Bhootkal Vartmankal Bhavisyatkal

(Part 1 - Background behind this series)  Thirumoolar – As We Understand  We were attending my maternal uncle’s Sastiapthapurthi in Mayiladuthurai. Post the function, we planned a visit to Thiruvaduthurai, more so to meet the Aadhinam & seek his blessings. While going there, my uncle said that the Thiruvaduthurai Siva Temple was home to the largest Nandi. Naturally, we were interested in seeing it. So, post meeting the Aadhinam, we went to the temple and saw the huge Nandi carved out of a single big rock. We then went into the temple. The sanctum-sanctorum was however closed because it was around 1 pm and we did our pradakshina . This was when my uncle told that this is also the home to the great Siddha – Thirumoolar. My mother had told me and my brother a lot of stories about him – how he lived for 3000 years composing an aphorism every year. Infact one of my mother’s friend - a learned vedic scholar had once told my mother that he was about to start deciphering Thir...

In the  previous post  on the Karma Series ( Part 1 ,  Part 2 )we set forth understanding if the concept of Karma was true. In the process, we stumbled upon a very pertinent question - "Do we have multiple births?".   The starting point for our analysis was the Big Bang Theory. Though there are lot of contentions regarding the validity of the theory, we used it to explore a thread of thought based on parallel universes by neither affirming nor denying the Theory but using it to understand a powerful concept. In this post, we shall try to answer the very same question (Do we have multiple births?) using an alternate path of a series of simple questions & answers between a seeker of truth and his Guru. Seeker: What is Karma? Guru: It can be defined as a cause and effect principle where the intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual. Good intent/action result in accumulation of good karma & bad intent/actio...

KARMA - Part 2 After a good 4 years of thinking, there are some additional thoughts to add on to the question which we started asking earlier – “ “Are you controlled by karma/fate OR do you have the power to change your karma/fate?” We reached at the following mutually exclusive conclusions in our earlier post: 1.      Human beings and all other creations are puppets in the hands of a super-power – which/who is doing all these staged dramas/plays for some reason unknown to us. OR 2.      The entire idea of karma is false. Let us delve deeper into these thoughts in this post. Let us first list down all the facts we know about Karma. Firstly, we all know that the concept of Karma is born out of the fact that every single action/thought which emanates from a human being has a future effect. This future effect might either be after a period of 1 year, 10 years, 100 years, 1000 years or even longer. Depending upon the t...

After a long time, I was going on a trip to a few temples in South India along with my family. To kill time during travel, we started talking about random topics. Quite a lot of them were really thought provoking. I would like to post one such very interesting topic here –  “Are you controlled by karma/fate OR do you have the power to change your karma/fate?” Let us validate each argument separately. In India, we have always believed in karma as concept wherein the good & bad deeds done in one’s previous life(s) will have a direct bearing on the subsequent life(s). We are controlled by karma/fate: Now we start by assuming that we are controlled by karma/fate. Hence, when a person is born, his fate is already decided. The decision each person takes in his/her life will make sure that the person is moving on the track towards this “intended fate”. This would mean all good deeds & bad deeds that a person would do are already pre-decided so that he achieves...

Today is the 28th of August, two years since a dream named "The Seventh Sense" materialized!! ;-) ;-) :-) I was just thinking about the entire episode and thought this would be a great opportunity to recognize & thank each one of you who were involved in this. The entire department including 1000 odd students, 75 odd staff(teaching & non-teaching) were a part of this, so please excuse my limited memory if i have missed out on anyone. First and foremost, all the event coordinators.. Once you talk about events, the first which comes to my mind is paper presentation.. The reason - I dint know "a..b..c.." of what is supposed to be done there and therefore we wanted someone really really competent!! Our answer - N.S.P Aravinth & Pranesh. Paper presentation always is an integral part of any Techfest and if that failed or something went wrong during the event, things would turn out to be pretty bad. But the way they handled it made sure we had one...

I just saw this movie - Three Idiots and all i have to say is - "What a way to begin this new year!!!". Aamir stands out again as an amazing actor and is extremely superb in this movie. For those of you who have read - "Five Point Someone" by Chetan Bhagat would find lot of similarities between the book and the movie. I am yet to check on the internet to validate my claim.:-) As of now, my mouth is shut as far as new year resolutions are concerned. I just hope that this year is also as successful as the previous one. Immediate plans for the new year includes watching two movies - "Paa" and "Avatar". I guess i am pretty late in watching the former. Wishing friends is next on the list. I consider these celebration times - new year,christmas,festivals as great excuses to catch up with long lost friends, professors et all. Nothing more..Just wanted to scribble something on the blog on the last day of this year and also because i had no...

When i joined the college, there were talks about TOEFL. I paid little attention to them as i thought - "Itna tention kay lena hai? Jab semester holidays mein India jaunga, tab dedunga.Simple!!!" Infact i felt pity on some of the guys who bunked classes to go and give the exam back in India. I was totally confounded by their attitude. Firstly, they could have given their exam in Dubai itself instead of spending a fortune on the tickets to India plus the TOEFL examination fee. Secondly, they could have given the exam when the semester ends. Finally, i thought i should ask one of them the reason for their behaviour. ----The conversation---- To be honest, i was equally perplexed by his answer - "Dude..TOEFL is much easier to give in India. You score more when you give in India. Here it is very tough and you may not get the minimum required score set by the Management" and added - "You are not giving it or what?". I cooly said - "No dude..I...