Competition

I was jogging this morning and I noticed a person about half a km ahead. I could guess he was running a little slower than me and I felt good, I said to myself I will try catch up with him.

I had about a km before I needed to turn off. So I started running faster and faster. Every block, I was gaining on him just a little bit. After just a few minutes I was only about 100 feet behind him, so I really picked up the pace and pushed myself. I was determined to catch up with him.

Finally, I did it! I caught up and passed him. Inwardly I felt very good. "I beat him".

Of course, he didn't even know we were racing.

After I passed him, I realized I had been so focused on competing against him that I had missed my turn to my house,. I had missed the focus on my inner peace, I missed to see the beauty of greenery around, I missed to do my inner Namasarmarna, and in the needless hurry stumbled and slipped twice or thrice and might have hit the footpath and broken a limb.

It then dawned on me, isn't that what happens in life when we focus on competing with co-workers, neighbours, friends, family, trying to outdo them or trying to prove that we are more successful or more important and in the bargain we miss on our happiness within our own surroundings?

We spend our time and energy running after them and we miss out on our own paths to our given destination. The problem with unhealthy competition is that it's a never ending cycle.

There will always be somebody ahead of you, someone with a better job, nicer car, more money in the bank, more education, a prettier wife, a more handsome husband, better behaved children, better circumstances and better conditions etc.

But one important realisation is that *'You can be the best that you can be, when you are not competing with anyone.'*

Some people are insecure because they pay too much attention to what others are, where others are going, wearing and driving. *Take whatever you have*, the height, weight and personality. Accept it and realize, that you are blessed. Stay focused and live a healthy life. *There is no competition in Destiny. Each has his own.*

Comparison AND Competition  is the thief of JOY. It kills the Joy of Living your Own Life.

*Run your own Race that leads to Peace.*

Happy Steady Life.Be Happy.

Goddess Meenakshi

A British collector named Rose Peter was appointed as collector of Madurai during 1812 to 1828. 

Though a christian he gave more importance to Hinduism also and gave honor to Local practices. 

Peter acquitted himself as templeadministrator with sincerity and respected the religious sentiments of people.

Rous Peter respected and treated people of all faiths equally and this noble attitude earned him the popular nickname *‘Peter Pandian,’* 

Goddess Meenakshi Amman Temple was situated between Peter's residence and office.

 Everyday he used to go to office by his horse and while crossing the temple, he got down from the horse & removed  hat and shoes and crossed whole path on his foot. *Through this he expressed his reverence to Goddess!*

One day there was heavy downpour in the Madurai city &collector sleeping in his house, suddenly he was disturbed by the sound of anklets and left his bed to find from where the sound came. 

He saw a girl  wearing precious ornaments and calling him 

as *'Peter come away'.* 

And  he came out to follow her, 

Running in the rain.

Behind shocked to see his residence- building being destroyed within few minutes. 

He turned to look at the girl as she disappeared by running.

And

 * he saw that the girl ran without any shoes in her foot and with only anklets.* 

His devotion believed that *Goddess Meenakshi* saved his life. 

later, he wished to give a gift to Lord Meenakshi, 

& Consulted the priest of temple and  made *a pair of golden shoes for Goddess Meenakshi.

It is thus that this Paadhukam consisting of 

412 rubies, 

72 emeralds

 and 80 diamonds 

was made and donated to the temple. 

His name was sculpted as "peter" at the bottom of Shoes. 

Till this day this Paadhukam is known as *'Peter Paadhukam'.*

Managing team are safeguarding the shoes in the temple and every year at the time of 'chitra Festival',

Utsava Moorthy of Goddess Meenakshi Wears that Shoe. 

This is the Real Incidence happened for the Faith , Belief &  Respect given to the  God by the Collector.

A silent, but very strong message...

I crossed my street, they asked my caste.

I crossed my district,  they asked my religion.

I crossed my state, they asked my language.

I became Indian only after I crossed my country. ....

A silent, but very strong message....think about it...

Cockroach Theory

Sunder Pichai-Cockroach Theory -Don’t miss to read

A beautiful speech by Sundar Pichai - an IIT-MIT Alumnus and Global Head Google Chrome:

The cockroach theory for self development

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady.

She started screaming out of fear.

With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach.

Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.

The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.

In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt.

When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?

If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?

He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the ladies.

I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.

It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me.

More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.

Lessons learnt from the story:

I understood, I should not react in life.
I should always respond.

The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.

Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of.

A beautiful way to understand............LIFE.

Person who is HAPPY is not because Everything is RIGHT in his Life..

He is HAPPY because his Attitude towards Everything in his Life is Right..!!
*Wish you all a very Happy Day*

Advice to diabetics

*Rujuta Diwekar* is the highest paid *dietician* in India. She is the one who took care of *junior Ambani* to lose 108 kgs.
*Her advice to diabetics*:

1. *Eat fruits grown locally* ..... Banana, Grapes, Chikoo, Mangoes. All fruits have FRUCTOSE so it doesn't matter that you are eating a mango over an Apple. A Mango comes from Konkan and Apple from Kashmir. So Mango is more local to you.

*Eat all the above fruits in DIABETES as the FRUCTOSE* will eventually manage your SUGAR

  2. Choose Seed oils than Veggie oils. Like choose ground nut, mustard, coconut & til. *Don't choose chakachak packing oils*, like olive,  rice bran etc
*Go for kachchi ghani oils than refined oils*

  3. Rujuta spends max time in her talks talking about GHEE and its benefits.
*Eat GHEE daily*. How much GHEE we should eat depends on food. Few foods need more GHEE then eat more and vice versa. Eat ample *GHEE. It REDUCES cholesterol*.

  4. *Include COCONUT.* Either scraped coconut over food like poha, khandvi or chutney with idli and dosa
Coconut has *ZERO CHOLESTEROL* and it makes your WAIST SLIM

  5. *Don't eat oats, cereals for breakfast*. They are packaged food and we don't need them.  Also they are tasteless and boring and our day shouldn't start with boring stuff.
Breakfast should be poha, upma, idli, dosa, paratha

  6. Farhaan Akhtar's New ad of biscuits - fibre in every bite... Even ghar ka kachara has fibre, likewise oats have fibre. Don't chose them for fibre. *Instead of oats, eat poha, upma, idli, dosa*

  7. *No JUICES till you have teeth* in your mouth to chew veggies and fruits

  8. *SUGARCANE is the real DETOX* . Drink the juice fresh or eat the SUGARCANE

  9. For pcos, thyroid - do strength training and weight training and avoid all packaged food

10. *RICE - eat regular WHITE RICE. NO NEED of Brown rice.* Brown rice needs 5-6 whistles to cook and when it tires your pressure cooker, then why do you want to tire your tummy.

A white rice is hand pounded simple rice

*Rice* is not high is GI INDEX.  Rice has mediun GI index and by eating it with daal / dahi / kadhi we bring its GI index further down
If we take _ghee over this daal chawal then the GI INDEX is brought further down._
*B.* Rice has some rich minerals and you can eat it even three times a day

11. How much should we eat - *eat more if you are more hungry,* let your stomach be your guide and vice versa

12. We can *eat rice and chapati together* or only rice if you wish. It depends on your hunger. *Eat RICE in ALL THREE MEALS without any fear.*

13. Food shouldn't make you scared like eating rice and ghee. *Food should make you FEEL GOOD*

14. *NEVER* look at *CALORIES*. Look at *NUTRIENTS*

15. *No bread, biscuits, cakes, pizza, pasta*

16. Ask yourself is this the food my Nani & Dadi ate?  If yes then eat without fear.

17. Eat as per your season. *Eat pakoda, fafda, jalebi in monsoon*. Your hunger is as per season. Few seasons we need fried food so eat them.

18. When not to have chai - tea - don't drink tea as the first thing in morning or when you are hungry. Rest you can have it 2-3 times a day and with sugar

19. *NO GREEN tea please.* No green, yellow, purple, blue tea.

20. Eat *ALL* of your *TRADITIONAL* foods.

21. Strictly *NO* to packaged foods / drinks.

22. *Exercise / Walk*
to digest & stay healthy.

http://m.hindustantimes.com/health-and-fitness/nutritionist-rujuta-diwekar-on-why-you-shouldn-t-skip-rice-ghee-and-sugar/story-AYmmiMAULc1Kd7gnagcZGJ.html

Healthy, Stress Free Happy Morning!

GR8 YEAR 4 ME..

*Finally, just 2 days to the end of 2017..*

To My Creator..
*I say Thank You !*

To my true friends..
*I appreciate you all !*

To those who showed me love..
*I am grateful !*

To those who hurt me..
*I forgive and forget !*

To those I hurt..
*I am really sorry.. please forgive me !*

To those who challenged me..
*Lets do it again !*

To those I showed love to..
*I still love you and always will !*

To those who helped me..
*I am grateful and will reciprocate in due course !*

THANK YOU FOR MAKING 2017 A GR8 YEAR 4 ME..

*WISHING YOU A PROSPEROUS 2018 !*

'His Masters Voice' (HMV)

'His Masters Voice' (HMV) had once published a pamphlet giving the history of gramophone record.

Gramophone was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in the 19th century.

Edison, who had invented many other gadgets like electric light and the motion picture camera, had become a legend even in his own time.

When he invented the gramophone record, which could record human voice for posterity, he wanted to record the voice of an eminent scholar on his first piece.

For that he chose Prof. Max Muller of England (a German by ethnicity), another great personality of the 19th century.

He wrote to Max Muller saying,

“I want to meet you and record your voice. When should I come?”

Max Muller who had great respect for Edison asked him to come on a suitable time when most of the scholars of the Europe would be gathering in England.

Accordingly, Edison took a ship and went to England. He was introduced to the audience. All cheered Edison’s presence.

Later at the request of Edison, Max Muller came on the stage and spoke in front of the instrument.

Then Edison went back to his laboratory and by afternoon came back with a disc & played it on the gramophone.

The audience was thrilled to hear the voice of Max Muller from the instrument.

They were glad that voices of great persons like Max Muller could be stored for the benefit of posterity.

After several rounds of applause and congratulations to Thomas Edison, Max Muller came to the stage and addressed the scholars and asked them,

“You heard my original voice in the morning. Then you heard the same voice coming out from this instrument in the afternoon. Do you understand what I said in the morning or what you heard in the afternoon?”

The audience fell silent because they could not understand the language in which Max Muller had spoken.

It was ‘Greek and Latin’ to them as they say.

But had it been Greek or Latin, they would have definitely understood because they were from various parts of Europe.

It was in a language which the European scholars had never heard.

Max Muller then explained what he had spoken.

He said that the language he spoke was Sanskrit and it was the first sloka of Rig Veda, which says "Agni Meele Purohitam”

This was the first recorded public version on the gramophone plate.

अग्निमीळे पुरोहितं यज्ञस्य देवं रत्वीजम।
होतारं रत्नधातमम।।
(Rig Veda 1.001.01)

Why did Max Muller choose this?

Addressing the audience he said,

“Vedas are the oldest text of the human race. And “Agni Meele Purohitam” is the first verse of Rig Veda.

In the most primordial time, when the people did not know how even to cover their bodies and lived by hunting and housed in caves, Indians had attained high civilization and they gave the world universal philosophies in the form of the Vedas.”

When “Agni Meele Purohitam” was replayed, the entire audience stood up in silence as a mark of respect.

The verse means :

“Oh Agni, You who gleam in the darkness, to You we come day by day, with devotion and bearing homage. So be of easy access to us, Agni, as a father to his son, abide with us for our well being."

Proud to be part of a truly glorious ancient civilization ...