But for this occurrence, or even the ‘sighting’ of ‘child prodigies’, people would never even need to take a second look at the possibility of some kind of ‘carry-forward’ from the period before birth!
Without a heavy compromise of restricting our arguments to the sensory perceptional levels, there is no way to ‘appeal’ to the logical minds. Without that appeal, where is the scope for motivation, inspiration, persuasion, etc?
Despite my ‘guarded’ attempts to refrain from looking at questions which instantly require us to peek into intangible areas, I did ‘trip/slip’ this time too. While I least expected the answer to find any appeal, the comments made me further inquisitive about any such others who would concur with it! (Otherwise, prodigies are never a bother for us, and often, they seldom make it big later on too! The added advantages are often got lost, with we people around!)
Psn(30th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100828101056AAAPfht
How come child prodigies are born ?is it because of purva punyam ?
Taking another birth or accepting another body is very subtle. Senses are higher than the dull matter, mind is higher than the senses and intelligence is still higher than the mind and soul is still subtler than the intelligence. Soul being subtler than the intelligence, mind, senses does not require transfer of genes.source;-mr.nitai gaura
My answer:
Almost a decade ago, there was a news that the algae, the largest producers of oxygen-for-human-inhalation(largest, because of the low heights too), some where in Russia, had to reprogram its children through cell-modification, to survive. The mills nearby a river started polluting the water, causing survival threat to these algae. Over a few generations, these algae started releasing some toxins which would withstand any boiling or any filtration. And these toxins were lethal during intake of this water by humans. The newspaper caption warned "respect nature, or else perish". The newspapers added that if nothing was done, this threat would overtake even HIV problem in magnitude. (Within algae, the latest child-algae is a child prodigy!). If we are prepared to keep an open mind and look at collective will over generations, many factors contribute towards this factor of 'child-prodigy'. And what we value presently, also goes into 'branding' it as prodigy. For instance, a child who can write beautifully some years ago, gets better recognition. Computers have taken away the need for good handwriting. A child who happens to sing well does not get any recognition amidst a deaf-group.
Traditionally, in ancient days, importance used to be given for highest possibility of human birth. Therefore, prodigies were also recognised, mostly for that aspect. That gave rise to the concept of generations of carefully 'arranged' off-springs. When this highest aspect faded out due to other pressing priorities of life, this concept got disregarded.
(There was a technique, which now looks like a myth/blind belief. We used to 'invoke' potential person into a womb through rituals). But we still use this technique with milch animals like cows/buffaloes, with edible grains like rice-varieties, etc, where we consciously do not mix up breeds, strains. That is because we use people and love things. Earlier they loved people and used things.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Death Revisited
Questions about death continue to fascinate me. Only that, now the fascination is about inspiring others too, to deepen their casual enquiries. It is rare to find a youngster who is slightly above par about those primitive fears of death. All that is required is to ‘trim’ the needless comparison with ‘fears’ or its other forms that others manifest. Once a person shifts the focus within, sans comparison, the search gets a kick-start.
I am almost sure that the suggestive arguments would make at least some dent into the hard coating that prevents the asker from taking a bite deeper than the ‘peel of life’. Understanding of life, is the key to solve the puzzle about death.
Maybe, the question and answer might interest some of you too.
Regards,
Psn(27th August, 2010)
Quote:
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100826184538AADSZ2C&r=w#NbUvWzq9WThW9GWqYeRc
The question:
Why does death not bother me?
It doesn't bother me when people die. And the thought of me dying is whatever. But, when people die around me ( grandpa , grandma , aunt ) It doesn't bother me. I pretended to cry about my grandpa so my parents thought I cared when I was 12. I avoided my mom when my grandma died because it was awkward with my mom breaking down and me not giving any sort of .. anything really?(A little happy , I hated going there during holidays) And I didn't really care that my aunt died. I also make a lot of jokes about my dead grandma , and how it doesn't bother me at all , and I'd go piss in her ashes. Idk. I don't think anything is wrong with me. But I'd like to see what people think it is. It doesn't bother me that I don't care. It bothers me why everyone else cares? Idk.. I am an Atheist , and 17.
My answer:
Well, there could be more to it than what appears on the surface.
The significant point is that somewhere a subtle clarity has permeated about the phenomenon of death, though at only tangible levels. The 'does not bother me' factor is owed to deep acceptance of inevitability about it, within. The incidental benefit is avoidance of a negative emotion, fear. This is the most of significant things. These significant things accrue as an advantage only if our 'does not bother me' can also accommodate "and therefore it also interests me, now with a comparatively open mind, to see what it is all about". The reason that could persuade such an interest is that, as yet, science has been able to define death only in physiological or pathological sense, calling it 'clinical' death. Death Certificates are issued out only after examining the clinical aspect of the physical body, and no more! But many a times the cause of death is baffling. Postmortem would end up with 'natural death' when the subtle reason remains elusive. There have been people who could just walk out of the body, at will (and, that is more sensible form of 'natural' death, not when the 'life' energy finds the body unfit to accommodate it anymore!).
Being an atheist is an advantage to get faster towards the truth, 'experientially' with just an inquisitive open mind, which refuses to blindly believe or even disbelieve anything! (Please see, right now, to 'feel' the "I" as an experience, we do not really seem to need any of the sensory level perceptions. We have those dreams during sleep, when all the sense organs are withdrawn! Yet, we have to accept, that it is the sense organs, that helped us to evolve into 'self' awareness, as a growing child. Mostly it is the 'pain' or a small injury at the toe, in the leg, that we simultaneously look at and feel, which affords us to grasp that toe as ours, a part of 'me'... till then the baby makes an Herculian effort to gather the foot with both those tiny palms, and pushes the big toe into its own mouth, trying to find out what it is by taste!). We don't care(death) because it does not bother us. Right now bother is about fear, apprehension etc. But, if it were really a comprehensive "don't bother", why would this question appear at all? There is the subtle clue, the silver lining. Something within is persuading to know itself, perhaps through this/such questions. It does make sense to bother about our 'own' curiosities!
(To make it a very private investigation, avoiding the risk of embarrassment, why not try to find out why we wake up, after deep sleep? Remember, there is that 'coma' state, where the clinical 'life' is still ticking, without 'wakeful' state. Or, why not try to become aware of that 'exact-precise' moment when we fall asleep? Through experience, not logical words, thoughts, or arguments, please...)
Best wishes.
I am almost sure that the suggestive arguments would make at least some dent into the hard coating that prevents the asker from taking a bite deeper than the ‘peel of life’. Understanding of life, is the key to solve the puzzle about death.
Maybe, the question and answer might interest some of you too.
Regards,
Psn(27th August, 2010)
Quote:
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100826184538AADSZ2C&r=w#NbUvWzq9WThW9GWqYeRc
The question:
Why does death not bother me?
It doesn't bother me when people die. And the thought of me dying is whatever. But, when people die around me ( grandpa , grandma , aunt ) It doesn't bother me. I pretended to cry about my grandpa so my parents thought I cared when I was 12. I avoided my mom when my grandma died because it was awkward with my mom breaking down and me not giving any sort of .. anything really?(A little happy , I hated going there during holidays) And I didn't really care that my aunt died. I also make a lot of jokes about my dead grandma , and how it doesn't bother me at all , and I'd go piss in her ashes. Idk. I don't think anything is wrong with me. But I'd like to see what people think it is. It doesn't bother me that I don't care. It bothers me why everyone else cares? Idk.. I am an Atheist , and 17.
My answer:
Well, there could be more to it than what appears on the surface.
The significant point is that somewhere a subtle clarity has permeated about the phenomenon of death, though at only tangible levels. The 'does not bother me' factor is owed to deep acceptance of inevitability about it, within. The incidental benefit is avoidance of a negative emotion, fear. This is the most of significant things. These significant things accrue as an advantage only if our 'does not bother me' can also accommodate "and therefore it also interests me, now with a comparatively open mind, to see what it is all about". The reason that could persuade such an interest is that, as yet, science has been able to define death only in physiological or pathological sense, calling it 'clinical' death. Death Certificates are issued out only after examining the clinical aspect of the physical body, and no more! But many a times the cause of death is baffling. Postmortem would end up with 'natural death' when the subtle reason remains elusive. There have been people who could just walk out of the body, at will (and, that is more sensible form of 'natural' death, not when the 'life' energy finds the body unfit to accommodate it anymore!).
Being an atheist is an advantage to get faster towards the truth, 'experientially' with just an inquisitive open mind, which refuses to blindly believe or even disbelieve anything! (Please see, right now, to 'feel' the "I" as an experience, we do not really seem to need any of the sensory level perceptions. We have those dreams during sleep, when all the sense organs are withdrawn! Yet, we have to accept, that it is the sense organs, that helped us to evolve into 'self' awareness, as a growing child. Mostly it is the 'pain' or a small injury at the toe, in the leg, that we simultaneously look at and feel, which affords us to grasp that toe as ours, a part of 'me'... till then the baby makes an Herculian effort to gather the foot with both those tiny palms, and pushes the big toe into its own mouth, trying to find out what it is by taste!). We don't care(death) because it does not bother us. Right now bother is about fear, apprehension etc. But, if it were really a comprehensive "don't bother", why would this question appear at all? There is the subtle clue, the silver lining. Something within is persuading to know itself, perhaps through this/such questions. It does make sense to bother about our 'own' curiosities!
(To make it a very private investigation, avoiding the risk of embarrassment, why not try to find out why we wake up, after deep sleep? Remember, there is that 'coma' state, where the clinical 'life' is still ticking, without 'wakeful' state. Or, why not try to become aware of that 'exact-precise' moment when we fall asleep? Through experience, not logical words, thoughts, or arguments, please...)
Best wishes.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
PreOccupied Mind
I had to ‘spin’ an illogical story, to illustrate a point. Any resemblance to reality would put off the listener badly enough. Though no harm or loss is a potential threat to me, the purpose of query gets lost (perhaps for an indefinite length of time, like the ‘sine die’ adjournment of our parliament!).
So, the story comes first. A resident doctor of a mental asylum had to give a significant dose of medicine, having prepared the body for nearly 40 days, with those preparatory medicines. Even a day’s delay would entail redoing the 40 days of preparatory doses of medicines. Very unfortunately the nurse in-charge of that patient had to leave abruptly and quite unprepared to be able to make alternative arrangement. That patient was amenable only to that nurse (quite understandable). The doctor was the next person to whom this patient would listen to some extent. Now, the doctor had to take a chance with the patient himself, to administer this dose of crucial medicine. To the best of his abilities, the doctor talks for a while to the patient, to get him to listen to the instructions. The patient, find the doctor ‘unusually’ amenable and quite mechanically reciprocates the mannerism. Using the right moment, the doctor says “ I know, I can trust you to remember carefully, and swallow this medicine tomorrow, one pill before meals three times, three meals…. One pill, three times, ….. three meals….Please remember well!” (The doctor knew too well, only the nurse can make this patient swallow the pill, other wise, appeal to the patient himself thus). The patient, chose to hold the pills tight in the fist, dance and jump, in circles repeating incessantly, “three times, one pill each time, before meals,… before meals.. before meals,… one pill, three times….” . The doctor felt quite satisfied. He could get the patient to repeat this important thing so cheerfully, so many times. So very less chance that he would miss the medicine. The doctor too had to visit else where the next day, and could not even come to see if the medicine was swallowed.
On the day after this ‘tomorrow’ the doctor came on routine rounds, and the nurse too stood by in ‘waiting’. The nurse was happy to note that this patient was dancing and jumping, holding his arm high, waiving the shiny packed strip of pills, and shouting “three times, one pill each time, before meals,… before meals.. before meals,… one pill, three times….”. The nurse was a bit surprised as to why the doctor could not share the surprise and joy at looking at patient’s first instance of ‘response’(after months of treatment) saying thus! The doctor knew that he had to begin all over again for 40 days!
The doctor knew, he did his very best, making reference to that word ‘tomorrow’ only once, so that the patient does not copy our meaning of ‘tomorrow’! It was a chance, the only chance the doctor could take, with the patient.
I had the fortune to observe experienced Master struggling to get across the right kind of instructions while imparting subtle spiritual processes to potential disciples! I don’t know even today, who deserves greater consolation, the disciples, who meticulously follow the practices for long, with utter sincerity and trust, or the master who has none to share his awareness how futile the instructions have gone due to the ‘pre-occupied’ mind with which the disciple received the instructions! (We have that story about Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who asked the Goddess to ‘pause’ when she made her divine appearance acceding to his prayers, and about to impart ‘knowledge’. “what now, ..?” asked the Goddess… to which, Ramakrishna requested, “please make me into a child first, and then impart the knowledge”.)
It is altogether a different story, as to how we came about to be thus, that is for those who are inclined to concur about it, first of all!
I once asked, my colleagues, quite long ago, when they seemed to refuse to understand my logic, and instead tried to impose their ideas, when they dominated the conversation…
What I asked was :
When you speak to me, to explain,
Are you keen that I should understand you,
a) the way you understood it,
b) the way you ‘wish’ that you should be understood (the 'wish' being out of anxiety, and that they may be apprehensive about lack of linguistic skills, apt vocabulary etc)
c) the way, you wish, that I should understand you (essentially implying that I should misconstrue you in total trust and confidently enough, to suit you more!)
Any way, I least expected that my answer to this question would get any attention at all!
Quote:
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100818214925AALuiyo
The question:
Is it difficult to Just Be in moment....................?
Why it is difficult to Just Be in this moment.............?
(Somebody readily had, bore the answer already, so, I will not bore you again, repeating it here)
Unquote:
Now, I think, we understand each other quite well. I have learned and then understood, the hard way, when I look towards response of any kind, to all communications. Speech is silver, but silence keeps me ever guessing, whether it is real gold, of what purity, and at what prevailing-price!
Psn(21st Aug, 2010)
So, the story comes first. A resident doctor of a mental asylum had to give a significant dose of medicine, having prepared the body for nearly 40 days, with those preparatory medicines. Even a day’s delay would entail redoing the 40 days of preparatory doses of medicines. Very unfortunately the nurse in-charge of that patient had to leave abruptly and quite unprepared to be able to make alternative arrangement. That patient was amenable only to that nurse (quite understandable). The doctor was the next person to whom this patient would listen to some extent. Now, the doctor had to take a chance with the patient himself, to administer this dose of crucial medicine. To the best of his abilities, the doctor talks for a while to the patient, to get him to listen to the instructions. The patient, find the doctor ‘unusually’ amenable and quite mechanically reciprocates the mannerism. Using the right moment, the doctor says “ I know, I can trust you to remember carefully, and swallow this medicine tomorrow, one pill before meals three times, three meals…. One pill, three times, ….. three meals….Please remember well!” (The doctor knew too well, only the nurse can make this patient swallow the pill, other wise, appeal to the patient himself thus). The patient, chose to hold the pills tight in the fist, dance and jump, in circles repeating incessantly, “three times, one pill each time, before meals,… before meals.. before meals,… one pill, three times….” . The doctor felt quite satisfied. He could get the patient to repeat this important thing so cheerfully, so many times. So very less chance that he would miss the medicine. The doctor too had to visit else where the next day, and could not even come to see if the medicine was swallowed.
On the day after this ‘tomorrow’ the doctor came on routine rounds, and the nurse too stood by in ‘waiting’. The nurse was happy to note that this patient was dancing and jumping, holding his arm high, waiving the shiny packed strip of pills, and shouting “three times, one pill each time, before meals,… before meals.. before meals,… one pill, three times….”. The nurse was a bit surprised as to why the doctor could not share the surprise and joy at looking at patient’s first instance of ‘response’(after months of treatment) saying thus! The doctor knew that he had to begin all over again for 40 days!
The doctor knew, he did his very best, making reference to that word ‘tomorrow’ only once, so that the patient does not copy our meaning of ‘tomorrow’! It was a chance, the only chance the doctor could take, with the patient.
I had the fortune to observe experienced Master struggling to get across the right kind of instructions while imparting subtle spiritual processes to potential disciples! I don’t know even today, who deserves greater consolation, the disciples, who meticulously follow the practices for long, with utter sincerity and trust, or the master who has none to share his awareness how futile the instructions have gone due to the ‘pre-occupied’ mind with which the disciple received the instructions! (We have that story about Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who asked the Goddess to ‘pause’ when she made her divine appearance acceding to his prayers, and about to impart ‘knowledge’. “what now, ..?” asked the Goddess… to which, Ramakrishna requested, “please make me into a child first, and then impart the knowledge”.)
It is altogether a different story, as to how we came about to be thus, that is for those who are inclined to concur about it, first of all!
I once asked, my colleagues, quite long ago, when they seemed to refuse to understand my logic, and instead tried to impose their ideas, when they dominated the conversation…
What I asked was :
When you speak to me, to explain,
Are you keen that I should understand you,
a) the way you understood it,
b) the way you ‘wish’ that you should be understood (the 'wish' being out of anxiety, and that they may be apprehensive about lack of linguistic skills, apt vocabulary etc)
c) the way, you wish, that I should understand you (essentially implying that I should misconstrue you in total trust and confidently enough, to suit you more!)
Any way, I least expected that my answer to this question would get any attention at all!
Quote:
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100818214925AALuiyo
The question:
Is it difficult to Just Be in moment....................?
Why it is difficult to Just Be in this moment.............?
(Somebody readily had, bore the answer already, so, I will not bore you again, repeating it here)
Unquote:
Now, I think, we understand each other quite well. I have learned and then understood, the hard way, when I look towards response of any kind, to all communications. Speech is silver, but silence keeps me ever guessing, whether it is real gold, of what purity, and at what prevailing-price!
Psn(21st Aug, 2010)
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Deep Impact
We often hear people admiring the age itself, a bit enviously too, when they see a child playing around in a ‘care-free’ manner! We say, “Best age, lucky age..” etc.. and then add, “no worries”
But, when we try to be like that hero of the ‘hit’ movies Dilip Kumar (Ram Aur Shyam, Gopi, etc) where this wonderful character has done admirably well, singing “Saala Main tho Saheb Ban Gaya” (See, even I have become a “sir” / “gentleman”, to deserve respect from others ‘automatically’!). The hero of such movies glides through life effortlessly, blending into the situation, doing just what is needed, and the rewards pouring in by itself! We would wish, why not throw aside all our far-sightedness, future plans, worries, etc and try to live life each day at a time, as it comes, and enjoy every bit of it?
But then we also happened to admire that ‘Angry-young-man’ in a series of movies, where he maintains a stoic composure all through, not laughing, smiling at appropriate times, dissuading the best offers from life, good jobs, temptations, pestering from good looking girls to wed them(the heroines), etc. They have a deep scar from their early life, and choose to retain it all the time (Movies like Khuddar, Zanzeer, Kaala Pathar, etc). The hero, in these stories has some specific purpose, some serious wrong to be atoned, rectified, remedied, etc. We would look like fools, if we try to maintain such passive ‘looks’ all through. People around would say, “does he not even know how to smile once in a way?”… No use trying to live that way. We make the hero a super star with that role, but would hesitate very much to try living that way. A serious person might be liked by the boss (“job sincerity, work-conscious, responsible”, etc that boss might say… but the other-colleagues constitute the bulk of people with whom we have to get along most of the time!).
Then, how to go about it, is the question. We have our personal appearance, likes and dislikes etc which are not easily changeable. We have our desires, goals, problems, too.
In that game of chess, a person who can ‘think’ of two or more moves is a good player. Anything like 5 moves is a champion! The problem is to think of 5 moves of all the coins(chessmen), that of ours and the opponent’s! Permutation and combination after each moves is an astronomical mind-boggling number! The alternative is, to look at many moves with few coins, and few moves of the rest of the coins. The skill is in the choice of key-coins.
How many things can we maintain awareness about in a subtle way, not losing track of, at the back of our mind at least, is the clue in life. How many times do we say to ourselves “Oh! It has totally slipped out of my mind!”. How strong do we hold on to our inner priorities, and for how long? (Just to cite an example, that great actor, Dilip Kumar is said to have accepted only one film at a time, and used to ‘live’ some roles visually, 24X7, for some time, till he is confident that he has ‘become’ that character almost ‘as-if-real’ before allowing it to be recorded on celluloid. No wonder, experts in the film world quote him as the scale/barometer/benchmark of good acting!
Either we wait for something to have a deep impact on us, or we ourselves indulge in that preemptive ‘strike’ unto ourselves, embracing a deep impact.
When some people are around, our confidence level seems to get boosted up for no apparent reason, by their very presence, and things seem to happen smooth, by itself!
(For those who still feel like asking 'where does that self confidence come from?',
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100818124008AAXLJv3
My answer:
It comes from the preemptive strike that we carry out several times, before we actually confront the situation.That is why we have those war-games, during peace times, mock drill for fire-fighters, mock drill with lights-off to familiarise during air-raids, etc. While the civil authorities do take care of our mass-well being, and try to familiarise us with some practice, beforehand, to boost our self-confidence levels, they do not and should not interfere as to how we choose to handle our personal routine life.We have to conduct the full-dress-rehearsal as much as possible, even if only by strong visualisation, never leaving out details, and eventualities.)
Psn(19th August, 2010)
But, when we try to be like that hero of the ‘hit’ movies Dilip Kumar (Ram Aur Shyam, Gopi, etc) where this wonderful character has done admirably well, singing “Saala Main tho Saheb Ban Gaya” (See, even I have become a “sir” / “gentleman”, to deserve respect from others ‘automatically’!). The hero of such movies glides through life effortlessly, blending into the situation, doing just what is needed, and the rewards pouring in by itself! We would wish, why not throw aside all our far-sightedness, future plans, worries, etc and try to live life each day at a time, as it comes, and enjoy every bit of it?
But then we also happened to admire that ‘Angry-young-man’ in a series of movies, where he maintains a stoic composure all through, not laughing, smiling at appropriate times, dissuading the best offers from life, good jobs, temptations, pestering from good looking girls to wed them(the heroines), etc. They have a deep scar from their early life, and choose to retain it all the time (Movies like Khuddar, Zanzeer, Kaala Pathar, etc). The hero, in these stories has some specific purpose, some serious wrong to be atoned, rectified, remedied, etc. We would look like fools, if we try to maintain such passive ‘looks’ all through. People around would say, “does he not even know how to smile once in a way?”… No use trying to live that way. We make the hero a super star with that role, but would hesitate very much to try living that way. A serious person might be liked by the boss (“job sincerity, work-conscious, responsible”, etc that boss might say… but the other-colleagues constitute the bulk of people with whom we have to get along most of the time!).
Then, how to go about it, is the question. We have our personal appearance, likes and dislikes etc which are not easily changeable. We have our desires, goals, problems, too.
In that game of chess, a person who can ‘think’ of two or more moves is a good player. Anything like 5 moves is a champion! The problem is to think of 5 moves of all the coins(chessmen), that of ours and the opponent’s! Permutation and combination after each moves is an astronomical mind-boggling number! The alternative is, to look at many moves with few coins, and few moves of the rest of the coins. The skill is in the choice of key-coins.
How many things can we maintain awareness about in a subtle way, not losing track of, at the back of our mind at least, is the clue in life. How many times do we say to ourselves “Oh! It has totally slipped out of my mind!”. How strong do we hold on to our inner priorities, and for how long? (Just to cite an example, that great actor, Dilip Kumar is said to have accepted only one film at a time, and used to ‘live’ some roles visually, 24X7, for some time, till he is confident that he has ‘become’ that character almost ‘as-if-real’ before allowing it to be recorded on celluloid. No wonder, experts in the film world quote him as the scale/barometer/benchmark of good acting!
Either we wait for something to have a deep impact on us, or we ourselves indulge in that preemptive ‘strike’ unto ourselves, embracing a deep impact.
When some people are around, our confidence level seems to get boosted up for no apparent reason, by their very presence, and things seem to happen smooth, by itself!
(For those who still feel like asking 'where does that self confidence come from?',
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100818124008AAXLJv3
My answer:
It comes from the preemptive strike that we carry out several times, before we actually confront the situation.That is why we have those war-games, during peace times, mock drill for fire-fighters, mock drill with lights-off to familiarise during air-raids, etc. While the civil authorities do take care of our mass-well being, and try to familiarise us with some practice, beforehand, to boost our self-confidence levels, they do not and should not interfere as to how we choose to handle our personal routine life.We have to conduct the full-dress-rehearsal as much as possible, even if only by strong visualisation, never leaving out details, and eventualities.)
Psn(19th August, 2010)
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Double Negative
Using a bolt to bolt a bolt? May be yes…. When that tower bolt was beyond my reach, at that kid age, there was another widower bolt, lying by the door, with the young couple proudly hoisted up there slightly above my reach. This old bolt could reach the knob of that bolt, get interlocked into each other’s knob, with a twist, and push and another twist, I could wipe the dust and rust off my tiny palms, on my shabbily soiled trousers (knickers, or half pants.. or whatever….) with a glee, having ‘accomplished’ the task!
Kids use to supply me with ‘idea’ to invent a lie to hide another truth. And then yet another lie to hid this one! Unfortunately, I could not ‘allocate’ enough time to try out this art, perfect it, and master it, at that age, being too much engrossed with intense involvement in physical activities, most of those activities were labeled as ‘mischief’ by elders around. Thus I really missed out the practical utility of that ‘double negative’ idea!
Therefore (and not despite it), I could not even adequately appreciate the maxim “two wrongs cannot make a right” (or something to that effect).
And then came within my notice, only when I got ‘adulted/adulterated’ (into adulthood), of that strange occurrence amidst elders. It was a fashion among some, to ‘confess’ that they hate themselves doing something! ( We hear sometimes, “I really hate myself to say this, but what to do… I am compelled to say it…” and so on…!
I did not find it difficult at all when we deliberately use a “minus” sign on both the sides while trying to solve simultaneous equations in mathematics. Even in real life, “send/set a thief to catch a thief” seemed a wonderful idea. A good policeman had to be better skilled than the thief, to be able to spot the crime, and trace the culprit, looking for the motive, method, etc. But when it came to doubling the ‘negative’ emotion, in order to circumvent the arduous task of imbibing a positive attitude, I had my own doubts.
It was only when a question came up, that I could isolate the mischief creating misnomer! I wonder, if you would be inclined to ‘take’ the bite?
Regards,
Psn(17th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100813235716AARSzyR
hate a positive emotion if it forces you to better yourself?
can it be?
My answer:
Very few people would like to look at it that way! It is just like two minuses canceling out each other. For example, if a person chooses to say "I hate myself, when I smoke/get angry/injure others/etc..." and then this "hate-myself" takes over to force that person to drop other things, then, perhaps this question finds application. But, in effect, it is mere 'good' sense that has prevailed. It is only the urgency and haste that makes a person to 'brand' or label it as hate. It is a need less risk. While getting rid of something undesirable, such 'hate' which works positively might come to stay as a welcome attitude, and before we know it, it may churn out negative results. (Some people insist on addressing close friends with abusive words, just to reassure that 'closeness'. Once in a while it may be okay, but insisting upon it as the only way to keep that 'closeness' is stupidity, and might often land in trouble!)
Kids use to supply me with ‘idea’ to invent a lie to hide another truth. And then yet another lie to hid this one! Unfortunately, I could not ‘allocate’ enough time to try out this art, perfect it, and master it, at that age, being too much engrossed with intense involvement in physical activities, most of those activities were labeled as ‘mischief’ by elders around. Thus I really missed out the practical utility of that ‘double negative’ idea!
Therefore (and not despite it), I could not even adequately appreciate the maxim “two wrongs cannot make a right” (or something to that effect).
And then came within my notice, only when I got ‘adulted/adulterated’ (into adulthood), of that strange occurrence amidst elders. It was a fashion among some, to ‘confess’ that they hate themselves doing something! ( We hear sometimes, “I really hate myself to say this, but what to do… I am compelled to say it…” and so on…!
I did not find it difficult at all when we deliberately use a “minus” sign on both the sides while trying to solve simultaneous equations in mathematics. Even in real life, “send/set a thief to catch a thief” seemed a wonderful idea. A good policeman had to be better skilled than the thief, to be able to spot the crime, and trace the culprit, looking for the motive, method, etc. But when it came to doubling the ‘negative’ emotion, in order to circumvent the arduous task of imbibing a positive attitude, I had my own doubts.
It was only when a question came up, that I could isolate the mischief creating misnomer! I wonder, if you would be inclined to ‘take’ the bite?
Regards,
Psn(17th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100813235716AARSzyR
hate a positive emotion if it forces you to better yourself?
can it be?
My answer:
Very few people would like to look at it that way! It is just like two minuses canceling out each other. For example, if a person chooses to say "I hate myself, when I smoke/get angry/injure others/etc..." and then this "hate-myself" takes over to force that person to drop other things, then, perhaps this question finds application. But, in effect, it is mere 'good' sense that has prevailed. It is only the urgency and haste that makes a person to 'brand' or label it as hate. It is a need less risk. While getting rid of something undesirable, such 'hate' which works positively might come to stay as a welcome attitude, and before we know it, it may churn out negative results. (Some people insist on addressing close friends with abusive words, just to reassure that 'closeness'. Once in a while it may be okay, but insisting upon it as the only way to keep that 'closeness' is stupidity, and might often land in trouble!)
Entitlements
Are we entitled for the ‘credit’ of something that just happened through us?
It is a very serious question, that occurs to some of us, especially when we know that we just happened to do it, and may not be even able to repeat the feat again!
Even as a kid, my ‘fluke’ strokes which pocketed that ‘impossible-coin, the carom-man’ drew applauses from the onlookers, opponents who were far elder to me, and also far more experienced in the game! And every time, I used to feel embarrassed. All I did was to take an aim, and release the striker. Now it was up to the striker to do the rest! That feeling of doubt about ‘eligibility’ to accept credit remained ever after! Unfortunately, it spread over to many other fields of activity, whenever the applause came in! Personally, I felt more comfortable with criticism, or fault-finding. It gave me scope to look, and set about on the task of looking for ‘fixes’ , patches, repairs, atonement, etc. And, a sincere apology with due gratitude to the person who points our error, seemed like an all win-win situation to me. That person would feel that his ‘concern’ about my faux-pas, has not gone wasted at all. And, I was too often saved the expense of remitting that ‘examination’ fee! (Oh! Yet another problem with entitlement—free services—examination cost not paid!).
I am reminded of a dear colleague of mine, who was too mindful of the “titles”. He even requested me to address him as “Note stitching Machine Operator”, in the presence of his close relatives, who happened to be mostly from the unlettered lot. All he desired was that the title should be some something bombastic, instead of that insipid ‘cash-peon’ which was quite convenient for others to identify the person easily! I readily obliged him, and even enjoyed the process of attributing the ‘due entitlements’(If that was all he needed to please him mightily, who am I to stand in his way, and what at all, is the cost involved?)!
People are rushing fast towards getting everything patented. During my early days, when I tripped into that ‘reading’ habit for a while, the mention of ‘copy rights’ was not seen too often. But now, almost anything that is printed, designed, composed, computed, programmed, is well protected by copy-rights. Sometimes, I did wonder, what would happen, if there were an effective law, which copy-righted the stupidities, errors, blunders, scams, frauds, etc, committed so that people at large are compelled never to repeat the mistakes done by others even! Oh! There would be an astronomical growth of our “GDP” perhaps!
A good friend of mine happened to ask me, about how to feel ‘entitled’ to the good things in life? A very wrong person to ask! Already, I am grappled with the given titles, that I am not eligible for, and now how to ‘feel’ good about it? All I could think of was two examples. What if those dead cells that we call as hair on our head could think thus “Am I entitled to stay on the head of this great person, especially, now that I am a ‘dead-cell’, in the sense of being non-functional?”…. Well, I thought, ask any bald person, and he knows better, how precious they are! Some of us even ‘plant’ artificial hair, piercing surgical holes on the scalp! (Those black and white photographs of the famous scientist, portraying half-bald head with little of unkempt hair, seemed to suggest, that he comfortably managed to allow those non-entitled remnants of grey hair on his head!). The other story I was reminded was of that famous poet Jayadeva, who had serious problems with writing down what ‘occurred’ to him. Krishna was his lord, and the line that fitted in appropriately was something considered ‘inappropriate’ logically! The consort of that lord placing her feet on the lord’s head (or something to that effect!). Ultimately, the story goes that, the lord himself had to complete those words, coming in a disguise of the poet himself, and incidentally, granting ‘appearance’ (darshan) to the wife of that poet, who hitherto, all along did not happen to ‘appear’ to be entitled for such a divine gift of lord’s appearance!
It is said about that legendary singer Sri Madurai Mani, symbolically, that when he sings, the ‘goddess of swara’ (harmony) had to hurry to catch up with the song and its singer, so as to be not left out unnoticed, unrecognised! Oh! It is that Goddess of music, whose turn it is to bother about retaining the ‘entitlements’! Usually, we applaud great singers for their ability to adhere to ‘swara’ with perfection!
My problems do not get seemed to head toward a solution. Instead they are getting only compounded, with that humble doubts from childhood, when I used to merely ‘look up’(literally and figuratively too… they were taller and quite ‘imposing’!) at elders, hesitant to spell out my innocent doubts, about the ‘entitlement of my left hand to be used to eat food, when my right fingers got injured’. I really never mustered enough courage at that age to ask yet another ‘reverse’ doubt about the use of my right hand as a temporary substitute for the left (whose use used to be, but had to be left ‘out’, due to some injury, for that ‘exclusive’ purpose, of water-washing, after exuding, expelling etc, of the excreta!).
Psn(17th August, 2010)
It is a very serious question, that occurs to some of us, especially when we know that we just happened to do it, and may not be even able to repeat the feat again!
Even as a kid, my ‘fluke’ strokes which pocketed that ‘impossible-coin, the carom-man’ drew applauses from the onlookers, opponents who were far elder to me, and also far more experienced in the game! And every time, I used to feel embarrassed. All I did was to take an aim, and release the striker. Now it was up to the striker to do the rest! That feeling of doubt about ‘eligibility’ to accept credit remained ever after! Unfortunately, it spread over to many other fields of activity, whenever the applause came in! Personally, I felt more comfortable with criticism, or fault-finding. It gave me scope to look, and set about on the task of looking for ‘fixes’ , patches, repairs, atonement, etc. And, a sincere apology with due gratitude to the person who points our error, seemed like an all win-win situation to me. That person would feel that his ‘concern’ about my faux-pas, has not gone wasted at all. And, I was too often saved the expense of remitting that ‘examination’ fee! (Oh! Yet another problem with entitlement—free services—examination cost not paid!).
I am reminded of a dear colleague of mine, who was too mindful of the “titles”. He even requested me to address him as “Note stitching Machine Operator”, in the presence of his close relatives, who happened to be mostly from the unlettered lot. All he desired was that the title should be some something bombastic, instead of that insipid ‘cash-peon’ which was quite convenient for others to identify the person easily! I readily obliged him, and even enjoyed the process of attributing the ‘due entitlements’(If that was all he needed to please him mightily, who am I to stand in his way, and what at all, is the cost involved?)!
People are rushing fast towards getting everything patented. During my early days, when I tripped into that ‘reading’ habit for a while, the mention of ‘copy rights’ was not seen too often. But now, almost anything that is printed, designed, composed, computed, programmed, is well protected by copy-rights. Sometimes, I did wonder, what would happen, if there were an effective law, which copy-righted the stupidities, errors, blunders, scams, frauds, etc, committed so that people at large are compelled never to repeat the mistakes done by others even! Oh! There would be an astronomical growth of our “GDP” perhaps!
A good friend of mine happened to ask me, about how to feel ‘entitled’ to the good things in life? A very wrong person to ask! Already, I am grappled with the given titles, that I am not eligible for, and now how to ‘feel’ good about it? All I could think of was two examples. What if those dead cells that we call as hair on our head could think thus “Am I entitled to stay on the head of this great person, especially, now that I am a ‘dead-cell’, in the sense of being non-functional?”…. Well, I thought, ask any bald person, and he knows better, how precious they are! Some of us even ‘plant’ artificial hair, piercing surgical holes on the scalp! (Those black and white photographs of the famous scientist, portraying half-bald head with little of unkempt hair, seemed to suggest, that he comfortably managed to allow those non-entitled remnants of grey hair on his head!). The other story I was reminded was of that famous poet Jayadeva, who had serious problems with writing down what ‘occurred’ to him. Krishna was his lord, and the line that fitted in appropriately was something considered ‘inappropriate’ logically! The consort of that lord placing her feet on the lord’s head (or something to that effect!). Ultimately, the story goes that, the lord himself had to complete those words, coming in a disguise of the poet himself, and incidentally, granting ‘appearance’ (darshan) to the wife of that poet, who hitherto, all along did not happen to ‘appear’ to be entitled for such a divine gift of lord’s appearance!
It is said about that legendary singer Sri Madurai Mani, symbolically, that when he sings, the ‘goddess of swara’ (harmony) had to hurry to catch up with the song and its singer, so as to be not left out unnoticed, unrecognised! Oh! It is that Goddess of music, whose turn it is to bother about retaining the ‘entitlements’! Usually, we applaud great singers for their ability to adhere to ‘swara’ with perfection!
My problems do not get seemed to head toward a solution. Instead they are getting only compounded, with that humble doubts from childhood, when I used to merely ‘look up’(literally and figuratively too… they were taller and quite ‘imposing’!) at elders, hesitant to spell out my innocent doubts, about the ‘entitlement of my left hand to be used to eat food, when my right fingers got injured’. I really never mustered enough courage at that age to ask yet another ‘reverse’ doubt about the use of my right hand as a temporary substitute for the left (whose use used to be, but had to be left ‘out’, due to some injury, for that ‘exclusive’ purpose, of water-washing, after exuding, expelling etc, of the excreta!).
Psn(17th August, 2010)
Monday, August 16, 2010
Date of Maturity
I wonder why we do not have this ‘additional’ detail in those labels of the products we buy! There is the date of manufacture, and the date of expiry, but, logically, there is never a need for ‘date of maturity’ (only the financial commitments ‘mature’ not even our own commitments…. Term deposits mature, loans mature, bills, wills, promissory notes, and what not!) !
Some edibles, mostly fruits, we do look out for that ‘mature’ enough period, to enjoy it to utmost taste. Pickles mature when the cohesiveness is best with the ingredients we add. Some south Indian puddings taste better after they get cooled for 10 hours, though the taste is quite good and tasty enough when served hot (here the maturity is ‘doubly-abled’! or, twice-enabled, uniquely-different, and mutually-exclusive! Oh! The very thought of those tasty puddings makes my head spin, and I go wrong with paired-words! I regain my immaturity, when I relive the mature taste of those rare exactitude-nesses of those dishes!)
For us, humans too, there seems to be no ‘prescribed’ date of maturity (not that physical or biological one please, even mentally challenged people attain puberty etc…).
I had enough trouble with my ‘self’ about the maturity, on that path less path of spirituality, for too long…
So, I would spare you the waiting period to get into the question, right away.
We will see what else could be there, that ‘there is more to it’, when it is mature enough.
Mature regards,
Psn(16th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100815152020AAKLdhr
When do you consider a person as "mature"?
My answer:
For others, it is just when this person can be reasonably 'relied' upon as not likely to cause trouble out of stupidity. Just like the test that we are asked to pass before a driving licence is given out. Does not mean that we are experts. But just means that we are reasonably safe for others to walk or drive alongside, when we drive.
But, for ourselves, it is very relative. Some fruits are mature for some people to eat, but others wait till it is more ripe. Rice/cereals/meat etc is mature to eat for some, when getting cooked, but for those who don't like to chew much, they like it to become more mature on fire (soft, pasty etc).
We may feel good enough to handle our own affairs, but often hesitate to give out advice, because we feel we are not mature "enough" to give worthwhile advice/suggestions.
Now, that is again a maturity, to know that we are not mature enough about something (the knowledge, experience, the wisdom in that subject/field!). We human beings learnt about maturity from nature, but today, we forgot the basics. we launch our 'products' prematurely, and then keep on giving out 'patches' incessantly! We indulge in adult games prematurely! We process immature food, for storage, and then face the 'after-effects' paying for both, process and cures! Unseasonal fruits mature with a slight delay, while the very same fruits mature faster if the season is intense that year (like those summer fruits, vegetables etc!).
We have to look at the question quite intensely and deep enough. Because, this 'maturity' for human beings is, in 'essence', nothing but that 'emotional balance', which can happen as early as during childhood, or not even after retirement age!
There was a time, during ancient days, in India, when that maturity in humans could be almost co-related with certain age, on an average basis, keeping options about exceptions too.... But that was when there was a 'structure' in place, to ensure 'emotional' training, in a concerted structured manner! There was a 'system' of education that layed stress on this better half of a human (the other half is logical skills). Today, we are often misled that logical skills are all that maturity means, and then restart looking for emotional maturity when things don't look good (like that unexpected "Economic recession" with all those financial experts all over the world! After all, this disaster was man-made! If it was not the result of some 'immature' greed, what else do we call it?). Do we have any institution by any name, that imparts emotional skills?
A very mature question at a very mature time, and perhaps, from a mature person too!
Thanks!
Some edibles, mostly fruits, we do look out for that ‘mature’ enough period, to enjoy it to utmost taste. Pickles mature when the cohesiveness is best with the ingredients we add. Some south Indian puddings taste better after they get cooled for 10 hours, though the taste is quite good and tasty enough when served hot (here the maturity is ‘doubly-abled’! or, twice-enabled, uniquely-different, and mutually-exclusive! Oh! The very thought of those tasty puddings makes my head spin, and I go wrong with paired-words! I regain my immaturity, when I relive the mature taste of those rare exactitude-nesses of those dishes!)
For us, humans too, there seems to be no ‘prescribed’ date of maturity (not that physical or biological one please, even mentally challenged people attain puberty etc…).
I had enough trouble with my ‘self’ about the maturity, on that path less path of spirituality, for too long…
So, I would spare you the waiting period to get into the question, right away.
We will see what else could be there, that ‘there is more to it’, when it is mature enough.
Mature regards,
Psn(16th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100815152020AAKLdhr
When do you consider a person as "mature"?
My answer:
For others, it is just when this person can be reasonably 'relied' upon as not likely to cause trouble out of stupidity. Just like the test that we are asked to pass before a driving licence is given out. Does not mean that we are experts. But just means that we are reasonably safe for others to walk or drive alongside, when we drive.
But, for ourselves, it is very relative. Some fruits are mature for some people to eat, but others wait till it is more ripe. Rice/cereals/meat etc is mature to eat for some, when getting cooked, but for those who don't like to chew much, they like it to become more mature on fire (soft, pasty etc).
We may feel good enough to handle our own affairs, but often hesitate to give out advice, because we feel we are not mature "enough" to give worthwhile advice/suggestions.
Now, that is again a maturity, to know that we are not mature enough about something (the knowledge, experience, the wisdom in that subject/field!). We human beings learnt about maturity from nature, but today, we forgot the basics. we launch our 'products' prematurely, and then keep on giving out 'patches' incessantly! We indulge in adult games prematurely! We process immature food, for storage, and then face the 'after-effects' paying for both, process and cures! Unseasonal fruits mature with a slight delay, while the very same fruits mature faster if the season is intense that year (like those summer fruits, vegetables etc!).
We have to look at the question quite intensely and deep enough. Because, this 'maturity' for human beings is, in 'essence', nothing but that 'emotional balance', which can happen as early as during childhood, or not even after retirement age!
There was a time, during ancient days, in India, when that maturity in humans could be almost co-related with certain age, on an average basis, keeping options about exceptions too.... But that was when there was a 'structure' in place, to ensure 'emotional' training, in a concerted structured manner! There was a 'system' of education that layed stress on this better half of a human (the other half is logical skills). Today, we are often misled that logical skills are all that maturity means, and then restart looking for emotional maturity when things don't look good (like that unexpected "Economic recession" with all those financial experts all over the world! After all, this disaster was man-made! If it was not the result of some 'immature' greed, what else do we call it?). Do we have any institution by any name, that imparts emotional skills?
A very mature question at a very mature time, and perhaps, from a mature person too!
Thanks!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
IQ
I am sorry.
The title is a misnomer, when we are at once reminded of the commonly understood sense of it. But call it by whatever name, there is indeed something inside us, that has to give us a bit of clarity about what life is all about. We go through a whole lifetime, and then in the end it seems more appropriate to give out 99 percent of what we acquired by way of charity! It is no joke to become one among the top 10 richest people in the world! And if they are not smart, intelligent, wise etc, we are no where. Maybe, they too came to this question a bit face-to-face, and wanted a first hand experience of how it feels like to share their entire basic-survival-surplus! But for that, we do have to acquire those skills that would take us to top rungs, even if we are not keen to engage the tax people to chase us around. And then we are sure of having acquired enough of that intelligence to conclusively deal with the issue of ‘what life is all about’. Logically that is what most people would have to do. We(Indians) are fast adopting the westerners methodology, in this direction. We are losing out the best of IQ to settle down westwards. Economically speaking of course. But then, we have not provided the right kinds of racing tracks here, for them to even practice! Anyway, our present issue is not about that kind of intelligence.
I came across a question “Am I intelligent?”! I would have simply skipped the question, had I not bothered to read the details. I am no good to assess others, when I myself failed to make it big in my life! But, I could ‘feel’ some subtle kind of intelligence that is brushing aside all those material aspects of life to which we employ our ‘rational’ faculties, and attempting to look a bit beyond it, or rather a bit deeper than that. As always, it is the choice of words, which would mislead a very casual reader that the person is only ‘confused’. But, if we carefully sift the instances, and instead look at the pattern of choices of instances quoted as examples, the ‘seeking’ is abundantly clear, and the sharp ‘sounds’ of that latent subtle intelligence deep within, the exclusive tools of the ‘being’ within, are heard, to indicate that it is seeking to gently wake up, stirring out of its slumber. Only that particular intelligence within is capable of asking such basic questions. (I am not too sure, if those richest people had happened to attend to this kind of a ‘waking’ noise from within, now that they have taken a decision of such great magnitude, quite logic defying too!).
I am quite aware that my answer could be even more perplexing, again, to a casual reader. I hope, the readers would pardon me for having ‘squeezed in’ this sort of a post. I would keep my fingers crossed, hoping both, that I may and may not find responses!
Psn(12th August, 2010)
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiWK2EL28UncKRWIU_JEc_nsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100811233528AA9LbVr
Am i.... intelligent?
I look at people, a lot of people, and everyone around me seems to fit a "persona". Whereas, I simply am. I see people "acting" as individuals... so easily corruptible by statements such as "what are you currently thinking about?" -- in situations where they would respond with ideas of what they prefer at a moments notice. People seem so fake..... as if they indulge in actions that prosper their current motif, as if they pretend to have purpose. I don't understand it.... it's like I'm capable of perceiving others as if they are animals... I look at a cow, and it stares back like a cow. Humans seem to do the same. I must assume I am no different, however I cannot do so -- as I view others from an extern perspective, as i am not them ; everyone performs actions that satisfy their situation - surprising them w/ direct statements that define their existence, leave them to respond with nothing but statements of "ideas" of existence. It's as if they pretend to exist.....I truly don't understand. We are all biological... organs compose our being, and yet, we rise ourselves to superficial persona's. Does being human mean to portray one's self as a "character", to portray what we feel we are inside, as to show others a simple presence of a being?? Why do people seem so fake? Why must I provide others with a persona in order to become socially acceptable? I choose rather to simply exist as I am, and yet it equates to meaninglessness... redundancy of the mind......Am I more intelligent than others, being that they appear as... cows as it were, or am I simply afflicted by that which we all are... being human? Perhaps I am insane?!?!?! i'm sure im not, as I see things as they most certainly are... but yet I am not fake. ..................... Can someone please convey their experience of life as it is?
Additional Details
Here's an example....You're out fishing(suppose you like to fish....), and you watch as you wade in the water, as hundreds of people pass on the highway, continuing their life as if they had true purpose.... driving by without even thinking that someone can see them as they pass by. What of them? They are ignorant to others, perceiving only the road that yields before them... yet I see them continue as such - empty and useless....In another respect, similar to a bum at a convenience store begging for change.... What is that person, if not a seagull begging for bread? A simple spike in the road could completely alter their life, their span, their concept of life, and yet everyone pretends it is but... "life". What is one supposed to make of that!?!?!
My answer:
Even the 'better intelligent than us' are not capable of asking "Am i... intelligent?"
Only human beings can hope to ask thus. The reason is self awareness.
The instances that has been narrated in the question, where people seem so fake (all of us included), are those moments where we failed to consciously maintain that self awareness. And it is not as simple as some LED showing a 'on' status or an indicator bulb showing that power is on. This self awareness deepens far beyond taking our perception way beyond sensory levels!
Other wise, at the superficial levels, the questions raised in the details and additional details are quite irrefutable, with no possible logical answer if it has to even appeal to an open mind. There are several questions about purpose of life, repeated several times, since time immemorial, and now on Yahoo Answers.
The 'plus point' in this particular question is the subtle presence of a 'silent' observer, or that precious witnessing aspect which is able to see the mind of the observer himself/herself, the persona of the self too, needless to add the physical, biological gross tendencies, inclinations, etc. Now, to experience or to have that experience of that 'witnessing aspect, we do not seem to need any of our sense organs (now.... though, as a kid, it was some pain in the toe, that helped us to know that it is 'my' toe and not yet another object that we like to thrust into our mouth for no reason, to taste and feel what it feels like! The sensation of pain, through sense organs is the 'introducer' to our self awarness ususally. Animals respond to situation within and without alike, but are not gifted with that residual self-awareness! So during those moments when we fail to maintain self awareness, we are no better!).
The question seeks only this far for explanation. Though the rest of the story is what is relevant life!
The title is a misnomer, when we are at once reminded of the commonly understood sense of it. But call it by whatever name, there is indeed something inside us, that has to give us a bit of clarity about what life is all about. We go through a whole lifetime, and then in the end it seems more appropriate to give out 99 percent of what we acquired by way of charity! It is no joke to become one among the top 10 richest people in the world! And if they are not smart, intelligent, wise etc, we are no where. Maybe, they too came to this question a bit face-to-face, and wanted a first hand experience of how it feels like to share their entire basic-survival-surplus! But for that, we do have to acquire those skills that would take us to top rungs, even if we are not keen to engage the tax people to chase us around. And then we are sure of having acquired enough of that intelligence to conclusively deal with the issue of ‘what life is all about’. Logically that is what most people would have to do. We(Indians) are fast adopting the westerners methodology, in this direction. We are losing out the best of IQ to settle down westwards. Economically speaking of course. But then, we have not provided the right kinds of racing tracks here, for them to even practice! Anyway, our present issue is not about that kind of intelligence.
I came across a question “Am I intelligent?”! I would have simply skipped the question, had I not bothered to read the details. I am no good to assess others, when I myself failed to make it big in my life! But, I could ‘feel’ some subtle kind of intelligence that is brushing aside all those material aspects of life to which we employ our ‘rational’ faculties, and attempting to look a bit beyond it, or rather a bit deeper than that. As always, it is the choice of words, which would mislead a very casual reader that the person is only ‘confused’. But, if we carefully sift the instances, and instead look at the pattern of choices of instances quoted as examples, the ‘seeking’ is abundantly clear, and the sharp ‘sounds’ of that latent subtle intelligence deep within, the exclusive tools of the ‘being’ within, are heard, to indicate that it is seeking to gently wake up, stirring out of its slumber. Only that particular intelligence within is capable of asking such basic questions. (I am not too sure, if those richest people had happened to attend to this kind of a ‘waking’ noise from within, now that they have taken a decision of such great magnitude, quite logic defying too!).
I am quite aware that my answer could be even more perplexing, again, to a casual reader. I hope, the readers would pardon me for having ‘squeezed in’ this sort of a post. I would keep my fingers crossed, hoping both, that I may and may not find responses!
Psn(12th August, 2010)
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiWK2EL28UncKRWIU_JEc_nsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100811233528AA9LbVr
Am i.... intelligent?
I look at people, a lot of people, and everyone around me seems to fit a "persona". Whereas, I simply am. I see people "acting" as individuals... so easily corruptible by statements such as "what are you currently thinking about?" -- in situations where they would respond with ideas of what they prefer at a moments notice. People seem so fake..... as if they indulge in actions that prosper their current motif, as if they pretend to have purpose. I don't understand it.... it's like I'm capable of perceiving others as if they are animals... I look at a cow, and it stares back like a cow. Humans seem to do the same. I must assume I am no different, however I cannot do so -- as I view others from an extern perspective, as i am not them ; everyone performs actions that satisfy their situation - surprising them w/ direct statements that define their existence, leave them to respond with nothing but statements of "ideas" of existence. It's as if they pretend to exist.....I truly don't understand. We are all biological... organs compose our being, and yet, we rise ourselves to superficial persona's. Does being human mean to portray one's self as a "character", to portray what we feel we are inside, as to show others a simple presence of a being?? Why do people seem so fake? Why must I provide others with a persona in order to become socially acceptable? I choose rather to simply exist as I am, and yet it equates to meaninglessness... redundancy of the mind......Am I more intelligent than others, being that they appear as... cows as it were, or am I simply afflicted by that which we all are... being human? Perhaps I am insane?!?!?! i'm sure im not, as I see things as they most certainly are... but yet I am not fake. ..................... Can someone please convey their experience of life as it is?
Additional Details
Here's an example....You're out fishing(suppose you like to fish....), and you watch as you wade in the water, as hundreds of people pass on the highway, continuing their life as if they had true purpose.... driving by without even thinking that someone can see them as they pass by. What of them? They are ignorant to others, perceiving only the road that yields before them... yet I see them continue as such - empty and useless....In another respect, similar to a bum at a convenience store begging for change.... What is that person, if not a seagull begging for bread? A simple spike in the road could completely alter their life, their span, their concept of life, and yet everyone pretends it is but... "life". What is one supposed to make of that!?!?!
My answer:
Even the 'better intelligent than us' are not capable of asking "Am i... intelligent?"
Only human beings can hope to ask thus. The reason is self awareness.
The instances that has been narrated in the question, where people seem so fake (all of us included), are those moments where we failed to consciously maintain that self awareness. And it is not as simple as some LED showing a 'on' status or an indicator bulb showing that power is on. This self awareness deepens far beyond taking our perception way beyond sensory levels!
Other wise, at the superficial levels, the questions raised in the details and additional details are quite irrefutable, with no possible logical answer if it has to even appeal to an open mind. There are several questions about purpose of life, repeated several times, since time immemorial, and now on Yahoo Answers.
The 'plus point' in this particular question is the subtle presence of a 'silent' observer, or that precious witnessing aspect which is able to see the mind of the observer himself/herself, the persona of the self too, needless to add the physical, biological gross tendencies, inclinations, etc. Now, to experience or to have that experience of that 'witnessing aspect, we do not seem to need any of our sense organs (now.... though, as a kid, it was some pain in the toe, that helped us to know that it is 'my' toe and not yet another object that we like to thrust into our mouth for no reason, to taste and feel what it feels like! The sensation of pain, through sense organs is the 'introducer' to our self awarness ususally. Animals respond to situation within and without alike, but are not gifted with that residual self-awareness! So during those moments when we fail to maintain self awareness, we are no better!).
The question seeks only this far for explanation. Though the rest of the story is what is relevant life!
Face Saving
When two people collide on the road on their vehicles, whether it is their physical body as their vehicle, or any man-made vehicle, the very first impulsive reaction is “the other fellow is at fault”.
Nothing new about it….
But something that looks new to us can happen if we get rid of this “default” tendency to find fault only about others. It is not about ‘fixing’ accountability. It is about finding scope for our response ability about such ‘avoidable’ situations. The whole edifice of that ‘wisdom’ consists of using the ‘experience’ (no matter whose it is!).
It is in that spirit that I seek to humbly place this wonderful question.
The answer only seeks to inspire you to seek further, as usual.
Regards,
Psn(12th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100811124848AA8jXfw
how do u help ppl save face without diminishing your own power?
No matter how wrong another person is,s/he will always hv an excuse for their bad behaviour. i understand that they'll realise the mistake at their own pace.
My answer:
That is how enactments take place!
And most people miss to take notice of the significance of the very opening words "Whereas it is expedient ..... "
It is a beautiful way to help people save face. It does not diminish the 'power' of the legislator.
In joint families, the wise elder uses the same method conveniently, to gently, suggestively correct the erring young children, so that their ego is not hurt, and they get the time-space to grasp the significance of occasional enactments of rules within that large household! Please see, the very root cause of break-down of that joint-family system was the very same reason that you pointed out in the additional narrative part of the question (the tendency to justify any and every action!).
No amount of practices done to evolve on the spiritual path would make any worthwhile progress unless this attitude is rectified at first!
It is a real challenge, indeed, to help people who refuse to 'see' that they are wrong! It is still more difficult to retain our own strength (I would prefer to call it 'strength' rather than our 'own power'). Evidence is found in abundance! A negligible percentage of people who evolve, choose to even announce, or manifest it. Out of that only a very small percentage take up that thankless task of imparting skill or knowledge to help others. Such people are embodiments or personification itself of highest form of compassion! (That accounts for the diminishing number of teachers who can train in 'emotional aspect of mind', in the present day context, while there were many teachers in the ancient days because the 'general or average' level in the society was good enough to work upon further!
A very significant question. Whether the answer appeals or not, whether a solution is found or not, it is more important to 'retain' the question within oneself, with an open mind!
Thank you, for this question!
Nothing new about it….
But something that looks new to us can happen if we get rid of this “default” tendency to find fault only about others. It is not about ‘fixing’ accountability. It is about finding scope for our response ability about such ‘avoidable’ situations. The whole edifice of that ‘wisdom’ consists of using the ‘experience’ (no matter whose it is!).
It is in that spirit that I seek to humbly place this wonderful question.
The answer only seeks to inspire you to seek further, as usual.
Regards,
Psn(12th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100811124848AA8jXfw
how do u help ppl save face without diminishing your own power?
No matter how wrong another person is,s/he will always hv an excuse for their bad behaviour. i understand that they'll realise the mistake at their own pace.
My answer:
That is how enactments take place!
And most people miss to take notice of the significance of the very opening words "Whereas it is expedient ..... "
It is a beautiful way to help people save face. It does not diminish the 'power' of the legislator.
In joint families, the wise elder uses the same method conveniently, to gently, suggestively correct the erring young children, so that their ego is not hurt, and they get the time-space to grasp the significance of occasional enactments of rules within that large household! Please see, the very root cause of break-down of that joint-family system was the very same reason that you pointed out in the additional narrative part of the question (the tendency to justify any and every action!).
No amount of practices done to evolve on the spiritual path would make any worthwhile progress unless this attitude is rectified at first!
It is a real challenge, indeed, to help people who refuse to 'see' that they are wrong! It is still more difficult to retain our own strength (I would prefer to call it 'strength' rather than our 'own power'). Evidence is found in abundance! A negligible percentage of people who evolve, choose to even announce, or manifest it. Out of that only a very small percentage take up that thankless task of imparting skill or knowledge to help others. Such people are embodiments or personification itself of highest form of compassion! (That accounts for the diminishing number of teachers who can train in 'emotional aspect of mind', in the present day context, while there were many teachers in the ancient days because the 'general or average' level in the society was good enough to work upon further!
A very significant question. Whether the answer appeals or not, whether a solution is found or not, it is more important to 'retain' the question within oneself, with an open mind!
Thank you, for this question!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Stubborn Independence
The need at all to look at ‘Independence’ arose only when we reached third standard, where ‘lessons’ took the shape of a narrative. The trouble started only when we were asked to write an essay about ‘Independence’. We kids did feel the loss of our freedom when we were forced to ‘cook’ up something in our own words, and try to impress our teacher about our deep understanding of Independence. All that we knew was that our country was the only independent entity, and for that many people ‘struggled’ for quite a long time, sacrificed their lives even. But the history seemed almost similar before and after independence, when we looked at our ‘family’ stories down the past few generations. I was on the look out for any class mate who would manage to write something that really ‘touches’ upon the very concept of what that “independence” really means! Most of them reduced that part to transfer of ‘rule’. Somehow I had to keep that topic ‘open’ within me as a ‘pending-file’ for quite a long time.
Later, having stepped into adulthood, the manifestation of that ‘independence’ only seemed to add to confusions! Even that stupid swimming seemed an increased direct dependence on the water body, while the dependence was on something already afloat, during the process of learning to swim! It is not safe to ‘independently’ try to save a drowning person! In desperation, he would grip you tight, and unable to row, both would drown!
At work place, we are allowed to ‘independently’ handle a department! Independent charge of ministries means yet something else for politicians!
On “Independence-day”, the policemen are slightly lenient about violation of traffic rules, that gives a ‘feel’ of freedom to some who find those rules as a restriction of their fundamental right of freedom to do what they like!
At old age homes, elders insist on doing things ‘independently’ though the infirmities of physical health do not permit fatal injuries to be risked thus! It is this ‘stubbornness’ that the asker had perhaps in mind, when the question was raised. But, I inadvertently gave the ‘macro’ view in the answer.
Psn(11th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100804212647AAC6WTg
Do you consider a independent person to be stubborn at times when?
you see he/she falling apart but doesnt want no one to help, when you see that person really needs help.
My reply:
When we are quite 'liberal' about looking at 'evolution' of mankind, society, technology, etc, we inadvertently tend to isolate the 'person' from such view point, and mistake it to be stubbornness! But the observation does seem logically true, until we try to broaden our perspective a little bit.
That independence is a small growth, from total parasitical dependence, towards a deep recognition of inter-dependence. (To use as an example, man used to pluck fruits, kill animals for meat during that total dependence phase. Then, cultivation, preservation, propagation of food-oriented vegetation and even animals, evolved. The stubbornness persisted about mercilessly cutting down forests, using up natural resources, reckless polluting of the environment. We are struggling yet towards that dawn of 'deep' recognition of interdependence, when would eventually stop to think in terms of "trading" our own devised "entitlements" to pollute the environment! Even that 'trading' is indeed a stubbornness). We shall have to be careful, in not trying to 'brand' something as stubbornness, for instance, a soldier who insists on 'independently' guarding a post till adequate reinforcement arrives, is only recognising the lives of few others as more important, like his own, and his sense of sacrifice is a recognition of the independence of lives of others, rather than stubbornness to forsake his own.
Later, having stepped into adulthood, the manifestation of that ‘independence’ only seemed to add to confusions! Even that stupid swimming seemed an increased direct dependence on the water body, while the dependence was on something already afloat, during the process of learning to swim! It is not safe to ‘independently’ try to save a drowning person! In desperation, he would grip you tight, and unable to row, both would drown!
At work place, we are allowed to ‘independently’ handle a department! Independent charge of ministries means yet something else for politicians!
On “Independence-day”, the policemen are slightly lenient about violation of traffic rules, that gives a ‘feel’ of freedom to some who find those rules as a restriction of their fundamental right of freedom to do what they like!
At old age homes, elders insist on doing things ‘independently’ though the infirmities of physical health do not permit fatal injuries to be risked thus! It is this ‘stubbornness’ that the asker had perhaps in mind, when the question was raised. But, I inadvertently gave the ‘macro’ view in the answer.
Psn(11th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100804212647AAC6WTg
Do you consider a independent person to be stubborn at times when?
you see he/she falling apart but doesnt want no one to help, when you see that person really needs help.
My reply:
When we are quite 'liberal' about looking at 'evolution' of mankind, society, technology, etc, we inadvertently tend to isolate the 'person' from such view point, and mistake it to be stubbornness! But the observation does seem logically true, until we try to broaden our perspective a little bit.
That independence is a small growth, from total parasitical dependence, towards a deep recognition of inter-dependence. (To use as an example, man used to pluck fruits, kill animals for meat during that total dependence phase. Then, cultivation, preservation, propagation of food-oriented vegetation and even animals, evolved. The stubbornness persisted about mercilessly cutting down forests, using up natural resources, reckless polluting of the environment. We are struggling yet towards that dawn of 'deep' recognition of interdependence, when would eventually stop to think in terms of "trading" our own devised "entitlements" to pollute the environment! Even that 'trading' is indeed a stubbornness). We shall have to be careful, in not trying to 'brand' something as stubbornness, for instance, a soldier who insists on 'independently' guarding a post till adequate reinforcement arrives, is only recognising the lives of few others as more important, like his own, and his sense of sacrifice is a recognition of the independence of lives of others, rather than stubbornness to forsake his own.
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Feast for coat
A famous writer (Amrita Preetam, if I remember the name right), wrote about a woman’s place, in a book or essay whose title translates as “fourth room”. Most women get ‘job-placement’ in the kitchen, after they cease to ‘adorn’ the drawing-room, and bed-room. Very few get to see the fourth room, and yet fewer ones who recognise their worth into that fourth room!
The residents of ‘simpli’-city often have to put up with lack of adequate recognition by others around.
I need not at all feel shy or embarrassed to speak out that India can boast of at least those ancient times, when simple-looking people were ‘seen’ by others in the right perspective, and much to the bewilderment of other parts of the world, we were the ones who topped the list of societies who cheerfully supported and sustained those ‘seemingly’ unproductive people when wandering mendicants, monks, ill-clad, were most sought after to be ‘offered’ a square meal with deep reverence!
This time, let it be a ‘feast’ for the eyes, I thought, when this humorous ‘forward’ from an email is what I proposed to occupy a larger area of pixels!
Psn(7th August, 2010)
Quote: (quoted with due acknowledgement and thanks to the sender)
Once upon a time in the Iranian city of Shiraz, there lived the famous poet Sheikh Saadi.
Like most other poets and philosophers, Sheikh Saadi was not a rich man. He led a very simple life. A rich merchant of Shiraz invited Sheikh Saadi along with a lot of other big businessmen of the town on the occasion of his daughter's marriage which was to be a grand affair. Sheikh Saadi accepted the invitation and decided to attend.
On the day of the wedding, the host and his family were receiving the guests at the gate. They were ushering all the guests towards the dining hall. All the rich people of the town attended the wedding. They had come out in best of their attires. Sheikh Saadi wore simple clothes which were neither grand nor expensive.
He waited in a corner for someone to approach him but no one gave him as much as even a second glance. Even the host did not acknowledge him and looked away. Seeing all this, Sheikh Saadi quietly left the party and went to a shop from where he could hire clothes. There he chose a richly brocaded dress which was embroidered in gold on the margins. He selected a fancy turban and a waist-band to go with it. As he put on the hired dress and looked into the mirror, he found himself a changed person.
With this, Sheikh Saadi entered the dining hall and this time was welcomed with open arms. The host embraced him as he would do to an old friend and complimented him on the clothes he was wearing.
On seeing Sheikh Saadi, host said “And here comes our favorite poet What took you so long, friend? We have been waiting for you for ages! How good of you to have come. The gathering surely would have been incomplete without your gracious presence!” Sheikh Saadi did not utter a word and allowed the host to lead him to the dining room where other guests had assembled. Tasty dishes had been laid out on grand carpets. Sheikh Saadi was offered a seat with soft cushions. The food was served in fine crockery and cutlery made out of silver.
The host led Sheikh Saadi by hand and himself served out the chicken soup and the fragrant rice to him. After this, something strange happened. Sheikh Saadi dipped the corner of his waist-coat in the soup and sprinkled some rice on it. Addressing the clothes, he said: This is a feast for you, you should enjoy it.
All the guests were now staring at him in surprise. The host said “Sir, what are doing ? How can your clothes eat? And why should they ?” To this query, Sheikh Saadi very calmly replied: “My dear friend, I am indeed surprised with the question coming from you?”
"Aren't you the same person who did not even throw a look at me when I came dressed in simple clothes ? I can guess that it is my clothes and appearance that matter with you, not my individual worth. Now that I have put on grand clothes, I see a world of difference in reception here. All that I can now say is that this feast is meant for my clothes, not for me”
The residents of ‘simpli’-city often have to put up with lack of adequate recognition by others around.
I need not at all feel shy or embarrassed to speak out that India can boast of at least those ancient times, when simple-looking people were ‘seen’ by others in the right perspective, and much to the bewilderment of other parts of the world, we were the ones who topped the list of societies who cheerfully supported and sustained those ‘seemingly’ unproductive people when wandering mendicants, monks, ill-clad, were most sought after to be ‘offered’ a square meal with deep reverence!
This time, let it be a ‘feast’ for the eyes, I thought, when this humorous ‘forward’ from an email is what I proposed to occupy a larger area of pixels!
Psn(7th August, 2010)
Quote: (quoted with due acknowledgement and thanks to the sender)
Once upon a time in the Iranian city of Shiraz, there lived the famous poet Sheikh Saadi.
Like most other poets and philosophers, Sheikh Saadi was not a rich man. He led a very simple life. A rich merchant of Shiraz invited Sheikh Saadi along with a lot of other big businessmen of the town on the occasion of his daughter's marriage which was to be a grand affair. Sheikh Saadi accepted the invitation and decided to attend.
On the day of the wedding, the host and his family were receiving the guests at the gate. They were ushering all the guests towards the dining hall. All the rich people of the town attended the wedding. They had come out in best of their attires. Sheikh Saadi wore simple clothes which were neither grand nor expensive.
He waited in a corner for someone to approach him but no one gave him as much as even a second glance. Even the host did not acknowledge him and looked away. Seeing all this, Sheikh Saadi quietly left the party and went to a shop from where he could hire clothes. There he chose a richly brocaded dress which was embroidered in gold on the margins. He selected a fancy turban and a waist-band to go with it. As he put on the hired dress and looked into the mirror, he found himself a changed person.
With this, Sheikh Saadi entered the dining hall and this time was welcomed with open arms. The host embraced him as he would do to an old friend and complimented him on the clothes he was wearing.
On seeing Sheikh Saadi, host said “And here comes our favorite poet What took you so long, friend? We have been waiting for you for ages! How good of you to have come. The gathering surely would have been incomplete without your gracious presence!” Sheikh Saadi did not utter a word and allowed the host to lead him to the dining room where other guests had assembled. Tasty dishes had been laid out on grand carpets. Sheikh Saadi was offered a seat with soft cushions. The food was served in fine crockery and cutlery made out of silver.
The host led Sheikh Saadi by hand and himself served out the chicken soup and the fragrant rice to him. After this, something strange happened. Sheikh Saadi dipped the corner of his waist-coat in the soup and sprinkled some rice on it. Addressing the clothes, he said: This is a feast for you, you should enjoy it.
All the guests were now staring at him in surprise. The host said “Sir, what are doing ? How can your clothes eat? And why should they ?” To this query, Sheikh Saadi very calmly replied: “My dear friend, I am indeed surprised with the question coming from you?”
"Aren't you the same person who did not even throw a look at me when I came dressed in simple clothes ? I can guess that it is my clothes and appearance that matter with you, not my individual worth. Now that I have put on grand clothes, I see a world of difference in reception here. All that I can now say is that this feast is meant for my clothes, not for me”
I see .....
My eldest uncle used to close his eyes, and then utter the words “I see…” quite often. I was a kid, and hence, had no jurisdiction to get any clarification as to how one can ‘see’ when eyes are deliberately closed!
This ‘seeing’ presented lot of problems to me right from childhood. That simple mango remains elusive, while that cousin of mine declares that it is so visible to him. I would pray that it gets seen by me too, so that I am ‘in’ the competition to hit it with a stone, but every passing moment adds to the frustration, and as if the mango is quite alive to my lack of sight, joins with the other kid, and reveals itself at the precise moment when the ‘destined’ stone hits it, and it falls! (I used to ‘wish’ if some giant hand would shake a little, the huge branches of that large tree, so that I can ‘see’ the mango when it ‘swings’ distinctly amidst the green leaves that camouflage it!)
When the teacher seems to explain things about plants, trees, river, sky, thunder, lightening etc in our early school lessons, my worry was whether I can be sure if I see those things the same way, at least as the teacher sees, though nothing like matching the vision of that author of the ‘lesson’. Oh! For those dry subjects, even that author’s name seemed elusive! (There was just some ‘compiler’ of those lessons!).
As if to compound the problem, people comfortably comment “I WAS mistaken”, and “I mistook you” quite interchangeably, when the issue was just about wrongly ‘assuming’ a person to be ‘so-and-so’. How can he be ‘taken’ or how did he happen to ‘take’, missing something, when it is just about wrong visual identification? (God help, those identification parades conducted by Police!).
The best of our data-input devices came under a heavy scanner, creating so many doubts about our ‘vision’. Are the blind better off? That was my ‘private’ doubt, for, I lacked courage to voice this proposal! Even those ‘glasses’ sitting on my nose for decades now, loved to ‘clearly’ add to the confusion (even getting myself photographed presented a problem, because the best part of me, my eyes, got obliterated by the glare of light reflecting from the glasses over my eyes!).
When walking along the road, I used to observe the faces of people passing by, to know if they really ‘see’ things better with lots of ‘seeing’ experience. But most of them ‘seemed’ to be lost in their own world, and the long faces giving a feedback that they are no better even in their own ‘uniquely individual private worlds’!
(And now, most of us ‘choose’ to look at this world only through a ‘monitor’ most of the time, distorting it more ‘clearly’ as we climb higher on the resolution and pixels!).
Surely something is ‘amiss’! It would be wise to get our ‘vision’ corrected and adjusted to this planet at our earliest, as long as we are here! It is after a very long wait that some glimpse at ‘perception’ took place.
Any way, it was quite comforting to find yet another person ‘seeking’ to get clarity about ‘seeing’. This time, it is about ‘calling’ too, what we see.
(Well, spirituality, incidentally seeks to ‘unify’ the vision absolutely and conclusively too!)
Psn(7th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100805175103AARq6FH
Philosophically which is correct: "I call it as I see it" or "I see it as I call it"?
My answer:
The 'correctness' is very relative.
There are experts who master sound so well that when they 'call' then something can be seen.There are people with good perception who can 'call' it as they 'see' (least distortions, in perception).
Other wise, it is difficult to judge.
A coiled rope seen in dim light looks like a 'snake' to an 'overcautious' person!
A person who is under influence of drugs 'sees' what his mind calls (hallucination).
Philosophically speaking, each individual's perception is unique. So, we may say, we see the world differently, though we habitate the very same planet. With that highly imaginative mind, we almost create a virtual world of our own within and mostly 'dwell' in it.
This ‘seeing’ presented lot of problems to me right from childhood. That simple mango remains elusive, while that cousin of mine declares that it is so visible to him. I would pray that it gets seen by me too, so that I am ‘in’ the competition to hit it with a stone, but every passing moment adds to the frustration, and as if the mango is quite alive to my lack of sight, joins with the other kid, and reveals itself at the precise moment when the ‘destined’ stone hits it, and it falls! (I used to ‘wish’ if some giant hand would shake a little, the huge branches of that large tree, so that I can ‘see’ the mango when it ‘swings’ distinctly amidst the green leaves that camouflage it!)
When the teacher seems to explain things about plants, trees, river, sky, thunder, lightening etc in our early school lessons, my worry was whether I can be sure if I see those things the same way, at least as the teacher sees, though nothing like matching the vision of that author of the ‘lesson’. Oh! For those dry subjects, even that author’s name seemed elusive! (There was just some ‘compiler’ of those lessons!).
As if to compound the problem, people comfortably comment “I WAS mistaken”, and “I mistook you” quite interchangeably, when the issue was just about wrongly ‘assuming’ a person to be ‘so-and-so’. How can he be ‘taken’ or how did he happen to ‘take’, missing something, when it is just about wrong visual identification? (God help, those identification parades conducted by Police!).
The best of our data-input devices came under a heavy scanner, creating so many doubts about our ‘vision’. Are the blind better off? That was my ‘private’ doubt, for, I lacked courage to voice this proposal! Even those ‘glasses’ sitting on my nose for decades now, loved to ‘clearly’ add to the confusion (even getting myself photographed presented a problem, because the best part of me, my eyes, got obliterated by the glare of light reflecting from the glasses over my eyes!).
When walking along the road, I used to observe the faces of people passing by, to know if they really ‘see’ things better with lots of ‘seeing’ experience. But most of them ‘seemed’ to be lost in their own world, and the long faces giving a feedback that they are no better even in their own ‘uniquely individual private worlds’!
(And now, most of us ‘choose’ to look at this world only through a ‘monitor’ most of the time, distorting it more ‘clearly’ as we climb higher on the resolution and pixels!).
Surely something is ‘amiss’! It would be wise to get our ‘vision’ corrected and adjusted to this planet at our earliest, as long as we are here! It is after a very long wait that some glimpse at ‘perception’ took place.
Any way, it was quite comforting to find yet another person ‘seeking’ to get clarity about ‘seeing’. This time, it is about ‘calling’ too, what we see.
(Well, spirituality, incidentally seeks to ‘unify’ the vision absolutely and conclusively too!)
Psn(7th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100805175103AARq6FH
Philosophically which is correct: "I call it as I see it" or "I see it as I call it"?
My answer:
The 'correctness' is very relative.
There are experts who master sound so well that when they 'call' then something can be seen.There are people with good perception who can 'call' it as they 'see' (least distortions, in perception).
Other wise, it is difficult to judge.
A coiled rope seen in dim light looks like a 'snake' to an 'overcautious' person!
A person who is under influence of drugs 'sees' what his mind calls (hallucination).
Philosophically speaking, each individual's perception is unique. So, we may say, we see the world differently, though we habitate the very same planet. With that highly imaginative mind, we almost create a virtual world of our own within and mostly 'dwell' in it.
Friday, August 06, 2010
Forgive and Forget
I am even quite uncertain, if the asker would have taken into consideration the deeper “implications” when the words “moulded into the person you are” were used!
And it was therefore that I confined my answer to those glaring issues that we ‘feel’ in the form of a long term ‘scar’ that remains, after the wound heals.
But, in spiritual terms, everything that we are, everything that we perceive of ourselves, is something that has got molded or ‘welded’ into us! Even those wonderful “good” habits, that adorn us like golden bangles, bracelets etc, are in fact some kind of ‘shackles’ that we simply refuse to look at as that!
Those who try to peep within, simply find it perplexing, as to what they have to look at, within us, to have a glimpse of that ‘being’ in its pure form! Even those fortunate ones, who have a hazy ‘feel’ of meditative states, feel having failed to ‘capture’ the glimpse of that experience to be able to ‘hold’ on to something that one can look forward to, something that one can identify, to draw some inspiration, satisfaction and consolation or even some comfort that ‘we are on the right track’!
And yet, when those Masters speak with such emphasis, such certainty, the mystic-element in it, is indeed quite baffling!
All this may sound like some stupid jargon when we look at it with a very casual approach. But, if we like to make use of the technique, to put it to little bit of routine use in our daily life, it does work wonderfully well, and the results are quite rewarding. That is the idea of placing the question and answer before you here.
Let us make it happen.
Regards,
Psn(6th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100804231633AA7tEBZ
How do you forgive and forget abuse when it has molded you into the person you are?
Forget about the past is such an over statement.
My answer:
That is why in the ancient, Indian 'way of life' spirituality is symbolised with that lotus flower that gets nurtured by slush, stays in slush, and yet remains untouched by it. Forgive and forget, in its raw form is quite impractical. We remember wounds, hurts, insults, pit-falls, etc more than good times. That 'forget & forgive' is a temporary shelter to get started, before we conclusively resolve, with a deep and clear understanding that our being remains untouched by all those events (both good and bad) that occur in our life span. The question is just about our 'experiential' realisation of that purity, nothing more! But what sounds so ridiculously simple is not at all that easy (that is why we have this good and valid question)!
And it was therefore that I confined my answer to those glaring issues that we ‘feel’ in the form of a long term ‘scar’ that remains, after the wound heals.
But, in spiritual terms, everything that we are, everything that we perceive of ourselves, is something that has got molded or ‘welded’ into us! Even those wonderful “good” habits, that adorn us like golden bangles, bracelets etc, are in fact some kind of ‘shackles’ that we simply refuse to look at as that!
Those who try to peep within, simply find it perplexing, as to what they have to look at, within us, to have a glimpse of that ‘being’ in its pure form! Even those fortunate ones, who have a hazy ‘feel’ of meditative states, feel having failed to ‘capture’ the glimpse of that experience to be able to ‘hold’ on to something that one can look forward to, something that one can identify, to draw some inspiration, satisfaction and consolation or even some comfort that ‘we are on the right track’!
And yet, when those Masters speak with such emphasis, such certainty, the mystic-element in it, is indeed quite baffling!
All this may sound like some stupid jargon when we look at it with a very casual approach. But, if we like to make use of the technique, to put it to little bit of routine use in our daily life, it does work wonderfully well, and the results are quite rewarding. That is the idea of placing the question and answer before you here.
Let us make it happen.
Regards,
Psn(6th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100804231633AA7tEBZ
How do you forgive and forget abuse when it has molded you into the person you are?
Forget about the past is such an over statement.
My answer:
That is why in the ancient, Indian 'way of life' spirituality is symbolised with that lotus flower that gets nurtured by slush, stays in slush, and yet remains untouched by it. Forgive and forget, in its raw form is quite impractical. We remember wounds, hurts, insults, pit-falls, etc more than good times. That 'forget & forgive' is a temporary shelter to get started, before we conclusively resolve, with a deep and clear understanding that our being remains untouched by all those events (both good and bad) that occur in our life span. The question is just about our 'experiential' realisation of that purity, nothing more! But what sounds so ridiculously simple is not at all that easy (that is why we have this good and valid question)!
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Jealous Love or Zealous Love
This is almost like a sequel to the previous post… (that…. Love power).
This time, I feel jealous (or zealous… to sound more goody-goody) to not even wait for a ‘verdict’ from the asker. Though it sounds like a ‘mystic’ coincidence that the asker chose to ask this soon after ‘picking’ my answer for ‘love power’. As ‘mystic’ as that benevolent ‘nature’ which has allowed me the gift of listening to ‘musical rhythmic beats’ of an old model ‘bullet’ maintained by an elderly neighbour, ‘free’ of cost! He takes all the trouble of that low-mileage (even in this kilometer-age!), insurance, driving through the maddening traffic, etc… and gifts me 5 minutes of the music of that ‘lovable-beat’ of bullet (old model especially!) every morning while he gets the engine ‘warmed up’. The calm silence of the early hours allows hi-fi broadcast of this sound! All I wanted was to listen to the sound. And I have it ‘all-your’ style, no-strings-attached! Can’t help reminding myself of that great poet-philosopher Iqbal (…. Bataa teri raza kya hai….).
I find it more comfortable to ‘feel’ the fragrance of that bewitching magical flower, when a lady passes by, taking the trouble of weaving a garland that adorns the well braided long tresses, carrying all the burden around, deprived of a ‘view’ of one’s own flowers! I find it even more wonderful to watch a wonderful elderly-couple gladly accepting each other’s old age inadequacies, and incessantly caring, helping each other, unmindful of results (sometimes the milk in the kitchen spills, the dish gets burnt when stove is not switched off, that pension date seems too far away this month…. And so on!). A mad, illogical ‘entanglement’ beyond the reach of any jealousy, greed, etc.
And so, I would leave no stone unturned, to try and help to resolve any inconsistencies amongst youngsters in their reaching out towards such pure form of ‘love power’ so that the baton is ‘effectively’ passed on to the next generation. We need that ‘power’ which defies gravity, and pulls out the water, the nutrients etc through roots, inches its way painfully through the veins and arteries of the plant, and reaches the fag end of the fragile branch, and bloom out into an enchanting flower!
Psn(5th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100804183350AAMaMjb
Do you like to 'make' your loved one 'jealous'? Why?
And did you know that "every question" has the "right" to a philosophical view? Philosophy--- being an "art" of the mind. Thank you. You are welcome there, too.
And that is 'why'.....I'm asking a question? And not feeding a philosophy? Thank you for your concern.
And btw, Y/A suggested this choice of category?
Good questions, my friend. You may ask them, and I'll try to answer the best I could? Thanks!
My answer:
But that doesn't seem to sustain in the long run.
That nefarious, clandestine drug seller's love for 'easy' money from the gullible victim's pocket is what makes him 'offer' a few free sample doses of drugs. Once having tasted, these 'addicts' would now 'seek' him at his safe hiding place (avoiding the 'eyes' of the law). But once that stock of drugs is exhausted, the very same 'lovers' might knife him out of frustration!
Jealousy is a negative emotion basically, and is never known to have yielded a sustaining positive result. Yes, for some time it does 'seemingly' work in a positive way. But what shall we do to sustain that love when there is no scope for jealousy anymore (old age wrinkles, dementia, adult nappies, and what not!).
I vote for the 'philosophical' art(ery) which takes us straight to the heart! Psychology helps a lot, but pauses after a clear diagnosis of the mind. The psychologist has to be a philosopher too, a bit, for that prescription, but the 'dispensing' of the 'solution' (medicinal 'mixture' .. we used to call it "ADT-mixture... Any Damn Thing that works... ) has to come from the 'compounder' who compounds true love, and pours it through our gullet soothingly!
This time, I feel jealous (or zealous… to sound more goody-goody) to not even wait for a ‘verdict’ from the asker. Though it sounds like a ‘mystic’ coincidence that the asker chose to ask this soon after ‘picking’ my answer for ‘love power’. As ‘mystic’ as that benevolent ‘nature’ which has allowed me the gift of listening to ‘musical rhythmic beats’ of an old model ‘bullet’ maintained by an elderly neighbour, ‘free’ of cost! He takes all the trouble of that low-mileage (even in this kilometer-age!), insurance, driving through the maddening traffic, etc… and gifts me 5 minutes of the music of that ‘lovable-beat’ of bullet (old model especially!) every morning while he gets the engine ‘warmed up’. The calm silence of the early hours allows hi-fi broadcast of this sound! All I wanted was to listen to the sound. And I have it ‘all-your’ style, no-strings-attached! Can’t help reminding myself of that great poet-philosopher Iqbal (…. Bataa teri raza kya hai….).
I find it more comfortable to ‘feel’ the fragrance of that bewitching magical flower, when a lady passes by, taking the trouble of weaving a garland that adorns the well braided long tresses, carrying all the burden around, deprived of a ‘view’ of one’s own flowers! I find it even more wonderful to watch a wonderful elderly-couple gladly accepting each other’s old age inadequacies, and incessantly caring, helping each other, unmindful of results (sometimes the milk in the kitchen spills, the dish gets burnt when stove is not switched off, that pension date seems too far away this month…. And so on!). A mad, illogical ‘entanglement’ beyond the reach of any jealousy, greed, etc.
And so, I would leave no stone unturned, to try and help to resolve any inconsistencies amongst youngsters in their reaching out towards such pure form of ‘love power’ so that the baton is ‘effectively’ passed on to the next generation. We need that ‘power’ which defies gravity, and pulls out the water, the nutrients etc through roots, inches its way painfully through the veins and arteries of the plant, and reaches the fag end of the fragile branch, and bloom out into an enchanting flower!
Psn(5th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100804183350AAMaMjb
Do you like to 'make' your loved one 'jealous'? Why?
And did you know that "every question" has the "right" to a philosophical view? Philosophy--- being an "art" of the mind. Thank you. You are welcome there, too.
And that is 'why'.....I'm asking a question? And not feeding a philosophy? Thank you for your concern.
And btw, Y/A suggested this choice of category?
Good questions, my friend. You may ask them, and I'll try to answer the best I could? Thanks!
My answer:
But that doesn't seem to sustain in the long run.
That nefarious, clandestine drug seller's love for 'easy' money from the gullible victim's pocket is what makes him 'offer' a few free sample doses of drugs. Once having tasted, these 'addicts' would now 'seek' him at his safe hiding place (avoiding the 'eyes' of the law). But once that stock of drugs is exhausted, the very same 'lovers' might knife him out of frustration!
Jealousy is a negative emotion basically, and is never known to have yielded a sustaining positive result. Yes, for some time it does 'seemingly' work in a positive way. But what shall we do to sustain that love when there is no scope for jealousy anymore (old age wrinkles, dementia, adult nappies, and what not!).
I vote for the 'philosophical' art(ery) which takes us straight to the heart! Psychology helps a lot, but pauses after a clear diagnosis of the mind. The psychologist has to be a philosopher too, a bit, for that prescription, but the 'dispensing' of the 'solution' (medicinal 'mixture' .. we used to call it "ADT-mixture... Any Damn Thing that works... ) has to come from the 'compounder' who compounds true love, and pours it through our gullet soothingly!
Love power
The heart beat of that engine enticed me during my childhood. What ever the hurry, I stood still to be able to ‘feel’ the entire depth of the unique rhythmic sound of a “bullet” motorbike slowing past by me! Yes, strangely enough most ‘bullet’ riders never ‘ speed’ past. They cruise at a medium pace of just 20 miles per hour (all those odometers or speedometer, whatever the name, then it was Mph, not Kmph), and I used to ‘wish’ that perhaps one day, I would manage to just ‘test-ride’ at least one of those powerful machines. That was how I had a demonstrable feel of ‘love power’ for the first time. Otherwise, there was either love or just power.
Love is seen usually as some ‘weakness’. We give in, succumb, yield, to someone or something we love very much. It is quite natural therefore to ask, if there is a power at all, that comes as a ‘freebie’ along with love!
There is a strong argument that our weakness when exploited by someone else is the other’s power. Yes, logically quite correct. But what we are trying to find out is that whether in its very ‘form’ is there a power which does not depend upon that ‘other’ person’s ‘desire’ to exploit our ‘weakness’ and yet has its own power, manifest or subtle, which can be reckoned as unique power. Now, if that power creates a desire in one person to exploit a weakness in the other, we too, should reasonably refrain from misnaming it! It is almost like ‘additional’ use, abuse, overuse or misuse of money power. When we have money in a bank account, the bearer cheque we issue to others would ‘travel’ through various hands, till the validity period, doing everything that hard cash would have done, though that original ‘money’ is lying locked up in that bank’s vault! (A typical example would be, Dr. Manmohan Singh used to sign currency notes as a Governor of RBI, and now if we happen to hold a bearer cheque of his personal account of a Bank, the signature on that cheque would ‘feel’ as ‘powerful’ as those currency notes of earlier decades! We would not be in a great hurry to present the cheque to the drawee Bank for encashing it.).
The asker happened to find my answer acceptable. And I stretched this stupid preamble just to allow a simmer of that ‘love power’ in you to become impatient to know my reply.
Psn(5th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100727121155AAhePM6
What is the power of Love?
My answer:
Creation.
By whatever name we call it, it is ultimately a form of love. We call it chemical affinity, that bonds two molecules, or atoms etc. We call it gravity, when planets are held in place by a star. The galaxy, the milky way, etc. (Even that 'quantum entanglement is a form of love-entanglement, though looks like a 'choiceless-love'!) The black hole draws everything towards it.
And now, couples chat online to find out if they can be loving spouses to each other, and declare that their 'chemistry' matches, or does not match.
Even when we are on hunger strike(unto death), our skin cells stand up to say 'we love to live' and fight back an insect bite with a swelling, heat, etc.Even that greedy person's 'love' for money does not persist if that currency is 'demonetised'.
It is love(in one form or other, whether we call it science or miracles), that holds this 'creation' itself.
(That is why, the popular way of saying it 'God is love' etc. When we expand our own 'awareness' of love, experientially, it is the only and ultimate freedom!)
Love is seen usually as some ‘weakness’. We give in, succumb, yield, to someone or something we love very much. It is quite natural therefore to ask, if there is a power at all, that comes as a ‘freebie’ along with love!
There is a strong argument that our weakness when exploited by someone else is the other’s power. Yes, logically quite correct. But what we are trying to find out is that whether in its very ‘form’ is there a power which does not depend upon that ‘other’ person’s ‘desire’ to exploit our ‘weakness’ and yet has its own power, manifest or subtle, which can be reckoned as unique power. Now, if that power creates a desire in one person to exploit a weakness in the other, we too, should reasonably refrain from misnaming it! It is almost like ‘additional’ use, abuse, overuse or misuse of money power. When we have money in a bank account, the bearer cheque we issue to others would ‘travel’ through various hands, till the validity period, doing everything that hard cash would have done, though that original ‘money’ is lying locked up in that bank’s vault! (A typical example would be, Dr. Manmohan Singh used to sign currency notes as a Governor of RBI, and now if we happen to hold a bearer cheque of his personal account of a Bank, the signature on that cheque would ‘feel’ as ‘powerful’ as those currency notes of earlier decades! We would not be in a great hurry to present the cheque to the drawee Bank for encashing it.).
The asker happened to find my answer acceptable. And I stretched this stupid preamble just to allow a simmer of that ‘love power’ in you to become impatient to know my reply.
Psn(5th August, 2010)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100727121155AAhePM6
What is the power of Love?
My answer:
Creation.
By whatever name we call it, it is ultimately a form of love. We call it chemical affinity, that bonds two molecules, or atoms etc. We call it gravity, when planets are held in place by a star. The galaxy, the milky way, etc. (Even that 'quantum entanglement is a form of love-entanglement, though looks like a 'choiceless-love'!) The black hole draws everything towards it.
And now, couples chat online to find out if they can be loving spouses to each other, and declare that their 'chemistry' matches, or does not match.
Even when we are on hunger strike(unto death), our skin cells stand up to say 'we love to live' and fight back an insect bite with a swelling, heat, etc.Even that greedy person's 'love' for money does not persist if that currency is 'demonetised'.
It is love(in one form or other, whether we call it science or miracles), that holds this 'creation' itself.
(That is why, the popular way of saying it 'God is love' etc. When we expand our own 'awareness' of love, experientially, it is the only and ultimate freedom!)
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Freedom and Obedience
Utter confusion.
That is what it seems to me when we try to go deep into the implications of these two terms! I agree, even a kid would not find anything confusing about these two terms. That is simply because we are so much used to complicating things, terms and lives, that, we are at once ‘at home’ with anything that ought to be confusing. And when it is too simple, it is never going to be easy on us!
Taking care of a baby child is just about curbing its freedom, and we find the child quite ‘amenable’, when it does not struggle or wriggle out of our arms, when carrying the child in our arms and going out for a stroll through a park. What about that ‘freedom-struggle’ for the country? A cheerful wriggle in chains, perhaps it was. (Fortunately for us, the child is yet uninitiated about the constitutional provisions about ‘freedom of movement’ & remedies for infringement of the same).
The kid grows, and at school, right from day one, ‘obedience’ is taught, inculcated, habituated, and what not. I am reminded of my own innocence when I did not ‘voice’ my doubt to seek clarification about the difference between ‘Obey the teacher’ and ‘Obey the rules’! (We were ‘ruled’ by the ruler of the teacher more often, leaving less scope for obedience, to the rules or the teacher. The ruler was prominently placed on teachers table, seldom used for the purpose of its manufacture!)
For instance, we find the bus ‘convenient’ when it is the ‘hassles’ (of maneuvering through traffic bottle necks) that we wanted to avoid. Where as we visit a place of public ‘Convenience’ when actually we are dying to ‘relieve’ or ‘ease’ ourselves! But, we plead to be ‘relieved’ not waiting for that ‘reliever’ when that transfer order is to our convenience and the place of new posting is easy on us.
Coming a bit closer to the confusion between these two words….
At work place, is that ‘not-so-amenable’ person in fact ‘disobedient’?
A person is called ‘cooperative’ when in custody of police authorities, and obeys to tell the ‘truth’ as ‘expected’ by the investigating officer, and can be now turned an approver, and given small concessions!
About freedom, we love to see animals with some ‘freedom’ to move while in captivity in a Zoo, that is why ‘good’ zoo’s are larger than smaller ones with small cages? The very same animal is considered good and obedient only under chains when domesticated!
There was a 2-in-1, when we loved to watch that ‘Tarzan of the Jungles’ let out a shriek “Oeeeooooeeeeooo’ and the animals in utter freedom in that vast forest obeyed to his call to come in herds like an army ready to fight! It was a win-win situation for Tarzan, since he had the advantage of ‘domesticated-like’ animals at zero-cost!
Religious freedom is ‘Tolerance’ for other religions. But does our own religion demand obedience or not?
‘Hindu way of life’, it was……. , till bribery became the ‘way of life’ for us, and Hinduism became a religion(our fights, for or against, can be about religions, not about ‘way of our life’, and not in the least, ‘our way of life’!).
Bribe buys us freedom from hassles of harassment threatened by powerful people at high places! And that vigilance ‘observance’ week is imposed on us as if, we, the ‘cattle-class’, are grossly ignorant, and the ‘pledge’ brings in some awareness about it.
At work place, perhaps, obedience is just ‘compromise’ in a camouflage.
At home, obedience is just ‘adherence’ in a camouflage. (Adherence to social norms, customs, traditions. Blind adherence. That is why, the revolt started off well, when that memorable song sequence so well choreographed, remains unchallenged even today, marked a beginning of movie heroines playing new roles. The docile wife in the Hindi movie ‘Guide’ sang her divorce through the song ‘Aaj phir jeeney ka iraadaa hai….’ But where as, that legendary devotee ‘Meera Bai’ found her freedom even in the cup of poison she obeyed to drink cheerfully!)
When they forget to ‘switch’ the signals to yellow blinkers, that adherence, obedience, compliance with those traffic signal lights at mid-night when there is no traffic (may be because the night riders are busy ‘trafficking’ something else, elsewhere), is more of a ‘freedom-struggle’ from policemen rather than ensuring liberty to life through accident-free-drive.
Who knows, if the ‘dawn’ of clarity about ‘liberty’ waits for the transition between “Freedom from Obedience” to “Freedom in Obedience”
(Then, when only ‘the rest of it’ is confusion for us, Confusion rests).
Psn(1st August, 2010)
That is what it seems to me when we try to go deep into the implications of these two terms! I agree, even a kid would not find anything confusing about these two terms. That is simply because we are so much used to complicating things, terms and lives, that, we are at once ‘at home’ with anything that ought to be confusing. And when it is too simple, it is never going to be easy on us!
Taking care of a baby child is just about curbing its freedom, and we find the child quite ‘amenable’, when it does not struggle or wriggle out of our arms, when carrying the child in our arms and going out for a stroll through a park. What about that ‘freedom-struggle’ for the country? A cheerful wriggle in chains, perhaps it was. (Fortunately for us, the child is yet uninitiated about the constitutional provisions about ‘freedom of movement’ & remedies for infringement of the same).
The kid grows, and at school, right from day one, ‘obedience’ is taught, inculcated, habituated, and what not. I am reminded of my own innocence when I did not ‘voice’ my doubt to seek clarification about the difference between ‘Obey the teacher’ and ‘Obey the rules’! (We were ‘ruled’ by the ruler of the teacher more often, leaving less scope for obedience, to the rules or the teacher. The ruler was prominently placed on teachers table, seldom used for the purpose of its manufacture!)
For instance, we find the bus ‘convenient’ when it is the ‘hassles’ (of maneuvering through traffic bottle necks) that we wanted to avoid. Where as we visit a place of public ‘Convenience’ when actually we are dying to ‘relieve’ or ‘ease’ ourselves! But, we plead to be ‘relieved’ not waiting for that ‘reliever’ when that transfer order is to our convenience and the place of new posting is easy on us.
Coming a bit closer to the confusion between these two words….
At work place, is that ‘not-so-amenable’ person in fact ‘disobedient’?
A person is called ‘cooperative’ when in custody of police authorities, and obeys to tell the ‘truth’ as ‘expected’ by the investigating officer, and can be now turned an approver, and given small concessions!
About freedom, we love to see animals with some ‘freedom’ to move while in captivity in a Zoo, that is why ‘good’ zoo’s are larger than smaller ones with small cages? The very same animal is considered good and obedient only under chains when domesticated!
There was a 2-in-1, when we loved to watch that ‘Tarzan of the Jungles’ let out a shriek “Oeeeooooeeeeooo’ and the animals in utter freedom in that vast forest obeyed to his call to come in herds like an army ready to fight! It was a win-win situation for Tarzan, since he had the advantage of ‘domesticated-like’ animals at zero-cost!
Religious freedom is ‘Tolerance’ for other religions. But does our own religion demand obedience or not?
‘Hindu way of life’, it was……. , till bribery became the ‘way of life’ for us, and Hinduism became a religion(our fights, for or against, can be about religions, not about ‘way of our life’, and not in the least, ‘our way of life’!).
Bribe buys us freedom from hassles of harassment threatened by powerful people at high places! And that vigilance ‘observance’ week is imposed on us as if, we, the ‘cattle-class’, are grossly ignorant, and the ‘pledge’ brings in some awareness about it.
At work place, perhaps, obedience is just ‘compromise’ in a camouflage.
At home, obedience is just ‘adherence’ in a camouflage. (Adherence to social norms, customs, traditions. Blind adherence. That is why, the revolt started off well, when that memorable song sequence so well choreographed, remains unchallenged even today, marked a beginning of movie heroines playing new roles. The docile wife in the Hindi movie ‘Guide’ sang her divorce through the song ‘Aaj phir jeeney ka iraadaa hai….’ But where as, that legendary devotee ‘Meera Bai’ found her freedom even in the cup of poison she obeyed to drink cheerfully!)
When they forget to ‘switch’ the signals to yellow blinkers, that adherence, obedience, compliance with those traffic signal lights at mid-night when there is no traffic (may be because the night riders are busy ‘trafficking’ something else, elsewhere), is more of a ‘freedom-struggle’ from policemen rather than ensuring liberty to life through accident-free-drive.
Who knows, if the ‘dawn’ of clarity about ‘liberty’ waits for the transition between “Freedom from Obedience” to “Freedom in Obedience”
(Then, when only ‘the rest of it’ is confusion for us, Confusion rests).
Psn(1st August, 2010)
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