surrender

Excerpt from the book Infinite Vision by Pavithra K. Mehta and Suchitra Shenoy

Dr. V's observations:

It is difficult to understand surrender. Constantly your mind has got its own fixed ideas or opinions. You get strongly attached to what you think is right and come into conflict with people who differ from you. You are not able to step back and watch your ideas. Lots of times, these ideas are based on the impressions of the mind, and not the higher spiritual consciousness. 

--
Sigh. This loss of perspective is very evident at all the times.

Srik

living deep within

Excerpt from the book Infinite Vision by Pavithra K. Mehta and Suchitra Shenoy

Dr. V's observations: 

You want to live deep within, but you get upset by so many superficial things, or you get elated because of some superficial achievement. How will you guide Aravind, Seva or other service organizations. First thing to do is for you to live in your soul. Do not allow mental prejudices to cloud your thinking. To surrender yourself to the higher qualities in you is your constant effort. Do not limit yourself to small things. 

--
So well said. Self-examination is the only key to achieve transparent consciousness.

Srik

Americans on the planet

Excerpt from the book Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

Yes, as economic development spreads it is possible that overall global population growth will slow and the world total will not reach the nine billion plateau by 2050; as more women get better educated and join the work force, they generally have fewer children. But the metric to watch is not the total number of people on the planet - it's the total number of Americans on the planet. That is the key number and it has been steadily rising. 

~~

Are you aspiring to live an American lifestyle?  Ask yourself. 

Srik

Doha and Dalian

Excerpt from the book Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

I'm glad that many people in the United States and Europe have switched from incandescent lightbulbs to long-lasting compact fluorescent lightbulbs in their homes. That has saved a lot of kilowatts of energy. But the recent growth in Doha and Dalian just ate all those energy savings for breakfast. I'm glad that many people are buying hybrid cars. But Doha and Dalian devoured all those gasoline savings before noon. I'm glad that the U.S. Congress decided to boost U.S. mileage-per-gallon requirements up to European levels by 2020. But Doha and Dalian will have those energy savings for lunch - may be just as the first course. I'm glad that solar and wind power are "soaring" toward 2 percent of U.S. energy generation, but Doha and Dalian will guzzle all those clean electrons for dinner. I'm thrilled that people are now doing the "twenty green things" to save energy suggested by their favorite American magazine. But Doha and Dalian will snack on all those good intentions like popcorn before bedtime. 

~~ 
Darn! you, Doha and Dalian! While Americans are busy learning lessons from their mistakes, you both are silently becoming the clans of America!? 


Darn you! 


Srik

frog in the pail

Excerpt from the book Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

The Energy-Climate Era crept up on us slowly. In some ways, when it comes to climate change, human society has been like the proverbial frog in the pail on the stove, where the heat gets turned up very slightly every hour, so the frog never thinks to jump out. It just keeps adjusting until it boils to death. I hope we will write a different ending, but let's not fool ourselves: We are the frog, the pail is getting hot, flat and crowded, and we need a long-term survival plan - a ladder out of the pail. 

~~
Well, Can you feel the heat? and where is the ladder yet?


Srik

the next billion

Excerpt from the book Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

In the next twelve years alone, the world's population is expected to swell by roughly another billion people, and many of them will become new consumers and producers. When that happens, the law of large numbers starts to kick in - everything starts to add up to huge. For instance, what if, once that newest billion are all here, we gave each of them a sixty-watt incandescent light bulb?

Each bulb doesn't weigh much - roughly 0.7 ounces with the packaging - but a billion of them together weigh around 20,000 metric tons, or about the same as 15,000 Priuses. Now let's turn them on. If they're all on at the same time, it'd be 60,000 megawatts. Luckily, [they] will only use their bulbs four hours per day, so we're down to 10,000 megawatts at any moment. Yikes! looks like we'll still need twenty or so new 500-megawatt coal-burning power plants - just so the next billion people can turn a light on!

As told by David Douglas, vice president for eco-responsibility for Sun Microsystems.

~~

Yikes! and am still wondering how many such yikes! stuff awaits for the law of big numbers to take over everything!

Srik

reSet

I know 
its pretty late 
but still 
now that we have reached 7 billion;
we were a mere 3 billion half a century ago
and marching towards 9 billion
in a couple of decades,
that we are exploiting more
and continue to do so
and perhaps
no easy solution
or less readiness 
to face bigger challenges
of warming 
or the crowd out there


I always think,
dream of that button
the same one
you are looking for
to just go and punch it
with full energy to 
reSet everything back to 
normal! 


Srik