Life is an illusion

When a person fears something, he becomes deluded, and is unable to think clearly. Makes mistakes often and as a result, faces further difficulties. So what does one fear? As we progress in our age, and become wise old men/women, there aren't many things we need to fear.  We don't fear the loss of our beauty, as it is a long gone. We don't fear the loss of our youth, again same argument.  We only have to fear jaraa mratyu - old age and death. And of course vyadhi - disease.  But me, I don't fear vyadhi much, because by God's grace, I am reasonably healthy. Except for occasional digestive disorders.  I think I fear uncertainty. For example take today - I had sudden stomach cramp. Now I started my endless cycle of thought-process. What might have caused it - did I have slight burning in my tongue as well? Do I have food poisoning? How and why?  Unfortunately these questions are not easy to answer. More so for me, as I don't eat healthy and over eat many days. Many...

 I was happily writing ashtavakragita translation. Then I went back and saw that my viveka chudamani translation was incomplete and in a bad shape. So started fixing it - most of the work I do is to change colors and fonts and add some links. And reading and confirming that I understand the words and they are typo free.  Then some how I started reading about Sankhya philosophy. It appeared simpler and more non-abstract than advaita philosophy of Shankara.  So I discontinued Chudamani too. And have been currently watching youtube shorts and cursing the day I was born . And when I don't feel great due to any reason, I start to wonder - should I start my reciting again. Like all semi-believers, I try this clutch when I don't understand what to do.  It is funny to be thinking about repeating some prayers verses in an unknown language while trying to understand Sankhya. Because though Sankhya is an astika(accepts the authority of Vedas) philosophy, it does not say there...

For all the 'leader' of the world title we have obtained recently and all the 5-10-20 trillion economy we will soon be having, we may not after all be a very great nation. See, in all these 76 years, we have never had any coups either by the military or citizens. Unlike all our neighbors. We have never had any capitol hill kind of riot - where people collected all their danda- machchu and other handy weapons and seized our parliament.  Strangely enough, there were no coups, even  in previous regimes of last 70 years, when not very brave, not very patriotic, not very great politicians were feigning to rule our country. Some thing might be right( or wrong?)  either with our politicians or with our people to have had a successful democracy for 3/4th of century. Touch wood.

ನಿನ್ನೆ ಒಂದು ಯೂಟ್ಯೂಬ್ ವಿಡಿಯೋ ನೋಡುತ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದೆ. ಅದರ ಕಂಟೆಂಟ್ ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟರ್ ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶದ ಒಂದು ವಿವಾದಾತ್ಮಕ ರಾಜ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಅವನು ಹೋಗಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಜನರ ಜೊತೆ ಸಂವಾದ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದ. ಒಬ್ಬ ಹೇಳಿದ - ಅವರಲ್ಲಿ ಟ್ರಾನ್ಸಫಾರ್ಮರ್ ಪದೇ ಪದೇ ಸುಟ್ಟು ಹೋಗುತ್ತದೆ - ಯಾಕೆ? ಯಾಕೆಂದರೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಕೇವಲ ದಿನದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಗಂಟೆ ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ ಇರುತ್ತದೆ - ಆ ಸಮಯದಲ್ಲೇ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಜನ ಅವರ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನೆಲ್ಲಾ ಮಾಡಲು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಓವರ್ ಲೋಡಾಗಿ ಟ್ರಾನ್ಸಫಾರ್ಮರ್ ಪದೇ ಪದೇ ಸುಡುತ್ತದೆ. ಅವರು ಕಂಪ್ಲೇಟ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಮಾಡಿ ಸೋತು ತಮ್ಮ ದುಡ್ಡಲ್ಲೇ ಟ್ರಾನ್ಸಫಾರ್ಮರ್ ರಿಪೇರಿ ಮಾಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬ ಹೇಳಿದ - ಅವರ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗೆ ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೇ ೨೦೧೬ರಲ್ಲಿ. ನಾನು ತೆರೆದ ಬಾಯಿ ಮುಚ್ಚಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನಮ್ಮ ಊರೂ ಕುಗ್ರಾಮವೇ - ಆದರೆ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ್ದು - ನನಗೆ ನೆನಪಿದೆ - ನಮ್ಮ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಕರೆಂಟ್ ಬಂದಿದ್ದು  ಸುಮಾರರು ೧೯೭೫-೭೬ರಲ್ಲಿ. ಇವತ್ತಿಗೆ ಸುಮಾರು ಐವತ್ತು ವರ್ಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ. ಅವರು ಪಾಪ ನಗುತ್ತ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾರೆ - ನಾವು ಇನ್ನೂ ೧೯ನೇ ಶತಮಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದೀವಿ. ಅದಾಯಿತು ಬಿಡಿ - ಜನ ಅದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಗೋಳು ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವದು ನೌಕರಿಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ. ಯಾವುದೇ ತರಹದ ಸರಕಾರೀ ಅಥವಾ ಖಾಸಗಿ ನೌಕರಿಗಳಿಲ್ಲ. ಓದಿರುವ ಯುವಕ-ಯುವತಿಯರು ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಖಾಲಿ ಕುಳಿತಿರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಪಿ. ಎಚ್. ಡಿ. ಮಾಡಿದವರು ಸಹ ಕೆಲಸವಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ...