More Tagore

http://gitabitan-en.blogspot.in/

Studies in Tagore: Santosh Chakrabarti
http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Studies_in_Tagore.html?id=MNWktZZciy8C&redir_esc=y

http://www.gitabitan.net/

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-where-the-words-are-held-higher-than-the-notes-they-ride-1909009

Tagore on the vision of upanishads

Rabindranath Tagore & the vision of Upanishads

from http://discovervedanta.wordpress.com/tag/tagore/

Posted on December 10, 2008

I found a few poems of Rabindranath Tagore in my notes. They express very beautifully the vision filled of wonder of the person who is awake to the presence of the Lord in his life, in nature and in himself.

These poems give us precious clues on how to integrate and assimilate the teaching of the Upanishads about Isvara, the Lord, in our lives. It is thus enabling us to be aware of the presence of a Being, to which I, the world and all human beings are fundamentally ‘connected’ to or in which all is ‘united’.

Because in reality, there is only one Being who is, and who is manifest as the multiple forms of the universe, and who is including me as an individual. All these forms are always changing within this all intelligence and power, and are never separated from Him at any time.

To understand this vision completely, what we have heard from the teaching has to percolate in the depth of ourselves, go much beyond a superficial understanding of the concepts of material-intelligent cause or manifest-unmanifest, maya, etc. The presence of Isvara can indeed become a reality, a fact we are alive to. There is no place for imagination here, nor a blind assent to a system of beliefs. But rather a slow personal work, a process of unveiling, a relation with Isvara which grows patiently and leads to a silent inner revolution, with appreciation of the  presence of His grace with us all along.

This particular type of poetry is a real bridge which enables us to see the presence of Isvara in everything and in our life, when it is allied with a proper teaching. More I think about it, more I believe that it is impossible to bypass Isvara if one wants to gain serenity, joy and ultimately freedom.

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment..’

Rabindranath Tagore

Two other poems belonging to the series of poems by Tagore. They express one of the essential themes of the Upanishads : the relation that we have with the world, with others. The first poem gives a striking image of the walls through which I close myself to what is around me. My subjectivity, fears, anxieties, arrogance, are indeed invisible but at the same time tangible walls that I erect between the universe and myself. May this narrow perspective of the world, which is only self-centered, disappear. The more objective I am to the presence of what is, the more clarity, transparency, openness I can enjoy.

How far should I go in this process of gaining objectivity? Should I disappear totally as an individual? Is it possible and even desirable? The poet replies in the second poem: ‘Let only that little be left of me, by which…’

Dungeon

He whom I enclose with my name is weeping in this dungeon.

I am ever busy building this wall all around;

and as thus wall goes up into the sky day by day,

I lose sight of my true being in its dark shadow.

I take pride in this great wall, and I plaster it with dust and sand

at least hole should be left in this name;

and for all the care I take I lose sight of my true being.

Rabindranath Tagore

Little of me

Let only that little be left of me whereby I may name thee my all,

Let only that little be left of my will whereby I may feel thee on everyside,

And come to thee in everything, and offer to thee my love every moment,

Let only that little be left of me whereby I may never hide thee,

Let only that little of my fetters be left whereby I am bound with thy will

And thy purpose is carried out in my life,

and that is the fetter of thy love.

Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali)

One of my heroes - Mansoor Khan on his book "The third curve"

ENERGY STOREHOUSE Mansoor Khan says there was a centre in his life he was always moving towards — leading a non-urban life. Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

Mansoor Khan, who directed the cult Hindi film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and then quietly retreated to his dream farm in Coonoor is now back in the limelight with a book called The Third Curve, which looks at world economic reality. He tells we are all deluded about things, like money, growing forever

Mansoor Khan is charming, down-to-earth, has an ability to laugh at himself, and has a view of money and success that most of us would scoff at. But he also has a life one would envy — after dropping out of top engineering colleges, doing a successful stint in Bollywood, he’s running a cheese-making farm in Coonoor, growing vegetables, and writing about Peak Oil! “I don’t believe in superheroes, I’m Mr. Reality,” he laughs, when we suggest he pose in front of a statue of Superman at the launch of his book in Bangalore. And in saying that he quite ably characterises himself. Excerpts from an interview:

What connects the dots between films, cheese, oil, and the economy?

My heart! (laughs). Whatever I feel is should do, I do that. There are no boundaries for me. Living on the farm was what I always wanted to move towards, so there is a centre — to live a non-urban life. I can’t live in cities. I wanted to live in a small place, have my own farm, grow my own food. This book is something that needed to be said. It’s not like I wanted to be an author and looked for a subject to write on. I realised no one else was talking about it. I’ve been studying this for the last 13 years. We knew the collapse would happen, but didn’t know which year, but you could see all the signs. We knew oil was going to peak. Sadly we all see the world through the lens of economics. Economics is the study of false tokens called money. We started believing that the token has value and started making our rules around it. And you can fudge tokens. In the west the collapse was called the Black Swan event – it didn’t fit into their model – like a Bollywood guy who writes a book on energy! But this book is not a surprise if people knew my background. I was studying engineering, computer science, electronics. I was good in physics, which is among other things, the study of energy.

Are you a very easily unhappy or dissatisfied person? You dropped out of IIT, then Cornell, then MIT. You made four films in Bollywood and moved to a farm…

No, no…The only thing I changed my mind on was engineering. I didn’t wan to do that as a career. I liked to understand it. Films… I was always sure I didn’t want to do it forever. If I can make films, I will, otherwise I won’t. I became more aware of environmental issues, about chaos humans are creating on planet. I studied that. I like the idea that my world is small. I like that I have time for myself, can grow my own food. We experimented with a gobar gas plant, my wife Tina and I make cheese. It’s adventure, it’s fun, it’s hands on. I can’t understand what people do in cities. Honestly! It’s so boring ya… The world is not going to be able to sustain its cities. Cities are energy intensive. That model will have to redefine itself. The suburbia of America is already facing it. It was built on a car and driving model. Our world here in India is quickly shifting there.

Living on your farm changed your worldview?

No, my worldview was formed even before I went there. Living on farm consolidated my thinking, made it sharper. Petroleum took 250 million years to collect. We burnt half of it in 150 years. So the notion of sustainability is a totally false notion. How can you be sustainable, because the primary energy you use is in a deficit of 10,000 : 1.

Are we too late already to change anything?

The “too late” part isn’t here. It’s in climate change. We’ve crossed the tipping point. Climate change is the other side of Peak Oil. In terms of energy consumption and changing our world it’s not too late. For India it’s definitely not too late. We are only now trying to go the other way, the way of the Western countries that are in the doldrums.

So you’re saying growth is an illusion?

Growth is a disease. Yes, now it’s become illusive! First it was real. It became an illusion after a point. We fudged reality with artificial means in the form of stocks, mortgages, leveraging, options, derivatives. We’re getting more and more notional. Money has to grow, double, follow the rules; so we’ll make it, either by real means or mathematical means. We make models from our minds.

Then this year’s economics Nobel is wasted?

(Laughs heartily) They can do what they want. They are deluded. I’m not only blaming economists. I’m saying this about everybody who believes in finance planning. You can make your lifestyles easy with surplus food, labour saving devices, hi speed trains, 300 TV channels …we felt great and felt “why shouldn’t this go on forever?” The reason why it can’t, lies in another domain called energetics – it is a discipline that has to replace economics. If you don’t do the real accounting, you’re fooling yourself. I’m not saying all industries will decay. When you look at real growth, GDP, it’s definitely going to go down in a shrinking energy world.My book says energy is the currency of the universe and the bell curve I have plotted are the laws of energy. We are at the top of the curve and we’re beginning the descent now, and there’s no up again. Nothing grows forever. You’re going to feel the pain of shrinkage. That’s what our finance minister is feeling now. They cant figure it out. This is not a book of blame. People are looking though the wrong lens — that of money. We’re busily making false plans. Because India is an emerging market we can pay the high energy prices — 100 dollars a barrel. Oil is not going to get over. We’ve only finished half. But descent is what I’m talking about. In a paradigm of growth, how can you do with less? Oil is a dam of 250 million years of sunlight. Which we found, looted, had a good time. Now, time to reckon with reality.

Does your book offer solutions?

Solution is the wrong word. Problems have solutions. Traffic jam is problem; death is not a problem. It’s a predicament. You don’t find solutions for it; you find ways of dealing with it. The finiteness of the planet is a predicament. We’re refusing to accept we’re energy-holics. You’re refusing to accept that your world runs on liquid fuels; we’re enmeshed in it. You’re trying to find arithmetic solutions to exponential problems. Transition is about accepting ecological thinking rather than industrial thinking. Right now I’m sounding like an oddball but I know it’s going to happen, I’m confident, so I’m writing about it. I had to WAIT to write about this. Before the economic collapse no one would believe it. We’re living in a bubble economy. It’s a fascinating subject – you can make a 100-part series on this.

Why don’t you?

We should! I’ll talk to Aamir (Khan, his cousin) about it (guffaws). I don’t have the money or the energy. I can do great talks.

What were your learnings from Bollywood?

I learnt how to deal with people first of all (laughs). Because I was too much of a loner. Because when you’re part of a big team, you’ve to instruct, be captain of the ship. I was fortunate enough to have a father who handled all the nitty-gritty. I was happily left to do the writing, direction – the creative part. Things were not so dear to me; somebody else did the marketing. I really didn’t care.

You felt no pressure at any time to deliver another QSQT?

I didn’t feel it right after QSQT itself, which is why I made Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander. This is a completely wrong way of looking at life, at success. I laugh at this notion of success. I find people are so badly trapped in this illusion. How unhappy can you be? I’m so happy with my book’s reach out…with whatever’s happened. It’s happiness in the happening, in the right now.


At the chennai book launch:

Khan, however, began by saying that what was said about him is unrelated to what he was going to talk about. “The book is about possibility; it’s not about morality, guilt, environment or blame.”

In 1850, oil, he said, made growth possible. And since then, growth became more plentiful, and we believed it would go on forever. In fact, “the biggest religion in the planet is growth”, Khan said, and explained how the ‘paradise times’ lasted till the 1960s. “And then came the ecological collapse,” when the life signs of the planet withered. But, “we thought money could control it!” he said, pointing out that, shortly, money too collapsed.

Laws of money

Next, Khan explained the laws of money we have built into the system. “The stock market is institutionalised gambling. Every time we’re in trouble, we add a new concept of money. Each is more powerful, more complex. And this is the growth trap — the ‘unbelievable growth’ that you seek comes with ‘crazy risk’.”

Ably supported with an interesting Power-Point presentation, Khan showed his audience at Landmark, Citi Centre, how money can double every 10 years, provided there is energy. “But the earth is finite, all resources come from here.”

Rapid exploitation

Khan then went back to the oil example — which the Red Indians knew about long before it was discovered — and which has now been rapidly exploited by civilisation. “Civilisation always talks about exploitation. But do we do it in our families? Do we say, ‘let’s exploit our aunty? No!” Then why the earth and its resources? Exploiting oil — or forcing oil-wells to pump out faster — actually backfires, because once the well reaches its peak, production only drops. “But ‘peak oil’ has not come into our parlance. In 2005, when oil peaked, and production dropped, prices shot up. The global meltdown of 2008 came as a huge surprise to economists,” he said, adding that it had not surprised him. Because, when the concept of growth (an exponential graph), and the reality (a bell-shaped graph) separate at one point, growth becomes false.

“Growth, according to me, is a disease,” said Khan, quoting Edward Abbey’s famous statement ‘growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell’. “We have bred cancerous ideology into our economy.” And with growth demanding more and more energy — and given that half that energy (oil reserves) has been used up in just 150 years — we’re heading towards a crash if we go into denial. “But there’s a better way — acceptance, and then a controlled energy descent.” And that, he said, was the third curve — transition. “But it’s not just about putting CFC bulbs, or putting off all the lights for two hours and holding hands. That is fun, but it won’t stop anything. We need to talk not just about economics, but also energetics, because we are addicted to cheap energy, and we need to get over that.” In the last 150 years, every single thing we have made is more efficient. “So how come we need more energy? That is because we are only looking at growth.” Deal with reality, the author advised. Or else, “reality will deal with you”.

http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/chasing-a-rainbow/article5228808.ece

Mansoor Khan, whose book on alternative energy was released recently, talks about the leap from making blockbusters like Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak to growing one’s own food.

Mansoor Khan, the man behind blockbuster films like Qayamat se Qayamat tak and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, is not in the hustle and bustle of Mumbai where the biggest Hindi films are produced, but in quiet Coonoor. 

His journey from the city to the 22-acre ‘Acres Wild’ in the hills began with computer science at IIT-Mumbai, Cornell University and MIT. But this was not his calling. Instead, he followed in the footsteps of his father, filmmaker Nasir Hussian. Though temporary, filmmaking helped him identify Coonoor as the space that would fill his spiritual vacuum.

After the recent release of his book The Third Curve: The End of Growth As You Know It, he talks about his filmmaking days, life as a farmer and energy perspectives. Excerpts from an interview:

Why did you leave Mumbai?

When I came back to India from the U.S. in 1980, I realised that I did not like cities. The city was all about straight lines, traffic lights and people rushing to office. Open spaces, the desire to grow my food — it slowly began making sense. It took 23 years to materialise, but the decision was made a long time back. People ask me why I gave up a successful film career. I tell them I moved away to something that I value more than some film of mine doing well. It’s of no value to me that someone else thinks I am successful.

Why films at all, then?

I had to prove myself to my father. I had a knack for telling stories. Could I render the story differently; through characters that are real, and not completely over-the-top? Life took its own course after that. I do not believe in free will beyond a point. We do not make our destiny, but within that we can shape our lives and believe in something and know what is good for us. I bought land in Mandwa, where I went sailing, and thought I would live there. It took me three hours (from Mumbai) to reach there. I realised I can’t live half here and half there. I had to get out of there totally.

What was the turning point?

The government wanted to take my land in Mandwa in 1997. That led me to question the basis on which the government acquired land for development. Later I met Medha Patkar and that led me wonder what we actually value when we have dammed our rivers. I realised that this is the other side of education we were not taught because we are not the ones being thrown out of our homes. We created an inverted concept of development, which is why these people are homeless.

What is the central theme of your book?

My book talks about possibility. I’ve explained why economic growth is over from an energy perspective.  Growth is dead for a geological reason. Oil makes the industrial world work. It is the keystone of energy. Remove that energy, everything else fails. We’ve reached the peak of the resources. So, growth slows down because the earth gives you these resources slower after the halfway point. Nothing in nature grows forever. How did we come up with the concept that growth can go on forever, when we are using stored energy? Oil is nothing but 250 million years of stored sunlight.

Why not make a film about this instead?

A film is not a strong medium. It’s a great medium for entertainment, propaganda, titillation and instruction. But it does not serve as a platform for shifting paradigms or to change a set of rules. Real life is good; you’ll stick with your paradigm till real life teaches you that this does not work.

To what extent do you think your views will be absorbed?

I do not expect people to change instantly, but hope they will keep it in the back of their mind. It will only be seen in hindsight. If you don’t believe what I’ve said in my book, please go ahead and do what you think. But keep this lens handy. Tomorrow, when something you did according to your rules fails, look through my lens and see. May be it will make sense.

Lots of spirituality websites coming my way!

http://www.swamij.com/cloudedmind.htm
http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/20instr.htm
http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/teachings/instructions/
http://www.visionofvedanta.com/styled-6/index.html
http://www.vedantaworld.org/otherpublications.asp?f=1
http://www.vedanet.com/2013/02/yoga-and-ayurveda-2/
http://www.discovervedanta.com/what-is-vedanta.htm

and also a nice website about Hinduism.
http://www.dlshq.org/download/hinduismbk.htm#_VPID_6

and about Kriya Yoga:
http://www.anandabangalore.org/p/path-of-kriya-yoga.html
http://www.yssofindia.org/spiritual/The-Purpose-of-Life

A very good definition of yoga

http://www.swamij.com/yoga-note.htm

Traditionally, Yoga (Sanskrit: union) has referred to the realization through direct experience of the preexisting union between Atman and Brahman, Jivatman and Paramatman, and Shiva and Shakti, or the realization of Purusha standing alone as separate from Prakriti. Yoga is the realization  of union between the microcosm of individuality with the macrocosm of universality.

Yoga is the union of the
- Microcosm of individuality and the
- Macrocosm of universality

Yoga is the union of the
- Atman (Center of consciousness, Self; Vedanta) and
- Brahman (Absolute reality; Vedanta)

Yoga is the union of the
- Jivatman (Soul as consciousness plus traits; Vedanta) and
- Paramatman: (Self/soul as only consciousness; Vedanta)

Yoga is the union of
- Shiva (Static, latent, unchanging, masculine; Tantra) and
- Shakti (Active, manifesting, changing, feminine; Tantra)

Yoga is the dis-union of
- Purusha (Untainted consciousness; Sankyha-Yoga) and
- Prakriti (Primordial, unmanifest matter; Sankyha-Yoga)

What is the mind? (Mind, yoga, karma and suffering)

If you transcend the mind, you transcend everything in one stroke.
Mind is karma. If you transcend the mind, you transcend the karmic bondage altogether. 

What is the mind? If I don't know what part of me is the "mind" how do I transcend it?
When does one acquire a mind? Is it at birth? Does it come along with the so-called "eternal" soul?
Do we all start with the same mind?

Also what do we mean when we say "experience life"? What is life? Is there a rule to live rightly? What is one's life like? What should it be like?

=========================================================================

The whole process of yoga is to transcend the limitations of the mind. As long as you are in the mind, you are ruled by the past, because mind is just an accumulation of the past. If you are looking at life only through the mind, then you will make your future just like the past, nothing more, nothing less. Isn’t the world enough proof of that? It does not matter what opportunities come our way through science, technology and many other things, aren’t we repeating the same historical scenes again and again?

The past is carried only in your mind. Only because your mind is active, past exists. Suppose all your mind ceases right now, is your past here? There is no past here, only present. The reality is only present, but past exists through our minds. Or in other words, mind is karma. If you transcend the mind, you transcend the karmic bondage altogether. If you want to solve them one by one, it may take a million years. In the process of solving, you are also building new stock of karma.

The whole effort of spiritual sciences has always been how to transcend the mind, how to look at life beyond the limitations of the mind. 

But Patanjali nailed it this way – “To rise above the modifications of your mind, when you cease your mind, when you cease to be a part of your mind, that is yoga.” All the influences of the world are entering you only through the instrument of the mind. If you can rise beyond the influence of your mind in full awareness, then you are naturally one with everything. The separation – you and me, time and space – has come only because of the mind. It is a bondage of the mind. If you drop the mind, you have dropped time and space. There is no such thing as this and that. There is no such thing as here and there. There is no such thing as now and then. Everything is here and now.

If you rise above all the modifications and manifestations of the mind, then you can play with the mind whichever way you want. You can use your mind with devastating impact in your life, but if you are in it, you will never realize the nature of the mind.

The mind is essentially talking about a certain bank of memory. It is this complex web of memory which gives you a certain character. This memory is being gathered every moment of your life, in wakefulness and sleep. You are unconscious of most of the memory that you gather because it is being gathered in such heavy quantities. So many things that you do so easily, something as simple as walking on two legs for example, is possible not just because of your bone and muscle, but because of the memory that you carry. The body remembers how to walk. If you forget, you cannot walk.

Karmic Impressions

When we say memory, people tend to think of the mind, but the body has much, much more memory than the mind. Your great, great, great-grandfather’s nose is sitting on your face because something inside your body remembers. Your body still remembers how someone was a million years ago and it is still acting that out. So the memory of the body is way bigger than the memory of the mind. This memory is what we refer to as karmic impressions. There was a time when in India, society was trying to manage your karmic impressions. It is for this purpose that jatis, gotras and other things were started. But that has all gone now. So you have to manage it within yourself.
What kind of thoughts you have, on the conscious level, is just the memory that you have gathered on the conscious level in this piece of life, from your birth to now. This conscious memory is called prarabdha. But what kind of emotions these thoughts generate within you is coming largely from an unconscious process of memory. That memory is way bigger than the conscious memory and is called sanchita. Sanchita means the unconscious accumulation of karmic mass, which keeps on acting in its own way. It is not active in terms of manifesting itself but it is active in terms of influencing you in a million different ways. Does that mean you are all fixed and there is nothing you can change? No. It is only because of this basis that you exist. What you want to make out of yourself is still you. Destiny is not a done thing. Destiny is like the skeletal system of your body. It decides your stature but it doesn’t decide everything. How much you put onto this skeletal system is upto you.

A Question of Perspective

Instead of looking at what kind of thoughts or emotions you are getting, just see that in the larger perspective of life you are a tiny speck of dust. In this cosmos, our galaxy is a small happening. In the Milky Way, this Solar System is a speck. In that tiny speck, planet Earth is a super-tiny speck. In that, your city is a micro-tiny speck. In that speck, you are a big man! People have lost perspective of who and what they are. A spiritual process means, even if you cannot experientially see, at least to intellectually understand your place in this existence. This is the simplest thing to get. If you get this much, a new possibility is open – you will walk differently, sit differently, breathe differently and experience life differently.

What this tiny speck thinks and feels is not important. But for most people, what they think and feel is more important than the fabulous cosmic dance that is happening. The whole cosmos is going on phenomenally well today, but just one thought can bother you and put you in the dumps. If you just see “What I think and feel is not so important,” if you bring this distance between you and your thought and emotion, they will become a conscious process. Once your thought and emotion become a conscious process, you are free from the karmic process in many ways. Right now, both your thought and your emotion are a compulsive process. Once it is a conscious process, suddenly you are empowered in such a way that people think you are super human. This is not superhuman, it is just being human.

Suffering is happening essentially because most human beings have lost perspective as to what this life is about. Their psychological process has become far larger than the existential process, or to put it bluntly, you’ve made your petty creation far more important than the Creator’s creation. That is the fundamental source of all suffering. We have missed the complete sense of what it means to be alive here. A thought in your head or an emotion within you determines the nature of your experience right now. The whole creation is happening wonderfully well but just one thought or emotion can destroy everything. And your thought and emotion may have nothing to do even with the limited reality of your life.

What you call as “my mind” is not yours actually. You don’t have a mind of your own. Please look at it carefully. What you call as “my mind” is just society’s garbage bin. Anyone and everyone who passes by you stuffs something into your head. You really have no choice about whom to receive from and whom not to receive from. If you say, “I don’t like this person,” you will receive a lot more from that person than anyone else. You really don’t have a choice. If you know how to process and use it, this garbage is useful. This accumulation of impressions and information that you have gathered is only useful for survival in the world. It has got nothing to do with who you are.


When we talk about a spiritual process, we are talking about shifting from psychological to existential. Life is about the creation that is here, knowing it absolutely and experiencing it the way it is; not distorting it the way you want. If you want to move into existential reality, to put it very simply, you just have to see that what you think is not important, what you feel is not important. What you think has nothing to do with reality. It has no great relevance to life. It is just chattering away with nonsense that you have gathered from somewhere else. If you think it is important, you will never look beyond that. Your attention naturally flows in the direction of whatever you hold as important. If your thought and your emotion is important, naturally your whole attention will be right there. But that is a psychological reality. That has nothing to do with the existential.
Suffering is not showered upon us, it is manufactured. And the manufacturing unit is in your mind. It is time to shut down the manufacturing unit.

Some amazing interviews by actresses

Interesting travelogue

http://www.thrillophilia.com/blog/50-places-to-visit-in-india-before-you-turn-30/

Also, one more good idea:
http://delhibyfoot.in/ (thanks to Priyanka)

All about Hindusim

I had jokingly remarked to my aunt during Navrathri that "Don't make fun of me mami - In 10 years I may end up being a foreknown Hindu than you". That was a casual remark uttered without much thought, with just some good intention.

As I am browsing through The autobiography of a yogi and getting lost in it, I also googled about Hinduism and found a fantastic page here.
I feel that one should know these philosophies before starting to live.
Else, life becomes stressful and meaningless. These scriptures lend concrete meaning to life and how to lead a good life and mould one's character.

Hinduism as stated here, is the mother of all religions. It has aspects to suit every type of individual.
It is all inclusive. There is not a single thing that is not covered in this religion!
And - I have been born a Hindu without knowing any of this. The idol worship and meaningless stuff we do, has put off so many potential devout Hindus. I am so proud of my Indian lineage and hindu scriptures today. Everything had a meaning. Every mantra, every symbol, every myth!

http://www.dlshq.org/download/hinduismbk.htm#_VPID_6

Maryan and one of the most talented actresses.. Is anyone better than her?

P.ANIMA

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/beneath-the-layers/article4957468.ece

CINEMA Parvathy’s Panimalar in ‘ Maryan’ is her attempt at unravelling a character — flesh, blood and soul

Panimalar is fresh in mind — earthy in colour-soaked clothes, long hair, glistening nose ring and kohl-rimmed eyes. That image in the head will never lead you to Parvathy. The young actor has shaken Panimalar off her. With her hair cropped short, thick glasses, checked shirt, black skirt and a bag slid carelessly across the shoulder, she is every bit just Parvathy. “I wanted to get back to being myself,” she says gloriously winning back her anonymity.

Panimalar has vowed critics and ardent movie-watchers. She is real, solid and Parvathy’s sweat and blood. The actor, who has done a mere 12 films in seven years, dedicated months to knowing Panimalar. And she was daunting. “She is brave and vulnerable. Pani taught me a lot. She was always putting herself out there, emotionally and physically. She drained me.”

The 25-year-old might be getting back to being herself, but not to the self she was before becoming Panimalar. According to the actor, every character she plays nourishes the person she is. Panimalar taught her love and its aches. “People talk of the look in her eyes. At that moment I felt it,” she says.

Being Panimalar

Equipping herself to feel Panimalar’s pains was long drawn, but one that Parvathy insists upon. “Spontaneous acting is rocket science to me. I have seen actors taking a puff and becoming the character before the smoke went out of their mouth. But I have to get into the character’s groove,” she says.

She pieces together the character by living her life in her environment. “I have to know the clothes she wears, how crumbled they are. Does she cook? If so, how does she cook. These become my bag of tricks. For me, a scene just doesn’t happen. It has to have a before and after.” So Parvathy became Panimalar amidst the fisher folk, attending Sunday masses, singing in the choir and learning to weave palm leaves at the craft society. “If I don’t do that a lot of Parvathy will seep into Panimalar. Many from the fisher community will watch the movie and I have to be honest to them.”

Acting and films are not a pastime for Parvathy. It is passion and vocation — one in which she sees a greater purpose. The motive of a film is significant to her. She refused good roles in movies which she thought did not exude a positive purpose. “We are underestimating the power of films. It is important to see how the society shapes up through this art. Films are a big responsibility. It should make a wee bit of improvement. That is what books, art and dance do. So why not movies?”

Sticking to these convictions, she knows she cannot be prolific. “But ethics can’t change. The actor in me and the person I am have to go hand in hand or we will die fighting,” she says.

“I have not done a single character I won’t stand by. That clarity is everything to me,” she says. After her last Malayalam film City of God released in 2010, Parvathy was jobless for a year and a half.

“I call that my golden period. It made me sure why I want to be here. But it also gave me a sense of detachment. I know I cannot compromise on my dignity and my art. This is the result of my arrogant faith,” says Parvathy. Prior to Maryan , there came Andar Bahar in Kannada and Chennaiyil Oru Naal in Tamil.

Quite a few of her films in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada were not box-office hits. But that helped her love her craft irrespective of chimerical success. “I learnt the hard way. Of course, I want the producer who spends to make money. But my happiness comes from each day of my work. I can have the plum cake, I don’t need the icing.”

The actor also diligently spurns the frills of stardom, beginning with immaculately made-up public appearances. Make-up, she says, “is like sticking pins into my eyes. I just washed my face and went to the premiere of Maryan . I was comfortable, happy and liberated. I cannot be a poster girl. So why try.”

Surviving time

“I will be happy if 20 years later someone watches my movie and says, ‘That girl did a good job.’ The immediate doesn’t matter. It is about that which remains,” Parvathy says. For an actor weaving away from the trappings of a star, anonymity is important.

The actor in her learns through casual interactions. “I am scared of being recognised. When you are looked at, you lose your freedom and that is a huge loss for an actor,” she says.

Even after Maryan , the actor has not far signed any new films. “If I don’t share the passion of a director, I do not want to cheat him by being in it... If I go away nothing is going to happen. You are not indispensable. So what is the hurry?” she asks.

Meanwhile, she makes sure her craft is intact. The arts, music, painting and dance, lure her. “Painting sharpens my sense of colour, music sharpens my ears and when I dance, my body is sharpened. That is my tool. I have to groom myself or else I will become rusty.”

P.ANIMA

mini reunion and surrogacy

So, last weekend we had a fabulous mini reunion of college friends at Novotel. Me, Adi and Suman.
We spoke about a lot of things. It was so good. I don't know them well enough but it felt good.
We spoke about our interests - food, travel, etc, our fears and struggles - the baby issue and weight gains...business losses, etc.

Adi strongly felt that I should go for surrogacy and the moment I have a baby in my arms, I would turn into a wonderful mother and all the pain of not having my own baby would vanish. This is exactly what Chaitra also said. But, I still feel the same as I felt during the time I posted this.

I think, so far it has been a great decision to not get into it. I have time for myself now. I don't want to keep shuttling between hospitals. I don't want to go through that trauma. I don't think I can take it.
I am pretty upset with god that he has put me through this in-necessarily. I am not going to fight him and prove that I can upset his plans using IVF and technology. I am going to live and prove that I will lead a very fulfilling life even without having children. If he keeps throwing unwanted things at me, all I can do is, make fun of him and take it all as a joke. I want to be strong enough to survive everything. Right now, I don't think I can ever forgive him for this. It was unfair and I do not deserve this at all.

What do I want to do about babies?
I want to do nothing. I have tortured myself enough and I want my own time. I think I can reach god through other ways than by having a child and growing it up. I do feel better. Last few days The Ganges and The himalayas have been torturing me. I feel like going and doing some yoga class there. I wish this urge sustains and by next year summer I should be able to do a trip to Badri.

Last week, my other best friend who was 7 weeks pregnant had terrible bleeding. She thought she had lost the baby. She spent a night of turbulence, unable to reach the gyn. Atlast, the baby seems ok and she's been advised bed rest. But, I started panicking and got irritated with the whole thing. Why should someone go through this? It's so painful and it does leave a scar. Why didn't the doctors find out the issue? I am sure if they had paid attention they could have found out the cause. It's happened twice already. So, maybe our lady has some problem which causes this. To make things worse, she felt that I was being too bitter and negative and the way she spoke ended up hurting me. She made me feel like I was a bitter and negative woman, which I am not. I was just frightened.. and I felt that personally I would not want to handle this or go through this and I wish this is the last time she goes through this. It does hurt when your best friend misunderstands and judges you. I know that she was going through a bad phase and normally she is too understanding of me. But, somehow I felt bad that day and I don't want to call up till the baby thing settles.

Then, today I was reading about what could be the possible causes of bleeding during pregnancy. I read abt a woman, who had her first pregnancy and she bled so much and probably lost the baby. I felt so sad for her. Women go through so much trauma, no wonder they get irritated. Pregnancy changes your body so much. You no longer seem to be your old self. Hats off to all those women who bravely accomplish such a journey. Also bringing up a child has its own set of problems.

While looking at this, I also remembered Manju. The lady who had gone through probably 8 IVFs!
I suddenly thought of her and God! I was just wishing she had had her next IVF and conceived. This woman has gone through hell so many times and I don't know how she does it. So, I checked on her blog and wow.. she seems to be pregnant. I started reading about her pregnancy from the beginning and when I came to the last post I was devastated. No, she should not be going through this. Her babies need to come out fine. God! Why are you doing this to her?
She must have prayed so much! You have answered the prayers of so many less deserving people.. why not her? Why do you make her go through this? I am sincerely praying and I can see so many people praying for Manju and cheering her. That's the spirit of humanity. I can understand what she is going through now. It's probably going to scar her. I will take the lesson from her and not undergo all this trauma. Totally not worth it for me, but for her, she is willing to die for her children. She has that much hope and interest to own her babies. God! I wish some months from now, she is happy - holding her twins, having forgotten this gory episode. Heartfelt prayers for Manju.. But still, God - this is unfair. Why? Oh WHy?

Neil Gaman on where he gets his ideas from

http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Essays/Essays_By_Neil/Where_do_you_get_your_ideas%3F

AR Rahman on ego, fame and money

"I was a common man and I will always remain a common man. No amount of stardom will ever consume my soul. Money comes, money goes. Fame comes, fame goes. I believe every human being is a celebrity in their own right".

"To be successful, it is also very important to be humble and never let fame or money travel to your head. Ego is 'Edging God Out'. Success is important, but it doesn't always drive creativity. The integrity and passion of music is what ultimately drives me, with the unconditional blessing from the Almighty of course," he said.

Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra told that Rahman says "Getting from 0 to 90 is an uphill task, but 90 to 91 is as difficult as 0 to 90 and 91 to 92 too". How true!

Read more at: http://entertainment.oneindia.in/tamil/news/2013/interview-ego-edging-god-out-ar-rahman-121534.html

Being constantly spiritual!

One simple thing every human being has to do is, make your sense of involvement indiscriminate. If you look at a person, a tree, or a cloud, you are equally involved. You are equally involved with your own body and the breath. If you have no discrimination as to which is better, and you are equally involved with every aspect in life, then you will be constantly spiritual. Nobody needs to teach you anything about spirituality.

Sattvic and Tamasic

The seventh, eight and ninth days of Navaratri are the time of Sarasvati and the quality of sattva. Today, Sadhguru speaks about this quality.
Sadhguru: There is no physical entity without all these three dimensions – sattva, rajas and tamas. Every atom has these three dimensions of vibrance, of energy, of a certain static nature. If these three elements are not there, you cannot hold anything together. It will break up. If it is just sattva, you won’t remain here for a moment – you will be gone. If it is just rajas, it’s not going to work. If it’s just tamas, you will be asleep all the time. So, these three qualities are present in everything. It is just a question of to what extent you mix these things.
Moving from tamasic nature to sattva means you are refining the physical body, the mental body, the emotional body and the energy body. If you refine this so much that it became very transparent, you cannot miss the source of creation which is within you. Right now, it is so opaque that you cannot see. The body has become like a wall blocking everything. Something so phenomenal – the source of creation – is sitting here but this damn wall can block it because it’s so opaque. It’s time to refine it. Otherwise you will only know the wall, you will not know who lives inside.

Anger, intensity and transcendance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M72o577ms8U

Suffering.. due to ignorance and comparison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtPrmLLHtKY

Accept that even the creator made manufacturing defects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkiX1fLEsok

Spiritual experience through pictures!

http://stevemccurry.com/galleries/finding-sublime

http://stevemccurry.com/galleries

Consecration and temples

“If you transform mud into food, we call this agriculture. If you make food into flesh and bone, we call this digestion. If you make flesh into mud, we call this cremation. If you can make this flesh or even a stone or an empty space into a divine possibility, that is called consecration.”

Today, modern science is telling you that everything is the same energy manifesting itself in a million different ways. If that is so, what you call the Divine, what you call a stone, what you call a man or a woman, what you call a demon, are all the same energy functioning in different ways. For example, the same electricity becomes light, sound and so many other things, depending upon the technology. So it is just a question of technology; if you have the necessary technology, you can make the simple space around you into a Divine exuberance; you can just take a piece of rock and make it into a God or a Goddess; this is the phenomenon of consecration.

- Sadhguru

The ancient cultures have always centered around powerful energy fields or places of immense spiritual significance. In these cultures, every aspect of life was carefully studied with a view to assisting the individual’s inner growth. Temples or consecrated spaces stood at the very heart of these early societies. Living in a consecrated space nurtures human well-being and brings benefits in various aspects of life. Because it does not matter what you are eating, how you are or how long you live; at some point, a need will come that you want to get in touch with the source of Creation. If that possibility is not created across the planet and is not available to every human being who seeks, then society has failed to provide true wellbeing for a human being. It is with this awareness that in our culture, every street had three temples; because even a few metres should not pass without there being a consecrated space. The idea was not to create one temple versus the other; the idea was that nobody should walk in a space which is not consecrated; nobody should live in a space which is not consecrated. The temple was always

Consecration is the process of utilizing life energies to create human wellbeing and bring benefits in various aspects of life. It is a process where a material substance is energized into the highest, subtlest possible reverberance. It is a science of transforming a stone, an empty space, or even one’s own body into a Divine possibility.

In today’s world, it is still possible for you and your family to live in a consecrated space through the powerfully energized yantras.

At some point, a need will come that you want to get in touch with the source of Creation. If that possibility is not created across the planet and is not available to every human being who seeks, then society has failed to provide true wellbeing for a human being. It is with this awareness that in this culture, every street had three temples; because even a few meters should not pass without there being a consecrated space. The idea was not to create one temple versus the other, the idea was that nobody should walk in a space which is not consecrated; nobody should live in a space which is not consecrated. The temple was always built first, and then houses were built. 

Agastya muni was sent to South India by Shiva – the Aadhi Yogi, or the first yogi. He consecrated every human habitation south of the Deccan Plateau in some form and made sure that a live spiritual process was on. He did not spare a single human habitation. They say it took him 4,000 years of work. We do not know whether it is 4,000 or 400 or 140 – but looking at the phenomenal amount of work and the amount of travel that he did, he obviously lived an extraordinary lifespan. 

 

The whole state of Tamil Nadu is built like this. Every significant town in Tamil Nadu had a grand temple and around that, a little town. Because the kind of dwelling you live in is not important. Whether your house is 10,000 square feet or just 1000 square feet is not going to make an ultimate difference in your life, but being around a consecrated space is going to make a phenomenal difference in your life. With this understanding, they built human habitations like this: if there are 25 houses, there must be one temple. Whether you go there or not, whether you pray or not, whether you know the mantra or not, is not the point. You must be in a consecrated space every moment of your life.

As life is just energy manifested itself in various forms, a whole science of consecration is also about using these life energies and the manifested forms which could be of immense benefit and serve human well-being on various dimensions. The Linga is one such form and the science of manifesting energy in the Linga form is an ancient science, which has been mastered in this part of the world and been prevalent for thousands of years.

Here, in India, people did not believe in god. You need to understand there were never any prayers in India till a few centuries ago. Only invocations, no prayers. Even today, nobody is leading a prayer in the Indian temple. Nobody tells you you must pray, but the tradition is you must sit there for a while. It’s very alive in South India even today. These places were created as energy centers where people could go, recharge themselves, reverberate with the energy and come out. For different types of requirements different types of temples were created. Now if you are suffering from fear you go to one kind of temple, lack of love you go to another kind of temple, lack of prosperity you go to another kind of temple – they created different types of energies. This whole science is called as the science of consecration. You consecrate a certain space with a certain reverberation where people can go and benefit from that.

For different purposes they created different types of temples where you need not go and appeal for anything. You just go sit there, imbibe that and come. This is a kind of technology. But when the bhakti movement swept the country, this technology became diluted. When the bhaktas or devotees came – a devotee is not interested in any science. He grows from the strength of his emotion – his emotion is everything for him. Earlier all the temples were built by the yogis and the siddhas, but later on devotees started building the temple. When the devotees started building temples, they started making them whichever way they like because these are romantic people. They are in love with something, so they just do it whichever way they feel like it – for them science and technology means nothing. Because of this, so many things got distorted.

So your ideas of God, whatever the idea, is just a social influence upon you, isn’t it? If you really want to know, you should not assume anything, that’s the first thing. From where did this idea of God come to you? Because there is creation, you assumed there is a creator, isn’t it? So the only reason why you thought of a creator is because of the creation. The creation is definitely the doorway and which is the most intimate part of creation to you in your life? Yourself, isn’t it? So this is the easiest and simplest way.

My Valrhona experience

I got my hands on the Grand Cru bars! Thanks Lachoo for making it possible. The chocolates set me back by many thousands of Rupees but when I read that there is a huge shortage of cocoa and there will be a chocolate crisis by 2020, I commended my decision to order the expensive Valrhonas.
Who knows for how long I'll get my supply of chocolates?

So, I tasted the world famous Manjari and - can chocolate taste so different? It has so many layers to it.. berries and what not! I was amazed.The milk chocolate was ok ok.. somewhat comparable to Dairy milk. But the darks were really good. I could not get the tastes mentioned in the pamphlet but I could find the difference.

One lady blogged abt chocolate tasting!
http://chocolatecouverture.co.uk/an-evening-with-valrhona/

Cheers!

Feminine is celebration

There is something very feminine about celebration. Feminine means exuberance, and that is how you should be every moment of your life – exuberantly alive. Celebration should not be limited to a particular occasion. Your whole life, your very existence should become a celebration.

Doing everything with utmost awareness - is like meditating the whole day!

Among the three celestial objects with which the very making of our bodies is very deeply connected – the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon – Mother Earth is considered tamas. The Sun is rajas. The Moon is sattva. Tamas is the nature of the Earth and of your birth. The moment you come out, you start activity – rajas begins. Once rajas comes, you want to do something. Once you start doing something, if there is no awareness and consciousness, the nature of rajas is such, it’s good as long as the going is good. When the going gets bad, rajas is going to be super-bad.

A rajasic person has a tremendous amount of energy. It is just that it has to be channelised properly. Every action that you perform can be either a process of liberation or entanglment. If you perform any activity with absolute willingness, that activity is beautiful and creates joy for you. If you perform any activity unwillingly for whatever reason, that activity creates suffering for you. Whatever you are doing, even if you just sweep the floor, give yourself to it and do it with total involvement. That’s all it takes.
When you are passionately involved with something, nothing else exists for you.

Passion means unbridled involvement with something. It could be anything – you can sing passionately, you can dance passionately, or you can just walk passionately. Whatever is in touch with you right now, you are deeply passionate with that. You breathe with passion, you walk with passion, you live with passion. Your very existence is with absolute involvement with everything.

Unique kolu themes!

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/unique-artistic-creative-kolu-plans/article3972185.ece

http://www.chennailivenews.com/Navarathri%20Kolu%20Festival/Kolu%20Competition%202011/20110719100733/Saranyas-Kolu-is-a-riot-of-themes.aspx

Notes from Kolu at Meenakshi temple

Navaratri promises to be a grand affair at the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple.

2011 theme - Adi Sankara's ‘Shanmadha Vazhipadu' – which shows the six aspects of Hinduism: Ganesh, Murugan, Shakthi, Shiva, Vishnu and Surya.”

The Mylapore trio's kolu features value-based themes such as various festivals at home, vivahas, Shanmathas, kalyana vaibogame, four yugas, four lokas, pancha bhootha sthalas, musical trinity and secularism, besides national integration. The foundation also conducted a ‘Navaratri Kolu Paddhathi,' a first of its kind workshop for setting up kolu.

9 days:
Meenakshi as Raja Rajeswari, presiding deity of Sri Chakra, Mother of Love and Grace.
Meenakshi preaching Manickavasagar who is the saint of Saivam Religion.
Meenakshi teaching the spiritual knowledge to all four Vedas viz. Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana Vedas.
An incarnation of Thadathagai Pirattiyar (Meenakshi).
Meenakshi Amman Thirukkalyanam.
Meenakshi Offering food to Gundodharan (Leader of Boothaganams who are living in Kailash Lord Shiva's Place).
Meenakshi giving Shakti Vel to Lord Muruga.
Meenakshi as Mahisasuramarthini
Meenakshi performing Shiva Pooja
Vijayadasami, Worshipped with 108 Veenas (a traditional musical instrument of indians) in order to gain the educational benefits for children.

2013: This year's theme, 'Sarvam Bhakthi Mayam'.
The idols are procured from idol sellers from various places, including Cuddalore, Puducherry, Kancheepuram, Chennai and Kolkata.

“There is so much that children and adults can learn from a ‘golu’. In a themed arrangement like this, there are many stories and nuances that can be explained and we have been open to the idea of school and college students visiting it in daytime during Navarathri,” said S. Surendranath.

Bharathi the poet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrPOF6NoFIs
Yaadhumaagi nindrai kali!

Yathumagi nindrai , Kali

By

Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathi

Translated by

P.R.Ramachander

Ragam Poorvi Kalyani

Thalam

1.Yaadhumagi nindrai , Kali ,

Yengum nee nirainthai

Theethu nanmayellam , Kali,

Deiva leelai  yandro

2.Bhoothamainthum aanai Kali ,

POrigal anaithum aanai,

Bodhamagi nindari Kali,

Poriyai vinji nindari

3.Inbamagi vittai , Kali,

Yen ulle pugundhai,

Pinbu ninnai yallal Kali,

Pirithu naanum undo

4.Anbu alithu vittai , Kali,

Aanmai  thanthu vittai,

Thunbam neeki vittai ,

Thollai pokki vittai.

English Translation

1.Oh Kali , you stood  as everything,

You were full everywhere,

Oh Kali ,all that  which is good and bad,

Are plays  of the God almighty.

2.Oh Kali, You became the five elements,

You became  all the machines,

Oh Kali, you stood  as the conscience,

And you stood above all  the machines,

3.Oh Kali , you became the  great pleasure,

And you entered inside me,

Oh Kali, after  this , Oh Kali,

Can I  stand  without you.

4.Oh Kali, you may gave me love,

You gave me manliness,

Oh Kali, you removed all my sorrow,

And removed all my problems.

======================================================================
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVkG3N2q4ZY
kakkai siraginile!

(Lord Krishna was the God to whom this great poet sang)

1.Kakkai chiraginile Nanda laala, ninthan,
Kariya niram thondruthayye Nanda lala

2.Parkkum marangalellam Nanda laala , ninthan,
Pachai niram thondruthu aye , Nanda lala

3.Ketkkum oliyellaam Nanda Lala , Ninthan,
Geetham isaikkuthada, Nanda Laala

4.Theekkul kaiyai vaithal , Nanda Laala-ninnai
Thendum inbam thondruthada , Nanda Laalaa

English Translation

1.Oh Lord who is the darling of Nanda,
I see in the black of the feathers of the crow,
Your colour of black, Oh darling lord.

2.In whichever tree I see , oh darling lord,
I see your green colour , oh Lord.

3.In whichever song I hear my darling Lord,
I am able to hear your music only, my lord

4.And if I keep my finger inside a raging fire,
I only feel that sweet sensation of touching you.

Fabulous speech on success and failure, by SRK

Thanks to Rach for sharing this.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/After-Chennai-Express-Ive-made-new-enemies-SRK/articleshow/23303895.cms?

Battling inner contradictions and identity

Nowadays I realize that I am full of contradictions.
I am learning to accept it.
I am generous, I am miserly.
I am happy, I am depressed.
I am lazy, I work hard.
I am empathetic, I scorn.
I want to work, I want to sit at home.
Most often I have opposing feelings. Maybe it's part of the evolution. I think many artists and writers have felt and expressed these. Will these opposing voices ever quieten?

Yday in this state of anguish I wrote "When you buy a book - the story comes free. You pay for the author's anguish, despair and heartaches". But, can you ever pay for the anguish?
An artist's life is dreadful, that much I am very such of now.
Here I leave, with some lovely quotes from brainpickings.org :-)

“Identity is something that you are constantly earning. It is a process that you must be active in.”

The contradiction between your body and your mind, between your mind and itself. I believe these contradictions and these tensions are the greatest gift that we have.

But this ability to recognize and embrace our inner conflicts and bipolar tensions, is a blessing rather than a curse. 

“Your greatest creation is yourself. Like any great work of art, creating a great self means putting in hard work, every day, for years.”

You have, which is a rare thing, that ability and the responsibility to listen to the dissent in yourself, to at least give it the floor, because it is the key — not only to consciousness, but to real growth. To accept duality is to earn identity. And identity is something that you are constantly earning. It is not just who you are. It is a process that you must be active in.

This contradiction, and this tension … it never goes away. And if you think that achieving something, if you think that solving something, if you think a career or a relationship will quiet that voice, it will not. If you think that happiness means total peace, you will never be happy. Peace comes from the acceptance of the part of you that can never be at peace. It will always be in conflict. If you accept that, everything gets a lot better.

You are going to change the world, because that is actually what the world is. You do not pass through this life, it passes through you. You experience it, you interpret it, you act, and then it is different. That happens constantly. You are changing the world. 

You will be so many things, and the one thing that I wish I’d known and want to say is, don’t just be yourself. Be all of yourselves. Don’t just live. Be that other thing connected to death. Be life. Live all of your life. Understand it, see it, appreciate it. And have fun.