Review: There Will Be Blood (2007)

Today's review deserves a prelude to do the depth of the movie full justice. It's a very decent movie about an all-out asura exploiting the people and the oil fields of early 20th century California, after all!

Asuras, featured in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology, are evil or envious gods, beings of great prowess and ambition, fallen deep into the dark side. As a psychological profile, asura-hood features intense paranoia, envy, cruelty, and lust for power over all. The asura's self-securing drive for achievement leads to consuming competitiveness and a division of world into allies and enemies — divided by their fitness for furthering personal ambitions.

Fully immersed in his schemes, the asura grows paranoid of others; they are all seeking to thwart him, they are his enemies, a pitiful foe begging to be confronted and eliminated. No abuse or crime is beyond the scope of the asura; his sheer hunger for control drives him to manipulate others, his conscience is all but dissolved in his dark primal instincts. In short, asura is a psychopath of some power. And if there is an asura, There Will Be Blood...

Title: There Will Be Blood
Year: 2007
Genre: drama
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469494/

Released in January 2008, There Will Be Blood explores the grim world of southern California's oil boom at the turn of the 20th century. Featuring the ghastly life of Daniel Plainview, it portrays some of the darkest aspects of human psyche with substantial realism, owing largely to the excellent performance of Oscar-winning Daniel Day-Lewis.

The narrative carries you through some thirty years of Plainview's life, from the beginnings as a budding businessman to a shrude capitalist who shuns no opportunity at exploiting one and all if it serves his purpose. As the film unfolds, the wicked nature of our oil miner becomes more and more explicit, and even apparently innocent acts in the path turn out to feature as aspects of his elaborate schemes.

The born-again young Christian priest of the village, a gifted fanatic with bizarre stage acts in his Church of Third Revelation, grew to be a second favorite character of mine, right along with Plainview of course, who did little to work on his largely irrational anger towards the priest. Overall, the characters are well performed, even if it is Day-Lewis's performance that carries the watcher to the farther shore of the two-and-half-hour movie, the theme of which might otherwise have not been that interesting to me.

The atmosphere and environment are well-created and realistic, camera moves very well and the occasional handheld shots create an engaging visual display. The movie is saturated with the eeriest of musics, if indeed it can be so called, predicting ill at each turn even where none is to be seen. The end of the movie is as grim and unexpected as any I've ever seen, perfectly fitting for a movie of such caliber of unusuality. Not your run-of-the-mill American tale, not by a long shot.

[ 8/10 ]

Blog: GeeVees - The Gaudiya Archive

As many of you will have noticed, I came to write quite a bit on Gaudiya Vaishnavism during the last five years of my active practice. These writings are now scattered all across the internet, some on sites that have gone defunct. While I may no longer share an adherent's interest in the tradition, I see no reason why valuable content shouldn't be available to the interested.

[ http://geevees.blogspot.com/ ]

GeeVees was founded to archive the varieties of informative content I wrote during my active Gaudiya Vaishnava years, gradually filling up as a resource for students of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Over time, I am going over all my old writings and posting, sometimes remodeled, them into the archive. I'm certain the tag feature will prove to be a useful tool for more systematic studies. Browse the growing archives at GeeVees!

Transcendental Transgender Tao

Gopi girl in the making, age eighteen and a half or thereabouts.

Back in the days, life was all about running for the nectar-oozing worlds where every word was a song and every step a dance, joining a team of prepuberal little angel girls in yet another venture in fetching flowers and honey wine for the cuddling transcendent couple's scheduled daily dalliances. For all my transgender transcendentalism in the fantasy worlds, it sure spinned my yin and yang into a hefty gordian's knot.

GeeVees - 01.2: Early Experiences with Chanting

My early experiences with japa, or chanting Hare Krishna in this particular case, were in fact rather fascinating. It was only a decade later that I came to rediscover some of the same substance I touched on back then, substance soon lost in the depths of a missionary organization, and it was only then that I came to see a broader context for that particular segment of my early spiritual journey.

Bhakta Oskari, 15 years of age, posing for the temple magazine.

Japa Beginnings

The first vivid memory of my history with the Hare Krishna mantra is from one of those 40-minute bus rides to my mother's place I used to take every other weekend. It was a serene day, and as the bus kept humming its tranquil hymn and drove along the road, I closed my eyes as usual to contemplate on whatever it was that I used to ponder those days. Then, wholly out of the blue, it dawned to me that meditating on this mantra might be a cool thing to do.

It was only a matter of time before the occasional contemplation turned into loud melodic chantings of Hare Krishna as I wandered the forests of the neighborhood. There was no source to the discovery I'd have known of, if not for a cautionary video shown in school some years back, featured along with Satanism and Scientology by our back-then religion teacher, a staunch Christian and a priest of many years, whose generally less exciting presentations we weren't in the habit of paying much attention to.

Of course I did eventually meet a Hare Krishna book distributor, a Czech lady it was if memory serves, downtown Helsinki, buying a copy of Bhaktivedanta's "Life Comes from Life" to study; I had been tremendously interested in all things occult, oriental and esoteric. It was after a few weeks into visiting the weekly Sunday Love Feast at the local Krishna temple that I decided to purchase a set of japa-beads and start the mantra the way the devotees chanted, with some daily volume in the practice. My one regret with following their method is in ditching mental japa for some seven more years to come — for one was supposed to chant audibly in ISKCON.

Spring of Ecstasy

I believe it was autumn at this point. With the first day off with but four rounds of japa, the next day I kicked off with sixteen, as that seemed to be a standard number of sorts held in the temple. While I understood that many devotees held reservations over chanting near outsiders, I was not in the least worried; for it was only cool if someone spotted you engaged in something obscure and puzzling! My purple bead-bag with a Jagannath design, tagging along wherever I went, drew quite a few curious looks, yet few questions.

The practically endless pine forests in my neighborhood, in particular, provided a wonderful field for aimless solitary wanderings with the mantra rolling on. I remember deriving tremendous enjoyment from the practice. In fact, I remember being so thrilled at times that I had to sit down to let my system balance before moving on; a trait particularly inconvenient when moving around downtown, chanting. What I felt rather constantly as a result of chanting was an overwhelming surge of energy within my body, thrilling my limbs and warming up my face to a glow hitherto unknown to me. I suppose the almost forcibly manifest grin was the most visible of part of it all.

I only ever mentioned to one devotee of this. He was a new devotee as well, though already living in the ashram. A casual conversation on all things spiritual and sundry made for a perfect context to drop in my version of esoteric experience; it met with a puzzled shrug of shoulders, and then nothing. And for a reason: For it was believed that trembling of the body, grinning and laughing, dancing and the such were only manifest on the advanced stages of devotion, realms that were for the most part taboo, and were certainly not to be imitated under any circumstances.

This went on for a fair while, as I still lived home and kept going to school — and with tremendous effort at that, I might add, and with many a boring lesson chanted through. And good times they were; I was still buzzing at the height of discovery, for I had tapped into a whole new world to be explored, a magical world transcending the everyday reality I saw the surrounding society embrace and adore; it was a hollow world to me, the nine-to-five cycle of existence.

Covered Over

At this point, with the intensity of my experiences combined with my acquaintance with a couple of really cool temple devotees, it should come as a small surprise that I decided to join the temple after finishing my compulsory studies. I was in business with the chanting now, and the venture deserved to be seen through. After a bit of haggling with my parents, I secured a signed permission for becoming a resident of the temple, allowing me to "stay permanently" as I had promptly formed the agreement clause.

It didn't take too long for the magic of chanting to wane in the hectic temple environment, however. Constant traveling around and selling books and CDs took its toll, and hours spent chanting too early in the morning in too tired a state eventually led to a dramatic decrease in looking forward to the chanting experience, and subsequently in my interest in the practice itself. I did keep it going, of course, as a matter of obligation, but I had come a long way — and in the wrong direction — by abiding with the defunct modus operandi of the local temple and its hectic missionary spirit.

The standard explanation, of course, was an offensive attitude; there were ten offenses against the holy name that were taught of, and one way or another one could always imagine being guilty of at least one or the other. Then, as one might well expect, instead of biting into the root distractor in the way of inappropriate environment and circumstances, the offense-watching became a convenient facade for a failure to reach substantial levels of experience in chanting. And then, of course, it was supposed to be done for Krishna's pleasure, not mine, so I was wrong to seek bliss and euphoria in the practice in any case to begin with.

Rediscovering the Experience

It was only in 2005 that I began to explore the yogic arts deeper, still a staunch devotee, seeking to improve my sadhana. It so happened that one of our teachers, now at Radha-kunda, had also had a bit of a training in yoga, and had employed certain asanas or yogic sitting postures to support his chanting. (This, of course, is how you are actually supposed to be doing it, as any proper manual of sadhana ought to inform.) Mental japa combined with proper asanas and breathing techniques gave a substantial boost to my practice; it was as if all that preceded had not really amounted to much at all.

Incidentally, as I went further with my own studies of yogic meditation aids, I chanced upon the writings of late Swami Sivananda, an illustrious teacher of Yoga and Vedanta from Rishikesh, who called his way the Yoga of Synthesis and employed all relevant aspects of the four yogic paths, namely karma, jnana, astanga and bhakti-yogas. He was a big fan of devotion and chanting, and especially of sankirtan-styled chanting of Hare Krishna among other chants.

His perspective on diverse paths leading through a similar evolution towards the same goal put me first thinking, both curious and suspicious about practices comparable with my chanting experience. It was a text on kundalini-yoga that first depicted rather aptly symptoms akin to my early experience; parallels between bhava-bhakti and early kundalini-awakening were too evident to be ignored. In later solitary chanting sessions combined with pranayama I came to experience quite exactly the same as I had in my early days, and as I now was wiser on kundalini the unity of experiences became all too evident.

When I first embarked on studying the Buddhist theory of meditation, it became all too clear for me that we were dealing with universals. The Buddhist model for samadhi-oriented meditation featured a system of a whole hierarchy of meditation objects, and a general course of progress over which concentration grows and awakens certain states of mind. The first jhana, or meditative absorption, features the rising of an abundance of rapture and joy and is born of withdrawal arising from single-minded application of thought on the meditation object. In the second jhana, the experience springs from composure and unified awareness, and so forth — regardless of the object of meditation.

Conclusions

As to whether there is a certain hidden chamber in the mantra, yielding an abundance of extraordinary and transcendental relish and euphoria directly from the energy and presence of the rustic deity Krishna, or whether similar states of mind can be attained with diverse stimuli, I cannot say with any level of certainty. Though I did have my fair share of experiences one could call esoteric or deep, I suspect with a sufficient level of practice with a different object one could attain well comparable states of fascination and esoteric emotional turmoil.

Chanting Hare Krishna, or any mantra for that matter, when properly practiced in a conducive environment, can lead to a substantial level of concentration and inner mastery. While I no longer share a fascination for verbal meditation objects, I have no complaints of the process itself in principle, when practiced properly and in a balanced manner. However, excessive concentration endeavor is counter-productive, for with the rise of hectic concentration every surfacing negative mental pattern gains momentum.

Practiced in a distracting environment and under pressure, especially over filling daily quotas, japa becomes but a cruel means of beating the mind and sapping it out of its last vital juices. It should not, under any circumstances, be recommended to mend mental problems, lest they escalate as the wheels of the mind grind tighter and tighter. Contemplative methods such as vipassana hold much more therapeutic value for those seeking to first set straight the rudimentary inner landscape.

Hare Krishna Swami Loses Soul (DP)

Dissociated Press
January 17, 2009
Helsinki, Finland

In an unprecedented "Stay High Forever" temple music festival, Anatma Swami, a fired-up Hare Krishna preacher, lost grip of his wildly whirling monk partner and flew headlong into a larger-than-life copper

replica of the movement founder's lotus feet by an open window.

As the Swami failed to respond to conventional first aid, temple authorities alerted for resident witch doctor Shittiwawa Das, an Indian tantric adept and leading disciple of retired guru Bob Haripada, for help. At the conclusion of a fair fifteen minutes of exotic rattling, popping, muttering, whisking and bouncing, Das concluded the patient's soul had departed in the crash and required urgent re-insertion.

All resident devotees have patrolled downtown Helsinki since yesterday afternoon, the time of the incident, passing out pamphlets urging for the lost soul's founder to return the precious commodity to its rightful owner – in return for the Swami's abundant and perpetual blessings. Sources tell former guru Bob Haripada found his soul in the late 90's with the help of a female therapist.

The soul in question is described as bearing a strong resemblance to 1:10,000th fragment of a male Caucasian hair tip, following the verdict of an ancient Hindu philosophical text. One ten-thousandth part of an average Caucasian tip of hair measures at an average of 0,0075 µm. Temple authorities were not available for comment on distinguishing the Swami's soul from any number of other souls probably lost downtown Helsinki. (DP)

GeeVees - 01.1: Theology of God's Name

Continuing series The Nectar Name: 01.1 - Theology of God's Name

Namacharya Ramdas Babaji seated, chanting on a rosary

There are a number of theological formulations delving into the nature of God's name, the primary of which are summarized in the following sections. In the name of compactness and ease of reading, I have omitted quoting and referencing. For useful scriptural sources on the theme, please refer to Bhaktivinoda Thakura: Harinama-cintamani; Jiva Goswami: Bhakti-sandarbha; and Rupa Goswami: Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu.

Non-duality of Name and Named

The heart of the Name's powers lie in its non-duality with the named, or Krishna. As God is understood to be of an absolute nature, he and everything we perceive of as relating to him are equally present in him, and are him. His name, appearance, qualities and activities form a single presence in distinct interwoven aspects. The word Name, indicating this particular powerful name, has been capitalized for clarity.

Then, in principle, when the name of God is chanted, it is equal to being in God's presence and interacting directly with him. The only distinctions the Gaudiya Vaishnava theologians would admit to is one of mercy; the Name is abundantly available, while God in his full persona aspect is difficult indeed to reach and as such less merciful. This is, of course, but a witty poetic play of words on the canvas of theology, highlighting the applicability of the method.

Three Levels of Experience

It was Kedarnath Datta Bhaktivinoda, author and theologian of late 19th century, who first published the tripartite theological formulation of the Name's aspects, even while diverse depths of experience have been long acknowledged. A graded approach is an important chapter in apologetics over the proposed full presence of God in his name vis-a-vis the lack of correlating immediate experience for the practitioner.

Nama-aparadha, or offending the Name, is the shallowest of levels where hardly any of the powers of God are experienced. At this point, one is still riddled with countless attitude flaws towards the Name despite knowledge of the Name's nature — flaws discussed later on. The pious merits resulting from such chanting are good for worldly boons alone, failing to reach beyond into God's own domain.

Nama-abhasa, or reflected Name, is the medium clearing level where rays of the Name begin to filter into the brightening consciousness. A reflection of the Name is said to grant instant mukti or liberation. Indeed, it is said that even a person chanting in jest, by accident, or referring to something else, would reap the said benefits (and this is a whole other branch of apologetics).

Suddha-nama, or pure Name, is the accomplished level where the fullness of Krishna is experienced through, or rather in, the Name. The chanter's consciousness journeys into the Name's own domain, into the spiritual sky of Krishna. This stage, and the subsequent experience of prema or developed love for God, is said to far supersede the joy of liberation. Associated hymns depict the experience as a climax of rapture that is incessantly relished, yet leaving the devotee addicted, craving for more, and again and again.

The founding eulogy of the dimensions of the fully potent Name, especially when chanted congregationally, reads as follows in Sri Chaitanya's words:

"It cleanses the mirror of the mind; it extinguishes the vast forest fire of material existence; it spreads the soothing moonrays of blessing; it is the life of bride Knowledge; it augments the ocean of bliss; nectar finds full relish at at every step; and it bathes the entire self; supreme victory to the full chanting of Sri Krishna's names!" (Siksastaka 1)

The sufficiency of the Name in Sri Chaitanya's view is evident in how its transforming influence extends from the very bottom to the very top, from the depths of ignorance and suffering to the greatest heights of nectarine relish in a rapturous communion with God.

The Standard Mantra

While the names of God are many, there is one particular formula of three names repeated a total of 16 names that Sri Chaitanya recognized as the foremost of all. The mantra is drawn from Kali-santarana-upanishad, a short text of a relatively late date, conventionally classified under Black Yajur-veda, and reads as follows:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare /
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare //

While a traditional interpretation would have Hare as a vocative of Hari, and all three as Hari's names, some Gaudiya interpreters (e.g. Gopala Guru) also derive it from Harā, a feminine of Hari, indicating Radha, who steals away Krishna's mind. Many non-Gaudiya renderings of the text have the lines reversed, starting with Hare Rama.

The Upanishad promises a vast number of boons including liberation to one who chants it a total of 35 million times. On a rosary with 108 beads, at a rate of 64 rounds daily, the project would take approximately fourteen years to complete. There are, of course, all sorts of other boons mentioned in other sources, so no matter which way you do it, someone has promised something good for the effort.

Incidentally, a rough estimate of my extensive chantings over the years come to a non-calculated surprise total of 35,714,520 mantras, most marks on the chart towards the end of the session with a bunch of two-hundred-rounders on good days. Perchance that is why I finally graduated from Gaudiya Vaishnavism! Regardless, this is the mantra almost every Gaudiya Vaishnava chants daily for a lifetime, some more and some less.

Song and Repetitive Recitation

There are two primary applications for the Name, namely singing (kirtan) and private recitation (japa). Kirtan, sung to the accompaniment of instruments such as hand cymbals and clay drums, is generally a congregational practice where each participant contributes to the cumulative experience of the group. The prefix sam- turns the word into sankirtan, which refers to kirtan done in a grand style, e.g. parading en masse on the streets, or otherwise to a kirtan of particularly sublime depth.

Japa or private recitation is done on a rosary consisting of 108 beads (japa-mala), made of sacred Tulasi wood and especially sanctified for the purpose, often by a guru in an initiation ceremony. One mantra is either recited, muttered or meditated on at each bead, and a turn-around at the large Meru-bead starts a round anew. Japa is an individual practice, in which one works on his own individual relationship with the Name.

The Name also functions in an accessory and completing capacity in a myriad of other Gaudiya Vaishnava practices. It is said to be essential among the constituents of the secret and silently contemplated diksha-mantras, and believed to complete diverse ritual practices by making up for any inadvertent shortcomings. Chanting of the Name is classified as a compulsory root practice, in the absence of which lesser practices would remain deficient.

Metric Soul and Divided Minds & Divinities

"A one-hundredth part of a hair's tip, and again split into hundred,
this fragment is the living self or soul, also conceived of as endless."
(Svetasvatara Upanisad, 5.9)

The following text is drawn and expanded from my reply to a friend's query on the Upanisadic descriptions of the soul being the size of a ten-thousandth of the tip of the hair, and at the same time pervade the body; in general, the diverse depictions of the soul to be of a particular measure can come across as confusing. The second half of the post discusses the greater "divided spirit" issue of God and soul.

Oxymoron of Metric Soul

The soul, if we choose to believe in one that is, being an immaterial spirit-substance, cannot have a scale of comparison with matter. It is no more the size of a proton than it is the size of a hamburger or a Polish truck-driver. It is neither proportionate nor disproportionate to the object it appears to animate, for it has no proportion in common with inanimate matter.

Of course one might compare the soul to a lamp and the pervading of the body to its rays in a room, and that's a rather appropriate analogy as long as we forget about our attempts to pin it out on the metric scale. Both the lamp and the rays are finite objects, as are the individual jiva-soul and his field of awareness; hence the metaphor works in this application.

Technically speaking, the soul pervades and animates the body through the conscious mental functions (citta) filtered through the medium of ahankara conjointly with Antaryamin, the Inner Regulator or the so-called "super-soul" (paramatman). The antaryamin is variously identified as Ishvara (Supreme God) or Atman (Supreme Self) in differing schools of thought.

Atisayokti - Literary Exaggeration

Everything in the scriptures is a mixture of literal and metaphorical. There is svabhavokti or statement (ukti) reflecting or object's own (sva) nature (bhava), and there is atisayokti or excessive (atisaya) statement. All the four standard atisayoktis in the alankara-shastra (e.g. Alankara-kaustubha: 8.23), or the classical Indian corpus of books on  literary composition and criticism, feature departures from the literal or face-value meaning.

The third excessive metaphorical statement, where the impossible is being stated, is the one we are primarily after at the moment, for the soul has no material scale. Therefore, the statement of comparison is an impossibility. The two first atisayoktis are comparisons to other objects (and I suppose taking this as a hyperbolic diminutive would be every bit as valid), the other overt and the other covert, and the fourth features effect as simultaneous with or preceding the cause.

If we were to indeed indeed pursue this literally, as fundamentalists frequently do, we would have to first ask whether this proverbial hair is Afro-American, French or Vedic Indian — perhaps the sage in question split his own hair tip into 10,000 pieces and compared it to his soul, discovering it was an exact match under his microscope? Did he split it with a Vedic hair-splitter? Perhaps everyone's soul is 10,000 tip of their own hair? This again is problematic for men with thinning hair or baldness; their souls must be approaching limbo...

God and Souls - Divided Minds

A related field of paradox is in the supposed division that exists between the Jiva-Atman and the all-pervasive Brahman or ultimate God. From where I look at things, Advaita-vedanta is quite right in insisting that the atman (which is equated in the realization-stage with the brahman although brahman and brahman alone was the atman was all along) cannot be factually divided into individual soul-units, and that the individuality in question is only a temporary illusion rooted in Avidya or primal ignorance. This is naturally solved with the acquisition of Jnana or knowledge proper.

Let us assume the presence of an individual "soul fragment", a separate conscious unit. Fragments by definition cannot have the same quality as an unbreakable whole, for they differ in the quality of being fragmentable. Again, if the great whole can be divided into fragments, a second is thereby posited next to the non-dual, leading to a number of questions on the unique nature of the supposed one and the greatest non-dual spirit proclaimed across the Upanishads.

The Theory of Simultaneous Difference-Nondifference

Gaudiya Vaishnavism proposes an inconceivable symbiotic difference-cum-non-difference solution to the issue under the heading of acintya-bheda-abheda. Aristoteles would insist things either are or are not, for they cannot be both. A follower of Jiva Goswami's would then employ the acintya-shakti defence: You need to believe that God has the power to not make sense to make headway with the dilemma.

All too often, the inconceivability card is a handy answer to each and every equation that doesn't exactly add up because a transcendent object is beyond logical derivation and accessible perception. This leaves me wondering whether this God does not become irrelevant altogether, stretching entirely out of our objective human grasp and contact as he does.

Of course we also have the standard explanation with the shakti-vada and the nonduality between the energy (shakti) and the energetic (shaktiman), the former of which would include all of us and the inanimate world. Not the least of the problems is the fact that shakti-vada has nothing to do with Vedanta and everything to do with the tantric tradition.

Setting aside doctrinal purism and strict Vedanta interpretation for a moment, the tradition of Kashmiri Saivism which is the root of the shakti theory also features an extensive existential grid, in many ways unique, and in many others parallel to the Vedic Sankhya and its model of causal derivation.

All of that notwithstanding, the problem of evidently divided consciousness between us and God remains. I for one do not possess all the knowledge of God, indicating we are clearly separate units of consciousness. There is little practicality to the proposal of the every-day experience of me being one with a personal and actively omniscient God.

Like Sun and Sunshine?

Omniscience indicates a flawless and all-pervading entity or state of being. This one, all-knowing and all-encompassing God is all that is. Shakti cannot be classified as a second separate unit, even as dependent and subordinate, for this would be introducing dualism, the existence of a second beside God; assuming the non-duality of God and creation, one would expect us souls to share of the same pristine strata of undivided and omniscient existence.

The simile of the sun and the sunshine should be understood for what it is: a simile. A simile does not constitute proof in and of itself, it is a manner of illustrating a more abstract principle. The problems we run into applying this to the case at hand are manifold.

The most obvious of all is the fact sun and sunshine do not feature a known conscious property, whether unified or divided; both are mechanical, passive factors incapable of decision-making, unlike soul and god. Independent decision-making and limited or unlimited fields of awareness, in turn, are the very factors begging the question to begin with.

If a simile is employed in illustrating simultaneously one and different consciousness(es), and especially in the capacity of proof, it should be a comparison of strict equals.

A Monistic Angle

There is a very vivid and distinct duality here, indicating we need to either admit to the non-reality of duality and divided consciousness, labeling them as a mere illusion (and moreover an illusion occuring in Brahman with no existence to its occurence), or do away with an undivided and omniscient, yet eeriely antropomorphic God.

Advaita-siddhanta considers Isvara (personal god) to be the most you can see of the nondual absolute through the veil of maya; as ajnana or individual ignorance is dispelled, the ignorance concerning duality is dispelled, and the one atman alone remains aglow. The doctrine of atman then becomes a de-facto doctrine of anatman, for there was no everlasting individual soul to begin with.

Neither duality nor nonduality are entirely satisfactory for a philosophical answer. I don't have an exact answer for the way all stuff works, though I do have some cool ideas I need to explore a bit further. The citta-matram doctrine of the Yogacara-school of Buddhism, the theory of an unified mind-field and repository consciousness or alaya-vijnana, comes across as rather fascinating to me, and also correlates with some of my experiences.

Summa Summarum

My preferred approach to the question, independent of any scriptures, is to conceive of a single mental field in which both the Ishvara and the jivas are fluctuation in greater or smaller degrees. The only factual omniscient potential is in the universal mind-field, an uninvolved, egoless all-containing entirety, where no catalyst (ahankara) for individuality exists; hence seeing without a seer is actualized. The concept appears to make seamless sense to me, independent of conformance to any ancient or contemporary theories.

In the end, fiddling with lofty philosophical formulations amounts to little more than an entertaining mind-game fulfilling our intellectual urges. Otherwise, assumptions of mastery of a theory may help one to comfort himself and bring order into the surrounding chaos, or to command and conquer existence through comprehension.

Nirvana and God remain lurking in the fabric of the harmony, peace, clarity and joy of an independent nature we discover within ourselves through personal experience, introspection and natural immersion. Even if we all have our respective philosophies and mythologies with diverging particulars, it really doesn't matter a damn thing as long as you arrive at the conclusive non-dual One-Zero paradox at the end.


Related satire from Dissociated Press: Hare Krishna Swami Loses Soul - Downtown Helsinki (DP)

Review: Happy Feet (2006)

Title: Happy Feet
Year: 2006
Genre: animation, adventure, comedy, family
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366548/

Narrating the grand adventure of Mumbler, a penguin youngster who becomes a social outcast for not blending in, Happy Feet is a touching and beautiful tale from the Antarctica. I've seen my fair share of computer animated movies, yet few come as close in their depth and relevance to the current global situation as the one at hand.

The Emperor Penguin elders, looking down on Mumbler and his traits, are an excellent caricature of the worlds of classical, stagnant self-serving and conservative religion that abhors issues challenging the accepted system as well as change in general.

The tale doubles as a vivid illustration of the human impact on the environment and habitats of animals, effecting in particular the rarer of the lot, by its persistent habit to ravish and pollute whatever stands in its way. Yes, and of course elements of romance and friendship need to be blended in.

An exceptionally perceptive family animation with a message! Even if it takes a moment for the show to catch on — and I personally don't mind watching cute and goofy penguins doing any damn thing for a good while — the movie provides a very enjoyable watching experience for a serene day.

[ 7.5/10 ]

GeeVees - 01: The Nectar Name

The holy name of god features extensively throughout the theology and practice of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a trend not at all unknown to other Hindu traditions. The chanting of god's names, and in particular the names of Hari, or Krishna, is described as the most accessible and ideal way of dharma in our corrupted times. The founding theologicians and poets of the tradition have dedicated countless hymns and chapters of philosophy to describe the wonders of god's name as understood in their tradition.

It was of course Sri Chaitanya, the founder of the tradition, who popularized the practice while breaking a number of religious orthodoxies. Parading the roads of rural Bengal in the early 16th century, he carried his fervent religious ecstasies to the masses and taught to connect with god through the chanting of his holy names, both in song and by reciting on a rosary. For him, it represented the ultimate means of connection and communion with his chosen deity.

In this essay, we are going to explore the world of chanting in its many facets, featuring a number of detailed theological formulations bundled with a flowing out-of-the-box commentary, along with my personal experiences over the years in diverse environments. Keen as I have been to improve and improvise in whatsoever I happen to be at, I suspect a few novel angles of interest on the dynamics of the meditational practice in chanting will surface; I do not attempt to write an orthodox adherent's account.

The bulk of the original content to follow on the details of the practice, when taken to extensive length, are drawn from my experiences during my time in Vraja spanning 2002-2007, from times I was working my way towards levels of practice seen in the local renunciates of full commitment, dissatisfied with anything less. Most of the content featuring basic obstacles and diverse backward applications spans from my early years in ISKCON from mid-90's onwards, from rather unfocused times as far as meditative absorption was concerned.

To be continued...

GeeVees - Preview - 01: The Nectar Name

In laying out the skeleton for the GeeVees series, it seems evident by the extent of it that some items must have gone missing... Here's a call to the readers to pitch in and let me know of any missing themes.

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Theologically Speaking

- Non-duality of name and named
- Three levels of experience
- The standard mantra
- Song and repetitive recitation


Early Experiences

- Japa beginnings
- Spring of ecstasy
- Covered over


Grid of Offences

- The ten offences
- Offending a devotee
- The unwholesome root


Applications of Mantra-japa

- Three kinds of japa
- Concentration and withdrawal
- Connecting with a deity
- Weaving the vibration


Extended Practice

- 100,000 names
- Chanting all day long
- Benefits and harms


Common Problems

- Ignorance of methods
- Uncontrolled mind
- Exhausted with repetition
- Physical obstacles
- Unfit environment


Alternative Methods

... for easy application beyond situation, culture and religion ...

- Breath watching and body scan
- Chanting other mantras
- Trataka and object meditation
- Vipassana introspection
- Other yogic and tantric traditions

GeeVees - Future installments

As I've been drafting together my notes for the upcoming GeeVees series, if anything has become obvious it's the need to cut it down into smaller chunks for better online digestion. As it stands, the first essay on the drawing board, The Nectar Name, has some dozen subheadings and sub-subs, set into a trilevel structure (e.g. 2.5.2).

I'll be publishing each of the main subsections as individual entries over the days, weeks and months to come. In total, I expect the full series to grow into around a hundred installments. I'll be posting drafts of the chapter structure each time, and feedback from the readers on missing content is welcome.

Egyptian Elf

Today's production goes without its tale. Let the image work its way through. And a very good new year for all readers and random visitors!