Choice of input device

Which is better, USB, blue-tooth, infra-red, (what else ?)This question seemed something like this to me, when I waded through the set of questions on YA,Thought, that perhaps , it would not hurt us to glance at it again, to at least take a re-look at our priorities.
psn
quote:

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090812081143AAqlC71

What is the right way to know the Truth ?..through books and prophets?
OR....by Direct Experience or ...??

My way:
When the Greater being has 'designed' us, it could be flawless!We may choose to find fault with shortcoming or manufacturing defects, like "why was I destined to be born blind/deaf "etc.Along with the sensory level perception, we also get a more powerful tool, the 'self-awareness’, which is unfortunately the least used, in the present day context. Once a person consciously chooses and maintains that self-awareness at the possible peak levels, as much as possible (meaning, as often as possible), that itself would permeate even during sleep states!! This is perhaps 'Nature's great plan to enable us to know the "truth".You gave a hint in the last words of the question "Or.. by Direct Experience...". This direct experience does not 'refuse' Books or Prophets, but in fact adds immense value to the great efforts of writers of books, and supreme sacrifices of prophets when they compromise to STILL linger around out of sheer compassion! (Perhaps this explains why all the readers or disciples do not benefit, and there are larger 'dropouts'!)I feel already rewarded, being given a chance to look 'into' this question thus! My heartfelt thanks!

Nomenclature, what is in a NAME!

It was a great technology once.When the purpose is forgotten, the device remains a mere ritual, and over the years it gets diluted.Now it is worse than the methodology of numbering vehicles, allotting PAN/PIN numbers etc!I was reminded of "Ashta-vakra" a character in the story of Mahabharata (calling it a Mythology, might not beappropriate, since it hints that mythologies are but "myths" ! He got 8 deformities, even while in the womb,simply because he 'reacted' to the mis-pronunciations of his dad! Just a reminder by his name, that whileit is good to be soooo sensitive to slightest of errors, one has to be equally careful, not to react (even within),lest we may have deformities in our attitude! At least for Ashta-vakra the deformities were physical! Being a Physically challenged is far better than being mentally challenged, if challenges are inevitable.But, there are eager minds, I could see, when I saw this question.I quote the question, the link and my walk, through the same path again,psn(13th Aug, 2009)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090812195743AAIBAbj

How did you choose your avatar (if it's not your name)?
Re-treading (my 'self'):
(thro’ the answer)

My priority, that has remained so for nearly 50 years, what ever else I do!I thank the YAHOO TEAM for enabling this feature of 'nick-name' because, it gave me a chance to also name myself the way I would like! Name could be a powerful tool to remind us of our priorities, lest we tend to be driven away by temptations elsewhere, or get caught up inadvertently by fast pace of life, and immediate / urgent life situations!For most it might suit to hide their identities (ofcourse for a very valid and genuine set of reasons), but for me it seems to serve a higher purpose. My identity has got slightly revealed after that participation in ATP/Feb 2007.Thanks for bringing me closer to my own priority through the question!

Bandar kya Jaane Adrak kaa swaad!

(in good humour, without any offence)

I used to wonder why they blame that poor monkey. Even I was no better! Loving ginger was not that easy for me! Every time I tried to ‘like’ it as a kid, my face effortlessly took the form of a monkey-face!
When I saw this question, I felt if I am still not capable of ‘true’ love, since it felt very much dependent on my self-awareness. If I were to become 100% ‘mental’ (as we love to call it), I for sure would become incapable of ‘love’, and those around would be in great trouble (not that even now they are too comfortable!). So, if that question holds value, then I am no better than a monkey is with ginger!
I shall be very happy to get enlightened on this aspect from you!
Regards,
Psn(13th Aug, 2009)
Quote:
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090812212802AAtlO9q

What makes you feel the most alive besides love?

(How I ‘mon-keyed) around with my answer):
Very sorry.May be I am not that good at love by itself!So, to me, it is not "besides".... It is because of "self-awareness" that I am at times, even capable of a few stray droplets of that 'oceanic' love!And "alive", yes, I am alive only when I am aware!

Earning food itself is now so tough, with recession, Respect… ?

Isn’t it so?
I can see a lots of compromise on that ‘self-respect’ when hitherto harmless bosses are riding ‘rough-shod’ on even slogging employees, simply because of the threat of pink-slips!
When retaining some respect is difficult, earning it a far dream.
Yet, I tried to look at ‘respect’ itself with some respect, ‘respectively’ with ‘respect to love’, as the question demanded its due respect!
Regards,
psn(13th Aug, 2009)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090812013227AA9KEiM

Respect is earned... What about Love ...?....................(spiri… of course)?
My attempt to “earn” some attention to my answer:

Strictly speaking even that respect is perhaps at least due to a very mild dose of love. Staunch adversaries 'respect' each other's ability, trying not to 'underestimate' the cunning even under heavily guarded captivity.Is it possible for such a respect, without some love for such 'ability'.And, when a 'true' disciple respects every single ability of the master to the utmost possible measure, the body language itself, of the disciple simply reveals, the measure of respect!The adversary keeps a safe distance from the other even in captivity. The disciple too, maintains that alertness , awareness about the Master's greatness and keeps a 'respectable' distance, waiting to be called near for a precious hug or embrace! The 'main' reason for the distances cloud the love hidden beneath. And that love is right now for the 'ability' an abstract thing. Not the person! (Quite contrary to the normal love we see, and even hear thus "Can you not just love me for what I am, other than my beauty, money etc?") Respect looks like 'earned'. But it depends on the others around to know what and how to respect! How can a great singer earn respect from people who tend to look at a song as a nuisance/polluting-noise?

Temple Trample!

When we do not know the purpose of visiting a temple, but invariably end up frequenting, by sheer force of habit, compulsion by social norms or otherwise, we could be inadvertently ‘trampling’ that divine place, where it would be expected of us to gently tread, a bit apologetically!
It might look funny, but the 'Hindu way of life' has even suggested ‘apologies’ in the form of ‘slokas’ to be offered to what we some times refer as “Mother-Earth”, when we urinate or shit upon it!
So “logically”, the abode of that “God” cannot be treaded upon by us, lower beings (leave alone trampling), without those due apologies each time!
I could not subscribe to these logic(s) till I underwent a spiritual program where it was suggested to ‘experience’ the worth of walking as gently as possible, within a ‘prescribed’ perimeter, to get opened up thereby to newer dimensions of consciousness! I would not elaborate this, lest it may end up being an “ad nauseam” !!
I received a vey genuine query from a very lovable youngster, regarding “what is to be done, when inside a temple”. I value his ability for his being very outspoken, and so would not mind mentioning some additional details he gave, to further strengthen the purpose of his query:
Quote:
1. I am lazy
2. I [subconciously] dont believe visiting the temple serves any purpose spritually or otherwise.
3. I dont know what I am supposed to do when I am inside a temple.

Of the 3, I somehow feel, the last one holds more water than the rest. (……)…I dont feel any sense of spirituality or closeness to God and maybe thats why I dont want to go.
Unquote:
And, the reply I gave is as hereunder:
Do you remember, some time ago I quoted a famous couplet by Omar Khayyam(the renowned poet of middle east), “Masjid mein jam peeney dey Jahid, warnaa woh jagah bataa dey jahan Khuda na Ho” (Either allow me to drink inside the Masjid, or else show me a place where God is not present!).

The 2nd and the 3rd points used to match my own reasons too, when I was a kid. Laziness was never a reason. But, my grandmother confused me further, by insisting that I visit the native temple in a semi wet condition, right after the dip (for bath) in the village pond, all the belongings sanctified by the dip (plus wash of used clothes—change of dry washed was only after reaching home!). She herself was not regular or meticulous about visiting the temple! This added to my doubts! My doubts were more hurting, like, when asked to pray, I asked if God needs to be told what I wish/deserve/desire etc, through a prayer(most of the ‘prescribed’ prayers were either about asking for some benediction or just offering tributes to His glory)? But, I knew that a tradition that has lasted thousands of years could not be casually discarded as meaningless. Some where down the line, the grasp of its significance has eroded, and hence the present day doubts. Most people lack the courage to ask themselves these genuine questions, leave along ‘voicing’ it! So, I continued the practice of visiting temples, and also intensified it when I could ‘stand’ on my own legs, to the extent, that I covered almost 95% of all the places of worship (not just temples) around the two states that I could reach during week ends. The difference was that I did not have the usual agenda. I just attempted to make myself open, receptive to what ever was likely to happen by these visits. I mentally ‘handed’ over myself to the unseen, to do what ever the ‘higher’ power finds me fit for, at that point of time. When alone, I spend as much time as possible inside the premises (not necessarily the sacrosanct inner place where visiting duration is often restricted to few minutes). It is only in retrospect, that I know for sure that none of my visits were in vain!!
I think if that ‘trust’ is good enough, it is good to visit thus, despite the fact that we hardly know of any ‘moksha’ or enlightenment that has happened inside a temple/place of worship!!
I did learn of many scientific aspects due to keen observation, intense pursuit etc. The details would be too elaborate, and each would merit a separate narration due to its own great value! This addition of analytical information enriched my knowledge about the art, technology, and unsurpassed skill of the great people who constructed the ancient temples. Each, I found, had unique greatness, and the intangible aspects to be of a far greater value than its visible ones! Some incidents even appeared ‘mystic’ to me! There was a case of a colleague of mine (quite senior by age, position etc, still in service as a Senior Manager), who insisted that I accompany him whenever I could, during his ‘undertaken’ visits to an ancient temple. After a lot of persuasion he revealed his reason, that he ‘experienced’ far greater ‘effect’ or results, when I was with him(this was his chance discovery after our joint visits for over an year at the rate of twice-a-week). Being a chatter box, I used to voice my keen observations, during most visits. Some how it happened that he also felt a greater ‘presence’ when the electric power failed during one of our earlier visits, and I attempted to ‘show’ the positive side of absence of ‘negative’ flow of current, while he started murmuring the abrupt discomfort due to loss of illumination, which even hampered our movement for pradakshinam etc. Most temples in Kerala disallow electric lights inside the sanctum-sanctorum even now, as a matter of tradition!
If I try to put forth my experiences as a logical reason in support of justification to visit temples, it could be not only quite incompatible but might even strengthen the disinclination to visit, for those who go out of sheer ritualistic practice and / or out of their sheer ‘belief’. I was keen to replace ‘experience’ with such a belief. When the experience became strong, the need to visit temple got dropped by itself, despite the never-before-such-intense reverence for such places(And now, it is very clear why my grandmother insisted that I visit, though she herself did not adhere to ‘mandatory’ style of such visits! She is no more, to accept my apologies for lack of ability to grasp the reason then!). I cannot adequately offer tributes in words to the people who constructed such great temples (the “Hindu” temples if I may be allowed to call them so, due to sheer constraints of requiring some way of reference!). No two ones are alike! Each adheres to all known principles of architecture to the greatest conceivable measure, bearing uniqueness of justification of multiple need-based purposes as contra-distinguished with other places of worship! Look at the modern cars. Lot of innovation and planning goes into making it the most sought after vehicles! Not a single screw or piece of plastic is added without a purpose! Break-through is said to be achieved when a lighter alloy is discovered without compromising on strength, safety and fuel-efficiency, comfort, or all-round-performance! And therefore, when a place of worship is designed, to handle the well being of humans (the most complex ever machine!).... what words could possible be adequate to appreciate it! If it is to be a powerhouse to re-charge the human potential in every possible way! Imagine if some manufacturing defect is effortlessly taken care of by ‘service’ workshops! Oh! I have strayed into a domain where logic of the normal sensory level of perception cannot be expected to accept these suggestions! Better that I punctuate the reply here.
Regards,
Psn (11th August, 2009)
BTW, what do we do when invited for a thread-ceremony, a traditionally conducted marriage, a pooja, visiting a new born, etc? I could never keep a count of these types of questions, right through my kid-days!
( If I have been able to persist patiently till ‘God’ unfolded a few of His mysteries, I am sure, I shall be able to put up with delay or lack of responses to my sincere replies, as always!)

Jaan lo, ke Jaan Jaane doe, ya naheen, Jaane Jaanam

“Dil cheez kya hai, aap meri jaan leejiye” goes the famous song.
But when it comes to calling it an ‘euthenaisa’, the legal technicalities seem to
Stand before us “imposingly” !
This asker ‘coins’ very interesting questions, and I attempt most of them.
More strange it is when the least expected answer gets ‘chosen’.
This is one such!
Regards,
Psn (4th August, 2009)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090726133305AATwZKx

Should doctors or friends be allowed to help terminally ill people to die without fear of prosecution?

My Juris-prudence:
Whether "Euthanasia" being permitted legally, is the question.We have to look at Jurisprudence (the law about law).We had a concept that law would work in the long run, only when it bears coherence with 'nature'.
The bulk of 'living' beings die gracefully except for humans. We humans seldom get to see the other being dying 'naturally'. They even 'dispose' their remains almost inconspicuously!

Terminally ill patients would have ceased to feel that 'pain' after initial 'worry' period. It is the on-lookers who try to imagine that enormity of pain, visualizing it with their own limited patience.
We have dumped our ancient capability to just 'walk' out of the body, AT WILL, when it has become unfit to contain us. It is this reason mainly that now we look at permitted 'mercy-killing'.

This debate would ever remain inconclusive, due to lack of ability to get clarity about what constitutes 'life' (we are still busy in defining accurately the 'death', being content with issuing certificates for death only at 'clinical' level!)

Taxing 'returns'

We are always on the look out for “feasibility” for doing something good.
I wonder, what about ‘viability’?
Anyway, the request for an incident which actually gave strength tempted me to narrate my experience. But, this time, the recipient of that ‘strength’ was the ‘other’ person not me. Still, I thought I can narrate it, being at least a witness to that strength permeating into that other person.
Psn
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090731072602AAkEo3X

Is it always feasible to do good and expect nothing in return?
i mean i like to do good, but sometimes feels sad when the receiver doesn't respond.

Additional Details
thanks to all of u: could u narrate an incident which actually gave strength to your saying so? @Nick : well said, but i don't know why i feel that your saying, "so do good without expecting something in return and you will reap the benefit in some way or other", is also some short of expectation in some way.

My story: (offered as 'answer' on the forum)
An interesting incident happened a few years ago. I was driving a 100 cc motor bike, forgetting to fold the 'side-stand-rod'. A moped driver struggled to chase me, uphill, and finally overtook me, and waived his arm to get my attention, and warned me. I tried to thank him, but he just grinned, being visibly angry because I could not hear his horn for a long time, and he had to strain a lot with that 50 cc moped!At the next signal, we both were waiting for 'green'. I gently told him that he owes me a cup of coffee. This time he decided to voice his annoyance. It was he who saved me, and so why should he offer a cup of coffee? That was his query. He once again chased me, and asked for explanation. I parked on road side, and offered him my explanation. "Please see, at the most , I can become capable of little bit of "gratitude" if at all I am a decent human being, because you saved my life, not I (presuming that the unfolded side stand would have landed me in some danger). But, you have the "joy" of having saved somebody's life. Which is greater, and gives more happiness, Joy or gratitude? " I asked him. He seemed convinced and this time offered me a cup of coffee genuinely, and confessed that all along, he was stuck, looking out for that "return", and missed the 'fountain' of joy waiting right within himself. I was in a hurry, and told him that I felt amply rewarded in knowing that I made him 'independent' of receiver's reciprocation.Trying "not to expect" return itself is a reminder and so it may not really work. If we are able to get immersed in our own joy of the deed, the act, we don't even seem to notice any return. Perhaps this may work! However, it is nice to know that somebody is keen to keep doing good, and therefore this question.
Source(s):It did happen with me, on my way to work!

Addition dated 15 march 2025:

I felt i must add the aftermath too🙏

That savior, once again stopped me "sir, one more thing"

I thought, the matter was settled 🤔.... now what?

I got off the seat and stood, waiting. 

He said "if, you are able to perceive the joy of helping, instead of getting stuck into "looking out for gratitude ", you must have experienced the act of selflessly helping, far more than me, isn't it?"

I became silent, and said "now....I owe you a coffee,  since I didn’t expect you to grasp it so deep, as to even guess about me🙏😰...  so coffee against coffee gets canceled.  Let's go👍 getting late for work!"

I felt having earned my food that day!

Unflinchingly yours,

psn( 15march,2025, after 9aug2009)

Humility

The moment a politician gets to know that he/she is declared a winner, they announce, “I feel humbled”. And then onwards, it is humility all the way! They are so keen about others too having a feel of that humility, that they take the trouble of ‘humiliating’ common man in all possible ways, lest they ‘miss’ that touch of humility!

I was trying to find out the other day, if the youth of today, are keen about staying as a ‘student’ throughout their life, after finishing academics, getting a job, raising a family, stepping into ‘elderly-hood’ etc. So, I asked the ‘requisite’ to retain this ‘student’ nature, within. I suggested to look at ‘humility’ in a very deep sense. We happened to take a look at examples that would help that ‘deep’ look at it. The popular use of it seemed to just give the ‘cosmetic’ meanings, more useful for speech-making etc!

There was that story of the great legendary musician “Saint Thyagaraja”…. He had gained so much popularity that people from all over came to visit him. It seems a frail simple looking man once turned up to have his ‘darshan’, and requested the great singer to sing a song. It seems Thyagaraja was visibly annoyed at an individual coming up and asking him to sing ‘just like that’! The visitor was chided for that audacity, and asked to wait amidst the mob, at some nearby temple, and listen from a distance when he ‘happens’ to sing for the large audience. The visitor meekly seemed to accept the admonition. This further encouraged Thyagaraja to challenge him further, asking him “What do you know about music, that you have the boldness to come straight to me, and ask me to sing for you? Come on, show me what you can do?...” The visitor apologetically and very hesitantly said that all he knew was to sing the same song in 6 different time-scales (kaalaa’s in Carnatic music). And he demonstrated it by singing a song thus. Thyagaraja was not prepared for the shock he felt, at this amazing capability he saw! The visitor was none other than “Shat-kaala Govinda Marar” , a musician famous for this very capability. It is said that the experience went deep into Thyagaraja, and the result was an outpouring of the famous song “endaro Mahaanu bhaavulu” (Countless great persons, I bow to all of them!). But for this visitor, we would have missed that song from the great composer! A deep experience of ‘Humility’ brought out the potential for yet another master piece song! The stretching of potential happened after he became a well accomplished composer!

Another typical example was from the stories about devotional saint ‘Meerabai’. She happened to visit a spiritual practitioner, famous for his siddhis, and such accomplishments. In those days, yogic practices were ‘out of bounds’ for ladies, so Meerabai had nothing to boast about. No formal training in meditative practices etc. All she knew as just total surrender to the divine. She felt that it was her duty to visit such famous people who did rigorous practices, and take their blessings to evolve further. Our expert in Yoga was camping on a hill top, and the very backdrop presented the awesome ambience that he chose to pursue the tough practices. As Meerabai climbed the hill to approach the hermitage of this Yogi, she was stopped en-route by a disciple-cum-guard of the hermitage. She was told ‘Our Master does not permit females to approach him for blessings’. At this, Meerabai had no choice but to return disappointed with the futility of the arduous climb this far. But not before asking that disciple to convey a message from her to his master, “please tell him, I never knew of another ‘purusha’ till now, and I thought there was only one ‘purusha’ in this universe”. Purusha is a word for “male”. The disciple could not guess the deeper meaning of this message, and simply conveyed it to his master without loss of time. The yogi at once got the meaning, and ran down the hill to catch up with Meerabai who was returning at her pace. The Yogi fell at her feet and requested her to accept him as her disciple! ( I hold back further elaboration about that singular purusha aspect, to avoid deviation from subject title).

And one more instance of Saint Ramakrishna. He did not have much of a formal education. His prayers got answered and goddess kaali appeared before him, ready to impart knowledge. He asked the goddess to pause, first convert him into a child and then proceed to impart knowledge. Here , Ramakrishna was referring to the child-like nature of that innocence which enables unhindered inflow of knowledge. The humility within a child is latent, and not tangible. Also, Ramakrishna chose to ask “make me a child”, implying, ‘please infuse a large dose of humility in me’. Scientists concur that the intelligence to grasp things is at its peak during early childhood.

We concluded the discussion about humility thus, for the time being.
Psn(30th July, 2009)

All about nothing!

It is a bit rare to find a question as this. I am ever on the look out for such ones. The asker simply gets 'unmasked', as I would love to put it.
Some of those who take the trouble of reading right through to the end are likely to feel a bit dissappointed. It is therefore that I cautiously gave this title.
But I would love to call it thus:
Saawan hee Aag lagaaye tho…
Some ‘freaks’ like me, are on the look out for like ones in the ‘offing’.
For what ever it does(to you), I would still like to share my answer, with a deep sense of gratitude to the asker for having ‘thought’ of asking it!
Regards,
Psn(23rd July, 2009)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090723001325AAewvpW

Philosophy sort of question?
Not that long ago (like 2 hours ago) i was sitting around listening to music and i looked at the time (a digital clock) and it got me thinking about existence. So after i thought for a bit, i wrote something down to see what it looked like:"I always thought that there can't be nothing. That there has to be SoMETHING. But maybe there is nothing. Nothing at all. Like everything we see, touch, feel, smell, taste (physically, i mean) is nothing. We think it's there but it's not. Even ourselves aren't there. We're nothing (again, physically). But our souls, or minds, or whatever the **** we are, they are just there and everything is just some sort of illusion created by ourselves all together, creating this illusion of everything (which is nothing) as one. But we don't realize this illusion we created and are creating. All our souls, or minds, or whatever the **** are synced or linked only to sense this world we live in. Going further, perhaps other souls, or minds, or whatever the **** are synced to a different world with different types of senses and beings and everything. So we live in this world based on nothing. And really, therefore, everything is meaningless because nothing is real because there is nothing, although it seems so real because our minds have been and still are making it seem real. Everyone's ambitions, dreams goals, and accomplishments are fake because nothing is there at all. Nihilism, i guess. I don't know, really."It might be a little confusing for others to read or get what i'm saying but what do you think about it? And are there other ideas out there that are exactly or similar to this? Note: Just to clarify, this is not something i'm going to be living by, just some quick thing i thought of out of nowhere.
Additional Details
I'm not saying we don't actually exist, but that we don't exist physically. Like our minds create the world and it is like a playground of sorts. Yes, we think, and yes, we are, but only in our own minds

My answer:
Ah! Though well meant, it would have been quite 'mystic' to have omitted the additional details !To create this 'sort' of awareness, we have 'structured' mystic practices in India, since ancient times. Your choice of words vouches for the genuineness! Travelling upwards from the end of your question, you have rightly said that this is not something you are going to live by. In fact you can not live by it. You can be aware of it, so that the actual living becomes feather light and yet very intense! This awareness is also called a deeper level of 'consciousness' where the logical mind finds a little bit of 'struggle' to negate this 'experience', but then the 'experience' by itself, effortlessly seems to subdue the 'logic' without even bothering to 'refute' it!What you call as 'synced' is the crucial link, that decides the very quality of our perceptional capabilities. When people get into spiritual practices, all they can do is to improve the quality of 'waiting' for this 'syncd' phenomenon or factor to 'happen' by itself, so that after a good lot of practise, the happening is with a better cetainity, and along with this degree of certainity, the depth and clarity of this 'link' affords a deeper experience, and then there is a choice to shift from gross material level of awareness, to the subtle level. The subtle level resolves most conflicts and confusions presented by the gross level, much to surprise and baffled look of onlookers, who then choicelessly call it 'mysticism' and the person a 'mystic'. When we 'slip' into this dimension of consciousness a bit unawares or unprepared, our mannerisms and manifest behaviour could cause a look of concern. The 'nothingness' that you mention in the opening is in fact an expression of an intense experience that suffers want of appropriate word, and we happen to choose the nearest available word 'nothing'. Please see, another word 'everything' also seems to suit(since you have an experience), but to a common logical mind, 'everything' utterly defies logic. Logic and the available words are devices to handle only items within the sphere of sensory level of perception. Now, please see, your (inner) experience did not require any sensory level perception, or even logic(in fact you are struggling to convey it in a manner to seem with a 'logical appeal'!). The clue is when you said "We're nothing(again physically)." It does look like a contradiction, but the experience was so clear!I can only 'wish' that you get picked up by a good guiide, who would ensure that your 'readiness' does not wait too long to 'step' in!The chance to take up this question is in itself a complete reward!
My sincere best wishes.

Shadowful Life

NOTICE CAMELS first & then read the message below :







This is a picture taken directly above these camels in the desert at sunset. It is considered one of the best pictures of the year. Look closely, the camels are the little white lines in the picture. The black you see are just the shadows!!
SEE ONCE MORE, U CANNOT BELIEVE IT ....RIGHT..???.
Unquote:
(My acknowledgements are due, to the unknown source, from where it came as a 'mail-forward'! My deep felt 'thanks' to those who forwarded, to reach me thus.)

My comments:
YEAH!
Reminds me....
We get caught up with our own SHADOWS, all through our life time!!!
And the real 'we' is so elusive, like in this picture. It takes an intense spiritual process to reveal the inner "self"...
We realise too late that all our hectic activity of life is 'mere-shadow-boxing'...

Sorry, my 'force-of-habit'.... I make out some stupid 'spiritual' meaning out of everything.
Please go ahead, enjoy the picture, and try to forgive me, and forget what I said (aforesaid).
(The shadows of camels appear to be THE REAL camels, where as the real camels are very narrow, since the view is from top!
Regards,
psn

No Self

No Self

Prologue:
Why not go in for an expanded version of the brief question… So I felt…..
Let me tell you a very small bed-time story. Only that, now we spend that bed-time in front of a Monitor, eyes wide open! So, the timing is still perfect.

Once upon a time, there was a carpenter….. (my father told me during my kid days…)
Though not very poor, he managed a reasonable income, sufficient to nurture his large family. Being the only ‘earning’ member and also the head of the family, he had that moral responsibility to ensure reasonable care for the family.
He regularly used to tell his wife “Please make sure that children don’t become hunger-stricken”…
She was a very obedient and humble wife. She had great trust in the carpenter’s wisdom. She took his advice a bit ‘too literally’ and made sure that none of her children went hungry. As parents, they ate what ever was left over after the children finished dining.
Over a period of time, the carpenter and his wife started ‘thinning’ into lean health. The work load became too unbearable for the carpenter with lesser and lesser ‘fuel’ for health.
He eventually died.
With no bread-winner anymore, soon the family came to know what is poverty and hunger.
It was then, the poor wife realized what he had meant when he requested her “please ENSURE that children don’t become poverty-stricken” ! The carpenter was too modest a person, and felt embarrassed to ask for ‘full-stomach’ quota while dining. He instead chose to put it very mildly, when he said “ensure that children don’t BECOME hunger-stricken” (that is, eventually …)!
(Here, the small Story is over)
This is what happens when the “concept” of self-less-ness is not properly understood!
We have those legal ‘entities’ as iconic examples. Big companies, joint-stock companies which look like a very big “SELF” without any tangible human form! We are taught to share a bit of that company, serve that company, asked to remain loyal to that company, defend, represent, and what not! Yet, there is ‘no self’ in that company, the way we experience our “selves”! Take good care of that large company and it rewards the staff, the stake-holders, its customers, the country and everybody well! But try to thrust our own ‘well-being’ right into the heart of that company as a top-priority, and we have that huge 150 year-old company collapse(like L.. B…), triggering a Global-economic-meltdown!
Actually, for me at least it appears thus: managing that ‘self’ getting inflated too much is not that big a problem in the present day situation. We are centered around just the money, more than anything else. We forgot to respect knowledge, virtues, etc. There is hardly any jealousy when somebody becomes wise, knowledgeable, skilled etc unless that person is also “stinking-rich” …. !!So, it is a bit easy too, to just keep that ‘tab’ on money, or it’s getting too much into our head.
(End of prologue).

(This is what I had started off with, before I squeezed in that prologue, given above):
There is that virtue of selfishness too.
We people are often confused with these contradicting terms. There is also that ‘self-less-ness’ being extolled as a virtue.
Quite natural that somebody does ask its day-to-day use, lest one may miss the ‘practical’ utility, waiting(wasting) life-long for that clarity.
For me, it looked as simple as playing the ‘given’ role.
I wonder if our Malayalee friends had managed to look a bit deeper, when they so casually use these words to even respectfully address others as “ Ad-dheyham” (Aa = that, dheham = body, symbolizing in a deeper sense, the omnipresent spark of divinity, presently manifesting through “that” body !!!!!).
Psn (4th June, 2009)


http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090602043211AAijcqW
The question:
How does the concept of "no self" help us in our day to day lives?

My reply:
Aha..
When you say "concept", then we have to look a bit deeper.
'No self' helps us to recognise the 'inter-dependence' of human beings, mutually as also with everything around. Out of this understanding, we evolve, and then move towards a 'no-help-seeking' attitude. When people start giving out more than what they receive or 'expect' to receive, then this 'no-self' affords merging with everything around. It resolves most life-problems, especially those that we created like this economic meltdown, recession etc!

Concepts

My father used to tell us bed-time stories. How well I understood them was not his problem. And I was myself a problematic kid even then, so quite a few of them did work or wove into funny ways, conjuring up funny ideas into my little head. One of such stories stayed within me for too long a time. The reason was the questions it raised.

This story had two characters. One was an aged Namboodiri, belonging to what was regarded as an orthodox, sacred and pious type of people. The other was his very close friend , a Christian priest! I realized later during the adulthood, that this story was quite true, and did happen! But the names of the places, where these two people hailed was too complex, beyond my ability to even repeat, so no way to remember. Names of people and the places they live in, get almost welded like those gas-welding of metals! When I asked about such complexity in names, my father narrated a small joke: It seems there was a Nair, whose first name was Raman. Now there are dozens of “Raman Nair’s” all over the village. So people identified him with a herbal shrub “Kanjhara” beside his house. So he became ‘Kanjhara Raman Nair”. After this name stuck too hard to him, he felt irritated, because it diminished his own grandeur, his family, its house etc, and gave some silly undue importance to a stupid shrub. People even called him for short ‘Kanjhara’ and so on. One day he simply chopped the shrub, at its trunk, leaving just a barren stub. But, the name now simply became “kanjhara-kutti-Raman-Nair” ! ‘Kutti” means a ‘stub’ or a short pole. He now got really annoyed, and uprooted the stub, right from below ground level, not sparing even the roots. Now, his anger, annoyance, and stubbornness was quite visible, when people passed by, noticing a deep hole in the earth where that innocent shrub had once stood. But by now, people had got so much used to addressing him with that ‘Kanjhara’ prefix that, they simply added that pit-hole, to make it as ‘Kanjhara-kutti-kuzhi-Raman-Nair’ !! Yes, you don’t need to be told the meaning for the word ‘kuzhi’!

Sorry, for leaving the main story with just titles. Our Namboodiri friend was once afflicted very badly with some kind of serious skin ailment. No doctor could find a cure. He tried all types of known concoctions in ayurveda! Then he turned to his friend the Christian priest, and asked him if he could do something. Very peculiarly, this Namboodiri maintained a ‘safe’ distance on every aspect from this Christian priest, because of their diverse religious faiths. Yet, this Namboodiri could never pluck out the friendship and love that he ‘naturally’ felt for this priest. The priest in turn, respected the other’s sentiments, understood very deeply the other’s love for him, and never became a cause of concern to ever reduce the heart-level-intimacy, though proximity was always at an arms-length! Namboodiri knew that this priest had medical skills too, but came to him only as a last resort, just because he was very hesitant about physical examination by him! But now the ailment had aggravated and spread around visibly enough. The priest prescribed a medicine, which included some python’s fat as an ingredient. Our Namboodiri was visibly annoyed at such ridiculous suggestion, knowing fully well, that his religion rigidly prescribed strict vegetarianism, this priest had the audacity to suggest a snake-fat for consumption! Namboodiri retorted “to hell with your medicine, your friendship and all. I shall go to my last resort now, my faith in my prayer, my God.” Having said thus, the priest did not turn up for the joint-morning-walk, they usually had together, and the only time they nourished the friendship each day. After a few weeks, the Namboodiri got cured! He now felt his first duty to be to storm into that priest’s place and declare with emphatic proof that his own faith was good enough to cure! The priest smiled calmly. He then humbly and politely asked what exactly the Namboodiri did by way of rituals, to merit this benediction. “Oh!” said the Namboodiri, cutting the story short, ‘nothing much, I used to get into the river water up to waist level, chant incantations, sip holy water several times, in between, and invoke divine blessings. I did this for few hours each day, as a rigorous penance’ he added. There was nothing more to probe into this miracle, felt our Namboodiri. The priest now politely requested ‘do you mind taking me to the very place where you performed this ritual?’. The Namboodiri proudly marched his friend to the very spot along the river banks. The river was small, with some modest flow. The priest took a look, and now suggested that they walk a little further, along the flow, upwards. Very soon, they reached a spot where the water was flowing out of a narrow gap between two huge rocks. Somehow a very large python had got trapped between these two rocks, leaving them to even guess as to how it died. But it was quite visible, that it had remained there for a few weeks, trapped, undisturbed, and the flow of water over its huge and long body ensured that did not rot in dry humid air. Now it was the Priest’s turn to explain. He said ‘My good friend, with due respect to your faith, it was also the very same snake-fat, but in larger and raw doses that did the work!’ The rest of the story does not matter.

This is how concept works sometimes!

Concepts are usually too subtle. So what good could a ‘concept-about-concept’ do to us, to be easily understood first? I found a chapter(‘Concept Formation’) in one of the books by a renowned author, ‘Ayn Rand’ where she describes ‘concept of concepts’ in the book, entitled ‘Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology’. I cannot but help quoting one sentence I loved, in it : “… In this sense and respect, perceptual awareness is the arithmetic, but conceptual awareness is the algebra of cognition”. I would not even venture to go any further about that. But yes. Each is left to one’s own concepts about everything. Some scientific concepts are thrust upon us in school text books, and we are fortunate that nobody challenges us about it at degree level or ever thereafter!

Somehow, I have a feeling that most of us are now very reluctant to look at simple things with the ‘respect’ it deserves! Perhaps that is why those simple rituals, simple traditions, got scoffed at and got lost into oblivion over a period of time. The more complex a gadget is, that we have, more the respect it fetches to us! Complex solutions have some kind of instant magical appeal! That is what made me think about those old-fashioned concepts, the two liners that the ancient simple saints and sages sang for their disciples, what we call as ‘Kabeer’s doha’, Vemmanna’s Padyamu, etc. Oh! Is it that what we ‘perceive’ is going to become what we conceive, and the concept? Then, it is verily our perception levels that decides as to what and how we perceive, and in turn we then ‘conceive’ it. Perhaps exactly, just like it is described in biology text books, only one in million sperms get a chance for human womb to get ‘conceived’ with it! No wonder even that process is made far too complex and costly too, for us now!

Psychiatrists invariably make lot of money, when we love to get addicted to complexities and complications! Oh! It all started when I looked at the ‘best’ answer for a very simple question in ‘Yahoo Answers Forum(How can u memorize easily?), and then I too inadvertently got trapped into forwarding it as a ‘worth’ reading mail to a few of my young recipients! I don’t know whether it was my laziness or what, that I told myself, ‘Oh! Mercifully, it is any way not for me now, at this age!’

My collection of concept says, not to make this too long now, so I give just the web link to the question, only for those who like to take a look at it.

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhAODhQRJYXbmc_QEx_iWQaRHQx.;_ylv=3?qid=20090523001631AAT8ple&show=7#profile-info-3e8fFRCIaa

Conceptually yours,
Psn (25th May, 2009)

The LED, let it remain ON!

Most gadgets that we use today, have those LEDs to tell us the power is on. Including the one to which we run up to when we have doubts if there is a power failure—the “mains” switchboard that ‘houses’ the LEDs.

I have a small weakness or a problem. Right from the childhood. Teachers in my school used to caution us saying “Please close all your physics text books! Please switch off the physics from your mind, that was the previous period…. Now it is Maths!”….
Like all other students, I too obeyed the teacher, about closing the text book. But, switching off the mind from that topic abruptly was a problem. It still is. Then, it used to raise funny questions, like, I ask myself (in my ‘unswitched’ mind, ofcourse), why does not the flame-tongue of a candle go horizontally, if we hold the candle horizontally instead of vertically?

It is only very recently I discovered that there is a small advantage of not switching off!
And then I just refined (or I just fine tuned myself)….
LEDs do not consume much power. Just a very small glow. That is why we have cheaper torches now, that do not eat up battery cells like it used to.
All I did was to look at that “on” position in my little head as an LED , the alertness!
Most of my good friends who used to respond that innocent childhood liveliness during my school days are now busy with long brooding faces! May be they forgot to switch off the main power supply to the incessantly rotating motor of the hard-disk in their brains! They hardly manage to get out one problem out of their heads, while ten more newer problems tend to creep in, and now even their dual-core-processors struggle ! I am left gaping, when I wonder how they forgot to switch off their mind from one problem to attend to another, like they used to when switching off physics, and turning on to Maths!

How I became an odd fellow, too is a funny phenomenon. During the black and white film days, even flash was an ‘use-and-throw’ bulb. During marriage functions, the flash-photographer really used to struggle to get that precious picture on celluloid. The film was too slow. Most importantly, the sanctum area was slightly ‘out-of-bounds’ for him. And many a times, the picture of the ‘crowning’ moment showed only the ‘tuft’ of the priest! That fellow would suddenly lean forward to reach the groom, to hand over the holy water, sprinkle it on his palms, or something like that! This character, the priest was an odd man of sorts! In the whole gathering, he is the only one exempted from ‘code-of-conduct’ (like those election-period code of conduct, switched on after notification of election dates, and switched off after results are ‘formally’ handed over to President). Our priest does not need to wear even a banian, while it is mandatory for all men and women to be in their new, best and only silk dresses! He can shout whenever he pleases, order anybody to do anything! A reverse code of conduct! I don’t know if my funny brain assumed such positions, to get along being an odd fellow!

I do not blame the teachers at all for asking the students to switch off their physics etc. They had their own constraints. I happened to notice that teachers scheduled all their classes to happen within the first three quarters of the day. It was the Saaars—not czars, mind you (male teachers are always ‘Sir’ here!). So, most of the last periods of the day are manned by Sirs, while most first few periods are ‘wommenned’ by teachers. So, there was no need to look at the sequence of classes from the point of view of ‘promoting’ cohesive or progressive sequence, the consequential intelligence for the students. Those who continued to attend the ‘classes’ during their deputation for ‘training’ at work place would at least agree, what happens in the class during the post-lunch sessions!

It is when I learnt of an interesting session (about a methodology at IIMs) that I happened to re-look at my own LED! It seems, the management trainees were asked to solve a tough problem in a group discussion. After some time, they were asked to re-group differently, and spend just about 5 minutes to solve another puzzle, leaving the problem for a while. After ‘failing’ at the puzzle-group, they got back to their original problematic groups, and continued attempting the problem-solving. Then, after a while, the entire class was asked to turn their chairs, leaving the groups, problems and puzzles unsolved, to now face the lecturer. The lecturer explained, that the problem and puzzle, both were deliberately made tough. The idea of the session was to enable the candidates to EXPERIENCE and not just theorize or opinionate the phenomenon that happened in their brains. One set of brain cells were engaged incessantly to solve a problem. When they turned to look at puzzle, another set of brain cells were now engaged, leaving the former problematic-fatigued cells to rest & recoup. When then returned to problem, leaving the puzzle, they were expected to experience of their own, some freshness in their capability to look at the old problem. The theme was that if we refuse to put down the tumbler and hold it in our hands for too long, the hands would ache torturously! I looked at it, also as, not to switch off the LED, the alertness of mind, in the name of taking rest from brain-storming sessions, in our daily life. Perhaps, our mind-LEDs take a lot of time to ‘restart’ like those thermal power stations!

If it will not be too much of a strain, I am tempted to narrate a small ‘session’ I happened to devise for a kid of 8th class. This kid, I felt, might have some rigidities about me, due to age gap, and the ‘template’ in his mind that ‘elders have to be obeyed’ choicelessly. Where as, my aim was to help him to see that it was Okay to keep mathematics ‘on’ while looking at an experiment of physics, to be able to co-relate both cohesively, and also to understand the logic in a deeper way.

This was what I asked him to read, and act ‘as he wished to’, upon it.
Quote:

No compulsion . ONLY IF YOU WILLINGLY WISH TO TRY!

SPEND A MINUTE TO BECOME CALM IN MIND
Now, read the following sentences, only one at a time. After reading one sentence please wait…….
See if you are able to agree completely.
If “yes” , then, there should be no problem in visualizing it! Try maximum CLARITY, details in the image (the visuals) like we try for more PIXELS & resolution in the Monitor/Printer images.
THE SENTENCES:
What is the shortest distance between two points ‘A’ & ‘B’? A straight line. Yes?
Light travels in a straight line. Yes?
Shortest distance between the upper tip of the flame of a candle light and a pin hole in a card board placed a little away vertically.
Now, extend the same straight line through the pin hole till it touches another card board placed similarly, with the same gap of distance, beyond pin hole card board.
Repeat 3 & 4 for another ray of light traveling from lower tip of the flame towards the same pin hole.
The image of the flame HAS TO BE inverted (on the 2nd card board)
Now, what about the Human eye? What about the image that WE see?
(children are FOND of bending down and looking backwards between their knees!) Are they trying to press the “UNDO” button of their brain ? ? ! ! !

Unquote:

There was a joke, I heard from a friend who had returned to India, after a long time. His son, who was brought up in a concrete jungle, in that foreign country was in for a big surprise when they walked out of the airport. Everything was strange for that kid. He happened to see a buffalo being goaded, by the milkman, walking ahead of him. Suddenly, he tugged his father’s hand and said “Babuji , See, it couldn’t wait” !!! My friend turned to look at what the kid was trying to say. He saw that the buffalo was dropping the dung even as it was walking!

Usually, when I happen to conjure up something out of 'my' idiot box, I try it out with somebody around, to see if it was worth mailing. But this time, even I feel, “I couldn’t wait”, like that poor buffalo!

Illuminatingly yours,PSN(20th May, 2009)

Opinion

Yes, it is about opinion itself, from me, not just an opinion! Whether it is still an opinion (by me, for you…), though about opinion, is a matter of your opinion, again depending upon how heavily opinionated you are!


We all know why that “Opinion” poll was prohibited until at least all the phases of voting for election was over! Perhaps, the politicians are themselves scared of their own weaponry!

That is the power of Opinion!

People who were very impressed by that “Gandhi-giri” (Lage Raho-MunnaBhai Movie), were even eager to try it out! But they might be too shy to talk about or admitting it if it failed. The reason as to why Gandhi-giri did not happen to work for them is not too far to seek. It works only if it is accompanied by a “public opinion being mobilized”.
Showing another cheek if slapped on one, should be only in full public view ! Policemen actually specialize in trace-less slapping in a closed questioning-room, during investigation, and ‘showing the other cheek’ is no more a matter of choice there! Does it work!

Shaheed Bhagat Singh was not the only one to be hanged during freedom struggle. But he did understand the power of ‘public-opinion’ and it was indeed a Gandhi-giri style (being hanged for just non-violently exploding a bunch of leaflets in full public view, right inside the parliament premises!)

I wonder if those who are staunch followers of non-violence would really show the other cheek to a mosquito which lands upon one cheek to bite, or would they inadvertently slap themselves and then ‘claim’ that it was a part of non-violence too, to slap their own faces!

The present day generation is flooded with opinions of all kinds. Most of the time, we are led by opinion. Even psychiatrists seem to try that “auto-self-suggestion” as a technique, because, may be, when we tell the same thing many times to ourselves, it becomes like a public opinion to us , (public is after all “many”, so many times could be ‘equal to’ public!)

Some time or other we might have wondered, as to why we are unable to ‘hang’ on to a resolution, a decision, a determination, which we feel is needed to improve ourselves! I am tempted to look at that decision as an ‘opinion’, that is why perhaps it did not work. Opinions by themselves do not ‘perform’. The subtle nature of ‘opinion’ reminds me of that cotton-ball type of sweet candy or so which just loses it size when ‘chewed’, though it initially teases our cheeks, trying to stick on! I am voluntarily ready to disclose that the mythological character “Hanuman” gains his power not out of any opinion by onlookers, but by being “reminded” of the truth, that he did possess enormous powers (Hanuman was to remain under a spell/curse, that unless reminded, his powers were to remain latent). So it not a psychiatric ‘suggestion’ to Hanuman that worked. Suppose we lost some heavy amount by way of pick-pocket, when that amount was badly needed to save the life of a near & dear one, then we have learnt a lesson. Now we do not need a resolve, borrowing it as a dependable opinion that “it is good to beware of pick-pockets”. But, not all are depending on such hard lessons. For example intellectuals, scientists, etc can easily foresee the harm of mis-handling a hazardous material, and know of their own wisdom, that abundant care is needed. It we the ‘common’ men who find it convenient to float on opinions, instead of taking the efforts to swim across decisively to a goal!

Spirituality does not support, unfortunately, any kind of dependence on opinion. Even if a spiritual practice is done sincerely, but is ‘driven’ by an opinion, the benefits could be just incidental, physical and quite attractive, but not a lasting one, in spiritual terms.

Marketing techniques are at its best, from results point of view, when an opinion is created first, and then a product is marketed. Day in and out, we are choicelessly showered upon with opinions, and therefore what else would we become, over a period of time… “Man is but a bundle of opinions”?! All the time, we are worried about “what 4 people will say?” (that was the joke, when the Indian-language-version was translated).

Now, it really calls for “own” opinion, “original” opinion, or shall we say, a “well considered” opinion (that brain-storming, nerve-wrecking session), if at all someone is inclined to respond? No problems. I know, what it takes for a response to ‘snow-ball’ into an opinion, if we feel it safe that way, before we attempt to sincerely respond.

Opinionatively yours,
Psn (18th May, 2009)

Political awareness

Recently, I was persuaded to join a web-page forum, by a youngster from USA. I was hesitant, initially, being aware of my ignorance about politics, like any other lay person. But he somehow managed to persuade me, with his sincere appeal in his mails.
I was all along wondering as to how I could be of help, in ‘active’ participation, in discussions on that forum. I never had an occasion to focus on ‘discussing’ politics with a concerted effort. Yet, living for so long amidst a society, which is renowned globally for being the largest democracy, with most number of political parties, and those parties with multi-dimensional ideologies, all this emanating from the very nature of fabric of the nation, its culture, heritage, long history, secular nature, multi-religious people etc., I was naturally exposed to observing the unique nature of politics. It is therefore not surprising that even the structure of syllabus for politics taught as a ‘science’ in our Universities seems to evade that comprehensive edifice! The fallout of this phenomenon is that there are more number of less literate people who head politics more successfully than the people who attempted to study it first in a structured manner. Practical real life experience remains the better tutor!

So, I managed to put forth my views on awareness about politics, from a lay person’s view point.
The forum too presents navigational teething-troubles to me, since it is managed by expert youngsters of that highly computer-literate country!
I had to ask very basic questions like:
a). Whether it is worth at all for publishing as a ‘post’ for discussion
b) If it is worthy, then, to which section (topic) does this appropriately fit in
c) Or, regardless of the contents being worth publishing whether the topic “Discussions on Need for improving the level of awareness about politics amongst citizens” warrants a new section (like that “36th (new) Chamber of Shaolin”  !).

Before I proceed with the topic, I would like you to know that I would be awaiting your kind comments/views/feedback/response/criticism etc with an open mind!

Now the topic:
Political awareness
An increase of just 2 inches in the ocean’s water level would have a tremendous impact on the ecological balance due to the incalculable quantity of incremental water! Almost similar is the rate of progress of a nation, if the general public, the vast spread citizens of a nation happen to become a little more aware than previously, if they learn about the ingredients of ‘what constitutes to make a good politician/political party’ that would enable the nation to progress well.

I would therefore try to look at it from a ‘lay-man’s’ view point, rather than involve in the ‘scientific’ type of study of politics (for which there are numerous and more competent universities everywhere!).

Basically, a good politician needs to be
1. an all-rounder, a ‘jack of all trades’ as they say, to be able to take political decisions which would not adversely affect any particular section of the society.
2. A person who extends the idea of ‘personal’ integrity, honesty, ethics, values etc beyond oneself, to reach all the sections of the society, to act as a conscience keeper of the society. For example, the vast powers that a political head acquires when elected, would weaken his ability to withstand the temptations to use it for vested interests! The present crisis due to recession is perhaps a typical example. It is a cumulative effect of unbridled ‘liberalization’ accorded to certain vested interests, in the name of ‘free-trade’, democratic freedom to pursue any business in a ‘free-for-all’ open competition, etc. The principles of free trade, liberalization etc, by itself is laudable. It is the implementation allowed ‘legally’ that has suffered lack of foresight! There are very many laws which proclaim social security, health, financial support etc to the very same citizens, who in turn have impliedly submitted to abide by the law-makers, law-keepers and law-administrators (the three main wings of a democracy)! It needs a very shrewd politician who places the welfare of others as a priority, well above self, or a limited section of people, to consider the side-effects of such ‘free-trade’ etc!
3. A person, who is assisted by trusted experts around him/her, who would ‘specialize’ in in-depth study of any and all aspects of events happening around, even globally, and in that nation in particular. For example, scientific progress and industrialization cannot be withheld in any progressive nation. There was a time when means of transportation was using carriages drawn by horses, bulls etc. Now, an automobile gets invented and drastically reduces cost of transportation. It is very good for the nation as a whole. But, overnight, if licenses are issued to a large number of bus-operators, it would throw lots of poor horse-driven carriage owners out of business, and leave their families and dependents on the brink of starvation! It is here that a politician has to take a great ‘risk’ of incurring the wrath of scientists, bus-manufacturers, bus-operators etc, and manage an amicable and healthy compromise, to afford a very smooth transition into industrialization, within the shortest possible period of time!
4. A person who can ‘step out’ of one’s own religious sentiments, sense of loyalty, impact of cultural mannerisms due to environment that has affected the upbringing. To explain this, we can look at an example. Japan is a country, whose agriculture is mainly in sea waters. Its land does not support agriculture to the extent possible in other countries. Its people have to ‘trade to live’. They have to work hard to import raw materials, convert it into finished goods, export it at a competitive profit, and use the earnings to buy, or even import, many of the basic necessities of life. Over a period of time, this kind of life naturally imparts great capabilities like team-spirit, nation-spirit, enduring hard and long hours of labor, etc. Many experts from Japan have now ended up heading giant multi-national corporate firms even in USA. Their presence would naturally have a sizable impact on the market conditions in that country. Now a politician in USA has to ‘visualize’ as to how these decision making chief executives would view any major political decision, or policy, would be viewed by these executives, who hail from a country of diverse culture, and therefore are bound to carry with them their unique sentiments, sense of priority etc.
5. (The list is endless, and requirements do keep changing according to the evolvement in social structure!). So, to make it brief, just one more significant aspect of a good politician, to be mentioned here is that, a person needs to be well evolved emotionally! A good human being is well balanced, with emotions and logic! Emotions are manifest forms or more tangible forms of intuition. Absence of negative emotions like fear, hatred, jealousy, anger is a basic requisite. Otherwise, decisions made out of a mind driven by such negative emotion would adversely or even at times irreversibly affect the nation! It is here that racist tendencies and factors lurk as a suspicion and doubt in the minds of a few sections of the society, when they are unable to ‘decide’ about whether to vote for a particular candidate! Awareness is the only tool available to arrive at a well considered decision. This awareness helps a common citizen to understand the constraints of a honest politician, when a tax is hiked, or levied, due to exigency! For example, a political head of a very small island nation is suddenly faced with a survival problem. Some pirate has tried to park a huge oil container along the coast of this tiny island nation. And accidentally, the vast oil tanker spills on its coast, polluting the marine sea life. And if that nation depends entirely on fishing on its coast for food as the primary occupation, there is a sudden extinction threat to its citizens. The political head cannot plead with any court or sue against that international pirate! And time is against the head-politician. Some harsh decisions have to be taken, restricting the luxuries of rich people, to tax them, to ensure the survival of the majority poor! Recession is somewhat similar to this. The financial markets are like polluted sea waters, suddenly refusing to support fishes and fishing industry! Cleansing the water takes time. It cannot be like blood transfusion. An emotionally unstable politician would perhaps waste efforts in vengeance on wrong-doers, and spend the precious time in wasteful efforts. Improvising the laws to prevent wrong-doers, bringing them to justice etc is equally important, but not at the cost of efforts to ensure survival of innocent victims! Emotional balance ensures optimization of human resources.

Electing a good politician has always been an elusive problem globally all-over. This is simply because of the unique and ironical situation where, non-experts, the common citizens are required to ‘award’ the title of ‘political representative’ to an expert! The solution lies in striving to improve the general awareness about politics and politicians.
I sincerely wish that forums such as this would work towards achieving this goal, and its contributors derive the invaluable self-satisfaction for having selflessly contributed, volunteering their efforts and precious time.

With best wishes,
“Spiritualseeker”
(P.S.Narayanan)
13th May, 2009, (Incidentally, the final-phase-day of 5-year general elections-2009 to Indian Parliament!!)

Impact of Global Recession/Meltdown or 'Economic Tsunami' on savings of Individuals.

A very close person, recently asked for my views on how this ‘recession’ would impact on savings of individuals.
This person is close to me in many ways. Just to cite an instance, it is the ‘galaxy’ of close people around him (relatives & true well wishers) that I could see at one place when I too was invited for a religious function in his family. Never had I seen some 150 brilliant people assemble at one place to participate with this much intensity and thorough knowledge of what they were expected to really do, when they were invited to ‘bless’ a child during a religious ceremony! Half of them were leading & renowned chartered accountants and the other half were eminent lawyers. There were some 5 to six Judges, the retired judges remained un-noticed, while two of them were accompanied by ‘security’ personnel, its vehicles, which made their eminence quite ‘visible’. Otherwise, the persons by themselves, had been able to easily keep aside their ‘name-tags’ so effortlessly and mingled with the purpose and people around! I consider myself very fortunate to be able to even ‘witness’ live, such an occasion! I could mentally feel grateful to the practices that I was fortunate to be initiated into, to be able to feel the ‘charge’ of energy these people had created conducive enough to enhance the possibility of the happening of ‘initiation’ of that child at its best!

Needless to add, this person also happens to be a chartered accountant. But, unlike other professionals, who get stuck in the commercial aspect of even relationships, its emotional values etc, he effortlessly is able to apply ‘balancing’ of accounts & review the spiritual aspect of life, beyond the commercial values!
To hasten with the topic, I simply love to quote the ‘audited’ balance-sheet he gave me.

Balance sheet of Past generation:

Assets
1.Joint family-Each having 7-8 children.
2.Intangible Assets
-Goodwill
-Patent/copy rights(Knowledge & Creativity)

3.Real Assets(Appreciating)-Acres of Land, Gold etc(Next 2 generation can survive)

Liabilities
'Black sheeps' within the family-Head aches only

Net Assets - '+'ve

Balance sheet of the Present generation:

Assets
1.Nucleal family-Each having max.2 children.(no external connection, diff. community)
2.Intangible Assets-NIL
3.Real Assets(Depreciating)-Consumer Goods

Liabilities
Diseases requiring Major surgery

Net Assets - '-'ve

Unquote:

When we see individuals bearing the brunt of ‘global’ effect of recession, we look for its reasons, etc.
Why this ‘joint’ family came into focus, when looking at effects of recession on individuals is that, we seldom find such ‘joint-families’ struggle or get affected to dire situations like poverty-death etc like small family.
Why this joint-family system fail/break-down is also a question.
But how did we get into this joint-family system would be a better option to look at first, especially if we are keen to now re-discover the ‘hidden’/ latent / intangible benefits!
Primitive human beings would have life by themselves, and unto themselves obviously, so tells us our common sense.
The evolved ones got themselves clustered for better ‘insulation’ from unforeseen situations like vagaries of nature. Here is the clue. Individual strength does not sustain during massive-effect-situations. In a storm, a group of people holding themselves together would survive better, from being swept away. But, this grouping is not feasible after the storm has ‘commenced’ its business operations!
Please see, when people evolve, their perceptions, judgments, actions etc get deeper and subtler. It takes either similar capabilities to understand, or some TRUST(without bothering about ‘capabilities) to benefit from their knowledge!
We had an ‘evolved’ lot, of generations, who held on to that joint-family concept.
Benefits:
When I attempt to briefly put forth the ‘benefits’ , I am painfully aware of the constraints of limiting myself to only those benefits which would ‘appeal’ to present day ‘logical’ minds, and that too commercially-oriented(if that word ‘commercially’ hurts too much, let us say ‘practical’!).
a) Strength of that sheer number (man-power) for any situation that requires effort.
b) Each individual can focus on ‘specializing’ in fewer aspects and very intensely to derive the productivity at peak levels.
c) Cost effectiveness at basic needs being fulfilled.
d) Okay, the list can go on thus…. Suffice it to give a demonstrable example. A small branch of a Bank can handle only a small crowd of customers, and when it grows into a large branch, the diversified aggregate business that it can handle is not just directly proportional, but many more times over, because of single focused repetitive tasks that specialized individual perform, and their productivity getting enhanced over a period of time.
e) We know, as in a computerized networked environment, a system administrator is better equipped to maintain the network at a ‘proximity’ than when the network is sprawled at distant locations. When an only son of a couple is re-located far away, and needs some help for medical nature, it is impractical for either father or mother to give the physical care and attention, leaving the other spouse alone at that advanced age. Simple kitchen remedies for small ailments go beyond reach(physical and memory resources too) and invariably aggravate over a period of time end up as a chronic-acute & costlier-to-treat-ailments.
f) The list seems endless….

The reasons for ‘how we broke up’ are not too difficult to seek.
It perhaps started with that lure for ‘social-status’ (a concept brought in during British rule… They were liberal in giving attractive titles to individuals, who got tempted to enjoy being looked upon as something ‘better’ than simple looking commoners! Even now it WORKS! Fancy titles are given to lure youngsters for doing simple jobs, like “sales executive” for salesman, health-environment-coordinator for sweepers etc.) Once we take fancy for being looked upon as unique, distinct, class-apart etc, we tend to break away from ordinary-looking-group. It is safer to stay alone, than staying with a brother who is doing ‘nothing’ at home! It takes a lot, to extend the idea beyond our own body to our blood relations, the idea that, when our left hand does nothing much, and our right hand does most of the work, we continue to love both our arms ‘equally’ and that they belong to us! May be, we try to recover faster from any injury to right hand. But we also do not mind ‘taxing’ the right hand more even when it is yet to fully recover from an injury, while, the left hand would have been ‘pampered’ to recover at its ‘leisure’! (I cannot resist the temptation to at least make a mention here that India is the only country where we have a very long history of having given ‘free’ meals to unproductive-LOOKING people, who just sit & meditate , namely the sadhus, Bhikshukas, sanyasis etc! Again it takes a lot, for the present day mind, to really understand & accept that when elderly people are just present physically, there is a ‘dynamic’ but latent/hidden effect of their presence, though they seem dull, idle & unproductive. That is why the present day elders are shunted away to old-age-homes!).

When that commercial ‘concerns’ collapse (due to recession), the lack of ‘insulation’ becomes glaringly evident. A ‘live’ child’s face (so easily seen in a joint-family, because there is always a young couple ), is much more re-assuring, refreshing, promising during gloomy moods. But in isolated small family, even that grown up child is too far way. TV, video-phone, etc do not provide that emotional comfort beyond a point! I need not elaborate the benefits of ‘pooling’ of resources, to survive longer during a crisis. But when it is DISTRUST that has separated us, how do we re-build the mutual trust, to benefit from ‘joint-effort’ ? Creating a deep trust is itself an arduous task. But once it is lost, re-building a trust is much more difficult. Essentially, it is LOSS of trust that has triggered this recession. And the effect is baffling! A whole of country, that ‘Iceland’ is said to have become ‘bankrupt’! The bulk of savings of small individuals there was with three or more major banks in USA, which collapsed. So, for no apparent fault of theirs, the entire nation, all the ‘individual’ citizens, collectively became bankrupt. Can we not at least learn something from it? Individuals amongst us too, found it convenient to TRUST the western modern culture, fashion, ideals, materialistic outlook, social lifestyles etc, and invest our very lifestyle, forsaking our traditional values etc. There is nothing wrong in using modern technologies, but only after careful consideration. Take a look at the lifestyle we had about 8 decades ago. We cannot make out whether a person is rich, brilliant, etc by merely looking at their physical attire. All were similarly simple-dressed. It was a need-based attire. That dress style can survive any type of recession. And thus we can compare endlessly. I can use a simple instance out of one of my own day-dreaming sessions. I was wondering how this world would look like, when archeological experts excavate the earth surface after some 200 years. The present day surface would show lots of ‘junk’ and non-biodegradable garbage pile, to ‘show’ how we lived, and what we considered as wealth! And, we know from our present archeological experts, that they discovered ONLY biodegradable materials plus mineral WEALTH like gold coins etc of eternal value. Perhaps, Mother Nature had decided to “charge-sheet” us! And industrial-labour-law insists that a charge-sheet should be in “a language understood by the employee”! So, since we the present generation, speak only ‘commercial’ language, “economic/financial/materialistic” recession is the only way, a charge sheet can be served on us! If this seems acceptable, then who would volunteer to be the first fool to begin being simple? Maybe, the economic meltdown gives some ‘socially-valid’ excuse to adopt simple lifestyle at least for some time. Let all others around us reform themselves first. We would ‘wisely’ wait, to first see if really works, and then very safely, join the queue in the last, to adopt a simple lifestyle. Less of gadgets, less of consumer use-and-litter goods means more savings(see, already some people are wise, and prices of gold, the only TANGIBLE-TRUSTWORTHY thing left, is soaring so fast) , and safer future. Perhaps a paradigm shift in our basic attitude could help. If we try to ‘act’ as ‘Trustees’ to what we possess, instead of that ‘ownership’ oriented possessive outlook, the rest would happen a bit more effortlessly. All the needed things to minimize the impact of recession on individuals, reducing that ‘burdensome’ feeling, would take shape by itself. We would perform better as responsible ‘trustees’ to hand over what we possessed and improved upon, to the next generation.
There is a ‘silver-lining’ to this crisis. We are forced to now contemplate, about what we did with our lives, and then what we propose to do (of course, in the given situation). There are several instances where dreaded terrorists, get reformed in confinement when isolated in single cell prisons, where they re-look at their past, without that brain-washing-influence of politically oriented fundamentalist-mentors of theirs. We are fortunate that we do not have to carry that negative-tag when we decide to reform. Any reformation from within would culminate into a ‘transformation’ for Good.
We can begin our journey ONLY from where we are at present, and not from where we would like to have been.

Psn (17th April, 2009)

Blessing or benediction

I received an invitation to attend a wedding. It was in Hindi language, since the host was from a traditional north Indian community, and steadfast about ancient values.

The words requesting the invitee’s presence was “Aap Saha parivaar upasthith hokar nav-dampathi ko subh Aasheervad pradaan kar hamein anugrahit karein”

I struggled to translate the two words “Aasheervad & Anugrah”. The nearest I found was Blessing & benediction!

Before I delve into details, another sentence in the same invitation card surprised me pleasantly! It was..”Preethibhoj samaaroh (date) raat 8 bajey sey AAP KE AAGAMANTAK” (meaning the gathering for dinner is on (date) , from 8 pm UNTIL YOUR ARRIVAL!!

I instantly called him over long-distance-phone-call, to verify as to how he happened to choose these two set of sentences. He explained that he picked up the best suited one from various ‘proforma-models’ that the printers usually kept in an album for customers.

The translation for the former sentence roughly means “You are requested to bestow a benediction on us (the hosts, the bride’s parents) by your presence and blessing the newly wed couple”.

Benediction is also used to signify that ‘grace’ at the dinner table, before or after meals.
Blessing seems to have a deeper significance. I am not sure whether English language attempts to attribute so much magnitude of difference as the Sanskrit language, when it uses “Aasheervad” and “Anugrah”.. Benediction, seems closer to ‘benefit’. Similarly, “anugrah” seems closer to “anukool” (favourable, beneficial etc).

Curiously enough, in Kerala, ‘anugraham’ is more frequently used than ‘aasheervaadam’ in Malayalam language (which has the maximum number of Sanskrit words, compared to any other language. Hindi too ranks perhaps second to Malayalam, in this aspect, and it is therefore that Malayalees find it easier than other south Indians, within the non-Hindi belt to learn Hindi faster!). Despite such liberal use of Sanskrit words, I was wondering how they happened to use “anugraham” even in places where “asheervadam” would have been appropriate!

To me, things seem to fall in its place! Kerala is known as “God’s Own Country”(so, Blessing ought to be Gross, Whole-sale, and like a benediction)! The spiritual Giants of ancient times in Kerala used ‘Tantra’ as a ‘tool’ of evolving spiritually, whereas towards north, ‘Mantra’ was preferred. Mantra requires mastery over sound form. Whereas Tantra depends on a Yantra (a tantric design, a gross physical object). If we get caught up due to a ‘judgemental-attitude’ we may tend to take sides, forclosing the possibility of further theories percolating into us. A person seeks only what he lacks. For example, we on earth spend most of our energy in trying to ‘get out of’ the clutches of gravity. My spouse, abruptly asked me recently, if I could get up from the floor without placing the palms on the floor, to prop-up my weight. She had started to ‘feel’ the age, when her legs requested the help of arms to get up from squat-seated position on floor.
It then occurred to me, that she would not have ‘challenged’ my agility, if we were on moon (at least until another 6 times our present age. No basis for this “6” times , except that I read somewhere that Moon’s gravity is 1/6th of that on earth, so roughly our wear and tear is delayed by six times…. Please bear with my crude calculations! ). But essentially, if we were dwelling on a ‘zero’ gravity planet, our energy would be to ‘ground’ on the surface of that planet, rather than trying to pull away from the surface like on earth, in most of our routine physical activities. Lifts (if at all needed) would not be compulsory, if the building is more than 4 floors! (the only contrast might be that the phrase ‘Oh Shit! ‘ would be used all-the-more commonly, since it would float everywhere if we do not take care! So like this grave-gravity problem, perhaps, Kerala is ‘blessed’ with capability to pass on, as a benediction, a topography which naturally supports spirituality. Once in a spiritual plane, people tend to float (like at zero gravity atmosphere), and they have to ‘ground’ themselves with efforts. That seems to explain the ‘preference’ of Yantra, and earthly-looking-physical form. Many things seem to support this theory that the topography naturally ‘supports’ spiritual evolvement. The very soil, the porous stones, coming out of ‘belly’ of deep volcanic under-surface, carrying with it rich rare minerals which cause mystic radiations, affecting human brains neurologically a lot! The ancient Namboodiris of Kerala were experts in chess, but with a unique distinction! They used the ‘chess-men’ out of the similar-looking material, the banana-stem, making out the difference between pawns, king, queen, bishop, rook etc, only by the slant-cuts at the top of the banana stem. Everyday, fresh pieces had to be made since banana stem decays overnight! Half the brain of our present-day chess players would be ‘diverted’ to distinguish the pieces ( I admit here, that the rare-breed of blind-chess experts are an exception). The brass-alloy-cooking vessels are sold at an extra- premium, because of certain rare minerals found embedded, when melted. The mud-packs used when these vessels were moulded, after that wax models were emptied, might have contained the mineral wealth from the volcanic soil! Certain mountain tops, also considered as holy, are ‘warning-zones’ for low flying aircrafts, because of some kind of magnetic effect! Such is the terrain, with lots of rare herbs, curative properties, magnet-therapy-oriented mountains etc! Ayurveda system of medicines flourishes most here even today! Certain ayurveda medicines are said to contain high doses of mercury (considered as lethal, by allopathic system, but liberally used by expert physicians, under their direct supervision, very successfully, to cure even cases of ailment ‘abandoned’ by allopathic systems!). Such is the power of other ingredients, out of herbs grown in Kerala! We may have to perhaps wait, till that nano-technology develops adequately, to ‘scientifically’ understand as to how these wonder herbs work miraculously, blending the harmful-looking ingredients as a catalyst, to cure the internal negative-life form, and then quietly disappear, when the parasite-growth is arrested. Something like that ‘Terminator’ getting ‘self-destructed’ after a successful mission!
There are many such ‘mystic-looking’ aspects about Kerala! No wonder people are very particular to ‘hold’ even a bit of land here (fragmentation & sub-division of land is more here, so also is the per-acre population!). I am only attempting to discover if they need the benediction(anugraham) more than blessings(aasheervadam). Literacy rate is high, despite poverty, unemployment etc.
It would be nice, if we could somehow learn how to bless! All we know is to just show the palm over the head of the person bowing to us. What ought to happen while doing so is still very elusive! A few centuries ago, the touch on the head was deeply understood by our people, and it was adapted in a unique way to symbolize the ‘marital-knot’ by ancient Telugu-speaking people in Andhra (again a unique culture that learnt to look at life in a subtle & beyond-sensory-level of perception!). When I look back, I feel very fortunate to have had a glimpse of their ancient rituals, it’s brilliant & highly evolved cultural heritage, when I had my schooling amidst classmates who hailed from traditional families there! Some things that we happened to notice experientially, might look to far-fetched, if I dare to narrate here! I feel ‘blessed’ to have had been amongst a group, that spent our leisure hours to discuss, and experiment with such traditional values, it’s hidden or mystic aspects!
So, I request you to favor me with an ‘anugraha’ by your response, clarifying the difference between “aasheervad” and “anugraha”, while also simplifying with a “how to bless—for dummies” (like those computer books for dummies!). Right now, to me I can only look at it in a very primitive way, like, for example, I think that a being like that Dracula cannot ‘Bless’ somebody, he can at the most grant ‘benefit’(a favor, if anugraha means so,) by sparing a few of his close followers, from his fang bites, for serving him loyally(the only service he might need is ‘supplying’ innocent victims by seducing them, like in those ‘Dracula’ movies.
Yours “favorably”
Psn (5th May, 2009)

Buy one, Get one free!

We are now, more or less, very much used to these types of offer. In fact, we are even not ready to look at ‘straight-forward’ deals! Simple transactions seem insipid! And now with the recession driving away consumerism from people, restoring confidence through stimulus packages, has to contain some kind of offers, freebies, or ‘get-way-with-it’ sort of deals!

When we get ‘one’ free, what do we get in the bargain? Just the free-bee? Is it trouble-free, or is it troubles itself for ‘free’? Because, there is a saying “Nothing comes free in life”… (so, there could be trouble too, accompanying that ‘free’ item, in disguise?!)…

But that “nothing” if taken in a deeper sense is the space for everything (that comes from pioneers/founders of the concept and term “lateral thinking” or that ‘out of box thinking’.

So, if we are not prepared for “everything” and anything, it is perhaps trouble indeed, and for free! Karma?? (winks!)

In a lighter vein, those who like to seek win-win situation, would like to sign of ‘deals’ like this…
(imaginary conversations, fictitious instances)
Example-1
A prospective Borrower: Sir, I am interested to know about various types of loans you offer.
Banker: What types of loans are you specifically interested in, sir?
Our prospective borrower: Sir, all those types of loans which are covered under your “Loan Waiver Schemes”..
Banker: ? ? ? ? (blinks!)

Example-2
A would-be bridegroom: Ah! At last, after a lot of girl-seeing, searching, seeking, person-to-person chats, e-chats, etc, I have found out a bride that suits me well!
Our groom’s friend: Oh! That’s great!
Our groom : what’s Great about it?
Friend: you see, you are sooooo gooood at ‘grating’ others, and then blending them to suit you, to then weave them ‘seamlessly’ into your type! A good techie that you are at that!
Our groom: Oh no! This time, it is not about grating you see. So, I am really not that Great! It is just that I found this girl to be good at Logic. So it is very easy to ‘buy’ a divorce, from her,… just in case….. you see….. without much hassles….. you know what I mean….. Oh! Gone are those days, when they stick like those blood sucking leeches, thrust upon us by primitive surgeons. Now it is laparoscopy , a simple key-hole surgery, even leaving no scar at all!
Fiend (Oh! Pl forgive my mis-spelling, it should be ‘friend’ in need, in deed too!): Yeah! I now get it. A perfect match, is just that! A mutual benefit scheme, a win-win situation.
(The friend hums the old song “Kya yahi pyaar hai…”, our groom joins in duet-chorus “Hahn yahi pyaar hai”)….

Now, I wonder, “kya yahi out-of-box thinking hai”……

Logically yours,
Psn (23rd April, 2009)

A Litmus test for Trooo Love?

At the very look of it, it appears to be a contradiction. The title I mean. “Litmus test is a logical, scientific method to have a sort of ‘fool-proof’ result, or atleast a testing methodology (until somebody disproves it)!

When contradiction occurs (to us, at least), check the basic premise, says the logical objectivism.

Well, what if somebody chooses to ‘Love only the logical way’ to ‘deal’ with anything about life? When somebody loves anything too much, defying even logic, there is a saying in hindi “Dil lagi hai Gadhee par, tho pari kya cheez hai!?? (meaning, when the heart has chosen to lean towards a Donkey, what is after all even a fairy, nymph ?)
Ah! Here again, a contradiction. Love to be only logical? Love is emotion, and prone to defy logic itself. (Then, it could be that a person chooses to remain
‘being logical’ …. Or has that person turned into a “logical being” …. Well, only people who like being logical and hence are logical beings only know better!

“Man is a bundle of contradictions” is a saying that gives us some consolation.

I, for my part, am not the first person to create a ‘precedent’ for not correcting myself. Gurudev, too had chosen not to correct it, when an Englishman politely pointed out an error in a placard at Shantiniketan, which read “tea is served on backside” !! Just that Gurudeva liked to preserve the humor, and the truth that even he is not infallible!

Trying to ‘evaluate’ somebody’s love in a logical way seems a bit illogical. But if we ourselves are keen to know if we truly love(or not,) somebody close to us …..? There have been many people, who try to find out what is “true” love, just because they find something inside them nagging “am I capable at all to love truly?”

I came across a small scene in a very routine type of TV serial. Just the scene seemed really good. Perhaps, this well scripted screenplay could be a ‘chance’ occurrence, where a better person (a sub-junior director) was asked to supervise due to the pre-occupation of main director, and also since the scene was very ordinary (so any fool could handle it!). Otherwise, all other scenes would have been really good, making the whole serial good!
Well, the scene was like this: A small girl, about 5 years old, gets up in the middle of the night and keeps watching at her mother’s face. The mother happens to get up suddenly, and noticing the child just sitting and watching, is stupefied, and asks “what are you doing, instead of sleeping?” . This child just puts across the truth… “ I was watching you sleeping”… to which, the mother asks again, this time a more pointed question,” haven’t you seen me before, that you are so keen to watch me as if for the first time ?”
The girl, now says “Every time I look at you, I experience as if I am looking at you for the first time….mom”
I gave full marks to the director (the inadvertent sub-junior, or who ever)! Even the mother was shown ‘gloating’ over this dialogue of the child, grossly missing the truth, like any other mother! Getting stuck in emotions too takes a toll, depriving us from learning what even a child could have taught us so easily! No wonder we humans end up as ‘bundle’ of contradictions…. First we have to un-bundle, and then re-bundle the very same, to be able to balance the burden on both the shoulders equitably (logic and emotion).

Now, the problem is, if we try to straight-away try to apply this ‘test’ our mind refuses to give a straight-forward reply! Of course, I do troooly love that person, or else, why do I struggle so much to put up with all that nonsense by that person, why else do I ‘sacrifice’ all my time, money, even pieces of mind for that person?(logically fragmented pieces, preventing that simple ‘peace’)… .. so says our mind, not ready to succumb that easily. So, why not use a negative test….
When we see our enemy (the person whom we dislike most), how do we see them? Do we take a fresh look? Or our firm strong judgment about them comes first like that loud screaming security siren and the stiff faced commandoes of VVIPS, and then we do not even get a glimpse of that VIP, and are left with an old copy of the past image within us.

Now, any where on a scale of 1 to 10, we have to attempt a honest look within, as to how fresh a look are we capable, when we see our loved ones each time. Okay, some small hints about how to go ‘about it’….
Remember, when waiting for that ‘potential’ beloved, at the bus-stop, when that person arrives, our look was always a fresh look at them!
At least, some time we happen to eat only after we are really hungry (not that fill in the blanks at appointed hours!). When we eat on that hungry stomach, does our image, our memory of the past ever interfere with our experience of eating afresh? Even the food may not be fresh! But we do experience that ‘fresh’ satiation of hunger (the love for food, or whatever name we wish to give!)

Oh, have I raked up a very sensitive issue…. I shall try to avoid a fresh look, when I happen to meet you next, so that I shall be a bit prepared to receive the blows!

The only alternative is to deliver them via mail-response. The blows, I mean for having poked into the soft ego… (what to do, I “failed badly” when I tested myself…. Again a potential contradiction… Oh no.. bye for the time ‘being’)
Regards,
Psn(23rd April, 2009)

Jaane Kya tune kahi, Jaane kya Maine suni, Baat kuch ban hi gayee!

I did find a person who seems to fit into the purpose of my blog….. to inspire others to the very best of my abilities!

I saw his question on Yahoo answers Forum,
And loved to respond.

And, I do not have any hesitation to reproduce the question and my response here:

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090419215212AAkUVqp

Why am I always thinking about something? My mind is always racing with thoughts?
For as long as I can remember I have always had a very active mind. So active it can actually be problematic at times.

When I try to read a paragraph for a school assignment or a few pages of a book I always start thinking about something else. Sometimes it feels as though I read it but I don't follow what it is saying. Because of this I have a really hard time following directions and learning from reading.

When I listen to my professors lecture I try to listen but I always get off track. I hate this because I love to learn and understand... I just can't focus, and the things I think about are usually not important at all.

Also, when I am having a conversation with someone I am almost always thinking about something else, but act as though I am listening... in reality I have no idea what they said. I think I just don't care what they are saying?

I try to pay attention but always end up thinking about something else, it is almost like I am talking to myself but in my head... if that makes sense.

I have noticed a personality change as well. I am not as social perosn. I don't really try to socialize anymore either, I stay at home a lot.
I am not talkative person.
I really do enjoy people though. Throughout my life I have had A LOT of friends. I feel like I have distanced myself from them. I feel as though I am not exciting as I once was. I don't like going to parties or bars or being around a lot of people.

I am just not interested in most peoples conversations. I have found most talk to be unnecessary and full of lies and exaggerations and it just bugs me now.

Has my personality just changed?
My response:

• If what you say really matches the experience you had, then it is just a 'transition'. Very rarely one get to become a "witness" to the thought process (not to confuse with 'knowing' or 'remembering' the actual thoughts! So, the thought-process, the thoughts itself..)
Now, the mention of 'disinterest' is a supporting evidence to this inference.
Very importantly, please do not look at this as a 'personality' change.
It is 'dropping of the personality' (when it is not really needed at all times! Like, a policeman removes his uniform, when at home, and wears another uniform of that of a parent, brother, son, neighbour etc).
Again, very few are able to get rid of such name tags given by society (it creates lot of ego problems, when can't keep tags aside, and we spend incredible energy to maintain such tags at wrong places! ha ha!)
This transition will actually do a lot of good.
It would be very nice if there is a very good, genuine, knowledgeable guide around to facilitate a smooth, successful transition. No struggle, or side-effects, or even a change in the life style need happen. In fact the handling of 'material' aspects of life becomes very very effortless for handling!!
You have only a 'feel' of having distanced from friends. That is the clue. The true inner nature is really free, independent, and not 'attached' or stuck to anything 'gross'. Not even close friends. It actually helps to get close and love friends etc quite "unconditionally" ! And TRUE love is about being unconditional! No expectations of rewards or recognition, gratitude etc! The very capability of being a loving person is 'self-rewarding' and greater than any external reward!
My very best wishes! Good going.
And a deep gratitude and many thanks for sharing this wonderful experience!