Month: March 2007

Breaking the rhythm

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Only you have the power to free yourself of your sorrow. The series on Patanjali’s yogaSûtras continues

Sûtra 34 says Prachchardana vidharanaabhyam va praanasya meaning ‘by splitting and retention of breath in a special manner’.

Prachchardana pranasya means breaking the natural rhythms of breath and holding the breath. It means sustaining the breath in different rhythms. By modulating the prana, the mind becomes calm.

Sûtra 35 says Vishayavati va pravruttirutpanna manasaha sthithinibandhini  meaning “by that very activity in the mind, through those very objects of senses, the mind can be made steady, brought to a stand still”.

Through any one of the objects of the senses, the mind can be made still. By the same activity in your mind, that very activity through that very sense, mind can be brought to a stand-still.

Sûtra 36 says Vishoka va jyotishmati meaning “get rid of unhappiness and at the same time know that your mind is bright”.

If you have observed that someone you know is unhappy and you sit with that person, you also start feeling depressed or sad. If someone is joyful, and you sit with them, you start laughing. This feeling of being happy or unhappy is the training we have given our minds. If you have made a habit of being unhappy, you do not special reason to feel unhappy, but it has become sort of a leech on you, to keep a long face and complain!

Patanjali says the answer to this is vishoka, which means ‘get rid of unhappiness’. The sadness is just your habit. It is all self-made. The moment you look at your mind, the self-made sadness will disappear. You become free of that sadness. It is just a concept like any other concept.

Your comparisons can bring you sadness. Do not compare yourself with anybody. You can be more happy then. Make your mind free of sadness. That sadness comes out of concepts. Do you see this?

Jyothishmati pragnya means seeing your whole mind as a light, as a flame. Your consciousness is a flame; your mind is a flame. You forget this. Due to the presence of the mind as a flame in you, your entire body is functioning. Otherwise you will be like an unlit candle. What is the flame? How does that flame work? The flame lives on oxygen. What does it do? The flame uses some matter from the substance earth and then it uses oxygen and lights. What is life? Life is also the same. It uses oxygen and lives on some matter. Just like flames live on wax and the wick and uses oxygen, your life uses the body and the food in the body as wax and then the air is oxygen and exhibits activities in the body. Like the flame exhibits itself, consciousness exhibits life. Life and light are very synonymous. They are very close. If you put a bottle above the candle, the candle will be put off in a few minutes.

The body, after certain years of burning, any amount of food you put into it will not sustain the body. The body does not hold on. This body is holding on to jyotishmati pragnya. Vishoka va jyothishmati – get rid of unhappiness and be happy and at the same time know that your mind is made up of light. It is not matter. Your mind is energy. You are energy.

Media – a Sadistic Stimulant

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Sample this!!!

  • Bob Woolmer Murdered 
  • Manjunath Murder Case sentence 
  • Pramod Mahajan Murder case testimony 
  • Nithari Serial Murders story 
  • Mogadishu Plane crash 
  • Kavitha Rani accused surrender and chargesheet 
  • Somalia Bombing 
  • LPG Cylinder burst kill 4 
  • Meenakshi Murder case sentence 

-……….these seem to be the only news worthy or airtime – all the other news was a one liner spoken in such casual manner that it was no news at all.

These were the stuff that was on every TV Channel (in the Scroller, under Flash News, under headlines, every bit of TV screen were filled with these lines – it began at about 0500 hrs 23rd March and till the time I write this, nothing has changed). The repitition made the whole thing such a farce, viewers were rendered insensitive. Media was trying to titillate or else why would they keep flashing the same stuff the whole day and the next. In the rat race to achieve highest TRP (TRP = Revenue), it appeared that nothing esle mattered. In the name of proble, trying to rub salt into grieving people’s wounds – Manjunath’s mother pulled out of the confines of her home, Gill Woolmer cross questioned to such an extent media put words into her mouth, Snapshots/animated sequence of Rekha Mahajan’s testimony) if this is what technology was supposed to contribute to the betterment of the world, how I wish we lived in the stone age. It confirms one reality, Negativity sells and only negativity sells. That’s why media goes overboard on negative issues more than the others.

The other worrying trend – at the cost of sounding the devil’s advocate – these overexposure indeed is not a healthy trend.

One, it has such a negative impact on viewers, especially the children (don’t forward the stupid argument, the remote control is in your hands switch it off if you don’t like it – I have invested in a TV to stay connected and informed right – not to relegate it to a corner of my home) My children need a healthy diversion too.

Secondly and most importantly, while the guilty deserved what they got in Manjunath, Priyadarshini Mattoo, Nithari or any case which becomes high profile, the worry is the Judicial authorities are as human as any others in the society and aren’t they influenced due to the Trial by Media. It is a big question mark that the guilt are sentenced much before they go through the actual judicial process. When the whole country is bombarded with views of the media, due proces of law no longer is a criteria. Public emotions and responses ensure that those accused are indeed guilty (it is not my case that any of these fellows are innocent – it is just that were they really provided with any chance?)

Thirdly, every channel runs the same stuff and each of them are EXCLUSIVE!!! Can it get more Ridiculous. Coming back to the original purpose of this piece, who will check the media. The extreme reactions by the general public are in fact fuelled by the media, so they remain best channel in Recall, the extreme reactions make another story anyway – so they have their next story on a platter and this cycle continues)

There was this channel where a written statement issued was being scrolled but when read by the newsreader, it was changed to such an extent the whole thing sounded so different. What else can this be called than Increase Viewership by Titillating.

Pray, for a change that these buggers also report something positive. For every bad thing that happens in the world, there are 1000 good stuff that happens. Report that too. Let there be proportional share of time. Media is not just a business or privilege that goes being in the media – it is a HUGE RESPONSIBILITY – going by what is happening, responsibility can go to hell!!! seems to be the attitude

Who will control the media? They seem to have gone berserk – anyone who dares to control or comment on them are rebuffed & villified on their channels that they seem to have their say without any responsibility whatsoever.

Wait let me check my loo and bath if there are any spycams? CNN-IBN, TIMES NOW, NDTV I hear are in town and last I heard there were no murders or rape in town. These days, we need to sanitize the private areas not from the germs/bacterias but from the the deadly hiddens spycams!!! Unless you want your pictures performing the rituals being watched across the country.

Cricinfo – Border slams Gavaskar over Hookes reference

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Can any joke be bigger than this? Arrogant Aussies trying to preach morality and behavioral lessons to the world. Border, Ponting, Lehman, Hodge all can go to Hell. Hey guys! How’s the taste of your own medicine. Remember this is what it tastes for the guys at the receiving end. Knowing your ancestry and lineage you guys had it coming! You stretched the patience of the world a bit too far and got away so far. Not anymore!

The facts were there for all to see. Suddenly, they became aware of the decent behavior  respect for the dead – heights of hypocrisy.  If they can get so nasty with a guy in front of them, imagine their misplaced respect for the dead, which they are trying to bring up. Ponting’s behavior was befitting a paragon of virtue, wasn’t it? when he asked an Union Minister off the stage. Hey! compared to Aussies incestuous behavior almost all the time, Gavaskar‘s statements are angelic.

I am surprised that no one is publicly standing up to it with Gavaskar. And yes! what was wrong, he stated facts as it were. A bar room brawl pales before the arrogance and sledging that these kangaroos are famous for (sorry, kangaroo for the insult).

And who wants these rats and brats as a fan, Sunny is better off without them! What a way to go! Sunny – keep giving it to them in their own language  Hookes must be smiling down at this paradox from Heaven (errr. Heaven or am I wrong here again?)