An easy introduction to Hindu Philosophy

OK. When it comes to spirituality, we are talking about personal growth. There can BE NO GOAL SETTING while starting out here, because you don't know what you will like when you have grown! Kameie Ngati Oel ? Do you see me ?

OK. Sit back and let me tell a story.

Lets say that you want to learn to play an instrument. Now you haven't had much experience with playing instruments before but you think it would be cool to be able to play some strings and do your own Californication. So you join a nice place called The Everlasting Tune, because hey, its in your city and everybody goes there.

So in the beginning, there are basic classes that teach no specialized instruments but just you know the basics of music like timbre, tone, emotion, rhythm, harmony, notes etc.

And you kind of throw your hands and say hey! I just want to play something not learn about music. But everybody in the school is doing it and the teachers seem great, so you say OK, why not.

So time passes on and you learn at your own pace and by the time you're done you are really happy that you joined because without the basics, how far can one go? You see many basic mistakes done by students of other random small schools who can already play an instrument but cannot identify the difference between distortion and even harmonic distortion. You even replace your ipod dock with a proper tube amplifier and decent speakers. Now music starts to really give the feel. The music seems to have taken on some weight and takes centrestage not a means to show off your gear.

BUT the most important thing you learnt was that now you can choose the instrument better. Now and not before doing these basic classes. Now you know about music more and also about your likes and your nature. You even might have stopped thinking about impressing girls with the guitar and started dreaming about the violin and its beautiful tones!

With me still? Good. 

But hang on…

Meanwhile you hang out with others and interact with seniors and have a look around and you discover that although everybody might be going there because its local but its a really huge and a special place to those who care to appreciate that with all kinds of variety and people in there.

By the time these basic classes are over, you say at last! I will get to choose my instrument!

But wait. That's a bit far off. You have to go through Intermediate classes first and they are about different kinds of music out there. You decide to take a leisurely walk to the buildings housing the six branches to choose from:

1) Classical Music ("Strings in Unison. Ostinato on A...Confutatis...Maledictis..". Real atomic. aka Vaisheshika)

2) Ethics of Music (emphasising about correctly conducting the music and highlighting ethics in a very here and now style. Someone hands you out 50 Cents as you ponder. aka Mimamsa)

3) Rules of Music (very specific about rules; says good music results from following rules and conducting well. As images of the struggles of Andrew in Whiplash flood your mind, you are hardly able to muster the courage to enroll here. aka Nyaya)

4) Architecture of Music (describes the ins and outs of both the musician and the music he creates. With a statue of a rock musician with his fender in front of the building, it seems heavy! aka Saankhya)

5) Derivation of Higher Music (says that all music here is a lesser form of the music of higher realms. Pink Floyd, Nirvana … you got it. Just be smart to enough understand. aka Vedanta)

6) Union with Music (all mystical and otherworldly. Immediately, the escapist in you escapes to Middle Earth with Enya's "May It Be" playing in your mind. Ahh The Celtic Music in The Lord of The Rings !; aka Yoga)

Aargh! No more of these choices. You are at your wits end. But your teacher convinces you that this is the way to go. Have patience otherwise, you will be lost in a maze of incorrect perceptions and confusions and become like other average musicians.

Somehow you resolve to walk this path and go through the struggles.

Lets say that you got really enthusiastic and chose Union with Music.

You struggle with these strange 'words' and otherworldly messages and styles that are totally alien to you but extremely beautiful when understood. Even if a small part is understood, the resulting harmony in your style and life is mind-blowing.

As your old shallow instrument-player dies and your true self, the inner musician emerges, it has taken years and finally you get to the end of it. Ahh!

And then on your passing day you catch up with your teacher and reveal your final choice of instrument : The Harp.

And he smiles and with a look of bewilderment wonders "Does he want to teach here?".

After waiting for a few moments for you to realize but seeing no progress he says, "My son! You are a graduate of The School of The Everlasting Tune. Invent your own instrument".

Music System : Thoughts on Hi-Fi Systems

I have now been in touch with the world of Hi-Fi for over 7 years. I have read up countless reviews and given a lot of thought to Hi-Fi System assembling. I have assembled my system as well. I have interacted with very experienced members in online forums. I have sensitive ears and I can pick up differences in sound.

Overall I would say that the world of High Fidelity is nice but it has its own quirks.
Let me look at both sides of the coin. This could be very useful for those getting into high quality audio.

Reproduction
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Firstly, High Fidelity is faithful reproduction of recorded sound. This is good. It really feels great when we listen to a better reproduction of audio.
Now on the flip side this has become a thing in itself where there seems to be no end to how high things could go. Here & here for example is a video demonstrating why we need 1000watt high quality amplifiers. The 1000watt amps in the first video are CH Precision amps costing $65,000. These are simply out of reach of normal public. And this defeats the purpose. OK, you could buy Parasound JC1 monoblocks but they cost $9,000 and thats just the amp. So live sound is just out of reach of the public.
The only convincing live system I have heard that is also cheap costs about $9,000. Which again is out of reach of general public at least here in the East.

Quality
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You could buy Emotiva XPA-1 monoblocks for $2,400 but you would have to take a quality hit. And anything thats MOSFET (higher quality) costs $2,500 and above starting with 160watts of power in Parasound Halo integrated amp. 160 watts is demonstrably low amount. These considerations are important as the stated goal of Hi-Fi is accurate reproduction of live recording AKA live sound.

System Matching
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Its great when it works but if you wanna go live sound + within budget, you have few options and you might have to take a hit. Plus its a chore.

Power
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I do not know about the West but in India I have no idea where to procure an electric point which has amperage more than 22Amps. I mean that used to run a 5.5 ton air conditioner in my cafe. And these 1000w monoblocks state that they are aiming for 100 or so amps.

Processed Sound
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British anything sounds very processed to me as opposed to organic natural sound.

Sound Characteristics
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Its amazing that knowledgeable people talk in terms of sound qualities. I myself have learned from them and from listening. But here again there is a huge confusion among the public as to what sound characteristics to aim for at what price level; forget about proper evaluation & demo of systems with these. I have dealt with this topic here.

Max Budget
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What does ordinary public buy for speakers? They buy $50 / Rs 4,000 systems that are either 2.1 or bluetooth. What does a music lover buy? At the max, he buys a micro or mini system costing $300 / Rs 25,000. How far can you push those people? Maybe upto double their budget or $600 / Rs 50,000.
Keeping this in mind, a Hi-Fi system should cost no more than $1,200 and a live system should cost no more than $2,500 / Rs 2,00,000.
That is as far as people can be pushed. That is what makes sense.

I do not know how to configure such a system.

But you can bet I am going to try.

Chaitanya Dharm

We are chaitanya as much as we are a soul. The degree to which we feel alive and live our life to the fullest is determined by how developed our chaitanya or consciousness is.

This chaitanya is not the same as the chaitanya discussed in Vedic Dharm. This is the chaitanya of the angel in us. And the angel in us goes well beyond the limits of Vedic Dharm. In fact, it opens its eyes when it goes beyond the boundaries of Vedic Dharm into Hindu Dharm.

Thus this dharm is the senior of Vedic, Hindu & Sanatan Dharm. It is everlasting as chaitanya is everlasting. Even the most base of beings have a chaitanya. They may not have Jiva of Sanatan or Body of Hindu dharm but they will have chaitanya.

There are many loka that follow Chaitanya Dharm. The higher ones have amazing feelings in chaitanya. People in these loka do not sleep as chaitanya never sleeps. They may or may not have a jiva but this jiva is not of Sanatan but of here.

Hindu Dharm

This dharm starts with Viswarup & Radha. They are like the father and mother of this dharm. The world starts with Vishnu taking birth with the aid of Devi Bhagwati. When he grows up, he gives birth to Brahma through his naabhi. And after Brahma grows up, he gives birth to Mahesh.

People generally pray to one of these gods. That depends on which one appeals to them most and on their own swabhaav. There are various different customs that are followed by people in this dharm, again depending on who they pray. For e.g. Mahashivratri by Shaiv & Satyanarayan Vrat by Vaishnavs.

This dharm is not a set of rules to be followed but a way of life. People 'discover within themselves' which dev they will pray to. And they share their life's issues with their dev who guide, teach and heal them on their journey. Life is considered a journey ending in moksha. Moksha is freedom of the soul from karma.  

Music System : Thoughts on Multibit DAC Technology

People assembling HiFi systems usually get a good DAC in some form - either an external DAC connected to source or a sound card in case of desktop system or the source itself has a decent DAC like a CD Player. While the benefits are many for a good DAC & mainly in that it gives a lot of sound charcteristics as discussed in a previous post here.

Now the thing is that while the task of every DAC is the same - that of converting digital music to analog music, they go about doing it in different fashions. On one hand there is the delta-sigma(DS) tech which gives us a "effective bits" of about 2-5 bits. The significance of this is that our digital music is encoded at 16 bits of resolution. If on reconverting it while listening we are only getting 2-5 bits then its a loss of dynamic range. This appears as a loss of appeal in singers voice. Where the singer or an instrument were to stretch his voice or sound, that stretching will not be that dramatic. I hope you understood that because that is the whole "dynamic range" thing.

Now I had the good fortune of stumbling upon an affordable DAC which does this decoding in multibit style instead of DS style. This is the Schiit Modi Multibit available for $250 / Rs 22,000. This gave me 16 bits of resolution. Listening to it for the first time was an experience. It was like hearing digital music in a new way - 18 yrs of listening to digital music and now I got 16 bits. While the dynamic range certainly increased I stumbled upon something else that I did not like. Apparently 16 bits is a lot of bits to contain information about "atmospheric energy" during performance of the band. What I mean is that when the band performs, some energy is generated - in amplification of instrument sounds and in venue. Somehow this too gets captured. This is not hearable in regular DS DACs but one can hear it in almost every song in a multibit DAC. This is what made me turn off listening to music after I had listened to just 4-5 songs. It was ridiculous and so I got rid of this DAC and went back to my trusty sound card - M-Audio 2496 Audiophile. I bet its AKM DAC sounds 95% as good as a Modi 2.

Apparently people have been complaining that digital does not sound that good. I am willing to bet that some of it is because of dynamic range thing as cassettes had about 6-7 bits of dynamic range. Vinyl apparently has 10 bits of it. The solution to it I think is in HD recordings that sound smooth as well. This is the road I am going to take in the future.

For someone who wants more than 2-5 bits, lookout for dual-DAC DS implementations. These apparently have 8 bits of resolution. Check with manufacturer on this before buying.

Have a good time listening to music :-)

Various Systems of Life & Growth

To an uninitiated, religion in India may appear very large and confusing. But there are actually many religious systems here. All of these are ways of life and are not like a set of rules that other religions are. One's own dharm can also be said to be the set of one's own values. One can spend lifetimes learning and growing within these dharma. They are:

- Vedic Dharm

- Hindu Dharm

- Sanatan Dharm

- Chaitanya Dharm

- Atma Dharm

Vedic Dharm - 'Word' is the origin of this way of life. Word is Brahma & Word is the Universe. Word is the truth and no proof of it is needed. Its proof is in the results. This is the domain of Sri Brahma who creates and maintains this world. It contains many worlds like Bhuloka, SwargaLoka, ShaniLoka etc. There are many kinds of beings that come to life here like deva, yaksha, rishi, muni etc. This is where we find Indra, Yama, Surya and Chandra. Vedas are the primary texts which have to be earned by good deeds or tapasya. Shastras are secondary texts that contain various primary arts and knowledge.

Hindu Dharm - This is the domain of Vishnu, Brahma & Mahesh who are primary in this dharm. This dharm emancipates everyone. There are no primary texts but there are purana, various festivals & customs to be followed. It is a way of life. Radha & Krishna also are found here. It contains 14 primary worlds & many loka. Karma is given a lot of importance here. Body is the primary means of working out bad karma here.

Sanatan Dharm - Sanatan Dharm has given birth to Hindu Dharm. It is Sanatan meaning it exists forever. Also it exists forever. Ishwar is given a lot of importance here. Purush & Prakriti are primary in this way of life. There are also Brahma, Vishnu & Shiv. It contains many famous loka like Naimishaaranya & Shatpath. Jiva itself is given a lot of importance here. Instead of karma, bhaav and its healing is given a lot of importance.

Chaitanya Dharm - Chaitanya and its healing & maintenance is given primary importance here. Chaitanya is consciousness. This is a very very old system and has given birth to Sanatan Dharm. Chaitanya never comes to an end, so basically this way of life will never come to an end. Ishwar is given a lot of importance here. There are many many deva loka here and its world is very large. There is Chaitanyamayi Devi here.

Atma Dharm - This one is even older than Chaitanya Dharm and takes care of the soul. Since soul is the core of everyone's existence so this is the oldest and the last system. It has given birth to Chaitanya Dharm. Both this & Chaitanya Dharm are not found on Earth. Although other ways of life speak of raising chaitanya and liberating the soul, they do it either through karma or through practice, both of which are indirect means. Chaitanya & Atma dharma directly raise chaitanya and liberate atma.

Everyone passes through the loka of Chaitanya or Atma dharm in their journey to moksha or liberation. But not everyone lives in both of these. People live in only one of these two worlds.

Sanatan Dharma - Loka or Worlds under Sanatan Dharma

There are many loka that fall under Sanatan Dharma.

Naimishaaranya is a loka where bhaav is given a lot of importance.

There are many bhaav that come from the body. And different bodies are related to different loka. Thus everyone including people here get bhaav relating to their loka. Naimishaaranya is that loka where jiva gets a body for the first time. Thus also it is that loka where bhaav relating to body are the highest.

Shatpar is another loka under Sanatan Dharma. Bhaav in this loka are quite less from those in Naimishaaranya. People hare have clean hearts. It is because of this that people here can live their lives according to their heart's wishes. Loka falling under the sway of Maya start from below Shatpar. Thus it is free from the ill effects of Maya.

Sanatan Dharma - Vishnu Brahma & Shiva in Sanatan Dharma

Vishnu is the Deva who maintains many bhaav. He operates in many loka according to that loka. His Devi is Vishnuvi and she assists him in the same task of maintaining bhaav. Only their rupa or outer manifestation changes according to loka.

Brahma takes care of understanding. This understanding is of inner nature of all jiva. His Devi is Brahmi and she assists him in this task. They and other deva stay away from knowledge or gyan which relates to the outer world. They too work according to loka.

Shiva is he who always is. His Devi is Shakti. Both of them maintain many loka. Different tasks are required to maintain different loka and Shiva/Shakti are engaged in those tasks.

Sanatan Dharma - Mula Prakriti or Mother Causal Nature

As Mother Nature, Prakriti takes care of us in every possible way. From the time we start to breathe till the time we stop breathing, the stream of love flows from Prakriti without a break.

Loka is the Hindi word for a world. For e.g. BhuLoka stands for Physical or our world. SwargaLoka stands for Heavenly world. In every Loka, Prakriti appears as Mother Nature. Her form varies according to that Loka. A part of our personal nature or Swabhaav comes from our Body, and this we have received lovingly from Prakriti.

Prakriti loves us without condition. In her own ways, her unconditional love flows to us constantly. It is impossible to even imagine life without the Mother. There are many areas of life in which she maintains our bhaav and does not even let us know about it.

All mothers get their motherly love from Prakriti but some of it comes from Ishwar as well.

Whats more, Prakriti has given every living being his/her own body, and so also a part of swabhaav, which is appropriate to him/her. Prakriti also helps us in those areas where we are unable or wanting in helping ourselves.

Sanatan Dharma - Purush and his priority

Purush is the first male & Prakriti the first female inside creation. Out of the two, Purush is soulful. He is a form of soul. He is the father to all. The Hindi word for male is purush thereby signaling everyone to learn from the father.

Purush takes care of all beings like his own family. He upholds dharma through various acts and this is his purpose of life. He faces various trials on his path but remains steadfast on it.

Ishwar too helps him on his path by helping him in his struggles and bestowing gifts on him like strength, courage etc. Karma is what makes a true Purush. Karma gives shape to every man's character and to his life.

Karma helps every male by healing their bhaav. This does not happen automatically. There are blessings of Purush & Prakriti in this. Purush helps all as a guide.

Sanatan Dharma - Significance of Bhaav

The significance of bhaav is such that if bhaav is appropriate then it is alright and if bhaav is not appropriate then its not alright.

Sanatan Dharma gives a lot of importance to bhaav. Bhaav is attached to everything that we do. For e.g. when we shop for vegetables or care for a loved one, some feeling or sense is attached to it. And this bhaav should be appropriate. It does happen that we have inappropriate bhaav.

If we contract a inappropriate bhaav when starting a work then we should drop that bhaav. Also it is better that bhaav should be present till the end of the task.

It is better if we do not attach lower bhaav to any task like greed, anger, attachment, jealousy etc.

If somebody has had beautiful bhaav towards anything and that bhaav is now missing then there is some reason behind that. The amazing thing about Sanatan Dharma is that if we keep following it then it can give that bhaav back to us.

The thing that makes Sanatan Dharma special is that it maintains our bhaav and can heal bhaav that have become inappropriate.

Sanatan Dharma - An Introduction

Sanatan Dharma is the father & mother of Hindu Dharma. It has given birth to Hindu Dharma. Thus it is much much older than Vedic Dharma as well.

Over time various dharma appear & disappear but not Sanatan Dharma. It always maintains itself over time.

The question appears that what is Dharma? Sanatan Dharma says that Dharma is ones own sense or feeling related to life values. For e.g. what is pace? Pace is ones own speed of working or living. It is a sense that is there inside every person. So Sanatan Dharma says that these and other such senses make up Dharma. Some other examples are sense of peace, sense of self-respect etc. And Sanatan Dharma operates in this area and heals this part of people. Sanatan Dharma calls it bhaav.

Thus also if we have lost a bhaav then Sanatan Dharma can help us earn it back. It teaches us that this entire creation is a gift from One God or Ishwar. In this Dharma, Purush & Prakriti appear after Ishwar. And after them come Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva.

Music System - More thoughts and ideas, tips & tricks

The second idea is that costlier systems will produce music at a larger scale. A 3 inch woofer cannot produce sound like a 4 inch woofer. The first system has 3", the 2nd 4" & the last a 5" woofer.

Another idea is that amp, speaker combination is kind of hard to pin down, so we go for active or powered speakers.

DAC is a very important part of the system and it should not be ignored. In fact DAC decides sound characteristics and amp, speaker reproduce those characteristics.

Use of special speaker wires & USB cables is very profitable as they dont cost much but improve the sound by a lot (for the money spent).

Tips

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- Use higher bitrate music files. MP3s have 128, 224, 320 & other bitrates. Try to get hold of 320kbps MP3 or 256kbps AAC files.

- Try to use WASAPI driver in your Audio player. It produces a more natural sound. I use foobar2000 with WASAPI component. The guide for how to download, install & configure foobar can be found here.

I dont use fidelizer though. Because I see that it doesnt go well with my system.

Thats all I have for now.

Hope you enjoyed the posts and that they were useful.

Remember to get at least a small DAC as there is enough noise in the default audio of laptops and desktops to cause harm to us.

You dont drink dirty water do you?

Music System - Thoughts & Ideas used to put together Music Systems

There are many ideas that I have used in putting together the Music Systems suggested in the previous post here.

The idea is that we assemble a High Fidelity Audio System which accurately reproduces the music that is being played. So the focus has to be on quality rather than quantity. Quality here will be the quality of sound reproduced & quantity will be amount of volume that you can increase.

And in order to do quality, we will need to keep our focus on sound characteristics. I will describe them now, but one thing is to be kept in mind - that characteristics which are not known but are present in the system go into making the experience of listening magickal. So, you learn the following accordingly...

Basic System
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Clarity - everybody understands this. More clear sound.

Tight Bass - Bass that is produced should be tight and not just bigger.

Fatigue Free Sound - You should not get tired after listening to music for a small duration of time like an hour.

Balanced Sound - The vocals, bass & musical instruments should be balanced in volume. None should overpower the others.

Stereo Separation - 2 speakers produce a stereo separation and a ball of sound. Its very pleasant to stay within that ball of sound and be surrounded by music.

Intermediate System

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Timing - music will not appear to hurry along but will sound relaxed & well synchronized.

Emotion - There should be feeling in the music and not just beats & voices.

Musical - It should sound musical.

Timbre - The music instruments should sound like real life instruments.

Depth - Music should sound as if coming from some depth.

Advanced System

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Smooth - Music should be smooth & hence soothing.

Dynamic Range - When a singer increases his voice level, it should sound exactly like he did.

Instrument separation - One should be able to identify separate instruments even in heavy orchestras.

Organic Natural Sound - Sound should not appear to be artificial but natural like in real life.

Imaging - When speakers are positioned well, the ball of sound that gets created, creates the stage on which the band has played music. Singer in the middle, drums in the back and other instruments on the side can be identified.

Music System - How to put together a High Quality Music System

I have put together a Hi-Fi Music System for myself consisting of Q Acoustics 2020i speakers, Marantz PM5004 amp and M Audio 2496 sound card.

I have been reading audio related stuff for some time now and I am technically trained in computers.
I have also been following my audio hobby for 5 years now starting from ordinary $50 / Rs 1500 speakers.

I have long given thought to putting together a great system that would cost even lesser than my system but still provide equivalent performance. My system costed me around $700 / Rs 50,000.

In fact I have put together 3 systems according to 3 budgets and quality of sound that can be expected from it.
So without further ado here they are:

Basic System

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The following audio characteristics can be expected from this system:

Clarity

Tight Bass

Fatigue Free sound

Balanced sound

Stereo Separation

Speakers - M Audio AV32 

DAC - Fiio K1 

Connecting wires - Any quality 22-26 AWG 3.5 to RCA cable for about $5/Rs 400 for 3ft./1m For e.g. Monoprice 105597 
Total - $125 / Rs 13,000

Intermediate System

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In addition to the previously mentioned qualities, sound from this system should also have the following

Timing

Emotion

Musicality

Timbre

Depth

Speakers - Mackie CR4 

DAC - HiFiMeDIY Sabre U2 Asynchronous DAC

Connecting wires - Any quality 22-26 AWG 3.5 to RCA cable for about $10/Rs 800 for 3f/1m 

Total - $225 / Rs 20,000

Advanced System

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In addition to all the above qualities, this system's sound should be

Smoothness

Dynamic Range

Instrument separation (even in heavy orchestras)

Organic Natural Sound

Imaging

Speakers - Yamaha HS5/JBL LSR 305 

DAC - Schiit Modi
USB Cable - Schiit USB Pyst
Interconnect - Hosa HPR-003 x 2 3ft
Total - $450 / Rs 40,000