Scientist or a Poet

Today in Isha Yoga Class we were discussing about “Miracles”. This thought was fascinating to me and thought would make a good topic to blog.

Life can be viewed and experienced broadly in two ways - a person seeks logical explanation for every atom that moves, gets convinced with a scientific answer and thus for him nothing is a miracle. Everything sits, stands, moves and withers away based on a law/theory. The way the world functions is by itself a science. There is nothing that happens that he perceives of which does not have a scientific reasoning or explanation. Nothing is a MIRACLE.

The other one is the poet - according to him EVERYTHING is a miracle. A beautiful fresh flower blooming in the garden, the early morning sun, a baby’s heart throbbing in the mother’s womb, a tiny seed transforming itself into a tree, anything and everything that god created is a miracle and romanticizes it.

When I was reflecting on these thoughts today I realized every human being is a mixture of both. Sometime the scientist in us is dominating putting forth questions, asking for logical reasoning otherwise we would have never had so many inventions, discoveries, life saving drugs, etc., When the poet in us dominates we experience the world instead of just questioning and seeking answers…we enjoy the beach view, fall in love with a baby’s smile and do things that bring us joy. What will be the world without poetry and romance, just a warehouse of robots…isn’t it?
Let the thought flow…let me know your musings…

ZORRO

In the loving memory of my dog Zorro...

My dog Zorro died at the age of 7 this morning..He was sick for the past one week and was diagnosed of Renal Failure (sudden kidney failure), unfortunately there was no Kidney transplant or Dialysis possible. He passed away quietly during the wee hours.

He has been my first pet and I think the last too because the mental trauma the family has undergone due to his illness was tremendous...Never want to go through something like this again...

I pray for his soul...

Himalayan Jaunt - Part 3

The downhill proved a little difficult by goda, as one had to really hold on to the horse’s saddle. Anyway we took lesser time to climb downhill and reached Gowrikund safely and in one piece.

Our next Yatra was towards Badrinath. Badrinath was about 200 kms from Kedar. We decided to cover it in one stretch without any breaks. The travel towards Badri was also very memorable. Lots of people travel to Badri by walk. On the way I saw a man along with his family walking towards Badri. You may ask what is so amusing about this. This guy was completely nude and was walking towards Badri. The kind of Bakthi this man had exhibited was awe-inspiring.

The weather was a little rough and it was beginning to drizzle. Landslides were very common in that part of the mountains, which we were travelling. This fact kept all of us awake inspite of our tired bodies.

We traveled besides the frozen Alaknanda River towards Bardri.

We reached Badri around 3:00 PM. We met the head priest who was known to the guide. He was given the title “Rawal Ji’ and was greatly respected by the locals. The conversation with Rawal Ji proved to be a great learning experience. This man from Kerala was speaking of the National Integration that existed in our country that may not be apparent in the surface but when we observe the nitty grit’s of the practices followed one could appreciate it. He was speaking of Adishankara who traveled by foot the length and breadth of this country establishing practices in temples to restore the National integration, which was slowly detirioting. He says the priests of the Badri temple are always from down south – Kerala and pandits from North India conduct the Pooja in Rameshwaram. There are a number of practices, which were established by him (Adishankara), which keeps India intact if not for any other thing. When we left the place, each one of us I am sure could not take of the round chubby “Tejaswi” face from our minds.

We had a great Darshan of Badri Vishal, Matha Lakshmi and Kuber. There was a Tapth Kund in Badri too.
We then proceeded towards “Mana” the last Indian village in the Indo – China border. We reached there in about 10 minutes from Badri. The last teashop in the Indo – China Border was attracting a lot of attention from the tourists. We also visited the Vyasa Gufa (The cave of Ved Vyasa) where he composed all his great works from Ramayana to the compiling of the four Vedas. The cave was charged with energy I should say. The vibrations were too good for even a lay man to miss. Then we had the rarest of darshans of river Saraswathi that originates in one of the glaciers near Badri. She is supposed to be an underground phenomenon and even in the triveni sangam at Allahabad one cannot see Saraswathi.

We did a bit of shopping in Badri. I bought a lot Malas, which were made of Sunstones, Spatika etc.,

It was about 7 PM when we left Badri and started our downhill Yatra towards Pipalkoti. We stayed overnight in the same Cottage and started our next leg of the yatra.

We visited a number of small but significant temples on the way back to Srinagar. We visited the TrijugNarayan temple, Dhari Devi temple etc., We finally landed in Srinagar the next day for lunch.
From there we proceeded to Rishikesh – Rishikesh is a very spiritually vibrant place with a number of Ashrams. We stayed at Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s Ashram in the Banks of river Ganga. We also visited places like Swami Sivananda Ashram, Ram, Lakshman Jula etc.,

I had a bad ligament tear near the Lakshman jula, which I carried home as a gift from Lakshman temple.

We traveled back to Haridwar and visited Manasa Devi temple and the Chandi Devi temples. These temples are situated in small Hillocks on the either sides of Haridwar. We had to travel by rope cars to these temples and were great fun.

One the way back to Delhi we visited Matura (Krishna janma bhumi) and Vrindavan gardens where the Raas – Leela took place. The Raas – leela grounds is filled with Tulsi Trees. The people of this place say that each of these leaves is a gopi and even today at midnight the Raas – leela of Krishna and thousands of Gopi’s take place. The windows of the houses that face the Raas – Leela grounds are always shut.

We returned to Delhi and flew back to Chennai with a great treasure in the form of Memories of this trip, which has left behind indelible experiences and marks on our lives.

Whew! I can’t believe it is already the first week of March and today is my last day at OfficeTiger where I have spent most of my time in the last 3 years. Never took a break except for Lunch or coffee! A part of me is feeling very sad knowing the emotional fool I am, keep repeating to myself not to get "senti"...after all "you may fall in love with work, but never with the company".

Had a long counseling session with my friend B, he convinced me not feel guilty and insecure about taking a brief hiatus. Objectively speaking - This insecure feeling seeps in because I know for sure that I am not going to have a five figure amount credited into my bank account at the end of this month...that means no splurging…no shopping…no credit cards... Two other questions constantly pops up whenever I sit and think about this What do I tell recruiters that I have been doing all those break days? The truth might be a bit difficult to understand or they may think I am a lazy sob who may be prone to these urges. The impact of this break on my career.
Looking at the brighter side, I can do things which I have been wanting do for a very LONG time now. Here is my priority list,
Go on a vacation
Take driving lessons - Never had a chance to learn car driving. All my friends now know to drive; ironically I was the first one among my friends to drive a bike to school and was proud about it.
Spend time with my daughter
Get my body into shape - Healthy lifestyle is all over the place. Rediscover the joy of fitting into my old jeans.
Being a staunch believer of miracles (Shilpa, remember those exam days when we used tell each other - "don't believe in miracles, rely on them") will turn a new leaf from Monday :)