Humans need to become super-geeks.

Hi friends,

Being from Computer Science background, I have been learning and exploring the cutting edge Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for last 10 years. I do believe that ICT is the biggest game-changer technology in the history of humanity so far. It can bring and has already brought mind-blowing changes in every arena of human life. I need not cite examples as they are aplenty, web-browsing and email being the most obvious ones.

I think, in India we are still low on scale while using ICT. If you ask me the ideal plan of action for making ourselves and our family super-geek, I will list the following:

1. Have a computer tablet in your family which the kid can use starting from his/her 0th birthday , that is, just from his/her first day on Earth – well, his/her mother can use it for him/her various – good videos, pictures, audios to relax and let him/her learn things.
2. Gift him/her a smartphone once he/she is 13 – smartphone can help the kid get a good sleep using sleep cycle alarm app (see my previous article for details), has many good games for memory improvement, relaxation, time management and so on so forth, all of which will help improve the productivity of the kid. Since mobile emits radio waves whose potential health hazards are not fully understood, it will be better to wait till the kid turns 13 before he/she gets the smartphone. Even in teenage, the kid should use speaker or earphone to talk rather than keeping the mobile closer to ears to minimize any potential health hazards. After teenage, so many precautions will not be needed as brain is largely well-developed by then and hence radio waves’ potential harm is significantly less. Before teenage, the kid can be given a tablet which will have all apps of smartphone also as these apps are written for both tablets and smartphones.
3. Once the kid can type well on your laptop/desktop with his/her little fingers (probably by the age of 5-6), give him/her his/her own laptop.
4. Help the kid learn various computer applications like office applications, browser, email, etc. with time as he/she grows.
5. Help the kid learn at least 4 computer science courses whenever he/she shows readiness (be it before the age of 10 or 14 or later):
   1. C++ programming language – the master programming language. If one knows it, one will find learning any programming language much easier and smoother.
   2. Algorithm and data structure
   3. Computer Networking
   4. Artificial Intelligence

   All these courses are available on internet in video format from top-tier colleges of the world. These courses should be offered in every high school to the interested person on optional basis and should be made compulsory in every bachelor degree program (though the schools and colleges may make them non-graded courses to ease out the stress of students), be it a bachelor degree in humanities, commerce, medicine or any stream of science and engineering. Students should be encouraged to take up advanced courses of computer science in high schools and colleges based on their interests. And of course, parents should help their kids learn these courses as soon as the kids show the aptitude to learn them.

6. I think, above 5 steps will give the basic foundation to kids in ICT and then depending on personal interest and aptitude, the kids can fly out in the infinite sky of ICT as much as he/she wants. There have been cases of doctors in USA writing out software for medical application and then selling it to Microsoft. Computer programming (all 4 courses listed above make you a smart computer programmer) surely should be learnt by everyone irrespective of eventual career goals if we want to be super-geeks in true sense.
7. Also of course, not only kids, but every human being of all ages should have his/her own smartphone as well as a laptop and learn computer programming by doing above 4 courses.
8. And lastly this extremely important point. Use various internet filter software/apps like Safe Eyes, Funamo, K9, etc. (search and try out more software/apps before using anyone) on all smartphones, tablets and laptops. Apart from ensuring internet filtering, one can also set up the use of smartphones, tablets and laptops allowed only during fixed time or for fixed duration every day using these software/apps. This will then allow only proper and productive use of internet and these gadgets.

Using ICT technology in all facets of our personal and collective life, let us become super-geeks and have super-geeky families, organizations, society and human race. This will spur lots of positive and creative energies in the world, for sure.

Thanks,

Gopal

Use sleep-cycle based alarm to daily wake up feeling fully fresh.

Hi friends,

Very recently, fed up with failure of all the ideas that I could come up in life so far to ensure waking up daily feeling fully fresh, I remembered about sleep-cycle article that I read on internet few years ago. The research says that if you wake up from deep sleep due to alarm, you will surely feel tired and foggy irrespective of how long you slept. This does make sense because moving abruptly from deep sleep to wakefulness is not acceptable to body-mind complex as nature abhors abruptness. The problem is deeper because during every 1.5 hrs or so (exact timing changes with person to person) while sleeping, we experience one full sleep cycle consisting of very light, light and deep sleep and this cycle keeps on repeating throughout our sleep. So, even if we have slept 8 hrs, we might be still in deep sleep stage when the alarm wakes up.

But, I never found such an alarm which can use sleep cycle tracking and wake me up during light phase of sleep on amazon.com while searching last few years. As I had just bought an android smartphone few weeks ago, naturally I thought whether there is an app on “Android Play Store” to do this. And I found not just one but 3-4 apps there. The basic idea of these apps is that your smartphone has an accelerometer sensor which can register any motion (including jerks). So, if you use “sleep-cycle based app” on your smartphone by keeping it under your pillow or even nearby on the mattress, it will register all motions that your body movements during sleep produce. Since during deep sleep, body movements are quite less and as the sleep gets lighter, body movements also become more, your app knows when you are in deep sleep and when in light sleep. And it wakes up during the lightest part of the sleep within the “wake up” window you set. Like you may set, wake up during 3 am to 3:30 am if you sleep at 9 pm. So, it will choose the lightest sleep stage in 3 am to 3:30 am range to wake you up and you will feel so light and fresh not just one day but every day of life. By the way, this type of app is also available on iPhone – in fact, it first appeared on iPhone (Steve Jobs was the ultimate pioneer for sure – ) and got developed on android later. You may search on internet whether this app is present on Microsoft’s smartphone – if not, do not buy it as waking up fresh every day is the most important productivity technique that one needs whole life. Smartphones have the option of airplane or flight mode enabling which during sleep will ensure no signal transmission and reception, eliminating any possible health hazards of electromagnetic signals emitted by smartphones in normal mode.

Well, do not think that smartphone is called smartphone for nothing. They have amazing apps for everything to improve your productivity from helping you sleep well to track your goals, notify you of various important events and awesome time-management apps for both daily as well as long-term time-management (I myself am happily using “Time Recording” android app for time-management purpose – you can find such apps on iPhone also). You just have to search app stores of iPhone, Android (and I hope, Microsoft’s) for these apps, try a bunch of them to figure out which one is the best for you and then buy them (in case they are not free – generally, the cost is not more than 1-2 dollars which is small enough if you really feel the need of app for improving your productivity).

I do believe now that every person should have a smartphone and not the dumb phone – internet distraction on smartphone can also be controlled by great apps (for example, I use funamo app on my smartphone for internet distraction control). So, smartphone can only add to your life – it is all sweetness . So, if you do not have a smartphone yet, go and buy one for yourself and your kids (if any).

Thanks,

Gopal

The need to revive Rishi tradition (brahmacharya in married life)

Hi friends,

My blog has a very good content on brahmacharya and yoga (even on student life – though brahmacharya articles are most popular). Brahmacharya practice has become very difficult these days due to bombardment of our mind 24×7 since a small age with all kinds of male-female consciousness promoting visuals through various forms of electronic media and internet. In my own experience, I find even spiritual people getting bewildered at whether it is really possible to practise full celibacy in current times – of course, materialistic people are completely gone as far as celibacy is concerned.

But, I do not blame them because they were not guided properly by anyone. Thanks to my brahmacharya system which I fondly call “Mind-blowing, cutting-edge, state-of-the-art 12-point formula” I have now developed a satisfactory grip on this celibacy challenge in my own life. I feel that I have really given cutting-edge guidance on my blog and anyone who is fully sincere will definitely find satisfactory success after following this 12-point formula.

Inspired by Moses’ 10 commandments, I keep on making small-small improvements to my 12-point formula to make it the perfect formula for all brahmacharya aspirants so that it can also continue guiding the spiritual segment of humanity for next few thousand years at least – modesty of aspirations is definitely not my quality – hehehe.

My biggest wish is to see brahmachari families like those of Vedic Rishis rather than monks and my spiritual writings will always be towards that end. I am definitely not a fan of monastic system after having seen how little monks have contributed to India’s freedom struggle and numerous social and political challenges of post-Independence India and other parts of the world. By not having families, most spiritual people tend to lose interest and/or practical approach towards society and of course, spiritual quality of society also goes down when spiritual people do not beget children –  exceptions to this arise only when one is very, very big-hearted and socially conscious like Swami Vivekananda himself was, but which most monks are not. I am confident that spiritual couples will be able to maintain lifelong celibacy through 100% sincere application of 12-point formula from 29-30 (or at worst 32-33) onward.  As per my knowledge and understanding of the science of yoga, a very accurate 8-point formula to produce intellectual and spiritually evolved offsprings is as follows:

1. Ideally both spouses should practise celibacy for at least 1 year continuously for having 1 child (for next child, again at least 1 year celibacy) – this can be done only by spiritually high level people. But, even spiritually average people should practise at least 1 month celibacy practice before conceiving the child.
2. The child should be conceived in a positive frame of mind and at a good moment. Though astrology can provide very good moments for conception, it is not 100% accurate science nor we have very reliable astrologers. But, one moment is always good as per yoga and that is brahmamuhurta period (4 am to 5 am can be considered the right brahmamuhurta period). So, it is best to conceive the child between 4 am to 5 am.
3. The conception day should be planned based on biological phase of wife as males are always in a position to procreate.
4. If possible, one can move to a peaceful place also for this purpose. Though it is not an absolute necessity because early morning period between 4 am to 5 am is always peaceful in any part of the world.
5. The day before conception day should be spent in juice-fasting (or liquid diets barring milk as milk’s digestion takes a long time) so that mind feels more and more peaceful and saturated with sattva. The whole day should be spent in meditation and reading/watching good things related to qualities you want in your child. One should also “write and read aloud auto-suggestions” repeatedly for 10-15 min throughout whole day regarding qualities one wants in the child. (Writing involves touch and vision and reading aloud involves hearing and vision – so, all 3 most powerful senses, touch, vision and hearing are involved in this auto-suggestion technique making it very effective.) Auto-suggestion must have one common, extremely meaningful part: “May my kid inherit all good qualities of mine and my spouse, but none of our bad qualities” plus some additional qualities based on what kind of soul one wants to attract. For example, a spiritual and politically conscious geek like me may desire a kid with additional good qualities: “(1) Spiritual level of Swami Vivekananda, (1) Mathematical intelligence and 230+ IQ level of Terence Tao, (3) Business skill of Bill Gates, (4) Self-sacrificing spirit of Guru Govind Singh and (5) Political skill of Mahatma Gandhi”. So, in such a case, reading/watching good things and auto-suggestions will also focus on these 5 good qualities. But, if someone is a cricket fan, then he can desire 3 additional qualities like: “(1) Batting skill of Sachin Tendulkar, (2) Fielding skill of Jonty Rhodes, and (3) Bowling skill of Glenn Mcgrath”. And so on, so forth for other qualities of arts, dance, music, acting, sports, etc. In fact, the process of auto-suggestion regarding the child should be carried out for 10-15 min over few weeks/months also before the conception day for even better results and mother should carry out this process of auto-suggestion throughout pregnancy period to have a good impact on the child.
6. On conception day, the couples should wake up between 3 am to 3:30 am (or even before) and have morning ablutions finished (living on juice and soup previous day helps in finishing ablutions in early morning itself even without prior habit) – this will make them feel very fresh. Then, they should meditate for at least 30 min. Then, they should have fruits or fruit-juices or vegetable soups to feel energised (no other food just after fasting is recommended). Then, they should “write and read aloud repeatedly” for 10-15 min auto-suggestions regarding qualities they want in their child (which must include the common, extremely meaningful part: “May my kid inherit all good qualities of myself and my spouse, but none of our bad qualities“) and watch few min videos/pictures also of those persons who have these qualities. Then, in this frame of mind, they should conceive the child – throughout the process, they should talk or think or watch pictures/videos about these qualities. Due to many other reasons, missionary position is less passionate/animalistic and more respectful and is also most suitable for conception and hence, should be used for procreational sex. Also, since males are visually very excitable and since in procreational sex (sex for producing progeny) one needs to have the least trace of passion or pleasure sense (zero passion in procreational sex is not possible because sex is rajasic by its very nature, but the feeling of passion or pleasure sense in mind should be kept to a minimum during procreational sex using all possible methods), it will be better to perform the process in the least needed light in the bedroom (one may close off eyes to deal with any uncomfort due to less light like one does during meditation) and to keep talking aloud mentally desired auto-suggestions explained above till the very moment of conception and even for few more minutes after conception.
7. During pregnancy, both spouses should practise celibacy. This is easy for wife as during pregnancy their sensual desires automatically subside. But, males are often disastrous when it comes to celibacy practice even during such phase – they should keep themselves away from wife during pregnancy at all costs if they find it difficult to maintain celibacy. Good diet, peaceful mind and daily auto-suggestions as suggested above and reading/watching good things related to qualities desired in kids should be carried out by the wife throughout pregnancy period as that will shape up the personality of the child along positive direction.
8. Lastly, when the child arrives, consider him/her as a gift and not your possession. Remember, there are 4 types of parenting: (1) Give neither love nor guidance to kids – negligent parenting, (2) Give love but not guidance – indulgent parenting, (3) Give guidance but not love – authoritarian parenting, and (4) Give both love and guidance – good parenting. First 3 types of parenting always produce disastrous results. Only the 4th type of parenting is right. So, give both love and guidance to your child which means give maximum possible freedom to your kids to evolve their life in a unique and creative way as per their inclination and taste.

Coming back to the reason behind my pro-marriage stance, the change has happened only in last 2 years after gaining some hard experiences in life because before that I was believing under infatuating influence of Swami Vivekananda that a band of monks will change this world – now it has become a band of brahmacharis (they may be monks or brahmachari householders) will change this world. (I consider brahmacharya to be so challenging in present times that I believe a substantial number of brahmacharya aspirants in the world will definitely use much or whole of 12-point formula to tide over the challenge of lifelong celibacy).  I believe that if anyone decides to become a monk, he/she can justify that decision only and only through active participation in at least one more creative dimension of life, be it like Science (Newton was also a bachelor and celibate), Technology, Academia, Industry, Arts & Music, Politics, etc.

I know I have strong convictions and aspirations – one is free to happily disagree with some of these and I am also free to happily plod on for my convictions and aspirations. Cheers.

Thanks,

Gopal

A tribute to Jyoti

Dear friends,

The brutal gang-rape and subsequent death of India’s braveheart daughter and our beloved sister, Jyoti (her brave father revealed her name because revealing her name will give courage to other women who have survived such attacks – kudos to the brave father of our brave sister), has left every conscientious person in trauma. A bright life has been extinguished by six beasts in our country. The Hindu editorial aptly summed up the angst and anger of the nation: ‘The 23-year-old student whose struggle against sexual assault, rape and death shone a harsh light deep into the ugly, rotting interior of our society is no more. But like Byron’s young woman “too soon returned to earth,” her extinguished life-star shines fiercely as it shoots along the sky, and it is up to us – as a people, as women, and as men — to fix the fractures and fissures it illuminates in the process.‘

Jyoti”s words to her mother and brother, “I want to live” and her struggle to survive the barbaric and unfortunately fatal assault proves that she is a martyr to the cause of dignity of womankind. What was her fault? Why did she have to die so young for no fault of hers? She was meant to be a symbol of rise of India, a land of opportunity and dreams for our daughters and sisters. Alas! She became the mirror to an India which is the land of violence and humiliation against womankind.

She wanted to rise high in life and serve the society. She worked hard throughout life through financial and other struggles that are abundant in lower-middle class families. As her brother said, “She was free-willed and wanted to be financially independent.” She was the best of Indian girl and youth of present generation. Her death is not just a random death borne out of mindless, ghastly misdeeds of drunk brutes. Her death reflects the failings of society in rearing up the children to respect womankind. Her death reflects the cancerous corruption and criminal apathy of our administrative system as the cursed bus in which horrific crime against Jyoti was committed was used by the same six accused just few minutes earlier to rob a person and the Delhi police neglected to pursue the leads quickly when the robbed person registered a complaint. The bus was being illegally plied as a chartered bus despite having license for only being used as a school bus. To add to the list of preventable illegalities, despite a clear Supreme Court order against use of tinted glasses in vehicles, the bus used for the crime has been plying in Delhi roads with tinted glass which emboldened the criminals and made them think that they will be able to commit crimes inside the moving bus without anyone outside learning about it. As this article mentions, “We now know that the police were collecting hafta from the owner of this bus to gloss over repeated violations of the law and it is the diary in which bribes are recorded that helped trace the vehicle and the rapists, not back-breaking investigations.” If what this article says is true, fie upon our IPS officers for wreaking down this country to this extent to fulfill their devilish mafiagiri!

If our system would not have been so venal and venomously corrupt, there is every reason to believe that Jyoti would have been alive today graciously working towards her aspirations. But, instead with her death we are left with an endless pall of gloom.

It is time for us to reflect on lessons that our collective failings to save many a Jyoti have brought to the fore through Jyoti’s martyrdom. A recent survey on perception of women says that among all G20 countries, India is the worst country to be a woman. Jyoti’s case is a mirror to the faultlines of our society and how we have failed our womankind even after 1 century of exhortation by Swami Vivekananda:

There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved.

The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women.

It is very difficult to understand why in this country [India] so much difference is made between men and women, whereas the Vedanta declares that one and the same conscious Self is present in all beings. You always criticize the women, but say what have you done for their uplift? Writing down Smritis etc., and binding them by hard rules, the men have turned the women into manufacturing machines! If you do not raise the women, who are living embodiment of the Divine Mother, don’t think that you have any other way to rise.

All nations have attained greatness by paying proper respect to women. That country and that nation which do not respect women have never become great, nor will ever be in future. The principal reason why your race has so much degenerated is that you have no respect for these living images of Shakti. Manu says, “Where women are respected, there the gods delight; and where they are not, there all works and efforts come to naught.” There is no hope of rise for that family or country where there is no estimation of women, where they live in sadness.

If we want to pay true homage to the martyrdom of India’s beloved daughter Jyoti, all of us need to ensure full equality to woman in our own families and protest vigorously against any injustice to womankind that we come across within or outside the families.

Whether it is producing many children to get one or more sons as practised by previous generation or killing the female foetus as practised by current generation, both are barbaric humiliation of the womankind even before the beginning of the life of a girl and must be stopped using all legal and educational means at our disposal.

Both boys and girls should be given same opportunity for education and the girls should not be engaged in household chores which boys are never engaged into like cooking, washing clothes, etc. so that both boys and girls get same amount of time and energy for making the most of their student life. All facilities for health and education should be given in equal measure to both sons and daughters – for this, we need to change our rotten, male-chauvinist, selfish mindset which is present in even women and create a conducive milieu where girls feel respected and safe to make the best of their lives.

Another shameful activity that hampers the rise of womankind is wretched dowry system. Despite the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, the dowry system is unabashedly practised by all and sundry in the name of prestige and recovering education expenses of boys (shamelessly neglecting brides’ education expenses in the calculation) and dowry paid to daughters – it is a great shame that even my generation did not prove better in this regard. I wonder how long it will take us to understand that due to  extremely burdensome additional financial pressure on parents, dowry system is nothing but one of the biggest evil reasons why in our society girls are denied equal opportunity for health, education and economic advancements in life. Parents would not be able to force us to take dowry if we do not want it. Our sentiments should be towards the larger principles and not to the unprincipled elements of society, be they our parents, relatives or friends. This greed for undeserved wealth in the form of dowry is a shameless legacy that many generations have been bequeathing to next generation and it is high time that youths of our country destroy this crying shame of centuries.

Once we can create the right milieu of respect for womankind inside homes in thoughts, words and deeds, only then we will have the foundation well-laid for doing the same in society at large.

We need to do away with all humiliating cowardice in face of eve-teasing and other harassment of girls – we should be brave to bring security and safety to Jyotis of our country. We should never use abuses (which are one more way of showing male chauvinism and debasing women) in our talks and boycott pornographic and other woman-demeaning literature, so-called pieces of art and movies. Calling rape victims with degrading terms like “Jindaa Lash” (living corpose) should be stopped – they should not be victimized by media and society, but instead valorised for their bravery in bringing the brute elements of society before the iron laws of the nation. They should be honoured as the brave daughters of our country and their tormentors should be brought to book using fast-track trials within 3 months.

I fully support strict laws to punish all sexual harassments, rape and murder. I support this sentiments of millions of people that perpetrators of rape should be chemically castrated (and even physically in case of severe cases of physical brutality) and all rape-cum-murder should be given mandatory death-penalty. Such laws are good deterrent but they need to be implemented on ground – gender sensitization in police and judiciary apart from civil society activism can only ensure that laws are not just on paper, but are actually applied vigorously to all instances of violence against woman.

Jyoti deserves a national bravery award and memorial for giving her life to the cause of woman dignity. She is a martyr like Bhagat Singh. She may not be with us today, but her courage and optimism in face of unspeakable, unjust sufferings which our dysfunctional society and institutions brought to her will always beckon everyone of us to be a relentless activist for a gender-inequality free India and the world.

Rest in peace, sister. Please forgive us for failing you. We promise to keep your pain in our hearts for ever and make our country safe and respectful for womankind before you come to us again.

Jai Hind!

Gopal

Effective tips for handwriting improvement

Hi friends,

This article is on effective tips for handwriting improvement. Everyone has a desire to write legibly and beautifully. I remember having tried improving handwriting during high school through conscious efforts, but to my utter dismay, I could not succeed much then. Later I gave up as I was still able to ace my exams with somewhat legible, but not beautiful handwriting.

But, I became more conscious in last few years on handwriting improvement aspects. Let me explain some effective tips to improve one’s handwriting based on my experimentation of last 2 years.

TIP 1. Understand the pros and cons of cursive versus print handwriting and adapt your handwriting accordingly.

Cursive handwriting pros:

• Looks very beautiful and elegant.
• We can write in a flow easily as one can write one whole word without lifting the pen more than once or twice.

Cursive handwriting cons:

• Sometimes legibility becomes poor and the reader finds it difficult to understand the handwriting. This difficulty is additionally due to the fact that all the writings in books, newspaper, magazines and internet are in print letters with each letter separate from the other and hence everyone is more familiar with print letters than cursive letters.

Print handwriting is clear and easy to read. Also, though it may appear to us that cursive handwriting will be faster than print handwriting, the fact is all research have concluded that neither of them is necessarily faster than the other. This is because though we lift pen very less in cursive handwriting, the cursive letters have almost always much more length than corresponding print letters. So, there is no speed advantage in general from either cursive or print handwriting.

Due to these reasons, most of us base our handwriting mostly on print letters with a smattering of few cursive letters here and there to add to our speed and flow. To improve the legibility of our handwriting, we should write few paragraphs and then check them ourselves (may also take the help of some friends) to find out which letter or letter sequence becomes illegible in our present handwriting style. Then through trial and error we should substitute various print letters for cursive letters or cursive letters for print letters or in existing print/cursive letters, introduce distinctness and other modifications to improve legibility. This is a process of conscious self-effort. For example, I always used all print letters in handwriting, but replaced r by cursive letter after observing that rn in print letters used to resemble m in my writing.

Using above approach legibility can be improved completely.

TIP 2. Beatifying the handwriting using the right pen, using some cursive letters and by bringing symmetry in writing.

I have talked about 3 things in this tip.

FIRST, use the right pen. Right pen should make you feel comfortable and its ink should flow smooth and gives an ink width which is neither too thin nor too thick and which makes your handwriting looks beautiful. You will need to try out 5-10 pens in the market to work this out- to save money, instead of buying them, you can try writing 1 paragraph in the stationary shop itself to select the desired pen – most shopkeepers will not object to this experiment.

SECOND, curves in general look very beautiful – just imagine moon looking like a rectangle rather than a circle and you can understand what I mean. So, in general a cursive letter looks more beautiful than its print counterpart (just my personal opinion). So, you may try substituting some print letters in your handwriting by respective cursive letters to improve beauty quotient of your handwriting.

THIRD, the handwriting should have a good deal of symmetry. Two suggestions on this are:

Suggestion 1. Symmetry means all the letters should have same vertical orientation – all should be straight, left-tilted or right-tilted. You should have to pick straight or left or right tilt based on what increases the beauty quotient of your handwriting and what is comfortable for you. Since comfort can often be developed with practice, give first priority to what looks more beautiful. To find this out, write 1-2 pages with all straight letters and then do it with all left tilted letters and then with all right tilted letters – now, figure out what looks more symmetric and hence more beautiful and pick that as your handwriting style. To develop this habit, you just have to consciously practise writing 2-3 pages every day at home using all straight or all left tilted or all right tilted letters and do the same while taking notes in classroom (in case you attend any). In just a span of 2 weeks, you will develop the habit well.

Suggestion 2. Try to keep the same height of all small letters and the same height of all capital letters. This also brings symmetry and hence adds to the beauty of handwriting. This of course does not apply to width of letters as widths of different letters cannot be made same (for example, compare small i and small g).

TIP 3. Improve speed of your writing using the right pen.

I would like to emphasize on the aspect of using the right pen. I myself tried out 10 pens 1 year ago and found that there was difference of 10-20% in writing speed with different pens for me. I picked the pen which was comfortable for me apart from giving me a good speed as my permanent companion. My personal experience hence makes me believe that the handwriting speed does vary with pen and hence, one should try out different pens to zero down to the one which gives one good speed and is also comfortable.

TIP 4. Learn from beautiful writings of others.

If you find someone’s handwriting very beautiful, look for patterns like how individual letters are written, whether they are written all straight, all left-tilted or all right-tilted, whether the writing is in bold ink or light ink, thick ink or think ink, the length of letters, the breadth of letters, etc. Try to incorporate some of these features from his/her handwriting and check whether the beauty quotient of your handwriting improves.

These 4 tips I believe are the sum-total of what I can gather from my last 2 years of handwriting improvement experiments. If you know more tips, feel free to share them with me and the readers of this blog in below comments section.

Comments are welcome.

Thanks,
Gopal

The Best Foods to Eat for Healthy Bowel Movements

Hi friends,

A good article on the best foods to eat for healthy bowel movements is given below. I myself use 3-4 bananas in every dinner (dinner to be taken before sunset, i.e. before 6 pm) and also “drink lots of water and practise 5-10 minutes Kapalbhati before going to restroom” – these two techniques apart from strictly avoiding food considered bad for bowel movement, for example, having very little fibre contents like fine flour-based products like bread, etc. give me completely satisfactory results.

Taking 1-2 spoonful chyawanprash (an ayurvedic tonic) every day is also very helpful (Source of information is personal experience plus internet). If you know anything else as very helpful, please let the readers know about it through your comments below.

I am sure, below article will help many readers.

Ref: http://www.livestrong.com/article/291288-the-best-foods-to-eat-for-healthy-bowel-movements

Mar 10, 2011 | By Jill Corleone, RD

A healthy bowel movement should be soft, formed and easily passed, according to Dr. Warren Enker, Director of the Gastrointestinal Institute for Cancer and Continuum Cancer Centers of New York. It is normal to have one to two bowel movements a day, but it can also be normal to skip a day. A diet consisting of 25 to 30 g of fiber a day will help you have healthy bowel movements. It is important to drink 64 oz. of fluid a day when increasing your fiber intake for a healthy bowel movement.

LEGUMES
Legumes, including beans, peas and lentils, provide a significant amount of fiber per serving and can help you have a healthy bowel movement. One cup of cooked split peas contains 16 g of fiber and 1 cup of cooked lentils contains 15 g of fiber, meeting at least half of your daily fiber needs. Other high-fiber legumes include kidney beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, lima beans and baked beans. In addition to acting as a good source of fiber, legumes also provide you with protein and iron, and make a healthy meat alternative. Increase your fiber intake with legumes by adding them to soups, salads, and rice and pasta dishes.

BRAN CEREALS
Bran cereals also contain high amounts of fiber to help support healthy bowel movements. A typical serving of a bran cereal contains 13 to 18 g of fiber, according to Enker. These high-fiber cereals do not have to be limited to breakfast, you can also eat cereal for lunch, dinner or as a snack.

DRIED FRUITS
Dried fruits also top the list of high-fiber foods to eat for a healthy bowel movement. Three dried figs contain 10.5 g of fiber, two dried apricot halves contain 1.7 g and three prunes contain 1.9 g. Other high-fiber dried fruits include raisins and dates. Increase your fiber intake by adding dried fruits to your snack list or adding to salads or hot cereals.

FRESH FRUITS
Snacking on fresh fruit can also increase your fiber intake for a healthy bowel movement. One cup of raspberries contains 8 g of fiber and one medium pear with the skin has 5.5 g. Other high-fiber fruits include apples with the skin, oranges, strawberries and bananas.

VEGETABLES
High-fiber vegetables for a healthy bowel movement include artichokes, broccoli, turnip greens, potatoes with the skin, sweet corn and Brussels sprouts.

WHOLE GRAINS
Whole grains also help promote healthy bowel movements. High fiber whole-grain foods include whole wheat bread and pasta, oatmeal, barley and brown rice.

References
University of Michigan Health System: Healthy Bowel Habits
We Heal NY: Bowel Function and Dietary Fiber
We Heal NY: Bowel Function and Dietary Fiber: Fiber Chart
MayoClinic.com: High-Fiber Foods

Thanks,
Gopal

Good techniques to make dreams brahmacharya-friendly

Hi friends,

Here are some techniques to make dreams brahmacharya-friendly. They are in experimental stage, but are proving to be promising. Hence, I am sharing them in this article.

1. Practise celibacy in the waking state using 12-point formula given in this article. What is done in waking state influences and transforms our subconscious mind which gets reflected in dreams.
2. Daily give strong brahmacharya auto-suggestion as given in this section of my main brahmacharya article.
3. Read some brahmacharya literature for 5-10 minutes just before sleep – do practise Nadi Shodhana pranayama without any internal breath-retention during this as it will also help induce a good sleep and purify mind. This is a very effective technique for making dreams brahmacharya-friendly.
4. For male aspirants, to minimize night discharge you should additionally follow these techniques: (a) wake up by 4 am daily, (b) avoid taking dinner after sunset so that stomach is not loaded during sleep as a loaded stomach during sleep also causes night discharge and (c) when night discharge starts happening, quickly throw out the breath fully, pull the navel in and pull up the perineum muscle (it lies between genital and excretory organ) in the state of external breath-retention as long as possible – this reduces the quantum of night discharge by 80-90%. I have reached only up to this stage so far, so cannot tell how to totally stop night discharge. I think, it requires full practice of celibacy at the level of body as well as mind, but full celibacy at the level of mind can happen only in a very advanced stage when Kundalini reaches the 6th centre called Ajna Chakra or higher. Till we reach that stage, we have to practise non-cooperation with brahmacharya-unfriendly thoughts as much as possible to be in the state of mental celibacy to a good extent. (d) Do 5-10 min of Sirsasana or Sarvangasana on the day of night discharge on empty stomach (bowels) – it will help absorb vital elements back into blood-stream. If you do not have too much time-constraint, include 5-10 min of Sirsasana or Sarvangasana in your daily routine, but do it only on an empty stomach.

I hope these techniques will help other aspirants also. Feel free to give your comments and add information about any good technique that you use to make dreams brahmacharya-friendly.

Thanks,
Gopal

10 important lessons from my life

Hi friends,

The 10 important lessons from my life are:

1. Do not give money to anyone in large quantity. Whatever money is given should be accounted for and the decision for giving money should be taken by at least 3 people familiar with the situation so that one particular person’s emotional naivete does not end up as a case of cheating and manipulation by the other side.
2. If someone does not show you bills or show them after taking lots of time, know for sure that there is a strong possibility for cheating. An honest person is prompt in showing you bills. It is mostly in the case of cheating and manipulation when the other side hesitates or shows bills after taking lots of time (so that with more available time, making fake bills become possible and cheating you can continue uninterrupted in future also).
3. Focus more on institutional work through NGOs rather than on personal help – because in institutional work, the work gets channelized properly and helps a larger number of people, hence bringing better results for society and more satisfaction for yourself. Also, since lots of people are involved in decision-making and monitoring process in NGOs, hence, chances of cheating and manipulation are less as compared to personal, direct help to the needy.
4. Exams like IIT-JEE, AIEEE, medical entrance exams, CAT, civil services and other premier competitive examinations are for exceptionally sincere students only – trying to push a person with average background for these exams is only a recipe for loss of money, time, energy and motivation with only poor results. So, guardians/parents, beware of this mistake!
5. Listen to elders of good nature and ethics – their (negative) experiences will help you avoid the same else you will also be cheated or fooled by others or your own unrealistic assessments of others.
6. Guiding a person with an average academic background and sincerity on phone is disastrous – you simply cannot help them even if you have the personal example of top-class sincerity and success. Tamas (Ignorance) of others is not easy to deal with – guidance on phone is too ineffective for an average student. An average student can be guided only by keeping him/her with you or keeping some reliable guardian with him/her and monitoring him/her directly or through the reliable guardian living with him/her. If that is not possible, do not expect much from phone guidance also.
7. If someone cannot show sincerity even after 1 year’s effort, expect no good results from such a person – settle for mediocre results as expectations of good results are meaningful only from those who are fired from within from the word ‘go’. This may not hold true in some rare cases, but this does hold true for a vast majority of cases.
8. Do not get cynical over negative experiences. Learn and get street smart. Continue helping others, but only after taking enough caution to avoid negative experiences and after adequately improving your own management system for rendering and monitoring such help. Keep two things in mind regarding this:
   1. The story of sage and scorpion. It is the story of a scorpion that goes into the Ganges and starts to drown, and then the sage saves the scorpion and the scorpion stings the sage. Then the scorpion goes back into the water and starts to drown again. Again, the sage goes and rescues the scorpion, and the scorpion stings. After a few times like this, the people looking on are saying, ‘What kind of man is this?’ And they ask him, ‘Why do you keep doing this, when the scorpion keeps stinging?’ And the sage says, ‘It is the scorpion’s nature to sting, but it is my nature to save.”
   2. Remember, you are not the only one to get cheated  – many of us get cheated in trying to help others because many times the other person does not have a good character. And this lack of good character is a problem with all kinds of people – men, women, teenagers, adults as well as elderly. It ruins lots of our time, energy, attention, money, motivation and good will for society, but remember others have also faced this and they overcame it through proper reflection over their negative experiences and growing street smart by learning the related lessons and so can and should you. Share your lessons with others also like I am doing so that others can also be saved from disastrous experiences in helping others.
9. If you aim to remain a bachelor (and celibate), then you should start taking big steps for your village, colony or society at large only after crossing 20s, i.e., from the age of 30 onward. And if you aim to be a householder, then you should start taking big steps for your village, colony or society at large only after crossing 30s, i.e., from the age of 40 onward (10 year more because of additional responsibilities of creating a good family). This is because the ground realities are always more twisted and contrived than one can imagine or understand in volatile and fragile period of teens and 20s which are also the most crucial phase of life for one’s own intellectual and spiritual growth without which not much can be done for society. Hence, during teens and 20s, the sole focus must be on our own intellectual and spiritual growth, with very minor and regulated work for others and society like “spending 1% of your income every month/year” and “spending 10 hours every month” for such things so that the latter does not end up harming the more important task of your own personal growth which when done properly in teens and 20s will help a lot in doing good to others and society from 30 (for lifelong bachelors) or 40 (for married people) onward.
10. One more lesson. There are unfortunately many dysfunctional families in this world – in case you are born into such a family, please do not get shocked by insensitive, unintelligent or unethical behaviour of your elders as that is what is normal in dysfunctional families (otherwise why they will be dysfunctional). You should try the following to deal with “troublemaker” elder:
    1. If you are financial dependent on the “troublemaker” elder, you may not be able to wriggle out of the situation on money front, but you can still try to put pressure to stop insensitive, unintelligent behaviour on a particular elder by writing a letter or email to him/her (because direct talk fails many times to have an effect on unintelligent people.)
    2. If the above fails, talk to other parent or grandparent or friends of the troublemaker elder or whoever in your opinion can have some sobering effect on him/her, so that they can convince the troublemaker elder to stop mentally or physically torturing you.
    3. If the above also fails, take the help of elders from neighbourhood or your teachers and principal, so that they can convince the troublemaker elder to stop mentally or physically torturing you.
    4. If all the above fails, remember that in many countries, even kids have been given legal rights to have a life of dignity. Approach police (Police stations have child welfare officers in India) and tell them your problem and ask them to help you. Unfortunately, unlike countries like Norway, we do not have strong institutions to take the kids out of the hands of dysfunctional families and give them for adoption to civilized people. So, lots of us from such families continue the life of hellish childhood. But, I hope, future civilized bureaucrats and political leaders will create such good institutions in India also.

Please learn whatever is worth learning in these lessons and feel free to share your own lessons in comments section below.

Thanks,

Gopal

Brahmacharya practice – dealing with bad days

Hi friends,

My blog has been attracting lots of attention from netizens who are looking for materials on brahmacharya practice. By reading readers’ comments, I feel my efforts are getting utilized by many people. Hence, I am even more dedicated to keep on sharing important information in future as well.

Challenges, solutions and various quotes on brahmacharya practice have already been mentioned in great details in my article “Greatly inspiring brahmacharya (celibacy) quotes”. Here, I want to draw the attention of the readers towards one of the most crucial aspects of celibacy practice, namely bad days in celibacy practice. By bad days in celibacy practice, what I mean is, on such days your mind will be agitated by lust for hours (and just seconds and minutes) and none of the conventional techniques of celibacy practice will help you satisfactorily in dealing with lust. In general, such bad days are bound to occur quite regularly during teens, 20s and 30s (the most crucial period of celibacy practice when the benefits are the highest).

Celibacy is the effort to regulate the most powerful force of nature – only by using a set of very intelligent strategies combining early morning rising, yoga and meditation, focused daily routine in all respects, steady application of “chooha or rat technique” (it means to behave timidly like a rat and thus, focus primarily, as far as practically possible, on escaping from wrong environment rather than trying to manage yourself in wrong environment – use lion technique in all other domains except celibacy practice, else disasters may happen ) and will-power. Still, bad days keep on coming every month for almost all celibacy practitioners when no yoga technique (Mahabandha included), meditation, cold bath, auto-suggestions, will-power etc. work satisfactorily. Such bad days generally come once or twice a week for those who wake up after sunrise rather than before sunrise (brahmamuhurta) and do not practice yoga and meditation – such forceful assault of this powerful instinct once or twice a week is enough to break the will of almost anyone. Very few people in this category succeed in maintaining celibacy for long periods of time.

But, there is another group of people who wake up during brahmamuhurta (1-3 hours before sunrise – between 3 am and 5 am) and do yoga and meditation on daily basis for 40-50 minutes or more. For such people, the frequency of bad days go down from once or twice every week to once or twice every month. So, the probability of success is much more for this group. Still, even once or twice a month of bad days is enough to make celibacy practitioners demoralized and despondent about their spiritual progress and may lead to even downfall. So, a foolproof method is required to deal with such bad days – and such foolproof method is already there in various writings of our sages. My article is just to bring spotlight on that method. This foolproof method is described clearly in below quotes of Dadasri (an enlightened sage from Gujarat):

“If ever there is an occasion for a severe testing of your resolve of brahmacharya, if there is strong sexual attraction and inclination, then one should fast two to three times. When the force of unfolding karma is very strong, fasting can stop them. Fasting does not destroy these sexual passions completely.”

He is basically saying, give up next 2 or 3 meals (giving up next 3 meals mean 24 hours fasting). Well, if you have developed the firm habit of waking up during brahmamuhurta and doing yoga and meditation on daily basis for 40-50 minutes or more, giving up next 1 meal will suffice for you on a majority of bad days. Sometimes, you may need to go for “give up next 2 meals” and very, very rarely, you will need to go to the extent of “give up next 3 meals”. The technique is a bit harsh, but it is foolproof. Unfortunately, I do not know of any easy technique – cold bath and other well-known techniques of yoga, auto-suggestion, etc. do not work well on bad days and if you rely on those techniques, you may end up breaking your celibacy practice in sheer desperation that always arises on such bad days. So, go for the foolproof technique of “giving up next 1 or more meals”. It is a bit harsh, but then every sage has said, “Celibacy is the highest austerity, but it also yields the highest level of benefits at physical, mental and spiritual levels.” However much strategic intelligence one may apply to successfully practice celibacy on most days, on bads days one will need austere technique of “giving up next 1 or more meals”, otherwise disasters may happen!

But, try 20-30 min “Nadi Shodhana Basic (NSB)”  at a stretch (you should study during NSB practice to use time more efficiently) once or more in a day before accepting it as a bad day – you should read brahmacharya quotes during some or entire duration of NSB practice unless you have some time-constraint in which case you can continue doing your original work. This technique will remove boundary line cases of bad days and thus ensure that bad days frequency is small enough such that it does not look much embarrassing and demoralizing . This recommendation removes boundary line cases of bad days by opening up Shushumna channel (central channel in astral body) and making prana ascends up it from lower sexual centres and thus calming lust through changing the pranic flow upward. 20 min is the minimum at-a-stretch NSB that will be needed in general, but feel free to go for more like 30 min or so as well. Also, you should do 20-30 min NSB even when you accept a particular do as a bad day and fast for next meal as this additional practice of 20-30 min NSB will still prove to be useful and that too quickly enough in reducing the intensity of lust in mind helping you focus on the work at hand. Fasting for next meal will do the final job along with supplementary role of 20-30 min NSB.

But, I have few good advices for you to make your fasting period easier:

1. Drink lots of water during this fasting period – water dilutes the hydrochloric acid present in gastric juices (which has a role in making you feel hungry) and will make you feel less hungry.
2. You may practice internal breath retention to charge up yourself – with the extra pranic energy gained through internal breath retention, you will feel less need for energy from food and hence, your physical system will produce less feeling of hunger in the body. (Warning: Internal breath retention should not be used if one has some problems of blood pressure or heart disease.)
3. Focus on easy and interesting tasks during this period as far as possible.
4. If your fasting period involves giving up dinner, then you will have some difficulty in falling asleep due to body and brain’s reactions to hunger. The best technique to ensure that you get sleep in time in this case is to schedule a 30-45 minute walk – the physical and mental tiredness due to walk will induce sleep at the desired time. If that is not possible due to some reason, use 30-45 minute before sleep in mantra chanting, meditation and relaxing pranayama like bhramari, nadi shodhan without internal breath retention, etc. This will help ensure that your sleep rhythm does not get disturbed that day.
5. You may give your mind awards like your favourite sweets or snacks at the completion of the fasting period. I give myself around Rs. 100 for having all my favourite sweets and snacks and my mind feels very positive and cheerful (read greedy) after giving up next 1 meal on such bad days. You should also do the same because the carrot should also be hanged before mind when it accepts some stick (“carrot and stick policy), otherwise too much harshness makes mind revolt against the discipline.
6. If there is too much gap between your meals like 9-10 hrs, you can go for the modified version like, “fast for next 6 or 8 hours” also – just experiment to see how many hours of fasting are enough for you.
7. You may also maintain some table called “Brahmacharya practice – bad day table” to keep a tab on the date of bad days, the gap between two consecutive bad days and lessons for future, in case some external trigger led to a particular bad day.
   1. One of my worst failures of 20s has been to understand this technique of “giving up next 1-2 meals” very late in 2012 only. The main reason behind this is that this technique has not been prominently described in the teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi and even Swami Sivananda. Swami Sivananda wrote somewhere, “Resort to fasting whenever passion troubles us.” But, that would mean fasting 2-3 times every week because a mild level of troubles due to passion happens with that frequency to most of us. He did not mention that this technique is to be used for only extreme case of troubles. I found this technique properly mentioned in the writings of only Dadasri (a Gujarati sage) in 2007 itself, but since I am more hooked by Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi and Swami Sivananda, I did not give any weightage to it that time – alas! what a blunder I committed! But, I recognized its importance fully in 2012 and thereafter I have incorporated as one of the most crucial points in 12-point formula.
   2. This has given me a foolproof and mind-blowing result. Even the most extreme level of passions on bad days get fully calmed down by this most simple technique of giving up next meal – you have to try it before you can believe me. Thanks Heavens for this foolproof technique to save brahmacharya aspirants on bad days.

Please note that this fasting is total fasting – you may only drink water during your fasting period. Fruit juices, fruits, milk and every type of meal has to be avoided during your fasting period, otherwise you will not derive the desired benefit. No self-fooling here – it is the real fasting!

Why is this technique a foolproof technique? I think, the main reason is as follows. When we fast, we have less bio-energy or prana in the body from food than normal and various organs of the body feel the need for energy. So, our system withdraws energy (prana) from excess sexual energy that troubles us on bad days so that this can be used to supply the need of various organs. Thus, this energy withdrawal from sexual centre happens and fully calms down our internal turbulence from sexual energy climax/build-up. And we are saved from downfall. Apart from this main reason, other reasons can be as follows.

When one fasts, the pranas are free from the process of digestion, they get calmer and reduce the lustful agitations in body and mind. Also, one’s mind experiences some type of shock due to fasting – this shock makes it more reflective and introspective, thereby naturally weakening its dissipative (rajasic) tendencies. So, fasting reduces the agitations of lust at the levels of body, prana (vital energy) and mind, all three. It becomes thus a great antidote and saves the aspirant from the possibilities of downfall on such bad days.

So, please successfully deal with bad days in celibacy practice (expected to be once or twice every month) by using “give up next 1 or more meals” rule.

Bad days may be triggered totally internally as well as externally. If the trigger is completely internal, nothing can be or needs to be done. But, if the trigger is external, you should carefully note down (better in writing in some type of brahmacharya diary/document) possible external situations which led to bad days and figure our means and ways to avoid such external situations in future. Such external situations may be reading a so-called romantic story/novel or adult material, watching a so-called romantic movie/serial or adult movie/serial, interacting with or observing intentionally a member of opposite gender who looks attractive to you or listening to or indulging in lustful conversations with friends – basically these external situations are all about employing your eyes, ears and mouth in some lust-triggering activities.

Also, food does play a very big role in celibacy practice – certain types of food are considered tamasic (alcohol, tobacco and other intoxicants) or rajasic (meat, oily food, tea/coffee, chocolate, etc.) – taking them makes celibacy too difficult. So, avoid these types of food as they also trigger bad days frequently. You definitely will have to eliminate these external situations/inputs or at least keep them in control as far as possible because too much frequency of bad days will defeat your vow of celibacy sooner or later as one cannot keep fasting every day. That’s the reason it is said that only a person who controls all his/her 5 senses of touch, smell, sight, hearing and talking can maintain the vow of celibacy. Stay motivated as the eventual rewards of heightened intellectual and spiritual energies will more than make up for your struggle in maintaining self-discipline for celibacy.

Comments are welcome.

Thanks,

Gopal

Wake up by 4 am every day

Hi friends,

 

This group – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wake_up_by_4_am_every_day – has been created to help one another develop “wake up by 4 am every day” habit. This group aims to emulate the wise sayings of our great sages and savants of waking up every day during brahmamuhurta (by 4 am). This habit is most conducive to our physical, mental as well as spiritual well-being and we must develop this habit most firmly.

Through mutual help, we all will achieve this goal which is so important that Swami Sivananda put it as the first among his 20 spiritual instructions:

1. BRAHMAMUHURTA. Get up at 4 a.m. daily. This is Brahmamuhurta which is extremely favourable for Sadhana. Do all your morning spiritual Sadhana during this period from 4 a.m. to 6:30 or 7 a.m. Such Sadhana gives quick and maximum progress.

Some of us have already developed this habit and are in the group mainly to mentor others as well as to learn more insights and techniques from their experiences.

Discussions related to “wake up by 4 am every day” discipline and its physical, mental and spiritual benefits are most welcome, but unrelated discussion are not welcome to avoid distraction and dissipation of precious time and energy.

Swami Sivananda said that 1 hr of meditation during brahmamuhurta is equal to 6 hrs of meditation during other hours of the day and that by doing 1 hr meditation during brahmamuhurta, one can easily maintain a peaceful state of mind whole day despite external challenges.

For those who are trying to practise brahmacharya/celibacy, waking up during brahmamuhuta is all important. When Shushumna channel is open for 2 hrs in early morning, prana moves up it and hence, celibacy becomes much natural and easy – I am almost 100% sure now that those who sleep till 6-7 am will never be able to practise celibacy for long as their unchanneled prana will blow up their will from within sooner or later, but a yogi’s prana gets channeled up the shushumna and there is no pressure point within for him/her unlike “sleep till 6-7 am” folks. Except brahmamuhurta phase, during other times of the day, shushumna is open only for a couple of minutes every 1-2 hrs.

So, “wake up by 4 am every day” is an all-important discipline for all spiritual aspirants. It will also help everyone develop a peaceful, confident and strong-willed mind which will have numerous positive influences on our day-to-day life and work efficiency in whatever field we are.

Let us achieve “wake up by 4 am every day” discipline together and reap the resultant heavy harvest in terms of physical, mental and spiritual benefits!

Thanks

Gopal