Brisbane Indian Times - June 2020 Online Issue

A Division of Qld Multicultural Times Print Post Approved PP : 424022 1724 | ISSN 2652-6182

Volume 16, Number 10 Saturday, June 13th, 2020

Telephone: (07) 3865 6533 Fax: (07) 3865 5864 E-mail: prod@indiantimes.com.au

As God is One, we respect all Religions

virtual summit between prime minister of india and prime minister of australia On Thursday, 4th June in a historic virtual summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Scott Morrison discussed the following and agreed to sign a number of memorandum of understanding PRIME MINISTER MODI [Remarks delivered via translator]: On behalf of myself and all of India, I would like to wish all the people and families my deepest condolences to the people who have undergone damage because of COVID-19. This a global pandemic has had an impact on all the regiments in the world and this digital form of our summit is one of the examples of the kind of impact COVID-19 has had over the world.

Excellency, while this gives me immense pleasure to meet you via this digital platform, however I am a little disappointed too, because I could not get the opportunity to extend a hearty welcome to you in India. We were eagerly looking forward to your visit to India, first in January, and then last month. However, unfortunately, both the times your visit had to be postponed. We have to say that this virtual meeting could not possibly replace

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Excellency, IndiaAustralia relations are not only comprehensive, but also very deep. And this comes from our shared values, shared interest, shared [inaudible], and shared objectives. In the

last few years that has been good momentum in our cooperation and coordination. It is very fortunate that the reigns of our relations is held on one side by an empowered and visionary leader like you. I believe that this is the perfect time and perfect opportunity to further strengthen India-Australia relations.

CONTD. ON PG 4

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Inside

• Local News ..................................4-26 • Migration Matters .......................... 6 • Real Estate ..................................... 30 • Fiji News ......................................... 38 • India News ..................................... 40 • Health & Well Being .................... 48 • Business Directory/Classified ... 51 • Sports News ................................... 52 • Entertainment .............................. 54

A Division of Qld Multicultural Times Published Monthly OWNERS / PUBLISHERS: Umesh & Usha Chandra ADVERTISING: prod@indiantimes.com.au JOURNALIST/ CORRESPONDENTS Ram Jattan (UK) / Thakur Ranjit Singh (NZ) Thilliar Varnakulasingham (NZ) Shalendra Prasad (Fiji) / Dhaval Vyas (India) Rama Gaind (Canberra) • ML. M. Nawaaz Ashram • Imam Muhammad Aslam • Pastor Joseph Dass • Haji Abdul Rahman Deen • Jitendra Deo • Nimisha Modi • Ranjita Pillai (Immigration Matters) • Peter Lane Rai • Awadhesh Sharma • Shailendra Singh • Gagan deep Tandon • Ravi Vastrad • Cartoon Corner: Merwyn Machado • Brian Sullivan (Photography) Address: PO Box 197, Taigum Qld 4018 Ph: (07) 3865 6533 Fax: (07) 3865 5864 E-mail: prod@indiantimes.com.au Subscriptions: 12 months 6 months Brisbane Indian Times is a monthly newspaper published in English. No material, including advertisements designed by Brisbane Indian Times, may be reproduced in part or who without the written consent of the manager.

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2 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

From the Publisher Traditionally at this time of the year, we would be abuzz with end of year bargains, tax minimisations and planning for the end of the financial year well, all these activities are still taking place but in a very different manner under very different circumstances.

Covid 19 pandemic has completely changed the world, people talk about what it would be like to get back to normality, the very hard fact is, that we will never get back to the pre COVID 19 environment, somethings would have changed for the better and some for the worse, but it will never be the same.

The general outlook to life, our behaviour and thought pattern will all be influenced by the consequences of COVID 19. I have never attended so many zoom and other virtual meetings in my entire life. Believe me you they are getting better with people realising the etiquettes of virtual meetings.

A formal meeting is a formal meeting, be it face to face or online, one must take it seriously and must be mindful of his or her behaviour, workstations must be well designed, they don’t have to be expensive, but it must be practical. While hand held devices are ok to chat with family and friends, they are not meant for formal meeting, if you must use a hand-held device, make sure that it is placed steadily,

nothing is more painful than interacting with a shaky participant.

Now to the protest marches, when Derek Chauvin did what he did, little would he have realised that the entire world would condemn his actions, that look on his face and his counterpart, just terrible. All these will have far reaching consequences, people always have varying views, and within a society everyone’s views mustbe considered, the general view is that the protest are called for but the property damage and looting etc are not, two wrongs don’t make one right. In the plight many innocent people got hurt, many businesses suffered without any fault of theirs, their only misfortune was their location, by being in the area of the protest

they were victimised and vandalised. In Brisbane, a crowd of thirty thousand was reported, that is huge, the debate goes on whether they did the right thing or not, one thing was for sure that the situation made a mockery of social distancing and four-square meter per person rule. To me, colour doesn’t matter, lives do, lets up hold “Vasudeva Kutumbakam” literally.

Well now to our new daily Australian Indian Radio’s Facebook live updates , I am humbled by the response we have received for this segment , as I mentioned previously , live shows are challenging and we are taking the challenge head on , remaining relevant and current is very important so , we can not gather the material for the show too far ahead . The quality of the stream is dependant on the internet connection, despite the technological advances we are still faced with challenges , getting guests on the show is hard under the current condition , getting them in via video link is convenient but challenging, a lot depends upon the participants knowledge of Zoom or similar platform , and of their internet connection and hardware . We have had community leaders, Ministers and Councillors on the show, we are thankful to them for their time and efforts. We are always on the look out for people active within the community, so if you know of someone who should be on the show please reach out to us.

Congratulations to the recipients of Queens birthday honours, many within our Indian community have been recognised, it is wonderful to see, as the Governor General has said that it is a nominationbased program and if one is not nominated, he or she will not be in the list. Please refer to the article on the honours list. and now finally to the repatriation situation from Australia, over 8,300 Indian passport holders are waiting to be repatriated from Australia, who eagerly welcome the next phase of such flights announced by High Commission.

After days of uncertainty, the group comprising tourists, international students and temporary work visa holders are now hoping they will have a chance to return to their lives and families, as part of phase 2 of the Indian government’s Vande Bharat Mission, a massive evacuation plan to bring home Indians stranded abroad.

On the flip side, people trying to board international flight from Indian have had to go through very strict testing and many were refused boarding.Several Indians returning to the United States and Canada said they were not allowed to board a repatriation flight operating to Frankfurt and beyond after they reached the Mumbai airport from various parts of India on Sunday. They were told that the flights should not have been booked in the first place.

Will wait and see what happens, if possible, people should hold of travel plans, as things ease a little bit more than you will be able to travel with certainty and without the risk and headaches.

Until then, stay safe and happy reading.

—Umesh Chandra OAM

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MEDICINE CALLED JOY

Pastor Suresh Dass Joseph josephdass@optusnet.com.au

Dear reader, it is our joy to bring to you the word of God. We want to go through life, happy, blessed, content, full of peace, and joy.

According to the scriptures, joy is a gift from God, and it is meant to overflow. As it is released, it overflows and nourishes both you and your recipients. A joyful heart is like medicine. It strengthens your immune system. Promotes healthy lifestyle and fights stress and pain. One of the easiest

ways to lose your joy is when you are always seeking your approval from people. When you are looking for people’s validation, approval, and confirmation, then you are setting yourselves up for disappointment, sadness, and a feeling of being let down. There will always be someone who will not like you or approve of you, which can cause you to lose your joy. People have struggles.

Their health and attitude can change. They can say and do things that can lead you to lose your joy.

But when you realise that God approves of you, He validates you; then you will come into a season where you can achieve more. Some of the chains that are holding you back will come loose.

Instead of living a life always thinking of how people feel about you, you will come into a season being free, knowing that God loves you and likes you. Everyday you,have to make a decision that no one

is going to steal your joy through their disapproval, dislike, bad behaviour, and poor attitude towards you.

In the bible (Acts 16), we read of Paul and Silas journeying to Macedonia after receiving a vision of a man asking for help.

The people there, received them well, appreciated, and thanked them for coming.

People were prayed for, many got healed, and others received the message of hope.

But one day, they prayed for this demon-possessed girl, who was a fortune teller, which brought an income to her masters, and once she received her deliverance, some of the people from the city turned against Paul and Silas. They dragged them to the magistrates who had them stripped, beaten, and put in the maximum-security jail. This wasn’t fair. These people had welcomed them; itseemed they liked them and were happy for them.

But now it was a different

story. Paul and Silas could have been angry, blamed the people, and complained to God, “Lord, we thought you called us to this city, we saw the vision. Look what they have done to us.”

Instead, in the middle of the night, Paul and Silas were singing, praising God and rejoicing, while the prisoners were listening. Suddenly there was an earthquake, the prison foundations were shaken, all the doors opened, and everyone’s chains were loosed. But it all started when Paul and Silas chose to be thankful to God and keep their joy. They just didn’t let what people did or said, steal their joy.

Here are 3 things we can learn from Paul and Silas.

1) Always make a healthy choice, either you can be a prisoner of joy or a prisoner of abuse. You cannot change people or the way they behave, but

you can choose the way you react. Paul and Silas had good reason to respond in anger, become abusive, and try to pay them back. But they knew this could lead them to become a prisoner of other people’s behaviour and action. Instead, they chose to remain a prisoner of joy. By the next morning, the jailer became a believer; the magistrates came to them personally, apologising for their actions, asking for their forgiveness, took good care of them, and far more people believed in God. 2) Don’t let negative people steal your joy. When you keep your joy, you have the upper hand. You are in the position of power.

Youhave, to understand that not everyone is going to be for you all the time. The very people who care for you can turn against you.

People have limitations; they have struggles. Sometimes, they won’t be there for you when you need them or their

Classic French inspiration at The Parisian Macao

By Rama Gaind

It was just an overnight stay at The Parisian Macao.

The ‘dream experience’ resulted in more longlasting memories. Macao's Vegas-like Cotai Strip is where rapid development transpired on reclaimed land that connects the ‘islands’ of Taipa and Coloane.

The Parisian Macao makes for a spectacular sight on this dazzline skyline.

The themed destination is true to its classical French inspiration where the design seeks to capture the spirit of authenticity, artistic splendour and romance of Paris throughout history.

Like the city itself, which owes its beauty to kings, artisans and creators who have transformed it over the ages, The Parisian Macao is layered and rich, recalling a collection of period influences over time that, woven together, tell a story as captivating as the city itself.

Inspired by the evolution of Paris through the ages, a city universally recognised for its exquisite architecture, gardens and unparalleled decorative and fine arts, it was designed to transport the grand halls, state rooms and gardens of Parisian

An eye-catching Streetmosphere performer is on a bike at The Parisian Macao. Photo: Rama Gaind palaces to Macao.

Fashioned on a French chateau, the hotel boasts a half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower, Montmartrestyle red windmill and towering Arc de Triomphe.

From the front entry, built to resemble Paris's Gare du Nord train station, gilded doors open to a domed rotunda styled on the L'Hotel National des Invalides.

Many highlights Whether surrounded by the lightness of the Louis XVI neoclassical concourses, the rich jewel tones of his beloved Versailles-inspired reception, concierge and casino or delicate gilding, floral motifs and pastels borrowed from Les Jardins des Tulleries, everyone will be immersed in Parisian art and history. At the apex of the Parisian tower, 1930s-inspired Art Decoinspired spaces reside, overlooking a sparkling Eiffel Tower; a symbol of French ingenuity and

4 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

Maleeh says bon voyage at The Parisian Macao. Photo: Rama Gaind modernism.

This nod to a turn-of-thecentury era pays homage to a city that’s at once ancient and modern, sophisticated yet simple. The famous shopping boulevards of Paris are also recreated as accurately as possible. The inspiration for the porte cochère was the famous Paris train station Gard du Nord and the Grand Palais great hall, while the pool deck inspiration was Marie Antoinette’s tower in Versailles.

The Parisian theme runs throughout the property offering the tempting aromas and ambiance of sidewalk cafés, pâtisseries and bistros. There’s a lot to see and do in this integrated resort.

At the heart of The Parisian Macao, the halfscale authentic recreation of the world-famous Eiffel Tower has been superbly reproduced with every possible detail intact.

One of Paris’ most unique landmarks, The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile was built between 1806 and

From luxury brand names well known in Paris to popular brands recognised around the world, shopping outlets suit everyone’s taste at The Parisian Macao. Photo: Rama Gaind 1836. At 30 metres high, the Arc de Triomphe marquee at The Parisian Macao is an exact representation of the original neoclassical design by architect Jean Chalgrin, housing a monumental digital screen nearly 12 metres high.

The Fontaine des Mers at The Parisian Macao is located at the centre of the lobby rotunda and is constructed from more than 20 tonnes of clay.

Must visit Located in Shoppes at Parisian on levels three and five, Avenue des ChampsÉlysées provides a truly Parisian experience, dotted with boutiques and upscale shopping. There’s also Place Vendôme, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and Avenue Montaigne. Walk around The Parisian Macao and you will encounter the daily ‘street’ entertainment of artists, opera singers, caricaturists, mimes and

buskers from the Frenchthemed Streetmosphere.

Fun-filled activities for the family also include Aqua World and Qube Kingdom.

Take note of the dramatic sculptures and smooth marble pillars of the 35-metre-high rotunda, reminiscent of the Galeries Lafayette.

The hotel reception and concierge areas feature inspiring hand-painted renderings of significant moments in the life of Napoleon. All the images are based on original masterpieces in the Louvre.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end. Heading to the ferry terminal, it was lovely to meet Maleeh and Oscar Lay. Walking away, I did not lose my sense of wonder, realising that the “world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

Rama Gaind was a guest of The Parisian Macao.

approval. Have this mindset that weather someone likes you or not, God likes you and always validates you. In the middle of the night, Paul and Silas were rejoicing.

They knew, they had God’s approval. Scripture says, “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” It happened for Paul and Silas, and it can happen for you!

3) A life spent seeking the approval of others is a life spent without joy. You don’t have to go through the next 10, 20, 30 years of your life without joy. Just like Paul and Silas at the beginning of each day, make, a decision that no one is going to take your joy away from you.

When you form a habit of this, then days will turn into weeks and weeks into months and months into years. You will come into a season of having and enjoying good health, making strong decisions, and get more productive.

God bless you

virtual summit between...

CONTD. FROM PG 1 We have unlimited possibilities, both as friends and heads of our friendship.

These possibilities bring with them challenges too. How can we actually translate the potential behind these challenges so that the links between our citizens, our businesses, our economists, researchers etcetera becomes even more stronger? How do we make our relations a factor of stability for our region and for the world?

How can we work together for the global purpose. All of these aspects need to be discussed.

Excellency, in the current world scenario, expectations of countries from each other and the expectations of our citizens from us is increasing. Given that we share democratic values, it is the duty of our two nations to meet these expectations. And that is why it is our sacred responsibility to uphold and protect values for global good like democracy, rule of law, freedom, mutual respect, regard for international institutions and transparency.

This is indeed our sacred responsibility in the sense it is our legacy for the future. Today, when these values are being challenged in different ways, we can empower, through these values, by strengthening our mutual relations.

Excellency, India is committed to further intensifying comprehensive relations with Australia.

This is important not only for our two nations, but is also needed for the IndoPacific region as well as for the world. I am pleased that the various framework of institutional dialogues between us are providing substance to our relations.

CONTD. ON PG 15

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Professional Year Programs – Best Time To Join Now

Online Classes & Online Internships Due to the COVID19 restrictions imposed by various state governments and federal government, now is the best time for students to undertake the Professional Year Programs.

Both ACS and the Professional Accounting Bodies have allowed students to study online and also complete their internships online while working from home.

Also due to the recent low number of invites it has almost become essential for most international students to enrol themselves and complete a Department of Home Affairs (DHA) approved Professional Year Program (PYP). The PYP’ are also known as job ready programs, and they present an excellent opportunity for new graduates who have completed an Australian qualification in Information Technology, Accounting or Engineering to gain valuable skills and experience.

If PYP programs are undertaken at a quality institution and completed diligently by the students, then there is a significant potential for these programs to deliver an employment outcome to the students. A few leading providers of Job Ready Programs in Brisbane and have reported that many of their students who have undertaken a job ready program have got successful job outcomes out of this program.

Providers in other cities have also reported similar outcomes from their programs.

Professional Year Program are stipulated as minimum

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Sports for Leadership - Sadhguru, Isha Foundation You may go to work halfhearted, you may live half-hearted, you may do everything in your life half-hearted, but a game is one thing you cannot do half-hearted. Unless you plunge yourself into it, there is no game; this is so for anybody. The moment they get into a game, knowingly or unknowingly they become 100% participation. This is an absolute requirement for a leader. A leader learns to participate, that he does not hold himself back in anything, that he learns to give himself absolutely.

In many ways, sports sets the rhythm for every human being to become a leader in his own right.

For example, another aspect which is most important for a leader that is naturally inculcated by playing a game is the desire to win or achieve - you cannot play a game unless you develop a strong desire that you want to win. Without this there is no sport. At the same time, sports also sets this condition that you really want to win but you are willing to lose. If you lose, it is alright with you.

This is most essential for a leader that he goes out to achieve things. At the same time, when things

Sports can become a tremendous tool in building leaders.

We have seen this in our own experience with Isha’s Rural Sports program and various other programs in all of which sport is an essential component. We have seen how just because they are involved in a game, people are able to come out of their limitations and take on the leadership for that moment to handle a particular situation. This in itself sets them up as a leader.

In many ways, sports sets the rhythm for every human being to become a leader in his own right. For example, another aspect which is most important for a leader that is naturally inculcated by playing a game is the desire to win or achieve - you cannot play a game unless you develop a strong desire that you want to win.

Without this there is no sport. At the same time, sports also sets this condition that you really want to win but you are willing to lose. If you lose, it is alright with you. do not happen, he will not become a bundle of frustrations.

6 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

Whenever you set big goals in your life, many things don’t happen.

For people who do not set big goals, they may believe that many things

are happening in their lives but their things are happening because you are not aspiring for anything big.

So the very fundamentals of leadership is that you aspire to achieve certain things, to take people with you towards that goal, and if it does not happen, for whatever reason you will never become a bundle of frustration.

These qualities which are most

essential for leadership, are naturally inculcated by the very nature of the sport.

Sports can become a tremendous tool in building leaders. We have seen this in our own experience with Isha’s Rural Sports program and various other programs in all of which sport is an essential component.

We have seen how just because they are involved in a game, people are able to come out of their limitations and take on the leadership for that moment to handle a particular situation. This in itself sets them up as a leader.

So leadership and sports are very directly connected.

All the fundamental qualities that are necessary for a leader are naturally brought forth when one learns to play a game.

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 7

Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Queensland International Day of Yoga International Day of Yoga will be observed on 21st June 2020 to spread awareness about the importance and effects of yoga on the health of the people.

Yoga is an ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India. The word ‘yoga’ derives from Sanskrit and means to join or to unite, symbolizing the union of body and consciousness.

Today Yoga is practiced in various forms around the world and continues to grow in popularity everywhere.

Recognizing its universal appeal, on 11 December 2014, the United Nations proclaimed 21 June as the International Day of Yoga The idea of International Day of Yoga was first proposed by the current Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi Ji during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on 27 September 2014.

Prime Minister stated Yoga is an invaluable gift of India's ancient tradition. It embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfilment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help in well being. Let us work towards adopting an International Yoga Day. A total of 177 nations co-sponsored the resolution, which is the highest number of co-sponsors ever for any UNGA resolution of such nature.

International days are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity.

Maharishi Patanjali Ji is often considered the father of yoga and his Yoga still strongly influence most styles of modern yoga. A few centuries after

Maharishi Patanjali, yoga masters created a system of practices designed to rejuvenate the body. Yoga is essentially a spiritual discipline based on an extremely subtle science, which focuses on bringing harmony between mind and body. It is an art and science of healthy living. करो योग रहो निरोग, महर्षि पतंजलि योग के आठ अङ्ग होते हैं । 1) यम 2) नियम 3) आसन 4) प्राणायाम 5) प्रत्याहार 6) धारणा 7) ध्यान 8)समाधि आसन-ईश्वर के ध्यान के जिस स्थिति मे सुखपूर्वक,स्थिर होकर बैठा जाये उस स्थिति का नाम 'आसन' है | *आसन का फल=आसन का अच्छा अभ्यास हो जाने पर योगाभ्यासी को उपासना काल मे तथा व्यवाहार काल में सर्दी-गर्मी,भूख-प्यास कम सताते है ,तथा योगाभ्यास की आगे की क्रियाओ को करने मे सरलता होती है | आज के समय में सभी के जीवन में योग का बहुत अधिक महत्व है । उच्च प्रकार की शक्ति प्राप्त होने तक नित्यप्रति शारीरिक और मानसिक आसन postures करने पड़ते हैं .योगियों ने इस प्रकार के आसन का वर्णन किया है जिनके करने से शरीर एवं मन पर संयम आता है । आसन की सिध्दि से नाड़ियों की शुद्धि, आरोग्य की वृद्धि एवं स्फूर्ति प्राप्त होती है .आसन दो प्रकार के हैं - (1) ध्यान आदि के लिए जैसेपद्मासन, सिद्धासन,आदि.

(2)आरोग्यार्थ जैसेशीर्षासन,भुजंगासन, चक्रासन आदि इनसे शारीरिक बल, यौवन, कार्य क्षमता बढती है ,और शरीर का सर्वांगीण विकास होता है . पूरे विश्व भर के आम लोगों के बीच योग ,प्राणायाम के फायदों के बारे में जागरुकता बढ़ाने के लिये योगा प्रशिक्षण कैंपस, योगा प्रतियोगिता जैसे क्रिया-कलाप और बहुत सारी गतिविधियों के आयोजन के द्वारा अंतरराष्ट्रीय स्तर पर इसे मनाया जाता है । लोगों को ये बताने के लिये इसे मनाया जाता है कि नियमित योग अभ्यास बेहतर मानसिक, शारीरिक और बौद्धिक स्वास्थ्य की ओर ले जाता है । तनाव भरी जीवन शैली में अगर आप कुछ समय निकालकर योग (Yoga Aasans, pranayam करते हैं , तो शरीर में दिन भर उर्जा (Energy) बरकरार रख सकते हैं । आपका स्टैमिना बढ़ता है , शरीर लचीला और मजबूत बनता है । स्फूर्ति बनी रहती है , और आप स्वस्थ रहते हो। ये सकारात्मक रुप से लोगों की जीवनशैली को बदलता है और सेहत के स्तर को बढ़ाता है । ओ३म ्

8 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

विश्वास और प्रेम by स्वामी विवेकानंद परिव्राजक जी

दो सुंदर पक्षी, सदा साथ रहने वाले, विश्वास और प्रेम* यदि आप चाहते हैं , दस ू रे लोग आपके साथ प्रेम करें , आप का सम्मान करें , आपको सुख दे वें; तो यह तभी संभव है , कि जब वे लोग आप पर विश्वास करें । क्योंकि विश्वास के बिना प्रेम होना असंभव है । ये दोनों गुण सदा साथ ही रहते हैं । यदि विश्वास चला गया, तो निश्चित रूप से प्रेम भी चला जाएगा। इसलिए लोगों का प्रेम पाने के लिए पहले उनका विश्वास जीतें। विश्वास को जीतने का उपाय है , ईमानदारी, बुद्धिमत्ता, सरलता, छल कपट रहित होना, सत्य को तुरंत स्वीकार करना, इत्यादि गुणों के कारण व्यक्ति दस ू रों का विश्वास प्राप्त सकता है । और यदि आप दस ू रों का विश्वास प्राप्त करने में सफल हो गए, तभी वे लोग आपके साथ प्रेम करें गे, आपको सम्मान एवं सुख भी दें गे। *इसलिए अपने जीवन में ईमानदारी छल कपट रहितता बुद्धिमत्ता सत्यग्राहिता आदि गुणों को धारण करें ।*

संसार में सब लोग मूर्ख नहीं हैं । एक से एक बढ़कर बुद्धिमान परीक्षक लोग हैं , जो आपकी परीक्षा सदा करते रहते हैं । कोई

अधिक बुद्धिमान तथा अधिक अनुभवी होता है । वह शीघ्र ही आपकी परीक्षा कर लेगा। कोई उससे कुछ कम बुद्धि वाला होता है , वह कुछ दे र में आपकी परीक्षा कर पाएगा। एक-एक करके सब लोग आप का परीक्षण कर लेंगे, कोई जल्दी और कोई दे र से। जब लोग धीरे धीरे आप का परीक्षण कर लेंगे, उसके बाद परिणाम आने आरं भ हो जाएंगे। यदि आप उनकी परीक्षा में पास हो गए, अर्थात ऊपर बताए गुण आप में यदि उनको दिखाई दें गे, तो इसका अर्थ है आप उनकी परीक्षा में पास हो गए। तभी आप उनका विश्वास जीत पाएंगे, और तभी वे आपसे प्रेम करें गे, आप को सम्मान और सुख दें गे। *यदि आप दस ू रों की परीक्षा में असफल हो गए, फेल हो गए, तो वे आप पर विश्वास नहीं करें गे। जिसका परिणाम यह होगा कि वे आप के साथ प्रेम नहीं करें गे, आपको सम्मानऔर सुख नहीं दें गे।* उस परिस्थिति को भोगना, आपके लिए बहुत कष्टदायक होगा। ओ३म ् स्वामी विवेकानंद परिव्राजक जी

ओ३म ् GOD ईश्वर परमात्मा

GOD is the supreme power who has provided us with whatever we have in our life and we are devoted to GOD and we express our gratitude towards HIM in the form of our praises,good honest righteous deeds and prayers. GOD is the efficient cause of all true knowledge and all that is known through knowledge.

GOD is existent, intelligent and blissful.

HE is omnipresent, formless, omniscient, just, merciful, unborn, endless, unchangeable, beginningless, unequalled, the support of all, the master of all, immanent, unaging, immortal, fearless, eternal, holy, and the master of all. HE alone is worthy of being worshipped Worship of GOD based on the Vedic scriptures is called Ishwar Stuti Prarthana Upasana

(ईश्वर स्तुति प्रार्थना उपासना).

The word Ishwar means Supreme Master of all the spiritual and physical wealth of the universe, Stuti means appreciating and understanding the attributes of GOD, Prarthana is a prayer to GOD to be our guide and adopting virtuous practices of life, and Upasana literally means getting close to GOD through the practical and spiritual yoga (meditation) The VEDAS were revealed by the Parmeshwar ओ३म ् to the four Rishis Agni, Vayu, Aditya and Angira in the beginning of the human shrishti. Among all men those four Rishis alone were purest in heart, therefore, GOD revealed the true knowledge to them only. The message revealed was not in any country’s language as it is for the whole of

humanity and not for a particular country or sect.

Hence it was revealed in Sanskrit. The Vedas were then taught to Maharishi Brahma Ji by the four Rishis making him the first teacher to know and preach all four VEDAS. The main purpose of VEDAS is to experience GOD and become enlightened by knowing the truth.Materialistic and Spiritual knowledge in VEDIC hymns is given only for this very purpose.

Hence, the primary object of physical sciences as well is to understand the Creator through His welldesigned creation. कण कण में जो रमा है , हर दिल में है समाया उसकी उपासना ही कर्तव्य है बताया, दिल सोचता है खुद वह कितना महान होगा ,हर वक़्त बन के साथी रहता है साथ सबके इतना महान जिसने संसार है रचाया हर वक़्त बन के साथी रहता है साथ सबके ,नादान उसको तू अब तक न जान पाया कण कण में जो रमा है , हर दिल में है समाया उसकी उपासना ही कर्तव्य है बताया ओ३म ् ईश्वर का मुख्य नाम ओ३म ् है , ईश्वर के गुण, सच्चिदानंदशस्वरुप, निराकार, सर्वशक्तिमान, न्यायकारी, दयालु अजन्मा और अन्नंत, निर्विकार, अनादि, अनुपम, सर्वाधार, सर्वेश्वर, सर्वव्यापक, सर्वान्तर्यामी, अजर, अमर, अभय, नित्य, पवित्र, सृष्टिकर्ता, सृष्टिहर्ता और मोक्षदाता है । जगदीश, परमात्मा, प्रभु, विधाता, भगवान ,ब्रह्मा, विष्णु, शिव, गणेश, महादे व, विराट, अग्नि, विश्व, हिरण्यगर्भ, वायु, ईश्वर, आदित्य, परम पुरुष, प्रजापति, इन्द्र, प्राण, ब्रह्म, रूद्र, दिव्य, सुपर्ण, गुरुत्मान ्, मातरिश्वा, भूमि, आदि सब उसी एक ही ओ३म ् के विभिन्न नाम हैं -ईश्वर के कार्य -१. ईश्वर सृष्टि की रचना करते हैं । २. ईश्वर सृष्टि का पालन करते हैं | ३. ईश्वर सृष्टि का संहार करते हैं | ४. ईश्वर वेदों का ज्ञान दे ते हैं ।५. ईश्वर अच्छे -बुरे कर्मों का फल दे ते हैं |

६. ईश्वर योगियों को मोक्ष प्रदान करते हैं | ईश्वर हम सबका उत्पन्न करनेवाला, पिता के तुल्य रक्षक, सूर्यादि प्रकाशों का भी प्रकाशक है । हमारा प्रभु सर्वशक्तिमान ्, न्यायकारी, दयालु, पवित्र, अजन्मा, अनन्त, निर्विकार, अनादि, अनुपम, सर्वाधार, सर्वेश्वर, सर्वव्यापक, सर्वान्तर्ययामी, अजर, अमर, अभय, नित्य पवित्र और सृष्टि का रचयिता व पालक है । ईश्वर भक्ति के रास्ते में कौन कौन सी बाधाएँ हैं ,जिनको पार कर हम इस मार्ग में अग्रसर हो सकते हैं ? उत्तर:- योग दर्शन में विस्तार से उन बाधाओं का वर्णन किया गया है ।जिनमें से पाँच मुख्य है जिनसे बचना अत्यन्तावश्यक है । प्रथम कारण - ईश्वर भक्ति में दृढ़ विश्वास का न होना अर्थात ् मन में संशय का होना यथा ईश्वर है कि नहीं,भक्ति से कोई लाभ होगा की नहीं इत्यादि संशय जब तक मन में है ,भक्ति की और बढ़ना कठिन है । दस ू रा कारण - विषयों का सेवन तथा राग, रं ग, नाइट क्लब, शराब घर, सिनेमा, थियेटर आदि का आकर्षण है , इनसे ब्रह्मचर्य का नाश होता है और भक्ति में मन स्थिर नहीं होता। तीसरा कारण - शरीर का निर्बल वा रुग्ण होना अथवा स्वास्थय का ठीक न होना है ।धर्म और भक्ति का सिद्ध करने वाला सर्वोत्तम साधन शरीर है । इसकी कभी उपेक्षा नहीं करनी चाहिए। चौथा कारण - अनियमितता है -अर्थात ् कभी ध्यान में बैठना कभी न बैठना, अतः नियमपूर्वक, दीर्घकाल तक तथा श्रद्धा के साथ भक्ति करना आवश्यक है । पाँचवां कारण - अभिमान का होना है । ईश्वर भक्ति में किसी प्रकार का भी अभिमान सबसे बड़ी बाधा है । क्योंकि अभिमान किसी प्रकार भी भगवान ् को नहीं भाता। जीवन में, श्वास में, आशा में, विश्वास में, याद तुम ही आते हो सर्जन रचना में, विनाश में, निरं तर विकास में, सत्य के आभास में, याद तुम ही आते हो दरू आस-पास में, पीड़ा में उल्लास में,पृथ्वी में, आकाश में, याद तुम ही आते हो जीवन में, श्वास में, आशा में,विश्वास में, याद तुम ही आते हो ओ३म ् ओ३म ् ओ३म ्

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 9 23/7/19 2:44 pm

THE DAYS OF THE RAJ. Right from the beginning of their relationship with India, the British, who had come as traders and had become rulers and administrators, had influenced the economic and political systems of the country.

Their impact on the cultural and social life of India was, however, gradual.

Till 1813, they followed a policy of non-interference in the social and cultural life of the Indians. Yet, changes were taking place in these fields (the social life of Indians).

These changes related to education, the condition of women, the caste system and various social practices.

There were never really that many British in India.

At the height of British imperialism in the 1930s, there were only 167,000 Europeans in all of South Asia. British in India were characterized by their English mother tongue, Christian religion, European lifestyle at home, Western clothes and employment in administration and service positions.

The invention of the steam ship really opened up travel between Britain and India. The first run of the P&O steamer around the Cape of Good Hope took 92 days to travel from Southampton, England to Calcutta, with seven days spent taking in coal.

In 1876, the British parliament ruled that India should become an empire and Queen Victoria was named Empress. A viceroy ruled India. When King George VI (1936-53) visited India he was greeted as the King of England and the Emperor of India.

Members of the British upper-class were beside themselves that an upstart like Robert Clive—the "unpromising son of a penurious country gentlemen"—could spend a few years in India and amass more wealth than landowning families had accumulated in centuries of farmers. Among many upper class families in Britain, the eldest son was expected to run the family estate and the second eldest son was expected to go off to India to seek his fortune. [Source: Pico Iyer, Smithsonian magazine, January 1988] Even 10-pound-a-year clerks in India had a good life. Expecting to make fortunes later in their careers as traders and merchant, they took out loans and lived a lavish lifestyle way beyond what they could have enjoyed at home. Generally they were only required to work between 9:00am and noon. The rest of the day was often spent napping, drinking, gambling, womanizing and smoking opium and hashish. Those that made money often did so by hiring cargo space on

ships to ship goods like to textiles, spices, artifacts and opium to England.

After reports of the fortunes made by Clive and others filtered back to England, it seemed that everyone wanted a position in India. Bribes were paid to London officials to secure positions. The situation got so out of hand that, as one member of parliament put it, traders "rolling one after another; wave after wave; and there is nothing before the eyes of the natives but an endless hopeless prospect of new birds of prey and passage."

The British settlements in India were ruled by the British Governor-inCouncil. These governors enjoyed a lifestyle that rivaled the Mughal emperors. State dinners featured 600 different dishes and numerous courses, each ushered in with a trumpet. When the governor of Bombay left his palace in 1700 he was carried in a palanquin escorted by 80 servants waving silver wands. One of these governor, Elihu Yale (Madras, 1687-92), used part of his fortune to start a small college in New Haven, Connecticut.

[Source: Pico Iyer, Smithsonian magazine, January 1988] British culture also found its way to India.

The members of the newly formed Indian Civil Service were educated men of taste. "Where the rough and ready merchants of old had lived like local princelings," Iyer wrote, "the new arrivals preferred to live like well-heeled Britons. Tom-toms were gradually replaced by fifeand-drum corps, curries

by English dishes and local clothes by the latest (or almost latest) London fashions. Country houses complete with tidy gardens began to spring up." There were also some interesting merging of cultures. First class train compartments in the 1880s were outfit with hookahs and hashish.

Servants fixed tea and shined boots.

Most of the British residents were male. With no English wives to tie them down, these Englishmen were fond of attending parties which featured food, drink, opium and fun with dancing girls who usually doubled as prostitutes.

It was customary for unmarried British men to keep an Indian mistresshousekeeper who would also raise their children.

After the Suez Canal opened in 1868, and travel was shorter and easier, married English men and their families became more common and more British women arrived and married the single English men.

Calcutta became a British version of a Mughal palace.

Civil servants were brought in on gilded

10 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

palanquins with silver bells and embroidered curtains to Calcutta's theaters, where they watched English farces from private box with silk canopies. A typical bachelor in 1780 had 65 servants, and no soldier would go to battle without a steward, cook, housekeeper, washer man, a mistress and 15 servants who carried his bed, tent, luggage, wine, tables, live poultry and other necessities. [Source: Pico Iyer, Smithsonian magazine, January 1988] The well-heeled English crowd would spend their morning going to the racetrack; their early afternoons napping in the sweltering heat; their late afternoon cruising the embankment in their carriages; and their evening playing card games and attending balls and dinner parties. Ice cream was delivered from Maine in clipper ships and unmarried girls from England were brought over in cool weather on what later was nicknamed the Fishing Fleet (unmarried returned Empties took the journey home).

Drinks were kept cool with ice made in a novel way. In the early 18th century Indians were able to make ice when the temperature was above freezing as a result of cooling evaporation. The

water was poured into bowls in the ground where it froze as some of the water evaporated during the night. In 1828 over 120 tons of ice was produced in this fashion. The supply, which was stored in pits covered by thatch roofs, lasted more than six months.

In the intense Indian summers, the English gentry and their servants fled the cities for the hill stations in the cooler mountains.

The British built 96 hill stations in India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Burma. The Dutch built some in Indonesia, the French in Vietnam and the Americans in the Philippines.

Most were built between 1820 and 1885. Simla, the largest hill station, was the capital of British India for most of the year and headquarters for the imperial army.

The first hill stations were built in 1820 after it was discovered that British soldiers fighting Gurkhas in the foothills of the Himalayas felt better and came down with less diseases in the high altitude than soldiers stationed at low altitudes.

The hill stations began as sanatoriums and convalescent centers, but it wasn’t long before they became places where healthy upper class people went to escape the heat of the lowland plains. Most of

the hill stations were located above 6,000 feet because that seemed to be the ceiling of malaria-carrying mosquitos. Naturally cool air proved to be the perfect remedy for a world where air conditioning, insect repellant and antibiotics had not been invented.

Most hill stations were built on ridge tops. Now, while this had its advantages in fighting disease. It was not practical for supplying water, especially when trees were cut down and ground water levels drops.

In the early days there were no scenic train rides.

Visitors were brought up the slopes in bullock carts, on horseback, or in sedan chairs. A few walked.

The hill station were complete towns with sanitariums, churches, cottages, clubs, libraries and activities. Social activities went on almost around the clock and status and rank was rigidly defined.

The hill stations were set up like towns back home.

They featured comfortable cottages, steeplechurches, clubs, schools, tearooms, and gardens with European flowers.

Hill station residents lived quite well. Dinners often features a large selection of wines, ales and spirits, a choice of soups, fish, joints of Bengal mutton, Chinese capons, Keddah fowls, Sangora

ducks, Yorkshire hams, Java potatoes and Malay ibis, rice, curry and fruit.

Some Indians were invited.

Describing the bejeweled maharajahs in Simla, Aldous Huxley wrote," At the Viceroy's evening parties the diamonds were so large they looked like stage gems. It was impossible to believe that pearls in the million-pound necklaces were the genuine excrement of oysters."

Missionary women were often carried about in palanquins resting on the shoulders of a half dozen Indian servants and the men were pulled in covered carts drawn by teams of bullocks. The journey from Madras to Madurui took 20 days by palanquin.

As the servants carried the women they chanted “She's not heavy, Putterum, Puuterum, Carry her softly, Puuterum, Putterum, Nice little lady, Puuterum, Putterum, Carry her gently.”

[Source: Geoffrey C. Ward, Smithsonian magazine] The primary activity of missionaries was setting up schools. They usually set up numerous primary schools and, if they were there long enough to get primary school graduates, a secondary school. Low caste parents sent their children to the missionary schools because there was no other way for them to get an education. Hindus sent their children to the secondary school to learn English so they had better chances of getting jobs.

Many Christian converts were Untouchables. They had more to gain from converting to Christianity than other Hindus.

Missionaries had to protect themselves against snakes, scorpions, white ants, winged ants and bats.

One missionary described a huge spider that made a home in his shoe. It "was nearly the size of the palm of my hand...olive brown and covered with a soft down.” Many people died of malaria and deaths at a rate of 60 a day from cholera was not uncommon in some cities.

The missionaries also had to put up with dust storms, torrential monsoons and 130°F heat that lasted for weeks at a time. "Between the rising and setting of the sun," one missionary wrote, "a foreigner should not leave his house without the shelter of a carriage or palanquin or a thick umbrella."

We all are born to Die... but one thing remains, Where we came from, How did our elders lived... from where they came Etc… It’s our history everyone has a right to know about his history…. Social ethics were FORMOST in life in the old times… with change in ERA… The traditions too fall aside….. I wish you well… in your pursuits. Thank you.

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 11

QTA Vidyarthi Nestham Network Event #3

Queensland Telugu Association (QTA) hosted the Vidyarthi Nestham Network Event #3 on Sunday, 24th of May 2020. Due to social gathering restrictions, this event was scheduled as a Zoom meeting. This is the third event of QTA’s initiative which is catered forinternational student community and young professionals. We hadover 25 people includinglocal & international students and professionals in attendance to avail this free network session.

This event had 3 different sessions. Thefirst session was presented by Niharika Konda garu.

She has recently secured all 80’s in thePTE exam onher first attempt with less than 6 days of preparation. She shared her experiences and tips which helped her in the exam. Obviously, students had lots of questions which she was able to succinctly respond towith examples and good pointers. She was happy to provide templates and material which the students can use in their preparations.

The second session was about Skilled Migration pathways. It was presented

by Andy Arora Ji, Director at E-Help Consultancy and Migration services, Upper Mt Gravatt. Andy has helped students &skilled migration candidates over the years.

He has used his knowledge to explain the differences between Temporary Graduate Visas (485) & Skilled Visas (189/190/491) and the skilled assessments and state & immigration requirementsneeded for applying. E-Help is currently providing COVID-19 student support packages with a $1000 tuition fee contribution and a free student visa lodgement.

Dr. Shailendhra Bethi (MBBS, MRCPsych and CCT (UK), FRANZCP) garuled the final session, Mental Health. Dr.Bethi is the Medical Director at the Gold Coast University Hospital practicing Psychiatry. He discussed the importance of Mental Health during the current circumstances.

His advice is to be carefully watch ful of friends & relatives and keep an eye for the symptoms likelack of sleep, anxiety, loss of hope and losing selfesteem.

He emphasised on understanding the psychological resilience

and the importance of reaching out to healthcare professionals where needed.

He has given his personal email to students so they can contact him directly if they need any advice.

This event wasmoderated by QTA treasurer, KrishRavipati and co-hosted by past QTA cultural secretary, Hari Panchumarthi.

It was supported by QTA Management Committee members: Uma Gudaru, Siva Indla, Ravi Eranti, Ravi Segu, and other community members.

Past QTA secretary, Ravi Gundepalli, and Umesh Vangapalli, an active member ofQTA VidyarthiNestham organizing committee were also present at the event.

QTA Vidyarthi Nestham’s main objective is to provide information and assistance to the Telugu Student community who arrive in Queensland for their higher studies. Vidyarthi Nestham are two Telugu words.

"Vidyarthi" means Student and "Nestham" means Friend. As the name suggests, this wing’s function is to closely work with student community and provides tailored information on the

Andy Arora from E-Help Consultancy and Migration servicessharing Temporary Graduate Visa & Skilled Visa information with the participants.

Dr. Shailendhra talked about Mental Wellbeingand Accessibility to healthcare for students and public in general. topics that is of interest to the student community.

QTA intends to run this network event once in a quarter and organise presentations on different topics based on the interest gathered through online registrations. If any of the students are interested to attend these events, register the EOI through https://tinyurl.com/ QTATeluguStudent.

Vidyarthi Nestham is open to work collaboratively with like-minded individuals or organisations with same idealogy, to further benefit the student community. QTA strongly advise student and professional community to connect through our LinkedIn profile: https:// www.linkedin.com/in/qta.

The Queensland Telugu Association (QTA) is a registered Incorporation

Association registered in Queensland whose main objective isto "Maintain and Promote Telugu Culture, Literature and Tradition among Telugu speaking people in Queensland".

Feel free to contact QTA through email qta. telugustudent@gmail.com or qldteluguasn@gmail. com. Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ QueenslandTelugu.

Touching hearts with help from the community

by Kerala Association Townsville There are many unfortunate people around in our community in Townsville who are not eligible to receive benefits from Government, some of them lost jobs and finding it hard to meet their daily needs.

KAT (Kerala Association of Townsville) has been helping University Students and Families who are going

through a hard time.

KAT has distributed Essential Food supplies worth around $3000 to Students couple of weeks ago, Binu President of KAT said we do not want to take any photos of recipients as we don’t want them to be identified as weaker or disadvantaged - As long as we can and we will support

as much as possible.

This week KAT community thank Thankachayan for contributing different varieties of vegetables from his veggie garden. It’s of immense pleasure to see

12 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

the effort and dedication by our community members to help out others in this Covid 19 helpless situation. We are reaching out again to the needy ones, in the humblest ways we can. Yesterday KAT

delivered vegetable kits to 19 members.

We surely have more to

do in the coming days to help out the affected ones.

Meanwhile, stay safe.

Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List The Governor-General has announced the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List, recognising 933 Australians.

Included in the list are: • 710 recipients of awards in the General Division of the Order of Australia (3 AC, 50 AO, 200 AM and 457 OAM) • 28 recipients of awards in the Military Division of the Order of Australia (3 AO, 12 AM and 13 OAM); and • 128 meritorious awards.

“In this list we see all the positives that are in our community – we see the great ideas, we see the hardwork, we see the love and compassion for fellow human beings – it’s a microcosm of Australia,” the GovernorGeneral said.

“This list recognizes a group of outstanding Australians who have made a contribution to their community, to Australia globally or domestically.

Their efforts have been noted by their peers, they’ve been nominated and assessed independently as worthy of recognition.”

“This list recognizes a group of outstanding Australians who have made a contribution to their community, to Australia globally or domestically.

Their efforts have been noted by their peers, they’ve been nominated and assessed independently as worthy of recognition.”

“On behalf of all Australians, I congratulate them and thank them for their service contribution to our country.”

Continuing the positive trend towards gender parity, 41 per cent of recipients in the General Division are women.

“We are working hard to achieve parity between male and female nominations and to increase the diversity of nominations in other areas.

There has been success recently, but that success has to be sustainable and that is one thing that I want to work on in my time,” the GovernorGeneral said.

“The system is driven by nominations. To me that’s the most critical thing – it’s bottom-up and it is driven by recommendations from peers. The system belongs to all Australians.”

“If you know someone that is worthy, look at what you need to gather and how nominations are assessed.

People cannot be recognized if they’re not nominated and that has to be driven from the community.”

Call: 07 38656533

Tony Abbott, AC

Brisbane’s Professor Ranjeny Thomas, AM

Bronwyn Bishop, AO

Canberra’s Lakshman Prasad-Alluri, OAM

Marcia Langton, OA

Melbourne’s Dr Arumugam Alagappa Arumugam, AM

Melbourne’s Dr Rama RAO, OAM

Melbourne’s Sivaganga Sahathevan, OAM

Newcastle’s Dr Mulavana Santhadevi Parvathy, OAM

Melbourne’s Shobha Sekhar, OAM www.indiantimes.com

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 13

SEEKING CHANGE FROM PUNDITS- SAVIOURS OF OUR RELIGION-PART 2 As any code of conducts would demand, we need pracharaks, Pundits and preachers who are worthy of respect and themselves evoke all the good characters and things they preach us about.

This article continues from where it left in Part 1, and will prompt some thinking and discussion on a topic, few, if any, have courage to raise…..

FIJI PUNDIT takes this task.

Please read on……………

Thakur Ranjit Singh, FIJI PUNDIT This article was inspired by Valmiki’s “Siya ke Ram”, where Lord Ram became medium of change. In this time of crisis of Covid 19, I am seeking for some changes in the way Pundits view their yajmaan.

All I am doing is showing them the mirror. If they do not like the reflection that they see, then perhaps it is time they changed.

Professional Accountants, Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers and even Christian Priests have a code of conduct and some general rules under which to operate. They lose their rights to practice if there is a breach.

In our developed world where Hindus have migrated in larger numbers, our so-called heads and saviours of religion do not seem to have any such restraints. Their interests have been safe-guarded by like-minded swamis who wrote their rules centuries ago that Brahman Nindra(defaming Brahmins) is a cardinal sin.

However, contradicting them, Lord Ram and Krishn showed and taught us ways to change nonsensical, cruel and outdated parampara, systems and tradition (reet) - masquerading as religious practices.

Therefore people need to demand proper conduct from those who are profiteering from being the middlemen between us and our Gods. They cannot remain protected from such outrageous, protectionist, unfair, conceited, biased and unjustified commandments.

TIME FOR A CHANGE IN HINDUISM Part 1 of my article did ruffle a few dhotis…oops, feathers. In fact that has been my intention.

Professional Accountants, Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers and even Christian Priests have a code of conduct and some general rule under which to operate. They lose their rights to practice if there is a breach.

In our developed world where Hindus have gone in larger numbers, their so-called heads and saviours of religion do not seem to have any such restraints –and their interests have been safe-guarded by likeminded swamis who wrote their rules centuries ago that Brahm Ninda(defaming Brahmins) is a cardinal sin.

Time is ripe for them to be shown the mirror to see their reflections-and some are not too pleased with their reflections. All they need to do is to improve the picture if they do not like it. I have no animosity with any Pundit. However, it appeared some felt that they could do whatever under the mistaken rules that some smelly bearded Swami wrote centuries ago that "brahmninda" is like Gauhatya (criticism of Brahmins is like killing a cow).

Little did they realise that Lord Ram and Krishna showed and taught us ways to change nonsensical, cruel and outdated parampara, systems and tradition (reet) -masquerading as religious practices. Therefore people need to demand proper conduct from those who are profiteering from being the middlemen between us

and our Gods. They cannot remain shielded and protected from such outrageous, protectionist, unfair, conceited, biased and unjustified commandments.

As code of conducts would demand, we need pracharaks, Pundits and preachers who demand respect and themselves evoke all the good characters they preach us about.

Do these preachers themselves have exemplary life practices?

Have they been able to have happy united families and obedient children? Do they respect women, children and elders equally and have compassion? Are they “clean’ and not using their position to gain through their religious position in any other forms? Have they been able defeat five thieves: kaam (lust), krodh (wrath, anger), lobh (greed) moh (attachment) and ahankar (ego or excessive pride)? At least there should be some evidence that they are more righteous than us common mortals.

If not, then what the hell are they doing on “vyasgaddi’, on the speaking pulpit, teaching us to do things they themselves cannot do-or at least show an effort of doing so?

Some of us are miser people, who would not donate a dime to a needy person but would save and give big loads to Pundits in name of culture and tradition, and as a guilty conscience to pay for our bad ways through pooja and Daan. Now, what do these priest do with this continuous “Daan” (offerings) they receive that they and their families cannot use in their lifetime?

I am merely showing the community the mirror.There are some shameful things I feel ashamed to mention here. I know of some of these priests using their position in society to exploit people in many shameful ways with very questionable “loose” characters (Please do not ask me what that means).

However, I do not care about those. But in this time of need, I care about the items they receive in name of culture that rot, and gets expired, or sold in some cases, rather than being used for the needy in Covid 19.

For Pundits who are operating in developed countries, there appears to be absence of any code of conduct and acceptable practices. They feel protected from the commandment that brahmninda is like gauhatya (criticm of brahmins is equivalent to killing a cows). Hence there is no compulsion on them on the way they operate. FIJI PUNDIT is calling of a change from Hindus to demand those high level of conduct from the middlemen between them and their Gods.

I am now coming to COVID 19.

Many of our priests who we have had as our “kul” (fixed) Pundit may have been receiving financial benefits and basin-full of goodies over many decades. For the first time we are in a crisis, a lockdown, many without jobs, and needing assistance, if not financial, at least moral and other support. Each of these pundits may have some 1000 yajmaan (clients), if not more. How many of them have called their suffering yajmaan, especially the elderly, to offer solace, assistance and word of encouragement?

They have been receiving calls from yajmaan over the decades for pooja etc. Have they returned those calls when they could have made a difference in these trying times?

Don’t they owe a duty of care? How many of you have heard from your Pundits?

All Mandirs and places of worship are closed. Should they be? Yes, for maintaining social distancing, but also YES for granting aid to those who have supported them all along? They have been benefitting from us for decades. Isn’t it time they returned the favour to people who had been financing these institutions and priests.

Isn’t it time, more people stood up and question about our outdated

3 Reasons - Why Jesus is Better…

Key Scripture: The Son (Jesus Christ) radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and sustains everything by the mighty power of his command when he had cleansed us from our sins, He sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. - Hebrews 1:3 (NLT)

Jesus said “Arise and Shine…”

Dear Reader, We are here to remind you of God’s advise in middle of global crisis of COVID-19. The Author of the Letter to the Hebrews, himself has lived through many crisis in his life time was absolutely confident when he wrote the divinely letter.

This is the season in the history of humanity to give serious attention to the Word of the Lord.

Let us humble our hearts to hear from God’s Word today. And let us discover how we can live a life of faith that defeats the fear of death and destructions that our world is facing now.

Past few months have made

many people to think bout our true priorities in life.

What is better in our life?

What must we focus in order to find meaning and purpose to live day by day?

Where can we find the true answer that satisfies the human soul?

Look no further than the Life and Supremacy of Jesus Christ. There are many reasons to state that Jesus is better choice. But we are going to just focus on three key reasons to keep it simple and sweet.

Number 1 Reason: He is the Author of Life.

Jesus Christ is not a historic

14 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

person who came to establish a religion. But He is God who exists from eternity. He was always present before the universe we see was created, in the beginning the heavens and the earth was created by His spoken word (Psalm 33:6). Before the time began with our solar system, Jesus designed the grand universe as a majestic display of His power and glory.

Jesus came to establish an everlasting relationship with the broken humanity. We all were born sinners as the result of our forefathers sins. The humanity needed the redemption from life of sin and eternal death. God in His divine wisdom planned our salvation in this life.

Every details of life that existence on earth is from a brilliant is design and execution of God’s supreme wisdom. Everything in nature is in perfect balance and harmony such as the our sun, moon and stars.

They follow a direct command and directions of the Author of life. But only thing is out of perfect balance is our humanity. We are not looking after each other as the rest of the nature around teaches us.

Number 2 Reason: He is Author of Salvation Jesus’s supreme purpose on this planet was to restore the broken relationship of man with eternal God. We, as the result of sinful and rebellious heart, are cut off from the source of Holy God. Sin and Holiness can’t exist together. Just as darkness and light can be present in one place; spring-water and bitter water can’t come from one source.

All humanity has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. We have sinned by failing to keep the God’s commandments. But, our God loves

Nothing in Hinduism is cast in stone. Lord Krishn, in Bhagavat Gita preached that change is inevitable fact of life. Hence the fact that Pundits feel shielded from the Commandment that they are above criticism is contradicted. Like Arjun with Gandiu Bow, modern men, with pen and keyboard need to become the medium of change. That is what is intended of this article

practices of giving so much power in religion to the middlemen between you and your Gods? And now, when you need them, are they anywhere to be seen or heard? Isn’t it time we reconsider about our DIRECT relationship with God? It is nice to see some Sikh organisations and some Hindu Mandirs, institutions and some Pundits coming out to help. Thanks to them. But my concern is directed at the ones who have gone in complete “Lockdown.” Many may have done things in their own rights, but have they cared about their ‘yajmaan” when they longed to hear the assuring voice of their “Maharaj?”

All I am asking is some reciprocity (pay back) from Hindu priests who until now have been beneficiary of our age old rituals, culture and outdated thinking.

Perhaps when the dust of Covid 19 clears, we all need to rethink about position of Pundits in our information-filled community and a time to press REFRESH and REBOOT button on Hinduism. With changing times, there is need for change, at least in the developed world and a rethink about outdated ways our ancestors carried in Fiji.

I am sure, many of my friends will say, if I am getting looted or used by my Pundit in the name of parampara

or culture, so why is Thakur concerned? (Thakur kekapiraayehow does it affect Thakur?

Same way as it affected Lord Ram and he put a stop to outdated and obsolete culture and ways. Same way as Lord Krishna preached in Bhagavat Gita that change and parivartan is inevitable.

You do not need Arjun with "Gandiu” bow to bring change.

All you need is a Narad Muni Journalist, FIJI PUNDIT, withpen and keyboard to bring about a paradigm shift-nazariakepher, a change of viewpoint.

Our modern Hindus have democratic right to be “used” and misled in the name of parampara, tradition, but like Ram and Krishn, I am urging you to REDISCOVER and RECREATE your ways in life.

You have full right to ignore thisand continue doing what you have been doing, but allow others to see the light.

[About the Author: Thakur Ranjit Singh is a media commentator, a journalist, a community worker and a practising Hindu who believes that change is inevitable. He subscribe to the principle that it is height of absurdity and gullibility to be shackled by outmoded and obsolete practises under the guise of parampara and tradition]

us so much, He is kind and full of mercy. Jesus came to solve this great tragedy of humanity.

He wrote your salvation by His love and sealed it by demonstrating it by His sacrifice on the cross. He died for all humans on this planet; past, present and future. He died to take away our stony and sin-filled heart and replace it with holy and a kind heart.

This new heart is the result of all who believe in Jesus and His supreme love.

We can receive this salvation by faith and confession of heart and mouth.

When we repent of our wrongs, and ask God to forgive us, Jesus is willing to step into heart to restore our broken relationship with God the Father.

When Jesus becomes our king, He transform our mind from inside out.

Our life of fear will replaced with the life of faith, hope and love. The choice is ours, because we have been given free will to choose the life or reject.

I have chosen life by believing in Jesus as the author life, author of salvation and the kindest King.

He has transformed my life from darkness to light, from fear to faith and from hatred to love. Choose Him today and experience and abundant life Jesus has promised (John10:10).

Therefore, we invite you to pray this with a sincere heart; ‘Dear Father God, today I thank you for your word that has touched my heart. I repent of my wrongs and I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins, God raised Jesus from the dead for my Mukti (Salvation). Blood of Jesus has reconciled me to the loving relationship with my creator.

Now help me to know Jesus more and more so that I can grow in the knowledge of your grace and mercy.

Teach me your ways so that I can be person who will learn to honour you and learn to love each other’. Amen Please email to us your encounter experience, so we can help you to grow in the understanding your Creator and Redeemer. navig8grace@ gmail.com

Number 3 Reason: Jesus is the Kindest King.

A kind king always wants the best for his people. He will make sure none are poor and needy in His kingdom.

We can count on the unchanging character of Jesus as our eternal King.

He is waiting for us to come back to His kingdom by confessing your sins and accepting His offer of new life.

We call this as a grand invitation to all who need true peace and hope.

God has revealed fully and perfectly the nature and character of His love and mercy through Jesus Christ. It is up to us to trust in His love and supreme sacrifice. The kind King will do anything to save His people.

Help for finances and mental health Coronavirus has brought with it many challenges.

These have affected both our financial health and our mental health and wellbeing.

You may be experiencing problems sleeping, mood changes, low energy levels or having issues in your relationships. During times like this, it is important to know where you can get help.

services for men.

Call 1300 789 978 or visit www. mensline.org.au for more information.

If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help now, please call 000.

Support services With big changes to your lifestyle it’s normal to feel worried, anxious or stressed.

It can help to speak with family and friends, or connect with a health professional.

There are a range of services to helppeoplefeeling anxious or overwhelmed, including: Head to Health For information, advice, anda wide range of support services visit www. headtohealth.gov.au.

Lifeline For help and tips on looking after your mental health during the pandemic visit www.lifeline.org.au or

call 131114.

beyondblue.org.au

Beyond Blue Beyond blue has a dedicated Coronavirus support service you can use by calling 1800 512 348. You can also visit www.coronavirus.

Kids helpline Provides free services for children and young people.

For more information visit www.kidshelpline.com.au or call 1800 551 800.

Headspace You can visit www. headspace.org.au for youth support services.

MensLine Australia MensLine provides free support and counselling

Financial Support The Australian Government is providing financial help to people, businesses and sole traders affected by Coronavirus.

This is available through Services Australia and includes income support and support for households.

Find out more about these services by visiting www. servicesaustralia.gov.au/ covid19 or calling 131 202.

The Australian Taxation Office provides help including early release of superannuation funds and minimum drawdown rate options for retirees. Help is also available for eligible businesses, including boosting cash flow and JobKeeper payments. You can find out more about these at www.ato.gov.au/ coronavirus.

You can also get free, independent and private advice from a financial adviser. You can access this by contacting the National Debt Helpline on1800 007 007.

Translating and Interpreting Service If you are a non-English speaker you can contact the Translating and Interpreting Serviceon 131 450.

They will connect you to an interpreter in your language. They will then ask you the name and phone number of the organisation you need to contact.

Stay on the line while the operator connects you and the interpreter through to the organisation.

More information It is important to get information from official sources. Visit www.australia. gov.au for the latest advice, and links to each state and territory. You should also think about downloading the COVIDSafe app to help keep your family, friends and community safe.

virtual summit between prime minister...

CONTD. FROM PG 4 Both countries have regular high level exchanges also. Furthermore, trade and investment is also growing.

That said, I cannot say that I'm satisfied with the speed and scope of our relations with a leader like you, is at the helm of a friendly country, the benchmark for the speed in all of our relations should be ambitious. I am very happy that today we are elevating our relations to the comprehensive strategic partnership, in this kind of a pandemic our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership the role becomes even more important. The world has to quickly come out of the social and economic adverse impact and for that, a coordinated and collaborative approach, is required.

Our government has decided to use this crisis as an opportunity. In India, a process of comprehensive reforms in almost all areas has already begun. Very soon, the results of these reforms will be visible and [inaudible].

I am grateful for the care extended to the Indian diaspora in Australia, especially the Indian students, that is our students, during this very difficult time. Excellency, I would like to mention a special thanks to you for that. Excellency, once again, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you at this virtual summit. And I now invite you for your remarks, I am extremely eager to listen to your remarks, so I invite you for the same.

PRIME MINISTER MORRISON: Well, thank you, Your Excellency.

Namaste. It is tremendous to be able to join with you again, as we have done on quite a number of occasions.

But for the first time to do this in this format. And it doesn't surprise me that this is how we will continue to meet these circumstances when you are the one who started the hologram within your campaign many years ago. And so it may be the next time we can have a hologram of Your Excellency here in Australia. But likewise, we could have brought a President Jokowi as well, because he similarly used that technology. And with a country as vast of yours, you have always been a pioneer in the area of technology for India and today Call: 07 38656533

is another good example of that.

Your Excellency, can I thank you for your leadership, not just within India, but more broadly throughout the G20, the Indo-Pacific and the stabilising and constructive and very positive role that you have played in these very difficult times.

Together with our friends such as Prime Minister Abe, this has been so important in our region and to provide that steadying and stabilising and wise influence during what is an incredibly difficult time for all of our countries and we wrestle with those challenges each and every day.

Can I also convey our deepest condolences to all of those impacted by tropical cyclone Amphan. This is, together with all of the other difficult issues that are being faced, our condolences are with you for that terrible event and, of course, the industrial accident at Vizag.

These are issues that are unrelated, obviously, to the Covid-19 challenges, but they still come and they still test us and once again, you've proved more than the measure of those tests.

Our relationship is exactly as you said. It is a very, very comfortable relationship, it is a very natural relationship, so much in common, so much shared, if not in language always certainly in the things that matter and the values that we hold and we both seek to champion those values together in our region and independently as very proud sovereign nations and very vibrant liberal democracies as well and I think we hold that flag up very proudly, each of us. When those flags come together in the way they have now and have for some time, we are only full of ambition, as you said, for what can be achieved in our relationship and between us, I have no doubt and with our excellent Foreign Ministers and Trade Ministers and others, Defence Ministers and others, we could achieve a lot in the years to come.

In the Indo-Pacific, we are committed to an open, inclusive, prosperous Indo-Pacific and India's role in that region, our region, will be critical in the years ahead. The cultural links that we enjoy between our countries are well known. And

what, though, I am even more excited about, Your Excellency, is that it's time for our relationship to go broader and to go deeper and the things we are speaking of today, I greatly regret we could not do them in person, on not just one, but two occasions.

And I thank you very much for the invitation to join, for Jenny and I, to join you in the future. I know she's very much looking forward to it and so we thank you. She'll be pleased when I tell her tonight when I get on the phone that Nerandra has invited us again and she’ll be pleased about that. So we look forward to doing that when we can all travel. But I suspect there'll be perhaps some other opportunities we will meet, I understand perhaps at the G7 with that going ahead later in the year and other events as we draw to the close of the year.

Today, science and technology, a new special grant round between our two countries for a program that is really joining our scientists together. This is exciting. A joint declaration on a shared vision for maritime cooperation in the IndoPacific. We share an ocean and we share responsibilities for that ocean as well. Its health, its wellbeing, its security and the relationship we're forming around those issues and our maritime domain, I think, is the platform for so many other things between our countries. The mutual logistic support arrangement and a defence science and technology implementing arrangement. These are the substantial issues that good friends developed together that provide the opportunity for the many other commercial opportunities that come our way. In a time like this, we want to deal very much with friends and trusted partners and this is a partnership which has stood the test time and again and is during the course of this current crisis.

We share a vision for open, free, rules-based multilateral systems in our region, whether that's in the health area or it's in trade or in other places. We engage in those as confident but sovereign nations advancing, of course, our own interests and mindful of our own domestic challenges and I think www.indiantimes.com

you've navigated that incredibly well and we thank you for the way you continue and go in those fora in such an open and honest and transparent way.

The trade and investment flows between our country are not where you and I would both like them to be, but they are growing and they can grow a lot faster. But I think the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that we are forming today, going to a whole new level of relationship, will continue to build the trust because we want commercial and trading relationships that are built on trust.

We already see a great movement of peoples in normal times between our countries and I thank you for your comments about the hospitality that is extended to Indian students here in Australia and we want to continue to see that happen. And we want to see Australian students study in India as well as we support and would like to support through the programmes that we run here from Australia.

I also want to commend India on its leadership in these multilateral forums, particularly on taking over Chair of the World Health Organisation's executive board.

This is a very important time to be chairing that executive board. I have no doubt that the way that that will be led under India's leadership will be critical to how we deal with the many difficult problems that we are encountering globally, particularly in the health area.

And so as we announce agreements also in cyber and science and infrastructure and trade and education, this is a grand portfolio of specific and very practical arrangements that give form and substance to the comprehensive strategic partnership. You and I have both - you for much longer - have been dealing in these international issues for a long time and there are many relationships and partnerships but we know they don't come to anything if we don't put into the practical building blocks and agreements that sit under the relationship that actually contribute to the prosperity and the progress of the relationship between our two countries.

So today is a very good opportunity

to extend that. It will be extended also in the agreement that we have to commit to foreign and defence ministers meeting on a regular two time, two plus two format. I think that's a great step forward.

The relationship also we have with partners in the region, particularly Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, the United States, others is very important and we are both enthusiastically pursuing those bilateral relationships. But increasingly in multilateral fora, both informally and formally, that is providing, I think, a basis of stability of our region, which we can all share in and we can drive prosperity from.

So I look forward to this first Australia and India Leader's Virtual Summit Today. I wish I could be there for what has become the famous Modi hug and be able to share my samosas, which I thank you for. We had a bit of fun with that on the weekend. So next time, it will have to be the Gujarati khichdi which I know is a keen favourite of yours and you've mentioned to me before. So I'll try that out in the kitchen next time, before next time we meet in person.

Thank you.

The following were agreed upon 1.

Joint Statement on a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Republic of India and Australia 2. Joint Declaration on a Shared Vision for Maritime Cooperation in the Indo- Pacific.

3. Framework Arrangement on Cyber and Cyber-Enabled Critical Technology Cooperation.

4. MoU on Cooperation in the field of Mining and Processing of Critical and Strategic Minerals.

5.

Arrangement concerning Mutual Logistics Support (MLSA).

6. Implementing Arrangement concerning cooperation in Defence Science and Technology to the MoU on Defence Cooperation.

7. Memorandum of Understanding on Co-operation in the field of Public Administration and Governance Reforms.

8. Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training.

9. Memorandum of Understanding on Water Resources Management

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 15

Devanampriya Priyadarshi Ashok Chandragupta Maurya established the Maurya dynasty, and ruled the vast empire of Indian subcontinent for twenty-four years from its capital Pataliputra, now known as Patna. His son Bindusar became king after Chandragupta retired from kingship, and reigned for the next twenty-eight years.

During his rule, Bindusar maintained his hold over the empire established by his father. Bindusar’s son Ashok was born in 304BCE. He became king after his father and expanded the empire initially by conquest through war and violence, and later by Dharma-Vijay, moral conquest.

Inscriptions on rocks, pillars and cave surfaces etched during Ashok’s reign are the original sources of information about his administration.

They were edicts issued

by Ashok as a means of direct communications to his subjects and mostly referred to his later life activities.

Sri Lankan texts the Mahavamsa, Dipavamsa and Divyavadana, which comprised Ashokavadana, and Indian Puranas, are another ancient sources of information relating to Ashok that have become a part of Buddhists and Hindu religious traditions respectively. They contain information relating to Ashok’s early life too.

Travel diaries of Chinese travellers Fa-Hien and Yuan Chwang also referred to monuments and structures that were ascribed to Ashok. In addition, now numerous books on Ashok are available including a well-regarded one by Radhakumud Mookerji that contains the details of rock, pillar and cave inscriptions.

Bindusar had sixteen wives including the queen Subhadrangi and one hundred and one sons; only three of them are named in texts. Subhadrangi was a daughter of a Brahmin from Champa, a region east of Patna around Munger.

A fortune-teller had told her father in her childhood that she was destined to become a queen. When she grew up, her father brought Subhadrangi to king Bindusar, who married her and made her the queen. Subhadrangi gave birth to Ashok and another son Tisya. Susima was Bindusar’s eldest son born to another wife.

Bindusar disliked Ashok from his childhood and preferred Susima to become his heir.

Ashok was bold in personality and was liked by ministers, preceptors and elders of the community. He was educated along with other princes. After their formal training, a competition was organised to select a suitable heir to the throne based on merit. An Ajivika saint was appointed to evaluate the participants’ performance

and consequently to declare the winner. Ajivika was a religious offshoot of traditional Vedic religion like Jainism and Buddhism at that time. The saint agreed on the condition that he would not explicitly name the person but would describe the attributes that related to the successful candidate.

All princes were invited to participate in the contest.

Ashok was walking along a road on the way to the venue of contest. A minister named Radhagupta was also travelling to the same venue on elephant. The minister offered a lift to Ashok and both arrived at the venue together. When the contest was over, the evaluator informed the king his decision in code words, without naming a person, but otherwise clearly indicating Ashok as the most deserving candidate. Bindusar was not happy with this outcome and wished to keep Ashok away from the capital to deny him any chance of becoming the heir.

Sometime later, a rebellion took place in Taxila against the central rule. Bindusar sent Ashok to Taxila to suppress the revolt. After his success in quelling the uprising, Ashok was transferred to Ujjain as a governor of the region.

Again the rebels revolted in Taxila and Susima was sent to suppress the insurgents.

While both Susima and Ashok were away, Bindusar fell ill and his condition deteriorated beyond recovery. He asked his ministers to recall Susima to Pataliputra and send Ashok to Taxila, where insurgency was still continuing. However, when Ashok heard of the condition of his father, he came to the capital and claimed the throne before Bindusar left his mortal body.

Ashok’s accession to the throne was followed by a war between Susima and Ashok that continued for four years. In the end, Susima was killed and Ashok emerged victorious.

Ashok’s coronation took place in 270BCE. Ministers, especially

16 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

Radhagupta, played a significant supporting role in Ashok’s success. Radhagupta was a grandson of Chanakya, the preceptor and adviser of Chandragupta Maurya, Ashok’s grandfather. Upon coronation, Ashok assumed two titles: Devanampriya and Priyadarshi, which signified ‘the beloved of the gods’ and ‘of pleasing countenance’ respectively.

These titles were signature marks of Ashok on his edicts.

Once, while sitting in his court, Ashok saw a young Buddhist monk passing by in the street.

He called the boy and asked him to sit on a seat suitable for him. The monk sat on the royal throne. On further enquiry, the monk told him that he was seven years old and a son of Susima, his elder brother.

The monk also enlightened him with doctrines of Buddhism that impressed Ashok who became a lay Buddhist.

After coronation, Ashok became the ruler of the area expanding from Afghanistan and eastern part of Iran in the northwest to Karnataka in the South. Remaining kingdoms of the southern India that included Cholas, Pandyas, Satiyaputra and Keralaputra were all within the sphere of Ashok’s influence and were friendly states. Only the kingdom of Kaling did not accept his authority. Ashok attacked Kaling to subjugate it. A fierce war ensued that led to utter destruction.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and many were injured and displaced. Ashok won the war but its’ aftermath had an everlasting effect on him.

According to a legend, Ashok was camping in the battlefield littered with dead and injured bodies.

He heard a weeping woman cursing him. On enquiring her reason for anger and grief, the woman challenged him to return a single dead person to life if he considered himself all-powerful.

Ashok understood it as a call from

the Divine to change his mode of action.

He was already familiar with the teachings of Buddhism. After his victory over Kaling, he started following the precepts of Buddhism deeply. He proclaimed his objective for Dharma Vijay, moral victory replacing victory through violence.

He worked on disseminating the teachings of Buddha and thus helped transform a local religious sect to an international religion.

Ashok, like his predecessors was tolerant to all religions. Originally, Maurya kings belonged to the Vedic religious tradition, but later they adopted new religions that were becoming popular during their time. Ashok’s grandfather Chandragupta had become a Jain monk in his old age. Bindusar had followed Ajivika tradition. Ashok converted to Buddhism.

During his early reign, sixty thousand Brahmins were regularly offered food from Ashok’s royal kitchen. After his conversion to Buddhism, a similar number of monks started receiving their meals from him. He built cave accommodations for

Ajivika saints in Barabar Hills near Gaya in Bihar.

Ancient texts describe Ashok as a great builder.

He is ascribed to found two cities. The first is Srinagar, the modern capital of Jammu and Kashmir.

He had built in Srinagar five hundred Buddhist monasteries and other edifices, some of which were sanctified for Vedic religion. Srinagar acted as a centre for dissemination of Buddhist teachings in the north and northwest of Indian subcontinent and beyond.

The other city that Ashok established was named Devapatan in Nepal.

His daughter Charumati and her husband Devapala chose to settle there, and for them Ashok built nunnery and monastery.

Ashok is believed to have built 84,000 Stupas all over India.

There are differing tales about construction of these Stupas. According to one, Ashok asked his Buddhist preceptor, “How great is the content of Dharma preached by Buddha?” The preceptor replied, “There are 84,000 sections of the Dharma.”

Then Ashok said, “I will honour each one of them with a Stupa.”

Stupas contained relics of Buddha’s body, which were retrieved from the original eight Stupas built after his death.

Edicts issued by Ashok and inscribed on rocks and pillars are identified as minor rock edicts, Kalinga rock edicts, rock edicts, pillar edicts, minor pillar edicts, commemorative pillar inscriptions and cave inscriptions. Animal such as lion, elephant, ox and horse, topped the pillar edicts. Stupas and edicts were spread all over his vast empire. Only few of them are now available as displays in museums.

Ashok’s edicts contained proclamations such as abolition of sacrificial slaughter of animals, arranging animal fights for entertainment, feasting on meat, tours of pleasure accompanied by hunting, and war and conquest.

Edicts also included provision of public works such as construction of hospitals for human and animals, wells and trees along the roads, botanical gardens for medicinal plants, arrangements for welfare of women, children and handicapped people and many other decrees.

His administration was mainly based on Kautilya Arthashastra and welfare of subjects was the main objective of his administration. As noted in his edicts, ‘the main conquest is the conquest of Right and not of Might’ was the policy of his empire. He propagated and worked for moral victory.

Ashok became interested in visiting sacred sites instead of undertaking

pleasure trips for hunting animals. He travelled as a pilgrim to Bodhgaya, where Buddha attained enlightenment, and Lumbini where Buddha was born.

Under the patronage of Ashok, the Third Buddhist Council was convened in Pataliputra. It was considered an important event in Buddhist history, with aim to wean out corruption in Sanghas, the Buddhist monastic order. At the conclusion of the Council, Ashok sent missionaries to various regions of the empire and to foreign countries to promote the correct understanding of Buddhism.

Ashok had a number of wives. While in Ujjain, he married Mahadevi, the daughter of a merchant in Vidisha. Their son was Mahendra and daughter Sanghmitra.

Both son and daughter went to Sri Lanka as a monk and nun respectively, to spread Buddha’s precepts.

Sanghmitra brought a branch of the Bodhi-tree that was planted in Sri Lanka.

Padmavati was another wife who bore Ashok a son named Kunal.

Asandhimitra and Karuvaki were other queens.

Tishyarakshita was the last queen. She is believed to have made Kunal blind for refusing to agree to her immoral advances.

Ashok’s final days of life were not pleasant. In his old age, he nominated Samprati, Kunal’s son as his successor. This prince, with collusion of corrupt ministers, seized all power and stopped the benedictions to Buddhist monasteries and Sanghas.

He also reduced the services and allowances for Ashok, until at last he sent him half an Amalaka, a variety of myrobalan fruit, on an earthen plate.

On receiving this, Ashok remarked in sadness to his courtiers that from the lordship of entire Jambudwip, he had sunk to that of a half fruit.

Jambudwip was the ancient name of India.

Ashok died in 232BCE at the age of 72 years. The extent of his empire and works remain a standard for subsequent kings and ruling dynasties of India.

Modern India has adopted many of its symbols and ideals from Ashok’s period. For example, the lion capital facing all four directions, on top of Sarnath pillar edict is the national emblem of modern India. The wheel in the centre of the Indian flag is also taken from the same lion capital. Ashok’s rule continued for thirtyseven years and his legacy remains a guiding post for good governance for India and other countries.

Awadhesh Sharma

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www.indiantimes.com

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 17

Arya Samaj Queensland

VEDAS and Upanishads

Jitendra Deo President ASQ

Namaste to all readers, I found this very interesting so sharing. The difference between Vedas, Upanishads and Brahmanas are discussed.

As time passed, people neglected the study of the Vedas and began to study the Brahmanas and the Upanishads and held that

the later contained the essence of the Vedas. A time came when the Vedas were practically forgotten and their place as the final authority was taken by the Brahmanas and the Upanishads, so much so that when an appeal had to be made for authority for any belief or practice, quotations from the Brahmanas and the Upanishads were cited.

But the distinction between the Vedas and the other two remained for the following reasons: 1. Nobody ever claimed the authorship of the Veda for himself. The Vedas were and are still held to be Apaurusheya, i.e., not manmade.

2. The language of the Vedas is the divinely revealed Vedic language, and not the classical Sanskrit like that of the Brahmanas

and the Upanishads.

3.

The Vedas were revealed in the beginning of the creation. Even those, who do not believe in revelation, do admit that the Vedas are the oldest books in the library of mankind and even those who hold the Brahmanas the Upanishads to be the Vedas, admit that the Brahmanas are of a later date than the Samhitas.

They also admit that while the Vedas were divinely revealed, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads were composed by human beings, i.e., by spiritually advanced men, known as Rishies or Munies.

As a matter of fact, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads are the glosses on the Vedas and are the products of human intellect, and not the works of God. The Brahmanas

contain narratives of the event of human history while the Vedas, being the revelation in the beginning of the creation are free from historical or geographical references and proper names.

The Brahmanas and the Upanishads are commentaries on the Vedas. They quote Mantras from the Vedas and then comment on them and give their expositions. The commentaries cannot be held to be parts of the texts they explain, nor can they enjoy the same status as the texts they comment on.

Please contact President: Jitendra Deo 3273 3029 or Secretary: Sunil Dutt 5613 3410 for information on activities of Arya Samaj Queensland or log on: www. aryasamajqueensland.org/ Facebook Arya Samaj Qld

Yog and MeditationHealing through knowledge The Subtle Body and the Gross Body. The subtle body consists of the following components: • Buddhi, or intellect, aids in judgment and decisionmaking.

• Ahankarr, or ego, is the faculty responsible for the idea of "I," "me," and "mine."

• Mannis the coordinator of the sense and motor organs and is also the instrument of desire and impulse.

• The five subtle sense organs (of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell), which corre-spond to the five external sense organs.

• The five subtle motor organs (of speech, grasping, locomotion, excretion, and procreating) which correspond to the five external motor organs.

The Buddhi, ahankarr, and manntogether are called the chitt (Mind) in the Yoga Sutras.

The gross external body

consists of the following components: • The five external sense organs (ears, skin, eyes, tongue, and nose).

• The five external motor organs (tongue, hands, legs, genitals, and excretory organs).

The brain,

18 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

which coordinates them (traditionally grouped with the above two organs but mentioned here separately for clarity).

Subtle Body is determinedacross Re-birth The subtle body which contains the mind does

not perish with the outer body. When a person's body dies, the soul along with the subtle body migrates to another body i.e., it takes birth in a new body. The subtle impressions stored in the mind are intact but, they may not be active. That is why we do not remember actions performed in our previous birth. The body we attain is based on the cumulative merit and demerit of our actions performed in the previous births. The subtle body persists across many births. It only dissolves into the primordial elements when the creation cycle ends or when a yogi attains liberation. At the beginning of a new creation cycle it is recreated.

Consciousness is never created. It is unchanging and eternal.

(Continued in next issue) Please contact Jitendra Deo on 3273 3029 or visit www. yogguru.com.au for more information and articles.

Communities in action- Girmit Diwas May 14

Girmit Diwas was celebrated via Zoom where we are using new methods of keeping connected even in isolation, thanks to technology.

Arya Samaj Queensland has beenperforming ZOOM Havan and Satsangh since April and also livestreaming it on Facebook.

There are many other organisations using the technology and keeping connected.

There are number of families who join through Zoom and perform or participate in the Satsangh. Girmit Diwas Havan and Satsangh was the initiative of Arya Samaj Queensland. The Zoom celebration has been so effective that people from overseas have become regular participants and they share their views and stories on Girmit. The stories from Mauritius and South Africa and Trinidad are same as those of Fiji. The event was also celebrated through Radio Brisvaani and live stream via Facebook.

Amidst all the negativity about current situation there is a positive outcome.

We have noted that many other organisations are following this trend of performing Havan and Satsangh by Zoom and it’s so heartening to see that the members are connected.

Pundit Ji attends to one members place and then Havan is performed.The members who have joined via ZOOM are ready with Havan Kund and ingredients and perform Havan as per pundit ji’s instructions and Mantra.

It is delightful to see dozens of Havan Kund lit and Ahuti’s been offered by members and wellwishers through ZOOM. The Havan Yaj is one of the best Karma(deed) one can do.

Once the Havan Yaj is completed then Satsangh includes discussion on

various Vedic principles and Vedas. The Bhajans form part of the Satsangh and one member also prepares a speech on chosen topic to articulate amongst members.

We all have thrived very well in this trying times and connection amongst members have been through Zoom and phone and social media. Every morning messages on the phone is so delightful and sharing of knowledge through messages and phone Apps such as Viber and WhatsApp are phenomenal.

Arya Samaj Queensland Inc has a website and all the details of performing Havan is provided. The Havan mantra’s in Hindi and English , utensils and ingredients required has been uploaded on the Arya Samaj Queensland website www. aryasamajqueensland. org.

The files are downloadable and has full procedure for Dainik Yaj( Daily Havan Yaj).

Our Facebook page Arya Samaj Queensland has the video where the Havan is explained and performed to make it easier for people.

Please visit website and Facebook page for further details or you can contact me on 0411 798 012. We urge people to perform Yaj for their well-being.

We urge people to stay home and stay safe. Perform Havan if you can, do Yoga and meditation and look after yourselves. You can visit www.yogguru.com.au for information of Yoga and meditation. Please contact President: Jitendra Deo via phone:0411 798 012 or email: asq.president@ gmail.comand if you wish to join ZOOM Havan and Satsangh the session is for 60 minutes. You can send email or PM in the messenger (Arya Samaj Queensland) or we have WhatsApp group as well and I will send you the link.

HIS HOLINESS SHIVKRUPANAND SWAMI His Holiness Shree Shivkrupanand Swami (Swamiji), founder of Samarpan Meditation, is a Living Saint of the 21st century, a pioneer of Samarpan Meditation technique.

Having fully merged with the Divine Consciousness, He descended to the society from the Himalayan Mountains with a pure wish to make us experience and connect with Universal Consciousness.

Born into a Brahmin family in India, Swamiji displayed a curiosity about the existence and nature of Consciousness or God from His early childhood.

Questioning the followers of the numerous religions, which he saw around him, He sought to know and find this knowledge.

This search continued throughout his early life and in His meditation, three visions regularly came to Him. One was of the Pashupatinath temple in Nepal, the second was of a tall fair-haired ascetic and the third was of a little temple set on a small hill.

Swamiji lived a normal life, completed a Masters degree in Business Studies and began to work as a marketing manager for a large company in Calcutta. Then one day His work took him to the North of India where an unexpected bank strike interrupted His business activities. So He decided to fulfil His long held desire to visit Kathmandu.

The following day after His arrival, He went to the Pashupatinath Temple. As He arrived He was met by an elderly man who approached him, addressed Him by name, and said that he had been sent to meet him by his Guru and had been waiting for Him for the past three days. Swamiji was amazed at this because He had only just decided to travel to Nepal on ‘the spur of the moment’. He went with the man on a journey until they reach a small village in the mountains.

On arriving at the village he was told to sit on a large stone and wait and at sunset a tall fair-haired ascetic came out of a nearby cave and approached Him. This ascetic was known as Shivbaba.

Swamiji was amazed as this was the person that He had been seeing each day in His meditation.

He describes Shivbaba as being very tall and thin, of a fair complexion and with piercing blue eyes that He

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With a pure wish you will experience the awakening of Kundalini Energy, the part of divine that is in each one of us. Then connecting our awakened divine energy within with Universal Divine Consciousness, we experience divinity and the process of inner transformation begins.

Samarpan Meditation is a path of experience, meditate and experience an internal transformation. could not look into for long.

Taking Swamiji into the cave, Shivbaba vibrated some water and poured it into Swamiji’s hands to drink. He then sprinkled some water on Swamiji’s head and put his hand on his head. As soon as he drunk the water, Swamiji went into a meditative trance for three days. When He awoke the Guru told him that he had been waiting for him for 40 years and that whilst in trance Shivbaba had transferred all of His knowledge to Him. Shivbaba was 96 years of age and went on to say that as he had completed his mission in passing on his knowledge and power to Swamiji, he could now leave this life.

The next day the Guru died and after the funeral, Swamiji returned home and continued his life as before.

He got married and had children.

After 10 years, another holy person, a Mahatma, came to His house and told Him that it was time for Him to begin His spiritual journey.

Seeking the permission of Swamiji’s wife, He then took Swamiji away to the Himalayas. Over a period of many years, Swamiji was passed from one Guru to another receiving from each what they had to teach and their power.

There in the Himalayas, Swamiji meditated with Gurus, Siddha Yogis, Rishis, Munis, Kaiwalya Kumbhak Yogis, Buddhist monks and Saints, and with the High

Gurus that exist there who communicate not with language but by vibration through meditation, beyond the need for language.

There in the Himalayas, He found the full knowledge and enlightenment. Having reached enlightenment and merging fully with Universal Consciousness, yet remaining in the physical body, Swamiji chose not to isolate himself from the society as many beings who reach that level do. Instead He has come back into the society as ‘a pipe’, a channel, a means through which anyone who chooses can experience and connect with Universal Consciousness.

After descending from the Himalayan mountains in 1998, Swamiji started teaching the values of meditation to common people so that they too could achieve the bliss that he had experienced. Within a very short period of time, the values of Samarpan Meditation have spread not only to many villages, cities and provinces in India but also to foreign countries like Australia, England, Canada, Germany, South Africa, U.S.A, Singapore and Japan.

People have made regular meditation a part of their lives, regardless of their religion or race and have been enjoying the Divine experience.

SAMARPAN MEDITATION Samarpan Meditation is a simple way of meditation

which connects us with Universal Consciousness. It is beyond the realm of religion and is practiced by people around the world. Samarpan Meditation is taught by His Holiness Shivkrupanand Swami.

Samarpan means surrender (of negativity, of the ego and of thoughts of the past and the future) so that we may experience connection with the divine. When we surrender everything, forget our physical existence and identify ourselves as a pure soul, the mind becomes still, there are no thoughts and we are in a thoughtless state.

Thoughtless state is a beginning point of meditation.

Meditation is an inward journey, journey from gross to the subtle. It is not possible to connect with the Divine as long as we identify ourselves as a body (with thoughts, emotions and perceptions at the surface of mind). We have to realise ourselves as a pure soul to get connected to the Universal Consciousness.

Meditation means to forget our physical existence completely and become one with the Universal Consciousness. At such a time we experience the pure joy as universal energy starts flowing within. Just as words are insufficient to describe the scents of flowers, in the same way the experience of this eternal joy cannot be expressed through words.

Samarpan Meditation is a practice which unites us with Universal Energy.

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AURA OF A SAINT Just as we have a physical body, in the same way, we also have a subtle body or energy body otherwise known as ‘Aura’ which is made up of our thoughts, and this has been validated today by modern scientific studies. There is enough evidence to justify the existence of bio-photons or electro-magnetic waves emanating from a living being that forms an electromagnetic field or bio-field or Aura around its physical body. And this can be seen using Kirlian Photography, P.I.P Scanners or Bio-field Viewers.

It is also said that one’s thought process determines one’s physical wellbeing; and many illnesses manifest around 6 months after engaging in polluted thoughts. Thus, an Aura report of a person can give us much insight into one’s Aura and consequently into what kind of ailments one may possibly suffer from in the future. However, another aspect of an Aura report is the information it can provide about one’s spiritual state. Almost all spiritual leaders and saints are seen possessing a very powerful Aura often referred to as ‘the body of light’.

The image above shows Swamiji bathed in White colour and Light Violet colour, which indicates a deep spiritual state, of one who has transcended all physical/ bodily feelings.

NEPAL TOURISM GOODWILL AMBASSADOR The Nepal Tourism Board has nominated and then appointed Swamiji as the Tourism Goodwill Ambassador for ‘Visit Nepal Year 2020’.

Swamiji was felicitated on 6th June 2019, by the Prime Minister of Nepal, Mr. K.P. Sharma Oli, at the inaugural function of the Himalayan Travel Mart, 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

On 7th June, 2019 20 speakers made their presentations at the HTM 2019 and Swamiji’s session was the last one which started at 6pm and was attended by approximately 250 delegates from 42 countries. Swamiji spoke about his spiritual journey in the Himalayas and his search for God. Sharing his personal experiences, he explained that Yogasanas were just one part of Ashtang Yog and dealt with only fitness of the physical body. Complete yoga is connecting to Universal Consciousness through meditation. He explained the concept of the Values of Samarpan Meditation and then led the delegates in a short meditation session followed by a question and answer session.

To know more about Samarpan Meditation, visit www.samarpanmeditation. org or contact Hemang on 0406 311 992 or Dr. Charita on 0469 816 569, email samarpanaus@gmail.com.

In the current challenging times of the Covid-19 everyone deserves proper physical and mental health.

In the view of spreading the mental health though the centres are closed our online meditation classes are still going on for everyone. You can join our online meditation classes from the comfort of your home at 8.30 PM AEST by visiting URL: https://zoom. us/j/388954545 .

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 19

Hindu Society of Qld Inc – Gayatri Mandir BACK TO NORMAL After weeks of selfisolation affected by coronavirus which has overwhelmed the whole world, it is a great relief to see relaxation of COVID 19 restrictions by the Federal and State Governments, however, lot of us arestill yearning to rediscover pre COVID 19 normalcy which would be some time in the future.

According to Queensland Governments “Roadmap to easing restrictions (Stage 1) under Gatherings “A private worship or small religious ceremony of up to 10 people is allowed, with social distancing observed.

However, larger celebrations are not yet permitted and are still to be live streamed”.

As such, from 12 June 2020 Gayatri Mandir will be unwinding the Gathering restrictions in line with the State Government’s policy.

Nonetheless, to comply and allow our devotees for daily darshan and small pooja at the Mandir the Management trust and has confidence in our devotees to do the right thing, maintain social distancing and hygienerequirements.

Opening hours of the mandir has been revised as follows; Monday to Sunday 9.00 am to 11.00am and 4.00pm to 6.00pm

In the meantime, the management committee has been maintaining the yard and general cleanliness of the Mandir so that we are ready to open to the public as soon as we get the green light from the authorities.

The management will be applying the social distancing guidelines precisely, by ensuring there is 4 square metres of space per person and maintaining a physical distance of at least 1.5 metres from othersin the main temple, members of our committee will be present to help comply with the guidelines.

Mandirs Tuesday Ramayan group have been continuing they program via Zoom, which is a wonderful use of the technology and maintaining the continuity of expounding the sacred scripture -Ramayan. Many thanks to the group.

No decision has been made on commencing Bal Vikash, however the Management Committee is envisaging, classes would resume in the new term, everyone will be posted of the latest developments.

Circumstances and crisis define how we do things here and now, it is a great teacher, consequently social distancing and hand hygiene have become two common words in our vocabulary today. We are all

in together, help us to help you, we expect our devotees and public at large visiting the Mandir to adhere to those strict requirements.

We are all adults and wise to know what is right and what is wrong, this will allow you and the management to seamlessly and peacefully worship at the Mandir.

As the title allude to and progressively sanctions are relaxed, there is a whiff of optimism of BACK TO NORMAL, hive of activities has begun, people are enthusiastically coming out of their bubble to resume they daily lives. I would like to draw on excerpt from “Gods Healing Powerby B.K Jayanti, Meditation is neither a flight of fancy nor an intellectual indulgence. It is a necessity for us to be able to function in a proper way, as a normal human being, in the real world, right now”.

In the age of instant gratification and living a complex and hurriedlife,we have disconnected ourselves from our inherent and innate qualities of truth, consciousness and bliss.

A heart full of peace, love, compassion and joy is a heathy heart, and healthy means normality.

Yet we have succumbed to the dark forces of ego, anger, greed, jealousy, revenge and turned outward in the material world in searchof

Temple: A Treasury of Spirituality Temples are a treasury of spirituality. Just as the Sun uninterruptedly transmits vital energy, likewise deities in a Temple emit and endow Divine Vital Energy.

This Divine flow of Vital Energy and Inspirations flow continuously and uninterruptedly making all occasions spiritually charged and holy. The performance of all religious ceremonies in a peaceful, coordinated and dedicated way allows the continuity of devotion and makes the environment holy, solemn, delightful, pleasing, impressive and spiritual.

We go to Temple to receive increased Vital Energy and Inspirations for daily activities. This is not achieved in a day, a week, a month or in a year but, gradually over a period of time. On surrender of our minds and thoughts at a Temple, we can absorb brilliance, to illuminate and enlighten us both externally and internally.

The purpose of our presence at a Temple is to achieve and maintain sublimity, self-esteem, dignity, coolness, selflessness and to provide service to humanity. All these are done to tread the righteous path, to maintain harmony and peace in individuals, families, households, and society at large. We approach Almighty God to bless us with prudence and wisdom.

We ask Him to remove our weaknesses, darkness of ignorance from within and

The purpose of our presence at a Temple is to achieve and maintain sublimity, self-esteem, dignity, coolness, selflessness and to provide service to humanity. All these are done to tread the righteous path, to maintain harmony and peace in individuals, families, households, and society at large. enlighten us with wisdom and virtues so that we are elevated, sanctified and, upon demise, our soul is liberated. To inherit these virtuous qualities, we need to practice spiritual devotion on a daily basis. A Temple or prayer room or place at home is ideal for daily devotional activities to adopt virtuous qualities as second nature. Let us go together to pray at a temple.

Just as the deities induce Divinity in Temples the Soul induces Divinity within the body which is moved by thoughts which in turn govern all our actions.

Through daily prayers we can train our minds for the "Embodiment of our Soul". Once we realise who we are and what we are, we can experience the radiance of the Divine Energy and consciousness.

Daily prayers or sadhana

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moulds life in accordance with divine discipline whereby emotions change through self-observation, self-introspection and refinement. Our thoughts are also influenced by people who we accompany, and who they are. Therefore, it is always wise to be in company of pious men, such as a Guru or a Saint.

God is formless and does not require any material benefits from mankind.

However, the entire universe is the living and visible manifestation of God and to serve Him we ought to serve His devotees to make his creation sanctified. Once we become a devout man, a true devotee, we move away from the material world to a spiritual world.

Although material wealth is God's gift to us, we should not make use of it entirely for our selfishness, rather share (or donate) a portion of it for Divine purposes. On achieving spirituality, we will no longer aspire for material gain, but obey the command of the intellect. However, it is not easy to eliminate the desires altogether. One approach is by developing love for humanity and conducting oneself in ways that bring about a state of freedom from the dominance of senses.

Let us build temples in our hearts to experience the Divine Energy within and accomplish peace and spirituality.

Pt Sanat Pandey

innerpeace,dependency on substance and stimulants to cure stress and depression, these has become a new normal.

A great analogy is, there’s said to be a frog that adjusts so well to changes in temperature that itwont jump out of a pot even when the water is nearly boiling.

So, it dies, meditation lets one jump out of the pot. It means understanding how one can turn up the heat in one’s life and how to turn it down again.

World’s greatest spiritual poet Rumi wrote, “Silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation”, meditation provides abundance of mystical experience and sweet silence. We tap into this reserve energy while we play our roles on the stage of the world,it gives you the tool and teaches you the art of living to draw on your original qualities and live a fulfilled and meaningful life.

Ourlord showers divine love in the garden of our hearts, yet we are unable to quench the thirst of longing for the beloved. It is the gulf between the senses, maanas (objective mind) and buddhi (subjective mind) the veil of ignorance, clouding one’s knowledge (Gyan) and deludes the embodied soul,thus preventing usthe experienceofinner dimensions of divine love.

UNIVERSAL PEACE PRAYER SARVESHAM SVASTIR BHAVATU SARVESHAM SHANTIR BHAVATU SARVESHAM MANGALAM BHAVATU SARVESHAM PURNAM BHAVATU OM OM OM May everyone be healthy.

May everyone live in peace.

May the wishes of everyone be fulfilled.

May everyone attain perfection.

May there be happiness and prosperity everywhere.

PEACE PEACE PEACE Ancient wisdom of India – classics of Indian spirituality, the Upanishads, epics like Ramayan, Mahabharat,Bhagwat Geeta and many other scriptures we are familiar with, meaning and essence of these scriptures is only complete when these calls are answered in our daily lives. Only then do we see that the scriptures mean here and now. We need look no farther than our saints and sages who have explored and discovered the secret knowledge and inner realm of life, they have livedand experienced the wisdom from these scriptures.

Reading and reciting just becomes a dry text, or work of literary, drama, poetry which never was the purpose but to provide divine inspiration and pathway for enlightment,

living a fuller life and a witness to this great celestial play.

On behalf of Hindu Society of Qld Inc – Gayatri Mandir, in the great words of Nelson Mandela “may your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears”, there is glimmer of hope and light at the end of the tunnel, we pray to our great lord to provide us all with inner strength and peace and remove all our misfortunes and adversities. With the grace of god may we reign over this pandemic and return back to normal.

By: Dharmesh Prasad For any enquires contact President Anita Ram on 0452 504 502 or Treasurer Dharmesh Prasad on 0424 961 302 or alternatively visit our Facebook page: Hindu Society of QLD’s Gayatri Mandir for all our latest updates.

Hindus disappointed at Church of Greece declaring yoga “incompatible” Hindus are disheartened over Church of Greece reportedly denouncing yoga, and branding it as incompatible.

According to reports, The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece recently pointed out that yoga had no place in the lives of their followers and completely incompatible with their faith tradition.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. One could still practice one’s respective faith and do yoga.

Yoga would rather help one in achieving one’s spiritual goals in whatever religion/ denomination one believed in. It was not at odds with any faith and rather made one spiritually healthier.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged Church of Greece Archbishop Ieronymos II to rethink, revisit and reevaluate yoga as many of its devotees reportedly practiced yoga. Denying them the valuable opportunities the multi-beneficial yoga provided, would be clearly doing a disservice to them.

Rajan Zed indicated

that yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization.

According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical, Zed noted.

According to a report of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Yoga is the

most popular complementary health approach in the United States - used by 14.3% of the adult population, or 35.2 million people”. According to US National Institutes of Health; yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. United Nations proclaimed June 21 as International Day of Yoga to raise awareness worldwide of its many benefits. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Rajan Zed added.

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 21

Marvellous is the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita!

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita is the book which contains, in lucid form, the essence of all Vedas and Upanishads and is accessible top all people.

The Bhagavad Gita has brought about a revolution.

Shri Krishna awakened the inner consciousness of simple devotees with his devotional love. At the same time, for intellectuals he imparted such knowledge of Gita in the battle field, that a thinker of any sect or religion, who might have spoken on politics, religion, social reforms or on the path of bhakti or Yoga, you will not find any world renowned orator who has not cited verses of the Gita in support of his doctrine.

Every influential speaker in the world has adopted excerpts of the Gita in one form or another.

The Gita is not biased for any sect or religion.

The Gita is not a book of any particular sect, cult, or religion.

The doors of the Gita are open to all.

Shri Krishan knew that worldly temporal pleasures are available to animals, birds and other creatures too, but these beloved souls of mine who are incarnated as human beings, they are in a human body which is very dear to me, if they remain contended with only worldly pleasures and waste their life in enjoyment of worldly pleasures, then when they will be able to get the joy of the Life-Giver?Therefore, Shri Krishna never places any conditions, whereas the rest of the sects and religions place conditions.

“If you have sinned, fast for 12 years, eat on alternate days. Observe Chandraayan fast every month. Do this for atonement of this sin and that for the other. Pray to God or Khuda…”

Shri Krishna says instead, अपिचेदसिपापेभ्यःसर्वेभ्यःपापकृ त्तम:। “Even if you are the worst sinner amongst sinners…..”

Even if you are the most sinful of all sinners….as we have positive, comparative and superlative degreesloved, more loved and most loved, similarly sinner, worse sinner and the worst sinner means the most sinful person, still you will cross over all the wickedness with the raft of

Knowledge alone. सर्वंज्ञानप्लवेनैववजृ िनंसन्तरिष ् यसि। Sit in the boat of Brahmajnana and cross the ocean of metempsychosis.

The Bhagavad Gita is the only scripture in the world that gives sincere assurance to all beings.

The Gita has invited even ignorant children, innocent cowherd girls and boys and uneducated people. The doors of the Gita are open to devotees, Yogis, jnanis (men of knowledge) and politicians too. It welcomes even those treading the path of selfless action; others performing action with desire are also welcomed if they want the knowledge of the Gita. In the way a mother’s heart is large, the educated child belongs to the mother and the uneducated child also belongs to the mother; the rich child belongs to the mother and the poor child also belongs to the mother. The stammering child belongs to the mother and the child who speaks beautiful refined words is also a child in mother’s view. Likewise, the heart of the mother Gita is magnanimous. Victory to Mother Gita! Victory!

Victory!

What was the purpose of the revelation of the Gita? See the glory of the Gita connected with its origin. It originated in the battlefield! It gives the drink of ambrosia to a warrior like Arjuna. The Gita is revealed to the inquisitive aspirant of knowledge like Sanjay, but it reaches even the abode of blind Dhritarashtra. War was not the purpose behind the revelation of the Gita.

What was the aim then?

The aim was to remove the big hurdles faced by the masses in the attainment of a life infused with Truth absolute, Knowledge absolute and bliss absolute because lustful persons were holding the politics power. Men like Duryodhana and Shakuni were very lustful and they were striving hard to fulfil their lust and deceit.

Was Arjuna’s desire for war impelled by lust? The straight answer is no.

Duryodhana says, “These warriors are ready to sacrifice their lives for me.”

Meaning, my desires should be satisfied, and I should

22 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

get the kingdom. This is the lust for the power. Arjuna says,” O Krishna, of what avail to us are a kingdom, happiness or even life itself when all those for whom we may desire them are now arrayed on this battlefield? I do not see how any good can come from killing from my own kinsmen in this battle, nor can I, my dear Krishna, desire any subsequent victory, kingdom, or happiness.”

Gitakara (Lord Krishna) has not left out any subject.

The person who imbibes the knowledge of the Gita is freed from frustration and disappointment.

The Gita takes in her lap, consoles, and encourages even disappointed and frustrated persons with its knowledge. It inspires

Arjuna, to perform his duty, who had come to the field of action and then wanted to run away with thoughts like, “I would rather beg than fight against my kinsmen.” At the same time to remove the attachment to action, it encourages one to perform actions with non-attachment. Gitakara (Lord Krishna) has not left anything uncovered in the Gita. What a wonderful book the Gita is!It’s anniversary is celebrated. It is good and appropriate to do it.

The material in this article has been translated from the Satsang of H.H Sant Shri AsaramBapu Ji. PujyaBapu Ji had addressed the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1993, which was 100 years after the same parliament

was addressed by Swami Vivekananda in 1883.

PujyaBapuJi has always emphasized the necessity to follow rich Indian culture.

To listen Vedic/knowldge stories or to listen 24X7 live divine Satsang, please search “Mangalmay live” on google, visit http://www.ashram. org/live or search “THE SBM STUDIO” on you tube. By the Divine Inspiration of Bapu Ji, the weekly sessions of Bal Sanskar and yoga are held in Brisbane. These sessions are aimed for the character, mental, intellectual, and spiritual development of the kids. The kids are trained to learn yogic mudras, techniques, yogasnas and pranayamas. These yogic techniques along with jap and meditation help kids in attaining virtues like

righteousness and selfrestraint. The kids learn precious keys to develop intelligence and take advantage of chanting and meditation while playing and laughing. Please read more about our Vedic culture in the next issue of “The Brisbane Indian Times.”

To know more about His Divine Holiness Bapu Ji, please watch this video. https://bit.ly/2uZvJuN For more info about Bal Sanskar and yoga sessions or to get a free copy of monthly spiritual magazine Rishi-Prasad in your mailbox in Australia, please contact by email at bskamd@gmail.com or by WhatsApp/phone to Ashok Attri and Anu Attri at +61 426 834 434 & +61 405 277 802

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 23

HEARTFELT GRATITUDE - CANCER CASE When people say ‘Life is a Challenge’, it is so very true, especially when you are struck with two challenges at the same time. Here is a true story of a family right here in Brisbane. Myself, together with several members of Boondall Lions Club were directly involved with this case. The following article has been written by a cancer patient, Arjun Timilsina, whom we were privileged to help right from the beginning in January this year till today.

“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all who helped me in this battle with cancer. While doing so, I would also like to take you with me in this long and lonely 6 months of my life to show you how wonderfully your help and continuous support helped me to fight this war against cancer. I’m a common man with common dreams. Me and my sweetheart wife Kabita were over the moon as we were having a little princess Arika in our life. We had heaps of plans to enjoy our parenthood, watch little princess grow and enjoy time with friends and family but almighty decided something else for me.

I got diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) the day after we had our little one. I had to go through a series of brutal chemo and didn’t even get a chance to properly hold my little one in

my arms. My wife who was still in the postnatal ward and wasn’t even recovered from her painful delivery, had to deal with all those bad news and situations.

We got another shock when the doctor said I need bone marrow transplant as soon as possible and that will cost approximately $AUD300,000. God! I don’t think I can remember more than that. But yes, I do remember and I will never forget how wonderful you were, Umesh Khadka, to come and console me and initiate the campaign through NRNA (Non Resident Nepali Association) to raise funds to

24 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

support my treatment.

Huge thanks to the entire team of NRNA, NAQ (Nepalese Association of Queensland), Kaski Samaj, Boondall Lions Club, Magar Samaj, Expert Education & Visa Services for all your support in this campaign.

Anita Adhikari, Amrit Khatri, Shambhu Ghaise, Tika Bhurtel, Chin Bahadur Nepali, Amrit Poudel, Rittam Thapa, Avinash Shrestha, Bunu Gautam, Kalpana Regmi, Keshab Baniya Chhetri, Prabin Bhandari, Nabin Poudel, Ujjwal Poudel, Saral Gurung thank you for being there with me and my family and giving us strength.

As I’m on a temporary visa, it was a very hard time for my family due to this uncertainty if the Australian hospitals will accept me for bone marrow transplant.

There are many people who helped us to approach for BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant) in Australia. I would like to thank everyone who helped me in attempting to get the treatment in Australia, and would also like to say sorry as I could not wait longer in Australia in that uncertainty and considering limited travel options amid Covid-19 restrictions.

Ek Raj Adhikari, Reg Maharaj, Bhanu Baral, Purna Pariyar, Dr Manoj Bhatt, all from Boondall Lions Club team, I don’t have words to describe your generosity through your respective personal contacts in your professions and in the community. With the support of Mr Joe Tooma of Nepal Embassy, Mrs Archana Singh of Indian Embassy, Simply Human, Prerna Pahwa and support from many generous people now I’m here in BLK Hospital,

India.

Everything seems normal and I’m waiting for a transplant. I believe in this saying ‘well begun is half done’. I’m confident that I will receive a successful transplant and emerge victorious in this war for life.

Thank you Lion Reg Maharaj for arranging with Lion Deepak Agrawal from Lions Club of Delhi City to provide all the necessary

help during our stay in Delhi. I have now realised how big the Lions Clubs International network is and how helpful. Just one phone call, and things were arranged for me, my donor

brother, and my father who have accompanied me for the Bone Marrow Transplant in BLK Hospital in Delhi.

Sorry, I missed almost 3,000 names who contributed in Go Fund Me and personally for my treatment. Thank you so much. I’m and always will be grateful for your support.

You have contributed to save a father of an infant and I promise I won’t disappoint you. I spent almost 6 months on the 10th floor of Mater hospital. I cried, I was drained emotionally, I was weak physically but I never lost hope. I was always inspired by your support to continue this fight against cancer.

Yes, YOUR SUPPORT, whoever is reading this, whoever helped me and is helping me in any way, I’m really indebted to you. Thank you.

I will continue to provide updates about my treatment… please keep me in your prayers. https://www.gofundme. com/f/NRNA-QLD-sCampaign-to-Help-Arjun… or direct deposit into Boondall Lions Club account: BSB 084150 A/C 56-273-7987 Reference: Arjun.”

Thank you all, once again.

Arjun Timilsina.

GCHCA has decided to start the actual construction of the Hindu Education and Cultural Precinct in Gold Coast in July 2020 With the Grace of God, GCHCA has decided to start the actual construction of the Hindu Education and Cultural Precinct in Gold Coast in July 2020.

Tenders from builders has been called on 5th June 2020.Tender is closing on 3rd July 2020. Tender notice has appeared in this columnseparately.

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Following the selection of the builder in early July, building work can be started as soon as possible.

GCHCA regret its earlier date of starting the project was postponed due to the present COVID situation.

GCHCA would like to provide once in a lifetime opportunity for the devotees to sponsor Deities and

become part of the historic project benefiting our future generation. Many devotees have come forward to sponsor deities to our earlier announcement in March 2020 and few deity sponsor ship is still open for sponsorship. If you are interested in sponsoring any of the Deities please contact one of the Management

Committee Members via email: gchcan@gmail.com.

GCHCA Hindu Cultural Precinct: For more information about GCHCA Hindu Cultural Precinct at Byth Street, Arundel, Gold coast, please visit the GCHCA website on www.

GoldCoastHindu.org.

You

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are also more than welcome to contact the association’s President, Secretary or Treasurer if you have any further queries. All taxdeductible donations ($2 or more) can be deposited into the following account: Commonwealth Bank Account: The GCHCA Building Donation Account BSB: 064-474 Account

Number: 104 88 900 Website: www.

GoldCoastHindu.org. Email: gchcan@gmail.com Due to the present COVID situation, GCHCA has temporarily suspended its bhajan and religious functions.

Once more relaxation happens in community gatherings we will start them as early as possible.

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 25

ARU Rathod thankful to Starlight Children’s Foundation Australian Indian Radio Facebook live has had so many meaningful and insightful interviews, here’s an uplifting and inspiring interview conducted by Umesh Chandra OAM on Saturday 6th June, the interview got over 11,000 views.

An uplifting story on a young girl from Balaclava, Melbourne who not only conquered a heart transplant as a baby, but now as a toddler, is fighting cancer following organ transplant complications.

3 y/o Aru Rathod and her parents, Smital and Kiran, shared their story to help us raise awareness for starlight Children’s foundation Tax

Appeal, in market now until June 30: https://starlight.org. au/ Aru is still undergoing treatment at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Parkville and while visiting for outpatient clinics currently, relies on our Captain Starlights to lift her spirits during an otherwise stressful time.

Back when waiting for her heart transplant for an agonising six months, Aru discovered Starlight when the Captains would visit her on the ward where she was strapped into life-saving equipment, compromising her mobility. The Captains immediately helped pick up Aru’s spirits with their shared

love of music and dancing, and she now considers them her “favourite people”.

In fact, now whenever Aru’s back in hospital for treatment, she expects to visit the Captains as her “treat after treatment” spending hours enjoying their positive distraction and play therapy techniques!

Excitingly, Aru also received her Starlight Wish – a new iPad, accessories and Paw Patrol merchandise/ games to keep her entertained during isolation.

Considering the current climate, Starlight needs

26 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

support from the public now more than ever to help raise funds to keep our vital hospital services running - especially with visitor restrictions tightened and our children’s hospitals busier than ever. Happiness matters to sick kids now more than ever.

We’re asking the public to help us raise $355,500 by June 30 to allow us to continue to bring happiness to seriously ill and immunocompromised children like Aru. Starlight Children’s Foundation www.starlight.org.au

Back when waiting for her heart transplant for an agonising six months, Aru discovered Starlight when the Captains would visit her on the ward where she was strapped into life-saving equipment, compromising her mobility. The Captains immediately helped pick up Aru’s spirits with their shared love of music and dancing, and she now considers them her “favourite people”.

Australian Indian Radio – AIR English Daily Facebook LIVE Updates Australian Indian Radio and Brisbane Indian Times in response to COVID 19 lockdown have taken to facebook live with regular updates, we have been very busy with many interviews and current affairs. The regular facebook live update has been very well accepted, the segment is hosted by Umesh Chandra OAM in English for the wider community.

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 27

The backyard, 12:36pm

BRISBANE Brisbane Road

IPSWICH

Ipswich Motorway Cunningham Highway

Ripley Rd Centenary Highway

28 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

Centenary Highway

GREATER SPRINGFIELD

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 29

Housing values edge lower in May, while transaction activity partially recovers from a sharp drop in April

According to the CoreLogic Home Value Index results for May, Australian dwelling values posted their first month-on-month decline since June last year.

The national index was down 0.4% over the month, with five of the eight capital city regions recording a fall in values.

The reduction in values through May comes as transaction activity in the market shows more positive signs. The CoreLogic estimate of sales activity bounced back by 18.5% in May after a (revised) drop of 33% in April.

CoreLogic head of research, Tim Lawless, said “Considering the weak economic conditions associated with the pandemic, a fall of less than half a percent in housing values over the month shows the market has remained resilient to a material correction. With restrictive policies being progressively lifted or relaxed, the downwards trajectory of housing values could be milder than first expected.”

Across the state capitals, Melbourne’s housing market has posted the largest falls over the month, down 0.9% in May, following a 0.3% reduction in April. Values were also down over the month in Perth (-0.6%), Sydney (-0.4%), Brisbane (-0.1%) and Darwin (-1.6%), but rose in Adelaide (+0.4%), Hobart (+0.8%) and Canberra (+0.5%).

Regional markets have been more resilient to value falls, with the combined regional index holding firm through May. Although some areas have avoided a reduction in values since March, every region has lost momentum and the longer term outlook remains uncertain.

“Eventually government stimulus will wind back and borrower repayment holidays will expire. In the absence of these policies, housing values could come under some additional downwards pressure if economic conditions haven’t picked up towards the end of the year,” said Mr Lawless.

Although housing values are currently slipping or stabilising, recent history implies most home owners have some level of buffer that will help protect against negative equity. National home values remain 8.3%higher than they were a year ago, with Perth (-2.1%) and Darwin (-2.6%) the only capital cities where values remain lower than at the same time last year.

The high annual capital gain is mostly attributable to the earlier growth trajectory of housing values across Sydney (+14.3%) and Melbourne (+11.7%), with the remaining capitals showing a more sustainable history of

price rises.

After housing market activity fell by around one third in April relative to March, the estimate of sales activity bounced back by 18.5% in May. Housing market activity remains well below average, however the rise in sales through May coincides with a consistent rise in consumer sentiment and eased social distancing policies through the month.

Historically there has been a strong correlation between consumer sentiment and housing market activity.

According to Mr Lawless, “Measures of consumer sentiment have shown attitudes to be consistently improving since early April, after dropping sharply as the virus curve worsened and severe social distancing policies and border closures were implemented.”

The weekly ANZ Roy Morgan index has risen consecutively for the past 8 weeks, with the index 42% higher than when it bottomed out in late March. The Westpac MI consumer sentiment index also rebounded 16.4% from April to May, recovering around three quarters of the April drop. While consumer sentiment is still at relatively low levels, real estate transaction volumes are likely to benefit from this partial improvement.

“With consumers feeling more confident, households are better equipped to make high commitment decisions such as buying or selling a home. A lift in housing market activity should also support broader economic activity, with housing turnover providing positive flow-on effects to other sectors including retail, construction and banking,” Mr Lawless said.

Improved confidence is also flowing through to a rise in new listing numbers. The number of fresh property advertisements bottomed out at historic lows in early May, with the rolling 28 day count up 8.1% compared with the end of April.

Importantly, total stock levels remain extremely low. Although new listings numbers are trending higher, the total listing count, which includes new listings as well as re-listed properties, has continued to trend down,

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implying a healthy rate of absorption as buyers become more active as well.

According to Lawless “The relationship between new listing numbers and total listings will be a key trend to watch; if total stock levels become elevated, this indicates that supply levels are outweighing demand.

Currently, this does not look to be the case.”

Auction market indicators provide another confirmation point of improving conditions.

The combined capital city clearance rate bounced back from a low of 30.2% in late April, to 62.7% in the week ending 24th of May. As policies preventing open homes and on-site auctions eased during May, there was a clear improvement across auction markets. Lawless said “We have seen a sharp reduction in the number of auctions being withdrawn, and more vendors are testing the market under auction conditions rather than accepting an offer prior to the auction.”

Along with a rise in buyer and seller activity, CoreLogic is also reporting a rise in industry related activity.

Real estate agent activity has shown a remarkable increase across the RP Data platform during May, with the number of reports generated across the platform rising by around 45% since the end of April.

“Prior to Easter, real estate agent activity was tracking 60% lower than at the same time a year ago. By the end of May, agent activity was only 8% below a year ago. Real estate agent activity on the RP Data platform is highly correlated with the number of new property listings coming on the market with a two week lead, suggesting new listing numbers are set to rise further as we enter winter.” Mr Lawless said.

The most rapid decline in housing values is across the top quartile of the Melbourne and Sydney markets. Melbourne’s most expensive quartile of the market recorded a 1.3% drop in values over the month, compared with a 0.6% fall across the broad ‘middle’ of the market and a 0.3% fall across the most affordable quartile. Similarly, in Sydney, the top quartile was down 0.6%while the lower quartile

posted a 0.1% increase in values.

According to Mr Lawless, these were also the sectors of the market recording the most significant rise in values during the most recent growth phase. “Melbourne’s top quartile values are still 13.9% higher than they were a year ago, while Sydney’s top quartile is up 16.5% over the year.”

Rents were generally steady in May. The national rental index rose 0.2% over the month, following a 0.4% decline in April. The May rise was not enough to reverse a weakening trend, with every capital city except Perth recording a fall in rents over the past two months.

Unit markets are looking weaker than house markets over the past two months, with unit rents falling 0.8% since March across the combined capital cities while house rents were steady.

Inner city apartment rents are looking precarious due to an imbalance between demand and supply. “With a large amount of new inner city, high-rise apartment projects recently completed, and stalled migration and foreign student arrivals, inner city unit rents are likely to fall more substantially than other sectors of the market. The weakness in rental demand is likely to be compounded by significant job losses and income reductions across the hospitality, tourism and arts sectors, in which a larger portion of workers typically rent,” said Mr Lawless Hobart stands out with a more significant drop in both house and unit rental rates.

The reduction in rents comes after a period of rapid rental appreciation across Hobart.

Anecdotally, a large number of short term rental properties have recently transitioned to permanent rentals, which has contributed to higher supply at a time when demand has slackened.

According to Mr Lawless, there is a strong chance that rental rates will fall more than housing values, placing downwards pressure on rental yields. “The double whammy of higher supply and less rental demand, especially across unit markets, is likely to place further downwards pressure on yields. In Sydney gross

rental yields are already around record lows and Melbourne isn’t far behind.”

In the context of weak economic conditions and the broader COVID-19 related disruption, housing values have been relatively resilient and through May we have seen the first signs of a recovery in activity.

Tim Lawless said, “While downside risk remains, the trajectory of the housing market is looking healthier than what we were expecting a bit over a month ago.

The virus curve has been flattened more quickly and effectively than even the best case scenario forecasts, meaning some of the most restrictive policy settings have been either lifted or relaxed. Consumer spirits have lifted, vendors are starting to test the market and buyer numbers have risen.”

In closing Mr Lawless said, the broad theme we are seeing in much of the housing data is a mixture of resilience and recovery.

“Housing values have been remarkably resilient to date. If history is anything to go by, housing values have generally weathered periods of extreme uncertainty quite well, and the trend to date looks very similar. Although home values haven’t materially fallen, buying and selling activity has been significantly impacted. In May, the sharp falls in both listing numbers and buyer activity are starting to reverse in line with improving consumer sentiment.”

While the immediate indicators are showing resilience or improvements, the longer term view of housing market conditions is much less certain. “Once stimulus measures start to taper and repayment holidays expire, this is where we could see a rise in mortgage arrears, and the potential for a lift in distressed sales.

Despite the recent recovery in certain indicators from very low levels, it is hard to ignore job losses of almost 600,000 across the economy over April. With the cash rate at its effective lower bound, improved employment conditions will be a factor in steadying purchasing capacity for housing, and the servicing of mortgage debt”.

Mr Lawless said.

Central to the outlook for distressed sales will be what shape the Australian economy is in late this year.

Encouragingly, the RBA governor recently noted in his evidence to the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19, that the economic downturn may not be as severe as earlier thought, with the current economic trajectory somewhere between the RBA’s best case and base case scenarios.

REIA welcomes Federal Government Housing Stimulus package The Real Estate Institute of Australia has welcomed the Government’s announcement of the ‘HomeBuilder’ package to support the residential building sector by providing assistance to owner occupiers to build new homes and renovate existing ones.

“The REIA believes that the Federal Government’s announcement of the HomeBuilder scheme today will be a massive boost to the employment of home builders and their tradesmen at a time when a major driver of economic activity was stalling,” said REIA President Adrian Kelly.

“Importantly, it is the owner occupier that decides how the extra dollars are to be spent, whether it is on a new build or a major renovation to their existing home.

This alleviates the concerns that the REIA had with a scheme that was only assisting new dwellings.”

“First home buyers can benefit by buying a property at the lower end of the market in a location they prefer and upgrade immediately.”

“Similarly, home owners wishing to update their home before listing for sale can consider the assistance available to improve the value and marketability of their property.”

“Whilst the scheme will be of benefit to existing home owners and prospective buyers around Australia, those in the smaller capital cities and regional areas will be able to make the most of the lower prices available for existing property.”

“REIA is pleased that the Government has taken on board industry input in designing the “Homebuilder” package to boost employment.

The REIA will be providing a submission to the Government on recommended approaches that will assist the real estate sector achieve the Government’s objective to keep as many Australians as possible employed and contribute to the economy as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.”concluded Mr Kelly.

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 33

BuyPal -a unique digital collaborative community commerce platform!

Brisbane-based couple, Girish and Aparna Hebbani, recently launched a digital collaborative community commerce platform named ‘BuyPal’,to make it easier to buy and sell products/ serviceslocally.

According to Girish Hebbani, Founder of BuyPal, “We saw the need to design a platform which provided a digital connection between buyers and sellers, while keeping buying and selling within the local community.

BuyPal acts as conduit to help local buyers buy from local sellers, rather than from large corporate entities.We believe in Think, buy, shop local!”

“Our aim is to connect those small/home-based

businesses who are offline, to have an online presence.

We want to showcase the talent, especially that of female entrepreneurs, who may be cooking, doing craft etc., to expand their business via our platform, andenable them to trade with a wider community,” he said.

Also, “BuyPal is a unique platform as it can be used by sellers to sell their products/ services, but it can also be a platform where sellers can buy for their own business – currently, there is no platform that makes this possible and that is sets us apart from other platforms.BuyPal is a ‘one spot shop’ so buyers can buy any product or service from the one site, rather

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than having to lookup/visit multiple sites, he explained.”

Girish and Aparna further clarified how being on BuyPal had multiple advantages for buyers and sellers. Even though BuyPal provides buyers the convenience of digital shopping, many buyers are worried about compromising the safety of their financial or personal data – rest assured, shopping on BuyPal is secure (Nortonsecure site) with sellers who can be tagged by buyers as ‘trusted’.

For sellers, being on BuyPal eliminates the necessity and related hassle of having to set up one’s own site; this is especially a drawback to those who may

not have the knowledge, time, or skillset and so are not currently online.

Another advantage of selling via BuyPal is that the platform also acts as a complete transaction portal – till now, communicating with various customers happens over Whatsapp or Facebook, where you have to respond individually and you cannot actually complete the transaction cycle over Whatsapp or Facebook.

Via BuyPal, buyers can search and complete transactions, through to payment and delivery. On the other hand, sellers can get order notifications, delivery details, and receive payment (either via PayID which is free,

or Credit card, or on the buyer receiving an invoice via email with seller’s bank details).

Being a secure site, the buyer or seller does not have to worry about insecure transactions.

“In sum, it’s really a platform where we would like to feature any product or service, small or big. So if you own a business, please contact us, and we will work with you to get you on-board BuyPal for less than a phone plan per month (initially, joining the platform is free)!

More the merrier! We do want the platform to become the ‘one stop shop’ and guarantee you savings,” Aparna said.

Girish Hebbani was also recently interviewed on Australian Indian Radio

(AIR). The interview is available to watch online via the AIR Facebook page, or for more information, you can visit the BuyPal website and social media pages.

Media Contact: Girish Hebbani Founder, BuyPal team@buypal.com.au 0418975657 Aparna Hebbani Director, BuyPal hebbani@hotmail.com 0423904496 BuyPal website and social media: www.buypal.com.au Facebook& Instagram: @ mybuypal

Globenet Realty 2020 Mother's Day Family Portrait Art Competition Mother’s Day in 2020 was unlike anything families had experienced before.

At a time when loved ones usually come together to celebrate, Covid-19 restrictions left many people feeling isolated and uncertain.

Mother’s Day traditionally means handmade cards and school made gifts. This year families were challenged with how to celebrate Mother’s Day under Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

To foster a sense of normality in the community, Globenet Realty

coordinated the “2020 Mother’s Day Family Portrait Art Competition”.

Owner Usha Chandra wanted to encourage children to focus on something positive by creating a special artwork for the “mother figure” in their lives and promote local businesses during challenging economic times.

Children across Brisbane created beautiful artworks for their mum, grandmother, or other special person who they wanted to acknowledge. Parents and

carers submitted pictures of the completed artworks so even if children did not win a prize, they were still able to gift their masterpieces to the special person in their lives on Mother’s Day. A special thank you to the businesses and supporters who donated the competition prizes.

The seven most inspiring artworks received rewards from Globenet Realty, Zarraffas Coffee Boondall, Lanna Cafe & Thai Restaurant, LNP Candidate for Aspley Amanda Cooper,

State MP for Nudgee Leanne Linard, Taqwa Halal Butcher and Councilor for the Deagon Ward Jared Cassidy.

Congratulations to the competition winners: Loveleen (6 years old), Teo (6 years old), Lacey (7 years old), Sarabgun (7 years old), Sophie (7 years old), Ellarose (8 years old) and Kieran (8 years old). There were so may beautiful entries that a special mention also goes to Kavya (6 years old), Lily (6 years old), Chiara (7 years old), Mila (7 years

This year families were challenged with how to celebrate Mother’s Day under Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. To foster a sense of normality in the community, Globenet Realty coordinated the “2020 Mother’s Day Family Portrait Art Competition”. Owner Usha Chandra wanted to encourage children to focus on something positive by creating a special artwork for the “mother figure” in their lives and promote local businesses during challenging economic times. old) and Alana (9 years old) for their highly commended works.

During a time of unprecedented challenges, it was inspiring to see the

children’s creations and share their joy as they collected prizes. The team at Globenet Realty hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Mother’s Day!

winners

sponsors

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 35

Voluntary activities taken by Australia India House Charitable Foundation in support of International students in Brisbane and Queensland

Prof. Prasad Yarlagadda Prof. Prasad Yarlagadda, Chairman, Australia India House Charitable Foundation (AIHCF) along with AIHCF Directors Dr. Ramana Panda and Dr. Robin Jaggessar and other committee members, would like to sincerely thank to all donors for their generous donations in support of help to International students who impacted due to COVIF-19 situation.

AIHCF working with number of community organisations such as Global Organisation for

People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), Federation of Indian Communities of Queensland (FICQ), Brazilian students group in Gold coast, International students group in QUT, Griffith university and TAFE colleges, African Students from Brisbane, Vedanta Centre of Queensland and number of other voluntary and charity organisations to support their basic needs during these difficult times AIHCF Chairman, Prof Prasad Yarlagadda mentioned that number of initiatives taken

by AIHCF in collaboration with the above mentioned agencies and some of the indicatives are as follows: AIHCF started with Supply of cooked meals to the needy students through couple of restaurants like Gold Coast Dosa Hut. In order to collect the boxed cooked (hot) meal, the students need to register in advance either through one of the community organizations

36 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

working with us or through an online sent to all student communities.

AIHCF also attempted to provide a food pack (with basic ingredients like rice, floor, pulses and other essentials) to cook their own meal at their convenience. These food packs have basic groceries that meets their needs for 7-14 days. As distribution of food packs becoming difficult

due to travel restrictions and social distancing (as we are very small group of volunteers), we started providing $25 Coles gift cards, that could be used to purchase either fuel or basic rations that are essential for their survival in these difficult times. As things are slowly getting normal due to easy of restrictions. Now the students need different form of support to facilitate their travel as end of the semester examinations will be starting very soon. Hence AIHCF attempting to assist current needs of the students such as providing travel support (Go cards) to assist to their commuting to respective university campuses and other essential travel) to a maximum of $25 for each student to enhance their mobility in these difficult circumstances AIHCF making sure to reach all international student communities, instead of all support to only a small group of students. However, we had more chance to support mainly Indian student community and a couple of other communities such as Brazilian student community (Gold Coast) and African student community (Brisbane), as the respective communities brought to our attention about the needs of these student communities.

We are also making sure that our support program extends to a large number of students rather than small student groups getting all these students.

In addition to these initiatives that directly support international student needs, we also work with local international student associations from Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University and a couple of technical colleges like Intech and South Brisbane TAFE colleges. As a result of our effort, we were able to motivate a couple of universities to establish an International student support fund to support

AIHCF started with Supply of cooked meals to the needy students through couple of restaurants like Gold Coast Dosa Hut. In order to collect the boxed cooked (hot) meal, the students need to register in advance either through one of the community organizations working with us or through an online sent to all student communities. AIHCF also attempted to provide a food pack (with basic ingredients like rice, floor, pulses and other essentials) to cook their own meal at their convenience. These food packs have basic groceries that meets their needs for 7-14 days. needy international students and we sincerely thank the vice-chancellors and CEOs of these institutes in addition to number of charity organizations with whom we are partnering to support needy student communities AIHCF also working with international students, who needs assistance, advice and support in connection

with extending their visas who are at the end of their course (end of visa period) or who are trying to change their visa from student visa to post study visa and other related situations.

Prof.

Prasad very pleased to say that both Australian Federal Government and Queensland state government are extending their help and support to needy students in extending their visas temporarily without any additional costs to them.

As things are getting easier and we as a community slowly trying to come back normal situation. However, this recovery period brings up different issues and needs different form of support.

We are very closely working with student communities and also other community organizations to understand their needs so that we can respond based on their needs and our ability to support them.

It is really wonderful to see number of initiatives by Queensland government, Queensland Universityof Technology, Griffith University, Bond university, Intech Institute of Technology and number of other institutes in support of International students during these difficult times.

Prof. Prasad thanked all of them and mentioned that this support and good gesture will go long way and well remembered by the international student community in Queensland.

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FOCUS ON FIJI Fiji declares itself coronavirus free Alleged arsonist SUVA: Fiji announced it was Covid-19 free Friday after the Pacific island nation's last known infected patient was given the all-clear, continuing the Pacific's remarkable record of success against the virus.

There was panic among Fiji's 930,000 population when the first coronavirus case was announced in midMarch, but strict isolation measures and border controls kept a lid on infections, which peaked at 18 confirmed cases.

Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama attributed the country's virus-free status to "answered prayers, hard work, and affirmation of science".

"Fiji has just cleared the last of our active Covid-19 patients," he tweeted.

"And even with our testing numbers climbing by the day, it's now been 45 days since we recorded our last case.

With no deaths, our recovery rate is 100 percent."

The Pacific islands were initially seen as among the world's most vulnerable to the virus because of under-resourced health infrastructure and high rates of health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

from Nadawa further remanded

There were also fears geographic isolation could turn the islands into infection incubators, like when a measles epidemic in Samoa late last year killed 83 people, most of them babies and toddlers.

However, nations in the region acted swiftly and made the costly decision to seal borders and shut down the tourism trade that sustains their economies, in order to protect their populations.

As a result, many have

not recorded a single case of the virus, including Palau, Tonga, the Solomons Islands, Samoa, the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands and Micronesia.

Fiji has already expressed interest in joining a quarantine-free travel "bubble" with Australia and New Zealand, two nations that have also largely contained the virus and supply the bulk of the tropical idyll's tourists.

The Cooks, which was one of the first countries in

the world to declare itself virus-free in mid-April, has reportedly announced measures to cautiously reopen its borders.

Prime Minister Henry Puna said citizens and those with work permits who had been in New Zealand for 30 days would soon be allowed to return home without going into quarantine, the Cook Islands News reported.

The newspaper said the move was "the first step in bringing back the tourists".

The case of the 38-year-old man who is alleged to have set his house on fire has been transferred to the Suva High Court.

He is charged with one count of arson and two counts of attempted murder.

The matter was called before Nasinu Magistrate Charles Ratakele.

The alleged incidents took place last Friday night.

It is alleged that the man set the house he rented in on fire and attempted to harm his two sons aged 10 years and 1 year 9 months.

He has been further remanded in custody and his case will be called this Friday.

His lawyer, John Rabuku today revealed in court that the client has a history of mental issues, however no medical document was produced as evidence.

Rabuku also told the court that there were two previous instances where the accused is alleged to have attempted to commit suicide.

Magistrate Ratakele has asked that a proper bail application be made before the High Court on Friday.

All curfew related About 500 USP staff and the USP Students arrests made last night Association want USP VC to remain – Fong linked to alcohol It is up to the USP Council on what it decides – Pro Chancellor Thompson About 500 staff of the University of the South Pacific and members of the USP Students Association want the USP ViceChancellor Pal Ahluwalia to remain in office and to be assessed based on his Key Performance Indicators.

Staff representative, Elizabeth Fong says Usp has about 1,400 staff and more than 40 percent of the staff want Vice-Chancellor Ahluwalia to remain in office.

She says Ahluwalia had found out that there were governance issues when the previous Vice-Chancellor was in office.

Fong says there should no

interference.

The USP Students Association says they will not hesitate to join member countries to initiate USP council proceedings to remove Pro-Chancellor

Winston Thompson should he continue to allegedly defy council resolutions and allegedly act against the intents of the USP Council.

They want the commission appointed by the USP

Council to complete their appointed task and allow Vice-Chancellor Ahluwalia to carry out his tasks and responsibilities without undue interruption from Thompson and his associates.

Spokesperson Aneet Kumar stresses that the biggest victims out of this power struggle in the university are the students.

USP Pro Chancellor Winston Thompson left the Executive Committee meeting in the last hour and may return later.

Thompson says it is up to the council whether he should be dismissed or not and he hopes people base their concerns on facts.

Over 800 students withdraw from their courses at USP 861 students have withdrawn from 1,332 courses at the University of the South Pacific due to the current circumstances.

In a statement, the USP says this is as of 31st May this year and is equivalent to 3.2% of Semester 1 students.

We have sent questions to USP on whether these students have managed to get the refund for their fees.

The USP says there are also students who have not logged in on the online learning platform (Moodle) from the time COVID-19 situation started due to

various reasons.

It says this number is still being finalised and the University is making every effort to encourage students to connect remotely.

The USP has converted

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253 face-to-face courses to online modes.

The USP says if a student fails a course in Semester 1 2020, neither the course nor the grade will appear on the student’s transcript, nor will

the grade affect their GPA. To pass a course, students will need to demonstrate, via their performance, that they have met the learning outcomes of the course.

This will differ for each course and students are requested to check with their respective Course Coordinators.

A Fail grade will mean that a student has not successfully completed a course however the failed course will not appear on student’s Official Academic Transcript ans will not be used in any GPA calculations.

All nine arrests made for curfew breaches last night were alcohol related.

Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho says there was only one case in the Southern Division where a lecturer was allegedly found drunk and walking around the Muanikoso Housing area during curfew hours.

Qiliho says in the Northern Division, two men were arrested by officers based at the Taveuni Police Station while the third arrest was made in Labasa where a

36-year old man was found drunk at the Lajonia Bus stop.

The five cases recorded in the Western Division included three arrests in Sigatoka whereby a woman and two men were found drunk near the Melrose Bridge.

Qiliho says the other two arrests were made in Nadi and Lautoka.

The Western Division recorded five cases, the Northern Division recorded three cases while the Southern Division recorded one case.

GOPIO Queensland observes Virtual Girmit Diwas

Adapting to the present conditions of COVID 19 pandemic, GOPIO Queensland held their annual Girmit Diwas virtually. Girmit Diwas is a Remembrance Day to mark the first landing of Indiansin Fiji. The word “Girmit” has been coined from the word ‘Agreement’ which is what Indian labours signed before being taken to distant lands by the British under their rule of India.

Under colonial rule, India’s population provided the British Empire with a ready source of cheap and mobile labourers.

Many Indians agreed to become indentured labourers to escape the widespread poverty and famine in the 19th century. Some travelled alone; others brought their families to settle in the colonies they worked in.

The demand for Indian indentured labourers increased dramatically after the abolition of slavery in 1834. They were sent, sometimes in large numbers, to plantation colonies producing high value crops such as sugar in Africa, the Caribbean and as far away as Fiji.

All the Nations have different Indian Arrival Day dates, in Fiji the first ship “Leonidas” arrived on 14th May 1879, hence Fiji Indians observe their Gimit Diwas on 14th of May. As GOPIO represents people of Indian origin globally, their members observe “Girmit Diwas” in many countries.

GOPIO International was instrumental in the inauguration of a

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monument at Khidirpur or Kidderpore Ghat in Kolkata in the memory of all who left the shores of India under those extreme conditions.

Umesh Chandra OAM, coordinator of GOPIO Queensland Girmit Diwas was on the organising committee and was present at the inauguration of the monument in 2011, in presence of MamataBanerjee, chief Minister of West Bengal and Vayalar Ravi the then Minister for overseas Indian affairs (MOIA).

Umesh Chandra OAM has attended similar events in Durban -South Africa,Guadeloupe, Trinidad and Mauritius.

The virtual Girmit Diwas had close to five thousand views,“It was a great success compared to other years” said Rakesh Sharma president of GOPIO Queensland. The live stream was facilitated by Australian Indian Radio from their studios.

Australian Indian Radio and Brisbane Indian Times share the same office complex in Brisbane CBD. The event was sponsored by Cornerstone Law Offices, Globenet

Realty, Austec Services and Rakesh Sharma of R S Enterprises Qld Ltd running Spar Express.

The event hosted by Pravinita Singh Pillay and Umesh Chandra OAM began with the floral

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tribute to the girmitiyas, a cut out image of the insert from the monument at Kidderpore was used for the floral tribute.

The program included glimpses of previous years Girmit Diwas

and key messages from community leaders and consular core.

GOPIO Queensland appreciates the efforts of everyone in bring the program together “Lest We Forget”.

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 39

Pakistan hits highest coronavirus death toll increase, while India surpassed Italy as the sixth worst-hit Pakistan Pakistan reported 97 more coronavirus deaths, the highest 24-hour increase to its fatalities, as authorities urged volunteers to motivate people to adhere to social distancing regulations to contain the spread of the virus.

Pakistan also reported 4734 new virus cases, raising its overall infections to 93,983.

With the latest 97 virusrelated deaths, Pakistan's overall fatalities have jumped to 1935.

India India surpassed Italy as the sixth worst-hit by the

coronavirus pandemic after another biggest single-day spike in confirmed infections.

The Health Ministry reported 9,887 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 236,657.

Most of the new cases are in rural areas following the return of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who left cities and towns after the lockdown in late March.

The lockdown is now largely being enforced in high-risk areas while authorities have partially restored train services and domestic flights and allowed

India, China will continue talks on border stand-off An hours-long meeting on Saturday between a delegation led by Lt Gen Harinder Singh, commander of Leh-based 14 Corps, and a Chinese delegation headed by Maj Gen Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region, at Moldo on the Chinese side of the LAC ended without a breakthrough.

India and China will continue military and diplomatic contacts to resolve a weeks-old stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the external affairs ministry said on Sunday amid indications that the two sides were hunkering down for the long haul on the issue.

An hours-long meeting on Saturday between a delegation led by Lt Gen Harinder Singh, commander of Leh-based 14 Corps, and a Chinese delegation headed by Maj Gen Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region, at Moldo on the Chinese side of the LAC ended without a breakthrough.

A statement issued by the external affairs ministry on Sunday morning said that “the two sides will continue the military and diplomatic engagements to resolve the situation and to ensure peace and tranquillity in the border areas”.

Saturday’s meeting between the Indian and Chinese commanders – the first meeting of top military officials since the stand-off began in early May – “took place in a cordial and positive atmosphere”, the statement said. It added that both sides agreed to work towards peacefully resolving the situation.

“Both sides agreed to peacefully resolve the situation in the border areas in accordance with various bilateral agreements and keeping in view the agreement

between the leaders that peace and tranquillity in the India-China border regions is essential for the overall development of bilateral relations,” the statement said.

“Both sides also noted that this year marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and agreed that an early resolution would contribute to the further development of the relationship,” it added.

The statement noted that, in recent weeks, India and China have “maintained communications through established diplomatic and military channels to address the situation” along the LAC. People familiar with developments and who spoke on condition of anonymity said both sides appeared to be preparing for the long haul, including protracted discussions to defuse tensions, end the stand-off and ensure a return to the status quo that existed in April.

Saturday’s meeting, slated to begin early in the morning, was delayed by several hours.

It began at about 11.30am and continued for almost seven hours, with a break for lunch. The people cited above said that the talks ended inconclusively.

“The two sides discussed the need to adhere to existing

40 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

border protocols to maintain peace and tranquillity on the frontier. They also talked about the need to avoid any aggressive activities that could lead to a flare-up,” said one of the people cited above.

A second person, who too didn’t want to be named, said: “This has the makings of being a long-drawn affair. That’s why the official statement talks about the need for more military and diplomatic contacts.”

The people said India is sticking to its position that the status quo existing in April, before intrusions by Chinese troops in the Ladakh sector of LAC, would have to be restored, and that all bunkers and positions constructed by the Chinese side would have to be removed.

They also acknowledged that the discussions could take several months before any sort of resolution is reached.

A day ahead of the crucial talks between the army commanders, India and China agreed on Friday on not allowing their differences to escalate into disputes while respecting each other’s concerns.

Joint secretary (East Asia) Naveen Srivastava of the external affairs ministry held talks with Wu Jianghao, director general in China’s foreign ministry, through video conference on Friday

and reviewed bilateral relations, including “current developments”.

This was the first formal diplomatic meeting between the two sides since tensions flared along the LAC. The army commanders met almost a month after tensions between India and China rose along the disputed border and took bilateral ties to a new low.

India has dismissed China’s contention that its troops were hindering the activities of Chinese troops along the LAC, and accused Chinese forces of hampering patrols on the Indian side. The Indian government has made it clear it won’t allow any change in the status quo along the LAC, and that it will tackle the prevailing situation with “strength and restraint”.

Lt Gen (retired) Vinod Bhatia, a former director general of military operations, said it would be difficult to set a time frame for resolving the dispute.

“We have to be patient. It is important that the situation along the LAC remains stable and status quo ante (as of early April) is restored. And as long as military and diplomatic level talks are on, there is a high possibility the dispute could be resolved,” he said.

Jayadeva Ranade, president of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy, said India would have to be ready for prolonged negotiations to resolve the situation. “Clearly, the military and diplomats [on the Indian side] are coordinating on what they do,” he said.

“Besides, President Xi Jinping, who would have cleared any action of this sort, has faced domestic criticism for the disengagement after the Doklam stand-off in 2017. We have to be ready for protracted discussions,” he added.

shops and manufacturing to reopen.

Shopping malls and religious places are due to open on Monday (local time) with restrictions to avoid large gatherings.

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka says it will be reopen for international tourists starting August 1 after a "successful containment" of the novel coronavirus.

The country's airports had been closed since

March because of the global pandemic.

Sri Lanka Tourism said in a statement that all precautionary measures recommended by global health and travel authorities have been put in place to keep visitors and residents safe.

The statement says only online visa applications will be accepted and all tourists must show proof they tested negative for the virus 72 hours before arriving in Sri Lanka.

Five militants killed in Shopian gunbattle, likely a Hizbul group

The identities of the militants have not yet been disclosed but police said they probably belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen and one of them was likely a top commander.

Five militants were killed in a gunbattle with security forces in Shopian district of South Kashmir on Sunday.

IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar told The Indian Express: “We have killed five terrorists in today’s operation in Shopian.

It was a clean operation. Such operations will continue.”

Speaking to reporters, Brigadier Vijay Mahadevan of 1 Sector Rashtriya Rifles called the Shopian operation a “big success”. “Yes, it is a success, a very good success.

Our effort is to continue targeting the terrorist leadership,” he said.

The identities of the militants have not yet been disclosed but police said they probably belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen and one of them was likely a top commander.

“The identification and affiliation of the killed terrorists is being ascertained.

However, as per credible sources, the killed terrorists belonged to proscribed HM terrorist outfit and one among the killed terrorists is believed to be a top commander. In case any family claims the killed terrorists to be their

kith or kin, (they) can come forward for the identification,” police said in a statement.

Police officers said that based on an input about the presence of militants in the area, a cordon-and-search operation was launched in Reban area of Shopian. While a search was on, militants opened fire at the security forces, triggering a gunbattle around 8.30 am.

In the meantime, clashes broke out in the area after local residents tried to head to the encounter site, and youth hurled stones at the security personnel.

Authorities snapped mobile Internet in Shopian and Kulgam districts.

Three militants were killed by afternoon. In the evening, IGP Vijay Kumar said the number of militants killed in the operation totalled five.

Srinagar-based Defence spokesperson Colonel Rajesh Kalia said: “Joint operation launched in early hours today on JK Police input. Cordon laid & contact established.

Firefight ensued.

Five terrorists eliminated. Good drills ensured no collateral damage.

Operation in progress.”

An officer said security forces have recovered three AK-47s and two pistols – an indication that two of the militants likely joined the group recently.

Call: 07 38656533

www.indiantimes.com

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 41

Allama Mashriqi & the 1943 Bengal Famine Allama Mashriqi was aprominent reformer, revolutionary, and humanitarian from the Indian subcontinent. One of the reasons for Mashriqi’s popularity was that he and his Khaksar Movement worked tirelessly to serve the masses. This article discusses the Bengal Famine of 1943, when the Khaksars played a laudable role in providing social services to the people in a time of great need. This time period also sheds light on how the Government of British India and Mashriqi’spolitical opponentsfelt threatened by the Tehrik and opposedits efforts, ultimately resulting in a Government ban on the Khaksars’ humanitarian work in Bengal.

During the time of the Second World War (WWII), around midJune of 1943, the Bengal area was faced with a terrible famine.It was a devastating time, as millions of people starved,bodies were lying everywhere, and over three million perished. The Khaksar Tehrik’s English weekly newspaper The Radiance (Aligarh) wrote at the time (in an article entitled “The Bengal Famine” dated September 24, 1943): “This famine has not come down like the bolt from the blue. It was clearly foreseen or foreseeable. It is not an Act of God. It is the sin of man – the result of man’s stupidity and tyranny” (also see “Our Duty to Bengal” in The Radiance, dated October 08, 1944). Allama Mashriqi mainly blamed the Government for the famine; herefused to watch his fellow citizens dying or suffering from malnutrition and starvation and planned to saveat least ahalf a million victims. On September 15, 1943, Mashriqi issued the following order to Khaksars all over India: “Hunger and death in Bengal need no comment. This is perhaps the only event in history when human beings are dying in thousands…and Government is fiddling away the time. The situation has been literally unbearable to many of us and I have passed many sleepless nights.”

Mashriqiissued the following directive: “…I order that every group [of Khaksars] must make itself ready to support one person until hunger and death disappear…

Hindu as well as Muslim Khaksars should take part in this movement irrespective of caste or creed… must take the most active part in organsing[organizing] this vast human effort for good…”(Source: Help Bengal! Allama’s Order, The Radiance, September 24, 1943).

Information about Mashriqi’s order also appeared in the Governor of Punjab’s confidential report for the second half of September 1943, which stated that Mashriqi had issued a directive to Khaksars throughout India to help Bengal famine evacuees (IOL L/P&J/5/246, p. 38). Following Mashriqi’s order, a large number of male and female Khaksarsfrom various religious faiths joined the effort. From the Muslim side,some KhaksarsincludedTahira Begum (Nazim-i-Ala), Saeeda Bano, andprofessors (e.g. Prof. Rafiq Ahmed, Prof. Ubaidullah Durrani) and students of Aligarh Muslim University. From the non-Muslim side, some Khaksars were Pandit Amar Nath Joshi (Naib Salar-iAzam, Mani Ram (Nazim-e-Sind) and Jaindu Ram. In order to help the victims of the famine, aCentral Relief Camp (“Bengal Destitutes Camp”) as well as district camps were set-up. The

central camp was at Mohammad Ali Parkin Calcutta (now Kolkata) under the control of M. Shafi Khokhar (Nazim-i-Alah Muhajareen) and Abdur Rashid Qureshi(Hakime-Ala, Bengal).Sick and destitute individualsin the camps were seen by medical experts (e.g. Dr. Abu Zafar Mohammad Tahir).

One of the remarkable aspects of the Khakasar Tehrik was its commitment to treating everyone equally and fairly at a time when communalism and territorialism were actively promoted by other political parties. Mashriqi commandedthe Khaksars: “No discrimination of whatever sort is to be allowed. Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs, and Christians [Parsees, Jews]are all equally the creatures of God. The food restrictions of different casts and religions are to be strictly observed” (The Radiance, Aligarh, October 08, 1943).

Because of the limited resources available in Bengal, iteventually became indispensable to shiftthe victims to various parts of India.

Mashriqi got permission from the Premier of Bengal Sir Khawaja Nazimuddinto evacuate the victims from Bengal andmade another proclamation: “the only thing we can do is to invite our suffering brethren from Bengal and share our bread with them…Half a million people can be very easily absorbed in the remaining 39 ½ million” (The Radiance, Aligarh, October 18, 1943).

Per Mashriqi’s plan, the victims would be supported by the Khaksars until they were rehabilitated or until they could go back to their respective homes inBengal.Based on Mashriqi’s order, tens of thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims were transported to various cities of India. A Secret Police Abstract of Intelligence(Punjab) dated December 11,1943 confirmedthat new groups of destitute people (including both Muslims and Hindus) had been brought to Gujrat,Ferozepore, Gujranwala, Lahore, Multan, and Ambala.

The police abstract also discussed Mashriqi’s orders toorganize the relief effort. Many Muslims and non-Muslims visited the camps to learn about the help the Khaksars were providing and lauded them for working 24 hours a daywith complete discipline to provide

42 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, April, 2020

services to the victims, while also maintaining a respect for the victims’ differing religious beliefs.

In December of 1943, Begum Amtul Salam of the Shevagram Ashram Wardha also visited the Central Camp at Mohammad Ali Park and found the relief activity to be highly disciplined and commendable;impressed with the relief work, she issued a Press Statement: “I am very happy to have met you [Khaksars] and seen your work…There is no doubt that we can establish Hindu-Muslim unity only by serving each other…Personally speaking, there cannot be a more praiseworthy effort…for HinduMuslim unity….This the mission of my life. I hope you will fully help me in this mission I thank you all very heartily for the honour you have bestowed on my humble self”(The Radiance, Aligarh, December 17, 1943).

People from all over India watched as the Khaksars movedvictims to different cities and took care of the Bengalis.The nationadmired Mashriqi and the Khaksars’philanthropicservices.

As a result, the Khaksar Tehrik’sreputation was bolstered in India and the Tehrik’s membership grew immensely.

All of this of course did not sit well with the British rulers and Mashriqi’s political rivals; both groups felt threatened by Mashriqi’s popularity and the Khaksar Tehrik’s growth. The matter was discussed in Government circles, includinghighupssuch asSirRichard Tottenham (Additional Secretary), Sir Reginald Maxwell (Home Member), andSir Bertrand James Glancy (Punjab Governor); they were extremely unhappy with the Bengal Premier,Khawaja Nazimuddin, for allowingrelief work and free railway transportation forvictims, which was being done under an agreement with the Khaksar Tehrik. On the political side,Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Hindu Mahasabha leaders (among others) were also concerned about the Khaksars’ growing popularity.

The President of the Hindu Mahasabha, Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherji, threatened a “Press Campaign” against the Khaksar Tehrik.

Another Mahasabha leader,V.D. Savarkar,made a false and “mischievous.”claim that the Khaksars were converting “starving

Hindu women and children to Islamic faith.”The idea was to defame and reduce Mashriqi’s popularity and gain grounds for the Hindu Mahasabha (which had no popularity in Bengal).

In order to damage Mashriqi and contain the Khaksar Tehrik’s growth, false propaganda from the Government as well as by political opponents was unleashed, including by pro-Government, pro-opposition media sources.

Theirfalse allegations included: (1) victims would become a burden on provincial governments, (2) the Khaksaractivitieswereintended to “boost” the Khaksar Movement,and (3)Khaksars were converting Hindus to Muslims. These opposing sources even went so far as to collect false statements from a few of the destitute through either bribery or pressure. In order to further harrass the Khaksars, the Government of Bengal in Dhaka (Dacca)initiated a court case accusing the Khaksars of kidnapping children.

The opposition was indeed deplorable to any sane person; antiMashriqi elements were severely criticizedby many, including Dr. K.N. Islam (who laterwrote a book in the 1980s in Bengali entitled “Allama Masreki o Khakasara Andolana”). To rejectthe opposition’s flimsyallegations and charges, on December 19, 1943, Mashriqi telegraphically informed Abdur Rashid Qureshi (Hakim-e-Alah, Bengal) to have Hindu Khaksar leaders manage the Hindu destitutes (to refute the criticismthat the Khaksars were trying to convert Hindus): “Authorise [Authorize] Pandit Amar Nath Joshi, Naib Salar-iAzam, Mani Ram, Nazim-i-Sind, Jaindu Ram, jointly to distribute Hindu destitutes all over India to the utmost satisfaction of everybody…

Obstructions put by Communal organizations incapable of saving destitues from death themselves under base political motives most callous. Refuse response to them in this work of saving humanity irrespective of cast or creed (The Radiance, Aligarh, December 24, 1943).

Despite Mashriqi’s step,Premier KhawajaNazimuddin issued another order according to which “no more Khaksars would be allowed to enter Calcutta for relief work” (Source: a note by SirRichard Tottenham dated December 23, 1943). Premier Nazimuddinalso informed Khaksarleader ProfessorRafiq Ahmedof Aligrah Muslim University, “We cannot allow you to take destitutes from Bengal…you are taking them in large numbers…the Government of India do not want the destitues to be taken away…” (The Radiance, Aligarh, December 31, 1943).

When this ban was imposed on the Khaksars’ humanitarian efforts, many throughout the country were upset and angry.

Zamindar daily published a news item appreciating the Khaksars and indicating that their efforts would be forever remembered in Indian and human history. The newspaper also denounced the Government’s ban (Zamindar, December 25, 1943).

Mashriqi was naturally angry with the Government for canceling the agreement and also with his political opponents, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s All-India Muslim League, who he believed

were trying to block the Tehrik’s humanitarian efforts and putting self-interests above the needs of the people. According to a Sind Police Abstract (On December 12, 1945), Mashriqi stated that the [Jinnah’s All-India Muslim] League was responsible for a number of negative acts, such as “the deaths of lacs [hundreds of thousands]” of people during the Bengal famine, and that Leaguers “took bribes openly” making “lacs of rupees [Hundreds of thousands rupees].” According to the abstract, Mashraqi also criticized the “capitalist mentality” of Indian National Congress leadership.

Upon the Bengal Premier’s cancellation of the agreement with the Khaksars, Mashriqi sent a telegram to Jinnah(as the Premier’s cancellation had Jinnah’s implicit consent): [Translated from Urdu] Notwithstanding your extremely objectionable, vindictive and onesided attitude towards the Khaksars, I make a final appeal to you to make Nazimuddin continue November agreement [on] removal [of] Bengal destitutes…please consider patiently your heartless cruelty based on political motives also results refusal my humble request – Inayatullah Khan Ichhra.”

Khaksar Abdur Rashid Qureshi (Hakim-e-Ala, Bengal) also issued a Press Statement regarding the Bengal Premier’s order:the Khaksars "find the purpose of the heavy sacrifice they [Khaksars] made in their business and educational activities defeated by the Government of Bengal cancelling its agreement with them without notice and for no reason" (The Indian Express, June 07, 1944). Khaksars and the public were surprised that M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru did not condemnthe Central or the Bengal Government for banningthe Khaksars’ humanitarian activities.

Their silence spoke of their antiKhaksar mindset.

The Bengal famine was a fitting example of the Khaksars’ tireless devotion to the masses and the Government and opposition’s political motivations. Despite the Bengal Government’s actions, Mashriqi and the Khaksars continued to serve the people in other parts of India. Mashriqi believed in uniting the human race and from the very start of the movement hadmade regular community service a keyand compulsory feature of the Khaksar Movement. As aresult, millions of Khaksars all over India followed his policy of spreading brotherhood, whichearned him theutmost respect.

Mashriqi’s teachings of bringing together all people, regardless of religion, class, color, or creed are relevant even today. This spirit of inclusiveness needs to be instilled from the early school days to defeat the divisiveness that exists around the world. Ultimately, people should not support leaders who seek to divide them or try to foment communalism in order to gain or maintain their power, and instead support those who work tirelessly to bring them together.

Nasim Yousaf is ahistorian and scholar and a grandson of Allama Mashriqi; his works have been published in renowned peerreviewed publications and he has presented papers at well-known academic conferences in the US. Copyright © 2020 Nasim Yousaf

New scholarship for international high achievers seeking top education in regional Australia Motivated international students seeking quality degrees, great facilities and access to world-leading academics can apply for a new $60,000* Southern Cross University scholarship.

Aimed at high-achieving international students who are ready for a treechange or seachange, the new scholarship is for engineering and science courses at the University’s Lismore or Coffs Harbour campuses from Session 2 2020.

“Southern Cross University is home for the best talent.

The proof is in the calibre of alumni, students and staff.

Right now we are investing in talent like never before,” said Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) Professor Tyrone Carlin.

“You are a name, not a number, here at Southern Cross, one of Australia’s most vibrant regional universities with small class sizes, access to world-class facilities, the best

student support and unique natural environments for field trips within easy reach of the campus.”

The University’s Lismore campus is in a subtropical rainforest setting, just a 45-minute drive to Byron Bay, the Cape Byron Marine Park and World Heritage national parks. The Coffs Harbour campus is adjacent to the Solitary Islands Marine Park, beaches and hinterland.

“We invite international

students currently residing in Australia to come and join our talent pool in some of the most amazing and enviable places in the country to live and study.

If you are a high achiever, we are ready to invest in you and make you part of our community,” Professor Carlin said.

Japanese undergraduate student Tomoki (Tom) Mishina is already excelling academically. He co-authored his first scientific paper, after

assisting on a research project into sustainable practices for Indonesian islanders to grow aquarium fish.

“When I was applying for university, thinking about my life, I thought I could be a fish farmer,” said Tom, a second year Bachelor of Marine Science and Management, at the University’s National Marine Science Centre at Coffs Harbour.

“But then I could not have impact, so research is a path to having an impact. The marine existence is already on the verge of collapse so we need to take care.”

Professor Symon Dworjanyn who oversaw the research project was full of praise for his student: “Tomoki is delightful, so dedicated and hardworking. He is someone who is going to make things happen. He will change the world.”

Charmaine Miciano, from the Philippines, is studying the Master of Forest Science and

JOBMAKER PLANS TO REBOOT VET SECTOR National Skills Week to highlight career opportunities through vocational education and Australia’s future job needs (24 – 30 August 2020)

SYDNEY, WEDNESDAY 27 MAY 2020– National Skills Week Chair Brian Wexham has welcomed details of the Federal Government’s plans to improve the nation’s vocational education and training system – describing it as the reboot the system needs to get Australians back in employment, give more clarity to school leavers and rebuild Australia’s economy.

Mr Wexham was responding to the Prime Minister’s address to the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday outlining plans to reset the national economy.

In particular, Mr Wexham embraced the government’s commitment to fund and provide data that effectively highlights areas of upcoming employment demand and job growth.

“Armed with this information, school leavers and/or job seekers will be able to determine courses

Call: 07 38656533

offering the highest potential employment prospects, training organisations will be able to better create and provide courses to meet changing demand, and employers will benefit from an improved supply of appropriately trained graduates,” Mr Wexham said.

“We applaud the Prime Minister and federal government’srobust prioritising of national skills and training programs to better prepare Australians for the jobs businesses will create, and to help restart the economy.”

National Skills Weekis supported by thefederal government.

The week is designed to highlight the vast array of job opportunities and career pathways that can beobtained through vocational education and training as well as expose current industries with skills shortages and future

job growth.

Research over the past ten years has consistently highlighted that VET is not perceived as a first choice career pathway for many Australians, and the general community are not aware of the many incredible career pathways available to students or job seekers – at any stage of life.

“Never has there been a time in our history where this is more relevant for Australians and for the future economic recovery of the country,” Mr Wexham added.

“With approximately over 800,000 Australians currently unemployed, clear communication on job opportunities is crucial.

Thousands of these can be obtained through vocational education and training.”

This year, National Skills Week runs from 24 to 30 August 2020.

For further information, visit nationalskillsweek.com.au.

www.indiantimes.com

Management at the Lismore campus. She hopes to secure a job working in subtropical forestry here in Australia.

“I’m keen to learn new approaches, techniques and practices from Australian foresters to share with fellow foresters in my country,” Charmaine said.

“The University’s course units are exciting, with lessons about new developments in forestry and the scope is not only Australia but forestry in other countries too. During field trips to national parks, state forests and private farms, I’ve seen a lot of tree species, forest types and met local Northern Rivers’ growers.

“The lecturers and unit assessors are approachable.

I have felt the University’s overwhelming support for international students, with the academic skills team and open access to scientific journals through the library.

“To sum it up, studying at

Southern Cross University is a wonderful learning experience.”

Scholarship details The Outstanding Academic Excellence Scholarship, worth $60,000*, is for international students embarking on undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in engineering, environmental science, marine science and forest science in Session 2 2020.

Applications close 26 June 2020.

For more information, visit the Scholarships page scu.edu. au/scholarships *$15,000 per annum for the life of the degree.

Photo: Tomoki Mishina with blue tang fish (Paracanthurushepatus) at the National Marine Science Centre.

Media contact: Sharlene King, Southern Cross University media office, 0429 661 349.

In-person citizenship ceremonies to resume The Government has resumed in-person citizenship ceremonies with local councils invited to begin hosting small events where safe to do so and in line with the latest health advice.

We moved quickly to implement online ceremonies when COVID-19 restrictions came into effect and more than 25,000 became Australian citizens via this method.

These online ceremonies meant people could pledge their allegiance to Australia at a time of great uncertainty and become citizens despite face-to-face restrictions.

Now that restrictions are easing, councils will once again be able to host small ceremonies in line with the public gathering requirements in their state or territory.

Online ceremonies will continue for councils unable to host physical events safely so we can continue to see as many people as possible enjoy the privilege of becoming citizens.

Councils can choose to host in-person or online ceremonies, or both. The Department of Home Affairs will also continue to host online ceremonies for those who cannot attend an inperson ceremony.

The Government is also working to resume citizenship testing and interviews in the coming weeks so we can have people moving through all stages of becoming Australian citizens.

Australian citizenship is fundamental to our national identity. More than 179,000 people have been conferred Australian citizenship this financial year. This is up 56 per cent on the same period last year.

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, April, 2020 — 43

Spiritual Life After

Ramadhan

All praise be to Allah Ta’ala, the most Merciful and Beneficient and peace and blessings be upon our Beloved Master, Muhammad Salalahu Alayhi Wasalam. I will cover some points about how to maintain spirituality after Ramadhan and how uphold good habits that were formed during Ramadhan.

It’s not unusual to feel inadequate after Ramadan.

To feel unaccomplished when you look back at the way you spent it- “I wish I had done MORE Ibadah. I wish I hadn’t wasted so much time.”

To feel depressed when you look at your post-Ramadan “situation”- “Wow, it didn’t even take a SINGLE day after Ramadan ended, before I went back to my old bad habits. I really am a horrible Muslim.”

As if all of your “disciplining efforts during Ramadan” were wasted the moment you committed the first postRamadan sin.

There’s no denying the fact that after Ramadan things begin to change. Our carefully constructed self-discipline begins to crumble.

But why?

WHY IS IT MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO STAY CONSISTENT AFTER RAMADAN? The most obvious answer is: Shaytan is BACK in the picture… “[Satan] said, ‘Because You have put me in error, I will surely sit in wait for them on Your straight path. Then I will come to them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left, and You will not find most of them grateful [to You].’”

(Qur’an, 7:16-17) On the other hand, something LEAVES us too; the extra blessings and special barakah effects of Ramadan go away with it (from fasting, praying Taraweeh, Qiyyamullayl, etiaaf, salawat reading more Quran etc) So that strange spiritual energy that you used to feel in Ramadan… You don’t feel it anymore.

Hadith says that our sins bog us down spiritually. But in Ramadan, Allah S.W.T is especially Merciful and forgives all of our previous sins so we feel spiritually “elevated”.

“Whoever fasts the month of Ramadan due to faith and seeking reward, his previous sins will be forgiven.” [Sahih Muslim] But the presence of Shaytaan and a decrease in Barakah are not the ONLY reasons why it’s so hard for us to stay consistent postRamadan.

You’ll find it MUCH more

difficult to keep up with your Ibadah and self-improvement goals after Ramadan because possibly the BIGGEST source of motivation is gone.

Can you guess what it is?

Community spirit.

There’s a reason why Islam puts such a heavy emphasis on sticking together, motivating each other, forming a strong amily bonds, “Hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. Remember the favor of Allah upon you, when you were enemies and he brought your hearts together and you became brothers by his favor.” (Quran, 3:103).

Going to the Masjid for prayer is another great example of staying connected with other mominthrough spirituality.

Notice how easy it is to fast and stay disciplined enough not to BREAK your fast in Ramadan. Notice how effortless it becomes to do more Ibadah than you usually do. Notice how doable praying Tahajjud becomes in Ramadan.

That’s because we have a powerful source of constant motivation in Ramadan- each other.

But as soon as Ramadan ends, everyone begins following their own schedules… no more sitting together at Aftaar… or going to the Taraweeh together… or waking each other up for Qiyyam.

No wonder we don’t feel the same when Ramadan ends.

And that’s normal.

I feel it. You feel it. We all do.

To be truthful- it can’t be any other way. Because if you feel the same way for the rest of the 11 months, as you do in Ramadan, then Ramadan won’t be special. Makes sense?

Another reason for the post-Ramadan dip, quite apparent but often missed, is fasting itself.

Fasting is one of the best ways for a Muslim to practice self-discipline.

Compare your regular day to one of the days when you fasted… how were they different?

You had a better control over your tongue while fasting?

Stayed away from sins more consciously? Maybe even let go of some of your bad habits?

Why the massive difference?

Because the entire structure of SAWM teaches us self-discipline. To push us to discover our limits. To help us say NO to the desires of our Nafs repeatedly.

Knowing the reasons for the steep difference in our spirituality between Ramadan and regular days can help us

44 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

come up with an action plan for staying consistent on our goals after Ramadan.

So here’s my process of getting out of the postRamadan slump and moving forward…

First, you start with the mindset: MINDSET SHIFT: CONTROL HOW YOU THINK AND YOU’LL CONTROL HOW YOU ACT One little thought can change everything inside you.

Work on your mind and your mind will work on everything else for you.

Here are some healthy ways to think in your postRamadan situation: 1. Be grateful for whatever you were able to accomplish in ramadan.

The Prophet S.A.W said: “(The value of) an action depends on the intention behind it. A man will be rewarded only for what he intended.” [Muslim] Maybe you tried really hard to make the best use of every second in Ramadan but your efforts fell short and you weren’t able to accomplish your goals. Or maybe you didn’t try too hard.

Either way, be grateful for whatever you DID manage to accomplish.

Know that it’s not our efforts and deeds that will take us to Jannah.

It’s the Mercy of Allah S.W.T. Whatever time, health and energy you were blessed with to do Ibadah in Ramadan- it was because of the Mercy of Allah S.W.T. Some people could not even fast because of their health. Others had to work too hard for a living that they did not have the luxury of free time to do Ibadah with khushoo. Be grateful for what you were able to accomplish.

Alhamdulilah.

And know that if, for some reason, you weren’t able to fully accomplish your goals but you intended to, you’re good. You intentions were duly noted.

2. Keep a check on your expectations.

Now that Ramadan is over, maybe you’ve started sinning more often.

You see others sin more often.

You lose control over your Nafs quicker.

You miss the meal times of Ramadan. You miss the nights spent in Ibadah. You miss the feeling of praying Taraweeh in congregation in the Masjid.

You have started to lose the amazing habits you developed in Ramadan. You find it much harder to stay consistent in Ibadah and self-development goals.

You, my friend, have made room for post-Ramadan depression to settle in.

And possibly the biggest reason for postRamadan depression is setting unrealistic and disproportionate expectations.

From yourself. From others.

From your environment.

You need to set realistic goals and expectations. Or else you’re bound to suffer from depression that will not only eat away at you from inside but also keep you from continuing your good habits from Ramadan!

Set goals according to your situation NOW, not according to your “Ramadan routine”.

Which means you might have to make some alterations to your Ramadan goals. You can’t expect yourself to follow through on your goals the same way as you would in Ramadan.

And besides, think of your life as a battle field and Ramadan as your training period.

No matter how hard you practiced in the training field, you are bound to face some REAL challenges in the battle field that you didn’t face in the “safe” zone of training.

A fighter thinks that nothing could be harder than the training period he’s going through. Until he enters the battle ground.

Keep a check on your expectations or else you’ll be taking 10 steps backwards instead of moving forwards.

3. All-Or-None Thinking Helps NONE. Ramadan ends, you commit a sin that you had managed to stay away from in Ramadan- you say to yourself “What’s the point? I tried so hard but I did it again. I’m not even going to try now!”

All it takes for you is a SINGLE fall to go back to step zero. And from that point, moving forward gets overtly difficult for you.

For example, you try to continue the habit of reading Quran after Ramadan. You skip reading it once or twice for some reason and then wonder “What’s the point of trying if I’m not reading

it every day?

I might as well not bother with it right now. I’ll come back to it when I can make time to read Quran EVERYDAY.” Shaitan oldest trick in the book is to convince you to DROP EVERYTHING on the first mistake. (I don’t wear hijab… might as well not bother praying as my prayers won’t be accepted.

I’ll do “everything” later.)

This All-or-None thinking is not helping ANYONE. You have some REALLY BAD habits? Don’t leave your good ones because of them!

You made a mistake? GET UP. Keep working on your discipline.

You skipped reading Quran once? Don’t let that one-time slip make you drop your efforts altogether.

“All the sons of Adam are sinners, but the best of sinners are those who repent often.”

[At•Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah] Don’t let your present sins define your next move. Don’t let your slip-ups keep you from moving forward.

Because what’s the alternative? You go back to step zero, do NOTHING for now… and then what?

Do you seriously believe there will come a time when

you’ll NEVER slip up?

Or that you’ll be a 100% consistent in your habits? If you do, you’re being naïve.

Shaytan will never give up on trying to sway you.

And Allah S.W.T will never give up on being Merciful towards you. So hang on to the Mercy of Allah S.W.T. If you go back to step zeroknow that it will MANY times harder for you to come back to where you are now. And you will want to come back at some point.

Our beloved Prophet S.A.W said: “The most beloved deed to Allah’s is the most regular and constant even though it were little.” [Bukhari] After giving your brain a thought-wash, it’s time to put that re-engineered thinking into action.

A 7-Step Post-Ramadan Action Plan: Here’s a step-by-step action plan for you to carry your efforts from Ramadan forward.

1) RECOMMIT. Recommit yourself to the prayer. The Quran. And Dhikr.

Just like you spent some time in Shaban/ beginning of Ramadan to commit to making the most of Ramadan, it’s time to repeat the commitment process. But a little differently this time.

when you get up on cue? You WILL do the deed.

Commit to making these 3 a part of your daily lifestyle.

To hang on to them no matter how “sinful” you think you are.

At this point, we’re not setting “in-the-air” goals for Ibadah that have 0% probability of becoming a reality.

We’re only COMMITTING to staying in touch with prayer, Quran and Dhikr on a regular basis.

getting started.

The way you grow in the remaining 11 months of the year is different than the way you grow in Ramadan.

Ramadan is intense, fast, strict and very rewarding in a short period of time.

We can’t stay in an INTENSE Ibadah mode all throughout the year, especially if we were doing almost nothing intense BEFORE Ramadan.

• Now, if you want to

2) DON’T START NEW… CONTINUE. Recall your goals for this Ramadan. What did you achieve from them?

Work around the SAME goals because it’s easier to work on something that you’ve already laid the foundation for.

• Ask yourself: What is it that you want to continue working on from your Ramadan goals?

For example; say you got into the habit of reciting Quran daily and you want to stay consistent in that habit.

• Now, reduce your Ramadan goals into smaller goals– something so small that it becomes ridiculously easy for you to follow, and very hard to say no to.

So if your goal in Ramadan was to read 1 Juz of Quran every day, a smaller goal could be reciting 1 page every day or reciting Quran for 5mins daily.

First, get regular with the easiest, smallest step before you go bigger.

And yes, EVEN IF you had been reading a complete Juz every day in Ramadan.

I know cutting down on the goal might be hard for those who were doing a LOT during Ramadan.

But trust me, if you haven’t been reciting a Juz daily after Ramadan, chances are- the burden of doing so much is what’s keeping you from

continue the habits you had developed in Ramadan, the best way to do so is to practice them in the same timepockets that you used to do in Ramadan.

For example, when would you read Quran in Ramadan?

Was it after Maghrib? After Fajr? Before Maghrib? If multiple times, pick one time that’s easiest for you to maintain regularly and continue reading Quran in that time.

In Shawwal, your body is most likely still in the Ramadan-habit-mode.

So even if you haven’t been keeping up with your good habits since Ramadan or slacking, it’s not too late to continue them. But we can’t say the same for after Shawwal. :/

Tell you what? When you delay your prayer, you are most likely to procrastinate on everything else in your life.

I can personally attest to this myself. When I’d delay prayer till the last hour or the last 40 mins, I’d feel lazy and sloppy all day.

I’ve seen what delaying prayer can do to the you.

Praying immediately after Adhaan or shortly after brings the most barakah in your life.

BTW, what’s the point of delaying prayer anyway? It’s not like you’re NOT going to pray. You definitely intend to pray. You know you’re going to… But maybe not now.

But why? You’re going to pray later anyway. Why not just get up and pray right after Adhaan and feel superaccomplished? Think smart.

3) FIX YOUR SLEEP-WAKE SCHEDULE. If your sleep schedule is all messed up since Ramadan, make it a priority to fix it before it becomes long-term.

If you’re staying up all night and sleeping in the day even after Ramadan is over, it will mess up everything else for you.

Your productivity will suffer in the work-hours, you won’t be able to avail your early mornings, not to mention your eating habits will be all “confused”.

5) MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH DHIKR. We got so used to doing intense, meaningful Dhikr in Ramadan. But now? Raise your hand if you feel like you just can’t seem to find ANY TIME to do meaningful Dhikr.

I can see your hand.

In Ramadan, we were in constant communication with Allah S.W.T. And now it’s like we’ve stopped calling Allah S.W.T. Listen, young grasshopper, you can’t expect yourself to do deep, spiritual, meaningful Dhikr all day every day like a Sufi, especially if you weren’t

Call: 07 38656533

4) PRAY “ON TIME”.

doing so BEFORE Ramadan.

You get what I mean?

Ramadan lays the foundation for us.

It strengthens us. But when it ends, most of us go back to our OLD deep-rooted habits that we’ve been practicing for years. Which is a shame. But it’s also true.

That brings us to the question of HOW to fix that problem?

Like I said earlier, lower your expectations.

Make continuing your good habits from Ramadan SUPER-EASY for yourself. So easy that it becomes effortless for you to continue them.

In the post-Ramadan period, make it your mission to STICK to the acts of Ibadah you started practicing in Ramadan, not doing MORE. You don’t even have to do as much Ibadah as you were doing in Ramadan… but you do have to STICK to the habit or else you’ll lose them.

Make daily appointments with Dhikr and Quran. Even if they’re for 5 mins. Or 15 mins.

And your appointments should be at the same timepockets as in Ramadan. That way, your internal clock will remind you to get up on cue (the cue being the “appointed time”). And what happens

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6) HAVE IN-BETWEEN PERIODS OF INTENSE TRAINING. Like we learned, Ramadan is also a period of intense training. You can relive a part of that experience by setting monthly “INTENSE TRAINING PERIODS” for yourself.

The idea is the same- fast, keep your tongue under control, stay away from sins, sleep and eat less and do more Ibadah as well as good deeds.

Go out of your way in those training days. Test your limits.

Get out of your comfort zone.

Go ALL IN. These smaller “intense training periods” can be your monthly spiritual “detox”.

They will keep you disciplined for the rest of the month Insha’Allah and keep your system “updated.”

The ideal days to practice your intense training sessions are the days when it’s also Sunnah to fast. 13, 14 and 15 of every month according to the Lunar calendar.

Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas said: The Messenger of Allah (S.A.W) said to me: “It is sufficient for you to fast three days every month, because for every good deed you will have (the reward of) ten like it, so that will be like fasting for a lifetime” [Bukhari and Muslim].

The 3 days referred to in this hadith are called the White Days– Ayyam Al-Beedh.

If you think you can do more, then do hold weekly training sessions on Mondays and Thursdays when it’s Sunnah to fast.

Aishah R.A. narrated: “The Prophet (S.A.W) used to try to fast on Mondays and Thursdays” [Tirmidhi, Nasai, and Ibn Majah].

For this month of Shawwal, you also have a special opportunity from Sunnah to reboot your system by training hard for six days of shawwal.

Abu Ayyoob reported that the Messenger of Allah (S.A.W.) said: “Whoever fasts Ramadan and follows it with six days of Shawal, it will be as if he fasted for a lifetime” [Muslim].

7) SERVE OTHERS FIRST AND FOREMOST BY PROTECTING THEM FROM YOUR TONGUE. So many times, we go out of our way to help others but our tongue washes away all of our good deeds.

The biggest service most of us can do for others is to not hurt them with our tongue.

Think of how you used

to bite back your anger and hurtful words because of your fasts in Ramadan. Recall the hadith…

Abu Hurayrah R.A., narrated that the Prophet S.A.W, said: “When anyone of you is observing fast, he should neither indulge in obscene language nor should he raise his voice; and if anyone reviles him or tries to quarrel with him, he should say: “I am fasting.’”

Why do you think the Prophet S.A.W mentioned “controlling the tongue” as a separate topic especially for Ramadan?

Because your training is incomplete if you don’t practice controlling your speech.

Ramadan was sufficient time to put mini-locks on the tongue.

Continue the same practice, only this time instead of saying “I’m fasting”, repeat after this quote: “I have never regretted my silence, as for my speech I’ve regretted it many times.”

[Umar ibn Al-Khattab] 2020 Hajj: As we all know, corona virus has spread around the world and has affected everyone on a physical, emotional, mental, social or spiritual level. There a possible that Hajj for 2020 might be suspended and I just wanted to assure all the people who intended to go for Hajj this year not to lose hope or become worried as Allah Ta’ala is the Most Merciful and will definitely reward your intentions.If you are sincere in your love for the Hajj to the point where you also feel disheartened that you cannot complete it, you should know that in Islam, the intention is rewarded. This can be supported by the following Hadith and Quran verses.

Al-Bukhaari (6491) and Muslim (131) narrated from Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said, relating from his Lord, may He be glorified and exalted: “Allah decreed good deeds and bad deeds, then He explained that. Whoever thinks of doing a good deed then does not do it, Allah will write it down as one complete good deed. If he thinks of doing a good deed and then does it, Allah [may He be glorified and exalted] will write it down between ten and seven hundred fold, or many more. If he thinks of doing a bad deed then he does not do it, Allah will write it down as one complete good deed, and if he thinks of it then does it, Allah will write it down as one bad deed.”

Do not be surprised if on Judgment Day you find a great reward for the sincere intention for Hajj. This is the great mercy of Allah, Who said: ‫مايريداللهليجعلعليكممنحرجولكن�يد‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ليطهركموليتمنعمتهعليكملعلكمتشكرون‬ ...Allâh does not want to place you in difficulty, but He wants to purify you, and to complete His Favour on you that you may be thankful. (5:6) We all pray to Allah Ta’ala to remove corona virus as quick as possible and may Allah Ta’ala protect all of us from the effects of corona virus and cure everyone who is affected by corona virus.

Ameen.

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 45

‘Doors Wide Open’ Preaching the Gospel Worldwide Online “Directing the Future of the Church through the Online Bible Seminar with Pastor Ock Soo Park”

With 30 years of overseas mission experience along with media and internet technologies, the ‘Bible Seminar with Pastor Ock Soo Park’ airing in 94 countries reached approximately 800 million people. Televised in a total of 209 TV, radio, social media stations…. Viewers commented “Exact words of the Bible,” “Pure and precise words.” Due to the request for rebroadcasts, the ‘Online Bible Seminar’ will hold an encore seminar from May 20th (Wed) to 22nd (Fri) at 8:30 PM. With the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous insecure and worried people gathered in front of their TVs, radios, PCs, and smartphones with their Bibles open to listen to the gospel.

The main speaker, Pastor Ock Soo Park, is currently known as the most influential pastor who is leading the way in preaching the gospel all around the world. He has presented true salvation with the precise gospel through the Online Bible Seminar.

Korea Christian Association (KCA) hosted the ‘Bible Seminar with Pastor Ock Soo Park’ airing in 94 countries with the theme ‘Repentance for the Remission of Sins’ from May 10th (Sun) to 15th (Fri). This seminar was aired on 209 stations, Youtube, Facebook, and other means of social media reaching nearly 800 million viewers.

This Online Bible Seminar was organized by the Good News Mission, which quickly transitioned to online services during the early stages of the COVID-19 breakout in Korea. The Good News Mission has approximately 2,000 missionaries serving in 100 countries around the world, with the Online Bible Seminar being translated into 26 languages starting from English to Kenyan tribal languages through various media networks in each country.

This Online Bible Seminar was aired through leading national stations bringing together various races, generations, and countries.

Those in attendance include: approximately 200 million viewers from North America through stations like ABC and NBC, 100 million viewers from Central and South America through stations like Enlace, 140 million viewers from Europe through stations like TBN Russia and TBN-ESPANA Spain, 100 million viewers from Africa through stations like Ghana GTV and Kenya GBS, 260 million viewers from Asia, and 2 million viewers from Oceania through Fiji and Solomon Islands

Pastor Park Preaches on Repentance and Faith and the Gospel for 11 sessions, 90 minutes each The Bible Seminar which was originally scheduled from the 10th through the 13th was extended another 2 days until the 15th. This was all due to the great response of the viewers from each country. Pastor Ock Soo Park preached the gospel for 11 sessions, 90 minutes each.

He emphasized that man is justified not by works, but by the blood of Jesus Christ and that spiritual life is not by the law, but by grace.

Pastor Ock Soo Park stated, “Today, many Christian leaders say that we are still sinners despite the fact that Jesus was crucified for our sins.” Then he asked if we will trust the words of the Bible or the words of a Christian leader. He added, “We must return to the Bible. The Bible says that our sins are washed. ‘By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ If the Bible says we are righteous then we are righteous, and if it says that our sins are washed, then they are washed. Let us not believe our words or thoughts, but believe the Bible.”

channels including ABC and NBC and 23 radio stations.

TBN Russia covers 85% of homes in all of Russia, with an average of 2 million homes regularly tuning in.

Also, nearly 9 million Russian viewers scattered throughout 186 countries were able tune in as well. In addition, this seminar was televised on Youtube, Facebook, VKontakte (Russian social media), Christian Leaders Fellowship (CLF) broadcasting channels, and much more to the Siberian inlands, far east regions, old Ukraine, and Central Asia.

The seminar was televised to 200 million Spanishspeaking viewers through Christian broadcasting stations such as Enlace and TBN. Furthermore, the seminar was televised in countries such as Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Chile, Honduras and much more.

In Africa, it was televised through Kenya GBS, Ghana national station GTV, Togo AC TV, Cote d’Ivoire Benie TV, and other TV and radio stations.

Director Roger Leon Jimenez of Enlace, which is the largest Christian station in Central and South America, expressed, “I knew Good News Mission of Korea for many years and have aired several of Pastor Ock Soo Park’s sermons such as ‘Lectures on Genesis.’ Pastor Park’s preaching methods, Biblical teachings, and his spirit for gospel evangelism are models to take after.”

He is very thankful to God that Enlace can serve in the frontlines of spreading this gospel in coordination with the Good News Mission.

Live Broadcast in 6 Languages, TV and Radio Rebroadcast in 26 Languages Furthermore, in North America alone, this Online Bible Seminar was broadcasted in 26 TV

Foreign Denominational Pastors say, “We will preach this gospel to the ends of the earth.”

The message which was delivered during this seminar united Christians

national stations. With the help of these stations, the message was delivered to a total of approximately 800 million viewers. This was unprecedented and never in the history of Christianity, was there ever a time when this many people heard the gospel in such a short time frame.

46 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

from all across the world purely through the gospel, and provided hope and new strength to people experiencing difficulty from COVID-19.

Denominational pastors from each country participated in this seminar: Chancellor of Epic Bible College in the United States, Rev. Dr. Ronald Harden, Bishop Joaquin Pena of Church of God in the United States, President Alekseev Oleg of Central Baptist Association in Voronezh, Russia, President Rigoberto Vega of Christian Protestant Association in Costa Rica, Christian Archbishop Rev. Kiseve Arthur Kitonga in Kenya, President of Christian Pastoral Union and Presidential Advisor Rev. Joseph Serwadda in Uganda, President Luther Prasanth Kumar Chatla of Bethel Baptist Gospel Union in India, President Rev. Tevita N Banivanua of Fiji Church Association, and many more Christian leaders in each country as well as 240,000 pastors who belong to Christian Leaders Fellowship (CLF), heard the message of the seminar.

All the pastors who attended the seminar expressed their hearts about preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. Pastor Angel Resendiz of Le Nuevo Baptist Church in Mexico City said, “It is amazing that this seminar reached 800 million people in 94 countries all around the world. The gospel which was preached during the seminar was very precise.

I didn’t know the precise gospel until I met Pastor Park and heard the gospel. Now I can glorify God. I want to join in this work to spread the gospel to all of mankind.”

Pastor Tim of Chiang Mai Bo Sang Church in Thailand said, “Through this seminar, I was able to get a clear understanding of the Bible. Whenever I read the

Bible, it simply remained as knowledge. I learned that if I do well, then I am blessed and if I do evil then I am cursed, and without knowing the Bible, I tried understanding and utilizing the Bible on my own. However, through this seminar I came to realize that all of my sins were washed, and I became perfected through the death of Jesus on the cross.”

Worldwide Viewers say, “I have never met a preacher who teaches this precisely,” Thousands and tens of thousands of comments are being posted on every social media channel that aired the seminar. Bulletin boards of all the broadcasting stations that aired the seminar were filled with viewers’ comments.

A majority the of viewers stated, ‘I came to precisely understand the Biblical teaching on the forgiveness of sins.’ ‘I am hopeful in the God who will work in my life as well.’

Maria Soler from Connecticut in the United States said, “I have never met a gospel preacher who taught this precisely of the perfect salvation accomplished by Jesus using the offerings of

the Old and New Testament.”

Jennifer Elizondo from Costa Rica said, “Although many pastors speak of the redemption of Jesus on the podium, they don’t believe it in their hearts. I also lived spreading a message that was not clear, but this message that I heard from the seminar gave my spirit hope, and I came to know the clear truth.”

Inna who watched the seminar through TBN Russia said, “I was amazed at the testimonies of how the words of the Bible worked in the life of Pastor Ock Soo Park. I was even more amazed at the fact that when my heart and the heart of God become one, the same change will occur in my life and I will live a life that sincerely walks with God.” Riding this wave of high publicity, the Good News Mission will be hosting a Post Online Bible Seminar with Pastor Ock Soo Park from May 20th (Wed) through the 22nd (Fri) at 7:30 PM for 3 days to preach the gospel to 94 countries once again.

This Post Online Seminar will be aired live on the official Online Bible Seminar homepage, GOODNEWS TV, GOODNEWS TV Global Youtube channel, and applications.

Call: 07 38656533

www.indiantimes.com

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 47

When do I need to see a doctor if I have hepatitis B or C? You should see your doctor when: 1. You need to do your regular check-ups for your liver as requested by your doctor, such as regularly blood tests, ultrasound and Fibroscans 2. You feel unwell. You should contact your GP; or go to your nearest emergency department if you are very unwell and cannot contact your GP You should contact your doctor if you have symptoms that concern you.

Symptoms of hepatitis B or C include: • Flu-like symptoms • Yellowing of the eyes and skin • Loss of appetite • Nausea and vomiting • Unusual tiredness • Swelling of the legs or abdomen • Unusual aches and pains Any one of these symptoms should be assessed by your doctor. Some of the symptoms are similar to those for the coronavirus or flu but could be due to your

hepatitis and need urgent review by a doctor.

Can you still see your GP if you are sick during the current lockdown?

Yes. But you should call ahead to make an appointment. The reception or nurses will ask you questions about your symptoms and if you have had any recent travel or contact with a person who has been diagnosed with COVID-19.

The doctor will either ask you to come to their clinic or discuss your symptoms over the phone by telehealth.

Doctor and clinic staff are taking precautions to keep people safe who come to their clinic. However, it is better to avoid public transport and do not bring other people such as your family members, especially children, with you unless they need to see the doctor as well and have made their appointments.

Can you still call an ambulance

You can also contact our staff directly who speaks your language: Staff Name

Language we speak

Phone

Email

Angeline

French, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, English

0481838 692

angelinem@eccq.com.au

Christine

Acholi, Juba Arabic, Swahili, English

0479 036 383

christineo@eccq.com.au

Daniel

Dinka, Arabic, Juba Arabic, English

0479 062 234

daniela@eccq.com.au

Evelyn

Burmese, English

0481 827 751

evelynp@eccq.com.au

Iqbal

Dari, English

0403 681 929

iqbalp@eccq.com.au

Lazaro

Swahili, Kirundi, English

0479 153 742

lazarok@eccq.com.au

Samantha

Chinese, English

0479 130 997

chinese@eccq.com.au

Tam

Vietnamese, English

0428 223 052

vietnamese@eccq.com.au

or go to your hospital emergency department if you are very unwell?

Yes. Hospitals are working as usual. It is better to go to the hospital than to be very unwell at home. The hospitals are still able to treat people and would rather see people early before their condition gets so bad that they need long term treatment in hospital.

How can we help?

ECCQ’s Hepatitis, HIV/ AIDS and Sexual Health Programprovides free

Hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and STIs information, resources and support in different languages. Please contact us at: Website: eccq.com.au/ health Phone: 07 3844 9166 Email: health@eccq.com. au If you live in Cairns, you can also contact: HIV, Viral Hepatitis, Sexual Health Coordinator Cairns Sexual Health Service 381 Sheridan St, Cairns North, QLD, 4870 Phone: 07 4226 4760

Further information about telehealth can be found at http://www.mbsonline.gov. au.

Updated information about COVID-19 can be found at www.covid19.qld.gov.au

Updated information about how the Australian government helps and supports people during the COVID-19 pandemic can be found at www.australia.gov. au

Hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health Program Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland (ECCQ)

Protein rich homemade protein masks for your winter hair Nimisha Modi

Hetvi Hair & Beauty 0412350013 Hey Girls, it is getting colder and our hair tells a lot about our overall health and in today’s busy life it is very difficult to maintain soft and smooth hair. With the constant use of harsh chemicals and heat, your hair becomes dull and lifeless.

To retain the shine and health of your hair, you can make homemade protein packs for your hair. These protein packs will make your hair shiny and full of bounce.

If your hair feels dry and dehydrated then they need extra care full of protein.

Let’s take a look at homemade protein packs that will make your hair healthy and soft.

1# Egg and Honey Pack Egg is rich in protein and it gives nourishment and moisture to your hair that keeps them bouncy and nourished. Honey helps in sealing up this moisture in your scalp that leads to less breakage and strong hair.

Take 1 egg yolk and mix in 1 tbs of honey to it along with 1 tbs of almond oil. Mix them well to form a paste and then apply this to your hair for at least 20 minutes. Rinse your hair with water first and then use shampoo followed by the conditioner to make your

48 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

hair super smooth. Do not use this pack on oily hair as it will not work on the oily hair and it will not be able to go into the roots. Use this mask twice in a week for luscious hair.

2# Coconut Milk Coconut milk is rich in vitamins and protein that keeps hair healthy. Coconut milk is nourishing in nature and is packed with saturated fats and vitamin B, C and E. This helps in conditioning your hair well and also provides lot of protein to them. It also helps in tackling the problem of dandruff and keeps scalp clean. Take 3 tbs of coconut milk and heat it on a low flame for 3 minutes.

Massage this warm milk in your hair and wrap your hair in a towel for at least 30 minutes. Shampoo your hair and then condition to get soft and smooth hair that will shine with health.

3# Egg and Yogurt Eggs are a rich source of protein and they strengthens your hair from the roots leaving them shiny. Yogurt helps in cleaning up the scalp and tames dandruff as well.

Take 1 egg and 2 tbs of yogurt, mix them well. Apply this mask in the roots of your hair and take it to the tip. Leave it on your hair for 30 minutes and then rinse it with cool water. Apply shampoo and conditioner to your hair to wash off excess pack from

your hair. Use this pack twice in a week to get healthy hair.

4# Avocado and Coconut Milk Avocado is rich in protein and it is very good moisturizer for hair and skin.

Coconut milk is also rich in protein and Vitamin A, E and B that helps in the growth of healthy hair and boosts the production of collagen in hair. However, this pack is not meant for oily hair as this will make your hair oilier and stickier. Take 1 ripe avocado and 2 tbs of coconut milk along with 1 tsp of olive oil. Mix them well thereby mashing avocado well and make a smooth mixture.

Apply this mixture on your scalp for at least 30 minutes.

Wash off with shampoo and condition your hair well.

5# Yogurt and Cream Yogurt helps in cleaning the scalp and tames hair fall as well. Yogurt is rich in protein and it also helps in cleaning up the scalp. Cream nourishes the scalp and keeps your hair long and shiny. It also helps in taming hair fall and keeps your hair smooth.

Take 1 egg, 1 tbs cream and 2 tbs of yogurt and mix them well. Apply this pack on your hair and let it stay for at least 45 minutes. Rinse this pack with cool water and then give a final rinse with shampoo followed by conditioner. You will love your hair for the softness.

Yoga in daily life, Brisbane

International Day of Yoga - Sunday 21st June 2020

Yoga in Daily Life (YIDL) is delighted to announce that we will be celebrating International Day of Yoga around the World.

International Day of Yoga (IDY) promotes global unity, through equality, harmony, peace and overall health for body, mind and soul. The yogic principles and practices help everyone to

overcome stress and anxiety. Yoga helps people find purpose and hope, as well as learning to become more resilient and balanced. The wisdom of yoga is needed now more than ever with the current Covid-19 situation.

YIDL Australia is planning a national event that will connect our six yoga centres: Sydney,

Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth.

Each City will provide free face-toface yoga classes for the general public and manage group sizes according to the Government regulations.

The Brisbane program is: 8.00 -9.30 am Yoga Class in

YIDL Ashram (46 Doggett Street, Newstead 4006) 10.00 -10.45 am Yoga in the Park NB. places are limited and bookings are required.

We are also planning to host an online event, live-streaming a 45-minute class from each City.

One of the senior Yoga in Daily Life sannyasis, Mahamandaleshwar

Swami Jasraj Puriji will be chanting mantras from the Common Yoga Protocol (given by AYUSH), and translating the meaning.

More information about the events is available at www.brisbane. yogaindailylife.org.au (and please select the “Courses & Events” tab) All welcome to join us on this special and significant occasion.

Shree Deveshwar Mahadev Shiva Mandir We are pleased to announce that the beautiful Shree Deveshwar Mahadev Shiva Mandir located the Yoga in Daily Brisbane Ashram has reopened.

Dear brothers and sisters, friends, spiritual aspirants and Shiva bhaktas, you are most welcome to have a darshan, perform puja, abhishek or meditate especially on Mondays.

Please call in advance of your visit so we know to expect you.

YIDL Contact details: Address: 46 Doggett Street, Newstead, Brisbane, QLD 4006 Telephone: 07 3252 2550 Email: brisbane@ yogaindailylife.org www: brisbane. yogaindailylife.org.au Facebook: Shree Deveshwar Mahadev Shiva Mandir Brisbane

Call: 07 38656533

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 49

JUNE 2020

Aries ( 21st March to 20th April )

Taurus ( 21st April to 21st May )

Gemini ( 22nd May to 21st June )

The month might be a joyous one for friends.

You are likely to spend an enjoyable time with your friends and maybe even party. Business owners are expected to be busy setting up new projects.

Businessmen involved in manufacturing may have a troublesome month ahead. They are likely to face problematic issues. Also, you are likely to face pressure at the workplace. This might not be an ideal time for starting a new venture. This isn’t a favorable time for business owners to make an investment or try to expand their enterprise. Students may face tremendous stress in academics and there might also be some pressure on them to consistently perform well. You need to prioritize your education this month. Students can try to study along with their friends. Also, they can make use of the internet for gaining knowledge. Working professionals may get disappointing news. Their hard work may fail to get the desired results. You may have to focus on your work. Despite the negativity, you need to trust your skills and work hard. Professionals in sales and marketing may fail to perform as per their expectations. The time is not right to make any decisions with regard to the profession. Ganesha predicts severe losses. Hence, postpone the idea for the time being. Prepare yourself for that. Do not make any major decisions regarding your career.

This month may bring forth debilitating issues with respect to your career. These issues have the potential to upset your plans regarding your future.

In order to prevail over this scary situation, you need to keep working hard. The outcome of all your endeavors may be delayed. You are likely going to be very enthusiastic in your endeavors at the office. You might focus on the work assigned to you. You may be in a powerful position. You need to stay cool at your workplace and not engage in futile arguments with colleagues. If you work with the government, a change of place seems possible. The profit margin for you this month is likely going to be huge.There might be some issues with co-workers.

Students are likely going to ace their upcoming examinations or tests. Academically, you are predicted to be in a secure position. This may be a particularly rewarding month for those who have plans to go abroad. Students preparing for competitive exams for entry into government agencies are expected to have a rough time; whereas school kids are anticipated to see a smooth routine. Business owners who work with the government or courts are expected to face stiff competition from their peers. They need to be careful in this regard.

They are likely to get a lucrative deal. For people in relationships, they might have mixed results this month. You might see both sweet and sour moments in your relationship. Your overall health is likely going to be fine. No major illnesses are foreseen.

Make adjustments wherever necessary. Married couples should be careful in regards to the health of their spouse. Diabetes and hypertension patients should also take adequate precautions.

Avoid spicy junk food and stick to nutritious meals.

Regular cardiovascular exercises may help you remain fit. There is a possibility of a minor stomach ache or a digestive system disorder. A healthy lifestyle may be your mantra this month. You must keep a tab over your blood pressure and sugar levels. Businessmen may be presented with excellent growth opportunities and profitable deals during this month.

This is likely going to be a favorable month if you are planning an expansion of your business. Both businessmen and salaried employees should think about implementing new work strategies and policies. Do not be afraid to showcase any talents you have!

Students may be faced with a lot of confusion during this time.

Those intending to pursue higher education overseas may be in a state of mental dilemma. Such talents may certainly prove to be rewarding. Refrain from eating roadside junk and spicy foods. For love and relationships, this month might be an average for couples.

You might go on tours or a picnic with your friends and family during this period. For finance and money matters, this month is likely going to offer mixed results. However, businessmen might face a few challenges in managing their finances.

Cancer ( 22nd June to 22nd July )

Leo ( 23rd July to 22nd August )

Virgo ( 23rd August to 22nd September )

Days beginning from the mid-month to the month-end are favorable for salaried employees.

Your hard work may be noted by your superiors.

There is a possibility of salaried employees being bestowed with awards and incentives for their brilliant performance. A promotion or an increment in salary is a possibility. Teachers, mentors, and subject experts may guide students to their maximum ability. Such guidance may be invaluable. Students pursuing higher education like post-graduation, especially masters or doctorate degrees, may do outstandingly well during this month. Students may be faced with a lot of confusion. Businessmen may be able to give tough competition to their competitors. Businesses operating as partnership firms may have minor issues. Differences in opinions may prevail between partners. There is a distinct possibility of availing new business orders. Business expansion is also probable. Students associated with the architecture and fashion designing field may perform outstandingly well during this month. Businessmen may develop several new contacts which may prove to be beneficial in the near future. Several important meetings and short business trips are a distinct possibility during this time. For singles, this month is likely going to be favorable. Singles who have proposed to express their love might get accepted by the other person. For money and finances, the initial days of the month are likely going to favor you.

As far as health and well being are concerned, you are likely going to experience some digestive issues. Other than that, no major illnesses are foreseen.

Businessmen dealing in investing, sales, or purchase of real estate may be extremely successful during this period. They may be able to strike deals that are extremely profitable for them financially.

Newly married couples may give good news soon.

They are soon going to be blessed with the arrival of a child. Try to avoid entering into futile arguments with your parents this month. You may be very contented with the career growth of your children. The last two days of the month may be full of romance for singles. There is a distinct possibility of singles falling in love with a friend of the opposite sex. You may need to be friends with your children. Salaried employees may have some difficulty meeting their targets. Government employees who have been awaiting transfer to a location of their choice may be granted their wish during this month. Professionals in the field of spirituality, medicine, or a combination of both, that is spiritual healing, may progress substantially. Those who have been eagerly awaiting to shift to a better job can do so without any hesitation during this month. Be prepared for a lot of touring during this month. Avoid getting into futile arguments with your colleagues at work. Avoid confrontations and clashes with them as far as possible. Engineering students may need to work really hard to achieve the desired results.

The initial days of the month are likely going to favor businessmen. Competition may not be an issue. Extensive traveling is on the cards for them.

Matters related to Government, bank, or court would get resolved. Businessmen may conquer all kinds of competition with the help of a financier.

Students may be required to work diligently and hard to achieve desired results. Students may remain very enthusiastic about their studies during the last three days of the month. Commerce and accounting students may excel. The month seems to be very favorable for students intending to go abroad in pursuit of higher studies. For love and relationships, the initial days of the month are likely going to be fantastic. Singles may fall in love during this month. Also, your relationship with your partner may get stronger. You may also enjoy good health and well-being during this time. Overall, this month is good for you. For finance-related matters, this month is likely going to be good. However, you might face some financial crunch in the initial days of the month. This month may prove to be good for matters related to your health. However, you need to take additional care of your health during the last days of the month.

Libra ( 23rd September to 22nd October )

Scorpio ( 23rd October to 22nd November )

Sagittarius ( 23rd November to 21st December )

Good relations and gentle words may mean everything for you during this month if you want to progress with your career or business. Pay attention to minute details of your new project. A substantial amount of effort may be required to maintain harmonious relationships. Remember, the most important aspect of this month is to be patient with people and yourself as well. Salaried employees may get very tired because of their hectic schedules and workloads. You must be extremely careful before using harsh language anywhere, especially with your seniors. Government employees posted on a temporary basis may soon become permanent employees. Businessmen who have been planning to start a new venture or a new project can do so within this month. People suffering from diabetes may also need to be very careful. There is every possibility of feeling stressed and fatigued. Try to maintain amicable relationships with your inlaws. Be careful, small misunderstandings can take a bigger shape in the future. Do not enter into futile arguments with your partner or spouse. Couples who have been desirous of becoming parents may get good news very soon during this month. Try to control your possessiveness with your partner and give them enough space. During this time, students might face some ups and downs.

However, Ganesha advises them to stay positive.

Businessmen may need to work very hard to bring new business and clients during this period.

They may require to recruit new staff to cope with increasing business orders. The month is not very favorable for businesses related to iron, machinery, chemicals, and oil. Even companies related to the agriculture industry may face problems. Students intending to join a government institution may be successful during this month. Students may be able to score excellent marks in their upcoming competitive examinations. Students may face issues while recollecting during answering the questions asked in their examination. Their performance may still be better than most of their co-students. Investing in the stock market is not recommended.

Doing so may most certainly result in massive financial losses. For love and relationships, this month seems to be favorable. However, there might be some confusion and small arguments with your partner. For health and well being, some minor health issues might trouble you for some days. However, your overall health is likely going to be fine.

You may need to make quick decisions whenever opportunity knocks your door. Businessmen associated with manufacturing or marketing of various medical equipment should positively consider expanding their business during this period. A small family function may be organized during this month. Businessmen who have been thinking about expanding their business can do so during this month. Chartered accountancy students may be under immense mental pressure. Students could be particularly inclined towards participating in various creative courses, especially courses that offer interior decoration. Joining a professional course for upgradation of your skills may be beneficial in the near future. For love and relationships, it may be natural for your partner to get upset since you do not devote enough time to your relationship due to your busy schedule. However, you may be able to spend quality time with your family. For health and well being, skin disorders are a possibility this month. Expecting mothers should avoid traveling as far as possible. Too much physical stress may cause issues such as blood pressure. Always keep yourself adequately hydrated.

Consume plenty of fresh fruit juices.

Capricorn ( 22nd December to 20th January )

Aquarius ( 21st January to 18th February )

Pisces ( 19th February to 20th March )

No major issues are foreseen for businessmen.

However, you may need to take adequate care by understanding client requirements properly. Failure to do so may result in losing new orders. Those who have been planning to expand their business may successfully do so. We advise students to make full use of the positive influence of planets. Students pursuing higher education may face minor obstacles. Students who wish to pursue higher education abroad may not be successful with the migration formalities as of now. Your intense desire to widen the horizons of your knowledge may be duly noticed by your teachers and mentors. For salaried employees, despite honest efforts, they may fail at impressing their superiors at work.They may not be able to bag the much-awaited promotion or increment. This month is likely going to offer mixed results in matters of love and relationships. You and your partner may be able to spend some quality time together during this period. Regarding financial matters, no financial crisis is foreseen for businessmen. However, you may have to stay alert as your lazy attitude in maintaining proper finances might get you in trouble.

Businesses related to import and export of goods may flourish during this period. Those in the fabric or cloth business may be able to expand their business successfully during this month. The month is likely going to be favorable towards students who are engaged in scientific research. Students intending to study overseas may avail admission to a college or university of their choice. This is a very favorable month for partnership ventures. Your partner may open doors to a very good business opportunity. Even friends and colleagues may give you some profitable business ideas. Salaried employees may get a lot of responsibilities in the workplace. Job holders who have been awaiting promotion for a long time may get good news.

Temporary employees may become permanent ones. For love and relationships, this month may give you mixed results. However, both singles and people who are in relationships are likely going to enjoy this period. For finance matters, this month is likely going to be average. During this period, you may experience a little fatigue and tiredness. Otherwise, no other major health issue is foreseen.

Businessmen may remain positively busy negotiating multiple deals at a time. Businessmen may be presented with several profitable deals.

Salaried employees may receive a lucrative job offer from a company located overseas. Also, they may need to be very careful while dealing with a colleague. For students, this might be a very favorable month for the preparation of advanced studies.

Students intending to migrate abroad for future studies may face minor obstacles. Academically, the month is likely going to be very favorable. For couples in a relationship, they need to stay patient and resolve issues peacefully. People who are singles might meet their life partner during this time. For money and finances, this period is likely going to be favorable. Real estate and property deals may prove to be lucrative this month. You may need to be very cautious with regard to your health and fitness this month. There is no reason to panic and no major illnesses are foreseen. However, minor surgery is a distinct possibility that cannot be ruled out.

50 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, January, 2020 — 51

THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 51 www.indiantimes.com

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Top five: Highest team totals in T20 Internationals NEW DELHI: T20 cricket has been a hugely entertaining format of cricket for fans around the world. The format, due to this size and dynamics has helped cricket viewership reach new heights both in international and franchise cricket.. With more and more nations opting for the shortest format, the ICC T20I rankings has as many as 80 country teams.

Shorter boundaries, bigger and better bats, records being broken almost at will have driven this format, which has attracted many new fans, thanks to the instant cricket formula which appeals to many.

Scores that were once difficult for teams to register even in the 50-over format are scored in less than half the time in T20Is.

When racism stumped cricket

It began with Basil D'Oliveira being left out in 1968 from the England squad to tour apartheid South Africa.

England captain Tony Greig caused huge controversy when he said he intended to make the West Indies cricketers "grovel".

"You must remember that the West Indians… if they're down, they grovel, and I intend… to make them grovel," Greig said. The word "grovel" had sinister connotations for the West Indies people, many of whom had slave ancestors.

There was massive outcry, especially since Apartheid was a prominent issue and

Greig was a white South African.

Former Australia batsman Dean Jones created a furore while commentating on live TV during the fourth day's play between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Colombo.

As Hashim Amla, a devout Muslim, took a catch to dismiss Kumar Sangakkara, Jones was heard saying: "The terrorist has got another wicket". Jones was quickly sacked by the broadcaster.

Probably modern cricket's worst controversy. On Day Three of the India-Australia Sydney Test, Australia's Andrew Symonds accused off-spinner Harbhajan Singh

of calling him a "monkey".

Match referee Mike Procter banned Harbhajan for three Tests, a decision which was subsequently overturned to just a 50% match-fee fine following India's appeal.

Sachin Tendulkar later wrote in his book that he heard Harbhajan use a north Indian swear word which is similar sounding.

England all-rounder Moeen Ali alleged that an unnamed member of Australia's 2015 Ashes team racially abused him during the first Test in Cardiff. "An Australian player had turned to me on the field and said, 'Take that, Osama.' I could

not believe what I had heard.

I remember going really red. I have never been so angry on a cricket field," Moeen disclosed later in his autobiography.

During the second ODI in Durban, Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed was heard making racist comments at SA's Andile Phehlukwayo.

"Abey kaale, teri ammi aaj kahaan baitheen hain?

Kya parwa ke aaye hai aaj (Hey black guy, where's your mother sitting today?

What have you got her to say for you today)," Sarfaraz was heard saying. Later, he met Phehlukwayo and apologised.

Zaheer Khan's journey to success illustrated strength of his character: VVS Laxman NEW DELHI: VVS Laxman on Monday paid tribute to Zaheer Khan, saying the journey of the former Indian pacer from "tiny" Shrirampur to the "dizzy heights of success" illustrated the strength of his character.

"Daring to dream big and determined to chase those dreams, Zaheer Khan's journey from tiny Shrirampur to the dizzy heights of success illustrated the strength of his character," Laxman said in a tweet.

"His career-defining county stint at Worcester reiterated his desire to reinvent himself and shed comfort zones," he added.

52 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

Jofra Archer urges victims to speak out against social inequality

England fast bowler Jofra Archer has urged victims of racial abuse to speak out following the death of an unarmed black man in police custody in the United States.

Video footage showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, 46, for nearly nine minutes before he died on May 25, triggering outrage and protests across the world.

"I'm very glad the Black Lives Matter campaign has got as vocal as this," Archer, who was racially abused by a fan during a Test against New Zealand in November last year, wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.

"As an individual,

I've always been one for speaking out, especially if something bothers you. My personal view is that you should never keep things bottled up, because racism is not okay."

Archer has played seven Tests and 14 one-day internationals for England and has lauded the team for its diversity.

"We all live in the country and if you are English, you have as much right to play as anyone else," the 25-year-old added.

"There was a picture ... of me, Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid hugging in celebration during the 2019 World Cup. It told you everything you need to know about our team."

IOA vice-president claims chief Batra won poll on false affidavits The wrangling within the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) escalated at the weekend with vice-president Sudhanshu Mittal writing to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) alleging that IOA president Narinder Batra was elected to the top posts of the international hockey federation (FIH) and IOA on the basis of false affidavits.

Batra was elected FIH president in 2016 and IOA president in 2017. He was elected an IOC member last year.

Mittal’s letter to the IOC executive board on Saturday, released to the media on Sunday, said, “when Batra was nominated as well as elected as the president of the FIH he was also holding the post of president of Hockey India. This is not permissible according to the statute of the FIH.” Article 7.2 of the FIH rules cited in the letter says the president shall within 30 days of election retire from (and during his term not accept) any executive office or post in the national or continental bodies.

Batra, elected to FIH in November, stepped down as HI president in December 2016. Mittal said “Batra was a representative on behalf of Hockey India in the December 2017 elections of the IOA and voted as a representative on behalf of Hockey India.”

“Since he had already

resigned from any officebearer’s post with Hockey India in order to comply with the FIH statute, there is no possible way that he could be in the executive committee of Hockey India, unless Mr. Narinder Batra has given false declarations and information to the FIH and to everyone else that he has resigned from Hockey India,” Mittal said in his letter, seeking action against Batra.

He cited article 10.3 of IOA constitution, which says those nominated by its unit like HI must be its executive committee member.

Batra and Mittal are both in home quarantine due to Covid-19. Batra said he will reply to the allegations once he can visit his office. He said a similar complaint was filed by tennis federation president Praveen Mahajan to IOA election commission during its poll. “My reply along with other documents was given to secretary general IOA by the election commission for IOA records,” he said.

IOA is already in ferment due to differences between Batra and secretary-general Rajeev Mehta, who termed the IOA president dissolving its ethics commission, on May 19, as “illegal”. That came after Batra had said he would take over most of IOA’s functioning and Mehta responded by saying the handling of day-to-day affairs was his responsibility.

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THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020 — 53

THE BUCKLEYS RELEASE EMOTIONALLY VULNERABLE BALLAD “BREATHE” Australian three-piece, THE BUCKLEYS, released their second worldwide and fourth Australian single, “Breathe,” via Petrol Records / Universal Music Australia / Ume. The new soul-stirring track comes nestled in an equally emotive video that showcases a haunting and impassioned side of the band’s pop Americana trademark which they call “hippie country.”

“Breathe” was recorded and co-written by Sarah Buckley and two times Grammy winning producer and engineer Chad Carlson, whose credits include Taylor Swift, Jewel and the Hunger Games soundtrack. "‘Breathe’ is our musical

prayer to the world," explains The Buckleys singer Sarah Buckley. "I wrote this last year at the time when our country was experiencing horrific bushfires. It’s a message of strength, vulnerability, hurt, hope and moving forward.

I find myself remembering these lyrics in moments where I just need to stop, close my eyes, listen to the sounds of world around me and just breathe."

The emotionally vulnerable ballad hopes to help people connect and find hope in our current times and has been instantly added to Australia’s largest Country playlists on Spotify and Apple as well as an instant across the board add at ABC Country.

The release of “Breathe,” follows their monumental and groundbreaking world virtual tour where the band became one of the first to capture a global audience and achieved a ‘virtual reach’ of more than 4 million.

Presented by Live Nation, the world virtual tour was developed in conjunction with Live Nation and the band’s record label, Petrol Records and US label, UMe. Performing individually curated shows for specific regions of the U.S. (and later, the world) which were streamed through Live Nation and House of Blues’ local affiliates as well as the newly launched Live From Home platform, the rising

hippie country siblings were able to recreate the personalised “live” experience during a time of social distancing.

The band kicked off their second run of shows with a virtual performance in India on 28th May 2020.

“India has such a rich culture of music and art, we are excited that through technology we can connect with you from all the way here in Australia. Not to mention, one of our favourite bands, the Beatles, wrote much of ‘the white album’ in India... so we’ll most definitely have to play Beatles in this set for you Beatles fans like us! We can’t wait,” said The Buckleys ahead of their India show.

Wajid Khan died of cardiac arrest Director Shoojit Sircar defends GULABO and had kidney transplant earlier SITABO writer Juhi Chaturvedi after allegations of plagiarism this year, says Sajid Khan and family in a statement In a jolt to the music industry and Bollywood, composer Wajid Khan passed away at the age of 42. He already had kidney ailment. While there were reports stating that the music composer had tested positive for coronavirus, his family did not mention it in an official statement.

This past weekend, Sajid Khan took to Instagram to release the statement that read, "Our dearest Wajid passed away at the age of 47 due to a cardiac arrest on 1st of June at 00:30 am in Surana Sethia hospital.

He had a successful kidney transplant last year and he was undergoing treatment for a throat infection."

He further said, "We would like to express our gratitude to Dr Prince Surana who is family and has taken care of Wajid just like a brother would, Dr Prashant Kewle, Dr

Kirti Sabnis, Dr Nikhil Jain, Dr Rupesh Naik, Dr Dipen Deole, Dr Aseem Thamba and the entire hospital staff who had been treating Wajid and taking care of him beyond the call of duty and had left no stone unturned for his treatment. We thank each of you for your selfless gestures from the bottom of our hearts. Wajid will stay in

our hearts forever.”

Wajid Khan and his brother Sajid Khan began their career with Salman Khan’s 1998 blockbuster, Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya. They went onto collaborate with Salman on various projects including his upcoming film Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai in which they have composed two songs.

While the fans are super excited to see Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana share the screen space for the first time in Gulabo Sitabo, the film has landed itself in rough seas just a few days before its OTT release. Written by Juhi Chaturvedi, there have been allegations of plagiarism on Gulabo Sitabo. Screenwriter Rajeev Aggarwal’s son, Akira, has accused Juhi of plagiarism and has even filed a complaint against her in Juhu Police Station, post which, his lawyer sent across a legal notice to the makers demanding to see the script.

Director Shoojit Sircar has denied all the allegations and stood strong in support of Juhi saying that this is an attempt to malign her image. Giving an explanation further, he said that Juhi’s concept of the film was registered in 2018 and she has not received any copy of the ‘original script’.

It has also been confirmed by the script writing contest organizers as well. Their script is completely different from what is mentioned in the notice and Shoojit Sircar says he fails to realise how a trailer of less than three minutes led to the conclusion of plagiarism.

He further defended Juhi and said that it is a deliberate attempt to malign her and damage the film. On May 29, SWA ruled in favour of Juhi Chaturvedi and team leading to the allegers being upset over the decision. Gulabo Sitabo is all set to make the big digital release on June 12.

Sonu Sood meets Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and Aaditya Thackeray to discuss relief efforts for migrants Actor Sonu Sood has been actively working towards helping the migrant labourers reach their respective homes amid lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak in the country.

His relief efforts have been applauded by netizens and politicians. Actor Sonu Sood met Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday at their residence, Matoshree.

Aaditya Thackeray took to Twitter to share the

photos from their meeting and wrote, “This evening @ SonuSood met up with @ CMOMaharashtra Uddhav Thackeray ji along with Minister @AslamShaikh_ MLA ji and me. Better Together, Stronger Together to assist as many people through as many people.

Good to have met a good soul to work for the people together.”

“The CM @OfficeofUT was glad to meet @ SonuSood and discussed the work everyone is doing for the people during covid

54 — THE BRISBANE INDIAN TIMES, June, 2020

His relief efforts have been applauded by netizens and politicians. Actor Sonu Sood met Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday at their residence, Matoshree. relief.

Misunderstandings don’t exist but what does is a commitment to help people,” he wrote in another tweet.

Aayush Sharma’s Mulshi Pattern remake has been renamed as Guns of North Touted to be the biggest action drama in making, Aayush Sharma's Mulshi Pattern Hindi remake has been making headlines ever since its announcement.

Helmed

by Abhiraj Minawala, the highly anticipated film will be set up in Punjab, featuring Sharma as a dreaded Jat gangster.

Speaking of the project, one big update we have for you is that the film is now officially titled Guns of North. Earlier it was being called Dhak but now that we have the official title out, there's no room for confusion. It's said that the script of the film was in making for the past two years considering it's a large

project. A big scale film, makers have been working on Guns of North since January, 2019 and the shoot was expected to kick-start in April, 2020. However, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the shooting of the project has been stalled and is expected to start once the situation is better.

Apart from this, one thing which has got us really excited about the actioner is that it will release in five different languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannad and Oriya.

A high octane action film, Guns of North is expected to hit the floors soon after the lockdown is over. Fans are quite thrilled to watch Salman Khan and Aayush

Sharma sharing the screen together.

Impressively, Aayush has undergone massive physical transformation and gained about 12 kgs of lean muscle to get into the skin of his character. The actor even shared his new bulked up look on social media handle and was highly praised for his deadly new badass avatar. From the looks of it, he seems to be all set to make an impact in this dark role and language seems no bar as he's ready to take up films based on good scripts.

A heavy budget expensive film, coming with the best of action sequences - Guns of North is surely going to be a big release for Sharma.

Raj Kundra calls Shilpa Shetty ‘queen of my life and heart’, wishes her a happy birthday with romantic video On Shilpa Shetty’s 45th birthday, her husband Raj Kundra wished her with an adorable video and said that her smile lights up even the darkest of his days.

As Shilpa Shetty turns a year older, her husband Raj Kundra shared a romantic birthday wish for her on Instagram. He posted a video montage of their special moments, with the song Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You playing in the background, along with a heartfelt note about how she has changed his life for the better.

Raj addressed the note to his ‘darling wife’ and wrote, “You are that woman who transformed my imperfections into perfections, with your love.

Just seeing you smile lights up the darkest of days and makes it all worth it. You

are not just the mother of my children, but the Queen of my life and heart.

I Love you Beyond words.

Happy Birthday my jaan @ theshilpashetty.” He signed off as ‘your hubby’.

Currently, Raj and Shilpa are isolating at their Mumbai residence with their children, Viaan and Samisha. The actor has been

sharing fun TikTok videos to keep her fans entertained, as well as workout videos and cooking videos.

After a whirlwind romance, Raj and Shilpa tied the knot on November 22, 2009. The couple has two children -- an eightyear-old son Viaan and a three-month-old daughter Samisha.

Karan Johar along with the stars of 'Lockdown with the Johars' Roohi and Yash bid farewell to all; say 'I'll be back' in the adorable video Karan Johar had grabbed everyone's attention amid the lockdown when he took to social media to share his salt and pepper look. But it were his twins: Roohi and Yash, who emerged as the real stars as their father shared a series of their 'Lockdown with the Johars' videos.

The adorable shenanigans of the little munchkins with their father had been winning over the internet and fans were also showering them with love. Taking to Instagram, Karan with his kids' bid farewell to their popular 'Lockdown with the Johars' series with an adorable video. Check out the

post here: The ace filmmaker captioned the post as "So long farewell!!!! Alvida! Thank you for the abundant love you have all showered on us! We have loved sharing our moments of love and happiness with you and

can’t wait to be back ( not with a lockdown ofcourse) this is our final goodbye to #lockdownwiththejohars ! #unlock1" Karan, who started the video by sharing "We are where we began our journey and we want to say goodbye to everybody with the first phase of unlock happening post which Yash and Roohi take over and bid farewell to their fans with 'I'll be back' message.

On the professional front, Karan will soon be donning the director's hat once again for his upcoming period drama 'Takht' which will go on floors soon.

Amitabh Bachchan shares a special post as 'Mr Natwarlal' clocks 41 years!

Amitabh Bachchan is an avid social media user. The star often takes to his social media to share rare and unseen pictures of B-town celebs, BTS pictures from the sets of his films, priceless moments with his family members and many more. Recently, his film 'Mr Natwarlal' completed 41 years. The actor took to his social media to share a special post about his film and you can't miss it!

He made a collage of his stills from the films. There's one picture, where we can

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see him joining his fans. The post was captioned as, ''Life mein vinamr hona achcha hai .. lekin yaar .. kabhi kabhi thodi si 'tadi' bhi honi chahiye .. hain ki nahin ?

The film stars Amitabh, Rekha, Ajit Khan and Amjad Khan.

The actor was in the news lately for his special post for wifey Jaya Bachchan on their 47th anniversary. He shared unseen pictures from his wedding day and it went viral on social media in no time.

He captioned the post as, ''47

years .. today .. June 3, 1973 .. !!

Had decided if Zanjeer would succeed, we would along with a few friends go to London for the first time .. My Father asked who you going with ?

When i told him who , he said you must marry her before you go .. else you don’t go .. So .. I obeyed''.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Big B will be seen next in Ayan Mukerji's 'Brahmastra' with Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Mouni Roy, Dimple Kapadia and Akkineni Nagarjuna.

www.indiantimes.com

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