A beautiful sunset on one of the long days of summer.
Nikolaos Pantazis posted this photo to EarthSky Facebook a few days before the summer solstice. He wrote:
Every year, on the days around summer solstice, the setting sun aligns with that rock, near the village of Platanos, Peloponnese, Greece.
Source….www.earthsky.org
Natarajan
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Some of us have reached our golden years, and some of us have not. But these suggestions should be read by everyone. They have been collected from many a senior, each with his or her own piece of advice. Some you know, some may surprise you, and some will remind you of what’s important. So read well, share with your loved ones, and have a great day and a great life
 1. It’s time to use the money you saved up. Use it and enjoy it. Don’t just keep it for those who may have no notion of the sacrifices you made to get it. Remember there is nothing more dangerous than a son or daughter-in-law with big ideas for your hard earned capital. Warning: This is also a bad time for an investment, even if it seems wonderful or fool-proof. They only bring problems and worries and this is a time for you to enjoy some peace and quiet.
2. Stop worrying about the financial situation of your children and grandchildren, and don’t feel bad spending your money on yourself. You’ve taken care of them for many years, and you’ve taught them what you could. You gave them an education, food, shelter and support. The responsibility is now theirs to earn their own money.
3. Keep a healthy life, without great physical effort. Do moderate exercise (like walking every day), eat well and get your sleep. It’s easy to become sick, and it gets harder to remain healthy. That is why you need to keep yourself in good shape and be aware of your medical and physical needs. Keep in touch with your doctor, get tested even when you’re feeling well. Stay informed.
4. Always buy the best, most beautiful items for your significant other. The key goal is to enjoy your money with your partner. One day one of you will miss the other, and the money will not provide any comfort then, enjoy it together.
5. Don’t stress over the little things. You’ve already overcome so much in your life. You have good memories and bad ones, but the important thing is the present. Don’t let the past drag you down and don’t let the future frighten you. Feel good in the now. Small issues will soon be forgotten
 6. Regardless of age, always keep love alive. Love your partner, love life, love your family, love your neighbor and remember: “A man is not old as long as he has intelligence and affection.”
7. Be proud, both inside and out. Don’t stop going to your hair salon or barber, do your nails, go to the dermatologist and the dentist, keep your perfumes and creams well stocked. When you are well-maintained on the outside, it seeps in, making you feel proud and strong.
8. Don’t lose sight of fashion trends for your age, but keep your own sense of style. There’s nothing worse than an older person trying to wear the current fashion among youngsters. You’ve developed your own sense of what looks good on you – keep it and be proud of it. It’s part of who you are.
9. ALWAYS stay up-to-date. Read newspapers, watch the news. Go online and read what people are saying. Make sure you have an active email account and try to use some of those social networks. You’ll be surprised which old friends you’ll meet. Keeping in touch with what is going on and with the people you know is important at any age.
10. Respect the younger generation and their opinions. They may not have the same ideals as you, but they are the future, and will take the world in their direction. Give advice, not criticism, and try to remind them of yesterday’s wisdom that still applies today.
11. Never use the phrase: “In my time”. Your time is now. As long as you’re alive, you are part of this time. You may have been younger, but you are still you now, having fun and enjoying life.
12. Some people embrace their golden years, while others become bitter and surly. Life is too short to waste your days on the latter. Spend your time with positive, cheerful people, it’ll rub off on you and your days will seem that much better. Spending your time with bitter people will make you older and harder to be around.
 13. Do not surrender to the temptation of living with your children or grandchildren (if you have a financial choice, that is). Sure, being surrounded by family sounds great, but we all need our privacy. They need theirs and you need yours. If you’ve lost your partner (our deepest condolences), then find a person to move in with you and help out. Even then, do so only if you feel you really need the help or do not want to live alone.
14. Don’t abandon your hobbies. If you don’t have any, make new ones. You can travel, hike, cook, read, dance. You can adopt a cat or a dog, grow a garden, play cards, checkers, chess, dominoes, golf. You can paint, volunteer at an NGO or just collect certain items. Find something you like and spend some real time having fun with it.
15. Even if you don’t feel like it, try to accept invitations. Baptisms, graduations, birthdays, weddings, conferences. Try to go. Get out of the house, meet people you haven’t seen in a while, experience something new (or something old). But don’t get upset when you’re not invited. Some events are limited by resources, and not everyone can be hosted. The important thing is to leave the house from time to time. Go to museums, go walk through a field. Get out there
16. Be a conversationalist. Talk less and listen more. Some people go on and on about the past, not caring if their listeners are really interested. That’s a great way of reducing their desire to speak with you. Listen first and answer questions, but don’t go off into long stories unless asked to. Speak in courteous tones and try not to complain or criticize too much unless you really need to. Try to accept situations as they are. Everyone is going through the same things, and people have a low tolerance for hearing complaints. Always find some good things to say as well.
 17. Pain and discomfort go hand in hand with getting older. Try not to dwell on them but accept them as a part of the cycle of life we’re all going through. Try to minimize them in your mind. They are not who you are, they are something that life added to you. If they become your entire focus, you lose sight of the person you used to be.
18. If you’ve been offended by someone – forgive them. If you’ve offended someone – apologize. Don’t drag around resentment with you. It only serves to make you sad and bitter. It doesn’t matter who was right. Someone once said: “Holding a grudge is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die.” Don’t take that poison. Forgive, forget and move on with your life.
19. If you have a strong belief, savor it. But don’t waste your time trying to convince others. They will make their own choices no matter what you tell them, and it will only bring you frustration. Live your faith and set an example. Live true to your beliefs and let that memory sway them.
20. Laugh. Laugh A LOT. Laugh at everything. Remember, you are one of the lucky ones. You managed to have a life, a long one. Many never get to this age, never get to experience a full life. But you did. So what’s not to laugh about? Find the humor in your situation.
21. Take no notice of what others say about you and even less notice of what they might be thinking. They’ll do it anyway, and you should have pride in yourself and what you’ve achieved. Let them talk and don’t worry. They have no idea about your history, your memories and the life you’ve lived so far. There’s still much to be written, so get busy writing and don’t waste time thinking about what others might think. Now is the time to be at rest, at peace and as happy as you can be!
Photos courtesy of Ambro, Stockimages / freedidigitalphotos.net Source: Tony L. in http://www.ba-bamail.com Natarajan |
This human birth is the consequence of countless good deeds, and it should not be cast aside; the chance must be fully exploited. As the Kenopanishad says, “This present precious life should not be thrown away (Na Chath Iha Avedheen Mahathee Vinashtih)”. When there are many chances of saving oneself, isn’t it a big loss if no thought is spent on ways of escape? The Kathopanishad exhorts, “Arise, awake!(Uttishthata! Jagratha!).” Those who are agitated by doubts about what to accept and what to reject, those who are blinded by illusion, and those who cannot distinguish between darkness and light, death and immortality —all these should approach great people who can show the path to understand the eternal truth, the self-illumined basis of all creation. Then both this world and heaven will be merged in the same effulgence! For the sake of this realisation, you should have deep yearning and hard, disciplined practice.
| What does the world look like to a bird? As a child, all I wanted to do was fly or float above the world, going from place to place and seeing all the amazing sights there are to see. Indeed birds are lucky in that regard: up high, far from the noise of those pesky humans, they soar and see the world as it truly is. Here are some beautiful photos of that stunning world birds get to see. |
The opera house in Sidney, Australia
Surfing the highest waves in Australia
The Mojave Desert in California, USA
family of elephants walking through Botswana
The Great Barrier Reef
Fuji Mountain on Honcho Island, Japan
The Anapolis submarine during a training exercise in the Arctic
Malé, capital of the Maldives
A foggy sunrise over a small village in Indonesia
Source….www.ba-bamail.com
Natarajan
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) captured photographs and video of auroras from the International Space Station on June 22, 2015. Kelly wrote, “Yesterday’s aurora was an impressive show from 250 miles up. Good morning from the International Space Station! #YearInSpace”
Image Credit: NASA
Source….www.nasa.gov
Natarajan
Those, who are trying to build the human community on a foundation of wealth (dhana), are building on sand; those who seek to build it on the rock of righteousness (dharma) are the wise. Every person consumes specific quantities of food and many even calculate the calories consumed and burnt. Just think for a moment: Have you ever calculated what you have given back to the society that helps you live and enjoy in the world? You must transform the food into service, either to serve your best interests or for the well-being of the society. Mere feeding and care of the body is profitless, for the body is just a container. When the spark of Divinity leaves the body, it becomes a corpse. No one will even keep the corpse for more than a few hours. People will avoid the sight and smell of a dead body; it is disgusting. Never be your own enemy nor be a burden on anyone.
Any experienced traveler knows that it’s possible to be in two places at once… and sometimes, even three. Some borders are simply metaphorical lines on a map. But other borders provide stark, physical contrasts between one country or region and another.
There are borders that blaze through trees, float on water and even cause roadway mix-ups in their effort to mark the spot where one place ends and another begins. See how it’s done around the world.
The Netherlands and Belgium
Here, the Belgian village of Baarle-Hertog and the Dutch village of Baarle-Nassau arepatch-worked together in little pieces. Travelers cross the international border all the time, and white marks on the ground tell them which country they’re in.
2. United States and Canada
Every few years, workers re-cut the forested border between the U.S. and Canada, affectionately referred to as the Slash.
3. Poland and Ukraine
This crop design was part of a 2012 art exhibition on the border between Poland and Ukraine.
4. Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Deforestation issues are obvious at the border between Haiti (left) and the Dominican Republic (right).
5. China and Macau
Macau is a special administrative region of China, where locals drive on the left side of the road. The rest of China drives on the right, hence the highway changeup at the border.
6. United States and Mexico
At Border Field State Park, a fence separates San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.
7. Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil
Interesting landmarks abound at the Triple Frontier, where the Paraná River and the Iguazu River meet.
8. Germany and the Czech Republic
These countries clearly have different ways of dealing with their pesky bark beetle infestation.
9. Former East and West Germany
Near the town of Ifta, you’ll find one of many sites where the former East Germany meets the former West Germany. Museums, exhibits and memorials abound, too.
Source…www.huffingtonpost.in
Natarajan
Imagine a world some time in the semi-distant future where space travel is a banal indulgence not unlike a luxury cruise. What would you do upon stepping on Mars soil, an astronaut helmet over your head and Earth but a small speck in the distance.
Be real, would you take a selfie? It would get soooooo many likes.
French photographer Julien Mauve juxtaposes the looming potential of space exploration with the stereotypical actions of earthly tourists in his narrative series “Greetings From Mars.” The sci-fi photos combine alien landscapes with behavior that’s all too familiar — performing for the camera, inserting oneself into foreign landscapes, and striking a pose.
“I’ve been fascinated with Mars since I was a child,” Mauve explained to The Huffington Post. “I can picture myself back in college making presentations about it. We hear a lot about NASA, Elon Musk and SpaceX these days. Mars One also, the company that offers people a one way ticket to establish the first human colony on Mars (and intend to create a TV show out of it). Space exploration and colonization is the greatest adventure of the century and the fact that we may witness it in our life-time makes it even more exciting.”
Mauve couples the possibility of space tourism in the future with the reality of social media influence in the present. “We’ve literally developed a new language to communicate emotions through pictures and that really fascinates me,” the artist said, identifying smartphones as the technology that allows us to write our own stories in real time.
“In the mean time, Earth has become really small. We are only 12 hours and $800 away from the other side of the world. Those easy traveling conditions have made tourism a lucrative activity. People can visit and enjoy places we would have never imagined only 50 years ago… Once transportation issues will be solved and if we don’t encounter any massive disaster, space tourism for middle class people is something we can imagine happening in less than 100 years.”
Mauve’s series offers a wonderfully deadpan view of the red planet, with anonymous explorers eager to survey the grounds, and, possibly more importantly, document the process. “It’s an observation of our current behaviors and a projection of what we hope for the future,” he explained. “I’m not trying to stick to the scientific truth.”
Of his series, he explains the setting: “It’s a couple experiencing Mars as tourists for the first time and sharing their experience through photographs. They include themselves in front of those landscapes and affirm their presence but the funny thing is that we don’t see their faces. It could be anyone in those suits and, in fact, it goes against the original purpose of taking a selfie or souvenir pictures. It was also a way to illustrate this endless pursuit of self-definition we seek with pictures.”
Check back with us in 100 years to see if Mauve’s grim prediction has come to life. If so, please let us know what filters look best in space. Thanks.
Julian MauveJulian Mauve PhotographyPhotographySpace PhotographySelfiesTourismSelfie TourismMarsSpaceflightSpace Tourism
Source….http://www.huffingtonpost.com/priscilla-frank
Natarajan
Some practised their stretches on a boat as they floated across River Siene in Paris; the others did their asanas outside the world famous ruins of Angkor Vat in Cambodia.
Fitness enthusiasts embraced our ancient practice with great fervour across the world. The pictures tell the story of the grand success of the first International Yoga Day.
People perform yoga to mark International Day of Yoga in Seoul, South Korea. Milions of people worldwide took part in the first International Day of Yoga, which was declared by the United Nations last year. Photograph: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
Yoga demonstration on boat as it makes way past the bridges of Paris on River Seine.Photograph@Indian_Embassy/Twitter
Participants perform yoga to mark the International Day of Yoga under the Eiffel tower in Paris, France. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Participants attend the Yoga Fest to mark the International Day of Yoga at the Medeo skating rink at the altitude of some 1600 metres above sea level in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Photograph: Reuters
Tashkent, Uzbekistan celebrates International Day of Yoga. Photograph:@MEA/India
On Sunday, London was completely engrossed in yoga. Photograph: @chris_vasiliou/Twitter
Yoga enthusiasts do the Suptvajrasan in Brussels. Photograph:@IndEmbassyBru/Twitter
International Yoga Day celebration is in full swing in Samara, Russia.Photograph: @IndEmbMoscow
Over 4,000 yogis gathered at the Grand Halle de la Villette, Paris.Photograph: @Indian_Embassy
Britain gets its mat out on Yoga Day. Photograph: @SGadiLondon/Twitter
Sri Sri Ravishanker shares this picture from the Art of Living Yogathon in Japan.Photograph: @SriSri/Twitter
Afghans practise their asanas on Yoga Day.
Yoga Day fever grips Mongolia. Photograph:@IndianDiplomacy/Twitter
Nepali Actress Mala Limbu participates in Yoga Day celebrations. Photograph: @IndiainNepal/Twitter
I do yoga. Do you?’ has become the catchphrase in Vietnam.
Hhundreds took part in the celebrations at Hanoi’s Quan Ngua Sports Palace, and in Ho Chi Minh city and seven other provinces. “The response was amazing, way beyond our expectations,” Preeti Saran, India’s ambassador to Vietnam said. Photograph: @cghcm/Twitter
From the iconic Angkor Vat and Ta Prohm Temples in Cambodia, the full beauty of Yoga Day was on display. Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter
In China, events were organised at the prestigious Peking University and Geely University. People from different walks of life took part in the exercise.
About a week ahead of the International Yoga Day, the India-China Yoga college was inaugurated at Yunnan Minzu University in Kunming, the first such college in the country.Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter
More than a thousand people took part in several events across Australia to mark the day, with Prime Minister Tony Abott appreciating Yoga’s universal appeal.
“For thousands of years, yoga has provided its followers with a guide to bringing their mind, body and spirit into balance,” Abott said.
“Yoga’s universal and growing popularity demonstrates its appeal to people from all the walks of life and its great potential to foster better health among individuals and populations around the world,” he said.
Melbourne saw over 500 people gathered at the Springers Leisure Centre to kick off the day with ‘Surya Namaskar’ and bending and twisting their bodies in complex postures.Photograph: @navdeepsuri/Twitter
Revellers participate in yoga as they celebrate the summer solstice and International Yoga Day at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in southern England, Britain. Photograph: Kieran Doherty/Reuters
Source….www.rediff.com
Natarajan
Just as the body is the house you live in, the world is the body of God. An ant biting the little finger of your foot is able to draw your attention to the spot, and you react to the pain, making an effort to remove the tiny enemy. You must similarly feel the pain, misery, or joy or elation, wherever it is evinced in the entire land; you must make an effort to protect the land from the enemy, however remote may be the place where the enemy has presented himself. Be kind with all your kin. Expand your sympathies, serve others who stand in need to the extent of your skill and resources. Do not fritter away your talents in profitless channels. Respect for the parents, who started you in life and brought you into this world which has enabled you to gather such a vast and varied treasure of experience, is the first lesson that Dharma teaches. Gratitude is the spring which feeds that respect.
Take off with Natarajan 