Karta: Life-Inspiring Essays On Cognition, Consciousness & Causality by Santosh Jha (book suggestions txt) 📕

PK, like most pop icons; does have this proclivity to shock.... and, we old school mid-aged people are always sceptical of that, as we already have enough of pop cultural shocks...!

PK, the hugely popular 25- year old girl, the reigning pop music diva, I discovered her only recently as local media created a buzz of her arrival for a concert.

Before the scheduled concert, she was there, sitting in front of me (on television).... singing her latest chartbuster and first time ever, I watched her performing and also listened patiently her self-written lyrics... And then, she talked freely for few minutes. I watched her; as a parent would when his girl speaks....

Not to my shock... for a change... but to an astonishing satisfaction; she oozed tonnes of ‘attitude’ and what made me happy was that she carried this attitude with so much self-aplomb and my favourite sentiment – innocence!

People my age, were culturally trained to show everything but attitude...! And we really have problem carrying the weight of our attitudes, if we ever choose to show them... clearly, the innocence is missing… signs of a lack of mind training... !

And see, the young ones all over the globe love it... this pop icon shows oceans of attitude and the millions of her fans love it... even egg her to flaunt it like anything..... Still, this pop diva has the innocence... the imperfect sense of poise, despite her celebrity status, to make her attitudes inherently, intrinsically, inwardly and, innocuously beautiful....

I watched her and loved her attitude.... loved her too... and I’m not shocked... I have never ever been judgmental but then, acceptance is not contemporary global culture.... I must say, I accepted her and her attitude.... must say, I am happy this way....

Thought... if I were married and had a daughter like her; sure, I would not allow her to wear the inorganic skin of shock. However, when she would show off her innocent attitude and would ask me, as a venturing daughter always asks her father for assurance, “...dad, am I doing it right and the way you would like it to be...?”

… I would say, “... I’M JUST LOVING IT....!”

Am I being retributive .... or, even insanely apologetic about my own failures with my experience and experiment with the thing called ‘attitude’...? May be! But then... I’m aging, I wish, I had a daughter and I would have joyed approving her attitude of innate innocence…

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You Ordain What Your God Shall

A person said, “… whichever way and whatever people ask me to understand is like a meaningless lecture to me… I shall understand only when my God shall wish me to… till then, all wisdom is like wastage of words to me…. and, this is also true for others…”

One is truly curious… one feels and believes, god is one’s own intrinsic nature… one’s natural emotions… one’s instinctive me…. and he or she is a constantly evolving potential…. so his or her god is also in incessant evolution….

So, what that person said, was probably a reminder to the fact that when one’s god shall evolve to accept itself as nothing but me, it shall be in a position to understand. In other words, when I shall evolve to such a stage where I shall realize that what I am is what my god is, then only shall I accept all that I need to….

It sounds strange… we always say, things shall happen when God shall ordain…. And things do happen at some stage of time and circumstances…. and we all think and thank god for making that happen…. but, isn’t it that, that happened because in time, we evolved ourselves to such a point where it actually happened…

It is like, I do think that I should be ideal for the position of being the President of USA… but, it is not happening for me…. so I say, it shall happen when god shall wish. Years pass… and as I have this in my mind that I must be the president of USA, I am actually gradually moving towards that end with an evolution mechanism which even I cannot visualize as happening but in reality, I am actually inching slowly and unconsciously towards that end. And one day, I do become the president of USA…. and I thank god to make it possible for me….

In reality, it is my own potential that I unconsciously chased and it happened… what made it happen is truly the god but, it is my intrinsic nature which worked for me in silence, in sub-conscious and in innate me….

…. if it could not happen… if I die without being the president of USA, I would say, God ordained otherwise. And it would happen otherwise as probably, I could not evolve myself to be my god…. or probably, my evolution process was right but physical circumstances had their own play… as it can happen to anyone. And also, someone else too was evolving towards similar goal and probably, his evolution to his godliness was greater and better than mine…. so, my god submits to his god’s wishes…!

It really doesn’t matter… who wins and who not… but, it is crucial that our god must be our evolved potential and it is truly infinite. And be assured, even if our own god fails to get what we wanted, it is sure the godliness shall be there for us. Even if I do not become the president of USA, it is for sure that I acquire all the goodness and qualities of a president. No god leaves us with empty hands. We just need to know our respective god and that will fill us with all goodness that we all need to be happy and satisfied.

And, please don’t wait for your external god to make things happen for you…. you will get what god can give in seconds if you understand and accept that you, standing on the horizon of your true and ever-evolving potential is your god….

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What Sinks In, Stays

They are a gang…. armed with something, may be deemed deadliest of human weaponry – Corruption of Innocence! And, its brute situational justification…and even eulogy… !

Not much to the surprise, this gang is a favorite with another ‘gang’ – the journalists. The gang operates 24x7 on the banks of river Ganges in the state capital of a eastern state of India, which is essentially a place called crematorium. The gang has 8-10 members, all less than 8 years old, almost naked and ever hawkish. On an average, 20 dead bodies arrive a day at this crematorium and this gang has a natural right over all of them. They line up in a fake seriousness and as clothes, sheets and other things from the person of the bodies are discarded, they pounce on the booty and then comes the real joy.

The celebration begins…. the possession is up for a fight too but as dead bodies are in plenty…. no real competition…. they wear some of these discarded clothes and then prepare for the next stage. A section of the gang readies to salvage some ornaments from the burning pyre which relatives often leave with the dead bodies…. and if a gold ring or a bracelet is retrieved, the celebration gets too noisy…. blood paints the sands….

Once upon a time, a Buddha saw only one dead body and he left his kingdom, believing this world a place full of pain and sufferings. This gang has an average count of 20 dead bodies a day and they always want more. It adds to their joys and celebrations! For them, death and dying is greatest celebrations on earth…

The thing that separates this gang from Buddha is what is a learning mechanism. What sinks in is what stays…. this is a simple retrieval from the gang’s joyous celebrations. One death sunk in the heart of Buddha. Hundreds of deaths fail to sink in within the hearts of the these ‘gangsters’. Naturally, it doesn’t stay…. it makes all the difference….. !

This corruption of innocence is pathetic…. but this also is a huge joy for people who understand the basic energy behind all this…. some journalists call them ‘the first line of true saints’. Others flay the loss of innocence… still others rue the whole scenario…..

It beautifully discovers the underlying energy – what sinks in, stays…. so the trick is out for ingenuity… but it is also for wisdom. In our relationships, we also allow the corruption of innocence. Intentionally or otherwise; not allowing words and feelings to sink in. Thus, failing it to stay with us. The positive is, let negativity not sink in, and refuse it to stay with us…..

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The Full Circle Of Wisdom

In different ancient philosophical and spiritual traditions, also in highest religious orders, there is one goal that has been prescribed and defined as a must for all humans born…. irrespective of what their station of life makes them do… and, that is what in Sanskrit language is termed as ‘aatma-sakhchhatkaar’….

The term may be simply translated as self-dialogue but it actually has a meaning much more than that… the first part ‘aatma (self)’ is also not what the word means literally but involves a ‘self’ in largest possible connotation… the second part, ‘sakhchhatkaar (dialogue)’ is much more expansive in interpretation and coverage…

One wonders… especially in contemporary world of extreme consumerism and liberal self-indulgence, where the global desire is to maximize external possessions and fulfill wildest of dreams of the six senses, what a normal human being would think of the idealism of ‘aatma-sakhchhatkaar’ as the goal of life…!

Strange it may be but the newer ideas in hugely consumerist and competitive world of corporates are surely and firmly rooted in this ancient wisdom of ‘aatma-sakhchhatkaar’. The contemporary corporate world considers human resource as the prime asset of a company and in latest workshops, the top managers are being asked to ask one question to themselves and come up with answers… and the question is : “… who are you…?”

There is also a call in the occidental world which aims at looking back at basics of humanity and social community lives… the question is also the same…. the psychologists and sociologists are working towards a life model that looks inwards… the science and art of psychosynthesis and psychoenergetics are coming up with good popularity….

In fact, there has to be a slight correction in what ancient wisdom said as goal of life and what the modern contemporary world can accept as. The ‘aatma-sakhchhatkaar’ has to be at the core of modern education system and it has to be made not a goal of life but a necessary precursor to all that may be considered as goals of life.

‘Aatma-sakhchhatkaar’ essentially readies oneself for life and living…. and when one is ready, he or she may be in better position to understand and accept as whatever goal of life he or she may choose and decide for oneself….

It is however altogether different matter that those who understand and live the ‘aatma-sakhchhatkaar’ process, finally accept it as something they would love to stay at throughout their lives…. this road itself becomes destination….

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Difficult It Is To De-difficult A Difficulty

At the peak of snow-clad Himalayas, watching a stream building up, made by small drops melting from huge blocks of ice, one thinks; if one could surrender himself to the waves of this stream, floating on the water without resistance, one could finally reach the oceans!

Next moment, one realizes the futility of the dream.

Humans are not water; this fluidity of liquid is missing. The egolessness of being shapeless and formless is missing. The water shall bend and accept all bruises en route and still move ahead with innocence and humility. The fluidity and formlessness of water is not available virtue for humans.

Too difficult for us… We can swim,