Go, Delusion

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxGoDel

Found a very interesting response from Richard Dawkins in an interview with Playboy (of all things!), which was trending on The Browser:

PLAYBOY: Assume there is a god and you were given the chance to ask him one question. What would it be?

DAWKINS: I’d ask, "Sir, why did you go to such lengths to hide yourself?"

My respect for Mr. Dawkins went up quite a few notches.  He's an atheist in the same league as that other Richard (Feynman).

We see similar stuff in Formless:

Truly Thou art a God who hidest Thyself.—Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Isaiah 45.15
…
No vision can grasp Him,/But His grasp is over all vision;/He is above all comprehension,/Yet is acquainted with all things.—Islam. Qur'an 6.103
…
I asked the Messenger of God, "Did you see thy Lord?" He said, "He is a Light; how could I see Him?"—Islam. Hadith of Muslim
…
The eye cannot see it; the mind cannot grasp it./The deathless Self has neither caste nor race,/Neither eyes nor ears nor hands nor feet./Sages say this Self is infinite in the great/And in the small, everlasting and changeless,/The source of life.—Hinduism. Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.6

Here're some interesting snippets from Love Gurus: (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Advice to Householders, page 115, middle)

M: "When one sees God does one see Him with these eyes?"

MASTER: "God cannot be seen with these physical eyes. In the course of spiritual discipline one gets a 'love body', endowed with 'love eyes', 'love ears', and so on. One sees God with those 'love eyes'. One hears the voice of God with those 'love ears'. One even gets a sexual organ made of love."

At these words M. burst out laughing. The Master continued, unannoyed, "With this 'love body' the soul communes with God."

M. again became serious.

and from Shaving the Man in the Mirror:

The XPs of Prof. GV Subbaramayya include a very neat explanation (and pun!) on creation: (Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, 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."

Image source: Acknowledgement....

On G+

Pranalicious

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxPranalicious

"The prana is missing."

—Ranjit Makkuni, about the Internet

Had the fortune to meet 'Prana Chikithsa' Partha Sarathi (PCPS) late October, 2010.

Swami and 'Prana Chikithsa' Partha Sarathi

Like most devotees of Swami, he's a sweet and jovial person. His card says:

Marma Vaidhyar & Acupressure Specialist
Alternative and Holistic System of Treatment
Healing through Nadi & Marma Chikithsa, Acupressure, Sujok, Reflexology & Yogic Exercises

You can get the contact details from his home page:

M-9, 6th Main, LIC Colony, Jeevan Bhima Nagar, Bengaluru 560 075, Karnataka, India
Home: +91.80.2529.3900
Mobile: +91.9448.07-69-00 (have seen him on WhatsApp)
Email: pranachikithsa@gmail.com

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Recently, learned a very interesting funda from him:

That we should only eat stuff with a lot of prana.

Easy way to determine that: Keep them outside and see how long they last.

On that front, coconuts are runaway winners. No wonder they are kept in the kalasa while doing VaraLakshmi Vratam and other puja.

One person cured his leukemia by eating just coconuts, i believe.

VaraLakshmi Vratam at home (2005)

On G+

Service Excellence: Ashing Panmei

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxPanmei

Ashing Panmei of Vanity Fayre at the Spa in Palm Meadows Club is a very good hair stylist. I have had the pleasure of getting my hair (whatever's left of it) cut short, followed by an excellent head massage, quite a few times.

He's a sweet chap from Manipur, who used to cut hair out there.  Later on, he came to Bangalore and got trained.

There's something about Manipur folks in service.  You find them out here quite a bit.  They are nice without being obsequious.

The last time he gave me a massage, he even did some shoulder-presses standing in front of me, sheepishly admitting that he did that only for the guys.  That killed me!

Somehow i was reminded of the Master's idea of service:

| If you want to serve properly, you should completely forget yourself.

Ashing Panmei of Vanity Fayre at the Spa, Palm Meadows Club

Last month, went for the usual.

Of late, i had been seeing Panmei on quite a few calls on my cycling rounds, so i kidded him about it.  One of the other stylists said that's been the case ever since his photo came up on the Net!

One of Panmei's friends working at Alila was also quite zapped by the photo of his pal turning up on the Net.

The Net is a mysterious thing.

Guru Tvam

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxGuruTvam

End of July, in the parayana of the Shri Sai Satcharita, i was reading about the Qualifications for Brahma-Jnana (or Self-Realization) in chapters 16-17:

(9) The necessity of a Guru. The knowledge of the self is so subtle and mystic, that no one could, by his own individual effort ever hope to attain it. So the help of another person-Teacher, who has himself got self-realization is absolutely necessary. What others cannot give with great labour and pains, can be easily gained with the help of such a Teacher; for he has walked on the path himself and can easily take the disciple, step by step on the ladder of spiritual progress.

It reminded me of this amusing interaction on the same topic from Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi:

One day we brought up the question of guruship and asked, "Is it necessary for spiritual attainment to have a guru?” The Maharshi ordered a certain treatise to be read, in which it was stated that as in all physical and intellectual training a teacher is sought, so in matters spiritual the same principle holds good.” “And”, he added, “it is hard for a man to arrive at the goal without the aid of such a one." I turned to him and said, "But you had no guru."
A rustle of shocked horror ran through the hall. But the Maharshi was not in the least disturbed by my thoughtless remark. On the contrary, he looked at me with a twinkle in his eye.Then he threw back his head and gave a joyous whole-hearted laugh. It endeared me to him as nothing else could. A saint who can turn the laugh against himself is a saint indeed!

Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Btw, this is an exquisite book. Here're the:

• PDF, and
• Kindle Edition.

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Michael James of Happiness of Being writes wonderfully about the combo of Arunachala and Ramana Sadguru in The Power of Arunachala:

Sri Bhagavan has come as the Guru in human form to give us all the necessary verbal instructions, and he has revealed that Arunachala is the Guru in the form of a hill with which we can always have satsang. Like any human body, the human form of the Guru will inevitably pass away one day, whereas the form of Arunachala will always remain. Thus, though Sri Bhagavan has left his human form, he has provided us with all the requisite outward help: he has left us with a permanent record of his verbal teachings, and he has shown us a form with which we can always have satsang. Therefore, for the devotees of Sri Bhagavan there will never be any need to search for another outer Guru, because all the necessary help and guidance is ever available for us in the form of the teachings of Sri Bhagavan and the satsang of Arunachala.

Arunachala Shiva