The woebegone Indian cop

Now I've nothing against cops in India. I have however major problems with the police big-wigs who manage the cops on the beat. The poor public image of the Indian policeman is due largely to the lack of traning, proper equipment, standard clothing during winter months, amenities promised in their job profiles but denied by their senior officers and most importantly, the manner in which their officers remain callous and indifferent to their requirments. Read on

The Maoist Menace in India

The Maoist problem in India has assumed gigantic proportions. Just yesterday 25 policemen were killed in broad daylight by armed Maoist guerillas in the eastern state of West Bengal, a hotbed of extreme-left wing activity. I recently wrote an article which created passions on both sides, which I'd like to share with you all. Do let me know what you think about this problem and express your views about my analysis - good, bad or ugly; all welcome.

Today is the 1st reunion of the batch of 1983 of St Michael's, Patna. I spent some years studying there as an adolescent and have many wonderful memories of that place. Here's a song I used to sing in those days, and still do. It has wonderful yodelling and a catchy and pacy melody that i love. it's all about a man trying to woo a woman using the 'chords' of his palpitations. Here goes

How can we 'get' the ultimate reality?

There are many ways to the truth but in essence three distinct types reveal it, in my view. One could approach the truth through the route of the intellect which is what physicists involved in studying the beginning of time and universe do - Einstein for example. Another route is the way of intuition where one has a direct experience of the truth through 'visions', 'contacts', etc - visonaries, sadhus, seers, etc. Finally,finding the truth through the route of the instinct is when one 'gets it' by doing something, those that live the truth of ultimate reality,perhaps Jesus, Buddha, Ramana Maharshi. The human brain, which is ultimately the reciever for whatever it is that is being 'recieved', has THREE distinct modes of gaining insight therefore: Intellect which is the preserve of those favouring objective reality - reality gauged through EXPERIMENTS that can be described, defined, and replicated to others through the use of formuale and theories. This is objective knowledge that is contained in books, sometimes in the form of theories (relativity theory) that cannot be observed, only described through mathematical deductive logic. Intuition which is the preserve of those faviouring subjective reality - reality that can be EXPERIENCED through rituals, processes, seances, channeling, etc. This is knowledge that is subjective and only 'shared' aspects with others allow people to accept its existence. This is the realm of global inductive logic and not the preserve of science but spirituality. Instinct which is the preserve of those favouring life and living - reality that is lived and breathed on a daily basis without the need for it to be described, debated and explained and used to persuade or pontificate to others. It is, it just is; the realm of the EXISTENCE. The knowledge is lived as the reality - Ramana Maharishi and people of that ilk belong to this group. They dont claim to be the ulitmate 'knowers' nor push and cajole others to follow their path. Their state of blissful existence can only be inferred by others by observing how that person exists as well as feeling it inside when in their presence. It is the state of what Sri Aurobindo called 'Sat-chit-anand': and refers to the triadic reality of existence- consciousness - bliss. It refers to that ultimate state of being where you are conscious of it and exist in bliss as a result of it. In terms of us it refers to live and let live, the wider the diversity, the better. Tolerate and be tolerated, for all this emerges from the one-truth. A lump of clay, a clay pot and a clay sculpture may appear different, serve different purposes and require different processes to come into existence, but clay they are. Similarly, we all appear and behave differently, but belong to the ultimate truth-existence we all do. If one has the ability to be in all three modes equally sophistically and easily, then that person would be the best exemplar of whatever that one means by the term ' exalted'. Usually one exists predominantly in one form or another and therefore certain things are left to the individual to infer and understand and exist. Have you got what is required to fathom this?

The Origin of Universe Verse from Rg Veda

From the Rg Veda, verse 10.129: There was no non-existent, adn there was no existent at that time There was neither mid-space nor Heaven beyond. What stirred? and whose control? Was there water? The abyss was deep. Neither death nor deathlessness was there then. There was no sign of night or day That One breathed without wind through its independent power. There was nothing other than it. Darkenss was there, hidden by more darkness in the beginning. A signless ocean was everything there. The potential that was hidden by emptiness -- that One was born by the power of heat. Desire evolved then, which was the first seed of thought. Searching in their hearts through inspired thoughts, Sages found the connection of the existent in the non-existent. Their cord was stretched cross-wise. Was there something above? Something below? Were there powers of insemination and powers of expansion? Was independence below, offering above? Or was it? Who really knows? Who shall here proclaim it - whence things came to be, whence this creation. Even the Gods are on this side, along with the creation of this world. So then who does know whence it came to be? But he who is its overseer in the highest heaven He surely knows? Or if he does not know..? END Such a soulful and poignant description of the creation of this universe, I have not read. And the similarity is striking for me.

Beginning of Universe - A Vedic alternative?

It started with the Big Bang, the scientists say. This was preceded by the Big Crunch, the scientists also say. And there are black holes and dark energy. Both are concepts that are in the process of being investigated further, esp. the latter. Its their features that make me think that there's some link to ancient cosmologies. Black holes have immense force-field (i.e. power) that even light cannot escape. Whatever enters it - matter or energy is consumed by it (reverts back into a state of 'one-ness' with it) - and all the information about that object or energy is lost (the 'information paradox). Black holes are super-heavy, electrically charged (i.e polarized into positive and negative), and in rotation. They are surprisingly a lot smaller than all the galaxies, stars and other space debris that they constantly consume, i.e. their size does not increase although their mass does. With all that gravity, one would expect that one day a black hole, any black hole for that matter, would collapse in on itself - ?the big-crunch, the state that existed Before Big Bang? Now consider dark energy. It is anti-gravitational ( the best way probably to understand the concept) and pushes objects apart. An analogy would be raisins in a cake. As the cake rises, the raisins are pushed further apart. Dark energy has been pushing galaxies apart and we only learnt this about 10 years ago. Thus, it is now being thought responsible for the rapid exapansion of the universe more recently discovered, as well as potentially the instantaneous expansion of the universe just after the big-bang. The origin of anything involves two things - creation , which is often and euphemism for some sort of explosion (of energy, mass or both) and expansion (of that energy or energetic mass ) into various forms and (which experience) immanent phenomena. This notion might fit the beginning of universe too. Certain ancient description of the beginning of universe appear to consist of darkness and void such as the Vedic texts from around 1500 BC, Rg Veda, verse 10.129, which states: There was no non-existent, and there was no existent at that time There was neither mid-space nor Heaven beyond. What stirred? and whose control? Was there water? The abyss was deep. Neither death nor deathlessness was there then. There was no sign of night or day That One breathed without wind through its independent power. There was nothing other than it. Darkenss was there, hidden by more darkness in the beginning. The rest of the verses follow in the next post. YOu make up your own mind as to how loinclothed sadhus and seers would have contemplated this reality at the time spacetime and the universe was created.

The politics and violence of hopelessness

Amongst the scores of articles lamenting the state of Israel-Palestine realtionship, I found the following lines from a piece by M J Akbar, one of India's foremost analysts amongst Muslim scribes in the Times of India of 14th Jan 2009. In these few lines, he provides a brief but telling analysis of the root cause of violence and its utility for a generation of hopeless Muslims, a point I had made earlier in one of my blogs This is the excerpt from M J Akbar's piece "Gaza is imprisoned in two concentric circles. Only one is the blockade by Israel. The larger circle is a noose placed by cynical Arab ruling cliques who feed off Palestine's despair to perpetuate their own survival, using the alibi of conflict. When there is rage on the Arab street, as now, there is silence and wordplay in the Arab secretariat. Organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah have filled a vacuum created by military incompetence and pathetic governance. That is their appeal to Muslims beyond their borders. Poor governance has created a knowledge deficit; and knowledge is the key to strength. An Arab friend sent me some startling statistics; the email was captioned 'A time for introspection'. Here are just a few: there are only 500 odd universities in the Muslim world. The United States has 5,758 and India has nearly 8,500. Literacy in the developed world is 90% against 40% in the Muslim world. If you removed Turkey from the list, the comparison would look grimmer. High tech goods and services constitute only 0.9% of the exports from Pakistan, and 0.3% from Algeria. They add up to 68% of Singapore's exports. Men die for two diametrically opposed reasons: when they value what they seek to defend, and when there is nothing worth living for. Israel has created a state worth defending. The Palestinians must be given something to live for."