Think Tank

I have a friend who has a Christian name though he comes from near my hometown where almost no Christians live. Still this guy has installed Ram Sita pictures, burnt incense sticks and worshipped every morning (which even I didn’t do daily), did Yoga often in the evening and celebrated Diwali in full spirits. I [...]

When we are pushed to the wall, all of us behave in different manners. How we would behave depends on many factors. But collectively, I think it is the sum total of all our efforts before that point of time. I had had one such situation and even now I reflect on it sometimes on [...]

‘Who will cry when you die’
By: Robin Sharma
Jaico Publishing House 
This is another wonderful book from Robin Sharma. I picked up this book because it seemed light – topics were covered in small chapters, each chapter based on a particular theme or lesson. Lessons from the book can be called ‘wisdom’. While going through the book [...]

I was reading the news about Chinese President Hu Jintao’s recent US visit. The newspaper had come out with a colored snap of Obama couple along with Hu Jintao. I was shocked to see the dressing sense and choice of appearance of Mrs. Obama.  
Have searched the pictures from net and posting here:

While searching for the [...]

Perhaps the only Indian (self-proclaimed) Atheist I have read properly is Khushwant Singh. But when I read what he wrote about the great Indian epic of Ramayana and its place in our society, I loved all his words. Here is it:  
Lessons from Ramayana 
It could be said that Indian children start imbibing the Ramayana with their [...]

Our office has a dormitory where employees can go and take a nap even during office hours. Unlike other industries, IT is very flexible and caring in this aspect. We were new and in the exploring phase. One day, our friend felt sleepy and thought to try out the dorm. 
When he went there, it was [...]

Our company has a very strict code to prevent sexual harassment. Its acronym is ‘Shashi’ (name changed by me here to prevent identification). They don’t hesitate to lose the best of the talent, if one is found guilty in this case. The time I recall was from when we had joined recently and we were [...]

Wikileaks did a great harm to the image of Rahul Gandhi, the crown prince from “the dynasty” in India. He would never have imagined that his letter to the US Ambassador would be made public, where he said that Hindu extremism was a bigger threat to India than the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) or Islamic terrorism. The [...]

Ever since I started to understand him, I have kept an opinion that Obama is a man with a big mouth and a small vision – big mouth because he promises everyone a moon (each) and small vision because he thinks like he were administering a class of 20 students (who would always obey him). [...]

After Obama’s 2010 India visit, no one had a doubt about the primary purpose of his trip. It was by and large a business trip with purpose to make business deals and job creations in the US.  
Thanks to Obama Visit, the US made deals worth 10 Billion USDs, and generated 50,000 jobs in the US.  
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/189058 
Now [...]

Throughout our childhood, we learn so many lessons taught to us by means of stories. Often such stories contain our gods and hence they leave maximum impact on our minds. Here is a small portion of a legend, retold by Devdutt Pattanaik, explaining the concept of our insatiable want: 
Kubera, the king of Yakshas, is the [...]

It is interesting to note how Devdutt Pattanaik evaluates Bhisma’s role vis-a-vis the ideal role during the Ramayana times:  
1) Family more important than Kingdom for Bhisma: In the Ramayana, the kingdom of Ayodhya is more important than Raghu-kula, the family that govern it. In the Mahabharata, the Kuru-kula family is more important than the kingdom [...]

Reproducing a part from the book which I believe all of us should read and understand: 
Now, a word to those of our times who read Raamayana and Bhaarata and other Puraanas. In these works, there are frequent references to Devas and Raakshasas. The latter were wicked, had no regard for dharma, and revelled in evil [...]

Leaving the body when purpose is over 
At two places in Ramayana, I found instances of rishis entering into fire in order to get them free from their bodies. But in both the cases, they were very sure about their purpose having finished, after years of penances and collecting strength through Yoga. The same is not [...]

When Hanuman ji went to Lanka, he saw the city and its people. He also checked Raavana’s army. Ramayana describes at one place like this:  
All the warriors were clad in armour. Some where handsome, some ugly, complexions varied from fair through brown to black. Some figures were very tall, others very short. Thus Hanumaan saw [...]

Ramayana can be taken in many ways, but I think it’s also a love story. It’s a love story of a prince who had to be separated from his wife when already banished from his kingdom and then he fights with evil forces and hardships to find and regain his love. When Seeta was abducted [...]

Fate is weird. We would never be able to understand fully, why things happened the way they happened. The author describes it in a wonderful paragraph when Kaikeyi’s mind was changed by evil minded Manthara: 
And, yet, as Dasaratha told Raama, even the purest of minds is mutable. When fate conspires with bad counsel, any one [...]

Fate and Karma 
Life is weird. At one point, the author describes the unfortunate end of the mighty and righteous king Dashratha:  
As described by Valmeeki in the early page of the epic, Dasaratha was one who had mastered all the Vedas and Shaastras, was a farsighted person, the hero of many battles, the performer of many [...]

When Hindus die, their children offer shraadha to them and do some rituals for the peace of the departed souls. I found reference to a similar gesture when Raama came to know about Dahsaratha’s death: 
The princes, with Seeta and Sumantra went to the river and offered libations for the peace of the departed soul of [...]

Ram killed the vaanara king Vaali while hiding behind a tree. He had to do so, because Vaali had got a boon from Indra which gave him power to absorb the strength of his opponent when seen in sight. Therefore Raama had no choice but to kill him while not being seen himself. Vaali as [...]