Dharmabum > Recent Status Updates

...values are 'how we want to be, what we want to stand for, and how we want to relate to the world around us.'

A good deal of what I know about politics saddens me.... But then I get to thinking of our morality & human weakness, remembering there has never been power with purity - anywhere. If you want to be pure, you must stand alone. If you seek to do positive things, achieve something, leave the world a mite better than you found it, then you must choose power & throw some of your purity away. There's no other choice.

"I have been in silence & darkness forever," she thought. "I have seen hell."
Who was she again? The lines had blurred somewhere in the evening, as she liked slaves who wanted freedom as much as she did. The weight of it all bore down to the ground and she began to sob.

I leant over Terray & said confidentially, 'You're in such splendid form, & you've done so marvelously, it's absolutely tragic you didn't come up there with us!'
'What I did was for the Expedition, my dear Maurice, & anyway you've got up, & that's a victory for the whole lot of us.'
I nearly burst with happiness. How could I tell him what his answer meant to me?

How oddly their minds worked. Here were these men, proverbial for their trustworthiness & devotion, who quite certainly enjoyed going high on the mountains; and yet, when on the point of reaping the fruits of their labours, they prudently held back. But I don't doubt their mentality struck them as even odder.
(Herzog, on offering to include Angtharkay a chance to be part of the summit assault & the latter declining.)

For several days, Couzy, the youngest of the party, would, in spite of all his arduour & enthusiasm, be condemned to stay low to carry out an essential but unspectacular job. He did it to perfection, & without a single word of complaint... It is this admirable spirit of self- denial which determines the strength of a team

The liberals were rendering the world liberal meaningless. Once there is no innate pressure to be liberal, one becomes open to explore what 'bigots' are saying.
A common theme among arguments forwarded by the pro hindutva voices was to oppose the hypocrisy and double standards of the liberal and secular crowd. Most of the times, these people were seeking parity, not supremacy.

Even today as I write this an entire army of left-liberals is actively whitewashing this Islamist mentality, giving cover to every contortion, giving context to every crime, and in the process making sure that the Hindu can't hear and see even the obvious, like I couldn't see an Islamist even when he was standing right in front of me.

Hercule Poirot said:
'Ah, but life is like that! It does not permit you to arrange and order it as you will. It will not permit you to escape emotion, to live by the intellect and by reason! You cannot say, "I will feel so much and no more." Life, Mr Welman, whatever else it is, is not reasonable!'

"See here, Poll," he said, "It's bad enough right now, but it's going to take a while to sink in. When it really sinks in it's going to be any amount worse. It'll be so much worse you'll think it's more than you can bear. Or any other human being. And worse than that, you'll have to go through it alone, because there isn't a thing on earth any of us can do to help beyond blind animal sympathy."

Just as ...ocean in all waves..is the Self in the universe. It is in this sense that the term 'over-ruler' is to be understood. To conceive of god as a mighty policeman standing wiht two keys, one made of gold to open the gates of heavens and the other of iron to open the doors of hell, is a barbarous concept which has nothing sacred in it to attract at least the intellectually awakened generations.

We silently admired his instinct but externally posed as though we had not heard him. The vanity of intelligence in the educated! They think that there is nothing beyond their college education and bookish knowledge. Everything else is superstition, legend, myth or sheet guess work. How little do they know of the store-house of knowledge to which they can stake no claim.

To walk barefoot in the Himalayas is to see nothing but the place where you are going to place your foot next. A rambling thought or even an unwarranted blink of the eye - ,oof! The interview of your foot with the stone is over and there is some red stuff flowing. This is not all. However careful you are, at every few steps you can always expect a thorn.

Thus, thinking heavily, he went on alone and he said to himself, "There in that land of mine is buried the first good half of my life and more. It is as though half of me were buried there, and now it is a different life in my house."
And suddenly, he wept a little, and he dried his eyes with the back of his hand, as a child does.

"Aye, beaten or carried to a man's bed, as the whim was, and not to one man's only but to any that might desire her that night, and the young lords bickered and bartered with each other for this slave or that and said, 'Then if you tonight, I tomorrow.' and when they were all alike wearied of a slave the men servants bickered and bartered for what the young lords left, and this before a slave was out of childhood.."

A snake once crept into Skandasramam...It also began steadily looking at Bhagavan who returned the gaze. This game of mutual hypnotising went on for some time. By then the snake presumably grasping that the Maharishi was harmless approached him confidently. It almost touched his feet, and later left. The same snake would often visit the ashram for Bhagavan's darshan even when he was amidst visitors.

At night he knew that he drew men to big tea houses & to places of pleasure...But none of the pleasures did Wang Lung know for himself, since his feet crossed no threshold except that of his own hut, & his road was always ended at a gate. He lived in the rich city as alien as a rat in a rich man's house that is fed on scraps thrown away, & hides here & there & is never a part of the real life of the house.

At night he knew that he drew men to big tea houses & to places of pleasure...But none of the pleasures did Wang Lung know for himself, since his feet crossed no threshold except that of his own hut, & his road was always ended at a gate. He lived in the rich city as alien as a rat in a rich man's house that is fed on scraps thrown away, & hides here & there & is never a part of the real life of the house.

He took his life from this earth; drop by drop by his sweat he wrung food from it and from the food, silver. Each time before this that he had taken the silver out to give anyone, it had been like taking a piece of his life and giving it to someone carelessly.

At Virupaksha cave the Swami had only one occupation and only one teaching. It was about the atma, experience and enquiry.

Her eyes were small and of a dull black in colour, and were filled with some kind of sadness that was not clearly expressed. It was a face that seemed habitually silent and unspeaking, as though it could not speak if it could. She bore patiently Wang Lung's look, without embarrassment or response, simply waiting until he had seen her.

We have spoken several times about Venkataramanan's hunger. It is true, he experienced hunger, his body felt weak and on several occasions would faint. But when he attempted to eat, even a little food would suffice. No reason could be given for this.

Death meant that the limbs stiffened, lips tightened, eyes closed and breathing stopped. By intense thinking, all this came to be experienced. But neither memory nor awareness disappeared. In other words, the sense organs ceased to operate externally and an inward look established itself. Even if the body died, the sense of 'I' did not go.

What he did have was a brilliant intuitive mind, and what was more, the ability to appreciate what he could not comprehend. He stimulated by skillful questions, he seemed never to lead although he did not follow, he uncovered without shaping. He provided an atmosphere where I could think more clearly, create more spontaneously than I might otherwise have been able to.

Should one spank children? ...It was an old one in our American family, never settled. He said he believed in spanking children at certain ages because they were not open to reason and functioned entirely on instinct and emotion. I said I hated all physical punishment and believed it did no good.

‎While others perform duties & follow professions which are conducive to better living in the world, what is the duty of the Brahmin? The most important aspect of our worldly lives is to obtain the grace of God. It is the duty of the brahmins to obtain such grace for the benefit of society...
The mantras which he recites & the Vedic karmas which he performs are for the benefit of all people and not for him alone."

Does floating lead to adjustment? I pondered upon the question as I sought one of the many corners in the dark old lobby. If so, then I must be adjusting. I was not living, not even existing, only floating upon the surface of time. To rise in the morning and work, to walk alone at night, to sleep briefly and get up at dawn, not thinking of past or of future, but only of this one day, this one night and pondering ...

I do not know whether it is easier to have the end come suddenly or gradually over the years. I think, if I had been given the choice, I would have preferred a sudden end, shock and all. Then memory would not be entangled with the slow and agonising fading of perception and speech and at last recognition even of those loved dear.

I asked, "Please, has your younger sister never married? It is so unusual."
There was an instant's hesitation on that calm older sister's face. Then she answered. "She did marry once, twenty years ago. ...Four days after the wedding she came home."
I waited & hoped that I would not ask another question. But no, it came rushing to my lips,"Why did she come home?"...
"We don't know. We have never liked to ask."

Mounting into the sky, I was reminded of death itself. The hours of anxiety preceding, the final instant of departure, the inescapable separation from earth and all we had known, the ascent into unknown spaces – is this not the experience of death? There is one difference. From the final flight there is no return. For us there was the hope of return to beautiful Japan.