The world of possibilities

          

       

       'When one door closes,another one opens but we often  look so long and regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us' ~Alexander Graham Bell

        Being unemployed or on a break for more than a few months can lead to depression.It can severely affect one's self-confidence.Some people become more pessimistic and that takes a toll on their health.They develop a rigid outlook towards life and a drastic change is seen in their behaviour and their interactions with others.Slowly and eventually they develop a wall around themselves and are cocooned within it.

    Though  the above are some of the acute symptoms of depression unemployment is not the end of life. Every dark cloud has a silver lining and a break at work usually means a thousand opportunities . I personally believe that being jobless opens up a world of possibilities.Imagine getting up everyday to think that there is something new and exciting to learn today,rather than get doomed by the thought of "Oh I have nothing to do!.Knowing that the day has something innovative to provide you itself is a great feeling isn't it?

         In today's world of Internet and Technology where everything is available at a mere click of a button,I just wonder the immense opportunities that one can avail of when on a break or on the lookout for a new job.New skills,new hobbies,good books,voluntary activities,meditation are just some ways of keeping the mind motivated.The internet has paved way for building new connections. Today,unlike the yesteryears, one can take up courses online and learn new skills, learn a new instrument,take up creative writing. Reading books allows one to be in touch with one's self,induces radical thoughts and sometimes invades the boundaries of imagination.Where is the time to get depressed then,when there is so much to do?

        I was reading this book on Steve Jobs by Walter Issaacson and was quite struck by a phenomenon mentioned in the book. It is called 'The Reality Distortion Field'. It was a phrase mentioned in the Star Trek series that related to the creation of a new world by aliens due to sheer mental force.Something which mean't that if one thinks something as possible it indeed becomes possible. When you think of something as possible,the whole universe conspires to make that thing possible for you.

     I personally have come to believe that a simple positive thought that I can do it,all things are possible for me, can change one's outlook towards life.There have been times when I have felt low,felt like giving up ,however negativity simply breeds more negativity and so is it true vice versa.The days when I have woken up thinking I will do my  best to learn something new today are the days which have been my happiest and most fulfilling.As Rhonda Byrne mentions in her book The Secret 'You become what you think about most.But you also attract what you think about most'.Thanks to the Internet,some really great books and many positive people around me today,I can confidently say 'I am standing at the door to the World of Possibilities'

         Last but not the least ,Mahatma Gandhi too has quoted "Man often becomes what he believes himself to be.If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing,it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it.On the contrary,if I have the belied that I can do it,I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning"

       

   

The Inner Voice Speaks!

I asked myself once
Who am I?
The rich or poor?
I heard someone say no
The dumb or the smart one?
No the voice said again
The awkward or the beauty?
The obscure or the famous?
The generous or the miserly
The voice: No neither these too
Am I the fair one or the dark complexioned?
The lean or the obese
Do these define me,I kept asking
The voice: No they do not define you
Who is this replying to my queries? I thought
Here and there I searched everywhere but to no avail
Days passed, time flew
Still I couldn't recognize who had spoken
While sitting silently one day however
I heard a firm yet silent voice ,my inner voice,say
None of the above are you
You are the soul,the eternal essence
The self that transmigrates through everyone
The only existing entity
The ultimate Truth!!

‪#‎InspiredbyTheBhagavadGita‬

Gita Saar

Mahabharata has always been a source of inspiration for me,especially its essence in the form of the divine song Gita sung by the Lord himself.While Gita has been interpreted and understood in thousands of languages national and international,its mini version in Marathi written by 

G.D Madgulkar and sung by Sudhir Phadke always tends to leave me with a message when I am in need of that inner peace of mind.I have tried to interpret its meaning,however I am sure the essence is much deeper than that.Everytime I listen to the song I gain some sort of strength enough to look at life with a different lens.Here is how it goes!

विमोह त्यागून कर्मफलांचा सिद्ध होई पार्था

कर्तव्याने घडतो माणूस जाणून पुरुषार्था

(Oh Partha,renounce all the desire for the fruits of your karma and get ready

Cause Only through duty does a man evolve,know this eternal truth)

शस्त्र त्याग तव शत्रू पुढती नच शोभे तुजला

कातर होसी समरी मग तू विरोत्तम कसला 

घे शस्त्र ते सुधीर होऊन रक्षाया धर्मार्था

(It does not do good to you to give up your weapons and your confidence in front of your enemies,

Hold the weapons without fear for you have a duty to protect righteousness on this earth)

कर्तव्याच्या पुण्य पथावर मोहांच्या फूलबागा

मोही फसता मुकशील वीरा मुक्तीच्या मार्गा

इह परलोकी अशांतीने तव विक्रम झुकवील माथा

(On the way of duty,you will come across gardens of delusion,if you fall prey to these,you shall lose the way to your redemption,in this and after world you will lose peace of mind)

कुणी आप्त ना कुणी सखा ना जगती जीवांचा

क्षणभंगूर ही संसृती आहे खेळ ईश्वराचा

भाग्य चालते कर्मपदांनी जाण खऱ्या वेदार्था

(There is none who is a friend,nor is anyone a relative in this material world,this world and its actions are nothing but a divine play,only ones karma leads the way to the ultimate truth)

रंगहीन मी या विश्वाच्या रंगाने रंगलो

कौरवात मी पांडवात मी अणुरेणूत भरलो

मीच घडवीतो मीच मोडीतो उमज आता परमार्था

(I am unmanifest and formless,yet I manifest in different forms,I am present in the Kauravas as well as the Pandavas,I am omnipresent.I make and I alone can break ,know this ultimate truth)

कर्मफुलाते अर्पून मजला सोड अहंता वृथा

सर्व धर्म परी त्यजून येई शरण मला भारता

कर्तव्याची साद तुझ्या तुज सिद्ध करी धर्मार्था

(Leave your ego,surrender yourself and the fruits of your actions to Me,Just do your duty and prove that righteousness and only righteousness rules)

There is definitely a lot more to these thoughts and a lot of reading and re-reading the Gita will help internalise the deeper truth.

Try

What way to make it go away

The conflict that lies within

This is good,that isn't much,don't do it

Making life all the more confusing

Thoughts of self doubt creep in

Whither way should I go

A step ahead brings fear

Moving back is not what I know

One says think well when you are alone

Speak well when in a crowd

The mind ceases to listen

Opposite is what it does

Frustration brings words out like a piercing knife

Hurts self more than others

Regret is the only remnant

That shakes the roots of trust

Get control get control

Is what I keep saying to myself

All I know is that's achieved

By putting ones mind to rest

Will I ,won't I?

I do not know you see

One thing for sure I know is

I need to try and try

Science Is Fun

Science is fun.You must be wondering what makes me say this suddenly? 
I attended a 2-day workshop by Think Labs where I had  fun working on activities that somehow shook my thinking.
Well even if I had not revealed the true reason isn't it just obvious that Science is fun.Then why aren't many people not so keen on taking up Science as their future career, why are there people who dread the subject, why is it just considered a combination of theories and postulates that are made to seem horrible.
When I think of it I see that our system has made the subject look so. In these two days as I was being a part of activities conducted in the workshop, my opinion  has changed to an extent that it has made me think how every single thing around us is a beautiful aspect of Science.
We as a part of the education system need to realize that our students are a resource of questions, they come up with these out of the box questions that sometimes have us tongue-tied.We as teachers a lot of times suppress their questions out of the fear that we may not know their answers.However if we were ever to look into the ancient educational system, it revolved around questions, didn't it? There were questions and there were attempts to answer those questions. None may have succeeded answering those in the first go, but failures were the best way to learn.From a failed theory evolved a new concept. Each time there was failure there was something new to think about.
Today I felt like a student going back to the classroom. I felt I had so much more to learn, to absorb. I realized that our human brain should be like a sponge that can absorb information and knowledge from all possible sources and then utilize it to think. I was so overwhelmed seeing that materials from day to day life can be used to explain concepts of why valves in our heart work in a particular fashion. I was thrilled to see how balloons can be used to understand the concept of a helicopter's working.
Our students come up with such crazy ideas at times that they indeed marvel us.Instead of tapping those we end up making them bookworms.Our system of testing kids saddens me to the point that a certain kid who has an ability to build a gadget is failed just because he is not able to put the theory in words on the paper.Why is our education system out to create a bunch of kids who are going to learn to read,write but will never know how to think? They will never be a part of something innovative, they will never wonder about why things are the way they are? How many of us have wondered why there have never been new theories discovered in the recent years, why do we see students keen on taking up hardware jobs end up being in the service sector just because our country has hardly encouraged innovation or there are few avenues that harness the talent of invention and discovery.It is a major loophole that our system is taking away the curiosity, the creativity,the ability to discover something new. It is a major concern for us educators to think about this and its almost time we do it.
I would really like to thank the Think Labs team for conducting workshops in our school. It definitely made us look at the subject of Science differently. Now I know that a certain Siddhant ,Ronit ,Rohan ,Ritika, Vipul ,Abhishek who may have been at the bottom crux of my class purely for the ability to not write effectively on paper,will be able to think, to ask,to discover, to explore the world of SCIENCE.

Mahabharata The Eternal Conflict

I read this amazing version of how Mahabharata relates to modern day world and was so appalled by it.A great read!
It is not written by me but what I found online.

Mahabharat: The Eternal Conflict
EPILOGUE
1stWise Man:

Kaliyug was born out of the ashes
Of the devastation of Kurukshetra.
Nothing has ended, it’s always a new start.
Do you know of any age when evil did not
Rear its ugly head or sin did not prevail?
The same greed, the same lust, the same power madness,
That’s the Mahabharat, the tale of life and death.
The story of the daily life of humankind.

2nd Wise Man:

And sure enough, Kurukshetra did not
Disappear with the fall of the Kauravas.
As Krishna had augured, millions of Duryodhans
Have been born throughout the dark corridors
Of Kaliyug, and millions are striding
The world even now, and will continue
Till eternity to inflict distress,
To crush the weak, the poor, the destitute.

3rd Wise Man:

Man is daily waging his own Mahabharat
As he is in perpetual conflict with himself.
His mind and his heart are locked in constant combat.
Man’s ego is bringing him to his downfall.
Man is ever building his own Kurukshetra
Where he is devising his own weapons
Of stress and tension and self-destruction.
Man is engulfed in a sea of confusion.

1st Wise Man:

The world is falling apart, shattered to pieces.
Of all the marvels that God has created
Man is the only specimen that’s ardently
Pursuing the fine art of self-destruction.
No creature can outdo him in this exercise.
Man is ever busy constructing, and
Having constructed, is very eager
To burn whatever he has so fondly built.

2nd Wise Man

The unprecedented violence and destruction,
The growing chaos that is taking mankind
Closer and closer to doomsday and extinction,
Rabid materialism, the pursuit of wealth
Are all wrecking and engulfing humanity.
Man has acquired the false perception that progress
Can only be measured by the yardstick of wealth.
All is false! All is sham! All is make-believe!

3rd Wise Man:

Man is engaged in an eternal quest
For an elusive something which he hopes
Will bring him full happiness, infinite bliss.
Greed and the spirit of acquisitiveness
And hunger for power have resulted
In great misery for the common people
And violence and chaos throughout the globe.
Which way should we turn? Whither is the light?

1st Wise Man:

Corruption fills the air, values thrown to dogs;
Worms of anger and greed gnaw at society
Fraud and deceit have become a way of life.
Hatred, hypocrisy, lust for power,
Vanity and double-standards are guiding
Men’s actions, leading them to doom and destruction.
Leaders are false, followers are stupid.
Where will it all end, O God, when will it end?

2nd Wise Man:

Abominable crimes are perpetrated,
Each new day that God gives takes its heavy toll
Of rapes, drugs trafficking, burglaries and assaults.

3rd Wise Man:

War, violence, destruction, have been let loose
Man has lost his balance, and humanity
Has vanished. Man has become his own enemy.

1st Wise Man:

The world has been getting more than its share
Of Krishna’s predictions for Kaliyug.
But where is Krishna? Whither has he gone?

2nd Wise Man:

O Krishna, where are you? When will you come?

3rd Wise Man:

You had saved the honour of Draupadi once.
Why have you deserted the other Draupadis
Who are being today brutally raped
And atrociously murdered by savage beasts?

1st Wise Man:

What has happened to your great undertaking
And to your vow to come down to the earth
Whenever there’s a decline in the pursuit
Of dharma and a rise in godlessness?

2nd Wise Man:

You had given your solemn word, O Krishna,
To come in person to deliver the just
And the pious and to annihilate
The perverse, the vile and refractory
And to restore the principles of dharma.

3rd Wise Man:

The world needs you, O Krishna, where are you?
(Blackout. Thunder and lighting. Sound of strong winds and rain. when the light is on,
Krishna is on the stage)

Krishna:

Seek and you shall find, look and you shall see.
I’ve always been with you, never have I left,
Never have I forsaken, or deserted.
It’s rather humankind that has forgotten me
Lured by an ardent urge for materialism.
The violence, the hatred, the atrocities
That reign in the world today are the result
Of man’s own pursuit of false values and paths.
But man need not despair, for Kaliyug
Is also an age of enlightenment.
Suffering, distress and pain will spur man to seek
The answers deep down his heart and he’ll mend his ways.

1st Wise Man:

What kind of enlightenment is this, O Krishna
When man is everywhere in utter darkness
And constructing the weapons of his own doom?

Krishna
Man’s ever striving to expand the scope of life
He is exploring the unknown, and reaching
Further and further into the infinite
Through his flights around the earth and in outer space,
As also by plumbing the depths of the seas.
He’s developing his mind and making
Remarkable progress and inventions.
But, in the process, he’s also indulging
In mass murder, violence and destruction.

Man, however, has a different mission,
He has a divine destiny to fulfil.
Only a few know the goal of their existence,
The average life is spent in caring
For the needs and pleasures of the body,
In fulfilling responsibilities
Set by the exigencies of the moment.
The average man takes birth, lives and dies
Knowing not whence he came, why he is here,
Ignorant of whither he is heading.

Religious history has left a legacy
Of intolerance, prejudice and bloodshed.
But this is the work of misguided men
Who have deviated and left the true path.
The so-called men of religion are themselves
Responsible for this mess and confusion
In which the great universe has been plunged.
Teachers, political, social, religious
And other leaders have miserably failed
In providing the right sort of leadership.

2nd Wise Man:

What must be done, O Krishna, in order to
Bring man back on the road to salvation
And to save him from total damnation?

Krishna:
All religions urgently need to unite
In order to check the downward slide in values
So that a new and better world may emerge.
The communalized and commercialized
Society needs to change its direction
Through the transformation of individuals
And the inculcation of the true values
That will usher a just social order,
Honest governance and value-based life.

True spirituality is of the soul
And it has no labels, clichés or creeds,
It consists of righteousness, peace and love;
Duryodhan badly lacked these qualities.
These values help one to rise above narrow
Religious and communal distinctions,
And in communion with me, man can be
Spiritually empowered to build a world
Where peace, justice and liberty will prevail.

3rd Wise Man:

O Krishna, man still does not find happiness
Despite great advancement in the world today. Why?

Krishna:

Because people are in the frenzied pursuit
Of material success by any means.
But they should know that the really successful
Man is the one who loves, cares and shares the most.

The forces of good outnumber those of evil
But they are disorganised and disunited.
Man badly requires a common target
A common agenda for a better world.
Man has the ability both to survive
And to annihilate himself and his kind.
The decision is his, the choice too is his.

1st Wise Man

Tell us, O Krishna who exactly are you?

Krishna:
I am the bright rays of the rising sun
I am every drop of water that gives life
I am the breeze, I am all the seasons,
I am the fragrant perfume of the flower
I am the smile of the innocent baby,
I am the moon and the stars, I am the world.
I have no beginning, nor do I end
I carry all the sufferings of the world
I die with every victim who falls in war
Or is violently assassinated
It’s me they hurt each time they rape, kill or plunder.
I’m the dagger that stabs and the bullet that kills
I’m the gash that it makes, I’m the blood that oozes.
All life comes from me, all life returns to me
I am the ocean to which all the rivers
Of humanity’s souls flow and become one.
I Am the Ultimate, I am the Supreme
I am the Absolute, I am Infinite.

Anger

What way to make this anger go away
This anger that bubbles inside
When you see injustice outside
When you see the evils around
When you see the sorrow of many
When you see inequity at its prime
When you see young ones involved in crime
When you see where our nations are heading
When you see destruction everywhere
When you see corrupt individuals waiting to usurp power
When you see women unsafe in our land
When you see negativity surround mankind
When you see systems fail 
When you want to make it all right but nothing seems to go right
The anger remains, 
If only we knew how to make it go away!!!!!