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Motherhood , the celebration of life

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Motherhood is the most rewarding experience for a woman in her lifetime. The rewards are not materialistic but purely in terms of love and joy. This experience identifies a woman with her innate ability to procreate and nurture. The moment a child is born, mother is also born. But this journey is not easy rather an overwhelming one. With the changing times, the roles played by a mother has also changed drastically. Today she is a multitasker, playing manifold roles in a single gamut. She is a homemaker as well as the bread-earner. But beyond that she is entire world to her kids. The new age mother faces some peculiar challenges. Some of them are cited below: 1. Changing social structure - In the new social order, which claims to be women-centric, more responsibilities have been added to women's kitty than her capacity. This takes a toll on her mental and physical well-being. Predominant nuclear-families and ruthless career aspirations by both the partners leads to increas...
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Memories

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"Sometimes you never knew the true value of a moment, until it becomes memory",a famous quote which we frequently use. Scientifically memory means remembrance of past experience or information by using certain mental faculties. These experiences and information are filtered by our brain primarily by the hippocampus. Memories are the  reminisce of the past engraved in our mind. Some memories fill out heart with exuberance and some with gloom. Indeed memories could be easily grouped into happy and sad entangling us in the web of duality. Anything that seems to have travelled with the time, is bound to be an illusion leave alone memories. Memories are the baggage of the past and certainly do not exist in the real world. But it definitely wrecks our present moment and comes in the path of self liberation. Mind is the biggest trickster, it illudes us to believe in Maya, taking us farther from the Self. The distinct and the subtle conspiracies of mind will keep us glue...
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Navratri

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                Navratri and Dussehra –         Victory of true self over our ego The beginning of Navratri leads to the festive cheer and mood. It marks the beginning of auspicious nine days of worship to Maa. She is worshipped  with lots of enthusiasm  and fervour in different forms by the devotees. As a kid we were told the stories of Goddess slaying demons like Shumbh, Nishubh and Mahisasura. But rarely were we told its significance to our own lives. Navratri means ‘nine nights', when we worship the three forms of Goddess, Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Symbolically, Maa Durga destroys the Mahisasura in us, the tame guna .Tamo means buffalo, the representation of laziness, darkness and inertia. Worshipping this form of goddess dispels us from darkness and leads us to our true potential. Maa Lakshmi, is symbolic of wealth, the rich spiritual wealth. Maa Saraswati symbolises Knowledge, the knowledge of true se...
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Ram - bounded or boundless

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'राम नाम मनिदीप धरु जीह देहरीं द्वार। तुलसी भीतर बाहेरहुँ जौं चाहसि उजिआर॥' Says Goswami Tulsidas He says the very name of Ram is like a lustrous stone which can dispel darkness both inside and outside. In today's time when we all are busy running after maya( illusions), there is hardly any time to read holy scriptures. That is why it is suggested that in the modern times only his name would help us sail through the worldly ocean.  Ram naam ki loot hai loot sake to loot.  But who is this Ram we are talking about? We know of one Ram, the son of King Dushrath, who was born in Ayodhya in ancient times. He was heroic and one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu. The one on the auspicious occasion of Dusshera defeated and killed Ravana, the demon king. Is it for this very reason Dusshera is celebrated every year;  let good prevail over evil. Well if this is so then there are many heroic characters in the history. Shall we worship all of them? T...
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SHIVA - The Ascetic

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न मृत्युर् न शंका न मे जातिभेद:  पिता नैव मे नैव माता न जन्म न बन्धुर् न मित्रं गुरुर्नैव शिष्य:  चिदानन्द रूप: शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् || I have no fear of death, no caste or creed, I have no father, no mother, for I was never born, I am not a relative, nor a friend, nor a teacher nor a student, I am the form of consciousness and bliss, I am the eternal Shiva... SHIVA the destroyer appears in two opposite forms- Shiva  TheAscetic ( Omniscient Yogi) and Shiva The Shankara ( the householder). How can a God associated with destruction appear as two extreme ends of existence? For this it is important for us to realise that the three  God theory where Brahma the creator ; Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer together forms Brahman makes Hinduism a monotheistic religion. Out of the three only Shiva is the one who is a mystic and mysterious .He is seen as an Ascetic who resides in Kailasha with ash smeared on his body; Ganga flowing through his jata ; Vasuki ...
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When innocence is pulverised by technology!

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" Piping down the valleys wild,  Piping songs of pleasant glee,  On a cloud I saw a child,   And he laughing said to me"    William Blake wrote this in his poem SONGS OF INNOCENCE  Childhood is supposed to be the gleeful and innocent phase  of life which is free from any bondage.But this poem was  written couple of centuries back. Those times when  children had a carefree childhood. When children  were not bombarded with processed knowledge.  When there was no access to information on  internet. When rational thinking and inquisitiveness  were satiated by self exploration and discovery.   Children used to be more in commune with the  natural environment.  In today's time children have lost touch with  themselves.They are alwaysdependent on external  sources of information to  com...
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On Love!!

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" Khusro baaji prem ki jo mei kheli pi ke sang Jeet gayi to piya more jo mei haari pi ke sang"!! This couplet by famous urdu poet Aamir Khusro says it all.Love is beyond any sense of loss or gain. It is a win win situation in every respect. The moment we start comparing with our beloved the very essence of love is lost. Love is complete surrender, a total immersion in the self.  This beautiful feeling called love itself is the source. There is no pretentiousness, no mask, no superficiality in Love "Apni chavi banayke jo mei pi ke paas gayi, Jab chavi dekhi pihu ki apni bhul gayi"!! Indeed there cannot be two self in Love. It is the complete submission of one into another. This submission and surrender has a subliminal quality in love that brings us closer to the truth. Love is the ultimate freedom yet a universal bond that keeps the cosmos in balance.                             ...
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