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“Blog ko blog hi rehney do, ...... koi naam na do...”

There was a song in Hindi, 'pyaar ko pyaar hi rehney do koi naam na do...' (let love remain as 'love' let us not rename it ....'

I had a little problem with naming this blog, and hence this attempt at calling it just a blog!

Recently, I underwent a complex thought process, and as an outcome, I decided to 'keep off' from a spiritual site, at least for some time, and then to quit, if needed!

I was reminded of a dialogue : “"Atheism is a non-prophet institution" (a homophonic pun)... Now, why I was reminded is, while this spiritual forum, by itself, in itself was supposed to be voluntary.... it so turned out that people started treating it like some international waters, where fishing is free(and the bonus-sadism of watching with glee, when their hypocratic comments tormented the innocent people, like enjoying the sight of those poor fishes to struggle that 'fish-out-of-water' situation)! And I was interested in saving those fishes, treating them as 'precious' though many not be rare or endangered(the danger was to the very fishes, not the greedy-fishermen)! I found myself too weak, for lack of support... Sometimes, our presence is too oppressive, and absence might work better.... for sometime at least ... ( I must confide here a true incident, where me and my siblings happened to shockingly surprise our parents, when they left us to ourselves, to attend a condolence at a distant place, very apprehensive about the mess we might cause by the time they return.... but to their surprise, and equally ours, we were found to be temporarily transformed into very mature responsible 'beings' and conducted ourselves even better than a few adults!). Many years later, this phenomenon happened by itself, at some of the locations of my work place.... (When our boss left us to ourselves for a while, due to compulsions of situation) What I felt was ..... maybe some 'contageousness' that permeated ....

I felt, it is better to rub shoulders with clandestine atheists, on a one-to-one basis, in person, if possible... a challenge, and rewarding one... these 'fishing companies' do not find it commercially viable there! I too, had placed the blogspot link of mine(the only significant for me, one by its size at least... 'the' selfseekers dot blogspot dot com) , in my profile there (permitted, and encouraged too).... but I knew that I am not enticing them into a hidden-profit-institution.... instead, we know, it is a barren place like a desert(my blog page), with very few commentors (and even those might be regretting having voiced out their opinion.... :) .... no point screaming in a vast desert!)

So that is how the pun 'intended' should work (ideally.... not at the cost of others, if possible).. Where as, there was somebody, who spoke of a 'war' (using an ancient epical name for it as a pun) .... and when I apologised, responding to that 'war' comment, 'liked' it (the 'liking' comes as a notification to the 'beneficiary-only' there), and also insisted, in a private message, that it was humor and 'pun-intended' (very unfortunately, that 'sorry-you-misunderstood' did not work as that 'somebody' might have intended.... a noble person had taught me long ago that 'sorry' is not an apology always.... it is 'usually supposed to mean' as 'you poor thing... I pity your misery'! Nothing(none else too) can clarify and confirm better, my way of viewing it ! I have the least interest in getting personal, or in trying to bring it(that somebody) out in the open(definitely, I am quite clear that this has nothing to do with my own purpose of participating on that forum!). My sole idea of making a mention about it here, in the mildest possible way,  is to remind ourselves, as to how our mind works, and we lead ourselves into delusion of 'holier than thou' attitude, quite unawares (All this, only if my own assessment happens to be correct!..... Please see, Avoidance of 'Being injury-prone' has never been in our hands... but we can choose consciously, not to 'feel hurt'..... Do we not say, “I had an injury”... and also “ I am hurt... or .... I was hurt...!” but somehow, we are unable to feel comfortable even if we try to put it as ... “I had a hurt” )

Well this blog is perhaps, an aftermath of that beautiful full moon on 5^th May, 2012... they say, such 'super-moon'... such combination of a full moon with other planets lined up so well, comes after some 12 years!

For those who are curious, the blog-post-link of that spiritual forum, where the moon-effect poured out as a comment is : http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/self-improvement/httpwwwspeakingtreeinpublicarewehypocrites

with Super-Moonlit-regards,

Yours,

psn(6^th May, 2012)

Assertion

One of the sources of quarrel.... if we look keenly enough!

'Your freedom ends where my nose begins'... this quote presents no problem in understanding, appreciating, and even enjoying...

But the inclination to assert, seems to start encroaching into the freedom of the other, even when it is just sprouting with us! The very 'look' .... evokes 'look at the way he looks at us!' (quite forgetful of we too , at the same time, are looking almost in a similar way!

Two children were quarreling rather 'peacefully' , just shouting at each other, calling 'names'....

'You are a monkey'....... 'y-o-u are a donkey!' 'youuu are (this)'..... Yyyyyoooouuu are (that)'...

Thus, they had almost reached the end of their 'general knowledge' about animal kingdom....!

Their dad, who was busy, in 'trying' to get ready for going to office, found this wordy exchange a bit intolerable... He suddenly intervened, to shout: “Both of you are so intensely calling each other names! You both seem to be ignoring me totally, while doing so”.... (little did he realise, that the children would look at his assertion only this way: 'If you two can be animals, what about me your parent? A larger sample of the same animal 'series'!'

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The eagerness to share a deep experience is natural.... Perhaps that is how the need for a language was felt when gestures (gesticulation) was felt inadequate.... The skill of articulation slowly took over... only to hand it over to absentee-form of communication, when a larger reach was felt needed.

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The next part of that 'eagerness' which gives rise to a curiosity.... 'whether the other person understood it properly' also seems a bit natural.... The problem, is with, what that 'properly' is... When two kids of about 3 to 4 years of age exchange, to share their experience, the communication seems flawless, both nod their heads (which ever way it suits them at that moment), and the other one does not protest... The assertion is not too keen to seek any official seal of approval beyond some movement of head.. a very casual acknowledgement.. An elder who is watching this is baffled, because this elder has understood neither of these two kids! Please see, it is difficult to make out the 'nod of head' by these kids many a times.... a vertical nod is 'yes' we tell them... a horizontal nod is 'no'... but they invariably rotate that head in a circular direction, like that stone-pestle we use to wet-grind the cereals for idli-dosa etc....!!!

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The greatest shock, (and later on that shock became an awe, admiration, reverence) , was when I heard for the first time that the great philosopher Shri J.Krishnamurti, used to ask, 'Did you understand .... Sir...' ... a gentle pause, waiting to look at that positive nod , tilting of heads side-ways (as 'evolved' adults to notify a 'yes'!).... And then when people say 'yes' quite articulately, our JK says, 'Now, I have to go all over it again!' (I found it quite difficult to grasp at that kid-age as to why a 'yes' means 'no'!... Any way, I felt no urgency to say yes, at that age, when I started keenly looking at everything this Great Being had to say!). Yes... spiritual people are helplessly 'mystic' at the bare-minimum level at least (our JK never strove to forcibly or forcefully, convince any one about anything ... ever... he never 'claimed' any capabilities like those siddi's etc... He was utterly humble and gentle in trying to appeal to others to 'look-together'... not an easy task, and I know it reasonably well from experience as well!).....

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If JK can keep assertion at such mild doses, there is no reason why we cannot try as well.....

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A strong inclination to assert too much evokes that repulsiveness(in the other) even before that other person happens to know about it.... almost like that 'spontaneous' and abrupt vomiting, giving no time to reach a wash-basin or such 'decent' place to dispose off the 'indecent' stuff!.... that repulsiveness, manifests as a mild 'growl'... a critical response.... we growl back, and now it is a quarrel... the rest is well known! (Let me squeeze in a mild joke here, if nothing else, at least to avoid any unintended vomit-sensation right now..... I read this joke in Readers Digest some time ago.. it was in first person by the mother herself... This mother sternly asked her son to 'Sit down..... NOW... THIS INSTANT...'... that helpless kid obliged, but not without a counter-assertion “But, inside, I am still standing”... the mother burst out laughing, at her own failure!)

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Well, I am not too keen to even assert about this 'assertion'... you know by now, why :)

regards,

psn(2^nd May, 2012)

Duty versus Love

I found a very good blog “Love is not a duty”!

(http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/wellness/love-is-not-a-duty )

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It did 'provoke' a thought process in me!

It reminded me of a dialogue from a TV serial, where the author surmised the entire relationship between spouses, very briefly, and yet very beautifully, precisely, and yes.... completely!

It takes a lot, to really expand that idea ( of that author of the TV serial), and to grasp it in its entirety!!!

All he said was, “during the yester-years, the spouses looked at marriage as a 'duty' to the other spouse. Today, they look at it as a 'right' against the other spouse”.... He simply added: 'please look at the bulk of divorce cases... the whole quarrel is about some 'right'!... And all of those successful marriages have a common binding-factor, of offering oneself unconditionally towards the spouse in a duty-bound attitude..... it is up to the individuals to choose , as to how they wish to have the relationship of a 'marriage'....'

The problem with 'love' is, after we often look at the manifest form of it, to understand it, and then just stay there, stuck to the manifest form! It is okay to make a humble beginning with 'giving' out unconditionally, to get that feel of it... but some time, we have to 'allow' ourselves to becoming a loving-being, with that love as a quality of our very being (the manifest form depending only on the outside situation..... for instance, if we are alone on a tiny island right from birth, still we can be a loving-being :) ...)... that 'duty-business' is the consequence, not the purpose of love itself! All other duties are obligatory, for some kind of social orderliness. (The so-called bullock-cart-days-people, in their great wisdom had very consciously chosen to exempt the wandering mendicants, monks, sanyasis, etc from all kinds of duty-bound-obligations... they had enough trust in themselves, their own wisdom, to know that these people are already a 'loving-being' in every sense, and need no rules to be governed upon!)

psn(28^th April, 2012)

When a quarrel is inevitable, let us(try to) have some style!

I have been participating on a spiritual forum since the beginning of this year...
The good part of that forum is that responses are many....
The inevitable part is that some heated exchanges too take place, replacing the very concept of 'response/comment' envisaged on spiritual-lines!
I have no qualms about it....  as is evident from what I wrote there about it...
Exactly....    I am reproducing what I wrote there, because most of our readers here would appreciate the 'quoted' part, since it was not mine!
regards,
psn(28th April, 2012)

That blog (with its quote within):

We see unbridled exchanges even in the 'parliament' (the prohibitive cost of it is on us, the tax payers)...

But it is simply beyond their potential to have any 'style' about it.... They are experts in strategy, and at times good at diplomacy, and at a few rare occasions, statesmanship....

Here, on such spiritual forums, even quarrels has to be on 'voluntary-basis'! So, my humble request is, why not make some efforts to make it look a bit 'stylish' .... so that, even casual readers would at least enjoy reading it, and not feel that residual bitter taste! (I am very carefully avoiding the word 'be-graceful'... there cannot be any 'grace' about a quarrel, I feel! So, 'style' is the nearest compromise!)....

What exactly I have in mind is something that looks like this........ (please do try to find a way to excuse me for what I am about put up as sort of 'bench mark' !)--

quote:

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." -- Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." -- Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." -- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." -- Groucho Marx
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I
approved of it." -- Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." -- Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... If you have one." -- George Bernard Shaw to .Winston Churchill, followed by Churchill's response: "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second, if there is one." -- Winston Churchill

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." -- Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." -- John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing
trivial." -- Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." -- Samuel Johnson
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." -- Paul Keating

"He had delusions of adequacy." -- Walter Kerr

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." -- Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." --- Oscar Wilde

Lady Astor once remarked to Winston Churchill at a Dinner Party, "Winston, if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee!"
Winston replied, "Madam if I were your husband I would drink it!"

The art of lamenting

Somehow, it has taken the shape of an art...

Hitherto, it was just a profession (Rudaali), not a specialisation, or not even a skill....

It was there growing slowly, silently like some virus pervading across the society, but I never really had a chance to take a serious note of it, till it became a 'whole-sale-chorus' during the exodus of employees when they were offered a golden handshake in the Banking industry, to reduce the flab! Suddenly the left-over ones had to insulate themselves from over-exploitation (no help is going to come overnight to share the work, nor is the work going to vanish overnight... and there was that torturous unfamiliarity with the computer-key-board..... there was a brief period when just the keyboards required replacement at an abnormal rate!)... slowly people 'came to terms' with the harsh reality, but the lamenting had come to stay, and it got itself perfected into an art-form too!

Otherwise, we find it quite commonly where ever there is a trust-deficit in one form or other... The 'most commented' .... yeah! Like 'speaking tree', there is a lameting-tree too, where the 'most commented' prize is shared between a mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law! At other places, it is usually a preemptive strike, to start the 'aalaap' of lamenting first, to avoid any responsibility or fault fixing.... Most people confuse between fixing of fault, responsibility and accountability, even though no recourse is sought!

Quite surprisingly, children pick it up almost with no formal training.... I recall a kid, who used to always lament about lack of 'good' clothes to wear... The dad was a very resourceful and intelligent person though he doted on that kid out of his own 'special attachment' for the kid... But, when this complaint of lack of good clothes became a little too much, he decided to expose the kid... He suddenly announced to the kid “Oh! Actually I had planned to take you along on a holiday for few days, along with my office colleagues and their families... but since you do not have adquate change of 'good-clothes', you may as well stay back, and we will see the next time”.... Abruptly this kid turned the record-plate on the gramaphone player upside down, and played a totally different tune... 'Dad, I think I can manage just enough clothes for this trip... let me see, ...” and then rushed to dig out all those 'safely-tucked-away' shining and new clothes out, counted them, packed them convincingly too!

Now comes the 'hard-to-digest' part of it... Please see, those who lament, are they capable of experiencing love? Can lamenting and love go together please?.... For that matter, even that gratitude does not come to the equal measure of a love, when it comes to real-deep-experience! If we look closely enough, they are quite opposite.... Love only gives... gratitude is after-effect of receiving, not giving.... Love gives unconditionally.... (that 'gives' is manifested only if the situation warrants... A soldier does not give up his life during peace time... please!)... If this seems acceptable, then, how can a child, a girl-child especially, love her mother? I happened to ask this to a young girl recently.... 'do you love your mother?'... 'YES!' was the emphatic reply.... I had to gently and slowly ask the next set of questions.. 'since when did you love your mom?'... 'surely not at the age of 3 months?'..... 'NO', agreed that girl... .... 'when was the first time you experience love for your mom? ' ...'maybe when I felt that gratitude clearly...' she tried, as an alternative.... That is where I had to seek clarity between 'gratitude' as a response to receiving, and 'giving' as a manifest form of 'love as an experience' ....

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Now, this 'experience' of love is often so deep, and a non-verbal form of thought process, that most people miss this feeling-of-the-experience .... something like, when we have that malarial fever, we feel the fan air more severely despite the mid-day-of-peak-summer, than when we are normal! I don't know, but that 'giving' might have been an important aspect.... otherwise, the students of ancient gurukula might not have been asked to serve their guru, doing simple tasks for him... otherwise, some of the present day yoga-teachers might not have insisted for 'volunteering' as a 'part' of spiritual practices, for quick progress... A typical young girl steps into mother-in-laws pitch, from the home-pitch, without any practice of 'giving', and expects to be shown some gratitude at least, if not love, by that mother-in-law.... this mother-in-law has nothing to give to her daughter-in-law, except a few words ... words-used-for-love.... and the daughter-in-law is not that ready to 'give' any service, help, etc unconditionally! (I wonder, if that joint-family-system, took care of that home-pitch-training of giving, when the girl became a 'didi' to several younger brothers/sisters/cousins of all ages... the mothers of those children, under the same roof, may not be able to take care of all of them ... and this elder-sister, 'didi' is almost a mother! )....

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Trust and love are said to be two sides of the same coin.... that unconditional love offers trust too, with 'no-questions-asked'... so it might stand the litmus test... Mothers do have the capability to experience love, if they are ready to choose to be 'aware' (dropping that lamenting-act, of course)... right from the time the kid dwells in her womb... more the awareness, deeper the experience of love... deeper the love, lesser the sorrow of parting later on, when the daughter becomes an 'in-law' or when the son expands into greater dimension of a very deep reciprocation of love with gratitude, and lays down his life for his mother-land!

psn(16^th April, 2012)

Repulsiveness as a Trait

Wherever that 'trust-deficit' is the main deciding factor to demarcate the sharp dividing line, to separate one class of people from the other, this 'trait of repulsiveness' is a living experience! Stubbornness is only a consequence, though it assumes a 'form' that might resemble a 'cause'... And that is precisely why that 'hurried' effort to counter it, usually fails.

The incidence is quite high amongst children, of late! Maybe experienced teachers have to concur or disagree with this! The excessive-ness of health-concerns might have percolated down to their (child's) chemistry, to the extent, as to also affect the behaviour pattern! The medicinal immunisation might not be the culprit. The preservatives, the additives, and the likes that are used for enhancing the shelf-life of all those fast-food/junk-food/easy-to-mix/ready-to-use type of food items.... These chemicals are not removed. Nor do they constitute the 'food' .

Some possessive mothers try to gloat over this trait/characteristic in their child. Again it is the sense of their own insecurity, that might have persuaded to act thus. The ability to deal with this repulsiveness in their children becomes a monopoly, rendering them-selves quite indispensable! Some mothers tend to treat the school-text-books of their children like some 'mosquito-repellent-cream' to ward of their children from the precincts when they find the mischief of their children to be an intolerable nuisance! (Some mothers who are fortunate to know a teacher 'personally' are even tempted to 'request' for extra-homework for their children, when a long-holiday ensues!)....At work places too, we find that people struggle to become indispensable! Once a person decides to use this as the only available tool of survival, only negative traits can be a consequence. Resistance becomes the base. Chemical bonding is then 'sought' as a reinforcement, seeking 'attachment' of, and with, the loyalists as the adhesive/glue! A 'concrete' structure is now in place! When such a concrete structure poses a threat, detonation is the only way! Mahabharat, as an epic, also happens to hint at this aspect, when we look at the 'delicate' design of the inter-personal-relationship which weaves together people with unrelated individualistic-characteristics so seamlessly! A whole full-scale war was needed to release/liberate the individuals who were held as 'concrete-captives' !

In the present day situation, what we agree to, personally/privately/individually, we do not find it easy to vote for as a class! Politicians, perhaps, are the most conversant people as a class, with this mechanism, and very much put it to their advantage! Please see, some practical situations...

That womens reservation bill is not revolted against openly, but repelled clandestinely, by keeping it indefinitely 'alive' by holding it pending 'under active consideration'!

The hunger strike was used as a tool to 'revolt' against corruption, but failed to evoke a sustained movement, simply because, that form of protest was already a repulsion-invoking-factor, in the chemistry of masses... (perhaps that is why, the unexpected numbers of the sympathisers baffled the politicians.... most of them did not even understand the concepts sought to be used to revolt against corruption!)....

Perhaps, a hunger-strike might evoke a greater response to start a movement against 'starvation' of the poor/downtrodden/deprived!

If we try to narrate the 'operational' part of this repulsiveness in different fields of human activity, the intricate details might create an illusion, as if, each of these instances contain a 'concept' itself, where as, the single concept that dominates is only a bit subtle, and that is this 'repulsiveness' manifested in an indistinguishable form!

On a lighter note, at domestic fronts, the males are baffled, to find that, when it comes to pin-pointing a 'stubbornness' about one lady, the other lady happens to give a silent or an 'outside' support by 'absentee-vote'.... (this stubborn-ness happens to be the tool of this lady also, to effectively 'repel' when their own 'security' is at threat!)... Males are no exception to this repulsiveness... it comes in much more sophisticated ways(chauvinism!)...

When 'ego' seeks to hold the fort, that 'repulsiveness' is the weapon, and the 'mind' which is so dependent on the ego, readily 'sugar-coats' this repulsiveness to make it more acceptable on the outside world, and embellishes it with socially-accepted-norms.... if necessary, 'legislate' new set of social norms! Here comes the mind-games that we are so familiar with! Spiritual practices find it difficult to make a dent into the 'being' only because of this repulsiveness! Resistance is a mild weapon in its primitive form, and has to be camouflaged, modified, and innovated to be effective against even a 'spiritual-revolution'.... that is where the complexities of mind baffle the designers of artificial-intelligence!

psn(5^th April, 2012)

Laziness or Lethargy?

“Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.” .... Good enough to tempt even the most hardened of the anti-preachy-activists, to 'wish' that this were a dictum 'officially' allowed, in those list of morals, ethics, etc....

Right from kid days, I used to observe, a few people, labelled as 'lazy', getting their things managed somehow! .... A few of them even manage a decent score at exams, and wonder of wonders, they even produce original stuff (not that text-book stuff, copy-paste via memory...).

That led me to wonder, if they were also un-lethargic or non-lethargic (which ever way it is....)...... these people, whom I could distinguish from other lazy ones only by that 'extra-sparkle' in their eyes! Not likely.....! So, that lethargy must be the real culprit, not the laziness itself.... Laziness does affect, but at various levels, depending on the extent to which a person is 'differently-abled-at-intelligence-levels'... Some things have got to be done by oneself, however lazy we feel... again there are exceptions.... some people just physically-less-abled, make up enormously for this, with their extra-ordinary intellectual contributions (The great Mr. Stephen Hawking for example... !)... A casual observer would readily find fault with the tradition of feeding those 'lazy-unproductive-wandering-mendicants' in ancient India.

What is it that actually happens, when the mind becomes lazy? Now that we have seen that the physical laziness (for all that appearance only...), does not really matter... Those big 'business' magnates owning several companies, may not even remember all the names of those companies that they own..... somebody else is there to slog it out for them, earn for them, and work for a paltry salary, while they enjoy sipping a drink at Honululu cheerfully, gazing the waves of the ocean! Those business kings are not 'busy' but lazy... So, busi-ness is not essentially about keeping busy (those gadgets we invented and innovated was to take out our tie-up with stone pestles etc!)

We had a few 'lazy' teachers who managed cheerfully, while the students had to slog-extra, to make up for the lack of 'detailed' explanations, ready-to-eat-notes for exams etc... These teachers never faltered when somebody asked doubts... and when such doubts were with a 'hidden-agenda' to prod those teachers, they sensed it almost instantly ( lazy-ness blesses with that extra-alertness, with nothing else to do!?...)... and such students were 'dealt' according to the concepts enshrined in jurisprudence, with regard to the punishment theory.... the degree was directly proportional to the 'hidden-intent'...

If we try to look at the 'mechanics' of those bosses who delegate almost everything to juniors, and thus happen to nurture a 'deep sense of grudge' for over-exploitation in 'hearts' of those juniors, this narrative would go too long... We are all well versed with those details, at least the 'one-side-of-the-case' well!

Though there is not much material to sift through, about that lethargy, the elusive culprit seems to be only that! 'Thinking' hard , may not exclusively constitute the avoidance of that lethargy.... Just repetitive chain of thoughts seems to keep us busy, but to no result (for example, we know, when we run out funds, and go through the sources ... the possible limited-list-of-victim-lenders... when the 'security' to seek from 'hard-lenders' is inadequate!........ we just try to keep visualising the innocent faces again and again, but that does not lead us anywhere... when such sources have dried up.... it is merely a 'hope-against-hope'!)...

Can it be that 'energy' is the possible antidote for lethargy? Those meditative people sitting 'idle' for seemingly infinite length of time, seem to have a blazing pair of eyes, when we find them gently opening their eyes once in a while!.... We have to try it out... We may have to strike a fine balance... keep physical fitness, to avoid that laziness overpowering our 'chemistry'.... we have to consciously slow down the needless activity of mind (anyways, the mind becomes hyper-active when we try out with lip-level-silence!)... and then look at the pristine energy within, allow it to 'rise', see if it is going to charge our intellect, and drive out the lethargy from within.... Till then, maybe... maybe... we have to silently suffer that hidden 'dis-ease' called lethargy.... (I wonder, if medical science is able to give any off-the-shelf-pills for lethargy, to then easily pop it into our mouth, and declare 'eureka' !)... Non-lethargic people seem to really enjoy that 'peace' better than those busy-looking-people, who slog-and-yet-suffer!

(I wonder whether it is 'my' laziness or that lethargy latent 'in-me', that surged to find expression thus.....! Spirituality seems to have confused me yet again!... I might have, inadvertently tried out those 'lethal' doses of both, quite intermittently!)

psn(3^rd April, 2012)

The art of telling lies

Even if I tend to be a bit 'preachy' here, it would perhaps, also tempt, those who are most intolerant towards a preachy stuff!

But no... I am only trying to 'look' at the 'art' part of it...

Do we enjoy telling lies, all the time, every time, most of the times, or just at times?

Unless we enjoy doing something, how can it become a art? Simply becoming skilled does not give scope to the 'art' part... art parts away, when we focus on the skill.... skill should be a consequence, even as, on an 'on-going' basis, if it has to remain an art!

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Please see, what is all those famous 'fiction' novels about? They are skilled liars, engaged in trying to make it into an art! (It is the 'commercial consideration' that tends to make it skill-oriented, when the creativity-concept of art is trying to ... struggling to ... survive inside that story! That is exactly what we criticise, when the end of a movie, a novel becomes a 'routine' stuff!

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As adults, we do not enjoy telling lies, even when it is a 'social-compulsion' (somebody asks us for a hand-loan, quoting some very 'urgent' need.... we invent another 'urgent' need... trying to compete with the quality of the borrower's urgency... both become tense while lying to each other!)...

Now, we the same adults, try to convince a kid of 2 years of age, that the “crow took it away” ... that kid becomes transfixed ... the gaze tells it all to us .... he shifts gaze from our eyes to our noise when we animate it with a 'kooooosssssshhhhhh), or our hands ... we 'flourish our arms in a vague direction' (courtesy-Shri R.K.Narayan, his 'fictional' story) .... the kid is trying to decide which is more reliable.... our hands, noise, or the hands itself.... there was some gadget, now vanished, which the kid thought was a 'toy' ... but for us , either the gadget is valuable, or the kid's safety or both! When it is 'both' our joy during that 'telling' a lie is better, and the artistry gains momentum, and itensity, to rivet the kid's attention towards the fiction part of it! What we may not realise is that the kid at that age is 'pristine-intelligence', and the grasping is at the best-ever-peak-levels! It does not have the self-awareness to recall the images (the video plus audio of our 'fiction' ) to further analyze it soon after... but the kid's chemistry retains the impressions in an embedded form.... here starts the 'karma', or 'maya'.... Even our 33-crore-Gods, seem to find it easy to say 'Thatah-asthoo' instead of they themselves facing the consequence of taking a 'decision' (all those maya-related dramas, which become epics later on ! (At all big places, there is always a scape-goat, who is forced to 'announce' having made a decision, and become available for the punishments, if any, later on!).. Maybe, if we make it into an art, that lying, and enjoy telling it, we might go undetected during a lie-detector test! That 'narco-analysis' test requires greater art, obviously!

When we develop the skill, we fare better at logical areas like algebra ( in solving simultaneous equations, we add 'x' at both sides.... fair enough, though the 'x' is a lie, looking at the 'original'equation!).... does it look like a far-fetched-example? That 'Perry Mason' in one of the novels by Erle Stanley Gardner, 'plants' two extra guns, at the 'scene' of murder, and manages to divert the police detectives 'off the scent' from the real murder weapon! Later on, he quotes the loop-hole in the law “Tampering the evidence is a crime, but not adding an evidence”!

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When I said about memory-recall, please see, memory is not just in our minds, or brain-cells or whatever... That scar on our forehead reminds us of 'how it happened'.. and if that scar was caused by us on our kid, the pain of recalling it is still worse! We have portable memory gadgets now.... pen-drive, pencil-drive, etc... Monuments hold memories of ancient people... The junk of 'duplicate-gadgets' that we marketed without proper bills carry memories of how we lied to innocent buyers (especially the non-biodegradable-junk)... The sounds of what we say, keeps revolving around us getting further fragmented as it crashes incessantly against other 'true-lies'.. but it is only a question of small dish, a set-top-box, to collect those fragments, reconstruct those words, and amplify it, re-enjoy listening to it years later, during our re-entry into the earth's orbit..... there seems to be a whole technology developed by ancients, a wonderful name in sanskrit (translates quite close to a word in english as 'synthesis' ..)... this process is basically aimed at 'commuting' the gross-total-effect of all the lies that we lived by, nullyfying it, and then try to 'look at' proceeding further towards a 'release' ( a very long journey indeed! For those who insist on a bit 'practical-way' it is a tough-journey too, with the need to return to their very same 'karma-bhoomi' again.....!!! But, it can be a greater possibility when the 'intensity', by itself, compresses the time—yet another process—widely popular as 'Tapas'!

Art? (I told you... it is easier to become 'preachy' with our strong-inclinations towards lies... Several similar attempts were made in the recent past... Bhajans were re-mixed to blend into music-portion, or the 'noise-portion' of those 'item-songs' ... to entice those who repel at those dry-bhajan tunes of rich and traditional values! Gimmicks are all that we can use, to deal with those who 'refuse' to 'see'... Mystics seem to enjoy only 'tough' propositions.... like taking the water to it, making the camel 'gulp it', ..... when we know only-that “we can ONLY take a camel to the pond, not make it drink!”)

psn(31^st March, (2012)

Checks and Balances

If somebody likes to view it as, ..... that “ verify the balance in the Bank account before issue of a cheque ....” , well I seek shelter under the “ Redundancy theory of truth” (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Redundancy+theory+of+truth) ...

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For those interested in mysticism, it is a different issue altogether....

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(I was even worried, if this post has to be 'classified' , and categorized under 'mysticism'... but then I thought, mention of an aspect concerning 'mysticism', by itself, does not warrant a 'classification' (like the files marked 'classified information'... it is up to the seekers, to look for those greener pastures! )

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Even great institutions find it difficult to grapple with the task of putting an effective system under place, to have those fine-tuned 'checks and balances' .... loop holes are many ... system lapses are abundant ... scams thrive in such fertile, humid, atmospheres! That 'data-integrity' itself needs those 'checks and balances', not to speak of computational designs, complex embedded systems, processors etc which need even security too! Financial institutions struggle despite on-going audits, or concurrent audits.

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Coming to the mystic aspect, the first surprise came, when as an initiate, I started wondering as to how that 'chant' which was hardly a mystery, so easily available, so widely publicized, ... could trigger a mystic phenomenon, just because I was going to be put through a traditional ritual of 'initiation'? ... then came an instance, where I ended up with some headlong-collision with the recent most of our family preceptors, regarding the seed-invocation factor attached to a very common hymn (which was 'otherwise' an innocent looking propitiation of a deity)... When challenged, I reeled off that 'seed' factor... He abruptly became tense (as if I had tripped on a landmine), and cut me to a stop at the half way (the safe half .... of course). I was surprised. I had logical support from within me to place implicit trust in him... He was the last of the descendants of the sytem of 'family-preceptors' who lived up to the concept of living for the 'good of others' (puro-hit .... puro= other, and hith= good, a simple translation of those sanskritised form of nomenclature). I could not grasp the concerns he had hid behind the anxiety he manifested... Yet I trusted his judgement and action of having stopped me (there after, our relationship acquired a new dimension, though quite a clandestine one, since there was that generation gap, and others around... who were beyond reach, at least then!).

My wanderings into spiritual pursuits during the later part of my life, happened to 'more than' convince me about the wonderful system of 'checks and balances' the ancients had instituted into those lavishly strewn gems all around us!.

To a logical mind, there is an example of in the novel 'Atlas Shrugged' where, the hero chants a pre-embedded phrase, when recited properly, the sound becomes the key, to open the doors to a vault housing a giant motor. Any tampering with the door, would trigger a mechanism to render the contents of the vault into a shattered mound of dust! There was an old English movie where an army trained physicist used the sound from a small explosive detonator to crack open a huge masonary dam, while it was 'otherwise' difficult to approach the militarily-well-guarded-dam.

This at once raises again the doubts and debates about the 'need' of a teacher/guide/guru/preceptor, to become an 'initiate'.... The very nature of mind is 'divisive' when it is dominated by the logical aspect. This attitude presupposes the state of our existance to be only 'dualistic' by its very nature, accepting the interdependence quite generously at the same time, ... as 'exclusive' to all other possibilities. That is why the vehement inclination to refute the dependence on a 'third' entity (as a guru or so...). But, once the perception deepens enough to conclusively resolve the issue of this 'duality' into a non-duality, the arguement about the 'guru' also would dissolve (not just resolve!). But the problem is not that easy , though it looks simple ! That baby starts crying incessantly out of hunger, and would not relent until the first morsel of its feed enters the stomach. But the first morsel would not 'safely' pass down the gullet till the crying recedes! So, somewhere, the Guru has to excercise his benevolence, force-feed the 'initiation' upon the unwilling but innocent baby, and then resolve the issue! (How these giant masters do it , their 'maneuverability' through this impasse, is yet another mystic phenomenon!). This was something that fascinated me very much, and obviously, I had to pursue it, till I reached a stable plateau ( like that 'padaav' in 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' , from which we do not slip further down!)...

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I have to place my humble apologies to those who reached up to this point, without being able to comprehend the theme in a cohesive manner... but I could sense/feel a few inquisitive 'minds' at the forum, who would find it quite thirst-provoking perhaps.

psn(28^th March, 2012)

Chaos

Somebody wrote a wonderful blog about the theory of chaos, and I found myself poking my nose into that blog (as I find myself doing it quite often, of late, into the other blog-posts of that friend...).

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It was about a heavy theory, that makes a person heave, when he decides to look at it intensely!

( http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/msticism/pleasantadverse-events-are-due-to-effect-of-chaos-theory )

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When I finished my response, I thought of giving it yet another twist... it is just a theory ... may be to inspire those who are insistent upon logic, than those abstract theories...

Please see, chaos can happen only in our mind .... not anywhere else!

To give a 'contrast' example, are we not looking forward to an event we call as 'wedding-reception'.. this nomenclature, at least in India, has ceased to live up to its own original 'purpose' of late...

It precedes the wedding itself, and is conveniently clubbed with 'reception' for a wedding. We find it very convenient to 'show' our faces during that reception, climb up the dais, thrust the envelope into hands of either, pose for still photo-image, oblige the request of that still-photographer's gesture to wait for a few more seconds till the video person spans the camera from one end to the other, shake hands, and then shake the head also (converting it into a look-like-a-nod), ahead of time, presuming the host's mumble 'please eat and go' (what else do you expect? Travel all the way back home on an hungry stomach, and face the wrath at home?).. but a plastic smile... hurriedly offered, to reassure that the host is very reasonable to hurry through us too , like wise.

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In all this scenario, please see, ... when we meet other acquaintances, .... often after a gap of time .... it is actually the chaos there, the created chaos that we cheerfully accept, welcome and rejoice ... we have no 'reference' point to start a meaningful conversation when we meet a person after too long a time. So after that 'how-do-du-doo' noise, there is nothing else to do except retain that 'cheeks-elongated-sideways' gesture we call as smile, waiting painfully till the other fellow 'blinks-first'! The 'music' is in full blare (try asking the residents of any close-by apartments, as to how they wish they were 'apart' from the noise too, the very same way they stay 'apart' in a flat which is called an apart-ment, though housed in the same building itself!)... We try to shout our polite, courteous inquiries, to become audible.... Usually the other fellow nods in addition to that retained-plastic-smile (as if he could hear it!). We repeat the query... this time, he sincerely brings his ear very close to our mouth, and mumbles a whisper-response (again being too unsure of having heard the query right).... this exchange goes on, and fills the time .... till it is 'time' enough to proceed to the dining hall (God-forbid, if it is buffet, standing and balancing that large plate in the left hand is painful, and more painful is the need to converse, as a part of courtesy!)...

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This is a typical 'chaos' we cheerfully get invited to, participate, and subtly rid ourselves of that 'unmanageable' clutter going on at the back of our mind, for a while! A win-win-situation for all! The traditional ritual of participating in the highest of the 12 odd forms of wedding, handed down by ancestors, to witness, promote, participate, and partake the benefits thereof, of that invoking the higher beings, with the sacrificial fire, the invoking of chants, the creating of 'fusion-ensuring' mantras, the subtle yantras, the severing of subtle birth-bonds, for a higher purpose, and therefore the conscious-fusion-bonding into another lineage/chain of ancestral bonds, ..... all that is blissfully by-passed!

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Any imaginary visitor to our planet would be welcomed first by the chaos we created in the immediate periphery of our planet (recently, a news-paper reported the narrow escape of cosmonauts from ISS, from getting hurt by that debris, and the statistical guess-work of volume was also mentioned)... the junk that keeps circling the earth's outer orbit. In the name of better connectivity for better communication, we have created a permanent 'chaos' around our planet itself... A sample to indicate to the visitor, that 'more like this' waits when you land on us! And then we talk of 'collective' karma, and ask questions like 'why so many share the same calamity at the same time?' etc...

Anyway, I am not trying to offer any solution.... just to keep us well informed, and if inclined, take a periodical re-look....

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I reproduce below the response that I gave for that friend's blog-post... I tripped on to a subtle hint about re-birth theory (for what ever it is worth!), and that is why, I thought , why not spill it out at another blog-post itself!

psn(26^th March, 2010)

Quote:

I am reminded of an interesting event during a workshop we attended a few years ago....Some faculty member takes that extra efforts, walks that extra mile, to give a demonstration about how 'team-spirit' is practically implemented ... We had one such person. The event he conducted was 'beyond the call of duty' (his colleague-faculty used to simply dismiss it as 'out of syllabus' and a stupid and needless effort!.. So, this teacher had to 'request' very politely, and then garner support, after the 'mandated' duty hours, from the trainee-participants... A typical PSU where 'rules' are more of an excuse for 'non-performance'!... Anyway, that is not the point...)
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We were grouped into 5 in each group, given random pieces of puzzles, asked to arrange the pieces of that jigsaw puzzle. The pieces were shuffled such that the 4 groups of 5 each had all the pieces inter-mingled.
It is the rules, that made the things difficult, and at the same time, helped us to evolve "during the struggle"!!!
We were not to speak to each other...
We cannot ask for a piece from the next person, or from the next group even... and even with gestures! Anybody can pass over the 'unwanted' piece to the person next to him (only on the right side), and if he is benevolent, and also the next few, that piece might come back to us (if we wrongly handed over that puzzle! Karma theory plus free-will in action!)
The worst aspect was, there were a few 'common' pieces which would 'delude' us to fit in at one place say "place A" so well, that it was needed badly, exclusively at some other place, some other point 'place Q'.... (Here was the difficulty, .... to perceive, and judge correctly! we had good fun, watching the frustration on the 'intelligent' faces, at the stupidity of 'passive' participants, who just casually, indifferently passed on a piece several times... and as if to add to the trouble, some other 'wise' guy used to pass it to the next table on the right.. which means, that piece would come back to us after several rounds at each of the tables... like that precious 'human' birth coming back after several lifetimes as other life-forms!)
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Nice blog sir.

Mandate

Politics starts right inside our head!

The title can be viewed in at least two ways...

Our mandate (I got a mandate....), and our mandate (I gave a mandate).... This itself is 'politics', nurturing the 'idea' to look at it in all possible ways, instead of looking at what it means with a “contextual reference” (children look at it mostly by contextual reference, out of ignorance + innocence.... that is why they are lesser into 'adult-type-politics'...)... to further complicate, rake in the gender issues by raising a protest 'in-favour-of' a newer version “Woman-date” (are we women meant only for your 'dating'....? we need a 'reservation' in our favour, with a womandate, which no man can consider as His-Man-date!)

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I don't know why or how I got into this muddle of 'title-analysis'.... I had intended (when I has set out to write), just to bringing a similarity about how elected representatives forget the purpose why they are elected, and have their own agenda's... and yet, never fail to quote 'people's mandate' for purely political purposes of scoring over their adversaries (now-a-days, they have a problem with the Umpires too! The media plays, both , 'to the gallery/s, and ....well, we know!).... Like wise, we as 'human' entities, with volitional consciousness, reasonably agreeable to the axiom 'existence exists', seem to misinterpret the 'mandate' of being a human, in several ways.... we re-enter the arena, then, in several other forms, to filfill other created mandates... but deprived of the awareness about it.... in a few 'base' forms of life, .... and again perhaps resurface with a fresh human mandate... (now reminding ourselves of the mandate is itself a political 'procedure' as we see in commercialised version of several religions!)..... We get out-side support, issue-based support, walk-out support (abstention from voting to ensure marginal victory of one side)... etc!

(When I try to look at it as a 'mandate'.... I feel fortunate that I spend more time 'commenting' on blogs, instead of risking the 'unmandated' blogging-independently..... Some unseen, abstract, 'something' ... seems to have protected me when I had been blissfully writing for an obscure blog page for nearly 5 years! Hardly any comments/rebukes/retorts/remarks/etc.... But here at ST, the vulnerability is quite 'heavy'! :) ... and somehow it does not 'occur' to target the 'comments' to a blog! The author seldom 'invites' troubles along with the 'doosra' invitation to comment-itself!... so it is quite safe to 'assume' the aaam-aadmi' position... cast a secret ballot in favour, and then criticise from the bench of the nearest road-side-tea-shop!)

psn ... 22Mar2012

ps: that reference to 'ST' was the web-page, for which this post was basically written... and obviously, the 'obscure' one, we all are so familiar with!

http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/science-of-spirituality/mandate

Are we 'reasonably-logical' or 'logically-reasonable'?

It is not about interplay of words. Neither is it about teasing or tickling the 'sentiments'. It is about an attempt to strike a judicious balance between the exercise of logic on the one hand, and upholding the emotional values on the other, and retain both of them, well under our faculty of 'reasoning'.

We happen to inadvertently 'touch' those delicate 'religious sentiments' of a person when we try to find out how they manage a 'deal' with their deity, trying to offer a petty gift in return for a huge and disproportionate benefit... Those who 'feel' the hurt are quick to shift their position, and quite swiftly act upon the query, trying to become a legal advocate on behalf of their deity.... this positioning makes an explanation on their 'own' behalf to be 'redundant'! What they fail to see is that they stretch their logic to an unreasonable extent, to cover up their own inadequacy of emotional strength to handle the situation on their own! Most of the incidents in our day to day life get 'adjusted' or tolerated, despite the 'lack of reasoning' to support certain attitudes.... thus came to be born that 'sentiment' perhaps! And once that 'sentiment' takes an avatar, there is no other way (for the time being), but to rename it as a 'false-sentiment' , just as we try to 'disarm' /diffuse it like we remove the small switch or fuse of an explosive, and later on take it out to an open are and set fire to that explosive material (in the case of that 'false-sentiment', it can be 'engaged' like that missile any time again!). The 'reasonable' part of that precious emotion of a sense of gratitude, and the show of it as a gesture, at times, due to urgency of the 'seeker' takes the shape of a 'deal' and like that adage of putting the 'cart-before-the-horse', the deal is struck in advance, even before receiving the benefit... (that round about way of justification of emotion by over-stretching the logic.... anyway, a gesture of gratitude is due.... so why not offer that token of gratitude as a guarantee , well in advance, and hope for the gift/ benefit like an insurance policy? Or, shall we say, a 'mututal-benefit-scheme' ?). It is this over-stretching of logic that clouds the intellect, and we miss the basic concepts, the fundamentals about the source of creation, the creator.... and when such tendencies harden or solidify into a sort of sentiment, it becomes like our own built-in 'chemistry', to be 'religiously' handed down to even the next generation/s too!

That 'religious' sentiments was a 'typical' instance to illustrate the point... because it is the 'religious' aspects that tend to heavily polarise a person, way beyond emotional considerations too! Otherwise, we often find the conflict between emotional decisions and logical decisions locking horns through their representatives (spouses usually :) ... and we know who wins 'normally'!}... It is not about supporting one against the other.. it is about conscious use of 'reasoning' to arbitrate using the sense of discretion a bit judiciously! Unless we do this, we are not merely setting a bad example to our off-springs... we are even leaving them utterly confused, about our own 'sense of maturity'! No point, lamenting about 'trust-deficit' later on....

(I am still hunting for an 'exact' equivalent of the English word 'sentiment' in one of our Indian languages..... Or... was it that we never needed it in our ancient 'bullock-cart' days! Also that 'boredom' seems elusive in our Indian way of saying it!)

PSN(14^th March, 2012)

Emotional Training, Desi style!

Somebody tried to 'brand' me as a movie-buff .... (I am yet to 'rebuff' the surface meaning that I had grasped, about what 'they' mean by a 'buff'.... and then to attempt at reaching its intrinsic meaning ... my laziness got the better of me... long ago, I had managed to grasp its 'round-about' meaning due to frequent contextual-usage collusions!.. please try.... those who use 'buff' as a suffix with 'movie' often mean it --or are led to presume it--- ... as movie-crazy....!!! )...

But please see.... it is not just me who digs up such old 'things', re-cycles it, renews it, buffers it (in the sense of 'polishing'... that 'buffer' it....)... there are several others, who do it as a part of their curriculum....

Teaching kids is no kids-game! Learning to 'teach' has to go much deep, to catch their emotions 'early' (catch them early.... they say!)... Once the kids get stabilised into emotions, they happen to 'learn how to learn'... and the rest is going to be record-shattering!

If patience permits, please take a look at these two video clips (they aren't too long and the music is not too noisy either!)....

that original song....

Masoom (1960): Nani teri morni ko mor le gaye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4HmKkvluxM

ITEP Participants singing a poem (Nani teri morni Ko mor le gaye)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4YxV9mf9jo

Deadlines

“Shubh-shub bolo.....” chided the 'elders', when as a kid, I used to explicitly manifest my inquisitiveness to know about that only certainty in our life... Death!

I am glad that now we are more “practical”, dealing with it... We speak about 'dead' lines day-in-and-day-out (yes mostly nights, when techies approach that “Zero” hour! Approaching 'zero' is of tremendous significance to a spiritual pursuer, for he/she knows the unknowability of 'nothingness' except by experience itself!)...

I was simply 'shaken' when that youngster protested “please don't distract me... I am busy working between deadlines...” . I wondered how can a person position oneself “between” two deadlines? A rare phenomenon of stepping aside from time, into timelessness, and yet glancing at the two time frames... simultaneously? ..... As a simpleton, I could only visualise myself approaching two deadlines ahead of me, not able to picturise “me” between a Dead-deadline, and a 'live-deadline'... thinking thus, I blurted out to that youngster “Do you ever find yourself working towards any 'alive-line”?.... “no...” he replied... “in worst-case scenarios... “ (aha! Again anti-shub... or ashub...).. he added “we have that “extended” deadlines....”... 'Okay', I thought, 'as long as you 'maintain' that familiarity with 'dead' you are 'into' spirituality, whether you like it or not!'..... but kept wondering, how it would be if I were to be standing sandwitched between two long deadlines, dead people lying in two long lines, me.... waiting to choose a 'priority' line!!! Maybe, that is why these youngsters of today face 'stress-related' outcomes too often... all the time 'facing' only 'deadlines' not 'life-lines'!

Mercifully, spirituality does not stipulate any 'dead' line... The whole eternity or.... why be miserly, several endless, infinite eternities ... is waiting till we opt to look at the 'life' or 'life-line' of spirituality, our spirit... that is...!!!

psn(21^st February, 2012)

That preachy-stuff... "Turn Inwards"

I Did not even know then, that it did not work!.....

That was the tender age at which the elders around me liberally showered me with this adage....

That 'showering' in my experience can be likened to a hasty father pouring a bucket full of iced water over the lazy son, refusing to get up from sleep, when it is getting late for school...!

It made me feel cold, when I tried to think over 'how to implement' this 'turning inwards'! (Today, eminent psychiatrists are there to teach us, not to give 'abstract' sermons to children... and a famous example is, shouting at a child who is comfortably perched on a tall feeble branch of that tree “Don't fall”.... That kid finds it difficult to 'carry out' how NOT-TO-FALL... instead, the psychiatrists suggests, try telling the kid “Hold Firmly....” (on to the nearby stronger branch till help reaches...).

But, I had a kind of obstinacy. This obstinacy of mine 'stood me in good stead' in many ways in making a 'reasonable' progress on my yet another obstinate pursuit.... that one, ...of spiritual path! I had been wondering what made me admire those 'aghoris' when most people turned their mind away instantly on reading about what they do! Maybe, I too had a mild, crude form of it in my own 'sense' of that obstinacy! As if to confirm, my mind had churned out a blog about 'breaking point' some time ago!

Anyway,.... turning inwards turned out to be a 'nosey' business (oh! Almost literally!)... Nothing spiritual about my experiments trying to 'experience'... but I did notice the oddities about my nose, at an age when it can be said 'you are too young for that.....(too subtle to notice)'... I had been noticing that 'good' cooks found their appetite 'died' after cooking for a large crowd... Their hunger remained, and they satiated it with another couple of rounds of beverages like 'strong' coffee or tea, and used the same dialogue “I feel well fed, when I find the guests have liked the taste'... Elders tried to 'explain' to me that.... maybe, they are too tired to eat ..... I was not to be put of with such 'touch and go' observations. I was a 'nosey' kid, and found that they(the cooks) tested the aroma with their nostrils too often, to avoid any penal deductions from cooking-fee, for lack of taste! How do they guarantee the taste, by just smelling it? The vast examples of bulk of people approving the smell (fragrance) to be the yard-stick, seemed to console me.... Till, .... I tested with a 'precious' condiment... that 'Elaichi' which was used to top-up the sweet dish 'payasam' or sweet-porridge like thing... The rule was to add it only after the dish had reasonably cooled down.... I tested, tasting the grain of elaichi clove , pinch-clipping my nose for a few seconds! The taste became evident only after releasing the nose! That's it.... There could be several dishes we taste only through our nostrils! (some where I had once read that minutely sliced tiny pieces of onion and apple are indistingushable, if tasted, with clipped nose! I don't know for sure, but am inclined to say... maybe....)

This 'nosey' attitude of mine (not that 'obstinate' attitude.... that one was about doing 'what ever it takes' kind of attitude!).... this 'nosey' attitude led me to admire the nose of a blind man who could smell sunset! (Courtesy: Old Hindi Movie: Koshish... that blind man amazed the hero, announcing on a sea beach, that the sun had 'just' set!... They wondered 'how a blind man.....' and he explained... 'I can smell the sunset'!). I learnt that the sense organs can subtitute each other's function in a crisis, or say “outsource” its job, even 'at-will'..... a lesson that helped me to climb at a slightly higher pace when asked to 'perfect' the art of 'naadi-shuddi' through 'sukha-pranayama' , and such other subtle practices to map-the-inward-turning-path!

Next surprise came about 'inside' when they told me the difference between vital organs and important organs! Eyes are important, but not vital to just 'living' (or we may say 'vegetating'), where as, the kidney being a vital one has ample evidence when we frequent a hospital and 'hear' that 'if his/her kidney is not doing well, it is an indication.... time to inform close relatives! Please see, we do not bother about the 'vitality' of our stomach, and pamper the 'importance' (important to us, .... or.. “we”.... the 'impotent'... shall we say :)....inability to 'respond' to 'liveliness of stomach' the headquarters of all ailments!. This inability is not excusable like that 'differently' abled.... it is 'defiantly' abled, an obstinacy that 'need-not-go-unpunished' ...}... importance... of those few centimeters of taste buds with all the junk that we can find at that unearthly hour in the 'metros' and proudly proclaim, 'metro-lives-at-midnight'!!! {So, ... abuse of condiments, impedes the progress on spiritual path also... brahma-granthi... a knotty problem at 'physical' level, retarding us from turning inwards.}

We have a situation now!

“We have a situation now...” The cop says over a mike, in the English Movies (American)... I could grasp the meaning only after hearing it several times!

I was familiar with another usage “I am situated at....” .... I used to hear this often during my school days. Now it is out of fashion. Now, when 'we have a situation'... it also means, the situation HAS us (got us, stuck in it!).

How do we deal with the situation? How do we get out of it? (Cops have to get into 'situation' (their situation is unique, thrilling, risky, dangerous etc).

I had been putting off, the learning 'to ride a bicyle', for too long.... where as, all most all of my classmates used it daily, to commute to school. A very close friend, decided it is time to push me into it, and we had his cycle at stake (his magnanious choice!), and the school ground empty one summer afternoon(we had 'morning' school during hot months). In a matter of about 30 minutes, I could stay on the seat, use the pedal, and keep going straight.... only straight... not yet ready to turn left/right.

Once I got a feel of it, my focus got diluted, and now my future problems cropped up.... Right now the ground is vacant, no sharp turns, no narrow lanes, easy to ride. But what to do when somebody abruptly comes in front of me? I knew the effect of sudden braking. (As if reading my thoughts, that friend of mine took another cycle of a common friend, and deliberately brought it across ..... cutting my path. I banged my cycle into his, and both of us fell. No serious injuries. That friend was giving me a 'feel' of what accidents look like! I got over the fear, and never had any serious accident during 40 years of driving two/four-wheeler autos even!(Experience pays.... I got the concept!)

Sermons(that we get to hear, and a few of them that find an appeal in us) never come really handy when we get into 'situations'! (That is why the 'Kolaveri-di', when we hear the 'preachy' stuff!).... It seems easy to grasp, or even try out the teachings, like the smooth straight ride on an open ground, for a beginner on cycle-riding...... no sooner there is a crowd of problems, chaotic traffic like situation, these sermons seem to further confuse us coming to us(memory recollection), in pairs, with opposite meanings! (Somebody sent me a mail, with pairs of proverbs, carrying a meaning just the opposite of each other!).

So, how to deal with the 'situation'? The first hurdle usually is that our negative emotions overpower us even before we get to understand the situation fully. Even with sufficient practice, chaotic traffic makes us tense, when we are caught in the middle of it, driving a vehicle... Only one category of vehicle drivers seem unruffled by any kind of traffic ... situation, that is...... the youth who got hold of their prized bike, brand new, stylish look, etc.... Not that they do not get into accidents. For that, the worrying part/task, they 'outsource' it to their parents, who are bankers provided by nature! But, they are not tense about the situation. That is the point. (May be they cause tension to others on road). They enjoy riding it, whatever the situation. That is the essence. If somehow, we can get that attitude(remaining joyous in chaotic situation), we would do far better in life-situations, learning each time, evolving faster with each situation, and keep riding / gliding through life, throughout life. Emotions like fear & anger cloud our vision, and the situation appears blurred. We begin to scramble, and if too many around shout, we get further confused!

To make a small beginning, maintaining that breath-awareness might help to retain the calm, joyousness (anyways, we need to keep breathing all the time.... just try to maintain the breath awareness... no big risk, no big task... if it does not work, just drop it!).

(I had just managed learning, to take along somebody(even two people) on bicycle as a pillion rider/s.... I still envy those who could hold the left handle-bar of another bicycle, with their right hand, and ride both, seated on one! They are like Guru's on spiritual path, they can carry even an-other vehicle along, remain stable themselves, and teach others to ride well!)

psn(7^th February, 2012)

Specialisation and Skill

I found, most people use these two terms quite effortlessly, where as, I found great difficulty and was quite often very apprehensive that it is not really so interchangeable!

While it is not my intention to detest or even persuade or provoke others to refrain or restrain themselves from using it interchangeably, I felt it is time to share my own views, and the residual benefit by taking “yet another perspective” (mine, this time, right or wrong)!...

As a simple example, a worker who specialises in brick laying is usually referred to as a skilled labour, where as the helper who fetches the brick does not merit any skill or speciality!

As a bit complex example, a specialist-doctor would demonstrate a skill at surgery! (Whether the patient survives or not, depends upon the amount of skill, and the special knowledge that the doctor carries in his brain, at the time of surgery and before deciding upon the surgery.

Like this we have several examples, and even instances of negative application, like a skilled witness who carries the justice to the wrong side..... Yes, we are at once reminded of the skill of the lawyer who turns the whole case in favour of his/her client!

The confusion occurs where skill and specialisation overlap, or get 'seamlessly interwoven' as the techies skillfully put it! Where specialisation fails them, techies skillfully cut and paste the codes of a program, to tide over the nagging bug! (Please try countering this statement, and I shall feel highly obliged to learn! Yes, some people do 'specialise' in hacking... it is a laudable branch, and specialists are most 'sought-after' by head-hunters, for security, if not anything else! Skill is perhaps required only in camouflaging this specialisation to avoid the prying eye of a competetor. I am not competent enough to elaborate any further please.....).

My doubt is, whether specialisation aims at in-depth knowledge, coupled with extreme sensitivity, alertness, awareness and presence of mind, while skill depends largely on intense practice, effortless ease due to repetitive performance. A car driver needs skill, leaving the area of specialisation as a matter of choice in areas of ambiguity like finding out the right hotel, locating the correct address, sifting the correct place out of similar looking names of location etc...

Now, we come to interpersonal skills..... oh! I blurted out the same 'familiar' words quite mechanically, out of large data-bank of memory of having heard the frequent use of the term! Do we require any 'special' attention to handle relationship, or is it merely enough to have the 'communication-skill' to get into a lasting relationship! Special attention is the perpetual demand of any kind of specialisation (as I see), while skill takes off the need to be alert (a skilled cyclist can ride leaving both the hands... off the handle-bar, a skilled stenographer can take dictation and accurately transcribe any junk (what I mean is, the words beyond comprehension, ... jargon,..... or........ a topic not worth getting at its meaning... like some routine 'report' to higher authorities, statutory bodies etc! .... It is here that I get an old doubt back..... some of my class-mates earned a “good” by repeating the contents of a text book, due to their sheer skill at reproducing the words verbatim, where as I used to struggle to grapple the concept, thereby taking inordinate delay in even securing a just-pass marks!... Somehow, that by-hearting never made a successful appeal to me! It is not that I did lack memory.... At work place, I happened to surprise several colleagues , when I used to reel off numbers from books of accounts, dates of routine transactions, out of multitudes of data!.... All this was not any kind of skill, and I am yet to find out how it crept into my memory, and came out instantly at will, at the appropriate time!).... My chase for specialisation was an unending one, like chasing the mirage on hot sand at mid-day!.... Personally, the gains out of this chase seemed purely 'incidental' and by no means to be considered as a skill (the so called 'gains' I mean..).

I am reminded of a joke (I read it in a 'respectable' magazine, much to my surprise, but never had the courage to share it, out of embarrasment of course.... and even now, I am not sure if the situation justifies it..... only readers have to decide)... The joke was like this.... It so happened that a professor was demonstrating the efficacy of an injectable drug to a group of students, at a veterinary college. The lecture/session was intended to demonstrate induced mating for breeding purpose. The four legged animal did not respond to the injection. The professor became nervous. The keeper of the animal, who never had any access to the book-knowledge, but had adequate experience of the demonstration (several batches of students/professors over several years of his 'unstinted' service) saved the situation by gently pulling out a hair from the genital area of the animal. The response was adequate, and the students were impressed. But, one voice from the rear spoiled the whole show with a remark “Oh! Now I know why my uncle lost all his hair, and became prematurely bald!

(If the joke seems to have an appeal, then it is a 'case' of skill ruling over specialisation.... But if it does not appeal, please, for heaven's sake do not tear apart your hair.... Not worth bald(en)ing... ).

Either ways, time to stop the narrative!

(Spirituality, by itself, does not make any demands either on specialisation or skill, unless we intend to impress others!.... The venerable Masters remind ... that we undertake the 'practices' each time, as if you are doing it for the first time!)

psn(4^th February, 2012)

Stop preaching ..... Please..!!!

There has been always, a great outcry against 'preaching'....

Basically, human species is not designed to preach at all! Some how, the tendency to preach has got into us....

Teaching differs a lot from preaching.... But sadly, even the profession of teaching has adopted preaching, too largely, as a comfortable and convenient replacement-tool, to that tiresome and painstakingly laborious method of teaching..... and hence the 'Kolaveri-di' against preaching....

..

Can't blame preachers entirely! We have proved our tolerance to preaching... And we evolved into that kind of a tolerance right from day 1! .... Looks surprising! Please see, I am saying about tolerance, not about preaching, that we evolved into.....

A baby cries incessantly, and if nothing else occurs to the worried mother to console the child, she starts blaberring rhythemically..... “La la laa, lu, lu looo, tu tu thoo, pa pa paaa...” and so on...

Most of the times, the baby becomes drowsy, and if there is no external support to fight the drowsiness, it falls asleep.... That mother proudly proclaims an expertise at singing the best lullaby! Little does that innocent mother realise, that she had “initiated' the child into tolerating senseless jargon, (junk characters of spoken language!), and the child dozed off out of sheer mind-fatigue!

When the child enters the school, we have an army of teachers and array of 'prescribed' text book, which ensures the “continuity” into this tolerance.... Children doze off in class room....

Some subjects like algebra begin with “suppose we call that number as X.....” (a first timer really starts suspecting the 'knowledge-adequacy' of this branch of mathematics now... 'so algebra doesn't really know how to call it, and starts with a hollow-sounding presupposition right at the beginning!'.... says the thought process, about lazy-mathematics )...... A bit non-alert student would hurry to classify this subject itself as a sort of 'preacher' who himself is not sure of what he preaches!

Parents preach 'Never tell a lie'... and incidentally, but simultaneously, though inadvertently, 'prompt' that kid to answer the ringing phone with a caution 'If it is that so-and-so..... tell them I am not there... gone out 'sine-die'....etc...' (the kid gets the message, preachings are never to be taken literally!)....

It is against this back-drop that our youth repel at even genuine efforts to get them awakened into a spiritual quest! But, reacting to some kind of suggestions that sound like a 'take-it-or-throw-it' one, they try to poke an arguement or two, trying to look quite innocent, but meant to find out whether this preacher really has any credible evidence or supportive experience..... Reactions abound.... Responses are a bit rare, and still rarer are non-casual ones!

My apprehension is largely about my own ignorance about the other person, who might even be a fully enlightened one, and would stare blankly, and deep inside, enjoying my franctic effort with a subtle chuckle, within oneself! The consolation however is, they are invariable very compassionate ones, and a generous pardon is already in my favor , to the credit of my account!

(At this point, I am 'experiencing' a struggle within myself, trying hard to hold back the temptation to 'preach', as to how to tackle preachers!.... And, I am sure, some of you know ..... restraining myself from unsolicited advice/sermon/preaching is something I have been struggling to learn till date!)

psn(31^st January, 2012

Genuine Feedback!

After a very long wait, I did come across a wonderful blog, that seems to comment adequately, comprehensively, and collectively, on behalf of all those who were 'subjected' to my blog posts!

This time, I just 'cut and paste' it cheerfully, taking care to add my own response, only below that...

quote:

http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/self-improvement/why-we-write-what-we-write

Since the past few days, i have stopped reading ST blogs and articles... well, more or less. Because, suddenly, i ruefully realised that everyone is going round in circles, and worse news, I MYSELF am going round in circles!!

Its always the same story, i reflected. Those who believe in God, cite the ‘virtue’ of having Faith, the sanctity of scriptures, the beauty of their own respective gods, the magnificence of the natural world as proof that there is a Designer up there (or somewhere/ everywhere). On the other extreme are those who believe only in the scientifically verifiable knowledge about this universe, and hold that a God is not necessary for our world to be like what it is, and every mystery can be explained by science.. if not now, then in the future. And then there are also those seekers who have no set position, and are only on a journey towards 'knowing'... So, we have amongst us - the Theists, Atheists and Agnostics. And as it happens, their opinions and views on any and every topic here is based on their religious/non-religious stances. That is quite okay in itself, you see... but its just that it gets a tad bit predictable in most cases, as to what and how the person is going to opine on a certain topic. (Me is included in this group, so it is a collective self-criticism)

Though, what ACTUALLY pushed me to take a break were, i guess, the multitude of preachy stuff people write about. Some try to be clever and innovative, by attempting to intellectualise completely 'apparent' things, like how we should be honest, we should love everyone, we should be optimistic and positive, we should be non-judgmental and we should not run after money and success, we should be punctual and we should be vegetarians, and all that moral science stuff. (Okay, they are fine too i guess; i just wish they were written in a more original and creative way, with inputs from their real life experiences. And god forbid, if it is one of those cut-copy-paste from-multiple-sources-work, then i completely go into statue-cant-read-mode)

But what is MOST laborious and tiring is to see people getting so over-philosophical and airy, that they end up sounding strangely impressive in an abstract way... but really, making no sense to any fairly right-minded person. For instance, they will write royally that "Truth is what IS" and hey, we are supposed to see the light at the end of the existential tunnel that way. Or they will say something equally useful like "Look INSIDE and you will find the truth" (very helpful and practical, again, thanks). Some say Depression is Lovely (or smthing like that), some others say, be Identity-Less, Lose your sense of Me... Merge with the Universe... (you mean How? Is your body and brain going to disintegrate and all the atoms go shooting into space like star-dust?) You know, its alright to “talk in trance”... but please do it in your own room, why blog about it and confuse the already confused souls here?

Another reason why i dont like preachy stuff is when people write it as if IT IS A UNIVERSAL FACT, and not like, “I believe it is so”, or the more convincing “I have experienced it to be so”. Take an example: you tell me in a high-moral-ground-tone: “Unconditional Universal Love is the only real love, and it is the only way to realise God”. Now, c’mon, i would believe it only if YOU experienced this particular truth, and given that you do not exactly behave like someone ‘enlightened’ or even ‘loving’, i know for sure that you have NOT experienced this truth. So there’s really no need for making sweeping statements. It doesnt help me and, it doesnt really help you either. Most of us are struggling to love our own families, relatives and neighbours, unconditionally, for god’s sake (oh well). Why, what about loving all the seekers here on ST itself, for starters... Easy, huh??

And more often than not, i have noticed that those who preach about being egoless are the ones with the most ego and cant have a meaningful discussion with anyone with contrary views, without getting miffed. Those who talk about depression being lovely, and loving others unconditionally have no idea about depression and love. Most such people, while they huff and puff over flattering comments, will not even respond to critical comments, but will let their proxies chase the ‘real thinking seekers’ away from their blogs. I mean, once i remarked that I did not understand the blog and if she could explain it to me. The reply i get is “Your doubts will be cleared WHEN the divine chooses” (Ah, the emissary of God that she is, how do i thank her!)

The other day, someone wrote on some blog that he KNEW about Karma, reincarnation, moksha and souls. But ofcourse, he didnt elaborate when i asked HOW he KNEW. If he had said that he got it from this and that source, and this and this is why he believes in it, then its perfectly alright. But ofcourse any ordinary person can tell that he cannot ‘know’ about life after death, till he is still alive! Now you see why such sweeping announcements and declarations do not help, dont you...

I do understand that everyone is free to write whatever they wish to, but we must reflect why we write something, and learn to ask ourselves, am i convinced myself? Can we ask questions about our own beliefs and answer the questions convincingly...? I believe, THAT is the real learning, and not the wrestling of words and playing intellectual monopolies or constructing beautiful sounding sentences. I believe that it helps to reflect on what our own beliefs are, and why we are writing all that we are writing. It helps to be flexible in our viewpoints, and it helps to have an open mind where we question others, but more than that, where we question ourselves the most.

(I wonder why i am writing all this that i am writing. And why am i preaching towards the end! Oh, the incorrigible Speaking Tree seeker in me, i guess!)

Post Script: Notwithstanding what i have written above, i love the blogs of many good seekers here, and i follow the posts and comments of quite a few wonderfully thoughtful people, and i have learned massively from them.

PSS: I am done with my rant, and i am empty now. Thanks for bearing! :)

*END*

unquote:

My response

quote:

Immensely invaluable!
Not just about blogs even..... Most of the 'successful' conversationalists conduct it so successfully, only because they play too safe!
But then why spend so much time and effort to write? (Maybe conversation is unavoidable, when imposed face to face...).
Some where, there could be a lurking question .... quite serious enough.... 'am I okay'.... this coupled with another greater need, that sense of belonging without strings attached.... that might be a good reason... In western countries, we have those 'pet-shops'... not 'live' pets... inanimate objects have successfully replaced the 'live' pets..... One can buy any or few of these crude looking objects, and start 'petting' them! It gives a sense of consolation (without attributing any sense to the word 'sense', sensibly!)....
..
Incidentally, that 'post-script' was almost redundant! Anybody who can write so pin-pointedly, HAS TO HAVE the ability to also distinguish the other type from which we can "MASSIVELY" learn from... (this post script almost sounded like an apprehensive film director, who safely introduces some 'song' sequences, 'comedy' scenes, though absolutely redundant to the central theme of the movie..... though , the movie even without these scenes would have made an excellent film!)
..
And, I personally feel a sense of deep gratitude for this blog-post..... I still await honest criticisms for my own blog page, where I have written some 300+ posts, stupidly waiting to know whether it was worth the effort at all? This post perhaps speaks on behalf of most of my readers! Yes, I also further compounded my stupidity by sending a copy of those posts to my group of e-mail recipients, with hardly any response!
Thank you very much!