is nothing something ?

india times said I was on a spiritual search because of the turmoil of my personal life and post oscar success of golden age. Not true. I have been in turmoil since I was 10.
In Delhi we used to sleep under the open skies on the terrace in summer. There was no light, sound or other pollution at that time. The universe was there to comprehend in all it’s fairy tale glory. The stars bright enough to create shadows of my hand on the white sheets. It was beautiful, as my mother would give me a glass of water from the earthen pot called the Surahi. I still miss the taste of the earth in the water I drank in the light of the universe. And as I would lie there, staring at the stars the inevitable question would nag me again. Where does the universe go ? What lies at the end of the universe ?….


… my father would gently explain that the universe went on forever. And i would wonder what the dimensions of forever were. I had just started learning physics in school. They had taught me that everything always had measurable dimensions. Length, breadth, depth. Circumfrence, radius. Even energy was measurable. Everything was something confined and measurable from the inside and from the outside. This was the physics of the finite.
So where did ‘forever’ fit in the matrix of the finite ? What was my father trying to say ? I would try and imagine ‘forever’. My imagination would extend and extend and extend looking to see how far I could go in a linear form, till I would break into sobs because wherever I went it – it just had to go further. How could I live in the physics of the finite and yet every night stare at something that completely defied description ? How could something just go on forever ? No limits in either time or in space ? How could something be nothing ? An eternal darkness ? If anything was something then it had to end somewhere, right ?
I created my own image of the universe to help calm myself down. Our universe was a miniscule atom in the tip of an axe being swung by a wood cutter. The time it took for the axe to hit the tree was an eon. Yet the universe of the wood cutter was enclosed in another atom at the tip of an axe of another wood cutter in an even more immense universe. And so on. One universe after another. One wood cutter after another. And by the time my imagination would create one universe after another, one eon after another, I would fall asleep. And then confront the physics of the finite at school the next day.
I am still that little boy in search of ‘forever’. I always have been.
shekhar
shekhar

71 thoughts on “is nothing something ?

  1. hahaha… First two lines are funny… rest i think u had already shared with us on this blog…

  2. hey man…u made me cry..creating twinklings in my eyes..and finally a smile..o mere bhai u r not the only one in the sky.

  3. Dear Shekhar,
    I can very well imagine those days with your family why you’d still miss those beautiful days. By the way, you and my father were born months apart and closeby, you in Lahore and he in Rawalpindi and they came to India before partition. By the time I was born my Dad had a good job in the public sector and we had a fridge and TV and I went to Delhi Public School, but most of our relatives still had a ‘Surahi.’ I also enjoyed drinking the water from it with that smell. In our home, lots of neighbors gathered each Sunday at 6pm when Doordarshan showed a Hindi film as we were the only ones with a TV, and we all longed for the logo of Doordarshan to appear with that unique background music.
    We had our own terrace and our neighbors often slept on their terrace in the open – somehow they still liked that even though the company had given them very good quarters. My dad would take me to the terrace and show me the stars – tell me about the Saptrishi or the Ursa Major constellation and also tell me about the Dhruv Tara – the pole star on the horizon, and the Indian myth that if you see it consecutively for 40 days you become “amar” i.e. live forever.
    I also love thinking about the universe and often go to the beyondtoday.tv website which talks about very important topics like God, Heaven, Meaning of Life, Do we exist?, Why are we here?, and really enjoy their discussions which are a combination of religion and science. I don’t know why God made even the nearest star Proxima Centauri 4.22 light years away from us, so so much still needs to be explored. I do sincerely believe that God does exist and loves us all, and providence wants us to live a wonderful life – a lot of which can be determined by our intentions and belief. This beautiful quote fits here perfectly:
    The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God. – James Irwin, US astronaut, 8th man on the moon.
    Two quotes on “forever”:
    Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we’ll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one celebration that never can end.
    Richard Bach (1936 – )
    Source: There’s No Such Place as Far Away
    “Once you accept the existence of God-however you define him, however you explain your relationship to him-then you are caught forever with his presence in the center of all things.”
    Morris West
    The mystery is too profound, Shekhar, and the time so limited, so we can never afford to stop the search.
    Best Regards,
    Himanshu

  4. Nice article! And what about the time.. is there any link between time and space? What is the time… what is the relation of past events to our present time? what is the ‘anagat’ or ‘bhavishya’… ? Is the time is only present… if yes, then think about a present without past, a present without memory. Is there any chain between present-past and future? And what about dreams… the dreams are not the part of our life, our memory? There are so many things around us. There are so many universe around us… dark and deep woods. This is not a mysticism… this the the way by which you see the life. Is there any memory after death? If not… then death is a little painful for me. Hope you had read some stories of Jorge Luis Borges. I’m waiting for that time when you will make some low budget movies on these kind of topics.

  5. Nothing is something — akasha lingam, the formless form of shiva at Chidambaram, TamilNadu, is an embodiment of this concept and represents ‘space’ – one of the 5 primordial elements.

  6. good morning shekhar !
    ‘ forever ‘………think about it…….
    it is only what is NOT THERE that is truely ‘forever’ within us…..?
    whether it is people who are not there anymore or moments that are not there or even time that was………..while they are there they are hardly there but when they are gone they are etched forever ?

  7. Dear Shekhar,
    Hope you are doing well. I have collected some quotes on “nothing” and hope you and our fellow community members like it. Today I am watching “Motorcycle Diaries” for the 15th time I think. My life constantly craves to travel and this is one magical movie that gives you such unbelievable feelings about travel and life (the score is really breathtaking and that is a great part of the fulfilling experience) and makes me travel even more.
    “If there were nothing but thought in you, you wouldn’t even know you are thinking.” “You would be like a dreamer who doesn’t know he is dreaming.” “When you know you are dreaming, you are awake within the dream.”
    Eckhart Tolle
    Source A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
    One creates from nothing. If you try to create from something you’re just changing something. So in order to create something you first have to be able to create nothing.
    Werner Erhard
    “The seeker is he who is in search of himself. Give up all questions except one: “Who am I?” After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The “I am” is certain. The “I am this” is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. Discover all that you are not — body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that — nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realise that you are the limitless being”. –
    Sri Nisargadatta
    Source: http://www.sankaracharya.org/i_am_that.php
    Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.
    laila ali
    Source: http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/iin/
    Lao-tzu quote: In the pursuit of Knowledge, every day something is added. In the practice of the Way, every day something is dropped. Less and less do you need to force things, until finally you arrive at non-action. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
    Martha Beck
    Source: Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live, Page: 9
    Best Regards,
    Himanshu

  8. I too love to think about the depths of the universe….I have a great interest in philosophy and love exporing and reading other people opinions and theories….religious or scientific….
    My father is a physicist/scientist of the earth and believes in hard facts and science and we have spent a great many evenings in discussing our thoughts…
    I myself am not sure if I believe there is a god…I maybe beleive there is something out there but I am resigned to the fact that I will never know for sure.. This brings me back to the universe how do we know it goes on forever?? Cause after forever there must be something…
    But how can something go on forever without having an end??… Surely this defies science as we know it and makes god and religion seem more likely to be real… Is god “nothing”??
    How can nothing be nothing as surely nothing must be something??

  9. Shekhar, you offer great substance when all around there is such silly crap. I come here to get my feeding of good poetry and philosophy.
    I know exactly how you feel; I am forever trying to reconcile science and the soul. I like the theories of David Bohm. Have you heard of him? In essence he says that all of time and space exist in the ever present now. Of course we have heard all of that in our various spiritual disciplines, but the way he explains it makes sense to me. The explicate order is everything we see, and the implicate order is what contains everything. Everything springs out the implicate order, and we all eventually wrap ourselves into it again when we die. There is a great example of this theory in a book called the Holographic Universe. If you take a drop of ink and spread it in glycerine, it disappears. Conversely, if you then whirl it in the opposite direction it appears again. Bohm likens the implicate order to the glycerine, and the ink manifesting and disappearing to the explicate order of the universe. It is so fascinating! I love quantum mechanics.
    It also seems we lose much of our natural connection to the infinite living within four walls.
    Don’t worry about the media. Who cares what they say. All great philosophers constantly question.

  10. very good morning to you shekhar !
    its amazing how all kids have spent many an hour star gazing………?
    i have done it too ! with childhood friends….. trying to locate the star of venus…..dhruv tara…..saptarishi etc
    next stage was during the teenage where we wondered what these stars held in store for us.
    then there were the sharad purnima nights where you gather on the terrace and have ‘ doodh poha ‘ along with extended family……sitting on chattaais while watching the full moon.
    where have all these simple pleasures gone in this high tech era……thats what a few friends and i were reminiscing among other things …….in the foyer of our building yesterday ( we were having a kinda ‘ mahila mandal ‘ 🙂 know what i mean…..? )you should have been there……..you would have enjoyed it!

  11. I have been in turmoils since similar age..lol all i wanted to know was where was i meant to go…some energy keeps pulling me beyond….I dont know where, and i restlessly travel recklessly till date!!
    I need an end….and the end never comes, ironical!!
    Hugsss Shekhar

  12. Dear Shekharji,
    I am a freelance journalist and writer in Hindi.
    I hope you can find a way to search yourself and your existence in this universe through my poem:
    “Aas (Desire) na tooti, Pyaas na tooti,
    Toot -Toot gaye sapaney mere.
    Nayee Roshni bankay Bikhray,
    Mere hi Armaan Adhooray.
    Zindagi Meri na Chaen Paayegi…
    Jab tak na Aas meri Jeet jaayegi.
    Samay ki Tann pe maar padi hai,
    Na Chchoo sakaa wah Mann ko mere.
    Mann ki Is Dharti ne Samay ke
    Anek Prahaar jhele hain.
    Nayi Subah ke saath Har Din….
    Nayi Aas kay Phool Khilay hain.
    Srishti kay Nirmataa ne hi,
    Is Tann mein yah Mann banaaya.
    Usee Vidhata kay khel hain saaray…..
    har Saans mein meri Aas ko Basaaya.
    Ab mere Ad-bhut Jeevan kaa
    Har Daanv bhi Vahi Chalegaa.
    Samay Kay Saath bhi Vahi Joojhegaa….
    Meri Jeet mein hi Swayam Vijayi hogaa.
    With Many Best Wishes from, Kamakshi

  13. Shekhar, your questions were once mine too. But then one day something happened and lo! I was left with no questions. I wrote it in my article “My First Experience of Oneness.” Perhaps you will enjoy it:
    My First Experience of Oneness
    By the age of 25 I had completed my degree in Civil Engineering, joined govt. service, got married and fathered two sons. For the next about three years, while my friends and colleagues were busy building up their careers I found myself lost in what one may say are the eternal questions of mankind: Who am I? Where have I come from? Where am I supposed to go after my so-called death? Has my being, my “I” some permanent point of reference or is it merely a chance bubble floating meaninglessly in the wilderness of space? What is space? Where this world ends? What is beyond that? Could it be that all this (alluding mentally to the world around) never have been? Were there then to be no.. nothing …forever….f o r e v e r….. N E V E R…?
    Then one day while I was sitting all alone in my brother’s rented flat in a big city, suspended from my govt. service, separated from my wife and two children, diseased of unattended body and dejected of unanchored mind, something entirely unexpected happened. Something like lightening but unaccompanied by usual light and thunder seemed to flux out of my head upwards, encompassing simultaneously somehow the whole of the universe into its fold…
    Actually it is not easy to describe such an experience…For, initially it so overwhelms your being that you lose all your sense of separateness, of individuality. And at long last when you regain some semblance of your sense of separateness, of individuality even then something like what the scientists call Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle – simply put which states that at deeper levels you can know one aspect of reality only at the cost of the other – inhibits its truest recollection much more description: in clothing it with words you tend to lose its essential stuff, its essential beauty, in trying to capture its essential stuff, its essential beauty you increasingly get lost to the world of words…
    It was not something which had happened to me as say an ordinary incident or even accident would happen to me: a happening, happening to me as something separate from ‘me,’ so that I could simultaneously act as an observer and a participator, so that I could ‘note it down’ as it happened. It had somehow involved me totally: it had somehow involved even that part of me which was supposed to ‘note it down,’ was supposed to act as the base on which the mechanism of my memory was to function.
    Anyway, what a way of finding the answers! Off go rather the questions themselves. Off goes rather the wall itself between ‘me’ and the rest of Nature which had actually been the cause of all those questions. The questioner, the questioning and the things questioned had somehow got dissolved into one single whole, into one single woolly unity!
    ******
    I am now 59. But the questions have never arisen again. For, now the universe seems to be my own extension rather than being out there. And to ‘know’ its infiniteness and eternity I just have to be Myself.
    As to its being nothing and something, the best I can quote is Adi Shankra: “The world is an illusion; the world is God; God is real.”
    Harb

  14. I think nothing is something because it exists. If nothing would not have existed then there wouldn’t be anything, not even nothing (how peaceful is that).

  15. Everything is hidden in the language. Nothing is really no-thing. But it can comprise of potential of things in some less material form, like Aristotle’s ‘potentia.’
    Even beyond that, it could also comprise of what makes things from potential of things. It could be what “breathes fire into the equations” to use Hawking’s words to make universe out of them.
    Shekhar, Have you read “Something Called Nothing” a book written by a Russian, Podolny, for nonprofit but which has since sold into millions and millions of copies. Also, “Conversations About the Invisible”?
    Harb

  16. no I have not read ‘something called nothing’ nor ‘conversations about the Invisible’ Harb, will u tell us about them ? shekhar

  17. Shekhar, ‘Something called Nothing’ is a book from the Soviet era, when communists poduced thousands of glossy but cheap magazines and full of science and statistics but soul-less books for propaganda purposes. The propaganda interalia being that everything can be explained without any need of mystery or God and so Communism was the true ism needed to be followed by people in future.
    But despite the above the writer of ‘Something called Nothing’, advertently or inadvertently, was able to weave chrisma and mystery into his narration of something which is the ground of all and everything. He called it Ether and told that it has been in and out of vogue or acceptance by scientists and philosophers ever since science and philosophy began. Inbetween he is able to narrate the whole development of science up to the present in a very very interesting and fulfilling way.
    First read by only communist-minded it was latter lapped up by diverse people and sold into millions. He has not given the final answer to the mystery of nothingness but nevertheless has left no-one in doubt that whatever it is, is in no way less mysterious than any God if there be one. There is a delightful book to read. Published by Mir Published Moscow and written by Podolny.
    I think ‘Conversations with the Invisible’ has some close connection with you. Some organisation of France brought together two highly acclaimed French astrophysicists and one highly acclaimed FILM DIRECTOR, Jean-Claude Carriere, to talk about the latest developments and mysteries of science. I fail to remember but I think I have read somewhere his name alongwith yours and am sure you know him. The rest I will write in the words of Jayant Narlikar, our famous astrophysicist, taken from his Foreword to this book.
    “Such conversations between intellectuals can be extremly valuable….We have here two distinguished astrophysicists Jean Andouze and Michel Casse talking to Jean-Claude Carriere who has an equally distinguished background of the liberal arts: theatre, literature and philosophies.
    They talk about a wide ranging list of topics embracing their interests. I am glad that their conversation has been preserved for posterity and its informality and spontaneity has not been edited away.
    To the Indian reader these ideas will be of special interest. Well-versed as he is in the Hindu Mythology and Vedic/Upanishdic literature Jean-Claude Carriere brings a new perception to bear on what scientists are working on today – working that is on frontier areas of cosmology and fundamental physics.
    So readable and natural is this conversation that I found myself drawn into the discussion: To be fare to both JA and MC as scientists they present their views without hiding from the reader the fact that with all its advances the scientific quest is far from ended.”
    Every line of it is enjoyable to read. A lot of Indian mythological and real stories are interwoven by JCC into this conversation. I had already asked you whether you had read it in an other thread sometime back but I did not get any response and wondered why. Noting that you were also interested in astrophysics I had wished you would read it.
    First published in French in 1988, it is published in India in 1990 by Wiley Eastern Limited, New Delhi and translated from French by one Saroj Butani.
    If you will give me your address I will be happy to send both books to you.
    Harb

  18. Shekhar, while on books I may also introduce a bit of my own SELF-PUBLISHED book “Self-Designed Universe”. I have already mentioned it to you on IB in response to a question of yours on freedom when you had promised to read it after completing your picture Golden Age.
    You asked something like: “From what we want freedom?”
    After my experience of Oneness as mentioned above, and after its conscious realization so to say within the next ten years (by age 38)one day I also found myself asking a similar question.
    By then I had left my government service and was in search of my raison de etre in coming into this world, and in the meantime had also laid my hands on a book The Tao of Physics by Fritzof capra. And it had introduced me to many latest developments in physics including that scientists have reduced all the numerous forces working in the universe to four basic ones of gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak forces.
    Now, I was almost in touch with oneness and simultaneously I had this knowledge of four basic forces at the tip of my mind as to say when I happened to ask the above question.
    So when I happened to ask the above question pat came the reply from within…as follows:
    Question: ” Ultimately who wants freedom from within us and from what?”
    Answer: “Oneness wants freedom from within us and from those four basic forces.”
    And simultaneously I had the vision of the whole universe’s evolution happening as if the very Oneness was trying to get freedom from those four basic forces at myriad small and big cycle levels.
    As I have also explained in the book oneness for me is soul, spirit and even God for religious people; supersymmetry, superforce, grandunification ‘point’ etc for scientists and substance for philosophers. One may take his own pick.
    Now, let us consider our own one individual life cycle. We pass through four primary phases of childhood, youth, middle age and old age. Do you know that in these four phases we actually get freedom from gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak forces, which when reduced to human situation are nothing but the forces of physicality, emotions, intellect and finally intelligence?
    In simple, we learn to handle our physical bodies and that means gravity in our childhood and eventually free ourselves, our dhyana, our consciousness, our soul, our oneness from it;
    We learn to handle our emotional bodies, or loves, wars, hates and that means electromagnetic force (verily the force of attractions and repulsions though explanation here will take much space)in our youth and eventually outgrow it, free ourselves from it;
    We learn to handle our causal bodies, or reason, intellect etc and that means learn to handle strong force (force of confinement which imprisons us deep down in our core or nucleus and thus becomes the cause of development of all specific human traits such as ego, thought, language reason etc etc, long explanation) in our middle age so as to be eventually free from it;
    And finally, we learn to handle our intuitive or intelligent selfs and that means weak force (verily the force which joins us with the whole universe as I have explained in my book) in our old age and eventually grow beyond it.
    Our falling into all these forces’ produced circumstances are as per what now-a-days is being called Intelligent Design and our efforts at adapting to them or handling them is carried out as per Darwinian theories or as per what are called evolutionary theories.
    Same explanation holds true at all levels. At the level of global cultural cycle beginning with AD era we have gone through similar four phases which may be summed up as
    1. From Dark Periods to Middle Ages (culture’s childhood);
    2. The Age of Romanticism in the West and Bhagti Age in the East or India (culture’s youth, culture’s age of loves, wars and hates, details in the book);
    3. The Age of Reason and Anxiety (Culture’s middle Age)
    4. And presently we are moving beyond reason towards the Age of Intuition, intelligence, wisdom (also entering culture’s old age).
    In my book I have explained many more small and big cycles in the same way.
    Sorry for long explanation. Nor I really recommend reading it, for, it will be too difficult. Though reacting to my saying that not many will be able to understand it, my elder son said “But how many were able to understand nay even read Marx’s Das capital or Darwin’s Origin of Species and yet their truths were understood and accepted by people sort of directly. The truth of your book too will be accepted some day in the same way. I surely hope so.
    Thank you, Harb

  19. I still miss the taste of the earth in the water I drank in the light of the universe. And as I would lie there, staring at the stars the inevitable question would nag me again. Where does the universe go ? What lies at the end of the universe ?….
    helo sir,
    If u were really in a turmoil you did the right thing thinking about the vastness of the universe,please visit my blogpost I have compiled a few facts about indian mythology and also about the term GOD, people like urself visiting my blog is a real pleasure. and do let me know if this can be a good movie subject.
    thanks
    kind regards
    \
    madhu m

  20. Hi madhu m! Global civilization moves in cycles. We, not only as Indians but as the world as a whole were once highly advanced, though not as much in detail as now. We then must have discovered a “formula” by which species evolved and applying that to higher and higher planets could know what kind of species would form there. I think the devas and gods in mythologies only represent that knowledge. In other words through them the people who knew tried to tell the general folks what kind of highly evolved men on other planets will look like and he called them gods and devas.
    I myself have discovered that “formula” and written a book A Self-Designed Universe based on it. In that too I have explained how the people on other planets will evolve because of that formula like the devas and angels shown in Indian mythologies. Google the book and read it thoroughly, you may find entirely an other way of seeing the world.
    By the way, good blog and enjoyable pictures.

  21. Hi Shekar
    How could you be so unexpressive with words? If i want to fully understand the article than i need to read it again but believe me i can’t read it twice. I always respect you. Frankly not really for you work because i have not seen much of that. Perhaps the way thoughs ooze out of your head during the conversation really impress me–there is something saint like.
    But reading this article has left me disappointed. May be you have delebrately kept it confusing , untidy like you beard because perhaps that is the beauty of it , i mean you personality.
    May be a year back i saw you interview on BBC. Your thoughs on media and film were original.
    I am trying to figure the depth of my life. Some day will make a movie that i will be proud of.
    Though of reading you.
    regards
    Manoj rohilla

  22. I don’t think there’s anything confusing written here. Such concepts are not be understood just by the meaning of words but by experiencing the meaning yourself. You experience various things at various phases of life. If by change you miss to experience one phase, it will remain confusing whole life 🙂
    I have tried and read many books written by many big writers including Aristotle. Now, I believe it’s a continous exploration of new things and experiences.
    I must appreciate the flow of thoughts I see on this site. It’s amazing. I have seen such free flow anywhere else.

  23. hi Mr.harb!
    thanks for visiting my blog!Yes you perspective also gives a good amount information on the subject but just give a thought to all the nuclear blast sites that were discovered ,what could be the logic behind them or who had used them?

  24. hi shekhar ji i am mani all of 55 years and still remember u as director of mister india and masoom.havent seen ur other films made for international audiences.aren’t u tempted to try a sequel to mr.india clld miss india starring sonam kapoor d/o anil kapoor.remember some critic had said mr india should have been called miss india because sridevi stole the show and mogambo ke saath sara hindusthan khush hua.
    regards and happy film making
    mani .svs

  25. The surahi and the open skies brought back many memories of my childhood in Delhi including the long walk down Barakhamba Road after the all night concerts at the Modern School. You will not forget the charpais and the smell of beaten dust on the damp terrace. I hope you recollect those memories. I could not help remembering your (?shelved) project Paani. The wars have started don’t you think? Check out the news items from Bundelkahnd and closer home in Dwarka and good old Patel Nagar.

  26. Forever……………forever…………
    Things are not for ever…..and these words make me cry…
    well but about your article its like life of a lonely bird… with light and shade…….heavy talks leading in memory lane
    I like it Shekhar
    Ankita Bhargava

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    U=ME=UNIVERSE Love Ultimately.

  28. Dear Shekhar ji,
    I have conceived a plot of a story on prevailing social problem with which the whole world is obsessed /tormented with. I am offering this story to you because i feel that you can only do justice to such a story. Moreover, your sensibilities are capable of going deep into a issue, explore the human and psychological correlates and expression of human agony. This story ,if properly developed and beautifully picturised, will certainly qualify for international acclaim.If you are really interested to develop a story, then contact me [following:-
    nanakdukhiasabsansar9@yahoo.co.in
    0172-2564422
    Rakesh Goyal S/o Sh.R.S. Chaudhry
    #13p,Sector-2,Panchkula(haryana)

  29. My son is a deep thinker too. Has always been. He’s been thinking about knowledge about knowledge about knowledge for years, and he’s just 7 years old. I think of it as my job as his parent, to guide him towards using his “powers” (for they certainly are incredible) towards a purpose that makes him happy. Or, I hope he gets a chance to convert his thoughts into great art or great science and derive satisfaction from it! I find I have to frequently remind myself to stop thinking too deeply about a philosophical question, and focus on the task at hand. It’s HARD. I often wonder how I should answer his questions. WHen he turned 3, he asked me “Do clouds feel cold?” I answered scientifically, saying “Clouds have no nervous system. They cannot feel temperature.” And immediately kicked myself :). This could have gone along a more qualitative/philosophical or poetic direction, just as well! –Deepa (Austin, TX)

  30. When you try to fit the concept of forever into what physics defined as a finite matrix, the finite matrix becomes infinite 🙂
    Many a philosophers have pondered over this topic including nachiketa in kathopanishad.
    What I could safely conclude is that everything eventually is nothing. And that is what displayed in Chidambaram (Tamilnadu)

  31. Is nothing something?
    Yes…everything and beyond
    when language stops, something starts,
    when something starts, you drop or “I” is lost
    When nothing remains, something overtakes
    …so here is the moment you feel the sound of air that cuts the leaves of a tree that give us music, the birds understand your presence beyond language…so nothing is beyond self and start of “something” that something which everyone is part of the great evolution…the seed of creation and re-generation…

  32. Hello Shekhar
    i do not undrestand the last paragraph. i do not understand the idea of your universe when you were young. the thing that is common between you and me at this point of life is that both of us are searching for that “forever”, either physically or emotionally. The only difference that exists is that you are very creative director and i am an engineer working in a small firm.

  33. TO: Mr Shekar Kapoor,
    Hi,
    Probably hudereds of people have asked you this. But what does it take to come and work under you? I am 21. I’m studying law. I want to create movies. I have zero experience.I love your movies. And I would love to watch you work. Please please please reply when you can.
    Thanking you,
    Yours truly,
    Swasthika

  34. To: Mr Shekar Kapoor,
    Hi,
    I hear that you are comming to the Galle film festival. Hope to meet you there.
    See you soon!:)
    Bye!
    Swasthika.

  35. Have you read the Quran???? You’ll find all the answers to your questions about the universe …Maybe you should take the time to read it…and then understand it..

  36. Hi Mr.Shekar,
    I too had similar questions when i slept on terrace in my grandmas home…. watching the milky way….. physics has no answer….. but i satisfied myself mathematically like this……[1] ANY NUMBER DIVIDED BY ZERO IS ALWAYS INFINITY……
    [2] ZERO MULTIPLIED BY INFINITY IS ALWAYS UNITY
    [3]WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE THIS STATE OF ZERO WITHIN YOURSELVES …. INFINITY IS JUST THE FLIP SIDE ….. WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE BOTH ITS UNITY
    [4]THIS ZERO [SHOONYA], INFINITY [ANANTA],UNITY [SELF]…… ALL THIS IS TRUTH…. THIS IS ADVAITA SIDDHANTA OF ADI SHANKARACHARYA…….ADVAITA…. NON DUAL …. ALL THESE ZERO, INFINITY ,UNITY ALL ARE NON DUAL…..
    THOUGH I HAVE MATHEMATICALLY SAID THIS THIS HAS TO BE EXPERIENCED…… MEDITATION LEADING TO SHOONYA IS THE ONLY WAY…… YOU CAN NOT EXPERIENCE INFINITY DIRECTLY …. YOU CANT COUNT 1 2 3 4…… AND SUDDENLY ONE DAY SAY INFINITY ….. INFINITY IS ALWAYS THE FLIP SIDE OF ZERO…… WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE SHOONYA …. YOU DIVIDED BY SHOONYA IS ANANTA…. SHOONYA MULTIPLIED BY ANANTA IS JUST YOU… JUST YOU …. “AHAM BRAHMASMI”…. thats it…..!!!

  37. wow!..this is such a bunch of crap! no wonder there are no replies from the owner… ironically the product of this entire exercise is ‘nothing’! i honestly wonder if these freelance evangelists actually believe in their gospels?!! do u guys seriously relate ur ideologies with reality or do u carve out alternate realities to suit them???
    i’m not sure if it was socrates or aristotle – when asked to define ‘nothing’ said… it is something that rocks dream about! unfortunately we have a lot of personified rocks out here… u rocks guys..u rock!
    n we wonder y we have such a high suicide rate in India…

  38. Hi Shekher,
    Today you gave me an inspiration . I am a 28 yr old married in Canada. Me n my husband going through a very bad time and I desperatly want to do somthing n I have this dream in me to be a famous person I want to be a director but I dont have any body in film field so no knowledge .If I have to ask god to fulfil my one wish n that would me to meet u.Nobody is understanding but I know that u’ll understand what I m talking abt. I m so desperate to express my self.I know that u might not even read my mail.but anyways.
    Bye Luv u

  39. Dear Sir,
    My name is Arushi Vats and I am a student of St. Stephen’s College. I am a member of a student forum called the Informal Discussion Group, which seeks to provide a platform for interaction between students and eminent persons from all walks of life. On behalf of the IDG, I would like to invite you to college for an interactive session as and when it is convenient for you.
    Our discussions are usually held in the evenings, starting at around 8 PM. The topic of discussion is left to the speaker’s discretion. We would be delighted and indeed, honoured, if you could find the time for the IDG in your busy schedule.
    We’d be really honoured to have you with us. We understand that you have many time-constraints, but we hope nevertheless that you will consider our request. You can contact us through our email address.
    Hoping for a favourable response,
    Yours sincerely,
    Arushi Vats,
    The Informal Discussion Group,
    St. Stephen’s College.

  40. arushi – i tried to get u back on ur e mail id – but the mail came back – happy to visit st stephens again – and if u send me a mail at info@shekharkapur.com, i will be happy to respond,
    shekhar

  41. Dear Shekhar,
    I am pleased at your ability to direct a movie. Pleased at the ability because direction is a matter of perspective and your perspective is lovely. My eyes are grateful for where you make them land on the screen and several times I said “wonderful” out loud while watching Elizabeth, the Golden Age. Sorry, I don’t know how else to put it if the compliment sounds unpolished.
    I’ll paraphrase what a Wonderful Man, Meher Baba, once said about the Universe; that it’s a significant nothing that leads to the Everything.
    Aloha from the Big Island of Hawai’i,
    Adil Ghiasi
    adilghiasi@gmail.com

  42. I used to wonder about “nothing”… when I was a kid. What if there was nothing… there will be something, like an empty “space”.. but what if that didn’t exist either.. what will nothing look like??? I would ask my dad and he would go into explaining some divine concept about brahma being the creator etc, that I could never relate to at that age.
    I too have done my share of star gazing… I still do. I love the feeling of “drowning” into the sky 🙂

  43. I just came to know about this celebrity blog. I have interests in Film making. I will try to read your blog as soon as I could spare some time. In the mean time pay a visit to my blog site at ParamLowe.com. This is not a spam at all! Don’t miss it.

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