Do you believe in god?

“There is no believing in God. We either know God, or we do not"
~Sheik Abdul Khader Khan, Shantaram

Now, isn’t that a bit philosophical? Or is it? Give it a thought, my friends, for the answer to this might well change your outlook of the world! I would ask any person, and he/she would reply saying that God is formless, and omnipotent and omnipresent etc., and as it has always happened, I would dismiss such talk as gobbledegook and move on with my chores. But then I came across the quote mentioned in the beginning, and it churned my thinking gears. It was then that I started thinking about what God might really be like? Or could the phrase “God is adjective” be valid.
Each religion has its own interpretation of term ‘God’. But lately, I’ve come to realize that ‘God’ is a term that humans use to denote ‘Harmony’ in the most perfect sense of the word. Harmony is when everything around oneself blends into one homogeneous flow of matter and energy (not literally but as our mind sees it) and though in the midst of the cosmic swirl of material and non-material connections, the self remains detached from it, unaffected and undisturbed. One can almost feel the ripples on the surface of the mind smoothening out, leaving a glassy smooth plane. The only conscious feeling in the mind in such a state is a sense of tranquility – like the quietness of solemn music (‘soul music’, as some call it), or the stillness of the pulsating ocean. When the existence of the self itself vanishes, leaving only a quiet space within the mind, one is said to have met God.

INDEPENDENCE DAY - SO WHAT ?!?

Some luminary thinker once said - for my mother keeps repeating it time and again, so it must be true - 'The Human Mind is strange, because it always craves for the exact things it doesn't have and looks at the neighbor's plate of food rather than relishing the dishes in front of it'. Not too long after she first said it - sometime before my B.Tech life, I realised its truth.
Today, five years hence, I see it materialising before me.

India was freed from the British clutches after a century of struggle in 1947. Everybody knows that and I shall not bore you with the story. Today, we celebrate the 65th commemoration of this freedom.

But wait, take a look around you. Do you feel that people are really 'commemorating' their independence? Popular television channels show snippets of journalists throwing simple questions as 'Who is Gandhiji?' or 'What is so special about 15th August?' at common folk who 'hang about' in the cities of our country. What do they say?
'Some freedom fighter' or 'I think India won freedom' would be the answer you would hear once in about eight or ten people.

The Temporariness of Permanence

No. The article is not as heavy as the title. I've tried to explain this paradox in the simplest of terms that I can come up with. Philosophers have brought this thought in many ways - that 'day will always come after night', or 'The rising wave always falls' or 'after a bad patch, good times will always come again'. 

It is not without reason that Lord Krishna once told his cousin Arjuna 'WHENEVER evil raises its vile head, I will REAPPEAR on Earth to RESTORE peace'. 

This reminds me of my school days. When I joined my higher secondary school, my father took me to the school office. At the entrance to that small room, the clerk's table was kept. the wall behind it bore a text poster that said, 'Only Change is Permanent'. The clerk sitting there told us that he was the one who stuck the poster there. As if bearing testimony to it, he also told us that he was just transferred to another school somewhere

Oogway Speaks.... excerpts from Kung Fu Panda

 There are no accidents....

 One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.

Classics II. Windfall at Wimbledon

May 5, 2008 -
       A day that began a turn in the tide for two stalwarts of the court. The centre court at the All England Club geared up to host the final of The Championships of Wimbledon for the year, while the world's top 2, Roger Federer (world no.1) and Rafael Nadal (world no. 2) warmed up to face each other the third consecutive final at the famed grass court. 
       Federer lead their grass-court showdowns 2-0 and was yet to drop a set at Wimbledon 2008, while on the other hand, Nadal, the four time King of Clay was vying for his first title at the English Lawns. The match promised all a fine treat of tennis. Both the players had a rivalry that was and still is, well on its way to become stuff of legend.
   The match began in a flurry after a rain-infested delay, with the Spanish Bull running away with a lead of one set. The audience watched in awe as Federer bravely fought back with classic strokes and volleys to haul a lead of 4-1. But Nadal was not one to give in, and he ruthlessly clinched the second set 6-4. With tables turned and trailing in the third, Federer looked lost with a two-set trail and history was about to be made. Then it seemed as though the Champion in Federer woke up with a start. He stood his ground firmly and played his strokes with his characteristic grace to come back from the dead.