Towards zero waste

In our relationship with the environment, the real power does not lie in the hands of technologists or politicians or directors of multinational corporations. It is individuals like you and me who make the final decisions about what is bought and sold in the stores, how much carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere, and what is dumped into the sea. Each of us can begin to heal the environment right away by changing our daily habits.
- Eknath Easwaran

On Earth Day this year, Bangalore was battered by a tremendous wind and rain storm that caused trees and electric poles to keel over. The worst of the all-round mayhem was the sight of all the tattered white plastic covers, flushed out from the bowels of the city and spewed around by the storm to drape itself over absolutely every surface the eye fell on - on the road, footpath, drains, even over trees. It was as if the Earth was sending out an urgent graphic SOS message to her children on the day designated as Earth Day. That awful sight jolted me into finally doing something about the simmering unease I'd been feeling everytime I threw the garbage out, plastic and all.

Back when we lived in Seattle, there used to be a separate section for disposing recyclable dry waste(paper, plastic, glass, etc.), and another for general garbage. But here everything, recyclable or not, is just dumped into one common garbage area, from where the garbage truck picks it up only to dump it in turn into unofficial landfills. Apparently, these "landfills" are located in the outskirts of the city near various villages. And the un-segregated waste that has been dumped there has been decaying and releasing toxic sludge into the water bodies which are used for drinking and agriculture, causing several health hazards to the villagers such as such as diarrhea, bronchitis, cough and respiratory infections. Isn't it a crying shame?

People in general seem to feel that it is the responsibility of the municipal department to manage proper disposal of waste, but in the absence of conscious responsible co-operation on part of the each citizen by way of segregation of recyclable and other waste, what can the government do? There should be a joint initiative from both people and the government to address the problem, but there only seems to be apathy all around. Unfortunately, in the end, the people who suffer from this selfish irresponsibility are the poor and the helpless - and Mother Earth.

I found out that an NGO called Saahas - www.saahas.org - works with issues related to the management of solid waste in Bangalore. I visited their office and was very relieved and happy to learn that they have well-structured programs for dealing with recyclable waste, which they call dry waste. Now, all my junk mail, food covers, stray plastic and paper, bottles, packaging material and other clean dry waste all goes into a separate trash can which eventually finds its way to Saahas where the waste is sorted and recycled at the nominal cost of Rs. 35 per contributing household per month. To see the details for participating in this program, check the images at the end of this post.

Saahas also has a program for e-waste, which includes batteries, floppies, and CDs. They have placed free public e-waste disposal containers at various points around the city - there is one at GK Vale, Jayanagar, and one at Fitness One, Jayanagar, where small e-waste like batteries, floppies, CDs, etc. can be disposed. Bigger e-waste like printers, keyboards, mouse, monitors, etc. will have to be dropped off at their office.

So now I'm only left with wet waste from the kitchen that I throw out as garbage. While my household still generates some waste that contributes to the villagers' misery, my conscience is largely assauged by the recycling of dry waste that I found a way to do, thanks to Saahas. Ideally, the organic waste from the kitchen should be composted and converted into manure that can be used for growing plants, potted or otherwise. But living as I do in an apartment, no corner of which escapes my toddler's investigations, composting is not a viable option for me right now - but hopefully, some day it will be. And then, perhaps, I can dream about a zero waste household...

Home sweet home

Now that we're back in India after our stint in the West, the whole colourful spectrum of life here has so completely filled us up that we haven't spared a moment's thought to our life back in the States, where we first started our lives together. But lately, nearly a year after being here, we find ourselves now and then poignantly remembering details of our life back in America.

A sudden flash of memory of driving down First Avenue in Fresno on the perfect large curving road, mission style red roofed buildings on either side, with palm trees spreading against the crystal blue California sky. Going to gym at Bally's. Long weekends away in the wilderness of that magnificent land - vast pine-laden mountains, lakes that seem like the sea, tall noble trees shooting straight up from the earth, feather quilt sky, air crisp and clear as an icicle. Big bold furry grey squirrels the size of a rabbit, strangely(at first!) missing the stripes on the back. Interesting uncommon cloud formations you can study every so often. Lingering rose and saffron sunsets gradually fading into subtle tintings of apple green and mauve, and finally into a starry dusk. Bronzed maple trees in fall. Snowflakes feathering down to the earth in that curiously still manner, soundlessly transforming the entire landscape into a white wonderland. Beautiful large free libraries where you can order any book on the face of the earth and happily go to fetch in a couple weeks. The different moods of Lake Washington - dull grey on cloudy days, fresh azure on clear days, sometimes leaden and flat, sometimes navy blue and brooding, diamond sparkles dancing on wind-ruffled wavelets on sunny days. Darling houses that look like they appeared out of a dreamy picture book. The mountains in the distance, always visible even from the heart of the city. Cheerful nods from people you encounter. Sincere close-knit divine Sai centres that are a home away from home, the like of which I will probably never find again. Breakfast now and then at Judy's Doughnuts - our standard fare of chocolate-iced doughnut and coffee, so utterly satisfying. Fries to die for at Rally's. An occasional veggie patty sandwich for lunch at Subway whose toasted cheddar and oozing mustard and mayonnaise I can still vividly taste. Blueberry green tea frappuchino at Starbucks, the tastiest drink I've ever had, and during Christmas season, delicious gingerbread with hot latte. Spicy cheesy bean chalupas at Taco Bell for a quick evening snack. Custard drenched tiramisu for dessert at California Pizza Kitchen - a slice of heaven on earth. The painstaking attention to detail that is given to every aspect of any work. The typical American penchant for quips and one-liners on every occasion and the hearty readiness to laugh at any attempt of a joke, however corny. Mellow country music playing on radio in the car as we roll over endless freeways, past golden hills and grassy pastures. The scale of everything - everything is big big big - the trees, the roads, the ice-creams, the malls, the cars, and last but not the least, the friendly heart of the American people that is as open as it is big, bless them.

These things will always be a part of us. A beloved part of our memories. And yet, with all this, what was it that inexplicably drew us back to the land of our birth, even as the wild geese that are mysteriously guided homeward on their long flight?

Poet Kathleen Raine said about India, "The worst of going to India is that afterwards everywhere else is a kind of exile." You only realize the truth of it once you've left India and soujourned afar for a few years. It is an organic visceral mother love whose pull you always feel at the center of your soul, no matter what sights and sounds other lands might dazzle you with.

Swami Vivekananda was asked by an English friend on the eve of his departure from the West, "Swami, how do you like now your motherland after four years' experience of the luxurious, glorious, powerful West?" He could only answer, "India I loved before I came away. Now the very dust of India has become holy to me, the very air is now to me holy; it is now the holy land, the place of pilgrimage, the Tirtha." It is worth the years spent away from the native land just for a shadow of this kind of realization.

In high school, one of my favourite poems in my English textbook was Rabindranath Tagore's "Motherland" which I thrilled to even back then. But I never dreamed how much inspiration and fuel it would someday provide me to turn my footsteps onto the path back home.

Blessed am I that I was born to this land
And that I had the luck to love her
What care I if queenly treasures is not in her trove
But precious enough is for me the living wealth of her love.
The best gift of fragrance to my heart
Is from her own flowers,
And I know not where else shines the moon
That can flood my being with such loveliness.
The first light revealed to my eyes
Was from her own skies,
And let the same light kiss them
Before they are closed for ever.

We are grateful for our experience of the West which has vastly enriched, deepened and expanded life for us, and will always treasure the experiences and friendships that have been woven there into the tapestry of our lives. We are also very grateful and happy to be Home at last.

Balance amid the everyday storm

I'm convinced that those whom the gods wish to destroy they make mothers first. No doubt it is the ego that is being destroyed, and though it sounds noble and beneficial, it is not exactly an endearing process. It's the most excrutiating ordeal one has to ever go through, if only because it's not something that knocks you on the head one day and disappears, but something that you have to constantly negotiate every waking(and sleeping) hour of your life. A hundred constant pinpricks take more spirit and depth to tolerate than one hard slam you can be over and done with.

My toddler is teething molars and hence very needy and clingy, has not been a biped for too long and hence not too stable on his feet, is not too verbal yet and hence constantly resorting to tantrums when the world gets too much for him. I have to have all my attention on him at all times to save him from tripping on thin air and getting his face walloped on the floor for the umpteenth time, to listen to and encourage his fledgling words, to keep him engaged in relatively less destructive activities. I have to have infinite resourcefulness to be cutting vegetables and getting lunch ready while keeping him from falling head first into the big trash can he's investigating. So I head him off instead into taking the ladles one by one from their drawer and popping them in the trash can. It'll buy me enough time to mount the cooker and keep him safely occupied in the meantime. After all, I can fish out the ladles, wash them and put them back in their place when he's napping. And that's one of the better days. On the bad days, all he does when I'm cooking is cling like a limpet onto my legs with both hands and cry to be picked up. Try taking a few steps across the kitchen with your whining heavy toddler dangling off your legs, getting the lunch ready on time, with the telephone ringing off the hook and someone sounding the doorbell. It's enough to make me want to spontaneously combust into a million particles, especially if it has been a while since I meditated. I used to have a regular meditation practice before my little boy appeared on the scene. But having to look after the entire existence of another human being, complete from clipping their nails to putting on their shoes, seems to somehow suck every moment of time away, and before I know it an entire year has passed - and the combustible circumstances are only on the rise.

So many spiritual teachers and traditions point out the fact that mothering, or any other duty for that matter, itself is a spiritual practice, if done with the right attitude. Brother Lawrence, a Christian mystic, wrote
"The time of business does not differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament."

How enviable is that? The Gita refers to it as “inaction in the midst of action” (4:18), and also prescribes the regimen that will get one there, perfectly summarized by Eknath Easwaran in his book on the Gita: daily meditation, chanting the mantram at every opportunity, restraint of the senses, and putting the welfare of others first. Giving up self-will especially is the constant refrain of the Gita:
Free from selfish attachments and self-will,
Ever full, in harmony everywhere,
Firm in faith - such as these are dear to Me.

Easwaran says in his translation, "There is no barrier between us and God realization except self-will. That is all that keeps us thinking that we are separate from the whole. The more we love, the less our self-will - and the less subject we are to time and death. All of us have moments when we forget ourselves in helping others. In those moments of self-forgetfulness, we step out of ourselves: we really cease, if only for an instant, to be a separate person. Those are the moments of immortality, right on earth. Stretch them out until they fill the day and you will no longer be living in yourself alone; you will live in everyone."

It struck me that from the moment your child is born, you have willy nilly signed up for an hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute stripping away of self-will. When all you want to do is sleep like the dead, your baby wants to be fed. When all you crave desperately on a rainy day is to curl up cozily and escape into a book, your child wants you to play with and entertain him. When you really want to take a break from cooking and eat out, your conscience will insist on a healthy home-cooked meal for your child. Let alone indulgences, being able to take a few minutes alone to shower becomes a luxury. And your own personal pint-sized little spiritual master knows exactly how to put you through the hoops and will enthusiastically scrounge out even the hidden pockets of self-will tucked away in remote corners of your personality. No spiritual aspirant practicing in his cave could have set himself a tougher regimen. But of course, the saving grace in all of this is the love that keeps the wheels of duty turning smoothly. Kahlil Gibran expresses this beautifully

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All the threshing and sifting, however, can get old pretty fast if it is not balanced by some inner work. Something Bo Lozoff said in one of his wonderful articles struck a chord with me - "Trying to dedicate yourself entirely through outward activity will sooner or later chew you up and spit you out if you don't take time for inner silence. It's like trying to breathe out all the time without breathing in. Be sure you breathe in, so that you're helping others from a deeper place."

That's where daily meditation comes in. On the few days that I happen to manage it, the difference is amazing. I'm so spacious and accepting that I can bear anything, juggle anything - all with a cheerful smile and sense of humour intact. The challenges are a pleasure to take on; the days are "lit from above". If I've let myself slide and not meditated in a while, I find myself getting reactive and irritable, teetering on the edge of a bad case of mommy burnout. Lao Tzu declares, "Don't think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness." Tumble constantly backward into darkness! Ouch!!

Whether I am travelling through good times or bad on this amazing journey of mothering, some things remain the same - it always is interesting, and it sure makes life worthwhile! There's really nothing else I'd rather be doing.

Divine poetry

The poetry of Mary Oliver is one of the magical things in this world. Whenever I feel choked by the dry crumbs of the prosaic bread of life, reading her poetry is like receiving a draught of living water. It's an immediate opening into stillness, and wonder. A quiet reverence for life unfolds and all's well with the world again.

Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

Her words are transparent, letting the essence in, transmuting the mundane into the mystical. With what subtelty she invokes That which is "subtler than the subtlest"!

In "The Swan" she writes

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?

Her work is a constant challenge to turn inward. There is an urgency to touch the very centre of that ache for truth, goodness, beauty.

"Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?" she asks.

And then again,

"When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world."

She brings out so well that plumbing spirit which is not satisfied with the surface of things but has to dive and discover in order to justify its existence...something we lose so often in the grooves of everyday life.
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

"I have a notion that if you are going to be spiritually curious, you better not get cluttered up with too many material things," she said in an interview, and you can see that notion pervading her work:

Listen, says ambition, nervously shifting her weight from
one boot to another -- why don't you get going?

For there I am, in the mossy shadows, under the trees.

And to tell the truth I don't want to let go of the wrists
of idleness, I don't want to sell my life for money,

I don't even want to come in out of the rain.

Mary Oliver is a Poet in every sense of the word, a high priestess of nature. Baba defined a poet once. He said only an artist who brings out the living spirit of the Divine in their work in a way that can stir the heart of the common man can be called a poet, and not someone who merely strings together a pretty fancy. In the Gita, the Lord Himself is described as "Kavi":
"He is the Great Poet, the Ancient Poet; the whole universe is His poem, coming in verses and rhymes and rhythms, written in infinite bliss."

The uniqueness of this poet is in the way she returns a sense of the miraculous to life without pedantry or preaching. She says her endeavour is "to keep words from eating the mind, to hear sounds and not verbalize them... to reach to the level that has no name." She never talks directly about the divine, she only suggests it, embodies it, brings it into closer-than-breathing awareness, and awakens it in the direct experience of the reader.

Eckhart Tolle says, "We have forgotten what rocks, plants, and animals still know. We have forgotten how to be - to be still, to be ourselves, to be where life is: Here and Now." But thank goodness the world still has poets like Mary Oliver to remind us!

Here is a sampling of some of my favourites. Enjoy!

The Sun

When I Am Among the Trees

The Summer Day

Bone

Little Summer Poem Touching The Subject Of Faith

Wild Geese

In Blackwater Woods

When Death Comes

No more shots in the dark

I had always thought that vaccinations were an inevitable part of the process of living, as inevitable as taxes and death. I was dimly aware that back in the day, my father had taken a principled stand against vaccinations and had refused to let all his 3 children be vaccinated, but I had dismissed it as just another idiosyncrasy of his. In the course of time I became a mother, and duly took my son around to the paediatrician for his first round of vaccinations. The doctor put my 6-week-old baby on the table, lined up all 3 injections in a row, and injected them into him one after another continuously, one on each arm and one on the thigh, with a nurse pinning him down. He screamed with pain, and at each successive injection that scream was higher and more incredulous, as if he couldn't believe that anyone could be doing that to him...like he couldn't believe that a world that had heretofore protected and loved him could suddenly be turning around and attacking him now. Right after the shots, when he was gasping with shock and keening in an intensive high-pitched way almost like an animal in pain, the doc squeezed polio drops into his mouth, causing him to splutter and gasp even more. Several times he lost his breath with the intensity of the crying. When I went to comfort him after the shots, streams of tears were rolling down the sides of his head and he had a helpless imploring look in his eyes that just went like a knife through my heart. Those cries still ring in my ears, I don't think I can ever forget them...

When my mother gathered him up and held him close, he fell asleep right away with total exhaustion. At home he woke up, nursed and fell asleep again. When he woke up the next time, he was crying inconsolably with pain, and my mother had to walk him up and down and generally comfort him the way she does when he has colic. I checked the package insert of the vaccines and among the contra-indications were listed screaming and high-pitched inconsolable crying, which means he had an adverse reaction to the vaccines. I know doctors dismiss such reactions, and even fever, as routine - but what do they really, really know? They only know what their textbooks and pharmaceutical industry tells them.

I knew what I had witnessed was barbaric. I felt in my bones that there was something profoundly wrong about it. I got out the laptop and plunged into research. I snatched every minute I could, everytime the baby was napping, or was being engaged by my mom, I read and read for days. What I learned horrified me. Presented below are snippets of my research that will give you a general idea of what I learned, and be a good jumping off point should you decide to do your own independent research.

In addition to the viral and bacterial RNA or DNA that is part of the vaccines, here are the fillers:
- animal tissues: pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain, dog kidney, monkey kidney, chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg
- calf (bovine) serum
- human diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue)
- porcine (pig) pancreatic hydrolysate of casein
- VERO cells, a continuous line of monkey kidney cells
- washed sheep red blood cells
- hydrolized gelatin
- monosodium glutamate (MSG)
- phenoxyethanol (antifreeze)
- thimerosal (mercury - neurotoxin linked to autism)
- formaldehyde (used for embalming)
- aluminum hydroxide (neurotoxin linked to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's)
and many other such deadly toxins.

The artificial immunity created by injecting this deadly cocktail into our children is not infallible, meaning people can get the very diseases they were vaccinated against, and it is temporary, which is why the need arises for booster shots. Here is a chilling article on this topic which explains how the sanctity of the bloodstream is violated when the immune system is "tricked" into mounting an all-out response to an attenuated(half-killed) virus or bacteria, something nature would never permit. The incidence of autism as well as other chronic auto-immune diseases like asthma, diabetes, etc. and neurological disorders like ADHD(attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder) and dyslexia among children is growing at an alarming rate, and coincides with the increase in the number of vaccinations routinely given to children. The possible relationship between these diseases and various vaccines has been recognized for a generation. Children whose immunity has been weakened by vaccinations are also subject to constantly returning colds, fluids from the ears/re-occurring ear infections, eczema and various allergies.

Just ponder the contradictions regarding the claim that measles is a "killer" disease:
- A child under the age of five has 0.01 percent chance of contracting measles.
- That same child has a 0.3 percent chance of dying from the disease and a 0.2 percent chance of being autistic as a result of vaccine damage.

Harvard graduate and physician, R. Moskowitz, explains how the live viruses in vaccines can, in the long term, lead to such auto-immune disease conditions. Vaccinal attenuated viruses attach their own genetic "episome" to the genome (half set of chromosomes and their genes) of the host cell, and are thus capable of surviving or remaining latent within the host cells for years. The presence of this foreign antigenic material within the host cell sets the stage for their unpredictable provocation of various auto-immune phenomena such as herpes, shingles, warts, tumors -- both benign and malignant -- and diseases of the central nervous system, such as varied forms of paralysis and inflammation of the brain. This article by Harold Buttram, MD, explains how the MMR and the oral polio vaccines, cultured in chick embryo tissue and monkey kidneys respectively, are highly susceptible to the process of "jumping genes," in which they may incorporate genetic material from the tissues in which they are cultured, that then is introduced into the child, setting in motion an immunologic battleground. Guylaine Lanctot, M.D., stated, "The medical authorities keep lying. Vaccination has been a disaster on the immune system. It actually causes a lot of illnesses. We are actually changing our genetic code through vaccination...100 years from now we will know that the biggest crime against humanity was vaccines."

Here are some sites with excellent informative articles that are a must-read for any parent looking to make an informed decision regarding whether or not to vaccinate their child:
"Dispelling vaccination myths" - http://www.whale.to/v/phillips.html - make sure to read the "Closing remarks" section.
http://www.saisanjeevini.org/newsvacc.htm - Includes comments on the vaccine scenario in India.
"Doctors against vaccines": http://www.vaccinetruth.org/doctors_against_vaccines.htm - this one in particlar is a must-read for those who subscribe to the doctor knows best mentality.
More research and information results for further investigation: http://search.mercola.com/Results.aspx?q=vaccination&k=vaccination

I logged onto my favourite parenting resource, Mothering magazine's mothering.com and checked its vaccinations discussion forum to see how other parents were dealing with this information - some parents were firm in their decision to keep their child completely vaccine-free, some parents wanted certain vaccines and not others, some wanted a selective or delayed vaccination schedule, some parents wanted to comply with the entire vaccination schedule. I realized I couldn't look outside of me for help in deciding what to do for my child. I had done my homework and I was aware of the latest research findings and the pros and cons of both sides of the issue. Beyond that, I had to do my own soul-searching. I talked with my father about the reasons he had decided against vaccinations for myself and my siblings. He went very deep into the spiritual aspects of the issue, being a Theosophist and all, but his basic conviction was this: The human being is the very pinnacle of evolution, a superb finely-honed instrument fit for the flowering of divine consciousness within it. When animal matter and other toxins are injected into a human body, it defiles the body, because it is a reversal of the thrust of evolution whose impulse is to always flow forwards into higher forms. The introduction of animal matter into a higher organism that is much more finely evolved is a regression, and goes against the very grain and direction of Nature. The latest research findings regarding the side-effects of vaccines support this view.

An extraordinary number of scientists and thinkers have objected to vaccination since its creation including Gandhi, George Bernard Shaw, Voltaire, Mark Twain, and, in the 20th century, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Gandhi said, "I am and have been for years, a confirmed anti-vaccinationist. A medical man who expresses himself against vaccination loses caste. Tremendous pecuniary interests too have grown round vaccination. I have not in the least doubt in my mind that vaccination is a filthy process, that is harmful in the end."

What underlies this whole vaccination business is a coalition of greed and fear. Greed on part of the vaccine-makers and pharmaceutical industries who keep coming up with more and more vaccines with little or no scientific rationale behind them and no long-term safety studies, and governments blindly serving corporate financial interests over public health concerns. Fear mongering happens as part of the popular social conditioning promoted by doctors, especially paediatricians whose bread and butter depends largely on administering vaccines on a regular schedule. Like someone said, it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!

After lots of discussions, my hubby and I decided not to give our son any more vaccinations. We stopped it completely after that unfortunate first set of shots. I know it is a big decision not to vaccinate our child when the mainstream culture is all for it, but I have made certain decisions to help protect my child as far as lies in my power:
1) Breastfeed until he weans by himself
There is amazing wisdom in this. When a breastfeeding child is exposed to any disease, he passes on the germs to the mother while nursing. The mother's body then makes antibodies for the disease, and in the next nursing session these antibodies are transferred to the child, and the child is able to fight off the disease. So, as long as the child breastfeeds, he is protected by the mother's immune system. When the child's immune system matures (usually around 2-3 yrs) the child will usually wean naturally by himself. Isn't Nature marvellous?!?
2) Once he weans, we plan to get him the course of homeopathy mentioned in this article titled "Alternatives to Vaccinations" that supports and strengthens the immune system against certain diseases.
3) Cook healthy organic food.
4) Maintain a healthy non-toxic atmosphere at home, not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually.

This article has excellent advice on how to raise a healthy child with a sound immune system.

What is sadly amiss in the present day scenario is skewed perceptions and lack of awareness of both sides of the vaccine story. Brave new parents of a new generation - educate yourself, do your research, do your soul-searching and then decide what to do. I'm sure the coming generations will benefit greatly from carefully deliberated informed choice on our part.

Reflections on VIP darshans

Our family boasts an Uncle who, besides having occupied positions of power and influence in his heydays, is now on the management board of almost all the big pilgrimage centres in South India. Just as one would make travel reservations when embarking on a pilgrimage, it is equally the done thing in our family to notify Uncle and request him to make arrangements for our visit. He takes care of our being met at the station, escorted to well-appointed rooms, then escorted to special VIP darshan, and finally dropped back to the station - in short, a pilgrimage on a bed of roses. Of course, it is very sweet and benevolent of him to extend his special privileges to his family. We made a trip to Mantralaya this past weekend, having dutifully notified this Uncle before starting, and subsequently enjoyed the ensuing royal treatment.

There are 3 courtyard layers around the brindavana - and the general public is allowed only upto the second. The innermost courtyard right around the brindavana can be penetrated only by priests and VIPs. After the darshan, I asked my mother and hubby if they felt any unease about receiving special treatment in front of God when the rest of the people were packed like sheep in the next courtyard, craning their necks trying their best to catch a good glimpse of the brindavana and offer their prayers. My mother subscribes to the argument that it is our own good merit accumulated from past births that allows us to get closer to the shrine, so there's nothing wrong in using it, since we have "earned" it. My hubby assauges his conscience by thinking that since God has extended a privilege to us by granting closer darshan, it is our responsibility to translate that gift into being better people and a greater force for good in this world. I happen to be currently reading Eknath Easwaran's presentation of the Bhagavad Gita and the insights I have been gaining from there do not let me dismiss the issue so easily. The whole war scenario that the Gita is set in is a reference to the battle within, between the forces of selfishness and the forces of selflessness. Right after the darshan, I opened my book for a blessed afternoon reading interlude when my toddler is out of the way napping, and this is what I read:

"Anything we can do to subordinate our profit, our pleasure, and our prestige to the welfare of those around us naturally results in the reduction of I-consciousness, ahamkara, which is the Sanskrit word used for separateness and selfishness."

It struck me that we had been doing just the opposite, however indirectly. We had been using our clout and power and prestige to muscle our way into the best darshan spot available, unheeding of the welfare of those around us. Baba says in His inimitable style, "Love is selflessness and self is lovelessness." We had been trying to get closer to the Lord of Love through our lovelessness. Can it ever be? We might have got physically closer to the shrine but I'm sure we were very far from God in ways that really count. What an irony!

In an effort to identify himself with the lot of the comman man in our country, and to express his solidarity, Gandhi took to wearing a homespun loincloth and travelling only in third class. He saw himself in all and refused to put himself apart or make himself special in any way. We might not be able to imitate the moving example of the Mahatma but we can at least learn from our experience and avoid doing things that make our conscience uneasy. You will not catch me in a VIP darshan again!

Why I left Facebook

For a long time now, ever since I have got on Facebook and had many people mostly from my past, friends or not, send me "friend" requests, I have been feeling a vague distaste for this whole social networking culture. That still small voice has been nagging away at the back of my consciousness and I'm finally starting to sit up and take notice. Why does Facebook creep me out? Here is a start:

My friends list is basically a graveyard of people I have had some intereraction with in the past, some memorable, some wholly forgettable. And after they request to add me as a "friend", there is no further interaction forthcoming from them, even ON Facebook! So this whole adding-as-friend business seems to me to be a subtle kind of mutual voyeurism agreement - you peek into my social world and I'll peek into yours, with a still more subtle connotation of "and then let's see who is cooler". Everything you join, do or say reflects on the newsfeed that all the "friends" get to see - so everything that you say or do or join, you do with an eye for how it will look, how it will affect my "cool factor". Quite a Danse Macabre of the ego.

In a recent discourse to His students, Baba said "I wish that you all be very careful in your contacts and relations with others. If possible, dump your cell phones in a well. You will be happy and peaceful. Better you don’t acquire them at all! Even if you acquire one, establish contact and connection with only those with whom it is desirable. Do not develop unnecessary and undesirable contacts with others. By developing such contacts, you gather news from all and sundry and pass it on to others. Ultimately, you will end up as Narada, poking your nose in all sorts of things. You will not only spoil your mind with unwanted things but spoil the minds of others too! Why all this unpleasantness? Is it not because of your unwanted and undesirable telephonic contacts? Hence, be careful and earn a good name for yourself, your parents, and the institution in which you are studying."
He's talking about cellphones, but He has also described Facebook to a T! The message here is more than clear. In a nutshell, Facebook turns you into a Narada of the worst kind!

Eckhart Tolle once said in an interview - "Transcending the world does not mean to withdraw from the world, to no longer take action, or to stop interacting with people. Transcendence of the world is to act and interact without any self-seeking. In other words, it means to act without seeking to enhance one's sense of self through one's actions or one's interaction with people."
Now we're doing precisely that in Facebook - seeking to enhance one's sense of self through one's actions (like joining groups after seeking what you want to identify with out there) or one's interactions with people (commenting, peeking into profiles, writing on walls, relentlessly acquiring "friends")!!

Someone once said that your past is the ultimate delusion, and Facebook keeps one nicely anchored in that delusion. And it's so insidious that you don't realize it at first. On the surface it is most innocent, hail-fellow-well-met and all that, just keeping in touch with people, what can be nicer? But underneath, your ego is just feasting off the whole thing, revelling in self-preoccupation, muddying your mind with an explosion of unnecessary thoughts and emotions, and taking you far away from the Here and Now. When Here and Now is where life is.

Social networking for the sake of social networking is an ego prop I no longer want to burden myself with.