The Socrates Triple Filter Test

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed for his knowledge and   wisdom and therefore held in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?" 

Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything, I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test." 

"Triple filter?" 

That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is TRUTH. "Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?" 

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..." 

All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of GOODNESS. "Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?" 

"No, on the contrary..." 

"So", Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about my friend, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of USEFULNESS. "Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?" 

"No… not really…"

"Well," concluded Socrates, "If what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor useful, why tell it to me at all?" 

This is why Socrates was held in such high esteem. So, let's use this triple filter each time we hear loose talk about any of our near & dear ones (friends/relatives/colleagues). It will save us time and trouble.

Wit and Wisdom

At a social gathering many years ago, Winston C. had been drinking a bit much, as usual. 

Lady Astor approached and said "Sir, you are drunk." He replied, "Madame, you are ugly." 

She replied, "You are a disgusting drunk."

He responded:  "Yes, you are probably correct, madame, but in the morning I shall be sober and you'll still be ugly."

                     

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  Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year. 

  

- Victor Borge 

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Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. 

  

- Mark Twain 

  

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I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury. 

  

- Groucho Marx 

  

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My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe. 

  

- Jimmy Durante 

  

  

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My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying. 

  

- Rodney Dangerfield 

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Money can't buy you happiness .... But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery. 

  

- Spike Milligan 

  

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Until I was thirteen, I thought my name wasSHUT UP . 

  

- Joe Namath 

  

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Don't worry about avoiding temptation.   As you grow older, it will avoid you. 

  

- Winston Churchill 

  

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Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty .. But everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out.. 

  

- Phyllis Diller 

  

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By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere. 

  

- Billy Crystal

Wait for your turn

Once there was a small kid on earth. 

One fine day it came to know that god is distributing apples to humans in his place at heaven. 

The kid was so happy to receive that news and it went with lot of enjoyment to heaven to get the apple from god. There was a big queue standing to get apple from god and this kid also joined in that queue. 

While it was standing, it was fully excited and thrilled for the fact that it is going to receive in person from god's hands. Its turn too came and the kid showed it's both the hands to receive apple. 

God gave the apple but unfortunately the tiny hands couldn't hold that big apple. 

Apple fell down and got wasted in mud. The kid got so disappointed. 

The ministers near the god informed that if the kid likes to have an apple from god again then it has to again follow the queue. 

Having waited for so long the kid didn't want to return back to earth with empty hands so it decided to wait again in the queue. This time the queue has become even longer than the previous one. 

While waiting in queue, the kid could see lot of people who returns back with apple in hands and utmost satisfaction on their faces. 

The kid was so much disappointed and thought why me alone didn't get the apple in hand when all others were easily able to get it. What is the sin I did that I alone should suffer like this.

 Now the kid was so scared that it should not miss the apple again. Again its turn came and god gave the apple to the kid's hands and after giving the apple god spoke to the kid. "My dear child, last time after giving you the apple only I noticed the apple I gave to you was a rotten apple and that's why I made that to fell down from your hands. Having given you a rotten apple, I felt bad for you and I wanted to give you the best apple in the farm and that time the best apple in the farm was growing and that's why I made you to wait such a long time in the queue. Here it is. Now the apple that you have in hand is 'The Best' apple in the farm till to date. Enjoy." 

Sometimes it happens as even after we put our 100% dedication and commitment things may get delayed or things may go wrong. Believe that god has something great for us and that's why this has happened.

Always say, 'Gratitude is absolutely the best way to bring more in one's life'. Believe this and see the world... Your world will also look green.

Japa Mala (Chant Garland)

Fascinating information for those of you who may be interested: and for those of you who are not attracted by Indian lore, do read the first three paras, at least!                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is amazing how much Western science has taught us. Today, for example, kids in grammar school learn that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth and that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. Yoga may teach us about our Higher Self, but it can't supply this kind of information about physics or astronomy. Or can it? Professor Subhash Kak of Louisiana State University recently called my attention to a remarkable statement by Sayana, a fourteenth century Indian scholar. In his commentary on a hymn in the Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps most mystical text ever composed in India, Sayana has this to say: "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha." A yojana is about nine American miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. get out your calculators! 2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 m. p. s. Basically, Sayana is saying that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! How could a Vedic scholar who died in 1387 A. D. have known the correct figure for the speed of light? If this was just a wild guess it's the most amazing coincidence in the history of science! And Sayana was merely commenting on Rig Veda which was supposedly composed 9000 years ago !! The yoga tradition is full of such coincidences. Take for instance the mala many yoga students wear around their neck. Since these rosaries are used to keep track of the number of mantras a person is repeating, students often ask why they have 108 beads instead of 100. Part of the reason is that the mala represent the ecliptic, the path of the sun and moon across the sky. Yogis divide the ecliptic into 27 equal sections called nakshatras, and each of these into four equal sectors called paadas, or "steps," marking the 108 steps that the sun and moon take through heaven. Each is associated with a particular blessing force, with which you align yourself as you turn the beads. Traditionally, yoga students stop at the 109th "guru bead," also called MERU, flip the mala around in their hand, and continue reciting their mantra as they move backward through the beads. The guru bead represents the summer and winter solstices, when the sun appears to stop in its course and reverse directions. In the yoga tradition we learn that we're deeply interconnected with all of nature. Using a mala is a symbolic way of connecting ourselves with the cosmic cycles governing our universe. But Professor Kak points out yet another coincidence: The distance between the earth and the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter. The diameter of the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. And the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the moon's diameter. Could this be the reason the ancient sages considered 108 such a sacred number? If the microcosm (us) mirrors the macrocosm (the solar system), then maybe you could say there are 108 steps between our ordinary human awareness and the divine light at the center of our being. Each time we chant another mantra as our mala beads slip through our fingers, we are taking another step toward our own inner sun. As we read through ancient Indian texts, we find so much the sages of antiquity could not possibly have known-but did. While our European and Middle Eastern ancestors claimed that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago, the yogis have always maintained that our present cosmos is billions of years old, and that it's just one of many such universes which have arisen and dissolved in the vastness of eternity. In fact the Puranas, encyclopedias of yogic lore thousands of years old, describe the birth of our solar system out of a "milk ocean," the Milky Way. Through the will of the Creator, they tell us, a vortex shaped like a lotus arose from the navel of eternity. It was called Hiranya Garbha, the shining womb [womb here means the source, point of origin and not an anatomical reference ] and it gradually coalesced into our world, but will perish some day billions of years hence when the sun expands to many times it present size, swallowing all life on earth. In the end, the Puranas say, the ashes of the earth will be blown into space by the cosmic wind. Today we known this is a scientifically accurate, if poetic, description of the fate of our planet. The Surya Siddhanta is the oldest surviving astronomical text in the Indian tradition. Some Western scholars date it to perhaps the fifth or sixth centuries A. D., though the text itself claims to represent a tradition much, much older. It explains that the earth is shaped like a ball, and states that at the very opposite side of the planet from India is a great city where the sun is rising at the same time it sets in India. In this city, the Surya Siddhanta claims, lives a race of siddhas, or advanced spiritual adepts. If you trace the globe of the earth around to the exact opposite side of India, you'll find Mexico. Is it possible that the ancient Indians were well aware of the great sages/astronomers of Central America many centuries before Columbus discovered America?- the Mayans or Incas!!! Knowing the unknowable: To us today it seems impossible that the speed of light or the fate of our solar system could be determined without advanced astronomical instruments. How could the writers of ancient Sanskrit texts have known the unknowable? In searching for an explanation we first need to understand that these ancient scientists were not just intellectuals, they were practicing yogis. The very first lines of the Surya Siddhanta, informs about the Golden Age when a great astronomer named Maya desired to learn the secrets of the heavens, so he first performed rigorous yogic practices. Then the answers to his questions appeared in his mind in an intuitive flash. Does this sound unlikely? Yoga Sutra 3:26-28 states that through, samyama  (concentration, meditation, and unbroken mental absorption) on the sun, moon, and pole star, we can gain knowledge of the planets and stars. Sutra 3:33 clarifies, saying: "Through keenly developed intuition, everything can be known." Highly developed intuition is called pratibha in yoga. It is accessible only to those who have completely stilled their mind, focusing their attention on one object with laser-like intensity. Those who have limited their mind are no longer limited to the fragments of knowledge supplied by the five senses. All knowledge becomes accessible to them. "There are those who would say that consciousness, acting on itself, can find universal knowledge, Professor Kak admits. "In fact this is the traditional Indian view." Perhaps the ancient sages didn't need advanced astronomical instruments. After all, they had yoga!.

What is Peace?

A short Story by Arun Gandhi 

A favorite story that Grandfather liked to tell us was the story of an ancient Indian King who was obsessed with the desire to find the meaning of peace. What is peace and how can we get it and when we find it what should we do with it were some of the issues that bothered him. Intellectuals in his kingdom were invited to answer the King's questions for a handsome reward. Many tried but none could explain how to find peace and what to do with it. At last someone said the King ought to consult the sage who lived just outside the borders of his Kingdom: 

"He is an old man and very wise," the King was told. "If anyone can answer your questions he can." 

The King went to the sage and posed the eternal question. Without a word the sage went into the kitchen and brought a grain of wheat to the King. 

"In this you will find the answer to your question," the Sage said as he placed the grain of wheat in the King's outstretched palm. 

Puzzled but unwilling to admit his ignorance the King clutched the grain of wheat and returned to his palace. He locked the precious grain in a tiny gold box and placed the box in his safe. Each morning, upon waking, the King would open the box and look at the grain to seek an answer but could find nothing. 

Weeks later another sage, passing through, stopped to meet the King who eagerly invited him to resolve his dilemma. The King explained how he had asked the eternal question and this sage gave him a grain of wheat instead. "I have been looking for an answer every morning but I find nothing." 

The Sage said: "It is quite simple, your honor. Just as this grain represents nourishment for the body, peace represents nourishment for the soul. Now, if you keep this grain locked up in a gold box it will eventually perish without providing nourishment or multiplying. However, if it is allowed to interact with the elements - light, water, air, soil - it will flourish, multiply and soon you would have a whole field of wheat which will nourish not only you but so many others. This is the meaning of peace. It must nourish your soul and the souls of others, it must multiply by interacting with the elements." 

Chetan Bhagat's Speech given at Symbiosis Institute Pune.......

Don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful, Balanced means ensuring your health,relationships, mental peace are all in good order.   There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your break-up.  There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.    "Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first.. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble.  Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die. One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously.  Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here.  We are like a prepaid card with limited validity.  If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up?    It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices.  "Don't be serious, be sincere."  God gave me nothing i wanted, He gave me everything I needed.

Why Some Men Have Dogs And Not Wives.............

Why Some Men Have Dogs And Not Wives: 1. The later you are, the more excited your dogs are to see you. 2. Dogs don't notice if you call them by another dog's name. 3. Dogs like it if you leave a lot of things on the floor. 4. A dog's parents never visit. 5. Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across. 6. You never have to wait for a dog; they're ready to go 24 hours a day. 7. Dogs find you amusing when you're drunk.. 8. Dogs like to go hunting and fishing. 9. A dog will not wake you up at night to ask, "If I died, would you get another dog?" 10. If a dog has babies, you can put an ad in the paper and give them away. 11. A dog will let you put a studded collar on it without calling you a pervert. 12. If a dog smells another dog on you, they don't get mad. They just think it's interesting. 13. Dogs like to ride in the back of a pickup truck. And last, but certainly not least: 14. If a dog leaves, it won't take half of your stuff. Ultimate True Test :

Lock your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car for an hour. Then open the trunk and see who's the happiest to see you.