Buddha Boy re-appears….

Last updated on: December 26, 2006 at 9:30 am By Desh Kapoor

Remember the Buddha Boy? He is back again after so many months... He was apparently wandering in the forests and has been alive just on herbs. I just hope he is left alone to himself and the world will be better off.. or we will get another religion going in the world.. .something that mankind can certainly do without!! Sixteen-year-old Ram Bahadur Bamjon was spotted on Sunday by villagers in the remote and dense forests near Piluwa village in Bara district, 150 km (95 miles) east of Kathmandu, local journalist Raju Shrestha, who visited the boy, told Reuters.Bamjon disappeared in March from the forests in nearby Ratanpuri village where he had reportedly been meditating without food or water for almost 10 months. "I have been wandering in the forests since then," Shrestha quoted Bamjon as telling him. "I am engaged in devotion which will continue for six years," the boy told Shrestha. Hundreds of curious onlookers, including many Buddhists, thronged the site to see the boy, sitting in a meditating position. Read more

VideoShare: Omar Sharif's Beauty Parlour

Last updated on: December 26, 2006 at 7:42 am By Desh Kapoor

Wanted to start sharing some video content posted on various public sites that I find interesting. This one is something that will appeal to only South Asians - who know Hindi and Urdu... buut it is hillarious like any Omar Sharif play is! Enjoy! Read more

"A Special X-mas Tree" from Ms. Anouradha Bakshi

Last updated on: December 25, 2006 at 11:06 pm By Desh Kapoor

Some blog posts carry a lot of message and meaning for all of us! Here is one blog post from Ms. Anouradha Bakshi from one of her many efforts at bringing peace and end suffering for the world. In this anecdote you will see the spirit of the kids that can prevail anything that nature has to throw at them - from physical ailments to lack of resources. Mind is a beautiful thing and thank God it can rule the brain - so we still have an option! The world celebrated Xmas. In a tiny lane of an urban slum in Delhi a bunch of very special kids did too. Just like children all over the world they wanted a Xmas tree and nothing could stop them. Nothing to write home about, some would say, but what if I told you that each and every child in this little group is different: some have remarkable minds locked away in useless bodies while others try to make sense of the world with limited means. Some are condemned to a world of silence while others live in immobility. Oops I forgot to tell you that all of them have never known the thrill of opening a present and have only survived on hand me downs! But somehow the Xmas spirit is such that it breaks down all barriers so we were not surprised when we saw them storming to the terrace in search of a potted plant, any one would do. In the most remarkable example of cooperative effort and armed with bits of papers, cloth and heavens knows what else, they set out to create the most beautiful tree I have ever seen. True it broke all conventions, but while doing so it set its very own and these seemed closer to the Xmas spirit. Read more

View of the colored world!

Last updated on: December 25, 2006 at 4:25 pm By Desh Kapoor

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } American Cemetery 9.jpg, originally uploaded by davedeluria. What a shot!! Fantastically created shot with great colors and dynamism! Read more

Anti-Smoking

Last updated on: December 25, 2006 at 12:02 pm By Desh Kapoor

An anti smoking ad on Houtlust.. seems interesting. Read more

Duality and Non-duality and the two factors!

Last updated on: December 25, 2006 at 5:31 am By Desh Kapoor

God and Creation - the two dichotomies can be seen in one of two ways - as separate or as one. Most of the world views it in the first paradigm - i.e., they are two separate entities. That is where the Duality vs Non-duality schools of religion and spirituality come in.Duality school, in its attempt to formulate a "world view" will necessarily have to create a third entity in order to "explain" the workings of the creation for if one was to look at everything as it exists in real terms then there is very little to say how man (soul) and nature would be same - hence they are different in basic terms! Read more

Mool Mantra: What is God?

Last updated on: December 25, 2006 at 4:48 am By Desh Kapoor

Recently, I had heard the Mool Mantra from Japji Sahib - where Guru Nanak Dev had expressed the characteristics of God/Creator. In most of the places where I have come across such an attempt - it is often fraught with numerous inconsistencies (as in my last post). This Mool Mantra however, in my mind does describe the Origin as best as it possibly could be within the limitations of spoken word with hardly any inconsistencies in its rendering. (courtesy: Sikhwiki) ik oNkaar sat naam kartaa purakh nirbh-a-o nirvair akaal moorat ajoonee saibhN gur parsaad.vwihgurU kyvl iek hY[ s`cw hY aus dw nwm, rcnhwr aus dI ivAkqI Aqy Amr aus dw srUp[ auh infr, kInw-rihq, Ajnmw qy svY-pRkwSvwn hY[ gurW dI dXw duAwrw auh prwpq huMdw hY[There is but one God. True is His Name, creative His personality and immortal His form. He is without fear sans enmity, unborn and self-illumined. By the Guru's grace He is obtained. jap.aus dw ismrn kr[Embrace His meditation. Read more

Is this World Illusion or Reality and Why?

Last updated on: December 24, 2006 at 4:07 pm By Desh Kapoor

Yesterday, I had a long and hard discussion with a friend of mine. The essential difference between our "world-views" was - if the world and the creation is a Reality or an Illusion. I believe that the creation is an "illusion" in that it is created through our intention and not that it is real. He, on the other hand believes, that simply the "existence" of an object A at a place X which every one can verify proves that it is real or it could have been seen wherever the different "observers" chose to see. His other objection - very valid one as a question - was if all is Illusion, then why not NOT ACT AT ALL? To me, the first question needs more of my thought and analysis but the second one boils to the basic question of - not How - but why does the Infinite One chooses to manifest itself as the known or the finite? The very reason as to why "He/She/It" chose to manifest is the very reason, in my view, should we act. Because if "the" One chooses to "act" despite the apparent uselessness of action, should be necessarily the reason why "I" as a mind and body should act! Read more

The Discovery of Human Remains and Brahmi script in Tamil Nadu

Last updated on: December 24, 2006 at 3:21 pm By Desh Kapoor

I chanced upon this news report of discovery of an old site in Tamil Nadu (2004 report) - where urns were found with human skeletal remains and other objects. About 100 fully intact urns were found here with writings - probably from a period of around 500-600 BC. This was termed as significant. The language has been called "Tamil Brahmi" (Tamil Brahmi is a script that is similar to the Brahmi script of the time of Ashoka that was used to write Sankrit but with 4 tamil characters). Does this have any significance in terms of the Aryan-Dravidian theory - which I believe was bunk anyways!Strangely we never heard of what happened of this discovery later! Read more

Has US gone Bankrupt?

Last updated on: December 24, 2006 at 5:20 am By Desh Kapoor

We have already had warnings from Warren Buffett (& this)and others about the unsustainable levels of the US Debt and still many a self-indulgent analysts are busy trying to fool everybody in complex incomprehensible economic globeddygook theories about how this deficit is actually good for the US economy! So, it is quite interesting when the Head Accountant/Auditor (Comptroller) of the Government himself comes out to lay the situation bare in front of everyone! What follows in this article based on the Government Report is fairly clear - US is as close to going bankrupt as it can. And this situation is far from getting better because:- Iraq is still on and IMHO there is NO way that US can come out of it!- Baby Boomer "IOUs" are yet to be presented!- The Infrastructure of the country is getting older by the day as Katrina proved abundantly! When was the last time that a power plant was built in the country (and haven't the electricity rationing and blackouts during summers risen over the years?)?This is just the Fiscal Deficit inside the house - in other sense the credit card debt of the Government that it has amassed to buy its "groceries" or sustainables! The Trade Deficit is an altogether a different story. That has risen to almost 7% of the GDP too! That means 7% of what the US makes is actually owed to the outside guys to just go by the day "under the roof" (or in personal households terms - the mortgage for the house!). In fact one economist predicted that this trade deficit is bound to rise to 12% of the GDP by 2010 if things dont improve.. and that doesnt seem likely.. in short term at least! For there is no way that the trade with China is coming to a halt .. is it? Or Walmart going out of business? Read more

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