Relevance
While reading Mitch Albom's "The Time Keeper", towards the end of the novel, I found the flow of story very interesting that probed me to think of the relevance of the plethora of things we do in our lives. The novel is story about Father Time, an old wealthy man and a young girl, all of them unrelated to each other in time and space; each of their story runs parallely throughout. The old wealthy man who is terminal, strategizes to freeze his own body beyond time, so that he can turn alive in future when a sure shot cure is invented for his ailment. For this he makes all the necessary legal and fiscal arrangements. But he is shattered to see his plans failed when Father Time takes him in to future for a snapshot of what happened with his frozen body. All the legal and fiscal arrangements, agreements etc. stand null and void as they become irrelevant with time. This piece of story has provoked me to think of all those documents we sign in our life time, be it official or personal, that talk about the legalities, benefits, infringements and promises, are afterall valid only until we are alive. We never know what happened to whatever we have willed in our testimonies...... particularly, I am amused about all the license agreements that we as librarians verify for the perpetuity of access to the scholarly content....... earlier in CDs hosted on our servers, then the publishers' servers (probably virtual)....... who dreamt that there would be cloud computing and all the content would be hosted on some cloud server which we cannot see in physical space....... what perpetuity are we talking about? A hundred years from now? Interestingly, we also talk about "Force Majeure" which means to say that God forbidding, if some natural calamity occurs, the publisher is not responsible for the loss of content. Still, it leaves me only wondering further........ we humans, so painstakingly write down all the terms and conditions on a few sheets of paper (digitized for preservance and posterity)...... what will happen to all the content and their access when we are gone? Technologies come and go. Sometimes, they disappear in a flash as though they never existed. But knowledge remains; remains until we are alive in this world. Mainly because this knowledge is relevant only to this space and time. Guess, its time for me to delve more into the difference between Para Vidya (divine knowledge) and Apara Vidya (knowledge of material world)!
"Well, you sneezed just as you were going to tell me what the first thing to do was!"
Winnie the Pooh to Eeyore
Minty tagged me in this picture. So true! Like my dad, I also have great allergy to colds, smells and change in temps. Each time it hits me I have a bad episode of continuous sneezing. My family sympathizes with me and says "please sneeze first, make yourselves comfortable and then speak". I sneeze so hard and loud that my doggie comes running to me wherever she is. Ah! What a relief it is to have a break from the cold viruses.
Its Sankranti again...
Love the Makar Sankranti time. Reminiscing my childhood times spent in my grand parents' village. Of the porridge, berries and rangolis; of the village folk and their simple joys of life. This year I joined my colleagues to attend the Sankranti get together arranged by our students, particularly who hail from Andhra. Though it was quite cold, the gathering made us feel warm. The season reminds me of all the kites myself and my friends used to collect and fly in my childhood. The kind of accurate measurement to pinch holes and tie the thread, and argument over it between friends, those varied colours and sizes that the kites come in...... well, Happy Sankranti to all!!
Which way home?
"Bhaja Govindam" has been playing on my mind again for some time now. Hinduism defines three paths of devotion viz., the Jnana Marga (the path of knowledge), Karma Marga (the path of action) and the Bhakti Marga (the path of devotion). This is not to say that one should stick only to a particular path if one wants to reach Him. Time is a testimony for the various arguments and fights that may have taken place supporting one of these paths. Was reading Rajaji's commentary on "Bhaja Govindam". A very interesting excerpt from his introduction to this work, I quote:
"Some immature critics of Indian philosophy believe and say that the way of devotion is different from the way of knowledge. The learned employ this distinction to emphasise a particular thesis on which they discourse in different contexts. We should not get confused by this and fail to understand the truth. When intelligence matures and lodges securely in the heart, it becomes wisdom.
When that wisdom is integrated with life and issues out in action, it becomes devotion. Knowledge which has become mature is spoken of as devotion. If it does not get transformed into devotion, such knowledge is useless tinsel. To hold and to say that jnaana and bhakti, knowledge and devotion, are as different from each other as gold is from baser metal is to expose one's ignorance."
What lucid explanation about the paths of devotion! Further, I add my own understanding to this. One must also perform his actions rightfully and dutifully, which is to say, following the Karma Marga or the path of action. This is what Bhagavad Gita teaches us, right? Do your duties/actions. Therefore, why should we be bothered about we following a particular path only, as long as we are on any of these or on all of these as per the requirement, righteously? Am I right? Or am I right?
Millet millet in the jar, who's the healthiest of all?
This week I tried another variety with kodo millets. I used kodo millets in place of regular rice for preparing South India style curd rice. Turned out very tasty. Adding pomegranate seeds and grated cucumber was a good idea.
Source: Google Images
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