Brahma was upset. Things had not gone as he had planned. His creation was not as wonderful as he had expected. There were too many glitches in it and he was starting to get worried. It was then that sage Narada appeared before Brahma and reminded him of something he had forgotten. According to Hindu practices, Ganesha is worshipped before the beginning of any new venture. Ganesha is regarded as the remover of obstacles, thus ensuring the success of a new venture. Brahma had forgotten this and now his new venture—his creation was not turning out as he had planned. Immediately after that Brahma commenced praying to Ganesha and requested to be forgiven. Ganesha was quick to forgive Brahma and explained to him the reason for the tradition. He said that as one prayed to him, especially before a new venture, all the thoughts were oriented toward the job on more...

Conventionally, going on a pilgrimage is believed to present an ideal occasion for soul-searching. Blessed are the souls who have a chance to become pilgrims. The more arduous and long the journey, the greater the chance to reflect. A yatra is a good time—when the temporal and the timeless meet—to try and expand our understanding of our own selves and the Almighty. This is the spirit of the yearly pilgrimage to the hallowed precincts of the cave-shrine of Amarnath. The Amarnath yatra's high point is the full moon day of Sravana (August). Detailed in the 12th century textofKalhana's "Rajatarangini", and later vividly described in Abul Fazl's "Ain-i-Akbari", the Amarnath Yatra has attracted sages and householders since time immemorial. This year, more than lakh pilgrims, despite hazards, made the difficult trip to Amarnath to pray to the Shiva lingam that is completely of ice, deep inside Kashmir, in the dizzy heights more...

The midday recess, though a short one, is so welcome in the school timetable. It gives much relief to the students after continues study of four or more periods. As the recess bell rings, students, rush out of their classes to go to the school canteen, while others go elsewhere to settle down on benches with their lunch boxes or go to their favourite spots with their packets. The school canteen and tuck shop is a much-liked place. The students actually surround the canteen counter or the canteen boys and ask for what they need. The teachers too come here but in their vacant periods. During the recess time the teachers and students sit in their respective common rooms to relax and do things other than mental. Some teachers utilize the recess period for correcting exercise books of pupils instead of doing it elsewhere. The students are not allowed out more...

My uncle Manoharlal lives in small farm, ten miles from the town in which I stay. He plants vegetables and flowers for the market. In addition he has a small fish pond in which he rears many types of fishes. With his wife, three young children and a couple of workers, uncle manages his farm reasonably well. They have an old jeep for transporting their products to market and for sending the children to school. Every holiday, I go and stay with my uncle. He always makes sure that I visit him regularly. Maybe I am his favourite nephew as he is my favourite uncle. Once I am in his farm, I really enjoy myself. Uncle teaches me and shows me all sorts of things. He taught me how to fix fishing line and how to land a fish. I learned to identify bird calls, animal grunts and read signs more...

Most of the history that we learn in school tells us about wars. We are taught how such-and-such person or persons struggled for power at a particular time in history. We also learn that civilizations rose and fell, that empires were built, and they collapsed and that virtually nothing is left of them at the present time except ruins and scattered remains. History clearly tells us that it is foolish to wage wars, Alexander the Great and Hitler were among the greatest warmongers the world has ever known. They set out to conquer every country that they could lay their hands on. They succeeded to a certain extent, but what was the unavoidable outcome of their mad ambitions? They were mortal. They had to die and with their death their dreams and ambitions perished too. Greece is no longer the all-powerful nation it once was. The greed and madness of more...

The part played by money in our everyday life is very important indeed. We need money to buy food and to pay our bills. In this modern world, most of the things that we want. material or otherwise, can be obtained in exchange for money. Without money, one's life can become a misery. It is thus not surprising to find that many people place money making as their top priority in life. This attitude is fine as long as they remember that there are other facets of life in which money is not required. Quite often money cannot buy these things at all. Take for example, one's health: money can buy the best medical care available, but if free basic attention has not been paid to one's health which is allowed to deteriorate, there will come a time when no money in the world can return one to good health. more...

When I was in Class XII, we had a temporary science teacher. His name was Mr. Ramesh. He taught us for a couple of months before he obtained a place in the University to pursue higher studies. We found out that he was leaving us just one day before the day he was supposed to leave. He did not tell us. Another teacher did. As we liked Mr. Ramesh very much. we got together and planned a farewell party for him. The girls agreed to make some titbits and the boys agreed to prepare the drinks. It was to be a small party as we did not had enough time to plan a bigger one. The next day, we sat through two study periods in the morning before Mr. Ramesh entered the class for our science lesson. We had our food and drinks discreetly covered at one corner of the more...

Neither from nor towards: at a still point There the dance is But neither arrest nor movement T.S. Eliot (Four Quartets) The poetic insight of Eliot had a glimpse of the transcendental dimension of the ever-transforming universe at a still point, which in essence is akin to the experience of peace in meditation as well. Neither from nor towards but at a still point the mind enters into a state of serene silence by deep power of harmony through a cosmic awareness of the unified field, and elevates itself to a serene and sublime super- consciousness in which the 'heavy and weary weight of all this unintelligible world is lightened' (William Wordsworth). A spontaneous gliding into that state of being by deliberate suspension of animation is meditation—the seventh step in the eight-fold limbs of yoga as per sayings of the great exponent, Maharshi Patanjali. The Vedanta observed that the whole more...

We all dream. In fact, we all enjoy dreaming, whether it be day-dreaming or dreaming at night- But the pleasures of building castles in the air are untold and Infinite. Many a times a few people sit and casually discuss about the current political and socio-economic situation and give their own solutions about the problems facing the country. I often wonder what kind of a country do we dream of all of us being inhabitants or citizens of our country naturally dream of what kind of a country we desire. We even dream of building the kind of country we want India is a large country with an amazing wealth of diversity. With the onset of the new millennium, historians, sociologists and other experts predict that only three Asian countries seem to be the ones who can or have the potential of taking Asia to great heights i.e., India, China more...

I dislike getting up early in the morning to go to school. It is not that I dislike school. I dislike having to drag myself out of bed when it is still dark outside and when my eyes refuse to open, especially after having only a few hours sleep because of watching television tilt late the previous night. If only school would start a bit late, then everything will be fine. Then I would not have to get up so early, I would not have to wait for my turn to use the bathroom and best of all, I would not have to Jerk myself up from my warm comfortable bed.  However, the moment I hit the crisp morning air on my way to school, my whole outlook changes. Ah, the cool air is invigorating. Life is wonderful. School is wonderful with all my friends and surroundings.   It is always more...