One step at a time

Many a time things look altogether formidable. What we try to do looks almost impossible. Right now I am trying to carve a life size figure of a monk. The log I am using weighs almost as heavy as me! It is quite hardwood. I may have to chisel out almost half the wood. All that I have is a simple chisel. Can I do it? I never tried a figure of that size before.

 

Based on my prior experience on similar occasions, I just concentrate on “now”. I tell myself – “I need to chip off ‘this’ small part of the log”. I go on doing it chip at a time without bothering about the complete task on hand. It works!

Simple approach. But it almost always works.

Does God exist?

I have a friend – a medical doctor – who firmly believes that God does not exist. Though she does not say it openly, she puts up a front that she is agnostic. She disagrees with me when I say that acceptability of any belief rests on its utility and not necessarily on its factual correctness. I have in one of my books (“How and why of Yoga and Meditation – Yoga Scientifically explained”) dealt in detail how devotional singing can be utilized to relieve one of mental stress. I have made it clear in that context that it works irrespective of the existence of God or otherwise. Just the belief is enough to make it work. I have also discussed some research findings in another of my book (“How does the mind work?”) where mere beliefs seem to bestow miraculous results. In either case, the factual correctness of the belief is immaterial.

Master, I bow to thee

This is my recent relief carving. Since the wood was brittle and of uneven grain, I designed this simple pattern. I just wanted to see how easy it is to carve this wood before trying something more complex. 

What I intended to depict is movement in otherwise static carving. Here a monk is shown to be gradually bowing down to his master in three steps.

Size: 3 ft X 2.5 ft X 2 inches
Wood : Some wild thorny tree
Stain: Teak wood
Finish : Polyurethane Matt
PS: The image is a bit grainy due to some problem in my camera.

Neurological basis of Yoga

A short article on neurological basis of Yoga is now available in Free PDF books (right column on this blog)

Enjoy but without over indulgence

An ancient Indian philosopher namely Chärväka is supposed to have said “one should enjoy at any cost, even by borrowing from others”
 

This seems to be our aim in life these days. Everyone wants to enjoy without bothering about the long term consequences.

Recently I was very much pained to know the death of three young brothers in my neighborhood. All three died one after another in short intervals of time. They were young, well educated and my interaction with them always gave me the impression that they were nice and well behaved. The cause of their untimely death was over drinking. They were hospitalized several times, the doctors had warned them in advance, and they themselves were intelligent enough to know their folly. But they could not give-up drinks.

It is not just drinks; our craze for enjoyment these days makes me wonder where we are headed to?

In this context, I remember another Vedic seer’s sane advice (in Ïshäväsya Upanishad)

“One should aspire to live and enjoy in this life for full 100 years. Protect yourself with detachment (never overindulge). Never covet other’s possessions. This is the only way to avoid wrong doing.”

An ancient coin mint dated 200 B.C.!

That was a joke we made about my childhood friend who claimed that he has a coin which was actually minted 200 years before Christ! When asked how he was sure of that, my friend replied that the date 200 B.C. is written on the coin!
 

Every country, religion, always had people who cleverly faked things to imply that they are actually very ancient and tried to take advantage of that. Most of the time, it is almost impossible to prove the genuineness of such an artifact.

Recently, I came across a bunch of ‘supposedly ancient Indian scriptures’ each claiming to be part of ancient Vedic literature (2000 B.C.). Some of them talked about Yoga which is one of my fields of interest. Many of the ideas discussed in these scriptures seemed to have lot in common with the ideas propagated by many modern Yoga Gurus, though none of these find mention in the generally accepted Yoga bible “The Yoga sutra” by Patanjali. I could see many telltale marks of intentional fabrication, though it is very difficult to pin them down.

While a western scholar would labor hard to fix historical credibility of any purported ancient scripture, most traditional Indians give no importance to historicity and their judgments are guided by faith alone. But such an approach has its own associated long term adverse consequences.

What is the right approach? Yes, historicity is important. But since it is almost impossible to judge in many cases, we probably have to take a via media. There are other factors that can help in accepting or rejecting such documents. (See my earlier post on how we should look at such documents.) After all, old is not always gold!

Wonderful world of figure carving that you probably never knew about

Please watch this short video

Isn’t life too beautiful?

During my occasional visits to a chain store near my house, I used to meet this nice elderly white lady who used to sit at the checkout counter. Her heavily wrinkled face revealed her age as at least late eighties. I always wondered what forced this lady to work in a store at that age!

One afternoon, while I was checking out my things, we observed a small crowd gathering in front of a high-rise building just outside the store, across the road. A person who just entered the store at that time told us that someone jumped from the top floor of that building and committed suicide.

I could see the old lady’s face paling out with the shock. With tears in her eyes, she softly exclaimed – “honey, isn’t life too beautiful to end like that? What’s happening to this world!”

New paperback book released

I just released paperback version of Figure carving - the ethnic style : Amazing world of possibilities (Economy Ed.). This paperback is available from amazon, Barnes and noble, and many other online as well as offline bookstores soon.

 

ISBN  978-1519502087

For a preview on amazon click

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1519502087

Figure Carving - Ethnic style is going to be available on 19 Nov 2015

My new book titled Figure Carving - The Ethnic Style : Amazing world of possibilities, will be simultaneously released on 19th Nov 2015 by most retailers (Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, among others) all over the world.

A fantastic book detailing a completely alternate way of carving human figures that has been followed for thousands of years in the Indian subcontinent from Afghanistan to Cambodia, from Himalayas to Indonesia.

Provides detailed illustrations and lots and lots of examples.

For a preview click your favorite store below

 

 Amazon     iTunes     Barnes and Noble    Kobo  

Hurry and place a pre-order immediately to avail of the low priced early bird offer in your favorite shop.

The way to be peaceful

This is one relief carving (3’ X 3’ X 5”) I did three years ago and this still happens to be my best. I liked it because of the symbolism.

At the center you see a Buddha like face that symbolizes enlightenment and peace. The top folded palms denote respect for all or surrender to God (if you are a believer). Still lower are two palms in Abhaya mudra symbolizing fearlessness or assurance of non violence to others. Just below them are palms in Vairagya mudra indicating detachment. The lowest set of palms is obviously in Dhyäna mudra denoting meditation. 

The message is – if you respect all, mean no harm to any one, not indulge in over attachment to worldly things, and mediate, you are sure to find everlasting peace. This in essence is what Yoga is all about.