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Monday, July 30, 2012

Does enlightenment make you dumb?


A wonderful question!

Almost like asking... what next after the 'light' lights up!

Quote:
Do enlightenment makes you completely Dumb ?
Here is Osho's thought on enlightenment !
______________________________________…


Just to be enlightened is not enough. A mere enlightenment will give you all the joys of the world, but you will become absolutely dumb. You will not say anything, you will not find any way to express.

Before enlightenment the master has to prepare the people who are going to succeed him, to make them more articulate, to make them more able to transform the wordless into words, the absolutely silent into songs, the absolutely unmoving into a dance. Only then will he be able to convey something and may be of help to the blind humanity.

Because of this fact, Buddha has divided his enlightened people in two categories. They both have the same height – there is no quality of lower or higher – they both belong to the same cosmic reality, the fundamental nature. But he has made two categories: one category he calls the arhatas – the arhatas are the ones who become enlightened and remain silent – and the second category he has called bodhisattvas. They also become enlightened, but their work is to convey something, some device, some hints about their experience to people.

Arhatas are called hinayana, a little boat in which one man can row and go to the other side. Of course he reaches the other shore. And bodhisattvas he has called the mahayana; it is a great ship in which thousands of people can move to the other shore. The other shore is the same, but the bodhisattva helps many. The arhata is not articulate; he is a simple, nice, utterly humble person, but will not utter a single word of what he has attained. It is too much for him to say anything. He is completely contented, why should he speak? And anyway, everybody has to find his own way, so why unnecessarily harass people? The arhata has his own standpoint.

Buddha used to argue with the arhatas and the bodhisattvas, because both kinds of people became enlightened in his own lifetime. It was a constant struggle. Arhatas have their point: you cannot deny it, that everybody has to find his own path, so it is not necessary to convey anything to them. That may become a hindrance. All the scriptures have become hindrances.

No arhata has written any scripture. He does not move even a single finger to point to the moon, because the danger is that people may cling to his finger thinking that this is the moon. He keeps himself completely silent. Don’t think that he is uncompassionate; just compassion also has many ways of expression.

He is expressing his compassion by not interfering in your life, and he is showing his trust that existence will bring you somehow – if not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then next life. But there is eternity available, so what is the hurry? ”And if anybody is intelligent enough, he can see my small boat moving towards the other shore. That is enough of a hint. If he cannot understand that, he cannot understand anything else.”

So Buddha finally allowed two categories of the same height, without any comparison of lower and higher. ”Arhatas,” he said, ”you go on your way silently.” And to bodhisattvas, who were ready to try, he said, ”What is the harm? You have become enlightened, you cannot lose it – there is no way of losing it – so what is the harm in trying a little effort at provoking people and challenging people, creating a great urge and thirst in them? You may work on thousands and perhaps one may be ready, but even that is great compared to the ignorance of the whole earth. In the darkest night even a small candle glowing… its light and splendor is great, because it may give the indication to others to find candles; why live in darkness?”

Bodhisattvas moving in the masses are like torches, with a joy and with a dance and with a grace. They will create an urge, a deeply repressed hunger and appetite for the ultimate.

My guess work:
Still worse, they become mute... not just dumb..!
Very few choose to even stay back!
Those who communicate, are available to receive our gratitude in our full view...
Those who do not communicate, help those who communicate incessantly... so the ultimate beneficiaries never even come to know of their compassion, the dumb and or the mute!


psn(30th July, 2012)

Lazying Lazily


It may sound silly, but if it works, what is the problem!!....
...
We do it with innocent-children! (Yeah!... kids are defying logic too fast, they are clever at an age much earlier than we keep guessing... so we can do it only with 'innocent-children'.... Now... there might be sceptics who insist on defining 'innocent-children'..... well I would say... you asked for it... please see, what they 'actually' mean when they advertise 'innocent-divorcee' seeks a spouse!)...
....
What we do is before the kid has a change of mind about anything, we hurry up with the first suggested choice.... we do not allow a time-gap to make a 'well-considered-opinion'...
We show something that suits our convenience, and tell that innocent kid... “See, do you like this... like to have it..... yes... yes... you do seem to like it... I knew you would like it... let us pick this one....... good.. good choice.... very good....” (all this is told in rapid succession, disallowing the mind to think any more elaborately...) ... it works only till the kid is innocent.... usually, it works only once or twice!

...
I suggested something like that for a 'self-healing-treatment'... and it clicked!
Yes... sometime or other, we come to a conclusion.... at least unto myself, let me be a bit genuine.... when such a wisdom dawns... then this trick also might work! Just a question of timing, isn't it? We do hurry about a comment, and repent in leisure.... why not try to hurry. beating the laziness? It is usually the second thought that makes us put off something to a later date... First we realise, 'hey! This is to be done...'... then we tell ourselves “on a second thought.. it can be done later on too... who knows, by then, the need to do might become redundant!'

So the question:
How to get rid of lazyness?
i am very lazy,my career is failing because of this.Hold no interest in completing in tasks given at work

My lazy solution:

Become lazy about becoming lazy... !
Postpone laziness itself!
Hurry with any thought about the work that we get reminded of...
Imagine that this may be our last moment of this life... (any way it is existentially true.... we are the only ones without expiry date... any time!)
Unquote:

(Inspired by a memory of an outdated persuasive way of saying by elders of yester-years... “Do the thing before that laziness catches up with you.....”)


psn(30th July, 2012)

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Lack of response


When we respire, it is our response to life!
The nurse or that midwife gives a smack, not too late, if that respiratory response doesn't come... The first response is an inhalation, and the outburst of it is a cry, not that gentle exhalation... So total is the very first response! Pristine! Innocent! Pure emotion! The intensity of love brings instant joy even in the face of that midwife, for whom the process is a daily routine (that poor person fails to really notice this, lost in the anxiety of 'safe-delivery'.... otherwise, it is as fresh as that hunger or the thirst which is not yesterdays!)
...
Forgetting that, ... we ..... as we grow,...... restrict our response too often!
Please look at our kids (the youngsters, especially.... monosyllable response.... that too over a mobile preferably, as if holding that mobile is all about 'mobility in life'!)...
.....
A response to an impersonal blog is a struggle..... Why blame the reader of that blog in isolation? If somebody misunderstands that blog a little, and gives an 'inside-outside-same---type-of-response' the next few 'forms of responses' are a challenge to the dictionery's lexicographer! And then we try to drag in that most unwilling 'third umpire' (poor fellow, he or she never bargained for this kind of umpiring, when that person was asked to fix a few bugs reported in the format of the blog and its navigation-related issues!!!)... When I said, a response to an impersonal blog is a struggle, quite a few people would have responded within themselves with something like this.. “Not all blogs are impersonal, you see... some are attacking our very personal sentiments”.... Please see, response to a blog starts at the formative stage... within the blogger oneself, to begin with.... the struggle to become impersonal is there itself..... in that struggle, if the 'personality reflects into the blog too much, then the blog's image acquires that “persona” (the mask)... and the struggle goes in favour of.... (“and the winner is.....” the hand is lifted by the umpire of the ring in that wrestling centerstage!)...
....
“The patient is not responding to the medicines”...... the angreyjee-vaid-jee says.. that is when the vaid is rendered 'avaid' due to lack of his own response to the concepts(vidhi/vidhata-related-concepts) of diagonising the right live-wire connections to be tapped, to restart the life ticking inside!
...
The transplanted organs find the response from the host to be inadequate and the doctors say, the body failed to accept the organ!
.....
The bride feels that the in-laws failed to accept her into the new house where she got transplanted..
The in-laws feel that the bride is not compatible to the structure of the family that will house this bride....
(who is a misfit?... is not our point of dispute... many things decide, right from adapability issues.. We are just looking at various forms of responses, and the lack of it!... A whole movie gets created when that love triangle finds its source in that lack of proper-response at the right time.... ).
...
So that is how, we are... every breath is a response to life itself!
Severing the umblical cord might look like a severing of bonds, but that is how we respond to life within that child! It is a death of the 'womb-life of the child' but the birth of a consciousness, manifesting with intense discretion though a 'life-form' called the body, the most intricate design of the life-energy in the universe... the best expression possible ... the highest form of expression, a being with self-awareness, a being capable of realising the very source of creation within self! A human being!

Spirituality is all about response....
(Considering the magnitude of responding to life... the spiritual way of it... small responses, or the lack of it do not matter at all.... and even blogs of this kind are no exception to the list of things that do not matter at all! Not withstanding that.... the whole way of looking at life itself, ..... is about our moment-to-moment response.... with just one responsive test... whether we are life-positive, or life-negative in our responses... there is a whole eternity waiting... take your own time... till you really decide to respond positively!)

psn(24th July, 2012)

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Water Wash?


Was it an eye-wash? ... that was perhaps what the questioner sought to ask, in that question about sprinkle of water over food, as a ritual...

A bit late to ask... perhaps... already, water is becoming scarce...
There was an old movie... those bandit-cowboys... they snatched that alcohol flask from the hands of the priest, and said 'Bless them dry father, that stuff is too precious in this desert....' and prevented that priest from sprinkling it over the 'innocent' ones!

There are people who are interested in asking it... even if for fun!.....
Otherwise, why to presuppose something and include that pre-conclusion, or pre-judice in the question itself... humility is not about convincing others or still worse, it is not about trying to pamper others... 'essentially' it is about making oneself more receptive to the flow of knowledge, the flow of 'experience' itself, so as to reach even the innermost 'witnessing-aspect' within us,.... without which..... the whole exercise of even that humility is almost wasted, like lighting of just a couple of incense sticks at a public toilet that has run out of water long ago, but not run out of crowd at all! (there we know what water does.... not just a ritual.... though the tissue paper users might continue to laugh at water-prone/water-borne toileteers!)..

The question, did not seem that inquisitive really, but it was again, not entirely meaningless too!

Quote:
The question:


Can the Hindu's spraying of holy water over the food make it free from poison?
Hindus, especially Brahmins used to spray water on the food after chanting "Om Bhur Bhuva Suvah.... ". What purpose does it solve? If the food contain some poison, will it go because of this?

My reply:
Those who do this practice are literally at the mercy of those who do not believe this or those who do not bother to understand this, or those who are not open enough to look with a mind 'maybe... let me see', as a possibility.
Still worse... please see, that priest has been mixing that turmeric powder with a little water, and invoking a divine power into it! Can a form be invoked into a powder, or can it be easier to be invoked into another form?...
.....
It is all a question of perception....
....
But, nobody asks why that uranium rods used in nuclear power station gets 'cleaned' when a ring of the same material is passed over it several times!..
...
A villager was warned that people at a city would find him to be a simpleton and cheat him... somebody found that villager gaping at the skyscraper, and told him, 'see, there is a fee to stare at that tall building, it is @ Rs.5/- per floor from the ground level, and I am collecting it.. now tell me which floor were you looking at?'.... (Later, back at that village, the villager informed, that he was smart enough... "I knew that they would cheat me, so I cheated him first, telling that I was looking at just the tenth floor, while the truth is, I was looking at the 20th floor, so I saved Rs.50/-..)... this is the level of our intellectual competition.... we draw satisfaction among ourselves, out-smarting each other at our own present levels... the ancients had their own valid reasons...
(Any way it does not matter at all to those ancients now.. and the truth does not really depend on our 'sponsorship'!)... Water is anyway going to be scarce... time to do away with this ritual!
Unquote:

psn (21st July, 2012)

Friday, July 20, 2012

Result of Ignorance?


Very easy to ask.... and seldom does a brief answer find an appeal!

But I was a bit surprised, when a very brief answer seemed to convince!

We are not unfamiliar with the size, magnitude, and the sheer volume of what they call as knowledge... (as if that is not enough, there is a still-more-ardous climb towards that 'wisdom' without which all this knowledge is going to be only a burden! That wisdom seems to be like that MBA .... Knowledge-Management-and-Administration!... A decent placement is now possible only when there is an MBA irrespective of whether it is after BE, Bio Tech, Agri, anything... ! Like wise,.... yes .... they 'like' only the 'wise.. and so 'like-wise'... wisdom + knowledge is the recipe to some respect )....
..

What if we choose to ignore .... knowledge and/or wisdom.... ? That is what 'ignorance' is all about!...
So, the result of ignorance, if we are just unignorant about this, maybe.... we can afford the ignorance of anything else!
...
I don't know what prompted such a question...
But the appeal was appealing indeed!

The catch: we are on a spiritual journey... it is mandatory for the journey-ticket-holders to beware of consequences of ignorance!
psn(20th July, 2012)


The question:
What is the result of Ignorance?

That brief case answer:
Well, if such ignorance is total and absolute, the best ever result is that envy by the onlooker... maybe that is what inspired them to say 'ignorance is bliss!'...
...
the whole problem of life is partial ignorance!...
It takes a whole science of spirituality to 'release' us from its grip!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Sensitivity Lessons


Unless a person is adequately sensitive, how can the spirit be experienced? How can spirituality dawn within?
When we respond to subtle emotions even, we are branded as over-sensitive, or hyper-sensitive...! Such 'labelling' tends to make us urge-nt to hurry into an effort to suppress such sensitivity instead of harnessing it, turning it inwards.... we are carried away by the opinion of others...

Nature has give us its generous share of sensitivity.... We are simply not aware any more... When we say we are not close to nature, most of us think of the distance between their flat, apart-ment, and the deep jungles, rivers and mountains.... No... that is not all... we have 'nature' right within us... For instance, we have that 'hunger' and the 'empty-stomach' as distinct sensations.. only if we are willing to 'look' within.... but, for a lot many of us, that empty stomach itself means 'time for a refill'.... it happens till the doctor puts us on rigorous dietary restrictions..!
If we are feeling annoyed at this observation, please see, ....... that 'sensitizing' us on a mass-scale is such a rewarding industry now! The mega episodes of Satyameva Jayate is about social-issues that requires just a little common sense,...... sense, sense-ability, sensitive... sensitivity... but, a multicrore project to educate us to 'create' afresh that awareness about social problems, right in our midst!

This sensitivity is a precious gift, to be very carefully nurtured, nourished and then it would do wonders, befriending us on the spiritual path!


I had the rare chance to answer a question, when the asker was quizzical about a sensitivity, but, perhaps, did not identify it the right way.... (the cuticle.. the edge of the finger nail are dead cells, the sensation is at the root hairs, instead, and where it ought to be! Unfortunately, I might have ended up reminding the true purpose of those eyebrows, instead of that 'beauty-enhancer-gadget' that it is rendered into now!) .

(That sense of humor we find in ourselves is a gentle reminder of a great potential lying within us waiting to be tapped! What else can it mean, when the words on a monitor gives a tingling sensation to our emotions, and we cheer up out of nowhere, for no reason!.... It is only human beings who have the capability to rise into subtler-sensitive-capabilities, as we grow ..... and ...... by the time, the physical sensitivity is lost due to age, the subtle ones take over at a mega-scale! And that ... accounts for the 'mega-reason' why elders are honoured at the age of 60, 80 and 100... not merely due to the reason of having vegetated for so long!)

psn(17th July, 2012)



Have you ever tried to rub your eyebrow hairs with cuticles of fingernails? It feels great?
you don't have to pull eyebrow hair, but you have to rub fingernail cuticles on eyebrow hair, and the feeling and sensation you get on your cuticles of fingernails that feel great. I do it with my mom's eyebrow too. If someone has thick and rough eyebrow hair (like old people have) then it even feel more great. By Cuticles I mean the edge of fingernails that is the end of fingernails. I have habit of doing it and only if I do it then only I can sleep

My answer:
The eyebrows are designed to give us an early warning, in the eventuality of any harm likely to occur to our eyes... When somebody waves the arm too close to our eyes, the eyelids shut automatically!... It is instantly as a response, not automatic (if we are willing, we can experience this seemingly 'automation' right within us.... I suppose only spirituality can take us such sharp levels of alertness... any way... that is beside the point..)
People tamper with eyebrows, simply because it draws a lots of attention towards the beauty of the face... The sensitivity is partially lost... But the loss is not noticeable because we too have lost a lots of sensitivity over generations (we use gadgets to tell us things, which we could have known using just the body as an antenna!)...
..
You have discovered this sensitivity, as also the method to separate the distinction within a perceivable level... that is what induces sleep.... (Mom runs the palm across the scalp, of a child, and slowly the child feels sleepy... may be, a lullaby, with meaningless repetitive words,with a good rhythm might also induce a boredom soon enough for the kid to fall asleep!)... The finger nail's edge has no sensation of its own... so the fingers are like some remote... where as, the skin, the hair of the eyebrow are extremely sensitive, and repetitive tingling keeps the mind focused at one place.... just one place.... the alertness is slowly taken off from other thoughts... sleep is a need of the body periodically, and the body tunes to treating this as a message to invoke the sleep duration...

Monday, July 16, 2012

A close enemy?


An amazing question!
The crucial part of the question was... “Deep down I wish we got along, and I wish we just had a good relationship.”...
...
I could not help responding to this wonderful emotion!
...
The whole experience of life happens only within us!.... And not at that enemy's location.... so far away, ... maybe a million miles away.... his enmity towards us, the experience of it for us, is only within us, not million miles away!.... When we go to sleep, deep sleep, we keep aside that enmity too, along with our mind... otherwise, even sleep eludes us!.... If this is so.... who is the 'prime-suspect' about our little bit of 'peace-of-mind'? Well, if we cannot even be a little peaceful, there is no scope for something “else”....

psn(16th July, 2012)

quote:

The question:

Have you ever went to being enemies with someone to being very close?

I am just wondering. there is this guy who we absolutely hate each other right now. But the weird thing is we have very compatible personalities, and get along smashingly if both of us just allow it to happen. But he was a jerk to me, so I don't lighten up around him. We just don't get along.
Deep down I wish we got along, and I wish we just had a good relationship.

Anyway, I am just curious if anybody else has a similar experience... have you ever been enemies with someone and something changed? what happened? are you friends now?


My humble attempt:
Well, at a very deep level, it is ourselves!
...
That hate is not the opposite of love... please see... it is indifference that is the true opposite of love!
Hate is something that gives more space in our hearts to a person than our friends, loved ones! We keep hating someone all the time, we keep remembering them all the time... just that we do not really enjoy hating...
...
When we learn to accept, the acceptance deepens, there is no way we can ever hate any one, any more! There are such wonderful beings .... though just a few... but good enough to demonstrate a possibility! So, we ourselves are the enemies to our own self... the other one whom we right now hate so much is just a reminder about it.... like that irritating alarm!.... it makes a noise for our sake, but some of us in that half-sleepy-anger, smash it, and later regret, and lament ... when we need to buy a new one!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

The value of what we export


A close friend of mine sent me this link to view, and feel a bit proud of my country!


But what I exactly felt is ..... (inspite of the embarrassment of mentioning it aloud....), I felt like standing up joining my palms, and bowing before the monitor of my PC, a gesture of deep gratitude towards the parents of these children .... these children who make our country proud!...

And if our politicians are able to find some space in their heart, let them have mercy on our future generations, and as a gesture of 'charity' at least, let them make our country a bit more 'affordable' to hang on to here itself, instead of migrating to the west, in such large numbers! Just that one thing, corruption... if it gets reduced a little, our kids might find it easier to 'breathe' freely on our soil too! No legislation can help.... The gesture has to come as 'charity' by our beloved politicians... otherwise, politics is a heavy-investment-oriented business, and there is no way to forego the capital investment!
...

This video could not visualise about the contribution by the parents of those wonder kids!... The moment they reach that point, the other secret is out... the spiritual inheritance!

psn(12th July, 2012)

Hidden Agenda!


“You are too young to understand it.... even if I tell you the reason”....
was a stock-reply that I was so used to.... when ever I used to ask 'why and how,' of things ... things that these elders 'seemed' to know! I used to even imagine that they have a hidden agenda, a hidden reason even, for not revealing the-reason! I used to ask 'please at least tell me why you do not wish to tell me...'
....
I had aunt in the neighbourhood of that village, where I spent my school 'vacation' (holidays are different, with a hidden agenda! Vacation is simply pay the fees and vacate the place for a couple of months... rest and recuperation for the harassed lot... of, 'we the teachers'... that was how 'we the kids' deciphered it 'then'!).... So it was about that 'aunt'... She shocked me when she announced once 'that old fellow is all alone now'... it was her husband, alone 'now'.... both were above 85.... she had a knee pain, and I was deputed by my granny to become her walking stick up to 'that' far off house where a visit became imminent for this aunty (some condolence...)... “How do you know?” , I asked this aunty (much, much elder than my own granny, then...)... 'Can't you hear .... he never farts so aloud except when alone or with just me around... it is only a mouse-squeal at the most when 'others' are around!”.... This aunty phooh-poohed all the attempts of that 'uncle' to hold back any hidden agenda... her only worry was what if she kicks the bucket too early?.... She used to take care of him like her child! He was firm in several infirmities of old age, while this aunt was yet to stabilise into age related infirmities (at times she was agile too!)... These oldies provided me lots of watch-and-learn lessons... these oldies loved innocence and never failed to respond to such innocence with liberal trust, and open-ness!
......
Busy moms suspect a 'hidden agenda' when that noisy kid of hers suddenly becomes calm, or lets out a bewitching smile at her!
...

That was childhood.
And now, it is almost time for me, to face a similar situation..... with a stock reply like “you are too old for that.... you will never understand it!”....
...
Now-a-days, everyone is entitled to that “abundant stock of hidden agenda”.....as if it is a 'fundamental-right'!!!.... It is so obvious, when we look at the elaborate preamble they use before asking simple questions!...... For instance.. sitting across us(opposite to us, etc), in a train journey......they open with... “please do not take it 'otherwise'...” a conversation thus....... (yet to know whether I am wise at all, to only then.... think of being 'other-wise'!!!)... “please do not miss under stand ... ..” (right now I am 'sitting' ... properly.....at my own berth allotted to me... not miss- standing, missing to under-standing, upper-standing... etc.... calm, peaceful... now what are you going to start? A war?... war-ning me thus?..!!!)...... with all such 'please's' (“please” if multiplied in number,...... expects you to ..... exponentially 'behave yourself' irrespective of the nature of surgery the other fellow is about to do on your ego!)...

With all such 'please.... do not mind, etc..' he ends up asking,... 'where are you traveling up to?'.. (only this much?)!!!!

He could have as well walked up to those 4 entrances of that bogie, and along one of them there would be a chart, revealing all that 'hidden-agenda' about my journey!... (Obviously, a long journey it is, .... he has lot of time to spend, and being too unsure of how poor a conversationalist I am, he uses all his voca-bul-err-eee to fill those gaps of time... like those old times where under the huge banyan tree, oldies have a conversation consisting mostly of coughs, sighs and hiccups!)...
Those who do not have either the patience for such elaborate preamble, or some guts to face the consequences, end up keeping..... a long face, the only form-of-protest, that our social etiquette permits, ....... for the rest of the journey.
...

The funniest part is, when I was of the 'right' age for everything worth knowing.... nobody found time to even look at me! So, all along, it was 'figure it out yourself' (the way that heroine of the movie 'crocodile dundee' told that hero who was seeing a commode for the first time in his life, inside that small room, we call as a 'toilet', and asked her about its utility...... the heroine was benevolent... the hero was fortunate... I, .... had to even ..... 'figure-it-out' whole squared... even had to figure it out...that.... I was to figure it out by myself!)... Well I wish to be fair... my questions were not quite easy for people stuck with just the routine..... What I noticed was that the mind was inclined to settle down to a routine, where it is never going to be taxing to 'figure out things' too often.... the easiest evidence of which was the obstinate resistance people manifested everywhere, ..... at home, work place, etc ..... about changing the places of things..... Just keep that paper weight a few inches away and that fellow shrieks 'Who has dunn it?'.... It is okay to ensure that things like toothpaste, brush, etc are found at the same place... though personally, I would not mind it being displaced at all.... it might help to start my levels of alertness at a higher notch at the very begin of the day... at the same time, agreed that we do not like to spend time or waste time for repetitive actions, beyond what is warranted...!
...
On the spiritual arena.... we have that 67th verse of 18th chapter in that 'song divine', where there seems to be a hidden agenda in holding back information! Did Krishna 'allow' a large scale war, just to ensure enlightnement of one kid called 'Arjuna'... or were there several others,.... waiting,.... like Bheeshma,..... who were like that 'Terminator' who could never 'self-destroy' themselves? Krishna had too many secrets up his sleeve.... some were mystic, some were hidden-agenda, some were too obvious to be even pointed at(that raas-leela for instance!)... But we cannot blame Krishna entirely... he has already said,...... about, 'knowing that', ..... after which...... nothing else needs to be known, within those 18 chapters of 'song-divine' itself!
We have Gautama Buddha, those Zen Masters, and several others, who were 'not-so-ready' to take a 'position' about the existence of God!.... For that matter, these spiritual masters never seemed inclined to come together on almost any thing... though they speak about the same thing, same goal, to reach, through separate-looking techniques! Maybe that is what ..... being 'separately-together'.... is all about...!
....
It is perhaps, the urge to 'have-an-hidden-agenda' to themselves that inspired the jointness of families to split up! 'Privacy' was the private name for the same concept which was publicly known as 'independence', freedom, etc... These elders insist on all the details, while hesitating to divulge it from themselves (a one-way-traffic!).... ask any kid, and he would readily agree/say ....this to be also true... about his own 'financiers-provided-by-nature'!
.....
'Hai seedee-see-baath... na mirch masala, dil ka haal suney dilwala.... '... I kept wondering, till I discovered the reason .... this is why the north-Indian-food is more spicy than those south Indian dishes, ... in general.... !!! Mirch-masala- is too essential!... That dish 'Olan' in Kerala consists of just ash-gourd slices, salt, and a dash of raw, unrefined cocoanut oil after it is cooled, on the top.... no mirch-malasa... for instance.. and no feast is complete without this dish! (Kalan, olan, aviyal... the sequence of dishes on that banana leaf... is like a rhyme.... famous!)
I tried my best, to help people to know what it is all about.... to the extent I knew..... and in this process, I learnt several things, .... like, why the 'hidden-agenda'.... why the futility in trying to explain... why the difficulty in inspiring, motivating, persuading.... why sometimes we use the tough way of provoking, instigating, insinuating, etc... The more I delved into spirituality, the more was the entanglements.... mystic entanglements, and before I realised it, I was deep into it... the same 'hidden-agenda-business'... the only difference is, I have the privilege of sharing the predicament with a lot more number of people than I ever imagined or hoped to 'meet' even! It is a price I had to pay (gladly too), to know that whatever we are intense about to know... it is already there within.... it is only a question of deepening our perception a little bit more! Otherwise, it is much more sensible to ask 'when/which is the next bus'.... 'where is the toilet please' ... and such other things, without much of ego problem! We do need clarity, in knowing, about difference between secrets, hidden-agenda, confidential, private, personal and such allied concepts.
...
Kuch tho log kahenge.... logon ka kaam hai kehna.... (beech mein something... something...).. and then 'kahin...beeth na jayey raina'! The night is precious, as usual for those three extremists... rogi, bhogi, and yogi!

psn(12th July, 2012)

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Suicidal thoughts!


What could be the thought process of a person who is contemplating on a suicide?
....
There is no dearth of ideas....
...
And as if to support the data bank, more than anything else..... we often have those
suicide 'notes'..... that fool might never have written anything to even remotely resemble a diary...
but suicide note.... yes .. a great possibility... follow the 'predecessor'... (Oh! The word itself, perhaps is seldom so apt... dunno!... deceased... pre-deceased... pre-decesssor... while he still had a chance.... holding position, office, prior... hanging on to life, prior to death...!!!)
...

In spite of it, something in somebody... gets a question..... what are the 'thoughts' of such a person?
The question was....

What do people think about before they commit suicide?


My answer:
All that they think is about 'loss of hope'... which ever way it is....
situation decides the details of such thoughts...
but it is about loss of hope, some way or other...
...
Ironically, a person, alone on an island right from birth.... does not even know that he/she is a human, for want of another sample to compare with..... possibly cannot have such 'hopeful-thoughts' as we have, and therefore, the possibility of such a person 'ever going to think of a suicide'.... not possible!!

unquote:

So, that was it! My idea of looking at it afresh!.... All I did was to try to bring a person at par with other life forms.... on an island... (Noah's ark would have been better but again that Noah is himself a huge thought!..)... and then make that person see, if he compares with other beings on that island..... crow, snake, bird, ant... ever contemplate on a suicide? Then what is our level?


psn(8th July, 2012)

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Emotional self-deception!


'Terminological inexactitude' seems so comforting, instead of a plain 'lie'!

As simple as that!

Honesty by itself is not deceptive.... We make it elusive, when we deal with it just logically, when it suits us...... and then deploy it emotionally, restricting the element of deceptivity to.... just that emotions itself! Emotions are a bit subtle, excepting for the 'outbursts' (that is why most men settle for the 'silence' of a lady to mean as a 'yes'... and then before they realise it.... may be too late!)
...
What about that self deception, and that too emotional, not logical?... A very deep thing... takes a lot to even discover. None other than we ourselves have to do the unfolding, the revealing of it to ourselves..... till then, we even cleverly put up a show of that 'spiritual-climb' too... and that 'self-deception' seeks so much of that sense-of-security, that it even provides proof of outspokenness, to appeal very logically to others... the advantage is, once a logical convincing happens, the emotional trust follows (deception point!)..... We find a few people whom we get to know very closely, who spare no efforts in self-mortification, just to impress themselves of their sincerity, and then others around 'happen to observe it' ...... the first analogy is 'logical'.... the sympathy sinks instantly, and deep enough too, when others see that there are no 'vested' interests for that person oneself! The judgement gets closed. Inadvertently, we support that person's self-deception! From materialistic point of view, it is a win-win situation.... It is only when the life span gets used up, the truth dawns... by itself... old age suddenly appears to be a vast isolating emptiness, a large-sized loneliness... people start wondering .. what went wrong... when? Where?... the mind refuses to even 'look' being so scared of that self-deception becoming 'uncovered'...

Coming to honesty itself... please look at this question: Is it possible for the eyes to fool the mind?

How honest this question seems! The 'preparedness' to see things 'as they are'...! See, .... 'I am not going to spare ..... even my own eyes'... from that 'scrutiny'... Something like the police commissioner himself, insisting on a thorough security-check of his own self, by the staff at the main gates !

But, is it 'reasonable' to even question the eyes thus? Is the eye capable of being dishonest? Like.... 'His words are so deceptive'..... No.. no.. not HE... he is a good fellow (at heart) only his-WORDS... Like that intermediate boss serving that charge-sheet, or a pink-slip, only being 'duty-bound to do it' (personally hates to do it... but what to do... duty .. you see! ).... This kind of deception works so well with adults... small children do not fall for it... they look at the body-language, and see the intention, the emotional truth beyond the words...... beyond the logically-appealing words!

The question just led me to think about that self deception, that I found in some people... taking a heavy toll... especially after the law says they are 'senior' ..... The worst part is that no external help is possible to console or counsel them... and by themselves, their nerves are too fatigued to stand the self-cross-examination now... the close people around... mostly children and siblings, just watch helplessly the unexplained gloom that this person undergoes brooding alone.... this person had been 'only' torturing oneself, sparing no pains, no efforts, to keep others happy, but now, some unknown sorrow seems to have gripped this person at this age, when agility has slipped away! (Here, I cannot help mentioning my admiration for the wisdom of ancients ! The very life-style, the way of life, insulated a person against such vulnerability to self-deception ... emotional one ....I mean!)

psn (4th July, 2012)

Having raked up the issue, let us also briefly look at the innocence of the eyes!
Quote:

Is it possible for the eyes to fool the mind?

My answer:
When I saw that experiment at school lab, with that pin hole through a card board, a candle lamp on one side, and another white board on the other side... that inverted image... the doubt came for the first time... 'have I been seeing the world around upside down?'
...
The same energy is light and sound at different wave lengths through that single cable coming into the TV set.... The range of our eye is limited.... our eye too has a shutter speed... When we read a sentence, the eye jumps from one word to the other, and cannot slide continuously over it!
...
Now it is up to the mind to decide whether to allow the eyes to fool it!
Unquote:

A post-script:
We were about 4 or 5 kids..... I asked them, if they ever saw Mr.X... a person we all knew very closely, .... ever saw Mr.X laughing?.... “No!” was the chorus.... I too knew it too well... We were too young to even know about the existence of a concept called 'sense of humour'!... So, it was not surprising that I was tempted to try out if this Mr.X would laugh at a joke!... I tried, with this one.. “Uncle, please listen to this... one fellow was leaning from the balcony of that top floor of Qutub Minar, with arms rested on the low wall... The strap of his wrist-watch got loosened and the watch fell straight down, all the way... This fellow, hurried downstairs, and stood just below that balcony with palms stretched out facing upwards.... People asked him 'why thus?'... He said 'My watch fell from right up there, and I am waiting for it to reach down, to catch it safe on to my palm..' They looked quzzically at him.... He saved them the embarrassment, explaining further... 'I know, you would be thinking..... it would have fell long ago!... But you see, it was MY watch... I know better.... it runs 15 minutes late!”...

This uncle did not laugh.... instead he explained, and turned to ask me.... 'So what? That is the level of that poor fellows understanding.... what is there to laugh about it?.... you should never laugh at elders thus!... get going now!”.....

(My efforts did not go entirely vain.... the other 4 burst into laughter at this response!)...

I got my first lesson, and 'reasonably' early too..(for me!)... this lack of sense of humour, is perhaps a symptom ... also.... of that emotional self-deception having taken deep roots inside a person! (Too many people know both of us well, too well.... so I am unable to elaborate any further.... it is for everybody to see, that I was correct about him... past 85, beyond psychiatric help, all the goodwill he earned as a very amiable, ever-helping, honest, dependable person, did not really help him to even discover this self-deception before it was too late!)

For those who are annoyed about my personal story of this Mr. X....    please look at that Dean....  father of our heroine of "MunnaBhai MBBS"....   sense of humor...  outsourced to laughing therapy...  not much help!

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

I think, I heard a silent sob!


I think I heard that silent sob!

Not very sure though.....
Whether it was a sob, or anger, or anguish... or ... (it is so silent around here you see!)... ???
...

I really feel so sorry!
...

Idiosyncracies can end up only thus... hurting somebody inadvertently!
...

I had my usual best critic warning me.... like always... right next to me... and did warn me as always... 'take care.... of late your words are too sharp!... humor for others, but not for those who really read it!'....(I blinked perhaps, this time.... a moment of unawareness... suits me very right! Even the thought that I might have hurt somebody, ought to be this severe indeed!)
...

I don't know how to put it.... let me try... All lying down, eyes closed... some fast asleep, some just dreaming.... some maybe unable to get sleep..... but a huge hall, that silence, that emptyness above a feet and a half high.... too tempting.... that Idiosyncracy crept in... “why not try fencing blindfolded?”.... it was fun.... the rapier cutting the air... swoosh, swish... no harm to anyone... good noise.... but somebody woke up... instead of opening the eyes first, popped up the head first, and then opened the eyes.... to late... the edge or the tip of the sword might have grazed the skin... (A typically Zoro-style)...

Very sorry indeed...
A holy day... Guru poornima-they say! (barah khoon mauf.... once in a way... when the emperor, shehanshah is too happy)!

psn(3rd July, 2012)

Super powers


Somebody asked ..... what will you do with super powers!...
quote: “What will you do if one morning you wake up and find your having superpowers?
superpowers like spiderman, batman, hulk or any other....”
(I was wondering.... are there not people who are already 'super-powers'... it is just that they are heads of a few nations!... Economic super-powers, military super-powers, etc... Maybe we do not read papers that often.... but what about that 'domestic-super-power?'.... so subtle, so powerful, that this super-power even lets you enjoy an illusion of 'freedom' too, at times! )...
....

A 'spiritual worm' that I am... like those 'book-worms'... I keep crawing only within those spiritual related thoughts... so every thought, every action, ..... everything,..... gets polarised into that kind of 'orientation'! ... I could suddenly 'see' those siddhis walking in, suddenly one morning, and the question.... what will you do with these siddhis?
....


Nothing much.... really.... it is just there... the fun of life is snatched away now... the freedom is gone.... we have to be a bit careful here onwards.... (Suppose, we have a few crores of rupees, we take it to a village, a closely knitted group of people... give this money into the hands of just a few of them... we have effectively toppled the 'balance' of relationship between the people of that village!... This is what a super-power is going to do in the hands of a person, who does not know what to do with it!)...

Please see... just one small power.... like, we 'already know' the end of every story that we are going to read, view, see, etc (Movies, TV serials, Novels, etc...)... We no more enjoy the story... the going-through-the story.... We enjoy teasing others, 'I know something .... that you do not know'... initially, others are amazed, and appreciate us, we enjoy that super-ride, on their appreciation, admiration, that extra-respect, etc... Then, when those 'others' want to really enjoy a suspense movie, they would take care to make sure that we are no where inside that theatre... no remote corner even... no chance meeting during that brief interval even!
...
I enjoyed looking at that question..... anyway..... the memory is still fresh.... that miniature experience of a 'super-power'... when the first salary came in our life... that's a lot of money... The very first day, it is thrill... we don't know what we are going to do with so much money! That was the 'mind' of 'that' day.... Today, logic has superceded our innocent emotions! Money has gone inside the 'head' too, instead of remaining just inside the wallet!

psn(3rd July, 2012)

the link, the question, and my sub-answer...(opposite of super-answer)...
quote:


What will you do if one morning you wake up and find your having superpowers?
superpowers like spiderman, batman, hulk or any other....”



My answer:
A huge response-ability dawns!
To play dumb about these powers!
(Ask the expert for that moral strength to keep quiet ... in spite of having such powers... Now is the real need to pray to God... give me strength, not to use these stupid powers, and spoil the chances of others to grow spiritually.... It is the difficulties of life that makes a person turn inwards!)