Lord Shree Raam Fest

Today is a day of pride to us, Indians. Today our beloved Prime Minister Shree Narendra Modi inaugurated Vaalmeekee International Airport and Ayodhyaa Dhaam in the divine city of Ayodhyaa. I think that it is a fitting dedication to Lord Shree Raam and Seethaa Devi, incarnations of Shree Mahaa Vishnu and His wife Shree Mahaa Lakshmi respectively. I think that it is a thankful dedication to Lord Shree Raam. 

I wish that Dwaarakaa, the birth place of Lord Shree Krishna also gets a similar Airport and Railway Station. I wish that this divine city gets a sea port as well as a thankful dedication to Lord Shree Krishna.

Shree Daththa Jayanthi

Today is celeberated as Shree Daththa Jayanthi by Hindus all over the world. It was on this day, tens and thousands of centuries ago, Shree Mahaa Vishnu was born in His manifestations of His own Mahaa Vishnu Self, Lord Brahma and Lord Rudra, on the request of Sage Athri and his wife Anasuyaa.

Let me share a ritual of worship to Shree Dhaththaathreyaa by Shree Ganapathi Sachithaananda Swaameeji as presented in this Utube video.

Jai Shree Lakshmee Naaraayanaa🙏.

Shree Mahaa Vishnu Fest

Today is a very auspicious day in the Hindu Calender. It is celeberated as Vaikunta Ekaadashi and Geethaa Jayanthi. This is the day nearly 5000 years ago, on which Lord Shree Krishna gave His Bhagavath Geethaa to Arjuna to resolve his depression and dilemma.

Today is National Farmers' Day in our country. Let us be thankful to farmers and thereby, to Shree Hari.

This evening, it was joy viewing US based devotees including men, women and children performing 'Sampoorna Bhagavath Geethaa Paaraayanam' organised by respected Shree Sachithananda Swamiji on Hindu Dharmam TV Channel. 

Let me share a spiritually enriching presentation by Shri Gangadhara Shastry ji on Geetha Jayanthi n this Utube; it is in Telugu language.

Doctor with a difference

Any right minded educated Indian knows that today our landscape is infected by increasing number of corporate 'vulture' hospitals with the sole aim of achieving popularity and amassing wealth in every possible manner.

There are NGOs and individual doctors who do help the poor. It was pleasure knowing about one such doctor as telecast in this program.

Thanks to Dr Ravi Kannan and the NHK WORLD JAPAN TV Channel. 

I remember PREPARE, one such poor people friendly NGO, run by Dr Jacob Dharmaraj, an admirable Managemant Professional husband and Dr Daisy Dharmaraj, his Medical Doctor wife. I was a team member in PREPARE.

Ancestral worship: Japanese way

As a regular viewer and fan of NHK WORLD JAPAN TV Channel, I have derived pleasure in viewing their programs. This morning the channel telecast an interesting program on ancestral worship in a town in Japan. Let me share the program with you here.

Bhudhism

Having worked in Bhutan and Cambodia, in which Bhudhism is followed, I found an interesting program on Bhudhism monuments in India on travelxp HD TV Channel this evening.  Until a few days ago, I had been thinking that Bhudhism follows many concepts that are central to Hinduism. But interestingly, it doesn't. 

Bhudhism mentions about reincarnation,  theory of karma, etc. but it doesn't include the existence of God. This is a significant difference. 

I don't believe in any movement including Bhudhism, that doesn't recognise God's existence. 

Refugees

This evening, as I was browsing through my TV channels, I came across an irressitably interesting program on DW TV's 77 PERCENT. Thanks to participants such as Ms Adilike Hamilton (a Afro American from Sierra Leone, who visits her country of origin), Ms Edith Kimani and many others. I think that such programs give fresh insights and broadens our outlook about refugees.

Hong Kong: The Ever-Changing City

It was pleasure viewing BBC TV's Travel Show featuring Hong Kong, this evening. I tried to provide a link to the programme, but couldn't, as the episode is not available on BBC iPad app for use in India according to BBC's web page.

It was an interesting program. Until I saw this episode, I thought that Hong Kong was a melting pot of different cultures, mainly mainland Chinese (Mandarin), Cantonese and British. But this evening's program gave a fresh insight. It featured restaurants owned by people with popular Vietnamese names. I know how popular are Vietnamese food items in Cambodia.

Cultural integration at any place seems to be well reflected in food items available in that place whether it is Hong Kong or elsewhere.

Solar energy solutions

This refers to my yesterday's post on COP 18 Summit.

I don't think that the situation will improve unless governments take tough measures to prevent people or organisations from cutting trees, dumping industrial waste without burning it in places that are far away from residential areas and keeping or running vehicles with unsafe exhaust systems. Those who violate this need to be punished severely.

One last point that I wish to mention is that at least in countries where there is God sent abundant Sunshine, Governments and NGOs should strive to promote cost effective Solar energy systems that will help even poor people, like how they have done in countries such as South Africa. 

I vividly remember how the Government used to provide Solar powered residential accommodation to teachers when I was working in South Africa. We used to pay only for consumption of water and not for electricity.

I think that our Government at the Centre and States should come up with such Solar energy solutions instead of providing subsidised cooking gas cylinders etc. This will help poor people in more effective ways.

Virtual visit to Brindaavan

It was joyful experience viewing a divine programme on Brindaavan on Ashtha TV Channel's 'Dharohar' this evening.

COP 18 Summit

Yesterday, as we all know, the global COP 28 Summit came to an end with "historic package" as it's President remarked.

This is not the first time that a climate summit has taken place. If my memory serves me well, three was a large scale summit held in South America in the early 1990s with similar deliberations, action planes and manifestos. Unfortunately, none of it's action plans helped achieve the aims and objectives.

Ofcourse, in the most recent Dubai summit, even small countries in the South Pacific took part and their voices were heard. This is a significant difference.

Such summits will continue to be held in glamorous cities but the reality in most countries is that the situation only shifts from bad to worse day by day and year by year. Considering Chennai, where I am settled, Carbon emission from transport vehicle engines and industrial waste has not subsided at all. If you travel in Chennai, you can not miss seeing cars and motorbikes fumimg out a lot of smoke from their mismanaged exhaust systems. None seems to be worried about it, even the traffic cop who is supposed to book rascal drivers/owners of such vehicles. Yes, at times he catches the culprits but corruption ends the episode.

Chiang mai

This morning, I had the pleasure of viewing "Somewhere Street" on NHK WORLD JAPAN channel. The episode featured Chiang Mai, a city in Thailand. I liked the episode as people in Thailand share the same culture and traditions with their counterparts in Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia. The episode reminded me of pleasant experiences that I had during my work in Cambodia in 2008 and 2009.