Work Is Workship

Work Is WORKSHIP

‘Life is Beautiful’ .This is a movie based on events that took place in the life of a man during world war П.But, what does this have to do with anything? The question is obvious, but the answer is simple. Even when life becomes miserable, faith in one’s own self and hard work can instill hope. This is what the movie depicts.

For life to be beautiful, we must worship our work.

‘Mahatma Gandhi, Sachin Tendulkar, and Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln’-all of them achieved greatness because of their passion for work in their respective fields. Great people do not do different things, but they do things differently and the difference is their high level of passion and commitment towards their work.

Work is the essence of life. Work brings together great ideas that create great personalities. Work gives us the pleasure of exercising our minds and our bodies. Work gives us an opportunity to show our creativity and develop our skills. Work helps us to organize our abilities. Work gives us an opportunity to serve the creation of God. To love God is to serve His creation.

Let us not work to become successful, let us work to become capable, for, success will follow us immediately.

Let us work not for awards, but for improvement. Let us work, not for glory, but for stability. Let us work, not with pride, but with humility. Let us work for profit, but at the same time let us ensure that other people are also satisfied. Let us work in harmony and with the desire to progress.

Let us work as though work is worship, for, ‘Man and Work’- it is an everlasting friendship.

Girls Education

Girls Education In India

Despite all tall claims by the government and nagging by voluntary organizations, a vast majority of the girls are yet illiterate in India. During the last four decades since independence, much is being done to emancipate women. Education of girls is one of the basic features of the plan. Many schools and colleges are founded for girls.

Even co-education has received considerable support from the public, and although orthodox parents still view the system of co-education with suspicion, a large number of families send their daughters to co-educational institutions. Female education is, indeed, receiving a great impetus and the advance made by our country in this direction during the last decade or so is considerable.

It is being increasingly recognized that educated wives and mothers are an asset to a nation and that neither expense nor effort should be spared to make female education popular and even compulsory. Being educated, they are working in banks, private firms, hospitals and government offices.

Education has led to their economic independence and equality with menfolk. They have now an honoured position in society and have secured their rights from the reluctant men but all this is confined chiefly to the urban areas. In rural areas most of the people are still against girls' education.

So much needs to be done yet. An intensive propaganda is necessary to popularize female education not only in the towns and cities where its value is already fully recognized but in villages where the education of girls is still in its infancy. There are many villages where school for girl does not exist.

Every village must have a girl' schools, or if that is not possible owing to lack of funds, parents should be persuaded to admit their daughters to boys' schools thus promoting co-education.

Furthermore, the extreme poverty of the Indian masses makes it imperative that education for girls should be free up to the matriculation standard. If facilities for female education are provided in every village, it will also be possible to make it compulsory.

Special legislation should then be enacted to deal with parents who neglect the education of their daughters. This compulsion would be essential in early stages because most villagers are still too ignorant to understand the value of education for girls.

It should not be forgotten, however, that the education given to girls ought to be strictly in accordance with their needs.

At present, practically no distinction exists between the education of boys and that of girls. The two sexes are taught the same subjects both at school and college and they have to appear in the same examinations. That is clearly absurd. We must not lose sight of the fact while boys have to be fitted for careers; girls have to be prepared primarily for their duties as wives and mothers.

It is true that many girls would like to take up various jobs like the boys, but even so the syllabi and courses of studies and the subjects for the two sexes should not be exactly the same.

Girls ought to receive a good general education. No matter what other subjects they are taught, cookery, music, painting and hygiene should receive special emphasis. Subjects like arithmetic, history, geography and science will no doubt be common to boys and girls. Girls should primarily be trained for domestic life and all that goes with it.

For we cannot escape the natural fact that the girls have one day to become wives and as a consequence mothers. Due emphasis should be laid on nursing, cooking, laundry, house­hold accounts, etc. in the education of girls. They should be given lessons in child psychology.

Ample opportunities should exist for them to learn the arts of dancing, music and painting if they have the necessary aptitude. That being so, the nature of education that is given to them now must be such as to prove useful to them in their future capacity as wives and mothers.

No doubt certain girls show promise of growing into artists, writers, orators, politicians and so forth, others may prefer to follow such professions as doctoring, teaching and law and still others may like to become steno-typists, secretaries, business executives, receptionists, telephone operators, etc. But the majority of girls have naturally a distinct preference for a general education, after which they will enter matrimony and settle down in their homes.

So while all possible arrangements should exist in schools and colleges to encourage talent or a special aptitude for a particular profession, the average girl should be so educated and trained as to enable her to make home life happy, healthy and civilized.

God's Kind Of Love

God's Kind Of Love

Most of us think that we really understand the love of God, but our experience proves otherwise. We feel lonely, depressed, discouraged, and defeated. Every one of these negative emotions would be turned to positive by a proper revelation of God's love for us. 

As for loving others, most of us would admit there are some people who are very difficult to love. Since we do not fully understand God's love for us, we fail in loving others. We can't give away what we don't have. If we receive a full revelation of God's love for us, it becomes easy to love others with the love that we have received. 

When we struggle to believe that God's promises to us will come to pass, that's unbelief; but the root of that unbelief is a lack of love. Galatians 5:6 says faith works by love. That means love is the driving force behind our faith. Remove or diminish love, and faith ceases to be what it should be. Many of us try hard to believe when we should be seeking a greater revelation of God's love for us. Then, faith would just naturally work. 

Just a few months after Jamie and I were married, we were in a desperate situation. I had quit my job, believing that the Lord wanted me to go into full-time ministry. The result was that we were hurting financially. It had been days since we had eaten. We had nothing but a few Cokes that a friend had given us and a bag of Fritos that we had been rationing out. Our faith was beginning to waver. We were fighting with all we had, to believe that the Lord was going to supply our needs, but our circumstances and empty bellies were screaming unbelief at us. 

One morning, Jamie took our last fifty cents and our car and drove to the laundry mat to do some laundry. While she was gone, I did some serious business with the Lord. I was crying and saying, "Lord, I don't understand. I would give my right arm to feed Jamie. I believe You love us more than I love Jamie, and yet You aren't taking care of us." I had let circumstances blind me to God's love. That's the main reason my faith wasn't working. 

The Lord spoke Luke 12:32 to me very clearly. That verse says, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Suddenly, I realized my unbelief was because I had forgotten how much God loves us. God delights in our prosperity (Ps. 35:27). He gets no pleasure from watching us starve. As the revelation of God's love for us came flooding over me, all doubt that our needs would be supplied was instantly gone. When Jamie returned from doing the laundry, I told her that we were going to eat meat that day. 

We had Fritos and Coke for lunch. We skipped supper because we were tired of Fritos and Coke. At church, a friend asked us to stop by his apartment after the service. We thought, "Maybe they are going to feed us." We stayed and talked for over an hour, but there was no food. As we were leaving, however, the man gave us loads of fish that he had caught. He also gave us all the vegetables to go with them. We rushed home, and Jamie fixed us a feast. Just a few minutes prior to midnight, we ate meat to our fill. The next day was my birthday, and a woman in the church gave us a large box full of porterhouse steaks. We went from a starvation diet of Fritos and Coke, to having enough steaks for a month in just a matter of hours because love made my faith work. 

When our friend gave us the fish that evening, he told us that he had sent his wife by our apartment earlier that morning to deliver the food. Our car was gone, though; so she supposed we were not there and didn't stop. The only time that car was gone all day long was when Jamie went to wash clothes and I was praying in that apartment. At the exact moment that I got a new and fresh revelation of God's love for us, our supply came through. It took us a few hours to see it, but God moved instantly. He wanted to supply our need more than we wanted Him to. My lack of faith in His love hindered Him. As soon as I opened up to His love, my faith revived and He supplied. 

There is more than just a superficial knowledge that God loves us. In Ephesians, chapter 3, Paul prayed that the Ephesians would get a greater revelation of God's love for them. He said, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3:14-19). 

Notice in verse 18 that God's love isn't just one-dimensional. There is height, depth, length, and breadth to it. Many Christians only see God's love as they would see a painting, in one-dimension. They've never seen the multi-dimensional reality of God's love. 

In verse 19, Paul said as we experience God's love, which is superior to mere knowledge of God's love, then we would be filled with all the fullness of God. What a statement! Are you lacking in any area of your life? If so, you lack a revelation of God's love. Experiencing God's love equals fullness. 

I've said all of this to say that a deep revelation of God's love for us is the most important thing we can receive. First Corinthians 13:13 says, "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity" (God's kind of love). 

There are many ways that Satan uses to try to block the revelation of God's love for us. One of the most subtle, and therefore the most deadly, ways is that he has deceived us into thinking that God's love for us is tied to our performance. We think we have to do something to earn God's love. We have to merit God's love. That is not what the Bible teaches. 

In the natural world, you get what you deserve. Employers don't hire you based on their love for you. You have to perform. If you perform badly, you are punished or fired. The same thing is true in most relationships. I've had hundreds of married couples essentially tell me, "They don't deserve my love." However, the nearly-too-good-to-be-true news of the Gospel is that we don't get what we deserve. Praise the Lord! 

God's love for us is unconditional. That is, God doesn't love us because of some virtue we possess. God loves us because "God is love" (1 John 4:8), not because we are lovely. 

Religion is one of the biggest propagators of the conditional-love-of-God lie. Most "Christian churches" teach that God's love for us is conditional, based on our performance. If we pray, go to church, pay our tithes, etc., then the Lord loves us and answers our prayers; but if we fail, then the Lord won't answer our prayers. That's not true. 

There is a disease in the church that I call "spiritual dyslexia." Dyslexia is where a person sees things backwards. A dyslexic person sees the word "god" as "dog". There's a huge difference between God and a dog; yet dyslexics don't see it. 

"Spiritual dyslexia" has a similar effect on people. Those infected with this "spiritual dyslexia" see scriptures backwards. For instance, 1 John 2:3-5 says, "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." 

A dyslexic Christian sees these verses and says, "I want to know God, so I must keep His commandments." These verses are saying just the opposite. Keeping God's commandments is a result of knowing God. You can live a holy life without knowing God; the Pharisees proved that. However, you can't know God without living a holy life as a result. When God's love is perfected in us, keeping God's Word will be the result (verse 5). 

Any attempt to reverse this order is "getting the cart before the horse." It won't work; and yet this is what the majority of Christians are trying to do. They are seeking to know the Lord better by living a holier life. It's just the opposite. Experiencing God's love more will produce a holy life. 

This dyslexic condition has caused many to tie God's love for them to their performance. When they do well, they let God's love for them flow. When they do poorly, they condemn themselves. They think God is condemning them, but He's not. In many cases, it's not even the devil condemning them. Satan has caused them to believe a lie, and they are condemning themselves. 

We all need a greater revelation of God's unconditional love for us! I have a special series designed just for that purpose. A revelation of God's unconditional love for me is what turned my life around in 1968. It's still impacting me today. These teachings reveal the things God showed me about His love. I believe that if you open up your heart, the Lord will grant you at least as much revelation on this as I have, and it will change your life.

Meditation

How Meditation May Change the Brain

Over the December holidays, my husband went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Not my idea of fun, but he came back rejuvenated and energetic.

He said the experience was so transformational that he has committed to meditating for two hours daily, one hour in the morning and one in the evening, until the end of March. He’s running an experiment to determine whether and how meditation actually improves the quality of his life.

I’ll admit I’m a skeptic.

But now, scientists say that meditators like my husband may be benefiting from changes in their brains. The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. The findings will appear in the Jan. 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

M.R.I. brain scans taken before and after the participants’ meditation regimen found increased gray matter in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory. The images also showed a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala, a region connected to anxiety and stress. A control group that did not practice meditation showed no such changes.

But how exactly did these study volunteers, all seeking stress reduction in their lives but new to the practice, meditate? So many people talk about meditating these days. Within four miles of our Bay Area home, there are at least six centers that offer some type of meditation class, and I often hear phrases like, “So how was your sit today?”

Britta Hölzel, a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and the study’s lead author, said the participants practiced mindfulness meditation, a form of meditation that was introduced in the United States in the late 1970s. It traces its roots to the same ancient Buddhist techniques that my husband follows.

“The main idea is to use different objects to focus one’s attention, and it could be a focus on sensations of breathing, or emotions or thoughts, or observing any type of body sensations,” she said. “But it’s about bringing the mind back to the here and now, as opposed to letting the mind drift.”

Generally the meditators are seated upright on a chair or the floor and in silence, although sometimes there might be a guide leading a session, Dr. Hölzel said.

Of course, it’s important to remember that the human brain is complicated. Understanding what the increased density of gray matter really means is still, well, a gray area.

“The field is very, very young, and we don’t really know enough about it yet,” Dr. Hölzel said. “I would say these are still quite preliminary findings. We see that there is something there, but we have to replicate these findings and find out what they really mean.”

It has been hard to pinpoint the benefits of meditation, but a 2009 study suggests that meditation may reduce blood pressure in patients with coronary heart disease. And a 2007 study found that meditators have longer attention spans.

Previous studies have also shown that there are structural differences between the brains of meditators and those who don’t meditate, although this new study is the first to document changes in gray matter over time through meditation.

Ultimately, Dr. Hölzel said she and her colleagues would like to demonstrate how meditation results in definitive improvements in people’s lives.

“A lot of studies find that it increases well-being, improves quality of life, but it’s always hard to determine how you can objectively test that,” she said. “Relatively little is known about the brain and the psychological mechanisms about how this is being done.”

In a 2008 study published in the journal PloS One, researchers found that when meditators heard the sounds of people suffering, they had stronger activation levels in their temporal parietal junctures, a part of the brain tied to empathy, than people who did not meditate.

“They may be more willing to help when someone suffers, and act more compassionately,” Dr. Hölzel said.

Further study is needed, but that bodes well for me.

For now, I’m more than happy to support my husband’s little experiment, despite the fact that he now rises at 5 a.m. and is exhausted by 10 at night.

An empathetic husband who takes out the trash and puts gas in the car because he knows I don’t like to — I’ll take that.

Corruption in India

Corruption in India

Introduction

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

It is not easy to define corruption. But in a narrow sense, corruption is mostly concerned with "bribery" and it takes several forms. Corruption is a global phenomenon and it is omnipresent. Corruption has progressively increased and is now rampant in our society.National scenario. Corruption in India is a consequence of the nexus between Bureaucracy, politics and criminals. India is now no longer considered a soft state. It has now become a consideration state where everything can be had for a consideration. Today, the number of ministers with an honest image can be counted on fingers. At one time, bribe was paid for getting wrong things done but now bribe is paid for getting right things done at right time.

Effects of corruption

Indian administration is tainted with scandals. India is among 55 of the 106 countries where corruption is rampant, according to the Corruption Perception Index 2004 Report released by Transparency International India. Corruption in India leads to promotion not prison. It is very difficult to catch ‘big sharks’. Corruption in India has wings not wheels. As nation grows, the corrupt also grow to invent new methods of cheating the government and public.

Causes of corruption

The causes of corruption are many and complex. Following are some of the causes of corruption.

Emergence of political elite who believe in interest-oriented rather than nation-oriented programmes and policies.

Artificial scarcity created by the people with malevolent intentions wrecks the fabric of the economy.

Corruption is caused as well as increased because of the change in the value system and ethical qualities of men who administer. The old ideals of morality, service and honesty are regarded as an achronistic.

Tolerance of people towards corruption, complete lack of intense public outcry against corruption and the absence of strong public forum to oppose corruption allow corruption to reign over people.

Vast size of population coupled with widespread illiteracy and the poor economic infrastructure lead to endemic corruption in public life.

In a highly inflationary economy, low salaries of government officials compel them to resort to the road of corruption. Graduates from IIMs with no experience draw a far handsome salary than what government secretaries draw.

Complex laws and procedures alienate common people to ask for any help from government.

Election time is a time when corruption is at its peak level. Big industrialist fund politicians to meet high cost of election and ultimately to seek personal favour. Bribery to politicians buys influence, and bribery by politicians buys votes. In order to get elected, politicians bribe poor illiterate people, who are slogging for two times’ meal.

Measures to combat corruption

Is it possible to contain corruption in our society? Corruption is a cancer, which every Indian must strive to cure. Many new leaders when come into power declare their determination to eradicate corruption but soon they themselves become corrupt and start amassing huge wealth.

There are many myths about corruption, which have to be exploded if we really want to combat it. Some of these myths are: Corruption is a way of life and nothing can be done about it. Only people from underdeveloped or developing countries are prone to corruption. We will have to guard against all these crude fallacies while planning measures to fight corruption.

Foolproof laws should be made so that there is no room for discretion for politicians and bureaucrats. The role of the politician should be minimized. Application of the evolved policies should be left in the hands of independent commission or authority in each area of public interest. Decision of the commission or authority should be challengeable only in the courts.

Cooperation of the people has to be obtained for successfully containing corruption. People should have a right to recall the elected representatives if they see them becoming indifferent to the electorate.

Funding of elections is at the core of political corruption. Electoral reforms are crucial in this regard. Several reforms like: State funding of election expenses for candidates; strict enforcement of statutory requirements like holding in-party elections, making political parties get their accounts audited regularly and filing income-tax returns; denying persons with criminal records a chance to contest elections, should be brought in.

Responsiveness, accountability and transparency are a must for a clean system. 

Bureaucracy, the backbone of good governance, should be made more citizen friendly, accountable, ethical and transparent.

More and more courts should be opened for speedy & inexpensive justice so that cases don’t linger in courts for years and justice is delivered on time.

Local bodies, Independent of the government, like Lokpals, Lokadalats, CVCs and Vigilance Commissions should be formed to provide speedy justice with low expenses.

A new Fundamental Right viz. Right to Information should be introduced, which will empower the citizens to ask for the information they want. Barring some confidential information, which concerns national and international security, other information should be made available to general public as and when required. Stringent actions against corrupt officials will certainly have a deterrent impact.

Conclusion

Corruption is an intractable problem. It is like diabetes, can only be controlled, but not totally eliminated. It may not be possible to root out corruption completely at all levels but it is possible to contain it within tolerable limits. Honest and dedicated persons in public life, control over electoral expenses could be the most important prescriptions to combat corruption. Corruption has a corrosive impact on our economy. It worsens our image in international market and leads to loss of overseas opportunities. Corruption is a global problem that all countries of the world have to confront, solutions, however, can only be home grown. We have tolerated corruption for so long. The time has now come to root it out from its roots.