The Lives of Others

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Had a very nice afternoon with Sammy San who came over to watch that gripping German movie The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen).

From IMDb:

In the early 1980s, Georg Dreyman (a successful dramatist) and his longtime companion Christa-Maria Sieland (a popular actress), were huge intellectual stars in (former) East Germany, although they secretly don't always toe the party line. One day, the Minister of Culture becomes interested in Christa, so the secret service agent Wiesler is instructed to observe and sound out the couple, but their life fascinates him more and more.

To make it even more interesting, Georg Dreyman reminded me of Roger Moore and Wiesler a stoic (if such a thing were possible) Kevin Spacey.

As usual, i picked Sammy up from HyperCITY, but Glympse that we use for coordinating was acting up. It wasn't updating the position of his Volvo bus. But we found a very nice alternative. It was all the while under our noses, in WhatsApp.

In a WhatsApp chat window, you can send your location:

• In an Android, click the attachment icon and select the (folded) Maps icon.
• In the iPhone, click to the left of the text (entry) box.

Read more about it on the WhatsApp blog.

It's still a synchronous operation, but, imho, a sync op (WhatsApp) is better than an asynchronous op (Glympse) that isn't doing what it's supposed to!

Anyway, he got a wonderful bottle of red wine (year 2006) of Domaine de Saint Ser.  It cost a pretty little penny as well.

While we let it breathe, we knocked back some:

• Dhokla
• Murukku
• Semia upma.

Later we polished off some fried rice and curd rice and, of course, the great red ;-)

The ending of the movie got to me:

As Wiesler purchases the book, the sales clerk asks if he wants it gift-wrapped, and Wiesler responds, "No, it's for me."

Sammy said that was why folks made movies. Never know where and how it's going to affect people down the line.

Even those with the bit parts were so good. Sammy later on talked of one of the short stories of Satyajit Ray where:

An actor, once popular, has to come on for a very bit part, running into the hero and uttering just an "Oh!" But he remembers his acting guru that drama and movies were collective efforts and that he had to satisfy the role, however miniscule it might be. And he does just that and, having satisfed the role, goes away without bothering to accept the payment.*

Reminds me of PSM's great observation that when we satisfy the job, we might get job satisfaction!

Related: Itsy bitsy, but super-duper

Interestingly, earlier this year, i saw one of the movie's plot-lines (the typefaces of all typewriters are registered with the government) right at the start of this TED talk:

On G+

* Update on 30.MAY.2012 (WED)


Strangely enough, last evening, found a reference to this in the Cinema Century Special Issue of Outlook:

Dance In The Glade
…
I found myself re-reading Ray’s short story, Patol Babu, Film Star, about a middle-aged guy, quite the amateur thespian in his youth, who becomes wildly excited to be offered a walk-on part in a movie. All he has to do is bump into the leading man in the street and say the single word: "Oh!" And so, as he waits around for his scene, he frantically starts thinking about he can endow this monosyllable with meaning. This is a lovely, gentle, funny story, building up to something quite different from the embarrassing catastrophe I had been expecting. It’s a reminder of the energy, sophistication, and sheer enjoyment to be had from Ray, and Indian pictures generally.

Five Years of the Bhajan Cornucopia

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxSSBhajan5

It was five years back in 2007, on Sri Rama Navami, that my father-in-law and i made our way to Brindavan in Whitefield and found an exquisite set of Sundaram Sai bhajans.

Ten albums of bliss that i am still hearing on a daily basis.  An album a day keeps the doctor away. It also ensures that you listen to them only three times a month, keeping them as fresh as ever.

During my recent trip to Vizag for our childhood reunion, i was in the Godavari Express with fellow passengers.  Suddenly i was overwhelmed by an urge to listen to Mana Mohana Shyama Murari, the very last bhajan in the set.  You can download it from here.

Thankfully, the Samsung Galaxy Tab can easily gratify such desires.  Since i don't pack headphones, i turned down the volume.  By the time i reached the end of the bhajan, tears of joy were silently streaming down.  The other passengers were quizzical, but ever since i read the experience of Swami Akhandananda, one of the direct disciples of the Master writing in Ramakrishna As We Saw Him as well as in God Lived with Them:

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",

i lost the "shame" of crying in public.

Gratitude, a great attitude

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"Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed."—Maya Angelou

IMHO, it's gratitude, a great a++itude, that kept me going for the last six years, ever since i stopped working.

As Dr. Hegde said so wonderfully during Niki's valedictory at Greenwood High in 2010:

You can't be grateful and miserable at the same time, can you?

In Chapter 34 of the Shri Sai Satcharita, we read:

The Lord is the sole Doer and Inspirer. He is also most merciful. Neither I am God nor Lord. I am His obedient servant and remember Him often. He, who casts aside his egoism, thanks Him and he, who trusts Him entirely, will have his shackles removed and will obtain liberation.

Just to ensure that this post doesn't end up dripping all sweet and honey, here's the contrarian view from the Catcher:

Where I lived at Pencey, I lived in the Ossenburger Memorial Wing of the new dorms. It was only for juniors and seniors. I was a junior. My roommate was a senior. It was named after this guy Ossenburger that went to Pencey. He made a pot of dough in the undertaking business after he got out of Pencey. What he did, he started these undertaking parlors all over the country that you could get members of your family buried for about five bucks apiece. You should see old Ossenburger. He probably just shoves them in a sack and dumps them in the river. Anyway, he gave Pencey a pile of dough, and they named our wing after him. The first football game of the year, he came up to school in this big goddam Cadillac, and we all had to stand up in the grandstand and give him a locomotive—that's a cheer. Then, the next morning, in chapel, be made a speech that lasted about ten hours. He started off with about fifty corny jokes, just to show us what a regular guy he was. Very big deal. Then he started telling us how he was never ashamed, when he was in some kind of trouble or something, to get right down his knees and pray to God. He told us we should always pray to God—talk to Him and all—wherever we were. He told us we ought to think of Jesus as our buddy and all. He said he talked to Jesus all the time. Even when he was driving his car. That killed me. I just see the big phony b@stard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him a few more stiffs. The only good part of his speech was right in the middle of it.…

Call that gratetude.

Christ and the Master

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M., the author of the Gospel, is most of the time in the background in the text.  He rarely utters a word, and even when called upon by the Master, hardly says anything, sometimes frustrating the Master :-)

So it's quite surprising to see him speaking more than the Master for an entire page!  That's what i call loquacious.

From Chapter 44, The Master on Himself and His Experiences: (page 838, top-bottom)
~~~~~
M: "Jesus Christ, too, wept like an ordinary man at the suffering of His devotees."

MASTER: "How was that?"

M: "There were two sisters, Mary and Martha. Lazarus was their brother. All three were devoted to Jesus. Lazarus died. Jesus was on His way to their house. One of the sisters, Mary, ran out to meet Him. She fell at His feet and said weeping, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died!' Jesus wept to see her cry.

"Then Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus and called him by name. Immediately Lazarus came back to life and walked out of the tomb."

MASTER: "But I cannot do those things."

M: "That is because you don't want to. These are miracles; therefore you aren't interested in them. These things draw people's attention to their bodies. Then they do not think of genuine devotion. That is why you don't perform miracles. But there are many similarities between you and Jesus Christ."

MASTER (smiling): "What else?"

M: "You don't ask your devotees to fast or practise other austerities. You don't prescribe hard and fast rules about food. Christ's disciples did not observe the sabbath; so the Pharisees took them to task. Thereupon Jesus said: 'They have done well to eat. As long as they are with the bridegroom, they must make merry.'"

MASTER: "What does that mean?"

M: "Christ meant that as long as the disciples live with the Incarnation of God, they should only make merry. Why should they be sorrowful? But when He returns to His own abode in heaven, then will come the days of their sorrow and suffering."

MASTER (smiling): "Do you find anything else in me that is similar to Christ?"

M: "Yes, sir. You say: 'The youngsters are not yet touched by "woman and gold"; they will be able to assimilate instruction. It is like keeping milk in a new pot: the milk may turn sour if it is kept in a pot in which curd has been made.' Christ also spoke like that."

MASTER: "What did He say?"

M: "'If new wine is kept in an old bottle, the bottle may crack. If an old cloth is patched with new cloth, the old cloth tears away.'

"Further, you tell us that you and the Mother are one. Likewise, Christ said, 'I and My Father are one.'"

MASTER (smiling): "Anything else?"

M: "You say to us, 'God will surely listen to you if you call on Him earnestly.' So also Christ said, 'Knock and it shall be opened unto you.'"
~~~~~

Who Does, Redux

Who Does?

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When all is said and done, more is said than done.

The night of the Master's birthday (18.FEB), after a long drive to Decathlon & back and then to Sri Ramakrishna Math, i was feeling quite tetchy.

Due to some presumed reason of no gratitude, i got all hot under the collar with the kids.

Later on, "mule"ing over the pieces, i realized the force of this observation by the no-nonsense Sadguru in Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi:

Talk 68
…
Q: How to reconcile work with meditation?
M: Who is the worker? Let him who works ask the question. You are always the Self, not the mind. It is the mind which raises these questions. Work always goes along in the presence of the Self. Work is no hindrance to realization. It is the mistaken identity with the worker that is the trouble. Get rid of the false identity. Activities go on automatically every day. Know that the mind prompting them is but a phantom proceeding from the Self. Why do you think that you are active? The activities are not your own; they are God's.

All chatter about accomplishments is just so much of the mind, that parasite on Consciousness.  Once i reconciled with this, i went into deep sleep.

Just Do It

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Of late, have been drifting a bit on the daily puja, but towards the end of February, got back into a rhythm.  Somehow ensure that the puja starts between 9:45 and 10:45.  Finish it and do the kakabali by 12 noon.

During the reading, the entire mood might turn on a line:

Learning cannot shine before self-realization.

Or, while listening to the bhajans, the soulful voice might trigger off something.  Like it happened today during Hara Hara Hara Hara Mahadeva in the Shiv bhajans.

The Master calls this unmana samadhi where the dispersed mind suddenly comes together.  From the Gospel:

MASTER: "There is another kind of samadhi, called unmana samadhi. One attains it by suddenly gathering the dispersed mind. You understand what that is, don't you?"
M: "Yes, sir."
MASTER: "Yes. It is the sudden withdrawal of the dispersed mind to the Ideal. But that samadhi does not last long. Worldly thoughts intrude and destroy it. The yogi slips down from his yoga."

It comes unbidden and then "chidden", with some thought, goes away.  But the memory of it is enough to take one through the day.

This might be reason the Holy Mother insisted that one sit for meditation/puja at a standard time daily.  Something might happen.  She also said that one can't come up with a big-fish catch every time you sat down for it, but, for me, the most important thing is to do it.

Paramahansa Yogananda meets Ramana Maharshi

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In Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, there's a very nice set of talks that Paramahansa Yogananda (PY) and his secretary have with Ramana Sadguru.

For clarity, the following passages are not "quoted".

29th November, 1935

Talk 106.

Swami Yogananda with four others arrived at 8.45 a.m. He looks big, but gentle and well-groomed. He has dark flowing hair, hanging over his shoulders. The group had lunch in the Asramam.

Mr. C. R. Wright, his secretary, asked: How shall I realise God?
M.: God is an unknown entity. Moreover He is external. Whereas, the Self is always with you and it is you. Why do you leave out what is intimate and go in for what is external?

D.: What is this Self again?
M.: The Self is known to everyone but not clearly. You always exist. The Be-ing is the Self. ‘I am’ is the name of God. Of all the definitions of God, none is indeed so well put as the Biblical statement “I AM THAT I AM” in EXODUS (Chap. 3). There are other statements, such as Brahmaivaham, Aham Brahmasmi and Soham. But none is so direct as the name JEHOVAH = I AM. The Absolute Being is what is - It is the Self. It is God. Knowing the Self, God is known. In fact God is none other than the Self.

D.: Why are there good and evil?
M.:They are relative terms. There must be a subject to know the good and evil. That subject is the ego. Trace the source of the ego. It ends in the Self. The source of the ego is God. This definition of God is probably more concrete and better understood by you.

D.: So it is. How to get Bliss?
M.: Bliss is not something to be got. On the other hand you are always Bliss. This desire is born of the sense of incompleteness. To whom is this sense of incompleteness? Enquire. In deep sleep you were blissful: Now you are not so. What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss? It is the ego. Seek its source and find you are Bliss. There is nothing new to get. You have, on the other hand, to get rid of your ignorance which makes you think that you are other than Bliss. For whom is this ignorance? It is to the ego. Trace the source of the ego. Then the ego is lost and Bliss remains over. It is eternal. You are That, here and now.… That is the master key for solving all doubts. The doubts arise in the mind. The mind is born of the ego. The ego rises from the Self. Search the source of the ego and the Self is revealed. That alone remains. The universe is only expanded Self. It is not different from the Self.

D.: What is the best way of living?
M.: It differs according as one is a Jnani or ajnani. A Jnani does not find anything different or separate from the Self. All are in the Self. It is wrong to imagine that there is the world, that there is a body in it and that you dwell in the body. If the Truth is known, the universe and what is beyond it will be found to be only in the Self. The outlook differs according to the sight of the person. The sight is from the eye. The eye must be located somewhere. If you are seeing with the gross eyes you find others gross. If with subtle eyes (i.e., the mind) others appear subtle. If the eye becomes the Self, the Self being infinite, the eye is infinite. There is nothing else to see different from the Self.

He thanked Maharshi. He was told that the best way of thanking is to remain always as the Self.

Talk 107.

Later the Yogi asked: How is the spiritual uplift of the people to be effected? What are the instructions to be given them?
M.: They differ according to the temperaments of the individuals and according to the spiritual ripeness of their minds. There cannot be any instruction en masse.

D.: Why does God permit suffering in the world? Should He not with His omnipotence do away with it at one stroke and ordain the universal realisation of God?
M.: Suffering is the way for Realisation of God.

D.: Should He not ordain differently?
M.: It is the way.

D.: Are Yoga, religion, etc., antidotes to suffering?
M.: They help you to overcome suffering.

D.: Why should there be suffering?
M.: Who suffers? What is suffering?

No answer! Finally the Yogi rose up, prayed for Sri Bhagavan’s blessings for his own work and expressed great regret for his hasty return. He looked very sincere and devoted and even emotional.

Kindling Kipling

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Nowadays tend to read on the Kindle in our small balcony out in the front.

Last evening when Niki came around, i asked her to take this:

Soon i was getting some ideas to paraphrase this very amusing postcard, which is one of the most sold in history (6 million):

"Do you like Kindling?"
"I don't know, you naughty boy, I've never kindled!"

One big కహాని

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Checked out Kahaani last night. Slick movie with no unnecessary song and dance.

Vidya Balan doesn't need a hero nowadays and carries the movie, ably supported by Rana, the police guy.

But the guys i loved were the sidekicks:

• Bob Biswas, the LIC agent with no customers and a total non-sequitur of a role!
• Khan, the (chain?) smokin' son of a gun from the IB, who reminded me so much of Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia.

With so many Bengali actors, it was like Tarantino making Inglourious Basterds with German ones.  We will have to see whether, like Michael Fassbender and Christoph Waltz, some will hit the mainstream.

Kolkota was covered in all its vibrant chaos, with the Durga Puja set for the grand finale.

More movies like this will take us to the next level.

Right at the start, i felt there was a (not-so-evident) clue to the twist in the tail.  But i will leave that to you to figure out :-)

As Ramprasad says, in the Gospel:

But must I give away the secret, here in the marketplace?

That was another thing i liked: the calendar of the Master and the Holy Mother in the background, behind Rana's computer.  If someone can mail me the same, that'd be much appreciated.

True Grit

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I am a bit chary of festivals, because that's the time the domestic help go on the blink.

A couple of days back, our maid was mentioning about the Karaga festival that's celebrated the same day as Holi (today). Probably that's her way of saying that she wouldn't be reporting for work today.

She went AWOL this morning and the dishes piled up in the utility sink. Expecting the cook to do them all, even though she offered to do so, was too much; so i put some away for the evening maid (hope she comes!) and did the stuff required for the day.  While wrapping up, the cook finished the rest, which was a good thing as the evening maid never landed up.

Just to be on the safe side, i created a Google Calendar event for the night of March 22, with the next day being Ugadi. People who do not learn from history and all that jazz.

Anyway, it got me thinking: Can one be an all-weather friend with Truth, that diamond, instead of being just a fair-weather one? Can one stick to the Truth even though It's not on one's side?

In 1995, Nandan & AKK were reviewing me on the Customer Interface role done for GTB and there were some ticklish points raised. A statement came out of me that's sort of become the lodestar of my life:

I am more attached to the Truth than to myself.

The unpalatable Truth might sting for a while, but that's OK. I can live with It.

As the Master says in the Gospel:

It is said that truthfulness alone constitutes the spiritual discipline of the Kaliyuga. If a man clings tenaciously to truth he ultimately realizes God. Without this regard for truth, one gradually loses everything. If by chance I say that I will go to the pine-grove, I must go there even if there is no further need of it, lest I lose my attachment to truth. After my vision of the Divine Mother, I prayed to Her, taking a flower in my hands: 'Mother, here is Thy knowledge and here is Thy ignorance. Take them both, and give me only pure love. Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy unholiness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy good and here is Thy evil. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy righteousness, and here is Thy unrighteousness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love.' I mentioned all these, but I could not say: 'Mother, here is Thy truth and here is Thy falsehood. Take them both.' I gave up everything at Her feet but could not bring myself to give up truth."

Satyam, the mantra for this online yuga!

On G+

Temple Hopping (28.FEB.2012)

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After a long time, went temple hopping last Tuesday; it felt very good.

The MahaGanapati at Whitefield:

flanked by His charming younger bro:

From there, to the Chainthanya Bharathi Mandir:

Wanted to see Maharaj as it was a Tuesday, so Sri BC Prasad Gaaru kindly got it opened for me.  There was no one around and i played శ్రీ ఆంజనేయ దండకం (Sri Anjaneya Dandakam).  Mystical.

Then, i went to the Mariamman temple in Ambedkar Nagar. The deity was looking ultra-sweet; something about Her. She pulls you through.

I was struggling to get a good photo but, due to the locked grilled door, i couldn't get a proper angle. A short chap with a fresh beard offered to unlock the temple. He turned out to be Venkatesh. Was touched by his humility; he said that he was looking after OUR (మన) temple. Later i regretted not taking his photo.

On the way back, stopped at this roadside Hanuman:

The last stop was the Mariamman temple next to the BESCOM office, Immadahalli.  A monster banyan greeted me:

There were many picture frames around a tree in front of this, while slightly away, another  monster banyan was almost cut through to accommodate the temple being, for want of a better word, elongated.

The folks were going the whole hog when, thankfully, our baddy Kumar intervened.

The original deity was pushed to a corner:

Saw this deity under a tree:

and beat it from there.

It was a very inexplicable feeling: a joy which the hot  sun overhead could do nothing to mitigate.  Guess the Master is right. From 1+2=4:

| You may quote thousands of arguments from Vedanta philosophy to a true lover of God, and try to explain the world as a dream, but you cannot shake his devotion to God. In spite of all your efforts he will come back to his devotion. "A man born with an element of Siva becomes a jnani; his mind is always inclined to the feeling that the world is unreal and Brahman alone is real. But when a man is born with an element of Vishnu he develops ecstatic love of God. That love can never be destroyed. It may wane a little now and then, when he indulges in philosophical reasoning, but it ultimately returns to him increased a thousandfold.

On G+

A Birthday of the Master

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Last Thursday (23.FEB) was the tithi birthday of the Master, who was born three days after Maha Shivaratri.

He makes a nice subtle joke on Himself in the Gospel:

PUNDIT (to Hazra): "You live in his company day and night. You must be very happy."
MASTER (with a smile): "This is indeed a great occasion for me. Today I have seen the crescent moon of the second day of the bright fortnight. (All laugh.) Do you know why I referred to the moon of the second day? Sita once said to Ravana, 'You are the full moon and Rama is the crescent moon of the second day of the bright fortnight.' Ravana did not understand the meaning of these words. He thought Sita was flattering him and became exceedingly happy. But Sita meant that Ravana had reached the fullest limit of his power and prosperity, and that thenceforth he would wane like the full moon. Rama, on the other hand, was like the moon of the second day. He would wax day by day."

Probably that's why, when Keshab Chandra Sen asked permission to publicize the Master’s teachings, He said:

"It is not the right time to spread the message of this place [meaning, his message] through lecturing and newspapers. The power and ideas which are within this body will automatically spread all over in the course of time. Hundreds of Himalayas will not be able to suppress that power."

~~~*-*~@~

During the puja read this amusing one in Sri Brahmachaitanya Pravachan:

The Aspirant and Nama
…
One who aspires to attain to God should realize that he has now entered the wrestling pit, and must not be shy of being soiled by the red soil of its bed. The wise wrestler rolls first in that soil to overcome such shyness.

During His Last Visit to Keshab, the Master tells Keshab Chandra Sen:

"You may think that everything is going to be over. But God will not release you as long as the slightest trace of your illness is left. You simply cannot leave the hospital if your name is registered there. As long as the illness is not perfectly cured, the doctor won't give you a permit to go. Why did you register your name in the hospital at all?" (All laugh.) Keshab laughed again and again at the Master's allusion to the hospital.

~~~*-*~@~

In the evening, had the pleasure of watching the DVD of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi at Bangalore-100 Years in Retrospect.  It was just 50 minutes long, but very nicely done.

The Master makes an appearance for a very brief while, when He does the Shodasi Puja to the Holy Mother, but they chose a very good actor.  With his large bloodshot eyes, He looked every inch the Master.  Even his forearms were quite long, like the Master who was supposed to be almost an ajAnubAhu.  More on that in Some unusual physical traits of Sri Ramakrishna.:

The choice of the actor to play the Holy Mother was even more remarkable.  In The Universal Appeal of Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother, we read:

It is extremely amazing that many who came into contact with the Holy Mother, saw their own mother in her. She herself affirmed this on many occasions. She told Girish Chandra Ghosh that she was his ‘true mother’, not a mother ‘by any assumed relationship, nor by way of empty talk, but truly your mother (Pàtàno mà noi).’ This is a very significant statement because in Indian society women are very often referred to respectfully as ‘Mother’ and Sarada Devi says she is not such a mother but a ‘true mother’.
The most amazing aspect is that, even today, those who have seen only her picture also deeply feel that she is their own mother. There is the real-life incident of an illiterate, rickshaw-puller in Kolkata who, seeing the book ‘Shataroope Sarada’ in the hands of a passenger, was desirous of buying the book. Why? He said he had lost his mother in his childhood and seeing the face of the lady on the book cover, he felt it was his own mother’s portrait.

I have always felt that the Holy Mother reminded me very much of my own mother.  But it was even more amazing to see that this actress also gave me a similar feeling!  She was destined to play that role.

I really loved Her saying:

People in Bangalore have great devotion.

There's something about Bangalore; this wonderful city accepts everyone, who find their own space within it.

Leap Day 2012

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During the last one in 2008, i had blogged about that special movie Midnight Run:

This day doesn't come around often so i wanted to write about a movie that's close to my heart and that doesn't come around that often, Midnight Run. It has Robert De Niro, one of my favorite actors, and that hilarious Dennis Farina, who turns 16 today! Too bad we don't see him in more films.

Sammy San and i had been planning for Inglourious Basterds for the whole of February and finally we got around to seeing it.

He made the trip by 500C Volvo and i met up with him at HyperCITY and made the short haul back.

It was lunch time and our cook rustled up a nice spread to go with the KF beer:

• Pesarattu
• Vangi bath
• Poha
• Curd rice.

Anyway, all this was second fiddle to the gorgeous movie, which hits the ground running with a bang.

Though it was the nth time i was watching it, i was glued to it, just like Sammy.

When Shosanna gets ready for the Nazi show (in the last Chapter), her veiled face reminded me of one of this great photos. I had to hunt around in the deep end (of my mind) for the photographer's name and ultimately it came back: Allard.

A search for Allard veiled did the trick: