Taking a bite of (Big) Apple - I PAD 2 - 25.04.2011

I had to cancel the web order two times due to the long delivery times. But our colleague Raj insisted I would definitely get. Yes, yesterday night just thought of reserving the Ipad 2, and  I was one of those lucky guys, able to reserve and pick today. Apple product I have not used so far. A good opporutnity to explore the apple products (of course a taking a bite of big apple). Just started checking and its amazing.... I believe, apple's innovation has been the front runner for their positioning of number 1 in music enterntainment industry. Another catch, if you buy apple, you have to buy their products only example quick player, apps for Ipad2 many things. Thats the game of business. For an end user, experience and value for money counts.... thats I am counting on....

Its was raining when we went to apple shop around 1.00pm and half day working hours, a large turn out of people is seen in front of apple store. One of the largest retail stores....

Here are few pics of my first apple product buy....

First the apple store, on george street (a big street and most of the business houses and shopping activitiy takes place) ...

(source : http://www.google.com/)

Myself standing in the que.... (shot by Raj) and finally getting the electronic appliance :-)

Love,

Guru

Visit to Bluemountains....24.04.2011

Today we went to Blue mountans.....

The Blue Mountains is a mountainous region in New South Wales, Australia. It borders on Sydney's metropolitan area, its foothills starting approximately 50 kilometres west of the state capital.^[1] The area begins on the west side of the Nepean River and extends westward as far as Coxs River.^[2]
Consisting mainly of a sandstone plateau, the area is dissected by gorges up to 760 metres deep. The highest point of the range is 1,190 metres above sea level^[where?]. A large part of the Blue Mountains is incorporated into the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site, consisting of seven national park areas and a conservation reserve.

Few pics from the trip...

3 sisters....

Jimmy, the tour guide...............

Am I looking not cute? You are definitely....

Its autumn season here in Australia.......

Guru, Jaya, Mini and Raj...

Love,
Guru

Its raining here in Sydney... 23.04.2011

A dull weather and drizlling... over here in Sydney.... siting in the balcony and sipping hot cup of coffee... recollecting old moments..... what a feeling... great....

Just went out for a stroll...... few pics directly from the street...............

TS Eliot in the Waste Land, describes the April Month...

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding  
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing  
Memory and desire, stirring  
Dull roots with spring rain.  
Winter kept us warm, covering         
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding  
A little life with dried tubers.  
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee  
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,  
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,  
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.  
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.  
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,  
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,  
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,  
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.  
In the mountains, there you feel free.  
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.  
 
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow  
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,  
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only  
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,  
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,  
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only  
There is shadow under this red rock,  
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),  
And I will show you something different from either  
Your shadow at morning striding behind you  
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;  
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

Enjoying the rain.............

Love,
Guru

Be yourself.... (undated)

and nothing more.....

Love,
Guru

Back to my (lost) interests....22.04.2011

From today onwards we have hoildays upto 26.04.2011. Its difficult to plan where to go ??? Really.  I got up early today around 5 o clock in the morning and started to think what is the best way to start the day and I picked up few of my interests.


Number one....
Teachings from Ramana Maharshi. Ever since I went to Tiruvanamalai, I am inspired by Ramana's teaching about the inquiry into the self and potential that we are all created with.

Fate and Free Will
Free will and destiny are ever existent. Destiny is the result of past action; it concerns the body. Let the body act as may suit it. Why are you concerned about it? Why do you pay attention to it? Free will and destiny last as long as the body lasts. But jnana transcends both. The Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance. Whatever happens, happens as the result of one's past actions, of divine will and of other factors.
There are only two ways to conquer destiny or be independent of it. One is to enquire for whom is this destiny and discover that only the ego is bound by destiny and not the Self and that the ego is non-existent.
The other way is to kill the ego by completely surrendering to the Lord, by realizing one's helplessness and saying all the time, 'Not I, but Thou, oh Lord' and giving up all sense of 'I' and ‘mine’, and leaving it to the Lord to do what he likes with you. Complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self-enquiry or bhakti marga.

-------

Q&A with Ramana, liked....

Questioner: How are we to treat others?

Ramana Maharshi: There are no others.

Coming on to the next was poetry that I like most, believe it or not, when you get into the world of poetry, its sucha wonderful area, you lose yourself.... it happened to me as well.....

Today's poetry that touched my heart.... is (highligted the lines -liked)

TS Eliot's  Choruses from The Rock (1934)

O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of The Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

Another poem from Four Quartlets by the same Poet...The Dry Salvages (1941)

The moments of happiness — not the sense of well-being,
Fruition, fulfilment, security or affecton,
Or even a very good dinner, but the sudden illumination —
We had the experience but missed the meaning,
And approach to the meaning restores the experienceIn a different form, beyond any meaning
We can assign to happiness. I have said before
That the past experience revived in the meaning
Is not the experience of one life only
But of many generations — not forgetting
Something that is probably quite ineffable

The list goes.... what a poet TS Eliot is ...... such a genius....

Before I publish this... I got the following one.....

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time

Love,
Guru

She is beautiful..... Leeton to Sydney 21.04.2011

Nature is natural and she is beautiful... breathtaking views.... everything is perfectly arranged and managed....

few pics from on board - Leeton to Sydney 21.04.2011.

Love,
Guru

Showers & Rainbow - 20.04.2011

Just recollected the following rhyme...

Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny (WE) wants to play;
Rain, rain, go to Spain...
Never show your face again!

In Leeton, we had showers and later on a beautiful rainbow.

Not knowing what is rainbow and how it causes, I did google to find out the amazing facts behind, what causes rainbow and certain science facts.... check out with this link http://www.myuniversalfacts.com/2006/04/how-rainbows-are-formed-what-causes.html

Few pics...

Raj in the Toraga.... Brilliant driving :-)

Few live pics of the rainbow.....

Toraga on the move.................................. shutter speed...........(xlent)....

Love,

Guru