Things Untold

I searched the word lists,
to see if I could find,
something that would reflect
what was on my mind.

Guess what, there was not even one,
that captured it just right,
For no one else can understand
what I would like to write.

Further, It is even more difficult,
to pen it down,
For how do I portray ,
the friend that I have found?

I closed my eyes to see,
if the darkness has a solution
for someone I adore,
and even so much more.

And then I realized ,

Mere words cannot describe
the many qualities you show,
The love and affection that
you share with those you know.

You were always there,
When I lost some sheen,
I won’t say any more here,
For only you know what I mean.

I struggled hard to describe you,
Even, tried to invent a language anew,
Yet I failed to capture,
All the things that make you…YOU.

I will therefore, be satisfied,
And hope that you understand,
How I feel about you,
Emotions with words I cannot show.

The 'soul'

Here is a six verse poem about the soul(Athmashatakam) written by the great saint Shankara. Today being the birthday of another such legend Swami Vivekananda,who too shared a similar view point,i would like to share these beautiful lines with everyone.

1) I am not mind, nor intellect, nor ego,
nor the reflections of inner self (refer: Ahamkara).
I am not the five senses.
I am beyond that.
I am not the ether, nor the earth,
nor the fire, nor the wind (refer: the five elements: Mahabhuta).
I am indeed,
That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,
love and pure consciousness.
2) Neither can I be termed as energy (refer: Prana),
nor five types of breath (refer: Vayu),
nor the seven material essences,
nor the five coverings (Refer: panca-kosha).
Neither am I the five instruments of elimination,
procreation, motion, grasping, or speaking.
I am indeed,
That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,
love and pure consciousness.
3) I have no hatred or dislike,
nor affiliation or liking,
nor greed,
nor delusion,
nor pride or haughtiness,
nor feelings of envy or jealousy.
I have no duty (dharma),
nor any money,
nor any desire (refer: kama),
nor even liberation (refer: moksha).
I am indeed,
That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,
love and pure consciousness.
4) I have neither merit (refer: virtue),
nor demerit (refer: vice).
I do not commit sins or good deeds,
nor have happiness or sorrow,
pain or pleasure.
I do not need mantras, holy places,
scriptures (refer: Vedas), rituals or sacrifices (refer: yajnas).
I am none of the triad of
the observer or one who experiences,
the process of observing or experiencing,
or any object being observed or experienced.
I am indeed,
That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,
love and pure consciousness.
5) I do not have fear of death,
as I do not have death.
I have no separation from my true self,
no doubt about my existence,
nor have I discrimination on the basis of birth.
I have no father or mother,
nor did I have a birth.
I am not the relative,
nor the friend,
nor the guru,
nor the disciple.
I am indeed,
That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,
love and pure consciousness.
6) I am all pervasive.
I am without any attributes,
and without any form.
I have neither attachment to the world,
nor to liberation (refer: mukti).
I have no wishes for anything
because I am everything,
everywhere,
every time,
always in equilibrium.
I am indeed,
That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,
love and pure consciousness. (refer: Satcitananda minus the sat)

SIMPLICITY OF THE COMPLEX

“complexity tends towards simplicity”, he said.

They two were walking along the tranquil sands of the chowpatty allowing the warm water of the Arabian sea touch their feet. One was a ethical fool and other was a unethical genius. I was wondering as from whom this statement came. Was it the fool or was it the genius? Or whether I said the words myself and thought that it was said by one of the two? Or was it that only I was walking along the beach accompanied by my shadow and the aforementioned words just slipped to my shadow through my feet?

Well, coming out of the trance we had been through in the above paragraph, let’s move into another. I always had a fascination for complex numbers. I wondered about its invention. Who could have invented them? In the pursuit to find a convincing answer, something struck me almost immediately. The one who invented the complex numbers must have been more of a philosopher than a mathematician. This statement inherently demands explanation.

Every living being is arguably a dual personality. The ONE, which one exhibits to the outside world and the OTHER, which only the one knows about. No matter how much people deny this fact, there always exists a significant difference between these two. And these two personalities are separated by a mental layer, colloquially called the “Ego.” For all those, who are on the verge of insanity after reading the all the apparently non-related statements in this articles till now, here is the cue.

Complex numbers are represented as “a+ib” in its most general form.(where a is called the real part and b is the imaginary part.i being sq.rt. of (-1).). every living being represents a complex number . The ONE and the OTHER personalities of a person are separated by i , which is a representation of the EGO of a person.

That was about complexity. To justify the theme of this article, lets talk about simplicity. Consider a small marble placed in the center of dark room. For a person seeing through a small peep hole in the room, it appears to be a simple system. That was the case of our universe just before it(the marble) unleashed the chaos within.(Assuming the big bang). The complexity within the simplicity was unleashed. In a more scientific jargon, thermodynamic prof. Sethuram would say,” change in entropy is always positive.”(entropy is a measure of complexity). And then the things flew in all directions, still moving. A second thought about this continual expansion would drive us to the fact that the motive behind such expansion is to make things simple. Isn’t this a case of complexity, originating from a simple system and again tending towards simplicity?. Hence, there is immense complexity within the most simple of the things. It also implies that there is a innocent simplicity in the most complex of the things.