Yudhisthira’s Wisdom

Recently I got some interesting emails from Sydney and New York that I am a lazy and bad blogger. Well, yes that I am. I should say sorry to my those dear readers because they were eagerly waiting my second post on What to do in Nepal which I haven't managed to write yet. They said that their travel plan to Nepal was just stuck in Kathmandu, becuase had they been able to read my second post it would be easier for them to plan their days beyond Kathmandu as well.

I have been busy with one quite new stuff that we, I and some of my friends (they are also bad and lazy! after all they are my friends) are going to start. I will tell more about that later anyway. I will post my second post on What to do in Nepal before this weekend. I promise.

Can you imagine what did I reply to those dear readers of my blog? I sent them a nice moral and a sort of spiritual message that I read when I was at school. They loved it and instantly wrote me back that the message was cool.

It's a short conversation between two great guys of Hinduism. Here it goes:


According to a Hindu scripture Yudhisthira was the man with profound wisdom. Once he was travelling with his other four brothers and the day was very sunny and hot. They were very tired and thirsty, so wanted to drink water. Yudhisthira sent his one brother to fetch water from a nearby lake. Hours passed but the brother didn't come back. He sent his second brother, he also disappeared. He sent the third as well as the fourth ones, but they also didn't return.

Finally, he travelled himself and found all of his brothers dead near the lake. When he was near the corpses of his brothers, Yaksha (water god, by the way) appeared and warned him not to touch anything there unless he answers his questions. Yudhisthira agreed to answer Yaksha's questions.

Yaksha started asking.

"Tell me Yudhisthira what makes the sun shine?”
“The power of God!” Yudhisthira answered.

“What is man’s surest weapon against danger?”
“Courage! Courage is his surest weapon in danger.”

“What gives more to man than even the earth does? What feeds him and sustains him and makes him strong?”
“A mother, surely. A mother is more than the earth.”

“When does a man become loved by his fellows?”
“When he gives up pride.”

“What is that which makes a man happy when he has lost it?”
“Anger.”

“What can a man give up and immediately become rich?”
“Desire.”

Yaksha asked his final question, "What is the most surprising things about humans?"
"Indifference to the inevitability of death! People see everyone dying before their eyes, but they don't realise that they will also have to die one day."

Mr. Yaksha was very happy with Yudhisthira's answers and happily revived all of his dead brothers.

I hope you loved this stuff:)

Sixth Sense Technology? Yes!

Why This, Why That?

I hate questions, and WH questions are the worst ones. Amongst all WHY is of my least preference. When people ask me a question attaching a dangerous WHY, it is going to be a total nightmare for me. I simply cannot answer them. Don’t ask me the reason.

Why did you come to this country instead of others?

Why did you decide to study this subject?

By the way, why did you decide to go to that country for your international placement?

Why don’t you try for a good work?

Why? Why? Whoy? Whyyyy???

I don’t know about other people, but when I do things I do without any clear-cut or visible reasons. I simply feel doing things that I want and there is no exact reason as to why I want some things and not others. Unfortunately, people keep asking me, why? I can’t just say ‘because I like that’. I need to find some extra invented words and explain how nicely all those things are going to benefit me and so on. People enjoy my explanation and think somewhere down inside me there is a power to reason, give explanations and argue; and often I leave their rooms feeling like a liar and a stupid moron.

To me doing things that I enjoy is like falling in love. You don’t know exactly why you love somebody or just one person when there are other 6 billion people available on this planet. It is very special decision that you take. You don’t know exact reasons, but still you feel a sudden urge within you. You are pulled without any visible, explainable reason.

There are things that can be answered easily when people ask me with a ‘why’ question. However, I don’t enjoy the things that I can explain with reasons. For instance, if somebody asks me, why do you work? I need to say ‘to eat’. This is a simple logical answer. This is the activity that I need to do though I don’t enjoy so much. Why do you write blogs instead of doing other nice stuff? Now this question is going to be Herculean one. I can’t answer, sorry. I have fallen in love with it.

No more Whys.

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What to do in Nepal? Part I

Yesterday one of my Norwegian friends who was just preparing to fly to Nepal wrote me a long email and asked what are the things that one shouldn’t miss while visiting Nepal. There are quite many things and places in Nepal that I haven’t manage to visit yet. For example, I haven’t been to the internationally famous Mount Everest region and I do think of Mustang quite a lot because I haven’t got a chance to visit this mysterious region which lies beyond the Himalayan range. If you are not a passionate mountaineer, these are not going to work for you as well. So don’t aim to reach the top of the world, which is in Nepal, by the way. 

On this post I will be writing some practical tips that might be worth reading for somebody who plans to visit Nepal for, let’s say, fifteen days as a tourist. There are quite many so called reliable travel guides and agencies, but they are a bit more commercial rather than practical.  My second post will focus on places that one should visit outside Kathmandu.

I imagine myself as a foreigner now and think about the must –to-do things in Nepal.

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IIIIf you don’t have enough time, don’t get messed up in Kathmandu too much. Kathmandu is the capital city, not Nepal itself. So finish all crazy stuff in Kathmandu within two days. Of course, you’ll have to spare one day for shopping before you fly back to your country.

 

-    So what to see in Kathmandu? Start with the Narayanhiti National Museum. This must be damn interesting to you. Nepal is the youngest republic in the world and our ex-king used to live in this palace till last year (2008). So go and see what sort of things the Nepalese royals did when they were in power for more than 235 years.  Don’t miss it!

 

-    If I were a tourist in Nepal, I would also go visit Hanumandhoka museum (official Name The Tribhuvan Museum) and the National Museum in Chhauni. There are other several museums in Kathmandu, but unless you’re a student of archeology, I won’t recommend them. I simply don’t know the reason.

 

-     When you return from Hanumandhoka museum, try to have a bird-eye view of the Kathmandu valley from Dharahara tower. You will enjoy it and afterwards don’t forget to eat mo:mo at the premises. Or go to the Kathmandu Mall which is just near, do some shopping and eat ice cream and mo:mo in Hot Chili restaurant. These are the things that I do in Nepal, so you’re getting something precious, so don’t despise it at any rate.

 

-    If you’re not radically religious and have a slightest idea that there are other religions out there too, start your second day’s visit from Pashupatinath Temple. If you are not a Hindu, you won’t be able to enter the main temple, but from the outside also you will manage to see almost all the stuff that the insiders see. Take some photos, and if you miss your girlfriend or boyfriend back home, you’ll see quite many monkeys coming to approach you there. Give them a smile and walk away, don’t fall in love with them. Anyway, you don’t need to run because they are coming to kiss you, not to kill! Then continue your visit to Swayambhunath Stupa, another monkey infested region, but very lovely and peaceful place. If you want to know why are these places famous, please google them today.

 

 

-NNow go to Nagarjuna forest. There is a forest resort called Osho Tapoban, so if you are interested in yoga, meditation and all the other complex life philosophies that eastern guys have developed in the course of centuries, go there and have a glimpse of the place and chat with people there. I used to go there when the central Kathmandu would take my head away with noise, pollution and all that crazy stuff people do in a city with four million people. It’s called a resort, but it isn’t expensive at all. You can have nice vegetarian lunch at a reasonable price.

-    Now there are other places in the valley that probably your Nepali friends might suggest you to visit such as Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Patan Durbar Square, Changunarayan, Godawari, National Zoo Jawalakhel and so on. If you have time, finish them too, because it might be expensive for you to go back there again just to visit those places.   (read my forthcoming blog post for more information) 

Chanakya Quotes on Life, Success, God and Women!

I was literally surprised by the Google statistics on Chanakya. There are still thousands of people who search about his teachings from all over the world. Chanakya was an Indian Saint as well as a philosopher. He was born 350 BC and died 275 BC. His words of wisdom are widely cherished in India and other south asian countires including Nepal and Srilanka. In the west also, Chanakya has been studied a lot. Here are a few quotes by Chanakya which might be inspirational for some.  

1. One should save his money against hard times, save his wife at the sacrifice of his riches, but invariably one should save his soul even at the sacrifice of his wife and riches.

2.Do not inhabit a country where you are not respected, cannot earn your livelihood, have no friends, or cannot acquire knowledge.

3. Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.

4. Women have hunger two-fold, shyness four-fold, daring six-fold, and lust eight-fold as compared to men.

5. Separation from the wife, disgrace from one's own people, an enemy saved in battle, service to a wicked king, poverty, and a mismanaged assembly: these six kinds of evils, if afflicting a person, burn him even without fire.

6. They are fearless who remain always alert.

7.These five: the life-span, the type of work, wealth, learning and the time of one's death are determined while one is in the womb.

8. When one is consumed by the sorrows of life, three things give him relief: offspring, a wife, and the company of the Lord's devotees.

9. A young wife is poison to an aged man.

10. There is no disease (so destructive) as lust; no enemy like infatuation; no fire

like wrath; and no happiness like spiritual knowledge.

11.Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.

12.He who lives in our mind is near though he may actually be far away; but he who is not in our heart is far though he may really be nearby.

13.Once you start a working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.

14.The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.

15.The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.

Do you agree with these?