Sustained little Wishes

This was a thought, or stream of thoughts that scurried across my mind the other day. I was thinking about wishing someone well, and I wanted to project that little wish into the air, where the wish would take a form* of it's own and stay sustained. Then, if the intent was selfless and pure enough, that wish may actually take effect on the target. Just the creation and deployment of a wish brings a serene joy. One must not get eager for the wish to actually get realized, for afterall, the Implementer of Wishes has the final say on it. Our role is in the creation of the wish - everything beyond that is outsourced to a force beyond our control, and beyond our current science. This force knows whether the target deserves the payload requested in the wish, and whether you deserve your wish to be realized.

This universal driving force is often called God. In one of God's periodic visits to planet Earth in the human form, he was known as Krishna, and his exploits (some too risque) were chronicled in various scriptures, including the epic Mahabharata. There's a particular incident described in the Mahabharata where Krishna subjects a dude called Arjuna to some really intense drilling for refusing to fight a war containing his kinsmen and family elders on the enemy's side. The drilling was so intense that the editors of the Mahabharata decided to publish it's narration in eighteen chapters. Finally Arjuna gets his brain washed, sees the light and agrees to fight that war, and wipes out all his cousins, uncles and their families - simply because Krishna convinces him that those folks deserved to die anyway for being on the wrong side.

Anyway, where I was leading to is, these eighteen chapters are commonly termed as the Bhagavad Gita, and is a very inspiring piece of literature. Reading this should not turn you into a raving warrior, but instead lead you onto reflecting on the human psyche, and should guide you to lifting yourself onto a spiritually enhanced state of existence. The Bhagavad Gita is the equivalent of the Bible - we swear on it, in our judicial system. Not everyone understands it, and so there are hundreds of authors trying to interpret the scripture to help us laymen figure out what the heck all the fuss is about.

I digress again. Coming back to my statement on wishes, I was saying that God is behind the entire wish lifecycle. In the Bhagavad Gita, in Chapter 18 Verse 61, by which time Arjuna's defenses were nearly fully blown away, the lord Krishna speaks about himself in the third person: “The Lord abides in the hearts of all beings impelling them to movements by his own absolute wish, as if they are mounted on a potter’s wheel”. There you go - that's the proof. It's he who's to blame for everything. Nevermind if you do not know what a potter's wheel is. That's not the important part.

So to summarize, God inspires a wish inside you, and you think you've just done a good deed. God already knows whether the target deserves this wish to be realized. And so it happens, or it does not. You or your target will know it, or will not. Regardless of all this, you have been selfless, you have wished someone well, so you gain. What is this gain? Try it - it feels good. Who knew there's so much pleasure in altruistic indulgences?

* Technical Note: A wish is contained in an envelope. Within the envelope are two additional sections: the header and the body of the wish. The header contains relevant information about the wish. For example, the header can contain the date the wish has been created, a preferred realization date (optional), unique source and target identifiers, and authentication information (optional), and an anonymity status (0=Not anonymous, 1=Source remains anonymous to Target, 2=Realization status remains unavailable to Source, 3=Combination of statuses 1 and 2). The body of the wish describes the payload. Here is an example:

<wish:Envelope>
   <wish:Header>
       <creationDate>07FEB2006</creationDate>
       <targetDate>10FEB2006</targetDate>
       <sourceIdFormat>PAN</sourceIdFormat>
       <sourceId>AQRNP2865S</sourceId>
       <targetIdFormat>SSN</targetIdFormat>
       <targetId>342120023</targetId>
       <anonStatus>2</anonStatus>
   </wish:Header>
   <wish:Body>
       <enableGetNewJob>
         <orgName>Google</orgName>
         <salaryCurrency>USD</salaryCurrency>
         <salaryAmount>250000</salaryAmount>
       </enableGetNewJob>
       <enableGetNewCar>
         <makerName>BMW</makerName>
         <modelName>M5</modelName>
         <modelYear>2006</modelYear>
       </enableGetNewCar>
   </wish:Body>
</wish:Envelope>

Adequate security mechanisms would be in place to protect Personally Identifiable Information and the integrity of a wish throughout it's lifecycle. These details are beyond the scope of this footnote.

The bafflers keep changing...

Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, in Chapter 3 Verse 34, warns that sensual attractions are 'bafflers' on the path of spiritual progress. They are like highwaymen, waiting to snare and rob the unsuspecting traveller on a lonely road. As one progresses through life, one's bafflers keep changing. One starts life with getting lured by candies and toys, and moves on to getting lured by doe-eyed lasses, and so on.

As for me, nowadays, I have been into seeking image galleries of sexy models. I furtively ogle at their vital statistics and revealing photos, and long to caress their accentuated curves. I feel strange thrills when candid shots of a future model are exposed. It's so hard to decide who's most desirable. An angel suggests a Toyota Prius, while my pal with the pointy tail suggests I look at a red Ferrari Modena. The Hosur Road (and occasionally Sarjapur Road) driver in me demands a Subaru Tribeca. When in Paris, I couldn't take my eyes off a Renault Megane. Sigh, what a seductive backside she had...

This is unbearable. This too should pass. I just cannot wait to switch over to my next set of bafflers, whatever they may be :)