[ My Dear Navaratries.]

World's Best Mysore King's Palace with 10,00,000 lights during Navaratri 9 days.

‘Navaraatri’ and Dasara festival days are meant for making our life useful, fruitful, purposeful and meaningful. It is celebrated throughout India and also world over where Indian reside. This has become one of the great festivals due to the fact that it connects our day to day life of acquiring knowledge and doing work for livelihood.

Thus we worship Vidya devatha Saraswati, Sakti Devatha Parvati and Devatha of prosperity Mahalakshmi. All the three factors; books, tools and money are respected as divine in India through the three feminine devatha concepts.

In India and in sanaathana dharma divinity is attributed to males and females with equal status. Thrimoorthies are directly connected with thrisakthies as inseparable parts like wife and husbands. Mahavishnu + Mahalakshmi; Brahma + Saraswathi; Siva + Sakti. (Prapancha pursha + Prakruthi devi; Parabrahma + Mahaamaaya) Thrimoorthies and thrisakthies are sankalpaas which are logically, rationally and scientifically explainable divine concepts unlike merely explaining something based on faith or beliefs. (remember concept of god and concept of divinity are slightly different.)

The Navaratri / dasara festivals play crucial role in our social, spiritual, psychological, economical, industrial, commercial, and anthropological life. We could use spirituality as applied spirituality for achieving the above goals through bringing people from all walks of life together for economic prosperity, social bondage, development of arts, culture, music, dance, literary works and rituals like vidyaarambha, commencement of new industrial ventures, investment, developments, and so on.

Thus in India the spirituality is used as applied spirituality for making the life in this world heavenly instead of thinking and praying for going to an imaginary heaven outside this world after death in the name of god, god fearing activities and god pleasing activities.

SUGGESTION: I would like you to perform pooja of your books, tools, computers, instruments, equipments, vehicles and work-tools. This is for demonstrating our respect to knowledge, profession, work, and tools which give us happiness through fetching livelihood.

[ Tips in selecting Old Age Home.]

Many old parents don't have support during their sunset years. Many children are not in a position to be in the same city of their parents.

If you can afford, please do make sure they are taken care of in a good old age home. They deserve it and most importantly they have earned it.

We are attempting to list all old age homes in Karnataka. We would appreciate your help in expanding this list.

Tips for elders seeking Old Age Homes -

Make sure whether moving to an old age home is inevitable for you.

Consult your family members & close friends before taking decision.

Evaluate your needs and affordability.

Be slow & cautious in choosing the right home for you, keeping in mind the facilities & services available there.

See that adequate facilities for your physical, social, emotional & spiritual needs are available there.

Visit the home personally, inspect critically & be satisfied with the environment, quality of services, infrastructure such as rooms, beds, food, water, cleanliness, medical care, transport,communication & entertainment facilities.

Do not be carried away by the claims & promises of the staff & management. Find out if the people are committed, service minded and trust worthy.

Meet with the inmates & get all information & all doubts cleared. Observe the living conditions of the inmates, find how they are treated & whether the home is over crowded or not.

Examine the scope of privacy, independence & security.

Avoid keeping valuables with you.

Study all the papers, documents, terms & conditions carefully before signing & making payments.

Get a clear idea about the payments, fixed and recurring costs & whether deposits are refundable or not. Pls note, donations are not refundable.

Get receipts for all payments & keep safe all the brochures & documents signed by the management and all copies of papers signed by you.

Find whether easy communication with & visits by family members & friends are permissible.

Furnish clear instructions & details about the people to be informed in case of emergencies.