Temperatures have shot up to 43 deg C during daytime. Nights are still somewhat bearable, between 23 to 27 deg C. People have begun to prefer the pavement outdoors for that open space and slight breeze, even for that whiff as cars whiz by; that is, not everyone out there is homeless. Speaking of which, there was a storm yesterday which raised some thanks to the lips, despite it being a dusty and dirty one. As a result, it a notch cooler today, humid but the sun less beating and scorching. Weather woes shall continue through burning May, sweaty June, hot humid interregnums in rainy July and August, followed by the second, shorter summer in September and October, tapering into cooler November days. This different kind of abundance, of excessive heat will borne in languidity. The showers, usually sporadic in these parts around the national capital, should bring some poets to life.

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It is indisputable, India needs to keep its guard up against an expansionist China. The good thing is that Chinese leadership is not warmongering. It will not go to war until it is inevitable and unless it is winnable. That however is no cause for comfort or relaxation in peace. It will always test for opportunities to expand its agenda envelope materially, psychologically and militarily.

What I emphasise is that if we keep building our state of preparedness to a triumphant strategy, such that China knows that a war with India is not winnable, and do not stop meeting and looking into their eye, we would be attack proof.

That preparedness is going strong, well on the way, in India, strategically as well as assetwise. Where we still appear weak in this context is cyber warfare, both in disseminating information and in systems hacking of assets on land, sea and space. At least there is little info on our capacity in this regard.

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The post and comments by an FB friend gathered perception to what things mean to us, why and how. The perception Domain is like the tip of an iceberg, of which just one-tenth is exposed or objective and nine-tenth is subjective, of which none is better placed to look into than the person himself. Yet, this major part remains unexamined, as it happens.

Our perception domain extends from material object, just so many points in the gross space, to the endlessly vast inner, progressively Subtle extension in which the subject’s self could be situated. The inner domain extends along a vertical axis and is actually an asymptotal cone, expanding infinetely at the subtle-most abode of the Self.

The inward axis is symbolically denominated by the seven chakras, each qualifying the perceiver with capacity for ever more subtle sight … defining the meaning of what is in our eye. They are : Base, which qualify us with survival concerns including food and organic or physiological processes; Pleasure, Self-Serving and -Satisfying concerns; Competitive Status, Strength and Power concerns; Heart, Love and Happiness concerns; Spiritual, Unworldly concerns; Spiritually Attained, Post Fulfillment concerns; and Liberated, Spiritually Quenched, Total Freedom from all concerns. Thereupon reigns the indescribable Witness Self –within — Self Infinite experience of I-without-another.

Here on, I can only indicate the many dimensions of gathered thought pithily :

1 Hume’s Empiricism has just one dimension, that of gross present. It is incapable of reflecting upon all those subjective, subtle and causal extensions no human being is without but which, as it happens, remains unexamined. The three terms — Gross, Subtle and Causal — are denominative of different Spaces with their respective universes, which is before, within and behind every person, as a matter of fact. Not everybody is aware of the Subtle phenonomena and none that I know, including myself, is privy to the Causal. These three Great Spaces have different nature, objects and laws.

2 Kant’s apriori categories of subjective knowledge very partially cover the subtle domain explained above. It suffers the same shortcomings as Hume’s in the Western mind… We tend to look upon Kant’s proposition objectively, when the presentation regards wholly subjective matters. Rather, we better understand it when we read up and imbibe the reality circumscribed by (A) Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that mention … Panch Pramana; Threefold Samadhis — Vitarka, Vichaar and Kaivalya; Word–Meaning–Knowledge; Place — Species — Time (or Age), etc. etc… and (B) say, Durga Stuti, which goes on to fetch universal subtle constituents of Manifest Being in the series “या देवी सर्वभूतेषु…” or in BhagvadGita, where the Supreme Being attempts to point to his own presence in diverse things, people, and ways.

3 It’s only when the entire asymptotic expanse is traversed, offering all possible views — true, truer and supreme, would a man rest in knowledge that is the Truth of truths, and can thence intuit the truth of all things, completely and immutablly. That’s how the Vedic seers perceived the universe in a single of sand, the Kenopanishad answers to “What is that, knowing which all this is known ?”, and the Mundaka wraps up all Being in three letters of AUM, with fourth (.) as the abode of Immanent Supreme.

There is no clarity of any thing, being, person or event, and any time. We will have to think up meanings as we go along until then, and believe in them.

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A neighbourhood gossip I heard that you might find entertaining as well :

A husband wrote back to his wife that hasn’t received his salary this month, so he is sending a hundred kisses instead, and that he loved her very much.

After about ten days, his wife replied that she had paid those they owed with the kisses, particularly how the landlord had insisted on a tight embrace in addition, with her up against the wall, to square up on his dues.

She further informed her husband that she had only ten more kisses left with her against the twelve that would be required for what was due to the gardener. The man was an unruly rustic, more like a wild bull. “But you, dear husband, need not worry,” assured the wife, for she would give back to him no less and actually looked forward to the transaction. Finally, she wrote, she loved him very much too.

I would not be able to recount what happened thereafter, dear reader, because I did not hear that part. What do you think would have happened ? Did the husband fall ill ? Did he scramble to send the salary amount by express transfer ? Or, did he himself actually rush back home ?

Do let me know.