Being practically non-hypocritical!

Ek baat maro samajh naahi aavai..! (I don't understand one thing...  )

Why do we call being 'practical' as hypocrisy?

Achha...  achha!   We need to 'show', we know the meaning of hypocrisy too!

It almost sounded like that!

I got one “forward”
The person who sent it would call it as 'sent' by him, though it was even 'initially-initated' as a 'forward' to him too (Hypocracy?...  Never!  See, we talk of 'initiation here'!)...

But I was a little 'backward'!  I could not grasp the sanctity of a forward!

I responded, with a scent (oops!...  it was a 'sent'..  but a fish like me, smells even if cleaned in ganges 24 X 7, leaving me to swim in that holy-river!)...

I would not like to copy-paste what I 'sent'...  but it is socially acceptable with 'forwards' of any kind, when we are trying to be 'democratically-equal' with backwards too! (Any thing that 'sounds' democratic...  has to be within the 'over-all-framework' of constitution...  and I guess, when we grant a Bharat Ratna to Shri Ambedkar Ji, it is we, who get the licence to 'liberally-quote' constitution as-we-like!)...

Arey yeh sab 'practical' nahi tou aur kya hai?

A 'sapoot' of a friend lived like a fiend with that kid...
And that kid, tried to be non-hypocratical, when it came to 'registration' of marriage...  He insisted, it would be after the ceremony, ...  doesn't matter if the visa gets delayed (jyaada details ki bhi zaroorat nahi...   we 'practically' know...  !)...  A close relative tried to say, 'Be practical!'...  Nahi sunaa woh!
Arey!
Tata ke ghar Ambaani,
Birla ke ghar Beimaani... (oops!  Saari sorry...  rhyming ke mood mei isaa bol diya)..
thode hi paida hota hai?

Bewakoof baap, yeda beta (that was that fiend-friend and his bitwaa)...

Khair...
We have to move forward, towards that forward...  (being practical!)


Number ek:
quote:
“Hypocrisy defines us Indians the best.  It is over 24 hours since the killings that have taken 68 lives so far.... Out of which 33 are women n children... and there's not a single message on WhatsApp or fb condemning the heinous act.  Face book is full of people going berserk thanking all n sundry n telling everyone how great a year it has been so far for them.
I'm part of a number of groups. .. Some of them very intellectually gifted like this one and I'm sad to note that even in this group nothing so far. ..zilch!
Isn't assam part of India?  We all were very quick in condemning the killing of children in Pakistan. .. Because there was a lot of media glare on it.  Since the media is also not focusing on the assam killings we all are also not bothered by it.
Frankly I'm more concerned about what happens in India.  To hell with Pakistan... There. ..I have said it. ..I don't care what happens to Pakistani citizens. ... I'm more concerned about what happens to Indians.
People. .. Pl circulate this message and condemn the ethnic cleansing that is going on in assam.... spread awareness to stop it. .. Let's show our concern for Indians too!!!

unquote:

Quietly (chup-chaap), I would forward...  was the expectation!
But ,
there was a saying...
“Problem with telling a good wit is that it reminds the other fellow of a dull-one!”

I responded with an opening remark (of course a nasty one, I know!)
Number doe(2):
quote:
P S Narayanan: These, are ironies. ? Or hypocrisy - side - effect?
Quote:
"Indian Ironies:
1) We'd rather spend more on daughters wedding than on her education.
2) We live in a country where seeing a policeman makes us nervous rather than feeling safe
3) In IAS exam, a person writes a brilliant 1500 words essay about how Dowry is a social evil. Impresses everyone and cracks the exam.
One year later same person demands a dowry of 1 crore, because he is an IAS officer.
4) Indians are very shy and still are 121 Crore.
5) Indians are obsessed with screen guards on their smartphones even though most come with scratch proof Gorilla Glass but never bother wearing a helmet while riding their bikes.
6) Indian Society teaches
'Not to Get Raped',  rather  'Don't Rape' !
7) The worst movies earn the most- Happy New Year
8) A porn-star is accepted in society as a  celebrity, but a rape victim is not even accepted as a normal human  being.
9) Politicians Divide us, Terrorists Unite us
10) Everyone is in a hurry, but no one reaches on time
11) Priyanka Chopra earned more money playing Mary Kom, than Mary Kom earned in her entire career.
12) Its dangerous to talk to strangers, but it's perfectly ok to marry one
13) Most people who fight over Gita and Quran, have probably never read any of them
14)The shoes we wear are sold in air Conditioned showrooms, the vegetables we eat are sold on the footpath..
unquote:


We were hypocritical, since long ago, when we did not 'pass down' the chants for that 'divorce' ....

So, we had that starting-trouble!
Fortunately, courts have come to our rescue...  it is a two-way traffic here , now.   Not that male-dominated 'three-times-chants'  of some places!

By the way, a genuine, sincere, honest doubt for me, in me, and from me...  (nothing to do with my own dear hypocrisy...  I mean)..
Statistically, who excels the score...  seeking divorce..   Masculinety or famininety? (I know, it is risky to quote 'actual-gender'...   non-bailable offence...  and even Shri Ambedkar ji's constitution would help..  he was quite healthy when he was around!)..

Practically yours,
psn(27th December, 2014)


But,
not willing to 'entirely give up' my hypocricy (of not pasting what I replied etc.. on whatsapp)..
let me copy-paste, a part of what I said...

My hypocricy says, . 'call it ' as post-script:
quote:
“1.The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
2. An act or instance of such falseness.
....
When I say "we" as nation, are hypocrisy-wala....  my private share in it "feels" a little cleansed!
But spirituality doesn't "actually" object such-hypocrazy.... Instead, it evades.... 
Finish all kinds of "mind-games", then come...!

Learning to say Thank You

Of late, the fashion seems to have faded out.. 'saying : “Thanking you in anticipation, yours faithfully”... and the advice was, to use these phrases, 'especially' to government officials, who turn down a request, quite whimsically, with no one around to question them! Power is in their hands (not just discretion, or the sanctioning authority... raw power!)... So, thank you is a 'caution-deposit' and non-refundable!

I would try to dramatise, and imagine, as to how this 'anticipation-wala-thankyou' would have taken birth?

Next door uncle: “Beta... yeh lo... chaak-late/chocolate... khaa jao... eato/eat”

Kid: stares blank, for a while, and even blinks!

Dad: “le lo uncle pyaar se de rahe hain..”

(Kid, wonders,... chocolate wrapper ke andar sirf chocolate hota hai.. yeh pyar kahaan include hai packing mei?)... but anyway, he blurts.. “Tan-kooo”..

Now there is no shortage of any 'interpretor'... Dad, “Thank you bol raha hai... bachha hai na!” (now, whatever it means, that.. 'bachha hai na'... if it were an adult, 'you had it'!!!)

Next day, the same 'next'door wala uncle...

The kid is looking at his palms... it is open! No chocolate! Jaane doe... But what about 'tan-koo'?, he wonders!... Aaj kal, advance payment ka procedure aa gaya hai kya?...

By chance, if that kid says, a 'tan-koo'... no chocolate... still a tan-koo... woh uncle ka baaja baj gaya.. KOoooo.. he doesn't know what to do with that 'bribe after retirement?'

We teach 'gratitude' + 'humility'... like we teach, 'Beta don't fall' when we find suddenly that this kid has climbed up a tall tree, and calls 'de-ko'/de-kho/whatever... We do not have the knees and bones to climb up and rescue... we are shy of calling 'fire-service' (they have that-kind-of-ladder, though there is no 'actually-fire' or a 'duplicate-fire'..!)... We shout: Beta, don't fall... do-not-fall! (shaayad, at that height,, he can't read that coma after the “don”, the don-'-t ...).. He does not know how to give-effect to the command, 'do not fall'! It feels almost like that empty-thank you! Bol tou diya hai... (kuch hua kya?.. abhi tou nahi.. abhi tou nahi.. wala song!)..

Instead, .. may be, something like “Hold tight”.. he, knows, 'exactly' what to do... he keeps-holding tight, not waving Ta-Ta... Birla etc.. As a consequence, that 'don't fall' is ato-matic/automatic... Later, he might even remember, and feel gratitude, “Hey bhagwaan, aap ne sirf ek baap hi nahi, usko thoda sa brain bhi diya hai!” (warna... bulk of upadesh, would be 'unable to carry out wala... Matru devo bhava... the pitaaji says, treat-mom-as-God?.. Arey! I feel like mata-ko-devour bhawa... she keeps shifting blame for even her own forgetfulness on me!.. Even the dad has not seen a God, and here he is giving upadesh, treat-mom-like-God?.. even the prashaad, has to be mom-manufactured, not me... gas lighter ko haat nahi lagaana, is the warning... aur mujhe paanv/leg se sulgaana aata hi nahi!)...

The kid grows... Somewhere, he learns... either of the two things.... This humility is a mere show-business, and unless, there is a useless/meaningless-Thank you.. it cannot sail through into that other-fellow's brain!.. Another possibility: A bit rare one.. He understands, that he-understands-the-hollowness of such a Tan-koo... and this 'understanding of such-understanding' was due to a human birth! He feels grateful to rab/uparwala/whatever! (By now, he is sure,, the dad and mom are just yet-another-assembly of machines that manufactured him, and not their skill, in his birth!)... Possibly, he evolves, and deepens his perception... He becomes aware of of 'beings' who even refuse to show any 'id-proof'.. and yet they support him, during his empty-cup-wala-state, during meditations, usually! Now a 'new kind of 'thank you' that doesnt seem to really suffice, a new sense of gratitude, that seems too tiny.. so the question of 'email-id' doesn't even arise... Maybe a few tears roll down!..

He tries to share.. Most likely that others mock, saying, 'You hallucinate'... He doesn't protest... He humbly says, 'Maybe you are right!.. I might have merely hallucinated...”... He checks within... He is not too-sure.. But, it works! If fortunate, it 'occurs to him'.. this hallucination, is a 'win-win' one.. the after effects do stay.. after-effects do not need a hefty-fee to a psychiatrist, in fact, it keeps me away from him!... The residues of 'common cases' of hallucination doesn't tally here!..

He goes on 'speculating' thus... And maybe, another problem of a new source of gratitude for him... But that is his problem, (though a fictional story of mine)!...

Fictionally yours,

psn (24th December, 2014)

What is emotion?

I asked.

It was a behtareen insaan/ a refined person....  (when it is a male, we call the post 'chairman', but when it a lady, we had-to make it as 'chairperson', as if a male is no more a 'person' when chaired!)..


Anyway, here I call it a 'person', because I do intend it to be 'personal' (be it about 'that' person, or others!)

What I did further was, to add, “please hold your answer for a while...   till you 'observe' what happens within, 'due' to the question, (assuming, that the mind now decides to look at it afresh!).


It is risky to ask an anger prone-person, “Sir/Madam, what is anger?” (the immediate 'second-track' within might 'also' be, something like “Now... now, now..   are you trying to prod(incite, jab..)?...  are you trying to 'teach'?...   get lost!!!”  And this person would even demonstrate a little visibly, even in-between that plastic-smile (like that 'reading-between-lines')...

An emotionally unstable person too would feel 'prodded' by such a question (what is emotion?)... the immediate impulse is, 'Hey, is he trying to provoke/invoke my instability?'...  (at least, with an 'anger-predominent one' we know, the texture of lava that would pour out of the volcano called 'anger'...  but with emotional instability...?  it is just 'anybody's guess'!)

By now, we would have felt the 'original question' to have subdued a little....  The mind has got busy with how questions which are quite 'impersonal' in its own exclusivity, but how we...  try to make it too-personal, often!  (that is what a mind is!)...  anyway...

Now I ask,  when we read/listen-to   this question (what is emotion?), “are we not trying to look within?” ..  Here we do not even try to find out the 'address' of  'where exactly—within?'...  the 'looking is instantaneous'.. ...  (and then what ever happens within is a world in itself, unique to each of us...  so no point comparing even!)...


question-ably yours,
psn (18th December, 2014)

Data Structure(for dummies)

I guess, that atleast in the spiritual arena , this title is not 'usurped' as yet (a polished way of saying usurped is perhaps, 'patented'!)...

Techies who happen to land on this narrative when they google for computerised data structure are going to really get annoyed, perhaps!

But, the whole of the 'struggle' , the bulk of the struggle, even on a spiritual path seems to relate with a 'study' about the 'data-structure' too...

We start with the 'best' data 'consciousness', 'soul, God, and such abstract terms, and keep looking for 'data'.. only then to study its structure!

The data thought to be 'now-useless' was lying as a scrap, junk, discarded, and perhaps even a cruel reminder of a 'total-failure'... A dog fiddled with that data, with its paws, and it made some noise... This noise caught the attention of that 'owner of failure'... He scrambled for that 'data', and now worked on the 'newly discovered' -- “structure”... of that data... the gramophone record... And the story says, that is how the dog perched up the non-data area of the records, as an 'icon' of 'Hum kisis se kam nahi' concept, when it is about structure-analysis of data, and we human's still insist on degrading that 'structure-analyst' with a caption “His Master's Voice”....!!!

The temple construction was not just about gathering some building material, stacking it properly (sole criteria, gravity-related-issues, or weather-turbulence... these two issue, we see better handled with the design of an aircraft!) and then doing some ritualistic practices, as a group... Even the stones were to contain a well-structured data... which would be 'responsive' (“inter-active” device, to say it in computer terminology!)... and the internal power storage needed to be replenished once in twelve years!

The wheel, is a structured data, improvised in its -interactive-functionality, when the raw data form did not 'mean-anything' hitherto... (Hither to, was quite a long period of time!)... So, was that sharp pointed stone as a potential weapon for the early 'data-structure' called stone-age-human! Otherwise, it was just 'random footprints in a vast data' of stones lying all over the forest.. This pointed-stone-data, the stone-age-human discovered, would deter that 'virus data' (the wild animal) from 'hacking' this 'automated-data' (the human, already starts to consider himself as self-automated!), and making a dent, to render the 'responsive-data-structure' (life), as dysfunctional, and then dissemble the re-usable parts (flesh), and add them as 'additional accessories'/replenishment/whatever, to its own structure (looks far-fetched?.. Well, ask any Goan, and he might narrate a story re-told often “Yes, years ago, St.Xavier's body was kept open, and can be touched even, by visitors.. but some visitor had tried to add to oneself a part of that Saint, and bit off quickly the big toe of one of his feet,, and now, it is kept in a glass box, for safe-preservation!”.

A look at our private library (or if it sounds too big a word, the 'collection of books'.. now calling it “collection”.. is a very safe term to classify the data-structure, without revealing our dishonesty, as to how that collection was undertaken--- forgot to return?, stolen?.. when these did not work, 'yes-bought-it'!... ).. a look at that dust ridden books-lot, would reveal our aptitude for data-collection!

Still worse, people who house a lot of data, in a tight-fight cubicle we call 'apart-ment' (though the data structure is about 'same-building'), find it easier to buy a new data, than search for the old one lying in the loft, forgotten where it is... just because we really did not care to look at the 'structure' of data (old-stuff, never used for the past more than 6 months!)....

Now, with super-gagdets, and high-speed connectivity, we 'sync' with 'apps' and keep repeating mutual-data-exchange, just because we don't know where to look for it within our own resources!

How about our own data-structure? Are we resourceful? Are we a receptive structure? Or shall we keep 'structuring' the external data resources, earning a tag, a living by that tag, etc?... Oh! That reminds me of another structure.. our “core”-O/s.. operating-system!... And the device to even take a look at it, they say 'witnessing aspect'... as if it is some 4-D-goggles (yet to come up on Googles)

Structurally yours

psn (17th December, 2014)

Insulation

The web meaning appeared to be a bit 'non-committal' about the functionality of its concept, as we would like to look at it when we try it on ourselves...

I went to that thick old dictionary, it offered a little more help though reluctantly “one who,, or that which, insulates” (not good enough!)... it further says, “a contrivance for insulating a conductor” (yes! This one offers to come a little closer!)

Now that 'contrivance' also indicates (something contrived, as a mechanical device or a clever plan)... Oh! A 'Clever-plan'... !

No wonder, when the “mind” decides to insulates itself, it does a really good job!

Just our electric cables, where the insulation is not to protect the 'energy' that flows through it, but to protect ourselves from that 'electrocution'!

Energetically yours,

psn (15th December, 2014)

Our Gestures!

A keen pair of eyes were sharply focused, waiting to see if there is a speck, a glimpse, or a spark of life in that body... It was a 'look out for a gesture'! That body, hopefully still holding some 'life' was 'all-for-gestures' and with a pair of eyes, having an admirable focus, enviable perhaps even by those that were now waiting too see that speck of life!

Some where in between language struggles to make a distinction, that it is 'really' a gesture too, but in a very 'round-about-way'!... And we create a separate folder called 'articulation' and store it there, for future comparison and ofcourse our own way of 'judgements'. This articulation, we usually respond with a 'like'.. and the response is a gesture of a smile or a click (safe enough, and it is not going to be subjected to further adjudication!).

I happen to recollect a reverse-situation... It was during a train journey... An 'anxious' pair of eyes were 'keenly' focused (wishing that this keenness would be needed to last too long), through a 'some' body sitting right across me, on the other side.. .. A 'gesture' now... I thought, that needs to be calmed down, if I am to breath freely the gush of air forcing its entry through my nostrils, with all the contents that come along, unwillingly even, when it was a furiously racing train that trained its speed on the air in that desolate track.

I said, “Sir, I respect your right to keep staring at me!”... He blinked! He widened his eyes, to clearly gesture that he never heard of any such rights! Nor did I hear about it ever before! It just occurred to me, that is all!..

I thought let me correct myself... and I further ventured... “Sir, may be it is your freedom to stare at me, since eyes have a choice of visibility!”... It was a foolish attempt... ! He only further widened his gaze, with a gesture that perhaps meant “Now, what was that?... the freedom, when there was no 'independence struggle' that I can recollect about?”...

“Sir, actually, even I am confused, about the difference between a freedom and a right... When others notice and still we get away, may be it is a right (law-enforced), and when no body is there to notice, it might be almost like a 'freedom'... Or.. maybe, some other word, other than freedom and right, allows you to stare at me, but 'freely-ofcourse'!”

Now, I thought, it is better to wait for some 'articulated-gesture'...

But, luck wouldn't favor me , for sure, ... I knew...! I had a 'big-mouth' friend beside me, who butted in with, “Oh! Please do not mind him ... he doesn't have to look for something to start a conversation!.. It just pops out of him.. He is like that! (like what?, I wondered, if there was an 'alike' of me!)”..

It was a private conversation between my friend and me, that when somebody is 'forced' to sit opposite to us (seating arrangements are 'such'!), there is nothing else for the other to do except stare at the other fellow seated across to him... And 'clever' ones try to alternate this staring-business, like some 'mutual-benefit-scheme'!

(I would not venture to continue with 'further details here'... who knows, one of the readers might get help from this 'incident' to nail me, .. despite the changes in the contours of my face that nature has blessed me as a camouflage!)..

It is 'gestures'... that fascinated me... And I could not avoid reference to the 'frankness' of animals, about their 'predictable-gestures' (I don't think they are 'exactly-honest' about it... and so 'frankness', a lesser harmful word! Bah! This 'honesty' is so trouble-mongering one, when gestures are usually honest, and it is articulation that provides our much-needed-camouflage!).. It is not for 'nothing' that people talk about percentages of 'body-language' that gives-us-away!.. Gives us away? To whom?... Oh! It is just that the secret is out!... But what about 'nothing'? Dunno!

When it came to 'spirituality', my mind started looking ... and this time, 'By-Default'.. for any gestures that it would make, ... at least a tell-tale-evidence... that this spirit within is really 'keen about spirituality'..! But the teacher keeps insisting that all that this spirit does is to 'stare' (they use a rather-tough word, 'saakshi-bhaav'.. , 'witnessing-aspect-within'.. etc!).. And the 'expectation' is that 'we' somehow 'manage' to ensure that this staring-fellow becomes such that it becomes 'our-awareness'... and all this 'circus', right within! The 'gestures' that they call as tools and techniques, whether with some crazy-like-movement (aasanaas/pranayam, clipping the nose, entwining the limbs in a great discomforting-way,... etc), or even that crazy-non-movement, sitting at a place like an idiot, eyes closed, and doing 'nothing' and they call it 'a meditation'... and as if, this meditation is not a confusion-enough, the explanation is 'it is a dynamic state of non-doing'... Dynamics is physics, but why here ?... We too can rebut with a phrase, which we know for sure that nobody knows fully-about-it, as yet... the dynamics of 'quantum-entanglement-theory'.. but that was not our purpose.. we were so 'innocently' and humbly trying to 'catch-hold' of that 'gesture by our-own-dear-spirit'!!!! (bah! Again that non-existent-nothing!... space or vacuum is not 'nothing'!).. Even these variations of 'gestures' do not seem to really bother that spirit staring at us clandestinely! Now what? (this 'what' is the most bothersome 'gesture' by our mind, when it does not find any other mind around, to mind, and unto ourselves.. err.. 'it-self'... okay 'what'-ever!)

The scare now is that , it (that spirit) would 'wake' up and start blinking (only a 'maybe so'!) when it cannot be contained any more within this frame work that does all the hectic gestures (snoring included please!)... But now it is a sort of 'revenge' by this body! 'Seek' another dumb body now!, says the box or that fire, ... (whatever)!.. But thereafter it is another 'story' not connected with our 'real-istic' gestures here!

Some where, these gestures of ours inter-mingle ... (my guess of course)..

Justly, Just a Jest of a gest-ure,

yours,

psn (11th December, 2014)

Sense of Loyalty

“In our organisation, the 'rule' is, if somebody doesn't perform, it is the immediate boss, who is inefficient...  and so, to escape a 'slaughter', I slog, taking up that fellow's work too!” said a youngster to me, when I asked him, “Hey! Your company handpicks brilliant gold-medalists from all over, pays astronomical 'cost-to-company' (that famous 'CTC'), and yet you say, your immediate junior does not churn out results?”....

When I was taken to the 'action-movie' of 1960's...  James Bond—movies, it was...   And I was surprised at the concept 'He is a double'!...  And the 'explanation' only furthered my puzzle, a double-agent, is not true to its nomenclature!..   He is loyal to neither of the countries!  He is loyal to the 'commission' he gets!

The spark plug inside an engine of a well-tuned vehicle might perhaps say, “Oh! I just did my duty..  I spark any combustible mixture that comes my way!  If my right-kind of spark happens to carry a heavy load, and people smoothly, fuel-efficiently etc...  it is just incidental, and I deserve no thanks for that...  Just make sure that I am ensured my quota of electric power, to keep sparking all-the-way!”...   It is “we”, who like to ensure a 'media-effect-too' while 'merely-announcing' that, we were only doing our duty, and so the shower-of-praises doesn't belong to us...  (Try shifting that praise to somebody nearby, and we would 'know' , perhaps the hard-way.... where that praise 'be-longs' to! ).


Whether it is about recruiting an employee, picking a disciple, choosing a life-partner, etc, one of the criteria is to 'find-out' as to 'where is that person's sense-of-loyalty' likely to be?...   A 'lady' of the house would buy vegetables that stay-fresh longer...  and this 'sense of loyalty' ends up with dishes in that kitchen hovering around only those vegetables, that are loyal to long-life, instead of a 'quality-life'...  And as a result, the kids of that home never get to taste green-leaves, and such nutritious varieties...  now their 'health' leans its loyalty to the next-door 'GP' ...  a general physician..  while our sense of 'language-loyalty' presents problems if somebody is likely to ask, 'Hey, What do you call a veterinarian that can only take care of one species? A physician'  (our 'sense of loyalty to confine to just-human-related-specialists paved the way for an amazing talk: “Barbara Natterson-Horowitz: What veterinarians know that doctors don't”  on TED talks)

......


Now it is quite easy to guess...  Most people strive 'towards money'...   it solves lots of problems...  Now, as a nation, some people maintain it as 'making money' while others just grab, loot, steal etc..

I tried to ask a frequent visitor to one of the 'holy' places, Sringeri, “To whom does the pontiff owe his loyalty to?”..   And this visitor amazed me with a crisp reply: “His Guru”...!!!   True, he was 'handpicked' to carry the baton...   the purpose, for which that particular Mutt was 'established'!... To propagate the worth  of Maha Vakya, 'Aham Brahma Asmi', and the Yajur-veda, in 'as-much-demonstrable-as-possible' way!  (what the visitors and devotees happen to notice and admire is 'usually' the things incidental to the 'strength' of loyalty that happens through each pontiff in that lineage)..


The spirit within us, doesn't seem to look-towards any sense-of-loyalty from us (our body and mind), and yet, even if we part with a small percentage of our sense-of-loyalty to the fact that it is this spirit that 'fuels', empowers the functioning of our body and mind, the scope of this spirit to manifest its power is manifold!

Loyally yours,
psn (10th December, 2014)

Our dislikes

“I am apt mystic saar”... He said, in reply to my query whether he was sure about it (something, that sounded like a judgement, when it was supposed to be only a guess, a prediction!)... That was his possible-best, when trying to articulate his 'optimism'-orientation!

If I had a dislike for his native accent, which affected a foreign tongue vibrating through his vocal cord, I would have indeed missed the 'mystic aptness' that he did carry! He was quite popular for his off-hand predictive statements that did mystify others around... One of our dear colleagues, who was an object of 'dislike' for quite a few, especially when his chants/rants came true, to their own 'disliked-results'...

That sent me thinking about the 'dislike patterns' we carry as 'selective' beings... Our selectivism is not really 'need based'.. perhaps, not even want-based at times, but like-based... Even the most genuine addicts would like that their drinks would not taste so bitter, at least for the first two 'rounds' (later , even the brand would not matter, anyway!).

Just because we find two of us alike, does not always make us like each other, and the other way, 'unlikes' is likely to be a wonderful base for mutual-likes. A dislike doesn't fit in anywhere except when we like to be something that we really are not. And the discovery of the whole process of finding out what we are, is about transcending our likes and dislikes too!

During the phase of volunteering, I found it to be a 'demanding' skill to discover undisclosed dislikes of a few eager-seekers, so that they would transcend their hurdles, silk-smooth... But my hurdle was when I saw that the distinction I had to make was between dislikes of their body and mind! (For example, some people like chana-dal, but their body dislikes it, and instantly shows as skin-irritation-blisters/bulges! ... Some very 'personal' dislikes gets liked by the physical-persona, and their physique too adapts, and addicts to those dislikes, like those couch-potatoes, who dislike a bare-floor to sleep on...)

My earliest memory of 'dislike' was, when my school-teacher decided to initiate me into a new lesson when I just began to like the present one... The new lesson, always felt like an unpleasant stranger! And this dislike began to snowball into a dislike for even the 'promotion' (we were not adjudged as 'passed' .... And one of the elders at home, who perhaps had a dislike for that promotion-without-wage-hike, and he said, 'Oh! So, you didn't really pass the exams, but you were somehow 'promoted' to the next class?'... and it sent me thinking into decide whether it was good to dislike a promotion or a 'pass'!.)

We as kids used to eat anything that was served as 'edible' food... But the taste for dislikes seems to be growing... Kids specialise into dislikes for even 'brands' of noodles, not just the variety called noodles! Even the 'extra' liking for something is about exclusivity of other un-mentioned-dislikes! When such 'dislikes' abound, how do we resist a corruption of mind?... Once the mind is corrupt, how do we avoid our general-dislikes like 'corruption, pollution, etc'?... Then, a 'like', and a likely-future-liking... to keep talking about 'dislikes' is the option to sugar coat it! A mind which is thus caught into likes and dislikes, is more busy with its attention being diverted into grading, classifying, storing etc, of its likes and dislikes, and the grasp of any concept it is true-perspective evades... Attention span finds it easier to make good its escape before the decision of a like-dislike is pronounced! And we try to talk of things like 'acceptance', 'surrender' etc... Now the problem(for some of us) is, perhaps, something like this : “those with whom I like to be, are found in a forum which I dislike, and to further compound it, their dislikes are through absence of response-comments, which includes “me” when it is only supposed to be about my blogs!”.. And for me, it feels almost like fishing in troubled-waters! The best reach for spiritual concepts are when the mind is oscillating between this indecisiveness, only then to have a choice whether to deepen the 'settling-down' into those concepts!

No wonder , we have a “like” button to click on our blogs.. Others are to be simply blocked from voicing their dislikes even!

Likely yours,

psn (3rd December, 2014)