Religious Experience Essays - Vaishnavism, Hindu Denominations

Religious Experience On Wednesday, March 29, 2000 my friendand I attended the Morning Prayer service at the Hare Krishna Farm. The worship began at 7:15 A.M and lasted until 8:45 A.M. Breakfast then followed. At the Hare Krishna Farm wemet Indulekha Devi dasi who explained to us many aspects of their worship. The temple room itself was very impressive. On one side of the temple was a statue of Srila Prabhubada, the spiritual master who brought the Hare Krishna movement to the West. On the opposite side, there was a very big altar with the Deities. The temple room was filled with pictures representing different incarnations of God. Before entering the temple room, a person has to take off his or her shoes. As soon as they enter the temple room, I noticed that all of the devotees (that is how Hare Krishna members call themselves) bow down. Indulekha explained to us that they are offering obeisance to God and the spiritual master. Some of the devotees knock on the entrance door or ring the bells above the entrance door, letting the Deities in the temple know that they are entering. Women were standing on one side of the room and the men on the other side. Service started at 7:15 with Deity Greeting. The priest blew the conches and the curtains on the altar have opened. The two big statues or Deities have been in the center of the altar. The recorded music was playing. Indulekha explained to us that the same song has played all over the world in Hare Krishna temples at 7:15 am. It was a prayer to God. Music was very melodic and pleasant to the ears. The altar itself seemed to be very opulent. Beautiful flower arrangements were surrounding the Deities. Deities itself were actually wearing a clothes. During the greeting, a ceremony called arati is preformed. The head priest or pujari offered incense, the fire lamp, flower, water and a fan in the circular motions. That has lasted for 10 minutes and at the end of the ceremony pujari has blown conchell again announcing the end of the greeting. The fire lamp has been carried around to each person to touch it. Indulekha told us that that is for purification. After the Deity Greeting devotees have turned towards the statue of Srila Prabhupada. Spiritual master worship service was beginning. Indulekha was telling us that spiritual master has a big importance in Hare Krishna religion. He teaches devotees the Holy Scriptures and in that way brings them closer to God. Therefore each morning they have Guru Puja or worship of Guru. One of the man devotees has started singing a prayer for a spiritual master. He would sing one line and the rest would follow. The similar ceremony that has been preformed for Deity greeting has been preformed for Spiritual Master Worship. Flower, water, incense, lamp and fan have been offered. During the ceremony devotees started dancing. As the ceremony was going on the rhythm has been faster and faster and dancing was lively and lively. Each person would go towards the statue and take a flower petals and circle around the Srila Prabhupada in that way offering their obeisance and gratefulness. As the guru worship ended, all devotees (without stopping singing) turned towards the Deities and started singing Hare Krishna mantra. Indulkeha told us that that is the most important mantra. Followers of the Hare Krishna chant that mantra every day. During the meditation hours they repeat it many times: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. After a dancing and singing has been finished, everyone bowed down and prayers were said. The lecture followed. Lecture has been give by local member of Hare Krishna. He would read a verse from the book called Srimad Bhagavatam. Worse was read in Sanskrit, then translation and purport. Then lecture started. The lecture was about detachment from material body. It is said that material body does not represent us. Material body is just like a dress that we wear, and on the end of the life we leave it. When we take a birth again we choose another dress. As Indulekha told us, morning prayers is usually only for members of Hare Krishna but everyone is welcome. But for people like us they recommend Sunday gathering because philosophy is explained on the more basic level. During the morning prayers, it is more for devotees and therefore for us it may be hard to follow.

decline in union membership in essays

decline in union membership in essays Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2000, show that the decline in Australian union membership continues, despite the efforts of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), to stop the slide. The ABS reports that trade union membership has dropped to 28 percent of the total workforce, compared to 1992, where there was 40 percent. (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2000.) Previous ABS findings show that these recent figures are part of a general trend, with no slight recovery recorded in the past six years. Whilst it is evident that there is a decline in union membership, it is important to analyse why this is so and what the unions are doing to combat the downward trend. In attempting to tackle this issue, it is important to state the main objectives of a union that attract employees to join a membership and why the memberships are declining. Australian unions were established in the first half of the nineteenth century, with growth beginning in the post gold-rush era. It is from then that the fastest growth of the era seems to have been in the decade of the 1880s, where prosperous economic conditions and a tight labour market were forces making for union development (Dabscheck, Griffen, and Teicher, 1992). The primary objective of a trade union is to improve the well being of its members. They were formed to counter the superior economic power of the employers. It has long been recognised that the market dominance of employers could only be offset by workers acting collectively and establishing organisations to bargain on their behalf. The most important function of a union is to maximise the wages and salaries of its members (Deery, Plowman, and Walsh, 2000). Why do employees join unions? There are a number of reasons that an employee may join a union but three major factors are evident. They are; dissatisfaction with economic aspects of the job; a desire to influence those aspects of t...

Heres why your paycheck is disappearing

Heres why your paycheck is disappearing It’s not a magic trick- your paycheck may seem like it’s vanishing faster than you can earn it, but there are reasons why this seems to happen. It’s a common phenomenon: payday comes around and you start thinking about all of the things you’d like to do with your money when it comes in, but then reality hits, and your grand plans for your paycheck seems to evaporate into thin air, along with your funds. If you’re often struck by this disappointing occurrence, take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone. The simple truth comes down to this: for many of us, the size of our paychecks haven’t kept pace with the rising costs of the things we purchase, and when this occurs it should be no surprise that the â€Å"vanishing paycheck† is such a common phenomenon.What you’re earningThe statistics on historical wage trends paint a daunting picture, and goes a long way to explain why our earnings don’t seem to go as far as we’d like them to. According to a recent report by The Brookings Institution, inflation-adjusted wages have only grown around 10 percent over the last 45 years, with real wage growth crawling forward at a paltry .2 percent annually. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that when adjusted for inflation, real average hourly earnings have remained virtually unchanged for the American workforce over the last four decades.There are a number of factors that can be pointed to in an effort to explain this trend, from cheap labor overseas affecting supply and demand to globalized corporate competition and an economy weakened by the Great Recession and unexpectedly high inflation, but the bottom line is that this level of wage stagnation reflects a significant lack of opportunity for economic advancement for the average American worker.Furthermore, although companies have been earning massive profits in recent decades, largely due to rising costs of products and globalization o f markets and labor pools, this increased revenue simply has not made its way into the pockets of the employees who contribute to their success. The Economic Policy Institute reports that the average worker’s share of corporate-sector income in the form of wages and benefits has been on the decline since 1979.Wage inequality is another recent yet disturbing trend. According to recent BLS data, although there has been wage growth for those in the top earning percentile brackets, the opposite is true for workers in the bottom and lower-middle earning categories. This growing economic stratification creates a deep divide between the â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have nots,† leaving many workers with little hope that their financial situations will dramatically improve.What you’re spendingIf stagnant wages wasn’t challenging enough, consider the fact that the goods and services we purchase are taking bigger and bigger bites out of our paychecks than ever befo re. This includes everything from essentials like housing, food, and utilities to non-essential purchases like luxury items, vacations, and even expensive coffee (which has turned into a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry), all of which gnaw away at our earnings faster than we thought possible.Current BLS data indicates that average prices for consumer goods are increasing at an average rate of around 2 percent a year; this may not seem significant, but when many workers don’t see steady wage increases each year, paying an extra 2% for everything they purchase can really add up. There’s also a wide array of expenses that today’s average worker shoulders that previous generations did not have to worry about- think student loans, smart phone bills, and numerous credit card payments to name just a few- all of which further stretches workers’ paychecks beyond capacity.The bottom lineWhat does this all mean? There’s a growing unbalance between what th e average American worker earns and what he or she spends, and it paints a bleak economic picture for many people. If you’re not a captain of industry or among the earning elite, chances are good that the money you’re earning just isn’t going as far as you’d like it to, due to a variety of disadvantageous economic forces and trends that are showing no sign of reversing anytime soon. With all of these factors at play, the magic trick known as the â€Å"vanishing paycheck† isn’t so mysterious or magical after all.

Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

Assessment - Essay Example Frustrating sights from yellow leaves bring disbelieve as pest and disease had invaded the some trees and spreading to others. With time, the leaves wither and fall forming a carpet of dry and crusty leaves as some trees succumb and dry up. Additionally, gusty whirlwinds introduce flames of withering serenity while carrying everything to the sky. My choice for this description paper is Pillsbury Crossing. It was with joy that I wrote about this amazing place that offered numerous positives and negatives and a mix of numerous first impressions. Whereas peacefulness and calmness were striking features of the floodplain, the nature park’s beauty is under threat from human activities (Stokes n.p). My first sentence explained the mood of the entire paragraph. The sentence ‘nature’s language whispers in my ears’ emphasize the calmness and quietness one finds in this place. Amidst the quietness is harmony from water, birds, and the wind working in inadvertent harmony. Contrasting this harmony is â€Å"grief has had her way here†. The introduction of grief presents an unpleasant tone. However, without the grief the nature would lose its relevance. Defining the tone was a daunting task, but with the tone defined, I identified and chose the right words to use. I was careful to adhere to the intended mood of the description. I defined the atmosphere as filled with â€Å"gentle harmonious tunes making it pleasant. For a person who has never been to Pillsbury Crossing, the words are compelling and it would prompt plans for a visit. However, the â€Å"frustrating sights† from my negative description reveal the ambiance as under attack by harmful and cruel elements. I also describe leaves. The positive description acknowledges them for their â€Å"attractive amber, crimson, gold, and ochre hues.† Conversely, the leaves die after â€Å"falling† to form a leave carpet on the ground. Similes and metaphors satisfactorily created numerous

Understanding Nursing Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Understanding Nursing Theory - Essay Example Grand theory presenters start theoretical formulation at abstraction level and these formulations never link the realities. Roy’s (1971) work was designated for the grand theory. Roy presented the adaptation model. In the adaption model of Roy, a person was perceived as receiving the adaptive system for inputs. This input may be as the stimuli from the external environment, which is processed by the feedback or internal processes. These processes are inherent in the changing abilities of individuals and result into an output in the form of either ineffective response or adaptive (Parse, 2001). Middle range Theory is less abstract and more specific in its scope, which reflects a practice and also addresses the specific phenomenon. This theory deals with a limited number of aspects of real world concepts. A mid-range theory is made up of relative concrete concepts, which are concrete propositions and defined operationally. These concepts can be tested empirically. A period of ten years ago, Georgene Eakes, Mary Burke, and Margaret Hainsworth developed the theory of Chronic Sorrow. This is the application of the middle range theory of nursing that explains the periodic recurrence of a continuous sadness or grief feeling over an important loss. This presents the normal response to the loss. Because, parents always felt sadness over their children’s mental retardation and this response was not permanent. Clinicians could intervene in these conditions if they had similar beliefs. This theory also related with the feelings of parents who have premature infants. Hainsworth, Eakes, & Burke (1994) found that mothers of those children with the spina bifida also had a pervasive sadness. This theory focuses upon the specific phenomenon, which mirror out the clinical practices and has narrowest interest range. This theory is limited to a particular population or a specific field of

Graphic User Interface applications Essay Example for Free

Graphic User Interface applications Essay Both Java and Net technologies aim at transforming software complexity in addition to moving it away from developers and making it easy for them to focus on the business logic. In order to achieve this end, Java and Net technologies offer a managed execution ground, a rich set of libraries, a technique for balanced access to data in addition to an inbuilt prop up for backward compatibility (Fisher, Lai and Sharma, 2006). Nevertheless, these two technologies employ different strategies in order to accomplish their goals. In software architecture, the non-functional requirements are made use of in the selection of the architecture that is best suited for the limits of application among different systems (Patel, 2005). Software giants Microsoft and Sun make use of two technologies, Java and Net in software architecture (Mueller, 2005). Net is a framework comprising of a rich set of libraries, a highly powerful as well as unified development environment, and a common language runtime. Java, on the other hand, is an open specification that describes a set of technology to generate solutions for a variety of problems that arise in the creation of enterprise applications (Fisher, Lai and Sharma 2006). As compared to Net, Java has more advantages than disadvantages. Java is developed in a special manner which instills it with the capacity to handle a variety of issues regarding software architecture. Java has the capacity to access data from DBMS and manage distributed system issues such as naming. Java also has remote method invocation, an aspect that allows application developers to focus their attention on business logic. Java also has a Graphic User Interface based deployment tool that assists in packaging (Patel, 2005). Java, an object oriented language, is a pure language that can be utilized in creating a variety of applications. Due to the fact that all applications are created in java, even if a person who was involved in developing a part of the application leaves the project, then it is not costly for the company to replace him/her. Java can also be made cross language compatible. Another advantage of java, as indicated by Surapaneni and Katre (2004), is that it is available in almost all platforms. It can be run on various systems as well as operating systems without further modification. Java offers maximum security because it verifies all programming before running for malicious activity. If java byte code is compatible with just in time, its performance is enhanced (Patel, 2005). One disadvantage of java is that it does not provide a way through which graphic user components and codes can be separated (Patel, 2005). Java makes use of java swing to develop graphic user interface. Java swing is a powerful tool that requires highly skilled software developers. Java byte code is interpreted by the JVM; this interpretation takes a longer time, an aspect that reduces its performance. Due to the fact that java runs on quite a number of systems, features specific to a particular operating system cannot be implemented into java programs. Some java applications, still, may be different from the default systems of native applications in an operating system (Fisher, Lai and Sharma 2006). Surapaneni and Katre (2004) states that Net is mainly used to deliver infrastructure that can be leveraged to pull together a wide range of solutions, from desktop to enterprise. It is a combination of the Net framework. One major advantage of Net over Java, as illustrated by Fisher, Lai and Sharma (2006), is that it offers a way through which code and components of the user interface can be separated. Net is also easier to apply in the creation of Graphic User Interface as compared to Java. Visual Basic Net is a language made use of in the creation of Graphic User Interface applications (Patel, 2005). Net is easier to make use of as it does not call for highly skilled developers. Net provides users with various languages from which they can select the language that suits their application better. Net also allows a single application to be written in different languages. Intermediate language in Net is efficient and is compiled to native code and then executed. Due to the fact that execution of intermediate language is faster than interpreting it, Net performs in a better manner as compared to Java (Mueller, 2005). Net framework comprises of an inbuilt prop-up for object orientation. Object oriented technology allows reusability of codes. Net have a very competent mechanism for security. Run time in Net makes use of two types of security: Role Based and Code Access Security (Patel, 2005). Net however has disadvantages associated with it as far as software architecture is concerned. One of them is that even though it allows for writing of a single application in a variety of languages maintaining, these applications in different languages is a difficult task (Surapaneni and Katre, 2004). If a person who created a section of an application in a certain language leaves the organization, it may be very costly to replace him/her. Net cannot be made cross language compatible. One big disadvantage of net is that it is available for a limited number of platforms, only Windows related platforms. It is hard to comprehend the principles behind Net because they are many and are composed of numerous different technologies (Patel, 2005). Reference: Fisher, M. , Lai, R. , and Sharma, S. , (2006), Java EE and . NET interoperability: integration strategies, patterns, and best practices, ISBN 0131472232: Prentice Hall PTR Mueller, J. , (2005), Mastering Web Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, ISBN 078214439X: John Wiley and Sons Patel, K. , (2005), A Comparison between Java and . NET from Software Architecture, retrieved on August 19, 2010 from http://kaushalp. blogspot. com/2005/08/comparison-between-j2ee-and-net. html Surapaneni, N. , and Katre, D. , (2004), Java and NET: Guide to Interoperability and Migration, ISBN 8120324447: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

LL Bean :: essays research papers

LL Bean: A Strategy For The Future Leon Leonwood Bean, known as L.L., was born in the small township of Greenwood, Maine, in 1872. He was raised on a set of simple yet powerful principles†¦ Nature was something to be revered. Family ties were a priority. Being neighborly was a matter of course. And "do unto others" was more than just a saying; it was a way of life. When L.L. launched his company with the first Maine Hunting Shoe in 1912, he believed so strongly in the Golden Rule that he made it the foundation of his business. This rule "Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings, and they will always come back for more" became the foundation of the company. For the next fifty years, Bean forged a business, selling clothing and related gear tailored specifically for people who enjoyed the outdoors. Products including boots, clothing, canoes, fly reels, tents and camping gear became the cornerstone of the company. Bean stated, †I attribute our success to the fact that, to the best of my judgment, every article we offer for sale is practical for the purpose for which we recommend it.† (1)The company sold products through both the store in Maine, and through a growing store catalog. Bean retained active control over his company until he died in 1967 at the age of 94. Leon Gorman took over the business after Bean’s passing in 1967. Although he sited his grandfather as being happy with the size of the company, Gorman was ready for growth. He accomplished this by incorporating technology wherever he could, and expanding product lines, introducing new catalogs for specific markets, and entering foreign markets. Even with this extensive growth, Gorman remained true to the founders values of high quality products, superior customer service, and the company guarantee to replace or refund on any purchase that a customer found unsatisfactory. Gorman realized that building on the L.L. Bean brand would be critical to the success to the company. The company’s goal was to associate the brand name with the image of â€Å"Maine’s natural beauty†, along with the legend of the company’s founder. These efforts led the company thirty years of 20% annual growth. Most impressive is the fact that the company was able to finance this growth internally, ad remain privately held by family members. When Gorman took the position of Chairman in 2001, Chris McCormick became the first non-family member to run the company, taking over the role of President and CEO.