Source….http://media.radiosai.org

When you go to a temple, you see the idol, and very soon, your thoughts are with your footwear you left outside at the gate! This simple thought reveals the depth of concentration you have achieved. Unless you take care of every single aspect, you cannot experience the benefits from your spiritual practices (sadhana)! A water-filled-pot with one, a few or many holes is useless for carrying or storing water, isn’t it? Hence, you cannot achieve liberation by merely going to sacred places, or seeing, touching and conversing with great souls. You must put in your full and complete effort to follow the instructions and their directions. Following the path of Radha, Meera, Gouranga and Thukaram, you must feel an inseparable affinity with the Lord, as inseparable as the sea and the wave. Remember, you are really of the same essence, the same taste, the same quality as the sea, though you have the name and form of the wave.

Alexander Graham Bell is best remembered for inventing the telephone, but the great Scottish inventor’s interests weren’t limited to just one field. Aside from his priceless contributions in the field of acoustics and telegraphy, Bell is also credited with the invention of the metal detector, the audiometer (an instrument used to detect hearing problems), and a device to locate icebergs. Bell and his associates investigated the possibility of impressing a magnetic field on a physical device as a means of recording sound—the basic principle behind tape recorder and hard disc—but could not develop a workable prototype. Bell also had a great passion for aeronautics.

Bell became obsessed with flight and began studying the possibility of building a kite large and stable enough to carry a man. His first innovation was the box kite, which he built by joining the sides of several triangular kites together to create a box-like structure. Bell realized that by sharing joints and spars, he was able to greatly increase the surface area of his kites with little increase in weight. Then he combined several box-like cells to create large pyramidal structure with three triangular sides and a triangular base. This geometric form, known as a tetrahedral, is one of nature’s most stable structures. Although it looks pretty complicated, tetrahedral kites are very easy to fly.

Bell believed that the future of flight lied in kites and not in airplanes, which the Wright brothers had demonstrated. He was convinced that his tetrahedral cell structure was more stable than the Wright brothers’ machine.

In 1907, Bell collected a group of a young men interested in aviation and established the Aerial Experimental Association (AEA), whose purpose was to build a practical powered airplane. The same year, the AEA built the largest tetrahedral kite, named the Cygnet, meaning “little swan” in French. It was composed of over 3,393 cells, was 40 feet long and weighed 91 kg. It successfully flew carrying a human passenger 168 feet above water when towed behind a steamship. Unfortunately, it crashed and tore to pieces on landing.

In the meantime, Bell’s own colleagues—the other members of the AEA— became more interested in producing conventional aircraft, and subsequently a series of airplanes were designed. One of these planes, named the “June Bug”, won the Scientific American Trophy in an exhibition in 1908. Its pilot, Glenn Curtiss, who would later  establish a large and successful aeronautical manufacturing company, flew 5,360 feet in just under 2 minutes. By the end of that year, the AEA flew over 150 flights without mishap.

The AEA was financed entirely by Alexander Graham Bell’s wife, Mabel Bell. When the funds ran out, the association was disbanded. In less than two years of its existence, the AEA made many innovative contribution to airplane design such as cockpit enclosures and tail rudders. One of Bell’s invention was the aileron, that is now a standard component on all aircraft.

Despite the gradual disinterest in kites and the growing success of the American brothers’ airplanes, Bell made two more massive tetrahedral kites, named Cygnet II, and III, but neither one was successful. His Cygnet III with a 70-horsepower motor was reported to have flown only one foot. Bell eventually abandoned his experiments in 1912.

1904. Bell poses with some of his tetrahedral kites.

Source….Kaushik in http://www.amusingplanet.com

Natarajan

Source: http://media.radiosai.org

Broadening your heart and making it bigger and bigger, you should make it as big as God Himself. A balloon, in its initial stage, is tiny. If you go on blowing air into it, it becomes bigger and bigger and later explodes. Though beginning with the ideas of ‘I’ and ‘mine’, if you ultimately move on to the place that, “all are mine and all are one”, gradually you will become broader in your vision, and then you burst and merge into God who is omnipresent. You should recognise the truth that your life should consist of making the journey from the position of ‘I’ to the position of ‘We’. If all the time you simply stay in the place of ‘I’, you will remain where you are. This creation is like the bridge which connects man with God. ‘I’ is one hill. ‘God’ is another hill. The bridge between the two is the aspect of creation. If you break and destroy the bridge, you can never reach the destination. I am hoping that you plunge into society and do service, and thereby use the bridge to reach God.

Source: http://media.radiosai.org/

Offer the flower of non-violence (ahimsa) to God. We regard ahimsa to mean not to cause harm and hurt to other living beings. The true meaning of ‘Ahimsa’ is to not cause hurt and harm through thoughts, words or deeds. The control of your sense organs is another flower that must be offered to God. Our senses run without any control. If running horses are not controlled, they pose a danger. God has created each organ of the human body for a specific purpose. It is only when we use these sensory organs along the right path for which they have been created will we be entitled to God’s grace. Our inner strength will decrease rapidly with agitation or unnecessary sorrow; body also suffers illness due to mental agitations and distractions. One ages very quickly through excitement and sorrow. The reason for your not preserving this sacred instrument in sound condition is lack of control over these sensory organs. Hence the second flower of sensory control should be used for worshipping God.

In the early 1970s, Russian architect Evgeny Stamo and engineer Alexander Markelov came up with plans for an unusual house in the capital city Moscow. The house was to be shaped like a ring, about 150 meters across, enclosing a large inner courtyard with playgrounds and green spaces. The building was to have over nine hundred apartments, and all the necessary services and facilities, including shops, a pharmacy, a laundry room, a studio, post office, and so on. When completed in 1972, the authorities were so impressed that plans for more such house across Moscow were drawn up.

At that time, the Summer Olympic Games of 1980, which was to be hosted by the Soviet Union, was approaching, and the city decided to build five similar ring-shaped houses to symbolize the event. However, by the time the second ring house went up in 1979, on Dovzhenko street, the project was already shelved. The Soviet Union was on the brink of an economic collapse, and the buildings, it was realized, were too expensive to maintain. They are also bulky and inconvenient.

Besides, the proposed location of the buildings were spaced too far apart to provide any meaningful association with the five Olympic rings. Even if it did, a pedestrian could never see the rings from the street level or appreciate the composition.

Today, both buildings are still used as apartments. Each building has nine floors and over twenty entrances. Some say that finding the right entrance and locating the correct apartment is extremely difficult.

Locals affectionately call them the “bagel house”.

Source….kaushik in http://www.amusingplanet.com

natarajan

Source…..http://media.radiosai.org/

In temples or homes, you may have seen people breaking coconuts to offer to God. If you try to break the nut just as it fell from the tree, will it break? No! The fibrous outer cover must be removed to first expose the shell. The fibre protects the shell and lets it grow, preventing blows from the environment. Liberation results from breaking the mind filled with vagaries and wishes. But how can you break it when the fibrous armour of sensual desires encompasses it? So, carefully and persistently, remove them and dedicate your mind to God! Smash it open in His presence. At that very moment, you are set free! The toughest fibre is anger; it is indeed the stickiest dirt! When you get angry, you forget everything and quickly descend to the lowest depth. You lose all discrimination during the agitation. Be Aware! Cultivate virtues assiduously. Virtue is your life-breath, character is the backbone.