Living on Pranic Food for 70 years?

Prahlad Jani is being held in isolation in a hospital in Ahmedabad, Gurjarat, where he is being closely monitored by India’s defence research organization, who believe he may have a genuine quality which could help save lives. He has now spent six days without food or water under strict observation and doctors say his body has not yet shown any adverse effects from hunger or dehydration. Mr Jani, who claims to have left home aged seven and lived as a wandering sadhu or holy man in Rajasthan, is regarded as a ‘breatharian’ who can live on a ‘spiritual life-force’ alone. He believes he is sustained by a goddess who pours an ‘elixir’ through a hole in his palate. His claims have been supported by an Indian doctor who specializes in studies of people who claim supernatural abilities, but he has also been dismissed by others as a “village fraud.”

India’s Defence Research Development Organisation, whose scientists develop drone aircraft, intercontinental ballistic missiles and new types of bombs. They believe Mr Prahlad could teach them to help soldiers survive longer without food, or disaster victims to hang on until help arrives. “If his claims are verified, it will be a breakthrough in medical science,” said Dr G Ilavazhagan, director of the Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences. “We will be able to help save human lives during natural disasters, high altitude, sea journeys and other natural and human extremities. We can educate people about the survival techniques in adverse conditions with little food and water or nothing at all.” So far, Mr Prahlad appears to be standing up to scrutiny. He has not eaten or drunk any fluids in six days, and similarly has not passed urine or a stool in that time. He remains fit and healthy and shows no sign of lethargy. Doctors will continue observing him for 15 days in which time they would expect to see some muscle wastage, serious dehydration, weight loss,and fatigue followed by organ failure. (Source: Telegraph.co.uk)

Major Concert honoring Sri Chinmoy and Rabindranath Tagore in Bangladesh

On 13 December 2009 in the China Friendship Center in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a historic concert was performed celebrating the music of  Sri Chinmoy and Rabindranath Tagore, two of the greatest Bangla composers. In preparation for this historic concert, the Gandharva Loka Orchestra has taught the music of Sri Chinmoy to the students of Shurer Dhara; and the students of Shurer Dhara have taught the music of Rabindranath Tagore to the Gandharva Loka Orchestra. Together the Artistic Directors of both have worked side by side to arrange an extraordinary rendition of the works of the two great Bengali composers. The music team, comprising both musical groups, listened to, discussed, learned and sang a roster of songs, and then agreed with tremendous excitement to perform seventeen songs together as one ensemble – thirteen of Sri Chinmoy’s compositions arranged by Panchajanya Burri and four Tagore songs arranged by a musical team comprising the Artistic Directors of Shurer Dhara and Gandharva Loka. Interwoven into these grand choral arrangements were three of Sri Chinmoy’s compositions dedicated to Bangladesh sung in unison by all without arrangement and, in addition, to highlight the purity of the composers’ music, four Tagore songs and four of Sri Chinmoy’s songs were sung in solo by Rezwana Choudhury Bannya.

Sri Chinmoy and Rabindranath Tagore both sought to combine the very best elements of the East with the West. Similarly, the concert transformed the creations of Sri Chinmoy and Rabindranath Tagore’s into a journey through a vast landscape of musical expression – classical and modern, Eastern and Western, tranquil and fast-paced, contemplative and joyful.  Some of the Bangla compositions were well known to the Bangladesh pubic; others were discovered for the very first time.

Sri Chinmoy said: “Music has to play a most important role in bringing about world oneness for music is the connecting link between the One and the many and between the many and the One.”

Rabindranath Tagore said: “We still believe that the world has a deeper meaning than what is apparent, and that therein the human soul finds its ultimate harmony and peace. We still know that only in spiritual wealth does civilization attain its end, not in a prolific production of materials, and not in the competition of intemperate power with power.”

Bannya performs songs in Bengali by Sri Chinmoy

Renowned Indian vocalist Rezwana Choudhury “Bannya” from Bangladesh performs spiritual Bengali songs by spiritual teacher and composer Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) in a concert commemorating the music of Sri Chinmoy, called “Songs of the Soul”. The concert took place on August 28th 2009 in the NYU Skirball Center in New York. Bannya was part of a whole evening program celebrating the music of Sri Chinmoy. Upcoming events of “Songs of the Soul” concerts you can find here: songsofthesoul.com.

Indian plans to create rival to Google Earth

Emboldened by its first mission to the Moon, India is to take on a target closer to Earth: Google. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), which is based in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of the sub-continent, will roll-out a rival to Google Earth, the hugely popular online satellite imagery service, by the end of the month. The project, dubbed Bhuvan (Sanskrit for Earth), will allow users to zoom into areas as small as 10 metres wide, compared to the 200 metre wide zoom limit on Google Earth. It comes as India redoubles its efforts to reap profits from its 45-year-old space programme, long criticised as a drain on a country where 700 million people live on $2  a day or less. It also follows in the slipstream of the country’s first Moon probe, Chandrayaan-1, which reached the lunar surface successfully on Friday. Bhuvan will use a network of satellites to create a high-resolution, bird’s-eye view of India – and later, possibly, the rest of the world – that will be accessible at no cost online and will compete with Google Earth. If a pilot version passes muster, Bhuvan will be fully operational by the spring. There are also plans to incorporate a global positioning system (GPS) into the online tool.

The data gleaned by the state-sponsored project will be available to the Indian Civil Service to help with urban planning, traffic management and water and crop monitoring. G Madhavan Nair, the Isro chairman, said: “This will not be a mere browser, but the mechanism for providing satellite images and thematic maps for developmental planning.” There could also be commercial spin-offs. Experts say that Google Earth is being built as a platform for advertising that could be worth billions, and that Bhuvan will also address one of the issues taxing the web’s biggest companies: how to engage users amid the mass of digital detritus that has accumulated on the internet. Alex Burmaster, of Nielsen, the web analysts, said: “The amount of time that people spend online is reaching a plateau and websites are battling furiously for attention. Anything that relates to where a person is, saves a user time, and makes the web more relevant — especially geographically — is big news.” Isro officials say Bhuvan will provide images of far greater resolution than are currently available online — particularly of the sub-continent, a region where large areas remain virtually unmapped.

There are plans to charge fees for the most detailed information. The agency intends to refresh its images every year — a feature that would give it an edge over its biggest rival and help keep track of the frenetic pace at which Indian cities are growing. A recent report by Gartner, the technology analysts, gave warning of the risk of relying on the “outdated information” used by Google Earth, which is now four years old and has been downloaded some 400 million times. (Source: Times online)

Viswanathan Anand again World Chess Champion

World Champion Viswanathan Anand retained the world crown by taking another draw with challenger Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the 11th game of the world championship match in Bonn this Wednesday. Anand, who led 6-4 after ten games, needed only a draw in one of the two remaining games to emerge champion once again. And he did the victory dance . Though his fans were bit worried when Anand lost the 10th game , if he hadn’t lost it : he would have won it right there , but thats ok . The final score was 6.5 – 4.5. A proud moment for India ! World chess champion Viswanathan Anand says he is more relieved than happy after retaining the most coveted title defeating Vlamidir Kramnik of Russia in Bonn, Germany. Anand, who etched his name among the all time chess greats after winning the world championships in three formats — knock-out, round-robin and matchplay, said it was a big challenge to win the 12-game match.

A Life of Pilgrimage – Interview with writer Catherine Lee

Episode 2 of LIVE Voices features American writer Catherine Lee, who I met in Thailand. At the age of 72 she is still very active and traveling a lot as she did all of her life, mainly through India. Watch this episode and learn more about her opinions and approach to spirituality.

In Tamil Nadu (India) Gods Live in Stone Temples

The God was ready for his night of conjugal bliss. The priests of the temple, muscular, shirtless men with white sarongs wrapped around their thighs, bore the god’s palanquin on their shoulders. They marched him slowly along a stone corridor shrouded in shadows to his consort’s shrine. Drumbeats echoed along the walls. Candles flickered outside the doorway to the shrine’s inner sanctum. There, Meenakshi, the fish-eyed goddess, awaited the embrace of her husband, Sundareshwarar, an incarnation of that most priapic of Indian gods, Shiva.

Along with hundreds of Indians clustered around the shrine entrance, I strained to get a glimpse of the statue of Sundareshwarar, but green cloths draped over the palanquin kept it hidden. Worshipers surged forward in mass delirium, snapping photos with their cellphones, bowing to the palanquin and chanting hymns. They stretched out their hands to touch the carriage. Priests ordered them back. Then the priests veered into the inner sanctum, carrying the unseen god toward the eager arms of his wife. They too had a night of divine pleasure ahead of them, so we were all ushered out as the guards began locking up. This union of Meenakshi and Sundareshwarar is a nightly ritual in Madurai, the largest city in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, drawing feverish crowds of Hindu devotees.

In much of India, the Gods are not creatures of distantmyth to be worshiped as abstractions. They exist in our world, in our time, and are fully integrated into the daily ives of Hindu believers. They move simultaneously through the world of the divine and the world that we inhabit, and are subject to all the emotions and experiences that we humans are all too familiar with — including carnal desire.

Read the full articles on the Website of the NYT. Photos by James Estrin/NYT