Ik Onkar

Ik Onkar, meaning 'One Universal God,' is the first phrase of the Mul Mantra - the prayer containing the basis of the Sikh faith. Its importance is emphasized by virtue of it being the first composition of Guru Nanak in the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhism. The Mul Mantra expounds the central concepts of Sikh theology and forms the foundation of the faith. The version here is sung by Harshdeep Kaur in the movie Rang De Basanti, with music by A.R. Rahman.

Ik Onkar Sat Naam Karta Purakh Nirbhau Nirvair Akal Murat Ajuni Saibham Gurprasad

Aad Sach Jugad Sach Hai Bhi Sach Nanak Hosi Bhi Sach

Soche Soch Na Hovai Je Sochi Lakh Var
Chupe Chup Na Hovai Je Lai Raha Liv Tar
Bhukhia Bhukh Na Utari Je Banna Puria Bhar
Sahas Sianpa Lakh Hohi Ta Ik Na Chale Nal
Kiv Sachiara Hoiai Kiv Kurai Tute Pal
Hukam Razai Chalna Nanak Likhiya Nal

Explanation
The True One and only Omnipresent Immortal Essence of Reality. The Creator, the Omniscient and Omnipotent, the Incomprehensible (the fearless). Before all Beginnings and after all Endings. Beyond Time, Space and Form (and enmity). Free from the cycle of Births and Deaths, the Self-manifested. The Loving Merciful Enlightener (Realised with His Grace through total Submission to His Will).

True before creation. True through all ages. True also today. Says Nanak, True He shall eternally be.

Thinking does not reach belief, if one thinks a million times
Prolonged silence and meditation does not quieten the mind
Hunger (Greed) cannot be satisfied even with loads of food (wealth)
At the time of death intellectual smartness also stays behind
How can then we realize the Truth and destroy fibs
Says Nanak live with His Divine Will

Buddhism

The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

- Atisha
11th century Tibetan Buddhist scholar

Taj Mahal

"a teardrop glistening on the cheeks of time..."

- Rabindranath Tagore
Indian Poet

Memorial Day

In honor of the men and women of the Armed Forces

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Fall of the Berlin Wall

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

- Margaret Mead
American Anthropologist

Celebrate Humanity - 2004 Olympics

Ads from the Celebrate Humanity campaign in conjunction with the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.

Celebrate Humanity - Heart - Andrea Bocelli

If you could have the arms of Hercules.
Legs as swift as the wind.
If you could leap shoulder-high above the rim.
Have the kick of a dolphin.
The reflexes of a cat.
If you could have all this, you would have the body,
you would have the tools.
But you will not have greatness.
Until you understand that
the strongest muscle is the heart.
To me, that's the soul of the Olympic Games.

Celebrate Humanity - Strength - Christopher Reeve

Funny, isn't it.
An athlete aspires to be the best
his or her country has to offer.
And ends up representing the best
humanity has to offer.
That's the strength I find in the Olympic Games.

Celebrate Humanity - Play - Avril Lavigne

It doesn’t matter where you come from.
Who your family is.
What you wear.
Or how good you are at math.
All that matters is that you give it
everything you’ve got.
To me, that’s why the Olympic Games rock.

Celebrate Humanity - Adversaries & Equals - Nelson Mandela

For seventeen days, they are roommates.
For seventeen days, they are soulmates.
And for twenty-two seconds, they are competitors.
Seventeen days as equals. Twenty-two seconds as adversaries.
What a wonderful world that would be.
That's the hope I see in the Olympic Games.

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Fortune Favors the Bold

"Fortune Favors the Bold"

-Virgil
Roman Epic Poet

Greatness

"Greatness is only achieved in the absence of fear"

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will.

-Reinhold Niebuhr

The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

- Dr. Kent M. Keith

Adaped by Mother Teresa as 'The Final Judgement.'

Live with Intention

“Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.”

- Mary Anne Radmacher

Earth by Night

An image of Earth at night made by NASA. Developed and populated areas of the planet show up as points of light on the map, while large areas of Africa, Australia, Asia and South America are relatively dark.

Walden

"Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. The very simplicity and nakedness of man's life in the primitive ages imply this advantage, at least, that they left him still but a sojourner in nature. To be awake is to be alive. Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. Every man is a builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them. Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."

- Henry David Thoreau
from Walden

Lose Yourself

Eminem
Lose Yourself
8 Mile Soundtrack

No Fear

"Look fear in the eyes and laugh in its face"

- Tall Tale

Ode on Solitude

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.

Whose heards with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.

Blest! who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix'd; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me dye;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lye.

- Alexander Pope
English Poet

Matthew 16:26

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?

Matthew 16:26

Why Not?

"There are those who look at what is and ask why. I dream of what has never been and ask why not?"

- Robert F Kennedy

“Each time a man stands for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

- Robert F Kennedy

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

- Robert F Kennedy

What Lies Within Us...

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive God to be; and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

- Max Ehrmann

The Inspiration of Saint Matthew

The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
Caravaggio, 1602

Geetasharam

What ever happened happened well.
What is happening happens well.
All that is supposed to happen will happen well as well.
What have you lost to cry?
What have you brought to lose?
What have you created to waste?
What ever that’s taken is taken from here.
What ever that’s given is given from here.
All that is yours today will be others’ tomorrow.
On another day it will be someone else’s.
This change is the law of nature.

- Bhagavad Gita

Geetasharam is the essence of the Bhagavad Gita, a central text in the Hindu fath. It is a summary of the teachings contained in the sacred text. The Bhagavad Gita itself contains the lessons taught to Arjuna by Lord Krishna on the battlefields of Kurukshetra during the final battle in the great Indian epic, the 'Mahabharata.'

The Road not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost
American Poet

Chariots of Fire

Theme music from the 1981 Best Picture Oscar Award winner Chariots of Fire, based on the true story of British athletes preparing for and competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics. The music was composed by Vangelis