NOW, CALLING CUSTOMER CARE IS NOT FREE

Next time, you make a call to your cell operators’ customer care number, and are made to wait endlessly for the executive at the other end to answer your query, don’t hang on, thinking it to be a toll free call. At least two of the cellular operators in the region, Idea Cellular and Vodafone, have now started billing their customers for calling on their customer care number.




It is learnt that both Idea Cellular and Vodafone have begun charging its customers at the rate of Rs 0.50 per three minute, for making calls on its customer care numbers (98140-12345 and 111 respectively). These charges are being levied for the past one-week. Interestingly, subscribers of both cellular operators claim that they have not been informed about the calls now being charged. While Idea has 30.81 lakh subscribers in the Punjab circle, Vodafone has 29.23 lakh customers in this circle.

Officials in the customer care centre of the two companies contended that the customers had not been informed, but said the information was being provided to all those people who had called on the ‘helpline’ number. They also said those subscribers having a corporate connection were not being charged for calls to customer care service.



Though the other cellular operators in the Punjab circle- Airtel, Tata Telecom, Reliance and BSNL have not yet started charging their customers for this service, sources say that at least two of the companies are mulling imposing a minimal charge to customers.



When contacted, executives at the Idea Cellular service informed TNS that though calls to the customer care number - 98140-12345, were now charged, they had introduced another toll free service, which could be availed by dialing 198. However, customers can only register their complaints on this number. They cannot know about their bill, tariff or any other issue related to the cellular service.

Taking up the issue on behalf of the customers, Randhir Verma, president of Chandigarh and Punjab Telecom Subscribers Association, said he would write to TRAI against these companies.

Science behind GAYATRI MANTRA

Gayatri mantra has been bestowed the greatest importance in Vedic dharma. This mantra has also been termed as Savitri and Ved-Mata, the mother of the Vedas.

Om bhur bhuvah swah

Tat savitur varenyam

Bhargo devasya dheemahi

Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat


The literal meaning of the mantra is:

O God! You are Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Almighty, You are all Light. You are all Knowledge and Bliss. You are Destroyer of fear, You are Creator of this Universe, You are the Greatest of all. We bow and meditate upon Your light. You guide our intellect in the right direction.


The mantra, however, has a great scientific importance too, which somehow got lost in the literary tradition. The modern astrophysics and astronomy tell us that our Galaxy called Milky Way or Akash-Ganga contains approximately 100,000 million of stars. Each star is like our sun having its own planet system. We know that the moon moves round the earth and the earth moves round the sun along with the moon. All planets round the sun. Each of the above bodies revolves round at its own axis as well. Our sun along with its family takes one round of the galactic center in 22.5 crore years. All galaxies including ours are moving away at a terrific velocity of 20,000 mile s per second.



(A). OM BHUR BHUVAH SWAH:

Bhur the earth, bhuvah the planets (solar family), swah the Galaxy. We observe that when an ordinary fan with a speed of 900 RPM (rotations Per minute) moves, it makes noise. Then, one can imagine, what great noise would be created when the galaxies move with a speed of 20,000 miles per second. This is what this portion of the mantra explains that the sound produced due to the fast-moving earth, planets and galaxies is Om. The sound was heard during meditation by Rishi Vishvamitra, who mentioned it to other colleagues. All of them, then unanimously decided to call this sound Om the name of God, because this sound is available in all the three periods of time, hence it is set (permanent). Therefore, it was the first ever revolutionary idea to identify formless God with a specific title (form) called upadhi. Until that time, everybody recognized God as formless and nobody was prepared to accept this new idea. In the Gita also, it is said, "Omiti ekaksharam brahma", meaning that the name of the Supreme is Om , which contains only one syllable (8/12). This sound Om heard during samadhi was called by all the seers nada-brahma a very great noise), but not a noise that is normally heard beyond a specific amplitude and limits of decibels suited to human hearing. Hence the rishis called this sound Udgith musical sound of the above, i.e., heaven. They also noticed that the infinite mass of galaxies moving with a velocity of 20,000 miles/second was generating a kinetic energy = 1/2 MV2 and this was balancing the total energy consumption of the cosmos. Hence they named it Pranavah, which means the body (vapu) or store house of energy

(B). TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM:

Tat that (God), savitur the sun (star), varenyam worthy of bowing or respect. Once the form of a person along with the name is known to us, we may locate the specific person.Hence the two titles (upadhi) provide the solid ground to identify the formless God, Vishvamitra suggested. He told us that we could know (realize) the unknowable formless God through the known factors, viz., sound Om and light of suns (stars). A mathematician can solve an equation x2+y2=4; if x=2; then y can be known and so on. An engineer can measure the width of a river even by standing at the riverbank just by drawing a triangle. So was the scientific method suggested by Vishvamitra in the mantra in the next portion as under:-


(C). BHARGO DEVASYA DHEEMAHI:

Bhargo the light, devasya of the deity, dheemahi we should meditate. The rishi instructs us to meditate upon the available form (light of suns) to discover the formless Creator (God). Also he wants us to do japa of the word Om (this is understood in the Mantra). This is how the sage wants us to proceed, but there is a great problem to realize it, as the human mind is so shaky and restless that without the grace of the Supreme (Brahma) it cannot be controlled. Hence Vishvamitra suggests the way to pray Him as under:

(D). DHIYO YO NAH PRACHODAYAT:

Dhiyo (intellect), yo (who), nah (we all), prachodayat (guide to right Direction). O God! Deploy our intellect on the right path. Full scientific interpretation of the Mantra: The earth (bhur), the planets (bhuvah), and the galaxies (swah) are moving at a very great velocity, the sound produced is Om , (the name of formless God.) That God (tat), who manifests Himself in the form of light of suns (savitur) is worthy of bowing/respect (varenyam). We all, therefore, should meditate (dheemahi) upon the light (bhargo) of that deity (devasya) and also do chanting of Om. May He (yo) guide in right direction (prachodayat) our(nah) intellect dhiyo.

So we notice that the important points hinted in the mantra are:-
1) The total kinetic energy generated by the movement of galaxies acts as an umbrella and balances the total energy consumption of the cosmos. Hence it was named as the Pranavah (body of energy). This is equal to 1/2 mv2 (Mass of galaxies x squre of velocity.)



2) Realizing the great importance of the syllable OM , the other later date religions adopted this word with a slight change in accent, viz., Amen and Ameen.