International Yoga day!

These people celebrated the 'Yoga day' a little ahead of time....

not their fault...

Nature couldn't wait for 21st June...

The essential ingredient of "Yoga" is about giving one's 100% into whatever we do!

They are 'just-into-it'

I received these images on WhatsApp, with the message "Sikhs serving langar food to stranded passengers at Dadar yesterday (19th June, 2015, when rains flooded the place, Mumbai). Salute the Sardars"  The details in bracket/braces, by me...

Maybe such news is not commercially viable for media!

But it does work to inspire us into Yoga!

psn

Concepts classified!

Oops!

Well, despite my 'oops' .. there is really nothing that I can do much about it...
“Classified”... you know!

I was amazed to look at a very few teachers randomly scattered, who do take own 'risk and responsibility' to advocate the 'concept' of something that they teach... It is easier to understand 'concepts', when it is about 'the' concepts related to an operation used as a tool in mathematical measurements (multiplication, division, algebraic terms...etc).. The concepts about languages are a bit hazy... fewer teachers really 'dare to indulge'...

What is quite difficult to 'digest' is that, in the ancient days, the teachers liberally focused on evolving students into developing 'an ear for concepts'! That, I found it quite exciting+amazing!

I seldom talk about it... And even now it is a status quo!

And yet, may I try to present a proposal: 'What if the very classification itself was based on 'concepts' potential , when it came to classifying humans?' Does it not rhyme with the eccentricities that we 'feel-so' with a present-day-mind?... the finer the classified-group, the tougher the grasp about their life-styles!!! Well , no point talking further.. ... In Hindi there is a protective gear, “samajhdaar ko ishaara kaafi hai” (for the wise one, a hint is but quite sufficient!)...

Now, when our teacher asked a very simple, basic and fundamental question, “what is the difference between humans and other living beings?” (yes, the animal kingdom)...
Participants tried-out with several 'aspects'... but none had managed to even touch-upon the 'difference' the distinct factor!

The teacher quietly said, (the style of dialogue delivery was like that of a hefty, stout comedian of black and white movie era, who heavily depends on dialogue-delivery, rather than gesticulations).. he said, “well, if we don't know the difference, then ... .. there is no difference!”

I committed a blunder. I laughed out loud. And all heads turned towards me with the curiosity of witnessing a rare species mating. ( I too, hold back the 'difference' for the same 'obvious' reason: No point, yelling it :) telling it out)...

But, quite a few are blooming out, recently (may be 'of-late' suits better)...! So, a hint.. be it so, I thought! (A few years ago, a small news item did raise my eyebrows: Some where in west, recruiters were trying to look at DNA pattern as a potential for hiring 'good' ones! Nothing 'reached' me further, nor did I 'try' to reach it!... Here I had better things to do with what I had within me!

Conceptually yours,

psn(9th June, 2015)

Offering trust

“Actually... tell me... (...)”

Says my friend....

Now, he is my friend.. I ought to know...

His use of “actually” has no relevance what so ever, to the actuality that we people refer to, when some of us do use it a bit consciously, and so 'actually' his use of 'actually' is quite 'inactual' except that it turns out be a 'dos-command' to which his own memory bank gets invoked in a bit cohesive manner! (Yes, he fumbles for the right word, as I discovered, when he tried to oblige me , by trying to talk without the pre-fix of 'actually')... In a way, I also discovered that I have afforded him the 'trust' that I would never 'actually-mistake' his 'actually' :)

What he asked once after one of those 'actually/ies' was... “tell me... why the hell did this joint family system vanish?”

Two things I had to reconcile myself...

He assumes the right to use me like that hand held gadget to which we can even bark “ok google” and ask any stupid question... 'A dedicated' gadget! That's what I turned out to be, when emotions defied logic, and I decided to be 'his' :)

He also assumes (the second bout of reconciliation-statement), that I ought-to-know answers to all his queries!

This time, I thought let me try something easy for him to remember (so that understanding can take time!)...
I said, “Imagine, if that 'news hour debate' at the prime time 9 pm, where everybody shouts-out the rest, and barks, happens around you on a '24 X 7' basis?... May be that's one of the reasons, why joint-families broke off.. Bickerings too often over trivial matters!... And I thought at least some of the kids might feel-initiated into that 'gibberish-meditation'!! (smiley-icon)...”

“Well, I said, ... I ain't too sure... but do carry a small glimpse of that amazing coordination like the modern noise-less engines of the luxury cars, where a lot happens under the hood, but doesn't let out any noise! A swarm of ladies used to move around the kitchen, and only when we hear the 'scratching' sound of that half-shell of a cocoanut struggling to survive the chipping off, when forced on the sharp teeth of that scraper... that we kids hustle around for a share of the scoop that the lady hands into each of our eagerly cupped hands.. ... It took some time (years) for me to 'actually' realise that these ladies, do the real-meaningful scraping only after our quota (we the kids).. And some elder would try to solve his morning-puzzle, by listening keenly to that noise, and trying to guess, the vegetable that 'deserves' the gently-scraped 'flower-petals-like' peels of cocoanut kernel for its garnishing! (If the scraping is for further-processing, ... between two stones, pasted, blended by grinding, the scraping is at a pace of 'get-over-with-it' quickly)....”

He just gaped at me..

And I was wondering... if he was trapped inside the scraped cocoanut? Or was he locked inside the visuals of a traditional dish?.. or was he lucky, 'not-to-be-carried' away, and noticed the 'peak-noise-maker' of a healthy joint-family?

Somewhere, that 'offer of trust' ... over a period of time, tends to silence-a-bit, the other person! (Yes, I can vouch for this, when a 'regular-customer' at my work place, waits silently and even with a smile, when I look up to clear my own doubt about 'do I not owe to explain, why I am taking so much time to attend to him?'

Actually yours,

psn(8th June, 2015)

Have an ear for...

“an ear for music”... mystified me, when I heard it for the first time... I raced my memory, to 'google' in my brain's hard-disk... to look-to-see, if there was any un-labelled image somewhere, with an extra-ear in a person.... or even an ear, “earmarked' for music-only, and being stone-deaf for everything else!!

Oh! It was a mere reference to 'receptivity' within, irrespective of whether the 'input-device' is working or not!!! (a word renowned musician was really deaf!)

So, it became too clear... receptivity is exclusive of recepticle, its attachments!

It was only at the 'next-stage' in the same track of looking-further that I discovered that 'ear for concepts' in me!!!

And it does look like, for spirituality to step in... the ear for concepts has to refine towards subtlety!

(as a side-effect, the ear-for-other concepts becomes a little effortless! Just 'look' and the concepts speak by themselves!)

At schools, the kids 'get' classified in yet another distinct way(no yardsticks in place , as yet), when only some of them manage to grow that 'ear for concepts'... The rest of them keep 'scoring' by boring/mugging/rigging/etc., till time catches up with them some/sum-time or other! :)

conceptually yours,

psn(29 May, 2015)

To deserve

I found that... “The being-within, does 'deserve' to be dealt with 'being-true-to-oneself' always!” ...

Though I did practice this in crude and primitive ways, out of total ignorance, right from my kid days, it was only later on, that I discovered (I may be wrong, but it works for me!), the multi-dimensional aspects of this, in a bit 'programmed' way...). I would not go into details of something that I am not too sure of, as to whether it would work similarly for others, when it has worked for me... But I did feel like making a 'mention' to quell the doubts about 'why now, ... this?' .... kind of doubts in a reader.. ...

I had to look at the 'deserve' aspect, yet again when the temptation was too strong to yield to some temptation!

I could see, it was not about meriting something... not in the sense of eligibility, qualification-for-it, or even that capability.. It was about 'de-serve' (“ < Old French deservir, Latin dēservīre to serve zealously” )...

A chance 'encounter' with kid age friends, who also happened to be classmates for the entire schooling days, and that too after a gap of some 44+ years...

We did not feel quite contended with mere 'chat' on a virtual platform... The feel, when it was face-to-face, was the highest possibility we knew of(right now! We do not know anyone who is spiritually so-evolved, as to bypass such constraints!), that can give that joy of togetherness..

And so, a travel for a fellow who is located far away from the bulk of them, became a must! It is here, that the 'mismatches' started surfacing.. We call those mismatches as 'situational constraints'!

For instance, when the body of a very close person is suspected to be floating somewhere in the mid-ocean, post-disaster of an airplane, we just 'drop-everything' on hand (see... we do 'match'!.. the plane dropped down, and here we drop our tasks), and then rush to 'see' if that floating mass of half-decomposed body is/was that of our dear one! But not when we are invited for a social gathering! We have a whole-set of 'valid' excuses, which we 'religiously' practised, tested and it worked while at work place, having 'submitted-humbly', those excuses to our bosses, for not having done something duty-bound by us! (Yep! Salary is already 'bound'.. so the action is merely 'duty-bound' in an exclusive sense!)..

For me this 'travel' boiled down to choosing an expensive way.. a flight! What I had saved out of my 'humble' work-profile was merely like a check-dam, which can get emptied too soon, and not like those huge reservoirs of 'hydro-electric generation dams', the water stored being the meager savings.. Yes, the routine at home will get dislocated a little... the old-age home that it is now, will get reduced to a single inmate during the period-of-absence... a thing that weighs more-heavily, when age, by itself, tends to increase the gravity of everything, every situation, making it 'grave'!

I had to thus... turn towards the concept of 'deserving', deserved-ness... to see, if that criteria helps me to make a fair-judgement! (the decision is based on judgement!.. yet another irony!)

I looked back a little...

I had faced similar situation quite early too....

Many of the simple things did look like a 'huge luxury item' for me, in those kid days too! (when milk goes bad, we kids have a 'treat' with its 'spoils'... it is turned into a sweet dish at home, treated with liberal dose of sugar particles... Yes.. ration sugar comes in tiny-particles, and doesn't 'deserve' its conventional name!)...

At work place, I simply never opted to travel by the class that I was 'eligible' for... The lowest class suited me too well!.. I could afford to spend the journey with those who were more closer to “life”.. the upper-class-travelers were busy with 'swallowing' the comforts of the materials that contributed to the cost of that class!

I even asked my Manager, 'Sir, can I not travel by 3rd class? The cost on our organisation would be ridiculously low that way!”... But he said, “No... you are on an 'official-duty', though it is for a 'training-program'... and you also carry-along the 'image' of our institution! It is not good to tarnish it, by the vulnerability of somebody trying to guess that we are an impoverished organisation!” Fair enough, I thought.. .. I would go by the diktat now... I was deprived of my 'luxury' of being with 'more-live' co-travelers!

Somewhere, I was perhaps misled by 'need-based' perception, when it came to the 'need' to decide between choices! (That need-based approach kept me too busy, to even find time to 'serve' the latent desires, wants.. and other 'likes'!!).

And let me confess... I did not have those 'standard' prescribed patterns of 'visions' about 'humility'.. I never made any conscious effort at humility, or 'trying to me More-humble than before'... such conscious effort seemed like a stupidity for me... Humility, practised as a bare virtue, seemed too burdensome... I looked at the word 'humble' as some kind of attribute, that 'serves' to describe the trait of a person, when he deals with choices... than some kind of an attribute “deserved”!.. A person labelled as 'humble' seldom gets 'served'.. rather, he gets 'exploited' more often !

I try to make wild guesses, when I try to describe my way of looking at 'deserve'.. A captain of a sinking-ship does not 'deserve' to preserve/save his own life, till the last 'soul' remains to be rescued (that is the 'prescription')... where as, he 'deserves' to be the highest decision-making person, so that he 'serves'/saves the lives of travelers, sailors, and his staff... Almost like, we are constrained to allot a single-exclusive seat to that humble-driver, even when the whole bus is jam-packed, and in our own interest, and therefore he 'deserves' to be served by our act of 'giving up our free space' in his favour!

Do I deserve to pluck a flower, unless I am competent to further energise it, with energies of my own, or with the expertise of drawing energy from a 'consecrated' store-house that people call as a 'deity'.. that carved stone?... (Oh! I do not interfere with anyone else plucking a flower, except when it is out of my own back yard... so such quixotic-criterion about 'deserve' need not trouble a casual reader, please...).

Some how, that 'reverence' culture which is believed to have been the befriending trait of ancient Indians, (as distinguished from the 'freedom-culture' of the west), seems to have also looked at this 'deserving' aspect, and left it to 'individuals' to decide and 'deserve' its merits for oneself !(the whole of the bulk of scriptures are addressed to 'individuals' and seldom to a group or a society! Perhaps that 'explains' the persistent diversity in the 'applied' format of those scriptures!)...

Deserving-ly yours,

psn (28th May, 2015)

Experience of kid-age Afresh!

While most of us remember, recollect and perhaps struggle to re-live those childhood memories, school days....

I was in for a surprise!

I was jolted by a chance meeting of a kid, with whom I traveled from LKG to plus 2, at school!

He somehow managed to keep well-packed, those kid-age emotional-feel of each other ... And he opened that pack yet again, (and perhaps, just for me last evening!)...

I suddenly 'became' a kid, experientially! All my experience of life, after leaving the school, just stood a little away from me, and the mind felt like that kid, once more! The mind did not even think of looking at the dear kid-age-friend using references like his cultural background, family roots, traditional life-style etc... He felt just a kid, nothing more!

This experience, did allow my perception to review, what we did with ourselves during the kid age... (yes, my attempt is to look through a-child-like-mind... so, logic might be missing a little, when it is about pristine emotions!)

We just found yet another co-traveler in the other, ready to face those uncertainties, ahead of us, as ourselves! We are keen to observe the other, as he-is, not as we like him to be... (we have no idea even.... about 'how to design our-own-likings' !).. And so, each unique feature in the other seemed an amazing, awesome and attractive thing!

I could see myself into a busy-schedule of trying not-to-miss anything happening around me! And that teacher was struggling to divide her efforts between drawing our attention towards her on the one hand, and trying to make-us-learn those chants from text book, to be repeated like a parrot! Oh! The better parrot happened to get better scores, but when it came to rank, the numerals were too small, not a double-digit-inflation-like!

The 'session' by one teacher was over too soon, even before we started to get a feel-of-what she was like, and only to be replaced by yet another one, entirely distinct from the previous one! We struggled to match the teacher's 'requirements' of us, when no pattern really suited all of them alike! Yes, we found a flaw in the teacher... she struggled to find out where exactly she had left-it, when she used to have a brief chat with the teacher of nearby class... and there would always be one of us to 'prompt' her with the last-repeated-chant... these 'lessons' meant nothing more than an imposed chant, to be 'religiously' adhered to, including the tone, texture and accent which seemed to please that teacher more than the accurate-match with text material!

Somewhere, the teacher rushes to one of the rear benches, and shows the 'cane' a bit menacingly! We the front-benchers are more curious to know what it was about, which infuriated the teacher? And there was a conspicuous absence of 'action-replay' to enlighten us about the 'unpardonable' act of the rear-seated kid... It did not even occur to ask the kid who sat next to that kid... and that kid would invariably remain 'dumb' like when we ask 'what did you do?' (the look on his face, at times seem to offer a clue like, 'what did “I” do?... oh! Nothing... I was just 'fully-myself'.. just that the teacher found my being 'my-own-self' to be a nuisance to her!)...

And therefore, the one teacher who did 'use' the cane too often became an object of 'our common dislike' (we did not think of 'pooling-in' our common-liking, for other teachers who were more kind... The 'like' for a teacher felt like , our 'like-for-a-chocolate'... we experienced it by ourselves, in exclusivity!)....

Thus, I was looking into myself, through my own kid-mind, and enjoyed the experience of that innocence, which I did miss, at that age!

It almost feels like, we might be able to re-stitch the days together and weave the diary of our kid-days!

When I came out of that kid-mind, I could now see clearly, I am a bit obstinate about refusing to view a stranger in my life now, without pasting 'as many labels as possible' on his image-inside-me, .. and most of those labels are out of my memory of 'similar' looking people of the past, their background, culture, manners, religions, social status, financial status ... what not!

Oh! The mind goes through a huge exercise of wading through a very large data base, and in the meanwhile, I miss most of 'what that person is right now!'... The only consolation/solace being, he is no different about the 'mind-pattern'... It is almost like a 'virtual-meeting' despite being 'live, and face-to-face'! (Oh! .. Oops! Was that the reason why the 'virtual' meeting via these gadgets , manages to bring us closer to each other now? Dunno!)

child-like, yours,

psn(25th May-be, 2015)

Mind's speedbreakers

Two incidents....

It seems, a mad elephant was 'instigated' to rush at Gautama Buddha, by his rivals...
It simply sat down calmly, when it neared the 'enlightened one'

Just a story, for us... May or may not have really 'happened'..!

Does the 'concept' really work?... That is something worth exploring... But, only if there is 'something' credible or seemingly-plausible to get started with!

We are trying to look at 'mind', when it is about our getting mad, and trying to bull-doze somebody...
Madness of mind need not be always a case which 'now fit to be referred to a psychiatrist'!

A judgemental mind, a hurried conclusion, .....an abrupt copy paste from memory, a wrong label.... all these are 'indicative' of a state of mild and socially acceptable levels of mind's madness!

“Mad” is a very impolite term, I fully agree. But if we are trying to safeguard our own selves, from 'mind's accidents' , I guess, it is worth looking at it for-a-while, as some kind of madness!

Second incident is what happened to me!

“Didn't I give you a refill just yesterday morning?” barked the officer who decided to 'control' the stationery-items, as an attempt to initiate 'economy-drive' in our work place, to cut operating costs!

I just looked at him, with a 'blank' stare... (I allowed the reasonable time, ... maybe, he may like to 'reconsider' his outburst!)... But he saw it as my 'conceding' of grave-misconduct, an intentional-act of subverting his noble-mission at stationery-conservation-program! He increased the crescendo of reprimanding....

I moved away, much to the annoyance of my colleague-subordinates, who later on said “we felt that chilli's hot-burn at very wrong places too!... Watching his outburst, while your meek silence did annoy us additionally”...

I asked help of these 'friendly' subordinates to collect all those huge ledgers, where my ball-pen's refill had travelled since that 'yesterday-morning'... we placed page-marker flaps (at north India the colloquial term is 'kaapli'... kaapna=scissor/cut, in marathi, and the kaap-li makes it 'that which is cut'... they cut long strips of thin waste boards, which serves to reach the 'exact' location in a thick book).

They gaped at me, a bit questioningly, when the books piled up,.... a little 'cumbersome' in size... And I said, 'don't bother... don't pay attention to what ever he says... just place the pile on his table'... They 'got-it', ... what I was driving at!

I flipped the pages, counted the pages that I inked the previous evening (sitting late, while he had left-early!)... and ensured that I came close to his ears, chanted the numerals slowly, surely and with clarity (numerals are never an 'abusive' word... and I am merely 'producing' evidence to vindicate my 'stand' when an oral 'charge-sheet' is 'deemed' to have been issued against me!)...

The 'dramatised' effect of my actions did have a 'telling-effect', not only on the 'concerned-one' but to a large extent, on others around....

He had to quietly 'suffer' (suhaana-safar), the travel through the pages I had imposed on his eyes..

Then, I said, “Sir, I would like to learn, if you can manage to write something more with a similar refill!..Just once, so that I can do it for the rest of my life, not just service period... because, conservation of resources is a precious lesson!”

It was now his turn to return the 'blank stare' (except that , it also could not hide his helplessness for digging out a reply).

The Manager said to that officer, “please meet me after lunch, for a few minutes” (the staff around understood, what the manager was proposing to say).

Effectively, the officer 'had-to' devise his own speedbreaker, while dealing with us thereafter!Yes... I always respected the 'chair' that a person occupied, and just ensured that his weight on that chair did not feel heavy for 'our respect' towards it!

But, when it comes to a spiritual journey, the teacher (if we like to have such-a-one), does manage his own mystic tools, and later his support to refine the prescribed practices that he initiates us into, to even 'slow' down our minds (speed breakers are usually too bumpy for a rider of mind!)...

That is something really difficult to comprehend (how can it be done?)....

The spacecraft when in its space-orbit, its speed cannot be possibly arrested by a 'speed breaker' {the very concept of a 'speedbreaker' is relevant only in conjugation with concepts of gravity, resistance, friction, action-reaction, and several other earthly-phenomenon! Here, it is an annoying term... 'conjugation' , but I am fond of 'speed-breakers' you see :)..... }.

And it is therefore that... the 'conditions' to be set, prior to an attempt at meditation, becomes so crucial to the very success towards its purpose itself!

Speed-broker, yours,

psn(24th May, 2015)

Spiritual Rennaisance!

Early signs of it....

I see it , though a mere guess-work of mine... when I keep listening to the speeches, talks of Mr.Modi, the present prime minister of our country, Bharat!

Yes, undoubtedly, his focus is on 'development'.... The policies, schemes, strategies, actions etc are also towards a 'material-focus', nothing to do with spirituality!

But, the 'unseen' vacancy... the space, the vacuum... the chair of a spiritual leader at 'national' level... seems to be 'bestowed'.... not 'occupied', taken up, or usurped.... when we look at the bulk of the 'present day youth' hovering around, and keenly following his speeches, imbibing 'values' that go into developing a strong character, and more than anything else 'a positive approach, hope, etc' where none seems to be 'visible' in the situation!

As if to vouch for this 'guess'... we get to see an unprecedented 'chant' of a chorus, “M-o-d-i, M-o-d-i....” where ever he goes!

In a field of sports, when somebody performs in an outstanding manner, along with a 'hero-worship' there comes a herd, yearning to also 'become' something similar... This psychological pattern has been well-recognised... (When there is a world-cup-like match some where at the other end of the globe, kids play street-cricket, in a crude and primitive way, at odd-hours too!)
Just that, we didn't hitherto-see ...... a politician-sportsman for a long time, who smashes sixers!

Now, when a Prime minister of China arranges for 'his-kids' at Universities to listen to a lecture from this inspiring persona... who is going to 'arrange' for our youth at Universities?... It is only during 'routine' events like some convocation etc... where the 'schedule' of a busy PM suits to accomodate a little time, and also he gets invited (being in town, quite-incidentally), that the talk-to-youth happens...

Yes, media as an advanced technological tool, does the work silently!

The snow-balling effect is seen ... rather a little sooner than I even expected!

He quotes precious qualities like 'Vishwaas', 'promises' , global-family-hood, etc.. a little more often! He addresses the 'citizens collectively' as 'God', and their dreams and desires as 'God's will'! Something that even atheists would find it too difficult to 'oppose' , though they may negate! (Even transgenders, not merely atheists, are included into 'citizens'...!!!) It is not everyday that we find a prime-leader who looks at the whole lot of citizens as his-God, and reveres them so, day-in and day-out!

Transparency promotes trust.... trust when invoked, nurtures reverence.... And, if historians happen to be correct about the worth of 'ancient Indian Culture, spiritual values, etc...'... We are a 'reverence-culture'!

I am not trying to promote somebody, or canvass for somebody... Just that, the very spiritual path that I 'trudged'... nudged me to pay a look at 'this-aspect' which did draw my attention! Because, I could clearly see the unwritten rule : Politics is the field to be 'used' to gather lots and lots of power, which also ensures a control over unlimited wealth , and perhaps therefore the 'adage' that 'Power corrupts!'... This Modi-Ji, seems to be re-writing this rule, defying even the adage, using the spiritual tools to insulate himself, (reportedly acquired by him during his early days) from its clutches!

I used to hardly take notice of any politician hither to! (Anyway, they are more known for blocking-'traffic', often!... In the computing world, 'traffic-rate' is the most sought after data to decide 'investments'!).

It does not matter, whether he delivers or even what he delivers, at some future date..
The choice of words, the contents, the theme, its values... was not really-expected from 'present-lot' of politicians!

Diplomatically yours,

psn(19th May, 2015)

Transparency, a bitter pill for trust-deficiency

My guess is, 'Trust' can only be invoked, and not practised...

Transparency, can be practised, and the product (like butter/ghee out of churning curds), would be trust..

The nations like Pakistan and India, when they look at mutual relationship, do talk of that 'trust-deficiency' (the hesitation to act sternly against wrong doers, so called 'non-stage-actors' , etc stems out of lack, or inadequacy of transparency, ... for whatever reasons!)... Then what about the 'iron-curtain' wala nation :)

At our levels, perhaps.... mutual trust decides the quality of relationship...

Trust with and within self... significant, but only for those to whom spiritual pursuit does matter :)

Practice of transparency, might promote and help 'invoking' that trust....

(There is a 'catch'!... If that transparency is one-way-traffic... then trust is possible only from the 'wrong-side' :) towards the person offering that transparency !)

The 'how to'... about it, everybody else is smarter than me, so I would not dare to suggest it :)

I can only hope to try it , the crude way, ... so quixotic that I am!

( I wonder, if that 'emotional-transparency' is a little more tougher than the logical-materialistic-transparency!)

Transparently yours,

psn(18th May, 2015)

Boring dream?

Even as a kid, we did experience, what it feels like, to be 'bored' for some 3 hours at a stretch!

Mass-boredom, was what all of us kids agreed upon when we could not let go as a waste, a movie for which we paid a 'premium'... The extra price was to go into 'Building Fund' of our school.....

Yes I too shared the 'sentiments' of my classmates when I felt it difficult to keep myself focused on the screen (I guess it was 'Baazi' or so... and even songs were badly choreographed)...

Soon after we came out of the movie, my mind.... a quixotic one, even then... churned out a Big-Doubt!!! ... .... ... “What if this movie runs yet again, in my dream?... Hey, ....then I can declare and even “claim” to have been the first idiot, to have witnessed a 'Boring dream'!!!

Some 'first' at least, to my credit, since I knew, I was good-for-nothing! Here the advantage was, the movie is already agreed upon, to be a 'boring-one'... So I don't have to prove yet again, that the dream was a 'boring-one'... all I needed to say was, the 'movie was fully screened in my dream too, with no censorShip-even!'

But it remained a 'dream'...

So I guess, having waited for so long, for a boring dream, it is time to 'spill the beans' to know if somebody around was more fortunate than me!

Yes, we have good, bad, scary, pleasant, sad... etc....and ofcourse “sweet” dreams..

Dreamily yours,

psn(15th May, 2015)

Reverential Attentiveness

“Keep an eye on him always, he will be doing some simple job at the kitchen”, said the Zen Master to the inmates of his Spiritual hermitage, while introducing a new inmate who wasn't a fresher. On the other hand, this inmate was very close to 'making it' any time now!

I can imagine the plight of the other inmates, who have to maintain a heightened level of attentiveness, having no support from the situation outside, to fuel their reverence-potential towards an ear-marked candidate, because, this new one was not going to 'demonstrate' anything in a visible way!

I was yet again amused to view an interesting video clip, where the task of 'training' kids into attentiveness was outsourced to a structure and its ambiance rather than the designated teachers!

https://www.ted.com/talks/takaharu_tezuka_the_best_kindergarten_you_ve_ever_seen

Toddlers can't even be reached....

This kindergarten-age was looked at as a crucial stage, hoping to retain the innate attentiveness, to a maximum possible level, and perhaps, hoping thereby to develop a sense of reverence, towards 'deserving' things/persons/whatever...

Yes, as a kid, I too faced the problem of according respect towards elders, 'just for the sake of it'! I could clearly see too often, that their grasp of the situation doesn't deserve the 'prescribed' levels of respect that is mandated.

It is here that I confronted two abstract concepts which looked like overlapping each other... Respect and reverence...

As adults we find it quite easy, to 'respect' a chair/position/title/etc... where as reverence is something quite personal, and doesn't warrant an exhibition always. When we only fear, we use gloves to handle an un-insulated wire, supposed to be carrying an electric current.. But it is that sensible-caution, which perhaps does invoke a subtle 'reverence' which might persuade us to look at the intrinsic worth of that wire, to see if it really deserves a 'gloved' handshake, and then extend our palm towards it!

When it comes to spiritual-related 'stuff' that comes down to us over generations (Our very genes might be 'stuffed' :) ..., or we might be thrust upon with stuff, which is situation-based, like the society where we are born, its traditions, rituals, scriptures, etc... ), the reverence part becomes the most difficult thing for us to invoke, and without it, the bare-respect part becomes too burdensome!

My admiration for the ancients of Indian spirituality comes out of a discovery of 'how they even managed to ensure' that some-reverence manages to creep in, (not just that they also-looked-at, the difficulty about reverence-without-experience!... One mild-electric shock, and the kid 'can' now remember to be cautious with that plug-socket/wire, etc...!) .... they managed to ensure that some reverence does creep in, even when the badly-mangled/deformed/diluted version of the rituals/traditions/culture reaches down the later generations!

I was a little fortunate... Quite a number of incidents did help me to 'distinguish' the places where respect was not mandated, and yet the reverence was richly deserved!

A real life example: At the very second day of my reporting for work (yes, the job where I retired), I happened to ask of a subordinate staff (the lowest level designation at the workplace), to fetch a book of entry, and its related papers... I was 'supposed' to utilize these services of that person, and he was supposed to comply with my request (yes, it was a polite request, not the 'usual-ordering' which was also 'quite-in-order' :) ...). He did comply, and very gracefully too... He looked aged, almost about to retire, but that did not matter, as long as the 'uniform' that he wore, spoke for him. But, to my utter surprise, the chief representative of the 'staff-union' met me later and insisted that I 'apologise' to him, for having told a 'work' to be done to that sub-staff! I was a 'kid', and did not waste time to argue or even-learn from 'heavy-weights' from 'union'... I simply blurted out those magical words which bought me the freedom-from-trouble, and everybody around nodded a look of approval, almost saying, 'good for you, that you learn so well, and so quickly!'...

I did not have to wait for too long... (but I did 'resolve' to wait sufficiently long enough to ask that person-himself, since he did not quite approve of such 'apology', but none would hear him!).. He, the sub-staff, took me aside, and said, 'Don't take it to heart, ... that forced-apology... I hereby make a 'return-apology' to you on their behalf... these people, they make a mountain out of a mole-hill... I just do my duty, to whatever extent I can”.

After some two days, another colleague, who was a bit amazed at my calm (not quite easy to gulp-down a forced-apology!), explained, “See, all the staff members have decided, that nobody shall ever “tell-him” what he needs to do... he already does a lot more than what can be expected normally from anybody in that job... and over the years, he earned a 'respect' thus!... you were new, and did not know about this 'background'... and the 'union' did not like to perpetuate a bad-precedent, so the leader was in a great hurry, to put-down any dis-respect to that man!”...

I found a clear indication, that I was to 'keep an eye' on that person doing a humble/menial job!

To this day even, I look at the 'act' of that union leader with a lot of 'reverence' (and quite-possibly, even he was oblivious of the spiritual-benefit of his own act...!!!). And I found 'this-reverence' to be a clue, which I use for my own 'camouflage and concealment'... yes, as a converse-theorem of it!... In army, when they teach 'camouflage and concealment' they first teach 'why things are visible to us'.. I learnt it quite well, when they linked it as 6 S(sisters), and 1 M(mother).. the 'M' stands for 'movement'... Figure out the 6 S's for yourselves!

Respectfully yours,

psn(14th May, 2015)

Fuel Efficiency

Perhaps, never before in the history of mankind did the “bulk” of the people, become so much aware about the concept of 'fuel efficiency'....

What ever the reasons/compulsions-of-situation etc... (Let us not waste our fuel thinking/exploring 'that' right now..!)

While we are at it... when that 'concept' is floating at the surface of our lives....

May be it is useful to 'get-across' something through, into us, ... which otherwise doesn't make a dent-even at the surface! (In that movie, “Independence Day”, the earth-men-made missiles do not even dent the protective shield of alien's spacecraft... until some virus gets uploaded and affords a 1 minute window or so! Here, this 'window' of awareness-about-fuel-efficiency!)...

We have made a very good progress about "fuel efficiency".....

Not just the researchers, scientists, politicians, etc....

Common man, Aam/mango Aadmi has become a little aware!

LED.. Bulbs, monitor,

Average per liter vehicles....

What about human Fuel-efficiency?

Where do we " expend" most.... Our own mental energy?

Ancients started with "own" fuel efficiency! (Farak zaroor pendaa hai!)

Well, what I 'saw' ...

During spiritual programs (the names were simplistic, like art of living, effortless living, etc..)...

The teacher ensured that the 'fuel-efficiency' of about 99% of the participants goes up during the one-to-two weeks of that program....

The sharing/feedback, etc at the tail end of the program substantiates in their own words...

Then the drop out rate... it is almost close to the same percentage... 95%... The 5% manage to stay-on just for a few more years... Less than 1% remain en-grooved....!

One 'common' factor I found was, ...

those who 'happened' to stay-on, also 'happened' to find their own internal devices of that...

'fuel-efficiency' being improved a little!

For spirituality to make a dent... fuel efficiency is a must!

Efficiently yours,

psn(7th May, 2015)

Instinctive Perception

After a very long time, I did struggle to think of a suitable title to a blog of mine....!

Even now, I ain't/am not, quite sure! (whether it is 'the' apt one'!)...

Well, (or ...While) we all know, most varieties of life forms learn instinctively (or, let us say, for the sake of.... our couch-potato-convenience, 'they have it in-built' in them!)....

Kids of monkeys just know how to climb... Kids of fishes know how to swim... Kids of lions tigers, etc know how to hunt their food.. Also, the mom's of these kids do not get admitted into maternity-ward, nor do they take the kids to a doctor to find out 'what ails them'...

While we all know... (what I said above), what baffled me was... these life-forms/species, even know what to do when there is a natural calamity like an earthquake/tsunami etc... Some 7 or 10 generations prior to that would not have seen such a calamity, in those small creatures!

Okay... doesn't matter to us (only some botanist/biologist... 'needs' to know these things, to 'somehow' get his doctorate, etc... and our food is linked with the salary that comes with an assured job that we have already with us !)...

Now, when our memory doesn't suffice as a point of reference... 'google it'... It is so comforting!

Are we humans, really stripped off, of 'such' perceptions? Some few people , at times turn out to be right, when they blurt out their 'gut-feelings'... instinctive-feelings... whatever (Hey....!!... the use of 'feelings' ... only confuses us further! Feelings seem to relate with 'emotions' apart from the feel of heat, taste, smell, pain, etc... because... it is a 'feel' of that 'gut' an abstract thing, .... when we already don't feel anything-more, about what passes down the throat!!!)....

When somebody exclaimed “eureka”... was it a result of a 'thought-process'?... the abrupt 'discovery'? (The deer clearly 'discovers' whether the tiger/lion.. prowling within its striking-range is hungry-enough or not.. and that-decides... whether to run away to safety or not... Unlike most of us who run away from a cockroach/home-spider/chipkali-lizard/etc...! Now, keep debating whether that deer 'refers' to its data-base server, the memory, or the brain's processor/whatever, before deciding!)...

The learning-curve... We know, kids have it more!

So, there is a 'chance' that their instinctive-receptivity is slightly better, since the data-base has more of 'free-memory' than occupied bites! (Oh! I bungled... the base where the data is stored, not the base-of-data-bulk!)....
Big-people (scientists, who had nothing better to do, when their credentials reached far higher than that of anybody around them, to 'now-ask'.... what are you doing?), tried observing 'babies' to learning to swim (they dropped the babies into large tubs of clean water), tried observing babies discover the typewriter keys, when only one of them was kept unlocked and the rest cannot be depressed, and a key 'a' corresponds to mention of/hearing-of a 'sound' designated to it... They say, the learning is faster (and without much of adult-intervention!... School teachers are said to 'interfere', rather than intervene... and it is psychology which says so, about our education system!)

The question that I see before me was therefore... 'are we humans endowed/equipped with lesser instinctive-receptivity, than other species?'... or “is it that we somehow ended up allowing a continuous interference of memory-reference, which effectively blocked this instinct-receptivity?...

When a mosquito bites, the cells around that place 'fight back' and we feel the swelling, itch etc... The instinctive response is still available... When medicines are unavailable, we still get-well, but with a slight delay... meaning, medicines are right within us too!...

Somewhere, I started suspecting the word 'intellect' to be linked with instinctive perception (while the mind, with its memory 'looks' for something that is already pre-supposed! At banks, people search for a 'difference' in the books of accounts... and just-keep-searching.... Elderly people 'look' for the specs, and kids remind, “grandpa' it is right on the top of your head”... These are examples of memory-driven-searches, where our sensory tools are directed by thought to focus, not allowing inputs, as they are on the outside!... The 'difference' , the culprit was right under their 'noses' with several 'ticks' against it, but the discovery happens later when looking at it with a 'blank-mind')...

Another interesting thing is, we easily spot a stone, but tend to overlook a snake coiled nearby it!

What happens, when we happen to preserve this 'instinctive' learning, via observations not dominated by mind, its memory etc?

What happens, when our 'safety-concerns' keeps tagging us along all the while, quite needlessly too.. and thus-perhaps, blocking that instinctive urge to observe+learn?... I don't know! I can clearly mention my own experience, for instance... I did 'expect', that my colleagues around 'may' feel persuaded to observe, why I 'happened' to be doing things a little faster, and with far-better accuracy too? It is about 'data-entry'... a very safe example, when odds are against me... The learning of 'how to key-in', was only when the gadget is/was available, and that happened when the proverbial-learning-curve was supposed to have faded out, with age... I happened to do it more than twice as faster than 'average' people around! It got 'noticed'... The monitor, monitored by eyes at far-off-place echoed having noticed it.. People around 'sensed' a threat... the bosses might ask, “Can't you too do something closer to it?”... And ironically, the 'bosses' ended up imagining my 'limits' to be beyond their imagination-too!,... Actually, they did not allow their own equipoise to function, logically-atleast... They scrambled to throttle me, probably driven by their target-chase, to somehow-get-things-done, rather than expanding their potential to reach untapped resources in 'resources of other humans' around!.. Well, my senses were 'normal'... I could see, the situation was not going to be any different, even if re-located (as offered to me later during an exit-interview)... Like any rubber-band, there was indeed a limit, up to which I could be stretched, and beyond it, it was just going to be 'stress' and not stretch!... I quit!... But that is not the point... Two divergent ways of deploying 'observations' neither of them accompanied by “instinctive-intellect”, or rather, an observation not driven by memory-oriented-concerns! For me, it was almost like an animal which moved out of the 'danger-zone' a little ahead of humans... (Yep/yes... several others 'dropped-out' prematurely, even without the gold of the 'golden-handshake', but not without significant damage to their nerves!)... If somebody were to ask me (and they did too), 'why quit so early?'... like a dumb animal, say a donkey, I too gaped at them, fumbling for words to be superimposed on my gut-feeling the sensation that 'when going gets tough, the tough get going-out'!

This 'repulsive' response is not something new for me... What was new was the 'deep-instinctive' communication that seemed to 'seal' the bond of a perpetual relationship, between two pairs of eyes, that of mine, and the teacher, when they met for the very first time, ahead of any known form of conventional communication!... Almost like a humble timid and tiny creature like me sensing the imminent, obvious and irreversible spiritual-gulp from a giant-predator, right in front, reassuring so mightily, that any escape from it is now... out of question! (Oh! Only a mind can question! Animals don't question us, ever!)

Yours (whatever in me that persuaded a blog of this kind),

psn (28th of April, 2015)

Appealingly attractive

Appealingly attractive!

There was a video clip .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPi4HTtqBEQ

Both the toys are quite “attractive”....

But the 'attraction' offered by one is repulsive to the baby, while the other evokes a cheer!

When both are placed together, the sharp-attraction of the repulsive one over-shadows the soft attraction of the other one!

A student seeks an appealing attraction, towards his work/project/submission/whatever, from the evaluators.... The student's judgement about what-might-appeal to an evaluator contributes to the 'presentation' style of what ever is submitted...

There was a movie 'Sindhu Bhairavi'... It was a novice at music, who educated the master of music, into 'how to present' a subtle music in a more appealing form, toning down the complexities at its initial stages!

A few successful salesmen earn their salary more-due-to their appeal finding skills, rather than the quality of product itself....

A spiritual seeker does not bother about any appeal in others towards his own 'seeking' ... If it seems to irritate the others, he moves out of their way! The tools and techniques of Aghori's for instance, evokes a repulsive emotion in 'normal' people, and hence they seek a recluse to pursue their activities of quest...

A spiritual Master, happens to be the best-one at forging an appeal into something that cannot be even “presented” in a perceivable form, to a disciple stuck into just-sensory-levels...

The Mastery of this 'forging an appeal' is almost like a self-evaluating-software, when it is about a spiritual arena, and the indicative yardstick is perhaps the yet-another-subtle capability of the Master to 'sight a potential candidate' when even the candidate himself is unaware of it!

At least about worldly aspects of handling the material-life.... are we going to outsource our own perception, into the hands of somebody who hones his skills into deciding as to what should appeal to us? Ha..! That is what the present day TV commercials seem to be doing! They almost decide what we ought-to-like! The news-media is not to be left behind! They decide our emotional inclinations too! Isolated instances of theft, molestation, insults, abuse etc dominate the priority far above global concerns like environment (which can wipe out the human race, if neglected), or starvation (which topples the balance against other life forms!).. etc..

Sensitivity perhaps decides the direction and force of appeal, as to who wins the tug-o-war!

Yours, Unappealingly unattractive,

psn(24th April, 2015)

Okay Gadget!

“OK Google”

It took a few days for me to grasp, what it meant, when it said “Say OK Google”...
I had seen it early enough...  But it did not persuade me strongly enough like those Income tax authorities, who say it  with also some 'dire consequences', and we just comply, ...  whatever our other compulsions!

But when I did see, that it responds to anything 'suffixed' to that “OK Google”...  it opened my eyes! Whew!...   That's what I have been doing with even people around!  Making the “right kind of noises”..   and getting away with it!...

“Pleezz”...   And it is mandatory for the other fellow in the seat to park his bottom a little more squeezed to allow mine to be 'housed' in that narrow space! A tailor will look baffled, when his quick calculations out of 'tape-drill' pratice says 'impossible-fit' in that half space!

“Okay, put your hands up NOW!”...   This may not work in rural India as yet!...  The cop says some other slang (utterly irrelevant to the action sought to be invoked, and yet the response is invariably super-accurate!)....

Am I 'treating' others around like some gadget?  (Somebody reminded me, 'We love gadgets, and use people' or something to that effect!)...

Oh!  The teacher on the spiritual path said “surrender”...   and most of us tried offering our purse, savings, our-gadgets....  a few even offered their own lives! He said 'none of these I want...  it is your surrender!'....     Means?...  'surrender' itself will do?...    (Sounds almost like ... 'just saying OK Google'... is alone enough...  no further words needed?...   Bah the 'action' part is what gadgets look out for, and dealing with everything and everyone around as we would with gadgets, I guess, I too became a 'gadget-like' thing!...  And here the suggestion is 'dynamic state of surrender'?)....

Oh!  Maybe...  that 'reverence' culture that we had, in ancient days, not bothering to even looking at, and then transcending the 'freedom-culture' (West-like)... might be the 'in-thing' of those days...   That 'reverence' style of looking at people around... obviates the need-even to 'surrender'...   Oh! It almost seems like, they just played the 'reverse-roles'..  almost like saying “I am your gadget, Okay?...  do unto me, as you would unto yourselves!”

Yours Okay!
Psn (19th April, 2015)

Our Dealings!

The moment we step out of the house (even if it is a 'home' indeed!), we resolve to deal with 'everybody', a little more effectively!

With a targeted audience, the 'dealing' is preconceived... where as with 'chance encounters' we leave to our emotional-disposition, of that moment, about how to react.. ...

When indoors, we seek that little bit of emotional dealing too...

The 'indoors' ... if it is a home, we 'expect' an exclusivity of 'commercial' angle from the others, while we merely camouflage ours! If that 'indoors' is an office (a regular meeting place), if it is a madhushaala (dumping emotional garbage), if it is a court-room, a quasi-judicial authority(about to adjudicate an appeal against his-own-orders!), the emotional aspect of the 'dealing' is bar-gain-able!

Why do we 'need' to deal at all? (a lone dweller on an uninhabited island, doesn't exactly deal... he 'meets' a situation!)...
A life-timer, inside a prison cell, finds the need to 'deal' with his several-of-caretakers, so that he finds a 'little-bit-of-freedom' (the “basics” is still the same, he is a life-timer!).. The warden, the watchman, the kitchen-food-in-charge... if dealt with well... it affords some 'rest' to his nerves!

Are we not 'life-timers' on this planet?

Are we not 'watching' a baby, all the time... instead of just 'guarding' it, caring it... (the baby gives us a 'look'... as if seeking approval for a mischief it proposes to undertake!... It clearly tells us, “hey, I am right-on... into your class... getting trained, ... 'how to serve a life-term' on this planet!)...

Some of us, really keen to 'free' themselves a little-bit... like those famous 'Nagpur Oranges'... the fruit inside is a bit free within the peel, when it is excellently-ripe!

Freely yours,

psn(13th of April, 2015)

post script: (Oh! During my visit to Mumbai, which was Bombay then... A trip in a local train, made me think of bulls and buffaloes being taken in an open truck to the market for sale... they stand with ropes tethered to wooden bars fixed across the upper edge of the truck's side-walls... In that train, people hold/hang-on... to the bars, packed... standing with eyes 'transfixed', looking into nowhere...! They too go to the 'labour-market' , sell their energy/efforts... back in the same way... in that local train, packed like animals... indifferent to each-other! No dealings during the 'commuting'! Coordination, between two humans, is a matter of chance! The word 'coordinates' as a concept, has wonderful sense/meaning... The location gets 'fixed' if the coordinates are accurate!... In ancient days, any 'sensible' ritual gets started with 'fixing' the coordinates well... “Mamo-paatha-samastha, duritha kshayadwaara..” etc... May be those ancients looked at 'subtle levels of coordination'!).

I am useless!

As simple as that!

People try to find out if I am a 'good-fellow'... and they find it so embarrassing to spell out their findings!

(Actually, one person did spell it out! The tragedy was, the person to whom it was told was unfortunately too well aware of the 'why & how' of it!)...

A cockroach, for instance... can it be ever 'good' ? To us, of course... and we mean it only 'thus'! That's the catch!

Spirituality doesn't exactly 'promote' being good thus! This simply defeats the expectations of the bulk of people today, from spiritually-oriented-persons!

The 'other way' of looking at it ... those who attempt to 'promote' spiritual growth in others, having had a 'fair' measure of growth in themselves, try to look for 'potential' in those-others!

Average goal-seekers try to look for 'qualities' in others, when they contemplate to team-up to make the reach for their goals a little easier, faster/speedier, etc..

Qualities are at various levels... when it is almost 'effortless' it is dexterity/skill/etc... At knowledge level only, it is expertise, and not a skill-yet!

Professionalism is viewed in two ways, when looked at in a macro-level... Both converge at 'impersonal' attitude.. ... James Bond is a professional, and doesn't waste much time with 'condolence' etiquette/s when his co-spy is fallen (only in one movie, he 'affords' himself a quick glance, making a 'specific' request to his adversary, when he is led handcuffed, and his colleague lays fallen!)... Emotions are dealt-with quite effectively! Only in 'spiritual-professionalism' perhaps, emotions are really transcended... with empirical-related activities, emotions are just tamed, and not transcended... Insensitivity to emotions makes the clear-distinction when outward-appearance tends to be deceptive about a person being 'professional', like in the case of a person who takes care of a body or ensures that it gets fully-consumed at a funeral pyre!

That branding of a person as 'good' , as long as it is based on 'utilitarian-objective' and yet the focus is fully-subjective, defeats the very objective of 'being a human' being! Animals do not distinguish other life forms, whether of their own kind or the different ones as 'good and bad'.. .. they just respond 'appropriately' to their respective nature (we do the same with a cockroach!).. ... Somewhere we happen to complicate the complexity-potential of a human-form, and therefore the 'need' to brand a person as 'good or bad' to suit our own 'objectives'! A classic example is about the 'confusion' prevalent regarding the 'branding' of two popular characters of recent history... One is Mahatma Gandhi, and the other is his 'assassin'! Not many would have 'experienced' Krishna as a 'good-person' till the whole story of Mahabharata became an 'epic-story' for people! This 'confusion' is symbolised amazingly, though quite indicatively, when Gandhari decided to pronounce a curse on Krishna after the battles and the war was over, and soon after that irreversible curse, she found herself in an inextricable abyss of emotion!

Those who 'expected' me to be 'good' must have felt thoroughly let down, when I abruptly got drawn into a kind-of-silence, and as a consequence, the entertainment value of my blogs disappeared so suddenly... Others find a respite, of course!

Spiritually yours,

psn(8th March, 2015)

Perception about perception

“I was in two minds, whether to go for that movie or do finish this job!”...

A friend said this to me, as a matter of loud thinking...

I was not 'asked' to do a third-umpiring here... It was obvious...

So, I thought, just listen... just suno..

But that wouldn't be so!

We are so used to 'jumping' into conclusions about anything and every thing!... Our eye glances across the drawing room very casually, while the mind is 'otherwise' busy...

But, if there is some strange object somewhere across this 'glance-range'... the eye would stop... a sudden brake! What is that now?...

Unless, the memory keeps providing a label for every object seen at some 'X' frames per milliseconds, the eye cannot proceed further to the next object!

Even such a jumping-mind, happened to oblige me by asking me to look at the 'third' somebody inside that friend who can 'talk' about two minds (one saying, 'movie-yaar', the other saying, 'nope! Duty first!')...

I cannot talk to him aloud now... His focus, his attention, his alertness, his skill, his perception, his awareness, are all looking at the choices given by his 'two minds'!..

That caught me trapped into the very concept of 'perception'.. His perception is going to let him decide which of the two minds he has to listen to!

Today, I happened to 'comment' to a friend, looking at her reply to yet another response-reply...

There was a mention about 'perception'...

That lady did appreciate my 'comment'...

I was tempted to 'depreciate' that appreciation.. But no! Wrong timing! Not exactly a 'bad' timing.. It was 'right' timing for her (again, only a guess of mine, as always, and it is so too!)..

Only that, the choice and manner of depreciation that occurred looked a little 'mischeavous' and therefore I shelved it for the time being.. ... What occurred was, very briefly stated, just this: 'Madam, a couple of years ago, the much more simplistic comments of mine happened to evoke far superior appreciations, and now, this one, .. a loaded-comment, gets a relatively nominal one?'

Several reasons are the factors, and going into each of them, and then a 'judicious' justification, demands a 'steady-perception', with an equanimous-ly poised intellect, logic, reasoning and emotion!

And so I decided not to voice that mischief..

Yet, my own 'comment' seemed quite interesting to me, like some material churned out of a 'manthan'... Yes, 'manthan' is itself a 'churning'.. The material looked like an observation of this 'perception about perception'...

This was the comment:

“"then you would know your perceptions about him are wrong ."

Oh!
If we 'also' try to look at the 'impersonal' aspect of this observation, the benefits are quite immense!
It has always been... 'how good are my perceptions'... which was a matter of great concern for me..
If we observe keenly, the life-style of ancients, (and yes.. if we like, even comparing with our present day style... and while observing, if we try to cross-verify as to what this style would do to enhance or deepen the perception, then may be .. even our perception about 'perception' might improve! (for clarity sake, let us see , "why this 'perception' should matter?" Our life itself depends heavily on our sensory levels of perception... the moment few or even one of them weakens too badly, we become 'eligible' as differently-abled! The other way, when somebody is a little above average, just the perception, nothing more than that... this person is 'deemed' to be skilled! A misconception! A person who can hear sub-sonic/ultra sonic, is not necessarily skilled!.. A disabled person might in fact do better about acquiring a skill, being too-conscious of lesser-than-aamAadmi-wala perception!)...
Back to ancient life-style, vis-a-vis present day... Does our life-style, the deployment of these gadgets, etc, deepen our perception? Does our life-style even 'persuade' or remind us to focus towards 'perception'? Here comes the factor 'alertness'! A new bride, who was 'used-to-luxury' struggles to 'focus' for too long on that milk-pot on the stove, when asked to make sure that it does not spill over! This focus, is enhanced due to 'alertness' of a bride hailing from a very poor family, where she had to do several things simultaneously, among which milk-spilling is non-affordable due to poverty! That is where the 'choice of choosing' plays a significant role... Intelligent use of gadgets, and an addiction to gadgets, creates a distinction, and it is therefore that 'technology' need not be blamed! If we look at those epic stories, we find that just-a-few had used 'technology' a bit heavily, while the bulk-majority remained simplistic in their life-style! Pushpaka vimana was a sophisticated bit of gadget (if we go by the story-value!)... Those 'so-called' siddhi's were about 'manipulation'.. of basic 5 elements, whether in a raw form, material form, animated-in-life form or own-structure-form!... Still, it was not 'counted' for 'marks' in the spiritual arena ,, unless, accompanied by the alignment of the person concerned with 'cosmic-tune' (that sur-asur wala distinction.. The asuras were better equipped technologically, and often lesser evolved on spiritual arena .. asur--- 'out-of-sync'...!)..

A typical example we see, when bulk of the people read the very same words, sentences .. of the same person, whether it is blogs or comments... And yet the 'formed-opinion' is so diverse! Then, is it not obvious, that perception plays such an important role? Now, a bundle of such perceptions, slowly snowballing into a very strong opinion.... and such-opinion further becoming like a 'set-concrete' to stay firm for a length of time... what would be the effort for a reversal process, to get back to a proper 'sync'? It is an arduous task, if the 'condition/stipulation' is that "this-very-concrete-block" has to be your basic-tool, to work your way out!!!

psn”

It sets the ball rolling!

Peculiarly yours,

psn 31st January, 2015

Nonreply@

Some of us do not need to read the last few sentences of an email, which usually carries this user-id...

The bulk of my earlier blogs at blogspot dot com met this fate, when people look at the whole blog as a 'nonreply@' (this trend still continues with those few to whom, I am addicted to send these blogs to their id's as a group!)

I felt it amazing that people at 'speaking tree' somehow made it into a place resembling a social networking platform! Obviously, the bulk of the 'responses' would end up only 'taking-after' such a pattern! We don't need to look at its attributes, when we are into a spiritual-oriented inquiry.. Mere observation might take us a little further!

When this no element of any compulsion of any kind, and yet we feel like doing something, the incidental benefits are going to be of some spiritual significance! When these benefits even are subtle and quite slow to accrue, the significance would be ever evasive! Somewhere, I guess, a choice about choicelessness springs forth!

As a kid, the elders found it quite tough to get me interested into doing something that they liked me to do... “Studies” was one such item! Now-a-days, this word 'studies' has faded out a little.. Scores and marks are reference points.. I tried to verify, as to why I am not keen about 'studies'... The help for studies was vested entirely with teachers, who never impressed me that they knew what they are teaching! And text books don't reply to 'our' specific questions... That settled the issue for me! Now, it was only about complying with conditions of survival...

There were a few, in fact very few, who noticed as my elders, that I could do well with almost anything, that I was interested to do... But, unfortunately, what ever that I got interested was of not any interest to the elders, and it included even items, about my interests-of-well-being... I could see clearly and early enough too, that I am never going to make it any good in my life (career oriented outlook-wise, of course)..

I was now turning to look at 'why I do, what I do?'... There seemed to be not much 'leads/clues' to find out... I was able to focus on anything available in the situation outside... For instance, my timing while going towards my school was reliable.. I was always one hour ahead of first bell (same with work place too)... but while returning home, I turned quite erratic . That sense of timing was only the starting hours of next working day (school or work).. So punctuality was not exactly a trait. What exactly 'used to hold me on to' remained a nonreply@ kind of search!

It is only years later that I discovered, something deep within caught my attention (call it a luck or whatever), and now, other things did not seem to matter much.. Involvement became a side-benefit, a by-product... Oh! I felt, that something deep within, that nonreply@ wala id user, is to remain elusive and evasive, despite its 'pronounced' hold on me...! And maybe, therefore that it took quite some time, for me to get 'interested' into 'structured-tools' available to experience the closeness to that anonymous-but-persistent chaser within! The sense of involvement that kept me engaged in sundries, came quite handy, and the appreciation had to wait till I was able to notice others struggling at what I got by default! The funny part was, the psychological aspects of the entire structure of 'teaching' came as a subject of observation for me while others were/got subjected to it!

I was wondering if we would turn to think of our routine activities, and classify them a bit judiciously, into things we do not out of any kind of compulsion/addiction/craving/desire/etc... and those that we do under compulsion like our Tax-deducted-at-source (TDS)... And if we are persuaded to try out a few things, doing it, just as an experiment to see what the 'very doing' is going 'to do' to us, maybe ... some 'deep assets' get a chance to gain significance in our 'life'!

Co-Respondingly yours,

psn (25th January, 2015)

Contrast seeking seeker

“This is all we can do for you..” said that kind lady, and stretched out a coarse cloth containing a 'good-measure' of freshly harvested 'pigoen pea'...!

'Good measure' is a fuzzy logic, when too much of quantifying spoils the 'grace' and beauty of a gesture... But for patrons of hard logic, it must be a litre...

She hailed from a very humble village, and this year their crop in the small piece of land was 'toor-daal' (I guess, that is what 'educated-gentlemen' mean by 'pigeon pea')... She had a kid of school going age, and the 'measure' of their poverty was visible when the longer-drooping one leg of his half-trousers ensured a 'catch of attention' that tailoring was 'home-made' (stitching charges saved!).

That kid used to ask me 'doubts' in his school lessons, often, and the mom did not know 'how to repay' for the help... It is their timidity accentuated by sheer poverty that magnified the insignificant small tips I gave to that kid when he struggled with a few English words here and there, or got stuck at an 'equation' which seemed 'unequal' at the problematic levels that the teacher dictated it as 'home-work'!

It was a week end and the mom and son felt, 'let us go to the village' to meet their family.. The family squeezed their stomach a little further to 'fund' the cost of school education of their kid, the first hero to see 'literacy'! I was amazed at the 'amount' of sacrifice the parents, the in-laws, etc of that lady decided upon, when they told her, “you go and take care of that kid, and let him become a 'matric' and let us see if education might lift us out of this poverty” (“Matric system” .. I chuckled, when I had seen 'seer' paav-seer, chataak, tolaa etc as a kid!... Education too might have become 'Matric' from rustic!)..

That is when I thanked my 'stars' (the employer-concern's customer concerns were depicted using a 'Star' as the emblem, and they added the caption 'You have a future under this Star'. And one of the major parameters to decide a 'good-staff' was a copy-paste knowledge of what the five pronged star 'stood' for, in its emblem, irrespective of whether we stood-for its customers or not! A copy-paste of HR concepts would only end up thus!)... I thanked my 'stars' that I managed to compromise for a not-so-good accommodation, when I landed into a 'job' at a small town, and staying at a lodge till-I-find a suitable accommodation on monthly rent was going to be costly-for-me!

Thus, while a bachelor, the earliest find was just a room of some 8 by 8 feet... One wall was originally a compound wall with random rubbles... (the ones used for 'foundation' below ground level... Architecturally, 'RR's –random rubbles-- are supposed to be more-strong, since they lock into each other, and the bonding is like a made-for-each-other couples, rare among thousands!).. To me, it looked like a wonderful tool to scratch my back, like those donkeys do when the itch is too-good, and hands wont reach the back!).. The roof was of plain corrugated tin... so rain makes all possible kinds of orchestrated music, with larger drops taking shorter jumps, to give tweet-effects!

The rent was 'within poverty range'.. and that is how, this mom and son pair took courage to consult their 'neighbour', for the school lessons-help!

The aroma of freshly-harvested dal, took me by surprise! Never before had I enjoyed such unique fragrance!.. I felt a 'deep' reverence towards that lady! It was a total contrast between our attitude of 'offer and acceptance' (contract-law terms.. please!).. She felt embarrassed about a 'dal' as some compensatory allowance for 'knowledge' that was beyond their reach for generations! I felt deep gratitude for gifting me mother-earths love and affection uncorrupted by manures from chemicals and pesticides garnished over it!...

I decided to reciprocate their gesture of this aromatic daal... I further slow-boiled a large-measure (this time, the 'measure' relates to cooked-stuff, on a meal-plate, not the container-dabba !)..

I pounded red chillies, a bit gently, ending the smack with a gentle grind-effect, so that the thin membrane of that chilli gets elongated a little (as a kid, I had seen other kids place a 10 paise coin on the rails, just before a train rides over the rails, and after the train has zoomed past, the ten paise coin enlarges its circle, and leaves only traces of markings that it was once-upon-a-time, called 10 paise.. like the 4th carbon copy of a pencil scribbling!)... such chilli flakes (mirchi ki Bhukni, if I am not wrong about Hindification), sprinkled over steaming dal, on a porcelain plate, arrests the escape of dal's aroma, while garnishing it with that 'freshly released aroma of a chilli'...

Another half of the 'large measure' of cooked dal, I treated it with 'green chilli' but the crushing/pounding, almost similar... The dal notices the contrast of a young-spouse's scolding, and his mother's scolding (chilli's are suppose to taste-hot..!)...

The other items like Bishop's weeds, cumin etc... roasted on ghee smear, the turmeric spray of color, NaCl.. etc.. made the dal multi-designed in appearance and appeal... I timed their breakfast, and made that 'presto' appearance to present two small plates (actually, it was the saucer, with no extra plates with me to do any 'styled-presentation'!)...

When I saw that small plant yielding green colored 'Kashmiri-Mirchi' at our front-yard, I was reminded of this incident, and relived that 'love-for-a-contrast' stage of life!

Meditative practices do not offer any 'spicy' contrasts to appease our ever-taste-chasing mind , and therefore the 'sessions' look like a life-time-prisoner's diet thrice a day, 30 years, confined to a dark cell, spells of silence, and a rice-gruel to eat, whose taste presents a thoroughly-familiar-feel, even by its memory, or a sight from a distance, at the hands of that jailer! Once this 'contrast-seeking' gets subdued, the core of all this drama, the nothingness, takes over all the entertainment programs, leaving us with eternally-lasting data-base of joy-data!.. Then on, the outside contrasts are like optional-pickles, even trickles would do!

Drastically yours,

psn (16th January, 2015)