Prayer Is A Divine Act Of Absolute Surrender

Prayer connects us with the Supreme. Many situations and challenges in life help us realise that we are merely playing our role in the stage of life. Nonetheless, in our daily life, we consider ourselves to be the master of both our actions and the results thereof, but we forget that we have a right over our actions but not of the result. We wonder about the result even before any action is taken and thus lose focus.

Prayer is an act of surrender to the Supreme; we stoop in order to be elevated; we bow with utmost reverence, exemplifying utmost humility to the Almighty. The power of prayer is tremendous and helps us overcome the toughest of challenges, hurdles and misfortunes. The principle in life is to put in the best in our efforts and surrender our actions to the Lord for He would take care of the rest.

A prayer is a most pious act. The sheer act of praying is associated with purity; we purify ourselves by praying. The sincerity and honesty with which we pray disappear soon after we end the prayer. We perform our daily duties routinely, very differently from the act of praying. Consequently we tend to become insincere to dharmic principles.

We get back from life what we give to life. Our life involves others also and many a time the helping hand we extend to others is prompted by selfishness. The issue which bothers us is whether we have gained something and if so, how much, from any given situation.

However, dharma stresses on doing what is right and not what is convenient. We ought to do our dharma with utmost sincerity and honesty as well as to help others without any hidden agenda of self-interest.

Prayer is an activity which gives immense satisfaction. While we pray, we feel content and satisfied, but the satisfaction dissipates fast enough. Generally, we pray for our well-being in terms of health, wealth, happiness, peace.

Many a time, we look beyond ourselves too. Since we are genuinely concerned about our near and dear ones, we pray for their well-being also. However, we never apply this concept to the wider circle of people in our lives with whom we interact daily or even those we infrequently interact with.

Most often, we camouflage our jealousy with superficial expression of happiness, a smile or a few words of appreciation when we learn of the happiness of others. Just as in a prayer, the principle in life is to feel and be truly happy in others’ happiness. Only then can we have a sense of genuine well-being and sustain the satisfaction. Traditionally, praying has been a daily ritual in most households. It enriches the person, brings happiness and helps us to remain calm and contented in adverse conditions. A life well lived does not necessarily imply living a materialistic, consumptive life; it could also mean living a satisfied, happy, peaceful and enriched life. Thus, understanding the meaning and essence of life and setting right goals and priorities accordingly are essential.

Life throws up both challenges and opportunities. The art of living is to seize the opportunity to transform one’s life into a prayer and using the power of prayer to cut through the challenges.

Too much, too little sleep harmful for health

People sleeping for six to eight hours may suffer from cardiovascular diseases

Getting too much or too little sleep could be harmful for health, suggests a new study conducted in Britain. Jane Ferrie of the University College London Medical School here examined 10,308 participants between 35-55 years of age and found that a decrease in sleep duration among participants sleeping only for six, seven or eight hours was associated with a 110 per cent excess risk of cardiovascular mortality.

However, an increase in sleep duration among those sleeping for seven or eight hours was associated with a 110 percent excess risk of non-cardiovascular mortality.

On an average, most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep each night to feel alert and well rested.

“In terms of prevention, our findings also indicate that consistently sleeping seven or eight hours per night is optimal for health,” Ferrie was quoted as saying by the science portal EurekAlert.

The research is the first to show that both a decrease and an increase in sleep duration are associated with an elevated risk of mortality by cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular means, respectively.

Go Natural

Eating organic food is good for your health

Switching to organic food is tough for many families who don’t want to pay higher prices or give up their favorite foods. But, by choosing organic versions of just a few foods that you eat often, you can increase the percentage of organic food in your diet without big changes to your shopping. . Opting for organic produce, doesn’t necessarily have a big impact, depending on what you eat. According to the US Environmental Working Group, commercially-farmed fruits and vegetables vary in their levels of pesticide residue. Some vegetables, like broccoli, asparagus and onions, as well as foods with peels, such as avocados, bananas and oranges, have relatively low levels compared to other fruits and vegetables.

So, how do you make your organic choices count? Pediatrician Dr Alan Greene, whose new book Raising Baby Green explains how to raise a child in an environmentally-friendly way, has identified a few “strategic” organic foods that he says can make the biggest impact on the family diet.

Milk:-
“When you choose a glass of conventional milk, you are buying into a whole chemical system of agriculture,” says Greene. People who switch to organic milk typically do so because they are rather concerned about the antibiotics, artificial hormones and pesticides used in the commercial dairy industry. One recent survey has found certain pesticides in about 30 per cent of conventional milk samples and low levels in only one organic sample. The level is relatively quite low compared to some other foods, but many kids consume milk in large quantities.

Potatoes:-
One survey found that potatoes account for 30 per cent of our overall vegetable consumption. A simple switch to organic potatoes has the potential to have a big impact because commercially farmed potatoes are some of the most pesticide-contaminated vegetables. A survey found 81 per cent of potatoes tested still contained pesticides after being washed and peeled, and the potato has one of the the highest pesticide contents of 43 fruits and vegetables tested, according to the Environmental Working Group.

Peanut butter:-
More acres are devoted to growing peanuts than any other fruit, vegetable or nut. More than 99 per cent of peanut farms use conventional farming practices. Given that some kids eat peanut butter almost every day, this seems like a simple and practical switch. Commercial food firms now offer organic brands in many grocery stores.

Apples:-
Apples are the second most commonly eaten fresh fruit, after bananas, and they are also used in the second most popular juice, after oranges. But, apples are also one of the most pesticide contaminated of fruits. The good news is that organic apples are easy to find in regular grocery stores.

Ketchup:-
For some families, ketchup accounts for a large part of the household vegetable intake. About 75 per cent of tomato consumption is in the form of processed tomatoes, including juice, tomato paste and ketchup. Notably, recent research has shown organic ketchup has about double the antioxidants of conventional ketchup.

Not in a good mood, Girl?

Hormone fluctuation may trigger mood disorders in women

Hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual period and pregnancy may trigger mood disorders in women, a report said. A report released recently by the Society for Women’s Health Research said mood disorders and depression can occur at any age during a woman’s life. However, women seem more vulnerable during the menstrual period, pregnancy and before and after menopause.

During times of hormonal fluctuations, many women are able to emerge relatively unscathed. But for others, a normal hormonal transition can trigger mild to severe mood disorders including depression and bipolar disorder — a mental disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function, reported Newswise wire.

“Science has revealed clues as to why these changes may occur in some women,” said Peter Schmidt, an investigator in the National Institute of Mental Health’s Reproductive Endocrine Studies Unit.

“But further research is needed to definitively show what causes depression and mood disorders in women during hormonal transitions,” he added.

“Women need to be critically aware of changes in their moods during key life cycle events,” another investigator Sherry Marts said.

Vitamin D might extend your life

The ‘Sunshine Vitamin’ is good for your bones and cuts the risk of cancer and diabetes, doctors have said for years. But, a new study has revealed that taking the compound everyday might extend your life too.

A team of international researchers has carried out a study and found that taking a daily dose of Vitamin D lowers the risk of mortality — the findings have been reported in the ‘Archives of Internal Medicine’ journal’.

“It’s very new to see (the effects of) Vitamin D on organs different than the bones. These are very ordinary doses. You don’t need four or five pills a day. You should probably get rid of all the other vitamins. At this point, that’s where we are. This is quite real,” according to lead researcher Dr Philippe Autier of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France.

In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after analysing 18 trials involving Vitamin D supplements on nearly 57,000 patients. They evaluated doses ranging from 300 to 2,000 international units. The team members found that over an average of nearly six years, those who took Vitamin D had a seven per cent lower risk of death from all causes than those who
did not. However, according to the researchers, getting enough Vitamin D in diets isn’t enough — one should also spend ten minutes in the sun during peak hours daily to produce the currently recommended level of 1,000 IU of the compound.

Fish, liver and egg yolk are the only foods which naturally contain Vitamin D, though some other foods are fortified with it.

Common Man’s Gita: Gift of Jnaneswar

Crowds of pilgrims were waiting patiently on a cold winter morning on the banks of the Indrayani river at Alandi, near Pune, before the samadhi-shrine of Jnaneswar. The young sage-mystic’s interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, titled Bhavartha-Deepika — The Light of Meaning — is popularly known as the Jnaneswari. Referred to also as the common man’s Gita, Jnaneswari is part of the traditions of many households in Maharashtra for centuries.

The mystical dimension of the Jnaneswari gives a new hue to the Krishna-Arjuna samvad (dialogue) of the Gita. In Chapter IV of his bhashya, Jnaneswar comments on the strenuous efforts people make to achieve wealth, fame and comforts through various means including yajnas and pujas, and then exhorts all to do the real yajna of selfcontrol, in which the fire of yoga will burn all desires and ambitions.

The pleasure of attaining to knowledge of the Self far exceeds any sense pleasure, and that alone can bring the equipoise so necessary for consciousness elevation. Jnaneswar alludes to the awakening of the kundalini through yogic practices in detail, pointing out the transformation of the psycho-physical body through such practices, and mystical divine experiences which accompany such a rejuvenation of the prana.

Jnaneswar reiterates the Upanishadic call of alertness on this path to go beyond maya or illusion: “Those who try to cross it on the strength of their intellect get lost, those who try to cross using knowledge are swallowed by pride, those who take the help of the books are consumed by ego and arrogance, those who perform ritualistic actions get caught in issues of right or wrong, those who use youthful strength get consumed by lust, those who perform external yajnas are caught in the web of desire and ambition...”.

Jnaneswar says a wise master can help the seeker beyond dualities of the mind. He sees spiritual devotion as the highest form of jnana to “avoid the pitfalls of desire”. Bhakti and jnana coalesce in his description of Arjuna’s vision of Krishna’s vishwarupa wherein he sees Krishna in cosmic form, revealing the depth of Jnaneswar’s devotion and knowledge.

It is this call of spiritual devotion which Jnaneswar extends into a paradigm of cosmic love in his other major work, the Amritanubhava or “the nectar of wisdom”, an insight into the experience of the ultimate merger. Jnaneswar extends the bhakti principle to include a love for all beings, for that alone can provide an ambience of sharing, love and care in the realm of maya and duality. Jnaneswar puts this concept in the context of the union of Shiva-Shakti as “parents engendering this universe”. It is this divine parental love which is replicated on the existential plane and manifests either as bhakti towards the Self or as mutual love towards fellow human beings.

Miracle stories abound about Jnaneswar’s yogic feats, like making the bull recite the Vedas or riding on a wall to meet the yogi Changdev to crush his ego, but perhaps, the real miracle is the short lifespan of Jnaneswar in which he encapsulated many lifetimes, ending with what is called sanjivan-samadhi or the voluntary entombment of his physical body in the meditation pose. The samadhi-shrine of Jnaneswar at Alandi still draws the devout, particularly the common man with whom Jnaneswar forged a special bond.