Offbeat Quotes

Some offbeat quotes that I noticed in Orkut profile of my friends:

"Some men see things as they are and say why- I dream things that never were and say why not"

"People look at me and laugh. They claim I am different. I look back and laugh at them. They are all so same"

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people:

"They say your life passes before your eyes when you die. Make sure it is worth watching !!!"

Thanks for all of you who put comments on their orkut profiles!!

Six Branches of Hindu Philosophy

As many of us know, the great religion of Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism has so many different branches and schools of thoughts that sometimes the religion seems to be a collection of different religions, encompassing everthing from polytheism, monotheism, atheism, and materialism. While such variety points to the vibrant culture and freedom of thoughts and expression that existed and still exists in today’s society, it creates confusion in the mind of many Indians and westerners that eventually turns them away from understanding the philosophical aspects of the religion. The objective of this blog is to thus summarize the philosophical attributes of Hinduism in a simplistic way. This blog is merely a superficial analysis of Hindu philosophy; I am in no way claiming to be an expert in Hindu philosophy.

The inquiring and curious nature of ancient and modern philosophers, sages and saints have produced innumerable philosophical variants, but six branches stand out in terms of their antiquity and the extent of literature each has produced:

Samkhya – Samkhya is probably the oldest school of philosophical thought credited to Kapila-muni, also called “Father of Philosophy”. It is a dualist school of thought, the two entities being purusha (mind) and prakriti (matter). Purusha is the Pure consciousness, which is unchanging and universal. Prakriti is the unconscious state. We typically identify ourself with physical events and physical body which is a form or prakriti. The objective of self is to realize that it is not bound by prakriti, but is in-fact is limitless purusha. Put in another way, the objective of self is to evolve to point when it can realize this distintction between conscious purusha and unconscious prakriti. Note that Samkhya system had no concept of a Creationist God or a Creator.

Yoga – Yoga or “Raja” Yoga was propounded by Patanjali and involves the control of mind to know the reality and achieve liberation or “Samadhi”. Samadhi is sometimes thought of as dying, but actually means existing in a super-blissful stage. Raja Yoga is also called ashtanga yoga, because of eight limbs: yama (don’ts), niyama (do’s), asanas (postures), pranayamas (breathing), pratyahara (control of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (blissful awareness). Philosophically Raja Yoga is very close to Samkhya; difference being that Raja Yoga lays down practical tools to realize liberation. Raja Yoga also includes the concept of God.

For the next four branches, wait for the next blog.

Welcome To My World

"If there is any kind of trouble that a human being could fall into, you would probably fall into it". That's a pretty common quote from my relatives and friends about me. I am kind of a magnet for chaos and troubles. Stuff like accidents, upturned itineraries, and unexpected incidents are pretty common with me. When I was getting married, my friend Vivek, who has been close to me for the last five years, told me that Swati's luck would probably rub on to me and my chaotic history would become stabilized. My reply was that I feared the opposite and worried about my luck rubbing onto Swati. Only future would be the judge.

So Swati and myself got married and come to the land of opportunities, USA (which by the way, I love to call as United Society of Animals). Nothing went wrong with our trip and in the first few months of our existence. And I secretly wondered if Vivek was indeed right. But then the truth came out during Swati's first visit to India. Her travel itinerary was completely botched. It started when her Lufthansa flight from Boston to Frankfurt initially refused to accommodate her and a few other passengers because the flight had reached its weight limit. In my life, I have missed flight due to various possible reasons, but this was a new one to me. A flight exceeding its weight limit!!!

Anyways, she and few of her fellow passengers were only checked in five minutes before the flight actually took-off. On reaching Frankfurt, she found that her flight from Frankfurt to Mumbai was cancelled. She had to rearrange her flight to Mumbai via Abu Dhabi. When she finally reached Mumbai, she waited for two hours before she found that her baggage is still roaming in some part of Europe as the airport authorities forgot to put her baggage in the Abu Dhabi flight. When she called me from Mumbai, she sounded a little tired and hysterical. I was like “Welcome to my world”.

So much for rubbing of her luck on me!!!