the idiotic or impish or the donkey-like part distorts the facts

The issue of balance and equipoise has worried great philosophers and thinker or all hues and ideologies-believers and non-believers, half believers and so on.

One part of the mind understands reason and fairly knows what is safe and good for it and the body housing it.

Then the idiotic or impish or the donkey-like part distorts the facts and impulses in myriad ways and this happens even more when more than one human thinking unit is present and the group form and think tank, and the tank is always leaking or ls filled with high-pressure gas ready to explode.

The tendency to defeat oneself for no good reason appears to be inbuilt in our psyche and all thinkers are just attempting to tame or annihilate this tendency- to kill it before it kills us.

Right from Pranayama, Yoga, and any art of living methods canvassed anywhere in any age was an attempt to reach such a realistic balance.

Whether human kind really succeeded in it is a debatable issue.

The use of temporary pacifiers and peacemakers like liquid spirits and drugs and other social sops have also not entirely succeeded.

There is real peace and constancy of mind for a man... and only for a man who is either not yet born, or is already dead.

I agree. One thing that has kept me in reins is that I chant Vishnusahasranamam repeatedly. Substitute that chant with any divine name of any faith and I am confident that it works. Vishnusahasranamam has worked for me for years and years.

My usage about a dead or the unborn is a hyperbole- in fact no one knows a man who is dead or who is not born-I was just articulating the difficult proposition of attaining absolute peace of mind. Only the best among the best may go anywhere near that blissful peace. I was attempting to articulate that concept, albeit inadequately. There can hardly be any difference on that premise. We have to travel long distances even to get the inkling that such a bliss is existing.

my mind is a donkey.. It refuses to accept things and accommodate

I am not able to shrug off the tendency to classify ideas, things and people as good, average or repulsive and permitting such mental classification to develop my attitude of cordiality, just toleration or even acute hatred towards them on a permanent and rigid basis..

After all, nothing is good, average or repulsive on a permanent scale of time and space..

Certain acts, thoughts, and views may make them so temporarily.. and it is not only their action but my own response to it that finally shapes my attitude ..

But then my mind is a donkey.. It refuses to accept things and accommodate changes...

Then the donkey knows the language of kicking and thrashing only..

the flow of time is forging ahead without interruption

I read views that the new year is not an Indian one..

I have great difficulty in agreeing to that ,

My view in Sanskrit on the issue is just reproduced below..

वस्तुतः कालस्य प्रवाहः निर्बाधम् पुरो गच्छति.I..

भारतीयं वा पाश्चात्यं वा संवत्सरस्य आरम्भः जनानां चिन्तायां एव वर्तते.. I

यदि सम्यक् संख्यासु भारतीयाः अपि अद्य नवदिनं मन्यते तर्हि तद् युक्तं एव..I

अतः एतद्दिवसं भारतस्य नववर्षदिनं न भवति इति वादः न स्वीकार्यं इति मे मतिः..I

नवजातं संवस्तरं सर्वेषां ऋद्धिप्रदं भवेत् इति भगवन्तः वासुदेवाः अनुगृह्णन्तुI

meaning..

actually the flow of time is forging ahead without interruption. The beginning of a year, be it Indian or Western, is in the the thoughts of the people..

If Indians in adequate number are too celebrating new year, it is only right..

When it is so , the view that it is not new year for India is not correct in my opinion.

May the newly born year produce progress as blessed by the Lord Vaasudeva.

sooner or later every despost failed

with some sensible self talk, I can decide or at least convince myself as to how I should behave and interact with others..

but I have often made the mistake of expecting the way others should behave and interact with me.. It is a grave error.. mistake .. even sin

If I do not want to hear a voice, I should clear away from the origin of the noise or I can close my ears, even with an earplug..

But I cannot afford to shut the mouth of the person making the noise..

Even the mightiest and the cleverest despots failed because they wanted to make others adjust their behaviour to suit their own autocratic ways..

And sooner or later every despost failed, or would fail..

incometax officer

A friend and colleague asks..what should one remember when he becomes an income tax officer for the first time..

My answer is

The capacity to lead  comes by instinct and observation..nothing special happens when one becomes an ITO.

An open mind and fighter instinct..should be there.

And the realization that the officer is a judge and at the same time the advocate for Revenue should be kept in mind.

And you are making your decisions..there can be appeals on the issue up to the Supreme Court..

So it should be remembered that you are a judge..however small the issue is.

And in the practical way..the department exists only if the assessee earns income. So we should never destroy the source of income or the one who earns

( I think that question was put to me because I worked as ITO and higher capacities for three decades)

Vyasa is just a staus.. like a generic name

Vyasa is just a staus.. like a generic name for a poet or scribe.. nothing more. They assign authorship of everything to this composite name

Researchers are of the conclusion that Mahabharatham evolved through two millenniums or perhaps even one millennium more. Some parts of Bharatham would have been added as late as even five hundred years ago. But the core structure, storyline and philosophy have taken solid shape at least 2000 years ago. The main part of Adiparva.. which can be equated to the primary structure of Mahabharatham that goes by the name Jayam was there for 3000 plus years.

But Srimad Bhagavatham is substantially not older than 500 years..perhaps some parts might be slightly older. Not older than 750 or 800 years. The persuasive effect of Bhakti movement in preference to vedantic, advaitic, karmic or yajnic ways are too pronounced in Bhagavatham.

Of course people giving discourse either in Ramayanam or Bharatham or Bhagavatham would either swear or vouchsafe that the contents are authentic according to the occasion and as per the text they deal with. They also would try to bring in reconciliation over paradoxes through very laboured and unrealistic explanations.. and the aam a AdmI audience would lap it up.

But the lines followed are indeed varying and contradictory often. Sensible persons should accept this and should imbibe the spirit of the works rather than dwelling on stories and creating fights. A culture that is continuously flourishing for more than 5000 years cannot be uniform and will not repeat stories like parrots

prolonged contact produces laxity

अतिपरिचयादवज्ञा विशिष्टेऽपि वस्तुनि प्रायः।

लोकः प्रयागवासी कूपे स्नानं सदा कुरुते॥

atiparicayādavajñā viśiṣṭe'pi vastuni prāyaḥ|

lokaḥ prayāgavāsī kūpe snānaṁ sadā kurute||

Even in respect of things of exceptionally great value and merit, people tend to be negligent, and their attitude may even turn slightly contemptuous, when they are exposed to such thing for too long.

People living in Prayaga, where three most sacred rivers meet and people from all over the world visit for holy dip in such confluence of holy waters, take their daily bath using the waters drawn from the wells locally.

The supreme sacredness of the theertham is lost on the local inhabitants perhaps due to too much of familiarity