Ego – A Hindrance in Spiritual Path

For advancement in spiritual world we need to surrender ourselves to spiritual “Guru” (teacher). Surrender here means with body, mind, heart and most important with our “ego”. Why is it important to surrender ego? It is because ego stops us in surrendering ourselves to guru. Therefore to surrender to guru, it is very important to remove ego within us. Here we will try to know kinds of ego found within us.
Within us we can find two kind of ego. The first one very familiar with us related to “I, me, mine etc”. As we assume I’m the doer, achiever of something, it is mine etc. This is the most common form of ego.

The second one can is known as “Negative Ego”. Why we call it as negative ego? It can be explained with this story—

While going to take bath in river a saint saw a particle of sand. It was very sad. As saint was omniscient, he understood the feelings of sand. Knowingly, he asked- “Why are you, so sad?” Sand replied- “I’m very weak and there is no any existence of me in this world, even river and air took me from here to there….” Listening to sand, saint replied—“You don’t remember, you were a part of big mountain. Since you lost the contact with the mountain and you became a stone. River carried you through the valley on the way; you lost the identity of stone and became sand. Because of separation from the mountain you became what you are now. He added- “If you will surrender yourself soon the day will come when a contractor will come and take you from here and you will be part of a great monument. But you must surrender yourself with “negative ego” so you will get a new identity”. Listening to this the sand was very happy. Saint moved from there to take bath. After few days a contractor came and took the sand. Now sand has become a part of great monument and it was impossible to find the identity of sand or we can say his identity became as a monument.

Thus to grow spiritually we need to surrender both kind of ego to our spiritual guru. And as story also narrates if we surrender our ego to spiritual guru he will work as a contractor and will lead us to monument i.e. God himself as contractor did with sand.

With Blessings of “Shirdi Sai Baba”

Pravin Kumar Ojha
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Agni-V propels India into elite ICBM club

India on Thursday propelled itself into an elite club of nations with Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) technology by successfully test-firing nuclear-capable Agni-V, which covered a range of more than 5,000 km.

The significance of the success lies in the fact that Agni-V is the most formidable missile in India's arsenal, with the longest range. With this grand success, India joins the U.S., Russia, France and China, which have ICBM capability. With India's policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons, Agni-V will provide the country with depth in deterrence.

In a flawless mission, Agni-V, painted in white and black with an orange ribbon across, lifted off majestically from a rail mobile launcher at 8.04 a.m. from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast. After a 20-minute flight, the missile's nose-cone carrying a dummy payload impacted near the pre-designated target area with an accuracy of few metres between Australia and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

After the lift-off, it cut a ballistic path across the sky reaching a height of 600 km, before rapidly descending. The mission was so smooth that the missile's three stages ignited on time and decoupled with clockwork precision before the re-entry vehicle was injected into the atmosphere at an altitude of 100 km with a velocity of 6,000 metres per second. The re-entry vehicle withstood scorching temperatures of about 3,000 degree Celsius as it sliced into the atmosphere at a remarkably accurate angle.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has designed and developed Agni-V. Although DRDO officials claim that Agni-V “is not any country-specific,” the fact remains that the missile can reach most parts of China. The three-stage, 17-metre tall Agni-V, weighing 50 tonnes, is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead of 1.1 tonnes.

During the final, pre-launch moments, there was an air of anxiety and expectation in the Mission Control Room as V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, and other missile technologists sat in front of computer consoles.

Moments after the mission's success, Dr. Saraswat told The Hindu : “Today, we have made history. We are a major missile power.” India was among the select group of countries to have the capability to design, develop, build and manufacture a long-range missile of this class and technological complexity. “The versatile capability of this missile will enable India to leapfrog into areas of Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs), anti-satellite weapons and the capability to launch satellites on demand. This will usher in a new era of missile development in India,” he asserted.

“Fantastic mission”

Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO, and Programme Director, Agni-V, called it a “fantastic mission, which has achieved a range of more than 5,000 km.” The success gave India the confidence to go ahead with a larger number of missiles and longer ranges, he added.

V.G. Sekaran, Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory, Hyderabad, described the success as “overwhelming.”

Ancient India

Ancient India

The Indus Valley Civilization existed in between 3000-1500 BC while the earlier Kot Diji cultures, of the pre-Indus period, existed in the period of approximately 3300-2800 BC. Harappa and the city of Mohenjo-Daro were the greatest achievements of the Indus valley civilization. These cities are well known for their impressive, organized and regular layout.

Then came Aryans who composed these evocative hymns to nature and celebrated life exuberantly referred to themselves as Aryas usually anglicised as Aryan meaning 'noble'. The 6th Century B.C. was the period of Magadh Kingdom. Chandragupta Maurya ousted the oppressive ruler of Magadh to find his own dynasty that existed from 322 - 298 B.C.

The most famous Maurya King Ashoka the Great ruled from 273 - 232 B.C over a large kingdom stretching from Kashmir and Peshawar in the North and Northwest to Mysore in the South and Orissa in the East. He after witnessing the carnage at the battle field of Kalinga (269 B.C.) in Orissa, dedicated himself to Dharmma ( righteousness ).

In the subsequent centuries, after the Ashoka empire disintegrated, India suffered a series of invasions, and often fell under the spell of foreign rulers - Indo Bactrians, the Sakas and others. After the next 400 years of instability theGuptas established their kingdom.

Kalidas, the famous Sanskrit poet and dramatist, author of Abhijnana Shankuntalam, Kumarsambhavam and Meghadutam is believed to have adorned the Gupta court. Also the great mathematicians like Aryabhatta and astronomers like Varahmihir lived during this period. The dazzling wall paintings of the Ajanta caves too are traced back to this era.

Cholas, Pandayas and Pallavas ruled over the southern part of India during the medieval period of India�s history. Cholas ruled the territory of Deccan (today the districts of Thanjavur and Tiruchirapally) while the Pandyas reined around present day Tirunelvelli and Madurai.

Pallavas of Kanchi rose to prominence in the 4th Century A.D. and ruled unchallenged for about four hundred years. The Nayanar and Alvar saint poets belong to this period. The gemlike shore temples at Mahabalipuram date to this period. The Cholas overthrew the Pallavas were in the 9th Century and regained political primacy in south India. The 15thCentury saw the decline of the Pandyas.

http://www.indhistory.com/ancient-india.html

Agni V

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni-V

The Hindu : News / National : India will judge Pak with action on terror: Manmohan tells Zardari

The Hindu : News / National : India will judge Pak with action on terror: Manmohan tells Zardari