Hurt people hurt people

Often at times I have come across people who were absolutely snobbish, rude and intentionally hurtful to me and others. They constantly survive on ego-trip and just don't understand the idea of living together in peace and harmony. They always want to disturb someone or being outright rude. I cannot help but wonder why? What really drives this behaviour for them? Are they really like that naturally or is there something else which shaped them like this? Lets ponder on this today.

I am a believer of the title of this article, Hurt people do hurt people. We have long known all kinds of psychopathic murderers and criminals having gone through abusive childhood. Victims of domestic violence have a skewed perception of love. People having a bad day at office usually act rude at home. It may not be the only reason but we may have some form of an answer here. I will break this into few easy to understand points -

1) They are in pity and are suffering so they make others suffer so that they are not alone in their pity and suffering-
   They feel miserable if they see people having a good time in their lives. I mean they are having it so hard on them, how dare others can have happiness so easily?

2) It acts as a shield to their miserable personality-
     They can't give you love, even if you give them. They can't give you anything fruitful or interesting enough so their rudeness is a shield, they can't let you close as they have nothing valuable to offer so they keep you at bay by being rude - by making sure you don't come close.

3) Inability to act tenderly
      Its not that they could be anything they wanted and they chose to be rude. It's the only thing they can be. This largely again is influenced by how much love they themselves received in life. Emotions are best expressed when you practice exhibiting them all throughout your life. The more you laugh, the better you become at laughing, the more you cry the more deely you cry(and thereby cleansing your heart). Since there was nobody to show love and tenderness to, their hearts have forgotten to show them. They have simply become incapable of showing it. I absolutely love this dialogue from movie: Dear Zindagi.. It perfectly captures what I feel -

We desperately need a happiness revolution on Earth. In this mad race we have forgotten about caring for each other. We have forgotten that loving each other is the single best thing we can have on this life. We have forgotten that all we ever have here is each other. Happy people create a better home. Better homes create a better surroundings and so on. It's contagious. This needs to be a thing. I request all of you to go and spread your smile, you never know what's going on in their lives and your affection and care can change their day and eventually their lives.

See you!

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Why Spiderman is my favorite superhero

There are only a handful number of people in my life who knows that for a very very long time Spiderman has been my favorite superhero of all. The prime reason for that is just how relatable Peter Parker is. The typical shy nerdy guy who has all of his efforts almost neglected, has girl problems, has money problems, is bullied at school, overburdened with responsibility - All of this and still he is good at heart - very admirable personality. In this post I will catalogue all the things about him which I have noticed in his films which makes him my favorite hero out there.

1) He is highly intelligent-

    In every movie, he is shown as the high school genius, probably the best in his town. At a very young age, he has a knack at science being geeky and does really amazing things -

                                        

As time and again he has revealed that science is his true passion and that it always drives him forward. Apart from that, strategic planning wise, he is really cool too. He does not have an iron armor or impenetrable skin so he has to dodge bullets, heavy attacks from his enemies and always have to think up couple of moves ahead to beat them up. That is probably shown the best in Tom Holland's movies where he uses movie references to beat bad guys up.

In a nutshell, he performs really well at school, has a high IQ and a great passion for science.

2) He is a loser-

  This one is quite obvious. A typical nerdy guy with low social skills, cannot pay his rent, everybody bullies him, makes fun of him and is constantly reminded of that he ain't worth nothing. Frankly speaking it requires an iron heart just to go through life while facing just this but our kickass spiderman faces this and much much more and still inspires a lot of us.

3) Willpower -

     He barely manages to juggle between his already pathetic personal life where he runs late for everything, cant confess to his love of life, - and the superhero life which leaves him exhausted but he still gets up every morning doing basically the same thing over and over. He watches his alter-ego Spiderman being constantly traduced by the very newspaper he works in. He cannot let anybody come close to him because of the danger of what will happen once his identity is revealed despite of wanting to have a life with them. I mean man, he has god level willpower.

4) His relationship with Gwen Stacy-

    Okay, this is a big one. This HUGE story arc is portrayed in the Amazing Spiderman series. Here's the thing. He is really into Gwen but owing to his awkward and introvert nature is unable to talk to her. Through luck though he finally gets to date her but guess what her father is a policeman who hates Spiderman. Add to that, when he finally knows about Peter, he asks him to promise that he will stay away from his daughter because the sheer danger Peter brings with him to his near ones. DESPITE all the struggles he went through to make her his girlfriend, he KEEPS the promise even though Gwen desperately wants to be with him (since she also knows that he is spiderman) and stays away from her.

That really shows his character- of how much caring and ethical he is. But here comes the tragedy, After some time Gwen manages to convince him back to her life only ultimately leading to her father's predictions coming true. She gets kidnapped and gets KILLED in front of Spiderman. This was ultimately Peter's responsibility. Imagine this, first because of him his dear uncle died (killed by the thief Spiderman let go once) and now Gwen dies too because of him. Obviously, he gets shattered and quits being Spiderman. He is emotionally destroyed.

                             

 BUT all it takes is one recorded speech about hope from her for him to come back to business because ultimately he has a responsibility to fullfill. In comics, he was able to fully recover once MJ comes into his life (The comic book MJ is this happy go jolly extroverted girl who secretly knew all along that Peter was Spiderman and was interested in him since even before Peter was with Gwen).

5) He sacrifices his personal life for his duty-

Time and again, Peter faces hard choices whether to go on a date with his love interest or to saving a mob. And he always chooses the latter, every single time. Yes there were times when he was just fed up with his role and wanted a simple life (Far from home) yet ultimately he returned to his job sacrificing all of it. Though at this point, it can be argued that this trait is not unique to Spiderman alone and many other superheroes does that. Take for instance, Batman. He, instead of enjoying pleasures of a billionaire chooses to correct whats wrong in his city. BUT there is one major difference between Batman and Spiderman. It is that Batman is highly obsessive about his role as a caped crusader. He desperately wants  to be Batman and not some complaisant or a player or something. He begs for monitor duty during Christmas vacations in Justice League (animation), he never uses his money much on himself, he risks his life again and again without thinking even for a split second simply because he has made fighting crimes his ultimate life goal(I also relate heavily with this particular trait of Batman. There are things in my life I go all out working towards it without caring about myself. I will talk about them later).

THAT, is not the case with Spiderman however. He is just a teenager. He have his desires, attractions. He wants to enjoy his life, he wants to come in spotlight but he cannot and he chooses that way himself and constantly let go of his personal life for his duty because -

                           

You obviously know the quote here, right?

6) He is just a teenager-

Isnt't it amazing... such maturity, such sense of justice, such willingness to stick to his responsibility when his heart is dangling somewhere else, such genuine care for others, such ability to pick himself despite going through serious tragedies in life - all of this while being just a teenager. That's one of the single best reason why young audiences love him so much and are able to relate with him. Also he gets to fight some really evil villains. Take Green Goblin, Kingpin, Venom. They are pretty dark characters- too much for a teenager.

In fact, it is just ironical that a dull loser guy like Peter Parker gets to embark such twisty roller coaster of a life. It is a triumphant feel that connects with many millenials who are not able to do much in their lives as a representative analogous to, "Ohh well take THAT!" He is not a loser after all, his fucked up life actually adds to his greatness and we are nothing but truly happy that such an average joe like Peter gets to do this-

7) His sense of humor-

  He cracks up really funny jokes many times! Against his introverted weak aura, whenever he is in the Spiderman suit he becomes this self-confident funny cool guy who everyone loves to hang out with. He lets out this side of his personality while wearing the suit which is actually amazing.


So that's the end of it! Things which makes Spiderman someone I truly look upto and admire. As a final give away I have collected some really cool Spiderman wallpapers which I am going to share here - (Guess which one is mine currently :)) Enjoy!

Wallpapers link

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What is the most valuable advice you can give in life?

Once upon time a man was suffering from existential crisis from long time. He did not find his materialistic life worth living. Day by day his frustration increased and one day he decided to leave everything and go out for a spiritual training under a  perfect master. Leaving his job, wife, family and everything else, he packed two pairs of clothes and some food and set off on the journey. He was a very ruthless person and he wouldn't settle for any saint. He decided he will find a perfect master in the world for himself and then ask him the questions. Only the best and not anything less than that.

He first went to Chicago, there he asked local people who is the most perfect master in the world. People directed him to a famous and reputed church priest. He went there and asked him questions. The priest asked him to stay at his residence, follow a priestly life before answering the questions one by one. The man stayed there and  everyday on instructions he used to sing songs in God's glory. At the end of the prayer sessions, he used to ask the priest his own questions and to every question the priest used to simply read a passage from Bible which he seemed relevant. This did not satisfy the man at all and he left the place.

Then he went to Saudi. There also he searched for the most perfect master and he was sent to a wise Sufi saint. The locals first attempted to answer his questions but he refused to listen saying that he will only receive answers from a perfect master. He went to the place of residence of the saint.There every time he asked a question, the saint will simply start to say stories for the praise of the Lord and suggested him to do the same. He said the God will help to find the answers from himself. He tried that for many days. After everything he did, he had to say words of praises for God in hope to get some answers. One month passed without any answers and he got frustrated. He then asked the Sufi why are there still not answers to which the saint started to again tell stories in praise for God. Furious at this, he left the place.

Then again in search of a perfect master, he went to Japan. There he met a master who told him to learn deep concentration which according to him was the best spiritual life. The man agreed but for every small mistake the master used to beat him a lot. If he was late in bringing food for even a minute or if he disturbed his concentration even for a bit, the master used to beat him a lot. He could not tolerate this and after few days he ran away from the place.

Then, he came to India. There in search of the perfect master he came to a rishi who used to always meditate. He appeared wise, gentle and didn't ask to do any religious tasks as well. He decided to stay there hoping that he have found the perfect master. He asked one day "Guruji what is life?"

The rishi opened his eyes and said, "Life is like a beautiful flower." The man again asked, "But a Christian priest once told me that life is like a thorn!" to which the rishi replied, "Well, it must be his life!"

The man got amused at this and he wanted to ask more but the saint went back to meditation. The man used to cook food, clean the house for weeks but he got very little time to ask the questions as the saint was always meditating and whenever he used to ask, the saint will reply with just a one-liner like above and go back to meditation. This did not satisfy him so he decided to leave the place.

Then, he went to Tibet. There he said to the people that he have travelled across the world in search of a perfect master but could not find any. There also he went to several monasteries but none of them satisfied him because there the monks already had many disciples and they remained busy. There a monk suggested him to visit this one particular monk who lives in solace and do not have any disciple. They told him that he is the wisest among all of them, too gentle and also remains completely free because he haven't had any disciple for years!

He ran towards the place. This time he thought he have found it. The most perfect master of the world. He didn't eat or drink anything for 2 days straight travel. He finally arrived at the place and saw the monk sitting in silence. He asked one question to which the monk answered brilliantly in complete detail filled with logic. It was the best answer till now for the question.The man got heavily impressed and asked the monk to accept him as a disciple to which the monk refused. The man fell on the floor,

"O monk! I have traveled the entire world in great frustration only to find a perfect master for myself. I have gone through great pains and effort and when I have finally found you, you are going to refuse?"

"Yes, because", the monk replied, "I only accept perfect disciples!"


This is the most valuable advice. Never look for perfection. The man couldn't find any master because he was looking for a perfect master and that Tibetan monk couldn't find any disciple because he was looking for a perfect disciple. Life is beautiful in its own imperfection, don't compromise it in the context of logic or intellect. Nobody is perfect but the thing is, it is not required at all!

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Walk away: Importance of self respect

There comes from time to time certain toxic people who let you down far low in your own conscience and breaks you down from within. If you have had spent many nights sleepless feeling utter guilt, hatred, disgust over an activity of a single person who most probably doesn't even remember it, then you know what I am talking about. Self respect is a very crucial tool for surviving in this busy world but sometimes it falls apart when you are attached too much with a person who mostly is somebody skillful at the art of exploiting you. Sometimes, the person can be genuine too, maybe its just that you two don't get along well. Whatever may be the reason, its time you should just seriously think about your friendship rather than obsessing over few incidents which seem to you far more disturbing that it really is. Because overthinking it can hamper your confidence in living your life.

I believe that confidence and happiness are intrinsically connected. The happier you are, the more confident you feel and the more confident you are, the happier you become. So, anybody or anything which puts down your self confidence should be scrutinized heavily. There is no harm in expecting someone you are close with to respect you especially when you don't miss out on giving it. Silently going through embarrassing insults or mean statements or deliberate negligence  continuously for long serves you no good. And the worst part that most of the times, after going through all of it for so long can fade out the confidence inside you to pick yourself up and walk away!


"Toxic" people can be anyone from your online friend to your long term project partner who is utter slacker with no sense of shame to someone you consider "close friend". You realize that now you don't need anymore "sorries" and that hurting you has become a frequent occurrence of him whether knowingly or unknowingly. If you are trying to change him, you should realize that maybe you are fighting with his very quality. Just because he/she can go along well with somebody else, doesn't mean that can happen with you as well. Everybody is unique, they have their own frequencies which may or may not be compatible and its OKAY if it is not. You don't have to be such a saintly person from whom everybody gets impressed and for the record even saints are hated at!

It should be noted that I am not talking about small misunderstandings which are a regular affair in most relationships. There is nothing wrong with them and most of the times, they even act as a way to understand each other better. But they get sort out quickly and are never repeated. Instead, I am talking about someone you probably have already guessed due to whom you have suffered for long enough that it is time where you don't need anymore drama. Its the highest point of annoyance when you no longer feel anger or hatred towards the person, you just want him/her to disappear as if he was never there. You don't want to harm him physically or emotionally, you just want separation.

When it happens, the ideal response is something very very few are capable of, and that is to start cutting off that person gradually and gracefully and filling the space with some other friend while simultaneously behaving perfectly normal and thus avoiding unnecessary drama of "sorry" or rants. No more eyes are wet, no more nights are sleepless, no inbox is filled, the transition is smooth, the friendship falls apart. All by itself. If you have suffered for too long and with too much intensity, may be you cannot do this. Then, the second option and I urge you to do it is- Walk away.

It's true that whenever we talk about any "person" as such, it is not the entire being himself, but the ideas or concepts we make about them in our head, the recollection of memories of us together and we MAY make a mistake in perceiving others and it is still OKAY if that's the case. We cannot and should not be a perfect human being, we have to be just somebody who cares about oneself and seeks little more happiness than what is currently, after all that's what life is about, isn't it? So why bother bearing the burden, why bother trying to know whether you are right or wrong? Simply suck it and Walk away!

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"Desirable qualities" are an emotional sham

Be it when you didn't like your friend shouting in a public place, or when you got angry over people not caring about you, we all have expectations of some "desirable qualities" in others and most importantly our dear friends. Although seeming to be a usual expectation, this habit can sabotage our relationships which cannot bear the burden of these expecations.

"He/she should be more decent", "he/she should not be so quiet","he/she should spend more time with me", "he/she should not react that loud", etc etc the list is long. From where do these expectations arises, what is stopping us to fully accept the person we like to spend time with? After all what is wrong with reacting loud?

I am going to talk the both way, Why we ourselves expect desirable qualities in others and why we give in when we are expected to have some of them The very fact that you are dependent on somebody who has loads of expectations from you indicates that you cannot accept yourself. There cannot be any other reason to it.


                                 

The biggest secret I have learnt in the life is that the key to peace is acceptance. If you are in bad situation, just accept it as it is, after all it's YOUR bad situation, It has come to teach you something, it has come with a message, "STOP", Stop what you are doing hence bad times are your prized possession! The last thing you need to do is not accept them as yours.

"The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace."
                                                                                                  -Eckhart Tolle

Just do this experiment and see it for yourself, be it any state you are in, just accept it. Be it the saddest moment of your life, just go through it as if you intended it to happen and you will find a new joy arising in your heart, a new happiness and that happiness will be spiritual. It does not come from external situations, it comes simply when you accept your life as it is. The art of acceptance is a miracle.

The biggest hindrance to self-acceptance is the fear you won't succeed in life with as you are. Teenagers are thinking today that they have to change themselves in order to live life properly. There is a certain behavior you got to do when you are in front of parents, something else in school, something else in the job. They have planned it all already, which is the most unfortunate thing I could ever think of. I mean this is the time when we are supposed to work towards our nature, to blossom the gifts given to us by nature and all what we are thinking about is whether people would accept us. You are giving complete control to others to the level you are now leading their lives! Multiple places, multiple lives! Would not your heart be torn into pieces? What is the need to please those people? Who they are whose only work in their life is to judge you? Who they are who are always spying on you? The people in the restaurant whom you never going to meet again? The people in the mall who won't cross you ways ever again? You are afraid of them?

I have never understood people who spend too much time grooming themselves, comb hair again and again, changing clothes again and again, All this for what? Outwardly, we just see that it is the need to look good, but there is a much bigger problem residing inside. And it is non acceptance of self. If only a little energy of their make up is spent in actually living life, they will see life is much beautiful without caring about looking beautiful.

Another biggest problem is you expecting others to be as you want. This expectation again arises from the same place- fear and insecurities which now are just projecting outwards. It occurs out of conditioning. Conditioning of "how to behave" guides throughout our lives. We have confined ourselves in the conditioning so how could others reject them and be free? What a disgrace why such unfairness? Naturally a person who has killed himself won't allow others to live, he is unable to. There is nothing wrong in being what one is and only if you are living yourself you can accept others life. Their behavior is their own nature, their own life and to accept them, your own life has to blossom. Life cannot reject other life, only conditioning can.

"That’s why people are such great fault-finders. They find fault with themselves – how can they avoid finding the same faults in others? In fact, they will find them and they will magnify them, they will make them as big as possible."
                                                                                                                         -Osho

So the next time you didn't like somebody's behavior, ponder over it and try to know whether it is coming from inside, does it have any solid base? 

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Carl Sagan

I would not hesitate to say that he is one of the most spiritual and loving person I have ever seen. Yes, a scientist can be a spiritual person and be proud of it because his understanding about spirituality is neither narrow-minded nor any less than extremely profound depth. He was a man who will have your feel deep reverence and humongous respect.

For those who don't know him, he was an American astronomer, astrophysicist,a professor at Cornell, a science popularizer and an author. He was a founding member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly known as CSICOP - the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal). He has written hundreds of research papers and his work in astronomy is of very important significance. He initiated one of the most famous skeptical principles, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". And how can we forget Cosmos? His brilliant way of communication, soul-soothing voice and deeply humble nature, his sheer dedication towards work, his scientific understanding and inquisitiveness about nature makes him a complete package. There have been many brilliant scientists till now but very few touch the hearts of people- Carl Sagan is one of them and probably among the top of them.

His quotes are a fresh reading, very intriguing, profoundly written showcasing his exceptional skills. I am absolutely sure that a single article will never do justice to describe a man for whom the appreciation surpasses all the limits of English vocabulary. He time and again reminded us about the scarily large nature of our Universe but with added wisdom. He taught us to be a skeptic without losing wonder for the "vast and deeply humbling" Universe. I absolutely love this man and his smile.

If you want to know him, read this exceptional piece from him. When Voyager 1 spacecraft left from the planet to explore the solar system, engineers on Sagan's suggestion made it to turn back at take a photo of Earth and they got this-

 The absolute tiny dot is Earth. You probably need to look at it again to determine it. Now this surely can be a devastating picture completely redefining what we know about ourselves. It was the first time, somebody took a picture of the planet from this far. At this frightening picture Sagan wrote in his book Pale blue dot-

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.” 

Please please listen to this historic piece with added charisma of his voice as well!

Pale Blue dot

• Here is Carl Sagan taking on religion!

“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.”

• And Carl Sagan taking back on a very widely prejudiced thought about scientists being "dry" because they try to break things too much- 

“It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.” 

• An excerpt taken from his one of the many essays-

There is a wide yawning black infinity. In every direction the extension is endless, the sensation of depth is overwhelming. And the darkness is immortal. Where light exists, it is pure, blazing, fierce; but light exists almost nowhere, and the blackness itself is also pure and blazing and fierce. But most of all, there is very nearly nothing in the dark; except for little bits here and there, often associated with the light, this infinite receptacle is empty.
This picture is strangely frightening. It should be familiar. It is our universe.
Even these stars, which seem so numerous, are, as sand, as dust, or less than dust, in the enormity of the space in which there is nothing. Nothing! We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal’s Pensées and read, “I am the great silent spaces between worlds.”

• He was a noted skeptic. After an unbiased study, he concluded that there is not enough evidence about any alien activity on Earth, but still for the trash people are- 

• And now it is time to look back at the pale blue dot quote- 

“Ann Druyan suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn’t strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?” 

• He was a very beautiful thought generator.

• Wish people understand this simple yet insightful message!

• Well that's "true"!

• Cosmic chemistry mixed with spiritual wisdom! My personal favourite

On religious terrorism and the importance of human

• This one shows his humble nature hammering the rude skeptics!

• And this is touching

Care for humanity!

• And what to say anything else for this than simply amazing?!

• With added benefits of well- refraining from pseudoscience, bad science, non-science and nonsense!

Here is a video of him describing astrology as bunk or bogus- His voice is simply touching!

Carl Sagan on astrology

He was indeed a great person, a reformer, brilliant scientist, a noted skeptic and a celebrity. His work for his students, the revolutionary Cosmos series and his amazing books will always be remembered. He is one of the most famous guardian of real science with deep insight and wisdom. 

This post is a second person-specific post. I have earlier written a similar style post for a brilliant philosopher Epicurus. Do check it out.

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You are because of Love

We exist because of love. It's not that we exist and then love, it's actually the reverse case. Love made us. What we call "love" in our general language is simply a puny expression of the true love, simply to progress the breeding, to progress through evolution. Love is the driver of our race, it is the driver of our existence. We all are simply but expressions of that love, and this individual expressions(us) express a reduced and disguised form of that love to others. This is artificial love.

The "attraction" or lust of this artificial love is a bodily concept. It is man-made and the love which I am talking about has nothing to do with it. My argument is for the completely unconditional love, which connect us, which makes us see the essence of beings. When you are in a conversation, you or your consciousness instantly get connected to the essence, to the flavor of the conversation. All who are deeply shared is united through a conscious experience. Whenever you listen to music, have it been occurred that you become the music? There is no listener of it, there is no music which is being listened to, just one existence- the music itself. There is no subject-object split, only One. The listener disappears, you just enter in to music- you become music. You forget your "self" and unite with it. This is the true love. Which does not lure for any physical pleasures. Instead, it lures for unification. It has attraction, but that attraction is not lust, the attraction is not for physical pleasures, it is simply for unification.To become One. Similarly, if you are involved with coding, if you are involved with may be sports of any passion, which you are attracted to unconditionally, it is love. You unite with it. You don't need any extra pleasure from it. Just the very act itself is bliss.  If, you are an expert at it, if you do it extremely well, it has been scientifically defined as "flow", in sports it is famous as "zone". There is no distinct selves. They are only separated physically, but in experience they are one. You may not do it that well so as to get into the "flow" or "zone", but if you do it unconditionally, you disappear and only the unification exists, there is no extra pleasure required. Unification is the only pleasure in itself in the case of true love. And this same love is what exactly have created us.

Christians are right. God is love. He is all perfect being, beyond comprehension, beyond understanding, He does not not lie within understanding, He is not bound by limits and He cannot be described by any words. He is all contained and is all perfect, He does not need anything or anybody. But He wants you because He loves you. Such is His love that He does not need you but still want you. The rest of the passages in the Bible are simply non-sensical and at least barbarous, but this is extremely profound.

This love is the most natural thing we possess. Men inherently is good, it is the evil which is secondary. We, in the purest essence are love. It is different from, how we describe it in real life like "I love her" or "I love him". It is slightly different experience. You are love which means it is completely unconditional. It is spiritual.

Spirituality is just peeping inside yourself. The thoughts are the cover of mind, when you stop them you dive deeper and deeper.You outer self which you show to others or live thinking it as "self" is simply a cover, it is just a reflection of you which is visible to the surroundings. But your inner life is actually the reflection of your surroundings to your heart. Once you turn your eyes towards this mirror, everything which your mortal eyes perceive automatically becomes crystal clear. And when it is completely done, you find there is nobody. You start by seeking yourself, but in reality there is no self. Neither the finder is found, nor is what was to be sought is found. It is One. This is the point where Adi Shakara comes with his work on Advaita. The whole existence is One, and the actions being done are for unification driven by love. It is the true love.

In several religions, love is considered as "impure", it is not love which is impure, it is their mind which is. Males having higher dominance earlier built religion around themselves considering females as secondary, a weaker section or at very worst "doors to hell". It was because they did not know true love. They did not even like to touch women, see women. They try to be as far as possible, If you don't have any urges, why do you run away from women? Women is passive, you are active. You are not running away from women, you are running from yourself. It is stupidity. And these stupid people get acclaimed because the general public is also entangled in the artificial love, hence they considered these "saints" as very special, because to them "renouncing" love is a heroic task, a task which is very difficult hence deserved applauds when committed.

 But real spiritual leaders always emphasized on love. This is where Sufism gets it right. Sufis, Mystics have repeatedly preached free love. A love which is pure, unconditional, not directional but universal, not bound but limitless. Spirituality is seeing what is naturally present inside us, beyond human concepts of thoughts, emotions,etc. And if you go on to silent your mind and go on to dive deeper and deeper, you will find One which is Love. Love which created us.

By the way, in scientific world, there is a consensus that gravity created the Universe. And gravity means "attraction".

Ohh!


(Article compiled over ideas of Osho)

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The Pseudo scientific Hinduism

Few friends of mine raised an objection towards my criticism of Islam, and not being equally fair for Christianity or well my own religion- Hinduism. Some even started sharing me the "islam love" photos that how people should treat Muslims "well".  I told them that criticizing a religion and hating a religion are two different things! Also, as some wise men correctly pointed out on twitter and later got shared with Dawkins, "If I hate cancer, it does not  mean I hate people with cancer!" I promised to them that I will do a piece on Hinduism too so here it is!

In the rising wave of secularist world, it is now the trend to market "science" in the religion to make it sell to the gullible.  Although there are also many books and lectures delivered to depict "science" in Christianity and Islam(Yeah its the Zakir Naik who will eat your head!), but in Hinduism it as at a completely different level.

A completely baseless opinion is established and then the all the 'facts' corresponding to the wishful thinking is first presented in a slow manner and suddenly a big leap is taken  just right at the crucial point and the guillible falls prey. It is a matter of strong base that we should stand up to scrutinize these facts when it is thundered down upon us. I find a lot of bad science arguments put in the favor of Hinduism which steals away the spiritual treasure it contains and make it a mechanical practice which seriously needs to be addressed.

Speed of Light is calculated in Vedas more accurately than Einstein did

This is literally the topic of an article. It takes special amount of guts to write, but it seems that the author don't give a damn about the modern science. The claim goes like this-

Ancient Vedic science “Nimisharda” is a phrase used in Indian languages of Sanskrit origin while referring to something that happens/moves instantly, similar to the ‘blink of an eye’. Nimisharda means half of a Nimesa, (Ardha is half).

In Sanskrit ‘Nimisha’ means ‘blink of an eye’ and Nimisharda implies within the blink of an eye. This phrase is commonly used to refer to instantaneous events.

Below is the mathematical calculations of a research done by S S De and P V Vartak on the speed of light calculated using the Rigvedic hymns and commentaries on them.

The fourth verse of the Rigvedic hymn 1:50 (50th hymn in book 1 of rigveda) is as follows:

तरणिर्विश्वदर्शतो जयोतिष्क्र्दसि सूर्य | विश्वमा भासिरोचनम |

taraNir vishvadarshato jyotishkrdasi surya | vishvamaa bhaasirochanam ||

which means:

“Swift and all beautiful art thou, O Surya (Surya=Sun), maker of the light, Illumining all the radiant realm.”

Commenting on this verse in his Rigvedic commentary, Sayana who was a minister in the court of Bukka of the great Vijayanagar Empire of Karnataka in South India (in early 14th century) says:

“ tatha ca smaryate yojananam. sahasre dve dve sate dve ca yojane ekena nimishardhena kramaman.” which means “It is remembered here that Sun (light) traverses 2,202 yojanas in half a nimisha”

NOTE: Nimisharda= half of a nimisha.

In the vedas Yojana is a unit of distance and Nimisha is a unit of time.

Unit of Time: Nimesa.

The Moksha dharma parva of Shanti Parva in Mahabharata describes Nimisha as follows: 15 Nimisha = 1 Kastha.

30 Kashta = 1 Kala,

30.3 Kala = 1 Muhurta,

30 Muhurtas = 1 Diva-Ratri (Day-Night),

We know Day-Night is 24 hours So we get 24 hours = 30 x 30.3 x 30 x 15 nimisha, in other words 409050 nimisha.

We know 1 hour = 60 x 60 = 3600 seconds.

So 24 hours = 24 x 3600 seconds = 409050 nimisha.

409050 nimesa = 86,400 seconds,

1 nimesa = 0.2112 seconds (This is a recursive decimal! Wink of an eye=.2112 seconds!).

½ nimesa = 0.1056 seconds.

Unit of Distance:

Yojana Yojana is defined in Chapter 6 of Book 1 of the ancient vedic text “Vishnu Purana” as follows:-

10 ParamAnus = 1 Parasúkshma,

10 Parasúkshmas = 1 Trasarenu,

10 Trasarenus = 1 Mahírajas (particle of dust),

10 Mahírajas= 1 Bálágra (hair’s point),

10 Bálágra = 1 Likhsha,

10 Likhsha= 1 Yuka,

10 Yukas = 1 Yavodara (heart of barley),

10 Yavodaras = 1 Yava (barley grain of middle size),

10 Yava = 1 Angula (1.89 cm or approx ¾ inch),

6 fingers = 1 Pada (the breadth of it),

2 Padas = 1 Vitasti (span),

2 Vitasti = 1 Hasta (cubit),

4 Hastas = a Dhanu,

1 Danda, or paurusa (a man’s height),

or 2 Nárikás = 6 feet,

2000 Dhanus = 1 Gavyuti (distance to which a cow’s call or lowing can be heard) = 12000 feet 4 Gavyutis = 1 Yojana = 9.09 miles

Calculation: So now we can calculate what is the value of the speed of light in modern units based on the value given as 2202 Yojanas in ½ Nimesa = 2202 x 9.09 miles per 0.1056 seconds = 20016.18 miles per 0.1056 seconds = 189547 miles per second !! 

First of all, they contradicted their own title. The speed of light is NOT mentioned in the Vedas but the attempt of indicating it is done by Sayana who was a courtier in 14th century while commenting on the RigVeda.. Then, the source of "nimisharda" is questionable. One myth takes value from ArthaShastra and another like this takes from Mahabharata. BOTH are NOT mathematical textbooks. Plus, the value of the unit "Nimesha" is questionable. I literally spent 3 hours straight trying to figure out the mathematical values they derived from the scratch and found out that it gives out contradicting values. Also the blink of an eye is not 0.2112 s, it is around 300 milliseconds but ofcourse this value which is calculated by "modern science" will not be used because the desired result will not be obtained. They just knew the final value and then inserted back the units to as to come to "close enough" answer. Also, the value of "Nimesha" arrived through the system of Vedic units, the value is 0.43 s. Funny, because they are not using the value which is mentioned in Vedas(and Wikipedia) to derive at the conclusion of what Vedas say!

Then again, why on earth would Sayana state a fact of such high importance in a so casual manner? The whole context of the phrase also is not presented. Plus, the verse is about Sun, and not light. And Science have to declare what are the methods which were used to come at the value, rather than just dabbling with figures.


                                        

Distance between Sun and Earth is Mentioned in “Hanuman Chalisa”- An Ancient Prayer

This is just a crazy one. Even Amitabh Bachchan tweeted about it once.

Two lines of Hindu Prayer ” Hanuman Chalisa” computes this distance with great simplicity.

“! जुग सहस्त्र योजन पर भानु, लील्यो ताहिमधुर फल जानू !”

This means that Sun (भानु) is at a distance of  Juug Sahastra Yojans (जुग सहस्त्र योजन- Distance Unit in Hindi)

According to following conversion practices that are in use as per Hindu Vedic Literature-

1 Juug = 12000

1 Sahastra= 1000

1 Yojan = 8 Miles

Thus

12000 X 1000 X 8 =  96,000,000  miles

1 mile = 1.6 kms

This further implies that distance is  96,000,000 * 1.6 kms = 153,600,000 Kms

 Before, my readers go further, I would like to go back and read the statement again. If you cannot point out the mitake, then either you are blind or didn't study Physics well. They multiplied time with distance to get distance! Jug is a unit of time(Also, the value 12000 is questionable because we don't know if it's Deva's years or human years) and Yojan is a unit of distance. They just multiplied them together because OH Why Not?

Also, funny that Yojana now became 8 miles. When they had to prove about the speed of light, Yojana was 9 miles.

Throwing coins in rivers

There is a tradition to throw coins in order to get your wish fullfilled. But may be these proponents have a rather brilliant wish- May people believe my nonsense.

The general reasoning given for this act is that it brings Good Luck. However, scientifically speaking, in the ancient times, most of the currency used was made of copper unlike the stainless steel coins of today. Copper is a vital metal very useful to the human body. Throwing coins in the river was one way our fore-fathers ensured we intake sufficient copper as part of the water as rivers were the only source of drinking water. Making it a custom ensured that all of us follow the practice.

Simple chemistry will tell you that Copper, like most metals undergo oxidation and it will form a protective layer over it so the coin won't let release copper for long time and it is a waste of- MONEY!. Also, I think drinking water in a copper vessel would be a lot useful method rather than making this stupid custom and wait for the lineages to realize the 'actual importance' of this years later!

Wait a second! They said river! River! River! River! How on Earth will throwing coins in the river which flows will make you intake the metal? Bad science as well as Bad logic Booooo........!

And this is just not it. They have all kinds of woo laden "Science" behind the namaskaram(acupressure for removing germs and also you can stay away from the germs of others ) , and by touching feet, how you can "transfer" the "energy" from one man to another(shaking hands gives germs but touching feet doesn't. Because "circuits" and "cosmic waves"), or whether kumkum is a sniper target for all the "peaceful energies" of the cosmos, and how we it turns out the plants and trees we worship like Tulsi and Peepal(Sorry, Neem bruh I feel for you!) are extremely important for their medicinal purposes(I thought ancient Hindus did it the other way around) and so on. Ayurveda propounders have practically convinced the public that everything which is natural is good for health and everything which is made through "western"(yeah in India we divide Science too!) science is bad and is a conspiracy to rob off the India from its wealth. In a lot of research conducted Ayurveda does not seems to be so effective anything more than a placebo. Yes, the herbs are of certain value and the credit seriously goes to the one who discovered them but Science actually works on them to tune up their qualities so that they are more beneficial. Although I don't see much harm in Ayurveda(and it is not as silly as Homeopathy) but blindly believing it will not take you anywhere. As I always point out, Hinduism is great, only if you care enough to understand it. It is vast and deep and magical. But I like to separate spiritual treasures like Upanishads and Geeta as Dharmic and  Vedanta literature to not club them up with some nonsense like this.

Since the New Age people are more popular with their crap like The Secret and quantum woo, you probably won't find these myths in the Internet you use. But, due to some past life "Karma" if you happen to come across things like Vyamanika Shastra(inspite of being proven wrong again and again) you are aware. 

No, I am not ridiculing any tradition nor undermining it. I consider that the tradition should be preserved through honest means and for it is, rather than being guided by magical thinking. One more thing, my dear friend has started a technical blog where he is writing about his projects and he will be sharing the Arduino cookbook by Jeremy Blum if you subscribe him here-  The Free Electron

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