Parallel Spirals

Standing on the shores of space-time…

Blog

  • The Internet & Me

    Everytime around exam time I face this block as to what to do with the internet. That block is partly the reason for absence of any posting in the past few days.

    I tried to check whether I am addicted to the Internet. I could stay away from it for one day. I will check for two days over this weekend. This will prove that I can stay away from the Internet when I want to and hence the fact that I am not addicted to it.

    It is also a fact though that not getting any information outside the prescribed syllabi is something I hate. I also hate the kind of articles that I see on television or read in the newspapers. These facts come together to kind of get me online.

    I have therefore decided to blog when I can but mostly read lots and lots. A sample of what I liked while reading can be seen through my link blog. You can also click there by seeing the sample of posts on the sidebar under the title “My link blog”.

    I am also limiting the work on my space weblog to the Frozen Sun blog and to selecting the payload for the SEDSAT 2 mission. Over the next few days I plan to integrate the section on futuristic Indian Mythology to the Images section, where I plan to add a few more images.I will keep you updated. No major changes for now. You can also see my new tagline. I have never had a tagline till date on any of my blogs. Things change, I guess.

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  • Frozen Sun musings 1

    This is what I have been trying to think while I am organising this event. So, all posts related to this can come under this category. (Creating categories on Roller is a pain).

    Anyways, I have been having a tough time at school with everyone going all serious on me. So, I decided that if I take the same dour attitude towards students whom we are trying to reach out to it won’t help. Just won’t!

    Imagine three scientists walking into the room at the same time when you’re supposed to be going out and playing! Except one sex-education talk( hey, I was 15 then!! ), I have never enjoyed any other talk and have come to hate some of the subjects discussed at the time – spirituality, craft etc.

    So, I thought instead of asking children to listen to intellectual stuff that go way over their head, let’s ask scientists how they live, what they do in their spare time, what part of the work they enjoy doing and then write a small description of their actual work. Although this is what I think the post should be about, I would have them write from their heart, which might turn out to be difficult for scientists.

    So, the IHY/IPY 2007 which I asked Kirk to hand over to me, has got this new dimensional push. Ha! and I have my exams on 24 and 26th so that makes it even worse for me to handle this!

    Now, my only problem is whom to contact in NASA/ESA. The trouble is that all of them are so open you don’t know whom to approach. In India, since the website has only one name, the decision is easier. Which reminds me I have written to the person in charge of IHY 2007 asking for help and also some help from IIAp ( Indian Institute of Astrophysics). I have yet to ask some one from ISRO about their plans. Well, let’s see what happens.

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  • Header Art

    Changed my header art to make something that is quite close to the stuff I really like. This one is by Martin Koza.

  • Whispers from the Past 1

    I guess you see them everywhere today – important road junctions, outside or in railway platforms, outside colleges. Street urchins.

    During my days at junior college hanging around with a group three of them gathered around us to try and coax us to part with some money. My belief is that by giving them money all you are doing is giving them the fish and not giving them the fishing rod. Hinduism, however, has this strange tilt that has been interpreted by people as giving money to beggars.

    On with my experience, the kids were coaxing us to part with money. I was being adamant and one or two guys in the group were using these kids to amuse their girl friends. It didn’t anger me then because I believed that was their way of getting the kids to work to earn their money. Very cruel way to do it when I think about it now but we were heady 17 year olds then.

    The next day we sought out what had happened to one of the kids. The other two almost said non-comittally that he had died. He had taken too many beatings from his father for not getting the money he was asked to get.

    First of all, I now dispise the use of these kids for entertaining your girlfriend. Why don’t you put up a clown’s costume? Why are you playing with these kids life? Or atleast give them some money at the end of it. But, it’s still cruel. Think about where they come from before interacting with them. They can’t return to home, switch on their TV and headbang to the latest rock tunes. They go home and bear the beatings they get and then go out again to try and earn some money or maybe to find a place to sleep.

    The father of the child was apparently arrested. We can’t confirm this because it’s I don’t know what hand news. But, shouldn’t the law act while the injustice is being done and not after it is done?

    But, I really cannot thing how the whole thing played out and we probably forgot it after a day. It came back to me again when thinking about something else.

  • Summary of the Chapter I read

    Perhaps the entire thing with the Gods and Godless and the 101 years was just to establish the fact that something is difficult to learn. Then perhaps, this fact stated so clearly will not be taken so lightly. Or, perhaps that was the reasoning behind it.

    According to Menen, the people who wrote the Upanishads basically did not believe in God and communicated their knowledge through folklore.

  • Mathematical Paradox? Infinity between Two Fixed Points?

    Why does this happen in mathematics? There is infinity between two fixed points.

    Consider, 1.01, 1.001, 1.001, 1.0001… All these numbers still come between 1 and 2. However can you say that there will only be these many numbers between 1 and 2?

  • Chandogya Upanishad – Seventh Section of the Eighth Chapter

    Since I am only beginning, my interpretation of things is supposed to be bad. Anyway, I needed a point to begin. Aubrey Menen, gave me that point and so I have begun. The whole thing is under a title “Gods and the Godless”

    Prajapati is an interesting teacher that the Gods and the Godless ( basically referring to devas and asuras) approach to understand the self. That is why we go into things like spirituality and stuff and so I think that is why Menen wanted us to start here!

    Prajapati puts these two leaders of the Gods and the Godless to work. At the end of their services, he provides them with the knowledge that _they_ desire. It’s almost like what you might observe in modern PhD programmes. Advisors extract the maximum work of their candidates and then finally give them their PhD. A wicked comparison, for Prajapati was a wise man but something that came to the mind while reading these lines.

    Prajapati never gives straight forward answers and answers only those questions that the student puts to him. Nothing more. Nothing less.

    The leaders of the Gods and the Godless – Indira and Virochana – ask him what is the self. Prajapati asks them to look in their eyes and what they see is the self. Ditto for looking at water and mirrors. Virochana is quite happy with this ‘wisdom’ and propogates it among the Godless. This according to the Upanishads is why the Godless are more interested in bodily sin et. all. This I think is a bit of exageration on the part of the interpreter. This is the basis, perhaps of condemning sex as an act of the weak.

    Anyway, Virochana is happy and so the Godless are now cursed to living their lives in good bodies with bad minds (aka sex et. all)

    However, Indira is doubtful. He returns to Prajapati with a good doubt. If the body is the self, then shouldn’t the self change according to the strength in the body. This is not so. Whys that? Prajapati asked Indira to work under him some more time. In this way Indira works under Prajapati for about 101 years which leads to a common saying in India of why the self is valuable. Even Indira took 101 years to master it!

    The final cut-short story is this wonderful quote from Prajapati:

    “Like the wind, like clouds, like thunder
    and lightning, which rise from space without physical shape and reach the transcendent
    light in their own form, those who rise above body-consciousness ascend to the transcendent
    lightin their real form, the Self.”

    The self is not such an easy thing to understand and yet it’s been so beautifully expressed. Reading those lines and imaging how clouds are formed or how thunder falls from the sky – from the formless to that of form, seem to attain the true form of the Self.

    I have been thinking for quite some time on what I have just written. I am tired for today. Maybe tomorrow. When I clear out the message and read this part again. And then on with the rest of the Upanishads.

  • Summer Study

    It is normally at the time of exams that one seeks God in order to try and increase the grade in a subject that you have not learnt all semester. I have been doing that for the past 17 years. Last year after my incompetency was proved in examination, I decided to take a different approach.

    I decided to take to atheism and it has not disappointed me so far. Why? In theism, you expect God to rescue you. Therefore the effort that you put in is generally reduced. When depending on no one but oneself then you reach a point where you are giving in your maximum.

    I have however, given every point of view a chance but none have attracted me so far. During this exam I plan to cut down on a lot of activities that I do – some of which you are witness to through this weblog. This gives me one quantity – time.

    So, far about 1 hour everyday I shall read and summarise here a section of the Upanishads. I seek to follow the words of one, Aubrey Menen in my pursuit. Some of his books have been banned – which is generally, in relation to religion – a good place to start. I shall then apply my own knife and see how it cuts.

    Menen’s advice with regards to the Upanishad is quite straight forward –

    “The Western reader has a wide variety of translations to choose from in several languages. The translators are often very gifted, but when they come to the word atman most of them fall flat on their faces. They call it “the soul”, which it is not. The reader should be more wary. He is much in the position of Adam when he named the animals in the Garden of Eden. To call a tiger a ‘tiger’ Adam had first to see the beast. So is is with the atman. You cannot really know what it is until you have found it, and that can only be done by going off alone and looking for it. Once you have found it, you really do not care what it is called, because it is so much your own private business.

    However, a distinguished Indian and scholar S. Radhakrishnan, faced up to the problem. He dismissed out of hand the word ’soul’. Instead he chose the word ’self’. It was the best that could be done, and that is why the Western reader, whatever the translation he is reading, should keep Radhakrishnan’s the Principal Upanishads beside him for checking. Parts of Radhakrishnan’s English translation are eminently readable, parts not. The Western reader should begin with the seventh section of the eigth chapter of the Chandyoga Upanishad.

    Then he should shut himself alone in some quite place and think.”

    I shall take Menen’s advice of being wary. I shall not do what he suggests – shutting myself in a room and thinking. I like to walk in the crowds, observe and think. I shall follow his advice on where to start reading the Upanishads. I have with me Eknath Easwaran’s The Upanishads. I shall only read the translations and create the meaning for myself by taking into consideration everything I have learnt till now.

    These notes will become part of my notebook. I shall post them on  the blog whenever I can!!

  • Happenings

    It has been an unusually long and eventful weekend. And I have a lot to say. I cannot say all here and so some of them are on my space weblog.

    The exam dates are out. This means lower net presence over the next 3 weeks. I am looking forward to this small hiatus. After that, I believe I will be going to my native place. Tickets are booked.

    At the same time, the plan for studying is ready. Everything is set for the exam mode. I also plan to have a small school reunion next week that may be pull-pushed.

  • S Chandrashekhar

    This is the man you read about if you are into the field of black holes. He’s the man who found out the Chandrashekhar limit, beyond which the star’s mass causes it to collapse into a black hole.

    I found a really interesting snippet on Chandrashekhar‘s life at a place where I wouldn’t think of. Dilip D’Souza has a write-up on Chanrashekhar’s life. His work with Sir Eddington, his quarrels with him over the black hole, why he thought scientists were not productive beyond their 30s.

    But, the best part (and, I liked this especially because I finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence) was this wonderful quote:

    “Nature has shown over and over again that the kinds of truth which underlie nature transcend the most powerful minds.”