Anup Nidhanee

For the purpose of ensuring that a google for Anup Nidhanee should lead people to Anup Nidhanee's blog I am going to put the name Anup Nidhanee (Yes I am Anup Nidhanee) as many times as possible in this blog which has been titled Anup Nidhanee.

Simplifying the complexity of Philosophy

These are excerpts from The Speaking Tree (TOI 26th November) written by Yaron Barzilay.

When mention is made of philosophy, one might imagine that a rain of words will fall combined with complicated sentences and theories. This way of seeing philosophy is far from the true spirit of philosophy which basically aims to bring us closer to simplicity and clarity.
It is customary to credit Pythagoras for pronouncing the term Philosophy first when he described himself not as a 'wise man' but as a 'man who is in love with wisdom', a "Philosophos".

Philo or love is the ability to unite with wisdom, or we can also say with life itself. The love of wisdom therefore is an active process in which one learns the principles of life and changes himself accordingly. This process brings man to live in harmony with nature.
Philosophy is not a theoretical concept trying to describe life, but an active state where man is in a constant process of change. We can also refer to it as an ethical way of living where we discover our true virtues.

To be a philosopher is not to stay at a cold distance from others but to develop a sense of belonging to life and to the mutual essence of things. It was said in the temple of Delphi, the holy centre of ancient Greece: "Know thyself and know the world and the Gods"

"When you come to the edge of all the light, and you know you are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown , faith is knowing one of the two things will happen :
Either there will be something solid to stand on or ... You will be taught how to fly."

Choice

The immediate inspirations for this post are the movies ---- The Matrix (all the three) and The Butterfly Effect (I wouldnt suggest this to anyone) and one photo.

Photo??? I guess a week ago in the last page of The Hindu there was this photo .... a lonely kashmiri fisherman throwing his net into the river and surrounded by water everywhere and the caption saying that the fishing season had begun. He was absolutely lonely and I am sure he himself wasnt sure how long he would just sit there waiting for his net to fill. So what would he do all that while? Its not like he had a bottle of beer with a novel for company. So what would he do when it is not the fishing season? Wait for the season to arrive... duh!!! I couldnt help wonder if he ever felt bored of waiting ... waiting for the season to arrive .. and waiting for the fish once the season arrived. After all these thoughts crossed my mind the first question that came to my mind was "Does he have a choice?"The obvious answer being that he doesnt. The second question that comes up (to those who are even remotely bothered) is "Does he want any other choice?". I would like to believe that he doesnt.

The Butterfly Effect is a crappy movie to watch but the underlying concept that they have tried to bring out is good. It tries to bring out the fact that whatever is happening in your life now is because of the continuous series of events that have happened throughout your life. Its that typical "If things had happened that way then, things would have been different now", "If only I had made that choice then ..... ". But its not in our hands to say "I will do like this now, so that things will be like that later". Nothing can be changed. Its only after things have happened that you can say "How I wish ..". Things are perfect just the way they are is the best thing that you can tell yourself and move on.

The Matrix ... well what can i say about the movie .. its one super awesome movie and people who think its just another-futuristc-sci-fi movie have not got anywhere near understanding the core concept of the movie which is the unifying factor between man & machine .. CHOICE. Either this or that. Digitally speaking 0 or 1.

Everyday .. every moment I am making choices, most of them sub-consciously and a few with my entire intellect involved. These choices are nothing but a burden coz no matter how much precious time I spend on the right choice to be chosen, it is always a question mark. The rightness or wrongness of the choice chosen is only determined later when it is absolutely impossible to change what has happened but to accept things as is and move on. Then why make the choice in the first place?? coz it has to be done. Simple. Then why spend my energy-time-mental_effort on making it when the outcome is certainly a uncertainty?? This is the point I wanted to get to .. I dont have to. I gotta choose, so I choose but all the internal-conflicts my mind might subject me to is pointless.

I couldnt think of a better conclusion to this than the following conversation at the end of the epic-fight between Neo & Mr.Smith in the last of Matrix trilogy
Mr.Smith : "Why Mr.Anderson .. why why ... why do you persist?"
Neo : "Because I choose to."