Woodstock

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival that took place in a New York suburb. I think that people of my age would remember the festival in which several rock musicians participated. Though the Woodstock Fest did accompany negative factors such as drugs and hippies, promotion of good softrock was welcome by numerous pop music fans then. (I remember how I used to complete my Physics Lab at college and rush home to listen to Woodstock proceedings on Voice of America).

Vishnu Fest

Today is a very auspicious day in the Sanaathana Dharmaa calendar.  It was on this day several million years back that Shree Mahaa Vishnu incarnated as Hayagriva, restored the Divine Vedaas and gave it to Lord Brahma. In this avataar He took the face and neck of a beautiful horse (In Sanskrit, 'haya'  and 'griva' mean 'horse' and 'neck' respectively). He is worshipped mainly as Lord of Knowledge and Wisdom.

Shree Mahaa Lakshmi Fest

Today is a very auspicious day in the Sanaathana Dharmaa  (Hindu) calender.  This day is celebrated as Shree Mahaa Lakshmi Vratham.  On this day, devotees, especially women, offer special worship to Shree Mahaa Lakshmi, divine Mother of all of us and Consort of Shree Mahaa Vishnu. This worship used to be performed by good women who took care of themselves, their families including husband, children and parents in law. (Unfortunately we can see that this trend has changed. I knew a woman who obtained her BEd degree by paying bribe to Annamalai University and worked as a teacher. This woman was 'proud' to remove her mangala sutraa and throw it out just a few days after her wedding. I just don't understand why such evil women deceive and mislead the community. I sincerely hope that such women are taught a lesson in some way).

Like parents of most people of my age, my parents were also dignified in the way they dressed themselves.  My mother had always appreciated women who were dressed in a dignified manner. One woman whom my mother liked in this aspect was one of our relatives by name K L Sujatha.

Sushma Swaraj

This morning's news that Mrs Sushma Swaraj has passed away brought tears in my eyes.

Our country has lost one of its great leaders in the passing away of the  former external affairs minister in the BJP Government.

She used to be admired by my beloved mother especially for her dignified way of dressing.

I join numerous patriotic Indians in expressing my heartfelt condolences to her bereaved family.

Everyone knows that today's TV media is mostly filled up with useless content. However there are exceptions, and one of them is the Tamil regional channel Makkal TV telecast from Chennai.

This morning I had the opportunity of viewing one of it's programmes known as 'Unnaippol deivam illai' that literally means 'There is no God like you'. This is a program in which celebrities remember their mothers. In this morning's episode, Dr Tiruppur Kumaran, a popular Tamil writer, spoke about his mother and how his spiritual life was influenced by her. 

His description brought tears in my eyes, as I could easily remember my mother's attempts to make me spiritually strong. (But I never followed much of her advice like most men of my age. When we were young, most boys liked to emulate their fathers than mothers. Hence I also emulated my dad in this aspect). 

She used to do her best not only in household chores but also in advising me to some extent when I erred in spiritual terms. For example once when I mentioned that I was tired after performing my Sandhya Vandanam, she said that one shouldn't say like that, meaning that my  attitude was a disrespect to His Almighty.

During her last few years, even when she had to be hospitalised three times in four months due to medical problems and was becoming very weak, she used to pluck jasmine flowers from the plant in front of our cottage and place them in water in a container so that I could offer the flowers to God. 

Indeed there is a great meaning in our Sanaathana Dharmaa saying "Maathru devo bhava, Pitru devo 

bhava...".

Bank officer's fraud

From a Tamil regional TV channel's news bulletin this morning, I came to know that a branch of Indian Overseas Bank (a nationalised bank) approved and sanctioned considerable amount as loan on the basis of jewellery produced by the client, and later came to know that the jewellery was fake. In such circumstances both the fraudulent client and the involved officer of the bank should be arrested and given severe punishment preferably death penalty or at least life imprisonment.

Divine Turtle Fest

Today is a very auspicious day in the Sanaathana Dharmaa calender. It was on this day that His Almighty Shree Hari incarnated as Divine Turtle (known as "Koormaa Avathaaram" in Sanskrit) billions of years back. This was second among His Almighty's ten most popular Avathaars.

Lord Narasimhaa Fest

Today is a very  auspicious day to Hindus in general and Vaishnavites in particular. This is the day on which Shree Mahaa Vishnu took Avathaar as Lord Narasimhaa to kill the demon king Hiranyakashipu and bless Prahalaadha (the king's son and His greatest devotee), billions of years back. Many years later, Shree Mahaa Vishnu took Avathaar as Vaamana to bless King Mahaa Bali  (grandson of Prahalaadha). It is believed that in the present Kali Yugaa,  the divine sage Raaghavendra Swamy was born as an incarnation of Prahalaadha.

Vedavyaasa Fest

Today is celebrated as the birth anniversary of sage Vedavyaasa. He wrote the two great Sanaathana Dharmaa epics Raamaayanaa and Mahaa Bhaaratha. He also compiled the four Vedaas.