Meditations on Transcendence

Whole nation is going ga-ga over three idiots. The nation has woken up to the new year with the chants of 'All is well'. Hope with this combined aspiration, 2010 will be a great year minus the terrorism and natural calamities. A feel good movie with a message communicated via a laugh riot. This is typical of Raju Hirani - the previous time he made Gandhigiri relevant to the times, again with laugh riot as a vehicle. With 3 idiots, Raju is taking on the education system. The timing of the movie is accurate since India is awakening to the importance of innovation to drive the country's GDP. Education has to teach how to contemplate and solve problems using existing body of knowledge. Of these the skill of contemplation is superior. To contemplate is to think. The popular trend is accumulate information and perform repeated work to earn livelihood. In this way life passes on without challenging status quo. Problems can be solved using existing body of knowledge but What about ...

Traditional theism has to wrestle with the problem of evil: if God is good, why does he allow suffering and death? But Nature is suffering and death. Recently i read about the above statement from an article on Newyork times about Panteism and the movie Avatar. The definition of God is that he is the root of all creation, the primal point from which everything emanates. Everything that be in the cosmos is a result of his multifarious energies. Life comes from life - so we as life have all emanated from the central super conscious life the supreme being called God. God also stand for Generator, operator and destroyer. Why is suffering created by God?

Viewing James cameron's Avatar on 3D is an amazing experience. The fact of building an alter ego which is fit to live among the Navi community and being able to control that with the present human body is an amazing concept. It all started with the matrix series where you could enter the matrix using a similar setup. What is building an alter ego? Is it giving rise to another individual to satisfy unsatiated desires, which is possible in the alter ego. Websites like 'Secondlife.com' is a very poor version of the alterego

Everywhere 'Avatar' buzz is doing the rounds. Nowadays you will not find a single primetime channel which does not have slot reserved for something about 'avatar'. According to initial reports, Avatar seems like a technological leap interms of cinema making and breathtaking experience. There seems also a hidden message in the movie related to global warming. The exploitative nature of human beings is brought out. The society of Navi depicted in Avatar seems like close to description of Vedic society. Living in harmony with nature, in close alignment and worship of their diety. In the movie, a human being is transplanted to the Navi community using DNA transformation. The human becomes like a Navi with 10ft in height and blue skinned(Sri Krishna's color???) physique. According to the movie, an avatar will mean entering a alien society adopting the foreign physical features. Lets explore what 'Avatar' means in the Vedic texts.

We integrate into another when we take up the cause of the other. This is called yoga which means union. When we shed all our independence and will and take up the pleasure of the supreme person as the only purpose of existance, then we unite into the supreme. We enter samadhi. The only way to enter the higher existance of the supreme person is by embracing his cause, his will, his desire as the purpose of life. How do I know what pleases him or what is his will, desire at every moment? The will is not like the dead person's will or power of attorney. It is a dynamic will which can change at every moment. So what is the medium thru which I can know the will of the supreme consciousness.

All of us have the experience of being in love. When in love, one wants to hear about our beloved(Sravanam), remember them(smaranam) or speak about beloved's qualities with our confidants(kirtanam). Almost everyday I come back from work, I ask my wife to narrate my daughter's activities for the day. Daughters are very dear to the Fathers and they take pleasure even in the trivia. In love, trivia brings in so much ananda. Even when I was in Munich on a business trip, I would get my daily dosage of my daughter's activities...........

The Lord appears in multiple forms - in all kinds of wordly elements. Worldly elements i mean - plants, animals, Human being, sound, water etc. Regarding plants, tulasi is the manifestation of divinity. By properly worshipping and caring of the Tulasi plant, one can get the desire for attaining Bhagavan and also increase the probability of meeting Sri Bhagavan's own men wandering in this planet in disguise. Cow is also an emblem of divinity. Go-seva is very prominent as a method for cleansing consciousness in Braj mandal (Mathura-Vrindavan). Be caring for the cow and showering affection, ones lost love for Sri Krishna can be awakened. The seven holy rivers of India have immense potential to cleanse our inner being and arouse the urge to get out of this miserable world. 'Gangeca, yamune caiva, Godavari Saraswati, narmade sindhu cauvery Jale smin sannidhim kuru' goes a famous sanskrit verse. By bathing in these holy rivers one can have immense benefit. It is better to plan on...