Business to the Buddha

Tag: religion

  • Cast(e)ing doubts – Color of skin







    This blog is in the series of blogs on – against – the caste system of India. Though this blog is on a Western Social Challenge. I wish some day we would value people on their

    Capabilities and not Caste
    Action and not Ancestry
    Character and not on Color of skin

    That we all connected there is no two (non-duality) no big vs small no higher vs lower. So let us first understand what is one of the challenges before we reach there.

    —

    We first bought National Panasonic Cassette recorder and player in 1991. I was 11 years that time, I started listening to songs specially – Mukesh, Lata and Michael Jackson. Being a Hindi medium 6th grade student English was literally a foreign language to me. But, who heard MJ for lyrics the music was enough. When I came to know about Michael Jackson’s plastic surgery I came to know about the racial issues out side of India. Well, I was young so never thought about racial discrimination. In 2007 I watched “To kill a mocking bird” and heard speech “I have a dream” of Martin Luther King Jr. That time I realized how deep rooted the problem of discrimination was. Than in 2008 Obama won, seemed as if there is a hopeful positive movement, how much? I cannot comment on that, I have never been to the US.

    Recently, I watched a movie Invictous. This movie is based on true incidents in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was elected as President of SA. SA organized rugby world cup in 1995. The idea was to bring black and white people of SA together – through the language of sport. Those who are from countries where Cricket is played might remember that in 1992 South African team again joined international cricket. Reason – in 1970s ICC removed SA cricket team due to racial discrimination “Apartheid“.

    One of my friends later told me about Muhammad Ali, that Ali was a born Christan but changed his religion. Well, I rarely enjoyed watching boxing so was mostly unaware about the greatness of Muhammad Ali, anyways. When I heard about he changing religion I went one step beyond. I felt that we humans would remain like that. Currently we are fighting on supremacy of religion. Each religion has different sub-sects Muslims has Shiya and Sunni etc, Christans have Catholic and Protestants etc, Buddhists have Hinyan and Mahayan etc. Jains has Digambar and Shwetambars. Hindus? Well we have many sects and many caste based devision. In future we would fight on supremacy of the sub-sects (currently too that happens Syria, Iraq, Caste system in India etc) What we need as humans is increasing our consciousness we all are born equal – as humans. We need to respect each other as humans. Next if you need to value someone more and other less. Value him or her on

    Capabilities and not Caste
    Action and not Ancestry
    Character and not on Color of skin

    And of course other qualities rather than somethings on which a baby may not have control e.g. color of skin and caste of birth etc.

  • The dog and the fox







    Assume (as few may not believe in rebirth) that someone died as a Jew and born again as a Muslim. The soul has only did one thing – changed sides from one HATE group to the other. Remember Jews and Muslims have conflict in Palestine, I am not an expert on international politics so please do not take these statements as expert opinions – concentrate on the moral.

    Please understand – I do not intended to hurt any particular religion or ideology, it was just a story which I read and liked the message – We have enough religion to hate but not enough to love.

    —

    Just to make my point, here is some related story. This is a story I read today (on my old blog account), liked it so here is the story as a blog. The story is from a book titled “The Prayer of the Frog” volume I, By Father Anthony de Mello publisher Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, Post Box 70, Anand-388 001. India.

    We really have so many Beliefs to hate or create identity but rear for love – ‘unconditional love’, or sometime Humanity. We have a lot of things (and religions) – shouldn’t we have little Humanity in us!

    The dog and the fox

    A hunter sent his dog after something that moved behind the trees. It chased out a fox and corralled it into a position where the hunter could shoot it.

    The dying fox said to the hound “were you never told that the fox is brother to the dog?”

    “I was, indeed,” said the dog. “But that’s for idealists and fools. For the practical-minded, brotherhood is created by identity of interest.”

    Said the Christian to the Buddhist: “We could be brothers, really. But that’s for idealists and fools. For the practical-minded, brotherhood is created by identity of beliefs.”

    Most people, alas, have enough religion to hate but not enough to love.

    I used to blog in 2006 also. This blog is from that blog post. Though I did not continue blogging there (at that time the interface was not that evolved for me).

  • Sai kaka







    I met Sai Kaka about 4 1/2 years back. He is from Sangli, a city in Maharashtra.  I read a book on him (in Hindi) Pooja Ka diya and quickly had an opportunity to meet him. I was  impressed with his straightforward and practical approach. Take an example Sai Kaka says “Religion is an individual choice, in groups it is not a religion but a community and where there is community there can be communalism!” What we see in India or world over, maximum wars are fought over in the name of religion, right? More about Sai Kaka is on his website. The most important lesson he taught to me was this –

    Sai KakaSanskar yukt chaitanya jab (संस्कार युक्त चैतन्य जब)

    1. chintan karata hai to usko chitt kahate hai (1. चिंतन करता है तो उसको चित्त कहते है)

    2. manan karata hai to usko man kahate hai (2. मनन करता है तो उसको मन कहते है)

    3. nirnay karata hai to usko buddhi kahate hai (3. निर्णय करता है तो उसको बुद्धि कहते है)

    4. asmita ka bhan karata hai to usko aham kahate hai (4. अस्मिता का भान करता है तो उसको अहं कहते है)

    inme se sansakar nikal jaye to jo bachata hai vo shuddha chaitanya hai (इनमे से संस्कार निकल जाए तो जो बचता है वो शुद्ध चैतन्य है)

    This in English means –

    When a conscious filled with rituals (or say the lessons learnt about ‘way of living’)

    1. thinks we call it mind (imagination)
    2. contemplate we call it Mind [there is a difference between Chitt and man which I am not able to translate in English]
    3. makes a decision we call it intellect
    4. perceives pride we call it Ego

    Now when the rituals or ‘way of life’ learnt, get out of this conscious mind, what is left is the pure consciousness.

    It means “pure consciousness” is blurred by our different (Sanskara) learning about life. Therefore in some cases religion becomes a problem.

    Thanks to http://www.quillpad.in I could write in Hindi and http://hindi-english.org for translation help.

  • Ideas Vs reality







    Recently found an interesting story in a book – ‘The prayer of the Frog’ by Father Anthony de Mello, S.J.. The story I am referring here is from ‘The prayer of the Frog – Volume 2, Page 113, Part – Human nature

    A group of tourists, stranded somewhere in the countryside, were given old rations to eat. Before eating the food they tested it by throwing some of it to a dog who seemed to enjoy it and suggered no after effect.

    The following day they learnt that the dog had died. Everyone was panic-stricken. Many began to vomit and complained of fever and dysentery. A doctor was called in to treat the victims for food poisoning.

    The doctor began by asking what had happened to the body of the dog. Enquiries were made. A neighbour said casually, “Oh, it was thrown in a ditch because it got run over by a car.”

    The author concludes –

    Human beings react, not to reality,
    but to ideas in their heads…

  • 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!

  • Business of religion!*







    The first message we heard in the class of Brand Management of Professor Ram Kumar, was “It is an eco-system…”. An entangled, closely knit or perhaps confusingly mingled ‘Eco-system’. Econ-system of brands, products, product variants (variants are very confusing, no doubt) and bombardment of marketing messages (communication). Here everyone wants to say that our product is the best using different channels and different language. Hum! it sounds very common, right? So common that we overlook it.

    In another class of Marketing we were asked which is the oldest business in the world, still running successfully? I (when I say ‘I’, literally I) responded ‘religion’. Every religious institution says our religion is better (perhaps the best) than others and is the only path for salvation. Walmart, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Tata or Reliance might exist, or not, for 1000 years but for sure we will (and had) many religion for 1000’s of years and we will have them in future too. Why? Because – religious institution sells itself on emotions. Even without learning any Marketing concept, religious institutions learnt that emotions should be hit directly to let people decide emotionally and justify rationally.

    Let us talk about the channels they use. It is similar to what we learn in distribution channel or managing supply chain. ‘Retail store’ of Religion or distribution channels are found everywhere, and finances? Well there is no limit to it (find it for yourself – a recent News in an Indian Newspaper The Hindu or Google search for $ with any major religion of the world…). Every religion has a source of income this source of income germinates from the EMOTION we talked earlier about. Yet there is a lot to learn from religious institutions, learning the administration, Marketing and distribution channel and much more, is not that true?

    Personally, I am a strong believer that religion plays an important role in building and binding society. Religion is a path wherein you have to follow the traffic rules. If you do not follow the rules you are likely to meet with an accident. What is the question of saying rules of left hand drive better than right hand drive? The rules are there to avoid accidents and make the journey safer and easier. When I say ‘firm believer’ I mean the rules taught by the religion, and not the comparison of one to the other.

    Well, not only for business but also for being righteous person we can learn a lot from religion!

    * Conditioned applied – Thoughts presented here are my own and learnt from different sources, I do not intend to hurt any sentiment or question any religion.

  • The line of understanding







    I heard a story that a person was ready to change his religion because of the strange rituals followed in time of demise of someone in the family. The question to ask at such times is – Are we meant for systems or systems are meant for us?

    A mobile operator and a credit card company did the same with me. I always paid bills on time, at times in advance! Yes, I paid 1/3rd of my credit limit in advance. The problem with them was they did not listen to my problems because of an error in their system! Yes, ‘paralysis of system dependency’ – I would call it – could result in loss of business. I have also heard and witnessed in some cases – not invented here! and cannot work in this setup, type of comments. The reason for such limited thinking is our dependencies and self imposed limitations. I recall one of my senior facing similar situation, told to the client – are tum karo to sahi, bad me dekhenge kya problem hai. (You just do it we will analyze if there is any problem). He could say this with confidence because he knew what works, what is going to work and importantly he was not the part of the system.

    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? Answer is to

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

    We resist change – because we have become inured to our system. See what is happening in case of banking reforms in USA. The situation is dire, yet reforms seem to be a tough nut to crack.

    How long are we going to depend on systems and follow the system till death even if systems are not supporting our cause? Were systems made for making our life miserable? Well, I am not asking to rebel against systems, what I am giving a thought to is – why not critically look at why we are doing what we are doing and question our assumptions. These questions and issues if not addressed correctly create rebellion such as hippie movement.

    What I could see is – There has to be two lines drawn, one between system and understanding its short comings and the other is understanding and rebelling against the system. I would call that line ‘the line of understanding’. More on this in future when I take information age Vs other ages.

    I know this all seems a very weird connection, starting with religion, talking about my personal experience, challenge of a consulting assignment and then banking reforms and lastly to hippie movement! The reason I found is – in the end we all are human being, and everything connects somewhere. The need is to learning to see (oops its a title of a book on LEAN, which I have not read yet) and yes questioning assumptions.