Nomophobia

Nomophobia

While Brahma was seeing into the distant future, He murmured: This  NOMOPHOBIA might be the nemesis of man.

These murmurs were heard across the universe, and Indra was disturbed,  He hastened to Brahma and craved permission to ask a question.  Permission was granted.

Indra: Sire, you murmured about Nomophobia. This word is so mysterious  and incomprehensible.

Spake Brahma: Listen, O Indra. This word is made up of NO, MO(bile)  and phobia. This is a new manifestation of FEAR, which will be  apparent in in the 53rd century after the start of Kali yuga, also  then known as 21st century AD.

Indra: Sire, why is this dreadful entity being allowed?

Brahma: Dear son, I am the Originator of knowledge. I permitted only  the invention of mobile phones. A noble device, if used in righteous  way. But man has base tendencies too. He can pervert any noble object.  He will use mobile phones in a licentious ways, and thus allow it to  dominate himself.

Indra: How is this phobia to be identified, Sire?? Man must be  imparted this profound knowledge too, in my humble opinion.

Brahma: That will be so, Indra. Man has a right to knowledge.  It is no sin to acquire it. In fact, it would be a grave injustice  if this knowledge is withheld. But, son, it is for man to utilize that  knowledge.

Indra: Sire, enlighten me.

Brahma: It's the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. This fear  will be about running out of battery, credit, losing one's handset,  being in places out of network coverage etc. Those suffering from fear  of being in closed places like dungeons will suffer even more, as they  may be out of the reach of the network coverage. And those dungeons,  called basements, will be for righteous pursuits.

Indra: Sire, if I might ask. How wide spread will this phobia be??

Brahma: In the said century, WWW would be widespread. A godling called  GOOGLE will help those men who are willing to be informed. About 53%  of users will be affected by not having network coverage. Men will  suffer more than women, because it is not the law that women must  suffer more than men. About 48% of females and 58% of males will have  manifested feelings of anxiety. Many would never switch off their  mobile phones, even while they are sleeping.

O Indra, can you foresee the ill effects of the this phobia.

Indra: In my humble opinion, Sire, there will be wasteful expenditure  of energy and resources. Mobile sets will run down fast, batteries  will pack up quickly. Sire, only those artisans who make them will  benefit by wordly riches. In an earlier audience, Sire, you had  brought out the ill effects of such matters on the environments. Sire,  this phobia is going to produce lots of new mess in the already messed  up Kaliyuga. Sire, is their any remedy?? Sire, you must have the  solution too, after all you not omniscient for nothing.

Brahma: I am pleased, O Indra, that you now have understood the perils  of this fear. As for remedies, recall that the timeless message of  Bhagavad Gita.

This fear is generated because of obsessive infatuation of worldly  lusts. In this case, the lust will manifest as excessive desire to  talk and chat. Mankind dread this phobia more than any other fear. Lusts  enslave the senses of man. Man instead of mastering the senses and  employing them for righteous pursuits, falls slave to them. Thus his  freedom of will is weakened more and more. Those humans, who are  enlightened about the righteous use of mobile phones and perils of  unrighteous use thereof will not suffer. There will be few of them,  but then those few are who uphold the order of the world from  crumbling.

Go forth, Indra, and impart this knowledge to humans. Don't be  disheartened that only a few would absorb this sacred and profound teaching.

Thus ends the dialog between Indra and Brahma about Nomophobia, and is  part of the Mobile Phone Upanishad, and penned down and published by  Veda Vyasa.

PS: Mobile phone was invented, WWW was invented and Googleji, the  presiding deity of search engines, has manifested itself. Indra  verified these figures of affliction with the help of lord Google.

 

Horrors of the Goa Inquisition

Horrors of the Goa Inquisition

Posted March 18, 2005
Christian historian, Dr. T. R. de Souza

At least from 1540 onwards, and in the island of Goa before that year, all the Hindu idols had been annihilated or had disappeared, all the temples had been destroyed and their sites and building material was in most cases utilized to erect new Christian Churches and chapels. Various viceregal and Church council decrees banished the Hindu priests from the Portuguese territories; the public practices of Hindu rites including marriage rites, were banned; the state took upon itself the task of bringing up Hindu orphan children; the Hindus were denied certain employments, while the Christians were preferred; it was ensured that the Hindus would not harass those who became Christians, and on the contrary, the Hindus were obliged to assemble periodically in Churches to listen to preaching or to the refutation of their religion."

"A particularly grave abuse was practiced in Goa in the form of 'mass baptism' and what went before it. The practice was begun by the Jesuits and was alter initiated by the Franciscans also. The Jesuits staged an annual mass baptism on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), and in order to secure as many neophytes as possible, a few days before the ceremony the Jesuits would go through the streets of the Hindu quarter in pairs, accompanied by their Negro slaves, whom they would urge to seize the Hindus. When the blacks caught up a fugitive, they would smear his lips with a piece of beef, making him an 'untouchable' among his people. Conversion to Christianity was then his only option."

The Goan inquisition is regarded by all contemporary portrayals as the most violent inquisition ever executed by the Portuguese Catholic Church. It lasted from 1560 to 1812. The inquisition was set as a tribunal, headed by a judge, sent to Goa from Portugal and was assisted by two judicial henchmen. The judge was answerable to no one except to Lisbon and handed down punishments as he saw fit. The Inquisition Laws filled 230 pages and the palace where the Inquisition was conducted was known as the Big House and the Inquisition proceedings were always conducted behind closed shutters and closed doors. The screams of agony of the culprits (men, women, and children) could be heard in the streets, in the stillness of the night, as they were brutally interrogated, flogged, and slowly dismembered in front of their relatives. Eyelids were sliced off and extremities were amputated carefully, a person could remain conscious even though the only thing that remained was his torso and a head.

Diago de Boarda, a priest and his advisor Vicar General, Miguel Vazz had made a 41 point plan for torturing Hindus. Under this plan Viceroy Antano de Noronha issued in 1566, an order applicable to the entire area under Portuguese rule :
"I hereby order that in any area owned by my master, the king, nobody should construct a Hindu temple and such temples already constructed should not be repaired without my permission. If this order is transgressed, such temples shall be, destroyed and the goods in them shall be used to meet expenses of holy deeds, as punishment of such transgression."

In 1567 the campaign of destroying temples in Bardez met with success. At the end of it 300 Hindu temples were destroyed. Enacting laws, prohibition was laid from December 4, 1567 on rituals of Hindu marriages, sacred thread wearing and cremation. All the persons above 15 years of age were compelled to listen to Christian preaching, failing which they were punished.

A religious fatva was issued on the basis of the findings of Goa Inquiry Commission. It stated,"...Hereby we declare the decision that the conventions mentioned in the preamble of the fatva as stated below are permanently declared as useless, and therefore prohibited".

Prohibitions Regarding Marriages

• The instruments for Hindu songs shall not be played.
• While giving dowry the relatives of the bride and groom must not be invited.
• At the time of marriage, betel leaf packages (pan) must not be distributed either publicly or in private to the persons present.
• Flowers, or fried puris, betel nuts and leaves must not be sent to the heads of the houses of the bride or groom.
  Gotraj ceremony of family God must not be performed.
• On the day prior to a wedding, rice must not be husked, spices must not be pounded, grains must not be ground and other recipes for marriage feast must not be cooked.
• Pandals and festoons must not be used.
• Pithi should not be applied.
• The bride must not be accorded ceremonial welcome. The bride and groom must not  be made to sit under pandal to convey blessings and best wishes to them.
  
  Prohibitions Regarding Fasts, Post-death Rituals
  
  -The poor must not be fed or ceremonial meals must not be served for the peace of the souls of the dead.
  -There should be no fasting on ekadashi day.
  -Fasting can be done according to the Christian principles.
  -No rituals should be performed on the twelfth day after death, on moonless and full moon dates.
  -No fasting should be done during lunar eclipse.
  
  Conventions
  
  -Hindu men should not wear dhoti either in public or in their houses. Women should not wear cholis .
  -They should not plant Tulsi in their houses, compounds, gardens or any other place.
  
  -Following the law of 1567, orphans were kidnapped for converting them to Christianity.
  
  On September 22, 1570 an order was issued that :
  -The Hindus embracing Christianity will be exempted from land taxes for a period of 15 years.
  -Nobody shall bear Hindu names or surnames.
  
  In 1583 Hindu temples at Esolna and Kankolim were destroyed through army action.
  "The fathers of the Church forbade the Hindus under terrible penalties the use of their own sacred books, and prevented them from all exercise of their religion. They destroyed their temples, and so harassed and interfered with the people that they abandoned the city in large numbers, refusing to remain any longer in a place where they had no liberty, and were liable to imprisonment, torture and death if they worshipped after their own fashion the gods of their fathers." wrote Sasetti, who was in India from 1578 to 1588.
  An order was issued in June 1684 eliminating Konkani language and making it compulsory to speak Portuguese language. The law provided for dealing toughly with anyone using the local language. Following that law all the symbols of non-Christian sects were destroyed and the books written in local languages were burnt.
  
  The Archbishop living on the banks of the Ethora had said during one of his lecture series, "The post of Inquiry Commission in Goa is regarded as holy." The women who opposed the assistants of the commission were put behind the bars and were used by them to satisfy their animal instincts. Then they were burnt alive as opponents of the established tenets of the Catholic church.
  The victims of such inhuman laws of the Inquiry Commission included a French traveller named Delone. He was an eye witness to the atrocities, cruelty and reign of terror unleashed by priests. He published a book in 1687 describing the lot of helpless victims. While he was in jail he had heard the cries of tortured people beaten with instruments having sharp teeth. All these details are noted in Delone's book.
  
  So harsh and notorious was the inquisition in Goa, that word of its brutality and horrors reached Lisbon but nothing was done to stop this notoriety and escalating barbarity and it continued for two hundred more years. No body knows the exact number of Goans subjected to these diabolical tortures, but perhaps it runs into hundreds of thousands, may be even more. The abominations of inquisitions continued until a brief respite was given in 1774 but four years later, the inquisition was introduced again and it continued un-interruptedly until 1812. At that point in time, in the year of 1812, the British put pressure on the Portuguese to put an end to the terror of Inquisition and the presence of British troops in Goa enforced the British desire. Also the Portuguese power at this time was declining and they could not fight the British. The palace of the Grand Inquisitor, the Big House, was demolished and no trace of it remains today, which might remind someone of inquisitions and the
  horrors inside this Big House that their great saint Francis Xavier had commenced.
  
  Dr. Trasta Breganka Kunha, a Catholic citizen of Goa writes, "Inspite of all the mutilations and concealment of history, it remains an undoubted fact that religious conversion of Goans is due to methods of force adopted by the Portuguese to establish their rule. As a result of this violence the character of our people was destroyed. The propagation of Christian sect in Goa came about not by religious preaching but through the methods of violence and pressure. If any evidence is needed for this fact, we can obtain it through law books, orders and reports of the local rulers of that time and also from the most dependable documents of the Christian sect

http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?id=1111142225&type=articles

BBC's Apartheid against India

BBC's Apartheid against India

When Jihadi's striked London, so called giant in world  media  BBC  aptly put it as Terrorist attack  but when the  same  Jihadi's  hit Mumbai  the  doublestandards  in reporting were quite  visible  - The Terrorist nomenclature got  quickly  changed  to GUNMEN!

Gunman!! Like a lone gunman gone bereserk in a college campus?

Apartheid? Double standards? Or double standards powered by apartheid?

Loveable like Krishna- My Lali

Loveable like Krishna- My Lali

Krishna, specially Baby Krishna is our most leveable and huggable divine figure. His acts are described in detail in Shri Bhagvatam. It tells how the Baby caught his foot and licked the big toe.

Technorati Tags: Krishna,Lali,Bhagvatam

When a few months old, babies tend to pull a foot and suck the big toe. Almost all babies do it. My g'daughter too does it, only it has been hard to capture the scene. She would do it when camera is nowhere near her. If you bring the camera, then she would leave the foot and smile and grin at me.

But this once I was lucky and captured her in the act.

God’s cool: Here’s how we see Her

God’s cool: Here’s how we see Her

10-City TOI-TNS Poll Finds Religion Thriving In India

TIMES INSIGHT GROUP

   India, they say, is a land of god-fearing people. That’s only partially true. An exclusive opinion poll conducted for The Times of India by TNS, a leading market research agency, shows that while threefourths of Indians are strong believers, God is perceived by many more as a source of energy rather than someone to be feared.
   Asked to respond to the statement, ‘I think I fear God’, only 41% said they completely agreed and another 33% said they mostly agreed. On the other hand, in response to the statement that ‘God is a source of energy in my life’, 56% completely agreed and a further 32% mostly agreed.
   The survey, done across 10 cities with 1,007 respondents, shows Indians are not convinced that God is a micromanager, that is, someone who controls our actions on a day to day basis. Rather, S/He is seen as the Creator — 91% feel God controls macro affairs like the rotation of the earth or the cycle of life and death. A significant 46% said S/He was an observer, not a controller.
   Interestingly, the single largest chunk, 43%, said religion was a private affair compared to only 29% who saw it as a social affair and 28% who said it was both private and social. This might explain why a high 54% said they were against the broadcast of prayers, hymns or bhajans over loudspeakers.
   In a finding that confirms anecdotal evidence, God is also seen as cool today. The number of people who said they are more religious now than they used to be was considerably larger than those who felt they had become less religious. The largest chunk, about 42%, said they were just as religious as in the past.
   God is seen as responsive. A good 54% said God answers all prayers and another 41% said some prayers are answered. S/He is also seen by most believers as someone who loves both believers as well as non-believers.
   Interestingly, while most people do not see God as having a specifically male or female form, views on how old God would be are more crystallised, although very evenly divided between those who think God is young and those whose conception is of a middle-aged or old Almighty.
   For those who think belief in divine — and not just holy — texts is essentially confined to semitic faiths, here’s a revealing figure: 49% think the religious texts have been written either by God or by messengers of God, that is those who communicated directly with the Almighty.

---

Summaries:

 

Do you believe God answers prayers?

Yes , all prayers     54%

Yes, some prayers  41%

No                             5%

***

In what can you feel presence of God??

All human beings                51%

Children                              55%

Parents                                54%

Nature                                 51%

Idols                                    34%

Animals                               26%

Holy places                         54%

Gurus                                   23%

***

Do you think....

God is always unjust             18%

Sometimes unjust                   25%

Never unjust                          54%

****

What is singlemost important role of God??

 

Creator of universe                 46%

Source of life                          10%

Supreme manager                    20%

Observer                                  7%

Judge and jury                           8%

Conscience keeper                    6%

 

Note: This set of answers is reflective Hindu thinking, who like to exercise their free will and reason.

***

Do you God knows everything you do?

 

Yes                  80%

No                   17%

****

It is not necessary to be a believer to be a good person

Agree              65%

Disagree         35%

 

Note: These responses are reflective of Hindu thinking, where deeds are held above faith.

***

Disbelief? Just call it self-belief

Whom do you lean on in times of crisis?

FAMILY & FRIENDS             23

SPIRITUAL GURU                               2

MYSELF                                   59

OTHERS/CAN’T SAY                         16

Note: Gurus and sermonisers and preachers are the distant last in the scema. Another Survey had brought out that Indian youths are the happiest.  A strong emphasise on self and family support is the key.

***

Do you have a spiritual Guru??

Yes               45%

No                53%

***

Who do you think wrote religious texts??

God                                     18%

Messengers of God             31%

Wise men                            34%

Ordinary humans beings     10%

Note: reflects the rational and pragmatic approch of a Hindu. Takes nothing on face value or say so of siomeone.

***

What practices do you follow??

Visit places of worship              90%

Pilgrimage                                   62%

Religious music, books etc.        52%

Observe fasts                              52%

Pray at home                               83%

:Note : temples are important but not the sole of worship. Home is the best place.

Take god's name                        56%

***

Do you believe in reincarnation??

Yes     62%

No      34%

**

Does going to heaven depend on your behaviour??

Yes                                              37%

Only for believers                       31%

No, fate is pre-determined           8%

There is only one afterlife           3%

There is no afterlife                    8%

****

If God had a human form, would God be...


MALE           23

FEMALE      11

NEITHER    10

BOTH         49

CAN’T SAY 7

***

Seems that religion is upbeat in India.

 

LINK

BibleGod vs Krishna

BibleGod  vs Krishna

 

Put Jehovah and Krishna parallel with each other. The former, "from the clouds and darkness of Sinai," said to the Jews:

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me. . . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them; for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."

 

 

Contrast this with the words of Krishna [Bhagwad Gita Ch 9] "I am the same to all mankind. They who honestly serve other gods, involuntarily worship me. I am he who partaketh of all worship, and I am the reward of all worshippers."

del.icio.us Tags: Krishna,Jesus,bible,biblegod

Compare these passages. The first, a dungeon where crawl the things begot of jealous slime; the other, great as the domed firmament inlaid with suns. . . .

The "first" is the god who haunted Calvin's fancy, when he added to his doctrine of predestination that of Hell being paved with the skulls of unbaptized infants. The beliefs and dogmas of church are far more blasphemous in the ideas they imply than those of the benighted Heathen. 

 

The second is a God whose refuge is available to all, including christians only if they honestly serve their Jesus.

 

The first is ready to punish many generations for the perceived sins of one generation, the other has no such threats.

 

The first will reward those who dash the babies on the rocks, the other SHALL protect the babies even in the womb, and SHALL punish those who kill the babies, born or unborn.

13th April 1919

 

Udham Singh had told the court at his trial: "I did it because I had a grudge against him. He deserved it. He was the real culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed (sic) him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to wreak vengeance. I am happy that I have done the job. I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country. I have seen my people starving in India under the British rule. I have protested against this, it was my duty. What a greater honor could be bestowed on me than death for the sake of my motherland "

Singh was hanged for the murder on July 31, 1940. Jawahar Lal Nehru applauded Udham Singh in 1952 with the following statement which had appeared in the daily Partap: "I salute Shaheed-i-Azam Udham Singh with reverence who had kissed the noose so that we may be free".

O'Dwyer's killing marked the end of a chain of events that began, in a sense, at 4:30 p.m. on April 13, 1919, when Brigadier General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed gathering in Jallianwala Bagh.

********

On April 13, 1919, a multitude of Punjabis gathered in Amritsar's Jallianwala Bagh as part of the Sikh Festival "Baisakhi fair" and to protest at these extraordinary measures. The throng, penned in a narrow space smaller than Trafalgar Square, had been peacefully listening to the testimony of victims when Dyer appeared at the head of a contingent of British troops. Giving no word of warning, he ordered 50 soldiers to fire into the gathering, and for 10 to 15 minutes 1,650 rounds of ammunition were unloaded into the screaming, terrified crowd, some of whom were trampled by those desperately trying to escape.

Here is what Dwyer had to say.

''I think it quite possible that I could have dispersed the crowd without firing but they would have come back again and laughed, and I would have made, what I consider, a fool of myself.'' ......Dyer's response to the Hunter Commission Enquiry

General Dyer said he would have used his machine guns if he could have got them into the enclosure, but these were mounted on armoured cars. He said he did not stop firing when the crowd began to disperse because he thought it was his duty to keep firing until the crowd dispersed, and that a little firing would do no good.

He confessed he did not take any steps to attend to the wounded after the firing. ''Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there,'' came his pathetic response.

AND the one and only CHURCHILL could have said it.

"The Indians were 'packed together so that one bullet would drive through three or four bodies'; the people 'ran madly this way and the other. When fire was directed upon the centre, they ran to the sides. The fire was then directed to the sides. Many threw themselves down on the ground, and the fire was then directed on the ground. This was continued for eight or ten minutes, and it stopped only when the ammunition had reached the point of exhaustion".....Winston Churchill

Can you detect a word of remorse or condemnation ???

MISSIONERIES

The atrocity was ardently backed by the missionaries - the massacre at Jallianwala Bag. Indeed, Ms Marcella Sherwood, speaking on behalf of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society and Rev Canon Guildford, speaking on behalf of the Church Missionary Society, lauded Gen Dyer's brutality,saying it was "justified by its results".

The Christian Missionary Review, described Gen Dyer as a "brave man". Yeah, a man who showed his "bravery" against unarmed, peaceful men, women and children who had assembled to observe a holi day.

This incredibly, made him a martyr to millions of Englishmen. Senior British officers applauded his suppression of 'another Indian Mutiny.' The House of Lords passed a measure commending him. The Conservatives presented him with a jeweled sword inscribed "Saviour of the Punjab." (Saviour of Punjab from Punjabis?)

*******

THE REVENGE

A young Sikh teenager named Udham Singh saw the happenings with his own eyes. He vowed to avenge the Amritsar massacre.

On 13 March 1940 at 4.30 p.m. in the Caxton Hall, London, where a meeting of the East India Association was being held in conjunction with the Royal Central Asian Society, Udham Singh fired five to six shots from his pistol at Sir Michael O'Dwyer, who was governor of the Punjab when the Amritsar Massacre had taken place, to avenge the massacre. He actually wanted to have revenge on O'Dyer, but killed O'Dwyer. But both were the culprits of that black day.

On the 31st July, 1940, Udham Singh was hanged at Pentonville jail, London

"He was the real culprit. He deserved it. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I [had to] crush him." Udham Singh, telling the trial court why he killed Michael O'Dwyer.

"The impossible men of India shall rise and liberate their Motherland" -- Mahatma Gandhi, after the Amritsar Massacre.

The prophecy was fulfilled within a generation's time.

The effects were profound indeed. Till then the Congress Party was demanding Home Rule. But this incident steeled it into demanding full independence. The people were galvanized across the nation, and the British had a tough time. During WWII, the things reached a head and large scale revolts by the Indian soldiers sealed the fate of the empire.