Acknowledgements
First and foremost I would like to sincerely thank all my loving family, my Sahajayogi friends around me, without whom moral support and timely help I would have never continued studying for my Masters.
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my second family, i.e, all the faculty of SUNYIT. I had a really wonderful time with the staff in our school. To Dr.Patrick Fitzgibbons who served as my thesis advisor and my buddy. I am proud that I was able to finish his toughest classes successfully. He always pushed me to my limits to get the best out of me. Like a big brother he brought a cake to my class on my birthday.
To our Director Dr.Eugene Newman, and Dr.Larry Hash, faculty in the Telecommunication department who has been a fatherly figure to me. I am grateful to Dr.Eugene Newman and his wife for frequently inviting us for dinner at his house. Dr.Larry Hash crucial feedback has always helped me to find the missing link during these studies. To Dr.Rosemary Mullick, my statistics advisor, without whom the statistics part of this thesis would not have been completed successfully. She and her late husband Dr.Brig Mullick were always generous in inviting the entire international student body for dinner at their house. To all the learning center tutors who helped me in proof-reading my essays and survey. To all my friends on the campus who let me stay at their place while working on this thesis during the weekend.
And finally my parents and my sisters, whose faith, patience and teaching had always inspired me to walk upright in my life. And the most important of all, my spiritual teacher Mrs.Nirmala Shrivastava whose teaching helped me to make my life a better place to live and gave me this ability to share the joy with the world. Without all these beautiful people my world would have been an empty place.