Life

All of us participate in many meaningless events. Sometimes such meaningless events are organised in the offices, and sometimes in society. We understand that it is a sheer wastage of time and an ugly demonstration of our own lack of character and integrity, and yet we participate in these events. Why? Because we lack the courage and conviction to stand. Why don't we have the courage to stand? Because we are full of fears. Some people are so consumed by fear that they participate in and even glorify these meaningless events. Some will participate and justify them. Some will criticise them and yet participate.  I have seen so many people murmuring that they do not wish to attend the marriage functions , but they have to. It is because they also wish for the presence of a crowd when their kids get married. They consider it to be prestigious. What is prestige? Is it about the numbers attending the party thrown by us? No. If so, let us organise a Bhandara , and there will be thousands ...

The brightness of the Sun has the same magic in all parts of the world. What is so magical about the bright sunshine? The sun gives life to us. That's why if there is no Sun for several days, everything looks gloomy. However, during the summer, in the bright noon, we are unable to tolerate the Sun and desperately want a shade. We want to get under the shade of a tree or inside our home, switch on the fan and have a cool drink. Sometimes we feel like putting down the curtains and avoiding the Sun. It seems as if the same Sun has sucked energy out of us. Life is all about balance. There are black holes at the centre of every galaxy that are pulling all the planets and stars towards them. On the other hand, the stars and the planets are moving at a speed, and as a result of the interplay of these two forces, they keep moving and keep falling towards the black hole, and as a result, start circling around the black hole. The Sun at the centre of our solar system is also attracting th...

A seed is protected inside a shell , not to sit comfortably inside the shell, but to come out therefrom and grow into a tree . Life inside the soil is not easy. It may not get enough water and sufficient nutrition when it comes out of the shell. It is safe inside the shell. However, it has no opportunity to grow inside the shell. However, to grow into a tree, it will have to pass through the difficulties inside the soil. Similarly, children are protected. Each parent tries to give them the best of comforts and safety. Yet, they have to pass through their college life and face many difficulties while building their career to grow as an adult.  We store many of these seeds, like wheat , pulses , grams , almonds , etc, in our kitchen. In a box, many of these seeds are together. Does that togetherness mean anything? No. On the other hand, when we sow these seeds in a garden and they grow up as plants, they grow and interact with each other and also the other beings on the Earth. The...

We often feel stuck with an emotion. We feel fearful because exams are approaching, and the constant fear of failure or scoring less does not let us sleep. Sometimes we feel anxious about a meeting , and our stomachs are full of butterflies. We feel hurt and are not able to pardon the person who has hurt us. We feel insecure about our future, and the thoughts of an uncertain future come back to our minds again and again. Why does it happen so? The more we think, the more disturbed we are. Why? When we are stuck in a marsh, the more we try to come out of it, the more we get stuck. Why? When we make an effort to come out of the marsh, it creates more space beneath our bodies, and we get down deeper into the marsh. That's what we do when we think over and over about our anxieties, fears, and insecurities. The mind has created some stories about the past or future that are not to our liking. That's why we feel fearful, anxious or insecure. What we fail to realise is that all thes...

During one of our recent meetings, we had a presentation on an AI tool . The presenter discussed that one of the problems with AI tools is that they hallucinate , and they have addressed this issue in their tool. I was a little surprised and asked him the reason behind the hallucination of the AI. Why would an AI hallucinate? He explained that in many cases, AI tools cook up the answers . It is because the AI engines have been programmed to maximise the score, and they are typically programmed so that they are punished for “no answers” and therefore AI tools learn to tell lies. Even if they do not find an answer, just to avoid that negative score , they will cook up some story and display that to the user, and the user will believe the same.  I was pleasantly surprised by the similarity of the AI to the human mind . Isn’t the human mind also “programmed” the same way? We also keep trying to maximise the score. The scoring engine of each human being varies. Some human beings give ...

 We all come across control freaks in our personal and professional lives. These people are finicky about control. They want to control everything around. I often wonder why anyone would want to control others. Why would Hitler like to control the world? Why would a boss try to control the charge? Why would a father try to control his son? Why would a husband try to control his wife? Isn't this desire to control stemming from a deep-seated sense of insecurity? We are afraid of death and therefore want to control our lives by doing rigorous exercises and controlling our diet. So, what's wrong with that? We seek security in relationships, and that's why we want to control them. We feel secure with powers, and that's why we want to control the whole world. The problem lies with the illusion our minds create. A grand flat in a skyscraper makes us feel secure, but when we have an earthquake, the grand building becomes the biggest threat to our lives. The more we try to hold...

Will a greedy person become magnanimous with the acquisition of more wealth? He will spend money to buy comforts, and the more comforts he gets, the greater will be his dependency on money and the greater will be his greed for money. Will a power-hungry person be satiated as he gets more power? The more power a person gets, the greater will be his fear of losing control and becoming powerless again. Will a possessive person become less possessive as he enters into a relationship with the person he tries to possess? No, he will become more and more possessive and try to control more because his fear of losing the relationship will be greater. Will the inferiority complex of a person reduce as he gets attention? No, it will, in fact, increase as he gets attention because he will be more afraid of losing the attention. It appears to be contradictory, but it's true. We can relate this very well to our life experiences. But why does it happen? It's because the external possessions ...

 What a waste of life. Targets after targets with nowhere to reach. Human beings seem to be expert in wasting their life. We make many mental stories. Each one of us follows one of the mental stories to spend our lives. Nobody knows the truth. Probably, we do not want to know. The mental stories we have made are far more comfortable. Life is all about relationships for a few. Life is all about family for others. For some, it is all about money, and for some, it is all about power. Once we believe in one or the other meaning of life, it is quite easy for us to make decisions. If life is all about family, we just have to minimize time at the office by making excuses. If life is all about money, we have to make decisions to earn more money, even if that is at the cost of our relationships. If life is all about powers, we will not mind sacrificing even our family members for that power.  Confusion has a cost . If we do not believe in any of these, we will be confused. We will no...

People are busy shopping in malls, buying expensive products, oblivious to the fact, or deliberately ignoring, that someone outside the mall is dying of hunger. Probably the desperation to be "happy" makes us ignore reality. Emotions are too costly. They hold us back. We cannot afford to have mercy or sympathy for the people we compete with. We also tell our children that the world is competitive, and therefore, they must run the race with full force; otherwise, they will be left behind and unable to win the race.  Did Rama run the race? He was almost on the verge of leaving the palace. It was only after Vashistha and Vishwamitra had a long conversation with him, as documented in the Yog Vashistha , that Rama decided to stay back. Who will he compete with? He realized the true meaning of self. Having realized the meaning of self, there is no question of competition because there is no division. But then why did he kill Ravana ? Because the division created by the ego of Ra...

Yesterday, a few people inspired by the teachings of J Krishnamurti gathered and had a wonderful dialogue. Why do greed, ambitions, and jealousy come back again and again in different forms when we try to move on the path of awareness ? Are they lying somewhere inside us in a latent form? If so, from where have they entered our psyche? There are no straightforward answers to these questions because each individual has their own unique life journey, and it is up to that individual to examine their own life to find answers.  However, when we examined together, we found that the mind is expert in creating divisions. It divides every experience between good and bad, right and wrong, and desirable and undesirable. While these divisions may appear to be quite innocent and at times essential, they come back to haunt us. A simple pleasure trip may appear "good" to the mind, but what actually happened there? Did we enjoy the comforts of the hotel, the tasty food, shopping at the mall...

 Ask about the purpose of life for people around. Most people will tell you that it is to be happy. I wonder whether happiness is overrated. First, let's examine what happiness is. Is happiness about comforts? Do we feel unhappy when we are uncomfortable? Obviously yes. When we are sweating in summer, we feel happy after entering an air-conditioned room. When we are uncomfortable due to some pain, we feel happy after taking a painkiller. We feel uncomfortable due to the lack of money, and when we get money, we feel happy. Let's re-examine this happiness. Once we enter the AC room, having suffered from heat stroke, or get relief from pain, or get money, we naturally feel happy. But, isn't that happiness just for a few moments? If this is true happiness, all the people working in the corporate world , who sit in AC rooms, should always be happy. All the people who do not have pain in their bodies should always be happy. All the people who have earned sufficient money should...

When a child is born, he does not have any fixed ideas or thoughts about anything. He explores every possibility. Slowly, we "learn" so many things from society. What is good, and what is bad? What is desirable, and what is undesirable? What is acceptable, and what is unacceptable? As children, we just copy and paste all these thoughts unless parents really encourage examination , which is quite rare. Most parents want "obedient" kids rather than independent-minded kids . The obedient kids are praised, and the kids who challenge their thoughts are often criticised. That's how "obedience" is promoted and "examination" is discouraged. An unconditioned mind is capable of examining everything. That's why children have many questions. They will question even the fundamentals that adults have taken for granted. They will question the concept of God. They will ask about the meaning of life and death. They will be curious to know whenever they...

All of us grow in different ways and develop different belief systems . We all live in the same world, and yet everybody is so convinced of their own worldview. He picks what suits him to justify his own worldview. The takeaway of all the participants from the same meeting or conference will be different. The same presentation, going on stage, will be perceived in many different ways by different people sitting in the audience. As if infinite FM stations are transmitting the content, and depending upon the frequency we want to tune in to, we get to listen to the songs.  Will a divisive mind be able to tune in to anything beyond that division? Will a person who strongly believes in rights and wrongs ever be able to look beyond what he considers to be right? Would a person who believes in God ever be able to examine the possibility of there being no God? It seems quite difficult. When the brain focuses on something, it misses the rest of the details. When I am writing this blog, I am...

I feel that exploration is our fundamental expression . Even a toddler wants to explore. Leave him free, and he would like to move to the next room to see what lies there. He would like to interact with the new people he meets. He would like to touch different objects and explore. Nobody teaches that baby, and yet that curiosity and explorative instinct is natural to all babies until we confine them to the boundaries of relationships , family, society, community, and religion. Adults have a very strong sense of divisions. They have divided the entire territory between " me and mine " and the "rest of the world". Some people have a very strong sense of "me and mine" that may, in worst cases, be confined to their own body and may not even extend to their parents or spouse, or kids. Some have this "me and mine" extended to a few family members. For some, "me and mine" extends to the larger family and friends. The relationship between ...

When we are stuck with a thought, it’s quite difficult to come out. First of all, we don’t remember anything other than the thought. Even if we remember to  breath e, it’s next to impossible to take our awareness away from the thought and concentrate on breath. Just a few moments of awareness of breath, and the brain goes back to thoughts. As if some strong magnet is pulling us towards thoughts. We again recall breath and try to concentrate, just to fail again.  The habit of dwelling in the world of thoughts is so strong. The world of breath is tasteless. We soon get bored. The brain wants something interesting. It gets back to thoughts. Thoughts of the past and future. Some memories and some analysis. We travel back and forth in time.  When we concentrate on breath, through awareness of breathing , we travel into the depths of our being. We observe what is happening in different parts of our bodies. The moment we have that awareness of sensations in different parts of o...

Sometimes we feel trapped in our brains. The more the brain tries to find a solution, the more we feel trapped and confused. Probably the brain is too focused on what we know. We fail to realize that what we know is just the tip of the iceberg. It's quite difficult for our brain to accept the limitations of its awareness. That's probably the fundamental cause behind all the psychological problems of the world. We get stressed because we extrapolate our present circumstances to our future. We are unable to acknowledge that so many possibilities exist in almost every moment. I listened to the following video by Anita Moorjani sometime back: https://youtu.be/snV0pXF1i8U?si=DhFKi6Ex_HGPKPxm Around 35 minutes into the video, she provides an analogy of a warehouse . Suppose. we are in a warehouse with a headlight, and can watch a few compartments which we have explored so far, or we are presently exploring. We know only these possibilities. Suddenly, the lights in the warehouse is t...

 I have been visiting many schools, juvenile homes, prisons, shelter homes, and NGOs working for the upliftment of the children, and at the same time, I am a civil servant working in the Income Tax Department , and therefore come into contact with many privileged people having almost everything that many of those children can't even dream of. Yet, I see a lot of spark in the eyes of those underprivileged children and dullness in the eyes of the privileged. What is the source of that spark and dullness? The underprivileged are in a frame of life where they are uncomfortable, and therefore, they have a strong desire to grow beyond that frame. Somebody wants to come out of prison, while somebody wants to come out of poverty. Somebody wants to get a respectable job, while somebody wants to get powers. There is a restlessness within the existing frame, and that's why almost everybody has a purpose and wants to grow. There are a few, within that frame, who have given up. They feel th...