Business to the Buddha

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Business and the Buddha – Does It Still Stand?

In 2010 when I started the blog Business to Buddha, my hypothesis was simple – there is a connection between business, economics, management and spirituality. At that time, I found it very logical. But today, I sometimes stop and ask myself – does it still stand true? Or was it only a nice thought to start a blog?

I go back to Buddha’s teaching of dependent co-arising – we grow when others grow. In business language, this looks like collaboration, co-innovation, ecosystem play. One company wins, but not at the cost of the other, rather both become stronger in the process. In my first blog, I had taken the example of BMW launching Z3 with James Bond movie. Or even in racing – Ferrari and Honda compete, but they push each other to make better cars. Competition, yet mutual growth.

That is why I felt Business to Buddha makes sense.

But where does it not work? The reality of quarterly numbers, investor pressure, market share fight – these are not spiritual conversations. Here sometimes compassion or equanimity takes a back seat. You can’t tell your board, “let’s wait for the muddy water to settle before we act.” In these moments, spirituality looks like a luxury.

Krishna’s Wisdom

This is where I feel balance is important. If you see Mahabharata – Krishna himself ran away from one war (Jarasandh and Kalayavan, if I recall right) but later encouraged Arjuna to stay and fight at Kurukshetra. Same Krishna, two different situations, two opposite responses. Business also needs that balance. Sometimes retreat, sometimes full action. The wisdom is to know when to do what.

Chanakya also wrote – artha (economics) and dharma (ethics) go hand in hand. If either is missing, the state collapses. Maybe that’s what we miss today – we run only for artha and leave dharma behind.

So does Business to Buddha still stand? I’d say yes, but not as a formula, more as a reminder. It is not that every board decision must sound like a sermon of Buddha. Rather, it is about remembering there is a middle path – between hard business realities and human values. Between quarterly pressure and long-term trust.

The Buddha said walk the middle path. Krishna showed both – running away once, fighting another time. Chanakya tied economics with ethics. Somewhere in between these, lies the balance for us – in boardrooms, in markets, and in our lives.

Maybe that’s why this blog continues. Not because I have answers, but because I still feel the question is valid – can we connect business with the Buddha? For me, yes – because life itself is this balance.

Image generated using AI model

August 16, 2025
Half knowledge

We learn things slowly. Slow learning is ok, however continuous learning is important otherwise the knowledge becomes half knowledge. The baby steps we take make us learn, yet at the same time, if we stick to the only what is written in the book without using our brain, we may get constricted and end up knowing only what we read – result – half knowledge. It is detrimental.

Source Flickr

Half knowledge is equivalent to goat eating a piece of paper that had information. Goat would digest the paper but not the knowledge on that paper. I will share some examples.

H for Hen ‘and much more’

My daughter – Adviti – is learning alphabets – both Hindi and English. She has difficulty in saying ‘R’ and few other Hindi alphabets so she mixes up few things. In alphabets, she says E for Hathi. Because she knows the photo and she knows the name of the animal in Hindi. She used to say H for Tap tap (for horse). She found pronouncing Horse difficult so she said tap tap because horse runs with that kind of sound. We found it funny, but we wanted to correct it. Now we teach her H for Hen. Once we were teaching her and for something I said Hand. She got confused H for Hand or H for Hen! This is a learning process, we slowly understand that H for Hen was just for us to learn the alphabet H. H has many more alphabets be it a noun or otherwise. Imagine Adviti restricting herself to H for Hen alone! She will miss a multitude of things in life (more than 33000 words starting with H included). Half knowledge can restrict one’s horizons.

Knowing book by page number is not knowledge

The second incident is about half-knowledge but knowing some stuff to the T. I loved Chemistry subject, in standard 12, and especially a textbook ‘Comprehensive Chemistry’ the most. My special liking was Organic chemistry. I read the book multiple times such that I remembered the page number, the image of the page, and the content of the pages. Even after a year, when someone asked me a question, I responded – open Comprehensive Chemistry, go to page 236, it is on the left side of the book, in the center, there is a picture just below the picture read 2nd para (say the last para) you will get the concept. The answer to your question is – “XYZ”. Do not search for the book and pages now – I am talking about 1998, many things might have changed by now in the textbook :).

Knowing such details of the book (One book precisely) did not make me an expert in Chemistry for sure. Because all that was mostly bookish knowledge with few experiments in Chemistry lab of School. At best, I had a photographic memory – not expertise in Chemistry, isn’t it? Even a Ph.D. may not say (s)he knows the fundamental subject line Chemistry / Physics completely.

Hathiphant

The other incident happened with my cousin brother and my eldest sister. They were talking about the education system of India. My cousin brother said there are downsides to teaching kids a medium (language) that is not the mother tongue. He recalled a neighbor who used to call an elephant – ‘Hathiphant’. This coined word is a mix of two words; Hathi a Hindi word for Elephant and part of Elephant – Phant. Merge these words and you will get Hathiphant. This confused toddler learned both words at home and in confusion made the Elephant a Hathiphant. Half knowledge can make one jumble multiple things and make a conclusion that may be incorrect.

This has happened to me too when I was a student. We learned something and later that something became another thing (Hathi to Elephant). Let me tell you how can q kid get confused. I learned – I live in Dhar (a small city in India). Later, I learned- I live in Madhya Pradesh, lastly, I learned- I live in India. How is that possible? A 6-year-old cannot understand why and how can one person be in three different places? Later it was clear what living in three docent paves meant?. In 3rd we had nine planets, later Pluto was removed from the list, funny isn’t it?

Half-knowledge

Well, no it is not funny. We keep on learning. If we stop learning and improving our knowledge becomes half knowledge. This half-knowledge is harmful. Our learning makes us understand that our knowledge is limited and we are consistently adding to our body of knowledge. Alas! Some people, knowing one book, feel as if they’ve known everything. Reciting few books by page number and chapter plus paragraph didn’t make us intelligent or omniscient.

I had a photographic memory of the Chemistry book, but I wasn’t fully aware of the field of Chemistry, isn’t it? Well, but why am I talking about it here? This applies to spirituality too, have you heard people reciting verses from books? Do they have the knowledge, mostly no? They at best have a photographic memory to vomit words from a reference book. Knowledge and experience on the spiritual path are pristine, once you hear those enlightened masters you quickly get connected. I have met a few of such masters in person, I have that first-hand experience of witnessing the presence.

Similarly, in businesses too, not all business grads become successful managers or entrepreneurs. Becoming a successful business person requires more than the degree, knowledge, isn’t it?

The point is, be it the path of spirituality or business, or a toddler learning language, we keep on learning and experiencing new things. Every experience is unique and thus, if we assume that photographic memory of any certain book is the knowing everything; it is – in effect – detrimental to not just one person but everyone around. On the path of spirituality and religion it a disaster for sure.

Every situation demands a unique set of tools. I think that is why Krishna was needed on Pandavas’s side during the Mahabharat war. Yudhisthir – and all Pandava brothers were – (was) predictable. They went by the book, defeating Pandava’s won’t have been tough for Kaurava’s because they knew Pandava’s would go by the books all the time, besides having a bigger army. That is where unpredictability and Krishna’s intelligence came in handy. Experience of bending the rules could play in the hands of those who understand the situation and learn from experience. Those who learn from and are ready to learn from the experiences do not have half the knowledge. Be ready for learning, implementing, experiencing, and continuing it lifelong.

Image source – Flickr

May 28, 2021
Politics, self-interest and the results

I started writing on self-interest. However, the larger scheme of things conspired to include politics in it. Most of the time, self-interests do less good than the general betterment of everyone. All of us apply self-interest in many ways. At times, the actor is unaware that his/her actions are driven by self-interest. However, most of the time actions are more motivated with the expected end result in mind – self-interest. Self-interest that is called profit maximizing approach in game theory. However, in game theory you’ve an opponent; here the case we’re going to discuss is related to self vs the larger public good.

Recently, a final closure of Brexit has happened, we have seen farmer protest in India and even the western countries are talking about it as if the law impacts their farmers.

Self-interest

The king was talking to his confidant. The confidant was none other than his younger brother. He told his brother – why are you just a spectator in the courtroom? We have studied together, you know the subjects, law, and Ethics as much or better than the other ministers. You must take part in day-to-day activities and decision making discussions.

The confidant was very insightful; he knew the functioning of the courtroom, decision makings of the kingdom, and a great deal about the ministers. A great observant, yet a humble right-hand man of the king. He responded – you are correct my brother, it is not that I have limited understanding. In the courtroom, many have their self-interest ahead of other things. Many times decisions are not made in the best interest of the kingdom but in the self-interest of the most powerful in that regard.

I will quote a recent example. It is regarding our dispute with the neighboring kingdom for the distribution of water of the common river. Our ministers proposed a solution either based on incomplete information, or the detailed information was not shared with the committee. The reason? Our minister wanted to influence the decision in support of the other kingdom, reasons may be best known to the minister. The whispers are that minister’s brother-in-law lives and own the land touching the river and could benefit most from our agreement. The minister is corrupt and it is not unknown in the whole ministry; am I right, brother?

The King knew all of this. He took a pause and responded. At times, you have to close an eye for the larger good of society. Let us assume we had not budged on the water agreement, it might have resulted in a war – however, limited it could be.

The confidant said – that does not absolve you of your duty as a king, you have the power to get rid of the minister! The minister, though was not as powerful as the king, knew the inner workings of the ministry so he could rebel. At last, the king was also working in the self-interest of staying in power.

Results

This is how even the less powerful control the kingdom. This is how democracy undermines good governance too. An example is recent farm law protest in India. Though personally I could not make my mind for or against it as such. At times this is how organizations are at the ransom of these less powerful yet resourceful people. At times these insiders can damage the organization more than the benefit they may offer. Greed and self-interest can make a kingdom or government or an organization average or at worst failed one. There are umpteen examples of this – the Kuru clan in Mahabharat, most likely Pakistan (or other examples of the Middle East of the early 2010s) in coming years or read the HBR article.

In essence, though I find it difficult to write – “politics is not bad”. I may not be particularly good at it. However, the self-interest that drives many actions and decisions end up making few organizations or kingdoms average or moderately successful if not a failure. And lastly, self-interest defeats the concept of interdependence – interdependent co-arising.

December 27, 2020
Peace second

When the need arose Krishna told Arjuna, pick up your arms, and fight. When there is a need, you have to do this duty without thinking about the results. Krishna said you have the right to perform your duty, also you do not have control over the results. Peace comes first when we are trying to reach a peaceful solution or consensus. If the peace fails, relegate peace to second. Perform your duty by taking arms. This is what happened in Mahabharata.

India and her culture and China from a religious perspective

For time immemorial, India has been a harbinger of peace. India’s message to the world has been of spirituality, science, and peace. Every single message from India has been for the progressive world as a one-world family “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam”. The examples are the first surgery or mathematical genius of Aryabhatta or the message of the Buddha. The best thing, Indian culture has never asked for recognition for any of the achievements. The world knows basic mathematics from the middle eastern name – Algebra. India developed the concepts of algebra, the message of meditation, astronomy, or peace all are open for adoption.

Hinduism has a lot of branches. Every branch is exploration of different aspects of spirituality. Hinduism accepts every approach. Buddhism lays immense importance to meditation as a religion. Meditation is yet another path (Dhyan yog) within Hinduism. A book – Vigyan Bhairava Tantra – contemplates more than 100 meditations. You can read/listen to Osho’s commentary on the same. A better suggestion is to experience the meditations described in the book. The art of living foundation has a special course on Vigyan Bhairav. Buddhism was spread to Egypt in the west and Japan in the east. The western side of India has curbed Buddhism by force – bursting of the Bamiyan Buddha statues is a contemporary example.

India has been a kind country for many centuries. She has to rise to the occasion and not only be a guide for a peaceful world order but also communicate clearly about its national interests too. There are multiple conflicts here such as Chinese and Pakistani occupation on its territories. Possibly, as stated, peace may have to be related to the second spot for that.

Buddhism in China

In the recent past, Tibet was forcefully taken over by China. There are close to 20% Buddhists in China. Buddhist and Communist approach of life is diagonally opposite. Buddhism has a concept of Sangha a community. However, it lays a lot more emphasis on an individual’s personal growth – because enlightenment is achieved by an individual. Whereas the communist approach is – an individual has no value as such. China has been trying to use Buddhism to influence South East Asia, in fact using Buddhism with forums. This is another meddling in the personal life and beliefs of individuals – a very common practice of China.

The way China crushed Tibet (watch 7 years in Tibet), it is going to pay back. China has crushed one such uprising at Tiananmen square. China has been able to control these descents to a great extent – Google and Zoom. It is no secret more you suppress something, more powerfully it will come back. Sooner or later, this is going to happen to China.

Chinese aggression

Recently China has tried to push Indian boundaries on North East Doklam in 2017 and Jammu and Kashmir in 2020. This attack comes with the audacity of pushing the world into a lockdown due to Covid-19 (actually the Chinese Virus). It is a natural response for a country that feels threatened by a potential competitor. Many companies are likely to shift from China to other countries – including India. The other reason for considering India a potential competitor because India is a major economy if everything falls in place, India can grow faster. Though there is at least 5 times gap between the GDP of both the countries, however if mass exodus happens it may adversely affect China in short span.

There are various internal and external factors affecting China. Some of the Internal factors are the aging population of China, shortcomings of the one-child policy. The external factors are abused rules of free trade, debt trap for smaller nations, etc. The world now sees a new way of colonialism from China. This has woken up the world. This aggression if taken forward, is likely to cost a lot not just to the two nations but also to the world at large.

The economy trap of China

If you look at the trade balance of major economies vis a vis China, you would see trade balance is 1:3. Almost every country has trade-deficit with China, in effect China sucks funds from every country! In many ways, China either flouts World Trade Organization (WTO) norms or takes unfair advantages of the same to trap countries. The worst form of trap is – debt trap – giving loans to countries at better rates (naturally these countries cannot service these debts) and later gain control over assets of these countries, Sri Lankan port is an example. Nepal will soon get into this trouble. China is trying to control the sea too. In the east, they are contesting with Phillipense.

In a nutshell, every country, business, and economy dependent on China has a problem with China and yet it is very difficult to look at short term alternatives. This is the kind of overconfidence that anyone should be cherry about. This overconfidence has to be and will be tamed sooner or later. Probably the fear of this taming is forcing China to take aggressive steps against India. Further, in the coming time, China will face the heat of Covid spread worldwide. The whole world has suffered. Recently Geeta Gopinath of IMF wrote, that the negative growth rate is expected to be worse than previously estimated. More likely, the countries worldwide must get compensation from China for this massive loss.

Peace second

There are multiple problems the whole world is facing currently. Starting from the Chinese Virus challenge, economic downturn, and major control of China over many smaller countries to Chinese aggression on Indian territory. The China-India standoff is probably a warning to companies considering moving from China to India, giving a signal that India is not safe. This exposes China to many of its internal problems, suppression of its citizen, forceful control on Tibet to name a few, and external right from the debt trap, surreptitiously controlling land to the aggressiveness across sea routes too.

At the time of Mahabharat the equation was more driven by the military power and the kingdoms aligned to a side. Now, more than military power, it is economic power that drives alignments and overall control on world affairs. In Mahabharat, Pandavas were forced to ask for their fair share of the land they had to fight for it. In the present day world when a country faces such an adversary that is powerful, manipulative, and extremely aggressive sooner or later it has to be relegated peace to the second spot.

July 12, 2020
Perceptions, perspectives and expectations

I was watching Mahabharat episodes. The epic is the best depiction of conflicts we keep on going through on a daily basis. The biggest conflict and learning is the shloka of Mahabharat that teaches the value of the action and no entitlement of the results. Dhritrashtra’s perception was he is the eldest so the throne belonged to him. Bhishma’s perspective was that he has to take care of the kingdom (even if the king is incorrect). Dronacharya’s expectation from teaching Kuru prince was to take revenge from Panchal king. Many in the epic knew that their opinions are based on ideology applied incorrectly in the given situation, yet they did not amend their ways. When the battle started everyone took side not based on what is right or lawful but which side my enemy is on. This is the result of these perceptions, perspectives, and expectations. The outcome was – people were fighting their own battles at the backdrop of Pandavas and Kauravas.

Perception

When I was thinking about aurora borealis (or polar lights), I thought that such a phenomenon or any other related ionization must be happening at different wavelengths that are beyond the human eye’s abilities to see. Our incapability to see does not mean some things do/did not happen. Sound below 20 Hz and above 20,000 Hz exist, we humans are unable to hear it. Our senses and perceptions create our realities. I wrote last week “our past experiences – Sanskara – condition us”. We need to go beyond the conditioning to change our perceptions.

https://business2buddha.com/2011/02/15/no-judgement-its-all-about-perception/

Perspective

In some of the satsangs of Art of living, I heard a few romantic Bollywood movie songs. Earlier when I had heard these songs I felt ok it is a romantic song sung by the lover for the loved one. However, when I heard the same song in a different setup it was as perfect in Bhakti too! These presentations of songs change my perspective, examples are in the below videos –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpUjoqmTEqM

The perceptions made these songs to be romantic songs however when I looked at these songs from a different perspective the meaning of the song itself changed.

Expectations

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।

मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भुर्मा ते संगोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥

You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities. Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, Verse 47. Effectively, we must do our actions as per need of the hour and do not be feverish about either the actions or the results.

Conclusion

https://business2buddha.com/2010/08/19/playing-golf-work-and-meditation/

In Mahabharat, each person was living his perceptions, defining his stand in his own’s perspective and having different expectations. These three things blinded people. Isn’t it true that we live in the cage of our perceptions, perspectives, and expectations? Meditation can help change in all these three.

April 12, 2020
Melting pot

I am sure when we read the title we all will speak about culture and nation. My take apparently is no different. India as a country, culture and in terms of way of life has been a melting pot of thoughts. If we look at Mahabharat time – there were many kingdom fighting from one side or the other in the war. The range goes from present day Afganistan to South East Asia and Kerala.

Afganistan reminds me of Bamiyan Buddha statues. The smaller statue was so big, check photo (sourced from Wikipedia), that a man standing at the foot measures only till the ankles. The statue reminds me of Gwalior fort Jain tirthankar’s statues. No wonder, when I saw them some had disfigured heads.

The Buddha was basically from Nepal. He came to India for his quest of spirituality. India at that time too, was a confluence of different ways of life. Buddha studied with same master’s who were worshipers of fire, some teachers were of Yoga and Indian philosophies. After learning so many things we was still not self realized. After six years of hardwork, following many different teachings – including fast he was emaciated and almost on the verge of death. That day he was enlightened. Lord Mahavir was his contemporary – he had a different teaching. Both the teachings blended in Indian culture.

Indian culture basically accepts many different approach of spirituality and religion. The best blend you can see is Bhagvad Geeta. It talks about Bhakti, Gyan, Dhyan and Karma yoga etc. Every chapter in the book is a type of Yoga – yoga means addition. What does a melting pot do – it mixes everything. Right? That is what Yoga is. I have written on Yoga earlier too – including a debate and court case in the US – whether Yoga is Secular or no!

The question on secularism moves me to another dimension of India. We are secular, and in last couple of years Indian intellectuals (apparently others are equally intellectuals but are considered lesser) have returned awards for lynching of a Muslim Indian citizen. It was a sad incident in the state of Uttar Pradesh during Akhilesh Yadav Government (Samajwadi Party, which apparently is more Muslim centric political party). Recently, another lynching happened – a police officer was killed – muslim Indian citizen – in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, this time state Government is a coalition with BJP (more Hindu tilting political party). Last time the intellectuals returned awards, this time no one came forward! This is all economics of power.

Economics reminds me of an interesting fact of Indian politics. The best economists – Mr Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram – came up with farm loan waiver in last decade. When a non economics expert can understand that it is not a solution why a renowned economist takes such a decision – a melting pot you see. The decision was a confluence of politics in economics.

All the above thoughts are in a melting pot here. My thoughts mostly are multi-directional – so this blog moves from socialism to capitalism and spirituality to business etc. The melting pot includes few dreams I have – one is here, add to it wish to help Sindhutai Sakpal‘s Orphanage, Art of Living foundation projects and rainwater harvesting in Malwa region of MP. I wrote to one District Magistrate, never received a response, not even from CM’s office – is this a participative government?

Melting pot was this week’s LBC topic where Maria, Rummuser, Ashok and Shackman write weekly. You can visit their blogs and read their thoughts on the topic.

June 25, 2017
Time

In the war of Mahabharata, there were days when one or the other side was looking at the sun to set as soon as possible. The rules of the war were set that war will happen between sunrise and sunset. When Arjuna took oath to kill Jayadrath before the next day’s sunset or immolate himself, Kaurava’s were waiting for day to end sooner.

On the other hand when Bhishma was the supreme commander of Kaurava’s army everyday was a mayhem for Pandava’s army. Bhisma killed thousands of soldiers and hundreds of chariot warriors everyday. Krishna’s frustration (though frustration cannot be the right word here) was at peak, when he felt that Arjuna isn’t fighting with Bhishma with all his capabilities and took weapons in his hands to kill Bhishma – Krishna had vowed not to fight from either side, but was a Charioteer for Arjuna.

At this Arjuna requests to Krishna not to break his vow, and he promises to fight with his full might to not just defeat Bhishma but also end the war today itself “only if the sun does not set (as fast for the day)!” Arjuna even if was a great student yet had missed occasionally – Krishna’s loudest message to him in the whole of Geeta was perform your duties, do not think of results. Arjuna kept on missing this during these 18 days. Once here and other time at Jayadrath’s killing, Arjuna wanted the sun to be bit slow – Time to stop. I wish he had remembered the beginning of the war when Krishna was teaching him the Geeta – time must have stopped at that time, how can time fly when the god himself is speaking about the truth. Perhaps time must have not even existed when the Bhagvad Geeta was narrated.

Time is a difficult concept to explain, oxford dictionaries define it as – “the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.” What is the start and end of time? There seems to be none. In Indian philosophy time is defined as Kala. Kala has a lot of small to large measurements, that is for some other day. However when I thought about Time as a topic for LBC I could think of two things – one commentator of was Old Hindi TV Serial Mahabharat, and other a consultant saying – time is the commodity I sell. It is the most precious commodity I have, I cannot get it back once it is gone.

The commodity is really very important and extremely perishable plus nontransferable, it cannot be restored once gone or consumed. The best thing is each one of us have the same amount of it – unlike any other commodity. What use we make of it is something to be decided by each one of us.

We all want the time to move slowly when we are happy and to just vanish when we are in trouble. However, we always feel that when we are elated time elapses fast and vice-versa. Isn’t it? The following I wrote long back when I was doing my engineering (about 2 decades back, 1998-99 – my god I am old!) Hindi and English translation side by side

स्वर्ग भी है यहाँ, नर्क भी है यहीं Heaven and Hell are ‘here and now’
तुमने जैसे जिया जो पल The way you pass each moment
तुम ही परिभाषित करोगे, कि तुम जो स्वर्ग याकि नर्क मे You define whether you are in Heaven or a Hell.

Ramana uncleji suggested this topic for the weekly LBC blog posts. You can see what the other writers perspective is on this topic at their respective blogs Maria, Ramana and Shackman uncleji.

Image source – http://sathyasaiwithstudents.blogspot.in/2013/06/bhakti-part-1-story-of-bhishma.html

April 24, 2017
Dalits in India, Dividing work, birth or none?

Perhaps in middle school (6th to 8th), we learnt a lesson on why crows are our best friends and what we can learn from them. They eat dead animals and therefore keep our surrounding clean. We need to learn from them that whenever they see something to eat they always invite their fellow crows and all of them eat it together – what camaraderie, isnt it? But alas! as we grow we forget these small things we learnt as kids.

Perhaps Krishna knew it all, he suggested Draupadi (Panchali) to reject Karna and thus Panchali said – Karna is a son of lower caste and I wont accept him as my husband. This – for my readers who have not heard of Mahabharat or know the context – was an India where girl (if not all, at least daughters of Kings), had the freedom to decide who she wants to marry. This was called Swayamvar – or a competition – where husband was selected by his capabilities by the girl. This kind of Swayamvars are recorded in history – be it Rama or Prithviraj Chauhan (12 century AD). Compare it with arrange marriage system of say two generations back when such decision was not that easy to offer to girl. This was an India where even if Krishna (God in human form as per Indian scriptures) was alive, abilities of Karna was proved secondary than caste (family’s profession).

We have heard many such incidents in Indian history when a untouchable became center of discussion – be it Shabari who fed Rama only sweet berries by tasting those first. Here untouchable was first tasting the fruit and than offering it to Rama. Or be it a story of Eklavya. He approached Dronacharya (Drona) who refused him, later asked him to chop off his thumb to offer it as fee of teaching. Or the story of Sunita during time of the Buddha.

I dislike the concept of caste system of India to the core. Slowly I moved away from the ritualistic religion to spiritual part of religion. I read parts of Bhagavad Geeta too. When I read Chapter 4 verse 13 of the Geeta I interpreted it in my own way, thank god at least Hinduism offers differing with the pandits; I can have my owns interpretation of the scriptures (ref recent controversy of Irrfan Khan).

(Sanskrit) चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः ।
तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्धयकर्तारमव्ययम्‌ ॥

(Transliteration) catur-varnyam maya srstam, guna-karma-vibhagasah
tasya kartaram api mam, viddhy akartaram avyayam

I infer this as follows – “I created four sub-division of society based on work and attribute. Even after doing this I am above and beyond this division.” Remember Krishna does not say that the division is based on birth, it is based on work and attribute of work.

Listen to other language translation here, I cannot say it this translation reflects my opinion.

In whatever ways Indian society has misinterpreted the concept completely. This whole caste system implementation has gone awry. I believe the concept could have been, teach kids and when they grow up their abilities will put them to different works and thus their work in society will be divided in four sub-divisions! Even if this sounds justification of the caste system, I still dislike the caste system. Everyone must have his/her fair opportunity to learn and try what and how one wants to work in the society. I hope the capitalistic economics and current open access to opportunities will offer an evolved society. Currently it is just a hope, as we read the news about atrocities against Dalits. It has been close to 70 years, but if we still see these news in media either there is something wrong with our society or media is giving coverage to it only now!

Just fresh graduate from college and I’d just joined my first job, where I was selected through campus interview. I resigned within few weeks stating I’d have done this work after my 10th, if I were to do it. My brother taught me at that time – “no work is bad, low or menial. Do not look at your resignation from your first job as an ego issue. Accept it ‘you would not have enjoyed doing it.‘ If you want to start a company, it is upto you, if you want to study further, be into R&D be it. Even if you are gardening, be the best of the gardener you could be. Do it to the best of your abilities, no work is low or menial and never forget this lesson.”

I could relate to his lesson in many sense, be it a crow’s nature to clean our surrounding inadvertently or our society having different people performing different acts, we have to balance and accept that everyone does what best he/she can do for the society. There may be instances when one’s abilities are not utilized (as was in my first job); at that time he/she has to decide to move on and do what makes more sense to him/her. In today’s world when a person makes competitive strategy – he/she is Kshtriya (warrior clan in Indian caste system). When the same person presents his concept or shares his knowledge he/she is Brahaman (Pundit, teacher clan in Indian caste system). As a startup CEO (Chief Everything from dusting room to meeting clients to executing tasks) when one cleans his desk, prepares tea, drives somewhere or designs product/service he/she is Shudra or Vaishya (lower caste or businessman clan in Indian caste system). In current social and economic setup we cannot rely on the definition of works of previous times. We need to either define things in newer manner or perhaps just get rid of the division itself.

There may have been roads paved with good intentions (by dividing work & caste system), but could not have lead to heaven at least. We started dividing society not on work but on birth. We decided one work is better than the other – but this is be good.

August 7, 2016
Shanti Mantra

I have always been very critical to Hinduism. When I was young, I used to feel – Ramayana and Mahabharata are well written novels. However, slowly my perception is changing. When I try to relate historical places (such as Panchavati, Nashik or Ujjain) and incidents around those places, you may call those incidents as stories, I think perhaps there is some veracity to these. The other thing I got to know about Sri Lanka tourism is places they show about the time of Ramayana Check Sri Lanka launches new product – Ramayana Trail – http://www.srilanka.travel/travel_news?news=267

Those all points apart, I have always been critical of Hinduism. However, recently, I was listening to some hymns in Sanskrit. The hymn sounds so different and interesting. I could only understand a part of it when I heard it for the first time. Naturally the hymn is in Sanskrit so it was not straightforward for me to understand. The part which I could make out was – “Vanaspateya shanti”. The hymn speaks about peace of biological life or plant beings. It had stanza for peace for everything.

http://youtu.be/TRCPldiXyDl

I started searching for this hymn.

I would relate this hymn to another Sanskrit shloka –
ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः ।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् ।
Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah |
Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet |

In the above shloka and Shanti mantra, the scholars are praying for peace for every living being. When we see the kind of violence around us – terrorism or wars – this kind of philosophy fascinates me. The religion evolved in India have the concept of inner search, peace and renunciation. This is something whole world needs to learn from Indian religion.

June 4, 2016
The virtue of Truthfulness

Rummuser, Ramana Rajagopaul, is my friend, mentor and uncleji. He recently felt that I should read a book and sent it to me. The book is titled – Yoga in day-to-day life. This book is published by Sri Ramkrishna Math. Still reading the book and thought to share a story of this book. Chapter 2 first para.

The young Kauravas and Pandavas were learning their first lessons. The Acharya pronounced the vedic text: Satyam vada, dharmam chara, (सत्यम वदा , धर्मं चरा) “Speak the truth, follow the path of righteousness”, and asked the pupils to repeat.Every one repeated. The teacher asked them to memorize the text. Next day, he asked what they had learnt from previous day. All pronounced: Satyam vada, dharmam chara, except Yudhishthira. Surprised, the acharya asked why could he, the eldest and the brightest among the one hundred and give pupils, not learn such a simple lesson? What Yudhishthira said in reply was an indication of his future greatness as the exemplar par-excellence of truth. He plainly confessed that he had not yet learnt to speak the truth. Others might have memorized the few words, but that certainly was not the purport of this short but profound precept: Satyam vada – speak the truth. Unless one speak the truth in day-to-day life, what use was it merely memorize a few words?

Do not we do this often in our life, present something heard somewhere as your opinion, thought or brain child. Perhaps this blog – where I am taking the story of Mahabharat (published in some book). Is it plagiarism? I think many things of Indian origin are beyond petty Intellectual Property Rights!

October 22, 2013

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