I use dasblog as my blogging tool. Dasblog is an open source .net weblog engine. I have created my first dasblog theme called "Almostspring". This theme is inspired from the "almostspring" theme for wordpress.

You can download the theme from the below URL and feel free to use it.

almostspring.zip (14.07 KB)

CAPTCHA out, Akismet in.

Though CAPTCHA is a great way to filter spam,it makes commenting an annoying experience if the text in the image is really hard to read. Akismet is a spam filtering service for comments and trackbacks. Dasblog suppports Akismet and I have enabled it in my blog. I have not seen any spam so far. Looks like Akismet is swallowing the spams successfully. Whoo!!

By the Grace of God, the Madras Sai Youth had an exceptional opportunity to undertake Shramdaan Seva on 13th Oct 2006, at "Makkah Mosque & Islamic Center", situated on Mount Road, Chennai.

The cleaning work was initiated prior to Ramzan festival. The Imam happily accepted the proposal and
on the D-day, around 40 eager youth, turned up for the Shramdaan Seva.

The Boys were given a unique opportunity to pray within the Mosque before commencing the Seva. The Boys ,undertook the cleaning work of the Washing area where devotees wash their hands and feet before entering the inner sanctorum of the Mosque.Cleaning work was also done in the backyard of the Mosque. This area had not been cleaned from long time and was used to dump garbage by all.

The Boys worked hard in the hot sun and were able to clear the garbage, cut the grass, prune the bushes and wash the path leading to the Mosque, by mid afternoon.
 

The Imam was very happy with the Boys and showed his gratitude when he graciously accepted our proposal of distribution of Rasna to the devotees, after the morning prayers on Ramzan.

“Love All, Serve All”

Click Here for Photos.

ICC Champions Trophy, Oct 16, 2006.

New Zealand Vs South Africa.

New Zealand batted first and scored 195. SA were bundled out for 108 in reply which means that NZ won by 87 runs.

Even though SA lost, they scored 108 runs, a divine number.

Even though NZ won, they won by 87 runs, an unlucky number in cricket because it's 13 short of 100.

Many times it happens that you lose but still take something good out of it and you win but still feel that something's missing.

Is there a message hidden in the game's result? I am going to bet that SA will make it to the Semi finals and NZ will just miss the bus.

Date : Nov 1, 1755

Place : Lisbon, Portugal.

It was a beautiful morning on the 1st of Nov, 1755. It was also the All Saint's Day, a day considered auspicious by the devout catholic people of Lisbon. People were in their holiday mood. Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is located in the West of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean Coast at the point where the river Tagus flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Around 9:40 in the morning the inevitable happened. An earthquake with a magnitude of around 9 on the Ritcher Scale with its epicentre in the atlantic ocean, struck Lisbon with such a massive force that it caused gigantic 5 metres wide fissures to appear in the city centre. Many of the survivours rushed to the open space of the docks. Many of them were trapped inside their building's.

To worsen the situation, fire broke out in the buildings as a result of the falling candles, overturning furnaces. The victims were either burnt or buried alive. The only place safe was the open ground near the sea shore and people rushed to the sea shore only to witness the sea receding.

A couple of minutes later an enormous Tsunami hit the left over town swallowing the innocent survivors of the earthquake. It is believed that the triple destruction killed around 100,000 People and the fire raged for 5 days destroying what was left of the city.

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake set into motion many important events that followed. The triple disaster not only shook and burnt the buildings but it also shook the belief that people had on GOD. How could one explain such a phenomenon where there was mass destruction and death and that too happening on All Saint's Day.

The earthquake influenced Voltaire, the famous writer, to write his best known work "The Candide".  He criticed the church dogma and blind beliefs.  Another famous philospher, Immanuel Kent, collected all information regarding earthquakes and studied the causes of them. It is believed that Kent brought the first Systematic attempts to explain earthquakes by natural rather then supernatural causes and started the begining of Seismology.

Marquis of Pombal, the then prime minister, was hugely responsible for the reconstruction of the modern Lisbon architecture. The whole city was rebuilt within an year and the architectural models were designed to resist subsequent earthquakes. They remain the first quake proof buildings.

The 1775 Lisbon earthquake has left me thinking a lot. Humans cannot withstand natural calamities yet we go about depleting our natural resources. We are so small compared to nature yet the small ego in every one of us makes us think otherwise. But even after such a calamity, humans have the will power to overcome it, innovate things and continue with what is left over and rebuild our lives.

So where does our real power lie?

More information on the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.

With the Blessings of Baghawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the Madras Sai Youth wing along with the velachery samithy conducted Grama Seva on October 2nd at Thiruvadisoolam village near chengalpet which is 70 km from madras. The morning program started with pooja and abishekam to Shirdi sai baba in the village temple after which the boys were engaged in setting up the garden at the back yard of the temple. Tree plantation program was also organized and the boys planted saplings at every house. As part of the morning program the village children were given school uniforms.

In the afternoon narayana seva was conducted for the entire village consisting of 600 people, followed by a video show. Later in the evening a procession was conducted with the school children accompanying it, starting from temple which covered the entire village. After the procession Vastra dhanam for elders and Sweet distribution for children was done. The Grama Seva concluded in the evening by performing Maha Mangala Harathi.

Thiruvadisoolam is situated 7 kms from Chengalpattu towards Thiruporrur. There is a very old Shiva temple. A mega serial called "Malargal" was supposedly shot in this village.

Click here for the photos.

I came across the word "Petromax and Mantle" and the immediate thing that came to my mind was this famous comedy scene. Just take a moment to watch the scene.

Watching this video aroused an interest on how a petromax worked and what was the use of the mantle in it.

The mantle is made up of artificial silk or rayon and is soaked with rare earth nitrates. When the mantle burns the nitrates are converted into nitrites which fuse together to form a mesh. Mantles basically converts thermal (heat) energy to light. When the chamber inside which the mantle is mounted is subjected to high temperatures, the mantle converts the heat and gives an incandescent white glow.

How does a petromax work?

First high pressure is built up in the chamber using a pump. Then a lever is pulled which pumps kerosone spray into the chamber. The chamber is then ignited and the latern(mantle) is heated up for 90 seconds while at the same time by keeping the pressure in the chamber. Once there is enough heat the flow of kerosone into the chamber is stopped by closing the value. Now the only the chamber has to be heated and the mantle will take care of converting the heat into light. How Cool...

Watch this video of how to light a petromax lamp.

I haven't seen a petromax light in the city. The next time I visit a village I hope I would meet one of those All-In-All Alaguraja's and get a hands-on training from them on lighting a petromax lamp.

The vedantic philosophy proclaims that every individual is an embodiment of Sat-Chit-Ananda, the three states of consciousness. It is also said that there is God in every individual. To realize the God in oneself, one has to be in the triple conscious state, i.e the state of satchitananda. This state is considered as the state of Brahman or God.

Since I am no expert in the vedas and still a student in the class called life I am reporducing the explanation of sat-chit-ananda given in a discourse by Sathya Sai Baba.

For this endless aspect of Brahman people have also ascribed three different meanings. They are Sat, Chit and Ananda. The first word 'Sat' is regarded as more important than the others. 'Chit' has been regarded as something which gives knowledge about the infinite. 'Ananda' has been regarded as the bliss or happiness of a type quite different from and higher than the sensory happiness. The first quality is 'being' and refers to that which signifies permanence. The second quality is awareness and the third quality is bliss. These three qualities are associated with Brahman. For the first word Sat, we shall take an example from common daily life.

Sat:-

In this world many people die and we all see the dead bodies being disposed of. In spite of the fact that several people die and leave the world, each individual thinks that he is going to be permanent. In spite of the fact that this person sees so many people die, he still has the desire to live forever and he genuinely feels that he alone is permanent. If we ask ourselves whether this feeling is due to ignorance or lack of knowledge and whether it is an illusion, we come to the conclusion that to him, it is a very important truth. Within him there is a quality of permanence and the divine self that is indestructible gives him this feeling of permanence. Man daily sees and experiences sorrows and pleasures, which are quite common in this world, but he aspires to have bliss and Ananda. What does this signify? This signifies the aspect of Brahman and this is the aspect of Ananda in him. Everyone knows that when he is in some temporary trouble, he tends to say 'Oh God! Why not let me die instead of putting me through this torture'? These words are not really coming from the depths of his heart. Nobody would say, from the depths of his heart that he would die rather than live a troubled life. This is only an apparent feeling which arises because of the temporary troubled state of his mind.

Sometimes as a result of distress and difficult circumstances, we think that we better die but in truth and in fact even an old woman who is not able to use her legs would not like to depart from life. In this, we should see that we are really hankering after permanency, an inherent quality of the Brahman in each one of us. We should ask what it is that makes us want to live for and hanker after, and we get the answer that it is Brahman. So, whether we are in the Adhyatmic path or in a path completely devoid of belief in God, we are hankering after something and that is the aspect of Brahman.

Chit:-

When we try to understand the second word, 'Chit' or awareness, we should ask ourselves what it is that we are really wanting to be aware of. We want to be aware of everything that we see or hear. If any one sees a few people who are grouped together and talking about something, immediately he tries to go there and find out what they are talking about. Even if that is something which is not relevant to us, we want to know about it. Mothers who continually spend their time with their children and fathers who are affectionate and concerned about their children will understand this aspect well. When the parents take the children either to a cinema or to an exhibition, the parents will be subjected to a stream of questions about various things and the mother and father are often fed up with the large number of questions which these children ask. Children accompanying their parents keep on asking 'what is this'? 'who is that'? 'why is this'? and on and so on. They keep on asking these questions till the parents are fed up. In these questions, we see an attempt on the part of the children to look at this beautiful world and take the entire world into themselves. To what aspect does this desire to know everything belong? Is there any connection between these children and the various things which they want to understand? Is there any relevance of these children to the things they want to learn? There is no such connection or obvious relevance. There is some internal urge and an intense feeling in these children by which they want to become aware and learn of all the manifestations around them. This is an aspect of Brahman. That is why it has been said that 'awareness is life'. In other words this desire to be wise about everything is something which is present inside in your heart.

Ananda:-

We come to the third aspect, Ananda or bliss. Man always wants to have bliss. Man is hankering after bliss. He does not want to have sorrow at any time or under any circumstances. Bliss is something natural to us. Sorrow or pain are unnatural to man. There is a small example. When a child is happy and playing, even the mother does not ask him anything nor does she question how this happiness has come about. But if the same child is crying, the mother will come running irrespective of the importance of the work in which she is engaged. The cry of the child is something unnatural and immediately attracts the attention of the mother. If someone is happy and is enjoying himself no one will go and ask him why he is so happy. If someone is crying, anyone who notices it would go and ask why he is crying. Sorrow is not natural to us. So, only if someone is steeped in sorrow does another person want to enquire why one is in sorrow. If you are happy, no one will come and ask you why you have not been crying in the recent past. So what is natural to us is Ananda or bliss and this is a strength to us. It is such bliss and happiness that has the form of our Atma. This truth of existence or being, this awareness and this bliss constitute the Brahman in us. If we try to look and find these aspects of Brahman somewhere external and outside of us, we will not find them and that is not the right thing to do. This aspect of Brahman is a part and parcel of our life. This aspect of Brahman has been described by Sankara as 'Jeevo Vedai'.

Therefore, in the very first instance we should understand these three aspects of Brahman, namely Sat, Chit and Ananda. In every one there is this aspect of Sat and in every one there is wisdom and everyone has the bliss in him. Therefore every one must attach importance only to the aspect of Brahman. But we are promoting the illusion of attachment to the body and because of this we are unable to understand the real aspect of Brahman.

 

Being in the state of sat-chit-ananda at least seems easy in theory. It's upto each of one of us to put them into practice.