Finding a right Guru - 3rd basic conndition

The third basic pre-requisite of a right Guru is his or her motive. He should teach with an ulterior motive, for name, or fame or anything else. He is teaching simply for love, pure love for you. When spiritual forces are transmitted from  the teacher to the taught, they can only  be conveyed  thorough the medium of love; there is no other medium that can convey them. Any other motive such as gain or name , would immediately destroy the conveying medium; therefore all must be done through love.

So summarizing the three basic conditions for a Guru are;

• He must have the secret of scripture, the spirit of scripture and the true meaning and just not the superficial knowledge.
• He must be sinless, his own conduct and behavior
• His motive to teach is simply pure love and no other ulterior motive. 

Positive thinking vs Wishful thinking

We have a  notion that the positive thinking is believing and having faith that outcome of a situation will be in our favor as we desire. We want results to happen as we wish. For example I will get 95% marks irrespective whether I study well or not. There is a belief that the universal forces will work on my thought and the desired outcome will happen.

Similarly, a gambler is thinking  that he is going to win large sum of money and start playing in casino. This belief can be based on past record of success and hence we have the faith that by positive thinking we can manifest outcome to happen. This concept is based on theory that universal forces will align to manifest the desired outcome.This is wishful thinking and not positive thinking specially if not supported by the concerted action to achieve the desired outcome.

Positive thinking on the other hand is referring to the present situation and thinking about how good or bad we feel based on it. We have two choices;

Either we look for positives of the present situation and be happy and visualize future positive possibilities and decide to act to  improve further. If we do that we feel happy and energized and have the necessary energy to propel us to move forward. We always need to move forward in life.

Or we start  thinking of negative aspect of the  present situation and start visualizing all possible negative aspects and feel out of control. This will lead to frustration and lack of action. We will feel energy-less. Life is being in action.

So we have a choice all the time - take stock of present situation. Think and visualize positive aspects of the present situation and make an action plan or to do list to achieve the positive aspects in the best possible manner. Many other positives will follow from there. Remember every situation has a mix of positive and negative possibilities and do not dwell too much on negative aspects.

Mahabharata story- Karna last moment

Karna was lying on the battlefield gasping for breath in his last moments. Krishna assumed the form of an indigent Brahmin and approached him wanting to test his generosity. Krishna exclaimed: "Karna! Karna!" Karna asked him: "Who are you, Sir?" Krishna (as the poor Brahmin) replied: "For a long time I have been hearing about your reputation as a charitable person. Today I came to ask you for a gift." "Certainly, I shall give you whatever you want", replied Karna."I want a small quantity of gold", said Krishna. Karna opened his mouth, showed the gold fillings for his teeth and said: "I shall give this to you. You can take them". Assuming a tone of revulsion, Krishna said: “Do you expect me to break your teeth and take the gold from them? How can I do such a wicked deed?” Karna picked up a stone, knocked out his teeth and offered them to the "Brahmin".Krishna in his guise as Brahmin wanted to test Karna further. "What? Are you giving me as gift teeth dripping with blood? I cannot accept this. I am leaving", he said. Karna pleaded: "Swami, please wait." Even while he was unable to move, Karna took out his arrow and aimed it at the sky. Immediately rain dropped from the clouds. Cleaning the teeth with the rainwater, Karna offered the teeth with both his hands.Karna asked: "Who are you, Sir"? Krishna said: "I am Krishna. I admire your spirit of sacrifice. In any circumstance you have never given up your spirit of sacrifice. Ask me what you want." Beholding Krishna's beauteous form, Karna said with folded hands: "Krishna! To have the vision of the Lord before one's passing is the goal of human existence. You came to me and blessed me with your form. This is enough for me. I offer my salutations to you."

Mahabharata story - Friendship of Karna and Duryodhana

Once Duryodhana's wife Bhanumathi and Karna were playing a game of dice. As the game progressed, it was evident that Karna was winning and Bhanumathi was losing. Just then Duryodhana entered his queen's chamber. Karna had his back to the door while Bhanumathi was facing it. Seeing her husband coming, she was about to stand up. As she was just rising, Karna, thinking that she was trying to get away, snatched at her drape, studded with pearls.Tugged at by Karna's powerful hands, the thread snapped and all the pearls rolled on the floor. Queen Bhanumathi was stunned and did not know what to say or do. She was afraid that, for no fault of hers, she would be misunderstood by her husband because of Karna's offensive and insensitive behavior. Seeing her shocked state and sensing that something was wrong, Karna turned round and saw his friend Duryodhana. He was also deeply shocked and distressed beyond words.Here he was, in the royal chamber, playing a game of dice with his friend's wife and, as if this was not enough, he had the audacity to catch her clothes, thus embarrassing and endangering her chaste reputation. He stood dumbfounded and transfixed. As both Bhanumathi and Karna look down sheepishly, unable to meet Duryodhana's eyes, the Kaurava scion only asks, "Should I just collect the beads, or string them as well."

Mahabhararta story - Birth of Dronacharya

The birth of Dronacharya, the Guru of the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata, is very interesting. It would not be wrong to say that Dronacharya is the first test tube baby in the world. Rishi Bharadwaja is the father of Dronacharya and mother is an Apasara name Krithaji. One evening Rishi Bharadwaja was getting ready to do his evening prayers. He went to the Ganga River to take his usual bath but was amazed to find a beautiful woman bathing at his usual spot in the river.On seeing Rishi Bharadwaja, the beautiful Apsara Krithaji got out of the Ganga River wearing a single loin cloth. Rishi Bharadwaja was moved by the heavenly beauty of the Apsara. Overpowered by the moment, the sage involuntarily emitted his semen. The Rishi collected this sperm in a clay pot and stored it in a dark place in his Ashram. Drona was born in this pot. 'Dronam' means pot and 'Dronar' is one who was born from the pot.

Finding day for a given date - part-2 (for dates before year 2000 and after 2099)

In part-1 we learnt hoe to find day for a given date in the 21st century i.e. from year 2000 to 2099. here we will see how to find for other centuries.

As we mostly deal with the current century and previous century one simple formula is find the day for current century and add 1 to it for 1900s. This mean we can first  find the day for 20th July 2053 and then add one to final result. As 20th July 2053 is Sunday and hence 20th July 1953 was Monday.But let us understand the full logic.

For this the only change is adjustment for the year code. For year 1900 to 1999 we need to add 1 to year code so for 1915 the year code is 4+1=5 and for 1914 it is 3+1=4.

So for finding day for 20th July 1953 steps are
Year code for 2053 is 53+13=66/7 and remainder is 3 and hence for 1953 year code is 4
Month code for July is 5
Now date value is 4+5+20=29 and dividing by 7 we get remainder as 1 and the day is Monday


For any date in other centuries we need to do adjust the year code as follows :

• 2300 to 2399 = add 1

• 2200 to 2299 = add 3

• 2100 to 2199 = add 5

• 2000 to 2099 = add 0

• 1900 to 1999 = add 1

• 1800 to 1899 = add 3

• 1700 to 1799 = add 5

• 1600 to 1699 = add 0

Finding day for a given date - part-3 (leap year)

Leap years

Feb normally  has 28 days but every 4 years we get leap year and Feb has 29 days.
Year 2004, 2008, 2012 and so on are leap years.

But there is an exception to this and century years are not
Thus year 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200,2300 are not leap years.

There are exception to this exception and every 4th century is a leap year ( Year divide by 400)
Thus year 1600, 2000 & 2400 are leap years.

Remember for leap years we need to subtract 1 from year factor for month of Jan & Feb.


Tips for simplifying calculations.

We can simplifying the calculation is by dividing the individual number by 7 and adding the remainders. So to compute year code for 2053 we can first divide 53 by 7 and we get remainder as 4, the we can find leap years which is 53/4 and quotient is  13 for year 2053 and 13/6 we get remainder as 6 and then we add 6+4 = 10 and we get remainder for 10/7 as 3. This way we deal with relatively smaller numbers and easier to calculate mentally.
Similarly while adding days we can divide by 7 and carry remainder. So far 23 we can carry only 2