Consciousness

Life! I feel life is the greatest creation in this Universe. Or the greatest thing (sorry, can't think of any other word) that exists. All the other wonders deserve notice and praise. But the most worthy of that praise is life. After all, there should be somebody to appreciate the other wonders!

But what is life? Can we define a living being as one who is conscious of it's own existence? I guess that definition comes close to be a foolproof definition. Even plants would satisfy the definition. Only if a being is aware of it's existence will it try to protect it. The fact that plants try to survive makes it evident that they are conscious.

Now I guess that is a major attribute of consciousness. To survive. According to me, it is the greatest attribute which I will say defines consciousness. Being conscious makes us fear death. We fear the unknown. And if we have to face it alone, that makes it even more dreadful. The greatest unknown thing about death is continuance of consciousness. Death is loss of your identity and your identity is defined by your consciousness.

Being conscious is being aware of one's own existence. How conscious do you think you are? These days, we spend all our lives keeping our mind busy in one thing or the other. When we get up, we are already late for the office and spend the morning in getting ready. When in office, we have so much to do that we hardly realize how we spent all that time buried under papers, staring at our screens and if you are lucky grabbing a bite in between. When back home, we are already so much tired that we don't feel like doing anything. Most just watch TV and then go to sleep.

Are we losing our consciousness? Our greatest gift!? Our means of survival? If we define a living being as a conscious being, are we already dead?

When one meditates, he is being conscious. Does that mean that meditation connects us to the awareness of our existence? It connects us to the nature of 'beings'? And does that refer to the 'connectedness' of the whole Universe?Are we all connected because of the same basic consciousness that we share? Interesting! Isn't it?

मराठी मध्ये Google

आज बर्याच दिवसनी blogger उघडले. त्यात हिंदी मध्ये blogging करता येईल असे म्हटल होते. मी try करून बघुया असा विचार केला। हा पहिला हिंदी blog आहे। म्हटल देवनागरी लिपिच आहे तर पटापट लिहिता येईल। पण नाही। मला पूर्णविराम देताच येईना। Compulsory हिंदी मधूनच लिहायला लागले :)। Blogger ला फार सुधारणा करण्याची गरज आहे। जर ह्या blog मधला दुसराच शब्द बघितला, तर तुमच्या असे लक्षात येईल की तो चुकिचा आहे। मी तो सुधारण्याचा खूप प्रयत्न केला। पण नाही जमले। तसा आत्ता प्रयत्न ही नीट नाहीच लिहिता आला।

हे सगळे लिहायला मला फार वेळ लागला। पुढे हे सगळे पटापट लिहिता येईल अशी आशा बाळगू । For some strange reason, I now cannot turn 'bALagu' to proper devnagari equivalent। मी आधी बाळ आणि मग गू असे लिहीले आणि त्या दोघामधाली space काढून टाकली :)।

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The difficult decision

For a long time I was wondering what to write about on my blog. Should I write about what’s happening in my life or my thoughts on some subject. Finally, I decided to write on a subject which touched both these aspects. The most difficult decision that I had made. It is what happened with me as also my thoughts on that matter.

I guess, deciding on the name of your son or daughter is the most difficult thing in the world! Anyone who has gone through it will agree readily. There are so many hurdles till one decides on the final name… That name can also change at the last moment. So until the naming ceremony is over, you are not out of troubles.

We had decided that Riya’s name should satisfy four criteria. It should be simple, sweet, small and meaningful. I wanted to have no more than four to five letters when spelt in English. I also wanted it to be without any “jodakshar”. The criteria, though they appeared to be easy, were really going to make the decision tougher.

I started with a excel sheet that a friend had mailed to me. It had all hindu names and their meanings. We also got two books with names. Our research started with this. We scanned each and every name in the excel sheet and the two books. We used to like some name, finalize on it and later discard it either because it did not fit our criteria or simply because we (or in most cases it was I) thought that it did not suit our lovely daughter. Sometimes, a name that was short, sweet and simple would have no meaning. Sometimes, a name with a very good meaning would be a little complex or lengthy. Names like Vaidehi, Shruti, and even Riya were discarded. Riya because it had no meaning. (True, Rhea means some Greek goddess. But we were thinking only of Marathi names. And we intended to spell it as Riya rather than Rhea even at that time.)

Whenever we decided on a name, we would start calling her by that name. After doing that for a day or two, I used to develop a feeling that this name is not suitable for our daughter. I would then discard it outright. I realized that this did not happen with the name Riya. Rather, we found that it was a perfect choice. So I decided to find if there is any meaning associated with that name. I started to search vigorously on the net in hope that somewhere and somehow I will find that the word had some meaning. Initial searches were fruitless and I kept changing search engines! Finally my efforts rendered results and I found Riya’s meaning not on one but two different sites. And fortunately for me, at both the places the meaning given was the same. Had it not been the case, I would have had to start my search all over again or settle for some other name.

Riya means singer or graceful. Now another hurdle was that it is not a Marathi name. I guess, the meaning comes from Bengali. We decided that we have to compromise on that and go ahead with the decision. But till the last moment, I had an underlying feeling "this is not a Marathi name… should I change it?"

Thankfully, I did no such thing and today when I look at her, I think there is no name more apt than this one!