Business to the Buddha

Tag: spirituality

  • 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.

  • Melting pot







    I am sure when we read the title we all will speak about culture and nation. My take apparently is no different. India as a country, culture and in terms of way of life has been a melting pot of thoughts. If we look at Mahabharat time – there were many kingdom fighting from one side or the other in the war. The range goes from present day Afganistan to South East Asia and Kerala.

    Afganistan reminds me of Bamiyan Buddha statues. The smaller statue was so big, check photo (sourced from Wikipedia), that a man standing at the foot measures only till the ankles. The statue reminds me of Gwalior fort Jain tirthankar’s statues. No wonder, when I saw them some had disfigured heads.

    The Buddha was basically from Nepal. He came to India for his quest of spirituality. India at that time too, was a confluence of different ways of life. Buddha studied with same master’s who were worshipers of fire, some teachers were of Yoga and Indian philosophies. After learning so many things we was still not self realized. After six years of hardwork, following many different teachings – including fast he was emaciated and almost on the verge of death. That day he was enlightened. Lord Mahavir was his contemporary – he had a different teaching. Both the teachings blended in Indian culture.

    Indian culture basically accepts many different approach of spirituality and religion. The best blend you can see is Bhagvad Geeta. It talks about Bhakti, Gyan, Dhyan and Karma yoga etc. Every chapter in the book is a type of Yoga – yoga means addition. What does a melting pot do – it mixes everything. Right? That is what Yoga is. I have written on Yoga earlier too – including a debate and court case in the US – whether Yoga is Secular or no!

    The question on secularism moves me to another dimension of India. We are secular, and in last couple of years Indian intellectuals (apparently others are equally intellectuals but are considered lesser) have returned awards for lynching of a Muslim Indian citizen. It was a sad incident in the state of Uttar Pradesh during Akhilesh Yadav Government (Samajwadi Party, which apparently is more Muslim centric political party). Recently, another lynching happened – a police officer was killed – muslim Indian citizen – in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, this time state Government is a coalition with BJP (more Hindu tilting political party). Last time the intellectuals returned awards, this time no one came forward! This is all economics of power.

    Economics reminds me of an interesting fact of Indian politics. The best economists – Mr Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram – came up with farm loan waiver in last decade. When a non economics expert can understand that it is not a solution why a renowned economist takes such a decision – a melting pot you see. The decision was a confluence of politics in economics.

    All the above thoughts are in a melting pot here. My thoughts mostly are  multi-directional – so this blog moves from socialism to capitalism and spirituality to business etc. The melting pot includes few dreams I have – one is here, add to it wish to help Sindhutai Sakpal‘s Orphanage, Art of Living foundation projects and rainwater harvesting in Malwa region of MP. I wrote to one District Magistrate, never received a response, not even from CM’s office – is this a participative government?

    Melting pot was this week’s LBC topic where Maria, Rummuser, Ashok and Shackman write weekly. You can visit their blogs and read their thoughts on the topic.

  • Resonance







    We were sitting in chairman’s room of a big corporate house. He had gifted me a signed copy of a book written by his family member – the book was related to work, spirituality and family life. I wish I had met the author once, because the book is on aspects of life which I am exploring. The book has a straightforward message similar to Bhagvat Geeta – work is worship and how to achieve a content life even after being fully involved with material world. I had been writing for close to 6 years now on spirituality and business, this was the first time I had met a Chairman of a successful and listed company who spoke so eloquently on spirituality.

    During our discussion I asked him, how does he balance spirituality and work? How can he pass on the message of spirituality to his line managers, executioners’ et al? This question was in my mind because when a person has basic needs fulfilled (shelter, food & clothing) then only he/she may think of higher pursuit in life. So, it sounds tough to send the message of spirituality, work, and growth and still balance in life to those who are struggling to make ends meet, isn’t it?

    His response was pretty interesting. He asked me – “Have you studied Physics?” I said yes. He continued – “So you must be aware of resonance” He further added, “we all are made of same energy. So laws of physics apply to all of us. If someone reaches the resonance frequency of source (s)he starts resonating on the frequency. It does not require for an object to know physics to resonate on its natural frequency, isn’t it? This is how message has to be communicated; this message does not require reading books spirituality, if environment is conducive person learns. That is how the message goes to every level.”

    It was interesting to speak with him, he spoke about business, spirituality and added another dimension to my thinking – science! Even if a person is atheist, the natural law of physics will apply to him; gravitational force will pull him down, right? That is how spirituality is, it does not differentiate. Spirituality is the science which is essence of everything, even if one believes or follows any religion.

    I believe when more and more people become spiritual, the organizations and economy will take a more interesting turn worldwide.

    PS – What is resonance? Every material has its natural frequency of oscillation. Once another object oscillating in same frequency comes near this material, the material starts oscillating or comes into vibrational motion.

    Note – this is more than a year old article published after modification.

  • Religion Vs Spirituality







    There is nothing as “versus”, there is no fight. It is always “and”, togetherness a company. It is our perception that creates this division. My first impression on the title “Religion Vs Spirituality” was this. This was the title for last week’s LBC (Loose Bloggers Consortium) topic. You can read other LBC authors opinions here – Rummuser and Shackman.

    spirituality-vs-religionIt was a Diwali weekend so I came home and thus the delay. Wish my readers a very happy and prosperous Diwali and hope you inhaled less polluted air this Diwali.

    The title for this week was interesting, I met my art of living teacher Dr Shrikant Agashe; and asked him how he would define religion and spirituality. His answer was very clear and straightforward. He said – “There is some Truth, what that is, one does not know. Spirituality is experimenting and finding the Truth without getting biased; religion is accepting a path which is suggested by others with faith (and with perhaps assumptions) and trying to fine the same Truth.” In a way there is less opportunity of trials and exploration in religion whereas spirituality is full of experiments.

    I went on a very different line to define spirituality and religion. Excuse me for my words but this is how I defined it – Spirituality is like love and religion is like sex. There can be sex without love, but love has every flavor beyond sex too. Spirituality is like love, it can exist without religion. Spirituality is the essence of our existence wither religion exists or no.

    I reviewed couple of websites on evolution of religion and came to understanding that the Abrahamic religion (Christianity, Jews and Islam) and Eastern religion (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism et al) started / started evolving / documenting the teachings about 2500 BCE. What is a religion? It is “a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally followed by its followers”. In the end, what remains or leads religion to the end is spirituality.

    According to some sources religion word is originated from Latin religare which means “to bind”, again a Latin words religio which means obligation or bond. This makes religions to be exploited such as present day terrorism is mostly based on interpretation (or misinterpretation) of Islam. There are religions that are no less than businesses. In many cases religion is distorted to such a level that it seems more of an organized crime. Thus, to sane people it becomes more important to either not get bound to the religious dogmas or experiment and find out own’s interpretation, way of life or truth.

    My take – The religion binds makes things (rituals) as obligations whereas spirituality liberates. That is where we may say versus. Yet, religion is a set of path followed by many (and suggested by some masters) towards spirituality towards liberation.

    Image source – SlideShare

  • Permanent happiness – Favorite Season







    My Favorite Season will be a season or a moment when everyone finds out his / her purpose in life. My favorite season is the one when we achieve Permanent Happiness.

    How often have you seen dragging yourself going from one thing to the other, from one place to the other and doing it because you “have” to do it. You do things because those are either social obligation or because these are required for survival. How many times – many of us – do things because you “want” to do it.

    A time when everyone of us is doing what he/she wants to do we hopefully will see more constructive world. A world where if it rains it would be the best thing that can happen, if it is chilling winter it would be good and summers would also be enjoyable. Thankfully, I have witnessed almost every harsh season – almost flooding rains, harsh summers and for a short time, almost 0 degree winters. Even with these seasons, I could not find my favorite season, because when it was summer I was waiting for rains or winter, during rainy days I waited for sun to show up and so on. If we are not satisfied inside we cannot be happy. May be permanent happiness is a mirage!

    It has been a quest for some years for me to identify the purpose of my life. After my MBA, there was a mail in my mail box – Manager Marketing for a liquor brand.

    I asked one of my professor’s – “Sir I received this mail, should I give it a try?” happiness

    He in return asked me – “do you feel excited about it?”

    I said – “Sir I am a teetotaler, I do not encourage people drinking.”

    He said – “Don’t even apply there. This job does not sound aligned to your personality. I am not saying you cannot do good work in this organization, but even if you do awesome in this role, you would end up losing yourself on your principles. It would make you dissatisfied in life.”

    His point was – identify what you “want” to do, not what you “have” to do. There may be situations when answers are not straightforward – I want to do marketing. The job is for marketing. You will have to be more specific in that case – “Ok, not marketing of tobacco or liquor”.

    Once I had been offered a similar situation. There are three businesses, online gambling, jewelry ecommerce and some other if you had money where would you invest? I selected jewelry ecommerce even though on all calculations I could find online gambling offers the biggest opportunity in terms of RoI (Returns on Investment). The person asked me why? I said I would not want to compromise on my principles, I do not encourage gambling and therefore even if it offers me better returns I would not consider this business.

    If all of us can make rational decision on what we enjoy doing our works wont remain works, they would become hobbies. That time would be the best time for our society – that would be the best season to live on earth. Is not it? Otherwise – permanent happiness is a mirage!

    This week’s topic for LBC was “My Favourite Season” suggested by Ramana uncleji. As usual I twisted it as per my choice – what I want to write instead of what I have to write. 🙂 You can read other blogs of other Loose Bloggers Consortium members at Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and Lin.

    Image source – http://www.picserver.org/images/highway/phrases/happiness.jpg

  • Millennials and the future







    Old days our ancestors used to communicate using sign language. Historians have found out wall painting in many civilizations and have discussed about usage of sign languages. We humans evolved, grew and became intelligent so started speaking, reading and writing when languages were born. Or perhaps the signs were difficult to remember over a period of time, thus language was born. We have evolved. With time, a lot of developments have happened. Now we communicate across the globe.

    Development happens in cycles, so now after so much of development we have again started speaking in sign language. We call this sign language – smiley. Many a times one has to refer to the ‘dictionary’ to understand what is the meaning of that smiley. Specially that is the case with older generation (I am a part of that). Millennials are different species – well that is how media, marketeer and many people think. Millennials understand these sign language with ease. Though as per definition I should be part of millennials but I dont understand the sign language.

    Many studies state that Millennials are different compared to the older counterparts. I am of the opinion that every generation is more evolved compared to previous one. Generation of my parents were busy settling down. My generation is little adventurous, millennials are freer, more connected and apparently they have more concerns for society.

    There are many studies on Millennials, because they are going to be the biggest spender & biggest target audience for marketeers. Some studies say that Millennials are more concerned about environment, more connected, driven by sharing, more inclined towards social justice & balance and are more spiritual than religious One study. Now organizations also care for CSR, however shallow that could be. Hopefully this will be true one day – let them fake CSR until they make it. I am sure millennials will make this transition sincere with time.

    When I read about millennials I thought in another direction. Sheer size of this generation is making us note these characteristics. Of course these are key traits of this generation, but still the sheer volume is making us notice this. There must have been people in previous generation who had similar thoughts but the numbers, perhaps the ability to measure was less at that time. There are very contrary analysis also done – Millennials less spiritual and less religious too, Millennials less religious but more spiritual either these are really contrary findings or it has been the norm for generations; earlier it was not measured now it is.

    Yuga – Sadhguru. Isha Yoga

    According to Indian philosophy, the generations evolve, this happens in a cyclic fashion. Yes perhaps therefore we are moving towards spirituality now. I came across an interesting video by Sadhguru on this same thought, the video is not available now but the article is, read it here.

    If I try to connect the dots of what Sadhguru said and that of characteristics displayed by the millennials, we are likely to see a more interconnected society and more compassion and empathetic time to come. Wish my this prediction comes out to be true and terrorism stops, not by guns perhaps by the power of interdependence.

    This was last weeks title for LBC, unfortunately I could not write last week as I had two sessions on IPR – one for faculty development and one for startups those two sessions took precedence over my weekly commitments. So I missed writing. Read other’s who write on LBC here – Rummuser, Shackman.

  • Our Ego Vs the Universe!







    I have written on ego earlier, actually a couple of times. I received this video on Whatsapp found it interesting so thought to share it on my blog – The universe is so big and thankfully we know this now. Still we create our own world due to our ego – Size of the Universe

    The world we create around us Vs our size

    The source of this video is unknown to me currently.

  • We are no different – Up or Down







    I am watching the highway from my hotel room at 6th floor, a bird flies just at the same level as I am currently. What an interesting sight that is – cars (and humans within) are down on road however fast they can drive and here up about 60 feet from the ground a bird is flying effortlessly. More interestingly I am able to witness all this in an AC room without any qualm of weather and being at a foreign country. The birds are not worried about the height they achieve while flying, unlike humans who care too much for the high’s their company share, fast pace of growth of their wealth et al. At times we humans do not even bother to play with numbers to show these growth figures which are fudged.Toshiba

    This weekend I read in the Economist that Japanese company Toshiba was involved with accounting fraud for last 7 years. In this duration there were 3 different CEOs, all let that happen. Where has it not happened – USA (Enron), India (Satyam) and Japan (Toshiba) sure there must be big/small cases everywhere in the world. I always had high regards for Japanese system and people – but Toshiba has let me down. The inference is same – many people are shortsighted. Here Keynes should not be blamed for making a comment – “in the long run we all are dead”, his context was different.

    The problem with corporate world is (specially with listed companies) the CXO and board is more interested in showing quarterly results over the long term. In fact, the plague of living quarter by quarter comes down to the sales associate level too. If they want their bonus or incentives they too hPoor on footpathave to jack up their sales numbers. How they do it, can be a different topic of debate.

    Such incidents let me ask the same question again and again – What more you need? When will we stop? Are the markets – that govern these listed companies – moral? And why do I think about these things?

    The last question to myself lets me relate us – Humans – to the character of Ice age – Scrat. Scrat is running behind its one corn seed and it is unending running for the same for last 4 series. We are the same – whether we become a CXO of Toshiba or just a daily wages worker on the streets of Mumbai – who has to think of this ability to feed his/her family tomorrow.

    My take is only one fold – Until we merge whole of human life (include business, economics, science, politics etc) to spirituality we would see the kind of frauds happening.

    This blog relates to LBC (Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog topic but not exactly the same – Up and Down. Though I was supposed to write on that topic last Friday but could do it today. Other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok,  gaelikaa,  Lin,  Maxi, Padmum,  Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

    Image source – Toshiba executive – AFP Link, Rediff Indian Poverty figures

  • Bhakti






    The Buddha only spoke about scientific path of liberation – Meditation. According to Indian philosophy there are more ways, one is Bhakti or devotion. Remember Meera bai, Meera bai followed Bhakti path?in_union_with_krishna_oq05

    I was speaking with someone. I said I recite Hanuman Chalisa but find it very strange. Hanuman Chalisa is a prayer/song/devotional hymn for Lord Hanuman (Foreigners know Hanuman as Monkey god of Ramayana’s time).

    According to Hanuman Chalisa, Hanumanji suggested Vibhishan (brother of King Ravana) to go to lord Ram, thus Vibhishan became king of Lanka after Rama defeated Ravana.

    तुम्हरो मन्त्र बिभीषन माना।
    लंकेश्वर भए सब जग जाना॥

    I never liked this part of the Hanuman Chalisa (statement). What I know is – Vibhishan suggested Ravana that Ravana has done wrong and Ravana should make amend. Ravana does not listen to Vibhishan and ostracize him. Vibhishan knew what is right and wrong. He made his choice to be on the side of Rama in the war. I dislike Tulsidas (author of Hanuman Chalisa) giving credit to lord Hanuman for Vibhishan’s choice and decision. I would not question on Sugriva‘s anointment though.

    At times, I have reservations with these prayers where we keep on praising the lord with a result in mind. “Please give me this thing or that thing.” Effectively we are making a business deal with them an example is Ganesha’s aarti – http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_ganesha-jai_ganesh_jai_ganesh_aarti.php which seems more of a business than a loving relationship.

    My this hesitation was broken by one Art of Living Bhajans. I had seen (almost met) Guruji – Sri Sri Ravishankar – in 2003. But I did not do the course for 1.5 years because I felt “My Guru will have time for me, he (Sri Sri) has a lot of followers.” My sister forced me into the course. Besides the interesting method – Sudarshan Kriya – I learnt in the course, what I loved was this bhajan, link below. It has “no demand”, it has “no praise” either. It just repeats one name of lord Krishna.

    This is real Bhakti in my definition. I love this bhajan – no request, no appeal, no begging and no demand. This is Bhakti – whatever you want to confer, confer; it is your wish/will. I am reciting your name no matter what, no matter in what situation you keep me. That is the other path for liberation according to Indian spirituality.

    Hari Hari || Chitra Roy Art Of Living Bhajans

    Image source – http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Pvuexh7J1Cs/S–9pMcpNaI/AAAAAAAACUU/7c7rmt5eIbY/s1600/in_union_with_krishna_oq05.jpg

  • Drop meets the ocean







    In 2006 I was new to Mumbai city, when I met Anisha. She was studying in 9th standard. My distant relative asked me to meet her and guide her for preparing for IIT-JEE (I’d prepared for JEE too). When I met her, I felt as if she has accepted the things the way they were. I scolded her for the lax attitude and said – “…this is the problem with Mumbaikars, they accept the things and are comfortable in traveling in crowded trains, getting pushed etc. Why you people get angry when outsiders come here and make good money? Outsiders are new and they may feel uncomfortable and they would want to have a car instead of traveling in crowded trains. I never catch train, because at times it hurts my ego!..”

    When I was new to Mumbai, I tried avoiding crowd, traffic and trains. The way people told me & what I observed – crowd and packed trains was actually amazing experience in itself. Well, over a period of time, I got used to traveling in local trains. Though mostly I traveled the opposite direction of traffic so that was not that painful to me.

    Recently, my wife joined her office. She had heard stories of packed trains as any new person hears in Mumbai. She was scared to travel. I had tried to help her travel in most comfortable trains – starting from our nearest station, early morning and first class etc. However, at the time of dropping her at station I realized this –

    Drop meeting OceanIn whatever circumstances when one becomes a part of the crowd and goes with the flow, he/she does not need to make way and things just happen naturally. One can get in the trains effortlessly and get out also effortlessly. This analogy is similar to drop meeting the ocean or drop become the ocean itself. An individual is drop and the crowd is ocean. A very spiritual connection I could make, however incorrect it may be in terms of example. When an individual becomes part of the bigger consciousness, he/she may leave his/her ego!

    I dont know what conspired (God knows inspired), Anisha has completed her Engineering and now pursuing her Masters from a good university in the US. She is becoming somebody not part of crowd (nobody).

    Image source – https://www.flickr.com/photos/alex_hill/4010380393/