Lot of people (including yours truly) are struck with a profession which is not their passion. It is not what they love to do. They still do it because it gives "job security" or "good pay" or both.

I love kids and i enjoy teaching. Teaching kids would have been my ideal profession or starting a school my dream.

What prevents me from going after my dream? The same, "insecurity about future". The thought "What if suddenly i become unwell or there is an emergency and i dont have money?"

So let me earn and save while i can. Dreams can wait!!!

Really???

When one knows that he has got only limited time to live, one does what he loves the most without a second thought. There is no reason for any compromise. "the time is running out. Do it NOW. else you never know" will be playing in the back of your head. You do not postpone doing what u love to do. You live life the way it should be, NOW, in the present! (This reminds me of Sarath chandra's blog "Me? I was finel" )

Is it only people with terminal illness that have got limited time?

No!

It holds good for everyone. All of us have got only limited time! A terminally ill patient atleast has a notice period. Others dont even have that! The unexpected visitor, Mr Death, can come knocking any moment! So, isnt that a stronger and more urgent reason to live the present moment to the fullest?

What prevents man from living in the present and reaching for his dreams? Why does he compromise?

what is man really afraid of?

Of death?

Or of Outliving his resources?? (and hence long life?)

"Only a lighted candle can lighten another one" is what they say, about the importance of Guru. The fact that i am yet in the mire of ignorance says for itself that i am still searching for my Guru! (May be i already met him, there is no way i would know untill the ignorance is removed!)

I have read about many Gurus and their teachings. Read about Ramana Maharshi, C.V.V, Pandit Sriram Sharma Aacharya, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Paramahamsa yogananda, Shiridi Sai, Satya Sai. Also read J. Krishna murthy, Ohso, U.G Krishna murthy and Ekkirala krishamacharya, ekkirala bharadwaja ...etc and I am still reading. They all seem to talk about the same thing. "Happiness is within" or "You are are Brahman" Whether it is the self-analysis of Ramana Maharshi or the Gayatri Sadhana of Sriram sharma aacharya, the aim is to reach the core, to know the knower! But then, they also say that no amount of reading, imagining, analysis and contemplation would be equal to the real "knowing". That moment of knowing is just a snap away at any moment. So near yet so far.

Something is standing in between! "Ya, It’s the Ego! Snub the ego and Drop the "mind" pat comes reply from the much read "intellectual" mind in me! That’s the whole point! While on one hand, the teachings ask us to snub the ego and drop the mind, continuous reading and intellectualization only does the opposite. One gets a feeling that he "knows" and has all the answers. One takes pride in the process of search and looks down upon others who are unlike him to be lesser mortals. One starts to identify himself with the search so much that he refuses to stop the search and refuses to grow beyond!!! Some people even attribute "insult" and "prestige" to the guru himself and drag him down to their level. (After all who can "insult" the ABSOLUTE?! )

Some argue about the need for the search. Some say you need not run around searching for any Guru. When the time comes, the Guru will find you. You need not read any books. The entire search is futile because it is not going to take you to your goal of knowing the ABSOLUTE. So if it is going to "happen" when the "time comes", why search!? 

I agree that the search through the study of various teachings, concepts, however earnest it may be, cannot make one enlightened. But it is nevertheless indispensable part. It is the process of getting ready to be "lighted". It is like drying the wick and keeping it ready so that it can get lighted when it comes in touch with a lighted candle!  When exposed to the same fire, a piece of wood that is well dried catches fire easily than a one soaked in water!  An earnest and effective search, sadhana or self-study, does just the same to a person. When done truthfully and earnestly, it gets him ready for the final show.

 I would be thirty this year. Which means going by the current Indian life expectancy, i am some where in the middle. Whether the glass is half full or half empty has always been a matter of perspective, so lets not debate on that. one should also know that a glass can break any moment! When one adds that dimension, it doesn’t really bother whether it is half full or half empty!  While the clock ticks its way to eternity, my search continues.

My Musings: Some people like UG, OSHO deride the conventional methods of worship. UG even derides the Guru-shishya hierarchy. They may be true to a certain extent. The conventional religion, worship etc may be crutches. But infirm people do need them. My opinion is that a person who has learnt to walk independent of them shouldn’t deride the crutches or the ppl who still use/need them. It would create confusion. If an infirm person tries to leave the crutches without gaining the ability to walk, he would fall and there would be more confusion!!!

Even Aurobindo is supposed to have said that everything that has ever been said or written about the ABSOLUTE is a lie, including the Vedas. Who can ever claim to have described the indescribable? All those have been just attempts to raise the curiosity; they are like trying to explain what "light" or "color" is to a blind person. The experience can never match the words or the imagination they create!!

Thousands have pondered over it, yet only very few reached anywhere near the answer. Going by the hypothesis that there is indeed a purpose for life, I started pondering over mine.

There are certain moments in everybody’s life, moments of purity, I would call them. They are the moments of utter delight at something natural, something simple like the freshness of spring morning, the beauty of a sunrise or the innocent smile of a child!  That particular moment, you do not need anything external to be happy. It just flows out of you, naturally. They are the magical moments when you are happy in spite of the world! They are the moments of purity, trust, innocence and love, the moments of real learning! The more one observes nature, the more often would such moments happen. The purpose of life then would be to carry back these moments and learning into the daily life and to let the purity enter the thoughts, words and actions, into every aspect of day to day life. Then there comes as spontaneity in whatever one does, certain freshness in every action. Being accepting, loving and giving, always and unconditionally would be the outcome of such purity. Becoming a reflection of that purity found in nature and being able to weave those magical moments such that they occupy ALL the moments seems to be the purpose of life, at least for me, for now!

PS: By spontaneity I don’t mean randomness.  There is an unmistakable rhythm in the spontaneity of nature! Sun raises everyday, seasons occur and re-occur, but no two sunrises are the same! Nor are any two springs!

Hit Counters

This seems to be a year of travel! At least for me it has been so till now and i hope it remains so for the rest of the year. In January we have been to Sringeri, Udupi, Murudeswar, gokarna. In Feb we went to Thiruvanmalai, the place where Ramana Maharshi's asharam is located. Then we came to know that there is something called Girivalam or Giripradakshina, the circumambulation of the hill arunachala that is done on every full moon and we planned to do it "soon". Miraculously we did it the very next full moon, this march on 21st!!

First about the legend associated with the place: Vishnu and Brahma once got into an argument as to who was greater among them and they go to Lord Siva. Lord Siva then takes the form of a giant flame and tells them that the one who finds the origin or end of that flame would be the greatest. Vishnu takes the form of a bore and goes digging to find the origin. Brahma flies on his swan to find the end. They both fail. Vishnu comes back humbled, apologizes for his audacity and says that he has realized that there is someone greater than him. Brahma, on his ascent meets a certain kind of flower (don’t remember the name) and asks it from where it’s coming. It replies saying that it has fallen from one of the jatas of lord Siva. Brahma then conspires with the flower and asks it to bare false witness that he has collected it from Siva's head. The flower complies. However the truth is already known and they both (the flower and Brahma) are cursed. The curse is that Brahma wouldn’t be worthy of worship and that the flower should not be used for the worship of any God either.

That is the legend and the location where that flame has stood on earth is supposed to be the hill of arunachala. The legend also says that the hill was in the form of fire during satya-yuga, transformed into crystal and then by kaliyuga it took the form of rock. All this is unverifiable and is just a legend which we hope to believe. It is just for information that i mention it here. Coming to whether i believe it or not, I just read it and think "May be, may not be. I am not in the capacity to accept or reject."

It is not this legend that has pulled me to the place. It is Ramana Maharshi who did it. Sri Ramana is hailed as the greatest of the sages of the modern times by one and all. A sage without any controversy! None at all!!!! He came to arunachala in his teens and stayed there till he passes away at the age of 60+. All the while he remained the same, simple and calm, wearing just a loin cloth. One glimpse at the ashram and one would get a feel of the simplicity of the man.

Sri Ramana had come to Thiruvanmalai in his teens. He first meditated for 15 years in a cave atop the hill called Virupaksha cave. When his mother joined him, he moved to a little more flat/spacious cave called "skandashramam". When his mother expired, he built her samadhi at the foot of the hill, built a Matru bhooteswar temple on it and stayed there till the end. This is the current day ashram that everybody visits. The ashram consists of just 3 rooms. One room where he used to meet ppl, that currently has the couch that he used to sit on. Another, the samadhi mandir, called the meditation hall. Another 10X10 room where the maharshi used to stay. The scarce items used by him are on display there. That’s it! The ashram ends! The place is absolutely filled with pleasant silence, situated right at the foot of the hill.

Sri Ramana never gave any discourses or collected disciples. He became famous worldwide when Paul Brunton, a western journalist wrote about  him in his book "A Search in Secret India.." Brunton claims that his search has ended at Arunachala where he found the Maharshi. I bought the book and it is very well written. He is not an Indo-phile who drools over anything and everything about India. He is a rationalist in that he does not accept anything unless experienced/seen first hand. At the same time, he has the grace to accept the limits of his capability in understanding the esoteric and readiness to learn/accept something totally irrational by western standards, if given adequate proof. He does the tight rope walking with grace and I would recommend the book as a "must read" by all, believers and non-believers. The later more so :-)

Ramana Maharshi's was the path of "Self-enquiry". He did not recommend the guru-shishya path and used to claim that the guru is within everyone and there is no need to go around search. When people came to him with certain intellectual questions in their mind, he would ask them "Who is asking the question?" the answer would be "I am" He would then say "Who is the "I", find him and all your questions would be answered". His initiation was the initiation of silence. He would never speak. Ppl would just come, sit near him, with their heads full of Qs for the master. But in his presence, all the questions would seem irrelevant and meaningless. A forceful yet pleasant silence would permeate their being and they would find peace!

To Quote from wiki "The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry 'Who am I?'. The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre."

A Brief outline of his life and teachings can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi

About the Giri-pradakshina

Sri Ramana is supposed to have given great importance to the hill arunachala. He said that the hill was personification of lord Siva himself. He used to do pradakshina of the hill very often. One circumambulation would sometimes take a day, week or even month. He declared that there is not even an inch of the hill that he has not set foot on! He advised that every man should do the predakshina atleast once in a life time. He insisted even the old and the infirm to do the same and said that the physical pain is nthing compared to immesurable gain which is difficult to perceive. He did not encourage any other ritual, mantra or practice. It is the fact that the pradakshina was recommended by such a person that made me take up the strenuous walk, barefoot, for about 17kms.

The pradakshina is supposed to be done on the full moon day. In the month of march, full moon lasted from 20th(Thurday) nite to 21st (friday) nite.

We started from Bangalore at around 9 AM on friday and reached Thiruvanmalai at around 1.30. We had booked the accommodation at Seshadri ashram next to Ramana Ashram. We went there, occupied the rooms, had lunch and started the giri-pradakshina at around 2.30. It took 4 hours for us to complete the pradakshina of the hill, visiting the temples enroute. It took an hour more for the darshan at the temple. (Fortunately, it was quick. We somehow managed to go at lean time. Generally it is expected to take 2-3 hrs on full moon days.)  It was almost 9 by the time we reached the cottage and all we could do for the day was to apply balm to the aching legs and soothe the muscles in warm water! :-)

The experience of pradakshina was great, though strenuous for the unaccustomed feet of a software engineer. We could see the local people do it with ease, some, along with their luggage and kids! There are 8 lingas in the 8 directions (agni linga, vaayu linga, varuna linga, kubera linga..etc) in addition to number of other small temples. The place is literally infested with temples and ashrams of holy men. There are so many simple ashrams of so many little known babas there, that u wonder whether the one whom you have crossed just now is one of them!! There is Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashram, Seshadri ashram to name the bigger ones. There are many smaller ones. There are lot of inaccessible and unknown caves atop the hill where at least one enlightened person stays at any given period in history. (Before Ramana, the cave where he meditated was occupied by a Great sage "Thiru". He was very famous and ppl thronged to see him. Once he is supposed to have asked everyone to leave, entered this cave and closed it. After certain time, when the disciples force entered the cave, all they would find were the ashes of the sage. Ramana is supposed to have chosen the same cave, made a heap of the ashes and meditated before it for 15 yrs. It is the virupaksha cave. A simple trek on steps made of boulders would take one there. We can even sit and meditate in the same cave for as long as we please. Needless to say, the vibrations are great! The quietness of the hill and the chirpy birds will make one forget the bustle of the town below and make him believe he is meditating at a distant forest.

On day two we visited the Ashram early in the morning, stayed there for the arathi and meditated for some time. The attention span was very less; blame it on my lack of practice of meditation or even sitting still for that matter! :-) I almost NEVER meditated before; by meditation, i mean sitting still and trying to observe thoughts or whatever. But even for me the 20 mins i sat there was absolute peace. I didnt have much thoughts to grapple with or "look" at. The fact that i could sit with eyes closed for 30 mins and not look at the watch even once shows "the proximity effect". We could not spend much time at the ashram as we had the target of visiting the two ashram-caves skandarshram and virupaksha askram before noon.

We set out on the trek at around 8 am. Sri Ramana, when he came to Thiruvanmalai had darshan of the lord at the temple, climed up the hill to virupaksha cave, stayed for 15 yrs, moved to skandashram, and then to the current ramanashram. Our trek was in the opposite direction. We started at Ramanashram, went to skandashram, virupaksha cave and finally landed near the temple, 2 kms away from the ashram. The beautiful trek and the brief yet fulfilling meditations at the caves left us wanting to visit the place again. This time we had to travel back to Bangalore before dark on the same day as i had left my son with my inlaws. This was the first time that he had stayed overnight without me and he surprised everyone by managing well!

The most remarkable thing about the trip, in addition to the place itself was the weather. It was just fantastic! It was raining cats and dogs while we were driving to Thiruvanmalai. We had apprehensions about having to do the pradakshina when there is down pour. But from our time of arrival till the time of departure, it did not rain! We were outdoors all through the stay in the excellent weather except for the nite, when it had promptly rained!! :-) The area is rocky and even a moderately sunny day by local standards would have left us drained by many more times. This time all we had to manage were just our aching legs and everything else was thankfully taken care of!

I love to travel, but the past one and half to two yrs have been quite sedentary bcos of my son. Now that he is almost two, we ventured out on a long drive in Jan during the extended weekend of sankranti. We went to sringeri-udupi-murudeswar-gokarna, driving through the wonderful Western Ghats and by the beach roads. (round trip around 1100kms)

First destination was Sringeri Sarada peetham. It is the first of the four original maţhas traditionally said to have been established by Adi Shankaracharya.

A small legend about the origins of the place…

According to legends, Śankara and his four disciples, accompanied by Bharati, an incarnation of Goddess Sarasvati reached Sringeri on an exceptionally hot noon, and as they proceeded to the river Tunga for their ablutions, they saw a frog struggling in the blazing sun to be delivered of its spawn. A cobra, a natural enemy of frogs, had raised its hood to provide the frog with shelter and protection from the ravages of the tropical sun. Śankara was greatly moved by the sight. If there was paradise on earth, here it was, where the lion and the lamb, the tiger and the cow, the cobra and the frog lived in mutual amity and peace. He turned round when, as she had already stipulated, Bharati, known also as Sharada, decided to stay for good at Sringeri on the banks of the sacred river Tunga.

Vishwarupa, assuming the name of Suresvaracharya, was installed here as the successor of Śankarācārya before the latter resumed his tour to found his three pithas at Puri, Dwaraka and Badrinath.

For the more enthused: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sringeri_Sharada_Peetham

The highest point in the Ghats is in Agumbe Ghat, which has a sun set point. We happened to be at one such Sun Set point by chance and had the wonderful view of the sun going down the horizon in the valley. From wiki I gather that it was not the famous sunset spot of Agumbe. Itseems from the famous sunset spot of Agumbe, one can see the Sun set over the arabian sea which is miles away!! :-o

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agumbe

We have missed the Malgudi house too. Hope I had done the homework before. But that doesn’t matter. In hindsight even if we had known before I don’t think we would have had the time to cover all these enroute.

There were so many imporant places enroute, Kollur Mukambika temple, Jog falls etc, that we told ourlselves “Next time!” and just drove on! J

We actually took a detour to Udupi so as to pass through the ghats for a scenic drive. But at one point we doubted the choice, esp after the scenic sun set at Agumbe Ghat and when it was getting darker, the wonder ful valleys and green ghats looked deserted and scary! The thought “What if we lose our way”  was luking in each of our minds, but none of us let it out. The small villages enroute where we were romanticizing to buy a small house and spend a few months, looked scary after dusk. The village roads were deserted and there was no power!!!  We could make out that we were passing a village only with some effort! Some of the villages looked abandoned and almost haunted! And to add to the movie effect there was a guy smoking at each sign post who dutifully showed us the way when asked. Only when we reached Manipal/Udupi and saw signs of civilization could we heave a sigh of relief and have a hearty laugh at the whole experience. It was only then we confessed our fears, till then each of us acted brave! J

The temple of Udupi is one of the most spiritually charged temples that I have ever visited! There was a bhajan of Gopala at one corner and recital of the Vedas at the other. Few young girls were singing carnatic on a small dias and few elderly persons reciting the names of the lord. The surprising fact was that all these did not look like cacophony as it would at certain temples. Standing at any one place you would listen to more than stream of songs/recitals. But the added vibrations were so great that it gave me goosebumps! It is a well maintained – clean temple. The only let down was the darshan of the Lord – Krishna  is to be done through small windows on the main door!!! Only on very few spl occasions in the year full darshan is possible.

From the temple we went to the beach at Udupi – Malpe. It’s a decent beach. With a 1 n half yr old toddler in the tow, I had to stay behind. My son likes water, but he has never seen soo much of it and was puzzled/scared. He got scared and climbed up his dad everytime there was a wave J So his dad carried him and slowly taught him how he should kick the wave and the wave would go back!!! The thrill on his face at the discovery was worth watching. He was really convinced the wave was going back bcos he kicked it!! :o)))) Kids are so innocent that I envy them at times!

The days target was to watch sun-set at Murudeswar. So we wound up quickly, had lunch and left for Murudeswar arnd 2. Enroute to Murudeswar is another famous beach Maravanthe. But the gradient there is steep, so we were advised by locals to give it a slip. The drive from Udupi to Murudeswar was the best stretch of the trip. The road is wedged between the Ghats and the Sea, intercepted by various rivers occasionally. The high point was when we passed through a stretch with a river on one side and ocean on the other! The location called for photos and there were many profile snaps taken ;o)

To be continued.

One needs years of very attentive, very careful, very reasonable,very coherent work, organisation, selection, construction, in order to succeed simply in forming, oh, simply this little thing, "one's own way of thinking!"

One believes he has his own way of thinking. Not at all.

It depends totally upon the people one speaks with or the books he has read or on the mood he is in. It depends also on whether you have a good or bad digestion, it depends on whether you are shut up in a room without proper ventilation or whether you are in the open air; it depends whether there is sunshine or rain! You are not aware of it, but you think all kinds of things, completely
different according to a heap of things which have nothing to do with you!

And for this to become coordinated, coherent, logical thought, a long thorough work is necessary.

The Mother : The Sunlit Path p.118

I was reading about the universe and black holes which i mentioned in my previous posts. For those who have not read, "A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing can escape after having fallen past the event horizon. The name comes from the fact that even electromagnetic radiation (e.g. light) is unable to escape, rendering the interior invisible."
And hence it is called a Black hole.
 
However, the final, correct description of black holes, is unknown to the scientists. As anything that enters it cannot be traced. It just vanishes.

There is a black hole at the center of every galaxy. It is the gravitational force of this black hole that holds the myrids of the stars and the planets in their respective places and orbits, and make them revolve around this galactic center.

There are myriads of such galaxies in the universe. Then what is the force that is holding this galaxies in their places???? Some enoromous black-hole?????? Is there a "center" for the universe??? Scientists..from earth..can only discuss/discover about a minuscle part of the universe, as they are looking "from earth" and Earth is not at the center of the universe...so there is no chance that they can see/discover study ALL of the universe!(Atleast going by the current methods)

Now, I was wondering, if scientists donno about what is at the center of our own galaxy, what would they know about center of the universe,  assuming there is one!!!

I was ruminating on this when i happend to come across another astounding piece of information.

What do u call "black color" in Sanskrit???

"Krisna varna"

yes, krsna is black. Another meaning of "krisna" is that which attracts!!!!!

Then the krishna, the vishwaroopa, from which everything has come into being and into which everything will vanish, whom the sages of ancient india have "known" and "realized", but cannot communicate thru words, could be the black hole?!?! Isnt it???

Rishis speak about the "Krishna tattva", "Rama tattva" and "Hanuman tattva"

In the Indian tradition, the water (jala tattva) is personalized as God Varuna, wind (Vayu tattva) as God Marut..so on, the rishis have personalized the properties of elements or some naturally occuring phenomemon (Sun, moon etc) and named them Gods.

Going by the same rule, Krishna and Rama must also be personification of some properties/some phenomenon...in the universe!

I am totally in awe at the possibility of this being true!!

If this is true, Rishis are undoubtedly more advanced scientists, who new not only "how" the universe behaves, but also "whys", not only how the human anatomy and psyche is, but also why it is so!

If so, the present day science and scientists would be mere kindergardeners posing to be Phds!!! :-)

PS: If someone has come across any material related to "Krishna tattva" "Rama tattva" or the tattva of any God for that matter, do let me know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattva
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_36_tattvas

That's it for this year! Am on vacation from tomm till Jan 1st and would have only limited/no access to the net.

Dear friends, Merry Chrismas and And Happy New Year.

cy all in the new year!

Cheers

Sahiti

Yukteswar giri, the Guru of Paramahamsa Yogananda (Paramahamsa yogananda is the author of “Autobiography of a Yogi) wrote a book on the subject and give below is the quote from wiki:

“According to the book, the motion of the stars moving across the sky (a.k.a.precession) is the observable of the Sun's motion around another star. The quality of human intellect depends on the distance of the Sun and Earth from a certain point in space known as the Grand Center, Magnetic Center or Vishnunabi Vishnu. The closer the Sun is to it, the more subtle energy the Solar System receives, and the greater is the level of human spiritual and overall development. As the Sun moves around its companion star, it brings us closer to or drives us farther away from Vishnunabi, resulting in the rising and falling ages here on Earth.”

Two points interested me:

1. Sun’s motion around another star.
2. Relation between human intellect vs Solar energy and Solar energy vs proximity of Sun to the “Grand Center”

I picked the easier one to begin with J and started digging around the first point.

I directly started at the “Universe” and decided to track back to earth! (Sources are all from wiki)

Universe

The Universe is everything that physically exists. the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and physical constants that govern them. In a well-defined, mathematical sense, the universe can even be said to contain that which does not exist

Then there is “observable universe” which is the part of the Universe which scientists have succeeded to discover.

Scientific experiments have yielded several general facts about the observable universe. The age of the universe is estimated to be 13.7±0.2 billion years. The universe is very large, possibly infinite, being at least 93 billion light years across, and consisting mainly of matter, rather than antimatter.

There are number of galaxies in the universe.

Galaxy

A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter.

Typical galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million (10 power 7) stars up to giants with one trillion (10 power 12) stars, all orbiting a common center of mass. Galaxies can also contain many multiple star systems, star clusters, and various interstellar clouds.

There are probably more than one hundred billion (10¹¹) galaxies in the observable universe.

(Do the math! Hundred billion multiplied by one trillion. That is the probable number of starts (Suns) in the “observable” universe. What % of the “whole” universe is observable, we know not! If the “whole” is infinite, which the scientists suspect, where does that leave us!!!! )

Although it is not yet well understood, dark matter appears to account for around 90% of the mass of most galaxies. Observational data suggests that supermassive black holes may exist at the center of many, if not all, galaxies. The Milky Way galaxy, home of Earth and the solar system, appears to harbor at least one such object within its nucleus.

(Look at the number of uncertain terms, in blue!)

So, the name of OUR 'Galaxy' is Milky Way! Let me touch upon the “Black hole” before we reach there.

Black Hole

A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing can escape after having fallen past the event horizon (ie the boundary of the Black hole, where the last event can be detected. Beyond that border, no “event” is recorded by scientists so far). The name comes from the fact that even electromagnetic radiation (e.g. light) is unable to escape, rendering the interior invisible. However, black holes can be detected if they interact with matter outside the event horizon, for example by drawing in gas from an orbiting star.

However, the final, correct description of black holes, requiring a theory of quantum gravity, is unknown.

So, what is at the center of a galaxy?

Super massive black holes at the centers of galaxies

According to the American Astronomical Society, every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center. The black hole’s mass is proportional to the mass of the host galaxy, suggesting that the two are linked very closely.

We had just arrived at the Milky way (our galaxy) before we entered the topic of “black hole”, lets pick up that thread.

Milky Way

Although the Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe, the Galaxy has special significance to humanity as it is the home galaxy of the planet Earth.

The disk of the Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter, and about 1,000 light years thick.  It is estimated to contain at least 200 billion, and up to 400 billion, stars

(200-400 billion Suns, moving around a black hole….is “one “galaxy! Can you imagine??????)

It is extremely difficult to define the age at which the Milky Way formed, but the age of the oldest star in the Galaxy yet discovered is estimated to be about 13.2 billion years, nearly as old as the Universe itself. (Logical..isnt it? :o)))

Location of Sun in Milky way

The Sun, and the Solar System, is found in what scientists call the galactic habitable zone

The orbital motion of Sun.

The Apex of the Sun's Way, or the solar apex, is the direction that the Sun travels through space in the Milky Way. The Sun's orbit around the Galaxy is expected to be roughly elliptical.

The orbital speed of the solar system is 220 km/s.

It takes the Solar System about 225–250 million years to complete one orbit (a galactic year).

(Beat that!!! Traveling at speed of 220kms/s takes 225-250 million years to go around the galactic center once!!!! I am already giddy, Can someone tell me how many generations of men that would mean??! ;o)))

Let us have a peek at our neighbors…nope, not neighboring planet, we have not yet arrive there. We are still touring our galaxy, so it is the neighboring galaxy that I am referring to!

(Wait a sec. Earth moving round Sun and Sun moving round a black hole (galactic center) So logically even the Galaxy should be moving ….right?) so whats the velocity of the galaxy?

Velocity of our galaxy?

In the general sense, the absolute velocity of any object through space is not a meaningful question according to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, which declares that there is no "preferred" inertial frame of reference in space with which to compare the Galaxy's motion. (Motion must always be specified with respect to another object.)

Many astronomers believe the Milky Way is moving at approximately 600 km per second relative to the observed locations of other nearby galaxies. Most recent estimates range from 130 km/s to 1,000 km/s. The Galaxy is thought to be moving towards the constellation Hydra, and may someday become a close-knit member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies.

See…the whole universe is on the move…! :o) Finally we are at the sun! Long journey buddy!

The Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a medium size star. (Medium..!huh!) The Earth and other matter (including other planets, asteroids, meteoroids, comets and dust) orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.8% of the solar system's mass.

 Energy from the Sun, in the form of sunlight, supports almost all life on Earth via photosynthesis, and drives the Earth's climate and weather

As the Sun exists in a plasmatic state and is not solid, it undergoes differential rotation as it spins on its axis (i.e. it rotates faster at the equator than at the poles). The period of this actual rotation is approximately 25 days at the equator and 35 days at the poles. However, due to our constantly changing vantage point from the Earth as it orbits the Sun, the apparent rotation of the Sun at its equator is about 28 days

Read the rest here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun)

Read about The Solar Dieties in different cultures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_deity)

Then comes the Earth (Honey! I am home! :o))

Earth is the third rock from the sun, where we are all sitting and considering ourselves probably the only “intelligent” form of life in the “universe”!!!!

Now, here after, whenever I use the term “universe”, it wouldn’t be a casual utterance!  I would be more humble and utter it with the respect the word deserves!