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2010-11-29T12:36:00.001+05:30

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Making of Ganesha from Biligiri Family

2010-08-02T03:53:00.022+05:30

This Sunday was our one of the most productive day.

To brief you, our forefathers were making Bigger Ganesha Idol and the same was taken out by procession by temple authorities of Shri. Chamarajeshwara Temple (Chamarajanagara, Near Mysore). Our great grand-father 'Late Manegar Gundappa' was working as 'Manegar' in Shri. Chamarajeshwara Temple before Independence Day used to make bigger Ganesha. That’s how our grandfather and my father learnt.

My grandfather ‘Late Venkataswamy’, got job in Agriculture dept. and later shifted to Animal Husbandry Dept. Because of that he moved out from Chamarajanagar, travelled in various parts of South Karnataka and lastly settled in Bangalore. But he maintained the legacy of making Ganesha. He used to prepare at least 20 Ganesha’s every year and was distributing to his cousins and friends.

The same legacy or passion carried by my father Shri. C.V. Lakshmana. He used to make four to five Ganesha’s every year and the same was distributing to Biligiri family members.

Now, we the next generation of Biligiri Family thought, we should carry the same legacy, what our forefathers were doing. As a first step, we all assembled at ‘Biligiri’, Malleshwaram, yesterday, 1^st August 2010 and started learning, how to make Ganesha.

It was perfect day. Our guru Shri. C.V. Lakshmana was eager to teach us. We the students, started our work at exactly 1pm and finished at 6.30pm.

We were getting lot of instructions/tips from Shri. C.V. Lakshmana while doing the work. Of course lot of encouragement from Rangappa, Murali, Shaylaja and Veena. Later joined by Shri. Kaushik.

What a great experience. I will be adding few photos which is self explanatory. Hope you will enjoy and join us next year for the making of Ganesha.

For you kind information. No mold used in the whole process.

Making Ganesha - Lalitha, Pramod, Priya and Suresh

Its Tea time - Have a break

Our guru - Shri. C.V. Lakshmana

Fine Tuning by our guru

Lalitha and Pramod

Suresh and Priya

Overall it was a satisfying day. Hope you all liked this!! Come back later with lot more ......after painting work....Bye for now.

B.R.Hills - 24th July 2010

2010-07-25T16:36:00.014+05:30

As I promised in my earlier blog, I am back.

Yesterday (24th July 2010), we were there in B.R. Hills and distributed Uniforms to the School children. For this blog, I am uploading more photos than writing. Photos are self explanatory.

Shri. Lakshmana distributing the uniforms

Prof. C.V. Ranganath, Shri. Shridar, Shri. Pavanesh Distributing Uniforms and sweets

School Children

Can you see the happiness in their eyes. some of the students mentioned that, they are hoping to become Police, Doctor, Teacher & so on... Amazing stuff!

School Children with their new uniforms.
They look like as if, they are all birds and flying with joy!

from left: Mrs. Uma Manjunath, Mrs. Sridhar, Mrs. Vimala,
Mrs. Lakshmana and a Teacher of the School

In the end, we should thank the Head Master Shri. Basavaraj and Mrs. Vimala, School teacher, who took initiative for the benefit of the students.

OUR NEXT PROJECT........??

Biligiri Ranga Hills (B.R. Hills) on 26th June 2010

2010-06-27T22:05:00.020+05:30

Before food - Chanting of Shanti Mantra from children

Distribution of books by Swamiji

School premises

Shri. Sridhar and Shri. Lakshmana

Cultural Programme by School children

Dignitaries on the dais - from Left (Shri. Pavanesh, Advocate in Bangalore, Swamiji, Ramakrishna Mutt, Shri. Sridhar, Prof. C.V. Ranganath, Academic Director, MES Institutions, Bangalore)

Our Trip to Biligiri Ranga Hills (B.R. Hills) on 26th June 2010

We visited B.R. Hills yesterday (26th June 2010). It was really a memorable trip. Purpose is to visit a Government School and to distribute books for the needy tribal children from our Biligiri family and Mr. Sridhar's family. They are all studying from 1st std to 6th std. Total student strength of that School is around 75. Location of the School is beautiful. School is surrounded with full of greenery. You can see lot of trees like Silver Oke, Banian, etc., Breezy wind with not so heavy rain. It's a cool place and good environment for studies.

Before I start my writing, should mention few points over here. For the distribution of books, two persons who took initiative and responsible. They are Shri. C.V. Lakshmana (My father) and Shri. Sridhar. Shri. Lakshmana is now 78 years and Shri. Sridhar is around 70 years. They are so active and have a very good vision for the society. Both of them are really aggressive in their approach and happy to work in the grass root level. Hence they take lot of initiation and think lot of activities for the tribal in B.R. hills area.

I, my cousin Chandrashekar, My Uncle Ranganath, Suresh and our family friend Pavanesh started our journey towards B.R. Hills at around 6am. Morning was very chill and pleasant one. Since we started early, we had a plan to visit a hotel en-route to B.R.Hills. On the state highway of Bangalore – Mysore, Before Maddur, you will see Adigas. Quite a good hotel. We reached hotel at 8am and had a heavy breakfast. I and Suresh ordered Open Masala. Good dish. But not for the morning breakfast. Had a very good filter coffee and started our journey. In Maddur town we need to take left to go to B.R. Hills if you are coming from Bangalore (another route is through Kanakapura). From Maddur to B.R. Hills, route is Bharati Nagar, Malavalli, Shimsha,and Kollegal (from Shimsha to Vadgere road is under repair, but can be managed). After Kollegal, there is a road which goes to Yelandur. But you need to take a small road (kaccha road), before bridge (there is a sign board), which leads to Vadagere. From Vadagere, that road goes directly to the foot hills of Biligiri Ranga check post.

In check post Shri. Lakshman, Mrs. Lakshman, Mrs. Uma Manjunath, Mr. Adarsh Kumar, Shri. Sridhar, Mrs. Srisdhar, Mr. Ashwin, Mrs. Ashwin, and Daughter of Shri. Sridhar joined us in check post. All of them started from Mysore. From check post we directly went to the Government School. On the way to School, we saw lots of greenery, very good Landscapes, innocent tribal villagers, cows and sheep’s ‘Moo’ and ‘Baa’ noises unlike concrete jungle’s honking, pollution, etc.,

On the occasion of book distribution ceremony, our chief guest was Shri. Sureshanandaji swamiji, Ramakrishna Mutt. Teachers from the School welcomed us. Students showed their cultural talent. Did dance for the songs of Environment and a Kolata. It was really enjoyable moment. After the cultural performance, swamiji distributed the books. We could see the joy in the eyes of children and the teachers. Do you know, all the children, after collecting the books from Swamiji, they said ‘Thank you Swamiji’ in ‘English’? We are all surprised. We should appreciate teacher’s efforts. In such a remote place, children speaking openly with strangers means, it’s a credit to the teachers.

After the books distribution, for all the children lunch was arranged. Lunch sponsored by ‘Raghavendra Mutt’, Jayalakshmipuram, Mysore. Lunch was ‘Bisibele Bath’, ‘Mosaranna’ and a ‘Mysore Pak’. You know one thing. They are really having a good culture. Before taking food, all the students chanted shanti mantra. It’s really amazing. Still these children uplifting our culture and heritage.

After this, all of us visited Gangadareshwara Temple, Biligiri Ranga temple and offered puja. Then everybody was moved to Raghavendra Swamy mutt located near ‘Giridarshini' mess in B.R. Hills. Food was arranged for all of us. Finished food and went to Viji’s house to purchase ‘Sogadeberu sharbattu’ (its blood purifier and also act as body coolent) and ‘Nallikai sharabattu’ (for pitta).Later we had a tea.

Few minutes of rest, started at 3pm from B.R. Hills towards Bangalore. On the way near Madddur, we visited a place called Vydyanatha Pura. There is a Shiva temple named as Vydyanatheshwara. On way of our coming back we visited ‘Adigas’ again and had ‘Rava Idli’+’Coffee’. When we reached home it was 8.30pm. Our ‘Biligiri’ family heads passed a resolution to adopt a government School in B.R. Hills and provide them facility for the whole year. Our next project is to distribute Uniforms to them. It is going to happen shortly. Surely I will come back with one more blog after the distribution of uniforms. Overall, it was a very good experience for us, satisfied and memory to cherish.

Guhantara - 24th May 2009

2009-05-26T12:12:00.023+05:30

It was 24^th May cool & breeze morning. All Biligiri family was exited. Reason is Guhantara. As usual it was Sunday morning with less traffic on the roads. Thanks to Suri (Pachha) for vehicle arrangement. He has communicated with Satyasai Travels & booked the vehicle. First pickup point was Lalli & family at 7.30am. Our last pickup was Mrs. Rekha Prasad & family.

So we were all there in a bus and started towards Guhantara. The resort is located near “Sri Sri Ravishankar Ashram” (Uma’s Ashram), located in the state highway towards Kanakapura. Near to the ashram there is a place called Kaggalipura. From this place Guhantara is around 2.5kms towards west.

We reached Guhantara at around 10am. Soon we completed all the formalities at reception counter, started towards breakfast.

When we reached the main lounge, we were welcomed with a drink (not hot drink, but with a juice). Idli, Vada (Favorite dish to Shankra), Shavige Kesaribath, Uppitu (with all vegetables & batani), Chatni & Sambar are kept at the breakfast.

Oh! Before I forgot, Bread, Butter & Jam also provided for breakfast.

So everyone had the breakfast with their own choice.

Soon after the breakfast we all kept our belongings in a locker provided by Guhantara personnel.

Myself, Gautam, Pramod, Srihari, Bhargav & Pranav started playing cricket. Bhargav & Gautam went on hammering the bowling attack. Srihari & Pramod went for few runs but took one / two crucial wickets.

On the other side, Lalli, Rekha, Veena, Priya, Shreya, Malu & Dhruthi had started their cycling. Cycle must have got tired, when two young kids (Veena & Rekha- OOPS ‼‼!) started cycling. Anyways it was good fun for all of us.

Then we shifted our location from open field to Conference room. There we arranged a surprise birthday party of Shreya. Game played there was fantastic. Game called “Know your family”. Lalli, Priya & Malu taken lots of pain & scratched their head till 1am on 23^rd May 09 to arrange this game. They have done a stupendous job.

Lalli Aunty + Girls keep up the good work.

Ravi has written a nice quote in a chart and displayed. End of the birthday party all the Biligiri members signed and presented the chart to Shreya.

Then of course we made two teams and started antyakshri. It went on about for half hour. Then we realized that there was big crowd over there in lounge for lunch. We all started towards lunch.

Vegetable Sour Soup, Roti, Subjee (two types), Jeera Rice, Pappad, Vegetable Salad, Pickle, Curd Rice was the menu. For non – vegetarian 3 separate counters were there. Apart from that there were two more counter with Ice-Cream & Fruit Salad. We all enjoyed food.

Mangala Doddamma & Vishalakshi Chikkama brought their food from home. Both enjoyed a lot.

By the time we finished food, Guhantara Management organized Housie – Housie game. Unfortunately none of our Biligiri family members won that game. Anyway it’s all part & parcel of game.

After lunch, Myself, Gautam, Pramod & Bhargav started playing Table tennis. Few minutes later Bhargav joined Ravi & Pranav in the swimming pool. Later Gautam & Srihari played Billiards.

At 2.45pm the real fun started. DJ started the music with his 6000watt speaker & most of us went towards dance floor. DJ’s remixes and josh songs of Kannada, Hindi & Tamil pushed everyone to dance. By 3.15pm everyone charged and ready for rain dance. At 3.15 pm rain dance started and it went on till 3.45pm. Gayathri, Rekha, Uma, Shanthi, Veena, Vaishnavi, Priya, Shreya, Malu & of course Dhruthi started dancing. Dhruthi was non-stoppable. Almost 1.30 hrs she was there on dance floor and rocked. Lalli gave her a small gift as a token of appreciation.

By the time the dance finished, Bajji (not Harbhajan singh) & Sauce was waiting for us. We all ate that and changed our wet clothes and shifted our location to open garden. We all sit together and played housie – housie. Few members lost their money and few gains. Gautam & Srihari played very smart. Lastly few of us played shuttle & flying disc. Around 6pm we all started from Guhantara and reached Bangalore, thinking of Monday morning blues.

End of the day, if you look back:

It’s Happy and happy. There is Happy and there is happy.

I feel and saw the sparkle of happiness from Doddamma to Dhruthi.

It would have been nice if more number of Biligiri families had accompanied this short trip.....

Anyways it was wonderful and one of the memorable trip.

Thanks to all & patient reading.

L. Venkata Ranga

Child-rearing, a learning expereince– Part Two

2006-09-04T18:27:00.000+05:30

A child raised on anger, hatred and violent discipline learns that his basic, inborn, inherent signals, the instincts that lead him to display the full range of rasas, are all wrong. This negative feedback toward his most natural, instinctive behavior causes him, in turn, to lose trust in himself and in others. The final outcome is a suspicious, doubtful, cold, emotionally dead and ruined adult who has chronically low self-esteem. What parents can do When the display of negative rasas by children gets out of hand, there are certain positive things that parents can do: • Take a few deep breaths. • Commit to loving the child without conditions.

Be firm, yet remain flexible to the child’s needs of the moment.

• See the child for what he is—just a small child in need of support.

• Impose no grown-up values and expectations on the child.

• See the display of rasa for what it is–a little storm in a tiny tea cup, which will calm down eventually.

• At the peak of the display of negative rasas, do not force the child to change his ways or engage with him in a forceful manner. A calm voice and a firm but peaceful manner is a stronger weapon than force.

• Do not, do not, do not suppress, neglect, ignore, put down, discourage, degrade or humiliate the child when he is displaying any sign of a positive rasa. While excessive praise is detrimental, so are neglect and discouragement.

• At no point are violent physical punishments, frightening time-outs, deprivation or verbal abuse called for. These negative devices affect children for the rest of their lives.

• Focus on cultivating tolerance and patience in yourself. Treat the child as you would expect him to treat you when you grow old, powerless, dependent and needy. Talk to your child about the expression of positive rasas when the time is right. In the meantime, just show him by the example of your own behavior how the expression of positive rasas brings joy to the family.

• Set a family time—free from technology—to create an ideal environment for cultivating your child and teaching him about the display of positive rasas. Soon enough you will be able to speak to the child about the universal laws of righteous behavior. Every being has the desire to be treated with love, courtesy, kindness, loyalty, generosity, consideration and warmth. While being taught to extend this treatment to one and all, the child will also need to be told about discretion. For example, loyalty is a good quality but the child must learn to choose his company wisely. If he befriends a drug pusher and becomes loyal to him, his loyalty to this friendship will quickly take him right down the drain and into the infected tank. This is where discretion comes in. When all is said and done, nobody can deny that these are challenging times for parents. Rootlessness, alienation, marginalization and anonymity—these are some of the prices parents pay when they move around the world in search of the perfect situation. Techno-commercial values constantly push parents and children to test one another. In pursuit of their individual ambitions and needs, parents and children often live in separate worlds, even though in the same house-hold. And when children enter school, the child who has not been given time to be a child, who has not been accepted with tolerance, often ends up in the school being tested for and diagnosed with illnesses such as bipolar disorder, ADHD or oppositional defiant disorder. harassed teachers, under pressure to maintain order in their classrooms and to have their students meet minimum academic standards, expect all of the children to behave like obedient, quiet, perfect, little ladies and gentlemen. Children are not allowed to be children. They are not allowed to deviate from the norm or to freely express all of their rasas. Sometimes as early as the age of three or four, children are labeled with psychiatric diagnoses and begin to be treated with powerful drugs such as lithium or Depakote (mood stabilizers), risperdal, Seroquel or Zyprexa (atypical antipsychotics), Prozac (an antidepressant) or ritalin (a drug for ADHD). Each of these drugs comes with a frightening list of side effects. If prescribed without any physical markers, but solely on the basis of behavior—or rather the display of rasas—what well (or harm) is being done to the child, the parents and society? In the face of this, it becomes all the more imperative that parents consider other, more holistic approaches to child rearing. If, as is sometimes the case, the child’s display of rasas becomes detrimental to his own or his family’s well-being, there are scores of other, non-pharmaceutical options available for modifying mood and behavior. His parents might explore changing his diet, limiting his intake of sugar, preservatives and additives. Calming and healing herbs might help. Perhaps homeopathy could shift his energetic balance or counseling for the entire family could diffuse the situation. Training a child in martial arts, classical music or classical dance could help. All of these disciplines have been known to stabilize and channel excessive or disruptive energy in more positive directions. A regular TV-free time when family members sit together, work together and converse with one another is also known to provide lasting positive change for children. As children grow up and display rasas, parents need to continue to grow up as well—not just in the physical manifestations of age, the wrinkles and gray hair, but in wisdom. This is what a study of the display of rasas in childhood is all about: a call for parents to monitor the growth of their wisdom. When parents learn to take charge of their own growth in terms of tolerance and empathy and resolve to let children be children first, allowing them an age appropriate display of rasas, they have an opportunity to become truly close to their children and know them in their totality. As children mature, good parents take the initiative for gently channeling their rasas at the appropriate time and place. When parents take this positive approach towards the child. The options of violent discipline and drug based treatments become obsolete. While we continue to ponder who is raising whom, learning to flow with the rasas will bring about lasting peace and joy in many households.

The End

Children Emotions – Part One

2006-09-04T18:07:00.000+05:30

Indian tradition recognizes nine rasas as representing our most important and basic emotions: love, joy, wonder, courage, calmness, anger, sadness, fear and disgust. These emotions are universal to mankind. Five are desirable, while four are unpleasant and usually undesirable.

Watch a small child carefully and you will be able to see displays of all nine of the basic emotions: 1) A baby smiles and gazes adoringly at his mother, showing the emotion of shringaar, charm or love. Overcome with love for the infant, she picks him up, cuddles him and showers him with kisses. This is what the baby wanted, a physical confirmation of mother’s presence and love. He knows exactly how to display his needs by way of facial expressions when he is barely three months old. 2) A loud noise startles and wakens the baby and he cries out in fear, bhayanak. This cry is distinct from all other cries. 3) Try spooning a cooked and mashed vegetable into an infant’s mouth. As he sniffs, tastes, spits out and makes a horrible face he is expressing bibhatsa, disgust, with the new taste, very different from that of milk, his staple diet so far. 4) A ladybug lands on his table, walks across, flutters her wings and takes off. The child is wide-eyed with adbhut, wonder or fascination, and has watched every move made by the ladybug. 5) A child has learned to climb a ladder and gets a better view. He is feeling very accomplished and veer, brave, a hero of his own world. 6) Laughing when tickled is a child’s expression of haasya, joyous humor and laughter. 7) In a hurry, the mother stubs her toe and cries out in pain. A child as young as two, will reach out, wipe mom’s tears and touch the injury in an expression of karuna, compassion, empathy or mercy. 8) Children fighting may display roudra, anger. 9) A well-fed and relaxed baby that is asleep does look angelic. He is shanta, tranquility or calmness, personified. Besides these, a child can display with equal ease and mastery a few more inherent emotions, such as greed, selflessness, obstinacy, curiosity, clinginess, generosity, dependency, violence, arrogance and rudeness.

I also recall Swami Chinmayananda talking to a group of young mothers after a Sunday Balavihar. He said, “For the first seven years, treat the child as if he is god; for the next seven years treat him as you would treat a servant; for the next seven years treat him as if he were a slave; and for the next seven years and beyond, treat him as if he were your friend.” He went on to explain why. “A child in his first seven years is in the realm of innocence. He lives in the here and now. He is ruled by his inborn instincts and impulses and is mainly governed by his bio-physiology. He has no awareness of the duality of the adult world. He has no malice. His love is pure. His hatred and anger are pure; so, too, are his fears, compassion and violence. In his purity and innocence he is god-like, akin to the elements of nature. At this stage, there is no need for bringing about changes in a child’s expressions of emotions by inducing fear, beating, berating, humiliating or forcing the child. Let him weather the storm. Let him live through his emotional upheaval and outburst. “In the next seven years, the child’s milk teeth are falling. He has been through a few childhood illnesses and is aware of pain. He is beginning to read and write. Now the child, just like a servant, is ready to obey authority. He is eager to learn what will please his parents, teachers and friends. He is beginning to figure out what brings him praise and goodwill. Treat this child with the utmost dignity. Into his receptive ears, pour all the good moral stories from cultures around the world. Don’t just read like a machine. Read and discuss the stories with your child. Encourage the child to think, imagine and question. Set a positive example and be a good role model for your child to emulate. Appeal to the child’s inherent sense of justice, fairness, love, compassion, kindness and reciprocity. No child has ever been born without these beautiful qualities,” said Swamiji, his bright and lively eyes blazing with conviction. “For the next seven years, treat him like a slave, in the sense that he should now learn that life has serious responsibilities and obligations. To do this you do not have to be-come a cruel slave driver. Teach him about money, social codes and ethics, about the value of work and education. Teach him to respect physical labor. Encourage him to accomplish challenging tasks that will give him strength and confidence in himself. Teach him about consequences, the ripple effect and repercussions. And once your child has reached twenty one years of age, stop treating him like a child. If you have treated him right from the first day, he will know to take charge and be a man. From now on he will be your friend for rest of your life, and you will be his friend.” It need not be told that life begets life, tolerance breeds tolerance, love generates love, hatred brings more hatred and violence leads to more violence. The natural display of rasas during childhood gives parents and children an opportunity to make a fresh and correct start. A child raised in an environment imbued with love, acceptance and tolerance learns to accept these values as natural and can find in himself a reserve of these very same qualities, from which he can give to others freely when needed.

Continued…..Next Week

Beyond Cricket…..

2006-07-10T14:51:00.000+05:30

It’s always a sweet sight. The swing of the bat, the ball scuttling across the earth or arching through the air, human figures moving purposefully, gracefully, at speed, across a vast green lawn. No cricket fan could resist it.

Palace Grounds has a great record of getting cricket to children all over the Bangalore through their schools or coaching schemes and their holiday coaching.

Last Sunday I visited with my aunt to Palace Grounds where her son Sai Madhav was playing a cricket match. I thought I will spend some time and come back home. As the match progress, it was really a good sight to see the youngsters are playing with so much of enthusiasm and clever cricket; I could not resist seeing the match till the end.

Team was chasing 225 runs. When Bharath Sr. (since there are two Bharth in that team middle order batsman called as Bharath Sr. I believe) entered the crease, Team already lost four early wickets. Bharath Sr. was stabilized the team score with his beautiful square drives, square cuts, cover drives and on drives. One the other side it was elegant left hand batsman Tilak was playing sheer anchor role. Tilak was taking singles, two’s and sometimes hitting for a boundary. Bharath Sr. was run out for 40. Then the hard hitting batsman Bharath Jr. started towards the crease. I was impressed the way he started his innings. Such a hitter, oh boy he started hitting all over the ground. He scored 32. In his knock, he sent ball twice out of the ground for a six.

Here we should appreciate them how best they have played. Not only the winning team but also loosing side played in a good sprit and also with lot of enthusiasm. We should appreciate the coach who organizes these matches regularly. Parents should come and watch. I personally observed most of the parents just come here drop their child and go back. Again they come in the evening and pickup. This should not happen. After all it’s our child. We should encourage them.

World Environment Day

2006-06-05T16:42:00.000+05:30

Today 5^th June is World’s Environment Day, celebrated all over world. Every year 5^th June United Nations celebrates World Environment Day. With this background let me share a few points about how our Hindu Mythologies have depicted our Mother Nature.

Hinduism has always been an environmentally sensitive philosophy. The Mahabharata, Ramayana, Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, Puranas and Smriti contain the earliest messages for preservation of environment and ecological balance. Nature, or Earth, has never been considered a hostile element to be conquered or dominated. In fact, man is forbidden from exploiting nature. He is taught to live in harmony with nature and recognize that divinity prevails in all elements, including plants and animals. The rishis of the past have always had a great respect for nature. They perceived that all material manifestations are a shadow of the spiritual. The Bhagavad-Gita advises us not to try to change the environment, improve it, or wrestle with it. If it seems hostile at times tolerate it. Ecology is an inherent part of a spiritual world view in Hinduism.

Here we should remember what Mahatma Gandhi Said: "I bow my head in respect to our ancestors for their sense of the beautiful in nature and for their foresight in investing beautiful manifestations of Nature with a religious significance."

Hindus regard everything around as subtle divine presence, may it be rivers, mountains, lakes, animals, flora, the mineral world, as well as the stars and planets. It is so because the Divine reality is present as Prana/Shakti energy, power, in every electron, particle, atom, cell and in every manifestation of matter. Just as we greet each other saying "Namaste", which means: I recognize and salute the Divine within you.

Throughout the long history of India, Hindus have shared a fascination with, and respect for, Nature and animals. The rhythm of life is dictated by water and Hindus hold rivers in great reverence. Rivers are one such gift which is considered highly sacred throughout the length and breadth of the country.

This earth, our mother, has nurtured consciousness from the slime of the primeval ocean billions of years ago and has sustained the human race for countless centuries. Will we repay our debts to our mother by converting her into burnt out ashes circling the sun into eternity?

Rock, soil, stone and dust with these Earth is held together and bound firm. My obeisance to gold-breasted Earth... Rising or sitting, standing or walking, May we, either with our right foot or our left, Never totter o the earth. - Atharva Veda 12.1.26, 28

The Hindu idea is that this whole world is a forest. To keep this world as it is we have to keep the world-forest intact. Hinduism describes everything in terms of divinity and in relation to the Ultimate Reality. The different aspects of this Ultimate Reality are all to be found in the various forms of the physical world. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna compares the world to a single banyan tree with unlimited branches in which all the species of animals, humans and demigods wander. Indian consciousness is full of trees and forests.

Hindus see divinity in all living creatures. Animal deities therefore, occupy an important place in Hindu dharma. Animals, for example, are very common as form of transport for various Gods and Goddesses. The entire clan of Shiva is replete with ecological symbolism. Shiva’s consort Parvati is considered the daughter of the mountain. She is the personification of Mother Earth. In Hindu stories, there is a close relationship between the various deities and their animal or bird mounts. Each divinity is associated with a particular animal or bird, and this lends a special dimension to the animal kingdom. Indians have been behind some of the greatest discoveries and ideas in the world. From mathematics, to astronomy to literature, the Indian mind has always been able to give form to abstract ideas and concepts.

So long as this land will have mountains, forests and pastures that long will the Earth survive, sustaining you and the coming generations." Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam -- The Whole Universe is one Family”. With this oath come let us celebrate the World Environment Day.

House Sprrow

2006-06-03T12:28:00.000+05:30

Until about ten / twenty years back, the house sparrow was one of the commonest birds in Mysore and was one of the most numerous and regular visitors to our houses frequently.
When I was studying in primary School at Mysore in early 1980’s we use to see the Sparrows flying frequently. With their “cliv cliv” noise was a wake up call for all of us at home. First thing we use to do is to put some rice for them and then go to bath. In Agrahara Circle we use to see Sparrows in bunches and we use to play with them. But after 1990’s, where are these Sparrows gone? Nobody knows.
Here is much evidence that this once abundant bird has declined dramatically in recent years. It is now common knowledge that house sparrows have disappeared, or become far less common, in many places where they were formerly abundant. This applies both in the Mysore and many of the suburbs, as well as some of the surrounding towns and indeed a number of cities in other parts of the country. May be these are some of the factors which affected the Sparrow to run away from Mysore or from other places.

Noise pollution
Environment pollution
Factors relating to food supply
Reduction in insect food supply for the young
A study has blamed a lack of aphids in early spring for a lack of breeding success in house sparrows’. A decline in the availability of invertebrates (such as aphids) for feeding young is also suggested as a major factor in house sparrow decline.
Changes in agricultural practice
Changes in agricultural practices, in particular the shift to monoculture crop plantings, have been suggested as the cause. That dose not means that we should advance to a new technology. But also we should take care of our Eco-System.
Disease
Declines on this scale have been attributed to disease.
Changes relating to availability of nest sites
Changes in roof design may be an issue in some areas of older housing undergoing renovation, as modern roof repairs may prevent access to the roof space for birds. However, a decline has also been noted in areas where roof replacement is less widespread.

Here it is relevant to mention what Mr. Tony Blair; Prime Minister, UK mentioned “The house sparrow, once more cockney than the cockneys, is now a rarity in London”. Because of this the UK government proposed a plan called “House Sparrow Action Plan”
Raise awareness of the need for biodiversity conservation by focusing attention on the decline in the house sparrow and its importance as a cultural emblem.
Establish the cause(s) of decline in the population of house sparrows and, if possible, undertake measures to reverse the decline.
These are some of the actions taken by the UK Government. Same way, we Mysoreian let us join together and protect our House Sparrow and protect our nature.