A Solitary God

On 8^th December 1982, the Nobel Prize committee paid tribute to an eternal masterpiece, without an equal on earth, One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was a literary diamond that shone like no other and whose brightness would blind the sun itself. It was a literary sorcery that was beyond the measure of man and beyond the calibration of time and space. But, who on earth, less than a God, could possibly conjure up such a divine creation, except for the God himself.

It was indeed a God, lurking in solitude, and turning each word into Gold. This living Philosopher’s Stone was named Gabriel García Márquez. Gabo, as he was affectionately called, was a Colombian novelist who introduced the world a genre called “Magic Realism”. It is a genre in which it becomes difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality. This made Gabo a true magician in all aspects. His magic left the entire universe spell-bound and especially Latin Americans who credit him for giving them back their history.

There are times when we say “I am speechless”, “I have no words”, “I can’t describe”, etc. Gabriel García Márquez found words for these expressions. Gabriel García Márquez found words, lines, paragraphs and metaphors for things which were otherwise impossible to describe. In his writings, he forced upon the readers, the wonder and extravagance of life.  His work is considered to be written even before the world was created and written to such a perfection that weighed every a single comma. Just one book of Marquez sold more than thirty million copies and was translated into thirty-seven languages across the world. This obstinate story-teller explored the theme of “Solitude” which made his books an exploration into solitude of an individual and solitude of humankind as a society.

Gabriel García Márquez died on 17^th April, 2014. On this day Columbia’s President declared an official three day mourning in the memory of, as described by him, “the greatest Columbian who ever lived”. But his immortal legacy lives on beyond time and space. People will cherish his Magnum Opus forever just like they have been cherishing before. His greatest works include One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in The time of Cholera and other short stories. Even in future, when entire human race would be reduced to monotonous dust, his writings would continue to live on.

Gabriel García Márquez, an alchemist of words, through his books, gave readers the feeling of swinging into a hammock, having a peaceful siesta and daydreaming of fantasies till it becomes impossible to separate them from mundane reality and till it becomes a single solitary act of celebrating life.   

Wanderlust

Wanderlust

A multitude of voices have perished singing that passionate song.

For what passion fruit, O’ traveler, doth thy tongue long?

From what blessed land hath thou come and what is thy name?

This land is so rotten that it will put rotting to shame.

Utter the name of the beloved which thy soul doth seek.

Thou art the only beloved mortal ever to walk on this arenaceous clique

What is to be bought and what is to be sold?

This land hath never heard even the whisper of gold.

Cursed air and damned sand art the only things it doth behold.

Name the Lordly Majesty thou serve

Who hath commissioned thee unto this desolate turf

Beseech Her Majesty to abort thy duty and avoid the curse

This lodging serveth a destiny worse than that of a serf

What thou covet upon this unfortunate land?

What art thou looking for in this vicious sand?

This is a dicey affair; I desire thee know the stake

“BEAUTY” was the only word the eccentric traveler thus spake.

- SALIL BHAT

Your face is a Poem

Your face is a poem that ripped my soul apart,

Your laugh is an unpredictable storm

That shakes me

Body and soul.

To you, I offer the best in me,

To you I open the windows of my heart.

Your winds seized every part in me,

Every vein, every drop of blood.

You are the melody of my existence,

That tainted my melancholy with an everlasting beauty.

- by Amira Aloui

Words are the most common form of magic. A writer or poet is the magician. Books are the magic shows. And do you know what's the secret behind the magic trick? It is Coffee.

If you are fond of books and love to drink coffee then there's nothing else like Classics ʚïɞ  (click on it for best results )

Winter Lessons

Winter is the season to learn. A simple walk in the garden during winter can teach lessons of life. 

There are some flowers that bloom only during winter. They are so beautiful that you wish that they should bloom throughout the year. But this is not in your control. No matter how hard you try, the flowers will bloom only when their time comes. We should realize this and accept that the things are never under our control. Things will happen when time is right. And in the words of Kabir :

"Dheere Dheere Re Mana, Dheere Sub Kucch HoyeMali Seenche So Ghara, Ritu Aaye Phal Hoye"

("Slowly slowly O mind, everything in own pace happens
Gardener may water with a hundred pots, fruit arrives only in its season.")

Sometimes you will notice that flowers would bloom only on warmer days of winter and would cease to be on colder days. These flowers are immortal. They never die. They never cease to exist forever. They manifest themselves when conditions are right and cease to be when conditions are not. And such is our soul, immortal. It never dies. It manifests itself when the conditions are right. There is not point in weeping over loss of loved ones. They shall manifest themselves again. 

Such is the season of Winter. It teaches so many things. It shows us the pattern of changes. It makes us realize the irreplaceable role our Sun plays. Every sunrise brings new hope. A hope of rebirth. A hope that things will manifest soon. It reminds of that song by The Beatles

"Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces

Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here."

There's something a-coming !

10 Bulls

We all face internal conflicts. We all want to know what's behind the door. There are truths which we are desperate to know. Our life is nothing but an eternal search for truth. Directly or Indirectly. That's why we live. To know some or the other truth. To open some or the other door. Some reach the truth. Some give away in the middle. While, some others go beyond the truth.

The 10 bulls of Zen is a Zen thought which shows a practitioners stages towards enlightenment. We may not be Zen practitioners but we are practitioners of our life. These 10 bulls shows the our stages as we walk along the path of truth.

1. In Search of The Bull 

"In the pasture of this world,

I endlessly push aside the tall grasses in search of the bull.

following unnamed rivers,

lost upon the interpenetrating paths of distant mountains,

my strength failing and my vitality exhausted, i cannot find the bull.

I only hear the locusts chirring through the forest at night."

This is the stage when you feel an irresistible urge to find the truth. Something needs to be known. Something is unknown.  However, you fail to realize that this urge to find the truth is created by none other than YOU. You are the one who thinks that something is unknown. The doubt is your product. There was never a bull. You created one and now you are searching for it. 

2. Discovering the Footprints 

"along the river bank under the trees,

I discover footprints!

even under the fragrant grass i see his prints.

deep in remote mountains they are found.

these traces no more can be hidden 

than one's nose looking heavenward."

When you look deep into yourself, you start to discriminate between true and untrue. By knowing the difference between true and untrue, you ensure that you are walking the right path, the path which leads to the truth. The footprints will lead you to the bull. 

3. Perceiving the Bull

"I hear the song of the nightingale.

the sun is warm, the wind is mild, 

willows are green along the shore. here no bull can hide!

what artist can draw that massive head,

those majestic horns?"

The bull lurks where there are favorable conditions (warm sun, wind is wild and green pasture). The truth lurks where it has favorable conditions (clear mind, pure heart and peace). When you create these conditions you can perceive the truth. But hold on! You have only perceived the bull's read, not its head. 

4. Catching the Bull 

"I seize him with a terrific struggle.

his great will and power are inexhaustible.

he charges to the high plateau far above the cloud-mists,

or in an impenetrable ravine he stands."

Catching the bull is a great struggle. You try to catch hold, it escapes. You try and try. Catching bull requires discipline. Catching hold of truth requires discipline. It might not be easy to accept the truth. It might be horrifying. If you have attained self-discipline, you can accept the truth, the way it is.

5. Taming the Bull

"the whip and rope are necessary,

else he might stray off down some dusty road.

being well trained, he becomes naturally gentle.

then, unfettered, he obeys his master."

When you have attained self-discipline, things flow at their own pace. A natural flow. When you have tamed the truth or your thoughts, there's nothing to worry about. There is no resistance. Things happen in peaceful manner. 

6. Riding the Bull

"mounting the bull, slowly I return homeward.

the voice of my flute intones through the evening.

measuring with hand-beats the pulsating harmony, 

I direct the endless rhythm. whoever hears this melody will join me."

The struggle is over. The bulls is yours to behold. The truth is yours to behold. You enjoy the moment of truth. Now you return to the point from where you departed in search of the truth. You bring home the truth. Riding the bull to your home is indeed a great joy. Riding the truth to yourself is indeed a great joy. A sweet journey to home. A sweet journey to your true nature. 

7. The Bull Transcended 

"astride the bull, I reach home.

I am serene. the bull too can rest.

the dawn has come. in blissful repose,

within my thatched dwelling 

I have abandoned the whip and rope"

The bull is gone. The truth is gone. The doubt is gone. The urge of knowing the unknown is gone. There is nothing to be known. There never was. The mind is pacified. The mind is at peace. 

8. Both Bull and Self Transcended

"whip, rope, person, and bull -- all merge in no-thing.

this heaven is so vast no message can stain it.

how may a snowflake exist in a raging fire?

here are the footprints of the patriarchs."

Nothing is true, nothing is untrue, there is nothing to be known, there is nothing unknown. Everything is one. That one itself is nothing. After you realize this, you yourself become nothing. Now you are empty. This is enlightenment. There is no bull and there is no YOU. There never was. There is just one thing. One single phenomenon - Nothingness. 

9. Reaching the Source 

"too many steps have been taken 

returning to the root and the source. 

better to have been blind and deaf from the beginning!

dwelling in one's true abode, unconcerned with that without -- 

the river flows tranquilly on and the flowers are red."

A water wave maybe a ripple or a Tsunami, but it is just water. It is born in water and dies in water. Water is the source. The true nature of wave. You have your own source. Your true nature. After you free yourself from the opposites such as true-untrue and known-unknown, you return to your source. Your true nature.

10. Return to Society

"barefooted and naked of breast,

I mingle with the people of the world.

my clothes are ragged and dust-laden and I am ever blissful.

I use no magic to extend my life;

now, before me, the trees become alive."

It is time to enlighten others. No magic is needed. YOU know how to do it. 

Good old days; gone for good.

“Sometimes my life opened its eyes in the dark. A feeling as if crowds drew through the streets in blindness and anxiety on the way towards a miracle, while I invisibly remain standing.”

- Tomas Tranströmer

Scaling up and down the trees, digging up for worms, going where your bicycle takes you, be it sun, rain or cold, be it weekday or weekend. Those were the days you cherish the most. Those were the days when you threw world to a place where it wont bother you and did things your heart said. Those were the days when you never thought of thinking about something. The golden days of innocence, happiness and freedom. Those sunny days when each day was a celebration of its own and every day brought a new and different sun. 

What happened? How did it all changed? Did you see it coming? Has it really changed. I mean, you can still climb trees, dig for worms and roam on bicycles. Why don't you do that? You don't have freedom to do so? Is life getting worse day by day as you grow up? 

No one wants to answer such questions. Looking back at life, no one wants to grow up. We all feel happy and sad when we look back at life. Happy because we lived those days and sad because now its over. Here's an excerpt from Dr.Zhivago by Boris Pasternak , which might give a warm hug to you. 

"Everything had changed suddenly--the tone, the moral climate; you didn't know what to think, whom to listen to. As if all your life you had been led by the hand like a small child and suddenly you were on your own, you had to learn to walk by yourself. There was no one around, neither family nor people whose judgment you respected. At such a time you felt the need of committing yourself to something absolute--life or truth or beauty--of being ruled by it in place of the man-made rules that had been discarded. You needed to surrender to some such ultimate purpose more fully, more unreservedly than you had ever done in the old familiar, peaceful days, in the old life that was now abolished and gone for good. "

Insanity vs. Sanity

What is the difference between sanity and insanity? Or is there any?

Let's start with asking the question what is insanity? If you look up into a typical law dictionary for its definition you will see something like this : "Insanity is defined as mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior."

Let’s try to breakdown this definition part by part.

1. "cannot distinguish fantasy from reality"

In some deep corners of our mind this is a statement we all want to disagree. Let me share something with you. LSD is a very famous drug. It is believed that consumption of LSD causes "hallucinations" and hence is a "hallucinogen". But Indians (Native Americans) consider it as "de-hallucinogen". They believe that this world is an illusion or a fantasy and you can escape to reality by consuming LSD. They do have many such "mumbo-jumbo" beliefs. But this one has a scientific support. A scientific experiment showed that spiders fed LSD do not wander around doing purposeless things as one might expect a 'hallucination' would cause them to do, but instead spin an abnormally perfect, symmetrical web.

What is real and what is fantasy is still a large debate. We all have thought over this at some point of our life (especially as a child). Does this make us insane?

2. "cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis"

As per dictionary, it is "a severe mental disorder in which thoughts and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality". Remember the time when you are deeply engrossed in T.V. or a movie? Enough said.

3. "uncontrollable impulsive behavior"

There is no one on  this earth who has at some point of his life showed an uncontrollable impulsive behavior. It might be anything from extreme anger or exhilarating happiness.

The argument over legal or technical can go on and on. It is nothing but mere waste of time. I can write a whole book to over this by taking religious, scientific and philosophical stand. There's is clearly no crisp and well-defined distinction between sanity and insanity. Also, it is more than obvious that the current distinction between these two things is wrong and objectionable. Here is an excerpt from Robert Pirsig's book Lila.

"Henri Poincare, who asked, 'Why is the reality most acceptable to science one that no small child can be expected to understand?'

Should reality be something that only a handful of the world's most advanced physicists understand? One would expect at least a majority of people to understand it. Should reality be expressible only in symbols that require university-level mathematics to manipulate? Should it be something that changes from year to year as new scientific theories are formulated? Should it be something about which different schools of physics can quarrel for years with no firm resolution on either side? If this is so then how is it fair to imprison a person in a mental hospital for life with no trial and no jury and no parole for 'failing to understand reality'? By this criterion shouldn't all but a handful of the world's most advanced physicists be locked up for life? Who is crazy here and who is sane?”

This will really tickle your brain for a while. Robert Pirsig had a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He was in mental asylum from 1961 to 1963. But he successfully came out of his so called "insanity" (unlike Friedrich Nietzche) and wrote two iconic one of the best-selling philosophical novels : Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila.

He lived a life in both worlds: sanity and insanity. Here's an extremely "useful" and thought-provoking excerpt from his book Lila about "how to get out of a mental asylum". This excerpt might be despised by many psychiatrists but we all agree with this deep down somewhere.

"Like police, who live in two worlds, the biological and the social, psychiatrists also live in two worlds, the social and the intellectual. Like cops, they are in absolute control of the lower order and are expected to be absolutely subservient to the upper order. A psychiatrist who condemns intellectuality would be like a cop who condemns society. Not the right stuff. You have as much chance convincing a psychiatrist that the intellectual order he enforces is rotten as you have of convincing a cop that the social order he supports is rotten. If they ever believed you they'd have to quit their jobs.

So ......... if you want to get out of an insane asylum the way to do it is not to try to persuade the psychiatrists that you may know more than they do about what is 'wrong' with you. That is hopeless. The way to get out is to persuade them that you fully understand that they know more than you do and that you are fully ready to accept their intellectual authority. That is how heretics keep from getting burned. They recant. You have to do a first-class acting job and not allow any little glances of resentment get in there. If you do they may catch you at it and you may be worse off than if you hadn't tried.If they ask you how you're feeling you can't say, 'Great!' That would be a symptom of delusion. But you can't say, 'Rotten!' either. They'll believe it and increase the tranquilizer dosage. You have to say, 'Well ... I think I may be improving a little bit ..." and do so with a little look of humility and pleading in your eyes. That brings the smiles."

Now you know why I called this excerpt "useful". That brings the smiles.

We live too fast

We life in a fast world. We are not living but we are dragged by our life. The true beauty of life is hidden in subtle corners. So, slow down and take time observe this beauty. Cherish it. Celebrate it. After all that's why we all are here. The ultimate aim of our life is to be one with THE ABSOLUTE BEAUTY. 

Here's a excerpt from Henry David Thoreau's journal. 

"A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the railroad cars. What are threescore years and ten hurriedly and coarsely lived to moments of divine leisure, in which your life is coincident with the life of the universe. We live too fast and coarsely, just as we eat too fast, and do not know the true savour of our food. We consult our will and our understanding and the expectation of men, not our genius. I can impose upon myself tasks which will crush me for life and prevent all expansion, and this I am but too inclined to do. Our moment of life costs many hours, hours not of business, but of preparation and invitation. Yet the man who does not betake himself at once to sawing is called a loafer, though he may be knocking on the doors of heaven all the while, which will surely be opened to him. That aim in life is highest which requires the highest and finest discipline. How much, what infinite leisure it requires, as of a lifetime, to appreciate a single phenomenon! You must camp down beside it as for life, having reached your land of promise, and give yourself wholly to it."