Ākāśāt Patitaṃ: Many Forms, One Reality

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Adi Shankara: The image that's stayed with me forever Sanskrit and shlokas have always fascinated me. The sheer vastness of Sanskrit literature is humbling. There are enough verses, texts, commentaries and traditions to occupy many lifetimes, and still leave one feeling that one has barely scratched the surface. But I didn't think much about any of this when I was growing up. I would recite shlokas in the morning and evening without fail. They were simply part of life. The words were there, the rituals were there, the temples were there—but much of it happened in the background. I was busy with academics. There was no time for Sanskrit or Vedanta. At least, that is what I used to tell myself. Of course, time was never really the problem. I could spend five days watching a Test match from morning to evening and somehow consider that perfectly legitimate use of my time! The truth was simpler: Sanskrit and Vedanta had not yet become priorities. Gr...
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Pot-Pourri

It was one helluva month, what with the thesis defense and course completion. To top it all, the H1Bs were getting over even before it actually began. But, right now, the relatively free state of mind allows me to get back to blogging. I am going to be much more regular with my blog updates. It is like one of those television serials, "Amitabh Bachchan in a brand new avatar making a comeback like never before." I also wonder at all the movie artists who make bigwig statements like "This movie is completely different. Such a sensitive topic has never been handled before. It is a once in a lifetime role." What crap! What nonsense! It would almost make me tear my hair in agony at the cliched statements.

I do not want to create that artificial hype and aura about my comeback to regular blogging. There would be periodic updates on anything I find remotely interesting. I would have loved to write about India's world cup prospects, but the way they have damaged their reputation, nobody wants to know anything about Indian cricket for the time being. Anybody wants to be anything now, but cricketers. Today's news has been highly disturbing. Virginia Tech just went through a crisis and one just has to hope that such incidents are not repeated in the future. Depression is a bane in today's life. Rolla went into mid-March crisis, when one of the guys was involved in a mockery bombing case. Though there was nothing untoward, it was enough to send everybody into a frenzy. It is just not easy to leave anything unnoticed, atleast when the world is in a big turmoil today. Escalation of issues is better any day than to leave it unnoticed. It is better to be safe than to go for the cure.

Now, now, before anybody gets into any doubt. I am not a news reporter, neither a journalist nor a philosopher. I am a simple blogger and I should be coming up with better topics!

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