PANCHAAMRITAM 101

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PANCHAAMRITAM 101
Pancha is five in Samskritam, Amritam is nectar

Poornima, Kali Yugaabda 5108, Vyaya Karthigai 18 (December 4, 2006)

ONE

Meet Shri. A.S. Sreedhran,48. For over 25 years, this courteous marketing manager maintains smooth neighbourliness through Yoga. Particularly through its healing touch. He helped cultivate a daily habit of yoga in a friend's life and the latter was cured of a chronic piles complaint. The family of the friend took to yoga. Another friend of Sreedharan was out of job and so was depressed. Regular Yoga practice in the presence of this ever obliging neighbor saw the gentleman freed of depression and his pleasing disposition in an interview won him a better perch. No wonder, this friend's family members too became votaries of Yoga. These are just two examples of transformation that Sreedharan's silent selfless service has brought about in a number of families in Triplicane, Chennai, where he lives. It was in the fitness of things that he was honoured last month by the Srinivasa Young Men's Association, a social service organization. He gratefully looks back to those days when he was learning Yoga under the watchful eyes of Dr. H.R. Nagendra of Vivekananda Kendra.

As told to Team Panchaamritam, Idea: Shri Gopi

TWO

A contrived mariner's compass was used by Indian navigators nearly 1500 to 2000 years ago. This has in fact been the suggestion of a European expert, Mr. J. L. Reid, who was a member of the Institute of Naval Architects and Shipbuilders in England at around the beginning of the present century. This is what Mr. Reid has said in the Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xiii., Part ii., Appendix A. "The early Hindu astrologers are said to have used the magnet, in fixing the North and East, in laying foundations, and other religious ceremonies. The Hindu compass was an iron fish that floated in a vessel of oil and pointed to the North. The fact of this older Hindu compass seems placed beyond doubt by the Sanskrit word Maccha Yantra, or fish machine, which Molesworth gives as a name for the mariner's compass". It is significant to note that these are the words of a foreign Naval Architect and Shipbuilding Expert. It is quite possible that the Machha Yantra was transmitted to the west by the Arabs to give us the mariner's compass of today.

SAMBHASHANA SANDESHAH, December 2006/www.indiafirstfoundation.org

THREE

IT is a rare saga of the kindness of human spirit that has survived government changes across the centuries. The story of Monegar Choultry is about the spirit of giving that is ingrained in the Indian psyche. For nearly 225 years, this asylum near Stanley Medical College in Mint (Royapuram), Chennai, has been functioning as a shelter for the destitute. It was set up in 1782 to feed the poor during the great famine. Today it is home to elders rejected by their family. The asylum has 65 inmates, 35 of them women. Government officials hold positions of power at the asylum. But funding continues to come largely from the nearby Marwari and the Gujarati families. Most of the inmates help Kamalamma with her daily chores in keeping the asylum clean. Kamalamma is 74 and has served at the asylum for 34 years Sai Baba devotees organise lecture sessions. Despite its proximity to the hospital, the elderly men and women have to get admitted for treatment. The hospital rules require that every patient should have an attendant. Shri. Vasu, the manager, feels volunteers could help by sitting with patients. At present the inmates help each other but they are too old and frail. One of the rules of the asylum is that relatives will not receive the body after death. It is handed over to the Anatomy Department of the Stanley Medical College. Based on a report by Smt. R.Sujatha in THE HINDU, October 26, 2006.

FOUR

A. Industrialist Ratan Tata has been appointed to an influential advisory council set up to advise the British government on business-related issues. Besides Mr. Tata, the first 12 members of the International Business Advisory Council include Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and James Wolfensohn the former president of the World Bank. The council will advise the British government over the next three years on how to respond to the challenges of globalization to ensure that Britain continues to be a top location for international companies. (SANGH SANDESH, London, March-April 2006). B. In a rare distinction, the House of Commons (UK) has congratulated NRI industrialist Lord Swaraj Paul on his appointment as the first Chancellor of the prestigious University of Westminster.The House also applauded Lord Paul for becoming the first person to be Chancellor of two Universities simultaneously -- Westminster and Wolverhampton. It wished him well in his tenure as chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Committee. The Westminster University has some 24,000 students including many from India and other 150 countries. (THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS, October 19, 2006).

FIVE

President of Bharat Shri. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on November 1, 2006, lavished praise on veteran Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Shri. Nanaji Deshmukh, commending to the nation the litigation-free model of resolving disputes Nanaji had devised. This model has ensured that the 80 villages around Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh where Deshmukh is based, 'are almost litigation-free', the President noted while delivering the 12th Justice Sunanda Bhadare Memorial Lecture on 'Judiciary and its multi-dimensions'. 'In Chitrakoot, I met Nanaji Deshmukh and his team members belonging to the Deendayal Research Institute (DRI). DRI is a unique institution developing and implementing a village development model which is most suited for India,' the President said. 'The villagers have unanimously decided that no dispute finds its way to court. The differences are sorted out amicably in the village itself. The reason given by Nanaji Deshmukh is that if the people fight among themselves, they have no time for development,' the President added. www.haindavakeralam.org / IANS November 1, 2006.

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