The beauty of a problem

Karma in Sanskrit means work, but it also has a deeper meaning if you attempt to elaborate it. The word is pretty popular among Hindus, they believe in Karma - work, Dharma - righteousness, and then Satya - the truth. It is interesting to see an analogy i.e, Karma being the mind, Dharma the heart and Satya being a true combination of mind and heart. It is a fact that mind and heart, though separate, function together for an optimal solution for a given problem. Why do I mention about problem here? Because simply, we are all problem solvers. When we look at life in a way we define it as problems and solutions, it becomes a simplistic view of life. Meaning, we either create problems and we solve them or we solve problems created by others, that is all we do throughout our lives.

So, how can everything be a problem? Let us start. A person is born to solve the problem of continuation. It is a fact that if the current generation ceases to reproduce, there will be no humans left. So, agree or not, we were born to solve the problem of continuation. Each one of us is a great warrior taking the responsibility of the whole generation to create a future for coming generations. Next, we need to survive, because our body is so made that we need to eat and drink. For at least now, we cannot imagine life without food because I do not know what the future holds. What if a great scientist finds out a way we never needed food. Isn't it interesting to imagine a life without food, when you never need to eat or drink. Then we won't have to spend time cooking, cleaning dishes, partying, we won't have digestive tract, we will have different mechanisms that we get energy, perhaps like solar panels, we might get energy from the sun, maybe we will be like cyborgs, maybe not, who knows, this is a crazy world already. For now, we need to eat to survive, so solve this problem of the crazy stomach first. How? Have a field to grow food, farm animals, but wait, you might not have any. You can barter it, oh no, it is so difficult to barter, lets's create something handy and call it money. So then, money was made to make life easier, a universal thing used to trade things. But of course, we trade emotions, love, and what not for money. It is another discussion to see whether money solved our problem or not.

With money, came a flurry of ideas, businesses, jobs, economies, markets and the financial palaces of the modern world. But still after centuries of prosperity, billions are still fighting to solve the second problem  -food. If we think deeply, these two problems cover all the problems that we have in this world. Why do you have to work so hard? Stomach, continuation. Why do you have to party? To enjoy, to have a healthy life, to stay alive - continuation.

How actually does a problem comes into existence? Because of the circumstances? So isn't it the circumstances that creates a problem? Its more like a chicken and an egg situation. Problem takes its form when you are unprepared, or you have no idea about its solution or existence. For example, fixing a laptop can be a problem to one but a child's play to another. Won't it be fascinating to image the creation of the universe is this perspective? Why would the universe be created? Why would the problem of continuation be preceded by the root problem of "the beginning"? Ok, we create generations to solve the problem of continuation, so "the beginning" must have happened to solve an existing problem. When there was nothing in existence, why would there be a problem? Maybe, that was the problem - there was nothing there, so something needed to be done to let "the beginning" happen.

It sure solved the emptiness, but did it actually solve something more? Further, why was beginning and continuation so important?

Good man

There will never be a perfect man, never a perfect world and never a perfect solution, maybe that's why evolution takes place. But there can always be a good enough solution, so maybe the quest here can be to find a good enough man, not a good man because good can be sometimes linked to perfection, and that actually doesn't exist, so should there be a  word called perfection even in the dictionary? What is its significance if it doesn't exist? Should we make a benchmark for something that is not achievable because there is always a good enough solution, never a perfect one. So there is never a perfect man, never even a good man, just a good enough man. You should disagree? We live in concepts. We live only in concepts. We assume good or believe bad or stay neutral, that is what we do.  

We are always finding a perfect man, in reality we look for leaders, and visionaries, prophets, and Gods. In imagination, we look for batman, superman, spiderman, any superhero, any imaginable superhuman. Why? Why do we need one? Because that it is not achievable? But to have a benchmark, to have order and normality. Very strange that we need supernormal people to make things normal. It means that normal people can't make things normal? Very strange, my understanding. It might also mean that it needs abnormal people to make things below normal and supernormal people to bring things to normal and normal people just stay there to be normal.

So normality is always in between abnormality and supernormality. 

A small truth

If I have to imagine a world, and I do dare, I envision a society which knows compassion; a land with no occupancy for animosities. But when I do ponder, I am skeptic; for the hidebound edifices of haughty minds provide, but a bulwark to prosperity. It is not hard to acknowledge that utopia is a distant dream, and it's conceivable that we may never realize it. Because, despite regarded as mindful and soulful beings, we find ourselves convoluted in a maelstrom of divisions and bogus idiosyncrasies. It is ironic that we all understand the gist of beautiful living but yet we adhere to deeds which only lead to remorse; we truly comprehend the shadows of our own fallacies and yet we choose ways that inevitably results tragedy. So the question is, why do we do it; why do we indulge in tawdry things that we always wanted should never be a part of our life? Because we pretend; inside we are not genuine and when truth debunks the castle of greedy indulgences, we cower like helpless beings. Because we lack the fortitude to face our own inner foes, we cannot forgive and we are ashamed. We neither give any chance for compassion, nor do we believe we are capable of it. A wall isn't made of a single stone, each stone is a story of bravery. One small step in the right direction can enlighten your senses and you can clearly see and face your mistakes. So, why wait for someone else to instigate the change you want to see? Be the change.

Shiva

Shiva

Shiva, even when you take the name, you feel so satisfied and secured. Shiva. Shiva. I am talking about the Hindu God Shiva. Yes, there are many Gods in Hinduism but the core of it is not the physical appearance of God, the core is the concept. There is a definite difference between what pleases the eyes and what pleases your vision. So, rather than going for the appearance of God, I feel humbled to try to understand the concept behind it. Well, I have never seen Shiva, but I feel immense truth in the words of a Saint, Adi Guru Shankaracharya who wrote amazing lines about Shiva, "I am nothing at all but the eternal bliss, the eternal joy. I am Shiva." It is about total liberation, total freedom, total joy, eternal joy and bliss. We don't even have the concept of freedom and here we are trying to analyze eternal freedom and eternal bliss.

We are born to be free, free of what? You might have heard the saying, "You should teach the person to fish but not give the fish." That is freedom, and when the person enjoys the fishing, it is joyful freedom and when he understands that he is not fishing at all, then maybe, that is when we start talking about eternal freedom. When you do something and understand that it is being done and yet you are doing it.

Physics is amazing, it is just a name given to understand our nature. We can never think above physics, because we cannot think above matter and energy. That's why literature and art comes to the rescue many times and many times art at its best is physics at its best and physics at its best is art at its best. But there is even more. There is infinity, the symbol of total freedom, eternity. When you become infinite, you have eternal freedom or when you become zero.

One word that defines Shiva for me is infinity. When you are infinite, everything become so tiny, even the trillions of universes become so tiny. I can say that it is a wonderful human achievement even to coin the word Infinity, because that is Shiva for me. And it would be amazing to think that the infinity is so joyous, the joyous infinity. There is Shiva in joy, there is Shiva in infinity. So whenever you'll see pure joy, you'll see Shiva, performing his eternal dance.

The T Trinity

Time is a funny concept, why? In a way it exists and in a way it doesn't. You cannot change that happened, and you cannot rightfully change what might happen, but you can always do the best you can to see that whatever happens, the best and the most right happens. When I stand in the time scale, and visualize events of life passing by, events from the past, slowly passing through the present and becoming the future, it feels an awe and yet to stay at the present is the pleasing of all, watching eveything like a big movie, the movie of your own life, unfolding in front of you, in ways which you like or sometimes otherwise. Like you are the director, actor, musician and writer of your own movie, your own life. But there are certain patterns or templates that the universe gave to each one of us that we need to stick to, the innate nature of our being, and based on the scope of the being and the personality that develops around that nature, we create our own life, our own choices, our own desires and our own small worlds of faith. Events come and go, people come and go, worlds change, universes change, if anything that is constant, that is change. If you want a rose, you need to go to a place where you can get a rose but if you want to have a rose in your backyard, you better plant it, of course you can always imagine grasses to be lovely roses but they are not. It's a lovely planet that we live in, gives so much, so much, have been giving for a long time, never asks anything, something to learn perhaps, never late to start something that is nourishing and truthful? We are nature and we are time, we were a small single cell and now we have trillions of them arranged so perfectly that I can write these words, and worlds apart, you can read it. Earth has changed, people always change but has time changed? And should it change, should it be something like, suddenly it is the 19th century again and when you wake up the next morning it is the 25th century, can it afford to be like this? It will be a weird and unmanageable universe. Something to learn, perhaps, calmness, and constant persevearance. If time were a human being, I would salute and humbly bow to its feet, for its unimaginably clam, peaceful and stable character. We are never old. will never be, because, cells die, cells live, when we are neither, we wont. When we are events of time, we never die, we just have a start time and a finish time, but when we go back to the time we were there, we are again alive, but yes, when we are there, we are full of life energy, but then later we don't. So there ought to be a difference between events of time and the lifeful present. But wouldn't that be amazing if we could integrate them both? In the way we are always lifefully alive, like the immortal thoughts and the immortal truth. Something that is amazingly immortal, is the truth and how beautifully truth and time work together to create a wonderful universe. There is nothing that is false, if something is false, then that is just the absence of truth. So, maybe Time and Truth are the real guardians of this universe, the pillars that maintain this universe. So isnt it worthy to spend time in truth? Or spend some truth in the limited time we have, before the window closes? Truth isnt gonna change, neither can time, they both can give tricky interpretations, but you'll know it sooner or later.

When I look at a tree, I feel so humbled, so humbled, just grows and grows, and just gives and gives, even after it dies, it gives, even after it dies, gives, then burns to give, even after it had died, given, burnt, it still gives. Three Ts, Time, Truth and a Tree, such a wow Trinity they are. One guards, the other maintains, and the last one just gives. A lot lot to learn, such a wonderful world, such a priviledge to be here and then to be able to feel its greatness and its humility, even though I just take a birth, automatically I get engaged to all these wonderful concepts, and many times, almost, everytime, we take it all for granted. Spend time in falsehood, which is the absence of truth, be in a time which is either past or future, or grow downwards, do things that harm, never take you up. Nature is such a huge resource, universe is such a great teacher, time is such a great protector, if you pay attention, they'll never let you fall, will never ever let you down, so what about learning something from these great teachers? So, maybe growing limitless in truth by just giving makes you time independent, because humility never dies.  And when you are in truth, you'll never ever regret, because it is nourishing and life giving.  

Mirror

What do you think of, when you think of a mirror? Reflection? Glass? Your face? Your self? Rectangle? Oval? Or any personal stories relating to any mirror? Well even though we are all the same, we have different perspectives and that makes us unique, maybe we look at mirrors in different ways. 

The mirror doesn't do anything, its job is just to show what there is. If the mirror is not manipulated, it just reflects the truth, the reality, of things that exist. Sometimes when I look at the mirror, I see nothing, and sometimes I feel, I want to see Buddha there, but its a mirror, it cannot be manipulated, so its just a possibility, just an imagination. And then I think can I become a mirror? In the sense, can I stay there and be a reflection of reality and never be manipulated or falsified ? And will that be a life to live by becoming a mirror? Being like a mirror maybe sometimes means that you show people the reality and the truth, whether they like it or not. Because truth is truth, that is why it is the truth. And maybe that is why people break mirrors because they cannot take reality easily. Instead of changing their false obligations and views, they change the mirror instead. And what can the mirror do, but to be broken? But the mirror can be a weapon when it breaks down, can cut hard. When it is showing the truth, it is calm and silent, just shows the reality, but when it is broken, it's pieces can hurt and then it divides into many mirrors, like a hologram. and when a person looks at the broken mirror, it can see many reflections of itself. So why to break a mirror, instead of breaking the clutches of falsehood that prevents you to see the truth of your better and worse self? What have we gained, if we cannot even see that beauty in the mirror? We gain nothing. 

And if the mirror is not there, then can you ever improve yourself? Can you ever know what is right or wrong in you? So, how do you find the mirror to your soul? A mirror that shows the real you, the real self. Where can it be found? Where is that mirror that shows white and black of the heart? Where is that mirror that shows the reflection of the soul? Possible to get? Strangely Impossible I guess. But that should be possible, isn't it? We keep on getting strange mirrors that aim to show reflection of the soul. Sometimes, people behave like they are the mirrors, sometimes words, sometimes experiences, sometimes mind, sometimes heart, sometimes nothing. That mirror is so scarce, the mirror that shows your soul to you, no matter how it is. But even if we find that mirror, will we believe it? Will we value it? Will we be gratified by its truth? Human nature is tricky, isn't it? 

Till I find it, O dear Mirror, I'll miss you. Don't know what will I do after I find you, but one thing I can promise, I'll use this separation time to make myself stronger to face the reality that you might show me. I am excited.

The Thing

The Thing

It was all joy, the ten year old had just won an art competition, in which he had drawn a tree which gave universes instead of fruits. He was wondering how he got the inspiration to make the art and was kicking stones as he walked along. He was now thinking about making a more detailed version of the art. The tree was not so big, just the size of an average banyan tree and when the tree gave fruits, they were all galaxies. He imagined the galaxy to be just the size of a mango and it had all the solar systems, the sun, the moon, the stars, the black holes, comets, meteorites, planets and the constellations. He was smiling along, he remembered the words of praises he received when he won the competition, that how amazing he was to be such brilliant at such a small age. Then he stumbled into something. He looked ahead, but his vision was blocked. At first he thought he saw a big giant seven feet potato blocking his way. The sun shone on the top of the potato figure and he had that awe moment. Then he got his steps back and again saw it carefully, it was a giant brown stone. The stone was strange, it had a beautiful glow around it, and had reflective surface. He could see his awestruck face as he got nearer to it. He felt as if it was alive when he went nearer. He gained some courage and then tried to touch the thing, but he saw a man running away from just behind the stone, and was yelling not to touch the stone. So he backed away. The stone was on the side of the road, just blocking the path for pedestrians. He just kept on staring at the stone, for he had never seen anything like it and as he saw its fractals, he remembered the universes he madeThere was a life like , and thought that the stone is a meteorite that came from outer-space and has brought all the universes with it. He quickly ran towards his house to get his camera. But by the time he came back, there was a different story there.
A big crowd had gathered around the stone, and children were shouting to touch their Barba Papa. It was chaos there. He quickly started to search a place for a good photographic angle for his meteorite. When he finally found a place, there was another photographer already there. He said smiling, “This is a symbol of peace.” There was so much noise and rush there, it was amazing to see that this guy found peace in that stone. He heard some excited voices coming from behind him. They seemed to be a group of teachers and students. They were discussing that the phenomenon had happened from another dimension. That piece of unknown particle was the key to understanding the universe, they said that it knew that it was being observed and that they might or might not be destroying the wave-function, as it changed the color of its surface as they took its photograph and the photograph showed the conscious state of the photographer. They even game a name, “Eurekatron”. They were trying to approach the stone, to take a sample to the lab, but a large crowd of people chanting prayers came and surrounded the now, Eurekatron. They declared that it was now a property of a religious organization, as it has some divine powers which were foretold. They said that by touching the divine stone, one of the persons got healed of cancer. Now, the environment went crazy, now everyone wanted a chunk of it. Everyone was running like crazy. And finally cops arrived and started throwing water to the crowd to settle them. Finally there was no one around the thing.
The stone remained there alone and silent. It was shining with a beautiful glow after it was soaked with water that was thrown to settle the mob. The policemen were awestruck to see the thing glow with unparalleled brilliance. They called for a crane to take the thing away to the National Geological Laboratory. The crane tried to lift the thing, but it just could not lift it. They tried hard, they brought another crane, but they just could not lift it. Then finally after many trials, it made some movement. But it was all it did, and again no one was able to move it. They tried to dig around it but the area around it had become like concrete. Everyone had given up, but slowly the crane was able to lift it up very easily. A man patted the head of police from behind and said, “It can read your mind, just think that you can lift it up.” The guy with white fuzzy hair was a renowned psychologist whom the policeman quickly recognized.
The thing was now shown live on every TV station, but every station described and showed the thing differently. The same thing, on different channels, were different in shape, size and colour. The whole world was glued to the TV screen. The thing suddenly was an international celebrity. Finally it reached the facility. The geological department called for expertise from every field for an emergency meeting. It was decided that the thing would be kept there in the laboratory and would not be examined for some time. Everyone was skeptical about it as no one knew what it was. As it was now a global citizen, they did not want to rush and do something foolish, after all it was Eurekatron, but again they had to answer the impatient world. It was impossible not to observe the thing, no one saw it physically, but their thoughts were always observing it. After three days, when they opened the door to see it, it had become smaller. Now they urged the world to think good about the thing and save it from vanishing. But again it became smaller. Now the experts had to make a choice, do they start dissecting it or just see it getting vanished. So they decided to get samples from the thing and see what it really was. When they approached the thing, it had now grown bigger. They took the samples and divided it to the experts of every field. No one had the slightest clue of what it was? There was nothing inside it, it was just space. It was as if it was a big ball of energy with no mass. Chemists confirmed that it was an element which was never been discovered before, the head chemist named it Michaelogen. Doctors said that it had neuron like structures but it was far beyond their comprehension. Geologists believed that it was a rock from outer space. Their samples kept on vanishing as they did tests on it, but the thing kept on getting bigger and bigger. So after months of vigorous testing, no one could find out anything. No one had the simplest clue, now even theories were stopping, as it failed the next second. It was declared impossible to know it.
In those few months, the world had settled down, there were no wars around, there was no poverty, there were no people with big thick solitary angry heads, there were no diseases, there was just beautiful calmness around the whole world. People knew who they were, they knew their destiny, they knew themselves. The world was totally chaos free. There was no rush, it was just smooth. People knew what to do, and it was done, they did not want anything, if they wanted it was fulfilled, and they knew what they were supposed to want and they enjoyed it. And all this time the thing was glowing and growing and a scientist now, yes the same artist, was busy testing it, he looked deeper and deeper into it, it was the thousandth time he was doing the same task, he kept on getting deeper and deeper, finally the instrument reached its threshold. He just hoped it went just more deeper and suddenly it went deeper, he was awestruck, now he believed that it worked, he kept on examining deeper, and finally he saw something, it was the sample of the thing, he examined deeper, again the same sample, he kept on doing the same for very long and finally he saw something which made his eyes wide open with immense revelation, he saw himself examining the sample.