When I look, The Universe disappears

That famous astronomer Carl Sagan would begin by telling that the Cosmos is everything that was, everything that is, everything that ever will be.

What is this Universe? Every day each one of us experience an unlimited variety of events, things, people and places. 

At times, we do ask, who really are we? what exactly is the world that we see, perceive, experience, enjoy , love and hate. Natural Philosophers, from the beginning of time have pondered over it. Everything has been investigated, questioned, theorized, explanations attempted, debated till this day. 

There is the infinitesimally small to the infinitely large scale of things in this world. Time and space forms the two dimensions of the infinitely large canvas on which an effervescent world is painted. There seems an infinite past, and an equally infinite future, both seem vague, unsure and misty as we move away from the NOW. 

We somehow come to the conclusion that, what I see and perceive alone exists. But what we perceive is so temporal, so transient. There was a time when none of them existed, there is a time when they exist, and then there is always a time when they no longer exist. 

We investigate the world with our perceptive powers. Perception is our only tool. I look at a thing, a stone maybe, I hold it in my hand, I perceive its weight, its texture, its color, I look deeper, I observe its composition, the patterns, the edges, the cracks, the ridges. 

I now want a closer look, a magnifying glass comes to help. I can see the finer details, I can see engaging patters of a finer degree. It appears as if its been very carefully crafted. the stone's surface is coarser than it appeared. I want to see more. I chisel a piece of the rock into a fine little sheet, now I engage a microscope, there is a whole world in that small piece of the rock. I can even see life, where I thought it was totally inert.

I look deeper, magnifying further, the cracks are really huge, the ridges are real deep, am I looking at a mountain range, or a tiny piece chipped off a stone? hard to tell.  I go deeper, more complex tools, I now take a tiny fraction of the chip, I can hardly see it with my eyes, things become vague, I am not sure what I am really looking at.

For a moment I can’t go any deeper. I realize my most trusted tool for perception, vision has reached its limits, it can no longer discriminate. Light cannot help me see anymore! what’s happening! After all when I see a thing, it’s the light bounced off that thing that I see. In fact I see only the impact of that reflected light in my retina. Actually I see only the impulse the retina sends through the nerves to my brain.

I am now looking at a scale so small, light cannot really help me here! I get innovative, I use tiny particles, smaller than an atom, I shoot them at my tiny object, and capture them behind. Based on what I receive it at the other side, I "guess" what is in my object. I see interesting things, the tiny little object is mostly empty. and at vast distances I see an occasional particle. nothing in between.

I build more powerful, scarily humongous gadgets, to see deeper. the more deeper I look, the more empty the object seems to be. No matter what my object of observation is, the result is the same. I want to know what these tiniest of the tiny little particles are. There is a garden of such particles, scientists give them exotic names, quarks, bosons and what not. Now I forget about the rock totally, I am interested in these particles. I want to "look" at them. I really cannot look at them any more. I can only guess.

My devices can only tell me such and such a particle may exist in a given space. When the particle detector "looks" at "a" particle, its gone! When it doesn't look, then a probability exists! The rock solid world collapses into a probability. It can be seen only as mathematical equations!

Sometimes I think the blind spot is a blessing, it helps me NOT to see, and hence makes the existence a possibility.

Knowing this liberates me from endless conflicts that is the result of me giving reality to this illusion.

Avatar

We all need Avatars. An Avatar is more than an identity. It is the very embodiment of existence. It is the entity that matters, An Avatar is the instrument with which we interact, with which we play, with which we experience. There are an infinite number of possibilities when we choose an avatar. Each time we choose a unique one. The Avatar is not only the external appearance, but the whole package of capabilities, likes and dislikes etc. There is a little bit of me in the game, but is highly influenced by the Avatar.

The Avatar tells the world who I am, or rather who I suppose the world wants to believe I am. sometimes I chose to play the King, I am all powerful, I win all the time, some other times I want to play a super hero, I can fly, save the world, sometimes I want to play a celebrity, I am mobbed by the masses, I am hunted for autographs, sometimes I want to take on the Avatar of a hawker, selling bangles on the road. Each Avatar gives me a unique experience. I enjoy role playing. I want to try all possible roles. It gives me different perspective every time.

Some day my Avatar is a leaf, Some other day its a dew drop, some other day I am the Sun, some days I simply don’t play. I am myself. I do get attached with some Avatar, I think I really am the Avatar, funny isn’t it. I soon get over it, and move on to my next Avatar. The Field of play is dynamic. It evolves as I play, no one programs or designs the game, it simply evolves. The next moment is created only at the next moment. An illusion of continuity is maintained to make it all interesting.

The game is neither totally randomized, nor deterministic. It gives an illusion of both. It gives an illusion of hope, and despair. If it doesn't I’ll simply quit the game. The game field is highly engrossing, it becomes more and more entertaining and complex as I keep playing. In the beginning when I am a novice, the game is simple, plain and easy. As long as I am satisfied with that, the game remains the same. Then one day I am bored, I think I have mastered it, and nothing more to do, suddenly there is a twist. A bolt from the blue. I am hooked again. I keep playing. over and over. Avatar after Avatar. A complex series of relationships gets built. A community is formed. Logs are maintained, competitions are held.

I almost forget who I am. I am not sure which Avatar I truly am.

It takes me a long long time to figure out that I am not the Avatar, and that I really don't need to play . But If do play, I do need one!

Knowing this liberates me from being a game addict. I start enjoying the games, I stop worrying about my Avatars.

A Theory of Everything

Science is about observation of physical phenomena and provide an logical explanation to it. By Physical phenomena we mean whatever that can be observed. Observation is defined as the ability to sense the presence or absence, and a quantitative measure. These phenomena are entirely available to us through the five senses only. The five senses can be enhanced with apparatus such as microscope, telescope, and more sophisticated devices, but eventually sensed by our five senses.

We observe a multitude of phenomena in the world. from the vastness of outer space and its various objects such as stars and galaxies and black holes etc, which are observed through the eyes, telescopes, radio telescopes and other sensors, to the microscopic and sub atomic realm of particles which are announced by sophisticated devices such as the particle accelerators and particle detectors.

The phenomena that we observe has been steadily increasing over time, and the more we observe the more we discover. The discoveries of new phenomena constantly revises our understanding and results in newer explanations. This has been the history of science. Science has been striving to provide accurate explanation of all such observable phenomenon. There is always enough unexplained phenomena at any given point in time. Such observations results in multiple hypothesis. A hypothesis is an explanation for something but not proved and accepted.

The more sophisticated our ability to observe, the more we observe. This results in newer and newer concepts that needs explanation. science catches up and keeps providing explanations. Science also tries to bring all observable phenomenon into a single unified theory.

The unexplained phenomenon, as well as the elusive unified theory leads to a multitude of hypothesis. 

Can this never ending cycle of discovery and hypothesis and successful explanations ever have an end? Can all phenomenon can be explained and done with once and for all? Science thinks it is possible. Every scientific community thinks it will be eventually possible. It has been the case in all of humanity. When it comes to science, there is no difference in the approaches in the different peoples of the world. East or west, it is always a rational, objective approach. different civilizations have provided different explanations for the as yet unexplained phenomenon, but once it is explained by science the matter is considered settled. some civilizations are poetic and provide very romantic explanations yet scientific, some provide it simply and directly. But the litmus test is that the explanation should be rational, objective and observable.

At any given epoch there will always be phenomenon that is fully explained, some partially explained and some without an explanation. this is not due to any inability or limitation of any kind. It is the design of the universe. If you observe the multitude of phenomenon, it begs a question..'Why?'. Why a million different species ? why so many types of birds, animals, plants? the vastness of things and space exists to provide an almost infinite playground to have a exciting experience that we call life.

Imagine a world where there was only one kind of animal, say the humans, and one kind of plant, say the mango tree. and one kind of matter say iron and so on.. will that be an exciting world to live? It is the variety of things, and variety within things that causes experiences of interest. Similarly a completely known universe will fail to provide any excitement. It is the unknown element in everything that sustains interest in life. The moment we know exactly everything, it will become a dull world. So the Universe keeps generating newer and newer things.

Imagine a Cinema hall. The screen is blank to begin with. We go to a movie. we go there for the experience. and it is exciting based on the surprises and the unknown and the newness of what we see. and as time goes by we see hundreds of movies on the very same screen in the cinema hall. If someone begins to think, that they can figure out all the movies that will ever be screened in the hall, it may be an interesting thought, but if he eventually does, then he would have killed cinema. 

Same is the pursuit of the unified theory in Science. While it results in wonderful knowledge that eventually gets utilized for increasing our comforts, a pursuit towards understanding and explaining all phenomenon will always be eluding. 

When we understand that it is not a limitation but a design for entertainment, we experience a joyful existence.

The Difficulties of Knowledge

Knowing is a difficult process. 

To know that everything is made of atoms does not happen intuitively. A long painful process of observations, contemplation, looking deep, building sophisticated equipment, and accidental discovery and many more things are involved in arriving at this knowledge.

Understanding life, the world, the Universe is a very unnatural process. No living being spends so much time and energy as the human in the process of accumulating knowledge. Most of our knowledge serves the basic purpose of existence or living such as eating, sleeping, procreating and entertaining. We gather more and more knowledge that will eventually aid us in these basic needs.

As vast amounts of time passes, our knowledge has sophisticated beyond the ordinary. Abstractions such as mathematics and computer instructions dominate a large part of our world. Our probes into every aspect of this physical world, has resulted in vast amount of complex structures of information.

In this day and age defined as the information era, it is obvious we are building a behemoth called knowledge. We want an explanation for everything, want to know the reason behind things, we are relentlessly pursuing the control of everything, an ability to be able to manage life at the most atomic level.

In all of this, we do get disconnected with our primary self, a simple body and a simple mind, that simply craves to exist without sophistication.

Letting go of this necessity to know, the need for explanations, the craving for a 'cause and effect' relationship and an endless pursuit to control our lives is liberation and enables us to get back to our original state of joyful existence.

Authenticity of Information

In the pursuit of knowledge, and deeper understanding of life and the world around us, there comes many a times a situation where we need to stop and think about validity of things.

Whether it is a new scientific knowledge, or a philosophical viewpoint, or an explanation about certain events, the information that we get needs authentication. 

Laws of nature as discovered by scientists from time to time, create a stir in the minds of the curious. They are often validated through experiments and observations, and independently verified by many sources. 

Everything is made of Atoms. Speed of Light is constant. Some of angles within a triangle is 180 degrees. Fermat's Last Theorem. Godel's incompleteness Theorem. Theories, Theorems, Conjectures, proofs and disproofs. Often times we are never a direct participant in any of these. It is mostly hearsay. I have personally never seen an atom, whether through my nakes eye, nor through a cloud chamber, nor observed particles in a collider. 

The validity of most of the information seems to be from its use and application. We are able to do several things as a result of using these theories. Hence we conclude these must be true. As long as we have a framework in which we can test and validate information, we are comfortable, and with our faculty of thinking using Logic as its main tool we are able to navigate true and false in this ever changing world.

Then there are those strange situations, where we do not have the luxury of observation and experimentation. Where was I before I was born, what is death, where will I go after I die? We are stuck here.

Many theories exist, many religions have been created for this purpose, many texts, scriptures, philosophies.. but how do we authenticate such information? How do we travel those mysteries, if we get stuck at the very begin at this apparent inability to accept or reject?

This leads us to a very interesting process of finding out, what is Authentication? Does authenticity really exist? A deep questioning will reveal that we simply 'trust', 'believe' or 'accept' every single piece of information. No single piece of information can ever be authenticated to the absolute extent. All information is built one on top of the other, and as we go deeper and deeper, each begins to fall apart from the real of authenticity and move into assumptions, and belief. Be it the Atomic theory , or Gravitational Waves.

The only self evident truth being that 'I exist', all other information can never ever be verified. This startling revelation will allow us to travel thoughts and ideas which otherwise appear not to have the ability to be authenticated and probe this world deeper and ultimately realize the truth.  This liberates us from the need for authentication and also from the clutches of a single reality.

Information vs Knowledge

We undoubtedly live in an information era. All activities revolve around gathering and using information. This is an era of rapid communication, and connectivity driven by information. People around the world are becoming more and more informed. Getting information and understanding it seems to be very natural and at ease. This has been the culmination of a long evolution of intelligence, and ability to use logic to build information structures, one on top of the other.

We have reached a stage where we have an enormous amount of information as well as it being very complex in nature. Advances in science as well as any field of endeavor is presented for laymen and comprehended relatively easily. Analogies and pedagogical tools help us understand complex topics such as relativity and light year.

While our ability to gather and understand information has increased to a great extent, converting information to Knowledge is a different matter altogether. Knowledge is internalized information, where one begins to live life in sync with what one has understood.

For example, the information that 'Everything is made up of atoms' is reasonably understandable. Through logic , and primitive axioms, one can arrive at this information. But this stays as mere information. It stays at a intellectual level, and available for discussions and contemplations. Converting such a fundamental piece of information into Knowledge will liberate one from the miseries of life.

If everything is made of atoms,(here by atom we can mean the most fundamental particle, such as a Higgs-Boson) then whatever we see is made of atoms. A blade of grass, a cloud, a waterfall, a sun, dirt, food, our body, each and every organ in our body, and so on.. are all made of the exact same atom.

Atoms are clean, they are pristine. There are no ugly atoms, no dirty atoms, no good atoms, or bad ones. Even the cancer cell contains the very same atoms as  that of life giving oxygen. The irritating neighbor is made of the exact same atom as myself. If one searches the body all one finds is the atom. The individual self is never to be found. The identify claiming to be the self is not to be seen. only billions and billions of the very same atom. Everywhere. All over the Universe, the very same thing.

A deep and sustained contemplation on this fundamental idea becomes profound Knowledge. A world made entirely of atoms, without any idea of good or bad, likes and dislikes cannot be the cause of any kind of trouble. All emotions, thoughts, ideas and stories happen in an illusory layer over and above the atomic realm.That extra step to Knowing something from it being mere information transforms life, and in this case results in Joy.

If everything is made up of atoms and nothing but atoms, then it is indeed easy to 'Imagine'.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Thanks John Lennon for such a profound song.

Past or Present

It is amazing how sometimes the most mundane of things can be incredibly interesting. The other day I was watching the Sunrise on the shores of the ancient seaport of Mamallapuram. With the beautiful Shore Temple on my side, I was pondering how we are witnessing the past in the form of this timeless sixth Century wonder. A few moments later the Sun rose above the sea, a beautiful orange ball of fire, making the sea and the waves glow like fire.

As I kept watching the sea, the reflections , the waves, the people swimming and the fishing boats near the horizon, it dawned on me that the picture I was witnessing had multiple samples of time. The sea and the waves and the boat were from the present time. The shining Sun however was from the past. It was about eight and a half minutes old. I was witnessing the past and the present at the same time. An incredibly miraculous thing isn't it?  

A friend further elaborated me that in fact it was not just two, but infinitely many. Light from each of the objects reaches my eye at the same time, after bouncing off from them at different times. so it was an infinitely many continuous  frames from different times. All from the past.

Indeed you can only see the past!! time would have past however small between when it bounced from the object and hit your eye. So we can never really observe anything in the present! So what we seem to see never existed! the reality that we seem to think of is in fact an illusion. 

Parmenides and Zeno used the argument of the impossibility of movement to the same conclusion of the illusory nature of reality.

Realizing that nothing is real, and what we see is not  what you get, we can enjoy this absurdly inexplicable life.

25 Ideas that captivated me

Over time I had been introduced to various ideas, and some stand out. These were encountered over a long period of time, and each one of them was a turning point in my understanding of things. I was recollecting some that had a great impact and made me ponder over things, and question my understanding. Here are some such ideas in no particular order (except perhaps the last one). Someday I would like to write about each of them

Everything is made of Atoms

Light Year and the Scale of the Universe

Dictionary

Stereoscopic Vision

Grammar

Euclid's Elements

Non-Euclidean Geometry

Mathematics is Made up

Peano's  Axioms


Things that can think - Flip-Flop and Digital Electronics

Every problem is Mathematically a Search problem.

Abstract Algebra

Calculus

Algorithm

Mathematical Model of a Computer program

Recursion

Parsing

Bresenham's Line Drawing Algorithm

Fractals

Godel's incompleteness theorem

Double Split Experiment

The Difficulty of Defining/Understanding anything absolutely.

Artificial Intelligence

Immortality

Who is the Knower

Multiple truths and Higher dimensional space

As we evolve, we begin to seek. We seek to know. We seek to know about the phenomenal world, life, and our place in it. We seek to get answers. We try to explain. There are myriad approaches and a million explanations.

From infinitesimally small to the impossibly large, from the inanimate to the most dynamic, from non-living to highly evolved living beings, there is a vast range in the texture of life. What is totally insignificant to one plane is of utmost important to another.

Then there is something that seems rational, that seems to be beyond inconsistencies, and it tries to explain life, systematically. Sometimes we seem to get answers. sometimes not, and more importantly all questions are not answered. Then comes religion, which in itself comes in a million flavors. It helps us understand, but in a million ways. Here again at times we seem to get an answer.

Then there are philosophers, they seem to give us some glimpse of the truth. again the answers seem to be coming in trickles. Sometimes love and loss and emotions seem to give us an answer. Art seems to give us some clue.

As we observe the various such systems, there are definitely cases where we seem to get into a certain moment of truth. Where we emotionally and intellectually seem to have that moment of enlightenment. But that seems momentary. It has a certain space and time attached to it. It doesn't seem to last and we get back to our clueless state again. 

But this seemingly accidental brush with truth, has an analogy.

Space as we know is three dimensional. But it need not be absolute. If we were a single dimensional creature, living in a single dimensional world, we would live on a line. we move back and forth, and that's about it. But if the world were two dimensional, then we as single dimensional creatures would experience anomalies, such as some one disappearing in front of us and appearing behind us. This is a simple possibility in two dimensions. with a line traversing from the front and goes behind me.

The same can be extended to two dimensions, and also to the third dimension.Each dimension offers a certain view which is standard, and experiences an anomaly when the next higher dimension intersects. Also it becomes obvious that a higher order truth introduced into a lower order reality is bound to appear as an anomaly!

Just as these anomalies point to the existence of higher dimensions in space, the accidental glimpse of truth and moments of enlightenment points to the existence of a higher order truth. Seeking and reaching that results in a Joyful life.

Tasting your own Blood

The world is a place of entertainment,  experience and enjoyment. Myriad things form part of the place we call earth. Shopping malls, fast cars, Theater, Sports Arena, Sky scrapers, Cruise ships, ski resorts, Temples, Hospitals, Hospices and so many many other things. News keeps us entertained, new ideas keep us excited. Gadgets bring you delight. In this seemingly never ending sequence of events, there seems to be many sources for happiness.

A tiny little tale from the ancient lore, talks about a dog chewing on a dry bone, and as it keeps chewing, its gums begin to bleed, mistaking the blood to be coming from the bone, the dog chews even more enthusiastically, and tasting its own blood and feeling happy.

The happiness we derive out of objects and events and people and places, are compared to the happiness derived from the bone. The world in itself is like the dry bone and cannot provide happiness, it is the inherent happiness in our own self that gets expressed by engaging with the world. The wise understand this fallacy and give little importance to the events of the world.

There are two parts to this story, the first lets us know that the world is not the source of happiness, and hence we can care less about it and be blissful ourselves. This tells us that a fancy car, or a luxurious house is not essential for us to be happy. Though they provide us with comforts we need not crave for it mistaking for the source of happiness. 

The second part tells us that though the bone is not the source for the blood, and similarly the world is not the source for happiness, the bone does enable the dog to taste its own blood. Similarly the world enables us to reflect our own happiness on it and express itself. Similar to the Sun unable to see itself, can only see its very own light by being reflected by objects outside, the world and its events provides us with materials to reflect our own happiness.

Knowing this, and putting the world in its right place, liberates us from the cravings of specific events and possession of objects, titles and stuff and enables us lead a joyful life.

Perfect imperfection

We all are perfectionists at various levels. We need certain things in a certain way. We want people to obey traffic rules, our kids to listen to us, our neighbors to be friendly, a plastic free world, and our politicians to be corruption-free, well that desire we have overcome. Point is we have our set of things to be in a way we want them to be, and certain other things we learn to live with.

Our experiences are only interpretations of events. Events themselves lack the power to create an experience, its our faculty of interpretation that enables us to experience things. As we get to understand this, we learn to see the happenings of life, in a different manner. Be it day to day events, or life altering things. As we become more refined in this, and we begin taking things on our stride, life gets into a monotonic rhythm. 

Then out of the blue something happens that makes you go mad beyond your wildest dreams. Now how did that happen? In spite of our composure, and our complete understanding of the meaninglessness of life, and the fallacy of taking anything hard, some events do get us! This is the greatest feature of life! It keeps bringing up surprises, and makes you feel alive. You think you have got it all, and then this happens!

A totally desire less state will liberate us from the negativity of such situations, contemplating on the nature of reality, and beauty and depth of this creation, helps us stay at the right distance from life.

The world is an illusion, and the frameworks of likes and dislikes create endless structures for living. Realizing this, and staying in this knowledge, helps us get back on our feet after feeling the blow that life just gave. If you think about it, this life is indeed perfectly imperfect!

Theories, theories and more theories ..

Was this world created, or did it evolve? Did humans evolve or were they designed? Is matter a particle or a wave? After Higgs-boson, what? Does the Sun have an awareness? Is the body Intelligent? What is the world made off? Are there higher dimensions?

Humans are destined to questions. Thoughts that probe, thoughts that lead, thoughts that open up a pathway to knowledge. We as humans are more than anything, knowledge seekers. Of course like the rest of the beautiful living kingdom, We are born, eat, procreate and sleep, and die. but we also seek. Somehow what we know, what we understand and what we experience doesn't seem to be enough. We do not take this to be a WYSIWYG world, we want more than what we see.

When we question What is it that we see? what is it that we experience? it boils down to our faculty of the senses. We experience life through our sensations, perceptions and representations of these perceptions. But what dominates is an interpretation of these perceptions, an explanation into the happenings, causal connections and a theory for everything. Our lives are bundles of interpretations. 

Conflicts arise when we have more than one theory, more than one explanation for what we observe. Not a single field of human experience is an exception to multiple views, Politics, Medicine, Science, the Arts, Economics, Philosophy, Religion and Entertainment, you name it you will see it. When multiple explanations confront each other there is a contest, a bitterness and unhappy oppositions. The more we look at something, the more open ended the questions become. With no clear distinction of right or wrong, no black and white answers, humanity progresses towards an increasing entropy. The more we structure our knowledge, we discover more unstructured material.

Will there be an end to this quest of understanding? will there be an end to theorizing? Will we understand it all?

Theories and explanations are for that faculty called intellect. A need for meaning and reason behind everything is for that faculty called the mind. When one transcends both the mind and the intellect, the necessity for knowledge, and theory and explanation for what we experience, ceases. 

The way to transcend the mind is to look for it. Look at the thoughts, thoughts disappear, look for the one who experiences and that experience-r disappears. Having rid of the thoughts and the mind and the individual to experience, all this craving for understanding appears amusing and leads to a joyful experience of life.

Who is experiencing life?

Life in its infinite variety offers endless experiences. There appear plenty of people, with individual lives, unique in several ways. The experiences that each one seems to have is so different from one another, sometimes it appears for the good, sometimes for the worse.

As long as life presents favorable situations and experiences, one's individual story provides happiness and not much to complain. The individual script in fact provides a reason for pride. The moment things begin to take unfavorable turns, we begin to complain, we scramble to fix it, when things get out of hand and we loose hope, we become miserable. There are situations that hurt us and make us suffer so much, we question the point of life. The individual story is no longer fun. One begins to look at other stories, and almost all of them appear to be better.

Life is a sequence of experiences. depending on how we look at things, some are favorable some are not. we seek a sequence that is always favorable. Little do we realize that a sequence gets its meaning and sense only by a mixture. A monotonous sequence of either case will never provide us any experience.

Leaving aside the impossibility of a monotonous sequence, if we probe deeper into who is it that is experiencing life, we get an even more interesting answer. A physical analysis of the self, and an attempt to identify it, results in an absence of such a thing as the Self. Assuming the most common object of one's  body to be the self, we easily get past the parts of the body one by one, including the heart and the brain, abstract notions of thoughts, emotions, feeling and intellect, since all of this is observable by the self, we come to a point where the observer is not to be observed! 

If there is no one to observe, or experience, then could there have been an experience?  When there is no experience , then what sense does it make to classify it to be favorable or not? Realizing this liberates one from the consequences of apparent experiences. Life becomes an interesting sequence.

Wormholes, space, time and event horizon

Interestellar is a fascinating movie, with great visuals and intriguing concepts and is a good science fiction movie in a while. stories such as these capture the imagination , and expands our experience. It takes us into possibilities beyond the ones that we are accustomed to, and when stories are told very convincingly toeing along the lines of science pretty closely, we loose track of what is possible and what is not.

Can we travel in time?, are there higher dimensions?,what happens when we get to the event horizon of a black hole? wouldn't it be anomalous if we aged slower than others? can we travel vast distances across the Universe through wormholes? These are fascinating questions, that might very well motivate people to eventually realize these. Some in the near future, some  further down. We cannot rule any of them out. 

When Galileo pointed to the planets and said they were worlds like ours, people thought he was insane. A little spark and burn down an entire forest, ideas are more powerful and leads people on journeys that alter life. It is amazing to see how the world evolves, how change is constant.

As an individual living in a certain point in time, some times one may feel, overwhelmed and  very meek. So many new possibilities, and life and time seems running out. Questions haunt people, such as what would the world be in a century from now?, How will my daughter look like when I am gone? what happens to our beautiful loved ones when they say good bye and leave us for good? The more intensely one contemplates, the more emotional one becomes.

Coming back to wormholes, time travel and black holes, while new discoveries are made, they are but an iteration of this fractal Universe. The more closer you look, the more it generates details. It generates as we look, and not independently. No matter how believable this whole world is, its but an illusion. It breaks down physically into an anomaly of wave and particle, energy and matter and, into a vast nothingness of space.

The only reality is the present Now, and the awareness of I. no past, no future, no here and no there. when time and space dissolves into a constant singularity, travel in present becomes impossible, leave alone travelling in time. Parmenides tried to explain this to the world and his pupil Zeno did very well with his paradoxes. Yet the fascination to chase fractals keeps people engaged and entertained.

Knowing this leaves the mind at rest from the anxieties of missing  a future, resulting in a joyful present.

Guru or Painkiller?

While the United States is known as the land of opportunities, India can be called the land of Swamijis. Every now and then a new Godman emerges out of nowhere, every state and city has its own quota of Swamijis of all kinds, helping people from all walks of life connect with the Divine.

God and Godmen become necessities of life when what life offers is not adequate. Life in its splendor can be colorful at times and cruel at others. People want to run towards what they like and run away from what they dislike. Sometimes they are stuck. Godmen help push the wheel forward. They help us connect with the Divine and clear our hurdles to reach our goals.

There are a few reasons why people head to the Swamiji. When they have a problem, or when they are venturing into an unknown, when they need more than what they can get, and mostly when they do not know how to go about a situation, and it appears that logic is functioning against them.  What the Swamiji does is ease the situation and help folks get past their troubles. This he does with a combination of tools, from divine talisman to rituals, to penance, to tactical and strategic advice. 

Rarely one comes across a Swamiji who tells us we are helpless, there is always help at hand. 

If one analyzes the workflow of consulting a Swamiji, one will become aware that it is similar to a painkiller. Pain happens, its part of life, to endure is wisdom. But we need to move on with our busy lives without a rest, and hence a painkiller becomes inevitable. The danger however lies in the fact that the solution is temporary, worse than that, it is no solution at all. Soon we realize the habit forming addictive nature of the process. A relationship is built with the painkiller. The Swamiji becomes part of family, to such extent that he knows more about our problems than ourselves. We stay comfortable with the notion that we have divine help. The cycle of consultations go on and pain gets converted into pleasure momentarily continually.

A rare and true Swamiji however is more than a pain killer. He gets to the root of the problem, and rather than providing a sugar coated pill for the symptom to subside, he provides the bitter medicine and perhaps a lengthy treatment for the cure of the disease. Self Knowledge is the treatment for the disease of suffering, and one who gives that to the seeker is Guru (literally, One who removes darkness). Self knowledge delivers us from all forms of pain and results in an ever joyful life.

So next time you prepare for a Swamiji visit, check if he is a painkiller or a Cure.

Fourth State

There is a mythological story associated with the God Siva which gave him the title Tripurantaka. according to the story, Three indestructible mythical cities were built in the sky by demons and provided a safe haven for them. With this safe shelter to protect them they went about harassing the good folks of the worlds. Siva comes to the rescue of the gods and sages, by destroying the cities with on single arrow, at a particular moment when all three cities come into a linear alignment. It is notable that Siva destroys them in an almost effortless manner with a smile on his face. Also it is mentioned that he did so without taking any help from the gods.

There are plenty of retelling of this story, as well as famous sculptures of Shiva as Tripurantaka made and worshiped. Some say this story represents how Siva rescues one from suffering, some talk about the three demons and the cities as Pride, Anger and Delusion.While these maintain and divine and mystical character to the story, the true purport of it is not popular.

This is indeed a deep philosophical tale, associated with the individual and nothing to do with demons and gods. Every single person exists in one of three states at any given time. The three states are,

• Waking
• Sleeping (Dreaming)
• Deep Sleep

When we are awake, we experience the world as it is, it contains the duality of pleasure and pain. Not everything goes our way. During dreams, we exist in an unreal world, experiencing duality at a fantasy level, with certain things that are not possible in our waking state. Upon waking up however, both the pleasure and pain from the dream are falsified. During deep sleep without a dream, we simply sleep, we do not experience anything. Since there is no experience of any kind, we are totally devoid of any suffering or pain, but there will be no pleasure as well. These are the three states of existence.

All three of them are not ideal, since each has either both pleasure and pain,  or none at all. Realizing the truth about the Self as the only reality, and all three states as part of the illusion, and accepting the Waking state as the only state where there can be a conscious experience, one goes about life rejecting the duality offered by it. This Fourth state is the state of Joy.

This realization is the destruction of Tripuram (three cities which is equivalent to the three states). For this to happen it does take a great alignment of sorts, and it does happen without effort or help from the gods.

Why we love our childhood and how to recover it.

Universally we all love our childhood. Without analyzing much, if one ask themselves about the most happiest moments, it will invariably be from their childhood. No matter how old we become, how many experiences we have, the new connections that happen, places we travel, our childhood is always a period of our life to cherish. Take a deep breath and test yourself.

Psychologists even suggest that we look back deeper into our childhood, and pickup a thing or two from the past, in order to beat depression and to bring back a lost meaning in life. Such is the powerful association of happiness and childhood. 

A common explanation for this universal phenomenon is that as a child we have nothing to worry about, everything is taken care of, we do not have bills to pay, or taking care of others. A carefree state of mind results in a happy situation. This reasoning is largely true.

However, we do observe today people who are affluent as well as with folks around them, who need not really have to take care of things on  a day to day basis. We do see people whose needs are either small, or their affordability is high, so that without effort they are all taken care of. We see people who are well into their old age, taken care of by their children. It does happen. Even in these cases the elderly person longs for his or her childhood. The childhood always seems much more happy.

The deeper reason behind this joy of childhood lies in the fact, as a child we feel a Oneness with everything else in this world. A little ant, a house fly, a butterfly, a little toy soldier, our dad and mom, our grand parents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, cousins and friends, all of them are part of us. Our sense of individuality has not yet matured strong enough to distinguish , differentiate and discriminate our self from the rest of the world. We live in a world where we are the only entity and everything else is a fascinating and fun part of our own self. we enjoy the world much deeper in this state. We live in a matrix of trust, and a nest where there is nobody existing outside of our self to hurt us.

Realizing the truth that we are indeed One with the rest of this Universe, will take us instantly back into the joyful state of Childhood. In a world, created by our own self for uninterrupted entertainment, there is no one else to hurt or harm, all is for our own Joy. Knowing this, not only explains childhood memories but helps us have that very joyful life this very moment, no matter how old we are.

If music be the food of love, Play on

That famous English bard in Twelfth Night extols music as a great companion to Love. There are people who believe of such a relationship between Music and Enlightenment. There is the Bakthi movement with Bajans and singing, and chanting and rendering. There are people who seek to unite with the God through Dance. There are people who think by a control of eating one can get closer to Him. By constant visualization of the Forms of the Divine people believe they can reach their Divine goal.

If one observes in detail, it becomes clear that all of these are based on the senses. They are either indulgence in the senses or an abstinence from them. Senses are closer to the mind (with a lower case 'm'). The mind is the oscillating, happiness craving, vibrant aspect of us. and the mind is closely bound with the senses. 

All these acts of singing, music, dance, drama, and so on are to keep the mind in check. To coax and cajole the mind into dissolving into nothing. The mind is the hindrance to us enjoying our true infinite happy Self. The mind through its vibrant existence creates a world full of variations and makes us oscillate between pleasure and pain. Art, music, chanting of divine passages and other acts makes this mind dissolve in these and hence make us experience our true nature of Bliss. Also one should remember that some of these acts are physical from smoking incense sticks to sticks of insanity, from drinking divine water from holy rivers to distilled waters from wholly owned yards.

This tradition has been there since existence of time, and it takes new forms as time turns its wheels. New things to feed and indulge the senses with a hope of transcending the physical world. But by feeding the senses more and more, they are reinforcing their existence. The momentary bliss is mistaken for a future permanent offering. Little do the people realize that this momentary experience exists only as long as the indulgence exists. Indulgence in the senses in itself is a fine experience, but hoping them to take us to a higher existence is the fallacy.

All of these acts coaxes, cajoles and quietens the mind similar to a pain killer providing immediate but momentary relief. After a while, once the effect wears away, all the miseries of the world come gushing towards us.

Enlightenment, Mukti, Moksha, Awakening are things that have nothing to do with the mind! and are to do with the other aspect of our self, the Intellect. The logical and analytic faculty is however busy dealing with its intuitive counterpart the mind. Through music and singing and other similar acts if the mind can be dissolved, there is a chance for the intellect to contemplate on reality and get the knowledge. But the mind is too powerful and the effort has to be sustained, leaving little room for the intellect to realize the Truth. Even though all the music and dance and chanting appear divine, it is counterproductive in the process of reaching the Ultimate. It is Knowledge through the sustained listening and contemplating under an Enlightened Master that would result in enlightenment.

Until then one can enjoy the music for its own sake. After Enlightenment though, one can indulge in all the senses resulting in a joyful life

Kensho . Satori . Samadhi

As one progresses in the spiritual quest, one gets introduced to various ideas and concepts. In general the drive for spirituality arises from a desire to get into a certain state where the experiences are the way that one wants them to be. Typically the desire is a world without suffering, and one that is full of joy. In religious terms one may call that Heaven. A holiday resort promises us to give such an experience though momentarily. We escape from the irritants of life and taste a bit of tranquility. This tranquility, or Euphoria or other such enjoyable moments makes us crave for more of it. But the experiences that we get are always a combination of things. Never are they the way we want them to be.

Scriptures tell us that Samadhi is such a state where one lives in total joy devoid of suffering. A more common easily reachable state that we all experience is a deep sound sleep devoid of dreams. We always enjoy deep sleep, even though we would not be aware of it while we are sleeping. But after we come out of that deep sleep, the mind feels rested well and refreshed. The purposefulness of such a deep sleep is not the sleep itself, but the fact that it appears to help us in our waking state. We relish the fact that we had a nice sleep,  but we can only think about it while we are awake.

The wakeful state is the only state that we have access to. All other states do not exist in the Now. Samadhi is also similar to deep sleep, a state of silence. There are different kinds of samadhi. Nirvikalpa, Savikalpa, Sahaja etc.. and this state of silence is graded depending on if one is aware of the world while in this state, or to what extent one is aware etc. All experiences that take one away from the waking state, cannot be experienced. Its a contradiction. An experience that can not be experienced! what can that be? It cannot be anything. 

A craving of the mind for some deep mystical experiences, has resulted in a notion of some physical experience being associated with Samadhi.

Samadhi is a concept or an idea, that promises a state of joy. Understanding the truth about who you are and what the world is, is Knowledge. This Knowledge removes all suffering and results in Joy. Staying in this Knowledge as one goes about in life is Samadhi.

What is Attachment?

Neuroscientists now believe that attachment is such a primal need that there are networks of neurons in the brain dedicated to it, and the process of forming lasting bonds is powered in part by the hormone oxytocin.

We are attached with so many things. Places, People, Ideas, Events, Music, Experiences to name a few. As long as we are having access to these we do not generally acknowledge its presence or the experience, but as soon as we are not able to access it, the mind begins to do all kinds of things. We miss these things, we crave to get back the access, we become desperate at times, and a continued denial of access results in frustration, anger and all the negative emotions that leads to an unstable mind.

Most often people get overwhelmed by Nostalgia. The Good Old times torment everyone from time to time. Loosing the thing that we are attached to hurt us very badly. Is there a way out of this? or are we doomed to suffer the loss? A little investigation of the process of attachment helps.

Attachment is essentially attaching or adding something to our Self. When we buy a new mobile phone, we are essentially adding it to the notion of our self. It essentially has become a part of us. This is attachment. when the mobile phone falls down , we feel hurt because we feel its a part of us and hence the injury is translated as one's own injury. The more something hangs around with us, the more tightly bound it becomes. The more attached it gets. The more integrated it becomes with our Self. This explains the hurt and suffering one experiences upon the loss of the things that we are attached with.

Essentially, the objects of attachment has become part of an extended Self. Similar to the hand of a person, it has become an integral part. The degree of attachment simply relates to how much  easily replaceable the object is. If its a throwaway pen, then the degree of attachment is less. If it is a special edition artifact of some sort, then its more tightly bound, since a loss of it cannot be revoked. Also, the things we don't have a liking never get attached to us, since we never consider them as part of ourselves.

A little contemplation will confirm this behavior in all cases of our attachment with anything. Even ideas and thoughts can become attachments. So, the problem seems to be this wrong identification of these objects as part of our own self. Instead of making the impossible attempt of staying steady upon loss, if one were to understand and correct this mistaken identity, a loss can be handled better.

A deeper investigation reveals that even the body, the mind, the thoughts and ideas are not the Self. The Self is not connected with any of these. This mere thought is known as Detachment! Detachment does not mean renouncing anything physically. A steady knowledge of this absolute truth enables one to see everything as part of the illusion, and not assume false identity with them. This clarity and steadiness of the Truth liberates one from the suffering of loss of any kind and enables Joyful life.