Digest Number 910

[Guest guest]

Dear Raghuram,

I welcome the change in our usual " routine" postings, although this too is very

long.

You have tried to voice the entire world's dichotomy in emotions.

This has been addressed in all our scriptures, just as you quote.

 

Without making the West as a scapegoat, we should look at the Indian ethos.

We have enough examples of "struggles for power", in both the Ramayana and the

Mahabharata, as in other Indian stories, even before the advent of Muslim

rulers. Luckily, we have enough stories to counterbalance these where the kings

were chosen by democratic means, even before the West discovered the word

Democracy.

 

Talking of life, the first examples of life as a struggle are as valid as the

second one of Nature's inherent beauty. If we do not preserve health, our body

will be acted upon by the bacteria and viruses. So, even while maintaining

health, the body is constantly countering the effects of the harmful " bugs".

That indeed is a constant struggle. It would be a wonderful and Divine

Providence, if one is born rich and healthy, has a philosophical bent of mind

and does not have to earn money, is able to do pure social welfare work and not

be interested in politics, and fight only if you must. That ideal is symbolized

in our Indian Gods and Goddesses, where they bestow boons, are eternally wealthy

and healthy and "kill" only the demons within us or as external sources of

trouble. But, as humans, it would be a rare finding. One person in several

hundred generations. The rest of us need to work, and raise families, and try to

maintain sanity through traffic of life or on the roads. The

Indian Philosophy of looking at the Divine in everything perhaps evolved out of

this need to not destroy that which is " not food" as per your definition.

Because food, whether vegetarian or animal product needs to be eaten for

survival. Therfore, the prayer to the food, prior to eating---Brahmarpanam

Brahmahavi...etc.....

Durgesh Mankikar,MD

 

 

 

ayurveda wrote:

Two Viewpoints of this Manifested World

 

Two Viewpoints of this Manifested World

 

First time when I heard that our sympathetic nervous system fights

with the enemies on our body I felt uncomfortable. I felt like they

are army. I was wondering why should you call the functioning of eyes

as seeing, ears hearing, tongue tasting, and stomach digesting, etc

why should we call sympathetic nervous system as fighting while we

use fighting as a bad thing in outside world. Parasympathetic nervous

system now fights with the sympathetic system.