Business to the Buddha

Tag: osho

  • The master is the servant’s servant







    A master and his disciples were sitting under a tree. The master saw a man taking a cow with him. Man had this cow tied with a rope, walking in the front and cow, naturally, following the man.

    The master saw this, said – “see that cow it taking the man somewhere.” His disciples saw in the direction and replied, master you need to check it properly, the man is taking the cow somewhere. Master replied – what you see is not always the truth. Disciple replied – “please explain, in this case how cow is taking the man?”

    Master replied – Do one thing unchain the cow, see who runs after whom? The master need not run behind the servant. Since the cow is tied, it has no other option but to walk behind the man but cow is the master. The cow has the freedom to go wherever it wants to do – if unchained.

    I read this story as a kid, in Osho magazine. Earlier this year, One day I remembered this story. How? Let me tell you.

    I and one of my colleagues were talking about Amitabh Bachchan. On one endorsement of his, I said that product does not gel well with his grand personality (my 2 cent, opinion). To that my colleague replied – “well that endorsement could be enough for him to arrange for salary of his whole staff for a year, at least.” Suddenly I stopped, remembered the story of cow and the man. I did not speak, just smiled.

    Well, I had this talk with my colleague in the beginning of the year why writing now? The reason is – we have a maid who is so royal that she wakes up at 10 AM or late. Comes home 2 or more hours later than I had gone to office – needless to say I prepare tea and breakfast for myself, and our maid is a full time maid. So she in a way is master, I go for earning her monthly salary (e.g. my office) well before she comes for work. The other thing – we are hopelessly dependent on her. The way man is dependent on the cow in above story.

    So the question is – who is the master and who is the servant?

    Mirdad says (The book of Mirdad) – “the servant is the master’s master. The master is the servant’s servant.”

    Disclaimer – 1. I’ve no intentions to demean Mr Bachchan he is a big personality.

    2. Neither I intend to demean my maid – after all she offers me my daily bread.

    Kind of related blog – Irony

  • 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

  • The book of Mirdad







    “Interestingly philosophical and strangely confusing”, profound and spiritual.

    I have read the book twice, once in English and second time in Hindi recently. When I read The book of Mirdad I had a strange feeling both the times, I either get into profound silence or an eternal turmoil of thoughts. I try to comprehend and I try to fathom the depth of the book. I believe I can write a lot on, about, around and in relation to the book. However, with my limited knowledge and depth of many things, this blog is sharing the following from the book of Mirdad –

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

    In Hindi it is –

    कम परिगृह – कम बंधन।
    अधिक परिगृह – अधिक बंधन।
    अधिक बंधन – कम मोल।
    कम बंधन – अधिक मोल।

    I liked many parts and I would love to share those at occasion in future blogs. You can buy and read a Hindi translation of the same book at throw-away price from Radha Swami Satsang Beas or the English version at The Book Of Mirdad

  • Irony!







    I remember an opening of Prof Mankad’s class. He asked ‘What is money?…’ and so on and so forth. Money is what is accepted as money. The trust of acceptance gives value to money. Irony is this TRUST. This concept e.g. money creates maximum MISTRUST. The concept which, I believe, we think gives power, empowers us, creates fear of losing it. Money which should give us some security creates insecurity. Is not it an irony?

    I heard someone (If I recalled correctly it was Osho) saying – opposites are always together, if opposites are not together their value is nothing. White is white and does not hold much value if Black does not exist. Lord Rama and his values were/are magnified by none other than the existence of Ravana. If Jesus were not crucified we might not even have found records of him or might not have bothered about his greatness. For safety and security of our ‘Nation’ we buy/make arsenals and prepare for wars, is not it an irony?

    We avoid

    WAR by aggrandizing weapons
    Trust on Money, which creates lots of, perhaps maximum, Mistrust
    Good people are good because their are bad one’s out there.

  • Cogito ergo sum







    I always wonder about these things… what is the difference between we human beings and animals? They are also living being, then what is the difference? This thought comes again and again in my mind. Recently when I was watching the movie Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. The thought again came in my mind – whats the difference? Most interesting part is – the protagonists in the movie are animals.

    Whenever I watch that movie, one character pops out – “on the face” – often and it reminds me of us – the human beings. It is the squirrel – Scrat. In every screen it is fighting for its corn – similar to our life. The corn represents our jobs, loved ones and issues faced regularly etc etc and alas! the list never ends. And secondly, the fight and the run never ends!

    Cogito, Ergo Sum is a philosophical statement by Descartes, meaning – I think, therefore I exist. Yes the proof of ‘my existence’ is that at least I am thinking that whether I exist or not, right? And the question of my existence is not just about existence; it is deeper, why are we doing what are we doing? And even further it goes to why do we exist? Because perhaps even without thinking of existence animals exist, right? And here the logic fails, I have heard saints saying – life does not listen to your logic. There has to be some reason of us having a more developed brain which gives us the capabilities to think about our existence and the question – why we exist? It is similar to phophobia – fear of phobia, existence of the question of existence :).

    Whatever the case is – I think, therefore I exist! And we all exist like the Scrat in the mids of the fish (e.g. ourselves, our friends and enemies) trying to save our corn e.g. ourselves, job, loved one etc etc.

    Image source – www.imdb.com

  • No judgement – its all about perception







    I heard a story – a farmer owned a very good horse, he loved the horse as his son and it reciprocated. Even the king of that kingdom was envious of the horse. He sent his messengers to the farmer stating that farmer can exchange the horse for as much as half of his state. Farmer responded – ‘I will not, does anyone sell his son/daughter?’ People told him that he did a mistake, he responded – no judgement.

    In some days, the horse somehow ran away and could not be traced. People come back to the farmer and told him, you did a grave mistake by not giving it to the king, at least you could have got something in return. Now you don’t even have the horse let alone part of the kingdom. He again responded – no judgement.

    In few days, neighboring kingdom waged a war on the kingdoms where the farmer lived. It resulted in a very tough situation for the kingdom (of the farmer) and king asked for all the support from his people, confiscating even cattle for supporting his army, stating there is no guarantee of returning of those materials/cattle. People again came to the farmer and told him – ‘Thank god at least your horse is not in that trouble, trust wherever it is, it is fine.’ He again responded – no judgement.

    Within few days both the fighting parties announced ceasefire. Some people got their possessions back others didn’t. One fine day morning the horse came back to the farmer with an equally beautiful mare. People came to the farmer praising the horse and saying – “Thank god horse was not here during the war it would have been a problem for you as well as for the horse.” Again he responded in his trademark style – no judgement.

    So, situations change and therefore our decisions could be called as right or wrong, good or bad, but in the end the frame of reference causes the concerns. Something good today could be bad tomorrow. So, judgemental thinking may result in issues. My brother told me once – no decision is right or wrong, it is how we perceive and the frame of reference makes us think whether the decision is right or wrong.