How you go to heaven !!!

Hi All, today I have a various serious issue on discussion here. I am going to talk about the religion and rituals followed in India after the cremation ceremony. I know it’s a weird topic, but please bear with me. I had never thought that a crow has so much value in our life. I guess you also will have your respect increased for crow after reading this . :-)

"O departed one! Be united in the highest heaven with the pitrs and with Yama. Leaving here all your sins, go back to your home. Being endowed with bright luster be united with a new body" is the mantra when the body is consumed to flames.

Ashouchia or a period of un-cleanliness is followed for ten days. An oil lamp is burned continuously and cooked rice is offered on all days. It was believed that this ritual helped the departed to go to his/her new home smoothly.

Now, the soul has to be sent to the Heaven. The process of doing so is known as kriya. It is believed that this process starts on the 9^th day after the actual death (nine days symbolizing the nine months of gestation before human birth). The process starts by worshipping of the sun facing to the east. One should ask to free the spirit from all earthly bonding.

It is believed in Hinduism, that the departed soul travels through the pretaloka (the world of ghosts and spirits) to the pitraloka (the heaven or the world of ancestors). On the tenth day the performer makes a sankalpa (holy resolve) and offered pinda (rice-ball).

The Role of Crow:

It is interesting that the crow, much despised bird, becomes very important on the occasion of Pindadana. Crow is supposed to be messenger of Yama, the Lord of Death. Hence, there is a prayer. Master of the ceremony recites, "O Crow! Thou art the messenger of Yama. Please accept this offering (food-pinda) and satisfy the hunger of the departed Spirit that has proceeded to the Abode of Yama."

On the tenth day when the pinda is offered to manes, all wait eagerly for the temporarily holy crow to pounce and partake food. Delay on the part of the crow suggests that the deceased had some unfulfilled wish which was compelling. Often the priest advises the performer to declare there and then to fulfill the last wish of the departed soul. All heave a sigh of relief, when the crow descends or condescends to peck at the food!.

Pindadana relieves a preta (deceased) from the agony of hunger and thirst. Four pindas are prepared. One for the deceased and the three for his paternal ancestors. This rite known as sapindikarana completed the Antyeshti Ceremony.

Lastly, immersion of asthi or remnants of the bones of remains in sacred rivers ensured that a man returned finally to elements from which he took his mortal form. It is believed that when a person dies, the soul assumes three of the five elements (viz., fire, wind and ether), that rise from the dead body while the two more (earth and water) remain below. With the aid of pindas offered daily during the ten days after cremation, the soul assumes yet another form and after the twelfth day performance the soul finally sheds that delicate form as well, and assumes a third body according to the nature of its karma to go to heaven.

The pursuit of happyness !!!

That 'y' in 'Happyness' of the title is a mistake done purposely. :-)

I happened to see a movie today which I was urging to see from a long time. It’s called the pursuit of happiness.

I was awestruck by the movie. Amazing acting by Will Smith, hats off to him. And more surprising is the acting of the little boy Christopher (Jaden Smith). He has done a fabulous job. The story revolves around the relationship of a father and a son. It’s just a plain simple story happening in all of our lives daily. The thing is that, they make us realize what we are doing in life. I am sure, while watching this movie; you will have your memories refreshed. I had mine. This must have been happening or has happened in our daily lives.

The film begins in 1981 in San Francisco, California. Linda and Chris Gardner live in a small apartment with their son, Christopher. Chris has invested the family's life savings in a franchise selling portable bone density scanners. Linda works in a dead-end job in a local hotel laundry. The tension between them mounts as unpaid rent and bills continue to accumulate.

When his girlfriend walks out, Chris is left alone to raise Christopher on his own.

Chris accepts an unpaid internship at brokerage firm Dean Witter Reynolds that promises employment to only one trainee at its conclusion. His lack of salary and failure to sell more scanners leaves him riddled with debt; he and his son eventually become homeless. Chris and his son are evicted from their apartment and have no place to go. They spend several nights riding buses and sleeping in subway restrooms, saddled with their meager belongings. They sleep on the street and even behind the locked doors of a metro station bathroom. They begin lining up at the Glide Memorial Church on a daily basis in an effort to secure accommodations for the night. Sometimes they succeed, other times they literally are left out in the cold. As he struggles to provide a semblance of a family life for his son under the direst of circumstances, Chris becomes more determined to complete the intern program and become the sole trainee the firm will hire.

Chris’ determination finally pays off when he lands up getting that job after going trough a brutally competitive stockbroker-training program, where only one in twenty interns will make the cut.

With self-confidence and love and trust of his son, Chris Gardner rises above the obstacles to become a Wall Street legend.

I have two favorite scenes in this movie:

1^st: He is trying to sell a scanner and he begins a demonstration in front of a
Doctor and that machine screws up. It doesn’t work. He is devastated. He has
$ 22 in his bank account and a son on the other side. There is something in
That machine that needs to be replaced. He donates his blood to get that
Money, buys that part, and fixes it in the scanner.
Now is the time to test that. Just one push of a button. His expression before
pushing the button and after pushing the button was just amazing.
I mean, you could just imagine being in that place in that situation.

2^nd: This is when the results of the internship were going to be announced. They
Call him into the cabin to tell him that you are the guy that we want to hire.
When he comes to know that, one can see the expression on his face. He is
Wanting to cry, waiting to cry. Bur somehow he controls it and once he gets out of
that cabin, he rushes outside the building and explodes. Amazing stuff !!

All I will say, is that it is a must see movie for the people who really ‘live’ their life.

MAKTUB..really??

If you have read 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho, the one think that might awestruck you is his imagination, and secondly the simplicity with which he tried to portray his imagination to us. Just by the means of a simple story, a fable, i must say in which we have the conversations of Sun and the wind. :)
Sounds brilliant, doesn't it?? Still, he has a message to give. That's his specialty which makes him stand apart from the normal crowd.
But, for me, apart which from his imagination power and his way of representing it, what took me off the ground was just one word..'MAKTUB'
No more suspense now..MAKTUB means 'Everything is written' . The moment i saw this word in the book, my mind started wandering planets. It began to churn vigorously. This thought had never came to mind, not in my wildest dreams. It awoke a new morning for me.
Its been a long time now, and i feel that this word has made an impact on my life. I began to think in the way i had never dreamt of thinking.
And it was like all my pieces were falling right into their place and the jigsaw puzzle was solved. :)
And i believe that if everyone one us, just open our minds and think out of the box, will come to the same conclusion.
For me, today i am convinced that indeed, life is 'MAKTUB'