IDEOLOGICAL BANKRUPTCY OF INDIAN POLITICIANS !
Few days ago,Prakash Karat,General Secretary of CPI[M],stated that Mulayam Singh Yadav,can lead proposed non congress and non BJP,third front [supposedly progressive one]. Gone are the days,when political parties,believed and followed their respective political ideologies.Today there is hardly any line of distinction or demarcation between supposedly political left,right or center.It is beyond any logic or comprehension to understand the criteria for being progressive or regressive, and secular or non secular [communal]. It all depends on political convenience and short term adjustments.Today,if Ram Manohar Lohia or Jaya Prakash Narayan would have been alive,they would have definitely committed suicide,after being witness to 'political deeds' of their respective 'disciples' Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lallu Yadav.
Mulayam Singh criticizes Sangh parivar for being communal and fundamentalist,but in practice and perception,he had no problem to be Defense Minister under NDA rule,led by BJP. He often sarcastically comments about Nehru dynastic legacy,but again in practice and perception,he has kept his dynastic legacy alive by arranging prestigious political placements for his kith and kin,including his brother,son and daughter in law.He claims to be torch bearer of socialist ideology,but in real practice,he out rightly follows sectarian cast based politics.He claims to be crusader against corruption,but his success story in establishing huge financial empire,from rags to riches since 1967 [when he was elected MLA first time from Jaswant nagar],is well known and his disproportionate assets are often part of political debates and speculations.

HINDU SCRIPTURES :FUNDAMENTAL BASIS FOR PREVAILING SUPERSTITIONS AND MYTHS ;
AGNI PURAN :-
Omens and Signs 

If one is about to go out of the house, one should take care of any omens that there might be. Such bad omens are cotton, dried grass, cowdung, coal, molasses, leather, hair, a lunatic, a chandala, a widow, a dead body, ashes, bones and a broken vessel. If one comes across these as one is about to leave, one should not start without pacifying the elements through prayers to Vishnu. The sound of musical instruments is not an auspicious sound at the beginning of a journey. If the means of transport by which one is travelling breaks down, that too, is a bad omen. If weapons break, perhaps you should postpone the journey. The same is the case if an umbrella held over one’s head happens to fall. If one hits one’s head against the lintel of the door as one is about too cross the threshold, prayers are again indicated. And never call back someone who has just left. That is a bad omen and bodes ill for the success of the journey.

There are good omens for a departure and if one sees these good omens, the journey is bound to be successful. Good omens are white flowers, full vessels, meat, distant noises, an old goat, a cow, a horse, an elephant, fire, gold, silver, a sword, an umbrella, fruit, clarified butter, curds, a conch shell, sugarcane, the sound of thunder, lightning and a dead body with no one crying over it.

Omens are important even if one is not going on a journey. A peacock crying on the left means that something is going to be stolen. If a donkey brays with a broken voice, that is a good omen and something good will happen. If a boar or a buffalo crosses over from the left to right, that is a good omen. But if they cross over from the right to the left, that is a bad omen. One’s desire will be attained if horses, tigers, lions, cats or donekys cross over from the right to the left. Jackals, moles, lizards, pigs and cuckoos are good omens on the left and monkeys are good omens on the right. If a jackal calls once, twice, thrice or four times, that is a good omen. It is a bad omen if a jackal calls five or six times. It is a very good omen if a jackal calls seven times.

If crows caw on the left of an army, the soldiers will not be able to win. If a crow can be seen near the door of a house, this means that there will soon be a guest. A crow looking at the sun with one signifies great danger. A crow covered with mud means the attainment of one’s desires. A dog barking inside the house leads to the death of the householders. A person whose left limbs are sniffed by a dog, will attain riches. If the right limbs are sniffed, there will be danger. A dog blocking one’s path signifies theft. A dog with a bone or a rope in its mouth means the loss of property. But it is a good omen to see a dog with meat in its mouth.

Cows mooing irregularly mean threats to the master of the house. If this happens at night, there will be a theft or death in the house. If this happens at night, there will be a theft or a death in the house. If the cows have horns that are wet or daubed with mud, that is a good sign for the householders. A cow that plays with cranes or doves is bound to die. A cow that licks its feet is also destined to die. If an elephant strikes its right foot with its left, that is a good sign. Prosperity comes if an elephant rubs its right tusk with its foot.

There is great danger if an umbrella falls just as one is about to leave on a trip. Journeys are to be avoided if the stars are not favourable.
[Translation from Sanskrit].

Islam Jannah And Jahannam

JANNAH (PARADISE) Jannah is a very large and very beautiful place. It has been made by Allah Ta'ala for Muslims. It's walls have been made of bricks of gold and silver and its cement is made of musk. The ground is made of saffron and ambergris (a wax-like substance). Instead of gravel, there will be diamonds and pearls. There are huge mansions made of pearls, diamonds and beautiful jewellery to house the residents of Jannah. There are 100 ranks in Jannah. Each rank is as large in breadth as the sky to the ground. It's doors are so wide that a fast horse would have to run seventy years to get from one side to another. There will be so many gifts in Jannah that you would not dream or think about. There will be various types of fruits, milk, honey, wine (sweet smelling, non-alcoholic) and other delicious types of food for the Jannatis. Jannatis will be given clothes so beautiful that nobody in this world will have ever had fate to wear. For assistance, thousands of "Ghilmaan" or clean, pure servants will be available and for company, beautiful "Hoors" (princesses) whose beauty will be so intense that if one Hoor actually looked towards this world, the people would become unconscious just by looking at her beauty and shining. No one will feel sleepy or fall sick in Jannah. No one will be scared or taste death in Jannah. There would not be any sort of trouble, difficulty, hardships or suffering but all kinds of comfort in Jannah. Every wish, request and desire will be fulfilled in Jannah and the greatest Ne'mat (blessing) in Jannah is to make Didaar (see) of Allah Ta'ala. JAHANNAM (HELL) This place has been made for the Kaafirs (infidels), Munafiqs (hypocrites) and the sinful and wicked people to live. The Kaafirs will be imprisoned here forever. This is also a place where there is complete darkness and strong black fire, which has no shine to it. It's fire will continue to get hotter. The fire of Hell is so strong that if a pinpoint (equal to a tip of a needle) of it was thrown into this world every single person would die from its heat. If one of the guards of Hell came to this world, people would all die just by seeing his frightening face. No one would survive. The Jahannamis will be given many different types of punishment. Big snakes and scorpions will bite them. People will have their heads crushed by big hammers. People will suffer from extreme hunger and thirst. They will be given a boiling hot oil type of water to drink and poisonous thorny fruits to eat. When they eat this fruit it will get stuck in the throat, and to wash it down they will ask for water and will be given boiling hot water. When drinking this water, all their insides will break and wash away. The thirst will be so extreme that when drinking this water the lips will crumble away. The Kaafirs will become so helpless from this punishment that they will wish for death, but death will not come. They will ask for each others advice and go to the guard of Hell, Sayyiduna Malik. They will ask him to speak to Allah Taala of their fate. Sayyiduna Malik will not reply to them for a thousand years. After a thousand years, he will reply, "What are you telling me for, tell Him Whom you have disobeyed". Then for a thousand years they will call Allah Ta'ala by His Merciful Names, and for a thousand years He will not reply. After a thousand years, Allah Taala will reply, "Stay away, remain in Hell, do not talk to Me". At this time, the Kaafirs will become completely hopeless of any kind of mercy and will start screaming and crying like the sound of donkeys. First they will cry with tears. Then, when the tears finish, they will cry with tears of blood. There will be big gaping gaps in their cheeks due to the effects of their crying. The amount of water and pus from crying will be so much that if boats were put into them, they would start sailing. The face of Jahannamis will be so bad that if a Jahannami were brought into this world, all the people would die by looking at his face and from the foul stench. Finally, for the Kaafirs, the situation will be such that for every infidel a coffin will be prepared for them to the length of their height, and then they will be put into this coffin. Then, it will be set on fire and it will be locked with a padlock of fire. It will be then be put inside a larger coffin also made of fire and the gap between will be set on fire. A padlock with chains made of fire will also be put around it. It will then be put into another coffin and then also set on fire and again will be locked with a lock of fire. All this will be then put into a bonfire. Then all the infidels will think that they will never be able to withstand any other heat and that this punishment is above all punishment. There will always be punishment for them and it will never end. After all the Jannatis enter Jannah, only the Jahannamis will be left in Jahannam forever. At that time, death would be placed in between Jannah and Jahannam in the form of a ram. Then a voice will call out to the Jannatis. They would peep with fear thinking that they would be taken out of Jannah. Then, the voice will call out to the Jahannamis. They would be happy while peeping thinking that they would be taken out from Jahannam. Then the voice would ask them if they recognise it (the ram). All will say, "Yes, this is death." Then the ram will be slaughtered. The voice will say, "O Jannatis, you will live forever and will not die". Then it would say, "O Jahannamis, you will live forever and will not die". From this, the Jannatis will be ever happy and the Jahannamis will be very sad.

MYTHOLOGICAL MYTHS ABOUT EARTHQUAKES !
HINDUISM :-
According to a Hindu myth, the earth is held by four elephants who in turn stand on the back of a turtle. This turtle is further balanced on the head of a cobra. During the entire balancing act, if any one of the animals, move, understandably the earth would shake, leading to earthquakes! This myth has different versions, with the number of elephants varying, and sometimes the order of animals varying, but the logic is the same, and i.e. dis-balance.
ISLAM :-
"Allah Most High hath created veins in the earth and hath given them into the hands of angles.Wherever the burden of sins increases and Allah Most High wants to scourge the people there,he orders the angles and the angel of that place pulls the vein [ie,the vein of that region] and the earth trembles and there occurs the earthquake [Verily,Allah knoweth best]".
[Fatawa-i-Rahimiyyah,volume 3,pp 187-88].

GOD APPROVES OF NATURAL DISASTER;
GOD MORALITY APPROVES OF NATURAL DEATH AND SUFFERING !
In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God is depicted as looking over the expanse of creation on the sixth day and declaring that all he had made was "very good." This means that God declared that everything was very good, not just some of it. That includes parasites, predators and predation, natural disasters, and all sorts of nasty things that cause death and suffering.

These nasty, terrible things aren't merely unfortunate side effects of what is good; no, they are themselves just as good as everything else. What kind of morality or justice is that?

Genesis 1:31: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
So, what does this passage tell us? First, we already know that God is directly and personally responsible for everything in existence. This is something frequently cited by believers as a reason for worshipping their god, after all — absolutely nothing that exists could exist if it weren't willed to be so by God.

Second, the text quoted above states that God "saw every thing that he had made," which means that God is also fully aware of everything that has been created. Thus there was nothing in existence and nothing going on that God didn't know about and didn't understand. This excludes the possibility of something coming into existence by accident or something popping up unexpectedly. It doesn't require that God be omniscient, though that quality is typically attributed to God by believers.

Third, it tells us that God evaluated all that he made and decided that it was all "very good." It's not merely acceptable or the best that could be achieved under the circumstances, but "very good." This is an evaluation that applies to every thing in existence equally. There's no equivocation and no hint that some features are unfortunate but necessary. Thus it's not just flowers and rainbows that are good, but also parasites, predators, and natural disasters.



Appreciating the Horror of Natural Disasters

It's all well and good to talk about natural disasters in the abstract, but it's important to stop and take a closer look at just how horrible natural disasters can be. Remember, they are causing the deaths and suffering of real people — millions upon millions of real people — as well as untold numbers of animals.

The worst natural disaster ever, and certainly of the 20th century, is thought to be the flooding of central China over the summer of 1931. First the Yellow River, then the Yangtze and Huai rivers flooded their banks. At least one million people are believed to have died from drowning alone, with up to three million more dying from disease, famine, and other problems produced by the flooding.

This wasn't the only time flooding from the Yellow River caused devastation in China. In 1887, between one and two million dies when it flooded its banks. China in general has had more than its share of disasters, with a 1556 earthquake in Shaanxi killing over 800,000, a 1976 earthquake in Tangshan killing around 500,000, and a 1920 earthquake in Haiyuan killing over 200,000.

All of this death and destruction occurred in just one region of the planet over the past five hundred years. If we expand our search to just include the rest of Asia, or even just southern Asia, we'll find more disasters, each killing hundreds of thousands of people. As in with the natural disasters in China, these are products of the natural world working as it always has.

Granted, human action on the environment can make these disasters worse, but even if we were to assume the worst of human contributions and exclude that portion, these events would still end up killing tens and hundreds of thousands at a time. What's more, there are natural disasters which we know are coming and which we know will cause massive devastation without our help.

The list is long, and leaving aside threats from space one of the worst may be massive caldera like the one in the Yellowstone National Park in the United States. It has blown before and, sooner or later, it will blow again. Most of North America will be covered in at least some ash. The Midwest won't be able to grow anything for a decade and the climate of the planet will shift for years at the very least.

It won't be an extinction-level event, but the death and devastation will be unprecedented and it won't be our fault in any way. No, it will simply be the planet operating normally — or, according to Genesis, operating as it is designed to.



Apologizing for Natural Disasters

Even the most ardent apologist won't try to argue, though, that disasters like these are "good," much less "very good." At most it's argued that such disasters are unavoidable necessities — that natural disasters is somehow needed for all the genuinely good things in existence. Sometimes it might be argued that the disasters are punishment for wicked behavior, even though the ones being "punished" include many who are innocent.

I think that the morality and justice of God can reasonably be judged by looking at the sorts of things which God deems moral and just. According to God, natural disasters that kill millions are all "very good." What does this say about the morality and justice of God? Just how moral is it to consign so many creatures to death and suffering due to disasters like floods, earthquakes, and volcano's?



Is It Moral to Create Parasites, Predators, and Death

What are you feelings on the issue? Do you agree that calling natural disasters "very good" is a sign of immorality and injustice, or is there some way to read and interpret this biblical passage that makes God look more moral? If so, your solution cannot add anything new that's not already in the biblical text and cannot leave out any details that the Bible provides.

1. Did Ram eat the fruit tasted by Shabri ?
   One is prompted to ask the question why Shudras are treated with contempt if, as claimed earlier, Ram ate the fruit offered by Shabri (a Shudra woman)?
   We want to know in which of the 'Ramayans' the above episode occurs? Surely, there is no mention about Ram's eating the defiled fruit in 'Anand Ramayan', 'Manjul Ramayan' or 'Tulsi Ramayan'. The mention of Shabri's low origin does occur in 'Adhyatm Ramayan'. But it does not say anything about Ram's eating the plum she offered, after tasting it herself first.
   In 'Ramacharit Manas,' the following reference to Shabri occurs in 'Aranya Kand'. When Ram steps into Shabri's hut, she is reminded of Sage Matanga's prediction that Ram would one day visit her hut. Seeing the two brothers (one is dark and the other is fair) with lotus-like eyes, long arms, matted hair and adorned with garlands, Shabri fell at their feet Overwhelmed with love and devotion, she could not utter a word. Instead she prostrated at their feet again and again. Then after washing their feet and offering them honourable seats, she brought lot of fruits and roots for the distinguished guests.
   It becomes clear from this that the question of Ram's taking fruit tasted by a Shudra woman does not arise. Moreover, the Shastras do not put any restrictions on accepting fruits and roots etc. from low caste people. Therefore, by accepting the fruit offered by Shabri, Ram neither antagonised the Shastras nor did he do anything radical.

This being the fact, there are people who claim that in Hindu scriptures, Shudras are treated with equality and love. But apparently those who claim thus have either not read the scriptures properly, or want to keep the Shudras in eternal subjugation, or dare not raise a voice against the inhuman attitude of the Shastras, or want to interpret this discriminating attitude as friendly.

VIEW POINT :MEDICAL HYPOTHESIS ;
WHY AND HOW REVELATIONS HAVE 'HAPPENED' ON HIGH MOUNTAINS ?
The fundamental revelations to the founders of the three monotheistic religions, among many other revelation experiences, had occurred on a mountain. These three revelation experiences share many phenomenological components like feeling and hearing a presence, seeing a figure, seeing lights, and feeling of fear. In addition, similar experiences have been reported by non-mystic contemporary mountaineers. The similarities between these revelations on mountains and their appearance in contemporary mountaineers suggest that exposure to altitude might affect functional and neural mechanisms, thus facilitating the experience of a revelation. Different functions relying on brain areas such as the temporo-parietal junction and the prefrontal cortex have been suggested to be altered in altitude. Moreover, acute and chronic hypoxia significantly affect the temporo-parietal junction and the prefrontal cortex and both areas have also been linked to altered own body perceptions and mystical experiences. Prolonged stay at high altitudes, especially in social deprivation, may also lead to prefrontal lobe dysfunctions such as low resistance to stress and loss of inhibition. Based on these phenomenological, functional, and neural findings we suggest that exposure to altitudes might contribute to the induction of revelation experiences and might further our understanding of the mountain metaphor in religion.

Mystical and religious experiences are important not only to the mystic himself, but also to many followers, as it was indeed with respect to the leaders of the three monotheistic religions. Yet, concerning its subjective character, mystical experiences are almost never accessible to the scholars interested in examining them. The tools of cognitive neuroscience make it possible to approach religious and mystical experiences not only by the semantical analysis of texts, but also by approaching similar experiences in healthy subjects during prolonged stays at high altitude and/or in cognitive paradigms. Cognitive neurosciences, in turn, might profit from the research of mysticism in their endeavor to further our understanding of mechanisms of corporeal awareness and self consciousness.