My Viewpoint

Since the outbreak of swine flu, Pune is worst affected with almost a death every day so far. The best way to prevent Swine Flu spreading is asking patient having symptoms of flu like fever cough and running nose to take a lot of water, to wash hands whenever it is in use and take rest at home for 4 days so he does not transmit it. Masks are of limited value in this disease. This virus can spread through droplets on your skin, through contact etc, and I have seen that the masks in Pune are worn as fashion statement, while walking on road today morning I saw people wearing masks coming out for a morning walk with their dogs!, many wearing masks around their necks, and so on. Instead, avoiding crowded places or cinema halls or malls where air conditioners are on, is advisable, because you get re-circulated air, where the virus density multiplies. If you remember, 2 years ago SARS was blown out of proportion, what happened? Humans develop immunity to the virus, the same is going to happen...

Ashram refers to a stage or phase in the life of a Hindu. There are four accepted ashrams. These are: Brahmacharya, for studying; Grihastha as a married man and householder; Vaanaprastha, for performing penance in a forest; and Sanyasa, for renouncing worldly attachments. According to the Manusmriti, the span of a human life is 100 years. Every Hindu man was to spend a part of his life in each of the four ashrams to fulfill his obligations: to the sages by studying, to his ancestors by raising male progeny, to the gods by performing penance and sacrifices, and for the salvation of his soul (see Moksha) by renouncing the world. This was assuming, of course that he lived his full life span. Vaanaprastha stage indicates the beginning of old age. Living away from society in the forest, he should live simply, perform sacrifices, and prepare to renounce all worldly associations. A man may take his wife to live with him in the Vaanaprastha ashram, in which he stays until he is 70 years of age...

I was watching APEC coverage on tv on yet another lazy Saturday morning in Melbourne. As it was boring I switched the channel to another news channel, "Bin Laden’s new message to America -- embrace Islam" was flashed by the channel. Sooner all the news channels around the globe and all the newspapers covered the same news. Since the attack on WTO in New York on 9/11, Al Qaeda and Bin Laden got more coverage around the globe. They said it is “Jihad” in the name of Allah for Islam. And sooner almost every non-Muslim country started treating Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathisers. And everyone started thinking Islam is bad or barbaric religion. Is Islam that bad? No religion is wrong. All religions preach the same. It is people who interpret it differently made them look different. It is those wrong views of some people made some religions look bad. Every religion says “Let there be no compulsion in religion” meaning a religion cannot be imposed on anyone. The revelati...

According to Hinduism a soul reincarnates again and again on earth till it becomes perfect and reunites with it Source. During this process the soul enters into many bodies, assumes many forms and passes through many births and deaths. This concept is summarily described in the following verse of the Bhagavad gita: "Just as a man discards worn out clothes and puts on new clothes, the soul discards worn out bodies and wears new ones." (2.22) According to Hinduism a being has to live many lives and under go many experiences before it attains perfection and becomes one with the Divine. The Hindu theory of creation suggests that creation begins when the individual souls becomes separated from the undifferentiated One. It continues as the evolution of life and consciousness in matter progresses. During this process some of souls journey back to God through the transformation of matter or prakriti in which they were hidden. The remaining souls continue their existence and rejoin H...

" The Hindu man drinks religiously, sleeps religiously, walks religiously, marries religiously, robs religiously." - Swami Vivekananda Hinduism is not considered as a religion but a way of life, because religion is deeply interwoven into the life of a Hindu, the way nerves are interwoven in our bodies. It is very difficult to separate living and religion in the life of a devout Hindu. Both are inseparable. Both compliment each other. Both exist because of each other and both would lose their meaning and significance without the other. Religion is the center of living and living is the center of religion. In this article we try to understand the philosophy hidden behind this beautiful and noble concept of human life. We will try to understand why a Hindu considers his religion as a way of life instead of calling it a way of worshipping God or following a particular set of beliefs. Religion is there in every aspect of a Hindu's life. Religion is his inseparable companion, ...