THE ARCH FILES

Relationships a mirror

2012-01-28T10:54:00.000-08:00

pic source: http://th01.deviantart.net

Growing up in India reading about self realized sages and yogis, I had concluded that the path to self realization invariably involved renouncing the world, meditation in seclusion and such. In reality, perfection in isolation is an illusion, is it not? It is only when we come in contact with others do we really know who we are. Relationships are a mirror in which we get to see ourselves.

Yet, we are usually busy reflecting on the behavior of those we have a relationship with - be it a partner, spouse, friend, coworker or boss. "Person X acted a certain way and has hurt me", "I am always late to appointments because of Person Y" etc. And thus, we feel helpless, depressed or unhappy when there are issues in relationships. Wait, aren't relationships a mirror onto ourselves? Why then do we always focus on evaluating or judging the other person?

As Jiddu Krishnamurti says in "The Book of Life"

Self-knowledge is not according to any formula. You may go to a psychologist or a psychoanalyst to find out about yourself, but that is not self-knowledge. Self-knowledge, comes into being when we are aware, of ourselves in relationship, which shows what we are from moment to moment.

Relationship is a mirror in which to see ourselves as we actually are. But most of us are incapable of looking at ourselves as we are in relationship, because we immediately begin to condemn or justify what we see. We judge, we evaluate, we compare, we deny or accept, but we never observe actually what is, and for most people this seems to be the most difficult thing to do; yet this alone is the beginning of self-knowledge.

If one is able to see oneself as one is in this extraordinary mirror of relationship which does not distort, if one can just look into this mirror with full attention and see actually what is, be aware of it without condemnation, without judgment, without evaluation—and one does this when there is earnest interest—then one will find that the mind is capable of freeing itself from all conditioning; and it is only then that the mind is free to discover that which lies beyond the field of thought

After all, however learned or however petty the mind may be, it is consciously or unconsciously limited, conditioned, and any extension of this conditioning is still within the field of thought. So freedom is something entirely different.

It is only in relationships that we grow if we realize that relationships allow us to become self aware. And self awareness is the first step towards self realization. All of us are in relationships day in and day out, so we must all be capable of self realization, isn't it? There goes the myth that self realization is just for sages meditating on the mountains!
Our behavior in relationships is a far more powerful reflection of how self realized we are, and a means to attaining our full potential as self-aware beings.

Attack the idea, not the person

2012-01-20T01:14:00.000-08:00

pic source: http://copernicc.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/idea.jpg

This is a continuation of my recent blog about compassion for all human beings, even those whose actions are against us or society at large. That's all good but if we are compassionate to all human beings what about those responsible for heinous acts such as robbery, murder and terrorism? Isn't punishing or even eliminating those people the only way out?

Let's examine some reasons for a person acting a certain way.

A person's action may be due to an underlying need or desperation such as poverty, hunger, abuse, low self esteem, discontentment etc.

Further, a person's action may not reflect their true intention. Often, we human beings intend one thing, and do something totally unintended because of reacting emotionally. Thus the galore of misunderstandings, heart breaks and so on.

A person's action may be because they subscribe to an idea, ideology or group think because they relate to it strongly and/or because of a need to fit in or belong to a community, be it a religious affiliation, a political faction or even a terrorist faction.

In the above cases, can punishment or elimination of the person solve the situation?

In the first case, punishment does not address the underlying need. Clearly imprisoning criminals does not root out crime for as long as the underlying cause exists, it will continue to fuel the criminal behavior.

In the second case where action does not match intent, punishing, ignoring or eliminating the person can only make matters worse.

The third case is very interesting. The idea or idealogy has a life of its own and eliminating the people who are subscribed to it does nothing to affect the idea itself. On the contrary, it may strengthen it! For example, war against terrorism only fuels terrorists into thinking they are fighting for a just cause and strengthens their conviction to carry on. It does nothing to address the underlying bitterness and issues that lead to the extremist views.

The idea vs The person

I think the fundamental issue here is that we often treat the action and actor as one unit. If we do not like or disagree with someone's action, we reflect our displeasure on the person rather than evaluating the act itself. Thus our reaction is often more emotional and less rational. No wonder there is so much strife and grief in the world!

So, can we separate the idea from the person? One might argue that who's idea it is does matter. For example, you might be more inclined to consider an investment advice from Warren Buffet than say your neighbor down the street. Certainly - the person's knowledge and expertise does matter. However, evaluating the idea will inherently draw out the knowledge/expertise, and there is still no need to focus on the person. In other words, focusing on the idea/thought/action will allow us to focus on the "what" rather than the "who". This in turn will provide clarity on the "why" that caused the "what" and will help us identify the "how" to move forward to solve the situation.

Next time, Observe yourself - are you evaluating the idea or the person? If you disagree, are you attacking the idea or the person? Stop right there. Can you evaluate the idea without reacting to the person? Are you able to discuss the idea / thought / action calmly? Do you see compassion emerging for the person even if you disagree with his/her idea/action?

Not always easy for sure, ...something I am trying to do consciously as well.

I understand...and I am not angry

2012-01-14T12:19:00.000-08:00

pic source: http://gapingvoid.com/2007/11/04/compassion/

Like many, I grew up in an atmosphere of much discipline, and that is reflected in the choices I make day in and day out. I am thankful for that inculcation and happy with the choices I am making for myself. At the same time, I am swept over with the feeling of understanding for the choices others make, and I realize that I am not angry even if it does not fit my moral compass or even the moral compass of the society at large. I suppose this is called compassion - acceptance of fellow human beings without judgement.

Growing up, we are taught to discriminate right from wrong. This naturally leads to classifying people as "good" or "bad" people. Some classifications are societal, that the human society has adopted to maintain law and order and avoid chaos. For example, most of us would agree that a person who kills another person is a bad person, a person who steals is a bad person etc. Other classifications are based on our upbringing and specific circumstances we encounter. The atmosphere I grew up in classified people who consumed alcohol as bad people. That is clearly not the definition in most other societies. It was a learning experience for me when I encountered a society that thinks otherwise, and I was able to separate habits from character and realize that not all those who drank were bad people.

The former case - the societal classification is the harder one to reconcile with. How can one possibly see a person who is violent or otherwise harmful to society in a lenient light? Can you for example think of Hitler or Osama Bin Laden without feeling a surge of anger for their atrocious acts? Can you think kind thoughts for people like Bernie Madoff who's malpractices and selfishness ruined many lives? I use these examples because extreme cases help us validate our thoughts. They stress test our mind and unmask our underlying belief system that we would otherwise not see in many less extreme cases we encounter regularly.

So again, the question is can we think kindly of people who are in violation of societal norms, or in violation of our own personal moral and ethical standards. Thinking kindly does not mean we agree with them, or compromise our own standards - not at all. What it does mean is having a fundamental feeling of understanding and not rejecting them outright even if their actions deserve outright rejection per our societal or individual standards.

A way to do it may be to "walk in their shoes", as a popular proverb says. I have done so mentally when encountered with a difficult situation - a scenario analysis of possible ways one could react - pushing the boundaries and thinking of possible extreme reactions. When I look at a person and observe their actions, I have started to look deeper and try to understand what is causing them to act a certain way. I may not agree with their actions, yet I can get a glimpse of what may be underlying the action. While this may not materially change anything, it allows me to shift my focus from the action itself to the person, and feel a sense of connection or bonding without needing to agree with the action. Like another great proverb eloquently says "Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some sort of battle".

Developing such understanding does not come very easily. In fact, it may be a life long process, and may often be a recurring internal debate. Most of us feel such compassion easily for those that are weaker or less fortunate than ourselves. However, compassion does not flow easily when judgement of actions comes into the picture - the judgement that is based on the framework that society and we ourselves have built up over time. If we can feel this sense of understanding for fellow human beings, we will be able to embrace humanity - a global hug if you will - and move forward with a sense of connectedness towards advancement of humanity as a whole.

2011 in review, On to 2012

2011-12-31T23:33:00.000-08:00

Followingmy annual tradition (2007,2008,2009,2010) of reviewing the past year and laying out some prioritiesfor the upcoming year, I contemplated about this year's post. Instead of alaundry list of what I did in 2011 and what I want to do in the upcoming year, I decided that it would be more meaningful to me as well as to you the reader if I described my learning and insights through theyear.

2011was a meditative year in many ways. My dormant curiosity about the meaning of life was rekindled through weekly philosophical talks and Raj Yoga meditation sessions that I attended with my parents at the Brahma Kumaris center in Los Angeles. Many philosophical texts I had read in the past resurfaced in my mind andstarted to make more sense. Iwould like to share some practical insights distilled out of this ongoing contemplationand experience.

The 3 “i”s

A 3Dpicture seen without glasses looks blurred and distorted doesn’t it? Now imagine that you – yes YOU, are the 3Dpicture. Your consciousness, yourexperience of life, your very existence – all of it is like the 3D picture –blurred and distorted !

Why? We humans develop complex psyches as we growup. As we interact with other human beings,we start projecting ourselves based on how we are perceived and how we want tobe perceived.

Eachperson we come across perceives us differently based on their frame of reference– the parent, the teacher, the classmate, the boss, the colleague. How we are perceived is not in our hands isit? Yet, we obsess with perceptions, wefeel attached to how we want to be perceived and continually developprojections. The projected “i” may be tomanage expectations of the person we are interacting with, to conform to socialnorms or to manage fears or insecurity we develop as we face situations inlife. Call the projected “i” the ego ifyou will. Soon, the real “i” is blurredthrough the multiple projections and perceptions of the “i”, to the point thatmost of us forget who the real “i” is. Mostof us humans live this artificial blur our entire life, a life of perceptionsand projections rather than living as our real selves in the one life we have.

So..howdo we correct the blur and see the real “i” clearly and allow the real “i” toexperience life. Are there magical 3iglasses we can wear?

The “magical 3i glasses” that ancient yogis and philosophers alike have prescribed ismeditation. Meditation involves peelingaway the projections and reconnecting with the real self. It is popular belief that meditation is apractice done once a day in solitude, and rightly so initially as we learn toreconnect with ourselves. Eventually though,the goal is to live each moment in a meditative state, to experience life asthe real “i”. Just like prescriptionglasses – there are different ways to meditate and different techniques havebeen developed to reconnect with the real self. The end goal is the same no matter which method you adopt.

Concentric Circles of Life

Imagineyour life as concentric circles, the inner most circle being "Me" andoutermost circle being say “Job” (there could be other circles too).

We act Outside-In most of the time - that is, we allow external things toinfluence us. For example, "I don't have a job, so my life is miserable". This shatters our inner energy and peace. Instead if we act Inside-out - this will keep our peace and innerenergy. We can (re)build the outercircles if we are acting from inside-out because the core "me" isstrong.

It is important to realize that everyone's concentric circlesare different. When we come into conflict with someone, we must realizethis and accept them as they are.

Living in the moment

Wehave addressed the real “i” and acting inside-out so far. The other dimension that affects how weexperience life is time - the past, the present and the future. We cruisethrough life largely based on past memories or worries about the future. When we see a scenery, a related memory kicks in. When we meet someone, our stored thoughts andfeelings for the person surface and affects how we interact with thatperson. Memories are certainly useful tohelp us navigate the world. But thosesame memories also take us away from the present moment and separate theexperience from us. When this separationoccurs, we no longer experience the moment authentically and to thefullest.

source: http://www.petercallesen.com/paper/a4-papercuts/

Jiddu Krishnamurti called thisthe separation of the observer from the observed and said the human potentialwill be realized when “the observer is the observed”. I found Jiddu’s texts profound and yetcomplex to understand. 2011 has been theyear when I have finally made sense of it, thanks to Osho’sexplanation here. A very simpleexplanation – I would recommend that everybody reads it.

Space Time continuum

Iheard on the news recently that there is a proposal to standardize the calendarsuch that each year would have 364 days, there would be no leap years and allmonths would have 30 or 31 days and this would in turn result in dates and daysmatching up so that the dates always fall on the same day every year – so forexample you would always have your birthdays on Mondays every year (that wouldsuck right?!) Well, interesting how wecan switch our calendars and change how we perceive time isn’t it?

While the world celebrates another new year, I am in deep contemplation about thetime space continuum. I have recentlystarted reading Bergson’s philosophical texts and will have more to write abouthis theory as I continue to explore the topic, for the moment I shall leave itaside with this quote:

“In truth,” writes Bergson, “every perceptionis already memory. Practically we perceive only the past, the pure presentbeing the invisible progress of the past gnawing into the future.”

Sometimes,things just fall in your lap don’t they? Just as I was mulling over Bergson’s philosophy, his book “CreativeEvolution” has come into my possession today – it was one of the last few booksleft on the shelves of Bodhi Tree Bookstore on Melrose that closed its doors onDec 31^st 2011.

Evolution from reaction toresponse
Basic human instincts to Nonviolence

We have evolved from the primitive early man in many ways. Yet we often resort to our primitive humaninstincts of fight or flight rather than using insight - our advancedintelligence while dealing with everyday situations.

From www.turning-the-tide.org

“Evolution has equipped us with the capacity torespond to threats in a few different ways: fight or flight. In our society one response to conflict anddisagreement is to attack, to be angry or to hurt, to fight verbally,psychologically or physically—or any combination of these. This response issummarized by the word ‘fight’. The opposite is ‘flight’, for example feelinghurt and saying nothing, not speaking up when you disagree or worse—pretendingto agree when you do not.Instinct has provided us with these two responses,but they are inadequate in today’s world. Fight does not solve problems and canoften make matters worse. Flight does not solve injustices either. Silence isconsent.

‘Insight’ offers a Third Way, the way ofnonviolence. It requires not instinct but considerate and thoughtful response,clean and clear communication, not passive acceptance but activeintervention. The way of nonviolence isnot only about peaceful resolution of conflict. It is also about working toovercome injustice and oppression, it is part of our inner journey, lifestyleand personal evolution."

From www.psychologytoday.com Read fullarticle here

"From your heart, stomach, and gut, thesensations zoom up your spinal cord and enter the lowest part of your brain(the brainstem), where they are immediately assessed by that fidgety alarmbutton, your amygdala, and other deep-in-the-brain limbic players, includingyour insula -- all well below your conscious awareness, before you can eventhink about it. (In fact, some recent research has shown that your limbic brainresponds to what your eyes see even before the visual part of your brain knowsyou've seen something.) Your limbic brain is what I like to call TheDeterminator. The Determinator makes one of three calls in the face of yourbody's signals of potential danger:

If the Determinator judges the incoming informationas life-threatening danger, one of the three parts of the circuit (the dorsalvagus, which runs between the stomach and the brainstem) leaps into action, andthe body immobilizes - shuts or slows way down, basically "playingdead" to protect itself. ("Freeze")

If the Determinator determines that there is dangerthat isn't life-threatening, a different part of the circuit (our old friendthe sympathetic branch, a.k.a. "the accelerator") gets the body intomobilization in response to the threat - the all-too-familiar"fight-or-flight" response - which is also a way that the body triesto protect itself. ("Fight" or "Flight")

Finally - here's the really cool part - if theDeterminator's assessment is that the incoming information indicates thatthings are safe, a third part of the circuit (the ventral vagus) essentially"turns off" the fight-flight response, and social engagement canhappen - a calm state that supports being connected with others. Being in thisstate allows for better health, growth, and communication. This could bethought of as a third, more "advanced" method of self-preservation,and it would make sense that this would be hard-wired into our bodies just likethe first two, if only for survival and evolutionary purposes.("Insight")

That third part of the circuit, the ventral vagus,is a well-insulated, fast-running nerve that runs between the brainstem and theheart. Not only does it calm down the heart and lungs, but it also has a roleto play in perceiving the sound of other people's voices and their facialexpressions. It activates when we perceive (again, at a level below ourawareness) a softening of the facial muscles in others, and a relaxation intheir tone of voice -- in other words, when when our body senses that it's safeto be connected. When the ventral vagus is "on", we have a greatercapacity to really listen, in a tuned-in way, to others.

So, being able to get unhooked from the moment inthe argument, to remember who you are (not a gazelle being chased by a lion,for example, nor a wounded rabid dog who's been cornered). Take a breath. Feelsome compassion for yourself, smiling inwardly. Take another breath, and withcompassion for the scared person standing across from you, smileoutwardly."

source: http://eiriu-eolas.org/2011/11/25/polyvagal-theory/

Something as simple as a smile helps transition the body physiologically intothe "insight" mode where we are capable of responding nonviolentlyinstead of reacting instinctively. I amconvinced that Nonviolence is truly the highest moral of humankind - actingfrom a position of love instead of hate, standing up for what you believe inrather than standing up against someone is by far the most difficult thing todo when ego comes in the way. Thus, nonviolence naturally ties in with operating as the real “i” where ego is nonexistent.

2011, a year of Nonviolent Revolutions

2011 will be remembered as a year of nonviolentrevolutions around the globe. The Occupymovement, the most recent nonviolent endeavor has already become a forum for collectivethought process to envision the future. Iam hopeful that the world will embrace nonviolence more and more in the days tocome as the fabric of collective human consciousness develops.

There is much to say, but I stop short with some quotesfrom Occupy LA activitists that resonated:

"Unlearneverything. Relearn yourself." -JR

"Whenpeople can lead themselves they will no longer need leaders. When people canheal themselves they will no longer need healers. When people begin takingpersonal and collective responsibility, and in doing so taking back theirpower, they will no longer need external validation for that power." -A

"Wehave been dumbed down, we have had the 'civilization' stripped from ourcollective core to the degree that we can barely communicate with each otheranymore except within our own separate 'class'. Our society doesn't reallyexist except in concept or packaged in the mainstream media to be imitated likeparrots." - JM

Collective human consciousness
a.k.a the internets - facebook & twitter

Ourcollective consciousness has been turbo charged with the invention of internetand more recently, social networks. Themessages we post, the information we subscribe to, the people we talk to allbecome a part of our stream of consciousness and in turn affect our thoughtprocess and our perception of everything around us. Facebook’s recent introduction of timelinesis a step towards visualizing our thought stream (amazing how facebook read mymind just as I was contemplating this topic :-)) I think an interesting social experimentwould be to color code everyone’s timeline based on the kind of information theysubscribe to, then zoom out and compare the thought streams to look forcommonality – may be we will see a pattern emerge akin to “great men thinkalike”? May be we could adjust ourthought stream consciously to become better human beings? Another book from Bodhi Tree called “GlobalBrain” beckons me to delve into this topic some more in the coming days.

Musingsapart, one thing is for sure. Whiletwitter is largely interest based clustering, facebook has brought people with acommon past together. Someone called SnowWhite Bui said very aptly:

"Having a common past is not enough to sustaina relationship, only a shared vision of the future can."

How true. We are here together in this journey of life. What we make of it is entirely up to us now.

So, here’sto a shared vision of the future. Iconclude with this eloquent poem by Rudyard Kipling.

"If"by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

My Spirituality & Shri Sathya Sai Baba

2011-04-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

Very early on in life, I realized that there are a few topics that are best not discussed in a gathering, religion and food choices being two of them. Topics based on faith or conviction are personal choices and are inevitably contentious beyond reasoning. Blogging changed that perception allowing free expression of one's thoughts in writing. As an erstwhile blogger, this is therefore my personal account and not meant to question or debate anyone else's beliefs. This is an account of the shaping of my spirituality (or lack thereof) and the self-proclaimed godman Sathya Sai Baba of India who passed away at the age of 86 yesterday, April 24 2011.

I was just getting done with a homework assignment last night about an hour after the 11.59pm deadline when I noticed status updates about Sai Baba's passing after being admitted on March 28th at the super-specialty hospital he built.

For over a week, my daily calls with my parents inevitably included a discussion of Sai Baba's health. "I think he is already gone, they are not announcing it because of the succession issues to his large property", said my mom. "There are more media people and police in Prashanti Nilayam than devotees". "Doctors say he is in critical condition. People still think he's going to survive as he said he'll live on till 96. Crazy people." my mom chided. So I knew today that I had to talk to my mom, even though it was 3am, close to my bed time. "Did you hear about Baba?" She said. Yes, I saw messages, I muttered. "I feel upset, I don't feel like doing anything today." She said. "He was the reason for the spirituality in our family, the trigger for the spiritual evolution we have experienced over the years. I was 15 years old when he visited Ooty, still remember the visits to seek his darshan (viewing)". She recounted.

And that triggered my own personal memories and this writing.

I was introduced to Sai Baba at a very early age. I remember climbing up the hill on a snaking road with hundreds of people for a chance sighting of Sai Baba in his Ooty Ashram. I remember sitting in the crowd that waited with bated breath to get a glimpse of the godman. I remember seeing him glide out of his home in an orange flowing garb with his right hand close to his chest gesturing subtly as if he was drawing circles in thin air. His appearance lasted less than 2 minutes, he touched the outstretched hands of some people, took letters from others, and then glided away, pleasant smile on his face throughout. I remember seeing pictures of Sai Baba among Hindu gods at home. I remember seeing books with his teachings that my mom sincerely read, even getting a small easy to read kids book for myself. I remember the skepticism that my dad seemed to have, that was generally overruled by all the devotion going around in the family. My grandma was a huge devotee and I heard about the time Sai Baba had visited my grandparents home in Ooty in his early days. I remember the visit to Prasanthi Nilayam - Sathya Sai Baba's main ashram located in Puttaparthi, the village where Sai Baba was born, 125 kilometers north-east of Bangalore. I remember observing the selfless service that people were engaged in at Puttaparthi. Through all of this, the greatest impression on me was Love and compassion for fellow human beings.

This early introduction is probably what triggered the question "What is life? Who is God?" in my mind as an 8 year old. I remember the long walks with my neighbor Meena, also my age, as we discussed matters about spirituality, life and the world as we grew up. Growing up in a Hindu Brahmin family, studying in a Catholic school, with a best friend who was Muslim, seeing the diversity of religion and habits and then turning to Sai Baba's teachings about equality of religions shifted my thinking beyond religions very quickly to a formless supreme being, not tied to any religion, and religions being paths to reach a common goal. I discarded idol worship, and so also Sai Baba's claim of being an avatar of Hindu Gods Shiva and Parvathi. The meaning of the Hindu Gods as symbolisms for virtues that humans strive for rather than literal personalities, would become apparent to me later through readings of Vedanta and other texts.

As years rolled by, my family was mostly uninterested in the debates about Sai Baba's magical powers. My mom reasoned that irrespective of the controversies, one would have to acknowledge that he had done much more for humanity than any one of us could even imagine. That seemed to be a fair statement, and probably a learning that I carry with me, that you can learn from people when you don't judge them. The moment you judge people, your reasoning becomes shrouded by an emotional reaction to what you disagree with, and that takes away the opportunity to learn from them. Sai Baba stayed in the background in my family's home, making an occasional appearance in festivals that typically ended with the whole family singing "Pavana Purusha Sayeesha, Charananu Gavo Sarvesha, Sowmya Rupa Sathya Baba, Kavuthai kai mukheevee". I am still not sure what it means, but it remains a favorite bhajan and my family's chorus rings in my ears.

The quest for Truth would lead me to read various religious texts including the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible and texts from various thinkers including Gandhiji, Sri Aurobindo, Jiddu Krishnamurthy, and many others. Through all this Sai Baba was pretty much out of the picture except for an occasional spike of interest in the controversies when I would google or look at youtube videos that exposed his magical powers as black magic. I remember mentioning it to my dad over one of our daily calls expecting him to agree heartily with the skeptic view, and instead being surprised by his retort which was "Doesn't matter Archer. He had to find a way to get the attention of the people, so he used such means." Indeed, what brilliant brand building by Sathya Sai Baba - his well recognized style of a large crowning hairstyle, his orange garbs, his ability to attract millions of people as followers, his ability to raise enormous donations...infact, I wonder if there is a HBR case study on his brand. And the fact that he put his brand to good use of building hospitals and schools and bringing water to cities while governments could not, certanly makes him stand out as a unique and accomplished individual.

My spirituality would evolve through further questioning, to a point of deciding that certain questions were useless as they could only be explained by human theories and speculation with no way whatsoever of knowing the truth. I would debate what to label my current state of spirituality and realize that more than just being agnostic, I was a humanist as my primary concern was fellow human beings and the presence or absence of God did not really matter. (Side note: This lead to the writing of various blogs on this topic - Labeling it, The human conspiracy, The anomaly of Individuality, Unity of the human kind).

And although a disbeliever in Sai Baba's godliness, I credit the evolution of my spirituality as my mom said, to the introduction to Sai Baba at an early age. As recently as 3 weeks ago, I came across a Sathya Sai Organization in Japan collecting relief material and delivering them to Tsumani hit areas. It is this sense of compassion and service to humanity that he leaves behind, and for that I salute him. Rest in Peace, Shri Sathya Sai Baba.

Arch

2010 in review, Onto 2011

2011-01-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

Sipping a cup of hot ginger chai and watching the raindrops on my window, I am catching up on my review of 2010 even as 2011 compels me to look ahead.

Looking at my year end posts from past years, it appears that most of what i wrote for 2009 held true for 2010. I savored every minute of 2010, and it was indeed a year of much learning and focus on what mattered the most. The year began in India with the whole family around a New Year's cake after many years. It was however time to return to home turf and plunge back into the madness of business school. Over the year, my brain trained on Macroeconomics, Finance, Brand Management, Negotiations, Marketing Engineering, Operations and Entrepreneurship amongst other things... gosh, no wonder it feels quite muddled! 2010 was a year when I felt humbled to have been given the opportunity to meet Coach John Wooden (just months before his passing) and receive the John Wooden Leadership Fellowship award. A year when I finally stopped turning a blind eye to the homeless situation in Los Angeles and participated in the 1000 Homes Competition as Team Pasadena with classmates Nancy Sagar, Ujjal Ghoshtagore and three other domain experts - Colleen Edwards, Tish Glaser, Jimmy Miyoshi. A year I got back to my wacky creativity and entered the UCLA Suberbowl Ad Contestwith teammates Rutul Dave, Paul Ghetto and Bryan Miller and much support and love from my classmates - especially Erik Welch and his son Wyatt Welch who modeled for the video! We won an honorable mention, not bad for an overnight video editing effort.

With seemingly too much time on my hands over the summer break, I volunteered for a business plan research with The Children's Partnership and worked alongside Wendy Lazaurus, Cofounder of TCP to research the business aspect of one of my favorite subjects - 3D Virtual Worlds. I was blown away to learn that virtual goods was a multi-billion dollar business in China and with the US hitting around $1.6 Billion in 2010 - much potential for growth in this space. The Children's Partnership was kind enough to make a donation to CRY (Child Rights and You) as a return gesture. Talking about CRY, CRY SoCal reached new heights under the able leadership of Payal Shah, our new Action Center Leader. CRY SoCal conducted many successful events including A Bollywood Fling,My Vision Campaign for Children at the Artwallah Festival, the annual CRY Walk as well as an ongoing runners meetup group called CRY Couch to Ouch. CRY SoCal was awarded the NET IP 2010 Community Service Award. Really proud of Team CRY SoCal for making 2010 such a great year!

Another notable event in 2010 was my desire to contribute tangibly to world harmony finally coming to fruition. In January 2010, I came across The GandhiServe Foundation and a wonderful global community called Gandhitopia created by Peter R ü he. With encouragement and guidance from Peter I embarked on an attempt to bring the principles of Nonviolence to the forefront through a global campaign to observe UN declaration of the International Day of Nonviolence (IDNV) on October 2^nd 2010. What started initially as an online drive to take The Pledge of Nonviolence turned into an event with IDNV meetups around the globe. The first Nonviolence Newsletter has pictures from the October 2nd events. This effort inadvertently lead to the creation of www.PeaceTroops.org that will have a life of its own in the coming years. I met many compassionate people through this endeavor who have devoted their lives to develop peace and harmony and for that I am thankful. I am especially thankful to Anna, the artist of the Peace Here and Now video, Vishal Changrani, developer of the Pledge of Nonviolence Android App, Veronica Valles, chair of a “Season for Peace and Nonviolence” (www.64-days.org) for posting wonderful peace messages on the IDNV Facebook page and Susan Derby of The Self Realization Fellowship for helping plan and organize the Los Angeles event atthe beautiful Lake Shrine.

At work, the Security Technology now called “Ubiquity” that the team I am a part of works on won the Wall Street Journal Innovation award. Yay for that! Personally, it was a year of a loss of a dear classmate Stacey Bryant who touched me with her compassionate ways in the few months I had known her. It was also a year of getting back in touch with many long lost friends and family, thanks to facebook. I even sorted out an unsettled squabble with a classmate from second grade.. Fancy that! 2010 was a year when my nephew Saurabh went to college, making me feel really young! A year when my neice Dhwani was allowed to join facebook, and the first thing she did was to create a page called “The Greener World” to raise awareness about global warming and green living. A year my cousin Lata started the USA wing of Akshaya Trust to take CNN Hero Narayanan Krishnan’s work forward. Proud of all of them for dedicating their time and energy for good causes. I guess you could say that nonprofit runs in our blood as a family J. 2010 was also a year for a reunion with my wonderful virtual friends from Lively – the Livelyzens as we call ourselves. We met in another virtual world called IMVU and it was like homecoming – so amazing that people from different corners of the world can feel like one family in a virtual world.If that is possible in a virtual world, why not in the real world eh.

Boy that certainly has been a busy year. On to 2011… while I know school is going to consume me for the first half of the year, I plan to dedicate some time to develop some of my hobbies – learning to play the guitar and dslr photography. 2011 will be a year when my entrepreneurial endeavors will move forward – atleast by a few inches! Continuous progress will be the name of the game. CRY SoCal and PeaceTroops will inevitably be a part of my year’s activities. I have also come across a few wonderful initiatives called Schools for India and Gandhi for Children, and I have a compelling urge to contribute to them if I can. While facebook has its place, I shall strive to reconnect more personally with friends and family, an art that seems to be getting lost in this new media age. While I am looking forward to graduating this year, I know I will miss it all when its done - I hope to make the best of the six months ahead and enjoy the time with my classmates. I am looking forward to spending time with my parents after my graduation in July. I am starting the year with a Clay Cooker J with a goal of of eating healthier this year! But in the corner of my head, I am wondering if I can bake a cake in the clay pot haha! I don’t know if I looked at 2001 as a start of a decade, 2011 definitely feels like the start of one and it will be 2020 before we know it!The world has certainly changed in front of eyes over the last decade, and I look forward to a decade when people come together in harmony and work together as a human race.

Alright, time for some more chai and to gear up for the work week ahead – which starts at school with a class on “Disruptive Technologies of Tomorrow”, seems like a fitting topic to kick off the decade don’t you think?! (scene closes with humming... "I here raindrops on my window, joy is like the rain..." J )

Arch

A Beggar by Choice

2010-08-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

Can I be a beggar on the streets?

Roaming freely where my feet take me

liberated from the clutches of responsibility,

the dos, the don'ts, the musts, the must nots..

Then I'll know what is really on my mind

And do what I really must do.

Look a fellow human in the eye and show

the simplest gesture of love - an uninhibited smile.

All I need is a morsel, I ask no more

I am not lazy, nor menial nor vile

I would just be a beggar by choice.

Can I be a beggar on the streets?

I took a long walk yesterday through busy streets I had only driven through. A Salvation Army rehab center, workshops and many others on the way. As I stepped into the street I saw people sitting on the side walk from afar - some looked worn, some looked strange, some were scary. I approached with caution wondering if it was a good idea to walk through these streets. As I passed each of them, I received a warm smile - from each and every one of them. I felt ashamed of my hesitant smile. Ashamed that I had been afraid of fellow humans. I walked on with a renewed spirit. This time when I passed by someone I smiled, and they smiled back. An amazing experience. And all it took was an uninhibited smile.

If you can, go for a walk today and be sure to smile at a stranger or two.

Note: I logged into my blogger account to write about this and presto, found a draft of my vagabond thoughts of a beggar on the street staring at me that I had written on 6/2 - I had long forgotten about it. Guess it was waiting for me to take the walk and come back to post it!

One life to live So much to give So much to share!

2010-04-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite hymns. Hard to find online.. Wikipedia says this was part of "B for Brotherhood" by the group called Brotherhood of Man and was released as a single in 1979 by Price & Lee.

People all over the world
Reach out your hand touch one another
People over the world,
Just understand and love each other.
We have one life to live
So much to give and so much to share.
There is love to be found,
Just look around, there’s happiness there.

People over the world,
We are the same, just different colors
People over the world,
Love without change, like sisters and brothers
Face each day with a smile and
In a while sunshine appears
You’ll feel warm deep inside,
No need to hide from danger and pain.

People over the world,
Reach out your hand, touch one another
People over the world,
Just understand, reach out your hand!

THE BANYAN

2009-09-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Not the tree! It all started with a mail from Clique IT, an employee club at work saying that there was a trip planned to The Banyan, an organization for mentally ill homeless women. Employees of HCL Technologies belonging to GTECH and NT-Team were requested to make contributions in the form of old clothes and money. Big cardboard boxes for the old clothes and a cash box were kept near the entrance.

Initially, it was a slow start and the cardboard boxes seemed too big for the old clothes, but as days went by, there was a steady increase in the collection of clothes in the boxes. At one point it looked as though the clothes will exceed the size of boxes. After a sizeable collection, it was decided that the trip would be on the 4th of November, 1999.

On the day of the visit, there was a lot of hustle and bustle as the clothes were being sorted out into Men's Wear and Women's Wear. Then around 11:30 a.m., we left for The Banyan. For all of us, it was the first visit to The Banyan and for some, it was the first visit to a home for the destitute. All of us were actually apprehensive as to what we were going to experience. After a little difficulty, we finally found the place. We went to the Administrative Office first.

We were greeted by one Ms.Anuradha, who is a volunteer at The Banyan. She gave us an overview of the organization and how they manage it. We were all amazed when we heard that The Banyan is run by two young girls, Vaishnavi and Vandana who established it in the year 1993. It was painful and equally shocking to hear from Ms.Anuradha that city bred people are very conscious to have a mentally ill member in their family because of their reputation with their neighbours. This organization not only helps destitute women on the roads, but also those, who are shunned by their family members. We then went to the place where the inmates actually lived. We saw middle aged and old women. All of them were enthusiastic and were extremely happy to welcome us. Some of the women hugged us and seemed pleased to see all of us. Meanwhile, many women tied Friendship Bands on our wrists. These bands were made by the inmates and they were bright and beautiful.

About 75 inmates are housed in the three medium-sized rooms of the house. It is really pathetic to even think that all these 75 women have only three toilets to share. The women were sitting in small groups and doing things of their interest, like drawing, cutting paper into various shapes, etc. Some of them tried making conversation with us. They were all curious to know our names. All of us tried to be at home with them to the maximum extent possible. The inmates spoke different languages as they were all from different parts of the country. This was a very satisfying manifestation of Unity in Diversity.

Before leaving, we gave away the sweets we had specially ordered for them. When it was finally time to leave, we said bye to all of them to which they all waved out. All of us came out with only one thought in our minds that this could happen to any of us. We then came back to The Banyan office to hand over the cash collected by HCL Technologies. In response to a proposal from the employees of HCL Technologies, The Banyan has agreed to make use of a part of the money collected to sponsor a Special Dinner for the inmates of The Banyan on The Night of Deepavalli.

Namaste! Which nostril are you breathing through?

2009-08-17T20:28:00.001-07:00

I was going to write in detail about the science behind breathing but found a great well researched article on left vs right nostril breathing (link).

To summarize, we breath through only one nostril at a time and breathing alternates automatically between the two nostrils. You are calm and composed when you breathe through your left nostril and are more aggressive while breathing through the right nostril. Both mental states are useful depending on the situation you are in. For example, when you want to handle a difficult situation, you would want to breathe through your left. When you are competing or working on something with determination, breathing through your right can be beneficial. You can switch the nostril you are breathing by two methods:

a) by keeping a book or a prop under the armpit opposite to the side you want to breathe through. My parents tell me that this is the reason the ancient Indian Sages used a prop under their arms, in order to streamline their breathing.

b) by shifting your weight towards the side you want to breathe through.

The article I have linked above provides the science behind the breathing patterns.

Now one aspect that the article doesn't talk about is breathing through both nostrils. And that's where Namaste comes in! Most people know the Namaste as a gesture used by Indians to welcome or say hello. Very few know the science behind this gesture. Try it! Check which nostril you are breathing through, then bring your hands together in a Namaste gesture. You will note that you start breathing through both your nostrils instantly. Breathing through both nostrils is said to bring a balance in your mental state and this is probably why the namaste gesture is used when you meet new people, when you pray as well as in yoga.

As hard as it may be to believe that the nostril we breathe through has a bearing on how we react to a situation, this is one of those things that can be experimented with easily and the science behind the nostril breathing indicates that this is infact true.
So next time you are trying to deal with something, you know what to do!

Namaste!

Its that time of the year

2009-06-28T00:24:00.000-07:00

Its that time of the year
when fire blossoms
in the night sky.

Gently at first,
as if to tease,
then Bright and bold,
as it turns fierce,
Playful sometimes,
as it takes shapes
of hearts and circles,
then faster and faster
a show of great Artistry.
And then the final hue
of Red, White and Blue
amidst applause and cheer.
Its that time of the year.

Baware Naina - Choti Bahu title song & lyrics

2009-06-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

Baware naina bhare rahe raat bhar
Ooo Baware naina bhare rahe raat bhar
Soye jage, Jage soye Jaane kis baat par
Man khush bhi hai, bechan bhi
Uljan kaisi dil rain ki

Ab tu hi aake bol Kanha,
Gaante sari khol Tu jo
kahde chal jaaon
is aag par
Chal jaaon is aag par

Man chahe pankh laga kar,
Sari khushiya yeh paa kar
Kahi uud jaoon
In muskano pe mera,
adikar kya hai ye sochun
Main dar jaoon
Haste kadamose jo badu jaoon
Kahi raahon main na kho jaoon

Ab tu hi aake bol Kanha,
Gaante sari khol Tu jo
kahde chal jaaon
is aag par
Chal jaaon is aag par

Kagaz ke nikle saare, pal chaaht ke

Kagaz ke nikle saare
Ud gaye sab jaane kahan re
Pal chaaht ke
Aise badla yeh manzar
Kuch toot gaya mere ander
Bin aahat ke
Ehsaas jagaye, tu ne jis dil mein
Phir toda wahi dil, kaise tu ne

Ab tu hi aake bol Kanha,
Gaante sari khol Tu jo
kahde chal jaaon
is aag par
Chal jaaon is aag par.

Jo tut gaye hai sapnay
jane kyun ban kar apnay
laut aathe hai..
nahi manzil jin raston par..
kyun unpe kadam ruk ruk kar
badu jatey hai...
WOH TERA NAHI SUNN MAN PAGLEY...
KYUN MANE NA TU KYUN NA SAMBHLEY

Ab tu hi aake bol Kanha,
Gaante sari khol Tu jo
kahde chal jaaon
is aag par
is aag par.

Baware naina bhare rahe raat bhar
Ooo Baware naina bhare rahe raat bhar
Soye jage, Jage soye Jaane kis baat par
Man khush bhi hai, bechan bhi
Uljan kaisi dil rain ki

Ab tu hi aake bol Kanha,
Gaante sari khol Tu jo
kahde chal jaaon
is aag par
Chal jaaon is aag par

2008 in review, Onto 2009

2009-01-11T10:37:00.000-08:00

2008. A year when I visited home after 5 years and enjoyed every moment of it. A year I learnt that no matter how hard you work, without building a network, you do not go far in the corporate world. A year I learnt that I had friends who would stand by me through thick and thin. A year I found a precious piece of humanity tucked away in a little world called Lively. And even as it died, it left me enriched by the love and friendships of people from all over the world. In summary, a year that left me dripping with cascading emotions - joy, nostalgia, shock, pain, passion, fear, conviction, rebellion, revolution, fun, laughter and more. To all the people who touched my life one way or the other, I will owe the lessons I learnt to you.

On to 2009. Every year recently has ended with "oh this year went really fast". I am not going to let 2009 slip by me like that. I hope to savor every moment consciously. 2009 has started off with a big bang - My new car a black Toyota Prius Package #5. I just donated to Locks of Love, dedicated to my grandma. I have decided to take the brute force method to getting fit. Virtual life wise - I discovered club cooee and love it to keep in touch with my virtual friends and I am sure SL and IMVU will be other places I visit as my Lively friends are spread across those worlds. I will also keep an eye on NewLively to see where it goes. I will continue to support CRY and take it forward in SoCal along with Dhruvi, a passionate volunteer I met in '08. 2009 will also be a "me" year. A year I nurture myself on various fronts to grow to be a better person. Constant learning and growth is what will keep me alive.

For the past two years, the theme of revolution has been on my mind. Revolution entered my life in a strange way in 2008 - it turned out to be my new team's name!! So revolution is more on my mind now than ever :) ... I hope to turn 2009 into a revolution of sorts in my life!

Wishing you a Happy New Year. Its only the 11th day of the year :)

The 5 Senses

2008-07-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

piture courtesy: http://esquiobil.blogspot.com

Entwined in the spiral matter
is scribed a life time of existence
that will unfold gently
as the universe transcends time
sculpting the tiny mass
adding some cartilage to shape
a tiny nose to get a whiff of fresh air
a rosy lip that will smile when asleep
a soft ear that hears gentle voices
a pink tongue to savor the flavors
a delicate crease of skin all around
more defined as each trimester passes
until the day arrives to emerge....
alas, even as it has just started
the life time of existence shall end
on this lab table as a microscopic cell
in the name of research.

Title: If an embryo could speak...

Battle of Nerves

2008-06-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

A Voice from my Library

2008-06-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

[Reposted with picture]

The debut of the The Kitaabeez prompted me to pull out my dusty ol' green diary..a prized possession that has some of my scribblings from when I was about 10 years old. I was about 13-15 when I wrote this one...

(What is Sello?)

2007 in review, Onto 2008

2007-12-30T22:10:00.000-08:00

Year 2007 has obviously been action packed for all those people portrayed in the video!

The year has been interesting personally on many levels, the most significant being my affirmation to the essence of humanism. I have not written too much after starting a humanist blog, and it may well remain a placeholder at this point though a recent musing may manage to crawl out of my fingertips on to the blog in the new year, who knows, for new years do strange things to the laziest of us don't they, atleast for the first week or less.

An endeavor to reach a global audience with the message of Child Rights and You (CRY) took me back to Second Life, the most popular online virtual world. "Back" because I had registered a year ago out of short lived curiosity and discontinued irked and tired of frequent crashes of the second life client and lack of useful activity. This time around, it was pleasantly different. No, the crashes do continue to exist may be a little less frequently. But what made a difference this time was the larger non-profit presence in Second Life thanks to a conglomeration called Nonprofit Commons run by Techsoup. CRY now has an office at the Nonprofit Commons Island in Second Life besides other projects to be unveiled soon. That and some wonderful folks I met through Second Life like "Johnny Austin" (SL Avtar name) of Joysco Studio, "Coughran Mayo" of Preferred Family Healthcare, "Zeus Zetkin" of Indusgeeks, "Parhelion Palou" and many others. I also came across the SL Humanism group which meets sundays 2pm at the Humanism Garden in SL.

On a creative note, I started an oil painting of a ballet dancer and I promise to post it here if I ever finish it! I must proclaim that I finally learnt the art of tatting and made a basic flower. Will I tat large laces like my mother someday? Someday. Oh and there was that other project, that that and that.

On a somewhat wacky note, I dared into a dance studio and learnt a few salsa moves. I stopped just when I was starting to just about like the spanish rhythm. Another activity shelved for another day.

On a social note, my online network on Orkut brought back some long lost school friends and new connections with neices and nephews (all grown up...gosh should i feel old!!) I jumped on the linkedin, facebook and esnips bandwagon, mostly dormant membership at this point. Friends were abound throughout the year, and I am indeed fortunate to have some great friends to hang with.

There were a few significant other miscellanea that I can certainly smile about.

Forward looking at 2008, I pulled out this 2007 NY post from the archives and realized i had quite forgotten to follow up on the inspiration. :-) ReVolution it is, in 2008 for sure! :-)

And now for the few who dare tread this blog once in a while, Happy New Year and may be you can resolve to come by more often? ;-)

Happy Spot

2007-12-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

Brow furrowed,
a search for that happy spot
takes me down memory lane
deeper, deeper, until
i see it
brilliant, vivid
the green meadows
that I roll down on
and run breathless
the breeze gushing
against my puffed cheek
i reach the gurgling stream
the inertia takes me across
in one swift jump
i run up the hill now toward
the dense pine forest
enticing with its mysteries deep
the brown forest floor
plush with dry pine leaves
so inviting
I fall plunk!
and burrow
dodging the pine cones
into the warm leaves
piled on my panting stomach
i lie there squinting
at the sun filtering through
the canopy
while my fellow adventurers
run amuck
chasing
laughing
yelling
falling
time is irrelevant
simply joy, happiness
until we tear back
down the hill
across the stream
up the hill again
compelled to stop
to grab the ripe berries
braving the thorny leaves
and then off again
up the hill
back home
we look back and know
we'll be there again
we'll go deeper
find new adventures
new stories
more laughter
more fun...
i am refreshed
that one happy spot
so precious
i know not if i'll
ever feel that joy
again
that childhood
alone
could give.

Paradigm Shifts

2007-08-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

picture source: alz.org

The human brain is fascinating. The adeptness to learn, to adapt, to deduce, to reconstruct, to remember, to create, to reason, to react, to feel and so on, truly amazing. While there is a lot we don't know/understand about the brain, one particular capability intrigues me and I keep wondering if we can harness this capability to our advantage if we better understand it.

I call it "Paradigm Shift" - the ability to transform from a state of "not knowing" to a state of "just knowing" almost instantaneously.

I wrote about the "paradigm shift" a few months ago in a previous blog, and at the time argued that it was not associated with the brain and was somehow an unexplained intuitive mumbo jumbo. Having mused about it some more, and having arrived at the conclusion that a human being is self sufficient to live and execute in the universe, it is but logical to attribute this to the human brain.

My classic example of a paradigm shift is playing the piano on listening to a tune with no prior training; "playing by the ear" as it is called. The brain registers the sound, maps the sounds to keys and directs the fingers to play even on notes that the person may not have ever played before ( I mention this to eliminate the doubt that the brain also registered the sounds from the keyboard ahead of time).

A few more..
Remember the time when you first saw the holographic picture popout of the newspaper?
Remember that day when you suddenly were able to balance a bike?

Once you know, you just know, there's no going back. I know, some of these are hard to justify as instantly knowing versus learning, but you get the idea.

What if we could actually initiate a "paradigm shift" at will?

The epic Mahabharata goes,

Drona told the palace cook, "Never let Arjuna eat in the dark." But one
night at dinner the wind blew out Arjuna's lamp. His tent was plunged into
darkness, yet he found himself eating, his hand went to his mouth by
habitual skill.

Arjuna applied this skill to his bowstring and was able to hit a distant target consistently. This is a simple but great example of harnessing the ability to apply a skill that we humans already possess in a desired situation.

The brain is finite and therefore harnessing its capabilities must be possible. So, what if we could actually initiate a paradigm shift at will? What would that make of a human being? How would we use the ability? Would it be a boon or a bane? ..I wonder.

Have you ever experienced a "paradigm shift"?

"DO NOT talk to strangers"...

2007-08-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Why not? Some of the best conversations I have had are with total strangers. Even if they have only lasted 10 minutes I have always taken away something from such conversations.

I ran into this gentleman in his mid 60s today at the book store. "Excuse me, is someone sitting here?" he asked and looked relieved to hear that the couch was available. He said it was rare to find a vacant seat at that hour. He wanted to know which school I went to (and I always get a kick out of that question lol!). I saw a conversation brewing and I was in two minds if I should put my book down and chat or get back to my book which honestly was not keeping my attention on a full stomach on a saturday afternoon. I asked him what books he read and he said he was just there for a coffee today but read a lot of Krishnamurty's books. Now that was enough for me to put my book down and start talking to him and it turned out to be a really interesting conversation.

The merit of the stranger factor in a conversation is that it keeps the interaction objective, unbiased, non-judgemental, free from fear of consequences and the obvious advantage of discovering new perspectives. And with all else removed, the focus on the topic is intense and insightful.

On another front, I find the ability to talk to a stranger with ease very powerful, reinforcing the fact that it should really be no different, as humans sharing the planet and having the capability to interact with each other without inhibition.

While topics of common interest obviously fuel a conversation, I also wonder if the reason I am meeting more and more people with humanistic tendencies is because that is what has been on my mind recently. To visualize, may be we have invisible antennae which sense the surroundings continuously much like those of a bee or a butterfly, and we open up to an interaction when a similar frequency is sensed? This is probably what Dr. Wayne Dyer's "The Power of Intention", The Secret's "Law of Attraction" and the like suggest.

...The gentleman finished his coffee and prepared to leave. "What's your name?" "Arch". "I am Adam", he said and left. I was glad there was no exchange of contacts, because that would have instantly disrupted the stranger factor, brought in obligation and an expectation to correspond. I got back to my book refreshed.

Next time you bump into someone, do not pass off the opportunity to have that conversation and experience the stranger factor!*

*Warning: DO NOT talk to strangers if you are under 18 or if you are not in a public place! (unfortunately, the world is not void of the bad guys)

Nancy

2007-08-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

She was the star of the neighborhood. Quite different from the rest, she had this unique foxy look - her blonde hair glistened, her button eyes were kind and innocent, her gait was ever so graceful and dignified, her friendly presence, her velvet soft ears, her bushy tail. She was the most beautiful dog and I could quite not understand why some of those officious adults would discourage playing with her only because she was a street dog.

Nancy could care less. She had too many admirers, mostly us kids on the block to pamper and love her. She would run around merrily and stop by for some pats on her back, and somehow seemed to always know when I would be back from school, for there she would be on the green lawn, wagging her foxy tail.

Not sure why, but Nancy would always have a litter just when the monsoons began. And she seemed to always choose the backyard behind my block (a block had 4 apartments) to have her litter. It was like she knew we would take care of her babies there, as we did with wooden boxes, gunny sacks to house the puppies and prevent them from getting soaked up in the slushy puddles of rainwater, and lukewarm milk. But again, this was much to the annoyance of my neightbor who could not tolerate the pups yelping and howling through the night. There would then commence a sequence of predictable events - my neighbor would carry the wooden boxes down the nearby hill and leave the puppies in the bushes, and I with some friends would rescue them and bring them back, and then through a discussion of how the puppies could be safe, we would find someone who could take care of the puppies and most of them found new homes. Nancy seemed almost selfless at that point, she would love and nurture the puppies while they were there, and when they were going away to new homes, she would accept their departure gracefully without a whimper.

The only two offsprings who grew up in the same neighborhood were Tina from one litter and Blackie from the next litter a year later. Tina grew up into a withdrawn dog, feeling a stranger in her own home, and did not quite get very friendly. Blackie was quiet, and while she did seem to show her mother's traits sometimes, she was definitely a very different personality. But both Tina and Blackie were to remain as the only living reminders of darling Nancy.

For that one fateful day, while I was away at school, the vicious dog catchers made their way to our peaceful neighborhood, to enact their evil plan. A neighboring "aunty" (the only adult who seemed to understand and love the street dogs) was the only savior around and she did her best to round up Nancy and take her indoors to save her from their clutches. But poor Nancy, she was so terrified and not knowing whom to trust at that point, she tried to run to safety, sadly, landing in the deadly noose of the dog catchers.

That day, when I got back home from school, I was not greeted by the familar frisky sight. On inquiry, I heard about the horrible tale, and could only wish I had been around to save poor Nancy. SHe was never a nuisance to the neighborhood, and they had absolutely no reason to take her away. That was probably my first experience of a loss as a child and a glimpse of senseless cruelty to animals, and I went through it bravely I must say.

I have never quite felt the same about another dog ever since. I love their kind still, they are ofcourse awesome creatures, but I guess it just will not be the same ever.

QWERTY

2007-07-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

How do you type on the keyboard? Do you touch-type or random-type? And if you use random fingers or just one finger to type - How on earth do you do that!!?!! I saw someone take forever to type a simple word using only the index finger - which meant looking at the keyboard instead of the monitor while typing, searching for keys, and typing them slowly. I wondered how one could really not use touch-typing which is now such a natural thing for me, thanks to practice on the good old typewriter back during my school days.

And I had not given much thought to keyboard layouts until now, and I was surprised to know that the traditional qwerty keyboard layout where successive keystrokes alternate between sides of the keyboard is challenged by Dvorak keyboard in which most used keys are placed on the home row, claiming to improve speed and reduce fatique. Now, considering that I have never thought of changing a keyboard, I applaud Dr. August Dvorak for even thinking about it.

But I am sure it is not easy to switch keyboard "muscle memory" as it is called that easily.

So here's my question, given the evolution of touch screens such as Apple iPhone and Microsoft Surface and user interfaces trying to mimic natural human gestures, and minimizing the learning curve to operate new devices, what is the future of the keyboard? Would the Qwerty keyboard be replaced by voice activated/touch screen user interfaces in the long run? Would we interact with computers in a very different manner say 50 years from now? As I stretch my tired fingers and strained wrists, I think that might be a very welcome change though we'll probably cry ourselves hoarse telling our computers to create programs and write err.. speak code!!

Not there yet

2007-07-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

54Mbps is not good enough. Coupled with server timeouts probably, I struggled for 4 hours trying to upload 2 43MB files. Even splitting the files into ~20MB chunks did not help. And all along I kept thinking, its evident we are just not there yet.

Do you feel sometimes that technology is not where it should be? That you struggle to do some basic things that technology should do for you? It is just lagging far behind human vision/ fantasy I guess and that would probably always be the case, and may be it had better be that way too so that there is always opportunity for progress.

However, I feel terribly curtailed by the current level of technology. I just want to be able to do some very basic things at the snap of a finger. To start with, booting up my machine and by the time my computer is functional and lets me move the mouse cursor - it seems to take FOREVER. (I know I know, I am still enslaved to MS and all the Mac users would immediately jump up to say in unison "SWITCH TO Mac".) And then there is the simple phone call I want to make to anywhere in the world without having to dial atleast 11 digits. Communicating with people without incurring a carpal tunnel syndrome (Speech recognition is not there yet). Talking to people without looking like an alien with that handsfree contraption on the ear (Is it too much to ask for invisible earphones? hehe) Or taking a picture atleast 95% like the human eye sees it.

And may be moving from basic needs to fantasy - ability to just think it up and have a brain signal reader transcribe it on your computer monitor (I often have all these thoughts that I just feel very lazy to put down! May be we would have a few million Einsteins if all thoughts could be jotted down - I am optimistic there's an Einstein hidden in everyone of us :D ) .. Oh and that one other wishful thinking - how nice it would be if we could have holographic conferences rather than video conferences. How nice if my parents could see me sitting next to them and talking rather than seeing my video image on a 20 inch monitor. How nice if I could hug my parents and the sensation of touch could be transmitted back to me. Wouldn't the physical globe become a non entity with human beings forming another layer of existence above it that transcends physical barriers? Oh and ofcourse there is that wishful vacation to the Mars (or atleast to the Moon).

I don't think I am just fantasizing at this point. I think this is a "hyperopic" view of the distant future, and our successors would be living a very different life as much as we live a very different life from the early man or even from our great-grandparents times.

And talking of human technology, I wonder why the "design" of the human body didn't have a self-cleaning mechanism. Even cats have it for crying out loud!! May be we will be evolved beings in this respect as well in that far-out future? :-)

Too bad none of us will be alive to live in that world and hence the frustration that we can't have some of those capabilities RIGHT NOW. And given where we are, I guess we'll just rejoice the iPhone for now, for delivering music + internet + storage + youtube in one device, and try to pretend that we live in a hi-tech age.

Pearls of wisdom - Poetry Couplets (Doha)

2007-07-08T22:55:00.000-07:00

I used to enjoy the poetry couplets called "Doha" in Hindi, by famous poets such as Kabir, Rahim and Tulsi. I love the simplicity, the rhyme, the analogies used frequently, and the wisdom conveyed - short and sweet.

Here are a few of Kabir's that I recall with ease:

Bura Jo Dekhan Main Chala, Bura Naa Milya Koye
Jo Munn Khoja Apnaa, To Mujhse Bura Naa Koye

Transliteration: bad which to see I went, bad I found none. When my mind I searched, then none other bad but me.

Interpretation: You try to find in others what you are within yourself.

Dukh Mein Simran Sab Kare, Sukh Mein Kare Na Koye
Jo Sukh Mein Simran Kare, Tau Dukh Kahe Ko Hoye

Transliteration: in sorrow prayers offered by everyone, in joy by none. In joy those who pray, then sorrow there is none.

Interpretation: A spiritual / good person feels peace and joy at all times.

Kabira Khara Bazaar Mein, Mange Sabki Khair
Na Kahu Se Dosti, Na Kahu Se Bair

Transliteration: Kabir stands in the market place, wishing everyone well. Seek's not anyone's friendship, nor anyone's enimity.

Interpretation: Love all.

Found many more Kabir ke Dohe here.

Here are some of Rahim:

Jo Rahim Uttam Prakriti, Ka Kar Sakath Kusangh
Chandan Vish Vyapth Nahi, Lipte Rahat Bhujangh

Transliteration: Rahim says to those with a noble nature, what can be done by bad people. As a sandal tree poison absorbs none, though always wound around by snakes.

Interpretation: The inherently noble are unaffected by the the evil around them.

I remember just this one of Tulsi's :

Tulsi sant suvambh taru, Phooli Phalhi Par Heth
Jiththe Voh Paavan Hanath, Uththe voh Phal Deth

Transliteration: Tulsi says a tree gives flowers and fruit, and the more the winds hit and shake it, the more fruit it gives.

Interpretation: Give more (love) when tormented. Keep giving. Also could be interpreted as love more in return when you receive animosity.

More Tulsi Dohe here though its hard without english translation.

Know of any others? Any favorites? Or even Japanese Haiku? Would love to hear ...

Note: The interpretations I have given are to an extent influenced by my world view. Derive your own from the transliteration if you don't know hindi!

Unity of the Human Kind

2007-03-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

I am by myself when I step into this restaurant, I am led to a table to be seated. I look around and feel a reluctance to sit by myself. I have an urge to walk up to one of the tables and join them. I feel completely uninhibited in doing so; and then i quickly remind myself about the norms of society and refrain from it. I sit by myself, yet don't feel alone at all. There are so many fellow humans around me.

...I came home thinking i should share this brief experience of unity - the heartfelt unity, and incidentally, came upon this short video of Jiddu Krishnamurthy :

I would like to explore this topic further, about this profound realization of unity with all human beings as K says - "in your guts, in your blood, in your heart, in your mind"...

Continued... This feeling of human unity that I felt was momentary and beyond that one instance, I noticed that while I could consciously remind myself to replicate the feeling, it was not spontaneous. I wonder why.

4/7/2007: Part 1 – Cookie Cutter Babies

Doesn't take too much wondering to figure out why. The human existence has evolved into a complex molding of every new born into a certain frame of thought and behavior. And yet we think that each of our precious darlings is unique! While what we end up having is cookie cutter babies.

An interesting quote by UG Krishnamurthy (who apparently was a critic of JK, and whom I came across when I pulled out Jiddu Krishnamurthy's video from youtube) along these lines:

"By using the models of Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna we have destroyed the
possibility of nature throwing up unique individuals."

Have you noticed an infant's behavior before starting to fall into the mould...those innocent eyes, the spontaneous smile at anyone be it a stranger or of any ethnic origin, the natural instinct to explore one's surroundings uninhibited, fearless... Should this free mind persist, I would think this openness to other human beings would be a natural tendency.

But is it even possible to bring up one's children outside of society's framework and norms. Is it even possible that children grow up with absolutely no rules? This would probably be called a cult and condemned by society. And since this is a world of pre-existing biases, no idea would be universally embraced, and therefore the human unity concept would become a religion of its own, with followers that over generations misinterpret the very basis of this movement and thus would ensue the chaos, the confusion, the controversies.

4/10/2007: Part 2 - Return to Innocence
We grow up with preset ideas convinced that what we have been led to believe is the ultimate truth. Some of us decide to explore alternate philosophies and switch to something else with a feeling exalted of the realization. As adults our egos play up our convictions further. With the kind of complex mind we have built up, feeling absolute love for a fellow human would have to permeate many thick layers of influences.

Is it possible, is it at all possible for us to let down our guard, let down our ego, totally, completely to return to innocence? The other day, I was looking around me, even at me, wondering how the world would be if we adults could express our emotions as uninhibitedly as children do.. Laugh when you feel it, Cry when you feel sad, expression of total joy at something new... absolutely plain expression - no hypocrisy, no hesitation, no inhibition.

Incidently, Flights Of The Mind pointed me to a song by Enigma - "Return to Innocence" (and thus the inspiration for the Part 2 title), and a quote from the song:

If you want, then start to laugh
If you must, then start to cry
Be yourself dont hide

Can we...Return to Innocence? Can we...Unite as Humans?

4/14/2007: Part 3 - The Alien connection
I was looking up the Imus controversy on youtube and was shocked to see some hateful comments being thrown at eachother by people. I got the impression that most of them are teenagers, the new blood that is going to take on the world through this century. The next generation growing up with the same outlook of human differences. I was reminded of the movie "Happy Feet", which is an animation brilliance no doubt, also had strong depiction of racial differences which to me was annoying and unnecessary in a children's cartoon (there its off my chest finally - been there ever since i watched the movie)

But wait, is it just the tailored thought that is to blame, or is it something in the core of a living being that draws out swords of difference from fellow beings in the process of survival? Does a living being have this need to be faced by an enemy to compete and feel worthy? And being the ruling living being on earth, do humans pick another human as an embodiment of an enemy for lack of a higher or competing creature? If this were the case, what if we humans were faced by an external "enemy" or "competitor" - An alien life form. Would we unite with human patriotism to face the alien force? Would we still have a patriotic group versus a traitor group within humans and therefore still be divided?

I guess we'll never know, unless them aliens show up and challenge us humans one fine day!

6/3/2007: Part 4 - Humanism, the essence of it

...the essence from which we as a species have strayed away from. We are all basically human damn it! How could we get so entangled in our theories of Gods and such that we lose the basic essential link to each other as humans? What is WRONG with us!! I mean, it's crazy that we would kill each other in the name of our respective "Gods". Its just insane. And I don't know how on earth we could reach such levels of insanity. Anyway, guess i can't let this insanity go by without attempting to do something about it; hence my Humanist blog to try to discuss, brainstorm, rant, call for action, whatever it takes to get it out of my system, and to try to be heard.

Continued... as a Humanist.

New Horizons

2007-03-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

A whiff of Shakespearan wisdom

2007-03-11T00:38:00.000-08:00

If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;
If not, why then, this parting was well made.
Julius Caesar, V, III

Brutus utters these words as he and Cassius bid good bye not knowing what the next day has in store for them, the murderers of Julius Caesar.

Of all the brilliantly woven Shakespearan expressions, this one struck a chord with me when I studied this Shakespearan play "Julius Caesar" at high school and has ever since been a favorite quote. And recently, this phrase has been in the forefront of my musings. I find that this phrase conveys a certain philosophy of life which if recognized and applied to our day to day interactions and relationships, would greatly enhance our lives. I shall try to explain.

If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;

"If we do meet again" - spells the uncertain future in the context of the play, and in a sense, a detachment from expecting to meet. And yet, "why" conveys the endearance, the bond or the closeness in relationship. "we shall smile" a simple and beautiful way to express the continuance of the bond or friendship.

If not, why then, this parting was well made.

"If not" again, a detached expression devoid of emotion. "why then", conveys acceptance of the alternate outcome. "this parting was well made" takes ownership of the actions/choices that led to the alternate outcome

To summarize, in this phrase, there is no expectation, there is warmth in a promise to remember the bond/friendship, there is ownership of ones actions, and acceptance of the outcome no matter what it is.

Now, if the phrase were reworded to represent our relationships and interactions, it would probably sound like this:

When we do meet again, we will smile;
If not, well then, this parting was well, made.

Yes, we expect to meet, we demand a smile, we are dejected if we dont, and we blame our stars for the unfortunate outcome.

How much of stress and conflict we could avoid, if in our day to day interactions with family, friends and colleagues, we exercised this philosophy of warmth, responsibility for our actions and detachment from outcome. How wonderful our interactions would be if we looked upon each meeting with each person we come across as a brand new opportunity to be kind to and to love and when we part, be it the end of a phone conversation, the end of a day or when we wish goodnight and go to sleep, part without an expectation of another meeting or discussion with this person. For, the moment we stop expecting, we learn to value and live the moments we have to the fullest.

And on that note, thanks for stopping by; If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why then, this parting was well made.

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Busy!

2007-03-03T23:30:00.000-08:00

The one word I would like to exile from my vocabulary and everyone else’s. These days, the traditional response to a “Hello – How are you?” has been replaced by “Busy” “Very Busy” or variations of that expression. I have not had a single conversation in the past few months, not a single one without a discussion about how busy I am and the other person is. “Busy” is also the convenient conversation piece for most of us these days ain’t?

I think of my blissful childhood days, when I don’t remember having ever used this word, when there was never such a thing as no time for things that meant the most to me. But here I am, too busy to talk to my friends and family, too busy to watch the sunset on a serene evening walk, too busy to even look up at the sky and admire those fluffy clouds that I used to spend so much time staring at with flaring imagination as a kid.

It appears that the universe is in a rush to have the human purpose accomplished. It appears that we are driven to go faster and faster to complete the mission our species is meant to fulfill. It appears that the human being is undergoing an emotional transformation in the process of gaining focus on that mission. May be it’s a good thing in the large scale of things. On the other hand, it is probably the arrogant feeling of ownership of one’s life, that drives the desire of us humans to crave to savor life.

“Busy” is the mantra of today’s life, and I don’t know if we can exist without being busy! It’s just too ingrained into us functioning as a society today, there’s no doing away with it.

And yet, I certainly hope that one day in retrospect, you and I can smile knowing that we did manage to devote the time to nurture whatever meant the most to us in life.

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New Year Revolution

2007-01-04T23:41:00.000-08:00

I have not had the time to write out an original post, but i did want to post this inspirational new year message received... I really liked it and felt it may benefit others.

January 1st is the most interesting day of the year. It's the one universal day where everyone talks about goals, dreams, plans and hopes. We talk about it, we dream about it. But often we don't (really) plan for it, sweat for it, sacrifice for it, work for it, get
uncomfortable for it. We just kind of 'hope' it will happen. Hopefully success will fall on us from a great height.

You will find many talented, intelligent and capable people spend years going around in circles. Years being frustrated. Years under-achieving. Years making Excuses and years waiting for the right time. Years making and breaking promises and resolutions. Our biggest challenge in the pursuit of forever change, is not our ability (or lack of it), not opportunities, luck, potential, skills, education (or lack of it) and not our age or gender; it is our ability to consistently do the things we need to do to create our desired results, irrespective of how we're feeling, day in and day out.

If you want next year to be the best year of your life, then you need to establish why and how it will be different this time. Your choices. Your attitude. Your ability to deal with discomfort. Your ability to create new standards and 'rules'. Your ability to keep doing, even when the doing ain't fun or cool.

Motivation is temporary. For most people, motivation is a feeling; an emotional state. If we only do when we feel motivated, we'll never create real (forever) change. Success is always less about motivation and more about planning, self-control, discipline, organization, time-management, decision making and mental toughness.

We don't need another resolution, we need a revolution. A revolution in the way we do things. A revolution in the way we approach the next year. A revolution in our head.

A better life ain't about the New Year....It's about the New YOU! New actions steps will create new decisions that will finally turn your resolutions into New Results!

I also researched this piece and found that it was originally posted by Craig Harper in his blog under the title "The Resolution Revolution" who not surprisingly, is a motivational speaker besides other things.

Is it as doable as it sounds? If it were so easy to turn a new leaf and do the right things, we would not even have resolutions in the first place. But I certainly like the revolution approach ... so New Year Revolution it is!

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Sticky old cheese

2006-12-05T23:28:00.000-08:00

Old cheese is not only smelly but also extremely sticky. Hard to get off the fingers.. And sometimes, its just easier to let the old cheese be, its just too much work to get rid of it. Sometimes, you just want to keep around the old cheese because you are afraid to lose sight of the only cheese you know, lest you don’t find more. Sometimes, you even start feeling like the-old-cheese-loyalist, one who never lets go of old cheese. Sometimes its easier to pretend that its still tasty, and somehow try to revive it to its old fresh state. But very quickly, you realize that that was a bad idea.

Yes, change is hard. Moving away from a situation that you know is stagnating, that you very well know is not leading you anywhere. Living in the comfort of “the known devil” is enticing. Sometimes, its easier to hope that if you just waited, life would make decisions for you, and that way, the change would come about effortlessly. Indecision is a decision in itself as they say. Oh- and they have given it that handy name “destiny”, “fate”.

As much as we “know” what we should be doing, letting go of self defeating habits, thoughts or feelings, deciding to make a change and pursuing it is a mammoth task.
In the mean time, insolent time doesn’t stop by to listen and cajole, but whizzes by impolitely like it does not know you, like it has something more important to do. And just when you finally play the catch up game and start the preparation for change, you realize that every change has to change, eventually. It’s a never ending cycle. Change is indeed the only permanent thing.

But looking back down the hill, the situation that necessitates change was infact caused by a change that is perceived as unfavorable. If the unfavorable change did not exist, would the change that allowed you to reach the hill top even have been possible? In other words, todays change required yesterday’s change and so on. The type of change stems from the choice that was made. So the fundamental source is the choice one made / makes. And at that point, it is probably the best choice one could make given the available data / senses. So if the choice turns out to be a “bad” choice (“bad” is probably based on perception, “unexpected” is probably a better word to describe the choice), then it’s the data / senses that led to the choice in the first place that were flawed.

So how can you try to get your data / senses straight – such that you make a “good” choice – such that you make a change nevertheless, but perceivably a “positive” change? Secondly, do you make better choices, because of experience from poor choices? Or do you just perceive the change from your choice as better as you move along, because you learn to live with your choices? If human beings are on an evolutionary process, why is it that we have not learned from our ancestors with respect to choices, and evolved to make better choices, rather than commit the same mistakes that have historically been made?

Just some random musings on change, choice and their evolution in the human mind. Please share any thoughts or experiences you may have.

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The Rural Woman

2006-11-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

The Anomaly of Individuality

2006-11-08T00:55:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, a fire in a school in India claimed the lives of around 90 innocent children. A discussion came up in my family’s yahoo group as many members were upset and were trying to comprehend why such incidents occurred in which innocent children or people were deprived of a normal span of life.

Amidst all the emotional responses, one member’s response posed a question:

“The electron has no sense of individuality;
the proton has no sense of individuality;
the neutron has no sense of individuality;
the atom has no sense of individuality;
the molecule has no sense of individuality;
the compound has no sense of individuality;
the cell has no sense of individuality;
the organ has no sense of individuality;
the body/mind complex suddenly has a sense of individuality;
the humanity does not have a sense of individuality;
the earth has no sense of individuality;
the solar system has no sense of individuality;
the milky way galaxy has no sense of individuality;
the universe has no sense of individuality.
Do you see the anomaly here in this chain?
If this anomaly of personality/individuality is a fiction,
then does the Universe worry about particulars?”

On another occasion, I was discussing the subject of individuality with a few friends, and one of them quipped – All that matters is the “ME”, the “I” and how I grow, how I develop, how I become a better person.

The “I” or the ego of a human being cannot be blinked away as fiction, because I can relate to it, so do You and so does everyone else. This individuality makes us feel that this whole world and everything that’s going on is somehow about us. We feel joyful when favorable things happen, we feel miserable and sorrowful when things don’t go our way. Somehow, everything is about us, about the “ME” about the “I”.

A few hundred years ago, humans believed that the sun revolved around the earth, until it was proved that the earth went around the sun, and what’s more, that our sun is one amongst zillions of suns, that our galaxy is one among many.. Our planet was not the center of the universe after all!

How then do we humans think we are the center of the universe – and furthermore, how and why do each of us think that this universe and its occurrences is about each of us. Each body/mind complex, though has a sense of individuality, exists for a finite time and in the larger scale of the universe, the individuality is of no significance. And in that sense, this anomaly of personality/individuality IS indeed a fiction.

If individuality does not matter to the Universe at large, how then does one react to occurrences such as the loss of those children? Or does it even matter if it’s nothing beyond a pre-defined / programmed response to stimulus of the right hemisphere of the brain.

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to flower from thorn

2006-11-02T22:52:00.000-08:00

The Human Conspiracy

2006-11-01T01:09:00.000-08:00

For eons, humans have been born and have died a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Muslim or some other. And then there have been others in pursuit of true happiness, self realization, the truth…

For eons, we have had the wise men, the philosophers, the god men tell us what life is, what our purpose is, and even what life after life is.

In reality, every belief system is manmade. Every attempt to explain life, every philosophy, is nothing more than a human theory. Science is human's attempt to discover 'the known'. Yes - 'the known'. But there is this huge chunk of 'unknown' that would remain unknown. Why are humans born, why do we die, what is the purpose of life, or is there a purpose at all. Some questions would never be answered. NEVER.

And that is the Truth.
Well – ok so what? Have I said something earth shatteringly new? Probably not.

Yet, look around you. No wait - let’s start with you – Do you know who you are? You would probably say “of course silly!” But again, do you know who you really are?

Humans are clueless about the 'unknown' and would always be. And yet, we proclaim to understand life based on a set of theories. Theories that have now led to a human race, that is caught in holy wars, scientific and philosophical wars (ironical that I am engaged in one of those right now :-) )

It is my contention that the entire human race has been "brain-washed" or "programmed" or "tuned" to a certain plot, that has been conspired through the centuries, by a few who actually hit upon this very frustrating yet, undeniable truth, that we humans will NEVER EVER know who we are or why we are. That the enigma that is life and its purpose is unfathomable.

But Why? Were they attempting to relieve the human race of the frustration of the 'unknown' remaining ‘unknown’? Whatever their reason, they have managed to hypnotize the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE, turned us into zombies with this mega “HUMAN CONSPIRACY”! But. Wait a minute… this is just my theory in trying to understand how a commoner like me could have realized this, and yet all the wise men that have treaded the earth would not have… but let’s not get side tracked.

The point really is the "HUMAN DELUSION" that the entire humanity is caught up in that we have wound ourselves up in so many unbelievably crazy traditions, rituals, caste, creed, religious wars and the like.Now - if one does realize that we are deluded, what next? There is nothing, NOTHING - and it is but a mere frustration because there is no way of 'knowing' what life really is.

My question to humanity is - Would you rather live a disillusioned life, or live knowing that you don't know and you never will?

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