Sunday, November 19, 2006

Enlightenment, so-called or otherwise

I received an email asking:
What do you think about the so called enlightened people – Osho, Ramana Maharishi, …. (list becomes dubios)..? Do you think there are altered states of consciousness where the ‘existential angst’ and ‘metaphysical uncertainties’ vanish and a state of tranquility and certainty prevails?
My reply:
‘Existential angst’ and ‘metaphysical uncertainties’ vanish, or do not even exist, in ignorance. Tranquility does not require certainty to prevail. Absence of extraordinary consciousness and sensibility to one's environment is good enough for quietude.

From the earliest times to the end of mankind, there would be some who would earnestly want to understand life, and therefore, death, and unavoidably, the meaning of the in-between. For some of these men, it becomes an earnest endeavour, which they pursue with questionable and differing results. Some, taking advantage of the prevailing gullibility and need for anchors among fellow human beings, for not comprehending life and its purport, make it their vocation to pander half-baked views; most of those in this so-called 'enlightened' profession are exploitative charlatans.

Very few, very very few indeed, can understand life in terms of absolutes, in terms of relativity and connectivity. And out of their own intrinsic honesty, they find only meaninglessness, so much so that they lose motivation to spread their message, because even that would be meaningless and futile.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Awakening



NIGHT IS
DARKNESS OF IGNORANCE
WHICH THE CYNICAL REASON
WIPES
ON THE SHORES OF MIND

TO SHOW
SUDDEN BLAZING FLASHES
OF EPHEMERAL
ENLIGHTENMENT

TO PLUNGE
AGAIN DEEPER
THE TREMULOUS SPIRIT
INTO DARKER RECESSES
WHICH ONLY THE TRANSIENT FIRE REVEALS

AND THUS TO MAKE EVERY
INTERMITTENT PHASE OF IGNORANCE
MORE UNFULFILLED THAN THE ONE BEFORE
EVERY DURATION OF SORROWFUL
HELPLESSLY INTERIM
AWAKENING

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Former Pakistani cricket captain and current politician Imran Khan was being interviewed on NDTV. He was asked, "Do you think President Bush is a terrorist?" He replied, "President Bush is not smart enough to be a terrorist."


See also pieces that I have written on Gandhi and Nehru.

Friday, November 10, 2006

More on Indian Infrastructure

Modern Wiring installations in India, by Marcus Farrell (received by email). And beneath the photographs, a repeat of my earlier post on Indian infrastructure.





My earlier post on Indian infrastructure, from June 2006:
Infrastructure, Indian-Style

Some foreigners once asked me about the state of Indian infrastructure. I took them for a drive, and passed a trade fair where a politician's cutout, some 60 feet tall, was shaking precariously in the wind. I parked the car and took my guests behind the cutout, which was supported by crooked scaffolding of casuarina poles, held together with carelessly tied coir. I grandly announced to my guests, "This is India's infrastructure."

Don't ask me whether they were impressed or depressed.

Saturday, November 04, 2006


(AP/NASA Photograph) The picture shows part of Saturn, taken from the Cassini spacecraft, and, whether you want to believe or not, the only place known to man which has life on it; for better or worse, but endangered. Can you spot the Earth in the picture? It is the tiny prick of light on the lower rim of Saturn.

On that dot lie our hopes, our lives and deaths, joys and sorrows, vanities and beliefs; as well as plants and animals, with life in them, but not in their own control; and lifeless, for depredation, most of the elements that mankind knows about, in the form of rocks, rivers, and towards its core, minerals and fossils. In short, in that dot is everything that we know but cannot keep peace with. This photoraph was taken with the help of a telescope. Saturn can be seen from Earth with the naked eye. From Saturn, the Earth cannot be seen unaided. (...to be concluded)

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Extinction: metaphysically or frivolously

herd mentality creates leadership;
with leadership there is organisation;
organisation is progressive;
progress leads to affluence;
affluence, to greed;
greed in the guise of avarice
is destructive, malevolant;
from which extinction is only proximate.


without herd mentality there is dignity;
with dignity there is equality;
equality leads to individuality;
individuality is opposed
to consensus and unanimity
on the path to progress;
progress leads to development;
development leads to inequality;
inequality degrades and diminishes
individual dignity,
bringing anarchy, in turn;
anarchy leads to regression, repression, revolt,
even war,
whence perdition.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Being Cyrus


If Homi Adajania is telling the truth in saying that Being Cyrus is his own original story, he has done an excellent job of writing a plot which flows effortlessly, without straining one's credulity. It is very tightly narrated even if, and probably because of, its having its origin in western concepts of approach and narration. All the actors have responded to his vision perfectly, but the most unsurpassed among them is Saif Ali Khan.

The choice of using the English language was sensible, because otherwise it would not have looked plausible, because of the alien idiom.

If there were awards for non-stereotyped films, as distinct from those which garner awards with predictable monopoly, this is one film which should get plenty, including one for economy in length - the film is only 90 minutes long - where most vacuous stories have no end in sight.

The film's one misfortune, of course, is that in this country with the reign of endless galaxies of Khans (there does not seem to be room enough in that group for Saif Ali) and the like, I do not know the extent of notice this masterpiece has attracted; on the other hand, in western countries, despite the fact that it is a masterly film, its treatment, including the kind of acting which it proffers, would be so familiar that the film would be liked, but perhaps not considered worthy of awards.

I do not know the extent to which my view of this film would be acceptable, but no one would dispute that Adajania's first film has been very 'courageous.'