Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Stars are listening in

"Let's walk a few steps in the silence of the night, held up by the hum of the spheres , broken gently by the the rise and fall in the music of the stars. The velvetty silence will kiss our wounds dry. And noiselessly let's move for the stars are listening in." .. (Updating Hazel)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

No future rolling out of the moment we call now

After-life is a name we give to an experience of a certain kind that our mind goes through here.In fact, all future is nothing but an experience we undertake here and now. There is no such thing as future rolling out from the moment we call now. Its rolled into it, in a circular experience of then, now and hereafter. "Every moment is eternally present."


The desire for immortality too is an experience confined to how our mind chooses to feel about the totality of existence and shaping the moment present the way it likes. The concept of future as a roll of cloth unwinding from the present moment into a space we call future is untenable in the light of findings of the modern science as well as the creative revelations of religiously inspired people called saints and prophets.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

To Karminder Singh Aulakh

To Karminder Singh Aulakh: ref his comment in Siyasat : I guess this has been hanging out there between us for some time. Let me try and see if I can remove it. No, to be fair and honest, you have NEVER used such disrespectful terms for me .. NEVER. On the contrary, You have often used courteous and even kind words for me, trying at the same time to set me apart from the people whom you obviously don't like -- and I have always shown sympathy and understanding towards the reason for anger your against them. It will be clear to any impartial observer that you and I hold each other in high esteem as persons, and I am grateful to you for that. After all, it is not easy for anyone to praise someone in the enemy's camp, no matter how nice that someone might be. It is to your abiding credit that you have always shown that magnanimity and kindness towards me.

And yet that haze of a misunderstanding seems to hang between us. I would sincerely hope that it is not because of any harsh used for you by me.

My comment about "you thieves, you liars" etc. was not about the language you use for me, for if I ever accused you of that, that would be a blasphemy , considering that you have always been most gracious towards me personally -- and I have never failed to notice and acknowledge that.

But some bad vibes do swing between us when you use words such as " I wonder how your conscience allows you to...." etc etc. To any discerning reader, this would sound as a severe indictment of the other's lack of conscientiousness . May be, you don't really mean it this way. But that unforunately is the impression such words would always leave, and that would bring some amount of unpleasant feeling in its trail.

You want to know what I really think of you as a person? This exactly is what: 

"An extremely honest and well meaning person, a man of unimpeachable integrity and proud of it. A person whose self esteem is rooted in his respect for values which he holds dear and is willing to wage a battle for at considerable risk to his own well being. A soldier of truth and righteousness -- incorruptible to the core, and very very courageous."
This would roughly be a definition of a human being whom I could proudly adore as an icon.

From all the honest men and women I know to be honest to the core and proud of their integrity, if I had to choose but a dozen to walk with me down an Aisle of Honour, I have no doubt that you would be there walking right in front there with me. 

That said, there are a few things I am uncomfortable with, but none of that reduces my respect for you as a person fiercely proud of his truthfulness and integrity. 

I wish I could learn to be comfortable with the ferocity of the passion that comes across in your dislikes.

All in all, I rate you far higher than many of my own admirers would rate me. And my earlier apologies to you had come from the core of my heart. So does my admiration for you. ..And so also do a few of the reservations I have about the way you make me feel the heat of your anger.

I see a lot of sparkle in your eye. What saddens me sometimes is the presence of a streak of blood in the same eye. As they say, when eyes are bloodshot, vision is a casualty.

And I mean all of it as a brother.

As the sun passes through rain-moistened wind to give it the colours of the rainbow , so does love pass through your heart to lend it the quality of a multi-splendorous dream

"Just as your eyes must need a mirror to see themselves, your mind needs another to understand itself: it is impossible to know oneself entirely without the reflecting aide of another compassionate mind. In the end, experience and intelligence fail where simple, old fashioned and innocent love works. The magical deciphering of oneself and of the world around is a leap of pure affection. Love has eyes as fresh as a newly born infant- with an uncanny knack for marveling at what it understands in a flash," she said, but in a flash she saw that her son was dithering on the bounds of understanding her words, and needed a little extra nudge.

"You once said that to truly understand something, one must always have look at it with wonderment. You said to understand is not to decipher the mystery of something but only to enjoy it," he said.
She looked at him with eyes that bespoke love and kindness. For the first time, she knew her son was inching towards romancing realism.

"The romance of mystery is a plaything for the old; lovers and infants alone can invest the familiar with mystery, and romance it. The wise know too much to understand anything; love renders both wisdom and understanding irrelevant, because love must enjoy everything and be happy with it completely. It is impossible to know something without first being in love with it. Understanding follows love as fragrance follows a flower. Don't panic at thrill of love at first sight. That's the only love there is; the rest is mere laboured posturing. But it will require a saint's heart to know that its not love but desire at first sight that is probably a fleeing joy, "said Hazel, as he persisted with his questions. 

   "But unless you feel the wonder that a child feels before a rainbow, unless you run bare bodied, barefooted to the edge of the earth to sit at the feet of the rainbow,  or  climb it and  hang by it upside down, clutching its colour bands with  hands and feet as a monkey hangs from a quivering,  rain-weakened branch of a  tree  - unless you try to rub the face of the rainbow clean with your bare wet cheeks, you have known nothing about love which comes dropping as a dream , filtering through the mist of particles of a rain-moistened wind.  As the sun passes through this mist to give it the colours of the rainbow, so does love pass through your heart to lend it the quality of a multi-splendorous dream," she said.