Seeped
in love of God
Rajan Gupta
It is said that the merciful CREATOR
of the world never neglects HIS CREATION, and
continually sends HIS MESSENGERS to the world on
missions of mercy to save HIS seekers and
devotees. These Messengers, carrying the message
from the ALMIGHTY GOD, come in the form of Saints
and Mystics, impart the message of love and
devotion for GOD, and take their disciples and
devotees back to the ALMIGHTY Lord. Guru Ravidass
ji (Ravi=Sun) was such a MESSENGER.It is said
that it was God himself, in the guise of a holy
man, had come either to relieve Guru Ravidass ji
of his poverty or to test his contentment. Guru
Ravidass ji’s attitude in this regard is
well expressed in the following verses:
Not the slightest liking have I for the
philosopher’s stone, it causes entanglement
in the world. Giving up all craving, I fix my
mind in the holy feet of the Lord alone, says
Guru Ravidass ji.
If thou aspirest to the highest bless, then
contentment in mind thou must inculcate. Where
there is contentment, no blemish can stand, says
Guru Ravidass ji.
True happiness lies in realizing true holiness,
no happiness is there in accumulating wealth. The
accumulation of wealth is a storehouse of
miseries, realize this fact in thy mind, O Guru
Ravidass.
For Guru Ravidass ji, the Real Philosopher’s
stone is the Name of God, which transforms
Sinners into Saints, and makes Mortals Immortal.
As Guruji puts it:
How Can Iron (Human Life) be transformed into
Gold,. .. .
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Dogra Art
Museum
A.K.Khanna
Dogra Art Museum
situated in the old Secretariat or
Mubarak Mandi exhibiting a large numbers
of miniature paintings of Basholi, Jammu
and other Pahari schools were shifted in
1991 from the Gandhi Seva Sadan Building
or Old Legislative Assembly, near New
Secretariat, Jammu .A large number of
paintings from the various hill
territories of Himachal and Jammu &
Kashmir have been housed in Gandhi Seva
Sadan as the Dogra Art Gallery depicting
the intangible Heritage of Jammu which
was open by then the First President of
India .Dr. Rajendra Prasad on 18th May
1954.The Concept of the museum originated
as a part of the visit of Prince of Wales
to Jammu & Kashmir during the time of
Maharaja Ranbir Singh reign. The Prince
desired to visit these princely states
under the British Domain and his first
preference was Jammu and Kashmir. The
Ajaib Ghar or Museum conceptualized by
then the Finance Minister efforts by
collecting the number of miniature
paintings of the various hill regions and
some archeological objects/ artifacts in
the form of art gallery in the Gandhi
Seva Sadan or Old Assembly Building. This
was first attempt in the Jammu province
to exhibit the intangible heritage as the
show case of inheritance of the region to
the public.
Then the Dogra Art Gallery in the Gandhi
Seva Sadan near the New Secretariat had
an important collection of miniature
paintings including many from the locally
renowned Basholi and Kangra school
painters only. The museum grew with the
subsequent acquisitions of artifacts by
way of local purchase from the collection
of the public and donors. The Dogra Art
Museum at Mubarak Mandi now has total
numbers of three galleries and a basement
.The Main Hall in the ground floor, .... .. ....more
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Jab
‘They’ Split...
Inder Jeet S ‘Prince’
The disintegration of Shahid
Kareena’s relationship has become the talk
of the Bollywood. In fact, it turned out to be
the most jolting news of the last year. People
are anxious to know what led to it. They are so
shocked that the news of Saif and Kareena coming
together and marrying soon is falling on deaf
years. Except informing about the change of
partners, everyone involved in this triangle
(Shahid-Kareena Saif) is keeping mum.
First this break-up was described as ‘just
another publicity stunt’ to promote their
just released movie. ‘‘Jab We
Met’’. But it never was ! In fact when
Shahid and Kareena returned from a month long
schedule from the ice-capped mountains of Manali
in Himachal, no one found anything suspicious
about their feelings for each other. But the
damaged had already been done to this
relationship. Insiders reveal that it all started
when Saif and Kareena were shooting together for
Vishal Bhardwaj’s
‘‘Omkara’’ Saif found Kareena
Kapoor irresistibly alluring. However the reports
of a romantic like-up between 27 years old
Kareena and 37 years old Saif Ali Khan first
surfaced when the two were shooting together for
Yash Raj films ‘‘Tashan’’ in
Ladakh. Saif Ali Khan, it may be recalled here,
had been single for months together after his
break-up with wife Amrita Singh. Italian model
Rosa provided romantic relief to Saif Ali Khan
but only for a short period of time. And after
Rosa left him, there were whispers of Saif being
involved with various ladies like Bipasa Basu and
Diya Mirza.
Saif, however, doesn’t like the image of the
Casanova at all. He wants stability in love-life
and a relationship that works ! . . ......more
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Check water
scarcity
 Water is a
basic necessity of the people. Jammu city and its
suburbs have a long and chronic problem of water
shortage. People are everywhere dissatisfied with
the state of things especially with such a basic
issue as relating to drinking water. The
population of the city is expanding fast so are
the boundaries of the city.
People of the city are faced with water crisis.
Despite promises to upgrade and streamline water
situation in the city people are not satisfied
with the plans that Government chalks out for
them. In this regard we had elicited views from
the public about the problem of water scarcity in
the city. We, hereby share with our readers their
views.
Water is a basic necessity. So it should be
supplied regularily and on sustained basis. These
views are expressed by Pooja Gupta of Akhnoor a
house wife. She is scared of the simple idea that
water supply has to be given for half an hour and
that too under low pressure.
Rashmi Chadha of Gandhi Nagar who is a working
women expects that the PHE authorities should
streamline water distribution. According to her
water should be supplied either between 6 to 9 am
in the morning of after 5 pm in the evening.
Because water that is supplied during the day
means that nuclear families or in such families
where old people cannot collect water will have
to face hardships.
Mohan Lal, of Trikuta Nagar a businessman is
highly critical of the fact that there are
hundreds of leaking pipes in the city. Precious
water is wasted through them while as people
suffer for want of water. He expresses the hope
that water leakage will be stopped so that more .. ........more
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Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi The Great Guru
Sunil Mahaldar
 It is said that
Maharishi Jee, whose original
name was Mahesh Prasad Verma was
born on Friday, January 12, 1917
into a comfortably well-off
family, the third of four
children. Although it is thought
by many that Maharishi’s
family hail from Jabalpur, it has
been suggested that he was in
fact born some little distance
away in the village of Chichli
near Gadawara in Madhya Pradesh
some 150 Kms east of Bhopal.
Maharishi Jee received an above
average education. Evidently he
showed a certain promise in the
scientific disciplines. Offered
the rare opportunity to engage in
higher education, he undertook
degree courses in both physics
and mathematics at Allahabad
University. There, the
acquisition of so much
information only accentuated his
hunger for deeper fulfillment. He
would always feel disturbed on
seeing the miseries of the people
around and ponder on the question
as to : ‘‘If God is
Omnipresent and God is Almighty
and God is merciful and in the
heart of everyone, why should a
man suffer having God within
himself ? And what is the value
of oneself if he keeps suffering
?’’ He was completely
dissatisfied with what He studied
in college as He knew
‘‘This can’t be
the whole knowledge’’.
He was searching for something
complete and this search finally
brought him to his Guru Dev His
Divinity Jagat Guru
Shankaracharya Bhagwan Swami
Brahma Nand Saraswati Jee Maharaj
around 1939, who was
Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math
from 1941 to 1953. Maharishi Jee
then described his first vision
of Guru Dev, in the deep darkness
of the night, illumined only by a
brief flash of light from a car
some distance away. But that
glimpse was all that was needed.
In his own words :
‘‘In that one moment,
the whole life was
surrendered’’.. . ... ......more
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Kashmir history
revisited
L. B. Zutshi
 Kashmir is not just, only
Book Review
Book - Nilmat Purana (Urdu)
Author - Arjan Dev Majboor.
Publisher - J&K Academy of
Art Culture & Languages
Page 360
Cost: Rs. 130
Year of publication 2007
A geographical expression, a beautiful place and
a political problem but it also reminds us of a
distinct people with a historical past, a
cultural identity and a well knit society having
its distinct Tirthas (sacred places) rituals and
ceremonies. All this tale of the blessed Vale
from its legendary inception, and of its people,
its culture, and its places has been told to us
in her ancient text of Nilmat Purana.
Though Nilmat Purana is a pre historic text, yet
just because of its non - availability in the
commonly known language of Kashmir i.e. Urdu, it
remained so far out of reach of common Kashmiri.
Now with its translation into Urdu by a well
known poet and author of Kashmir, Arjan Dev
Majboor has rendered a great service to the cause
of Kashmir’s history and culture and has
thus repaid a debt to his mother land and its
people. By undertaking this work at this stage of
his life Majboor Sahib has in fact displayed his
acute passion and love for Kashmir.
Nilmat Purana is an exuberant history of Kashmir,
its sacred places, rituals and ceremonies. It
only required an author of keen historical
perception and investigative sense like Arjan Dev
Majboor to write such a text, so as to bring home
to average reader the inter connections that so
vividly mark the evolution of various human
societies and cultures.
This book in the present form is not merely a
rendering or simple translation of the original
text, but the author in the first two
introductory chapters has from the analytical
point of view of a historian . ..........more
The great Deccan
Odyssey
Sweta Patwardhan
The delightful thing about a train
journey is that you remain rooted even as the
earth beneath you begins to fly. And so on a
Wednesday afternoon, any week of the year, you
could choose to be at Mumbai's Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus, weaving your way through the
milling crowds to where a blinding metallic
vision in royal blue awaits you-the splendiferous
rail viman-the Deccan Odyssey that will take you
on a seven-day discovery of the fecund Konkan.
Some of Maharashtra's most luscious terrain is
hidden here-red laterite earth, the wind blowing
through the casuarina trees, dense landscapes
flaunting agrarian produce… The beaches are
exquisite, the water itself like a glistening
sheet of sparkling silver. Clean healthy smells
hang in the air, the ambience is charmingly
rural-buffalo sheds, coconut branches drying in
the sun, bundles of hay in spacious courtyards,
the incessant roar of the sea… It is a
matter of tremendous irony that while the
stress-inducing cities of Maharashtra are written
about in extravagant prose in every possible
tourism brochure, her delectable countryside is
largely ignored. Perhaps the Deccan Odyssey will
play its part in changing that.
Like its counterpart in Rajasthan, the Palace on
Wheels, the Deccan Odyssey is truly sumptuous-21
air-conditioned carriages containing 44 regular
luxury suites, four Presidential suites, a
spacious conference room, bar car, business
centre, foreign exchange facilities, 24-hour room
service, and a health spa with steam, gymnasium
and beauty parlour, plasma television and a
reading room.
Besides, the train boasts two delightful
restaurants, looked after by the Taj Group of
Hotels. You could opt for the continental fare,
but then you would lose out on the deliciously
desi Maharashtrian bhojan made singular by the
liberal use of coconut, cashew and kokam as ......more
Philosophy
of Pratyabhijna
Shail Gulhati
 Jiva
(man) is actually Shiva (god) who has
forgotten his real Nature, because of too
much identification with his physical
body . Pratyabhijna, therefore means to
enable this forgetful jiva by spiritual
means ,to re- cognize , that he is non
different from Shiva.
The Sutras
* Citi, which is absolute consciousness,
by its own free will (svatantrya), is the
cause of manifestation, preservation,and
again re absorption or withdrawal of the
Universe into itself.
This is a description of Godhead, and
before time and space are created, citi
alone is.It is all knowing,(omniscient),
and all powerful, (omnipotent).
* By Her own power, she unfolds the
Universe on her own screen.
This is a direct statement on the
understanding of Kashmir shaivism, that
God is both the efficient, as well as
material cause of the Universe: He
creates out of his own will, on his own
self, he is the potter who creates out of
himself, not out of clay.
That Universe, so unfolded, is manifold ,
consisting of many subjects, who are
objects for the others in reciprocal
differentiation.
The potter was one, but the pots are
many, The various pots, though coming
from the same source, and thus
essentially the same, are different from
the other, like one is a conical pot, the
other rounded the .
...more
Banana -
Through the ages
Satyendra Pratap
Singh
India gave bananas to the
world and today it is the world's largest
banana republic - in terms of production.
But the country is losing wild banana
species at an alarming rate with grave
implications for the poor, the tribals
and ultimately even those addicted to
stylish banana daiquiris. The crucial
crop is threatened in its ancient nursery
of the eastern and western ghats, the
tropical northeastern rain forests and in
the Andaman and Nicobar islands because
of slash-and-burn runaway urbanisation.
The biggest tragedy is that no one knows
how many species have already been lost
because there hasn't been a proper
stocktaking of the banana. Experts at the
UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO), who work on food security for the
most vunerable, are worried about the
shrinking gene pool in India. It was the
country's rich biodiversity that helped
create seed-free commercial and
disease-resistant bananas over time.
India's loss can easily be the world's
loss.
The affordable "food-fruit" is
the source of sustenance for 400 million
people in developing countries, including
millions in India. Any danger to the crop
affects food security, banana being the
fourth most important food after rice,
wheat and maize. The large, pulpy
spotless Cavendish banana, which accounts
of $4.7 billion in annual world exports,
came from Indian ancestors.
"You need diversity to develop new
varieties, ........more
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