How to be really happy ?

What we all constantly experience is a restless mind which is full of cravings and desires. When we get what it craves, we feel happy for a while. So, we naturally assume objects in the external world bring happiness and keep chasing them. But in reality, happiness is your inherent nature. The restless mind stands in between as a curtain that obscures you from your real self that is forever happy. When your mind gets what it wants, all that happens is your mind calms down for some time. Once the curtain has lifted, your inner bliss just shines forth. That is why you feel happy. So, the most logical path to being happy is not chasing things externally but learning how to calm your mind.

You are the consciousness that is sitting on the banks of the river of mind watching. As long as you remain that way, you are in eternal bliss; there is no suffering. All your suffering starts when you jump into the river and start clutching things that are floating away. So just be the witness. That is the only way to permanent happiness.

Is Science Finally Joining the Party of Dualism?

Until now, science is firmly rooted in the notion that everything can be explained by matter and its properties alone. But leading cognitive scientists like David Chalmers are now claiming, this usual material reductionist approach is not effective in understanding consciousness. They are proposing that consciousness should be another fundamental reality in addition to the physical world. This school of thought is not new. The same theory was well studied long ago in Indian dualistic philosophy called "Sankhya". Science is just late to the party. How late? At least 3000 years late. 

Figure 1: Hard problem of consciousness

Now, the fun fact is, the two highest peaks of human knowledge, Advaita Vedanta of Hinduism and Yogacara Buddhism (A major school of thought in Mahayana Buddhism and highly influential in Tibetian Buddhism) have gone beyond this dualistic understanding. They both prove that reality which appears dualistic is non-dual and the physical world is just a projection of that non-duality. This projection is what creates the illusion of duality. So, science has a very long way to go. But I'm happy that science is finally taking baby steps in the right direction.

The Magnificent Century: Kösem

I was reading "1001 Arabian Nights" the other day and started to get curious about the lives of imperial women under Islamic empires. While watching a documentary about it, I accidentally stumbled upon the Turkish TV series "The Magnificent Century: Kösem" on YouTube. I clicked out of curiosity, but was quickly engrossed in the plot and ended up watching the entire series. It follows the life story of "Kösem Sultana", one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history and a prominent figure during the era known as the Sultanate of Women. 

Her ordeal is extraordinary. She was kidnapped at the age of 15 and presented as a concubine to Sultan Ahmed who was then just a prince. From an unknown concubine, she became Sultan Ahmed's favourite consort then legal wife. Finally, for the first time in Ottoman history, she became regent of the empire after Sultan Ahmed's death. Through this tv series, I learned so much about not just ottoman history but also many facets of human nature. That makes this series very special to me. 

There are several technical aspects of this tv series I need to point out as well. First of all, each episode is two hours so each of them felt like a complete movie on its own. Adopting the two-hour episodes helped a lot to allow the story to be unravelled slowly revealing the evolution of different character traits vividly. I loved the costumes used, though some historians have commented that the costumes used were not appropriate to those times. The French influence was heavy in costumes but such influence in attires only became prominent after the visit of Nepolean's wife. Nevertheless, I fell in love with the Ottoman Kaftans used in the series. Critics blame several other historical inaccuracies in the series as well. Even I noticed that some inaccuracies like women giving birth on a bed. I had learned previously that the usual practice among the ottomans is sitting on a chair while giving birth. 

Watching this series was challenging because of the horrible subtitles. I felt proud of the work done by my brain for hearing nearly over 100 hours of Turkish while looking at the wrong English subtitle yet processing the correct meaning and then translating it to my mother tongue all in real-time. Good job my dear brain.. good job 👏👏

I already knew several historical facts about ottomans before this tv series, facts like ottoman emperors never marry and they bore children only via concubines. This 200-year-old tradition was only broken by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent when he married his favourite concubine Hurrem. Another fact I learned is that when a new sultan ascends to the throne he will execute all his brothers to avoid any future competition for the throne. 

The Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide is truly shocking. Maybe that is why I loved Sultan Ahmed in this series because he decided against executing his only half-brother Mustafa who was still a toddler. This marks the first breach in the Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide and henceforth Ottoman rulers would no longer systematically execute their brothers upon accession to the throne. Sultan Ahmed is portrayed throughout the series as a very compassionate man and a passionate lover who was madly in love with Kösem. I was so touched by his character I told myself I would one day visit his final resting place the Sultan Ahmed Mosque a.k.a. Blue mosque build by him. 

I also really liked all the actors who played the role of Prince Mustafa. Every time he appears I feel pity for him. Since being a toddler, he lived with the constant fear of being executed. That is a horrible way to live. Imagine waking up every morning fearing whether you will get executed today. Constant fear and trauma since early childhood made him grow into a mentally unstable man. The scene where Mustafa points out to Kösem about her transformation from an innocent girl to a ruthless power-hungry woman makes you feel maybe he is the wisest of them all.  Finally, seeing the way he gets executed under orders of Sultan Murad is extremely heart-wrenching. 

Another important observation from the series is that the woman becomes extremely selfish after they have children. Their sole focus on life becomes the wellbeing of only their children. I still can't understand from where that amount of selfishness, ruthlessness and hatred for others comes from. I have noticed this phenomenon before as well. I have personally seen a lot of women change like this after childbirth. In all the mothers in this series, you can see that transformation. 

From the historic point of view, two other major changes happened during Kösem's period apart from the abolition of fratricide. One is the modifications in the pattern of succession to the throne from a system of primogeniture to one based on agnatic seniority.  Generally, since the time of Sultan Suleiman, the heir to the throne is the eldest surviving son. But under the influence of Kösem, the practice where succession to the throne passes to the Sultans's next eldest brother (even if the Sultan has own sons) was adopted. It could also be noted that Kösem might have adopted it for her gains since her sons were not eligible for the throne as Sultan Ahamed already had a son Osman from another consort. 

The second change was for the first time in ottoman history a woman was appointed as the regent. This happened first, when Kösem's son Murad took over the throne as he is a minor and later when her other son Ibrahim took over the throne as he is mentally unstable thus incapable to rule. Finally when grandson Meḥmed took over the throne since he was a minor until she was assassinated. The assassination was orchestrated under the orders of Meḥmed's mother since Kösem who has now become completely evil and power-hungry plotted to kill her grandson Meḥmed for gaining more power.

I loved all three actresses who played the roles of teen, adult and old Kösem. They vividly portrayed different shades of Kösem. First, the innocent, joyful, good looking teen. Then protecting, loving and ambitious wife and mother. Finally, powerful, arrogant and cruel regent.

The greatest lesson we all can learn from Kösem's life and death is "More you fight evil, you get so absorbed you become the same evil yourself". Young and innocent Kösem hated Safiye Sultana so much since she was evil and power-hungry and was plotting several times to kill her grandson Sultan Ahmed and his princes for power. Kösem was forced to fight against her to protect her husband and children. 

She vowed to Safiye that she’ll be a good-hearted sultana and will never kill her children but later in her life the thirst for power made her do just that. She became just like Safiye if not eviler, powerful and too controlling. Kösem needed the power to protect her kids and in the end, she lost her kids to protect her power. Don't hate someone too much, or you will be like them in the end.

I can imagine why Kösem became like that. She was once too kind but if she didn't change she would have been dead and buried by Safiye. She was forcefully taken away from her loving family then the man she loved so much died young leaving her without any love or motivation in life. The throne became her obsession and her desire to live.  

A lot of people felt if she retired early, maybe she wouldn't have died like this. But did she have any other choice? Aren't we all just victims of circumstance? You can't blame Kösem because in the ottoman palace you have to learn to survive. Kill or be killed. She was a great person in the beginning, but people still tried to kill her anyway. So it made her tougher, stronger, and meaner. If the love of her life Sultan Ahamed lived longer like Sultan Suleiman maybe we might have seen a completely different Kösem altogether. But at the end of the day, nothing is permanent, no king rules forever, whatever is meant to happen will happen.

This series is a great example of how a single work of art can spike interest in a nation and its culture around the world. People from different parts of the world got interested in visiting Turkey to see historical monuments and learn more about Turkish culture due to this series. It is evident if you look at comments sections of YouTube videos related to different Turkish monuments. After watching this series, I started to wish that someone would make a similar series based on Tamil history. If you have time to spare, don't miss this amazing series.

Leadership Philosophy of an Unsung Hero

I was half asleep when a friend of mine called me late at night and asked "Hey did you check the news?". I thought "Oh my god! have they reintroduced covid travel restrictions again or did they discover a more contagious variant of covid or did South African riots escalated or did the Taliban started massacring people". I was thinking about all sorts of negative scenarios. Today's media feeds us too much negativity, isn't it?  I said hurriedly "No! No! what happened?". He replied, "A miracle just happened".  

From his voice, I could sense that he was jubilant. I had a sigh of relief more than anything. I took a deep breath and asked curiously "Great! what is it ?". His reply made me dumbfounded and angry. He said, "India just won the Lord's test match". Yes! unbelievable, he woke me in the middle of the night to tell me India had just won. I never like when someone wakes me up in the middle of my sleep. It makes me extremely grumpy. I didn't want to vent my anger on him. So I laughed and said very sarcastically "Thank you so much for waking me up to tell this very important news".

He was too excited to understand neither my anger nor sarcasm. I know he is a great Indian fan, I understood how much this victory meant to him. He continued speaking jubilantly for the next 10 mins, he explained how India snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, how Virat Kohli has now become the fourth successful test captain in the world, how India is going to reach great heights under Kohli's captaincy and how Kohli's aggressive captaincy along with his competitive spirit positively impacted the team mindset. I'm sure even Indian coach Ravi Shastri wouldn't have praised Kohli this much. Then he wished me goodnight and put the phone down. 

I couldn't sleep after that. I was contemplating about the victory and whether Virat is solely responsible. I recalled everything that happened to the Indian cricket team over the past few years. Then I realised Virat Kohli is not the man who is behind this success. A true architect of this victory is hiding behind the shadows and no one talks about him.  Yup! the man behind the success was Rahul Dravid.

This contemplation made me realize the two most important traits of a leader. The first thing we need to understand is "Leadership is not a status, it is a state". When Rahul Dravid retired everyone thought, he would either be a commentator or he would take up some national coaching position in India. But to everyone's surprise, he announced that he wants to be the coach of the Indian A team and the Indian Under 19 team. 

Those two positions have no status or fame attached to them. No one remembers the person who coaches those two teams since all eyes are focused on the national team. So a lot of people thought that Dravid is wasting his talent and time by making a wrong call. But it is this decision of Dravid that made India an unbeatable team in the world. Soon after he assumes duties as a coach, he worked closely with young cricketers imparting his knowledge about playing international cricket. It enabled India to develop a great pool of young players who are capable of performing at the international level. 

It was because of this bench strength, India was able to sport two different national teams at two different venues such as Sri Lanka and England at the same time. It enabled the Indian team to remain in the UK for a longer period before the start of the series hence allowing them ample time to adapt to English conditions. If it wasn't for Dravid, the Indian team would have struggled to adapt to English conditions due to the reduction of practice time.

Then I realised this wasn't the first time this year that India was able to beat the opposition when nobody expected them to win. When India toured Australia this year. India lost the first test match and was humiliated for being bundled out for 36 runs. When Kohli left for India after this loss for personal commitments, literally everybody in the cricketing fraternity and fans assumed that no way India can bounce back from this defeat especially without Kohli. So everyone predicted that Australia is going to whitewash the series 4 -0.  

The captaincy for the rest of the series was given to Rahane who was groomed by Dravid when he played for India A and Rajasthan Royals. Rahane led the team from the front with a brilliant knock of 112 runs to register victory at Brisbane and levelling the series. To make things worst,  going into the last two test matches the Indian team suffered multiple injuries and the playing squad was heavely depleted. But, due to covid quarantine rules, they weren't allowed to bring in any additional players from India. So the Indians were forced to play several uncapped players including players like Natarajan who was originally included in the squad as a net bowler. 

Even after going in with the players who had minimal experience, the Indian team fought hard and drew the third test match at Sydney and beat Australia in the 4th test match at Gabba. Gabba was considered an Australian fortress. No team was able to defeat Australia at Gabba for the last 32 years. But this young inexperienced Indian team with players mostly groomed by Dravid did the unthinkable as they managed to beat Australia in both Brisbane and Gabba to clinched the series 2-1. I still remembered what Sachin tweeted after the game about how well each young player rose to the occasion and performed. "Every session we discovered a new hero" he said. 

The series win against Australia made me realise the second very important leadership trait, "A true leader will create more leaders". Thank you, Dravid for being a living example of a great leader. We all can learn a lot about leadership from you.

இங்குள்ள அனைத்தும் அதுவே

 

என்னிலே இருந்த ஒன்றை யான் அறிந்ததில்லையே

என்னிலே இருந்த ஒன்றை யான் அறிந்து கொண்டபின்

என்னிலே இருந்த ஒன்றை யாவர் காண வல்லரோ?

என்னிலே இருந்திருந்து யான் உணர்ந்து கொண்டேனே

உருவும் அல்ல ஒளியும் அல்ல ஒன்றை மேவி  நின்றதல்ல 

மருவும் அல்ல காதம் அல்ல மற்றதல்ல  அற்றதல்ல

பெரியதல்ல சிறியதல்ல பேசும் ஆவி தானும் அல்ல

அரியதாக நின்ற நேர்மை யாவர் காண வல்லரே. 

நினைப்பதொன்று கண்டிலேன் நீயலாது வேறிலை,

நினைப்புமாய் மறப்புமாய் நின்ற மாய்கை மாய்கையோ?

அனைத்துமாய் அகண்டமாய் அனாதிமுன் அனாதியாய்

எனக்குள் நீ உனக்குள் நான் இருக்குமாறு  எங்ஙனே.

இல்லை இல்லை இல்லை என்று இயம்புகின்ற ஏழைகாள்,

இல்லை என்று நின்றதொன்றை இல்லை என்னலாகுமோ?

இல்லை அல்ல என்றுமல்ல இரண்டும் ஒன்றி நின்றதை

எல்லைகண்டு கொண்டோர் இனிப்பிறப்பது இங்கு இல்லையே.

- சித்தர் சிவவாக்கியர்

Signing off as Toastmaster President

Dear Marines,

Today marks the end of my tenure as the president of the Marine Toastmasters Club. Joining the Marines was the single most life-changing event that happened in my life.  It wouldn't be an overstatement if I say toastmasters has helped me in not just leadership and communication but in all walks of my life. So it was my absolute honour and privilege that I got the opportunity to serve and contribute to the club which made me who I'm today.

All that we achieved as a club in the last one year wouldn't have been possible without the support of all the members of the club and the hard work and grit of my exco team VPE Haaziq Jaleel, VPM Keerththan Srikumar, VPPR Safra Anver, Secretary Bimsara Jayawardene, Treasurer Inaam Mahmoor, Sergeant-at-arms Vithushan Manoharan.

I couldn't have asked for a better exco team than what I got. We had a lot of challenges because we were the first exco to navigate an entire year with covid. Many from the exco went through tough phases in their personal lives, yet they didn't use that as an excuse to shy away from the commitment they took upon themselves. That for me is the best leadership trait. I am thankful that I got an exco that puts club before anything. 

Jef Prages was such a cool Area Director to work with, he was very supportive and gave me absolute freedom and backed me and the club whenever we need him with his usual swag. I would also like to thank Division Director DTM Manik and District director DTM Munawwara and their whole team for all the support.

Thank you DTM Sarma Mahalingam for all your encouraging words and guidance since the day we met. You are such an inspiration we all as young toastmasters look up to. Your words of appreciation and encouragement are something I treasure very much to this day.

My mentors Safra, Bimsara and Shobija are not just my toastmaster mentors but they are my go-to people before I make any major decisions in life. Thank you for never giving up on me and for keep pushing me harder and harder in both toastmasters and personal life.

As a club, we shot for the moon and achieved almost everything we planned for. Yes, we did miss out on a few ambitious goals. But as a leader, one key thing I understood is our efforts and processes is what matters the most not just the results. So we shouldn't be afraid to continue setting very ambitious goals. 

I'm signing off as a president, extremely proud of what we all have achieved as a club in the last year. With Haaziq Jaleel as the incoming president and the wonderful exco team he has, I'm sure the future of Marines are in good hands and the next exco will take us to even greater heights.

For the one last time, this is your president. Over and out!

Kumaran Kugathasan

President - Marine Toastmasters Club

2020/2021

I believe in God, just not yours

"Why don't you believe in God?" is a question I keep getting a lot when people somehow find out that I don't believe in God. I think this article will serve as an answer to all those queries. When I say I don't believe in God, I just mean I don't believe in a personal intervening God that most people believe in. The whole concept in which a God is portrayed as a compassionate almighty looking over all of us. As someone who listens to our prayers and has the power to intervene or alter our life. That is the sort of God I don't believe in.

I align myself with the philosophical teachings of Advaita Vedanta, one of the most studied and most influential schools of classical Indian thought. I view God as an impersonal pure consciousness that is all that exists. We are just a mere projection within that consciousness and our goal is to gain self-knowledge and a complete understanding of the nature of that consciousness. Since we are all part of God, when I pray to God, I am knowingly praying to myself. Since I know praying to myself won't help me fix anything, it makes absolute sense to neither pray nor worship.

Figure 1 - Quote by Swami Vivekananda

But, I do understand some people need a personal intervening god because it is a lot easier to believe someone is watching over them and God will help them overcome difficult situations in life. That belief and prayers give them a lot of hope and courage to be good and fight against difficult situations life throws. They are just putting an inaccurate but functional image or mask on God.

My mom is a great example of this, she lost both her parents when she was a child, she went through poverty in her childhood, she got married to my father who hailed from a big extended family with six siblings and took care of all the responsibilities as the first daughter-in-law, my elder sister is an intellectually disabled child who requires constant parental attention hence my mom sacrificed all joys of her life to this day to take care of my sister. My mom's life was full of never-ending struggles and it is the faith in God that gives her hope and courage to face them. She never felt alone because she believes God is looking after her. 

So, I respect the sentiments of people who believe in God. God is their support system. I don't want to preach my philosophy to them when I don't know whether they are strong enough to function without the support system. What is the purpose of proving them the truth if it is going to just make one's life only more miserable and pointless? 

I think the absolute surrender without any ego is only possible for people who have absolute belief in God or for people who are madly in love with someone. So the people who are absolute believers are indeed blessed in a way. I just have my way and you have yours, so let's just agree to disagree.