[FairfieldLife] An account of Astral plane of existence....
Paramhansa Yogananda's guru Sri Yukteshwar Giri shed his mortal body in January 1936. After a few months in June 1936 Guru Yukteshwar Giri appeared before disciple Paramhansa Yogananda's in an astral form. The Guru -disciple dialogue as it appears in the book The Autobiography of a Yogi is given below. In this dialogue the Guru describes the astral body , the astral beings and experiences in astral plane of existence. : http://www.ananda.org/inspiration/books/ay/43.html Some excerpts : As prophets are sent on earth to help men work out their physical karma, so I have been directed by God to serve on an astral planet as a savior, Sri Yukteswar explained. It is called Hiranyaloka or 'Illumined Astral Planet.' There I am aiding advanced beings to rid themselves of astral karma and thus attain liberation from astral rebirths. The dwellers on Hiranyaloka are highly developed spiritually; all of them had acquired, in their last earth-incarnation, the meditation-given power of consciously leaving their physical bodies at death. No one can enter Hiranyaloka unless he has passed on earth beyond the state of sabikalpa samadhi into the higher state of nirbikalpa samadhi. God encased the human soul successively in three bodies-the idea, or causal, body; the subtle astral body, seat of man's mental and emotional natures; and the gross physical body. On earth a man is equipped with his physical senses. An astral being works with his consciousness and feelings and a body made of lifetrons. A causal-bodied being remains in the blissful realm of ideas. My work is with those astral beings who are preparing to enter the causal world. The astral universe, made of various subtle vibrations of light and color, is hundreds of times larger than the material cosmos. The entire physical creation hangs like a little solid basket under the huge luminous balloon of the astral sphere. Just as many physical suns and stars roam in space, so there are also countless astral solar and stellar systems. Their planets have astral suns and moons, more beautiful than the physical ones. The astral luminaries resemble the aurora borealis-the sunny astral aurora being more dazzling than the mild-rayed moon-aurora. The astral day and night are longer than those of earth. The astral body is not subject to cold or heat or other natural conditions. The anatomy includes an astral brain, or the thousand-petaled lotus of light, and six awakened centers in the sushumna, or astral cerebro-spinal axis. The heart draws cosmic energy as well as light from the astral brain, and pumps it to the astral nerves and body cells, or lifetrons. Astral beings can affect their bodies by lifetronic force or by mantric vibrations. Physical desires are rooted in egotism and sense pleasures. The compulsion or temptation of sensory experience is more powerful than the desire-force connected with astral attachments or causal perceptions. Astral desires center around enjoyment in terms of vibration. Astral beings enjoy the ethereal music of the spheres and are entranced by the sight of all creation as exhaustless expressions of changing light. The astral beings also smell, taste, and touch light. Astral desires are thus connected with an astral being's power to precipitate all objects and experiences as forms of light or as condensed thoughts or dreams. Causal desires are fulfilled by perception only. The nearly-free beings who are encased only in the causal body see the whole universe as realizations of the dream-ideas of God; they can materialize anything and everything in sheer thought. Causal beings therefore consider the enjoyment of physical sensations or astral delights as gross and suffocating to the soul's fine sensibilities. Causal beings work out their desires by materializing them instantly.Those who find themselves covered only by the delicate veil of the causal body can bring universes into manifestation even as the Creator. Because all creation is made of the cosmic dream-texture, the soul thinly clothed in the causal has vast realizations of power. - Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
[FairfieldLife] Benazir Bhutto's zeal for meditation
Everyone is familiar with the slain Pakistani leader ex- Pak PM Benazir Bhutto. But few are aware about her zeal for meditation. Here is an article by Roop Jyoti (ex-minister of state for finance., Nepal ) : http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/381/Comment/14340 In the summer of 1994, I got a call from the Home Ministry in Kathmandu. Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was on an official visit to Nepal, wanted to visit Dharmashringa Vipassana Center in Kathmandu.Teachers and trustees of the meditation centre were excited and gathered in the morning awaiting her arrival. We had made arrangements to show her around and explain the Vipassana meditation technique in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin as taught by S. N. Goenka.Unfortunately, the visit was cancelled. The night before someone had mistakenly told her that the meditation center was a half-hour walk after a 45-minute drive. She did not have that much time and put off the visit. Actually, the centre can be reached in 30 minutes.Two years later, the Foreign Ministry contacted us again. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was going to Pakistan and there was a specific request from Benazir Bhutto to bring along a Vipassana teacher.Our Principal Teacher Acharya Goenkaji asked me and Nani Maiya Manandhar, both senior teachers, to go with the delegation. Benazir Bhutto was busy with the state visit and sent word that she would meet us as soon as she was free. On the last day of the state visit, the Nepali delegates were returning to Karachi in the afternoon to fly back to Kathmandu. Nani Maiyaji and I were finally summoned at 3PM, after the rest of the delegation had flown off. Benazir Bhutto had heard much about Vipassana and wanted to learn the technique there and then. We told her it required a 10-day retreat. She did not have such time, and insisted to be taught right away. Acharya Goenkaji had foreseen such a response and had given permission to teach her the Anapana technique. So, Nani Maiyaji taught her Anapana. Benazir Bhutto started practising right away and found it very calming. She said that she had not slept for days and after the session of Anapana, she wanted to take a nap because she felt so tranquil. We waited while she had a restful sleep. After a few hours, she emerged looking refreshed and happy. We explained to her the salient aspects of Vipassana: a means out of human suffering and misery; not a ritual of an organized religion but an art of living. Vipassana involves no conversion from one religion to another and is open to all without any barrier of caste, creed or gender. The technique helps people control unruly minds and cleanse them of impurities like fear, anger, hatred, ill will, animosity, greed, passion and restlessness. Vipassana teaches how to diminish the ego and to find truth about oneself and to achieve inner peace. We talked a bit more about Vipassana and where she could possibly sit through a full 10-day course. We also gave her books, tapes and videos. By this time, it was late in the evening and the last flight from Islamabad to Karachi was about to leave. We rushed to the airport. Upon the prime ministers order, two seats had been kept for us and the plane took off as soon as we boarded it. When we landed at Karachi that night, we learnt that there had been a military coup and Benazir Bhutto had been deposed. We had been the last visitors she met as prime minister. Last week, as news of her assassination came in, I was filled with sadness, but took solace in the fact that she had learned Anapana, an important part of the Vipassana technique. May she be happy and peaceful in her heavenly abode. Roop Jyoti helps run Vipassana Centers in Nepal and is ex-minister of state for finance. - Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.
[FairfieldLife] Washoe County of Nevada observes Sanskrit Day.
The Washoe County of Nevada observed Jan 12 as Sanskrit Day .Here is the report : http://tinyurl.com/ypx5vd http://in.news.yahoo.com/ani/20080110/r_t_ani_wl_intl/twl-american-county-proclaims-january-12-7da97d8.html Washoe County of Nevada has proclaimed January 12 as Sanskrit Day.A proclamation signed by Robert M. Larkin, Chairman of Washoe County Commission, under the Seal of Washoe County, says, PROCLAIMED, That Washoe County recognizes the importance of the Sanskrit language and January 12, 2008 as Sanskrit Day. This proclamation is to coincide with two-day Sanskrit language seminar-cum-class, first of its type in the state, organized by prominent Hindu chaplain and Indo-American leader, Rajan Zed, here on January 12-13 next, in which about 50 people are expected to participate. This Washoe County proclamation quotes Mahatma Gandhi as saying Without the study of Sanskrit, one cannot become a true learned man. It further says, As Hinduism expands in the West, it is important that to understand Hinduism, one should have a working knowledge of Sanskrit. The Vedas, written in Sanskrit, are dated by different scholars from 6500 BCE to 1500 BCE. Sanskrit language must have evolved to its expressive capability prior to that. Besides Hindu scriptures, a vast amount of Buddhist and Jain scriptures were also written in Sanskrit. According to tradition, self-born God created Sanskrit, which is everlasting and divine. First scripture of the world, Rig-Veda, was written in Sanskrit. Many Sanskrit works are still to be translated. Sanskrit has a close relationship with other classical languages like Latin, Greek, French, German, etc. Famed German philologist Max Muller once said, Sanskrit is the greatest language of the world. In America, scholar William D. Whitney wrote the Sanskrit Grammar in 1879. Sanskrit is also known as the language of the gods. - Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
[FairfieldLife] Dow Jones launches new faith based Dharma Indices....
Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, and Dharma Investments, a leading private investment firm pioneering the development of faith-based investment, today announced the launch of the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes. The new indexes measure the performance of companies selected according to the value systems and principles of Dharmic religions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. The Dow Jones Dharma Index series includes the Dow Jones Dharma Global Index, as well as four country indexes for the U.S., the U.K., Japan and India. The indexes are designed to underlie financial products such as exchange-traded funds and other investable products that enable investors to participate in the performance of companies which are compliant with Dharmic religious traditions. The Dow Jones Dharma Indexes are the first faith-based indexes created to measure Dharma compliant equities. As faith-based and socially responsible investing continues to grow worldwide, our goal is to provide the investment community with the most comprehensive benchmarks that comply with these principles, said Michael A. Petronella, president of Dow Jones Indexes. The launch of the new Dow Jones Dharma Indexes marks a major step in our effort to further expand our range of faith-based indexes. Dow Jones Indexes pioneered this space by launching the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes in 1999 -- today the leading Islamic market indexes worldwide. We are honored to be serving a demand for faith-based investing, said Nitesh Gor, CEO of Dharma Investments. India and Asia have made remarkable advances economically over the last few years and in parallel we believe that bringing our religious values onto the global stage offers sustainable solutions to the problems facing the world today. The principle of Dharma contains precepts relevant to good conduct, but also the implicit requirement of mindfulness about the sources of wealth -- and therefore responsible investing, he added. The Dow Jones Dharma Index brings together a combination of environmental, social, governance and traditional sin sector filters. As such, the Index is unique and will not just have appeal to the religious, but to a far broader audience as well. We are also very grateful to the broad array of the most eminent spiritual leaders within the Dharma religions for their continuing involvement and blessings. Their endorsement of this Index gives us great confidence in its authority and eventual success. The index universe for the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes is defined as the top 5,000 components of the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Total Market Index as measured by float adjusted market capitalization, and all components in the Dow Jones Wilshire India Index. To be included in the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes, stocks must pass a set of industry, environmental, corporate governance and qualitative screens for Dharmic compliance. Industry screens include unacceptable sectors and business practices. Environmental screens take account of a company's impact or policies with respect to emissions, climate change and carbon footprint analysis, oil and chemical spills and waste management and recycling. Corporate Governance screens comprise the handling of labor relations/disputes/discrimination allegations, human rights violations, working conditions/wages. Excluded from the index are companies from sectors that are deemed unacceptable due to the nature of their business activities and operations. Excluded are also companies that have exposure to unacceptable business practices. Some examples of unacceptable sectors are aerospace and defense, brewers, casinos and gaming, pharmaceuticals, tobacco. Some examples for unacceptable business practices are alcohol, adult entertainment, animal testing and genetic modification of agricultural products. To ensure the quality of the indexes and the integrity of the underlying index methodology, three boards were established to define, build and implement the screening criteria: the Dow Jones Dharma Academic Advisory Committee, the Dow Jones Dharma Supervisory Board and the Dow Jones Dharma Religious Council. The Dow Jones Dharma Academic Advisory Committee provides guidance and establishes the principles for the methodology. Members include: Prof. Francis X. Clooney SJ, Parkman Professor of Divinityand Professor of Comparative Theology, Harvard University; Dr. Jeevan Deol, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK; Prof. Gavin Flood, Professor at Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies; Prof. D. Gold, Lecturer in South Asian Religions, Cornell; Prof. Richard Gombrich, Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies; Prof. Pema Gyalpo, Professor of International Relations at Toin Yokohama University, Japan; Dr. Peter Harvey, University of Sunderland; Prof. John Stratton Hawley, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Religionand Department Chair at
[FairfieldLife] The growing popularity of Jala Neti ....
Given below is a link to a article from NYT (Short, Stout, Has a Handle on Colds ) which talks of the growing popularity of Jala Neti as a pancea for respiratory ailments : http://tinyurl.com/3ct2cp http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/fashion/03skin.html?_r=1scp=1sq=jala+netioref=slogin GABY HAKMAN worked as a chef in professional kitchens in Miami for nearly 20 years, standing in the vacuum of powerful venting fans, inhaling smoke. But she had even bigger nasal challenges ahead. I work as a personal chef now, which is a lot less toxic, but I also moved to New York City, and because of the citys pollutants and dry heat I developed painfully dry sinuses, Ms. Hakman said.Seeking the advice of a masseuse and acupuncturist, Jana Warchalowski, Ms. Hakman was urged to try something she didnt even want to think about. Jana said she had two words for me: neti pot, Ms. Hakman said. Id heard about it before. I just kept thinking, No way, thats gross.But this fall, Ms. Hakman relented. I went out and bought a pretty little ceramic neti pot from Whole Foods, she said. Ive used it every day since. Now, I can breathe again. Its even gotten rid of the bags under my eyes. Originally part of a millennia-old Indian yogic tradition, the practice of nasal irrigation jala neti is performed with a small pot that looks like a cross between Aladdins lamp and your grandmothers gravy boat. The neti pot made its way into this country in the early 1970s as a yoga meditation device, but even as yoga became mainstream, the neti pot remained on the fringes of alternative culture.That is, until now. Due to a confluence of influences, the neti pot is having what can only be termed a moment, sold in drugstores, health food stores, even at Wal-Mart and Walgreens. The practice gained wide exposure last spring when it was introduced on Oprah Winfreys show by a frequent guest, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and an author of health books. Dr. Oz explained that bathing the sinus cavities in a warm saline solution can reduce symptoms of allergies, cold, flu and other nasal problems. He called upon a chronic sinusitis sufferer, identified as Amy from Texas, to demonstrate the neti pot. Welcome to your nose bidet, Ms. Winfrey said enthusiastically as the woman inserted the spout of a ceramic pot into one nostril, tilted her head and let a solution of non-iodized salt and water flow up her nose and out the other nostril. A month later, in a follow-up, Amy spoke by phone on air and reported shed used a neti pot every day since, with happy results. She had not had a single sinus headache, she said.A star was born. The neti pot became a hot topic online, featured in blogs and daily journals, chatted about on message boards, demonstrated in some 60 YouTube videos. It was billed as a cure-all to ward off cold or flu, improve a sense of smell or taste, sharpen vision and even reduce snoring. Nose bidet became one of the most popular topics searched on Google. Neither Whole Foods Market, where neti pots have been sold nationwide for almost a decade, nor the Himalayan Institute, one of the largest retail and wholesale distributors of neti pots in the United States, would disclose sales figures, but representatives of each company said that after the Oprah shows there were sharp spikes in demand.Jan Mathews, the chief executive of East West Living, a seller of spiritual books and supplies with a store in Manhattan, said: After Oprah, we went from selling dozens of neti pots a week to dozens a day, and sold out. For two weeks we couldnt restock fast enough. It may have started with Oprah, but then it became word of mouth. In December, Ms. Mathews began in-store neti pot demonstrations in the stores cafe four times a week. Theres a growing clamor for natural alternatives to cold and allergy medicines, she said. In my demo, there may be about a dozen or so people in attendance, but sometimes Ill look up and realize the whole rest of the cafe is watching.PROMOTERS of the neti pot link it to other methods of purifying and detoxifying the body that have become popular at spas and from providers of alternative health care, procedures like seaweed facials, liver flushes and coffee enemas. Few if any Western medical schools teach the use of the neti pot. But Dr. Bradley Marple, the chairman of the rhinology and paranasal sinus committee for the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, said that nasal irrigation is a well-known remedy for various respiratory complaints.There are an estimated billion viral episodes of the upper respiratory tract a year, said Dr. Marple, a professor of otolaryngology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Studies indicate that saline nasal irrigation is a highly effective, minimally invasive intervention for people suffering from nasal issues, Dr. Marple said.
[FairfieldLife] Vedic temple and yoga centre inaugurated in California
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/dec/13vedic.htm Vedic temple housing more than a hundred deities, including the tallest images of Lord Venkateshwara and Lord Nataraja in North America, was inaugurated in Montclair, California. The prana pratishta (infusion of life energy into the deities) and kumbhabhishekam (consecration) of the Nithyananda Vedic Temple were performed during a three-day celebration recently.The temple intends to provide all four pillars of Vedic tradition -- yoga, meditation, a temple and a seat of higher learning for all dimensions of Vedic culture and tradition. 'This temple will serve as the headquarters for the West to radiate enlightening Vedic sciences in all its dimensions,' Nityananda said at the inauguration.The ceremonies were steeped in Vedic traditions. Seven different rituals were performed for prana pratishta. Nithyananda conducted the shanmatha (six streams) ritual. The kumbhabhishekam (consecration) came after that.The shanmatha are represented by statues of Lord Nataraja (the dancing Shiva), Lord Venkateshwara (Vishnu), Devi, Lord Ganapathy, Lord Subramanya with his two wives and Lord Surya. The temple offers a unique blend of all religions of the Vedic tradition -- Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, represented by Lord Buddha, the 24 Jain Tirthankaras and the Guru Granth Sahib, respectively. After the maha arathi, a feast blessed by the swami and mahaprasad, consisting of 1008 items, was offered to the deities. Lakshaarchana, the 108 kalasa abhishekam (offering of 108 pots of energised water from 21 holy rivers of India), the 1008 shanku abhishekam (offering with 1008 conches) and the thiru kalyana utsavam -- the marriage of the deities -- were all performed while the swami explained the significance of every step in the Vedic marriage ritual.Later, Nithyananda guided hundreds of devotees through the Sri Vidya Puja, a technique to awaken and integrate the 43 energies within each person by letting go and surrendering himself to the universal mother energy. These energised Sri Chakra yantras, before which the devotees performed puja, were given as prasad.The inauguration ceremony was attended by Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami of the Kauai Hindu monastery, the publishers of Hinduism Today magazine; Swami Sarvadevananda of the Vedanta Society, Los Angeles, and local government officials as well as Republican Senatorial candidate Harry Sidhu. The California state Senate and the city of Montclair presented Nithyananda with certificates of recognition.The highlights of the other programs included discourses at the Ananda Sabha (Hall of Bliss) by Nithyananda on the Shiva Sutras. The Shiva Sutras is the dialogue between Lord Shiva and his consort Devi, where Shiva reveals to her meditation techniques for attaining the state of enlightenment.'Meditation is the core message of Vedic tradition. Diving into the deep silence in your inner space is the technique for true Vedic knowledge to happen in you,' Nithyananda said. Other events included a blood donation drive, and cultural presentations of dances, songs, and chants by local and professional artists. These performances, from a number of ethnic and religious traditions, included the Gurbani by Covina Gurudwara, Sufi music by Tasnima Hermila, Carnatic music by Babu Parameshwaran, Buddhist chanting by the Hsi Lai temple, and devotional songs written and sung by devotees. The temple complex also houses sculptures and artifacts presented by Nithyananda Sacred Arts which is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of ancient temple arts and support the skilled artisans of India and South East Asia. The Vedic temple also has a yoga studio, a library with 100,000 books on spirituality and religion from all traditions across the world, and a galleria of books, DVDs, CDs, Indian jewelry etc. 'The Indian community has invested billions of dollars across the United States in constructing temples. Hardly any investment or efforts have been made into building a center which can help us understand, sustain and propagate the Vedic culture and tradition,' Nithyananda noted.'The center will house a yoga center, a meditation hall, a Vedic temple hosting over a hundred deities including the tallest Venkateshwara and Nataraja, and will be a seat of higher learning for all dimensions of Vedic culture and tradition.'The Vedic Temple is built on two acres, with a building area of 24,000 square feet. The temple offers all six traditions of Vedic worship with 6 major shanmatha deities - Ganesha, Subramanya, Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu, Devi and the Navagrahas. The meditation hall has, among others, 108 Taandava moorthis, 108 Shiva lingas, the deities of 180 enlightened masters of the Vedic tradition, including Shirdi Sai Baba, the 24 Jain Tirthankaras, Lord Buddha, the Guru Granth Sahib and the 63 Nayanmars (enlightened masters of Tamil Nadu Shaivite tradition).
[FairfieldLife] Meat raises lung cancer risk, too- PLoS Medicine
People who eat a lot of red meat and processed meats have a higher risk of several types of cancer, including lung cancer and colorectal cancer, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. The work is the first big study to show a link between meat and lung cancer. It also shows that people who eat a lot of meat have a higher risk of liver and esophageal cancer and that men raise their risk of pancreatic cancer by eating red meat.A decrease in the consumption of red and processed meat could reduce the incidence of cancer at multiple sites, Dr. Amanda Cross and colleagues at the U.S. National Cancer Institute wrote in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.The researchers studied 500,000 people aged 50 to 71 who took part in a diet and health study done in conjunction with the AARP, formerly the American Association for Retired Persons.After eight years, 53,396 cases of cancer were diagnosed.Statistically significant elevated risks (ranging from 20 percent to 60 percent) were evident for esophageal, colorectal, liver, and lung cancer, comparing individuals in the highest with those in the lowest quintile of red meat intake, the researchers wrote.The people in the top 20 percent of eating processed meat had a 20 percent higher risk of colorectal cancer -- mostly rectal cancer -- and a 16 percent higher risk for lung cancer.Furthermore, red meat intake was associated with an elevated risk for cancers of the esophagus and liver, the researchers wrote. These differences held even when smoking was accounted for.Red meat was defined as all types of beef, pork and lamb. Processed meat included bacon, red meat sausage, poultry sausage, luncheon meats, cold cuts, ham and most types of hot dogs including turkey dogs.Meats can cause cancer by several routes, the researchers noted. For example, they are both sources of saturated fat and iron, which have independently been associated with carcinogenesis, the researchers wrote.Meat is also a source of several chemicals known to cause DNA mutations, including N-nitroso compounds (NOCs), heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).Jeanine Genkinger of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and Anita Koushik of the University of Montreal said the findings fit in with other research. Meat consumption in relation to cancer risk has been reported in over a hundred epidemiological studies from many countries with diverse diets, they wrote in a commentary. http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1043849120071211 http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-documentdoi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040325ct=1 - Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
[FairfieldLife] Islam�s Silent Moderates : NY Times
By AYAAN HIRSI ALI December 7, 2007 IN the last few weeks, in three widely publicized episodes, we have seen Islamic justice enacted in ways that should make Muslim moderates rise up in horror. A 20-year-old woman from Qatif, Saudi Arabia, reported that she had been abducted by several men and repeatedly raped. But judges found the victim herself to be guilty. Her crime is called mingling: when she was abducted, she was in a car with a man not related to her by blood or marriage, and in Saudi Arabia, that is illegal. Last month, she was sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes with a bamboo cane. Two hundred lashes are enough to kill a strong man. Women usually receive no more than 30 lashes at a time, which means that for seven weeks the girl from Qatif, as shes usually described in news articles, will dread her next session with Islamic justice. When she is released, her life will certainly never return to normal: already there have been reports that her brother has tried to kill her because her crime has tarnished her familys honor. We also saw Islamic justice in action in Sudan, when a 54-year-old British teacher named Gillian Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days in jail before the government pardoned her this week; she could have faced 40 lashes. When she began a reading project with her class involving a teddy bear, Ms. Gibbons suggested the children choose a name for it. They chose Muhammad; she let them do it. This was deemed to be blasphemy. Then theres Taslima Nasreen, the 45-year-old Bangladeshi writer who bravely defends womens rights in the Muslim world. Forced to flee Bangladesh, she has been living in India. But Muslim groups there want her expelled, and one has offered 500,000 rupees for her head. In August she was assaulted by Muslim militants in Hyderabad, and in recent weeks she has had to leave Calcutta and then Rajasthan. Taslima Nasreens visa expires next year, and she fears she will not be allowed to live in India again. It is often said that Islam has been hijacked by a small extremist group of radical fundamentalists. The vast majority of Muslims are said to be moderates. But where are the moderates? Where are the Muslim voices raised over the terrible injustice of incidents like these? How many Muslims are willing to stand up and say, in the case of the girl from Qatif, that this manner of justice is appalling, brutal and bigoted and that no matter who said it was the right thing to do, and how long ago it was said, this should no longer be done? Usually, Muslim groups like the Organization of the Islamic Conference are quick to defend any affront to the image of Islam. The organization, which represents 57 Muslim states, sent four ambassadors to the leader of my political party in the Netherlands asking him to expel me from Parliament after I gave a newspaper interview in 2003 noting that by Western standards some of the Prophet Muhammads behavior would be unconscionable. A few years later, Muslim ambassadors to Denmark protested the cartoons of Muhammad and demanded that their perpetrators be prosecuted. But while the incidents in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and India have done more to damage the image of Islamic justice than a dozen cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, the organizations that lined up to protest the hideous Danish offense to Islam are quiet now. I wish there were more Islamic moderates. For example, I would welcome some guidance from that famous Muslim theologian of moderation, Tariq Ramadan. But when there is true suffering, real cruelty in the name of Islam, we hear, first, denial from all these organizations that are so concerned about Islams image. We hear that violence is not in the Koran, that Islam means peace, that this is a hijacking by extremists and a smear campaign and so on. But the evidence mounts up. Islamic justice is a proud institution, one to which more than a billion people subscribe, at least in theory, and in the heart of the Islamic world it is the law of the land. But take a look at the verse above: more compelling even than the order to flog adulterers is the command that the believer show no compassion. It is this order to choose Allah above his sense of conscience and compassion that imprisons the Muslim in a mindset that is archaic and extreme. If moderate Muslims believe there should be no compassion shown to the girl from Qatif, then what exactly makes them so moderate? When a moderate Muslims sense of compassion and conscience collides with matters prescribed by Allah, he should choose compassion. Unless that happens much more widely, a moderate Islam will remain wishful thinking. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former member of the Dutch Parliament and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of Infidel.
[FairfieldLife] Software professionals take up cleaning of temples
After six days of working on the keyboard in air-conditioned glass-and-chrome buildings, a handful of software professionals rolled up their sleeves on Sundays to clean temples located near the city. These IT firms employees have joined heritage experts, conservationists and archaeologists of the Rural Education and Conservation of Heritage Foundation to volunteer in identifying old temples, removing weeds and overgrown vegetation and protecting the structures. U.S. Madan, a 28-year-old employee of software firm CollabNet, said he was drawn to the historical information that could be gathered from the old temples. The stories associated with the temples and the style of architecture also attract many youngsters. J. Chandrasekhar, a plastics technology engineer, has been trying to rope in volunteers from IT and BPO firms, as the temple-cleaning tours would open doors to a whole new experience. The volunteers enjoy the physical work involved in de-weeding and cleaning, he said. At present, the group has taken up cleaning of the Kundrathur Valeeswarar Temple and its restoration. They collect funds from friends and well-wishers for equipment and material. Rajan Ganesh, an employee of Cognizant Technologies in Pune, had started an online group for temple cleaners when he was in Chennai. He continues to support the activities and spread the message of temple preservation. The group also records its activities on templesrevival.blogspot.com The Department of Archaeology, Tamil Nadu, organised a heritage tour for students of Bharathi Womens College at the Thiagaraja Swamy Temple in Tiruvottiyur on Tuesday to mark the conclusion of the World Heritage Week celebrations. The 900-year-old temple has stone inscriptions that carry interesting information. One of them records in precise detail the extent of land donated to the temple. In India, there are one lakh stone inscriptions of which 65,000 are in Tamil. They provide tangible evidence about kings and the period when the temples were built, said T. Sathyamurthy, former Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Chennai Circle. The college students, from the Department of History, got a chance to use the estampage technique to read the stone inscriptions. First, a sheet of damp, white paper is spread on the stone and smoothened with brushes. A black mixture like shoe polish is applied on the paper to show up the impression of the letters carved on stone. Epigraphist R. Sivanandam helped the students read the ancient script. S. Vasanthi, archaeologist, urged the students to tell their friends and relatives to refrain from defacing stone inscriptions in temples. http://www.hindu.com/2007/11/28/stories/2007112859880300.htm - Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
[FairfieldLife] James Bond takes up yoga
James Bond (Daniel Craig) is preparing for his second outing as 007 - by doing yoga and pilates.He pumped up his pecs to play suave secret agent James Bond in Casino Royale, but now he wants the hero to look more lithe.To get a toned look, the actor has ditched the dumbbells and hit the yoga mat.A source said: He hates the gym but is enjoying the calming exercises yoga and pilates. He can balance on our chakras any time... http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/3am/2007/11/24/daniel-takes-up-yoga-89520-20154220/ - Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
[FairfieldLife] Feng shui? Forget it. Vaastu shastra is now attracting followers
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/21/HOFKT0DS6.DTLhw=Feng+shuisn=001sc=1000 http://tinyurl.com/2zgeyz An ancient design philosophy from the East that stresses achieving harmony between home and body is finding its way into the United States. Feng shui? That's been done. Bay Area, get ready for vaastu shastra. A design framework that comes from ancient Indian Hindu scriptures, vaastu at its heart is the belief that one's environment is a physical extension of the body, and that home design can affect a person's health. Vaastu is a science, not an art, religion or philosophy, says Liz Jan, a home designer who recently moved from San Francisco to New Mexico to deepen her study of vaastu. Vaastu design is undergoing something of a renaissance in India and remains better known there than in the United States. But anyone familiar with green building techniques and the more-recognized feng shui may be surprised to learn how much vaastu has in common with them.The idea behind vaastu is to orient rooms toward different positions of the sun at different times of the day, being mindful of the quality of the sunlight and not just the level of solar energy, says Anthony Lawlor, an architect at Polsky Perlstein Architects in Larkspur and the author of The Temple in the House: Finding the Sacred in Everyday Architecture. Ideally, the rooms would be like spokes of a wheel, so that you are harmonizing your activities with the sun's energy, Lawlor says. In a practical sense, that means orienting the dining room toward the south, so that the intensity of the sun's rays at midday assists in digestion; quieter rooms such as bedrooms should be placed to the north where the lower evening light prevails. Positioning a house to take advantage of natural sunlight is something green builders have long touted as an environmentally friendly design principle. Michael McCutcheon is the president of McCutcheon Construction in Berkeley, a company that incorporates both green and vaastu principles in its design work. Green builders are using vaastu without knowing it, says McCutcheon, who learned about vaastu as a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation and spends a lot of time at environmental building conferences. The rishis in India were the ones who recognized the rhythms of nature; the green building movement should recognize the shoulders on which it stands. Beyond an affinity for natural light, the quality of materials is key for both vaastu and environmentally aware builders. There is wisdom in the materials, Lawlor says. If you use wood, stone or plaster, the building quality is different than if you design a building using vaastu principles and then use toxic or synthetic materials.Both Lawlor and McCutcheon have spent time in the city considered the heart of American vaastu design: Fairfield, Iowa. It is the home of Maharishi University of Management, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who founded the TM movement. In Fairfield, McCutcheon says, many of the new buildings have been designed from the ground up based on the principles of vaastu. This has prompted controversy because it meant tearing down existing structures to build new ones that, for example, have entrances facing east. Pandit Pravinji, an astrologer and vaastu consultant in Antioch, says that when it comes to vaastu design and an existing home, You just can't do everything. But if the home you live in is, say, 70 to 75 percent balanced according to vaastu, you will still get good results. In selecting his own home, Pravinji notes that some aspects of the existing layout were very favorable, such as the morning sun that streams into his kitchen at breakfast time, and the room where he performs his puja, or daily worship. And he has furnished the home carefully in accordance with vaastu principles to lend it a feeling of spaciousness and quiet: painting the worship room blue to promote meditative calm, for instance. Still, says Pravinji, if he could change one thing about the house, I would move my master bedroom. It is not in the southwest corner where it ideally should be placed. But I try to be flexible and not worry too much.In the Bay Area, it's not easy to find a building - residential or commercial - that has been torn down and rebuilt according to vaastu principles. More often than not, people are interested in fixes for an existing home. If they're lucky, as Pravinji was, their homes might (mostly) conform to vaastu principles without having been designed that way. Otherwise, McCutcheon says, they will be limited to the quick fix, which can limit vaastu's effectiveness. There's no evidence that people are knocking down their homes, McCutcheon says. Rather, they're tinkering with it. Feng shui is actually a much better way to tinker with a building, he says, because it is more flexible than vaastu, which demands a rigidly prescribed geometric and
[FairfieldLife] Fasting for one day a month 'cuts the risk of heart attack'
Fasting one day a month -- whether for religious or health reasons -- may help lower the risk of heart disease, a new study has found.Researchers at the University of Utah, who studied members of a Mormon community that foregoes food for a day every month for religious reasons, found they have lower rates of heart disease.The researchers, whose findings were presented Monday at the ongoing American Heart Association's scientific session, said the benefits hold equally good for those who fast for health reasons.The Utah Mormons, also called the Latter-Day Saints (LDS), have long been studied for their lower rates of heart disease, but most researchers have focussed on their avoidance of tobacco -- again for religious reasons.The latest study sought to identify any other religious practice that may also contribute to their healthier hearts.When we adjusted for smoking, or looked just at the non-smokers, we still found a lower rate of CAD (coronary artery disease) in people having an LDS religious preference, the researchers said. We thought this was very interesting, so we devised a survey about other behaviours associated with LDS that might bring a health benefit.Fasting was the strongest predictor of lower heart disease risk in the people we surveyed. About eight percent of the people who fasted did not express an LDS religious preference, and they also had less coronary disease.While this doesn't prove that fasting is the cause of having healthier arteries, it does suggest that it is an important, and new, hypothesis. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=492163in_page_id=1770 - Get easy, one-click access to your favorites. Make Yahoo! your homepage.
[FairfieldLife] Taliban vandalize another Buddha statue
In 2001 Taliban had vandalized 2 very tall Buddha statues in Afghanishtan. The Taliban have done it again, this time around they hv vandalized a Buddha statue in Swat Valley, Pakistan. http://in.news.yahoo.com/07/211/6n304.html In a replay of the vandalism that destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan in 2001, pro-Taliban militants have now damaged a 40-metre tall carving of Buddha in the Swat valley in north-western Pakistan.The Buddha statues head, shoulders and feet have been destroyed. The militants have now threatened a third and final attack on the statue to reduce it to rubble. The statue is believed to be dating back to the second century BC. Considered the largest in Asia after the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, the militants had attacked the statue in August-September as well.This was the only giant Buddha statue after Bamiya. On September 29 extremists had tried to destroy it but the first attack on it was made on August 12. Archeologists say that it is difficult to protect the statues. People in the area still live in fear of other possible reprisals, Dawn News correspondent Hamid Ullah Khan told CNN-IBN.Swat, which is 200 km northwest of Islamabad, has practically been overrun by Islamic fundamentalists led by Mullah Fazlullah. The Harmarajika stupa in Taxila and Butkarha stupa in Swat were among the earliest stupas of Gandhara an ancient kingdom consisting of modern-day Peshawar, Taxila, Swat and, according to some historians, parts of Kashmir. These stupas had been erected on the orders of Emperor Ashoka and contained real relics of the Buddha. The Gandhara school is credited with the first representation of the Buddha in human form. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] LOVE OF GOD : A MATHEMATICAL APPROACH
Absolutely amazing! Beauty of Math! 1 x 8 + 1 = 9 12 x 8 + 2 = 98 123 x 8 + 3 = 987 1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876 12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765 123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654 1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543 12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432 123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321 1 x 9 + 2 = 11 12 x 9 + 3 = 111 123 x 9 + 4 = 1234 x 9 + 5 = 1 12345 x 9 + 6 = 11 123456 x 9 + 7 = 111 1234567 x 9 + 8 = 12345678 x 9 + 9 = 1 123456789 x 9 +10= 11 9 x 9 + 7 = 88 98 x 9 + 6 = 888 987 x 9 + 5 = 9876 x 9 + 4 = 8 98765 x 9 + 3 = 88 987654 x 9 + 2 = 888 9876543 x 9 + 1 = 98765432 x 9 + 0 = 8 Brilliant, isn't it? And look at this symmetry: 1 x 1 = 1 11 x 11 = 121 111 x 111 = 12321 x = 1234321 1 x 1 = 123454321 11 x 11 = 12345654321 111 x 111 = 1234567654321 x = 123456787654321 1 x 1=123456789 87654321 Now, take a look at this... 101% From a strictly mathematical viewpoint: What Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been in situations where someone wants you to GIVE OVER 100%. How about ACHIEVING 101%? What equals 100% in life? Here's a little mathematical formula that might help answer these questions: If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Is represented as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26. If: H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K 8+1+18+4+23+ 15+18+11 = 98% And: K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E 11+14+15+23+ 12+5+4+7+ 5 = 96% But: A-T-T-I-T-U- D-E 1+20+20+9+20+ 21+4+5 = 100% THEN, look how far the love of God will take you: L-O-V-E-O-F- G-O-D 12+15+22+5+15+ 6+7+15+4 = 101% Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that: While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, It's the Love of God that will put you over the top! __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress
A Story of how Needham High School , Mass., is using yoga and other relaxation techniques to help students fight stress : http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/education/29stress.html It was 6:30 p.m. The lights were still on at Needham High School, here in the affluent Boston suburbs. Paul Richards, the principal, was meeting with the Stress Reduction Committee.On the agenda: finding the right time to bring in experts to train students in relaxation techniques.Dont try to have them teach relaxation in study hall, said Olivia Boyd, a senior. Students, she explained, wont want to interrupt their work. They were already too busy before or after school for the training.No one is busier than Josh Goldman. Captain of varsity tennis, president of the Spanish club and a member of the student council and the Stress Reduction Committee, Josh was not able to squeeze in the meeting at all. Mr. Richards noted his absence wryly. Josh is a perfect example, he said. Hes got a hundred things going on.Here is the high-powered culture that Mr. Richards is trying to change, even if only a little.But cultural change does not come smoothly. When Mr. Richards stopped publishing the honor roll in the local newspaper last winter, a move aimed at some parents who had turned the lists into a public accounting, Rush Limbaugh accused him of politically correct coddling of students, and Jay Leno mocked the school on national television. He received hate mail from all over the country.Mr. Richards is undeterred. Its not that Im trying to turn the culture upside down, he said. Its very important to protect the part of the culture that leads to all the achievement, he said. Its more about bringing the culture to a healthier place.His new stress committee is starting to come up with recommendations, like the relaxation consultants, and is surveying students about unhealthy stress. This term, Mr. Richards is talking up the yoga classes that are required of all seniors. He has asked teachers to schedule homework-free weekends and holidays. The irony, he said, referring to the homework breaks, is that students tell us they appreciate the time because it allows them to catch up on other schoolwork. Mr. Richards is just one principal in the vanguard of a movement to push back against an ethos of super-achievement at affluent suburban high schools amid the extreme competition over college admissions. He has joined like-minded administrators from 44 other high schools and middle schools most in the San Francisco Bay Area but others scattered from Texas to New York to form a group known as S.O.S., for Stressed Out Students. The group was formed four years ago by Denise Pope, a lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education and author of the book, Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic and Miseducated Students (Yale University Press, 2001). High schools in other Boston suburbs Wellesley, Lexington, Wayland have taken steps similar to Needhams, organizing stress committees and yoga classes. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] The popular elective course at a B-School � Spirituality for Global Managers
The popular elective course at India's leading B-school , IIM Spirituality for Global Managers. This course has management students looking at Krishna as the CEO; Yudhishtir who binds together values; Bhima (outcomes); Arjun (learning); Karna (legitimacy); Nakul (process) and Shadev (purpose). The Mahabharata is not about good and evil instead, it teaches you that life is grey. Defining the grey is not easy because it is deeply rooted to the context. So, negotiate the grey. Spiritual discourse by a seer? No, words of wisdom for future global managers in an IIM-Bangalore classroom. What has the Mahabharata got to do with IIMs? Lots. The great Indian epic can be used to compare each of the Pandavas to managers of today with their roles, strengths, weaknesses and consequences. Says Ramnath Narayanaswamy, professor at IIM-B: The Ramayana and Mahabharata are outstanding texts for all times and can be contemporised to any age. The Pandavas, Karna included, are each a great hero with a fatal flaw. What is interesting is the way in which each of the Pandavas has been made relevant in the management context. Explains Narayanaswamy: Yudhishtir is the mentor whose strengths are his values and beliefs. He stands for propriety but he is blinded by his code of honour. Similarly, Bhima is an 'executor' manager. For him, the outcome is supremely important, the bottomline matters his weakness is he can be blinded by rage. Nakul, points out the IIM-B professor, is the enabler the service hero of today. He's driven by process, but there's no active leadership. Sahadeva is the visionary, but he is like the manager who stands for thought and no action. Karna's strength is personal loyalty, it also brings about his doom. He's like the manager of today who'd buy vegetables for his bosses, says Narayanaswamy. Arjun stands for flawless perfection. His strength is that he's assailed by doubt, but he's willing to learn. Today's young managers are Arjuns, in search of their own heroism they want to discover their own meaning in life, says Narayanaswamy. But the best part is the course's attempt to isolate the insides of religious traditions and contemporise them in a managerial situation. Scholars from different religious traditions deliver lectures. These include Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sufism, Jainism, Judaism and other religions, though the focus is not on scriptures. The focus is on spirituality, not religion. Ramnath Narayanaswamy says: There are three components in management the analytical (head), the emotional (heart) and the spiritual (soul). But, management education completely ignores emotional intelligence (EI) and focuses only on analytical intelligence. However, our young future managers need feeling and imagination. It's difficult to teach these as they are experience-driven. Life skills like creative thinking, listening, mentoring, working under pressure, empathy, team building all these come from EI. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] The popular elective course at a B-School � Spirituality for Global Managers
Resending the link for the abv msg : http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2510295,prtpage-1.cms __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] Holy Spirits! Aussies turn pub into church
Jesus Christ may have turned water into wine, but for a group of Australian churchgoers the ideal place to worship on a Sunday is a pub.Devoid of a church in the docklands entertainment area of Melbourne, a group of Christians have created the Docklands Church inside the James Squire Brewhouse. Jesus did turn water into wine, he was kind of radical, he was connected with his culture, and yet he had a great message for our world, Docklands Church minister Guy Mason said after his first service on Sunday. Mason told local media that worshippers were offered not only a message from the bible but also a meal and tea and coffee, but anyone could have a pint before or after the church service. The choice of location was a way of modernizing the church, he said. All we want to be is relevant, we want to be applicable and contemporary and...we're going to keep the bible open as well, said one parishioner, with a beer in his hand. Another parishioner said: I think a lot of people who do want to go out and have a drink or go out and have a party often feel that they're excluded from God. http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSSYD642520071029 __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] Diwali Resolution passed by House of Representatives
A bill recognizing the religious and historical significance of the festival of Diwali passed in the full House of Representatives by a mammoth margin of 358 to 0. House resolution 747 was introduced jointly by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Jim McDermott (D-WA) and with its passage becomes the first bill to ever pass the House recognizing a Hindu festival that is also marked by Sikhs and Jains. Intending to have the bill passed prior to November 9, when Diwali will be celebrated this year, the bill was introduced and passed in the Foreign Affairs Committee last week and moved quickly to the successful full vote today. My resolution acknowledges the international, religious, and historical importance of the festival of Diwali as well as the religious diversity in India, the United States, and throughout the world, said Congressman Wilson in a statement that was read on the floor of the House prior to the vote today. It shows our support for the strong and growing partnership and dialogue in international efforts between the United States and India. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) also took the floor to speak on behalf of the bill. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/diwali-sets-to-become-official-in-us/top/37417-2.html?xml http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.org/media_press_release_747_passes.htm http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.res.00747: __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] Yoga tested as back pain therapy
Millions of UK people suffer from chronic low back pain, and existing treatments have only a limited effect. A team of academics, yoga teachers and practitioners have joined forces to find out if a 12-week course of yoga can make a difference. The Arthritis Research Campaign-backed project will assess moves from the two most popular types of yoga. These are lyengar yoga and hatha yoga, favoured by the British Wheel of Yoga. More than 260 people between the ages of 18 and 65 who have had back pain in the past 18 months will be recruited for the trial. Recent, small studies in the US have shown that yoga can be helpful for back pain sufferers. But David Torgerson, director of the University of York Clinical trials Unit, and Jennifer Klaber Moffett, deputy director of the Institute of Rehabilitation at the University of Hull, believe a bigger study is needed to unequivocally establish the benefits. Professor Torgerson said: Yoga offers a combination of physical exercise with mental focus that may make it a suitable therapy for the treatment of low back pain. If the trial shows yoga to be effective then this low-cost treatment will have a considerable impact in the quality of life of patients with back pain. Yoga develops flexibility and muscular endurance by allowing the muscles to be stretched and strengthened. Patients will be recruited from GP surgeries from September and the 12-week classes, to be held in north and central London, York, Manchester and Cornwall, will begin in November. The classes will be run by 10 experienced yoga teachers who have all received specialist training. Half the participants will take part in yoga classes, and the other half will receive the usual care. They will be assessed at the end of the classes, then six months and a year later to see if there are any longer-term benefits. The yoga classes will be carefully structured for people who are complete novices and will not involve any difficult poses. They will be graduated over the 12-week period, starting off gently and becoming more demanding, with a combination of stretches, bends, lying sitting, standing and relaxing poses. Patients will also be encouraged to practise daily at home. Anna Semlyen, a yoga teacher who is helping to run the classes, said: Regular yoga increases the benefits, and we would hope that at the end of the 12 weeks people would carry on. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6725967.stm - Park yourself in front of a world of choices in alternative vehicles. Visit the Yahoo! Auto Green Center.
[FairfieldLife] Romanian Football team trains at a monastery
A Romanian football club shocked its players by organising a pre-season training camp at a monastery.The Cetatea Targu Neamt side is spending 10 days at Neamt monastery, in mountains six miles from the nearest village.They chose the venue partly for financial reasons but also in the hope next season would be better if they trained close to God.The players are training on the monks' sports field, eating only food cooked at the monastery and living in total silence interrupted only by religious music.Goalkeeper Vlad Condur said: At first I couldn't believe we were going to have a training camp at the monastery.We were very shocked by the total quietness we found in our rooms. It is something we are not used to but I think it's going to be great for our training.Priest Ion Mihoc said he hoped more clubs would follow their lead.Since they're here maybe the footballers will come visit the church and pray for their health or to have a good championship next season, he said.I hope other teams will follow after they'll realise the advantages of such a physical and spiritual training camp. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2423604.html - Park yourself in front of a world of choices in alternative vehicles. Visit the Yahoo! Auto Green Center.
[FairfieldLife] US denies visas to Hindu priests
Hindu temples and religious groups in the US are reeling from visa denials resulting in shortage of temple priests and stalled temple construction projects, a Hindu group has said in an affidavit seeking changes to US immigration rules. In a submission to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a legal team for the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) said Hindu priests, temple artisans and traditional temple architects are increasingly being denied the R-1 religious worker visa because of US regulations weighed in favour of Judeo-Christian terminology. The brief maintains that defining eligibility for R-1 status using terms such as liturgical workers, catechists, cantors, missionaries, and ritual slaughter supervisors... may potentially serve to discriminate against those organisations that differ from the practice, structure and function of the Judeo-Christian guidelines upon which the regulations are based. From what defines a Hindu religious occupation, to whether a temple shilpi (Hindu temple stone sculptor) belongs to a particular denomination, the current terminology proposed by the USCIS is absolutely foreign to the Hindu tradition, said Suhag Shukla, the foundations legal counsel. As religious worker visas become more difficult to obtain for Hindus, Hindu Americans must insist that their voice is heard in this process no less than the fundamental right to a free exercise of religion is at stake. Scores of Hindu temples have come up across the United States in recent years, including some of the biggest and grandest outside India, resulting in a steep hike in demand for the so-called R1 religious worker visas. Some 10,000 such visas were granted last year, but US officials, saying the visas are being misused, have sought to tighten regulations. The HAF says it supports US efforts to combat immigration fraud, but USCIS should alter current definitions and regulations to encompass the diversity Hindu traditions and Hindu religious occupations. The HAF brief also expresses concern that the visa application backlog combined with a proposed initial one-year limit on R-1 visas places a substantial administrative burden on community run Hindu temples throughout the US. There are an estimated 60 major Hindu temples across US and scores of smaller ones. Many of the temples are multi-million dollar structures that have been designed and built by shilpis flown in from India. Large temples such as Chicagos Venkateshwara Temple, Pittsburgs Balaji Temple and Flushing, New Yorks Mahavallabha Ganapati Temple, Flushing are now part of the Indian-American pilgrim circuit. Grander ones are being built all the time, especially by large well-funded organisations. Iskcon has embarked on a $61 Million Jagannath Cultural Project in Sedona, Arizona. Some time in the next few weeks, a grand Swaminarayan temple in Atlanta is scheduled to be inaugurated by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, head of the Gujarat-based Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swami-narayan Sanstha (BAPS). Such intense activity has greatly increased the demand for R-1 visas even as US immigration authorities have detected increasing irregularity, including false documentation and overstays. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US_denies_visas_to_Hindu_priests_artisans/articleshow/2121339.cms http://tinyurl.com/3x8vog var RN = new String (Math.random()); var RNS = RN.substring (2,11); var b2 = ' '; if (doweshowbellyad==1) bellyad.innerHTML = b2; - Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us.
[FairfieldLife] Hong Kong falls head over heels for yoga
A 5,000-year-old tradition rooted in meditation might not seem the obvious leisure activity for Hong Kong's high-octane big-spending population, but in the past five years yoga has taken the city by storm.Local company Pure Yoga last year opened what it believes is the world's biggest yoga studio, and the city has just hosted Asia's largest yoga conference, a four-day extravaganza with classes on everything from Thai massage to Sanskrit and a huge array of yoga equipment on sale.Just a few years ago yoga in Hong Kong was the preserve of a handful of small independent studios owned and run by instructors with little business acumen.Now it is part of the mainstream, dominated by chains such as Pure Yoga and Yoga Planet, run by the flamboyant Indian yogi Master Kamal whose media appearances have turned him into something of a local celebrity.For American yoga instructor Desiree Rumbaugh, a guest teacher at the weekend's Evolution Asia conference, it is the fast pace of life in Hong Kong that has made yoga such a hit.It's amazing, it's like 10 times the stress of New York, she says. The city has such a buzz to it. And people here are really committed, they are going to classes three or four times a week.Colin Grant, founder of Pure Yoga and the man behind Evolution Asia, estimates around two percent of Hong Kong's six million people now practise yoga regularly, a renaissance he attributes to the new style of studio.When we first opened I didn't have a yogi head, I had a business head, so I applied what I thought would be good business sense to a yoga studio, he said. We offered complimentary towels, we supplied mats and we had lockers. So someone working in a regular office could rock up and do a class and not have to drag a big bag into work.We made a million-dollar investment in our first studio and everyone thought we were mad. But it changed the model and within a month we had 450 people a day coming to classes, most of whom had never done a class in their lives.For Hong Kong's image-conscious residents, yoga's new-found popularity also goes hand-in-hand with the availability of fashionable gear.High-profile devotees such as Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sting have helped make the practice trendy, and even Louis Vuitton has its own yoga line. Yoga mats, bags and clothes are big business for major brands such as Adidas and Nike, but even dedicated labels like the Vancouver-based Lululemon are now multi-million dollar concerns.Lululemon had revenues of nearly 150 million dollars last year, and in May announced plans for a stock market float to fund expansion.Yoga is now estimated to generate about 18 billion dollars annually worldwide.The increasing involvement of mainstream brands keen to cash in on yoga's popularity, combined with the growing perception of it as a way of keeping fit, has led to concern that the true meaning behind the ancient discipline is being lost.Conference-goer Elke Shuettler, a Hong Kong resident who began learning yoga in her native Germany, said there was a danger people learning now could miss out on the spiritual and mental benefits.Yoga is much more than gymnastics, she said. It is very important that there is more to it than the physical side.Grant conceded there were concerns, particularly over a new breed of classes claiming to combine the discipline with such un-yogic activities as kick-boxing.But he said commercialisation would not necessarily harm yoga.We're not going to be offering fusion-combat-yoga, I can tell you that. But if people like it -- no problem, he said. It's what you make it. If I want to do a power class and have a good workout or do a deep meditation class, neither is more yogic or less yogic.Conference director Paveena Atipatha believes that while yoga's popularity has probably peaked in the United States, Asia offers considerable growth opportunities. In the US yoga is now a 3.5-billion-dollar industry. But Asia is where the US was five or even 10 years ago, she said.Yoga is already popular in Japan and growing rapidly in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Korea. Studio operators are now looking to China?s growing middle class as the next major opportunity.Hong Kong is probably one of the more mature markets, said Grant. Quite a lot of our students have gone to China and set up studios there. It?s at the very early stages in China but we?re looking at opportunities there. http://au.news.yahoo.com/070605/19/13nyi.html - Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.
[FairfieldLife] War-hit Iraq turns to Indian guru for some peace
Ravaged by a violence they had never known before, despairing Iraqis Wednesday turned to Indian spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for peace that was snuffed out of their lives by the 2003 US invasion. Around 80 Shia and tribal leaders, mostly dressed in traditional Arab gear, listened attentively to Ravi Shankar at the office of a Shia group in Baghdad as he pleaded with them to end all killings.According to his Art of Living Foundation, Ravi Shankar also met separately a group of grieving Iraqi women widowed by the unending insurgency and Shia-Sunni conflict.While one tribal leader blamed the US for their suffering, a Red Crescent official told the guru to bring into Iraqi lives 'the art of living since they only know the art of dying', a spokesperson for Ravi Shankar told IANS over phone from Bangalore. And Prime Minister Nouri al Malaki, who has invited Ravi Shankar as an ambassador of peace, urged him late Tuesday, shortly after his arrival, to help reform prisoners in Baghdad's jails through yoga and meditation.Art of Living officials said they - and also Ravi Shankar - were overwhelmed by the response to their guru's three-day visit to Iraq.'The response is simply terrific,' a spokesperson said, quoting reports received from Baghdad. 'The people of Iraq want peace and deserve peace.'It is the first time an Indian guru or for that matter any non-Islamic spiritual leader of some standing has forayed into Baghdad, a once serene city that now knows only suicide bombings, firings and fratricidal killings.With the American occupation turning Iraq upside down, having killed over 655,000 people and wounding many more, Iraqis are desperate to regain the stable life they were long used to. The Art of Living Foundation, which enjoys a vast following in India and abroad, says the yoga, meditation and breathing techniques it advocates are powerful weapons than can kill anxiety and depression that have gripped Iraq.Seated on a raised platform and speaking in English with an Arabic interpreter in attendance, Ravi Shankar referred to Mahatma Gandhi and urged Shia and tribal leaders: 'Give non-violence a try, give peace a chance.'This was the message he conveyed to everyone, his aides said.Ravi Shankar flew into Baghdad from Amman Tuesday. His entourage took two and a half hours to cover the short distance from the Baghdad airport to his hotel in the US-protected Green Zone area.The Art of Living Foundation, which has been active in Iraq for four years and has many Iraqi volunteers, runs prisoner reform programmes in several cities including New Delhi.Earlier, Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit met Ravi Shankar in Amman, where the guru presided over a meeting of 1,000 people eager to learn yoga, meditation and breathing techniques.Ravi Shankar is to visit the Art of Living trauma relief centre in Baghdad and then return to Amman where he will talk at the University of Jordan and attend a VIP reception thrown in his honour.Since 2003, the Art of Living and its sister concern, The International Association for Human Values, have been working under difficult circumstances in Iraq to help people overcome their deep pain and suffering.The volunteers have also conducted trauma relief courses in various parts of Iraq, especially in Baghdad. Medicines, food and clothes have also been offered. At a time when most NGOs have been compelled to evacuate their volunteers from Iraq following violence and kidnappings, Art of Living has stayed put. Last year, 43 Iraqis, mostly women, graduated to be Art of Living teachers. So far, 5,000 Iraqis have undergone the Art of Living trauma relief workshops apart from attending ayurvedic training camps. Ravi Shankar's followers have also initiated a women empowerment project under which Iraqi women get vocational training such as tailoring and computer skills. Over 500 women have benefited from the programme. This story can be read at this link: http://in.news.yahoo.com/070523/43/6g5kr.html Picture of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki can be viewed here: http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/23look.htm Regards Rama Krishna - Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online.
[FairfieldLife] Study Suggests Meditation Can Help Train Attention
According to a study published in the online edition of the journal PloS Biology, three months of rigorous training in this kind of meditation leads to a profound shift in how the brain allocates attention. It appears that the ability to release thoughts that pop into mind frees the brain to attend to more rapidly changing things and events in the world at large, said the studys lead author, Richard Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Expert meditators, he said, are better than other people at detecting such fast-changing stimuli, like emotional facial expressions. Dr. Ron Mangun, director of the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the study, called the finding exciting. It provides neuroscience evidence for changes in the workings of the brain with mental training, in this case meditation, he said. We know we can learn and improve abilities of all sorts with practice, everything from driving to playing the piano. But demonstrating this in the context of meditation is interesting and novel. Recent research has shown that meditation is good for the brain. It appears to increase gray matter, improve the immune system, reduce stress and promote a sense of well-being. But Dr. Davidson said this was the first study to examine how meditation affects attention. The study exploited a brain phenomenon called the attentional blink. Say pictures of a St. Bernard and a Scottish terrier are flashed before ones eyes half a second apart, embedded in a series of 20 pictures of cats. In that sequence, most people fail to see the second dog. Their brains have blinked. Scientists explain this blindness as a misallocation of attention. Things are happening too fast for the brain to detect the second stimulus. Consciousness is somehow suppressed. But the blink is not an inevitable bottleneck, Dr. Davidson said. Most people can identify the second target some of the time. Thus it may be possible to exert some control, which need not be voluntary, over the allocation of attention.In the study, 17 volunteers with no meditation experience spent three months at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass., meditating 10 to 12 hours a day. A novice control group meditated for 20 minutes a day over the same period. Both groups were then given attentional blink tests with two numbers embedded in a series of letters. As both groups looked for the numbers, their brain activity was recorded with electrodes placed on the scalp.Everyone could detect the first number, Dr. Davidson said. But the brain recordings showed that the less experienced meditators tended to grasp the first number and hang onto it, so they missed the second number. Those with more experience invested less attention to the first number, as if letting it go. This led to an increased ability to grasp the second number. The attentional blink was thought to be a fixed property of the nervous system, Dr. Davidson said. But this study shows that it can change with practice. Attention is a flexible, trainable skill.Just ask Daniel Levison, a staff researcher in the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin who meditated for three months as part of the study. Im a much better listener, he said. I dont get lost in my own personal reaction to what people are saying. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/health/psychology/08medi.html?_r=1oref=slogin http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-documentdoi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0050138 - Give spam the boot. Take control with tough spam protection in the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.
[FairfieldLife] GREEK PRESIDENT GREETS INDIAN PRESIDENT IN SANSKRIT
Greece and India are two ancient civilizations. President Abdul Kalaam of India was recently on a tour of Greece. He recieved a surprise on the tour when the President of Greece,greeted him in Sanskrit. The story is given below: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Greek_president_greets_Kalam_in_Sanskrit/articleshow/1965800.cms http://tinyurl.com/3y65b2 It was a pleasant surprise for President A P J Abdul Kalam when his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias greeted him in Sanskrit at the banquet ceremony hosted in honour of the visiting dignitary. Rashtrapati Mahabhaga, Suswagatam Yavana deshe Bhawatam (Mr President, welcome you in Greece), thus began the Greek President his speech at the banquet hosted at the Presidential palace on Thursday night much to the delight of the Indian delegation. Papoulias had studied Sanskrit in Germany and the reason to study the Indian classical language was to understand India better. I wanted to welcome you in Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language that is related to ancient Greek, and which I had the opportunity to learn and love during my time as a student in Germany, the Greek President said. India and Greece were the birthplaces of great civilisations, which at a certain point in time, in the era of Alexander the Great, met and formed an entirely particular relationship between them. It is said that the importance of civilisations is indicated, above all, by their ancient history and the beauty of their mythology on Creation. This criterion is definitely met by our cultures. We pride ourselves on Homer's Epic Poetry and Hesiodus and you are proud of Mahabharata and Ramayana, with their exceptional theological, philological and also philosophical considerations, he said. - Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit.
[FairfieldLife] [FairfieldLife] The chakras and Aum mentioned in the Bible...
Hello ! i read this message (from mdixon dt.Wed Jan 24, 2007 ) wherein it was stated that aum is mentioned in Bible: Revelation 1:10 I was in the spirit (meditation) on the Lords day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet. Aummm... an I browsed through a couple of Bibles online but couldn't get a confirmation on this i.e there is no specific reference to aum. i wuld be grateful if someone culd provide me some reference Bible ON THE NET where the specific reference to aum is contained. the bible i referred to was at this link: http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Rev/Rev001.html thanks rama krishna - TV dinner still cooling? Check out Tonight's Picks on Yahoo! TV.
[FairfieldLife] Tourists on spiritual high at Kumbh
Ardh kumbh mela is presently in progress at Allahabad. A report on foreign tourists practising kalpvaas at Ardh Kumbh mela: Inside the tents on the banks of river Ganga, as part of the Ardh Kumbh Mela, is practised a special way of life. Devotees sing bhajans and keertans (hymns) all day long, eat restricted diet and sleep on the ground.This life philosophy, called Kalpvaas, is known to be followed only in Prayagraj, the city of Allahabad.The main thing is how you can control your psycho or bio system. After Kalpvas, they feel some balancing of the chemicals, says Swami Avdhesha Nand.The popularity of the term, which is not new for the Indian devotee, is rising among visitors from across the world. Balkrishan, a devotee from England is practicising Kalpavaas at the Kumbh this time. We live very simply. And in that way of living simple we can concentrate more on Krishna, Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati, says Balkrishana.Even Sanak Sanatan who is also from England can rattle off quotes from books on Kalpvaas.In order to purify your soul, we should stay on the banks of Mother Ganga for atleast one month, says Sanak Sanatan.Robert from Poland, who like many visitors to the Kumbh, had come in search of enlightenment. But he discovered Kalpavaas instead.Its supposed to be austere. But Im having a lot of fun. It seems quite hard getting up in the morning. But I accept this. Its nice being part of the Indian culture and having the Krishna prasad, says RobertKumbh is a motley of different kinds of Kalpvaasis where most of them come in search of purity of the being. But there are also many others for whom this one month of tent life is all about picnic, business and missed opportunities getting rediscovered. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/tourists-on-spiritual-high-at-kumbh/top/30521-3.html - Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit.
[FairfieldLife] A US ARMY OFFICER BRINGS YOGA IN WAR RAVAGED IRAQ
Just after the Muslim evening call to prayers wafts through Baghdad, Maj. Michele Spencer and her students add their own chorus: Om...Om...Om. .. Spencer, a medic training officer with the multinational security transition command in Iraq, teaches soldiers to channel their energy in her yoga class. I believe that I teach with more conscious intention [in Iraq] to create peace and share a space where people can come and be one with their breath away from the cacophony of war, Spencer said . With all that focused intention, I believe the energy synergistically creates healing for all. Two years ago, Spencer began teaching yoga as a personal trainer from her home after studying Ashtanga Yoga, and then Power Vinyasa Flow yoga. Six months ago, when the reservist went to the Green Zone in Iraq with the 9th Brigade, 108th Division out of Charlotte, N.C., she decided the class could provide a calming effect for soldiers facing daily battles with stress. She said at least one other yoga instructor teaches at the embassy. She started teaching four students during her off time. Now, she said, she instructs yoga veterans and newcomers three days a week. Unlike the civil war that is happening outside of the Green Zone, yoga is an inside job affecting the hearts and minds of those who practice with the intention that the energy can transform them and the lives of others, Spencer said. Maybe the answers are right under our nose in a yoga pose: in a sun salute or stretching our tight backs in a downward facing dog. To read this story visit the armytimes website here: http://www.armytimes.com/story. php?f=1-292925- 2436060.php Major Spencer's website is also worth browsing: http://www.baghdadyoga.com/index. html Some snippets from her website: While what we can visually see in war, in conflicts at home or wherever may appear hopeless, I know the instruction and sharing of yoga cultivates positive change---It' s not that we need to withdraw from Baghdad...We need to go within! __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] US ARMY OFFICER BRINGS YOGA IN WAR RAVAGED IRAQ
Resending the links given in aforementioned mail sent earlier: http://tinyurl.com/y2ko8d http://tinyurl.com/y4rmew __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] A PUFF OF RADIOACTIVE POLONIUM
Smokers, you are puffing radioactivity! Ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko's death due to polonium made headlines, but few realise that the same polonium is also present in cigarette that they smoke. In fact it is the main causes of lung cancer in smokers. Cigarette smoke contains radioactivity. Smokers slowly poison themselves and also the passive smokers with polonium 210 and lead 210, two radioactive materials. They do not suffer from any acute radiation disease as the Russian spy but may develop an increased risk of lung cancer, says former secretary, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), Dr K S Parthasarthy.Different specialists have different connotations for the dose, but president of Tobacco Control Association of India, Dr Sajeela Maini says, the risk cannot be ignored.The association has in fact filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the Government asking for a total ban on the manufacture and sale of cigarettes.Many NGOs and health bodies had also approached the Government earlier, urging it to direct the cigarette manufacturers to label the amount of nicotine and tar present in it.However, Maini says that most people don't know that cigarette smoke also contains carbon monoxide, Tobacco Specific nitrosamines (TSN) and radioactive substance including polonium and lead. One puff of cigarette contains 4800 chemicals (I call them poison) out of which 69 are carcinogens. And the smoke which a passive smoke inhales contains no less than 400 of these chemicals, says Maini.Burning makes these chemicals more dangerous and carcinogenic and thus the smoke is more harmful, she adds.Lighted cigarettes produce polonium and insoluble lead in the mainstream. Smokers inhale them deep into their lungs.As the airways branch into narrower and narrower passageways, the particles of smoke bearing radioactive residues get deposited at these branches.With these hotspots delivering high radiation doses, most lung cancers are formed in these regions, Parthasarathy, also a nuclear radiation expert, says. In 1982, hundreds of smokers stopped the habit after reading an article Radioactivity in Cigarette Smoke in the New England Journal of Medicine. T H Winters and J R DiFranza of the University of Massachussets Medical Centre wrote that cigarette contains radioactivity in the form of Polonium-210 and lead-210, notes Dr Parthasarathy.The report claimed that a person smoking one-and-a half pack of cigarettes per day receives a dose to certain regions of the lung equal to 300 X-Ray films of chest per year.Radioactivity in tobacco came from phosphatic fertilisers that contained uranium and its decay product radium 226, according to a former researcher at the US Department of Agriculture, T C Rao.The radium decays into a number of products including polonium 210 and lead 210. Tobacco roots may absorb some radioactivity from soil. However, Parthasarathy notes that Indian farmers do not use phosphatic fertilisers. Scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre have shown that polonium 210 levels in Indian tobacco are 10-15 times lowers than those in American tobacco.Parthsarthy quotes a former director of World Health Surveys at the US Centers for Disease Control, Dr Ravenholt that Americans receive more radiation from tobacco smoke than from any other source. American smokers smoke on an average 11,000 cigarettes annually. Many Indians are not far behind, he says. http://in.news.yahoo.com/061219/211/6aerv.html http://prfamerica.org/RadioactivityInCigaretteSmoke.html __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] Trifala - Ayurvedic shield for nuclear radiation
Be it a cancer attack or the deadly assault of nuclear radiation, the age-old Ayurvedic formulation 'Trifala' holds the power of shielding mankind from all these onslaughts, Mr K P Mishra, top Radiation Biologist formerly associated with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai claimed here. Also the President of the Indian Society for Radiation Biology and Indian Biophysical Society Dr Mishra said that the peerless power of 'Trifala' -- a trinity of three herbs, Amalaki, Haritaki and Bibhitaki -- held the promise of protecting the body from the attack of dreadful disease like cancer and the onslaught of nuclear radiation. Dr Mishra, the former head of Radiation Biology and Health Sciences Division at BARC and presently a visiting professor to the Hiroshima University (Japan) is here to attend the 5th International Conference of 'Low Dose Radiation Effects on Human Health and Environment' underway at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). ''Trifala is not only the best laxative and colon tonic, but also offers perfect treatment to allergies, cold, flu and obesity. The age-old basic Ayurvedic formulation also tones up the immune system of the body -- essential to foil any attack be it cancer or nuclear radiation,'' Dr Mishra maintained. The basic Ayurvedic formulation can be of an immense protective value against diseases like cancer and radio-activity especially arising out of nuclear radiation in this era of growing dependence of nuclear power both for advancement and war. ''Trifala tones up the immune system, by differentiating between diseased human cells and the healthy or normal cells. Once the diseased cells have been identified, the power of Trifala kills these cells, making way for the development of new healthy cells, consequently toning up the immune system. Intake of this staple Ayurvedic formulation will thus help people beat all onslaughts on their body,'' he added. In case of nuclear radiation also a fully toned up immune system courtsey the intake of Trifala could help people neutralise the harmful effects of radio-activity, Dr Mishra said. Dr Mishra, who was heading the ongoing project at the BARC to develop a drug that would help the soldiers neutralise the harmfull effects of nuclear radiation in case of an atomic attack said the power of Trifala was discovered by a team member Dr Sandhya during the work on the project. ''The search is on for finding more such formulations like Trifala, which can make the body immune to deadly radiations,' ' Dr Mishra maintained. ''Research during the course of project has proved that Trifala consumers working in occupations replete with radio-activity like X-ray centres were immune to harmful radiations,' ' he added. Enlisting the other projects underway at the BARC, Dr Mishra said a series of efforts were being made to apply radioisotope technology -- technology based on naturally occurring or synthetic radioactive form of an element -- to benefit the country's population. The slew of radioisotope based iniatiatives included application to eliminate the destruction of crop by insects, tracing untapped ground water resources, besides checking the organ wise functioning of human body, he added. ''The technology is in the process of being applied to sterilise the insect population which destroy crops, thus saving a huge amount our crops which are decayed,'' he added. The most significant area of radioisotope, a seminal branch of nuclear medicine is the work on applying it to devise missile technology based medicine system, which will ensure targeted delivery of drugs especially in cases of cancer and diabetes. ''A missile hits a specific enemy target. Similarly efforts are underway at the BARC to devise a system of radioisotope based nuclear medicine, especially in cases of cancer, where the anti-cancer drug acts only on the diseased cells and not the healthy parts of the body,'' Dr Mishra. When the system is put in place, maximum result can be obtained through minimum input of drugs, thus replacing the side-effects of radio-therapy on patients and eliminating the need for surgical intervention to a large extent, he claimed. The Lyposome or Cell Membrane based targeted drug delivery system is being packaged in such a manner that even low dosage of the medication acts meticulously on the cancer cells and not on healthy cells, Dr Mishra maintained. The success of targeted drug delivery system will serve a breakthrough in the cancer treatment scene in the country http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/nov222006/update11522020061122.asp - Access over 1 million songs - Yahoo! Music Unlimited.
[FairfieldLife] yr query dt 4th Oct on Brahmcharya (celibacy)
Atman Robert, Jai Gurudev! This has refrence to yr query dt Oct 4th on Celibacy. Both the Hindu and Tibetan spiritual practices lay a great emphasis on Brahmcharya(Celibacy). The Patanjali Yog Sutras also talks of importance of continence.Here are some quotes from various sources:-"Brahmacharya or spotless chastity is the best of all penances; a celibate of such spotless chastity is not a human being, but a god indeed... To the celibate who conserves the semen with great efforts, what is there unattainable in this world? By the power of the composure of the semen, one will become just like myself. "- Lord Sankara"Caution in diet is of threefold value, but abstinence from sexual intercourse is of fourfold value. The Sannyasi had, and has a rule never to look at a woman. "- Atreya "Let not a Brahmin see a woman naked." - Manu"There is no doubt that people die prematurely by letting the semen out of the body; knowing this, the Yogi should always preserve semen and lead a life of strict celibacy." Siva Samhita-"And those students who find that world of God through chastity, their is that heavenly country; theirs in whatever world they are, is freedom." - Chhandogya Upanisad -"A wise man should avoid married life as if it were a burning pit of live coals. From the contact comes sensation, from sensation thirst, from thirst clinging, by ceasing from that, the soul is delivered from all sinful existence." - Lord Buddha"These sexual propensities, though they are at first like ripple, acquire the proportions of a sea on account of a bad company. Whenever the mental image of a woman crops up in your mind with evil thoughts, repeat mentally "Om Durgaa Devyai Namah " and do mental prostrations." - Swami Vivekananda"Know that in this world there is nothing that cannot be attained by one who remains from birth to death a perfect celibate . In one person, knowledge of the four Vedas, and in another, perfect celibacy- of these, the latter is superior to the former who is wanting in celibacy." - The Mahabharat"All men and youngmen in particular, can experience the immediate benefit of chastity. The memory is quiet and tenacious, the brain lively and fertile, the will energetic, the whole character gains a strength of which libertines have no conception, no prism show us our surroundings under such heavenly colours as that of chastity, which lights up with its rays the least objects in the universe and transports us into the purest joys of an abiding happiness that shows neither shadow neither decline. " - Prof. Montagaza "This seed (semen) is marrow to your bones, food to your brains, oil to your joints and sweetness to your breath and if you are a man, you should never loose a drop of it, until you are fully thirty years of age and then only for the purpose of having a child which shall be blessed by heaven and really one of the inmates of the kingdom of heaven by being born again. " - Dr. Molvil Keith M.D. Chastity no more injures the body and the soul, self-discipline is better than any other line of conduct. - Sir James Pagen"It is a singularly false notion... the notion of imaginary dangers in absolute continence. Virginity is a physical, moral and intellectual safeguard to youngmen. " Here are some links on celibacy: http://sivanandaonline.org/graphics/ebooks/swami_sivanandaji/downnload/practice_brahmacharya.htmlhttp://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/flatto.htmhttp://sivanandaonline.org/graphics/ebooks/swami_chidananda/DOWNLOAD/the_role_celibacy_Spiritual_Life.htmlRegards Rama krishna Want to be your own boss? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. Want to be your own boss? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. __._,_.___ To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe __,_._,___
[FairfieldLife] Yahoo, world's most popular e-mail, hit by worm
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc., the world's largest provider of e-mail services, said on Monday that a software virus aimed at Yahoo Mail users had infected "a very small fraction" of its base of more than 200 million accounts. The e-mail virus, or worm, has been dubbed Yamanner and landed in Yahoo mailboxes bearing the headline "New Graphic Site." Once opened, the message infects the computer and spreads to other users listed in Yahoo users' e-mail address books, security experts said. The e-mail containing the virus need only be opened -- in contrast to most worms that are hidden in attachments and require users to take an additional step -- to release the virus, according to computer security site Symantec Corp.. The Sunnyvale, California-based company advised users to update virus and firewall software on their computers and to block any e-mail sent from the address "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" "We have taken steps to resolve the issue and protect our users from further attacks of this worm," Yahoo spokeswoman Kelley Podboy said in a statement. "When we learn of e-mail abuse, such as a worm or other online threat, we take appropriate action," she said. "(A) solution has been automatically distributed to all Yahoo Mail customers, and requires no additional action on the part of the user." Yamanner, first detected by Yahoo and major computer anti-virus software makers earlier on Monday, was ranked as having a low threat level by Trend Micro Inc. and McAfee Inc. But Symantec considers the worm an "elevated threat," one step up from the lowest ranking in terms of relative danger. Symantec's Security Response site suggested Yahoo Mail users might protect themselves by upgrading to the latest test version of the recently upgraded Yahoo Mail software. The worm cannot run on the newest version of Yahoo Mail Beta," Symantec's site said. A Yahoo spokesman was not immediately available to comment on whether the company advised users to do this. The worm exploits a vulnerability in _javascript_ technology used to make the mail program easier to use by triggering embedded HTML scripts to run in the computer user's browser. The e-mail addresses are also sent to a remote online computer server, which may be used to run spam campaigns, experts said. The technical name of the worm goes by variants of "JS.Yamanner." http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNewsstoryID=2006-06-13T045548Z_01_N12358912_RTRUKOC_0_UK-YAHOO-VIRUS.xml __Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com __Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com __._,_.___ To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' SPONSORED LINKS Religion and spirituality Maharishi mahesh yogi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[FairfieldLife] SOLAR HEALING
The Solar Healing Center is focused on helping humanity to develop a better understanding of how the sun can be used to heal the mind, body and spirit as demonstrated by Hira Ratan Manek, who, as a result of sungazing, has claimed better physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.Hira Ratan Manek (HRM), among others, have proven that a person can live just on solar energy for very long periods without eating any food. This has come to be known as the HRM phenomenon. The method is used for curing all kinds of psychosomatic, mental and physical illnesses as well as increasing memory power and mental strength by using sunlight. One can get rid of any kind of psychological problems, and develop confidence to face any problem in life and can overcome any kind of fear including that of death within 3 months after starting to practice this method. As a result, one will be free from mental disturbances and fear, which will result in a perfect balance of mind. If one continues to apply the proper sungazing practice for 6 months, they will be free from physical illnesses. Furthermore, after 9 months, one can eventually win a victory over hunger, which disappears by itself thereafter.This is a straight-forward yet effective method based on solar energy, which enables one to harmonize and recharge the body with life energy and also invoke the unlimited powers of the mind very easily. Additionally, it allows one to easily liberate from threefold sufferings of humanity such as mental illnesses, physical illnesses and spiritual ignorance. For more info visit: http://www.solarhealing.com/ Sneak preview the all-new Yahoo.com. It's not radically different. Just radically better. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' SPONSORED LINKS Religion and spirituality Maharishi mahesh yogi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[FairfieldLife] TV networks choose Good Friday for an assault on TV decency!
On Good Friday, four broadcast TV networks sued in federal court to overturn specific FCC indecency rulings issued on March 15, 2006. The rulings determined that various broadcast TV network programs had violated the federal broadcast indecency law. In addition, the networks hope to convince the court that the broadcast indecency law is an anachronism that should be struck down as unconstitutional because viewers can use technology to block programs. What the TV networks now want is a new "constitutional right" to pollute the public airwaves with endless smut, without any fear of FCC reprisal! This is not a battle between the networks and the FCC. This is a battle between callous and greedy network TV moguls and the large majority of adult Americans who are disgusted by the filth coming through their televisions. If the networks choose to add insult to injury by going to the courts with their frustrations, we must go to Congress with ours. The Broadcast Indecency Enforcement Act of 2005 Fourteen months ago, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 310, the Broadcast Indecency Enforcement Act of 2005, by an overwhelming 389-35 vote. H.R. 310 will raise fines against broadcast indecency violators and strengthen the FCC's ability to enforce those fines. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens insisted on holding hearings on the TV indecency issue but has not allowed any bill to come up for a vote in his Committee. He hopes the networks will clean up the airwaves themselves - despite the fact that the networks now want an unlimited right to broadcast vile language and even hardcore sex! Something must be done to reach the entire Senate - and the only way to achieve action is through the grassroots! You can contact your two U.S. Senators at a local office near to where you live or by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or by going to www.senate.gov and using the FIND YOUR SENATORS search box to obtain phone numbers and email addresses for your Senators. Your message should be succinct. Ask your senators to take a stand against shameless TV network executives who want to transform the public airwaves into a public sewer. Ask them to support passage of H.R. 310, The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005. New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC and save big. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[FairfieldLife] hindu temple vandalised in minnesota
dear friends, hari om! i am sending a link caryying a news report dt. 8th April 2006 of a hindu temple being vandalised in minnesota. http://www.startribune.com/462/story/359012.html this is a very shocking and disturbingincident, which hurts the sentiments ofall the peace loving hindus the world over. regrds rama Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' SPONSORED LINKS Maharishi university of management Maharishi mahesh yogi Ramana maharshi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
