Kerala towel

 Kerala towel 

A traditional kind of bath towel.

Intentionally woven with coarse/loosely_spun 100% cotton yarn.

Torn but still preferred 😜, instead of a new one .

Best use is when it is carefully "hand-washed". When it is still dazzling white, despite a daily use since 6 months ( doesn't last longer), the health+ spiritual benefits are immense and maximised 🙏

Simple advantage is, it absorbs water very well ( residual moisture at the base of the hair of a densely- haired person's skull, might seep into the skin, and cause common cold, headache etc.).

For the spiritual advantage, i leave it to the readers to deduce it from a silly_question :  a bath towel gets soiled, after using it to wipe off the water after bath. After a bath, we are supposed to be 'clean' 🙏 Then, why should the towel get soiled? It can get wet👍, but why the dirt, needing a washing, instead of just squeeze+dry???

Washing your own towel was an ancient practice. The loose weave helps dislodgement of dirt wedged between the weave of the towel. Ancients were too fussy 😥 ( probably for a spiritual reason) about the uses of this traditional towel 😥 ...  A fresh unstitched bit of this towel is preferred for quenching the soul's thirst for the first ten days after the death of a desi guy! The towel is dipped in a bowl of water, ends gathered and twisted anticlockwise, with the left hand holding the lower end, twisting anticlockwise, to direct the drip on to a piece of rock, into which the departed pret_atma is invoked.  Very sophisticated and not perceivable through the 5 sense organs, to understand and accept the "sense" in doing this 😥...  

Bits of dead skin, sticking to our skin are a bit wet and easier to be 'wiped' off, with a coarse, loosely spun+woven cloth. Hygienic benefit is, pores of the skin open up when cleaned. The sensitivity of the skin at very subtle levels is enhanced by the scrubbing of skin during bath, and the efficacy of this towel during the wiping_dry of skin and head after bath. The freshness of skin and hair enhance the receptivity of our "antenna" if... receptivity seems to really matter when inside a temple 🙏

Kerala temples have "managed" to retain the 'science' in the best benefits of a temple, through its unique "rules" imposed on the visitors of those temples. The taantrik style of propitiation has a significant role in affording a keen visitor, to relate the traditional rituals with tenable and modern scientific way of reasoning 🙏

Clearly yours,

psn(4 june, 2026)

Agastya

 Agastya 

One of the stories about this sage, which made a very deep impression on me , is about his unintended conflict with an ascetic who did intense tapas( austerities) to acquire a great siddhi.

When traveling down south of India, Agastya became too popular and very soon among people of tamilnadu.

A local ascetic grew jealous of this popularity, overtaking his own popularity!

This ascetic decided to settle the issue of ‘who is greater, me or Agastya?’

He sought an audience with Agastya and challenged him to compete with the ascetic.

Initially, Agastya conceded defeat with all humility, being not interested in any competition.

But that ascetic won't leave it. Popularity of Agastya was unbearable 😥

Ultimately, the ascetic himself suggested a very simple and primitive siddhi as a test of greatness, thinking that ‘this fellow isn't going to win over even this👍’

That ascetic handed a sword to Agastya and asked him to slash the arm of the ascetic. Agastya refused saying “i don't indulge in such crude and gross acts of violence”

Then that acetic uses the sword on his own arm, holding the sword in the other. The sword broke!!! Ascetic’s arm withstood the blow of the sword!!!🙂

Now the ascetic asked Agastya to demonstrate the same feat. Agastya replied “🙏 I cannot inflict an injury on myself. You may do it👍…and, since I am the nuisance to you, slash the sword across my chest_itself, right to left diagonal, so that I cease to be, conclusively. The audience is witness to the event and will absolve you of any related_crime allegations “

Ascetic gave a powerful blow with the sword across Agastya. The sword passed through, smoothly without leaving any cut or injury.

Ascetic: “ 😳😳😳 “ surprised! 

Agastya: now, do it the other way “ X “ to make it doubly_sure 🙏

Still no injury! Sword unspoiled as well 😜

Agastya broke the silence: “see, the spiritual practices are about becoming more and more subtle (sookshma)and not about becoming more gross( jadam) than the steel_blade of that sword, to put up a stronger Resistance 🙏”

Needless to add, that ascetic joined the gang of devotees of Agastya 🙏

(My ‘take’ for my own personal use, nothing to do with others ….  Siddhis however super human powers they yield, do not purify the mind, by themselves. Unless there is purity( ‘innocence’ with full awareness, moksha is a distant_dream🙏. Remaining as a non_entity/नाचीज़, and yet accomplishing the minds purity, to me, is what matters most 😜. I use this story, for my personal evolvement, even if it was a fiction👍… my teacher had warned “while i will be doing my best, to plug any ‘super powers creeping into you, a few capabilities are inevitable, due to the nature of spiritual practices you do with me🙏, please exercise caution+self-restraint, in misuse or abusing them! Best option is to ignore those siddhis😌)

नाचीज़, yours,

psn( 3 June, 2026)

Confronting strangers

 Confronting strangers

A few centuries ago, we didn't confront many “strangers” on a daily basis.

Today, the bulk of them are strangers to us.

Initially, I was persuaded to look at “how I confront a stranger”....  Later, as a grownup I happened to also add “how might he_be_confronting me” 😜

Nothing worthwhile to talk about me😓🙏( how much i evolved into my own tools and techniques of how i confront)

The first thought of ours( we, I mean 🙏) might be “who is he?”( Profile & biodata related).

Next thought, in most cases would be “how best am I going to ‘defend’ myself from him”( as a society, are we not nurturing mutual mistrust? 😜)

The costly_joke is, an Airhostess keeps her job only by forcing_herself to flash  a plastic _smile on all the strangers boarding a plane. Needless to add, she needs to ‘relax’ first, to defuse the tension built-up by 300+ stubborn smiles, in her uniform 😭🙏

Centuries ago that ‘next thought’, ( owing to the trust levels in those days) might have been “how do I become receptive to any ‘possible’ value addition from him/her?”

If the first thought had said “he is so_and_so, and it's my duty to offer some kind of Value addition to him” then, that other fellow too adjusts oneself accordingly 🙏

I leave it to the readers to use their sense_of Discrimination and visualise the ‘related’ consequences and its ramifications caused due to the repetitive thought processes 🙏( i don't wish to drag the length of this blog too much)

The_joke.

Highly evolved persons( call them as “enlightened” fellows , if you wish🙏), avoid mutual confrontation, unless their joint effort is indispensable, to “add value” to any other/s in the vicinity 🙏.

These guys OBVIATE that ‘first’ thought itself 😜 ( “Who is this?”). They ‘know' merely by looking at the other, everything that is worth_knowing 🙏, and that's what enlightenment is also_about 🤣

Trustedly yours,

psn( 1 June, 2026)

Post Script:   my blogs usually makes/renders a reader to become “defensive” 😭…  I can't help it. 🙏

Manufacturing defect in me 🙏 😜

Any value addition is purely incidental ( etc etc…..like the disclaimer issued by producers of TV serials/ soap_opera)

Procrastination

 Procrastination 

A Concept which is perhaps only a consequence of several concepts and their functionality like, laziness, lethargy, and confidence etc….

Incidentally Bharat is a land which happens to inadvertently nature and nourish this procrastination…..😂 ( probably because this land is highly cultivable abundant in nature and mineral resources which induces a laziness due to the ease of living 😓)

“आज करे सो कल करो,

कल करे सो परसों,

 इतनी भी क्या जल्दी है 

हमें काम करना है बरसों”!!!! (A Humorous parody of a famous proverb, probably coined by a person who was observing very closely the inbuilt laziness in the government employees!)

Story for those who are genuinely King about the moral responsibility of something called parenting. 

( It would be good to narrate the story to the kids when they manifest clear signs of laziness creeping into them before it becomes a trait called procrastination🙏😓. Do add frills necessary to shoot the customised mind set of a kid so that the kid's attention is adequately attracted into the story and the concept there in) 

Here, a  useful proverb was “procrastination is the thief of time” ( “was” I said, because, this adage isn't popular in the WhatsApp University 😜)

Story in brief: 

A mother bird, told it's fledgelings “dear children our nest is in the middle of a field which is the ripe enough for harvesting. Please try to listen to what the farmer is saying about harvesting and tell me in the evening.”

( If harvesting is done at the right time, the tonnage is maximum, by weight, and sale proceeds of grain is best. Any delay causes the seeds or the grains to become a little dry and thereby the weight of the grains reduce while selling. Here,  procrastination causes loss of income. )

Day 1, fledgelings: mom, today the farmer was telling himself” tomorrow I should harvest”

Mom bird : okay we still have time 👍

Day 2

Kids : farmer said “tomorrow I shall ask other farmers to help me in harvesting”

Mom bird : okay we still have time 👍”

Day 3

Kids : farmer said, “others are not cooperating I shall ask my relatives after all they are relatives and should help”

Mom bird : okay we still have time 👍

Day 4

Kids : mom, the farmer murmured: “ can't delay harvesting any longer 🙏😭… tomorrow, i am going to do it MYSELF, come_what_may…. With or without any help from anyone else “

Mom bird : “ okay kids….time to abandon this home of ours! 😂. That farmer now really means “bijness”. I have readied a new nest during the last 3 days 👍

Story over.

Real incident:

I became ‘fond’ of a very close friend. This fondness, is not just because he was good to me or he was helpful to me or any such reason! 

I am fond of honesty. And he was honest to the core. With me especially he was inside and outside same! So I was fond of him. He decided to trust me to the core 🙏

Like anybody else he was also afflicted by the desi bug called procrastination. 

He once summed up my patience and linked it with his procrastination “ dear friend, your tons of patience with me is at once, a double pronged item 😥. A blessing as well as a weapon used by me against myself 🙏.

You keep assisting me with your precious spiritual experience, very patiently, despite my laziness, lethargy and confidence that you_are_always available for me. And my inherent laziness causes me to procrastinate. Someday it is going to be too late for me 😥”

Sadly, he is no more 🙏 

Spiritual bijness:

Procrastination, necessitates rebirth for endless lifetimes till we decide not to delay spiritual business anymore! ( Technically,  rebirths are due to the karmik residues as per the books of accounts of karmaPhalaDatha, an entity incharge of maintenance of cosmic balance, in sync with unfulfilled desires, and negativity of our far_past). 

Hurriedly yours,

psn(31 May, 2026)

A sleeping face

 A sleeping face

The last few thoughts just before sleep overpowers us, gets imprinted on the “face” and is retained, as a muscular response to the nature of our thoughts….  I may be wrong 👍

But, until i know why I am wrong, i continue to hold this, as a postulate only! 😥 ( Not a theory, concept, or a law 😜). 

A kid upto the age of 5, has a charming/pleasing face when we look at a sleeping kid 😜. Peaceful mind. Not an “asking” mind…..that_simple!

A corpse, when we look at the face, we notice that our mind forms an opinion ( died peacefully, struggled during death, was very sorrowful/sad, etc ). Death is a long sleep 🙏

Probably, the ancients looked at the “pattern” of shift in a kids face… the pleasing, calm, peaceful face till the age of 5, begins to turn a ‘little’ grim, stiff, etc more after 2 more years, 7th year. Especially, when that kid falls asleep too quickly, the facial muscles ‘display’ the fatigued brain, incessantly engaged by the endless volley of logical questions required to be processed by the brain 😜. Calories get burn up by the brain. It “seeks” rest!😥. The mind is not ‘exactly’ nodding an okay 👍. And, somewhere, the body being over-taxed, due to the days kid_age activity, decides to “call it a day” 😂.  An inattentive mom might exclaim “hey! This kid slept off even without its dinner! 😳😳”

Spiritual aspect: Watchful elders, evolved into Conscious_use of their ‘sense of Discrimination'....might have thought ‘its time to INITIATE this kid into the skills of how_to_tame a mind!👍’( rituals get a name like ‘upaNayanam’/spare eyes 😜).

The untamed hyper_active mind leaves a tell_tale evidence, in several ways! Sleeping face is the easiest one to recognise 🙏. Last few thoughts ‘freeze’ the muscles of the face, when sleep applies a brake to the brain's activity.  Only when a brain is well rested, it responds to the mind, and we find it as a ‘dream’ ! The intermediate stage, is called by the medical science as ‘REM’/ Rapid_eye_movement–not adequate enough to merit a name called ‘a dream ‘!

( Somehow, i got into a fanciful habit of ‘observing’ faces of humans at_rest 😥🙏… dead and alive, both… babies, kids, teenagers, youth, adults, oldies and all 😂… i allowed this observation to take its own time, to snowball into a postulate!  This blog, as they say ‘my $ 0.02 worth’ contribution to the brilliant ones around me 🙏)

Fuzzily yours,

psn(31 May, 2026)

Bed-bugs versus cosmic laws

 Bed bugs versus cosmic laws 

31 May, 2026

Such a war, like the Mahabharata ( millions of lives lost).....

We have the 'freedom' to be stubborn that it is NOT a natural calamity 🙏 ( and majority opinion is a law, if we like).

Cosmic laws, cosmic 'balance' ( or, the controversial word, "Sanatan Dharma ")... doesn't WAIT for our opinion or concurrence 😜

Dinosaur perished on its own, due to Overpopulation ( easier for 'me' at least to understand 😓)

( What i could NEVER understand or explain to 'myself only'---- others don't bother👍....

Over the years, bed-bugs became too overpopulated at the large house of my paternal aunt. Visitors, CEASED to come incrementally, and in stages😜😜😜

First no one or very rarely someone, stayed Overnight 🤣. खटमल/bedbugs come out at night😜

Then, sitting on wooden furniture was 'risky' .... they started 'tolerating' shaded/reflected daylight a 'bit'+ for 'a while' to draw blood👍. Their survival and basically, the nutrients for 'propagation of species'. 

The big 'blunder' done by 9 kids was....they crush a bug, when sighted😓. The human blood spills out of them, when crushed. The dried blood on the walls occupied more_and_,more 'pixels' on each wall 😜. It became a godown of surplus 'food' though dried blood🙏... 

I stayed a week, when bug_population had 'peaked' 😂

On my next visit, I missed those bugs!!!😳. I quizzed my cousins. Very excitedly they said "Suddenly, they became extinct !!!!".  They couldn't explain "how?”  or " Why?"...

At north, during my stay(1976), bugs too walked into my single room with me, after a late night movie in a dirty theatre 😓

I too crushed the few i sighted. They multiplied! MERCIFULLY, a local friend advised "dont crush! Spilled blood is a catalyst!".... He couldn't add "then, what else to do?"...

I tried & tried. Even placing the wooden cot under hot sun couldn't entirely vanquish the nuisance 😂, though, population control was a success. The tiny gaps between joints was 'dark shelter' for these blood_suckers😂

For a tiny fraction of a milli_second, my personal intellect functioned😥😥😥. I decided to 'try' drowning them in 5 ml of coconut oil👍. Very cost_effective😜. Economically Feasible, and practically Viable.

A month, to catch and dip each fellow in oil. It worked. 

Then, i used burnt_oil to be applied between joints, before keeping the wooden cot under sun. Oil flushes them out of hiding place. Sunlight 'terminates' their life!!! 

And thus, my small single rented_room turned bug_free 🤣🙏

Many lessons as concepts, i gained 🙏)

A spiritual bug, yours, 

psn (31 may, 2026)

BrahmaRaakshas, a benign tumour

 BrahmaRaakshas, a benign tumour

🤣

I was struggling to find a way to describe the ‘functionality’ of a shrine allowed to be placed ‘inside’ the compound walls of a kerala tempal/temple. In the rest_of_India temples, this guy(brahmarakshas, a deity, ofcourse) is kept at ‘a safe distance, a little away from the temple😜. This ‘oddity’ around my curiosity to learn a little more about this guy 👍

I have a deep sense of gratitude towards medical science for having given me the phrase called ‘benign tumor’.

I can explain the reason for my gratitude: any ‘flash’ of a new idea and the strange one to me might evaporate before I know it if I do not manage to give it a shape not necessarily a verbal form always but a shape which I can recognise later if & when I recall later.

A tumour is a parasite, waiting to feast on its host, when the defence mechanism inbuilt in the host is inadequate! A malignant tumor eventually devours the host itself. 🤣🙏. Being a lesser intelligent organism it fails to realise that it ends up its own life eventually.

A benign tumor on the other hand is patient enough to ensure its own well being while feasting on its host very conservatively and harmlessly 😜. Normal rakshasa is like a malignant tumor, where as a brahmarakshas looks similar to a benign-tumor😜. Basic nature is similar in both rakshas and brahmarakshas, when they both are intrusive. The whole difference is about their personal agenda 😜. The benign fellow is Keen to part with what he has learnt but failed to impart to anybody else, when he was a normal human being 😭. Now that very memory keep him hunting for a skape goat, to teach ( look at the story of “Vikramaditya and the vetal”, the Vetal hangs on the king's shoulder till the syllabus is completed 😜😀. “गले पड़ना” का उदाहरण 👍)

I leave it to the imagination of the reader to figure out why inside a Kerala temple and outside the rest of India temples(the shrine of that benign_tumour called brahmarakshas? 🙏😜😜😜😜

Benignly yours, 

psn(28 May, 2026)

Post script 

When a kid of 6, i imitated other visitors in our Village temple, and threw a pinch of mud from the raised platform of a brahmarakshas 😜…( for whatever it is worth let me imitate 👍).

But my grandma chided me, saying “hey, we don't pray to it!”. I understood the hint. She was reminding me of my lineage, “Traditional beggars”🙏🤣, पारंपरिक भिखारी। 

In doing so, she inadvertently planted a seed of curiosity to delve deeper into the “why's” of it, when I become adept at the use of ‘sense of Discrimination' as a grownup later 🙏

My choice of words

 My choice of words

😥

Kids who are yet_to learn words  are a source of envy for me😓….  People don't mind if a kid omits a ‘thank you’ for a chocolate, or an “i apologise 🙏” for wetting their nappy! ( Funny thing is, after i reach 85 +     if at all i live that far🤔, i will be like a baby struggling to use thanks/sorry, but the people who might care_to_care for me, may not give me the ‘same’ concession they gave when I was a ‘baby’😜

Choice of words matter a LOT, when a situation is very critical 🤣

Samples….

a)A boy or girl utters a yes or no, while picking a bride/groom, a wrong choice of words, decides the joy or tragedy for the rest of their lives 😜

b) When asking something to a fellow at the “may i help you” counter , when there is a crowd, precise words matter a LOT. Wrong set of words beget erroneous responses, while inadequate precision & ambiguity, needless-emotional preamble might infuriate the ‘crowd’ behind us waiting impatiently for an URGENT info from that dedicated counter wala🤣( that fellow has ‘turned’ into a hater of vague_askers🙏😓

c) Students as kids don't know whom to ask even, apart from how to ask🤔

c_i) when it is about ‘kids’ wrong choice of words bounce_back 🤣….like, saying “drop this into the wash basin👍” and the kid would LITERALLY ‘drop’ a porcelain cup-saucer into the basin and it breaks😜. “PLACE” this cup-saucer” would have been safer😓

“Don't fall 😳😳” to a kid perched on a high branch of a tree, edge of a cliff, etc leaves the kid with a doubt “how do I do_that?...a don't_fall???” . Instead “hold tight to the branch, / move back from the edge” might be EASIER on the ‘tiny’ brain of that kid🙏.

d)the ENTIRE civil_procedure code(a law) was aimed at preventing loss of courts time, using a lawyer for appeal/defense in cases🤣. Legislators know, lay people lack precision of words👍

e) even spelling mistakes and punctuation matters🙏😭😭

Desi epics: one fellow did hell_of_a_lot of austerities, penances to seek a boon. But when the GodJi suddenly appeared and asked “what do you want?” … he faltered and blabbered “nidreVatwam”( sleepyness), instead of “NirDeva_twam”(obliteration of deities).... He was a rakshasa, opposing godly guys🤣

Popular sample of a ‘coma’ in a wrong place……  “Leave him 🙏😥, not_hang him” and “Leave him_not, Hang him 😡”.... a coma decided the life/death of the victim!

Choice of words…. is not always dependent on the volume of vocabulary we have in our stock . A few extra words might substitute the ignorance about a single word that describes something.

I don't know, if I will be ‘reminded’ to be precise in a “critical” situation!  They say “Sweat in peace  to avoid bleeding in war” and this holds good about being precise even during a ‘peaceful’ conversation!

Meditative practices was my root cause of this nonsense of ‘precision in words’ 🙏😥…  when meditation deepened a ‘bit’ , the non_verbal thoughts became Visible,😭 ( like, we see a small hillock, and only_when we climb on to its top, a HUGE mountain behind it becomes visible to_us 😜🙏). But that's my personal problem 🙏. Non-meditators are blissfully_ignorant of their own non_verbal mountaneous godown 🤣👍…. and consequentially, oblivious about misconceptions in them( 😜 non-verbal list deals with misconceptions, not a wrong choice of WORDS)

PRECISELY yours,

psn(27 May, 2026)

PostScript : at my school, a classmate exclaimed “ buddy , forget WORDS, a mere alphabet placed differently can please both, a theist and an atheist alike”

And he wrote the 2 formats in my ‘rough’ note book 🤣 ( book wasn't ‘rough’...my notes were🙏😥)

“ God is    nowhere”( atheist smiles)

“God is now here” ( same alphabets, Theist does a “🙏” with gratitude 👍)

Stomach is Hungry or empty?

 Stomach is Hungry or empty? 

🤣

Kids might recall the difference better than grown_ups 😜

Retired oldies have no excuse to keep filling up the stomach as_soon_as it ‘feels’ empty. 

Dis-Eased oldies, please ignore this blog and follow your_daaktarr 😜 ( i don't want to spoil a doctor's livelihood. Mutual_benefit_scheme, zindabad 👍 ( mediclaim commission agents too survive due to their tie-up with hospitals 🙏)

Grown ups seem to have forgotten the difference between a hungry and empty stomach 😥 ( if honesty is affordable, let them ‘convince’ only_themselves, not anyone else…..that they can feel an empty stomach and hear an Hungry stomach. 

Yep! Stomach has an embedded software to communicate its preparedNess to receive+ digest food, when it is hungry👍. I ain't gonna embarass you, telling the syntax of that message 🙏 )

The nature's design of a human stomach is sophisticated 🙏. Ayurveda texts elaborate it extensively 👍. Texts of Ayurveda were authored by Enlightened masters. Obviously, they were aware of Sanatana Dharma ( rules governing the universe, of which, humans & their stomach is very much a part of this set of rules/dharma!)

Animals in wilderness do not experience indigestion, stomach upset etc 🙏. They adhere to the “rules” of nature ( sanatan dharma) by_default. 

They why do humans alone need a doctor? Reason is, a) humans are a being of Volitional Consciousness b)they are factory_fitted with a sense_of_discrimination, whose “use” alone needs to be learnt via parenting atleast 🙏

Empty stomach is entrusted with lots of mandatory duties🙏. Even the impoverished fellow called an hungry_stomach is trained by nature to source energy from alternative locations in the human body 🙏.

I don't dare to say anything further 😭. The attention_span of a human mind is shrinking damn fast 😜

Appetizingly yours,

psn(26 May, 2026)