Thoughts and Thinking
Nov 24, 2009 Thoughts and ramblings
Here’s an interesting dialogue for everybody to consider:
Krishnamurti: “So where does silence begin? Does it begin when thought ends? Have you ever tried to end thought?
Questioner: “How do you do it”?
Krishnamurti: “I don’t know, but have you ever tried it? First of all, who is the entity who is trying to stop thought?”
Questioner: “The thinker.”
Krishnamurti: “It’s another thought, isn’t it? Thought is trying to stop itself, so there is a battle between the thinker and the thought … Thought says, ‘I must stop thinking because then I shall experience a marvelous state.’ … One thought is trying to supress another thought, so there is a conflict. When I see this as a fact, see it totally, understand it completely, have an insight into it… then the mind is quiet. This comes about naturally and easily when the mind is quiet to watch, to look, to see.”
– J. Krishnamurti (You are the World, 1972)
More about Krishnamurti by clicking here
Interesting thought isn’t it? No Pun intended.
Tags: consciousness, hindu, Hinduism, Thoughts and ramblings
Fearless
Aug 19, 2008 Thoughts and ramblings
Some movies teach you a lot about life, although they are meant for entertainment, movies are a great way, in my humble opinion, to escape reality for a few hours, just like video games, and I believe everybody needs that escape, people have different ways to make that escape, some like to listen to music, read poetry, write poetry, read books, watch movies, play video games, etc. And some of these things have big lessons for life. Fearless with Jet Li happens to be one of them (a movie I highly recommend). The biggest lesson this movie teaches is that life humbles you. Indeed, arrogance, pride, get you no where, life has a way of getting back at you. Unnecessary tragedies and undesired events can make you so humble. There are better things then personal arrogance and personal pride.
The movie was binding. The lesson in the movie is, again, in my opinion, needed to be taught to newer generations and perhaps older generation as well, heck people in general need to know that humility is important. Arrogance doesn’t only harm you, as a person, but has effects on your loved ones, your surroundings. And then, out of nowhere, life bites you back, a tragedy strikes, and you learn that your arrogance has simply made you unhappy, taken the most precious things away from you. It is true what they say, you don’t know what you have till it’s gone and when that precious person is gone, the errors of your ways become clear to you.
We all need a lesson in humility I believe. The “I” is not all that there is. There is a bigger “I” out there, one needs to realize it. To realize it is to know it and to know is to know God perhaps? I say that with a question mark because, believing in a higher power really is a question of faith and faith is not an easy thing to acquire. It is really hard to have that faith but I digress.
St. Augustine said – The sufficient of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.
Don’t let life teach you a lesson and show you how vain it is to be egotistic or arrogant. Keep some humility. Be fearless, but be humble at the same time, find the balance.
Tags: Fearless, movies, Thoughts and ramblings
Future of Mankind
Jan 30, 2008 Thoughts and ramblings
An excellent movie to watch:
A line that caught me was a question from a reporter directed towards President Bush Jr.
“Is US credibility on line with respect to the WMDs in Iraq?”
Reply: “I’m not exactly sure what that means”
LOL
Tags: future, Thoughts and ramblings, videos
Iran and Ahmadinejad
Oct 8, 2007 Politics, Thoughts and ramblings
Read an interesting editorial in the October 1st issue of The Gazette, Montreal about Ahmadinejad and Iran. The article written by a professor of International law at Mcgill University, Montreal definitely craves attention from all those who are offended by Ahmadinejad’s recent appearance in US. While I invite those interested in world politics to read this article, I did want to voice a few of my own thoughts and pointless ponderings on the topic.
I have been listening to the radio, especially as I’m driving, I love to listen to 940 News and it is really interesting to hear all the diverse opinions that people in my city have to offer about this issue of Ahmadinejad. The consensus seems to be that the Iranian prime-minister is pure-evil, and his outrageous comments about Israel, Holocaust and nuclear capabilities of Iran are all at fault. However, one should let him talk because of “Freedom of speech” and welcome him to the US as a speaker, if not for nothing, just to ask him questions about his evil comments and policies.
The article by Payam Akhavan puts in perspective all of Ahmadinejad’s comments confirming that Iran’s real power is with the “Council of Guardians” that are behind Ahmadinejad. So why is western powers and media misguiding their anger towards Ahmadeinjad? Shouldn’t we be talking about Khamenei and his hardline stance about all these? If Ahmadinejad is not the real power in the country, then obviously the real power is the one that is letting him say all these offending things. I wonder though about the fact that our media seems to be very ignorant about the inner politics of Iran, and therefore, is it really right for us to comment on these things when we know nothing about them? I never see any mention of other political powers in Iran, at least not in the mainstream media and it seems that people equate the voice of Ahmadinejad to the voice of Iran! I doubt that a leader of a country, be it any country, whether democratically elected or not, speaks for the whole populace. He may represent a section, perhaps even a majority (though according to Professor Akhavan, the desires of people of Iran are far from what Ahmadinejad talks about), but he can not represent the whole country. What’s unfortunate is that when super-powers in the world start noticing these things, start getting offended about these things and want to take action against such leaders, the whole country suffers.
When Ahmadinejad came to power, I remember reading in the newspaper about how a lot of Iranians were not happy, if the voting was “democratically” held, he should not have been elected. There must be something deeper that Ahmadinejad stirs in the people of Iran that had him elected as the prime-minister. Professor Akhavan is perhaps ignoring that in his editorial though he did mention that Ahmadinejad is relying on the nationalism in Iranian people. In either case, Ahmadinejad is there, he is staying, perhaps a better understanding of Iran’s inner politics can show us how to handle such political personalities.
Tags: ahmadinejad, Iran, Politics, Thoughts and ramblings
Untitled!
Sep 5, 2007 Thoughts and ramblings
Ever sat on a chair, looked into the oblivion and thought to yourself that something is missing? Something important, a person, a goal, a regret that creeps into the mind during this whole thought process, a regret about a missed opportunity or a regret about letting someone go, or just a regret about not doing something that you really wanted to do. And at that point, the height of imagination kicks in, and you think about that regret and say to yourself, what if? What if I had done that? What if I had taken that route instead of the one I’m currently on? What if she was with me? What would life have been like. And that old, sad melody just keeps echoing in the back, sometimes the words come on the lips, you utter them out.. sing them even, to the best of your ability, and the thoughts, the thoughts just don’t stop.
Can a person ever be satisfied with what he/she has in life? Why is it that there is always something else, something more, something that just keeps on eluding … just keeps on slipping away. The lines of the old song just keep running through the mind, sad melodies, and the whole mood just becomes melancholic. Do you want it to stop? The ever elusive life. Do you really want it to stop?
Some would say that there’s a weird pleasure in pain though. Sometimes, you feel more alive with an aching heart than you do with a mundane boring routine and even a semi-joyful life. Once you experience that aching heart, it’s hard to imagine yourself without it. Why should your heart ache you ask? There are so many reasons for it to ache, so many… they don’t have to do with “her” (or “him” — the world is strange these days, anything can be expected right? unless you, the reader, is a female, then saying “him” won’t be strange at all). Yes, so many reasons — there’s pain all around you if you look closely. Yes yes, the glass is not “half-empty” buddy! I know. Yet, you can’t ignore them. They are there. Stupidity, ignorance, cruelty, poverty, dictatorship …. and a lot more. You really can’t ignore them.
Our world is a dying world. I have thought about that so often. It’s a dying world indeed. How? Fear of the unknown pushes men to do so many things that will be used to destroy the world as we know it. How can anybody not see it happening? Man is illogical, irrational and afraid. Just the elements required to do whatever he (or she) will be asked to do by the minority of logical, rational yet cunning powerful leaders. World leaders, religious leaders, they are all alike. But I digress.
You see what happened here? It was the height of imagination. It started with a personal, intangible pain, that turned into a visible, present world pain. Yes that regret, what was it though? Wasn’t it petty compared to what followed in the mind?
Ramblings of a deranged mind. That’s what these are.
Tags: Thoughts and ramblings
State of Education in US?
Aug 30, 2007 Thoughts and ramblings
Epic! The response to the question by Miss teen South Carolina during a recent beauty pagent was epic! I saw the video a few days ago and couldn’t help but laugh. Perhaps not at the girl (she is quite good looking! perhaps beauty and brains don’t really go together, though I have seen enough pretty girls who are damn intelligent to know there is no truth to that), no, I wasn’t laughing at the girl but at the education system that produces such intelligent beings. If you haven’t seen the video, watch it:
Tags: Education, Thoughts and ramblings, US
Consciousness
Aug 8, 2007 Thoughts and ramblings
[...]that to be too conscious is an illness[...]
This is part of one of the quotes that is always displayed on my blog. I was just online today, looking at my blog and seeing how inactive it had been lately and I read this quote and I realized how true these words are.
I frequently run into arguments with people about issues, present, past or perhaps even future issues that plague our world or have plagued our world. Why? Perhaps I think too much about these things, or perhaps I know or I THINK I know more about certain things? I feel passionate about certain topics – and these are as diverse as I could ever imagine!
What is it? Am I too conscious? And I feel that although I have more control over my outbursts, I lose patience when I see someone not seeing my point and I tend to escape the argument now. I wasn’t like that before. I would persevere. I would argue argue argue till I had nothing else to say, till I had repeated myself again and again and yet I would argue more because I knew I had a valid point. I would try and show the others light about certain things, especially things that I felt passionate about. So what is it now? Why have I become more passive? Have I lost the passion or am I simply seeing the futility in trying to make people see the light? Is it futile?
Karma Yoga – Do what you have to do and don’t think about the fruit of your action. Easier said than done eh? Ignorance is prevalent in this world. It is impossible to break through the veil, no matter how flimsy that veil may seem to the one who is making the attempt to break through it. There’s this brain-washing going on in the world. What has been fed to them for years and years through our education system, through media, through propaganda, can not be removed, can not be overcome no matter how right you are, no matter how justified, logical and rational your views are. Fyodor said it: – Consciousness is a disease indeed.
Tags: Thoughts and ramblings
Hindi – Hindu – Indian — what’s the difference?
May 7, 2007 Thoughts and ramblings
So I was reading the newspaper yesterday (like I do everyday of course) and headlines on main page surprised me: Something about Hindi Community suffering a terrible tragedy. The article was about a known and good hearted person from the Indian community in Montreal who passed away in an accident. While this blog entry is not about that, it really brought a good question in my mind, what is it with folks over here not knowing the difference between “Hindi”, “Hindu” and “Indian”?
All of you guys out there who have no idea how to call us Indians, here’s the difference:
Hindi — Language we speak in India, so calling “Hindu” community a “Hindi” community will be totally wrong! Imagine, a major english newspaper in Montreal making such a stupid mistake, that too, big bold headline on the main page. *rolls eyes*.
Hindu — A person who adheres to Hinduism (the religion). It does not necessarily means that he is from India, he/she could be from anywhere really, as long as they believe in Hinduism and call themselves Hindu.
Indian - A person from India. So No! People from India are not “Hindi” (actually no one can be called Hindi as it’s a language, you can’t be “Hindi”, you can only “Speak Hindi” or you can be “Hindu”) and no, not everybody in India is a “Hindu”, in fact we have a very mixed population with all religions present strongly, be it Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists. Please do understand the distinction: “Hindu community” vs “Indian community”
Not only does the Montreal Gazette puts that in their Sunday May 6th newspaper, but also, in another little news snippet, they think Lahore is in India, the headline:
Lahore, India
right!
Tags: hindi, Hinduism, india, Thoughts and ramblings
I Think…
Mar 26, 2007 Cricket, Thoughts and ramblings
I think:
We are slaves of habits and desires and it takes a really strong will to change these habits or to overcome these desires.
Incidently, India lost. Pathetic display of course, but they didn’t deserve to get to the next round in World-Cup, not after you lose against Bangladesh in the first match. Not to take any credit away from the Banglas, but you have to see also how Sri Lanka destroyed Bangladesh, what in worlds name was wrong with Indian team that they couldn’t do the same? And heck we have some of the biggest names in our batting line-up. Like I said, pathetic.
Tags: Cricket, Thoughts and ramblings
Happy New Year
Jan 2, 2007 Thoughts and ramblings
Great, 2007 is here! Some might be saying “already!” and some might be saying “finally!”
I am unable to categorize myself as either! But to all my friends and family members out there, a very happy new year to you guys. Here’s wishing that 2007 brings you everything your heart desires. Chears!
Tags: Thoughts and ramblings
