Saturday 24 October 2015

Illusions everywhere!

I strongly recommend reading the previous post before going on,so that it all makes sense.
(Click Here if you haven't read the previous one)
Following are my opinions and yours might differ.

The people of this age are interested in twists and turns and contradictions. And the media knows it very well, so it only shows you the part of truth that you want to see.
For instance-
At first people wanted to believe that Rama was the good in the epic and Ravana was the evil one,so they ignored the parts where Rama's idealness could be questioned and the good part of Ravana.
And then that story was spread by the masses,even though the story was true it was incomplete and portrayed only the Good part of Rama and the Evil of Ravana.
But as i've said in the beginning that people are interested in twists,so then the story was interpreted likewise showing Ravana's knowledge and respect for women and Rama being from a male dominant society.
The story was bended that way and now people think that Ravana was indeed a great person.

If you are unaware i would like to tell that Ravana had ordered to kill his own daughter because someone had predicted that she would be the cause of destruction.
So what do you feel of my last post where the girl states that she wished a brother like Ravana,surely the girl was clever enough to state only the points which supported her idea of brother being like Ravana.

On one hand i can say that Ravana was evil because he made his own sister widow by killing Vidyutjihva the husband of Surpankha but then i can take sides of Ravana and say that Vidyutjihva was trying to usurp the throne of Lanka and so he had a valid reason to do that!

Captivated by the beauty of a a brahmin girl named Vedavathi Ravana tried to molest her and own her.

Coming back to Surpankha episode,Surpankha having had her nose cut by Lakshman wanted a revenge. Surpanka knew that Ravana had a weakness for beautiful women and so she takes advantage of it to take her revenge.As she describes Sita's beauty to Ravana he falls in love with her even without seeing her and wishes to marry her,so Ravana kidnaps Sita not as a revenge for her sisters insult but because he is lovestruck and wants to marry her!
And for people believing that Ravana was better then the people who abuse and do horrible things to women read on-
Ravana wanted to force himself on Sita but he could not do that because of a curse,the story is as follows,

Ravana and his army were once camped on mount Kailash, preparing to attack Devaloka (the kingdom of the gods), when he saw the Apsara (nymph) Rambha and was enchanted by her beauty. He propositioned her, but she refused his advances, saying that she was like Ravana's daughter-in-law, as she was on her way to see Nalakuvara, son of Ravana's brother Kubera the god of wealth. Ravana paid no heed to this, saying that Rambha was an Apsara, and Apsaras are never wedded to just one husband. He then ravished Rambha. When Nalakuvara heard what had happened, he put the following curse on Ravana:

Oh fair one, since thou hast been ravished despite thy unwillingness he shall never be able to get by an unwilling damsel. Whenever he shall, stricken by lust, ravish a reluctant damsel, his head shall be sundered into seven pieces.

So Ravana couldn't take liberties with Sita against her will. He had to get Sita to marry him voluntarily, although he did use threats to try to convince her. When he first brings her to Lanka, he says this:

Oh, angry lady Maithili, listen to my words. A period of twelve months is given to you. And oh, smiley smiler, if you do not come nigh of me within that period, then the cooks will slice you to pieces for the purpose of a morning meal.

And when Hanuman came to Lanka, he hears Ravana telling Sita that he would keep his word and give her two more months before killing her:

O Seetha with best complexion! Whatever limit has been made by me to you, those two months are protectable to me. Thereafter ascend my bed. Above two months you not desiring me as husband will be killed in my kitchen for my breakfast.

So if you have believed what was written in the previous article,i hope that i have opened your eyes to the truth of our daily life.
Our thoughts are too easy to manipulate,and i think that media does this same thing.
They know how we people perceive things and they make us believe something by changing the angles in which the truth seen.

As for who was good and who was evil in the epic of Ramayana,it's all yours to decide, i don't want to judge that because i doubt if it matters.
If you believe Ravana was all good Valmiki might've biased the text :D (hope you got what i wanted to say)

Our reality is all an illusion,shaped by our beliefs.

"Accept that infinite occurences in universe cannot be fathomed by finite human mind" ― Devdutt Pattanaik, Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

“Within infinite myths lies the Eternal Truth Who sees it all? Varuna has but a thousand eyes Indra, a hundred And I, only two” ― Devdutt Pattanaik, Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

-Dhairya Gada

Thursday 22 October 2015

Ravana

A pregnant mother asked her daughter, “What do u want- A brother or a sister?
Daughter: Brother.
Mother: Like whom?
Daughter: Like RAVAN.
Mother: What the hell are you saying? Are you out of your mind?
Daughter: Why not Mom? He left all his Royal ship & Kingdom, all because his sister was disrespected. Even after picking up his enemy’s wife, he didn’t even touch her. Why wouldn’t I want to have a brother like him? What would I do with a brother like Ram who left his pregnant wife after listening to aDhobithough his wife always stood by his side like a shadow? After giving Agni Pareeksha and suffering 14 years of exile. Mom, you being a wife and sister to someone, until when will you keep on asking for a ‘Ram’ as your son?

If you are one of the egoistic type of religious person close the tab right now because you will just end up cursing me even if the things written in the post are logical and make sense!
Proceed to read only if you are a free minded religious person or an atheist !

Rama was a Deva and Ravana a Rakshas is what we all know,but Rama is worshipped because the history shows that he won against Ravana,his being a Deva has nothing to do with it.
Deva and Asura(Rakshas) can be viewed just as two different societies having different lifestyle and ideals,each of the lifestyles and ideals having equally good points and bad points,its just because Deva won against Asura and people always wanted to believe that the Good always triumphs over Evil that they branded Deva's as good and Asura as the evil!

Conflict does not necessarily be between good and the evil it is due to differences in the system of life.

Let me defend Ravana..

A devout follower of Lord Shiva,he possessed immense knowledge of vedas and upanishads and was the author of Ravana Samhita - an astrological scripture narrated by lord shiva.

He was a master scholar in medicine, mathematics,astronomy, astrology . He has written many books like "Arka Shastra" . in arka shastra he has compiled every herb its usage and dosage revealing cures to some complex diseases.

The book "Kumara Tantraya" (Gynecology and Peadetric Medicine) which reveals the treatments for infant diseases was written by him accepting the request of his pregnant queen Mandodari. He has similarly written many books on astrology and also created new Raagas in Music , esp in Sama Veda , our 4th veda. He was such an eloquent master that he controlled Navagrahas (the nine "grahas" aspects of human astro system).

He is said to be one of the greatest physicians who ever existed, and even authored the book Arka Prakashaya. The Bisajjya Grantha and Nadi Shasthra mentions that King Ravana and his grandfather Pulasthi Muni had graced the world-famous medical conferences held in those ancient days in Janasthan Pura near Pakistan. In Sri Lankan folk tales, it is said that king Ravana treated both Rama and Lakshmana with his own hand when they were badly injured on the battlefield.

The only King of Sri Lanka who managed to wipe out all the divisions among the Sri Lankan people was the Great King Ravana. Under his leadership, King Ravana managed to unite all the Sri Lankan tribes. Sri Lanka became a secular country not subject to or bound by any religious dogma, with no official religion, language or official yes men. Not only ruling Sri Lanka, he governed a vast kingdom with boundaries extending over South Asia – and was hence named Chakravarthi. In chronological records about Ravana, it is almost impossible to find a single battle fought against another community of people in order to invade their land or usurp their throne. Not a single ‘racial’ conflict is mentioned in any of those records written during his reign, though the chronicle of the Ramayana by Valmiki stereotyped him as the most evil human to have ever existed, providing an erroneous and biased interpretation of the Rama-Ravana war.

Ram and Lakshman, the princes of Ayodhya were admonished and sent to exile in forest.
Ram's wife Sita,a pretty,coy lady feared the repercurssions of living alone in Ayodhya and decided to be with her husband during the exile, she believed the wild forest to be safer than living as a single woman in a repressive society with three royal mother-in-laws.

One day during their exile in forest, Minakshi,the beautiful and much adored sister of King Ravana saw Ram. She was bewitched by his handsome looks and fell for him. Minakshi went upto Ram and expressed her feelings of desire for him. Ram and Laskhaman were shocked at the courage of this woman, back home in ayodhya no woman would have had the guts to propose a man.They would remain in their goongats and would have had only fleeting glances at their bridegrooms before wedding. Without hiding his disgust Lakshman retorted to Minakshi "O you filthy woman,how dare you speak like this.Women should not behave so.See our Sita here,she is a role model of how a woman should be.You are a demon".

Minakshi replied back "O you misogynist,which law of your land forbids women to express their feelings.If a man had done this you would have termed him as a courageous romantic and if a woman does it,she is a demon?.Being a sita,who does not speak against the men in her household however unjust they are is not how a woman should be". For the first time in their lives the princes of ayodhya heard a woman speak up against a man. An aghast Lakshman drew his sword and sliced the nose of the unarmed Minakshi.

Ravana propogated "Raksh Neeti" which meant equality for all.

Raksh tribe believed in nature worship and universal identity without any bias for caste or creed and gender. The other tribes had deep caste divides and wanted to keep that alive

Ram and Lakshman found that Sita had been abducted.How will they face the world now? how can they ever go back to ayodhya without her? the world will chastise their ability and manhood for not being able to safeguard a woman. Their masculine egos would be thrashed and their legacy relegated to oblivion. The princes decided to find out sita,they started their travel towards south.

Meanwhile in Lanka,Sita was put in a ladies community centre.There she was mocked and ridiculed by the lankan women. They could not imagine someone so coy and so dependent,and without any ability to rebel or speakup against men. Her misery was compounded when she came to know about the beautiful and intellectual Mandodari, Ravana's wife. People compared Sita's beauty to Mandodari but when they stuck a conversation with her,they scorned her intelligence or rather the lack of it.

On the other side luck favored Ram and Lakshman,they befriended Sugriva,the leader of a dark,strong and muscular race of beings from the south. Sugriva's story,of being exiled for betraying his brother,stuck a chord with Ram and Lakshman. Ram decides to help sugriva defeat his brother and in return use sugriva's army to find sita. As decided Ram killed from hiding Sugriva's brother Vali during their duel.

With the help of Sugriva's army and his commander-in-chief Hanuman,ram was able to find that Sita was imprisoned in the island of lanka. He decided to build a bridge to cross over to Lanka.

Rama wanted to construct the famous "sethu" and needed a pandit to do the commencement puja or ritual. The only pandit nearby was Ravana, the best amongst all. Ravana came and performed Puja for his "enemy" dutifully and blessed him. If this arrogance, be it..

Rama wanted to pick an auspicious time to start the battle. Rama needed an astrologer. Everyone unanimously suggested none other than Ravana. Heeding to the suggestion, Rama went to ravana to ask him a good time. Ravana as a great professional gave him the best muhurtha (9 navaratris) and blessed him with "Vijaya Bhava".

Finally Rama tired of all weaponry , picked up his Brahmaastra , equivalent of nuclear weapon in modern age. This weapon technically was never supposed to be used in war as it was more of a deterrance. Ravana had this weapon as well. But seeing Rama open this weapon, Ravana did not open his Brahmastra (which he had) because he knew that had he done that , entire humanity and ecology would have been finished, imagine 2 hydrogen bombs colliding. He opted out and gladly accepted death and defeat for the larger purpose.

In fact before his death, Ravana makes a request to Rama to protect the Humanity and Ecology to its fullest !

Many slam Ravana condemning him as lustful and arrogant but I beg to disagree. If he had indeed been lustful then Sita would not have left his palace untouched by him. However, even if it had become lust, he has the sage Vishwamitra for competition in horniness! If arrogance is a crime, hang Durvasa first who was much more arrogant than Ravana and is still considered a maharishi!

Our idea of Ravana being a demon or cruel is totally wrong,its either because History belongs to the victors,and the text by the historians is biased,or the The fault lies not with the text but on how we perceive it.

I would say that there were no hero or villains in the epic just people struggling with life,responding to crisis,making mistakes,in innocence or arrogance,while trying to make their live's meaningful and worthwhile.

If you want to know the story from Ravana's view, i would recommend reading 'Asura-Tale of the vanquished' by Anand Neelkanth

In the end everything is Moh Maya, Happy Dussehra :D

The content in the post is grabbed from various answers on quora with only few lines of my own.
If you think this article is worth reading and the content worth giving a thought,don't hesitate to share it with your friends!

Important Note - Read the next post "Illusions Everywhere" if you have read this one,its a continuation of this one with some twists.
(Click Here)

Sunday 18 October 2015

Debugging the brain

How to debug your brain

By Oliver Emberton, abetterlife.quora.com

View Original

Our brains are the most bug ridden pieces of junk since Internet Explorer.

To replicate one common bug, try telling your brain to “go to the gym”. Most brains will respond by updating their Facebook status, and watching cat videos. This is not the desired behaviour.

Fortunately I’ve developed a fix. Let me just explain how the whole human brain works first.

This code is a mess

Looking at our brain, it’s clear it was developed by a team of ten thousand monkeys with a serious drinking problem. You know, like Windows 8.

The brain is event-driven, which is to say it does almost nothing until an event occurs, and then it responds to the event. Your hand gets hot, you pull it back. Your stomach rumbles, you look for food.

Unfortunately there are a lot of events. There are events for shiny objects coming into view, or for scary monsters, or for boobs – actually, there are 856 different events for boobs, but I digress – and all of these events are firing in our brain and competing for our limited processing ability.
Too late the developers realised this would leave us bouncing between distractions like a cat chasing a laser pointer, and they hacked in a priority system.

Unfortunately, our priority system is a bit pants: the default priority for sitting down is higher than the priority for working out.

But wait! We’re smarter than – ooh, a squirrel

Don’t we have some kind of clever, conscious brain though? The part that does math and plays chess and copies Sally’s homework?
Well, yes. But that part is event driven too, which is to say it’s not on all the time. It turns out our brains were optimised for energy efficiency, and they only turn on their CPU (Consciousness Processing Unit) when absolutely necessary. If you’ve ever realised you’ve been driving for an hour and hadn’t even noticed, that was your consciousness going into Standby Mode.

It’s your consciousness that tells you to exercise, even if you don’t want to, because it can see the long term benefits are greater than the short term pain. And when it’s in control, you do so. But consciousness demands a lot of power. When your mental battery is low, it’s easily overpowered out by higher priorities, like playing Hearthstone or squeezing a particularly awkward spot.

The bug fix

We’re going to add a new event of our own to fix things. Non-programmers might call this a ‘habit’.
Our new event is triggered by a transition. For example, if you wake up, that’s a transition. Arrive at your desk – that’s a transition. Arrive home – that’s a transition.

It’s at the transition that our behaviour is most likely to be hijacked by the highest priority event that happens to be in our brain at the time. If you’ve arrived home, chances are that event is “I’m knackered” and you’ll fall onto the sofa. We need to stop that.

Here’s your new event:

Don’t worry if you’re not fluent in Brain Programming (B#) – just remember three words: “No. Right. Now.” Let’s break it down:

“No”

Firstly, we need to interrupt all other events. There’s a trick for overpowering mental distractions, and that’s to make your intention insanely simple. No is about as simple an intention as you can get.
No means simply reject everything. If you want to check Facebook, the answer is no. If someone is asking you if you have 5 minutes, the answer is no. If this will piss someone off, it’s still no.

Don’t complicate this with exceptions. Exceptions will happen anyway – if your house is on fire, primal instincts will take over. But 99.9% of the time, in our comfortable modern lives, the greatest danger to you is that you live by your outdated survival impulses. Start by saying no to everything.

You might worry that by declining everyone and everything you’ll become some kind of sociopathic robot. You’ll still have time for those distractions later. Tell people that. The trick is to get done what matters first.

“Right”

Now ask yourself what is the one ‘right’ thing you should be doing now.I did not say three things. There can be only one.

You shouldn’t need to think about this much, because your conscious brain should already have decided for you the night before: it’s usually the one thing you want to do all the time, but never find time for.
A crucial distinction here is importance versus urgency. The most important things in life – like eating healthy – are rarely urgent. And our brain’s buggy events are great at dealing with urgent things – like the phone ringing – all by themselves. So when given the choice, choose importance over urgency. It makes the most difference in the long run.

“Now”

Start doing the right thing immediately. Not after you’ve checked your email – immediately. Don’t give yourself time to even think about it, juststart. Starting is always the hardest part; the very inertia which makes something hard to start can make it equally hard to stop.
This simple fix works because when you transition from one place to another, your brain is unusually receptive to events. It needs to decide on a new course of action, and once it chooses one it tends to stick to it.

Unfortunately we tend to make stupid decisions at transitions, because we don’t think about them:

Interrupt your transitions with the right choices, and you’ll find yourself doing what matters far, far more often:

Just remember: “No. Right. Now.” Three short words to program a life changing habit.
As for how you fix Windows 8, I have no idea.

Sunday 11 October 2015

The egg

Excited about the recent science fiction film 'The Martian' ?

The movie is based on Andy Weir's novel The Martian,

and following is a must read short story by this amazing author (the story will leave you mindfucked)

The Egg

You were on your way home when you died.
It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
And that’s when you met me.
“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”
“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.
“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”
“Yup,” I said.
“I… I died?”
“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.
You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”
“More or less,” I said.
“Are you god?” You asked.
“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”
“My kids… my wife,” you said.
“What about them?”
“Will they be all right?”
“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”
You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”
“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”
“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”
“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”
“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”
You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”
“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”
“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”
“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”
I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.
“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”
“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”
“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”
“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”
“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”
“Where you come from?” You said.
“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”
“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”
“So what’s the point of it all?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”
“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.
I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”
“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”
“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”
“Just me? What about everyone else?”
“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”
You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”
“All you. Different incarnations of you.”
“Wait. I’m everyone!?”
“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.
“I’m every human being who ever lived?”
“Or who will ever live, yes.”
“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”
“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.
“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.
“And you’re the millions he killed.”
“I’m Jesus?”
“And you’re everyone who followed him.”
You fell silent.
“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”
You thought for a long time.
“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”
“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”
“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”
“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”
“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”
“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”
And I sent you on your way.

- by Andy weir

Saturday 3 October 2015

Kaliyug!

Why avatars or mahapurushs are not taking birth nowadays?
Because it is Kaliyug,
what is Kaliyug and what will happen during Kaliyug asked The four Pandavas (except Yudhishthira who was not present)
Krishna smiled and said "let me demonstrate you the situation of Kaliyug" he took a bow and four arrows and shot them in four directions, and ordered the four Pandavas to bring them back.
Each of the four Pandavas went in four different directions to search for the arrows.
Arjuna when picked the arrow heard a very sweet voice he turned back and saw a cuckoo was singing bhajans in very spellbinding voice but was also eating flesh of a live rabbit which was in great pain. Arjuna was very surprised to see such a gory act by such a divine bird he left the place immediately.
Bhima picked arrow from a place where five wells were situated, the four wells were surrounding a single well. The four wells were overflowing with very sweet water as if they were not able to hold water and surprisingly the well in the middle of these four overflowing wells was completely empty. Bhima was also puzzled at this sight.
Nakula was returning to the place after picking up the arrow he stopped at a place where a cow was about to give birth. After giving birth the cow started licking the calf but continued to lick it even after the calf was clean, with great difficulty people were able to separate them and by that time the calf was injured badly. Nakula was puzzled by the behaviour of such calm animal.
Sahdev picked arrow which fell near a mountain and saw a big boulder falling, the boulder was crushing the rocks and big trees on his way down, but the same boulder was stopped by a small plant. Sahdev was also amazed at this sight.
All the Pandavas asked the meaning of these incidents from Krishna who smiled and started explaining
" In Kaliyug the priests will have very sweet voice and will also have great knowledge but they will exploit devotees the same way cuckoo was doing with rabbit. In Kaliyug poor will live among rich, those rich will have enormous amount of wealth which will actually overflow but they will not offer a single penny to the poor same as the four well didn't had a single drop of water for the empty well.
In Kaliyug parent will love their children so much that their love will actually spoil them and will destroy their lives similar to the love shown by cow to her newborn calf.
In Kaliyug people will fall in terms of character like the boulder from the mountain and they will not be stopped by anyone at the end only the name of God will be able to hold them from doom like the little plant held the boulder from further fall.
That's explanation of Kaliyug from Lord Krishna to Pandavas.

Source:

Which is the best short story related to Indian mythology you have come across?

Sarabjeet Singh's answer: Why avatars or mahapurushs are not taking birth nowadays? Because it is Kaliyug, what is Kaliyug and what will happen during…

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