Ajay0

It is not correct to under-assess Russian military capabilities. Inspite of all the volunteers and aid the west has poured into Ukraine, Russia is still progressively gaining more Ukrainian territory, and even western propagandists have sobered down in recent times as their predictions of russian collapse a year back has not materialised. The Russians have a proud military tradition, being the ones who ended Napoleon's dictatorship and the Nazi war machine, which were the greatest military powers in their time. Their economy has also improved more than any G7 nation. Even now, Europe still buys gas worth billions of dollars from Russia amply replenishing its war chest. The US has also recently stated that China is boosting the Russian military capabilities. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/12/china-supporting-russia-in-massive-military-expansion-us-says I am sorry to see all this conflict which I find nonsensical in the first place. It is a failure of the UN and NAM ( non-aligned movement) to prevent conflict by creating the necessary diplomatic mechanisms for peace and consensus in this regard.

Do not ignore the effect of right action saying, "This will come to nothing." Just as by the gradual fall of raindrops the water jar is filled, so in time the wise become replete with good.~ Buddha, Dhammapada Verse 122 'The transformation, though overnight, was never an overnight process. In Chemistry classes we do the acid-base titration experiments. The final drop from the pipette changes the colour of the solution in the beaker. But were not the earlier drops significant? Similarly, righteous living all through life purified me and enabled the overnight transformation.' ~ Rajini Menon

US is a strategic partner to India with respect to containment of China, which has emerged as a political, economic and military superpower in its own right, and is considered a far bigger threat than Russia. Chinese army and navy is superior in numbers to the US, and the difference is growing as well. Biden had also stated that he does not support Taiwan's independence, clearly showing US weakness and wariness in taking on China. https://www.deccanherald.com/world/us-does-not-support-taiwan-independence-says-biden-2848032 This was the reason for US-India strategic relationship for containment of China's exponentially growing power. However this does not equate with India's interests being aligned with US-NATO. US-NATO's defeat by Taliban in 2021 after sustaining heavy casualties and trillions of dollars down the drain, showcased its military and political limitations. Their military inability to effectively counter Houthi attacks on the Red Sea has now hiked shipping costs further causing economic damage to the recession hit west. China already have a good working relationship with neighboring Russia, and a Russia-China coalition against India can do much strategic damage to the latter. Also around 70 percent of Indian military hardware is from the Russians due to their cost-effectiveness and willingness to transfer military technology such as nuclear submarines. Western weaponry on the other hand is highly expensive and they were also not willing to transfer the same military technologies. It is for these reasons that India has a good relationship with Russia and it cannot ill-afford to antagonize it and make it go completely to the Chinese side. Even though India is considered as the world's largest democracy, western nations had traditionally aligned with the long running military dictatorship in Pakistan considering that Pakistan was a major market of western military weaponry bought heavily by the unregulated military dictatorship. It was 9/11 and dramatic rise in Islamic terrorism that prompted western nations to change their focus to India. India's fast rising economy after the 1990 economic liberalisation reforms also presented a far more lucrative market as well. India has started indigenizing much of its weaponry and also diversified and increased its weapons imports from France, spain, South Korea and US, so as to reduce its strategic dependence on Russia. However this is a process that will take some time.

My thoughts on the subject. An issue with herbal medicines is that it is slow in the healing process which is of a holistic nature. There are no side-effects but healing is slow and gradual and not easily tangible. They are taken more as a preventive medicine. Allopathic medicines are significant in emergencies, and healing is fast and tangible. I also must state here that I have come across people who had exhausted all options that Allopathy could offer, but got effective treatment in Ayurveda and Hatha yoga. Arthur Boorman and Brad Willis are famous examples in this regard who were able to heal themselves with Hatha Yoga and Ayurveda when they were given a poor prognosis by their doctors. S.N.Goenka was a rich Burmese businessman who had consulted allopathic doctors around the world for his severe migraines unsuccessfully. After learning and practicing the vipassana meditation technique under Vipassana teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin, he experienced healing and became a life-long proponent of Vipassana and helped spread it in Asia and around the world. A colleague of mine , who worked as an aeronautical engineer , had issues with infertility and had consulted various Allopathic specialists and treatments to no avail. He and his wife had resigned to a life with no children. In his forties he came across an Ayurvedic treatment method for fertility issues with a good track record. After trying out this treatment, he and his wife had two children. Because he got his children late in life, he used to joke about looking like a grandfather next to them in photographs. But he was happy that the treatment worked and hence usually spreads a good word about Ayurveda. These case studies showed me that allopathic treatments need not be the last word, and alternative medicines can also be opted for healing purposes.

Insightful article by Christopher Hedges on Nato... https://scheerpost.com/2022/07/11/hedges-nato-the-most-dangerous-military-alliance-on-the-planet/

The Indian IT and BPO/call center sectors rakes around 250 billion dollars and 50 billion dollars respectively annually. Its possible that some scamsters or wannabe bpo entrepreneurs are testing the waters to see if their skills are adequate enough. They can also be from an another country as well.

Great thread. Yes, rights should be complemented by duties. Full-fledged individuality is bound to result in anarchy and chaos unless it is balanced with a heightened sense of morality. It is the sense of morality that determines obedience to just laws as well as disobedience to unjust laws, and which is the true condition for growth, not criminality.

Due to lack of self-knowledge, human beings are bound to emotionally identify with their external identities related to race, religion, creed, nationality,ideology and so on leading to disharmony and conflicts. Look at the way the Israelis and Arabs have been fighting for decades even though they are of the same Abrahamic family and semitic race. Arab finances and Israeli technology can make the Middle east a technological and greater economic power at present. But there are no leaders with vision for the same. So all the money and intellectual talent are wasted in conflict and making other weapons exporting countries rich. Same goes for the Americans, Europeans and Russians in conflict with each other even though they are of the same race, culture and religion. The level of human unconsciousness is very high, and I would say it is bound to result in high chances of foolish or poor decision making leading to conflicts or their exacerbation. There has been a couple of instances where the world was close to a nuclear holocaust in the last century, and it was only because certain officers refused to obey orders from above that the US, Russia and Europe is still standing now, and is not a radioactive wasteland at present. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov They are actually lucky to be still alive now. But will their good luck continue in the future is the right question to ask! Only a fool depends on luck. Hence the necessity for developing space technology to the point that we can develop large living habitats in the moon and mars.

ISRO's Aditya-L1 will track the Sun on Monday as it gets completely cloaked by the Moon during the Total Solar Eclipse. https://www.hindustantimes.com/science/total-solar-eclipse-today-april-8-2024-isros-aditya-l1-to-track-the-sun-during-darkness-101712535333181.html

Hey, thanks. Investment in science and technology pays the highest dividends, and hopefully other third and fourth world countries will emulate India's example, and attain prosperity for themselves from poverty. Gandhi had stated that intelligence and good work ethics is the true wealth, and not gold and silver. The Arabs at a time were ahead of the west in science and technology, especially during the Arab Golden Age. It was the mongol invasions that unfortunately ended the Arab golden age in the thirteenth century. Imho, if it weren't for the mongol invasions, the Arab civilization would have been at a highly advanced state now scientifically and technologically speaking, boosting the regional, Asian and global economy. Hopefully, the middle easterners, rightfully proud of their heritage, will do greater feats in science and technology than their brilliant ancestors.

Yo Bebytalk. Hope you are doing fine and well. Your sweet little island is also not exempt from poverty it seems. It is sad that the UK is also having bad financial times, and the homeless over there is now more than a lakh. More than 1,300 people died while homeless across the United Kingdom in 2022, marking an 85 percent increase since 2019. The UK's maiden space rocket launch last year also ended in failure and is now lying at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. I am sure this must have caused a lot of heartache and trauma in UK space buffs. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/plane-carrying-rocket-takes-off-for-1st-uk-satellite-launch/articleshow/96867469.cms?from=mdr Hopefully, Rishi Sunak, the present UK prime minister of Indian origin ruling the UK, about to conduct trade deals with India, can also bring about closer collaboration between ISRO and UKSA to get rid of any teething issues. The million strong Indian community has the highest median income in the UK and is the richest community after the Jews. So I am a well-wisher of the UK. All the best.

You seem to be intent on trolling. I have explained about much of India's poverty that came about in the last century under western colonialism over here.

Housing 50 billion human beings is not an issue ! I am talking about the flora and fauna who require their own habitat. Where do we house them ! This is true. Mahatma Gandhi had stated that earth has enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed. If every man desires and wants a mansion, private jet and fleet of cars, it will bankrupt the earth's natural resources. Gandhi was a minimalist who made his own food, sandals and clothes, performed manual labor and was a practicioner of the medical system of naturopathy as per his ideals of self-reliance, simple living and high thinking. If everyone of the 50 billion had a Gandhian lifestyle, there would be harmony with nature. But most people would rather be a billionaire with attitude like Trump with gold-laced buildings and furniture rather than Gandhi. Due to numerous desires, it is human nature to seek materialistic wealth and luxury to fulfill them , and one must account for that. Running away to Mars 250 million kilometers away is not an easy thing. Indian space probe Mangalyaan is the first to reach the Martian orbit in its first attempt showing the challenges of navigation in this regard at such a large distance. Roughly sixty percent of all spacecraft destined for Mars failed before completing their missions, with some failing before their observations could even begin. Mangalyaan, which was India's first interplanetary mission, was set to circle Mars with a designed 6 month lifespan, with five solar-powered instruments gathering scientific data. It however lasted eight years in Mars' atmosphere, and scientists from several institutions have collected information about the planet's surface features, morphology, atmosphere and exosphere. Scientists even used Mangalyaan to study the Solar Corona when the Earth and Mars were on the opposite sides of the Sun, during the conjunction event of May-June 2015. Mars has a better habitable terrain and atmosphere than Moon and has a high possibility of being terraformed to have a human population and living habitat.

Yes, there are many who follow a syncretism of different religious systems. Zen is said to have emerged from a confluence of Taoism and Buddhism. Sikhism has many features of Islam and Hinduism in it. Mahatma Gandhi followed an amalgamation of Hinduism and Jainism, and much of his views on nonviolence stemmed from Jainism.

Earth having around 8 billion people at present has itself decimated animal populations by nearly 70 percent. Half of the world’s rainforest's has been destroyed in just one century. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/animal-populations-plummeted-by-nearly-70-percent-last-50-years-new-report/ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major-report-finds https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/forests-and-deserts/rate-of-deforestation If it has even 50 billion people itself, all of the remaining animal and plant life will be decimated in a short period of time. https://medium.com/climate-conscious/the-magical-number-of-humans-earth-can-support-40c4e1c0411e

India is the fourth country on earth to succeed in a soft landing on the moon, and the first to do so on the lunar south pole, with the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. The Indian space programme has a vision of creating lunar habitats and this is the reason for the first ever lunar landing in the south pole which is considered to have resources for successful habitation such as oxygen, metals , solar power and ease of radio communications. The sequence of crewed space travel, space station, the future Chandrayan-4 project to get lunar soil samples, bringing astronauts to the moon by 2040 are small steps in this regard. The moon and asteroids can be mined for valuable metals and minerals, which can also be excellent wealth generators. Hopefully, excess population on earth can be transferred to new habitats in large space stations, moon, mars and habitable moons of other planets. This can greatly reduce the pressure on nature on earth , and also reduce ugly competition for natural resources on earth which can lead to conflicts and wars as well, further fragmenting humanity. Also considering the prospect of an asteroid strike or nuclear holocaust by foolish and short-sighted politicians that can end humanity , it is wise to invest in lunar habitats that can allow the human race to survive and flourish.

India's space projects are conducted on shoe-string budgets, inferior to Hollywood movie budgets. For example the entire cost of Chandrayaan 3 Mission at 75 million dollars, is less than half of the budget of the Hollywood move Interstellar at 167 million dollars. The Indian space industry has been profitable to Indian economy as many countries have approached India to launch their satellites. India has also saved a lot of money launching its satellites on its own rather than depending on the expensive launching services of other countries. It is doing great business gaining 1000 per cent return on its expenditure, and has employed many scientists, engineers and technicians. It has also inspired many students to take fields of science and technology in India. There has also been numerous technological spinoffs from the space industry which has been transferred to the local industries for manufacturing and marketing as products and services. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISRO_spin-off_technologies#:~:text=ISRO spin-off technologies are,or data from ISRO research. Abdul Kalam, who played a sterling role in India's space programme was from a poverty stricken fisherman's family, who had to start working at age of 10 along with his studies at school. Kailasavadivoo Sivan , the former chairman of ISRO is similarly of a poverty stricken family who had arrived at his position by his diligent scholarship and work ethics. Many other ISRO positions have been filled with aspiring youngsters from poverty stricken families, and who arose to prosperity though intelligence and good work ethics. India is the fourth largest economy in the world and fastest growing economy at the moment,. Around 415 million people came out of poverty in India within 15 years between the years 2005/2006 and 2019/2021 as a consequence of this (as per UN statistics), and India also has the third largest number of billionaires in the world after the US and China at 271. https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/economy/story/un-applauds-indias-remarkable-reduction-in-poverty-415-mn-people-came-out-of-poverty-in-15-years-389159-2023-07-11 The global space industry is expected to generate $1.1 trillion or more by 2040, according to Morgan Stanley — more than triple its current value of $350 billion. And, new space engine technology like 3D printed rocket engines are expected to play a big role in this explosion of value. Indian private space industries have also come about successfully testing their launchers and rockets at cost-effective prices. Reusable launch vehicles like the Pushpak which can further slash costs by 80 % are also being tested with good results. Thus a major chunk of space revenues in the near future can enable India to leapfrog ahead economically and technologically to becoming a developed and highly prosperous nation.

An ethical life purifies the mind. By living an ethical life, one progresses towards the realization of the Divine. ~ Sri Anandamayi Ma Behavior influences consciousness. Right behavior means right consciousness. ~ Taisen Deshimaru ( Zen Buddhist master and founder of Association Zen Internationale ) Behavior influences consciousness. Right behavior means right consciousness. Our attitude here and now influences the entire environment: our words, actions, ways of holding and moving ourselves, they all influence what happens around us and inside us. The actions of every instant, every day, must be right...Every gesture is important. How we eat, how we put on our clothes, how we wash ourselves, how we go to the toilet, how we put our things away, how we act with other people, family, wife, work - how we are: totally, in every single gesture. ~ Taisen Deshimaru

Mahayan Buddhism talks about the 'Buddha nature' which is similar to the Self in Hinduism. Emphasis on Awareness is a common point in Theravadan/Mahayan Buddhism as well as Hinduism. Therevadan Buddhism emphasizes nothingness/emptiness because it is the ultimate ego-buster. Who wants to be nothing ? Hinduism and nondual philosophies states that one is the Self or Infinite, which are good for the ego or self-image to cling to. But nothingness is an entirely different proposition. We are coming from emptiness and going back to emptiness. Just as the vastness of space helps bring a sense of proportion and scales down the covetous human ego, similarly the philosophy of emptiness is designed to scale down the ego acting as a psychological austerity and helps to bring a sense of proportion and perspective, which enables mindfulness to blossom.

ISIS has called for its brainwashed cadres to conduct lone wolf attacks in the U.S, Europe and Israel during the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan, coming on the heels of the Moscow attack which killed around 130 people. https://www.newsnationnow.com/world/isis-k-calls-for-lone-wolf-attacks/

Decoding India's Reusable Launch Vehicle, Pushpak Viman. https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/isro-rlv-pushpak-viman-space-access-satellite-launch-landing-test-2520904-2024-03-30

Interesting. There is a large Persian Zoroastrian community in India and elsewhere too. Such festivals has helped them to keep grounded to their ancestral culture and practices and connect with Persians around the world. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240318-what-the-3500-year-old-holiday-of-nowruz-can-teach-us-in-2024

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) achieved another milestone as the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module-3 (POEM-3) re-entered Earth's atmosphere, leaving zero debris in orbit. https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/pslv-poem-3-isro-zero-debris-mission-2519279-2024-03-25

Not true. The large rivers in India as well as the yearly monsoons ensured good agricultural productivity in India. This was amplified by highly skilled Indian farming techniques and methods , which were noted and documented by the English botanist Albert Howard, who was also one of the principle figures of the organic farming movement. Because of its cold weather as well as inefficiency and low productivity of medieval agriculture compounded by inertia backed resistance to change, European agricultural production was low. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_the_Middle_Ages Not mystics, but sannyasins or monks. Buddha was a monk himself. The sannyasins renounced the world in pursuit of spiritual development, and took alms from householders to support themselves. Those were prosperous times, and consequently the sannyasins were well supported by the society around them, leading to peaks in religious and philosophical culture. The Chinese monk and traveller Fa Hien reported that he was offered milk when he asked for water during his travels in India. It was considered spiritually meritorious to give alms to monks, and hence both the monks and house-holders benefitted from this arrangement. The householders also were able to gain knowledge on various religious and philosophical systems and doubts they may have by the company of the monks. Buddha himself was sought by many house-holders as a guest in their homes for his meals, which he obliged.

India has enjoyed great prosperity for milleniums and was the sole economic powerhouse of the world with China. The Indian ocean is the only ocean named after India due to the heavy commercial transactions that took place by foreign ships seeking to trade with India. This was also instrumental in the discovery of the America's. India's wealth and prosperity has been documented by many foreign travellers and scholars. India's poverty started two centuries back after a stint with exploitative western colonialism which was attracted to the wealth of India. After independence, India has emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world consistently for years and has the third largest number of billionaires in the world after the US and China. At its present rate it is now forecast to overcome the US as the world's largest economy by 2070. So there is no relation between spirituality and food, except in Karma Yoga where one is supposed to be charitable selflessly so as to go beyond the self-interests and marked boundaries of the ego and access the higher consciousness of the Self.