Friday, January 16, 2009

Write a New Note What am I doing with my life...??


I wanted to share my most inspiring incident which happened in my life 3 years ago. Thanks to my dear friend Becky, her enthusiasm to share has kindled this joy of sharing. I also happen to write this note with certain involvement as I am seriously thinking about my own life decisions like should I be in academic career or not etc.

I watched Hurt locker few days back and It made me think why the hell am I wasting life ???(like unnecessary watching YouTube videos or reading some random blogs) Do I realize something only when tragedy strikes !! I would definitely want to plunge deeper in life when everything is all right not when something goes bad. Thanks to Canadian winter (just vanished), am I really doing something sensible in life….?? I am concerned myself :)

Sadhguru at the prestigious "World economic forum"
He has been invited there for last 4 years and he is the only mystic or Yogi to speak at TED.


Sadhguru has always been and will always be one of the most inspiring people for me and I guess I was very fortunate to witness this conversation which happened near the velliangiri foothills. It was an unusual setting and an unusual program organized at the Isha foundation for the people from “world president’s organization” and some influential leaders who were considered to be an elite group and all of us in Isha were thrilled about this program. Because if these people are touched then it can have far reaching effects. The program happened sometime in early 2007 and I was a teacher trainee. We had to co ordinate lot of our activities and 2 days into the program we had a session of the program happening at the stream which is so close to ashram.

One of the participants was on the advisory board of National science foundation ( NSF) and owning a large technical industry ( damn I don’t remember his name :(. It was about to 25 participants and same number of teacher trainees and few volunteers to make sure lunch was served right and speakers, carpet, seating etc were right. Once the session was over some of the participants came near Sadhguru and they wanted to hear more. So after that wonderful session where Sadhguru spoke about the hills and its significance, one of the participants walks up to sadhguru and He brings up this very interesting question “Can some of the scientific truths be related to spiritual wisdom” ?? . I was fortunate to be close to them and what I heard was like truly inspiring and will be remembered by me forever.

Now I am all ears, I had never seen sadhguru speak about fundamental physics like quantum mechanics and theoretical physics so deeply. Now sadhguru goes deep into this and starts explaining how certain aspects of string theory are flawed and the man agrees..!! I am totally at shock. When he explained how quantum electrodynamics was successful to explain few aspects, I was wondering where did he learn all this…!!! Sadhguru starts explaining the behavior of sub atomic particles and what could be the solution for this flawed aspect of string theory and how this has been explained by Patanjali and some other texts of shiva sutra’s. The man is totally surprised to see sadhguru speak like this and I was already stunned. Sadhguru says “ In my perception , it is all there clearly but I don’t have the formal mathematical expertise or education to write down the solution in an equation form” . So the participant questions “well, how did he come to know this if he did not have formal education”. Sadhguru answers, once the perception becomes deep enough then it is possible to grasp the mechanism of physical existence to its minute level and briefly explains how certain practices in yoga are directed towards understanding the physical form of existence from its macro to its micro plateaus and what can be done with such level of mastery.

The stream near Velliangiri foothills where the incident took place... the photo is very close description of it....


( I do not remember the exact words but the whole conversation still gives me goose bumps which I think of it)


Then he questions the participant “why is that people have such huge aversion towards anything that is spiritual ?? why is that so-called spiritual people have made a parody of their lives and anyone who is little intelligent thinks spirituality is for the ones who are bruised by the process of life not for the ones who are in the prime of their health and life ??” he continues to explain unless this respect towards spiritual processes is not restored then humanity will miss something huge. Sadhguru explained the most pressing need of the hour is to establish individuals who are well rooted in their inner experience and are actively involved in the society and hold key positions. It is only out of this kind of action and compassion which will bring true well being.

Well this had a huge impact and his words “ if you try the grapple the problems of the world without necessary awareness then those problems will just consume you” always made me wary of my actions. Well my imagination ran wild and I started imagining what would be the effect if Warren buffet or Bill gates became realized people?

For me the whole conversation was very inspiring because a man who can meditate like Buddha and who can express his perception in the language of science is very very rich. He gets to live both the worlds (if there is a division at all). We need more physics teachers who have such depth of perception that when they teach quantum physics they know it by their experience and education is no more accumulation of just information and labeling.

Now I am pondering how do I make my career in a way that I can do this…!! One part of me says I like teaching and sharing , so be a professor ….while the other part says…. Whats the use of making money or becoming a professor when you do not know the simplest aspects of life?? Learn from a master who KNOWS…. Strangely I like this idea of living under the guidance of Zen master ( sadhguru).
I have been reading some of the works of Ramdass and why did he quit his professorship at Harvard and spent many years living with a mystic called Neem karoli baba?? Definitely Ramdass was not a freak and his book “Be here now” is soo good that even other professors like Dan Gilbert quotes them all the time.
How one can maintain this delicate balance between establishing himself firmly in the reality and then conduct his life well outside, this is a real challenge for me now.

With a bunch of fellow travelers who are truly fantastic ( my friends) I will be taking this journey and lets see and I hope I don’t end up like the guy “ one who can .. does… one who can not….. teaches…:) ) hahahahhah

2 comments:

ME said...

Well written! Did you just say you live in Canada? Where?

Anonymous said...

Nice post -- I read it first on your facebook page (via ishas blogspot), but could not leave a comment there. I also read your subsequent comment there.

I tried navigating the path of research/academics myself. Academics can be discouraging place if you are a starry eyed idealist.

I met the person heading theoretical physics at the main US funding body. I asked him about life and everything -- he took me to a Buddhist monastery instead :-).