You are a Juggler...

You are a juggler... Say you have unlimited supply of balls to juggle with... But you decide how many balls to juggle with... But you can't pick up balls while you are juggling... So say there is a man standing near you who at random throws balls at you which you may or may not decide to catch, while you are juggling with whatever you already have.

Let's start with one ball. How long would one ball juggling keep you interested. So you catch another one thrown at you. Let's say you are pragmatic enough to not catch a third ball until you are proficient with the 2 balls you are already juggling. Now let's say the man decides when to throw a ball at you. He is the decision maker and not you. So he might not throw a ball at you for a long time even after you have become proficient with the no. of balls you are already juggling with.

Or he may throw a ball of a different size or color that you may or may not like. So every ball thrown at you is an opportunity. You may like it and you may not. But you hardly have a split second to decide.

Of course you may decide to throw away one of the balls you are juggling with if you don't like it too much. And of course some of the balls are high priority that you must juggle with eternally. And of course you can't catch too many balls at a time or you drop the high priority balls too.

There is a trade off here. You get exceedingly proficient with the existing no. of balls as time passes. There is always a learning curve if you take up a new ball so the juggling proficiency goes down by a magnitude or two (depending on the size and color of the ball) every time you take up a new ball.

Let's call these balls your responsibilities. Let's call the man that throws balls at you fate. Let's call juggling "LIFE". The high priority balls are family and profession. The lower priority balls are things that you are passionate about. And the rest of the balls are what keep the zing in your life.

Like marriage. Every time the marriage ball is thrown at you, you decide to catch or not to catch in a split second based on your existing proficiency with the balls you are already juggling with, and your priorities. This ball is crucial because Mr. Fate may not throw another one at you for a long long time. Boy ain't life complicated...?

I have probably caught too many balls at this time. I am having some serious troubles juggling with family, profession, investments, health, guitar, Boomer (My new pet, a 40 days old cream Labrador), music, gadgets. And I am looking at picking up a couple of more balls to juggle with like marriage, learning sanskrit as a language, Tango and Salsa Lessons.

Am I Superman or what...!!!

Om Namaha

In sanskrit there are root words for every word. like vriksh is the root word for tree. Now there are many forms if this root word like Vrikshaha or Vriksham or Vrikshe or Vrikshabham. But the root word remains the same. Every form denotes its grammatical meaning like its singularity / duality / plurality or its male of female or whether it is an object or a predicate. But it is the root word from which all of its grammatical forms are derived.

Perhaps Om is the root word of all words. "Om" is said to have been the first word that Shiva uttered after his creation by "Mahakal" or time. In Vedic Mythology, Time is considered to be the creator even of the creators and the destroyer even of the destroyers. So it is "Om" from which sprung up the entire universe and everything that manifests of can manifest. Even the possibilities of a manifestation sprung up from Om.

It is a little difficult to describe a sanskrit word because even though it is just a word it means a lot more than an English word. For example the word "Namaha" in Sanskrit, means:

1. Humility
2. Respect
3. Admiration
4. Wonder
5. Reverence
6. Simplicity
7. Prayer
8. Homage

Krishna and Rukmini

Neela wasn't convinced of the importance of Rukmini. She says, that Radha Rani was the prime consort of Krishna and Rukmini does not have the importance that she deserves. So to pacify her, this post.

The Principal Queen and closest wife of Krishna, Rukmini, was the Daughter of King Bhismaka of Kundil, Upper Assam. Bhismaka was a political ally of the King Jarasandha of Magadha. He had two children. Rukmi (the son) and Rukmini (the daughter). Rukmi wanted Rukmini to marry Shishupala, another ally of Jarasandha. Rukmi was against the marriage of Krishna and Rukmini because Krishna had slayed the Evil King Kamsa who was a friend of Rukmi.

Rukmini was in love with Krishna for his qualities, courage and divine presence. And Krishna also fell in love with Rukmini, for she was considered the most virtuous women of all times.

Balarama battled with Jarasandha while Krishna duelled with Rukmi. Krishna was inevitably victorious and so brought Rukmini to Dwarka and married her with great pomp and ceremony.

Rukmini is a representation of silent devotion. Her devotion to Krishna is expressed in the Tulabharam incident. Satyabhama in her pride once takes a vrata when she has to give away Krishna to Narada and then buy him back by giving away gold and jewellery of the weight of Krishna. After mobilizing all the money that she can when she is not able to do so, Narada advices her to gulp her ego and ask for help from Rukmini.

Rukmini removes all the wealth from the weighing scale and just puts one leaf of Tulsi with all her devotion. The leaf weighs much more than lord Krishna. This signifies how a single leaf of devotion can weigh more than the Krishna himself, who carries on his shoulders the weight of all the three lokas.

Rukmini was Lakshmi Incarnate. As Vishnu is Vishnu's Shakti, Rukmini is Krishna's strength and driving force. Though Krishna is matter, or existence itself, it means nothing without the moving force (Rukmini) that puts everything into action.

Krishna and Radha

Govinda-Mohini: The one who mystifies Govinda

Govinda-Nandini: The one who gives pleasure to Govinda

Govinda-Sarvasva: The one who is all in all for Govinda

Shiromani Sarva-Kanta: The crown jewel of all Krishna's Consorts

Radhika: Her worship of krishna consists of fulfilling his desires

Aradhana: The root name of Radharani, meaning one who excels in worshipping Krishna

Damodara rati: She who dresses up to please Krishna

Every aspect of Krishna's life is a lesson. his persona tells us about human life and how it should be. There is no incident in his life that is there for no reason. Then we wonder what the significance of Radha is. What is it that Radha and Krishna relationship tells us. As Neela asks me. Why do we celebrate a love that does not culminate in a marriage. Radha rani was separated from Krishna When Krishna left for Mathura. They never looked back at each other and led a life of Karma. Radha was married to Chandrasena and Krishna later married to Rukmini, Tulsi and Satyabhama (formerly known as Jambuvanti - the daughter of Jambuvant, the bear). But if you study the scriptures, there is a lot of importance given to the relationship between Krishna and Radha.

She is called the primeval internal potency of the Lord Krishna in Brihad Gautamiya Tantra, Padma purana and Vidagdha-madhava. The Bhaktivedanta calls her the source of all spiritual inspiration.

There could be a number of interpretations of the relationship, but what I like to believe is the beauty of being momentary. Like the dew drop on a leaf. While it lasts, it is the most beautiful thing that you can see. But it lasts only for a few moments. Then it falls off the leaf and never sees it again.

But imagine if it would have been eternal, would it be so beautiful? We celebrate the momentary beauty of the love between Krishna and Radha and sheer fact that it was not meant to last a moment longer. No questions asked, no justifications expected nor given.

It is made eternal by bringing an end to it when the time is right.

Vaimanika Shastra and Futuristic Technology 5000 years back...!

I have started learning Sanskrit. It is a training course run by Sanskrit Bharati in the Microsoft Campus itself. This training got started yesterday. The HoD of Hyderabad University, Sanskrit Section had come to inaugurate the session. She was talking about how and why sanskrit is necessary.

She talked about what kind of profound knowledge our Vedic Shastras have and how that knowledge can be used. 2000 years back, in one of our shastras, there was the decimal to binary conversion algorithm. And it was recursive in nature. she actually showed us the sutra that described the algorithm. She then broke it down to every word and explained how it converts decimal to binary. Most amusingly, this sutra was just 4 words. So this sutra explained the decimal to binary conversion algorithm in just 4 words.

She also mentioned that Panini had written the entire grammar in 8 chapters which is called the Ashtadhyaya. And in it he had used concepts like Abstraction and Inheritance. Common properties should be taken to the base and should apply by default if specific properties are not provided.

There are other shastras like the Vaimanika Shastra which is a text about aeronautics and discusses the construction of vimanas, or the chariots of the gods, mythical self moving aerial cars. It covers the following things:

1. The secret science constructing aircrafts which will not catch fire and indestructible by normal means
2. The secret of making aircrafts motionless
3. The secret of 100% stealth aircrafts
4. The secret of espionage using remote hearing
5. The secret of espoinage using remote viewing
6. The secret of radar technology for viewing remote enemy planes
7. The secret of making enemies un-concious
8. The secret of destroying enemy planes

The propulsion of the vimanas is used by a "mercury vortex engine" apparently a concept similar to electric propulsion. The evidence of the mercury vortex engine can be found in the "Samarangana Sutradhar" The 11th Century treatise on architecture.

The questions that come to our mind is that if we had such technology and such science, which is still science fiction to us with all our modern science in action, where did all this vanish? Now there are a no. of theories for which we have no particular evidence, and I will propose these theories in my upcoming posts. But According to Professor Uma, the problem that we are facing these days is that the Sanskrit Pundits that we have do not understand modern science and physics. And the modern day intellectuals do not understand Sanskrit.

Hence we should try to learn Sanskrit and study these shastras as much as possible. revive them. And who knows the world might see a completely new face of Science. Which is perhaps way ahead of what we have today.