The day they were not out

This day in 2001: when Very Very Special and the Wall were the only humans before Tugga and his final frontier. This is the "this day that age" link.

Congrats to Rahul Dravid who is about to complete his 100th test match. Here is a very good interview and an overview of his his mental preparation(aptly titled "The making of the Wall") he is well known for. Read the rest of this entry >>

Homepage of John Grimes

John Grimes is a professor in Michigan State University and author of the book on Vivekachudamani and Ganapathi. This is from the entry on Vivekachudamani in his publications page.

This book is the fruit of a lifetime of enquiry (jijñasa). Much reflection and discrimination (viveka) and detachment (vairagya) has flowed under the bridge. Friends, fellow well-wishers, and yes, even evil-eyed enemies have contributed much. Whom to single out? They all played their alloted parts and departed for places elsewhere. It seems so long ago that I was walking towards the Pakistan-India border station in the burning dust of summer. Rushing to greet me was a collage of odours comprised of fragrant flowers and rotting filth, of exotic spices and suffocating fumes, of incense and mysticism, of antiquity and modernity, and that land wherein wisdom breaks open hearts like tamarind rinds. Through the Khyber Pass - that unbelievable, almost untransversable ribbon of rock, and into the land of enchantment. A sannyasin met me as I crossed the border and said, "You imagine things and you so seriously ask about fulfillment. Life is too short to spend all of one's time analysing everything. Laugh with the barking dogs and welcome naked thoughts with open arms. Things don't just happen, they happen just. Where you come from, you imagine that things happen, perhaps (as his eyes twinkled). But never in Bharat. Bharat is not a place, but a state of being. Chance means that one does not know the law of things. Permutations and combinations, the whence and the wherefore. When thought, word, and deed are one, there are no chance occurances. Then, even a blade of grass does not grow by chance."

Read the rest of this entry >>

Algorithmic Problems in Polytope Theory

Link from Ziegler's homepage: Some algorithmic problems in polytope theory: AProPo. Read the rest of this entry >>

googling for Raja rao

I thought that that there may have been some interesting posts on Raja Rao in the newsgroups (or I was just trying to pass time). Either way, I searched in groups.google.com and found that there indeed were some interesting links.



Searching for "Raja Rao Serpent Rope" lead to many links. One link mentions the encounter of a person with Raja Rao in UT-Austin.

>Sanjiva Prasad wrote:
>This old master, based at UT Austin, is definitely older than 56!
>Probably a good 20-30 years older than that.

The old master was born in 1907, I think. He is about 85 now and quite cogent, though frail. His first novel, 'Kanthapura', was published in 1929, inspired by Gandhism. His latest novel is titled 'The Chessmaster and His Moves'.

He lives in a red sandstone house close by the campus. The lawn is unkempt and the street very quiet and narrow. On the door a yellow note was stuck. It simply said: "Raja Rao". He was expecting us. He answered the door himself, stooped and wrapped up in a dressing gown. He waved us into some chairs and apologized for making us sit in almost total darkness. "The light hurts my eyes", he said smiling. Upstairs, I heard someone walking about, the wooden floor amplifying the sound. "My wife Susan", he explained, "she is not feeling too well".

We didnt talk much about books. In fact, he did most of the talking, and he talked clearly and passionately, late into the evening. About Gandhi, Nehru, De Gaulle, Churchill, Malraux, Diego Rivera, and a whole galaxy of others. People whom he had met and known; legendary figures like Subhash Bose, whom he had shown around Paris while at the Sorbonne. He argued with feeling about the relevance of Gandhism, and with more than a hint of seriousness, about why monarchy was necessary in India; about how the Brahmins had betrayed the soul of India, and about how he had disavowed his own Brahminical heritage: casting the sacred thread of the twice-born into the Ganges at Benares.

Later, as we sat in the darkness of his living room, the shelves and the chairs overflowing with books, he talked about his spiritual quest: about the Buddha, Ramana Maharishi, Krishnamurti, and about his guru: Atmananda, a policeman turned Vedantin, in Travancore. His last novel had borne a quote from Atmananda: "I am the light in the perception of the world".

We accepted his invitation to visit again, as he showed us to the door. Next time, we will talk about Mathematics, we said, and the Novel, and Nagarjuna, and the decline of the erotic in Indian culture.

Nice encounter indeed!
Read the rest of this entry >>

Grimes: Ganapati Song of the Self

I am only halfway through the book Ganapati: Song of the Self, but I am amazed by the way Grimes approaches to explain Ganapati in an entirely Advaitic way. The book is also replete with the various names and explanations of Ganapati. Read the rest of this entry >>

Maneesha Panchakam: Play of words

The library entry for the book by Swami Chinmaya Mission says also known as Man¯is¯apañcaka.. Of course man is apanchaka, as is beyond the five senses Read the rest of this entry >>

Ramsey Theory

A set of good lecture notes on Ramsey Theory. More to come. Read the rest of this entry >>

A catchy line from a student's SOP

The essence of education is to learn, relearn, and possibly unlearn. Read the rest of this entry >>

Want to do some great bedtime listening?

I heartily recommend the page at Smithsonian where some truly wonderful people talk about great things.
For example, Karen Armstrong, who talks about the life of Buddha is the person whose description from WiKi is:

I usually describe myself, perhaps flippantly, as a freelance monotheist. I draw sustenance from all three of the faiths of Abraham. I can't see any one of them as having the monopoly of truth, any one of them as superior to any of the others. Each has its own particular genius and each its own particular pitfalls and Achilles' heels. But recently, I've just written a short life [story] of the Buddha, and I've been enthralled by what he has to say about spirituality, about the ultimate, about compassion and about the necessary loss of ego before you can encounter the divine. And all the great traditions are, in my view, saying the same way the much the same thing, despite their surface differences.

PS: I posted on the same here too.

PPS: The great Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman (who talks about seven virtues and anger control) also happens to be the father of Uma.

Thanks a ton to Atanu for the original link! Read the rest of this entry >>

Om Viswam Darpana Drisya Maana Nagari Tulyam ...

Om Vishvam Darpana Drishya Maana Nagari Tulyam begins the Sri Dakshinamurthy Stotra which is said to encapsulate the essence of Advaita and written by the great Sri Adi Shankara. Another Shloka ends with the line: Janana Marana Dukha Kshedam Tribhuvana Gurumeesam DakshinaMurthy Devam.

Sri V.Subramanian is posting his thoughts/commentary on the Stotram. I will post links and possibly commentary on the same.

This is the introductory post.

Part II, the explanation is about verse 1, possibly the most important verse of the stotram:


Vishwam Darpana-drshyamaana-nagarii-tulyam nijaantargatam
Pashyan aatmani maayayaa bahiriva udbhuutam yathaa nidrayaa |
Ya: saakshaat kurute prabodha-samaye svaatmaanameva advayam
Tasmai Srigurumurtaye nama idam Sridakshinamurtaye ||


In Part III (first half) and Part III (second half), the explanation is about verse two:


Biijasyaantariva-ankuro jagadidam praang-nirvikalpam punar-
Maya-kalpita-desa-kaala-kalanaa-vaichitrya-chitrii-krtam |
Mayaviiva vijrmbhayatyapi maha-yogiva yas svecchayaa
Tasmai Sriguru-murtaye nama idam Sridakshinaamurtaye || 2 ||


In Part IV (first half) and Part IV (second half), the explanation is about the third verse:



Yasyaiva sphuranam sadaatmakam asatkalpaarthagam bhaasate
Saakshaat Tat-tvam-asi-iti vedavachasaa yo bodhayatyaashritaan |
Yat-saakshaat-karanaad bhaven-na punaraavrttir-bhavaambho-nidhau
Tasmai Srigurumurtaye nama idam Sridakshinamurtaye ||


In Part V-a and Part V-b, the explanation is about Verse Four:


Naanaa-cchidra-ghatodarasthita-mahaa-dipa-prabha-bhasvaram
Jnanam yasya tu chakshuraadi-karana-dvaara bahiH spandate |
Jaanaami-iti tameva bhaantam anu-bhaatyetat samastam jagat
Tasmai Srigurumurtaye nama idam Sridakshinamurtaye ||


Here is my previous post on the Stotra.

==
Happy Shivarathri to all! As in the shloka from Gita 2-68 says let there be no night to all the yogis. Let their Brahman Consciousness never diminish. Read the rest of this entry >>

Two Buddhist Masters

Atanu has a very nice anecdote of the "vagvivada" of two Monks, in an aptly titled post: Thoughts without a Thinker.

==
Postscript (on 03/21): As a followup to the above post, Atanu has very kindly given a link from his blog to a later post of mine on a story written by Prof. Grimes. This has resulted in around 160 visits and 460 page views (collected from sitemeter), in a single day! Also Atanu was kind enough to add my blog in the frequently read ones.

Thanks Atanu!
Atane Atanu (trying to mean you are the man)!! Read the rest of this entry >>

NYTimes

I am not sure how many of my friends read NYTimes editorial page regularly. I would request them to read it regularly.

The op-ed's are very good and written by great journalists. I enjoy reading the "global view" of Friedman, the brilliancy of Krugman, the humanism by Kristof, the anti-war campaign by Herbert, the stingy anti-establishment campain by Dowd (laced with excellent humor) and the weekly articles by Rich.

Of course I read Brooks to understand the standard-GOP-rubuttal in a not so polished way.

Unfortunately, it is a pay-service. $40/year. I was about to subscribe, but found out I can read them from my library account online. Read the rest of this entry >>

Campaign against Yahoo!

There has been a campaign against using YAHOO!, notably from Nikolas Kristof because of its evil doings in China. On February 19, 2006, in China' s Cyberdissidents and the Yahoos at Yahoo, he singles out Yahoo saying

Yahoo has acted disgracefully by helping to convict dissidents, but the bigger picture is that the Internet is a force for change in China.

He says that Yahoo! has been the biggest accomplice and that smaller culprits are MS, Cisco and Google. He links to Boo Yahoo! which was possibly started by a dissident and asks us to punish Yahoo my moving away from it. I am a right now little tied up with http://my.yahoo.com for reading my blogs, mail and other stuff. So, when I have time, I will move away from Yahoo!

Why was I that foolish that I am using one private domain for so many things? I was possibly very lazy to use the right tool for the right purpose. I am scared if the company above was Google (is it not already an accomplice in something else?). Read the rest of this entry >>

Gita In Daily Life from Advaitin-list

The post titled appeal to the silent majority, by Prof VK has a set of questions on for determining your "level of competency of Gita" (see the replies to the post at the bottom of the page). I donot know the answers to most of the 400 level questions (and a couple of 300 level ones). Which means, lot more to be done! Read the rest of this entry >>

An Audio Rendition of Bhagavad-Gita

I have listened to a wonderful audio rendition of selections from Bhagavad-Gita. The text is from my favorite translation, the one by Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood.
Unfortunately, the cassette itself, does not seem available on the market. I have a suspicion, this is the amazon reference. I am not sure.

For future reference, here are the details.

Caedmon cassette CDL 51249

Selections from the Bhagavad-Gita
The Song of God
Read by Zia Mohyeddin
Introduction read by Christopher Isherwood.

[from the rear flap]
Caedmon records, Inc., 505 Eithth Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10018

[seems that the cassette was made in 1968 and costed $12.95]

[Some library stuff]
LC # PK3633.B5 P73 Music # TC 1249 Caedmon


==
A couple of web searches on Caedmon and Bhagavad-Gita reveals that most of this information is authentic.

The google search leads to the following link from NYtimes:
(article titled: FROM 'GENESIS' TO 'JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR' from May 10, 1981)

There is, though, a hypnotically compelling reading of selections from the Bhagavad-Gita on Caedmon (TC 1249, cassette CDL 51249) by Zia Moheyddin. The translation, in poetry and prose, is the celebrated one by Christopher Isherwood and Swami Prabhavananda. Isherwood himself provided a thoughtful introduction to this reading, which can be followed with the aid of the New American Library paperback of the whole book. On this remarkable recording, as Krishna explains to Arjuna why all action should be performed in a spirit of non-attachment -in Isherwood's words, 'without desire and without fear'' - the very purpose of life in Hindu terms becomes luminously clear.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Advising and stuff

An excellent post by Molnar on advising.

Link from Lance's weblog, who follows up with his own great post on advising.

Thanks to both! Read the rest of this entry >>

Lattice Algorithms

Fromm the IBM Almaden page

Lattice algorithms

Shortest vector problem. The shortest vector problem (SVP) is the problem of finding the shortest nonzero vector in a lattice. This problem goes back to the 19th century work of Gauss. SVP has come to be identified as the most important computational task concerning lattices. Algorithms for SVP have an important role in combinatorial optimization, computer algebra, coding theory, and cryptography. Miki Ajtai, Ravi Kumar, and D. Sivakumar have developed a randomized algorithm for SVP that runs in time exp(cn). This improves the previous exp(cn log n) time algorithms for this problem.

Ravi Kumar, D. Sivakumar: On polynomial approximation to the shortest lattice vector length. SODA 2001: 126-127; Journal version SIDMA 2003: 16(3):422-425

Miklós Ajtai, Ravi Kumar, D. Sivakumar: A sieve algorithm for the shortest lattice vector problem. STOC 2001: 601-610

Miklós Ajtai, Ravi Kumar, D. Sivakumar: An overview of the sieve algorithm for the shortest lattice vector problem. CaLC 2001: 1-3

Closest vector problem. Given the basis vectors of a lattice and a point x not in the lattice, the closest vector problem is to find a lattice vector that is closest to x . This problem often arises in cryptanalysis. Miki Ajtai, Ravi Kumar, and D. Sivakumar, building on earlier work, have developed an algorithm to compute an "approximately" close lattice vector to a given point x. The running time of this algorithm is exp( cn), improving the previous exp(cn log n) time algorithm.

Miklós Ajtai, Ravi Kumar, D. Sivakumar: Sampling short lattice vectors and the closest lattice vector problem. CCC 2002: 53-57

Read the rest of this entry >>

Sorry for not blogging

Dear Readers,
I am sorry for not blogging regularly. I have a couple of posts pending, but have important work to do too! While I am blogging, I would love to hear some comments from you on the posts on Adi Shankaracharya movie (and others). Read the rest of this entry >>

World Book Day on Thursday

A quiz on opening lines.

A List of best first lines from Jabberwock. He and others have written more in the comments of the post. Read the rest of this entry >>

January 30th another age

The New York Times version of what happened on that day.

Gandhi Lives! Read the rest of this entry >>

Two Geniuses

In A Genius Finds Inspiration in the Music of Another, Arthur Miller says

Einstein once said that while Beethoven created his music, Mozart's "was so pure that it seemed to have been ever-present in the universe, waiting to be discovered by the master." Einstein believed much the same of physics, that beyond observations and theory lay the music of the spheres — which, he wrote, revealed a "pre-established harmony" exhibiting stunning symmetries. The laws of nature, such as those of relativity theory, were waiting to be plucked out of the cosmos by someone with a sympathetic ear.

Read the whole thing. Read the rest of this entry >>

Explaining what is real to an EE-student

Was talking to an EE student, who is taking the course for which I am a TA. [Context: We are using a simulator of hardware instead of following the actual method of previous years when things were "actually taken to the board". I was explaining to the student that, by using a simulator, they can think at a higher level of abstraction and thereby do more powerful things.]

Student: (interrputing me when I was explaining something about the simulator) But it is still a simulator right. It is not actual hardware.

Me: (getting a little irritated): Yes, but what the hardware is doing, is but a simulation of some computation. Right?

Student: (most probably not getting the gist of it): um.. right.

Me: (trying to make a bigger point and forgetting it is a class): What do you think is real?

Student: (reasonably confused, and most probably thinking I am being aggressive) Well. I think I get your point.

Me: (understanding that this is a CS course and not one on reality and trying to get back to the point): You understand that the simulator is powerful right?

(I walk away)

Read the rest of this entry >>

James Burke at Smithsonian

A refreshing talk by James Burke on "The Knowledge Web" at Smithsonian Institution. Link, thanks to Atanu. I fully agree with Atanu when he says:

A journalist and historian of science, Burke is in a class all by himself. If you have an hour to spare for some delightful insights into the nature of innovation and the histroy of technology, listen to the man. And the miracle of it all is that you can do it from the comfort of your own home and at a time of your choosing, if you have an internet connection.

Listen to it if you can. Also, Atanu says

At the risk of being branded a Luddite, I maintain that the world wide web is the single most distracting thing ever invented by humans. The internet is immensely useful for practical matters of course but aside from its utilitarian functions, it is also capable of providing a device for pure play. It can be, in the hands of an appropriately interested and educated human, a virtually (sic) inexhaustible source of joy, the intellectual equivalent of Kubla Khan’s “miracle of rare device, a sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice.”

The thoughts that Atanu expressed, and the ones SJ did, are but echoes of each other. Read the rest of this entry >>

Adi Shankaracharya the movie, by G.V.Iyer

Adi Shankaracharya the movie, by G.V.Iyer
Original review: Saturday, January 21, 2006
Many corrections added later.


Watched the movie Adi Shankaracharya (Amazon link) by G. V. Iyer. It was a wonderful experience to watch a movie made in Sanskrit, the language, that was enriched by Sri Shankara, who was not just an exegete, philosopher and reformer, but also a great poet and enriched the beauty of the language with his memorable works.

Background: The film begins at the time when religion in general and sanAtana dharma (Hinduism) in particular was in a state of turmoil. Buddhism had started losing its forte and Hinduism was going in the wrong direction. The big battle Shankara had to fight, was not --as this author assumed to be-- with Buddhists, but with the blind practitioners of Vedic rites (mainly the followers of pUrva-mimAMsA). For example, animal sacrifices were stopped, but sacrifices were made of animals made of dough. The Upanishadic realization of the true purport of karma-kaaNDa (in the context of parama puruShArtha) was lost. No one was concerned about the fundamental aspects of reality and truth. The holy city Varanasi, the city where Annapurna and Vishveshwara reside, the city on the holy banks of the holy Ganges, was echoing with DukRRi~n karaNe [a grammar rule], rather than shivo.aham [I am Shiva], the chant of the unity of individual self with the supreme spirit.


Shankara and his "companions/friends"

The life story in the movie begins with a narration of how Shiva Guru, Shankara's father, asks him to treat mRRityu [death] as a friend. mRRityu approaches Shankara as a boy and both become friends. At the time of Shankara's (upanayana) initiation, he meets another boy, praj~nAna [wisdom] and makes him his other friend. These two friends, "praj~nAna Sharma" and "mRRityu" grow up with Shankara and stay with him (except for brief times). Whenever the friends are together, they sing the shlokas ".... vishvam bhUta bhavya-bhavat prabhum" [He who has inner vision is the Lord of the past, present, future] by praj~nAna Sharma. mRRityu chants “AkAshAt-patitam-toyam” [every drop of water from the sky merges with the sea]. The movements of the friends are very carefully orchestrated ones.

In another scene, Shankara's friend praj~nAna Sharma moves away from Shankara when the latter says to a shUdra in Kashi, as is customary for a saMnyAsi, to move away. When Shankara realizes the truth, praj~nAna comes back to him again. The encounter of praj~nAna with Mandana Mishra's parrot, is enlightening. So is his deserting of Shankara's disciples when they become envious of Sureshwara.

[In another scene involving Shankara's friend mRRityu]
Shankara first meets mRRityu at the time of death of his father Siva Guru. mRRityu was already there when Shankara reaches home from Sringeri to meet his mother. Many times, mRRityu is angry at Shankara, as he (Shankara) laughs in a mocking fashion at mRRityu. When Shankara is ill, Shankara laughs again, observing the paradox of mRRityu taking care of his body, when actually he (mRRityu) should be destroying it.

Final embrace of Shankara and his friends: In the Himalayas, Shankara has a debate with his friend praj~nAna. When they embrace, praj~nAna merges into Shankara. mRRityu who was angry because, Shankara (always laughs at him mockingly) is also asked by Shankara to embrace him. He does after Shankara's persuasion "in spite of the fact that I laugh at you, you still have been with me. So you are my friend. So embrace me." He embraces Shankara and that is the last when we see of (mortal) Shankara.

Disciples of Shankara

Other than his friends, Shankara is always accompanied by his disciples.

Vishnu, the boy who accompanies Shankara at Narmada, and is assumed to be dead by him by drowning, meets him again at Kashi and is taken as a disciple. Vishnu is named Padmapada by Shankara.

Totaka, becomes the disciple in Kashi. He is so named because he composed a beautiful verse on Shankara in the toTaka metre ending with the lines sha~Nkara deshika me sharaNam.

In another scene, Shankara observes a boy, who is thought to be a lunatic by his parents. It is clear that Shankara knows the truth about the boy being an Atma-j~nAnI. Shankara asks the boy "Who are you? Where are you coming from?". The boy replies "All pervading, yet unpolluted I am Atman," and is taken as disciple by Shankara and named as Hastamalaka (hasta = hand; Amalaka = myrobalan fruit) [He can perceive the eternal truth of Self, without effort.].

Shankara is redirected by Kumarila to Mandana Mishra, a great scholar in pUrva-mimAMsA which puts emphasis on rituals, rather than renunciation leading to knowledge of Reality and Truth. Shankara defeats Mandana Mishra in a debate, takes him as disciple, and names him Sureshwara.

Ubhaya Bharathi, who acts as the judge during the debate, and declares Shankara as the winner accompanies them wherever they go. Shankara sees in her, his mother and even Sarada devi herself. When Shankara assigns the disciples places to go to establish schools, and assigns to himself bhuvana trayam (the three worlds), he asks her to be with him always.

A (brief) Transcript of the movie
[Copyright holders of this film, please see note at end of post.]

Pranava. Gayatri. Titles. The sacred words of other faiths of India: Shaivites, Jains, Buddhists. Father Shiva Guru chanting Gayatri. Aryamba, Shankara's mother watering Tulsi plant. Shankara's father Shiva Guru completing oblations.

Initial Learning: Shiva Guru knows that his time (to depart from this life) has come. Takes it with poise. Remembers the words from Bhagavad Geetha (meditate on Me at the time of death). Calls baala Shankara near him. Tells him "idam sharIram ashAshvatam, aham gamiShyAmi shAshvata padam" (This body is mortal. I am going to the eternal abode). Asks him to treat mRRityu as a friend. Asks Shankara to recite the shloka he taught him. Shankara recites:

aakaashaat patitaM toyaM yathaa gachchhati saagaram |
sarvadevanamaskaaraH keshavaM prati gachchhati ||
[A traditional prayer or a subhAshita]

Shankara meets mRRityu, the boy who asks himself to be treated as a friend. Shiva Guru breathes his last. (Traditional Brahminic) Initiation of Shankara. Shankara meets praj~nAna and makes him his friend. Introduces his friends to his teacher. Asks alms from a lady, who is too poor to offer anything but an Amalaka fruit. Recites kanaka-dhAra stotram beginning with a~NgaM hareH pulakabhuushhaNamaashrayantii to bless her with wealth. The Lady explains her husband does not hoard, even a morsel. So all she can give is AmalakAs. Shankara sees that the neighbour of the lady is hoarding. Refuses alms from him. Neighbour repents and asks his people to distribute all his wealth.

Learns from his teacher that sannyaasa is the way to equanimity. Teacher explains to him the greatness of sannyaasa, brahmacharya and the greatness of Govinda Bhagavadpaada. Shankara wants to renounce. Mother disapproves.

Shankara observes a brAhmin whom he knows, punish a coconut-thief by giving him something to eat and gifting him some coconuts. The brAhmin also makes the thief promise never to steal. When asked, the brAhmin explains to Shankara dehasya-daNDanam kShaNikam; mano daNDanam chirasthayi (Physical punishment is temporary. A teaching would go a long way in correcting a person.) The proof is in sanAtana dharma lifestyle. Teacher further explains that renunciation as explained in Upanishads is the key to understanding truth.

Is attracted to wearing the saffron cloth as an emblem of renunciation. Swims far to retrieve the white cloth he was wearing, while a crocodile catches hold of his foot. praj~nAna gets mother Aryamba to the river and she agrees for him to be a sannyAsi to be saved from death in the crocodile’s grasp. Watches the play of Nachiketa-Yama done in Kathakali style. Takes the permission of mother and leaves home. Promises to come back for her last rites.

Search for Guru: Sees how powerful death is and how people are not understanding it the right way. Sees caste prejudice. Faints. Is taken care of by tribals. Reaches Gokarna in Northern Karnataka, and meets his friend Vishnu. Vishnu follows him. They travel through Madhya Pradesh. Explains to Vishnu, who asks if Shankara is breaking the four-fold stages of life ordained by Vedas, that anyone qualified can choose to become a sannyasin after Brahmacharya. Reaches Narmada banks. Narmada takes away Vishnu. Prays and quells the power of Narmada. Reaches the cave dwelling of Govindapada.

[At the cave of Govindapada]: Meets Govindapada. Convinces Govindapada and other people at the aashram that he is a competent student. Composes the dasha-shloki – with the refrain tadeko.avashiShTaH shivaH kevalo.aham and his understanding of knowledge of Self. When Govindapada asks "With this mortal body, how can you cross the ocean of existence?" Shankara replies "body is subject to birth and death; but not Atman [dashashlokii]. The unreal has no existence; the real never ceases to be" [Gita]. Govindapada blesses Shankara: paramahaMso bhaviShyasi (may you become a paramahamsa) and takes Shankara as disciple. Shankara sees that Badarayana-Vyasa's vedanta-granthas are getting neglected as writes bhaashya for these. Using the story of Satyakama-Jabali and statements like mrittikA eva satyam, convinces other disciples that sarvaM khalvidaM brahma (from Chandogya) is the truth. Other disciples offer prostrations at his feet.

Kashi: Sees that people are reciting and analyzing rules of Panini grammar on the banks of the holy Ganges. Takes Vishnu as disciple and names him as Padmapada. People respect Shankara in Kashi. Takes Totaka as disciple. Recites Bhaja Govinda shloka to the scholar who was reciting grammar rules. The words bhajagovindaM bhajagovindaM govindaM bhajamuuDhamate reverberate in Kashi. Is paid respects by the King of Kashi. Meets his friends praj~nAna and mRRityu again at Kashi.

Chandala incident. Shloka 2 of maneesha panchakam which goes as

brahmaivaahamidaM jagachcha sakalaM chinmaatravistaaritaM
sarvaM chaitadavidyayaa triguNayaa.asheshhaM mayaa kalpitam.h |
itthaM yasya dR^iDhaa matiH sukhatare nitye pare nirmale
chaaNDaalo.astu sa tu dvijo.astu gururityeshhaa maniishhaa mama || 2||

I am quite convinced that he is the great Master, be he a Brahmin or an outcaste, who, dwelling on the pure and infinite Brahman thinks of himself as that very Brahman, of whose manifestation the whole Universe is,though apparently the Universe is assumed to consist of different things, due to ignorance and the three Gunas (Satva, Rajas and Tamas).

Praises Kashi that dispelled his ignorance.
kaashyaa.n hi kaashyate kaashii kaashii sarvaprakaashikaa .
saa kaashii viditaa yena tena praaptaa hi kaashikaa .. 4..
[kAshi pa~nchakam]


Takes Hastamalaka as disciple. Meets an old scholar (said to be Badarayana-Vyasa himself) and they both discuss Brahmasutras Meets Kumarila who is immolating himself as a penance for 'deceiving' the Buddhist monastics to learn their philosophy. Kumarila cannot comment on Shankara's work. Story of how Kumarila defeats Buddhists and why he has to perform immolation. Kumarila however, sees the work of Shankara, approves it, and asks Shankara to go to Mahishmati (on the banks of Narmada) to meet Kumarila's disciple Mandana Mishra.

Mahishmati, on the banks of Narmada: Reaches Mandana Mishra's place. Begs for a debate. Debate begins. praj~nAna observes that the parrot of Mandana Mishra is bound in a cage and eats only pepper. Offers sweet grapes to the parrot and frees it. Shankara defeats Mandana Mishra and takes him as a disciple. Sees his mother Aryamba Ubhaya Bharathi, the wife of Mandana Mishra, and says "experience is more important than knowledge". Camps at Sringeri with disciples.

Sringeri: When Sureshwara questions about the futility of ritual Vedic rites, Shankara sees he is mature and assigns him the task of writing commentary on his work on Brahmasutras. Other disciples get envious and Wisdom walks away from them. The others feel that the task should be given to either Padmapada or, Hastamalaka the brightest one. Shankara laments, if he cannot keep unity among his devotees, how can he do the same over Bharatavarsha? Shankara explains that he made the decision based on "experience is better than seniority or scholarliness". Disciples still show reluctance. Bharathi devi laments. Sureshwara gives back the Bhashya Granthas. Shankara asks Padmapada to write commentary and Padmapada realises his mistake and asks Shankara to make Sureshwara do it. Shankara instead says Padmapada should do it.

As Ubhaya Bharathi is serving them food, Shankara and his disciples recite Annapurna Astakam.

nityaanandakarI varaabhayakarI saundaryaratnaakarI
nirdhuutaakhiladoShapaavanakarI pratyakShamaaheshvarI .
praaleyaachalava.nshapaavanakarI kaashIpuraadhIshvarI
bhikShaaM dehi kR^ipaavalambanakarI maataa.annapuurNeshvarI .. 1..


Oh! Mother Annapurna! renderer of the support of compassion, the bestower of eternal happiness, the donor of gifts and protection, the ocean of beauty, the destroyer of all sins and purifier, the great goddess, the purifier of the family of Himavan, and the great deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

Shankara wants his four disciples to start schools (pITham) at Dwaraka, Badri, Puri and Sringeri. He assigns himself the three worlds (bhuvana trayam).

Back to home: praj~nAna wants to see mother Aryamba. Shankara agrees and both immediately leave. mRRityu was already there when both reach their home. Aryamba dies. Shankara asks to do final rites. Brahmins around object to that and expel him. He realizes the illusory nature of everything. Sees he still has his friends with him. Remembers the brahmin-(who-punished-the-thief) and Govindapada who were lamenting on the lack of Dharma in the Veda BhUmi.

Conquest: Reaches Kanyakumari. Prays to Goddess Kanyakumari. His disciples start to chant the prayer, and everywhere there is the echo, of the beautiful call (nay thunder) from Mahanarayana Upanishad about Renunciation being the lone means of obtaining Knowledge.

na karmaNaa na prajayaa dhanena tyaagenaike amR^itatvamaanashuH .
pareNa naaka.n nihita.n guhaayaaM bibhraajate yadyatayo vishanti ..
vedaantavij~naanavinishchitaarthaaH sa.nnyaasayogaadyatayaH shuddhasattvaaH
te brahmaloke tu paraantakaale paraamR^itaaH parimuchyanti sarve
dahra.n vipaapa.n varaveshmabhuuta yat puNDariikaM
puramadhyasa{\m+}stham.h
tatraapi dahre gagana.n vishoka.n tasmin yadantastadupaasitavyam.h
yo vedaadau svaraH prokto vedaante cha pratishhThitaH .
tasya prakR^itiliinasya yaH paraH sa maheshvaraH
[14-17]


Reaches Kanchipuram. Makes more people his disciples. Story of Raikva (of the Upanishads). Feels how great each of his four disciples are. Ugra Bhairava comes and asks Shankara to become a sacrifice to Kali for the purpose of nirvana of kaapalika. Shankara follows. A Lion (the vaahana of the devi) kills Kaapalika. Shankara prays to Goddess. Reaches Somnath, Marble rocks of Narmada river, Prayag, Benares, Devaprayag (Himalayas). Has conquered India.

Himalayas: Disciples observe that Shankara is ill. Prays to Himalayas Shiva and Ganges (lalATaM lAvaNya-dyuti-vimalaM AbhAti tava yat dvitIyaM tan-manye makuTa-ghaTitaM candra-shakalaM / Saundaryalahari #46)

Prays to Ganges. Shankara encourages his disciples. All walk towards Himalayas.

[The voice over and Shankara.]

[The Supreme Truth is one, which is the all-pervading Self, True knowledge of Self leads to liberation. He who know the Self controls the gross, living, mental, rational and supra-rational being.

Shankara is the Sun of the spiritual sky
Before the rays of knowledge, the ordinary Sun is pale as moon
I bow to the sun of knowledge, in thought, word and deed.]

As Shankara is walking to the top of a mountain top, the other faiths --represented by Jainas, Buddhists, (possibly) Shaivites, (possibly) Kaapalikas-- fall behind.

Final Debate: Shankara alone reaches the top of the mountain. Wisdom asks him if there is anything more to be achieved. Shankara and praj~nAna debate on how can the humans torn by sorrow and ignorance be liberated. praj~nAna feels that the theory that Shankara proposes is subtle and complicated. praj~nAna feels that Ishwara anugraha mixed with devotion alone leads to Advaita in humans and asks him to not lament about the realization of humans. Shankara says that he is not lamenting and is sure everyone will be liberated. In the meanwhile, mRRityu comes and says time is up. Shankara declares to mRRityu that he is Brahman. mRRityu gets angry and leaves him. Shankara explains to praj~nAna the oneness of reality. praj~nAna accepts the reasoning. After the debate, Shankara embraces praj~nAna. praj~nAna merges into Shankara. After some persuasion by Shankara, mRRityu also embraces Shankara. Disciples lament and then console themselves that Shankara Acharya will always be in their intellect.

Praise be unto Him who conquered other philosophies: Sankhya, Yoga, Naiyayika, Vaiseshika, Purva Mimamsa and became the master of Uttara-Mimamsa. He is the King of Spiritual world.

Voice of Shankara: I accept every faith. he who has no attachments is verily the Self, the Universal Self.

I bow down to the Self which is pure knowledge.
Who with pure intellect and fortitude controls this sensual body.
And shuns sensation will be free from attachment
He whose mind is unattached, subdued in thought, desire-free,
and free from action, through renunciation, attains perfection

Ego-free, free of false conviction of Bravery, free of thoughts of anger and lust humble and pure, then he is worthy of becoming Brahman. Madhuram, Manoraharam, Anandam. [Charming, Pleasant, Blissful] Come along all of you.


(aakashaat patitaM toyaM saagaraM prati gachchhati |)

puurNamadaH puurNamidaM puurNaat puurNamudachyate |
puurNasya puurNamaadaaya puurNamevaavashiShyate ||
OM shaantiH shaantiH shaantiH ||


I bow down to Shankara, the master of Advaita!

Memorable moments:

• The identification shlokas of the friends of Shankara are played everytime they are in action.
  
  
• The Nachiketa play done in Kathakali, the traditional dance form of Kerala.
  
  
• Punishment" of the thief by the Brahmin.
  
  
• Kumarila: Story of Kumarila, a great scholar of Kashi, who wanted to learn the secrets of Buddhists so that he can defeat them. He achieved his objective of defeating Buddhists. Kumarila laments to Shankara that when the Buddhists pushed him off an abyss, he should have said "Let the eternal Vedas save me" instead of saying, as he said, "If Vedas are eternal, let me be saved". This resulted in him being saved, but he got blinded in an eye. By the time Shankara meets him, Kumarila had defeated his Buddhist master, and is immolating himself because he broke the Buddhist tradition of not respecting the master.
  
  
• Hastamalaka: The entire episode of Hastamalaka is very moving. Shankara sees a young boy who acts like a mad person. It is Shankara's keenness which makes him observe that the boy is laughing at the fish that are living in the water and dying when they land on the bank. The boy is clearly amused at the futileness of the whole existence in this dualistic world. If he is laughing at the highest fear, namely death, he should be staring at the greatest truth. This is what is shown when he is playing and stares at the Sun (a representative of the Brahman) directly. The interplay introduces his parents who are worried about him and explain him his situation. The funny part is, they are explaining their own ignorance is mis-apprehending the boy's illumination. Shankara asks the boy "who he is". The boy replies "he is the eternal Atman". Shankara asks the parents to give the boy to him and gives him the ochre robe.
  
  
• The release of Mandana Mishra's parrot: In Maahismathi, Shankara meets Mandana Mishra of the pUrva-mimamsa fame. Mandana Mishra has a parrot that recites that Vedic rites are the final authority. The parrot, of course is a symbolism for Mandana Mishra himself. While Shankara and Mandana Mishra are debating, praj~nAna finds out that the parrot eats only pepper and chooses to remain in a cage. While Shankara and Mandana Mishra are debating, praj~nAna offers the parrot sweet grapes. The parrot says that it likes the sweet grapes. At the same time, Shankara is gives the winning argument. praj~nAna offers the parrot why he wants to remain in a cage, rather than being free. praj~nAna says that ants will take many life times to climb a mountain, while a parrot with wings can fly over to the top immediately. Shankara at the same time, asks Mandana Mishra why he chooses to take the slow path of Karma, when renunciation will make him free immediately. praj~nAna frees the parrot and at the same time, Mandana Mishra accepts defeat. Shankara takes Mandana Mishra as disciple and names him Sureshwara.
  
  
• Kerala Style Vedic recitation, as well as many Upanishadic passages rendered beautifully.
  
  
• Shankara and his disciples reciting annapoorna ashtakam is very moving.
  

Explicit References from the Upanishads: The movie is full of upanishadic allegories, and every dialogue questions the fundamental aspects of perception and reality. Explicitly, it shows the following references from Upanishads: Two birds from Mundaka, Nachiketa from Katha, Satyakama-Jabali and Raikva. Chanting in the background from Isha Upanishad and of course, the Gita.

Possible anachrony: The teacher of Shankara and is making them recite vAgarthAviva sampR^iktau shloka, which is the first shloka from Raghuvamsham, written by Kalidasa. I thought that Kalidasa was preceeded by Shankara, not otherwise.

Postscript correction (Not an anachrony): A couple of searches reveals that Kalidasa is a 5th-6thcentury poet. Since Shankara is generally ascribed to the time 7-8th century, the use of the shloka may not be an anachrony.

General comments about the movie:

Miracles: Traditionally Shankara's story is associated with many miracles, like the experience with the Amla devi, Padmapada's lotus, the fading of garlands when he is debating with Sureshwara, he taking another form to argue kaamashAstra with the wife of Mandana mishra etc. The movie does not have any of these. Maybe G.V.Iyer felt that the dramatization that comes with showing miracles may alter the way the teachings of Shankara are shown.

Acting: Sarvadaman Banerjee was very good as Shankara. He also acted later, as Sri Krishna in the T.V. serial by Ramanand Sagar and also as Sri Krishna in G.V.Iyer's Bhagavad Geetha. Bharat Bhushan as his father and the friends praj~nAna and mRRityu, the four disciples and Ubhaya Bharati act well. G.V.Iyer himself acts as Veda Vyasa.

Music: The direction of music for the movie was by Manganampalli Balamurali himself, who even sang some songs with his melodious heavenly voice. There are names of other doyens, like Nookala chinna Satyanaraya among others in the initial credits list. The first raaga of the movie, of course, had to be Sankara Bharanam [Adornment of Sankara]. Shankara and his disciples singing Annapoorna astakam was memorable. The background score is by B.V.Karanth, who does a good job.

Dialogues: The dialogues for this Sanskrit movie were penned by a noted Madhwa scholar Dr.Bannanje Govindacharya from Karnataka. He won the 2009 Government award Padma Shri. (Thanks to Shri Subbu-ji for the reference in the comment!).

Awards: This film was made in 1983. and won the national awards for "Best Feature Film", "Best Screenplay", "Best Cinematography" and "Best Audiography". The script, screen play, production and direction of the movie was by G.V.Iyer himself (the producer of the film was G.V.Iyer himself, rather than Subbarami Reddy, as advertised on the DVD. Subbarami Reddy, to his credit, did produce G.V.Iyer's later movies.). The awards were enriched by the movie, thanks to the committee.

DVD details: There are some minor errors in continuity. The movie is around 2:40 hours, rather than 2:00 hours as written on the cover of the DVD. The dialogue is available in Sanskrit as well as Hindi (which I did not opt for). The subtitles are in English (as well as French, which I did not opt for) which is good, with minor errors. The great part of the subtitles is that they go into narrative mode when mantras are recited, instead of transcribing mode, which could be thought of as disrespecting the tradition.

Later works by G.V.Iyer: Ganapathi Venkaramana Iyer (born 1917), from Karnataka. It seems in 1992, G.V.Iyer made a film on "Bhagavad Geetha", that was again appreciated by critics. To watch that movie. Also, a brief look at the filmography of G.V. Iyer reveals that G.V. Iyer's 1983 move was no flash in the pan. He followed it with films like: Madhavacharya (1986), Ramanujacharya (1989), Bhagwat Geeta (1993), and Vivekananda (1994).

To watch them!

==

Note to the copyright holders of the film: I have really loved this movie and thanks (more than a trillion times) for making it. I have put up the transcript for the (educational) benefit of myself, and for my friends, who may not have access to the movie. If you have any objections to me making the transcription available on the web, please let me know and I will remove it from the web.

Note to the readers: I sincerely appreciate the help of Shri Sunder-ji who helped me in making numerous corrections to this. The remaining faults in the review, of course lie with me. I also appreciate the readers who made pointers to this review and appreciated it and wanted it to be corrected. It was my fault that it was not done in time!

Shri Ramaraju Bhaskar is writing the review in Telugu. Parts of it are vailable at the following link.


sarvaM sha~NkaraarpaNamastu |
sarvaM keshavaarpaNamastu |
parabrahmaarpaNamastu |
shriichakrapuranivaasinii raajaaraajeshvarii lalitaa parameshvarii devyai arpaNamastu |
shrii raamaarpaNamastu |
shriikRRiShNa parabrahmaarpaNamastu | Read the rest of this entry >>

Everywhere Vs. Nowhere

It is said that, when HiranyaKasipu asked his son Prahlada, "Where is Hari?" Prahlada saw Hari everywhere. At the same time, HiranyaKasipu saw Hari nowhere.

It is obvious that this can be interpreted in a theistic way.

In an Advaitic way, this can be thought of as a competetion between the Advaitists (who see Brahman everwhere) and the ShunyaVadis, who are incapable of the feeling of fullness/infinite-perfectness. Read the rest of this entry >>

About Advaita from Philisophy Foundation

Found the following about Advaita from Philosophy Foundation (actually went to the following link of one Advaiti, which was forwarded by a M).

The essence of every human being is what Emerson called the Oversoul, which is our true Self — universal, all-encompassing, and blissful, the source of all knowledge and of cosmic consciousness.

The person who is in touch with this essence is confident without arrogance and tolerant without weakness; is efficient and economical in actions and immediate and deep in understanding; is undismayed in all circumstances and at home everywhere.

These possibilities lie within everyone, obscured by assumed limitations of body, senses, mind, and heart. This concept of the unity of all is Advaita Vedanta, the non-dual philosophy of self.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Question on Kailash Nath and its reply (from advaitin mailing list)

In Advaitin mailing list at yahoo groups, Question regarding Kailash Nath, Krishna Prasad asks,

Dear Scholars,
We all know Kailash Mountain is the only GOD's abode we can go with this physical body and comeback, they say in the shores of Manasarovar there are wish fulfilling trees etc. If the ancient people can see Lord Shiva and Parvathi in Kailash, why can't we see now. and they say Ravana have danced with Kailas mountain. and he want to carry it to Sri Lanaka, is it only stories or is it really happened? Please clarify. Symbolism and other things we can explain but in this mayaic world is it true??

In the reply, "Purusha" gives an answer:

A seemingly simple question with profound implications. I am not a scholar but a simple spiritual pilgrim but I am taking the liberty of answering your wonderful questions.

You write :

(Kailash Mountain is the only GOD's abode we can go with this physical body and comeback, they say in the shores of Manasarovar there are wish fulfilling trees etc.)

This is true. Kailash is situated in Manasarovar, Himalayas and many pilgrims go on Tirthayatra to this holy place. That is the ouTwatd pilgrimage that everyone is aware of.

However, there is an inner pilgrimage- The human body itself is a sacred holy place where the soul's journey starts from the Muladhara chakra and reaches the Sahasarachakra, upon which the YOGIS reach the goal of Self Realization is realized. . In this Sahasara chakra of Thousand petalled Lotus , Devi (shakti) herself sports with her eternal consort (shiva) in cosmic union. This is the celestial abode of the yogis - this is the 'Kailas' of all self realized yogis. Devi herself is the Wish fulfilling tree ( kalpavriksha) who resides as Kundalini Shakti ( Devatma Shakti - Divine Power) in the Muladhara chakra.

This is the great Kundalini Sadhana practiced in Tantric circles. Shankara talks about this type of Sadhana in his Saundarya Lahari.

Many self realized souls after successfully completing Inner pilgrimage undertake outer pilgrimage like Adi Shankara for Loka Sangraham or Loka kalyanam. The parivrajaka sanyasis do the same. So did Swami Vivekananda.

Also, Parvati is Prakriti and Parameshwera is Purusha. Purusha is Soul. Prakriti is Cosmos. They are not opposite principles , conscious and unconscious . They are here recognized as identical in the highest spiritual experience.

VERSE 51 in Avadhuta Gita says thus: As water, when water has been poured into water, has no distinctions, so purusa and prakrti appear nondifferent to me. (http://www.starwon.com.au/~soham/avadhuta/chap01.htm)

Shivaa and Shiva are 'One' - duality is only in the mind.

Narada Bhakti sutra says: Athato Bhaktim Vyakhasamah ... [meaning: Now we shall explain the path of devotion. Meditate on the great cosmic couple and Reach Kailash with your mind, body and soul.] Athato.....

Best regards

As a response to this post, Chittaranjan Naik says:

I don't know why i say this, but you are no ordinary being. I see Shiva in you. Thank you for the lead.

I could not have said it better. Read the rest of this entry >>

How conscious can we be (and ought to be)?

SJ has just returned from a Laser show where he observes a braid of lasers with DSOM and WOZ. Naturally, he links the show back to his favorite topic of consciousness and asks some questions.

Now if you move to an orthogonal view you get only a point losing a huge chunk of data, the line. Isn't that because you tried to simplify your view as you went down the dimensions? Isn't it important to tag the cube as a cube even while moving down the dimensions?

Possibly, one way to do it is to classify everything as Brahman. You see oneness in evrything and feel Advaita. I believe that trying to do this is very important and a huge step towards realization.


Consciously, I looked forward for the emerging patterns, even though, all the while, I knew this was all an illusion. So was I really conscious?


Assuming you were conscious that it was an illusion, there is a related question: Were you conscious that you were conscious? Yes, because you asked the question 'was I conscious?' Were you conscious that you were conscious that you were conscious? I donot know. Were you conscious that you were conscious that you were conscious that you were conscious? I have no clue. Were you ..... [extend the questionare further.]

We can either

extend the idea further and ask, what is the transitive closure of the consciousness chains? or,

try to break away from such incomputable thoughts.

I call them as incomputable thoughts, as such questioning leads to a possible infinite length path in the thought chain. If we have an infinile length path, a temporal mapping of the thoughts -- given that we have finite resources -- can finish only after infinite time. This means that the though chain is an incomputable computation.

==

What does the Judeo-Christian-Islamic-God or Indic-Ishwara do?
He knows everything. So, he can do infinite computation.

What does Buddha do?
Given that Tathagata [The Buddha referred to himself as the Tathagatha, the 'thus gone one'- the one who has reached enlightenment.] is said to have broken the cycle of births and deaths and hence has effectively stopped time, He has ofcourse broken the thought chain.

What does Taoism say about what we should do (and hence Lao Tzu) say we should do?
'When I am thinking, I am just thinking. When I am eating, I am just eating'. This means that the thought chain has been broken. (length of thought chain = 0)

What does Guru Datta do?
He said 'I am free and donot think about either past or future and hence remain as a child, effectively free'. He also has effectively broken the thought chain. (length of thought chain = 0)

Which brings us to the theorem of today: an incomputable thought can be terminated and stillness of mind acheived by humans, as it has been by others before. This is because, the state of all the above "humans", Buddha, Tao, Guru Datta, are attainable by other human beings.

==

But, I have to ask, is consciousness asking the question 'was I conscious'? or just using the senses as they are(just seeing? just hearing etc.)?

==

When Mr. SJ asks:

...
So are the lasers clearing the maze for us; then what was it that we saw earlier, wasn't the laser creating an illusion for us. What is real, what was illusion?

I just like to say, if it is real, it is permanent. Never goes away. Read the rest of this entry >>

The Ananta Yoga Learning center

The Ananta Yoga Learning center has lots of online books, including Ashtavakra Gita, Avadhuta Gita, The Gaudapada Gita(?).
I think the moderator bindu also maintains vivekananda mailing list.
More info later. Read the rest of this entry >>

Watch list: Sri Adi Shankaracharya Movie

To buy/watch the movie: Adi Shankaracharya. More info:

Adi Shankaracharya - $ 22.99
Brand - Cinebella

ValueIndia proudly brings to you Adi Shankaracharya - a film by G.V. Iyer. Award winning feature film about the founder of the Advita Philosophy. In Sanskrit with English/French subtitles.

Information - National Award for Best Feature Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Audiography.

More Details - Based on the life of one of the greatest thinkers the Indian sub-continent has ever known, Adi Shankaracharya is a stunning achievement in the annals of world cinema. It is also the ONLY film ever made in the classical Sanskrit language. By the 8th century, Hinduism had become a slave to Brahmin cults rather than as the all-embracing philosophy of mankind that it was originally conceived as and was theologically challenged by other belief systems including Buddhism. It was into this scenario that Shankaracharya was born. In a quest to broaden his knowlegde, he renowned the world and set out on a life and mind-affirming journey with death and wisdom as his twin companions. On the way he wrote several commentaries that have changed the way mankind looks at religion and theism and the eternal quest for inner truth. Today there are several centres across the world devoted to the propagation of Shankaracharya's teachings.

PS: more info: Music director, M. Balamurali Krishna (link via advaitin mailing list of yahoo groups). Read the rest of this entry >>

Hindu Gurus and more links

Francois Gautier (one of my favorite columnists in rediff) writes in In defence of Hindu gurus, about why Communists hate Hindusim. As summarized by sj in the teachings of Hindusim(and elsewhere), It seems that the disunity of Hindusim seems to be its greatest strength. If you attacking the pope, people may harm Christianity. How do you attack a religion wih so many Gurus? Though, I donot agree to this suggestion of Mr. Gautier at the end:

Again, in all humility and conscious of the limitation of mind compared to some of these great gurus whom I have met, I propose that a Supreme Spiritual Council, composed of at least seven of the most popular Hindu leaders of India, be constituted, maybe under the leadership of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the most travelled of all these, the one who has disciples and teachers of all religions, both from India and the West.

==
In Atanu's blog, a comment by someone named you know who gives reference to an article from WSJ titled: It's the Demography, Stupid . Mr. "You know who" summarizes the article very succintly as the following:

Basically, the article says this –
1. Socialism+Atheism = Bad idea = Europe,Canada,USA democrats.
2. Socialism+Theism = Sustainable = India, parts of Asia, Japan
3. Capitalism+Theism = Good idea = USA republicans
4. Capitalism+Atheism = Confused souls = The ACL cartel
Dr.Atanu is trying to take #2 & make it #3 wrt India.
The cartel is trying to take #2 & make it #4 wrt India.

(I am not sure what ACL cartel means. Also, I am still reading the WSJ article. I like the summary though. It is a very good characterization.) Read the rest of this entry >>

An Year of Incompleteness

A belated update on a post on Lance's weblog: An year of incompleteness. Read the rest of this entry >>

Happy New Year!

We begin with the wonderful Creation Hymn from: Hymns from Rig Veda (link thro' Chandahas's blog):

A time is envisioned when the world was not, only a watery chaos (the dark, "indistinguishable sea") and a warm cosmic breath, which could give an impetus of life. Notice how thought gives rise to desire (when something is thought of it can then be desired) and desire links non-being to being (we desire what is not but then try to bring it about that it is). Yet the whole process is shrouded in mystery.


Where do the gods fit in this creation scheme?


The non-existent was not; the existent was not at that time. The atmosphere was not nor the heavens which are beyond. What was concealed? Where? In whose protection? Was it water? An unfathomable abyss?

There was neither death nor immortality then. There was not distinction of day or night. That alone breathed windless by its own power. Other than that there was not anything else.

Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning. All this was an indistinguishable sea. That which becomes, that which was enveloped by the void, that alone was born through the power of heat.

Upon that desire arose in the beginning. This was the first discharge of thought. Sages discovered this link of the existent to the nonexistent, having searched in the heart with wisdom.

Their line [of vision] was extended across; what was below, what was above? There were impregnators, there were powers: inherent power below, impulses above.

Who knows truly? Who here will declare whence it arose, whence this creation? The gods are subsequent to the creation of this. Who, then, knows whence it has come into being?

Whence this creation has come into being; whether it was made or not; he in the highest heaven is its surveyor. Surely he knows, or perhaps he knows not.

Happy New Year to all! May we all realize Truth-Consciousness-Bliss (and beyond these) in everything we do! Read the rest of this entry >>

The teaching of Hinduism

Link via Kavitha: Hindu American Foundation counsel Suhag A Shukla I am not for rewriting Hinduism vs. Harvard Professor Michael Witzel I am not a Hindu hater.

The two interviews pose some very nice questions on what Hinduism means and how can it be taught. I always felt, someone has to be born in India to understand the Sanatana Dharma. In that way, an ambuity gets ingrained in your thinking, which is not possible in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. This ambuity makes the "Hindus" more tolerant than others and the "religion" of these "believers" among the greatest religions of the world.

An example of the fundamental question: "how many Gods?": The unique Brahman? The Trinity? The six of the classic theistic schools? The ten avatars of Vishnu? The twenty-four of Vishnu as in the Srimad-Bhagavata? The three crore as it is said in proverbs? The innumerable ones that are the presiding dieties of each village or individual families?

As some reader pointed in the discussions after Ms. Shukla's interview, Hinduism is the only one which gives a choice to be a disbeliever! Read the rest of this entry >>

Alizadeh's Semidefinite Programming page

The link The Semidefinite Programming page is maintained by Farid Alizadeh. Also, the link: Papers on semidefinite Programming has a collection of (quite a few of) the classic papers on SDP and Ellipsoid method. Read the rest of this entry >>

Terror attack in IISc

News link from a dear friend of mine: Terror attack at IISc, Bangalore; 1 killed, 4 injured. My condolences to the family of Prof. Puri, who was killed in the attack. I sincerely hope that all the injured academecians recover and the perpetrators are caught and put to justice.

This blogger knows one of the victims, Prof. Vijay Chandru from his days at IISc, as his first semester faculty advisor, with a warm heart and resourcefulness. Prof. Chandru went on to set up the Simputer.org with others in the CS-dept. Of course, not joining either Simputer (or better, strand genomics) of BLR --and sticking to the organization he was working in-- was one of the most toughest and painful decisions that this blogger had to make.

According to the following news item: Outstanding Social Scientists/Scientists:Science and Society" award to Prof. Vijay Chandru,

"Outstanding Social Scientists/Scientists:Science and Society" award to Prof. Vijay Chandru

The Hari om Ashram Trust Award entitled "Outstanding Social Scientists/Scientists:Science and Society" award for the year 2003 in the recognition of the outstanding work done has been confereed upon Prof. Vijay Chandru. The award carries a sum of Rs.50,000/- and the citation.

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More links:
Abinandanan, a Professor from IISc has the following to say: Terrorist attack in IISc (link via DDD).

IndiaUncut has the following to say: From HITTs to LISTs? and has the following theory, which classifies possible targets of terror attacks: Soft targets for hard terrorists and also the following: Terror, and the game we love.
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PS: A very strongly worded editorial from Indian Express: Congress’s software (link via secular-right).
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Upadate(01/02/06): Subbu says

Prof Chandru is recovering fine. His operation on the shoulder was successful. Another operation would be required in a couple of weeks. Two bullets hit him.

Read the rest of this entry >>

One year from 26th Dec 2004

I thought nukes were a problem of the past,
and that terrorism is a fear that will not last,
nature told me that it never was too kind,
to the masses of mankind,
fury was unleashed across the coast.
==

Remembrance Week - 26th December, 2005 - 1st January, 2006 (link via IndiaUncut). Read the rest of this entry >>

Smile for success, tremble at power of information

Smile for Success (link via India Uncut).
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The power of Google Earth that can make govts. shake, vs. the feelings of someone who could reconnect to their place using the same power. Read the rest of this entry >>

Arvind Sharma's book on Sleep as a State of Consciousness

Thanks to a request of a dear friend of mine, I could read parts of this book again and write this review.
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This post, and the ones following it, are on the book Sleep As a State of Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta by Arvind Sharma. As the title explains, Prof. Sharma delves deeply into the avasthatraya aspect of Advaita. Prof. Sharma says in the introduction that "understanding this aspect of Advaita is the first, and possibly most important aspect of Advaita".

The book is organized as to how various philosophers of ancient and moden India --who have cast their long shadows on Advaita-- have thought of, and reasoned about the aspect of avasthatraya(the trichotomy of states), in Advaita.

In concrete, the contents of the book are as follows:

sleep in Prasthanatraya

sleep in Mandukyacharica (or Mandukya Upanishad)

sleep in Sankara Advaita

sleep in Later Advaita

sleep in Moden Advaita

Prasthanatraya is the three texts: Upanishads, Brahmasutras and BhagavadGita. The Mandukya Upanishad is one of the Upanishads, on which Gaudapada who preceeded Sankara (to whom Sankara originally wanted to be a disciple of?), is said to have a written a commentary, which in turn had a special influence of Advaita. Sankara of course, is the exegete from 8th century who cast, possibly the longest shadow on Advaita, Vedanta, Sanatana Dharma, and other Indic religions.

The later Advaita is about the points of view of Sureshwara, Padmapada --who were famous disciples of Sankara and set up the Vivarna school-- and Vacaspati Misra of the 9th and 10th century --who set up the rival Bhamati school-- and others. The two schools differ on various aspects: (1) "where does ignorance originate from": According to Vivarna, Brahman-Atman is the locus of avidya. Bhamati, on the other hand holds that jiva is the locus of avidya. (2)The other difference is the question of "the preexistence of Brahman vis-a-vis the creation" (did the creation of Brahman preceed the creation? If so how?). Another major later-Advaitin is Vidyaranya of the 14th century, who arguing about the characterizations of bliss experienced by human beings, explained on the blissful nature of dreamless-sleep. The chapter has points of views of other later-Advaitins, namely: Sadananda and Dharmaraja.

In the modern Advaita, the discussion is mainly about Swami Krishnananda (of the Divine Life Society), Ramana Maharishi.

In the introduction itself, Prof. Sharma asks,

This monograph deals with the question of sleep in Advaita Vedanta. But the theme presupposes that the phenomen of sleep is an issue of some kind for Advaita Vedanta in particular, or Indian philosophy in general. For the reader who does not share this presupposition, such questions as the following will naturally arise: 'why should philosophers be concerned with sleep as an epistemological or religious problem? Why are Indian philosophers concerned with it? Why do Advaita philosophers view sleep as an important philosophical dilemma, and why are they losing sleep over it?'

Giving a reply to the above question, Prof. Sharma smartly makes an analogy of Advaita with Physics and Chemistry. In Physics, the material world is reduced to either matter or energy. Chemistry on the other hand, reduces substances to the periodic elements. In a similar way, Prof. Sharma says, Advaita reduces the multiplicity of human experience into the avasthatraya, so that some "reasonable analysis" could be done. Prof. Sharma points out that this classification is extremely rational and experiential and not necessarily revelational or scriptural. (My posts on Prof. Sharma's other books: on his book on Advaita Vedanta and on his book on the experiential approach to Advaita.)

from the Sankhya yoga of Gita:

II.69: What is night to all beings, therein the self controlled one is awake. When all beings are awake, that is the night of the sage who sees.

To be continued... Read the rest of this entry >>

An Advaitic interpretation of the Lord's prayer

Swami Prabhavananda gives a wonderful Vedantic interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount. I find it a little too theistic. The following is an attempt to interpret the Lord's Prayer in an Advaitic way:

9 After this manner therefore pray ye:

O Jiva, pray in the following way:

Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.

O ParaBrahma which is the highest abode of the Atman,
Whatever names (and forms) are you worshipped, let them be sacred,
and You are everywhere, in the world, in the Maya and in the Atma.


Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

The realization that the Atman is not different from the Brahman will dawn on all the individual jivas.

Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.

Let the grace of seeing through Maya be in every jiva. Let there be cessation of all bonds with Maya.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
However powerful the avidya maya be -- or the one that has its beginnings in Vidya -- help this Atman stay away from its powerful clutches.


For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Let this happen in all the Jivas in the world and Let every Atman realize this truth, consciousness and Bliss forever. Let it be so.

Om. Peace, Peace, Peace
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May the Christ within us grow. May we conquer the evil of avidya-maya, grow beyond maya and obtain God-realization! Read the rest of this entry >>

Monotheistic religions

This is from the foreword of The Way to God by Arun Gandhi:

When Grandfather confessed to his Christian friends how much he was impressed by the Sermon on the Mount he was asked, "Why don't you become a Christian?" "When you convince me that all Christians live according to the Sermon on the Mount, I will be the first to change my religion," he responded.

From an idea I got from reading Atanu's blog, the following is a possible debate about monotheistic religions vs. multi-theistic religions:

She: Isn't monotheistic religion much better than multi-theistic religion?

I: I would assume you like democracy better than communism. Yes?

She: Yes.

I: I would also assume that you like a free market rather than a monopoly of the market. Yes?

She: Yes, but what have any of these got to do with religions?

I: In the religious sense, multi-theism is equivalent to democracy in politics and free-market in economics. The moment I get ready to pray to the idols of two gods, which are beside each other, I understand that there are multiple ways to the same truth. It also makes me (and some other people) question: what is the power behind the gods. What are the qualities that can make me a replica of God. That is one advantage of multi-theism. Mono-theism OTOH, has the disadvantage that you have to accept that God is God, because He is God. You accept that apriori. It (monotheism) is good in the sense that, if you understand the core of what He said, to His chosen people, you are at peace. However, if there is some aberration in the communication, either due to the words of the chosen people, or due to your (mis)interpretation, or due to the fact that words donot have the power to communicate some ideas, then you are a dangerous entity. This is because, you believe in something blindly, and believe that it is the only truth.

She: Yes, that's a good analogy. But, idol worship could also go haywire. It could leave confused masses. It could also leave masses who accept anything less than Truth.

I: Yes. good observation. Idol worship could result in masses being ignorant of the truth. However, it is my opinion that it is a less dangerous way.

She: That's right, but how is it less dangerous?

I: Do you agree that middle way of Buddha is a beautiful concept?

She: Yes

I: Do you also agree that it is extremely difficult to practise it?

She: Yes.

I: Do you agree that multi-theism is more middle-wayed than mono-theism?

She: Yes. So, you are saying that as moderation in everything is what Buddha preached, mono-theism is a non-middle-wayed-way. The opposite of which is multi-theism.

I: Yes multi-theism is inherently more moderate and more tolerant that mono-theism and should be practised when there is a choice between the two.

From Atanu's blog, I got the link to a blog which opposes Monotheistic religions tooth and nail: It is Monotheism is evil. Though some ideas on that blog are extreme, have a set of valid points.

The following is a quote from the movie Gandhi:

I am a Muslim and a Hindu and a Christian and a Jew and so are all of you.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Serpent and the Rope watch: Tristan and Isolde

The references to Tristan and Isolde, one of the classic love stories of the west, in The Serpent and the Rope by Raja Rao are many. This link has the abridged story (one more abridged one here).

The story is being made into a movie. Here is a trailer.

Wagner has an opera on the same. According to this link (again)

Tristan and Isolde is considered one of the most emotionally gripping operas ever written, and is, perhaps, Richard Wagner's greatest work.

To listen to it.
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update(12/21): Shyamala Narayan's Raja Rao: Man ans his works has the story of Tristan and Iseult. Also, it has a comparision of The Serpent and the Rope with The Waste Land by T.S.Eliot.

A much later update(01/14): According to the review in NYTimes and also other places, it seems the movie was not well made. Read the rest of this entry >>

Emerson on Indian texts

Emerson, has the following to say about the texts from India:

"In all nations there are minds which incline to dwell in the conception of the fundamental Unity. The raptures of prayer and ecstasy of devotion lose all being in one Being. This tendency finds its highest expression in the religious writings of the East, and chiefly in the Indian Scriptures, in the Vedas, the Bhagavat Geeta and the Vishnu Purana. These writings contain little else than this idea, and they rise to pure and sublime strains in celebrating it."(Essays, X, p. 120)

More impressions here. Reading the book: Vedic Religion and Philosophy by Swami Prabhavananda. The above quote was written on the book, possibly by the person who donated it to the library of Colorado College.

PS: As it is that time of the year, I have again ordered the book The Sermon on the Mount according to Vedanta by Swami Prabhavananda from library. Will post on the same. Read the rest of this entry >>

Criteria of Knowledge

In the summary of the book The Essential Vedanta : A New Source Book of Advaita Vedanta by Eliot Deutsch and Rohit Dalvi, there is a section in which the authors define the criteria of knowledge:

All knowledge is intrinsically valid. One can falsify a judgement by experience which is contradictory to it, but one can never completely verify a judgement by external means.

All knowledge acquired through the various pramanas [means of valid knowledge] is valid in its own proper sphere, but insofar as it is subject to contradiction by another qualitatively different kind of experience it is necessarily "relative" knowledge. Brahman-knowledge is alone incapable of contradiction.

There definitely are trends of similarity between these two statements and the statements of Godel's incompleteness theorem from logic.

I am not sure if these are general inferences that the authors make, or have translated them from definite sources in Vedanta. Yet to verify. Read the rest of this entry >>

Happy Gita Jayanthi!

From the preface of The Bhagavadgita by S.Radhakrishnan.

aum parthaya pratibodhitam bhagavata narayanena swayam
vyasena gradhitam purana muninam madhye mahabharatam
advaitaamrithavarshinim bhagavatim astadasadhyayinim
amba twam anusandhaninim bhagavadgite bhavadveshinim

Taught by the blessed Narayana Himself to Arjuna, compiled by Vyasa, the ancient seer, in the middle of the Mahabharatha, I meditate on thee, O Mother, O Bhagavadgita, the blessed, of eighteen chapters, the bestower of nectar of non-dualistic wisdom, the destroyer of rebirth.


samasta vedartha sarasangraha bhutam samasta purushartha siddim

This famous Gitasastra is an epitome of the essential of the whole Vedic teaching. A knowledge of its teaching leads to the realization of all human aspirations.

I find solace in the Bhagavadgita that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to Bhagavadgita. I find even a verse here and a verse there and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies -- and my life has been full of external tragedies -- and if they have left no visible, no indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teachings of the Bhagavadgita: M.K.Gandhi, Young India (1925)

My personal copies of Bhagavadgita (in no particular order):

• The one by Eknath Easwaran: simple just like the other writings of Eknath Easwaran.
  
  
• The extended three volume edition of the above by Eknath Easwaran: Vol. 1: The End of Sorrow, Vol.2: Like a Thousand Suns and Vol.3: To Love Is to Know Me .
  
  
• Bhagavad-Gita as it is by Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada, the originator of ISKCON: More emphasis on the Love of Krishna as a way to Peace. The book has very nice pictures.
  
  
• God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita by Paramahansa Yogananda : a very scholarly translation, I think the translation is in the Yogic tradition prescribed by the school of Shri. Yogananda. The book has very nice pictures. The introduction to this book has a Yogic interpretation of the story and characters from MahaBharatha war.
  
  
• Bhagavad-Gita: The Song of God by Swami Prabhavananda of the Ramakrishna order and founder of Vedanta society of Southern California. Very simple, very beautiful. A free translation. Has the NeoVedantic-Advaitic theory (this is a term Prof. Grimes and a couple of Philosphers use for the the school of Shri Ramakrishna Math) propounded by the Ramakrishna order.
  
  
• Bhagavad-gita by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Very scholarly. One of my own first copies.
  
  
• Gita Makarandam by Shri Vidya Prakasananda Swami. I own a copy in Telugu. Very refreshing with both Advaitic and Bhakti overtones and is both quite scholarly and simplistic at the same time.
  
  
• The Gospel of Selfless Action or the Gita According to Gandhi by Mahadev Desai. Mahadev Desai, incidentally was described by Gandhi as his Lakshman. I read parts of it long time back.
  
  
• The Song Celestial by Edwin Arnold. A free poetic translation into English. Also said to be one of the first translations of Gita into English. Very simple ala the one by Swami Prabhavananda.
  
  
• The Song Celestial by Ramana Maharishi. Contains a subset of the verses, selected by Shri. Ramana Maharishi himself.
  
  
• The Bhagavad Gita, pocket edition by Swami Nikhilananda.
  
  

Read the rest of this entry >>

SaChin scores record century

Sachin (root: SaChin or Sat-Chin?) scored the 35th century the greatest by any cricketer in the final form of test cricket. More pointers at prem's blog. Read the rest of this entry >>

Shloka on Sankaracharya Bhagavadpada

sruti smriti purananam alayam karunalayam
namami bhagavatpadam sankaram loka sankaram

I salute the divine feet of the great Sankara,
the repository of sacred scriptures,
an abode of immense compassion,
who ever accomplishes the good of the world

Taken from the preface of The Vivekachudamani of Sankaracharya Bhagavatpada: An Introduction and Translation by John A. Grimes. John Grimes, begins the Vivekachudamani with the following Shloka:

Sarva-vedanta-siddanta-gocharam tam agocaram
govindam paramanandam sad-gurum pranto'smy aham

This is what Grimes says about the invocation Shloka:

Traditionally, Indian philosophical treatises begin with an invocation to God and/or one's Guru. Sankara, in this invocation, igeniously, insighfully and subtly reveals the non-duality of Advaita even as he offers his obeisance simultaneously to both God and Guru. He was able to do this because, one of the names for God is Govinda and the name of Sankara's Guru was algo Govinda. Intriguingly, this stanza simultaneously admits both interpretations. Underlying this play of language is the insight that God, Guru and the goal of life for the individual are not different; they are the same.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Surprising results in theory

In an excellent post by Bill Garasch and others on Lance's weblog, the surprising results of CS-theory are listed. The comments section has the opinions of some people on whether a result can be considered BIG or not. Read the rest of this entry >>

Words of great people

Why does the religion whose originator preached "love everyone" practise hate? Why are the followers of a religion which preaches "peace and universal brotherhood", is the cause for the greatest disturbance in today's world? Why is the religion whose originator promised "freedom of the mind", preach the greatest control of mind? Finally, why are people of a religion whose basic tenet is "there are many paths to God - find your own and, be at peace" being quite intolerant?

Without practising a particular religion, how do we go beyond religion? What leads us beyond dogma? How much do we have to progress in religion to be infinitely tolerant?

How and when do we understand the exact meaning of the great words, of the great people, who were originators of the great religions? How do we go beyond the duality that surrounds us, and is within most of our actions?

I donot have answers.

The Mahavakya from Aitareya Upanishad (from Rig Veda) "Pragyanam Brahman" is apt. If the great seers have experienced Brahman knowingly, and want to describe that Brahman to the common people, that Brahman which has been said to be -- among its various attributes -- indescribable, how do the common people, who have not experienced Brahman knowingly, know that the purport of the words of the seers in the right context? How do the common people, the multitudes, know that there is imperfection in description of Brahman by those seers themselves, those who were that wise to know that what they have experienced is Brahman? After all, Isn't Brahman what we experience everyday, whenever we are experiencing Truth, Consciousness or Bliss? This, however does not make us experience it knowingly as, even animals experience it unknowingly. Do the animals know what they are experiencing? Do the multitudes know what makes them happy? Experiencing Brahman knowingly is what differentiates the seers from the rest. How many of the wise seers, who were kind enough to come back and explain to the multitudes, know that there is bound to be imperfectness, some infidelity in their communication? If they did know, how many later tried to contradict their previous words, to explain their experience exactly? If so, how many of those seers were thought by the multitudes to lose their power of communication, lose their special touch, lose their magical words, lose their simplicity and thereby left to be old seers who have no more understanding of their own experience, than any other man? Later, how of the multitudes settled among themselves that, the words of the seers the first time they uttered were sacrosant, more sacrosant than any other human being, including the seers who uttered the words themselves? If so, why did it happen after some more time, that some of the multitudes turned skeptical of the words, the words which they themselves approved of before? Why did the skeptics began to feel that the words had lost their magic touch, lost the power which they had earlier? The seers themselves, either turned into skeptics themselves and thought to be madmen, or turned into sophists and fade into glory, or worst of all, saw the misunderstanding that happened and did not comment so that they can be adulated by the masses, knowing within their heart of hearts, that no one understood the words? What happened to the masses themselves, ones who remained faithful to the words and repeated them, but did not understand the purport? Forget the purport, the masses who did not even understand the meaning of the words as uttered by the seers, the first time they were uttered? The masses who did not even know that they did not know? What happened to all these types of people? How did history judge them? How did they judge themselves, just before their final breath? The seers, of course, being wise, unioned with the Brahman. What happened to the skeptics? What happened to the faithful?

I do not know.

I, however, remember the following passage from Siddhartha by Hesse:

...
Quoth Siddhartha: “I’ve had thoughts, yes, and insight, again and again. Sometimes, for an hour or for an entire day, I have felt knowledge in me, as one would feel life in one’s heart. There have been many thoughts, but it would be hard for me to convey them to you. Look, my dear Govinda, this is one of my thoughts, which I have found: wisdom cannot be passed on. Wisdom which a wise man tries to pass on to someone always sounds like foolishness.”

“Are you kidding?” asked Govinda.

“I’m not kidding. I’m telling you what I’ve found. Knowledge can be conveyed, but not wisdom. It can be found, it can be lived, it is possible to be carried by it, miracles can be performed with it, but it cannot be expressed in words and taught. This was what I, even as a young man, sometimes suspected, what has driven me away from the teachers. I have found a thought, Govinda, which you’ll again regard as a joke or foolishness, but which is my best thought. It says: The opposite of every truth is just as true! That’s like this: any truth can only be expressed and put into words when it is one-sided. Everything is one-sided which can be thought with thoughts and said with words, it’s all one-sided, all just one half, all lacks completeness, roundness, oneness.
...

What is the proof that me, who wrote these words, me who felt all these in a spirit of inspiration, I will understand the message in the above words after some time, whatever it is? I would, I truly would, if the words were written with true Brahman experience. Why do great seers from India pray for smriti? Why do seers pray for everlasting experiences? Read the rest of this entry >>

Geometric puzzle: division of k-d space using (k-1) dim objects

Given 2 points, how can you divide a a line so that you maximize the number of regions?

Given 3 lines, how can you divide the 2 dimensional space (a plane) so that you maximize the number of regions?

Given 4 planes, how can you divide the 3 dimensional space so that you maximize the number of regions?

Can you think of a way to divide a k-dimensional space by (k-1) dimensional objects, so you maximize the number of regions?



Solution: build a k-dimensional solution from a (k-1)-dimension solution. Read the rest of this entry >>

Introduction to Ashtavakra Gita

Once upon a time there was a student of the scriptures. He would work hard all day every day and then read aloud the holy language of sacred verses late into the night. His wife, round of belly with their coming child, would sit beside him in the dim room, listening as her weary beloved chanted the ancient words.

One late night in her eighth month a voice from inside her belly said to the father: "Sir, please be attentive – you are mispronouncing that verse." Tired and short-tempered, without thinking why he would feel so enraged at being corrected by an unborn child, the father cursed the voice- and because the father had built up merit, his curse took hold: the child was born deformed, with eight crooks in his body. That child was called Ashtavakra, a name which means `eight bends'. Everyone who saw him laughed in derision.

That crippled child was an enlightened master who took birth in this family to reveal in simple words the essence of mystical experience. Janaka, king of the known world, father of the bride of God, Sita, daughter of the earth, that very King Janaka became this crippled boy's disciple. The book based on that event is called The Song of the Eightfold Cripple, or Ashtavakra Gita.

Asthavakra was not keen on accepting students, and so had few. When King Janaka came to hear of the wisdom of the crippled child he approached the boy as a humble student, not a commanding king. The boy accepted the king instantly as his disciple. This caused some talk in the sangham. ~Ah, Ashtavakra does have favorites after all, he accepted the king without any of the trials he had all of us face!~ This grumbling became a quiet force, and Ashtavakra knew of it.

One day the King was late and so the boy delayed his discourse. The moment the king arrived, Ashtavakra spoke: `This day I have had a vision, the capitol city will erupt in terrible fires and earthquakes- all there will die. Those who have loved ones or valuables there must hurry now if they wish to save anything!'

All the monks left. As the dust settled, only the boy and the king were sitting. The boy said softly, `Great king, is there nothing you would save?` Janaka replied, ~My lord and my friend, you are my only treasure.~ The cripple nodded and softly said, ~Well then if I am indeed your treasure, mount your horse now and go and gather my students back to me, tell them I have been mistaken, the capitol city is in no danger. Take your horse, and go.~

Rising to do as bidden, the King put his foot into the stirrup, and as he swung up over the saddle, realization dawned in his mind. He swallowed, looked about him at this new earth, heard new birds singing for the first time, and then looked at the cripple at his feet. The two looked at one another, and then the king left to find the other students.

Once back, the other students grumbled at being sent about here and there on foolish errands. One or two howeverd did soon understand why the master had chosen the king as a student in his own way.

This is what was said that day, as all sat about and heard these words of nectarine wisdom. Read the rest of this entry >>