பட்டினத்தார் பாடல்

கவர்பிளந்த மரத்துளையில் கால் நுழைத்துக் கொண்டே,

ஆப்பதனை அசைத்து விட்ட குரங்கதனைப் போல,

அகப்பட்டீர் கிடந்துழல அகப்பட்டீரே!

Like the monkey which got its leg in the place of

the cork that held two parts of a split tree branche in place

you've gotten yourself trapped, oh my boy, you've gotten yourself trapped!

Nothing in the last two thousand years!

As part of the selection process in my first job, I had to participate in a group discussion whose topic of discussion was 'why was the light bulb not invented in India'? I don't quite remember what transpired in the discussion, but I do remember one of the lines I said - 'What useful thing was invented in India in the last two thousand years for us to worry about the light bulb?' The answer, then, mostly came out of the 15+ years of western schooling. Despite the intense schooling I went through, I remember still feeling a tinge of sadness as I uttered those words then.

Why work on inventing toys?

After lots of study and personal realizations, I can now state confidently what many of the best minds in India have been doing traditionally - they became monks. This is not the monkhood of self deprivation and self torture, but the monkhood born out of recognition of the need of freedom and peace and the absolute pointlessness of the egoic ways of living. The best minds out here saw clearly the stupidity of spending your time inventing new objects when the need of the hour is evolution in consciousness. Of what use it is to invent toys when our minds are clearly insane? Of what use it is to have bigger buildings and wider roads when our ability to empathize, ability to love and ability to build a peaceful society are taking a nosedive (are in fact almost non existent)? They saw clearly that the root cause of all human suffering is that almost all human individuals function out of a false identity about themselves - that they are their ego and that the psychological demands of it dictate the course of their life (personal accomplishments / ambitions, endless obsession about praise / criticism, fear of death etc..). The best minds here then went about trying to do what best can be done to change this - to evolve. When compared with the courage and audaciousness of such an attempt, what a trifle all the material inventions turn out to be? Not to disregard them, but, honestly, there is no comparison even.

The best minds became monks!

Cut to the modern day world, and the best minds in India go to IIT / IIM and go around making / selling products that promise happiness to people in various ways. Absolutely ludicrous! Its even more ludicrous that they dont even realize that they are doing all of this to enhance their own image in the eyes of others and themselves (in terms of ambition, long term plan, future security etc). The stupidity of such a life is the first lesson people were taught in the anicent days, the first lesson in Brahma Vidya, that happiness does not come from outside. This is the sad state today - wastage of human capital. Not everyone may be doing this but, at best, those who are not involved in making big money, may be studying, say, biological evolution in a university lab. The best minds are needed to assist the evolution of human race primarily - the evolution from the point where most individuals live a ego centric life to the point where most individuals possess an identity that encompasses all of creation. All else is secondary. That of course is the reason why nothing material got invented out here in the last two thousand years. People were busy trying to cut through the forces that prevent them and others from evolving. This is not to claim that they were successful, but to point what they were occupied with. When Buddha attained enlightenment, the kingdom was still available for him to take up. But, he did not become a king. He did not feel he could contribute towards the eradication of suffering as a king. Instead, it was obvious to him that the work needed was on evolution of consciousness and not on roads and dams. People misunderstand this wrongly that because he had renounced the world, he could not become a king again!

They worked to assist the evolution of the human race.

Can we see this? Can we see the absolute primacy of awakening? Of course not to take pride in claiming that my nation is great. That is too silly. When one awakens, where is the question of 'my nation', as there is no 'me' in the first place? There are no boundaries. When the sun is shining brightly, why worry about light bulbs? Can we see this?

Effortless life

Rain descends in glory,

The dance of life flourishes,

In effortlessness and joy!

Courage vs Absence of Fear

Courage and absence of fear at first glance seem to be the same thing. But are they really?

Courage is the feeling - 'I can do it'. Its like, I am strong enough to deal with the situation. I am confident of coming out successful. I can deal with the challenges. All these and many more are attributes generally associated with courage. The commonality in all of these is the 'I', more than anything else. The commonality is the illusion of the separate person, the ego, who can deal with things.

Tiananmen tank man - courage or absence of fear?

On the other hand, absence of fear comes from a deep understanding that the infinitely complex causal web is responsible for things. Though we execute our dharma, all our actions comes out of the understanding that the result is not totally under our control. Hence, there is acceptance that the result may not necessarily happen in a way that we might want it to, but still, best possible action is taken at all times. It needs complete absence of fear to be able to live that way!

Not for nothing, the great tamil poet Bharathiyar sang,

அச்சமென்ப தில்லையே அச்சமென்ப தில்லையே

No fear, No fear, let us not fear at all.

He did NOT sing,

துணிவுண்டு துணிவுண்டு துணிவென்பதுண்டே!

Have courage, have courage, I do have courage!

I think there is a deep meaning to it. While courage might be a good weapon to have to deal with sticky situations on a very short term basis, it is no long term solution. Actions motivated by illusion of separation can ultimately not heal as the suffering itself was originally caused by the illusion of separation.

In Yoga terms, courage comes about due to asmitā, or false identity. On the other hand, absence of fear, which springs forth from the destruction of the me, comes about after complete surrender of the individual to the state of pure consciousness within - the state of īśvara pranidhānā! The two are indeed poles apart!

Credit

Do not credit partha for what Parthasarathy does!

வையகம்

மோனத்திருக்குதடி இந்த வையகம் மூழ்கித் துயிலினிலே!

Undivided mind

Undivided mind - A beautiful article on the basics of spirituality

Some excerpts:

Externally we see the earth’s environment eroding before our eyes, the population soaring, and our natural resources diminishing. We see unparalleled greed and anger forming greater divisions within an evershrinking planet. At a time when the world pleads for kindness and compassion, we see cultures continuing their ancient bickering while forgetting their shared heritage.

Internally our problems continue as well. We hurt, and we do not understand why. Fear, desire, and grief fill our life. Our psychological sophistication should solve our problems, but therapies and self-improvement methods do not seem to diminish our isolation and separation. We would like to feel compassion for all beings, but our own problems are so demanding that we have little time to include others in our heart. We try to compensate for these shortcomings with more socially engaged activities, but we find that our motivation is often based in righteousness, which further divides the world.

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“You are like a man holding a flashlight, trying to run beyond its beam. The view you are holding…is undermining your intent.”

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Suddenly the Buddha is found in the middle of relationships, work, and family, within all activities, reactions, thoughts, and emotional responses. Nothing is outside Now, because no boundary is drawn to separate Now from then. The message of the Buddha is equally relevant in all locations and at all times. Until this is fully realized and until there is no movement to escape this environment for a better spiritual setting, we will continue to suffer.

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Spiritual forms and rituals can be very helpful in focusing our intention and providing a doorway to the sacredness of all life. They can awaken a sensitivity of heart and allow our mind to become quiet. Forms and rituals become a problem when they stop representing a gateway into oneself and become an exclusive presentation of the sacred, such as the belief that the only way to commune with God is by going to church or taking a walk in nature, or that the only way to meditate is to be alone in quiet surroundings. When we think of rituals and forms as the only way to access the sacred, the rest of our life is placed on spiritual hold.

Sachin vs Ponting

A constant time pass conversation in cricketing circles - who is better, 'Sachin or Ponting'? Who is the more complete cricketer? Reasonable arguments are put forth on either side of the debate. Some people pitch in and say that the comparison has to be normalized, meaning we should adjust for the fact that we are not comparing homogenous entities. The usual ones are about the pressure of billion people that Sachin had and that Ponting never got to face the mightiest bowling attack (the austrialin bowling attack) of the era in intenational matches etc. The arguments for normalization are quite valid and certainly have to be looked into. But, the question that arises is that were does one draw the line of normalization when comparing. May be one person got so much better training and exposure from younger days. May be one person did not have to deal with pathetic sports administrators. Its important to investigate this to arrive at the truth.

Typically, motives for comparing two people are appreciation of the better person for it is assumed that they are totally responsible for how good they are in whatever they do and that they are role models for others to emulate. The same goes for critisizing the worser person. But how much are they actually responsible for their states?

Some peoples bodies are born with certain abilities. Same goes to our minds. Now, how does one normalize for that? This may sound absurd, for typically physical and mental possibilites are taken as given and then the individuals effort in maximizing it is what people want to compare. But, its not so absurd because ultimately, the physical and mental possibilites one is born with sets limits. Similarly, it might be purely accidental (like a interested cousin) that one got interested in cricket at an earlier age than the other and hence had a better head start. Someones family conditions may have been suitable for the development of a cricketer at the right age. The list is endless. If we try to list down all the reasons that are responsible, in whatever degree, to why something happened then what we get is the causal web for that event.

The point I am coming to is that this causal web is infinitely complex. People almost always forget it and happily indulge in praise for accomplishing something or get lost in the depths of despair when something does not work out. While there may be no immediately perceptible reason for why the causal web is the way it is, the fact is that it is. It makes complete sense to see this and truly realize the infinite nature of the complex web for otherwise we will only be holding on to partial truths. The fact that you met your would be spouse sometime ago and convinced him / her to marry you would not have been possible without an asteroid killing the dinosaurs at precisely the moment it did (ten minutes later might mean that the mammal from which you or your spouse descended might have been eaten by a dinosaur before it got a chance to reproduce). At first glance this may seem absurd, but I would request you to reflect upon this deeply and patiently. No doubt the individual also contributed to the marriage but the amount of that is so miniscule when compared to how the cosmos set it up is incredibly small. Similar is the case of a divorce or a bad marriage. So, though the causal web is co-created by us with the cosmos, we seldom step back to understand the contribution of all of cosmos.

When one reflects upon this deeply and can see how every event in his/her life has been set up by the infinitely complex causal web constructed by the cosmos, or in hindu terminology - by the leela of god, it immediately dawns on us that the sense of doership is false and hence there is no attachment to praise or abuse. It goes even deeper - there is no binding happiness or agony over how things turn out. At all times, we may play along with the game, as per dharma, and rest in deep peace in the knowledge that the infinite causal web is responsible for how things turn out and not oneself. When we see this truly, we understand that the person who is causing / caused us to suffer was also set up that way by the causal web and immediately the anger vanishes and compassion towards that person springs forth.

This perhaps is the central message of the Gita as expounded by, arguably, its most famous phrase

Karmanyeva adhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana

Concern yourself with right action and not about its consequences.

So, coming back to the Sachin vs Ponting debate, what we typically refer to as Sachin or Ponting are merely processes that have been set up by this infinitely complex causal web. The individuals at the point have certainly contributed to the processes. But their contribution is limited when compared against the contribution of the causal web to these processes. So comparing the two is like comparing the height of two waves in the sea. The contribution of the wave is limited when you contrast it with the contribution of the ocean / sun / moon / all of cosmos!

Why compare wave heights. Look at the ocean.

When the individual can step back from the process without identifying with it and can witness it happening, that is when true awakening happens. May this dawn upon the process that wrote this and the process that is reading this!

Hidden stuff

Hidden inside all of our actions is expectation,

Hidden inside expectation is ego,

Hidden inside ego is suffering!

Undeveloped Mind

‎"Just as rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, so passion penetrates an undeveloped mind." - Buddha

via: Without bounds

விழித்துக்கொண்ட கொக்கு

விழித்துக் கொண்டோர் அறிவிலர் என்றெண்ணி பஜ்ஜி வாங்கவும் வேண்டா - மடைத் தலையில் ஓடுமீன் ஓட அஹிம்சையை எண்ணி பசித்திருக்குமாம் விழித்துக்கொண்ட கொக்கு!

Important questions in spirituality

It is popularly recognized that the question 'Who Am I?' is one of the most important questions in spirituality. I agree. I also believe that the the question 'What is the grand unifying theory of human suffering?' is equally important.

The "Intelligence" way to awakening

Intelligence, the analytical intelligence, that helps people get noble prizes or set up multi billion dollar corporations is obviously a very powerful tool. Sadly, people almost always use it for their own narrow selves. Thats why, though extremely intelligent, when faced with issues in personal relationships (at office or home), they are unable to understand the basics of suffering in a relationship and when hit, just cant seem to heal the problem.

Usually, its only intense suffering that leads to awakening. When ones life collapses in front of ones own eyes, one starts to question what had one been doing all along and sees the stupidity of assuming the events that happen in ones life to be ones life itself. Then, the change of perception starts to happen - from living a life centered around ones own future, happiness etc, the individual moves towards universal identification and love and therein finds permanent happiness and fulfillment. Unfortunately, suffering seems to be the preferred route to awakening to most of humanity.

Grand unified theory of suffering

But, thankfully, alternatives exist - and one such alternative is the route of intelligence to awakening. Like how darwin painstakingly figured out the grand unifying theory of evolution, if we truly commit ourselves to it, we will also be able to figure out the grand unifying theory of human suffering, just as the Buddha did it. For this, one has to employ ones intelligence in the service of universal compassion. When one can genuinely work on this with total and whole hearted commitment, one can understand the causes of all the violence and immense suffering that humanity has unleashed upon itself. Then, if we find those dark forces within us and if we are motivated by purely not wanting to partake in the madness of violence around us, total awakening becomes a possibility. All other reasons for ones own awakening will be a form of egoic reason and hence will ultimately be futile as awakening itself is about transcending the narrow identification of the ego.

Can we figure out the grand unifying theory of human suffering - not as an intellectual idea that came about in a discussion or from a book or from some guru, but by personally witnessing it?

Samadhi in Yoga

Samādhi is a foundational concept in Yoga and defines the fundamental way the interactions of a yogi differs from the interactions of an average person. Patanjali defines many different categories of samādhi but the general idea is given in this sutra

tad evārtha-mātra-nirbhāsaṃ svarūpa-śūnyam iva samādhiḥ

In an interaction of an individual, when only the essential nature of the object with which the interaction happens shines through and it appears as if the individual's self is absent, then the individual is said to be in a state of samādhi.

Usual commentaries about this talk about a state of intense concentration where the individual is so totally focussed at the job at hand where it appears as if the psychological person (which is the sum total of past experiences and ones response to them) doing the task is absent. Sports persons and artists report this state often and it is referred to as the state of flow in western psychology. In a flow state, the activity takes prime importance and not the doer of the activity. This interpretation is certainly not incorrect, but this is only one interpretation of samādhi and probably not the most important one.

I feel there is a more important interpretation of samādhi. Its important to note these words: svarūpa-śūnyam iva. It means, 'as if the self is absent'. The easiest place to witness the self is in relationships. The moment there is anything else but pure love in a relationship, it automatically implies the presence of the self in that interaction. Hence, it becomes very easy to spot the self. When an individual can interact with another person without his / her self influencing the interaction, then that automatically becomes a state of samādhi. Being able to achieve this kind of samādhi is far more important than that of flow as this directly leads to more loving relationships and more peace and harmony in society. This is not to denigrate the flow type samādhi, but to emphasize the importance of samādhi in relationships. Similarly absence of self in ones occupation is also very important. Most often, the occupation is done for the sake of pride and status and instead of the importance and social relevance of the occupation one pursues in life.

Samādhi is an experience and an individual who is consistently able to maintain the state of samadhi in all of his/her interactions (relationships, occupations etc), can be said to have transformed their consciousness from one of the smaller self, the ego, to that of the higher, universally inclusive self. This transformation, I believe, is referred to as Yoga.