hermit's chronicles

When you listen to a Bollywood song, you generally relate to its melody or beat and rarely to the deep meaning lurking in their lyrics. An occasional Hindi film song can make a deep impact. I am sure each of you has his own favourite philosophical song or a verse that has touched your heart. Here are some of my favourite lyrics from Hindi film songs, with my translations. For instance, here is lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi’s take on the Sufi/Taoist attitude to life in ‘Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata Chala Gaya’ (from the film Hum Dono ). Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya Har fikr ko dhuen mein udata chala gaya Barbadiyon ka shok manana fizul tha Barbadiyon ka jashn manata chala gaya Har fikar ko dhuen mein uda…  Jo mil gaya usi ko muqaddar samajh liya Jo kho gaya maein usko bhulata chala gaya Har fikar ko dhuen mein uda…  Gham aur khushi mein farq na mehsoos ho jahan Main dil ko us muqaam pe laata chala gaya Har fikar ko dhuen mein uda… I kept going with the flow Puffing away...

In W. Somerset Maugham's iconic bestseller The Razor's Edge , the enigmatic protagonist, Larry Darrell, makes this observation: "I'd known bad men in Paris, and when I got back to Chicago I knew more, but for the most part their badness was due to heredity, which they couldn't help, or to their environment, which they didn't choose. I'm not sure that society wasn't more responsible for their crimes than they were. If I'd been God I couldn't have brought myself to condemn one of them, not even the worst, to eternal damnation... After all He created men: if He so created them that it was possible for them to sin, it was because He willed it. If I trained a dog to fly at the throat of any stranger who came into my backyard, it wouldn't be fair to beat him when he did so." In Srimad Bhagavatam , we come across the story of Lord Krishna and Kaliya Naag: Shri Krishna overpowers Kaliya, the dreaded multi-hooded venomous snake in the Yamuna Riv...

Maya is Divine Hypnosis. Facebook is virtual hypnosis. Maya manifests lila , a play, an illusion of the phenomenal world. The play includes love and hate, mountains and streams, modernism and tradition, conflicts and attachment, success and failure, smiles and tears, pleasure and pain. Check out life on Facebook: the happy people and those that have hit a patch, the pouting selfies, the pets and the grandkids, the arrivals and the passings, the virtual friendships, the passionate activism, the gorgeous foods, the breathtaking locations, the envy-evoking trips to fancy lands, the political slugfests, all the trolling and the trolling of the trollers, the hate and the caring, the Likes and Loves, the heartening news and the scams, the genuine sharing and the vain, and of course the ‘stories’ and the ‘reels’… You see? A whole new manifestation, entirely virtual. Facebook’s game is ‘engagement’: the duration of time it can entice you to stay engaged in its virtual allurements. Same as Maya...

Even at the elementary level, Science was teaching us more about Spirituality then we realized at the time we were being taught… but I guess we weren’t interested in either at that point.   Take Geometry, for instance. Remember the theorem we were taught at school? ‘The smallest arc of a circle is a straight line’. That, if you ask me, is the finest pointer to Zen. In the circle of Life this moment is a straight line. If you can live this moment (the What Is) with acceptance, then the next moment and the next…you would find that you have lived the cycle of life effortlessly. Take Chemistry. We were taught about static equilibrium and dynamic equilibrium. Let’s make this simple. Let’s take a chemical reaction where Molecule A is combining with Molecule B to form Molecule C. At some point all Molecule A’s would have combined with Molecule B’s to form Molecule C’s and the reaction would reach a dead end. That is, the reaction would have reached a stable equilibrium.   Now let’s t...

 The Setting: TRA Narayana of Chennai, Branch Manager of a large British firm, visits Sri Ramanasramam in Tiruvannamalai on a hot April day, along with his colleague Parathasarathy. It is about five in the evening and Bhagavan is not on his couch so the two men decide to explore the ashram. As they are returning to the thatched verandah from the other side they stumble upon this scene. They stand affixed, watching the scene unfold without making a sound. The Scene: They hear a childish voice say, “ Chee, asatthe (Fie, you creature).” They see no children around. Therefore they look around to find the source of the voice. They observe some movement among the leaves of the vegetable plant in the kitchen garden near the thatched verandah. At a closer look, they see a small goat, a little monkey and a squirrel and Bhagavan!  Bhagavan is sitting with his legs semi-folded. The goat is nestled between his knees, the monkey has its head on his right knee and the squirrel is perched o...

"I realized that those who totally live on the grace of the Almighty receive the necessary food to eat and shelter to live. Worrying for food and shelter is not complete faith. I will believe till the last breath of my life that God alone is my property and depending on any other thing except God's will bring disaster in my life. I find my Lord always walking before me, providing all the things that I need." – Swami Rama in Living With The Himalayan Masters

When Vibhishana had ethical issues his all-powerful brother Ravana and crossed over to Ram's camp, he was scared stiff about the consequences. But Lord Ram welcomed him saying, "Abhayam!" Fear Not! When Ashwathama let loose a mantra weapon to kill all the Pandava progenies, Abhimanyu’s pregnant wife Uttara came rushing for help to Lord Krishna, praying that he somehow save her unborn child. Moved by her plea, Krishna raised his right palm and blessed her saying, “Abhayam!” Fear Not! When Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi was in the last lap of the time in his mortal frame, a devotee humbly approached him with a request. He asked Bhagavan to liberate him from fear. Bhagavan smiled weakly and said, "Granted." Again, Abhayam! Fear Not! Swami Samarth's most quoted proclamation is, " Bhiu nako mi tujhya pathishi ahe! " Fear not! I have your back! Once again, "Abhayam!" Look at the image of any avatar, sage or prophet, be it Guru Nanak, Buddha, Shirdi S...