God Made Grass…

Saw this unusual one while waiting in the traffic near the BTM Layout Junction.

It went:

God Made
Grass
…
Man Made
Booze
Who* Do You Trust?

Heh. A few minutes before, I saw this very unusual name for an institute, TIIT.

Some take-off that, on NIIT. It brought back memories of this great exchange in Meet the Parents:

Jack: You must've had vegetables fresher than that, growing up on a farm, Greg.
Pam: Dad, uh, Greg grew up in Detroit.
Jack: He told me he grew up on a farm.
Dina: Do they have many farms in Detroit?
Greg: No, Dina, no, not a lot. In fact, Jack, I should clarify this. I didn't actually grow up... on a farm per se. The house we grew up in was originally erected...in the early Dutch farm, colonial style. So that, plus we had a lot of pets--
Jack: Which one did you milk then?
Pam: Dad!
Jack: Honey, he said he pumped milk. What have you ever milked?
Greg: A cat.
Pam: A cat?
Greg: I milked a cat once. You wanna hear a story?
Jack: Sure.
Greg: My sister had a cat, and the cat birthed a litter of kittens. Must've been 8 of them, and there was this one little runt... this little sweet little... little-engine-that-could runt... who wanted to get up there and couldn't really get access to the-- to the-- to the-- to the-- to the teat.
(Pam's face is a study)
Jack: Teat?
Pam: Dad.
Greg: What have you. I went in and just simply, you know, just-- into a little saucer, then took the saucer and fed it to Geppetto-- that's what I named him.
Dina: I had-- I had no idea you could milk a cat.
Greg: Oh, yeah, you can milk anything with nipples.
Jack: I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?

* sic, Suds!

An Ode to a Tree

Today's ToI had a couple of nice articles on trees.

Sacred Space was dedicated to the Tree of Life. In the Speaking Tree, Wangari Maathai says:

The tree is the only living creature that goes deep into the belly of the Earth and brings out the goodies of the Earth to the surface through its roots and trunk; it brings up all the goodness for common good.

The tree is a powerful recycling 'plant'! More importantly, the tree is our cosmic connector for it brings Earth and Sky together.

In A Heart Poured Out, a biography of Swami Ashokananda, Sister Gargi writes: (page 63)

He empathized not only with fish, but with trees as well, and this in a far intimate and complete way. One day, looking at a huge banyan tree, he was suddenly thunderstruck by the tremendous life force manifested there. It was such an enormous living being, bigger than any animal on earth! Later this sense of wonder grew. When he was near trees, his mind would sometimes grow very quiet, and his ordinary consciousness, human consciousness, would be obliterated, as it were, and tree consciousness would take its place, a consciousness entirely unlike our own—a different time sense, a different way of knowing and feeling, indescribable in terms of human consciousness. He felt at one with trees, just as we feel at one with human beings. He knew trees to be very happy, peaceful beings. He could almost hear their laughter. It was, he said, like the laughter of young girls around sixteen or seventeen years old, and yet restrained. Later, returning to ordinary human consciousness, he couldn't remember what tree consciousness was like. "Human consciousness is so very different", he said; "it blocks out the memory." "Don't tell anyone these things", he added when he told of this experience. "People will wonder what kind of man I am. Is that how he teaches Vedanta! Talking about tree consciousness!"

Sai Bhajans at our place

After a long while, we had Sai Bhajans at our place last evening. It was a nice XP preparing for the same.

There were a couple of fast songs that really charged the room. You can listen to the Siva song*.

This is what Swami says on Bhajan Singing:

There is no age like the Kali Age, none at all.
Where by mere meditation on the name of the Lord,
The Supreme Goal is realized. Oh Blessed One!
Even a multi-millionaire has to be content
With ordinary raiment and food.
He cannot live on a diet of gold.
When Time is unpropitious, a stick may turn into a snake
While, when it is favorable, dust may turn gold.

The wheel of Time can make a scholar a dumb animal,
And a dumb man can become a saint,
And a wealthy man may become a plaything of the
Goddess of Poverty at one time.
Whatever your prayers, you cannot get
What you are not destined to get.

Don't cherish, Oh young man, any desires.
Lead instead a noble life with intelligence.
What more can I tell you--
The good people assembled here?

* The song was extracted from the video recording, done with my Canon A530 (Steves DigiCams), using Blaze Media Pro.

Bhajan Cornucopia

Had an awesome piece of luck last morning.

Went to Brindavan along with my father-in-law for the Ram Navami Bhajans, but we were a bit late. However, we checked out their book shop (open till noon) and ended up buying:

• A nice Bal Vikas diary for 2007
• 108 Magical Moments
• ARMY (09-19.AUG.2006)
• Satyam Sivam Sundaram Volumes I to V, for FiL
  
• Tapovanam, for WiFi.

When we came out, some of the shops were playing some songs from the Sundaram Bhajan Group, so we went over. Have the Volume I by the same group and love those bhajans. My favorite is the 15th one:

Jaya Ho Sai Ram Jaya Ho Sai Ram
Karuna Sindhu Ram Sai Parthi Pureeshwara Ram
Treta Yugame Ram Sai Dwapara Yugame Shyam
Ram Thu Hi Rahman Sai Sab Ka Hai Bhagavan
Kali Yuga Ke Avatar Sai Parthi Pureeshwara Ram

with that lovely two-second riff at the end of it.

In the absence of other info, bought Volumes 5 and 14 for INR 100 each, since i believe that 5 is the number of God. Suggested Volume 1 for FiL, but the vendor was pooh-poohing it, recommending Volume 2 instead. It turned out that he didn't have Volume 1. Heh.

When i came out, heard the neighboring vendor playing Volume I, so i was wondering what the deal was. He said that he had an MP3 of 10 Sundaram Bhajan albums (1-8, 13-14), comprising 163 songs, for INR 170. That's like ~INR 1 for each song, so much cooler than the Apple rate. The MP³ on the inlay card isn't a mistake ;-)

Sundaram Sai Bhajan

Here's a partial list of the songs:

Your Own Personal Map of Bangalore

With WikiMapia coming onto the scene last year, i have more or less stopped using Google Earth, except for the occasional query such as how far it is from, say, Oakland airport to my brother's place in California. It's nice to see the planes in perspective :-)

Using an old funda in education (explain something in terms of something the person already knows), i have created n number of places all over Bangalore that enable to home in very rapidly on to the place of interest. This is a hell of a lot faster than using WikiMapia from its lowest zoom ratio, where the entire world is displayed.

For instance, thanks to Suvarna Karnataka, CMC Mahadevapura has a great deal running till the end of March, where the Property Tax is 50% off! But where the heck is it? Arun, who runs the Palm Meadows Wiki, had a page with a photo and then a map, using which i homed in quickly from my personal landmark of KR Puram. It could be nicely cross-checked with the photo as well. Easy, peasy, CMC.

On the last Sunday in JAN.2007, we had a shuttle tournament way outside the City at S Kumaar's Academy and again it was WikiMapia that made it a cinch to get there. It was spooky; i almost had a feeling of déjà vu on the drive there!

The Dead Have it Easy

Harry Belafonte sang:

Get your coconut water (Coconut)
Man, it's good for your daughter (Coconut)
Coco got a lotta iron (Coconut)
Make you strong like a lion (Coconut)

Well, i find that it's good for me as well and is my staple drink after a hard hour of slugging it out on our shuttle court. One straight out and one more after an hour in the freezer.

There's a vendor , Mr. Bhaktavatsalam, slightly outside Palm Meadows where i nip across and pick up about ten for the day—one more free, if Mr. B is in a good mood. He cuts it just so that we have to nick the coconut and take out the water. This is the easy cut, shown in the pic.

The other day, he cut it in such a way that we couldn't get through the hard kernel. So i was wondering what the heck happened.

Mr. B was saying that the easy cut is used only for coconuts offered in ceremonies for the dead, so he changed it for us! Man, that killed me, in more ways than one.

He went on to say that a resident of LakeSide Heights, outside which he has his coco cart, picked up a wooden plank from his cart and attacked him with it, when he served him one with the easy cut. That must have been something.

A long time back, i saw another guy at a Darshini getting really pissed that he was served coffee with the white of the foam visible. Universal foam!

Call it graphic

Phani, my youngest bro, presented the kids an exquisite calligraphy set when he visited us earlier this week. It was nice to see the kids, crazy about TV, show an interest in it.

It brought back memories of two nice incidents. The first one is the Commencement address by Steve Jobs at at Stanford on June 12, 2005:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

The second one is from that visually-stunning movie, Hero (Amazon).

Nameless, who becomes the hero, has connived with his partners to get within striking distance of the King of Qin, who magnanimously relinquishes his sword to Nameless, turns his back on him, and studies the 20th (!) way of writing "Sword" in calligraphy as he waits for Nameless to make his decision (to kill the king or not). After a while, the King of Qin exults:

I have just come to a realization! This scroll by Broken Sword contains no secrets of his swordsmanship. What this reveals is his highest ideal. In the first state, man and sword become one and each other. Here, even a blade of grass can be used as a lethal weapon. In the next stage, the sword resides not in the hand but in the heart. Even without a weapon, the warrior can slay his enemy from a hundred paces. But the ultimate ideal is when the sword disappears altogether. The warrior embraces all around him. The desire to kill no longer exists. Only peace remains.

Slaughter the Laughter

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxSlaughter

The Sardars are venting their long-endured angst. Sikhs have asked cops to ban Sardar jokes on the Net:

Buoyed by a successful campaign against a publisher of joke books, members of the Sikh community have now approached the Mumbai police to block any form of humour on the net targeting them. The cyber cell department of the crime branch has received a plea asking it to "ban jokes on the internet" which portray Sardars as objects of ridicule.

The international equivalent is the Polish Joke.A Google search for Sardar Jokes reveals that there are like 127,000 pages on the Net. i don't think any one of those jokes shows the Sikhs in a positive light.

Personally, one is quite uncomfortable "taking off" on people as it's such a fine line. Check out this story from a very old RD:

A small portly man is at the head of the stairs in a party, which he's not particularly enjoying. He loses his balance suddenly and starts rolling down the stairs, to the amusement of the party folks. As he continues his descent, the laughter reaches a crescendo. At the bottom of the stairs, the party people are stunned to see that the man is dead.

So when did (w)it stop being funny?

"Sab Ka Malik Ek"

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxSabKaMalikEk

One good thing that came out of the visit to New Jagat Associates a couple of days back was a very nice calendar that i got for buying an Acson battery; though i didn't know this company from Adam, bought it only because Acson added up to 19.

Interestingly, Shirdi Baba's hand is not raised in the traditional mode of benediction, but more in His fundamental teaching:

Sab Ka Malik Ek

Had an unusual XP at the Shirdi Sai Baba Mandir in Cambridge Layout on 31.JAN. The Baba idol is as stunning as, if not more than, the one at Shirdi.

As usual, i was wondering about the amount to be put in the hundi. Normally, i put INR 41 in Venkateswara temples and INR 21 in those of Ganesha. Since Baba has always espoused the idea of Oneness, i thought INR 1 would be the correct amount.  As soon as the thought ended in my head, the lower part of the garland around Him started swinging on its own!

The Guru Can Only Show The Way

There were two frogs in our Pond 117 this morning. I could easily get one out with the small branch (in pic). The other refused to budge is spite of my best efforts. It kept avoiding the branch and snuck in deeper into the pool. So I left the branch there for it to get out on its own.

Sri Ramakrishna narrates a similar tale:

A NET has been cast into a lake to catch fish. Some fish are so clever that they are never caught in the net. But most of the fish are entangled in the net. Some of them try to free themselves from it. But not all the fish that struggle succeed. A very few do jump out of the net, making a big splash in the water. Then the fishermen shout, "Look! There goes a big one!"

But most of the fish caught in the net cannot escape, nor do they make any effort to get out. On the contrary, they burrow into the mud with the net in their mouths and lie there quietly, thinking, "We need not fear any more; we are quite safe here."

But the poor things do not know that the fishermen will drag them out with the net.

Patience, the Mother of all Virtues

Was quite touched by the Photo Journal in this month's issue of NatGeoMag.

Paul Nicklen writes:

… As a child, I'd witness hunters standing for days at the sea edge, rifles poised, waiting for a seal kill. I'd see mothers with babies on their backs sitting for hours on the ice by a fishing hole, calling gently to the fish. I'm thankful that they taught me this patience. The success of my photography depends on my ability to wait.

That's the same thing my Guru says: Faith and Patience.

Nokia 6610s go on the blink en masse

Last evening, around 6 PM, my Nokia "Balance is a beautiful thing" 6610 went on the blink. When I tried to power it on, the screen would light up for a couple of seconds and go dead again.

I have had it since NOV.2004, and thought it was time to get the battery changed.

So I went across to New Jagat Associates (WikiMapia) in Marathahalli. Almost bought a new battery when I thought it was better to check the mobile with the new battery, but the problem persisted. Soon found out that the chap was inundated with Nokia 6610s with the same problem.

Nokia 6610s needing service at New Jagat Associates, Marathahalli, Bangalore

The only mobiles needing service were the Nokia 6610s. Can you beat that?! As I was waiting, another guy [by the name of Anand :-)] walked in with a mobile identical to mine and the same problem.

One person out there was wondering whether it was due to the solar eclipse yesterday. That killed me.

Jokes apart, if the Nokia India folks don't nip it in the bud, they could well have a PR issue on their hands.

Bond. Ugliest Bond.

Was quite surprised by this outburst of Edward Fox:

British actor Edward Fox has slammed Bond filmmakers for their latest instalment 'Casino Royale' because he thinks Daniel Craig doesn't suit the role of the famous secret agent. Fox, who has starred in hits like 'The Day of the Jackal', is unhappy with the way Craig looks and says a blonde Bond would not have been approved by its creator Ian Fleming. Speaking of Craig, he said: 'So ugly! He is utterly wrong for Bond. The opposite of what Fleming intended, and I knew Fleming.'

What the heck is Mr. Fox talking about? Saw the tremendous chase at Miami airport in Casino Royale repeatedly (amazing running) on Sunday and Mr. Craig looked just fine to me. A bit craggy, perhaps, but ugly?

History Repeats Itself…

Housewives, dressed for the Gudi Padva festival, vent their ire against Team India in Thane

Looks like India is going the same way in this World Cup as the last one.

What was that Karl Marx said? History tends to repeat itself; the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

Does God Sleep?

Ran into this interesting one in the chapter on Swami "Latu" Adbhutananda (Wiki) in God Lived With Them: (page 403, middle)

One night Latu was fanning the Master. He had worked hard all day and felt drowsy; but despite his sleepiness, his service to the Master did not slacken. Observing this, the Master asked him half-jokingly and half-seriously, "Leto, can you say whether God sleeps or not?" The question surprised Latu and he answered that he didn't know. Then, more seriously, the Master continued: "Everyone in the world sleeps, but God does not; for if God slept, the universe would be plunged into darkness and would dissolve. God must remain awake day and night taking care of His creatures, so that they can sleep without fear."

Latu was amazed. "Do you mean that God takes care of His creatures while they are sleeping, and that they accept service from Him, their Creator?" "Yes", said the Master, "that is right. He lulls His creatures to sleep and stays awake to watch over them."

God is the ultimate server without being a servant! As this exchange in Life is Beautiful goes:

Guido: [learning how to be a waiter] How far do I bow? I suppose I can even go 180 degrees.
Eliseo: Think of a sunflower, they bow to the sun. But if you see some that are bowed too far down, it means they're dead. You're here serving, you're not a servant. Serving is the supreme art. God is the first of servants. God serves men, but he's not a servant to men.

Glad Desh?

When I idly turned on the TV late this evening wondering what the score was, I wasn't prepared for that IND—168/9. A few minutes earlier, we lost five wickets in the space of two runs (157/4 to 159/5)!

Later on, I saw something that looked like a premonition. When the BANGLADESH bowling figures came up, the BAN was hidden due to some reason, showing GLADESH. Well, they certainly would be one joyous country if they win this one.

Poka-Yokel

Thanks to the Palm Meadows mailing list, learned an interesting concept today: Poka-yoke, which:

… is a method of preventing errors by putting limits on how an operation can be performed in order to force the correct completion of the operation. The concept was originated by Shigeo Shingo as part of the Toyota Production System. Originally described as Baka-yoke, but as this means "fool-proofing" (or "idiot proofing") the name was changed to the milder Poka-yoke. ….

Don't know about the "milder" bit, but I don't think stupidity can ever be understood fully. Like the Great Infinite Spirit, it can only be experienced!

To quote Albert Einstein, who incidentally was born today many mo(r)ons ago:

• Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
• The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
  

Triskai Deka Nahin

Or, should it be: Teekse Deka Nahin?

Last night's KBC participant was chugging along like sixty when he stumbled at the 13th question, which went:

Which musical maestro created the "Gauri-Manjari", "Lajwanti", "Mishra-Shivaranjani" and "Hem-Hindol" ragas?

A. Ravi Shankar
B. Ali Akbar Khan
C. Vilayat Khan
D. Amjad Ali Khan

The guy, I think his name was Aravind Misra, was so good with his answers on q'ns 1—12 that he was lulled into believing that he got it right for the 13th one as well. He said that he was "80% sure" about D. That 80 would have set my alarm bells ringing, for sure :-)

The correct answer is B, the father of D. Man, Mr. Misra slid all the way from INR 25 lakhs in the kitty to INR 6.25 lakhs. He was crestfallen as he left, and missed shaking SRK's hand as well. I could almost feel his pain; not SRK's, but that of Mr. Misra.

TPTripping

Some photos from the trip to Tirupati over the weekend.

To be updated…

I Swear by 19

A new Shell Station has come up near Palm Meadows (exact location in WikiMapia).

"I Swear by Shell"

Had taken the Innova to get it ready for the trip to The Emperor tomorrow and was very pleased with their service. The person himself offered to clean the windshield. Might have something to do with the fact that they opened very recently (23.FEB), but I still liked it.

The manager, Mr. Sendhil Kumar, was a huge guy. I felt as Bruce Willis must have when he gets into the lift with the Germans in Die Hard 3!

Anyway, Shell is one more brand that adds up to 19 in the stuff that I prefer to use such as:

• Citibank
  
• ICICI Bank
  
• Jockey
  
• Puma
  
• Skype
  
• Timex.
  

This is what RI Dhuraimurugar has to say about the name number 19: (Modern Numerology, page 387, bottom)

People having names in this number will make progress day by day like mercury lamp which burns more brightly with the passage of time. They will get wealth, health, and a good domestic life. So they will always look fresh. They will get a good job and earn respect. They will emerge as leaders. They live with a good aim and get a suitable partner contributing to their happiness. They reject the evil path and they never harm anyone. So God will always help them. They will have good health throughout their life. By nature they prefer any honest behavior and dislike pretense. They will lead a lucky and comfortable life.

Fractious Fractions

Kiddo's on the home stretch for the final exams and was working with fractions. Was telling her that not all fraction problems are straight-forward and cited this example, as picturized in the funny flick Tenali Ramakrishna:

Tenali Ramakrishna has just entered the court of Sri KrishnaDevaRaya, played in a rousing manner by NTR, where the following puzzle is being put forth to the members of the court: A person had willed his 17 elephants to his three sons in the following manner:

• the first son gets half the number of elephants
• the second son one-third, and
• the last one one-ninth.

The folks in the court have miniature-sized versions of the elephants in a tray to figure out the problem, but are stumped: How the heck does one distribute the elephants, without cutting them up?

Tenali Rama notices something very interesting about the fractions* and proclaims that he would crack it.

He orders a replica doll of the Royal elephant to be added to the set of 17 miniatures and distributes the 18 elephants as follows:

• First son: Nine (half)
• Second son: Six (one-third)
• Last son: Two (one-ninth).

These add up to 17, leaving the Royal elephant behind in the tray!

* The fractions don't add up to 1, but to 17/18.

Yen for Ken

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxYen4Ken

Gazpachot, one of my favorite blogs, had an interesting one the other day:

I've seen material wealth. Great material wealth. It looks nice and inspires envy and puts too much emphasis on second and third tier desires. Look, all we really want out of life is some sense of purpose in our work and to have people around us who "get" us. I can't stress the importance of this latter part enough. We need others around us who legitimately enjoy our quirks and our outlook, who can tap into our intellectual and emotional reserves, and with whom we can laugh and grow.

Money, per se, doesn't hold much fun for me. To paraphrase John Bridger in The Italian Job, there are those who use money to enrich their lives, and those who use it to define their lives.

Swami Ranganathananda has made this point beautifully:

He would often remark that if the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, was invoked alone she might run away after some time.

But if the Goddess of Learning, Saraswati was first invoked, Lakshmi also would come, and the two sisters would stay with us always.

"No west, young man"

The heading of a Newsweek article reminded me of this funny one:

Many years ago, while the west was still being settled, an enterprising young man by the name of Nathaniel Weedwamper realized that all the aspiring frontierspeople offered him the opportunity for a healthy profit. He promptly purchased a number of covered wagons and horses and established "Western Ho", a sort of rent-a-caravan to the unsettled territories. All went well at first, as only the most hale and sturdy individuals would dare risk the perilous journey.

But as time went by, the trip became easier, and more and more people previously thought to be unfit for the journey signed up. A good many of these folks had been partaking of the culinary pleasures of the east, more so than they had been partaking of the many opportunities for exercise, and their combined girth began to take its toll upon Nathaniel's equipment.

After two successful years, it seemed that only the most corpulent of citizens were signing up for the journey, and Nathaniel found himself spending more to replace worn-out seats and springs, as well as overworked horses, than he was making. He tried to limit the number of passengers, but found that even a solitary (but well-fed) passenger of sufficient girth could tax his wagons.

After many months of thought, the solution finally came to Nathaniel. He found some wood, paint, and a brush, and went to work. The very next day, those who came to sign up for a trip to California were confronted by this sign:

There's no West for the Reary.

After Thirty Years

An unusual thing happened today. Had gone over to Jayanagar to meet Vathsa, my good friend from Infosys days, who introduced me to Rajani Kanth, one of his colleagues.

Somehow I felt that I had seen Rajani Kanth sometime before in Life and said as much. Since I heard him speaking Telugu on the mobile slightly before the introduction, I added that I might have known him in AP. He said that he was from a place in Vizag called Sea Sands.

Man, that really killed me. That was the place where I spent the first 20 years of my Life. Ditto with Rajani. I was a kid when he moved on from the place. I had not seen him since 1978, but the system was working just fine :-) Reminds me of After Twenty Years by O. Henry.

Anyway, we had a good laugh over old times, recalling some of his brother's stories.

The Moon's a Balloon

Looks like the lunar eclipse was a grand show in the heavens.

While it's more of an aesthetic spectacle now, it provided a critical point to Magellan. As a comment in the Scotsman (one of my preferred newspapers) article goes:

It was Earth's shadow on the moon that is supposed to have caused Magellan to disparage the Church, who proposed the world was flat at the time, by saying "I have seen the shadow of the Earth on the moon, and I have more faith in the shadow than the church."

The moon is in fact responsible for Life, as we know it, on Earth. The Incredible Design of the Earth and Our Solar System states:

Why is the moon important to life on earth? The collision of the small planet with the earth resulted in the ejection of the majority of the earth's primordial atmosphere. If this collision had not occurred, we would have had an atmosphere similar to that of Venus, which is 80 times that of the earth (equivalent to being one mile beneath the ocean). Such a thick atmosphere on Venus resulted in a runaway greenhouse affect, leaving a dry planet with a surface temperature of 800°F. The earth would have suffered a similar fate if the majority of its primordial atmosphere had not been ejected into outer space. In fact, the Earth is 20% more massive than Venus and further away from the Sun, both factors of which should have lead to a terrestrial atmosphere much thicker than that of Venus. For some strange reason, we have a very thin atmosphere - just the right density to maintain the presence of liquid, solid and gaseous water necessary to life.

The moon figures in an interesting relationship. Like so:

Sun : Moon : Earth = Soul : Mind : Body

Just as the Moon reflects the light of the Sun to the field of action (the Earth), it is the Soul that nourishes the Mind in its field of activity (the Body).

Considering that the Universe is a hologram, I am not really surprised by this relationship. In fact, I would have been zapped if it weren't the case.

Jade-d? Not quite!

There was a moment of epiphany this afternoon while reading the Sacred Space on Holi.

Even before I finished reading the first line of the second quote, I somehow knew that it was by Sri Ramakrishna. Scanning below just confirmed it.

Reminds me of an illustrative story about how a person comes to a Zen master to learn about jade: (source)

The master had the young man sit in front of him, gave him a piece of jade to hold in his hands, and began to talk about life. At the end of several hours, he sent the young man home and told him to return the next day.

When the young man returned the next day, he again had him hold a piece of jade and spoke to him all day long about the wonders of nature. At the end of the day, he sent the young man home. This ritual went on for several days.

Finally one morning the young man came and protested. He wanted to learn about jade, not about these other things. What was the master doing? The master asked him to be quiet and to sit down and again handed him a stone. The young man exclaimed, "this is not jade!" "See," said the master, "you have been learning."

Elephantine connections

The ear of the African elephant resembles Africa, while that of the Indian elephant India.

A Case for Consciousness

Gopa had an interesting quote by Einstein a couple of days back:

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Einstein had also remarked:

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Looks like Einstein and Deepak Chopra have been sipping at the same well, as DC writes in the ToI in the Budget Special (01.MAR.2007, Page 20):

Location in space is a matter of perception. The truth is, I am here, but I am also everywhere

An interesting insight that comes from both Vedic Science and Jewish Kabbalah is that the center of our awareness is the center of all space and time. It is at once everywhere and nowhere. But let’s assume for a moment that indeed your awareness is located where you are sitting. If this universe has infinite dimensions — and physicists assure us that it does — then infinity extends in all directions from where you are. You are in the center of the universe, but so am I, because infinity extends in all directions from where I am. Infinity also extends in all directions from a peasant in China, a dog in Siberia, and a tree in Africa. The truth is, I am here, but I am also everywhere else because here is there from every other point in space. You are there, but you are also everywhere else, because there is everywhere, or nowhere specifically. In other words, location in space is a matter of perception. When we say the moon is near, the sun is far, that’s only true from one vantage point. In reality, there’s no up or down, north or south, east or west, here or there. These are only points of reference for our convenience. Everything in the cosmos is non-local, meaning we can’t confine it to here, there, or anywhere. But my eyes tell me this is not the case. I am here, you are there, wherever you are. So maybe, we should not trust our senses that much. My eyes tell me that the earth is flat, but nobody believes that anymore. Sensory experience tells me that the ground I am standing on is stationary, but I know from science that the earth is spinning on its axis and hurtling through outer space at thousands of miles an hour. Sensory experience tells me that the objects of my perception are solid, but that’s not true either. We know they are made up of atoms, which in turn are particles that whirl around huge empty spaces. These are all superstitions that I’ve developed because I’ve learned to trust my senses. The universe is actually a chaos of energy soup, and we ingest this through our five senses, and then convert it into a material reality in our consciousness. Our senses transform massless energy into form and solidity, texture and color, fragrance and taste, sound and vibration. And our interpretation of that energy soup structures our reality and creates our perceptual experience. Most of the time, we do this unconsciously as a result of social conditioning. Scientists have called this the hypnosis of social conditioning. I call it the superstition of materialism.

PY succinctly put that as:

center everywhere, circumference nowhere

IMHO, Peter Russell's Reality and Consciousness: Turning the Superparadigm Inside Out has argued the case for Consciousness most cogently.

"Spiel"-checking

It's amazing how many folks stumble over the usage of the verb pore.

Today's casualty is the venerable NYT (bottom left of the image below).

Even NatGeoMag editors have slipped up over that, though it would have been tougher to catch their goof: a hyphenated gerund (pouring).

Suds, my good friend in cyberspace, has also uncovered a couple of them:

• Pouring oil over astrology books
• Does anyone proof-read on CNN?

Update on 04.MAR.2007—SUN

Noticed that the NYT folks got around to updating that :-)

"Hara, Hara, Gangey"

There was a thrilling moment towards the end of the Sai bhajans this evening. The tone was set for the bhajans with a wonderful rendition of:

Durgey Durgey Durgey Jai Jai Maa
Karuna Saagari Maa
Kaali Kapaalini Maa
Jagadoddharini Maa
Jagadambey Jai Jai Maa

There are some who say that "Durga" means The Unattainable. My understanding is that DurgaMBA gives the best type of MBA :-)

Amit, who was seated right behind me and a new person at the Sai bhajans in Palm Meadows, suddenly burst forth with:

Hara Hara Gangey Hara Hara Gangey
Hey Nataraja, Hey Shiva Raja, Hara Hara Hara Hara Gangey
Natana Shekhara, Hey Shiva Sundara
Parthipureeshwara, Jaya Gangadhara
Shankara Shiva Shankara, Shiva Shankara Sai

That set my hairs on end. They tingled some more in homagery when I remembered this incident:

One day after Bhajan, we were all sitting around Him stringing flowers into garlands. In this work, no lady could match His skill and speed! Is there any art that He is not proficient in? The garlands that He made were thick and beautiful. Suddenly He got up and said, "Come on, come on! Mother Ganga is coming to visit us." He then went and stood near the huge main gate. After opening the gate, He stood in the center with open arms and told us, "All of you stand back. None of you should go even one inch beyond these outstretched hands of Mine. Look there! Ganga is rushing forth!" We saw that the river was approaching us with great ferocity, its waves fuming and frothing and rising high in the sky, and with a roaring noise. The river came quite near us, and we children felt greatly scared; we thought, "My God! The river may swallow us!!" The river came very near to Swami and was touching the hem of His robe. Except the roaring water, we could not see any of the trees and shrubs that were visible till then. Sai extended His hands forward and touched the river. The stretch of water beneath His hand immediately became quiet and serene but the waters beyond were still frighteningly turbulent. Swami glanced at us and said, “Go inside and bring flowers, coconut, turmeric powder, and kumkum.” We did as instructed and then offered the flowers, turmeric powder, and kumkum to the River Goddess. We were quite nervous as we did so. Thereafter, Swami broke the coconuts, offered them to Mother Ganga, and, placing His palm on the surface of the river, said, “We are very happy that you came to visit us. Ganga, now go back please!” As he spoke these words, He affectionately patted the waves with both His hands. As if thrilled by His gentle touch, the fury of the waters subsided and the river receded completely. We rubbed our eyes and gazed in disbelief in all four directions. Not a drop of water was to be seen anywhere! There was absolutely no trace of water anywhere on the ground. Swami’s robe was also dry. Surprise! It was all a glorious surprise, the river going back as suddenly as it had come. We were totally baffled. Swami continued to stand still, and we were worried that the river might come back! The Director of these marvelous miracles laughed aloud and pointed in the direction of His feet. We saw there a garland of jasmine flowers wrapped around His cute little feet! He picked up the garland, smelt it, and then distributed the flowers to everyone. Each jasmine bud was almost the size of a rose, and was softer to the touch than cotton. Its sweet fragrance spread in all directions. Most reverentially we placed the flowers on our closed eyes and then wore them in our hair.