Vipassanā

The mess workers of YPS, Jalihal

2011-11-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

As part of my Grassroutes fellowship road trip, I traveledto Sangli, Maharashtra. Although not as advanced as a Bangalore or a Mumbai, itis moderately well developed. The district of Sangli has a taluk named"jat" (pronounced as zath) which in turn has 147 villages under it.The villages are drought hit and have hardly any water available.

I traveled to a village named ‘Jalihal’. Right from the beginning, itwas the lifestyle of the people that struck me to be verily amazing. It made mefeel as though I had traveled back to the 1940s. “Yerala Projects Society” isan NGO based in Sangli (about 150 kms), which has adopted 22 villages in thistaluk. There are approximately 45000 people living in these villages.
They have responsibility for overall development in these areas.

The NGO runs a messfor all the people who work for the NGO. The mess workers included two younggirls – Hoshyakka and Bhagyashree. I must say I found their life stories quiteremarkable!

Hoshyakka was 12years old when her grandfather got her married to a man who already had an 18year old son and a daughter from his first marriage. She had no idea what amarriage meant. She could not understand why she was being sent away from home.People say that her husband was a drug smuggler and an alcoholic. It was onlyafter the marriage was over that her family realized they had been cheated.Once they did know, it was not like they could do anything about it, they weretoo steeped in poverty.

Hoshyakka went tostay with her husband. He would get drunk and beat her up everyday. He wouldaccuse her of infidelity, even when she did not know what it meant. Unable tobear all the torture she returned to her parents. She was probably 14 or 15then. She was so confused and scared of the world that she would speak to nonenor come out of her home. I shudder to think about the indelible scars thatthis experience would have caused on her psyche. If a simple negative commentfrom a peer can cause me so much trauma, I can only imagine what Hoshyakka’smental condition might have been!

The story has ahappy ending - after a lot of encouragement and support from the NGO, she nowworks for the NGO at their mess. She is 20 years old and earns Rs.60 per day.She is the sole bread winner for her family which includes her mother and hersister who is mentally retarded. All that her alcoholic father left for them isa house which has one room and a porous roof.


Hoshyakka working at the mess

When I asked her why she was working here, shesaid – “I do not want to go back to my in –laws, I don’t even know where myhusband is. He has been absconding for years. I have a family that dependsentirely on me. Also, I feel like I am reliving my childhood here, somethingthat I had lost. I talk, laugh and interact with the school kids and the NGOstaff. It gives me confidence and makes me feel good about life”.

“Why do you like this school so much?” I asked out of curiosity.To me, it was just a normal school in a village. I could not understand why shefelt it was so special. The smile from her face faded. “I went to school onlytill the 7th grade. I don’t even remember anything of what I have studied. Icannot read or write now.”

I did not know what to say. I noticed that she had a mobile phone. Ifshe had learnt how to use that, she could learn anything! I asked her -“What are your future plans? Do you see yourself working here throughout yourlife? Don’t you want to study?”
She smiled and said – “For someone like me, the life I am leading rightnow itself is a big achievement. Village folk here do not respect a woman whohas been abandoned by her in-laws. As of now, I am happy here. Having saidthat, I do want to study. Right now I am too busy running a home and trying tomake ends meet. Perhaps, someday….” She concluded.

Hoshyakka - all smiles! :-)

“What is your daily life like?” - She told me she was outof firewood and would be back in a minute. She came back and continued - “ Thisis how busy I am. At home, I cook for my mother and sister. I come here at 9and work till 6 in the evening. Then I go back home and cook again. Also, Ihave to nurse my old mother and sister. There is never a moment when I amfree.”

A busy day in my life is much different fromhers. I was lost in thought.

It was when Bhagyashree poked me that I woke from mystupor. I asked her “What is your story?”
To me Bhagyashreeseemed like a more cheerful and bold person. She listened to songs whilecooking, talked enthusiastically with people who come to the mess and isoutgoing when compared to Hoshyakka. I presumed she has a happy life.

Bhagyashree wasfrom a village called Morabagi, which is about 5 kms from Jalihal. Shestudied till 10th grade in the high school at her village, with the medium ofinstruction being Marathi. Her parents, unlike the others, encouraged her tostudy further. She can read and write in Marathi. She was 18 years old when shecompleted her pre university education in the arts stream. She decided to studyfurther and joined a course in Nursing. After her 1st year, her parents decidedto get her married, against her wishes. Nobody listened to her and by force shewas married along with a dowry of Rs.80,000.

Bhagyashree - the chirpy soul!

She stayed at her in-laws for 5 days. Since it was againsther wishes, she could not continue living there with somebody she was not readyto accept as her husband. She returned to her home. Her parents andgrandparents forced her to return back, but she did not budge. This continuedfor several months. At this point, it was much more than what she couldtake. She did not know where her life was going. Her parents would not supporther education and she did not want to go back. She decided to work for the messwhich would keep her busy, give her time to think and also earn some moneywhich would make her financially independent. She, like Hoshyakka, earns Rs.60per day. Bhagyashree is now 20 years old.

This kind of a story was not something that I had expected to hear fromsuch a chirpy soul. I was stunned. “ What have you decided to do now?”, Iasked. She replied calmly - “I have been working here for several months. Myparents have realized that I will not go back at any cost. I want to continuemy studies. I have decided to complete my Nursing course. I will be attendingcollege from this September.”
“What do you plan to do after you complete your course?”
“ I want to work. I shall take up a job, earn money and give a meaningto my life”
This girl has a lot of dreams and I hope she will chase each one of them.

It was after these conversations that itoccurred to me that these two young women are winners in a true sense. Havinglived at the village for about a month, roamed around across 15 villages andinteracted with people, I have noticed how conservative and superstitious thesepeople are. Girls are not educated beyond 7th grade. Girls are marriedoff at an age as young as 14. A heavy dowry is a must. Girls as young as 17-18are already mothers. All they do is cook, wash and clean. They are unaware ofwhat is happening in the big world outside. Young widows (20 years and above)are not allowed to get married again. Female foeticide is very common eventoday. In most cases, daughters do not get any share in their parent’s property even.

We often read of athletes who fell down during a race but got up to run to the finish line. We read of kings who lose everything but still find strength to win everything back. Although very inspiring, these stories are a little far from the stories of the Bhagyashrees and the Hoshyakkas of the world. The athlete who ran the race was already a successful athlete when he began. He could afford the training, he could garner enough support to participate in the race. It is one thing to come back from a temporary failure and when there is love and some semblance of hope. It is completely another thing to come back from a situation of deep despair - a situation when everything is against you and there is no one to help.

The fact that thevillage society look down upon such women makes their task only harder. It isreally inspiring to see how these two young women have broken all the barriersand have taken control of their lives. I can imagine the intensity ofopposition they must have faced from the village folk. Their tenacity anddetermination is remarkable. How many of us know of such people who arestruggling in the remote parts of our country?

I am sure thatthese two young women will stand as examples and a source of inspiration to allthe womenfolk in and around their villages. I bow to theirachievements and wish them the very best in their lives.

My stint in Rural India - My two cents

2011-09-02T03:04:00.000-07:00

As part of my Grassroutes fellowship road trip ( Special thanks to Deepak for informing me about it :-) ), I traveled toSangli, Maharashtra. Although it is nowhere near a Bangalore or a Mumbai, it ismoderately well developed. The district of Sangli has a taluk named"jat" (pronounced as zath) which in turn has 147 villages under it.The villages are drought hit and have hardly any water available. There areapproximately 3 lakh people living in these villages."Jailhal" is oneof the 147 villages.

WhenI first reached Jalihal, I was astonished to see the lifestyle of these people.To me, it seemed like I had travelled back in time. They had no electricity allthroughout the day, still used bore-well pumps, travelled on cobbled roads , had drains running right in front of their homes, andhad no sense of basic hygiene. Girls as young as 13-14 were married! I feltlike I was reliving history. My first thought was - “Oh my God!”. Here is a link to a short photo essay which has more information on the lives of these people.

Aftersettling in and interacting with the village folk for a few days, I felt thatfrom a point outside their frame of reference, they were in equilibrium. Theyseemed happy and contented.Their income was enough to satisfy their needs andsmall desires. “Oh my God!” was now replaced by “I am here to do what exactly?”

WhenI entered that so called ‘perfectAtlantis’,I found that there was so much inequality and unrest. More than anything else,it was the gender inequality that hit me in my face. It is as if the voice ofthe womankind is non-existent. Women were nothing more than home makers and hadno right to anything, not even education. Young widows were not allowed tore-marry. They stayed financially dependent all their lives. Young people (boysand girls) lacked even basic exposure; their goals for life were so narrow.Moreover, people seemed extremely reluctant to come out of their comfort zone.

Lookingat the many young widows (20+ year old), I was terribly disheartened. I askedthe village folk – “why do you not let them marry again?” They replied – “It isagainst our Sanskar (culture)”. I hadexpected something such as that. I shot back at them with - “define culture”.They said “something that has been followed by our elders for years”. I wasstunned. I was disappointed with the answer! I retorted -“Sanskar is something that makes the lives of people progressive andbetter and not something that makes the lives of people miserable” Theirresponse “You have come here for a month. See around and have fun!”

Theway this conversation ended is something I can never forget. For the first timein my life I felt defeated. No amount of arguments from my side seemed toconvince them because in the first place they did not want to get convinced.Ithen thought to myself - “I have so much to do here.”

Ittook a few more days to develop a good rapport with the villagers. They seemedto notice my confidence and leadership. Young girls and womenfolk would lookforward to meet and talk with me. The older women felt - “If onlyI had the opportunityto study.”

It was at this point that I knew my golden opportunity had come. AllI had to do then was make them realise what their daughters’ lives are going tobe like if they did not educate them now. Some women seemed to agree with meand have decided to educate their daughters. This alone, I believe was avictory for me. It made me happy!They understood that there is a big worldoutside which is progressing every second. They realised that they must not letthemselves be left behind.

Anotherstriking thing I noticed was the difference in our definitions of education.For instance, a city girl like me was totally alien to grazing cows, treatingscorpion bites, handling snakes and the like. I never knew that the milk fromthe leaf of a plant can get the poison from a scorpion sting out. It was basicchemistry – concentration difference! Every kid in the village knows this.There was also a difference in how we evaluated people - a person who manageshis farm, earns money, looks after his entire family (which includes manyelders because the lifespan around these villages is more than 100) and teacheshis children to be as responsible as he is, is well respected and consideredcultured. I come from a background where a person’s status is determined by thenumber of significant digits in his/her salary.

Whatthey fail to notice is that, through education one can learn how to manage allthe above in a better way. For instance, keeping lakhs of money at his home isuseless. Education makes him understand that investing in a business or keepingthe money in a bank is profitable and ideal. Instead of two bulls he can use atractor to make his life easier. He can implement sub soil irrigation insteadof cribbing about less water and bad crop. It is their inertia or reluctance Imust say that makes them shy away from education. This is what I consider‘ignorance’. Being contented is good, but being complacent is not.

Education,of the sort that we city students undergo, is not necessarily the means to ahigh-paying corporate job only. After all, the purpose of formal education isto initiate a student into becoming a seeker of knowledge. It is so that thestudents are taught how to think.

Myexperience has also made me realise their lack of knowledge about microfinance.They do not seem to understand investments and profit/loss. The solution againis good foundation – Education.

Ifeel that there is a lot that needs to be done in rural India. Changing the waythey see life is something that is really hard. It is a deep rooted problemwhich will need patient work. The saying “Rome was not built in a day” is apthere. The people here need to be taught to claim what is theirs from thegovernment. They need to understand that they deserve more. We should kindle theirdesire for “more and better.”

I intend to share more of my experiences on my blog soon...

Vid- Veda- Knowledge

2011-04-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

Recently, I decided to revive my interest in Sanskrit. I went to Aksharam in Girinagar, Bangalore and enrolled myself for a 4-stage correspondence course. I am so glad today that I made this decision. This experience not only taught me Sanskrit, it was a total eye-opener too!! I realized how much our ancestors knew, and how ignorant we are about our own culture, in comparison. I want to share with you, a little of whatever I learnt during the first stage.

To begin, a simple example -

In Sanskrit a tree is called पादपः (padhapaha) , meaning a tree is that which takes water from its legs (roots).

" वक्त्रॆणॊत्पलनालॆन यथोध्वँ जलमाददॆत् । तथा पवनसंयुक्तः पादैः पिबति पादपः । "

Keywords - urdhvam - up, jalamaadadeth - takes water up, pavanasamyukthaihi - with, the help of air, padaihi - with legs, pibhathi - drinks

This theory of plants using suction force was later " rediscovered" by two scientists, Jolly and Dixon in 1894.

Parashara's work 'vrishayurveda' which is not so well known, has abundant information in Botany. He has even given a detailed description of the plant cell without a microscope. ( later credited to Robert Hook in the 16th century)

My respect for Vedic Mathematics has tripled. Most of us know that the Pythagoras theorem was formulated by Boudhayana, thousand years earlier.The verse which Boudhayana has written

दीघॅचतुऱस्त्रस्या रज्जुः पाश्र्वॅमानी तियॅग्मानी च

यत् पृथग्भूतॆ कुरूतस्तदुभयं करोति ।।

Keywords - Dheerga - longest , Rajju - straight line, Parshva - side , Tiryak - slant, Pritak - each differently, Ubhayam - both.

Aryabhatta calculated the value of Pi as 3.1416. ( Unable to recollect the verse where he cites the value, will update when I remember) and was the first to use sine and cosine which he referred to as 'jya' and 'kotijya' respectively. His astronomical calculations using his 'Jya kostaka' (his work in trignometry) are accurate.

Shatavadhani R Ganesh in one of his lectures mentioned that the 'NarayanaSukta' found in Srinarayanopanishad actually talks of the circulatory system in our body. I was stunned because as a child I had learnt narayanasukta and would chant it everyday along with medhasukta. I was told that it was in praise of the Lord. He pointed out -

पद्मकोशप्रतीकाशं हृदयंचाप्यधोमुखम्

अधो निष्ट्यावितस्त्यान्तॆ नाभ्यामुपरितिष्ठति ।।

Keywords - Padmakosha - in the form of a lotus , hrudayam - the heart, Adhomukham - towards the left, Nabhyam- abdomen, upari - above ( meaning above the abdomen region) , thishtathi - stands.

We credit William Harvey of 16th century for discovering the circulatory system!

These are just a few examples. There is so much more to learn and unearth. The Vedas hold so much information! It is sad that we just don't know where to look because we lack the patience/interest to learn Sanskrit. Thank you Aksharam - Samskrita Bharati for opening my eyes. I wish to blog in Sanskrit from now on, atleast once in a while. I hope I will be able to do it! :-)

P.S - My first time blogging in Sanskrit. Forgive me if there are errors. :-)

The WOW! moment

2011-01-19T03:21:00.000-08:00

It was my first weekend in the US.I got up pretty early. It was drizzling outside.I was totally excited about everything- new place,new people,new car ;-) . I decided to go out and explore on my own.I checked on the internet and finally decided I would head to half moon bay state beach.It was a wonderful half an hour drive- uphill,downhill, mist and beautiful fall colors.

I reached the beach. Well, at first it was just like any other beach I had visited.There were an elderly couple seated at a bench close by and few cycling enthusiasts, cycling and chatting happily.Their laughs and merry talk made me smile.It was a long, curved shoreline. I decided to walk.The rain drops falling on my face and the waves splashing made it wonderful.I sat down and watched the waves with my favourite song khwaja mere khwaja being played on my phone.It was such a wonderful moment.. I don't remember for how long I sat there. The elderly couple walked by and asked me if I wanted a picture and the one below is what the grandpa took.

Grandma : You liked it here?
me: yes, very much
Grandma: what is it that you liked?
me: nothing in particular.. just everything
grandma: we come here every week and I like to dump all my thoughts and worries in the sea and get back happy!
me: that's a wonderful imagination.
Grandma : you try it out too.. Just dump your thoughts.
me: sure.. thanks..

I didn't really try what she said because I was distracted by something. It was something I had always wanted to see.Having been born and brought up in Bangalore, I had only read beautiful descriptions of it but never seen it. I was literally jumping because I was so excited.Few others nearby found my reaction amusing.It was coming around slowly...
The most beautiful thing I have ever seen - A Full RAINBOW!!!
It took a few minutes for the full rainbow to turn up. I ran as fast as I could to get the entire thing in my camera frame. It was beautiful. After capturing the picture above, I stayed there till it faded away. WOW!!
I kept telling myself "Its beautiful.. this world!!" and I remembered what my friend Nanda once told me .. "If this world really is God's dream, then let him dream on and on..." :-) I felt the same.. :-)

Counting 1 to 10 and more

2010-10-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

I just happened to think about this one day while travelling by bus. So I just thought of blogging. I am sure there are many things that I might have missed.Just wrote down the first few things that came to my mind. :-)

ONE

Parabrahma - the supreme lord

TWO

Shiva and Shakti - two sources of energy in the cosmos, essentially the same.

THREE

Satva, Tamas, Rajas - the three gunas

Brahma (creator) , Vishnu (sustainer) , Shiva ( constructive destroyer) - the trimurthi's

Advaita (Shankaracharya) ,Dwaita (Madhvacharya) and Vishishta Advaita (Ramanujacharya) - the three philosophy's

FOUR

Rig, Yajur, Sama, Atharvana - the chatur vedas

FIVE

Annamaya (food sheath) , Pranamaya ( energy sheath), manomaya ( mental or emotional sheath) , Vignanamaya ( intellectual sheath) , Anandamaya (bliss sheath) - Pancha Koshas according to Patanjali

Prithvi (earth) , Apas (water) Agni/Tejas (fire) , Vayu (Air) , Aakasha (Ether) - Panchabhootas

Also not to forget the five karmendriyas and five jnanendriyas

SIX

Mada(Ego) Matsara(jealouy) Kama(lust) Krodha(anger) Moha(attachement) Lobha(greed) - Arishadvarga (stay away from them!)

SEVEN

Sapta rishis - Vasistha,, Bharadvaja, Jamadagni, Goutama, Atri ,Vishwamitra and Agasthya
Some people say the seven rishis are - Vasistha, Marichi, Pulastya, Pulaha, Atri, Angeerasa and Kratu
The Saptha Rishi’s are the seven major stars of Ursa Major.

Sapta Swaras - Shadja (Sa), Rishabha (Ri) , Gandhara (Ga), Madhyama ( Ma), Panchama ( Pa), Dhaivatha( Dha) , Nishadha ( Ni)

EIGHT

Ashta siddhis - Siddhi means acheivement/accomplishment/success depending on context.
Anima (conscious awareness to size of an atom; anu means atom),
Mahima (increasing awarenes of consciousness to infinity)
Garima ( heaviness)
Laghima (weightlessness ; laghu meaning light)
Prapti (following and achieveing one's true will)
Prakamya ( fulfilling desires )
Ishatva ( absoulte ownership)
Vashitva ( power to control all)

Patanjali's Ashtanga yoga -
Yama
Niyama
Asana
Pranayama
Dharana

Dhyana
Pratyahara
Samadhi

NINE -

Navarasas - the nine emotions

Sringara (amour) , hasya ( comic) , karuna (compassion) , raudra ( furious) , vira ( heroic ) , bhaya (fear) , bhibatsa ( disgust), adbutha (wonder) , santa (tranquility)

Also, the Navavaranas of srividya upasana ( too complex to explain here) Muthuswamy dikshitar's navavarana kritis explain each avarana in detail and singing them is equivalent of srividya puja.

TEN

Dashavatara's - the ten incarnations of lord Vishnu for the welfare of the world.

- Matsya , Koorma , Varaha , Narasimha , Vamana , Rama , Parashurama, Krishna ,Buddha, Kalki.

I guess there will be something associated with each number :-) The rest I will leave it to you for research if you are interested.

Also, there is one hindu festival for every day(thithi) of a fortnight. A month in a hindu calender consists of two fortnights (paksha)

one with full moon ( shukla paksha) - 15th day is poornima

one with new moon (krishna paksha) - 15th day is amavasya

Padya - Balipadyami / Ugadi

Bidhige - Bhanu bidige

Thadhige - Akshaya Tadhige

Chaturthi - Ganesh Chaturthi

Panchami - Nagarpanchami

Shasti - Subrahmanya Shasti

Sapthami - RathaSapthami

Ashtami - Durgashtami / Krishna Janmashtami

Navami - Ramanavami / Mahanavami

Dashami -Vijayadashami

Ekadashi - Vaikunta Ekadashi

Dwadashi - Uttana Dwadashi

Trayodashi - Maha Shivaratri (sometimes falls on chaturdashi)

Chaturdashi -Narakachaturdashi

Poornima - Guru Poornima / Holi

Amavasya - Mahalaya Amavasya / Bheemanaamavasya

Not sure of the significance of this order. If anybody knows please let me know :-)

There are other festivals which have to celebrated on specific days of the lunar calender.All hindu festivals follow lunar calender except Sankranti which follows solar calender.

I want to be a ...

2010-09-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

Recently I happened to be a part of a discussion, where in they were discussing about giving awards and recognition to people who have done something good/better than the others, so that it would motivate them and everybody around them.I personally disagree to that. I felt it would only result in group-ism and complexes.This is of course a totally different debate! My thought process as usual went right to the roots and I started wondering..

What motivates a person to do something??
After a lot of thinking and analysis (bounded by my own perceptions and knowledge) I came to the conclusion that there are only 3 types of motivation -

1) Passion driven.
2) Necessity driven - generally financial necessity
3) Ego booster - People who want to prove to the others that they are better ( remember chatur of 3 idiots? :P ) , for the sake of social acceptance and the like..

Whatever other factors came to my mind, all of them fell into one of these three categories.
Then I wondered why I feel motivated to do something, then I change my mind, then I shift to something else and that continues.. I have such a short lived motivation for the many things that I do. I see around me people of my age or less who are so definite about what they want to do/become in life, whereas here I am, feeling just the way I felt at school when somebody asked me -"What do you want to be when you are older?" and a hundred different things came to my mind and I fancied being something different each day! I feel exactly the same way even today.

After a little more thinking and analysis, I concluded that probably I haven't found 'The Thing' I want to do in my life. Also, that its best to continue experimenting and exploring so that in every experiment I learn something more about myself. Hopefully, one day I ll just know what I want to become! :-)

The Power of Free Will

2010-07-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

I am part of Toastmasters International. I joined this club through office. Its an orators club that helps improve communication, management and leadership skills. As part of my Competent Communication Certification, I am expected to deliver 10 speeches, each with a different set of objectives. Today I had to deliver my 3rd speech with "inspiring and persuasive" as the general purpose and "Power of Free Will" as the specific purpose. I just thought I should share my speech. It is a 7 minutes speech, so a little lengthy ;-)

"Paul the Octopus had the whole world in his tentacles for over a month. Right now I am sure there are people who cannot name 10 international footballers but know all about Paul.

Paul's seemingly psychic abilities got me thinking - Are our destinies predetermined? Is the universe heading to a foregone conclusion. Are we really wasting our time thinking qualities like hard work, honesty and sincerity will help?

Fellow Toastmasters and guests, I am here today to share with you why I think the answers to all of the these questions is an unequivocal "no", and share with you whatever little knowledge I have about the power of free will.

Let me tell you a story. Jessica was born without arms as a result of a rare congenital disease. She did not understand why she had no arms like the other children. “It

was difficult to be different...” - she says. She frequently felt opposed, downtrodden and on the verge of tears resulting from anger due to her lack of arms. For Jessica, the main challenge of being born without arms was the constant perception of others more than the physical adversity. Please note i used the word "perception". She decided she would be everything that the world presumes she cannot be! Today she is a holder of a degree in Psychology from the University of Arizona, she always attracts attention when she fills her car with gas. She is able to write 25 words per minute, dry her hair, put on her make-up, and wear her contact lenses at the same ease as anyone. Not with artificial hands, but with her legs! Jessica is 26 years old and 1.55 meters tall, is the first lady in history to pilot a plane without arms. She said in one of her interviews - “Most of the times fear starts from the lack of knowledge of the unknown. There is a universal fear, that of lack of confidence in yourself." Surely Jessica could not have been

destined to live normally in our society, let alone pilot a plane and have the lives of many people in her hands (or should I say legs)! This, my friends, is an example of the power of free will.

So what is free will? Friedrich Wilhelm defines will as "any internally motivated action", but more of a "creative spark," a certain independence and stubbornness. It helps us believe "you want it! you get it". It requires focusing all your thoughts and thought motivated actions into achieving something. The vedas say "yad bhavam tad bhavati" meaning whatever you think so wil it be.

How can it be so easy, you might wonder. The answer lies in the fact that we are all connected. Every thought of yours radiates a certain energy. Your actions are bound to be directed by that sphere of energy around you. So, if you think positively you have created a sphere of positive energy around you, negative otherwise. Sigmund Freud did a lot of research and analysis on the same lines ie., power of free will or the power of subconscious. Psychologists today more than willingly accept his philosophy of power of free will.

Einstein famously remarked "...subtle is the lord, but he does not play dice with the universe..." Looking past concepts like determinism and Einstein's views on randomness in the universe, we can see the basic idea that man can determine his destiny. It is a belief that you reap as you sow. It is a belief that good will prevail over evil.

While reading the book on free will, I came across this wonderful concept. The book said life is a simple mathematical equation. Its just like the movement of a boat against the stream. If your force is greater than that of the stream the next movement is in your hands, else otherwise. Your force here is symbolic to ur free will, and the speed of the stream is symbolic to what we blame on circumstances that life places us in and the restrictions, constraints that life inflicts upon us .

Though free will has been debated a lot in the recent past and even stuff like Heisenberg's principle has been applied to certain way of theorizing it, my take on it is that we, as humans, have a power - the power to judge ourselves, the power to analyze our actions and do what we think is good for us, good for humanity, good for everyone. To exercise such free will, one needs discipline, the discipline to resist the evil forces that try to tempt us into the comfort zone, even against our conscience.

I would like to conclude by quoting Gandhi - " Strength does not come from physical capacity it comes from indomitable will". Shimon Peres, a noble laureate referred to Gandhi in one of his interviews - A man without an army, without a head quarter, without a state, without a party, a single person equipped with a moral strength, he wasn't afraid of violence, he wasn't afraid of public opinion, there is no other person in recent history that possessed such a will, and all of a sudden he shocked the world!"

"If you want x+y to be 100, irrespective of how negative the value of y is, there is always an x which can make the sum 100. Exercise your free will!!!! "Go be what you want and stun the world!

Thank You!"

P.S - Input here and there from Abhi and Jagat. Thank you guys! :-)

NANDA DEVI - The Goddess of the mountains

2010-06-17T01:49:00.000-07:00

While I was trekking back from Roopkund in the Nandadevi Ranges, we passed by a hamlet "Wan". The kids of the hamlet were wishing us "Namaste" with folded hands. (Hoping for toffees!!) We stopped by and asked a small girl her name. She replied "Nanda Devi" . ( In the pic - Nanda devi with her brother Golu) I know not why, but I got inspired at that instant to learn more about the history, local legends around Nanda Devi and the beliefs of the people of the nearby hamlets.

The locals believe that Nanda Devi is the driving spiritual force and guardian. They adore her and call her just "Nanda" affectionately. They believe that she is a daughter of the villages married to Lord Shiva , The Lord of the Kailash mountains. 'Nanda' in Sanskrit means happiness/full of joy and 'Devi' means goddess. So she is their "Goddess of Happiness". They have no shrine dedicated to her. I could see only temples of Shiva around. They live amidst her. I heard that they have folklore ie., songs and dances in praise of her.

Life in these regions is tough! Ask me and I shall tell you my state at the end of the trek! :D But the people there seem to have so much of enthusiasm! They draw inspiration from her. She has inspired millions over centuries. Her breathtaking beauty cannot be described in just words. The tall trees surrounding the hamlets stand like guardians, so strong. I stood there mesmerized!

I feel blessed to have gone to the Nanda Devi biosphere for the second time. First time I had the opportunity to explore valley of flowers in her lap. This time I was there standing right in front of her!! I was awestruck!!

She has seen civilizations come up and diminish, but she still remains virgin and unexplored. The Himalayas have a divine silence, they seem to know everything and yet remain unaffected.I love the Himalayas! :-)

What up everyone?!

2010-05-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

Its been quite some time since I blogged. Sometimes at office I have so much free time while tests are running or when am held up waiting for someone else to finish (grrrr!). So I decided to learn, to do something useful and something that makes me happy!

I got my Vedic Mathematics book to office and started learning, trying out the examples, and solving the exercise problems. I felt great :-). It had been a long time since I did any maths. To anyone who is bored generally, I would suggest you buy "Vedic Mathematics" by Jagadguru Swami Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji Maharaj (He was the one who discovered vedic mathematics) and start reading! :-)

Other than that, I rediscovered my interest in Sanskrit too. Once upon a time, I was so good at Sanskrit that I could converse in it! It was when Abhi, having decided to do some research on using unsupervised learning techniques for word segmentation to split Sandhis in Sanskrit, asked me a few questions that I realised how out of touch I was. In an effort to refresh my Sanskrit, I searched the web and found this website. It is brilliant.!!Do check it out :) (Open in Internet Explorer)

The History and Organisation of the Vedas

2010-02-26T02:17:00.000-08:00

Many people have been asking me "What is this Vedanta?", "Is this a sequel to the Vedas?" etc. I shall share with you whatever little I know about the organization of the Vedas.

The Human Intellect has evolved from the age of 'mere existence' to the age of 'observation' then to the age of 'scientific inquiry' , 'contemplation' and 'introspection'. Our ancestors researched and explored, to seek the truth that governed the laws of Nature. In all civilizations, be it the Egyptian, The Greek, The Persian, there have been men/women who have experimented in order to understand the phenomenal forces of Nature. All of us have read about Ptolemy, Archimedes etc haven't we?

Similarly, in ancient India, sages/intellectuals contemplated, experimented on the mysteries of nature.They taught their findings to their disciples. This would pass on from master to disciple over centuries.But, as cultural values deteriorate, civilizations come to an end. We have seen that wrt all, Egyptian, Aztec, Indus valley,etc.

Then Bhagawan Vyasa compiled the findings and teaching of various masters into 4 different Vedas namely Rig, Yajur, Atharvana and Sama.Hence he is called 'Veda Vyasa'.Each of these four vedas have 3 sections namely

1) Brahmana- specifies Rituals and instructions for how they should be conduted meant for self purification.

2) Mantra- These are hyms in praise of nature and in admiration of the organization and orderliness of the Cosmos.

3) Upanishad (Aranyaka) - This section contains philosophical wisdom which is collectively called 'Vedanta' (since it constitues the last part of each veda).

Apart from teh 4 main Vedas, there are 4 upavedas namely,

1) Dhanurveda- archery and military sciences, war strategies

2) Ayurveda- Anatomy, Physiology, Medical Sciences majorly contributed by Charaka and Shusrutha

3) Gandharvaveda- Music and other fine arts

4) Sthapatyaveda- Engineering, architecture and all branches of Mathematics including Astronomy, Astrology, Alchemy etc. contributed by Aryabhata, Kana, Baudhayana etc. Vedic Mathematics was discovered by Swami Bharathi Krishna theertha when he was studyin a section of Sthapathya.

Time and again, civilizations deteriorate as I mentioned earlier, and again the vedas were revived by Shankaracharya, later by Budhdha.

Apart from all of the above, depending on the country,there are 3 other types of literatures namely Itihasa, Puranas, Smriiti which contain ethics, folklore, social sciences etc.

A good friend of mine tells me that there are only 4000 native Sanskrit speakers in the world today. If we dont make an effort to learn Sanskrit and explore the knowledge of the Vedas, the knowledge of the vedas will just die out.

In my lifetime, I hope I shall be able to read atleast Max Mueller's works :)

My Super Hero!! :) my Super-Man!

2010-02-05T09:48:00.000-08:00

According to Vedanta, the three fundamentals of life are "Brahmacharya" (Self Control), "Ahimsa"(Non Injury) and "Satya"(truth). These values and conduct of living are essentially the same in all religions.The three disciplines refer to the layers of our personality physical,emotional and intellectual respectively.
The meaning of Brahmacharya has been distorted over centuries and finally come down to abstinence from sexual life which is totally wrong.It just means restraining oneself from excessive indulgence.
Secondly, Ahimsa which is not just non violence or "not pain causing". A doctor causes physical pain while operating but his intentions are pure. So it is just non injury on an emotional level.
Thirdly, Satya is for living up to one's own ideals and convictions. All of us would have set some ideals but most of us do not follow it, Satya is being honest to one's own self and not compromise on them.
A person who follows all the three will have a great power in him That kind of power gives him confidence to achieve anything!!
The only person who comes to my mind when I think of all this is Mahatma Gandhi. I remember reading his autobiography when I was in school. I have forgotten most of it now but one thing I do remember is this, he said- "The real seat of taste is not the tongue but the mind".
I have tried emulating him ,failed miserably though. I always wonder what kind of tremendous power he felt within him which gave him so much confidence to lead an entire nation. In spite of living in the same world we live in he had the will power to live up to the ideals specified in the Vedanta. Gandhiji, you are my super hero! :)

The quadraple in us!

2010-01-30T22:19:00.000-08:00

I want to share with you the most logical explanation for why we experience a feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, or feel stressed when certain events occur in our lives.

According to Vedanta, each one of us are a composite structure of four different personalities namely-
1) Physical
2) Emotional
3) Intellectual
4) Spiritual

Whenever an event happens all these four personalities experience this event. They are so subtle that we as the experiencer fail to recognize it and conclude it as one entity. Each of these four have their own independent values and demands.

For example, consider the situation when you are with a group of friends who are drinking beer and you are the only one in the group who does not. You have been in this situation many times before but this time you are tempted towards trying it. Here your physical self is craving for it, your emotional self is excited about it, your intellectual self says "do not drink, it is addictive, harmful for health" and your spiritual self forbids you and urges you to develop self control and avoid unintelligent indulgence in sensuous enjoyment.

Finally, if you drink, you experience a certain amount of happiness because of the union of the first two layers and a certain amount of dissatisfaction for the other two layers.
So, you are not experiencing total happiness and go through a resultant stress.
Consequently, friction is generated in the personality and hence an individual goes through stress and strain of life!!

Vedanta also has the solution to integrate all the four entities into one whole thereby experiencing harmony and happiness.The greater the integration, the greater is his freedom. Intelligent self restraint,self control and discipline are prescribed by our scriptures. These are the fundamentals on which religion and religious practices are based on. Modern man (read we) detest them because he feels that they put bars on his natural freedom and therefore repels the idea of any religious or spiritual practice without understanding the basic scientific principle on which it is based on!!

A lot can happen over a cup of coffee

2010-01-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

It all started when a close friend of mine and me were discussing work at oracle. From work we jumped to the weather, then to a lot of other mundane stuff and finally went to "LIFE!!". Life and questions related to life such as - Why Life?! What will "nothingness" feel like? Does all this life we live seem like a child's play from a totally different frame of reference?... These questions always keep running in my mind as a "background process" (I am no geek! :P). He told me he has the same background process running on his system too!

I started telling him that according to our scriptures this life is supposed to be an illusion, it is supposed to be God's dream! He stopped me and said "If there is a God". He is an agnostic. Then this usual debate of science and spirituality came up! I started telling him about how sages could harness radio waves and communicate! He said "Bah!!!" and laughed!! I didn't give up. I went on and on... and then I told him this example which Swami Harshanandji of Ramakrishna Matt had given when I asked him this question of "Why life at all?"

Swamiji had told me - "Suppose a lion attacked you in your dream, you wil not wonder why or from where the lion came, all you think of is escaping from it! Once you get up you wil still not worry about why or from whre this lion came from because you know it was a dream! Similarly, in this frame of reference you wil not understand "Why life?!". Once you put in effort to get out of this frame of reference that question of yours will be answered! To get out of this frame of reference is not easy! This world is very tempting! Great sages have renounced this wordly life and have understood this truth. So staying detached and away from emotions is the easiest way to get to that point outside this frame of reference!"

I am not sure if he was impressed with this at all. Then he said- "Ok, This is my theory of Life. The bottom line is that Nature does everything possible to save a species from extinction.That explains why we eat, sleep , reproduce etc infact every action of ours!" I was so skeptical about it. So I asked him "How do you explain the fact as to 'Why we are talking so much to each other, Why do we put in so much effort to understand each other?' with this theory??" He dint have an answer.

He was as determined as I was in proving his point. He came back to me a few days later and said " I have an answer to your question. We do that because we have evolved so. Nature tries to create a nest around every living being. Build strong bonds so as to make it very difficult for a person to die. But I have realised that emotions are the culprits that get you entangled in this web of life. The best way to live life is to stay detached."

Honestly, I was very impressed with his answer. Never had I thought on this lines so deeply. I told him "See here comes the 'detachment' I was telling you about. The solution remains the same." Then I asked him to read this article by Swami Chinmaynanda. He said " This particular concept in the article - ...The vedantic concept of renunciation has nothing to with have or havenot, in a physical sense; it means the attitude of non-attachment... is awesome.

I smiled. He smiled back...