Review of "Dissolved" by Tarun Sardana and Interview with the Author

Dissolved
by Tarun Sardana

Advaita is the traditional and stepwise teaching of nonduality. If you’re looking for a brief book about Advaita that you can fall in love with, get Dissolved.

Dissolved is a delightful-to-hold-in-your-hands, attractively designed 90 page book. It is a dialogue between a seeker and a sage.

Dissolved is a gently told Advaita: a study of mind; a question of illusion; an enquiry, “Who am I?”; a surrender to the Guru, to the Self; a dialogue on spontaneous action, pre-determination, fearlessness.

This is an easily received Advaita, too: a questioning of the world of duality and reactivity; a confession of living in the world when established in the Self; an addressing of pain and sorrow.

Dissolved is a practical Advaita: impermanence; the nature of happiness; renunciation, diet, helping out the world, alcohol and drugs; all these topics enter the dialogue and are crisply addressed.

Dissolved is a full Advaita: in the end there is the dissolution into Self through surrender to the Guru and via self-enquiry.

Dissolved is filled with stories and metaphors, some of which you may have heard and all of which are heard freshly once again.

In the following fragment, the Guru plays the role of seeker and the seeker Vivek plays the role of Guru; this is done to test Vivek’s knowledge, or perhaps the reader’s knowledge, or perhaps it is a pure demonstration of the play of Self:

Guru Ji: But still how can [the Self-realized being] meet people, who give him hatred and abuses, with love?

Vivek: What happens when one throws a stone in the ocean?

Guru Ji: Water gets splashed.

Vivek: Does the ocean splash back stones in return? No. The ocean only has water to give. No matter what you throw it, it will only throw water back. Similarly, a Self-realized being is an ocean of love. He has only love to share. No matter what you throw in, you will only get love. There is nothing else in there.

Guru Ji: Still … How is this possible? I know, you will say they don’t see anything separate from them, they see only the Self, etc., etc.

As the dynamic between Vivek and Guru Ji plays out, the reader eventually joins to make a trinity. Sometimes the reader takes the attitude of seeker, sometimes the sage. In this way, the reader eventually becomes another character, merging with, dissolving into Guru Ji and Vivek, so that all three characters become one.

In the beginning, the seeker Vivek asks his Guru for help in understanding who he is. In the end, there is dissolution into the Self, into consciousness. Dissolved, therefore, is a full-cycle, concise version of the teaching of Advaita.

Whether the reader dissolves into Vivek and Guru Ji, or dissolves into Self, or sits back with a cup of tea and dissolves a spoonful of sugar into it, this book serves up many levels of rewards.

Perhaps you are seeking a beginning education in Advaita, or further practice of self-inquiry, or maybe you only want to enjoy the dialogue, the stories within, the story at large, the teaching, the expression. In only 90 pages of gentle dialogue, poetry, and storytelling, Dissolved offers all this, all you could and could not imagine.

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Preview “Dissolved” on Google Books

Purchase “Dissolved” from any of the following places:

Amazon.com link

A1 Books – India

Parimal Publications

Interview with Tarun Sardana

Photo: Tarun Sardana

How about a brief bio?

I was born in May 1979. I stay in Delhi, India with my parents, my wife and my two and a half years old son. I started my career as a software professional in year 1999 and was working as a project manager with an MNC before KnowI was founded.

How did you stumble into Truth? Any childhood stories?

My Grandmom and mom are spiritual followers from as long as I can remember. They used to go to the satsangs every Sunday and would also take me along with them. We had a scripture at home called ‘Satvastu ka Kudrati Granth’ which means ‘Sacred scriptures of Satyug as revealed by the nature’. They used to read it daily and share with me and my younger brother their spiritual experiences. That was how I was initiated to the truth. While in school, we were taught the history of Sikhism as part of our curriculum as it was a Sikh school. The curriculum was about the ten Sikh gurus, their encounter with the truth and their brief biographies. The biographies really interested me. I always wanted to understand what is ‘that’ which every scripture points at. I used to lock myself for our hours in a room meditating and seeking that truth, seeking God until one day when I came across one of Ramana Maharishi’s article on web which changed my direction of the search from finding God to finding the one who is seeking God.

How did Dissolved come about?

‘Dissolved’ is a book that came as a spontaneous expression as part of my own spiritual journey.
What Advaita teachers do you recommend?

I believe all the teachers are good, it really depends on the seeker which pointers suit his temperament the best. My introduction to Advaita was through Shri Ramana Maharishi’s and Nisargadatta Ji Maharaj’s teachings. Though, I have not met anyone of them in person. I did visit Shri Ramana Maharishi’s ashram in Tiruvannamalai back in 2007.
Why did you write this book as a dialogue?

Before the silence takes over, this is how a conversation happens in one’s mind – in a dialogue form. Therefore the book was written in a dialogue form.
How do you create an effective pointer to truth?

Usually the truth that one experiences is inexpressible in words, so to communicate one tries to relate it with the closest example from life. It happens as a spontaneous expression rather than a thought out one.

On your website, www.knowi.org, you speak about workshops and trainings. What are you offering or planning to offer? How would Dissolved be used in such an offering?

KnowI has been formed to serve as a platform to facilitate knowing the “I” through various mediums like publications, articles, workshops, talks… etc… Dissolved plays an important role in such offerings as it covers most of the aspects of the so-called spiritual journey.

I don’t think you use the word “surrender” in Dissolved and yet this book is certainly about surrender. Why did you decide to describe surrender rather than speak directly about how to surrender, as you did with self-enquiry?

‘Surrender’ is the only way to the Self. Surrender means admitting one’s powerlessness and this can only happen when one clearly sees its powerlessness. And self-enquiry does the same. It reveals the powerlessness and non-existence of the mind separate from the Self and thus leading the mind to surrender. Therefore, the book talks about the Self-enquiry, letting the mind to see the truth and thereafter surrender to follow naturally.
How did you want the reader to respond to Dissolved?

As the book says, “Dissolved is the result of every Self-enquiry, which is dissolving of the non-existent ego-self in the Self.” The book expects the same to happen. Dissolved moves as a journey from Vivek (a character in the book) to no-Vivek. If while reading they can make the same journey, the book will achieve its purpose.
What are you doing to change the educational system to a transformational institution founded in truth and awareness?

The current education system is being followed and practiced since ages. The employment sector and everything else is completely based on the present education system. Therefore, sudden transformation of the system may not be possible. Realizing that, KnowI has started an initiative called KnowI Education, which attempts to provide a supplement to the current education system i.e. not making changes in the current education system but providing a supplement to what lacks there.

More details about KnowI Education can be found at:
www.knowi.org/knowieducation.html
Dissolved
by Tarun Sardana

Preview “Dissolved” on Google Books

Purchase “Dissolved” at any of the following places:

Amazon.com link

A1 Books – India

Parimal Publications

Review and interview by Jerry Katz

[Via http://nonduality.org]

STREAM: Han O'Connor Internet Voices Radio Interview

The Passionate Internet Voices Radio interview with 3threat Media’s Han O’Connor about the Hip Hop scene and indie artists in the scene can now be streamed from:

http://www.internetvoicesradio.com/Arch-LillianCauldwell.htm

For more information on the artists mentioned, go to:

The Redland -
www.theredlandmusic.com

Mike Streezy -
www.mikestreezy.com

Me’Mo -
www.myspace.com/memothafuture

Stylah -
www.stylah.tv

Slickmouth -
www.myspace.com/slickmouth22

Catskill -
www.myspace.com/catskillmc

E-Hustle -
www.myspace.com/ehimself

DJ Mr President -
www.djmrpresident.com

MORE INFO TO COME SOON – CHECK BACK FOR MORE UPDATES TOMORROW

[Via http://3threatmedia.wordpress.com]

Interview: The Transatlantics

Ross from Adelaide soul band The Transatlantics stopped by Radio Adelaide to talk about playing with Marva Whitney at the Falls Festival, releasing their music on vinyl, and playing the Summer Cherry Festival. Airdate: 14/01/10.

Download Interview (mp3)

[Via http://therange.wordpress.com]

So money, baby

I am almost done with my interviews for residency! I have just one left in the next week, and it’s at the program associated with my medical school. I’m hoping it’s less of a real interview day, and more of a gossip session. After all, all of my letters of recommendation come from this department. There’s not much else to say, if you’ve already said it all in your own letters.

Instead, I bring to you, my obsessive organization and deep love for pie charts. Data analysis is the only way to make sense of a mad, mad world, don’t you think?

Here’s a pie chart of the money I’ve spent during interview season.

This total includes the costs of Setup, which was a new suit and three new shirts, and all the registration fees for applying to residency programs. I had two suits that I alternated between, one of which was a holdover from medical school interview season, 4 long years ago. I’m sad to say that though I still fit in it, it’s not looser — that was the goal. In return for med school sucking out my soul and making jam with it, I was supposed to become svelte and model-esque in stature. Once again, med school did not hold up its end of the bargain. My interview shoes (two pairs) were old shoes, though I did have to spring for new shoe inserts in one pair, as well as re-soling and polishing the other pair. My interview purse was a gift from my aunt (yay, Aunt M!), and probably cost more than all my other clothing combined.

Air travel includes only tickets for flights. In total, I flew 11 times through 10 airports, most of the time round-trip, but a couple of times with multiple city destinations as part of the interview trail. I never checked in a bag. I flew stand-by twice, to get on earlier flights. I got delayed 3 times, usually due to weather. I missed no flights (success!). I ate a lot of snack packs on Southwest, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Virgin America. I did not fly Delta (the Devil Airline). I didn’t count the flights from school back to home, because I was going to have to make those flights anyway for the holidays. In all, I think $1045 (that includes tax) for 11 flights is a pretty good deal.

Automobile is probably better described as ground transportation. For the most part, I rented cars after I figured out that a 24-hour car rental was usually cheaper than roundtrip airport shuttles. In some cities with great public transport, I took public transportation. In many cities, especially towards the end, I had made some good friends who were happy to give me a lift to the airport, or split a car rental. In return, I shuttled people to the airport whenever I could. For the most part, we were all really generous about giving our fellow interviewees rides to the airport. Big shout-out goes to Rachel, who picked me up from my hotel the night of our pre-interview dinner, dropped me back off after dinner, and then picked me up from my hotel again the next morning to go to the actual interview. That was above and beyond, man. Also a big thanks to Jess, with whom I had 5 interviews in a row, and when I gave her a ride from City 3 to City 4 (a 2-hour drive), chipped in money for gas.

Hotel refers to when I had to book my own hotels. Some programs pay for hotels the night before, which is key. I have heard that certain programs can even pay for flight + hotel, which is disgustingly generous of them. This category also refers to when I had to PAY for HOTEL PARKING, which I think is a total travesty. Most of the time, I tried to get street parking, because meter parking didn’t kick into effect until 8 AM the next morning, by which time I was long gone.

I did not include all the airport food I ate, simply because I was going to eat anyway, no matter where I was. I suppose airport food always costs more than non-airport food, but then again, I was usually getting dinners and breakfasts for free, so I think the cost of food evened out.

I’ve also made a line graph of each of the interviews I’ve gone to, and how much money I’ve spent for each of them.

The high spike for Interview #12 is a bit falsely elevated (source of error!), because I got lazy and just lumped in the flight and car rental under Interview #12, even though the flight was also done for Interview #13, and the car rental was 26 hours longer because I insisted on staying the weekend with a friend, as a mini-vacation built into the trip. I don’t think the line graph is as telling as the pie chart. The only real findings I can see are that interviews with flights account for all of the spikes above $100. The two small spikes that are below $100 (Interviews #3 and #14) were due to driving to the vicinity in a car, and spending the night in a hotel. Interviews #6 through #11 were, interestingly enough, on two different coasts, but they straddled Christmas, and so I was able to use either my med school home or my parents’ home as home base.

In a future entry, I’ll go through the different ways I saved money, from the art of priceline’s Name Your Own Price to rebate sites (I love you, ebates!). Oh shoot, I didn’t put in how much money I saved or made back via ebates and retail coupon codes. Nuts.

Anyway, the grand total is $2,702, which I think is a pretty neat deal for having gone to 18 interviews. When I’m truly done, I will have gone to 19 interviews. NINETEEN! Most people I know have gone anywhere from 10 to 15 interviews. I’ve been interviewing since late October, and my last interview will be in February. I’m fairly certain I have the longest interview season out of all my classmates.

I do have to say, though, that when I was using my parents’ home as my home base, all interviews that were drive-able distance were done using my brother’s car. And my brother’s car’s gas. I think that I would have to tack on another $100 for gas money, but hey, I didn’t pay for it.

I met this guy who said that he’d spent about $15,000 for interviews and applications. $15,000. I boggled and couldn’t believe it, but then he told me about the foolish, foolish ways it had happened. He flew 5 separate trips from his home base (his medical school in New Orleans) to the West Coast. He took taxis. He booked hotels that the residency programs recommended (generally, these hotels are within walking distance to the hospital, and tend to be nicer places like Sheratons and Marriotts), and though he used the bulk rate negotiated by the hospital, it was still always more expensive than he would have found if he’d hunted a bit harder. He didn’t combine interviews, or “couldn’t combine interviews,” even though I definitely had interviews at some of the same places he did, and had combined them. I think he might not have been quite so dogged in combining interviews, though. Certainly, flying out of a smaller airport didn’t help the expenditures. He also counted the rent and living expenses he incurred while doing away rotations at other hospitals, which I didn’t really count.

Let me backtrack about away rotations. As a 4th year med student, you are sometimes encouraged to go to other programs and do month-long “away” rotations at programs you might be interested in. The goal is to get a letter of recommendation and a foot in the door, because you’ve auditioned for a full month. This can fail horribly if you are a total jerk, really awkward, lazy, or hopelessly stupid, because then the month proves to the program that they really wouldn’t want you, whereas if you hadn’t shown up at all, they might still be ignorant of that fact when you sent your application. I did two away electives. During one of them, my sublet rent was $380 for the whole month, which is approximately 1/2 of what I pay back at school. While I was gone from school, I subletted out my own apartment, which, if you do the math, means I made money that month. Hahaha. During the other away elective, I imposed on the hospitality of my poor younger cousin and stayed with him instead of paying rent (to be fair to myself, I paid for rent by cleaning his apartment a lot).

I guess this guy who had ended up spending $15,000 counted the money he spent during his away rotations. I don’t think that’s entirely fair, though, because it’s not like he would have been not paying rent or not eating meals, even if he had stayed back at his medical school.

Oh, perhaps I should add $300 to the grand total because I bought a netbook at the beginning of interview season, expressly for travel use. Then again, this was a convenient excuse, because since I bought my netbook, I have been using it more and more because my old laptop has decided to crap out on me, frequently, and without warning. Well, interview season done for $3,000 is still a pretty good impressive feat, I think.

[Via http://heyhowsmedschool.wordpress.com]

Meet @SarahNewlin

Name: Sarah Newlin

We know you’re busy with Bible study and group activities at LODI, what brought you to Twitter to spend your spare time?:

In the beginning, I came to Twitter to support Steve and be the loving wife he needed in his fight against the Vampires. Now that I am not with him any longer *sighs* I don’t have much to do here *tears up* I miss him.

You’re still married to @SteveNewlinJr,  yet you two are separated. Can you tell us a bit about what drove you to leave him?:

He started doin’ things I just didn’t approve of. It was one thing to help that Vampire meet the sun, but a whole ‘nother thing to hold that girl in the basement of the church. And *gasps*, he used the “C” word. I felt like I just didn’t know him at all that day! I decided bein’ with Momma for a bit was best.

Since he seems to have changed from when you first met, can you tell us what your initial attraction to Steve was?:

*thinkin’* Well, he was a sweet young man, workin’ as a volunteer chaplain at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Opelousas, Louisiana. I was a hospice worker at the time and I just loved his hair! *giggles* His Momma and Daddy were so sweet and made me feel so welcome. God rest their souls…..When Steve asked me to marry him, I just couldn’t say no. He was so cute bent down on one knee! *smiles* I still love him.

Rumor has it you let @VampireBill into your house. Aren’t you anti-Vampire?:

Who told you that? Now that’s just silly! @VampireBill? *eyes glaze over* I don’t remember anything about that at all.

Many ladies would love to know what it was like to do the horizontal hustle with @jasonBT and why you would violate one of the sacred tenants of Christianity in order to?:

It was a weak moment, I’ll admit. I was lonely, missing the companionship Steve normally gave me. He was spendin’ so much time with that creepy Gabe that he forgot all about me. *tears up* We used to be a team. And that JASON! *narrows eyes* I fell for all his tricks. He was just out to score and didn’t give a hoot about me! I thought he was a sweet man and he was so good lookin’ with his shirt off.*shivers* Ya’ll know exactly what I mean *winks* I made a mistake, and we all make mistakes. Right?

Do you wish you had a real gun when you were shooting at Jason?:

Oh heavens no! I mighta been mad, but I’m still a good Christian woman, despite my flaws *smiles*

What on Earth do you do to your hair to make it so poofy?:

What do ya mean sweetie? Everyone looks like this in Dallas! *giggles* Although my roots are showin’ a bit in this picture *makes hair appointment*

Anything you’d like to tell us about the woman behind the giggly church goer?:

Taking care of Steve and the little Newlins is a full time job. If Sarah returns in Season 3, I will be sure and tweet her more often. Summer is a slow time for me in RL and I can come out into the stream and have fun. I enjoy all of the True Blood Twitter Rp’s and look forward to working with them again. Of course I have some favorites. @SteveNewlinJr is my numero uno. He makes me laugh all day every day of our lives, even when he’s being a pill. *blows Steve a kiss* I do have a favorite Vampire as well. Yes, even zealots like the fangs. @VampireBill makes me laugh and truly embodies the character from the books and TV. I love the way he plays with his Belles. You ladies crack me up! I also love @jasonBT, he was a pleasure for Steve and I to work with during the summer. So funny!

[Via http://billsbelles.wordpress.com]

Pharrell Williams' MIDEM Keynote Q&A in France

Pharrell Williams was the kenote speaker for the MIDEM 2010 music business conference in Cannes, France, this past week. Co-CEO of Cornerstone, Rob Stone did a lengthy Q&A session with the super producer/media mogul/fashion designer, among a million other titles. GlobalGrind got Rob Stone to speak on the experience of interviewing Pharrell for over 40 minutes. There was a lot going on behind the scenes to make the information sit-down happen. – Global Grind

[Via http://eminentprceo.wordpress.com]

Will Smith on Success and Greatness

Key Quotes:
“Greatness is not this wonderful, esoteric, elusive godlike feature that only the special among us will ever taste. It’s something that truly exists within all of us.”
“If you are not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time.”
“What’s the point of being realistic? It’s unrealistic to walk in a room and flip a switch and lights come on. Fortunately, Edison didn’t think so.”

[Via http://whoneedscaffeine.wordpress.com]