Social Change

I want the world to change according to my own petty fancies.I want to wipe poverty,AIDS and cancer.I want to educate millions of poor girls in India.
"There is no need to worry …I am not joining Indian politics "

My Experience with service was as follows…
1.Kindness - My kindness experiments went down the drain as I belive my nature itself is that of anger...I have complaints against everyone.Trying to force kindness on myself was like the experience people would have if they are in a dentist's chair.
2 Feeling better- My ego always gets a good boost .Whenever I do some service ,I develop a halo around my head…for the next few days.Its so shocking how people waste loads of money on creams to get the glow.
3.Influence of Mother Teresa/Gandhi –I was hypnotized early on by Gandhi.He had a stronger hold on my mind than my parents.Even though I was a engineer,deep down somewhere I belived that the spinning wheel can save the world.The things people can do to you from the grave is scary.
Mother Teresa was a huge influence on me.The fact that she donated a apple at an young age was something which blew my minds off.When I was young I used to hide chocolates from everyone.I was denied admission in a school because of my excessive attachments to choclates.So whenever I used to serve I used to feel like I was one step closer in becoming Mother Teresa.The silly thing was I can never become like Mother Teresa because she was a Norwegian and I am a Indian.So all my efforts at donating money,biscuts,books to become like her, went out of the window because of citizenship problems.
4.Depression
If I suffered from Depression I used to volunteer.When I used to see other people in worser conditions I used to help them.I felt better because they were miserable.Poverty actually cured my depression.
5.Conversation
Volunteer service becomes a good topic for breaking the ice…whenever I meet strangers on flights etc..
God/Temples are good ice breakers too.I have zero knowledge about both so I always chose volunteer service as conversation starters
6 Employment
It can also be seen internship experience by employers.(I added it in my resume)
7.Food/other benefits
Normally you get fed really well by organizations if you are volunteering.You may get some free stuff too.Temples in USA have that advantage too.Most of the time I meet people who are religions,they tell me of the greatness of Dosa or different varieties of rice available.One temple I personally recommend for good Tamil food is Meenakshi Temple in Houston.I am yet to meet "religious"people who tell me about God or about mental peace they obtained when they went to a temple.
If temples should have more attendance I feel they should open a Mc.Donalds outlet there.
8.Well Behaved People:
You meet nicer people.Even if they have deep hate for you, they smile outwardly because everyone is working for a good cause which can make the world a better place.


Personally I feel the very need to serve, if got from the desire to feel better about yourself …..Is the worst desire a human can have.
We always want to feel better and become superior to others.Sympathy/pity/empathy and all these emotions are not strong enough to motivate a person to serve.If they were strong enough then the world wont have so many problems.Every single time we serve its like filling a bottomless tank with water.Its gone …Its wasted…There is no difference done.When this idea really sinks into us that we don't make a difference then it's the best kind of service.The ego does not claim its greatness and you don't become a super kind individual suffering for the world.After realizing this,if there is still a desire to serve,then I guess service would be a right path....

Overcoming Depression

I get depressed for various reasons…Sometimes it is because of the weather conditions.Constant sunshine cheers me up.So when I stayed at Texas for the past two years it was really nice.Even if I was terribly depressed …the nature around me lifted my spirits.I cannot bear cold/freezing/rainy/hailing/snowing places…They make me gloomy.As if fate wanted me to learn a lesson ,I am working at a place which hardly sees the sun.There is sunshine for only few hours in a week at the maximum…To make it more pleasant for me , this year my place is skipping summer.

There are lot of ways to overcome depression.Most of them are external stimuli given to you in a nice package.I have followed lot of these techniques to get out of depressed states.Only two good solutions have worked out for me.First is community service.When we see others suffering …our suffering looks so tiny in comparison.The second method is the "stupid method".Love depression and stay clam.It will leave you eventually.Either depression leaves or your body leaves.(Inappropriate joke!!! )

If you are the kind of person who has seen intense depression then it is evident, that our mind goes in predictable cycles.We get bogged down for some general scenarios.For me it is moral/ethical/justice oriented values.If I am stuck in a problem in which someone else does not take a right moral stand ..it makes me deeply angry.In the same way , I guess everyone in the world has something which turns them off.But if you are served the same scenario with different people and few more complexities added in ..we get vexed and then ultimately slip into depression.There are also other reasons for depression ..like death,financial crisis,spiritual crisis,boredom,loneliness,too many people around to bug you…etc..

To raise higher than our thoughts/emotions is a very difficult process.To reach a level where we neglect our thought process is even more difficult.This is the reason why positive statements don't make us very happy when we are depressed.It helps you a little bit by giving hope but it does not cure you.Positive thoughts are fed to the mind and we can train the mind to be positive for a while but once the mind gets de-hypnotized it slips back into a depressive state.The only thing which helps us is Action.You may have a thought which says that you are worthless, but then again you can act your way towards success. The body cannot take severe emotions.It gets agitated and becomes weak.We can get affected by severe diseases and sometimes even tumors/cancers are a result of deep depression.(Subject to speculation…All medical studies are bound to change every two hours)
Mental analysis rarely cure depression.If they could cure, then psychotherapists would have been billionaires.(they have become millionaires!!!).I don't see any reason why we have this ideal in our head that life one day will be without problems.Even Buddha made it clear that "Life is suffering" and the only way out for him was meditation and acceptance of impermanence.The only foolproof way to combat depression is to work diligently even when we are not depressed.To constantly check our motives and our expectations.To let it go when the time comes.No regrets, no grievances.

My blog

I thank everyone who take the time to read and comment on my blog.If anyone looks at the series of the posts it revolves on the following themes..
1.Birth/Death
2.Desire
3.Thought/Knowledge/Emotion
4.Devotion/Service/Realization
5.Practical Implications of Advaita Vedanta/Buddhism
6.Social Issues(Dealing with India)

The theories of Advaita and Buddhism may look contradictory.Adviata hits directly on the issues of Moksha whereas Buddhism deals with the issues related to the body/emotions/thoughts.
All paths lead to the truth.Anything which is false ...will fall away eventually.I wanted to honestly write about what I feel/believe/imagine...In no way ...I say that, I have knowledge about scriptures of any religion/path.What I write should always be taken as spiritual entertainment.
I have no strong hold on the English vocabulary/grammar..most of my posts will have huge errors..Language is always a barrier and so are words...Words have no use...As is the case with silence...

Old age/death

Its so amazing how we think and plan for the future as if we are going to last forever.But the truth is any moment we may leave away everything.Sometimes this truth deeply sinks into me and I start grabbing all my ambitions and try to calculate what I have done.But death is the best remedy for all of us.It wipes our slates clean.To think about future for me looks like a pain because I am constantly aware that death sits on my shoulder.It may look like a pessimistic view on life that I associate my future with death.But it occurs at so many levels...Only thing is our society gives so much importance to being young...that we forget death...
In ancient times death/old age was given its due respect.In Indian tradition we respect every old person as a wise person..even if he/she is a beggar/cheat...I find stillness and divinity in older people faces.Its quite opposite to popular culture ...that I find old people faces attractive.Starting from my grandmother,I used to feel each wrinkle on her face is a testimonial of the hardships and the joy she has seen in her life...Old is always gold...

Absence of Emotions

Can we lose the ability to have simple emotions.Is emotional deadening a mark of a evolved person.Most of the religious/spiritual books do tell us how everything related to emotion is useless.Our jealousy,pride,sadness or happiness is the same.Sometimes I cannot feel any emotion.My body becomes like a machine reacting and acting towards external stimuli.Does that say I am in a better state than before?

The Ignorance of Knowledge

Knowledge is seen as power.We use this power in lot of hidden ways.The moment we feel we have acquired some knowledge…we need to use it.We use it by making it show our greatness by making others feel lower.We ask stupid questions and go around in circles so that we can satisfy our own puffed ego's.We aim for greater degrees and lesser use.I think Mahatama Gandhi was right when he spoke of the nation's future is in the hands of heartless intellectuals.Knowledge if true should attempt to destroy the shackles of ego.It makes you more humble.The aim of an individual should be to provide a balance between sound judgement and love .Absence of emotion should not be the result of knowledge.True knowledge makes you treat everyone in the same way as you would treat your loved ones

My mind is like a monkey

The problem with my mind…sorry all minds…Is they keep jumping around…we like to make problems ,we like to analyze and we like to find solutions…and frame new questions…But trying to quieten... is not a natural process.

Destruction

Whenever you think of progressing on the path of higher consciousness there is a lot of destruction.We have to be ready mentally and physically ... all things will get badly affected.Mentally we may sink into depression which may last sometimes for years until we get adjusted to the growth.Physically the intense self search gives rise to increase in severe body aches and high fevers.All relationships go for a toss because we are not interested in anyone other than ourselves and our search.When the divine self becomes more important somehow the worldly occupations don't seem important.May be that is the reason various orders of monks/spiritual institutions were formed to give support for people who are in the seeking mode.Personally I feel we need support ..but this should never make us a parasite.Take help so that you can stand on your own two feet.Some of the scriptures write that once we start to seek ,the karma starts evaporating quickly and we may have very painful things happen to us.But all these occurrences are quite common and they should not push anyone to take extreme measures.If you are truly committed to the search then you will hold the body and use the body to achieve realization.

Desire

Desire is the same..It creeps in and makes us very desperate.All the theories of illusion and reality may exist.But none of them have any practical use to the society in general.The world runs with the principles made by foolish men/women.How can you live in the world and stay as if you are not going to act through any of the world principles.Its like a game you are playing....and you have to follow the rules to be in the game.
If you exist on the planet then you have to belong to a country.You are not going to say that i don't belong anywhere.Even if the earth is not flat ... it gives a impression that it is flat .Thats the reason we use 2 dimensional maps.It makes life easier to have the illusion that earth is flat.A 3 dimensional map will surely confuse you to no end.Coming to the ever lasting question of enlightenment ..If it has to happen and there is a need for it ...it will happen on its own way...
Thats what I have realized ...No need of breaking your head on stupid analogies.But if you have a desire to follow a particular method then i don't think its good to suppress it.Any method like devotion,yoga or meditation....let it act and nature will take its course...It will ruin you and at the same time your desire will get extinguished.

Having no Expectations

Having no expectations is a unreal state.I tried so hard not to have any attachment to the results.I have never succeeded in it.All the holy books can say and tell us to remain detached but to me that is not working.I am a first grade sinner and I agree to it heartfully.My mind always is greedy and it only aims for things which can satisfy my ego.People,things,ambition all are useful to me only after I have analyzed what I can obtain from them.In my whole life I have never committed any action for the heck of it.Its always like an economic transaction.I need to know what I can obtain and then I move forward.

The only way I could remain detached was when I never gave a damn about the action itself.So when I performed something and let it go …it was only because my mind got involved with something else.Some thing ,some desire…clouded my eyes so much that I forgot to sit and think about the result.So my conclusion about the detachment theory is that we have to use child psychology on ourselves.If you are with a child and you give them candy they would never think about other things .Same way you don't want to think about result show yourself some religious/spiritual/materialistic candy and your mind will never think of the result.You can float in your divine world thinking you achieved a new stage of greatness…but the truth is just that its "child psychology" performed on adults..

Lust

Lust is the most common emotion I guess we all feel.I mean till the day you are going to die... you have lust of differnt intensities.Lust has always been seen as something very negative and the society tries to paint bad pictures about the most evident emotion we feel.When you are attracted to a person it should be clear on what basis the foundation of your felling is based.Physically we are attracted to a person and we may dream of having a pleasurable relation.Mentally we get attracted,Spiritually we get attracted , all these things are the same thing.How can we rate and say that the physical is the least,then comes mental attraction and then spiritual attarction.
Most of the time the physical attarction fades away..so does the other mental and spiritual attarction.The problem is not with the other person ...the problem is with our minds.We always want some pleasure ...we hunt for pleasure...in every way ..in every person...in every opppurtunity...
If you lust for a person ...please go ahead and say it loud..that you do..you are human ...and thats why you feel it!!!

Just some random thoughts

Our present self is a creation of our own ideas of what we want to be.All the ancient texts have thrown light upon the fact that we are what we think and imagine.Everything is a repetitive process.Knowledge itself can be a mere illusion of someone else.Starting from when a kid is taken the first steps into school,we program ourselves to be able to function well as humans.All knowledge becomes unnecessary when we realize that in some way or another the laws formulated don't work.Everything has a limitation and is subject to change.The answer of permanence and of unification theories of science have never seen the light of day.If one parameter is changed ..all the parameters change with it naturally and a constant system can never be obtained.So to give so much importance to mind games and assimilation of knowledge will be foolish.But then again how do we define our natural inclinations.As a person we are inclined to certain areas in our existence.Prodigies can never be explained.Deja-vu's cannot be defined by any common theory.Reincarnation cannot be a good solution.Life cannot be explained…words cannot define it.If life alone can never be explained, then how can death be explained…Sometimes I feel getting scared of death is like getting scared of our own shadows.Shadows exist as long as the person exists.As long as light shines on us and blinds us..we see our own shadows and get scared.If this explanation I have given can take out the fear of death ,then everything would be just great.But this does not happen …as the fear continues..Its not the fear of death…but fear itself!!!!

The path to God

Initially when religion was introduced to me as a kid,it was more like an business deal.I say some Sloka/mantra, for a particular number of times and my desires could be fulfilled.I followed it faithfully for a large part of my life.I was always afraid of some bad deals from God if I messed up any part of the mantra.As a kid I have prayed sometimes whole nights so that I would be in the good books of the Gods.I targeted few Gods and by-hearted few easy and powerful mantras and was a contended customer.At the same time when I was going through the devotional phase I used to be moved by the plight of beggars at the temple doorstep.To me entering a temple was like entering a court of justice.I calculated the bribes I wanted to offer God and decided what I would receive in return.But as I was reaching the age of 15 I started questioning the motives which lay behind my devotion.My faith on God was as long as God could fulfill the desires I had.This over dependence on God was always there.Even though I used to be interested in Buddhism and read other religious theories..my dependence was like a addiction.I ran towards it every time I had a problem.The time was getting ripe for me to leave all these transactions.So when out of sheer accident,I visited a temple, when I was 18 ...I pleaded God to pass me in one of the exams.I decided that if that would happen I would chant something umpteen number of times.I passed that exam but I never chanted.My relationship with this Godfather kind of God started getting sour.I could not deny the fact that God was not helping the billions who were suffering.Slowly I started to discover a new kind of God.This God never asked for holy chants or bribes.Never wanted me to visit "expensive " temples.This God only helped me see myself the way I am.

Spiritual Stages

Taken from the site
http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritualresearch/spiritualscience/spirituallevel_saints/images/Spiritual-Level-March06.gif
courtesy:Venkat

Acceptance!!!!

I think I have written a lot about how we should accept ourselves and our circumstances.But there is a huge other side to acceptance..Non acceptance is as important as acceptance.When we accept wrong versions of what we are through the perceptions of others...we are doomed!!!
But there is no way that we can escape these wrong notions.Every second we have some image hitting us through our minds.The only way through,is losing the way.Once we have constantly struggled through all the wrong ways...our soul would have suffered enough.There will be no more struggle.We just let it go and go on a path which is of least resistance.

Obstacles in Relationship..

Many people try not to get attached and live in a kind of shell surrounded by the ocean of people.This policy of trying to forcibly be away from people is not healthy.Its not detachment in any sense.Fear of attachment is not detachment ..it is cowardice.If fear of any kind exists then we are again attached to fear itself.So its not the people we meet we get attached too.It is only deep seated fear of pain.Pain and pleasure are the same thing.Just a momentary sharp emotion which can give rise to different sensations in the body.The pain/pleasure occurs in the mind first and then the body responds to it.If we get hurt because we are attached we start crying.The body follows the mind.But the mind is fickle and if shown something more pleasurable we run again behind that forgetting the pain.True detachment does not mean we ignore the person or try not to maintain any relationship...Being truly detached means we treat every person in the same way ...everyone becomes special.Detachment is also a process ...When every living being is given the same amount of respect as our beloved then we have become truly detached.
Practically is it possible to live without getting worried about the other person?
I feel that most of the time when we take care of the mental processes of our own mind ..everything just falls into place...Every problem in a relationship is again a reflection of problem within us.Cultivation of Aloneness is the best solution to most of the problems in our relationships.

Spiritual land

Most of my own spiritual pursuits was to run away from the present situation.There is nothing more contradictory to my life than this feeling that I belong somewhere else.The events which have never happened to me look so wonderful.The places which I have never visited look so beautiful.The people who I have never met look amazing.This feeling to never accept anything is again a desire ...this desire should also be accepted.I feel this feeling is born when the mind gets a voice.Always there is some hidden treasure ...always there is a chase...
This other probable world with perfect people,amazing beauty,non polluted and with equal rights does not exist.Claims that this promised land exists has made billions of people believers in everything.But to reach a point where this realization sinks in takes lot of effort.Once we travel through the wheel of life we find out how everything...how every relationship is fake..Once these boundaries are broken we dont long for spiritual lands or spiritual people.

Person-Personality

Every incident in our life brings out a different personality.There is no constant personality within us.Its just the projection of our thoughts which we feel defined to a particular personality.Once we forget identifying ourselves with some basic structure,we free ourselves from lot of emotional burden.We train our minds to look at ourselves in a certain way.We get hurt when our own image gets proven wrong by others projections.But the other's projections are also are own projections.Knowledge even when got from others is again our knowledge..as we use our limited minds to understand the situations.

Getting Lost

There are always instants when life becomes so busy that we forget what we should really do.On my recent trip to New York I have come to realize what anxiety means.Starting from the grieving faces in the subways,angry hip-hopper and to the late professionals who are rushing towards a never ending deadline.Anxiety is not what we are really missing but the feeling that we are going to miss something.

Reflection of passion

I wrote this while listening to yanni "Reflections of passion"
Passion exists for a minute.. we make it a memory and hold it on for ever...


As the gush of air plays with your hair
As you dance in joy at the brilliance of silence
The inward jot of finding someone new
The dawning of a new era
New dreams like tiny waves of a mighty ocean form
The spirits rose so high that all divisions look invisible
Plans were chalked out to make life ,more pleasurable
These things happen so fast and you feel insecure,you weep with joy
The impermanence of nature starts following you
Everything which was exicting gets you into a rut
Then suddenly everything breaks
All that is left are the reflections of our passion

Can Men and Women Be Friends?

I was having a debate with one of my friends(guy)as to the possibility of friendship between men and women.

From my perspective it is possible for men and women to be friends.If I was interested in a guy in any other way I wont pretend to be friends with him in the first place.To me being honest with myself is very important.All the books/spiritual techniques ...everything goes down the drain when we ourselves have no idea of defining what a relationship is and what are the limitations we place upon them.Personally I feel I have the necessary discipline to remain with my own ideals/beliefs.But the possibility of the other person not being so inclined and having other agendas besides friendship always exits.But then again whenever I have had a platonic friendship I have made it clear to the guy that I just want to be Friends.I have no intention to increase the bounds of the friendship.

I remember a small instance from the life of the philosopher UG Krishnanmurti(paraphrased)

There was once a woman who had entered the room and sat in front of UG.She was staring at him and had different interests other than philosophy.There was no exchange of words between UG and the lady.When she was leaving UG just told her the following words
"I know you are attracted to me ..but let me guarantee you,that nothing is going to happen.You are wasting your time,I have enough discipline in me which is enough for both of us.

That is the attitude which actually can foster a successful friendship between men and women.As a person we need to have discipline and clear set goals.If that is not possible then the friendship should not be continued.The problem in a friendship between men and women is not lust but dishonesty and absence of integrity.

A good article from pyschology today
http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20010901-000031.html

Astrology...Curse or cure

I have always had an interest in Astronomy.But whenever I mention it to any Indian,99.9% of them think its astrology that I am talking about.I feel any person who seriously thinks Astrology can save their lives ,should go and take a appointment from the nearest shrink available.Its like a never ending battle with superstitions.Now vastu shastra,feng shui and loads of other channels are present to save our lives from misery.In a country like India where people dont have small huts to stay happy..there are millions of people paying loads of rupees to have good flow of energy in their comfortable homes.A mind unlit by reason cannot be saved by anyone.It will lead you to destruction like slow poison.

Words from Vivekananda taken from
"Man the maker of his destiny"
http://sboray.tripod.com/Srinidhi/vivek.html

There is an old story of an astrologer who came to a King and said. "You are going to die in six months." The King was frightened out of his wits and was almost about to die then and there from fear. But his minister was a cleaver man, and this man told the king see that they were fools. The king would not believe him. So the minister saw no other way to make the king se that they were fools, but to invite the astrologer to the palace again. There he asked him if his calculations were correct. The astrologer said that there could be not a mistake, but to satisfy him he went through the whole of the calculations again and then said that they perfectly correct,. The king's face became livid. The minister said to the astrologer, "And when do you think you will die?". " In twelve years", was the reply. The minister quickly drew his sword and separated the astrologer's head from the body and said to the king. "Do you see this liar? He is dead


I think the Greeks first took astrology to India and took from the Hindus the science of astronomy and carried it back with them to Europe. Because in India you will find old altars, made according to a certain geometrical plan, and certain things had to be done when the stars were in when certain positions, therefore I think the Greeks gave the Hindus astrology, and the Hindus gave them astronomy.

In London, a young man used to come to me and ask me, "What will become of me next year?" I asked him why he asked me so." I have lost all my money and have become very, very poor". Money is the only God of many beings. Weak men, when they lose everything and feel themselves weak, try all sorts of uncanny methods of making money, and come to astrology and all these things. " It is the coward and the fool who says, "This is fate'" - so says the Sanskrit proverb. But it is the strong man who stands up and says, "I will make my fate." It is people who are getting old who talk of fate. Young men generally do not come to astrology. We may be under planetary influence, but it should not matter much to us. Buddha says, "Those that get a living by calculations of the stars by such art and other lying tricks are to be avoid"; and he ought to know, because he was the greatest Hindu ever born. Let stars come, what harm is there? If a star disturbs my life, it would not be worth a cent. You will find that astrology and all these mystical things are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food and rest.

If you can get an explanation of phenomena from within its nature, it is nonsense to look for an explanation from outside. If the world explains itself, it is nonsense to go outside for an explanation. Have you found any phenomenon in the life of a man that you have ever seen which cannot be explained by the power of the man himself? So what is the use of going to the stars or anything else in the world? My own Karma is sufficient explanation of my present state. So in the case of Jesus himself. We know that his father was only a carpenter. We need not go to anybody else to find an explanation of his own power. He was the outcome of his own past, all of which was a preparation for that Jesus. Buddha goes back and back to animal bodies and tells us how he ultimately became Buddha. So what is the use of going to stars for explanation? They may have a little influence; but it is our duty to ignore them rather than hearken to them and make ourselves nervous. This I lay down as the first essential in all I teach: anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet.

Indian Ancient Literature and View of Women Part 1

I have always wondered why women in all cultures were subjugated so a lesser role.How did the world end up being a male dominated place.If you have to understand the present we have to dig up the facts of the past.I dont say its a male propaganda to wipe out the female race out of the planet.But then again history points us to that direction.
Caution:If there are any deviations in the post presented below...Please let me know...Historical accuracy is much appreciated.Male chauvinists ..stay away!!!


Most of the ancient Indian books have so much hatred for woman.Women were shown in such a bad light.
What is the use of being a spiritual motherland ??
What is the use of having literary gaints?


Untruthfulness,rashness,guile,studpidity,avarice,uncleaniness and cruelty are woman's seven natural flaws of a woman.
The wife with offensive face should be given up.
Source Chankaya Niti Sastra

Day and night women must be kept in dependence by the males (of) their (families), and, if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control.

Her father protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and her sons protect (her) in old age; a woman is never fit for independence.

Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure (elsewhere), or devoid of good qualities, (yet) a husband must be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful wife.

laws of Manu

In the pre-Sankara period, Hinduism was a religion filled with foolish rituals.It was more a tribal land with Vedas stil existant but never considered seriously by common lay man/woman.(even now that is the case)
Buddha brought a welcome change to India and propagated giving women equal status as men.Buddha was not opposed to the vedas,but he was opposed to foolish rituals.Common example of that would be ..
Women were able to light the funeral pyre..In Hinduism only males get to do it.Buddha did not allow females to become nuns.He was worried about the safety of the nuns..as in those days forests were ruled by dacoits.But history tells us that Buddha did agree to let women become nuns after some persuasion from his mother and wife.

Religion

Religion is not a good word to define our preferences .What we eat, how we behave, how we react or to believe in a higher power or not , can never be defined by religion alone. We as humans have diverse interests and our behavior is shaped due to our attitudes and affinities. May be the whole approach to isolate us into one religion is very irrational. I liked what Dalai Lama's view on religion is he compares different religions to a table with different varieties of food. When a person wants to eat he/she takes little of different varieties and in the quantity he/she likes.
Instead of providing a space in applications/forms, where you should enter a particular religion.. there should be more space provided to write a paragraph on your basic beliefs. That gives a more general insight into the person .If the person whole heartedly believes in one single religion ..then he/she can write down the name of the single religion. By doing this we can reduce the different barriers we create starting from how we identify ourselves.

I love reading about other religions. even ancient/ tribal religions included. Most of the religions have a foundation set out by another religion. All the religious fanatics don’t read history and have no interest in archeology. If they could dig little bit into the past centuries they will know why the world is shaped up this way. I feel any belief system which says that the other belief system is inferior or superior is going to end up in forming into a cult society. All religions are assimilation of the practices of the native people. When we discriminate the minor sects present in a religion we are contradicting the principles which built the religion in the first place. The problem of caste system which is present in Indian system is in itself a contradiction. Most of the people understand and interpret caste in their own limitations. But I am confident that caste system was not formed to discriminate but it was a effective tool for finding out the occupation of a person. But it gets used for the wrong purpose and again a system is used to make life miserable instead of simplifying things.
Religion went a whole circle of uplifting a person and improving the society but it caused lot of destruction also. Now the place of religion is taken by science.

English Un - Learned

from a forwarded mail

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as 'Euro-English'.

In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard 'c' will be dropped in favour of 'k'. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced with 'f'. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent 'e' in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as
replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' with 'v'.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Meditation and Contradiction

Life is always full of contradictions.Nations build weapons to maintain peace.The other day when I visited Vipasanna meditation center (www.dhamma.org) in Georgia,I witnessed a contradiction of ideals.

Buddha gave his first discourse on Vipasanna meditation in a deer park.The deer is used as a symbol of initiation (of disciples)and the wheel of dharma was made to roll from that day.The property which lies beside the meditation centre is a hunting ground.In the western culture hunting is an essential sport.During the hunting season everything that moves is killed(No exaggeration here)
On one side there are people who try to save insects and not harm them.Then on the other side of the fence there are people who kill for fun.

Our maturity lies in accepting the various contradictions which rise up in our lives.By ignoring one side and supporting the other turns us into a (ideal) fanatic.

Knowledge is power

There are lots of questions which as individuals we need to answer.There is so much knowledge in the world that it may take several lifetimes to even comprehend the enormity of it.I feel knowledge ..any knowledge is not power.Depending upon our own affinities knowledge about specific activities/ things becomes a powerful weapon to take out ignorance.
We have to be selective even about the knowledge we acquire.Filling more crap in our minds makes life more complicated.We need knowledge so that we can live like sane creatures and also be able to fulfill our duties as a responsible human beings
One example is the English language...
Do we really need to know so many words?
Why cant the world be a happy place with limited vocabulary.I have a allergy towards all those people who show-off their enormous vocabulary.Every day new words are added.To the future word-smiths ,words are beautiful creations like music.But to a ignoramus like me, its just waste of digital bits and paper space :)
If Shakespeare could be contended with a limited vocabulary of 4000 words..I guess the new generation should not be burdened with enormous dictionaries.When learning happens without any expectations ...we become truly learned.Most of the time in common conversations, people only use slang for everyday conversation.Then in the professional atmosphere the language is polished with some neat words obtained from some online dictionary.This divergence in our own speech,thoughts and behavior is our need to create a personality.I feel spirituality/religion should give people the strength to express what they are...what they really are

The story of Stuff

The story of stuff

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

American consumerism has been defined so well by this video.India's economy is improving so well.Now that American products are reaching Indian soil and there are more tie ups with American companies I feel the American economic rules will start hitting Indian soil.
Traditional Indian small scale industries may be destroyed by foolish exported economic rules.
This video was very interesting because of the environmental concerns.
Personally I was trying to imagine all the stuff I had accumulated in the past 2 years.I really dont need so much stuff but I have collected it.So may be aware consumerism is required so that we cause less harm to ourselves and environment.

We make our own memories

Our own attitudes decide what our perception is.Then when we store it as a memory, we color it with our own biases.When we meet a new person(most of the time)we make a preconceived notion of how they are.Everyday events are seen through our own limited knowledge.When we are young, any event which would have shocked us,may not be that scary now.But sometimes we shade it with nightmares and then it is going to be scary even in our adult life.So the problem is we may never know what really happened.All our memories are our creations.
Each memory causes a emotion.We should question the deep rooted cause for our suffering or happiness which is obtained from our memories.I am not saying that release from suffering only happens when there is a absence of a past/memory.The solution lies in our understanding of our own emotions.When we are able to look back at our misery and say to ourselves that its inevitable and then question the reason...then we are on a path to understanding.

Self Improvement

When I joined the university to pursue a masters degree my aim was to get my life into a stable mode.I thought that by following society standards and scaling up my levels to include a higher degree will somehow equip me with more knowledge to deal with life.I have been wondering how following our heart requires tremendous amount of courage!Its not only breaking the societal norms but it also taking chances in our personal life.As humans we are supposed to plan what we are going to do for the next decade... so that we offer stability to everyone around us.I am no way smarter than what I was 2 years back.

What I feel I learned ...
I now have a more diplomatic way of dealing with people.
I cover some of the hard truth with professional lies.
I have learnt to deal with people better.
But the most important learning process (in life)is to learn to be independent.When we can love ourselves and depend on ourselves for love ..we have attained the highest level...Every other degree or knowledge is actually a waste.

Life and its purpose

There is a question at least,a few of us keep asking ourselves.
Is there a purpose to life?
We try to seek a purpose and build a purpose through our narrow visions.
But mostly its not a purpose we are searching.We are just bored and we feel there is something exciting waiting for us.We are waiting for some great miracle to happen which will put all the pieces of the puzzle together and make it whole.May be its high time we throw purpose out of the window.
This is all there is !!!

Music ....IS UNIVERSAL

I check the Top 20 singles in USA.
Most of the common themes in most of the music videos are

love,pain caused because of love(FAILURES),sex,pleasure,hatred on the boy friend/girl friend,loneliness,anger....
I check the Top 10 songs in India..

Hindi

The common themes
love,lost love ,lust,sex...

Tamil
The common themes
Love,lust....sex.

The instrumental music in all languages is quite refined and breaks all these barriers.But the publicity given to them is minimal.

Purpose/No purpose

Jaane kya dhoondata hain mera dil
tujko kya chahaye zindagi
raaste hi raaste hain
kasisa hai yeh safar..

It is necessary that our life should have a purpose.
The "so called" purpose is obtained in continuity.We take our past events and try to connect it and try to find divine meaning through that.We are told to look at the big picture.But our memory fails us.We interpret everything in our life with our limited knowledge and maturity.The perception is through a range of filters.Every event may be a independent event.It may not be a continuity to the before event.We all are waiting for a finale for our life.The final show where everything will be revealed and there will nothing else to know.Most of us think that somehow before our death we will come to know that.We create the world through our own prejudices and judgments.

One of the way of reducing the barriers of knowing reality is to give up the knowledge.
(Paraphrased from U.G Krishnamurti's words..He does not mind it..There is no copy right!!!)

This is not easy because we become empty.Our sense of importance is gone.Our education system works in the opposite way .We want more knowledge to prove our importance.It is one of the biggest paradoxes of life.On one hand we want to know the purpose and then again we don’t want to let go of our imagined purpose.

Everything is a belief

Everything is a belief
I examined all my motives
I am conditioned to behave in certain ways
I change and I dont know what I am going to become
Everything I believe feels real
My dreams are also real
The Germans invaded my bedroom and shot fifteen bullets
I pretended to be dead...but they could not be deceived
I dont say beliefs are real or unreal
I just say that Everything is a belief...
p.s
The poem sucks...but has a deep meaning somewhere(I hope it has)

What made me grow

All people cringe at the idea of having to deal with difficult people.But those are the real people who help us grow.Our enemies give us a chance to develop nonviolence.Their hate gives us a chance to develop patience and love.People who cheat you,are the people who teach you what honesty is.The un-ethical teach you to walk on the path of righteousness.
Most of the time I write testimonials to people who are good to me.
But today I want to thank .....all my enemies,the people who hate me,people who cheated me and let me not forget all the people who have abused me.

One step away from fanatism

Every method ,every theory,every belief and every experince ,which we follow can become a bondage.A method may liberate you and the next second you own it.. it creates its own bondage.
According to Osho we may give up attachment to worldly desires and become attached to other worldly objects such as a kind of meditation,a personal God .....

Once we use a technique to achieve something lets remember to throw it away and forget it.If we are not careful we also fall in the same class of religious fundamentalists.Once the inner world gets impure it slowly manifests itself in the outer world through out actions

Indian Education System

No other country in the world would be making as many blunders as the Indian education system makes.We still follow the British system.The British have left but our minds are still chained to the inferiority that they cultivated in us.Vedas should be taught in Indian schools.Vedic mathematics,astronomy,science and philosophy should be included in the syllabus along with the western invasions.I have added three videos about the vedas which show the superiority of the knowledge we possessed in the past.The Aryan theory of invasion was also devised to prove that Indians were fools.But even the Pythagoras theorem was discovered in India 300 years before Pythagoras was born.He came down to ganges and learnt it.All the famous theoritical physicists like Heisenberg and others have been influenced by Advaita Vedanta.The principle of uncertainity can be easily derived from Advaita Vedanta.I once heard that Kautilya's Arthasastra is being used at Harvard.Kamasutra is the only one which gets the popularity.But there are various other sutras which have lot of knowledge hidden in them.
Its high time the world gives back the dignity of innovation which they took away from India some centuries ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY4Q2xx7BTc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2vhCPBjqcA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMlisMg4VPo&feature=related

When the lake speaks to you

I had attended the vipassana meditation course at Kaufman Texas.It was a beautiful experience.There is so much of information available on the technique online ,that even if I mention a single word suggesting how it works,its a waste of space and time.There is so much of intellectual information which gets processed daily.Its so strange when a real situation arises when you have to apply all the elegant theories you have learnt ...the mind does not listen.It just goes on and on with some tangent and produces a trail of bad emotions.I suffered the first two days in the same way trying to grab and control my unstable mind.I offered it my intellectual solace,the teachers kind words ,my anger,my love...everything ..but nothing happened...I gave up.I decided that controlling is not meditation.Domination is not meditation.Its self hypnosis.On the third day I sat during the lunch break near a beautiful lake for a long time.Everything was silent.There was no sound,no movement ,perfectly still..I could look at the surface and see how everything was quiet and beautiful and that instant I knew how to meditate.Its so strange I went to vipassana course to calm my mind using their technique and nature intervenes and teaches me the "zen" way or the "lake" way

What is compassion

Buddha was the most compassionate being that the earth could produce.One of the stories which gives us a glimpse of his nature is given below:
Once there was a man who came and spat on Buddha.His disciples were angered at this behaviour.Buddha wiped his face and said to the man,"Thank you sir.You created a context in which I could see whether I can still be angry or not.And I am not and I am tremendously happy.And you created a context for Ananda to see his anger.Many thanks,we are so grateful.Once in while please,you are invited to come.Whenever you have an urge to spit you can do it on us.

The man was shocked, he could not sleep whole night.He felt the way Buddha was grateful.The "Thank you" came from his heart directly it was not a formality.The next day he went to Buddha to ask for forgiveness.Buddha was seated near the Ganges.He showed the man the river how everything was flowing.Twenty four hours you are carrying it.Forget all about it.I cannot forgive you because I was not angry with you.If I was angry I would have forgiven.Go fall on the feet of Ananda he will be happy.

Our reactions to a particular action is the measure of our compassion.

U.G.Krishnamurti Quotes

A messiah is the one who leaves a mess behind him in this world.

Religions have promised roses but you end up with only thorns.

Going to the pub or the temple is exactly the same; it is quick fix.

The body has no independent existence. You are a squatter there.

God and sex go together. If God goes sex goes, too.

All experiences however extraordinary they may be are in the area of sensuality.

Man cannot be anything other than what he is. Whatever he is, he will create a society that mirrors him.

Love and hate are not opposite ends of the same spectrum; they are one and the same thing. They are much closer than kissing cousins.

Gurus play a social role, so do prostitutes.

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

It would be more interesting to learn from children, than try to teach them how to behave, how to live and how to function.

All I can guarantee you is that as long as you are searching for happiness, you will remain unhappy.

You eat not food but ideas. What you wear are not clothes, but labels and names.

The plain fact is that if you don’t have a problem, you create one. If you don’t have a problem you don’t feel that you are living.

That messy thing called ‘mind’ has created many destructive things. By far the most destructive of them all is God.

Atmospheric pollution is most harmless when compared to the spiritual and religious pollution that have plagued the world.

Nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals, where as culture has invented a single mold to which all must conform. It is grotesque.

Useful links for Advaita Vedanta

1.Advaita Vedanta Library
http://www.geocities.com/advaitavedant/index.htm

2.Sankaracharya page
http://www.sankaracharya.org/index.php
This site has also works of Ramana Maharishi and Nisaragadatta Maharaj.

3.Realization
http://www.realization.org/

4.http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/one-many.html

5.One of the best sites...from modern writers of Advaita
http://www.advaita.org.uk/

6.Vedanta for Beginners
http://www.geocities.com/neovedanta/index.html

7.This site has Sanskrit verses of Sankara
http://www.shaivam.org/ssdashashloki.htm

8.http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/

Illuminating Tribal India

I came across this article which talks about other natural forms of energy.As a electrical engineer,solar energy has always been my main interest.
So nice to know there are good people like Prof.Shrinivasa who work for the "poorest of the poor".

http://goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Magazine/story/biodiesel-chalbardi

I love trees

I was 8 years old and I remember the day, when one of the oldest trees near my house was cut down, to build a house.I shed silent tears for my forgotten friend.Sometimes I felt that I suffer from a mental delusion or I am too Over- Sensitive towards living beings.I have spent countless hours on the terrace...alone...gazing at stars, moon and infinity.Learnt a lot about life from the silent green beings which surrounded my house.

I am quite grateful to my parents that they never pushed me into any extra curricular activities.I was left on my own to explore.I feel as a kid when we explore the world on our own ,nature gives us the best gift.
Creativity!!!

The silence of the heavenly bodies taught me music.Silence is the most important aspect of music.Years later when I took piano classes to study Beethoven and Mozart..I was amazed at the similarities.

Observing nature is so important in painting.I used to always feel that I am reproducing nature in my paintings.But now I realize that I reproduce what I absorb.Its a honor to imitate nature in its splendid glory.

We create reality every instant.Words are just a small percent of reality we absorb.
Silence is again fundamental to words.If we don't have a period of silence in a day we ruin the mind with too many thoughts.Most of our words are repetitions of everyday incidents.We ask everyday the same questions.How are you,How are you doing,what happened, joys , sorrows,limitations...These words take away chunks of our time...We never dive deep into ourselves because all day long we are telling each other how we are doing.Few of the courtesy calls cannot be avoided,they come with our jobs.But when it comes to our personal space we can transform it into a knowledgeable experience.Once the words stop we realize the power of words.The external world then slowly crawls into the internal self and hopefully we find a calm/peaceful mind.

Useful Links !!!

Ngo/Social Entrepreneurship

1.NGO post
http://ngopost.org/
This site gives the various ngo activities in India.

2.India Together
http://www.indiatogether.org/
A good list of articles for anyone worried about social/economic issues in India.

3.TED
One of the best sites I have come across!!!

www.ted.com
Few of my recent favs...
The myth of violence
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/163

Working of the mind by neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/184

Habit of Happiness by Matthieu Ricard(Buddhist monk)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/191

There are other beautiful speeches which are present in the archives...

Spirituality

1.Sanskrit movie on Adi Sankaracharya

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=
1047087149251803384&q=adi+sankaracharya+movie&total=12&start=0&
num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

2.I am that

http://www.sankaracharya.org/i_am_that.php

The transformation

The hardest part for any person trying to contemplate the truth is that they have to shift from the state of meditation to the state of reality.For people who have reached truth have no problems.Every moment for them is the one moment of truth.But if we have to function as mortals in the world it is so hard to shift.The calmness which we reach when we let go and the next moment when we have to drive our self into work to meet a deadline seem contradictory.May be this is one of the reasons that isolation has been the first medicine given to a patient when they are going crazy.Getting used to silence is quite difficult but after you discover silence ...the noise becomes unbearable.In essence it should not disturb us because we hear noise because we have experienced silence.Buddha used to say if their was no illusion then there would be no enlightenment.So its a reverse process we should get used to.First accept silence and then accept noise.If you say one does not exist or you won't surrender to it,then we are not growing,we are not transforming.

Courage

I feel meditation is looked upon as some great halo generating process which tells you to be silent and then generate loads of peace..
Every person who is developing awareness will frankly say "No"
Meditation leads you,its a journey but it requires lots of courage.The lies you tell yourself and others start pricking you.Many people leave you as they get scared of your insistence for knowing the truth. But if you are creating awareness for yourself it does not matter.You realize that everything has to die.You don't argue for what you feel is right because everyone is right in their own way.But the best thing which I feel awareness teaches you is "not being desperate"for anything.
Money,success,love or other things which you are supposed to pray and hope for does not trouble you.
Personally I feel the honesty which comes up can be quite painful if we don't check our standards.Judgments and identity are the root cause of all pain.

Break!!!

I am taking a break from blogging ..I dont know when I will return to blog world...

Marraige...........

Is marriage really the end of love?
By Swami Chaitanya Keerthi


Socrates had a quarrelsome wife but when disciples asked him whether they should marry, he always advised them to. "If you are fortunate you'll get a good wife. If you get a wife like mine, you'll still be fortunate as she will help you become Socrates!"

But people like Socrates are rare. Most men cannot handle the misery, and either escape or get frustrated. The same goes for women as well. In her marriage, a woman may find the most terrible person who makes life hell for her. In fact, in most Indian marriages, women suffer more than men. What is the way out of this misery?

German politician Gabriele Pauli recently proposed that marriage contracts should be valid for seven years; after that couples who didn't feel the proverbial itch could renew them, else walk away. This may sound radical but it isn't.

People are divorcing faster today and most of the marriages in the so-called first world don't last more than three years. Those that last have little life in them.

Love is like a real flower. It doesn't live longer than it's meant to. But when love is converted into marriage, it starts to lose its tenderness. It acquires a plastic nature; plastic lives for as long as you wish it to but doesn't pulsate with life.

Love, like life, is always insecure. It cannot promise to be forever. That's why it is really very precious. One moment of real love is more valuable than an eternity of plastic life. But most people with deep insecurities go for a plastic marriage rather than wait for the real throbbing life of love, for they are scared to live alone.

Osho calls marriage the ‘coffin of love'. He says: "They all say that love is eternal, never dies. Absolutely wrong. Real love dies sooner than unreal love. Unreal love can live long; it is unreal, how can it die? If you are pretending, you can pretend as long as you want to."

Osho also tells us: "Love needs only one thing, and that is courage. Courage to die into the other, to drop your own identity, your ego. Millions have decided not to love, but then life is misery, life is hell."

"If one really wants to live, one must be ready for insecurity, and love brings the greatest insecurity in the world because love cannot promise tomorrow. Love is of the moment, for the moment, in the moment. Love can only speak for this moment, not for the next; the next remains open, vulnerable, insecure." "Love may be, may not be. Love has no guarantee whatsoever. Which is why people choose marriage over love. Marriage is secure and safe, guaranteed by the law and the government and the society and the church-something they can depend upon. But in that very choice they commit suicide for they will never really live."

"Life itself is insecure. Life knows nothing of security. Death is very secure, so those who are cowardly choose death instead of life. They choose the false and the plastic instead of the real. And those who are courageous, they choose the real. They go with it, wherever it may lead. They surrender to it. They are ready to go into the uncharted and the unknown and the unseen." And they truly live...

WORDS OF WISDOM

"Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry." - Tom Mullen, author.

"Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other who never forgets." - Ogden Nash, author & poet.

Ignorant minds

In India most of the people want to be fair.Let me be "advertising-ly" correct..Fair and Lovely...
But in USA there is the reverse problem.Most of the Americans want to be tanned.Most of the Indians torture a dark skinned female...The same woman in USA is actually the most popular.I once saw a episode of DR.Phil (show) in which an American girl was on the verge of getting skin cancer because she was using all the harmful techniques of tanning.(chemical and other poisonous ones)
In normal discussions with my friend's I start blaming the celebrities who endorse such product and ruin millions of lives.Then I blame the government for actually allowing such ads to be run on television.Its partly their fault.Mostly it's the fault of the ignorant minds.Most of the educated people are also so unconscious to their own needs.
They believe ads and adjust their life style according to that.Wearing branded clothes is seen as a status issue.I have met so many people who think buying clothes from a smaller shop/mall/sales is beneath their dignity.
They forget that the Mahatma Gandhi,Mother Teresa ,Rabindranath Tagore became famous not because of their specific clothing brand.The outer self is just an appearance.The skin colour cannot be changed.You can lighten it...but if the person does not like you (for what you are)then its better to be yourself and find someone else.Wearing good clothes does not alter your inner self.Good looking people have specific advantages.Studies have showed that taller boys are preferred by most of the girls in the world.Beautiful girls are preferred by most of the boys in the world.But there are other things by which a person is also judged and chosen.By showing good looking(smiling and happy) people endorsing the product does not mean that a person who is not attractive will suddenly become very charming.It just a marketing strategy.I hope people realize and spend money on products bit more carefully!!!


other articles on Fair culture in India.
http://vsequeira.blogspot.com/2005/07/fair-lovely.html
http://dcubed.blogspot.com/2005/07/fair-empowered.html
http://diproject.squarespace.com/weblog/2005/8/19/are-you-white-or-wheatish.html

Situation in Vidarbha/Suicides

This is one of the documentary which tells about the suicides of Vidarbha.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/vidarbha/index.html

A story about non violence

How my father taught me non violence

By Arun Gandhi

I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbors, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies.

One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father ask me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced. When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, 'I will meet you here at 5:00 p.m., and we will go home together.'

After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time. It was 5:30 before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was waiting for me, it was almost 6:00. He anxiously asked me, 'Why were you late?' I was so ashamed of telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, 'The car wasn't ready, so I had to wait,' not realizing that he had already called the garage. When he caught me in the lie, he said: 'There's something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn't give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I'm going to walk home 18 miles and think about it.'

So, dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads. I couldn't leave him, so for five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered.

I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again. I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday. That is the power of non-violence.

Words

I feel we live in the culture of words.Everywhere we are demonstrating our love/hate through quotations and expressions.I don't react to compliments or insults.Because both cause us grief in different ways.We someone says us something we mix it up with our own insight and then examine it.We all are the masters of our own selves.We can easily know what our negative and positive points are.Many people feel an extreme need to praise others because they are dependent on the person.When we are in a bad mood we insult others vehemently.All judgments also come from lack of self esteem/self confidence.All labels which cause so much hurt also come from people who are not comfortable in their own skin.

Most important use of words is to ask relevant questions.This questioning ability which was the most important thing in Indian culture has been lost.To analyze ourselves rationally and to realize the truth ...which is the corner stone of spirituality.Most people go to temples,follow blind rituals without questioning the reason behind it.They bribe lord to get what they want.

One of the books which talks about the relation between Self and the God is "When bad things happen to good people".It is written by a Jewish Rabbi Harold Kushner.He explains that Nature and God are two separate entities.What we should not ask is "Why did God do this to me"...Because according to him nature has its randomness which causes misery.But he goes further and explains that God gives us strength and courage to withstand the assaults of nature.

Silence is the only solution to knowing the effects of words.When we gradually become silent for particular periods of time we realize what our words mean to us.How important are useless chats ???
The impulses of anger and misery.... and also our own voice which gets lost sometimes.

Nature and Spirutuality

A spiritual seeker becomes naturally conscious of nature and its effects.Our external environment becomes our first teacher.Most of the complaints we have are the ways in which people behave.
Trees gives shade to everyone.
Flowers impart perfume to everyone.
There is no partiality towards anyone.We expect a lot from everyone around us.But we forget that all of us reflect our inborn nature.The inborn nature is sometimes hidden against other qualities.When some person is rude to us and we know that essentially that person has a bad attitude towards everyone ...we don't take it personally.
Every living thing has the same amount of truth as us.

Nature is sometimes merciful towards us...sometimes it ruins us with floods,earthquakes,volcanoes...Our lives are bounded by the same parameters..To find something in us which never changes is the only guard against anything.

To err is human...

The price we pay of being a human is sometimes we make mistakes...Some so huge ..that it ruins our life,some are so small that we forget minutes after we have committed it.Most of the mistakes which we have committed in our childhood turns into neurosis.This happens only when the adult punishes the child without making the kid understand what went wrong.Hatred towards animals,eatables,public speaking,communication,anxiety are all the gifts of the negligence committed when we were young.Everything is not doomed and I strongly believe that each habit can be re-learned.Most of them help us learn more about life and become channels for self growth.Parents make mistakes with their children and other than forgiving them we cannot have any other good option.

As adults we make loads of mistakes.The basic attitude which we should assume is
"You are not a mistake"
You are a human and Human makes a mistake...
We fail but we are not Losers..

Irrelevant Question

I had gone to one of the best hospitals in Hyderabad(Kims- Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences).
On one of the forms they had mandatory question?

Religion-

Why does the doctor needs a religion to cure me..I am surprised that instead of asking me my previous medical history they asked me my religion...

WHERE IS GOD!!!

Where is God?



A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were excessively mischievous. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew that, if any mischief occurred in their town, their sons were probably involved.

The boys' mother heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The clergyman agreed, but asked to see them individually. So the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the clergyman in the afternoon.

The clergyman, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?".

The boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there with his mouth hanging open, wide-eyed. So the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God!!?" Again the boy made no attempt to answer. So the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, "WHERE IS GOD!?"

The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, "What happened?"

The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time, dude. God is missing - and they think WE did it!"

Taken from Intentblog.com

PAIN

What is pain?

The book "The Prophet" explains it well

And a woman spoke, saying, "Tell us of Pain."
And he said:
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.

Dont fight...

Taken from books of Osho
The topic of conflict in the mind is discussed below

Each fragment of your mind wants to become the most powerful one. There is constant inner politics. You cannot find bliss in this constant inner war.

If you repress sex you will be in a constant war, and you can never win. Failure is absolutely certain because the more you fight with sex, the more you give energy to it. The same is the case with anger, jealousy, greed. Fighting is not the way of wisdom; it is the fool's path. The stupid and the mediocre fight. The intelligent ones transform; they absorb.

Deep down you are one person, pretending on the surface to be somebody else. There is a constant conflict between the real and the false. The false is appreciated by society, valued, respected, and the real is condemned. You have to learn ways to be two persons; you have to be constantly on guard. That creates hypocrisy, and you cannot forgive yourself; you feel guilty.

The mind is a chooser – it always chooses something against something else. It creates opposition, it creates contradiction in life. It creates extremes, and through extremes there is a constant inner war, a civil war. Don't choose, remain choiceless.It is man's freedom to choose. We can live an integrated life, we can become an organic unity – that's the whole purpose of meditation.

Why is the world not falling apart !!!

All the stereotypes are produced by a fantasy.A illusion that somewhere far far away there exists a ideal world where only good prevails.Personally I believe in a kind of dualism which equates the good to the evil.I have seen lots of good going on in the world.There are lot more NGO's working for the deprived.Most of the countries have governments run by people.We have the freedom of speech and right to information.These things were something which our ansestors could never dream of.When it comes to evils of the society they can only be wiped out when we take responsibility.Villagers are treated like handicapped people.(without a brain)Everything gets blamed on the government which is run by people like us.We vote and then we blame.We live in space age where our appetites for fast results have seeped in.We don't want five years plan of improvement but we want five minute results.

So coming to the title "Why is the world not falling apart"
because there are people and good stuff happening which helps our lives.We don't know the ways in which gifts are handed to us .Our lives don't tumble down because there are lot of people (invisible)working to make it better.They are not famous because they are not in the movie business.When we search for goodness we end up finding it everywhere.

Law of Nature

If I have a pet fish and I have named it Joe.Now everyday I feed Joe and admire the fish for its greatness.I place the fish in a fancy bowl and show it to everybody.But one day the bowl breaks and to save the fish I had to place it in a tank with other large fish.I go to the market to fetch a new bowl for Joe.By the time I come back Joe is not there in the tank.He was eaten by the large fish.I feel very sad for Joe and think life is unfair.


This story explains our own lives and the attachments we develop.If something goes wrong we curse Mother Nature.But actually she was just doing her duty.

Paraphrased and taken from the book "I am that"

The best poem ...

This is one of the poems received from a forward mail.This mail made my day:)

TO MY CHILD

Just for this morning, I am going to
smile when I see your face and laugh
when I feel like crying.
Just for this morning, I will let you
choose what you want to wear,
and smile and say how perfect it is.
Just for this morning, I am going to step
over the laundry and pick you up and take you to
the park to play.
Just for this morning, I will leave the
dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put
that puzzle of yours together.
Just for this afternoon, I will unplug
the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with
you in the backyard and blow bubbles.
Just for this afternoon, I will not yell
once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and
whine for the ice cream truck, and I will buy you one
if he comes by.
Just for this afternoon, I won't worry
about what you are going to be when you grow up, or
second guess every decision I have made where you are concerned.
Just for this afternoon, I will let you
help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you trying to fix them.
Just for this afternoon, I will take us
to McDonald's and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys.
Just for this evening, I will hold you in
my arms and tell you a story about how you were
born and how much I love you.
Just for this evening, I will let you
splash in the tub and not get angry.
Just for this evening, I will let you
stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars.
Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favourite TV shows.
Just for this evening when I run my
finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be
grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given.
I will think about the mothers and fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children's graves instead of their bedrooms.
The mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly and screaming inside that little body.
And when I kiss you goodnight I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer. It is then,that I will thank God for you, and ask him for nothing,
except one more day.............

Truth about justice - part 2

I was asked by one of the commentators (the prophet of frivolity)whether "justice waits".The story which is in the previous post was told by one of my friends and accordingly explained that what we judge is done through our senses and mind.We perceive things through our own narrow boundaries and wish everything to dance through our tunes.What we need with justice is mercy.Mercy is more important than judgement.

In the movie Schindlers List,
There was a conversation between the German general and Oskar Schindler.In which Schindler tells the general that the power to rule and punish is not the highest power but the power to forgive is the greater power.

How to treat others

Generally as a rule I feel debates don't lead to anything.Change comes through from our inner self.The self teaches us a lot more than what any person or book can teach.But accidentally when I do land up in a debate which is a total antithesis of my very belief there is a time when I try so hard to keep my defense.
As a general rule all our spiritual practices are told to be kept a secret.What we do only we understand and as long as we fulfill our moral commitments to humanity we are left to explore the hidden crevices of our heart and soul.

The following is taken from www.adyashanti.org
I thought it was relevant to the post.

Spiritual people often want unconditional support and understanding from their friends, family, and mates, but all too often seem blind to their own shortcomings when it comes to the amount of unconditional support and understanding that they give to others. I have seen many spiritual people become obsessed with how unspiritual others are and assume an arrogant and superior attitude while completely missing the fact that they themselves are not nearly as spiritually enlightened as they would like to think that they are.

As long as you perceive that anyone is holding you back you have not taken full responsibility for your own liberation. Liberation means that you stand free of making demands on others and life to make you happy.

The biggest challenge for most spiritual seekers is to surrender their self importance, and see the emptiness of their own personal story. It is your personal story that you need to awaken from in order to be free.

To give up being either ignorant or enlightened is the mark of liberation and allows you to treat others as your Self. What I am describing is the birth of true Love.

Truth about justice

A saint was seated deep in meditation.He has been deeply immersed in his penance when God appeared before him.God told him that she was happy with his determination towards the truth and she can help him solve life's mysteries.The saint wanted to know whether justice was served in the world.The next moment the stone on which the saint was sitting was on his head.He was on the ground.

Compromise

Most of the ills of the society are formed by the bounds of compromise.I think we all deserve the best and there should be no compromise.Most of us end up picking up careers which don't satisfy us fully,life partners who are miserable and friends who just torture us with their horrible remarks.Most of the revolutions in the world were started because people did not want to compromise to the authoritarian rule of the world.Most of us are caught up with the insecurity that if we are not happy with what we get then, may be the next time around it will be more miserable.

But we need to throw away things which destruct us.Habits which drive us crazy has to be given up to make space for new habits.Friends who waste our time with their sarcasm have to given up so that, new people who can respect us may enter.The same goes with our careers and all the other people we are going to be associated with.When we start having respect for what we truly deserve then we start changing things within us and outside us.We start taking responsibility and work towards a better world.We don't blame the government but take initiatives to make our country better.We fight corruption and poverty because we feel that we deserve a country which has equal rights and equal opportunities.

Spirutuality and dependence

If I want to give up everything and leave
Will I still have regrets???

This question was one of the questions circling my mind even when I was a teenager,when I felt an immense attraction towards saintly(monk)existence.I am alone but still I have so many identities.I belong to a nation,to a family,born into a religion,belong to my beliefs,and I belong to this planet.Where ever I run I wont cease belonging.It is conditioned from when I am born to stick to various identities.When we develop a strong identity and develop a belief system towards we give rise to conflict.It is near to impossible not to feel bad when our own belief system is questioned.The unheard truths prick more than lies.Even if I live in a forest I may start forming a identity based on my existence and then feel bad when loggers destroy every inch of my forest.
Meditation sometimes help us look at our identities in a deep way and come close to the truths about our own beliefs.

Human and God.

Human proposes and God disposes.


One of the quotations used by my mother when ever things go wrong(or things don't happen as we planned).She used to use "man" ..I am trying to be politically correct and I am using "human".

The best things which ever happen to us is that it does not happen as we plan.I hate when people ask me what are my plans for the day.I feel spontaneous-ness of our life is lost when we plan everything.But then wont life be a chaos if we miss trying to get everything done in the world in 24 hours.Even fun things get planned and get executed as if the world will get doomed if we dont have fun in the exact time.We all need a purpose to live.The purpose is defined by our principles and our beliefs.

A resolution itself gives rise to the agony of breaking the resolution(Osho)

We need adequate planning when we are getting ourselves organized with others.We also need some outlines when we need to reach a destination.

I am not against planning.I am against life which is planned

post 15

Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.

The biggest problem for humanity, not only on a global level, but even for individuals, is misunderstanding.

Sogyal Rinpoche

post 15

The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.

The strong man is not the good wrestler; the strong man is only the one who controls himself when he is angry.

Do not consider any act of kindness insignificant, even meeting your brother with a cheerful face.

A man's true wealth here after is the good he does in this world to his fellow man.

Muhammad

post 14

One hour's meditation on the work of the Creator is better than seventy years of prayer.
Muhammad

post 13

The most exquisite paradox… as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can't have it. The minute you don't want power, you'll have more than you ever dreamed possible.
Ram Dass

Post 12

Sometimes it can seem that every corner of our media-drenched society is sending an unmistakable message to our children and us: shed your dignity, exploit yourself and others, and you'll be on the path to glory.
Shmuley BoTeach

post 11

Love is as strong as death, as hard as hell...

Mesiter eckhart

Post no 10

To seek God by rituals is to get the ritual and lose God in the process, for he hides behind it.
Meister Eckhart

Post no 9

The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.
Henri J. M. Nouwen

Post 8

The three creations.

According to many philosophers God was a human creation so as to rule over the world.
Religion was also made to continue the order established by the God.Throw in a hell and torture,peace ,love and heaven and we have created all the world religions.Lets add to this mixture some objections to women and now its perfect.As men rule woman get tortured.
The third worst creation which humans created is time.Once it is created its like a sin we can never repent over.We have opened the channels of anxiety,punctuality and worry.Past and future torture us for ever.

Post 7

When I was young I thought I could attain any thing
Everything was there and impossible it never seemed
I was like a king without an empire
Now that I am old
I am chained to my very illusion
That everything is out of my reach
And my empire has no king

Post 6

My loneliness is the only thing I own.
It costs me nothing
But takes away everything

Post 5

Body has always been something which we should be disgusted of.Most of the religions propagate this idea.There are also strict laws which say that a woman is a unholy body which should be kept away.Our body is the temple of the soul.Our identification based on various things assocaited with how better we are (or worser we are ) can give rise to a problem.The body itself is a wonderful machine and if taken care of can only make our lives better.

Post 4

The very fact that our own morals values makes us superior may be the cause for all the discrimination.

3 rd post

One of the most important things to do when you are trying to solve poverty is - not become a part of it.
Become the solution not the problem itself.

2nd post

In India people believe in the theory of Karma.We deserve what we truly get.On one side there is a rosy picture which gives a image of doing good deeds and enjoying the good fruits in the future.Doing bad deeds and suffer for eternity.This is not very different to the western philosophy of heaven and hell.Torture and worship somehow went hand in hand.

1post ..

What is the use of charity?
If everyone took responsiblity for their own actions then will charity exist...

Money is used as a big motivation for everything.Every thing around the world seems to revolve around that.Even charity seems to revolve around that.Money is a shortform for the service and the goods we offer the society..There are no free lunches..Why should I give away what I earned ???

The mind-soul connection

May be during some calamity or under some joyous occasion we feel so connected with our inner self.We feel one with pain/happiness that we live in the moment.But in everyday life this is very difficult to achieve until we put some effort in that direction.One of the easiest ways to achieve it is through silence.To make ourselves still is very difficult.Speaking from my personal experience as a music addict, I felt it very difficult to survive without music.
But after few days of silence,your mind accepts it ...No complaints !!!

One of the reasons for me to ban music for some time was each song with words and meanings gives rise to a emotion deep within me.This emotion got through music changes the emotions which we have without the stimulation.The same goes for movies and people who can destroy your inner stillness.I don't say that we start differentiating and go and live in an island.But when we cultivate silence for some time external factors wont affect you.You become immune.But as long as you are cultivating it sometimes it is of great help to reduce the noise in our lives.

Blogging for Charity...

This is the second year I am going to blog for charity.I have to blog a whole day ...48 posts ..one post every half an hour..The menu is going to be spirutual and philosophical posts ..
[which can induce sleep to anyone who is not interested :)]

Donations can be done through this link...
http://www.blogathon.org/list.php

From the list ..select the "hturt" blog and pledge the money which has to be donated.If I successfully blog for 24 hours on July 28 then the money should be paid directly to the charity "Freedom From Hunger" for which I am blogging.
All currencies and cash are accepted.

I hope I can make a difference...

Our own intentions

Where does kindness come from?

From our hearts or from our egoic self centeredness.Many people get into all kind of charity acts or kindness acts so that they can feel good about themselves.When we work from the egoic self our act of kindness is a selfish act which gives it an air of superiority.I have seen people do that ...at the end they become more proud instead of kind.

Lets be more cautious when we work with people who are suffering more than us.Help should come out because we are equal and there is a common divinity which flows through all of us.

Kindness gets transformed into humility through which life gives us more chances to serve and help.

The path of illusion

Once when Buddha was resting and one of his followers came to him with a clay bowl.They told him that there was a saint who could levitate the bowl.They have seen with their own eyes that the saint could keep the bowl flying in the air.Buddha took the bowl and crashed it to the ground and told them never to believe in illusion.

Follow the truth and not the illusion.

Influences

Caution
This is my personal view on movies/life.My view has been fromed by the countless number of people I have come across in Hyderabad for the 22 years of my life.The people described here are the common people you come across in Hyderabad.This post is not for the so called intellectuals who can form their own attitudes and behaviour.This post is to show the average-ness and simplistic thinking which grips the Indian society.
This is not to offend anyone ...but it is portray the society values in general.

Most of the newspapers in the world survive on page 3 and media gossip.So there is a huge chunk of people who want to know.They don't want to know the latest scientific discoveries,the good/bad things in the world...they just want to know what the actor/actress have been doing.I feel it is a kind of escapism.We want to escape our lives and live in the virtual world of stars because we think they have what we don't have.I am particularly amazed at how people form their basic belief systems from movies.There are few movies which are really admirable.Other than that most of the media portray mediocre/Average-ness

The role of women in cinema (Indian movies)is so miserable.Many(girls)form their ambitions/life goals from watching crap movies.Their personality traits ..such as voice,behaviour,attitude is defined by some movie.As I have lived in Hyderabad all my life I have seen how telugu movies effect the girls.Most of them have childish voices and they try to behave like baby-adults.I had to coin up a word because there is no word in dictionary other than mentally retarded.I don't want to insult mentally retarded people because they make more sense.(personal decision)Most of the guys use temple as a factor for impressing a girl.They may commit any number of sins...but once they go to temple (or take the girl there) all the sins are washed away.(another sequence stolen from popular telugu movies)The boy talks to the girl not in a mature way but in his talk he uses adjectives which we may use for a 3 year old baby.Innocence,childishness,fairness,and good dressing sense are the only compliments you may ever receive if you are a girl in Hyderabad.

You will rarely find girl's who actively participate in other creative pursuits.As a music addict in my 4 year's of engineering career ...lets make it 5 years(with my masters career too).I have yet to find one girl who is interested in pursuit of music through creative urge.The same thing holds good even in the fields of literature,art,history and other (unknown fields)like astronomy and astrophysics,anthropology,hiking,water rafting and so on...

I was termed as crazy by most of the people for the pursuit of my creative interest's.But after lot of talks with my Friends/classmates/city folks they told me that they never thought extra curricular activities were important(decision reached through movies).It shocks me and my heart is heavy with sadness because most of them live a virtual life guided only with movies.

The most sad incident which I can remember is this:

When one boy sexually assaulted a girl...the girl thought that ... the only necessary action she should take against such things is to scold him and make him feel guilty.He was never held accountable for his act.The boy cried ...
Many months later it was known that this guy has done to the same thing to many other girls.
So after questioning the girl for the absurd reaction to the incident she told that " Most of the movies portray that the actress should scold the villain".

Paradox

jab mein tha to hari nahi
ab hari hain to mein nahi
sab andhiyaraa mit gayaa
jab deepak dekhya mahi

- Kabir

When you exist ..God does not exist
When God exist's ..You dont exist at all...
When there is light
The darkness disappears

Even though Kabir would have never read a book on quantum physics.He arrived at the most important theory of quantum mechanics long back.

Heinsenberg theory states that velocity and position of an electron cannot be found out at the same time.

Humble-ness

Humility is defined as the absence of false pride.Personally I find it so difficult to practice it.

I am proud (false pride)of everything ...
from my uniqueness ,country,family,talents,education and the list goes on.On one side there is a struggle to become humble.This does not even come close to humility because it is a struggle and not the real deal.Forcing yourself is no more than putting a gun to your head and acting in that desperate moment.There is also a sense of how did this happen.How did I develop into a humble-less being.All my life I have been rewarded to compete,prove my superiority and be unique individual.But at fleeting moments I do realize the foolishness of my attitude.

One of the main ways in which we can actually proceed on the ways of humility is by being an instrument of service.We are just instruments through which the divine music plays.We are not the musicians.This thought process when it gets processed and etched in our very being then all our pride reduces to dust.All beings are instruments and we all have greatness in us.

I remember a story which actually portrays greatness through humility...

There was once a man who through his goodness earned a wish from an angel.But the man was scared that if he asks a huge wish then he may become arrogant and it would divert his way from the divine path.So he told the angel about his confusion.In return the angel granted him a wish...

The man's shadow can cure the ill's and diseases of the worldly people.But the man will never know about it.

To say the truth always

In Buddhism right speech was considered as one of the paths of attaining nirvana.I have always suffered in the hands of lies.I lie when it comes to assertiveness.I cannot say "no" to people when they approach me for help.If it is within the boundaries of my principles and beliefs then I help them at an expense of my time.If I have other plans then I lie to get out of the situation.I shrink away from "no".But I have realised that telling the truth frees you from acting/wearing a mask.Once we accept that we are not perfect then slowly we start telling the truth.The consequences of telling the truth is not always rosy and nice.I have at times got into more trouble telling the truth.If the other person is not honest enough and does not respect the truth it is not our problem..it is their problem.But telling the truth does not mean passing cruel judgements against people.Truth should be relative to our life and existence.I personally try to avoid discussing "truth's" about others.

Pleasure and its limits

Life is pleasure !!!

That's what most of the advertisements in the television and newspapers tell you.Few of the ways in which a customer is enticed is ridiculous.The fact is that they want a individual to buy new pair of shoes when the individual has already 5-6 pairs rotting around in the house.Satisfaction and pleasure are two different concepts.The opposite of pleasure is pain.Even after purchasing the pair of shoes after the initial euphoria has died down the individual reaches the same emptiness stage.Then may be the chances are that he/she may run behind someone else for love/friendship,will get scared of silence,go shop for other items or indulge in mindless hobbies which keeps the reality far away.The age we live in can be described as the age of marketing ...through which things can be bought to temporary fill in the void which exists.

This does not mean that we leave this world and start existing in a forest.Even then this attachment may take another level.We may depend too much on sticks and leaves and may be turn the forest into a desert.Satisfaction lies in the fact that we use what we need.We survive with minimum attachments and dependency.A miser is not a satisfied individual.A miser has the same attachment as a shopaholic.When our outer needs decrease and become more simplistic and profound we are surely progressing on the inner journey.