An Illusion

adaivadar mun kadugEy AnAlum malayAy kATTi

adainda pin malayEy AnAlum kadugAi kATTum mAya manam

- Ramana Maharishi

Translation: Mind is that illusion which perceives a tiny mustard seed to be a huge mountain until it is attained, and a mountain to be as insignificant as such a seed once it has been attained.

This quote came across my mind as I read the following story:

Once there lived a stone cutter. He was not satisfied with his position in life. One day he was passing through a wealthy merchant's house. Through the gate which was open, he noticed many possessions and important visitors in the merchants's house. He though that the merchant much be very powerful. He became jealous and wished that he could be like the merchant.

To his great surprise, the stone cutter suddenly became the merchant, enjoying more luxuries and power than he had ever imagined. One day, he was standing on the road when he saw a high official pass by. He was carried in a beautiful chair, accompanied by attendants and escorted by soldiers beating gongs. Everyone, no matter how wealthy, had to bow down before the procession. He thought, 'How powerful that official is! I wish I could be a high official!'

Then, he became the high official, and he was carried everywhere in his beautiful chair. One day it was extremely hot, and he felt very uncomfortable in the sticky chair. He looked up at the sun. It was so bright and beautiful in the sky. He thought, 'How powerful the sun is! I wish that I could be the sun!'

He became the sun! And he enjoyed his powerful position over everything. One day, a huge black cloud moved between him and the earth, so that his light could no longer shine of everything below. He was surprised. He thought, 'How powerful that hugh black storm cloud is! How I wish I could be a cloud!

He became the storm cloud, flooding the fields and villages. Soon he found that he was being pushed away by some great force, and realized that it was the wind. He thought, 'How powerful the wind is! I wish to become the wind!'

He became the wind and powerfully blew over the roofs of houses and through forests. Soon, he came across something that would not move, no matter how forcefully he blew against it. It was a huge and towering rock. He thought, 'How powerful that rock is! I wish to become the rock!'

Then he became the rock, more powerful than anything else on earth. But as he stood there, he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel into the hard surface, and felt himself being changed. He thought, 'What could be more powerful than a rock?'

He looked down and saw a stone cutter far below him!

nenjukkul mutham ittAL

For about a month now I am totally lost in the song(s) - kaNNathil muthammittAl. Be it the female / male version it reaches deep within me and takes me to a different plane; read with goose bumps.

Just when I was going crazy about it I got link to a youtube video (removed since *grrr*) of a girl singing the song in a malayalam talent show for kids. She had me in tears left me wanting for go prostrate at her feet. Silly as it may sound this is probably me gaining the vulnerability that I have been taught to loose.

As I write this I am wishing to feel this same feeling of bliss as the last thing I'd ever feel :).

Don't Worry

Sometimes in life things get very uncertain. Something like cat on a wall. And for a while you worry what is gonna happen. Interestingly nothing might happen and yet we spend our time worrying. It is the fear that the society has instilled in us from childhood. After lot of contemplation you decide it not worth it and get on with other things in life.

But then people still continue to comfort you saying "Don't worry, everything will work out fine!". Agreed it is a moral support at a conscious level. But I wonder if all it would do is remind the person to worry :D. It kinda makes sure you don't forget to worry. He he.

What would it take to get over the fear driven attitude engraved as deep as our subconsciousness? I would wanna take a shot at it.

World Peace

We all talk of world peace and how our life is inflicted by lack of peace in the world around us. I heard this story in context of explaining this.

A small kid was waiting on the shores of a sea. The kid's mother asked - "What are you waiting for? Why are you not taking your bath?".

The kid replied - "No No! Let all the waves settle down; then I'll take my bath."

This is how many of us are when it comes to peace. For certain we can make our perception of the world leave us without conflict and in peace. Yet, we disregard it and wait for the world to be in peace before we would.

On a related note, the more people try to bring peace in the world there only seem to be less of it ;). Think about it. Every war starts with the note to bring peace. It is interesting that we spend our efforts in vain efforts to bring peace to the rest of the world even before we realize peace within ourselves.

My Cousin Vinny

After quite some time I saw this hilarious comedy thanks to my friends recommendation. It was much more convincing since he had watched it before.

Really neat movie with a nice entertaining flow all through. I can probably watch it again for the dialogues. If you ever get a chance to watch this movie please pay attention to the dialogues. Thats when you'd get the most fun out of it. A good movie for light hearted evening (perhaps not with the kids though).

And then this movie Surrogates! A sci-fi flick with the regular story and action. Something unexplained in the end, but otherwise watchable once. Not really thought provoking or anything. Not the first of its kind but interesting. Twists, turns and a happy ending.

Riculous Products

Is it so hard for people to think how the customer would use a piece of software? Why in the world would someone write an installer for a piece of software that customers would potentially use only a few times on a machine? Beats my mind.

And so does Intel. I've been trying to use the Virtual XP Mode in Windows 7 and as part of the process I get advised to use in Intel Processor Identification Utility and check for the support. Now how many times would one want to use that? Not even a handful!

With such software plauging the PC world why wouldn't Windows suck? The OS is by itself a marvelous piece of work only surpassed by its monumental failure for having given power to the developers thinking they are *smart*. Most of them are NOT!

It is pretty disastrous to see a reputable software house coming up with something like this. End-customers end up paying the price for the developers technical inadequacies. Welcome to the world of bang-for-the-buck!

This is one reason why Apple products rule while the others plain suck. They let the customers do what they need to (for most part, read - bearing enterprise users), and not forcing them to do things coz of their engineers inadequacies. Apple split the consumer world into two - those who love Apple products and those who would do anything not to buy one just coz they want to be different (or can't afford blah blah blah) from the crowd.

Nothing else matters

The only thing that matters in this world is me. Everything else is what I've been taught by society since I was a kid to hold on to, nourish, account for blah blah blah - family, friends, world affairs, work and all the diurnal things we do.

As long as these thing satisfies our ego we feel good about them and we live obliviously thinking they are the purpose of our existance. We happily faily to recognize that we exist despite it all.

But the moment they no longer satisfy my ego which at some point they will in our lives, it dawned on me that perhaps the ONLY thing that matters is me. Perhaps a fallback mechanism to fulfill my ego?

All of a sudden I don't care a damn about anything else! Don't care about the past, the future, those nearby, those far away. It all fades away, in my mind atleast if not my actions. All this while I keep up with all of the bondages, etiquette and nicety towards these attachments without any thought or deliberation. They seem to have become part of my reflexes.

Perhaps my situation is similar to those for whome every square meal is a struggle. Nothing else matters to them but to satisfy the hunger. Why would anything matter when in dire need of basic needs.

Strange that it is in our nature to live for the present moment while we spend a lifetime living for the so call future no one knows about. And here I am doing my part thinking so much instead of living my present, a plausible proof to my depraved mind.

Now, what a load of crap this was :D. I need a life!