[Reader-list] Buff or beef?

[S.Shashidhar]

Dear Tapas,

There are only few in this world that can create a nuclear bomb, that does nt mean that the science behind a boms is fake or irrelavant. Most of the knowledge of yoga is copied from the nature itself, there are trees which grow without water for ages, and spring back to life. There are animals who hibernate in the winter months and their heart beats only 30 times during the entire period. There are examples of many himalayan squirrels who do so. a winter for a squirrel is like a life time for a human.

The essence of yoga is never suppression, but that of realisation. The goal of yoga is never to live without food or water for days to gether, but it is a by product of the acts undertaken. 

My friend if people flew planes in the ancient days, why are we still being pulled in bullock carts. They must have been stories of fantasy...

As far as condeming something, or allowing something, the scriptures have never done it, they have never even suggested anything. They mearly speak of experiences. What you are talking of especially the Aghora thing, had a very different settting in Bengal. There was a cult called as Thuggis, They were something else..

Regards,

Shashi

----- Original Message ----
From: Tapas Ray <t.ray at vsnl.com>
To: S.Shashidhar <iwasthere2000 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 2:22:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Buff or beef?


Shashi,

I can see that you have a deep regard for these people, and are upset by my 
flippant remark. Please accept my sincere apologies.

But I fail to understand how one can survive without food and water for many 
years. Certain indigenous peoples know the use of plants - such as coca and 
hoodia - for hunger and thirst suppression. But even these have their 
limits. As for yoga, I am sure it can do a lot of things, but cannot 
overturn the laws of nature whereby your body needs nutrition and water to 
survive.

Of course there are yogis - the ones you know, for instance - who have 
nothing to do with substances that are called drugs in secular society (such 
as marijuana and datura) or alcohol. But there are others who do. In fact, 
the use of these things is part of their religious practice. I am just 
stating facts and not making a value judgement here. Whether one can call 
them yogis or has to call them something else - say, sadhus - is another 
matter. Maybe there are rules/conventions about these things within the 
relevant religious tradition. I do not know.

Claiming miracles by reference to ancient Indian texts would seem to play 
into the hands of the most obscurantist elements, don't you think? I have 
heard people say that we had aeroplanes in Puranic times. Or that a certain 
sadhu is a thousand years old. I don't think that sort of claim merits any 
serious discussion.

Just a qualification - claims like these have nothing to do with local, 
native knowledge, which modernist science discounts but has a strong 
validity, having been tried and tested over thousands of years.

Tapas


> Tapas,

There guys are never stoned, they have learnt it from ardent study of 
eastern texts the good beginig fo ryou would be in seach of secret india by 
paul brunton, if you knoew, telugu i would have suggested many more, my 
knowledge of hindi is very limited but i am sure that there are many texts 
available.

The practice of Yoga, primarily means no intake of any substance which 
alters the state of mind, and none of the yogis that i know of consume any 
form of a drug. I have my self seen people who live on just a fruit a day, 
there are examples in the modern day of jains who go into a fast unto death 
and they last for about 1 year easily, before their will power caves in. I 
know that the jain thing was a stupid example.

My entire contention was that food, is no longer visualised as a source of 
enery, but that of comfort, good food that people speak of is not good food 
according any of the manuals of either science or spirituality. As far as 
any being a joker, I am the biggest, if not for me they would stiil have 
been practising their art witout being mocked at, a small verse penned by 
vemana in telugu.
Uppu Kappurambu nokka polika nundu
Chooda chooda ruchulu jaada veru
Purushulandu Punya purushulu veraya
Viswadhaabhiraama, Vinura Vema
Salt and camphor look alike
With familiarity, the paths of their taste is different
Among men, virtuous people stand apart
Beloved of the Bounteous, Vema, listen!
Poem courtesy wikipedia!.

Regards,

Shashi


----- Original Message ----
From: Tapas Ray <t.ray at vsnl.com>
To: S.Shashidhar <iwasthere2000 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 6:36:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Buff or beef?


Shashi,

I would give an arm and a leg to learn their secret. But are you sure that
secret doesn't consist in being stoned out of one's mind most of the time,
so as not to notice that one is eating or drinking anything, or even that
one has a body?

Sorry, Shashi, your German pals sound too much like our Indian jokers.

Tapas


> Looks like the joke turned on me!

> I was at the Ardh Kumbh, where i met people who eat all kinds of things,
> some of them true other so
> much like me. But BOSS Tapas, there was this whole crowd of people from
> Germany , who live on
> only an apple a day and there was a certain head of the congregation who
> had not consumed any food
> or water in the last so many years. And these were not like the indian
> joker fakir's they lead very
> productive capitalist lives. Working in factories and schools.

> It is possible to live without many things, least of all food... untill we
> find the way let us all hunt and
> gather

> Getting a little fatter by the day

> Shashi



----- Original Message ----
From: Tapas Ray <t.ray at vsnl.com>
To: sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2007 6:35:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Buff or beef?


You are forgetting field rats. I have seen their meat hung out to dry from
clotheslines in certain villages. As for human blood, before trying it,
remember what Idi Amin is supposed to have said about human flesh - that he
doesn't eat it, because it's too salty. Better still, ask oldtimers in a
certain part of our country where, I believe, ritual cannibalism was
practised in the past.

I suppose most people eat to live, not live to eat ... hence consumption (in
the narrow, literal sense of eating) is for life, not the other way round.
If there is a way to live without eating any living thing, whether plant or
animal, I am sure many of us will gladly do so. Meanwhile, let us carry on
joking or, even better, killing one another, over what we eat or do not eat.

From: "S.Shashidhar" <iwasthere2000 at yahoo.com>
> life is ment for consumption, let us all eat meat and drink human blood, A
> cow is holy so it should be > spared but a poor goat can and will be
> eaten, there are a lucy few in the south who can eat cows.. Man > thi was
> one grose thread


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