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Month: June 2022

What matters?

What matters?

Published June 30, 2022

Was reading some investment related material today, but realized quickly that it was excellent life advice as well.

  1. While size matters, what matters more is character. The latter helps create sustainable value.
  2. More than the present size (of the investee company), what matters is what size it will become.
  3. There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less. (Bertrand Russell)

Some good food for thought, don’t you think?

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LLL

LLL

Published June 29, 2022

Chapter 8 in the Gita is about death. That’s what everyone says. So gloomy, so moribund.

But my Guru has a different take.

He says it’s about the 3 Ls.

The art of Living.

The art of Loving.

And then and only then, the art of Leaving.

Yes Lord Krishna talks about death, and what one should do at the time of death (i.e. think of Him). But that’s not easy, and doesn’t come at the last minute (literally!).

We need to Live a life of Love for the Lord, and then all of a sudden, the Leaving will become an art.

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Trasher

Trasher

Published June 28, 2022

Here are three hard hitting lines I came across in a podcast.

“Would you let someone to come into your house and trash it?”

“No right?”

“Then why are we letting people come into our minds and trash it?”

The moment we feel weak or sad or angry simply because of what someone else told us, we have let them into our minds to trash it.

Is that what we want?

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Karmic simplicity

Karmic simplicity

Published June 27, 2022

Here is a simple Karmic truth.

Many people think that spirituality and materialism are poles apart.

But Lord Krishna in the Gita has given a way to make them both the same!

He asks us to perform karma yoga, so that our worldly work will continue on, as the body continues doing all the necessary actions.

And the mind? The mind is attached to God, because all work is done as a service to Him, and hence no karma is accrued.

Thus spirituality = materialism!

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Can we think of the Lord all the time?

Can we think of the Lord all the time?

Published June 26, 2022

A close friend couple (husband + wife) had taken a 1 year sabbatical. This was what they recounted to me.

They planned their sabbatical about 10 months in advance. And they were both working right till the start of the sabbatical.

Initially, they said, it felt so far off, and they would hardly think of it.

But towards the end, as time kept moving forward, and as the time-to-sabbatical reduced from months to just weeks and days and hours, they said that they kept thinking of the sabbatical ever increasingly, even during their office work, which they were anyway doing, and doing well.

We certainly seem to have the capacity to process multiple things at once in our minds. So can we think of the Lord a lot of the time, while also going about our other daily duties? We sure can!

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Dusty feet

Dusty feet

Published June 25, 2022

Lord Krishna once got a headache (yes apparently God’s can get them too!).

The cure? To simply sprinkle some dust from under the feet of any of his devotees.

He asked sage Narada to go looking for any devotee that would give him the dust from under their feet. Narada thought it would be easy-peasy.

But to his surprise and dismay, not a single devotee agreed. Everyone was worried, that if the dust from their feet would fall on the Lord’s head, then they would be sent to hell!

Finally sage Narada reached the gopis (cowherds) of Vrindavan. The gopis immediately collected some dust from under their feet and asked Narada to take it back to Krishna at the earliest. Narada was perplexed, and asked the gopis, “Aren’t you worried about going to hell like all the other devotees were?”

“Who cares about hell?”, they said. “All we care about is that Krishna should be healthy and happy again. Kindly go and give the dust to him as soon as you can please.”

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Water from where?

Water from where?

Published June 24, 2022

Imagine you had a bucket of the world’s purest water. Life-giving, disease-healing, magically-energizing water. And then you put just one teenie-weenie drop of toilet water into it. Would you drink this water?

Absolutely not, right?

This is the outstanding example my Guru keeps giving at every opportunity.

He says that all the bad news and bad events in our lives – like someone died, someone fell ill, you lost your job, you didn’t get the promotion or bonus you were looking for, someone spoke something harsh against you and so on and so forth – that all these would take up just maybe a few days of bad feelings at most.

What do we do though? We spend weeks, months, years and sometimes our entire lives in mental anguish, stress, regret, sorrow and worse. In an otherwise perfect life, we have introduced a few drops of toilet water.

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How to work?

How to work?

Published June 23, 2022

My Guru repeatedly says that there is no such thing as a perfect type of work.

Even the best of things, done over and over, will only bring boredom and frustration.

Our scriptures also place no emphasis on the actual work we do, but rather only focus on the state of our minds, while we are engaged in that (any) work.

How to work then? My Guru repeats this verse from chapter 18 of the Gita:

mukta-saṅgo ‘nahaṁ-vādī dhṛity-utsāha-samanvitaḥ

It means that one must be free from attachment and ego, and be endowed with dhriti and utsaha, i.e. perseverance and enthusiasm. That is the simple (but not easy) secret sauce to success.

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Bhajan shortcut

Bhajan shortcut

Published June 22, 2022

In chapter 8 of the Gita, Lord Krishna appears to offer a shortcut to reach Him.

He says, that no matter the kind of life one has led (including very sinful), if one remembers the Lord at the time of death, then such a person would definitely reach Him.

Seems easy enough! So one clever chap who had never been even remotely pious or religious or spiritual in his entire 90 year life, decided to utilise this shortcut. His plan? To make sure that on his deathbed, his near and dear ones play some Krishna bhajans, so that automatically he keeps thinking of Krishna.

On the last day/time, he is on his deathbed, and a Krishna bhajan is played. And then another. And another. Our man cannot stand it any longer, all these alien songs, having never listened to any bhajans in his life. “What is this stuff? It’s so boring. Stop it! Can’t you people just let me die in peace?”. They did stop the bhajans being played, and he promptly passed away.

The shortcut in chapter 8 is not a shortcut. It just appears so. In order to remember the Lord at the time of death, it is necessary to remember Him at every waking moment!

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The art of war

The art of war

Published June 21, 2022

Was reading about a war situation. One family of 6, two parents and 4 of their children, were stuck in their home as war broke out. They thought they were safe, until an enemy missile exploded barely 500 meters away from their home.

They dashed into their car and decided to make a run for the border. Only 5 of them though. Because the eldest, at 18 years of age, decided to stay back and fight for his country.

The other 5 somehow managed to reach the border, staying in all sorts of temporary encampments enroute. With great difficulty, they crossed over into the neighbouring country.

The husband ensured his family was safe, and the next morning began the drive back home, to join his son in the fight. Whether the wife and 3 kids would ever see their husband/father/brother/son again, was a question no one had the answer to…

Meanwhile, what silly tiny immaterial problem in my life was I complaining about again today morning?

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How to make the right decision?

How to make the right decision?

Published June 20, 2022

You know how we are at a crossroads so many times in our lives? We need to make one decision or another. This job or that. This country or that. This course or that. This institution or that. And so on.

Despite this, we rarely have a clear blueprint of how to go about these decisions. So critical, yet so confusing.

A senior satsangi this past weekend gave a simple yet profound 3-step technique for just this problem:

  1. Pray for the right wisdom.
  2. Ask for guidance from materially successful mentors especially if they are also on the spiritual path, such as a part of the same satsang.
  3. Understand deeply, that the grass is always greener elsewhere. Not that we shouldn’t strive for better – but just that it helps to have realistic expectations.

Decision making conquered!

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Titular

Titular

Published June 19, 2022

CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, Head of Legal, Head of Sales, Executive Director, Managing Director, Senior Vice President, Senior Partner, Senior Principal etc etc.

These are all lovely titles.

Everyone wants them.

But can everyone handle them?

Each of these titles comes with truckloads of stress and deadlines and deliverables and insane client demands.

If we run after the titles alone, we will experience nothing more than stress and anxiety.

However, if we focus on adding value to those around us, neither will we be stressed, nor will we need any titles. Paradoxically, all the titles in the world will come running to us!

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Constructive focus

Constructive focus

Published June 18, 2022

Was observing a construction worker recently.

He had just laid a ton of bricks. Putting one after the other, and cementing up an entire wall. Grunt work, if there was any.

His boss came up to him the next day and said the owners had asked for the wall to be shifted a little. This meant disassembling his entire work from the previous day, and putting the wall up again, brick by brick, a couple of meters away.

Anyone in his place would have been frustrated, and understandably so. Why couldn’t someone have told him the correct place to put the wall up in the first place?

But our man? Not at all fazed. He coolly nodded, and went about taking apart the current wall and setting up the new one. His entire focus was on the work itself (laying the bricks) and not at all on the result (whether the wall was here or there or on Mars). A good lesson for me as I go about my daily work.

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Back scratching

Back scratching

Published June 17, 2022

“You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” is a common expression.

This also nicely sums up Parasparam Bhavayantah from chapter 3 verse 11 of the Gita, which we have seen a few times before. The principle of helping one another. The understanding that nothing can survive independently.

One neat example is in the world of home deliveries. All these apps now use maps to ensure they deliver groceries or food or parcels in the quickest time possible.

But are these maps they have each created on their own? Not at all! They use Google Maps, for a fee of course. And that’s how Google Maps makes money too, because it’s not like you or I pay anything to Google for using their Maps. Parasparam Bhavayantah in action!

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Pottymouth

Pottymouth

Published June 16, 2022

One guy I came across has a real potty mouth. Not just cuss words or expletives, but even hurtful and derogatory words were common usage for him. You know some folks are just very angry and irritated by everything around them? Yes, this chap was exactly like that.

It so happened, that one of the times very recently, he shouted at someone for their tardiness, only to realize that the other person had just lost a parent, which was the reason for the delay in the first place.

And then this pottymouth fellow felt really bad, that he gave that poor fellow a tough time, when he was already grieving over the loss of his closest one. What to do now? Because no amounts of sorrys would offer reprieve. “I wish I had been nicer to him on that day”, he said.

But no, that’s not how this works. You cannot pick and choose the time to be a nice person or a bad person. Good and bad are ingrained into our psyche, assuming we are normal people. That’s why my Guru says we need to transform our thinking, our lives in totality, and not just chase after temporary solutions.

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Mental case

Mental case

Published June 15, 2022

Troubled by stress, anxiety and tension? You are not alone.

How to keep these at bay? By not worrying about what will happen. We know this.

The only thing that differentiates each one of us, and especially those who take a lot of tension versus those who don’t, is their state of mind once a problem has been revealed to them.

Maybe you found out that you need to make a presentation in front of a 1000-people audience, and you just detest the idea. But you need to do it, because that is your job.

The chilled out guy is not worried, because he knows he anyway has to present to that large group, so why worry? Besides, he has faced several tough situations before, and he’s still alive, and so he has faith in himself and/or at least in a higher power to help guide him.

Often it’s not the fear of actually presenting that is the cause of worry, but the fear of underperformance. That people will laugh. That I’d make a fool of myself, and be relegated to YouTube’s Greatest Fools’ Hall of Fame top list. The reality is that no one cares, because everyone is too busy worrying about themselves.

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Is God showing off?…

Is God showing off?…

Published June 14, 2022

…is a question some have on their minds.

What is the meaning of this question even, you might be wondering. Consider the Gita. Everywhere in the wonderful scripture, the Lord talks of his own greatness.

How He is the greatest amongst all Creation. How He is the thread underlying all manifestation. How He knows past, present and future, and everyone and everything, but none know him. How He is the best of the best (vibhuti) of all that we see around us. And on and on.

When this same Lord says that giving up our ego is the most important thing in spirituality, is it that he is showing off about His own abilities? Absolutely not, and here’s 2 key reasons why:

1. He is indeed the true Creator, Sustainer, Destroyer of life and everything around us. We weren’t there for even a fraction of a second, if we look at things from His time frame. If He doesn’t tell us the truth about His nature, then who will?

2. The second point is critical, because there is ego and showing off only if one keeps something to themselves, for selfish reasons. The Lord though has been shouting hoarse to Arjuna that deep down, there is no difference between anyone, i.e. Atman = Paramatman!

LHS = RHS, Hence proved!

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Public Work

Public Work

Published June 13, 2022

Met an old bloke today. Probably in his fifties.

He was happy – smiling and whistling to himself. Not that I met him in happy circumstances.

He was in his small claustrophobic office doing his work. We know his office well. It is also called the public restroom. No he wasn’t spending time there because of a bad stomach. It was just his daily job. 8 hours of business to be done once others were done with theirs.

He said he traveled 2 hours one way from house, in an overcrowded train, every single day. 4 hours spent in traveling, in sweat and crowd, all to get a pittance, after being locked 7 days a week 8 hours a day in a tiny smelly room!

How could he possibly be happy and smiling and whistling? The only possible answer to this question is that happiness is in the mind.

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The 5-4-3-2-1 technique you cannot miss!

The 5-4-3-2-1 technique you cannot miss!

Published June 12, 2022

We all get stressed sometimes. It’s natural. And then we read up on how to reduce this stress. And nice books will tell you that you should not worry about the future. That you should only live in the present.

This is absolutely perfect advice of course. But how to follow this?

Here’s a method I came across. It’s called the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. And it is really simple. If followed properly, it can quickly yank us right back into the present. How to do this?

5. Acknowledge 5 things you can see around you.

4. Acknowledge 4 things that you can touch around you.

3. Acknowledge 3 things that you can hear around you.

2. Acknowledge 2 things that you can smell around you.

1. Acknowledge 1 thing that you can taste around you.

That’s all there is to the 5-4-3-2-1 technique, but it works, and your mind should be less stressed already!

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You have been replaced…

You have been replaced…

Published June 11, 2022

…is a fear each of one us have had at some point.

Whether replaced in a pivotal relationship, or replaced in your job, or replaced from a position of authority, everyone likes the status quo. And the inertia of sitting and lazing around is probably the strongest force in the world!

A new and more recent threat of replacement is one of AI – Artifical Intelligence. We already see so much of computational power around us. Many jobs that were once done by people (ATMs in place of bank tellers; Alexa instead of typists; e-booking instead of travel agents) are all done by computers.

How to survive this? What skills are irreplaceable?

Here is the list, according to a study I came across. 1) Empathy, 2) Emotional Intelligence, 3) Creativity and 4) Unstructured Problem Solving (i.e. not solving via code).

That’s the list. And you know the beauty of these? Each one of these can be developed by us, and strengthened. And forget computers replacing us, if we excel at these, even other people cannot replace us. The hard part? None of these are taught anywhere. Except maybe in satsangs and spiritual books.

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Should you choose the red pill or the blue one?

Should you choose the red pill or the blue one?

Published June 10, 2022

Remember the original Matrix movie? Where Neo aka The One gets a choice between 2 pills, the Blue pill and the Red pill?

We discussed here about 2 years ago how the red pill is probably actually the blue pill. We are stuck in our comfy lives, thinking we have already hit the pinnacle of evolution. Despite our Gurus and spiritual masters shouting themselves hoarse that the blue pills we have all unconsciously ingested only fuel the fire of Maya.

While the new Matrix movie, Resurrections, was beyond my comprehension capacity, there was one very interesting dialogue.

It’s about the same blue pill / red pill choice. But this time, while Neo is asked to choose either one, he is also proferred an extra line as follows: “There is actually no choice between the red pill and the blue pill. The choice is simply an illusion. You already know which one too choose.”

Don’t we?

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CEO skills you need to have

CEO skills you need to have

Published June 9, 2022

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to be part of a meeting with the senior leadership team of a large bank. A very very large one.

They were looking for a CEO. Nope they were not interviewing me for that role, but just that thought is itself funny 😂

In any case, the topic of how they would select the next CEO came up.

The leaders had the criteria for CEO super clear in their mind.

Requirements 1 and 2 had no mention of academics or achievements or credentials.

Requirement number 1 was humility. And requirement number 2 was alignment to their culture. Everything else, was quite literally, tertiary.

What abilities are we looking to build if we want to become CEO?

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Toil-let

Toil-let

Published June 8, 2022

It’s interesting how quickly we humans adapt.

Some months ago, we had the opportunity to stay a short while in a 3 BHK, one with 3 toilets. Of course that is very comfortable for typical Indian standards. Felt good.

Then we traveled, and spent a while in a place with a toilet that was separate and outside the room. A couple of days, and we got comfortably used to that as well.

And then we spent some time in a place with just one loo, but attached to the room. A damn cool upgrade as it were. And very comfortable.

And then back to base with 2 loos.

What did I learn as a nomadic loorist (loo+tourist, but you got that already)? That the body adjusts really fast to any change – almost momentarily. But the mind? Oh that’s a toughie!

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Visionaries

Visionaries

Published June 7, 2022

Drishti Foundation was the uploader of a YouTube video that came up on my feed recently.

The video had a bunch of guys and gals all wearing sunglasses, standing on stage, and either singing or playing various instruments.

While the music was no doubt outstanding, the smiles on their faces were other-worldly.

Every single performer was really enjoying – nay relishing – their joint creation of brilliant harmonies.

And then it hit me. They weren’t wearing sunglasses for style. Each of the performers was blind.

How could they be performing like that, with so much cheerfulness, despite their crippling disabilities? How can I be even half as happy as them?

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ABCs

ABCs

Published June 6, 2022

In JP Morgan’s recent quarterly commentary, I came across an interesting acronym.

If you read the title of this post, then no doubt you guessed it already.

ABC (duh!).

Here is the statement verbatim.

“We’ve always believed that ABC – Arrogance, Bureaucracy and Complacency leads to stasis and death.”

You don’t usually expect to find such lines in boring corporate commentary, but sometimes such gems do exist in the most unlikeliest of places!

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Directions

Directions

Published June 5, 2022

We were all set for experiencing the Siddhivinayak Kakad Aarti at 5.30 am. One would have to wake up much earlier maybe 4 am, shower and then reach the temple.

Night owls would consider such trips sacrilege. But those familiar with morning sevas of Indian temples would know this is not such a bad time – given some start at 2 am!

In any case, we were headed to the temple, just on time. Until of course we encountered a road closure. It was tantalizingly close to the temple, while also being far enough that we couldn’t walk to reach on time.

The area wasn’t familiar, and so we didn’t know the bylanes at all. Momentarily, and out of nowhere, in an otherwise deserted street, a car overtook us, as if directed by Someone higher up. The car went ahead, hit the same road closure, took a U-turn, and then proceeded to the take the shortest alternative route to the temple. We obviously followed, quickly, and otherwise would have had zero chance of reaching on time. Divine directions indeed!

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Conflicted

Conflicted

Published June 4, 2022

There’s a big conflict in Arjuna’s mind.

He sees a lovely path ahead of him called the Path of Knowledge. Jnaana Yoga.

And then a much tougher one, the Path of Work. Karma Yoga.

Of course he is drawn to Jnaana Yoga. Just “learn” some “knowledge” and run away from the battlefield and be done with all work forever.

But this is only an apparent conflict, borne out of delusion, as Krishna explains to him, and indirectly to us.

There is hardly any difference between the two Paths.

Jnaana Yoga is also a path of work only. Because the true Path of Knowledge gets the individual to realize that it is not work that should be shunned, but only attachment to it and its fruits.

The paths only exist in the mind. To the realized soul, everything is the same.

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Sellers

Sellers

Published June 3, 2022

The most important trait to make money surely has to be IQ right?

Warren Buffet, the world’s foremost investor has a different view.

He says very clearly, that a high IQ is not necessary at all.

He is so sure, that he recommends selling 30 points of your IQ, if you’re at 160, because a 130 is more than enough.

You know what else happens when the IQ is too high? Self confidence morphs into over confidence, and the ego gets a boost like no other. And we all know the perils of an inflated ego…

If IQ doesn’t matter much, then what is important? Mr. Buffet thinks that “just being sensible” is key. Simple, but not easy.

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Master feeder

Master feeder

Published June 2, 2022

There are many pious families in India that will not eat until the food has first been offered to the Lord (at their altars).

This is a phenomenal tradition, and not just for the sake of it.

Of course it is more symbolic than real, because one wouldn’t expect the food to actually be eaten. But that is irrelevant.

Even when you are really ravenous, if you are able to put someone else (the Lord) above yourself first in the hunger chain, that is amazing.

Further, the idea is that you are taking care of the Lord, providing him with food, and not vice versa, given that we are constantly praying for accumulating more and more.

This is a wonderful break from the usual selfish infinite list of “I want”s. If you think about it deeply, we really aren’t giving anything to the Lord. And how can we? We are the ones who have got everything from Him in the first place! But such actions still serve as an outstanding conduit for expressing our gratitude.

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Thud

Thud

Published June 1, 2022

A few years ago, my grandmother set out for an early evening walk around the colony.

The area had a lot of trees, and so was nice and green, while also providing decent shade from the sun.

Midway into her walk… and a large branch from a tall tree above, broke off and grazed her hand.

She returned home immediately, and had to put some medication, but it was nothing serious.

It might seem like this was a small incident, but she herself knew it’s importance. Not that the branch broke off, but where exactly she was at the time. Just one step to the right or left, and the branch would have hit her on the head. And with such a hard blow…

We may egoistically think we are in full control of our lives. But we don’t even know what can fall from the sky when we step out for an innocuous walk.

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