Choose your God!

If you think you're born into a religion, and your parents tell you which God to pray to, you're wrong. If at all you believe in God and praying, remember that you have to make your own God. You have to choose your God, and pray. Here are the most common Gods to choose from:

List of Gods you can choose from:

POWER.

               WEALTH.

                               POPULARITY.

                                                      BEAUTY.

                                                                     KNOWLEDGE.

                                                                                             STRENGTH.

                                                                                                                 LONGEVITY.

                                                                                              MAGIC.

                                                                      SUCCESS.

                                                      VICTORY.

                               HEALTH.

                 HAPPINESS.

LOVE.

Now, after you have chosen your God, stand on one leg, stop eating and breathing, and grow long hair.

You have a sure-fire way to achieve your goal, by the grace of your God. And by the way, tell God that you will give back half of all you get, because everyone requires a little incentive!!!!!

The Bull @ Isha

Oh eternal male of the blinkless vigil, 

Supreme in profile, with crowning horns,
Ever watchful of all company-
Devotees by day and spirits at night. 

Resolute,
With never a nibble of distraction,
Nor even a nod to the tamarind tree
That coyly holds her own watch around.

Shiva hugs his snakes no doubt,
Ensconced in his resonant cave-
Yet he loves your readiness and strength.

The fire dancers and cymbalists march,
Bringing Bhairavi every dusk to light up your space,
With chants and swirls, leaps and more.
Some way indeed to cool you, baked all day in the sun! 

The constant cascade of bathing waters doesn't tempt you
To move away for a dip.
Nor the cackle of happy children
Stirs you from your post-
Not even a swish of your tail.

Those are the only two sounds in your world
Except the war cries of the spearmen. 

And the burning camphor quietly dilates your nostrils. 

You are mightier than the huge granite blocks and columns.
You are a match for the yonder hills.
Your eternal watch is the breath of Isha.

Reptilian brain

This is an artistic creation made of metal that hung on the wall in our Isha cottage in the Velliangiri campus of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
The Sadhguru has spoken of a reptilian brain located inside the human skull base.  This brain deals with our instinct of survival and attack.  A fundamental animal instinct of aggression.

I think this structure eminently depicts the action of the reptile in us. It snakes and crosses method and structure,  all modern concepts of civic society. The reptile takes short cuts and breaks traffic laws. It bribes to get things done. It cheats and sacrifices trust. It thinks of here and now and profit first.

How many people would vote for India's national creature to be the crocodile! More than the elusive tiger, the fancy flier peacock, the reptile stands for the Indian of today. At least about half of all Indians, who have managed to fight and acquire and protect their wealth.

What do you say?

A mad rush called Bangalore

This Navaratri, especially this weekend,  a few hundred thousand (my guess is half a million) young and middle-aged Bangaloreans including all of my family have travelled out to near and far places for the long weekend or festival season or to be with their families.

Last night some 50000 people took buses in a mad chaos of Volvo's from Shantinagar stand. See the picture I clicked.

Bangalore welcomes educated people from all over with nice jobs,  fine weather and all sorts of fun. Hundreds of colleges in Karnataka provide technical education for a hefty fee. Result: a huge population of people who are in Bangalore and nearby only to earn and make a career. Their families and interests pull them away for holidays.

Thousands of taxis and autos ply these folks to bus stands and railway stations all the time. Apart from the thousands of cars running shuttle commute trips round the clock for outsourcing hubs.

You can call this the new economy. I call this the mad rush called Bangalore.

Alternative Ramayana

Ramayana, like most of our epics, shows men fighting, and women pining or suffering. I feel it is time for an alternative narrative. So here goes the key part of Ramayana as told my way.

In the forest, Rama, Sita and Lakshmana were counting the months and years. Seasons came and went. The flowers, fruits, smells, sights, and animal migrations all were showing them the passage of time. Sometimes time felt heavy on hand. Sometimes time was fleeting.

Ravana, the bad one, had his eye on Sita ever since he had lost in the Swayamvara. One day, a day to be made unforgettable in history, Rama and Lakshmana had gone away for hunting and gathering. Ravana had bided his time for this moment. He came to the hermitage. Disguised as a sanyasi, he approached Sita for a piece of pickle. Yes pickle. You see, Sita was excellent in making Vadu Mangai pickle. She picked the best tender mangoes of the Palghat region from the lot the brothers brought, carefully pickled them in earthen jars baked from the Telengana  loam, spiced with choicest rock salt from Seemandhra and chillies of Byadagi. She used only the highest quality of turmeric from Sringeri region, hand-pounded of course. And the til oil came direct from Rayalaseema. Don't laugh. These wonderful ingredients existed in these places long before the states were formed on linguistic lines. They were thriving jungles full of opportunities, much like the southern states today are in times of election.

So Ravana asks for a piece of pickle. Sita sees behind his mask right away the evil ten-headed demon. You know there is an old saying: feeding a half-penny worth of buttermilk to the ten-headed (=ten mouths) Ravana. Even giving him so much pickle would be OK, but the fact that the demon came in disguise aroused suspicion. Pretending to use a hunting knife as a spoon to prise the pickle from the earthen jar, she quickly slashed Ravana's false beard, also hurting and damaging his nose in the process. Screaming in pain, powerless to hurt the pure soul that was Sita, Ravana showed his true colours and fled. He fled directly to his sister Shurpanakha, the evil demoness who was the absolute boss in his kingdom of Lanka. It was a byword that she basically ruled and Ravana was allowed to buy and run aircraft and beer companies for fun. In other words she did not believe that ten heads were better than one.

When Shurpanakha heard about the pickle misadventure, she was incensed. She wanted revenge, and wanted to teach the two hapless brothers and the woman a lesson. She descended on the hermitage, aided by her uncle Mareecha who came dressed up as a golden jewelry show room. The moment Sita saw it, she entered the showroom and lost all count of time. Meanwhile it was a trifling matter for Shurpanakha to abduct the two brothers, left helpless in the absence of the lady of the hermitage, under the pretext that there was much better hunting and gathering to be had in Lanka and they would be flying back well before Sita had finished her jewelry shopping.

When Sita came back, only to discover what an elaborate hoax the whole set-up was, she was livid with anger and drowned in tears, missing her beloved husband and brother in law. She immediately went in search, and found their bows and arrows discarded from the air just above Kishkindha. Tara, the monkey queen, told her of the two brothers flying away with Shurpanakha in the sky and how they dropped their weapons as a trail.

Tara summoned her monkey army, and Sita and Tara built a huge bridge and finally engaged Shurpanakha in a fierce battle. Mandodari, Ravana's good wife, stood on principle that abducting the brothers just as a revenge for the denied Vadu Pickle was a bad deal and immoral and illegal. She deserted Shurpanakha and joined Sita's side. 

The battle was won and Sita and Rama ruled their kingdom happily ever after.

Gold

This is my email to Gurumurthy after I read his article (reproduced at the end)

Dear Mr. Gurumurthy,
I have heard your talks and read your articles and carry a deep
respect for your scholarship and elucidation of many key ideas. Thank
you for your commitment and highly relevant outpourings.

I do of course have many points to debate/discuss with you about gold.

Gold is obviously a unique element, heavy, shining, and immune to
tarnish over long periods of time. It is an ideal metal for ornaments.
Movies like Gold Rush and Mackenna's Gold show how people don't mind
killing each other as gold prospectors.
Gold's value for mankind, built up over several millennia, make it a
great material for specifying exchange value in transactions. Hence we
have gold coins and gold standards etc.

Hindus, an ancient civilization, combined all these ideas and promoted
concepts like Hiranyagarbha, Lakshmi being the goddess of wealth, and
worship of gold. It is purely a material aspiration and human weakness
for material well-being.

When it comes to human understanding of what constitutes all-round
development, there are three key ideas according to me.
1. Creation of economic value by producing goods and services for
well-being of nations.
2. Skill development for increasing efficiency and innovation
3. Non-covetous, trusteeship as a key concept for entrepreneurs
focused on all-round growth as opposed to one's own aggrandizement.

You are of course familiar with the Upanishadic saying:
Ishavasyam idam sarvam yat kinchit jagatyam jagat
Tena tyaktena bhunjitah ma grudhah kasya swiddhanam

Basically the spiritual goal of human existence, a fundamental value
in Hindu thought, cautions against covetousness. It says by sharing
and growing together (sah nau bhunaktu) we better ourselves as a
nation.

Gold militates against all these ideas. Guess what, Dawood Ibrahim may
have as much gold as our big temples. He gives gold to people to
commit acts of terror. There are Kerala jeweler chains who are
apparently funded by dubious overseas sources. They brainwash people
to hoard gold. And then tell them that in times of need, they should
bring the gold and get mortgage loans. Neither your gold is safe with
these fellows nor are you getting fair terms for your loan.

Pawnbroking is one of the things that broke poor people's back. Now we
are making a modern version of it.

If instead of investing and hoarding gold (and smuggling gold as
ornaments etc. -something done regularly by Indian travellers) we
start creating PRODUCTIVE assets, we will be much better off in the
long run.

Gold, bought and stashed away in lockers, will help in times of
distress. Who are the people with such gold!? Middle class and rich
class. Instead of buying properties, starting small enterprises, and
investing in productive assets they have mistakenly taken the "my
safety first, forget common good" approach by buying gold.

Gold is imported. Gold purchase locks up precious productive assets.
Imagine a day when gold lost its craze and hence its value. What would
happen!? A lot of money will be released for investment. Is that not
good?

I am surprised that you have pointed to the build-up of capital
productive equipment and goods via import as the culprit for our
foreign exchange and reserves crisis. Why do you think India imported
capital productive goods? For creating productive assets. Is that bad?

Now if people buy TVs and computers and mixies and furniture and make
new homes instead of investing in gold, is that bad!? I say no. That
is because the standard of living is linked to consumption of white
goods. Not hoarding gold.

Finally. You have shown how gold has maximum returns on investment.
THAT IS PRECISELY THE ISSUE. In a country where no one trusts
education and industry to give returns on investment, they hoard gold,
and the demand for it will automatically prop up its ROI. THIS IS
SPECULATIVE. Remember you fought against the wrong doings of a Harshad
Mehta because he stoked up false ROI by fomenting speculation. If the
gold bubble doesn't burst, it is not because it is not evil. It is
still evil, but we need a Gurumurthy to fight that evil.

Thank you for your patience in reading this. Hope to hear from you.

Sachi

Gurumurthy's article:

Gold: villain or saviour?

S. Gurumurthy

Gold always glitters

Economists look upon the demand for gold as a barbaric relic. But Indians are aware of its economic, financial, and hence cultural, worth.

The logic goes like this. The Indian lust for gold has caused a tsunami of gold imports. That has dented India’s current account with a huge hole. The current account deficit has brought the rupee to its knees. QED: Gold, which has derailed the rupee, is India’s villain.

Based on this rationale, the Government has renewed the psychological and fiscal war against gold that had been halted in the early 1990s. But is the perception that gold is the main cause of India’s woes on the external sector, right? Is the fall in rupee value due to the rise in gold imports? Had gold imports not risen, would the rupee value have not fallen?

A scrutiny of the numbers reveals that it is the unprecedented capital goods import of $587 billion in nine years of UPA rule, red-carpeted by the UPA with tax cuts and zero-rated tariff structures, which disfigured the current account with a total deficit of $339 billion.

The damage to current account from net import of gold ($161 billion) and oil ($515 billion) seems far less. Besides disrupting the current account, capital goods import has sent the nation’s growth into ICU (See ‘The elephant experts didn’t see, Business Line, September 5, 2013). How is it then gold is demonised as the sole villain? Because modern economics brands gold a “barbaric relic”.

Double trouble

Modern economists and the Indian people seem to operate on two different paradigms with regard to gold. In the modern West, gold is more a state asset than a private possession. Gold constitutes just three per cent of family wealth there, but a third in India. Western states, socialist or capitalist, expropriated all private gold during the last century. Even the liberal US outlawed private gold in 1936 and built official gold reserve of over 20,000 tonnes by 1950.

Modern economics views gold as an uneconomic, wasteful, private investment. But traditionally, in India, gold has been the preferred asset of the rural masses who hold 70 per cent of the nation’s stocks. Indian gold habits clearly mock at modern economic theories.

Market Oracle, a UK-based market analysis and forecasting online publication, captures the relation between India and gold thus: Indians own 20,000 tonnes of gold worth $1 trillion — almost half of India's GDP. For Indians, gold is not just money or asset; it ensures the financial security and stability of families. It has religious overtones. More than a commodity or money, it is integral to the warp and weft of family life. Investments in gold and jewellery are indistinguishable. Jewellery is the working capital of families; families collateralise it for commercial borrowing.

Some 13 per cent of Indian families, more from rural areas, borrow against gold as collateral; while rural India borrows from the unorganised financial sector, urbanites access bank loans. The authors of Market Oracle seem to understand India’s family-gold nexus better than Indian policymakers. Yet, despite such a paradigmatic difference, economic laws on gold based on the Western experience are continuously being tried out in India. Result: the establishment hates what the people love.

Signs of rethink

However, there are indications of rethinking now. Echoing the Market Oracle logic, the Reserve Bank of India Working Group to Study the Issues Related to Gold Imports and Gold Loans by non-bank financial companies under K. U. B. Rao (January 2013) says that “demand for gold appears to be autonomous and a function of several influences and factors that may not be strictly amenable to policy changes” — an admission that gold demand ducks economic theories and policies.

Again, says the study, “gold demand is price inelastic” — meaning gold buying does not reduce if prices rise. It warns that if the official supply of gold is restricted by import curbs or extra taxes, “the buyers take recourse to unauthorised channels to buy gold”.

Now, recall that India had banned gold imports for almost four decades till the early 1990s. But smugglers ensured an unfailing supply. Result: the gold economy functioned underground, generated black money and, in turn, was funded by black money. The Government’s dislike for gold did not make Indians love gold less.

Keeping the the bitter past in mind, the RBI working group sensibly acknowledges that it is impractical to restrict the import of gold. Does it not mean then that the UPA government’s present measures to make gold imports costly would only make smuggling gainful? If the Dawood gang can land deadly explosives on Nariman Point with ease, will it find it tougher to bring in gold?

Hoodwinked

But, are Indians fools to have invested in gold as the economists would have us believe? No. Actually, gold seems to have fooled the economists. The RBI working group study finds that gold has outperformed stocks and bank deposits in the last five years — more than three times over Nifty, six times over bank deposits and 10-year government bonds. Only gold, no other asset, has so consistently beaten inflation.

The average inflation during 2001-02 to 2005-06 was 4.7 per cent but gold yielded 9.2 per cent — almost double. The average inflation for 2006-7 to 2010-11 was 6.7 per cent but the yield on gold was 23.7 per cent — three times plus. Average inflation for 2012 is 9 per cent but gold returned 33.5 per cent — almost four times. Traditional India intuitively seems to understand the value of gold.

Says Y. V. Reddy, a globally celebrated central banker: “The real purchaser of gold is typically a peasant.” Close to 70 per cent of gold jewellery is sold in rural areas and most gold sales are by way of jewellery. To quote Jeffrey A. Franks, “Holding gold has, in fact, often in history served, from France to India, as the only way the peasant can protect himself against inflation and the vicissitudes of politics”.

Finally, while trillion dollar gold is the real asset of the Indian masses, the trillion dollar stock market capitalisation is the phoney wealth of the Indian classes, dependent on the QE announcements of Ben Bernanke.

Sensible advice

The RBI study, therefore, sensibly advises increased monetisation of gold — to make unaccounted gold generate accounted money. It suggests setting up a bullion corporation for lending against and refinancing gold, and pool and trade in gold stocks. The study commends encouraging gold loans by banks and non-banking institutions.

This is what traditional pawnbrokers have been doing for ages. The State began curbing, instead of registering and disciplining, private moneylenders. The hope that banks would replace them has been belied. An RBI study found that in rural lending the share of institutional agencies declined from 64 per cent in 1991 to 57 per cent in 2002 and the share of the rest rose to 43 per cent, with that of moneylenders, from 17.5 per cent to 29.6 per cent – up by 70 per cent.

In the liberalised financial regime, private moneylending has been rising. Evidently, banks are unable to match private lenders in reaching the needy. The study recommends registering private moneylenders.

Now look at what the Economic Census 2005 says about how 41.2 million non-farming businesses of India — over 60 per cent of which are owned by OBCs, SCs and STs — are financed. These millions of businesses employ 102 million people. Yet only 9 per cent of their capital needs are met by organised finance; 91 per cent is funded by families and private financiers. The undervalued private financial institutions and the discredited moneylenders are the main sources of finance for the largest employment provider of the country. And the collateral for their loans is invariably gold.

Nothing like gold

There is no collateral, stocks or real estate, as liquid as gold in India. How can gold, so valuable a security for productive credit, be dismissed in India as a “barbaric relic”?

The economic establishment wails that gold does not obey its policies. Gold defies government policies because of the disconnect between the polices and the people. Indians revere, not simply love, gold. But the State policies are founded on the economic theories of the West which treat gold like any other commodity for trade and profit. It is no surprise that the theories, which work in the West but not here, project gold as India’s villain.

Yet, gold has emerged as the winner in economics — successfully hedging inflation and beating the stocks and banks. With the unalterable basic facts about gold in India known, the real challenge is how to frame a practical and workable policy for gold and how to ensure that gold imports do not affect the macro economy. Gold buying by Indians is seen as weakening India. But buying is economic power as well — in fact, the ultimate economic power is a nation’s market. Yet, surprisingly, India has not put to use its enormous power as one quarter of the world’s retail market for gold. India has to strategise and use its huge market to overcome the weakness of its people for gold. How to do it is the challenge and a topic by itself.

(The author is a commentator on political and economic affairs, and a corporate advisor.)

 

Chaitanya's Magnum Opus : Shikshashtakam

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ((1486–1534 CE) is a rare star in India's spiritual firmament. He gave up the scholarly approach to pursue God through infinite, constant Bhakti. Just before his passing, he composed these eight verses as his final and total precept to his disciples to pursue the path to God realization... his path of Bhakti.

शिक्षाष्टकम्(मूल संस्कृत)	Shikshashtakam (English)
चेतोदर्पणमार्जनं भव-महादावाग्नि-निर्वापणम् श्रेयः-कैरवचन्द्रिकावितरणं विद्यावधू-जीवनम् । आनंदाम्बुधिवर्धनं प्रतिपदं पूर्णामृतास्वादनम् सर्वात्मस्नपनं परं विजयते श्रीकृष्ण-संकीर्तनम् ॥१॥	Let Sri Krishna sankirtana be ultimately victorious which cleanses dust off mind, extinguishes the formidable fire of repeated birth and death, glorious like rays of the moon, gives life to knowledge, increases the ocean of bliss, has every word sweet like nectar, makes everybody holy.॥1॥
नाम्नामकारि बहुधा निज सर्व शक्ति- स्तत्रार्पिता नियमितः स्मरणे न कालः। एतादृशी तव कृपा भगवन्ममापि दुर्दैवमीदृशमिहाजनि नानुरागः॥२॥	O Lord, you have filled your many names with all your power and these names can be remembered any time. O God, you are so kind to do it but I am so unfortunate that I don't love your beautiful names.॥2॥
तृणादपि सुनीचेन तरोरपि सहिष्णुना। अमानिना मानदेन कीर्तनीयः सदा हरिः ॥३॥	Assuming ourselves smaller than straw, being more tolerant than trees, devoid of pride and respecting others, we should always sing in praise of Sri Hari.॥3॥
न धनं न जनं न सुन्दरीं कवितां वा जगदीश कामये। मम जन्मनि जन्मनीश्वरे भवताद् भक्तिरहैतुकी त्वयि॥४॥	O Lord of the universe, I do not desire money, followers, women or poems. O God, I wish to have causeless devotion for you in my all births.॥4॥
अयि नन्दतनुज किंकरं पतितं मां विषमे भवाम्बुधौ। कृपया तव पादपंकज- स्थितधूलिसदृशं विचिन्तय॥५॥	O son of Nand, considering me as your eternal servant and bound in this ocean of birth and death, please show your mercy assuming me as a dust-particle in your lotus feet.॥5॥
नयनं गलदश्रुधारया वदनं गदगदरुद्धया गिरा। पुलकैर्निचितं वपुः कदा तव नाम-ग्रहणे भविष्यति॥६॥	O Lord, when will the tears of my eyes fill my face on taking your name, when will my voice choke up and when will the hairs of my body stand erect on reciting your name?॥6॥
युगायितं निमेषेण चक्षुषा प्रावृषायितम् । शून्यायितं जगत् सर्वं गोविन्द विरहेण मे॥७॥	O Krishna, in your separation, a moment looks like ages. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain and all of this world seems meaningless.॥7॥
आश्लिष्य वा पादरतां पिनष्टु  मा- मदर्शनान्मर्महतां करोतु वा। यथा तथा वा विदधातु लम्पटो मत्प्राणनाथस्तु  स एव नापरः॥८॥	Whether He embraces me as a devotee of His feet or not, whether he appears before me or not, whether He accepts me as his own or not, the naughty Sri Krishna is my Lord and no one else.॥8॥

An Open and Shut Nut case

My wife is a big user of fresh coconut in all our South Indian cooking. In fact, her mother had shared a proverb with me long back: "With Coconut and Asafotida in the kitchen even a monkey can cook!" I am also a big believer in coconut dishes, especially coconut chutney and Avial. So you can well imagine that we grate a lot of coconut, almost on a daily basis.

Let me correct that last sentence. I grate coconut a lot, as a token of my help in kitchen and to ensure we never have shortages. And that brings me to the technical theme of this post.

You see, we are still looking for the perfect coconut grater. Looking at strong coffee-colored, muscular Kerala men and women,  I think their well-being is as much owed to coconut tree climbing as to grating coconuts. I have seen in coffee table books and fancy cookery titles enticing pictures of ancient royal, coconut graters. My wife, an M. Tech engineer, has a clear idea of how the ideal coconut grater should be designed. But we are nowhere near perfect with what we have.

When the last one, an old reliable, died out meekly, I set out to buy a great grater. After much searching all over, I bought one (see picture) at an enterprising Marwari store in Thippasandra. When I told the owner that I might bring it back for refund or replacement if rejected by GHQ, he told me that I should tell my lady to make do with what she got. I told him he didn't seem to understand either coconut-graters or women like I do.

Anyway, whereas this grater is doing quite well, thank you, my wife has continued her search for the perfect design, inspired by what she saw in someone's house. When we went to the said shop in Gandhi Bazar, the shopkeeper showed us items much deficient in quality and engineering, and looked totally disinterested in selling a grater. He reminded me of my neighbour who has lost all interest in coconuts since his doctor told him coconut kernel is rich in cholesterol. (science bit: coconut, being a vegetable, has zero cholesterol which is an enzyme produced by animals). 

Anyways. In order to stabilize my coconut grater situation, I decided to replace the poor quality horizontal holding bolt and nut (see the picture) that held the blade with much wobble. The wobble contributes to acute dissatisfaction in the grater (here I mean myself) and constant cribbing in the kitchen. So last Sunday, I set out in search of a bolt and nut of quality.

My discovery was shocking. Tens of hardware shops, and none sold nuts and bolts! They sold fancy bathroom fittings and paints etc., but no nuts and bolts. Some small shops that resembled scrap dealers showed some rusty pieces, but nothing of engineering excellence. Someone told me to travel all the way downtown, an unlikely prospect since I was already squirming at the auto fare to Thippasandra.

Then I had a lateral thought. Such a lateral thought resembles freshly grated, soft, sweet and succulent coconut. The thought was: Why not try an auto parts dealer?!? I moved at once, at the speed of light, to the nearest dingy Auto Parts shop where a very knowledgeable salesman attended to me in five seconds with the right item.

So in the picture you see the long bolt with three washers and two nuts, doing a wonderful job of the "Open and Shut Grater Blade" task. No wobble, no pain.

Ever since, I am a happy man with faith restored in mankind. No wonder they call the coconut tree as Kalpavriksha, the wish-fulfilling tree.

Total expense: two trips to Gandhi Bazar market taxi fare Rs. 800/ PLUS auto fare for Thippasandra trip Rs 60/-. Cost of bolt and two nuts and three washers Rs.3/-. 

To be on the safe side I also bought a matching JK spanner, an original duplicate that cost me Rs 30/-.

Remembering Gandhi

On 2nd October 2013, we celebrate Mahatma Gandhi's 144th birthday.

After a 38 year-long working life in international techno - marketing, after some excellent college years in IIT and IIM, after working for over 34 years with global technology leaders and multinationals, I am now firmly grounded as a Gandhi admirer. It is also true that I subscribe to his religious beliefs in the Gita and prayer.

Now I am able to see- if you know what I mean- what we have done, and what we have seen as a result of this great progress, and it shows beyond doubt that Gandhi was right on so many points. Let me list only a few.

1. When I see Fiji mineral water in convenience stores in Chicago, I realise we don't understand how we can manage to purify and drink water locally, and we ship bottles of water in non-recyclable plastic round the world.
2. The way we live, we burn LOTS of fossil fuel. Just so we go, sit in front of computers, and make phone calls around the world to fix a telephone bill error or a credit card payment statement. One little example of globalisation.
3. We make deadly arms.  We give them through illicit trade to dubious leaders,  who in turn poison and kill their own people.  And then we take bombers and flatten the cities of these bad people, of course killing lots more people. All in the name of peace.
4. We tell our children it is more important to come first in class tests and not important to look around with wonder at what we call our world. That it is more important to prepare keenly and destroy our competitors (=enemy)  than to find a way to live life better as fellow citizens. That it is more important to dream and realise your own future than to think of others and how you can make them happy.
5. We want cheaper and cheaper goods. Like pencils from China and polyester sarees from Taiwan. Really sorry our neighbourhood small-time industrialists and weavers committed suicide.
6. We want to live on the 24th floor, in a futuristic urban township. It is our own flat bought at a crore rupees (25 year loan at 12%). Oh,  our small home in our old town,  we sold and it was pulled down for scrap. They cut down all the coconut and mango trees for development.
7. We are truly religious. We worship Devi during Navaratri,  and Skype-call our dear ones doing garbha dance in Shiva temple, Toronto. They migrated there long back as it offered much better life than this backward country called India. They are global citizens.
8. I just read that young Indian metro professionals of both sexes have alarmingly high  cardiac, hormonal, and orthopaedic disorders because of their changed life-style. They are all our nation's pride- IT and techie professionals. They went to engineering and other advanced courses paying hefty fees, to get good jobs in big name companies. Our country is proud to have such  high quality professionals. About their health and social problems,  we will surely do something. Chains of corporate hospitals with FDI are coming up at a location nearby.

Why I eat with my hand

Read this link:

http://www.rasikas.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=21996

My post there :

Guys
Here is my simple common 21st century sense of why we eat with our hand/s.
1. Eating with my hands makes me more sensitive to food.
2. I wash my hand before eating and so am more mentally prepared to eat.
3. The human hand has an incredible range of manipulation and movement so cannot be matched by any cutlery.
4. I can eat solid, semisolid and liquid food with my hand.
5. I save on material wastage.
6. What I feel with my hand assures me I won't eat poorly cooked or dangerous food.
7. The size of a cupped hand approximates the capacity of my mouth.
8. I won't eat too hot or too cold food.
9. Washing and cleaning, making and buying cutlery wastes precious resources.
10. If I eat with my hands I will better remember the meal I ate and what foods I like and I don't.
11. Half the joy of a banana leaf meal is eating with the hand!

No fool like an old fool

 (Photo from: http://allhomosapienswelcome.wordpress.com/category/archaeology/)

Hearing the word 'retired?' a dozen times in the past few days has set me thinking.

But of course there is something even worse than that... 'Haven't yet retired? Why not?'

As they say, there is no fool like an old fool. The biggest resistance man can ever put up is that resistance to reality. The reality of your growing older but not wiser!

Being around but not being wanted. Being ready to be heard but others want one better not heard.

You know what is the worst tyranny?

"Look we need you to do some things for us, but you're not that wanted otherwise."

Bhaagyaadaa Lakshmi Baarammaa- an interpretation

                                              (Melukote Yadugiri Nacchiyaar or Lakshmi)

This Purandara Dasa song is nearly as famous as JagadOddhArana. Sung usually in Madhyamavati, this creates an auspicious atmosphere right away at home or in temples. it is a must-sing item in any South Indian wedding. It is included in any Dasa composition concert or any Carnatic concert held on Fridays, auspicious for Lakshmi. 

Here is a link to the MSS version. I give below the correct lyric as I understand it.

bhAgyAdA lakShmI bArammA nammammA nI sau
bhAgyAdA lakShmI bArammA

hejjaya mele hhejjeyanikkuta gejje kAlgaLa dhvaniya madutha
sajjana sAdhu pUjeya vELege majjigeyoLagina beNNeyante
(bhAgyAdA)

kanaka vrStiya kareyuta bAre manakE manadA siddhiya tOrE
dinakara kOTi tEjadi hoLeyuva janakarAyana kumAri begA
(bhAgyAdA)

attittalagalade bhaktara maneyali nitya mahOtsava nitya sumangaLa
satyava tOruta sAdhu sajjanara cittadi hoLeyuvA putthaLi gombe
(bhAgyAdA)

sankhye illAda bhAgyava koTTu kankaNa kaiya tiruvuta bAre
kunkumAnkite pankaja lOcane venkaTaramaNana binkada rANI
(bhAgyAdA)

sakkare tuppada kAluve harisi shukravArada pUjeya vELage
akkareyuLLa aLagiri rangana cokka purandara viThalana rANI
(bhAgyAdA)

The literal translation would be that this song is welcoming the gracious goddess of wealth and prosperity to come and reside in our home, showering us with gold, gifts and plenty. Lakshmi is also praised in the song as the consort of Rama (=Janaka's daughter Sita) and the consort of Vishnu.

Whilst our desiring and praying for plenty is a common enough theme for lots of Hindu prayers, I have often thought about what this song could mean to someone not craving for materal well-being. Does one still pray to Lakshmi then!? Like many other songs of Purandara Dasa, I believe this song also has two levels of meaning -the material and the spiritual. People who don't want to be bothered with the esoteric would be quite happy to pray for gold and goodies. But shall we look a little deeper here!?

In school, I was taught a shloka in the Sanskrit class. It went as "udyOginam purushasimham upaiti Lakshmi.." The idea was that when someone strove hard with focus and efficiency, Lakshmi or prosperity would smile on him. In fact the shloka admonishes one not to simply depend on Fate but to strive hard. Even if one fails then one wouldn't wonder if it was for want of trying. So the two necessary conditions for success are effort(preparedness) and grace(opportunity).

So opportunity knocks for the brave. And one can get immeasurably rich in worldly terms, as so many success stories illustrate. Everyone knows that being at the right time in the right place is important, and a good amount of luck seems to work in some people's favour. But unless one strives with focus and efficiency, one will also surely lose any such lucky windfall, again as so many real life stories tell us.

But is prosperity all of the material kind only? I am very much in agreement with Osho when he says that there is inner wealth and outer wealth. He says some are rich externally, but poor within. And vice versa. What he means is that if one cannot see the ultimate futility of material wealth in fulfilling the abiding goals of human existence, and pursues material wealth as the only goal all his life, one is poor within. So one stops running after external wealth when one aquires inner wealth. However, Osho agrees with Abraham Maslow that unless one finds material peace and prosperity, it is extremely unlikely or difficult to start working on inner richness. There are exceptional people like Kabir and Nachiketa who did not crave for material wealth despite their humble station in life. They had the rare insight to see that inner wealth and well-being were what really mattered and worked for it, not caring to better themselves in external terms. Such examples are the exceptions that prove the rule that inner poverty will go only after outer well-being. The more common model for an aspirant on the spiritual path is Buddha, born a rich prince only to see its futility and embrace the begging bowl and become a mendicant. So also the Hindu way of life which extols Dharma and Artha before Moksha.

Now let me give you the alternate, higher meaning of this prayer, in my own mind:

bhAgyAdA lakShmI bArammA nammammA nI sau
bhAgyAdA lakShmI bArammA

Oh mother of mine, goddess of prosperity, please enlighten me on the true meaning of prosperity! (Remember another word for prosperity is Aishwarya or the attribute of Ishwara=God! So unless one moves godward, there is no true prosperity).

--------

hejjaya mele hhejjeyanikkuta gejje kAlgaLa dhvaniya madutha
sajjana sAdhu pUjeya vELege majjigeyoLagina beNNeyante
(bhAgyAdA)

My godward path is made up of small steps, slow and steady. And the truth of the all-pervasive godhood will dawn on me much like the butter inherent in curd manifests itself when churned. That churning is the form of true seeking, true prayer, and may I be granted the inclination to true prayer. 

---------

kanaka vrStiya kareyuta bAre manakE manadA siddhiya tOrE
dinakara kOTi tEjadi hoLeyuva janakarAyana kumAri begA
(bhAgyAdA)

Oh mother mine, please show my mind its true potential, the potential to rise above the mundane and reach its fulfillment. 

---------

attittalagalade bhaktara maneyali nitya mahOtsava nitya sumangaLa
satyava tOruta sAdhu sajjanara cittadi hoLeyuvA putthaLi gombe
(bhAgyAdA)

Oh mother, once firmly established, my inner wealth will be so resplendent that I shall not swerve from the right path to godhood.

---------

sankhye illAda bhAgyava koTTu kankaNa kaiya tiruvuta bAre
kunkumAnkite pankaja lOcane venkaTaramaNana binkada rANI
(bhAgyAdA)

All materal wealth is subject to counting, and that means it can grow as well as diminish. The true wealth is inner wealth, beyond measurement, beyond increase or decrease. It is self-complete and total.

---------

sakkare tuppada kAluve harisi shukravArada pUjeya vELage
akkareyuLLa aLagiri rangana cokka purandara viThalana rANI
(bhAgyAdA)

This godly nature is more sweet than any eatable, it is more lovable than any person. it is more beautiful than anything else. God is the true essence of all beauty, all prosperity, all love. That is your ultimate grace, oh mother! Please grant me that grace, please come home to my inner being.

----------

Three Highlighters

Have you read the two interesting books of Edward de Bono : Six Thinking Hats, and Six Action Shoes?
They neatly categorise situations and thought processes and action modes, which in turn help you to deal with your responses to situations better.

I have thought of my own threesome : Three Highlighters.

Have you noticed that the major issue in human communication is the issue of mistaking the words to be facts when they are actually opinions, and rumours to be facts or opinions? And how information, which should be largely facts, is obfuscated? Take this gossipy news item:

But when will Ranbir REALLY open up about Kat? RK keeps his cards close to his chest!Our 'Besharam' lover boy Ranbir Kapoor is a man of virtue, at least his recent actions with regards to his lady love indicate that he is. Ranbir has allegedly spilled the beans on his chemistry with Katrina Kaif and their pictures with her in a bikini while holidaying in Ibiza. He doesn’t deny seeing Kat, but has kept mum about their marriage prospects. However, he recently mentioned that he wants his children to play football. Does this mean family is on Ranbir Kapoor's mind?
However, it is possible that Daddy Rishi Kapoor will interfere in Ranbir's decision to get married. He has said, “My son can date anyone till he gets married!” It looks like RK is caught in a tug-of-war between his parents and his lady love.
Rumour has it that mommy Neetu Kapoor allegedly frowns upon her son’s relationship. An insider alleges she is suspicious of Kat’s somewhat questionable past in London and her initial struggling days in the industry. Will this relationship survive the scrutiny? Only time will tell.

Now this whole thing seems to be a factual scoop and makes exciting reading for people stuck in beauty parlours or dentist offices.

But if I were to highlight these words with pink for rumour, yellow for fact and green for the writer's opinion, here is how it will read:

Our 'Besharam' lover boy Ranbir Kapoor is a man of virtue, at least his recent actions with regards to his lady love indicate that he is. Ranbir has allegedly spilled the beans on his chemistry with Katrina Kaif and their pictures with her in a bikini while holidaying in Ibiza. He doesn’t deny seeing Kat, but has kept mum about their marriage prospects. However, he recently mentioned that he wants his children to play football. Does this mean family is on Ranbir Kapoor's mind?

However, it is possible that Daddy Rishi Kapoor will interfere in Ranbir's decision to get married. He has said, “My son can date anyone till he gets married!” It looks like RK is caught in a tug-of-war between his parents and his lady love. 

Rumour has it that mommy Neetu Kapoor allegedly frowns upon her son’s relationship. An insider alleges she is suspicious of Kat’s somewhat questionable past in London and her initial struggling days in the industry. Will this relationship survive the scrutiny? Only time will tell.

So whenever you read, or listen, use Three highlighters. That will help you to separate rumour, fact and opinion neatly!

Kashi - the Illustrious City

I simply share three screenshots, the first the cover of a fascinating book (2009, Cambridge Scholars Publishing). The second, its dedication, and the third, the lithograph done of the Kashi Kulpuldhara Talao ghat in by the incomparable James Prinsep done in 1834).

( You can download this from Wikipedia in original resolution 3487 x 2364 pixels)

Puranas: connecting the dots

Have you thought about why the Puranas are full of such a fascinating array of stories of gods, demons, men and life all around us? How the Puranas narrate all kinds of incredible happenings in a tsunami of emotions, ambitions, deeds of daring, conquests and dashed hopes? How rishis turn errant men and women into stones, ashes and worse? How a Bhagiratha struggles for eons to bring the divine river Ganga to earth? How heroes and heroines are born in strange circumstances to fulfill esoteric destinies!?

There is this expression - connecting the dots. As Steve Jobs says, one can develop a sense of fulfillment by connecting life's dots. Quoting his speech at Stanford:

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

So Puranas help us to connect the dots. We encounter similar people and personality types in our everyday life, and we can imagine how these very people resemble the Puranic characters. But the Puranic narrative helps us to understand how these people will interact with one another and eventually with life at large. That gives us a unique sense of life and our own destiny.

Take the example of Ramayana. There is Rama, the powerful and rule-bound prince. There is Ravana, the powerful, rule-less and ruthless demon. Their story is made even more interesting by the sweet and helpless Sita, the scheming third wife Kaikeyi. The self-abnegating Bharata, the extraordinary Hanuman. The reckless Shurpanakha, the totally ineffectual Dasharatha. We may talk of curses. We may talk of twists of fate. We may talk of strokes of good luck and bad luck. But eventually the narrative simply connects the dots of possibilities and potentials with actualities, how life pans out. If we have the imagination, we will not take the story literally, but understand how it connects the dots!

If Puranas are so powerful, then we are lucky we had good story tellers in those rishis who narrated them. Imagine if they were like the TV Soap storytellers of today. These storywriters commit unpardonably bad acts of omission, commission, concocting coincidences and crazy occurrences, simply to prolong their employment contracts and the serials tenure= number of episodes. 

There are some extremely ugly serials wherein a bad man becomes good, gets murdered, and another  bad man as an imposter takes his place. They both look the same, act the same, but one is the duplicate. And hapless heroines get married to the wrong men all the time, thanks to the schemes of absolutely wicked other women.

Someone was seeing a popular serial. Seeing that a lovely young character simply missed the chance of telling others an essential piece of fact by a whole week, thereby prolonging everyone's misery, they screamed, "oh why doesn't Anandi tell it out just now... Why do it a whole week too late..!!!!" I said, "because the story writer was waiting for his bonus."

When man nurtures nature

India's defective gene: attitude to women

First things first. I don't think this is just India's problem. Other cultures, definitely as I have found in literature from the Far East, the major Semitic religions, and Hollywood movies, have depicted in various ways similar issues. But I shall confine myself to India because that's my intent here.

I strongly feel Indian culture and civilization has been unable to develop a viable attitude to man-woman  relationships or the role of woman in society. One can argue that the problem exists because of wrong attitudes to man's role. But I feel the issues are much more easy to enumerate about women. Hence this post. 

Perhaps we can look at a woman's life in three phases. That of the girl. That of the woman. And finally of the mother.

Girl-Woman

From ancient legends even to the TV soaps of today, it seems a girl grows up to marry and raise a family. She is VERY clearly cut out in India to grow up to be beautiful, well-mannered, artistic, cheerful and finally marry into a worthy family and bring them good luck. 

There are stories in Ramayana and Mahabharata where young girls were hot-tempered, intelligent and adventurous. They did not have happy marriages. They had a lot of adventure, but lots of trouble. Take Kunti. As a youngster, she served a sage well and he gave her five boons, to call up Gods to come and give her children.She called Surya, Dharma, Vayu, Indra, and Ashwani twins, and got six children. Her marriage to the human Pandu was ill-fated. The rest is the story of Mahabharata, where her sons had to fight a terrible war to claim their rights.

There is also the story of Draupadi, who was born from fire. She had a swayamvara, her hand was won by Arjuna. But she had to marry and live with five brothers. As if this was not enough, she had to suffer miseries all her life.

I show here a wonderful Raslila Phad painting on cloth. Yes, Radha and gopis were divine lovers of God Krishna. That is the eternal dream of every woman. But it immediately throws us back to this topic of a defective Indian gene, since I feel such a poetic conception could emerge only from our defective genes! Mira, Andal, Akkamahadevi all fit the same mould.

Stories of Sita, Shakuntala, Damayanti, Subhadra, all show that one great way for a woman to progress in life is to marry a man whom you love, but surely that is not a recipe for happy marriage or great motherhood. Because all of them had huge troubles in their lives. 

Sita is a wonderful case in point. Her husband was the epitome of righteousness. His brother was also a hero showing great devotion to her. She went to the forest, and when her husband went missing, she couldn't bring herself to trust her brother in law. She thought he was secretly lusting for her! She paid the price, being abducted by a lecherous demon. Her husband went and killed him, but refused to accept her back as his wife unless she went through a trial by fire. Afterwards, he found it inconvenient to have her as the queen since she was not a role model for the home-bound woman. And so on. What a story!!!!!

One can argue that legends highlight exceptional stories to make a point, and the average girl may actually have a great life although she is not interesting enough to be the protagonist in legends. Maybe. I can't argue. But despite some great exceptional stories of Gargi, Maitreyi etc, venerable scholarly Vedic women, I do see a clear pattern that a woman's principal role from girlhood has been depicted in India as one of a home-maker.

There is nothing wrong with that. Even in nature, the female of the tribe raises the family and holds them together. How will the species perpetuate otherwise? But by doing this, the female is clearly defined as for a special role in society. 

The problem turns out when you go out and educate girls to become doctors, lawyers, CEO's, journalists, social activists, and career women. How will you now reconcile the changed social circumstances they face with the code, I call it genetic code, that expects them to be only home-makers?

Mother

Inconvenient stories even here. Kunti has to go to elaborate lengths to secure from Karna boons to save her 'legal' children. One can argue that she was punishing Karna's wrong choice of company, but in the first place if she had not abandoned him, he would not have been in such circumstances!

Take Dasharatha's three wives. One is a helpless onlooker when her son is wrongfully sent to the forest. The second is even more helpless since her son follows his elder brother. The third is a young, beautiful woman who uses her hold on her husband to secure boons to help her own son by wronging the eldest, rightful heir to the throne. A case of great calamity due to a mother's miscalculation follows.

What about Krishna's mother Devaki? She was imprisoned just after marriage as her demonic brother heard an oracle that his end would come from her eighth son. Things came about exactly that way, but she lost her first seven new borns to the sword and her eighth son did all his delightful childhood pranks in someone else's home, while she rotted in prison. 

A mother is to suffer. However silently. For her son. (No significant stories of daughter).

Now how about how about the Goddess, the ultimate role for a woman?

Goddess

Lakshmi was born during the churning of the ocean by gods and demons. She was extraordinarily beautiful, ready for marriage. She was immediately asked to select a husband. She chose Vishnu, and lived happily ever afterwards. Can't be a role model for anyone really.

Parvathi has been incarnated just to do penance and win Shiva as her husband. Lots of difficulties come in the way, including Shiva burning down Cupid for hinting at reciprocating her love. But after they are happily married, there are many stories of how she did wonderful things, at the instance of her husband. But one story stands out. Ravana comes to Kailas, and instead of asking for Jyotirlinga as a boon from Shiva, lusts after and covets Parvathi. He wants her to marry him. Some hilarious twists happen, until finally Parvathi is safely back with Shiva. 

Durga, created by the gods to fight the terrible demons, is all fire and brimstone. The Goddess Durga once (here I quote...) takes form as Ambika, the beautiful Divine Energy. Lured by Her celestial beauty, demons Shumbha and Nishumbha,send a marriage proposal to Her, to which She replies, "Only a man who can defeat Me in war will be accepted by Me as My Husband." There indeed is a terrible war but she kills the demons. This story is enacted in every Durga Puja every year as the Goddess is the eternal saviour. This story clearly identifies the flip flop we have between woman and goddess. A good case of the defective gene. So the conception of the Goddess is merely a therapy for India's defective gene!!!!

But coming to the defective gene, if you read Laitha Sahasranama, the first several verses fully describe the physical beauty of the goddess. The poet is doing the same job as Ravana did when he met Sita alone in the forest (read Valmiki Ramayana).  But soon afterwards, this poet shifts gear and says she is so great that Vishnu or Narayana took the ten avataras by emerging from her finger nails.  To my impartial reading, the author is simply displaying the Indian defective gene. I mention also Saundarya Lahari as another example.

We flip flop by deifying women to displaying the defective gene. No wonder from saints to bus drivers and police constables, we commit so many atrocities against women. How we  treat aged women, poor and abandoned, is another story.