Sunday, August 17, 2008
The power of love
I heard this moving story today from Papa. One day a snake came to his third floor apartment at 11 pm in the night. He went to his friend, Friday Alva on the second floor asking for help.
Begum Akthtar ghazals
Poet William Blake
"To see a world in a grain of sand
and a heaven in a wildflower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour?"
I was reminded of this line which I thought Carl Sagan
had said once, in this ghazal I heard yesterday,
by Begum Akhtar.
rang-e-bahaar-e-subah-e-gulistaa.N kyaa dekhe vo diivaanaa
jis kii nazar ne ek hii gul me.n saaraa gulashan dekhaa hai
I was talking to Bhabhiji on the phone and she mentioned this line
and at the same moment, I was listening to it on the computer,
it was so surreal
mere ham_nafas mere ham_navaa mujhe dost ban ke daGaa na de
uzr aane me.n bhii hai aur bulaate bhii nahii.n
Friday, August 15, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Lessons from the Batman movie "The Dark Knight"
I recently saw the Batman movie "The Dark Knight". It had the biggest box office opening ever. The synopsis is there is a madman who proves that all of us have evil inside us and if it is given a nudge, it will come out and make us do wrong things. He proves to Batman that one should not be righteous and feel smug that he is better than criminals just because he did not commit crimes. Under the wrong (right) circumstances, even the best of the best will become worst of the worst. Batman decides to take the fall and not reveal to the masses that the madman was right. He thinks the masses cannot "handle the truth". The sound byte is " Sometimes people do not need the truth, they want their faith rewarded".
Here I think that Batman is not the savior, in shielding the people from the truth, he is doing them the biggest disservice. He is choosing to not learn from the lesson he was just taught. In spiritual terms, life presents to you the same lessons again and again until you learn from them. By choosing to not learn from it, he will make the people of Gotham go through lot of pain again and again.
This is very poignant. This is the very reason the fight between good and evil goes on. The "good" side is self righteous and not willing to concede that the "evil" side has a point. It thinks if it concedes, it will become like one of "them". The "evil" side wants respect from the "good" side and if does not get it, it becomes more of what it is. The same hold true for the "good" side. It wants to get respect from the "evil" side.
The key to life is not being "good" or being "evil" but in balance. You have to know what you are standing for, but not forget that there are always two sides of a coin. There is another perspective which is "equally valid" and by acknowledging it, you do not negate your values.
Here I think that Batman is not the savior, in shielding the people from the truth, he is doing them the biggest disservice. He is choosing to not learn from the lesson he was just taught. In spiritual terms, life presents to you the same lessons again and again until you learn from them. By choosing to not learn from it, he will make the people of Gotham go through lot of pain again and again.
This is very poignant. This is the very reason the fight between good and evil goes on. The "good" side is self righteous and not willing to concede that the "evil" side has a point. It thinks if it concedes, it will become like one of "them". The "evil" side wants respect from the "good" side and if does not get it, it becomes more of what it is. The same hold true for the "good" side. It wants to get respect from the "evil" side.
The key to life is not being "good" or being "evil" but in balance. You have to know what you are standing for, but not forget that there are always two sides of a coin. There is another perspective which is "equally valid" and by acknowledging it, you do not negate your values.
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