Search Nature, For Purpose

I have loved nature, as any else
Looked up with awe, admired solemn
Thought in to depths, cried often

Eaten fruit, drank from rivers,
Bathed in rain, gorge and fall
Risen with the sun, and rolled on mud

But all this craze, the mist and haze
Yet deny me the vision, of why this Life

Take the Plunge!

In life, you look back, and see what you did
And you will only feel pride, in steps of risk

In life, you think back, and cherish memories lived
And you will only remember, the moments on edge

Each life may be meant, for a purpose but
A step on sand, takes a whole-hearted effort

Feroz Khan

Feroz Khan, the epitome of style and good taste. I will always remember him as a symbol of good taste and a good life. At least his public and on-screen persona. He always seem to potray how one can start from scratch and have it all. He started as a struggling actor, but maintained his own mannerisms, style, dash and on-screen persona. Irresistably handsome and self-assured, confidence always seemed to be oozing out of him.

Apart from his acting, Feroz Khan ventured to direction showing he's not just someone to rest on his laurels. And direct he did tastefully. He also boldly got into production to make the kind of films he loved to. Some of these were inspired from other classics, but still created with flair. I admire how all the lead characters were given a lot of scope to perform, in most of his films. He also propped up actors who had the sparkle but were yet to be noticed. Every film by Feroz Khan had tasteful music or musical themes.

An example of how good a role model he was is seen when his son Fardeen was caught with drugs. In the press conference the next morning, there was not one defensive word from Feroz. He knew where the line needs to be drawn so his son doesn't end up wayward.

Feroz Khan struggled and rose like a phoenix. Made his fortunes and achieved all he wanted in style.

He may have truly looked back and said I lived life king-size!

You'll be missed.

Idol Worship and Spiritual Progress through Worship of Nature

While there may be speculation whether the Ramayana was a true story or work of fiction, there is enough historical evidences to prove that the Mahabharata era and war actually happened. I was struck then, to read in a book "Yuganta" by Iravati Karve-which happens to be one of my favorites- that the people during the time of the Mahabharata never practised Idol worship. Hinduism at the time had been more about self-inquiry towards realizing one's purpose in life and life's purpose to one and all.


Strikingly, I read elsewhere that Shri Krishna actually advocated idol worship realizing that humans are able to identify more with objects of sense-things they can perceive-than abstract concepts, although the latter is the truer means to spirituality. No wonder idol worship is heard of more after the era of the Mahabharata. And perhaps Shri Krishna, the all-round genius, for he is historically known for his might, intelligence, philosophy and especially a deep understanding of the laws of nature. Idol worship apparently got entrenched only from 3rd to 7th Century AD.

What has however been increasingly forgotten, that Idol Worship is perhaps the first stage to spirituality. Over time the means became the end, as it was easily reachable. Today, its easier to meet God at the temple rather than within Self. Most would find it incredulous that we are none other than the Gods we pray too. For, focused on Idol Worship, spiritual education has gone awry. We know we are not perfect, and "want" God to be. But even in the lives of mythological Gods, or in the lives of Shri Krishna or the greatest of Gurus, we see this lack of perfection. Perhaps our forefathers realized, that "God" is one who has his/her weaknesses, but also mastery, control or moderation over them.

Adi Sankara would likewise recommend 'Inquiry' as the path to progress. Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? Meditating on these questions is more pertinent that asking favors from paintings and sculptures.

It is the Laws of Nature are that are actually perfect. They are guided by the Law of Karma. We have built our lives, habits, civilisations and culture around these laws. At the risk of sounding paganistic, if anything, Nature and its wonders deserve veneration (and at least thus, preservation and protection). But can the laws of Nature be completely understood? You have a better chance with perception. Which is why a Leader is one whose decisions are based more upon this perception, this rhythm with Nature; not all are born with (or perhaps adapt) this quality.

The other difficulty in accepting Nature as one's master is because its incompassible as well as ruthless. How would you define the scope of Nature? Humans are left humbled when they keep searching for the end of the Universe and are unable to even fathom it. Neither the beginning or end of time. How small we are is understood by the fact that 90% of Earth's history was the Precambrian era. And we humans have lived lesser (1.8 millions years now) than even the dinosours (69 million years).

Yes, we are the most intelligent and self-aware species that Nature created. And I believe Nature created us for a purpose, which might even be the destruction of Earth. For through its history, the Earth has had 6 mass extinctions. And we humans happen to be the first species in the history of Earth causing another mass extinction.

Connecting this back to our topic, idol worship played a role in making humans further dependant upon sense pleasures. All the advances of science were focused upon making the senses more comfortable, instead of the earlier ideals of understanding nature and preserving life.

An Idol, instead of acting as a role model or reminder of our progress towards spirituality, instead became something for us to project our wants on. Apart from becoming our ideals, they became life-like. And projecting upon them thus, we gave them their powers too. Do we realize that we, born of Nature, as Buddhism or contemporarily "Star Wars" would put it, have the "force" strong within us. By considering Idols all-powerful, we made them all-powerful and began considering ourselves servile. I truly today believe the Idols listen to us, for we gave them those powers, instead of seeking to empower ourselves!

A Drive at Night

Driving against the wind, on a pretty moonlit night
Hopes of soaring, made by the mind feeling light
Is it alcohol, or has the speed-limit shot by
Or my Mustang afire, company on this bright lonely ride

Curves and bumps, cannot sag the spirits now
The blue rivers and mountains, color my life anew
The passing lights keep me, from feeling this as heaven
But does it matter where to go, when we all live and then die

Will the US Continue to Retain Numero Uno

There is a lot of debate on whether the US will retain its number one position in the world. Will it continue to remain the richest (which by current statistics of its mounting debt is also in doubt), greatest (depends on what standards are we talking of) country of the world.


True, China has become the manufacturing hub of the world. India has become the IT hub of the world. But none of those countries have the intellectual capital that the US has. The Harvard, MIT, Stanford are all here. The most innovative companies leading in the technology and business forefront are based out of here.

Cutting edge scientific research and technology happen and exist here.

And so, while these companies will continue to outsource for manufacturing (China) or IT services (India), the driver is primarily cost.

The currencies across the world are pegged at the dollar giving it a high value that would not go down in some time. Hence the the highest margins for sale of products continue to be from the US. This means the best quality of product and life would continue to be available here.

Few countries in the world have the infrastructure, or made the investments to research, as the US has. China especially has mainly lived off by pirating/replicating/copying products made out of years of innovation in the US.

Few countries provide the basic facilities for continuity of human life: One dollar can get you half a gallon milk or a meal to help you survive. No person can go hungry here. Restrooms and potable water are ubiquituous. Most importantly, racism is almost non-existent. By its very nature, the country was built by immigrants and there has been respect for hard-work.

Offshoring is good for balanced development of the world. But it must be a level-playing field. With China forcibly devaluing its currency, manufacturing, not just in the US, but across the developing world, is being dealt a body blow. The premise is my belief that economy is basically driven by solid outputs created from nothing. These primarily constitute agricultural and manufacturing output. A service product only exists to support the former.

So in an ideal world, where currency is driven by market forces, the Yen should have increased a long time back. This would have raised the living standards of people in China in the long run, and also given an edge to other developing countries as suitable sources of manufacturing. One day the economic viability would catch up and give the US its due too. But this is not to be so, and China is taking up an unfair advantage.

So the US continues to lose what any country's economy is based up on: manufacturing jobs. Obama should stopped commenting about service-oriented jobs being taken up by India, as those are white-collared jobs. The base of the economy (and employment) is the blue collared jobs going out to China, and that is what needs to be addressed. Note that white-collared citizens will be more accepting of a global world and willing to travel where the best opportunity exists; the blue collared cannot afford this.



If the US has to maintains its ranking, that is what needs to be focused upon.