WC's Great Spoonerism

On his birth anniversary, was reminded of this awesome Spoonerism by WC*:

During the Second World War, Churchill took off from an aircraft carrier in a combat plane with the pilot behind him. While landing, he left the controls thinking that the pilot would take over the tricky operation. The pilot was under the impression that Churchill would land by himself as he was doing such a fine job of flying. So they landed in the drink.

The pilot then said, "Oh! Like falling between two stools", to which Churchill wryly remarked: "More like stalling between two fools"!

Wrestling with Spirituality

Last week, started reading about Swami Vijnanananda in God Lived With Them and straight away hit this awesome XP. The Swami narrates: (pp. 589—591)

I felt Sri Ramakrishna's room vibrating with a tangible atmosphere of peace, and the devotees present seemed to be listening in blissful absorption to the words that poured from the Master's lips. I don't recall what he said, but I experienced tremendous joy within. I sat there for a long time, my whole attention concentrated on Sri Ramakrishna. He did not say anything to me, nor did I ask him anything. Then one by one the devotees took their leave, and suddenly I found myself alone with him. The Master was looking at me intently. I thought it was time for me to depart, so I prostrated before him. As I stood up to go, he asked: "Can you wrestle? Come, let me see how well you wrestle!" With these words he stood up, ready to grapple with me. I was surprised at this challenge. I thought to myself, "What kind of holy man is this?" But I replied, "Yes, of course I can wrestle."

Sri Ramakrishna came closer, smiling. He caught hold of my arms and began to shove me, but I was a strong, muscular young man and I pushed him back to the wall. He was still smiling and holding me with a strong grip. Gradually I felt a sort of electric current coming out of his hands and entering into me. That touch made me completely helpless. I lost all my physical strength. I went into ecstasy*, and the hair of my body stood on end. Releasing me, the Master said with a smile, "Well, you are the winner." With those words, he sat down on his cot again. I was speechless. Wave after wave of bliss engulfed my whole being. I was pondering the fact that the Master had not won physically but his spiritual power had completely subdued me. Some time passed. Then the Master got up from his seat. Patting me gently on the back, he said: "Come here often. It is not enough to come once." Then he offered me some sweets as prasad, and I returned to Calcutta. For days the spell of that intoxicating joy lingered, and I realized that he had transmitted spiritual power to me.

In a manner reminiscent of Lord Krishna fighting with Jambavan to satisfy a boon granted as Lord Rama, Ramakrishna later said of Swami Vijnananda: "He wrestled with Krishna in his previous incarnation; he is not an ordinary person."

* Yes, cats might produce such a feeling in some people! (7)

David Doubilet turns 60

My favorite underwater photographer turns 60 today. Looking at him who would have thought that?!

David "Douber" Doubilet

Doubilet’s ingenuity lead him to the invention of the split lens camera, which allows him to take pictures above and below water simultaneously. Some of his memorable images include the swirling barracuda and the octopus.

Doubilet estimates that he has spent well over half his life under water! His longevity reminds me of the artist of Kouroo in Thoreau's Walden:

There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to strive after perfection. One day it came into his mind to make a staff. Having considered that in an imperfect work time is an ingredient, but into a perfect work time does not enter, he said to himself, It shall be perfect in all respects, though I should do nothing else in my life.

He proceeded instantly to the forest for wood, being resolved that it should not be made of unsuitable material; and as he searched for and rejected stick after stick, his friends gradually deserted him, for they grew old in their works and died, but he grew not older by a moment. His singleness of purpose and resolution, and his elevated piety, endowed him, without his knowledge, with perennial youth. As he made no compromise with Time, Time kept out of his way, and only sighed at a distance because he could not overcome him.

Before he had found a stock in all respects suitable the city of Kouroo was a hoary ruin, and he sat on one of its mounds to peel the stick. Before he had given it the proper shape the dynasty of the Candahars was at an end, and with the point of the stick he wrote the name of the last of that race in the sand, and then resumed his work.

By the time he had smoothed and polished the staff Kalpa was no longer the pole-star; and ere he had put on the ferule and the head adorned with precious stones, Brahma had awoke and slumbered many times. But why do I stay to mention these things?

When the finishing stroke was put to his work, it suddenly expanded before the eyes of the astonished artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. He had made a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair proportions; in which, though the old cities and dynasties had passed away, fairer and more glorious ones had taken their places. And now he saw by the heap of shavings still fresh at his feet, that, for him and his work, the former lapse of time had been an illusion, and that no more time had elapsed than is required for a single scintillation from the brain of Brahma to fall on and inflame the tinder of a mortal brain. The material was pure, and his art was pure; how could the result be other than wonderful?

With my favorite underwater photographer

Creationism vs. Darwinism

God created the world in six days. On the seventh, He rested or, as some say, created Rio ;-)

Anyway, was quite intrigued by this news:

Atlas of Creation carries a book-length essay arguing that Darwinism, by stressing the “survival of the fittest,” has inspired racism, Nazism, communism and terrorism. “The root of the terrorism that plagues our planet is not any of the divine religions, but atheism, and the expression of atheism in our times (is) Darwinism and materialism,” it says.

The driving force behind these books is a reclusive Islamic teacher named Adnan Oktar who over the past decade has published a flood of books under the pseudonym Harun Yahya, which is probably a pool of writers, has turned out over 200 books in Turkish and translated many of them into 51 languages. Nobody seems to know how all this is funded.

Have been casing Harun Yahya—An Invitation to the Truth for some time and have referred to the same in a couple of earlier blog posts:

• Pope Benedict: "I Slam Islam"
• NanoTech in Nature

Found it great stuff, and now our man Adnan is turning on the heat and ramping it up. More power to him!

Edgar Cayce says that five races of man (due to some reason, God is crazy about the number five) were created simultaneously across the Earth many million years ago. I tend to believe him, rather the modern-day spiel. To me, the Theory of Evolution is just that—a theory.

What Effrontery? Will Smith Rogered!

I subscribe to AWAD only because of the quotes at the end. Today's quote was funny and a good commentary on the state of things:

Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.

But it credited that to Will Rogers, the same guy who said:

I never met a man I didn't like.

When I felt lucky for the Too many… quote, got this, ascribing the same to Will Smith, the cigar-chewing action Jackson in ID4.

Wonder who actually said that.

Numb and Number

This happened a month back. It was Sandy's b'day and I was thinking that he would be zapped if I wished him from Singapore.

I was using an AirTel+Sprint Telephone Calling Card (TCC), on the recommendation of AKK. So I punch in:

• 8000 112 112, the toll-free number in Singapore
• 4630 757 865 7nnn, the TCC number
• 91 98… 11=29-18, which is Sandy's # along with my own "mnemon-arithmet-ic".

Of course, since this ain't any fun doing it visually, I do all (36) digits from memory.

You should have the Indian couple, who was hanging around, and their jaws.

Varasiddhi Vinayaka at Jayanagar 4th Block

Varasiddhi Vinayaka at Jayanagar 4th Block
Originally uploaded by shastrix.

Oh, the decorations they do at this temple! Just love them.

Chinnadevaru is my role model for a priest and the temple seems to be getting popular by the day.

Kids on Sketch Express

Kids on Sketch Express
Uploaded by shastrix.

Just love the style (Leonardo, btw) in which the kids were rendered by the Sketch Express at The Forum mall.

Knowing Thyself vs. Knowing Thy Self

In a temple at Delphi, in Greece, spiritual seekers meditate before a stone tablet with the words "Know Thyself"inscribed on it. More….

PY makes a minor but all-too-critical change to this:

Know Thy Self

Came to the end of the chapter on Swami AkhandAnanda and saw the following:

To see God in all beings is the culmination of the Vedantic experience. Swami Akhandananda had that experience, so he served all as God. A few years before his passing away, the swami told a monk his life's philosophy: "The Master has still kept me alive for his work. Distribute your Self among others and bring other souls within yourself. You will see how much joy you will get from it. On the other hand if you are always busy about yourself, you will be entangled within yourself, you will kill your Self, and you will die. [Not knowing the Self is akin to suicide or death.] The more you disseminate yourself among the people, the more you will attain bliss and that will lead you to Self-realization."

John Steinbeck says something similar in his plain-delicious biography (excerpt) of his great friend, Ed Ricketts: (page 7, middle)

Knowing Ed Ricketts was instant. After the first moment I knew him, and for the next eighteen years I knew him better than I knew anyone, and perhaps I did not know him at all. Maybe it was that way with all of his friends. He was different from anyone and yet so like that everyone found himself in Ed, and that might be one of the reasons his death had such an impact. It wasn't Ed who had died but a large and important part of oneself.

153

One of the avenues in Palm Meadows starts with #153, which always reminds me of this:

1³ + 5³ + 3³ = 153

There are only three other three-digit numbers with this unusual behavior:

• 370
• 371
• 407.

Doggone—A Grinning Shark!

Doggone—A Grinning Shark!
Uploaded by shastrix.

Keep amalgamating the little strips of bathing soap. Can't use them, can't throw them away!

Once in a while, the mass ends up looking like something else.

The Uni-verse

Was quite intrigued by the quotes at the start and end of Sacred Space in the ToI y'day (16.NOV).

As a kid, I was quite surprised when I was told that there's nothing like the sky. It just appears to be there. When one learned about the universe and its monstrous size, one wondered in what it was stored. Stephen Hawking seems to be indicating that it's some sort of Möbius Strip in 3D.

Heck, whatever will they think of next?! The mind boggles.

I am happy with the following interesting numerological factoid:

Numeros("Love") = Numeros("Truth") = Numeros("Satya Sai Baba") = 21

where Numeros is a function that adds up the numerological values of the letters passed to it.

AkhandAnanda

Last Saturday (11.11), having come to the end of the chapter on Swami Saradananda in God Lived With Them, I was wanting to read on one of the lesser-known direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna and picked on Swami Akhandananda, meaning Undivided Bliss.

At the bottom of page 562, found that this was the same disciple to whom Ramakrishna explains how to differentiate between tears of joy and those of sorrow!

Whenever I approached the Master he would invariably ask me, "Did you shed tears at the time of prayer or meditation?" And one day when I answered yes to this, how happy he was! "Tears of repentance or sorrow flow from the corners of the eyes nearest the nose," he said, "and those of joy from the outer corners of the eyes."

The more I read about Swami Akhandananda the more I was zapped. They were all kings among men, without a doubt.

Strangely enough, the Akhanda Bhajan was starting at Brindavan later in the evening.

On Monday, as if to reiterate what I read, came across this at the bottom of page 424 of Shri Sai Satcharita.

It goes:

Coming from a wealthy, respectable, well-known family, Pitale celebrated the occasion befittingly, by distributing quantities of sweetmeats to all and offering fruit, flowers, etc. at Baba's feet.  His wife was a very pious lady, being simple, loving and trusting at heart.  She used to sit near the pillar, gazing intently at Baba.  And as she gazed, her eyes would suddenly fill with tears.  This happened every day.  And seeing the marvel of her love, Baba would be greatly enchanted.

As with the gods, so it is with the saints!  Both are totally bound by the love of the devotees and those who worship them with an unswerving devotion are blessed with their grace.

When Life serves you a lemon

Sir Thomas Lipton, the chap behind Lipton tea, was once on a ship that was about to sink. During the evacuation, he threw huge cartons of Lipton tea that he had with him into the sea. His logic: some advertising from the floating cartons instead of their going down to Davy Jones' Locker!

Yesterday, I noticed a similar idea behind the positioning of the label on my Blackberrys trousers.

Is Philanthropy a Catastrophe?

The ToI had this in their Prophet & Loss section of the Business Page today: (bottom of page 18)

God gave me my money. I believe the power to make money is a gift from God… to be developed and used to the best of our ability for the good of mankind. Having been endowed with the gift I possess, I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience.
—John D Rockefeller | American Industrialist, Investor and Philanthropist (JULY 8, 1839 – MAY 23, 1937)

Was quite amused by that Philanthropist bit. In one of his books (can't recall which one), Steinbeck writes of one guy's reaction when he heard the news of JDR's death:

Thank God the son of a bitch is dead!

expanding the reason in his delicious ;-) biography (excerpt) of his great friend, Ed Ricketts: (page 58, top)

Perhaps the most overrated virtue in our list of shoddy virtues is that of giving. Giving builds up the ego of the giver, makes him superior and higher and larger than the receiver. Nearly always, giving is a selfish pleasure, and in many cases it is a downright destructive and evil thing. One has only to remember some of our wolfish financiers who spend two-thirds of their lives clawing fortunes out of the guts of society and the latter third pushing it back. It is not enough to suppose that their philanthropy is a kind of frightened restitution, or that their natures change when they have enough. Such a nature never has enough and natures do not change that readily. I think that the impulse is the same in both cases. For giving can bring the same sense of superiority as getting does, and philanthropy may be another kind of spiritual avarice.

Ganesha Goes Coco

Ganesha Goes Coco
Uploaded by shastrix

The other evening, I was doing my long loop around Palm Meadows when I saw this on the sidewalk off 415, Phase Two, one of the houses in the "Coconut Grove" area of Palm Meadows.

Thought it was a Ganesha stone. When I picked it up, it was so light that I realized that it was a small coconut that became a Ganesha, right down to the placement of the eye!

To quote Sri Ramakrishna yet again:

The cockroach becomes motionless by constantly meditating on the kumira worm; it loses the power to move. At last it is transformed into a kumira. Similarly, by constantly meditating on God the bhakta loses his ego; he realizes that God is he and he is God. When the cockroach becomes the kumira everything is achieved. Instantly one obtains liberation.

Ganesha Goes Coco

Ganesha Goes Coco
Uploaded by shastrix

The other evening, I was doing my long loop around Palm Meadows when I saw this on the sidewalk off 415, Phase Two, one of the houses in the "Coconut Grove" area of Palm Meadows.

Thought it was a Ganesha stone. When I picked it up, it was so light that I realized that it was a small coconut that became a Ganesha, right down to the placement of the eye!

To quote Sri Ramakrishna yet again:

The cockroach becomes motionless by constantly meditating on the kumira worm; it loses the power to move. At last it is transformed into a kumira. Similarly, by constantly meditating on God the bhakta loses his ego; he realizes that God is he and he is God. When the cockroach becomes the kumira everything is achieved. Instantly one obtains liberation.

"We didn't start the Bushfire"…

"We didn't start the Bushfire"…
Originally uploaded by shastrix

… "He did that to himself", Jay Leno seems to be saying.

Anyway, I was quite zapped by this hoarding near Kemp Fort. It goes:

If you don't find him funny,
your name is probably Bush.

Btw, don't miss this Loud Cloud.

The Sport of God

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxTSoG

There's an amazing article on Reinhold Messner in this month's issue of NatGeoMag.

But I was more intrigued by this line towards the end of the Voices section:

All our projects are absolutely irrational with no justification to exist. Nobody needs a running fence or surrounded islands. They are created because Jeanne-Claude and I have this unstoppable urge to create. They are made for us first. Not the public.

Heck, God must have thought the same when He created this Universe, and probably many others.

Reminds me of this stunning discussion from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:

MASTER: "This world is the līlā of God. It is like a game. In this game there are joy and sorrow, virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil. The game cannot continue if sin and suffering are altogether eliminated from the creation.
…
HARI: "But this play of God is our death."

MASTER (smiling): "Please tell me who you are. God alone has become all this-maya, the universe, living beings, and the twenty-four cosmic principles. 'As the snake I bite, and as the charmer I cure.' It is God Himself who has become both vidya and avidya. He remains deluded by the maya of avidya, ignorance. Again, with the help of the guru, He is cured by the maya of vidya, Knowledge."

The True Measure of a Teacher

Gopa had a very interesting post on his visit to the Texas Book Festival.

Didn't know they read books in TX? Sorry, Gops ;-)

Anyway, I was surprised by the supercilious a++itude of Sir CV Raman (weirdly enough, it's his 118th birth anniversary today):

My dad once told me about Dr. C.V. Raman's visit to Andhra Univeristy, long after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. When some asked him a technical question in a packed audience, apparently Dr. Raman was very rude and said something like "you wouldn't understand it even if I explain it to you". I thought of this incident when I was talking to Dr. Stiglitz. I was surprised to notice that his head was still attached to his neck (instead of floating in the air like a balloon, with haughtiness).

Reminded me of Feynman, that crazy Taurus* Horse, and the nice way he responded to an Indian student who bit off more than he can chew (the image is a macro shot of Page 141 of No Ordinary Genius).

* "Do you believe in Astrology?" "No, I think it's a lot of Taurus"!

What's an hangover?

Saw a funny quote in the latest RD:

An hangover is the wrath of grapes—David Gibson

Steinbeck would have loved it. In his inimitable style, he says:

An hangover is a consequence, not a punishment.

That, coupled with his quote in the earlier blog post, sums up his unique understanding of karma and how one can live a life without beating oneself up (pun?).

Hullabaloo in the Gay Orchard

The confessions of Ted Haggard have created such a stir that he must be looking (like) his name.

What was that Jesus said? Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

The cool philosophy of Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath makes the most sense to me:

The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't any virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things people do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say.

Quick visit to Singapore

Kids had been keen to visit Singapore for a while and we were able to pull off a quick trip during their Diwali (20—24.OCT) holidays.

The highlight of the trip was the grand finale at the spectacular bird show at the Jurong Bird Park, a snippet of which was recorded by WiFi.



Some Photos on Flickr

Updates:

• QV2SIN: Meeting a Goat and getting there

Videos: (both shot by WiFi)

• Flamingoes strut their stuff at Jurong BirdPark
• Looping The Hoop at Jurong BirdPark.

The toughest musical instrument

Today's AWAD reminded me of this tricky little question:

Q: Which is the musical instrument that is most difficult to play?
A: Second Fiddle!