Who are you?

 कौन है आप? 

अमिता, अनिता, मनीषा, चित्रा या पुष्पा?

सुरेश, राधेश्याम, जगदीश, रविकान्त या शशि ?

इक़बाल या मुहम्मद? 

संतोष, विलीस, हेकटर या शीला?

गुरदीप, जगमोहन, गुरप्रीत या इन्द्रजीत? 

यह तो आप के नाम है जो आपको पैदा होने के बाद दिये गये। 

आप कहेंगे पुरुष या स्त्री है हम। पर यह तो शरीर के आकार है। 

आप कहेंगे हिन्दू, मुसलमान, ईसाई, सीख है हम। पर यह तो मज़हब के नाम है जो माता-पिता की मान्यता से चले आये है। 

आप कहेंगे इन्सान है हम। पर यह तो अन्य जीवों की सापेक्ष में आपकी शारीरिक पहचान है? 

फिर जो हिन्दू होगा कहेगा, मैं ब्राह्मण, क्षत्रिय, वैश्य या शुद्र हूँ। पर यह तो जातिवाचक नाम है जो आपका शरीर जिस परिवार में जन्मा उसकी पहचान लिए है। 

आप कौन? 

चेतना का अनुभव किसे नहीं? जब वह नहीं रहती हम मुर्दे को नहीं रखते। पूरी की पूरी पहचान मुर्दा बन जाती है। कौन है यह चैतन्य? कहाँ से आया? कहाँ गया? बस यही खोज में सारे के सारे दर्शन समाहित है। 

हिन्दुओं में जिस किसी ने इसको समझने की कोशिश की, जाना और शब्दों से इसकी व्याख्या की वह ब्राह्मण कहलाये। ब्राह्मण ज्ञानी का नाम है, व्याख्याता का नाम है, जो उस चैतन्य पद की व्याख्या करता है। इसलिए तो उनके रचे व्याख्या ग्रंथों को ब्राह्मण कहा गया। 

आश्चर्य तो यह है कि दसवाँ, अपने से अलग नौ को गिन रहा है और उस नौ में अपने को खोज रहा है, पर खुद पर उसका ध्यान नहीं है। जिस दिन खोजनेवाले ने अपनी ओर नज़र कर ली, मानो पहचान हो गई। फिर वह आसपास नज़र करेगा, चारों ओर उसे वही एक ही रोशनी, एक ही दरिया नज़र आयेगा। एक चैतन्य के सिवा यहाँ दूसरा कोई है ही नहीं। एक ही बिजली जैसे अनेक उपकरणों में टिमटिमा रही है। एक दूसरे के सामने जैसे विनोद उपहास कर रही है। पूरी नौटंकी लगेगी। एक ही पहचान में सब समा जायेगा। सर्वात्म भाव जग जायेगा। पूर्ण अहंता प्रकट हो उठेगी। और आप अमर हो जायेंगे। अमरता जीतनी नहीं है, आप अमर ही हो। बस भ्रांति पहचान से बाहर आये और स्व-स्वरूप में विश्रांति पाये। 

आप अमर है। 

अमरजीत का अमर और आप का अमर एक है। 😊

पूनमचंद

३० मई २०२२

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Wheel of Dharna

 Wheel of Dharma

There is a Galactic centre around which our galaxy Milky Way is rotating is about 26000 light years away from the earth. It is called Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole with about 4 million solar masses and contains 10 million stars. However, it is only 0.25% of the mass of our galaxy. Like a hub and spokes, the galaxies are moving out from the centre to all the directions, looks like a Wheel of Dharma of Indian religions. 

How big is our Universe and how many Universes are there within this cosmos is beyond our imagination. One universe may have 100 billion galaxies. The pauranik sages imagined that all the universes are placed on a fur of the Almighty. Imagine how big is the creator. 

Our Milky Way galaxy makes a cluster and super cluster called Virgo and Laniakea respectively. Milkyway, Andromeda and Triangulum are the three major galaxies located near each other might be the Vishnu, Mahesh and Brahma of the imagination of the Pauranic sages. The pauranik stories of Lord Shiva-Sati-Daksha-Tandav-Moon-27 wives (constellations), etc, are more about the cosmic play. 

Earth takes a day, Sun takes 28 days and Milky Way takes 230 million years to complete rotation on its axis. Our Sun takes 230 million Earth years to orbit once around the centre of the Milky Way. It is called galactic year or cosmic year. Our Sun is that way only 60 cosmic year old. 

We are in a ‘Space Train’ which has a Central Station Sagittarius A*. We feel stationary on earth but the whole of our universe is in motion. Our coach Earth is revolving around the Sun with a speed of 30 km/s, the Sun and the Solar system is revolving around the centre of the Milky Way galaxy with a speed of 230 km/s. 

Imagine, how tiny a human being in this cosmic play, not even an electron. But he has ego, therefore, he can create and destroy his surroundings. His life is short but he wants to play a central role. Let Sagittarius A* remains a centre of our Universe, but human being a Brahman is centre of the whole Cosmos. 

Punamchand 

9 June 2022

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Gujarati Diet

 Gujarati Diet

Gujarati people are very famous for their varieties of snacks in breakfast and sweetened vegetables and dal in meals. Their staple food is Dal-Bhat-Sabji-Roti in lunch and Khichadi-kadhi-bhakhari-shak in dinner. There are sweets Sukhadi, Siro, Ladu, etc, and milk sweets Penda, Mavo, Thabadi, etc. 

The food is simple and easy to digest but some people consider it health hazardous. In fact, Gujarati food is a health food aligned with Ayurveda. Majority population eat thrice in a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), but the urbans may eat four times or many times in a day. Lunch and Dinner are eaten in regular quantity while breakfast and afternoon snacks are lighter.

There are many fried items: Bhajiya, Dalvada, Batatavada, Fafada, Papadi, Ganthia, Sev, Cholafali, Mathia, Fulvadi, etc, mostly made of besan (gram flour). There are steamed or baked items: Khaman, Dhokla, Patra, Handvo, Khandavi, Muthia, etc. Chatani and achar add taste to the snacks. 

How could they be said aligned with Ayurveda? Did you notice that Gujarati fried items are mostly the protein items and smoke/bake items are mostly the carbohydrate items? Fried protein is less injurious while fried carbohydrates is more injurious to health. Fried items increases the life of the food and the traders community used to travel long distances for business, therefore smart Gujarati ladies made their carry food tastier by steaming, baking or frying. 

Let’s talk about the jaggery or sugar used in Dal and vegetables. It is very common to add jaggery in arhar (tuvar) dal in all households. Large majority don’t add sugar in other dals. Large majority of OBC-ST-SC-Muslim don’t add jaggery or sugar in their vegetables, but the upper castes and hoteliers do add jaggery or sugar in vegetables made of potato, brinjal, pods (fail: guvar, choli, matar, etc). It was a practice because large majority was consuming less of vegetables and more of dal-Roti in past. The upper classes were consuming more vegetables. 

Now review, what is the connection between sugar and vegetables? Which food create gastric problem? Mostly the Arhar (tuvar) dal and green vegetables of different pods create more gastric problem. Ayurveda says that sweet juice subsides gastric problem. It is therefore, Gujarati use jaggery or sugar in vegetables and dal. Fafda and Jalebi is a suitable match. The sweet dish in other culture is there for the same reason. Many people feel sleepy after eating dal, therefore Gujarati arhar dal is not carrying only sweetened agent but also having five other juices. It is made of six juices sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter, and astringent. 

Are you convinced that Gujarati diet is a healthy diet easy to digest? In fact, the whole of Asia is eating healthy food suitable to their health considering their life style and the seasonal and atmospheric variations. 

If you are unable to fart and getting tired of gastric problem start eating food adding jaggery or sugar. To become Gujarati means to become calm and composed because after all we have to earn livelihood by trading and business. We can’t afford to fight with our consumers and suppliers because of our stomach disorder. 

Do you wish to enjoy varieties of snacks and sweetened meals? 

Be a Gujarati. 

You will become entrepreneur. 

It’s beneficial.😁

Punamchand 

10 June 2022

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एक सवाल।

 एक सवाल। 

धर्म की खोज मुक्ति के लिए थी। 

किससे मुक्ति? 

दुःख से। 

दुःख क्यूँ है? कुछ तो कारण होगा? 

एक ने कहा कर्म फल। 

कैसा कर्म फल? अभी तो कुछ जीया नहीं कुछ किया नहीं और दुःख रूपी कर्म फल आ टपका? अभी तो पिता के घर खुश थी, व्यसनी पति से ब्याही और दुःख का ढेर लग गया। 

फिर तर्क निकाला। 

पिछला कुछ बाक़ी होगा। 

पिछला तो बचपन था। 

बताया पिछला जन्म था। एक नहीं अनेक जन्मजन्मान्तर। 

बस तर्क में बांध लिया। नियति मान वक्त कटने लगा। ना फ़रियाद ना छूटने का प्रयास। कोल्हू का बैल बन गई। 

दूसरे ने कहा दुःख का पता लगाओ। 

कहाँ होता है दुःख? 

क्यूँ होता है दुःख?

यह शारीरिक कम अपितु मानसिक ज़्यादा है। 

हर मनुष्य के दुःख अलग-अलग है। एक ही परिस्थिति में मनुष्य मनुष्य के दुःख कम ज़्यादा कैसे है? ज़रूर सोफ्टवेर की गलती है।  पता लगाया तो आसक्ति और तृष्णा का भेद पाया। इच्छा और तृष्णा को दुःख का कारण मानकर उससे छूटने के सूत्र बनाये। 

तीसरा आया। अरे क्या कर रहे हो? क्यों चक्की पीसे जा रहे हो? तुम जिसे दुःख मानते हो वह वास्तव में है ही नहीं। तुम अपना स्वरूप भूल गये हो। वह तो अमर है। ना उसे मौत का भय ना पीड़ा का। बस जिसमें पीड़ा हो रही है उस डिब्बे को छोड़ो और अमर डिब्बे में बैठ जाओ। 

महिला बड़ी परेशान है। 

न पति दारू छोड़ता है न उसे पड़ रही मार कम हो रही है। मर-अमर के खेल में उसका वजन दिन प्रतिदिन कम हो रहा है। गाल पिचके जा रहे है। बच्चों की लाइन लगी है। चूल्हा चक्की से छूटकारा नहीं हो रहा। अब करें तो क्या करें? पति छोड़कर कहाँ जाये? बदन भी तंदुरुस्त नहीं रहा। तृष्णा इच्छायें तो सब दब गई उस दुःख के भार से। छोड़ने पकड़ने का अवसर ही कहाँ? कर्म तो चूल्हा चक्की है पर फल तो आतंक के रूप में बाहर से आ रहे है। अब कैसा विवेक करें या कैसा अविवेक? जब ज़ंजीरों में जकड़ी गई और ज़ंजीर तोड़ने का आधार दूसरों पर निर्भर हो तो मुक्ति कैसे? मौत के सिवा कोई मुक्ति नहीं। 

होगी मुक्ति उन लोगों की जिसे दो वक्त की रोटी की चिंता नहीं। जिसे पति या समाज की मार नही। जिसके पास पूर्ण समय है अपने मन में उठ रहे विचारों तरंगों को देखने का, अभ्यास करने का। तत्व चिंतन वही कर पायेगा। यहाँ तो मन और तन दोनों जकड़ लिये गये है। उठना थकना सोना, फिर उठना थकना सोना। बस पूर्ण सो जाने का इंतज़ार ही रहा। 

युक्ति या अयुक्ति, कुछ भी नहीं चलता यहाँ। 

जिसके हाथ में लाठी, मानो उसका ही बैल। 

धर्म व्यवस्था सुधार के लिए आया होगा पर मज़हब बन सत्ता का साधन ही बन गया। 

पूनमचंद 

११ जून २०२२

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Man created God

 માનવે ઘડ્યો ભગવાન

એક ધર્મના ભગવાન કે મહાપુરુષની બીજા ધર્મવાળા ટીકા કરે તેના વિવાદ અને ઘર્ષણ સદીઓથી ચાલ્યા કરે છે. કોણ કોને સમજાવે? તમાશાને તેડું ન હોય. 

મનુષ્યોએ સર્જેલા ભગવાનની અને તેની રચનાઓનું વિવેચન કરવાનો હક દરેકને રહેવાનો કારણ કે મનુષ્ય સંવેદનશીલ પ્રાણી છે. પોતાની લાગણી વ્યક્ત કરવાનો. ધાર્મિક વ્યવસ્થા આ રીતે જ બની છે. આ ધાર્મિક વ્યવસ્થા જન કલ્યાણનું ભલું કરે ત્યાં સુધી સૌ સારું ગણવું પરંતુ જેવી તે એકબીજાનું ખૂન કરવા પ્રેરે એટલે તેને નકામી ગણી ટીકા કરવામાં કંઈ જ અજુગતુ નથી. 

કોને ન ગમે સારા મનુષ્ય ન બનવું? 

સાચું બોલવું, બીજાની હિંસા ન કરવી, ચોરી ન કરવી, વ્યભિચાર ન કરવો, બીજાનું પડાવી ન લેવું, માતા-પિતા-ગુરૂજનો-વડીલોને માન આપવું, દંભ ન કરવો, અભિમાન ન કરવું, કપટ ન કરવું, વ્યસન ન કરવું, સમ્યક દર્શન કરવું, વગેરે વગેરે. એક મનુષ્યને સારો મનુષ્ય બનાવે તેવા ભગવાનને ૧૦૦ માંથી ૧૦૦ ગુણ. 

હિન્દુ ધર્મમાં ધાર્મિક વ્યવસ્થાના ત્રણ સ્તર છે. 

૧) ભગવાન 

૨) ઈશ્વર 

૩) બ્રહ્મ 

ભગ એટલે યોનિ અને ભગવાન એટલે યોનિ દ્વારા જન્મેલ, મનુષ્ય. મનુષ્ય યોનિમાં જન્મેલા વિશિષ્ટ પુરુષો, પુરુષોત્તમ, ભગવાન શ્રેણીમાં આવે. જેમ કે ભગવાન રામ, ભગવાન કૃષ્ણ, ભગવાન બુદ્ધ, ભગવાન મહાવીર, ભગવાન સ્વામીનારાયણ, ભગવાન રજનીશ (ઓશો), ઈત્યાદિ. મનુષ્ય શ્રેષ્ઠ કે જેમણે પોતાના જીવન કર્મથી માનવતાનો વિશેષ સંદેશ આપ્યો. 

બીજી ઉપરની શ્રેણીમાં ઈશ્વર આવે. જેની સાથે બીજા ધર્મના અલ્લાહ, પરમ પિતા મૂકી શકાય. આ અમાનવીય શક્તિ સ્વરૂપ છે, જે ચૈતન્ય છે અને સમગ્ર સર્જન, સ્થાપન અને વિસર્જનનું કારણ ગણાય છે. હિન્દુ ધર્મ તેની ત્રણ શક્તિઓને બ્રહ્મા વિષ્ણુ મહેશ તરીકે ઓળખે છે. અંશ અને અંશીની કલ્પના આ સ્વરૂપમાં કરી મનુષ્ય દ્વૈત ભાવે તેની પૂજા-બંદગી-પ્રાર્થના કરે છે. આ સગુણ સ્વરૂપ છે.

ત્રીજી શ્રેણીમાં નિર્વિકલ્પ આવે. સનાતનીઓનો બ્રહ્મ, શૈવોનો પરમ શિવ, જૈનીયોનો કેવલી, બુદ્ધોનો શૂન્ય આવે; જે નિર્ગુણ, નિરાકાર, સર્વ વ્યાપક, એક, અદ્વિતીય, ચિદ્ઘન ચૈતન્ય પરમાત્મા છે. મનુષ્યમાં રહેલી ચેતના અને વ્યાપક ચેતનાના એકીકરણની પ્રક્રિયાને મોક્ષ, નિર્વાણ, મુક્તિ તરીકે જોવામાં આવી છે. 

ત્રણેય સ્થિતિમાં એક મનુષ્યના ઉત્થાનની ભૂમિકા બાંધેલી છે, જે પોતાની ચૈત્ય સ્થિતિને સ્થૂલ સંકુચિત ભૂતોથી મુક્ત કરી વ્યાપક ચૈતન્યમાં વિસ્તારી લઈ સર્વ સમાવેશ, સર્વાત્મ ભાવ કેળવી લે છે. વ્યકિત વિકાસ અને આર્ટ ઓફ લીવીંગ મેળવી લે છે.

બાહ્ય દેખાતી ધર્મ હરિફાઈઓ, આડંબર, ચાલચલણ; સત્તા, સંપત્તિ અને કીર્તિના સાધન તરીકે વધુ અને સમાજમાં સમત્વ અને સદ્દગુણોના વિકાસ માટે ઓછી જણાય છે.

પૂનમચંદ 

૧૨ જૂન ૨૦૨૨

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Dogs in Mahabharata

Dogs in Mahabharata 

Do you know, the great epic Mahabharata starts with a Dog, ends with a Dog and there is a Dog in the middle acts as a turning point?

The story of Mahabharata starts with the Yagya of King Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit, grandson of Abhimanyu and great grandson of Pandavas. 

Sage Ugrasrava Sauti is the narrator of Mahabharata. He returned from the yagya of King Janamejaya describes the story of the yagyashala. A small dog (pup) was looking at the yagya from the outside of the yagyashala but the three brothers of Janamejaya beaten it up without giving a chance to escape because if the dog enters the yagashala then devatas don’t accept the offerings. The dog went back with lot of pain and complaint to its mother. The mother dog Sarama went to Janamejaya and complained and left without demanding justice. Janamejaya looked at the Purohits and the Mahabharata starts. 

The second dog appears in the story of Eklavya.

Eklavya was a son of the Chief of the hunters (Nishada) in the forest of Hastinapur. He went to Gurukul of Dronacharya for education in art of archery and science of warfare. Dronacharya denied his request saying he as a Brahmin can’t teach the Shudra. Arjuna also reacted saying Guru Dronacharya is a Royal teacher appointed by the King to train the princes. ‘How dare you expect to be taught by him! Leave the gurukul now’. Surprised and hurt by Guru’s reply and stunned by Arjun’s reaction the Nishada boy learned archery on his own and practiced before the idol of Dronacharya. He became a skilled archer. One day, while practicing, a dog started barking some distance away. Its constant barking irritated Eklavya, who fired seven arrows in quick succession, filling the dog’s mouth without injuring it. The dog was no longer able to bark and roamed around the forest and reached the Pandavas. Drona saw the dog and was amazed and realised it the act of an extremely skilled archer. They found out Eklavya. Drona was stunned when heard that that he as mud idol became his teacher. Drona realised the threat to Arjuna and demanded his right thumb in Guru Dakshina. Eklavya without any hesitation took a knife and cut off the right thumb and placed it at Dronacharya’s feet. 

The third dog appears at the end.

After ruling 36 years the kingdom of Hastinapur after Mahabharata war, Pandavas with Dropadi gave up kingdom, took sanyas and left for Himalayas. They were followed by a dog throughout. Dropadi and four Pandavas died but Yudhishthira and the Dog survived. They continued their journey and Indra appears. He offers Chariot to travel for heaven in which Yudhishthira insisted to travel with Dog. Indra denied the entry of the Dog therefore Yudhishthira refused to go to the heaven without the dog. The Dog re-appeared before him as a deity Yama, declared that he had passed the test of Dharma and pleased with his stand of compassion for all living beings requested him to enter the chariot without hesitation. 

Thus Mahabharata started with a dog's story, ended with a dog. 

Don’t underestimate the Dog. It’s an important domestic animal. Recently IAS officer Sanjeev Khirwar and his ‘walk the dog’ controversy in Delhi infuriated the authorities and the couple was transferred to Himalayas. 

Punamchand 

12 June 2022

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Gujarati Diet

 Gujarati Diet

Gujarati people are very famous for their varieties of snacks in breakfast and sweetened vegetables and daal in meals. Their staple food is Daal-Bhat-Sabji-Roti in lunch and Khichadi-kadhi-bhakhari-shak in dinner. There are sweets Sukhadi, Siro, Ladu, etc, and milk sweets Penda, Mavo, Thabadi, etc. 

The food is simple and easy to digest but some people consider it health hazardous. In fact, Gujarati food is a health food aligned with Ayurveda. Majority population eat thrice in a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), but the urbans may eat four times or many times in a day. Lunch and Dinner are eaten in regular quantity while breakfast and afternoon snacks are lighter.

There are many fried items: Bhajiya, Dalvada, Batatavada, Fafada, Papadi, Ganthia, Sev, Cholafali, Mathia, Fulvadi, etc, mostly made of besan (gram flour). There are steamed or baked items: Khaman, Dhokla, Patra, Handvo, Khandavi, Muthia, etc. Chatani and achar add taste to the snacks. 

How could they be said aligned with Ayurveda? Did you notice that Gujarati fried items are mostly the protein items and smoke/bake items are mostly the carbohydrate items? Fried protein is less injurious while fried carbohydrates is more injurious to health. Fried items increases the life of the food and the traders community used to travel long distances for business, therefore smart Gujarati ladies made their carry food tastier by steaming, baking or frying. 

Let’s talk about the jaggery or sugar used in Dal and vegetables. It is very common to add jaggery in arhar (tuvar) dal in all households. Large majority don’t add sugar in other dals. Large majority of OBC-ST-SC-Muslim don’t add jaggery or sugar in their vegetables, but the upper castes and hoteliers do add jaggery or sugar in vegetables made of potato, brinjal, pods (fail: guvar, choli, matar, etc). It was a practice because large majority was consuming less of vegetables and more of daal-Roti in past. The upper classes were consuming more vegetables. 

Now review, what is the connection between sugar and vegetables? Which food create gastric problem? Mostly the Arhar (tuvar) dal and green vegetables of different pods create more gastric problem. Ayurveda says that sweet juice subsides gastric problem. It is therefore, Gujarati use jaggery or sugar in vegetables and dal. Fafda and Jalebi is a suitable match. The sweet dish in other culture is there for the same reason. Many people feel sleepy after eating dal, therefore Gujarati arhar daal is not carrying only sweetened agent but also having five other juices. It is made of six juices sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter, and astringent. 

Are you convinced that Gujarati diet is a healthy diet easy to digest? In fact, the whole of Asia is eating healthy food suitable to their health considering their life style and the seasonal and atmospheric variations. 

If you are unable to fart and getting tired of gastric problem start eating food adding jaggery or sugar. To become Gujarati means to become calm and composed because after all we have to earn livelihood by trading and business. We can’t afford to fight with our consumers and suppliers because of our stomach disorder. 

Do you wish to enjoy varieties of snacks and sweetened meals? 

Be a Gujarati. 

You will become entrepreneur. 

It’s beneficial.😁

Punamchand 

10 June 2022

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