Nam Perumal, Srirangam, TN.
உள்ளத்தே யுறையும் மாலை உள்ளுவா னுணர்வொன் றில்லா

கள்ளத்தேன் நானும் தொண்டாய்த் தொண்டுக்கே கோலம் பூண்டேன்

உள்ளுவா ருள்ளிற் றெல்லாம் உடனிருந் தறிதி யென்று

வெள்கிப்போ யென்னுள் ளேநான் விலவறச் சிரித்திட் டேனே.

(தொண்டரடிப் பொடியாழ்வார் - திருமாலை - நான்காந் திருமொழி)

Meaning:

நாம் ஓரிடம் தேடி ஓட வேண்டாதபடி, நம் ஹ்ருதயத்திலுள்ளே எப்போதும் வந்து,

அனைவர் நெஞ்சத்துள்ளும் நித்யவாஸம் செய்கின்ற எம்பெருமானே! அரங்கா!

உன்னை நினைத்துக் கூடப் பார்க்க தகுதியும், அறிவுமில்லா மஹாபாபியான அடியேன்,

உன்னுடைய பரமபக்தன் போலே தோற்றம் கொண்டு,

“இவன் பரம பாகவதன், பரம பக்தன்” என்று காண்பவர்கள் எல்லோரும் வியந்து போற்றும் வண்ணம் சுற்றித் திரிகிறேன்.

"தொடையொத்த துவளமும், கூடையும் பொலிந்து தோன்றிய தோள் தொண்டரடிப்பொடி” என்றபடி கைங்கர்ய வேஷங்களைப் போட்டுக் கொண்டு அலைகிறேன்.

இத்தனை செய்த போதிலும், " அடடா! யார் யார் என்னென்ன நினைக்கிறார்கள்?" என்று அவரவர் நெஞ்சினுள்ளே உறைந்து நின்று,

எல்லாருடைய நினைவையும் நீ நன்கு அறிந்து கொண்டு விடுவாயே!" என்று நினைத்துக் கொள்கையில்,

,அப்படி என்றால், என்னைப் பற்றியும், எனது கள்ள வேஷத்தைப் பற்றியும் உனக்கு நன்றாகத் தெரியுமே!

This will be my first and possibly last tweet (thread) as I am mostly here to learn. It is prompted by a recent study questioning lockdown efficacy that is getting a lot of attention. It appears people believe it to be the first of its kind, but I have been collecting similar

studies since March 2020. Below are 30 published papers finding that lockdowns had little or no efficacy (despite unconscionable harms) along with a key quote or two from each:

1.https://t.co/VseXe862AX

“there is no evidence that more restrictive nonpharmaceutical interventions (“lockdowns”) contributed substantially to bending the curve of new cases in England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, or the United States in early 2020”

2.https://t.co/EzTSzeZyue

“Inferences on effects of NPIs are non-robust and highly sensitive to model specification. Claimed benefits of lockdown appear grossly exaggerated.”

3.https://t.co/4c4LqeQ5bz

“government actions such as border closures, full lockdowns, and a high rate of COVID-19 testing were not associated with statistically significant reductions in the number of critical cases or overall mortality”

WHAT THE VYMANIKA SHASTRA TELLS US ABOUT ANCIENT VIMANAS OF INDIA?

On 28 June 1951, the then Maharaja of #Mysuru inaugurated the International #sanskrit Research Centre in Mysuru. CM of Mysuru state CK Reddy was present and GR Josyer was the Director of that research centre.

The guests were shown all the rare collections of #Sanskrit scriptures and literature gathered from various sources. It was an impressive collection but there was one small handwritten notebook which surprised them the most. That book was "Vymanika Shastra of Mahrishi Bhardwaj".

It was a strange title for the guests &nobody heard about it before.The book contained 6000 lines &1000s of Shlokas in Sanskrit.This knowledge was verbatim transferred by Mahrishi Bhardwaj to Subbaraya Shastri through psychic channeling that was what was told to amused audience.

GR Josyer subsequently translated this book in Sanskrit to English.
"Vymanika Shastra" was part of "Yantra Sarvasva". All these works were verbatim recited and dictated by Subbaraya Shastri after he came out of forest and started living in Anekal near #Bengaluru.

Wen his book Vymanika Shastra was raising many eyebrows, Britishers jailed him under pretext of being freedom fighter.Within few mnths of imprisonment he died of long illness.Fortunately some people saved his works safely. When GR Josyer got to know about it he got it translated.

#GoodMorningTwitterWorld
#harekrishna
Science Behind the Hindu Homam Ritual.. A thread 👇
Homam (havan) is a ritual performed in Hinduism,is a process of invoking a sacred fire with intentions of cleansing one’s self (material n spiritual), and the environment.
#SaturdayMorning

The fire is a symbol of God, n practitioners offer items such as various grains ghee and herbs to the sacred fire as symbolic offerings to God.

#SaturdayMotivation
#harekrishna

Common belief assumes several positive effects inherent to this ritual, ranging from revitalizing/purifying the environment to curing diseases.

The fundamental steps in any Homam procedure focus on starting and maintaining the sacred fire. There are other components of this ritual, for example the chanting of mantras, which may or may not add to the assumed benefits.
#SaturdayMotivation

Although there are different types of Homams, the most commonly used ingredients in this process include items such as dried cow dung patties, dried coconut, wood shavings, peepal twigs (samit), camphor, milk, curd, and ghee .

WAS THERE EVER AN ARYAN INVASION ?

A long 🧵but must read

One of the major reasons why a consideration of the idea of an Aryan invasion into India is prevalent among some Western researchers is because of their misinterpretation of the Vedas,

1/

deliberate or otherwise, that suggests the Aryans were a nomadic people. One such misinterpretation is from the Rig-veda, which describes the battle between Sudas and the ten kings.

2/

The battle of the ten kings included the Pakthas, Bhalanas, Alinas, Shivas, Vishanins, Shimyus, Bhrigus, Druhyas,
Prithus, and Parshus, who fought against the Tritsus. The Prithus or Parthavas became the Parthians of latter-day Iran (247 B.C.B224 A.D.).

3/

The Parshus or Pashavas became the latter-day Persian

Western scholars could and did easily misinterpret this to mean an invasion of nomadic people called Aryans rather than simply a war in which the superior Aryan kings reestablished the spiritual values and the

4/

Vedic Aryan way of life.

Aryan invasion theory was hypothesized in the nineteenth century to explain the similarities found in Sanskrit and the languages of Europe. One person who reported
about this is Deen Chandora in his article, Distorted Historical Events and

5/

Mangottu Bhagavathi Temple
#Palakkad #Kerala
#keralatemples 🚩

Mangottu Bhagavathi Temple is situated in Athipotta near Alathur of palakkad district. Devi is kshipraprasadi here and grants relief to those who worship with full faith.
Mookken Chathen, situated on the Northern 👇

side of the temple, is guarding Devi here.
Story says that, once there lived a weaver named Kuttan who was a Devi Bhaktan. During one festival time Kuttan was so pleased by the Devi Vigraham that he requested her to come along with him. At that time wind blew heavily and Cloths

in Vigraham flew. Kuttan immediately decorated Devi with his cloth which stuck to Vigraham and returned to his village and with his Umbrella. Devi came with him in that Umbrella and stayed in his place. This place is Mangottu Bhagavathi temple now.

Amme Narayana
🙏🕉🙏

Bonds explained in 90 seconds! [Thread]

Wait, what's a bond?

Very simply, it's a loan.

Instead of borrowing money from a bank, a company (or government) will borrow from investors. So investors will give the company money & in exchange they get paid interest (called coupons)

Fancy term for the IOU is "bond issuance"

I'm an investor, how do the mechanics work?

Company sells you a bond for $100 and promises you 5% every year for 3 years. They also pay you $100 at the end.

Yr 1: $5
Yr 2: $5
Yr 3: $5 + $100

That's $115 (or a 15% return) after 3 years. Right?

The real return is closer to 10%

Why are my returns so much lower?

$100 today is worth more than $100 in 3 years from now - yes, inflation!

Even at a modest 1.5% inflation each year, the $100 you give up today is worth less than $96 in 3 years from now.

ILBs (inflation linked bonds) try & help solve this.

How come bonds are always quoted in yields (%s) instead of actual prices like shares?

Bonds have different maturities* & coupons - quoting a percentage makes it easy to compare different bonds & compare against other assets.

*Maturity = time to get paid back (3yrs in example)

THE EPITOME OF COURAGE, VALOUR AND SACRIFICE:RANI DURGAVATI

I am sure,many of us don't even know who Rani #Durgavati was 'coz our #History textbooks don't tell us this. Today, let us learn something about this great warrior queen.

Rani Durgavati was a #Gondwana Queen who fought 51 battles, out of them 3 were against Mughals and she never lost. She was an exemplary woman who got married at 18 and was widowed at 24. At 24, she became Queen of a vast kingdom of mainly tribal people and fought 51 gallant wars.

She was a great war tactician &an exemplary young ruler who never lost any battle.She was born on Oct 5th,1524 in the family of Gurjar Chandela's Rajput ruler Keerat Pal Singh in fort of Kalinjar,Banda,UP. Her family built #Khajuraho temples which r a #UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

She was married to Gondi King Dalpati Shah in 1542.This brought an alliance between the Gonda family &the Chandelas of Bundelkhand so that they could resist the onslaught of Sher Shah Suri who attacked Kalinjar in 1545.
Same year Durgavati gave birth to Vir Narayan, her only son.

After the death of her husband in 1548, she reluctantly took up throne on the insistence of her ministers who were aware of her abilities &wanted the Kingdom to remain independent.She was only 24 and took up the reign on behalf of her son who was only 5 by that time.

ATHMANATHAR SWAMY KSHETRAM, TIRUPERUNTHURAI(TN)

Here Shiva is formless (Atmanatar). There is no Sivalingam, only a pedestal/Avudayar in the sanctum, so the name Avudayar Koil.
It is so built that setting sun strikes the sanctum even though it is cloistered in 3 pradakshina paths

In 9th c AD, Manikkavacakar, the chieftain of Arimarthana Pandian II, was sent to buy horses for the kingdom. On his way, he saw a guru chanting Shiva’s name. Manikkavacakar desired to be his student. He fell into a deep meditation. When he awakened, the guru was gone.

He realised that he was guided by Shiva himself and used the money meant for horses to build the Mandir.
Here, he composed the sacred Shaiva siddhanta “The Tiruvacakam” whose verses make up 8 volumes out of total 12 volumes in Shaivite literature.
@DubeyYash1911

Inside the sanctum is an upturned bowl or kuvalai, which represents the body and soul.
Ma Ambika is Yoga Nayika here. She too is formless and symbolised by Yoga ‘Peetham’ or pedestal on which her footprint is carved out. Rice cakes are kept under the bowl as an offering to her.

As Shiva was himself the Guru of Sri Manickavasagar, worshippers visit here to pray for their education and progress.

It is believed that treating Sri Manickavasagar different from Shiva is an unforgivable sin.

The Chariot in the Mandir is one of the biggest in Tamil Nadu.

SRI KAMAKSHI AMMAN KSHETRAM, MANGADU (TN)

At this place, Ma Kamakshi did extreme tapasya before her wedding with Sri Ekambareswarar in Kanchipuram.
Once, Ma Parvati playfully closed the eyes of Mahadev with her palms. The whole universe fell in eternal darkness immediately.

Shiva ordained her to perform Tapasya. Parvati ji came down to this place and performed tapasya amidst "Panchagni" resting her left leg on the sacred fire and folding her right leg. Later, when she left this place, the heat of the fire that she had created became unbearable.

Adi Shankaracharya is believed to have visited Mangadu and installed a Sri Ardhameru Chakram at this place. This was done to calm down the heat of this fire. The chakra has 43 Trikonas (triangles). It is made of Astagandham.
@upma23

Hence no abishek is offered to it and only Kumkuma archana is performed. On Vijayadasami, the Chakra is covered with gold while on other days, it has a silver cover.

It is believed that hurdles in marriage are eliminated by praying to Mangadu Kamakshi.

Heard about a Marathan run that is conducted as part of Maha Shivarathri celebrations -Shivalaya Oottam

Marathan run by devotees covering 12 Shiva Alayams/ Temples chanting Govinda..Gopala...

This practice is related to an legend #story of #Mahabharata

Do read this #Thread

Devotees dressed in khawi/safforn cloths,will run /walk to one Shiva Alayam to other,covering 12 Shiva Alayams in Kanyakumari district by foot & total distance is abt 88 Km.
First temple is Thirumalai Mahadevar Temple,Munchirai
During the run,they take holy dips in temple tanks.

Devotees who cover the distance by foot observe Vriddham for a week.During fasting they eat tender coconut,Nungu &Tulsi water.Those who cannot run this distance,visit all 12 temples in vehicles.
After darshan in Thirumalai temple,they go to 2nd temple Tikkurichi Mahadeva Temple.

Followed by darshan at Thirunandikarai Shiva Temple,Ponmanai Thimbilankudi Mahadevar Temple,Thiruppanri Bhagam Shiva Temple,Kalkulam Neelakanda Mahadevar Temple, Melangode Shiva Temple, Thiruvidaikodu Mahadevar Temple.Lastly to Thirunattalam Sankara Narayan Temple.

All these shiva temples,have separate sannathi for Vishnu.
Interestingly,in each of these temples,prasad is Vibuthi or bhasma & at Thirunattalam Sankara Narayan Temple the prasad is sandal paste/Chandan symbolic of unity of Shiva &Vishnu.

Legend #story 👇

Thread on "The Final Checklist"
by Peter Lynch.

~ Ideas can come from anywhere - Peter Lynch.

~ If you can't find any companies that you think are attractive, put your money in the bank until you discover some - Peter Lynch.

~ All you need for a lifetime of successful investing is a few big winners, and the pluses from those will overwhelm the minuses from the stocks that don’t work out - Peter Lynch.

~ Time is on your side when you own shares of superior companies - Peter Lynch.

Thottuva Dhanwanthari Kshetram
#KeralaTemples 🚩

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय धन्वंतरये
अमृतकलश हस्ताय सर्वामयविनाशनाय
त्रिलोक्यनाथाय श्री  महाविष्णवे   नमः  

Thottuva Dhanwanthari Temple is located in Perumbavoor, of Ernakulam District.
Dhanwanthari Murthy here is six feet tall, 👇

facing east.

Story says that Parasurama did Prathishta here of Dhanwanthari Murthy. A brahmin family of Korambur Mana was in charge of the temple earlier. Devotees perform ‘Bhajanam,’ (stay at the temple)
here for 41 days.
It is said that, many years ago a man

had leprosy, and he came and stayed at the temple for 41 days. After his daily bath at the nearby Thottuva Thodu, he used to worship the Dhanwanthari murthy and he got completely cured at the end of his 41-day prarthana.

Om Dhanwanthariye Namaha
🙏🕉🙏

1/ Let’s talk about vaccine misinformation, @cdcgov style. On Friday the CDC ran a report titled “Reduction in COVID-19 Patients Requiring Mechanical Ventilation Following Implementation of a National COVID-19 Vaccination Program.”

The headline is a lie. No other word will do...

2/ How do I know? From the data in the report itself.

The report, written by three Israeli scientists, intentionally tries to obscure the facts it presents (I’m not entirely sure why it was written at all), but they come out anyway to anyone paying attention...

3/ Your first clue the authors have no interest in presenting the facts honestly comes when they refuse simply to divulge how many people were on ventilators before and after the start of vaccinations on Dec. 19. Instead they focus on the ratio of patients in two age groups...

NAGARAJA MANDIR, NAGERCOIL (TN)

Dedicated to Naag Devta Vasuki. The five-headed Naga Devta is visited by devotees, especially on Sundays when special Pooja is performed offering milk and turmeric to the deity.
Two nagas- Darnendran and Padmavati are dwarapalaks here.
@twttdc

Once a village girl was cutting grass in the area when she noticed blood oozing out of her axe after accidentally hitting a stone. It was the stone murti of Naga devta. A hut was built around it. Later Raja Marthanda Verma visited here when he was suffering from skin problems.

His disease was cured and he built a huge mandir here.
The main sanctum still has mud walls and thatched roof with the stone murti of Nagaraja placed on the soil. The soil underneath it always remains wet. It is believed that blood is still oozing out of the murti till date.

It is said that this soil holds special powers and can cure any skin ailments; the soil is also given as prasadam to the visitors of the mandir.
Amazingly, the soil is black in dakshinayana punyakala and turns white in uttarayana punyakala of Surya.

A tortoise occupies the place (instead of Garuda) on the flagpost. This maybe because Garuda and Naga are natural enemies. Also, Sri Vishnu took kurma avatar during samudra manthan. Image of tortoise maybe to show respect to kurma avatar.

Nagalinga flowers also bloom here.

women of twitter: raise your hand if you’ve ever discovered that a male colleague with the same (or less!) years of experience and same job title as you was actually making more money?

i’ll go first: 🙋🏽‍♀️

i’ll never forget the feelings i experience when i found this out. initially, i felt shock, followed immediately by self-loathing—it seemed like the company had gotten me “on the cheap” and it made me feel incredibly like i had been incredibly stupid to not negotiate for more.

that quickly evolved into rage: how did they think it was okay to meet his negotiation demands when he was hired but not think to look at the other people at the same level and wonder if their compensation should be raised to match his, too?

i had always thought that i had always been an excellent performer at every company and role that i’ve held, so finding this news out felt a bit humiliating; i had to fight feelings of self-doubt and push myself to remember that i am stellar and deserved better—i deserved equity.

this is the moment in my career where i fully realized that i had to be own fiercest advocate. that was the moment that i decided to never assume that the company would see your worth—instead, it was always going to be on me to MAKE them to see it, or to go somewhere that would.