In the previous part, some pieces from the epic Yoga Vaashishta, formed the basis for a further dwelling into the subject of unease of mind over a state of life, which was perceived to be direction/purpose less.
The epic deals with this quest for answers to the causes of such misgivings, expressed by Lord Rama Himself in the form of an enunciation of the “ultimate Truth” by Sage Vashishta.
One of the most unfortunate aspects, of our revered texts, is that, while there is this surprising empathy, with many of the doubts of believers, the answers in any form are almost invariably, tremendously unsatisfying, regardless of what the puritans/the devout may say, namely that the subject being so tough, one must have grace to be able to absorb, let alone understand.
Since this platform has been envisaged, mainly for an exchange of thoughts, hopefully, (at least for me) I believe that such sharing would prepare me/us in understanding some of these texts, or get some comforting “samaadhaanam” for many of the nagging doubts, as though destined!!( Sanjog?)
And before I attempt to capture some of the answers given by the sage in the epic, I need to digress a little, to try and capture the psyche of a family member, which I feel has (a) a relevance in this context and (b) will provide some background.
My late father was a posthumous child. At the age of two, he met with an almost fatal fire accident, and to add to the woes of his widowed mother of some 18 years, the pundits with astrological background, had predicted a possible end to his life by the time the boy was 15.
He survived a heart rending calamity, at that exact age, and by the time he was 17, his guardian-the maternal grandfather- also passed away, leaving the youngster with the huge responsibility, of taking care of the family, which included his maternal aunt .
All these surely, must have had a tremendous impact, and the youngster, to my mind, developed (a) a great respect for “destiny” and (b) believed firmly about the efficacy of shashtra prescribed daily rituals to modify its effects (c) fascination for astrology, and (d) a mulish stubbornness for disregarding most of the elders save those he was fond of, whom he imagined were coming in the way with his ordained trysts with destiny.
So far so good, but the only problem was that, he gave one the impression that, all his actions were guided not so much by the merits of the case, but by the impact of destiny that comes to bear on the case. For instance, if a particular work had heavy odds,(which would be destiny as per him), as against one which looked more logically simpler, he would love to choose the former, simply because, he would be happy to get another chance to defy destiny. These were regardless of whether they will affect his immediate kith and kin as he was after all the chosen one in the family to face them.
To imagine that being associated with this powerful being, especially in the early ages of my life, that this will have no impact on my psyche is being naïve to say the least. The “destiny’s” role in shaping ones life, probably imbibed itself a bit too strongly, in my /our family psyche, is my belief.
It is in this background that the answers to Rama’s queries -about his disinterest in worldly matters, and going thru his daily rituals etc- by sage Vashishta, in the epic was read and re-read by me. While rama’s queries, was confined to some 40~50 pages, the rest of the epic running to over 1000 pages would devote to Vashishta’s answers, is my guess..
The entire portion deals with the adhyathmic , and not easily digestible. Hence, I would not attempt even a gist recap, and confine myself to those that deal with fate/destiny, the ones that were introduced as preamble, while digressing from the main theme.
Here I go:
“It is the ever fluctuating mind, which gives rise to all things in the three worlds, and it resides in vacuity in the form of the heart, and it’s Universal soul which gives this mind the power to realize the ideas of the individual soul.
The millions of beings that are dead, those that are dying, and will die hereafter, are all to be reborn here according to the different desires in their minds.
The wise man who is liberated in his life time, lives with his internal belief, (of his oneness with God) in a state of tranquility, without any doubt and in perfect equanimity.( so far so good, but now comes the googlies)
Everything in this world is obtainable, by our efforts being properly employed.(uh hum)
Our actions are of two kinds namely, those of former and present lives, and acts of present life generally supercedes those of the past.
Fate is just a name for our past actions; it can as easily be overcome as a young boy is subdued by an adult youth.
Like two rams, our fate and exertions are fighting with one another, and the victory is always on the side of the stronger. (Uh Huum?)
No one can see his fortune, nor has anybody ever seen the same, nor is any such thing to be found in the other worlds, it is only the merit of our acts here (and now) which has a place in the other world.
Destiny, a word that has come into vogue, from the idea of future retribution of one’s past actions, has no form, no motion, nor might, but is just a false notion, rooted in the minds of the ignorant. One should give up this destiny of mistaken fancy, which is in reality, devoid of its cause or effect, and is a false and ideal nullity. Hence one should betake himself in one’s best exertions.
So long as the mind is imperfect and unacquainted with the state of divine truths, one must attend to the teacher, books, and reasoning, and act according to their directions in the path of truth.
A colleague of mine from my ex-company has this further piece of a “gem”. She asks as to whether one should bring God to our level, and give Him a role of a judge, to decide rights and wrongs, and the respective goodies and punishments. God only gives “goodies” and all that we have to do is Live every moment and there will be no sorrows. Sounds pretty profound?
Going by these, the following emerge.
The posthumous child, the young widow of just about 18, the perceptibly perverse polity, the ubiquitous poverty, pathetic malnutrition, that we witness all around day-in-and-day out, would as per the Vashishta paradigm, no relation to one’s fate or destiny. They are just names invented by the lazy, ignorant fools, who have no desire to stir themselves up to do their duty.
And when one is able to rise and shine above these, by his own reasoning, can look inward, and thru practice of yoga, liberate himself, and experience an oneness with that Universal soul, in pure bliss.
This experience cannot be shared, obviously, as otherwise, the enunciation of “truth” would have said something about caring, feeling, doing some thing to try and help the suffering lot. Incidentally, Rama’s unease was partly due to the sufferings he witnessed in his pilgrimage.
“Just do it” says the MNC Nike. “I am loving it” is another catchy slogan from KFC. Both would be immensely pleased with Vashishta.
The long list of the sufferers, have to just live every moment, and hey presto, there will be just bliss, as God has nothing but love and plentiful of goodies to give you.
In sum, God has outsourced the duty of distributing goodies mostly to these MNC’s who will promise you everything including “nirvana” like a devils advocate tempts the believers. Unlike God, they can also promise mass nirvana……..
I wonder whether this will be satisfactory to anyone save the present day Gurus, the MNCs, and the multitude of youth who seem just to mesmerized by the “just do it” slogan, no matter what, so long as it fancies you.
The lesson for me from reading the first 100 odd pages of the epic, is that the answers by the sage is for Rama- the Lord Himself who has just taken an avatar, and had promised that He will lead a life of a mortal and not pronounce at every step his real identity.
It was also in response to Rama’s total indifference to all worldly affairs, and to bring him to abandon this and remind him of his mission- namely that of killing Ravana and reduce Bhoomi devis burden.
It was most certainly not for a ordinary mortal like me, and as Vashishta himself says this was only for those who have by their own reason reached this stage of total indifference to worldly affairs. My unease therefore has either no meaning, or not worth clarifying, and these remain.
Who am I but just an old man with archaic ideas, totally out of sync with the current generation? I can perhaps live with that, but what saddens me is that I have no one –even from the traditional set of teachers/gurus- who would care to empathize with my feelings.
Their answers whenever one reports a problem to the Gurus, are either a mere nod, or a general “our blessings are there” kind. More often it is the former. The shishya kotis profound interpretations of these responses are hardly assuaging, the feeling of a let-down.
The answers it would appear will only come when they are due, and till then, the rascals like me and the countless underprivileged, I had listed, have nothing but total saranaagathy as the only option. In other words constant prayer with absolutely no desire for any ‘outcome” till wisdom dawns, seems the only option. Asking of the question as to for how long, is however taboo.
Of course, one is at liberty to change this paradigm and live every moment,
And who knows, in perfect sync with the MNC slogans, and the respected lady, one may experience bliss without a trace of sorrow.
Or better perhaps, keep both the options, total surrender to His will without any expectations, but live every moment in happiness.
Perhaps the traditional Gurus are saying only this, and I am not competent enough to understand. But transcending the all perversive decadence around us, and be able to be in bliss, does seem terribly like a -to borrow a tamil saying- “bemaani”, to my un-evolved mind.
Confused? Or plain Irreverence? I do not know. But I am surprised that I am not out of my wits as yet. Perhaps there is hope that I am not totally forgotten.
Love Vichu
Dear Chittappa
ReplyDeleteLet me first quote below all the woes you have penned in your first two blogs.
1. The ‘dispensation of Grace’ is un-understandable
2. “Am I (a)still in that lowly stage where I am getting punishments for wrongdoings or (b) in the stage where I can be tempted with “offering goodies” or (c) I have come to the testing- of- sincerity stage. And once He makes me aware will He give me the resilience to bear the punishments, or the severe tests, if I am not in the second category, and perhaps the wisdom not to give-in to the temptations if I am. Alas for these I have no answers, and he apparently chooses not to bother.”
3. “The answers in any form are almost invariably, tremendously unsatisfying, regardless of what the puritans/the devout may say.”
4. Thatha’s harping on destiny and his complete disregard of others’ feelings
5. “Like two rams, our fate and exertions are fighting with one another, and the victory is always on the side of the stronger. (Uh Huum?)”
6. “A colleague asks as to whether one should bring God to our level, and give Him a role of a judge, to decide rights and wrongs, and the respective goodies and punishments. God only gives “goodies” and all that we have to do is Live every moment and there will be no sorrows.”
7. “And when one is able to rise and shine above these, by his own reasoning, can look inward, and thru practice of yoga, liberate himself, and experience an oneness with that Universal soul, in pure bliss. This experience cannot be shared, obviously, as otherwise, the enunciation of “truth” would have said something about caring, feeling, doing something to try and help the suffering lot.” The long list of the sufferers, have to just live every moment, and hey presto, there will be just bliss, as God has nothing but love and plentiful of goodies to give you.
8. What saddens me is that I have no one –even from the traditional set of teachers/gurus- who would care to empathize with my feelings. The Gurus are just not available (for giving even a modicum of comfort). Their answers whenever one reports a problem to the Gurus, are either a mere nod, or a general “our blessings are there” kind. More often it is the former. The shishya kotis profound interpretations of these responses are hardly assuaging, the feeling of a let-down.
9. “The answers it would appear will only come when they are due, and till then, the rascals like me and the countless underprivileged, I had listed, have nothing but total saranaagathy as the only option. In other words constant prayer with absolutely no desire for any ‘outcome” till wisdom dawns, seems the only option. Asking of the question as to for how long, is however taboo. Of course, one is at liberty to change this paradigm and live every moment. And who knows, in perfect sync with the MNC slogans, and the respected lady, one may experience bliss without a trace of sorrow. Or better perhaps, keep both the options, total surrender to His will without any expectations, but live every moment in happiness. Perhaps the traditional Gurus are saying only this, and I am not competent enough to understand. But transcending the all perversive decadence around us, and be able to be in bliss, does seem terribly like a -to borrow a tamil saying- “bemaani”, to my un-evolved mind.”
Now let me attempt to respond to some of the above.
1) Kali Yuga is a lousy time. Maybe you would have none of the angst that you are talking about if we were in the Krita Yuga. It is said that in earlier Yugas people could see, and easily converse with the Devataas. Alas that does not happen in Kali Yuga. Why is the Kali Yuga so lousy? Maybe because at the end of Kali Yuga, the cycle has to end and things have to start afresh. You don’t like to discard something that is in excellent condition, so you let things deteriorate to a level where you are actually happy to discard it! There is undoubtedly untold suffering, wretchedness, decadence and misery all around us. You find that utterly unsatisfactory. But there is no need to beat our chests for that. The situation in Kali Yuga is as ordained by the Lord.
2) We do not need to judge ourselves as wretched souls because we remain in Kali Yuga, un-liberated. That is unnecessary, and of no use. After all, God wants some good souls as well in Kali Yuga to make it somewhat bearable. We are descendants of great sages like Sage Vishwamitra and Sage Kaushika (with a long lineage in between though). It is clear that we are no patch on them, and even collectively can’t match 1% of their prowess. But rather than compare and despair, we can take hope that we trace ourselves to these Sages, howsoever distant that may be. In Kali Yuga, even the smallest virtue is of great value, and we should strive to practice virtue, howsoever small it might be. I am totally convinced that the Lord is delighted even when we practice the slightest virtue.
3) Let me come to the question of what stage in spiritual evolution we are in. Only an evolved soul can assess what stage each of us individually is in. Such a soul can in a trice read our spiritual balance sheet. Acharyal is one among such souls. We cannot figure out at what stage we are. Alas, there is no report card which is issued every quarter.
4) Now to the subject of the Gurus, and your disenchantment with them. For a Guru to perform His role, there needs to be a corresponding person performing the Shishya’s role. Unfortunately, true Guru-Shishya relationships have almost but disappeared. We are Bhaktas of Acharyal, not Shishyas. A Shishya submits his entire life in the hands of the Guru, and the slightest wish of the Guru is his greatest command. We can start expecting a Guru to liberate us when we are ready to become true Shishyas. An example that I cite here may not be out of place. Thatha once asked Acharyal a pointed question in Sringeri. This was fairly recent, when I was in my teens. I am not getting into the details of that question here, as it is not central to the point. Acharyal replied “Neengal Sringeri ki vaango, naan chollaren”. His direction was “Shift bag and baggage to Sringeri, and I shall tell you.” He knew that Thatha would not shift permanently to Sringeri, and there the question ended. I am using this example to say that even Thatha was not a true Shishya. No wonder Acharyal does not go beyond platitudes and nodding His Head with all of us. (As for the shishya-kotis who interpret the nods and the brief words for us, we can stop wasting our time listening to them ).
A Guru will emerge for us when we are ready for the unwavering obedience and discipline of a Shishya. The Guru may be Acharyal, it may be someone else. Until we are in a true Guru-Shishya relationship, we can forget about liberation. So all our striving in our current janmaa is only to move us closer to attaining a true Guru-Shishya relationship. When will that happen? How far have we covered on that road? Alas there are no milestones. We have to just keep driving.
I am reminded of Goddess Parvati’s penance to attain Lord Siva. She too had no progress milestones. She says “The seeds I sowed have turned into trees, and yielded fruits, but I don’t know when my penance will fructify”. She kept at it despite no visible progress indicators, and without getting frustrated and abandoning the quest. I think this entire aspect of not displaying progress indicators is deliberate on the part of the Lord. Even if we have to travel 10,000 kms., if there is a progress milestone every 10 or 20 kms., it motivates us to complete the journey. The Lord does not want that motivation to be provided. Because if liberation was easy, God’s creation cannot be sustained. Everyone will opt out of the nonsense. I remember the early sages Brahma created who refused to procreate and further Creation. That is why liberation is an impossibly tough goal, and only one in a million reach it. But one thing is for sure – we carry forward all our progress from janmaa to janmaa.
5) “This experience cannot be shared, obviously, as otherwise, the enunciation of “truth” would have said something about caring, feeling, doing something to try and help the suffering lot.”
The enlightened souls like Acharyal are ever engaged in helping the suffering lot, including us. Simply because He does not say anything, it is wrong to conclude that He is not immensely blessing us. His blessing flows through His Paarvai. That’s why after concluding the night puja, He scans the entire crowd carefully before retiring inside. That is to bless everyone who is there. The objective of going to Sringeri is not as much for us to have Darshan of Acharyal, as it is for Him to see us, and bestow His Grace through Paarvai alone.
6) Now let me come to punishment, goodies and temptations. About getting punishment for wrong-doing, the Lord’s automatic system rewards and punishes for good and bad deeds. The Lord himself intervenes only in the following ways:
a. Mitigating the punishment when a devotee ardently prays to Him
b. Supporting his devotee through difficult times
c. Testing the greatest of his devotees with untold misery, to bring in them complete dispassion, and consequent liberation
We are nowhere near being the greatest of his devotees, so we can ignore Point c. When we suffer badly, are we to berate ourselves as great sinners? Or can we say that as God controls everything, it is He who ultimately made us sin? The former is unnecessary. The latter is the entire discussion about Fate and Free will, eloquently spoken by His Holiness Sri Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati. I think we can safely ignore Thatha’s propagation of the view of Destiny , as it is of no practical use.
As for goodies, we get them based on our past good deeds. If we turn them into temptations, we will further reduce our speed (already super-slow) on that long road to liberation.
7) In conclusion, you are 200% right when you say that total surrender to His will without any expectations, but living every moment in happiness is the Mantra.
May our great fore-fore-forefathers the Sages, the great Acharyals of Sringeri, Goddess Saradamba, Lord Maheshwara and Lord Naaraayana all bless us!
ALV's response....
ReplyDelete___________________________
Well, well, well.
Spoken truly like a Kaushika, and a lokanatha thatha clan. To borrow a phrase from Anand, let me engage you (instead of responding) with some immediate thoughts.
1. I am hoping that the "samaadhaanams" you have offered, are not under the impression that these thoughts were absent from my mind. My point is simply this ; Both "in spite", as well as "because" of these thoughts, my anguish ( you call it "cut up" or anger) has found these expressions.
2. As to your observations about Kaliyugam, Krita yugam etc, pl do not forget that similar( pardon me for blasphemy) anguish was expressed by none else than Lord Rama himself, and not in Kali, but in thretha yugam, unless you or the modern day liberal historians want me to believe, that this epic itself was written in recent times well into Kaliyuga. Neither Ramar or yours truly are beating their chests (blasphemy be damned)
3. You say that we mortals have no means ( or Grace?) to know as to where precisely we are in terms of our "evolitionary stage". Wonderful. By the same logic will you probably agree that, one cannot also gainsay, that we all have no means to assess others standing, as also our lack of wisdom in assesssing Acharyal's "nods" or perfunctory remarks? If this logic is applied, pray how do you comfortably conclude the profound import of either Acharyals directions to Thatha, that he come to Sringeri, or Thatha's reluctance to obey this "dictat" or for that matter his evolutionary stage? My point is we do not know. Incidentally the same Acharyal referred thatha, as a "jambhavaan". I am not commenting on this either.
4. I am also very pained with the arguments, that our visits to holy places, is more for the deity/acharyal, to be happy in seeing his subjects, than our bhakthi, which takes us there. (Incidentally, barring kaliyugam, I see no reference to temples in any other yugams) God/Acharyal are omniscient, omnipresent, but what kind of God is He if He is going to be more happy with the mere physical presence, of His subjects, and not know the intrinsic nature of his bakhthi, even when he has not exerted himself to be physically present to have darshan?
5. You must have heard of Ekalavya; Dronacharya refused to teach him "archery". He then went about learning, nay pefecting the art, so much, that Drona as a guru, asked for a dakshina. I can fully empathise with what i imagine would have been Ekalavya's anguish, in not having a "guru" and his not being a shishya in their appropriate meanings. My anguish is no less; I have no means to pierce the "hoduthurais" gang surrounding the acharyals, and hence I can only pray with total saranaagathy, that one day I may get a comfortable "darshan", notwithstanding my apparent inability/ nonchalant lethargy.
6. Finally, the "karunai" part, again my regret is seemingly almost complete absence of "call for action for mitigating the overhelming odds for the underpreveliged" as against over emphasising the "liberation of self" paradigm, which (to me) seems to suggest that, it's all individual effort, no mass liberation, no need for bothering about a fellow human's misery, (it's God's scheme of things for Kaliyuga), etc. Thus the more I know about these, or hear about these, the more is my anguish.... Especially since, I am also being made to know, that with progress of Kaliyuga, moral decay, and the scheme of things, are only going to be on the increase.
I wish I can beat my chest, and wail loudly, but I can't, as I find it odd/uncivilised, embaraasing, uncouth and what have you, and thus these thoughts torment me in my solitude, with only my consciousness as a mute witness, and thus given an opportunity, finds an expression. I feel immensely glad, that these are similar to Lord Rama's ( no less) in thretha yuga....... A very meagre consolation though..........and more of anguish.........
Love
Vichu
Chittappa,
ReplyDeleteI fully recognize that many of the samaadhanams that I have offered have already been considered by you before penning your anguish.
I acknowledge that we have no means of assessing others’ spiritual standing, and my judging Thatha was flawed. But it was merely in the context of what is said about the rigor of a Guru-Shishya relationship.
Acharyal is not saying that He will only bless devotees who see Him in person. Temples indeed are needed only for those who can’t meditate on the God within. The devotee who finds Acharyal in his Heart and Mind is blessed regardless of physical proximity. But that does not take away from the fact that when you are physically in front of Acharyal, He sees you and you receive His blessings.
Mass liberation is non-existent, except maybe in the case of an Avataara like Krishna, where he liberated all that came in contact with Him, friend or foe. In the safety announcement played in planes, you are advised to secure your own Oxygen mask first before you try to help others. The logic is very simple – a person who does not have his own Oxygen mask on is going to die before he can help another. You can ameliorate others’ spiritual misery after ridding yourself of your own. As for ameliorating physical suffering of others, there are clear mandates in the Shaastras about helping others in need, giving a share of earnings to charity and so on. These are elements of Saamanya Dharma, which every human being is mandated to do. Talking about self-realization when you do not even adhere to Saamanya Dharma is preposterous. The pursuit of self-realization and helping those in misery do not conflict.
Affly
Shankar
Comment from Anand:
ReplyDeleteNamaskaram - Athan-O!
Read and pondered as usual. I reply-all for the first time, since engaging with the issue, not responding to ‘you’.
Many points in your blog merit a response:
In Vasishta, there is a distinct jump from ‘Fate’ in points 5,6,7 where it is described (hence affirmed), to the ‘Destiny’ in point 9, which has been denied as being ‘false’& ‘mistaken’. Your clubbing them as ‘fate or destiny’ does him injustice, methinks. The language at the beginning of point 9 also prompts me to ask if it is the pure translation or someone’s (maybe yours) addition. There is something great going on, I believe sahab, if 9 follows 5,6,7 – re-reading is well worth it. Sanskrit probably better. And Sahab, I do mean it in the context of not only Athimber and you, but me and everyone. (Maybe, ‘I’ is better here! – a la the English & Obama!)
Your colleague not impressive AT ALL, profound by NO means, sorry! With due respect to whatever her eminence, ‘Live every moment, and there will be no sorrow’ is TRIPE of the first order. Sorrow, even if an effect of maya, cannot be done away by just ‘living’. What she is saying will qualify as your “bemaani”! And your clubbing her with the MNCs further dilutes even what they are saying. Yes, I mean it. See next.
Errata: “I’m lovin’ it” is McDonalds, not KFC. But you do gross injustice to the ‘younger generation’ amongst whom I may count myself w.r.t you (though my students would disagree), by generalizing that they are ‘mesmerised’, and can live every moment in ‘bliss’ful ignorance. I would only compare their state to yours with a little difference, in that while the more profound questions ‘(yes please, they are ALWAYS there, step into any campus) and the oppressive realities (beyond one’s own life’s un-explain-eds, look around!) are scarcely explained by the ‘higher powers’ (nod & blessings), their abundant life-energy translates into passionate pursuit of every activity. Merely, the next thing. And in absence of ‘great’ and ‘larger purpose’ful direction-giving, doing away with the SAME Rama / Vichu Athan dis-enchantment (or as you call it ‘indifference to worldly affairs’) and getting on with it. Not to do away with the questioning, which bear you well, keeps surfacing, AND in the more spiritually inclined, surely comes to bother at a later ‘stage’ – please don’t read or call it ‘age’! In this context, let us ask ourselves, what ‘on earth’ (pun intended) do we mean by ‘total saranagathy / surrender’. And how cleverly it depends on who ‘we’ are and what we choose to surrender to and ‘why’.
Just to lay it on thick, let me also give your another MNC slogan – this one from Richard Branson (that impossibly ‘young’ chap!)’s ‘Virgin’- “Whatever turns you on!’ and athan-ji, I will club all the books & other ‘great’ness-es into the same ‘perverse’ ([sic] -your error (?) in the 2nd last para has an irony!) decadence! Case closed.
You search for THE ‘teacher’ (I refrain from using ‘guru’) still persists, I see. It has been many years now, and all I can say is your ‘unease’ has a ‘meaning’ (your words) and therein agree with Arun & his quote. It is tough, not impossible, if you are looking for empathy. Yes, we all derive great succour from some ‘source’ that can put things in a larger perspective, such as can accommodate the un-explain-eds.
Personally, I do think Sage Vasishta speaks to us all, and not only to the Nar-Narayan. No. 10 was a master-stroke in my opinion. Well worth returning to, and with that note ‘Jai Ho’ to your sustained Yoga Vasishta. It’s like us getting good decoction / percolation every week!
All for now, hope no offence taken, since none meant; and forgive the excess. I just felt like ‘reacting’ (hope it is responding) and found time too. My namaskarams to all in Mumbai, while regards I think are largely global!
Anand
ALV Response to Anand:
ReplyDeleteBade Saheb
Great to hear from one of the "teachers", and qualified member of the gen-next. Just a re-engagement, to borrow your phrase.
1. The points are from a random list which runs into very large numbers. But are in same sequence, as in the text, though some points in between are given a miss. In that sense, 9 is after 5,6, and 7.
2. Just to be a little bit more lenient to the hon'ble lady her quote is " if you live every moment, as a moment, where is sorrow and happiness.... My sarcasm about this being profound is perhaps lost.
3.Your para starting with "just to lay it thick.....etc" I did not quite get you. As far as my para is concerned, the word "perversive" had been derived by me from "preverse" ( the MS word says it's wrong). I wanted to use both decadence as well as perverse, and hence the usage perversive decadence. Irrespective of whether it's right or wrong usage, it gave me "enormous raahath" and capture my feeling totally. Period.
Keep responding (or engaging perhaps), it feels wonderful. The blog idea is just for that...... engagement with like minded (or even unlike-minded!!) .......
Again to borrow your phrase ( and the current mood) really Jai Ho .............
Love
Vichu