SLOKA

Sloka is a Sanskrit word used to denote a prayerful verse written to follow certain grammatical rules. The slokas presented here can be used in our daily prayers. These prayers are generally directed to specific God or Goddess forms such as Ganesh, Rama, Devi, Krishna etc. Conveying the majesty and the Omnipotence of God, the slokas portray vivid descriptions of the different God forms and their divine powers. Anyone who chants these powerful verses and invokes the appropriate God (Goddess) forms and names mentally, will be able to achieve a steady and peaceful mind full of devotion. That in short is the purpose of the slokas.

Our Sacred Hindu Holy mother Gomatha
A cow is a very sacred animal to Hindus and some hindus even worship cows. It is a custom rather than a right to worship cows. We can see cows on Indian roads with kumkum on forehead(kumkum a powder kept at God and applied to forehead).

A cow is compared to a mother in Indian epics and it is being considered even now. A cow is known for it’s nature of sacrifice. People get so many things from cow like milk, butter and from them butter etc., Since from centuries people are drinking cow’s milk in India, it is compared to mother as it gives milk to people. This is the reason for which it is known as surrogate mother as like a mother it also gives milk to people.

To Hindus, a cow represents life. It represents soul of the people, their intellect, their emotions, and every other thing. But in everything, a cow is considered greater than humans as it doesn’t have all the selfish and bad emotions as some humans possess. It only knows to give something to people in return for a pittance(grass).
The other important reason for which it is considered sacred is that it is a vital thing in life. In a world of no animal kingdom and any agricultural systems, and any other facilities around you, you can survive just with cows. You can drink milk in the place of water and this gives the needed energy you get from food. Besides this you get butter which you can eat. Basically a cow is the only substitute for all the eating and drinking facilities you have.

In return for everything it gives, a cow takes only grass and grains which are not useful to humans. Besides this, a cow is represented as a symbol of peace as it does no harm to anyone.

From the old times(vedic times), a cow is being worshiped. In great epics there is a special place for a particular cow called “kamadhenu” which fulfills every desire of any person. From then, cows are always being worshiped in India.

A cow is considered as an animal which represents the whole animal kingdom. Respecting cow is a way of respecting every animal. The other reason for this respect towards cow is that it can not speak or it is dumb.

It is a crime to kill cows in India and though no body does that, there are rules that people who does that are taken to judicial custody immediately and there is no excuse for this.

Cows play a great part in celebrations of Indian festivals. During many festivals, they are worshiped along with the God.

These are the reasons for the Indians to show their respect towards cows and to worship them. Not only to worship them, it is also our prime duty as hindus to protect our mother by promoting vegeterianism and stop eating pizza kind of food as the food products which has cheese contains fat substance called rennet derived from dead cow and calf.

Racism

Since the attack on Indian students in Australia, there have been huge uproar from Indians and Australia
has been accused of being a racist country. Is it really fair to accuse Australia for few attacks on
Indian students when few Indians have not been treating many foreigners properly? Ask any African living
in India and each will tell you at least one instance when they felt the brunt of racism.Can't we think of few reasons which might lead our Indian students into these kind of abuse, to mention some like working late nights, indulging in anti social activities (yes!you heard right) like drug trafficking, unethical behiour on personal front like flirting, deceit and adultery.The other reasons might also be ignorance of proper native mannerisms as we Indians are more prone towards loud speaking and ignoring about the premises when we hold mobile, yes, ofcourse this could also lead us into trouble espically when we are travelling in public transport.
I have seen Indians use the most derogatory terms on other "ethnic" communities, but they seem to be mesmerized by white people because of their colur and foreign ethnicity. We Indian communities address each other’s community with terms such as; Gujarati is called as gujjus, South Indians are all called as Madrasis, irrespective of their state and language and most of the people form northern part of Indians still assume Madras as a state , Punjabis are called as gottas and the list goes on….

I go to some "Indian Outlets & restaurants" in Sydney all the time and literally run by Indians and I am totally surprised by the utter change in behavior. I am Indian and don’t get treated the same way and an Aussie in that store would.

As people staying in Bombay think anybody outside of Bombay or from down south is not worth anything......that same thing goes along when it comes to racism.....people in India still give too much importance to the color of skin.....

I once worked for a Tamil Company, where the first question someone asked me on my first day of orientation was whether I was a Tamilian and that to be a Brahmin or not.

Some of the behaviours that include are as follows:

1. preferential treatment to Westerners over Indians

2. Treating other Indians like dirt based on his/her profession, caste, religion, region, language

3. In the Indian corporate world there is rampant favoritism / unequal treatment of employees based on province, language, caste


We see many ads in Indian matrimonial columns asking for a "fair skinned" beautiful girl..No one says they dont care about the color of skin and care about character.

Indians! there is nothing wrong with being an Indian.Behavioural trait always should be according to the situation and adaptive nature towards the ambience . Be proud of who you are. If you are not fair or complex issues, that is ok too. You will never be a different person.

I choose Lalita Sahasranama archana (and chanting) as a regular practice for relief from the perils in life and for spiritual progress, as She is fully aware of the unparalleled greatness of this hymn, which is full of the power of mantras and is capable of fulfilling all desires. Especially during Navaratrulu, I chant the sahsranamam and do pooja with sadopachara, I mean with 16 upacharas. Among the many hymns, mantras and devotional songs available, this Sahasranama is specially suitable for worship in the morning and produces quick results.

Sri Lalitha Devi fulfills all desires of her Devotees. Her compassion and care will be with them at all times and in all situations. The Shakti (power) of Sri Lalitha Devi is best described by the words "haribrahmendra sevitaa" in the above Sloka. She is worshipped by all Gods including Vishnu, Brahma and Indra. Sri Lalitha Devi is also known as "vaageeramaa sevitaa", meaning she is served by Goddesses Saraswati and Lakshmi. Goddesses Saraswati and Lakshmi fan Sri Lalitha Devi with the Divine Fans (vinjaamara) at all times.

Lalita sahasranama is a hymn that describes the 1000 names of Devi or Lalita and praises God as the Divine Mother or God's Shakti or Power. A sahasrananam is a litany of one thousand names of God or Goddess. sahasra is one thousand and nama is name. There is at least one such sahasranama for each deity in Hinduism. Lalita Sahasranama is a hymn described in the Brahmanda Purana and is one of the most sacred stotras in Hinduism. It was recited as a result of conversation between Hayagriva, a minor avatara of Vishnu and the great sage Agastya.

Lalita sahasranama is famous for the internal organization of its text and the rhythmic sound vibrations it can produce. The aim of the Vedas and other scriptural texts is to inspire the love of God and dispassion in human beings and to raise them step by step to the realisation of the Self. The object of the phalashruti -- the description of the benefits accruing from a certain form of worship -- is to strengthen the sense of devotion in people and to make them qualified for higher forms of sadhana, by pointing out the way to remove the hardships of life and to gain prosperity. The main items in the phalashruti on Lalita Sahasranama given in the Brahmanda Purana are summarised below.

I adore Goddess Lalitha Devi and I am an ardent devotee of her. For devotees of Divine Mother Lalitambika, there is no hymn greater than Sri Lalita Sahasranama. Those who chant this most sacred hymn containing the thousand names of Sri Lalita Devi are assured of liberation. The radiance attained from chanting this stotram during Navaratri cannot be described in words. It must be experienced firsthand.

It is extremely auspicious to chant or at least listen to this stotram during Navaratri. When puja to a Sri Chakra is done using the Namavali form of Sri Lalita Sahasranama, unimaginably powerful cosmic vibrations will surround the worshipper, bringing every kind of blessing.

శ్రీ సూక్తం

Significance of srisuktham

Whenever I read sahsranamam of any goddess, I try to chant srisuktham. I don't know why, I feel without reciting it my pooja is incomplete. My lalitha sahsranamam pooja also consists of srisuktham as prefix. Even while listening to srisuktham at temples, I feel like my body is drenched in the pond of nectar. This feeling also gives me immense power. Ihave strong inclination to read the suktha without the help of any resources. Truly, to some extent I have achieved success by remembering few verses of the suktha.

The Sri Suktam is the essence of the Vedas, and that it contains all the important information about Divne Mother. The essential message of the Sri Suktam is that Mother's true form is the beautiful, cosmic golden light of divine consciousness that shines in the hearts of all creatures


The supreme appears in the form of Vishnu to uphold and protect the world. The operation is done through the power of Vishnu for which the terminology is Lakshmi. She is the Brahman revealed in its mother aspect as creatrix and nourisher of the three worlds. Her description appears in the Shi Sukta, where she has been lauded in golden words and in glorious terms...Just as there is no difference between Power-Holder (Vishnu) and Power (Lakshmi)...She is the presiding deity of all divine manifestation.

For the adoration of Lakshmi, there is no hymn equal to the Sri Sukta...The letters, syllables and words in the fifteen verses of Sri Sukta, collectively form the sound body of Lakshmi, the presiding deity of this Hymn. As it has come to us from the consciousness state of the Rishi (seer), the substance is Chit, the creative energy in Vaikhari or gross from of sound.

The universe is conceived and born of sound. Light is nothing but a sound of a particular frequency. All that we see in this worlds in solid, liquid, or gaseous state has emanated from sound. Even our mind is the crystal of sound. Nama (name) is sound from which rupa (form) has come. To cut it short, Sri Sukta is a Siddha Mantra and is a radiant mass of energy. By proper Sadhana, the jiva can raise itself to a divine status. But to attain this, it is very vital that the meaning of the Mantras are correctly understood, intoned and also remembered at the time of recitation.

Global Market

China versus Indian Exports

One thing that always came to my mind is why is the export market of India is not up to the range of the China. Especially after migrating, I see most of the products ranging from safety pin to furniture are all made in China. I don’t say India doesn’t have export structure. But it is very limited. Few products really boast of our quality even in this so called Chinese market. But after coming to Australia, I count that Indian export market structure is very limited.

Recently, I was working on my coursework, researching on several economic issues. The main aspect that came to my mind is the standards of market products in this country and global wide especially in European dwelled countries.

What holds back India is the main question?

The key to answering this question is the poor response of large-scale labour-intensive manufacturing including assembly and processing activities in India.

Large-scale labour-intensive manufacturing activities have been virtually absent from India. Apparel factories employing thousands of workers under a single roof found in China are non-existent in India.

The explanation for the poor performance of large-scale labour-intensive manufacturing is, in turn, to be found in the domestic policy regime—both past and present. Until the late 80s, large Indian firms were confined to a positive list of capital-intensive sectors. Even in these sectors, their size was limited through licensing based on the perceived size of the domestic market by the authorities. The same applied to foreign companies.

As long as this reservation was in force, high-quality labour-intensive manufactures that could compete on the world markets had no chance of emerging in vast volumes. The bulk of the small-scale enterprises operated in the protected domestic market.

Most labour-intensive products including toys, footwear, sports goods and apparel have now been off the reservation list for some years.

The most important factor that still holds back large firms from entering these products is a set of labour laws in India. Under these laws, it is virtually impossible for a firm with 100 or more employees to fire the workers even in the face of bankruptcy. It is equally difficult for the firms to reassign the workers from one task to another. These provisions impose very low worker productivity or a high real cost of labour. Large-scale capital-intensive sectors such as automobiles, where labour costs are a tiny proportion of the total costs, can profitably operate in such an environment. But the same is not true of large-scale labour-intensive sectors labour. Few foreign manufacturers are willing to enter India outside of a small subset of capital- and skilled-labour intensive sectors.

Two additional factors have held back the labour-intensive manufacturing in India: costly power and poor transport infrastructure. Not only do firms pay a much higher price for power in India than elsewhere in the world, they also face much greater uncertainty of supply. Likewise, despite considerable improvement, the transportation network in India remains unreliable and inefficient. The time taken to clear the goods entering and existing the ports and to move the goods between ports and manufacturing sites, which is so critical for assembly and processing activities, is much higher and more variable in India than in the competing countries such as China.

Child Issues

In other words….

Aneesh, who is born and growing in Australia, is bilingual. I think there are two main factors in successfully raising a multilingual or bilingual child; consistency and perseverance. The thought of bilingual topic stood before me because of the child is developing speech delay. Most of the community services say it may because of multi or bilingual background.

For me, my strategy for raising multilingual children at tender stage would be to converse with him in one language. It doesn’t necessarily be your mother tongue. It could be English too. The main emphasis should be language perfection. Teaching small phrases would also do a great job as they can grasp some of the broken sentences and at least they would know what to convey. Whatever input we put in this progress should be ‘are they clearly able to convey what they want’.

Constant interaction in the minority language exposes children to a wide range of vocabulary and grammatical structures relating to everyday life.

My three year old is still learning both languages, but moves easily between the two. When I am tired I can get sloppy and use an English word if that’s easier. But I know that if I expect my child to learn, I have to put in the effort.