Some insights on routine life

Tea, toast and today’s news, and you get a synopsis of changing world. I always bothered; the daily appearing changes are actually resulting from small changes every day. In past 10 years I’ve witness a lot of change in me and in my surroundings. I believe this will hold true for most of us. I am not debating here on quality of change like good or bad. But, even with acceptance of this fact, I get confused while looking at my recent past in the form of a typical day, a typical week or a typical month, I found everything constant, repetitive and continual. When the change actually happened?

I met a person, of my father’s age, retiring from his job, has made a home, supported his children, make them successful by a mediocre, repetitive, constant and continual job in a government organization.  At 60, is he satisfied? How satisfied will I be if reach 60?

There is no harm in repetition. It trains your subconscious to perform in auto mode. You may not be innovative, but you will be less strained and more relaxed person. But the other part of life’s truth is that we have an active life of approx 60 years in which around 25 years are consumed in educating and training ourselves. Do we early have enough time to achieve everything we really want?

The aspirations are always bigger than the capacity of time available, which is why it is called aspirations. But there are some people who, repetitively and continually challenge the capacity of time. For them, their aspirations are continual accomplishments. We have such examples in every field; name any; sports, arts, business etc.

Accomplishments are always balanced. Otherwise, it’s merle money or result. I believe in a balanced approach to life; challenging your capacity of time for all your professional and personal aspirations. If your personal aspirations like your love life, hobbies etc, trigger a balanced personality in you, your professional accomplishments provide a unique identity. In real terms both are complementary. Without one, the other can appear once in a while, but not in routine.

Beauty of Full Moon

Have you ever observed beauty of full moon?

In Indian literature you can find a lot of writers and poets who has endorsed the beauty of moon as the best in the world. There are two assumptions, one the beauty is feminine in nature and other, though it is not spotless, still nothing is comparable. On feminine beauty of moon, Bollywood has its own stand in their typical romantic songs. Here again the beauty of moon is at top.

There is another fact that moon is also known for is ‘crazy behavior’. The word ‘Lunatic’ means the same. Is there any correlation between ‘Lunatic’ and ‘Beauty’?

You must have heard story of Tulasidas, the great poet writer of ‘Ramcharitmanas’, a Hindu holy book in which the character of Lord Ram is portrayed as the best in human mankind. Tulasidas had a beautiful wife named Ratnavali. He was so deeply attached with the beauty of Ratnavali that he could not afford to be without her even for a moment. Once, Ratnavali went to her fathers place for some day. During those days of separation, Tulasidas could not control his emotions and went to see her in very difficult weather. In those days, in India, even for a married couple, meeting openly used to be treated against mannerism. So, Tulasidas, thinking of Ratnavali, tried to get in her room without knowledge of anyone, through a window which was above the ground level. It is told that he could not even recognize a cobra on the wall and used the same assuming a rope to get into the room. It was embarrassing for Ratnavali, seeing her husband so crazy about her beauty; she scolded Tulasidas reminding his craziness and referred her body just as lump of flesh and blood. That incident changed Tulasidas for ever and he become ascetic.

There is no doubt that beauty attracts. When it involves your emotions we term same as love. But let us not attach love with beauty in this discussion. In the above story Tulasidas was crazily in love with beauty of Ratnavali and a small logic explained by her changed his emotions for ever.

Full moon, representing best of feminine beauty, or otherwise, if attracts our attention is natural. And like Tulasidas, if not for a longer time, even for a second, we become crazy while encountering beauty, it’s normal. By this logic love at first sight and being lunatic is no different. It can be assumed that being in love needs a much more passion and emotion than what we can define with logic because with logic we can not understand love.

Who Am I?

Rene Descartes, a French philosopher once said: ‘I think, therefore I am’. I am thinking so my existence is established. The next question which bothers me is “I”. What is “I”? Whom we refer as “I” when we say “I am”? If I try to put my doubt simply the question is slightly different than “who am I?” Surprisingly a lot of work has been done to find out answer of the question “who am I”. The most difficult looking question has some ready-made
answer in various books and articles. Then there is a devil in me who asks a question, why are you bothered to discover who r you? How does it matter? Enjoy your life when you know the end is certain. Sometimes, devils’ also get philosophical.

It looks very confusing but in reality it’s very simple. As long as I am happy and enjoying my life, nothing matters. Nice conclusion but have I ever thought that lot of things matter simultaneously to make me happy.

Then I thought of myself. Something others will also agree. I can not withstand indefinite wait. Success makes me happy. Incomplete tasks; both personal and professional, bothers me. When I lie, for any reason, I feel tensed. There are lots more similar things to list down. If I have to derive something from above, being happy is easy. Simply wish that you do not have to wait, you are always successful, you never lie and you never leave any task incomplete. Most of people will say it’s impossible. Bhagvad Gita has its saying too on this, that is, define your Dharma, the goal and do your karma for your Dharma, involved positive action, without bothering results. How one should define Dharma? Again we will have to resolve the purpose of our life or in other words the answer of the question who am I.
Back to “I think, therefore I am”. How many of us think that they really think? If I make a theory on this philosophy it would be: “My existence starts with the thinking and quality of the thinking defines our identity. And if I can find my identity, “Who am I?” is answered.”

What Motivates You?

Have you ever tried to identify the key drivers which define your integrity and commitment to the organization you are working for? Lets look this question beyond pay cheques, promotions or other best HR practices. Also beyond morale and value system we have learned in our upbringing. I’ve tried to find out the answer out my own industry experience and discovered that at least one or more than one of the following four drivers are must to define your commitment and the associated approach to your work in any organization or industry:

1. The degree of believe in the product or services you are working for. The more believe more the association. The degree of believe should be to the extent that your personality can be identified with the product or services you are in.
2. The feeling of ‘WOW’ on the present strategies or future plans of the company. It is company’s top management responsibility to make this clear and transparent down the line. It could be fully or partially in your hand too.
3. There should be a leader in the organization who should be inspiring enough to be your role model. If there are such personalities, you will find that your personality will take a radical shift. If there are no such personalities in your organization, well, there’s an opportunity.
4. Last but not the least the clarity of your own carrier growth path. It should match your ambitions and futuristic financial requirements.

Well to find your motivation just asses the product or services, the strategies, the leaders of you organization and your own ambitions.

GOLDEN LEAVES

I saw a young man in hurry to catch the local train with a purpose. Then I saw a young boy moving his buffaloes in open field to feed them and enjoying alone by playing with a cricket ball. I also sew a sweet young couple moving along a village road, calm and cool without any talk. I see lot of similar and different people moving around with and without a purpose with some or other emotion without demonstrating any. Then I ask few questions to myself. Who among those are happy? Who among those going to create history? Who among those is both successful and satisfied with his or her success? Who among those inherited a lot to make his given identity and who’s going to create the same?
Then I saw a huge vegetation of forest land with dry but golden leaves waiting to disappear just before fall. I got some clue and some of my answer. The trees and disappearing golden leaves signify completion of a life cycle and transformation into a new one. End is not the right word so I am using completion which is destined. Good or bad, fruitful or fruitless the trees will lose their leaves. However; just before disappearing, leaves become golden representing prosperity which seems to be notional but actually not. Philosophically completion is good as it is followed by transformation and reincarnation and sets a fresh start. So in the end (actually at the completion) everything is good. All of my questions remain insignificant at this conclusion. Is that what Bhagvad Gita says as ultimate detachment?
I tried to derive the answer from Bhagvad Gita itself. The building block of human life cycle, philosophically, can be categorized into inherited wealth (money, language, religion, society etc. at the time of birth), learning (knowledge, attitude, skills, insights etc), Application of learning (KARMA), Wealth creation (Knowledge, money, language, religion, society etc) and finally dissipating wealth. In the whole process there is no physical gain. That’s why Gita questions attachment with physical gains. There should not be any confusion with inactivity. As there is a gain, the golden leaves, and the base of reincarnation, called spiritual gain. Spiritual gain comes from KARMA, the right activity for right purpose, the DHARMA, the ultimate goal. (DHARMA is not religion specific; it means the ultimate goal of human being). To know KARMA, adequate knowledge and adequate health is required to apply knowledge. This is where inheritance becomes important which is basically BHAGYA, the luck and it’s not in any one’s hand. So the only thing left is KARMA to gain real wealth. So the sights I mention in first paragraph have no difference. The real difference if can be measured with spiritual gains it would have been very easy to answer all my doubts. Even though, if I assume happiness close to spiritual gain, it’s almost impossible to decide by just watching. The rural boy playing with cricket ball and buffaloes could be happier than the chairman of a multi billion dollar company. Its difficult, so no measurement, no confusion. At the completion every things going to look like same, like golden leaves. Let’s gain a better root to make sure the new leaves waiting to sprout is more beautiful and healthy.

Centering

Recently I had some discussion on centering with one of my seniors and discovered few insights which is worth sharing. Centering is a process of meditation in which one can concentrate all his knowledge to attain wholeness. This wholeness could be adequate enough to solve many personal or social problems. To elaborate more lets take an example of process of puzzle solving. Most of the puzzles can be resolved up to one missing data to get before final answer. It happens because we evaluate our options from some or other point of view at a time. In the process of juggling with puzzle, I am sure most of us have experienced, a stage comes when one start thinking on more than one dimensions and point of focus converts from some or other point of views to universal point of view and that is the time when one see the answer. This is the time when one sees the missing link and solves the puzzle. While centering is also the ultimate stage is when all of one’s knowledge becomes available at one point. So what? Is not it amazing to just think that you can access all your accumulated learning, insights and experiences are available to solve your problems? This is centering.

We carry different personalities which are developed in the course of our life. So we have different level of knowledge with different learning, experiences and insights. And believe me all of us have accumulated adequate knowledge to solve any of our problems. However; it’s almost impossible to use all your knowledge at one point of time. Centering through meditation is nothing but collecting all in you at one point and attain the feeling of completeness or wholeness.

The ultimate stage of centering is the point when attains all knowledge. In Hindu mythology it is often referred as “Bramha Gyan” which means knowing the Bramha, the creator of universe, the God. This is the position when one attains detachment from everything. It can be simply explained as if one knows everything, nothing remains significant. However; since gaining knowledge is a process, the centering is also a process. That is why we worship the image of Lord Shiva who is always in Yoga, the meditation or centering.

All the technical, social or philosophical discoveries are the result of centering only. It’s nothing but using your available knowledge to discover the unknown. Look around and think about all innovations and creativity, is not it scientific? If centering is a methodological process all of us can be innovative and creative. All of us can discover undiscovered and ignite multi revolutions at all levels, be it the world, the country, the society or the organization.

‘Bhagya’ and limitations of ‘Karma’

I had some busy months and few excuses of not writing. Actually it’s all about reflections and for last few weeks I was not able to feel any substance in my thought until two things happened to me. One was “Dasvidania” a Hindi movie and two; was my recent visit to one of the shopping mall in Mumbai.

‘Dasvidania’ is a movie about a person who knows that he’s gona die in next three month because of stomach cancer. And he make a list of ‘things to do’ for his rest of life. One by one he makes and completes ten wishes making his end a happier one and leaving his surroundings with a sense of accomplishments. The fact that provoked my thought is that none of us know how much time is available to complete the ‘things to do’ of life. And almost all of us even do not have ‘things to do’.

The second incidence shook my long debated believe in law of ‘Karma’. In the shopping mall there is a place specially marked for children where they got every thing to fun like jumping, dancing etc. And I saw a young boy on wheel chair, probably because of disorder from birth, staring at those of similar of his age, who were in fun, dancing and jumping. One could very easily see the helplessness in his eyes. What Karma makes him so? Why there is no level field for all?

The simplest answer is ‘the life is like that only’. We may decide our own actions but we need sound mind too to make us capable of doing so. My actions are ‘Karma’ and my sound mind is my ‘Bhagya’ or luck. There is limitation to law of ‘Karma’ as there are number of factors which we can’t decide. These factors are father, family, language, primary education etc. These are paternal assets we get as ‘Bhagya’, the luck. And if we are lucky enough to have sound mind we can decide the ‘Karma’ of our lives.

KARMA YOGA

If you believe in Karma, you would not do anything just out of habbit.
Bagavad Gita says your Karma decided fortune of your future course of life and beyond. Quality of Karma becomes top most concern as our duty. Gita also says Karma should always be directed towards duty of Dharma. Literal meaning of Dharma is religion. But its significant is above that. It is basically your ultimate goal as directed by your purest inner self. So Karma should always be for a very positive purpose and so it should be carefully designed.
Most of us will agree that more than 99% of our Karma come just out of our daily routine or habit without any purpose. Very few of us takes care of a very long term objective while deciding education or career. Our bringing up comes under a high supervision of our parents so something we can blame to our surroundings; but not all. When we start taking our own decisions we must be clear about our ultimate goal or a long term perspective of our duties. It is true for our smallest activities too. We must carefully choose our talk, letters, comments based on relatively bigger objective. It can be done by self awareness and a live consciousness while in action.

SELF CONCEPT

Recently I came across a forwarded email on speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen at the graduation ceremony of an American university. There was something which made me to reflect on some of the important aspect of life.
The self concept within us can be considered to be self centric from the periphery of life; but it is not fully true. After education we, most of us, take an aspiring career and fix our routine into some well defined commands. In profession we focus most of our energy to fulfill expectations of the organization. Remaining energy is used for the expectation of parents, spouse and children. The only personal expectation which drives us seems to be promotion, salary increment or a better job in highly competitive environment which is least of personal in nature. All these convert our life from hours to days, days to years, and years to ages and in return we make stress as part of our life. By definition, in the case mentioned above, we are selfish but actually we are not as hardly we are doing anything for our real self
In the process we lose our actual requirement of real self. Have we ever reflected to notice that how quickly we are losing our hobbies, friends and love in the journey of life. Can we recall things which fascinated us and we ever thought of living with those. Hobbies for example, books, movies, travel, writing, sports or anything for that matter, can you recall the last time you actively participated to your satisfaction. Take your mobile phone and check the numbers of your old college friend and ask yourself when last time you have talked to them and shared your feeling as you used to do in college days. Think of your parents when, last time, you’d delighted them as you used to do throughout your childhood like your first step, first word, first result, first achievement and then many. Actually we are missing the real happiness which is eternal; instead we are in search of pseudo worldly things and assume those as source of happiness which is very temporary.
It is right time to rethink and discover source of eternal happiness for our real self. If we are successful in doing so the definition of “selfish” will be changed with a positive meaning. And believe me if you successfully discover real you, the other professional and family expectations will also be in right place.

“Nishkam Karma”, action without attachment

The concept of “Nishkama Karma”, action without attachment to both action/work and fruits expected there after, as mentioned in Hindu holy book Bhagwad Gita, can solve many of the management problems and can confuse few too.
One of the most popular saying of Bhagwad Gita is always misunderstood. The following stanza is always misunderstood as ” Do your work/duty without expecting any fruit/result”. Actually it is slightly different and can be explained with some more concepts mentioned in the very beginning lessons of Bhagwad Gita. I have interpreted in some different ways and tried to think it from the management perspective.
The Gita limits our domain of influence to our “Karma” only and not thereafter (ref; chapter 2, 47). So results of “Karma” are not in our hand. But if the definition of word “Karma” is analyzed closely it will confuse the above interpretation. Karma is not merely work but it is work for duty. Karma is not only activity but also it is activity with a positive purpose. When there is duty or activity with a purpose, Karma becomes Dharma. “Dharma” can be correlated with the ultimate goal of the life. So, though you should not be instrumental in making your actions bear fruit (chapter 2, 47), you may design your actions for your ultimate goal, the “Dharma”. When we talk about fruits, it is actually outcomes of your sequence of actions in the way to ultimate goal. Good or bad, there should not be any attachment to these outcomes. And so these outcomes should not divert you from your ultimate goal.
What are the benefits of detachment from fruits? As per the Gita, in advance stage of attaining yoga, there should be detachment from “Karma” too. This also have very interesting interpretation but I will try to discuss it in some other post. All these attachments creates aggression, fear and anger. Carrying forward from the conclusion in above paragraph, aggression, fear and anger have all the potential to divert you from your ultimate goal by changing your course of actions in search of pleasurable fruits. So to make your goal and your actions intact we must have stable mind. The Gita defines it as “Samatva”, evenness of mind. (chapter 2, 48).
From management perspective, replace Karma with strategy and Dharma or ultimate goal with vision or mission of the organization and all the above interpretations will hold true.
Your comments carry significant value
References from Gita
Chapter2,47; Your right is to work only and never to fruit thereof. Be not instrumental in making your actions bear fruit, nor let your attachment be to inaction.
Chapter2, 48; “Samatva”, evenness of mind is called “Yoga”.
Chapter2, 56; The sage, whose mind remains unperturbed amid sorrows, whose thirst for pleasures has altogether disappeared, and who is free from passion, fear and anger, is called stable of mind.
Chapter2,57; He who is unattached to everything, and when meeting with good and evil, neither rejoices nor recoils, his mind is stable.