Do you experience Monday blues? Is Monday just another day? Do you believe Friday is the only way out from the week? If your answer to all these questions is a definite YES, then you might just be missing something essential in your work life – Passion.
Passion; is it only about loving what you do? No, it’s more. It’s when you look at work with a sense of enthusiasm, a belief of being able to achieve something while you are working, being positive of it. It’s working those extra hours by choice because you are engrossed into it not because you are forced by the timelines. It’s being inspired. It’s having energy and intent to continue inspite of setbacks. It’s about going just that extra mile.
Does Passion have variants? Oh yeah, it does - the Good Passion & the Bad Passion. Both make you go that extra mile you need, when others are jumping out of boat. In both, you will associate work with passion. The only difference is how you understand when to switch-off work. People with Good Passion, can unlock self from work and enjoy other things in life. They enjoy life and let others enjoy too. They experience positives in their lives. On the other hand, people with Bad Passion can’t understand when to disengage from their work. They constantly work to prove things to others. They experience negativity about what they work on. In the end feel burned out, stressed out.
So how should you bring in the Good Passion?
a. Spread your passion. Don’t keep it to yourself, you too may need others to inspire and lead you. If no one buys your passion, at least you will be happy that you are furthering the cause you passionately believe in. But don’t be idle waiting for others to motivate you. Be your own motivator.
b. Set your goal and be ready to try different paths. Temporary setbacks can’t stop you from achieving the greater purpose.
c. Be Flexible. Be ready to lock-on & lock-off from your work.
d. Keep upgrading yourself else you may lose interest your work.
“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it” - Buddha
The bailout package for Dubai during the height of financial crisis helps us appreciate few aspects of Indian government establishment.
Although the emirates are united under one nation, but it does seem to be mainly for namesake. There is infighting amongst the emirates in United Arab Emirates to gain the upper hand in the nation dominance. The king of each of these emirates is working to benefit for himself and his emirate. Now this is useful to make us Indians proud for the way the Indian democracy is organised to make every state to be responsible and answerable to the central government.
To read in detail follow this blog which brings in more insights to this issue.
What a match it has been so far. Indeed a very intriguing match being played at The Centurion park ground. Students in my hostel are cheering for every run being scored, elated for every four and intoxicated for every sixer. What a match. All are glued to the TV set in the common area. Yusuf's made the second fastest century in the Indian batting history. India still strugling at the looming danger of losing the match and the series. What hopes remains?
Just during this cheering a thought crossed my mind, what is happening?
For every run cheers and after the wicket fell gloom and later normal. Drawing a parallel to life with this match isnt this quite similar to our experience.
In your life you will get so many people and items which will be cheering you all through your life. Some of them will be just part of your life for few years or maybe months, but then what boils down is just one thingNothing Remains.All this will be finished some day, then why do we need to be entangled to them? Why do we need them? People wont care who you were and what you did after you are gone. Then whats the use of being longing to these attachments, these things?
Then the answer dawned upon me, Indeed to make the path till your end a bit more pleasurable. Everyone will not give you company till your end, there will be few who will remain till your end. Life gives you the experience to be able to find those who care for you till end. Then why do need materialistic pleasure? Indeed it remains useless when you have the greatest treasure which you will relish till the end.
But continuing the thought, what will happen to your cherished few after you are gone? I am clueless at this thought. Help Me!!
The buzz word doing the rounds from the advent of "recession" is how to induce the consumer spending when they are quite skeptical about the future security. America is the leading example in this. America has brought in various fiscal and monetary policies which induce the people to spend more and save less. Policies are reducing the borrowing rate, reducing the value of the currency so that more money is spent constructively. But how much of it is actually done? American investors are sending their money to overseas markets where there are more returns on investments. How much is actually been spent to improve the economy?
As a parallel to this, India in the ancient times was very rich. Most of the population was wealthy and had some occupation to perform. There was no urgency in spending the money to buy items of desire. They had enough liquidity with them to spend as and when required. Also the people believed in savings and longevity of material goods.
This situation can be seen as an issue to the country's financial circulation. If people do not spend much and there is no consistent demand, then how can enterprises define their raw material pipeline? And as raw material for enterprise A is the output product of enterprise B, with this vicious circle there can be a devastating crumble of the system. With this crumble citizens tend to save more and spend less as there is no future security.
With this situation in mind and the recent festivities doing the round, I was amazed at the rituals which were formulated for all the festivals of our nation. There are numerous festivals, effectively making someone celebrate a festival or occasion everyday. All these occasions require people to invite guests and also give some money as "shagun". Now with this kind of raw money changing hands, the system is finally able to run the mill. People are spending during the festive seasons and saving during the odd seasons. These festivals are an imbibed feature of us Indians. We cannot live without it. Its our culture.
So without blaming any culture, I will say that if the festivities are made about such that people are compelled to spend, then you have your financial machinery running smoothly. There won't be any need of fiscal or monetary policies to Induce Spending.
"Bete, har cheez ki ek umar hoti hai", parents used to say.
There is a time to focus on studies. A time to build your career. A time to shoulder responsibilities.
But in the Indian scheme of things you are never 'old enough' to really live your life the way you want to.Until ultimately you are old and telling other - "Bete, har cheez ki ek umar hoti hai..." Philosophy aside, there is a very real dilemma facing parents today. My ten year old daughter (if you ask her she'll say, "11 in 3 months time!") wants to join Facebook. Now officially you have to be over 13 to be on Facebook but you know how simple it is to circumvent that rule. Her point is, lots of kids in class have Facebook accounts. I have no way to verify that - and neither should be the basis of my decision. So what do I do?This is but one example. There is the 'when can I get a cellphone' question. When can I go to the mall with my friends - and no adult escort?Recently I was stumped by when can I get a manicure (just want to try it once).My standard response is:"When you are in class 10". But I doubt I will actually be able to hold out for another five years.
So what are my concerns, why stop her from 'having it all' as soon as possible?
Well, like all parents, I want to protect her. From the big bad world out there. And yet, I do not want to spy. And I do not want to worry when I don't spy (and therefore don't know what company she is keeping). The hope is, the older you get, the wiser you get. But is there any such guarantee in this world?At best, you are postponing the inevitable. I've let her read the 'Twilight' series (it's supposed to be teen fiction but hey.. it's a rage among kids her age).
I switch off 'Desperate Housewives' when she is around but she's just discovered 'Friends' and funny as it is, the storylines are definitely 'adult'. I've handed down my ipod to her (but strictly forbidden taking it out of home).Yes, kids are growing up faster - physically and mentally. But you know they're still kids when they ask you - can we do this or that? The day they 'just do it' is the day they have grown up.
Har cheez ki ek umar hoti hai. The question for parents is, when will be old and wise enough to let go?
The Marathas were never in possession of the Bombay group of islands. These were the territory of the Sultan of Gujarat. He was forced to give Bombay to the Portuguese. Unfortunately, these very proselytizing Portuguese murdered Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. There was no Indian ruler claiming ownership of these soggy, disease-prone islands of Bombay. Not only the Moguls but also the Marathas never claimed this piece of land as their own. They had no interest in the barren wasteland.
The wasteland of Bombay was given as the dowry by Catherine of Braganza (Portuguese princess) during her marriage to Charles II of England. That is how the British got possession of the islands.
Even for the British Crown, this remained a useless piece of land. It was passed on to the East India Company. The East India Company had no particular interest, nor could they see Bombay’s potential as a great port. Surat port was becoming congested and the Surtis of Gujarat were the first people who moved to Bombay in pursuit of their trade and commerce.
It was not the British East India Company but the Parsees who put their own private money in the development of the port. Major economic actives were initiated by the Parsees, Gujaratis and Bohras from Surat, which set into motion the process of evolution of Bombay and its becoming the financial capital of India. (Historically, meaning when Bombay was soggy, disease ridden place) There was no or negligible contribution worth the name from Marathas in development of Bombay.
Some people who never studied (or at least didn’t pay much attention while studying) history have renamed it ‘Mumbai’ and demand exclusivity to make political gains …
asato ma sadgamaya tamaso ma jyotirgamaya mrtyorma amrtam gamaya
Lead me from the asat to the sat. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality.
(Brhadaranyaka Upanishad — I.iii.28)
This is true prayer—the seeker’s admission of his sense of limitedness and his heartfelt cry for assistance in transcendence. It is not a prayer for the things of the world. It is not a pray for food, shelter, health, partnership, riches, success, fame, glory or even for heaven1. One who recites these three mantras has realized that such things are full of holes, soaked in pain and, even in abundance, will forever leave him wanting. It is in this full understanding that one turns to this prayer. The essence of each of these three mantras is the same: "O, Guru, help me free myself from my sundry misunderstandings regarding myself, the universe and God and bless me with true knowledge."
The first mantra—asato ma sadgamaya—means, "Lead me from the asat to the sat." In fact, it is best to not translate sat (nor its negative counterpart asat) for, as with many Sanskrit words, sat has many meanings and not only are most of them applicable here, their deliberate combined import provides a depth that no one of them could hold independently. These co-applicable meanings include: existence, reality and truth. (Co-applicable meanings for asat being: non-existence, non-reality and untruth.)
We often speak of religion or philosophy as a search for Truth. But only in India’s philosophy of Advaita Vedanta has the concept of "truth" been so meticulously and successfully dissected. According to Advaita, for something to be considered true in the ultimate sense, it must be true not just at one given moment, but always be true—true in all three periods of time: the past, present and future. In fact, Advaita goes one step further. It says if something does not exist in all three periods of time that it does not truly exist, it is not ultimately real. Thus, truth, existence and reality are one and the same. That reality, Vedanta says, is what we call God.
The universe and its things are in a constant state of change. The planets are in constant motion, their positions in relation to each other and the other astral bodies are in continuous flux. The seasons similarly are ever-shifting. Scientifically, we can easily understand that our bodies (and the cells within them) come into existence, are born and then go through periods of growth, sustenance, deterioration and death. In fact these six modifications are part-and-parcel of everything in creation. On the level of emotions, we move back and forth between happiness, sorrow and anger. Even our intellectual convictions rarely stay fixed for very long. So, according to Vedanta, we cannot call this world ultimately real. It is not ultimately true. Ultimately, it does not exist. It seems real etc. but it is not. Such a thing is called asat.
The second mantra—tamaso ma jyotirgamaya—means "Lead me from darkness to light." When the Vedas refer to darkness and light, they mean ignorance and knowledge, respectfully. This is so because ignorance, like darkness, obscures true understanding. And in the same way that the only remedy for darkness is light, the only remedy for ignorance is knowledge. The knowledge spoken of here is again the knowledge of one’s true nature.
Currently, in the darkness of our ignorance, we believe ourselves to be bound and limited (otherwise we would not be reciting these mantras in the first place). But the Guru and the scriptures are telling us that, in truth, we are not, never will be and never have been bound. Eternally we sat-cit-ananda. The only thing that can remove our ignorance regarding our true nature is a spiritual education at the hands of a True Master like Amma. At the culmination of such an education, light floods the room, as it were; darkness vanishes.
The final mantra—mrtyorma amrtam gamaya—means: "Lead me from death to immortality." This should not be taken as a prayer to live endless years in heaven or on earth. It is a prayer to the Guru for assistance in realizing the truth that "I was never born, nor can ever die, as I am not the body, mind and intellect, but the eternal, blissful consciousness that serves as the substratum of all creation."
It is important to remember that, with all these mantras, the leading is not a physical leading. The Atma is not something far away that we have to make a pilgrimage to, nor is it something we need to transform ourselves into. Atma means "self." We don’t need to transform our self into our self. Nor do we need to travel to it. We are it. The journey is a journey of knowledge. It is journey from what we misunderstand to be our self to what truly is our self. What the mantras really means is "Lead me to the understanding that I am not the limited body, mind and intellect, but am, was and always will be that eternal, absolute, blissful consciousness that serves as their substratum."
Once, when discussing these mantras, Amma said the first step in attaining the knowledge for which one is praying when they chant these mantras is satsang: listening to spiritual talks, reading spiritual books and being in the company of spiritual seekers and, of most importantly, spiritual masters. "We need to continuously be fed the knowledge that our true nature is the Atma and not the body mind and intellect," Amma said. Through satsang, our attachment to the asat gradually lessens. "Slowly as you understand that everything in the world—all worldly relationship, all worldly things—are ever-changing an impermanent, your attitude towards the world changes. We gain detachment." As we become more and more detached, our desires also naturally decrease, because we know that the things of the world are impermanent and cannot bring us lasting happiness. As the desires decrease, the mind becomes less and less agitated. It obtains serenity, stillness, peace. Then, with this stilled, subtle, penetrating mind we can finally come to realize our true nature.
An elaborate detailed talk by the historian Sri D. K. Hari, was an eye opener on the knowledge of Caste system, its true intention and form, and its current situation. The brief of talk is present here.
In the modern political view of India, the very word Caste is looked at as controversial. The word Caste was brought on India by the Portuguese with their term"Casta". The term "caste system" is of British colonial creation and was first used in 1871 census in India.
Varna and Jathi:
From time immemorial we have been having the societal division concept through Varna and Jathi. This concept of Varna and Jathi were combined and transformed into caste system by the colonial British administrators for their administrative nomenclature and classification.
What do you understand by Varna? Many people think of it as color of the skin. Though it does mean color, it was not used for what is the division of people in the society based on color.
The word Varna is etymologically from Var meaning "to choose". There are four Varna in India. They being:
Brahmana, Vaishya, Kshatriya, Sudra
As the word Varna suggests it is to choose ones way of life among these 4 primary streams.
Under or inside the Varna is the concept of Jathi. Jathi stands for trade guilds, stock, variety. It also refers to species or nation. These two concepts of division of labour in society based on choice attitude and aptitude of the individuals practiced from ancient and medieval India was summarily clubbed as caste by British colonial administrators.
The Four Varnas were not by birth, but by choice. A parson from any Jathi was allowed to take the task in one of the four Varnas. There are ample examples of Rishis who were initially fishermen, robbers and so on, thus from any Jathi a person could become Brahmana, based on his skills and knowledge.
There have been many kings who were from various Jathi, based on their valour.
There have been many businessmen based on their negotiation skills, not based on the birth.
Sudra doesn't refer to the lowest, it refers to the tasks which are logistics oriented. People choosing Sudra varna could manage irrigation system, for example. And an irrigation system was by no means less important than defence or army, and India being farmers' country the irrigation system was its backbone.
The importance of various varnas, and the power in the society the people following certain varna has always been fluctuating, and not given to one Varna. E.g. the Kshatriyas would be very important in war time, where as Vaishyas would be important in peace time, for bringing prosperity to the country by good trade. Brahmanas would be very important when everything is prosperous, as the human beings would seek the knowledge of divine, and Sudras would be important when festivities are to be organized, huge crop harvesting and transport is to be managed.
Migration:
The caste system of India was not tightly bound but had the concept of migration from one caste to another in built based on the occasion of the individual person. Most of the great Rishi, the Vedic scholars and the other great scholars of the Indian civilisation were born in the Sudra varna and because of their abilities and realisation migrated to become Brahmana.
Kings of Bharath:
Most of the kings of India also belong to the Sudra Varna and because of their kingship became Kshatriya. This migration was a recognised aspect of the IndianVarna system.
Caste Stratification:
It is in the medieval period during the onslaught and later in the colonial period the caste stratification took place which led to the debacle and down slide of India.
Caste – a pan religious reality:
The horrors of caste are not limited to the Hindus alone . The Indian Christians also the practice of caste system very rigidly. They have segregated churches, segregated cemeteries, segregated services, segregated processions.
The Muslims also have practiced the caste system in India with Azraf being the noble and the Arzal being the degraded. The Mayazur are the low caste bonded labour in Pakistan.
Even among the Sikhs the caste does exist in reality as the Jat Sikh and the Chamar Sikh.
From this it is clear that the concept of caste is not just in the Hindu religion but it is a pan religious reality of India.
Social leaders:
Various social leaders of India whose names are noble and endless have worked tiredlessly to abolish or mitigate the horrors and stratification of caste whenever it has reared its ugly head in the society.
Colonial wreak:
The colonial rule in India wreaked the economy of the land. Probably the most affected by the colonial rule were the Sudra whose property, education, vocation and stature were snatched away from them by the British administrators.
Change adapt:
Today, as India is progressing we see a cycle of changes happening. With these changes, the Jathi Varna concept of India needs to adapt itself. This concept held the fabric of the Indian society in its progress for many thousand years.
Realisation:
The realisation that should come now in us, is that the 3 upper castes namely Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaisya should realise that they all belong to the common stock of people and due to opportunities and historical reasons they are better off socially now. The above 3 castes are of the same genetic stock as the Sudra. They belong to the same land, same society, and have all been one through the ages. This realisation should enthuse these three castes to take a concrete effort by themselves in uplifting the Sudra brotheren through positive effort.
Wherever the Chaturvarna system started, there may have been some reason for its introduction. This article investigates such possible reason and usefulness of Varna in the light of division of labor for complete progress of society.
In any work there are two types of activities involved – Physical Activity and Mental Activity. In society, there are people who preferably opt for a high or low of either type of activity. Let's look at the Varna system from the requirements of the activity in each:-
Varna
Physical Activity (in terms of outdoor work)
Mental Activity (in terms of thinking planning Analysis)
Skills needed
Khatriya – Defense
High
High
Agility of body and constant analysis of politics
Vaisya – Trade
Low
High
Skillful decisions and good negotiation skills needed
Sudra – Logistics ss
High
Low
High Physical robustne
Brahmin – Teachers
Low
Low
Steadiness of mind
This table shows that according to the body – mind type of a person, only certain activities can be suitable to that person. E.g., if someone is highly involved in physical activities, he or she may not be interested to sit at one place and perform chantings and give teachings. Someone who is not physically fit, cannot take up challenge of defending the nation.
If you look at the tasks required to run a nation, it will also broadly fall in the four categories:-
Defense from enemies – internal or external;
Trade for prosperity and exchange of products- again internal and to the other nations;
Logistics management in the entire country;
Teaching of values, learning from past experiences.
Other way to see its importance is, if either of any of these categories fails, the country cannot survive – A security breach can be dangerous to the country. Lack of proper trade brings down the economy. In any war hit area, the opposing nation first hits the logistics, like roads, water channels, modes of transport and so on. The moment Teachers are not skilled, the knowledge transfer from one generation to the next generation doesn't happen.
