The kid who cannot be a magician

My 10 year old son came to me and said , I am going to do a magic , he had a magic book of tricks given as a gift. He asked me to sit down and said "now I am going to do this magic, for which I would be needing a full sleeve shirt".

I was surprised for a moment. It was a trick to make the wand disappear. Was he stupid ?

My wife too was surprised. But I realized why he did that after I reflected on it for a while. From his childhood he has been a very sweet kid. One who is very innocent and not taking delight in cheating others.

He liked magic but did not want to cheat ! How can one be a magician and not wanting to cheat ! ?( No offence to magicians).

I told him " you are too innocent to be a magician". Probably this is not the profession that will suit you, give it up, you are a magician anyways !

He said " I know dad, just let me do this trick it does not matter if you know how this is being done".

As a teacher I have tried to  achieve this from a long time and failed. Some of my students think I am a magician and therefore they cant do and learn what I teach, because they see a magical quality in what I teach. I am guilty of actually presenting things in a dramatic way and years after I started doing it, I realized that it actually is counterproductive because it fails in the very fundamental aspiration of education: the ability to make a student think that he too can do it !

Many think that Richard Feynman the great Physicist had the quality of a great magician. He seems to enchant you with his talent and knowledge. But yet he does not hide anything. He unfolds his own magical ways through the magnificent lectures he delivers.

Is it necessary for one to hide something to give it a magical quality ?

Feynman lectures are so famous and so simple that even a person who has no background in Physics can learn some great physics by reading them. (The transliteration of his video lectures are a book series which is presented in three volumes)

Many things in life, like a sunset, the smile of a child and the reflections on a dew drop are magical though there is no secret about it !

Death

Everything is made of atoms and they are in constant flux. Nothing in this world remains as it is.

Now when you breathe, an oxygen molecule may go into your lungs. Then at another instant it may come out and enter into a dog’s lungs.

You cannot hold on to one molecule and say “ hey this is my molecule”.

There is no such thing.

In the same way there is no one single atom in your body which stays with you forever.Everything comes and goes.

The atoms that existed in your body when you were a child are all out and gone. Now you have all new atoms in your body.

Since the body is made up of millions and millions of atoms and they keep going out and new atoms come in, there is nothing in the body that you can claim as yours.

Therefore the body is not you. However there is a form which seemed to remain as it is, which you call "I".

In the same way all the thoughts in your mind are born and they die. Therefore the thoughts are not you.

If you define mind as the sum total of your thoughts, even the mind is not you, because it too is Trans migratory.

Then who is Satyajit ?

If you go and stand next to a river and say “this river is Olga”, next day when you go there none of the water molecules that you saw the previous day would be there at that position. Still you say “this is Olga”, then what is Olga ?

It is the form that appears to be continuous that is what you call as Volga. In reality there is no such solid thing “out there”.

So the only truth is that everything in this world is in a flux of change forever.

The sum total of all your past experiences and memory weaved together in a story line is the creation of “Satyajit” only in your mind. If I say show me that Satyajit NOW, what will you show ? There is nothing to show, you can't show it.

It is only clinging and grasping that creates “illusion of forms”.

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Now let me compare the Universe to a human being.

In our body thousands of cells die every moment. That gives the opportunity for the new cells to be created.

So the continuous death and recreation cycle of cells is the continuity we call life.

Similarly the universe is alive. All of us are cells of the Universe, we die and new people are born. This continuous death and birth of components (We are a few components but not all) makes the universe alive.

In Hinduism we even believe that the even universe itself goes through this cycle of death (transformation) and creation called Sristi and laya.

This cycle goes on eternally. Nothing is an exception to this. Like layers of onion, in the fractal structure of the whole Universe, from the largest to the smallest this cycle is the only truth.

So in reality “ there is no death”

Why ?

Let us say there is an object which is made of atoms named A-B-C-D there is another object made up of atoms E-F-G-H now they both die now you have two more objects. They are A-G-H-C and E-B-F-D , read these carefully.

Nothing is missing it’s all re-arranged that’s all. That’s re-birth for you.

There is only transformation no death.

Things get re-arranged. The sum total of all atoms in the universe never changes, nothing is destroyed nothing is created, everything is in flux.

That whole flux is life.

There is no death.

If you say no I want to retain A-B-C-D as A-B-C-D forever then you are not defying death but you are defying life.

Life is dynamic. Anything static is death. There is nothing static in this Universe.

Origin of religion

I do not claim that religion is central and essential to human existence. However my study of religion makes me think that probably it was invented to save man from possibly succumbing to mere materialistic existence where enhancing the devices to stimulate and fulfill the desires of the sense organs would be the only aim of life. Perhaps religions wanted to make man open to the beauty of life, to be in rhythm with the universe and be aware of a self which is not just the sum total of his sense experiences. Off course it is possible to be open to such possibility even without religion. Poetry, literature to some extent aspires for the same I guess. Religion is the peak and culmination of such endeavors such as literature and poetry. I would call religion “Inner poetry”. However it is attainable even without religion, I have seen such people in my life that stayed away from religion and been wonderful people. You cannot possibly invent anything that is already not there in this universe.

By the sea

In an era where anybody except a doctor is banned from talking about health, I am daring to speak something which I feel is true:

Many mothers with small children when the kids have chronic cold and congestion ask me suggestion ( I do not know why), and I tell them take them to the sea shore.

Their responses vary :

Are you serious ?
Is it scientific ?
You must be joking ?
I think you are busy ?
Well, I do not think I have time to do that.


Inhalation of sea wind is nothing but inhaling salt aerosol a well-known decongestant, it is clinically proven to cleanse the respiratory system.
It is a powerful free medicine which people are reluctant to use, instead resort to drugs that damage the immune system. Human beings are strange aren't they ?

Declaration: Unfortunately I am a doctor( but doctor in Philosophy) and a yoga practitioner therefore take my advises based on your own common sense and not as an expert advise.

Besides, going to sea is fun.:-P

Indepedance day ?

British do not celebrate independence day because they were never colonized. We celebrate independence day because we think we are free from British rule. But we still have British governance, a system of governance which has failed in becoming an integral part of the great nation, making us believe that we are useless and corrupt.I refuse to believe that we are corrupt. I am looking for a second Independence day when we realize that we do not need this "British governance" any more. The whole idea of this governance has been strongly ingrained in our psyche as the only possible model of governance. I believe that the great political thinkers, philosophers and statesmen of our country have failed to come up with a model that functions differently. I feel it is my failure to think, act and develop such a model for my country. It is the failure of the political engagement of people like me which has failed the nation. We need to come up with something original, something Indian and something that re establishes the fact that we are originally world leaders of top class.