On Shankaracharya and Tyler Durden

The similarity between the thoughts of Shankaracharya and Tyler Durden (Fight Club) amused me for some time today, so I thought I would share it.

Tyler Durden:
"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world." (Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo-wkv8gW6k)

Shankaracharya:
Backstory: When Shankaracharya was searching for a teacher to learn from, he heard of Govinda Bhagavatpada. Govinda Bhagavatpada was meditating in a cave whose entrance was so small that only his feet were visible from the outside. When Shankara reached the cave and bowed at the guru's feet and asked him to make him his shishya, Govinda Bhagavatpada asked him "Kastwam" (who are you?). To which Shankara is said to have replied (in verse, now known as Nirvana Shatkam):

Mano budhyahankara chithaa ninaham,
Na cha srothra jihwe na cha graana nethrer,
Na cha vyoma bhoomir na thejo na vayu,
Chidananada Roopa Shivoham, Shivoham.

Neither am I mind, nor intelligence ,
Nor ego, nor thought,
Nor am I ears or the tongue or the nose or the eyes,
Nor am I earth or sky or air or the light,
I am Shiva, I am Shiva, of nature knowledge and bliss

Na cha praana sangno na vai pancha vaayuh,
Na vaa saptha dhathur na va pancha kosa,
Na vak pani padam na chopastha payu,
Chidananada Roopa Shivoham, Shivoham.

Neither am I the movement due to life,
Nor am I the five airs, nor am I the seven elements,
Nor am I the five internal organs,
Nor am I voice or hands or feet or other organs,
I am Shiva, I am Shiva, of nature knowledge and bliss

Na me dwesha raghou na me lobha mohou,
Madho naiva me naiva matsarya bhava,
Na dharmo na cha artha na kamo na moksha,
Chidananada Roopa Shivoham, Shivoham.

I never do have enmity or friendship,
Neither do I have vigour nor feeling of competition,
Neither do I have assets, or money or passion or salvation,
I am Shiva, I am Shiva, of nature knowledge and bliss

Na punyam na paapam na soukhyam na dukham,
Na manthro na theertham na veda na yagna,
Aham bhojanam naiva bhojyam na bhoktha,
Chidananada Roopa Shivoham, Shivoham.

Never do I have good deeds or sins or pleasure or sorrow,
Neither do I have holy chants or holy water or holy books or fire sacrifice,
I am neither food or the consumer who consumes food,
I am Shiva, I am Shiva, of nature knowledge and bliss

Na mruthyur na sankha na me jathi bhedha,
Pitha naiva me naiva matha na janma,
Na bhandhur na mithram gurur naiva sishyah,
Chidananada Roopa Shivoham, Shivoham.

I do not have death or doubts or distinction of caste,
I do not have either father or mother or even birth,
And I do not have relations or friends or teacher or students,
I am Shiva, I am Shiva, of nature knowledge and bliss

Aham nirvi kalpo nirakara roopo,
Vibhuthwascha sarvathra sarvendriyanaam,
Na chaa sangatham naiva mukthir na meyah
Chidananada Roopa Shivoham, Shivoham.

I am one without doubts , I am without form,
Due to knowledge I do not have any relation with my organs,
And I am always redeemed,
I am Shiva, I am Shiva, of nature knowledge and bliss
(Source: http://www.shankaracharya.org/nirvana_shatkam.php)

Just makes me wonder how similar trains of thought end up in such diverse conclusions.

A river runs through it

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.

Never having read the book (A river runs through it), I had always interpreted this enigmatic line as a cynical summation of the futility of human endeavor, the illusion of every man’s uniqueness and the inevitability of Death. Sadly, this thought never depressed me and I was impressed by the wit that put it so succinctly.

Actually, the concluding paragraph of the book goes:

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.

Watching Robert Redford’s adaptation of the novella, hearing Redford narrate those lines (wonderfully, I must say), I realized that it had never been about any of those things that I had thought it had.

The river here, is a metaphor for life. And life isn’t just a chronicle of a single person but the entwinement of every facet of each individual’s tale. It is a sum of all our experiences, a pool from which each of us draw from ceaselessly and yet would never empty. It is in this sense, a river. A river replenished cyclically by each of its rivulets.

There probably isn’t a more fitting tribute to life.

On a related note, this poem by Chandrashekhar Patil (titled aptly, Guptagamini) seems to me the perfect echo of Norman Mclean’s words.

Pascal's wager:

Notes for a detailed blog post:

1. http://abstrusegoose.com/258

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_wager. Also, Vararuchi had written about this (atleast 4th century AD  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_wager#Variations)

3. Must watch this movie: My night at Maud's.

Agar Man

(Hopefully, man sounds like the hindi word main)

Once a divan rang me
and a-raving said "Love,
My avian, grand!
Of dreams of ecstasy and 'Gad! Nirvana!'".
And I replied, "Ha! Leaking canard! ravel'd
(I ain't yo' Va**na, Darn!")
I ain't yo' "Aha Knave! Calendar-girl" ".

And then I thought, "Who am I? "
Clueless, and yet, pondered "why?"
Maybe the truth had come home calling,
Am I my own maker?
Perhaps a player in a grand vain

To answer the question, if I must,
a spark'd speck of Cosmic dust?

For those who thought "Really?/ Why, oh God, why?": I was "inspired" to write this post after reading the twitter posts of two of my icons...
@udupendra: If poets wrote poems whose titles were anagrams of their names - http://tinyurl.com/ygjv9ce Likeable Wilma, Hen Gonads, nice smug me.
@shenoyn: Duly Raping Dirk http://narendrashenoy.tumblr.com/ RT @udupendra: If poets wrote poems whose titles were anagrams of their names

This, That and the Other

On the eve of HH Thay Nhat Hanh’s impending visit to India...
Any resemblance to any sentient being is not so co-incidental. Remember 42?

This

"What should I do?", asked the disciple.
The Guru (Ateevonmeelithanethra) asked of him, "Do you think you ought to do something?"
"Do you think I ought to do something?" he asked humbly.
"I suppose you think that I ought to think that you ought to think about doing something", said the Sage.
"Oh, Master I now realise that you think I ought to have done something some time ago. I'm so sorry."
"Time is an illusion"
"But you still think that I ought to have thought that you would have thought that I must have thought of doing something? Now that I haven't done so do you think that I ought to do something or ought I think that as I ought to have thought that you would have thought that I must have thought of doing something and as I didn't do so, should I still think of the whole thing?"
"No!!"
"No, I should. Or Yes, I shouldn't. What is it?"
"Yes" said he and walked away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tat ? Or That ?

"Which is the path?" asked the student.
"Every way is a path", said the learned one.
"Surely every way can't be a path!" thought the disciple.
"Have you taken all the paths?" he asked.
"But still every path can't be the correct path", the student argued.
"If it was so, it might be", said the Sage.
"If it were so, it would be", said the Disciple.
"But as it isn't it ain't."
"That's Logic?", "Is that the wisdom I should wish to seek?"
"That's Carrol" he said and closed his eyes.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Other

"O wisest of the wise!What is the means of attaining Nirvana?", the disciple humbly asked.
He opened his eyes, for as many moments as it took Kungfu Panda to find a steamed Momu in the perfume bazaars of Arabia, and said, "Try Blogging!!".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The above piece does not reflect my true emotions that I really appreciate and love Zen, the automobile

Who am I ?? (Rig-ma-Role)

P.S: This being a first post of sorts and I've said this blog is about reviews etc., I'll start with the looking glass and go right through it. Hoping, at the end of it or somewhere in between I meet someone who happens to look at me. I think I'll see him wink.

Am I confused?
I am politically incorrect and incorrectly political. Would I be correct if I were to be apolitical? Is it apolitical if I never want to be correct?
Isn't atheism a belief?
Do I know that I'm an agnostic? Will I be completely aware of it, if were to be a gnostic?

I have shrinking under-utilised feet but a growing carbon footprint. Global warming sends a chill down my spine; I still deo anyway.
I am cynical of sentimentality and skeptical of my cynicism.

I live in 'reality' because living in a make-believe world is so passe.

I am a liar!

How does Buddha become Buddha

ಮಾನವ

ಶೂನ್ಯದಲಿ ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಯನು
ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಯಲಿ ಸಮತೆಯನು
ಸಮತೆಯಲಿ ಮಮತೆಯನು
ಕಾಣುವ ಕವಿ ಭಾವಜೀವಿ

ಕತ್ತಲಲಿ ಬೆಳಕನ್ನು
ಬೆಳಕಲ್ಲಿ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಯನು
ದೃಷ್ಟಿಯಿಂದಲೇ ಸತ್ಯ -ಮಿಥ್ಯಗಳನರಿವ
ಪ್ರಮಾಣ ಪಥಿಕನವ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನಿ

ಆದಿಯಲಿ ಅಂತ್ಯವನು
ಅಂತ್ಯದಲಿ ಉಗಮವನು
ಚಕ್ರಗತಿಯಲೆ ಪಯಣಗಳೆಷ್ಟೋ
ಕಳೆದರೂ ಬಿಡದೆ ಹಟದಲಿ
ಪ್ರಾಣದಲೆ ಪ್ರಣವನನು ಅರಿವವ ತತ್ವಜ್ಞಾನಿ

ಎದೆಯಲಿದ್ದರೂ ಗುಡಿಯಲೆಲ್ಲೋ ಹುಡುಕುತ
ಪೂರ್ಣಬ್ರಹ್ಮನನು ಕಂಡು ಕಾಣದೆ
ಕಣದಷ್ಟೆ ಜ್ಞಾನದೆ ಕಾಣದುದ ವರ್ಣಿಸುತ
ತ್ರುಣದಿ ತೃಣವಾಗಿ ಕ್ಷಣದ ಜೀವನದೆ
ಕ್ಶಣಿಸಿ ಕಳೆವ ಕಳೆಯುತಲೆ ಪಡೆವ
ನಾನ್ಯಾರೊ "ಮಾನವ " ?