Reaching There

We all want to find our place in this universe and desire for a life filled with passion. Whether our universe is our family, home, town, planet, job or the entire universe. We believe in something bigger than us that is worth losing all, whether it is your wife, son, friend, dog or a cause. This provides us with a sense of fulfillment and happiness. It reassures us that we're living an extra-ordinary life. The above thought begs a question though. What is extra-ordinary? Mankind has been striving to answer this question for centuries. Whether it was an effort to demarcate between ordinary and extra-ordinary on the basis of power or wealth or other measurable parameters. Or simply attributing supernatural attributes to seemingly ordinary thing or a person. Hence the reason for superheroes or material gains. However our intention to demarcate implies that a difference really exists! Which further implies that there are certain shortcomings that are preventing us from being...

A lot of people debate on lot of -isms and some go on to form a treatise, school of thought or a philosophy that seems to explain reality observable & fathomable by their current intellect & state of mind. A lot of such belief systems are available for our mind's consideration; such as scientific theories that explain the workings of the material universe or spiritual philosophies that explain the material mind as well as direct towards something that's beyond material human mind. I've seen endless debates that try to prove or disprove the other. Whether people trying to disprove the existence of God to people trying to prove God through logic. Scientists have proven the existence of sub-atomic particles to large amount of dark energy in our universe. Numerous people debate whether such discoveries have made the God redundant. Religious philosophers try to warn the scientific community of a world sans God. These debates are endless and starkly futile. We can spend...

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear. Thomas Jefferson Sraddha   is commonly translated as faith, but it means the adoption of truth. It is a process of accepting and grasping what truth is. Our intellect must be able to catch the truth, then seek the truth and realize it on our own. From Samkhya Karika (Karika VI) The God Question  Too many people are radicalized by this simple phrase. It produces reactions that range from emotion of disgust to emotion of bliss. I don't think there is any other question that brings so much stubbornness to even slightly delve from the current state of belief. If you ask a theist why does he believe in God? The answer is seemingly simple that the religion is a safe haven that provides a much needed relief from the atrocities of world and seems to point to some kind of abstract joy.  On the other en...

As 2014 reaches its end on the calendar. I take a look back at the poems that have found their way onto this blog through me. As a writer sometimes you feel the emotions you go through seem to find their way out into the world. But most of the times the words bless you and you just manage to type it out. So thank you for the words and thank you to the unknown, mysterious and the mischievous soul that blessed me with these poems this year. And looking forward many more in 2015. Here is a neat little presentation of the poems of 2014. My poetic journey of 2014 from Pushkar Bajpai

Human beings live in chunks of moments spread across the fabric of space-time interspersed with spots of alone-time. We spend nine to ten hours at work or school or any other situation that can be counted under "interacting with other persons". However if we go the granular details of our lives we'll find that one-to-one interaction with any human being is still quite rare for any particular individual.  Kripalu ji Maharaj in his discourses on the ephemeral nature of human life would give the analogy of train. Our lives are like a train journey where somewhere along the way we meet someone and have our share of laughs. When the stop comes we or our fellow passenger gets down and goes on his or her way. We cannot stop them for even a moment more. It's the destination and we've to get down leaving any attachment or empathy behind. These chunks of our time we spend with others define our lives - who we are and who we will be. It's all in those moments tha...

We like to watch a good movie. There are some movies you like, others you love and then there are a few that touch a cord with your heart. It could be a drama, horror, romance or comedy. We love to watch people pretend on the screen with emotions that should appear true. Some of my favourite movies are Treasure Island, In the Loop, The Chaser, The Godfather, I Saw the Devil and The Shawshank Redemption.  As you can see my choices range from classics to murder mysteries. One of the movies is about a guy looking for treasure unintentionally accompanied by pirates and finally a fight ensues - everything else you already know. Another is about how world was forced into a war to fulfil geopolitical advantages for a group of nations; a political satire. The Chaser - is about a guy who is chasing a serial murderer, the "chaser" is a former cop turned pimp - yet I liked him. There is no particular genre that I can adhere too. So is there anything common in these movies?  Ap...

We all like things to be done certain way. Whether we call those personal rules or just call them that's-the-way-I-like; we all have defined a certain way of living for us. And for even two persons to cohabit there needs to be compromises and it always ends with one party being slightly (or extremely) unhappy about the compromise reached knowingly or unknowingly. There are times when egos are too blunt resulting in a sword-fight that have repercussions that we all are too familiar with. This is the reality of material realm. In a spiritual realm we want to cohabit with God (or some may say become an inseparable part of God or become God-like). Whatever the case be we've to first begin by knowing God and then try to be friends. In Hinduism (or for that matter any religion) there are defined certain "rules" in scriptures that form the basis of propitiating God.  As Hindus we are all too familiar with the concept of "vrat" (or fasting). Even if we go ...