Frozen by Inspiration

It was almost a disappointment. I was not expecting to see ordinary looking people there; and beautiful looking people, not at all! At India's premier most institute, I expected people to have atleast a horn on their heads. But that was not the case.

Previous to last weekend, I went to the Indian Institute of Sciences, also called the Tata Institute, considered to be the most premier institute in India for scientific research.

The initial disappointment was finding normal looking people,and still worse beautiful looking women. Believe me, in the topIndian institutes, beauty and brains are strangers, here the best of the best was an exception. The fact that an exception (that could throw the rule in the trash) crossed my life two years ago, did not strike me that day. Partly because, it is almost one and a half year since I saw her regularly, in the days when IISc spelt her name for me; and mainly because the idea of visiting that place to take that vicarious pride was overwhelming.

It was great to rediscover lost love for Linear Alzebra, Tranform Theory and Stochatic Processes. After lunch, and before bidding good bye came the most important aspect of the vist - petrification. The main building is what is the public face of the institute, doubtlessly the icon of all that the institute stands for. We appraoched the main building from behind through thick vegetation, typcal to that of a jungle,thus bringing it into view slowly. This helped reduce the sudden shock. The touch of the stone was electrifying. It was as if a current was flowing into my body from the building through the finger tip. I could not resist the urge to touch the firststep leading into the building, closed on that day - the birthdayof the Father of the Nation.

We moved onto to sit on a bench straight infront of the building,which gave a full view of the building, a sudden realization dawned up on, the thought of the total intellectual capabilityof the people who walked in and out of that building, their service to the nation, their service to mankind. The amountof value they are generating, and the number of people who areindebted to them. The mission of the founders, their gratefulnessto their motherland, the success of the institute in serving itsintended goal. The thought was paralysing. It was inspiring.

I have not gone to temples so often after coming to Bangalore. Infact Bangalore is a very modern and restless city, which goesagainst the timelessness, strength and peace that any temple stands for. Now here, I am at one, standing in full glory, I need not visit another in a long time.

Yoga, The Ultimate Journey

I have strongly resolved that I am not going to be just another techie in this over techni-fied city of Bangalore! Yes, my office life is quiet demanding! I work for a Hi-tech Hi-slog company, where I fight a lonely and slowly losing battle against the hi-slog part of it. There is one good thing in all this, even though I slog, which I not so rarely do, its for an Indian company working for itself; where as most of my friends work for those American companies that outsource the not so glamorous part of their work to India, and we Indians give them more importance than necessary. Thats why I like the Japs, they do not care enough to learn to speak decent English.

Now, back to what I was saying, I have resolved to myself that I am not going to be one of those techies, for whom office is everything. Yes, I have decided that. In these recent days, my decision has started to translate into some actions. I have long back asked my uncle in the US to get me a tennis racquet which he very sincerely did, though I forgot my asking him to get it. Now there are no more excuses left, I have to start playing
tennis. In the meanwhile, I have joined yoga classes. My Sanskrit dictionary has the following meanings for yoga.
yoga = effort.
yogam = self realisation
yogah = consciousness of the All-mighty

But I am not one of those foreigners, enchanted by the magic of yoga and hence interested in it. My interest comes from the fact that I am an Indian and a heir to the invaluable Indain asset of yoga. My own mother tongue, a south Indian language is the daughter of Sanskrit. I should confess that my mother tongue is a very immature language and hence depends heavily on her mother for all the vocabulary. Why am I narrating all that? Its to prove that I need not look into a dictionary for the meaning of a Sanskrit word. Hence the meaning of Yoga from my own dictionary is :
yogaM - meeting
yogaM - luxury

The endings a, aM or aH are only indicators of the parts of speech of a word.

Now let me explain, yoga is the that path that leads you to the meeting, the ultimate meeting, that is with God her/himself. It came to be used for luxury because, once you are in the path of yoga, you are embarking on the journey of spiritual bliss, which is acknowledged as the ultimate luxury. Hence any luxury is the result of the yogic tendencies a person has exhibited.

Hatha yoga, the aspect of yoga that is known in the western world, is a mere preparation of the human body for that journey. If the preparation is so ingenious, how would the actual journey be!

P.S : Here ends the blog of the part time philosopher in me . This blog was supposed to be posted a week ago, but got delayed. If you found this stuff too much on you, check out my next blog. Its also based on yoga. But a very lighter aspect of yoga. A complete humorous one. Life is beautiful when it is lived just like that without much thinking, isn't it?

Big Bang

Hello Blogger,
This is my first blog, hence you may find it not very much in
line with the usual style of writing a blog.
My blog is named so because, my name means moon in sanskrit and my initials mean
sun in egyptian.
I guess, this is enough, more will come after I see some other blogs, and what people
write there.
- ra