jabdakhata

Now we come to the most important part - the relationship between Girish and Sri Ramakrishna. The lion of the Bengali stage had a tremendous talent. Yet this talent was going haywire owing to the rebellious spirit and the tremendous suffering that the person underwent. This intellectual giant spared nobody in debate and intellectual discussions. His tremendous scholarship and intellect enabled him to have many arguments with eminent scholars of that age, including good natured banters with Swami Vivekananda. But to one person this lion was nothing but a rebellious child. And he turned the actor-director-producer's life to the right course just when he had reached the pinnacle of glory and was about to ruin himself. Sri Ramakrishna had a vision of a naked child holding a glass of wine before Girish had come to him. He always used to have a vision about the real nature of the people of his "inner circle". He saw Narendranath as an ancient sage of the divine realm of t

Krishna did not want the Mahabharata war. Yet he knew that Mahabharata war was inevitable. He knew the consequences and he knew his larger duty as a friend of Pandavas and as an incarnation to set the wheel of dharma running for ages to come. He knew that given the attitude of the Kauravas towards the Pandavas, given their greed and hatred, a peace treaty was not possible. Duryadhana was sure of his superiority. He had Bhisma, Drona and above everybody else Karna to fight for him. Yet one thing he did not have, dharma, on his side. His mother told him before the beginning of the war - yatah dharma tatah jaya, but he did not listen. He was sure that Pandavas with their limited resources esp. after spending 13 years in the forest and in exile would not be able to muster enough manpower to wage a war. Even if they dared to do so, he had his full army, support of many kings whom he had won over a period of time through either good behavior, bribe or treachery, warriors like Bhisma, Drona

This prolific actor director had produced many dramas in a span of thirty years. Some of them are masterpieces. When Girish used to write a play, he also used to act in multiple roles so that the characters became living to him. He could smell them, talk to them, hear them and even see them. Once Swami Brahmananda saw him in a pensive mood after writing Mirkasim. When asked the reason he said that the character would not leave him in peace. He was dreaming Mirkasim and could smell the odour of onion and garlic coming from the character's mouth. He wrote 28 songs in one night for one of his plays. He was untiring in his effort and was demanding as well. His actors and actresses would have to give their best, no compromise. For them Girish was a guru, a living god, who taught them everything by picking them up from the gutter. Aparesh Mukherjee, a noted actor who later married co actor Tinkadi Dasi was one of them. Girish's influence did not go away from Bengal stage anytime so

Can artificial intelligence be ever conscious? That is, can artificially created intelligence surpass human beings? This is an interesting speculation. Many of the leading atheist philosophers, technology heads and scientists think so. In fact they have pointed out the dangers of making an intelligence that may someday become too intelligent to claim power and dominate over its creator, the mankind. There is a perception that it will happen by the turn of this century. The general thought behind is nature given intelligence originates in our brains. More powerful our brains are, more intelligent we become. Humans dominate over animals because of their superior brain power. There is nothing called consciousness other than the one manufactured within the factory of brain and central nervous system, through interactions of neurons. An animal is inferior because its brain is not as developed as that of a human. So if we create intelligence that can perform one task, we can create intelli

There is a beautiful story in the Upanishadas. Once gods, demons and human beings received an instruction from the supreme Brahman on what they should be doing. The word they all heard is "Da", and they interpreted it as their own deficiencies that needed to improve. The gods, belonging to the subtle realms were addicted to sense pleasures. They were asked to exercise "Dama" (beginning with Da. Dama implies control, controlling of the mind and the senses, not giving in to external impulses. The Asuras or the demons heard the word "Daya", implying compassion. They are by nature cruel, mean and selfish and have least consideration for others. The Humans heard it as "Dana" or Gift. The humans, being intermediary between gods and asuras in terms of tendencies were in best position to practice selflessness by giving away what they possessed. This story has a very wide implication. In today's world gods are the powerful, mighty, great men, sc