Happiness is derivative

Last updated on: January 13, 2008 at 11:07 pm By Desh Kapoor

Now, is it that we are seeking happiness or is it that we are seeking gratification of some kind from which we hope to derive happiness? There is a difference between happiness and gratification. Can you seek happiness? Perhaps you can find gratification but surely you cannot find happiness. Happiness is derivative; it is a by-product of something else. So, before we give our minds and hearts to something which demands a great deal of earnestness, attention, thought, care, we must find out, must we not?, what it is that we are seeking; whether it is happiness, or gratification? Read more

When you worship God you are worshipping yourself – and that is not love.

Last updated on: January 13, 2008 at 10:53 pm By Desh Kapoor

When you say you love God what does it mean? It means that you love a projection of your own imagination, a projection of yourself clothed in certain forms of respectability according to what you think is noble and holy; so to say, ‘I love God’, is absolute nonsense. When you worship God you are worshipping yourself – and that is not love. Read more

Without hopes in your heart, live as if you were full of hopes.

Last updated on: January 12, 2008 at 6:56 pm By Desh Kapoor

Inwardly be free of all hopes and desires, but outwardly do what needs to be done. Without hopes in your heart, live as if you were full of hopes. Live with your heart now cool and now warm, just like everyone else. Inwardly give up the idea "I am the doer," yet outwardly engage in all activities. This is how to live in the world, completely free from the least trace of ego. -Maharamayana Read more

First Blog

Last updated on: January 12, 2008 at 11:27 am By Guest Blogger

Hi, This is my firstevre blog , i am manoj pandey, 25, working in the Insurance sector and i have a PG in Rural Management. MKP Read more

Old Fort, Delhi

Last updated on: January 12, 2008 at 6:19 am By Desh Kapoor

What a picture! It is of the Old Fort in Delhi (Varun Giri's album on Flickr) Read more

Freedom from the known is death, and then you are living.

Last updated on: January 12, 2008 at 1:18 am By Desh Kapoor

Death is a renewal, a mutation, in which thought does not function at all because thought is old. When there is death there is something totally new. Freedom from the known is death, and then you are living. Read more

Who is a Hindu – 1

Last updated on: January 11, 2008 at 11:12 pm By jessicafick

Introduction: Blokesablogin aka Meenakshi enjoys writing along with being a mom, a school teacher, a musician and an Art of Living teacher (of meditation and breathing). She writes on her own blog "Blokesablogin" and at Desicritics. She wrote a series of articles on Hinduism that I found very insightful. She is generous enough to share them with the readers of Drishtikone! Please do leave your comments on this subject as we explore the subject on this journey with Meenakshi. Religious conversions make interesting news and the secular media in India and the world-wide media interested in India enjoy this topic the most. When I was growing up in India, studying in English medium schools, my world view was different from the worldview I was exposed to, through the learning of Tamizh and Samskritam. It was later, when I did my Masters in French Literature, that it finally dawned on me how our worldview is determined to a large extent by the very language we speak. The great linguist of our times, Chomsky makes this the very basis of his linguistical theory. We perceive this world through the lens of our language. The classic example given is the number of words in the Icelandic tongue to denote snow and ice while in Tamizh, we have one common word that means all kinds of precipitation, forms of water from snow to mist! Read more

World is a kid's playground for me…

Last updated on: January 11, 2008 at 5:13 am By Desh Kapoor

This is one of my favorite ghazals from Mirza Ghalib - with some words of translated below each verse. Here is the audio file in Jagjit's voice (not the full version of the poem though) 1. baazeechaa-e-atfaal hai duniya mere aage hota hai shab-o-roz tamaasha mere aage [ baazeechaa = play/sport, atfaal = children ] 2. ik khel hai auraNg-e-sulemaaN mere nazdeek ik baat hai 'eijaz-e-maseeha mere aage [ auraNg = throne, 'eijaz = miracle ] 3. juz naam naheeN soorat-e-aalam mujhe manzoor juz waham naheeN hastee-e-ashiya mere aage Read more

जागता लम्हा

Last updated on: January 10, 2008 at 5:29 pm By jessicafick

Written by Puneet Khanna उन दोनो लम्हों का सफर यूं ही अचानक किसी वक़्त शुरू हुआ था, अलग अलग। वो लम्हे अब जवान हो गए थे। जवानी में ही दोनो एक दूसरे का रास्ता काट गए। फिर कुछ दूर जाकर ना जाने क्या सोचा, मगर वापिस लौट आए और बीच रस्ते में दोनो कहीं मिल गए। दोनो ने कुछ देर इंतज़ार किया कि दूसरा लम्हा बोले। और बिना कुछ कहे ही, एक दूसरे का हाथ थामे आगे बढ़ गए। बहुत हसीन होता हसी दो लम्हों का मिलना और मिलकर चलना। दो लम्हे जब मिलकर चलते हैं तो वक़्त के दायरे ख़त्म हो जाते हैं। वो दोनो लम्हे घड़ी के दोनो हाथों के बीच खेलते कूदते आगे बढ़ने लगे। उन्ही हाथों के साथ दायरा दर दायरा घड़ी के चक्कर लगाते रहे। कूदते फांदते ये लम्हे कब घड़ी के उन हाथों पर जम गए, ये उन्हें भी पता नही चला। असल में उन हाथों की आदत हो गयी थी उन्हें। Read more

Church Quotas, End-of-the-World and Hallucinating Evangelists

Last updated on: January 10, 2008 at 7:07 am By Desh Kapoor

There is trouble brewing in various places since the Christian missionaries have messed up the religious atmosphere in India through "conversion by hook-or-crook" actions. Look at this guy... he must be one heck of a frustrated soul! He obviously doesn't really care about Jesus.. he seems to have been afflicted with a tribal mentality to get to his "quota goal" for conversions... and he calls that liberation! Its bad enough that this Biju is superstitious and hallucinating, he also wants to bondage the mentality of thousands others onto his sick and base ways of the world thru money/power/coercion... Welcome to Terrorism, Church Style! Biju Verghese believes the end of the world is coming. This faith makes his work urgent: Convert as many Indians to Christianity as possible. Or, as he puts it, "reach the unreached at any cost." Mr. Verghese is a new breed of missionary, tied not to the mainline Protestant or Catholic churches that came with European colonizers but to expansionist evangelical movements in the US, Britain, and Australia. These newer Christians are now the most active here, swiftly winning over Indians like Verghese who in turn devote themselves to expanding the church's reach, village by village. Aside from an attraction to the Christian message, some converts welcome the chance to free themselves from a low-caste status within Hinduism. Some may adopt Christianity by simply adding it to their existing beliefs. To others, conversions are a positive statement that you can choose your religious identity rather than have it fixed at birth. But the success of recent Christian missionaries and their methods of quick conversions have brought tensions with other religions, including some Christians who fear that certain evangelicals are contributing to a volatile - and at times violent - religious atmosphere. The new missionaries put an emphasis on speed, compelled sometimes by church quotas and a belief in the approach of the world's end. Read more