details page 23Art for Environment (UNEP)

Charlie Sullivan, 12 years old, United Kingdom - 1st Prize

Ekatrina Nishchuk, 12 years old, Russian Federation - 2nd Prize

Petkova Zdravkova, 12 years old, Bulgaria - 2nd Prize

His Message Never Grows Old Swami Vivekananda's life and message gave a new direction to the resurgent India. His work is being continued even today. After the passing away of his Master, Sri Ramakrishna in l886, Vivekananda, as a wandering monk, saw the real India. Finally, he arrived at Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the Indian soil in 1892, where while meditating on the rock, now known as Vivekananda Rock, the mission of his life revealed itself to him. He realised the gap between poor India and rich western nations. To bridge this gap is the only panacea for which mankind has to struggle for long.

In 1893, Swami Vivekananda after creating history at the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago triumphantly returned to India. In his whirlwind tours in America and England he glorified India's antiquity, rich culture and human values. He reached the Indian soil on the 15th January 1897. From Colombo to Almora, he almost shook the Indian nation to its foundation by his dynamic self-expression through his lectures and writings. For perpetual guidance his works have been compiled in nine volumes," The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda". They contain sound messages for centuries. The need of the hour is to seriously go through these guidelines. Contemporary society standing at the threshold of the third world war, is growing disquiet day by day. Vivekananda prophetically admonished, "Even in politics and sociology, problems can only be solved when looked at in a broader light of international grounds. International organisations, international combinations, international laws are the cry of the day."

Modern historians the world over have realised the depth of Vivekananda's ideas. A.D.Reincourt in l981 pointed out, "It has led to a new planetary culture, a culture of its spirit and eventually to an orientalisation of the west." Mrs. Indira Gandhi immortalised the Prophet by a historic circular inl984 announcing Swami Vivekananda's birthday, the 12th January, as the National Youth Day. Vivekananda's work is being actively continued by the twin organisations, the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission, with the motto: Atmano mokshartham jagatdhitaya cha "for the sake of self-realisation and the good of mankind."

Participating in the Youth Day celebration at Vivekananda Institute of Value Education and Culture, Porbandar, Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the President of India, beautifully reiterated, "This is an important day not only for our nation but for the whole planet. I have read many books of Swami Vivekananda and have discussed with many experts. He says, 'My name should not be made prominent, it is my ideas that I want to be realised.' Very rarely we come across such words spoken by a religious leader."

It is a truism that today a search for the true identity of man is coming up all over the world. Vivekananda cautioned the Indian youth not to go for blind imitation of the West. We must learn from them science and technology and their art of organisation. Modernisation does not mean Westernisation; neither does it require uprooting from the nation's culture. It is very essential to realise that for the present age Vivekananda stands as a true teacher, leader, pathfinder, prophet and the source of inspiration. Gandhiji,

Netaji, Aurobindo, Nivedita, Christine and many others were conflagrated by Swamiji's words. To a whole generation of denationalised youths who felt glorified by hating their own culture, his words brought shame and a new life of confidence and self-sacrifice. What is most importantly required today are character, true love and patriotic feeling, man with "muscles of iron and nerves of steel", men born with high altruistic dreams, ready for self -sacrifice.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's expression about Vivekananda is indeed very relevant even today, His message never grows old, because, what he wrote or spoke about India's problems or the world's problems are fresh even though you read them now.

- Swami Amritlokananda, Bhavan’s Journal May 15 2007

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President’s Page

Social Justice The other day I was listening to Alan Jones on 2GB Macquarie Radio AM873 for the first time in my residence of nearly fifteen years in Australia. The two issues raised by Alan Jones instantly struck accord with me: the pampering of David Hicks by his ‘cheer leaders’ and the government spending mountain load of the taxpayer’s money in bringing this proven terrorist home on the one hand and the utmost disregard for the nine young unfortunate persons caught in Bali who are staring the death or life imprisonment on the other hand. What a mockery of a so called just social system! The crime committed by the Bali nine does not deserve death penalty and according to the Australian laws it does not attract death penalty. The Australian Federal Police, however, chose to take shelter of the foreign (Indonesian) laws which impose death penalty. What a mockery of justice! After receiving information from the Australian Federal Police about the group, including the names, passport numbers and information relating to their links to possible illegal drug trade, Indonesian police placed the group under constant surveillance for a week before their arrest. Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said that Australia was opposed to the use of the death penalty and would request clemency for the nine if they were convicted. Philip Ruddock was quoted as saying ‘We will not provide co-operation in relation to criminal matters unless there is an assurance that a death penalty will not be sought. If there was further information that had to be obtained from here through the Australian Federal Police, we would seek an assurance that Indonesia would not be wanting a death penalty in each of those cases’. Yet the unfortunate young persons are facing the high probability of death. I would like to repeat Alan Jones’s cry ‘where are David Hick’s cheerleaders? Why don’t they come forward for the poor Bali nine people? My 22 year old son often argues with me over the hypocrisy of pampering the alcohol as high society paraphernalia and looking down disdainfully upon the intoxicating drug like marijuana. Upon my trying to explain him the difference in their impact on society he tells me if the consumption of the drugs like marijuana is legal in places such as Holland, Jamaica …. how can these drugs be more harmful than alcohol? He argues, I think rightfully, that in fact alcohol is worse in terms of after consumption behaviour. Heart Change Once late Dr B. R. Ambedkar, one of the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution, said: "It is neither by mere counting of heads nor by chopping off heads that you can bring about a political change. It is by taking cognizance of what is happening inside the head and heart that you will be able to strengthen the motivation for change." That is what Gandhi had believed. General Smuts, the great dictator, who exploited the people, indulged in racialism in South Africa, again and again put Gandhi to jail and made him suffer rigorous imprisonment. But Gandhi developed skills during his rigorous imprisonment. He learned from a cobbler, how to make leather sandals. When General Smuts called Gandhi and told him that there was general amnesty and he was released, Gandhi presented to General Smuts a small packet. He asked: "what is it, any bomb?" When he opened the packet, Smuts found a pair of sandals. Gandhi told Smuts: "This is my parting gift." On the occasion of Gandhi's birth-anniversary, General Smuts sent a letter on which he wrote: "I have worn these sandals for many a summer since then, even though I may feel that I am not worthy to stand in the shoes of so great a man." The man who oppressed Gandhi and subjected him to rigorous imprisonment, responded with such warmth. Gandhi always used to say, "Hate the sin not the sinner." According to Mahatma Gandhi fortunate people who have amassed wealth are trustees of the wealth in their possession which they must utilise for the benefit of the underprivileged and affected people.

Gambhir Watts President Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

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Editorial Page Current Board of Directors

Publisher & Managing Editor: Gambhir Watts

president@bhavanaustralia.org

Editorial Committee: J Rao Palagummi

editors@bhavanaustralia.org

Designing Team: Utkarsh Doshi

J Rao Palagummi

Advertising: info@bhavanaustralia.org

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

Suite 100 / 515 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000

* The views of contributors to Bhavan Australia are not necessarily the views

of Bhavan Australia or the editor. *Bhavan Australia reserves the right to edit any contributed articles and letters submitted for publication. Copyright: all advertisements and original editorial material appearing remain the property of Bhavan Australia and may not be reproduced except with the written consent of the owner of the copyright.

Bhavan Australia - ISSN 1449 – 3551

Office Bearers :

The other directors of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia are:

Abbas Raza Alvi; Nayana Purohit, Moksha Watts

Nominees of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Worldwide:

Homi Navroji Dastur, Executive Secretary and Director General

Jagannathan Veeraraghavan, Executive Director , Delhi

Mathoor Krishnamurti, Executive Director , Bangalore

Palladam Narayana Sathanagopal, Additional Registar

P. A Ramakrishnan, Executive Vice Chairman, Puthoucode (Kerala)

President Gambhir Watts

Vice President Avijit Sarkar Treasurer Catherine Knox

Chairman Emeritus Pravinchandra V Gandhi - President Bhavan Worldwide

Company Secretary Sridhar Kumar Kondepudi

Articles & Focus Themes

Peace Section: His message never grows old 2 Neem and Ayurveda 27

Driving Force of the Human Mind 5 The Mystery of Consciousness 28

Women of 1967 Referendum 6 The Mesmerising Mantra 30

Memories are Melodies Too 11 Happiness is Value Based 31

How to be a Good Teacher 13 Nature Vs Nurture - The Dancing Genes 33

Tattvas and Gunas - The Origin of the Universe 15 The Big Bang and the great Illusion 35

A House for Guru Nanak 19 Flash Back - Rewind 37

Games Children Still Play in Villages 21 DimDima - Chindren’s Section 38

Role Models for the young 25 Holy & Wise 39

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Driving Force of the Human Mind Viedanta is to religion what mathematics is to any other branch of knowledge. Today mathematics is used in its application to problems of physics, chemistry connected with replication of genes, problems connected with predicting climatology, tsunamis and even crowd mentality, riot control and research is also said to have been done in England on how to predict the way a judgement will be delivered. The point is that mathematics is an abstract science. There is a branch of mathematics known as pure mathematics. I When one intelligently applies it, you can solve many of the problems that you face in life. Similarly Vedanta is an abstract thinking of universal application. Now how you apply it depends on your ability to wield this powerful instrument. It is nothing but a universal way of life and religions are merely applications under specially bounded circumstances. The Taitriya Sruti says: 'Where does this good lord reside?' Dr. Karan Singh said that it is in the heart of every human being. I do not know whether heart in the anatomical sense, otherwise you will say the cardiologist is the first to reach God. The heart resides somewhere in the human being and traditionally, it is supposed to be the locus of that in fact, Mahanarayanoparisat, says: "And there the good lord is supposed to reside".The Bhagavad Gita also says: "What does he do?" He is the guiding spirit behind every human mind. If human mind is impelled to do something or other, there is this indefinable, inexpressible, inexplicable driving force which is behind the human mind. That is the one that was identified in the Vedanta. They called it by various names— Brahman in an abstract sense; as godhead or in an applied sense as Eshwara, Vishnu, Rudra, Brahma and one among the 33 million Gods that we, Hindus, are devoted to. The fallout of this, unfortunately, was that we forgot the Vedic injunction that Ekam sat viprah bahuda vadanti. Even among the Hindus, there were the Vaishnavites, Saktas, Saivites and others who were indulging in interassigned quarrels destroying each other although basically they believed in one stock of thinking. It must be said to the credit of the great Sankaracharya that he resolved the problem by telling them: "All right, you believe in Shiva; go ahead and worship Siva; ultimately, you will also reach the same goal, Vishnu". He systematised into six schools of religion. Now what did ultimately Vedanta tells us: The Sankaracharya tells us that Vishnu, the good lord, is there in you, in me, in equal measures, in equal manner; then why do you unnecessarily get annoyed with me, fight with me? Where is the cause of anger? Where is the cause of hatred? Where is the cause of violence? This is what Vedanta teaches us and if this teaching is internalised, if this teaching is externalised, in our behaviour then the Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is a necessary logical fallout of the whole concept. So in every one, you see yourself; then if you see yourself, how can there be an occasion for violence or hatred? This is what the Vedanta teaches us. So its practical fallout has a lot to do not only with your day-to-day life but with the organisational set up of the society, the country and world as a whole. Says the Rigveda: The ultimate goal should be that the entire Vishwa, the entire universe should be, as it were, in one nest where all the birds can rest peacefully. How is this achieved? This is achieved by the various paths which have been highlighted in our scriptures. It is possible as has been pointed out that you can meditate on the Brahman in an abstract sense. But the Bhagavad Gita says: For them it is a very difficult path, so what do we do? Therefore, it says, "All right, then come down to the next level, and follow the Bhaktimarga. In Bhaktimarga, what do you do? Even the great Sankaracharya says, Bhakti is the practical method of attaining Advaita". He says it is the most important means of attaining the Advaitik concept of Vedanta. So Bhakti at the practical level and then spreading of unity and love "Bhed Darshanam," you are always trying to find out discrimination. I am somebody, he is somebody; I am Hindu; he is Muslim; He is Parsi; he is Sikh. This is what causes you fear. Remove this and the society will be peaceful. That is the use of Vedanta, whether it was in the ice age, metallic age, or in the nuclear age. In the nuclear age, we are told that the third millennium is the millennium of knowledge, knowledge of various materialistic aspects of life. But you forgot that ultimately, there is something that is behind this nuclear science which teaches us how to analyse. First, we were told that atoms were the smallest particles of matter. Then we were told that, "No, in atom also, there is something else called the nucleus around which the electrons revolve now; then we were told that nucleus itself is composed of various elements, masons, pi-masons, new masons and things like that." The more you concentrate on that, the more you will be able to discover that each one of them ultimately has something smaller. What happens? The Guru tells the Shishya to bring a small fruit of the tree and says : "What do you see? You see small seeds. Take one of them, - cut and what do you see? He says, "I, see something small," Cut this— further and what do you see ? He says, "I see nothing". He says no; It cannot be nothing. If it is. nothing, how did this mighty Eshamanyagodhra - tree come out of nothing. So he says: Ultimately, that is the one principle that spreads throughout the world. Yes, for our limited selfish purposes. We divided it into different compartments and try to achieve it in our own limited ways.

Source: Justice B.N. Srikrishna, Bhavan’s Journal May 15 2007

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Women of the 1967 Referendum Part I

There are many stories worth repeating about the road to the Referendum that removed a handful of words from Australia’s Constitution in 1967. These women are: Shirley Andrews; Faith Bandler; Mary Bennett; Ada Brom-ham; Pearl Gibbs; Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Jessie Street. We are reproducing their stories in two parts. This is the first part, the second will appear in the next issue.

Their stories reveal the prominence of Indigenous and non-indigenous women around Australia in a campaign that started in kitchens and local community halls and stretched around the world. These are not stories of heroines - alongside each of those seven women were many other men and women just as closely involved. And all of those depended on hundreds of campaigners, who relied on thousands of supporters. In all 80 000 people signed the peti-tion that required Parliament to hold the Referendum. And on 27 May 1967, 5 183 113 Australians - 90.77% of the voters - made this the most successful Referendum in Australia’s history.

Ada Bromham (20 December 1880 - 15 March 1965 )

Ada Bromham was born in the town of Gobur in Victoria. When she was thirteen her family moved to West Australia, where she attended the Perth Normal School. In 1908 she joined a partnership to run a drapery store in the suburb of Claremont. A very successful businesswoman, she was also active in the West Australian Women’s Service Guild and the WA branches of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Australian Federation of Women Voters. In 1921 she contested the Claremont seat for the State Parliament and in 1926 was an Australian delegate to the Paris congress of the International Suffrage Alliance, one of the transnational networks linking feminist organisations around the world to the League of Nations.

In 1927 Ada Bromham sold her share of the drapery business and for several years worked fulltime on WCTU and Women’s Guild campaigns. In the early 1930s she joined Mary Bennett in campaigning against the increasingly restrictive Aboriginal policies in West Australia and in 1934 testified to the Moseley Royal Commission on the effects of the excessive powers of the state’s Chief Protector of Aborigines.

In January 1934 Ada Bromham moved to Melbourne to work as national secretary for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and in May, with WCTU colleague Isabel McCorkindale, left Australia to attend the World WCTU convention in Stockholm and a British Commonwealth League conference in London. The pair travelled through Italy, Germany, the USSR and China before returning to Australia.

When the WCTU headquarters moved to Adelaide in 1937, Ada Bromham moved too and in 1941 she stood for the seat of Unley in the South Australian Legislative Assembly, her second unsuccessful bid for election to parliament. She was also involved in Aboriginal issues in South Australia, with Charles and Phyllis Duguid.

After the war Ada Bromham worked for the WCTU in Sydney and Melbourne. As the Australian representative on the World WCTU council set up to promote the advancement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, she lobbied international organisations and fought state and federal governments in the campaigns for better living conditions and equal legal status. A member of the Chinese-Australian Friendship Society, in May 1952 she was a member of a controversial Australian peace delegation to Beijing, with China then not recognised by the Australian government.

Ada Bromham moved to Brisbane with Isabel McCorkindale and both continued to work for the WCTU. By 1955 Ada Bromham was devoting an increasing amount of time challenging Queensland government Aboriginal policy and served as Queensland correspondent for Jessie Street in London. Ada Bromham had lengthy stays in Kalgoorlie helping Mary Bennett prepare Human Rights for Australian Aborigines, published in 1957.

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Early the following year Queensland still had no state body ready to participate in the imminent conference to found a united federal body working for Aboriginal rights. Then aged seventy-eight, Ada Bromham summoned a number of Queensland groups to a meeting in the YMCA hall in Brisbane’s Edward Street. There the United Council for Aboriginal Welfare was formed and on 15 February 1958 she represented the new body at the founding meeting of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (later FCAATSI), held in her old workplace, the WCTU’s Willard Hall headquarters in Adelaide.

Ada Bromham returned to Perth in 1959. She continued to work for Aboriginal welfare and in the Referendum campaign and produced her book The First Australians and the New Australians. She died aged 85 in 1965, two years before the Referendum was finally held.

Faith (Mussing) Bandler (27 September 1918)

Faith Bandler was born in Tumbulgum on the northern coastal strip of New South Wales. Her father, from the island of Ambrym in the south Pacific, had been forcibly brought to Australia to work on sugar plantations in north Queensland. Faith Bandler went to school in Murwullimbah and at 15 found work using her talents in dressmaking and cooking.

During the war Faith Bandler and her sister enlisted in the Australian Women's Land Army. They spent three years working in farming areas, driving tractors, laying out irrigation, pruning acres of trees and picking bushels of grapes and in 1945 when the war ended, so did this working life.

After the war Faith Bandler earned her living as a dressmaker at David Jones Sydney store and became part of the city’s artistic and political circles. She thought her real education began in these years, when she campaigned for Jessie Street in the 1949 federal election and when Pearl Gibbs opened her eyes to the very different life of Aboriginal people. Faith Bandler was inspired by the strength, dedication and sense of justice of both these women. She worked with Jessie Street again in 1950, when she represented the Eureka Youth League at the Australian Peace Congress in Melbourne, and also in establishing the NSW branch of the Australia Peace Council. An engaging speaker, at a Peace Council fundraiser that May - a musical evening with the theme ‘Our Friends the Aborigines’ - she titled her talk ‘My Friends the Australians’. The following month she addressed a meeting held to protest US author Howard Fast’s gaoling. Her theme was taken from the author’s book Freedom Road, that ‘not only can black and white people fight and die together but they can also live and work together.’ As her biographer Marilyn Lake pointed out, the goal of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians living and working together became a lifelong theme of her speeches and writing.

And not only in words, but in music and dance too. In 1951 Faith Bandler and Shirley Andrews were both selected for the Unity Dance Group to perform at the International Youth Festival in Berlin. Arranged by Borovansky dancer Margaret Walker, the group’s program included ‘The little Aboriginal girl’, an interpretation of a US civil rights poem. Faith’s performance was a powerful experience for audiences in Australia and in Berlin. Her first chance to travel had just as strong an impact on Faith Bandler - even before their ship left Sydney. The passport of one of the Aboriginal dancers had been stalled on a technicality at the last minute and only a protest organised by Pearl Gibbs, with waterside workers refusing to work, produced the missing document. A greater shock awaited on her arrival home early in 1952. Not only were her recordings of singer Paul Robeson seized, but she and Shirley Andrews had their passports confiscated, preventing either from leaving Australia for the next ten years. And there was another blow, when she was told by the dressmaking foreman at David Jones that he was not allowed to employ her again.

During the 1950s Faith Bandler was also working closely with Pearl Gibbs and together they founded the Australian Aboriginal Fellowship in 1956. The only all-state body at the time, the Fellowship was an opportunity for more people to learn about and act on the issues receiving wider publicity. It was through the Fellowship that Jack and Jean Horner, Anne and Edgar Waters and many others became involved in campaigning for Aboriginal rights. And it was the Fellowship that Jessie Street saw as the means to achieving the Australia-wide organisation

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she considered essential. In March 1957 Jessie Street called an impromptu meeting Faith Bandler never forgot. Instead of her Saturday morning gardening, she was talking about how to change the Australian Constitution. First, a petition of 10 000 signatures would require the Parliament to hold a Referendum. No matter how reluctant their government was, if enough people voted ‘Yes’, the changes would be made. And Jessie Street had the changes right there, scribbled on a piece of paper, and a draft petition too. With Brian Fitzpatrick’s help, the wording of the proposed Constitutional amendments were finalised within a fortnight. So was the final petition. And Jessie Street had persuaded Faith Bandler that the Fellowship fundraiser planned in Sydney Town Hall was the perfect opportunity to launch the petition.

On the evening of 29 April 1957 people began arriving at the Town Hall, by car, tram, and train, with special buses dropping off people from the Aboriginal community at La Perouse. When veteran activist Pastor Doug Nicholls opened proceedings, there was a crowd of 1 500, including hundreds of Indigenous people. There were parliamentarians, including Les Haylen and Gordon Bryant who was elected national campaign director, Dame Mary Gilmore was an honoured guest, Don McLeod came from West Australia, Bill Onus spoke, Harold Blair sang and ‘really lifted people out of their skins’. The excitement of that night was forver etched in Faith Bandler’s memory.

Hundreds of petitions were distributed and the first presented to Parliament two weeks later. The required number of signatures, 10 000, was soon reached. No one could have guessed that it would take ten years of campaigning before the referendum was held. As campaign director for New South Wales, Faith Bandler’s immediate task was to help establish a national organisation for the campaign. That took almost a year but in February 1958, the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement was established at a conference in Adelaide.

Faith Bandler proved an outstanding campaigner. Her eloquence, passion, and gentle determination shone everywhere she spoke, at schools, churches, union meetings, local clubs, at public meetings large and small, on radio or on television,. Most significant in the development of the Referendum campaign was not her ability to draw people to her, but to draw them together. She was an outspoken critic of the implicit segregation still practised in schools, hospitals, theatres and playgrounds, a denial of her principle of ‘black and white living and working together’.

When Parliament finally passed the necessary legislation and announced a date for the Referendum, the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign began, with Faith Bandler elected director. On 27 May 1967, the ‘Yes’ was a resounding one, with 90.77% of voters supporting the Constitutional changes.

For Faith Bandler, that was just the first step. Her principle of black and white people working together was not an end in itself, but a means to a more just society. Jessie (Lillingston) Street (18 April 1889 - 2 July 1970)

Jessie Street grew up in the Australian bush, at Yulgilbar, the family cattle property on the upper Clarence River in northern New South Wales. This is Bundjalung country and many of the people lived and worked at Yulgilbar - she always remembered being taught to swim by young Bundjalung women. But it was not until the 1930s that she first became active in campaigning to advance the conditions and status of Indigenous people in Australia.

In the 1920s women’s organisations based in West Australia publicised the worsening situation of Indigenous people under government policies, largely through the work of Mary Bennett and Ada Bromham. The Australian Federation of Women Voters, founded by West Australian Bessie Rischbieth, linked the West Australian campaign into a national network. The influence spread further, through transnational organisations that lobbied the League of Nations in Geneva on the status of women in member countries. In the 1930s Jessie Street’s United Associations of Women in Sydney joined the campaign initiated by the AFWV and when Jessie Street initiated the Australian Women’s Charter movement in the 1940s, advancing the status of Indigenous Australians was a core principle of the Charter.

Jessie Street met Faith Bandler through this work and in 1949, when she made her third and last bid for a seat in

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the federal parliament, Faith Bandler was one of her campaign workers. Until mid-1950, when Jessie Street left Australia for six years, the two worked together establishing the New South Wales branch of the Australian Peace Council. They met again the next year, in Berlin, when Jessie Street gave an opening address at the International Youth Festival and also in London early in 1952, shortly before Faith Bandler returned to Australia.

In 1954 Jessie Street was living in London and went to hear Charles and Phyllis Duguid speak on Aboriginal rights in Australia to the Anti-Slavery Society and the British Commonwealth League. The Duguids’ visit introduced Jessie to the long record of both groups in campaigning for Indigenous Australians. She was particularly interested in the issue Charles Duguid raised about Australia’s obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed by the United Nations six years before. Keen to draw on the expertise of Australians, that year the Anti-Slavery Society invited Jessie Street to work with them.

Australia had enough support to defeat the Anti-Slavery Society submission at the United Nations and during 1956 the Society asked Jessie Street to work on an approach to the United Nations Sub-Commission for the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities. When this was also blocked, they decided to obtain an account of public opinion in Australia and a survey of living conditions for Aboriginal people in remote areas of Australia. Jessie Street returned to Australia to undertake a survey in South Australia, West Australia and the Northern Territory in the winter of 1957.

But first she lobbied both Prime Minister Robert Menzies and the Minister for Territories Paul Hasluck on the need for the federal government to recognise the plight of Indigenous people as a national responsibility. When they responded that Australia’s Constitution prevented this, she came up with an audacious proposal - change the Constitution! In March 1957 she scribbled out the changes to remove two unjust clauses that put Aboriginal people on a different footing from all other Australians. One would include Aboriginal people in the Census, the other meant federal government responsibility for all Australians. The following Saturday morning she called Bert Groves, Faith Bandler and solicitor Christian Jollie-Smith to an impromptu meeting to talk over this plan. From that small meeting came the national campaign to change the Constitution. The Australian Aboriginal Fellowship had booked the Sydney Town Hall for a fund-raising meeting on 29 April 1957. This now became the occasion for launching a petition requesting the Australian Parliament to hold a Referendum. Sharing the platform with Faith Bandler and Jessie Street were Aboriginal activists like Bert Groves, singers Nancy Ellis and Harold Blair. Veteran campaigner Doug Nicholls chaired the meeting, a live link to the Day of Mourning protest in 1938. Parliamentarian Gordon Bryant took on the role of national organiser of the campaign, with Victoria’s Barry Christophers organising distribution of the petitions across every federal electorate.

During her 1957 visit, Jessie Street also worked closely with organisations working on Indigenous issues to forge a united national body, accomplished early the following year with the founding of the organisation that became FCAATSI. Although 80 000 people signed the petition, it took ten years of campaigning before a reluctant federal government finally put the question of changing the Constitution in May 1967, receiving a resounding ‘Yes!’ from the people of Australia.

Jessie Street died three years later, her lasting tribute expressed in Faith Bandler’s words ‘if it were not for Jessie Street, we would never have had the 1967 referendum.’

Mary (Christison) Bennett (18 July 1881- 6 October 1961)

Mary Bennett was born in London and grew up in Australia. Her family ran a north Queensland property, Lammermoor, the country of Dalleburra people. In her twenties Mary Bennett studied for five years at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. She married in 1914, remaining in England until her husband died in 1927. That year she had published a biography of her father with an account of life at Lammermoor. She had shared her father’s interest in Dallebura culture and the people working on Lammermoor and included much about the people they knew.

In 1930 she published her second book, The Australian Aboriginal as a Human Being, alleging that enforced

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employment of Aboriginal girls as domestics was 'akin to slavery' and contravened both the League of Nations Covenant and its Anti-Slavery Convention, ratified by the federal government in 1926.

At the end of 1930 Mary Bennett returned to settle permanently in Australia, wanting to find work that would benefit Aboriginal people. She settled in West Australia, spending time at Gnowangerup in the south-west and at Forrest River. In 1932 she began teaching at the primary school at Mount Margaret Mission near Laverton, developing new teaching methods and challenging the conservatism of both pastoralists and anthropologists. She was soon well known to officials and politicians as an outspoken advocate for Aboriginal people suffering under state policies of control, particularly the removal of children and the enforced employment of women in domestic service.

Mary Bennett involved the WA Country Women's Association and the Women's Service Guild in the individual cases she fought, connections that made feminist leaders like Bessie Rischbieth and Ada Bromham aware of the injustices. As founder of the Australian Federation of Women Voters, Bessie Rischbieth made sure its state affiliates put Indigenous policy on their agendas and that these issues were reported through transnational networks like the International Suffrage Alliance to the Secretariat of the League of Nations in Geneva.

Mary Bennett also had her own direct connections in London, where she had been active in British Commonwealth League. When she sent a copy of her paper 'The Aboriginal Mother in Western Australia', it was read at the League’s 1933 conference. The cases she exposed attracted wide press coverage in Britain and in Australia and Prime Minister Joseph Lyons objected to the embarrassment she caused Australia. In June 1933 the West Australian government appointed a royal commission to investigate the information she provided. The report of that inquiry, headed by HD Moseley, records the experiences and views of Aboriginal people throughout the state, as well as evidence submitted by campaigners including Mary Bennett, Bessie Rischbieth and Ada Bromham.

In 1938 Mary Bennett joined in the Day of Mourning in Sydney, protesting at the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the British occupation of New South Wales. The following year she was in London at the outbreak of war and remained there until 1950, spending several years studying at the University of London. When she returned to Australia she made her home in Kalgoorlie.

From the establishment of Victoria’s Council for Aboriginal Rights in 1951 Mary Bennett worked - usually by mail - with Shirley Andrews. She fought individual cases, always pointing out the sources in the bigger picture of the control of Aboriginal lives in West Australia. Her sharpest criticisms were for the way ‘departmentalism’ replaced humane judgments and for the hypocrisy of state and federal governments. She drew Shirley Andrews’attention to the real purpose of the ‘beautifully got-up’ 1957 brochure Our Aborigines - ‘such a lot of activity winning golden opinion from the white people.’

During Jessie Street’s 1957 investigation into living conditions for Aboriginal people, she visited Mary Bennett in Kalgoorlie, observing the huge collection of files and papers filling every available space in the small house. Another visitor, Sandra Holmes, described arriving at the rambling house, not far from the railway line. The verandas were shaded with creepers, and pots of flowering geraniums stood by the front door. …. That year Mary Bennett, then 75, produced her last publication, Human Rights for Australian Aborigines. Ada Bromham, also in her seventies, went to Kalgoorlie to help with this booklet, a passionate call to the Australian government to recognise their obligations under the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The following year, 1958, both women met again in Adelaide for the historic founding conference of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (later FCAATSI).

Mary Bennett lived long enough to be an honoured part of the first years of the Referendum campaign. She died in her Kalgoorlie home in 1961.

Woman is more fitted than man to make explorations and take bolder action in ahimsa. - Mahatma Gandhi

Compiled by Govinda Watts, Broadcaster on Koori Radio 93.7 FM

Source: www.reconciliation.org.au

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Memories are Melodies Too

At 95, Dr Gangubai Hangal, doyen of Hindustani classical music, is in full control of her voice and senses. Her memories are perfect (though she tends to repeat herself, at times), her vision, hearing and speech are good. She is the cult figure of Hubli in Karnataka, where she has spent the major part of her long life. When I visited her recently, she was all dressed and prepared to talk to me. In fact, she was quite eager and as I was looking at the Music Museum in her house, she impatiently called out to her son, Babanna, to get on with the interview.

Gangubai lives with her son Baburao, daughter - in - law Savitri, grandson Manoj, his wife Archana, and children at Gangalahari, Deshpande Nagar in Hubli. It is a sprawling house with the Music Museum on one side and the living rooms on the

other. The Museum has hundreds of rare photos of Gangubai with all eminent people of music. In fact almost every face of Indian classical music is featured here. Musical instruments, awards and photographs are on display which mesmerise the visitors. The awards are impressive and so are the photographs. Each one has memories and records of incidents which Babanna keeps recalling.

Gangubai herself is a thin frail lady who can easily pass for a person twenty years younger. She recalls her younger days when she fell in love with Hindustani classical music though her mother and grandmother were singers of the Carnataki style. 'I used to listen to the radios and records on my way to school and began singing the tunes. My mother, seeing my interest, encouraged me,' she says nostalgically, 'And she even gave up her own style to allow me to concentrate on mine.' Her mother died when she was quite young and even today, Gangubai recalls the first major break she had in her career in Bombay where she was awarded four gold medals and her mother was not there to witness it.

'I cried a lot despite having won medals, because my mother was not alive to share my happiness,' she remembers. She sang at the Indian National Congress session in Belgaum in 1924 when she was only 11 years old. And after several recordings and public performances she started her formal training under Pandit Sawai Gandharva (Rambhau Kundagolkar) of Kirana Gharana in 1935. Gangubai Hangal has given several performances in all the major music festivals, music concerts, and in almost all major cities of India. She has been part of SPIC-MACAY and has been involved in the promotion of classical music, especially among the younger generation. She has been invited and has given performances in USA, Canada, (1979) in Germany and France(1984) and England, Nepal and Pakistan. She has 45 national awards to her credit including the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan(2002), Tansen Award, and the Dinanath Mangeshwar Award. The Universities of Karnataka, Gulbarga, Hampi, and Delhi have conferred doctorates on her, in recognition of her contribution to Hindustani Classical Music.

Her life has been a tough one, where she had to constantly worry to bring both ends to meet. Born in a lower caste family on March 5, 1913, she did not openly marry her children's father, Gururao Kaulgi, though he offered to do so, as he was from the Brahmin community. She encouraged him to marry a girl from his own community and continued looking after that family as well. It was tough bringing up so many members on a singer's income but she managed. Today her life is a well - spent one, she is an invitee to all major functions in Hubli and neighbouring places where she is almost a cult figure and suggestions of naming roads, colleges and the university after her are being floated. Success has not gone to her head and she remains friendly, eager to please and a nice gentle old lady. Her bed is surrounded by various books, manuscripts, letters and the like which she refers to in the course of the interview. It is almost as if she wants to compress her life's memories and happenings in the confines of her bed and room.

- Veena Adige, Bhavan’s Journal May 15 2007

"I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better."

- A. J. Liebling (1904-1963

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Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia held a pure classical Bharatnatayam dance performance of over 90 minutes at the Tom Mann Theatre, Surry Hills Sydney by internationally renowned Bharatnatayam dancer Sneha Chakradhar.

Sneha Chakradhar performed the following items in traditional Bharatnatyam dance style :

1. Ganesh Stuti:An auspicious beginning with a prayer to Lord Ganesha, the God of success and the destroyer of obstacles.

2. Pushpanjali and Shlokam: Pushpanjali. is an invocatory dance piece, which literally means ‘the offering of flowers with folded hands’. Pushpanjali is followed by a short verse; Shlokam, portraying the magnificence of Lord Shiva, the Lord of dance.

3. Varnam:Varnam, which means ‘different shades of colour’ is the most elaborate piece in the repertoire. Unfolding the state of the heroine, who is intensely in love with Lord Karthikeya, this Varnam is set in Raagam Poorvikalyani and Taalam Adi.

4. Meera Bhajan:An expression based piece illustrating the lyrics of Hindu mysical poetess Meerabai’s prayerful song on Lord Krishna. The Bhajan is based on Raagam Behag and set in Taalam Adi.

5. Tillana:The Bharatanatyam repertoire ends with a Tillana, which is the dance of joy. Tonight's Tillana is set in Ragam Vrindavani and Taalam Adi.

6. Mangalam: Traditional concert-ending.

Sneha Chakradhar has performed extensively in India and has participated in numerous group choreographies as senior dancer with the Natya Vriksha Dance Company. Sneha has travelled with her dance overseas and performed at prestigious venues in London, Australia, Kenya, Mauritius and will be performing in New York in July 2007. Sneha, an empanelled artist with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) was awarded the 'Natya Ratna' (Dance-jewel) at an early age of 19 and was awarded the 'Dandayudhapani Award 2001' for outstanding contributions to the Dandayudhapani style of dancing by the former President of India Mr. R. Venkataraman.

Sneha has been pursuing her training in the classical dance form of Bharatanatyam under the most eminent Gurus in the field for the past 15 years. She was initially trained by Kalaimamani Guru K. N. Dakshinamurthi, under whom she presented her Arangetram performance. She is currently a disciple of Padmashree Geeta Chandran, Founder-President of Natya Vriksha, New Delhi.

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How to be a Good Teacher? Gilbert Highest in his 'The Art of Teaching', describes a good teacher as one who :

(i) knows the subject; (ii) likes the subject; (iii)likes pupils; (iv) knows much else; (v) has sense of humour.

He further lists the abilities of a good teacher as :

(i) memory; (ii) will-power; (iii)kindness.

As regards teacher's methods, he puts it simply:

(i) prepare; (ii) communicate, and (iii) test. The book was written about 30 years ago. Since then, much research has been done on the process of teaching-learning, on educational-psychology, the concept of mental structure and its various stages on methodology of teaching etc. The basic facts, however, are the same. Another question is: "What is science"? and, 'How should science be taught' ? The practical value of science for productivity, for raising the standard of living of the people is recognised. Science as a power which provides tools for effective action for the benefit of mankind or for conquering the forces of nature or for developing resources is highlighted everywhere.

Besides the utilitarian aspect, the value of science lies in intellectual enjoyment which people get from reading and learning about it and which to educational technology), on the other hand, it has made teachers far too conscious of their teaching in the classroom or of a learning-situation that they might arrange! I would like to stress as a science teacher, the excitement of the growth of ideas over the centuries, thrill of discovery, a continuous search for truth, the inter-relation between concepts, the openness, the spirit of enquiry. The process of learning, whether we call it a thrill or an 'ability', is to be emphasised rather than the content. The main aim of science teaching is to help cultivate love of nature and its manifestations, to transmit the 'methods' of science (the contents are - only the means) - to observe things around, to generalise, to do intelligent guessing to formulate a theory and, at the same time, to hold an element of doubt and thereby to hope to modify it in terms of future experience- and thus to practice a pragmatic outlook.

Once our students get the thrill-the vibrations, they will continue enjoying science for the rest of their lives, even when they have forgotten quite a bit of the content of what they had learnt in the class. In science, physics gains importance as a basic science. It has given us tools to observe and measure the natural objects and the theory is modified. A revolution in physics occurs when the postulational basis is challenged. This occurs when the experiment proves incompatible with the existing postulational structure. Physics has to be taught in a humanistic way. The story of physics, its broad framework, has to be borne in mind. The small details, the terminology, the mathematical and other skills are the tools through which the achievements in physics have to be conveyed, the thrill of science has to be communicated. Much work has been done in recent years on testing and evaluation. There cannot be any readymade test or question-sheet which is valid for any kind of teaching. Tests or examinations reveal our intentions, our methods of teaching. The idea of question-banks is catching up.

A question may be testing only knowledge (a mere recall of information) or it makes the candidate think, it may be testing understanding or, a step further, finding the ability of the students to apply understanding in a new situation, that is, application. The scope of testing is further governed by the kind of question -objective based, eliciting the best answer out of a choice of five probable answers given, or short-answer type, limiting the length of answer in one word, phrase or one sentence or an essay type which tests the ability of the student to organise his thoughts and express it in a language. Each has its value in physics.

A good teacher will be equally keen on setting right kind of question paper specifying the scope of answers, giving clear instructions, allotting the mark to each part of the question, covering the various concepts and abilities, think of the expected answers, make a marking scheme. He will use examination not merely as a tool to diagnose the weakness of pupils or to grade them thereby indicating their achievements and will treat examination as a process of learning. Lastly, in the process of imparting knowledge, the teacher himself learns.

- G.K. Kapoor, Bhavan’s Journal 31 May 2007

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MusicFest, the first Australian edition of Fête de la Musique took place in Sydney.

On 21 & 23 June 2007, several parts of Sydney came alive as never before when institutions and people come together for the first time to present two days and nights filled with special music performances. In the spirit of Fête de la Musique all performances are live and free.

Performances took place in a variety of indoor and outdoor locations, not traditionally dedicated to music including museums, prisons, hospitals, corporate foyers, churches, streets, public transport (trains, ferries, buses), schools, cafes, bars, restaurants.

A huge range of sounds and styles in a celebration of live music aimed at enhancing the scope and diversity of musical practice in all genres: classical to electronic, jazz and folk, traditional, rock, rap and pop music.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia held three performances.

• Maestro ‘Visharadha’ Sarangan Sriranganathan on the sitar and Murdhuzaar on the Tabla at the Bhavan’s Institute for Indian Arts & Culture, Olympic Park.

• Mahrshi Raval on the Tabla and Scott Benning at the St Vincent’s Hospital, Sacred Heart building, Darlinghurst.

• Mahrshi Raval on Tabla, Scott Benning on the Sitar and Ketan Parmar on the Handsonic at the Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney.a

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Tattvas and Gunas - The Origin of the Universe

In the beginning was SHUNYAKASHA- "emptiness" or "the void".

Shunyakasha is more than "nothingness", it is an immense potency of dormant energy in which "everything" exists in a latent state of potentiality. Everything conceivable can be brought into existence, just like text written, or pictures drawn, on an empty sheet of paper. As creation began, the divine, all-encompassing consciousness took the form of the first and original vibration manifesting as the sound "OM". Just like light, sound is vibration, energy. Light and sound are the forms that the Divine Self takes in the Universe. OM is the reflection of the absolute reality. OM is "Adi Anadi" - without beginning or end. In the Vedas1 it is said:

NADARUPA PARA BRAHMA - The form of the Supreme is sound.

The vibration of OM symbolises the manifestation of God in form. The silence between two OM-sounds reveals the formless, divine principle. OM embraces "all that exists" - past, present and future, all spheres of the Cosmos, the world and its underlying reality, mind and matter, cause and effect, the path and the goal. The Mantra2 OM is the "name of God", the vibration of the Supreme, the all-encompassing Mantra. The essence of all wisdom has its roots in this sound. In the triad A-U-M the divine energy (Shakti) is united in its three elementary aspects as:

BRAHMA SHAKTI - the creative power that manifests the Universe VISHNU SHAKTI - the preserving power that sustains the Cosmos SHIVA SHAKTI - the liberating power that brings about transformation and renewal

At the beginning of creation, as the sound of OM divided the unity of Shunyakasha, two powers emerged from it:

PURUSHA-original consciousness PRAKRITI - primordial nature

Prakriti is the eternal stream of divine energy and Purusha is the divine Self, the unchanging, omnipresent and omniscient witness of all events and mutations of Prakriti. To ensure that nature (Prakriti) would always maintain a connection to the divine (Purusha), the force of attraction developed as an aspect of Prakriti. The desire for union and the striving for expansion are "natural"; they are intrinsic impulses of nature. Why does the seed that was planted in the lap of the earth sprout? Because the impetus for growth and duplication lies in its nature - uniting, unfolding, growing, multiplying, protecting, preserving and nourishing; put concisely, "loving" is the fundamental characteristic of Prakriti. Love contains the impulse for development and expansion, and this love is part of the Divine Being. In a progressive sequence the three GUNAS (essential qualities) and the five TATTVAS (elementary principles) emanated from Prakriti. These form the basis of all manifestations, of all subtle and gross forms.

The five Tattvas are:

PRITHVI- Earth APAS-Water TEJAS-Fire VAYU-Air AKASHA-Space

However, without some impetus the Tattvas cannot unite. For that they require the participation of the Gunas, which are characterised by the following qualities:

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RAJAS - activity, movement, restlessness, passion TAMAS - rigidity, laziness, darkness, ignorance SATTVA-harmony, light, purity, knowledge

Tattvas and Gunas are the primordial forces that have an effect on both the physical and astral planes. They influence all forms of life physically, psychically and spiritually from the beginning of their earthly existence to their end. Through the multi-layered combinations of these basic powers the human body, with its highly complex organ, nerve and brain functions, comes into existence and the psyche and mind are formed. The diverse interactions between the five gross Tattvas, which form the physical body, are known as Prakritis (natural forces). There are twenty-five Prakritis that influence and regulate the systems of the body.1

The Tattvas that are flowing aimlessly around in space are independent forces without visible effect. It is not until several of these primordial, undirected forces are concentrated at one point that something qualitatively new is produced. However, first an assembly point must be formed so the energy can be focused and assimilated. The most highly developed and most powerful centre on earth is the human. So just as bees collect around the queen bee, all forces and Tattvas follow when the Atma enters the embryo. In order for a human form to be constructed, the orderly combination of an immense number of effects is necessary. In the same way, but at a lower intensity, animal and plant life come into being.

The Cosmic forces are collected within the human body at certain central points, the CHAKRAS. These function like powerful power stations. They draw in cosmic energy, transform, store and distribute it, and then radiate it out into the Cosmos again. The Tattvas that combine to form the body as a dwelling for the soul again detach from one another at death and return to the Cosmos. The soul then continues to wander, waiting to produce a new form again under suitable conditions. This cycle is known as CHORASIKA CHAKRA, "The Wheel of Rebirth and Death".

According to Indian philosophy, there are 8.4 million types of living beings that are divided into three categories: NABHACHARA, THALA CHARA and JALA CHARA - living beings that exist in the air, those that live on or under the earth and those that live in the water. They are further divided into four different classifications according to their method of birth in these three earthly spheres:

JARAYUJA - in the womb (humans and mammals) ANDAJA- in an egg that is hatched (birds, reptiles, fish, etc.) SVEDAJA- through division (lower forms of life, bacteria, etc.) UDBHIJJA - through seed (vegetation)

Each of these groups has certain aptitudes and abilities called KALA in Sanskrit. Plants possess one Kala, lower life forms two, egg-laying animals three, and mammals and humans four. While plants and animals remain at the level of their genesis, humans can develop up to sixteen Kala through exercises, concentration and following the principles of Yoga. They can acquire twelve supernatural powers in addition to their four natural aptitudes.

Therefore, the attainment of a human birth is the greatest stroke of luck for the soul. To enable this, with God's grace, innumerable cosmic powers act in combination; and this joining is comparable to a great fire. Qualitatively the souls of all beings are the same: they are differentiated only in the degree of their development. A small candle flame is "fire", but when several flames are combined a brighter light, a stronger power results. A human lives more intensively and more consciously than an animal, and is distinguished from all other life forms through the gift of the intellect (BUDDHI).

Without faltering, the wheel of rebirth keeps turning, and the soul wanders through the circle of existence driven by God's plan and KARMAS1 (actions). Human life offers the only possibility of ending this cycle. The cyclic laws of nature also bind humans, but with the help of the intellect they are capable of exploring the world, themselves and also the supernatural powers. Only humans are capable of understanding "What is God". Only humans can realise God. That is why it is possible for them to emerge from the cycle of rebirth and, as a consequence, also help others to do so. The practice of YOGA supports and accelerates the development of humans as it imparts to them knowledge of the true dimension of earthly life, its purpose and potential.

The evolution of consciousness attains fulfilment in the divine state of SAMADHI where Knower, Knowledge and the Object of Knowledge become one. Since the beginning of its existence the individual self has sought to gain

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knowledge about "the Self. While in Samadhi the self recognises that it and the one sought for are one and the same - therefore also "the Knower" and "the Object of Knowledge" are the same - and so begins the blissful experience of unity, displacing the wrongly cherished illusion of duality.

This supreme knowledge is transmitted to us through two spiritual Tattvas, ANUPADATATTVA1 and ADI TATTVA. Anupada Tattva (also called Guru Tattva) is the universal, divine principle that leads the creation from "darkness into light" - from unconscious existence to conscious existence. Adi Tattva is the divine Self, ATMA3.Therefore it is also called ATMA TATTVA or ATMA GY ANA. Self-Realised Yoga Masters are known as BRAHMANISHTA SHROTRIA, the knowers of Brahman, and TATTVA DARSHI, the knowers of the Tattvas. Their knowledge and experiences are unlimited; they transcend time, space and intellect. One who possesses self-knowledge and knowledge of the Tattvas has acquired the highest knowledge realisable by a human - with this one becomes the "Knower of God" (BRAHMA GYANI) and the Self merges into the divine consciousness and becomes one with God.

Sri Mahaprabhuji wrote in one Bhajan: Infinite is the experience of the Tattva Darshi Gurudev. The blessed ones who have recognised this cross the ocean of ignorance. I had searched everywhere-including heaven and hell- And in all three worlds I found no-one comparable to the Sataguru. The struggle of the Yogi to become free of passion, anger, attachment, greed and ego Is more difficult than the battle waged on the battlefield.

Jivatma, Atma and Paramatma - Soul, Self and God

In Yoga we differentiate between JlVATMA-Soul

ATMA-Self PARAMATMA - God

JTvatma1 is the individual, and Atma and Paramatma are Universal.

• PARAMATMA is the Supreme Principle, whatever we call it: God, Supreme Self, Divine Self, Love, Truth or Reality.

• ATMA may be described as God's ray of light, which exists as the "light of life" in every living being. It is part of PARAMATMA and is therefore identical in nature with it. Just as the seed of a tree contains all the qualities of the tree, the Atma also carries the qualities of the Supreme Self.

• JIVATMA, the individual soul, is the reflection of the Atma within an individual; a "wave" that emerges from the ocean of existence and wanders from embodiment to embodiment, and after a long process of development and experience again returns to the unity of the Atma. The soul that has manifested itself in a form, however, does not identify with its divine essence but rather with its attributes, the physical body, the mind, the thoughts, etc. The aim of the path of Yoga is to dispel this illusion.

What is the reason that the individual soul separates from God? The cause lies in the principle of Ahamkara, the ego. Here ego means "the will to exist"; it is the aspiration for manifestation and self-expression in the sense of"/ want to exist". Ahamkara is the seed from which the variety within nature comes into existence. The difference in form is relevant only to the external manifestation and to the expression of consciousness and intellect - the essence, however, is the same within all, Atma. Just as the water in clouds only appears to be different to the water in the ocean, in the same way the individual only 'appears' to be different to God. In reality there is no division - it only exists externally, in the form and in the qualities. The individual follows the path set down by cosmic law, which has the same validity for all life forms. The aim and purpose of life is in the ongoing development and enlightenment of the consciousness, which achieves its ultimate expression in the conscious union of the individual soul (JTvatma) with the divine Self (Atma). The opening of the individual consciousness of the JTvatma to the all-conscious existence of the Atma is called enlightenment or realisation.

Enlightenment means that there is no longer any corner of the consciousness remaining in darkness.

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One cannot explain or describe the Atma. The closest comparison is with light or space. Space cannot be cut, burnt or otherwise destroyed. Space always remains space. One can divide space by fences or walls to create "individual" spheres that can be shaped or decorated differently, but as soon as the demarcations are removed the undivided, unified space again emerges.

Just as walls divide space, the body, mind, intellect, disposition, qualities and experiences assembled as the "person", mark the boundaries of the Self for a while. The body dies, the person changes, but not the Atma. Our true Self is unborn, unchanging and immortal; it is the "king" around whom the cosmic forces gather in the royal household, and again disperse after he has left his palace (the body).

The philosophical schools of India, particularly Yoga philosophy, have examined the essential question regarding our existence -"Who am I?" - and given us an answer to this.

Examine yourself: Are you the body? The mind? Your qualities, thoughts or feelings? Or are you something else? As you continue to search more deeply you realise the more subtle aspects of your being, right up to the level of the elements. Then finally you recognise that you are not the Tattvas or Gunas either, and experience yourself as:

SAT - Truth CHIT - Consciousness Ananda - Bliss

Sat-Chit-Ananda is the essence of the divine Self that lives within you, the eternal, infinite and immutable Atma. The only true reality within us is the Atma. Everything else is unreality. Atma is TRIKALADARSHI , the knower of past, present and future, and also CHAITANYA, the conscious witness of everything that happens.

The Hidden Power in Humans Chakras and Kundalini, Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda,

Founder Acharya, Yoga in Daily Life

- I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away." - One of the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948, expressing his deepest social thought. -

- Source: Mahatma Gandhi [Last Phase, Vol. II (1958), P. 65].

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A House for Guru Nanak

There is an old saying, "Faith moves mountains". To me, it was merely an old saying till my wife and I visited the Glen Cove Gurdwara in Long Island, New York and learnt about the history of that Gurdwara. The Gurdwara is located on a beautiful eighteen-acre plot, hidden from the road by green shrubs and tall trees. The Gurdwara building is a huge structure, not new, though well weathered. It is a mild hilly terrain. The whole lot was beautiful to behold. Seeing that we became curious as to how the Sangat could manage to get such a beautiful place.

After we made preliminary enquiries at the Gurdwara, we came to know about the unusual story behind the purchase of the property and its conversion into a place of worship. And it was all due to the faith and perseverance of one man, Dr. Harsimran Singh Sabharwal, who was instrumental in purchasing it. His face lit up when I asked about the purchase of Gurdwara property. "Well, that was purely an act of grace on part of Waheguru (God,) that we could get such a beautiful place," he said, savouring the moment. Then he said, "As soon as I-heard that property had come for sale, I wanted to buy it for making it into the House of Guru Nanak…..”

"But I hear you made a very low counter offer, what made you think you would succeed?" "The bank had foreclosed the mortgage of a defaulter. Their dues were about 8 million dollars. So, the bank's asking price was $8 million. It was too high a figure. So, I gave my counter bid of $1.2 million." I was shocked at the counter bid. It was so low and I revealed my mind. "This is America, a free country," he said with relish. "The seller can quote his price and the buyers theirs. But the one incontrovertible fact is that when the bank wants to get rid of a property, it doesn't wait for the right buyers to come along. It prefers to take whatever cash is available and cuts its losses. No one waits for endless period of time." No wonder, then, the bank accepted his bid and his cheque.

"The very next day after my bid was accepted I received a much higher bid from another interested person. The new bid would have left a handsome profit for me. If I had accepted I'd have made a quick profit. And all of it in only 24 hours." "Why didn't you accept it?" He shook his head. A smile played upon his lips. "No, it would not have been morally correct," he said. "When I first put in my bid I had done it with only one intention, to have a Gurdwara there. My bid was on behalf of Guru Nanak. Let's say I was his proxy. I was not going back on my avowed intention and make profit out of it." Then he thought for a moment and added, "You know, it is entirely possible that my bid was accepted only because I had wanted it to be a Gurdwara.

"As the change required it to be declared for non-residential usage, the taxes, water and sewerage charges automatically go up. If the municipality hadn't reduced it, the Gurdwara would have become uneconomical, considering that it carried a load of 18- acre of land. We had to convince it to waive off those charges." "But since it was to be a Gurdwara, technically at par with a church, how could they levy high charges?" I asked. "Who says so?" He posed the question, in an amused tone. "For the City of Glen Cove it was a moot question whether a Gurdwara was at par with a church. We had to explain to them in detail and convince them on that point. It was not all that easy." "How did you do it, then?" The Gurdwara people appointed a firm of architects to plan necessary modification of the building, get the plans approved and finally convince the municipality to condone the normal high property and other taxes…….

There was no end of surprise in this entire story, I told Dr. Sabharwal so. "Yes, there had been no end. But that was not all," he said. "Even more surprising, even the realty broker wrote off all his brokerage. He did not charge even a single penny. Not even a token one dollar towards the fee." "Really?" "Yes, the poor man. He died shortly. He was sick. But he had satisfaction of doing a good thing before passing away. His daughter told us about his last thoughts about his foregoing the fees." So, everyone had forgone their dues, the realty broker, the architect, and the City so that this fine house of Nanak could come up, to serve its Sangat. The non-Sikhs sacrificed their fees to make it possible for the Sikhs to worship in a new Gurdwara!

Dr. Harsimran Singh Sabharwal

- Ramesh & Asha Seth, Bhavan’s Journal April 30 2007

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The University of Sydney - International Forum Australia and India in the Asia - Pacific Region

Beyond cricket: cultivating new links with India - by Neena Bhandari

As the Great Hall reverberated to the beat of a tabla (drum) and three young dancers offered the traditional vandana (prayer), the University hosted its first international forum on Australia's relationship with India.

From cricket, curry, and Commonwealth, Australia-India bilateral relations have moved to embrace commerce as their focal point. Today, India is a significant contributor to Australia's international education market, which is worth $9.8 billion to the national economy. It is the second largest source of overseas students with 40,010 enrolling in the year to April 2007, a growth of 55.1 per cent from the previous year according to the Australian Education International (AEI).

Education, for Indians, has always been a priority and parents will go to any lengths to provide good education for their children. As India's High Commissioner to Australia, Prabhat Shukla, said: "India has world class international institutions, but Indians will continue to look abroad for further study because the demand outstrips supply. "

A strong case was made for a major Indian centre of learning at the University, which would encompass Indian languages, art, culture and history. The Deputy Vice Chancellor (International), Professor John Hearn, assured the audience that he would take up the matter.

Despite their historic links, Australia and India still know little about each other and simplistic stereotypes are blurring the larger picture. After Australia snapped all ties with India following its 1998 nuclear test, recent years have seen an array of linkages at every level from government and ministerial to people-to-people exchanges.

"The growth and influence of India will be a defining feature of the 21st century," said Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Secretary Michael L'Estrange. He pointed out that the broader hopes and expectations in the India-Australia relationship have remained unfulfilled, but today it is a very positive and dynamic story. "We've only touched the tip of an iceberg in this bilateral relationship."

"The momentum is building, but there is a long way to go," agreed Australia India Business Council chairman emeritus Neville Roach. He advocated more two-way exchange of students, joint research collaborations and blended degrees. In March this year, Prime Minister John Howard announced a new $25 million bilateral research program with India.

The value of physical education and sport is also being recognised by both countries, and Sport Knowledge Australia chief executive Leighton Wood emphasised the role sport plays in cementing the relationship. India is seeking Australian expertise to help organise the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

As India consolidates and defines its role as a superpower in the region and the world, Australia has to compete to attract New Delhi's attention. "No Indian prime minister has visited Australia since 1986. We'll have to be proactive in getting the benefits of Indian opportunities", said Neville Roach.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia and the Consul General of India, Sydney Hon Sujan Chinoy presented the opening and closing dance performances by Bhavan’s Institute for Arts & Culture and Nupur Dance Group.

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Games Children Still Play in Villages (in India)

Ask any boy or girl to name some games, and they would start with cricket, and add football, basketball, badminton, bowling, maybe some card games, chess, carrom etc. All these games came to India along with the English, Dutch, French and Portuguese. There are, however, many games that are purely Indian origin. Many of these games are still being played by children in the villages throughout India. These games stimulate the mental and physical well being. There are no coaches or trainers. The only participants in these games are children. While the games are common throughout India they are known by different names in different languages. There are some which are particularly more popular in some of the regions than in others.

What is most amazing is that each of these games have been played at particular times and all the children throughout the country played the same game at the same time. When a child in Kerala played with marbles so did the children in Kashmir. Similarly when children in one region switched from playing a particular game to another one, so did all the children all over the country. Let us now take a look at some of the games that our grandfathers and great grandfathers who lived in villages played when they were children.

1. Bowra or pambaram: Bowra is a spinning top with a broad head tapering down in the form of a triangle with an iron pin at the tapered end. The top has grooves around its base. One wraps a string tightly around the grooves and throws the top on the ground with force and as the string unwraps the top begins to swirl and swing. There are many variations of games played with the top. Children played in groups and compete as to whose top spins the most before falling sideways.

2. Pandi or Ekkadukka or thikri: This is a game more popular with girls than with boys. This game is played by drawing a diagram on the ground with a chalk or a stick (if it is played in mud). The number of compartments vary. It is played by at least two participants. Often a group of girls play. A small chip usually piece of tile or stone that has been given a round shape is thrown in the first compartment. The player folds one leg and hops into the compartments except the one occupied by the chip, and then completes the chain. Then she throws it into the second compartment after making the first compartment her own 'house'. After successfully completing all compartments the player can 'rest' her folded leg in her 'home' and then jump into the next one. While jumping her

leg should not touch any part of the compartment otherwise she is 'out.'

3. Pallankuzhi: This is one game that has kept generations of ladies young and old, in its grip for centuries. It is played with a plank of wood containing seven cavities gouged out of the wood in two rows.

The game is played by two ladies and sometimes by three. The game is played with 146 tamarind seeds or with small conch shells (cowri). The two central cavities on both sides contain one tamarind seed each. The balance is divided into two and each player starts with 72 each.

Each player drops 12 seeds each in the cavities on her side. When the play commences a player chooses any cavity on her side, collects its seeds and begins to drop one each in the other cavities. The rotation stops only when the player is confronted by two successive empty cavities. Then the other player takes over.

4. Ammanai: This is also a game played by ladies with tamarind seeds or with small conch shells. The game has many variations. One seed is thrown up and the player gathers as many seeds from the ground as possible before catching the thrown up seed. If she fails she

Bowra

Pandi

Pallankuzi

Ammani

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has to drop back all the gathered seeds. Another variation is the player throwing up many seeds together and trying to catch as many as possible on the reverse side of her hand.

5. Blowing game: This is another game played with a large number of tamarind seeds. The seeds are arranged and packed together in a round shape. A player then blows with force at the

formation. She then picks up the seeds one by one without touching or disturbing the other ones. Even a slight touch means that her turn is over and the second player takes over. The player who gathers the most number of seeds in this way is the winner.

6. Marbles: This is a universally popular game mostly played by boys. There are many variations of the game. They are played with dexterity and skill. Players acquire skill and control in hitting marbles with their own.

7. Chaturangam or thaayam: This is perhaps one of the most ancient games and plays a pivotal role as the great epic of Mahabharata unfolds. This game is also played by adults for high stakes. Kings and Nawabs used to spend hours engrossed in playing this game. In the villages however this game used to be played for stimulation it provided and not for stakes.

8 Gilli danda: This most stimulating and vigorous game is an ancient as our puranas. The Pandavas and the Kauravas, it is mentioned, excelled in this game. It is played with a long rounded stick and a short stick

whittled on both sides to tapering ends. A furrow is made on the ground and the small stick is placed on it in a slanting position with one end slightly protruding out of the furrow. The player sharply hits the small stick and as it bounces up he hits it with force in mid air. He then measures the distance between the furrow and the place where the gilli or the short stick has landed. The person with the largest measure is the winner.

9. Unjal or swing: This is a highly popular game usually played by ladies. It is a swing made with a plank of wood with its two sides attached to trees or poles. The ladies and girls sit or stand on it and swing back and as part of religious festivals. In Kerala ladies play the swing during Onam festival

10. Hide and seek: No childhood is complete unless one participates in the game of hide and seek, a game played in every part of the country. The game is most exciting when played in the early part of the night when the moon is bright and shining. This was because in the olden days most of the villages did not have electricity and the dark shadows made it difficult and exciting to find out the. girls. and the boys hiding among the shadows.

11. Run and catch: The game is very popular among both boys and girls. A large circle is drawn on the ground. The players are gathered within the circle. One player hops around and tries to touch the other players who try to escape

from him but remain within the circle.

12. Run and guide: This is a game that is fast disappearing even from the villages where it was very popular till not so long ago. This is a game in which a large iron ring is guided with a hook while a person keeps running. Apart from the iron rings, boys use cycle rims and guide them with a short stick while running. There were so many fascinating games played by children. They called for application of mind, alertness, vigor and strength. They built and reinforced character as the children mingled with joy, expectation, pleasure and camaraderies. They reflected

Blowing Game

Marbles

Chaturangam

eGilli Danda

Hide and seek

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the culture of rural India. The cities, the towns with their own special brand of approach to life have stretched their long arms and have touched the lives of the people even in remote villages. The ancient games have been rapidly replaced by the games of the cities. The games of the villages have taken away with them the joys of real childhood and youth as they have now been given up.

Written by P.N. Santhanagopal, Additional Registrar Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Worldwide Sketches by Gautam Sen

Source: Bhavan’s Journal October 31 2005 Vol 52 No. 6

Run and guide

Global Winners of the 16th International Children's Painting Competition on the Environment 

The 16th International Children's Painting Competition on the Environment was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer AG and Nikon Corporation. Regional winners were announced on 22 April 2007 and the global winners were an-nounced on 3 June 2007 in Tromso, Norway where the International World Environment Day celebrations took place. The 2007 theme was "Climate Change".

Global winners appear on the front cover. The Regional winners are : -

Africa - Guy Nindorera, 12 years old, Burundi

Asia Pacific - Angie Chan, 11 years old, China

Europe - Maria Oliynyk Mykolaivna, 10 years old, Ukarine

Latin America - Arvind Paragsingh, 11 years old, Suriname

North America - Juliana Wu, 11 years old, USA

West Asia - Ebtihal Ali Al-Shaikh Mohammed ,

13 years old, Bahrain

To Submit for the 2008 competition, entries should be send to the relavant UNEP organisation in your country. Please visit http://www.unep.org/tunza/paintcomp/winners07.asp for full information for further details.

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Barbara Perry MP Minister for Juvenile Justice Minister for Western Sydney

Minister Assisting the Premier on Citizenship

NEWS RELEASE Efforts To Promote Cultural Diversity In NSW Recognised NSW State Plan Priority R4: Increased participation and integration in community activities.

Friday 8th June 2007

Minister Assisting on Citizenship Barbara Perry today congratulated Community Relations Commission chair Stepan Kerkyasharian on receiving an Honorary De-gree from the University of Sydney. Ms Perry said the Doctorate of Letters invested on Mr Kerkyasharian at a gradua-tion ceremony recognises his efforts to build a strong and harmonious community in NSW. “Our way of life is based on the principles of participation, mutual respect and a fair go for all,” Ms Perry said. “The Iemma Government and the Community Relations Commission are working tirelessly to build successfully integrated communities based on harmony and mu-tual respect. “This honour for Stepan Kerkyasharian is richly deserved and recognises his ef-

forts to ensure that we tap into that diversity for the betterment of all Australians” The University of Sydney citation pays tribute to Mr Kerkyasharian’s “distinguished contribution to the ad-vancement and understanding of cultural diversity in Australia”. Mr Kerkyasharian was born in Cyprus of Armenian background and migrated to Australia in 1967. He was a member of the State Ethnic Public Broadcasting Advisory Committee to the Minister for Immigration until his appointment as Manager of Radio Station 2EA in 1979. In 1989 he was appointed Chairman of the Ethnic Affairs Commission of NSW which later became the Commu-nity Relations Commission in 2001. He is also President of the Anti Discrimination Board and has been since his appointment in September 2003. In October 1980 Mr Kerkyasharian was a member of the management team headed by the late Bruce Gyngell which established and launched SBS Television. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1992 and was a member of the Independent Complaints Review Panel of the ABC for ten years. In September 2000 the International Olympic Committee conferred the Olympic Order upon Mr Kerkyasharian for his contribution to the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

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Role Models for the Young

It has often been said, and rightly, that one of the ways of improving and raising the standards of society (which seem to be worsening) is to concentrate on the education of the young. Theirs is an impressionable mind where the planted seed will burgeon into a rich and plentiful harvest. Imitation is second nature with them; if what they see appeals to their imagination, and when the spectacle before their eyes is highly colourful and exciting, without a thought, they not only identify themselves with it, but try to resemble it by taking recourse to doing what it is seen to be doing. And this has led to warnings being given that the representation is unreal and should not be imitated.

Children are exposed to a society where corruption, crime, sex, violence, opulence, easy money, material success, false standards of greatness abound and since there is, in may places hardly any effective parental or social control, and as they lack a keen sense of discrimination, or foresight, they fall an easy prey to the prevalent ambience, and model their lives, perhaps, unconsciously, on wrong norms of conduct and behaviour.

Some decades ago, when the joint family was an effective institution, when economic and other needs were not so pressing, when the nuclear family was still in embryo, when women did not seek careers, when there was respect and sympathy for the aged, their experience and wisdom, children were not so "orphaned" as they are now. They were taught simplicity, honesty, obedience, morality, thrift, among other virtues, and though loved, were not sanctioned license.

When their elders spoke to them they not only tried to correct them when the need arose, but established with them such a rapport that they, without any hesitation or fear, confided in them and so the complexes and repressions and tensions that we hear about these days, were not there. They had full confidence in the elders and so heard them willingly. And so life ran like the waters of a passing brook, harmoniously and with joy abounding. Even teachers took real and personal interest in their pupils and were devoted to them and so instructed them with real care and affection. But, with the passing of years new influences and other notions about life began to condition them. They were too swift to be noticed, too sudden to be prepared against their pitfalls; they submerged thought and people succumbed to them, without pausing to look around. And so, gradually, but with finality, the old ramparts fell. So children, became the innocent victims.

We seem to have reached, in these areas, a point of no return. Conditions have changed for the worse, perhaps they had to, in the life that has overtaken us. And we have to find a way out, which though perchance, not quite satisfactory, might meet some of the requirements of the hour. The major casualty has been the young-children who need the parents' loving care and presence. But with the rat race, when people "have no time to stand and stare", "where wealth accumulates and man decays," these children have often to make do with the cosmetic alternative left to them - hired help! For the search after bread is so hard that it requires both parents to be away for hours on end.

And so we have to be satisfied, if the mother, though tired and worn out after the day's ordeal, can find time to be at her child's bedside for wishing the child good night. For children do look forward to her affectionate touch and smile which in a way, make up for all their pining during the day. At the expectant hour they are in a pliant, receptive mood, and if a well chosen story be told, with proper modulation of voice and gesture, expression and rhythm, it can, gradually help build an inborn defence system for life's struggles ahead. It is here, that the role models can play their effective part. Fortunately, we have a rich repertoire of stories which can appeal to the most fastidious of them all. Apart from fairy tales, which would take them into a world of beauty and wonder, where they can meet and identify themselves with giant killers and magic lantern holders or flying horses and their young royal riders, we have our own storehouse of narratives! Shravan, taking his aged parents on a pilgrimage undergoing no small hardships himself, Eklavya giving his guru dakshina to Dronacharya at the cost of physical hurt; Krishna of royal birth sharing his life at Sandipani ashram with the poor Sudama; Prahlad embracing the heated pillar fearlessly due to his unshakable faith in God's mercy; Lava and Kusha, braving a

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whole army when it approaches Valmiki's ashram; the young Ganapati outwitting his brother, Kartikeya, when completing his circumambulation of the earth, -these and others could provide the children with virtues to imbibe, which would stand them in good stead in their journey through life's difficult terrain. When they grow up, suitable books can continue this mission.

Should it be felt that these characters belong to an ancient age beyond recall and hence beyond full comprehension, individuals can be chosen from life nearer our here too, abound people who can inspire and awaken. Sunita Williams, who went into space and did space walking, she who is to spend six months away from the earth spells not only amazing courage but a deep devotion to research and knowledge. Born in a remote village in Gujarat, she, by dint of perseverance and hard work succeeded in being selected by NASA for this space odyssey; Tagore, "self-scanned, self-taught, self-schooled" (like Shakespeare) won the coveted Nobel Prize and though no product of any university, founded one of his own Vishva Bharati - to which students from across the globe are attracted.

Dhirubhai Ambani, reportedly, started his life abroad, far from his land of birth at a petrol pump and then by sheer willpower and an inspiring vision, carved an industrial empire:" Jamshedji Tata, stung by an insulting remark of an Englishman about India's incapacity to produce iron implements, founded his steel industry which amazed the West. President Dr. Kalam, it is said, sold newspapers for a living, but nothing could dampen his thirst for knowledge and in later life, he became a renowned scientist in the field of space missiles won honorary doctorates from many universities, and is today the President of one of the largest democracies of the world. Narayanamurthy had to borrow money to fulfill his vision but then he transmuted his destiny to found Infosys, a great venture in sphere of information technology. He was a relatively common man, but with an uncommon idea; he wanted a university exclusively for women. He had the necessary energy and the vision, the will and the determination, but lacked financial support. He labored hard to collect enough for this, and fortunately met one, who recognising its nobility, generously donated a princely amount.

He was D. K. Karve, later Bharat Ratna. It was the Thackersey Family which had stood by him in his endeavour to realise his dream.

These and other instances from life go to show that hard work, determination, hope and faith can help one in the direst of circumstances and children fed on the milk of this paradise will have much data to sustain themselves in their own lives, when confronted with frustrating an defeatist moments. What young minds need is something constructive to fill their hearts and when it is not forthcoming, and their place is usurped by some thing inferior and harmful, in their impatience or ignorance, they accept the latter and "the road not, taken makes all the difference."

It becomes the duty of the parents to ensure that by constant touch and rapport they provide the vital element and so help build a sound foundation for the family and for the child.

- Mahendra N. Pandia, Bhavan’s Journal, 31 May

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."

Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

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Neem and Ayurveda

Ayurveda is a holistic system of medicine that is indigenous to India. 'ayu' denotes life and veda denotes knowledge. The objective of this science is happy and healthy life, graceful old age and life free from disease. This healing system has been practiced in India from time immemorial. Therapeutic uses of neem

According to ayurveda Neem is used to treat both internal and external body ailments. Neem provides relief from rash, boils, wounds, diabetes, jaundice, leprosy, skin diseases, stomach ulcers, gynaecological disorders and chicken pox. It is now being used as supportive therapy for cancer and AIDS. Neem and cosmetics:

Recently awareness regarding carcinogenic and adverse effects of chemical cosmetics has given rise to a demand for cosmetics made from natural products, which are safe for the human body and skin. Neem can be used in almost all kinds of cosmetic products. It can be used in soaps, shampoos, moisturisers, tooth pastes, talcum powders etc. The usage of various parts of neem:

Neem Fruit: It works as emollients or demulcents. It also works as a purgative. Hence it is useful in abdomen worms, piles and urinary disorders. Gedunin, contained in the whole fruit has been shown to possess anti malarial activity.

Seeds: Neem seeds powder with jaggery are beneficial in piles

Neem oil: 5-10 drops of oil with sugar is favourable for skin diseases, leprosy, syphilis, malaria and typhoid fevers.

External uses: The neem oil can be used locally in diseases such as fistula, itching, eczema, ring worm, urticaria, herpes zoster etc. Keeping a piece of gauze in neem oil in vagina before coitus works as a natural contraceptive. Neem oil can be used as nasal drops , in hair fall and graying. Leaves: It works as antiseptic, hence if boiled in water can be used for washing wounds. This water can also be used for taking bath. The paste of neem leaves are used for local application in various skin diseases such as psoriasis, eczema as well as for piles and lymph adenopathy. The powder of neem leaves is effective in diabetes, skin diseases and urinary tract infection.

The smoke of burnt neem leaves helps to remove environmental pollution and also works as mosquito repellant. Studies indicate that tender leaves are effective in parasitic infections. Extract of tender leaves possess anti viral properties. It can be used effectively in treatment of poisonous bites. Neem leaves have shown the potential as a potent hepatoprotective agent. It has shown significant in anti ulcer activity. Oil processed by fresh leaves has a mild fungicidal action and it is beneficial for local application in all kinds of skin diseases.

Bark: Nimibidin found in neem bark is now known to be antipyretic and non irritant and is effective in various skin disorders.

Neem is a wonder tree and can be used to prevent diseases, epidemics, pollution and can help in saving the environment. This is the right time to create an awareness on neem and increase its availability and utility.

- Vaidya Suresh Chaturvedi, Bhavan’s Journal 30 April 2007

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The Mystery of Consciousness

Death. Man's most mysterious, relentless, and inevitable adversary. Does death mean the end of life, or does it merely open the door to another life, another dimension, or another world? If man's consciousness survives the death experience, then what determines its transition to new realities? In order to gain a clear understanding of these mysteries, man has traditionally turned to enlightened philosophers, accepting their teachings as representative of a higher truth. Some criticize this method of acquiring knowledge from a higher authority, no matter how carefully the seeker may analyze it. Social philosopher E. F. Schumacher, author of Small Is Beautiful, notes that in our modern society, when people are out of touch with nature and traditional wisdom, they "consider it fashionable to ridicule... and only believe in what they see and touch and measure." Or, as the saying goes, "Seeing is believing."

But when man endeavors to understand something beyond the scope of the material senses, beyond instruments of measurement and the faculty of mental speculation, then there is no alternative but to approach a higher source of knowledge. No scientist has successfully explained through laboratory investigations the mystery of consciousness or its destination after the destruction of the material body. Research in this field has produced many divergent theories, but their limitations must be recognized. The systematic principles of reincarnation, on the other hand, comprehensively explain the subtle laws governing our past, present, and future lives.

If one is to understand reincarnation at all, he must acknowledge the fundamental concept of consciousness as an energy distinct from and superior to the matter composing the physical body. This principle is supported by examination of the unique thinking, feeling, and willing capacities of the human being. Can DNA strands or other genetic components possibly induce the feelings of love and respect one person has for another? What atom or molecule is responsible for the subtle artistic nuances in Shakespeare's Hamlet or Bach's "Mass in B Minor"? Man and his infinite capabilities cannot be explained by mere atoms and molecules. Einstein, the father of modern physics, admitted that consciousness could not be adequately described in terms of physical phenomena. "I believe that the present fashion of applying the axioms of - science to human life is not only entirely a mistake, but also has something reprehensible in it," the great scientist once said.

Indeed, scientists have failed to explain consciousness by means of the physical laws that govern everything else within their purview. Frustrated by this failing, Nobel laureate in physiology and medicine Albert Szent-Gyorgyi recently lamented, "In my search for the secret of life, I ended up with atoms and electrons, which have no life at all. Somewhere along the line, life has run out through my fingers. So, in my old age, I am now retracing my steps." Accepting the notion that consciousness arises from molecular interaction requires an enormous leap of faith, much greater than that required for a metaphysical explanation. As Thomas Huxley, the well-known biologist, said, "It seems to me pretty plain that there is a third thing in the universe, to wit, consciousness, which. I cannot see to be matter or force or any conceivable modification of either" Further recognition of the unique properties of consciousness was given by Nobel laureate in physics Niels Bohr, who remarked, "We can admittedly find nothing in physics or chemistry that has even a remote bearing on consciousness. Yet all of us know there is such a thing as consciousness, simply because we have it ourselves. Hence consciousness must be part of nature, or, more generally, of reality, which means that quite apart from the laws of physics and chemistry, as laid down in quantum theory, we must also consider laws of quite a different kind." Such laws might well include the laws of reincarnation, which govern the passage of consciousness from one physical body into another.

To begin understanding these laws, we may note that reincarnation is not an alien, antipodal event, but one that occurs with regularity in our own bodies during this very lifetime. In The Human Brain, Professor John Pfeiffer notes, "Your body does not contain a single one of the molecules that it contained seven years ago." Every seven

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years one's old body is completely rejuvenated. The self, however, our real identity, remains unchanged. Our bodies grow from infancy, to youth, to middle age, and then to old age, yet the person within the body, the "I," always remains the same. Reincarnation—based on the principle of a conscious self independent of its physical body—is part of a higher-order system governing the living being's transmigration from one material form to another. Since reincarnation deals with our most essential selves, it is a subject of the utmost relevance to everyone.

Coming Back explains the fundamentals of reincarnation presented in the timeless Vedic text Bhagavad-gita. The Gita, thousands of years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls, provides the most complete explanation of reincarnation available anywhere. It has been studied for millennia by many of the world's greatest thinkers, and since spiritual knowledge is eternally true and does not change with each new scientific theory, it is still relevant today. Harvard biophysicist D. P. Dupey writes, "We may lead ourselves down a blind alley by adhering dogmatically to the assumption that life can be explained entirely by what we know of the laws of nature. By remaining open to the ideas embodied in the Vedic tradition of India, modern scientists can see their own disciplines from a new perspective and further the aim of all scientific endeavor: the search for truth."

In this age of giobal uncertainty, it is imperative that we understand the real origin of our conscious selves, how we find ourselves in different bodies and conditions of life, and what our destinations will be at the time of death.

Coming Back, The Science of Reincarnation; Based on the teachings of His Divine Grace Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

"I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence."

—Socrates

"The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew ... it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal."

—Ralph Waldo Emerson Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I did not begin when I was born, nor when I was conceived. I have been growing, developing, through incal-culable myriads of millenniums.... All my previous selves have their voices, echoes, promptings in me.... Oh, incalculable times again shall I be born."

—Jack London The Star Rover

"There is no death. How can there be death if everything is part of the Godhead? The soul never dies and the body is never really alive."

—Isaac Bashevis Singer Nobel laureate Stories from Behind the Stove

"He saw all these forms and faces in a thousand relationships ... become newly born. Each one was mortal, a passionate, painful example of all that is transitory. Yet none of them died, they only changed, were always reborn, continually had a new face: only time stood between one face and another."

—Herman Hesse, Nobel laureate Siddhartha

" 'Do you have any idea how many lives we must have gone through before we even got the first idea that there is more to life than eating, or fighting, or power in the Flock? A thousand lives, Jon, ten thousand! ... We choose our next world through what we learn in this one... But you, Jon, learned so much at one time that you didn't have to go through a thousand lives to reach this one.' "

—Richard Bach Jonathan Livingston Seagull

"As we live through thousands of dreams in our present life, so is our present life only one of many thousands of such lives which we enter from the other more real life... and then return after death. Our life is but one of the dreams of that more real life, and so it is endlessly, until the very last one, the very real life,— the life of God."

—Count Leo Tolstoy

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The Mesmerising Mantra On August 2, 1975, an ochreclad sanyasi from India was riding a Lincoln Continental through the busy streets of crime- ridden Detroit in America. The driver of the limousine was his disciple who also happened to be the great grandson of Henry Ford. And he was taking his guru to see and negotiate a $350,000 mansion for starting a temple. The sanyasi calmly stated, "But, I am a beggar, I have no money.". Yet, he agreed to buy the mansion, knowing that his chauffeur, Alfred Ford, would raise the amount. The "temple" was to be the first official residence of an international society which he called ISKCON. Although it had been functioning in a derelict building in Manhattan for ten years, its founder felt it was time to spread his message of "Krishna Consciousness" to all of America and, if possible, the world. Thus, a new movement was launched by a frail 69 year-old Srila Prabhupada who had little else beside idealism and courage.

Born in Calcutta in 1896 as Abhay Charan De, son of a cloth merchant, he made his parents ecstatic when the family astrologer predicted that their son would cross the ocean in his 70 th year to launch 108 temples across the world. The prediction came true when Abhay, now called Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada, sailed into New York harbour in September 1966 in a cargo ship on a complimentary ticket. Having tried and failed in various careers, he had decided to renounce them along with family ties to devote himself to writing and teaching the essence of ancient Indian epics like Srimad Bhagavatham to a world steeped in materialistic values. His first target was the western world. His first destination, the United States of America.

Only a man fired by the courage of his conviction would have dared to undertake this work. Armed with a typewriter and umbrella, he had decided to take on the most powerful nation with his simple philosophy of plain living and high thinking. An American newspaper called it " the meeting between the mystical East and practical West." The strange looking swami from India was clear about his mission. He had come to a country known for its "godless materialism." At the same time, he frankly admitted that if there was any place on earth to find money for his temples, it was here. He set about his twin mission with patience and determination. The Hare Krishna movement and the ISKCON temples that he founded are legacies that have gone beyond the boundaries of America.

Prabhupada did not try to preach an esoteric religion. He instinctively knew that the modern world with its scientific and intellectual pre-eminence would spurn obscure religious concepts. So, he hit upon a simple, straightforward approach to spirituality. And, he tried that approach in 20 th century America. He felt that if he succeeded in conveying his message there, it would reach every nook and corner of the world. He started it in New York's Lower East Side - the heart of the hippie culture. It was not easy to tell disillusioned 20-somethings who searched for a life through drugs, drink and sex, that their existence was aimless. It was even more difficult to tell them to give up these meaningless activities for something more enduring. So, Prabhupada turned to their own weapons to reform them. With the reverberating music of cymbals and drumbeats, he taught them to chant his own magical Hare Rama, Hare Krishna mantra which started making inroads into a society that seemed doomed. The chanting crossed over to England where the Beatles made it a timeless hit. The mantra became a movement, and spread to Europe, Australia and Africa before returning to its own homeland. While the hippies of Manhattan thought that the sanyasi from India was taking them on another kind of "trip," the spiritual message of Prabhupada slowly started taking root. It was the same message taught in ancient scriptures, but couched in a new language that was easily understood. Singing and chanting Krishna's name was not so difficult, after all. It's appeal was immediate.

Today, the Hare Krishna movement has become a popular route to spirituality. It has been accepted as a comfortable way to reach godliness . I got an inkling of its hold on ordinary people when a cab driver in Florence stopped suddenly at a street corner and reverentially doffed his cap. A small procession of men and women clad in white robes danced across the street singing Hare Rama, Hare Krishna with abandon. I am sure the scene would have made Prabhupada happy.

- Vatsala Vedantam, Bhavan’s Journal, April 30 2007

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Happiness is Value Based

Marriage is a social institution, which not only unites two individuals but also their families, relatives and societies from which they hail. Civilisation undoubtedly began with the advent of man. But it is the institution of marriage that has created its social fabric. Matrimony has provided societies with stability and has maintained their unity. The environment helps the earth to maintain its balance; the institution of marriage maintains the balance in our society. Marriage signifies growth. It makes a human being complete - mentally, physically and spiritually. Doors, windows, walls and a roof make a house. But it is the husband and wife who transform it into a home. It is only the husband and wife who bring love, affection, and companionship and create a deep bond based on mutual faith. These emotions give their nest a special significance and uphold its sanctity.

Husband and wife are not just two words in the pages of a dictionary. Marriage is a concept, a strong and sustainable relationship based on a solid foundation of trust and complete surrender to each other. It is this devotion that keeps the relationship between two people alive. It binds them for the rest of their life. According to Manusmriti prosperity and auspiciousness certainly stays permanently in a family, where the husband is pleased and satisfied with his wife and the wife with her husband. The foundation of a family is not laid merely when people live under the same roof. It is bound together by strong ties, unbreakable bonds and a promise of a safe future. It is for this reason that our society and culture have always emphasised the importance of a unified family. It is not only a great support system but it also plays a big role in an individual's success and accomplishments.

Every individual in a family is like a pillar. He should strive to make the family structure strong. He should create an impregnable wall around it to protect it from calamities. An addition of a new member may not much alter a family's makeup. But his exit would, unquestionably affect. Hence, our relationship with each other ought to be strong and our faith in each other unshakeable. Our every effort must be focussed on keeping the family together and helping it progress in life. A family is an amalgamation of relationships bonded together by love. This institution is created and sustained by duty, selflessness and discipline. A family means a union where the members stay together in times of laughter and tears, happiness and sorrow. A tree stands mutely in the blistering heat of the afternoon sun, its silence holding a poignant message. It plays to perfection its role of providing shelter to tired travellers, despite adversities. One should always remember that true worth lies in being useful to others. All of us have to take responsibilities. Some have more obligations to meet, some less. Many of us attribute our failure to duties thrust on us. Actually, having to meet one's responsibilities is not the cause of success or failure. It is one's approach to tasks that catapults one to greater heights or seals one's fate. Those who do not shoulder their burden with care, are bound to over balance and may even lose face. Or, the fear of failure may compel them to shun responsibility forever.

The wherewithal with which we perform our duty is not important. Our approach is important. Means are mere lifeless tools. Our perseverance breathes life into them. Our determination gives them unlimited power. We should face life with courage and conviction. Success will not be behind. Many people associate beauty with outward show. Beauty is not only an arresting appearance. We may have striking looks. But we may not appeal to people if we are wicked, lack self-confidence and good manners, and if we do not possess good communication skills. Physical beauty alone is insufficient to turn anyone into an attractive personality. One may be unattractive, but may still be noticed. People who meet him may want to appreciate him and even emulate him. One should be introspective if he want to be the person of his own dreams. He should have a hard look at himself.He should evaluate his own strengths and weaknesses. All this needs a pretty straightforward approach. A guarded approach to life may block good thoughts from flowing in. But self-evaluation does not mean counting only the faults. Emphasise the positive qualities. Positive thinking can turn vices into virtues. No one is born perfect. So why do we shed tears over our imperfections? One should start analysing himself. One should create a personality of his

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own-charming, appealing to people and most importantly, one which reflects inner beauty. For a person who wants to be heard, there is no dearth of listeners. Lakhs will give advice, thousands will pay heed to it and perhaps hundreds will understand its real meaning. But when it comes to actually doing things, there are very few who will answer the call of duty. We can literally count them on our fingertips. Everybody wants to reach the top, but only he who strives to reach it can do so. A bird cannot enjoy the expanse of the sky by merely sitting in its nest; similarly an individual cannot scale great heights if he is not willing to act.

The passage to success is not a bed of roses, it is lined with countless worries. We encounter failure at every nook and corner. Problems, often unsurmountable, block our progress. Illusion and confusion dot every crossing. Kith and kin impede our pace. The undulating terrain has disappointments downhill and obligations uphill. Family is an important checkpost on this trail, pause here we must, before we start again. A vehicle called willpower can help us cross these hurdles. This has valour for wheels, sweat and blood for fuel, duty for engine and faith at the steering. Enthusiasm provides us with the much needed speed. Our toolbox has courage sprinkled with focus and zeal. We should drive intelligently while chasing our goal. We should travel on the road to success with a great deal of ease. People who get trapped in the "ifs and buts" syndrome, spend more than half their life whining about what would have happened if only "they had done this, or had not done that." This can be illustrated by an old folk tale. There was a woman who used to sell curd. She carried it in an earthen pot on her head. One day, on her way to the market, she started day dreaming. "What if the king's convoy passes this way. He will see me and make me his queen. I will then be able to rule over everyone. And if someone asks me for something, I will say, no, never". With that she tossed her head from one side to the other. The pot fell down and broke into pieces.

Therefore, no one should entertain the venomous word — if. It possesses the power to ruin life. Like a termite, the word "if weakens our ability to act. It makes us feel that we are incomplete. It will not let us be happy nor enable us to be satisfied. We should have full faith in ourself, not in our destiny. We must be aware of the fact that our life will end one day. Therefore, as long as we live, we should put it to good use. It is not important how long we live. What is significant is the manner in which we live, the kind of actions we perform during our stay in this world. Living is not merely breathing in fresh air. Every breath should bring with it fresh thoughts, ideas and goals. The fluid of life that gushes through our blood vessels should carry with it courage. Every step that we take should spell a new hope. Our eyes should reflect a new dream, better opportunity and a new goal. That is what living is all about. Contentment is a state of mind. He who has clarity of thought performs extremely well and achieves satisfaction. Living does not merely mean existing. It is the quality of life and not quantity that is important. Life ultimately means moving ahead and proving self in the face of difficulties.Our past never returns. Why regret it? And, the future is an unsolved mystery; So why think of it? Between the past and the future lies our present. We can mould it in whichever way we please.

While doing so, we should learn from cur past and keep it in our mind, the possibilities of the future. We must act wisely in the present. Then we will never have to regret the past or worry about the future. Yet we often ruin our present, first by weeping over what has happened and then by living in fear about what is to come. Instead of doing so, we must make every effort to keep our present alive. It is the biggest reality of our lives. It is essential that we control our present. There are different definitions of life. While some have called it a stage, others have compared it to an ever-rolling stream. Life for some is a testing ground of all their actions, while for some others it is the first step towards salvation. For cynics, however, life is a "long sentence of sorrows punctuated by happiness." They believe that its peeves overshadow its pleasures. For those who agree with this definition, life is really a sentence, or a curse, they should be aware that problems are an integral part of life. If anybody wants a crisis-free life or hope for readymade solutions to their problems is wrong and is not in tune with reality.

Life is a struggle. Difficulties are an essential part of it. So we should pray to the Almighty to give us the strength to face the ups and downs of life boldly. We must ask for capabilities to conquer difficulties and courage to overcome hardship. ¦

- Om Prakash Dubey, Bhavan’s Journal June 15 2007

"The full use of your powers along lines of excellence." - definition of "happiness" by John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

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Nature vs Nurture – The Dancing Genes

Elucidation of DNA structure as right handed double helix by Watson and Crick in 1953, who were awarded Nobel Prize in 1962, was a mile stone in the era of modern biology. Human Genome Project was conceived in 1984, started in 1990 and completed in 2003. Two teams were involved namely

International Human Genome Sequencing consortium (IHGSC) headed by Francis Collins involving research groups from USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan and China and

Celera Genomics - private company at Maryland led by Craig Venter. Human Genome has 3 billion base pairs with 34000 genes coding for proteins (less than 3% of total DNA). More than 97% of DNA is non coding (so called Junk DNA) involved in regulating gene expression during development, differentiation and adaptation to environment.

Gene is DNA, carries genetic information from one cell to the offspring. It determines morphological, chemical and metabolic characteristics of individual cell or organism. Mammalian cell possesses about 1000 times more genetic information than does the bacterium E. coli. Humans have same DNA to the extent of 99.9%. Fraction of a percent gives individuality (intelligent, dullard, aggressive, mild, normal, disabled etc.). Further

Humans share 98% DNA sequence with monkeys, 57% with cabbage. Only 300 genes of humans had no recognisable counter part in the mouse.

Humble weed plant, Thale cross (Arabidopsis thaliana) carries 30% of its genes with notable similarities to humans. The commonness of some genes shows subtle connection between all living systems.

After decoding Human Genome, there is considerable awareness and expectation in the public. It is not a surprise to see the scientists, scientific journals and magazines with sensational news on Genes. Geneticists, Psychologists, Psychoneuroendocrinologists are excited and actively involved in Genomic Research. Number of Genes associating with behaviour, emotions and feelings have been often reported. To name a few Gene NeuroD2 with dare devil behaviour, CYP2A6 with addiction, ISIG2 with obesity, DRD4 with sexual desire & performance, Variants of DRD2 with anorexia, AVPRIA and SLC6A4 with creative / dance performance. God Gene - VMAT2 with human spirituality, GCH1 with chronic pain, TREK – 1 with happiness, BDNF with depression, gpr 54 with puberty, and 10 Genetic mutations in SIR3, SIRT1, IGF - 1, Lamin A (Pr) etc with longevity (life span). Presence of a particular Gene is not sufficient. Its expression is important.

Genes may be Constitutive Genes (house keeping genes) for synthesis of proteins required for the cell, expressed at more or less constant rate in all the cells. Some genes are regulated (induction or repression) by various molecular signals.

Gene Regulation in Eukaryotes is more complicated and is brought out by several mechanisms like gene amplification, gene rearrangement (light chain and heavy chain Ig), small RNAs as enhancers / silencers and deacetylation of histone protein, methylation of DNA in inactivation of genes.

Although > 99% of human DNA sequences are the same across the population, difference between individuals are largely due to SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms). About 3 million SNPs are believed to be present in the Genome. It involves the replacement of one nitrogen base by another (C→T or A→G etc). Sickle cell anemia is due to a single nucleotide change (A→T) in the β-globin gene of hemoglobin. SNP maps of human genome can help in determining the likelihood of some one developing a particular disease (cancer, diabetes etc.). SNP map project is of interest in pharmocogenomic studies (effect of drugs in individuals) and hence number of drug companies have funded to find new SNPs. Studies at University of Pennsylvania on Gene activity of 4197 genes in white cell lymphoblostoid, showed Europeans and Chinese expressed 939 at significantly different levels while Europeans and Japanese expressing 756 differently. This is due to SNPs showing how tiny changes in the basic DNA code can significantly affect the expression of whole genes. Populations that differ in their susceptibility to diseases such as type 2 diabetes and high BP carry different SNPs and the specific genes may be targeted with drugs.

Gene sequences alone do not tell the whole story. Svante Pääbo (Director of Evolutionary Genetics, Germany)

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observed differences in gene expression by measuring mRNA in autopsied brains, possibly playing a role in creating the gap between the chimp and human brains. Pääbo recently began a project to breed mice laced with human – specific genes involved with brain growth and development. The first of these humanized mice are now being born in Germany (Discover Dec, 2006).

Epigenetics is the Study of heritable changes in gene function that occur without a change in the DNA sequence. Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation, histone acetylation, RNA interference, Gene imprinting and silencing play important role in gene activation and inactivation and in phenotype transmission and development, the so called epigenetic inheritance. A simple environmental effect could switch genes on or off – and this change could be inherited. The idea that inheritance is not just about which genes you inherit but whether these are switched on or off is a whole new frontier in Biology. Genes and the environment are not mutually exclusive but are inextricably interwined, one affecting the other. ‘Incorrect’ epigenetic changes to tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes are some of the first steps in cancer initiation. Studies at Mount Sinai School of Medicine on the effect of stress on pregnant women who were inside or near the World Trade Center during tragic events on September 11, 2001 suggest that stress effects can pass down generations. Another study at Washington State University points to toxic effects, causing biological changes in rats exposed to pesticides persist for at least four generations.

Different studies brought a paradigm shift in scientific thinking how life style and family relationships affect individuals and also their children and grand children in decades to come. If you liken the genome to the hardware of a computer, the epigenetics is the software. There are number of research studies using Holistic Medicine for prevention and management of cancer. Studies at McGill University showed that nutrients and supplements changed genetics by switching on or off certain genes in rodents. L-methionine, a common amino acid and food supplement, when injected into the brains, the amino acid methylated the glucocorticoid gene, and the animal’s behaviour changed. Green tea helps in silencing HER-2 genes that fuels breast cancer in some women. Turmeric suppresses genes (COX-2) that ratchet up inflammation. Nutrition and Genetics is catching up. Within a decade, doctors will be able to take genetic profiles of their patients, identify specific diseases for which they are at risk and create customized nutrition plans accordingly.

Nature Vs Nurture has been debated often. DNA is not destiny. “Gene as fate” has been conventional wisdom. Through the study of epigenetics, that notion may be proved outdated. Unlike genetic mutations, epigenetic changes are potentially reversible by switch on and off mechanisms (methylation or demethylation). One epigenetic drug, 5-azacytidine has been approved by FDA for treating myelodysplastic syndrome (pre leukemia). Similarly studies on development of drugs for other cancers are under testing.

Epigenetics introduces the concept of ‘free will’ into our idea of genetics. Epigenome can change in response to the environment through out an individual’s lifetime. Now everything we do – everything we eat or smoke can affect our gene expression and that of future generations. The environment (diet, behaviour, family relationship, lifestyle and surroundings) has a role to play in changing our genome, bridging the gap between social processes and biological processes.

In this scenario definition of Holistic Living in the recent Symposium held at Sevagram may be of interest. Holistic Living is defined as Simple, spiritual, purposeful, peaceful and productive living with moderation in food intake, adequate exercise and positive thinking and attitude to life. Holistic Living is an art of living in harmony with nature and concern to the whole universe.

March 15, 2007 Prof. B. C. Harinath, Ph.D (USA)

Director, JB Tropical Disease Research Centre & Coordinator, BIC & Arogyadham Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences

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The Big Bang and the Great Illusion

Modern youth are familiar with the scientific concept of the physical universe coming into being with the big bang that occurred many billions of years ago, and also of the mathematical concepts of the point (namely, the Mahabindhu referred to in the ancient wisdom of the Rishis), from which all dimensions (or planes of existence) emanate, or of zero and infinity (which provide the bridgeheads for the Absolute to become the manifested universe).

Prof. I. K. Taimni, eminent philosopher and scientist, in his book, "Man, God and the Universe", has dealt with the intriguing and highly metaphysical topics of the illusion of time and space, of Maya or our stupendous ignorance, of the one and only Reality, the Absolute un-manifested consciousness, with all potentialities, manifesting as the illusory pluralistic universal consciousness, with its sportive drama of involution and evolution and the dance of life. This presentation reminds one of Dr. Fritzof Capra's illuminating book, 'Tao of Physics', where he states that the findings of the greatest scientists of the modern age is that the physical universe with its billions of galaxies and quasars is one continuous web of energy and constitutes one single interconnected fabric of manifestation.

It is said that the gentle blossoming of a flower on earth immediately affects a distant star. Capra cites Hindu and Buddhist mystical teachings in confirmation of these modern radical scientific concepts. In India, the 5000-year-old wisdom prevailed as 'the Sanatana Dharma', in ancient Greece the quintessence of spirituality was made known to the world by the Oracle of Delphi with its message, "Know Thyself, inscribed on the portals of its shrine, during the time of Socrates, as a forerunner of Sri Ramana Maharishi's spiritual message formulated in the 20th century, as the radical, "Who Am I" self-inquiry or "Atma Vichara". An earnest spiritual inquirer will immediately discover that we have no knowledge of our inner self at all. We are functioning on the superficial level of our waking ego consciousness, which is an unreal entity resulting from the conglomeration of thoughts that beset our mind and brain, as declared by J. Krishnamurti the revolutionary sage of our times.

When our physical body is discarded at the time of death, our mind continues to function in and through our other higher bodies successively during our after-death sojourn in the 'Many Mansions' or planes of existence referred to in the Bible and all other religious literature, until our individualised consciousness or soul or Jivatma reincarnates in a new physical body to complete its round of samsara.

But if one probes very deeply into oneself, in the course of meditation or otherwise, during one's physical lifetime with full and unwavering dedication to 'Know Thyself, then self-realisation occurs and one is liberated from rebirth and the cycle of samsara, it is said.

But still the perennial question of the earnest spiritual seeker remains unanswered -'Why the perfect has become the imperfect', namely, 'Why this manifestation, this drama if involution and evolution with all its travails' - except to say that the whole drama is a grand illusion, projected by the universal consciousness, and that all of us being fragments of the universal consciousness are sharing in this illusion, which is not different in essence from the dreams that we experience at night during our hours of sleep. Everything is a play of consciousness, a Divine Leela.

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has in-tended us to forgo their use."

- Galileo Galilei

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Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, in one of his brilliant moments of inspiration, has given us a glimpse of this situation in his famous lines from 'The Tempest':

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air. And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,. thf. cloud capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a track behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. "

Like the wayside audience at the well-known Indian rope trick performance, with its multiple illusions, we are well and truly mesmerised to see what the universal cosmic consciousness, the archetype of all playwrights, has decided that we, the limited individualised sparks of the universal cosmic consciousness, should see and experience. We are like children in swaddling clothes being brought up tenderly by our 'Father in Heaven'. In viewing an object, we do not see the basic scientific fact of its atomic structure, consisting of protons and whirling electrons, but see only an intervening illusory image or design or rupa or appearance caused by the movement of the atoms, which is essentially a mirage! - as pointed out by Prof. Taimni.

A rare exception to this phenomenon was Paramahamsa Yogananda, who suddenly beheld the walls and every article around him as brilliant sparkling atoms, when his guru, Yukteswar, slapped him on his back once, while he was seated in meditation. Life's experiences are more fiction than fact. It is somewhat akin to the Hollywood carnival exhibition where each individual customer voluntarily pays, and seeks admission to enjoy the thrill of undergoing the shocks and nightmarish experiences that are provided to the customer in his adventurous ride through the carnival track. The customer knows that all these experiences are illusory and that he is completely detached from them, but identifies himself temporarily with the thrilling experiences, as a game or leela.

Prof. Taimni, a great physical scientist, mathematician and occult researcher, bemoans the fact that modern physical scientists stop short with their observation of the physical universe, and do not see the need to break through the physical barrier and step out of the frog-in-the, well predicament, and carry out scientific experimentation and research, through appropriate psychic and spiritual channels in the 'Many Mansions' or subtler planes of existence which are indubitably an integral part of the physical universe.

This physical universe is only an outer shell, with its very limited three dimensional outlook, while the subtler worlds function in the fourth, fifth and still higher dimensions, where our bodies themselves get transformed into 'something rich and strange' like iridescent ovoid bubbles and brilliant sparks of light. Each higher dimension reveals more and more sophisticated ways of perceptions, which are completely unimaginable by us in our limited three-dimensional physical world.

Granted that this whole universe is a grand illusion or a play projected by the one universal cosmic consciousness, we shall endeavour to probe into the fabric of this great drama and learn to play our respective roles, where 'All the World's a Stage', as Shakespeare put it aptly, in a subsequent discussion of our swadharma in life, where the two primordial factors of the all abounding universal love and the inexorable Law of Karma operate automatically. The writer who is now 87-years-old, having met Sri Ramana Maharishi and J. Krishnamurti and several other sages and saints in India and Sri Lanka during the past 65 years and received their blessings, feels that an authentic centre for the promulgation of the ancient teaching 'Know Thyself, as in the case of the Oracle of Delphi, may surface in India in the not too distant future, with a focus on World Peace and Government by grace or' Arul Archi', with the advent of a new era, as indicated in some of the ancient Rishivakiams, where reference is made to Sri Agastiya Mahamuni, the ageless primordial Guru of Gurus, who has been functioning in the physical and occult planes of existence throughout numerous Yugas and Kalpas of time, as an architect and sustainer of ancient world civilisations."

- C.Shanmuganayagam, Bhavan’s Journal June 15 2007

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From Bhavan’s Journal June 15 1957 Reprinted Bhavan’s Journal June 15 2007

Philosophy of Sarvodaya - R. Subramanian

Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by Ruskin's Unto This Last which taught him three principles. The first principle says that the good of the individual merges with the good of all. The individual is a part and parcel of the society; and hence should seek his good in the good of a wider embrace of his brethren. It means that the society will bear his yogakshema: and his happiness, political aspiration, economic status- all these find expression en masse. The second principle(Gandhiji had said he had dimly realised it) relates to the dignity and value of labour. The work of a lawyer is not different from that of a barber, since both have the same value, for the simple reason that all have the same right to earn their livelihood by the sweat of their brow. The third principle (Gandhiji had stated that it never occurred to him) signifies the worth of the life of a labourer. According to him the life worth living is the life of an agriculturist who tills the land or a handicrafts man who makes goods and services for the enjoyment of all. The last two principles flow from the first. In striving for the good of all, an individual will have to purify himself inwardly and dedicate himself to the achievement of this goal of social well-being.

Sane Living Religion - C. Rajagopalachari

There is but one God, the author, the creator, the governor of the world, almighty, eternal, incomprehensible. His eye pierceth the secrets of every heart, and He remembereth them forever; He respecteth not the persons, nor the stations of men. Then shall the wicked tremble and be afraid; but the heart of the righteous shall rejoice in His judgments."O fear the Lord, therefore, all the days of thy life, and walk in the paths which He hath opened before thee. Let Prudence admonish thee, let Temperance restrain, let Justice guide thy hand, Benevolence warm thy heart, and Gratitude to Heaven inspire thee with devotion. These shall give thee happiness in thy present state, and bring thee to the mansions of eternal felicity in the paradise of God."

Milk - the Supreme Food - David Gunston

The secret of milk's dietetic value lies in the fact that its abundant fat is the most easily digestible of all the edible fats. It is a rich source of natural sugar, protein, and the vitamins A, Bl, B2, C and D, calcium and other vital minerals. About 83 different sources of animal milk have been analysed and studied, but the most fascinating milk of all study is that from the human, mother.

Hysteria - Clifford R. Anderson

The tendency toward hysteria begins in the very earliest years of life. Some children may feel they are unloved and unwanted by their parents. Or they may be jealous of others in the family, or even of one their parents. In any case they are not happy with life because of some deep personal problem. Every child has a deep need for affection and love. Yet many children are denied this in their own homes. As a result, many of them suffer from feelings of loneliness and rejection all through their lives. Parents, if there is one thing above all others that our children need, it is love-strong, sensible, enduring love.

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Bhavan’s Children Section

Source: DimDima, Bhavan’s Children Magazine, May 2007

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Holy & Wise

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side - Rigveda, I-89-I

Kulapativani Creative Resistance

The growth of personality-both of individuals and groups-is the result of creative resistance. It must be inspired by an effort to realise an object which has a living existence in one's mind. Yearning is the driving force behind this effort, behind all growth. It has to be maintained whenever the process of Becoming has to be shortened and perfected. This indwelling of the Supreme comes by intensifying the samvega-yearning, which ceaselessly seeks self-surrender. Intellect, in this matter, is barren; emotion quivering with powerful effort of the imagination only can help one towards it. A man may be ceaselessly active; he may also accomplish results; but he may be lost all the same, for efforts may be unaccompanied by a persistent yearning to Become. When he loses the power of experiencing this samvega, his condition becomes appalling. He becomes a fossil; he is self-complacent, satisfied with himself; or a failure, a wreck. Life, for him, loses its vitality; becomes routine. He makes efforts to recover himself, but cannot. The old enthusiasms have no chance for him. His personality then fades away. Life for us is either a bewildering struggle or a soulless acquiescence. We have not even the faculty Arjuna had "of being filled with wonderment, his body thrilled with awe," for the humanity which drove him to fold his hands and bow his head before the grandeur which God vouchsafed him. "Indwelling" of the Supreme comes to him who ceaselessly meditates upon Him; who with high-strung emotion yearns to see Him, touch Him, love Him

The Test of Bhavan’s Right to Exist The test of Bhavan's right to exist is whether those who work for it in different spheres and in different places and those who study in its many institutions can develop a sense of mission as would enable them to translate the fundamental values, even in a small measure, into their individual life.

Creative vitality of a culture consists in this: whether the ‘best’ among those who belong to it, however small their number, find self-fulfilment by living up to the fundamental values of our ageless culture.

It must be realised that the history of the world is a story of men who had faith in themselves and in their mission. When an age does not produce men of such faith, its culture is on its way

to extinction. The real strength of the Bhavan, therefore, would lie not so much in the number of its buildings or institutions it conducts, nor in the volume of its assets and budgets, nor even in its growing publication, cultural and educational activities. It would lie in the character, humility, selflessness and dedicated work of its devoted workers, honorary and stipendiary. They alone can release the regenerative influences, bringing into play the invisible pressure which alone can transform human nature

"Go on doing good, thinking holy thoughts continuously, that is the only way to suppress bad impression. Character is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone can reform character ." - Swami Vivekananda

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names." - John F. Kennedy

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." - Henry Ford

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." - Mark Twain

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Voice of Kulapati - Bhavan’s Founder

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PresentsWorld Culture Concert

& Arts FestivalExperience tradtional folk dances & musicfrom around the world by Australian artists

18 Oct 2007 - Sydney Town Hall

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia www.worldculture.com.au

For Performances & Participationentries contactT: 02 9267 0953

E: info@bhavanaustralia.org

Tickets available from 15 July

www.bhavanaustralia.org

Participation of Public & Private Schools