In ancient times, our ancestors wore wooden khadau (sandal) in the feet.

The thought of our ancestors was completely scientific even after wearing wooden stands on the feet.

"Brahmins are not a privileged caste""
By Kanchi Paramacharya.

It is alleged that Brahmins created the dharmasastras for their own benefit. You will realise that this charge is utterly baseless if you appreciate the fact that these sastras impose on them the most stringent rules of life.

If anyone criticises a judge he will be charged with contempt of court. People who call themselves democrats and socialists have managed for themselves special allowances, special railway passes, etc, that the common people are not entitled to.

In contrast, the Brahmins who have preserved the dharmasastras have bound themselves to vigorous discipline, roasted themselves, as it were, in the oven of ritual practices. If the Brahmin's purity is affected by someone he punishes himself by bathing and fasting.

The Brahmin must be conversant with the fourteen branches of the Vedic lore. He must be proficient even in Gandharva-veda or music and must be acquainted with agricultural science, construction of houses, etc. At the same time he must give instructions in these subjects to pupils

Those who complain that women have no right to perform sacrifices on their own must remember that men too have no right to the same without a wife.

If they know this truth they would not make the allegation that Hindu shaastras looked down upon women.

A man can perform sacrifices only with his wife. He does them for the well-being of all mankind and for his own inner purity.

It is for this purpose that, after the samavartana following the completion of his student-bachelorhood, he goes through the samskaar called marriage.

Marriage or vivaaha is known as "सहधर्मचारिणीसमप्रयोग". It means (roughly) union with a wife together with whom a man practises dharma.

The clear implication is that carnal pleasure is not its chief purpose, but the pursuit of Dharma.

The shaastras do not ask a man to pursue dharma all by himself but require him to take a helpmate for it.

The wife is called "dharma-patni", "सहधर्मचारिणी", thus underlining her connection with dharma, and not with kama or sensual pleasure.

This is the proof of the high esteem in which the shaastras hold women. The celibate-student and the ascetic alike follow the dharma of their respective aashramas (stages of life) not in association with anyone else.

We have known art of breathing from start of civilization on earth.

Yes, Breathing is an art.

Right kind of breathing can lead to a healthy and long life.
But people have forgotten to breathe properly.

There are three Nadi in our body in which pranvayu travels.

Ida, Pingala and Sushumna.

Sushumna is activated only when we have proper mastery and control over Ida and Pingala.

Nowadays people can even control these two Nadi.

You can overcome most of the diseases by just controlling your breathing through balanced Ida and Pingala.

Normally we can't breathe with both nostrils at same time.

It's either from left or from right.

Left nostril is home to Ida or Chandra Nadi while Right nostril is home to Pingala or Surya Nadi.

Sushumna is activated only through rigorous pranayam and Dhyan techniques.

Experts of Pranayam and Yoga tell that breathing from Ida can soothe and cool your mind and body.

While Pingala breathing can lead to warmth and keep you active and energetic.

Normally, we don't breathe to our full extent.
This minimises the capacity of lungs and restricts proper benefits.
By proper training of Pranayam you learn how to breathe properly.

River Saraswati, Rigveda, Mahabharata and Our Civilization.

Saraswati has been a point of discussion when we look at the antiquity of civilization.

It has been concluded that gradually drying Saraswati led to outward migrations at regular interval in past thousands of years,

result of which there are many ancient civilization in western Asia having Vedic and Sanatana roots.

Let's take a look at some facts and try to understand our civilization.

River Saraswati was completely dried up by 1500 BCE - 2000 BCE.

Archeological evidence of Harappan establishment are during that time.

There has been many Researchers working on hydrogeological study of the Saraswati River bed and when we combine the research of all these studies, we find that:

River Saraswati completely dried up in 2000 BCE.

It was drying up and was on support of few other local rivers showing herself at few places during 3000 BCE - 4000 BCE

It was flowing at some places beautifully while became invisible at few places,

but met with other rivers near West of Gujarat during 4000 BCE - 6000 BCE.

It was flowing as perennial river supported by heavy monsoon during 10,000 to 13,000 BCE

It was most grand River of the Indian subcontinent with span of few kilometres

Navayan and Buddhism of Ambedkar

BR Ambedkar announced to accept Buddhism on 14th October, 1956 in a press conference.

He formed a new sect Navayan inspite of following pre existing sects such as Mahayana, Vajrayan and Heenayan.

Along with him about 4 lakhs people accepted his sect. His book "Buddha and his dhamma" is the basis of his sect.

BR believed that Buddhist sects were distorted with time and gradually were filled with seemingly stupid beliefs.

He rejected most of the Buddhist philosophies.

He declared that 4 ultimate truth mentioned in Buddhist texts is not the original Buddhist teaching.

The story of Buddha getting inspired by old person, ill person, corpse and an ascetic was rejected by BR Ambedkar.

He believed that Buddha and his knowledge came from watching the struggle in society, and political anarchy.

Ambedkar rejected Buddhist philosophies of Karma, rebirth and anachronism as superstition.

He criticized the tradition to become an ascetic after renouncing the family

He interpreted the Nirvana theory after eliminating the metaphysical aspect of it. He reduced nirvana to a social status.

He believed that Buddha originally didn't propagated these philosophies, but they were later added by some stupid, cunning and superstitious people.

[THREAD: WHEN GREECE RULED INDIA]
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Some time in the 7th century AD, Sanskrit writer Bāṇabhaṭṭa did a biography on his patron, emperor Harshavardhana. It was titled Harṣacarīta and is said to be the first biographical work from the subcontinent.

2/89
Besides abundant references to the Greeks (as Yavanas, derived from Ionians), the book recounts a curious incident of king Vatsapati being ambushed by soldiers emerging from "the belly of a sham elephant."

This section may or may not have been lifted from an earlier work.

The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a powerful tool for prioritizing your time and unlocking growth in your career, startup, business, relationships, or life.

A thread on how it works and how it can change your life...

Dwight D. Eisenhower was an American military officer and politician.

He was a five-star general in the United States Army and the first Supreme Commander of NATO.

After his military career, he was elected as the 34th President of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961.

In both his military and civilian careers, Eisenhower stood out for his prolific productivity.

His secret?

Eisenhower observed that people often confuse the urgent with the important. He did not.

"What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important."

The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a visualization tool that forces you to differentiate between the urgent and the important.

It allows you to prioritize your time accordingly and unlock new productivity and growth.

Let's cover the basics of how it works...

First, we have to define "urgent" and "important."

An "urgent" task is one that requires immediate, focused attention.

An "important" task is one that promotes or furthers your long-term values, goals, or principles.

Remember: Tasks can be both urgent and important.

Rhino Barges

One of the dullest, coolest, more bizarre and fascinating pieces of kit used in Normandy.

Which NO ONE REALLY CARES ABOUT.

BUT I DO AND YOU SHOULD TOO.
/1

#WW2 #SWW #History

Planning for Overlord and Neptune had a serious snag, how to get troops from LSTs onto the beach as simply ramming them onto the beaches and dropping the ramp was known to damage the exceptionally vulnerable LSTs and felt to be unsustainable in the mid to long term. /2

LSTs were essential in sustaining Overlord's progress and were a subject of major headaches in the planning phase, and a real subject of friction when it came to launching additional amphibious operations such as Dragoon.

A single LSTs loss represented a capability nick. /3

So, logic dictated, we don't really want these remarkable but rare and highly valuable vessels constantly doing beach landings, we want something to act as a medium between ship to shore, and in came the (mostly) American designed Rhino. /4

I fucking love Rhinos.

Seriously.

Graceful lines of pure industrial pedigree.

Modular.

LOOK AT IT. /5

Spaak Committee - Wikipedia

The Spaak report was approved at the Venice Conference on 29 and 30 May 1956 and was used as the basis for discussion in the work of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom from July 1956 which met

at the Château of Val-Duchesse in Brussels. This would lead to the Treaties of Rome being signed in 1957 which established the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) among the members of the ECSC.

The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nuclear energy and distributing it to

its member states while selling the surplus to non-member states.

It is legally distinct from the European Union (EU) although it has the same membership, and is governed by many of the EU's institutions; but it is the only remaining community organisation that is independent

of the EU and therefore outside the regulatory control of the European Parliament. Since 2014, Switzerland has also participated in Euratom programmes as an associated state.

The Common Assembly proposed extending the powers of the European Coal and Steel Community to cover

1. This is a thread about the Bristol Beaufighter & how it was the most important (if not the absolute ‘best’) heavy fighter of the SWW. Beaufighter origins go back to the Bristol Type 142 ‘Britain First’ built as a publicity stunt for Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere in 1935.

2. With a top speed of 278mph, this was considerably faster than the Hawker Fury, which could only manage 207mph. A specification for a fast medium bomber was issued for a revised version of the 142M, named the Blenheim.

3. By the time the war started all-metal monoplane fighters had eclipsed the performance of the Blenheim. Serious shortcomings in operational capabilities of all RAF aircraft were revealed during early wartime aerial activity, leading to heavy losses of aircraft & crews.

4. Lack of defensive armament, armour & self-sealing tanks were added to the problems of looming obsolescence. The huge number of aircraft ordered from shadow factories, along with delays to replacement models, kept the Blenheim in the front line much longer than it should have.

5. Fighter Command had 7 Blenheim IF squadrons at the outbreak of war. These were dual purpose day/night units, but by early 1940 were operating primarily as night fighters. The need to provide cover for east coast convoys led to the formation of 4 ‘trade protection’ squadrons.