Disrespect towards 'respectfulness'

“It is ironical Madam”... I said, in a serene voice, “that your counterpart had earlier done just the opposite of what you showed as a great-gesture!”....
And I added, “he was looking away elsewhere while he shook hands with an underdog, that is me, just because he needed to be done-with-it, as quickly as possible... and I was almost tempted to tell him, 'Sir, I didn't come all the way to your ivory-tower to feel the shake of your palm, then why ridicule a insignificant creature like me thus?'.... but somehow I easily managed avoiding a waste of time... he didn't deserve to be told !”

Now this “Madam”... got up, shook my hands yet again, but this time with a deep-apology, “who ever it was, I apologise to you on his behalf, and humbly request you to continue doing the good-job that you are already doing so amazingly”

This was the scene at work place, and that 'Madam' was a visiting dignitary from our Head Office... the local top-boss was thoroughly embarrassed at my abrupt dialogues, but he felt reassured with that 'Madam's' response, that .... he wouldn't face any 'music' for having appreciated my work to her, while the customary introduction was made.

I somehow got accustomed to not looking-out for any 'gesture' of respect from others... 'please leave me alone' is all that I pray, when I am intensely involved with something that 'deserves' great reverence!

Maybe, I am quixotic... and that is why I find that when reverence is trusted well, a show-of-respect can be dispensed with!

A few traditional outlooks coming down from ancients, also seem to hint towards such a 'theory'...

The distinctions between 'sakha-bhakti', daasya-bhakti'...(and other forms of devotion/bhakti)... seem to also-indicate the levels of 'reverence' where that 'respectful-gestures' are almost dispensed with!

When respect-related-gestures lose its symbolism, and get reduced to mere rituals, the possibility of this 'respect' to work as a tool towards imbibing a 'deep-reverence', towards the respected-something, is lost...

and now,

the 'vulnerability' is all about a 'disrespect' taking shape deep within, towards this 'show-of-respect' !

(I had a school-classmate , who was excellent in mimicry... he used to amuse us, by mimicking a show-of-respect, gesturing with hands, while the words that he mumbled was some colloquial abuse, but the 'flow' and sound of words resembled a popular form of respectful-words... He demonstrated it by acting it out, with a drill-master who was disliked by most kids for his unkind behaviour towards children.. This classmate , when I asked, said, 'No, I wouldn't do this with our dear teachers, for whom my respect is from the bottom of my heart!'... ).

When respect for 'elders' turned into a compulsive diktat thrust upon kids, (especially girl-children), into a 'respect for age'... that tool-ingredient in those gestures of respect got dull-edged, and the possibility of 'reverence', its nurture and growth got faded out , from our traditional customs, and now, these items of 'respect' look like subservience, slavery etc! Even idols were not spared!

Respectfully yours,

psn(29th December, 2015)

'Nature' for a dummy (that's me)!

Obviously, this whole thing is about me, with me, and for me too...
Then why the hell, do I waste a reader's time?....

I don't intend to...

But yes, there could be a few who do like to collect data out of 'specimen' like me, for their own study/research purpose (or, whatever!)....

'Nature study' was imposed into my school curriculum, but only in a combination with 'and Hygiene'... very soon, this nomenclature got transformed, when I got pushed into higher classes! Yep! That is how I am tempted to look at it, when the 'progress' report proclaimed me as 'promoted' instead of 'passed' to the next 'standard' :)

I happened to notice that 'nature' does push me around all the time! Weather, climate, air and its pollution, seasons and its timings (volume/duration of daylight ) does affect my own behaviour to a large extent, and I do struggle to keep pace with its 'pushes'....

Someday, it would not push me anymore...

This aspect ought to have been 'examined' by the 'scientific-community'... in-depth... with the reverence it does-deserve! Where as, I found a few unscientific/less-scientific people like Mr.Venkataraman delving deep into the intricate aspects of death, and quite understandably, nature obliging him with due 'pass' to the next level by its-own-standards! (Yes, I did hear about that Bubble chamber experiment, and the Nobel award it had fetched... but that did not take us the common-man too far... Maybe it is too much, to compare it with gadgets like a mobile-handset, which the scientific community ensures it's reach into the hands of even partially impoverished common-man! Who am I to pick 'faults' of the 'scientific' minds, when all that I managed all-along was a nominal-promotion !)...

That took me (to look), towards the ancients ! Mercifully, they do not 'adjudicate' me anymore, and nature has quietened them (though their silence has its perpetual effect in many subtle ways!)

The 'rituals' that they advocated (having practised and experienced it at humanly-possible depths)... seemed to be aimed at pushing the human-species into a level, transcending nature, and not by-passing it!.. It was obvious that the 'choices' that are bestowed by mother-nature into the very-human-form, ought to be revered, while 'formulating' these rituals!!! The declaratory truths were a sort of 'check-points' to guide a traveler on his way, to verify, if he had been maintaining his 'bearings' properly, and nothing more! These truths cannot be 'used'... one can only be-with-it!!! So, these declarations cannot be equated with the scientific formulae that one 'uses' to solve riddles of life, puzzles, problems of mathematics etc... The bulk of their declarations, and its explanations seemed to get inclined towards 'absolute' and therefore, ... to me .. they seemed to be like a 'possible' bridge for a willing explorer to travel from the empirical plane into the absolute one! (Oh! Absolute 'one'?... maybe, that 'zero' or shoonya seems more appropriate!)...

When this became a 'little' clear to me... I saw no point in trying to 'oppose' nature in anyway... But yes, I can strive towards becoming less available to the 'vagaries' of nature... And to me, even my fellow-humans did appear 'as-natural' as the other life-forms that I see around, since the choices we were given was a game-plan of 'nature' itself... Now if we choose to look at ourselves to be 'superior' to nature, ... well, that too is a choice!... And who else, except our own dear mind, that can decide so? :)

That .... now seems to help me to make 'well-considered-decisions'... having exhausted all my quixotic games, (out of sheer curiosity), to see what happens, when I 'ask' nature to oblige me at times! (and yes... she did... the mother-nature... in strange ways though!... after all, she too was obliged several times by her boss, the absolute 'one'!)...


quietly yours,

psn(26th December, 2015)

Honesty within

“How to get rid of that guilt-feeling?”... somebody asked me!

Being honest about it... (was the 'logical' answer which would give me a 'win', but would be of no practical use for that asker, since... it was already-that-honesty .... about-it,..... which had even raised that guilt-feeling :))

Now, 'accepting' guilt doesn't help... in fact it worsens it... Yep! I am truly-guilty, is what that 'acceptance' does!

Oh! these terms.... 'honesty'.... 'about it'... 'acceptance'.... they at times add to the confusion, instead of solving it :)

And that 'guilt'..???

Yes, it is used profusely in a court of law....
The Judge is eager to know, whether the 'convict'... pleads 'guilty' or 'not-guilty' ?

Some provision of the law is .... flouted/contravened/disobeyed/or-whatever... and therefore some word is needed to define that 'going against the law'... the word 'guilty' suits fine!

But why do I 'find' myself .... so-guilty... when the dinner leaves a left-over?

Yes, I did eat lesser than usual.... and I have my very-strong-reasons... obviously all of them only-in-my-favour :)

“only” ? (in my favour)....
There is the catch! I convince the 'other'... thoroughly... but I know too well, I was 'guilty' of contributory-negligence :)

Thus we (perhaps), keep accumulating that small doses of 'guilt'... unspelt thought forms... which erodes our own integrity unto ourselves... deep enough, .... and one day, we find that we do not trust even ourselves!... We still keep trying, saying that we have 'reasons beyond our control' (meaning, we rendered ourselves unto.... 'no control on our-own-selves'...).

A chain reaction is set into motion thus! (maybe, it all started with 'trying-to-be' on the right at all times!)

It made me wonder now!

In the ancient times, nobody enjoyed any 'rights'.... (the way we assert it against the government, quoting constitution of the Country, democracy, etc...).

Instead, there were only the 'duties'... when people recognised ... they owe it back to whom they got it from, what they had! (it all boils down to 'nature'... when everybody and everything was a part of nature)... And when we find bound by duties... duty-only.... the others around have it from us as a sort-of-right... a privilege... from us . Yes, they too in turn, do something similar! Now, that reduces the need of litigation to a great extent.. The bulk of what we call as 'administration' and/or governance... is just about ensuring the right for an individual, from the rest of them around, collectively! Taxes, licences, security-structure, reservations, .... all these are rights of an individual, to be snatched out of others around! And we individuals hand over our 'so-called-rights' into the hands of a few... whom we trust, quite helplessly! (that's democracy :))....

And we scratch our heads, to find out why the 'society' is so-corrupt, and where we went wrong, etc... Till we 'find' it out (our wrong)... a question of that 'guilt' doesn't arise at all! :))

So that works well!

Confuse ourselves very consciously, skillfully... pile up a lots and lots of contradicting 'adages', and escape that 'guilt'!...

Unless there is a 'provision'... framed.... by ourselves... and we disobey it... where is 'guilt'?

(“Sin”, seems to precede a guilt... so create something.... define something that constitutes a 'crime' when that 'created-something' is not complied with... now call it either a 'sin', where law has no say .... or call it a 'guilt' , where law says-something :)..... And, when something is 'as-per-law', only an authority can forgive... but when something is 'escaping' the laws... anyone can forgive, usually it is ourselves!

Interestingly... the ancients did not coin an appropriate word for things like 'forgive',... 'guilt' ... etc... (the sense of duty dominated so strongly.... they obviated the need of adjudication by others around... and had the 'good-sense' to trust others, when own adjudication seemed lacking that depth-of-perception, to get to the 'real' bottom of the truth!... )
We find in those scriptures, only the 'declaratory-truths'... leaving it to the choice, entirely to an individual... whether to explore, and then accept it, or to ignore it! So, it was a bad choice, or a good choice... but not a guilt!

At any given point of time, if I do my very-best... what else can I ever do? (that is being at least to an 'animal-level'.... and then, ... hopefully,.... I would evolve beyond the animal level) :))

Guilt-edged, yours,

psn(10th of December, 2015)

Examination of Examples!

As a school kid, I used to love “examples” in the school text books!

The only place where the person (whom we kids 'regarded' as far-more-intelligent than 'even-the teacher'), who wrote the text book, shows his kindness to we-the-kids ... quite liberally... So easy to understand that, even the teacher just ignores the scope to 'further' elaborate an example :)

That was what an 'example' was... any other 'show' of what 'something-would-be-like'... was only a 'sample' (a mild caning on the outstretched palm, by elders, for instance would tell us the trouble in-store for the trouble-we-cause :) ... beware!)

It was the 'easiness' of the examples in maths text book, which made the 'sums' (the problems caused unto us kids, with a very funny-title “Exercise”) look 'far-more-tough' than what it really is!... Reading that 'examples' again and again felt like some wasted-effort, once we had decided that problem to be an 'impregnable-fortress'!

It was thus, we ourselves wove that thick covering over the event called “Examination” :)

The scare created by the teachers and 'parents' was alike, about the thing called 'examination'... It never really occurred to us to even 'examine' the name called 'examination'! The 'process' was utterly simple, and self-explaining, (if only we had the patience to look at it as a two-in-one, example of examination!)...

Years later, I had visited 'north' (where I had worked for a livelihood, for a decade)... this time, for fun...
There, my colleagues and their family had gathered to have a dinner with us (my family was the 'minority-community' and as guests-too, within that drawing room of the 'owner-among-hosts' )....

The kids just played around, with no other visible-purpose known to them for 'such a gathering'...

One of my colleagues, who happened to 'remember' me as an 'example' of how good a motivator can be, (when he struggled with 'promotion' test become a clerk like me), suggested to me “Hey, why don't you speak a few words of motivation/inspiration/whatever-nonsense... to our kids here?.. the schools of this small town does not seem to nurture that-kind-of academic competition like large towns/cities etc”...
And, not waiting to know if I am at least inclined, he proceeded to gather the kids around, and placed me at the centre of that small circle! (With hunger in the stomach, and a delicious fragrance emanating from the dishes, on that large dining table, with the lids kept partially open, ... a very wrong time to indulge into lenghty 'lectures'... I and we the kids knew well!)...

The other negative factor was... the kids are unlikely to gather around thus, a 'next' time!

So, that squeezed me into an unenviable discomfiture of compulsion to squeeze whatever I had to say, into very brief words!

After a few 'initial' gimmicks to 'get-their-attention'... I asked “for whom is that 'exams' at our schools?”... the kids said, “us the kids!! who else ?... ain't we the sole-sufferers? :) ..”
I asked “Really?... Please take a look at it again... That 'driving-test' by RTO , who gives a licence, if we 'pass'... He likes to know, 'if we can drive safely'... and the licence tells that policeman(on behalf of public) later, that we do-know 'how to drive safely'... But, when do we know, if we can drive?... Or, ... when do we propose-to-learn to drive?.. On the eve-of-test?”

They gaped... they seemed to be able to afford themselves a chance for the concept of 'examination' to percolate into them in a 'user-friendly' manner!

I nudged it further into a proper-groove, with a brief utterance “Oh! To me, it looks like.. that exam is either for the teacher (to know how well he taught), or for the parent to know how well the kid had learnt what was taught... etc... but nothing to do with the examinee... who is just a specimen, a sample on the examination-table!”... They had a hearty laugh!

I left it to their choice to ... 'further-examine' the distortions forced upon the sanctity of the concept called 'examination' by everybody around, whether knowingly or not, willingly or not, etc..

Some neighbour drinks to death... spoiling his liver... etc... He is a 'live' example (unlike those deceptively simple examples in the maths text book, which doesn't 'exactly' tell me how to deal with 'tricky' sums!)... he is a living or a dying example (whichever way )... of how 'drinks' can only-spoil, and not nurture health... when we over do it...

Somebody continues the 'growth' in a linear direction, when the nature-designated vertical growth ceases to oblige him.... an example of what it can do with our 'freedom' of movement, health etc!

Hey..... if I fail to examine these 'samples' as my-examples... I fail in my-exam... negative results!

Now came the tough part... I had to 'examine' how well I examine! (Each breath seems an 'example-afresh', that I am alive!.. It is my-examination, whether I pass or fail, when I pass by, failing to notice it... to decide whether I 'examine' well, this 'pull' of life.. exam-pull/example!)

Sample of yours,

psn(29th November, 2015)

Right versus Rights!

Oh!

Had it been the other way... :(
That we didn't have to face the 'nature' around , armed the way we are with our right and rights!....

Perhaps, life would have been much easier :)

Not that it is easy with people... Just that it feels easier with people, than with nature.. and that prompts us to keep trying at it!... {We even forget, that the 'people' too are a part of the 'nature' too, with the exception of robotics :)... and at subtle levels, they too are, for sure!}...

Am I right? (am I correct?)...
is this not my right ? {fundamental rights enshrined in constitution... or , by virtue of my brutal power, which is a threat to the other.... like 'the one holding a gun at me is always right :)... etc}

Why at all do these two matter?... the two kinds of rights?... other life forms do not refer to them at all... {But we, ... how often?... Just look at the nature of our thoughts! Yes, in-the-light-of this right/rights :) .... }

The problem doesn't seem to end there!

The 'rights' seem to even dominate the need-even to verify the correctness-wala-right :)
And it begins, and even stays throughout, with the fundamental-right of 'expression'... Vote-bank politics thrives on this 'freedom' of expression, and media business flourishes due to this !

Well, spirituality is supposed to be about 'transcending' nature...
Then obviously, we need to adhere to nature's rules, a little... Nature doesn't recognise our right-&-rights ... Our only 'right' is to align ourselves the 'right-way', that nature allows us, to be natural... (our natural state!.. within).
Maybe, one of the reasons, the ancients never felt the need to look at being-right, and asserting-rights, the way we keep-doing today!... Dunno!

I try to wonder... what if we people, for a while... just 'try' to focus on “is it the really-right thing?” (without interference by our mind, even at its subtlest levels, about asserting our rights about it, in any way or form)... Oh!... it seems to ask for too much, really! Why else would those Nobel prize be awarded later on to an other person who successfully negated the earlier Nobel laureate? Somewhere the right and rights got badly mixed up, pushing the functionality of the intellect's pure form to a little back-ground ! Would it not have been better, if not easier, to start off with the “discoveries” of the subtlest forms that is possible,...... that nothingness!.. Dunno!

Anyway,
I guess, it is a worth-exercise... to try at least... to see if it works... very consciously allowing that 'was it the right thing' to have a say over our-rights to assert that we are invariably-right-always!

(Incidentally, my teacher camouflaged this 'concept' in one of the exercises, and the double-camouflage was ....that he shrouded it even from a discovery that it was the core-element that would even decide the success rate, that we would 'possibly' taste .... at a spiritual program!)

Wrongly.... and-yet, yours,

psn (20th November, 2015)

The 'why' of our actions...

It is too difficult to 'guess' .... why a person does something regularly/frequently...

I loved the game of caroms... But, it was not as a sport.... not for health(physical or mental).. ... not for entertainment... etc.. There was a 'hidden' agenda ! But as a consequence.... I could not avoid the incidental benefits... Skill improved...

People felt, I ought to participate in 'tournament'... they just pushed me into it.. a few prizes came in... There again, my hidden agenda worked better, when I could 'very-keenly' observe other players on a regular-basis!

One such player friend said, "Do you know... there are a few people , who just mastered the skill at this game for 'purely' their bread & butter/livelihood... ?"

I normally wait... for the other to finish saying something... (lucky that I do.. else I would have missed to get the corollary-wala-comment, which, for me.. was more educative !)

He added...

“they do not bother to play it as a 'game'... they do not participate in any tournament.. they just sit in a rented room, at a prominent place, and wait for 'customers'...
The 'customer'... is usually a carom-lover!...
They (the customers)... for example...place two white coins 'stuck' at the centre of the opposite edge, a black one sandwiched tightly between the two whites.. Now, this 'bread winner' has to 'attempt' to somehow-pocket that black in a single stroke with the striker (as per the rules of the game)... If he does it, he earns the rupee note offered as a 'bet' by the customer... if he fails, he has to pay-back double of it (2 rupees), to that customer... Usually, he does pocket it.. and the customer is 'entertained' watching the skill!”

I smiled...
I now asked this 'player-friend' “what has prompted you to share this with me?”
He said, “I have been watching you at the game, for nearly some 8 years now... I couldn't guess your real-motive, for pursuing this game... You just walked out, too-casually, when a win was certain, just because the opponent became desperate and turned glaringly-unethical, and even the appeal of 'tournament-committee' did not impress you ( later, the 'secretary' decided to sponsor a special-prize, during the 'prize distribution ceremony'... and even that turned into a politics!.. But a politician was the chief guest... so he handled that 'politics' well, saying, “I will bear the cost of this prize, ... so no more allegations of 'misuse' of sports-funds”... )...”
he continued... “ you were never disappointed by loses of games... it never affected your performance at the game!... that intrigued me!.. I felt, you do look 'closely-similar' to those 'bread-winners'... though you do not intend to make it a living, or a source of fame etc!... “
He summed up saying.. “perhaps, you might now be persuaded to share your real-intent!”...

“Oh!”.. I said.. “it is no big-secret... Just that.... I thought nobody around might be interested in my-interest-in-it :-))
It so happens, this game serves like a 'mirror' of my mind's steadiness... that is all... and I guess, it leaves no choice about whether other's too are going to be 'even-aware' of this aspect... it works on others too , quite similarly!”...

Now, this whole exercise ... spread over these years... even opened up the possibility to take a look at 'not-so-well-polished' mirrors of other kinds too... Almost any activity, its object, its objective, etc.. do provide a 'mirroring-effect'..
Slowly, the intricate inter-meshing, inter-weaving ... of how we respond, through our actions, revealed its innermost secrets to me!

Spiritual masters, do try to find out the 'why' of a disciple's keenness to undertake a spiritual quest... (And, I was interested in their 'how they do it'... the finding it out!)

Therefore yours,

psn (14th November, 23015)

Joyousness of an occasion

Ever since the ancient times, the known stories of mankind tells us of conscious efforts towards reviving that feel of joyousness periodically.

The periodicity snowballs and shapes itself into a ritual and tradition that belongs to the race of that region... The commonality of such ritual strives towards perfecting the possibility of its happening... It is thus, that the 'available' technology comes into its play :)

Today, when the symbolism itself is lost, even a very prominent occasion of manifesting our joyousness like 'Deepavali' seems to fail to evoke a genuine inner experience.. ...

We now seem to struggle even with simple acts like greeting others!

This is what I felt, when I saw a spate of copy-pastes pouring into my handset (that 'smart' version of phone), and I found myself gaping at some talent of some unknown techie who lights up the screen to create a make-belief sense of that joy!

Sweets are outsourced.. (But it brings along with it, a lot of uncertainties, in the form of health hazard, when the ingredients are trying to maximise the profit margins!)...

Even those fire crackers , which I saw as a kid being prepared 'then & there' at a remote village of Andhra where my 'well-to-do' aunt and her family generously distributed to the people around to en-Joy in togetherness, has now become a thing of anxiety, when some imported and cheaper version causes more injuries to the health of innocent kids (the 'central' government felt constrained to publicize an advertised 'warning' to be wary of such harmful fire-crackers! So that's the greeting now! Only soldiers in a big war used to be greeted thus, when they prepare to face the 'front' line of a conflict with the other nation!)....

It is not entirely without 'any benefit'... the following few weeks would for sure benefit a lot of hospitals, and doctors, and keep them quite busy :)

On my part, I felt it to be a duty towards my own 'self' to re-examine, whether all those spiritual exercises that I had undertaken this-far, had failed to evoke even a bare minimum of that joyousness that was assured of, when the ancients had 'marked' this phase of moon to become an occasion and an event, taking into account all the factors that are going to contribute positively towards it ?...

Well, even my task becomes a bit-arduous, when I could not manage to relocate myself (that forest hermitage, a Vaanaprastha)....where I ought to belong at this 'stage of life' or at this point of time (age wise), again due to external factors, more so :)

And it is only therefore, that in 'addition' to it, I need to discount the other social factors before affording myself, a 'sense of Justice'... Oh! This very 'approach' seems to afford myself the 'sense of Joy', that I am not quite off-the-track! I can overlook so-easily the inability to feign a reciprocal greeting, matching that of others, since the 'form' of joyousness that I experience evades a description that carries a popular sense!

Wishing for ourselves (all-of-us, so that I get included with you).. the true sense of Joyousness that belongs to our spirit, as enshrined by our ancients who marked this occasion (this annual phase of the moon), to bring forth unto us, ... a very happy Deepavali !

Joyously yours,

psn(10th November, 2015)

Diplomatic Answers

Politicians engage in it (diplomatic answers) most of the time....

To say an 'yes' to this observation, it doesn't need our-own-diplomacy :)

But, try to be 'diplomatic' with an expert attorney who cross examines us as a 'crucial' witness in a case involving an alleged crime of massacre of a huge magnitude! Even the Judge is wary of not-objecting to it (that diplomatic answer...).. Every body is concerned to get to the bottom of 'the' truth!

“Never try to lie to a doctor and a Vakil” ... it just means, diplomacy doesn't save ... (the 'other' side is anyway going to get at you!)....

And yet,
we find quite a lot of us, engaged into such 'diplomacy' most of our waking hours! (Hey, even here I am being a little diplomatic!... Was it 'quite a lot of us'?... or.... ? well ... :) a smiley is the diplomacy !)

A sentence is a group of words that makes a 'complete' sense... (when I took upon myself a spiritual journey, I had to re-examine the nature of sentence, in a 'yet-another-way' ... :)... Every valid sentence is a kind of conclusion, assessment, judgement etc... one way or the other!...
And it is always ... only a 'mind' that would churn out a sentence.. That is verbal thoughts!... When such 'sentence-wala' thoughts are 'conspicuously-absent'... we tend to 'claim' that our mind was 'blank'!... Really?

Really-so, is it ?

When I looked around , just sitting on the chair, comfortably seated.... not a sentence-wala thought.. for a few moments... it did 'seem'... as if I too was 'blank'... a mind that is still... I just glanced around... a 180° turn, with no specific purpose ... there was nothing in it... but then a question occurred “what if, there was one object in that room, which the mind could not 'identify'?”... (like some new alien creature made a small movement at a corner?)... The glance-across would have applied an instant-brake at that object/creature/whatever!...
It simply translates thus: 'the mind 'identified' every single object in that hall/room, and applied a well-known-label... or an algebraic-label (let us call it 'x'..!!) at least...
This labeling... is it not a complete sentence (not exactly published by the mind-yet?)?.... The 'process' of identifying... does it not involve a huge thought-process, involving a vast amount of data exchange?... The data base of memory provides the label... I tried to imagine the 'codes' if it were written down in a design-format, instead of 'low-level-language' which computers use as a default-template of its embedded system!

Oops!... Non-verbal thoughts!!! The size is incomprehensible!

Well, in that case... try with verbal thoughts , as an humble beginning... I felt...

That is when I looked at diplomacy... diplomatic answers... :-))

Diplomacy is a very good tool... to get along with worldly-life... but when it is not really-warranted, a habitual-offender finds the spiritual journey difficult, when this diplomacy works like a spoke in the wheels! (Healthy relationships, obviates any kind of diplomacy in its interactions... The chief-of-armed forces was being undiplomatic, when he said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.".. as the 'result' of attacking the opponent by surprise, and inflicting huge damage to lives and property! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto%27s_sleeping_giant_quotation )

Is/are... our 'answers' to questions asked-or-unasked.... (even answers within ourselves... more-so, within-ourselves)... 'the' bare truth?... was my concern (my-own, of course... applies only to-me, and for-me! That's diplomacy again :) ...)

The mind feels 'throttled' initially... 'acceptance' faces a 'genuine' challenge... diplomatic-acceptance collapses!

If we sustain, and manage to cross over that breaking-point... prioritising becomes a little effortless!

When people around (or we ourselves , within), try to ask for 'why-so'... the answers often turn a little diplomatic,... and truth is avoided... if not avoidable, it is camouflaged... if not possible, it is at least sugar-coated... to make it as soft as possible on the listener! It is only when relationships are not relevant, with the other... we are 'blunt'!... Now, when it is our own internal relationships, within ourselves, with ourselves... is it not our-mind that needs the pampering?... Then, that-diplomacy assumes sophistication!... When we decide, diplomacy doesn't work any more within-ourselves... acceptance dawns!.. When acceptance doesn't find any resistance, it deepens!

I leave it to the readers, to try to find out for themselves, their 'areas' and expertise at such superfluous diplomacies... My indicative examples would seem too stupid, primitive and non-enthusing!

Diplomatically yours,

psn (6th November, 2015)

Anti Intellect

“You muff..!!!”

My maths teacher at school used to chide kids who seemed like they are 'refusing' to grasp what he was trying to hint at....

It was not that they were 'really' refusing to grasp.... There was something about their attentiveness, which failed to open the doors of a 'grasp'.. and the teacher grew restless!

Theirs was the kind of appeal for : 'Hey! Why not tell me an easier way out?'....
So it is the 'conflict of interests' that bring out the negative emotions as formidable weapons against each other....

This 'drama'(the conflict of interests) ... we get to see quite often in our adult life, when ever a situation arises which offers no solutions under the category of a 'standard-protocol' :)

Just once, he decided to use an opposite of that muff... He called me 'genius'...
My immediate concern was 'why did he choose to call me so?'... My marks (the usual yardstick used by the adults around) had never given any hint towards it even by a stray chance (not even some freak scores!... It was a 'steady' average!)...

Simultaneously, I became inquisitive about what makes a person a 'genius'?...
Certainly not that hectic practise which only improves the dexterity, or an expertise...
So, an expert need not be a genius, and... a genius need not be an expert too!

It has to do with that 'intellect' , I presumed...

I kept it 'pending'... (I had to... because, even the botany/biology never made a conspicuous mention of 'intellect' as yet!.... )

Spiritual path dealt ( only-with).... at being intelligent (again my guess work only! When mind, its logic and even emotions, do not interfere, the perception).... Just that while at work, the intellect needs to find itself becoming more subtle to a point where it 'happens' to even transcend the sensory perceptions ! The teacher seldom speaks about being 'intelligent' !... Maybe he 'knows'... that anyway, that is what it is going to boil-down-to :) Otherwise, the instructions to 'maintain' alertness during the 'seemingly-stupid' activity of breath-watching, doesn't seem to really take us anywhere at all... especially so, during early stages... ! It is only a tenacious persistence that makes us aware of even the 'conflict' between the mind (its memory, imagination, via logic and emotions), trying to almost-dissuade us from the 'futility' of an activity like 'watching' the breath, when body is already/sufficiently intelligent enough to do that job quite efficiently :)

It was during the hectic years of volunteering that I could start noticing the 'denouncing' aspect of innocent aspirants towards their own intellect!

Society, when it is driven by its materialistic pursuits-only, also seems to actually-compete towards who does it better, when asking people not to be intelligent!

The gadgets which are 'meant' to make our lives quite easy, seem to actually ask us to go-easy... a little-more(little and more ?)... on our intellect, than the physiology-related-stressful tasks...

Most of the medical innovations seem to work at our cellular level intelligence almost in the same way! (and we are 'told' that micro organisms are becoming more-intelligent than our anti-biotics!). Are we not trying to get rid of 'pain' at the drop of the hat?... Then why is a pain-sensation being tested to look for a presence of 'life' ? Dunno...
The swelling at some insect bite, with some 'heat' around it, ..... and the pain to draw our attention for additional help... is met with a 'putting-down' of the symptom related to all of it... the very symptom of any pain ... at once reminds us of pain relievers!.. and we just forget about ...what could be its 'source'! Now the source of trouble remains safe within, to do its own multiplication quite silently, clandestinely, and then manifest in some other form at a time which suits it most... and the suitability being the ease of gulping our own physiology, its ready-structure, which is the most sophisticated of manifest-life-forms... If this is true/correct... then, obviously, we are giving-ourselves-in, to lesser 'intelligence' of life-forms :)..;...!

When the mind becomes incisive, it turns beautiful... and the 'women' behind every successful mind is the intellect.. at subtle levels, intellect is resplendent with a feminine grace, I guess!

I even wonder if the 'famous' I.Q. tests are really a conclusive or comprehensive tool to measure its liveliness!

Foolishly yours,

psn (25th October, 2015)

Education System

(The entire approach is purely my guess work... and hence heavily speculative... At best, the benefit ... any... is only likely to be about the 'methodology' of approach... A thing, a concept, often ignored)...

The base of it , reasonably 'ought' to navigate around handling 'life' and aiming at evolving further.

The 'need' to revamp is felt, when it does not seem to 'equip' the 'educated' ones to handle life well...

Strangely enough,

this 'education'... was not 'isolated' from life itself... in the ancient days...
The 'structure' called a school today... was a little smaller in the ancient days, and not everybody was sent to it (Gurukulam)...

A look at the 'classes' (varna system)... seems to offer some clues...

One class used the 'intellect'.... more often..... to handle life (and obviously therefore, appreciated the interdependence with other classes better!).. the 'system' was incorporated (seamlessly interwoven) into the life-style prescribed to this class... (when intellect is 'addressed'... the activities prescribed, might transcend perception at logical/emotional levels... most 'rituals' seem to indicate this much!)...

The next class uses the 'mind' more often.... logic for material aspect of life... Emotions for maintaining the social harmony... Imbalance in basic-needs might upset the social harmony (emotional trust, the worst of susceptibilities)... The training thus involves an imparting, structured well enough, to suit the evolving social network... Concepts therefore needs to be transmitted with a little bit of 'practicability'... and yet, basic concepts ought to get handed down to generations, simultaneously+ parallelly too! The need to grasp the society's needs envisages a balanced emotional mind, to ensure an accurate grasp...

The next class uses the physiology more often... and in a very dexterous manner... The training is also therefore... more of physical nature ... they lean to handle their body well, and with a well-maintained physique, the emotions being capable of shifting very consciously (not oscillating too-loosely), between compassion and a sense of 'natural-justice' , dispensed judiciously... This class takes up the responsibility of administration, and defence...

The rest of the residual people happen to also constitute into a class, which keeps the 'training' aspect to its barest minimum... Even this class happens to transcend the animal level 'excellence' when we look at how the offsprings of animals happen to learn their way-to-livelihood all-by-themselves!

The classifications were never like a 'water-tight-compartment'... though the formal pronouncement of any upgradation rested with the intellectual class, while the down-grading was by almost a consensus, not waiting for the immediate availability of an intelligent/wise one in the vicinity!

Since the ancient 'classification' , has taken very ugly turns into political proportions in the present day, I had to heavily restrain a liberal use of those labels which makes a grasp quite easy!
But yes, I had to trim the 'observations' based on which I made this guess work, just because the readers do not manage the focus for too long! (Ironically, that... the observations.... constitute the most fascinating part of the analogy... it is too voluminous.... and unless a mind is really eager, the very exercise of reading/listening might become enervating... apart from the fatiguing to a mind!... Spiritual path, I find, leaves me with no options/choices about observing these traditional methods of imparting education, of which literacy was confined only on 'need-based-tutoring'... ).

Learningly yours,

psn (24th October, 2015)

Control

“Is it a-Madurai or a-Chidambaram, at your home?”

It is a very polite way of asking a very blunt-question, to ask somebody who is close enough..
The answer decides the level of freedom the asker has, as a possible-guest... (These towns-names used to at once remind others, of the deities of the famous temples which made the towns famous for it... and the stories around the deities seemed to talk more about 'control' on people and things around, and therefore the 'natural-choice' of using these names ! Now, 'nature' is obviously not under anyone's control :)...)

“Try to have some control over your life!” , is another piece of advice, which seems to leave the choice of how-to-do-it, to the listener.. ...

Controller of examinations (even senior students might find it difficult to explain this concept, except that they might give details of the functional aspect, which is too-visible, not the underlying theme!)

Chief controller of trains... (I had a 'distant' relative of mine, who retired even before I got to meet him as a kid, and hence never did I discover as to how he managed this-control!... But he never seemed like a person who like to control even his own kids!)

I keep wondering about the 'need to control' anything at all!

If everybody decides to adhere to 'nature', why would there be a need to control at all?... Only humans look at this aspect of controlling... The vast universe works so-flawlessly on its own!

We exercise a 'choice' in a particular way, and then we find that choice to be flawed, needing a control. When the flaw takes too long a time to be discovered, the control gains its urgency, and now a control-over-control finds its birth place! The 'control' over the Judiciary is sought to be retained into the hands of erstwhile judges themselves, while the executive seeks to take over the controls (obviously, the control is effective only with the control over appointment of Judges themselves!... The net result would be an effective control over judgements, and therefore the 'Justice' sought to be dispensed .... with or thereof, ..... we don't know !).

The control over gadgets, vehicles etc gets complicated as these things get sophisticated, and remote-controlled!

Whichever way, the people try to group themselves, by whatever name, its concept, purpose etc... control becomes inevitable. (Media controls the minds, its way of thinking, while media is controlled by financial giants... countries which control their economy well, prosper, and then find their well-being controlled by poor countries, whose poverty becomes a threat to the prosperous ones, and therefore the doles, not out of any sympathy, kindness etc!.. At places of rampant corruption, like offices of government departments, police, road transport, etc... which are 'given the controls over people's freedom... the controller is bribe power, and only courageous ones manage to declare their honesty... ). And while 'grouping' together(trade unions, consumer associations, tax-payers associations, pensioner's associations... etc) seems to offer a solace from individual controls by vested-authorities, .... over a period of time, they find themselves ending up into yet another form of control...

The modern man finds himself surrounded by 'controls' of several kinds, and now the innocent traffic signal when it turns red, seems to 'control' his freedom-of-movement, instead of that reassurance of a safe travel on the road, for which it was supposed to be installed! Obviously the absence of a policeman in-sight, tempts him to regain his lost-freedom, and he jumps-signals! A jump, even when it is figurative, leads into a leap... and a leap is usually something out-of-control... from a frying pan into the fire!... CCTV's are in place to control the situation, when the pair of eyes of a policeman cannot manage to record jumps too-well :)

The mind, when it is surrounded by so many controls from all around, skips the 'possibility-even', about a control on itself!... And thus, we find psychosomatic disorders to be 'quite-natural', now-a-days!

That leaves me to wonder and also to figure out, how the ancients managed to control the urge for a technological-advancement, despite having evolved intellectually to amazing/stupefying/whatever levels! Probably they understood better, about what “choices-really-are”... not bothering about what are-the-choices!... Their sense of choosing started with good-controls, and that must/might be clue about minimum controls around them, their society etc... Even the “religion” did not find a 'need', when individuals found their controls into safe hands of their very source of being!

That, reminded me of ... what I was asked to take control over ... by my teacher with-whom/into-whom, I had entrusted my controls... He had asked me to attempt a control over my praana (the “life” itself, ticking 'live' within me!)... and therefore my Praanayams! And what was amazing about it was, all other controls do not control me thereafter... it is just my mind and the body, that can be controlled, if at all...

Mind being a little subtler, doesn't yield to controls, once the 'life' , or the 'being' takes over! That meant to be 'freedom'... not the laws that controls others, in the name of offering 'freedoms', nor the constitution, its draft... which binds-together, a free-democracy through its control over freedom!(I met a girl of about 13 yrs of age, who found herself controlled by the need to inject herself with insulin, at least twice a day!... Her parents could not find a way to offer any consolation, when other kids were not controlled-thus... I told her, “Imagine, a girl from a distant planet visiting us, and commenting, 'oh! You earthlings need to breath some few times every minute?... So, the air, its oxygen controls your life?... Poor things... your freedom is only-a-dream'... That idea cheered her... she smiled... the parents experienced their girl-child,s freedom ! I felt rather controlled that, I could not find her 'grown-up' enough to grasp those spiritual tools where the unique secretion from pituitary glands would end the control of oxygen-via-air that we breathe to live!... That's where I felt the 'remote' control to be still with air!... Yes it was 'still' too!)

Freely yours,

psn(18th October, 2015)

Situation Management

While most of us keep struggling throughout our lives, to just manage the situation “delivered” before us (like a baby 'delivered' from a mother's womb, and then the kid becomes an unmanageable situation often!)...

I came across the video clip of a person who 'delivers' himself, into a tiny 'situation' and the eyes of the audience pops out! (link of video clip got removed)

This is what impressed me, (what was said about him): “For over four decades he continues to teach yoga to encourage awareness of how powerful our minds can be over our bodies by using techniques that will lead to long term health and mastery of self.”
http://www.annoyatorium.com/tm.aspx?m=195507

Not all of us need to get into such 'gimmicks' to be able to assign a meaning to our lives!

Nor do we need-to-end-up (while thinking about 'what we did with our lives this far', at our final episodes of the serial-of-life), discovering that ...... all we did was just trying to manage an 'outside-situation' (and obviously, we do know-well, we could have always done better !)....

Situation management,

if it 'betters' on the outside,

as a consequence of our better-management of our-own-inside,

leaves us with an immense sense of 'satisfaction' to the extent that.....

it 'now-does-not-matter' when we go! (yes, towards the inner management, we do need to also-manage ourselves in good health too... good health , mental and physical, are our only-means of connectivity with the outside, .... until... or till,... we manage the merger of inside and outside to a point of 'unity', an unification... in that 'spiritual-sense').

This is what has been the pursuit of ancients throughout their lives, as we can see 'how they lived', from what we get to see out of the residual records of their lives! It is for us to sift what they demonstrated on the outside situation (usually the siddhis), to be able to rivet our focus on the higher-thing, greater-priority.... that of managing the inside-situation... !

Mind happens to be the main fulcrum of whatever else we do about our inside! (....”continues to teach yoga to encourage awareness of how powerful our minds can be”.....)....

And when it is 'about-our-mind'... why are we looking at any kind of deformities, limitations, scope, etc ? :) ... Do we not see of an 'unlimited' choice?

Situationally yours,

psn (11th October, 2015)

Social isolation

The cultural 'unison' (not an 'unity' via a concerted effort,... to form a union-like or so...)...

that was there in ancient times.... had one amazing tool....

'isolating' a wrong-doer from the social-cambric (the inter-weave) of the society (society includes all classes of that society 4-varnas)...

this tool was used with utmost sense of discretion, by people well-known for their potential at discerning judiciously ! (usually ... a group of 'elders'! Elder by wisdom, not necessarily by age!)

The purpose was simple.... (for deploying this 'tool')..
Laws are of two kinds, broadly (while law itself is for 'some-kind-of' social order.. when people live as-a-society.. hence , spiritual seekers relocate to a recluse, to keep others insulated from their own 'inadvertent-non-adherence' to these laws!... as one of the objectives of such solitude-dwelling)..

Codified laws, where implementation can be by reference to a clear , unambiguous codes, written down, after a 'general-consensus'...

Non-codified laws, which are 'moral/ethical' by nature, usually, and which are of greater importance than the codified ones, when mutual-trust is 'really' a priority for that society :)

Now, implementation of non-codified laws would be a great task, and formidable one too...
apart from the complexity of its 'justification' since each situation needs a fresh-perspective too!

So, the way-out was... just-isolate the 'fellow' who in the opinion of 'group-of-elders' who enjoy the unquestioned-trust of that-society, has caused a social harm due to an act of commission/omission, consciously!

Today, we find
corruption,

scams,

rape,

abuse (of child, women, etc)...

violence (including fanaticism fanned by religious sentiments)
and all such acts...

going 'scott-free' (it is the honest-idiot who feels isolated :-)) instead of a wrong-doer)

only due to absence of a tool of a social boycott !

Yet 'nature' takes its own course...
when a religious sect fails to isolate its own wrong-doers, the other around (even globally), start isolating that very-sect/community, even without a concerted-unification-program or so...

nations sponsoring violence are slowly 'sought-to-be' isolated, with huge diplomatic efforts...
Yes, the phenomenon is painfully-slow, when allowed to take its-natural-course, but when it snowballs, the impact is beyond anyone's imagination... it takes proportions of a natural-calamity..!

During ancient days, spiritual concepts could be 'interwoven' so effortlessly into the way-of-life, when this tool of isolation was 'in-place' .... Yet the very same 'weave' became the main factor of eroding this very tool, when experience failed to impress a blind-adherence to spiritual-oriented prescriptions, being inter-woven into routine life! (so called 'religious-rituals' are just that !!!)

exclusively yours,

psn (9th October, 2015)

Global warming

Oh!
So-sorry...!
I am not even competent to talk 'sensibly' about the factors causing global-warming (other than what I as a lay person happen to gather out of tons-of-Jargon that our scientists say, and then politicians 'pick' to publicize what suits them out of it...)...

There is a whole-world happening right within us!
In fact, the whole universe is happening right within us.... !

So why not think of a 'global-sized' warming within us ? I felt... :)

We face contradictions.. When actually, there are none! (everything is a process of cause and effect, in a perfect unison, as far as its 'phenomenon' is concerned)... We look at it as 'contradictions', when it happens contrary to our expectations, and therefore a 'conflict' within us , with an image we see on the outside too!

I noticed a 'warming' up effect, as we grow into adulthood...
The 'graph' of our 'show of happiness' slides downward... Kids are joyous for 'no-apparent-reason'.. while elders are brooding-type, again... for no-apparent reason!

In large cities, people come out for a 'morning' walk... That's when we can really-expect a little cheer in their faces (a good night's sleep, and body a little refreshed... enough to feel cheerful for a while at least!)... But in direct proportion to age, the long faces walk alongside them ... The face carries a 'worry' along with it.. The subtle smile is missing... If it is a 'routine' face that they meet, even the 'good-morning' is heavily coated with the same worry...

It is the accumulated heat of contradictions that we faced all along , thus-far.. which seems to hang around our mind... and occupies the next layer of attitude towards the 'outside' all the time.. The thin layer barely manages to give 'appropriate' responses to the outside...
Yes, when a situation on the outside gets a little intense, it does pierce this 'next' layer and finds the depth of our emotions 'invoked' accordingly... Be it a great joke, a sudden sad-event, a surprise, ... why even a 'wonder'... But after a while, the skin closes in... and we are back to that 'burdensome worry-layer'...

It is this 'layer' of worry, that causes a 'warming' like the one that affects our ecology, environment etc, adversely!...
When there is nothing else around to cause an immediate-anxiety or a joy... this layer even surfaces a little...

By itself, this layer of 'worries' seems quite harmless...
But 'effectively'... it is like a piece of ammunition just waiting for a muzzle to be loaded into, for a direction and then the trigger-effect to jettison-off!

In a subtle way,

when we try to become a little focused, we also become a little intense....

and when intense.. this layer seeks a 'resolve' by surfacing along the subject we tried to focus..

now the focus becomes blurred!

We find it so-convenient to blame everything for the blur, except our root-cause, which is that layer/crust of non-directional-worries...

To make it a little clear...

when the mind was

quite intense... yet very-relaxed...

the gravity-effect was grasped when the apple fell...

the loco-power was grasped, when the steam blew up the lid of the tea-kettle...

the principles of relative density got revealed when water in the bath tub got displaced by 'Eureka-scientist'

:)

A striking contrast: An expert pickpocket is a good student of psychology too, when he can make out the 'worried face' on a salary-day, in the crowded bus/train, and know that this 'victim' is a sitting duck with his alertness subdued abnormally-enough... to miss sensing a 'touch' on his purse! (it is a 'eureka' too, but only for the thief!!)... The salary-cash in the pocket... brings to the surface a cloud-burst of worries hanging at the next-layer of the mind (budget allocation to each worry-some expense is a huge mismatch!... but a very wrong place to offer such 'vulnerability' of reduced-alertness).

That 'relaxed' mind is a bit elusive, even when we are physically at leisure...

We cannot lay a finger on a particular bit, causing that 'global-warming-like' effect on our mind, when the accumulation is so-voluminous, and we don't have a proper 'indexing' too, to retrieve each file-of-it!

Some of it turns into 'non-verbal' thought form even... when the text fades out like our thermal-paper print out slips that our ATM's cough out :)

warmly yours,

psn (6th October, 2015)

Cushion time

We know how good our Shri Sachin is, when it comes to facing the best of bowlers. They don't bowl to 'oblige' him...! And he manages to do 'what-he-likes' with that ball (that's what makes the best bowlers say, 'We bowl, also-hoping to impress him, not just to get him out, as-soon-as-possible)....

Sachin manages to 'find' a cushion time, the few micro-milli-seconds, after the ball has left the hands of that fast+spin-bowler, and it reaches the three menacing sticks, loving to get blown away, with its micro-audio sensors amplifying the hit too-loudly! (I am not qualified enough to give details of how and what he does, to find that 'cushion-time').

We ordinary people squander the 'cushion-time' available in abundance around us... Very rarely do we find a 'genuine-exigency'... So, instead, we try and convert every small thing, event, need, etc into an exigency, and then, impress people around, making a big-drama about-it/over-it :)

A young techie, who 'happened' to appreciate that 'cushion' time a little excessively, miss to take note of 'unspoken-communication' from his boss about 'reverse-concept of that 'cushion' time .. Not his fault... He was new to the work-atmosphere of that 'industry' though abundantly qualified for the job :)

He misunderstood the 'communication'...

His boss told him... “The dead line (not life-line!), for this project is 7 days from today” (Later, the boss explained to this youngster --- as an exception---that, he usually quotes the real intended/planned deadline after subtracting some 4 days!... He 'knows'... these techies never do things in-time!).
Why he explained, as an exception was.... what happened ..
The techie took the dead line literally... He assumed that the 'boss' was honest (meaning, the dead line did not include a hidden cushion time, reversed!)..
the techie, in all innocence, deployed what was 'his-quality'... He created a cushion time, by telling himself, “now for me... the dead line is 4 days!... I must make it fast!!!”
This techie spent 2 nights and three full days, pounding the keyboard with 'dual-monitor'...
Fourth(day's) morning... the boss said, “Looking at your unchanged T-shirt, I can guess that you didn't sleep at all for last two nights... now, please 'oblige' me , by telling me as to what-I-can-do, to ensure that you sleep for at least next 4 to 5 hours!” (I guess, this 'dialogue' doesn't need too much elaboration, about the true-emotions implied... I keep the name and details of this techie a little hidden, for two reasons... I hold great value for this kid, not many around of his cambric. Second, this kid might happen to read this, and would feel a little embarrassed, when 'thoroughly-exposed-thus' :) But, this was a true incident, and the techie has only improved upon his 'weakness' aggravating it, not renouncing it :).... )

Traditionally, (I guess from what I read about ancients)... the cushion period for a spiritual journey is at its brim, till the age of 7... It lasts, at a diminishing rate till 15 years of age... (some say it is 16)... And till 25 years of age, 'creating' a cushion period is possible, by compressing the 'irrelevant' other activities of life... after that the gross body doesn't oblige with the 'so-called' cushion period at all... And unfortunately, the mind becomes too-engaged to afford it's own 'subtle-body' to oblige us :)
(I find it relevant with a look-at my own life-experience... )

Yes, ... wherever we find 'exceptions' to this, we need to examine a little-more-closely, and we may stumble upon other 'relevant-facts' where the cushion-period was redundant, and the 'subject' needed only a 'spark', a push, a nudge, a-whatever... to get into the track called spirituality(the preparation is 'said' to have been done abundantly in some far-distant-past!)...

Now, what to do, if we happen to 'agree' that we kept ourselves busy with everything else except what is relevant to this very-human-form that we were endowed with? It is for 'teachers' to suggest... I ain't-no-teacher of any sort, ever!

Cushioningly yours,

psn(4th of October, 2015)

Entangle

The admiration that I had for this term grew manifold, when I heard it being 'entangled' with quantum, to make it a 'quantum entanglement theory' , without even the conventional tools so clearly visible otherwise! (when most youngsters that I 'try' with, seem to acquire that look-of-confusion even at the 'dropping' of this term (quantum-entanglement) in their presence, makes me wonder... tempts me to think... 'could it be because they failed to appreciate-adequately, the term entangle-itself, at its primitive sense!... dunno!')

My 'affair' with this 'entangle' concept got really deepened at the very kid age, not when I saw the ball of knitting thread of a sweater gets entangled (mom used to wriggle at both, with equal misery, ..... the knitting itself, where the tightening of weave used to either make the fabric crammed up, or it becomes too loose, but seldom right.... or when the shop-wound thread found its natural flow into an entangled-ball, when it received lesser attention! The attention got entangled into the right-tightening of the knit!)... So, not when I saw the sweater thread, or the likes, but when I walked my way to school across a railway yard, where I noticed very regularly, some worker stayed 'tense' between two Rail-wagons, to hook on the one on to the other, and then turn a knob-held lever to thread its way nearer to the lock mechanism... I was so fascinated by the visuals of this technology, that it never failed to enthrall me afresh each-time! Now, anybody who can 'afford' to observe me standing with my gaze riveted thus, ought to very-reasonably yell, “Hey, what are you looking/staring at? Get lost!”... But, here the small group usually gets absorbed into the 'possibility and its avoidance consciously' of a near-collision, so much that... they seldom feel even-my-presence! That afforded me to get entangled into their every cell, deep enough to vicariously get a feel of every thought process of theirs, during those tense moments! A wagon loaded with inflamable material like petroleum used to just-multiply their anxiety a little more! For a lesser-observant person, this group provided ample hints, in their very next-activity---either a cup of tea/a tea-break, or at least a beedi-smoke-break...

When it is a chance for me to travel in a train, almost the entire co-passengers , elder ones... used to 'await' for that 'jerk-and-halt' when a train stops for-a-halt at a station... The engine driver used to even relish the devilish-pleasure of a 'series-of-jerks' during midnight, maybe the thought that 'why should I alone suffer the lack of sleep, when I can give a jerk-jolt technically, and escape a blame-game?'... This 'empowerment'(of giving jerk-jolt deliberately)... got dissolved when the entanglement of one coach with the other became sophisticated!... I found the 'application' of this concept... of dissolving the jerk-jolt-induced by outside-factors, affecting adversely a married couple, when their mutual entanglement was similarly sophisticated (with ample cushioning-effects, two way-shockabsorbers, not affecting the tug/tag-along , to ensure fuel-efficiency!).. But it was quite rare to get to see this application deployed properly!

The next level... obviously the subtle levels too... of a life-form's entanglement into a gross structure a body... its subtlety going into super-sophistication-levels, when it is about a human form... caught my attention! And when it did, it caught me too into its 'entanglement'...! Now it was a 'dual-entanglement' (for me!). To undertand the one, to reach into the other, or to reach into the other, and understand the 'one' as a consequence! The path was one , and the 'reach' the other!

(Not without side-effects/benefits... untying/unentangling those created-bonds became clear and a bit simple too!)

Entangled, yours,

psn (1st october, 2015)  

Blabber

It is not entirely a futile thing to do!

Quite a few depend on it to understand a dry text, when the grasp of it is going to save their 'neck'...
They read it quite a few times...


When this reading(blabber),  is outwardly-silent... the label does not get stuck to this person (but when dementia sets in at old age, this blabber becomes a bit-pronounced, quite inevitably)..

Blabber is not something indispensable... in fact it is a deterrent to the spiritual progress!!!

Some people need to read something aloud, a few times, to grasp what is written...

Few others yet... need somebody to read it aloud to them a few times , to grasp... (tuition master makes a living :)

The grasp, out of this blabber is usually made up of ....
a fuzzy sense of what gets-made-out-of... a group of words that makes a complete sense (Grammar calls it a sentence)... and we use usually, the 'most' popular sense of the word... (evidence is abundant when we seem to have lost the conceptual sense of even a few common words, when we find 'Xerox' to be much-more-meaningful than 'photocopying'... We can now proudly declare 'Xeroxing'...

People love to talk to a computer monitor...
plug earphones of a handset, and cheerfully blabber to yourself (no scope for any misunderstanding, by an onlooker!)...

A sample blabber of mine...

Somebody answered a query about 'purpose' of a group (when people were an assorted type)...
and somebody answered: “Like minded people's to get the Hindu Nationalist news to update and discussion. ..”

This answer gave scope for my blabber! :)
I reeled out:
“"to get the Hindu Nationalist"

this is what the mind likes to say, as a 'natural form of expression'.... (what seems closest to our 'feelings' about our togetherness as a 'culture' which inherited a rich heritage!)...

The word 'Hindu' comes quite close to 'Nationalism', quite effortlessly!

(Yes, and this very word evokes a 'religious-polarisation' to quite a few, whether they like to 'express it openly or not'...

Somewhere, the 'popular sense' of the word.. due to the way it is used ... overtakes our ability to reach deeper that what it means due to its use (Xerox reaches faster than a photocopy, though Xerox is a company that produces/produced photocopying machines!)

The "problem" with those who belong to the "ism" called 'Hinduism'... was two-fold!

1) They never needed a name for the mere 'way of life' that they adopted, and only when other 'isms' entered this land, a few centuries ago, they needed to distinguish 'themselves-from-us', and so they 'had-to' call us by 'some-name'.... The 'people on the other side of river-Indus, ... indu's or H-indus... ' (how the name came about is not so important as.... whether we ourselves had given ourselves 'a' name... )...

Does it not feel so amazing, that we never thought of a 'name' on 'religious-lines' to ourselves, even though we had a very wide spectrum of cultural-varieties in our life-style?(Life styles were broadly based on rituals and traditions that suited the inner growth, and were also dependent on external support!!!)... When one culture of one-area found it easy to 'look-at' why the neighbouring culture is a little different that themselves,... the 'religions' that entered/invaded us did not pose any problem of 'acceptance' (we looked at it as 'yet-another-culture' and maybe they looked at us as yet-another-religion , which perhaps, "also-explains" why it was 'they' who had to name-us ... as Hindus!)....

We used to refer to people as 'northerners/southerners' or... even pardesi(the desh which is 'different' from ours).... Even today, it is very common to notice people around Kerala referring to people as 'southerners' of Kerala (thekkan), while the whole of Kerala is a tiny strip of land!...

2)The spirit of 'nationalism'.... Even this aspect is a bit 'unique' to ancient people, when they never attempted to even 'conceptualise' a 'nation'... What we find as the binding factor amongst us (despite heavy cultural differences , even 'right-within' the Hindus-ourselves), ... is elusive for our own grasp!!! I 'tried' ... or rather... attempted to ... come close to this 'elusive' binding factor...

Let me use an example which is 'just-an-indicative-one'... to point a finger at: Suppose the crowd of some 40 people are allowed to enter a hall where railway-tickets are reserved at some 3 counters... Every pair of eyes of these 40 would take a look at these 3 counters, and 'look' for a 'human' being at these counters... only one person is at one of the counters.... the whole 40 would rush to 'queue' in front of that counter... We notice a 'unity' in the 'decision' to stand at that counter.. But the logic is so-simple, that we fail to 'notice' the unity or 'unison' in their behaviour pattern (which is ....'choosing' to stand only-in-front' of that-counter, where there is a person ready-to-issue-tickets)...

Now , extending this 'sensibility'.... if we can look at ancient people (who were yet-without the name, 'Hindus'... ), we can also see why they chose 'individually' to stand in the 'same queue' of 'way of life!... Tantric style of worship suited the people of Kerala, while Mantric style suited yet others... The whole of Kerala did not resort to 'tonsure' in the ancient days, while the 'rest-of-India' found it useful to have a 'tonsure' on certain occasions!... It is despite these sharp-differences that we found a 'unifying factor'... (the unifying factor was... evolve into the highest potential of being 'a-human'!)....

All this is my own 'ideas'... perception... or whatever...

I found it so 'obvious' that the 'expression'..... "Hindu-Nationalist" seemed quite 'natural' due to the very nature of what remains as a 'residue-yet' within us....

Now, it is a matter of choice, whether we do-like or not... to firstly 'examine-thoroughly' and then ... if found-sensible... pursue further, with or without changes/alterations, to this concept!

(For me, ... as-of-now... this is an ongoing process of understanding my own roots, with a preparedness to re-examine my own-premises(basis), also on an on-going basis!

”

......

Unquote:

Now,

the “queue” that I had referred to in the 'sample-blabber' of mine...
was an indicative one...

Yes, ancients too seemed to be in a 'virtual-queue'....
today... Hindus themselves(leaving out the exceptions!)... do not know why-at-all this queue is there?

At some government premises, a very long queue is seen... Fresh citizens take a look... and even as the 'thought' comes like this “what is this queue about?”... they find the queue swelling by another 20 feet (about 40 people added)... Now what?... First scramble to stand in the queue... so that what ever the 'hell-it-is/was'.... we don't miss it due merely-to being tail-enders! Now ask, the next bloke “hey what is it about?”... He says, “dunno.... even I stood merely because it is a queue!!! Not all are fools :)...” he declares proudly!

The queue that ancients decided to stand into (not physically though)... may have been that of 'spiritual-path'!!! :))... :)

And 'religions'... only happen to provide ... that spiritual evolvement as quite-an-incidental benefit, while the purpose of 'grouping' was more for a social order where ethics relating to a humane-orderliness could not be codified into a 'general-law'!!!

Spirituality is a subject matter of solicitation (like insurance)... Now, trying to use that ancient way-of-life, very much like a 'religion' (for whatever reasons), is for sure going to present numerable problems...
One such popular problem is... “Hey, why is it so hard to demolish this religion(Hinduism), when even its own-followers are not sincere about it?”... (this time, even the mere queuing-up does bestow subtle benefits... can't be really helped!... But not 'entirely' without problems! Somebody asks, “Hey what kind of Gods do you worship?.. The dad chops the head of his son, copy-pastes the head of an elephant when the mom laments too-loudly... and all these three are 'Gods' for you?”... The symbolism is not yet within the grasp of the followers, what then to speak about askers!... We love a 'pencil's story-autobiography', but can't grasp that-of-a stone-idols... Obviously!!!. .. A pencil can be used, and felt so-grossly... where as that stone-idol is a mute spectator, so unresponsive at our sensory-levels :)).... )...

......

about “Blabber”....
the tool of 'chanting' ... the way it was undertaken in the ancient days... is often misconstrued and likened with 'blabber-tool' of the present day....
This, despite the ample hint “Shraddhavaam labhatey gyanam...” by our 'Krish' of epic stories!... A contrast-quote was provided by yet another giant, later on, (though to stress the very same concept, but emphasizing the defects of a 'blabber'...) with the words... “nahi nahi rakshati dukrnj karane.... Bhaja govindam....” (blabber-style doesn't help)...
Patanjali asks too briefly : are you free from helplessly-blabbering?... then , please leave this place.. this book is not for you! (Chitta vritti nirodhah)...

Blabberingly yours,

psn (26th September, 2015)