Dr Foodie to Prof Foodless to śrī Food Basket!

Wish you a safe self (notice the lower-case/small “s”) containment🔏even from food intake as it’s the foremost fast <prathama ékā-daśi> today (Saturday, July 9th 2022) from 11:43 AM to tomorrow (Sunday, July 10th 2022) 9:54 AM, followed by universal bedtime🛌rejuvenation <śayani dvā-daśi> tomorrow, heralding the “four” month-long austere hibernation <cātur-māsya vratā> commencement <ārambhā>. Once in 2.7 years (not in 2022!), it’s an extended relaxation for FIVE months, including a super-auspicious extra lunar month <adhika māsā> (such as it was last in Sep-Oct 2020) to help the🌚moon’s calendar🗓catch up with that📆of the Sun🌞. 

So, the light & early daśami fruity dinner🍉last evening followed by the prathama ékā-daśi fast today before the śayani dvā-daśi bedtime tomorrow is the precursor which translates into the doc’s ‘⌛️gap’ reco now! So what’s cātur-mās all about… right here & now within us, (for that’s the way we’ve encountered every festivity in our journey together for the last 3+ years that I’ve been engaging with y’all on such topics)? 

Well, it’s that time of the year when we put our own everythingness to a 118 to 148-day 💤slumber😴 over our own foremost unending residue (1-♾-0 <ādi-ananta-séśa>) to be specially woken up into awareness <pra-bōdhini> with a good morning <su-prabhātam> on Nov 4th, 2022. In-between, our own everythingness sleeps over the entire southwest & northeast⛈monsoons, covering the🌧varśā☔️r̥tu & śarad r̥tu (🌊autumn/fall🍂) in the  tropical🏝 northern hemisphere. 

Our everythingness would re-awaken at the end of fall🍂to unite with its own abundant energy, which is unprecedentedly-matchless <tulsi🍃>. This would be significant as the energy takes on the form of our globally-fundamental kitchen (photo-synthesising leaves🍃), freshly sprouting at the end of the fall season. The result of course would be our own matchless welfare <tulsi kalyānam>, in partnership with our everythingness. 

This month’s <āṣāḍha> eleventh day <ékā-daśi> in the waxing phase <śukla pakśā> being so special is known by other relevant epithets of great <maha>, early <toli>, lotus <padma> & resplendent stillness <deva-śayani>. Its association with bountiful rain🌧however is the premise even behind its primordial inaugural in ancient times, as a renewal of our tryst with destiny & beyond <bhaviśya-uttara purā-nā>. 

Our own creativity <brahmā> has explained to one of its own very first creations <nāradā> the reason for the observance of a penance <vrat> during this prathama ékā-daśi & śayani dvā-daśi. The same reason has been re-delivered far more recently (i.e., 5,000+ years ago!)  by our own principle of attractiveness <🧲kr̥ṣṇā🖤> to our own mastery over our sustainability to remain equipoised even in a warlike situation <dharma-rājā, yudhi-ṣṭhira, yudh mein sthir>. And that common reason is as follows: 

Inheriting its inherent🧬characteristics from our soul, our own lordship🤴over our generous mind <rājā man-dattā> is fit & sincere to treat our entirety🌍with motherliness. This results in our all round growth & well-being. However, things don’t remain the same forever, i.e., they didn’t live happily ever after, thanks to few of our 5️⃣ robotic🤖sensors👃🏼👅👀🫰🏼👂🏼<panca-jñāṇ-éndriyās> going out of PID control causing one or more of our 5️⃣ robotic🤖actuators💪🦵👄**<panca-karm-éndriyās> to malfunction compulsively without intellectual awareness (‘D’ in the 3️⃣-part PID controller, consisting of mind- intellect-identity <manōḥ-buddhi-ahaṃkārā>… karmā takes over!

As a fallout of our karmā, our mind encounters 3️⃣ consecutive years of our own nature-induced🌵depression & 🐪deprivation (🏜drought) in all the areas under its jurisdiction. This leads to our mind’s inability to serve all those aspects of ourselves which are dependent on its generosity, namely our sensors & actuators. Realising their folly, our faulty sensors withdraw themselves & appeal to be repaired. 

Then, our generous mind💖consults with our intellect🧠to seek a permanent working solution, rather than offer mere temporary emotional🥹solace. Being thus consulted, our intellect🧐then reveals that the severe shortage of our sustaining water💧element in the form of rain🌧is due to the erosion of our source element earth (top soil), which in turn is due to deforestation caused by the undeservingly large setting of ‘P’ in our PID controller, namely our artificially blown-up multiple mistaken identities <ahaṃ-kārā🆔>. Having correctly diagnosed the problem is by itself half the treatment!

Our mind, thus constricted by the drought, yet ever-willing to give it all <rāja man-datta, a sacrificial attitude that’s perhaps the true but forgotten essence of id-ul-adhā@bakrīd too, coinciding with śayani dvā-daśi> to discover & implement a solution, enters the forest🌳 <vana or vāna-prastha, 1️⃣ of 4️⃣ stages of life wherein aranyakā, 1️⃣ of 4️⃣ parts of every védā becomes the most significant priority> & approaches with utmost reverence the all-perceiving essence of all our parts <r̥ṣi angi-rasa>, which when working together in harmony makes us wholesome... else, troublesome not only for ourselves but to everyone else too! 

The effulgent🪔all-perceiving👁essence of all our own parts, being born of our own creativity <brahmā>, then shares crucial technical knowhow with our own generous mind. Utilising this knowhow, the diagnosis is further fine-tuned: One of our own actuators has transformed into a smart material taking upon itself a part of the job originally assigned to the ‘D’ of our PID controller, namely the🧠intellect🧐’s unprejudiced case-by-case discerning ability. 

One potential solution suggested was to get rid of this particular actuator all together, through amputation. But our generous💓mind💖doesn’t want to penalise our off-design actuator just for its smartness as a fault! Appreciating the decision of our generous mind to look for an alternate solution, the all-perceiving essence of all our parts <r̥ṣi angi-rasa> offers the following optimal key🗝: 

In immediate sequence, long press our robotic system’s 2️⃣ reset buttons to get back all components to design conditions or factory🏭settings! And those 2️⃣ buttons are none other than the dual vratas of “prathama ékā-daśi” today & “śayani dvā-daśi” tomorrow! 

Once we are reset, we shall continually strive to live more consciously with an all-inclusive attitude towards ALL the life on our planet🌏, instead of rampaging it in the unthinkably horrible ways that our own rogue actuators have in the last two centuries, in the name of industrial revolution etc. Within a few decades of living optimally in accordance with our original design, we can reverse climate change, global warming, Ozone layer depletion & deforestation, to name a few! Happy fasting & chanting!!

With monsoon back in time & quantum, many migrant labourers back in their own rural farms, aided by massive policy changes, timely & immense government support , ever increasing number of honest taxpayers & their burgeoning incomes, bhārat🇮🇳has ensured record agricultural🌽productivity in 2020-22, sufficient to provide complimentary grains🌾for entire extended chāturmāsa year after year of 25kg per capita to 800+ million people, which happens to be even more than the total population of the 50+ countries in the entire continent of Europe, not just EU🇪🇺! 

Unlike Ukraine🇺🇦, the erstwhile physical “food basket of the world,” bhārat🇮🇳is rapidly accelerating towards reclaiming its long lost heritage & realising once again its long latent potential as THE food basket🧺of the whole world🌏🌎🌎, physically, emotionally, intellectually & of course spiritually. 

Sorry😐Romans! All roads lead, not to Rome, but to pandhar-pūr today. Yes, after 2 consecutive years of pandemic-based suspension, it’s the culmination of the 7-week annual yātrā/vāri of palanquins & vestiges <pādukās> from many other temples of maha-rāṣṭrā to the abode of our own everythingness at pandhar-pūr which we relished a few weeks ago, while paying our obeisances to muktābāi thāyi. 

Last week also witnessed the 🐮bovine lotus🌷penance <go-padma vrata> & the 🇮🇳National 👩‍⚕️Doctor’s👨‍⚕️ Day to cherish 🩺💊💉🩹our allopathic frontline warriors as well as AYUSH preventline defenders! What more can we ask for holistic wellbeing⁉️