Strength

I wonder why can we not have some strength in us first?

Strength to grow, remain calm, to be dignified, strength to become the change you want to see, strength to live the way you want to, strength to control emotions, strength to talk sensibly, work intelligently, strength to be able to dettach ourselves to whatever at will, strength to be able to forgive, and the list goes on.

Basically, strength over the mind that will distinguish us from any other animal, strength that will let us face any situation without losing ourselves to it, yes, anything. Why call ourselves men and women when we hardly find some basic common sense in us, character in us, some morality in us? Doesn't this strength determine your so-called personality?

Oh yeah, some hint at the incident that made me say this, there was a funny incident (atleast to me it looked so)- when people laugh at something when there's actually no joke in it! I see this happen quite often though!
Applaud at some incident when there's nothing great happening. Going about wishing 'congrats' and 'great job' when there is actually nothing done (this is another common sight).. come on, why not ask ourselves if it makes sense first? I feel that some basic awareness of our behavior is a must! And some intellectual growth that will help us strengthen..

Anyway, does it really need so much strength to be able not to laugh when that is not a joke?!

Idea of classification

The idea of classification or should I say, the classification of ideas? Does an idea happen first or the classification? I dont seem to understand!

I happened to read an article that said- 'We humans do or speak or think wrong which is a sin'.

I am actually a bit confused on this and I tend to disagree on the intention of this statement.
Do we really know what we mean when we say- "Your thought is wrong and will result in sin" ?

We say- wrong, because we have a 'pre-conceived idea' that a thing is right and anything else is wrong. When we are not in a position to decide, we simply go with the ideas formed by a majority of the people and assume that they must be right. And they inturn would have assimilated those ideas from others and so on.

So, basically how do we define a 'right' or a 'wrong'? The definitions, of course, will always be relative. It is a common experience: if X talks about a behavior of Y that X didnt like, Y gets hurt, doesn't like the comment and says- 'X made a wrong statement and is a sinner'. This inturn hurts X, because he thinks he is right and he says the same thing to Y and they are in an endless loop. Now Z comes into the picture, analyses based on his owns conceptions and supports one of those, and so on.. which results in certains ideas being classified as 'right' and 'wrong'. So, each one comes in to a situation with his own ideas or his own great 'mind'..

..and it tries to filter out stuff!

I guess, the problem is that, the moment you start thinking, the idea already gets classified into one of those. The feeling of 'I thought a good thought', or 'I just had a bad thought' just happens along with the thought, most of the times. Thats probably why they say that- the moment you start thinking, you are in duality. You cant help it..I dont think you can help the situation.. I tend to keep asking myself- 'whose fault was it that I got to think?' But I keep getting the same answer-'that my question is incorrect'! It is the same as asking-'how did the one become two or many' and an answer cannot be expected..

I believe, that it is best if you can remain without trying to classify a thing as good or bad, high or low, because you know it must be relative.

The 'current'

I was discussing with my friend that we are never sure if the project we are working on today will not change tomorrow. We might actually end up working on something else tomorrow, so in this industry we are never sure.
The response I received - 'We always operate to our current target'. And yeah, isn't it obvious? The "current" might change tomorrow, but then we would still operate to our tomorrow's "current" target.

So, no matter what, whether we wish or not, we always live working on our "current" problems. We make a decision that is the best as per the "current" conditions. I would never repent for a decision that I took 10 years ago, although that might look silly today, because that was the best decision under the then "current" situations.

I believe that the "current" always remains the same for everyone, although the situations faced in the "current" changes from person to person. And it is this, I guess, that probably results in the so-called relative differentiation. But the "current" is all that remains constant...And I love this word 'constant'!

Evolution..or whatever..

It is but a very common experience in our so-called 'lives', that we have this habit of sometimes thinking about our past. And although our experiences would be different, we all invariably end up most of the time concluding that- we, for some reason were just a bit immature yesterday than what we are today ; that we could have faced a situation better, that we were so kiddish or silly or some such thing. And this, we sometimes call by the high-sounding terms like 'evolution'; that I have evolved! ..whatever that means, God alone knows..


We might complain that we are not happier or peaceful than what we were yesterday, but we somehow think that we are not as kiddish.. who knows, but I might come back to this blog tomorrow, only to think that I was still so kiddish today to write this out here..


Well, to be frank, I read a couple of my earlier blog postings, and felt they need not have been written and most of the content was rather immature, except for a few lines, which were sincerely straight from the heart..
They might be unnecessary now, but they made sense when they were written, so I think I can be fair to myself..

I guess that's the problem with the mind, that it dwells in the past, not knowing that even to think of the past, it has to make it the present and think. So, invariably, whether you are aware or not, whether you like it or not, you always live in the present, the 'NOW'..

As a result of googl-ing...

...I ended up finding a few good ones that succeeded to impress me..

From whose calm centre Thou, through height or depth,
Mayest penetrate, wherever truth shall lead;
Measuring through all degrees, until the scale
of time and conscious Nature disappear,
Lost in unsearchable Eternity! ('Excursion' of Wordsworth)

th' immensity of space;
that infinite diffusion, where the mind
Conceives no limits; undistinguish'd void,
Invariable, where no land-marks are,
No paths to guide imaginations' flight. (David Mallet)

Is there a God? I do not know. Is man immortal? I do not know. One thing I do know, and that is, that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be. (Robert G. Ingersoll, an agnostic)

Wax isn't wax because of its color, texture or shape, as all of these things can change and the substance still be wax. If a substance such as wax can be known in this fashion, then the same must be of ourselves. The self, then, is not determined by what we sense of ourselves.. (Rene Descartes)

Archimedes used to demand just one firm and immovable point in order to shift the entire earth; so I too can hope for great things if I manage to find just one thing, however slight, that is certain and unshakable. (Rene Descartes)

Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being. … This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all.. The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect. (Newton)
(who else could talk gravity!)

A song by a sweetheart

The original song is in Bengali I guess and was sung by the sweetheart Swami Vivekananda:

Let us go back once more,
O mind, to our proper home!
Here in this foreign land of earth Why should we wander aimlessly in stranger's guise?
These living beings round about,
And the five elements,
Are strangers to you, all of them; none are your own.
Why do you so forget yourself,In love with strangers, foolish mind?
Why do you so forget your own?

Mount the path of truth,
O mind! Unflaggingly climb,
With love as the lamp to light your way.
As your provision on the journey, take with you
The virtues, hidden carefully;
For, like two highwaymen,
Greed and delusion wait to rob you of your wealth.
And keep beside you constantly,
As guards to shelter you from harm,
Calmness of mind and self-control.

Companionship with holy men will be for you
A welcome rest-house by the road;
There rest your weary limbs awhile, asking your way,
If ever you should be in doubt,
Of him who watches there.
If anything along the path should cause you fear,
Then loudly shout the name of God;
For He is ruler of that road,
And even Death must bow to Him.

"The" Albert Einstein

This is how Einstein would begin telling a story: "Once upon a space-time..." !

To read Einstein is simply highly inspiring and am glad for it.
Here is a gist of his quotes which I thought were a great ‘statement of facts’:

His thoughts on relativity: Click here for the original- 'a must read'
Two hairs in my cup of milk is too much and two hairs on my head is too less, now that's relativity for you!

* You can say that you go and all else is at rest, or you can say that you are at rest and all else goes. It all adds up the same both ways. But old Al then said not only that, but that you can't even tell if you have a pull on you or not. So, at no time, in no way, can you act so that you can't be seen as "at rest". You can go this way or that way or jump up or down or what.. you can say that you are at rest -- and it will all add up just the same.

* "Not only do rays move at c if what puts them out is held fast or not: they move at c even if you are held fast or not." What this says is that you can move as fast or as slow as you want, and rays will go by you at c all the time. So, you can see how fast the rays go by you, and how far off that is from c will tell you how fast you move! Hell, you don't even need the sun for that!

* 'We all start from naive realism, i.e., the doctrine that things are what they seem. We think that grass is green, that stones are hard, and that snow is cold. But physics assures us that the greenness of grass, the hardness of stones, and the coldness of snow are not the greenness, hardness, and coldness that we know in our own experience, but something very different. The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.'

Thoughts on Religion/Society:

* Einstein refers to cosmic religion, as a seeking on the part of the individual who feels it "to experience the totality of existence as a unity full of significance"

*That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God!

* Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntarily and uninvited for a short stay, without knowing the whys and the wherefore. My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

* It was the experience of mystery--even if mixed with fear--that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms--it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man!!

* To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.

*A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.

* Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of the higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact of living in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth, would remain primitive and beastlike in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive!

* Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

* Concept of 'I': We are succumbing to illusions produced by our self-created language, without reaching a better understanding of anything. Most of so-called philosophy is due to this kind of fallacy.

* The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility...The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe!

* Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen! :-)

(Albert Einstein on the occasion of Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi's 70th Birthday in 1939)

A leader of his people, unsupported by any outward authority… a victorious fighter who always scorned the use of force; a man of wisdom and humility, armed with resolve and inflexible consistency.. a man who had confronted the brutality of Europe with the dignity of the simple human being, and thus at all times risen superior. Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked on this earth. (Albert Einstein, 1939)

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

..'Nothing'

I was thinking about the "nothing", yes I was really thinking. And a small conversation happened between the two in me and here's how it went:

1st I : I have understood nothing.
2nd I : Good. You have understood something then!
1st I : (frustrated) What do you mean? I have understood nothing.
2nd I : Yes, I understand. Can you please teach me?
1st I : What can I teach? I say, I have understood nothing.
2nd I : Yes, I want you to teach that 'nothing'.
1st I : (now acting smart): I already taught you.
2nd I : (surprised) What did you teach?
1st I : The thing that you wanted me to teach.
2nd I : (confused) When?
1st I : Just now.
2nd I: But I didn't understand anything.
1st I : Yes, I taught you nothing, so you could never understand anything.
2nd I : Now, I know that you do not know anything.
1st I : That is the same as my first statement- "I have understood nothing"
2nd I : No, they are not the same.
1st I : How?
2nd I : When you say that you "have" understood nothing, you are asserting it positively. But when you say that you have not understood anything, you are negating it. Negation is the way to go. You can never say- 'you are that', you can only say- 'Not this, not this...', that is the famous: "Neti, neti thing.."!!
1st I : Whatever.. both of us know something now- "that we do not know anything"
2nd I : So, we are not two, we were really one always.

If you understood what I wrote, then you have understood 'nothing'.
If you did not understand, even then you have understood nothing! :)

The race is not for the weak

Inaugural Speech for the new batch at the Symbiosis BBA program, Pune 23rd June, 2008, by Chetan Bhagat: (Click here for Original speech)
"You have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first"
He meant to say something to the new college entries, but the statement means something more.

1. Is it better to run the race with the marble, knowing that the marble might fall off somewhere?
2. Or is it better to have the marble and not run the race?

I think case 1 makes sense: run the race, lose the marble, but it is important to figure out that your spoon is empty before you end the race. It might fall a hundred times, but everytime, if you realised that it fell, gain it back and re-run the race. I think you are then making a decent progress than running the race with an empty spoon and coming out first.

But that needs a lot of guts. The race is not to be run by the 'weak at heart'.

"Na Ayamaatma balaheenena labhyahah"

You alone are responsible for the loss of the marble, and you alone can gain it back. No one will run the race for you. You have to run it yourself.

"Uddhareth Aatmanaatmaanam Naatmaanam Avasaadhayet"

But irrespective of whether you lose the marble or not have it or have it, the nature of the marble remains the same all the time.

X-Y-Z

Was browsing through a book and came across this diagram. Just a thought.. may be I dont understand it correctly, but thought I will put it down here.
If X-Y-Z relate to the so-called "Desha-Kaala-Nimittha" or the time-space-causation and if the circles represent the various so-called planes, then does it mean that if you are at the centre, you become conscious of all planes?
Or in other words, you perceive the oneness of all, so that means, there is really no 'all planes', but just the 'one'?




And this picture really looks more 3D-ish and probably conveys my idea better. (I am not really analysing the colors in the picture! It is just one of those nice 3D diagrams that the tool shows up..)

So, if you pick any point in the graph other than the centre, does it need to have a 'form'?

It will need to have all 3 components- X,Y and Z. Or.. can one of them have a value of 'zero'?

I think- if you pick a point on X(say,space) axis, y=0, z=0, so does it mean, space isn't caused(z=0) and it is beginningless (time=0)
Similarly, pick a point on time axis- so, time isn't 'caused' and isn't limited by space.
And on z-axis, causation is beginningless and not limited to space.

Any point anywhere else, will have to have all these 3 components. (I think..)

So, overall if you consider X-Y-Z as one unit, it is meaningless to ask a question like-'Who caused X,Y and Z'. Because any causation is within X-Y-Z and who caused X-Y-Z is a question that is being asked from within X-Y-Z and cannot be answered within this. Beyond X-Y-Z, the question doesnt arise. I guess it doesn't hurt to say that the X-Y-Z is the so-called 'mind', so why mind is a useless question and it's answer can be anything.. and need not be right or wrong.

Anything imagined by the mind calls for an idea, a form. (this is nothing new.. everyone knows it)

Also, the centre - is (0,0,0), so it is not caused, beginningless and not limited by space (or present everywhere) And it is 'ONE'... Hmm... so it cannot be defined, because any definition calls for an idea and any idea is within the network of X-Y-Z/mind. And this centre 'knows' everything else! That is why it is called the 'great one' (as it is only 'ONE') or the 'eternal' (time=0), or the 'omnipresent' (space=0), 'uncaused great cause' (causation=0 and everything looks like emerging from this), omniscient 'being' (knows everything else- being the centre) and so on..

Anyway, not sure what I was trying to make out of this, but I am not sure if an idea within X-Y-Z necessarily calls for a 'form' or an 'appearance'..

.. and someone had time for God

There is atleast one place where people think or are bound to think of the existence of something beyond whatever their eyes can see. Even an atheist who believes in whatever he believes or doesnot believe in what others believe, is bound to believe in something beyond.. when? where? is the question. He might have seen thousands and millions of people praying and never believed in it.. but he will believe in something beyond what he sees- when?

There is one place- where people are praying every second of their remaining life, forgetting that there is this 'small-I' that exists, completely surrendering everything to whoever is beyond.. and no one here in this place is hesitant to say that he went to a temple, no one hesitates to keep kumkum, eat prasadam, keep a picture of whatever form of God, offer prayers, keep fruits and flowers that were given to him as prasadam from all kinds of temples, forget that he has to eat all kind of nice stuff and see all the nice stuff, and cry and cry praying to none but God- which is this place? And no, that place is not the temple or any meditation centre or any piligrim place. But that place is- the hospital! yes- it is not a joke.. this is true..

I recently went to visit someone who I didnt know and was hesitating to give them some sugar and kumkum that I had carried, not knowing if they would accept it. I then saw few guys giving kumkum and flowers to them saying- 'everything will be alright' and they happily accepted and I gave mine too..and they were happy.
Let him be an atheist, even to him death comes.. and atleast then he is bound to think- 'Is this the end? Was this real? Is it the end of this 'I' to which I clinged all along?'

Whether the people in the hospital believed in something beyond or not and whether they do it willingly or not, they atleast want to blame someone for what they call is 'their current state brought about by fate'- and so that 'someone' is what they called God and I guess thats how the thought about God started!! And these are the most extreme cases I am talking about. And the others, of course, completely surrendered themselves as always- and say- ' He does everything.. and this is just his play. Lets watch all that he does.'
And then there are the others who- are not affected in the depths of their heart of their so-called 'current state' as they always believed in their 'belief'!

Whatever it is, I dont care if everyone disagrees with me- I felt this is one place where everyone is atleast trying to forget this so-called 'I' and submit unconditionally to that someone beyond, and it is only so much more good if they did that knowingly..

...Inside the Mind of the Great Genius....

That's partly the name of the latest book by Fritjof Capra..


If you have read 'The Tao of Physics', it is needless for me to say how can you can completely get blown over by the thoughts in this book and it is quite hard to imagine what effort it takes to write one like that. If you read it, you will truly understand what 'effort' means. Do not get misled by the name of the book- It is not just about Physics, not just about an electron/quark..It is simply impossible for me to describe it!
After this book became a huge success, all his future books came to be known as- written by- 'The author of the best-selling Tao of Physics' and I am not even sure if people remember this guy's name more than the name of this book'!
He is not just 'yet another writer' and it is not just 'yet another book'


It is quite a different task when it comes to writing something like that and to respond aggressively to every question that the so-called 'physicists' put forward in response to this book.. It is not even easy to collect facts.. and to write some physics facts which have not been proved wrong atleast for the last 25 years is not something what you and I can do.. and to relate it to our Eastern philosophy, is something which you and I would have never imagined!
I was especially blown over by the way he compared the 'Octet arrangement of the yin-yang concept-based trigrams (of Chinese philosophy)' to the 'octet arrangement of the so-called hardons (of Physics).. and many many such things..


So, if you haven't heard before, introducing to you, one of the most gifted authors- Dr.Fritjof Capra- he is a physicist.. (I think he is Italian). He speaks about his latest book (released October 07)- "The Science of Leonardo - Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance."
..
And you can see under his name on the book- 'Author of The Tao of Physics'..
I am using my blog to promote his books.. hehe.. (..Well.. )


There is a 30-minute audio of what Fritjof spoke on his new book-and he is absolutely aware of what he is speaking and writing! Amongst the 13000 pages that Leonardo da Vinci left behind, he says, there are about a few 6000 of them left in a few places in Europe.. and he gives so much attention to subtleties like, the explanation he gives about why da Vinci used the word 'bird' instead of 'flight'! And he thinks, the word 'cognition' sounds more appealing than the word 'soul' to many people!!

After reading The Tao of Physics, I feel he would have written one more gem of a book in his own unique way in his latest book about Leonardo.. it supposedly has some 50 awesome paintings that Leonardo did and are brought out in superb quality in the book, and it is as if you need to keep reminding yourself that- "these are hand-drawn.. these are paintings..".

Nope, I dont have the book yet and I don't think it is available here..
I am going to place an order for this book and I am sure it will be more than worth the price!

Google alerts!

I have been browsing the 'help' menu of this blogspot to find out how people get alerts when I update my blog, almost instantaneously! :) I looked at the site feed - linked to Google reader. And I never knew I had permitted to share my entire blog through the site feed.. I never knew about the Reader, it is really such a good thing..
But, I thought this person doesnt probably login to Reader all the time everyday.. so, thats not probably the way it is done!

And I stumbled upon the Google alert and thought that's probably it- because it sends you an email. I subscribed my own blog to 'Google alert me' and I am writing this posting to see if that's the way it works! :)

Stop laughing.. if you are still reading.. If this is the way the alert works, then I found it out myself.. although probably very late! And I would probably delete this posting. If not, hmm... I will have to think more about it..

The infinite oceanic view!

(Click on the snap for a larger view)

This snap was shot in Goa and yeah, I know it is an awesome picture..and I really dont remember how I managed to capture such a beautiful snap. It has been my wallpaper since yesterday.. You feel like the sea looks like an ocean and it looks endless etc., But there's something more to it than just that..

Think of this.. Think of an infinite ocean, I know it is totally meaningless as it is hard for the mind to think of infinity. It will start thinking infinity as some 'infinite entity' and if it is an entity, it can't be infinite. Anyway, with due regards to the mind's imagining capacity, let's for a moment 'imagine' an infinite ocean.. so it is obviously never-ending, it doesnt have a beginning and no end. A bird is flying- dont ask me where it started from- because I already said we are in an 'imaginitive framework' where we are thinking of infinity through the finite mind. So, let's forget the questions of start and end and where and why for some time..

Anyway, the bird keeps on flying and flying hoping to find an island or tree where it can rest and this hope makes it to continue to fly and fly and fly. Then after a long time, it realises that the ocean is endless and it starts getting scared.
(I know it is meaningless to talk of time in 'infinity', but thats the limitation of putting your thought through words.. so dont think you are too smart if you picked this error!! I guess this disclaimer is very much essential especially for smart readers :))

It looks everywhere for a tree or boat or island, but doesn't find anything.. And luckily (dont ask me how it got this luck), after ages.. it finds a log on the ocean where it immediately finds rest.. So, it doesn't have any hesitation to go and rest on this log and when it reaches that log, it finds many similar birds there :) Oh, Come on, I am just describing the above picture!

And now, the same scary ocean is no longer scary.. the bird starts enjoying the ocean view, because it suddenly starts thinking that it is actually 'seeing infinity' - the infinite ocean:) And what joy can you behold if you actually see infinity and are part of it! (Again see infinity is meaningless, but still- for lack of better words :))

So, now if the bird decides to fly again, isn't it foolish? So, it never tries to fly, and even if it does, like one or two birds in the picture, it is just flying very few inches above and around the log, as if to say: "Look, I have beautiful wings and I know I can actually use them"!! And the other birds in the picture are watching these flying birds, as if with surprise and some amount of fear, thinking- 'Oh, are these birds again going away? I hope they don't'

Hmm.. so when the birds thought if these birds were going away again, does it mean that the birds that are trying to go away were already there in the beginning? And it is just that, they left their home and flew and flew and forgot their home, till they got scared and prayed for help.. and then the help came- the destination was the same as the source! No, it is not non-sense, it is all in the picture and in the innocent look of the lonely bird that is sitting on the bottom right corner watching the flying bird so cutely! Look, all of them are watching and looking up, none of them are bowing their heads or holding their proud beaks down like human-beings!!

And they are all facing the ocean.. with so much innocence, completely submitting themselves to the will of the log.. yes, it's upto the will of the log! Well, do you ask how can the log will? Why should it not? Just because you think it cannot?

And look at the ocean for a moment in the snap, how the sun is shining and making it look like some jewels on the water. And the waves! Are they different from the ocean?! Look how they rise thinking that they are waves and then they have to fall back to the same ocean and realise they were never separate from the ocean.. in essence, they were always just 'water' :)

What do you feel looking at the infinite water if you enjoyed swimming? You want to just go out there and swim and swim and swim to your heart's content, isn't it? Don't you feel like just holding as much water as you can with all your hand's capacity and drink and drink and drink? :)

Wow.. there's so much that this picture says, isnt it? Kudos to the 'imaginitive' and 'decisive' faculty and the one knowledge that makes these thoughts shine forth.. Essentially, it is this knowledge that comes out through words.. , I guess!

Now, stop thinking that I am crazy in thinking this way and may be, some people might say I am confused, but I guess it is much better to be confused than thinking crap all the time..

I guess I have read this posting a few times again and again and have been editing and adding to it.. I guess, I must just stop reading it now, else it might get too boring and long that I myself may not want to read it again!