28 May 2010

Karmic Credits

This post is not mine. I liked the analogy so much that for once thought I will just do a 'share' on my blog. All credits to the original author of this write-up. Man, you did then what the film Matrix did to the many of us!

"Hinduism is so complex. I do not understand it most of the time", said Eesha, a young girl to Uncle Ashok. Ashok had come over half an hour ago and Eesha was so engrossed in her video game then that she mechanically said "Hi" to Ashok, and continued with her game.
 
 
Ashok watched Eesha play Super Mario Brothers. He watched her move Mario to the right, hit and get hidden mushrooms and get bigger, or get a fire flower or a cape, collect coins, punch his way thru obstacles, climb ladders and occasionally get chomped by turtles. After the end of a life Mario would start his next life, from where he left off. Now that Eesha had finished one level she noticed that uncle Ashok, whom she met every week when her parents took her to the temple, was still there.

"Eesha, you are really good at this video game!” said Ashok. She nodded and added "Yep! And I can even beat my brother at it".
"You know you can learn many ideas of Hinduism from the video games", said Ashok.
"How Uncle Ashok?" Eesha asked.

Let us say if you got a video game and it gave you only one chance to beat it, will that be fair?” Ashok asked.
"No, that is why they give you multiple lives. Actually, with a new game it is very difficult to advance much further. It takes practice. When we had just bought this game, I used to 'die' in just ten seconds, every time", said Eesha.
"Hinduism is similar too. Most people do not lead a perfect life. So according to Hinduism, you get many chances to improve yourself. You get many lives. This is called reincarnation". He continued," and just as in a video game, if one life ends, you start over in the next life where you left off".

"Now what will happen if you do not go towards the right in your video game?" asked uncle Ashok.
"You will not move to the next level. You will not make any progress and time will run out", Eesha said
"Exactly! If you do not move in the 'right' direction, you will not make progress. Thus YOU determine the right direction and how far the progress you can make. 'What you do, determines the result' this is called the law of Karma. Your actions bear fruit accordingly. Now what happens in a video game if you keep making same mistakes?” Ashok asked.
"You go back to the start of that level" Eesha replied.
"Law of Karma similarly tells you that if you keep making same mistakes over and over again, you will move backwards. Now in a video game you get rewards and receive setbacks. In this video game a mushroom will make you grow bigger or an attack of a turtle will make you smaller, in real life too you may become rich or poor, but that depends where you start at and what actions you take. Yet getting big or small in itself does not mean progress. Does it?", asked Uncle Ashok.
"You are right, being big or small does not necessarily mean you will move forward in the game or even to the next level", Eesha replied.

"Now tell me what happens when you go to the next level?" Ashok asked.
"It gets tougher at the next level" Eesha said.
"Same is true in spiritual practice as per Hinduism", Ashok added. "Now tell me what happens if you get stuck at a level, what do you do ? and why ?", he asked.
"I ask my cousin Ojas. He knows what I should do. He knows where to the keys are hidden, where secret passages are. He has beaten the game already, Some times he even takes the controller to help me", Eesha said.
"In Hinduism, similarly a Guru helps you move to next level. A Guru or a master has already 'beaten the game'. She or He knows where the key is hidden that will unlock the door. She or He knows what where the secret passages are. She or He can even show you a 'warp' zone, to go to the next level. But unlike a video game, in real life a Guru cannot play for you. You have to play it yourself", said Ashok.
"You keep referring to Guru as She or He, why?” Eesha asked.
"Good question! Hinduism considers man and woman as having equal potential to become a master, a Guru. Just as you are better than your brother at video games, a woman can reach the highest state also. In fact there were many women who contributed to the Vedas, the Hindu holy books. There were many women Hindu saints in the past, and there are many women saints even now" said uncle Ashok. He continued, " alsothere are many ways you can go to next level, so some Guru will show a easier way and some a harder way, all depending on your capability.
Buddhists have Buddha as a Guru; Jains have twenty four Tirthankars as Gurus while Sikhs have ten Gurus whose guidance they follow".

"Now tell me what happens when you beat the last level?” Ashok asked.
"I have not beaten the game yet, but my cousin Ojas says that you see fireworks, music plays for long time, and then you see the name of the programmer", Eesha said.
"Interestingly, that is what Hinduism says also, when you go beyond the last hurdle you hear the music and you see THE PROGRAMMER - that is God and then you do not need to play the game again, except to help others" Ashok said.

"Let me ask you one more question. You get so absorbed playing a video game that you feel that you are being Mario or Luigi on the screen. But are you really Mario or Luigi? Who are you?” He asked
"I am Eesha, of course. But while playing the game I forget that I am Eesha and am only concerned about Mario or Luigi on the screen", she replied.
"Exactly, Hinduism believes that we go thru different lives believing we are the body or the name in that life. But we are neither that body nor its name. We are the Atman or soul which plays as a character of Mario or Luigi (or whatever). That is something we must never forget. We are not this body, but we are the Soul, or Atman". Ashok continued.

"Eesha have you noticed, that from video games you just learnt Hindu concepts of reincarnation, Karma, Guru and Atman." He asked, "Was that complex? “
"Not complex at all!" Eesha smiled, Her face was glowing by the realization of Hindu concepts, a knowledge she already had in the form of video games.

18 May 2010

Free Radicals

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man became either its slave or prey. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was the Catholic Church. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came the radical Martin Luther.

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man became either its slave or prey. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was the British Empire. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came the half-naked radical Gandhi.

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man became either its slave or prey. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was Feudalism. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came a radical concept called Socialism.

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man became either its employee or wannabe. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was the corporate IBM. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came the radicals Steve Jobbs and Bill Gates.

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man people became either its slave or prey. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was the United States of America. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came the radicals called terrorists.


OK, you get the pattern.

All the above dragons are today diseased and/or weak.
All the above radicals were influenced, if not the product, by the respective dragons.

And?
What happened to the radicals now?
They just mutated into different sorts of … dragons!




Martin Luther’s bold act inspired and gave birth to a whole generation of radical Protestants. Born out of revolt; awakened out of suppression; blinded by their concepts; these ‘believers’ collectively form the Hydra, the dragon of the new age. It cannot be reasoned with. Cut of one of its head and ten others form in its place.

Mahatma Gandhi’s bold act inspired and gave birth to a whole country of radical satyagrahis. Born out of revolt; blinded by their concepts; the awakened cattle class knew and practiced only civil disobedience. To the point, that the whole country spawned a generation of non-performers with zero civic sense. The general Indian carelessness is today its own terror, its own dragon to fear.

Socialism inspired and gave birth to a whole generation radical communists. Born out of revolt; awakened out of suppression; blinded by their concepts; this workers union polarized the world into two, brought promising countries to a grinding halt, sucked the excitement out of their citizen’s life. Though weakened now, they were once collectively the Hydra, the dragon of the new age. It cannot be reasoned with. Cut of one of its head and ten others form in its place.

Bill Gates and his contemporaries inspired and gave birth to a valley! Born out of ingenuity and entrepreneurship these fresh and exciting companies have today grown big, fat and as corporate as the original adversary dragon. Corporate career has today become nothing but a joke. Look around you and you can map a Dilbert strip somewhere.

USA’s acts inspired and gave birth to a whole generation of radicals called LTTE, PLO, IRA, Taliban and ISI. Born out of revolt; awakened out of suppression; blinded by their concepts; these ‘freedom fighters’ collectively form the Hydra, another of the dragons of the new age. It cannot be reasoned with. Cut of one of its head and ten others form in its place.


And? And the cycle will continue. It would be interesting to learn now how the Hydra can be contained.