Ja League

Ja rule is - if ya can't create them, bunch them together. However, the optimist would say that The League of X Gentlemen is a bouquet of fine characters, seeking the eternal and good in them, while they havn't been exactly heroes in their recent pasts.

The 2003 movie has good actors and nice action. Images are too dark and fast and creates a sense of loss of visual richness due to speed. Could have used slo-mo like in Charlie's Angels or other cult classics to actually deliver the action.

But nice movie. Nice make up and effects. And a nice Captian Nemo, the indegenously manufactured Nasiruddin Shah. The submarine nautilus is a swimming Hindu temple+palace. The diving deck is a Shiva linga and dieties all around. The set and clothes designers must have picked up a coffee table book on Hinduism.

Cold Mountain = Cold Shower

Ok. If you like to be depressed in hope that a 9 hour movie has a happy ending, and dont mind being served a sad end... Cold Mountain is for ya! Anyways, the music score is the great part as per VPSM (Vic's Personal Standard for Movies TM). The recurring theme is the detached love expressed in "Ain True Love"*, which is powerful poetry rendered very well. Other country music is inspiring. Images in the movie are powerful without being disgustingly surreal.

* The day later i posted this post, i found these awesome lyrics were none other than Sting. Am I surprized? No. Am I enamoured? Yes.

You'll walk unscathed through musket fire,
No ploughman's blade will cut thee down,
No cutler's horn will mark thy face
And you will be my ain true love,
And you will be my ain true love

And as you walk through death's dark veil,
The cannon's thunder can't prevail,
And those who hunt thee down will fail,
And you will be my ain true love,
And you will be my ain true love.

Asleep inside the cannon's mouth,
The captain cries, "Here comes the rout,"
They'll seek to find me north and south,
I've gone to find my ain true love.

The field is cut and bleeds to red.
The cannon balls fly round my head,
The infirmary man may count me dead,
When I've gone to find my ain true love,
I've gone to find my ain true love.

The Smartness of Evil in the Dark Age

An interesting question came up this week: Do I believe in evil? So Evil got defined as anything that acts without consideration for the whole picture. Made sense, but practically, is it possible to keep getting the whole picture & be in the good books?

A little insight into how evil works is interesting. Evil itself is a part of the whole and cannot function without the knowledge of the whole. So evil goes out and tempts free-willed humans to take a bite. Ordinary humans, without enlightenment will resist, forming an artificial barrier of mortality between the soulscape and the external. As the external evil approaches the conditioned soul, the conditionings will set up a shield and refuse fortright - e.g. a teen will automatically say no to drugs if there are no holes in the shield of positive conditioning.

But the external evil does not give up. It tempts, saying, a little wont do harm and creates a small access through the conditioning shield. The shield of our conditioning is always shallow and in this darkest of all ages, the evil is strong enough to penetrate it, by small excursions followed up by fuller attacks. Once the evil creates access ways, then it becomes a daily commuter route for evil to come in and party in the soul - addiction sets in.

So now the poor soul is hit by the addiction, cannot quit by free will as the access paths are now clearly developed. Any mental approach fails due to the simple fact that the external evil is strongest during these ages. It needs to be. How else will the truest gold be separated from the chaff?

When all external seeking fails, the internal seeking starts. A solution from the core, from the inside. A source to sustain that shield - a source to nourish that shield - a source to keep the shield from going down. A source that is inexhaustible.

So when the self-realization sets in, the shield is now intermittently connected to the spirit during meditation and is relatively impenetrable. But again, due to lack of continuous connection there are windows of vulnerability created. It might take a long, looong time to make this shield of the soul constantly connected to the spirit to keep it 100% effective. To eliminate all windows of opportunity for evil to creep in.

A day will come, I hope soon, when the shield will be continuously fed with the spirit. Evil waits, in the dark, waiting for the free-willed yogi to create a pause in the connection and it works on accessing the yogi again.

It might be tempting for a yogi to assume failure and surrender to evil which has demonstrated no easy goodbyes so far. God forbid, should the yogi assume failure and reach a mental conclusion to accept the evil's shadow for good.

The shield is Kundalini. The source is the Spirit. The connection is meditation. The battlefield is the yogi's body, soul.

All the best... to me.

Men are from.... Soul Searching of a 'Single Again' Guy

Sometimes I can't just come to grips with the fact that the passenger seat of the car of my life is empty. My divine designated fellow passenger has toyed with the emergency eject button way too many times and finds herself in a distant land fighting a battle which we could have fought together.

I have had committed "engagements" which ended on account of inevitable geographical separation. So I guess I am not too bad when it comes to making and keeping commitments. I love steadyness, simplicity and honesty. I believe that Ann Arbor, and the mid-west are great places I would like to explore with a special someone. I also like quite evenings at home doing little things. I dont have great expectations but I do like be a part of small & beautiful things that make a relationship feel warm and special. Small things give great pleasure. Short phone calls - to make sure no one is left to the dogs. Sharing the bad moments to display trust and dependence - just adds so much joy to this simple thing of man-woman relationships. Ofcourse all the constructs above require the solid foundation of honesty of purpose and ability to give without counting beans.

knock-knock, eternal child

I always wondered what it would be
if everyone on earth was a child, you see
I've always wondered if conversations would start
with all grown-up people, thats a lost art.

I've always heard, that with The Kundalini
You can feel another's spirit, that child within
So I'm fortunate whenever I'll see you,
I can now enjoy the eternal child in you!

Compiled by John Noyce, Marylin and other Sahaja Yogis

How many roads must a man walk down
Before they call him a man …
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind
Bob Dylan, Blowing in the wind (1962)

I came upon a child of God walking down the road
I asked him, where are you going?
And this he told me …
we are stardust, we are golden,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
Joni Mitchell, Woodstock (1969)

Don't you feel the day is coming, and it won't be too soon
When the people of the world can all live in one room
When we shake off the ancient,
shake off the ancient chains of our tomb
We will all be born again of the eternal womb.
Cat Stevens, Don't you feel a change a coming? (1971)

I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul
Where I'll end up well I think,
Only God really knows
Cat Stevens, The Wind (1971)

Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world…
You may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us and the world will live as one.
John Lennon, Imagine (1971)

… can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind
Robert Plant, Stairway to Heaven (1971)

… the mother and child reunion is only a motion away
Paul Simon, Mother and Child Reunion (1972)

the inevitable by-product : ego

it is going to take a while before 24/7 thoughtlessness establishes. before that, ego development between meditations and clearing would be inevitable. my quest and urge is how to minimize it? is there a resource to drain the ego frequently? our living Mother Earth is one resort. While we are sitting in the controlled and separated office environment, Mother Kundalini can take the attention to this and other ego-draining elements. The pure & primordial elements which have always existed can be a soap to the filth of ego.

may the ego subside! JSM