Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Fate vs Free will

The definitive guide to this 'debate' are the thoughts of Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati - the renowned Saint of Sringeri. Will try and post some of these in the coming weeks.

However, for now, if you thought astrologers only forced you to believe in blind fate (whatever that is), here's a saying by Sri Mantreswara, author of the 16th century classic Phaladeepika "Planets are constantly favorable to one who is always calm, possessed of self-control, who has earned wealth through virtuous means, and who is always ethical and moral".
So there are you have it. There is a lot in your hands when it comes to shaping destiny.

Coincidentally, it was to another Sri Mantreswara, that Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati came out of Samadhi and sent this message "Sorrow cannot touch those who have worshipped the feel of Ambal". It so happenned that Sri MS, had lost his job and was apparently going to stop his personal worship of the Divine Mother in depression/frustration. On receiving the message from the Mahaswami, Sri MS continued his worship with renewed vigour. In some time, he actually got a better job than the one he had lost! Such are the divine workings!

So all in all, the message is the same "Do what you have to at the right time with the right effort and the right attitude. Rest assured, things will turn out to be the best".Of this there is absolutely no doubt.

Browsing books

If you are a bibliophile like me, (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bibliophile - just in case you need it) chances are you go to the bookstore with the intention of buying one book and end up buying 5.
Assuming you predecide that one book you need to buy, how do you decide on the other four? Author reputation? Signage? Promotion? Price? Sales spiel?
Maybe all of the above - but i bet you at least browse through the books.
Was thinking about this the other day to figure out if there are patterns to browsing behavior and if this would be useful to marketers.
So while i do my thinking, here's a nice site i stumbled on, regarding the same concept...quite nice...check it out....http://www.theobvious.com/noise/toc.html
(use the 'Next' button at the bottom to 'browse' the book)