Indra Vizha a.k.a. St. Valentine's Day!

Is there really such a thing called 'love'? Or is it just another human construct? Well, let's just put aside these intellectual arguments about the existence of 'love' and just celebrate it shall we? :)

The 14th of February of every year is celebrated as St. Valentine's Day, as he was the sole proponent of 'love' and 'marriage' in an empire, which banned marital relations and unions of couples. He conducted marriages of many couples underground without the knowledge of the ruling empire, who then later sentenced him to death on the 14th of February! After the fall of the empire, all was forgotten except the deeds of Saint Valentine, whose death day was forever commemorated as St. Valentine's Day! 

Despite the religious background of the Saint, we can find similar festivals celebrating the unions of lovers in other cultures too, especially in Hinduism! 

Too often in India amongst the so-called saintly "gurus", accusations are thrown at "St. Valentine's Day" as being the propellent for erosion of Indian tradition. But very few people are aware of the fact that in our same Indian tradition, there were many festivals that celebrated love.

One such festival was called "Indra Vizha", also referred to as Vasantha Vizha (i.e. Spring Festival). It was a time of the year where many youngsters, both men and women, held competitions, danced, sang, and celebrated the festival by expressing their love and feelings to their lovers! Many young men and women courted each other during this festival, which was celebrated for 28 days!!

There are references to such festivals during the Chola period and even way back! One can find such references in Tamil literature treatises, maybe even in the Puranas. 

The Indian culture has never been against 'love' and 'marriage'. In fact, it has celebrated the sacred union of two souls! Otherwise, why would we have such elaborate marriage ceremonies that last for days?! Why would we have such festivals like the Indra Vizha?!

This year, I am going to make it a point not to wish anyone Happy Valentine's Day... Because it is not a day we are celebrating Valentine the Saint. But it is the day we celebrate 'love' that is the main ingredient for the survival of the species called Homo Sapiens!

How so, you ask? Amongst all the species in this world, humans and certain species of birds are the only ones who are capable of 'loving' each other. The feeling of attachment, care for the other and togetherness is what makes the "husband" and the "wife" of the species to stick together till they raise their offspring to maturity! So this feeling, which we have chosen to call 'love', is fundamental to the continued survival of our species. Without love, there will be no mankind. 

 

In Hinduism, the importance and joy of 'love' is illustrated in our ancient scriptures called 'Puranas'. Be it the way Sati courted Lord Shiva, or the way Lord Shiva courted the re-born Sati as Parvati, or the way Krishna eloped with Rukmini...

Our Gods did show us the feats they performed to win the hearts and hands their loved ones! So to summarise, 'love' is actually rampant in our culture! :) So it's time to celebrate 'love' and express your feelings to your loved ones!! :) 

So why did I decide not to wish anyone "Happy Valentine"? Well, I want it to be a special day that will only be celebrated with my soulmate. If I go around wishing it to everyone whom I care and love as a dear friend, then it wouldn't be a special day anymore. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't accept wishes of Valentine's Day from my friends. :) I only want to emphasize that if I were to wish Happy Valentine's Day to someone, then that person would definitely have a special place in my heart. 


P.S.: So let's just be clear here. In this post, I wasn't writing about the 'love' you have for your mum, dad, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, nephew, friend, best friend, BFF, boy who is a friend, or a girl who is a friend!!  

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Free Will? Destiny?

The idea of destiny working to bring you to a particular place at a particular time is really amazing. Although at first thought it seems like impossible, one's experience itself teaches one that there is such a thing as fate/destiny/something that is pre-determined. It is beautiful and yet scary too. 


From the moment we are born, the environment we grow up in determines our circle of free will. This circle of free will is as big as the amount of knowledge we acquire about the different choices in life. If lets say in all the colours we only know about yellow, red, blue and green, then our choice is limited to only these four colours. Whereas the more colours we know the more choices we have. Therefore, there is always a limit to the circle of free will we have. Most of the time our circle of free will is pre-determined by the limitations in the environment we grow up in. Therefore, free will is really a misnomer!


Such being the case, our choices in life are really pre-determined. It "seems" as though we are making a choice out of our free will, but our choices itself are limited in a certain way. Many things we do in our lives, our likes and dislikes, our temperament, our natural tendencies have all been pre-determined. Nothing can really happen with our own choice. We cannot even determine when we will fall asleep. All we can do is ready the bed and lie on it. Sleep will come but we cannot control when and how it comes. Such is our life. Life is nothing but realizing this grand truth, that things are not always in our hands or in our control! 


This idea, which at first seemed very romantic and beautiful, now seems to be daunting. It makes us think that we cannot change our future at all. Though our choices are limited and pre-determined, we still have that "free will" with which we can still make a choice between what is good and bad or right and wrong! But many times we are pushed to make a choice that is agreeable to all, but not in alignment with our innate temperament or nature. For example, a woman whose talent and interest lies in dancing has to "choose" to forego her dream in completing a degree in fine arts in order to attain a degree in engineering. A degree in engineering will "secure" her future compared to a degree in fine arts which will not yield financially. Now where is the choice in that? Seems like something pre-determined right?


Krishna in Bhagavad Gita says in Chapter 2, Verse 47: You have the right to perform your actions but not to the results of your actions. How very true! This verse does not tell you that you should not expect any results at all. It only tells you that the results cannot be influenced by you. This is just like sleeping. You can only make your bed and lie on it. The result (i.e. sleeping) is not in your control. You cannot say that 10 seconds from the moment you lie on your bed you will fall asleep with certainty. The result is not in our hands. But the action is. 

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Doing service is my duty

This is what happens when you neglect your swadharma (your required duty as per your role in life) and do rituals like Maha Rudra Yaagam.

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=33467 

Someone once asked this question in my Hinduism Teacher Training class. Why offer so many valuable things and food in the sacrificial fire of a yajna (a sacrifice ritual), when many in the world around us are suffering without food or water? 

The answer is this. One of your prime duties is to do daana (meaning service to others). You have to do it everyday. This can be anything from helping a old lady in the street to donating millions of dollars to an orphanage; volunteer work to organizing benefits, etc. If you do it everyday, you will be guilt-free. When you are guilt-free, you can peacefully conduct a sacrificial ritual or yajna. Only a guilty mind will ask the above question. Moreover, rituals you do only once in a while. Whereas, service is to be done everyday. So one can be assured of a guilt-free life if service/charity is done everyday...

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Enthiran - Robots have feelings?

A few weeks back I had gone out with my parents to watch Enthiran. The movie was, of course, really wonderful, fantastic and excellent in all aspects! At first the concept that a humanoid has feelings boggled me. I simply couldn't come to accept it but since it was just a movie, I didn't really care about it.

Although now, thinking about it makes me realize that it is possible. For this, I started thinking of how do feelings arise. How do feelings come about? A machine only has knowledge stored in its memory. It has a "brain" that consists of intellect, memory and the questioning capability (meaning it is able to learn from experience). What is this brain made of? It is nothing but wires, connections and electrical impulses flowing through the machine that makes it move and so on.

Now looking at the human brain, it also has memory, intellect, the questioning/learning capability AND one more thing: ego. This ego is the notion of "I"-ness. A robot may not have the awareness of "I", meaning itself. But we humans have this self-awareness. We look at things and objects around us and are able to say, "this watch is mine" or "this is my hair". But a robot does not do this. The robot does not have ego.

However, somehow this ego is born in this robot called Chitti when it starts to recognize something or someone as belonging to him. Chitti starts to identify certain things as belonging to him and therefore, desires start arising in him. 

When the notion of "I" is born, desires arise. It is very natural for all of us. And once desires arise, emotions take place too. When you acquire a desired object, you are happy. When someone else gets it instead of you, you are jealous. When someone or something is an obstacle between you and the desired object you are angry. When you lose the desired object, you are sad. So now we can see clearly, that when desires arise in us, so do the emotions. 

Since our brain is also nothing but neurons (in place of wires) with connections and electrical impulses (just like the robot's "brain"), it is also possible for humanoids to have emotions and the notion of "I".

One wonderful movie that portrays whatever has been discussed in this post is "I Robot". It is a wonderful movie and I personally like it more than Enthiran.

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Tapping on the Unknown Factor

It has been so long since I've made a post in this blog. Therefore, I would like to start today, especially when it is such an auspicious day like Deepavali. There are many stories behind Deepavali. The general theme of them all, however, is the inevitable victory of good over evil. This assumes that there are two opposing poles called good and evil. This is a wrong assumption because evil is just the absence of goodness. So in essence, there is only goodness, but when it is absent in someone or something, we call it evil. 

There is a wonderful short story I came across from one of my friend's email. It says: 

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil (Adharmic) -  It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good (Dharmic)-  It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed." 

 

Therefore, victory of good over evil simply means the victory of Dharma over Adharma. By deeply analysing the above story for just today, just for a few minutes, let us all try to recognise the "evil" in us, and let us try to uproot it. Let us make a promise to ourselves today that by the next Deepavali I would try to conquer one of my "evil" qualities. Be it anger, jealousy, false pride or laziness. Anything. Let us make this promise quietly to ourselves and change ourselves for better. If there is no "evil" in you, then let us try to cultivate one of the good values like truth, generosity, compassion or humility. 

 

The one who protects Dharma, that Dharma will protect him. The equation works like this. When you protect Dharma, meaning when you do Dharmic actions, you earn merits or punya. More punya can counter the sins or paapa you gathered so far. So during dire times, the punya that you have earned by doing Dharmic actions will save you. This is what it means by "dharmo rakshati rakshata".

Such being the value of Deepavali festival, I hope you now realize that you can actually wish anyone a Happy Deepavali, be it someone of another race, religion or nationality. This is because the value of this festival applies to everyone. And as we celebrate the festival today with our family in any way possible, just remember Ishwara who is the reason behind all your happiness. Pray to Him, get His blessings and live Happily! :)

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Must Read Book - Demolishing Christianity

A wonderful critique of Christianity written by a learned Hindu, Chattampi Swamigal:

http://bharateeya.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/kristumata-chedanam-chattampi-swamikal-english-translation/

After reading this critique, so filled with logic and excellent reasoning, Christianity no longer seems like a sane religion to me. It is filled with such illogical concepts, that every paragraph of this book made me laugh out loud!

Hindus are said to be very tolerant and respectful towards other faiths. We don't attack them at all. However, when they attack Hinduism we also don't defend ourselves. Such losers we are! 

A real and sincere Hindu will always defend his/her Sanatana Dharma. On of our primary duties is to speak the truth. When the truth is being attacked and falsified by other faiths, it is our duty to defend that truth and speak the truth always. That is what Chattampi Swamikal did in this book of Kristumata Chedanam (literally means "Demolishing Christianity"). A sincere Hindu knows that Sanatana Dharma always existed even before the Vedas were revealed to humankind. Just like how gravity always existed, even before its discovery by Isaac Newton.

Be equipped with knowledge! Don't remain ignorant! 

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A Church Bans Yoga!

Here's the news article that is of the title of this post.

This news is ridiculous, but the fact is that people of the Christian faith, especially those in the position of maintaining the order of the Church, are very afraid that their religion will be taken over, stampeded upon or thrashed down by another rival religion. Why are they so afraid, if what they have in their religion is solid? How can there be any room for confusion, by just doing some simple spiritual exercise like Yoga?

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An excerpt from Angels & Demons

An excerpt from Dan Brown's Angels & Demons:

As Langdon moved toward the first recess, he passed the tomb of one of Italy's Catholic kings. The sarcophagus, like many in Rome, was askew with the wall, positioned awkwardly. A group of visitors seemed confused by this. Langdon did not stop to explain. Formal Christian tombs were often misaligned with the architecture so they could lie facing east. It was an ancient superstition that Langdon's Symbology 212 class had discussed just last month.

"That's totally incongruous!" a female student in the front had blurted when Langdon explained the reason for east-facing tombs. "Why would Christians want their tombs to face the rising sun? We're talking about Christianity... not sun worship!"

Langdon smiles, pacing before the blackboard, chewing an apple. "Mr Hitzrot!" he shouted.

A young man dozing in back sat up with a start. "What! Me?"

Langdon pointed to a Renaissance art poster on the wall. "Who is that man kneeling before God?"

"Um... some saint?"

"Brilliant. And how do you know he's a saint?"

"He's got a halo?"

"Excellent, and does that golden halo remind you of anything?"

Hitzrot broke into a smile. "Yeah! Those Egyptian things we studied last term. Those... um... sun disks!"

"Thank you, Hitzrot. Go back to sleep." Langdon turned back to the class. "Halos, like much of Christian symbology, were borrowed from the ancient Egyptian religion of sun workship. Christianity is filled with examples of sun worship."

"Excuse me?" the girl in the front said. "I go to Church all the time, and I don't see much sun worshipping going on!"

"Really? What do you celebrate on December twenty-fifth?"

"Christmas. The birth of Jesus Christ."

"And yet according to the Bible, Christ was born in March, so what are we doing celebrating in late December?"

Silence. 

Langdon smiles. "December twenty-fifth, my friends, is the ancient pagan holiday of sol invictus - Unconquered Sun - coinciding with the winter solstice. Its that wonderful time of year when the sun returns, and the days start getting longer."

Langdon took another bite of apple.

"Conquering religions," he continued, "often adopt existing holidays to make conversion less shocking. It's called transmutation. It helpes people acclimatize to the new faith. Worshipers keep the same holy dates, pray in the same sacred locations, use a similar symbology... and they simply substitute a different god."

Now the girl in the front looked furious. "You're implying Christianity is just some kind of... repackaged sun worship!"

"Not at all. Christianity did not borrow only from the sun worship. The ritual of Christian canonization is taken from the ancient 'god-making' rite of Euhemerus. The practice of 'god-eating' - that is, Holy Communion - was borrowed from the Aztecs. Even the concept of Christ dying for our sins is arguably not exclusively Christian; the self-sacrifice of a young man to absolve the sins of his people appears in the earliest tradition of the Quetzalcoatl."

The girl glared. "So, is anything in Christianity original?"

"Very little in any organized faith is truly original. Religions are not born from scratch. They grow from one another. Modern religion is a collage... an assimilated historical record of man's quest to understand the divine.

"Um... hold on," Hitzrot ventures, sounding awake now. "I know something Christina that's original. How about our image of God? Christian art never portrays God as the hawk sun god, or as an Aztec, or as anything weird. It always shows God as an old man with a white beard. So our image of God is original, right?

Langdon smiled. "When the early Christian converts abandoned their former deities - pagan gods, Roman gods, GReek, sun, Mithraic, whatever - they asked the church what their new Christian God looked like. Wisely, the church chose the most feared, powerful... and familiar face in all of recorded history."

Hitzrot looked skeptical. "An old man with a white, flowing beard?"

Langdon pointed to a heirarchy of ancient gods on the wall. At the top sat an old man with a white, flowing beard. "Does Zeus look familiar?"

The class ended right on cue.

I love this excerpt. I don't know how much of it is true. But still, it proves two things for me.

(1) Christianity is man-made and therefore, the post of "God" has been imposed upon. It has been transmuted to suit the converts' requirements and acceptance of Christianity and nothing else.

(2) Christianity too gives some form of importance to image of God and so on. It is not only the Hindus who worship images. So they have no right to point fingers.

Imagine how opposite Hinduism is. I am clearly being biased here, or so you might think. However, any logical person would arrive at the conclusion that Hinduism, unlike Christianity, had never changed its fundamental precepts to suit the needs of the converts. It has been sincere through and through. Unlike Christianity, Islam or Judaism, God in Hinduism has never been seen as being separated from the Universe that was created by God. Indeed, everything is God, the Universe is God, the energy that holds everything together is indeed God. Hinduism is simply brilliant.

I am fascinated with Hinduism because it made me see the world as it is, with the things we superimpose upon it.

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Fake Swamis and Cults

This is a random podcast, made in Tamil, but I thought this fit well in this heading of Clearing The Clouds, so I am posting it here, instead of under the Random section that I am yet to create. This podcast discusses about fake swamis and cults, deriving the topic from a recent Neeya Naana episode on a similar topic. 

Download link is here (Right Click and Save Target As).

This is the link if you wish to watch the Neeya Naana episode:
www.thamil.org/tv_shows/?m=view&vid=21346 

The two links mentioned in the podcast are these:
1st link: www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/default.aspx
2nd link: www.shrikavalemath.org.in/default.htm

Music is from Madharasapattinam movie. 

I hope you like this podcast, and please provide your comments and suggestions. Thanks!

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Teacher or The Teaching?

This is all I want to tell to all those people there still trapped in the 'Nithy' trap...

When you are on the path of seeking the Truth, because you have become fed up of your life, then you will be desperate enough to follow someone and anyone to attain your goal. But in that journey, you get so attached to the "teacher" and not his/her "teaching"! That is the mistake people make...

All these new age cults, if you notice, they are very teacher-centered. Examples include Isha, Shri Shri Ravishankar, whoever else, you name it! I agree that these people are doing good, doing charity, teaching meditation... But would you only learn all these meditation, yoga and stuff if all these come from a person wearing ocher robes?? Is that ocher robe really important??

Observe other groups that also have Swamis. Look at Chinmaya Mission and Arsha Vidya Gurukulam. They are never teacher-oriented. They don't even advertise their charity projects. In fact, you wouldn't even have heard of Swami Chinmayananda or Swami Dayananda Saraswati until you come across them here in this blog. These people don't advertise themselves in magazines, give discourses on youtube, etc. They teach Vedanta, and other Hinduism disciplines like Yoga, Ayurveda, Sanskrit, etc. And they charge minimal for that too.... Not to the extent of US$6000 for a 21-day programme!!

Believe in God, not people who claim themselves to be God. A truly realized person will never even openly tell that he is God. Because it is for him to understand, not for the others. Pls come out of the dark, people! Pls lets think by ourselves...

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Is there an eternal heaven?

Hi guys... I have written a post in my other blog on whether there is such a thing as absolute evil. Do please read it :) In this post, I am going to negate the concept of the eternal heaven or paradise. 

Take note of the term "eternal heaven". I am not saying that heaven does not exist. Neither am I saying that heaven does exist. The existence of heaven is just a belief that a lot of people have, which cannot be confirmed unless we are dead. Provided that we have done enough good to even "see heaven".

I am referring to the concept of an heaven which is eternal. Meaning permanent. Is there such a thing as eternal heaven?

What is impermanent? 

How do we go about defining what is impermanent? If we know what is impermanent, then by the law of remainder, we will know what is not impermanent. Therefore, let's look at how we can define what is impermanent. 

Something that is impermanent, is that which has a beginning and an end. Do you agree? It has a birth and a death. This laptop is impermanent. This blogger website is impermanent. Forget the laptop and the blogger website. This whole universe is impermanent! Because all these have a beginning and therefore an end too. Meaning, they are bound by time. 

These impermanent objects are also bound by space. If this laptop is not bound by space, then it can be at several places at the same time. Heck, it can be everywhere at the same moment in time! But it is not! This laptop is here on my desk. It occupies space. Therefore, it is bound by space. 

Therefore, everything that is impermanent is bound by time and space. It also has a name and form. Are you with me so far? So now, let's look at our eternal heaven. The concept of heaven is a place where you go to after you are dead, or rather where your "spirit" goes to after the body is dead, and experience eternal happiness. We can observe two things from here:

1) Heaven is a place, a conception which is clearly bound by time and space if you think about it. Clearly, it has a name and a form. So the question arises, where is this heaven? Who created heaven? So before creating the heaven, where was the creator? The fact that heaven was created itself shows that there was a beginning for heaven -> immediately you can conclude that it is bound by time. Therefore, heaven is impermanent and thus there is NO such thing as an "eternal heaven". If there is such a place called heaven, then it will be an impermanent experience.

2) Is happiness an experience or understanding? If it is an experience, then that happiness is impermanent. Because every experience begins somewhere and ends somewhere. No experience lasts forever. Therefore, you cannot "experience" eternal happiness. It is a state of understanding. (How you reach this state of understanding is not within the scope of this post.)

So now we know what is impermanent, what then is not impermanent? Take note that I did not use the term "permanent". Something that is not bound by both time and space is not impermanent. Something which the impermanent "objects" depend upon. Something that is an independent reality. The Hindus call this independent reality Brahman.

This is a side-track. I did not mention two more definitions of what is impermanent. Anything that has an attribute attached to it, for example colour, quality, quantity, etc., is of an impermanent nature. Anything that has this attributes is subject to change. Therefore, anything that is changing is impermanent. 

Why am I very sure that such an independent reality (Brahman) really exists?

Everything around us is changing. Just think about this. Appearances change. Technology changes. Ideologies change. EVERYTHING! 

But a change cannot be measured without a reference point. For example, how do you measure time? Time = Final - Initial. Right? You always measure something with a reference point, which will be your "Initial". Similarly, by analogy, there should be a reference point to measure all this change around us! This reference point is what we call the Changeless entity. This Changeless entity is that which is not impermanent, not bound by time and space (meaning it is eternal and omnipresent), it is called Brahman.

P.S.: My point in writing this post is for me to read it once again in the future and understand the evolution of my thought processes. This post is not meant for everyone! Only a select few will be able to fully understand the entire content of this post and its implications and appreciate it. The rest will understand, but not fully. Do comment if you have any opinions to express or questions to ask! All views are welcome!

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Interesting Neeya Naana episode...

This episode of Neeya Naana, although it is quite old, is really amazing! I am very impressed at the views expressed by the youngsters today. Do go to Youtube.com and watch the entire episode, while I am only embedding the 1st part of the show here:

I think it is the 5th part of this episode videos,in which the topic about thaali (the sacred thread) comes about. Many of the males in the opposition side bravely raised their hands and said that they will not tie thaali in their marriage ritual! I am simply amazed! And not to mention these people are from "staunch" countries like Madurai, Dindukkal, etc., where the tradition and religious practices are deeply rooted in the society.

My personal opinion on this subject matter, on whether marriage rituals are necessary or not, is entirely objective. As long as you do not see any value for the rituals, you don't have to follow it. It is entirely your choice. But because I see a certain value to these rituals, I know they have meanings, they serve a certain purpose, I would go for it.

The so-called sacred thread, thaali, did not even exist back then, many centuries ago! It became a necessity somewhere just a few centuries ago, probably because of Mughal and British invasions. But now, in a free society, I think there isn't any need for thaali anymore.

So back then what ritual was there that thaali-tying has now replaced? You must be wondering... Well, there was a ritual called "kanya daanam". The father of the bride will bring both the bride's and the bridegroom's hands together and join them together. Plus there is the Saptapadi (7 vows taken in 7 steps around the sacred fire). After joining hands, the couple has to take their 7 vows together. That is all there is for marriage, no thaali tying all.

For me, I don't know if I will wear a thaali. I want my marriage to take place as per the original Hindu ritual where there is kanya daanam, and all, but no thaali tying. But I don't know whether this will happen in this way. There is no use in wishing for something and building up expectations for something and in the end, it not happening and you getting disappointed. So I am going to just leave it at that.

Thaali = male domination: Now this is an interesting viewpoint. I never thought about this! But come to think of it, it is really male domination! IF and only IF the males have forgotten that they have to wear their metti (toe ring)!!!

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Universal knowledge...

A very interesting passage for your reading pleasure:

What is to be done and what is not to be done, what is proper and not proper - these things you already know, of course, because you have a certain innate sense about them. No one can plead ignorance of what is right and wrong. This knowledge is universal.

What do you mean by universal knowledge? All monkeys, for example, born to live on treetops, need to know something about the law of gravity - and they do. Ifyou were to observe the mother monkey, yo would see that she has no concern about whether there is a baby holding onto her or not as she jumps from tree to tree. The baby monkey, however, holds onto its mother's bosom for its dear life. It is definitely afraid of falling, whereas the mother is not. She just keeps leaping from one branch to another, while her baby holds on tight.

Suppose, however the baby monkey had to undergo some education to know that there is a law of gravity operating, that it must hold on tightly in order not to fall, and that it if did fall, it would be injured or it would die. If all of these hings had to be taught to monkeys, many of them would die for want of education and the species itself would sooner or later become extinct.

Fortunately, every baby monkey, without being educated, seems to know what is done and what is not to be done. Without going to Harvard or Cornell, without joining the Moral Majority, it knows very well that 'I will fall if I let go of my mother.' That 'I will fall; is one piece of truth and 'if I fall, I may hurt myself' is the second piece of truth the monkey seems to know. The third piece of truth is, 'To fall and get hurt or be killed is not good forme or for my species.'

Instinctively, then, the monkey knows all this. Since monkeys are made to live on treetops, the minimum knowledge every monkey must have in order to survive is to know, 'I will fall; objects come down; I will be the victim if I don't hold on to the other branch when I leap.' This knowledge must be given to monkeys along with the creation. Only then is there any hope of a monkey living its life on the treetops.

Such knowledge is instinctive and is what we call the creation. If that knowledge is not given to a monkey and it has to be educated in order to know how to survive, then I would say that there is a defect in the creation.

Similarly, as a human being, I am born with a faculty of choice. Unlike a monkey, however, I can choose to live on treetops, on the 20th floor of a building in Manhattan, or in a cottage on some riverbank. I can choose to go to Alaska and keep only my nose out or I can live in the tropics. Because I have the faculty of choice, I can choose my course of action. I can choose various ends and various means to achieve those ends.

That human beings seek securities and pleasures is a common fact that we have already analysed. And in seeking these ends, they have to follow certain means to achieve them. More often than not, upon analysis you will find that the problems lie only in the means and not in the ends.

(For example, stealing in order to provide for the family. The end is 'providing for the family', which is not wrong. But the means, 'stealing', is wrong.)

This passage is interesting because it shows that we have a naturally in-built consensus of what is right and what is wrong.

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The Sad Plight...

Something very beautiful and dear to all of us is slowly slipping away from our hands. We are just passively sitting in our own comfort zones and observing our very own traditions slipping away and facing the danger of totally being wiped out from this world. You might be wondering what I'm talking about...

Today I saw my old friend who was my school mate in my secondary school. She has started working after her Diploma and it had been quite long since I've seen her, so we were talking for a while. It was then when she told me that she has been studying the bible. I had asked her if she was going for Thaipusam and she gave me this answer. She told me that she is finding all her answers in the book and it all seems to "fit in", with some truth in it.

When she was telling me all that, it was like I was seeing myself a few years back. I had once been very into the bible and liked reading it. I guess I had a particular attraction towards Christianity and their so-called culture. But later on, other books influenced my thoughts and I strayed away into the paths of atheism. Later on my life slowly started to set in the right path and I began learning about Hinduism. Now I am very much into my tradition, into my Hinduism. I don't know how I reached there. It was rather like Hinduism found me! I must have done something good in my previous life to have been put in the right track again. I am so glad that I am given the opportunity to learn more about my tradition and religion and pave my path towards knowledge and maybe even ultimately moksha (liberation).

Many are like my friend, slowly taking Hinduism for granted and showing their interests in other religions. Maybe they find it easier to access the bible and easier to understand the religion. Because Christianity is nothing but full of beliefs that cannot be proven in this world! Its easier to believe in them than learning any logical explanations for concepts like Karma, Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha and Ishwara. It makes their lives easier I guess. But one thing is for sure! They are ignorant about their own religion; Hinduism! If not, they would never even look at other religions' teachings! If one knows about Hinduism as much as I know at this stage of my life, they would not be attracted to any other religion because the answers for ALL their questions can be found in Hinduism itself and even MORE! What more do you need?! Hinduism is the only religion in the world in which there is existential proof for things like Karma, Moksha, and reincarnation!

Sigh... I'm not even worried about them converting into other religions. I'm more worried about what'll happen to the beautiful gift (Sanatana Dharma) given to all of us, after a few generations? What worries me most is that people born in the tradition are not appreciating the tradition! All the Vedic Brahmanas who are supposed to be teaching the Vedas to us are mostly software engineers now! Though the priests still exist, they don't teach! Only way we can revive Hinduism back to its traditional Sanatana Dharmic roots is by educating others about our own religion. That is what I am going to do and that is why I'm preparing myself for it now by taking this General Teaching Course in Hinduism (2 1/2 years course, leading to a Diploma in Hinduism Studies).

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Retreat camp: FUN!!

The hinduism camp we attended was really fun! Well, I know what most of us thought about the camp before attending it. That it would be one of those camps which contain lots of talks and quizes, very religious in short. But it turned out to be otherwise. It was really fun with a good balance of games and talks.

We learned a lot about hinduism. For me personally, I feel very ashamed of myself after attending the camp. Being a hindu, a product of the very old vedic culture, I am really ignorant of the many gems hidden in our culture. I do not want to stay that way anymore. From now on in my life, I'm going to make it a point to learn as much as I can about Sanatana Dharma. Being in Hindu Society in NUS has really helped me realise a lot about hinduism.

I was really impressed to meet so many youths interested in making a difference to the people by getting involved in community activities. After seeing all this, I feel I have wasted my whole life. I met a fellow NUSian, Ambika. She was actively involved in hindu centre activities and also has her own group of non-profit, volunteer-based organisation called "Karangal". They bring Indian children who have serious illnesses like cancer and leukaemia outside to spend time with them, having fun. They also raise funds to help these children to get some treatment. This has really opened up my eyes to today's youths. They are very good and active nowadays. Better than the youths in the past I guess.

This whole camp experience was an eye-opener for me in a lot of issues. Thanks to the facilitators who organised this camp: Devanand, Sugumaran and Susantharan. Thanks guys!:)

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