Examination

 #परीक्षा

No चर्चा/खर्चा 🙏

Today, a circus by examinee.

Ancient days, teacher "examines" ( just observes)...😜...and flawless assessment!

Expertise is needed in examiner!

( My teacher observes meditation of disciples. 😳. All sitting eyes closed😰 क्या समझमें आने वाला?🤔 But, decade later i learnt that_trick😜. Cant disclose🙏😫)

But sophistication, ज़बरदस्त!

https://www.kooapp.com/koo/spiritualseeker/b4a55b94-3c97-42a3-a8d6-5b46aabce362

Eggjam of yours🙏

psn(12 May 2022)

Question

 #koschan

Irreligious Hinduism encourages inquiry. Other religions will shoot you down 🤣🙏...only blind faith allowed.

I also ask, but responsibly😰🙏

To an enlightened being i asked only 1 koschan " why is it that, by the time i reach you to_ask any question, the need/urge to ask itself gets dissolved? And i don't ask?"...🤔

( I leave you to guess, his_reply...🙏..it was awesome 😜)

https://www.kooapp.com/koo/spiritualseeker/fb3b018a-3f16-468d-af2a-f3340e63b7f2

Questioningly yours 😜

psn (12 May, 2022)

What to look for, decides where to look for

 

By ........

a)What are we looking for?

b)Unearned money?

c)Comfort zone?

d)An amenable fool ( today's search for bride/groom, is mostly for an obedient fool, intelligent ones are a nuisance)

e) etcetera….. materialistic, survival oriented

A few look for

1.Purpose of life? ( unless they aren't a starving destitute :))

2.how to improve own perception levels? ( A natural thirst…)

3.how to decide upon a wise person to learn from?

4.etcetera….(this person's life energies are focused on to own intellect, hence such questions fundamental to "life_itself")...

we know where to look for

We look for water…..we choose greenery to search not a sandy desert.

We look for wisdom and it's byproducts….we try to equip ourselves , in the first place, with some kind of tools, yardstick, parameters…

Nature has provided a tools….

Human being has a "choice" about everything!

Ancient people trusted nature adequately enough….and hence decided to explore into the choice about food… :)) ….can we choose to do away with dependance on food? ( Yep! A combo of 3 things, 2 mudras 1 kriya…. "eating" is obviated…food gets absorbed in its subtlest forms… I tried it & therefore I blabber).

A Guru, a teacher….

Looks at …

What is this fellow trying to look for?????

Filteration process 

( Present day yoga programs have a form to be filled & ask this question 'what are you looking for?' in a clever set of words)...

In my case, i had a very unlikely pair of eyes….

A few wise ones, otherwise looking like fools or non-entities, easily sighted me looking at my eyes.

I started looking for….places of energy….( Obviously, in temples mostly….)

Antenna kept on….. surprise_spots start sending their vibes for antenna to pick up. Mostly meditative homes ( mutt of beggar-by-lineage 😜)... river banks…. meditative people were allowed to erect huts nearby rivers… river shifts it's flow, sand beds reveal consecrated stone idols when excavation happens.

Cloud computing technology….. sit in a secluded forest, meditate….get connected to data available in ethereal template 😜

Tragically yours

psn(18 March, 2022)

Hinduism without any prophet

 Hinduism without any prophet

We end up looking at known (to us) aspects of Hinduism, when abruptly confronted with strange questions related to supposedly_very familiar concept like Hinduism 🙏

For instance,

We may not have really_bothered to allow this question to occur to us🙏....

Is Hinduism a prophet_based religion? ( Whether such an idiotic question is needed? 🤣 If the mind prompts thus, are we not dismissing a factor of huge significance as idiotic? Summary disposal...😂 If we pamper such questions, it will sink us into quicksand of deeper koschans😜....so, better avoid the risk👍)

As mystic as.....

Sanskrit is a culture_based language??? ( The "spread" of Sanskrit was not confined to any culture, .... historical_evidence dating a thousand years at least 😜.... All other Indian languages are culture bases, meaning ....a particular "cluster" nurtured, nourished & patronised it....just as we struggle with Indianised_english, as file attachments to our our regional language 🙏🤣🤣🤣)

Next irritating question 🙏

If, by some stupid chance, Hinduism is not prophet based.... then, can this_be_a silly reason for its survival??? ( A cockroach, doesn't die with single stamping of our feet😂😜😜😜....it revives, after a while, limps to a safe dungeon!)... Indian history abounds with invasions of all_kinds🙏.... somehow, Hinduism survived better than its economy 😜....

( All ready too much for now.... Booster doses, only on solicitation 🙏)

PSN

7march2022

Spiritual related Tests

 Spiritual related tests

Set a thief to catch a thief!

Popular adage….

Counter espionage is the technical sophistication of the concept in this adage!

When it comes to any kind of "spiritual related" efficiency, proficiency, expertise, experience, accuracy, correctness …. who is to decide? 

 Copypaste technology has become too widespread and diverse, giving rise to too many mutually-conflicting prescriptions, sermons, advises, interpretations etc…

Who is right?...

Is this fellow right? Is he talking out of experience? 

Okay, test this fellow…..quoting that-fellow's claims about certain practices… 🤣…

Anyway I have no tools to test it myself 😓…. Nor am of...that kind of dis-position, to take the trouble of slogging it out, and testing that practice 😢… I am positioned in a comfort zone 😜… testing this fellow , using that fellow's stuff, I have zero stake😜

I encountered too often such 'tests'....

At times I don't even know, I am being 'tested' when I am asked to opine about somebody else's sermon…( I was asked by a very senior RBI officer somewhere during 1998 or 2000, around " why is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, more appealing to masses than Jaggi Vasudev?"... And I described both the Guru's...to my best🙏...though, I had zero experience with the former's teachings etc… my indepth experience by then, in spirit'uality itself...had bestowed me sufficient insight to make dependable guesses 🙏)

Either the perception itself needs to be deep enough, accompanied by wisdom ( not cleverness, cunningness etc😜)...

Or,....invest in trusting the other…. keeping eyes & ears wide open, to learn enroute, from that guide!

But sheer idle curiosity, and tickling the genuine guide for fun, has a cost to pay, not in terms of money or its equivalent, but in terms of own spirit and it's future 🙏

Testily yours,

psn (24th Oct 2021)

The-why of spirituality

 

A talk

worth listening to, till we understand 😜

what an honest revelation 🙏🤣🤣🤣🤣

https://www.facebook.com/2083296978396924/videos/807746070060905

I wrote a comment there....

"This talk....

Ought to become 

A part of syllabus,

At all kinds of "productive , creative and innovative" institutions all over the world 🙏

School is just a name for one such😜"

"TED"....happens to maintain certain standards....

Credibility is one of them..... 😂

A spiritual talk, to become "credible" ..... 🙏🙏🙏 (सब के सब "आध्यात्मिक" भाषण बाज़ नहीं पहुंच पाते)

How to reach that level?

Is an entirely/altogether different problem....

But, initially, we need a 'purpose/cause/reason'....to pursue some nonsense, isn't it?😜

Questions

 Questions

We ask….

Why do we ask?..... This ought to be asked about each question, that arises from within… but our mind hurries to ask the question first, instead of looking at its source, to know the….. why,  & how etc about it….

Curiosity and concern…..

Curiosity or concern…..

are the broad classification of why we ask….

The intensity of seeking , is the fuel….if intensity is too weak….. whether it is curiosity or concern….. both die :))

Curiosity can turn into a "concern" or vice versa enroute ( seeking of answer)...

A new manager ( boss) arrives…..

The concern is the reason to seek & find out "what type of fellow is this person?"( Can I continue to come late as-usual? Can I work slip-shod? Will he recommend my pay raise/promotion?)

Curiosity is the reason, when concern is no longer an issue… :)) , often to measure how good the other-is? ( person , place or thing…..old definition of a "noun")...

Spirit'uality , coming up as a "concern" ? (to "evoke" questions?).... very unlikely!

As a sharp contrast, a fellow who is just-lucky to taste a glimpse, of spirit'uality….feels an  insuppressible urge to share…. :)) and ends up making a fool-of-himself, trying to provoke his-close ones into "some" curiosity about it :((

Whereas , a genuine master looks for a fellow who has felt the spiritual thirst to be as urgent as a fellow drowning in water, gasping for breath :))

For decades, I was sandwiched between the two…. neither a novice, nor an established teacher….. a concern for fellow beings, and a struggle therefore to create some-curiosity in them for spiritual aspects of "life", knowing too well the consequence of this stupidity… :))

110th verse of 2nd chapter of Manu's smriti….was infallible! Only now, when I am close enough to my grave, I am able to think of adhering to it! Enough failures in trying to instill curiosity! ( Only in one case, I managed to make it a grave-concern and there Maya Madam decided to reward me too! :)) …. good enough to close my shop with satisfaction)

This boring piece was neither out of curiousity nor concern….not even some eagerness to share :))

Just a notice board like "business closed"

psn

April 19, 2021

Praana

This is not a blog, in its exact sense! (Apologies)

It's a conversational-chat with a very good friend who happens to tolerate my blabber on spiritual-related topics....

That friend is a scientist (mathematician)

Quote

Yes I had also read about it. 

It is very nice classification.

It is very nice. One does come in life accross each of this type.

Some times even for a few minutes you meet some one who can become one of these for you.

 

Once Navy decades back  in a conference in USA taking coffee with one young American  guy - I was also young, generally in such conferences most are older people. He asked me on what type of problems you work. What you like.

I told him- now a days I am interested in large objects, those going up to infinity.

You know there are many such examples. Some feeling, conjecture that some  thing like this- this must be true..

But there are small  examples which are sort of counter examples. They defy that vision.

I have proven on several such cases that this defiance is because these examples are small.

If you assume sufficiently large some attributes then the conjecture is true.

He told me- interesting, very interesting. I mostly try opposite.

I enjoy studying those small examples, which do not satisfy the smoothness.

Some of them have beauty.

I like to discover that beauty.

I enjoyed that very much. I thought that guy opened my eyes to other side which I had never looked.

It have me a new vision...

It helped me to get much better vision in general too.

This classification is really nice. But one has to use it also well. 

Most people in science or spiritual world too use just to belittle others. 

Some how ego seems to affect a lot. In science world I have seen - so many just  go on using every tool to "prove"  that only their field is the greatest - and mostly they try to do it by trying to reduce importance of others. 

Same thing is true even among spirituality people. it is strange to see shaiva people claiming only shiva and vishnu people claiming only vishnu or krishna is greatest, sagun belittling adviata people as mayavadi and nrigun saying sagun is no good and so an on. 

All of them also belittling science people and science people belittling equally badly philosophy and spiritual studies. 

Even  many so called gurus also did in both fields. (for example even I was a bit surprised to see  that even chinmayanand did that he even fought some battles in courts with some of his shishya. ) Though I respect him still. People do have such errors. 

But it shows they lacked some universal vision they should have had. 

Mostly it is ego.. 

Onky very few both in science and spirituality world are above it .. they see exactly the subjects as they are and their numbers are tiny. 

It may look strange to others but such tiny numbers if you see finally what vision they had whether a sadhu or scientist was almost the same. 

Personally living  now in both worlds - eevn I have seen that very few have reached that level of seeing beyond. Most of them are lost in ego of what they do is only right path.

Not may realize that they have stopped on way via that feeling. 

My own experience is all these subjects are essentially the same.. I have studied both sides to see that. 

There is only one difference - is sceince people even though they do use sukshma nonphysical aspects to develop their vision their studies are restricted to physcial or psychophysical world. 

Spiritual studies in India at one time involved studying a much bigger world suskhma etc and in very cohesive style. studying physical world even engineering was part of their wandering. 

But now we do not study much physical world via our own theories. (in last few centuries )

it is visible only in ayurveda  a bit. 

Good part is those methods are still available. some stray people are also there who do study..

My response 🙏:

Quite interesting 👍

Now, .....

If we try to understand (driven by a desire to understand), the distinction between the 'approaches' towards reaching the 'ultimate'....

We find that we initially lack the tools-itself to attempt the "approaches"(😂😂😂)...

Even this "finding"( almost a "discovery") is great....👍 

If we are not-even aware that we lack something ( tools, here) we are like pappu ( unfortunate, and even-unaware of being-unfortunate😂)

What could-be such-tools.? (is an elaborate thing to discuss properly🙏)

With those tools, we can understand the "nature" of each-distinct approaches🙏....

Then, we might(if fortunate) also discover the basic core structure which .....  ought to be the-same despite a huge difference in each of those approaches....

In the ancient days, these approaches were broadly classified under 4 major types.... Today, those classification don't work at-all😂....but very few even-understand that they-dont-work! ( Why? तो बाद की बात है)...

It is possible to have a fair idea of ....

how the ancients might have looked at the 4 (beyond the word-meanings, ....) delving into its mechanics😂!

The 4 are ridiculously simple....bhakti, karma, kriya & gyana....

The mystic aspect is, all these 4 approaches were invariaby used only-with-a suffix😜.....yoga! The very-use of this word ....ought-to wake up our brain's alertness, towards its  deeper implications ....( That is why.....you sound  so emphatic ....every time you try to draw a comparison,....to show-a-similarity... between the "attitude of mind".....of a genuine researcher and a spiritual-ascetic(austerities wala)....

Still, the finer-particle, which is common to all the 4, is quite elusive ( it doesn't evade a grasp😂...it is just elusive).... Prana!

Prana can be explained with a remotely-indicative example.....current!

We have alternating and direct current/electric.... Adapters, transformers, step up & step down, rheostats, shunts....etc are basic devices we know , that change the very dynamics of it's (currents) flow.... Now we use subtle energy-forms of that current (its field....or rather it's wave....to even charge our mobile batteries😂😂)...

Gadgets have diversified unimaginably.....though based on the same "energy/prana"🙏

The praanic energy gets collected into a "form"....(one type/kind of collection, we-call it as life🙏, purely for our purposes-of understanding.... Existence, prakruti, (Maya Madam) doesn't-need such classification 😜)....

Within  life forms... a sub-sub classification is human form( a sophisticated piece of gadget😂)....

Prana can flow in innumerable ways, directions, dimensions,etc....in a human form, without limitation too😜( complication-is-here)....

Any-sophistication, necessitates conditionalities 🙏😢

Whether we are "interested" to delve into "self"( the core essence, not the "dependents" on this-self)????

A koschan , that has to spring up only from  within....😢😢😢

Our Villains :-))

Perhaps, we humans are the species that happens to face too many villains in our life :-))

Other life forms, we assume to be having their quota of villains too!

A lion sights a herd of deer grazing at a lush green patch of grass (the scenes of “Discovery Channel”, or “Animal Planet” etc)...
The deer is blissfully unaware of its(the lion's) scent, till the direction of the wind changes... then, all of a sudden there is a scramble... The wind God did not oblige the Lion-Ji till the 'last-mile' :-))
There ensues a chase ... somebody gets caught.... that is it.

(What we don't notice is that this-lion doesn't keep running after the rest of the deers for at least till its next hunger session)!

A shopkeeper sights a 'thirsty' customer... Very soon, the shopwala 'realises' that this customer came into a disproportionate amount of currency, and is too-keen to convert it into 'luxury-goods'... the chase now has nothing to do with 'needs' of either the shopkeeper or the customer... The price quoted, the wares traded are disproportionate till either of them finishes their stock :-))

Right from kid age, when I saw that all the bed-time stories have one common element in it... there has to be a 'villain' in it... I also 'noted' that my life is never going to be without-one :-))
Each living person is a story. Whether noticed or not, published or not, recorded or not, sung or not.
And so , there is a villain in it too!
It also occurred to me, and much to my surprise.... that we too 'become' a villain to somebody, whether we like it or not :-((

And then, I saw, there are 'natural-villains' ... that role is just thrust upon them... It comes like some factory-fitted-accessory .. (and therefore that query by a prospective bride “Any luggage?” it took a while for me to decipher this word 'luggage'... but it was too late by-then... I had become a luggage too!).

We can't blame the 'society'... We collectively made it into one, over the generations...
When my tiny cousins were refusing to pull themselves out of bed, I tried a trick “Hey, teacher is calling” ( the anxiety filled tone, coupled with that sharp-urgency, shook them up, and they felt greatly 'cheated' when they discovered that it was a false-alarm... 'how can a school teacher show-up beside the bed of a student's home?')...

The boss at the office is a natural villain...
There was a branch of a bank at Mumbai (Museum Savings Branch), dedicated for catering only one-class of customers.... savings bank account holders... there, the bosses used to say “We needn't shout at slow-working-clerks... customers to that job better! They have a local fast-train waiting to leave within minutes, at the nearby station! So, only fast-clerks survive at the 'public-counters' of that branch.

The neta finds his voters to be a 'formidable-villain' only once in 5 years... After that, he is the 'natural-villain'..

Hey! What is happening with our 'relationships'?... I wondered..
I was curious to find out if I can just manage to stay right inside this game, and yet remain untouched by this 'villainous-relationship' with fellow-human beings?
It then occurred to me, “why not look at them as a structure, tailored to behave only the way that they are?..”... it seemed to work well, to barely manage to extricate myself from that mesh. Not content with that, I even attempted to disengage them from their roles of 'playing a villain' :-))

Yes, it did work... But it meant a Herculean task. Quite risky one too, most of the times! For instance, when something like a 'reservation-policy' is hammered into somebody as his 'birth-right', where is the incentive for him to become non-parasitical? But, it did work with a few, and it gave me a great sense of 'meaningful-living', while just working at 'earning a living'...

A porcupine cannot possibly be motivated to give me a harmless bear-hug!.. But it can be motivated to play-by-rules.. Ooops! It was not about 'real-porcupines'... the human counterparts, I mean!

Villainously yours,
psn(21st December, 2016)

I don't know!

Very few don't know its use :)

It works too well! Most often, it is used to absolve oneself from any act of omission or commission, and the 'benevolence' thrust upon others by our-own-created social ethics ensures that we 'escape' with this “I don't know” :-))

Out of compulsions, we had to accept a few 'codes' being incorporated, to avoid abuse of this “I don't know” ... and the Judge says, “ignorance of law is no-excuse” ... (somebody walks on the middle of the road, he doesn't know that there are traffic rules to obey, since he came into a civilized location for the first time out of a Jungle, and he can't use this “I don't/didn't know” business! :-)) }

I was amused to see a wonderful movie , where the director has beautifully 'planned' a character, a jungle dweller who doesn't 'use' this “I don't know” {The Gods must be crazy—movie}.. he is almost indifferent to being arrested and put in jail :-)) he is that-innocent !

At times, our own 'democracy' turns against us... We are deliberately kept inside the “I don't know”, and then suddenly on the evening of 8th December, 2016, at 8 pm, “we know” about a demonetization... and then it is “from each, according to his accumulation.. & ... to each according to his need,” etc :-))... Interpretation abounds! The least hit, obviously are going to be those who happened to have very less of 'needs' !

When spirituality, ... the path... refuses to budge, despite hectic efforts to 'know'... there is no recourse, no forum to plead ! The irony is that, the 'spirit' wouldn't spare us till we know! Whatever else we do, it just keeps haunting us, chasing us, for eternity :-)) ...

For that matter, 'nature' doesn't allow this excuse of 'I don't know/ I didn't know' ... {spoil the ecology, and learn the consequences the-hard-way :-)) ...}

Animals and other creatures don't 'use' an “I don't know/I didn't know”... despite, things that they can never know! (They just submit , blissfully unaware of their getting 'punished' for ignorance! Rat cakes work everytime! They just eat it and die!)...

Not so with humans!
We can know, and that.... creates our problems!

Intellect, is a faculty that can expand its potential , when coupled with consciously-maintained-awareness, and alertness, at its peak levels... and then ... a possibility opens up, where we can know, what we like to know (though we still don't 'know everything')... and hopefully, it even leads to knowing that, after which nothing else remains to be known!

The first thing I had to learn was... my journey was mine alone!
The rules , therefore it follows, concern me-alone!

One such rule was to use this “I don't know” with great discretion, using the 'sense' of discrimination, very judiciously too! (no matter, what price I have to pay, towards this!)...

For instance... I shouldn't use “I don't know” or “I didn't know” to make way for a “I don't want to know”.. I needn't to know a lot many things, but none of those ought to hinder my knowing what I do-need to know! (that was a problem!)...

Oh yes, ... I was rather fortunate to have had a look at this “concept” pretty early, and therefore was amply rewarded too! The 'process' of knowing things that I came-across, took a gallop-pace, quite often! (it is the deep urge to share, that meets a heavy rebound, and quite often too... The cure, to contain this urge, is so elusive, and evasive!.. it looks like, this urge has decided to stay put, till the very end :-)) Anyway, that's my personal and private problem, so no point sharing that—its details).

Knowingly yours,

psn (10th December, 2016)

Morning hours

A very curious thought occurred to me.
About these early morning hours.

The more I thought about it, the curiosity to 'look' at it kept increasing!

But, when the thought occurred about 'sharing' these thoughts, I had to make sure that there was some take-away at least, for a reader, beyond the sheer entertainment value.

So now, it is entirely up to the reader to firstly verify whether my-experience of it is also-true with them. Otherwise it is pointless to even read any further.

We need to compare. But only with our own selves(so a 'healthy' comparison, perhaps!).
Suppose we are at a place where there is nothing to do for the whole day. Like for instance, we went to some hill station for a holiday, and it turned out to be a 'downpour' of rains, and there was nothing else to do except sit inside a hotel room, and keep looking the heavy rains through the glass window!

We woke up at around 6 am... the whole day passed off, almost doing nothing fruitful, except feeding ourselves.

The first 2 or 3 hours of the day, compared to the rest of the hours of the day, seems to have passed a little faster.

Now, this seems to be true, where ever we are, what ever we did that day, and however the day was for us (the situation)...

And then, I was reminded of a few 'punch lines' , sayings etc.. Like, “lose 5 minutes of the morning and keep searching/looking for it, for the rest of the day”, and 'early to rise, early to bed” etc...
The people must have realised right during the ancient days, that there is something 'precious' about the early mornings!

Somehow, the 'mind' seems to cooperate better during an-early-morning!

My curiosity is about 'why-so' of the mind... (for,/because, ... it is the mind that is the key to life-itself! Body, by itself, though it seems to be a problem when it 'carries' some ailment, seems to 'behave' better when the mind is totally-out-of-order ! Inmates of a mental nursing home are usually-healthy, body-wise :-)) , though not wise other-wise!)

The 'logic' of it takes us to the 'activity' (or the inactivity-rather), that precedes the 'freshness' of the mornings. It is the mind that feels the freshness (of a morning), more. And anything that is/feels 'fresh' hastens the passage of time in our 'experience' (though we know, the spring-mechanism of that wall-clock, works at the same speed 24 X 7)!

The clarity of it became bright, when I started climbing on to the intensity-part of the spiritual practices :-))

And then came the 'trick' to invoke the morning-wala-effect at any time of the rest of the day! The meditations (as a practice). Oh yes, ... as if to 'vouch' for my experience of it, a few of my colleagues at work place too, did say “Hey, you look as fresh as you were at 9 am?” (that was their version of a little bit of 'freshness', which lasts for just few minutes of each day, at workplace :-)), and they don't even bother to 'look' for it after the first half-an-hour!).

I managed to make my day, when it could feel fresh at any time of the day, thus! And, we do-live only a day at-a-time isn't it!

(I leave it to the readers to delve into the why-so of the magic of the mornings, because each individual deals with one's own way of life... I was only interested to 'nudge' others, about the wonderful aspect of this quick-passage of time, which includes a wholesome package-gift with it)!

Good morning of yours,

psn(1st of December, 2016)

Focus

Even in my wildest of dreams, I didn't quite expect that I would be told to learn 'de-focusing' :-))

And even that, I had to learn in a very focused way!

A toddler keeps staring at something... that's focus! It doesn't matter if that kid may not grasp the object stared at ... the grasp being.. objectively or subjectively... physically or intellectually :-))

What matters is... the toddler is practicing at : focusing, and quite intensely too (maybe quite unawares)...

Later, such focus might even lead to discovery of .......gravity, when an apple falls, ... locomotives, when the lid of a tea kettle blows up... or... who knows, it may lead to deepening of perception, enough to .... take a peek-look at the way “matter” appears and disappears at the speed of 1/10000(total , 21 zeros) of a second!

Does a 'thought-process' help us to focus?.. Oh! Even that 'abstraction' , concept-formation looking at a 'set' of thoughts... needs an 'alert-focus', taking care that no-extraneous thought tempts us to make it into a 'jumping into' of conclusions!

If I weren't focused on the 'purpose' of that recent demonetizing of 500's/1000's... like the 'mob', I would have been carried away by the 'emotional-appeal' in a tweet... supposed to have emanated from the 'handle' of a famous spiritual Guru... Even if the 'handle' ( id) is genuine, the handler is half baked dud... He/she suggests, “why not donate that 'unaccounted-currency-notes to a poor fellow, instead of burning?” ... (the poor is not within the tax net... he can exchange it for new ones !)... Unfortunately, the 'emotion' (habituated sympathy for any helpless creature, ) takes away our focus from the basic-concept of 'money' (here, the currency)... Money can represent the result of somebody's genuine toil, hardwork... the form maybe currency, but it can't replace an honest produce . Here, the 'black-money' that became a 'paper' due to demonetisation, was a bogus-money which only inflated the value of goods and services intended to be 'purchased' with it... Outsourcing a 'hawala' to a poor man is ... in effect... insulting-poverty-itself !... One need not 'grasp' these concepts... Just try the simple alternative: “donate fresh, new and genuine currency , instead!”

When our eyes gets used too much, to focus at anything that we see, and when data focus via eyes is denied entry by some thought that take us on a 'international-foreign-flight' ... the alertness and awareness seems to stagnate a little... that's when a conscious de-focusing of eyes seems to matter a lot... (And I guess, when the person who said 'defocus' said it sternly.... it did mean that we are looking at a higher rung on the ladder of that eight-limbed climb of union aspect , the yoga, in the arena called spirituality :-))

for focus , yours,

psn (12th November, 2016  

Laziness

I guess , this time I need to be 'real-brief'... if at all, I hope to find appeal among lazy readers too..

:-))

In my case,
when I embarked upon a lazy-thought(or, was it “an idle-thought”?.. dunno!), to delve into the very-source of this 'laziness'... it took me into a maze :-||

The journey started quite long ago.
One article from a magazine, way back (a fortnightly, “caravan” of second half of Jan, 1968 ) wrote about 'Eliminate lazy Elimination' (it was more about health)..

In those days, I had to just copy by hand, whatever I liked to possess (laziness wouldn't serve me)...

As I journeyed through that spiritual path, I was rather dumbfounded to discover that I had to deal with laziness at two different places !
The laziness of the mind, and
The laziness of the body...

(and all possible combinations of these two, controlling the other, in exclusivity of the other, etc) :))

that didn't contain the problem...
I had to distinguish between the 'lethargies' of these two, body and mind.. ...

Somewhere I learn't that “Procrastination is the thief of time”...
(Now this 'procrastination'... due to what?... laziness?... lethargy?... lack of confidence/courage/etc or sheer wisdom, that I am not-yet-ready for something?... dunno!)...


Oh yes!
I did decide to deal with each of these, and on the way, discovered amazing potentials, which I didn't even know to exist within me...

(As I promised... kept it brief, ain't I )

Briskly yours,

psn(26th October, 2016)

Divide and rule!

One of the favourite strategies adopted by 'Anti-terror-squad' officials, is ample proof that the maxim 'divide and rule' is not an 'ethically bad thing' in itself :)
Like a knife, or that nuclear energy... it is the use that decides the ethics...
Those who try to curb terror-activities, they 'identify' the handler first, and neutralize that person first, and then the 'sleeper-cells' become passive by themselves, because they know nothing else , except to “wait for instructions”...

The body, when it hands over the handling of outside situation, to seek its gratification of its love for the comfort-zones, indulgence etc... to the mind , it sort of becomes like a sleeper cell, and the mind becomes the handler ( the body, the sleeper cell pays for the 'deed', while the handler, the mind enjoys the fun!)...

When I looked at the varieties of tools deployed by the ancient masters, to help the disciples to evolve, step by step... I started wondering. Are they adopting this 'divide to rule' waala technique, tackling the physical and mental 'structure' of each seeker (treating them uniquely and distinctly, and therefore, the specific tailor-made practices to each )?..

Let me try a real life example, which need not be believed at all 'for my words' about it, but can possibly appeal, when samples of similar instances are reminded of...

My sister was an acute and chronic asthmatic...
She was the one who used to take care of my kid at home, when we left for work, each day...
One day, she was 'busy' wheezing as usual... her mind was fully focused on 'how to draw the next breath successfully', while the gaze (the eyes) were 'rested upon' a moving 'object', namely , my kid who was playing around ...
All of a sudden, the kid had an injury out of an accident... He started bleeding... the gush of blood startled her, my sister, and all of a sudden her body “forgot to wheeze” :-))
(this was her own words, when she described the incident, in the evening, after having taken the kid to the nearest doctor and the wound was sutured, bandaged etc...).

I noted this mention of 'forgot to wheeze' being dropped inadvertently (or rather too-unconsciously), amid the intense excitement of the 'first reporting' of the grave-incident to the most-concerned person, ... the parents of that kid :-))

Later on, I revived this mention, and made her 'eat her own words'.. giving no scope to refute it, and thereby, amply-convinced her about a 'possibility' in that direction with concerted efforts, ...thereby making it into an 'at-will' phenomenon ! (psychiatrists usually resort to mild sedatives to severe the stubborn bonds between body and the mind, since not-all of them are spiritually-evolved too !)...

Here, I would try to also remind ourselves about what we saw at an earlier blog of mine... How do we emote? There, we saw, how a 'deeper' emotion takes over the milder one immediately preceding it.

Once the mind is freed-up from its 'slavish' tendency to succumbing to any non-sensical situation, with its surge of emotional response to it... the body is bound to get tamed, and become available for any possible refinement... (the aroma of those junk foods , the sensory glands inside the nostril, would still continue to communicate the info, the data... but the 'processor' the mind , (unlike those dumb computers,) would have learnt to keep it aside for a while, and let this 'divide' be ruled by that witnessing aspect within :-))

Indivisibly yours,
psn (23rd October, 2016)

Seeking Patronage

It had a converse 'theorem' too!

:-))

As a kid, I was drawn towards that converse of it... 'assuring patronage'...
We had a system of internal marks at school, which was mostly based on the teachers own choice (within the overall scheme, that it doesn't affect the scores of the school, in the educational market, whereby it doesn't adversely affect the inflow of donations from kids seeking admission )...

My classmates 'advised' me to keep chanting 'namaste' to a teacher who , in the 'eyes' of kids, appeared to love popularity...

I complied with the 'friendly-advise'.... since it was a 'maxim' in those days, that something told in a 'casual-manner' (take it or leave it basis), has the vulnerability of losing its benefits, if neglected :)

The popular version is to 'seek patronage'... When everybody resorts to it, there is no other way but to accept it as a 'social' thing... (Even 'accepting' a bribe ... failed to raise eyebrows, when it became acceptable that unless 'some' bribe is accepted, even a 'decent living' is impossible!)...

At times, it bounces back...
the example abounds in the political arena...
Despite the 'right kind of noises'... the CM of dilli got landed into a popularity-world at a very wrong place :-)) It was the PAK social media which made him too-popular , while his idea was to make his 'presence-felt' every now and then! May be the approach was lacking... 'fighting-corruption' has to become a little modified once a responsible chair is occupied... A sword is okay in the battlefield(election-fight).. but once back into the agricultural field (administration of society), it is the plough that helps to grow a good crop, it is de-weeding that helps increased crop-yield... a sword would only slash,... even-the.... 'little bit of crops' that somehow managed to grow :-))

As I grew, I started noticing that there were several precious things around, which never sought-any-patronage :-(

The apple did not 'seek any patronage' for the appreciations of the gravity laws that it-also happened to obey with any stone that may be thrown upwards :-))

The forest flower can't even 'hope' to get noticed...
For that matter, even the flowers which depended 'heavily' on those bees for its propagation and preservation of species didn't quite 'advertise' itself... It was “in-the-very-nature” of things, that they get attracted at the right time, and life-perpetuates, or continues (whichever way it is)...

The precious diamond, waits for thousands of years, under tons of uncertainty to be discovered by a keen observer!

“Hey!” I felt... Something that I missed, within me?...
Am I not 'noticing' these so-abstract things ?

Why am I the one (yes, me, the-human-being)... to be able to notice it?

Somewhere, it dawned (I am not quite sure if I am 'right' about it)... that , maybe, ... we humans can even transcend this 'transactional-pattern' of getting noticed... seeking/offering patronage...
Oh yes... we can make the life of others a bit easy, by communicating certain crucial information, like “Sir, it looks like , you are new to this place... the last bus for the day has gone an hour ago... please look for some other means of reaching your destination” (No scope for patronage-transactions, where both of us are strangers to each other, and oblivious to individual 'knowledge' of related situation)...

When it comes to a 'spiritual' seeking,
things got murkier :-))
I never sought for a 'teacher' or so... (and at that kid age, even the word, and its spelling 'spirituality' had nothing to do with me )..

but I did bump into several of them (Oh yes, I didn't realise that they were spiritually evolved, until much later-years of my life... just the visuals of very 'odd' occurrences about them stayed deep in my memory-layers)...

When I felt that 'perhaps' what ever I experienced thus far, might be of 'some-use' to others around... the 'format' of a blog, seemed sensible... even that took a long time to be 'decided-upon' (I had to make sure that my own mind is not really-playing-games, seeking that 'patronage' clandestinely... and such other aspects, which ought-not-to matter to me, and more importantly, 'ought-not-to' retard my own-seeking/own-evolvement)..

Then came the brief stint at a better-popular forum “speaking tree”... it had all the inherent defects of 'undue-popularity' and those factors enabled my exit too :-))

In the 'scheme-of-things'... I had to fit-in somewhere, which suits my pursuits :-))

So, while focusing on my own evolvement... which is the only way to ensure a guidance from evolved beings around... I ought to try and notice a potential in others around, nudge them very gently, very carefully, never encroaching into their own-choices, their own right to exist the way they like, etc, and also trying to make available to a genuine seeker, my own experience (but not assume any guide-like-role.. that is the domain of only-evolved-ones!), allowing them to choose for themselves, what to make , of my sharing...
Obviously, ... age or rather aging, ensures the descent of the too-much of 'fluttering' of wings, over a period of time, and then, that.. RIP :-))

Indifferently yours,

psn (14th October, 2016)

Complicated simplicity

At times, I felt that.... I ought to admire a few, who undertake to do a lot of circus to look-simple... (not 'being' simple... to appear-simple to others around).
But, the moment I succumb to such 'perhaps I ought-to' waala feeling, the threat looms large over my small rule, which may not resist anything complicated, for too long :)

This 'small rule' which is my own tiny and pocket-edition wala yardstick, is easy to carry around, like that pocket comb, which slides easily, conveniently into the pocket of a small-time-hero who pulls it out often to ensure that his hairstyle impresses a bored-damsel, who has nothing particular around to focus on, while waiting for a bus, whose frequency is too less, and often untimely :)

I even blurted out this tiny-rule, and somebody nearby exclaimed, “Hey! It sounds too good! It suits almost any situation!”... and I suggested, “Well, if so try and use it a little often... and in a while ... you don't have to use it... you get used-to-it” :-))... (or, was it this way, 'you get used by it' ... dunno!)...

What I do is also simple... when there is a choice , I look at it as, whether it is... 'life-positive, or life-negative'...

And then the “response”, which is my chosen thing, option, out of that choice... may have its-own-complexities... and obviously, ... I handle one twist at a time, one knot at a time... and untie the whole bundle!

I had my own simple lessons too... at times hard hitting ones...
As a kid, I had watched my grandma chop wood for the cooking fire... that was the only fuel at the ancestral home, in a remote village... The axe was almost as tall as me, at its handle...
I felt that what she did was 'too-simple'... hold the handle at one end, the blade is at the other end, and its edge aimed at a piece of log, ... lift it high above the head, allow it to fall on that wood...
I did it... (it was too late for my grandma to notice me 'go-at-it'... I took just 2 or 3 seconds, to decide for that try)..
As ill luck would have it... the head was loose, on the handle... and the upward motion dislodged it from the handle... and when my arm decided to bring down the handle, it 'felt' a little light... 'de-lighted' , I felt... the handle too was 'de-lightened'... the 'head' landed on my-head :-))

Oh! I felt... a knock on the head of a 'slow-learner'?... the pain was sharp and traveled right through my body... Grandma had a burst of laughter... “Fool, she said,... I had rested that axe, because it's get became loose-fit.. not because I lost-stamina... and you picked up the 'fate' by your-own-choice!”... Yes, fate knocked on my head...
Simple is not about truncation of minor details... I reminded myself... on the other hand, we become minute-enough/simple&small enough, ... to be able to notice even minor/minute details !

When that simple-simplicity keeps me so-much-engaged, with its lessons...
where do I find a hope to learn that 'complicated-simplicity'?...
Everything that looks complicated, about spirituality... I decided to keep a safe distance... and look-out for most-simple of its things, taught, advocated, and made available ...
I did find a teacher who did it always... simplified and thus, exemplified ... even complex concepts!

Simply yours,

psn (5th October, 2016)  

Power

Power failure.

:-))
We understand the power of power via its 'failure' waala phases :)
That's how our mind power works , often, .. right now !

It gladdened me to keenly watch a “power” minister doing the right kind of things, after several decades of 'decayed, delayed kind'... of handling such a key portfolio...
When cost of living surges, human-power too becomes costly... Only electrical power can help material progress, when it can be harnessed, conserved, saved, by handling leakages, wastages, etc too, ... and making it cheaper and cheaper... Something we are able to 'see' so-clearly now!


As lay persons, we often miss 'interpreting' messages of 'poor handling' of power utilisation, distribution, channelising etc, when the whole 'process' is too subtle... The spirit in us, the piece of 'life' ticking inside us... is indeed too subtle... { An example: “Two hours after her birth, doctors at the hospital pronounced her dead after which she was taken to a graveyard for burial, bdnews24 reported.” http://www.deccanchronicle.com/world/neighbours/250916/bangladesh-declared-dead-by-doctors-newborn-cries-out-while-being-buried.html }

Spiritual processes, evolved as technology, in the ancient days, were devised as a means to tap the very-core power of our life, and thereby its manifest forms too :)

Even the understanding of this power presents a complexity, when the approach is from the end use.. ...
When a top-gear doesn't carry the load of a car uphill, we shift the gears, and feel-contended... it moves... The fuel consumption is obviously a little more! But it does not imply that the fuel, when in the top gear was being consumed optimally :) There could be leakages, if the exhaust smoke contains unburnt fuel, when the pistons of the engines fail to deliver the entire thrust from that combustion-explosion, etc... Only a huge leak in the fuel tank gets noticed, but not the gentle evaporation due to a faulty insulation ring at its cap in the fuel tank!

The classification of 4 major paths, of suggesting it to humans who are keen to 'reach' the core of their 'life' ... too was based on a preliminary observation of where and how this 'life-energy' gets manifested a little predominantly....
The 'observation' itself was based on the efficacy of a life-style, a way of 'living' (later called 'Hinduism'), which also included in its design, the facility to 'read' those subtle manifest forms of predominance of this energy/power, in its manifest forms, with utter-ease and simplicity...
Now, when this life-style itself got mangled and mutilated too-badly, this observation gets blurred, ... thus leaving it to a 'chance' that a person gets to recognise one's own potential-source of energy---more specifically its source of predominance...

Sounds a little fuzzy... :)
Do we not find people to be more-energetic while engaged in certain areas of activity? Somebody can work 'physically' a lot, but feels sleepy when we asks him to engage his 'brain' into grasp of an abstract-concept... Somebody is highly emotional, and can work wonders, when emotionally-charged, but becomes dull when left 'lonely' (even in a crowd)... and so on...

What I find it to be more challenging is... when a person's basic energies get almost-blocked (like the blocked arteries, or veins, which causes a heart-attack... here , such blockages renders a person's whole life to become like 'just another living creature'... nothing more!)... and this person 'struggles' with mere-living itself :)... Now, he seeks that 'peace' as his 'ultimate-goal'... where as, even animals in wilderness are utterly peaceful !... Peace is something very basic and fundamental to life, and only when we are peaceful, 'something-else' is possible...

So, that huge godown of 'stored-power'... the life energy... remains dormant, only to seek an action-replay some other time, somewhere else, some other form, and in some other way!...

Are we keen to find out the location of our own power-house?... The 'why-at-all' of it , needs a 'sanction' from our mind... but what 'if' the mind is not the predominant place where this power has chosen to manifest its form right now? Dunno!

Powered-ly yours,

psn(26th September, 2016)

Trust

"Do you trust me?"....

An adult: "For what?"

a kid: "Oh yes!" (he/she , being a kid... would 'reconsider that commitment of 'Oh yes' only if needed)...

Financial-trust is quite understandable... (and kids don't deal in 'finance-portfolio' as yet... )..

Other trust-forms (mostly, those seeking a specific name , in response to 'for-what?' )... are the ones, that keeps us away from trust as the very quality of our being ...
Emotional-trust,
psychological trust,

moral-trust,

ethical trust,

domestic trust, (I don't have to give examples-even :-)) }

office trust , (cashiers are trusted for 'free'... clerks are trusted helplessly, by the boss)

civilian trust,

political trust..
common-sense trust (may be even Intellectual trust)

etc...

We like to test, the other, before we trust... And then, if we don't trust our-tests enough, the trust on the other keeps oscillating..

Trust in its bare form, doesn't try to make any appeal into us .. ...

That is exactly where this intangible abstract thing poses itself as a great hurdle when we smash our head against hectic practices, and yet nothing-serious seems to happen :-))

Oops! I forgot to mention ... I betrayed the reader's trust , probably, when I said 'hectic-practices', without its prefix, spiritual-related :-))

But, for most of us, even getting started with basics presents a great problem...
Yep! It only 'presents' a problem... and like most presents we receive, it either gathers dust in the attic, or it finds its way to a better victim's location... the receiver hardly bothers... we are so-used to our positioning-of-self with, “Your problem, not mine, to evoke my-trust in you!” Somebody 'posing' to be a spiritual guru, would readily accept this unspoken positioning... and the other, would simply wait...

The 'operational' part of relationship, usually the practices, evidence the presence or absence of such 'unconditional-trust', quite often... Only that, its subtlety is itself becomes a reason, to escape it's-being-noticed... The non-subtle or a little manifest forms are 'doubts' that arise, without a 'proper-foundation'...

Examples are a bit risky :-))
I would prefer to deviate from my usual weakness to add that humor, satire, or whatever..

testily yours,
psn(18th September, 2016)

Habituation

“I guess, I need to now... recheck the total of the days!”
said my spouse, when it simply crossed her limits of 'reasonable' results...

The word 'century' too , had a place in the same 'embedded' software, 'habituation'... somewhere..

Long ago, I had embarked on trying to persuade the women folk of our household, to lower the flame of the LPG gas... (sparks would fly off, if I were to 'insist' on it)...

They took just about 3 decades to try... nothing more...
but even the 'try' was very gradual.... (can't take chances with what this 'crackpot' fellow says!... that's me, the crackpot)...
the 55 to 60 days wala cycle climbed steadily up to 75 days, when the 'need' arose for booking a refill...
The number of people got reduced to just two of us (situational compulsions, others got relocated)..
the days climbed up to 85, then 90... and last year, some 93 or so...

Yesterday, the batsman at the crease (cylinder that is burning its belly-gas), hit a century 101 days :-))

and therefore that 'urge' to recheck the totals...
“simple, I said...” and showed the date of 'booking'... no need to flip the soiled pages of wall calendar.. total mistakes can be in the area of tens, not units...

Now, I thought... it is time to 'deliver' two simple messages...
one--- we needed to heat only the food, and not the entire kitchen... so the fuel got its life extended, when the “lowering of flame” did only the job that it was meant-to-do...

(I reserve the 'opporchutney' to extend this concept to mind, which burns its fuel, indulging in too many of needless thoughts ! :-)) }

Pressurising a modern mind into accepting something at once is counter-productive...
The fast pace of life, its ever-increasing vulnerabilities...
Has one of its nearly-irreversible side-effects...

As a part of 'self-defense' program... a mind resolves to habituate itself, into a habit, of resisting something that changes their very-routine , of their mind-itself...
So, the very 'listening' now becomes a habituated-delayed-program...
and then the 'trial' sessions of some suggestion, which got 'listened-to' deep enough after a reasonable-length of time... (in this case, just 3-decades :-)) lowering of flame!)..
trial sessions too... were progressively delayed (the progress was in detaching one-self, from the earlier habit of keeping the flame-high)....

What would happen, to a subtle concept, attempted to be infused via some crash-course, like a 13-day Yoga program... the program would crash.... support for backup can't sustain for 3 decades like a length-of-time :-))

Well, if this 'wild-imaginative-idea' of mine appeals... please revamp the very basic 'idea' of that “habit of not taking in things too-soon” , as a part of defensiveness of mind wala embedded software-program... Maybe other sub-routines will get impacted in a cascading manner !

In my case, I was in a great hurry....
I took things too seriously... Two sets of crude postures , called aasanas were prescribed for a brief duration, of just 40+ days, as a preparatory thing, to afford to sit in a place for hours, without feeling numb-limbs or developing muscular cramps... (as a basic-need, to justify such postures)...
these two sets were to be repeated on alternate days, once... I did it twice each, every day... that needed a rescheduling my non-office-hours... just that.. and I did it... coupled with that, I tried climbing on the bellow-actions (a middle part of a set of structured pranayam), which was left unshackled (as regards to its number-of-times), to a 'frenzy' height... average ones do it some 150 times in three sessions together... I did it just 3 K ... Anybody , even merely watching me do this circus, decides to keep a safe-distance from me , and that includes my 'ideas' too!

Habitually yours,
psn(12th of September, 2016)

Need a want, or , want a need?

And somewhere 'desires' too, add to the confusion :)

Recently I got persuaded into giving a 'nod' for a compound wall to be constructed (just on one side of the residential site... ).. now please wait... you will laugh even more, when I add that, it should have been done some 3 decades ago, when the house was built :)
Just that I turned out to be the last-fellow to have it in the entire colony (cluster of houses)...

Well, I barely had enough money to have a wall then...
it would mean 'compound(ing)' my problems, enough to create a wall (narrow domestic walls)...when I couldn't elevate the 'item' which qualifies as a 'need' ... needs a promotion from 'fencing-stones+barbed wires' to a pucca wall :)

I started thinking...

where did it all start?
And while this 'thinking' was on... a youngster was just 'starting' after 'blinking and thinking' for quite some time , about his 'winking' at a sinking career!... He managed to float , and pretty well too..
I was reminded of my 'start' (when-today, any 'start' worth its name is linked to money, I too am constrained to say similarly, when I say my-start)....

The earliest few salaries, was barely enough to just-keep-going... (Yes, half the difficulties were due to the social standards 'set-by-the-society'... like we need 'clothes' while bulk of life-forms, walk about so-cheerfully, in their birthday suits !)..

Though I didn't actually “plan” it that way....
now when I look back, I guess, what I did gets formulated into an 'idea' that may-work for a few others too!

After that 'starting-trouble'... the only other phase, when I felt that money-worry was, when I raised a small house on a site, I purchased....

I have been aware of a lot many of people, around me ... worrying almost all their life, about insufficiency of financial resources :(
Almost like somebody working at a place like “Cherrapunji” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherrapunji ) , and cannot just put-up with a lack of an umbrella alone! The place-itself, is the 'wettest' one!

Ah... I thought...
one needs to knead the need well-enough!

I was decidedly-set to set-my-sail, on a spiritual sea...
that decided about my 'wants'... What I want, ought to match what I need (desires are now decided upon by the situation, not my likes and dislikes)...
Often, people mess up the wafer-thin border line between 'reasonable-wants' and reasonable-needs...

and then, their wants eats into their available-income Plus, the essential needs..
Some try to just lament... others procastinate that lament into a misery, by borrowing heavily to fund their 'wants'.. I escaped this trap, just because I was sailing on different waters (spiritual-sea).. :-))

The major advantage I found was... over a period of time,

I happened-to drop that conscious effort to keep the “wants” from hovering over my head, when the look-out for identifying only-the-needs became utterly-effortless.... Now that, allowed me to afford myself, to focus better at work (in the office,) and to focus better at the family (while at home), and also keep that focus clandestinely-alive, into my hidden-agenda, the spiritual-Bijness :-))

Wantedly yours,

psn(7th September, 2016)

post script: I won't attempt to sermonize... what worked for me, if it happens to give some clue, ... it is up to the readers to solve-their-puzzles now!