Meditation:a path to transform Oneself

 Many things have been said and written on the benefits of meditation, Here in this post of mine i will like write my own perspective on meditation ,though meditation as an idea is a vast concept, and it might take many post to give a complete description of meditation as a concept, so here i will just like to emphasis on how can meditate help in changing or rather transforming an individual. Often in various books and magazines we come across articles regarding changing one self ,such articles are always very interesting and inspiring ,since as individual we all have some disgust with ourselves such articles give us an inspiration to change ourselves , we try to follow the instructions given and generally we do get some positive results initially but after some time the motivation goes away and we again go back to our old position ,Finally the net effect is zero.

Though we fill bad for it but in reality the problem is not exactly in us,these articles and these motivational authors miss a very critical point of human psyche, as individuals our actions , our behavior our feelings and our attitude is predominantly not dependent on our conscious but on the vast realm of our sub consciousness mind of which we hardly have any control.Our mind is just like an ocean ,there is a thin upper surface which is our consciousness but inside the consciousness there is a huge subconsciousness that governs us ,The structure of this sub consciousness is a very complicated ,it is influenced by various factors ranging from our attitudinal inclination,our genetic structure, our style of up bringing ,our social atmosphere where we have been born and brought, many of the incidents that have happened to us that had some sort of impact on us, along with these various other factors that constitute this vast and large subconsciousness.
Now this sub consciousness that governs our mind ,what ever we do or what kind of behavior we follow originally depends on our belief system ,on surface it looks that we are doing things either consciously or out of just habit but in reality what ever we do we do due to some of our deep beliefs, in surface every things look simple but in reality for each and every simple task of ours there is some deep belief, there is some priority that we follow,there is some craving and preference that governs most of our day to day activities,these all stuff lie in our sub consciousness .

So any activity that aims to change us as a human being is bound to fail until unless it does not put focus on controlling our sub conscious. Now when it comes to a technique that really understands the sub consciousness fully and can get deep inside it is nothing but MEDITATION.

ITS not that sub conscious mind is some thing so complex that we cannot comprehend it, but we are so deeply engaged in our day to day activities , there is so much of chaos in our life that we lack the focus and peace that is needed to observe the mind ,meditation does nothing but gives us the required peace and focus so that we can observe the sub consciousness, once when we start observing the sub consciousness we become familiar with ,we get a fresh hand idea of what is happening inside us ,we start getting deep into our mind and after getting deep and deep we really become familiar with the set few core beliefs in us that govern most of our activities , and then once the roots are known it becomes very simple to make the required change. Your inability to change yourself is nothing but your ignorance of yourself and and you can achieve control and command by doing nothing special but by just becoming more and more aware of your self.This awareness can be achieved by the power of observation that MEDITATION can imparts in us.

Anxiety :My perspective

In this fast moving world we all have suffered from anxiety at some point of time,but in some individual the attacks of anxiety become so frequent that life becomes a hell,for such individuals i have an easy solution.

Before going into detail first lets see what is this stuff anxiety all about ,as per the wiki defination anxiety a psychological and physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components. These components combine to create an unpleasant feeling that is typically associated with uneasiness, fear, or worry.
Anxiety can occur to any one and it can occur due to any thing ,the reason might be some thing as serious as the result of an exam that is to be published with in a few hours to some thing stupid as a being ridiculed by your friends.anxiety is a game of cause and effect ,beghind every attack of anxiety there is a basic factor that is responsible ,like as i said the it might be your upcoming exam result or it might be the ongoing cricket match,but it is not the cause that has much significance in anxiety ,what can really disturb you is the effect that follows the cause,once the cause has occured its effects set in where an individual starts visualizing a lot of future consequences related to the main cause and as result of this starts suffering from great deal of uneasyness.for exp a cricket match might be the cause of anxiety but it is not anxiety inself,anxiety comes into picture when the mere thought of the final result of the match where his side might loose makes some one filled with fear or worry,thus there is always a reason behind anxiety that reason it self is never responsible for the uneasyness which anxiety can cause,it is often our thought process that gets stimulated in a very rapid,arbitary and fervent fashion that is responsible for the uneasyness.

One another important of anxiety is that it has magnetic as well as evolutionary power to some extent ,by magnetic i mean one anxious thought attracts other thought there by setting a chain ,by evolutinary to an extent i mean that the intensity of thought keeps on increasing over a period of time,initially the thought might not be very intense but once our psychie gets into the act of recieving anxious thoughts the intensity of anxiety keeps on increasing there by increasing our uneasyness and after some substantial amount of time when the level of anxiety would have reached its peak it strats reducing there by giving relief to the individual.

Anxiety may not always be negative only,in many cases it might force you to take some positive action ,and at the same time it should be noted that it is present in all the individuals to some extent,only when the intensity rises beyond a particular extent,when the frequency of attacks goes beyond a particular extent anxiety strats disturbing individuals and then some sort of preventory measures become imperative.I will describe a simple preventory measure in the next blog.

Whom are you fooling mr. nayak???

Well in the past few years there has been a great scholar in the islamic world,this self proclaimed scholar of comparative religion is named as DR. ZAKIR NAYAK.Though he may not be very popular in non islamic spheres but he is a well known name in the muslim household,and muslim believe his views as the final judgement on what ever he speaks whether that is islamic or non islamic.This guy zakir nayak runs an organization called islamic research fedretion and though disguised as an authority on comparative religion his sole purpose is to demean other religions and show the supremacy of islam.

like any other fundamentalist muslim his love for islam and its practices are so exorbitant that he even some times (in fact many times)doesn’t hesitate to cross the highest peak of cretinism to defend any stupid interpretation of fundamental islam(more on this on some other blog),one other mania with which he suffers is to always compare islam with any other religion,one can always find him comparing kuranic verses with the verses of other religiuos books (which are often taken out of context)and then using his own interpretations of these verses to prove his ulterior motive that is the supremacy of islam.
He claims that islam is religion of peace,muslims are the only true people in the world,islam is completlely flawless and in what ever small issues in which muslims are involved are not out of their fault but due to the fault of the non muslims who are jealous of islam.What i really want to say to mr nayak is that he claims so many big thing on islam and muslim but cannot he make him self to see what all happening in the world around him,does he think that the fundamentalism in islam which we see all around is just an aftermath of the injustice done to muslims by the world around it,does the 700000 deaths that took place in iraq in the name of secterian violence is not enough to proove that in the present scenario the muslim psyche has got completely bloodstained,well violence in israiel might be an excuse but what logic does he find in pan islamic violence that is present everywhere whether in the southern phillipines ,kashmir,russia,central asia or north africa.What extra proof does he need that in the present scenario where at one stage the whole world is moving towards the ideals of liberty,democracy and secularism the islamic psyche still lives in middle ages where violence is not considered as something profane but a part of power sharing mechanism.If this guy is really serious for the image of isalm then how could he afford to waste his time in stupid and foolish lectures on proving the supremacy of islam,rather the very 1st thing that he must do is to to galvanize the collective psyche of the islamic youth which have got rusted by the forces of fundamentalism and conseravatism.He must take a positive action if he is serious for islam or otherwise he can carry on with his mania,the status quo willl be mantained so will muslims enjoy the victory of this self proclaimed warrior of islam who loves indulging war with other religion on such turfs where he alone is the winner ,judge and spectator of the war,other than he and his small bunch of foolish companion no one really cares for such war.

my conception of man (part 2)

BUDDHISM:buddhism also believes in the concept of reincarnation ,baring few differences the idea is more or less the same as hinduism,so i dont think we need to go deep into the subject.
ISLAM,CHRISTANITY:such faiths like there oriental counterpart dont believe in the idea of reincarnation but at the same time they give too much importance to the lord which i dont find a very fair idea.according to them the almighty lord is the owner of the world or rather the universe who sends us to the world to test us ,if we will please him with our good deeds(which even includes giving thanks to him)then he will award us with heaven but at the same time if we will not do good work then we will be appointed to the hell after we die,now what kind of logic is this almighty lord sends us to test ,is this the soul reason of existence?God sending us to test and then distributing prize or punishing us ,so god is nothing but a judge who loves playing with us,frankly speaking i am not very comfortable with such kind of logic.
MODERN ,RATIONALIST THINKER:The entire process of thinking underwent a great change after the arrival of freud,marx and darwin in the picture.after them in many quarter of intellectual thinking subjects like religions,mysticism and metaphysics were looked upon with contempt,they were reduced to nothing more than the luggage of the past which was a complete misfit in the modern world and which shouldnt be further carried on by the modern era.This new vision looked at every thing as nothing but mere objects and man him self was no exception.For this new aproach man and his various aspects such as conciousness, psychie and others are nothing but just a scientific phenomenon which had found its place in this world out of matter of chance,I find this approach some how intellectually stimulating but sorry i cannot extend my intellectuality to such an extent that such a wonderful world around me will look some thing which doesnot have any sort of intelligence working behind it and which is nothing but just a matter of chance ,how is that possible,the whole journey of man with his own set of ups and down be restricted and reduced to something that is just a matter of chance.This new approach might find its validity in the realm of pure science where every thing can be tested and validated in the laboratory but superimposing this on man's life which has its own nuances and subttlieties is not a convincing idea for me.

One point which i want to raise over here is that i am not refuting any of this as a complete no no, i am not the authority to do so ,in fact why me no one has the authority to do it,every school of thought wether that is religious thinking like hinduism or islam or other thinkings like rationalism or objectivism are made by great intellects and there is some sort of logic (or in some cases pure empirical ,practical kind of evidences) on which there ideas have been fabricated,so i am not refuting them.My sole purpose is just to raise some valid doubts and i dont think that raising doubt is a bad idea,since i have to explain the conception of man it is important for me to first discribe briefly the various different major concepts of man along with there flaws.It well help us in doubtiing our preconceived notions and to have some how a new(i dont think new is a very optimum word to use over here)or rather i should say a fresh insight towards knowing the concept of man as a an entity.I must say that so far what ever i have written is not directly related to the topic that is conception of man but has definately set the prelude for it.

my conception of a man(part 1)

AS my book is based on various aspect of a man it is imperative for me to first discribe my own defination of man.Various schools have various defination for a man,for some its an eternal journey that keeps on changing one body to another(as proposed by oriental schools of thought such as hinduism and buddhism),for some such as darwinism man is a just a link in the evolution of life , and for some such as marxism it is nothing more than a mere object which borns ,lives and when dies perishes for ever.Man has always pondered to know the exact truth behind the meaning of existence ,but as far as my knowledge says no one has the real answer.Every school has got its own set of flaws,Every school has some inconsistency.
HINDUISM:hinduism says that the basic essence of life is soul (or atman in sanskrit) which is equivalent to brahman(the god),and this atman which is eternal in nature keeps on moving from one body to another.till here the idea seems plausible but the point of contradiction arises at the point when one body dies and the soul needs to enter into another body,now what convention should decide this process ,this cannot be just a random process,for this hinduism has a reply in the form of karmic theory,its your karma that decides your next fate,if you have done good karma you will have positive points with you and as result of which you will taste better fortune in your next birth(for exp:you might be born in a well off family and may lead a lavish life in your next birth because of your good karma ) and if you have done wrong deeds then you will taste bad fortune in your next birth because of your bad karma.now mathematically this entire concept looks plausible but if one will delve in side a bid a great chaos will be seen,if karmic theoryis the soul factor that leads the mathematics of reincarnation then it has to be preassumed that man is solely responsible for what ever he does,he is completely independent at every stage of time to make his own descion,but is it the reality.Absolutely not,not every man is independent many times the situation forces him to do,the context always play a very vital role,it is vey tough to judge a man's action with out thinking of the context,just think of a boy living in iraq,who has seen the dismantling of the saddam regime and the malestorm of the post saddam iraq,what kind of childhood had he been living,when he should have known the world through the eyes of education the only thing he would have seen is secterian violence,hatred and animosity,what kind of psychie is he going to get,in the midst of such a turmoil there is a great degree of chances that he will be morphed into a terrorist thus attacting a hell lot of negative karma.At the time think of a boy living in dehli who is born and brought up into a well educated family,who receives proper education and proper upbringing and becomes a responsible and ethical adult thus there by attracting a lot of positive karma.thus according to karmic theory the boy in iraq who became a terrorist should be facing a lot of misfortune in his next birth where as the boy from delhi on account of his better upbringing will be enjoying a great deal of fortune in his next birth.Nt only the entire idea looks unjust but some how irrational also.

to be continued

MY BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before getting into the details of writing the blog i will like to specify the reason that forced me to resume writing blogs in the midst of such a hectic schedule at tapmi.It was was friday night and me along with some of my pals was hanging down my hair at a resturant as a usual task to chill after a rigourous five days.In the midst of some gibberish which we guys were spinning out one of my friend ANUPAM who is a typically no non sense guy suggested me to write a book,frankly speaking i laughed at the idea,fine i love reading and writing but then book,that sounds too big of an idea,but after coming back to my room i gave some serious thought to this ,why cannot i write a book,definitely its not an easy task,it calls for a lot dedication,devotion and discipline but then why not to give it a try,i think this is something were my ample reading,writing skills and my keen insight of observing the world around me will find a right platform.So with this new obsession of writing my book i will like write this blog,so what am i going to write, well my new book or rather book i should say will be a kind of self help cum philosophy whose main focus will be man,his existence ,his life ,his life along with its victories and defeat,along with its songs of glory and elegies,along with his fullness and futility,along withs his mirth and frustrations,along with his matter and spirit,along with his internal and external world.My book will look at every aspect of a man's existence(one important point to be noted over here is that when i say man i want to say not the masculine man but the specie HOMOSAPIENS it self,being a man myself this little prejudice of mine is bound to occur and i beg my pardon to my female readers for this).since the central theme of the book is man the book cannot be restricted to any particular category.it will have every thing that is related to man ,ranging from the vast external cosmos to the minute matters of day to day life.it will have every thing with whom a human being can relate himself.

My upcoming blogs will be dealing with subject of my book,hope readers will enjoy it.Any kind of suggestion is most welcome.

Black is Bold,Black is Beautiful

In India, beauty and fairness are synonymous terms (though south is an exception but even there also being fair is a respectful idea ).Indians don’t only have fad for fair color
But in fact they are mad for it, not only females but also males aspire to be fair (that’s why some one like
Shahrukh khan needs to endorse fairness cream for male) you take up a matrimonial and a very common sentence
Which you will comes across is wanted a fair, beautiful blah blah blah bride for a blah blah blah.In a country where
Being fair is almost the first requisite for being beautiful a dark complexion is nothing less than an anathema (at least
it holds true for the female specie).

But there is a paradox, while the middle class and the lower class do crave badly for fair color the higher echelon
Of the society negates this presumption, if one will carefully study bollywood one will definitely see
That if a comparison being done between dark skinned actress and fair skinned ones the darker race will definitely out number
It’s fairer counter part.Not only actress like Konkana sensharma or naandita das who are more into art house cinema rather than being with commercial genre have got earthy looks but in the present scenario some of the most successful commercial actresses like Priyanka chopra, Deepika padukone ,Sameera reddy, Bipasha basu ,Asin are dark skinned. Then we have
Got some one like lara dutta and amrita rao who are though not dark but are of wheatish complexion .Well there is still no dearth of fair looking actresses like Ashwariya rai,Sushmita sen ,Vidya balan etc but with the large no of dark skinned actress present right now we can surely say that the old saying that beauty and fairness synonymous t doesn’t match the ground reality, not only in bollywood but even in the modeling world some dark skinned models have achieved the sky,be it ujjwala raut(the model who went international),shweta menon or indrani dasgupta(my favorite) .
So what has become so special with this dark complexion that suddenly it has become so fashionable? One thing is surely the fact that dark complexion is some how more sexier than the fair one, at least I believe so. Who else can forget hot and dusky Bipasha flashing her skin in Jism or sensual sameera reddy coming out of water in a white bikni in race. Even in the time of 70’s and 80’s both the so called sex sirens ie Jinat aman and Parveen babi where dusky but the most important reason lies in the fact that the world around us is changing ,at least the youth is . The gen x is ready to experiment,they are ready to break the norm,no more are they interested in restricting them selves to the same old adages, for them fair is beautiful but so is black. The new generation definitely has got a very diversified taste where complexion no more matters ,what does matter is your attitude and the way you are presenting yourself, if you have got the right mixture of style, confidence and presentation you will surely have a space to carve your niche. Not only have the audience changed but so have these actresses and model who are an integral part of this confident and vibrant GEN X.The way in which they are representing themselves with the cock tail of style, smartness and attitude definitely helps in quadrupling there beauty Lets hope that this very same freshness and newness which had swarmed the upper echelons of the society must percolate down to the wider mass.it’s evening time.Just say Amen