Why the whole secrecy (about it.. or about I.T.) ?

Such a question pre-supposes that something is deliberately kept a secret...!

We do not ask about why the 'water-wash' after an excretion via anus.....

It is with great reluctance or hesitation that some of the eastern people compromise for a tissue paper, instead!... and, much to the amusement of those who are well-used to it.. (now, the phrase, 'used-to-it' here is not the 'use and throw' like we do with a tissue paper, diapers, whether a baby-size or adult size.. There is indeed a 'distinct' possibility, that with 'those' who are 'used-to-it' something stays, which does not throw 'them-away', from 'it-self'!)...

While today, very few of us have even 'heard about it'... there were a few intelligent ones, in the ancient days, who obviated even the 'touch'(with hands/palm), for a wash, after excretion... But at the same time, they did not compromise on the cleanliness as well as the hygiene... In fact, they not only sophisticated it, but also improvised the 'end-use' (both in the literal and figurative sense!) It forms one of the tools in the functional aspect of a concept Kriya, the shat-kriya... It is not a big secret... they just place the anus over a flowing stream, and with a conscious contraction of muscles of the underbelly etc, suck up the water, and let it out after a 'gargle' in the pipes concerned! The benefits stretched way beyond the efficiency of neurological systems, which did affect the brain functioning too, at physiological levels, and the energy-channels remained 'spick and span' as they say in English!

So, I guess, I was not entirely out of context, when I attempted to dwell-upon a dirty-example!

I happened to see an article narrating the various punishments narrated in Garud-Puran.. what, the contents were, of the article, or who decided to make it public , or why at all... etc... is not the theme I am trying to deal with here.. It is about 'why the ancient people' withheld something, which now-looks-like, they-being-so-secretive about it!

We know, and 'easily' too... that it does not make sense to try 'algebra' first for kids, and then the numeral-forms of mathematics at kid-age... (This, despite the fact that concept-formation can be assumed to be at an enhanced level at infant age, and it is we the adults who happen to keep researching still, about 'how' it happens! Meaning, abstraction is far more enhanced, in its conceptual levels, but just that.. it is mostly a non-verbal-form ones....)

Now, this Garuda puran was not held as a 'secret' at all... Only some restrictions about the timing, were suggested... The problem is about 'why so'... If 'why so' is not a problem, then it makes no difference to a mind, about adherence to the suggested timing... I try to 'guess' a few possible consequences... whether such consequences (if at all), are going to really matter, is upto each one to decide for oneself (and therefore, consequently, my guess work, as well as the theme of the blog too, would quite obviously collapse, as far as that individual is concerned, for whom 'nothing-matters' Yep! .. 'nothing-matters' as a phrase, for me , it symbolises in two senses at least!)...

When somebody has already read it elsewhere... and now hears it afresh, during that prescribed timing, his mind says, 'I know what it is about'... and therefore, might even opt out of a physical urge to take a 'commercial-break' to visit the toilet , in-between the narrative/paarayan... (This assuming that the narrator is 'conscious' about what he is doing, and is well-aware of its implications, repercussions, vulnerability etc)... What is sought to be 'symbolised' through these punishments is multifaceted... The details are too-extensive.. But for the purpose of appreciating the worth and value of the timing, we can easily visualise the scenario... The fourth day or around it,, after somebody very close to us has departed, naturally supports our mind to become a little mellowed down, submissive, detached, and yet very alert, not lost into worldly-problems etc... This is when, a subtle aspect, loaded with heavy-symbolisms, can make a dent into the mind, and perhaps/possibly percolate into the being... I would not even try to mention other mystic factors about ... 'as to why' a just-now-departed person, his 'being' is nomenclatured as a pret-atma for about twelve days, and when the concluding rituals are over, the designation is re-named as bhoot-aatma... such details carry a religious-paint , which like our present day weather-proof coating does not allow even moisture to percolate into our walls (mind)! If we were totally ignorant about the worth and value of 'symbolism', we would not have decided to salute to a piece of stitched cloth called 'a national flag'.. though... we find it so difficult to 'discipline' a few of those who do not pay adequate respect to it! Not all of those who 'ritualistically' stand up and salute are moved emotionally while doing that act, only a few are 'moved' every time they even 'see it'... so, we can almost agree, there can be even 'levels' of how deep a 'symbolism' can percolate into us!

Most of the spiritual texts are necessarily to be infused through a mind... Where as, inanimate objects, like stone-deities, can be 'wi-fi' too! If the mind has turned 'ritualistic' about even denouncing anything that is presented, shown, told ritualistically, and if it 'also' about a ritualistic form of something that was traditionally symbolic... where is the scope for a mind, to notice the 'difference' , and only then to decide about a sense of discretion (judiciously to be applied), or the discrimination (being applied indiscriminately, across the board, ad-valorem!.. when I say 'ad-valorem' I guess, it is obvious that spiritual concepts are not related to any 'material-value'!)

Glaringly yours,

psn (24th october, 2014)

Splashing Concepts

"You are only splashing the water!....   It has nothing to do with 'swimming'...   and now, don't continue with this, we too have to bathe..."  said my cousins, when they saw me thumping the surface of the pond, in a hectic manner...

I stopped it 'abruptly' and sat 'too-quietly' , all at once (my own tool, 'a dramatic-effect', even in inaction!)..
That silence in me was a bit oppressive, and they offered further explanations!  They said, "See, for merely floating, no activity even, is required...  We need to push the water, only for moving within the water body...  and that...  is-swimming!" and when they added: " Even a dead body floats!"  it really hit me!  Yep! Why didn't I think of it before/earlier? :(
They(my cousins) were never into spiritual concepts..  but me?...   What prevented me from 'connecting' that Shava-aasana, and the floating-practice, during a learning-of-swimming?
Hey! I chided myself...  is it not easier to 'test-check' oneself..  whether I am 'really-relaxing' at physiological levels at least, during a Shava-aasana posture, by trying it out on water in a pond? The posture is not going to be supported by a firm-floor, when on surface of water...  But 'test-conditions' are supposed to be non-supportive!

I quickly took a dive into the pool (the large pond), and surfaced only at the other end, to reassure my cousins that 'Hum kisi se kam nahi'...   Then we had that game of chasing each other with underwater 'rule' ...   They were a bit surprised, that I did not disclose my ability to swim well!  But my agenda was something else...   It had to do with 'perception-levels' which were attempted to be 'pre-embedded'  in our ancient culture, so that swimming ..  or the learning-to-swim...  is as effortless as with a kid born into a fisherman's family (the kid doesn't even remember the exact date when he actually learn't to swim..  it happened some where during childhood, playing at the shores of the ocean!  Where as the posh-counterpart..  pays a hefty fee per hour, adorns a sophisticated swim-wear, head-gear, goggles, and then all he manages for the first fee-paid-month is to splash the water of that shallow area swimming pool..  A win-win situation for the coach as well!...   Spiritual classes too allow splashing of the concepts for quite a while!  Because, we have turned it into a 'luxury for haves, not the have-nots!'...   It would be quite some time when they realise that they need to learn to float with support of concepts, and then hopefully swim through it, and reach the 'other-shore'!)...

But 'default-upbringing' has its own advantages!
I struggled to convince my spouse that it is 'worth-learning' to make chappati's at home itself (outsourcing is not only costly, but also qualitatively inferior!)...
That is where I discovered that adults learn to cook those dishes easier, which they have been tasting from early childhood!  A south Indian teenage girl is amazingly familiar with Rasam, and learns that subtle aspects which makes it uniquely fragrant, intoxicant-ly flavouring, and palatable/ly  tasting etc..   The uninitiated-into-even-a-taste wala northerner begins with looking at it as a 'mere Imli ka paani'..  and the dish fails to make any impression at all, as something worth-learning!
But the 'process' of first learning well, and then trying to communicate the art of making a roti/chappati, did teach me a few subtle aspects which got diluted over the generations, even with most of the people whose staple food it is supposed to be!

We splash blogs and comments here, too often! Spiritual waters..  spiritual forum..  and there is no cost involved, at least in a tangible form...   But if the concepts are going to become a thick coating over a period of time, and then the very same coating is going to prevent us from floating/swimming across it, due to the added weight, scrubbing it off, shedding the load, is going to be perhaps the hidden costs, when we really are going to shift our priorities, to learn to swim, being now fatigued with that splashing! (Our teacher told us on the first day of that Yoga-program thus “Please try to keep aside all your ideas/knowledge/etc..  what ever you had learn't till now about Yoga-etc ..   and try to look at it afresh, like that LKG kid, who comes on the very first day of the school, without any pre-conceived notions about what a school is..  Otherwise, you may miss the 'experience' , and here we are into experiencing it, not about 'teaching' yet another 'ism' or so..  And while going back, you may take back your ideas too, without fail..  no problem about that!)

But, all these thoughts ...   evoked a question in me...  (apparently, this question seems too unconnected with these fragments of thoughts)..   The question was "When is the average stage/time/age..   when the society decides to trust me as an individual?"...   question..?  Is it a question?...   I tried with a few answers, like...  "Voting age, when my vote will now 'count'!!!   Driving licence..  when I will be licenced now.. to gate-crash, without injuring/damaging others on the way!  When nobody is going to open the gate, the youth crashes-open the gate with the front tyre, pushes it with the foot, and 'drives-in' into his house-compound!..
Was there a time, when the people made efforts to ensure that a kid benefits an early-trust, when he is said to 'hail' from a certain kind of parentage, family, class-of-society, etc?..
Now, the only uniform that we 'like' to trust is perhaps that of a soldier in armed forces...   Other uniforms, the very sight of it, worries us that we may lose something out of our purse (thanks to corruption-culture!)..

Splashing-ly yours,
psn(10th October, 2014)

Crystallisation of Focus

What if that magnifying glass, with which we try to burn a piece of cotton focusing that bright sunlight of the mid-day, ... what if that glass were like some thin polythene paper, collapsing too often, getting deflated too often, or.. remaining unsteady-enough to disallow a continued focus/concentration of that sunlight? Perhaps, we would do 'something' to ...'somehow' hold that focus continuously(the 'crystallisation' conceptually), at least long enough to get the heat intense enough to formulate a spark into that cotton ball, the straw, the paper.. or whatever we are trying to ignite...

Kids 'keep reading the school text book' several times even... but find it so difficult to 'find-out' as to what would be the answer to the question.. that question which they 'know-for-sure' was based only-on-something that was from that 'portion' ticked off carefully by the teacher, for that 'exam'..

That is about a little-fortunate kids who remember the whole of it, but are unable to correlate the question with the relevant answer... Yet others, do not remember anything at all (they went through the text several times, but the text did not ever 'go-through-them'!).. A rare few kids, never bother to even glance through that inanimate printed form of alphabets in the text book, but are quite confident about how to 'tackle' with any question, that could come-up from what the teacher explained in the class, quoting that text! Perhaps, if that teacher is 'wise enough', that 'own-words-wala' answer might fetch slightly better marks even, than the 'copy-paste via memory'!

I was wondering, .. and still keep wondering... (yes, right through that kid age), about the know-how of ... that short-cut ... where, the grasp is going to be instantaneous, obviating that futile exercise of meaningless mugging of bare texts! Aadi Shankara's words, 'nahi nahi rakshati' in Bhaja Govindam seemed to reassure that this seeking for a short-cut is not totally wrong!

While the focus itself being so firm, and therefore the focal length rendered 'dependable', in the case of a magnifying glass, or even that lens of a camera (ah! When the lens is firm, we can do something more about the adjustable length of that focus, by adjusting the length of that 'lens-pair' itself, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Zoom_prinzip.gif )

With all this circus about 'focus'.. I was stupefied, when the suggestion was to somehow-get-rid-of focus of all kinds... and just allow that 'witnessing-aspect' to just 'happen-by-itself', when we were initiated into a meditative process! And what baffled me was, the incidental by-product was the better focus, the better 'zoom-technology' (yes, 'better' because, the picture-clarity was not compromised even), of the mind, when such 'going-out-of-focus' of mind-itself, was basically aimed at a spiritual-experience! Obviously, the process becoming even 'reasonably-operational/functional', is going to be so complex that it requires the utmost simplicity to contain it! Nothingness.. (what ever it really means!)... The technology transfer of the know-how, can happen all-by itself, but the chances of losing it are also 'all-by-itself', where as, when done consciously, .. it just stays! Even the intense-proximity of an experienced+expert teacher could not bring down the drop-out rate dramatically, where as, the program got dropped out sooner!

A blog, or a narrative... that I have decided to de-focus upon, with just this much... I don't know, what the readers are going to 'make-out-of-it'! It is all about 'focusing' as an abstract concept, the tools of focus though complex enough, being merely tools thereof!

Well out-of-focus, yours,

psn(3rd October, 2014)

Nervous Relaxant...

I k-n-o-w, .... 'nerve-relaxant' would sound more appropriate...!

But it is our 'concern' about being appropriate too often than needed, is .... what is getting nervous!

What we intend to use as a 'relaxant', as a kind of 'anticipatory-bail' for any possible nerve-arrest, leading to various dis-orders within, when the outer-orderliness is under a threat!

Even as a kid, I used to be intrigued, when I find that the opening dialogues after the 'namaskar-chamatkar' etc used to be about climate... If the remark about the climate gets a unanimous vote or a 'general-consensus', then they take courage to mention their opinion about the weather...

Then comes the contentious 'issues' like individual health... which has to be dealt very very carefully! The use of very safe words, like 'looking litte-bright'... little-(pause... look for tell-tale anxiety symptoms).. then add—dull/weak/pulled down/etc...

Arey! Coming down on an annual visit, spending precious time and money, are we going to discuss only 'non-controversial-issues' like climate, weather, and other things, which are actually better-understood-than-the-humans, by even animals, birds, insects etc? Endless discussions about weather has not made any one better or smart, as to take an umbrella on the 'right-day'....

Some day, when I grow up perhaps , ... I said to myself... (the size of the brain would grow proportionately, and thus would accommodate more data for 'proper-analysis-perhaps'.. etc), and then I would find out the 'why' of such 'safe-topics' being discussed too-often!

When I crossed that age, where a 'physical-punishment' is going to be far-unlikely... I experimented with dialogues like, 'Your bathroom feels a little slippery' and then wait... !!! There is an insurance-policy 'ready' and handy.. just in case of need... (I don't subscribe for anticipatory-bail.. Karma theory doesn't tolerate such bail-applications, ever! If somebody 'still-persists' the future judgements are 'including-costs'!). So, I 'wait'... The usual response is either an 'excuse or a lament' . The 'excuse' is when there is no one else around to pass the buck(the blame).. The lament is when somebody-else can be nailed... A few are not interested in 'relaxant' software, and they boil-down on me... that is when the 'insurance-policy' comes handy, and I say, “Oh! Now I recollect.. my underfoot was oily, and the bathroom floor was wet... and so 'it' must have slipped!” (The heavy insulating clause of this insurance policy is in 'it' (literally too!).. If I say, “I slipped” or even a dilute form of it, 'my-foot-slipped'... my own 'relaxant' is going to become 'nervous'!... Yep!!! The 'pronouns' come handy for an escape from a blame-game... The 'cup slipped' (I was 'never-never' careless about 'handling the cup'..!).. But, the lottery ticket never had won by 'itself'! I won it!...

Thus, I discovered... when people meet.. only the 'apprehensive-minds' meet, nobody-else(within those people)!.. My discovery could be wrong!.. They why is it that when kids meet, they come close too-fast? Emotions-meet?.. Yep! With adults, it is either the logically-apprehensive-minds, or the negatively-apprehensive-emotions (exceptions 'over-ruled', by your-Honour!... Judge-wala-honour, or the 'honour' we carry somewhere inside us .. dunno, where it is exactly safe-deposited-in-locker within... but we know, we carry some 'honour'.. don't ever allow others to touch it!)...

The further 'complexities' that the simplicity--of 'non-controversial-topics' which 'seemed' to favour us too often, and had managed to hide within—got revealed only when I had opted to volunteer for intense programs of spiritual nature! That is when I tried to coin a phrase for my 'private and personal reference' : 'Simplicity is not always bereft of its complexity'...

This compulsiveness to insulate the 'ground-realities', using the 'non-controversials' to deliberately camouflage the surge of revulsion, thus treating the non-controversial as a 'relaxant' for both-sides, ... I try to guess... that it might create some kind of accumulated negative-residue, deep within... and ...either.... it erupts like a volcano, when somebody counters a 'non-controversial-dialogue' with a 'provocative-one'.. or .. it slowly takes a toll of the nervous-system, like a silent destroyer of some vital organ, and then turns into a silent killer, over a period of time! The span extends over too large a period of time, and hence remains elusive to a close scrutiny.. But I guess, medical science too is on the look out for 'specialists' in large numbers in the field of “Psychoneuroimmunology”...

Be it as it may... But, what about a progress on spiritual path, with this kind of a mind, which has 'defaulted' itself, to function a bit 'non-controversially' all the time? How is it going to recognise the mile-stones? It is either 'excessive-humility' or a 'stout-refusal' to accept the 'real-weather/climate' within!!!

On a forum, be it for a spirited-spirituality-even... it is about 'fair-weather-friends'... and so, it is so safe to copy paste 'standard-stuff'.. and insist on a 'standard' non-controversial comment/response! (there is no dearth for a variety of stuff, waiting to be copy pasted!)... Our 'immunity-system' works so flawlessly ... when it is about 'proverbs, adages, ... why, even those spiritual concepts!' Oh! It is a real challenge now, for a 'genuine-spiritual-teacher' to try to make some dent, into such an immunity system, even if it means .. about using some kind of virus, bug, or such unconventional tools/techniques!

Controversially yours,

psn(1st of the October, in 2014)