Just for the fun of it

"The Fun of Playing"

One must assume that the human body has its limits of endurance. It is in keeping with laws of conservation of energy. A part of what you take in as food burns up as energy, some gets expelled and the remainder gets deposited as fat. If we overwork our body, the fat deposits get burnt up as well, and if we stretch it even further it begins to eat up other resources that can severely stress out the whole system, leading to exhaustion, unconciousness and even death in extreme cases.

Recently, Antonio Puerta collapsed on the soccer field near the mouth of his own goal during a major soccer match. Not only that, he swallowed his own tongue. Had it not been for his team-mate Drago, who helped to pull out the unconcious player's tongue, Antonio would surely have choked to death. He was revived by the physio and finished the game only to become unconscious again in the locker room. He has been rushed to the hospital where his condition is said to be "very serious".

Not long ago, another soccer player - a brazilian, died on the field during a game in Goa. There have been other cases too around the world, bringing down a pall of gloom over the sport every now and then. Officials usually blame it on poor fitness levels or congenital problems that are not disclosed by the players. While that may be true in some cases, I am not sure that in all cases, sporting accidents of this sort happen because of undisclosed fitness issues. One wonders if most sportsmen and sportswomen are not overworked thanks to the insane levels of popularity and money associated with games such as soccer and American football.

In my early days as a school going kid and later as a college student, I used to play soccer and field hockey with an enthusiasm matched only by a Shahid or a Maradona (it is another matter that I possessed only about 0.1% of their talent). At the end of a game I would be "dead" with exhaustion. I am sure countless youngsters have experienced this. We push ourselves sometimes to the limits of our endurance. The "killer instinct" takes over and we want to win at all cost. That seems to be the problem. Winning has become much more important than just playing for fun. Gone are the days when one watched with bated breath, the magic of a Mohammed Shahid (ex-Indian hockey player) or the brilliance of a Pele or aMaradona on the soccer field. These stars surely played for the fun of it and enjoyed every bit of the game. You could see it in their game. It was poetry in motion......

Now, not only are players constantly told by the team managers, the wealthy club owners,the media and the politicians to win at all cost, they are also living in fear of being "taken off" by criminals and terrorists. I am sure Sachin is a victim of this. How can you give your 100% when there is a Lashkar or a Jaish-e-Mohammad threat hanging over you like the proverbial damocles' sword? Not too long ago, a Columbian soccer player was killed in his own country after returning home from a failed World Cup campaign. Why? Nobody knows for sure. Some say that he had made some enemies in the Columbian mafia. Others say it was revenge for having scored a self-goal in a crucial World cup match. I wont be surprised if the second possibility turned out to be true because in South America, football is more important than breathing !

No wonder, when players play under such pressure, they get "steam cooked" on and off the field. The fun element takes the back seat (or maybe it has already fallen off the rear end of the pillion). The tragic thing is that the same mentality is surfacing in schools where youngsters are encouraged to compete aggresively and brain washed into thinking that it is all about winning. Sport is all about gore and glory now. When India plays Pakistan on the hockey field or in a cricket stadium full of frenzied spectators, it is war, and not just a game. One is not denying that it takes lot of passion to play a game like soccer but when that passion takes on the colour of aggression, it transforms into violence. That is what we see splashed across newspapers or projected on the TV screen everyday - the colour of violence in sports! And lately, if you are reading a tabloid like Times of India, you'll be "treated" to sensational pictures of sexy sportswomen, which leads us to the question: why does the media mix up sex and sports? What kind of message are we sending to our kids? That you have to look sexy in order to make it big in sports?

The fun part of sports is dying. One wonders if we are going back to the age of gladiators,when a bloody sport very often ended in death. Is it too late now to turn around? Is it too late to ask: "Can we just play for fun?"

Just for the fun of it

"The Fun of Playing"

One must assume that the human body has its limits of endurance. It is in keeping with laws of conservation of energy. A part of what you take in as food burns up as energy, some gets expelled and the remainder gets deposited as fat. If we overwork our body, the fat deposits get burnt up as well, and if we stretch it even further it begins to eat up other resources that can severely stress out the whole system, leading to exhaustion, unconciousness and even death in extreme cases.

Recently, Antonio Puerta collapsed on the soccer field near the mouth of his own goal during a major soccer match. Not only that, he swallowed his own tongue. Had it not been for his team-mate Drago, who helped to pull out the unconcious player's tongue, Antonio would surely have choked to death. He was revived by the physio and finished the game only to become unconscious again in the locker room. He has been rushed to the hospital where his condition is said to be "very serious".

Not long ago, another soccer player - a brazilian, died on the field during a game in Goa. There have been other cases too around the world, bringing down a pall of gloom over the sport every now and then. Officials usually blame it on poor fitness levels or congenital problems that are not disclosed by the players. While that may be true in some cases, I am not sure that in all cases, sporting accidents of this sort happen because of undisclosed fitness issues. One wonders if most sportsmen and sportswomen are not overworked thanks to the insane levels of popularity and money associated with games such as soccer and American football.

In my early days as a school going kid and later as a college student, I used to play soccer and field hockey with an enthusiasm matched only by a Shahid or a Maradona (it is another matter that I possessed only about 0.1% of their talent). At the end of a game I would be "dead" with exhaustion. I am sure countless youngsters have experienced this. We push ourselves sometimes to the limits of our endurance. The "killer instinct" takes over and we want to win at all cost. That seems to be the problem. Winning has become much more important than just playing for fun. Gone are the days when one watched with bated breath, the magic of a Mohammed Shahid (ex-Indian hockey player) or the brilliance of a Pele or aMaradona on the soccer field. These stars surely played for the fun of it and enjoyed every bit of the game. You could see it in their game. It was poetry in motion......

Now, not only are players constantly told by the team managers, the wealthy club owners,the media and the politicians to win at all cost, they are also living in fear of being "taken off" by criminals and terrorists. I am sure Sachin is a victim of this. How can you give your 100% when there is a Lashkar or a Jaish-e-Mohammad threat hanging over you like the proverbial damocles' sword? Not too long ago, a Columbian soccer player was killed in his own country after returning home from a failed World Cup campaign. Why? Nobody knows for sure. Some say that he had made some enemies in the Columbian mafia. Others say it was revenge for having scored a self-goal in a crucial World cup match. I wont be surprised if the second possibility turned out to be true because in South America, football is more important than breathing !

No wonder, when players play under such pressure, they get "steam cooked" on and off the field. The fun element takes the back seat (or maybe it has already fallen off the rear end of the pillion). The tragic thing is that the same mentality is surfacing in schools where youngsters are encouraged to compete aggresively and brainwashed into thinking that it is all about winning. Sport is all about gore and glory now. When India plays Pakistan on the hockey field or in a cricket stadium full of frenzied spectators, it is war, and not just a game. One is not denying that it takes lot of passion to play a game like soccer but when that passion takes on the colour of aggression, it transforms into violence. That is what we see splashed across newspapers or projected on the TV screen everyday - the colour of violence in sports! And lately, if you are reading a tabloid like Times of India, you'll be "treated" to sensational pictures of sexy sportswomen, which leads us to the question: why
does the media mix up sex and sports? What kind of message are we sending to our kids?
That you have to look sexy in order to make it big in sports?

The fun part of sports is dying. One wonders if we are going back to the age of gladiators,when a bloody sport very often ended in death. Is it too late now to turn around? Is it toolate to ask: "Can we just play for fun?"

Guidance - a short story

Please go to the following link where you can find the story
on love, dreams and the spiritual :

http://friend2003.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/08/guidance.htm

Aqua-Cola vs The People of India

It is a hot summer afternoon. The sun is beating down on us mercilessly. Across the road is a water fountain from which flows the most delicious aqua, thanks to the Romans from some 2000 years ago. Yes, we are in Rome where you can find the most beautiful renaissance art / architecture, Bernini fountains, friendly purse snatchers, mouth watering ice creams, yummy pastas & pizzas, fashionable christians, and yes, cool, delicious mountain stream water that is like nectar to parched throats! The last is ofcourse free and one can fill up as many empty coca cola bottles with it as one wants. The supply is endless, as if coming down to us from some celestial plane high above the planes (aka flat earth), its source hidden from mere mortals such as moi. With my thirst quenched, I fill up my empty Fanta bottle with this fountain water for future consumption. It is good to carry a bottle of water in summer, lest one gets lost walking down a deserted pathway leading out of Rome...Many, many miles away, in the dark halls of an old colonial government building in New Delhi a debate is springing to life. A debate that will eventually lead to a ruling that will prevent Coke & Pepsi from manufacturing pesticide contaminated drinks in India. CSE may have won the battle but the war is far from over. After all, one can argue that Pepsi has Shahrukh, Coke has Amir and...what does CSE have? Well CSE has ..Ma....only....to depend on. And mamas they will need in plenty, in order to teach the little ones not to crave for Coke and to fill their little bellies instead with good old water! The motherly logic is very simple. You save money, you remain healthy enough to do your homework and you live longer than grandma. The last one is not guaranteed because a mad KSRTC bus driver can run you down on Kanakpura Road in the time it takes you to bat an eyelid, anytime - day or night. Back in Bangalore, the debate is still raging among the haves, about how to make life better for the have-nots. How can we get more water, better roads, clean air, less filth etc? The problem is that after all the debating, the haves go home feeling good about unloading all their fundas on to the media who in turn promptly print them for the benefit of the desensitized have-nots. What is the real problem here? Why does Rome have drinkable water flowing in its streets, while Lakshmamma has to first boil what comes out of her kitchen tap before giving it to her family? I dont have answers. The answer is not in answers I am afraid. Every Tom, Dick or Harry has answers and that is what we see endlessly on TV or in the newspaper. The answer perhaps is in the way one approaches life itself. Do we live in order to die or do we die in order to live? Deep down in our psyche is the evil doer. Find him and kill him.That is the greatest service one can do to humanity, to the earth and indeed to the whole Universe. Ciao.

The Great Void

There is a stone slab on a hillock near the main gate. As one walked
up to it through a patch of grass and a short flight of steps, mindful
of the dangers that lay hidden under the warm rocks, a sense of peace
and quietness came unexpectedly. It was not something that could be
invited or wished for. And it came as stealthily as the flock of
birds that cut a traceless path through the sky. The sun had just set
in the west. A few clouds near the horizon turned a redish orange,
signalling the end of another day. Towards the east a large pyramid
shaped building was being illuminated for the evening. On an impulse
I lay down flat on that stone slab, facing the sky. A young neem tree
nearby gave me company as I gazed at the half moon through its
semi-bare branches. Soon the gaze shifted to the tender new leaves
that were beginning to emerge from the tips of the branches. They
were dancing merrily in the gentle breeze that was blowing from the
north east. The gazing game went on for a while, shifting between the
tree and the moon. Then a lone star appeared directly above in the
darkening sky. It must be the brightest star in the sky. Nameless, it
lay in the great void, perhaps wondering what we all are. The silence
was soon disturbed by the sound of loudspeakers, a modern nuisance,
that came from the direction of "the great pyramid". The building is
the home of a popular guru who is about to celebrate his fiftieth
birthday. Perhaps the disciples of the guru felt that the whole world
needed to know about the impending "holy event". The newspapers
carry articles about it everyday and it seems, atleast for the time
being, people will forget about the traumas inflicted upon them by the
gurus of politics, sports & theatre. The spiritual drama played out by
the star gurus of the past centuries have provided so much
entertainment, that people cant seem to have enough of it. The latest
business savvy guru claims to have perfected the art of living. All one
needs to do is breathe & all worries miraculously disappear! The rich
and the famous flock to his satsang. I dont deny that it is beneficial.
After all what he is teaching is part of an ancient tried & tested
exercise called pranayama, the science of which has been taken to
dizzying heights by the Buddha and his followers. The buddhists call it
breath-awareness (Anapana sati). In recent times Goenkaji has made
Vippassana, an exercise in mindfulness of the mind-body complex,
very popular in India and the in west. It cannot be doubted that right
through the ages, man has sought something beyond the travails of
daily existence, something beyond time - the eternal ! But in the very
seeking, he seems to forget what he is seeking! This may sound
strange, but what man has been seeking for thousands of years,
through his intellect and accumulated knowledge, may be altogether
beyond the realm of thought. Modern man does'nt seem to
understand this and so he seeks a little bit of peace, a little bit of
tranquility, tries to bring down his stress levels etc, wherever and
whichever way he can do it. And along comes a guru who says,
"Come over here, I have just the thing for you." The modern seeker
then learns some breathing technique from the guru which
momentarily reduces his stress, clears his clouded mind (& sinuses),
only to be shown the illusion of God in the blasted guru. How tragic!
Nobody ever questions why they are seeking anything - may it be
god or ice cream. Are we aware of an inner void, a sense of
incompleteness that may be propelling us to seek this or that?
Why does'nt the guru tell his disciple to go find out what he is
seeking and why he is seeking? What role does a guru have in
understanding this inner void? None whatsoever! The void can only
be understood if one cares to look within and face the psychological
challenges that are being thrown at us. Not run away from them by
escaping into some silly practice of breathing etc. The void creates
chaos in our lives if we dont understand what is causing it.

The first step is to be mindful of the causes and ending them, which
is the ending of anger, fear, desire, hurt, hatred and sorrow within
oneself. Then the mind can become silent because it is not ravaged
by these psychological tsunamis that our thoughts seems to kick up
every now and then. The body and breath then fall into their natural
states of equilibrium. Good health follows inevitably. What the guru
is trying to preach is just the opposite which is a waste of time. By
giving a pill he forever enslaves the unsuspecting disciple. Freedom
has nothing to do with the business of gurus. It is a state of discovery
of oneself by oneself.

It takes two to Tango

They moved very gracefully and silently. One following the other, hesitantly at times. One raising its head occasionally to see where the other was going. They were soon out of sight, and out of the grassy garden area altogether. There was no one around, except for a pair of bewitched eyes tracking the "intruders" like blips on a radar screen. You don't see ratsnakes here very often, and when you see a pair out in the morning sun "singing" their own version of "jaane jaan dhundtha phir raha" (an old hindi love song), you know it is a very special day. Snakes are entitled to their privacy, so we did not go chasing after them like some of those shameless camera totting Discovery mode naturalists do these days. Why not for a change, declare April 21st as the "Animal day"? Let all the zoo creatures out so they can see the human non-animal from close quarters. One is sure they would all want to get back into their cages in utter disgust after seeing the horrific things that non-animals are doing to themselves and others these days. Especially in Bangalore after one filmy hero died a natural death and other lesser non-animals went beserk, killing, burning, and looting without a care in the world. Ofcourse the pet tigers of Kanchanaburi,Thailand, will be the exception as they seem to like the company of buddhist monks. And why not? Buddhism is the most peace-loving of all religions and some practicing buddhist would go so far as to say that an ant crawling on his chin was his mother in a previous life. Do you think one of those rat snakes was your sister in a previous life? If you are an oriental who believes in reincarnation, you would think that there is a very high probability that the serpent was your sibling ages ago. What about Genghis Khan?... Right? Karma is the great equalizer! So why hate Hitler? Is he still around somewhere? For all you know he maybe one of those friendly tigers in Kanchanaburi. So like Karma, death is also a great equalizer! It is like emptying your bank account and starting afresh. A new job, with new tools and a new salary. You leave your old body behind, your old concepts, beliefs, ideals etc...Everything is finished! Totally! You need to let the old go, in order to let the new in. Years ago, when Mt St Helens in the northwestern part of USA blew up, spewing volcanic ash and fire all around, every plant, every tree within a radius of 5 miles was totally destroyed. Scientists thought it would take many decades before life could return to the land of sudden death. But they were wrong. In exactly 5 years things were back to how it was a day before the volcano erupted. Non-animals learnt a lesson that there are extremely powerful forces in nature that keep a delicate balance between life and death. The movement of time in nature is one of constant change. Indeed if change were not to happen, time would come to a stop. We humans don't want to accept that psychologically. We don't like to change deeply. We don't want to end our antagonisms, our hatred, our fears, our insecurities. Rajkumar is gone but the attachment is still there. Hitler is gone but the pain of world war-II remains if you are a jew. If you are a hindu you probably cannot forget Aurangzeb or Bhaktiyar Khilji. If you are a Talibani, your hatred for the American has only increased, perhaps. So psychologically we humans have not changed. We had fought, we are fighting, and we will fight in the future...if we dont change fundamentally, inwardly. We will remain divided as long as we dont understand the divisive process of our own thinking, in our very own brains. The dual nature of thought, which divides itself as the "thinker" and the "thought that is owned by the thinker"; the 'me' and the 'not-me'. All this is taken for granted. We never question this fundamentally errored approach to life. The first error (of duality) has led to innumerable other errors for which humanity is paying dearly now. There is every likelihood of mass destruction of the human race in the very near future. All it takes is one wrong finger on a wrong button to unleash destruction that we cannot even imagine. So why don't we change? Why don't non-animals begin to live, sanely, rationally and compassionately? Why don't we ask this question if we have a moment or two? It is far more important to enquire into this than watch some hero or a snake on TV. We will be in future, what we are now - animalistic, brutal, savage and in perpetual sorrow if we don't change. That is the law, whether you like it or not.

This Matter of Sensation

Food is matter that is not to be taken lightly. From the tiniest sapling tothe hungriest kid in the block, every living thing needs it for sustenance.It is the giver of energy without which physical growth would not be possible.We humans spend a great deal of time and energy making sure that it is readily available at the next congregation around the dinning table. The art of cooking has been developed for two reasons: nourishment & pleasure. Nourishment for the body and pleasure for the mind. The taste buds on the tongue influence the mind in profound ways. For that matter, every sense organ of man has been a willing (or unwilling) partner of the thinking mind that desires to fulfill these two basic wants of man. Wherever one goes on this planet, one sees that culture has been shaped irreversibly by the powerful forces of desire. Sound, light and matter of three kinds are constantly being transformed in the living crucible of the brain, day & night. Sensations and desires work hand-in-glove to ensure that the brain is never idle. It becomes the producer as well as the consumer of sensations.
The human body has six sense organs- the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the skin and the mind; the last one being involved in cognition and volition. Cognition here, is defined as "particularization of perception". Ex: the taste of sweetness in honey, the taste of sweetness in jaggery, the sound of falling water, the sound of wind blowing through a casuarina grove etc. All the sense organs, and through them the body, can be nourished in subtle ways by the objects of their respective consciousnesses. The eye and through it the mind consciousness can be nourished for example, by the sight of a beautiful sunset or a beautiful mountain. The ear by the sound of music. The tongue by the taste of wine. The nose by the smell of rose. The skin by a feather touch, etc.
The senses become the one-way connecting link for the mind and the world of matter. The brain translates this one way flow of information into internalised objects with which consciousness comes into contact. This contact gives rise to sensation. And from there desire begins.....
The following example describes this process. You walk into a rose garden. You see the flower that you like. You smell it. Sensations arise simultaneously from the sight & smell consciousnesses. Then you say, 'howbeautiful!' The word is a movement of thought which says that it likes the sensation. The movement then goes on to, "I want this". This is the basic movement of desire. The process of seeing, contact, sensation is always met by thought in the end. And what is thought? It is images, words, likes, dislikes, right, wrong etc that are stored up in the memory of our brain. Therefore, thoughts that we experience arise from stored matter. So thought is a material process. It is a material process which is dependant on time as a summation of past experiences. So thinking arises from a bundle of memories to which we give tremendous importance. The most important memory is ofcourse the memory of the self as the "greatest", "meanest", "smartest", "best", "superior", "inferior" etc. The self images make up the self, the me,the ego.
There is nothing wrong with senses or sensations. We are born with them. But thought is conditioned by time. We are conditioned entities that carry the imprint of thousands of years- as long as man has lived on this earth.We inherit the culture that we are born into. We speak a language, create things or destroy things based on what is culturally or politically correct.Our society is based on this. So society is based on what we think is right or wrong. Our thoughts over the centuries have created this society. But this society is an ailing society. We kill in the name of god, destroy each other in the name of religion, exploit each other for economic gains, etc. We live in isolation. So our existence is a continuous stream of loneliness and suffering. And we try to escape from this pain and loneliness by amusing ourselves with various things. These things make up the entertainment industry - the world of cinema, sports, sex etc. Thought has created all this. And thought is trapped by all this. So it always meets sensation in a pattern by which it is mechanically conditioned, by what we call culture etc.
As long as sensation is met by the old, nothing new can take place. Can one look at this statement without reaction? Any reaction that occurs is from our conditioning, right? So if there is no reaction, then there is only listening, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching etc. One is fully present in the senses. Then there is no room for thought.
The negation of thought provides the space in which the senses get nourished. Nourishment is space. Without space in the mind, the brain withers and dies. It may take 60, 70 or 80 years, but its death is certain. So the negation ofthought, which is also the negation of time, allows the brain to flower in an extraordinary sense of openness, rooted in the present moment only.
This vast open space in the mind is empty of all thought constructs. It is free to move into unknown territories.
The evening walk by the garden next to the swimming pool was a nourishing experience - unexpectedly. The sun was setting. Its light was on the trees and on the distant hills. A flock of birds flew eastward, their white feathers reflecting the sun's orange. The moon peeped through the branches of a blooming tree in front. Soon it will be dark. All life in this part of theworld will be asleep, except man. And the sleepless will continue to dream of the possibility of another sensational day.
All this is just....food for thought.

A Hole in the Sky

December 10th, 2005
Another day had dawned. Winter had arrived in most parts of the northern hemisphere. The tilt of the earth and its relentless motion around the sun had brought about another seasonal change in the terrestrial order of things. The back page of the Hindu carried a disturbing news item - a massive hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctica, the largest ever measured in recent times! More ultra-violet (UV) radiation is hitting the earth's surface now than ever before. This invisible part of the light's spectrum can cause skin cancer. In the adjacent column of the newsprint, there is boundless excitement about a popular beauty contest and speculations about who is going to be the next Miss Universe. After reading the two juxtaposed news items, one is left wondering why if beauty is skin deep, has nature created this horror called skin cancer? Does nature have something against human beauty queens? Why do humans struggle to maintain their good looks? To attract a potential mate perhaps? But these are questions for another wintry day. Coming back to the hole in the ozone layer, which not too long ago was a ozone whole, one can't help but sympathise with the innocent inhabitants of Antarctica. What have they done to deserve this? The case is closed, the culprit responsible for this undesirable change in the far reaches of the earth's atmosphere is an irresponsible terrestrial creature called man, the sole creator of destructive machines on this planet. The old cooler in the kitchen for some years now, has been sending a frisson up the earth scientist's spine, for all the wrong reasons.Here is an example of how an intense desire for profit-making in business can blind us to the consequences of our own entrepeneurial adventures. Humans generally don't think about consequences. How else do you explain the presence of chloroflourocarbon compounds in mass produced refrigerators that have found a home in every single man-made dwelling in our so-called developed world? These compounds disintegrate in the atmosphere when exposed to the sun's radiation, releasing chlorine atoms that then proceed to breakdown the ozone molecules present in the air. The ozone layer absorbs the UV radiation which is harmful to life on our planet. It is mother earth's protective blanket for its children - children who dont seem to care much for their mother. And they dont seem to care much for their brethren either. Down under, the Australians are beating up the Arabs. Is too much UV getting into their heads? Could it be that unknown to science, UV causes another kind of 'cancer' that grows deep beneath the skin, in the minds of men leading to mindless violence? The ozone hole problem is only a symptom of a far deeper problem having its roots in the very psyche of man. The question of anger and violence has never been addressed outside the realm of thought. We seek solutions through psychiatry, political compromises, UN resolutions etc but all that is in vain! So we have to ask ourselves this question, are we interested in peace on earth? Not just for humans -that would be too limited, but for the entire planet with its extraordinary spread of flora & fauna. Have you seen a blade of grass that grows through a crack in the concrete? Given your full attention to it? Or the dead leaf that is blown around in the wind? Vulnerability has no bounds. We create walls of concrete for our own security because we have not understood what it means to be vulnerable, like that blade of grass that cares not if there is a tomorrow. Therein lies the tragedy of man.

On Absolute Bliss

Somebody asked me what Krishnamurti meant by "beyond the known" or "absolute bliss". I replied by saying I really dont know. K is using words here only as suggestions. They cannot possibly lead one to the ineffable. They are not pointers for a man of desire who is seeking "God" or "absolute bliss". If desire is not understood, then these words or suggestions only serve to keep one in the trap of the known. It may be more relevant to ask why we have given so much importance to beliefs, concepts, knowledge, superstitions, God, etc? Why are we interested in what is "beyond the known" and "absolute bliss"? I am not trying to avoid the question he has asked. We seek bliss, God etc because our own lives are empty, lonely, devoid of meaning. So we try to find meaning through an idea, a projection. It is therefore much more important to understand why the mind moves in the groove of thought and intellect. Is it because we seek something beyond the mundane? Something which is far removed from our daily conflicts? Are we seeking peace & lasting happiness? Are we trying to capture those moments when as children we lived life in gay abandon? No worries. Only moments of laughter & feelings of great joy....Unfortunately as we grow up into adults we lose all that. Life becomes increasingly mechanical as we get caught in some repetitive activity. Dullness creeps in. Boredom and despair follow. Or the society does'nt give you what you are seeking-namely money, power, recognition etc. We then become neurotic. Or....we are crushed under the weight of authority. We either suffer a crushing defeat in the game of control & dominance or we succeed in gaining control over others if we are among the Stalins, Hitlers and Alexanders. This is the sad story of human existence. Not being able to end suffering we seek the help of God or some religion like Islam, Christianity, Hinduism etc. In their holy religious books they tell you to surrender to God. When one is suffering it is not very difficult to submit to the "will of God". Because, in that surrendering, thought finds a momentary avenue of release. One can let out steam and not be pressured for a while. Then the old game begins again...we start seeking pleasure through religious entertainment - bhajans, diwali, x-mas etc. After some years, old age sets in & it is time to say good bye. The same old loneliness and sorrow of death comes back. One dies grieving, not being able to give up one's attachments to the bank balance, wife or husband, the car, the favourite religious book etc etc. The objects of attachment can be many and we hold on to them for dear life! All through this drama of life, man never questions why he is living in pain, pleasure, fear, desire & sorrow. This is his consciousness. He lives in it by choice. He gets what he seeks. He does not get what he does not seek. In the negation of all ideas, concepts, beliefs projected by thought, there is also the ending of all that thought has bred in life - anger, jealousy,hatred, fear, desire and sorrow. When thought no longer breeds these common elements of our psychological make-up, when it has undertood its own place in the universal order of things, only then it is possible to be without time, without sowing the seeds of future moments of consciousness. All egotistic activities keep the wheel of time moving. The self finds continuity through these activities. Look at all those stories of greed, dishonesty and subterfuge that appear in the newspapers these days. All that is the story of the self, the 'me', the ego. In that story, there is nothing new. In that story, the last word is death.

Mid-day Contemplations

Dec 6th, 2005- Our neighbours paid us a visit this afternoon. They seemed to be looking for something. On all fours, theywent here and there, searching probably for a quick afternoon snack - a delicious bug or a juicy beetle perhaps. The mongoose couple spent a few minutes in the kitchen garden. Not finding what they wanted, they went away as silently as they had come. No tearing down, no diggingup, no fussing about. Such is the natural order of things. There is a delicate balance in nature. The web of life is not only awe inspiring in its biological complexity but also extraordinarily simple in its appearance as beauty. Man does not understand it. The schemer that he is, he is more interested in finding ways to exploit nature for his own selfish gains. Vast tracts of forest have disappeared inIndia and elsewhere. Along with it, the majestic creatures of the jungle have also gone. Rivers have been polluted beyond repair. Now they are being dammed for electricity and irrigation. Everywhere there are footprints of man's insensitivity and apathy towards nature. Hills are being systematically taken down for the minerals they contain. This is what is happening in Kudremukh. The environmentalists there have been fighting all this for many years. It is a tug-of-war between the Governments, the higher courts and the common man. Man struggles but animals dont. A famous quote of Krishnaji's comes to mind - "Animals are unconsciously perfect, but humans are consciously imperfect". This is a profound statement on the tragedy of man for as long as he has been struggling on this earth; for the past 10 or 15 thousand years perhaps. He is at the edge of a precipice. There is nobody to help him but himself. Not realising this simple fact, he has invented God, the Christ, the saviour. He has built temples, churches, mosques as symbols of his imperfection. Animals dont need any of these symbols. They live in harmony. They live and let live. The delicate ecological balance is only now being slowly understood by ecologists & scientists. They now know why it is important for a tiger to exist and why it is equally important for a humming bird to flutter around freely from flower to flower. But all this is knowledge that is arrogantly ignored by the politician, the businessman and the technocrat. Unless man has that deep abiding contact with nature which is compassion in its deepest sense, he will destroy everything around him and himself in the process. Knowledge cannot solve his problem. On the one hand he has invented atomic weapons of mass destruction, while on the other, he has created worldwide organisations for promoting peace so that he can go on plundering the earth without being disturbed too much. He can tolerate a little bit of collateral damage but not more. On the one hand he sings in praise of God, on the other he is ready to kill a fellow human being for God. Man is a mass of contradiction. This contradiction has its roots in the division between the 'me' and 'the other'. This is the basic polarization on which man erects his edifice of ideas, beliefs, concepts, superstitions and non-facts. Within this structure, which he has built in his psyche, he tries to arrange things in an orderly fashion only to be frustrated time and again by the hurricane winds of his own fears, desires, insecurities and violence. This drama of arranging and re-arranging has gone on for many, many centuries now. Going by what the newspapers dish out everyday, it doesn't seem like the drama will end soon. So is'nt it sane and rational to put aside all that completely? To step away from the mess is the intelligent thing to do, not rearranging or contributing to the mess. There is no way to do this other than to give total attention to one's thoughts, emotions and reactions. In letting go of one's attachments, one's acquired tendencies, habitual patterns, idiosyncrasies, there is born a space in which attention can flower. Then it is possible to step out of this stream of chaos and confusion and live a life that is orderly, intelligent and compassionate.

Home Alone

Nov 30th, 2005- This morning, the skies were clear. No rain. No wind. The temperature had dipped the previous night. The morning dew was still there on the turf when the sun rose over the eastern sky- first orange, then turning a bright yellow, before exploding into a blinding white ball of light. It was exactly half past seven. There was not a sound from the nearby village, not even the sound of a barking dog. Looking out of the window on the west side of the house, one could see the rocky hillock bathed in sunlight. Couple of months of heavy rain had brought life to it in the form of wild grass, wild blossoms, weeds & other kinds of vegetation. There are one or two big rocks on that hillock. One of them has a hollow at its base where a family of mongoose have made their home. It is not easy to see them because of the dense undergrowth. A branch of an old dead tree next to the rock offers the perfect perch for a couple of big kites that often visit the area. They make a strange sound that only they can understand. Is this what Cacofonix sounded like before he was bound up & gagged before the many banquets that Gauls held in celebration of their victories over the barbaric Romans? I dont know. If Asterix were alive today, I would ask him. At thirty-one minutes past seven, a stillness descends on the place that can only be termed as indescribable. Not a leaf moved, not a sound was heard. The body was very still except for a discernible movement of the breathing aparatus. Not a single worry crossed the mind. There was only light of various shades & colour and wide open eyes. The tree at the top of the hillock was bathed in a golden yellow. Through its branches & leaves, the blue of the sky was clearly visible. Even the solitary bird on the fence refused to move. It was as if the whole universe had come to a stop. Then came the big bang - the familiar sound of cloth hitting rock. The pond on the east side of the house is full to the brim. The village women begin their day's laundry work in this old fashioned way, with nothing else but their bare hands and a flat rock to beat the cotton on. Man has never been still for as long he has lived on this earth. He has moved from one place to another in search of food, in search of shelter, in search of God. In the process he has plundered and murdered himself over and over again. The very nature of man's thought breeds fear, anger, desire and sorrow. In that moment of morning stillness, there was not a shadow of any of those ugly feelings and emotions. This is perhaps why man in this modern age needs quietitude. Not an enforced quietness that some mistakenly take to be meditation. If in the very seeking of peace and quiet there is subjugation of the mind, then that is not stillness. That is not silence. There can be stillness and silence only when one learns the art of seeing, listening and moving (yes), without translating or filtering what one sees or hears and without having those deep-rooted fixations or attachments in life. Then, having learnt that subtlest of arts, one can begin to be still, not only in the body but also in the mind. Such a mind is like a still pond that reflects everything clearly without distortion. The waves of thought orginate from the many pebbles of stored experiences in our memory. To live with memories, however pleasant or painful, is like trying to sail through life on a rocking boat firmly anchored to the dark muddy basin of time. It is late in the morning.The typing on the lettered keys have become slow and laborious. The CPU needs desperately to be shut down. The mechanical brain will go on however. It derives meaning from its endless activities. The meaningless demands of society give it no rest. But who has created society? It is you and me. Together we are sustaining something that we ourselves have created. See how pointless existence is if all there is to life is an endless transition from pain to pleasure and then back to pain. This is the life that we are conscious of. Most of us dont know of any other way of living. There is so much anger, frsutration and resentment all around. We read about it in the newspapers and see it on TV everyday. Very little is known of life beyond the scribblings of a few 'mad' scientists. Even they get tired after a while, allowing the dull priest to throw his pebble into the pool of consciousness every now and then. The computer must now shut down for the day and await another moment of revival. Till then it shall rest in the currentless moment, a mute witness to the drama of life and death on this marvellous earth......

Homeward Bound

Nov 25th, 2005- The drive from Trans Indus (an eco-friendly residential complex) to the Valley School (a Krishnamurti school near Bangalore, India) takes only 15 minutes. It is a drive that takes you through the countryside, small villages, open fields and past a few man made structures. This morning it has been cloudy mostly with the sun peeping in occassionally through narrow breaks in the dark clouds. The passing rain had brought down the temperature and there is an unusual chill in the air. One felt a bit unprotected without a jacket as the cool air came in through the open vents of the car. The drive is uncomfortable on the potholed country road that meanders through plantation land and open fields. The reduced speed of the car is a blessing in disguise. When one slows down, accidently or purposely, there is a possibility of observing more closely and carefully, the numerous 'insignificant' events unfolding just beyond the windshield - events that are quickly memorised and forgotten. Who wants to remember a dead buffalo on the roadside? It is too disgusting a sight to hold in memory for too long. We have other more important things to attend to today. "Give us better roads, we want to get there quickly!" is the hot slogan. The slow drive coupled with a certain degree of alertness, reveals to the eager observer, the beauty of the surrounding countryside. The landscape could very easily be an impressionist painter's delight- the natural undulations covered with greenery, the smooth but rock hard hills in a distance, a flock of birds in the sky, cows grazing busily on a grassy patch of land, little ponds reflecting the gray cloudy sky above and a dog sitting dangerously close to the muddy rain-damaged road, oblivious of the approaching danger in the form of metal-on-wheels. Life and death seem to be walking together, hand in hand like old friends. A little pup comes sprinting down the road. I brake and look around for that 'stupid' bitch. Why cant she tell her pups to be more careful? This busy lorry-driven road is hardly a place for juniors to discover life, I tell myself. Further on, one is greeted by a sight that is well-known to serious researchers of life aka biologists. A small white stork perched on top of a cow feeding on vegetation. The bird is looking for fleas that torment the bovine feeding machine. It pecks away happily, benefiting itself as well as the large grazer in theprocess. It is these kinds of symbiotic relationships that make up the web of life. As I take the left turn on Kanakpura road, I am instantly greeted by the honking of a paranoid motorist atleast a hundred yards away. He quickly fades away from my rear view car mirror. Thank god for fast cars! As I approach the school turning, I notice a huge pile of garbage dumped along the roadside by ignorant truckers employed by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. Thinking that I have seen the last of this man-made horror, I happily step on the gas pedal only to be greeted by another ghastly sight of garbage piled on the side of the road. Somebody had tried to burn it but the weather gods did'nt let him. There was half-burnt matter scattered all over the place, made of stuff discarded by our so-called civilized city dwellers living not too far away from this otherwise beautiful countryside. A few more turns of the wheel brings me to the dead buffalo. Did it die eating toxic city waste? Who cares? I have to quickly get to the Krishnamurti (hereafter refered to only as 'K') Study Centre at the far end of the Valley school campus. The Friday morning meeting usually brings together a group of individuals interested in finding out about K's message to the sorrowing world. He is no more (having succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 1986) but there are still many who like to read his books or watch a video of talks that he gave way back in the hippie era. Those were really the happening days. Drugs, rock & roll and an insatiable hunger for spiritual knowledge. The America of the 50s, 60s & 70s saw the coming in waves of such exotica as Maharishi MaheshYogi, Ustad Ravi Shankar and his peculiar Indian musical instrument called sitar (to which many including the Beatles were attracted), the inimitable Acharya Rajneesh with his funny discourses on the path to enlightenment, and the great guru of hatha-yoga, Shri B.K.S.Iyengar.The chinese invasion of Tibet, brought the Tibetans with their buddhist culture out of the himalayan closet. It was also the time when some back-bencher in a physics class at Caltech shouted, "Surely you are joking, Mr Feynman". The world laughed at the 'jokes' of the physicists, the rocket scientists, the politicians (incl J.F.K & Kruschev)....laughing all the way to the moon! As I was taking my first toddler steps, somewhere unbeknownst to me, mankind had already taken a giant Bruce Lee-ish leap. I wonder who was stronger, Lee or Armstrong? Also on the silver-screen, Mehmood's Padosan was a rib-tickling laugh-a-thon. Ofcourse Vietnam was no laughing matter. Flower power was a calculated Gandhianish reaction to war. Peace lovers cried. The world heaved a sigh of relief when the guns finally went silent in that chaotic war torn part of Asia. The Dalai Lama smiled. And so did that little Romanian gymnast, Nadia Commanecci. It was all a heady cocktail-mix of neo-spiritualism, controlled pragmatism, desire for perfection and a reckless unleashing of technological prowess. Thirty years later the world has'nt changed much. Somebody at the Study Centre meeting said, be choicelessly aware of all this; just be attentive to the movement of the psyche. This is the subtle art of meditation as K had often said. Choicelessness is not a mantra. It is real meditation. There is no naming, no choosing, no desire for possession, no wanting to be something, no desire to be with God or the desire to take shelter in some religious ideology. All these are the conscious movements of the self that keep man ensnared in the fishing-net of his own creation. The mind is the trap and also the door to freedom. The meeting ends with these wise words. It is 9am and the group heads off to the dining hall for a well deserved breakfast consisting of steamy hot idlis and chutney. The discussion now changes tracks and heads off into more familiar territories such as cricket and banarasi paan. If only Saurav had read Krishnamurti, he would still be doing the ODI circuit. You wonder how? Cricket is all about awareness & attention, the lack of which allows the ball to find its way past the willow and on to the stumps. We know Bruce Lee also read K and brought some of his philosophy into Kung Fu. After ensuring that there was enough coffee in the belly, moi and the study center in-charge walk over to the office to discuss more important practical matters. She tells me that we must create a good Krishnamurti poster for the colleges and universities of Karnataka. We must take the message of K to the younger generation. I am thinking aloud, "Will the youngsters give time to all this? Are'nt they more interested in bolly-wood style romances and methods of making a quick buck in this fast paced consumerist world?". As if reading my mind, she pounces on me like an experienced cat, "Money, romance and family life is all ok but if they hear the message of K, they may get inspired enough to begin an inward journey of enquiry and self-realization". We conclude that they need both - an outer social stability coupled with an inner movement of the mind that wants to understand Truth. After all this is what comes from our great Indian spiritual heritage, no?. This is what the Buddha had attempted to do centuries ago and what the ancient Upanishadic texts also point to. The Buddha had said, "Be a light to yourself". K is saying the same thing. Find out for yourself without the distorting screen of tradition and take a walk through life unburdened by the past. With that peculiar K-ish state of mind, I slowly walk back to my car which earlier in the day had been my vehicle of observation. It is time to go home now and ponder on the meaning of existence on this wonderful life giving planet of ours.