Sandhyavandanam and Science

The crux of Hindu practice of Sandhyavandanam lies in the repeated chanting - with utmost concentration - of the sacred ‘Gayatri Mantra’. The repetition range is anywhere from 11 to 101 to 1001. At a highly superficial level, this is what you are told to do when you are 7-year old and this is what you do in the initial stages after the sacred thread ceremony [also called Upanayanam]. But this manual chanting of the Gayatri Mantra - repeated chanting of anything, come to think of it - is more often than not associated with the wanderings of the mental state to the oh-so-wonderful materialistic tastes that go with the modern life, and this defeats the very purpose of Sandhyavandanam [SV]. And so, after some years of blindly following the ritual, you feel that it is not really enhancing the spiritual in you and so, the 1001 comes down to 101 to 11 and then even 1 and finally – if you come abroad, especially – you stop performing the Sandhyavandanam ritual completely. This is exactly what happened to me.

As I grew older, the science around me tried to tell me that SV is not just about repeating a sloka x number of times. It is about trying to “connect” to an almighty through your mental faculties. If you can do this, then the sloka is irrelevant and the x is irrelevant. But it is easier said than done, to get through this “connection”. It needs high amount of concentration and an absolute removal of yourself from everyone and everything around you. Like being “amidst the clouds” all by yourself. [It helps to picturise being “amidst the clouds” feeling if you travel abroad in an airplane. It is such a wonderful sight!]

Then I read this book called ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda. Concept encouraged in this book is that if you want something, act as if you already have it and feel it in you so much that you will eventually get it. Personally I didn’t like it so much and this is what I thought about it. Perhaps it was the way it was written. But the concept seemed interesting and almost believable. The missing thing in this book was of course exact science. And then, when I read Akbar’s blog, the science blended in beautifully.

Akbar wrote two blog posts: This concept of Manifestation and 15 minutes of meditation. He has written both extremely well. It all makes so much sense when you read them both.

To put it concisely, this is what the first blog post says: [refer to the pictorial graph in the first blog post link]: When you think of something and something alone hard in your mental state, you cause such a high amount of vibration within you that it breaks through your own negative barriers and belief system and eventually outputs the desired goal. The human mind has the power to create just by thinking! And how do you achieve this level of thinking? Normal thinking will not give desired goals because normal thinking wanders from one topic to another!

Akbar mentions that this level of thinking can be achieved by meditation. And, in the second blog post, he mentions how to meditate. And, if you think about it, the whole point of SV was about meditation. Concentrating on the Gayatri Mantra for a definite or indefinite period of time is actually nothing but meditation. Meditation, in its purest form, means not to “connect” to any God, but to improve the thinking process, to negate the belief system, to know that a human mind can create wonders just by thinking. Akbar himself talks about the advantages of meditation in his blog post. [Going one step further: yoga, meditation, vocal music and SV are all concentrated on the human breath. The more you can control your breath, the better control you have on your own life]

So, coming back to the multiple chanting of the Gayatri Mantra in the Sandhyavandanam:

Was the real intention of multiple chanting of Gayatri Mantra in Sandhyavandanam to get a better control of one’s own life by a strong mental state, to channelize the thought process to create what one wants in life and achieve one’s own goals?

It is a question to be pondered about...

Related:
1. Saw this video recently. Isnt this what we do (or we see people do) in temples?! Super Brain Yoga, indeed!!
2. The meaning of Namasthe. Courtesy: Nikhil's blog.

7 Blankets

Its been 7 years since I am in employment in my current organisation.
Each year of employment in any one organisation, I feel, is like a blanket wrapped around you.
The more years you are in any one organisation, more the blankets wrapped around you.
More the blankets wrapped around you, more you get stifled and constricted. And sometimes, comfortable.

Of course, it gets more difficult to free yourself from all the blankets wrapped around you with each passing year!

:-)

The 1%

There is a park near my house in Bangalore which I used to often visit. The park is a square shaped garden and the entrance is in the middle of the west side. As soon as we enter, there is a walking/jogging track leading to the left and right. The left and right tracks form the periphery of the park. There are also 2 center tracks which cut through the park and divides the park into 4 equal parts. One such center track starts from the entry point too. Benches are strewn all along the walking/jogging tracks. It was on such benches that I often used to sit leisurely and gaze lazily at the walkers and listen to the humming of the birds. Aaah, what pleasure!

A thing that I noticed was that most walkers and joggers, as soon as they enter the park, tend to follow the clockwise direction of the path, me included. Only 1% (a layman approximation) used to follow the anti-clockwise direction. I used to muse on this a lot and somehow find it very amusing and fascinating.

How does the mind decide which path to go when it is faced with 3 paths [left (anti clockwise), straight (straight), right (clockwise)] and there is no aim in particular other than just walking or jogging nor is there any level of difficulty defined (all the paths were even)? What makes that 1% of the populace to go the other direction?!!

The reason I bring this up now is that in the apartment community in which I stay now, there is a parking lot with about 20 parking lots, all at the same angle to the curb. All residents park their car facing the curb. Except me. I park the car reverse, facing the road.

So, in this case, I am that 1%.

5800 in 6 months

3000 in 3 months.
I very nearly came to 6000 in 6 months.

Now that winter has started,
I guess the pace reduces....

Floods at Mantralayam

If the Saviours themselves get drowned...
Then what of us...?

Marriage and Responsibility

You are responsible for your spouse...
You are responsible for your parents...
You are responsible for your offspring...
You are responsible for your yourself...

17000, but 3 runs short!!!

Sports can make one so sad....and so happy!
Felt happy for Sachin...but was so dejected about the outcome.

When 1 person gets half the required runs [175],
It is disappointing that the remaining 10 cannot even get the other half of the required runs...

Mathematically representing today,
Sachin > 10 fellow-mates.

"Anmol" Moles!

A mole on left arm.
A mole on right shoulder.
A mole on left middle finger.
A mole on right elbow.
A mole on left thigh.
Two moles on back.
And all of them in the exact spots respectively...

These are the things I share with my wife apart from Birthday!!!

:-)

Temperature and Population

Noticed a strange thing last week. When just me and my wife were at home, the room temp hovered around 70s. My parents and sister-in-law came and the room temp climbed to 73s. Brother joined, and room temp further climbed to 76s. It could be coincidental that the outside temp too increased, but…it was food for weird thought. Just to bring down the fundamental laws of Geography, lets look at the facts...(!)

Average population density in US is less than average population density in India => Average temperature in US is less than average temperate in India.

So, is temperature directly proportional to population? There is hardly anyone living in Arctic and Antarctic. Hence climate is so cold out there. But if the entire world’s population was distributed evenly across all parts of the globe, perhaps we will have uniform temperature everywhere!

Its like people on a sinking ship. If one part of the ship is sinking, tendency is to move towards the safe part. But the safe part becomes unsafe if all of the passengers move to one side of the ship.

People move away from colder part of the world because it is cold but it could be that that part of the world is getting cold because there is no people living there; People move towards warmer part of the world because it is warm but it could be that this part of the world is getting warmer, and if not hotter, because there are lot of people moving into this part of the world!

Well, as I said. Its just a weird thought.

Books and Friendship

There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.

~The World of Mr Mulliner by P G Wodehouse.

Over 3000 in 3 months

Oil change for a car needs to be done within 3000 miles or 3 months of the previous oil change, whichever is earlier.

All these years I used to fall into the latter category.

For the first time, I crossed 3000 miles within 3 months of oil change.

Just shows how much I am traveling in own car.

Angels and Demons

Once upon a time
An ex-Demon gave birth to a Demon
And thought it was an Angel
But then this Angel turned out to be a Demon

And then the ex-Demon wished it was not a Demon before
For, this thought-to-be-Angel would not have been a Demon
If the ex-Demon was not a Demon before
And for this, the ex-Demon bemoaned...

Why does God make Demons?
Why do Angels have to suffer due to Demons?

Work and Pay

Most of us at work, are trying to figure out something, that is not working;
Trying to find a solution that is elusive, which makes you tear your hair out.

The more it is elusive, the more you want to tear your hair out, the better the pay is.

:-(

The Wait

Couple of decades ago,
I used to wait for my father to get back home from office.
And today, the roles have reversed.

Well, I guess,
It’s the same since years now.
But its more pronounced in US.

Quote

"Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due."

The Spanish prisoner

The office telephone number

The office telephone number that is assigned to me
Since I assumed US office in May 2009
Is exactly the same when I was here in US from 2006 to 2007!
What a coincidence!

:-)

PS: One more thing that hasnt changed, eh?

Question of the day

My wife and I were playing badminton for the first time in our lives, in United States of America, just in front of our house, in the lush garden that spans across our community. We had asked our parents to get the rackets and the shuttle cock from India and it seemed a nice game to play in the evenings.

Apparently, it is not a well known game here. Soon after we started playing, some kids came and started watching us. One of them ventured to ask what the name of the game was. But another one had an even more interesting question:

“Are you adults?”

:-)

The joy of self discovery

Today, we were driving to the temple from a different starting point (not home), and I was trying to catch up to the road that ultimately leads to the temple. Perhaps I was going to meet that road in a roundabout manner but at least I was sure that it was the right way. Without GPS, one has to compromise. But then, on the way, I found a road whose name seemed familiar. On an impulse, I took the turn and went in that road. Within minutes, I was in the temple premises! My joy of finding this new road was immense!

True, if I had GPS, it would have led me on this same route but the joy of finding a shorter route on my own is inexplicable. And not just that, since I found this on my own, I shall always remember. It is not to be easily forgotten because the impression would have been made on the brain. However, if I did have GPS, I would have blindly followed whatever I was told to and next time on my way to temple, I would have again asked GPS to guide me instead of relying on my own human power. Not that GPS is bad and I advocate against it; it really is a remarkable invention and a life-saver at times.

But this is not just about GPS. Alarm clock (farmers don’t use alarm clocks, do they?), calculators (yes, the calculation is right! No need to confirm with the calculator!), writing down things to do (have you noticed how brain stops remembering the moment you put down things to do in a paper?), remembering phone numbers (thanks to cell phone, we remember none), etc.

Well, this post is more about how man has become so dependent on electronic gadgets than utilizing his own self to the best ability. I have already written on the same theory but wanted to write once more on the joy of self discovery and realize how potential (and beautiful) the human mind is!

The Month That Was

July has been a whirlwind of a month. It was the same last year too and this post is more like a Part Two! It swept through under our feet so quickly that we didn’t even realize it. Well, I guess I can say the same to the last one year too, considering that we just completed our first year wedding anniversary.

Parents came from India on the second week of July and I had to chart out the itinerary for their month long stay. We ended up going to Mount Greylock and Lake George on July 12th, Cape Cod on July 18th, Boston (Quincy Market and Bunker Hill monument) on July 19th, Orlando the weekend after and then it was time for them to head back!

Apart from the trip, whose photos can be seen in links provided above, here are some snaps from the month that was.
And here are some videos (Gouri skipping and mom singing – no, not related!) from the month that was.

First Year Wedding Anniversary

Prologue: This post is delayed by almost a month due to heightened activities in July.

It seems we got married recently, and me and my wife still act as newly-weds, but the fact is, it’s already been a year since we married. To celebrate the anniversary – well, considering that July 4th is a holiday and we get a long weekend, it was a week before the actual date of anniversary - we went to Canada and enjoyed each and every moment of the 4 day trip.

On July 11th, to celebrate our actual wedding anniversary, we went to temple in the morning and had a romantic dinner at Top of the Hub – a restaurant on the top of Prudential Building in Boston which gives an excellent view of the Boston skyline especially at night. The restaurant has nothing much to offer for vegetarians but the setting and hospitality and service is really amazing. Had a gala time!

Here’s wishing us a Happy Wedding Anniversary!!

:-)