The Brahmans

The ancient Indians and their remarkable sense of civic society gave rise to 4 varnas, on the top of which stood Brahmans.
Varna: (Sanskrit) A social class based on guna (attribute) and karma (activity).

The society then was very genuinely and thoughtfully divided into 4 varnas. But why divide a society by varna in the first place?
A simple answer is may be they saw that a prolonged division would give rise to ‘Domain Specialization’ and yes it does. The varnas that formed as a result were :

the Brahmans – people meant to have knowledge,religious & spiritual prosperity
the Kshatriyas- meant to have administrative and political prosperity
the Vaishyas -meant to have business talent & economic prosperity
the Shudras- meant to be implementers and have karmic prosperity

Although my descriptions are more analogical, they relate to the present society in a secular manner.

As I was browsing about the Brahmans, I tripped on this:

From Bhagavad-gita 18.42:

śamo damas tapaḥ śaucaḿ kṣāntir ārjavam eva ca |
jñānaḿ vijñānam āstikyaḿ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam ||

“Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness — these are the natural qualities by which the Brāhmaṇas work.”

According to Upanishads, Brahman means ‘Supreme Self’. Being a fan of Ayn Rand I can’t ignore this. The ‘Self’ is be the object of worship and should be nurtured for ‘Supreme’ Karma.
‘
One becomes or is called a ‘Brahman’ because of her Guna and Karma. Its not in the blood .. it is in the Spirit. Brahman – born out of Brahma is supposed to be a creator- of Vicharas(ideas), of Gunas(attributes), of Gyana, of Laws , of Consciousness, Spirituality and Existencialism.
A Utopic Brahman would be a Universe that can not only create Life and Psyche but also absorb and annihilate Entropy generated out of the clash of infinite possibilities and ideas inside her.

p.s. with information taken from Wiki

GOLDENEYE – Bond Ka Bharta!

Its another of Ian Fleming flicks? Yes another James Bond movie, Pierce Brosnan .. But the big deal about it is that it is a BOND movie and carries the same flare..ahead of times.

The movie is a story of a ingenious  soldier in the British army, one of madam M’s heros, just like Bond – 006. He wants to avenge the death of his parents who died due to the neglect and ruthlessness of the British High command and plans to do it using the ‘GoldenEye’. It’s a device that is a key used by Russia to command their nuke deploys to fire to the commanded location. After a lot of Bond action, James stops 006 from firing the last one and in the process 006 dies. Meanwhile we go some exaggerated action, some single-minded hacker stuff( must have been intriguing at that time), emotions of friendship,the cool car stunts,typical hindi dialogues, the neat of the cold war and the sexy, slim B(l)ond gurl giving rise to some outrageous lovemaking..

It is predictable and over done yet, the James Bond thing charms me in a way.. and many others.

Inshah Allah, I’ll come up with some research on this series some time.

Till then.. Bond Forever…

Out Of Bounds

A MAN IS A UNIVERSE..
To  see the world in a grain of sand…
Out Of Bounds – A play one can’t imagine would exist in such
a fantastic way. A series of plays by Feroz Abbas Khan being hosted by Epicentre ,Gurgaon. Out of Bounds was one of them. Enacted by Rajesh Gopie , the play had around 15 characters in it and Rajesh – the only ‘Actor’ in the play.

The heart of the story revolved around Lal, a boy belonging to an Indian family settled in a struggling, apparthied South Africa. The plot begins with a lesson that a teacher gives to his students; the one that through the ” apaharan of Sita by Ravana” conveys to the students that crossing boundaries has its own pitfalls. A lesson very realistically proved in the play. The family had left its ethnic boundaries of India.  Initially the poor, nuclear family fought to survive in Durban, phoenix and moved on. Later the ambitious lil boy narrates how he hated the hoch-poch of the conjusted family n how he always wanted a room and privacy for himself.

It is a sarcastic, dark humour presented beautifully and very naturally.  The tremendously powerful enacting by Rajesh made it equally realistic, as if we had gone back to the time the play was written. This man, Rajesh played 10-15 different characters, nonetheless no better justification could have been done to each one of the character.  The way he pampered each character could only be witnessed to believe.  I realised at the end that a man can be the whole universe some times.  Controlling and nurturing as well as being every character.
He was the God of the play.  Notwithstanding the fact that he spoke glibly for 1:30 hours, he was tireless.  His enthusiasm filled the auditorium.At the end, he received a standing ovation. This feat can be achieved only by a person who ‘lives’ the play.
Not only did the play have lessons to teach, the audience was entertained out of bounds. A very meaningful, humorous and classic play indeed. The quakes will shake your consciousness, check out the epicentre in Gurgaon!