Like a breeze from the Himalayas, it is bringing life into the almost dead bones and muscles, the lethargy us passing away, and only the blind cannot see, or the perverted will not see, that she is awakening, this motherland of ours, from her deep long sleep.
None can resist her any more; never is she going to sleep any more; no outward powers can hold her back any more; for the infinite giant is rising to her feet!
Friday, 8 February 2008
Flashes from Swami Vivekananda - 4
Sunday, 3 February 2008
The Art of Allison Grey
Secret WritingMeeting his wife Alyson, a painter, who has collaborated on many of Alex Grey's projects and whom he considers a gift of god on his artistic path.
Allison's words on her website: I read a quote describing the Jewel Net of Indra. In the abode of Indra, the Hindu God of Space, there is a net that stretches infinitely in all directions. At every intersection of the net there is a jewel so highly polished and perfect that it reflects every other jewel in the net. This description related powerfully to the revelation that we had received while in our altered state. It has been my continuing intention to point to this experience in my artwork.
Chaos Order & Secret WritingIntending to create spiritual art, I feel naturally attracted to abstraction and to a written sacred language. Every known religion reveres its holy writing. Sacred writing of all faiths, however, come into conflict through human interpretation as the written word defines the differences of philosophy and traditions, when truly the basis of all religion is unity and infinite love.
Allison's Website: http://allysongrey.com/
Alex Grey: http://www.alexgrey.com/
Saturday, 2 February 2008
The seeker is he who is in search of himself
Student of Nisargadatta Maharaj Ramesh Balsekar explains the core of his Guru's teachings as "the knowledge of one's identity".
Give up all questions except one: "Who am I?" After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The "I am" is certain. The "I am this" is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. Discover all that you are not--body, feelings, thoughts, time, space, this or that--nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand that on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realize that you are the limitless being.
When I met my Guru, he told me: "You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your real Self." I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon! My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.
I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence. My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense 'I am', it may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked! Obedience is a powerful solvent of all desires and fears...
[Text Credits: nisargadatta.net Image Credits: spaceandmotion.com]
Friday, 1 February 2008
Intellect & Intelligence: Know The Difference
By Swami Parthasarathy
For long there has been no awareness or endeavor by us to develop the art of thinking. As a result the lives of people are based on groundless beliefs. And their beliefs rest on some absurd superstitions. Or mere assertions which bear no proof. And now they find it difficult to question their veracity.
Following this trend humanity has reached a perilous state. We need to realise the emergent need to develop and strengthen the intellect. The process of thinking should start from an early age. Develop the art of thinking. Follow it up with the study of the impeccable truths of life. Delve deep into the truths. Accept those that appeal to logic and reason. Apply them in practical living. Adopt this procedure all through life. It will enable you to build your intellect. Albert Einstein said that intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.
We need strong intellect to exercise the right choice of action in life. We face endless trials and tribulations. The human species alone is provided with intellect to face and surmount mundane challenges. All other species, devoid of intellect, are helpless victims of the rigours of the external world. A powerful intellect helps us overpower these onslaughts. But the role of the human intellect does not end there. The intellect has the unique capacity to even transcend the world and reach the ultimate state of spiritual enlightenment.
Unaware of the need to build the intellect, we tend to entertain ourselves with merely reading others’ periodicals and publications. We indulge in the mere length of study. Just poring over pages of literature apathetic to its deeper implications. Rare indeed are those who go into the depth of study. Thus little is assimilated or absorbed by readers. People have been educated robots for generations. And have been traversing through life without knowing the meaning and purpose of it.
The world abounds in personalities with one-sided development. Intelligence and no intellect. Take the example of a scientist who is an alcoholic. His liver is damaged. He is extremely short-tempered and his blood pressure has shot up. And he is stressed, unable to face even small worldly challenges. Analyze his personality carefully.
He is a brilliant scientist with profound knowledge of his subject. He has acquired abundant intelligence but never cared to develop his intellect. His intellect has always remained weak. It lacks the strength to handle the multifarious demands of the mind. His mind craves for alcohol. His intellect is not powerful enough to control the nagging desire. So his mind raves in foul temper. His frail intellect is unable to control its ravings. And when his mind is humiliated, strained and stressed by the problems confronting it, his intelligence looks on helplessly.
On the contrary, there are luminaries possessing awesome intellects which hold their minds under perfect control. Some of them possess no academic qualification but academies are built around them. Only by developing the intellect can we save ourselves from self-destruction and evolve to spiritual perfection.
Monday, 21 January 2008
Scientists Say Time is Slowing Down
Spanish scientists have come up with a new hypothesis on to explain the rate of expansion of the universe: time is - literally - slowing down!
A decade ago, astronomers noticed that distant supernovae - exploding stars on the very fringes of the universe - seemed to be moving faster than those nearer to the centre, suggesting that they were accelerating as they shot through space.
Dark energy was suggested as a possible means of powering this acceleration of the expansion of the cosmos.
The problem is that no-one has any idea what dark energy is or where it comes from, and theoreticians around the world have been scrambling to find out what it is, or get rid of it.
The team’s proposal, which will be published in the journal Physical Review D, does away altogether with dark energy. Instead, Prof Senovilla says, the appearance of acceleration is caused by time itself gradually slowing down, like a clock that needs winding.
"We do not say that the expansion of the universe itself is an illusion," he explains. "What we say it may be an illusion is the acceleration of this expansion - that is, the possibility that the expansion is, and has been, increasing its rate."
Instead, if time gradually slows "but we naively kept using our equations to derive the changes of the expansion with respect of ‘a standard flow of time’, then the simple models that we have constructed in our paper show that an "effective accelerated rate of the expansion" takes place."
As if that’s not mind-boggling enough, another scientist had proposed that time is actually two-dimensional:
Time is no longer a simple line from the past to the future, in a four dimensional world consisting of three dimensions of space and one of time. Instead, the physicist envisages the passage of history as curves embedded in a six dimensions, with four of space and two of time.
"There isn’t just one dimension of time," Itzhak Bars of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles tells New Scientist. "There are two. One whole dimension of time and another of space have until now gone entirely unnoticed by us."
Bars claims his theory of "two time physics", which he has developed over more than a decade, can help solve problems with current theories of the cosmos and, crucially, has true predictive power that can be tested in a forthcoming particle physics experiment.
If it is confirmed, it could point the way to a "theory of everything" that unites all the physical laws of the universe into one, notably general relativity that governs gravity and the large scale structure of the universe, and quantum theory that rules the subatomic world.
Published in Neatorama
Thursday, 17 January 2008
Big brain theory: You are just an illusion
A New Series Of Calculations Paint A Bizarre Picture That Rattles The Field Of Cosmology
Dennis Overbye
If true, it would mean that you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are illusions.
This bizarre picture is the outcome of a recent series of calculations that take some of the bedrock theories and discoveries of modern cosmology to the limit. Nobody in the field believes that this is the way things really work, however. And so there in the last couple of years there has been a growing stream of debate and dueling papers, replete with references to such esoteric subjects as reincarnation, multiple universes and even the death of space-time, as cosmologists try to square the predictions of their cherished theories with their convictions that we and the universe are real.
The basic problem is that across the eons of time, the standard theories suggest, the universe can recur over and over again in an endless cycle of big bangs, but it’s hard for nature to make a whole universe. It’s much easier to make fragments of one, like planets, yourself maybe in a spacesuit or even — in the most absurd and troubling example — a naked brain floating in space. Nature tends to do what is easiest, from the standpoint of energy and probability. And so these fragments — in particular the brains — would appear far more frequently than real full fledged universes, or than us. Or they might be us.
Alan Guth, a cosmologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who agrees this overabundance is absurd, pointed out that some calculations result in an infinite number of free-floating brains for every normal brain, making it “infinitely unlikely for us to be normal brains.” Welcome to what physicists call the Boltzmann brain problem, named after the 19th-century Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, who suggested the mechanism by which such fluctuations could happen in a gas or in the universe. Cosmologists also refer to them as “freaky observers,” in contrast to regular or “ordered” observers of the cosmos like ourselves. Cosmologists are desperate to eliminate these freaks from their theories, but so far they can’t even agree on how or even on whether they are making any progress.If you are inclined to skepticism this debate might seem like further evidence that cosmologists, who gave us dark matter, dark energy and speak with apparent aplomb about gazillions of parallel universes, have finally lost their minds. But the cosmologists say the brain problem serves as a valuable reality check as they contemplate the far, far future and zillions of bubble universes popping off from one another in an ever increasing rush through eternity. What, for example is a “typical” observer in such a setup? If some atoms in another universe stick together briefly to look, talk and think exactly like you, is it really you?
New York Times News Service
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Flashes from Swami Vivekananda - 3
Today, the whole world is seeking for, is in need of, this kind of spiritual growth which releases that type of divine energy resource to match with, and to digest, the energy resources released by modern physical science and technology. The latter has annihilated physical distances between man and man, but the problem of annihilating the mental and emotional distances remains to be solved. On the other hand, that mental distance is increasing, not diminishing, in spite of scientific knowledge and technical power. This is revealed in the ever-increasing violence, crime and delinquency, even juvenile delinquency in all parts of the world.
What is the reason for highly disturbing social phenomena? Certainly, these are not physical maladies. Modern man has better physical bodies and health than in past ages, thanks to his knowledge of science of nutrition and his vastly improved techniques for increased food production. He is also immensely nourished mentally and intellectually compared to his predecessors, thanks to the explosive output of scientific knowledge; and yet, we find modern man getting increasingly alienated both from himself and from others. He is unhappy, tense, without peace, given often to inflicting violence on others or suicide on himself.
Swami Vivekananda spent four intense years in the West preaching Vedanta and helping to broaden and deepen its religion and inner-human relations. He saw the above tragic situation developing in his time, towards the end of the last century; and he warned of its intensification in the decades ahead, and emphasized the need of modern civilization to change its direction from human sensuality to human spirituality. And he preached the philosophy of Vedantic humanism, with the vision of infinite divine possibilities in man, and man's organic capacity to realize these in life. This is wisdom, this is the knowledge maturing into wisdom, that India developed in her ancient Upnishads and the Bhagvad Gita, which got retested and re-authenticated in succeeding ages by Buddha, Shankaracharya, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and many other luminous sages, possessed of briliiant intellects and universal hearts. They never thought or taught in narrow terms of sects, creeds, nationalities or races. They saw man as man, saw his divine possibilities.
Extracted from Swami Vivekananda, his humanism: Moscow University Lecture by Swami Ranganathanandana
Friday, 11 January 2008
Ramanujan's Philosophy of Numbers
I couldn't post since last few days because of my Mathematics exam. I'm hoping to pass in this paper, although the equations of life remain unsolved. Is there an absolute answer to everything? Does our manifested reality traverse between the infinite extremes? Do all equations become more complex as we try to simplify them?
I found an interesting excerpt on Ramanujan's Philosophy in Mr. J.V Badami's book, 'Musings on Arithmetical Numbers'. Thought it's worth sharing with the world.
Ramanujan, the famous Indian Mathematician, born genius, thought that the pursuit of mathematics was a pursuit after God. He often used to say that mathematics alone can lead to realization of God. He used to ask, 'What is the value of 0/0?', then answer himself, 'it may be nothing; the value cannot be determined.' He spoke of zero as a symbol of the 'Absolute' - Nirguna Brahma. The infinite is absolute and is immortal. That is, 'Reality' to which no qualities could be attributed, which cannot be defined or described by words. It is completely beyond the reach of the human mind.
Ramanujan used to say that 2n-1 will denote the Primordial God and several Divinities. When n is 0, the expression denotes 0. That is, there is nothing. When n is equal to 1, the expression denotes unity, the infinite God. When n is 2, the expression denotes Trinity - the Trident of Shiva. When n is 3, the expression denotes 7, the Sapta Rishis (the constellation Ursa Major, which is known in India as Sapta Rishi i.e 7 sages) and so on.
Ramanujan was highly religious. He not only admired God, he adored Him too.
Friday, 4 January 2008
The Art of Robert Hardgrave
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”
-Carl Gustav Jung
American artist Robert Hardgrave feels the same, as he points it out on his site.
He achieves excellence in modern art as his paintings describe a strange and oblivious description of life. His strokes express that can be called 'on the threshold' realism.
Robert Hardgrave's art takes a meaning with a preternatural outrage of the soul trying to communicate itself to what can be within it's grasp. 'Xenoglossy' is another of his exceptional works.
“In this particular body of work I am attempting to relate my idea of the many possibilities of reincarnation,” Hardgrave says. “Not necessarily in the sense that when one dies they become a wombat or a newt, but that life can continue in the memories of the living.”
His other works can be viewed on Farmer Bob's Farm.
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Tajmahal - Star Circus
Undoubtedly the best down tempo/chillout album of 2007 is Stephane Gallay ie DJ Tajmahal's Star Circus. Featuring himself and other stars of core psy-relaxation music, his tunes give a different level of refreshing gratification.
The tracks take you into a groove which urges you to cool off, forget about everything and get cozy n' comfortable. It's the next level of foot tapping sounds defined by Tajmahal and friends.
The best part I like is when the beat starts in the first track, Do I Care (Antariksha mix). Also the awesome effect used in Butterfly Ritual (rmx). This album is truly worth if you like down tempo beats, if you have a massage parlor by the bay, a coffee shop which boasts of music, or a mind which wants to stop thinking once in a while...
Track list:
1. Do I Care (Antariksha mix)
CHILLED C'QUENCE AND TAJMAHAL
2. Star Circus
TAJMAHAL
3. Butterfly Ritual (rmx)
MASTER MARGHERITA VS TAJMAHAL
4. Lunar Sea
MORPHONIX AND TAJMAHAL
5. The Secret
TAJMAHAL FEAT PHYTOSOPHIE
6. Electro Therapy
CHILLED C'QUENCE AND TAJMAHAL
7. Olgasm
TAJMAHAL FEAT FLOOTING GROOVES
8. Escape (rmx)
TAJMAHAL VS.MUNGUSID
Tuesday, 1 January 2008
New Year
