Yoga Vashistha on Sexual Attraction..

Yoga Vashistha is certainly an extremely powerful philosophy. It challenges some of the apparent flaws in modern Hinduism. I had its Hindi version which I read while in college. Recently, a friend of mine, read out a few very powerful lines from this great book. Sharing it for you.

Rama continued:
In his youth, man is a slave of sexual attraction.
In the body which is no more than the aggregate of flesh, blood, bone, hair and skin, he perceives beauty and charm.
Even if this 'beauty' is permanent, there is some justification to the imagination; but, alas, it does not last very long.
On the contrary, very soon the very flesh that contributed to the attractiveness, the charm and the beauty of the beloved is transformed first into the shrivelled ugliness of old age,and later consumed by fire, or by worms, or by vultures.
Yet, while it lasts this sexual attraction consumes the heart and the wisdom of the man.
By this is the creation maintained; when this attraction ceases, this samsara (birth-death cycle) also ceases.
When the child is dissatisfied with its childhood, youth takes over;
when youth is plagued by dissatisfaction and frustration, old age overpowers it - how cruel is life.
Even as wind tosses a dew-drop from a leaf, old age destroys the body.
Even as a drop of poison when it enters the system soon pervades it, senility soon pervades the entire body and breaks it down, and makes it the laughing stock of other people.
Though the old man is unable to satisfy his desires physically, the desires themselves flourish and grow.
He begins to ask himself, "Who am I? What should I do?" etc., when it is too late for him to change his life's course, alter his life-style, or make his life more meaningful.

Inbetween Life & Death

24th March,2009:: Tuesday:: 00:19 Hrs

First few pages into Randy Pausch's,The Last Lecture and out of nowhere a wish came,a wish to have pancreatic cancer,just as Randy had,with some months or a year left into my life,So that,I wud have an excuse to unburden myself of my expectations and do my own Dasvidaniya.

No,it's not being pessimist,rather an Extreme Optimist.The optimism that this one year wud be far more satisfying than the 40 or 50 years I'd live under normal circumstances.It's like an intense desire to experience the state where I have a few months of my life left and then test myself.How would I behave,what great a height or low a depth I will achieve?

Perhaps,I could do it without a pancreatic cancer too,but then it'd be difficult to justify it to me myself and then probably I will never do it.

That's all for now ,let me dive deep into the book...

Ashutosh

The Hope Quotient that gets you going..

Thanx for bearing with me..But still,I would suggest you to keep crocin as a precautionary measure before delving into this piece....

This is about life.One of the few observations during my brief stint with life has been that a certain amount of hope quotient is necessary for us to lead our lives in a jovial and progressive manner.By Hope quotient,I mean something which you look forward to.
I'll explain,suppose you are planning for your marriage and in a typical indian family the process can stretch anywhere from 2 months to a year involving looking out for a suitable bride\groom,meeting with his\her family,engagement,marriage and blah blah.In this case,it's the marriage which keep your life ticking.

Similary,in your professional life you may look forward to your promotion as something which keeps you motivated to work.you may want to get admitted into a good MBA college and then this is what fuels you to strive for.

What I mean to say is,when you have something which you want to achieve either in short term or long term,you are progressing,evolving and deep inside you love the life.
Increase the resolution,and you'll find that this is similar to somethig called purpose of life.But here lies the difference,you maynot know what is the purpose of your life ,but you may be sure of what you want to get out of the next 6 months into your life.
So I would say evenif you don't know what you want from life in totality,keep that minimum threshold of hope quotient which keeps life ticking.
cling on to any hope.It's not necessary that you'll achieve what you hope for but even then it'll add up to your experiences and keep your life ticking.....
Keep Hoping..

Cheers,
Ashutosh

Spill Overs...Talking with Myself..

A parameter to Judge Oneself...
Try moving inwards in your circle of aquaintances and try looking urself from their perspective.The more closer you are to the centre,better picture you'll have about urself.How your friends perceive you, will give you a better picture than someone you 'just know'.Your family members' even better.Your soulmate's perspective far greater than anyone else.It all boils down to how a person who is more informed about you judges you.
However,remember that the most sincere and informed views about you is there with the one at the centre and he is none other than you yourself.
Talk to him and you'll no longer need other mirrors.

नवनि नीच कै अति दुखदाई...

So all the hush bush of Nuclear Deal is almost over now.India has got the waiver and the government,experts,diplomats and the aam public seem to be very happy. The deal in some sections of media is being touted as a recognition of a growing stature of India.STOP.

The deal wouldn't have been possible without the relentless arm-twisting by US.The fact is, NSG is a creation of US and if the deal couldn't have got the waiver ,it would have meant a loss of reputation for US.

But the central question of the piece is not what the deal symbolises but the fact that deal is too sweetened for India.Comeon..We as a nation have not attained a status that would have got a deal that has stuck at the heart of international nuclear non-proliferation(atleast by western standards).India is the only country in the 40-odd membered nuclear supplier group that has obtained a waiver without having signed CTBT/NPT.Isn't it too great a status for a nation which faces opposition from the smallest of its neighbours including Pakistan,nepal,bangladesh.The nations who don't heasitate starting shelling across the border at their fantasy.Nations which keep infiltrating illegal citizen,goods and arms across the border inspite of the strongest of evidences against them.Nations who don't mind bombing our commercial and political hubs inspite of international criticism.
True,we have been a rising power and I would love to see India as a central player in global arena.But the fact is,portraying the deal as the rising status of India is simply a overstatement.

But why would US support India to such an extent,out of the box way?The news is,even the mandatory rule of 30-day period for which the US congress has to be in session for the deal to make through, is being relaxed.US has been too friendly to believe in recent days.At this point of time I can't help but recall a doha(poem) from Ramcharitmanas which goes like this..

नवनि नीच कै अति दुखदाई। जिमि अंकुस धनु उरग बिलाई।।
भयदायक खल कै प्रिय बानी। जिमि अकाल के कुसुम भवानी।।

I think ,a little explaination of above would certainly help.It says,when a bow bends-it releases arrow,goad has to go back in order to hit,when a cat retreats it's a certain sign of an upcoming attack and a snake first goes a step back in order to inject its poison in your veins.In the same way when a mean creature becomes too meek for you,be cautious something may be in surprise for you.ALso when flowers blossom out of season it signals famine ,in the same way unexpected friendliness of a villain has to be treaded cautiously.

US is being too close to india and anyone having a little glance over newspapers of 90's would certainly awe,given the villifying campaign of those days that US headed against India while it supported Pakistan unconditionally.It's time when diplomats have to take steps thoughtfully and when politicians should speak judiciously.US would definitely ask a price for the deal and in a way it has started already,asking for its companies to be preferred while awarding contracts related to Nuclear Power Plants. These are business demands,diplomatic and political ones would follow pursuit soon.
When friendship goes beyond a certain threshold of intimacy ,you stand a constant chance of spoiling the relation unless the two are very clear about each other and they share a cohesive chemistry.US and India are far from reaching that level of understanding and it'll always help if we can restrain ourself from smooching each other so soon.The deal radiates to a domain that engulfs not only nuclear arena but political and economic too..

The potential prices that we may have to pay include:-
(1) US wants India to stand against the massive chineese economic and diplomatic clout and thus balancing the power in the subcontinent.Agreed..It helps to keep a neighbour in check for growing out of control and but it also helps to have cordial relations with it..We have to follow our own judgement..before going on a collision path with beijing.

(2) Iran...this is where any na-nukur would almost certainly lead to frowned eye-brows of Uncle Sam.Iran has traditionally been a friendly nation to India and perhaps a progressive Islamist State.It's in our interest that Iran progresses economically,technologically so that Islamic world has role-models like Iran and not Pakistan.This issue is going to test Indian Diplomacy to the core and let's see how our seasoned diplomats handle this.

There may be many more for example on trade WTO meets,UN sessions and Cases like Georgia too.We have to ensure that we don't just end up being another Tony Blair for George Bush/Obama/Mccain.

As an adage says,"Nothing is permanent in Politics,neither friends nor foes".US seems to know this principle more than anyone else.Initially it was Pakistan against a friendly nation to erstwhile USSR i.e. India.Now it's India pitted against a communist China which threatens the Gold of US be it at olympics or Economics...

Love and Marriage...

Haha..My second consecutive post on "LOVE"..to clear my stand,
I am writing only on the topics on which I feel I have an
opinion that i need to share with you people..

I think most of us wish to fall in love and majoirity of us do
wanna get married once they are settled. A few of us are
already in love (Few?am I wrong?) and most of them would want
to marry their loved ones (anyone who falls outside these
categories? Plz..I want to Interact with you)..

My take is very clear, marriage and love are two eternally
different things and any attempt to join them is as futile as
extrpolating two parallel lines in the hope that they meet
somewhere..if you wish to join them you have to break one of
the lines..in the same way,you have to compromise with
either love or marriage in your life..luckiest is the person
who don't have to compromise on any of these..reasons:-

* Love is an absoulutely personal Feeling between two persons,
while marriage is a social institution from its very concept in
all the societies globally.

* Love as they say, knows no age,religion,boundaries etc..on the
contrary in marriage, details much more finer than age,religion,
borders are taken into account and people try to find the most
compatible match possible[:) most of the times this is also futile]


Does that mean you shudn't marry the person you love or
only love the one whom you marry??..

The question is wide open for you to ponder over and share your
thoughts..I am very flexible on the above thoughts and given a
proper logic I am willing to change..

Contemplating Love!!

I have been thinking on a while whether one can love more than one person with equal vigour and passion to all of them.(if in case you have more than one :) I have none,hence all this thought and blogs :))

Well, I think ,it's very much possible. Just that we don't realise it or we do not want to.
Can you differentiate between your love for two of your brothers,don't you love them equally?
yes you do..I bet you do. sometimes,you love someone on an equivalent level as of your parents,for example your spiritual guru,or someone elder.All of this are very much real phenomena occuring in our life.

Now what is it that makes us think,we can't love two sweethearts/lifepartners equally. Though it may be a wild concept for some,but I am sure it happens and it's perfectly natural.

If it can't be so,then I must say there exists two types of love,one that is bestowed on life-partner and the other one being for rest of the family & friends,including mother,father and brothers etc. However,all of us know love is same everywhere and for all,whether it's for spouse or for family. what makes the love for life-partner somewhat appear different is the blend of sex and love.

Hence, I think it's perfectly natural if one is in love with more than one person at a time.
Moreover, our ancient texts have some very good examples of such kind, Draupadi with pandavas and Lord Krishna with his eight patranis. Just we need to think over it rationally and you'll get my point.

Disclaimer:- It's only a thought..please don't try it out..you may loose even the existing ones..[:)]