Work on your past!

Life is not even and there are Ups and Downs for all of us. When you look back at life and the path you travelled, do you see struggles and pain? Though we cannot undo the path we walked into the present, we could have done better to reach the same ‘today’ and yet feel ‘achievements’ instead of struggles. 

So, here is the question! How to feel happy about the past? How to feel that you had a great past? 

The answer is very simple. Today is the past for tomorrow. Making today as rich as you can, creates a better past. No matter how you have been so far, what lies in your hands now is to give 100% to your ‘Today’.

Look at earnings and not income! To a common man with common thought, income and earnings might sound the same. But, if you carefully think about it, what you save from the income is your earning. Earn also means ‘to gain’ and gain is after you meet your living costs from your income. Life is the same. All that happens today is like your income; what must stay with you for future is like earnings. Choose what you want to spend and forget about today and what you want to carry with you to the future!

Turn setbacks into positive experiences! Struggles that you face today can’t stay with you as pain forever. When you make your struggles into experiences, what stays with you is how it changed you for good. Convert every failure into a lesson and a good habit to stay. There was a time, when I had a very big problem and an astrologer asked me to pray Sun God at the time of sunrise for 48 days. Instead of just praying, I made it a habit to memorize few religious hymns/slokas. I also started walk in the morning and made it a habit. Today, when I think of that problem, I don’t have the pain of the past paint the picture in front of me, rather what made me a better person!

Know yourself! This helps to avoid a bitter present. It is all about today, when you want to create a rich past. Introspect the person in you. See what makes you tensed, angry, react and makes the day stressful to make mistakes. Take for example, a day when you start to work 15 minutes early. You tend to observe lot of people in a hurry while you are not. You stop at the signals properly, give way for people who rush and enter with a smile to work. Compare this to a day when you start 10 minutes late than usual for work. You will experience being in the opposite side of the crowd who are in a hurry, shout at people on the road, try to jump at signals. This can be applied to any event in a day, like a meditation in the morning to start your day, a good exercise, not staying up hungry for long, sleeping early et al. Listen to the person in you and see what keeps your day at peace! 

Reactive tendencies and Creative competencies! When I read this somewhere, I was extrapolating it to how we all have these dimensions inside us. Many a times, I have seen creativity and leadership accompanies people who are early risers. Their first winning for the day is beating the sun by waking up before the sun wakes up. It creates fresh ideas and clarity of thought. I have seen implementers or reactors/adapters to be late sleepers. They find their nights calm and peaceful to implement what they want to. We all are formed by the creative, enterprising and implementation as ingredients but, not in the same proportion. So, the rule can’t be ‘one size fits all’ and it is not just about waking early or sleeping late. Look where you stand and what is the ask of you, seek inside and carve yourself through practices that meets the asks! I am sure this will make a brand out of you!

I don’t want to make this article complete. Rather, even if I try to, I will fail. Life is different for each one of us. Each life is unique. Each of us will have to apply our own techniques to be successful. While the tips I quoted above largely applies for anyone, post your tip to me. Waiting eagerly for it … ! 

The 'NEW' in ME - An Associative Thinking

What am I touching upon in this article? A way to upbring children, the concepts of innovation, the insights of a video that explains how "Om" helps us balance these enrgies [so a little insight spiritually as well]. More importantly I wanted to share an awesome introspection that I went through to realize that innovation is within us always. I also wanted to share. Basically linking all of these :-)

This is a little lengthy but I hope it is a good read. I was reading two different things this month; One on spirituality and One on Innovations. This blog is just a product of my associative thinking of two different nice things that I read last week. This is definitely not written with an intent to advocate/side the Hindu beliefs. But, I am sure every religion has some or the other on these lines to achieve the same goal.

Om [Aum] - A way of interpretation:

Om is considered to be a very mysitc word that has manifold explanations/interpretations. This is one of those. The 3 syllables of Om "Aa", "Uu", "Mm" signigfies Brahm"Aa", Vishn"uu", Siva"mm". It was nice for me to see how the syllables form the ending sound of the names of these Gods first of all. More interestingly, when you utter these syllables separately, you can see the vibrations in stomach when saying "Aa", at chest when uttering "Uu" and at head when you utter "Mm".

The "Aa" that denotes Brahmaa, and that which creates the vibration in stomach indicates our creational force. Isn't that true our energy is created in stomach, may it be the food that creates energy or the birth/life-force that gets created in the stomach. Similarly, the "Uu" that denotes Vishnu, and that which creates vibration in the chest indicates the protective force. True if you think og our heart/control-unit that is held protected by the rib cage in chest? Similarly, the "Mm" that denotes Shivam, which creates vibration at the head indicates the transformational force [not to call it a destructive force. One form of energy gets destructed to create another. So this is a transformational force]. Isn't that true where all thought process of our knowledge/wisdom gets born here [in our brain].

So what this means? When do we succeed or be completly unmatchable. When we are creative, sustain [protect] our creativity and get efficient at it by transforming the creativity manifolds so it reaches all and becomes prevalent to yield us popularity and success. Om [or Aum] is a balance of all of these in us and is within us for people who realize it?

Now, let's go to what "Innovation" gurus classify innovation as:

Growth Innovations takes an offering that was complex, expensive and used by only a very few and turns that into an offering that is affordable, simple, convenient and can be used by many.

Sustaining innovations occur in companies that exist, and their purpose is to develop better products that they can sell for better profits to their best customers. Helps sustain success amidst competitors.

Efficiency innovations typically entail creating a new business model, not new products or services, per se. But these business model innovations allow companies to deliver good products or services much more efficiently.

My Associational Thinking makes me feel these are one and the same. Call it spirituality of innovation "or" Innovation in Spirituality, it gives me the same thinking. The growth innovation that initiates an innovation [or a business model] is the Brahmaa, the Sustaining innovation that protects or maintains the business model's success is the Vishnuu and the Effiency Innovation that transforms/adapts the business model to the newest of new generaions and changing trends is the Shivamm.

Now, to the upbringing of children:

It is said everyone as a child, has some core strenghts by birth. Have you seen some kids being very creative in what they do? They have a high creativity ["Aa"] in them. Have you seen some kids are less disruptive? You give them something to play and tell them how to play, they just do that. They dont disturb the setup and are not naughty, which means they have a high protective energy ["Uu"] in them. And some kids are always disruptive, you give them something they are beyond creative and interpret the given thing manifold with their curiosity and transform them into many things. That's the sign of transformational energy ["Mm"].

This is exactly what we need to observe in them. This helps in upbringing, when you know what your child is good at. In this competitive world, we need the right balance of being creative, sustain success and then transform it into efficiency towards changing trends. Spiritualist say chanting "Om" help the energy flow from the stomach to the brain and creates a balanced energy in your nature through continuous chanting of the same. I am sure, every relegion has something to achieve the same.

I want to keep this article a little abstract, without a conclusion. This message is meant for interpretation by anyone who reads it and I want that observation and inference to come in you without biasing it with my conclusions.

Happy Innovation and Introspection!

-Mani

My Father!

When I opened my eyes the first,

I saw him, a stiff and a huge man;

To me, it was him, at his best,

            Who always had an attitude of ‘I can’;

I used to feel protected, staying in her arms,

            Feel safe being with my lovely mother;

Being with her is so secure and void of harm,

            Who else is around, I didn’t bother!

At first, it was difficult to accept him,

            Commands over me if I wasn’t gentle;

For the mischief I did, he shows a grim,

            Seeing which, I go calm to settle.

I grew up to feel, He is nice by his gesture,

            Majestic, Mature, Calm and Cool;

My eyes slowly turned to him, for his nature,

            Felt if nurtured by him, I can’t grow a fool.

It was too early for me to think about career,

            Though I was too naïve to define role model;

But, after looking at his life with success and cheer,

            I learnt cheer doesn’t sustain if I dawdle.

I have reached many of my dreams,

            Though there was a lot of pressure or stress; 

Handled them easy and cool without any screams,

With his savings, support and bless!

Now, when he transforms his strengths, as he ages,

He neither bids adieu nor feels to retire;

Relentlessly adds value to my life with his adages,

            Proud at his past and my present to admire!

Even today, in the equation of life,

            He covers my minus with his plus;

When the unfilled X and Ys are at rife,

Balances with his math, without any fuss.

Everybody needs a father like the one

            A man who is useful always as he redefines;

And feel, without him life is none,

            Aspires me to be a strong man, yet refined!

Composed By: Mani Jayaram

Date: 13-Nov-2013

Seed: About my father!

Stronger Than Yesterday!

How many times in life, our happiness or satisfaction has come to a halt by looking at peers? Sometimes, we are personally very happy on what we achieved but when sharing it, we show the pride only to people who have achieved less than us? I feel that our satisfaction quotient in life has come down and our happiness quotient has become relative to our surroundings. What should our comparison be on is the key to life and this blog!

Just imagine that you bought a second hand car. How is your tone of communication, when communicating it to a village man Vs a person who owns 2 cars? Say you score 60% on a paper in which you usually fail. You will express your happiness to other failure candidates with a couple advises to them on what they can do, to be you! But you might either not communicate to the class topper or pass it on to him as a news if you have to. Dont you think that we play low with people above us even though our own sense of pride is high on what we achieved?

In the facebook page of A.R.Rahman, I saw a post where an authority judges elephant, lion and monkey on their capabilities with a single test of climbing a tree. Though funny, it nailed a beautiful message. Is there a single measure that can grade all of us? There is no "One Size Fits All" in this world.

Why do we compare? Every living organism subconsciously adapts to the surroundings and thus it becomes law of nature? Our parents [or we as parents] usually compare children with neighbors and ask them to be [or not to be] like them? So it all starts there and we continue it for our life and we pass it on as a legacy to the next generation. Instead of complaining the law of nature, we as humans with the unique sixth sense can overcome it!

Believe in "Stronger than Yesterday"! In effect compare yourself with what you were yesterday. Do this to be safe and successful for the following reasons:

• You know what your life needs, to be better!
• Your surroundings/situations are not same as other person and thus you cant apply his way or doctrines!
• You are the one who knows your plus and minus better. So the only one who can balance your equation is you!
• Beware! A wrong upper limit of "Becoming Einstein" can make you run for your entire life without achieving it.
• Beware! A wrong lower limit of any other lazy/failure person, will take you "no where" as you will achieve your goal sooner and feel contended.

All life's EQUAL and each life is UNIQUE. Each of us have a job to do and we do it in our one way. It could be taking you UP the ladder faster/slower based on how you approach your tasks. Please note that I just mean NO to comparisons and not learning by seeing others. Life is not too long to punish ourselves for what we are. We will have to bring the best out of what we are, and in that journey make ourself and people around us happy. If you believe that you have that extra mileage to achieve, even if the people you used to compare with have failed, you will be able to do it.

A bird sitting on a branch doesn't sit there trusting the strength of the branch, but the strength of its wings! So, Believe in you! Believe that you are a unique formula. Introspect to see what you can do, to be better that the past! Set small milestones, achieve them every now and then, and always strive to be stronger than yesterday! You will incrementally reach great heights one day ... Observe others, get inspired and try it your way ONLY if you feel you can! This is the legacy that according to me, we should pass on to the next generation!

Happy New Year and Stay Spirited!

- MJ

Hunger – A Sign of Strength or Weakness?

Often, the word Hunger is linked to lack of something that makes one weak. But are we looking at it as an instigator to fill what we lack? What we achieve or would like to achieve is the result of hunger/craving/passion that we have towards it. Hunger is not a ‘lack’ of something, but if we don’t have it, we lack success. This is the crux of my thought process today.

Like an expert swimmer who doesn’t fear the deeps and like the phoenix, which doesn’t fear the fire, a person with a hunger for something doesn’t fear obstacles towards his destiny. Let us literally take the attitude that we demonstrate when we are hungry. Don’t we eat crazy like a glutton the moment we see food after prolonged fasting? Does that demonstrate the force that we have/exhibit when seeing our passionate food?

A spiritual digression to this topic can also be cited here. The reason why we follow fasting before we offer our prayers ... There is an unconscious activity or energy flow that happens in our body, when we are hungry. It is believed that when you starve for a very long duration and sit near a small tender plant for few hours, the plant droops down losing its vitality. It is because our body tends to absorb the vital energy around it, when it lacks/craves for energy. Scientifically I would say that energy flows from higher to lower concentration. Thus came the belief of praying in empty stomach that makes our body absorb the spiritual/positive vibes effectively. When every cell of our body exhibits this involuntary behavior, don’t we have a reason to believe that hunger is a sign of strength in us?

I have heard of a story where a man goes to Swami Vivekananda to know the secret/tip behind achieving what he wants.  Vivekananda takes this man into the nearby water body and immerses him inside water. When the man somehow manages to come out and takes a deep breath for his survival, Swami says that one should be that desperate like how desperate he was to get that one breathe of life while he was under water. That’s the hunger that can also be called as desperation to achieve.

Hunger gives us the drive to run for what we want. It sets us on fire and helps achieve greatness. Its only when we don’t act upon this intensity, it starts to develop weakness in us.

Stay Hungry and Stay Tuned towards your goals!

-         -  Mani

Sustaining Vs Stagnating

I was supposed to pen this blog a couple months before, when I completed 10 years in IT. It took some time for my brain to connect my fingers to the keyboard. So here it goes...

The months of May and June, usually puts me into many questions towards my career, every year. Every May, I complete 1 extra year in my company and Every June I complete 1 extra year of experience in IT. This year I was checking myself against "Stagnating Vs Sustaining".

There is life, when you say that you are sustaining on your goodness and success. It means that you get past your previous milestones and constantly maintain a pace in the race, to meet new laurels. Sometimes your successes and your comfort zone make "Stagnation" look like a Sustaining Activity. Appreciations from known colleagues, people praising you wherever you go, setting goals to your comfort and laziness can cause this delusion.

As life changes and you get into more commitments, it is difficult to have the same vigor in you that you had when you were a bachelor. Everything in this world is bound to wear-and-tear and thus we slow our pace too. But, it is always good to check if you are stagnating at a level. Sustain and Stagnate means staying in a level. But as you can see one is lively and flowing and the other is stale.

Making smart moves to sustain your success is very important as we get into a lot of personal commitments. Work hard Vs Work Smart is again a key. One can work hard and get the same results as working smart. But as you progress in your career and get into a higher role with lots of professional and personal commitments, we will have to choose the smart way to enjoy success. We can't run fast and work hard, when our hands and legs are fettered with too many commitments. Are we just concerned or cautious about the steps that we take during this transition? Again, both "Concerned" and "Cautious" shows your worry towards a happening. But, as you can very well see, one is of superlative in nature. I feel being 'cautious' begets actions from your end towards careful planning of your career.

Being 'Cautious' about what you do, to 'sustain' your success is the simple message that I wanted to convey. Again you can either think about this or meditate on it. You know what I am going to say here ... :-) Both 'meditate' and 'think' create a thought process. But when you meditate, you give life to the thought process and make it flow through your smart deeds!

Innovate, Inspire and Get Inspired always!

- Mani

FRIENDS - Old Poem Revisited for Friendship's Day!

This can be fine-tuned a lot now. But I wanted to leave it like that. A baby's prattle should be admired and not corrected. I see this poem that way. Takes me back to my memories of 2002 and my naive in it, as an amateur poet ;-)

====

In the hectic world of worries,
There are some queries,
What gives us pleasure?
That is hard to measure.
Sure, Friendship is that treasure.

It is that love and care,
That the friends mutually share,
The feelings that are relished,
Forever, to be cherished.

In any field of battle,
They stand together with mettle,
Throw their arms out,
And put their enemies to rout.

Keep in mind,
They are one of the kind,
Who are really hard to find,
Sure, it is a lifetime bind!

Composed By: Mani Jayaram
Date: 23rd May 2002.
For: A dedication to all those who respect Friends and Friendship.

The path might end;but the journey continues ...

A borrowed thought from one of a tamil film song but it meant a lot to me. Isn't it the fact that whatever happens in life, time heals the good/bad and life moves on. Even if we are at a dead-end, we turn around to find our next way. Whether willingly or forced, we have to find our way until time stops us.

Time/Destiny is so authoritative that it doesn't wait for us and on top of it, it makes us wait for it one day or the other. Being a winner always, it never stoops down and makes us look for it accepting our defeat. Nobody or nothing stands the testimony of time.

So what it means to stand against Time. It needs courage, diligence and more than everything, THE FAITH. Believe in what we do, do it sincerely, pierce through the barriers, put all of you into it and you shine. When you put all of yours into a thing, you in turn give LIFE to it.

But, is giving LIFE just enough to stand against time? Life needs to survive/sustain against its mighty opponent, the Time. So how it happens? It needs followers, people who look upon it, get inspired and follow it. Thats how it stands against time.

Has anything stood against time for a few centuries? And even if it is, is it looked upon with the same level of exuberence like how it was looked upon when it was born? I dont see many! Its due to lack of followers that this unfortunate thing happens. For example, there are many architectural master-pieces that were built centuries ago but I always feel that most of them stand as a dilapidated piece without LIFE. How many of us know why it was built, how many laborers were involved in that and how long it took to build them. Only when all of these information exist and gets passed on, we see the architectural piece and the life behind it. And for those pieces for which, we know these answers, life/glory still exists. We lack followers to propagate information and make the life behind anything survive beyond time.

A religion without followers slowly perishes. If we dont cultivate our tradition/goodness/beliefs to our offspring, heritage is gone. According to me 'Marriage' is coined for the same fact. Marriage is a tradition/concept that acts as a follower-factor to reinforce love to offsprings. We follow marriage to make love survive. If it is just about sex and children like in primitive ages, would 'Love' have survived? Anything without followers, gets wiped off eventually.

What do we leave for the next generation? Is our value-system strong enough to raise the next generation. Whether you follow a nice path, or create a new path justify on what you are doing, make sure you are right 100 times and most importantly see if there is a strong following to it.

Ending my thought here ... By slightly twisting the heading of this blog to 'Your journey might end; But the path should continue to exist', I see a new beginning to my above thought ...

Take Care!
Mani Jayaram

And miles to go before I sleep ...

These famous words of Robert Frost, kept moving through the grey and white matter of my thinkcenter for a long time now that I wanted to drain this thought off my brain into my blog ...

In general I was thinking of 'destination'/'destiny' and what role it plays in us! When I was waiting for my shuttle bus to go to office, I was watching a man walking across the street here and there. It looked to me that he had nothing to do and just simply standing out on the streets. So I was thinking what happens to life without objective, aim or destination. Even for Robert Frost, Sleep [or his death as this was one of his last poems] was the destination and he wanted to do a lot before reaching the destination.

We come to office and work for a well defined time just because we know, we have to reach home at some specific time. Imagine there is just work and no home. What defines our work timings in that case? Every thing that starts needs an end. Without this end for every start, life becomes traggic! Lets take 'end' optimistically as destination/completion.

The good and the bad have a start and end. When we face the bad we should be optimistic that it will end sometime. Ideally, when we face the good we should be prepared that it is not ever-lasting. After all, the cliche says 'All good things come to an end' ...

Without end to man's life, what happens! Is there a thrill if it is a bright day always without a night or the vice versa? Even an active day is followed by a peaceful rest/sleep. Isn't it? Nature and Life teaches us the same lesson. It is the crest that defines the trough and vive versa. An end begets a new beginning. It is just that we fail to understand this.

We either go mentally down facing failures or wish to always bask on the success. Lets take the odds and evens positively. Destiny comes for our rescue in ending things that we start. What it means to be successful always? Will we have a target if we are alone on the top. What drives us to go further exploring and unravelling new limits. It is a destination for every source that sets the next level of standards for us.

Will a statement with only COMMAs and no FULL-STOP have a well defined meaning? There is an completion to all things that start. Do we like people who keep on talk without a pause? So it is, for this writing too :-) I stop it here for you to ponder ...

Yours,
Mani

All Life Equal ; Each Life Unique

Crispy yet Powerful! It meant a lot to me the moment I read it. I happened to read this somewhere and liked it so much to place this in my blog.

I would consider this a balanced saying that enforces on both individuality and concern for others. How often do we express the concern for others? Do we respect every being the way we would like to be respected? In this busy world the benevolence, respect and concern for others looks to be slowly fading away. It is also about respecting the feelings of others.

At the same time I also strongly believe that one cant please everybody in life and individuality is an important trait for every being to make him/her prominent in the society. Everybody is unique and that is what makes us visible amidst of million of beings around us. We should not compromise our individuality for others too.

When I mean not giving up on individuality, it is the individuality that is good for ourself and to others. We cant of course be holding a quality that is not good for us or others and say that is our individuality :-) So caring for others the same way you care for yourself gives the balance. Striking a balance between these two is the challenge.

Practice this in any relationship and see the difference it brings to the relationship.

Regards,

MJ

How Men Became Dominant...

We keep hearing that the society is full of male dominance or the practices that we follow are all centered towards male interests. Some call it male dominance, some call it male chauvinism and women generally attribute this gesture as an arrogance shown towards womanhood. But then, how it all started? I thought to extrapolate on what I read sometime back. Here you go...

The universal law of nature [or] the principle of evolution believes in 'Survival of the Fittest'. Let’s go to the period where the first single-cell organism came into existence. Its only job was to make its species prevalent in this earth and thus it started to split itself to reproduce more of its kind in this earth. To survive it needed nutrition and to spread, it needed reproduction. Slowly mutation came into play and suddenly two cell organisms emerged. This went on and on. A higher level organism never wanted to mate with its lower version mainly because every organism wanted to spread its race into the earth, evolve in their gene. To survive in the ecosystem, it has to be stronger than its predecessors. [This is why marriage in our culture is performed between people of same generation. The main reason is to bring the next level off springs fit and fine!] This kind of mutation process went on and on and humans [multi-cell organisms] came into the earth.

The main intention of humans [before civilizations emerged] was again to spread its race. Reproduction was on. When choice was considered for, who should earn bread for their daily living, it was mutually agreed that Men should do it. This is because women by nature of their body had to bear children and thus were not able to regularly participate in hunting or climbing trees et al. Thus women were at home taking care of the family and men had to go for hunting and bring food back home. This is why men went for work and it was initially done NOT with the intention to suppress women.

Men were involved in warfare, hunting and all outdoor activities to survive and protect their families. The male population got reduced slowly in this process of hunting and warfare. There came an imbalance in the men-women ratio, which showed a high threat to the spreading of human race. When a baby girl was born it wasn't considered a happy moment because the community already had lots of women and they desperately needed men to spread human race and to strike balance between men and women. This intention slowly went so rude to the level of woman infanticide.

Also the imbalance in the men-women ratio brought in polygamy and that too in men's favor. Women started to accept the same man because men population was less and it was considered legal that a man can have physical relationship with more than one woman. Spreading of human race and protecting human gene was more important to humans of that age, than monogamy or polygamy.

All the intentions were thus noble in those olden days and when civilizations began, these noble intentions slowly turned into a male-dominance dogma. The human race got established well enough and evolved over time but, the gene in men and women took time to evolve or change in their pattern. Thus men kept women under their hold, kept most of the rights/privileges with them, suppressed women to express their opinions and considered them a child vending machines.

Situations have changed now. But some practices in our society are still male centric. Anytime we are into any doubt on male-centric practices think back to those prehistoric ages and see if that practice bears any relevance. Considering men as hunters and women as home-defenders is the clue. Dominance whether done by man or woman is not right. So hormones, genes or prehistoric practices can't be used as a defense for any human action :-)

Regards,
Mani
--------
Seed: Why Men Can’t Think and Why Women Can’t Read Maps – Allan/Barbara!
Extension: Mani

It lies 'within'!

The crux of this blog is to stress that the solution for any problem lies inside and not outside. Let me support this statement spiritually, mythically, physiologically and philosophically to try make you believe this.

Swami Vivekananda believes in the power and eternity of Soul. He says that for any problem the solution lies inside. There is a shield between the soul and the mind that causes the disconnection. Upon good meditation and belief, the shield fades away leaving the soul answer all our questions. The soul has transcended many births and generations, whose depth can't be covered by any book/person. All answers thus lie within, according to him.

There is a small story in our epic Mahabharata where both Yudhistra and Duriyodhana were asked to go round the country to read people and their content levels. Yudhistra notices and reports all good when he returns, while Duriyodhana reports all the bad. It lies within! We see the world through our mind. How we are, so we see!

To bring a good habit into practice, the change has to come within. When people complain their genes or physiological heritage as a reason to their maladies and faults they commit, we shouldn't encourage. It’s all in the mind and what we tune in our mind controls the hormones in our body and our practices eventually.

Our own Mahatma Gandhi even asked us to be the change that we like to see. To extend my thought on the above consolidations, I will say that anything in this world is inside-out. The life in earth is a matter of cause-and-effect. The 'cause' is committed by us and it begets the ‘effect’. Thus I say that the direction is always inside-out!

Let’s start realizing the importance of our inner self. We are all like the seed which stores in it one big tree and countless fruits. It’s from 'within'. There is less a difference in the process of ‘sowing’ and 'burying'. Both happen inside the soil but the difference in the effect of both these process is manifold. It’s the difference between life and death, the difference between sprouting and decaying, the extremities! What we see deep within can be liveliness or decomposition. Let’s tune our inner self. There is the solution for all problems. Why wait? Search within!

Regards,

_Mani

Contributing to our value system

Some weeks before, I had to experience a disturbing incident. I took my father for some purchase and we had some loads of bags with us. Since my father had to withdraw some money, I stood outside the ATM holding all the bags, while he was waiting in the queue. I didn’t notice that he was facing some problems in entering his pin. As he saw a big queue of people waiting for their turn, he came out after three attempts. He is not new to ATM but of course, he is an old man and may be he didn’t get it right this time.

I saw a couple of frustrated faces when he came out. It disturbed me and I felt pity for him. It’s natural for anyone to get frustrated, if somebody takes time like this [Though I am not of that type especially with old people]. On top of these, I saw particularly one young man with his son talking something with a sarcastic smile on his face, looking at my father! May be, I was wrong in understanding his gesture. But, that juncture made me feel [bad] about where our society is heading. It questioned me on what is he passing to the next generation through his son! [If at all, my assumption was right]

Our values are getting degenerated is what I should say. I didn’t feel this because it was my father who was the victim. In general, I was worried about the attitude he was teaching his son. Any boy of age between 10 and 20 yrs looks his father as the role model. A boy of that age, starts admiring his father on everything and [un]consciously starts imbibing the traits of his father. I would have been happy, if this guy would have taught his boy to help old people like this who struggle. Minimally, he should have at least left the place quietly!

The values of the society lie in respecting the senior citizens of that society. If people are well respected and their emotions are well addressed, we can see more value in this social system. Like how Government has to play an important role in creating these values, we also have our dues to pay on the same lines. After all, our government is for the people, by the people and to the people.

Respecting our work makes us do our job better. Respecting our family makes us, live a moral and affectionate life. I believe that with 'love' comes 'respect', with 'respect' comes 'sincerity' and with 'sincerity' comes 'diligence' and 'diligence' makes you think smart towards success. Values get formed with continues success on our backs!

It starts at our home and expands outside. May be its time that we all cross-check on what we are passing to the next generation towards the value system. It’s all what we teach them. The way we live and behave, teaches them all.

Take Care!
_Mani

Where is Heaven/Where is Hell

Wanted to bring out a debatable topic this time. Where is heaven and hell? To me, the concept of heaven and hell were coined to bring out some imaginary destination for life-after-death. It serves an utopia and nothing else. It is all about our mind w.r.t. what is heaven and what is hell!

The funny thing is that no person after death can come back to tell us, what is life after death :-) So it always stands a puzzle. The uncertainty, unpredictability and puzzling question of life after death has made lot of our ancestors coin their own version of death and also about life after death!

To me, there is no life after death. The whole world and its life force is an energy equation and we all know every equation needs a balance. The amount of positive energy should equal the amount of negative energy to balance the equation. To keep up this balance living organisms take [re]birth. When we die, the energy that we possessed, whether positive or negative, goes into the energy pool. Depending on what imbalance it creates, organisms get their birth. Humans possess more energy than animals, which possess more energy than worms/insects which possess more energy than trees and so on... The soul possess this energy and based on the good/bad it gets responsible for during its existence, it upgrades/degrades in its powers!

The above by itself is a big topic where I can ramble more :-) Not to digress here from our topic on heaven and hell. When I say, after death our energy goes to a central pool of energy, Why was heaven and hell coined? It was not actually to symbolize life after death. It has a lot to do with life that we live. The actions that we do during our lifetime take us through a trauma or bliss, which are characteristics of hell and the heaven. There is nothing more to it. We are responsible for our actions and we are the victim to the reactions that occur for our actions. When our ancestors say to do good to reach heaven, they simply mean to do good to be happy. It’s all about how to live our life happy and better. This generic information faded and distorted to different dimensions and made heaven/hell as destinations of life-after-death.

Now, who decided on what is good that helps us to be in heavenly state and what is bad that make us suffer in the 'hell' state? Nobody made these rules/guidelines. It evolved over time. Some of our actions would have given us unfavorable reactions and would have made us suffer. Some actions would have always helped us be happy. So over time our ancestors were able to shape up the principles of living. The strongest of these principles formed religions and the bits around them were just coined as practices towards better living.

This writing can go on and on, explaining/confusing more ... But, I just wanted you to think on these lines for sometime to see if it makes sense. I am not fully supporting this thought as I too have several questions over my head on the same lines! I just wanted to bring forth a dimension that heaven and hell are not really the destinations after death. They are our destinations towards all actions that we do during our lifetime.

Let’s try to live in the heaven always, while we live!
Mani

Positive Criticism - Shiv Kera and Me

Every time we cannot get a chance to meet celebrities and share our thoughts. I read, by reading a book during coffee break, we are having a coffee with that author :-) So the title sounds this way :-) I was reading 'You can Win - Shiv Kera' and felt like talking about Positive Criticism that he has mentioned about. It sounded nice to me on what he explained about it in 2 pages. Read the excerpt if you like.

Checkpoint to criticism:
If we are criticizing a person on the right lines which will help his personal improvement, it is perfectly fine. If criticizing the person gives us a pleasure, then it could be a false criticism arising out of greed or vengeance. We should check that before we do.

If we are subjected to criticism, we should check on the same lines. We should use our wisdom in accepting/rejecting any criticism. If the criticism is out of ignorance it can be answered by a proper explanation. If the criticism is out of jealousy we cannot do anything about it. Take it positive as a compliment that you got for your work.

Why search for positive critics?
In life, people usually will like to remain in their comfort zones. They would like to be with people who will appraise them for whatever they have done [or] at least adjust to them no matter what they do. The fact is that 50% of people whom we meet don’t care what happens to us and the remaining 50% people are happy about what bad happen to us :-) People who do positive criticism are required for self improvement. If we find one, we should catch hold of them.

Some tips on 'How to Criticize':
How to criticize is an art. Always step into others shoes before you comment on them, to first see what we are criticizing is right? Never use the words like "You never do that ...", "You always do it this way ..." kind of statements as it immediately hurts the self-esteem of the other person. Always comment on the action and not the actor, criticize on the performance and not the performer.

Courtesy: You can Win - Shiv Kera. Chapter - 8 :-)
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To extend my thoughts on this, self improvement is very much essential like the air we breathe. Life acts on us based on how we live it and thus we need to be with the right people who will prepare us in life to be a complete human.

To shell out of the comfort zone, needs a lot of struggle. To put us into the experiments is against the will of life, as everyone expects a relaxed trouble-free life. But the outcome of such a struggle elevates us to a place where the world will look upon with reverence.

Vivekananda said "In a day when you don't come across any problems—you can be sure that you are traveling in the wrong path". What a statement of wisdom this is!

Willingness to change towards positive suggestions helps us develop our wisdom. Slowly, our mind and soul can become our best critic. Conscience is a matter of, the way we are brought up. Even to tune ones conscience, wisdom is required. What the world sees to be good translates into positive criticism if you are with the right people. This criticism tunes our wisdom which trains/conditions our conscience. This makes us all set!

Someone said 'Live life when you are alive. Don’t die before you are dead'.

Love Life and Live it to the best!
_Mani

What we sow, we reap ?

Yes! A well known proverb! I can say it is a hackneyed phrase. Wanted to draw some tangential thoughts to this. So let’s think. Is this always true? Do we always reap what we sow?

I agree that Good deeds beget goodness and bad ones yields the bad. But, I feel it is not just 'what we sow', it is also 'where we sow' that matters! A rich soil yields good harvest. Thus the environment is an important factor as well! If a soil is not conditioned well for a particular kind of crop, does the harvest still be rich?

A good person amidst 1000 bad people is seen odd. I am not trying to say here to get used to the environment we belong to! I am not persuading to loose our identity but to create a conducive environment and condition the surroundings before we 'sow' our thoughts or actions.

A weed-out process should happen, where we first customize our ambience to think in our lines. We can't force our thoughts in that environment but we will have to convince the environment. A set of beliefs ONLY when is well accepted and followed, forms a religion. Any religious moral is believed across generations. Thus any thought to be trusted and believed needs sincere followers who should be convinced on what we want them to believe. The thought whether it becomes pervasive or extinct is dependent on on how we prepare our surroundings before seeding our thought.

Thus, don’t just think about 'sowing the right ones'. Think about the right place. A right seed in the wrong environment perishes with no trace of its being. We humans have great sense to think and create our environment rather than crib on the environment we live in. Any effort in the wrong direction goes futile.

The difference between 'living' and 'adaptation' is the difference between humans and other living organisms. Animals adapt and evolve to their surroundings. But we humans have the ability to create our living. So rather than complaining/adapting on the society we should act in such a way that right morals and right actions will happen in the environment that surrounds us.

Next time, when we try to 'sow' will we think on where we are doing it? Prepare the base properly so that what we 'sow' grows well and becomes beneficial to ourselves and others. I think, I sowed my thought here in an environment, where I believe people who read it will think about it :-)

_Mani

Spending Vs Investing

What do we spend and what do we invest? The question came to my mind last week and I had to think more on it. The arena where this thought had to play was not just the financial grounds, but in our entire life. To hit the dart straightaway, ‘spending’ usefully towards a long standing benefit to you or others is ‘investing’!

Let’s go to a different dimension now by relating this to our life. How much of our time we spend and how much of our time do we invest? I keep 'time' as the baseline here, as this drives our age and lifetime.

If you put in your effort on something that is not useful to you the next moment, I call it spending. Say you getup late in the morning, catch an auto/taxi to reach on time to office, you might have reached office on time and could be perfectly ok with your official works. But, you have spent your energy, money and that travelling time in the wrong direction. A perfect start of the day is very important and you failed investing in that!

Devoting your time for your children is an investment on their growth. Investing time on music might make you feel pleasant. Investing time on meditation might make you feel inspired and strong. Interest varies between individual.

Another dimension here could be this! Whatever is against ones interest, he considers it a spending and the vice versa is investing. Putting your money to buy a big TV might be a spending for some. But, for some others they have invested their money towards entertainment. The few minutes they watch in that TV might still give them great happiness, energizes them and might fulfill their fantasies.

But, there are some universally accepted things which are investments for all of us. Think deep in your conscience and it will reveal you what is a real investment. Investments are more than just quenching your fantasies. It has to be something that gives you long standing benefits.

By analyzing on how much time in a day you 'spend' and think about how to convert that into an 'investment', one can improve his art of living. Iteratively doing this, the time we spend diminish and gives way to investments. I strictly believe that we should start investing in our life.

I consider blogging this, an investment. Not sure what you felt reading it :-)

Cheers!
Mani

February - The month of Love!

The month of February was the first of its kind for me. I read a lot after a long time. Thanks to one of my friends, who was the main reason behind me doing a non-techie read, after a long time :-) But, writing here about something which is not from the book I read ... This thought kept on bothering me for a long time. I felt only if I push this out I will get space for the next one ...

What is life without love? I can't imagine. When a new acquaintance bloom its way into a great relationship, the feel is inexplicable. Everyone in life should build great relationships. I read in one of Chetan Bhagat's words that small sparks will keep the vehicle of life moving. Small excitements are required to keep life moving. Very true! Begin life in iota of acquaintances and build great relationships there on ...

The month of February makes me reminded of two things, My mom's birthday [13-Feb] and the Valentine’s Day. Both streamline to Love for me. The feel of motherhood is something great! She doesn't know how the baby will look like, color or looks, what he will become in life, good or bad. What an unconditional love ... amazing! A woman can be wrong but 99.99% a mother cannot be wrong! Great metaphor for love, right? Also, it is the first love we see in our life! A salute to the motherhood in this 'month’ dedicated for love.

How great it is to feel that we have people around us, who care for us. To be choosy on relationships is great. You are the happiest and blessed in this world when the one you choose to be a friend with, acknowledge it and reciprocate it. Some words are coined after a great thought, I would say. The word horizon is one such word, I like the most. You see it but you can't experience it in reality. But you can imagine and feel it the way you want. You can enjoy it to any extent you want. The feel of love is the same I feel. It’s an utopia and I have my own gestures towards it and my own reverence for it. I like to show it to all who like me. I wish God gives me that time and space for that!

You will be surprised to hear, I developed a good friendship for a lizard at my home in chennai. I was staying alone for 2 weeks with no one to speak. The disturbance on the first day was that lizard but as days went on, when I didn’t see it for 3 or 4 days and it appeared suddenly on one day, I felt so happy :-) I kept on looking for it on all the other days!

Robhin Sharma said this ... "When a baby is born, it cries while people surrounding the new-born are in gay! When a person dies it should be the reverse, where he/she lies down in peace with all-smiles and people around cry for the demise”. Build great relationships.

Stopping it here ... Feel like experiencing Love in all forms, all through my life ... Love is something great. isn't it?

Yours Lovingly,

_Mani