Forgive me Father for I have sinned

Forgive me father, for I have sinned,
Find me guilty of the life i feel within.

For i have dared to take off the glasses of Faith, Hope and Love. And then I have dared to Gaze dark in to the abyss. And now the abyss is gazing dark in to me. I have tried to come out of the abyss, but it isn't helping. Because without my glasses, the world is a very sorry place. Right now, at this moment, i know why do we need God. And i see that why must Voltaire have said that we need to create one. Because man by its nature cannot live without hope. It cannot handle unpredictable end.

Thats why every movie is on the theme of good conquering the evil. Every story has to kill the villain in the end, or else no story can be written. Because stories are made by people who live to tell it. Stories are a way of telling what is desired by the society, of a man. Only those stories are chosen to tell which have hope. Which put people at ease. The stories that tell that everything is okay, or everything is going to be okay.

I have ventured too far on my quest. And now even when i want to believe that the world is full of good things for which a man should live for, i cannot believe it. Its like eating the blue pill in the matrix. I donot know if i will be the same again.

Right now, its 31st. tommorow it will be new year. But i donot feel the joy that millions of people feel around the world. Because i know that it will be another day, with the same sun and same moon. I still cannot figure out that why do people feel happy on their birthdays. Because i cannot feel that happiness. Because its again another day. Should i be happy that i lived to see it? That i could see so many suns rise and so many suns set.
And any one who doesn't think that way, i would just say, that you are lucky that you chose not to take off the glasses. And you chose hope. That only good things will happen. You chose to believe that people love you. You chose to believe in God. And you chose to lie to yourself, by not questioning your beliefs. Not any of them.

Because happiness is like myth. If you believe that there was Ram and sita. They were. No one can tell for sure, or else they wouldn't be called mythology, they will be called history. Similarly, if you think that you have happiness, you have it. No one can tell. But do you know how do we break a myth. We break a myth by questioning it. Myth breaks when Logic is applied to it.

So again i am off, and keep thinking. Below is the complete lyrics of the song "Thorn within" by Metallica.

Godspeed

Forgive me father
For I have sinned
Find me guilty of the life I feel within

When I'm branded
This mark of shame
Should I look down disgraced
Or straight ahead
And know that you must blame

I am, I am the secret
I am, I am the sin
I am, I am the guilty
And I, I am the thorn within

Forgive me father
For I have sinned
Find me guilty when true guilt is from within

So point your fingers
Point right at me
For I am shadows and will follow you
One and the same are we

I am, I am the secret
I am, I am the sin
I am, I am the guilty
And I, I am the thorn within

I do your time
I take your fall
I'm branded guilty
For us all

So point your fingers
Point right at me
For I am shadows and will follow you
One and the same are we

I am, I am your secrets
I am, I am your sin
I am, I am your guilty
And I, I am the thorn within
I am the thorn within

Fear led consumption

Well right now I am watching "bowling for columbine" on the Columbine High School Killings and have paused the movie because I have to write this down

Yesterday I was actually watching 'friends' before that, and in there Phoebe says that Monica is "High maintaining". Now I didn't actually get the way it meant. I had a fair idea, but wanted to be sure. So as I always do, I paused the series and hit the web. .

As I was surfing and looking for an explanation I came across a site askmen.com.Well it was a lot of stuff about various things, about how to dress and carry oneself and talk to girls, and an article on what high maintaining girl friends actually are.

As I drifted to another article called Men's Body Image: The Brad Pitt Syndrome. The Article discussed on how Men today are under pressure, Indirectly to go in for a Greek god like body.Since it had the actual words like theory and syndrome in the heading, I had to read it. And believe me it was awesome. I am pasting a paragraph here.
"One place to see this difference between men and women is in advertising -- not in the pictures, but the text. In publicity directed towards women, advertisers coo and cajole, urging them to a thousand different tasks: Redefine Your Profile, Use Your Heart, Free Your Mind. They're talking to the women's souls, while the product they're selling is for the body. Advertising for men's fashion and body care tends to be strong and silent, as if we're still a little embarrassed to spend time on such superfluous frills."

Coming back to the movie, here the high school kids have killed fellow students and now every one is coming out with their own theory about who might have influenced them. Since everything the kids did was under the microscope people knew that they used to listen to Marilyn Manson. The strongest contender turns out to be some rock artist called Marilyn Manson.

I am going to go back at the movie and quote him verbatim here

"When I was a kid growing up music was the escape, that was the thing that had no judgment. You can put on a record and that's not going to yell at you for the way u are dressed but is actually going to make you feel good about it.
The two by products of the whole tragedy were "violence in entertainment" and "gun control". And how perfect as those were the two things that we were going to talk about in the up coming elections. And also then we forgot about the Monica Lewinsky and we forgot that the president was shooting bombs overseas. Yet I am a bad guy, because I sing some rock and roll songs.Who is a bigger influence, the president or Marilyn Manson? I would like to think me, but I am gonna go with the president. Interviewer: Do you know that was the day when columbine happened united states dropped more bombs on kosovo than any other time during the war? Marilyn Manson: Yeah I do know that, and I think that is really ironic you know that nobody said that wow, maybe the president had an influence on this violent behavior. Because that's the way media wants to take it and spin and turn it into fear, Because then you are watching the television, you are watching the news, you are being pumped full of fear. There's floods, there's aids, there's murder, cut to commercial, buy the Acura buy the Colgate, if you have bad breath they are not going to talk to you, if you have got pimples the girl is not going to fcuk you, and its just a campaign of fear and consumption and that is all that it is based on.That is the whole idea, that keep everyone afraid and they will consume. That's as simple as it can be boiled down to."

Why am I quoting this thing here?? Because I believe that what he said was very true, and I had reached the same realization after reading the novel by Michael Crichton, which was called "State of Fear"
In the novel, the idea was that we are not moving towards any global warming, but actually towards the next Ice Age. But after the cold war is over, government needs a new kind of fear to control people. To make them think in something. So now there is Aids, and Global Warming and what not, just to fill up up the empty space left after the fear of war with soviet union.
But since I am a marketing chap, I had also thought that this is what advertisements do all the time. And in the "Great Indian Laughter Challenge", some participant had very humorously said, that " I donot watch T.V. Because after watching TV for 6 hours when I get up, I start feeling that I have dandruff in the hair, my teeth are yellow, my skin is cracked and I am no good in any way".
Isn't that what all the advertisements talk about??? About helping out people to be more acceptable? But who is making the standards that what is acceptable and what is not.
If pot bellies were ok, then who would go to the gymnasium?

Romans used to feed themselves, and then vomit the food, and then eat again because they loved eating. But here in this world what are we doing. We get a job, we ride a car.We make escalators, so that we are not tired when we climb the stairs to our office, then we make more similar technology that reduces work, then we eat as if we worked so hard(physically), and since that is prone to give you a bulging belly, we invent more machines on which you are supposed to work out on to burn calories.
Who gets a job? The scientist who invents escalators, the company that makes them, the advertiser who sells them, and the company who make those calorie burning machines, and the gym guy where you go.
Wouldn't have been easier, that you had walked to work and climbed the stairs??? Well I know it sounds a little theoretical and its not that simple. But I hope it illustrates the point.

One of MICA Lecture Series had a lecturer called Mr. Picard from Sweden who specializes in media. He also had made an important point. That at any given time, technology always addresses the most crucial problem being faced by a society. Most of the technology that we have was invented in the west. Most of the technologies that we have were made by a society who had vast amount of land, and little population. And that led to industries and machines. They were supposed to fulfill the shortage of labor. But what are the today's technology about?? Well the answer my friend is TIME. And he has said a very apt thing.

Because as you see, the advent of computer was initially to aid people as machines. But gradually they became time saving things. Google is getting popular not because it feeds our "quest for knowledge". Because it saves time by being more accurate. Because before google, yahoo and MSN were also in the same search business. But to arrive at the same page, you had to work more and took you hours of surfing. Now google has it all arranged in order of relevance and by an engine that works on Latent Semantic Algorithm. And boy, you should see the way they work.

So every day, more and more technology is evolving to save our time. Time saved, so that we can work more. What do you think makes a GDP rise. The same population of 100 was working yesterday and producing something worth 100 people. But today the 100 people are producing as if 1000 people were living in the country. Our country might have the highest population. But effective population is higher in United States. That is, with 100 people in our country we will produce 100 rupees, But in U.S. same hundred people will produce 5000 rupees.
So effective population of our country is suppose 100 then effective population of U.S. can be said as 5000/100= 500.
So we may be grater in numbers, but they are much greater than us in numbers. And our workaholic civilization is producing as if not 6 billion people will produce, but as if 6 billion thousand people will produce. Its just that the rest of the people are non-existent.

After writing the above things I have realized that what I have stated above is a cool way of looking at things and may be some sort of index can be made out of it. I mean real academic stuff with all the jargons. Because most of the knowledge is actually making a simpler way to understand things. Like how Newton with his theory, that doesn't work anywhere except the see-able world(I mean the larger bodies or the subatomic world) is knowledge. Because he helps us make sense out of this world and makes it fairly predictable. Hmmmm....So are we afraid of an unpredictable world.....????

If I keep on writing, I will never stop. Because one idea leads to another and another. I had promised myself that all I will write is what Marilyn Manson said. But look where have I ended up. So I better go back and watch the movie.
Keep thinking

Godspeed

Hot Seat

Right now i was in a place where i get most of the ideas. Yeah, the Hot seat, The Philosophical Chambers, The toilet seat as some people know it. I donot know why, but most of the times ideas hit me like eureka, and i perfectly understand that how archemedes must have shouted "eureka" after he came out. Sad, i can't do the same.

Today three ideas came to me.

1. I can be an author after all. All i have to do is complete 100 or 150 or maybe 200 posts on the blog and then get them published. I donot think that whatever i write over here is bullshit. Many a times it has happened, that i have independently come to a conclusion, and later on read that some great man has written them centuries ago. So the chances are good that whatever i think can be quoted later on. Because one forgets what's said in a book like "five point someone", but the stuff i write on, can be there for many years.
2. The second thought that came was that people essentially want to sin, and they want people to convince them that sinning is not bad. They are looking for logical explainations and proper reasons to convince them that whatever they are doing bad is actually okay. Nietzsche, Freud, Darwin, Osho, Newton, Copernicus, Voltaire and Marx are some of the people who either came out with theories that suggested that sinning is okay, or that God is absent.
   
3. You have the right to be proud of yourself. The reason is simple. You have certain things, and you donot have certain things. So either you can be ashamed of what you donot have or be proud of what you have. Half(or is it all??) the religions in the world say that "pride comes before fall". But you have a choice there, in case you missed the point. So you can be as proud as you want, just if you believe the sentence and/or are ready to take the risk.

Coming back to point 2. wasn't it Marx who said that "religion is the opium of the masses"?? Wasn't Voltaire the person who said that " If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent one"???? Hasn't Osho been popular because he said that " When you reach the culmination in sex, then for that one fraction of a second, for one moment, you are impervious to anything, you are in ecstacy, the same ecstacy that you attain whn you are in samadhi"??

May be that is one of the reasons why Marx was so popular. He abolished religion. The benefit was that now you just have to follow law, and forget God altogether. So conscience doesn't figure in. Because according to the same law, you are "innocent until proven guilty". So you could go on and sin as much as you want and not feel guilty about it, because you haven't been caught. There was no eye from heaven watching you.
The down side came to be that along with the eye, there was no heaven either. So what about the poor and the down trodden who could some how live their life believing that they will at least have a good life when they die? And who is the big brother who will help the weak, and everone at some point of life, does feel weak, and needs support. Now all of us aren't rational human beings who would just say that "Okay, there is no God, and i have my own responsibility, and whatever happens to me is because we caused it(internal locus of control)"

The element of romanticism was lacking. God used to be a popular tool before Marx. Simple, because if you succeded, that was because of your own effort, and if you failed, that was because of God moving in mysterious ways. In absense of God, the whole cause and effect cycle went haywire. Half the things were explained by Science. But what about things where science failed? Who was causing those things?

And would you find it easier to explain "The Big Bang theory" or "The String theory" to a peasant, or just our "Mysterious God"?? Because to explain these reasons for creation of universe, or its inner workings, you have to have the peasant educated, if you have him educated, he will not just understand these theories, but many other theories which you wouldn't want him to understand. Plus after he is educated, he can no more be a peasant....can he??? OOF... what a vicious circle......Just bring back the God...damn it!!!

But the day is not far away when it will become easier to explain these theories to peasants. Then as science works, either universe was created either by Big Bang or by God as both cannot be logically possible. And God has said in "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad."(Matthew 12:30) So both cannot definitely co-exist. Or was it that God created the Big Bang?? Then what about Genesis and the seven days of creation?

So when that day comes when all of us think, or even a reasonable majority thinks that universe was created by Big Bang(and even as you read this, some scientist in some corner of the world must be working to seal the gaps in the theory, or come out with a better theory still) theory of God will be in a confused state. To believe or not to believe, that will be the question. The irony is that the Big Bang theory was given by a Belgian Priest called Georges Lemaître!!!!!!!

Well if you find Big Bang too easy to understand for your level of intellect, or you are the type that exists on modernism, there is another theory doing rounds called the "Ekpyrotic theory" or the "Brane storm" theory, with 5-dimensions, lot of maths, and of course your favourate, the Big Bang.

I love the way i wander off, i mean you must have noticed that i started off from a toilet seat and right now am discussing God and Ekpyrotic theories and all. Is't it?

So bingo, coming back to what i was saying. God is about to vanish. When i say God, I mean the concept of God.Donot think that it won't just because it hasn't happened in a gazillion years. Capitalism is working hard towards it. Now wait a minute. Did i say Capitalism?? Wasn't it Communism who was working hard towards it? Well, as i always say, some ideas just have their time. Hadn't Newton come out with the discovery(yeah, it was a discovery) some one else would have. Its just like a movie. Once the hero has killed or defeated the villain, the movie has to end. In the same way, when enought theories have been put forward for another invention or discovery, that is bound to happen. In the same way, the time to abolish the theory of God has coem, and actually has been long overdue.
Scientists have been working hard over the centuries to give all the answers to questions where we needed the concept God to do the explaining. now you can no more be burnt on stake just because you say that you worship satan(actually accepting the presence of satan or for that matter God is equal to believing that there is God). So your life is safe even if you deny God, because your life is being protected by law. Law is supporting you as well as them. Gone are the days when Heretics used to be burnt on the cross. What a big leap.

Because doesn't jurisprudence according to Jeremy Bentham follow the rule of "utility". Or that law is good or bad depending upon whether or not it increased general happiness of the population. And so if a law is still there, and not being planned to change, that doesn't kill people who disbelieve in God or punish them in any way must be bringing "increased general happiness of the population".

Altruism cannot be achieved because of the "theory of commons" which illustrates that in a situation where resources are common and people are selfish, the fortune will always favor the person who is selfish and works against the principle of "common good". In such a society, only such a person will be able to benefit, who believs in selfishness or atleast a principle of "tit for tat". This is well illustrated in the game theory's "The classical prisoner's dilemma", where when two people who have been caught and seperated by police for questioning have the following options

Prisoner A Stays Silent	Prisoner A Betrays

Prisoner B Stays Silent	Both serve six months	Prisoner B serves ten years; Prisoner A goes free
Prisoner B Betrays	Prisoner A serves ten years; Prisoner B goes free	Both serve two years

both the prisoners will always betray each other and like to get a sentence of two years rather than cooperate and get a simple sentence of 6 months because one will simply work towards his own self interest( remember adam smit's theory of the invisible hand ??) and choose not to trust the other.

So meanwhile, remain confused, because i am too. And i will come on later and add to the blog. Because i have written too much and spent too much time here. So Adios.

Godspeed

Who the hell was Nietzsche???

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of traditional morality and Christianity. He believed in life, creativity, health, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond. Central to Nietzsche's philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation," which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines which drain life's energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. Often referred to as one of the first "existentialist" philosophers, Nietzsche has inspired leading figures in all walks of cultural life, including dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries.

LIFE Of This Great Philosopher

In the small German town of Röcken bei Lützen, located in a rural farmland area southwest of Leipzig, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born at approximately 10:00am on October 15, 1844. The date coincided with the 49th birthday of the Prussian King, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, after whom Nietzsche was named, and who had been responsible for Nietzsche's father's appointment as Röcken's town minister. When Nietzsche was 4 years old, his father, Karl Ludwig Nietzsche (1813-1849) died from a brain ailment, and the death of Nietzsche's two-year-old brother, Joseph, followed six months later.

From the ages of 14 to 19, Nietzsche attended a first-rate boarding school, Schulpforta, located not far from Naumburg, where he prepared for university studies.

After graduating from Schulpforta, Nietzsche entered the University of Bonn in 1864 as a theology and philology student, but his interests gravitated more exclusively towards philology -- a discipline which then centered upon the interpretation of classical and biblical texts. As a philology student, Nietzsche attended lectures by Otto Jahn (1813-1869) and Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl (1806-1876). Jahn was a biographer of Mozart who had studied at the University of Berlin under Karl Lachmann (1793-1851) -- a philologist known both for his studies of the Roman philosopher Lucretius and for having developed the genealogical method in textual recension; Ritschl was a classics scholar whose work centered on the Roman comic poet Plautus (254-184 BC). Inspired by Ritschl, and following him to the University of Leipzig in 1865 -- an institution located closer to Nietzsche's hometown of Naumburg -- Nietzsche quickly established his own academic reputation through his published essays on Aristotle, Theognis and Simonides.

Momentous for Nietzsche in 1865 was his accidental discovery of Arthur Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation (1818) in a local bookstore. He was then 21. Schopenhauer's atheistic and turbulent vision of the world, in conjunction with his highest praise of music as an art form, captured Nietzsche's imagination, and the extent to which the "cadaverous perfume" of Schopenhauer's world-view continued to permeate Nietzsche's mature thought is still a matter of scholarly debate. After discovering Schopenhauer, Nietzsche read F.A. Lange's newly-published History of Materialism and Critique of its Present Significance (1866) -- a work which criticized materialist metaphysical theories from the standpoint of Kant's critique of metaphysics in general, and attracted Nietzsche's interest in its view that metaphysical speculation is an expression of poetic illusion.

In 1867, as he approached the age of 23, Nietzsche entered his required military service and was assigned to an equestrian field artillery regiment close to Naumburg, during which time he lived at home with his mother. While attempting to leap-mount into the saddle upon a particularly unruly horse, he suffered a serious chest injury and was put on sick leave after his chest wound refused to heal.

The Swiss university offered Nietzsche the position on the classical philology faculty at the University of Basel, and he began teaching there in May, 1869, at the extraordinary age of 24.

Never in outstanding health, further complications arose from Nietzsche's August-October 1870 service as a hospital attendant during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). He witnessed the traumatic effects of battle, took close care of wounded soldiers, contracted diphtheria and dysentery, and subsequently experienced a painful variety of health difficulties for the rest of his life.

Nietzsche's enthusiasm for Schopenhauer, his studies in classical philology, his reading of Lange, and his frustration with the contemporary German culture, coalesced in his first book -- The Birth of Tragedy (1872) -- which was published when he was 28.A biting critical reaction by the young and promising philologist, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff (1848-1931), dampened the book's reception among scholars.

In 1876, at age 32, Nietzsche made an unsuccessful marriage proposal to a Dutch piano student in Geneva named Mathilde Trampedach. During this time, Nietzsche completed a series of four studies on contemporary German culture -- the Unfashionable Observations (1873-76) -- which focussed, respectively, upon the historian of religion and culture critic, David Strauss, issues concerning the social value of historiography, and Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner as inspirations for new cultural standards.

Near the end of his university career, Nietzsche completed Human, All-Too-Human (1878) -- a book which marked a turning point in his philosophical style. Despite the unflattering review of The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche remained respected in his professorial position in Basel, but his ailing health, which led to migraine headaches, eyesight problems and vomiting, necessitated his resignation from the university in June, 1879.

From 1880 until his collapse in January 1889, Nietzsche led a wandering, gypsy-like existence as a "stateless" person (having given up his German citizenship, and not having acquired Swiss citizenship), circling almost annually between his mother's house in Naumburg and various French, Swiss, German and Italian cities.

On a visit to Rome in 1882, Nietzsche, now at age thirty-seven, met Lou Salomé, a twenty-one-year-old Russian woman who was studying philosophy and theology in Zurich. He soon fell in love with her, and offered his hand in marriage. She declined

These nomadic years were the occasion of Nietzsche's main works, among which are Daybreak (1881), The Gay Science (1882), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-85), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), and On the Genealogy of Morals (1887). Nietzsche's final active year, 1888, saw the completion of The Case of Wagner (May-August 1888), Twilight of the Idols (August-September 1888), The Antichrist (September 1888), Ecce Homo (October-November 1888) and Nietzsche Contra Wagner (December 1888).

On the morning of January 3, 1889, while in Turin, Nietzsche experienced a mental breakdown which left him an invalid for the rest of his life. Upon witnessing a horse being whipped by a coachman at the Piazza Carlo Alberto, Nietzsche threw his arms around the horse's neck and collapsed, never to return to full sanity.

During his creative years, Nietzsche struggled to bring his writings into print and never doubted that his books would have a lasting cultural effect. He did not live long enough to experience his world-historical influence, but he had a brief glimpse of his growing intellectual importance in discovering that he was the subject of 1888 lectures given by Georg Brandes (Georg Morris Cohen) at the University of Copenhagen, with whom he corresponded. Nietzsche's collapse, however, followed soon thereafter.

On August 25, 1900, Nietzsche died in the villa as he approached his 56th year, apparently of pneumonia in combination with a stroke. His body was then transported to the family gravesite directly beside the church in Röcken bei Lützen, where his mother and sister now also rest.

Nietzsche

After Bertrand Russel, I had to post Quotes by Nietzsche. I don't know why wasn't i born earlier. Then these thoughts would have been my thoughts, but sigh.....no use, because what i think has already been thought and what conclusion i draw independently have already been drawn. So all i can do is thank, that they were said so beautifully.

As Usual i stand by every word, letter and sentence that are below.

Godspeed

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness.

A letter is an unannounced visit, the postman the agent of rude surprises. One ought to reserve an hour a week for receiving letters and afterwards take a bath.

A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.

A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation.

A woman may very well form a friendship with a man, but for this to endure, it must be assisted by a little physical antipathy.

After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.

All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.

All in all, punishment hardens and renders people more insensible; it concentrates; it increases the feeling of estrangement; it strengthens the power of resistance.

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?

And be on they guard against the good and the just! They would fain curcify those who devise their own virtue - they hate the lonesome ones.

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.

Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.

At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.

At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.

Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!

Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

Courageous, untroubled, mocking and violent-that is what Wisdom wants us to be. Wisdom is a woman, and loves only a warrior.

Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.

Enduring habits I hate... Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect, because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred backdoors through which I can escape from enduring habits.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.

Fear is the mother of morality.

For the woman, the man is a means: the end is always the child.

God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight.

Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.

He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.

He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

I love those who do not know how to live for today.

Idleness is the parent of psychology.

If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.

If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.

In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him.

Is man one of God's blunders? Or is God one of man's blunders?

It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.

It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.

Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory it too good.

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.

Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant.

Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter.

Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

Nothing is beautiful, only man: on this piece of naivete rests all aesthetics, it is the first truth of aesthetics. Let us immediately add its second: nothing is ugly but degenerate man - the domain of aesthetic judgment is therewith defined.

Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood.

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.

Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.

One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.

One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth.

One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.

One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.

Only sick music makes money today.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus: one morning they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us, morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him.

People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

Precisely the least, the softest, lightest, a lizard's rustling, a breath, a flash, a moment - a little makes the way of the best happiness.

Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings.

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.

Success has always been a great liar.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

The "kingdom of Heaven" is a condition of the heart - not something that comes "upon the earth" or "after death."

The aphorism in which I am the first master among Germans, are the forms of "eternity"; my ambition is to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book - what everyone else does not say in a book.

The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.

The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.

The doer alone learneth.

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

The future influences the present just as much as the past.

The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill temper.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it.

The lie is a condition of life.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.

The most spiritual human beings, assuming they are the most courageous, also experience by far the most painful tragedies: but it is precisely for this reason that they honor life, because it brings against them its most formidable weapons.

The press, the machine, the railway, the telegraph are premises whose thousand-year conclusion no one has yet dared to draw.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.

The word "Christianity" is already a misunderstanding - in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the Cross.

There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

There is in general good reason to suppose that in several respects the gods could all benefit from instruction by us human beings. We humans are - more humane.

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

This secret spoke Life herself unto me: "Behold," said she, "I am that which must ever surpass itself."

Thoughts are the shadows of our sensations - always darker, emptier, simpler than these.

To exercise power costs effort and demands courage. That is why so many fail to assert rights to which they are perfectly entitled - because a right is a kind of power but they are too lazy or too cowardly to exercise it. The virtues which cloak these faults are called patience and forbearance.

To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.

To use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee of understanding; one must use the same words for the same genus of inward experience; ultimately one must have one's experiences in common.

Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man.

When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory.

When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.

Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'.

Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

Woman was God's second mistake.

Women are considered deep - why? Because one can never discover any bottom to them. Women are not even shallow.

Women can form a friendship with a man very well; but to preserve it - to that end a slight physical antipathy must probably help.

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall Inherit the Earth

Today we had a class on design by Ms. rashmi Korjan, and she was talking on how designers have to have a leg in so many diverse fields. In the talk an interesting thing came out.

She was telling that how we all achieve to increase our sphere of knowledge. But as this sphere increases, so does the area that is in touch with the unknown. It means that a person who has a small sphere of knowledge knows less as well as knows less about his ignorance. A person who knows more, also knows more about his ignorance because a large part of his knowledge is in touch with unknown. I have drawn a diagram to show it more explicitly.

So eventually it comes to mean that the person also is there fore more aware of his or her weakness and there fore should be more humble than the rest of the people. That is as good as saying that if you are wise, be humble.

This isn't the first time that I heard this argument. Long ago some body...I think my mom or my dad had told me the following story.

"Each year the river Ganges used to have a big flood that used to sweep away everything. The river used to swell up and engulf its banks. This feature was watched by a Bunyan tree year after year to its fear that one day the tide might reach it and take it away. But the tree also watched one thing that when the water used to go down, the banks used to look spot clean without any tree or shrubs, but one grove of bamboo. After watching the bamboo survive for some time one day the tree finally asked the bamboo, that what's the secret. How does it survive the anger of the mighty Ganges so easily? To which the bamboo replied: You see my friend, when the tide comes and water stands flowing with full force uprooting everything, I just lie low and don't try to resist the waters, because I know that I am not that strong. So I just fall down, submerged, and water flows over me and I don't get uprooted. Those who try to resist it, are uprooted. But when the water is down, then I get up to my usual self again."

So in the face of adversity, one must lie low and let the bad time pass and then when the time has passed, get up on its feet again.

Another similar story is the one often found in forwards and emails in management schools......I am putting them here:

Management Lessons

Lesson Number 1
A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Management Lesson: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson Number 2
A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon he was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

Management Lesson: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson Number 3
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him! Management Lesson:
1) Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy.
2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
3) And when you're in deep shit, keep your mouth shut!

Lesson Number 4
The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked. As they went along, they passed some people who remarked, "it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding." The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions. Later, they passed some people that remarked, "What a shame, he makes that little boy walk." They decided they both would walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey ride. So they both rode the donkey! Now they passed some people that shamed them by saying "how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey." The boy and man said they were probably right so they decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed a bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

Management Lesson: If you try to please everyone, you will eventually lose your ass.

Coming back to what I was saying, that therefore, humility is considered to be a virtue and its not that the Indian Mythology is devoid of citing. But the beauty is that the learning have been put in small subliminal messages.

If you would remember, when the war in Mahabharat was about to start, both Duryodhan and Arjun went to Krishna to ask for help. Duryodhan arrived first at krishna's palace. But found that Krishna was sleeping, and thinking that it would be improper to wake him up, waited. As there was no place to sit, he sat close to his head. Then Arjun came and sat near the foot of the bed. When kirishna woke up, his eyes fell on Arjun, and he saw him sitting there. Then he noticed Duryodhan. When they both asked for his support, Kirishna said that because I saw Arjun first, he has the first right to ask. While duryodhan kept on saying that he should be given the chance to ask first as he came before Arjun. The matter was solved when Arjun allowed Duryodhan to ask first, and out of his ignorance, Duryodhan asked for Krishna's Chaturangini Sena. Arjun being smarter asked for Krishna or the god himself to be on his side.

Some similar story is regarding why does God Vishnu carry a foot mark on his chest.

Once, sages from different places had gathered on the banks of the Saraswati river. A debate started among them as to who was the greatest among the three; Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu or Lord Mahesh. When they were unable to come to any conclusion, they chose Bhrigu as their representative to personally test all the three deities and to decide as to who is the greatest.

His first visit was at Lord Brahma's abode. Bhrigu neither bowed in reverence nor greeted Him. Brahma felt insulted but did not lose his temper.

After that, Bhrigu went to 'Kailash Parvata' to meet Lord Shiva. Seeing Bhrigu approaching, Lord Shiva wanted to embrace him. But Bhrigu who wanted to test his greatness, replied sarcastically: "Since you don't follow the right course, I will not accept your respect and service".

Hearing Bhrigu's words, Lord Shiva lost his temper and ran after him with his 'Trishula' (trident). At last Parvati intervened and requested Lord Shiva to spare Bhrigu.

Ultimately, Bhrigu went to Vaikunthloka to see Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu was relaxing at that moment.

Maharshi Bhrigu kicked Lord Vishnu on his chest. Lord Vishnu woke up as a result of the blow, bowed in reverence and said: "O Lord, be seated, I was not aware of your arrival, hence I could not welcome you. Forgive me! Your feet must be in pain as my chest is hard as 'Vajra' (mace)".

Saying this, Lord Vishnu started pressing his legs and further said: "O Brahmin, you have been most gracious to me, as the soil of your feet would remain on my chest forever."

But Out of all these stories, the biggest promoter of humility are the stories of Christ. Only once does he lose temper, I think, when he is in the temple and he throws out money lenders. And nothing compare to the grand promise laid down

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
2And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
10Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Godspeed