I stared blankly at a white wall for about 45 minutes that was less boring than what I have gone through the whole week. I have always enjoyed being all alone, reading books, watching tv and working by the side of it. But whole through the last week I was at the peak of frustration doing nothing. I have been through 6 hours of monotonous lecture while in B.E.; I would have loved that better than last week. Even an hour long bus travel, which I hate the most, would have been thrilling. I assume walking in a desert, just watching hot sand to the end of my eye’s limit, searching may be for water and landing up in a mirage would have been more interesting. I have even enjoyed the two months when I was bed ridden due to typhoid. It would have been a rich experience to just copy text from some book to a notebook which I did for years in my school in the name of homework or better reading what I have just written, the toughest job of all. This week is one hell of a week in my borifying past and hope it will be the best in that category for the rest of my life. Borifying, a term coined to make you feel the height of my emptiness this week.
This week I have not moved an inch ahead and to say frankly I have moved backwards doubting myself a bit. I know with my faith in god and self, I will move forward quickly and confidently.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Objectivism vs. Bhagavad-Gita
The following excerpt is from AYN RAND’S book Atlas Shrugged
“Philosophers have cut man in two, setting one half against the other. They have taught him that his body and his consciousness are two enemies engaged in deadly conflict, two antagonists of opposite natures, contradictory claims, incompatible needs, that to benefit one is to injure the other, that his soul belongs to a supernatural realm, but his body is an evil prison holding it in bondage to this earth—and that the good is to defeat his body, to undermine it by years of patient struggle, digging his way to that glorious jail-break which leads into the freedom of the grave.
Philosophers have taught man that he is a hopeless misfit made of two elements, both symbols of death. A body without a soul is a corpse, a soul without a body is a ghost—yet such is their image of man's nature: the battleground of a struggle between a corpse and a ghost, a corpse endowed with some evil volition of its own and a ghost endowed with the knowledge that everything known to man is non-existent, that only the unknowable exists.
Do you observe what human faculty that doctrine was designed to ignore?
Mind”
After reading this part of the book, I compared it with my own Hindu philosophy. In Bhagavad-Gita, god says he is everywhere but nowhere to be seen by ordinary humans. It goes on to say that all the world is MAYA (illusion) of the mind and the real truth lies within ourselves which we ourselves deny to understand. The self is covered by a screen of materialistic thoughts. To really understand the self, one should be truly devoted to god. The human body holds the soul in it unaltered, Unaffected and untouched by human actions and thoughts. Understanding of the soul gives a complete knowledge of everything in the world and it relieves the soul from this material bondage.
I really don’t understand whether I am taking all these stuff in right sense i.e., both the philosophies. I am confused but all along while studying my own philosophy I was reading simply through it without any direction but after reading Ayn rand’s philosophy, the answer to one important question that I really need know better and completely is
“what is the relationship between mind and body in Hindu philosophy (any philosophy)?”
“Philosophers have cut man in two, setting one half against the other. They have taught him that his body and his consciousness are two enemies engaged in deadly conflict, two antagonists of opposite natures, contradictory claims, incompatible needs, that to benefit one is to injure the other, that his soul belongs to a supernatural realm, but his body is an evil prison holding it in bondage to this earth—and that the good is to defeat his body, to undermine it by years of patient struggle, digging his way to that glorious jail-break which leads into the freedom of the grave.
Philosophers have taught man that he is a hopeless misfit made of two elements, both symbols of death. A body without a soul is a corpse, a soul without a body is a ghost—yet such is their image of man's nature: the battleground of a struggle between a corpse and a ghost, a corpse endowed with some evil volition of its own and a ghost endowed with the knowledge that everything known to man is non-existent, that only the unknowable exists.
Do you observe what human faculty that doctrine was designed to ignore?
Mind”
After reading this part of the book, I compared it with my own Hindu philosophy. In Bhagavad-Gita, god says he is everywhere but nowhere to be seen by ordinary humans. It goes on to say that all the world is MAYA (illusion) of the mind and the real truth lies within ourselves which we ourselves deny to understand. The self is covered by a screen of materialistic thoughts. To really understand the self, one should be truly devoted to god. The human body holds the soul in it unaltered, Unaffected and untouched by human actions and thoughts. Understanding of the soul gives a complete knowledge of everything in the world and it relieves the soul from this material bondage.
I really don’t understand whether I am taking all these stuff in right sense i.e., both the philosophies. I am confused but all along while studying my own philosophy I was reading simply through it without any direction but after reading Ayn rand’s philosophy, the answer to one important question that I really need know better and completely is
“what is the relationship between mind and body in Hindu philosophy (any philosophy)?”
Friday, April 13, 2007
ANUGITA
I was searching for something related to BHAGAVAD GITA and by chance I looked upon this story called Anugita. I think I have read about this previously in some blog, I don’t remember exactly and I wasn’t interested at that time to look into it completely but this time I did read a part of it. The story goes like this…
As we all know Bhagavad-Gita was preached by Krishna to Arjuna in the battlefield. The battle was won by the pandavas and everything went on well for them. On one occasion Arjuna and Krishna were talking, Arjuna said I completely forgot whatever you taught me in the battle field and asks Krishna to repeat it for him once again. But Krishna says that it is not possible to say the whole gita again and he himself cannot recollect the whole thing. But Arjuna being a close friend of Krishna, he persuades Krishna to say the core meaning of bhagavad-gita. Krishna says the whole gita in the form of a story to Arjuna. The story said by Krishna to Arjuna is called Anugita. Anugita is a shorter version of gita which gives the substance of gita in a few pages. If you would like to read a translated version of Anugita(click here).
As we all know Bhagavad-Gita was preached by Krishna to Arjuna in the battlefield. The battle was won by the pandavas and everything went on well for them. On one occasion Arjuna and Krishna were talking, Arjuna said I completely forgot whatever you taught me in the battle field and asks Krishna to repeat it for him once again. But Krishna says that it is not possible to say the whole gita again and he himself cannot recollect the whole thing. But Arjuna being a close friend of Krishna, he persuades Krishna to say the core meaning of bhagavad-gita. Krishna says the whole gita in the form of a story to Arjuna. The story said by Krishna to Arjuna is called Anugita. Anugita is a shorter version of gita which gives the substance of gita in a few pages. If you would like to read a translated version of Anugita(click here).
TAMIL NEW YEAR
Tamil New Year falls on Saturday April 14th 2007. The Tamil name is Sarvajit meaning victory and prosperity for all across the globe.
Why this year is called sarvajit? What is the significance of this year??
Goddess Parvati is responsible for this year being named as Sarvajit. She did severe penance for a number of years with an ambition to marry Lord Siva, giving up food and sleep. Lord Siva was pleased with her penance and appeared before her.
He enquired, “For whose sake are you doing this penance?”
She replied, “Oh! Lord! I am doing this penance to win your grace.”
Lord Siva then informed her, “Your wish is fulfilled today. You can join Me now.”
Before Parvati could join Lord Easwara, several divine ladies tried to dissuade her from marrying the Lord, criticising thus:
Oh! Gowri! You are very young and
Sambasiva is old;
He has matted locks and
wears a tiger skin;
He rides a bull and
is constantly on the move;
He is adorned with snakes;
How did you court Him?
Don’t you know all this?
He has no house of His own and
sleeps in the cremation ground.
They enquired, “Why do you wish to marry such an old man who goes about begging in the streets?” Parvati replied “You do not know, you are seeing only his external form. You are not making any effort to realise the Atma Tattwa in him. I am, in fact, aspiring for the divinity in him. Divinity is changeless and eternal.”
Lord Easwara accepted Parvati as His consort. She was happy in every aspect. The day on which Goddess Parvati could fulfil her desire surmounting all difficulties, is celebrated as the New Year day of Sarvajit. In fact, this name to the New year was given by goddess Parvati herself!
(thanks to astrosites for detailed description of the tamil new year)
Why this year is called sarvajit? What is the significance of this year??
Goddess Parvati is responsible for this year being named as Sarvajit. She did severe penance for a number of years with an ambition to marry Lord Siva, giving up food and sleep. Lord Siva was pleased with her penance and appeared before her.
He enquired, “For whose sake are you doing this penance?”
She replied, “Oh! Lord! I am doing this penance to win your grace.”
Lord Siva then informed her, “Your wish is fulfilled today. You can join Me now.”
Before Parvati could join Lord Easwara, several divine ladies tried to dissuade her from marrying the Lord, criticising thus:
Oh! Gowri! You are very young and
Sambasiva is old;
He has matted locks and
wears a tiger skin;
He rides a bull and
is constantly on the move;
He is adorned with snakes;
How did you court Him?
Don’t you know all this?
He has no house of His own and
sleeps in the cremation ground.
They enquired, “Why do you wish to marry such an old man who goes about begging in the streets?” Parvati replied “You do not know, you are seeing only his external form. You are not making any effort to realise the Atma Tattwa in him. I am, in fact, aspiring for the divinity in him. Divinity is changeless and eternal.”
Lord Easwara accepted Parvati as His consort. She was happy in every aspect. The day on which Goddess Parvati could fulfil her desire surmounting all difficulties, is celebrated as the New Year day of Sarvajit. In fact, this name to the New year was given by goddess Parvati herself!
(thanks to astrosites for detailed description of the tamil new year)
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Monday, April 2, 2007
chat with LK 3
Lk: bandh for wat?
Me: when supreme court called a spade as spade, tamilnadu strikes.
Lk: wat?
Me: when a bill is based on census of 1931, wat will call it then..
Lk: when it all started?
Me: reservation has been there from 1865 to be exact, but in free India it started in 19 51 for the SC/ST.
Lk: any progress in 50 years?
Me: a lot more castes were included to for political benefits by various parties but never for the benefit of people
Lk: r u (in) there?
Me: I am out of it, probably we are a minority
Lk: minority only gets reservation right?
Me: if this bill passes that will be a real limitation on us.
Reservation kindles flashback
“Reservation is not meant for historic wrong doings but to bring up the poor” quoted from Arun Shorie’s book. I am not going to write about my views on that bill as most of you by now know the reason behind these things.
The wheel turns back, with a lot of colors mixing and we go back to flashback…………….
The day was Monday, I went to school lazily whining all along about the first history hour. It was a bit unusual to have a history hour as the first hour on any day especially Monday but most of us liked the way the teacher went through the subject, so we actually kinda liked it (if u believe so…). Social studies had three parts history, geography and civics. The best among the worst was civics because everybody could view their opinions. On that class, the teacher was speaking about human rights, civil laws and caste system. She was saying about caste system in India. She used to go in lengths about the kind of treatment given to untouchables and their equality rights given in the constitution. On that particular day, she talked about the reservation in colleges and government jobs. As usual she was justifying the reservation policies by saying that the upper class Hindu people treated them very badly for centuries in the past.
Suddenly I stood up, she stopped her lecture and turned toward s me and asked what’s my problem. I was half sleeping and suddenly standing with all my friends laughing thinking that I was up from Sunday night sleep. But I was kind of framing a question in my mind and hesitantly said it to the teacher. She couldn’t understand it fully but I could see the expressions in her face which made me think twice about asking that question again. But I had to ask her, at least to make myself clear about the system.
“if my grandfather had killed somebody will the court punish me now?”
Few of my friends started laughing, but I asked again the same question at last the teacher understood the connection and said it is not for the mistakes made by your ancestors but to bring up the underprivileged and give them a fair chance and for the next 10 mins she was lecturing about the system which went into my deaf ears.
My head starts spinning and I come back to the present….
The statement by arun shorie made me think of this incident.
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