Colonel Harland David Sanders - Father of KFC

Early life

     Sanders was born on September 9, 1890 in a thin-walled, four room shack on a country road 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Henryville, Indiana. He was the oldest of three children born to Wilbur David and Margaret Ann Sanders.

     His father was a mild and affectionate man who tried to make a living as a farmer, but fell and broke his back and a leg and had to give up his profession. He worked as a butcher in Henryville for the next two years. One summer afternoon in 1895, he came home with a fever and died later that day. Sanders' mother obtained work in a tomato-canning factory; the young Harland was required to cook for his family.

     Sanders dropped out of school when he was 12. When his mother remarried in 1902, his stepfather beat him. Therefore, with his mother's approval, he left home to live with his uncle in Albany, Indiana.

Life before KFC

Sanders falsified his date of birth and enlisted in the United States Army at the age of fifteen, completing his service commitment as a mule handler in Cuba. He was honorably discharged after four months and made his way to Sheffield, Alabama where an uncle lived. His brother Clarence had also moved there, in order to avoid his stepfather. During his early years, Sanders held many jobs, including being a steamboat pilot, insurance salesman, railroad fireman, and farmer.


Sanders married Josephine King in 1908 and started a family, but after his boss fired him for insubordination while he was on a trip, Josephine stopped writing him letters. He then learned that Josephine had left him, given away all their furniture and household goods, and taken the children back to her parents’ home. Josephine’s brother wrote Sanders a letter saying, "She had no business marrying a no-good fellow like you who can’t hold a job." He had a son, Harland, Jr., who died at an early age, and two daughters, Margaret Sanders and Mildred Sanders Ruggles.

Career

In 1930 Sanders opened a service station in Corbin, Kentucky where he cooked chicken dishes and other meals such as country ham and steaks for customers. Since he did not have a restaurant, he served customers in his adjacent living quarters. His local popularity grew and Sanders moved to a motel with a 142 seat restaurant, later designated the Harland Sanders Café and Museum. Over the next nine years he developed his "Secret Recipe" for frying chicken in a pressure fryer that cooked the chicken much faster than pan frying. In 1939 food critic Duncan Hines visited Sanders’s restaurant incognito and was so impressed he listed the place in “Adventures in Good Eating,” his famous guide to restaurants throughout the US. As his success grew, Sanders played a more active role in civic life, including joining the Rotary Club, the chamber of commerce, and the Freemasons. In 1947, he and Josephine divorced and Sanders married his secretary Claudia in 1949, as he had long desired. He was "re-commissioned" as a Kentucky Colonel in 1949 by his friend, Governor Lawrence Wetherby.

Around 1950, Sanders began developing his distinctive appearance, growing his trademark mustache and goatee and donning a white suit and string tie. He never wore anything else in public during the last 20 years of his life, using a heavy wool suit in the winter and a light cotton suit in the summer. He bleached his mustache and goatee to match his white hair.


At age 65, after Sanders' store failed due to the then-new Interstate 75 reducing his restaurant's customer traffic, he took $105 from his first Social Security check and began visiting potential franchisees.

In 1952 he successfully franchised "Kentucky Fried Chicken" to his friend Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah, the operator of one of that city's largest restaurants. In the first year of selling the product, restaurant sales more than tripled, with 75% of the increase coming from sales of fried chicken. For Harman, the addition of fried chicken was a way of differentiating his restaurant from competitors; in Utah, a product hailing from Kentucky was unique and evoked imagery of Southern hospitality. Don Anderson, a sign painter hired by Harman, coined the name Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The franchise approach became successful and in 1964 Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken corporation for $2 million to a partnership of Kentucky businessmen headed by John Y. Brown, Jr. The deal did not include the Canadian operations. In 1965 Sanders moved to Mississauga, Ontario to oversee his Canadian franchises and continued to collect franchise and appearance fees both in Canada and in the U.S. (He was active in Ontario even as he aged. For example, his 80th birthday was held at the Inn on the Park in North York, Ontario, hosted by Jerry Lewis as a Canadian Muscular Dystrophy Association fundraiser. In September 1970 he and his wife were baptized in the Jordan River. He also befriended Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell.


In 1973, he sued Heublein Inc. — the then parent company of Kentucky Fried Chicken — over the alleged misuse of his image in promoting products he had not helped develop. In 1975, Heublein Inc. unsuccessfully sued Sanders for libel after he publicly described their gravy as "wallpaper paste" to which "sludge" was added.

Death and legacy

Sanders later used his stock holdings to create the Colonel Harland Sanders Trust and Colonel Harland Sanders Charitable Organization, which used the proceeds to aid charities and fund scholarships. His trusts continue to donate money to groups like the Trillium Health Care Centre; a wing of their building specializes in women's and children's care and has been named after him. The Sidney, British Columbia based foundation granted over $1,000,000 in 2007, according to its 2007 tax return.

Sanders died at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky of pneumonia on December 16, 1980. He had been diagnosed with acute leukemia the previous June. His body lay in state in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort after a funeral service at the Southern Baptist Seminary Chapel, which was attended by more than 1,000 people. He was buried in his characteristic white suit and black western string tie in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.

Since his death, Sanders has been portrayed by voice actors in Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials in radio and an animated version of him has been used for television commercials.

The Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball league has developed an urban legend of the "Curse of the Colonel". A statue of Colonel Sanders was thrown into a river and lost during a 1985 fan celebration, and (according to the legend) the "curse" has caused Japan's Hanshin Tigers to perform poorly since the incident.

Colonel Sanders' white suit and black clip-on bow-tie were sold at auction for $21,510 by Heritage Auctions on June 22, 2013. The suit had been given to Cincinnati resident Mike Morris by Sanders, who was close to Morris' family. The Morris family house was purchased by Col. Sanders, and Sanders lived with the family for six months. The suit was purchased by Kentucky Fried Chicken of Japan president Maseo “Charlie” Watanabe. Watanabe put on the famous suit after placing the winning bid at the auction event in Dallas, Texas.


A manuscript of a book on cooking, which Sanders apparently wrote in the mid-1960s, has been found in KFC archives. It includes some cooking recipes from Sanders as well as stories. KFC plans to try some of the recipes, and to offer the book online.

Biography of Soichiro Honda

An independent person in a country not known for its willingness to accept nonconformists (those that do not cooperate with customs), Soichiro Honda created an automobile giant despite the opposition of the Japanese government. One of his company's cars, the Accord, was a best-selling model in the American market.

Early life

The first son of blacksmith Gihei Honda and his wife Mika, Soichiro Honda was born on November 17, 1906, in rural Iwata-gun, Japan. In 1922 he graduated from the Futamata Senior Elementary School. Honda had little tolerance for formal education and jumped at every opportunity he had to work with his true love: motors. Throughout his life Honda never forgot the impression that was made on him when he sighted his first automobile.

After leaving school Honda began his career as an apprentice (a person who works to gain experience in a trade) auto repairman for Arto Shokai in Tokyo. In 1928 he returned to his hometown as a master mechanic and soon established a branch shop for the firm in Hamamatsu, Japan.

Building an empire

During this time Honda also participated in auto races and became interested in cars and motorcycles. Soon he was experimenting with engines, and in 1928 he organized the Tohai Seiki Company to manufacture piston rings, some of which were sold to Toyota, a major Japanese car manufacturer.

Honda's first attempts at the personal motor business came in the mid-1940s when he designed and manufactured a small engine that could be attached to a bicycle to create a motorbike. The venture proved a great success.

Encouraged by his early success, in 1948 he organized the Honda Motor Company. The following year Honda manufactured a small motorcycle called the "Dream D" and prepared to enter the highly competitive Japanese market, which he did through effective advertising. Within a decade Honda was the leading motorcycle manufacturer in the world and had a larger share of the American motorcycle market than Toyota and Nissan (with its Datsun cars) had in automobiles.

Now Soichiro Honda attracted press attention, and, unlike most Japanese businessmen, he loved it. A small but talkative man, he was the opposite of what westerners imagined Japanese businessmen to be. For example, he promoted executives on the basis of performance rather than age, an unusual practice at large Japanese firms. Honda continued racing autos and motorcycles, dressed casually, and took pride in maintaining his independence from the Japanese business establishment. In addition, Honda openly voiced his admiration of American business practices and way of life.

Automobiles

This was at a time when the powerful Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) was trying to unite several small companies into a third large one to compete with Toyota and Nissan. MITI and the Department of Transportation tried to discourage Honda from adding to the number of companies, but he persisted. He won MITI's permission by coming out with a low-priced small sportscar, the S 500, which was different from anything produced by the other companies. He followed it up with other sports models. His company was still very small, producing only three thousand cars in 1966—half of what Toyota was turning out in a week.
Honda introduced the Civic to the American market in 1972. It got thirty-nine miles per gallon (mpg) on the road and twenty-seven mpg in city driving, remarkably efficient for an automobile. The popularity of the Civic rose throughout the 1970s, and in 1980 Honda sold 375,000 cars in the American market—almost three times as many as Subaru and twice as many as Mazda, but still behind Toyota and Nissan. The reasons for this success were obvious: Honda combined high quality with efficiency and economy. But his small cars still appealed to a limited market.

Transforming Honda

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Honda expanded his car company overseas. In 1979 he opened a motorcycle plant near Columbus, Ohio, and an auto plant followed soon after, prompting other Japanese companies to follow his lead. In the late 1970s Toyota and Nissan sold one-third of their cars to the United States, while Honda sold half of his in that market.

Soichiro Honda did not directly supervise these introductions or the development of overseas plants in the United States and Europe. He resigned in 1973, but stayed at the company as "supreme adviser." In 1988 he became the first Japanese carmaker to be inducted into the Automobile Hall of Fame. Honda died of liver failure August 5, 1991, in a Tokyo hospital. Honda's rise from humble beginnings to a powerful and influential businessman is one of twentieth century's most inspirational stories.

Biography of R.H.Macy

Rowland Hussey Macy, Sr. (August 30, 1822 – March 29, 1877) was an American businessman who founded the department store chain R.H. Macy and Company.

Macy was the fourth of six children born to a Quaker family on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. At the age of fifteen, he worked on the whaling ship, the Emily Morgan, and had a red star tattooed on his hand that became part of the store's logo.[1] He married Louisa Houghton (1820–1888) in 1844, and had two children.

When Rowland Hussey Macy was 15, he started working aboard a whaling ship. Macy, born in 1822, had grown up on Nantucket Island, Mass.—once the home of more millionaires than anywhere else in the United States, thanks to the whaling industry—and watched his father sail on two previous expeditions.


But young Macy was a little more ambitious than his father. He earned about $550 on that first voyage, a disappointing paycheck for such hard work. So at 19, he started working as a printer’s apprentice in Boston. He had read about Benjamin Franklin’s success and decided to model his own career after the legendary statesman.

Unfortunately, printing didn’t suit Macy as well as it did Franklin, so, with the backing of one of his brothers, Macy opened his first dry goods store in 1843. Over the next 10 years, Macy failed at four retail ventures.

He had moved to California in search of gold and also dabbled in real estate speculation, so despite his retail failures, he returned home to Massachusetts with $4,000 and a wealth of new life experiences. He opened the first Macy’s store in Haverhill, Mass., in 1851.


Immediately, he put to use what he had learned from his failed stores and instituted groundbreaking initiatives in retail management. Macy offered lower prices for cash purchases in an era when most shoppers used credit, and he offered fixed prices rather than opportunities to bargain, which was the norm.

While the Haverhill store ultimately failed, the 36-year-old Macy had no intention of giving up. He moved to New York City in 1858, and started R.H. Macy Dry Goods on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 14th Street. The red star he had tattooed onto his hand during his youthful whaling days would become the shining symbol of his new venture.

Again building on lessons learned from previous stores, Macy bought and sold merchandise only if he could do so with ready cash. Even as his business grew and wholesalers offered him credit, he refused it, deciding instead to work exclusively on a cash basis.

In its first year, while a recession loomed over the country, Macy’s did $90,000 in sales. As the business grew, Macy obtained the leases of 11 neighboring buildings, creating the concept of what we know today as the department store, selling everything from clothing and jewelry to toys and housewares. In 1874, Macy leased the basement of his building to L. Straus & Sons. Lazarus Straus and his sons, Isidor and Nathan, sold china, glassware and silver (and later took ownership of the Macy’s chain when it passed from the Macy family in 1895). The china department soon became the store’s most famous. Macy introduced new products to the public as well, including tea bags, Idaho baked potatoes and colored bath towels. He also began accepting mail orders.

Despite a recession, these were boom years for Macy, who became a master of advertising and publicity. He developed marketing strategies that would one day become part and parcel of the retail industry. He was the first, for example, to have a store Santa Claus during the holidays, and he originated themed store exhibits and lighted window displays to draw customers in from the street.

Because his store was beyond the borders of the main shopping district, Macy knew he had to be innovative to draw customers, so he used his printing industry experience to launch some unique newspaper advertising campaigns. The ads emphasized keywords again and again, used bold headlines and quoted exact prices of store items, something none of his competitors had ever done. He advertised in five city newspapers. Macy also offered his patrons a money-back guarantee, and the store continued to only accept cash well into the 1950s.


Macy’s innovations didn’t end with business strategy. He was also the first to hire a woman executive in retail sales, promoting Margaret Getchell to store superintendent in 1866. Having grown up on Nantucket, where women ran family businesses and households in the absence of husbands, fathers and brothers who were on whaling expeditions, Macy believed that women were just as capable as men. His Quaker upbringing also promoted the idea of spiritual and intellectual equality of the sexes.

Getchell, a distant relative of Macy’s, was a fellow Nantucketer, and she not only had a good head for business but helped Macy understand what his main customers—women—wanted. Four years after Getchell became store superintendent, Macy’s revenue topped $1 million.

Macy died in Paris in 1877 of Bright’s disease. An obituary in The New York Times praised his accomplishments.“His energy and enterprise in business and the strict attention he gave to every detail of it gained for him a host of staunch friends,” the obituary noted. “In fact from comparatively nothing, he became one of the best known and most successful merchants of the day.”

That year, Macy’s famous department store employed 400. The Straus brothers ultimately became owners of the store after Macy’s death.

In 1902, the flagship store on Herald Square was built and, after a 1942 expansion, it became known as “the largest store on earth.” In the century that followed, the Macy’s brand expanded exponentially and has since become a household name, with more than 800 stores across the United States.

Henry Ford - The God Father Of Car Industry

While Ford is today known for his innovative assembly line and American-made cars, he wasn’t an instant success. In fact, his early businesses failed and left him broke five times before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company.

Childhood

Henry Ford, born July 30, 1863, was the first of William and Mary Ford's six children. He grew up on a prosperous family farm in what is today Dearborn, Michigan. Henry enjoyed a childhood typical of the rural nineteenth century, spending days in a one-room school and doing farm chores. At an early age, he showed an interest in mechanical things and a dislike for farm work.

In 1879, sixteen-year-old Ford left home for the nearby city of Detroit to work as an apprentice machinist, although he did occasionally return to help on the farm. He remained an apprentice for three years and then returned to Dearborn. During the next few years, Henry divided his time between operating or repairing steam engines, finding occasional work in a Detroit factory, and over-hauling his father's farm implements, as well as lending a reluctant hand with other farm work. Upon his marriage to Clara Bryant in 1888, Henry supported himself and his wife by running a sawmill.

As Engineer

In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit. This event signified a conscious decision on Ford's part to dedicate his life to industrial pursuits. His promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893 gave him enough time and money to devote attention to his personal experiments on internal combustion engines.

These experiments culminated in 1896 with the completion of his own self-propelled vehicle-the Quadricycle. The Quadricycle had four wire wheels that looked like heavy bicycle wheels, was steered with a tiller like a boat, and had only two forward speeds with no reverse.

Although Ford was not the first to build a self-propelled vehicle with a gasoline engine, he was, however, one of several automotive pioneers who helped this country become a nation of motorists.

Ford Motor Company

After two unsuccessful attempts to establish a company to manufacture automobiles, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated in 1903 with Henry Ford as vice-president and chief engineer. The infant company produced only a few cars a day at the Ford factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit. Groups of two or three men worked on each car from components made to order by other companies.

Henry Ford realized his dream of producing an automobile that was reasonably priced, reliable, and efficient with the introduction of the Model T in 1908. This vehicle initiated a new era in personal transportation. It was easy to operate, maintain, and handle on rough roads, immediately becoming a huge success.

By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. To meet the growing demand for the Model T, the company opened a large factory at Highland Park, Michigan, in 1910. Here, Henry Ford combined precision manufacturing, standardized and interchangeable parts, a division of labor, and, in 1913, a continuous moving assembly line. Workers remained in place, adding one component to each automobile as it moved past them on the line. Delivery of parts by conveyor belt to the workers was carefully timed to keep the assembly line moving smoothly and efficiently. The introduction of the moving assembly line revolutionized automobile production by significantly reducing assembly time per vehicle, thus lowering costs. Ford's production of Model Ts made his company the largest automobile manufacturer in the world.

The company began construction of the world's largest industrial complex along the banks of the Rouge River in Dearborn, Michigan, during the late 1910s and early 1920s. The massive Rouge Plant included all the elements needed for automobile production: a steel mill, glass factory, and automobile assembly line. Iron ore and coal were brought in on Great Lakes steamers and by railroad, and were used to produce both iron and steel. Rolling mills, forges, and assembly shops transformed the steel into springs, axles, and car bodies. Foundries converted iron into engine blocks and cylinder heads that were assembled with other components into engines. By September 1927, all steps in the manufacturing process from refining raw materials to final assembly of the automobile took place at the vast Rouge Plant, characterizing Henry Ford's idea of mass production.

Failure Is The Only Step To Success

Not everyone who’s on top today got there with success after success. More often than not, those who history best remembers were faced with numerous obstacles that forced them to work harder and show more determination than others. Next time you’re feeling down about your failures in collegeor in a career, keep these famous people in mind and remind yourself that sometimes failure is just the first step towards success.

Business Gurus

These businessmen and the companies they founded are today known around the world, but as these stories show, their beginnings weren’t always smooth.

Henry Ford
R. H. Macy
Soichiro Honda
Akio MoritaBill Gates
Harland David Sanders
Walt Disney

Scientists and Thinkers

These people are often regarded as some of the greatest minds of our century, but they often had to face great obstacles, the ridicule of their peers and the animosity of society.

Albert Einstein
Charles Darwin
Isaac Newton
Socrates

Inventors

These inventors changed the face of the modern world, but not without a few failed prototypes along the way.

Thomas Edison
Orville and Wilbur Wright

Public Figures

From politicians to talk show hosts, these figures had a few failures before they came out on top.

Winston Churchill
Abraham Lincoln
Oprah Winfrey

Hollywood Types

These faces ought to be familiar from the big screen, but these actors, actresses and directors saw their fair share of rejection and failure before they made it big.

Charlie Chaplin
Lucille Ball
Marilyn Monroe

Writers and Artists

We’ve all heard about starving artists and struggling writers, but these stories show that sometimes all that work really does pay off with success in the long run.

Vincent Van Gogh
Emily Dickinson
Steven Spielberg
Stephen King
J. K. Rowling

Musicians

While their music is some of the best selling, best loved and most popular around the world today, these musicians show that it takes a whole lot of determination to achieve success.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Elvis Presley
The Beatles
Ludwig van Beethoven

Athletes

While some athletes rocket to fame, others endure a path fraught with a little more adversity, like those listed here.

Michael Jordan
Stan Smith

I will post about every person in detailed in my further posts.

C.V.Raman - The Knight Bachelor

One of the most prominent Indian scientists in history, C.V. Raman was the first Indian person to win the Nobel Prize in science for his illustrious 1930 discovery, now commonly known as the “Raman Effect”. It is immensely surprising that Raman used an equipment worth merely Rs.200 to make this discovery. The Raman Effect is now examined with the help of equipment worth almost millions of rupees.

Early Life

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu on 7th November 1888 to a physics teacher. Raman was a very sharp student. After doing his matriculation at 12, he was supposed to go abroad for higher studies, but after medical examination, a British surgeon suggested against it. Raman instead attended Presidency College, Madras. After completing his graduation in 1904, and M.Sc. in Physics in 1907, Raman put through various significant researches in the field of physics. He studied the diffraction of light and his thesis on the subject was published in 1906.

Raman was made the Deputy Accountant General in Calcutta in 1907, after a successful Civil Service competitive examination. Very much occupied due to the job, he still managed to spare his evenings for scientific research at the laboratory of the Indian Association for Cultivation of Sciences. On certain occasions, he even spent the entire nights. Such was his passion that in 1917, he resigned from the position to become the Professor of Physics at Calcutta University.

Personal life

He was married on 6 May 1907 to Lokasundari Ammal (1892–1970) with whom he had two sons, Chandrasekhar and Radhakrishnan. On his religious views, he was said to be an agnostic. Raman retired from the Indian Institute of Science in 1944 and established the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, Karnataka a year later. He served as its director and remained active there until his death in 1970, in Bangalore, at the age of 82
C.V. Raman was the paternal uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1983) for his discovery of the Chandrasekhar limit in 1931 and for his subsequent work on the nuclear reactions necessary for stellar evolution.   

Contributions and Achievements

On a sea voyage to Europe in 1921, Raman curiously noticed the blue color of the glaciers and the Mediterranean. He was passionate to discover the reason of the blue color. Once Raman returned to India, he performed many experiments regarding the scattering of light from water and transparent blocks of ice. According to the results, he established the scientific explanation for the blue color of sea-water and sky.

There is a captivating event that served as the inspiration for the discovery of the Raman Effect. Raman was busy doing some work on a December evening in 1927, when his student, K.S. Krishnan (who later became the Director of the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi), gave him the news that Professor Compton has won the Nobel Prize on scattering of X-rays. This led Raman to have some thoughts. He commented that if the Compton Effect is applicable for X-rays, it must also be true for light. He carried out some experiments to establish his opinion.

Raman employed monochromatic light from a mercury arc which penetrated transparent materials and was allowed to fall on a spectrograph to record its spectrum. During this, Raman detected some new lines in the spectrum which were later called ‘Raman Lines’. After a few months, Raman put forward his discovery of ‘Raman Effect’ in a meeting of scientists at Bangalore on March 16, 1928, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

The ‘Raman Effect’ is considered very significant in analyzing the molecular structure of chemical compounds. After a decade of its discovery, the structure of about 2000 compounds was studied. Thanks to the invention of the laser, the ‘Raman Effect’ has proved to be a very useful tool for scientists.

Some of Raman’s other interests were the physiology of human vision, the optics of colloids and the electrical and magnetic anisotropy.

Honours and awards

Raman was honoured with a large number of honorary doctorates and memberships of scientific societies.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society early in his career (1924) and knighted in 1929.

In 1930 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1941 he was awarded the Franklin Medal.
In 1954 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna.

He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1957. In 1998, the American Chemical Society and Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science recognised Raman's discovery as an International Historic Chemical Landmark.

India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February of every year to commemorate the discovery of the Raman effect in 1928.

Later Life and Death

Sir C.V. Raman became the Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1924.At the end of October he collapsed in his laboratory, the valves of his heart having given way. He was moved to hospital and the doctors gave him four hours to live. He survived and after a few days refused to stay in the hospital as he preferred to die in the gardens of his Institute surrounded by his flowers.

Two days before Raman died, he told one of his former students, “Do not allow the journals of the Academy to die, for they are the sensitive indicators of the quality of science being done in the country and whether science is taking root in it or not.”
That same evening, Raman met with the Board of Management of his Institute and discussed (from his bed) with them any proceedings with regards to the Institute’s management. Raman passed away from natural causes early next morning, 21 November 1970.

Life Story Of Sir William Ramsay

Sir William Ramsay was an eminent British physical chemist who is credited with the discovery of argon, krypton, neon and xenon. He also demonstrated that these gases, along with helium and radon, makes the noble gases; a family of new elements. Ramsay won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his extraordinary efforts.

Early Life and Education

Ramsay was born in Glasgow on 2 October 1852, the son of civil engineer William Ramsay and Catherine, née Robertson.He was a nephew of the geologist Sir Andrew Ramsay.
He attended the Glasgow Academy and then continued his education at the University of Glasgow under Thomas Anderson and then went to study in Germany at the University of Tübingen with Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig where his doctoral thesis was entitled Investigations in the Toluic and Nitrotoluic Acids.



Ramsay returned to Glasgow as Anderson's assistant at the Anderson College. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University College of Bristol in 1879 and married Margaret Buchanan in 1881. In the same year he became the Principal of University College, Bristol, and somehow managed to combine that with active research both in organic chemistry and on gases.

Career

Blue Plaque at 12 Arundel Gardens commemorating the work of William Ramsay.
In 1887 he succeeded Alexander Williamson to the chair of Chemistry at University College London (UCL). It was here at UCL that his most celebrated discoveries were made. As early as 1885–1890 he published several notable papers on the oxides of nitrogen, developing the skills that he would need for his subsequent work.

On the evening of 19 April 1894 Ramsay attended a lecture given by Lord Rayleigh. Rayleigh had noticed a discrepancy between the density of nitrogen made by chemical synthesis and nitrogen isolated from the air by removal of the other known components.

 After a short discussion he and Ramsay decided to follow this up. By August, Ramsay could write to Rayleigh to announce that he had isolated a heavy component of air, previously unknown, which did not appear to have any obvious chemical reactivity. He named the gas "argon". In the years that followed, working with Morris Travers, he discovered neon, krypton, and xenon. He also isolated helium which had been observed in the spectrum of the sun but had not been found on earth. In 1910 he also made and characterized radon.

In 1904 Ramsay received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Ramsay's high standing in scientific circles led to him being an adviser in the setting up of the Indian Institute of Science. He suggested Bangalore as the most appropriate location for the institute.

Ramsay’s high standing in scientific circles led to his unfortunate endorsement in 1905 of the Industrial and Engineering Trust Ltd., a corporation with a supposed secret process to extract gold from seawater. The corporation bought property along the English coast to implement the gold-from-seawater process, but the company quickly faded from public view, and never produced any gold.

Contributions and Achievements

After taking over the chair of Chemistry at University College London, William Ramsay made several important discoveries and wrote many scientific papers regarding the oxides of nitrogen. Drawing inspiration from Lord Rayleigh’s 1892 discovery that the atomic weight of nitrogen found in the atmosphere was higher than that of nitrogen found in the atmosphere, Ramsay discovered a heavy gas in atmospheric nitrogen, and named it argon. One year later, he liberated helium from a mineral called cleveite.

While working with chemist Morris W. Travers in 1898, Ramsay isolated three more elements from liquid air at low temperature and high pressure, and termed them as neon, krypton, and xenon. In collaboration with another chemist, Frederick Soddy, in 1903, Ramsay showed that helium, together with a gaseous emanation called radon, is consistenly generated during the radioactive decay of radium. This discovery had a profound influence on the field of radiochemistry.

Later Life and Death

William Ramsay was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1888, and was knighted three years later, in 1902. He also worked as a president of the Chemical Society, and the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Ramsay died of nasal cancer on July 23, 1916 in Buckinghamshire, England. He was 63 years old.

Biography Of Alexander Fleming

Scottish biologist and inventor Alexander Firming is widely regarded for his 1928 discovery of penicillin, a drug that is used to kill harmful bacteria. His work on immunology, bacteriology, and chemotherapy is considered groundbreaking and highly influential.

Early Life and Education

Fleming was born on 6 August 1881 at Lochfield, a farm near Darvel, in Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the third of the four children of farmer Hugh Fleming (1816–1888) from his second marriage to Grace Stirling Morton (1848–1928), the daughter of a neighbouring farmer. Hugh Fleming had four surviving children from his first marriage. He was 59 at the time of his second marriage, and died when Alexander (known as Alec) was seven.

Fleming went to Loudoun Moor School and Darvel School, and earned a two-year scholarship to Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London, where he attended the Royal Polytechnic Institution.After working in a shipping office for four years, the twenty-year-old Fleming inherited some money from an uncle, John Fleming. His elder brother, Tom, was already a physician and suggested to his younger sibling that he follow the same career, and so in 1903, the younger Alexander enrolled at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in Paddington. He qualified MBBS from the school with distinction in 1906.

Fleming had been a private in the London Scottish Regiment of the Volunteer Force since 1900, and had been a member of the rifle club at the medical school. The captain of the club, wishing to retain Fleming in the team suggested that he join the research department at St Mary's, where he became assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer in vaccine therapy and immunology. He gained a BSc with Gold Medal in 1908, and became a lecturer at St Mary's until 1914.

On 23 December 1915, Fleming married a trained nurse, Sarah Marion McElroy of Killala, County Mayo, Ireland.

Fleming assisted in battlefield hospitals in France during World War I (1911-1918), where he observed that some soldiers, despite surviving their initial battlefield wounds, were dying of septicemia or some another infection only after a few years.


Fleming served throughout World War I as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and was Mentioned in Dispatches. He and many of his colleagues worked in battlefield hospitals at the Western Front in France. In 1918 he returned to St Mary's Hospital, where he was elected Professor of Bacteriology of the University of London in 1928.

Contributions and Achievements

Once the war was over, Fleming looked for medicines that would heal infections. The antiseptics of World War I were not totally efficient, and they primarily worked on a wound’s surface. Spraying an antiseptic made things even worse if the wound was deep.

Fleming came back to his laboratory in 1928 after a long vacation. He carried out an experiment and left several dishes with several bacteria cultures growing in them. After some time, he observed that some of the dishes were contaminated with a fungus, which ruined his experiment. He was about to discard the dishes, but he noticed that in one dish, the bacteria failed to grow in an area around the fungus.

He successfully isolated the fungus and established it was from the Penicillium group or genus. Fleming made his discovery public in 1929, however to a mixed reaction. While a few doctors thought penicillin, the antibiotic obtained from the Penicillium fungus, might have some importance as a topical antiseptic, the others were skeptical. Fleming was sure that the penicillin could also function inside the body. He performed some experiments to demonstrate that the genus of fungus had germ-killing power, even when it was diluted 800 times. Fleming tried to cultivate penicillin until 1940, but it was hard to grow, and isolating the germ-killing agent was even harder. He was unsure if it would ever work in a proper manner.

Luckily, a German Chemist, Ernst Chain, discovered the process to isolate and concentrate the germ-killing agent in penicillin some time later. Another Australian pharmacologist Howard Florey found out the ways of its mass production. During World War I, the goverments of U.S. and Great Britain funded Florey and Chain, therefore the penicillin almost became the magic spell that cured many diseases. Florey and Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945.

Personal Life and Death

Fleming married his first wife, Sarah, who died in 1949. Their only child, Robert Fleming, went on to become a general medical practitioner. Fleming married for the second time to Dr. Amalia Koutsouri-Vourekas, with whom he worked at St. Mary’s, on 9 April 1953. She also died in 1986.

Fleming died of a heart failure in London in 1955

Nephew Of Current - Alessandro Volta

Alessandro Volta is one of the most famous Italian physicists who is highly regarded for his invention of the electric cell as well as the 1777 discovery of methane.

Early life and works

Volta was born in Como, a town in present-day northern Italy (near the Swiss border) on February 18, 1745. In 1774, he became a professor of physics at the Royal School in Como. 

A year later, he improved and popularized the electrophorus, a device that produced static electricity. His promotion of it was so extensive that he is often credited with its invention, even though a machine operating on the same principle was described in 1762 by the Swedish experimenter Johan Wilcke.

Volta was raised in a strict Catholic family. He got his early education from a Jesuit school. He was adored by his teachers who thought Volta had all the abilities to become a good Jesuit priest.

In the years between 1776–78, Volta studied the chemistry of gases. He discovered methane after reading a paper by Benjamin Franklin of America on "flammable air", and Volta searched for it carefully in Italy. In November, 1776, he found methane at Lake Maggiore, and by 1778 he managed to isolate methane. He devised experiments such as the ignition of methane by an electric spark in a closed vessel. Volta also studied what we now call electrical capacitance, developing separate means to study both electrical potential (V ) and charge (Q ), and discovering that for a given object, they are proportional. This may be called Volta's Law of capacitance, and it is likely that for this work the unit of electrical potential has been named the volt.

Volta was very keen about studying electricity which was in its earliest stages at the time. He envisioned that there is a net neutral condition in a body in which all electrical attractions are neutralized. This effect could be transformed by some external source which later changes the relative configuration of the particles. Volta believed that in such an electrically unstable state, the body gets electrically charged.

In 1779 he became a professor of experimental physics at the University of Pavia, a chair that he occupied for almost 25 years. In 1794, Volta married an aristocratic lady also from Como, Teresa Peregrini, with whom he raised three sons: Giovanni, Flaminio and Zanino.

Contributions and Achievements

With this rather weak concept of an electrically charged body, Volta experimented extensively to study electrical induction. He was successful in creating some devices that were able to store electric charge. Subsequently, he gained fame and received grants to visit other countries. He also saw other famous scientists around this time. Volta accepted a teaching job at the University of Pavia where he stayed for about forty years.

Influenced by the efforts of Dc Saussure, Volta developed an interest in atmospheric electricity. He made certain modifications to the electrical instruments made by the Swiss geologist, making them more refined and precise. He came up with methods to measure the so-called “electrical tension”, later named as the volt.

Volta modified another instrument called the eudiometer, which measured the volume and composition of gases. He was successful in finding out that ordinary air contains about 21% of oxygen. The modified version of the instrument also helped Lavoisier on his legendary work regarding the composition of water. Volta found out that the inflammable gas which creates bubbles in marshes was methane, which is now used as a fuel.

Volta initially rejected the Galvani’s idea of animal electricity. When he carried out the experiment himself, he was amazed that the same effect, momentary electric current, which was discovered by Galvani, can be achieved using metals and not dead frogs. Volta made it clear that electric currents could be generated by appropriately connecting metals or wires. Using zinc and copper wires and saline solutions, Volta successfully construced the first electric battery, widely considered to be one of the greatest and most important breakthroughs in the history of science and mankind.

Later Life and Death

In honor of his work, Volta was made a count by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801. Furthermore, his image was depicted upon the Italian 10,000 lira note (no longer in circulation, since the lira has been replaced by the euro) along with a sketch of his well-known voltaic pile.

Volta retired in 1819 to his estate in Camnago,a frazione of Como, Italy, now named "Camnago Volta" in his honor. He died there on March 5, 1827.Volta's remains were also buried in Camnago Volta.

Volta's legacy is celebrated by the Tempio Voltiano memorial located in the public gardens by the lake. There is also a museum which has been built in his honor, and it exhibits some of the original equipment that Volta used to conduct experiments. Not far away stands the Villa Olmo, which houses the Voltian Foundation, an organization promoting scientific activities. Volta carried out his experimental studies and produced his first inventions near Como. Modern day honors go to him for being the father of the electric automobile. Toyota furnished the electric hybrid engine to Italian design house Giugiaro to build the Toyota Volta in 2003. Later on Chevrolet, in 2011, was only able to use the name.

Biography Of Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in Germany. He was a great physicist from America and a Nobel laureate. Einstein gained worldwide fame as he created extraordinary theories related to relativity and for his suggestions and premises that are related to the light’s particle nature. Einstein is one of the most renowned physicists of the twentieth century.

Einstein was born on 14th March, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. He spent his teenage years in Munich with his family. He and his family had an electronic equipment store. Einstein was not talkative in his childhood, and till the age of three, he didn’t talk much. But as a teenager, he had great interest in nature and had aptitude to comprehend tricky and complicated theories of arithmetic. Einstein knew geometry when he was 12 years old.

Einstein loved to be creative and innovative, therefore he loathed the boring and noncreative spirit in his school at Munich. Einstein left his school at the age of 15, as his family left Germany due to constant failure in their business. His family went to Milan and Einstein spent a year with them. It was then that he decided that, in order to survive, he has to create his own way out. He studied his secondary school from Switzerland and then joined Swiss National Polytechnic which was located in Zurich. Einstein didn’t like the teaching method there, so he bunked classes to study physics or play his violin. With the help of his classmate’s notes, he cleared his exams, and in 1900, he graduated. Einstein was not considered a good student by his teachers.

Einstein accepted the job of a professor and worked as an alternate teacher for about two years. He achieved the post of an examiner in the year 1902 in Bern at the office of Swiss patent. Einstein wedded his class mate Mileva Maric in 1903. He had two sons with her but they later divorced. After some years Einstein married someone else.

Early Scientific Publications

University of Zurich awarded Einstein doctorate in 1905 for his thesis on the different sizes and extent of molecules. In order to highlight the importance of physics, Einstein published three theoretical documents which stated the significance of physics in twentieth century. One of these papers was based on Brownian motion which discussed Einstein’s prediction related to the movement of particles that are present in any liquid. Later many experiments supported his predictions.

Einstein’s second publication discussed photoelectric effect. This paper comprised of innovative premises related to the light’s nature. Einstein gave the idea that light under some conditions contains some particles and the energy that a light particle contains is termed as photon. This photon and the radiation’s frequency are directly related. Its formula is E=hu where E is defined as the radiation’s energy and h is a constant defined as Planck’s constant and u is defined as radiation’s frequency. Einstein’s idea was rejected by everyone because it was against the conventional idea which stated that transfer of light energy is an ongoing process.

Robert Andrews, who was an American physicist, was surprised when Einstein’s theory was experimentally proven by him a decade later. Main focus of Einstein was to comprehend the nature of radiations that are electromagnetic. This led to the birth of a theory that will be a mix of light’s particle and wave nature. This theory too was comprehended by few scientists.

Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity

In 1905, Einstein’s third paper was published. It was based on dynamics of bodies in motion which later was called as the theory of relativity. The nature of radiation and matter and their interaction was the theme of discussion since the era of Newton. The view that laws of mechanics are essential is defined as the mechanical view of world, and the view that laws of electric are essential is defined as electromagnetic view of world. None of the view has been successful in giving a reliable elucidation for the interaction between matter and radiation, that is, the relation between radiation and matter is seen concurrently by the viewer at rest and a viewer travelling at consistent speed.

After observing these problems for a decade, Einstein came to the conclusion that the main problem was in the theory of measurement, and not in the theory related to matter. The main crux of Einstein’s special theory of relativity was the comprehension of the fact that all the dimensions of space and time are dependent on judgments that whether two events those are far off occur together. This hypothesis led Einstein towards the development of a theory which was based on two basic hypotheses: one that laws of physics are identical in all inertial positions. This is called as the principle of relativity. Second postulate is called as the principle of variance, according to this principle; the light’s speed is worldwide stable in a vacuum. Hence, Einstein was capable of providing reliable and accurate explanation of physical actions and measures in varying inertial positions without assuming about the matter or radiation’s nature, or their interaction. Practically, Einstein’s argument was not understood by any one.

Early Reactions to Einstein

Einstein’s work was not appreciated by others, not because it was very tough or difficult to understand, but the main problem that people faced was from Einstein’s viewpoint towards the theories and the affiliation between theory and experiment. Although Einstein believed that the sole foundation of information is experience and practice, he also maintained that scientific theories are developed by physical instinct, and the grounds on which theories are laid cannot be linked to an experiment rationally. According to Einstein, the definition of a good theory is the one that needs least number of postulates for physical confirmation. The innovation in Einstein’s postulates made it difficult for all his colleagues to understand his work.

Not many people supported Einstein. His biggest supporter was Max Planck who was a physicist from Germany. Einstein stayed at the patent agency for 4 years till the time he became famous in the physics society. He rapidly progressed upward in the educational German speaking world. In 1909, Einstein had his first meeting at the Zurich University. He then moved to the University of Prague dominated by German speaking people. He then came back to the Swiss Polytechnic in Zurich in 1912. Eventually Einstein was selected at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin as the director.

The General Theory of Relativity

In 1907 before Einstein left his job at patent office, he started working on the theory of relativity. He started by defining the equivalence principle which states that the accelerations of the frame of reference is equal to gravitational fields. For instance people while travelling in a lift are unable to make a decision that the force that they feel is felt by the elevator’s invariable acceleration or by the gravitation of the elevator. Until the year 1916, relativity theory was not available. According the general theory of relativity, the connection bodies had been attributed to the forces of gravity, are elaborated as the power of bodies on the space and time dimensions.

On the grounds on general theory of relativity, Einstein gave reasons for the changes in the orbital movement of planets that were not elaborated previously. He also told about the movement of starlight in the surroundings of a huge body like sun. Einstein became famous in 1919, when this prediction of Einstein was confirmed throughout the eclipse of the sun.

For the remaining lifetime of Einstein, he spent most of time to focus on his theory more. The last attempt of Einstein which was the theory related to the unified field was not completely successful, was an effort to comprehend the physical connections that included all weak, strong and electromagnetic interactions. This was all an adjustment of the geometry of space and time.

It was felt by most of Einstein’s classmates that these attempts were wrong. During 1915 and 1930 a new concept was in progress in the field of physics related to the basic trait of matter, also known as the quantum theory. According to this theory light has a dual character; it has the characteristics of both particle and wave, which Einstein previously considered compulsory. Also the uncertainty principle which says that accuracy in the process of measurement is restricted. In addition to this, it consisted of a new denial, at the basic level, of the idea of exact measurement. However, Einstein was not in favor of such ideas and he remained an opponent of these notions till his death.

World Citizen

Einstein became famous worldwide after 1919. He got many awards and prizes. In 1921, different scientific societies throughout the world awarded Einstein the Nobel Prize in physics. Wherever he travelled globally, that became an event. He was always followed by media. Einstein used media to add his views on society and politics.

Einstein supported pacifism and Zionism movement. While the World War I was taking place Einstein was one of the academics of Germany that criticized Germany’s participation in the war openly. He was attacked many times by Germans because of his continuous support toward Zionists and pacifist’s goals. Einstein’s theories including the relativity theory was criticized publically.

Einstein left Germany and went to United States when Hitler gained power. He got a place in New Jersey at the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton. On behalf of Zionism world Einstein continued his efforts. Einstein had to abandon pacifist because of the danger face by mankind put forward by the Nazi rule in Germany.

Einstein worked together with many other scientists in 1939 and wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, giving the option of making an atomic bomb and the possibility that the government of Germany was planning such route. As the letter was signed only by Einstein, helped in building the atomic bomb although Einstein had no participation in the whole work process and he was unaware about it.

Einstein participated actively in the international disarmament cause after the war. Einstein maintained his support with Zionism but he rejected the offer to become the president of Israel. In late 1940’s in US Einstein emphasized on the importance of making sacrifices to safeguard the freedom of politics. Einstein left this world on 18th April, 1955 in Princeton.

Some of Einstein’s efforts have been considered impractical. Einstein’s proposals had been very well managed and nicely planned and just like his theories that seemed motivated by the intuition of sound which comprised of wise and cautious observational assessment. Einstein was interested in politics and social issues too but it was science that really caught his interest and he believed that it was only the universe’s nature that mattered in the end. Relativity was found in his writings. He wrote, The Special and General Theory , About Zionism, Builders of the Universe, Why War?, The World as I See It, The Evolution of Physics and Out of My Later Years in the years 1916, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1938 and 1950 respectively. In the year 1987, Einstein’s papers had begun to get published in multiple volumes.

BhagavadGita FinalPart

LIBERATION THROUGH RENUNCIATION

Arjun said: I wish to know the nature of Samnyaas and Tyaag and the difference between the two, O Lord Krishn. (18.01) 

Definition of renunciation and sacrifice

The Supreme Lord said: The sages call Samnyaas (Renunciation) the complete renunciation of work for personal profit. The wise define Tyaag (Sacrifice) as the sacrifice of, and the freedom from, a selfish attachment to the fruits of all work. (See also 5.01, 5.05, and 6.01) (18.02) Some philosophers say that all work is full of faults and should be given up, while others say that acts of sacrifice, charity, and austerity should not be abandoned. (18.03) 

O Arjun, listen to My conclusion about sacrifice. Sacrifice is said to be of three types. (18.04) Acts of service, charity, and austerity should not be abandoned, but should be performed because service, charity, and austerity are the purifiers of the wise. (18.05) Even these obligatory works should be performed without attachment to the fruits. This is My definite supreme advice, O Arjun. (18.06) 

Three types of sacrifice

Giving up one's duty is not proper. The abandonment of obligatory work is due to delusion and is declared to be in the mode of ignorance. (18.07) One who abandons duty merely because it is difficult or because of fear of bodily affliction, does not get the benefits of sacrifice by performing such a sacrifice in the mode of passion. (18.08) Obligatory work performed as duty, renouncing selfish attachment to the fruit, is alone to be regarded as sacrifice in the mode of goodness, O Arjun. (18.09) One who neither hates a disagreeable work, nor is attached to an agreeable work, is considered a renunciant (Tyaagi), imbued with the mode of goodness, intelligent, and free from all doubts about the Supreme Being. (18.10) Human beings cannot completely abstain from work. Therefore, one who completely renounces selfish attachment to the fruits of all work is considered a renunciant. (18.11) The threefold fruit of works --- desirable, undesirable, and mixed --- accrues after death to the one who is not a Tyaagi (Renunciant), but never to a Tyaagi. (18.12)

Five causes of an action

Learn from Me, O Arjun, the five causes, as described in the Saamkhya doctrine, for the accomplishment of all actions. They are: The physical body, the seat of Karm; the modes (Gunas) of material Nature, the doer; the eleven organs of perception and action, the instruments; various Praanas (bioimpulses, life forces); and the fifth is presiding deities (of the eleven organs). (18.13-14) These are the five causes of whatever action, whether right or wrong, one performs by thought, word and deed. (18.15) Therefore, the ignorant, who consider one’s body or the soul as the sole agent, do not understand due to imperfect knowledge. (18.16) One who is free from the notion of doership and whose intellect is not polluted by the desire to reap the fruit --- even after slaying all these people --- neither slays nor is bound by the act of killing. (18.17) The subject, the object, and the knowledge of the object are the threefold driving force (or impetus) to an action. The eleven organs (of perception and action), the act, and the agent or the modes (Gunas) of material Nature are the three components of action. (18.18)

Three types of knowledge

Jnaan (Self-knowledge), Karm (Action), and Kartaa (Agent) are said to be of three types, according to the Guna theory of Saamkhya doctrine. Hear duly about these also. (18.19) The knowledge by which one sees a single immutable Reality in all beings as undivided in the divided, such knowledge is in the mode of goodness. (See also 11.13, and 13.16) (18.20) The knowledge by which one sees different realities of various types among all beings as separate from one another; such knowledge is in the mode of passion. (18.21) The irrational, baseless, and worthless knowledge by which one clings to one single effect (such as the body) as if it is everything, such knowledge is declared to be in the mode of darkness of ignorance (18.22)

Three types of action

Obligatory duty performed without likes and dislikes and without selfish motives and attachment to enjoy the fruit, is said to be in the mode of goodness. (18.23) Action performed with ego, with selfish motives, and with too much effort, is in the mode of passion. (18.24) Action that is undertaken because of delusion, disregarding consequences, loss, injury to others, as well as one’s own ability, is said to be in the mode of ignorance. (18.25)

Three types of agent

The agent who is free from attachment, is non-egotistic, endowed with resolve and enthusiasm, and unperturbed in success or failure is called good. (18.26) The agent who is impassioned, who desires the fruits of work, who is greedy, violent, impure, and gets affected by joy and sorrow; is called passionate. (18.27) The agent who is undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn, wicked, malicious, lazy, depressed, and procrastinating is called ignorant. (18.28)

Three types of intellect

Now hear Me explain fully and separately, O Arjun, the threefold division of intellect and resolve, based on modes of material Nature. (18.29) O Arjun, that intellect is in the mode of goodness which understands the path of work and the path of renunciation, right and wrong action, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation. (18.30) That intellect is in the mode of passion which cannot distinguish between righteousness (Dharm) and unrighteousness (Adharm), and right and wrong action, O Arjun. (18.31) That intellect is in the mode of ignorance which, when covered by ignorance, accepts unrighteousness (Adharm) as righteousness (Dharm) and thinks everything to be that which it is not, O Arjun. (18.32) 

Three types of resolve, and the four goals of human life

That resolve is in the mode of goodness by which one manipulates the functions of the mind, Praan (bioimpulses, life forces) and senses for God-realization only, O Arjun. (18.33) That resolve is in the mode of passion by which one, craving for the fruits of work, clings to Dharm (Duty), Arth (Wealth), and Kaam (Pleasure) with great attachment. (18.34) That resolve is in the mode of ignorance by which a dull person does not give up sleep, fear, grief, despair, and carelessness, O Arjun. (18.35)

Three types of pleasure

And now hear from Me, O Arjun, about the threefold pleasure. The pleasure that one enjoys from spiritual practice results in cessation of all sorrows. (18.36) The pleasure that appears as poison in the beginning, but is like nectar in the end, comes by the grace of Self-knowledge and is in the mode of goodness. (18.37) Sensual pleasures that appear as nectars in the beginning, but become poison in the end, are in the mode of passion. (See also 5.22) (18.38) Pleasure that confuses a person in the beginning and in the end as a result of sleep, laziness, and carelessness, is in the mode of ignorance. (18.39) There is no being, either on the earth or among the celestial controllers (Devas) in the heaven, who can remain free from these three modes (Gunas) of material Nature (Prakriti). (18.40) 

Division of labor is based on one’s ability

The division of labor into the four categories --- Braahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudr --- is also based on the qualities inherent in people’s nature (or the natural propensities, and not necessarily as one’s birth right), O Arjun. (See also 4.13) (18.41) Intellectuals who have serenity, self-control, austerity, purity, patience, honesty, transcendental knowledge, transcendental experience, and belief in God are labeled as Braahmans. (18.42) Those having the qualities of heroism, vigor, firmness, dexterity, steadfastness in battle, charity, and administrative skills are called Kshatriyas or protectors. (18.43) Those who are good at cultivation, cattle rearing, business, trade, and industry are known as Vaishyas. Those who are very good in service and labor type work are classed as Shudras. (18.44)

Attainment of salvation through duty, discipline, and devotion

One can attain the highest perfection by devotion to one’s natural work. Listen to Me how one attains perfection while engaged in one’s natural work. (18.45) One attains perfection by worshipping the Supreme Being --- from whom all beings originate, and by whom all this universe is pervaded --- through performance of one’s natural duty for Him. (See also 9.27, 12.10) (18.46) One’s inferior natural work is better than superior unnatural work even though well performed. One who does the work ordained by one’s inherent nature (without selfish motives) incurs no sin (or Karmic reaction). (See also 3.35) (18.47) One’s natural work, even though defective, should not be abandoned, because all undertakings are enveloped by defects as fire is covered by smoke, O Arjun. (18.48) The person whose mind is always free from selfish attachment, who has subdued the mind and senses, and who is free from desires, attains the supreme perfection of freedom from the bondage of Karm by renouncing selfish attachment to the fruits of work. (18.49) 

Learn from Me briefly, O Arjun, how one who has attained such perfection (or the freedom from the bondage of Karm) attains the Supreme Person, the goal of transcendental knowledge. (18.50) Endowed with purified intellect, subduing the mind with firm resolve, turning away from sound and other objects of the senses, giving up likes and dislikes; living in solitude; eating lightly; controlling the mind, speech, and organs of action; ever absorbed in yog of meditation; taking refuge in detachment; and relinquishing egotism, violence, pride, lust, anger, and proprietorship --- one becomes peaceful, free from the notion of "I” and “my", and fit for attaining oneness with the Supreme Being (ParBrahm). (18.51-53) Absorbed in the Supreme Being (ParBrahm), the serene one neither grieves nor desires. Becoming impartial to all beings, one obtains My Paraa-Bhakti, the highest devotional love. (18.54) By devotion one truly understands what and who I am in essence. Having known Me in essence, one immediately merges with Me. (See also 5.19) (18.55) 

A KarmaYogi devotee attains Moksh, the eternal immutable abode, by My grace --- even while doing all duties --- just by taking refuge in Me (by surrendering all action to Me with loving devotion). (18.56) Sincerely offer all actions to Me, set Me as your supreme goal, and completely depend on Me. Always fix your mind on Me and resort to KarmaYog. (18.57) When your mind becomes fixed on Me, you shall overcome all difficulties by My grace. But, if you do not listen to Me due to ego, you shall perish. (18.58)

Karmic bondage and the free will

If due to ego you think: I shall not fight, your resolve is vain. Because, your own nature will compel you (to fight). (18.59) O Arjun, you are controlled by your own nature-born Karmic impressions (Samskaar). Therefore, you shall do --- even against your will --- what you do not wish to do out of delusion. (18.60) The Supreme Lord, abiding as the controller (Ishvar) in the causal heart (or the inner psyche) of all beings, O Arjun, causes them to act (or work out their Karm) like a puppet (of Karm) mounted on a machine. (18.61) Seek refuge in the Supreme Lord (Krishn or Ishvar) alone with loving devotion, O Arjun. By His grace you shall attain supreme peace and the Eternal Abode (ParamDhaam). (18.62) Thus, I have explained the knowledge that is more secret than the secret. After fully reflecting on this, do as you wish. (18.63) 

Path of surrender is the ultimate path to God

Hear once again My most secret, supreme word. You are very dear to Me; therefore, I shall tell this for your benefit. (18.64) Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, offer service to Me, bow down to Me, and you shall certainly reach Me. I promise you because you are My very dear friend. (18.65) Setting aside all meritorious deeds (Dharm), just surrender completely to My will (with firm faith and loving contemplation). I shall liberate you from all sins (or the bonds of Karm). Do not grieve. (18.66) (The meaning of abandoning all duties and taking refuge in the Lord is that one should perform duty without selfish attachment as an offering to the Lord, and totally depend only on the Him for help and guidance. The Lord takes full responsibility for a person who totally depends on Him with a spirit of genuine self-surrender)

The highest service to God, and the best charity

This knowledge should never be spoken by you to one who is devoid of austerity, who is without devotion, who does not desire to listen, or who speaks ill of Me. (18.67) The one who shall propagate (or help the propagation of) this supreme secret philosophy (of the Gita) amongst My devotees, shall be performing the highest devotional service to Me and shall certainly (attain the Supreme Abode and) come to Me. (18.68) No other person shall do a more pleasing service to Me, and no one on the earth shall be more dear to Me. (18.69)

The grace of the Gita

Those who shall study our sacred dialogue shall be performing a holy act of sacrifice (JnaanYajn, knowledge-sacrifice). This is My promise. (18.70) Whoever hears or reads this sacred dialogue in the form of the Gita with faith and without cavil becomes free from sin, and attains heaven --- the higher worlds of those whose actions are pure and virtuous. (18.71) O Arjun, did you listen to this with single-minded attention? Has your delusion born of ignorance been completely destroyed? (18.72) Arjun said: By Your grace my delusion is destroyed; I have gained Self-knowledge; my confusion (with regard to body and Atma) is dispelled; and I shall obey Your command. (18.73) Sanjay said: Thus, I heard this wonderful dialogue between Lord Krishn and Mahaatma Arjun, causing my hair to stand on end. (18.74) By the grace of (guru) sage Vyaas, I heard this most secret and supreme yog directly from Krishn, the Lord of yog, Himself speaking (to Arjun) before my very eyes (of clairvoyance granted by sage Vyaas). (18.75) O King, by repeated remembrance of this marvelous and sacred dialogue between Lord Krishn and Arjun, I am thrilled at every moment, and (18.76) recollecting again and again, O King, that marvelous form of Krishn I am greatly amazed, and I rejoice over and over again. (18.77) 

Both transcendental knowledge and action are needed for a balanced living

Wherever there will be both Krishn, the Lord of yog (or Dharm in the form of the scriptures (Shaastr)), and Arjun with the weapons (Shastr) of duty and protection, there will be everlasting prosperity, victory, happiness, and morality. This is my conviction. (18.78) 

HARIH AUM TATSAT, HARIH AUM TATSAT,
HARIH AUM TATSAT

This book is offered to Lord Shri Krishn. May

He bless us all with Goodness, Prosperity, and Peace.

EPILOGUE

The Farewell Message of Lord Krishn

Lord Krishn, on the eve of His departure from the arena of this world, after finishing the difficult task of establishing righteousness (Dharm), gave His last parting discourse to His cousin brother Uddhav, who was also His dearest devotee and follower. At the end of a long sermon comprising more than one thousand verses, Uddhav said: O Lord, I think the pursuit of yog as You narrated to Arjun and now to me, is very difficult, indeed, for most people; because, it entails control of the unruly senses. Please tell me a short, simple, and easy way to God-realization. Lord Krishn, upon Uddhava’s request, gave the essentials of Self-realization for the modern age as follows:

(1) Do your duty to the best of your abilities for Me, without any selfish motive, and remember Me at all times --- before starting a work, at the completion of a task, and while inactive. (2) Practice looking upon all creatures as Myself in thought, word, and deed; and mentally bow down to them. (3) Awaken your dormant Kundalini power and perceive --- through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions --- that the power of God is within you at all times and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument. Yogiraj Mumtaz Ali says: The one who fully knows oneself as a mere instrument and a playground of mother Nature (Prakriti, mind), knows the Truth. Cessation of all desires by realizing the true essence of the world and the human mind is Self-realization. Paramahams Hariharananda Giri says: God is in everything as well as above everything. So if you want to realize Him, you must seek and see Him in every atom, in every matter, in every bodily function, and in every human being with an attitude of surrender.

The essence of God-realization is also summarized in the four verses of the Bhaagavat Mahaa-Puraan (BMP 2.09.32-35) as follows:

The Supreme Lord Krishn said: O Brahmaa, the one who wants to know Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Shri Krishn, should only understand that I existed before creation, I exist in creation, as well as after dissolution. Any other existence is nothing but My illusory energy (Maya). I exist within the creation and at the same time outside the creation. I am the all-pervading Supreme Lord who exists everywhere, in everything, and at all times.