Business to the Buddha

Category: Misc

  • Death!







    Is death the ultimate truth? I asked this question to myself a couple of times during last weeks. I wrote a tribute to Dadaji on his birthday as he passed away in Jan 2012. I met with Rajgopaul uncleji recently; his father also expired recently so did my maternal uncle.

    I learnt a great deal from my uncle. He was very active and hardworking. The most critical lesson to learn from him was – working with complete responsibility, commitment and without much of expectations. I saw his this ethic resulting in fruition always. He did few businesses and was very successful. He also inculcated these ethics in my cousins. A hundred bows to my uncle. I cannot forget him and his subtle and effective teachings without teaching those extrinsically to us.

    My uncle’s death made me think very seriously about death – “Is death the ultimate truth?”. I have heard that our cells die every second and thus in a couple of months we are completely a new person. It is true that physically we change. In fact the reality is – the day we are born we start dying. (I think Osho said that). So physically, I am not the same Pravin who started writing these blogs about 2 years back. The one who used to write earlier and the one who is writing today is different. Yet, there is still a connection, I personally know that I am the same Pravin who used to blog, is blogging and hopefully keep on blogging at “business2buddha @ wordpress”.

    The question to ask is – what is that which does not change even if physically we change a lot? “That something” which does not change keeps us the same, perhaps it does not die. So with death does it die too? I believe the concept of Soul or Atman in Hindi, has evolved from the same question.

    I wonder if death is the ultimate truth, but I believe that there is something which defines an individual – something beyond the physical being.

    Books I read on Related topics –

    Same Soul Many Bodies

    Many Lives, Many Masters

    Only Love Is Real

  • Bit of commitment, that’s it!







    For a month I was in a kind of self imposed exile from blogging. I had ideas to write yet as a couple of people earlier suggested, I wont be able to continue blogging with time. I think their ideas ‘kind-of-caught-up’. It is my 100th blog so I was thinking about writing something special and thus waited to write a necklace (blog) having different blogs (as its beads and thread) in the 100th blog.  I’m keeping my idea of connecting my previous blogs in a necklace for future and writing on commitment. It only require small commitment and consistency to do something e.g. blogging.

    Yesterday evening, I was travelling from Nasik to Mumbai. I took a bus and therefore I had a chance to see farm lands, small villages and small water ponds on either side of road. During rainy season we see – at times – naturally created water ponds. It is surprising that in the summers we see acute water shortage. I was wondering about it. Simultaneously, my sister was reading a blog post of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Guruji) – Knowledge sheet. Here I am thinking about water-shed project concept and listening to my sister reading – austerity, what Guruji say – “…Austerity is often mistaken to be poverty, self-denial. It is neither. Austerity comes out of maturity. It is a sign of social health.

    Often people who practice austerity are resentful of richness. This is a very pitiable state. Such austerity is not born out of maturity but out of compulsion. The true austerity has tolerance for richness and is never resentful…”

    I see two connections here in my thoughts – commitment and austerity. The “austerity measures” being talked for a long time are not based on “social health” and therefore are opposed – because there would be a handful of people losing their “facilities” for doing service for the society. This austerity has come from compulsion. Isn’t it? There is lake of commitment in the actions of austerity.

    It was true in my not blogging too that I waited to write a very special blog on connecting all dots of my previous thoughts in the line of the concept of my blogging. We observe lack of commitment is the case in water-shed also. I remember my days as a kid in Dhar (MP). There I have faced water shortage problem and I personally used to travel long distance to bring water in summers. When we shifted to Indore I suggested few officials for rainwater harvesting, they did it. In the building where my parents live now, they have done rain water harvesting and that is not rocket science. I was wondering why we all are not doing it? We can fight and die for water but taking a small step is not possible. Why? because it requires “a-bit-of-commitment”.

    I have lost hopes from politicians and therefore not writing about that. Dhar where I used to live as a kid, had a king – King Bhoj – about 1000 years ago. He – unlike our politicians – knew the problem and worked to solve it. There used to be 12 lakes in Dhar, these lakes were connected, water overflow from one would end up collected in another and so on. We – as an Independent Indian – are fighting for “NOT CONNECTING RIVERS”, because it requires a bit of commitment. With Team Anna coming in the front I see a ray of hope that things would fall in place.

    What it requires is a commitment? Take one project complete it, whatever constraints are there resolve them. Next time I would write about commitment and theory of constraints.

  • Leadership and education







    Election results of couple of Indian states are out and largely there are clear mandates in all states. So, there are not many permutations and combinations happening for forming governments. I was wondering about the elections, results and post results – five years. The long term thoughts (five years after results) were hampered by a news of rabble rousing activities in UP. Does the confidence of victory create so much defiance that people do not mind taking law in their hands or crossing the limits?

    This question lets me ask myself – what do we need? Politicians or leaders? Are politicians really leaders? I was thinking about this and on LinkedIn I read a question. IF YOU HAVE GOOD STRATEGY, DO YOU STILL NEED A LEADER?

    Can a good strategy create a leader or leaders can create effective strategies? My answer is leaders can create effective strategies. Also, I heard someone say – An army of sheep led by a lion are more to be feared than an army of lions led by a sheep.

    I was talking to Prof Ramanathan, he told me “…Pravin I see there is a lack of leadership at various levels, be it corporate or others…”

    The fact of the matter is the crisis is wide spread are we creating leaders? Are we creating excel, power point and ivory tower experts of solutions? When I read the book – I have a dream I realized that there are people who took initiatives, who rolled their sleeves and got down to work. There may be many more not covered in the book, yet how many of us have become leaders after studying at Ivy league?

    Recently, I met Prof Mankad, we discussed Greek crisis and the visible solutions to it. He made a good observation on the economic power of China that made me think – having and managing power requires a sense of responsibility and ability to be fair. This ability requires courage and confidence to say – ‘yes I erred’ when one did commit mistake. Does our education teach kids to have these qualities?

  • Business of politics







    “Religion-based quota won’t divide our people. Google will. That’s our Government’s logic.”
    – Chetan Bhagat, Author

    My friend Tejas Phatak (T Gates) recently wrote a blog – ‘Dot hai to Hot hai!’ I was thinking about the democracy, elections for couple of days and honestly laughing on the kind of stories and promises we hear from politicians. Specially during the election season.

    With due respect to the ‘business’ of politicians, I do not see many changes QUOTED/STATED (I am not using words such as done and made) by them and work done often falls way behind the promises. Look outside your window you would ‘see’ examples. I remember a statement of Collector of Indore (somewhere in 1997-2000) – Mr Manoj Shrivastava – in Nai Dunia (Very famous news paper in MP specially in Indore) that “reason for development of Indore is the people – not the politicians – of the city“. This applies to any city in India I believe.

    When we talk about ‘business’ of politicians, we hear categorical statements of religious bias too. During the seasons of elections you see ‘business of religion’ and ‘business of politics’ meet. I wonder according to the constitution of India where does religion get special status? I think in India every religion is given equal rights. Referring to the Wiki article Population statistics of India by religion I am wondering why we talk about religion based quota? If religion should be the basic Jains and Buddhists should get quota; is that happening? The very fundamental issue is – we want quota everywhere. I recall Lokpal debate everyone wanted quota there too.

    There are responsible positions where we need people who are capable – irrespective of their caste, religion or region (specially we have seen my Prime Ministers from UP!). I understand the prime reason for quota system is to bring equality in society, should we consider other methods of bringing equality – creating entrepreneurs for example.

    Tejas – voting in Mumbai has not been very encouraging. I think the reason for apathy in Mumbai is – people live here on a daily basis, we care more for our survival. How many politicians are solving problems of daily basis. I heard Arnab Goswami saying yesterday – ‘reason of Shiv Sena winning here could be the grass route work of the workers. They are available when there is a need’. Secondly, in Mumbai perhaps maximum jobs are in private sector where Quota statement does not make much sense for voting.

    I support quality work irrespective of political affiliation. So the ‘business of politics’ and ‘business of religion’ should talk about the kind of work and developments happening for the guys next door like you and me!

  • Durgasakha – an organization







    Last week I went on trekking with an organization named Durgasakha. First thing first – thank you to my friends Abhishek Ranjan Jha and Santosh Jagtap to pull me and registering me for the same and thanks to the Durgasakha team. It was a great experience and a good outing after long work hours and weeks. Beyond a break from work, why I enjoyed this trek is also the reason of why I am writing this blog.

    Tringlewadi Igatpuri

    I liked this organization, thanks to Abhi, Subodh and Nene Kaka who informed about the mission of this organization during the trek. Durgasakha is a Hindi/Mararthi word which means – Friends of forts. The organization came into existence as a group who were trekking enthusiasts. Slowly these guys realized that few group visit these forts and litter here and there. So, one thought – to keep forts clean (source of water and temples on the fort) whenever they visit there – came in mind. Plantation and finding history of the place etc. Well, initially any person may think that it is a good thought and perhaps every trekking group would want to do that. This organization goes beyond it.

    This group took another initiative, to help underprivileged yet bright kids, question was how? This initial thought was materialized on two levels, one to distribute used cloths etc – I will come on the ETC in some time – to the interior areas of Maharashtra. The ETC part was – people are moving from CRT TVs to LED/LCD TVs so if those old TVs can be distributed to schools of the interior areas with educational CD and CD players that would help learning of these kids. A fact was, this group – currently – does not take any cash donations in general from anyone, any profit from the trekking events go to sustaining these activities of helping the villagers. Is not it interesting? These people are no ‘corporate bigwig’, these guys are like many of us, who are working in Mumbai struggling in trains on daily basis, for example.

    One other friend of mine – Nitin Chandorkar – was with me on the trek. He suggested “I am of the opinion that we should not just give them facilities but also make them self reliant” (give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, you teach him how to fish and you feed him for life). A very good thought, to our surprise the group – Durgasakha – has already started and done that too. Few Namkins we took on trek were from similar organization they are trying to nurture.

    After this trek I was thinking to write about this experience. I was wondering one does not need to be politician or very rich to do something for the society. What is needed is – preparation of heart and mind or desire to do something. I remember few lines of a Hindi Song – …’Mushkil nahi hai kuchh bhi, agar thhan lijiye’ मुश्किल नहीं है कुछ भी अगर ठान लीजिये. Nothing is difficult if you are committed!

  • Need of the hour!







    Recently, I woke up early in the morning, it was not because I had to go somewhere, but because in the night I forgot to switch on my mosquito repellent. Apparently, I didn’t have to kill the mosquito. All of them put together had sucked enough blood to wake me up and as individuals had sucked enough to full their bellies that none could fly. And they all fell under my weight to die!

    I was wondering about the same in different context and thought about politicians of India and some corporate houses (include Kingfisher). In current context the Anna movement, Occupy Wall Street movement and economy world around has made every commoner – like me – to think seriously about what is happening around. Now it seems that not all politicians and executives can get away with the deeds. They have to be accountable and answerable because the pinch of the rash and extravagant decision are backfiring. If I compare the scenario to my waking up and inadvertently killing few mosquito, the weight of economy has killed some companies (Lehman Brothers) and some are in the lurch. Either politicians and executives have to understand that there has to be enough and more responsible actions and decision or people would gather on streets to protest.

    I am not against development and taking risks yet we have to balance risk and be responsible for the powers offered to us by the shareholders, banks and others. Is it fair to party when you know you are under debt of 1000s of cr (tens of billions) rupees? Is it fine to sponsor and own events when you are under lots of liabilities? I was wondering when I read the news – LIC may be forced by the Govt to rescue Kingfisher. Thankfully it does not seem to happen, otherwise LIC policy holders – such as me – would feel robbed of their hard earned income.

    The collective power has toppled a Govt in Middle East – I term it as French Revolution of Middle East – and other countries of Middle East are feeling the heat. Credibility of a company was on stake when Murdoch was summoned. We see a strong voice against corruption in India and against the reckless decision of bankers as Occupy Wall Street movement. Is not it fair to assume that all educated people (politicians and executives) would understand that commoners are asking for only fairness and accountability, and perhaps it would solve many issues we face in current times, That’s it!

  • We – “the Societies…”







    I read a book on the Buddha – Old Path White Clouds. Really, the path is very old. We are still struggling after many centuries. The book starts with a young Bhikku – Svasti a buffalo tending boy. The Buddha had tried hard to bridge the gap pervading in society at that time. During the time of Mahabharat (even before the Buddha) Karna had to face it (as son of a charioteer, check Wiki). I am talking about the societies we have formed. We are divided by race, religion, nationality, region, caste and sub-castes. Therefore we are not a society we are ‘societies’.

    I read two news items and thought to write about them. Though personally I feel religious belief is a personal matter and therefore no ‘group’ should interfere with beliefs of individuals. However, we have made religious belief system an organization which now has become a business as well as tool to discriminate. Anyways, the first news item was – First whiff of justice for Gujarat riot victims and the second was – Dalits enter Madurai temple after two long decades. In northern part of India people feel that southern states are far less discriminating, is that true? This news item shows different picture.

    At the time of the Buddha there was only four divisions of Indian society (as only Hinduism existed). Now we have many religion, languages, states, castes and sub-castes. The task of bridging gaps has become difficult in our times. Take an example of one belief system of India. The concept of this system was ‘a casteless society’, within 1000 years of its existence there are about 16 different sub-caste in this single belief system! The number is alarming because old Hindu system has only 4 castes (of course 4 are then sub divided) and this example less than 1000 year old has 4 time more sub divisions. I have heard Islam has 70+ sects, Buddhism has at least 3, Christianity has a few. Phew! how long will we divide as well as fight the so called holy wars?

    If we see at a macro level – we are divided in nation we live in, language we speak, color of skin, economic status for that matter brand of car we use. I am sure no spiritual master had meant to use his/her teachings as a tool to discriminate. We are humans and is not that enough to thrive, survive and grow physically, mentally and spiritually? ‘The path’ is really very old, we are still not able to understand it. We are ‘societies’ and we do discriminate, why?

    Related blog – Business of religion!

  • Life is… Simple







    Life is simple, you breath in, you breath out. This is as simple as it can be. Right? Well, then comes a problem. You have your heart, your mind and your society. All of them start giving you some or the other perception, choices and opinions to affect you. The best part is you start listening to all of them. You listen to them and you are in a vicious circle of endless ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ and ‘yeses’ and ‘nos’. And thus, life becomes complex and at some time miserable. You forget in all this juggling – life is simple, you breath in and breath out. One day, you breath out and… everything stops (for you).

    In all this complexity, have you ever observed – you have forgotten a very simple fact. You are alive until you breath and you relegate this important activity and start taking it for granted. I think this is how people start meditating, right? Well, meditation is for elderly and learned people, I am not that. So, why to think so big?

    When I am thinking all this, I realized that I gave some thoughts to my mind and this mind has started creating opinions. I remembered reading something similar in a book of Richard Bach (I think in the book Illusions) – Existence “is”, that is enough. Why create story around that? So ‘life is…’ why even think if it is ‘simple’ LIFE IS… live it 🙂

  • Hotel California







    I heard this song recently, now writing about it! The most important line which attracted me to watch/read and listen to this song was –
    “…You can checkout any time you like,
    But you can never leave!” (perhaps only your body once you are dead)

    When I read the lyrics I noticed even further interesting parts –
    1. ‘…we are all just prisoners here, of our own device…’
    2. ‘…this could be heaven or this could be hell…’ (my earlier blog)
    3. …stab with steely knives but they cannot kill the beast… (felt like singer is trying to say – it is difficult to kill the beast within and with all the paraphernalia available the beast is becoming unmanageable e.g. prisoners of devices etc)

    Taking an example of Mobile phones, as devices and prisoners. Is not it true, if you think about 1995 (India) who felt that Mobile phones are very important. Now, mobiles are indispensable. I still strongly think that we can live without mobiles too, however how difficult it is to be without mobile?

    I also read that this song was a rage, I think that duration was a Hippy movement, and youngsters of that generation were more indulgent, rebellions and disillusioned by the reality of that time. I am trying to relate to the Hotel California, the prisoners, beast, heaven/hell and the checkout system… and the realities we are leaving in.
    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piW9MHpfCu4]

  • Syādvāda – The Doctrine of Postulation







    I had written about this earlier, however thought to revisit the same again. What is the meaning of system when it is not solving the required purpose? Let us take the same example again from my previous post Lost in translation. What is the meaning of grammar (System) if the language (Following the system) is not able to communicate the message using the grammer?

    To make my point further clear, let me take recent developments in India. In case of Anna Hazare, the Government was shouting about the SYSTEM in place, “THE SUPREME PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS” and therefore was not relenting to the rightful issue of sentiments of the common man of India. What is the use of such process which is not listening to the voices of people, and we call it DEMOCRACY! At the same time, Supreme court of India has kept death sentences (ruled in favor of High Court) for Killer of Mr Rajiv Gandhi and Afzal Guru (involved in parliament attack of 2003), let me repeat – Supreme Court of India. Yet for many years they are in jails of India. Now, the system of respecting the Supreme Court is not followed. What kind of SYSTEMS we are talking about?

    A man/woman – actually killer in some sense – is in jail not receiving the fruits of his/her crime, why because we can do away with some systems selectively to suit our benefits. At the same time a man (Anna) – who is fighting for a cause – is given rule-book and all sorts of stories of systems, stating what he is doing is not in favor of democracy. What nonsense! Are not these systems making us handicap rather than helping us? Is the system making us feel – in India, you can get away with murders too?

    Reiterating this from my earlier blog – …I am not arguing against systems. I am just trying to say that one has to answer the question – why at first place we designed systems?

    1. to facilitate operations of society (in case of religion, culture and laws)
    2. to facilitate operations of work (in case of businesses).

    Inputs from Prof Mankad on need of system –
    3. to facilitate understanding of the present and formulating vision for the future (in case of education)
    4. to facilitate orderly day to day living for people, ensure fairness in dealings, security and openness (in case of governance, transparency and judiciousness). At times, systems are inadequate too.

    And therefore my stand is no spiritual teacher advocated “create a religion in my name” …and do business on the same. They just showed the path, I recall Mahavir (one of the messengers of Jainism) used ‘Syādvāda’. What I understand about ‘Syādvāda’* is – this is true and that is also true. Everything is based on relativity. Systems are correct if they solve the basic purpose, if they do not – better to change them. Everything of 12th century (or Before Christ) may not be relevant today better abolish some of them, right? So, relevance is important and thus the doctrine of postulation… systems are correct but in context, be it democracy of India. Mahavir said that 500 years BC (Before Christ), we are still not listening/learning, are we?

    More on Syādvāda in future blogs.

    *Note – it is purely my understanding and please do your research for references