Altruism

Hypocrite: "WE ARE IN CONSTANT SEARCH OF FEW KIND HEARTED PEOPLE"

Situation: cancel present enjoyment of 40 people and use the money set aside for “the needy and poor”

Me:
“Kind hearted”
Would you call this person kind hearted?
There is this guy who at every instant he can find tries to teach underprivileged kids at a school that he built, with 20 grand of his own money…
There is this guy who has stayed in a world heritage center and after having seen the kind of ignorance that the people there have about their own culture decided to give the money he gets as royalty from his book back to the people there to educate them of THEIR culture.

There is the same guy who also loves drinking, wearing branded clothes, and eating good food. There is the same guy who wants to enjoy with his friends. The same guy also believes that he need not sacrifice himself, does not need to martyr himself for the sake of others.

As per your records he is NOT kind hearted, and why is that... I'll tell you, because he dares to think that he can only feel happy for the people he is helping if he himself is happy.

This guy also feels that only when he is content will he be able to address the discontent of others. This guy also knows that some day 30 years later he does not want to blame the very kids he supports today for having taken away from him the opportunity of getting his friendships in order

This guy is an objectivist... he is selfish, and he is proud of it

India or something like it

I traveled through Karnataka, and I loved it.

Not to say that I have not seen Karnataka before, as a matter of fact I stay in its present capital… Bangalore… but this time, I really observed it. And what better way to start than from the capital of the original Karnataka-Hampi.

Hampi, the land of a million tales told by hundreds of mute statues. In its embrace are captured the meeting of Hanuman with Lord Rama, and the curse of Vali. Among its many hued tapestry are embedded tales of mystique, war, of a forgone world and of genius. But what I saw was a story of hate, despair and destruction.

The broken arms of a 20 foot Narasimha, embracing the slender waist of his consort display the apparent desire of a marauding troop to hew away the very force that drives the Indian imagination, of Siva and Shakthi, and of the God who derives his life force from the presence of the power beside him.

The ransacked pillars of scores of temples, each propounding themes seeded into the minds of hundreds of young children in India to this day, sadly proclaim their vulnerability. Vulnerability not to nature- nature would defer from disfiguring pieces of such genius, and hard work, but towards man- the only unconcerned creature capable of destroying anything in his path that does not suit his ideals, desires or claims.

But these are but external manifestations of the kind of derailed, unstructured, paths that India has taken since the retreat of the British Empire. Temples are made of stone, they can be rebuilt, genius can be repeated, but what cannot be got is the pride that India once held. From the Rajas of Kashmir to the Palegars of Karnataka and the Thalaivars of the southern tips of India, the common thread was a pride, in local culture, language and art. But the Bunts of today, many of whom can trace their lineage to valiant warriors of the Vijayanagara kingdom, can be seen running behind the white tourist, who in all his splendor chooses to ignore these minions, or condescendingly hand them a pack of biscuits.

The British might have left, but the charm of the white skin is overpowering, a kind of omniscient reminder of the colonial rule. The image an Indian carries off from places like Hampi is one of being a second-class citizen even in ones own locale. The more I think about it the more it confounds me. From the ticket seller at the entrance to the street urchin, from the hotelier to the temple priest- yes, the temple priest, a person whose daily rote includes rattling off hymns and chants more ancient than the very first of the folklore of the westerners he tries to impress, he too unwittingly contributes to this mass hypnosis.
I traveled Karnataka, I saw Hampi- where beauty lay beheaded!

Vivekananda, Ayn Rand and Bretrand Russell !!

Vivekananda, alternately called Swami Vivekananda: dead 1902
Ayn Rand, The proponent of the theory called Objectivism: Died 1982
Bertrand Russell, The 20th century's most famous agnostic: Died 1970
Three seemingly different people, with three seemingly different philosophies…But what connects these three individuals... that's the purpose of today's post.

My encounters with the philosophies of these thinkers, has progressively converted me to firstly, a devout "shaivaite", fervently studying the Vedas, secondly to a state of purposeful superiority over my peers, and then into an agnostic. But looking at these thoughts objectively and without the hype surrounding them I have realized that on a very basic level all three philosophies are really very similar.

Vivekananda was a strong proponent of the "Advaitha" philosophy, claiming God was man and man was God, and the omnipresent, omnipotent God we seek, lies nowhere but in ourselves. Ayn Rand portrayed man as a heroic being, independent of others, with his productivity as his sole purpose in life. Russell disclaimed the existence of an external being called God and said, the best humans could do on earth is to make sure that people live peacefully and happily, and more so that only humans had this power to create "heaven on earth".

At first sight these theories may sound poles apart, but are these really the same... this is what I believe.
On close sight, we can see that all these people believed in the power of a human being to create, destroy, change or mould this world of ours. Man is the only creature capable of reflecting his thoughts into worthy actions. Vivekananda's "Brahman", Rand's “John Galt" and Russell's ideal man are uniquely similar in the sense that they exist for themselves, and by themselves. They are neither parasites, nor prey, they believe that the only relationship that can exist between humans is one of equality and brotherhood, never one of subjugation, or discrimination, or fear. Though their methods of extolling these virtues was different (a point that interests me greatly and will be expanded in future posts), their idea of the power vested in the humankind and the ability of man to significantly alter course of events in the complicated workings of this earth are always the same, and is something I have come to trust.

Invictus, means the unconquered and, to me displays the exact attitude that every person should display, unconquered in body, mind and spirit, with belief, not in an external God, but in himself and his power, and nothing depicts this better than the quote from the poem "Invictus", by William Ernest Henley:

It Matters not how strait the gate,
how charged with punishments the scroll;
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul

Musings at a Railway counter

There I was, tired, bedraggled, and fairly dejected with the way things were on the hot summer afternoon at the local railway station.... In a queue that seemed to extend to the netherworld, with me at the fag end of it.

All around me I could hear the bored chatter of a number of similar souls, all waiting for their 60 seconds of fame at the head of the counter, when all eyes are on them, envious of their luck and desirous of their position. Methinks, that the most lusted after man in India is not a Film star or a sex God, but rather the person at the head of a queue..... you can almost see the drool in the mouths of the people when they look at the person occupying the coveted spot, its a potent aphrodisiac!!

Just as in any lion's pride, there is always the newcomer, ambitious for the top spot, young, virile, with blood boiling to challenge the regime of the reigning alpha male.....
enter the same new male here.... now his challenge is to get to the head of the line at the earliest... you can see the grit in his eyes as he steps to the top of the line and starts the fight..."you can only give in one form at a time", he claims..... The reigning male throws a sidelong glance at this intruder, and nonchalantly looks away saying " Go stand in the queue".... showing his utter disregard for this most unworthy of creatures at the very end of the food chain( literally). Now the fight starts in earnest, with challenges and counter challenges being thrown either way... the alpha male has the edge, his hand is firmly pegged into the small counter, and no amount of pleas, threats, argumets or passion can divert him from his goal... the pride is his and he knows it... fearing his loss, the newcomer decides to try a different strategy... coax the female(read the ticket vendor) away from the male... this he tries by gently appealing to her senses. Logic , he decides is the best way forward.. years of frustrating waits in various queues have given him the power of persuvasive talk, and he uses it to his full potential... arguments like" madam, this guy is going against rules", "without rules, what would this country come to".... etc make a significant impact on the female, who decides, for the good of the pride that the alpha male should go...

Sensing imminent defeat, the alpha male tries one last time to get his work done, but as he sees the female withdrawing into a shell, his grip on the counter fails, as he unwillingly steps aside....

This drama is re enacted a hundred times with a hundred different players, and each time it occurs to me that the aformentioned rules, and decency are remembered by people only when they are at the end of a queue.. the minute they reach the top of the line, all talk about decency and rules go straight out of the window... If being at the head of the line can cause such a drastic change, I wonder what being at the helm of affairs of a city, state or country could induce a human to do!! Its no wonder then that corruption in this country is rampant.......

Sumanth

First things first!

Before I enter into lengthy harangues about the topic that this Weblog intends to disect, a short note about the intentions that drove me to publish my musings would be, I deem, in order.

A reader would find no theme or purpose in these sequence of posts, they are but random musings of a curious mind..... bent inwards and outwards to try and make sense of far to many overcomplicated issues. This does not, however, mean that this blog would post sundry details of my life, that are largely irrelevant to a passing viewer, and in rare situations, even to me.

My musings are collected over 20 years of avid reading, deep thought, and aggressive debates with other like minded individuals. I hope to attract the thoughts of a diverse stream of people on the fairly debatable posts that are likely to follow.

Your comments are not Welcome, they are essential.