The moment a politician gets to know that he/she is declared a winner, they announce, “I feel humbled”. And then onwards, it is humility all the way! They are so keen about others too having a feel of that humility, that they take the trouble of ‘humiliating’ common man in all possible ways, lest they ‘miss’ that touch of humility!
I was trying to find out the other day, if the youth of today, are keen about staying as a ‘student’ throughout their life, after finishing academics, getting a job, raising a family, stepping into ‘elderly-hood’ etc. So, I asked the ‘requisite’ to retain this ‘student’ nature, within. I suggested to look at ‘humility’ in a very deep sense. We happened to take a look at examples that would help that ‘deep’ look at it. The popular use of it seemed to just give the ‘cosmetic’ meanings, more useful for speech-making etc!
There was that story of the great legendary musician “Saint Thyagaraja”…. He had gained so much popularity that people from all over came to visit him. It seems a frail simple looking man once turned up to have his ‘darshan’, and requested the great singer to sing a song. It seems Thyagaraja was visibly annoyed at an individual coming up and asking him to sing ‘just like that’! The visitor was chided for that audacity, and asked to wait amidst the mob, at some nearby temple, and listen from a distance when he ‘happens’ to sing for the large audience. The visitor meekly seemed to accept the admonition. This further encouraged Thyagaraja to challenge him further, asking him “What do you know about music, that you have the boldness to come straight to me, and ask me to sing for you? Come on, show me what you can do?...” The visitor apologetically and very hesitantly said that all he knew was to sing the same song in 6 different time-scales (kaalaa’s in Carnatic music). And he demonstrated it by singing a song thus. Thyagaraja was not prepared for the shock he felt, at this amazing capability he saw! The visitor was none other than “Shat-kaala Govinda Marar” , a musician famous for this very capability. It is said that the experience went deep into Thyagaraja, and the result was an outpouring of the famous song “endaro Mahaanu bhaavulu” (Countless great persons, I bow to all of them!). But for this visitor, we would have missed that song from the great composer! A deep experience of ‘Humility’ brought out the potential for yet another master piece song! The stretching of potential happened after he became a well accomplished composer!
Another typical example was from the stories about devotional saint ‘Meerabai’. She happened to visit a spiritual practitioner, famous for his siddhis, and such accomplishments. In those days, yogic practices were ‘out of bounds’ for ladies, so Meerabai had nothing to boast about. No formal training in meditative practices etc. All she knew as just total surrender to the divine. She felt that it was her duty to visit such famous people who did rigorous practices, and take their blessings to evolve further. Our expert in Yoga was camping on a hill top, and the very backdrop presented the awesome ambience that he chose to pursue the tough practices. As Meerabai climbed the hill to approach the hermitage of this Yogi, she was stopped en-route by a disciple-cum-guard of the hermitage. She was told ‘Our Master does not permit females to approach him for blessings’. At this, Meerabai had no choice but to return disappointed with the futility of the arduous climb this far. But not before asking that disciple to convey a message from her to his master, “please tell him, I never knew of another ‘purusha’ till now, and I thought there was only one ‘purusha’ in this universe”. Purusha is a word for “male”. The disciple could not guess the deeper meaning of this message, and simply conveyed it to his master without loss of time. The yogi at once got the meaning, and ran down the hill to catch up with Meerabai who was returning at her pace. The Yogi fell at her feet and requested her to accept him as her disciple! ( I hold back further elaboration about that singular purusha aspect, to avoid deviation from subject title).
And one more instance of Saint Ramakrishna. He did not have much of a formal education. His prayers got answered and goddess kaali appeared before him, ready to impart knowledge. He asked the goddess to pause, first convert him into a child and then proceed to impart knowledge. Here , Ramakrishna was referring to the child-like nature of that innocence which enables unhindered inflow of knowledge. The humility within a child is latent, and not tangible. Also, Ramakrishna chose to ask “make me a child”, implying, ‘please infuse a large dose of humility in me’. Scientists concur that the intelligence to grasp things is at its peak during early childhood.
We concluded the discussion about humility thus, for the time being.
Psn(30th July, 2009)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
All about nothing!
It is a bit rare to find a question as this. I am ever on the look out for such ones. The asker simply gets 'unmasked', as I would love to put it.
Some of those who take the trouble of reading right through to the end are likely to feel a bit dissappointed. It is therefore that I cautiously gave this title.
But I would love to call it thus:
Saawan hee Aag lagaaye tho…
Some ‘freaks’ like me, are on the look out for like ones in the ‘offing’.
For what ever it does(to you), I would still like to share my answer, with a deep sense of gratitude to the asker for having ‘thought’ of asking it!
Regards,
Psn(23rd July, 2009)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090723001325AAewvpW
Philosophy sort of question?
Not that long ago (like 2 hours ago) i was sitting around listening to music and i looked at the time (a digital clock) and it got me thinking about existence. So after i thought for a bit, i wrote something down to see what it looked like:"I always thought that there can't be nothing. That there has to be SoMETHING. But maybe there is nothing. Nothing at all. Like everything we see, touch, feel, smell, taste (physically, i mean) is nothing. We think it's there but it's not. Even ourselves aren't there. We're nothing (again, physically). But our souls, or minds, or whatever the **** we are, they are just there and everything is just some sort of illusion created by ourselves all together, creating this illusion of everything (which is nothing) as one. But we don't realize this illusion we created and are creating. All our souls, or minds, or whatever the **** are synced or linked only to sense this world we live in. Going further, perhaps other souls, or minds, or whatever the **** are synced to a different world with different types of senses and beings and everything. So we live in this world based on nothing. And really, therefore, everything is meaningless because nothing is real because there is nothing, although it seems so real because our minds have been and still are making it seem real. Everyone's ambitions, dreams goals, and accomplishments are fake because nothing is there at all. Nihilism, i guess. I don't know, really."It might be a little confusing for others to read or get what i'm saying but what do you think about it? And are there other ideas out there that are exactly or similar to this? Note: Just to clarify, this is not something i'm going to be living by, just some quick thing i thought of out of nowhere.
Additional Details
I'm not saying we don't actually exist, but that we don't exist physically. Like our minds create the world and it is like a playground of sorts. Yes, we think, and yes, we are, but only in our own minds
My answer:
Ah! Though well meant, it would have been quite 'mystic' to have omitted the additional details !To create this 'sort' of awareness, we have 'structured' mystic practices in India, since ancient times. Your choice of words vouches for the genuineness! Travelling upwards from the end of your question, you have rightly said that this is not something you are going to live by. In fact you can not live by it. You can be aware of it, so that the actual living becomes feather light and yet very intense! This awareness is also called a deeper level of 'consciousness' where the logical mind finds a little bit of 'struggle' to negate this 'experience', but then the 'experience' by itself, effortlessly seems to subdue the 'logic' without even bothering to 'refute' it!What you call as 'synced' is the crucial link, that decides the very quality of our perceptional capabilities. When people get into spiritual practices, all they can do is to improve the quality of 'waiting' for this 'syncd' phenomenon or factor to 'happen' by itself, so that after a good lot of practise, the happening is with a better cetainity, and along with this degree of certainity, the depth and clarity of this 'link' affords a deeper experience, and then there is a choice to shift from gross material level of awareness, to the subtle level. The subtle level resolves most conflicts and confusions presented by the gross level, much to surprise and baffled look of onlookers, who then choicelessly call it 'mysticism' and the person a 'mystic'. When we 'slip' into this dimension of consciousness a bit unawares or unprepared, our mannerisms and manifest behaviour could cause a look of concern. The 'nothingness' that you mention in the opening is in fact an expression of an intense experience that suffers want of appropriate word, and we happen to choose the nearest available word 'nothing'. Please see, another word 'everything' also seems to suit(since you have an experience), but to a common logical mind, 'everything' utterly defies logic. Logic and the available words are devices to handle only items within the sphere of sensory level of perception. Now, please see, your (inner) experience did not require any sensory level perception, or even logic(in fact you are struggling to convey it in a manner to seem with a 'logical appeal'!). The clue is when you said "We're nothing(again physically)." It does look like a contradiction, but the experience was so clear!I can only 'wish' that you get picked up by a good guiide, who would ensure that your 'readiness' does not wait too long to 'step' in!The chance to take up this question is in itself a complete reward!
My sincere best wishes.
Some of those who take the trouble of reading right through to the end are likely to feel a bit dissappointed. It is therefore that I cautiously gave this title.
But I would love to call it thus:
Saawan hee Aag lagaaye tho…
Some ‘freaks’ like me, are on the look out for like ones in the ‘offing’.
For what ever it does(to you), I would still like to share my answer, with a deep sense of gratitude to the asker for having ‘thought’ of asking it!
Regards,
Psn(23rd July, 2009)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090723001325AAewvpW
Philosophy sort of question?
Not that long ago (like 2 hours ago) i was sitting around listening to music and i looked at the time (a digital clock) and it got me thinking about existence. So after i thought for a bit, i wrote something down to see what it looked like:"I always thought that there can't be nothing. That there has to be SoMETHING. But maybe there is nothing. Nothing at all. Like everything we see, touch, feel, smell, taste (physically, i mean) is nothing. We think it's there but it's not. Even ourselves aren't there. We're nothing (again, physically). But our souls, or minds, or whatever the **** we are, they are just there and everything is just some sort of illusion created by ourselves all together, creating this illusion of everything (which is nothing) as one. But we don't realize this illusion we created and are creating. All our souls, or minds, or whatever the **** are synced or linked only to sense this world we live in. Going further, perhaps other souls, or minds, or whatever the **** are synced to a different world with different types of senses and beings and everything. So we live in this world based on nothing. And really, therefore, everything is meaningless because nothing is real because there is nothing, although it seems so real because our minds have been and still are making it seem real. Everyone's ambitions, dreams goals, and accomplishments are fake because nothing is there at all. Nihilism, i guess. I don't know, really."It might be a little confusing for others to read or get what i'm saying but what do you think about it? And are there other ideas out there that are exactly or similar to this? Note: Just to clarify, this is not something i'm going to be living by, just some quick thing i thought of out of nowhere.
Additional Details
I'm not saying we don't actually exist, but that we don't exist physically. Like our minds create the world and it is like a playground of sorts. Yes, we think, and yes, we are, but only in our own minds
My answer:
Ah! Though well meant, it would have been quite 'mystic' to have omitted the additional details !To create this 'sort' of awareness, we have 'structured' mystic practices in India, since ancient times. Your choice of words vouches for the genuineness! Travelling upwards from the end of your question, you have rightly said that this is not something you are going to live by. In fact you can not live by it. You can be aware of it, so that the actual living becomes feather light and yet very intense! This awareness is also called a deeper level of 'consciousness' where the logical mind finds a little bit of 'struggle' to negate this 'experience', but then the 'experience' by itself, effortlessly seems to subdue the 'logic' without even bothering to 'refute' it!What you call as 'synced' is the crucial link, that decides the very quality of our perceptional capabilities. When people get into spiritual practices, all they can do is to improve the quality of 'waiting' for this 'syncd' phenomenon or factor to 'happen' by itself, so that after a good lot of practise, the happening is with a better cetainity, and along with this degree of certainity, the depth and clarity of this 'link' affords a deeper experience, and then there is a choice to shift from gross material level of awareness, to the subtle level. The subtle level resolves most conflicts and confusions presented by the gross level, much to surprise and baffled look of onlookers, who then choicelessly call it 'mysticism' and the person a 'mystic'. When we 'slip' into this dimension of consciousness a bit unawares or unprepared, our mannerisms and manifest behaviour could cause a look of concern. The 'nothingness' that you mention in the opening is in fact an expression of an intense experience that suffers want of appropriate word, and we happen to choose the nearest available word 'nothing'. Please see, another word 'everything' also seems to suit(since you have an experience), but to a common logical mind, 'everything' utterly defies logic. Logic and the available words are devices to handle only items within the sphere of sensory level of perception. Now, please see, your (inner) experience did not require any sensory level perception, or even logic(in fact you are struggling to convey it in a manner to seem with a 'logical appeal'!). The clue is when you said "We're nothing(again physically)." It does look like a contradiction, but the experience was so clear!I can only 'wish' that you get picked up by a good guiide, who would ensure that your 'readiness' does not wait too long to 'step' in!The chance to take up this question is in itself a complete reward!
My sincere best wishes.
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