Prasanta Behera Blog

May the light shows all of us the right path. Best Wishes! ===================================== After Nobel Prize for Literature is announced, I try to read at least one book from the author if I have not done it. It's a habit I picked up from my uncle. This year is no exception. I have listened to Bob Dylan ... but never took time to go deep into his lyrics. But after he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature, I started looking at his lyrics and now I see why he deserves it.  Amazing depth ... Please enjoy snippets of what I liked (I only read a dozen poems, a very small part of his collection) ======================= Blowin' in the wind   How many roads must a man walk down
 Before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail
 Before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, and how many times must the cannon balls fly
 Before they're forever banned? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
 The answer is blowin' in the wind
 Yes, ...

Two interesting quotes for introspection .. ===================================== That spiritual friend knocked at my door last night.  “Who is it? I asked.  He answered, “Open the door. It is you!” “How can I be You?” I asked.  He answered, “We are one, but the veil has hidden us in duality.” We and I, he and you, have become the veil, And how well this has veiled you from yourself! If you wish to know how we and he and all are one, Pass beyond this ‘I’, this ‘we’, this ‘you’. --- Sufi poem  ===================================  (Not sure where I got it from) :-( )

What I  see is not me What I am, I do not see The shadow and I traveling together like quantum loops in this mirage of space and time. What do I see in the shadow? Sometimes it is there sometimes it is not sometimes in the front sometimes in the back silent always reminding of existence reminding of non-existence of light and darkness between the cycles of sun and moon. The shadow is not me but I need it. reminding the paths I have taken reminding of paths to be taken silent as usual playing hide and seek. It is the shadow who leaves me in dark when the light is not there .. unmasking the reality beneath the facade of thinking "What I am" and truly "Who I am". In the end, it is not me but the shadow left behind like a floating cloud hovering with the wind; a reminiscence a blessing to those left behind. When the rain pours and bright sun comes behind there is no shadow there is no "I", merged in the cosmic vib...

I has been one year since I started writing blogs. I was neither a good writer or nor had a good command on languages during my school days (I am still a amateur!). But in some crazy moment, I started the blog on Oct 25 as a journey, an adventure expecting it to die down after few months like many other projects I have done. But so far I have survived and that is because of you. It started with an audience of ONE  and still it is.  The blog is my journey but lot of you have encouraged me in this journey and you are part of it also. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I could not have done without you! It does take effort to write the blog. I end up waking at 4:30 am (I am a early riser anyway!) to do it but it is worth it - it has allowed me to push myself in different directions.  Hope what I share is worth your time.  During the initial days of my blogging, a friend of mine sent this to keep going ...  it has worked so far.  Thank You! Onward...

 I read three books in the last month (a long international flight with jet lag helped). It was a random selection but the succession of books was quite interesting reflecting back. Sapiens is about "our" history, a history of 200,000 years. History of God (" Evolution of God ") is only 10,000 years old and "Looking for God" is relevant today - it is a search for a path for all of us to find on our own. (You have to read the books and reflect yourself.) As  young adult, Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" book and TV serial was an eye opener. I still remember Sagan showing a calendar where if Big Bang happened on Jan 1, history of sapiens only represent the last 8 minutes and civilization has existed only in the last minute. It gives us a prospective of our relatively small history, a dust in the cosmic scale. Homo Sapiens evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago.  The first migration happened around 100,000 years ago followed by the second...