Forgiveness = Love = Peace & Happiness

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return ,we receive untold peace and happiness. It makes us simple. 

The need for forgiveness arises due to constant struggle and complexities in life which come from, our desires, fears, and source of same is ego. 

Ego always wants to win everything…even a silly argument. Mind feels good when ego wins / gets satisfied, a desire is fulfilled. But, In this process of winning and feeling good we hurt others as well as our own subconscious - Knowingly or unknowingly.

Attitude of forgiveness brings in understanding of fact that everything is Anitya - Impermanent, which helps in loving or rather not hating anybody. In long run one realise, that situation which lead anybody to hurt you or vice versa is no more exsistant but now thoughts of that situation are the creatures haunting you and affecting our real nature - "Love." 

Love for universe has no limits. For realised souls like Mahavira, love was not only for mankind it was for every living being in universe n beyond. Their love grew so much as fogiveness was so strong that everybody looked same to them. 

For spiritual beginners like us, circle of love is still small - family, friends, collegues and may be some animals. Even for this small sub set, to maintain and grow love, let go of ego as fast as possible. Eternal peace is where we are not hurt by anybody and we don’t hurt anybody. The only daily pill for this peaceful life is forgiveness and remembrence that Neither we are body, nor mind, its just Atma- "Energy" which is pure in itself, full of love, free from bondages and free from ego. 

As recited in Nirvana Shatakam

मनोबुद्ध्यहङ्कार चित्तानि नाहं
न च श्रोत्रजिह्वे न च घ्राणनेत्रे ।
न च व्योम भूमिर्न तेजो न वायुः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥१॥

Meaning:
Neither am I the Mind nor Intelligence or Ego,

Neither am I the organs of Hearing (Ears), nor that of Tasting (Tongue), Smelling (Nose) or Seeing (Eyes),

Neither am I the Sky, nor the Earth, Neither the Fire nor the Air,

I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva

Growth and individualism Vs Change and Love

I am writing this on the basis of my limited reading and understanding of current issues in our society and my love for spirituality – which I call as “understanding of self”.   As I see the world today, most people in our society – especially youth are stuck in dilemma and twist of above titled words in different ways

1.       Growth – Most people want to certainly grow in terms of money, power and status (read previous blog for more on this)

2.       Individualism – Most People want themselves to be accepted as they are and don’t want to adapt / compromise / Change

3.       Change – Everyone wants world to change for better so that they and society can live happily together

4.       Love – Everyone without exception - want to love and be loved

Spiritual knowledge makes me understand that everything we do starting from getting up from bed in morning to getting back in bed is for one common reason/gain – “Happiness or Sukh”. That’s the very intrinsic nature of our soul which is eternal and hence can’t change. So, in any society, every individual has this intrinsic nature to love and to be loved. In an idealistic society, which existed at some point of time (sometimes called as Ram Rajya) - people adapted to each other’s likes and dislikes, to find middle ground where they can live, let live, trust and forgive each other easily and hence could love each other deeply. Because most of them were aware that they are not body, but eternal soul and life is journey beyond body. So love was enough ground to stay with each other. Moreover, people earned love rather than demanding it; by earning means, they had self sacrificing qualities. Theory of objectivism says, love is actually our response to those few people we meet, toward whom we feel the high respect, admiration, and attraction. And before we can really grant love to those we value, we must be in tune with our own values and character, and know what it is we believe to be the right and the good, what qualities we are looking for in other people.

Every individual and hence society has both good and evil qualities, amongst the two whichever is stronger that ultimately decides our destiny. As time has passed now we live in world where the component of evil i.e growth and mis-quoted individualism in society is gaining more importance and love is taking backseat…may be two can’t co-exist in long term or maybe we have become confused and hypocrite.

Sometimes when I travel by Mumbai local, I see people crumpled against each other like animals, fighting, shouting and sometimes even beating each other. The objective of getting into that train was to reach destination which is office, working there will give them growth which means Money – Power and Status. So do people like getting crumpled? Answer is No – then why do they do it? To achieve something which will possibly give them happiness? In office employees adapt to what boss says, they respect him irrespective of his qualities, Doctor listen to their patient’s nonsense and vice versa, citizens listen to politicians and authorities for same reasons.  So we adapt / compromise for our growth and comfort. But Individualism says do what you feel is correct neither at expense of others nor to please others. Where is the real individualism in what we doing? So here comes the component of hypocrisy in us, we say to our loved ones to accept us as we are…but we adapt / change for world which is not in our hand and from where we may get material gain – Money, Power and Status.  So we want to change / adapt and work hard to gain money power and status which is a false and temporary, but we fail to change / adapt and work hard to earn love and give love even to limited people in our relationships. Every individual is different, so it’s certainly difficult to get all people around you with thoughts and deeds exactly as you. To love each other certainly we will need to tune into each other’s frequency; this doesn’t mean we are going away from our self. It just means in this small life we are respecting each other for mutual happiness.  So yet I haven’t got answer for simple question that, if wife or husband, father or son, mother or children can self sacrifice to earn money power and status why they can’t self sacrifice/change/adapt for each other’s love? Nevertheless I will continue my search…real test of love is always in difficult circumstances.

Ultimately when we die it will not matter how much money power and status we acquired, neither it will matter what we felt was correct / incorrect, but certainly it may matter how much love we gained because that was intrinsic quality of our soul which is the foundation of life. Stronger the foundation stronger is the building.  

Things beyond Money, Power and Status

Money, Power and status are excesses beyond the needs of an average human being. Starting from being a primate to a two-legged social animal, we are continuously developing ourselves. Simply because we were not content living on all fours, eating raw food and moreover we have had non ending ambitions.

The basic difference between a human and an animal exists, by a line of limited ambitions for animals and everything beyond that line - unlimited ambitions - for humans. Animals don’t care about the future, they live in the moment with every thirst and craving satisfied by finding out something substantiate to eat. Humans, by nature only, always safe keep various things of need in various warehouses.

 But the unlimited ambitions of humans have given rise to disparity in society. At the same time this disparity retains a kind of equilibrium, without which there would be chaos. While humanity’s development is due to people running after success, the equilibrium is maintained by people who are content being successful within the limitations that they have drawn for themselves.

Since the time man discovered how to make fire, nature has always teased him, drawing him out of his self imposed limitations. It presented various challenges in the form of unsurmountable mountains, uncrossable rivers, too distant planets and stars, and mysterious death traps in the form of ocean beds. But every single challenge has scaled, measured and achieved. In this 21^st century, the carrot that dangles in front of the youth is symbolized by wealth, power and fame. If this dangling carrot, propels, motivates and pushes man to constantly discover new ground and in the process, discover newer potentials, it will definitely contribute to human development. One of the examples of this development can be the billionaire BILL GATES. He continuously pushed the human race with his vision for the software industry. He had no respect for status-quo at any level and thus he gave us a new way of doing business based on moving information; he empowered individuals with new technology, and made every aspect of business, digital.  

But chasing after these excesses, by itself is not complete. Human beings need certain intangibles like Love, Integrity, and Generosity to complete them.

Mahatma Gandhi said that seven things will destroy us.

·         Wealth without Work

·         Pleasure without Conscience

·         Knowledge without Character

·         Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics)

·         Science without Humanity

·         Religion without Sacrifice

·         Politics without Principle

For centuries many men lusting after Money, Power and Fame have sought lucrative jobs, or even to the extent of getting money for nothing - manipulating markets and assets so that they don't have to work or produce added value, & just have to manipulate people and things. Even today, there are professions built around making wealth without working, making much money without paying taxes, benefiting from free government programs without carrying a fair share of the financial burdens, and enjoying all the perks of being citizen of the country and membership of corporation without assuming any of the risk or responsibility. Right from childhood, we have not been given character education, which means inculcating in a children, a sense of right and wrong; fundamental rights and duties and basic ethics which establishes a  common set of values that everyone agrees on. It is not too difficult to comprehend, that kindness, fairness, dignity, contribution, and integrity are some of the fundaments worth keeping, and there cannot be any debate on that.

Speaking of values on the business front, Adam Smith has said that “Fairness and benevolence in business are the underpinnings of the free enterprise system called capitalism”. The spirit of the Golden Rule or of win-win is a spirit of morality, of mutual benefit, of fairness for all concerned.

Thus while broadening these horizons of Money, Power and Status we have to concentrate on few intangible aspects like Love, Integrity and generosity. Instead of using power to tyrannize people, it can be used to influence them. By doing this we will be complementing our way of development and improvement. Same way, money should not be gained at the cost of integrity and honesty. It has been considered that money is one of the tools of power, but the real power of money is in giving it away. Similarly, integrity is all about “saying what you do and doing what you say”. It’s an unreduced or unbroken completeness or totality. Today pleasure without conscience is one of the key temptations for executives, and that is reflected through various advertisements, as well as political proceedings. For many, Principles and ethics are honorable words in books but not in practice. But here again to understand the importance and upshot of conscience we can symbolize BILL GATES as an example, He is a person with billions of dollars, and a person of power; yet, at the same time he is a person of integrity. Donating billions of dollars for AIDS prevention shows his generosity and love towards mankind.

          Apart from these intangible assets one more fixed asset that the human race has been gifted with, is Religion. It’s an individual matter that provides everyone with faith and light. It helps us discover ourselves, to discover our true potential and true purpose of being here. It solves various enigmas of life and gives answer to questions like who am I? & why am I here for?, through various scriptures like Bhagwat Gita, Bible etc. Also concepts of spirituality have contributed a lot to the completion of human life. People from various parts of world and various strata of society have had welcomed concepts and practices of Yoga and Meditation, which facilitate a person physically as well as mentally. But if religion is seen as just another hierarchical system, its members won't have a sense of service or inner workship. That is why may be, Gandhiji emphasized on the term Religion without Sacrifice.  He said “Without sacrifice we may become active in a church but remain inactive in its gospel. In other words, we go for the social facade of religion and the piety of religious practices. There is no real walking with people or going the second mile or trying to deal with our social problems that may eventually undo our economic system. It takes sacrifice to serve the needs of other people - the sacrifice of our own pride and prejudice, among other things”.

          One more intangible to keep going is peace. For centuries this social animal has been fighting wars, and increasing the power to tyrannize the inferior ones. We have to understand that none of us have born to rule over others, we just have to broaden our horizons and complete ourselves as human beings. There is a story of an Emperor who tyrannized the entire India and then somewhere realized that his power is futile, and then he becomes a monk, may be that’s why we call him

Ashok- The Great. Mahatma Gandhi said that “In my opinion, non-violence is not passivity in any shape or form. Non-violence, as I understand it, is the activist force in the world. Therefore, whether it is materialism or anything else, if non-violence does not provide an effective antidote, it is not the active force of my conception”. Thus it is important that we as individuals  broaden our horizons of Money, Power etc. after keeping in mind that we have to complement these with peace as well.

Therefore the logical conclusion here is that every one of us has drawn a circle with the circumference of Money, Power and Status and we are working within that circular wall. With the evolution of human race, the radius of this circle is ever increasing, which will represent the development and improvement of human race. This will ensure that every individual is departing from his status-quo and increasing his limits of growth, thus contributing in pushing the human race. But, surely there are things which are beyond these circles and will remain beyond the circle however big it gets. These are the intangibles like Love, Peace, Generosity, Honesty, Kindness, Integrity, Spirituality etc.

          Today a monkey can walk on two legs, dolphins can understand our signals, and can jump accordingly, chimpanzee are also intelligent enough to understand what’s happening around them. The only thing they have not been able to do is inventing fire, which is the first biggest breakthrough for mankind. Yes, we made the fire that differentiates us from animals. Thus, we can say that there is a difference between humans and animals by stated line of ambition. Our unlimited ambitions will keep on driving the human race to reach for the skyline but at the same time these excesses of money, power and status should be complemented with Love, generosity and integrity which are of course beyond the circle.    

   

Unlearn to unleash true potential

Learning and acquiring more and more knowledge is highly overrated these days. However, real test comes, when you have to un-learn what you have learned all your life. This situations arise more often when you have introspective nature, when you stop and think "what am I doin and what am I supposed to do?" Whole job of Jesus, Buddha or Mahaavir was to undo what society has done to an individual. Their simple message was unlearning the conditioned or acquired behaviors and reaching for the higher truth is ultimate goal of human life. 

Unfortunately, we all have acquired/borrowed culture of team work / team spirit and with that all creativity of an individual is lost. In team work we are actually managing others expectations, we have been taught to say and do what others will appreciate, rather than what will represent our true personality. I guess, collective wisdom is only good enough to earn some money, power and status in normal course....its temporary. Only meditation can help to unleash our true potential, to earn higher and more permanent goal of self realisation. 

In one his lectures, J Krishnamurty said "Meditation is the process of de-conditioning the mind; it means being aware without condemnation, justification, or resistance of every thought, every feeling, every fancy that arises according to one's idiosyncrasies and particular tendencies. So, meditation means freedom from the past. It is memory of the past that conditions your response, and meditation is the process of freeing the mind from the past." 

Just like god has created process of birth, death and re-birth, in daily life we have to move towards learning and unlearning continuously. 

Seek Patience

Patience is the quality of opportunist

Volatility is the nature of this world. This is the inherent characteristic, which none of us can change. More important for us is to understand nature of this change, nature of this volatility. Whether its market or life it can either go up or down which we generally classify in categories of; Happiness & Sorrow. When things are working out, when we are in comfort zone, we call it Happiness. And when few forces try to take us out of our comfort zone, we call it pressure, in stronger words “Sorrow”. However, going out of comfort zone is very important for every individual. This is where growth belongs; this is where one should think beyond happiness and difficulties. To go beyond, a normal human being requires pill called “Will Power”. Somewhere I read, Will Power can even cure deadly diseases like Cancer. Will power can only help out in converting every difficulty into an opportunity. Here we should try to understand inherent quality of Will Power, which is Patience. Mostly we have seen that in difficulty, in failure people become sad, they loose there peace of mind and this creates spiral of more difficulties and failures. We should take failure and difficulties just as pieces of sand in water and filter it out. This requires immense patience and continuous hard work.  This is continuous process, as we overcome one difficulty, we move into the next level of comfort zone and so on so forth. Patience is the only quality which we require throughout to understand nature of life’s volatility.  Worrying too much on any difficulty is abuse of god’s gift of imagination. Whenever, we feel down or mind goes into worrying about something we should immediately start working towards something productive.  Thoughts can take person anywhere, when these are unproductive or destructive it takes away peace of mind. Hence it is imperative that we are always alert, as soon as though of failure, thought of pressure, difficulty comes in, we should press buzzer and start diverting thoughts into something productive. This is not easy, it requires learning by patience. I have learned this in Vippasana and many other spiritual practices and still trying to implement it in every moment of existence. While I am writing this, can’t forget the poem by Maithili Sharan Gupt, “Nar ho na Nirash Karo Man ko, Kuch kaam karo kuch kaam karo”. Wonder, we read every bit about life’s philosophy in text books of our school life and still not able to implement it when we require it most; “In our Youth”. Enjoy full poem below

नर हो न निराश करो मन को
कुछ काम करो कुछ काम करो
जग में रहके निज नाम करो
यह जन्म हुआ किस अर्थ अहो
समझो जिसमें यह व्यर्थ न हो
कुछ तो उपयुक्त करो तन को
नर हो न निराश करो मन को ।

संभलो कि सुयोग न जाए चला
कब व्यर्थ हुआ सदुपाय भला
समझो जग को न निरा सपना
पथ आप प्रशस्त करो अपना
अखिलेश्वर है अवलम्बन को
नर हो न निराश करो मन को ।

जब प्राप्त तुम्हें सब तत्त्व यहाँ
फिर जा सकता वह सत्त्व कहाँ
तुम स्वत्त्व सुधा रस पान करो
उठके अमरत्व विधान करो
दवरूप रहो भव कानन को
नर हो न निराश करो मन को ।

निज गौरव का नित ज्ञान रहे
हम भी कुछ हैं यह ध्यान रहे
सब जाय अभी पर मान रहे
मरणोत्तर गुंजित गान रहे
कुछ हो न तजो निज साधन को
नर हो न निराश करो मन को ।

Sugar isn’t sweet these days…

The busy day at office makes me little lazy at home, but a cup of tea balances it. Today evening when I was making tea, realized my sugar pot was empty and my room mates did not make any efforts to refill it. The evening tea addiction made me walk down in same formals to nearby grosser guy. And the moment was killing…I paid 36 bucks for 1 Kg sugar…I remember getting it for my Mom in college days for 12 bucks…somewhere in 2003…with average inflation of 5% this was an increase of 200%...that to in a commodity of daily use and for all sections of society.

This makes me feel that most of us will have to act like diabetic patients if this trend continues. And irony is people are making good money on sugar stocks….honestly, even I made few bucks…but now my conscience does not allow me to trade in them. Who’s to blame the poor government planning, lack of foresight, or corruption? I guess all of them…

By the time the government pressed the panic button last week, situation had spiraled out of control: India’s sugar output is expected to drop by more than 40 percent to around 15 million tonnes in the crop year that ends September 2009. This can be translated into a shortfall of about 5 million tonnes. Our consumption is growing at 2.2%, creating huge demand supply gap…and by the way India is biggest consumer of sugar in world…..”Mind it.” The festival seasons of Navratri and Diwali are around the corner. Sweets are supposed to be most inclusive part of these festivals for a farmer, for a school teacher, for a banker, for a businessman, for an actor and for politician as well. So it’s “Full Tensiondaaa” this season. Such a irony, man earns to celebrate these festivals with great joy and mostly circumstances make him realize that he need to be little passive on joy as future is uncertain…and cycle goes on with same arguments all his life.

That’s why I thought Sugar isn’t sweet these days…..it just can’t take out bitterness out of common man. He is helpless and succumbs to this corrupt system that even can’t allow him to enjoy his festivals well.

Education Reforms…..imperative to capitalize on Demographic dividend…

Kapil Sibble must be challenged enough with media bothering him with clarity on education reform roadmap. Certainly they are important, for capitalizing on upcoming demographic dividend but I am scared of politics and unhealthy debates which may kill future of million children who gonna be important part of this dividend. The reforms should be looked at for whole gamut of Primary, secondary and higher education but here I will focus on only Primary Education and my thoughts on it.

With Primary education first thing that comes to mind is Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan. According to Government of India statistics, 192 million children of 6-14 age group comes under this umbrella. As per my understanding India is gonna see demographic dividend starting from 2020 till 2050, these 30 years will take country to 3 rd position in world or may be 2nd we never know…Experiencing this demographic dividend means becoming a Young Country in Ageing World. To capitalize on this Dividend the ultimately objective of India is to make these 19 crore children important part of working age population in 2020.

The 30 years of demographic dividend will help India to become important manufacturing hub and more prudent financial market where SENSEX and NIFTY will not be only depended variables in multi-market correlation equation but will be used as Independent variables by then emerging markets.

I am confused about the whole definition of Emerging Markets after these crises, and believe USA is an Emerging Market now…simply as its trying to emerge :) jokes apart…what I am trying to say is to give these 19 crore children purchasing power and skill set to manage massive investment that India is going to see, in both FDI and FII.

19 crore children will need at least 9.5 Lakhs teachers assuming 20:1 ratio. And these 9.5 lakh will have to be equipped enough with global dynamics to prepare majority of them for rising India. Currently there is already scarcity of primary teachers across nations and looking at incentive system imbalance between Industry and Education I believe it will continue. Success of Teach India and Teach for India will be crucial here.

More so in 2020, looking at current growth of India, and availability of other alternative opportunities / careers, the teaching as profession will be last option for most professionals.

Now its time for government to stop sympathizing with poverty and start emphasizing, think practically and make teaching not only highly respectable but also a very well paid job. People do want to teach, people will teach, just give them respect and money that other jobs give. Reduce your subsidies and pay a teacher, that’s something what government should do. This will solve fundamental problem of education. I had chance to look at current Planning Commission research document which says every 1 rupee that goes to BPL (Below Poverty Line) requires Rs 3.35 as logistics expenses. And out of that only 15-25 paisa reaches all BPL’s. So, a loss of Rupees 4 for every rupee. Isn’t this mockery of system where people sit after passing one of the toughest examination in world – UPSC
The public education should be given industry status and at least treated at par with all PSU’s, assuming all teachers as employees and giving them equivalent emoluments. Government should not expect feelings of sympathy from every individual on planet. And start fulfilling there basic dreams, they can’t discount their dreams of house, car and shopping on weekends.

The issue is public schools, they take care of huge chunk of underprivileged children and facilities and teachers available there are not enough to prepare children for globalised and flat world. These schools are basically trusts and they don’t generate enough cash flow to pay teachers good sum which ultimately affects their performance. The possible solution I see is to back up group of schools with a holding company which will take care of education infrastructure, school supplies and will attract investment to develop schools. The school trust will only be responsible for school operations. The holding company will use debt market to pay back investors. This means issuing long term bonds, which will be tradable in market. This is little complex but some brain storming can help to materialize it.

I would like readers to comment on possible solutions that come to their mind. I will keep updating this blog as n when I get more clarity and idea for future of primary education.