[Quick links] [Pause] I have been discussing about some new ways of gardening for the past several weeks. The topic I started with was “self propelled endless store of nutrients”

[Quick links] [Pause] Yes, I often use verbal overloading or pun to make fun of situations or people. But not here.  A few episodes ago, I compared the eight steps of Yoga to eight steps of a ladder. Asana is the 3rd step in the original Yoga of Patanjali. In the previous episode I have explained how the meaning taken on by the word asana these days, does not match the original meaning of the word.  So, am I suggesting that Asana as propagated today is a wrong step in Yoga? A wrongly placed step can topple the person who tries to climb up the ladder

[Quick links] [Pause] In today’s fast paced life, with pressure from all sides, chances are that most of us are perpetually under stress. Many of the diseases that are becoming common these days are attributed to stress. So much so that 60 percent of all the illnesses are either caused by stress or are exacerbated by stress!

[Quick links] [Pause] In the previous episode, we were discussing how the concept of Asana or Yoga posture as understood today, is quite different from what was stipulated by Patanjali in his Yoga sutra.

[Quick links] [Pause] I was talking about the experiment that my friend carried out to decompose the grain waste using the magical bacterial solution provided by Dr. Krishan Chandra.

[Quick links] [Pause] Once someone asked Ramana Maharshi the same question. By the way, Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) was a great Indian Yogi who spent years in meditation, before he started interacting with the world.

[Quick links] [Pause] Most research studies indicate that Yoga reduces stress. Lower stress means lesser chance of getting into many health problems that we discussed in the previous episode.  Actually, you don’t need to recollect the previous episode. This list of health problems includes almost all illnesses known to us today! But how does Yoga achieve stress reduction?

[Quick links] [Pause]   In today’s book talk I am going to discuss about my recent book “Was Jesus really in India? : Final verdict on the age-old mystery”. You probably have read about the controversy raised by a Russian Journalist Nicolas Notovitch, way back in late 1800s. He claimed that he found an ancient manuscript related to Jesus in a remote Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas.

[Quick links] [Pause] Not really! Some amount of stress is actually good for our body and mind. Stress readies us for any eventuality and protects us. It is only when stress gets prolonged and repetitive, do we get into problems. What exactly happens when we undergo stress? Bear in mind, the cause of this stress could be either physical or psychological. The mechanisms are similar.

[Quick links] [Pause] There are two things here. The external events that induce stress and the internal brain mechanisms that interpret the external events as stress. I have seen many poor villagers who have barely sufficient to eat. Their life is full of uncertainties. Day in and day out they face all kinds of hardship and their life is really a struggle for existence. But they somehow seem to withstand all these hardships and manage to pull on. On the other hand, I have seen many well-to-do youngsters who commit suicide unable to bear the stress they face in their life. This is in spite of the fact that they have a secure life, with all comforts, good position in the society, great educational background and so on. Why is this anomaly?