Am I getting Intolerant?

I dont like Abrahamic monotheistic religions because they say their way is the only way. But I am finding myself being more and more inclined towards witnessing presence and vipqssana. I have started feeling like it is the only way. I find myself dismissing meditations on objects,dieties,mantras and mandalas as lower level to vipassana which in my opinion is the ultimate. I found myself looking at a Mahayana buddist book and thinking, this chantings and focusing on objects is creating more patterns in our brain, this is not what buddha taught.
To be fair, I am actually not monotheistic, because i think those other ways may be suitable for others but not for me. May be I have found my path and what suits me best and I acknowledge that others have there own way.
;) All is good here folks, no intolerance afterall. 

bi camerail mind

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)

I heard of this in Graham Hancock book.  That people even 3000 years ago experienced life differently. We have mythology and stories of people hearing Akashavaani, words from the sky. basically in key moments in their life, they experienced some voice - which they interpreted as god, telling them what to do or told a prophecy or what ever. This is in Hindu mythology, Greek , Roman and almost every where else.

The theory is that we have evoled from this and even tho hardware of our brain remains the same, our software has changed radically as we dont hear these voiced anymore.

That is an interesting theory, which has been debunked.

But wait, I think the hearing voices is accurate but the interpretation that it doesnot happen any more is wrong.The hardware or software hasn't changed but we are just not using that voice generating part of our brain or atleast not admitting to hearing those voices.

What he is talking about is detaching from the part of our brain we call as self or ego and paying attention to different parts of our brain like intuition. Basically it is possible to detach from the sense of self,  it is possible to exprience different aspects of our subconscious which is hidden in normal people as a completly different person, like Ramanujan experiencing Goddess Kali, who solved Mathematical equations for him. Modern society calls this schezophernia, thats disfunctionally seeeing the inner working of subconscious. Some spritual people even today meet their spritual guides, see fairies get guidence from them, these are all after all aspects of their own brain,but not identified as self by the brain software. They are however not disfunctional but normal functioning people. The other aspects can also be experienced using Hallucinogens like LSD etc which can cause visions and trips. 

An easyish experiment with detaching from ego is doing seance, dowsing etc. you are moving the coin or the stick, but the part that is moving is detached from ego n operated by some other part of the  brain. It feels like some other entity is moving our hand. We dont own that movement. 

Slightly harder is auto writing or auto drawing. Allowing our hand to draw what it wants, You have no idea where it is going or what is going to happen next but ur hand pics up colours an draws. 

its wonderful to experience that your body is very capable of acting without ego.

In fact the book 'drawing with the right side of the brain ' says that it is imperative that u detach from ego to do art, may be not to this extent but you really want the critical and restless judging part of your brain to give up control. 

This not ego/self part of the brain software is also called intution, when you do a lot of meditation and get in touch with your intuition,  you expereince this - someone telling you what to do phenomenon. Its not blatant and dramatic like voice from the sky, its just another thought but it feels slightly different, u feel like someone else is talking to you. You can follow it and have a great adventure. Take this road, take this bus, get off now! ! you have no idea where it is leading you :) 

Yawning and stretching is a bit like that, our discomfort leading us on to an action which is required. Auto movements during meditation is exaggerated version of that. Do you know that yoga was actually invented like that. The body of the rishis went into these poses automatically as they medidated. My auto movements during meditation some times lead to mudras and to accupressure points.
So I am saying that Bi camerial brain may have been a very simplistic theory but it strayed quite close to the truth. 

Ego

I wrote a post about angry yogis and calm buddhists, saying angry yogis have an ego. Question araises, is ego only bad or negative?  No, right?
 Ego is the conditioning of the brain, all the patterns, all the software. Software can be angry or calm, just because some one is calm doesnot mean ego is not working. The goal of sprituality is not to make our ego "good" but to transcend it.
What is good? And bad ? Isnt it the judgement of my ego? Calm is good. angry is bad. only ego makes such distinctions, egoless person would see what is- anger is there, calmness is there, thats it. Its hard for me to comprehend that. How would I choose a path if I didnt make that judgement? It is asking. May be once u are beyond judgement, you have already reached the destination. No need of path :)

I saw someone being needlessly mean to someone else, this made me very angry. I would never do such a thing!! Ego is taking pride in its goodness and others badness. So ego is present, just that my conditioning is different from the other persons. Tricky. This brought up the question, Is calm person egoless? may not be but egoless person is definitely calm. no?
Anyway, This somehow made me sad rather than angry, human nature ... :( 

Between Vipassana and Yoga

I think yoga is great for the body, but for ultimate mind development, Vipassana and Self observation or wittnessing presence is absolute must. 

I concluded this by looking at people who do serious yoga and those who do buddhist practices. People who do buddist practices look more peaceful and calm than those who do yoga.

Instructors in Vipassana course are more peaceful than Yoga instructors. ( yoga instructors in the west are very zen, but then they invariably have mindfulness leanings)

Even mythologically the Rishis of the past are not exactly known for pleasing personalitiesbut mostly for their anger and fiery curses ;)

while buddha and his disciples are known for their love and sweet temper.( except that one monk who went to China, Bodhidharma - but then he looks so much like a Sadhu with his thick bears and knoted eyebrows ) 

Bhakti yoga on the other hand does make people peaceful and compassionate, Hatha yoga is an achievement oriented system so may be ego stays active untill they are very close to enlightenment? 

Erosion of time

Life needs bad experiences or rather experiences to shape us. Without experiences/intense experiences also we grow, but its like sculpting rock with erosion, while intense experiences are sculpting our personality with a pickaxe. May be a rough cut with pickaxe and then smoothened  down softly with errosion of time which works like water and works slowly makes a good personality. 

Accepting Bhakti yoga and Karma yogi.

Why is it such a big deal? What is the problem with accepting Bhakti or Karma yoga? Many urban Indians or westerners may have problem with accepting Bhakti yoga or Karma yoga as a way to enrich their life.
Bhakti yoga is the yoga of faith and devotion and losing ourselves by being one with the object of our devotion. Karma yoga is the yoga of action, In Bhagavad Gita , Krishna says "Do your duty, and dedicate the results to me". It is the yoga of selfless work without any expectation of rewards.
What!! Work without rewards? Am I a slave? How can anyone work without caring about what they will get paid for it? or even with out a salary?
Devotion and faith? Is that even compatible with reason and intellect? and How can I lose myself? What about my self esteem?
These are the thoughts that come to the mind of a modern yogi. Our sense of entitlement and fairness makes it very hard to accept or believe in work without rewards or unconditional devotion.
It also brings to mind abuses of the past, slavery, misuse of power and lowly paid working classes, all this could happen with Karma yoga. Religious  bigotism and religious  wars, women sacrificing their health and food for the sake of family, abuse of ordinary people by priests by misusing their devotion to gather wealth, all this could happen with Bhakti yoga. How could it be a right path for anyone?

May be there is a different way to look at this? Let us try to explore it more deeply.

One of the most beautiful spiritual and religious movement, Sufism, The songs and poems which were written 100s of years ago by Rumi and Kabir still touch our hearts, It is the most tolerant form of Islam, It is Bhakti Yoga. The Krishna temple of Udupi has the idol facing backwards. It is said that one Bhakta of Krishna, Kanaka Daasa was not allowed into the temple as he was low caste. He went behind the temple and prayed, God was so moved by his prayer that the idol turned around and the temple walls crumbled, to give Darshan to Kanaka daasa. Bhakti yoga was a very powerful movement which gave power to oppressed castes in this way. Historically it was possibly the only way available to women and lower castes/classes to God realisation. Many rebellious personalities who stood against society were Bhakts, Meera Bai who dared break all the shackles put on women in her devotion to Krishna, Kabir and Sai baba who broke religious barriers between Hindus and Muslims are all part of Bhakti movement. One of the most loving men on earth Jesus, his teachings are all about love and Bhakti. Buddhist metta meditation is also Bhakti feeling.  
Bhakti can also be towards nature, Shinto is a religion in Japan, which worships streams, mountain, forests and animals and they see life or sprits in all things nature, Such a gentle and loving and respectful attitude towards nature all over the world would have never led to the damage and destruction that is happening on earth today. What is it but Bhakti yoga or devotion to nature? Native American people see themselves not as separate from nature but as part of the forest. Bhakti yoga is most common type of religious sentiment found across the world. It only goes sour when people forget the unconditional love in their heart and let their sense of self become rigid and small.
Let us look at our sense of self, What is Myself? my sense of self limits to my body, I am as far as my body extends what ever is outside that is the other. That is how humans perceive it. Can it be any other way?
Surprisingly yes.  Some studies on Killer Whales have found that, Their brains are wired in such a way that their sense of self extends to the whole pod. They may be different bodies who feel pain and sensations separately but they see themselves as one! Loss of one whale in the pod, probably feels like loss of arm or leg to them.
How would humans live, If their sense of self extended beyond themselves to the whole community or to the whole world?
Karma yoga makes us expand our sense of self and work for the sake of the other, this other can slowly be expanded to include the whole world.
Karma yoga is a very profound concept which makes us live in the present moment. The only moment which is ever real is the current moment, the past is in our memory and future in our imagination. The rewards which we seek for our work are always in the future and is thus not real. It is of utmost importance that we value our actions for their own sake in the present moment.
The work is the reward in itself. it is like enjoying the journey as much as the destination. artists are familiar with this concept, They make art for the joy it gives them not for the price it brings, but in karma yoga you dont choose a job that brings you joy, but you bring joy into what ever work that needs to be done.
Karma yoga does not make us subjugated to others but makes us one with others, Karma yogi will not take abuse but will fight against for the sake of greater good, As Arjuna was advised to do by Krishna.
 Modern day problems like care of older people, expensive health care will all vanish if everyone participated in Karma yoga.
Lastly, There is very interesting initiative called Ugly indians, who have taken up cleaning up garbage and dirty public toilets voluntarily in big cities in India as a cleanliness drive. Surprisingly the number of people who attend such events are huge and they pay money to do the dirty work, without thinking that its not their job, and without thinking that those people who are supposed to clean it are not doing it. That is the power of karma yoga.
Hope this essay will help modern yogi see Karma and Bhakti yoga from a different perspective and help them accept it.

science blindness

It was Karva chaut again and as it happens I was having an argument about why it is sexist, The counter arguments were many, but interestingly some were "scientific"

I have also noticed lot of forwards and memes with lot of "scientific" explanations. Like
Go mata di Jai
  If cow-ghee and rice are cooked together, two powerful gases called ethylene-oxide, propylene-oxide are released. Propylene-oxide is the best gas used for creating artificial rain.
Sindhoooor ;-)
 It is interesting to note that that the application of sindoor by married women carries a physiological significance. This is so because Sindoor is prepared by mixing turmeric-lime and the metal mercury. Due to its intrinsic properties, mercury, besides controlling blood pressure also activates sexual drive. This also explains why Sindoor is prohibited for the widows. For best results, Sindoor should be applied right upto the pituitary gland where all our feelings are centered. Mercury is also known for removing stress and strain.
 
The people who write these things? Are they rolling on the floor laughing or are they just some dumb f***s? >-) About the swearing, I hate these buggers.

 (ok wait for it, there is an insight in here, not just ridicule and  ranting :-p)

I am always shocked that people forward such things, Dont they read what they are sending??

I am more than shocked when I realise some people thought all that was true, until I rubbished it. How can people not realise that such obvious shit is NOT some scientific gold? 

are they like THAT stupid?

Clues to this on My friends 40th Birthday, I joked that he is only 28 years old in hex, 0X28 you know, like hexa decimal numbers. Most people didnt get it.
What do you mean hex?
You know Binary numbers, Octal, Hexa demimal ?
Ummm What?
 Oh God! you are  a Geek! 
 I realised bankers, architects, CAs, soldiers, basically 99 % of the people outside the geek circle dont know hexadecimal numbers!!

Second clue, My friends husband had convinced my arts educated friend into believing that she has to leave the window open when switching on the electric heater, or she would run out of oxygen in the room! 😂  WTF????

Gives you a glimpse into non geeky minds,Science is not universal in all minds!! Shocking! but true.

They are intelligent, very well functioning people. BUT THEY DONT KNOW BINARY NUMBERS!!!! They dont know that burning consumes oxygen not just anything hot!!  They dont know things which I think is basic knowledge.  They didnt study science may be?? some have studied science, even Master of Science! They are SCIENCE BLIND! Knowing the scientific reason for something is probably  very low priority for them.

Most people when they forward those thing , they dont even know that all this "scientific" reasons they are forwarding are any different from the other real science they see. They genuinely cannot differentiate between the lies and truth, they are science blind!!!!!

I know! Its true. 

test it.

Pro life

Are they environmental conservationists? No, they dont a shit about environment.

They are vegan or vegetarian then? Caring for animal life! Lol! No! On the contrary they support recreational hunting!

This is US, they must be the guys who want to ban guns. No!!! They are fighting against gun control.

They must be against wars? Nope! 

Against black peoples deaths in police shootings? 

Against death penalty? 

Then how the fuck are they pro life??? Morons. ( when you derive your morals from a book ... thats a topic for another post)

Anti abortionists calling themselves pro-life, cant they be sued under unfair advertising act or something?

zindagi gulzar hai

I think the draw of the Pak serial is more to observe the culture than the story for me. I am very curious to know how similar and how different they are. In search of Shiva in Pakistan was the book which made be really curious about the country and its past. How deeply etched the shared Sikh Muslim culture was to Pakisthan, such a pity partition happened. It made me realise that our assuption that countries keep getting more liberal with time and that urban areas are liberal than rural may not be universally true. Also made me realise how deeply etched history is in the present and how culture is accumulated history. 

I have always been an advocate of throwing away old for the new, My new was mostly western, I now realise, Dont be hasty in throwing away, because We may be swayed by the wrong "new" like Pakistan's "new", for example is unfortunately Saudi Wahabi culture, where as their old is more tolerant mix of sufi, shia culture which imbibed/retained the Hindu/Sikh culture. 

How people dont give away old traditions but just fit them under new religion was interesting,When you think about it Brazils carnival does not exactly fit in with Vatican Christianity, does it? 

In Spite of trying to break away from India and Hindu past with a vengence, I was thrilled to hear references to Sita and Blessings like sada suhagan raho!! (of all the things) in the serial. 

Cultural remix

Watch 2-3 Korean dramas, completely immerse yourself in them and then suddenly watch a Pakistan drama. Thats it. Add to that western culture all around me and on TV and  80s Indian culture in my head!
That was enough to get a good brain freeze and a real messed up head :D

I cant believe how confused I got and how I got a real headache by doing this, my brain was so confused, it was ridiculous. Real headache I got 😀 This is what is called a culture shock? :-)

K Drama super cute and innocent romance, which I love,  then the Super conservative Pak romance where the word Mohobat. was uttered once only in episode 15 :) and then Mix it up with moronic teenagers smooching disgustingly in the tube station. culture engine in my brain couldn't take it, It burnt out!

It took me 3-4 episodes to realise that this guy and this girl are actually girl friend and boy friend in the Pak drama. Ha ha! Takes me right back to high school days when I thought romance was fictional, happened only in movies :) See this is exactly how 80s India was :)

Actually another confusion was that this was a Pak drama has some substance , I realised most of the stuff we watch these days Korean or hollywood - No substance, only entertainment. hmmmm!

I want to be buried and not cremated, and I want to be buried without a coffin. cozy in the soil, being eaten away by earth worms becoming compost,  one with earth, not in a cold coffin shrivelling! I am an earth person not a fire one.

What a weird thought!

 This is what happens when you plant(bury) 200 tulip bulbs, you start thinking you are one bulb yourself! I must be one nut! ground nut! he he! 

If this world is a game of chess

who are the pawns and who are the players? 

In life? I am spectator or player or pawn? play different roles at different times?

Are we going to run out of raw material to sustain life on earth?

Does it sound crazy?
When you talk about Reincarnation. People ask this question, how does the population of the world increase? If each person has a soul and the soul is recycled , the number of people alive should be same, isnt it? How are all the extra people being born?
I said they are being born like waves out of a sea, a sea has waves but it has enough raw material to make infinitely more number of waves than those at the surface, sometimes less waves sometimes more waves.

Then I thought why go for such a vague example? Just like earth actually - how is earth making more and more people ? Its the same earth but there are so many more people than there were before.  Earth does not get any more matter than it already has ( Earth gets energy from the Sun, but  Sun also does not get any more energy than it already has ) Its the same amount of raw material all along.
Shocking realisation - Earth is finite!!

What we consumed as animals or as primitive men was minuscule, everything is recycled by earth by decay and death, so the raw material for making life/making more humans/animals looked  like it is infinite so far but  Now??
Look at the materials we have now and how much! look at the garbage dumps. We are locking up the raw material into things which cannot be used to make life for a really really long time. Is our uncontrolled materialism and consumption going to snuff us out? Are we threatening the capacity of earth to make life?  Are the signs like global warming and major disruption of climate a sign of this?
We cut away forests, killed and ate animals to extinction but we were so few it didnt matter ( or may be it did even then, 10,000 years ago lot of animals went extinct, it may have been because of humans ) but Today? We are consuming like crazy - Plastics, Chemicals which were never present on earth before. Just look at the western world, how we buy, how we consume. It is giving me chills.
I saw a skip full of thrown away furniture yesterday and it gave me the chills. Is this the biggest evil which we are refusing to see?

the world as we know it may not be so for long ( Or the shit is going to hit the fan? )

I am really worried
We have had a generally stable 70 odd years ( for the urban Indians and westerners,  not if you are in Africa or middle east or for that matter anywhere outside my bubble :-( ) Our parents and us have seen a world in which things have steadily got better, technology got better, more money, prosperity, society got better, less crime more law n order( in spite of !what is the world coming to these days! laments) more freedom especially for women, more education etc etc

I am getting this bad nagging feeling that this is going to change n the next few years.
The chaos on this world is steadily increasing
The stupidities of the past 100 odd years are bearing fruit
The progress of the past years is demanding its price.
In fact much of the progress is not looking like progress at all.

The instability causing things
refugee crisis in Europe
Brexit
Race relation ships in the US grow worse
person like Donald Trump is a potential presidential candidate for the most powerful country on earth
Russia Ukrain Turkey
Steady growth of Isis
Radical Islam keeps getting a stronger grip in the wider world.
Left wingers going so far left as to give rise to right wingers.
Such things and much worse  have been happening all over the world last 60 years, then why are things in Europe/US more important. Frankly they are. So called World war does not mean it involves the world, it means the powerful Europe and America are part of it.

Mindless/heartless science
What was Sci-fi is becoming a reality.
Robots -  robot was used to kill a  guy by US police, albeit it was remote controlled robot
we all have our heads so much in virtual reality, everything is online and hackers are getting closer and closer
GMO - I love the idea of resurrecting dinosaurs but I dont like insect resistant potatoes or non seeding hybrids or humans who can live for ever X-(
GMO for food to prevent world hunger(??) why we waste away 1000 of kilos of food because it is ugly
Reality of the food /farming industry - Treating animals like objects, literally without imagining that there is life in them
Designer babies - gene selected babies, GMO people, rich people will have better genes than poor people, people will live for ever and not die?
Reality of the advertising industry - how much we have been fooled, from soap to mouth wash to eating cereals and avoiding fats to Teflon. Everything you know so far is probably a lie, told by advertisers in 1950s
Short-sighted science/ aimless science - we are spending more researching how to grow hair on bald heads than on curing Ebola.
World spending pattern, how blind we are. we spend so much on make-up and sports and movies. We dont give a shit about world hunger, we are only going to make GM wheat which will slim you down or something .
Difference in economic status between countries..

Most of it was always there in the world, world suffering is probably less now, in-spite of all these things but we never had the power to destroy ourselves and earth along with us before.
Population bomb - population of  of 7.4 billion, Nuclear bombs, Genetic engineering are scariest but thats not the most dangerous, , plain old meddling is good enough, hunt away animals to extinction just for food, cut away forests for food, consume like crazy. more than anything else.
Consumption is scaring me, for this long in the history of earth last 3 billions years or so, earth had enough raw material to sustain life. Are we doing to run out of basic raw material to sustain life? ( this is for another post.

Earth will survive, life will survive, I am genuinely scared about the fate of human race. 

Take that AXE and Dove are both Uniliver brands

AXE - treat women like objects
Dove - see inner beauty of women
What exactly is the value of Uniliver? - Sell more stuff. 

You have not changed at all

These days my relatives love me.  ( haha! you are thinking shouldnt they? or So? or Showing off?  or things like that)
Well, When I was younger, I got a lot of ... Ahem "comments" .  Why dont you dress up! why don't you wear a saree or make up! Why you cut your hair so short! Why are u always reading books! Talk to people. Too serious. Too silly always acting like a kid. Why dont u sit properly  etc etc etc Not appreciated for my good bits, like studying well, frugal, not greedy and not seeking attention etc! Hello! I have some good points too!!! Really! it seemed like being me was not really desirable :-)
and Now...
They just love me - the reason - "You have not changed at all! Deepa!"
LOL! I keep thinking Yeah!!!!!!  but  you din like the same me before! :-D ( Not that I am complaining :D )
Now it was become, Deepa doesnot dress up, so simple she is, So down to earth, no airs -doesnot care about looks. So well read. They also lovingly say - You used to sit like this even when you were a kid,Deepa! he! he! he!
Its not just one relative. Its all of them! Strange :-D

Now comes the gyan part. As it always does :P

I was thinking this and I realised.. I have infact changed.

Not in the aspects I was criticised on and the aspects they admire me for not changing but I have changed as a person.
I had an edge before, I was totally immature and arrogant, snappy and short tempered. Now I am nice ( er :-P ), can confidently say not arrogant, have lost the edge, slowly, very slowly trying to be a better person, and for most parts not so snappy, okay! for most parts I said! not SO snappy I said! :-P
They din dislike me for the above reasons, that was just a symptom, Now the like is also not for those reasons, its also a symptom. I think its the person underneath that they sense. ( which now is bordering on AWESOME :P )

Connie Wills/BellWeather/How do I know its not fiction

Ok ok I said I was not bloggign because I didnt have a laptop any more, Well now I have one. And still not blogging.  Excuse exposed I suppose.  :-)
Well so I decided to write something as and when I was in a high about something. If you ask me one thing I love about myself, at this point in time I would say I read! I am loving it.
I am loving this book by Connie Wills. BellWeather.
I love Connie Wills, Now that I think about it,  3rd female author I have been in love with. Are they writers or scientists? I love authors who make me feel like this. Ursula Leguin now Connie Wills. Diana Whyne Jones  I have been in love for a long time, She has been generous with her writing. I am afraid I may finish off even that. No, she is not Sciency but she is Witchy not in a witch may, but in a good witch way like Jessa is. Jessa is another author I am friends with on facebook, she believes in woo-woo. I know woo-woo doesont describe it any better than witchy. Magic-y? new Age( argh! now That is a fad )  anyway that kind.
Yeah Sciency/Witchy women authors Rock( as A would say)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Willis This is Connie. She is sciency and has a sense of humour to boot, sarcastic one. Love :-D

Ok back to BellWeather - bellweather kind of means trend setter . It means the lead Ram( male sheep,  which leads the folk. Tho in the book BellWeahter was a girl sheep). This book is about fads. Oh fads fads fads, its about a scientist who is studying fads. Sociologist., I love anthropologiss and sociologists. Anyway she is talking about fads and Ouch! Ouch ! Ouch! How this hits home, Sometimes I wince because I am following fads ( especially these days related to fittness) Othertimes I agree with her How I loath fads and fadders - barbie and pink and hair ironing etc. and yet another is things I really like and do and like and had been doing for a long time become a fad Meditation/yoga/trekking. I hate the feeling. Hopefully I will still be there when the fad passes, Hope I dont care enough about this to not stop things just because they are faddy?

hmmm, Its fiction and super funny - That brings me to another thing. I know "KNOW" that the things mentioned in this book are real. Like when she talks about Einsten having measels or about discovery of benzen ring. I used to watch Elementary - series about Shelock Homes ( yet another! I know!) I also believed the facts(?!) which were mentioned in the series, I found myself quoting out of Series. Dead Clade Walking to be precise. Then I realised, I hadnt googled it or found out much about it, How did I decide that it was a fact and not part of fiction, When Starwars talks about Science I dont believe it, I dont believe it when X files people talk about stuff Why did I believe this? I googled and it was indeed a fact, I googled many Geeky things shown on that show and all were true. My instinct was correct, but I have no idea how I had decided that. It is a bit scary, what if I had got it wrong :D I would be like those people who believed about Mars attacks being real when a play was broadcast on Radio :D

Big Bang theory also always mentions facts, but I discounted them, When Rajs dog is sick by eating chocolates I didnt believe that chocolates were harmful for dogs. In fact they are, Big bang theory is accurate about most things it tells apparently.  Still.. I dont automatically file it as fact, actually I dont even google and verify I just laugh and forget. Except when they talk science, like Srojengers cat for example :-) 

Inheritance ( Game of Thrones spoiler Alert + Rant Alert)

Why does every great person have to have hidden parentage and have great parents? Is greatness always inherited? Cant people accept that a random guy/ a bastard/ an Orphan can be great? Does he have to secretly have king and queen parents to be great?!! Are there no self made men/women?  X-(
This is a rant about a twist in Game of Thrones, everybody is raving about.
I m angry. I am angry that the good guy is a prince, he was a bastard but actually no! he is a prince.
The guy who really was a bastard was evil guy.
It is sad.

Maybe its just a way to make the story interesting and I shouldn't read all this into it? It doesn't bother others. People just love just love hidden parentage stories.

It is a very common plot, age old - Karna! he was charioteers son but was amazing at warfare. Then plot twist. he was son of a queen.
Krishna also He was a cowherd but amazing skills, but he was stolen from the womb of a queen.

( May be there are others who are shown to be great inspite of being ordinary people, may be my confirmation bias is preventing me from seeing those stories. Jesus? ( but he was son of god wasnt he ;-) )

It is the problem with the story writers or the audience?
Or is it a reality of life, my liberal mind does not accept?  No! in real life there are many great men who didnt come from royal families. Gandhi/Stalin/Hitler. last 100 years are a good example of this.
Last 5000 years are a good example of greatness only coming down from parents (not because ordinary people were not capable, but there were very very few avenues for normal person to be different from his parents) Actually that makes a very stronger argument in favour of nurture than nature? :-P
Also genes do play a very big part in what we are, so does bringing up. In case of animals genes pay a much bigger role. In case of humans? How much? no body knows.
Conservatives will lean towards believing genes do more and Liberals will lean towards nurture.

Life is like a HIIT workout :D
Frantic running for 5 days and then rest for 2 days!
Mental it is!

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

-Rumi

Sufi Buddhist Yogi are all the same. 

ideas of beauty = I am rich

What is beautiful? What ever pleases our eye. What pleases our eye? we can easily be trained to find one a particular type of thing pleasing. It is not hardcoded, It is programmed by our conditioning and day to day life.

What we consider as beautiful in a woman? Definitely not grimy hands with mud stuck in the nails! LOL! Gardening did that to me, I hate gloves, so I did a bit of digging and mud, black mud stuck to my hands like glue, I think I am getting old and mud gets lodged in the wrinkles :P
I thought about all the long nailed soft clean hands on women and think, these guys! ( or girls) how do they garden? wearing gloves obviously, they must go into lot of trouble and take lot of care to keep the hands like that.
Why did long nails become beautiful? ( Why is being beautiful always kind of inconvenient? ever thought of that? I have! Always ! :P)  Was it because in the old days it was used to show people that, Hey I am rich. I don't do any house work! You want proof? Look at my hands! Hah!
Women did real work in those days and you couldn't fake beautiful hands even while doing all the dirty work, like pulling rope to get water out of wells and chakki peecing. So it was proof enough.

Tied up feet of chinese women showed that their father/husband/who ever was so rich that she could survive without even walking! God!
Along with long  painted nails, there are other symbols of beauty which are just symbols of weakness really like - soft hands, untanned skin( pale skin) , delicateness and daintiness, no scars, high heels...All showing I can't work so I must be rich.
For that matter, bling like gold, diamonds etc jewellery which "enhances" a womans beauty..... Ha ha! It enhances your beauty my declaring to the world that you are rich! :D
It is not secret at all, it is hardly about beauty at all is it ? It has always been about Wealth??

Now like peacock feathers, we are concentrating on the symbols and not on the meaning, long nails no longer means you are not required to do any house hold work but still stands as something desirable/beautiful. Even tho even today rich have found new ways to show off their exclusiveness expensive cars/branded labels etc

self serving bias and some toilet gyan(!)

Does self serving bias helps us feel good about ourself. we give excuses for our failings. and those that have low self esteem and are depressed have accurate evaluation of how good they are?

If we place our self worth on our looks, our money, our education , our job or our relationship this is what happens. Some spiritual books say we are worthy just as we are even if we strip out all these values.
This made me see Satya Harishchandra's story in a  new light. He was a king, he lost his power, his family, his money his job and looks... Still he was him, The righteous man. is this what that story trying to tell us? It is not about being truthful, Its about maintaining integrity?

( and now ..How is this related to self serving bias? :-S )

People say if you stop feeling bad about loss of something then the world will end up in chaos - but will it?
That's probably because our tasks of today are motivated more by things going bad rather than things feeling good. If I don't work I will starve, if I don't clean the toilet it will smell. doing something to feel good is kind of looked at as a sin, But isn't that just a matter of perspective.
If I don't clean the toilet it will stink = Clean good smelling toilet makes me feel good. If I am striving to make a good toilet, I will exert more effort to make it good than if I am motivated to avoid stink, I will be happy making the toilet nice and every time I pass by I feel good too.
Its just a matter of perspective, If I don't clean my toilet my friends will come and judge me, will give the same task a sense of anxiety and nervousness, I will not enjoy my work until I get a stamp of approval from my friends. so its not the task at all but the attitude that matters.
>:-)

Another rant about US

Okay! I am going to be judgemental today. What the heck! a girl can have a bitchy day! ok!??

America is like the shallowest country in the world or something.
I got a forward today, funny one!
 Our(India) PM is single, Opposition leader is single, lady CMs form North - Mehbooba, South Jaya, East Mamta di and  West Anandi ben - all single :D Bachelors Zindabad. :-)

Got me thinking, US president cant be single can he?
He has to have a wife and kids to be in the white house! Single President :-O no no!
Putin is single as of today, In fact is he not tall he is 5 7
you cant be an American president if you are shorter than 6 ft.
All the psychology books go on and go about this concept, tall is good for leaders! Only true of America, because Americans are bloody shallow! This does not apply to other countries.

Does not apply to India, we have had decidedly Ugly PMS Narasimha Rao and Deve Gowda :D I am not being mean, India is not looks oriented! look! Can they be President of US? No way!!
Handsome, tall with a perfect looking family and pretending to be Christian. (American President has to be Christian, India  is a very religious country but India has had Atheist PM(Nehru), Low caste, High caste, Sikh PMs.)
That's how they roll and they are supposed to be the most developed country on earth! Huh! 

growth (rant)

Seriously are you nuts? Are you really scientific and logical and clever person?

How is growth a sustainable model (Except may be for the galaxy :p Then again it is expanding and not growing ) 
Chinas economy has - hold you breath - slowed in the growth rate, It has not slowed,  growth has slowed down. and it is worrying.
Same with companies, one more insanity in our present culture.  growth growth growth, everybody talks about growth
Just look at your self, what would have happened to you if you kept growing , not just growing but with increasing pace every year, year after year.
Look around you trees animals plants, they grow and they stop and they die, Its called cycled on life.
Only thing that grows grows and grows and kills its host and itself in Virus ( to quote MATRIX) 
You morons, why are you targeting growth and growth and growth.
Chinas economy is growing growing growing .. China is dead collapsed, long live China.
Earth population is growing growing growing, Earth has collapsed, long live earth.

MORONS 

lot of discrepancies between me and the world

When I was a kid

I used to think it is ok if ur dress flew up when u fell down, all girls used to giggle!! and talk behind back also, you know that girl fell and her skirt was all over the place!  Christ how I hate girls :D

It is ok if someone suddenly coughs/sneezes and something falls on u, after all its emergency :-P Then after years someone made a disgusted face and said why cant they cover their mouth nose! 

If you feel like vomiting you vomit, I didnt know you had to run to the bathroom.  poor thing u are! first of all in trouble why u shud run to bathroom? :P 
Actually in my head you were excused about a lot of things if you are in trouble like coughing falling vomiting feeling sick, I didnt hold you responsible for your actions in such cases :-P  Actually so many more things than these, even now I feel like AIyya so what! ( I m sure I go balistic for things people think, Aiya so what! like sexism/favouritism among others )  

Animals are pristine and clean. They were excused of all cleanliness rules. They can lick me after licking their own bum, its fine :D :P 

And opposite leniency with kids

 children, everyone seems ok what ever they do, I used to treat them with same rules as elders, they get hit as hard as anyone else :D

Sonu and the mirror

Sonu is such a sweet heart, He is the sweetest cat in the world. Being sweet and nice, has its own disadvantages. The other cats bully this poor boy. I read that one way to keep away bully cats from our garden is to keep mirrors, They look at their own reflection and get threatened and run away. I was afraid  my own Sonu will get frightened of the cat in the mirror and refuse to go into the garden.
I had forgotten Sonu is a sweetheart, I found Sonu looking at the mirror and spending a lot of time there, He made friends with the cat in the mirror, he found a sweetheart cat there.
The bully cats find frightening bully cat in the mirror and  frighten themselves.
So Symbolic, Mirror is like life itself, you find there exactly what you give :-) 

Sar kata sakte hai lekin sar jhuka sakte nahi? Really?

I am like that, I am a proud person, I like the "sar kata sakte hai lekin sar jhuka sakte nahi!" strategy,  Looking at the world around me, Looking at history especially, It looks like a foolish strategy :-)

My dad came back from Rajasthan trip, He is very insightful!, He observed, All these Rajasthan warriors / Rajputs, are supposed to be so proud (Movies and popular culture shows them as a very proud race,  They are like epitome of 'death before dishonour' culture or something)  Saala every one of those Rajput king has married off his  sister or daughter to a Moghul king and bowed down his head! What proud my ass! (hehe dad din say that, its my colourful attempt to depict his tone! :P )   You go and see Rajasthan every palace and temple is well preserved, as opposed to Karnataka temples which are destroyed by Muslim rulers ( And Karnataka people are supposed to be mild mannered swalpa adjust maadi types!)

In history,  who survived are the ones who bowed down their heads, those who held their heads high have perished.
What happened to Maha Rana Pratap? Died in Haldi ghati! He is a martyr! He head his head high, fought,was defeated and dead.
Raja Maan Singh, made friends with Akbar, married his sister off to Akbar, bowed down his head, His palace is still intact today in Jaipur.

Rani Lakshmi Bai fought the British and was destroyed ( Ok she is a hero today! So? ) and her minister who betrayed her by making a deal with the English Some Scindia, That bloody traitor! His family is still very wealth political family, active in politics and People still voting for them!


Hmmmm, So really which strategy is good? You decide! I think flexible values are good. if your conscience allows it. Mine does not (yet) I need more to work on my maturity little more :P

Anyway I was thinking how come whole of middle east upto Pakisthan is Islamised and India is still in Hindu Majority, even tho Moghuls ruled India for 800 years and British for another 200?
 Is it the strength of Hindu religion? Then Pakisthan was also Hindu wasnt it?
There may be lot of other reasons, but one of reasons is thanks to all those kings who made treaties with Moghuls.  If they had fought and lost the kingdom, they would have been forced to convert to Islam along with their whole kingdom. Its not easy to convert a king and his whole kingdom, if he is making a treaty and not exactly losing to you. So Hinduism, all their palaces (which are heavily influenced by Islamic architecture) temples all survived. Its a good outcome.

HONY

He has this amazing talent of warming your heart and making you feel good. Its addictive how chicken soupy for the soul and feel goody he is! ( and not cheesy and fake at the same time too!) I love Humans Of New York! How does he do it? Is it because he is a good person at heart? I am so jealous of him! How does he do it? :-)

So I decided to collect stories too! :-) What stories are hiding behind these lovely people? Will I be able to draw out the most interesting bits of their life? like Brandon? :-) 

Oh I didnt dare! I went to Central London! Alone! I was feeling great! My adventure! Yes! That Chinese guy there having coffee alone could have a story, Or the old middle eastern man over there....My throat dried up, my hands sweat! :D hehehe! I didnt even make eye contact with anyone! Not those two, Not anyone else on the street! I wanted to go and hide in a hole!  One thought about asking for story and That was it :D  Sigh!
Brandon is Brandon and me is me :D Me is good to keep a hidden blog in the forgotten corner of internet and is happy with it :D 

Value of life?

(Why do I feel like I have published this one already,  or did I read it many times in draft itself? ) 
This is about euthanasia, killing animals and importance of life and all...
How valuable is life?
Ah again same topic but I m back to it..
we as humans seem to think life is very important,We try to save lives of children with holes in their hearts, we try to save old people, very sick people by putting them on life support, lot of people don't eat meat because killing animals is wrong,
I am wondering is it really wrong?

Like I have said before death and killing ( especially young ones) is part of life, it is part of evolution, it is part of life cycle, it is integral part of life on earth.

Everyone reproduces in plenty and only part of it is meant to survive
Its either kill or neuter - we know from street dogs dont we?

I felt this strongly when I did gardening
I love tulsi plant, but it has 10000 seeds and 1000s of seedlings.. how many can u grow. answer is - u cant, u have to uproot and throw ( or make kashaya :)
There is no way earth can support all those that are born, most are meant to die. most infants are meant to die. This is what leads to evolution and forming of different species. More diversity, more chance that life on earth will make it thru catastrophes.

This is infant mortality, another is reproduce and die.
Annual plants - their life cycle is - born in spring, flower in summer, seeds in autumn and die. That's it. They cant be made to live longer than that. Thats their life cycle, for a long time I resisted growing such plants. Its a waste :D  That was the mental block, Flowering plants from super markets are more like a bouquet rahter than a plant. I like to see plants live rather than just see them flower and die. I hated such plants , BTW all our grains are also such plants, wheat, rice, sugar cane... whatever plants we harvest are all, grow - flower - seed - die plants. What is the value of such a life?

Its not just plants, there are animals too
There is a moth the caterpillar has a mouth but the adult moth does not have a mouth at all. It is not meant to eat at all, its meant to die in 7 days ( feels like a fairy tale story :D ) Its suppose to find its princess/prince and reproduce,lay eggs and die. if it doesn't succeed it dies anyway.
so what is the value of life for these things?
Salmons - they go to reproduce and die, so reproduction is more important than living. most /all animals live to reproduce not the other way around.
So it is probably a bigger crime to neuter an animal than to kill it?

If we are melding and helping with the reproduction of an animal, then can we kill it?
I mean it is the strategy of sheep and chicken that they are tasty, thats why there are so many of them, they are spreading fast while their wild counter parts are getting extinct.
is that really wrong? Species wise its a good thing for them tho indivisual vise its bad for them.

This post was written long ago( 15/12/2012 ), Now I heard is this symbiosis  between Water birds and alligators. Scientists found that alligators who stayed near Water bird nests were doing better than others, even tho they couldn't reach the nest and hence couldn't eat the birds. They also found that the birds who had alligators near their nests were doing better than birds that didn't! The alligators prevented other predators like raccoons getting into the nests and eating all the chicks. How were the alligators benefiting? The alligators were eating the eggs and chicks that dropped off from the nest. They also found that the birds pushed off eggs and chicks from the nest purposefully to attract the alligators!?! Sometimes the birds produced more eggs than they could care for and they pushed these away to pay for protection. Fascinating!
Human values, human rights and wrongs,morals , so subjective, so NOT universal! 

BTW this is the post which is similar to this one... same thoughts http://mystic-babe.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/saving-lives-at-all-costs.html

make a persuasive study to convince people to become vegetarians.

make a persuasive study to convince people to become vegetarians.

what are the problems with the way people argue about being vegetarians
1) They compare eating meat with killing baby seals or whales. They portray meat eaters are monsters. This may seem reasonable to a vegetarian but when a meat eater who sees themselves as a reasonable and good person, sees this ad what does he feel. If he accepts this argument - meat eating makes me a monster, He will experience disonance. He has two choices - one accept this argument become a monster and then reform. self sustaining bias will never allow the meat eater to accept that what they are doing is wrong. Its easier to just call the argumenter a nutter which preserves my self identity as NOT a monster.
2) They create group bias, Me and You, I m a vegge you are a non veggie, as soon as you make the meat eater identify themselves as a different group as you, he is going to apply all the good qualities to his own group and all the bad ones to you and WILL NOT listen to you an Out grouper.
3) One way of persuading people is being likable. most "be a veggie" campaigns start of being obnoxious. Instead of making people like you, all meat eaters will dislike you. so they wont buy in
4) Also they are already primed to not move from their point of view before watching your video. so forwarding videos will not work.

How to create a be a vegetarian campaign
1) one thing that may work is the fear tactic, eating meat is BAD for you. This is working.
2) Inhuman treatmeant of animals NOT by YOU but by MEAT Corporations.  This has made people switch to ethically treated meat ( which is also good )
3) Sell the advantages of eating veg, This has been some what effective and lot of people are eating less meat and more vegetables than before. 
4) question yourself, Am I really so concerned about animals or am I a judgmental ass? :P if later just stop trying to convince others and live in peace. If former, go adopt a couple of puppies from SPCA and live in peace :D :P ( and please dont feed vegan food to those poor puppies :P )

which plants affected my life most

The most?
all of them probably in the 3km radius of me?  they produce oxygen after all :-)

Let me see how many plants I have eaten/drunk today.
Rice/Wheat/Tea/Grass which the cow ate whose milk I drank, Soya, mint in the tooth paste, all my herbal teas, black berry, rooiboos.
Banana, orange apple, chick peas, cucumber tomato

Teak, Oak, bamboo - I m sitting on, our house is built on.
paper! cardboard! pencil all made from trees...

my pet plants. roses, cherry blossom, plumeria
mango tree, chikoo tree loved as a kid

Stay at home mums

Just shake things a bit

How would I feel about stay at home mum?
I didnt think much about stay at home mum before, but now I have respect. ( for some :-P),especially those that had a great career going - Courageous women who got their priorities right. Its really cruel on themselves to carry on working and take care of the kid and stress themselves with guilt and frustration. I think society should be more supportive of mums....( Of only one or two! please not 11!  )
if kids are younger then I m ok, what if the kids are older and dont need care?
How would I feel about stay at home wife? ( no kids)
Stay at home husband ( no kids but takes care of wife...)
How would I feel if both parents have lot of money and they both decided to stay at home and look after kids? Its their choice.
How about both parents dont have money but they stay at home and look after kids and take state benefit? Dont like it. Burden on society, shouldnt have kids in the first place
Stay at home girl - Daughter? dont like it. Burden. What if dad has lots and lots of  money?
Stay at home son?( most people dont like this, they think he is useless burden on his parents :D but they wont think that about the daughter)
what if she had to stay home to look after sick patents? I feel  Pity n respect
 what if it was a son who did that?  most people will feel pity or think he is stupid and ask him to get married so his wife can look after parents and he can work.
-how would I feel if a girl told me she wants to be a mother and wife? and nothing else? I would be  Livid. Most people accept this as freedom of the girl to do what she wants
 How about Stay at home boy - if your son wants to be a dad and husband and nothing else. Would be laughed at and not accepted as an option at all my most people.


why is being only a mother and wife not enough? It leads to social evils, Atleast so far in history it has lead to a weaker and more vulnerable position for the woman who is at the mercy at others. It goes against my basic value - Independence.  If the woman has inherited a lot of money and is independent, then my feelings may change. Just like peoples feelings about unwed mothers has changed in the western society. It is no longer a taboo because state will look after an unwed mother and her child. So, that woman will no longer be burden on family hence no taboo :-) Its all economics like that ;-)
We may feel strongly this way or that based on our conditioning and experiences in life, there is no absolute right and wrong!

and the dominnce of the left brain continues

"An estimated six billion pounds of fruits and vegetables are wasted every year in the U.S. because they are ugly, according to report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. That means more than 20 percent of the produce grown for human consumption is rejected by grocery stores and goes uneaten because of its appearance."

Yes! We as a civilization, especially the "developed" western world, With its smart people is judging vegetables by its shape! destroying billions of pounds of crop which they grew by killing billions of other vegetation and animals by making farms in the first place! cause they dont look good!  And they are genetically modifying crop to prevent hunger in the world!!! dear god! how infuriating! how blood boilingly stupid! Its the high IQ scientists and the capitalists who say things like this! People are not eating ugly veggies, Let us make veggies beautiful! thats the way to make money for capitilists and thats another problem to solve for the left brain dominant scientists!  you know just because we can! its one more pattern in the lego! no you fools! you are killing mother earth with all your money minded nonsense and pursuit of challenges! 

IDIOTS!