Thursday, 31 July 2014

Which dictator killed the most people?

Saturday, 12 July 2014

Guru Purnima

Guru Purnima (IAST: Guru Pūrṇimā, sanskrit: गुरु पूर्णिमा) is an Nepalese and Indian festival dedicated to spiritual and academic teachers. This festival traditionally celebrated by Hindus and Buddhists, to thank their teachers. It is marked by ritualistic respect to the Guru, Guru Puja. The Guru Principle is a thousand times more active on the day of Gurupournima than on any other day. The word Guru is derived from two words, 'Gu' and 'Ru'. The Sanskrit root "Gu" means darkness or ignorance. "Ru" denotes the remover of that darkness. Therefore one who removes darkness of our ignorance is a Guru. Gurus are believed by many to be the most necessary part of lives. On this day, disciples offer puja (worship) or pay respect to their Guru (Spiritual Guide). It falls on the day of full moon, Purnima, in the month of Ashadh (June–July) of the Shaka Samvat, Indian national calendar and Hindu calendar.

In addition to having religious importance, this festival has great importance for Indian academics and scholars. Indian academics celebrate this day by thanking their teachers as well as remembering past teachers and scholars.

Traditionally the festival is celebrated by Buddhists in honor of the lord Buddha who gave His first sermon on this day at Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India. In the yogic tradition, the day is celebrated as the occasion when Shiva became the first Guru, as he began the transmission of yoga to the Saptarishis Many Hindus celebrate the day in honor of the great sage Vyasa, who is seen as one of the greatest gurus in ancient Hindu traditions and a symbol of the Guru-shishya tradition. Vyasa was not only believed to have been born on this day, but also to have started writing the Brahma Sutras on ashadha sudha padyami, which ends on this day. Their recitations are a dedication to him, and are organised on this day, which is also known as Vyasa Purnima. The festival is common to all spiritual traditions in Hinduism, where it is an expression of gratitude toward the teacher by his/her disciple.[8] Hindu ascetics and wandering monks (sanyasis), observe this day by offering puja to the Guru, during the Chaturmas, a four-month period during the rainy season, when they choose seclusion and stay at one chosen place; some also give discourses to the local public. Students of Indian classical music, which also follows the Guru shishya parampara, celebrate this holy festival around the world.
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Greater Nepal

Greater Nepal is a nascent concept of Nepal extending beyond its present boundaries to include current Indian territories controlled briefly by the Gurkha army after defeating some Indian kingdoms in wars fought from 1791 to 1804 but ceded to the East India Company under the Sugauli Treaty after the Gurkha king was defeated in the 1814–16 Anglo-Nepalese War. The concept of "Greater Nepal" does not include those parts of Tibet that the Gurkha army occupied very briefly after defeating
Tibetans in wars fought from 1789 to 1791 but from where the Gurkha army was ejected by Chinese army which defeated the Gurkha king in 1792 Sino-Nepalese War. In 1813, this historical Greater Nepal extended from the Sutlej to the Tista, spanning 1500 kilometres. Rule over this expanse was brief, however, and in the aftermath of the 1814-1815 war with the East India Company the Gorkhali realm was whittled down considerably. The real time Gorkhali presence in Garhwal was for a little over a decade; Kumaon for 25 years; and Sikkim for 33 years. The Treaty of Sugauli, between the Gorkhali king and the Company, was ratified in 1816. It caused Nepal's rulers to lose about 105,000 km2 of territory and left Nepal as she is today, with 147,181 km2 of present total area. Former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said in a 2005 interview with Times of India that Greater Nepal was a "media-created stunt".

Thursday, 3 July 2014

Illusion


An illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Though illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may occur with any of the human senses, but visual illusions (optical illusions), are the most well-known and understood. The emphasis on visual illusions occurs because vision often dominates the other senses. For example, individuals watching a ventriloquist will perceive the voice is coming from the dummy since they are able to see the dummy mouth the words. Some illusions are based on general assumptions the brain makes during perception. These assumptions are made using organizational principles (e.g., Gestalt theory), an individual's capacity for depth perceptionand motion perception, and perceptual constancy. Other illusions occur because of biological sensory structures within thehuman body or conditions outside of the body within one’s physical environment.

                                                      Try this on Dark Room

The term illusion refers to a specific form of sensory distortion. Unlike a hallucination, which is a distortion in the absence of a stimulus, an illusion describes a misinterpretation of a true sensation. For example, hearing voices regardless of the environment would be a hallucination, whereas hearing voices in the sound of running water (or other auditory source) would be an illusion.

Mimes are known for a repertoire of illusions that are created by physical means. The mime artist creates an illusion of acting upon or being acted upon by an unseen object. These illusions exploit the audience's assumptions about the physical world. Well-known examples include "walls", "climbing stairs", "leaning", "descending ladders", and "pulling and pushing".

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