The idea of enlightened existence -3

Note : This series (1-3) has got serious philosophical content and may influence the reader very deeply. I wish you only consider reading this as for time-pass or for an entertainment.The conclusion is in the 3rd part.

The Music of the Universe : When the whole world is enlightened, each creature, including human , would make a unique and beautiful sound and in which the entire universe makes a beautiful music!!! and the music will be in perfect harmony.

The last: I am not quite sure about enlightenment, I thought it was wonderful but now I think its just a bullshit idea. The nature of every person is his past moments, past experiences - for the person , like I am, I spent most of my time thinking, thinking , thinking about the ultimate truth. I never found one , and will not find any in future too. There is no ultimate truth in Life. I like reading about Philosophy (study or science of finding truths?! ) and Philosophers. I enjoyed it very much, It brought so many thoughts to my mind, sometimes, they never let me sleep. Recently, I learnt that 'Philosophy' is just bullshit, Philosophers never had a day job - they never acted - they only thought - thought about so many things , and gave lectures, and talks and thats all, they could do. They were addicted to thinking. I know from my own experience, that 'Philosophy' is dangerous, thinking is okay if you have a problem at hand but If one simply lets his/her mind wander - it triggers a chain of thoughts that never ends - it always resumes when the mind is idle again. I have lost so may lively moments because of those thoughts. At the same time,it is also not possible to have a thought-less mind, so that is okay. When one is doing something,one should let his/her mind focus on what he/she is doing - that is "living the moment" or "enlightenment' to me.

I was almost addicted to reading philosophy and quotes, these days , I have reduced a lot, I just couldn't bear more thoughts in my mind - it started aching,truly, period.Later, I thought, "Creations - especially from 'Art' side were always meant for entertainment or for time-pass - why should someone take them seriously?" and so tried to avoid, reading, writing and watching , listening to music - It was a very dull life , then I realized , i had already fallen in love for the creations - no matter how insignificant they are - they make happy - I just got to balance it. So these days, I neither have the "purpose of Life" question nor do I think too much about Philosophy. My Philosophy now is - "Listen to the Heart because your heart knows it and be at the moment, and learn" - whats your philosophy? now ?

Who wants enlightenment? let us be human, thats what I try to do, and sometimes fail. In this thoughtful journey, I found  U G Krishnamurti very helpful , who wanted to witness enlightenment but was never able to and said "Tell them , there is nothing to understand".

Serenity & Harmony - Thanks to Wikiquote and all the great people whose intelligence is now part of mine.

The idea of enlightened existence -2

Note : This series (1-3) has got serious philosophical content and may influence the reader very deeply. I wish you only consider reading this as for time-pass or for an entertainment.The conclusion is in the 3rd part.

Living is Learning and Loving
"Learning", by itself is never perfect or complete, its a process that never ends. The process of learning is perfect only when we do it freely.Free from past, future and free from failures and free from everything except the thing that is being learnt.When we learn, we find truths and those are our happiness.So when one starts living every moment, the learning never stops and the journey of Life is joyous than ever.If you are learning something or in the middle of learning something and you love it while doing, you are living.

Living the moment?
When one starts living every moment,Learning is a bliss.Life too.Living every moment is difficult - because the body does something and the mind thinks something.When the coordination between the mind and the body drops, the concentration drops.Doing is an action and thinking is a thought.The first attributes to the body and the second attributes to the Mind.The drop of concentration doesn't mean that one should never think, when thinking is the action (Of all the actions, thinking is also an action ), think well.After you have thought about it,and when one acts on it, one should just act , the mind just gives commands and observes whether the body is doing right or wrong - thats how this truth came - "Think before you act".When the mind observes what the body does,it doesn't travel in the past or in the future. Only, the mind, can be in the past and in the future and the body can never be.This requires a lot of practice, playing games will definitely help - in general - any physical activity that is observed by the mind will increase the concentration power and would help people to live in the moment.When living the moment has become an habit, people accept the situation as it is and accept people as they are. Fear, Anger, Hatred,Jealousy will vanish.

Enlightenment?
When this learning , living happens with intense love - man ends up finding different dimensions and feel the joy every moment of Life.When one learns the systems around and within, and in that process, one understands/learns the fellow human and fellow creatures and the entire universe.When that happens,one realizes he/she is part of it anyway.It is this intense learning that makes the human accept the situation as it is and people as they are - and makes him to think and do what is required now?with that state of body,mind and soul one thinks every life on the planet is as equal as his/hers is and makes him a "universal human being" - not belonging to any particular country,religion. When that happens - the purpose of Life automatically happens within you - one finds what he/she should do now? Buddha , Lao Tzu and so many others walked on this planet as enlightened ones. After enlightenment, their purpose was always "to influence the lives of others positively - that is to bring success and joy to them". Even this is cyclic, Only if you are joyful,you can impart this into others. (This whole thought and learning of enlightenment was from the Isha Inner Engineering program that I attended recently (No Idea why attended?! - may be because , I wanted to practice waking up early in the morning because the classes were early in the morning )- especially - this concept of compassionate consideration for fellow creatures but I had already thought that "influencing others' life positively would be the ultimate motive for any human - see "The Purpose of Life" )

The idea of enlightened existence -3

The idea of enlightened existence -1

Note : This series (1-3) has got serious philosophical content and may influence the reader very deeply. I wish you only consider reading this as for time-pass or for an entertainment.The conclusion is in the 3rd part.

It all starts with Life and living it - The Purpose of Life.Recent days, I generate thousands of thoughts everyday.With the continuous bombardment of thoughts in the mind, I am beginning to understand few things and I can experience that it makes me happy.

Learning
When it comes to nature,It is always cyclic or anything that is cyclic is natural.Man's intelligence comes from his learning, learning from his experiences.Experiences that he or the universe exposes himself to the systems around and within.The Learning starts from understanding the senses of the body - Eg: "fire is hot , do not touch it". The human body being the most complex system in the world - starts our learning process early in our lives.In the process of learning,we find few truths - Eg: "fire is hot , do not touch" and so on.The truth, that an individual finds, is a truth to that particular individual based on his/her learning ability and depending on the exposure. We accept something as truth, if it is a convincing statement, by our own experience and our understanding of that experience.So, each one of us finds truths in our lives.one after the other, the search keeps going on to find the ultimate, the desire or urge to express, all truths as a single truth, which is eternal and composes every other truth.The truth to someone might not be a truth to someone else, but there are some truths which are universal, which means the experience , from which each of us found the truth was experienced exactly the same way. As there are universal truths, there are universal questions too - like - is God there? is Fate there? - the purpose of Life ? and so on. As long as these questions remain in us, the search for the answers continues - the search for the truths continue. This process of pursuing the truths after truth continues by loving the things that are being learnt till the death.

Truth
The truth is a convincing statement or a convincing answer to a question. The very nature of the truth , especially, the universal truths - is, it reveals itself somehow, naturally, or using the elements of the nature - like for example - Human Mind is an element of nature.Every noble creation has such universal truth as the core of it - and that must have been the only possible reason that it is available & well-received in the first place. The creation is just a manifestation of a truth, that the creator has found in his/her process of learning something.Finding a truth is a joy - one cannot comprehend it intellectually but only experientially.

Intelligence
When the process of learning continues, creations happen.Creations - Art and Science make people joyous if it has a truth in it.Any Creation which has a universal truth as a core of it - will definitely be well-received.When the accumulation of truths happen, you acquire intelligence.The intelligence is from learning the systems around and within, and finding a truth after truth.The systems, Natural and Artificial, distinctly creates, Natural intelligence and Artificial intelligence. The Artificial intelligence - the intelligence you acquire out of systems that man made after curiously learning the natural systems around him over the period of time.In essence,its just a subset of the Natural intelligence. These two intelligences, when it is very well seasoned, becomes our Intuitive intelligence - which means, we learn, understand and find the truth,just by looking at it.Eg: Every person that we meet has got a unique gait, from which we can learn the person.Learning is different from judging.By Learning,we accept people as they are.

The idea of enlightened existence -2

Introspection or Influence causes Change

Its been a long time since I wrote in English. These days, I generate thoughts only in Tamil, no idea why?. I'll have to think what makes one to think in a different language ? what decides the preference ? What if someone knows no language ? will that someone not think ?

I have been thinking mostly about Philosophy and Intelligence. This thought came to my mind that "To make a change or to be a change , one has to either have influence from external entities or influence from within (or introspection )". It is not possible for everyone to have good influences always or at least at the required times but the other - "influence from within - introspection" is possible.

If I am the creator of few things - I wish, and I will give equal priority ,significance ,worthiness to each of my creations.In other words , To director Bala - both "Pithamagan" and "Naan Kadavul" is the same.It is arguable whether such comparison would change based on how it is received?! - Has the worthiness of the movie "Iruvar" has changed for director Mani Ratnam based on how it was received?, may be it is not.When extending this analogy to God , If there was a God, and if he was the creator of things, lives here - the worthiness of each of his creations should and must be same. So why does one think Good to the society and while one does not?So what creates this difference? Education, Situations, Experience and one can quote so many things like that but they are not. Suppose if they were the cause, why doesn't God give the such things to all the men&women of the world? What will the world be if all of us are equally educated,equally talented and equally opinionated? Will that make any interesting minute of our lives? So We need differences to have a interesting time , to be received well. To someone , video games are waste of time and to some, they are worth a lifetime. So A Creator plans and creates everything to be unique and to be with some differences. It doesn't bother the Creator whether it is well received or not. So if you think you are a failure , and if you believe in God, then you can think, it's not your fault and your Creator's.What does this prove ? :)

I always thought about this. The differences , the pain and struggle that some has to go through during their lifetime. I am still thinking about them, and they will only make me to think more and more of it.

I always believed that "It only takes a simple lesson, a simple thought to change our lives" and that is one must learn to introspect oneself and influence himself from within - positively. Thats the beginning of wisdom. How can the movies introspect themselves ? Is it at least possible for them to think that they have to think about introspecting themselves - when they do not even have the thinking ability ? How can one think of becoming more when the Creator himself has not given anything to that someone to be more? Is Life a Paradox ?

Keep thinking - dot.

What a Life wants in Life?

"Progress" is possible with "introspection" - Introspection is self-analysis about one's character or behavior taking all perspectives into account.I have been using this technique for a long time and it has always helped me.It helps us to understand what is that we do wrong in accomplishing what we want? and helps us to be sure of what we want - is that the one we really want? and the like.

One such introspection lead me to think about what do we(Humans) want in Life ? and I could list few things which is supposed to be common and applicable to all lives. Though these cannot be considered for plants.

wanting to be loved and wanting to make love
wanting to be respected
wanting to be followed
wanting to be worshiped


...and thats the progress map for any human - that one must first has to be loved, then respected, then followed and then worshiped. These desires are sub-conscious,and true.

The sound of Music

When we sit back and think about things that make us happy and make us feel serene, "Music" will definitely be one among them. The thinking of evolution of music raises two questions - Did Music evolve from sound ? or Men realized sound because of the music in it? , I believe that the second must be true.Whats your thought on it?

Only a calm mind can produce music that is very soothing and pleasing to listen and sometimes can give a lifetime experience. It can make people cry , to feel eternal and to feel complete.I never felt being alone because of music. The music gives us the experience which we will never have otherwise, or expresses our experiences which can never be expressed in better ways. The truly gifted people are the musicians. The world would have been mad without music and literature. When words and music exist in symphony and in perfect harmony - and if one gets an opportunity to listen to such a beautiful piece of art - one feels his eternal existence and rejoice in peace and joy. Most of us would have felt that.

Music brings back the days we lived to our minds and shows the days we will live in future. The random flip of images our minds show when a particular song is listened to - is what its success is. The movie the mind shows is so beautiful that only can be perceived at mind and is never possible in reality. I have always listened to songs that I have heard in the past, to bring back my beautiful memories. Some say that we should only live in present , I completely disagree. I have always loved to go back&forth in time and have cherished the experience when I do so. The songs and music I heard in school , during tour trips, during study holidays, during college days , during job search and at work and while driving and in several other occasions - Each one of them is different and I can easily bring those beautiful moments to my mind - with Music

"Joy" is a movie of beautiful moments your mind shows.



Music makes a common man , a Creator. So it is the mother of all arts. Its significance is always well understood and appreciated by the mankind throughout the centuries.

 

In Search of Truth...

For the past few days, I have been reading pages on Philosophy and Philosophers and Wikipedia makes it very easy. Every day , I start with Wikiquote reading the home page and pondering on the text of the current day quote.It started with an voluntary act and has become an habit, and I am quite happy about it. It provides a good mind set to start the day. Even during work - I switch to Wikipedia or Wikiquote to balance the right and left brain activities. I have experienced that it increases my energy-level and helps me concentrate more.

Wiki says that 'Philosophy' means 'love for wisdom' and that makes me feel proud and happy about it as I seemed to like it. In practical world - Philosophy is of no use, No one would ever give a penny if one says that "A friend is a single soul dwelling in two bodies" by [ Aristotle] or "The beginning is the most important part of the work" by [Plato] or "One has attained to mastery when one neither goes wrong nor hesitates in the performance." by [Friedrich Nietzsche]. Though these are truths(at least according to me), it doesn't matter to most of the world.In fact, one would get rather different answers, if asked, for all these above statements - like - "So Whats your problem?".

There must not have been a century, a decade, a period or a duration where the philosophers were not dominant. Starting from the "Before Christ" period to today.In fact , all of us are philosophers - because we think but the world calls only some as "Philosophers" because their only work was to think. Their day-job was just to think. They have been as advisors, teachers, writers, creators.They were always able to influence the society and its people with their thoughts.Sometimes they were praised and sometimes they were cursed.Reading about the philosophers tells me about the society they lived in and their significance to the people around. No Philosopher would have existed without willing to express his/her ideas. Most of them were skilled enough to write well and evolved as good writers and that tells me a "truth" that It is impossible for one to keep quiet if one knows a truth and thats the power of "truth" and thats why, it is said as "Truth only Triumphs" .

While reading about the Philosophy and Philosophers - More than their life and their thoughts,What surprised me was that, 'Philosophy' in itself has got various branches in it - like Metaphysics (study of the nature of being and the world) , Ethics(questions of how persons ought to act) , Logic (Logic is the study of valid argument forms) and so many others. The works of the Philosophers are always considered prestigious and worthy - because ,We,the people, are always in search of the truth.

I have asked myself - several times - Why I am after or Why am I so curious to know what is the ultimate truth ? - like "God is Love" - "Doubt is the origin of wisdom" - "A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants" [Lao Tzu ] - To me , Most of them seemed to be true and Whenever i know something that is true - It puts a smile on my face and also in my heart - I have seen my energy-levels rise and thats why, I think, Philosophers would have loved to be in search of Truth. In my opinion, All the Philosophers would have wanted to summarize their wisdom in just one sentence - the truths of all truths - and that must have been their ultimate goal of their life. I haven't known anyone who was able to do so, may be there is nothing as Ultimate Truth.

The significance of a work is measured in two ways - 1) in Contemporary money 2) number of lives it touches.The work of the philosophers are always measured in the second way for - even after more than 2000 years , Socrates, who said , "As for me, all I know is that I know nothing", is still touching my life and so are Harper lee, Ayn Rand, Gandhi, R W Emerson, Rene Descartes, Confucius, Mark Twain and ...

One truth, I found on the way is , that "Wisdom is the number of truths one knows" and the search continues.

Serenity & Harmony.

Why is Art respected so much?

For the last few days I have been thinking should i continue writing or should i stop and delete this domain and concentrate on the things that are meaningful - but i am not sure what is meaningful and what is worth doing?! because the so called Creations like Movies, Books, Arts, Inventions are meaningful and inspiring only to a few percentage of the people and the rest of the world believes in daily chores.In the past, and even at times, I have thought that being a Mechanic or a Carpenter will be more satisfying than being a writer - for - Sometimes, I think the creations are truthful or useful only to a few particular moments, even those moments, cannot be guaranteed, but on the other side , the daily chores or the real jobs are always satisfying.Even the Carpentering, may sometimes use a bit of creativity and thinking at times, it is the real job.It is always useful to someone, for sure.Sometimes, I think why the 'Art' is/was respected so much than these other, commonly identified as "less significant things" - Is it because of the demand? Or is it because of the Passion within us ? or is it just a Hype? Or is it because that Human Brain cannot use one side of the Brain continuously for a long time?

I remember What George Bernard shaw said , "The reasonable men adapts to the world, The unreasonable men does not, and try to change the world, and so all the improvements are because of the unreasonable men." Invariably, All great men talked about "Creations" and because of which there is a progress.So, What is a Creation?- Its a new thought. either in the right or in the left brain. Every new thought becomes either as an art or as a science.

It is these two words that rule the world. Art and Science. It is stupid to compare these two, But I have always thought that Art is respected more than the science because of the number of contributors to Art. Leonardo DaVinci and Rene Descartes are the only men who had contributed equally to the world of Art and Science. true renaissance - isn't it?

If you asked, why did I start writing again? - I am convinced in the concept of energy-levels and contribution - more on these later.

Serenity & Harmony.

Serene flowers - Imaginations

A friend of mine who had recently come from a famous tourist place called me and said," Its such a wonderful place and you missed it".I replied,"I didn't miss it, I saw the same place from here as beautiful as you could see - in my imagination".We had a very long discussion convincing each other, at the end I was able to convince my friend.I said, " Imagination is more powerful than reality, in fact only a very little percentage of the imaginations are seen in the reality.

Every creation - book, movie,product,invention and every action starts with a thought.It is in the imagination that every creation is conceived and nurtured.If it was true that Reality is better than Imagination, How Helen Keller was able to enjoy and create the best creations of the world.She was able to imagine everything in a better way than it was in real.

It is your dreams that make you up.Dreams are your visuals in your imagination.Everything is built in the thoughts, in a perfect architected way.People love to dream and love to get lost in thoughts because it makes them more happier than the reality. I remember, one of my friends asked me once, "Does it count if you are happy in your dreams?". I think , it does.The dreams that make you happy, give you the 'energy', the positive force that is required to act and to live.

Sometimes, the reality can make you work within the boundaries, to think within the boundaries. In the corporate world, they say , "think out of the box", which actually means to deviate from the conventional thinking - to think by not considering the real world or what is already existing - to not to be constrained by the regular thinking habits.For example, if you are reading a book or watching a movie or trying to learn a new subject or concept in physics or in maths, your thinking might be aligned to a particular direction, you may not be able to think freely in all directions - in a circular way.

It is your own thinking that makes you wise not the reading or just consuming that was let out to consume - like reading a book, learning a subject, listening to a tape. One has to first generate thoughts before creating something new.The simple example would be, suppose you want to be artist - Instead of thinking of joining a drawing class or an art class, try thinking about what makes an artist an artist? what does an artist really do? Is it just drawing pictures? when one has thought about the various dimensions of it, then he or she can opt for a tutor to enhance his or her skills because it is in your imagination, you first become what you wanted to be, than in reality.The other way of saying this is, "suppose if you want to be a writer, then don't go out and get books of various writers or authors and start reading and analyzing - how they write? How all a book or an article can be written? - instead, think about writing and think you are a writer, when you think about being a writer - you get topics or titles about which you can write, How different you can write the same thing? - what all is possible in writing? - when you think you have thought about all the dimensions, then you can go out and get the books, analyze the authors and do all such exercises.you would be surprised to see that the result of all such analysis and exercises would definitely be the subset of what you have thought about in the beginning.This does not applicable only to writing. This is perfectly applicable to anything you really want to do.

If possible, I'd love to be lost in thoughts, always and forever.To think about the existing things as "Why?" and to think about the non-existing things as "Why not?". Serene flowers are your thoughts and imaginations that make your life beautiful and lovely.

This post is dedicated to Leonardo Da Vinci who showed the world, that a human can think about anything and to change and to create.

Serenity & Harmony.

The DNA of Humans

I always love to go beach alone. As always, there are no specific reasons, I just like it. Often , When i am alone looking at the waves of the sea and the shining stars on the sky, I get thoughts like who we are? What are we doing here? How tiny are we in this indefinite space and infinite time? these thoughts make me feel that everything else we experience in our life are immaterial. My bank balance, my social reputation, my capability to make friends, my learning curiosity , my urge to succeed, my ability to achieve my dreams , my life - everything looks very trivial, as just a piece of dust , as long as these thoughts captivate my consciousness. This hasn't been just for the recent years - These have been in my thoughts from my childhood.

I often questioned who we are? as Humans. The most convincing answer has been - Humans are selfish social animals.Selfish - because, There is a selfish motive of being happy even in sacrifices.We are selfish because, only, very rarely we are truthful to our moments with others - the spoken word, the given smile , the pleasant sight and shown care and so on.

We are crazy for fame, money, social status , pleasure, power, respect and love. I have never understood why we want to be famous and to be adored by others!!!. even when i am writing this, i wish that i will be famous for writing like this - as a writer. I don't understand why?!(this has to be an inverse exclamatory mark).The entire human race compete against each other for the above mentioned things until they feel that they are in their death bed, and wanting to die.Competition exists because of Comparisons - Often in a day , I end up comparing myself with my friends, colleagues, actors, scientists, kings,CEO's - truly speaking who ever i feel superior to me. We compete because if we win, we will be admired and adored by the people around and by the generations to come, but Why?

To me , This new year started with a hope that my comparisons would reduce and craziness would diminish and my actions would increase.

I wish I only have sentences in my mind , where i am part of only the verb and never a part of noun.

Serenity and Harmony.

The Beach

“You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific? They say it has no memory. That’s where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory. Open up a little hotel right on the beach. Buy some worthless old boat and fix it up new. Take my guests out charter fishing.“ – Andy says this to Red ,in the movie Shawshank Redemption, few hours before he escapes from the Shawshank Prison , after spending about 2 decades in the prison for a crime that he did not do.

“It has no memory”, thats the strongest word one could use about the sea and the beach.The beach I usually go, has got benches to sit, for the beach walkers.Every night, after work, I used to sit on one of those benches and look at the sea as I would look at the eyes of my beloved people to hear the words the sea would say.It never said anything.Never.It kept quiet all the time as if ‘Silence’ is the best conversation between two people.

It has been there for a long time, Nobody knows since when?!. How many people it would have seen? How many steps would have been walked on its shore? How many words it would have heard? How many promised and broken loves? How many ‘loud cry’ of the hearts? How many stimulating thoughts, inventions,dreams,hopes – It would have offered?,Still, It keeps quiet, as if being silent is being powerful.May be all the great people learned to be silent after learning it from the sea.

I never thought: ‘Sea’ is neither a non-living thing nor it has no Life – for the sound it makes through its waves, for the stories it hears,for the comfort it provides to the broken hearts, It is alive all the time, forever.Every time I see it , It makes me understand the eternity of the Universe and the fragility of the Humans and their life.It makes us realize our self-consciousness as if it is a mirror of one’s own conscience.It is also one of the stimulants of beautiful and powerful thoughts apart from loneliness and darkness, sometimes along with loneliness and darkness.

At nights, When the moon is brighter, It casts silver lines of enduring happiness on its surface.It makes me feel ‘Sea’ as a smiling friend.I used to wonder why do people love to spend time in the beach, even if many people go together , they don’t talk much , because, sometimes, All one wants to hear is ‘Silence’ and to talk through one’s own heart and that silence makes us feel that the entire universe belongs to us – including the sea and its elements.

In the morning,The vibrant white waves gives hope,energy and the determination to ‘go on’ in life.Sometimes, It is a compassionate mother who forgives one’s mistakes and makes one a new born baby , Sometimes a shelter , Sometimes a playground , Sometimes a home , and at times , It is – heaven.

Each of us is like a tiny dust in front of a huge mountain to it.Still,It accepts , loves, and allows us to play with , to befriend , and even, to curse it.Thats the greatness of it.Truth be told, Spending time in the beach, looking at the sea, are my passionate living moments.

One of my dreams is to travel in a ship through Atlantic Ocean, as how Jack Dawson was able to in ‘Titanic’ , and while traveling I will remember all my happy moments , including this moment of sharing this with you, and to cherish them along with the Ocean for – “It has no memory”.

Its Monday again…

Irrespective of where you come from , No matter whether you are working in a Govt entity or in a private Organization , Regardless of the Industry and the position at which you work, you may have a uncomfortable & fearful feeling about Monday. If you nodded your head as ‘yes’ or if you silently grunted as ‘hmmm’ you belong to a broader community of this world – who also have this kind of phobia.

I never liked monday since my sixth class, I hated it for two reasons one is that I will not have holidays for 5 consecutive days and the other is that there was nothing interesting in school.Every sunday evening I have felt as if the entire happy universe is coming to an end. Sunday evening sunset meant so many things to me. Unfinished homework , haunting lectures , tiresome journey for the next week. This fear factor continued in college and also in the profession till day and will continue for the rest of life unless and until…

The fear sets in, in my opinion, because one cannot be free as long as he / she has to report to someone. Like if you don’t like working on a day because the climate is too good and you would love to spend it reading Jane Austen’s novels or watching Steven Spielberg’s movies or listening to Rahman’s music, you may not be able to!!! as you may have to report to your superior at your workplace. More simply , you cannot be yourself , at all times. You will have to adjust to the environment, especially at work.

Those who do not want to report to someone , become individual creators and work for their customers. They don’t have to report to anyone , everything is in their hand: every decision , every penny.

I have imagined at times – What would the world be!!! – if it is filled with individual creators and only with Individual creators – with No corporates , no big organizations – except for the government entities. In real time , it may not be possible as perception in minds differ.Some may want to work in a big company because the perks are high and the reputation is good and some may not realize that they are potential creators and some may think that its not worth living life this way but the ratio of individuals creators with the rest is exponentially increasing nowadays. There are freelancers in every industry and in every geographical region.

Some succeed at it with passion and intelligence and they start companies to manage and to satisfy their customer’s needs and they inspire others to join their company.

If you have read it completely from the beginning – It might seem that it is a cycle.a circle.It comes back where it started.

My wish is that someday i would not report to anyone and would not want anyone to report to me. What would I become then?!

Your Heart knows it!!!

‘Thinking’ is what we talk to ourselves. Only exceptionally, few people talk more to the other people than to themselves. I am not an exception. I used to think about ‘thinking’. Thinking happens with no compulsions , with no expectations , and for no benefits.The thoughts just flow like a running water in a stream , sometimes they take bends , they go ups and downs and they are not always very sure of their destination or their path.

I like people who think. Well, All of us think , but few people can think at different wavelengths and in different dimensions and sometimes , completely , in unusual and interesting ways. ‘The Purpose of education is to make men think‘. I think my schools helped me to do that. I learned 3 things in School. 2 languages and how to think. Whenever i think of something , I have always wondered about the inner voice that responds to me. It just did now by asking ,”Why do you want to write this?”. The inner voice is very strange with no decibels. It questions , It argues , It supports , It contradicts , most importantly, It responds to our thoughts.

To me, Nights are always very different from the days. At nights, I and my conscience or inner voice become very close and have very interesting conversations together , until I ask my conscience to let me go sleep.You would be surprised to hear this, Even i was , at first. But this is a fact. The nights and days are completely different. We think of an idea/thought/solution and materialize it by thinking about it over and over and sleep only if it has come to a proper shape and only if it has passed all its evolutionary phases – The moment we think that we should implement this idea or do something about it and wake up in the morning – we will feel something obnoxious that stops our movements and leave us paralyzed , at least for that moment, but most of the times, It is forever.

So, Did i indirectly say that our Conscience behaves differently at night and during day time? Except for the sun and the fellow people around ,who are awake now, there is no difference between day and night.Conscience thinks of us , as standing in front of the world during daytime and at night , as the masters of the Universe – Which is perfectly alright and practical.

You know what?, there were few nights , When I and my conscience spoke until dawn and by the time we said ‘Bye’ , I was a CEO of a great company.Oh yeah, forgot to mention, Before i started writing here , we spoke for a long time and I told it that this will be 1 among the 10 most read websites soon. The next morning, I was the only one reading this website.

At nights, It opens up a path , a success path , full of flowers and good people around – It takes us to a place , where we can only reach if we do everything perfect always. On days , It opens up all the mysteries,real world problems , practicality and shows us the hardest path to the destination.

Whatever it is , It will help us to defend our position and march ahead to our destination.Your conscience is your best friend. We call it as ‘Heart’ and our heart knows everything. It guides you all through your life and it says whether doing a thing is Good or not , Will it be successful or not ? What could be the potential problems and so on and so forth.It never misses a chance, It pops up at every moment , Where you badly needs it’s help.Most of the times, We just ignore it as we would hit away a disturbing insect by any of our fingers.

‘Alchemist’ is a book by the Brazilian author ‘Paulo Coelho’ , Its about following your heart.The book is about a Shepherd boy, Santiago, who follows his heart to pursue his dream.

The one who listens to the inner voice consciously and with sincerity will always be right and will win this world.

What does your heart say?

The toilet brush

Do you think you will close your eyes and think about what would have been written here on this title? If so , I cannot stop you. You could be a good friend of mine and could read my mind even just with a title.

Toilets are the most used and most hated place on the earth or, at least at homes. I have seen people who had neither a own home nor a rented home and owning a toilet could have been a big thing in their life.Some of us like to keep things clean and rest of us hate to keep things clean and organized and argue – Is home a museum to keep it clean and tidy and to keep things at places from wherever they were taken ? Individuality differs……..oh crap !- thats why its individuality.

I belong to the first group of people who likes to keep things clean and organized. If i don’t have anything to do, I will pick this task of Cleaning and Organizing things.

I love my toilet and the toilet brush. To clean toilets is the task that most of us would have done at some stage of our life.You can easily relate to what i say in the coming lines. When we are about to clean the toilet , We approach to the brush with hesitation and regret in mind and with a question – Why in the Hell , I have to do this ? Can’t they invent something which is automatic and self-reliable. It will be like a conversation between 2 people where one of them is personally discriminated and avoided even if there are no chances.

The moment we touch it, the first ‘Hi’ begins with the brush. We don’t straight away use it for cleaning. We clean it first making more conversations with it. When it is being cleaned , the hesitation of keeping it in our hands will fade as time goes by. When we had cleaned it completely, We would respect it as if it was one of our own hands. We then use it for cleaning the toilet, now the toilet is in a condition where the brush was before. a personally discriminated place or a thing. with the cleaned brush , the conversation with the toilet would begin and in sometime, the toilet will be clean. It would appear and we would feel that it was one of our own bed rooms.C’mon , I did not say , We can sleep in toilets. The brush will be cleaned again and will be kept in its place……..The brush would be one of those things that we would love to touch until it becomes a personally discriminated thing after a week or two. This is a cycle and so it repeats.

I thought why can’t I clean my toilet with the brush every time I use it. It would just take 3-4 extra minutes but It will stop all the hesitation and regret I will have when i clean it once in a week or two and at the same time, I know , It will also make me happy. Oh yeah – Here is a off-the-topic true fact, If you ever feel depressed , just take an object or a thing which is dirty or UnOrganized and clean it or make it Organized. You will feel better. You might have read my other post ‘Its monday again’ , You know what i do on sunday evenings – my most depressed moments – I spend time in Organizing my things and that makes me better and I will feel, am not a kid anymore to worry about sunday evenings.

When you know that doing a thing makes you happy – Will you not do it? Most of us would do.

Except for few noble people , our minds and hearts are like toilets and toilet brushes. We discriminate them for sometime until we clean them again from their dirty emotions , It does not keep us either happy or normal , It keeps us only sad or depressed. There are many emotions which are dirty and which spoils the serenity of our hearts and divinity of our souls – Hatred, jealousy,ego, Selfishness and so on. We just have to clean them , more frequently , or more appropriately , as and when these emotions occupy our mind or heart.

The most important objective of my life is to to live with none of these dirty emotions.

I dedicate this post to my toilet brush.

The Wavelength

Late at night , In the month of December 2005 , When the weather was icy chill cold and when it was drizzling after heavy rain as if it was going to stop , I and 4 of my friends were talking about the ‘Wavelength’. There was no power at home , the darkness and the climate was a perfect combination and allowed us to talk some unusual things like the one , I mentioned earlier – ‘the wavelength’.The topic suddenly came when one of my friends started talking about interpersonal communication and friendship. We talked about factors which would bind people together in a relationship – friendship , love or marriage. In the natural conversation , amongst the arguments , One of my friends said,’Its all the wavelength that decides’. You wouldn’t be surprised if I were to tell you that we spoke about wavelength rest of the night , until we slept thinking about it over and again and fell asleep.

He said , “Every man exhibits or emits invisible waves which either repel or attract with other such invisible waves from the fellow humans”.He asked us, ” Have you ever realized or asked Why you like a person and Why you don’t like few people at first sight ? Why you think you will end up in friendship when you see few people and Why you want to avoid a few ? Why you suddenly turn back or look around as if someone had hit you on your back or pinched you on your hand ? – to see someone or to find someone you know with whom you can easily put up a conversation or happily smile along with or to pass on some sincere ‘hi’ through eyes ?”. He then explained,”Its not you but your waves , your own waves that makes you do all such things”. Even when he was saying and even after he said , there was a silence , we all submitted ourselves to his words , his waves attracted the waves we emitted.

He was right. It was true that i wanted to establish friendship with few and I intentionally avoided a few and It will go on for the rest of my life. May be thats why the philosophers had said ,” Tell me who your friend is , i tell you who you are”.

So what is “Wavelength”? Simply the wavelength of the waves we emit or in common terms , the unique term that we use to describe what kind of a person some one is!. People with somewhat similar wavelengths have similar interests so they get so many things in common to talk about or argue about or even laugh about.

Some of us emit waves of bigger wavelength , i know of a person , whom i very much respect and love , had such a great wavelength. No wonder I realized his presence even when i was 100 feet away from him. People with such a great wavelength attracts most of them around them.Every one around them will look up to him / her as sunflowers look up to the sun – to have a glimpse of the person’s eyes, to have a conversation , to share thoughts , to discuss ideas and so on. and yes , There is a serene happiness and pleasure in meeting people with similar wavelength. If you don’t believe any of this – watch for it consciously in your daily walks of life or watch ‘George Bailey’ in ‘Its a Wonderful life’.

You know what ? I have this feeling that every person’s dreams are also emitted as invisible waves and they converse with the entire universe , When the wish or dream is truly felt , the entire universe conspires to make it true. hmm… Do not let go off your wishes and dreams.

Oh yeah , forgot to tell you , there is no correct or wrong wavelength , Its just the uniqueness of it that makes it special. I did not contradict when i said uniqueness of the wavelength – every one’s wavelength is unique – they make friends with similar wavelengths and always, there will be difference in wavelengths between any two individuals.

Whats your Philosophy?

Whoever knows me would not complain or yell ,If i say “Oh I forgot” or “I don’t remember” for their questions, because, I forget things very easily.And, Every time , I say these sentences , I am proud of it. I don’t know why. I still consider forgetting things is a boon in Life.At only a very few times, Its a curse – for Instance , If you forget your favorite character in a movie or in a book.Even then, It doesn’t hurt , as long as you have access to Google.

I cannot justify , Why i had written such a stupid and contradicting opening paragraph for this title?! hmmm .. May be there is a justification. I don’t exactly remember When i first started thinking about philosophies and about Philosophers. I have a very vague memory of well-built , bearded , differently-dressed , saint-like people Who were shown in textbooks as Philosophers , especially Greek Philosophers and were described as “Greatest minds”. Socrates , Plato , Aristotle - The three famous Philosophers, of that age and generation, Whose works are still respected and read all over the world.

“Philosophy” did not seem to be just a logic to me at first. But When days went , I realized it as just a rational thinking which holds true always, and forever. For example: If you are convinced , ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’ – is a philosophy , One can go on quoting so many examples like these : ‘A face is the index of the mind‘ , ‘Tell me who your friend is , I tell you who you are‘ , ‘The greatest thing is to love and to be loved‘ and so on.

Philosophy is the crisp form of saying a truth. You could call it as a ‘quote’ or an ‘adage’ or a ‘proverb’ or even a ’sentence’ but i love to call it as a Philosophy – If it is a rational truth.

Ever since I liked Philosophy, Ever since I liked rational minds and their processing power, Ever since I liked to think about the ultimate truth , I wanted to have a philosophy with which i can guide my life simply. Since then, I have always had philosophies in my life.

Until few years ago , My Philosophy was ‘If you do not compare or compete with others everyone will respect you‘ ,this was by a philosopher called ‘Lao tzu’, When i first read it, It was eternal and enlightening, I felt like as if I have found my perfect Philosophy. I liked many of his philosophies especially his philosophies on “Leadership”. But No Philosophy lasts long because sometimes your guiding philosophy will not help you or It might not suit well for few occasions and in certain contexts. This philosophy did not last long.

When i saw Shawshank Redemption, I liked the sentence Andy Dufresne wrote to his friend Red and it became my philosophy – ‘Hope is a Good thing and no good thing ever dies’. You would not believe the power in these words. You can only realize it.

At times, I tried to find my own – ‘ To live with no fear in doing things that one likes and if it hurts none‘ , ‘To influence others life positively ‘ and so on.

But you know what , As someone has already said, “change is the only constant thing in the world“. The Philosophies or the guiding philosophies keep changing.If you have already found one which you don’t have to change , Please share , I would like to think about it.

By the way , I did not mention – my philosophy now is ‘move on‘ – I wanted to make this as a tagline for one of my upcoming brands and so I searched in web to see if it is already being used , I found that this is the tagline of the famous Watch and Glasses company ‘fasttrack’.

So Whats your philosophy?

The Purpose of Life

This has been the most thought question in everyone’s Life. The Objective and the purpose of Life. I thought about it when i was five. I was scared that i would die in some years. I was scared that i will have no one to talk to , I will have nothing to smile about , I will have nothing to dream about. I was more scared about to be hanging in space like other objects in the space. The earth , mars , sun , moon etc. I decided not be as a normal person. I did not want to die just as a son of my parents. I wanted to be different ever since i thought about it and I am trying at it every second of my Life.

The more I think about the purpose of Life , I get no convincing answers. The science and spiritual explanations from different philosophers seemed convincing but not for a long time. Actually there is no purpose of Life. It was tough to live without a purpose and without a convincing answer for this question. Is it to witness Love ? Is it to earn money ? Is it to be famous ? Is it to be respected as a good man ? – No.I do not know.

At last, The Only purpose that i was convinced was – to achieve a state at which one does not have fear to do the things one wants to.Be it singing in the street louder or to make a talk to a stranger.To evolve as a better human being day by day in all aspects. To influence others’ Life positively.To make a mark in other people’s Life – not for the recognition but for one’s own satisfaction. To work for one’s own dreams.

The Presence of mind @ Work

The Objective of this writing is, certainly , not to impress anyone. When you get a thought hundreds of times a day , and if you are convinced that this is worth sharing, you just can’t get away with it. The outcome is – this writing. The Objective of this writing will be obvious when you finish reading the entire content.

If I asked you what is the most amazing thing to you – I would get different answers as each of us is unique and our individuality differs. There is one thing that most of us would not deny as the most amazing thing – The power of the Human Brain and the Intelligence of a person.

Philosophically , Intelligence is the presence of mind with the appropriate information and How it helps to solve the problems / issues / open up a mystery. To imagine , We can think of these three entities as concentric circles of varying radius at various times : Information , Presence of Mind, Intelligence. The Presence of Mind makes one smarter.And the truth is – Everyone likes Smart People.

Mohammed Siddiq had a note in his desk, “ If I have 20 hours to cut a tree , I would spend 16 hrs sharpening my axe” – These are very famous words. It’s been a long time since we sharpened our brain. It was those times at college , when we prepared for our aptitude and quantitative skills. Some of us would have had the opportunity to attend some thinking activities and to participate in some thinking exercises : Lateral thinking , Problem solving , Puzzle solving and logical debates and so on. We would have appreciated ourselves when we were able to solve some of the problems and we enjoyed working in a team when we contributed to the solutions. It’s an enlightening fact that we enjoyed those times. It’s a been a long time though !!!.

Hariharasudhan Ramanathan does solve Sudoku every morning – When I asked him – Why do you do that ? He said that it’s a good way to start a day. Any thinking exercises will help improve our presence of mind and intelligence. Which is very much required in Business and at work. Harishankar has got Good Presence of Mind – His influence has also made our friends to be conscious and sharp.

There were so many smart solutions because of presence of mind or intelligence : I was fascinated by two of them. First , Astronauts had a tough time to write something in space as the space lacked gravity. The pens that they took to the space did not write because the ink did not flow from top to bottom; there was no gravity. Some scientists spent a considerable amount of money and time to invent a pen which can be used in space for writing but the smart Russians did use pencil instead of Pen. The Presence of mind is staying at the problem always – In this case , the problem was not that the astronauts did not have a pen – The problem was that they wanted something to write in space. It’s not the pen but the writing .Second , Soap manufacturers had this problem – that in the delivery line there were some soap boxes which did not have soaps inside it. About 2-3 % of soap boxes that were delivered to the retail stores or to the Customers did not contain soap. It was a huge blow to the reputation of the Soap manufacturers. One firm spent time and money to invent a sensor which would send some detectible rays through the soap boxes that are on the delivery line and detect whether the soap was really inside or not and another smart firm kept a fan which blew air on soap boxes that were on the delivery line – The blew of air from the fan removed all the empty soap boxes from the delivery line. Smart- aren’t these solutions ?

I cannot end this thought without saying about Drupad Patel – He was my manager at Charlotte. He was sharp and intelligent. What impressed me was that He always asked right questions at the right time. If normally, a person takes n minutes to write an email , he would take n + x minutes to write an email which is copied / sent to Drupad. He would spend that extra x minutes especially to answer or to provide all the information that Drupad will ask in his reply email after few minutes the email has reached him. The same thing happens whenever he joins a Bridgeline. Simply put , Drupad demanded respect by his Presence of Mind.

Presence of Mind – or Asking right questions at right time is something that we can obtain by self-training and by observing and learning from people who have already attained it.

Nagendra Gudipati , my friend at Charlotte, used to burn lights at work. I asked him once – Why do you spend so much time being awake ?– He told me casually that he is training himself to stay long at work and somehow those words convinced me that it’s possible to train ourselves to do anything. As Adidas and Nike say : Impossible is Nothing and Just do It.

Of course, Its practically difficult not to have any assumptions at work but It is possible to assume only a very few things and only if it demands in cases where – Perhaps, Assumption is the only way to move forward or to step ahead. The more we assume the more we become blunt because we can assume almost the entire thing as perfect or as expected and that leaves no room for improvement or for Progress. The point is – If it is possible not to assume – and if we can get information / answers to our questions – Why do we have to?

Presence of mind is – Thinking about the Consequences / effects / action points when the other communicates – at the pace of the other involved in the Communication. Simply put, asking the right questions at right time. If we could demonstrate this at few instances – Everyone who works with us will be very conscious and cautious and they will spend more time in getting answers for the questions that we will ask – as Drupad and many others were able to.

What do you think – Should we do?

Organization(or Team) and its Success depends on the people it posses and how it nurtures them. To be competitive at work (to be a pyramid of proper shape) – apart from having commitment (to accomplish the task – synonymous to the base of the pyramid ) – One should also be equally competitive in the 4 walls of the pyramid too – Technology , Business , Communication and Intellectual ability – We have been forgetting the last, steadily, at a constant rate.

Together , If we could demonstrate these at work – We demand respect neither by asking nor by requesting but by the way the work is done. Whoever works with us will know that they have to be extra-conscious and cautious.

When Everything is said and done!! , What we would have achieved is – Excellence.

Create and Share

I have no idea why I am writing this. Perhaps, I am interested in writing or maybe I am interested in sharing.

As Ayn Rand in her novel The fountain head has said “man’s ego is the fountain head of human progress” – It is the ego / self-respect of a man that gives him “the identity” and that man will not only respect his own thoughts but also respect others’ thoughts for he understands what Original thoughts and Ideas mean to the other person even if there is a difference in opinion and /or a conflict in interest.

A Creator is genuinely proud of his creations even if no one recognizes him for this work , even if it does not get him any benefits. The pride would make him smile when he is alone , would make him satisfied because he did it in a way he wanted and did it with sincerity and purpose – The only purpose of making it.

A Creator – An Artist / A Writer / A Painter / A Director / .. is proud to write his name for whatever he did – be it a Play / a Book / a Painting / a Movie – that’s why we see phrases like “ Painted by” or “Art by” or “ A film by” or “Written by” – for that matter all “by” phrases – Even companies do so, for e.g.: “A GE Product” – because they created it. It’s very rare to see any creation which is not accompanied by its creator’s name – at least not so often in a man’s world.

Each of us is unique and special. We get so many ideas – some are even revolutionary. The ideas and the thoughts hang around our mind for some time. Even before we consider them as potential and beneficial ideas – we throw them out – throw them out of our mind and they are lost forever. They are lost because even if we deliberately try – Its often impossible to get them back.

Be proud of your thoughts and ideas because It is you Who have thought them and you were courageous to share it with the world. You were courageous because you were not afraid of “fear of failure” , You were courageous because you were not afraid that someone else will call it as a stupid idea or a non-sense solution or a crazy process.

Everything that we share is, definitely, not teaching but it’s just Sharing and there is a difference between Teaching and Sharing. There is no higher purpose than sharing – that’s why there are books , movies and all the Creations. The world is alive and active because of creations – which arise from thoughts that become actions , thoughts that awaken minds , thoughts that give freedom and serenity – and some even give Life.

Thoughts / Ideas that are only thought makes only you better. Ideas that are shared make tomorrows better. Ideas that are shared make the World better.

Create and Share. Efficient Processes , Better Solutions , Innovative Ideas.