Business to the Buddha

Author: KRD Pravin

  • Mayhem, is that?







    Last month when I heard the word “mayhem” with respect to the share market, instead of checking the SENSEX I checked dictionary. Though I knew the meaning of Mayhem (thanks to my preparation for GRE, when I learnt a lot of English words). I am sure many would know the meaning of the word.

    I had always related the word Mayhem to violence. Is the share market drift up or down a mayhem? Is it not extending our imagination and making share market swings more important than the actual violence around us? For me Mayhem is what is happening in Syria. What has been happening in the name of religion, what is happening around man-made borders of the nations, man-made mental borders (barriers) around ‘my religion’ is better than yours and ‘my belief system’ is better than yours. Have you seen the photographs of Aylan Kurdi? A 3 year old kid who drowned. Those situations are mayhem and not the perceived value around stocks rising and dropping. These perceived values or more valuable to us than the actual values of human life!

    NYSE 10 yearsThose who can pour in their comments about ‘collateral damages’ or ‘life ends one day’ – The teachings of the Buddha about impermanence. Please understand two things – 1. This value of stocks you value and are defending right now, is also impermanent and 2. yes our life is limited (in human form), but it does not give anyone the freedom to kill someone else, which ISIS is doing selectively. All these are man made problems (stock value or terrorism), solution too has to be from us.

    “This too will pass” – No judgement its all about perception. Please apply this not just on the false causes you are fighting (for example ISIS or the terrorists) for or valuing (share market) too much. Some day or the other we will see correction in the values of stock (check image above, 2008-2010, it will keep on repeating at different levels). Are we sure we are going to see appreciation (correction) in the values of our Morales? Our defining one event as “Mayhem” and the other as a twitter trend and moving on? Are we really working towards solving such issues as Terrorism?

    would we please call a right thing “Mayhem” than a share market correction, which is driven by greed and blind following (technical analysis / algorithmic decisions) rather than fundamental position of economy.

  • Arrived… where?







    I checked the Whatsapp message, it was Jay Jiju (Jay Phadke my brother in law), my cousin sister’s husband. He had just sent a messagealien-house2 – “I was having lunch with Soham and we were discussing ‘what is home?’ ‘what is school?’ How do you define home/school etc”

    Soham is my nephew – 9 year old. Smart kid and at times grown-up to his age.

    Instantly I could relate his questions to the Book of Mirdad. The following are the lines from the same book

    ‘Happy are the staff-less,
    They stumble not.
    Happy are the homeless,
    They are at home.
    The stumblers only – like ourselves, Need walk with staff,
    The home-chained only, like ourselves,
    Must have a home.’

    Have you ever questioned yourself – what is home? My brother in law’s question of school some other time. Just concentrate on home. Home in day to day words is a place where we stay, live and dwell. We live even if  there is no place to live; we stay anywhere we go and dwelling is in a way dwelling similar to living or thinking about a point. So effectively what is a home? Is it a place where we get peace of mind, feel we have arrived or perhaps every end of day we run to reach there. But have we ever ‘arrived’? Have we ever really ‘stayed’ there? Home is at times a place where we spend some time.

    All these weird thought about arriving, staying et al remind me of The Buddha saying to Angulimala – “I have stopped long back, now it is your turn to stop”. Because even if we think that I have reached home, the exercise of going and than rushing back HOME never ends. Have we really arrived?

    Jay jiju send another message to me later. In this message he said – HOME, relates more to an experience/feeling. That feeling can be achieved at any other place. The point – it seems – is just ‘be’ – remain arrived.

     

  • Convenience or simplicity







    I had just landed from a developed nation back to India. The first experience at Mumbai airport was as usual – Humidity! I came out from the airport and boarded taxi to home. The driver – though driving taxi in Mumbai for about 2 decades – took a longer route. Exposed me to very shabby roads and potholes etc. I reached home to find out that there is some issue in water distribution pipeline of Municipal corporation. Corporation would not do any work until end of the rainy season! Just imagine – there is water all over on roads but not at home. All this made me almost utter to myself – “What the #@%^&*#” you know what I mean?

    Drop meeting OceanThough, this thick skin got in the groove of the problems quickly – actually there was no option :). I told my wife (her name is ‘Simple’) and in a way to myself too – “Simple, during summers, I – as a teenager – used to go about 1/2 KM or more to bring about 50 lts water on my bicycle about 4 times daily. We are far better off now, don’t worry this time will pass. Also, the quality of water we use to flush our toilets is far better than potable water at some places!” The real problem was storing water when our society ordered for tankers. We did not have more than 2 buckets – 15 lts each. When we shifted to this locality we were told there is water 24X7 here, so there was no need either.

    These things connected a number of dots in my mind. I did not write last week about it because of our Independence Day. At times I wonder – how long we (average citizen) will try to save these corrupt politicians in the name of patriotism. Just imagine countries of northern hemisphere have a lot of snowfall, but their roads don’t have potholes, their airport function. Wonder what happens when the temperature is in negative, how does water supply work in there during winters? In India that – too one of the most developed city – in Mumbai we observe – water on runway so flights are delayed, its raining so we wont fix pipeline!

    The other thought was – before my marriage I was more of a nomad total stuff I had with me were my 3 C’s (cloths, consumables and certificates) and 6 carton books. After marriage I started buying required things e.g. a bike, washing machine and fridge. Now, when we faced water shortage I realized this list will grow and the things we will own will include things we never imagined we will buy. One is here – water container. Now, next time if I get robbed – read what happened last year – and this water container is missing I know someone needs it more than I do and municipal corporation is responsible for this.

    These seemingly different points – comparison of India & other countries and my owning up things (at times having limited usage in my life) made me think about convenience and living life with simplicity. The water container was a requirement, which sooner or later may not be. I have learnt – from Mahavir and the Buddha – “no hoarding, no stealing etc. They taught that we have forgotten, we will leave everything here but still we want to own stuff.” Now, I am calling all those things written above as – “convenience”, “required to make life easier”. But how long we would keep on mending the definition of convenience?

    This blog relates to LBC (Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog topic but not exactly the same – simplicity. Other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok,  gaelikaa,  Lin,  Maxi, Padmum,  Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

  • Love







    Note – This blog was initially drafted on Oct 16th 2011 and was incomplete. The author thinks – however – that love is never incomplete.

    I have heard that “I” cease to exist in Meditation. I was thinking about it and heard a song on radio – Jane kyun log mohabbat kiya karte hai?… English translation of the title of the song is “I do not know why people fall in love?” ‘I don’t know’ is implied here. It’s a sad song from Bollywood Movie Mehboob ki mehndi staring Rajesh Khanna and Lina Chandavarkar as leads. I’ve heard this song umpteen number of times since childhood but I don’t remember watching this movie. No doubt Music by duo Laxmikant & Pyarelal is very good, lyrics from Anand Bakshi are to the point in many sense and Lata Mangeshkar cannot go wrong with single note ever. The song might fit in situations of many people’s life; therefore a very famous song of that time.

    These two things collided in mind – meditation & ceasing of ego, and love. The thoughts went in the direction love and analyzing the song. As a student of Hindi language I read different nature of love; but when I did image search on Google for LOVE, I saw either girl / boy or similar concept. Wonder what is the difference between lust and love in such search result. I searched on net for the Hindi lessons we learnt as student and found these 5 nature of love (read more here) –

    1. Santa-rati (reverence, neutral)Love Quotes
    2. Prita-rati (service)
    3. Preyo-rati (friendship)
    4. Vatsalya-rati (parental)
    5. Madhurya-rati (conjugal, sexual)

    What I learnt as student and what I get on Google made me think even further, for example check in the above quote image which I found randomly on Google Search. However good this quote sounds but there are points to ponder 1. we have “I” & 2. some result gets some importance! Love if it binds (forget blinds), makes one get attached to someone or something. This definition of love which binds or outcome becomes important is a problem. We have more ownership issues with love. Then whatever type of love – as mentioned above – that is a trouble. Love is an entanglement – a wonderful entanglement but an entanglement. Read more on entanglement here – Entanglement of an undergarment.

    I was thinking about the song (Jane kyun log mohabbat kiya karte hai?…) – and the way it represents the pain one goes through in love. At the same time, I was thinking about existence of ego – I.  I questioned myself – If the ego does not cease to exist in love, is it love? In a simple sentence “I love you”. I shows ego, you shows – you are separate from me. So, if both these words stay in the sentence is there any meaning of the word – LOVE?

    Than I remembered a quote from The book of Mirdad – (My blog on the same, The Book)

    ‘Less possessing – less possessed.
    More possessing – more possessed.
    More possessed – less accessed.
    Less possessed – more accessed.’

    Net net I thought – if love causes you to own someone / something, that is a problem and yes there is a relationship between Love and Mediation. Than I read this quote by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar “Love is not an emotion, it is your very existence.” If love is actually our existence, than I think “I” ceases to exist when someone is in true love, isn’t it?

    Image source – http://www.picturequotes.com/every-moment-spent-with-you-is-like-a-beautiful-dream-come-true-quote-16541

  • We are no different – Up or Down







    I am watching the highway from my hotel room at 6th floor, a bird flies just at the same level as I am currently. What an interesting sight that is – cars (and humans within) are down on road however fast they can drive and here up about 60 feet from the ground a bird is flying effortlessly. More interestingly I am able to witness all this in an AC room without any qualm of weather and being at a foreign country. The birds are not worried about the height they achieve while flying, unlike humans who care too much for the high’s their company share, fast pace of growth of their wealth et al. At times we humans do not even bother to play with numbers to show these growth figures which are fudged.Toshiba

    This weekend I read in the Economist that Japanese company Toshiba was involved with accounting fraud for last 7 years. In this duration there were 3 different CEOs, all let that happen. Where has it not happened – USA (Enron), India (Satyam) and Japan (Toshiba) sure there must be big/small cases everywhere in the world. I always had high regards for Japanese system and people – but Toshiba has let me down. The inference is same – many people are shortsighted. Here Keynes should not be blamed for making a comment – “in the long run we all are dead”, his context was different.

    The problem with corporate world is (specially with listed companies) the CXO and board is more interested in showing quarterly results over the long term. In fact, the plague of living quarter by quarter comes down to the sales associate level too. If they want their bonus or incentives they too hPoor on footpathave to jack up their sales numbers. How they do it, can be a different topic of debate.

    Such incidents let me ask the same question again and again – What more you need? When will we stop? Are the markets – that govern these listed companies – moral? And why do I think about these things?

    The last question to myself lets me relate us – Humans – to the character of Ice age – Scrat. Scrat is running behind its one corn seed and it is unending running for the same for last 4 series. We are the same – whether we become a CXO of Toshiba or just a daily wages worker on the streets of Mumbai – who has to think of this ability to feed his/her family tomorrow.

    My take is only one fold – Until we merge whole of human life (include business, economics, science, politics etc) to spirituality we would see the kind of frauds happening.

    This blog relates to LBC (Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog topic but not exactly the same – Up and Down. Though I was supposed to write on that topic last Friday but could do it today. Other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok,  gaelikaa,  Lin,  Maxi, Padmum,  Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

    Image source – Toshiba executive – AFP Link, Rediff Indian Poverty figures

  • Assumptions







    I’ve heard of a variation of the following story, I don’t want to come between you and the story. Read it, enjoy it and remember – try to avoid assumptions – as much as possible – in professional and personal life.

    Source – The prayer of the Frog I & II by Father .

    prayer of frog

    AWARENESS

    Many years ago, back in the Middle Ages, the Pope was urged by his advisors to banish the Jews from Rome. It was unseemly, they said that these people should be living unmolested in the very center of Catholicism. An edict of eviction was drawn up and promulgated much to the dismay of the Jews who knew that wherever else they went they could only expect worse treatment than was meted out to them in Rome. So they pleaded with the Pope to reconsider the edict. The Pope, a fair-minded man, offered them a sporting proposition: Let the Jews appoint someone to debate with him in pantomime. If their spokesman won the Jews might stay.

    The Jews met to consider this proposal. To turn it down was to be evicted from Rome. To accept it was to court certain defeat, for who could win a debate in which the Pope was both participant and judge? Still, there was nothing for it but to accept. Only, it was impossible to find someone to volunteer for the task of debating with the Pope. The burden of having the fate of the Jews on his shoulders was more than anyone man could bear.

    Now when the synagogue janitor heard what was going on he came before the Chief Rabbi and volunteered to represent his people in the debate. “The janitor?” said the other rabbis when they heard of this. “Impossible!”

    “Well,” said the chief Rabbi, “None of us is willing. It is either the janitor or no debate.” Thus for lack of anyone else the janitor was appointed to debate with the Pope.

    When the great day arrived, the Pope sat on a throne in St Peter’s square surrounded by his cardinals, facing a large crowd of bishops, priests and faithful. Presently the little Jewish delegation arrived in their black robes and flowing beards, with the janitor in their midst.

    The Pope turned to face the janitor and the debate began. The Pope solemnly raised one finger and traced it across the heavens. The janitor promptly pointed with emphasis towards the ground. The Pope seemed somewhat taken aback. Even more solemnly he raised one finger again and kept it firmly before the Janitor’s face. The janitor thereupon lifted three fingers and held them just as firmly before the Pope who seemed astonished by the gesture. Then the Pope thrust his hand into his robes and pulled out an apple. Whereupon the janitor thrust his hand into his paper bag and pulled out a flat piece of matzo. At this the Pope explained in a loud voice, “The Jewish representative has won the debate. The edict of eviction is hereby revoked.”

    The Jewish leaders promptly surrounded the janitor and led him away. The cardinals clustered around the Pope in astonishment. “What happened, your Holiness?” then asked. “It was impossible for us to follow the rapid thrust and parry of the debate.” The Pope wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “That man is a brilliant theologian, a master in debate. I began by sweeping my hand across the sky to indicate that the whole universe belongs to God. He thrust his finger downward to remind me that there is a place called Hell where the devil reigns supreme. I then raised one finger to signify that God is one. Imagine my shock when he raised three fingers to indicate that this one God manifests Himself equally in three persons, thereby subscribing to our own doctrine of the Trinity! Knowing that it was impossible to get the better of this theological genius I finally shifted the debate to another area. I pulled out an apple to indicate that according to some newfangled ideas the earth is round. He instantly produced a flat piece of unleavened bread to remind me that, according to the Bible, the earth is flat. So there was nothing to do but concede the victory to him.”

    By now the Jews had arrived at their synagogue. “What happened they asked the janitor in bewilderment. The janitor was indignant. “It was all a lot of rubbish,” he said. “Look. First the Pope moves his hand like he is telling all the Jews to get out of Rome. So I pointed downwards to make it clear to him that we were not going to budge. So he points a finger to me threateningly as if to say. Don’t get fresh with me. So I point three fingers to tell him he was thrice as fresh with us when he arbitrarily ordered us out of Rome. The next thing, I see him taking out his lunch. So I took out mine.”

  • Blindness







    My mother teaches in a school where there are few blind students also. She talks about them passionately and praises their intelligence beyond the other students. By chance I have not been closely associated with the blind people, however I have filled my eye donation form when I was 18 years. Yes, I would want any and every body part to be utilized after my death, the value of each organ will increase if it remains and be useful to someone after me. This “AFTER ME” puts me on another tangent of thoughts – we are not the body – but here I am not writing on those thoughts anyways.

    So coming to the topic – Blindness. How do you define blindness? Inability to see, is that the only definition? According to me, the definition of blindness goes beyond just the inability to see. Or if I think more, in some sense of the word “see” may includes many things which we generally overlook.

    [Tweet “‘Our’ perceptions create ‘our reality’ – than whatever is the truth.”]

    ‘See’ should not be only associated with eyes. After your eyes see, what happens next? The mind creates a picture and mind infers the picture. The inference also has a sense of blindness too. Inability to infer, inability to understand and misconception of actions; these are few other things that need to be included in defining “blindness”. “Our” perceptions create “our” reality – than whatever is the truth.

    quote-Helen-Keller-the-highest-result-of-education-is-tolerance-103858An example that came to my mind is related to a recent incident in the US. A young man unleashed gunfire in Tennessee military facilities. Initial reports were stating that it could be an act of terror. This man had stayed somewhere in Middle East for more than 1/2 year in 2014. His high school friends of this man say he was a good guy and it was shocking and unbelievable that he did it (paraphrase a CNN news report heard earlier). So point is what happened that this young man did what he did?

    If I cannot see Blue color, I am color blind for that color, if I cannot see peace and only fed with what wrong is happening with “my community” by “other commutes” I am blinded by what good the other community is doing. Many a times, the bad is more of perception than a reality. This is how people are blinded to see only what they are told to see.

    This Tennessee shooter was blinded in the same manner. That is also a kind of blindness too. The intolerance we see in many people is because they can only see what is right for them and they are blind for opinion of the other. Perhaps the young man got brainwashed by some education which was rather reverse of Education – “The highest result of education is tolerance” Helen Keller. [assuming it was a terror attack, as it was speculated initially]

    [Tweet “”The highest result of education is tolerance” Helen Keller.”]

    In a similar manner, I am blinded to see only peace, growth, happiness. On a lighter note – I see many vehicles with their number plate as 23XY, reason is – my vehicle is numbered 2315, its not that these vehicles were not visible earlier, now I notice them intentionally and ignore vehicle with some other numbers.

    I am late to write on this LBC post. This topic was suggested by Lin, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

  • Gratitude by coincidence







    I had to make a decision, however stupid it sounds while reading, but these small decisions in Mumbai’s roads full of traffic are key decisions. The decision was – should I take Mahim or Sion route? I was in Dadar west, traveling on my nondescript two-wheeler to Tilak Nagar, while driving back home from South Mumbai. This kind of decision making happens every day with many people in Mumbai; I’m sure it must be happening daily with many people in many cities across the world.

    You know, if one has to travel only 12 km (~8 miles) and it takes more than 45 mins – these small decisions of taking one road over the other can help you save about 10-15 min. These small decisions also save the headache of braking, accelerating and abusing few people on your left, right and ahead. So, I decided to take Mahim route instead of Matunga-Sion road. At first it sounds ok what is so great in this? This decision resulted in a small incident which taught me a lesson on gratitude.

    Mahim Sion roadSo, I took the road and was at a junction waiting for our signal. A boy in a school uniform reached me and asked “Uncle can you please drop me at Dharavi depot?” I said why not. He sat on the pillion seat.

    Since the kid was in uniform so I asked him – “which class you study in and in which school?” He said he is in 10th. For a class 10 student he looked too young. I initially thought he must have been in standard 7 or 8 when I offered him lift. Anyways. For school he said – “I study in SSRVM, Dharavi.” I know SSRVM school (why read it here), but he felt I might not be aware so he said its – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Vidya Mandir, Dharavi. I told him that I know the school. I asked him who is your teacher? He said “Renu Deva”. I dropped this kid near Dharavi Depot. The kid thanked me. He went on his way, I on mine, yet my mind was traversing the decision of taking Mahim route.

    I never thought that this may happen. I never thought that I would offer a lift to a kid. Let alone he being a student of SSRVM and on top of all this – the kid being a student of Renu Didi. When I shifted to Tilak Nagar I started going to weekly follow-up of art of living in Chembur where Renud Didi is a regular teacher. Renu Di is  a teacher in SSRVM too. It was a big coincidence for me.

    I was moving towards my home, my mind was not willing to move on. I was feeling a great sense of gratitude. How and why of the emergence of this gratitude in beyond me. The kid was thanking me, however I thought I should have thanked him. He might have got lift from someone else, but I reached there. We started a conversation which ended up in me thinking about Guruji (Sri Sri). Sometimes some things are beyond explanation. If you understand the feeling of gratitude for the kid and for the master (Sri Sri), you know what I am saying.

    The master sees it all. Many a times the “Thank yous” are meant for the other side – that is perhaps gratitude!

  • This and That







    When you see me as different from you, you get into the idea of “This” and “That”. When there is an “Me” and “other” there is a question of “This” and “That”. In Indian philosophy we call it dvait (द्वैत) or duality. There is a whole philosophy in India on duality – Adwait Vedanta. I am neither an expert nor have I read much about the vedanta so I wont be commenting on those lines.

    crossroadsWhen Maria suggested this topic, I felt this is a unique and interesting topic. However, my line of thought did not go beyond the Indian philosophy of Adwait Vedanta. The mind suddenly moved to “free will” and choices when This Vs that came to my mind.

    Are we really free to make choices? Science may suggests now that our perception of free will is a kind of illusion. Perhaps, in future we would prove with big data analytics that there is no free will. I am sure we can do this with analytics as I have been involved with analytics on various levels and have personally seen what decision and output we may get when it is rightly done. So how a person would react in given situation may be predictable and the choice of “This and That” may not be the “choice” actually. Our choices are influenced by what we have been exposed to, how our mind is conditioned. I think a game of chess can explain how we make decisions – we make one decision and if that works we may say this was right. If that decision fails we may say the other option we skipped would have been better. [relevant blog here]. So the free will of This and That makes us rational individuals but that rationality is also under question.

    I love how the Buddha has put things across for such kind of situations. Free will seems to be an illusion – “Go meditation”. Free will is not concerned with you. Does God exist? “Go meditation” that question is irrelevant. Though I am not Buddhist (This) nor I am staunch Hindu (That) or follower of any other religion as such but somehow I love the way The Buddha has explained his line of thought. It is “This” and “That” together – Interdependent co-arising.

    This topic was suggested by Maria, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

    Image source – https://pixabay.com/en/crossroads-signpost-directions-wood-303896/

  • Not so trickling down!







    How would you define prosperity of a society?

    imf_sealThis is a question many have been asking for so many years. The answers to this question lies in not finding the average income of the society – the metric used globally is – income per capita. This very simplified measure is like saying – what Professor Moradian told us in class of operations management – putting one hand in boiling water (100 degrees) and other in freezing water (0 degrees) and saying I am at an average of 50 degrees and kinda ok! We see a widespread income inequality across the globe.

    The definition of prosperous society should be defined by meeting basic needs of the people of the country. Communication and Internet is one thing which has become a part of basic necessities now a days. Human development index the other measure. For a couple of years when I am writing about business and its relation with spirituality (my interest being the Eastern philosophies – teachings of the Buddha and Hinduism) I see a measure is contentment as well is a measure – What more you need?

    I was reading a recent news – Trickle down economics is wrong, says IMF of IMF research. This seems to be an interesting conclusion. We have been running behind capitalism during 1980’s now we are running on the other side in 2010’s. The research says – Trickle down economics reduces the GDP.

    What is Trickle down economy? Ronald Regan – President of US of A – coined this economics by providing special benefits to rich. The assumption of this theory is – if rich are provided tax benefits (reduced taxes) they would eventually invest in economy and growth will occur. In last 3 decades we have seen the impact of that economy.

    According to the said IMF report –

    A 1% increase in the income share of the bottom quintile results in a 0.38% increase in GDP. Meanwhile, a 1% increase in the income share of the top 20% results in a 0.08% decrease in GDP growth.

    There are a couple of take-aways –

    • Trickle down does not work, it does not mean tilt towards the socialist approach.
    • There has to be a balanced approach – as stated earlier – the Middle path
    • And yes – how would you measure prosperity? Well, by checking how content is each individual. That comes from within not outside. Remember the measure of contentment should not be like putting one hand in freezing water and other in boiling.

    Research document link – https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf