A Prayer That Was Answered

I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties - To make me Strong

I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems - To Solve

I asked for courage and God gave me dangers - To Overcome

I asked for prosperity and God gave me Brawn and Brain - To Work

I asked for Love and God gave me troubled people - To Help

I asked for Favours and God gave me opportunities - To Utilize

I received nothing what I wanted, but received everything what I really Needed.......

Time : Management at its premium

We are being conditioned throughout our lives to hurry, be efficient, and never to waste time. Each of us ,every day, every minute, are influenced and hoodwinked by product ideas that provide fast-foods, speedy deliveries and instant success. We are bombarded with time saving technologies and gadgetry , super swift software and precision chronograph that track time to the nth degree. We move faster, talk faster, work faster and live faster. Children wants to grow up faster and grownups grow old faster. In today's mad rush, that we call life, the time itself seems to be picking up speed.

What is the impact of eating breakfast during the commute to work or using a cell phone as we weave through city traffic? A safety hazard? Absolutely. A stressor. Of course. A time saver? Not really.

The one thing that never returns however hard we try is time. You cannot save, stretch or salvage time. You can only use time. If you use it for trivial, needless or superfluous things, you are actually wasting it. We try to cheat life by cramming more into each hour, but by doing so, we simply displace something else or ruin what that hour already contains.

There are only a few things that can be done simultaneously while preserving the integrity of each, such as listening to the radio while taking a bath or reading a book while waiting for a delayed flight to depart, but these are few and far between. In general, what appear to be time savers are actually life wasters in disguise. In the name of personal productivity, organizational efficiency or time strategies, we have been sold a bill of goods by well-meaning time management consultants who are paid handsomely to keep us on the fast track. Sometimes we are moving in the opposite directions to the track. What is the point in running up a down escalator?

Time management is not doing more things in less time. It is doing more important things in the time that we have. And who is to determine what is important? You are. It's your time. It's your life. You may want to live it at a fast pace and in that process burnout before your time or may go slow and wait, watch and enjoy all that life unfolding before you, savoring each and every moment that we have on this beautiful paradise called EARTH. The choice is yours .

At times it's more important to slow down and enjoy the moment

There's a walking trail in one of the parks I've had once visited, that winds its way leisurely around a little pool, through green grassy lawns, a small wooded area, along a rivulet and eventually emerges on the other side. People negotiate its many twists and turns as they get their daily dose of exercise. A pleasant walk indeed through morning mist and dew.

But none too surprising , there were shortcuts invariably at almost every turn. Little paths worned out through the grass by people who have been programmed by life to seek out the shortest distance between two points. Has this world gone completely mad? Why would someone whose sole purpose in the morning was to exercise or enjoy the outdoors want to take a shortcut? Yet its sad but true. Man is always hurrying..Hurrying to get things he wants or thinks he wants.

Carrying on on this, I think, we negotiate life the same way. We try to get through it in the least possible time. Who has time to smell the flowers? Just trample them underfoot as we carve another shortcut through life.

It's a beautiful life, but who has time to notice? Life expectancy has increased but its benefits have been nullified by our distorted perception of time. We are living faster than the speed of life. We are literally racing to our deaths. If you are a participant in the rat race, get off the track. Let the die-hards pass you on the way to the finish line.

The secret of life is not to be the one to finish it first, but the one to enjoy it the most. Don't live speedily; live abundantly.

ഒരിഷ്ട്ട ഗാനം

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Hinduism and The Matrix

The Matrix an action masterpiece created by the Wachowski brothers has produced millions of fans around the world. But does the Matrix trilogy have deeper meanings than just guns technology and computers. This is a take on that thought.

The Matrix philosophy.

There are some interesting connections between The Matrix trilogy and Hindu philosophy. The Matrix has got some aspects that may be considered as example for some of the concepts of Hinduism. Maya, Moksha, the concept of God and the balance of good and bad can all be understood through its well-known plot.

For the uninitiated, The Matrix is about a computer hacker (Neo) who is given the knowledge by Morpheus (A Guru or Acharya perhaps ?) that the world he was living in is not real, and just a simulation created by machines of the future. He also comes to know that machines have enslaved humanity and are now harvesting and breeding them just as a power source. He comes to know of the escaped rebel group who are fighting war against these machines and races to save the city of the real world (Zion), created by others like him, from the machines.

Let's start from the beginning . Neo, a computer hacker, is wondering about what The Matrix is, after he hears about it in a chat room. It haunts him for a long time, until he meets Trinity, aide of Morpheus, who tells him how to find out. Neo asks her, "What is the Matrix?", to which Trinity replies, "Twelve years ago I met [Morpheus], a great man, who said that no one could be told the answer to that question. That they had to see it, to believe it." Morpheus here forms what can be said as a guru or teacher, a realized one who leads his followers to truth. He tells Neo exactly what Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said to Swami Vivekananda's question, "What is God?" Hinduism says that God cannot be explained and that truth can only be experienced.

Later in the movie, Morpheus shows and explains to Neo about the Matrix, the world from which he was living in before he got to the real world. Neo asks, "This isn't real?" To which Morpheus replies, "What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain." In Hinduism, this concept of the "Matrix" is called Maya. It is said that the world we live in is just an illusion, created by our minds. Our senses, feelings and emotions are just illusions we trick ourselves into believing in. In explaining Maya, Sri Adi Sankara very often refers to the example of the rope and the snake. As long as one mistakes a rope for a snake, he is frightened and reacts to the rope as if it were a real snake. When he realizes that what he sees is only a rope, he laughs.

The Hindu concept of God is the state in which one realizes that the world is just a Matrix, or Maya, and that everything around him is an illusion. This state is called Nirvana, or much more aptly the state of Nirmohatva, which Neo attains in the movie after he realizes what the Matrix is. ( The poem Bhaja Govindam by Sri Adi Sankaracharya goes like this :

" satsangatve nisangatvam ;

Nisangatve nirmohatvam;

Nirmohatve nischalatatvam;

Nischalatatve jeevanmukhti")

Then, in the second movie, the Creator calls Neo "an unbalanced equation". By this he is hinting to what exactly Hinduism puts forward. Good cannot be alone in this world. Without Badness, the aspect of goodness has no meaning. Without Darkness one cannot appreciate light.There has to be a balance of good and evil, of creation and destruction. Among the Hindu Pantheon of Gods, the three main deities or TRINITY are Brahma the creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the destructor. Creation and preservation does its part in sustaining the world for a time after which destruction is necessary because "Everything that has a beginning has an end."

The Wachowski brothers might not have thought of Hinduism when they created the Matrix trilogy. But taking on the spirit of sanathana Dharma ( the real and imperishable Truth), to fully realize oneself , we must do what Morpheus says "Wake up, Neo, Wake UP."

Arise, Awake and Rest Not Until the Goal is Reached!!

Swami Vivekananda

Life - Boring? NEVER ...

I've often found people telling me (others) that their life is so boring and there is nothing left in the day to cheer them up. Far too often I've seen people fall into a tiresome routine, where they repeatedly do the same thing over and over again; day after day, everyday. They begin feeling that there just isn’t any excitement in their lives anymore. They start wishing that they were someplace more exciting, doing something that demanded a little more action, a little more fun to do and so on. In fact, they begin wishing they were anywhere but where they are right now.

Well there is nothing unnatural or unusual about feeling bored from time to time. This is just our bodies’ way of telling us to up the life's tempo; to find something a bit more challenging, stimulating and interesting to do. Sometimes we get the message loud and clear and immediately quicken our pace by setting our sights on the achievement of a worthwhile goal or objective. And sometimes we don’t, allowing ourselves to sink into a sea of monotony, where everyday is just as dull as the day before. Its plain fact that boredom is never an issue whenever we are doing something we really enjoy.

Its cent percent true that life is never boring, but often people choose to be bored and forget how captivating and enjoyable life is. I for one feel that people are not bored by situations or surroundings but primarily with their selves. Their life, drudging along in the fast lanes, cease ; to stop, wait and relish those small happenings and incidents, to appreciate and understand the beauty of life around them, to enjoy the thrills of never ending challenges that lay along the path. They become kind of robotic beings with no mind and action of their own.

Happiness can never be found it’s but created. Every situation has got something to cheer about and every setback can be opportunity..An opportunity to do better.

My favorite Quote

"You laugh at me because I am different, but I laugh at you because you are all the same."

-------- UNKNOWN

Human Normality

A baby that didn’t cry wouldn’t be normal. A wild animal that didn’t like to hunt wouldn’t be normal.(A politician who follows people's politics likewise wouldn't also ,at present be normal)And a human being who doesn’t like to think and learn isn’t normal. This definition of human normality is proper, even if statistics show that most people are not, in this sense, normal. If that’s so then defenitely something is terribly wrong, but the problem is not with this definition.

Wars : Defined

Even now people do harbor an idea that mankind will soon outgrow wars, that wars are fought because of ignorance or immaturity, because nations distrust or misunderstand one another, or simply because they enjoy fighting. Well what a wishful thinking!! From where does these folks get such an idea? After all wars are fought when two nations, both want something only one of them can have, decide to discuss it on that Stone Age principle " Might Is Right". Its that there is no misunderstanding or anything. They understand each other only too well.

Happiness and Want

The things a person wants, and the things that will make that person happy, are hardly ever the same things. And this remains true, even if you know it to be true. So much frustration and disappointment could be avoided if people could learn this simple principle, and adjust accordingly their overall strategy for the pursuit of happiness.
More often than not one gets what he wants and straight away laments on how he could have got something better. Human mind is such a mystery that I doubt even the Creator couldn't help marvelling at it.

Something to ponder:- From Bhagavad Gita

Na karthruthvam na karmmani lokasye srijathi prabhu:
Na karmmabhalasamyogam swabhavasthu pravarththathe.

(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 5:14)

Nadaththe kasvajith papamna chaiva sukrutham vibhu:
Agyanenavruthum gyanamthena muhyathi janthava:

(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 5:15)

Time and Timing

Within the range of human emotions it is the sense of time that is one of the most conspicuous sensibilities characteristic of human species. Our sense of time is so unique and advanced from other living beings in this world and forms the very basis of the integrating that we posses. An awareness of history,the passage and importance of time and the experiences gained becomes, for the society, the mechanism with which one define ourselves,looking into the past for a self-authenticating sense of purpose and direction and turns to the future with resolve and determination and acting in our present for it. Within the range of time - consciousness is a sense of "timing";things coming into the being and pass out of being with a kind of strange but thoroughly acceptable logic. Nowhere is this so evident than in the world of human mind, the sphere of ideas operative within human intellect. Thus "thinking drive" of human experience is one with the emergence of our special consciousness and sense of time and timing.

What is Real ?

If real is what we see,hear, taste or feel then it is nothing but electrical signals as interpreted by our brain ( As told by Morpheus to Neo)

They say that its mind that holds the key - key to our lives,our perceptions, understandings and ultimately the way we end up living and influencing the society we live in. All the battles and the struggles in this world are actually fought in minds of people, in those who actually fight and those who watch. The one who can hold on his mind longer wins the war...Be it the one inside or outside....
Great Men are the products of (their) grater minds. Though its their actions that made them great , those were actually guided,conceived and materialized by some powerful thoughts - a natural outgrowth of their in self that made them what they are....And those who will be.....

Tat Wam Asi - That Thou Are

We Are What We Think

Think , For That is Mind's Food
So we must else it dies
And without a mind to it
How can we MIND -IT

.........But many a time it pays to be mindless regard less of what mind says

Continuing with the topic

Each man's life is an endless quest. A journey to discover something.It starts with the very first breath and lats till the last. Its almost as if the very air that we take in carries this in to our hearts to be embedded there till it leaves finally for ever. Its not an immutable journey but a journey of continously changing destinations whereby it transforms to one's destiny. Each relationship , each meeting becomes a new partnership or a new guide to that journey. Always as sure as it is , all these end at the bottom of a grave stone ....may be incomplete and still continuing...............

Basically all humnas do have a quest and are always in it knowingly or unknowingly. We all experience a deficit , a sense of incompliteness either in material sense or in the abstract/finer senses. It may be money,values,hapiness or greater causes and concerns. Some reach their goals sooner than others but then the sense of achievement is short lived as soon the state of stagnancy dissolves and new destinations call out from far....Death forms the final frontier , the absolute truth of every being that is alive ....

In Mumbai

Thanks to Lakshmi that I found this blogsite to put my thoughts up.

Well its already past 10 pm here in Mumbai ..And road from Santacruz (E) station to Kurla(W)is full of people hustling and bustling home after work ...This Western raiilway station to Central railway station connecting link is supposed to be one of the busiest suburban road link in Mumbai ...

Since me sitting in a open cyber cafe typing out this blog , I could sense the rush of Mumbai and slowly and steadly people are filling up the roads ..Thats Mumbai day in and day out its all rush..