Life

Sports have wonderful lessons for life. When we play any sport, say for example tennis , we stay completely aware during the game. We can't be certain about the shot we are going to play. We look at the shot played by the opponent, observe our own position, the speed of the ball, its movement and position and then, having analysed all these elements, we hit a shot. As we keep playing tennis, this analysis comes naturally to us, and we do not have to make efforts. Initially, when we learn to play the game, we struggle. Sometimes we will be slower and miss the ball. Sometimes we will be faster and move ahead of the ball and will lock our shoulder, and we will play with a locked shoulder. Sometimes we will hit harder than needed, and sometimes the speed will be less. Slowly, as we keep playing tennis, we develop a very precise judgement naturally and play the right shot. Life is also like a game. We can't be certain of anything. Everything is changing. In relationships, family, or...

All of us are conditioned by the society in which we are born. Whatever we learn since childhood becomes our own thought process. When we go to the temple or church, or mosque, we do not say that my religion has told me to believe in God; rather, we say that "I" believe in God. Whatever food we have tasted since childhood becomes our taste. We do not say that my society or parents have developed my taste buds like that; rather, we say that "I" like such and such food. We own up to the rights and wrongs taught by our society. If my society told me that non-vegetarian food is not good, I would say that "I" don't like non-vegetarian food. "I".  What is "I" devoid of all these influences? Probably "nothing" or "everything". What is Canvas devoid of painting? Probably nothing since there is no painting and it's blank. Or full of every possibility. What is "I" devoid of all this conditioning? Probably no...

Gandhari , after the battle of Kurukshetra , when all her sons have been killed by the Pandavas , is full of anger. Krishna visits her, and she asks Krishna many questions. Krishna, why did you not prevent the battle while you could have? Krishna, why did you allow so many people to be killed? She is not ready to listen to the answers of Krishna because she is so stuck on her mental stories around loss of children, grief, anger and hatred that she curses Krishna that Dwarka will submerge into the ocean and all his family members will die.  Why did Krishna lack compassion, and why did he not save all the Kauravas and Pandavas? Didn't compassion demand that He should have prevented the battle? In fact, not only the Kauravas, Pandavas lost all their son in the battle. Abhimanyu was killed. Ghatotkacha was killed. Even if the death of the Kauravas was required for the larger good, why did he not use his Sudarshana Chakra and finish the battle in one go so that none from the side o...

 Walking is so natural to us. We don't even realise how the two legs coordinate while walking. When we move one leg up to take the next step, the other leg takes the whole of the weight, and when we take the next step, the first one takes the whole weight of our body, and the other one moves forward. This keeps happening rhythmically again and again throughout the day. We are generally not conscious of this rhythm. When we go for a tough trek on a mountain that has a slippery surface, we become conscious of our steps and ensure that the first step is fully stable before we take the next one. It has great lessons for life. We may decide to live a life wherein we don't walk at all and stay comfortably inside our home. There is no problem with that, but that's just like a good opportunity wasted in ignorance. Many of us do not take a single step to move beyond the belief systems and thought processes we are born with. We acquire certain beliefs, habit patterns , tastes, pref...

Each of us makes numerous decisions almost every day. We decide which career to choose, which college to take admission in, whom to make friends with, whom we marry, and whom we socialise with. Life is full of choices.  We plan what food to eat, our pleasure trips, groceries, and which appliances and furniture we want to buy. Generally, we make choices based on our past experiences. A child born into a family of doctors may naturally choose the medical profession . A similar thing applies to CAs , engineers, businessmen and industrialists. Not only our choice of career, but also other choices are, by and large, a product of our experiences. We get cheated in a relationship, and that makes us bitter and apprehensive vis-à-vis the rest of our relationships. We socialise with people who love partying and dancing, and slowly we feel like socialising more with such a type of person. On the other hand, we socialise more with spiritually inclined people, and the more we feel inclined to b...

I watched the Netflix series Kurukshetra today. It's a wonderfully made series and, in fact, made me recall my childhood series of the Mahabharata that used to be telecast on DD. Mahabharata is magical. The most magical thing about the Mahabharata is that it has no straitjacket definition of Dharma . The entire battle of Kurukshetra is for Dharma, and everybody feels that he is fighting the battle for Dharma.  When Bhishma realises that Vichitravirya needs to be married, he goes to the Swamvara of Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika and forcefully brings them to Hastinapur . Ambika and Ambalika are married to Vichitravirya, while Amba carries out penance to take revenge on Bhishma. Why did Bhishma bring these three girls against their wishes to Hastinapur? If Vichitravirya wanted to marry, he should have shown courage and participated in the Swamvara. After all, Swamvara meant that the girls wanted to marry the most courageous person. Bhishma deprived them of their rights for his attac...

There is a strange phenomenon that we can observe all around us. People keep their homes clean while dumping their garbage on the street. People will keep their cars clean while throwing the wrappers of chocolates and chips on the road. Why does it happen so? Simply because while we identify with our cars and home, we do not identify with our streets and common places. That’s why so many people deface the archaeologically significant monuments and damage public properties. We would often see people carving the name of their “beloved” on the seats of government buses . People will draw “beautiful paintings” with their spits of paan and gutka. On the other hand, when it comes to mental cleanliness, it is quite the reverse. We will try to demonstrate tranquillity and calmness during our public interactions. Actually, our minds would be full of so many disturbing thoughts. The stress of the office work, worry about the future of the kids, tension about payment of monthly instalments of th...

 We live the whole of our lives in mental stories . During our childhood, one or more stories looked very attractive. Life will be amazing if we get a lot of money, or life with a friend would be wonderful. Our parents' generation had different stories. They created many stories, mainly centred on social validation . Our children have quite different stories, mainly about getting settled abroad , having fun, and enjoying themselves. We have seen the falsity of many such stories. Rich people are often depressed and tense. The best of friends turn into the worst of enemies. The same couple who would vow to die for each other would levy all sorts of unpalatable allegations while standing in the court of law during divorce proceedings . People become like objects. So long as we possess them, they are very good and nice; but the moment they move apart, we somehow want to damage them so that they are any longer usable. As if they do not have any existence of their own.  We have seen...

The human brain is a wonderful machine. It interprets every experience we undergo. As if it is desperate to make some meaning that suits its framework. If it is not able to find logic, it will create logic. The logic that will go beyond time and space. It will believe in the existence of life after death. It will believe in rebirth. It will believe in the law of karma . Every bad thing in life will be justified in the name of past karma. No doubt, such beliefs are quite soothing. It's difficult to face reality. Why did it happen to me? Why did my near and dear one die? Why did I have to suffer the break-up? It's difficult to stay with questions, and we do not have the capacity to find answers. We have so many thick layers of beliefs that we carry since childhood. It's not possible to know reality without dropping these layers and layers. That's why the easier thing is to believe. If you believe what the majority says or some religion or spiritual organisation says, such...

It's quite interesting to see the interplay of different forces of nature while reading the horoscopes. How the nine forces of nature have numerous impacts on the 12 houses . The interplay is so precise that when somebody gets to see the first glimpse thereof, one almost gets convinced that there is no free will and everything is destined. Unless one enquires deeply into the nature of charts, this belief is going to grow stronger with each passing day.  The nine planets of Astrology may be divided into three broad categories. The first category is the planets that represent the energy of three different types. Jupiter represents the energy of expansion, while Mars represents physical energy, and Venus represents quantum energy . These forces are the driving force behind any action. The second category of planets in Astrology is the causal planets, which are the storehouse of our habit patterns and past karmas. Saturn represents very dense Karmas or habit patterns that have be...

There is a book just in front of my eyes titled "Are you thinking clearly?" written by Miriam Frankel and Matt Warren . I read a few chapters of the book. It's about gaps between perception and reality . We have been blessed with senses such as eyes and ears. We listen to so many sounds. We keep talking to our friends, colleagues, and people in general, almost the whole day. We see a lot of things around. We make sense of the world based on these inputs. Our brain processes the data and makes a meaning of reality. Each one of us has a very different worldview . Surprisingly, everybody is quite convinced of his worldview. But what is reality? The activities of the brain are centred around the flow of electrons . Electrons are particles (or waves, nobody knows) which is made of more fundamental particles. All fundamental particles are products of the Higgs field . Can electrons, which are the product of the Higgs field, ever understand the field? Can a computer ever unders...

I was discussing freedom with my office colleagues, and there was a common view that absolute freedom is a myth. Every freedom is relative. We are bound by rules and regulations in every society and every organization. Still, so many people aspire for freedom. Many people in pre-independence India would have believed that aspiring for freedom from British rule was a utopia, and still, some not only believed in that but also aspired for the same. Life for these freedom fighters was not easy. They have to undergo so many tortures and even give away their lives for something that they have not yet tasted. For something that nobody is sure of. The lives of the people who reconciled to slavery were comparatively easy.  The lives of those who reconcile to their situations are always easy. Those who aspire for freedom will have to work harder, face stressful situations, and also, at times, give away their lives. Yet, you ask Bhagat Singh at any point in time, and he will make the same ch...

Why do so-called "intelligent" people behave so stupidly? Do they understand their stupidity? Why would an intelligent person like Ravan behave so stupidly that he would kidnap Sita like a coward? Why would an intelligent person like Bhishma not be able to understand such a fundamental difference between being loyal to a person and being loyal to a kingdom? Which kingdom did he protect due to his vow? Why would such an intelligent human race deny the existence of consciousness when they don't know anything about life and death? What is so special about "intelligent" people? They can think of a solution that "others" are not able to think of. That means the USP of "intelligent" people is "awareness". They are more "aware" as compared to others. "Awareness" as a result of "past experience" or "keen observation". Ravana read all the scriptures, and he knew all the Vedas and could defeat any ...

 The more I visit the schools and the more I am convinced that we need to talk to the children. We need to have open discussions in society. Our generation was a different generation where children never thought of being rebels. In our childhood, children would never watch even movie without the permission of their parents. Even if a child smokes cigarettes, he will give up his life but will not let his parents know about the same. Society was at the top of our heads. We never thought of defying the norms of society, and that's why choices were simple. We had to just choose whatever society endorsed without much application of the mind. If everybody is doing medical or engineering, we will also naturally choose the same. In fact, the children of our generation were more like mama's boys and daddy's girls and will happily accept whatever their parents chose for them.  Today's generation is quite different. Children. Today, have their own thought process, which may be qui...

 Yesterday evening, while watching the movie " Dil Dhadakne Do ", I listened to the dialogue between Rahul Bose and Farhan Akhtar as he was talking to Priyanka 's family. He said, "I allowed my wife to work," and Farhan replied, "Why does she need your permission to live her life?" It seems very simple. Why should anybody need permission from anybody else to live his or her life? But, is it really so? Are we really free to do what we want? Priyanka had to have the courage to do what she wanted. Ranveer needed courage to do what he wanted. Courage to fight what? Courage to fight the fear of social disdain as a result of raising a voice against socially accepted standards. Divorce is still treated as a social stigma, and people talk behind your back. Why? Because so many people have lived through a bad relationship and have not made a decision to break free of it. Now they see somebody breaking free of the relationship. That's not acceptable. If t...