BHISHMA PANCHAKA 2023 ..HARE KRISHNA

 Bhisma-panchaka is five days dedicated to Bhismadev, The son of mother Ganga and his father King Shantanu-Bhismah santanavo birah. He is the grandfather of Pandavas, descendant of Great king Bharata in Kuru dynasty. The period falls in the last 5 days of the month Kartik, the resounding 5 days of chaturmasya. It is said to commemorate the life of Grandfather Bhismadev, a key figure in the history of India, one who is known as a powerful warrior and commander-in-chief of the royal army who renounced his own claim to the throne of the world and instead remained celibate throughout his life as stated in Mahabharata and the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

After the chronological events that took place on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, being extremely pleased with Bhismadev, Lord Krishna granted a special boon to those who worship Lord Hari and engages in devotional service during these five days. What is that special boon?

Lord Krishna agreed to bestow pure devotion to those who earnestly follow certain austerities these last five days of Kartik. As per Gaudiya vaishnava, Bhismadev is very well known as one of the twelve mahajanas—authorities—in the science of Krsna consciousness. In his youth, he received the benediction that he would only die when he wishes it. He spent his final days giving spiritual and political instructions to King Yudhisthira while lying on a bed of arrows, having been wounded on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. After the Pandavas won the battle, Bhismadeva finally felt peaceful and wanted to leave his body looking into the lotus-like face of Lord Krishna in His transcendental feature as Partha-sarathi. This shows his unflinching faith and devotion to Lord Krsna, which we know is the highest perfection of life.

In Sri Mayapur Dham, various facilities are provided by Temple management to make this vrata easy for devotees convenience. Gita kitchen takes up the responsibility for providing vrata prasadam. Special offerings of flowers and leaves to the Lord are provided in the Radha madhava puja offering counter.

Highlights for these 5 days:

Daily Ganga-snana.

Gaura-katha every evening.

Bhishma Panchaka roots-and-fruits prasadam.

Ghee lamp Offering to Sri Radha Madhava and all the other deities.

There are 3 Levels of fasting.

In the Hari BhaktiVilasa it is suggested to observe fasting from certain foodstuffs on the Bhisma-panchaka vrata days for the pleasure of the Lord Keshava, according to one’s capacity and dedication.

Panchagavya – Bhishma Panchaka Fasting level 1.

Honoring five products of the cow known as pancha gavya on each of the five days.

First day: Cow dung (Gomaya)

Second day: Cow urine (Go-mutra) Third day: Cow milk (Kshiira)

Fourth day: Cow yoghurt (Dahi)

Fifth day: All products of the cow mixed (Pancha-gavya)

If not then one can take fruits, nuts, and roots, as said in level 2.

 Bhishma Panchaka Fasting level 2.

Potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Kochu (Taro), Peanuts.Plain cashew nuts. Raisins, Dates, Bananas – unripe and ripe Mosambi, Orange, Pear, Apple, Chikoo (Sapodilla fruit), Freshly grated coconut, Coconut water, Shakalu (Jicama)

Nevertheless, fruits with lots of seeds are said to be avoided like guava, pomegranate, cucumber etc. Milk products and oils are also avoided. Only sea salt can be added to enhance the flavor. The above-mentioned foods can be taken raw, boiled, or baked. It is recommended to complete the level once it has been started.

Havishya – Bhishma Panchaka Fasting level 3.

Level 3 is introduced with “Havishya.” As referred in the Padma Purana, Brahma-khanda, Chapter 23; Skanda Purana, Vishnu Khanda, Kartik Mahatmya section, Chapter 32; Garuda Puraana, Puurva, Khanda, Chapter 123. One can follow level 3 as described below.

Ingredients for this level 3-Havishya as mentioned in Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa (13.10-13). The following are ingredients that can be used in making Havishya, which is like a khichdi made with these items.

Rice – not parboiled, Pure cow’s ghee, Cow’s milk and cream, Sea salt, Unripe banana, Wheat, Coconut water, Fruits, Roots, Sugarcane derivatives other than gur or molasses, Kala sak – type of spinach, Pipali herb

The following ingredients which are normally a part of havishya need to be avoided if one is following Bhisma-panchaka-vrata.Dal,Oil,Jeera (cumin),   Radish,Tamarind, Beta sak, Turmeric

Special Offerings to the Lord during these days.

Following flowers to be offered to the Deities during the Bhishma Panchaka Vrata days as per Garuda Purana.

On the first day, one must offer Padma (lotus) flowers to the feet of the Lord.

On the second day, one must offer Bilva (wood-apple) leaves to the thigh of the Lord.

On the third day, one must offer gandha (fragrance/scents) to the navel of the Lord.

On the fourth day, one must offer Java flower (hibiscus) to the shoulders of the Lord.

On the fifth day, one must offer Malati flower to the head (siro-desa) of the Lordship.

In case there is an overlap of days then the flowers for both days can be offered on the same day.

In Sri Mayapur Dham, various facilities are provided by Temple management to make this vrata easy for devotees convenience. Gita kitchen takes up the responsibilities for providing vrata prasadam. Special offering of flowers and leaves to the Lord are provided in the Radha madhava puja offering counter.

While bathing in Ganges or any other holy river prayers are offered by reciting the following mantras:

Tarpana

om vaiyaghra padya gotraya

samkrti pravaraya ca

aputraya dadamyetat

salilam bhismavarmane

Arghya

vasunamavataraya

santanoratmajaya ca

arghyam dadami bhismaya

ajanma brahmacarine

Pranam

om bhismah santanavo birah

satyavadi jitendriyah

abhiradbhiravapnatu

putrapautrocitam kriyam

The conclusion is, as Lord Brahma tells Narada in the Skanda Purana: ‘O son Narada, the month of Kartika is very dear to Lord Keshava. If anyone acts meritoriously this month just to please Lord Visnu, he receives unlimited results.’

The need for a refugee law

 

Influx from Myanmar points to the need to have comprehensive legislation to deal with refugees

The intensified fighting in Myanmar has exacerbated the refugee crisis in Mizoram. Following air strikes by the junta in the Chin province that borders Mizoram and Manipur, people are fleeing Myanmar to the safety of India. This newspaper, while visiting camps at the Mizoram-Myanmar border, found that the government has issued at least 30,000 identity cards to refugees. Many more are in the country, undocumented. The refugee influx is not surprising since the borders are porous and communities living in the two countries share ethnic ties – the Kuki-Zomi people residing in the Patkai Hills, which divide India and Myanmar may have different nationalities but share community solidarity. The government in Mizoram is maintaining camps for the refugees though Aizawl has been complaining about a shortage of money and other aid. In contrast, the government in Imphal has been hostile to the refugees, now caught in the inter-ethnic tensions.

RAM RAM JI

Bihar’s quixotic battle against alcohol .....

 

Better regulation, adequate de-addiction centres, health and safety checks, and more government attention on policing could curb ill-effects of prohibition..

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s announcement that the government will conduct a door-to-door survey on the impact of prohibition in the state has the potential to inject some semblance of evidence-based policymaking into the regime of liquor ban in the state. It also holds the first clue that the administration may have a rethink of the policy that may be popular with a section of the population but has seriously harmful consequences.

Kumar’s stance on the liquor ban is moral — it helps build a more enlightened society, reduces crimes and violence

Taking constitutional justice to the people bY Rkmht1

 

The Supreme Court now seems to realise that much more needs to be done quickly to make access to justice a right for all.

Much has been said about justice as an abstract idea, but institutions seldom reflect on access to justice. Since his elevation, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud has set out to change this paradigm by constantly reminding people that in the absence of access, the idea of justice would be meaningless. On Monday, speaking at a conference on “Strengthening Access to Justice in the Global South”, the CJI picked out technology, infrastructure, physical accessibility to courtrooms, and gender neutrality as instruments that make justice accessible to citizens. These are practical measures that can truly facilitate the transformation of the Supreme Court (SC) into a “people’s court” as the CJI is wont to describe the apex court. Access to justice was recognised as a fundamental right by a Constitution Bench in Anita Kushwaha v Pushap Sudan (2016). A radical step by the SC in recent years to take the judicial system to the people is the introduction of online courtrooms. This measure has enabled litigants and lawyers living away from the national Capital to access the apex court at a minimal cost. It realises the vision that the right to approach the Court is the heart and soul of the constitutional..

we should respect to our constitution as possible.

Dealing with Stress In Modern Life BY RK MHT

 Life is challenging. Every day people face situations that can make one feel stress and anger. Modern science has proven the affects stress has on the health and wellness of our body and mind. Is there any way that we can deal with stress so that it does not create stress-related illness of our body and mind? Is there a way that we can face the tension of life in a way that we maintain calm and equanimity physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?

The combined wisdom of the saints and mystics from ancient India and the current research by scientists, medical doctors, and researchers point to the same answer: we can reduce stress and anger and maintain optimum health and wellness through the practice of meditation.

As life has become more complex, we interact with many people in the course of the day. Any one of these can result in stress. Whenever there are disagreements between two or more people, or things do not go the way we expect, this can lead to anger. In the past, when people lived and worked on a farm or from their homes, there were fewer interactions with others. However, today, we have many opportunities throughout the day in which we meet and interact with others. People have stress on the job. When we are raising a family, there is stress over the health of ourselves or our loved ones, their schooling, their financial difficulties, or living in a household with multiple people. With the economic difficulties of modern life, we have financial stress. As students, either in a school or college, or in training for our career, we have to worry about our grades in school and our test scores. We worry about whether we will be accepted into a school or training facility, and once there, whether we will pass so we can get a job in our chosen career. Once we have a job, there is stress about keeping it with the stiff competition workers face, or we worry what will happen if we lose the job? The terminal illness or death of a family member or loved one creates tremendous pain and stress in our lives. There is also stress caused by interpersonal relationship problems. From morning until night, we face one or more of these situations that cause stress.

The good news is that there is a solution to dealing with stress and anger. From ancient times, saints and mystics have taught meditation as a way to remain calm and peaceful. In the past few decades, the practice of meditation has gained popularity in countries all over the world. While people have been practicing meditation because they recognize how good it makes them feel, there is the added bonus contributed by medical researchers and doctors that prove why we feel so good when we meditate. These medical studies bear out the positive effect meditation has on the health and wellness of our body and mind. The most beneficial gains from meditation are that it reduces stress and anger, which in turn reduce our risk for stress related illness. Numerous diseases have been linked to stress, such as cancer, stroke, heart problems, digestive problems, circulation problems, migraine headaches, skin problems, and others. By reducing stress, we can minimize our risk for these problems, prevent them, and mitigate them if we already have them. Spending daily time in meditation contributes to our health and wellness.

False alarm: On the outbreak of influenza-like illness in China The rise in flu cases in China is due to increased surveillance

 Nearly four years after the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei Province in China, resulting in the deadliest pandemic that the world has faced in 100 years, the news of an outbreak of influenza-like illness in Beijing, Liaoning, and other places in China since mid-October has raised concerns about the emergence of yet another new virus. In what appears to be a replay of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when China showed little interest in alerting the WHO quickly, China’s National Health Commission failed to report to the WHO the large number of undiagnosed pneumonia cases among children. The other striking similarities to the 2019 outbreak are the reportage of the clusters in local media and ProMED, a publicly available surveillance system for infectious diseases outbreaks, more than a month after the respiratory illnesses spiked, and the WHO becoming aware of the issue only through media reports. Finally, like in 2019, the WHO was forced to request China for detailed epidemiologic and clinical information, as well as laboratory results of pneumonia cases in children. One reason for China’s reluctance to keep the global health body informed could be that the surge in respiratory illness was driven by known pathogens, including influenza and common bacterial and viral infections. On November 23, the details shared with the WHO by China indicated that the spike in cases and hospitalisations among children were due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia since May, and RSV, adenovirus and influenza virus since October. While the multiple pathogens that caused illnesses in children this year are not novel nor the clinical presentations unusual, the surge in cases has occurred “earlier in the season than historically experienced”. This could be because it is China’s first full winter season after COVID-19 restrictions were removed in December last year.

China has claimed that the increased detection and reporting of respiratory illness in children was primarily due to enhanced outpatient and inpatient surveillance for respiratory illnesses covering a large variety of viruses and bacteria, including Mycoplasma pneumoniae. But this does not explain its failure to voluntarily keep the WHO informed about the unusually high number of cases last month. While China had reported a Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia surge in October, the reasons for the current outbreaks were less clear till the WHO requested for information. China is duty-bound to keep the WHO informed in time without being asked.

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No vote for veto: On Governors and their powers Supreme Court has done well to remove the veto power of Governors

I n a parliamentary democracy, Governors do not have a unilateral veto over Bills passed by the legislature. This is the crux of the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case arising from Punjab after Governor Banwarilal Purohit withheld assent to some Bills passed by the State Assembly on the pretext that these were adopted in an illegal session of the House. The Court’s reading of the scheme of Article 200, which deals with grant of assent to Bills, is in line with the core tenet of parliamentary democracy: that an elected regime responsible to the legislature runs the State’s affairs. While granting assent is a routine function, the other options — withholding assent or reserving a Bill for the President’s consideration — have been subjects of controversy. There is a proviso to the Article which states that “as soon as possible”, the Governor may return the Bill (if it is not a Money Bill) to the House for reconsideration, but when the Bill is passed again, with or without changes, he cannot withhold assent. The Supreme Court has now read the power to withhold assent and the proviso in conjuction, holding that whenever the Governor withholds assent, he has to send the Bill back to the legislature for reconsideration. This effectively means that the Governor either grants assents in the first instance or will be compelled to do so after the Bill’s second passage.

The Court has done well to point out that Governors, in a system that requires them to function mainly on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, cannot withhold action on Bills and must act as soon as possible. This is a clear reprimand administered to Governors who believe they can endlessly delay action on Cabinet or legislative proposals because of the absence of a prescribed time-frame. Mr. Purohit’s stand that the particular session of the Assembly was illegal — because an adjourned House was reconvened by the Speaker on his own — has been rejected. The Court has ruled that the earlier session had only been adjourned and not prorogued. The verdict should not give any further scope for controversy over the role played by Governors in the law-making process that culminates with their granting assent to Bills, and must end the tussle between elected regimes and the Centre’s appointees. There is still some residual scope for controversy if, as a result of Governors being divested of the power to reject Bills unilaterally, they start referring Bills they disapprove of to the President. Such an eventuality should not be allowed to arise.

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