The Spiritual Seduction

My Last blog post was some 20 days back, in these 20 days, I made a few travels, a few places I regularly visit and a few new experiences. Travelling is like Jogging for your soul, it makes you imbibe the world in a new flavor. I went to Chintpurni, Mcleodganj. Palampur and Delhi. Since my childhood, I had developed an unquenched thirst for the temples in the hills, the hills tend to calm my soul. Hills are at peace and everyone except humans seem happy there, Animals are happy, trees are happy, birds are happy. The whole existence is happy, except man. The only man is so clever as to create unhappiness — nobody else seems to be so skillful. So when you are happy it is simple, it is innocent, it is nothing to brag about. But when you are unhappy you are doing great things to yourself; you are doing something really hard. I have been going to Chintpurni since I was 14  and the place has expanded ruthlessly in buildings, lights and in roads. Despite that, there are things which haven't changed. There is a Dhaba near the temple, a few feet away. It has been just the same since I was 14, the menu has changed a  bit, the prices have but the tin roof and benches have not. There is a guy who sells papad outside the Dhaba, he lives near the temple, makes his papads at home and in the evening sells his papad roasted on coal. They taste amazing but this time I realized that this man has just not changed in last 33 years. He lives next to the temple, what does he pray for, More papads to be sold, more money? Maybe not, he doesn't even have a shop, he sits on the pavement and does exactly what he did 33 years ago. Maybe this is exactly what he prays for, peace and contentment. Maybe he doesn't pray at all.

Today's blog is inspired by a thought I have always believed in, about what pulls one human, defines them. I believe if you want to know someone, understand what attracts them, what seduces them and what drives them. Show me what drives them and I will know the person, every time I meet someone new, I try and find out what are they attracted to and what makes pulled in a direction. Once I realize that their attraction is something, I don't relate to, I waste no time in making a surgical cut. I re-connected and disconnected with a few people over years and one primary reason would be what pulls them doesn't pull me. What matters to them doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter what social facade one may have built over years , it doesn't matter what ivy league degrees they may have , it doesn't matter if they own a 2200 sq feet apartment or live in a rented one bedroom flat, if fallacy and lies is what they lean on and what they worship is shallow aesthetics, they may not be the one I relate to ....

Haseen Saanp ke Nakshq o Nikhaar Lakh Sahi ....Nigaah Zeher pe Rakh ...Khushnuma Badan pe naa Jaa .....

Today, The usual few thoughts, a few lines I wrote in these 20 days, a few I found by Nida Fazli  and just when I think I had found the best music that ever existed, someone proves me wrong and sends me what I have always missed ,  today's song is actually a Kabir Das Bhajan  by "The" Lata Mangeshkar...So, first, writing of the week ......

जिस तरह सेहरा के बीच से दरिया जाता , मैं  हर लम्हा , झूमता ,लहराता , इठलाता जाता 

डूबा तो है दिल, ग़म ऐ ज़माना में , लेकिन यह हर वक़्त का मातम मुझसे नहीं किया जाता 

तुम कहाँ कुछ लम्हे चुरा पाओगे , तुमसे तो मोहब्बत  का ख्वाब भी नहीं देखा जाता 

अब वक़्त मुझे हर लम्हा मसरूफ रखता है , अब तेरी बातों को याद नहीं किया जाता 

लेकिन जब रात में कभी अब भी  बारिश होती है , तो फिर एक पल नहीं सोया जाता 

रिश्तों की जंग में नुक्सान तो होना था, बदल जाता मैं , तो उम्र भर आइना ना देखा जाता

The Intellectual Seduction: There is a saying, Great Minds Discuss Ideas; Average Minds Discuss Events; Small Minds Discuss People. Since my teenage, I have been pulled towards ideas and discussions, these ideas are the outcome of percolated wisdom originating in some events yet it's hard to miss. One the Intellectual pull is created, it sucks you in, the more I read and the more I know, I realize how illiterate I am and how little I understand. To me, intellect is not the ability to talk about the economy, machine learning, stock market or statistical modeling, it is the ability to build a value system and apply it. I knew someone for 2 years, worldly wise, intelligent yet the value system just didn't connect the dots. Values and Intelligence have to co-exist and thrive. If the value system that I expect from the world is as high as the sky but the one I use for myself suits my whim then the hypocrisy is good enough to deflate the intellectual seduction ...

बेनाम-सा ये दर्द ठहर क्यों नहीं जाता, जो बीत गया है वो गुज़र क्यों नहीं जाता
सब कुछ तो है क्या ढूँढ़ती रहती हैं निगाहें, क्या बात है मैं वक़्त पे घर क्यों नहीं जाता
वो एक ही चेहरा तो नहीं सारे जहाँ में, जो दूर है वो दिल से उतर क्यों नहीं जाता
मैं अपनी ही उलझी हुई राहों का तमाशा, जाते हैं जिधर सब, मैं उधर क्यों नहीं जाता
वो ख़्वाब जो बरसों से न चेहरा, न बदन है, वो ख़्वाब हवाओं में बिखर क्यों नहीं जाता 

The Social Seduction:  Some days back, a TV news was reporting birthday of a  film star and how some thousands of people had grouped outside his office and he was seen offering flying kisses to the crowd, which was being mercilessly beaten by cops to stay away . Some people just get attracted to the social norms, there is no entity called society, I said to myself, these people are chasing a make-believe image of a personality. Personality is a farce, personality is pseudo, personality is that which is given to you by the crowd . Personality is imposed on you from the outside; it is a mask. Individuality is your very being. Individuality is that which you bring into the world, individuality is a gift from existence. Personality is ugly because it is pseudo. And the more personality you have, the less is the possibility for individuality to grow. The personality starts occupying the whole of your space. It is like a cancerous growth. It goes on growing, it possesses you totally. It leaves no space for individuality to have even its own corner. The personality has to be dropped so that the individuality can be. Individuality is a non-egoistic phenomenon;  Personality is nothing but ego. Personality is aggressive, violent, dominating and political. Individuality is silent, loving, compassionate; it is religious. I often use a term "furniture" for people who exist around us but contribute nothing to our evolution, they are a utility like furniture. When you have emptied the room of all the furniture and all the things, you have not destroyed the room, not at all; you have given it more roominess, more space. When all the furniture is gone, the room asserts itself, the room and that room is your intellectual space. I often wonder why people get pulled towards these personalities, that's because Nobody wants to face himself. Looking within oneself, one feels puzzled. And because solitude leaves one alone with oneself, it is frightening. If you are entangled in the other, the self is forgotten. That is a kind of unconsciousness and an escape. The man keeps himself busy his whole life in this escape. But this escape is temporary. There is no way a man can escape from his own self! All his efforts to escape are futile because he himself is the one from whom he is trying to escape. How can one escape from oneself, and how can one run away from oneself? We can run away from everything but not from our own selves. Having run throughout our whole life we will find that we have not reached anywhere. Hence those who are intelligent do not run away from their own self; rather they face it. 

In my next post, I will continue on the same thought and will write about Financial seduction and emotional seduction then finally the spiritual seduction ...and will connect the dots.

Now Kabir Das Bhajan..... 

आ रे दिल मेरे मन..अरे दिल ..... 

प्रेमनगर का अन्त न पाया  , जो आया  वो जावेगा 

सुन मेरे साजन सुन मेरे मीता, इस जीवन में क्या क्या बीता 

सिर पे भारी बोझा लेना , आगे कौन उतारेगा 

दूजे किनारा मेरा मीता खड़िया , उस से  मिलन का ध्यान न धरिया

टूटी नाव उप्पर जो बैठा , गाफिल गोता खायेगा 

सौदा करने यह  जग आया, पूँजी लाया मूल गँवाया

प्रेमनगर का अन्त न पाया, ज्यों आया त्यों जावेगा

दास कबीर कहै समझाई रे ,  अन्त काल  तेरा कौन सहाई रे 

चला अकेला संग न कोई , अपना किया ही पायेगा