Business to the Buddha

Tag: Adviti

  • Anand Utsav

    Anand Utsav

    Bangalore-Ashram

    I recently attended a course of the Art of living foundation – Anand Utsav. Anand Utsav is a Hindi word (rough translation “festival of bliss”). Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Guru ji) himself guided the course via webcast. This has been happening for last couple of years in the month of August. I could not attend Anand Utsav earlier. This time, the moment I got message, I was determined to attend it.

    Sri Sri Ravishankar, Art of living, Guruji
    Guruji

    I am associated with AoL for a long time now, whenever someone asks me about the happiness course (basic course or part I course as it is known), I say only one thing – “Before you die, do Sudarshan Kriya at least once.” There are two reasons for this statement. Firstly everyone has a unique experience because everyone’s life circumstances and situations are / have been different. Further, something inside changes profoundly. Something that is not easy to define. With both these points, I can only say – do it before you die.

    So, when I attended the course, thankfully, I had plans of vacation in subsequent week. The course finished on Sunday, I attended office on Monday (a typical chore day) and came the much awaited vacation. It was interesting because during our routine we may not be able to identify or sit back and reflect. During the vacation I could reflect. In my case typical Monday was same, the usual chasing the clock and running to office without contemplation. Tuesday morning we had to travel out. My daughter, Adviti, is an infant. When you’ve infant at home, everything moves as per the infant’s schedule.

    We had a plan to start at 7 AM but we started at 7:40 or so. We were late, however it was different from being late on any other weekdays. I knew when we’re late there will be lot of traffic on roads, the Mumbai traffic which irritates me almost daily (can make any sane person insane), was not a problem for me that day. There was no rush to reach somewhere, almost daily it is a race to reaching office. We are running an endless race daily as professionals. This race is in many shapes and forms, right from boarding our regular train, acquiring a seat in bus, owning the dream job / car / home / kid scoring certain score or getting the deal signed by prospective client.

    This day there was a difference in my approach to things and situations around me. Few things that made me get frustrated soon, were not making me like that. I looked at the sights on / around highway after a long time with such ease, amusement and astonishment as I did this time around. I was centered / focused from within.

    When we reached Mumbai again, I lost wallet, all my credit and debit cards. I had given it to my wife, she forgot it on a counter. She panicked, I did not. With full composure, I handled Adviti, consoled Simple (my wife) and walked where she felt she misplaced the wallet. I inquired and got the cards back full 15 minutes later. Any other day, I might have got more restless than Simple but this day I was not. Even Simple was surprised.. This time when I attended Anand Utsav this something changed in me. I was like this a couple of years back (I remember my MBA days), centered, peaceful and in control. Things changed a lot for me, I needed to attend Anand Utsav long back – Better late than never.

    Honestly, you must attend the Art of living Happiness Program once. Just go with the flow, sit in the course, follow instructions until the last day, ask every question that you have on the last day. Do not interrupt yourself from any instruction. Just do as directed without bothering for anything – not even the results. If still you are not sure to attend the Happiness Program – read the blog again – do Sudarshan Krita before you die.

    My Anand Utsav (festival of bliss) is continuing will you join me? I am sure you would thank me for this blog post later :).

  • Unifying heart, mind and actions

    At times after office, I take my daughter – Adviti – for a walk. It was such usual day when after office I took her to the nearby market area where there were seats to sit and gaze the moving vehicles leisurely. She enjoys watching buses, whenever I see her look at bus or point at moving buses I start singing a nursery rhyme – “Wheels on the bus go round and round…”. Recently, this outing taught me – once again – how can one unify heart, mind, and action together.

    She is generally very observant – as with any infant – she also gets completely engrossed in the observation. This one day, I rediscovered and realized a very cliché known fact. She was sitting on a bench, watching the buses and enjoying the sight. After a while, an old man came and sat. A decent looking, in his mid-60s or early 70s, an old man who was new to both of us was sitting next to us. Adviti started feeling uncomfortable and started crying. I told her, see Advi he is like Aba (dadaji). She is too young to understand it. She kept feeling uncomfortable for some time. I tried diverting her attention and again showing her moving buses and singing the rhyme. The old gentleman too tried talking to her and pacifying her but to no avail.

    After a while when it was a bit irritating to the nearby people, I took Adviti to another bench. When we sat at new nearby she repeatedly looked at the gentleman intermittently. However, this time around I could divert her attention to the original purpose of our visit – leisure visit to the market, looking around vehicles and causal amusement.

    When she was happily looking at vehicles and had forgotten the incident, I revisited the event in my mind. Until she was focused she was completely engrossed in the activity. The moment she got a distraction she lost all her fun and joying. This happens with us also a lot of times. We get distracted with some or the other thing. It impacts our productivity in the office our personal life when we start looking at others rather than concentrating on what we do and enjoy doing. Small incidents teach us a lot.

    Earlier I had written on focus. I had put a point in that blog – “Distractions are felt if you are not centered”. The corollary is equally correct – If one is distracted it is difficult to be centered. I always feel that the solution for this is meditation and spirituality. Meditation helps improve awareness which eventually makes it easy to bring together the heart, mind and action together.

  • Devil in detail

    Adviti – my daughter – is still learning to walk. She keeps on playing on the floor. What surprises every one of us is her finding smallest speck of dust or any material on floor. Otherwise, she does not eat much, but these specks are not visible to us and by the time we look at her she has already put it in her mouth. We always think where does she get such a keen eye to the detail? How can we keep our home mopped and swapped such that we can avoid such particles? In whatever capacity the floor is cleaned she always finds something, to show us our failure to clean the floor.

    I started reading a management book for middle management and change management. This book is very interesting. When we grow in career, we have to let go of some details and start managing on slightly bigger scale. When one moves to this slightly higher level of execution, one tends to delegate work. The big picture, view is required some time. Additionally, when one moves to bit higher level one has to manage not do everything.

    While reading this book, I was wondering about the movement to middle or higher management. When we grow up, we thinking about these movement and execution thus we – at times – miss the finer details of execution. This is exactly what happens with us at home – when we grow old, we start walking and the ground is too low for us to keep an eye on it. More precisely, the difference is 15 cm to ground vs 165 cm to ground. Adviti sees things from 11 times nearer than what we see. In management we too have a gap, if not 11 times, it is 2-5 times. We miss seeing the minor things sometimes we just overlook these.

    It is said that the devil is in detail. Be it Adviti seeing small speck at floor or a senior manager missing out on the possible execution challenge. The devil is in detail, Adviti’s small actions helped me put an emphasis on this for my career and professional live.

  • The observer







    After my regular spiritual practice of Art of living’s Yoga, Pranayam and short sudarshan Kriya, I opened my eyes. The birds were chirping, Adviti – my daughter – was playing with my mother. Our drawing room was shining with the morning Sun light.

    I was sitting on my yoga mat with my eyes open. The light was falling on my eyes. Objects – the dining table and chairs – were making reflections. It was a fraction of a second that these objects were there visible to my eyes yet there was something within me that was an observer – no more than that. This observer was witnessing everything as it was. There was no filter of naming the objects, sounds were falling on the ears – sweet and pleasant – yet there was no division or interpretation of the sound. Sound was just experienced, no label on sound such as “my dauther’s voice”, kuku or pigeon or sparrow. Most intriguing of this label is the experiencer was just there, I dont remember if the word “My” was there in the dictionary at that moment.

    The intelligence that defines all the objects of senses was there, yet there was only observer. There was no definition. I thought to write about it for a couple of weeks. However, it was difficult to explain and felt very small incident to write as a blog pos.

    Today, suddenly this picture popped up in a Mumbai Police tweet. This made me think about the previous Sadhna incident and a possible experiment.

    What if someone is sleeping and we somehow slowly – without waking that person up – open his eyes. Assume the person is still asleep, would this person – be able to see, discern and still remain asleep? What gives us power to interpret what our eyes see, ears to hear and define these?

    When do we become more aware? Is it a time when the intelligence that interprets is still there inside yet someone within only observes without contaminating the observed with the biased interpretation? Is it true?

    The intelligence gives us only as much possibility to interpret, as much it can fathom. A very cliché example of this in Indian spirituality is – seeing a piece of rope as a snake. Intelligence in that way seems limited in its abilities, yet the observer does not.

    Disclaimer – I am a practitioner of spirituali practices, the thoughts were complicated to explain. Therefore possibly confusing.

    Image source – Twitter handle of Mumbai traffic police.

  • Adviti and perspective change







    Adviti is growing up, she has started turning and every now and then she turns. When feeding her, she turns that makes putting food in mouth difficult. It was surprising initially to feed her used to be irritating that she is turning in no time. Once, I was talking to a relative, she said – Adviti will keep on doing it because it provides her a different perspective to the world. As an infant, how good and easy for them to change perspective – make it exactly 180 degree and enjoy. How difficult for us to change our perspective?

    This change in perspective gave me an opportunity to question my own opinions. So, first was marriage in particular caste. The other apparent Indian customs such as – girls parents to not step in her home once girl is married! Yes that I have heard in conservative families. I don’t know how much is it followed now. So, when I badgered Lingayat community for disrespectful behavior on marriage issues, today I try to look at another perspective.

    perspectiveOne of the possible reason for people looking at their own community or professional background could be that a girl grown up in similar environment may find it easy to settle in new family with similar customs or work requirements. If a farmer marries a goldsmith’s daughter would not it be very difficult for her to get accustomed to the new way of living?

    Second, when society used to say not to go to girl’s home after her marriage, the possible reason could be – avoiding conflicts. Indian soap opera’s show it often. Additionally, olden days, it used to be a wish that girl is married in a family of economically higher standing. So, possible that girl or her parents should not feel uncomfortable, or should not be named for their out of place demeanor by the boy’s family. My small mind could think of only these possible reasons.

    Lastly, eastern religion – all have concept of rebirth and karma. Personally, I not only follow but also believe in these concepts. A different paradigm from these seemingly good concept is here. If you tell a student that you’re not good at mathematics because in last life time you moneylender and did mischievous calculations to let the borrowers keep on paying you unnecessarily, that is a bad perspective on the concept.

    There are many wars, fights and arguments due to perspectives. Be it capitalism vs socialism, one religion vs the other or political biases. We can be passionate about our perspective yet should be compassionate to listen to others view too. Otherwise there will always be wars, fights and arguments.

    Adviti is teaching me a lot of things with her growing up. The recent one is changing perspective and looking at the other side, even if it seems incorrect prima-facie. This is a difficult task, I am trying to learn though, she changes her perspective by 180 degree easily at this age. Are we as adults going to learn something from our next generation?

    Image source – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Point_of_view_bias.jpg

  • Adviti and genes of generations







    As I shared last week, we are blessed with a baby girl – Adviti. Our daughter has just turned 6 months. With her coming in, and our near and dear visiting us, comparison of “who does she look like?” started. Some say she looks like me others say she looks like my wife. Yet others say, her face will change for first couple of years and we cannot make a final judgement until then.

    Besides her looks, we have observed a peculiar behavior of Adviti. She has a sideways smile. This smile resembles bit of my smile. It surprised us in the beginning. Initially we brushed it aside as a random observation. However, when we saw Adviti smile often sideways, plus stretching herself after waking up, we realized that she probably has got some behavioral traits resembling mine. We started asking ourselves, besides the physical appearance does baby have behavioral similarity too with parents? It is not some behavioral trait at a later stage of (learnt by) the baby but an infant as young as 3 months.

    When my wife and I had this question, we realized the value of building ourselves into a better person. We are not only building ourselves but also our coming generations. This brings me back to spirituality and meditation. You can read an interesting article on advantages of meditation at this link. Have you ever questioned how does your present life impact your offspring (born or unborn)? Perhaps meditation has some keys of evolved future generations.

    Now, I am firm believer that we must teach meditation and spiritual practices to our kids, these are more likely to impact our coming generations positively. At times, when I see kids playing violence based games or watch gory movies I feel that we need to put some discretion somewhere.

    I believe Sri Sir Ravi Shankar (or some other spiritual master), said somewhere once – “…meditation done by a person impacts his ancestors as well as coming generation…” When I see Adviti’s some behavioral traits I have no doubts about the impact now.

    Instead of writing / reading about meditation try one (and many others), here

     

  • Teaching virtues to Adviti







    We were blessed with a baby girl a couple of months back. We have named her Adviti. Adviti from a Hindi / Sanskrit word Advitiya which means unparallel, peerless or no other can be like her (him). As they say in Chinese catch them young, now, I am parenting Adviti and teaching her virtues.

    In last couple of months life has changed. A lot has changed for me and specially for my wife – Simple. Having a baby is a huge responsibility and taking care of her has changed us both in many ways. A dimension is added in all these personal, psychological and emotional changes – how do we provide good upbringing to Adviti?

    Being bit spiritual, though she is just turning six months, I started reading Jatak tales to her. At times I laughed at myself – I am reading these stories to her in English. I wonder if she understand Hindi (native language) forget about English (non native language). Isn’t it difficult to figure out approach for correct (better) upbringing of kids? Has anyone figured it out?

    When I started reading these stories to her, I asked myself, should I teach certain virtues – taught in the stories – to her? I wonder in next couple of years how our society will change.

    As a kid I lived around a lot of Jain followers. During those days not eating onion and garlic was natural to me. In fact I am trying to practice their eating habits now too. Besides other concepts, the Jain philosophy teaches a concept – Asteya meaning non stealing. However, in today’s society where morally corrupt make the law and loot are mostly legalized, what is the meaning of a parent teaching such lessons to his/her children?

    I have examples of previous 70 years of corruption cases of India alone, forget about the rest of the world. The law gets bent such that corruption – even though it is evident – of these lawmakers become legally correct. It is so difficult to prove – something that looks so evident – that many corruptions happened but we cannot prove it easily – case in point is – case on son of previous finance minister. Our (specially Indian) legal system is so slow and lopsided that it takes 20+ years to get someone jailed (read Sanjay Dutt or Lalu Prasad Yadav) and prove someone innocent (A postman).

    Here, it is needless to say that Indian film industry tried proving Sanjay Dutt innocent with all the flaws. Isn’t it possible someone in future will try to paint these current politicians also as innocent? If our culture is getting a narrative that is distorted parents may have doubt in teaching virtues to their kids. Asteya – non stealing – is it just a good concept in books or religious sermons? Does it make sense to teach virtue’s to our next generation?