Illustration from The Bhagavad Gita -- the Song of God -- from the website of the Hindu Students Council of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts USA.Okay, I filched this with a massive Copy & Paste from Dinil Mon Divakaran's website. (He's a Linuxhed studying in Lyon, France.)
My guess is that when I press [PUBLISH POST], my computer and my house will explode. But if this works, here's Vleeptron's FIRST quote from the Bhagavad Gita! It's in Sanskrit, and that's an Indo-European lingo, so just about everybody west of the Ural Mountains (except Finns, Estonians and Hungarians) should have an easy time reading it. ========
A verse from Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2, verse 47)
Your right is to work only, but never to the fruit thereof. Be not motivated by the fruit of your action, and let there be no attachment to inaction.(Thanks to Prof. RKK's website for the translation.)
12 comments:
erm.....is this a philosophical text or a religious one ? does this mean that i have to work my butt off without having the prospect of seeing my girl tonight or the joy of necking a pint at the Pub after a long hard week ????? Isnt that ehat its all about??? I mean you gotta be able to look forward to some small rewards, give and take. Or have I missed the point here ?
in any case Pat 1 Religion 0
Well, at various times you've accused both me and Henry Rollins of inspiring your particularly virulent brand of atheism. Henry can speak for himself. (George Carlin, the American comedian, is actually an angrier anti-religious atheist, pretty scarey.)
I wish it could still be as simple for me as pulling the plug on all religious ideas and exiling all gods from the universe once and for all. The way they've behaved, the gods certainly deserve to be banished and exiled ... but ...
Now you are forcing me to exume some writings from your fellow Alpinist Carl Jung, writing around 1957 in "The Undiscovered Self" (I can't find the deutsches title).
Fascism's grip on Europe had just ended, and now Stalinist totalitarianism was replacing it. The individual, as a thing of individuality and human dignity, seemed to be overwhelmed by the Mass State, and headed for extinction.
I will find what Jung said, at least in English translation, but for now, briefly, he asked: What force existed in the world that could oppose and thwart the Mass State to defend the individual human being?
In other words, when massive State and Bureaucratic and Ideological Evil drowns the human spirit, what can save us?
He did not exactly say that God could or would save us.
He said, rather, that the religious inner voice always would appear in some individuals, no matter how numbing and huge the government propaganda machinery was.
The State would scream a million times a day, from kindergarten to university, what Truth and Reality was.
But the "inner radio" -- from Jesus, from God -- would always arise in some people and convince them there was another Truth and another Reality different from the State's -- and the voice would demand to be heard and obeyed even when the State would punish or imprison or kill anyone who heard or repeated it.
Okay, now I am pissed off and have to turn my house upside down to find the passage in "The Undiscovered Self."
Because I have had the great thrill of seeing this "inner radio" at work, in a church in Prague, filled with brave people, the year before the Socialist Heroes had to pack their bags and go away -- without a single bullet being fired.
As I said, it doesn't prove God exists. I wish things were so simple that I could say Yes or No with any certainty.
But when human values, when ethics, when morals, when decency, individuality have almost been wiped off the planet -- the independent inner voice that *seems* to come from God comes to the rescue of the tiny, weak, unarmed individual woman and man. They gather in churches. They infect each other with the strength to topple police states.
And Jung noted that police states ALWAYS try to extinguish this independent voice, police states ALWAYS recognize religion as their biggest threat.
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As for my interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita -- hmmm i will give it some thought. But be kind to Ancient Wisdom! The world and thought did not begin on your birthday, or on Henry Rollins' birthday!
Okay, boy you give me such a headache! The deutsches title is "Gegenwart und Zukunft" (1957) and it's short and verrrrry interesting.
I am tempted to agree with "patfromch" (minus unparliamentary words if any). Church/Hinduism/any religion is as much guilty of suppressing individuals, as the king/State.
Even today both the Church and the State supports Capitalists in the name of development and wealth creation.
Socialism/Communism/Marxism might have been failures throughout the world. But lessons have been learnt. Corrections and improvements are possible.
As far as Bhagavad Gita (our subject matter) is concerned, it suppressed individuals by asking them to do their duty (as imposed by their caste - Pl. see verses 18/42-43-44) and made them to suffer thousands of years. Only after 1947, the freedom of India, the lower castes are breathing some fresh air.
Suggestions: It will be tedious to present Gita in Devanagari script by lengthy programming. We can use Roman Script and still be effective. You may be interested to see some unbiased work of mine:
bhagavadgitayb.blogspot.com
gitareviewsyb.blogspot.com.
Important: Kindly do not expect me to blindly supoort Gita, each and every verse.
Stop right there: Are you really in Afghanistan?
We'll get on to the rest of your fascinating and most unexpected comment after you reveal where your pushpin is stuck on the surface of the planet.
Oh and while I got you on the line ... the image I filched at the top ...
Who's sitting in the chariot?
Who's standing in the chariot?
Who's behind the figure who's standing in the chariot?
Thanks!
My word, I have been accused of Profanity !
lost of stuff to talk about, but first - some music !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9z5U8jRdjA
Much to my surprise I found the Jung essay in my bookshelf and have read abotu 20 pages so far. interesting one, Hannah Ahrendt has written a similar essay around the same time. i gought a few books by Jung when i moved from my little village to Basle, because young was born and studied in Basle. then he moved to zurich and the Besileans never got over that one.
i would like to point out the as an Atheist i do not hate religion, some of my best mates are Christians. I simply have chosen the right not to be lead.
i have nothing against religion, i know that it can inspire poeple and help them to live better lives. But when you youse religion or a belief in a superior being as an excuse to tell poeple what do do and what not to do (take the Calvinists as an example9 then i get upset do your job, pray shut up and dont ask any questions ? na, mate, then i rather choose Free Will
for a time religious moral codes worked, they held society together. But then Kant came along and swept that away with his kategorische Imperativ. times have changed, our moral values have changed, we need to respect the fact that women want to have abortions, wether we like it or not. Hiding behind a religious mora code does not make any sense in this case.
if a Supreme Being exists (in that cae I will have a lot of explaining to do in the hereafter i reckon :) ) it should not provoke fear 8if you have sex before you get married you will burn in hell, a concept that is not even in the bible !), but joy and wonder9 A religious moral code that tells me that basically everything I do and want to achieve in life, every reward or joy I want to have is pointless, is pointless in itself, Ancient Wisdom or not.
this was not intended as an insult or rant, I respect and tolerate the views of anyone, religous people sometimes dont.
look at Joel Olsteen, I like his bursts of fake Prozac Happiness and a confidence that can only be fuelled by conservtive values. Now here is a blike who really believs what he is saying and that meks him funny and dangerous at the same time. Jung said something about that in his essay which I will finish now.
but tomorrow i will see my girl and I will be going to the Pub to neck a Pint no matter what this ancient text says about rewards
Pat
Switzerland
To Mr. vleeptron dude: Thank you for pointing out the error about location - Afghanistan. The error was inadvertant. I corrected it today as "India". For your info: I live in the State of Andhra Pradesh where the rivers Krishna and Godavari flow into the Bay of Bengal.
If you wish to fire me, I welcome you. You can condemn me even to hell. I am John Milton's Satan.
Okay, this thread continues here:
http://vleeptronz.blogspot.com/2007/10/agence-vleeptron-presse-gets-man-on.html
Pretty helpful info, lots of thanks for this article.
The chap is completely right, and there's no skepticism.
It won't work in reality, that's exactly what I consider.
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