People I know

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Quotes on Hinduism

My Orkut friend Ramakrishnan POsted these once in Orkut. Found them interesting.
Not that we need any westerners certificate about our dharma, but it is quite natural to be amzed by our dharma when acquainted.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These are quotes by J. Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) who is known as the father of the atom bomb:

"Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries."

"The general notions about human understanding… which are illustrated by discoveries in atomic physics are not in the nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of or new. Even in our own culture they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable and central place. What we shall find [in modern physics] is an exemplification, an encouragement, and a refinement of old wisdom."

"The juxtaposition of Western civilization's most terrifying scientific achievement with the most dazzling description of the mystical experience given to us by the Bhagavad Gita, India's greatest literary monument."


Friedrich Maximilian Müeller (1823-1900) German philologist and Orientalist: "In the Rig-Veda we shall have before us more real antiquity than in all the inscriptions of Egypt or Ninevah....the Veda is the oldest book in existence...."

Sir John Woodroffe (1865-1936) the well known scholar, Advocate-General of Bengal and sometime Legal Member of the Government of India. He served with competence for eighteen years and in 1915 officiated as Chief Justice: "Ages before Lamarck and Darwin it was held in India that man has passed through 84 lakhs (8,400,000) of birth as plants, animals, as an "inferior species of man" and then as the ancestor of the developed type existing to-day. The theory was not, like modern doctrine of evolution, based wholly on observation and a scientific enquiry into fact but was a rather (as some other matters) an act of brilliant intuition in which observation may also have had some part."

"To the philosophers of India, however, Relativity is no new discovery, just as the concept of light years is no matter for astonishment to people used to thinking of time in millions of kalpas, (A kalpa is about 4,320,000 years). The fact that the wise men of India have not been concerned with technological applications of this knowledge arises from the circumstance that technology is but one of innumerable ways of applying it."

Count Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) was a Belgian writer of poetry, a wide variety of essays. He won the 1911 Nobel Prize for literature. In his book Mountain Paths, says: "he falls back upon the earliest and greatest of Revelations, those of the Sacred Books of India with a Cosmogony which no European conception has ever surpassed."

Mr. Thorton, in his book History of British India, states: " Hindus are indisputably entitled to rank among the most ancient of existing nations, as well as among those most early and most rapidly civilized....ere yet the Pyramids looked down upon the Valley of the Nile... when Greece and Italy, these cradles of modern civilization, housed only the tenants of the wilderness, India was the seat of wealth and grandeur..."

Huston Smith born in China to Methodist missionaries, a philosopher, most eloquent writer, world-famous religion scholar who practices Hatha Yoga. He has said in Hinduism:

“The invisible excludes nothing, the invisible that excludes nothing is the infinite – the soul of India is the infinite.”

“Philosophers tell us that the Indians were the first ones to conceive of a true infinite from which nothing is excluded. The West shied away from this notion. The West likes form, boundaries that distinguish and demarcate. The trouble is that boundaries also imprison – they restrict and confine.”

“India saw this clearly and turned her face to that which has no boundary or whatever.” “India anchored her soul in the infinite seeing the things of the world as masks of the infinite assumes – there can be no end to these masks, of course. If they express a true infinity.” And It is here that India’s mind boggling variety links up to her infinite soul.”

“India includes so much because her soul being infinite excludes nothing.” It goes without saying that the universe that India saw emerging from the infinite was stupendous.”

"While the West was still thinking, perhaps, of 6,000 years old universe – India was already envisioning ages and eons and galaxies as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. The Universe so vast that modern astronomy slips into its folds without a ripple.”


Dick Teresi author and coauthor of several books about science and technology, including The God Particle. He is cofounder of Omni magazine and has written for Discover, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly: "The Indians came closest to modern ideas of atomism, quantum physics, and other current theories."

"The Rig-Veda, is the first Indian literature to set down ideas resembling universal natural laws. Cosmic law is connected with cosmic light, with gods, and, later, specifically with Brahman. It was the Vedic Aryans... who gave the world some of the earliest philosophical texts on the makeup of matter and the theoretical underpinnings for the chemical makeup of minerals. Sanskrit Vedas from thousands of years before Christ implied that matter could not be created, and that the universe had created itself."

"Two thousand years before Pythagoras, philosophers in northern India had understood that gravitation held the solar system together, and that therefore the sun, the most massive object, had to be at its center." "Twenty-four centuries before Isaac Newton, the Hindu Rig-Veda asserted that gravitation held the universe together. The Sanskrit speaking Aryans subscribed to the idea of a spherical earth in an era when the Greeks believed in a flat one. The Indians of the fifth century A.D. calculated the age of the earth as 4.3 billion years; scientists in 19th century England were convinced it was 100 million years."

Marquis Pierre Simon de Laplace ( 1749-1827) French mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer, a contemporary of Napoleon. Laplace is best known for his nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system. wrote:"Nevertheless the ancient reputation of the Indians does not permit us to doubt that they have always cultivated astronomy, and the remarkable exactness of the mean motions which they assign to the Sun and the Moon necessarily required very ancient observation."


Yaqubi, Shiite historian, wrote in the ninth century: "Hindu are more exact in astronomy and astrology than any other people."

Carl Sagan, in his book, Cosmos asserts that the Dance of Nataraja (Tandava) signifies the cycle of evolution and destruction of the cosmic universe (Big Bang Theory): "It is the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of." Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but also the very essence of inorganic matter.

For modern physicists, then, Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. Hundreds of years ago, Indian artist created visual images of dancing Shiva's in a beautiful series of bronzes. Today, physicist have used the most advanced technology to portray the pattern of the cosmic dance. Thus, the metaphor of the cosmic dance unifies, ancient religious art and modern physics. The Hindus, according to Monier-Williams, were Spinozists more than 2,000 years before the advent of Spinoza, and Darwinians many centuries before Darwin and Evolutionists many centuries before the doctrine of Evolution was accepted by scientists of the present age.

"The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer time scales still."

Fritjof Capra (1939 - ) Austrian-born famous theoretical high-energy physicist and ecologist wrote: "Modern physics has thus revealed that every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction. The dance of Shiva is the dancing universe, the ceaseless flow of energy going through an infinite variety of patterns that melt into one another’’.For the modern physicists, then Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic matter. As in Hindu mythology, it is a continual dance of creation and destruction involving the whole cosmos; the basis of all existence and of all natural phenomenon. Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our times, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance."

Professor Arthur Holmes (1895-1965) geologist, professor at the University of Durham. He writes regarding the age of the earth in his great book, The Age of Earth (1913) as follows:

"Long before it became a scientific aspiration to estimate the age of the earth, many elaborate systems of the world chronology had been devised by the sages of antiquity. The most remarkable of these occult time-scales is that of the ancient Hindus, whose astonishing concept of the Earth's duration has been traced back to Manusmriti, a sacred book."

Swami Kriyananada (J. Donald Walters) World renowned as a singer, composer, and lecturer, founder of the Ananda Village is perhaps the most successful intentional community in the world writes: "Hindu cosmography, for example born in hoary antiquity, strikes one in certain ways as surprisingly modern. India has never limited its conception of time to a few crowded millennia. Thousands of years ago India's sages computed the earth's age at a little over two billion years, our present era being what is called the seventh Manuvantra. This is a staggering claim. Consider how much scientific evidence has been needed in the West before men could even imagine so enormous a time scale."

Dr. Subhash Kak - sulekha.com: "Interestingly, modern science has estimated that the age of the earth is about 4 billion years. Scholars feel it is uncanny that the Vedic Aryans could have conceived of such a vast span of time over 3,500 years ago that would be similar to the same figure estimated by science today."

Voltaire in his book: " The Greeks, before the time of Pythagoras, traveled into India for instruction." (The Philosophy of History, p. 527).

Jean-Sylvain Baily, (1736–93) 18th century French astronomer and politician. His works on astronomy and on the history of science (notably the Essai sur la théorie des satellites de Jupiter) were distinguished both for scientific interest and literary elegance and earned him membership in the French Academy, the Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Inscriptions. Bailly said: "The movement of stars which was calculated by Hindus 4,500 years ago, does not differ even by a minute from the tables which we are using today." And he concludes: "The Hindu systems of astronomy are much more ancient than those of the Egyptians - even the Jews derived from the Hindus their knowledge."

Romain Rolland, (1866-1944) French Nobel laureate, professor of the history of music at the Sorbonne and thinker. He authored a book on the " Life of Ramakrishna". " Religious faith in the case of the Hindus has never been allowed to run counter to scientific laws, moreover the former is never made a condition for the knowledge they teach, but there are always scrupulously careful to take into consideration the possibility that by reason both the agnostic and atheist may attain truth in their own way. Such tolerance may be surprising to religious believers in the West, but it is an integral part of Vedantic belief."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, (1850-1919), famous American poet and journalist. Wilcox poems have been collected in volumes such as Poems of Pleasure (1897) and Maurine and Other Poems (1888) states: " India - the land of Vedas, the remarkable works contains not only religious ideas for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all are known to the seers who founded the Vedas."


No one needs an introduction to the famous Einstein. Here is what he had to say:

"When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous,"

Friday, June 23, 2006

Kalidasa Says ..

"All that is ancient is not good nor is a work censurable because it is modern. The wise accept an alternative after examination; the unwise are guided by the beliefs of others. "

-Poet Kalidasa

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

சட்டப்படி குற்றம், நியாயப் படி?

நேற்று பத்திரிக்கையில் வந்த ஒரு கொலை செய்தி படித்து இப்படி கூட நடக்குமா என்று நினைத்தேன். கணவன் ஒருவன் தனது வேலையில்லாத உறவினன் ஒருவனை கிராமத்திலிருந்து வரவழைத்து வேலையும் வாங்கி தந்திருக்கிறான். ஆனால் அந்த உறவினனுக்கும் மனைவிக்கும் கள்ளக்காதல் ஏற்பட்டு, உறவினன் ஆலோசனைப்படி கணவனை மனைவி கொன்றுவிட்டாள் என்பதே அந்த செய்தி.
ஆனால் இன்று போலீஸில் அந்த மனைவி சொன்ன விஷயங்கள் மிகவும் திடுக்கிட செய்துவிட்டது.

இவள் கணவனின் அக்காள் மகள், அவனை விட 12 வயது சிறியவள். சிறு வயதிலிருந்தே அவளை sex torture செய்து வந்தவன் ஒருநாள் அவளை கெடுத்து விட்டான். வேறு வ்ழியின்றி அவளை அவனுக்கு கட்டி வைத்துவிட்டனர். அவன் கொடுமை மேலும் தொடர்ந்து அனுபவித்து வந்தாலும் தன்னம்பிக்கையுடன் ஆசிரியை ஆகி சம்பாதித்து வந்தாள். அவளின் சொத்துக்களையும் தன் பெயரில் ஏமாற்றி மாற்றிக் கொண்டான்.
இந்நிலையில் புதிதாக வந்த உறவினன் அவளுக்கு ஆறுதல் கூறப்போய் அவர்களுக்குள் தொடுப்பு ஏற்பட்டு விட திட்டம் போட்டு அவள் அவனை கொலை செய்து விட்டாள். என்னை பொறுத்த வரை அவள் செய்தது முற்றிலும் குற்றம் என்று சொல்ல மாட்டேன். எல்லா சூழ்நிலைகளுக்கும் சட்டமோ சாத்திரமோ இயற்ற இயலுவதில்லை. அந்த பெண்ணிற்க்கு நல்ல தீர்ப்பு கிடைக்க வேண்டு என்று விரும்புகிறேன்.

மேலும் இந்த செய்தி கூட மனதை உலுக்கியது. இந்த மாதிரி ஆட்களுக்கெல்லாம் pulp fiction படத்தில் வரும் தண்டனை தான் கொடுக்க வேண்டும் என்று நினைக்கிறேன். பொதுவாகவே நமது நாட்டில் பெண்கள் மிகவும் sex தொல்லைக்கு ஆளாகிறார்கள். குடும்பத்துக்காகவும், மற்றும் பல சமூக காரணங்களுக்காகவும் அமைதி காக்கிறார்கள். அந்த மாதிரி அடக்கப்பட்ட உணர்ச்சிகள் எரிமலை போல் எரியும் நாள் வெகு தொலைவில் இல்லை. அப்பொழுது கண்ணகி தன் மார்பை பிடுங்கி எறிந்து மதுரையை எரித்தது கட்டுக்கதை அல்ல நடைமுறை சாத்தியமே என்பதை தாமதமாக தெரிந்து மடிவோம்.
பெண்மை வாழ்கவென்று கூத்திடுவோமடா!
பெண்மை வெல்கவென்று கூத்திடுவோமடா!!
-பாரதியார்.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

In and Out

There is a saying in tamil "Andathil ullathu ellam pindathilum ullathu", which roughly means whatever one sees outside resides inside too. This could be understood from various view points. One might interpret it as Every minerals that are found in this world can be found in body too as it is made of same five fundamental elements. May be one can think it as world can exists nowhere but in mind. If one wants to know this world it is better just know yourself. Even in "Lalitha sahasranamam" mother godess is called as "Anthar mukha samaaradhya bahirmukha sudurlabha", which means she is found well decorated when mind is turned inside, and impossible to find her when turned outside. Thinking on these lines, one can always find striking similarities between mind and universe. Talking about universe it is said its origin is not found, though as per some sciectists it carries zero energy, it appears to have infinite energy. We can attribute same character to our mind or manas too. Also one is not sure if universe is a infinite space, if anything can exist outside universe. Same goes with mind too. Any material's existence does not make sense without mind. In that way it is as big as universe itself. It is told that size of universe is not known, not even light has not visited so much of the universe, as it is so big, even light needs to take so many light years which is not yet over since big bang. Similarly I think even we by ourselves have not visited several dark areas of our own mind and our life time seems to be lesser to have visited every corner of it as it seems to be expanding infinetly each day like universe.

Thinkning on these lines is called "Antharartham". Any material existence can be interpreted with inner meaning. On seeing a sea one can be reminded of vastness of mind and its restlessness to the waves. One can find such interpretation for ramayana in blogspot of gaancase.

There is a Devipatnam in rameswaram, where sea is as calm as a pond because Shri Rama prayed to Narayana to keep the sea calm to perform his navagraha pooja. One may interpret inner meaning as one has to first calm down his mind first when affected by adversity which will enpower them to exhibit great valor against their foes. One can understand more from such stories as we sit and contemplate and Guess that is the true intent of all puranas and ithihasas.

Friday, June 09, 2006

கோமாளிகள் ஆட்சியில் நல்லவர்கள் ஏமாளிகள்

"கடன் பட்டார் நெஞ்சம் போல் கலங்கினான் இலங்கை வேந்தன்" என்று கம்பர் இந்திரஜித் இறந்த போது இராவணனின் கையறு நிலை பற்றி கூறுவான். கம்பன் வார்த்தையை உண்மை என கொண்டு வாங்கிய கடனை அடைப்பவனை பைத்தியக்காரன் என்று தான் அழைக்க தோன்றுகிறது. சமீபத்தில் தி.மு.க. அரசு கூட்டுறவு வங்கி (co-operative banks) விவசாயிகள் வாங்கிய கடன்களை எல்லாம் ரத்து செய்துவிட்டது. கடன் வாங்கி அதை அடைக்க உயிரைவிட்டவன் பணம் போனது போனதுதான். கடனை அடைப்பதை பற்றி சிறிதும் சிந்திக்காதவனுக்கௌ கொண்டாட்டம். என்ன கொடுமை சரவணன் இது?
அதே போல மற்ற வங்கிகளில் கடன் வாங்கியிருந்தால் அரசின் சலுகை கிட்டவில்லை. மற்ற வங்கிகளில் வட்டி கம்மியாக இருக்கிறதே என்று அதிமேதாவிதனமாக கடன் வாங்கிய விவசாயி நொந்து நூடுல்ஸ் ஆக வேண்டியதுதான். ஆது போக இப்படி இஷ்டத்திக்கு சட்டம் போட்டால் வங்கியை எப்படி நடத்த முடியும்? கூட்டுறவு வங்கி என்னும் அற்புதமான திட்டம் கோமாளி அரசியல் வாதிகளால் தவிடு பொடி ஆக்கப்படுகிறது. தன்னம்பிக்கை இல்லாம வோட்டுக்கு அரசியல் நடத்துபவர்கள் தலைவர்கள் ஆனால் ஆட்சி நடப்பதில்லை காட்சி தான் நடக்கும். கண்ணகிக்கு சிலை திறப்பு விழா போண்ற கோமாளிக் காட்சிகளுக்கு இனி குறை ஒன்றும் இருக்காது. உண்மையில் கடன் ரத்து என்ற அபத்த வாக்குறுதியை இரண்டு கழகங்களுமே கொடுத்திருந்தன என்பது தான் வெட்கக்கேடு!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

code name god

I was recently reading Dr.Mani Bhaumik's "Code Name God" book. This is one of those book that deals with where science meets god or spirituality. Since this was written by renowned physicst who developed excimer laser which is used in LASIK surgery books deals with lot of science and scientists. Also his associaton with Mahatma Gandhi and others along with his own inclination towards to spirituality made his analyses of various religions concepts veritable. No, this is not review of that book. I just found one of his ideas very amusing.

In one of the passages where he wonders whether the object "Brahman" is something like "genome" which is found in every point of an organism, that carries code of it. Understanding genome is equivalent to knowing the oraganism totally and we can "Clone" that living being from that DNA code. I was wondering if someday scientists crack such code for universe, how will they prove it. Can you clone this universe? if yes, where this new universe will be placed. There must be space outside universe which is self contrdictory. Guess all they can say is, yes this is that code, which could not proven or demonstrated by duplicationg the universe, but you will have to beleive us. After all this is what every religion say about GOD. Don't they?

Dr.Bahaumik's says sum total of energy in this universe is zero. From zero came this infinite universe and there must be possibilty that infinity will be absobed into zero is what I think. "Poojiyathukulle oru Rajiyathai aandu kondu, puriyamale irupan oruvan, athai purindh kondal avan than iraivan" is what kannadasan told.

I strongly recommend this book to whoever is interested in both physics and metaphysics of this universe.

Monday, June 05, 2006

Palavesam:Reply to priya's tag

World is wide open. Options are infinite. Once I get that boon as mentioned by priya, I will ask god to give me ability to change sex that suits my profession. Some of my role models, may be majority of my role models are women. Anyways let me list out very few of the people who impresed me. These are someone's at top of my head.

Gundu Alamelu:
She is one of the sugavasi I know from my very tender age. She worked as a cook in our grand father days (I was not born then), My mother said she was a very good cook but she would eat majority of her cookings by herself. She was later fired as she was caught red handed stealing some jwellery. The reason I like her was she was gifted with a "karunakku". If she curses someone that would always come true. Once she was sent out of the job, she stopped working. She would visit one of the houses she wokred before and would ask for food. Food must be tasty and variety of dishes must be served. Beleive me fearing her curses she was always given nice food. When she was enjoying very hot just-prepared food, I was eating "pazhayathu". I woulf love to live as gunda alamelu for few years.

Ocha samsaram jakkama:
Ocha was our area "kalla saraya" trader. I had never seen him sober, always "total mattai". His wife jakkama was my favourite personality. She is very tall and sema "kattai", with low hip kandangi selai and big bullakku, lollaku etc. Her "pachai kuthu" is very glamorous. Still the reason I liked her was she was the one who really ran the business. SSeeing so many constables "pummify" at her feet is a scene to be enjoyed. All these things happened in front of our eyes. Beleive me, the system was so transperant. I always wished to be a powerful woman like her. God please give me couple of years as jakkama.

Pimp:
I don't know why people want to be good. I find life is interesting when one does shady things. I cannot imagine an interesting life without dons, prostitutes, etc. The reason I want to be a pimp is we can get to know very interesting persons. "Sir, naan periya doctor, so actress kettadhu velila theriyama pathukanga" kida stuff, I enjoy really. Still I know I can never reach such a big position in any profession. I will aim for a pimp position in and around bus stand railway staion etc. It will be big fun to apprach some 16-18 year village boy "thambi valiba vayasu, jollya irukanum,,pakkathila college kuttinga iruku..easy thaan vanga" kinda stuff. I will prefer to be 60+ when I am doing this stuff. Playing hide and seek with strict officers, helping maamool officers, lots of happenings to enjoy as small scale pimp, aint it. Who knows I may hit a bounty if I catch some officer doing in a camera? kaduvul kanna thiraka mattara?

Begger:
Since finacial stability is assures, man I would love to be a begger. Guess will prefer Railway station or bus stand. I can get to see variety of people and can enjoy lotta antics. I love such places where I watch people unnoticed. pick pocketors, misbehaviors, saamiyars, politicians appa so many people. Simply my vote for best profession.

Bar tender:
God only knows how much I like this job. I will do bar tending at star hotels (leather bar kinda) to serve drinking ladies. They are one my best beloved characters. Drinking college gal, who goes around shouting filthy words assuming she knows it all, I love to interact with visiting actress, lady offials, politicans, who after getting high probably might share their "andharangam", who knows I can end up as pimp (ore kallula rendu maanga), what about becoming gigalo - me thinking. AlsoI want to bar tend at local tasmac. There was a "malivu vilai madhu kadai" during MK's rule near our house. Man I enjoyed lotta funny things then. Would love to have it again working there.

Bus conductor:
Ok, let me get decent and forget my "English August" face for a while. Bus conductor is the best decent job I can think of. We can fight with unknowns over 50 paisa, 60 paisa daily. If you watch a bus conductor closely all of them will look same, they will seriously discuss their 50 kasu, 60 kassu squabbles with everyone they know during their leisure hours. On duty or off duty guess "paisas" looms large in their thoughts and dreams. However they are most efficient multitaskers. I love them because even under tremendous stress they wont lose their sense of humour , some of the best jokes I know are craked by them enachanting peak hours bus passengers.

I am sure everyone will love to be driver of UK (our campus) bus. All my life I envy them. Their job involves just a jolly ride around campus for every 20 mins, honking at known faces, happily discussing ball games etc. Job satisfaction guranteed.

Lavukka bittu, jaavuttu bittu ammani:
Stree vendors who sell jacket bits, aluminium, copper vessels for pazhaya thuni mani are my very facvourite professionals. They always carry their pride as "vyabari". They will get to see well to do ladies going "kanjaam patti" when it comes to trading with them. They are very poor hard workers serving some of the affluent people of our society. Atleast pathiram vendor wears kaili, while "javutu bit" wears only white and white fwhen they appear in public. It is a big task to maintain it clean as they might not prefer washing it often for the fear of wer and tear. But the reason I like them is their skilled way of talking to ladies. They way of addressing "Ammani, ammani" and showing enormous patience dealing with cheap minded ladies are very admirable. Guess he sees any dress worn by his customer as his future wealth.

Ellam naane:
I can keep on going. I take no pride or happiness in whatever occupation I do. I landed up doing something by mere accident. I not all that "enthu" type to answer such tag. I always feel world is incomplete without any of these things that exists. Everyone does lord Shiva's job. Or god does every job (both good and bad), by taking several roles. "Palavesam" is one of the names of villagers few years ago. Every vesam is his vesam, I liked that name for the philosophy it carries. That is exactly why he is called "pithan". To stress he is everything he came down as a "lazy youth" and got whipped by pandya king. When someone is whipped the pain goes down to every one. Think about it, you will get to know.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Bhagawath geetha.

I am not so well versed in Bhagawat Geetha, yet my accidental forays into that sacred book never stopped to amaze me. Like everything else, BG can be understood from different point of views. Sometimes visualize arjuna representing a common man, disillusioned and threatened by enormity of task ahead of him and was stuck in ever present life situation where "Dharma" appears like "Adharma" and vice versa. Krishna represents the guiding god when approached with humility shows us the right path.
Reference http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-02-07.html

On the other hand, we can think of arjuna as "manas", whose nature is to get confused and go astray, while krishna as "wisdom" whose nature is to instruct right thing. May be we can say kurushethra war represents our internal strife and illusions, while arjuna represents our conscience and krishna represents our “Bhuddhi” which is knower of the truth. When “manas” is totally controlled by “buddhi” we get right wisdom. In that way everything appears “within”, when I say everything, I meant “the problem”, “the solution”, “the seeker” and the “mentor” they are all with in us to be explored. I get this idea when he talks about waveriness of mind.

(Ref:http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-06-29.html). By the way, Chapter six called as dhyana yoga talks about ways to control ones mind and to engage in dhyana.

Anyways, My most favourite shloka in BG is this one. I remember reading somewhere that Vivekanada swami when talking about this shloka has said “ Greatest sins commited by human beings are fear and weakness. Chanting of this shloka will help one get rid of those sins”. I cannot agree more with him can we?