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!

"Question"!

I just thought of posing a simple question:

"What is it that makes apparently possible something that is inherently impossible?"
:-)

Great principles..

Wonderful is the society and environment that we are brought up in. A child that is born to a "poor" family is only taught one thing: How to make its bread.. how to earn, nah.. beg for money. On the other hand, a child thats born "rich" is also taught that the only goal of its life should be to make money, nah more and more money.
(I dont like to mention poor/rich, but to convey what I want to and for all practical purposes, I will let the words remain)
These children grow up with this attitude.. become engineers, businessmen, doctors and whatever crap there is to be.... and... their only goal is to make money.. Money.. money.. money.. go after money.. and is there an end? The end is met only when all their desires subside. And the desires do not subside till you stop running behind money. Is there an end? I ask again.. Neither is there an end to such desires nor to running behind money.

So, the reason behind discussing this topic is that I ran into an argument and I was told: "Yes. there need not be an end to running behind money.. It should be ongoing".. yeah right.. forever!
I asked- "Are there no principles in life, other than money?" I was told.. well guess what.. the same old thing that the society that we are brought up in keeps saying:" Principles cannot be applied in practical life. Principle is one thing, practical life is another."

I get so disgusted to be even involved in such arguments.. These people do not understand principles, much less do they know what they mean by "practical" life.. If you want to live an unprincipled life, I dont care, go on.. God Bless you! May all the blessings of the world be on you and may you succeed! I dont have a bit of jealousy that you succeeded.. nor do I care how much money you make more than me!
Why do people not grow the children up throwing some principles in their minds.. yeah, where would they throw it from, unless they had any..

And talk about education... Parents would be scared to send their children to schools which teach them principles.. Everything is centered around money-making.. Yeah.. go on.. I dont care even a damn bit. I am not saying that money is not needed or to give up all your money and go to forests! "Money is not the whole point" Think of something beyond. If you really thought of something beyond, you would have no mind to think of money!
Stop your mind for a moment.. well yeah.. apparently.. look behind on how you let it run like a dog.. and you will be so ashamed that you will start laughing at it.. Yeah.. what else can you do then?!
Stop all the non-sense talks. If you let the mind run behind money.. it will run forever.. I really mean- FOREVER. You can try if you want! Its an infinite loop.. do you know what I mean?

Never mind.. you can run after money.. I am not asking you to stop. But for God's sake, please stop talking such non-sense as : "Principles cannot be applied in practical life.. they are only good for philosophical study.. they are just theories". If principles are only theories and cannot be applied, dont study them. Throw them out of your minds as if you never heard them and God bless you! What good are the principles if they cannot be applied? As long as we have such people, our principles will remain only in the good old books and will be theories forever- "good to hear" kind of stuff. Dont ask me how many such people are in this country.. how many such people are in this world.

If you dare, go.. face the society and live your life with whatever principles you believe in. Else, you are free to live any kind of life you want- but dont talk non-sense. You are free to live the life of a hell.. but please dont pull others into it.
Uhh...

It is very rarely that I talk these days and when I started to talk something, it led into arguments like all this crap I wrote..So I realised silence is the best! (In support of my previous posting!)
I wanted to let this out of my mind and into this blog...

Ssshhhh....!

Yeah..silence!!

I have been silent on the blog for a long time. In fact, my earlier blog was also kind of an on-demand blogging! You must be wondering if I wrote this blog about 'silence' just to break that 'silence'. Well, "probably not" or "can't say" would be my reply! But I thought I should say something about it here .. so, here I go..
I have always liked to be silent, rather preferred to remain silent, not talk much kinds. In fact, I said this in one of my interviews 3 years ago. They asked me to describe myself- that usual crap question they keep asking in interviews. And I said: "I am a silent person"! (Something you would never want to say in an interview!!) The idea behind saying this was- 1. I was telling the truth. 2.I was hoping they wouldnt select me for the job- that was a software company and I didnt intend to work there.
Anyway.. coming back to the topic of discussion.. If you observe the kinds of talks that keeps happening around you, it would not be an exaggeration if I say that atleast 90% of them are almost always non-sense. Talks like: People would wake you up and ask: "Oh, were you sleeping", they would see you going for lunch and ask: "did you have lunch?" They would see you in a book store and ask: "Oh did you come to buy books?" (I must have said: "Nah.. I just came looking for someone!) Mostly, you talk because: 1) You want to say something for the heck of it, although you really dont want to or 2) You talk so that the other person doesnt feel bad about the fact you didnt talk.

The point number 2 above makes sense.. but I dont believe in the first one..

And what really makes sense need not be talked about always. You may find yourself talking about it once or twice, but not more. There are certain things which can be conveyed to the other without any words.. silence! Thats the best way of communication and I say this because at the end of it you would have experienced that joy of having communicated what you intended to. I have had many questions that I intended to ask 'some people', which I never asked, but still, I found answers. I have personally experienced this over the last month. Some people kept saying that I should have spoken to atleast those some 'people' when there were very good opportunities to talk, but I kept saying: "Silence is what we prefer". ('We' here means- me and the other(s).

There are certain places I have been to over the last few weeks where I have seen people talk all crap. The discussions are totally out-of context. What is the use of such crappy gossip? I dont believe in 'talking just for the heck of it'. If I want to talk to someone, what happens most of the time is that I call them up, talk for a couple of minutes and then remain silent as though I hung up on them! The person at the other end would keep wondering why I do this, not just once or twice, but all the time!

Of course, remaining silent doesnt hold good with everyone and at all times. I am not saying that we remain silent completely at all times. (although I would wish to be so) But atleast in some aspects- it remains the best mode of communication. You may ask me- "What are those some aspects?" Like I already said- the things that make sense 'at all times' and remain true at all times no matter what, do not need to be discussed, they do not need to be talked about more than a couple of times. Mere talking is not going to help even a damn bit. Like Swami Vivekananda says: "Even parrots can do the talking"!

Thoughts...'KILLED'..

Its been a while since I blogged- until someone reminded me that I had to write something atleast! Thanks for reminding! So, blogging based on demand!

I am sure many of us have had this experience about which I am going to talk today-
We somehow end up visiting a place, after hearing about it from friends or after reading about it somewhere- it could be a hill station or a piligrim place or some 'peaceful' place. You might be visiting that place for the first time or you might be visiting that place after a really really long time. Sometimes you feel that this is not the first time you are visiting the place or you feel you have been visiting the place since ages.
I had this experience recently- I felt so attached to this place that I felt I have been staying there since ages, although I visited it only for the second time in my life so far. I had visited it 15years ago, but I dont exaclty remember everything. If you count that visit too, it would be 3 times that I visited this place.
And after I came back home, I felt I was missing this place so much- everything there- and it was as if I had left my mind there and I need to go there to get it back! I am sure it wouldn't come back- given a choice! And I wish/hope it doesn't!

Anyway, I am going to describe two incidents here:

There was a small river in that place which had a lot of ripples (yeah, I prefer to call them ripples)- and I saw the reflection of the sun in that water. Every wave in that river near that reflection seemed to show numerous 'suns' split up. A comparison came to my mind.
Water==Mind
Ripples==Thoughts
Sun== ??
Lets leave the question mark as it is in this posting. There are a couple of reasons why I want to leave the question mark as it is:
1) If you know the answer, there is no need for me to say.
2) And if you dont know the answer, there's no point in me saying. You probably would call me a fool if I tell what it is.
So, lets leave it as it is...
Continuing on our correlation, how the ripples called thoughts strike the mind and make us think/see the "one" as" many". When those ripples subside, what do you see in the water? There are not many 'suns'- there is just that one guy- and this one sun was always only 'ONE'. It was never many!

The next day, I heard a German (I think he was a German) talk very good Sanskrit in this place(of course, this place is in India) and I got curious to know what he was talking about with an Indian guy. So I overheard what he was saying. I must admit- he knew much better Sanskrit and philosophy than that Indian- and it was not fake knowledge. He had truly learnt something and was practising what he had learnt. He was a great guy!
Anyway, he was saying- 'When there are no thoughts, the mind is still (just like that river without ripples) and the mind is as good as KILLED'.
Well, you must have heard the way he said that sentence-'The mind is as good as killed'. The word 'Killed' just struck my mind so strongly.

These two incidents- one- the thoughts that came to my mind near the river and the other about the German's sentence- they go together so well! Probably a mere coincidence- .. But they both are so very TRUE!

A 'unique' experience of Singapore

Wait. I know what you are thinking. The title of my blog is a bit misleading. Did you think that my experience at Singapore was awesome and mindblowing? Well, not quite. It wasn't a unique experience in that sense. But it was certainly unique- in what sense? Read on..
I had a 20 hour layover at Changi and I had planned to visit Sentosa. I had about 10 hours to visit all the places that I wanted to. I went over to Sentosa that I desperately wanted to visit. But I wasn't quite impressed! The most awesome was the 4D theatre. This was an amazing experience! It was 3.30pm by the time I left Sentosa. I then went shopping in the Arab street. There was so less time and so much to shop. I unfortunately came across this damn cell phone shop. I wanted to buy a cell phone in Japan, but I almost gave up my hope to buy one. When I found this damn shop at the Bugis market, I bought, rather I was made so convinced to buy a Motorola L7 instead of a Sony ericsson(that I wanted to buy). I wasted so much time- atleast 15mins in this shop that I hardly had any time to look at the other shops. I later figured out that the cell phone was a lot less expensive in India and thats why I kept saying that it is a 'damn' phone and a 'damn' shop. It was 5pm by now and it was time to run back.
I know that I havent seen Singapore enough, but my first impression is that it isn't after all that 'great'. Of course, I liked Bugis- probably the biggest "street-shopping" area in Singapore- as it claims itself to be. People have started believing that I am a shopping freak! But, I only stop by each shop and keep spending a couple of dollars. And then I finally end up wondering where all my money went!
I had so less time, I had so much to do and I was able to visit all those places that I wanted to. I had actually not planned to go the 4D theatre, but that experience was the most awesome of all! It was all perfectly timed. I would have probably enjoyed it better if I had more time.
No one would ever want to visit Sentosa in such a 'unique' way as I did, well- sarcastically 'unique'- with such less time in hand and most importantly- all ALONE!! ;-) Never mind. I enjoyed it anyway..

Crappy theories.. brush'em aside!

(Let me forget my philosophy for a while!!)
I read one of the NYTimes articles of 1982 regarding the first of the new unified theories, the Weinberg-Salam theory, which views electromagnetism and the weak interaction as aspects of a single ''electroweak'' interaction. The electroweak interaction would have governed among particles when the universe was at the furious temperatures that existed only during the first hundred-billionth of a second after the big bang! Wow! What an imagination!! The first hundred-billionth of a second after the big bang! Hahaha.. I cant control my laughter. Excuse me please!

(For your information, I wrote to Prof. Steven Weinberg at Texas-that major physics Prof, who wrote the theory that I stated above. Pretty cool dude...I never expected him to reply, but he actually did!)
Disclaimer: Anyway, no offence meant to the Prof or the theory.

All theories begin with an explanation that looks somewhat similar to this:" When the universe was but one billion years old, we watch the galaxies being born in a blaze of blue-white infant stars."(Hahaha.. I am really amazed at the capability of the human mind to imagine such a thing. Hats off!!)
OR
"The universe in these first moments was in a state that physicists call a 'false vacuum' - a state in which it contained no particles but was permeated by energy - out of which the particles precipitated like raindrops congealing from a cloud"(hahaha). For Newton, the vacuum was but nothingness, an empty stage upon which the cosmic drama unfolds.
Who believes in the big bang? It is just an assumption so that based on this, these 'jokers' move ahead and "try" to explain scientifically about the evolution of the universe; haha..

(Ok, serious now.. no more laughing)

Anyway, be it the electroweak interaction or whatever, it all starts from one point- the beginning or big-bang or vacuum or blue infant stars or quantum foam or mass or anything similar. But how do you explain the 'existence' of this mass? (Dont ask me what I mean by existence.. I already told you in the beginning- Let me forget my philosophy for a while!!)
How could this hot mass or whatever have emerged? Does physics have an answer? Or even, talking about the minute sub-atomic particles that constitute matter, how minute are they? How minute can they get? (I know, they keep getting smaller and smaller for no reason!!) Do these exist?

You call them leptons, hadrons, quarks or whatever. Heisenberg's uncertainity principle proved that you can't really predict where you can spot the electron if at all such a thing exists. He himself was unsure! So, how do you explain all this- the origin, the existence, the particles within all these matter? Is it true that the key to understanding the fundamentals of matter and energy lies in understanding the infancy of the universe? Well, in that case, we would never understand it. As Einstein said: "God doesn't play dice"!

Dont give me a crappy reply that you have seen an electron or a quark.. Show me if you have seen one. I can point you to something that makes more sense than that!

Take the minutest particle that science has ever tried to explain. The last time I read about it, it was called the 'quark'. Well, it has been quite sometime since I read about it, so you never know, they might have found something smaller than that and given it a name!! You can go on dividing it till you reach a limit or you can go on expanding something or tracing back something to its ancestor till you reach a point from where you can't go further.

I am not saying that such theories shouldn't be believed. They all can be believed. The big-bang, the electroweak interaction, the theory of parallel universes (Hmm.. its another interesting theory), the sub-atomic world, the quantum physics, the theory of evolution and whatever your mind can imagine. I might create another theory today and will be able to convince more than 90% of the people, I am sure. Believe them- all of these theories, but also know that they are not self-sufficient. Of course, they are all true upto a certain point- till the point where YOUR MIND CAN REACH. Science stops there. Physics stops. The world stops. It looks for a help- an apparent external help at this point.
And what is that, which explains everything? What is that knowing which you feel comfortable that you have found a satisfactory explanation? What is that in which "alone" you can rest? What is that reaching which, you cannot(well.. "need not") go further? Thats the INFINITE! And can you really know it? Well, yeah, but not in the sense of 'knowing'!

We all know that theories don't help and discussions don't help. And.. and... the most powerful electronic/sub-atomic microscopes dont help;-)
Well, you know what I mean..

The complete rain-y experience

I am sure a lot of people love rain and most of them also love to get wet in the rain! And of course, needless to say, I too belong to this category.
But just imagine the fate of the two-wheeler riders in rain. If any of you have had this experience, I am sure most of you would not say that it was one of the wonderful experiences. But it is, indeed, a wonderful experience.

It is very tough especially if you ride in the kind of heavy rain that I rode my two-wheeler in, quite a long time ago. I used to get jealous of the guys driving those cars and I used to feel that they are so comfortable driving in the rain, while I used to try hard to manage avoiding the water from getting on my face. Although I had the helmet, it was still extremely tough to manage to keep my eyes open! It is one of those biggest challenges, especially if you are riding in the traffic-crazy and the most wonderful city of Bangalore! When I said 'most wonderful', that was by no means a sarcastic remark or an exaggeration:-)

Anyway,that was just one experiment that I tried very intentionally- I WANTED to ride in the rain and I rode ~13 kms and I took 1/2 an hour more than what I normally used to take to reach home. Needless to say, everyone at home was damn shocked that I actually rode in the rain! But thats OK, I enjoyed it. (Dont ask me the after-effects of getting drenched for so long! The cold and fever and...)
Then I never got a chance to ride/drive in the rain till recently, when I drove. Yes, I was in the car this time. I recollected that day when I rode my bike and felt jealous of those car drivers. I was feeling that driving was easier as compared to riding. But it was equally difficult, but the advantage is that you get to enjoy the rain and also not get wet. But from the driving point of view, it is not really as easy as I had thought it to be.

I was trying to compare the two experiences and I thought I enjoyed the car experience better. I never drive slow, but this time I was driving intentionally very slow so that I get to stay out there for long! Well, I thought that the experience in rain wasnt complete till I drove in the rain recently- in the heavy rain. Yup, a bit crazy..

When fortune doesnt favor you...

Nope, not a philosophical stuff again! I usually try not to believe in anything like fortune or luck. I am not a believer in astrology either. But sometimes we are forced to believe that apart from talent, hard work, determination, perseverence and what not, there is still some other factor which decides your fate(if you want to call it so) at the end of the day. I am sure you still didnt guess what I am going to talk about today. I am talking about.... Yeah.. come on guess...
Ok, I will give you a hint. I am talking about the Brazilian Grand Prix. Yeah, the final Formula one race of the 2006 season.
And now I am sure, you know who I am talking about and who turned out to be the most unfortunate dude for the last couple of races, just when it required him to be fortunate. It just required him to have some amount of luck, which is exactly what he lacked. Yes, you guessed it right- Michael Schumacher. He is the topic for my today's posting.

Just when it seemed that fortune was favoring Schumi when Alonso's engine blew up in Italy, this time it was Schumi's turn-a Ferrari engine blowing up after nearly 6 years and this was in the Japanese Grand Prix! And the Brazilian Grand Prix was even more painful. Starting with 10th on the grid after a fuel feed problem in the qualifying, he was still looking very determined. He came up to 6th place by the 5th lap or so before trying to overtake Fisichella and in the process ran his tyres over some piece of debris left on the track by a previous car. How unlucky this guy was! However, Ferrari worked up a cool strategy and fueled his car when he came in for a tyre replacement. And when Schumi went back on track, he was the last- the 18th. And his team mate, the Brazilian, the home hero- Felipe Massa was happily leading the race from the front.

And from the 18th on the grid, he probably drove the race of his life. His recovery drive from last to 4th place was mind-blowingly brilliant! There were classic overtakings and some of them towards the end were the best I have ever seen. An amazing last drive. If you watched the race, you would have loved that last overtaking- Schumi overtaking Kimi wheel to wheel. Just making Kimi (who will drive Ferrari next season) a part of a wonderful overtaking. And Schumi was up in 4th place. What else could this guy do? He took every advantage of driving that car, a car that he has driven for 11 years!! Yes, he has been with Ferrari since 1996. He showed what someone could do with that type of a car. No, not that anyone could drive that car so well. Only he could have driven the way he did!

Schumi finally signed off his glorious 16-year long career, probably not quite the way he would have wished. He might not have retired as a world champion in his last race. But 7 world titles to his name and all records that could be possibly made in a formula one career, what more could he have asked for?
"He" knows and the world knows that he is LEGEND. And the world will probably not see a professional racer like him. No, not even Alonso, not even Kimi. They cant even get close to him.

Obviously an emotional seven-time world champion said he was proud to have spent 11 years with Ferrari – the longest any driver has remained at any one team.

He spoke thus:
"My racing career comes to an end. Obviously, it is a special moment for me and I am proud to have lived my career with some fantastic people, namely everyone who is part of the Ferrari family. There is so much I could say about them, but it is difficult to find the right words".

For any of you die-hard Schumi fans, I am sure you know this site- you can find quite a lot of snaps here and here.

And who cares even if fortune doesnt favor you on a particular day. It doesnt change the opinion that the world has on you. A legend will remain a legend and no fortune can change that.

The Formula one world will miss Schumi. However, we look forward to seeing him get involved with Formula one and Ferrari- a team that he loves working with- in one way or the other in future. I am sure he will!

limit {mind(x)} as x--> infinity

No, this is not any math question. I just read a question that was asked to someone: "Why doesnt the earth fall?"

Most answers were something like: "God holds it so that it doesnt fall!!" or "Thats the beauty of God's creation". Yeah right.. Just think of this: God spent so much time to design an earth like this and for having created it, this poor guy has to hold it also!! He certainly wouldnt have wanted to! (By the way, I am not an atheist)
Anyways, we always attribute anything that we do not know and anything that we do not want to know to "God"(whoever created this word 'God', hats off to him! The human mind just utilises this word so perfectly at times) When something goes wrong, we blame it on God. When we can't answer some question or cannot think of something, we say: "Well, God doesnt want me to know". When we ask any question about the creation, we say that God created it. But when something great happens, what do we say? We say: "Yes! Finally 'I' acheived it." The God concept disappears all of a sudden then!

Anyway coming back to the question that I mentioned in the beginning, one of the replies was: "Where should the earth fall?"!!

Yes, it is in an infinite space, as it were, and in infinity, where should it fall? Does infinity have dimensions? Is there an upward or downward or directions associated with it? Does the word "fall" make any sense at all? Because 'fall' mostly means 'down', and where is this 'down' in infinite space?

Our basic problem is that the 'mind' cannot imagine anything infinity. It tries to give a 'form' to the infinity which is ridiculous! It is not the fault of the mind. Because mind itself is within this limited space and time. It obviously cannot imagine anything further. People say that you can imagine something beyond this limitation of space and time. But I feel that this statement itself is wrong. Because, 'imagination' is referred to the mind and the mind cannot go beyond this space and time. And if it does, then it will no longer be called a mind. Rather, it would no longer exist.
So, the statement itself was wrong.

Anyway, the meaning behind the title of this posting is that, we might try and imagine any thing infinite through our minds, but again and again, we imagine the infinity as a 'thing', as a 'form'. But infinity cannot have a form! However, the mind cannot help but think of it as a form, as a thing. We say: "An infinite thing"- like I mentioned a few sentences earlier. The sentence is wrong. It (be it whatever) cannot be an 'infinity' and a 'thing' at the same time!

So, the limitation is really the mind. What we see is but the infinity within this limitation called mind. Everything that we see and enjoy is within this limitation and we refuse to go beyond/think beyond. We can think of it this way: "If within this limitation of 'the inifnity', we apparently seem to see so much happiness, how much happiness will we find in that infinity!"
Do we ever think of this? We dont. "Because our mind doesnt let us think beyond. We will never be able to go beyond. I will die here in a pitiable fashion. I cannot help it", is our answer. But this is no answer. It serves more as an excuse than an explanation, an excuse that we are trying to give ourselves, because we really dont want to find an answer. We refuse to think of it just because we do not want to think of it. It is nothing but an excuse. Why cant we find something if we 'really' want to find it?

And one another famous saying: "The society will not support us. The society will laugh at us if we talk this way".
I care a damn for the society. I would rather say, that I will stand aside and laugh at the whole society!!

If someone or all of the whole world tells me: "I am gonna laugh at you because you are different", I will tell them: "I am gonna laugh at all of you because you all are the same"!
Now, thats attitude. Live it, if you believe in it. Change yourself to live what you believe in. Thats what I would call, a "complete life" or what people generally say: "Living life to the fullest". But unfortunately, it has just remained a jargon, "good to hear and acknowledge" kind of a thing. Whats the point in believing in something that you would love living, if you are not really able to live it? Dont call yourself a believer anymore. Go sit in a corner and cry to the wall that you are a believer of something that you cant practically live. That wall will also probably try and cry along with you after sometime, out of pity!!

Only either of these two can happen: "Live in the society and face it or flee away from the society which doesnt care for the truth". What good is there in the society which doesnt support the truth?
But still we continue to live here.

And is this what we call: "A practical life"?
WELL..WELL..WELL..
A practical life!! Ridiculous! It is high time we start laughing at the replies we give... Let us see how long we will continue to apparently defend ourselves with our excuses, one after the other.

Anyway, to wrap it all up, the math in my title can never have a solution, because the question/problem statement itself is wrong!