What the Geek Saw

Picked up the "latest" offering from Malcolm Gladwell at the Crossword book store in the Forum Value Mall in Whitefield:

Books: What the Dog Saw

A review on Amazon.com pointed out that all nineteen articles are already available on the Gladwell site, for ***free***. Here they are, saving you INR 599:

• Part One
  
• The Pitchman
  
• The Ketchup Conundrum
  
• Blowing Up
• True Colors
• John Rock's Error
• What the Dog Saw
• Part Two
  
• Open Secrets
• Million-Dollar Murray
• The Picture Problem
• Something Borrowed
• Connecting the Dots
• The Art of Failure
• Blowup
• Part Three
• Late Bloomers
• Most Likely to Succeed
• Dangerous Minds
• The Talent Myth
• The New-Boy Network
• Troublemakers.

You can even download the PDFs from the above links.

The only reason i still prefer the book is because i can cuddle up with it in my den, notwithstanding the fact that the Kindle is Amazon's Most-Gifted Holiday Item Ever.

A Great Wednesday

23.DEC was a great day, a D5C1 and a Wednesday. Couldn't ask for more. Some famous D5C1s:

• NSR
• Vint Cerf.
  

~@~*-*~@~

Since i missed making my trip to the River Mother/Shirdi on Tuesday, that morning i was concentrating that much more on Swami in our puja room.

Early Wednesday morning, had this sweet dream:

Swami was serving food to some folks and, due to some reason, the sambar and the curd got mixed up when He was serving me, prompting Him to ask me whether that was an issue. I said that since that's the way He eats stuff, it wasn't a problem for me (Swami normally mixes up all the ingredients on His plate and then eats the resulting mass).

Then He goes back to His seat on a slightly-raised dais. After a while, He comes back and offers me a coconut laddu. The interesting thing was that He was looking much taller then.

~@~*-*~@~

After the Sai Bhajans the next (Thursday) evening, i was telling RK Misraji about the dream when he said that the best significance of that laddu was Peace and Contentment, and quoted a proverb of the Sankaracharya: [making me realize what we lose in translation; no elation in xlation]

What do you get from a sant (saint)?
Shanth (peace).

~@~*-*~@~

To get back to that Wednesday, WiFi was wanting to buy a Netbook for some time. So we went across to Outer Ring Road and checked out the Vaio Netbook at the Sony Center. Both of us felt that it was too costly at INR 27,490.

So we walked across to Staples and saw the choices in Lenovo (ideapad). We loved the wave form design and immediately snaffled it. At INR 18,490, it was a lot lesser than that Vaio (the only thing Size Zero about it was the actress in the Sony Vaio ad). By the time we tacked on the:

• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 for INR 2,999
• Buffalo DVD Drive (none provided on the Netbook) for another INR 2,999,

the total outlay went up to ~24,500, but still shy of that Vaio. The Indian is always looking for paisa vasool (value for money) ;-)

Checking out the Lenovo Netbook

We enabled the Wireless on the DI-624+ (that Anuj had given so generously on 01.JAN.2008) and WiFi was surfing in a jiffy.

In a short while, from my box of Utilities:

• ZoneAlarm Extreme Security
  
• TuneUp 2010,

were also up and running. Find it very nice that both these software support three PCs with one license key.

Pluck a Flowering Bush?

There was a nice gerber flowering in our backyard a couple of days back:

Gerber in the Backyard

Last morning, a kid who had come visiting was flaunting it to her mavayya, who had come to pick her up. Ah, that pained me, as the following is always at the back of my mind when it comes to plucking flowers: (page 396, middle)

The Master and His Injured Arm
…
"One day, while worshiping Śiva, I was about to offer a bel-leaf on the head of the image, when it was revealed to me that this Virat, this Universe, itself is Śiva. After that my worship of Śiva through the image came to an end. Another day I had been plucking flowers, when it was revealed to me that the flowering plants were so many bouquets."

TRAILOKYA: "Ah! How beautiful is God's creation!"

MASTER: "Oh no, it is not that. It was revealed to me in a flash. I didn't calculate about it. It was shown to me that each plant was a bouquet adorning the Universal Form of God. That was the end of my plucking flowers."

~@~*-*~@~

Interestingly but not surprisingly, Ramana Maharshi exhibits a similar mindset when He sees a lady running amok: (Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, TR Kanakammal [No. 116], page 291, middle)

Once Subbalakshmi Ammal [No. 68], a long-standing devotee and a cook at the Ashram was indiscriminately plucking flowers from a bush. Bhagavan asked, "What are you doing, Lakshmi?" She replied, "I am plucking flowers for puja." Pointing to the towel, which she had spread on the ground to collect flowers, Bhagavan said, "You already have so many flowers. Why pluck more?" The lady artlessly replied, "There are so many flowers on this bush. I thought it would be better to gather them, rather than let them go waste." Bhagavan retorted, "You already have seen and enjoyed the sight of the bush laden with beautiful flowers. Now you do not care whether anybody else gets a chance to enjoy the same heart-warming sight. Or may be you have some exclusive right over this bush. Did you plant it and nurture it yourself, thus making it your personal property?" Subbalakshmi Ammal told us that after the incident, she was reminded of Bhagavan's words every time she saw a flowering bush!

Related post:

Ramana vs. RamaKRISHna

Math CRC

This evening i went over to our Vitan store to settle a couple of pending bills.

Ramamurthy, the friendly guy at the counter, looked at his register, toted up 165 & 162 and said that i had to pay 227 (Steinbeck's b'day!). I laughed and said that would deprive the store of a 100 rupees.

~@~*-*~@~

Even though the guy did the math in his head (నోటి లెక్కలు or mouth math!), there's nothing preventing one from checking the addition with a simple trick. This is due to a property of the decimal system where 9 does not affect the quality of a number. It might increase it, but it will not affect its quality. For instance:

1+9 = 10 = 1+0 = 1

This is also the reason why no letter of the alphabet has the value 9 numero-logically. You can see for yourself here.

In this case, 1+6+5 = 12 = 1+2 = 3, while 162 adds up to a 9 and can be straight away dropped. So the addition should yield another 3, which is what 327 does, but not 227.

Of course, this is not a sufficient check, but one can see whether the addition is correct. Or, use a calculator, as is increasingly becoming the case nowadays. Cash is king!

rameti iti Ramana

Ramana means one who plays

It was on a visit to Tiruvannamalai on 14.APR.2007 (more in Thrilling Tiruvannamalai) that i first heard the refrain:

Ramana Sadguru, Ramana Sadguru, Ramana Sadguru rayané

In The Power of the Presence, Part Two, Viswanatha Swami refers to an incident that throws more light on it: (page 230, top)

There was also a devotee from Chidambaram, Subramanya Iyer, who often sang with great fervor the hymns in praise of Arunachala written by Bhagavan, songs in praise of Bhagavan written by his devotees, and hymns from the Tiruvachakam. One morning, when he began a song with the refrain 'Ramana Sadguru, Ramana Sadguru, Ramana Sadguru rayané', Bhagavan also joined in the singing. The devotees were amused and began to laugh at Bhagavan himself singing his own praise.

While they were expressing their amusement, Bhagavan commented, 'What is extraordinary about it? Why should one limit Ramana to a form of six feet? Is it not the all-pervading divinity that you adore when you sing "Ramana Sadguru, Ramana Sadguru"? Why should I not also join in the singing?' We all felt lifted to Bhagavan's standpoint.

Here's the refrain (20+ times) if you feel like listening to it:

Ramana Sadguru, Ramana Sadguru, Ramana Sadguru rayané

Numb and Number

Was telling my kid this one a few minutes back:

TRamana wanted to check out Kemmangundi and he took me along. The place was very nice, you get some fantastic views of the ghat roads from some points.

Anyway, we ran into some local guy and, as usual, i was asking him for his work telephone number. He said, "26". That killed me. A two-digit telephone #, even in the late 1980s, was unthinkable. So i asked him for his home number. He responded: "27"!

SKU Snafu

While cycling back from Vitan this evening, i was wondering whether i had bought the Top Ramen Masala (what i wanted) or the Chicken one (by mistake).

There's a very nice "bindi" system in India:

Vegetarianism in India

but one might still get thrown by the packaging (not the dot on it). Have faced that issue with Top Ramen a few times. Then i thought of this:

Along with the many attributes of the SKU, store another called VegType:

• Vegetarian
• Eggetarian
• Non-vegetarian
• Vegan, if you want to really stretch it :-)

Once the bill has been made, a small note can flash in various pre-defined colors if the basket of goods bought has any item of a certain type:

• Vegetarian: Green (default)
  
• Eggetarian: Yellow
• Non-vegetarian: Brown
• Vegan: Blue (?)

So, even if no data might be captured of us (buyers) in the system, the billing clerk can notice any variances right away ["oops, looks like I billed the wrong SKU" or, knowing that i am a vegetarian (over time), "Sir, looks like you bought the wrong product by mistake"].

Six Years of Blogging

Started out with a very late-night post this day in 2003.

Shifted to using Google Analytics since 15.JUL this year. One thing that struck me was that, though the number of visits itself wasn't anything to write home about, there were visitors from 125 countries (but none from China).

Google Analytics for my blog

What an idea the Internet is, sir-jee. And thanks for all the feedback, folks.

Here are the top 25 posts, since July 15 this year:

• The River Mother
• The Numbo Jumbo Grid
• Shirdi Baba in Homa Fire
• Shirdi Sai Baba's Birthday
• Visions of Earth
• The Making of Lalbaugcha Raja
• Insulin Plant
• 41
• Seeding the Earth
• The Power of the Holy Mother
• Vinayaka Chaviti Puja Preparation
• 9/9/9—Start of Sade Satti
• The beginning of the end for the US
• Sri Brahmachaitanya Pravachan Grid
• Shirdi Baba and the Shawl
• Package Tour/Trip to Tirupati-Tirumala
• The AquaMonk
• The E8^th Parallel
• Narmada Parikrama
• Sri Brahmachaitanya Pravachan Grid, Completed
• The Life and Readings of Edgar Cayce
• "The Pacific has no memory"
• Some Date for Dasara
• Laughter, the Best Spirit.
  

"Celibacy is not hereditary"

Rid of my seed,
Cleansed of my mind.
—Unknown

Was quite surprised to read this frank and funny stuff by Annamalai Swami [No. 70] in Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi: (page 203, bottom)

I had hired both men and women for the construction of the dining hall. Some of the women were quite attractive and I was occasionally troubled by sexual desires. I told Bhagavan, "I don't want moksha, I just want that the desire for women should not enter my mind." Bhagavan laughed and said, "All the mahatmas are striving only for this." To avoid sexual thoughts, I decided to do away with women workers. Bhagavan did not approve of this. He saw no reason why the women should lose their jobs merely because I was unable to control my mind.

IMHO, the value of a spiritual book goes up a notch due to stuff like this.

~@~*-*~@~

In this week's issue of Outlook (looks like they are facing off with India Today), there's an interview with Dr. Prakash Kothari wherein the venerable doctor says:

But the true meaning of brahmacharya is a ‘soul in search of’.

I wonder. I think Sri Ramana Maharshi has given the best explanation of brahmacharya:

What Brahmacharya Really Means
…
On another day, when I questioned him about the problem of brahmacharya, Bhagavan replied: "To live and move in Brahman is real brahmacharya. Continence, of course, is very helpful and indispensable to achieve that end. But so long as you identify yourself with the body, you can never escape sex-thoughts and distractions. It is only when you realize that you are formless pure awareness that gender-distinction disappears for good. That is brahmacharya, effortless and spontaneous."

Related post:

The Whole Shebang

High Clues

The 7:00—9:00 AM program (mohana rAgaM) on Spandana, the 24-hour Telugu channel on WorldSpace, is exquisite. Have got half a mind to skip the shuttle baddy those mornings, it's that good.

Last Saturday (05.DEC), the person was holding forth on Japanese haiku and how important that మొదటి పాదం (first step) was in setting the tone for the rest of the stuff to follow, through the concept of satori:

Satori (悟り?) (Chinese: 悟; pinyin: wù; Korean 오) is a Japanese Buddhist term for "enlightenment." The word literally means "understanding." "Satori" translates as a flash of sudden awareness, or individual enlightenment, and while satori is from the Zen Buddhist tradition, enlightenment can be simultaneously considered "the first step" or embarkation toward nirvana.

~@~*-*~@~

In Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, GV Subbaramayya [No. 41] writes: (page 105, middle)

Once Bhagavan narrated in a most dramatic and thrilling manner the story of King Janaka and Sage Ashtavakra to show how self-surrender automatically brings about Self-realization. Having read in the scriptures that the Self could be realized in the interval between a rider putting one foot in the stirrup and raising the other foot for mounting the horse, the king summoned all pandits in his kingdom, who having failed to answer him satisfactorily brought Sage Ashtavakra to save themselves.

The Sage asked the king to follow him alone with a horse outside the city, where he asked Janaka to place one foot in the stirrup and raise the other foot, and then said, "Now comes the supreme condition, you must surrender yourself. Are you willing?" Janaka said, "Yes." From that moment Janaka stood transfixed with one foot in the stirrup and the other dangling in the air, apparently like a statue (here Bhagavan imitated the posture of Janaka). King's people seeing him in that state begged the Sage to show grace, Then, as the Sage said, "Janaka, why are you like this? Ride home on the horse", he rode home and obeyed the Sage in everything like a bonded slave.

Related post:

Listening to the Silence

~@~*-*~@~

Sri Ramakrishna talks of a state called unmana samadhi in the Gospel: (page 350, bottom):

M. at Dakshineswar (I)
…
"There is another kind of samādhi, called unmana samādhi. One attains it by suddenly gathering the dispersed mind. You understand what that is, don't you?"

Sparrows, Unsparring in Battle

Got a funny one the other day. It starts:

How To Identify Different Cities Of India

Two guys are fighting
and a third guy comes along,
then a fourth and
they start arguing
about who's right.

You are in Kolkata.
…

Thadi used to do a terrific impersonation of Bengali babus fighting. They would be very shy of getting physical with fisticuffs, but could go on arguing for ever!

The Catcher writes of a similar thing: (start of Chapter 13)

I'm one of these very yellow guys. I try not to show it, but I am. For instance, if I'd found out at Pencey who'd stolen my gloves, I probably would've gone down to the crook's room and said, "Okay. How 'bout handing over those gloves?" Then the crook that had stolen them probably would've said, his voice very innocent and all, "What gloves?" Then what I probably would've done, I'd have gone in his closet and found the gloves somewhere. Hidden in his goddam galoshes or something, for instance. I'd have taken them out and showed them to the guy and said, "I suppose these are your goddam gloves?" Then the crook probably would've given me this very phony, innocent look, and said, "I never saw those gloves before in my life. If they're yours, take 'em. I don't want the goddam things." Then I probably would've just stood there for about five minutes. I'd have the damn gloves right in my hand and all, but I'd feel I ought to sock the guy in the jaw or something—break his goddam jaw. Only, I wouldn't have the guts to do it. I'd just stand there, trying to look tough. What I might do, I might say something very cutting and snotty, to rile him up—instead of socking him in the jaw. Anyway if I did say something very cutting and snotty, he'd probably get up and come over to me and say, "Listen, Caulfield. Are you calling me a crook?" Then, instead of saying, "You're goddam right I am, you dirty crooked bastard!" all I probably would've said would be, "All I know is my goddam gloves were in your goddam galoshes." Right away then, the guy would know for sure that I wasn't going to take a sock at him, and he probably would've said, "Listen. Let's get this straight. Are you calling me a thief?" Then I probably would've said, "Nobody's calling anybody a thief. All I know is my gloves were in your goddam galoshes." It could go on like that for hours. Finally, though, I'd leave his room without even taking a sock at him. I'd probably go down to the can and sneak a cigarette and watch myself getting tough in the mirror.

Collage of 41s

Last morning, in the puja room, i had this idea: create a collage of the 41s i know.

Forty-one 41s, i thought, would be nice, with the Emperor at the top. But i couldn't fit so many onto one screen and this is what i ended up with.

41 Collage

Shaving the Man in the Mirror

They say that when you buy a book, you should also be able to buy the time required to read it :-)

Many books languish on the shelves before one gets around to reading them. I distinctly remember the time required to complete The Razor's Edge; finally i got around to reading it late at night in a hotel room at Tirupati. What a lovely feeling it was when i got around to finishing it.

Of late the same has happened with:

Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi

This is an exquisite book. How long can one on the Self remain on the shelf?!

G Lakshmi Narasimham [No. 106] writes: (pp. 270-271)

The essence of what Bhagavan said in my talks with him was:

"You say that on final analysis all that I see or think or do is one; but that really comprises two notions: the all that is seen; and the 'I' that does the seeing, thinking, and doing, and says 'I'. Which of these two is the more real, true, and important? Obviously the seer, since the 'seen' is dependent on it. So, turn your attention to the seer who is the source of your 'I' and realize it. This is the real task. Up till now you have been studying the object, not the subject. Now find out for what reality this 'I' stands. Find the entity which is the source of the expression 'I'. That is the Self, the Self of all selves."

This direct, simple teaching was like a tonic to me. It swept away the unrest and confusion that till then had haunted my mind.

Who Sees? has more detail on how the 'I' sees.

~@~*-*~@~

The XPs of Prof. GV Subbaramayya include a very neat explanation (and pun!) on creation: (page 104, top)

Dr. Syed, Professor of Philosophy, Allahabad University [No. 23], asked Bhagavan, "What is the purpose of creation?" Usually Bhagavan gave replies in Tamil, Telugu, or Malayalam. This time He spoke directly in English, and asked, "Can the eye see itself?" Dr. Syed replied, "Of course not. It can see everything else, but not itself." To Bhagavan's question that "if it wants to see itself", he said, "It can see itself only in a mirror." Bhagavan then commented, "That is it. Creation is the mirror for the 'I' to see itself."

~@~*-*~@~

On the futility of learning (too many) things in this world, R Narayana Iyer [No. 10x] has a very illustrative XP: (page 261, top)

Once a few very learned Sanskrit scholars were seated in the hall discussing portions of the Upanishads and other scriptural texts with Bhagavan. I felt in my heart, how great these people are and how fortunate they are to be so learned and to have such deep understanding and ability to discuss with our Bhagavan. I felt miserable. After the pandits had taken leave, Bhagavan turned to me and said, "What?" looking my eyes and studying my thoughts, "This is only the husk! All this book learning and capacity to repeat the scriptures by memory is absolutely of no use. Not by reading do you get the Truth. Be Quiet that is Truth. Be Still, that is God."

Then very graciously he turned to me again, and there was an immediate change in his tone and attitude. He asked, "Do you shave yourself?" Bewildered by this sudden change, I answered trembling that I did. "Ah", he said, "For shaving you use a mirror, don't you? You look into the mirror and then shave your face; you don't shave the image in the mirror. Similarly, all the scriptures are meant only to show you the way of Realization. They are meant for practice and attainment. Mere book learning and discussions are comparable to a man shaving the image in the mirror." From that day onwards my long-standing sense of inferiority vanished once for all.

~@~*-*~@~

For folks, such as devotees of Brahmachaitanya, who use nama-smarana as a way to God, the XP of Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni [No. 91] is very educative: (pp. 243-244)

Ganapati Muni, a great Siva bhakta, chose Tiruvannamalai, the holy seat of Siva, for his tapas in 1903 and briefly met Sri Ramana on the hill. In 1907, when he came again to Tiruvannamalai he found that nothing tangible had emerged from his severe tapas. Disappointed, he climbed up the hill and fell flat on his face holding Sri Ramana's feet with both hands. With a voice trembling with emotion he cried, "All that has to be read I have read. I have performed japa to my heart's content. Yet I have not up to this time understood what tapas is. Pray, enlighten me about the nature of tapas."

After listening to the Muni, Sri Ramana silently gazed at him as he sat in anxious expectation. Then he said in Tamil, "If a mantra is repeated and attention directed to the source from where the mantra-sound is produced, the mind will be absorbed in that. That is tapas." This short instruction filled Muni's heart with joy. He stayed on the hill for some hours and composed five stanzas in praise of the Swami in which he shortened his original name Venkataraman to 'Ramana', which has stuck to the Swami ever since.

Ramana Sadguru, Ramana Sadguru, Ramana Sadguru Raayané