Finding Nemo

Pravritti –personality –behavioral traits – is often considered as someone’s nature. This explains how a person reacts to a situation. The key in this scenarios is the external stimulus. Nivritti on the other hand defines abstinence or denial of acts that have no meaning. All acts in Nivritti state comes from the internal stimulus. The hindu scriptures have very well laid out the two paths of life as Pravritti and Nivritti and have as usual left it to us to decide the way. External stimuli or the desire is abundant all around us. The more you satisfy it, the more it grows. Knowing the purpose of your actions will help performing the actions better. This is where we can combine the external and internal stimuli. Vishnu on one hand, indulges himself with the creation and helps the worldly creatures to lead their life meaningfully. In his acts, not only he desires he also plays along with the humans. Shiva on the other hand, meditates and turns his back on Brahma’s creation k

Long time since my last post. Actually I have been reading less these days and watching more television. I have been looking at the news channels too sometimes and watched how the media has been covering the so called crime stories. More or less every time a crime is reported, the reporters use the word “animal like behavior” to depict the criminals acts. Along with the same, the media is full of developmental stories displaying the progress the mankind is making today. The question is what progress have we made? What instinct have we understood and how have we conquered? As the story of the Hindu Trinity goes, Brahma had multiple sons who were born of his thoughts. Each of the son was born with a purpose. Narada, Sanaatan Kumars were amongst the glorious ones. And also was Daksa Prajapati. Many would remember Daksha as the arrogant father who did not relent to acknowledge the love of her daughter Sati. Due to which, Sati had to jump into fire causing Shiva to take the Rudr

In my previous post – "Main or May" , I started a thought on the pride. Pride can come to a person in many forms – overconfidence being one of them and probably the most destructive too. Pride is a great feeling to have and is a great asset if in moderated quantity. Being a necessary evil, it helps one to move forward and overcome the inherent fear of failure, and at the same time, creates a path for self-destruction through complacency and too much of confidence on self or other. Pride comes with the sense of belonging and ownership. However, the nature makes no such claim. This is a human mind construct and creates boundaries. We have all seen both the benefits and the destruction caused by pride. Let's see the symbolism of the same as seen in our scriptures! Who better to kill pride or tame the feeling than Lord Shiva. Shiva took the form of "Bhairava" as a young child devoid of all the emotions of ownership and pride. Bhairava is always accompanied with

I took a little time thinking on what do I want and what do I need. While doing so, I thought whether am I looking for "Main" (myself in hindi) or "May" (pride in hindi). Though a very glib pun on the sounds, yet a very profound meaning that changes the character of a person. Below is my attempt in penning my thoughts. कुछ ढूँढ रहा था मैं , कुछ पाना चाहता था मैं, श्रम से बीज बोता मैं, सोचता था फल खाऊँगा मैं।                                        कभी मन को समझाता मैं ,                                        कभी खूब मचल जाता मैं ,                                        दूर भी जाना चाहता था मैं ,                                        और अमर भी होना चाहता था मैं। मन को शांत करता मैं , सब कुछ शांत करना चाहता था मैं , चाँद को चूना चाहता था मैं, सूर्य से भी ज्यादा तेज चाहता था मैं।                                          थोडा कुछ तो पाया भी मैं,                                          और साथ ले आया मय।                                          जिस मय

I am sure that all of us have been stirred by the Devyani Khobragade arrest incident that has shaken the diplomatic ties between India and US for now. I spent much time yesterday reading through the news reports and talking to people with experiences into diplomatic scenarios. We spoke at lengths on the measures being taken by the various authorities and the excessiveness being exercised in matters deemed necessary. We all concluded that there were some gaps in the manner the situation was handled. This article today is dedicated towards the lamentation of these gaps. In the Devyani case, the US officials have reported to have acted as per their rules and regulations. Their reports said that since the Indian Diplomat failed to align with their rules and regulations, they were supposed to take a corrective action and force the punishment on the accused. What were these rules? Putting appropriate salary to the domestic help (which is allowed as per US rules and regulations) in the visa a

Last night we were watching the movie "Dashavtaram" for the umpteenth time. We love the movie and also have many good memories attached with the song – "Mukunda Mukunda". My wife taught dance to this number and the kids performed beautifully on the stage. Now that we watched it again and again, we tried to make sense of the name – "Dashavtaram" which undoubtedly refers to the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Interestingly enough, Lord Vishnu is known to have descended upon the earth many a times to uphold the dharma or the laws of nature. Though our scriptures and wise learned people have often differed on the number of times Vishnu took different forms, there is no difference in understanding the common themes and the principles in each of these avatars. My attempt shall be to just have a look at those and understand the same. As per the most well-read purana scripture – Bhagwat Purana describes 22 avatars of Sri Vishnu. While the most commonly known 10 av

Now that you got me started, I will croon out another one from my pocket. This may not be a fantastic piece of work, but is definitely close to my heart and in a way quite true to its meaning! The best part is when it was composed? Almost 20 years ago!                       आज जीवन का अर्थ कहो तुम ?                       किसी कि हंसी छीनना ही क्या जीवन है?                       किसी को दुःख देना ही क्या जीवन है?                       अत्याचार करना ही क्या जीवन है? जीवन तो एक अमूल्य धन है, मानवता के निर्माण का साधन है।  जीवन का तुम लाभ उठाओ, संसार के मार्गदर्शक बन जाओ।।                         सच्ची राह बतलाना तुम,                        हृदयसेतु बन जाना तुम,                        जीवन का अर्थ प्रेम बतलाना,                        नहीं किसी को द्वेष सीखना।।