Nature is meaningful.However,its meaning is read differently by different kinds of people.A poets expression of nature is different from the way a scientist interprets it.Both,however,try to see the truth in it.Truth is one and simple,but the paths to it are many and complicated.Each of these paths presents natures variety. If winter comes,can spring be far behind asked an English poet.This is true because some temporal events in nature are periodic like the seasons.Time spans like a day,month and year are periodic,too.A week is periodic,but it is not a natural period.It is man-made,so that at an interval of five or six working days we could get a day or two for relaxation and personal work.
Regularity in periods,whether natural or otherwise,sets a pattern and life could be systematised as it would be reasonably deterministic.Events of life are controlled by time and space.However,space is not periodic.Our environment and natural landscapes are not periodic.This irregularity also affects our lives.A person who continues to live at one place does not experience the irregularity of space and hence his life is reasonably predictable.However,this kind of life could lack excitement and challenge.On the other hand,the life of a perennial wanderer might be unpredictable and unfulfilling,and perhaps have little impact on society.
Nature being periodic in one aspect and not so in the other is not our doing.Perhaps it is so because otherwise life would have been drab and dull.Natural phenomena are tuned to instill a certain order in life,although at times these appear to occur with some degree of uncertainty.This tends to happen when nature is tampered with unnecessarily.
The situation in matter is somewhat different.A solid matter is largely periodic,so assuming periodicity in the arrangement of atoms in a solid could lead to the understanding of several of its properties quite satisfactorily.This is an example of periodicity in space,which is so useful.The pattern Again,again,again is true in matter spatially,but not so in life.In other words,there are no agains in life.The following throws some more light on this aspect.
Events in life are not periodic.Childhood,teenage,youth,old age and death all these occur only once in a normal life.Sometimes due to illness and accident,some might miss one or two stages.A wise person,according to the Bhagavad Gita,should not worry about these things.Different phases of life are meant for different roles.Just as childhood and teenage years are meant for education,youth is the phase of work.Periodicity gives rise to regularity;all aspects of life and nature,however,lack this regularity.
Through selfcontrol and discipline we can reduce the impact of irregularity and order our lives to some extent.However,life no longer follows simple laws.It has become complex because of what we call non-linear responses from the system.It can be chaotic.But once chaos reaches a critical point,the system reorganises itself and order is restored.The Gita says that whenever there is a rise in unrighteousness (chaos) and it reaches a critical value,the system becomes ready for the creation of a supreme process that restores order.But whether this is periodic,we dont know!
source:speakintree/timesof india
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Be Happy Even in Unhappiness
See the dictionary under the letter 'h' only there will you always find happiness. In life things are very mixed up. Like day and night,life and death,you have happiness and unhappiness. Life is rich because of polar opposites. The very idea that one would like to be happy forever is stupid, and the idea will only create unhappiness. You will become more and more miserable in your greed for elusive eternal happiness. Then who is the happy person The happy person is not one who is always happy. The happy person is one who is happy even when there is unhappiness. Try to understand it.
The happy person is one who understands life and accepts its polarities.He knows success is possible only because failure is also possible.So when failure comes he accepts it.I remember one incident of my childhood.A great wrestler had come to my town.Everybody was interested in wrestling,so the whole town had gathered.I have seen many people and many wrestlers in my life but he was really rare.He had something of Zen in him.For 10 days the wrestling continued,and every day he defeated a famous wrestler.Finally,he was declared the winner.That day he went around and touched the feet of all the 10 persons who he had defeated.Everybody was puzzled about why he did it.
I was a small child,i went to him and asked him,Why did you do that This is strange. He said,It is only because of them that i am victorious.If they had not allowed themselves to be defeated,i would not be victorious.So i owe it to them.My victory depends on their defeat,so really i feel greatly thankful to them.There was only one possibility: either i was to be defeated or they were to be defeated.And they are good people,they accepted defeat.
This is a very Sufi or Zen idea.Things are interdependent: failure-success,happinessunhappiness,summer-winter,youth-old age,beauty-ugliness they exist together.Then what should the attitude be When happiness comes,enjoy happiness;when unhappiness comes,enjoy unhappiness.When there is happiness,dance with it;when there is unhappiness,cry with it.That's what i mean when i say 'enjoy'.If you can accept unhappiness as smoothly as you welcome happiness,you will transcend both.In that very acceptance is transcendence.
Then unhappiness and happiness will not make much difference to you,you will remain the same.And sadness has something of depth in it which no happiness can ever have.Happiness has something shallow.If you want to be happy always you will become a superficial person.Sometimes it is good to fall into dismal depths of sadness.Whatsoever happens,go totally into it.
When crying,become the crying,and when dancing,become the dance.Then the ultimate happens to you.By and by you forget the distinction between what happiness is and what unhappiness is.You enjoy both! So by and by the distinction disappears.And when the distinction has disappeared,there arises something which is eternally there,which remains always there.That is witnessing.
The happy person is one who understands life and accepts its polarities.He knows success is possible only because failure is also possible.So when failure comes he accepts it.I remember one incident of my childhood.A great wrestler had come to my town.Everybody was interested in wrestling,so the whole town had gathered.I have seen many people and many wrestlers in my life but he was really rare.He had something of Zen in him.For 10 days the wrestling continued,and every day he defeated a famous wrestler.Finally,he was declared the winner.That day he went around and touched the feet of all the 10 persons who he had defeated.Everybody was puzzled about why he did it.
I was a small child,i went to him and asked him,Why did you do that This is strange. He said,It is only because of them that i am victorious.If they had not allowed themselves to be defeated,i would not be victorious.So i owe it to them.My victory depends on their defeat,so really i feel greatly thankful to them.There was only one possibility: either i was to be defeated or they were to be defeated.And they are good people,they accepted defeat.
This is a very Sufi or Zen idea.Things are interdependent: failure-success,happinessunhappiness,summer-winter,youth-old age,beauty-ugliness they exist together.Then what should the attitude be When happiness comes,enjoy happiness;when unhappiness comes,enjoy unhappiness.When there is happiness,dance with it;when there is unhappiness,cry with it.That's what i mean when i say 'enjoy'.If you can accept unhappiness as smoothly as you welcome happiness,you will transcend both.In that very acceptance is transcendence.
Then unhappiness and happiness will not make much difference to you,you will remain the same.And sadness has something of depth in it which no happiness can ever have.Happiness has something shallow.If you want to be happy always you will become a superficial person.Sometimes it is good to fall into dismal depths of sadness.Whatsoever happens,go totally into it.
When crying,become the crying,and when dancing,become the dance.Then the ultimate happens to you.By and by you forget the distinction between what happiness is and what unhappiness is.You enjoy both! So by and by the distinction disappears.And when the distinction has disappeared,there arises something which is eternally there,which remains always there.That is witnessing.
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