Child's play

It has been my experience that anytime I smile at a kid, the kid smiles back, involuntarily and very genuine. But the better part of this "smiley" conversation between me and the kid, is the inedible mark of happiness that it leaves behind to stay with me

I have had similar experiences for now over 3 decades and it has never failed. I have always felt light and happy after seeing a kid smile. 

So what did this experience tell me. Well that is what i share with you in this blog

Kids are pure in their action, with no memory to jog or experience to repeat and act. My grandmother used to tell me "kids are but manifestation of God". I never understood this statement when I was a kid, but begin to understand the import now. What she meant was that God reflects innocence and being happy without leaving a trace of control or power.  A blooming flower is innocent and beautiful. A lion cub is cudly, cute and full of energy.

A kid brings a similar feelings amongst us. They are innocent and remain happy despite the surroundings. So, am I saying that being happy is the normal state that children are born with? I guess so. It is but natural for nature to show its true unadulterated form immediately on the birth of new one. It is true not just for humans but for all beings on the earth.

So, if you are not happy, you are not in the normal state. And in the state of being happy, you are God.

Brahmavid Brahmaiva bhavati! (One who knows the Brahman becomes the Brahman)

Reply to Tunku, Sunday TOI, India Mumbai

Hey Tunku,                                                                                                           11-01-2015 10:53:55

I am taking the liberty of addressing you by your first name because I sense a bit of closeness with you. I follow you in twitter and have been reading your articles in the “The Daily beast”. On a friendlier side, I have a very similar pepper-salt combination over my head. I also love your hairstyle which reminds me of the Shahanshah, where Amitabh plays a hero.

Some caveat. I am not scholarly, reasearchly Standfordish kind of guy. So I don’t compare well with your English and flamboyance. However, I have seen life and death at close quarters and lived my life, true to my feelings. Yes, that is what prompted me to address this reply directly to you.

It was the headline in Sunday Times, India that jolted me out of my senses today morning.  The headline “Why Paris is even more shocking than Peshawar”. This headline was under the column “Deep focus”.

You say –“the mowing of school children was blood curdling, but random. At Charlie Hebdo, the dead were chosen by name, and chosen expressly because they were a symbol of freedom".

Schoolchildren for no fault of them were murdered for revenge, as a lesson to their parents, who happen to be doing their own profession, whatever that be. These terrorist did not kill these fathers/mothers but their kids, innocent, unknowing, full of life. Yes life, before this horrendous act.

And you have the cheek to say, that the Charlie Hebdo “as an assault on the moral senses”, it had arguably an even greater impact than mowing down of schoolchildren. Tumku, you should be either out of your mind or indulging in nepotism. I am sure, it’s not the former, because of your pedigree and scholarly work, but surely it is nothing but nepotism at its worst. Kids are but an expression of life. Yes they are expression of life. Its only when you are alive, that you get the freedom of speech. These kids had not even earned their freedom from their parents, and lost their lives before even reaching the stage of enjoying freedom of speech.

How can this dastardly act of murdering school kids be not an assault on moral senses? How can this not have a greater impact? Why random people when murdered senselessly do not have impact while selected few becomes a problem to be solved? The truth is, it is only now, that journalists like you realise that terrorist have entered the homes of people and normal life is hit.

And in the end you suggest to the “West”, and I quote – “But fears of such a backlash need not be an alibi for paralysis, and the longer it takes for the west to find ways to combat the Islamist cancer in its cities, the harder it will be for the vast majority if law- abiding Muslims who live in the west to distance themselves from the poison of rabid few”.

Do you know that these terrorists have been terrorizing Indians for last 30 years and every time there is move by the “East” to tackle this head on, loads of Western socialist, journalist and random evangelist  heaped pressure on the Government to see this as a “minority issue” rather than as a terrorist issue. After 30 years of such hobnobbing, we the normal office going professionals, don’t know when and where these terrorists will strike again. Moreover, if the “moderates” from majority take this issue for public debate, they are beaten down to pulp by random journalist as “Sanghi”, Hindu nationalist and such other names.

My point is clear – killing by terrorist of any human whatever his profession is, wherever he is, is blood curdling and assault on moral senses. Charlie Hebdo need not take the position of having greater impact.  Journalist will have to become part of the normal life and not give themselves elevated positions. Join us in the fight along with normal people as equals. Good day.

Universe of Life - Brain pickings

The Separators

One of my friend called me and casually chatting and during the chat asked what I was doing for the upcoming new-year eve night. I said, nothing. He then said that he had noticed that I don’t wish birthdays, wedding anniversaries also. And in a very searching tone, asked why do not I show importance to these events in life and so on so forth?

I did not have any valid reason to explain away that difficult question. This blog is an after-thought of that question. It neither answers nor is expected to answer that question. But it did leave me with a larger revelation that I think, has changed me.

Time, as it stands, is very difficult for people to understand. Einstein himself struggled to explain what time is and what it meant for physics and common man. Probability, space, money, weather, clock, life itself and even geography is impacted due to time. So what am I saying…Let me try with a story first. Flashback!

This story is more than 5000 years old. The great yogi Narada Muni explains to Emperor Kansa, why it is difficult to identify the 8^th child (since it was supposed to be the child that will ultimately kill the Emperor). How does he do it? He draws 8 dots in a circle and asks Kansa to count 8 starting from each of the dots. Kansa finds out (and so we all will, if we do the same count) that any of the dot could be the 8^th. He then decides to kill all 8 children. 

Three simple things can be understood from this story and it is a revelation.

First – time goes round and in cycle (not surprisingly, the universe/space is also going round and round)

Second – Since time goes round and round, there is no beginning or end.

Third – Since there is no beginning or end and time goes in circle, there is no past or future but only present (past and future becomes meaningless in a circle)

So what? How does this gyan answer the question asked by my friend?

In our lives, birthdays, anniversaries, new-year etc etc are all “separators” of our lifetime. We use these “separators” to categories your life into phases, just like you compartmentalise a big file with “separators”. Our lives are defined by these separators, birth, age, health, death and so on. We start defining ourselves from the separators point, losing in essence, ourselves. The question that I asked myself, will I give importance to the papers between the separators or the separators are important?

So what again? Can’t we party for these separators? Sure, we can, if one does like to. Celebrate every such “separator” that you create and enjoy its presence. But can I neglect the papers, aka time, between my separators? Certainly not. But then, we don’t wish birthdays every day? Do we?

But then, as I was ruminating on this fact, it dawned, that aren’t we- you, me and people like us, in the larger scheme of the time in universe, ourselves “separators”?

I want my life to be a celebration itself, because it is, but just a separator!

Corporate Bhakti

Corporate Bhakti – Something to break the monotony of reading and sending New year greetings.

There is no equivalent word for Bhakti in English, the language that I write this blog. But it is not the meaning of Bhakti that I want to share but experience of Bhakti that I want to share. I have experienced this state and/or realisation over a period of two decades. It has been my conscious effort to understand this state of Bhakti as against other feelings like trust, faith, dedication and righteousness that truly gives me the satisfaction today!

And yes, once I understood that Bhakti is a different feeling (feeling is still not an apt word for it), I was keen to understand how, why and for what purpose can I work in that state of Bhakti, in the corporate world.

One caution – language or semantics may cloud your understanding and you may like to caution your mind from falling in that trap.

Only principle – Each individual is a universe. Bhakti is not comparable within two different human beings.

And now….

Over the years I realised that I went into a state of at Bhakti, I felt courage within me, a feeling of faith (trust, but not on any specific object/person) spread across my being. I realised that there is a presence of an “unknown” (I acknowledged that unknown) and I could feel connection and oneness within and with all.

So I wrote down somewhere-

Bhakti = Courage + faith + unknown + connection.

But then why did I need courage? Why did have faith? Why did I realise that there is an unknown? And why did I feel this connection. But the most surprising part of this was, that I felt all these feelings simultaneously; this state of being in Bhakti.

My answers are my realisations.

I needed courage as my energy source. From the energy source, I got my courage. Something like circular reference in an excel sheet. lol

I was faithful in a persistent manner about myself. Without faith in self, I was not be able to act, go through the processes, rituals of life that I felt were meaningless. A very important outcome of faith in self was not only did I act, but I did make the “right” (in my worldview) choice (on hindsight) as against choices that were merely pleasant.

Life is an unknown, from the moment I was born and till I die, there will be unknown. Yes, there will be unknown, I said to myself off and on, reiterating this point. But being conscious of the unknown without arguing in my mind, I was letting my natural state of happiness to surface more often.

And when I was in the state of oozing energy, smoothly going through the daily activities, blissfully enjoying, I felt connected. Deep observation into this state, I realised that my “split personality” feeling was gone; disappeared; vanished. I was One. And when this One happened, I automatically felt oneness with nature, surroundings and with all. Quite dramatically, I felt completely at ease with all, without feeling the need to judge the obvious differences in my surroundings, fellow humans and their differing actions.

So when I looked at my corporate life, I realised that I was not courageous, my faith in self vacillated, I felt troubled to acknowledge the unknown and didn’t feel connected.

Now with my realisation of Bhakti, and more often being in a state of Bhakti, it has become my preferred mode of operations.

As an outcome of this, I now feel very energetic and I am able to more often make the right choices. Subconsciously I am at ease and feeling light and I feel the creative power guiding me when faced with challenges. The oneness has driven judgement out for most of the time, helping me with opportunities to learn.

Thanks.