Another quote for the day
Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them
Let me not beg for the stilling of pain, but for the heart to conquer it
Let me not look for allies in life’s battlefield, but to my own strength
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved, but hope for the patience to win my freedom
Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone
But let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Yes! I did see Spiderman 2 yesterday! I loved it! It is a perfect blockbuster masala movie - incredible action, romance, a couple of songs, some humour and some senti scenes. I had expected the storyline to be same as in part 1, with the villian replaced. However there were several unexpected twists and turns in the story, like Peter Parker deciding to quit being Spiderman, and ... no, no, don't worry, I am not going to tell you everything and spoil your fun. For I surely recommend you this movie. You may not think much about it at the end. But it undoubtedly keeps you thrillingly entertained for every minute its two hours duration.
It's one of those days for me when one just doesn't feel like working. I am just not able to concentrate on any task. It's as if the brain hasn't fully woken up this morning. May be it's because I am tired at the end of the week. So I am waiting for the day to end and go back home.
However if Sameer Rakheja calls me to tell that he has a spare ticket for Spiderman 2, then that would be too good. I am dyenig ... oops ... dying to see the movie. I saw part 1 thrice and loved it. Two times of the three, I saw it in Hindi, and I loved it more than the English version! I also love watching Discovery in Hindi rather than English. That reminds me, I have call up the cablevala and tell him to tune in Hindi version of History Channel. Did you know that there is a Hindi version of History Channel? I didn't know that until a couple of weeks back.
However if Sameer Rakheja calls me to tell that he has a spare ticket for Spiderman 2, then that would be too good. I am dyenig ... oops ... dying to see the movie. I saw part 1 thrice and loved it. Two times of the three, I saw it in Hindi, and I loved it more than the English version! I also love watching Discovery in Hindi rather than English. That reminds me, I have call up the cablevala and tell him to tune in Hindi version of History Channel. Did you know that there is a Hindi version of History Channel? I didn't know that until a couple of weeks back.
Topsy-turvy world!
My previous post surely deserves something in a lighter vein. So I am thinking what would it be if everything in the world were exactly opposite to the way it exists.
Like, what if everybody woke up when we are going to sleep, and went to sleep when we are waking up in the morning?
Like, what if everybody drove on the wrong side of the road?
Like, what if kids behaved in a more matured manner than matured people?
Like, what if people divorced, only to marry again?
Like, what if the candidate who gets fewer votes overall became the president of the country?
Like, what if the free press is just free to brainwash people?
Like, what if there were wars in which only one side participated, using destructive weapons to destroy non-existent weapons of a non-existent army?
The more we think, the more it sounds like we are talking of America!!
My previous post surely deserves something in a lighter vein. So I am thinking what would it be if everything in the world were exactly opposite to the way it exists.
Like, what if everybody woke up when we are going to sleep, and went to sleep when we are waking up in the morning?
Like, what if everybody drove on the wrong side of the road?
Like, what if kids behaved in a more matured manner than matured people?
Like, what if people divorced, only to marry again?
Like, what if the candidate who gets fewer votes overall became the president of the country?
Like, what if the free press is just free to brainwash people?
Like, what if there were wars in which only one side participated, using destructive weapons to destroy non-existent weapons of a non-existent army?
The more we think, the more it sounds like we are talking of America!!
One more mail moved to the "vedAntaGoodOnes" folder. Let me paste a part of it here:
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 12:30:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: "V. Krishnamurthy"
Subject: [Advaita-l] Vasanas
To: "advaita - L"
Namaste, Arun-ji,
Let me try to answer your question in an elementary way.
An important point in the central core of the Hindu teaching is the transmigratory career of man's soul. Though man is essentially divine, the divine is clothed in material external coverings and is camouflaged by the cloud of dirt accumulated by the mind. Mind is a nebulous thing that keeps on accumulating impressions, habits and channels of thinking. These constitute the Vasanas of the mind. These Vasanas give the individual his mental personality even before his upbringing in this life starts having an effect on him. It is something over which one has no control, because it is one’s past. It is something for which one has a share of responsibility, because it is the result of one’s own past thoughts and actions.
If you bring in, along with your birth, inherent tendencies that are bad, you have to contend with them and fight them yourself. This is the obligation implied in karma theory. The word karma simply means action; but in this context it connotes the entire aggregate of all past actions and thoughts, not only in this life but in all past lives. As far as the future is concerned you are totally free to do what you will and to create new vasanas and new karma for yourself. But if you are going to be carried away by the existing vasanas in your system and they happen to carry you into undesirable avenues it is nobody's fault except yourself. In this sense you are the architect of your fate. But in the sense that your tendencies are born with you and you have had no control over them when you were born (just as you did not choose your parents or your sex), to that extent you are ruled by your fate. The enigma of the theory of fate in Hinduism can be put into the following capsule: While the past controls, monitors and influences you, the future is in your hands.
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 12:30:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: "V. Krishnamurthy"
Subject: [Advaita-l] Vasanas
To: "advaita - L"
Namaste, Arun-ji,
Let me try to answer your question in an elementary way.
An important point in the central core of the Hindu teaching is the transmigratory career of man's soul. Though man is essentially divine, the divine is clothed in material external coverings and is camouflaged by the cloud of dirt accumulated by the mind. Mind is a nebulous thing that keeps on accumulating impressions, habits and channels of thinking. These constitute the Vasanas of the mind. These Vasanas give the individual his mental personality even before his upbringing in this life starts having an effect on him. It is something over which one has no control, because it is one’s past. It is something for which one has a share of responsibility, because it is the result of one’s own past thoughts and actions.
If you bring in, along with your birth, inherent tendencies that are bad, you have to contend with them and fight them yourself. This is the obligation implied in karma theory. The word karma simply means action; but in this context it connotes the entire aggregate of all past actions and thoughts, not only in this life but in all past lives. As far as the future is concerned you are totally free to do what you will and to create new vasanas and new karma for yourself. But if you are going to be carried away by the existing vasanas in your system and they happen to carry you into undesirable avenues it is nobody's fault except yourself. In this sense you are the architect of your fate. But in the sense that your tendencies are born with you and you have had no control over them when you were born (just as you did not choose your parents or your sex), to that extent you are ruled by your fate. The enigma of the theory of fate in Hinduism can be put into the following capsule: While the past controls, monitors and influences you, the future is in your hands.
Some years ago when the trees in our society's compound were shorter, we could see all the way up to the hill in Trombay, from our bedroom and kitchen windows. One day, looking out of the window someone said, "Hey, have you noticed that the glass has been washed spotlessly clean! The mountain looks so much clearer today". And I said, "There ain't no glass on the window. The window is as wide open as it was yesterday, and it always has been that way. It rained yesterday night!"
As the rain falls, it brings down with it all the dust that's floating in the air. As a result the air looks so cleaner. And it feels more pure and fresh. Have you observed it? You feel as if till yesterday you were looking through a tainted glass, and now it's been washed spotlessly clean! We all spot the greenery that monsoon brings with it, but rarely do we observe the magic that it does to the atmosphere.
That reminds me of Sameer. Speaking about his trip to London, Sameer said, "The first thing I noticed the moment I stepped out of airport was that the air was so pure. I could see things so far away, which we can never see over here." I would like to add, "except during monsoons!" Like most people he too had failed to observe it.
As the rain falls, it brings down with it all the dust that's floating in the air. As a result the air looks so cleaner. And it feels more pure and fresh. Have you observed it? You feel as if till yesterday you were looking through a tainted glass, and now it's been washed spotlessly clean! We all spot the greenery that monsoon brings with it, but rarely do we observe the magic that it does to the atmosphere.
That reminds me of Sameer. Speaking about his trip to London, Sameer said, "The first thing I noticed the moment I stepped out of airport was that the air was so pure. I could see things so far away, which we can never see over here." I would like to add, "except during monsoons!" Like most people he too had failed to observe it.
We must love them both - those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in the finding of it.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274)
Theologian and philosopher
Sincerity and truth are the basis of every virtue.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.)
Philosopher
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274)
Theologian and philosopher
Sincerity and truth are the basis of every virtue.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.)
Philosopher
My Google Mail Accont!
Created a google mail account today. The id is same as my yahoo id, with yahoo.com replaced by gmail.com (I don't want to post the id here out of fear of spam). Few things about google mail struck me immediately on creating the accout:
* 1 GB storage space! (and last week I was rejoicing that yahoo has increased the quota from 6 MB to 100 MB)
* Search facility on emails. So you can search email messages in your account just as you search information on Internet using google.com.
* Keyboard shortcuts. This one will be handy for me as I am a keyboard guy, not a frequent mouse user.
* Only text ads. This should make it much faster.
Another thing unique to Google is what it calls "Conversation View". When a message is opened, all messages related to the opened message are "stacked" behind the opened message, kind of creating a "tab" for each message. You can click on any tab and open that message.
GMail seems to be quite different and more user-friendly than other standard mail sites. One can trust google to come up with technology that leaves competition far behind. In the search engine space, it was power of Google's algorithm that killed competition. With mail, at first sight, it seems Google's USP will be user-friendliness that is unparalled in today's mail programs.
Btw, if you go to gmail.google.com, there's no option to create an account. I read somewhere that one way to create an account is to (actually) buy it! But I am not sure whether it's really true. I got mine for being a active blogger on blogspot. (blogspot being owned by google). Isn't it surprising that while there are millions of sites dying to attract users for creating mail accounts with them, there's google proudly saying, "We'll offer accounts to those we choose". It's a power only businesses that consumers believe deliver top quality products possess. And Google is undoubtedly among them.
Created a google mail account today. The id is same as my yahoo id, with yahoo.com replaced by gmail.com (I don't want to post the id here out of fear of spam). Few things about google mail struck me immediately on creating the accout:
* 1 GB storage space! (and last week I was rejoicing that yahoo has increased the quota from 6 MB to 100 MB)
* Search facility on emails. So you can search email messages in your account just as you search information on Internet using google.com.
* Keyboard shortcuts. This one will be handy for me as I am a keyboard guy, not a frequent mouse user.
* Only text ads. This should make it much faster.
Another thing unique to Google is what it calls "Conversation View". When a message is opened, all messages related to the opened message are "stacked" behind the opened message, kind of creating a "tab" for each message. You can click on any tab and open that message.
GMail seems to be quite different and more user-friendly than other standard mail sites. One can trust google to come up with technology that leaves competition far behind. In the search engine space, it was power of Google's algorithm that killed competition. With mail, at first sight, it seems Google's USP will be user-friendliness that is unparalled in today's mail programs.
Btw, if you go to gmail.google.com, there's no option to create an account. I read somewhere that one way to create an account is to (actually) buy it! But I am not sure whether it's really true. I got mine for being a active blogger on blogspot. (blogspot being owned by google). Isn't it surprising that while there are millions of sites dying to attract users for creating mail accounts with them, there's google proudly saying, "We'll offer accounts to those we choose". It's a power only businesses that consumers believe deliver top quality products possess. And Google is undoubtedly among them.
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