A brief walk in His realm

Classical music at its best. Ranjini and Gayatri sisters singing His praise.

Translation:

Always remeber the name of the Lord
This is the sole support to attainment
God is a lion to the elephant of sins
prevailing and protecting those who seek refuge; always..
Lord, you protected prahlada and 
you are the one who tore hiranyakashipus' belly; always..
when draupadi in her distress appealed to you
you granted the boon of an endless sari; always..
ajamila called his son, your namesake
and you mercilfully came and saved him; always..
worship the cosmos Lord , Purandhara Vithala
Touch his holy feet, yes worship Shri's Lord
Always remember the name of Hari

PS: This post is a dedication to Chandrika my friend , who has always supported me to stay on the spiritual road by her views and  discussions and sharing other gems of daasa sahithya.

The Science of Self

Awareness of the Self lies behind the veils of all the troubles that the self experiences. Unless the consciousness is troubled and one experiences discontent and discomfort, it is very rare that one seeks for the higher level of fulfillment and liberation. The Awareness of the self  is easily lost when one does not give sufficient time for the self largely at the mental level and lightly to the physical level. 

Meditation as i understand, is the science of self awareness and bringing the human mind to peace. It works by regulating the breath as it believes that it is breath that is what connects the atma( individual consciousness) and paramatma( universal consciuosness). 

What we remain unaware is the existence of cosmic energy. It is the integral sum of all moving particles in space.The energy of these particle is the summation of all the Energy exhausted from all the Galaxies and Stars systems, and Our sun included, in the Universe. And the reception of this cosmic energy into the planes of the human body ,can be witnessed through meditation, which is very much a portal into the kingdom of spiritual science. 

It was just the jist of my experience lately .Yet to find out more about this science myself. There is more to Buddha than i thought. What i wonder is why i failed to learn from the simplest of examples given to us from the past while i actually thought life is like rocket science-tough.

The People Issue

I was kind of greatly amused by all those jokes and geeky discussions last Sunday when Waseem had come home for a visit. I generally welcome him with open arms because he is one person who comes with bundles of laughter. He is an ingenious person who has it in his blood to make people laugh until they catch their stomach in pain. We were having a casual discussion on religion and the existence of a single god. Of course being a Hindu myself, i have my own version and beliefs about god. But i take on his side when it comes to saying that there is a single god unlike the common Hindu belief that there are 3 crore deities ( not sure how many among them are demi gods or at least they say so) . I truly believe that there can only be a single creator whom we worship as god since that is what made sense to me after reading the GITA. Call him krishna, Rama, Shiv, Allah or Christ, HE is a single entity.


 Although, HE is a single entity, the common hindu masses which includes me grew up watching the good old devotional serials on Doordarshan ,which have truly left behind a legacy with some of the greatest and most vivid picturisation of GOD(s). “Om Namah Shivay” , “ Jai Mata Ki “ , “Sri Krishna”  are the best among those which still has made a lot of impact on my imagination .Some say the television industry spends lakhs of rupees to invest into serials into the settings for the shots, the backgrounds, the costumes to increase their TRP, while they deviate pretty much from the true epic stories. Whatever they say, I have derived maximum sense out of these and it has helped me during my childhood to use the faculty of imagination to a pretty decent extent.  

After such discussions on Hindu and Muslim version of god, he suddenly said " ha, now all the gods..make a line" for which both of us burst out laughing! Jokes apart, most of the jokes are the clever manifestations of the truth that we humans do not want to face head on.And so the journey on this planet  continues day in and day out with  only a few interesting people and a lot of assholes.

Winds of change in life still continue to race over each other as i see the diameter of my tummy expanding due to chronic warming of the seat in my office cubicle. It is a challenge really to resist those yummy junk foods which are a most obvious reason to spend some time away from work in the busy office hours. So volumes of trans fat goes in without knowledge when we indulge in endless chatter about this and that. I now have an iron will to trim myself in the next six months. So eating Mom made food can literally make you live a few extra days than the cool dude who shows off at Trans fat temples like the ones we already know.

Have been confused lately by the people issue around me. ( Oh ok, guess you know it by now that IT slaves love to use the word ISSUE in every statement) .The traffic issue, the bug issue, the code issue , environment issue , family issue and so on. Likewise, I have been into a lot of issues and confusions with the people around me for the better.

I see a person for the first time and draw some conclusions. Then i draw a different set of conclusions after being with them for some time. So i think maybe i was wrong the first time and feel sorry about the person that i had the wrong impression when i saw him/her for the first time. Then more time passes and i draw the same conclusion about the person which matches exactly as the first time and now feel sorry for myself. This vicious cycle goes on and on every single day, proving over and over that the first FACIAL impression that you draw out is the best and the most truthful impression.

 Well, the ego inside me has a solution to every problem ( Intel inside ma:)  ). Quite naturally, it tells that my relationship with people will generally follow the same rules as the Indian Constitution. However they are with me and however I am with them is only reciprocative – it is mostly OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people. I am a diehard fan of Shah Rukh Khan. And luckily enough he has thrown a few epithets too in this regard: “I care for the ones who like me. Others go to hell!!”

Well, should I even say that I follow the same ?  :D

Pearls of Wisdom

And lastly the one that shook the ground beneath me.. Simply superb!

Courtesy: Google

PS: All that is good is worth preserving and at the same time sharing :)

The polar shift

It is amazing how life gets us back to the very beginning after all the turmoil and gruelling journey.

I often understood that to excel, one needs to get to the depths and be aware of the esoterics of any branch of pure science or knowledge. To impress one’s peer, one is expected to speak more often in sentences overflowing with jargons. Else one is ridiculed at his simplicity. It is quite true in the beginning. These details that we cling to can keep us going, however at the end what prevail longer are simple yet subtle basics. Basics are happily the easiest to remember in any field.

Same applies to life. In my opinion, we would all turn  lunatics in a day , if we cling to small details. It is just enough to get the big picture and move on.

Well, we have been over this...let’s get to the point.

Since my childhood, i have always admired the most knowledged and sharp witted people than the cordial and sweet hearted ones. Of late, time has shown me some of the intellectuals with no bookish knowledge but yet razor sharp wit and astounding intelligence who perform well in LIFE (the big picture) than most of the nerds so far seen. This is a shocking truth for myself included who believed and relied that bookish knowledge can take man to heights of glory. Could be true...but the horizons are very limited and confined to the four walls of a classroom in a school or college. It is never the entire apple.

Realisation strikes that practical knowledge does dominate over bookish  gibberish in this weird something they call life. Bookish knowledge evaporates as quickly as it seeps into the human mind whereas on hand experience and practice will still have its trail till the last breath of a man. Education is preached by others, Intelligence is cultivated within one’s own self in defence against the odds in life. Intelligence outweighs education in all respects. 

And this has brought a colossal shift in my outlook. 


Afterthought:
Life is not just about success. There are countless more things to it..Think upon it. 

Varnas in I T

Prenote:

If you belong to the famed IT world, then read under your own risk. The author is not responsible if your secrets are revealed ( J) or even if your feelings are hurt.  The author also means no offense to anyone.

I was conscious of my breathing. Many thoughts inched forward and lunged out of my mind in rhythm with the brief gushes of air that followed a similar pattern into my lungs. A day full of test case execution at work had taken the life out of my eyes and drained me off the will to take in more hours of the day( or should i call it night?). To smear salt on my wounded appearance, the BMTC bus had arrived just then at shivajinagar bus stop. The crowd waiting at the stop moved in sudden jolts of happiness like how the desert nomads would feel when rains fell on land. The bus took in me also like the tolerant mother earth and gave in it a small place for me to stand and imitate the leaning tower of Pisa , also   promising me one more hour of push and pull in the stench of the  body sweat of the  crowd.

I took off my bag and clasped it in my hand  close to my body , very consciously lest the thieves empty my bag off my laptop or money for i feared that the compensation that i had to pay for that would be years of blame and mental torture at home, leave the money aside . As i stood there, holding the supporting bar at the top , i began my daily ritual. The ritual of reflecting on the day’s events at office and to give myself a faint assurance that i am somehow working towards my goal in life. But there are a few things that happen in life,which have the potential to deflect your goals and leave you thinking to no end. And those are the ones that just HAPPEN  to you and you can’t do anything about it but accept  and go home like a miserable loser. Am i the only one who sometimes feels as such ? that  i don’t know. I won’t also know until, some gentleman or lady has the patience to read my post and reply from his/her heart. An intangible commodity called ‘’Experience” had been buzzing around my ear ,along with the mosquito that had entered into the dark and damp bus.

Ok something called EXPERIENCE happens to be the line of demarcation that divides humankind in the professional world though we are all made of the same flesh and bones. And ever since i got the notion that experience can do me good, i have sought after it like the greedy king who changed everything he touched into gold. It reminds me of the history lesson, that in ancient India , society was divided into four  classes – the shudras, the vaishyas, the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas. I am not sure how i should treat the experienced ones at office, but most often i have seen the newbies ( shudras ofcourse by the way we are treated)  staring at the most “experienced” people( Vaishyas, Brahmins and the kshatriyas) with even more greater an appreciation and awe which could  supersede the admiration shown to Alexander, The Great at his time when he conquered the world.

Well, People might have decades of years of experience in their job industry . But it is more often that they try to show off in front of the less experienced ones as though they have been working for charity and the common good of the society while they have actually worked  for the sustenance of their family or to make a living for the self.  To mark ourselves a civilized society, we need to shun the false pride of experience at workplace and help each other humbly carry out our roles and responsibilities and treat each other equally. Humans are perennial attention seekers and when they feel happy about the way  they are treated, they tend to work more and seek more attention. That is precisely healthy competition . Ain’t it?

''Experience is the name that men give to their mistakes" ( A smart definition from someone’s dictionary)

Having said so, the ego inside me feels satisfied. I came home and had ice creams and plum cake. My stomach was satisfied tooJ

The merrier, the better!

There goes me- happy and contented thus far, in the end of yet another taxing yearJ. I look at myself now like never before ( J) ,to only draw the conclusion that time teaches a few painful lessons, that we have knowingly abstained or neglected from learning in the past years. Time is the most stubborn thing in the world.

The oracle PL/SQL trainer, Mr.Ramanjaneya had once told us that WE need to be the change that we desire to see in others or in our surroundings..

Was part of tons of things at office to experience the reality of that at workplace. Sold sweets and snacks at office to raise funds for poor children, organised events on team offsite day,sang the Christmas choir at office, played paint ball for the first time and contributed my bit for every single event that went past by. Now the enthusiasm shown by us fellow freshers at office seems to be getting absorbed by the senior lot J . Also, Never had i seen or felt the fun in playing secret santa for someone on Christmas and rarely had i ever seen people getting fun awards at office for being humorous , approachable , popular and most eligible bachelor/spinster. There seems to be a budding idea factory at workplace that leaves me in awe a lot many times and puts me to shame for i once preached that college life had the most fun embedded in it

10 men can complete a piece of work in 15 days and 15 women can complete the same work in 12 days. If all the 10 men and 15 women work together , in how many days will the work get completed?

Well....it’s just an apti question...Never mind the figures , sheer common sense would suggest that 10 men and 15 women working together will complete the work in half as much time as it would take separatelyJ.So share your happiness and care for others at office. For you would be spending alarmingly more time of your life at your office with colleagues than your family.

Food for thought:

Sometimes, there are these inferences that you can draw from people’s faces about their nature , intentions and behaviour. These inferences apparently are never wrong. And when people present a feigned appearance trying to put on a different image of themselves , nothing can be half as fun as disabusing them in public or asking the wrong questions to them at the right place. Try itJ

New year is around the corner !!! I wish that everyone be gifted with a prosperous new year and a happy christmas!!

Stay warmJ