Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Renunciation: Article by Shri Shri Ravi Shankar

The renunciant is always creative and always at rest.

There is this beautiful story that is told about Chatrapathi Shivaji. At one time, Shivaji was very frustrated and found running his kingdom a big burden. So he went up to his Guru, Samarth Ramdasji, and told him that he was fed up and wanted to renounce everything.

Ramdasji heard him out and gave him permission to do so. Shivaji was happy at the very thought and immediately relaxed.

That's when Ramdasji said to him, "I have accepted everything. Now I am the king and you are my servant. Will you do whatever I ask you to do?" Shivaji said he would do anything for him. So Samarth Ramdasji said, "Very good. Will you run this country for me?" And Shivaji replied, "Yes, I will run the country for you."

Total renunciation had rekindled his zeal and enthusiasm and henceforth Shivaji ruled happily.

When you are continuously on the job, it leads to wear and tear. You can act when you are tense, but to be creative you need to be relaxed.

Creativity is not an exercise; it only happens when the body, mind and spirit are in tune with each other.

It's like forgetting all the work you have done during the day so that you can sleep at night - nature has built in us this system of retirement.

Retirement and renunciation always rejuvenate the spirit and creation is an inherent quality of the spirit. Anyone who works without retirement can continue doing so without being creative.

For zeal and enthusiasm, you need to be well rested. So, whenever creativity comes, the need to rest also comes.

Working hard and working smart are two different things. You cannot work hard at being imaginative. Yes, pain, struggle and frustration have sometimes brought out creativity in some people, but these are not the only reasons for it.

Millions of people in the world are struggling or frustrated, but they are not creative. If stress were the basis of art, then Lebanon in the past and Iraq in present times would have been the most artistic!

How do we tap into that space from which creativity springs? It springs from a void, and the fastest way to reach that void is through renunciation.

For instance, the purpose of sound is to lead you back to that silence within.

Music is nothing but sculpting the silence. Renunciation puts you in touch with that space of silence within you and becomes an unending well-spring of creativity.

The renunciant is always creative and always at rest.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

from the heart

"If you make cinema from the heart it usually works. That’s what all of us involved with Sid did.”

-Ranbeer Kapoor, Protagonist, Wake Up Sid

Sunday, August 23, 2009

A Crown of Thorns- Gandhi on 15th Aug 1947

"Today, you have worn on your heads a crown of thorns...... You have to remain ever wakeful on that seat. You have to be more truthful, more non-violent, more humble and more forbearing. You had been put to test during the British regime. But in a way it was no test at all. But now there will be no end to your being tested. Do not fall a prey to the lure of wealth. May God help you! You are there to serve the villages and the poor."

-Mahatma Gandhi, on 15th August 1947, when the ministers of the new government of West Bengal visited him in Calcutta.

Source

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Trance, Immeasurable Joy, Absolute Concentration, and Oneness with Being

After exposure to the game for only a few months at the age of 13, (Geet) Sethi got addicted to billiards. “To experience joy, you have to be yourself. I realised that joy for me can only come from what I do with passion. It has to involve me physically, emotionally, and spiritually,” says Sethi. “I have spent countless hours in complete solitude trying to align myself with my natural being. The ultimate experience is the joy of making a full effort in reaching out to the core within. It is the act of staying in the moment that gives immense, immeasurable joy. That joy is not a state of nirvana; it is the result of a moment of absolute concentration. I played for the sheer joy of the moment,” writes Sethi in his book.

The natural state of oneness with being can only be possible when one is present in the moment, according to the wonderful book 'The Power of Now'. Besides conscious efforts, this happens naturally when one loses awareness of space and time in doing what one enjoys doing the most. It is also said that the luckiest man is the person whose hobby and profession are the same, but how many such examples do we come across?


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From an article published in a magazine, I happened to come across it at this blog.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

An Inconvenient Truth & Fahrenheit 9/11

Saw two movies recently-

An Inconvenient Truth - By Nobel Laureate Al Gore, on climate change (~1.5 hours)

Fahrenheit 9/11- By Michael Moore, on links between family of Geoge W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden and why Bush attacked Iraq (~ 2 hours).

Both these movies were soul stirring!!! Especially 'An Inconvenient Truth', it's a must see for every person living on this earth!

I've added trailers of the movies in my favorites video bar.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Rahul Gandhi

To his acute awareness of the risk of being assassinated any day: "I believe in building up a group of leaders because who knows when I get killed."

Outlook India, June 1 issue

Bicycle and Rural Poverty Alleviation

For more than a year now I have been working on the concept of increasing the per household bicycle density especially in rural areas in India to foster accelerated growth in rural incomes. Here's a link to that.

http://thebicyclereport.blogspot.com/

Blogging

For last 2 months internet availability has been scarce for me, and that has resulted in a recession in blog postings :-)

Hope in another fortnight would again be able do more frequently what I love very much, i.e. blogging!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

:-)

Wife: Jab bhi main gana gaati hoon tum balcony mein jaa kar khade kyu ho jaate ho???

Husband: Taaki colony waale ye na samjhein ki main tumhaara galaa dabaa rahaa hoon!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Narendra Modi

We all know Narendra Modi for what he did after Godhra episode. 1,000 innocent people lost their lives. If someone has some grudge with some people, he or she should go and settle the score with those people, what is the sense of punishing innocents for that? What difference will there be between a terrorist and him or her?

But on a different note I just happened to come across an interview of Narendar Modi on the development of Gujarat... and I was shocked to see the achievements... also shocked why the media never gave this information.

Some of the points from the interview:

  • Manmohan Singh government's targeted agricultural growth of four per cent is stuck at 2.5%. The agricultural growth in my Gujarat is 14%, but no one looks at it.
  • And today my state has 100 per cent girl-child enrollment. You don't think this is work?
  • From 40%, today we have 80% to 85% of the deliveries happening in hospitals.... But you are not interested in this.
  • 'justice delayed is justice denied'...more than one crore pending cases. After our initiatives, there are only 20 lakh pending court cases. Now my target is that by 2010, when Gujarat will complete 50 years, we will make it no-pendency. Cases will be disposed of in the very year they are filed.
  • You tell me, since Independence, in the field of justice delivery, has so much work been accomplished anywhere?

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I was shocked with surprize to see these achievements!!!!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

1984 Delhi anti-sikh riots

"However, the rioters found my friend Baldev. They thrashed and threw him from the balcony to the road below and then threw a quilt and bed sheet over him before lighting a matchstick. He was burnt alive and I was still locked inside the bathroom.


After about an hour, I and many other Sikhs in the vicinity were rescued by the military. While I was being taken in a military truck to the refugee camp at the Shyamlal College, I could find so many half-burnt bodies all around. There was so much of foul smell all around."

Full article

इंसानों में भगवान भी मिलते हैं, इंसानों में हैवान भी मिलते हैं

पर कभी कभी लगता है, इंसानों में भगवान बहुत कम

और हैवान बहुत ज्यादा मिलते हैं

Friday, April 10, 2009

Cubbon Park Acquarium

Cubbon Park Acquarium, Bangalore...




















Click the image to see an enlarged version.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Dasvidania

Watched 'Dasvidania' movie this weekend... there are some movies which remain in you even after the show is over... when they touch your heart... when they stir your soul.

There was a sequence when Vinay Pathak, infinitely shy and hesitant, proposes to Neha Dhupiya... the concept was so beautifully thought and woven... the foundation of dumb charades... and the silent and slow actions of Pathak... his magical smile... the rain, adding to a sense of stress during those moments... very few writers and directors would have shown a scene like this in its very purity, as in the movie.

It was innocent, cute and magical... touched my heart.

Another thing that caught my attention was a scene between Vinay Pathak and his younger brother in the movie, discussing how the mother will be taken care of. Though in last 10 years bollywood has experimented a lot with scenes of a longer duration, and we have had even complete songs being filmed in a single shot without a break, or atleast an apparent break (O chhori, zara nach ke dikha, e.g.), this movie had this very long single shot sequence which was a difficult attempt with so many dialogues and emotions. Perhaps the intensity of the scene would have been marred had it been shot in multiple shots, with discontinuity in emotions depicted by the actors.

Bollywood is evolving surely, thanks to these new generation film makers, and equally the new generation movie watchers, who dont approve a movie on its star value, but on its content!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Definition of Status

Buying things you don't need, with money you don't have, to show people you don't like!


- Sent through SMS by a friend.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Work

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.

-Rumi.

Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.

-Voltaire.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Jayaprakash Narayan's Open Letter to Indira Gandhi

Searching through internet on various issue, I came across Jayaprakash Narayan's open letter to Indira Gandhi during the thick of Total Revolution Movement and the Emergency.

Link
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Excerpts-

I have pondered over this riddle: Why did not those (Congress-led state) govern-ments act wisely? The conclusion I have arrived at is that the main hurdle has been corruption. Some-how the governments have been unable to deal with corruption in their ranks, particularly at the top level – the ministerial level itself. The corruption has been the central point of the movement, particularly corruption in the government and the administration.


No one has done more to lower the position and prestige of that great office than yourself. Can you ever think of the Prime Minister of a democratic country who cannot even vote in his Parliament because he has been found guilty of corrupt electoral practices?


a party of self-seekers and spineless opportunists and “jee-huzurs” such as the Congress, alas, has become, can never do anything worthwhile.


Please, do not destroy the foundations that the Father of the Nation, including your noble father, had laid down. There is nothing but strife and suffering along the path that you have taken. You inherited a great tradition, noble values and a working democracy. Do not leave behind a miserable wreck of all that. It would take a long time to put all that together again.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

जो भी बुरा भला है...

जो भी बुरा भला है... अल्लाह जानता है

बन्दे के दिल में क्या है... अल्लाह जानता है

किस्मत के नाम को तो... सब जानते हैं लेकिन

किस्मत में क्या लिखा है... अल्लाह जानता है

नेकी- बदी को अपनी... कितना भी तू छिपाए

अल्लाह को पता है... अल्लाह जानता है

(नेकी- बदी: goodness and evil)

- These are few lines I like very much from a Jagjeet Singh ghazal, from his album Sajda.

P.S.: This link gives the whole ghazal.

Friday, January 16, 2009

CVV No. and Credit Card Security

You are safe till your CVV number falls in the wrong hands. The police have stumbled on a credit card racket in which CVV numbers have been misused.


When the customer gives the card for swiping, the card number comes in the receipt with other details. All the person swiping the card has to remember is the CVV number. In restaurants, there's even enough time to note it down, along with other details like validity period.

Click here to read the report

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Remember to do the following with your Credit card Information:

1. Scratch out to invisibility the CVV number from the credit card. There's absolutely no need to keep the CVV no. on the card. Keep it in your memory, diary or mobile.

2. Don't write the credit card no. and the CVV number at one place.

3. Apply for the password for online usage for your credit card, the extra security measure.