What is God?
October 5, 2011
Being from a religious and spiritual place like Banaras, I get to talk about religion often. Banaras holds very very importance in Hinduism and Buddhism. I am from a Hindu family, but I’m not religious at all. And I don’t call myself Hindu, as I don’t follow any religion.
Since, I don’t follow any religion, I am asked what do I think about spirituality and existence of God etc. I have some view about existence of God, which I would be like to write here.
God
Universe is made of several elements (From elements, I mean things, not elements which know from Chemistry) like stone, air, animals, plants, planets, fire etc etc. From view of Godly eyes, a piece of stone is as much important as a plant, and both are as important as a human. But most of religious people would imagine God being in a human form. Since we are human, we see God as human. If elephants have a conception of God, then probably their God is an Elephant; and for trees, it would be a tree. If the piece of stone could think about God, then it’s God would be Himalaya possibly.
Common conception is that you can please God by praying him/her. Some people also believe that God would be unhappy if they worship properly. If someone gets happy with worships (and becomes unhappy if not worshipped properly), then I would say, it’s very human-like behaviour. It is not a ‘God-like’ behaviour at all.
Universal Nature is the God
People say, this universe is so huge and there must be a power who would manage all this. Of course they mean God. I do believe there is such power, which really is. I call it ‘Nature (in universal sense, not only the Earth)’ and the universe is governed by ‘the Rules of Nature’. So, I say, Nature is the God. It’s the power which governs the universe, and is not in form of a man/woman, nor elephant, nor tree, nor stone. It does not have a physical existence. It is just the rules, laws and principals, which applies on every object in this universe.
To understand it, first of all you need to give up the idea that humans are the centre of the universe. Or even the idea that living things are the most important elements of universe. The universe is just too large to think ourselves it centre. Even our great Sun is very tiny in front of the real giant stars.
Being physically un-existing, it treats every object in the universe equally. For it, a piece of stone holds equal importance as you do. So if you pray and worship, it’s not going to do any special favour for you. And the piece of stone that is not able to offer any (apparently) is not going to be left behind in getting free favours just because it’s not able to offer any worship.
2012… Good Bye World!… Really?
July 18, 2010
A lot of people live with the fear that our world will end in the year 2012. I find it funny though. Even if the world ends in 2012 somehow, I won’t have problem in dying when the whole world is dying. May be my personal view. :)
Well, the origin of this “end of the world thing” is funny too. They refer stuffs from ancient religious books to modern scientific conceptions. I like the way they explain the things in the way they want to.
I live in a country where there are many thousands of such people, who love to make prophecies on everything happening in the world. Most of them know how to make people fool. I really admire their talent.
There have been hundreds of prophecies of the end of the world so far. But well, I am still here writing these lines on my computer, sitting in my room at the home. But this latest 2012 thing is the most popular among those. I have seen people who are really scared of it. It would be funny to know that some people used to say that a planet called ”Plane X or Nibiru” would collide to the earth and everything would be ended… in 2003. The year 2003 came and passed, but we were still alive. Now they say it will collide in 2012. (Hi! I time-traveled and I am in the year 2013 right now. The world still okay and some people are saying that the planet X will collide to the earth in the year 2020.)
This theory of Planet X/Nibiru came from mind of a women, who claims she can receive messages from people from other planet. And the people of that planet chose her to warn the mankind (man&woman-kind… I am not a sexist).
The base of the 2012 thing is the calender which belongs to the ‘Maya Civilization’. Mayan Civilization is well known for its arts, mathematics, astronomy and architecture. Mayan civilization was at its peak from 250 AD to 900 AD in Southern North America. (Some people believe that there were aliens who guided them. I am not talking about Steven Spielberg.)
According to the Mayan Calender, world have to come to its end on 21st December, 2012. Well, I would not say that the Maya Calender says so. May be it’s the case of explaining the things in the way you want. An Mayan archaeologist ‘Jose Huchm’ states,
“If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn’t have any idea. That the world is going to end? They wouldn’t believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain.”
Doesn’t this statement explain a lot?
Maya Calender
I observed that the duration of time span covered by the Mayan Calender ends on 21st December in 2012. And… and the starting-point is equivalent to August 11, 3114 BC. That means there was no world before the year 3114 BC?
World existed before 3114 BC so world will exist after 2012 AD, the Maya Calender is just not covering the time span beyond these years. After 31st December, life continues with 1st of January of the new year… and the new calender.
Some people refer old religious scriptures. They talk about Doomsday of Islam, Judgement-day of Christianity etc. So what’s the point? Everything has to end one day, so will be happening with the world. But how do you know it will happen in the year 2012, Bible or Quran don’t tell about the year of 2012?? Experts totally reject the claims of mentioning of this date in the books.
If you are care of religious scriptures, then listen about the Hinduism too. According to Hinduism, the world runs in a cycle of ‘Yug’ or era. And we are living on the last era of the cycle, called ‘Kaliyug’. At the end of Kaliyug, the current world will end and new world will begin. But according to it, Kaliyug has total 432000 years and only 511o years have passed yet.
Some people are scientific and talk about NASA and magnetic fields of the Sun. NASA is scientific and they have an official website, so check out what they say about this 2012 thing:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html
So use you mind and stay happy! Just love the nature.
Did Man Ever Land on the Moon?
October 9, 2009
Niel Armstrong becomes the first human to put steps on the Moon in the year 1969. At this time, he said the the line which is one of the most famous quotations ever made in the world. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
A very fine quotation indeed. But what if someone tells you that man actually never landed on the Moon and everything was just faked at a secret place in USA called “Area 51″?
For people in USA, this “conspiracy theory” is well known. But there are very few people here in India and many other countries knowing about this. When I tell them that there are so many people, who believe NASA actually faked the Moon landing missions, they are shocked. Many of them state it is not possible to fake such a huge event. While some would say, “Yes! I always knew it but it was too big thing to say fake.”
When I first read about the “Conspiracy Theory”, I was shocked too. That article had just stated about the technology used in those missions and the flapping US flag.
I was confused about this matter then. Technology of that time doesn’t appear enough for Manned Apollo Moon Missions. But it was a very very big event, and faking such a big thing would be really big matter.Well, I didn’t use much of my mind in this and stopped thinking about it.
Few days back, I read about the fake moon rock at a museum in Amsterdam, which is supposed to be from the Moon. The piece of rock was given to former dutch Prime Minister Willem Drees at a goodwill tour by the three astronauts.
A treasured piece at the Dutch national museum – a supposed moon rock from the first manned lunar landing – is nothing more than petrified wood, curators say.
This news reminded me of the “Moon Landing Conspiracy Theory” again. I began my hunting; hunting the things related to the Apollo Missions. I came through many videos and articles supporting the “Conspiracy Theory” and denying the “Conspiracy Theory.”
Many “proofs” indicating the Moon Missions to be wrong, can be easily proved wrong. But there are some proofs, which are really hard (may be impossible) to prove wrong.
I watched a program by American Channel Fox titled “Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?” This program was first aired in 2001. I watched it on You Tube though. I is quite fine program showing the “proofs” which indicate Apollo missions being possibly just hoax.
Watch: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Just after some more Googling, I found a really descriptive and huge article about this theory. This is a must read article.
Read the article here: http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicapollo.html
Further, I found many articles denying this “Conspiracy Theory” too. Some of those had good logics to prove some of the “Conspiracy Theory” proof wrong. But most of those where just blurbs of irritated writers, with no logical minds. And some of those were rather interesting. They narrated science in interesting ways to prove “Conspiracy Theory” proofs wrong; You may call it defining scientific facts in the way you need.
They all depicted proof very well. But in non-parallel shadow cast proof, I have a view too. It seems there were artificial light sources used in many of official NASA pictures from the Moon. I have tried to show this in the diagram below. the 1st part shows the condition of shadows when light source is the Sun. In this condition, shadows, should be parallel to each other. But since, in many official NASA pictures, shadows are not parallel, then perhaps the light source is not the Sun. May be it is a light sources situated way closer than Sun. (Note that NASA says no other light sources were used.)
Other proof like no blast craters under the lunar vehicle, no dust on the stands of the vehicle, no disturbance under the lunar vehicle at all; effect of temperature and radiations and space suits like they used; flag flapping etc are too strong logics and no article could deny these in a very logical way.
Well, I believe Moon landing missions were fake. You can deny many of the proofs individually, but collectively, those proofs are way too strong to deny. I would suggest to google the related articles and study by yourself.
Google users think: Nations
September 23, 2009
Screen-shots of Google’s search keywords suggestions, which are based on the trends of the most searched keywords on Google Search.
These are exact screen-shots what I got on Google.com on date 23-9-2009. These are not my views at all.
New Song: I Try (feat. Bobbie Jean)
September 11, 2009
Music and Digital Revolution
June 30, 2009
A digital music composing program
Decades ago, there was no sign of digital revolution in music. There were musical instruments and there were sweet music played with the real instruments. At that time, all music performers strictly needed to perform together. That used to be a tough time for music recording, since record producers had to pay performers extra for over and over retakes. So music production was costly and quality music production was limited to people with heavy pockets.
A Synthesizer
Gradually some electronic music equipments were came in notable uses in the mid of 70′s. Music producers took time to adapt these electronic equipments in their studios since the equipments were not as sophisticated as analogue equipments at that time. These equipments, called Synthesizers, are used for recording the sound and some for producing sounds.
Introduction of electronics gave music production more flexibility and quality. The electronic synthesizers gave producers infinite number of musical sounds. And a number of new kind of music came in light. And quality in music and sound kept going higher and higher.
After revolution of personal computers, Music production got more storms of development. It got a lot of new things in music. Like Digital Work Stations (DAW) and Virtual Instruments which changed the music production’s methods.
You can record vocals and each music instrument separately and then mix all of those on a computer based audio work station with infinite flexibility. Today, almost every studio, big or small, uses a Digital Work Stations. These DAWs give music perfection and a very high sound quality.
Roland Piano Keyboard
Virtual Instruments (Software Synthesizers and Software Samplers) are computer programs or physical equipments, which synthesize sounds or make sound of real instruments. There is a huge number of available software synthesizers. All you need is a good computer, virtual instruments, a good Digital Audio Workstation, a Piano MIDI keyboard (similar or same thing to the Roland, Yamaha, Korg keyboard, which you see a lot in different music concerts or TV etc.) and a creative music mind. You might also need some equipments like mixer controllers, microphone for recording vocals etc.
Usually virtual instruments/synthesizers are used along with recording with real instruments and performers. But there are large amount of music now which are done using only virtual instruments.
These digital things gave birth to types of music which were never possible with classical ways. Now there are some of music for which you will need 4 or 6 hands to play with real instruments. Another advantage of these computer based composing is that composers can compose music with roughly sounding virtual instruments and music sheet based composing programs and later do final recording with real instruments and performers. And of course, you can produce very high quality music without needing to record with real instruments sometimes.
These technologies gave a golden chance to try composing music to people who could never afford going into music composing due to financial issue etc. Now they can write good piece of music just on PC and show their creativity without spending much.
A Virtual Music Studio
However many people argue that this type of music is fake music and music made by real instruments is the real music. I would like to say to them that you are talking same like, when a typewriter guy asks a page/ graphics designer that he/she is a fake designer; because typing on typewriter is the real typing and page designing. So don’t be typewriter age person and accept technology. Still you need to use a creative mind to compose music like you needed before and skills on music sheet and piano keyboard. Only thing less is that it’s in reach of so many people who can compose good music but couldn’t afford music instruments, studios and performers. (Some old fashioned composer have problems with it because they can’t put their steps with technology though). Also those people need to understand that these technologies have given birth to music type which are not possible with real instruments at all. After all, music is piece of sound which you enjoy; music is not a circus which necessarily needs to be performed live.
Virtual instruments’ quality is going better day by day, but it’s still hard to use these in final music instruments for conventional music types. Making those instruments on computer is harder than hiring a performer with real instruments. So still real instruments are used mostly in professional productions.
Today digital technologies are integral part of music without which, there is no modern music.
PS – I’m also a rookie music composer, using digital methods primarily.
Rainy Season in India
June 20, 2009
Rainy season or the Monsoon arrives during 15-25th June all over India, usually. But it’s not being like usual this year. It’s 20th June already and no sign of a single cloud in the sky. And It is leading lines worrying on our foreheads. Of course fear of a drought comes in mind.
The Monsoon is always so uncertain. Some times its too much rain, and sometimes no rain. There are unfortunate places which suffer from drought and just couple of months after, from floods.
Rainy season is much awaited in India, in northern part of the country specially, because of warm and dull summers. In India, in summers, temperature goes up to 47° C (about 116°F). There’s a deadly warm wind blowing whole day as well, which is called “Loo” in North and West of India. And daytime in summer means try to be indoors. South and east India are luckier that west and north India in case of getting rain.
After 3 months of hot summer, when the rain drops touch the ground, it naturally feels like life is back. Environment goes greener and greener. And this is start of the season of festivals of Hinduism. For 3 months of summer, farmers have nothing to do but rainy brings them back to their job and this is start of new academic year in schools and colleges.
This is time of celebration and joy. With a lush green environment. And beginning of a series of Hindu festivals and occasions one after another. My city, Banaras (or Benares or Varanasi), one of most sacred place for Hinduism and Buddhism, enjoys this season a lot. Saavan (or Sraavan) month according to the Hindu calendar is dedicated to Hindu deity Shiv. And Banaras is city dedicated to Shiv. The city is buzzed while month with religious activitis and fairs. The month of Saavan is seen a month of romance as well.
The next month Bhaado (Or Bhadrpad) gets heavy rain too. And the series of religious festival is continued in this month also. Before the month Saavan, there is month Aasaarh which is beginning of the monsoon. Aasaarh get heavy rain which fulfils the earth with water.
After Bhaado, it’s almost end of this season with some rain. Then country prepares for the winters.
The rainy season can be said the most important season for India; since it decides how much rain different parts of the country gets. Some places have drought, some places have floods, and some places have both in same year. Monsoon is responsible for deciding the fate of farmers here because agriculture is so much depended on monsoon. So this season decides if farmers are going to have good year or bad. In north and west India, most of the rain of whole year comes in this season and rest of year can be quite dry. So water sources has to be filled in this season as well. That’s why I’m this much eager to have rain.
while writing these lines, I was really lost in the fantasies of the monsoon. I love the evenings of rainy season when there are different beautiful designs of clouds appear in the sky in different colours. And the little wet and sweet breeze (and something yummie to eat). But alas, I see no cloud outside my window. Recent years haven’t been good for monsoon. It has become more uncertain. And this year no sign of its arrival so far. But we are very hope full. :)
Last year in dull summer, while fantacising about rainy, I decided to compose a New Age music track for Monsoon. Personally, this track pushes me fantasy whenever I listen. You can have a try too :
