Krishna & Janmashtami

Krishna

A poorna Yogi,

An epitome of consciousness,

The one who achieved it all, in one life time,

Yet, did not.

The who defined the fresh frontiers of life,

In each role that he played:

A son everyone craves for,

A friend who you seek,

A lover that you need,

A king you can become,

A strategist who always wins,

A brother, a citizen, a master of masters.

The one who mastered, the science of attaining divinity and living it. 

Not just with eyes closed, but with eyes open,

The one who lived among us as one of us, 

The one who taught us, being divine is a possibility,

An exploration any less is mediocrity, 

Unlock the divinity in you,

Let the Krishna in you be born today!

SOME BASIC HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT KRISHNA

Krishna was born 5,252 years  ago as on 11/08/2020. 

Year of Birth: 3228BC

Month: Shravan 

Day:  Ashtami

Nakshatra:- Rohini

Day:- Wednesday

Time:- 00:00 A.M.

Shri Krishna lived 125 years, 08 months & 07 days.

Hence,

Date of Birth:- 18th July, 3102 BCE.

Date of Death:- 18th February 3228 

When Krishna was 89 years old, the mega war - Kurukshetra war took place. 

He died 36 years after the Kurukshetra war.

Kurukshetra War was started on Mrigashira Shukla Ekadashi,BCE 3139.

i.e 8th December 3139 and ended on 25th December, 3139. (There was a Solar eclipse between 3pm to 5pm on 21st December, 3139. 

Bhishma died on 2nd February, First Ekadasi of the Uttarayana, in 3138BC.)

Krishna  is worshipped as:

Krishna Kanhaiyya : Mathura

Jagannath:- In Odisha

Vithoba:- In Maharashtra

Srinath:- In Rajasthan

Dwarakadheesh:- In Gujarat

Ranchhod:- In Gujaarat

Krishna : Udipi, Karnataka

Bilological Father:- Vasudeva

Biological Mother:- Devaki

Adopted Father:- Nanda 

Adopted Mother:- Yashoda

Elder Brother:- Balaram

Sister:- Subhadra 

Birth Place:- Mathura

Wives: Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, Kalindi, Mitravinda, Nagnajiti, Bhadra, Lakshmana 

Krishna is reported to have Killed only 4 people in his life time. Chanoora - the Wrestler

Kamsa - his maternal uncle

Shishupaala and Dantavakra - his cousins. 

Life was not fair to him at all. 

His mother was from Ugra clan, and Father from Yadava clan,  interracial marriage. 

He was born dark skinned.

He was not named at all, throughout his life. The whole village of Gokul started calling him the black one - Krishna. He was ridiculed and teased for being black, short and adopted too. His childhood was wrought with life threatening situations.

Drought and threat of wild wolves made them shift from Gokul to vrindavan at the age 9. 

He stayed in Vrindavan till 14-16 years. He killed his own uncle at the age - 14-16 years at Mathura. He then released  his biological mother and father. 

He never returned to Vrindavan ever again. 

He had to migrate to Dwaraka from Mathura due to threat of a Sindhu King - Kala Yaavana. He defeated Jarasandha with the help of Vainatheya Tribes on Gomantaka hill (now Goa).

He rebuilt Dwaraka. He then left to Sandipani's Ashram in Ujjain to start his schooling at age 16-18. He had to fight the pirates from Afrika and rescue his teachers son - Punardatta who was kidnapped near Prabhasa, a sea port in Gujarat. 

After his education, he came to know about his cousins fate of Vanvas. He came to their rescue in Wax house and later his cousins got married to Draupadi. His role was immense in this saga. 

Then, he helped his cousins to establish Indraprastha and their Kingdom. 

He saved Draupadi from embarrassment. 

He stood by his cousins during their exile.

He stood by them and made them win the Kurushetra war. 

He saw his cherished city, Dwaraka washed away. 

In conversation with Karna, once Krishna say: "Remember one thing, Karna. Everybody has challenges in life. But what is Right (Dharma) is known to your mind (conscience). No matter how much unfairness there is in life, how many times we were disgraced, how many times we were denied what was due to us, what is important is how you react and which path you choose at that time. Life’s unfairness does not give you license to walk the wrong path…"

There are so many interpretations to stories and history, and one goes to the extend, that what made Krishna popular and famous is because of him choosing Dharma - inspite of not having all. Karna and Krishna both were denied of many things since birth, to the extend that Karna could at least marry the one he loved, Krishna had to leave even her behind. But inspite of all hardship, Krishna followed Dharma. 

He was killed by a hunter in nearby forest. 

He never did any miracles. His life was not a successful one. There was not a single moment when he was at peace throughout his life. At every turn he had challenges and even more bigger challenges. He faced everything and everyone with a sense of responsibility and yet remained unattached. He is the only person who knew the past and probably future, yet he lived at that present moment always. 

He and his life is truly an example for every human being.

Temple & God

 Tagore condemned temple with 'no god' 

120 years back exactly on this day when Rammandir has been christened ... 20 Shrabon, August 5 ... Rabindranath Tagore wrote this lines ... So prophetic ... English translation from Bengali ... (The translation taken from the wall of Banojyotsna Lahiry)

There is no god in that temple”, said the Saint.

The King was enraged;

“No God? Oh Saint, aren’t you speaking like an atheist?

On the throne studded with priceless gems, beams the golden idol,

And yet, you proclaim that’s empty?”

“It’s not empty; It’s rather full of the Royal pride.

You have bestowed yourself, oh King, not the God of this world”,

Remarked the saint.

The King frowned, “2 million golden coins

Were showered on that grand structure that kisses the sky,

I offered it to the Gods after performing all the necessary rituals,

And you dare claim that in such a grand temple,

There is no presence of God”?

The Saint calmly replied, “in the very year in which, twenty million of your subjects were struck by a terrible drought;

The pauperized masses without any food or shelter,

came begging at your door crying for help, only to be turned away,

they were forced to take refuge in forests, caves, camping under roadside foliages, derelict old temples;

and in that very year

when you spent 2 million gold to build that grand temple of your's,

that was the day when God pronounced:

“My eternal home is lit by everlasting lamps,

In the midst of an azure sky,

In my home the foundations are built with the values:

Of Truth, Peace, Compassion and Love.

The poverty stricken puny miser,

Who could not provide shelter to his own homeless subjects,

Does he really fancy of giving me a home?”

That is the day God left that Temple of yours.

And joined the poor beside the roads, under the trees.

Like emptiness of the froth in the vast seas,

Your mundane temple is as hollow.

It’s just a bubble of wealth and pride.’

The enraged King howled,

“oh you sham cretin of a person,

Leave my kingdom this instant’.

The Saint replied calmly,

“The very place where you have exiled the Divine,

Kindly banish the devout too".

----Rabindranath Tagore,

20th of Shravan (that is 6th August).  1307 (as per Bengali Calendar)

Courtesy: Buroshiva Dasgupta

-----------------------------------------------------

God! If you believe in the existence of God, who do you think God is? 

One who provide us everything! What would a provide want? Peaceful co-existence right!

Why this dramas, fights, and misunderstanding?

The Ayodhya Ram Mandir campaign has played the most significant part in the RSS's socio-political acceptance in India despite vehement opposition from its critics.

Madhukar Dattatray Deoras, commonly known as Balasaheb Deoras was the third RSS Chief. The Ram Mandir at Janmabhoomi - the birthplace of Lord Ram - was not on the RSS agenda during the tenures of previous RSS chiefs. The RSS in its initial decades considered it a too local issue even for a big state like Uttar Pradesh. Two incidents shifted the RSS's focus on the Ram Mandir construction, which had been a localised campaign of the sadhus belonging to akhadas (religious sects) in Ayodhya.

In the book, titled "RSS: A View to the Inside", authors Walter Andersen and Shridhar Damle have mentioned that Swadeshi - use and promotion of indigenous products - and ban on cow slaughter were the core cultural agendas of the RSS.

The first incident was a mass conversion of Dalits to Islam in the Meenakshipuram village in Tamil Nadu in 1981. The second incident had a Congress hand in it.

In 1983, then senior Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh Dau Dayal Khanna declared from a VHP platform that the mosques in Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi would have to go. The religious places of the Hindus should be reclaimed, he had suggested. Deoras was surprised to know in 1983 that there were locks on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid complex.

The Dharma Sansad decided to work for the unification of Hindu society and reclaiming the three religious sites mentioned by Congress leader Khanna. The same year, the RSS made a show with large banners showing Ram Lalla behind the locks across Uttar Pradesh.

Ram Shila Pujan (worship of bricks with Ram engraved on them) was organised. And, finally at the Palanpur conclave, the RSS formally adopted the construction of Ram Mandir as its resolution in 1989.

The clamour of Ram Mandir had started paying a dividend for the RSS in Hindu society and the BJP in politics. The BJP had emerged in the role of king-maker in 1989 Lok Sabha election.

Three years later, the RSS and its affiliate organisations including the VHP and the BJP had generated enough popular support to that a massive crow of karsevaks could dare to bring down the Babri Masjid despite a promise by the BJP's state government to the Centre under the Congress. Advaniji lead the show. Ashok Singhal was the chief architect of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. 

On 17th Oct 2015 Ashok Singhal nominated Dr. Subramanian Swamy to lead Ram Mandir Movement. 

Many Ayodhya crusaders were not part of the event, but RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat spoke at the Bhoomi Pooja ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. 

Modi wearing a mukut while offering prayers was it right? But who am I to say? 

The Hagia Sophia was a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum in a new, secular Turkish republic. The change of status was annulled last month, and the building is now a mosque again.

The Hagia Sophia was built as a Christian church in the year 537 by the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I, in what was then Constantinople. The building stood as the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years. When the city fell to the Ottomans in 1453, Mehmed II converted it into a mosque, destroyed its relics, plastered over iconography he considered idolatrous and added Islamic features such as the minarets that encircle its magnificent dome today. The Hagia Sophia remained the principal mosque of the city, renamed Istanbul, for over a century and a half, until the Sultan Ahmed Mosque—colloquially called the Blue Mosque—was completed in 1616.

Will the history repeat?

Lessons from the Nature

Nature was, is and will continue to be our greatest teacher, provided we look at it, and try to imbibe her teachings. Not sure why, for me nature was always divine mother and therefore feminine. And of all her blessings - the mountains, valley, sea, rives and plains.

Often wonder, if the Sun also try to tell us, everything will revolve around you, if you are powerful?  Isn't it interesting, to know that still, Children are thought that the Sun rise in the east and set in the west, when we know Sun is stationary, and it is the earth that is moving. 

Often remember the planetarium visit, the moon games, and similar to sun, the myth of moon changing size, when it is just the waxing and waning phases of the moon, which are the changes in the amount of the surface of the moon, that are lit up over the course of a month, as viewed from earth. And, the light we see coming from the moon isn't moonlight at all - it's sunlight!

So much of misinterpretations, misconceptions and perceptions! So is life with variety of people and thoughts - dreams and limited resources. 

With mother nature being most divine and powerful, let us be Thankful and protect her for the future generations. In what language do rain fall over tormented cities, and what is her religion? 

When our survival is in question, it is a big issue in our lives. But the moment it is taken care of, it doesn't seem to mean anything. Life begins with survival. Don't compare your life with others, what meant to be yours is already making its way to you....what was never your's is starting to flee from you. With time it will all make sense. For now bear the confusion and focus on licing fully in the present. Don't let your whole life be "I'll be happy when". Be happy now. Remember everything is but changing phases. " When you are in a dark place, you think you are buried, but you may be planted."

The day Sun and sea spoke to me, I stopped expecting gratitude and dropped the need for appreciation. Do you know what they told me? They asked " Do you find people appreciating us? May be 1%, most don't even consciously realise that we exist. We know that if we stop working for a day, there would be huge chaos, confusion and disturbance. Our sense of duty makes us very accountable to perform every moment." That day, I not only dropped expecting gratitude, but felt sorry for those who do not realise and appreciate the good in others. Especially those who forget the way they traveled, for whom parents, siblings and relatives were no more important but a burden...

In this days of gossips, rumors and false news; trying to remember and act as per the triple filter test -  anecdote of the great Greek philosopher, Socrates. 

Per the story, one day a disciple of Socrates was quite agitated, and said that he had met a friend of Socrates who spoke badly of him, Socrates asked him to calm down and send the message through thriple filter; and if not it was'nt worthy of being heard; they were:

“Are you absolutely sure that what you’re going to tell me is true?”

“Is what you’re going to tell me good or not?” 

“Is what you have to say about my friend going to help me?” 

“If what you want to tell me isn’t true, isn’t good, and isn’t even useful, why would I want to hear it?”

Thanks Life for letting me Live, Love, Lead, Learn and for The Light! Help me spread it across. 

Good to Great - Jim Collins

 In 1996, Jim Collins with 21 research team set out to answer one simple question 'Can a good company become great and if so how? The research team synthesized the results to identify the drivers of good to great transformations and there by achieve cumulative stock returns 6.9 times the stock market in fifteen years. For me this was 45th of 2020

The chapters are divided into:

1. Good is the enemy of great - The scope of the project

The abbreviated story of this particular odyssey of curiosity is divided into phases viz:

Phase 1: The Search

Phase 2: Comparison companies

Phase 3: Inside the black box to find how good results can become great results 

Phase 4: Chaos to concepts

Findings inside the box were:

Leaders came from within 

Going from good to great is not linked to executive compensation

Strategy was not the key

They focused on what not to do and what to stop doing (Start, Stop, Continue)

Technology has nothing to do with change

Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice. 

Transformation was a process of buildup followed by breakthrough, broken into three broad stages: disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action. 

2. Level 5 Leadership - the good to great leaders are self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy - these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. The type of leader required is humble and ferocious. 

3. First who....then what - First get right people into the bus, in the right seat, and get wrong people off the bus, before deciding where to drive it. The right people are the most important asset. How companies set the foundation for their shift. 

4. Confront the brutal facts (Yet never lost faith) - Maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. The duality that lead to greatness.

5. The hedgehog concept (Simplicity within the three circles) - Transcend the curse of competence. Core business if not best in the world must be replaced with a simple concept that reflects deep understanding of three intersecting circles. How to find the one big thing you company must focus on. "What can we be the best in the world at? (And equally important—what can we not be the best at?) What is the economic denominator that best drives our economic engine (profit or cash flow per “x”)? And what are our core people deeply passionate about? Answer those three questions honestly, facing the brutal facts without blinking, and you’ll begin to see your Hedgehog Concept emerge. "

6. A culture of discipline - When you have disciplined people, you don't need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don't need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don't need excessive controls. When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great performance. The magical alchemy of great performance. " Stop doing anything and everything that doesn't fit tightly within their Hedgehog Concept. " Don't just have a "To-Do List" have a 'Stop doing" list. 

7. Technology Accelerators - They never use technology as the primary means of igniting a transformation, yet paradoxically, they are pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies. Technology is a trap unless used right. 

8. The fly wheel and the doom loop - How to build sustained momentum and avoid the 'new regime, new revolution' doom loop. The process resembled relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough and beyond. 

9. From Good to Great to Built to last (Concepts) - Sustained great results to Enduring great company. Applying good to great concepts help generate Sustained great results this with build to last concepts help us have enduring great companies. 

Help create enduring great organisation.  You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit. 

https://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html

 The basic message is this: Build your own flywheel. You can do it. You can start to build momentum in something for which you've got responsibility. You can build a great department. You can build a great church community. You can take every one of these ideas and apply them to your own work or your own life.

BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious Goal.