In defence of laziness

Hello brothers,

Exactly what is laziness? Why do people call us good-for-nothing? Let us clear the air.

Laziness is a state of mind, which is precariously hanging between the plasma state and enlightenment. It is that fine difference between my art teacher and Picasso, between my physical trainer in school and Hitler, this is that fine difference between this blog and others in the blogger world. This difference is what brings character, this difference is what makes people or object stands out. Laziness is precisely that difference between ‘close to enlightenment’ and enlightened.

Hence, all seekers, as a pre-condition, must be lazy.

Laziness is also multi-dimensional. It is like Shri Krishna. Laziness shows itself in different form to different people.

For seekers, it is a way to enlightenment. For enlightened people, laziness is a genre of postures. It is that same ladder through which you go up and come down. Once removed, you hang in the air like Lara Croft in the not-so-recent Tomb Raider game, Anniversary (thanks to the technical glitch).

If you are lazily active enough, you can go to the terrace and stare at the stars without even having the need to blink. When your eye muscles get tired, it blinks automatically. You can continue staring at those sparkles till the sun comes up and the resultant heat forces you to find a shelter and practice the same yoga, this time staring at the fast moving blades of the ceiling fan. The art is to watch and not to think. For thinking is activity and enlightened people know the futility of activity.

Of course we are not enlightened, otherwise this blog would not have existed, for we are enduring this pain to write and you as a reader is far from getting enlightenment in this birth, for you are reading it. Bon courage.

But enlightened people, like the other non-active members of this blog, are rumored to have received invitation from our team-leader 20 Box. And despite our cheerleader Anando’s scantily clad dances (which is often followed by 18 hours of blissful snoring), they are still staring at their inboxes and wondering whether to hold the mouse and execute the pain of ‘click’ to accept the invitation. Of course, everybody knows how many muscles are involved in this west-invented clicking exercise (if you still don’t know why don’t you do some google?)

That is too much of a task for sure and our enlightened friends know the futility of it. They are like wise Indians. When a churan-wallah enters the train compartment and offers sample of his latest product for the commuters to test, everybody spread their palms. The small spoonful churan enters their stomach, if not heart, promptly. Even if they don’t like the test, they will spread their palms again for free sample. But they will never buy any packet.

Our enlightened members too watched our cheerleader Anando’s topless chaddhi-flaunting dances and went home … to stare at the invitation link but not to click it, even by accident.

‘Laziness,’ mitron, is a very recent coinage in our country. It could be ancient in the western world. Funny enough, the West has two concepts where everybody should fit in --‘winner’ or ‘looser.’ All the seekers are ‘loosers’ cause they don’t have a car to drive down to the nearest coffee shop. Let’s ignore those nincompoops. All the seekers in our country, as we know already, fall in ‘lazy’ category. Hail laziness. 

In our divine country, laziness was always associated with enlightenment. We used to call it ‘dhyana.’ We have excellent words to describe the sub-sets of this dhyana. Take for example the concept called ‘samadhi’, which, if you translate in English is ‘burial,’ how insensitive.

But our foolish Indian brothers, under the influence of their MNC masters, are increasingly becoming active. This particular development is bothersome. Shall we conclude that there is no scope for introspecting one’s inner self? Shall we conclude that what we see through our already established ‘one of the weakest eyes in animal kingdom’ is only worth investigating and celebrating? Are we not dragging the human civilization down the forgettable path by closing down the R&D of our inner self? How can you develop your inner self if you are not lazy?

How can you have dialogues with your inner self if you are not wrapped up in a shawl turning your back to the sun, warming up in a December winter, sipping a cup of tea, atom by atom, for hours? Those wise active people mean to say that they know more about atoms than us? The atom concept is ours, so is the zero. It should be our conscious endeavor to come close to that zero. It’s a daunting task.

Zero is such a mighty state that only a handful in the entire human race has achieved that. Those who managed to touch that magic number became Buddha. Was that possible if Buddha didn’t sit under that famed banyan tree in modern day Bihar for months? You call it laziness? We call it the mother of all achievement.

Next time when somebody calls you lazy, brother, just smile at him. For hitting him you have to raise your hand, that’s too much of a task.

Remember, non-activity is the ultimate activity, the way to Moksha, the Maha-parinirvaan. Anand, Anand.

Baul Mystics of bengal

Book the beloved is about Bauls of Bengal. When I was in the second year of college i bought that book from the phursatgunj Osho Library. And from that day it became my Gita, Quran and Bible. A scripture on no scriptures. They wander the countryside, singing their religious songs. Their beliefs are a mixture of many influences and traditions, such as Hinduism, Sufism and Yoga. They break away from many common Indian beliefs, including the age-old caste system, and the separation of Hindu and Muslim communities.

I love Bauls because their rebellion is total. They are just simple human beings. They are like hippies on right path. Osho says that their rebellion is even greater than that of Zen Masters and Sufi mystics simply because they don't belong to anything. They don't belong to any society, religion, philosophy, dogma, creed, institution, organization, university, family, friends, strangers and even fellow Bauls. They totally belong to themselves only.

They don't posses anything but an ektara and a duggi, two musical instruments. Music is their life and their god. A Baul mystic lolan fakir sings: "What form does caste have? I have never seen it, brother, with these eyes of mine!"

They have influenced Bengali folk music for centuries. Their love of music is of the celestial form and they worship sky as a whole. They worship their body as if god is nothing but the body. They dance and sing and move from village to village, always traveling and enjoying whatever situation they come across.

Bauls are true individuals. It is difficult to find two identical Bauls or even two who have few similarities with each other. They are neither Hindus nor Mohammedans nor Christians. They don’t follow any faith and by doing so they follow all the faiths. Lalon fakir the most famous Baul Mystic was inclined towards the Sufi faith (Suphi in Bengali) but he never followed it like Rumi and other Mystics. For them Quran is a formal scripture but for Lalon fakir his body was the only scripture he could read with open heart.

They have inspired so many Indian masters, writers, poets, philosophers and saints. Few of them even have sung more than 1000 songs. They never compose their songs, but just sing it and create it as it comes out of their heart. They are illiterate and don’t write their songs beforehand. They are against all kind of documentation and believe that nothing is permanent in this world but change. So we don’t know much about who created these songs. They just sing and dance and enjoy life.

A baul song:

How does the unknown bird come within the cage and go away from it?
If I could catch hold of it, I could chain it with my mind.
The cage has eight chambers and nine doors are affixed on it.
It is carved here and there, above these there is the main room
- within which there is the hall of mirror.
Oh mind, you remain illusioned with the desire of the cage,
Your own cage is made of tender bamboo,
Who knows when will it collapse?
Lalon says, 'Where does that bird flee by opening the cage?'

You can download these songs from:

Music India Online

Bangla Sangeet

Few of them for you to play online:

Baul Song 1:



Baul Song 2:

Different Shades of Mirza Ghalib.

There is no doubt why so many admire him and look at him as the most wonderful poet both Urdu and India has ever produced. He indeed was the most famous among them all, not only during his own time but even 150 years after his death. I myself don’t understand Urdu a lot but as an UnLearner I am very much interested in his works. My intention is purely academic and that of UnLearning. Pundits of Urdu poetry say that the best way to feel and understand Urdu is to understand Ghalib. A man of great stature he stands out among great Urdu poets like Mir, Rumi and Hafiz. He was even better an expressionist than all of them. Not so elegant or graceful in expression I am unable to express what I feel about his greatness.

Ghalib was his pen name which literally means conqueror in Urdu and without any doubt he conquered uncountable hearts. What Shakespeare is to English literature is Ghalib to Urdu. His contribution not only to Urdu literature but to the world of literature in general is immense.

I am unable to decide what is better in Agra, Taj Mahal or the feeling that Ghalib roamed around those lanes of the city. Faint feeling of his presence must be there in the air of Agra and Delhi. Though his theme style and way of expression was different from Kabir, he was true descendent of him in many senses. Unlike Kabir his path was of love and devotion rather than Bhakti or worship, but the essence or meaning was and is one and the same. Today we can regret that we neither have poets like Ghalib nor Delhi-Darbar Mushairs but ruins of his words with us. Posterity of Urdu literature can never forget these lines from the maestro.

Piyoon sharaab agar khum bhee dekh loon do chaar
yeh sheesha-o-qadah-o-kooza-o-suboo kya hai?

[Khum = wine barrel; qadah = goblet, wine glass; kooza/suboo = wine pitcher]

When you drink look at the empty bottles around you. What is this wine barrel and wine glass?

No translation can express what can be expressed so well in Urdu.


Wine was the other great love of this great poet, besides the beloved. For him beloved were his lover and God alike. God was feminine for him. Urdu language has this beauty of describing things beautifully and more poetically than any other language. For Ghalib, wine was more important than anything else in the real world around him. For him it was an art as important as poetry itself, or may be more than that.

I can see few striking similarities between him and few of the literary giants of his time. He also was an aristocrat like Leo and Oscar. May be there is this strange relation between aristocracy and good writing and poetry. Genuinely I confess that most of the writers or poets I love are either from aristocratic backgrounds or they are very rich. May be only rich can have all the time and patience in the world to write about such things at length and they get admirers too. In last few days I have experienced this personally. They were rich not only in monetary terms but also in their ability of expression of feelings and understanding of human nature. They all were rebels. They never made noise about the social reforms because they knew that nothing much could have been done with the society. Their work just reflects how well they understand life.

Famous American journalist and literary critic Burton Rascoe rightly said, “What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window.” Leo experienced this during earlier part of his married life. Just in the beginning of War and Peace he put these words in Prince Andrew’s mouth, "Never, never marry, my dear fellow! That's my advice: never marry till you can say to yourself that you have done all you are capable of, and until you have ceased to love the woman of your choice and have seen her plainly as she is, or else you will make a cruel and irrevocable mistake. Marry when you are old and good for nothing or all that is good and noble in you will be lost. It will all be wasted on trifles. Yes! Yes! Yes! Don't look at me with such surprise. If you marry expecting anything from yourself in the future, you will feel at every step that for you all is ended, all is closed except the drawing room, where you will be ranged side by side with a court lackey and an idiot!... But what's the good..."

Ghalib’s relationship with his wife was even worse than this. Married at the age of 14 he was a true rebel while his wife a god fearing woman in worldly sense. Some of the most popular and the best work he gave the world were created between the age of 13 and 17. By the time he was 17 he said that he was ’through’ the poetry. He was born a wise and old man I imagine. Just like Leo and Oscar he also passed through mental agony during later part of his life. May be, knowing too many things too early in life was a cruse he suffered from throughout his life. Ignorance is really bliss. More and more you know more and more you suffer until you attain the fountainhead of ultimate truth. But that is a process, you have to know more and more in order to UnLearn things you have learned all your life. I think Ghalib failed here. It seems from the incidents in later part of his life as if all his efforts went south and he was unable to hold his frustration. This gaazal by him describes that better.

Those faces of death I see sometimes
in the rose and tulip but only a few

Daughters of the sun behind that sweeping dress
what were you thinking coming naked to the night

He is the one for whom sleep has widened
on whose arm your hair is lying

We made breaking the pattern a pattern of living
when friends kept dying faith overtook us

I have wept for all I have seen I am young
these cities should sleep in the dust of desires

Few of his letters have been translated in to English by Ralph Russel. Ghalib also contributed in the development of Urdu prose writing and gave it new directions. Few of his letters translated are also available for online reading.

This Shar best describes his rebellious nature as a lover.

Ragon mein daudte firne ke ham naheen qaayal
jab aankh hee se na tapka to fir lahoo kya hai?

You can listen to all beautiful songs and Gaazals by Ghabil sung by various famous artists here, including famous songs from movie mirza ghalib:





This is one very long Soundtrack, around about 10 hours of Gaazals. Drag-Drop progress bar on player to listen to different songs.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S.Urdu and Hindi or Hindustani are very similar to each other and evolved side by side for almost 500 years.They are sister languages. They developed from the same indo-european branch of languages and have similar words and grammar. Both of this languages borrowed words from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and Prakrut.

Poet's full name: Mirza Assad Ullah Khan Ghalib written in urdu as:


Glossary for non urdu-hindustani speakers.
Sharaab-Wine, Sheesha-Glass, Qaayal-Bound, Ragon-veins, Aankh-eyes, Lahoo-Blood.


© 2007 20Box

A Letter to a Hindu

Before two days I was sick and tired and was unable to decide what to read and what not as my internet connection was going to remain down for next 48 hours. I have thousands of e-books but to read something on computer is real pain in the wrong place. After much confusion and hours of absentminded exercise I decided to continue with the two books I was reading at that time. But after few hours of struggling I decided to continue with only one book at a time and that was obviously the War and Peace by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. I found the other book, The Google Story by David A. Vise, full of information but very boring and rather chockfull. I had finished about 20 chapters from book I of War and Peace and now I am in no mood to continue with that book for next few days. But I must admit that I have enjoyed this book a lot and it gave me immense pleasure and satisfaction of reading unlike what happened with Dostoevsky’s Idiot. I am also reading few e-books by the same author which are in public domain now and can easily be downloaded from the web or are available for online reading. Few essays by Tolstoy and his letter to the editor of Free Hindustan with introduction by Mohandas K. Gandhi are worth a read. He also enjoyed writing tales and fables for children and was very much impressed by the ancient Indian books like Panchtantras.

In his letter to the editor of free Hindustan Tolstoy writes:

The reason for the astonishing fact that a majority of working people submit to a handful of idlers who control their labour and their very lives is always and everywhere the same - whether the oppressors and oppressed are of one race or whether, as in India and elsewhere, the oppressors are of a different nation.

This phenomenon seems particularly strange in India, for there more than two hundred million people, highly gifted both physically and mentally, find themselves in the power of a small group of people quite alien to them in thought, and immeasurably inferior to them in religious morality.

Further he argues:

What does it mean that thirty thousand men, not athletes but rather weak and ordinary people, have subdued two hundred million vigorous, clever, capable, and freedom-loving people? Do not the figures make it clear that it is not the English who have enslaved the Indians, but the Indians who have enslaved themselves?
When the Indians complain that the English have enslaved them it is as if drunkards complained that the spirit-dealers ...have enslaved them. You tell them that they might give up drinking, but they reply ...they cannot abstain, and that they must have alcohol to keep up their energy.

Most memorable line that surely is going to leave a long lasting impression on my mind from this letter was this one:

In the spiritual realm nothing is indifferent: what is not useful is harmful.

Mohandas Gandhi was very much influenced by the writings of Leo Tolstoy and what he says in the introduction to this letter confirms that strongly:

To me, as a humble follower of that great teacher whom I have long looked upon as one of my guides, it is a matter of honour to be connected with the publication of his letter, such especially as the one which is now being given to the world.

He concludes his introduction to the letter with the following lines:

There is no doubt that there is nothing new in what Tolstoy preaches. But his presentation of the old truth is refreshingly forceful. His logic is unassailable. And above all he endeavours to practise what he preaches. He preaches to convince. He is sincere and in earnest. He commands attention.

Now that shows how deeply he was influenced by Tolstoy’s preaching. I don’t know whether or not he was regularly communicating with the editor of Free Hindustan or with Mahatma Gandhi but one thing I am very sure about that he had deeply studied Indian philosophy, culture and literature.

He preferred not to refer his book War and Peace as a novel and said even less it was a history book. In the epilogue II, ch. 1 he says:

History is the life of nations and of humanity. To seize and put into words, to describe directly the life of humanity or even of a single nation, appears impossible.

Probably he understood this after knowing and understanding why Indians don’t write history or why they are against all kind of documentation especially if related to the history. Few of his quotes from this book force me to continue with my reading until I finish it in the near future:

Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait.

The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.

Words like this constantly encourage me to read more and more from his books and I find myself in meditative state after few hours of constant reading. The Kingdom of God is Within You. This is the book I have planned to read after I am done with the War and Peace. This book, classified by many as a work of existentialism, was written by Tolstoy during later years of his life and is regarded as most important of his religious works.

He truly was a genius. Compared with Dostoevsky his work is much more philosophical and very less complicated and to the point. I only have read two books by Dostoevsky and yesterday had had the third one, crime and punishment by the same author and that too a hard copy. But I have planned to gift it to my father and to continue with my reading of Tolstoy. After six months when I will be done with Tolstoy I will give it a second thought.

He is regarded, by some, as the father of the non-violence movement began during the later part of his life. Tolstoy died in 1910 and before that he formulated a unique Christian philosophy which adopted non-resistance to evil as the proper response to aggression. And the best thing about him was that he opposed the idea of private property and most of all the institution of marriage. Eight years after his death, his wife was heard to say, "I lived with Lev Nikolayevich for forty-eight years, but I never really learned what kind of man he was."

==========================================================================

This work is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. You are free to read this book online or can download e-book from various sources online and by doing so you are not violating any copy right laws.

The Zen Haiku

so cold it is outside that i don't dare to move out at this hour. but i surely shall go to sadali laari early in the morning. it is 3:30 right now and i shall not move out before 4:30. nights are as beautiful as ever here and moon-less dark sky is moaning. may be moon is not brave enough or may be stars are over anxious. unlike moon they never care how dark and cold outside and almost always dutifully appear on the phursatgunj sky. since eternity, it seems, as if i am standing here and watching this stars aimlessly. why do they never burn out? god knows. i feel like drinking country wine today but have to quench my thirst with hot tea only. same night like today's one of the greatest zen poet uttered this beautiful haiku which reminds me how close you are with your real self when you drop your mind and how important it is to drop your mind when you are ready to be drown into the depths of your being:

one cold winter night
i pass through a dark village
a dog barks and barks.

winter is in full bloom at phursatgunj as we are approaching the end of december. begining of 2007 won't be any different as nights will be even colder in january i hope. what am i going to do next year? nothing. might be reading few more books and enjoying life as it is. i have downloaded P.D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous and few other books by the same author and also have downloaded almost complete works of G.I. Gurdjieff. Glimpses of World History by Nehru is half undone. i also want to download complete works of short stories by Saki(H.H. Munro) if possible. Right now i am reading Reginald in Russia a novel by saki and just took a break to write this blogpost. i need divine intervention more than ever to read all this e-books that i have downloaded. for quiet sometime now i feel that i should write something about my funny and lazy friends. rather i should start the story with my stay at 80 number in S.J. hall with a sloth named hiren. still remember beautiful nights and dark corners of extension lobby of my beloved hostel. Next time will be there with the first episode of the story. till then long sleep lazy satan.

Hahahahe This is real time pass at Capital Market

Man i am bored at CM and do not know what to do when i am bored so i am gonna write some stuff and post that stuff down ur throats. so here we go ....................................................


Listen, all yea enlightened souls
Listen to this one song
The song of my soul

Laugh, as much as u care
Tout as much as u want
For neither do I care
Nor do I worry

All I want
Is but to say a few words
Which I did
And
All yea fools listened
Hahahahahhahhahahha
Hehehehehehehhehehe
Hohohohohohohohohos