Archive for November, 2008

A Walk To Remember

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

I start early, at dawn, from my house in Churchgate, hit Marine Drive and walk briskly towards Chowpatty where I turn right, cross Marine Drive and take the road adjoining Wilson College, walk past Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan , Gamdevi , Nana Chowk and crossing the railway overbridge keep going on Grant Road passing Novelty Cinema , turn right at Delhi Durbar on Falkland Road, reach VP Road, walk past Gol Deval and there I am at the Bhendi Bazar Mohamed Ali Road crossing â my destination Noor Mohammedi Hotel in front of me. Over an hour and a half of brisk walking has built up a healthy appetite in me and I am ready for a sumptuous breakfast.
I enter the Spartan no-nonsense eatery and order a Nalli Nihari and Roti. Within a minute a bowl of piping hot gravy and a fluffy khaboosh roti is placed in front of me. I dip a piece of the soft roti in the rich gravy, let it soak for a while, put it in my mouth and close my eyes to savour and relish the gastronomic experience in its entirety.
I can feel the gravy soaked roti melting on my tongue, releasing its delicious flavours which permeate into my soul. I am in seventh heaven and keep on attaining higher states of sheer bliss with every succulent bite of the mouth watering concoction â they say itâs a bone marrow and wheat gravy but I donât delve too much on the contents of a dish â itâs the taste and delicacy that matters.
Its a delectable beginning to a delightful day as the luscious taste of the delicious Nalli Nihari lingers on my tongue for a long long time. Itâs epicurean satiation of the highest order â a blissful experience I can never forget. Good nourishing food is the elixir of life and is the best way to happiness, bliss and enlightenment.

Posted in General, Travel | No Comments »

Three dimensional Cubes of Consciousness of Body, Desires and Mind

Sunday, November 16th, 2008
Does consciousness (of the kinds of mind, desires and bodily senses) exist? How do we know of the “apparent existence” of, say, mind (that is, reason)? What is reason? We human beings (like our inferior cousins, plants, microbes and animals) observe “objective” world around us. We act, being propelled by life (so-called instincts), and “go ahead” by preserving, dealing to dominating, adapting and procreating. This is evolving ourselves in relation to the objective world around us. This is life. But this is not enough to “reason”. To be able to “reason” we have to rise a bit higher in the ladder of life. To “reason”, we take a portion of the “objective” world around us and isolate this portion from the “unified whole” (of this world). This is separation.

We study the properties of this isolated part and then refit into the whole again. It is like breaking the whole into pieces creating jigsaw puzzle and solving the same by putting them back in different relations. This is unification. The reasoning follows the process of movement from unity to separation to unity again. Or, it may be put this way; we take a setof material objects (with their associated properties that may be likened to floating points of computer technology) and isolate this set from the remainder of the whole universe. It is an incongruous heap or, say, a jumbled world. The incongruity in their interrelation is a “problem” or, say, disorder. We reposition them again and again in their interrelation till congruity is established. Then, the incongruous heap turns into a congruous order of their interrelations. We call it a reason.

The reason is thought. And, this thought, when found to be in congruity with another neighbouring “assembled” thought, is elevated to the dignity of a principle, or even, law.

Here, we do not deal directly with material objects. It is not possible by any means. We deal “concepts” of material objects. Again, here also, neither these concepts contain in them all the (known and unknown) properties of material objects they represent nor they can be isolated from the remainder of the whole universe in their interrelation. Also, as in measuring time we count events and in measuring space we measure the spreadth of matter, in establishing congruity among material objects of nature we establish congruity within our mind. And, yet this congruity among objects of nature has an existence independent of our mind. This congruity, a thought, is a measure of projection of prime reality into a dimension we call consciousness of mind. But, even the thought is not a co-existing equivalent of prime reality. It is merely a projection of prime reality and, therefore, is secondary. Consciousness also has the cubic form of its dimension. Life, desires and mind form these three-pronged projections of reality. All the three remain dormant, like in a frozen state, in the matter, and emerge and manifest under appropriate evolutionary conditions. Being different (specific) measures of projection (of prime reality), time, space and consciousness are “qualitatively” different dimensions from each other.

Posted in General | No Comments »