Samsara, Karma & Moksha

By reading the name of the topic, don't assume this post is something related to pubs and bars!!

For some time, I had these questions in me. In fact not some time, it’s for some years. Pondering over it, I thought of writing it here. Now before we go into the questions, I would like to share some agreed Hindu ideas-

Samsara- The cycle of successive existence. Continual process of rebirth.

Karma- Good deeds and bad deeds, which determines the state of one individual’s next life. Good deeds better life. Bad deeds leading to misery and suffering.

Moksha- Release from the cycle.

It is the soul/athma/inner self which is in the cycle.

I assume all these are not in physical form or we never knew, let me go to the questions,

            1- From where does the soul enter the cycle?

            2- Assume the soul is in its 5th rebirth. So the state of being is determined by deeds done in 4th life, 4th -> 3rd , 3rd -> 2nd, 2nd – 1st, 1st - ___ . From what deeds the 1st life is determined?

           3- Does the 1st life have predefined deeds for the soul? Assume all 1st life souls are good. Then how does the actions by 1st life soul’s leads to misery in their 2nd life?

The samsara cycle makes some sense, but I couldn’t get how the journey of the soul starts.

Lots of questions. Any answer?

**Above art work by the blogger

Wise Monkeys

I’m going to start with a usual disclaimer- I don’t know about economics. 

Like others, I thought on Nov 8th, that this situation will become normal in 2-3 days. But the very next day, I felt the impact in the name of a medical emergency. I had money, but I couldn’t take it from my account, or if I can take, it was very meager considering the bill to be settled in the hospital. Fortunately, after two days, my bank raised the swipe limit and it was breather. So I had a “minor” inconvenience.

Is there a minor and major inconvenience? And don’t say I might have handled situation in different way, your suggestions are in hindsight. And, don’t suggest others to go cashless or mobile money. You cannot dictate on how I use my money, especially when I pay taxes and whatever I have is hard earned white money.

And you bhakts, few months before you were chasing around beef, how come you people suddenly became economics expert. A courageous move, is not necessarily a right move. On top, the courageous move is not planned well. With daily one announcement, people like me had to do ATM hunting even after almost two weeks of the so called demonetisation. 

"A courageous move, is not necessarily a right move."

Simple analogy (Which I made after reading or hearing so many talks\texts)- You have a one wheeled cycle (which is the economic system), the spokes in the wheel are the currency. There are 100 spokes on the wheel, which supports the system. You remove the 86 spokes instantly (86% of 500/1000 denomination), which you assume are bad spokes. Then you install half-spoke a day and that too with all the hiccups. How will the cycle run or can be used?

There are lots of monetary economic literature available, newspaper are churning up columns. Our government is living in hope and prayer. Even if govt succeeds in its objective, people had suffered or at least I suffered your notion of “minor” inconvenience.

Remember, our economy succeeded recession, when globally it affected other countries. So if we succeed this, then it will be because of the resilient of the people (Success is getting back to normal. Not the cashless, eradicate black and counterfeit money).

Why do People Pray ?

Why do you pray? If you were asked this question what will be your response, 

- I pray because I was told to pray by my parents

- I pray because, I might get my wishes fulfilled

- I pray for my well-being

- I pray for strength and peace

- I pray because of faith

Irrespective of which religion you are in and god you choose, the act and objective of praying must be more or less same. No body pray god saying that their neighbors has to suffer. They may wish, but not  மெனக்கெட்டு (menaketu) pray for it.

Another thing to note is only humans pray, or at least we should believe animals don’t pray, because we assume they don’t have god. Now as I write this, a question popups in me- Do we need god in the act of praying? The first man, who prayed, did he/she/they do it by fear or faith or to put it sarcastically did god decent from heaven to Earth and teach man to pray.

If we say praying is faith, then there is no point to discuss further. It’s your faith and your choice, but why do you pray for someone who doesn’t have faith or doesn’t believe in faith.

Lots of questions…

**Above pic by blogger @ Mahabalipuram

Being Righteous & Virtuous

It's been a while since I blogged, close to two months. Lots of things\events happened in these two months. 

I thought by leading a righteous and virtuous life, one can escape from the misfortunes or misadventures of the life, but I was wrong. The ordeal is same for all, irrespective of how we lead the life, the only take away is how we absorb it and move forward. Are we (or I) going to lead the same righteous life or are we going to change course to cheat the sufferings, I’ll stick to the former and keep walking. 

My diary pages got filled with memories and experiences.. ups and downs.. as of now it has ended down and under. The slate is clean, back to square one (what a cliché!!). I have shared lots of happy moments in this blog, so let me keep my misfortunes in my diary and keep this journal (blog) to the spirit for which it was created for (Sharing my Idiosyncrasies, Cinema, Tamil Writing, Politics....)

So what is about to be cooked in this blog in coming few months- few short stories, A to Z Country series and anything else is bonus.

OK let’s boil some tea…..

*Above image by the blogger. Location- Marina Beach, Chennai. 

Disk-claimer- The models! are not aware of this photo. Any resemblance of living or dead is coincidental and they don't represent the text in the post