No Jesus is put on cross without his consent

No Jesus is put on Cross without his consent. He chooses to be there and walks his path up to the Cross. He could always take a different route. He doesn't. He didn't. A Cross is not destiny: its a choice.

Jesus, cross and consent

No Jesus is put on Cross without his consent. He chooses to be there and walks his path up to the Cross. He could always take a different route. He doesn't. He didn't. A Cross is not destiny: its a choice.

No Jesus is put on Cross without his consent

No Jesus is put on Cross without his consent. He chooses to be there and walks his path up to the Cross. He could always take a different route. He doesn't. He didn't. A Cross is not destiny: its a choice. Destiny is choice.

Ishk di gall

ਨਹੀਂ ਸਿਵਿਆਂ ਦੀ ਚੁੱਪ ਹਾਂ ਮੈਂ , ਹਾਂ ਇਕ ਸ਼ਹੀਦੀ ਜੋੜ ਮੇਲਾ ,
ਕੋਈ ਆਖਰੀ ਅਰਦਾਸ ਮੇਨੂੰ ,ਤੇ ਕੋਈ ਆਸਾ ਦੀ ਵਾਰ ਆਖੇ /

ਮੈਂ ਜੋ ਆਖਾਂ ਸੋ ਪਿਆ ਆਖਾਂ , ਪਰ ਹੁਕਮਨਾਮਾ ਓਸ ਦਾ ਏ
ਜੇ ਗੱਲ ਇਸ਼ਕ਼ ਦੀ ਕੋਈ ਆਖੇ, ਤਾਂ ਫਿਰ ਸਰਬੰਸ ਨੂੰ ਵਾਰ ਆਖੇ /

Price tags on moon

"This life refuses you nothing but it gives nothing free. Its like a vast bazaar. Everything you want to buy is on offer. But everything has a price tag. There is no harm aspiring for the moon. Even moon is on offer. But check the price tag . If you really want something very badly, be prepared to pay the price: it will be yours. Otherwise, too, do not fret and fume. Just walk through this Mall, window-shop and entertain yourself. And be happy for those who can buy what you can not. Ordinarily, there are only two ways to be happy here. Either desire big and work hard to increase your buying power. Or check your buying power and peg your desires accordingly. Other than health and happiness, everything can be had off the shelf. For health and happiness, you must go to a different bazaar and be prepared to pay a different price. But price tags are unavoidable."

The heart behind the hand that places flowers at the Cross is often the same that drove nails into tender human flesh...(Hazel

EXTRACTS FROM A CONVERSATION: EDITED FOR COHERENCE

" To have your pain humiliated through denial or ridicule : you will often find yourself hated or laughed at and your innocence ridiculed and denied by the very people whose teeth are red with your blood. This is your first look at the world that you find so charming, so fascinating, so child-like when you are in love. Whether you join this world and be one of them or you resolve your pain and purify it depends solely on whether you steer your mind and soul unscathed out of this or you get drenched in hatred that surround you. ...."
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
"And the proof of that will be in the choices you make: either return this violence of hatred with violence of hatred or be stubborn in your love and care for this world.

>>>>>

"Those who have truly loved life have often chosen death. Those who truly desire to lessen suffering and hatred in this world are often made the target of both. Those who want to kiss the wounds on every hand and heart often have nails driven through their own hands and hearts. A Cross awaits everyone who prepares a bed of roses for the children of this earth.

"But no Cross has ever frightened a Jesus.

"Do not be hurt if you find that the world is not shamed by the presence of Cross in its midst , and in fact is least embarrassed in placing flowers at its root. Generally, the heart behind the hands that place the flowers is nearly the same that ordered nails driven through tender flesh.

"Yet stick by the Cross.And be prepared to receive more than the first man on the Cross was given. Do not be surprised at the spectacles you see.Those who crucified Jesus will be the first to grab his legacy and call you an impostor. They will turn even Cross into a throne and will pronounce you a pretender to it.A pretender to the Cross! Indeed. Those who crucify a Jesus are also the ones who milk his legacy. It always happens. Everywhere. It will happen to you too. It must.

"Yet do not despair. This is your true test. And this is the only test you need to pass. If the test scares you, just tell yourself that this life is simply earning money, breeding and rearing children and leaving enough in your will for them. Your will then be different from the Will that you sometimes wish to pursue. Forget that. There is no sin in not doing what you do not have the will to do. It is a weakness but no sin.There is no such thing as sin in this world. There are just weaknesses. Sin is an invention by those who want to rule over you by frightening your heart. They want virtue to be based on fear turned into faith.Weakness is something that you can understand and therefore conquer; it is within your power. Sin is nothing but a weakness mystified and taken beyond your control. It suits manipulators....
>>>>>

"Accept your weaknesses, or try to control or minimize these. And live peacefully and usefully. You can still be happy. Do not aspire for love if utility is all you find interesting. There is nothing wrong in opting out of love: there is something wrong in remaining in it and not being worthy of it. The choices life gives you are not complicated. Make a simple choice and live like a respectable citizen of Israel."Those

Generation recovering from morality mistaken for religion: you're lucky n brave to cast d burden away away while others carry it as a trophy..

Are we a generation recovering from morality mistaken for religion, because religion has no meaning for us except as an excuse for tribal vanity ? Have we ruined morality too by taking away from it the only rationale - common sense - that could give it legitimacy, replacing it with something dark and outdated, because we know that the dictates of morality as we want it would not stand the test of common sense and reason?

And are we sure that we have not confused moral ghettoes with religion? When we repeatedly refer only to a certain script(ure) as God's word, is this mode of conduct religious or just tribaligious?

Has God, the Almighty ever mattered to us more than the dictates of our spiritual and moral ghettoes?

How many have died for denying God? How many have survived for denying 'prophets', who merely represent Him? Is the message still not clear?

An

d  have we made  sure that our sacred zeal and fervour is not in fact our crass mindlessness and prejudice ?  And what we consider our sublime missionay zeal is nothing more than our tribal loyalty with something obscure and communal  ? Are we caught in traps of centuries and centuries of  legacy. it is desirable, necessary and possible to free oneself of all this obscure baggage. And there is no shame in trying to off load it and lighten yourself of the burden because everyone is either carrying it  proudly and has carried it some stage or the other. You are one the very few and lucky and brave ones who consider this baggage a burden and cast it away, while most others proudly carry it as a trophy, much like the donkey who carried water-soaked cotton.

About to shake hands with God, looking over the edge to the other side of Big Bang

Are we about to shake hands with God,on the other side of Big Bang? Wither Future >>>

June 26, 2014 at 6:38pm

PublicFriendsOnly MeCustomClose FriendsFacefriendsSee all lists...Mahilpur, India AreaPanjab University, ChandigarhGovernment of PunjabGo Back

For the most part, the remaining history of mankind here will be a race between education and catastrophe. If education wins, we will gain sufficient peace to engage undisturbed in pursuits that may take us to the next level of creation and thus free us from the constraints of the fate of our planet, which must die a natural death a few million years from now .

As we all know , the Sun and its system have a very limited life span - at the most 5 billion years after which it will "bloat up" like a decomposed body and gobble up surrounding planets. That will mean the end of all life in Solar System. At our present level of scientific advancement, there is not a a dream within a dream  within a dream of a possibility of human being able to stop this inevitabled death of the Sun and its children,including earth, and her children - man,  beast, insects, birds, blossoms  and women (:) ) .

In fact, that  will happen much earlier than the death of the  grand savant, the Sun. Life on earth has a maximum of 1 million years of drama left, and human will go out even earlier than that, with sub-microbial life alone surviving a little longer.

Even this relatively secure tenure  depends on whether  Nature is allowed to have its full itinerary. But we all know that human have displayed the insincts of destructive infant in tearing apart Nature's calendar.

If this continues to happen, then our drama might last anything between six months to six decades. With all the nuclear stockpiles ready to kill all of us at least ten thousand times over, even six months looks foolishly optimistic.


This should take us back to the opening para: its race between education and catastrophe.

If education is allowed to win, then who knows, human mind may yet reveal forces that lie concealed and buried under the weight of un-evolved organisms within our head.We may then be heading not only towards scientific gadgets that can boost the speed of light a thousand or a even a million times over but even make human bodies irrelevant by digging deep into mental or even spiritual versions (energy)    of our bodies ((incarnations) - matter), and help  us travel through vast intergalactic and inter-stellar spaces  at speeds not of light but of mind. Who knows we are sitting on the edge of finding out the secret of all secrets - why the speed light ought to have a limit.That may be the just a logical next stage of breaking the sound barrier: breaking the light barrier.
At this stage of our evolution, all that human imagination permits us is to persuade Albert Einstein to allow us a revision and update the General theory of Relativity and travel at speeds greater than the speed of light. And once we have persuaded this incredible agnostic Jew to alter his theory a bit, it shouldn't be really much more difficult to persuade God to change his mind and allow to play not dice but ping pong with astrophysics and erase the invisible boundaries that divide physics is and astrophysics from metaphysics.

There is a minor problem here.And that problem is our physicists who are convinced that the laws of Nature,once set at Big Bang, are not subject to change. ( They obviously haven't met a woman all their lives!!)  But ponce we have persuaded God to allow us to go to the other side of Big Bang and re-wind evolution from a different starting point, we can  move next to physicists.

Seriously, the question of a limit to the speed of light has to do with the nature of matter that we deal with. (And that includes energy also, because that too is only energy placed for a few hours in the top drawer of our kitchen refrigerator: matter is energy frozen to concrete just as ice is moisture frozen to brick.)

The next stage of human research will not be to understand the nature of energy but to change it. The moment you have changed the nature of energy, you have re-written the mind of God.If  energy begins to behave as we want it to behave, then there is nothing that can disobey us.The limits to speed will be broken - and how! At present, even travelling at the speed of light, you will need a million year to move from one stellar world to another . And there are trillions and trillions of these worlds, each one so large that the combined storage of all human minds that have ever walked this earth and all that are likely to walk can not visualise its limits and range.And we are dealing not with one but trillions a upon trillions of such worlds, each world made of  billions of universes, each universe made up of ......

(By the way, much of this was already known when Guru Nanak Dev ji.went into that rapturous rendition: paataala pataal lakh agaasa agaas..)

 Human mind,like everything else, is itself a mere byte of energy. Can a byte of energy transform, influence, conquer all energy ? Its like a little fragment of broken glass. Can that little fragment mirror a large broke fragment in it? Can it also mirror a trillion such fragments if placed at an appropriate angle and an appropriate distance? Can you see the whole sky reflected in a mirror which is a centimeter wide and half a centimeter long? can you see all the triilions of universe angled into that small fragment of mirror? Will the mirror refuse to picture what ti sees,provided the angle and distance are right?  I don't know. I have never been a broken fragment of a mirror? Or haven't I really been? Haven't you been? From the way even the most idiotic of human brains can mirror the entire sky with all the starry fabric beautifully reflected even in each one of his eyes, who can tell? I can't. Gori de long vich rab disda.
From romanticism to mysticism is just one small step. From physics to astrophysics,just a half step. From astrophysics to metaphysics, its not even  a step: its a leap made without effort.

But I stick to physics,to energy and matter. If education is allowed a chance, the possibilities that await human mind can overwhelm God -- the God that you and I have enslaved, not the God of Einstein. To Einstein , God may have been a little playmate, playing dice, or refusing to play dice just because Albert told him not to.
But we are certainly on the edges of a cosmological Great Wall of China from where you can get glimpses of what lies on the other side of the Big Bang. We are sitting, to use Carl Sagan's expression, "the edge of forever."

It all depends on who succeeds: education or our obstinacy, education or catastrophe. Education is the little baby step which human love takes to move ovr a few thorns of ignorance, hatred, bitterness, jealousies and what not. Education  is love. Education is joy. Education is the beginning of understanding the joys of giving, therefore of love:
Vidiya Vichaari
Ta par upkaari>>>>>>>>>>>.

"bikhar jaaoon main ban ke roshni ka sailaab" : Love , loyalty, and relational bonding

How can anyone love everyone ????????? What is the question, please ?? You can desire someone, admire someone, adore someone, be in relationship with someone , yes. Bu love everyone ???

You  can desire someone, adore someone,  possess , belong to or be in a relationship with  someone or  be attached to someone - and so on. But can you call this limited and well defined " arrangement" love? Can you really call it love?

You can't have relationships or bonding or attachment with everyone. True. But you can only love everyone. You just can't love except everyone. And the converse is also true: you can not desire everyone, can not "possess" everyone, can not be in a relationship with everyone, you can not admire everyone: you can only love everyone.
And yes, so can everyone love you and everyone else . And in fact if that someone tuly is in love and understand what love really is and how it differs from relationship and attachment and claims of possession, he or she not only will but MUST love everyone and everyone always.. That, I have always said,is the difference between desire and relationship on the one hand and love on the other. That also is the reason why petty violent instincts or sentiments like desire, possession, exclusivity in relationships, 'strings attached' deals called relationships etc. get confused with an all encompassing peaceful sentiment like love.

 Some part of the "relational bonding' is an  in-built mechanism in  Nature's  constraints of survival and the consequent laws  - like mother's strong bonding with her off spring, all through Nature. That's the most beautiful example of  relational bonding, but it still is not love in the sense that an all encompassing surge of love for all creation that sweeps through the hearts of poets at the highest  peaks of their creativity. Nor is it anything like  the peace-giving, sublime feeling that a saint perhaps feels towards the whole universe, blessing everything he sees.

In the end, A mind superior to mine with expression skills more forceful and creative than mine can do justice to the experience of "love" that I refer to but can not adequately express in words, much less make you experience it. In fact, I can not make you or anyone else understand or experience the intensity even of ordinary phenomenon like romance. So no surprise that 'love' that takes everything in its sublime embrace,  touching  everything  in equal measure,  is nearly impossible to convey in language.

The problem of inadequacy of language in describing subtle and forceful phenomena of Nature is something that even modern scientists have acknowledge as real. Scientists often encounter inexpressible situations while talking about glorious paradoxes in Nature even as they search for some sanity, some continuity, some coherence in natural phenomenon.

The problem arises also when we try to apply the idiom of something very limited in nature - like feelings of belonging, attachment , possession, relationship, moral or sexual loyalty etc. - to something as beautiful as love for all that one sees and hears or touches etc.

You  just said that "You can love everyone but so can they." Not only can but MUST. He or she will have no choice if he or she is also feeling something that I am feeling, which is not creating new relationships as triumphs, trophies or achievements on romantic territory but something as light and beautiful as fragrance.
In a state of mind like that, you want to embrace not Kim Kardashian but the entire mankind, the entire womankind,the entire Nature, the entire sky. .

I guess what is bothering you in my concept is the place of loyalty in relationships based on "love" ,Loyalty itself is essentially a concept in relationship. A person who has risen to the level of a saint has moved beyond the need for loyalty because he has also moved beyond the need for well-defined relationships that have names like lover, husband, wife and so on. This in itself contradicts the infinite range of love for the entire creation that lies invitingly in front of you,, asking you to hug it and be hugged back.

The problem is that minds not accustomed to living at a level where attachment driven relations are confused with love drag 'love' down to a question of indulgence, sleeping around with more partners than one, being 'loyal' to more than one person, and so on. These concepts do not even operate at that level,
In a layman's language (my own language, I mean) when someone says he is in love with everyone,obviously what he/she means is NOT that he/she is sexually drawn towards everyone - and so on. We must not lower the level of debate to by refusing to see the difference. These ideas and contradictions ( of sexual loyalty/disloyalty) themselves are the product of a mind that refuses to go beyond sexual attachments, possessiveness, achievement based on a need to feed one's vanity,or fill an emotional emptiness inside, etc,> Now that is something which our minds have always glorified as love.
For one thing, When someone experiences love for everyone, that "everyone" will include men,women, young, old, children, destitute, beautiful glamorous women, sensuous stars as well as lepers and handicapped, stinking gangrene stricken people, long and filthy slums inhabited by poverty stricken , foul mouthed men and women And move beyond that too, to animals, birds and so on. And sun , stars and the skies.

You can laugh at it. But if you ever happen to be in an extremely happy ( not indulgent and pleasurable but happy) state of mind, you will feel that inner expansion yourself. You must have, I bet, had moments when you felt so happy and full of love for everyone in this world. All of us have those moments. With the saint, these moments have been turned into a normal and everlasting state of mind. Sometimes, poets come close to this: "Dil ye chaahe bahaaron se kheloon, apni baahon main aakash le looN....."....OR....."Aur aag main apne dil ki har dil main lagaata jaoon"...Or ...."bikhar jaaoon main ban ke roshni ka sailaab"...

The problem of inadequacy of language in describing subtle and forceful phenomena of Nature is something that even modern scientists have acknowledge as real. Scientists often encounter inexpressible situations  while talking about  glorious paradoxes in Nature even as they search for some sanity, some continuity, some coherence in natural phenomenon.

The problem arises also when we try to apply the idiom of something very limited in nature - like feelings of belonging, attachment , possession, relationship, moral or sexual loyalty  etc. - to something as beautiful as love for all that one sees and hears or touches etc. You just said  that "if I am free to love more than one person, then that other person is also free to do the same."  Not only free, he or she will have no choice if he or she is also feeling something that I am feeling, which is not creating new relationships as triumphs, trophies or achievements on romantic territory but experiences something as light and beautiful as fragrance.Suddenly you want to embrace not Kim Kardashian but the entire mankind, the entire womankind,the entire Nature, the entire sky.  .

I guess what is bothering you in my concept is the place of loyalty in relationships based on "love" ,Loyalty itself  is essentially a concept in relationship. A person who has risen to the level of a saint has moved beyond the need for loyalty because he has also moved beyond the need for  well-defined relationships that have names like lover, husband, wife and so on. This in itself contradicts the infinite range of love for the entire creation that lies invitingly in front of you,, asking you to hug it and be hugged back.

The problem is that minds not accustomed to living at this level drag 'love'  down to a question of indulgence, sleeping around with more partners than one, being 'loyal'  to more than one person,  and so on. These concepts do not even operate at that level, neither do these concepts arise. In a layman's language (my own language, I mean)  when someone says he is in love with everyone,obviously what he/she  means is NOT that he/she is sexually drawn towards everyone - and so on. These ideas and contradictions themselves are the product of a mind that refuses to go beyond sexual attachments, possessiveness, achievement based on a need to feed one's vanity,or fill an emotional emptiness inside,  etc,> Now that is  something which  the minds os such people have always glorified as love. For one thing, when someone experiences love for everyone,   that "everyone" will include men,women, young, old, children, destitute, beautiful glamorous women, sensuous stars as well as lepers and handicapped, stinking gangrene stricken people,  long and  filthy slums inhabited by poverty stricken , foul mouthed men and women And move beyond that too, to animals, birds and so on. And sun , stars and the skies.

You can laugh at it. But if you ever happen to be in an extremely happy ( not indulgent and pleasurable but happy) state of mind, you will feel that inner expansion yourself. You must have, I bet, had moments when you felt so hapy and full of love for everyone in this world. All of us have those moments. With the saint, these moments have been turned into a normal and everlasting state of mind.  Sometimes, poets come close to this: "Dil ye chaahe bahaaron se kheloon, apni baahon main aakash le looN....."....OR....."Aur aag main apne dil ki har dil main lagaata jaoon"...Or ...."bikhar jaaoon main ban ke roshni ka sailaab"...

In religious or mystical poetry, too, seers are known to have touched these heights:

"Sagal sang hum ko ban aayee"

 "Hum sabhna ke saajan" .

 Saach kahooN sun le ho sabhe, jin prem kiyo tin hi prabh paayo"..... all this is not mere socialistic sense of responsibility towards soceity or even humankind. The Guru  is talking here of a profoundly moving feeling that floods his heart. Surely, Guru Gobind Singh could not have been asking for a moral license to indulge in the sense in which you have brought in the question of loyalty.

 And what a paradox again that people who truly feel  this amazing experience of love for everyone move not below but above the need for relationships...To them, everyone is a relation. "Hum sabhna ke saajan"

 Properly understood, this is also the experience of Lord Krishna, something which we Punjabis in particular have never ever strained our intellectual or mental muscles to try and understand. We insist on misinterpreting his myth as one of sexual or at best  romantic licentiousness. And we cover our lack of understanding by resorting to our pet ploy: ridicule.

Why Hazel loves everyone ?

"...but then, if I don't know why I love everyone, I know even less why I must not. This special feeling which is the only proof that I am not just alive but a part of the overwhelming infinite interplay of beautiful darkness with lovely stars tells me I can not run away from it even if I want to. But first of all,why must I want to ? ."..........

Fear the un-pitying innocence of love and trust...Hazel

Fear the un-pitying innocence of love and trust.  And never try to cheat a saint. She will embarrass you by her refusal to acknowledge your deceit. Innocence is the greatest wisdom invented by God or discovered by nature.
   The innocent and the trusting are the most difficult to deceive, for they make  intrigue irrelevant by refusing to see through it, or defend themselves against it.
    Those who are smart enough to see through other people's games are also smart enough to see games where none exists !!  Therefore, you can either defeat them or, if you are blessed with some wisdom,  simply laugh at their 'smartness'.
  And what a pity that innocence cannot be acquired, and smartness cannot be unlearnt !

DID NERO FIDDLE AS ROME BURNT ??

DID NERO "FIDDLE" WHILE ROME BURNT"??
How accurate are our popular symbols and sayings? And how sharp is the line dividing rumour from history?
Take Nero, his infamous fiddle and the great Roman fire, for instance. The ruler is famously and variously believed to have " sung, played his flute or fiddled" as Rome burnt." The real allegation is that he "fiddled" as fire torched Rome and it is hard to say where the flute came into the myth/history of the emperor. Perhaps an Indian adaptation of the rumour.
So the first thing to determine is whether he "dang" or "played fluted" or "fiddled". Actually, did none of it.
The saying " fiddled while Rome burnt" really gained currency full 1600 years after Nero died. (The fire happened in 64 AD. and lasted six days) The expression "fiddled while Rome burnt" refers to his alleged conduct during the fire that ravaged three of the 14 districts of Rome, and seriously affected seven more. It happened in 64 AD, and lasted six days.
Did he "fiddle"? The Romans didn't even know the 'fiddle' ! The man who reported that Nero indulged in his musical hobbies - Tacitus - actually emphasized that this was only a rumour and no one ever saw the man indulging in any of his pet musical hobbies. But stories went round that when Nero heard about the fire, he was excited and overjoyed, and ran upstairs to have "a glorious glimpse of the great spectacle." ( Rumours are never short on delightful linguistic indulgence!) Others said that on each of the six days that fire lasted, Nero, the emperor, gave a performance of his vocal skills - e was an accomplished singer - on the city stage. A minor worry that the stage on which he is said to have performed was burnt down on day one !
Further, Nero's record in controlling the fire is believed to be "exceptionally good." Historians say he "did not slept at all while the fires raged." Some eye witnesses even reported that they saw the King "sobbing uncontrollably" over the tragedy of his people being burnt alive in thousands.
Further, judging by the standards of those times, Nero's response to the calamity faced was unbelievably good -much better than the response of many of our rulers these days. He not only marshalled all government resources to provide relief and rehabilitation to the hapless victims of the ravaged city, but actually rebuilt large portions of it for the people at his personal expense, something that has no parallel in history.
So what was the reason behind the popular allegation - or the rumour?
Nero was a man of great aesthetic sensibility and considerable artistic skills, including in music. When fire destroyed large parts of the city, he decided to use one ravaged portion to build a huge complex which was to include a palace and a theater for arts. As is common these days too, this decision was greeted with wild allegations that Nero had actually himself conspired to cause the fire and burn Rome in order to create the space for this large complex - a ridiculous allegation even by the standards of modern 24/7 Sunday Blockbuster "Breaking News" television, but it was an allegation that sounded plausible because of Nero's reputed love for arts and his extravagant indulgence in luxuries..
The fact is that Nero had not only done all he could to fight and control the fire but had even spent large parts of his personal wealth to help his people by rebuilding large parts of the burnt city and restored it to them - free of cost.
The allegation of his "fiddling" had no recorded proof while his efforts to save and rebuild the city are well documented. As for the flute, I guess it probably has something to do with the Indian imagination, except that the Indian version has water instead of fire and semi-clad or nude women instead of the Romans to link with the flute !
Nero was a man with controversial tastes and hobbies. This meant that the allegation would not only stick but would become a house hold proverb for pleasure-seeking and inefficient rulers. The expression is used most sumptuously even by those who know nothing about Nero, and sometimes even without knowing the difference between a flute and lyre.
The next time you hear of someone "singing while Rome was burning", please do cross check about the record of the fiddler and of the accuser. (By the way, I have heard even educated bureaucrats blissfully using the expression, sometimes even replacing Rome with Paris. ...... Takalluf bartaraf !)

Courteous towards self, candid against others (HAZEL)

I am often candid in 'admitting' other people's faults, brave in 'confessing' other people's sins and honest and courageous in accepting criticism aimed at my foes. I am really polite, humble and courteous when speaking out against myself. My education has taught me a lot of culture and decency while dealing with myself, and loads of courage in pointing out flaws and sins in the conduct others.

Tell the truth even if it hurts - you. Do not glorify the courage to tell the truth when it hurts - others.

HAZEL What my religion does NOT teach

My religion does not teach me to treat it as the best religion in the world. If it did, I would have to ask my mother how truthful is the claim .

Younger generation and my inferiority compplex

The younger generation really gives me an inferiority complex, and I am glad it does that.

Sandwiched or Landmark Generation ? (HAZEL)

People of my generation really have a lot to introspect on. We are sandwiched between two excellent generations: the one that went before us had great values and the one that follows us has great talent. We could but did not learn enough on values from our elders; and we want to but can't give enough wisdom to our children.

And look at it this way. People of my age - or thereabout - could well have been a landmark generation. They had the twin advantage of being preceded by men and women of immense sublime values and succeeded by a generation of unspeakably great talent. Here was a chance to give mankind a rare mix of great values and great worth, an ideal balance of emotional wealth and intellectual and material advancement. A chance indeed for producing something surpassing Nietzsche's Superman - something that the waves of human race were struggling to embrace. What an opportunity missed! Or have I spoken too soon ?

There is only thing I have in me to teach the younger generation: admission of failure. As an elder I have this to say to children. ""For generations, we have been teaching you. It is your turn to teach us now., because looking at the way the world is, we don't seem to have done a really great job of teaching our children. Teach your elders. Be kind. Don't be like them; do not disrespect them. Teach them where you think they need to be taught.Teach us a new method of teaching."

Its time to take classes with our children; they have a lot in them to teach us. If possible, help them realize this.

Something communal in male love (HAZEL)

Except when men are in love, there is something communal about their attitude towards women - nauseating, insufferable, lowly , born perhaps of the secret realization that their physical superiority is too transparent a cover for their inferiority elsewhere, as in their lack emotional depth.

But yes, I will stick my neck out and claim that men in love are far greater than men in general and, at least in some respects, a cut above women in love too. Whatever else a man might lack, there certainly is greater emotional profundity and dignity of conduct in him when he is in love with a woman.
And of course we are not talking here of men and women who confuse peevish and jealous possessiveness with grandeur which only love brings.

Honour or Fighting for morsels of stinking flesh (Hazel)

He felt relieved that he was able to speak and speak with honesty. " I see people fighting," he went on, " with their teeth clenched, grinding, and their eyes flaming, their arms tempered with steel, fighting for every little inch of their rights. And they call it the path of self-respect, honour, path of moral duty towards themselves. God, if my mother were here today, she would look at these warriors and smile. And she would tell me that each one of these warriors is fighting for petty morsels of flesh to feed his pride, his greed and his vanity," he looked at the piece of paper in front of him, and turned it over. There was something written on it in his mother's hand. It was dim and smudgy but he peered closely at it. "There will be peace when you are right. You will be the moonshine lad. When there is peace, there will be love. And that will fulfill you and make you happy."

As he read it, he was reminded of the deep calm he had felt under full moon nights. He felt a calm and a cool grace wash him. And he felt light and strangely happy, his despair suddenly lifted off him. He smiled and it occurred to him that he often resembled his mother whenever he smiled a smile like this.
Then his mind, which had been weary till a few moments ago, went back to the thoughts he was struggling with. He thought of the great warriors of who knew their rights and knew how to fight for them. He thought of their fights and squabbles over issues of honor. "Over morsels of flesh in decay and stink," he recoiled at the thought and pulled away
He got up and came out and took the stairs to the roof. The moon shone peacefully and blissfully on, washing the entire landscape. It felt cool. He looked up towards the skies again and heard the silence of moonshine.
He felt his shoulders give a little, gentle jerk.And although his face remained straight, he felt a smile spread within his heart.
"I am glad that I am not a part of that fight. I am glad that I know how to give up easily - without a hurt - rather than fight a battle that is not worth my mother's memory, or a fight which I don't need to fight to answer the call of honour. I am relieved above all that I can distinguish between vanity and honour, between rights and greed."
He felt relieved that he had never confused vanity with honour." ( F

Hazel Life as a Paying Guest

At some point in my life, I will have to abandon the belief that the story of my life must revolve around my right to be happy even without reference to what I do to earn it everyday. And the realization that this world is a home to which I have been sent as a PG ( Paying Guest) might be a good starting point. The rental here is paid through what I contribute to the overall happiness of this home .

Going" to sleep with eyes shut"?

How do you "go" to sleep with eyes shut ? I can never go to anyone or anywhere like that. Also, if I do 'go' to sleep and she falls in love with me and does not let me come back, ........... !!! Its both tempting and scary .

Time to take classes with children

Its time to take classes with our children; they have a lot in them to teach us. If possible, help them realize this.

Non-believers are closer toreligious ideals

"The stubborn haste of the believer to prove and of the non-believer to disprove the existence of any force beyond the natural would be a comedy by itself, if it did not involve violence on both sides. To be fair, the non-believers, who have less philosophical reasons to be virtuous and kind, have inflicted less violence on mankind than have the preachers of mercy, love and human brotherhood in the name of God. That does not prove either of them right or wrong in their convictions about God but it does prove that the non-believers have been closer to the religious ideals of compassion, tolerance and love than the protagonists of these principles."

Equality with boys should be worry for girls

If girls are as good as boys, then they should really be worried about themselves. To achieve gender equality, what was needed was levelling up of male standards, not levelling down of female class.

Warriors of peace make rivalry irrelevant

Victory for a warrior of peace does not lie in the defeat of his rivals. It lies in making rivalry irrelevant. It lies through discovering solutions in which everyone has a stake and no one has to shed his honour to secure his interest. Above all, it lies in his success to show that costs of war always outweigh the gains of victory gained through violence.

Horse to water, and balming the horse

You can take a horse to water but you cannot make him drink it. True, but you must not always blame it on the horse. Occasionally , you must have a look at the quality of water you want him to drink. This generally sums up our approach to educating our children.

Life as an atubiograhical with an old producer playing a young hero..

Can I stop treating my life as an autobiographical film in which an old producer insists on playing a young hero and comes to grief because of this stupid obsession with self? Up to now, I have been treating it as a film directed and screen-play scripted for me by me with me playing as me in the lead role. How about playing either a strong character or a minor comedian in it - anything except a villain - putting someone else at the center and loving the work even more , because the central role always requires a more accomplished protagonist than an old fool in love with his own face !

God and my convictions: A frame on a highway crossing

To things  which others believe in  but we don't even understand, there  can sometimes  be explanations other than foolishness of others. I have often found it worthwhile going beyond the obvious  temptation to be dismissive on everything that is beyond my comprehension. For instance,on God, I do not know enough to say with confidence that I believe in Him. ( Yes, there is an experience of faith which I still find interesting and sweet.) But then i know even less to be able to say why one shouldn't believe in Him. And even lesser about what it is in it that interests  some  of the greatest minds we know.  So what I do is just place my doubts and my beliefs in a frame, place that frame  on a highway crossing, withdraw from  it and watch what passers-by observe in it and how they react to what they observe. It may not yield much understanding about what lies within that frame. But it still throws interesting scene of what lies outside the rims. It  may still not tell me much about the frame  but it will still show me a lot about how others see in it  . And for one who loves reading and writing, this is a fascinating experience and not a dull hobby at all.

Those who desire me and those who despise.. Hazel

Those who desire me but would not have me walk the way I walk, and those who despise me but would not let me get away - what shall ye ever gain except bites off a carcass that thine prey has been turned to ! And both shall join one day and declare the dead did not value their honest labour. Meanwhile, something will rot and decay in forest stink

Success as beautiful maiden

Success is often the beautiful maiden who remains unclaimed for fear and cowardice of its suitors.

Fear of failure, urge for glory

Often the difference between fame and obscurity is decided by which one is stronger in us: fear of failure or desire for success.

Dyspeptic carnivore - the darkness

An outsider in politics, never at home at any place, odd among evens, lonely in crowds, loner at heart, yet overcrowded in soul with unknown, unseen ghosts that haunt at midnight, haunt at mid-day, further underlining loneliness. Who are these images, these sounds ??? What do they want ? Are these the early premonitions of the approaching dyspeptic, carnivore - the darkness that will drown and flatten everything.?

Roots cruell exposed as we lose our parents( To Akhil Gautam)

I realise what you are going through - terrible, terrible loneliness, something we never speak about openly. There is a sharp but silent anguish, born of the awareness of either being completely rootless or or having our roots cruelly exposed , once our parents are gone. So sad that this awareness dawns on us in full ferocity only after the blow. I did have this vague and haunting fear when ma and pa were around. But after they left, it hit me as if I had never known it. before

Nevertheless, so heartening to see the likes of you affirming the same experience. Love you, Gautam Sahib.

"Communal fanaticism is to religion what sexual vulgarity is to love." And Do I blieve in god? More Fb pics

1. "Communal fanaticism is to religion what sexual vulgarity is to love."

2.Do I believe in God? To answer this truthfully, I have to first answer another question, even more truthfully: what IS God ? And, quite honestly, I don't know the answer. Therefore, the only truthful and honest answer to the question whether I believe in God or not is: I am yet to find out what the question means.

Till then, I am searching for a road with sign boards such as Love, Compassion, Honesty, Service, Forgiveness - these are some of the sign boards that lead me to happiness.

3.. Someone asked me to add "simran" ( or sumiran) to these signboards. But I have not yet deciphered what that sign means, and have merely the vaguest of vague ideas on it. From what I see being practised in the name of "simran",I am tempted to stay away as of now.
4. At least for some of us, love is in us like a child is in a woman's body. Just like the expecting mother, we can hold our love back only as much as she can hold back her baby - only a risk to both the mother and the child.

5. I did switch my mind  off for a couple of  hours.......And back where we were.....It so happened that i managed to steal some time away from work and other commitment to scratch my brains.....and the way my brain is, once i tease it, it starts behaving like a school girl, never letting the eve teaser go away.

Roaring winds and the little glow of love -Hazel

"The roaring winds of hatred that storm the busy streets of this city often appear to blow out the relevance of the little,weak glow of love. These are testing signs,my son, and this is a difficult city to live in, yet stay with faith. If you have loved and placed that love above your desire for achievement and possession, you may still lose, but then you would have lost on the side of truth. And that's the only meaning of love.There will be peace even in defeat. But if if you are still hurting, look within yourself , really look within yourself to make sure that your love is not a mere desire for attainment, vindication and, may be , just an urge of the emperors to possess and rule.That thorn has never left the hearts of even the greatest victors - or even lovers.Watch out. "

God and me are like a modern couple: we give each other "space"

It is not that i do not believe in God. It is just that I find it hard to pretend that I know enough about God and His presence to believe in him. Right now, I play it safe, believing in all that God is meant to stand for, and avoiding all  that Godmen find fit to fall for. If I were to meet God - He Himself -  on some lonely street tomorrow morning, I would wink at Him to let Him know that his trick of forcing me to believe in Him without being allowed to know Him did not pay off. The only problem I have with religious people is that I can not insult God as they do, making him answer all their prayers, fit all their descriptions and forced always to fight on their side. My God would allow me to live without Him and still be worthy of Him and His love. My God is not like silly jealous woman or a sillier jealous man. God and I have always behaved like a sensible modern couple, allowing each other space and respecting each other's privacy.

My hatred is my wound

Nothing hurts me more than the hatred in my heart. Hatred in someone else's heart is like a wound on someone else's body - ugly to look at, but its pain does not belong to me. Only my hatred and my wound can hurt me. I would heal both , if I would be happy."

Only my hatred and my wound can hurt me

Nothing hurts me more than the hatred in my heart. Hatred in someone else's heart is like a wound on someone else's body - ugly to look at, but its pain does not belong to me. Only my hatred and my wound can hurt me. I would heal both , if I would be happy."

Saints and physicists are not fanatics.

What is not known belongs both to the physicist and the saint: you can approach darkness either with curiosity - physicist - or with a mix of fear, humility and reverence over the possibility of it containing something far larger than one self: saint.I have never met a saint ( I mean a genuine saint) who declared that he knew what this darkness was and yet called it darkness. That is a mistake only fanatics are allowed to indulge. Saints and physicists are not fanatics.

Ego has many faces, none more harsh than hatred; many voices, none sweeter than love

Ego has many faces but none more visible than hatred. Ego has many voices but none sweeter than love. Ego has many burdens but none nobler than service. Ego has many victories but none even close to a victory over its ugly limbs. Ego has many joys but none more uplifting than a laughter at its own expense. Both love and hatred are the war cries of ego from the sides of the opposing armies. Hatred is the cry of desperate need to win, love is the cry of an equally desperate need to surrender.

Indo Pak hatred: Indentical stupid twins

If hatred is the only thing that the Governments of India and Pakistan must share,let them share it so well that there is nothing left of it for their citizens. And of the citizens in the two countries who love to hate each other,let it be said that they do a jolly good job of proving how they can't erase the similarities between them. Even in their hatred, they are equally silly, looking so like each other, these rascals. Will some one go tell them "Invent sentiments that do not resemble the other's . Right now the more you want to appear different from each other, the more like identical idiotic twins you look. Ask the Chinese. They at least know how to hate differently."

There is only one thing more humbling than love unrequited: it is hatred unrequited.

"Once we have taken care of the needs of survival, most of our wounds are the inverted image of a secret self-pity."

It is not that i do not believe in God. It is just that I find it hard to pretend that I know enough about God and His presence to believe in him. Right now, I play it safe, believing in all that God is meant to stand for, and avoiding all  that Godmen find fit to fall for. If I were to meet God - He Himself -  on some lonely street tomorrow morning, I would wink at Him to let Him know that his trick of forcing me to believe in Him without being allowed to know Him did not pay off. The only problem I have with religious people is that I can not insult God as they do, making him answer all their prayers, fit all their descriptions and forced always to fight on their side. My God would allow me to live without Him and still be worthy of Him and His love. My God is not like silly jealous woman or a sillier jealous man. God and I have always behaved like a sensible modern couple, allowing each other space and respecting each other's privacy.

Between not being loved by the one you love and not being hated by the one you hate, which one would leave you more embarrassed? Which one would you rather not have? An answer to this can open many a lock over our happiness.

I

Jitt Duaare oobhre, titte leh oobhaar: On being and not being a Sikh

It is perhaps difficult to say who is a true Sikh. But it is easy to say who is not.

At the very start,one can reject any definition of Sikhism on the basis of  birth. The Gurus quite clearly disapproved of dynastic spirituality, or dynastic religiosity.
What one gains by birth is not religion or spiritual enlightenment, but a strong cultural identity and communal   consciousness. ( Communal= relating to community)

Cultural identity based on one's birth  is a very strong and, if put to creative use, an extremely powerful medium for personal and social/human growth.( I am against this birth-related  identity only in its negative and destructive avatar. Culturally, there is nothing wrong with having a certain creative consciousness of one's identity based on birth - in a  religious or linguistic community,a nation,  a state, a district or even a village) Creative consciousness, but not group or communal arrogance and vanity which inevitably breed hatred and petty jingoism.)

 At the other end of the identity band is something akin to the "bliss experience" of spiritual awakening. This is something profoundly personal, as opposed to the group of communal identity at its other end.

Talking about  who is not a Sikh,my mother gave me several easy to understand paths. One of these had this simple mantra: "The moment you find yourself counting reasons for the superiority of your own religion to the religion of others , you can be certain that you are moving away from the Guru. When Gurus said that all religions are equally worthy of our respect, they really meant it.. But do you really, REALLY believe that they actually meant it?  Don't be misled into believing that they were being merely courteous or polite."

And when mother would say this, I would often find myself thinking. "How can she always read my mind. How does she know that  I really  don't believe that they meant it?  I often  behave as if the Gurus' were  being merely  polite,and not seriously truthful, when they declared all paths to be  as  good as their own? How does mother always know my private thoughts all the time?"

But she knew always,especially my pettiness in matters like these. She knew about the intellectual arrogance of her son more than was good for him.

"Here was another difficulty:

The Gurus in fact declared that it is impossible to decide  which path is the most suited to any follower, moving even beyond the world of good and evil.  ( Ev bhi aakh na jaapeyi je kisse aane raas)  and that only one for whose inner universe Nature herself chose to illumine can be called " Devoted to Truth"  (Gur-mukh) " Nanak Gurmukh jaaniye ja ko aap kare pargaas")

Religious practices or what may even be called "religious living" is  at best  mere preparation for  that momentary "visionary gleam"  which happens of its own,  suddenly,defying all human beliefs,  beyond conscious  human effort or wisdom or learning. In a slightly different context, Colin Wilson refers to it as the  moment of  "the absurd  good news"( Poetry and Mysticism)

 A Sikh who does not consider the symbols of other religions just as much worthy of love and respect as the symbols of Sikhism  - well, I don't know whether such a one qualifies to be called a follower of the great Gurus who famously declared, "Jitt duaare oobhre, titte le ho ubhaar."

And as a proof of my religious stupidity, I often find myself declaring Sikhism to be better religion than other religions simply because  Sikhism  does not claim to be a better a religion  than other religions !

In a way, followers of all religions are guilty of this paradoxical idiocy: We are superior to you because we are the only ones who declare that we are not superior to you.
Proud of our humility, aren't we?

(And when I say "Sikh", I do not mean only a person born into a community associated with the Gurus. I mean anyone honestly committed to any path he considers virtuous and truthful.)
Paradoxical ?? Ajmer Singh Gurjeet Bains Amandeep Singh Dhaliwal Kawaldeep Singh

It is perhaps difficult to say who is a true Sikh. But it is easy to say who is not.

Talking about  who is not a Sikh,my mother gave me this simple mantra: "The moment you find yourself counting reasons for the superiority of your own religion to the religion of others , you can be certain that you are moving away from the Guru. When Gurus said that all religions are equally worthy of our respect, they really meant it.. But do you really, REALLY believe that they actually meant it?  Don't be misled into believing that they were being merely courteous or polite."

And when mother would say this, I would often find myself thinking. "How can she always read my mind. How does she know that  I really  don't believe that they meant it?  I often  behave as if the Gurus' were  being merely  polite,and not seriously truthful, when they declared all paths to be  as  good as their own? Ho does mother always know my private thoughts all the time?"

But she knew always,especially my pettiness in matters like these. She knew about the intellectual arrogance of her son more than was good for him.

"Here was another difficulty:

The Gurus in fact declared that it is impossible to decide  which path is the most suited to any follower, moving even beyond the world of good and evil.  ( Ev bhi aakh na jaapeyi je kisse aane raas)  and that only one for whose inner universe Nature herself chose to illumine can be called " Devoted to Truth"  (Gur-mukh) " Nanak Gurmukh jaaniye ja ko aap kare pargaas")

Religious practices or what may even be called "religious living" is  at best  mere preparation for  that momentary "visionary gleam"  which happens of its own,  suddenly,defying all human beliefs,  beyond conscious  human effort or wisdom or learning. In a slightly different context, Colin Wilson refers to it as the  moment of  "the absurd  good news"( Poetry and Mysticism)

 A Sikh who does not consider the symbols of other religions just as much worthy of love and respect as the symbols of Sikhism  - well, I don't know whether such a one qualifies to be called a follower of the great Gurus,who famously  declared "Jit duare oobhre,titte leh oobhaar - O lead us out of these flames (hatred and violence) that engulf human minds /  Lift us out through whichever path that leads out of here .)

And as a proof of my religious stupidity, I often find myself declaring Sikhism to be better religion than other religions simply on the ground that  Sikhism  does not claim to be a better religion  than other religions !

In a way, followers of all religions are guilty of this paradoxical idiocy: We are superior to you because we are the only ones who declare that we are not superior to you.

Proud of our humility, aren't we?

(And when I say "Sikh", I do not mean only a person born into a community associated with the ten Gurus and Sri Guru Granth Sahib. I mean anyone honestly committed to any path he considers virtuous and truthful.)

 Ajmer Singh Gurjeet Bains Amandeep Singh Dhaliwal Kawaldeep Singh

Note on a brave man without feet

A SCRIPTURE IN CELLULOID

I could roll all learning of my life into a little ball of waste paper, and toss it towards the ocean - in return for what the link below reveals. 

The aperture that opens on eternity of life's limitless vista still lasts barely a fraction of a second. In that fraction is revealed the astounding vision of a billion trillion laughing universes, mocking the shallow drama of our selfish pain.Why does the Buddha laugh? Why do the eyes of bleeding saints and seers and prophets reflect profound calm and peace and even bliss, even as their biographies are written in wood and nails. Spare a little heart-beat...a thought is worth nothing.

Spare a heartbeat ..don't spare a thought; in fact, keep the thought to yourself. And just keep in mind: it is not about human courage alone. Here is a scripture on celluloid .And this is not the only one out there. 

Wake up to the whispering breeze in the trees on the hills ..he wrote for her as he left the hotel room

When she woke up, the scent of a new dawn already filled the air outside her room. She looked around and in the semi darkness, felt the bed. He had left. And on the table beside her bed was a little note She looked at it and then turned the mild bed light on, and held the note in front of her. It read:
"I want you to wake up to the most beautiful morning of your life - trees
whispering in morning breeze, lilacs in bloom, spring in the air, distant snow clad mountain peaks blowing cool, soothing kisses towards your cheeks,
clouds pregnant with love ready to rain, .

The worries and anxieties and a thousand other concerns of the world left far, far behind..

Fresh in mind, born anew in limb, a fresh light in your eyes, a new
glow on your face, and thoughts only of happiness and love for
everyone. And no ill will towards anyone. Anyone whom God regarded worthy of receiving life from Him is worthy of our love.

That's where I have always wanted us to live.

But to live there, Nature demands us to rise in mind and soul to a stature which matches Nature's own. I was never able to rise to that, pulled down now by this weakness in my being, now with the other. But the peaks kept calling, have been calling, are calling. When I look at my
legs, they already seem reluctant, claiming more weariness than they feel. I do not want to quarrel with these legs. At my age, one doesn't quarrel.
I live where dreams have been replaced with prayers.

There is a stature nature sets for us to rise to. .

This morning, I pray that you rise to that stature, a height I missed but yet a height which I wish and dream and pray for you. I pray that you rise to recognize the infinite truth - which is infinite love, which is infinite beauty - peeping at you from behind the smallest particle of dust.

I pray you rise free of your nightmares. I pray your embrace the nightness of the night and then leave it behind . The womb of the night was glowing all night, and I saw it sitting beside you as you slept peacefully, all night. I pray that you hold that glow close to your bososm and carry it to the huts of the poorest of poor, the neediest of the needy, the most unfortunate among the suffering. "
I pray you answer the call of the peaks."

Apparently, he had left only a little while ago, because the bed felt still warm.

She read the note, and then looked out of the window towards the hills and mountains that spread outside her room. Hills are truly God's abode, she thought, and kept looking into vacantly into the distance.

From somewhere afar, a note floated on the breeze, the rise and fall of sound seeming to measure the peaks and vales in the vast landscape that spread outside her little Hill hotel room.The song streamed gently in:

When your path is ridiculed for not being selfish enough...

" To be thought impractical or inane because you lack the stamina for bitterness and feel too weary to carry on without love - that is just one more hill you will need to climb to reach yourself."

"When your way is ridiculed as foolish for not being selfish enough,when your failure to hate is regarded as just that - a failure ; when you are looked at as odd, weird because you want an end to the cycle of reciprocal acrimony, that is the moment you need to persist with yourself the most."


"When your strength and your faith in your path seems to give in, that is the time when you will need these two assets the most: faith in your path and the strength to keep walking on it. "

The trick, my child, is to keep faith. When your way is ridiculed as foolish for not being selfish enough,when your failure to hate is regarded as just that - a failure ; when you are looked at as odd, weird because you want an end to the cycle of reciprocal acrimony, the terrifying intensity of cycle of hate, when you are thought impractical or inane because you lack the stamina for bitterness and feel too weary to carry on without forgiveness and love - when you feel stupid yourself for not living life as wisely as everyone around you manages so easily,when your strength and your faith in your own path seems to give in, that, my son,is the time when you will need these two assets the most: faith in your path and the strength to keep walking on that path. There is more to happiness than just this, but if you are able to do this, consider that 'not bad' for a start .Your failure to act as the logic and laws of reciprocal evil demand, your failure to see that unsolicited goodness or unwarranted piety will appear either too naive or too clever to eyes accustomed seeing tooth for a tooth and an eye for eye. You may be told at least to be "careful" with your ways. When all this is being said to and about you, that, my son, is just the time to keep faith, to continue to refuse to be calculating........."" ( Interrupted )