Business to the Buddha

Tag: Purpose of life

  • Signal and Noise

    In Engineering I studied Signal and Noise, their ratio and results in communication engineering. I am not going to bore you with the math of probability and Signal to Noise we studied in Engineering. Though, before we move to the point, I will try to explain it in laymen’s language. Signal to Noise ratio means how much is the strength of a Signal Vs the noise on the background. If strength of Signal is more than that of noise, communication can be comprehended. A simple case is tuning radio in your Mobile.

    Well, beyond the laymen definition, I am here to share an observation. In our daily life we are so busy that we are overwhelmed by the noises around us. At times we miss on the signals, these can be premonition too. My personal experience is, we miss many things in extreme emotions – joy or sorrow. Yet mostly, the signals can be of the burnouts we are facing, frustration or not even stopping to think why am I running like a headless chicken? In some cases the signal can be to sit back and relax. The signal can be to find purpose of life. Honestly, this purpose of life point sounds lofty to me. My logic of purpose has slowly become (not lofty) very small and unimportant.

    Many a times we define the purpose as some grand goal. Having a grand goal is wonderful. I too have such goals, not just one, a couple of them such as for personal life, professional life. However, when I say small and unimportant, these are living life in small bits and pieces such as spending time with Adviti – even if very small. Some purpose can be insignificant such as going to a grocery shop. The point is – when I am doing such insignificant or unimportant tasks – what is going on in my mind? Is the mind wandering somewhere and the task – that I intend to do – is secondary? That is where Signal and Noise comes in play. Noise is the distraction from your primary activity – focus or goal.

    Just-be

    We went for a vacation last month. There I was lying down in bedroom, relaxing. Mind always needs some activity – so my ears were listening to the wall clock – tik-tik. My wife entered the room. She switched on the fan, this noise of fan reduced clarity of the activity – listening to the wall clock tiks. My eyes were closed, attention still on the faint sound of tiks. Soon I lost the Signal of the tiks to the Noise of fan. Whether you call it awareness or time pass, that is subjective. However, this small incident made an impression, in our day-to-day activities we encounter such noises. We miss the fun of the Signal tik-tik to the noise of fan. At times, the noise is nothing but the grand goals or self importance we have created for ourselves.

  • Capitalism’s possible impact







    Keynes in an essay had said “his grandchildren’s generation would only work 15 hours a week.” Apparently, that generation is in the workforce now. Are we working <2 working days a week? Far from it. According to some studies, working population of the developed countries are still working at least 34 hours a week (if not 40 hours). Possibly the prediction was incorrect by a generation.

    On a leisure weekend, we were wandering in one of the biggest cities of Latin America last month. It was our first visit to the country. We were talking about the way of living there and possible future for us. I said, in future, we may be working for enjoying what we do, not for earning our living. So, when Keynes said working 15 hours a week, it is possible that rest of the time, people do what they otherwise would want to do – it can be work too. Given a choice I would want to study, read books, wrote blogs 🙂 share my knowledge etc. Some of it I still do though, but over the weekends. Was this the future that Keynes saw as possible? I think yes.

    Uber, Apple and Google are working on autonomous cars. We’ve technology intervention in everything – industrial revolution brought partial automation, technology revolution increasing automation. It is possible that in future organizations will be minting money on robots alone. Hopefully when we reach that state, we will be beyond food, shelter and social standing. In fact that possibly can be one of the reasons for the following outcome of a research – population of developed countries are not that happy. Perhaps our mind has the habit of occupying itself. When there is nothing to be occupied with, either one is unhappy or one can think of bigger purpose in life.

    The statistics can be contested such as – how were these 50 years compared? This discontent and prosperity will surely lead to the questions towards spirituality. When a society is prosperous that is when it starts or tend to move inwards – at times capitalism it is that provides opportunity to dig deeper within [From my previous blog]. I see a lot of people pursuing Buddhism or for that matter meditation in west.

    Besides, when development will lead to unhappiness, the journey of inwards will start. People will ask question – what makes me happy? That is when people will start working for 15 hours a week for wages and rest for self. I see that as an impact of capitalism. When that happens economies would not remain purely capitalistic. There will be change in our approach of economy, it wont remain purely capitalist.

    Image Source – https://twitter.com/nareshnshahani/status/938937338431807488 tweet from – Mr Naresh Shahani.

  • At times capitalism it is!







    CD of Jane Fonda can be more useful for you to learn Yoga – an Indian physical, mental and spiritual practice. When you watch her video you are likely to feel as if she is a native to this art, have you ever thought why? It is not a case of go Yoga alone that many Indians would neither know nor will be able to practice such things well. It is the case with practice of meditation – an eastern method of consciousness – too. Would not you be impressed with many foreigners not only talking seriously about meditation but also practicing meditation religiously and needless to say better than many Indians.

    Have you ever wondered why? What happened that we have relegated such a unique knowledge to either books or only to religious institution? At the same time how the Western world has been taken to these practices with ease and are excelling in it? It would not be surprised that in next 100 years there would be more spiritual readers from the Western world than from India or South East Asia.

    There was a time when India was prosperous. Prosperity makes one question the significance of life, after life and whys of existence. It is unlikely for a hungry stomach to think beyond food. It is difficult for a person in danger to think about higher purpose of life; not impossible but difficult for sure. I remember my professor Dr Anand Saxenasaxena-sir-25dec12 told me –

    गो धन, गज धन, काज धन, सबे रतन धन ख़ान|
    जब आवे संतोष धन, ये सब धुरी समान||

    Go dhan, gaj dhan, kaaj dhan sabe ratan dhan khan
    Jab aave santosh dhan ye sab dhuri saman.

    Meaning:

    It is true that owning cattle, jewels or kingdoms is mine of wealth
    But when you own wealth of contentment (satisfaction) those mines (cattle, jewels etc) of wealth become worthless (like dust)

     

    I love capitalism because it gives an individual the possibility to be prosperous. Prosperity, at least once, can give a person a chance to raise questions on existence. I believe capitalism and what follows, for example wealth, well-being, abundance etc may make one question – why and how of cycle of life. That is why probably Jane Fonda is a better practitioner of Yoga and many in West are turning towards meditation.

    When a person goes beyond food, shelter and social standing one can think of bigger purpose in life. It has been story of many warriors in India – Mahavir or Buddha. Shashi Throor in one of his famous speech said before Britisher’s arrived in India, India had 23% of the world GDP. That is as much as if not more than current GDP of USA’s proportional GDP to the world. When a society is prosperous that is when it starts or tend to move inwards – at times capitalism it is that provides opportunity to dig deeper within. It seems very counter-intuitive though but that is how the logic of Business to the Buddha; that is how the journey for within may start for the West.

  • The Supernatural







     

    I follow the art of living foundation and have done a couple of courses of Art of Living. The founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (fondly called as Guruji) keeps on sharing his wisdom on many topics, one such ‘Ishavasya Upanishad’. You can search on Wiki or Google about what are Upanishads, a summary can be found here.

    The following commentary by Sri Sri on Ishavasya Upanishad is very interesting and profound, was shared with me by someone recently.

    Tena bhunjitha

    …The world is there to enjoy but not clinging on to it, renouncing it, letting go, you relax. When you relax, you are able to enjoy better.

    Ma grdhah kasyasviddhanam

    Don’t covet other’s possessions.

    When everything is done by God, what is the purpose of my living? This question on the purpose of life passes through every mind, the so called intelligent mind, at least. If you consider yourself intelligent , this question must come to you at some point or the other. It should have bugged you actually. Is life just eating, sleeping and doing your routine? Is that it? What is the purpose? What am I here for? I am sure this question has come into your mind. What’s the purpose of life? The seed has started sprouting. Don’t be in hurry. It is very good. This question must pass through your mind. It invokes the Spirit in you. But hold on. Though you don’t want to do anything at that time and nothing seems interesting, the Upanishad says

    “Kurvanneveha karmani”

    Keep doing your work and live for 100 years.

    “Kurvanneveha karmani jijivisecchhatam samah Evan tvayi nanyathetosti na karma lipyate nare”

    (Let every man wish to live for a hundred years while performing karmas in this world. Other than this, there is no way; karmas do not bind the man)

    There is no other way you have to. There is no other way. You can’t take your life off. Knowing that all this is permeated by the Divine, keep engaged in activity and live for 100 years. When you are doing an action for yourself, for gaining something, it is painful but when your action is just the sake of action or for contributing something to the Existence because you are here to contribute, then it will not bind you. If your focus is only on you, if you are a taker, how much can you take? That is when the mind gets tired.

    But if you are a giver, if you are here only to give, the action does not bind you. When you take, you feel the obligation. When you give, you feel the freedom. Keep acting and live for 100 years. Your wish should be to live for 100 years. There is no other way. You are born and till your death, you have to keep acting…

    We are mostly takers, we just enjoy possession. If we learn only the above part of Ishavasya Upanishad life will become very easy, isn’t it? We are supernatural, we have forgotten that.

    The process of learning, unlearning and relearning keeps on happening, I was robbed and I learnt something. Later on, I again started hoarding (owning up things), the execution, plan and reality keeps on messing up in the path of spirituality and business both! We may be supernatural – as the masters, mystics, messiah – but we miss it by millions of miles.

    The supernatural is title of the Loose Bloggers Consortium. Other bloggers who write regularly are, Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and Maria. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic.

    Source – Sri Sri talk on Ishavasya Upanishad.

  • Purpose of life







    targetHe wanted to become an engineer since his childhood, perhaps even before reaching his teens. It was not easy to get into an Engineering college those days so he had to toil, stop his extra curricular activities and concentrate on studies. The hard-work paid off, now, he was pursuing his engineering and it was a dream coming true. He asked himself now what? Well, let us enjoy this education and become an engineer what else?

    With passage of each year, the question of “now what” became more prominent. He wondered what next? He thought to take up administrative services as his next goal. He filled the form, UPSC responded – instead of the admit card they had sent a letter – “your age is less than 20 years as of 31st July so you cannot take this exam in the current year.” He could have waited one more year but then his father was about to get retired in few years so except finding a job nothing could come to his mind. So, he set another goal, crack campus interview. By grace of God or he was lucky or may be because of his abilities he could secure a job on campus without much difficulty. He still had couple of months on campus to complete his final year. He was happy he got what he wanted. Thoughcliparti1_dream-clip-art_04.jpg this pleasure was short lived, his mind started playing tricks with him again – “Now, you have a job what next?”

    He was a dreamer, ambitious and committed person. So, he kept on feeding to his mind – “I will work hard, prove myself.” So, the mind probing – “You have achieved what you set as your goals without much of difficulty so sure you will get those too, but what next?” He responded to the mind – “well, I would get promoted faster than anyone else!” Mind was in no mood to end the questioning – “What after that?” He said – “I will buy Hyundai Santro. Work hard, get promoted, buy Honda City. work harder buy a house. Work hard, get promoted buy a bigger house.” He couldn’t think beyond these simple cycles of Work hard, get promoted buy car, buy house and again go back to work hard. So the mind said – “Ok! you would get retired one day doing all this, isnt it?” What after that? Why are you going to do all this? What is the purpose? Can’t one survive in smaller house? Can’t one be happy in smaller home? Can one go beyond becoming a CEO? What next? Is there an end to your carving? Is there a full stop? Why are you doing or planning to do everything? What is driving you? He slept questioning this to himself.

    He started asking himself – “Why I do what I do?” “What is the purpose of my life?” He came and asked me – “Dada (elder brother in some Indian languages), whats happening? Why we run around, except filling two square meal in stomach, do we have any bigger goal in life? Is there something beyond the physical world that we should strive for?”

    I asked him – What is the purpose of your life? He said – “I wanted to be an engineer, now I am completing engineering. Next thing came in my mind was a job. Thankfully I got that too in campus interviews, but now I am questioning myself what next? Why? How? What for?”

    I told him – there are various reasons you are running from one goal to the other. These can be put in bigger buckets such as – emotions, social acceptance, materialistic wealth. I cannot say why you wanted to be an engineer but when you set that goal you attached your emotions to that goal – you were “Happy” or you got a “sense of satisfaction” when you achieved it. Than that was in your hand, you didn’t bother about becoming an engineer – because you were doing engineering and there was no way you couldn’t get it any further. So your mind wandered – what next? The next thing came to you was social acceptance as in, job security. Than materialistic goal of car and home and bigger cars & homes. Your mind kept on pursuing these thoughts – that is great. Most of the time people never think beyond first level (“of owning a car to what next”) of these thoughts. But it was good that you could somehow get confused and couldn’t get to the end of your running around. Even if you think you would be satisfied, happy and socially respected when you get something, become somebody that happiness or satisfaction will be short-lived.

    Green-PastureI added – let me try to put these in further perspective – when you decided about a goal you feverishly ran to just get their. You missed the pasture in the race by just checking the milestones – “how much is left? Instead of enjoying the beauty of where you were standing.” I believe purpose of life is not just running from one point to the other making them as your goals. If you think of doing this; your goal will always be a moving target. No doubt you should have some or the other target, why not? But the purpose of your life should be being in present, staying satisfied with whatever you have, doing what best you could do to achieve your goals and yet you should not be feverish about your targets. When you die, you will leave everything here – your Hyundai Santro or Honda City or for that matter the big home you think you will buy when you are 55 (perhaps 34 years in the future!). You know Krishna said in the Geeta –

    कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
    मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ २-४७
    Romans
    Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,
    Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani
    Meaning –
    You’ve a right to perform your prescribed action, but you’re not entitled to the fruits of your action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results your activities, and never be associated to not doing your duty.
    ———————————

    So just do things, enjoy your journey, dont be feverish about collecting flags, batches or medals. Because whenever you have some medal as your goal, your subtle wish is happiness or satisfaction of getting that. So, basically your purpose is more to be happy or be satisfied. My learning in all these years has been – happiness and satisfaction cannot be achieved while your mind runs outside. You can be happy and satisfied when you are in the NOW.

    Your purpose in life can be anything – set the target, plan and execute. Why worry about future, be in the present, be happy and satisfied. Happiness and satisfaction lie in the present not in the future not in achieving the goal.

    Disclaimer – Please do not make a goal of bothering anyone else. Actually teachings of many religion – a very strong teaching of  Jainism – is not to harm others. So when you set a goal (or try to make a purpose of life) do not set it as killing others becoming a e.g. terrorist, at least consciously.

    Purpose of my life – be Zorba the Buddha. Be in the present, enjoy life to the fullest and yet be completely aware about it. It is not something to be achieved, it is something to be lived. That is what I think “enlightenment” is.

    This is an LBC (Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog post, check  Ramana Uncleji’s take on this weeks topic here and another perspective from Shackman uncleji is here Link.

    Image source -Target https://pixabay.com/en/target-goal-business-icon-logo-1151287/

    Dream – http://clipartzebraz.com/files/1/24044_dream-clip-art.html

    Pasture http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I00008ApAOrqwYQI/s/900/900/Green-Pasture.jpg

  • MBA is not about Money, Blazer, Arrogance







    Recently one of my friends – Krishna Kranthi has written a novel – “MBA is not about Money, Blazer, Arrogance“. Generally I don’t read fiction but the title of the novel made me read it. It is an interesting read and good authorship for a first time novelist. I liked it so much that I almost completed it in single reading. Many MBA students feel the same as the protagonist in “MBA is not… “. Only a few not only think but also write about it. Yet only a few not only write but also live the lessons learnt through this soul search, Krishna is one. Take an example – whatever small profit earned through the sell of the novel would go to an NGO. A very noble cause – who and how many think and act like that?

    In the novel, the protagonist asks pertinent questions. The protagonist – somewhat confused and a lot more explorer – is trying to search for the real purpose of the MBA. If I take the freedom to extend the realm – searching for the real purpose of life! The book is very good read for all students (not just MBAs) – it may help them find the objective for doing what they are doing?

    When I am writing this, I am reading “Globalization and its discontents” by Prof Joseph Stiglitz. I see through these books and connect the two things. I realized that there are more things beyond the ivory towers of AC rooms and excel sheets of calculations (as we MBAs are generally absorbed in). That something is – the drought stricken Marathwada Maharashtra (read Mumbai mirror Sunday 17th feb 13) etc. There is hope, there is opportunity for all of us to think beyond our own small goals. The opportunity to do something good for the society as a whole.

    —-
    There are two kinds of people. The Preservative and the Transformer. The Preservatives are trying to protect the status-quo, while the Transformers are trying to do something new update / innovate / improve and do something worth for self and society.

    I see a transformer in Krishna a different fellow who is different from the preservators. Who has asked few core questions for education (MBA). I think readers can find their own selves in the protagonist of novel and do some soul searching while reading the novel.