looking after the happiness, comfort, and maintaining cordial relations among all pays attention to the progress of the kings and their populace under his ruler ship, similarly by becoming the chief member of the family, the new bride has to carry a very big burden of properly organizing the comforts, meals and the family paraphernalia for all the members of the family. It becomes her duty to think of the interests of all the family members, big or small. Because of maintaining all these duties, she is aptly called the owner or the Empress of the family.

The meaning of becoming th4e Empress or owner of the family does not imply that she establish her supremacy over the others. The implied meaning of the above title is that she should fulfill her important responsibilities, deal courteously with all and administer the house with the guidance of the elders by benefiting from their experience. By coming to the new milieu, she should not consider herself as a servant and feel inferior in any way that is why she has been given the glorious status of an Empress. All the members of the family should conduct themselves with love and warmth towards her by giving her proper respect.

But today most men ignore this loving, healthy viewpoint and do not accord the proper status to the new bride. By considering her as a servant, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and others keep on ordering her every moment. They find fault in her proper work. She is ignored,, neglected, beaten and sometimes even killed. Why does this come to pass? It is a matter of great sorrow, grief and worry. There is smoothness in dealings when the parents-in-law consider the daughter-in-law as their own daughter and she also considers them as much more than father and mother. The question is, 'who should make a beginning" Parents-in-law or the daughter-in-law? Being the elders, the parents-in-law should give her the love and warmth which they would accord to their own daughter, so that the void she feels in her heart because of separation from her own parents, is filled up. After that her enthusiasm for looking after the needs and comforts of her empire will automatically double up.

In this only lies the glory of the Lay of the house.

God has Handed Wife for me.

Meaning: According to the line of Athervaved 14/1/52 —, O wife! God has handed you over to me. The responsibility of maintaining you lies with me. Let us both have children and live up to hundred years.

Message: The responsibility of a happy home-life lies with both husband and wife, although of course, the responsibility of the husband is more because the wife leaves her family to join the husband's family. God the Supreme Father has created the opportunity for the union of two souls and the conduct of both must be excellent. By doing this, happiness in family and good luck are achieved. Good luck of married life does not lie merely in getting married, but there should be loving adjustment between the husband and wife and only by that type of behavior, permanent happiness is achieved. Good luck remains stable where there is mutual sharing of love and happiness or sorrow between the two. To maintain this happiness of married life, it is necessary to maintain this tradition and to have healthy children. In this way both remain happy and achieve longevity with good luck.

For a happy future of the bride-to-be, it becomes necessary to evaluate the qualities of the husband-to-be. A worthy, learned and addiction-free man can carry the burden of a successful and happy family. He should not only be highly knowledgeable and with good qualities, but simultaneously physically strong and free from bad tendencies, bas activities and addictions. Addictions are like poison in a family. A man trapped in liquor, gambling, etc destroys the family's happiness and peace, and gets insults and bad name, and along with him his wife also undergoes mental pain.

From a practical view-point, the wife's area of work is within the home and the husband's area of work is outside the home. His responsibility is to look after the family with a proper display of his worthiness, learning etc. The woman's work area lies in properly organizing the home. It is the woman's duty to make proper use of money earned honestly by the husband to maintain house, cleanliness etc and to feed the family. Both must make proper adjustments in their above duties and make arrangements to run the family satisfactorily within limited means. It is the wife's duty to maintain a cheerful atmosphere within the family even by bearing hardships. A man is not as skilful as a woman in organizing the home. A heavenly atmosphere prevails in a neat home

A man must be prosperous as far as food-grains and other means of comfort are concerned. He should be bright and cheerful. Only such husband can fully satisfy his wife and keep her cheerful.