A sane devotion

This is the sequel to the previous post “Balls to Bhakthi”… Bhakthi would mean devotion… I would also like to used this interchangeably with ‘Emotional arousal’.  I have been trying to understand devotion and I realize that  for most of devotion has a lot of linkages with religious activities (particularly in a society like India). Engaging  with the unknown in  awe and deep sense of respect passes of as devotion.

Such devout activities are oriented towards a top down approach, that is, to engage with devotion on the unknown in order to gain strength and meaning to handle the known.  Most religious activities follow this top down model.

Personally I believe this is the model that is highly opiated, and numbing.  It only results in the so called ‘devotees’ staying content with engaging in the unknown and severing themselves from reality.

A more rational approach would be to engage in the unknown from the known – what is called the bottoms up approach.  With this you are in constant touch with reality and as you engage on the unknown from the real world one is also humbled and reminded of the frailty, resulting in mortal man desiring to pursue knowledge (jnana) with renewed vigor only to find his understanding become smaller.

This is believe is the real devotion – the bottom up model

Balls to you Bhakthi

Iam glad I was not a good student in school and college.  Iam glad that I did not allow the system to mold me into a workhorse.  Iam, really really thrilled, that the industry does not accept me.  It was a telephonic interview, and the interviewer asked me what I was doing currently, I said NOTHING and then went on to ask how much I was making per month for which I said NOTHING again.  “You seem have a variety of experience, how much do you expect?” was his next predictable question (actually I expected him to slam the phone down after 2 questions). Two more questions and some undiluted truth, which he did not want to hear was said, the phone interview was over.

I worked in an organization that like to call itself an ‘ideas enterprise’, if you take this seriously and you give ideas, you will be burnt on the stakes.  The other day Felix narrated his school experience, where he wrote an answer to a science question correctly and towards the end wrote two lines on what he felt about the theory or the law.  The teacher cut his marks by half since Felix gave his own opinion towards the end.

Last week I was invited to discuss the training needs for a large Global bank, the process involved to enter the place was tiresome.  I was called to train their customer handling staff on how to handle customers.  Apparently all of them were good committed people but not very effective.

I had set my mind on this, in fact I have been a professional and a human being with a lot of devotion to what I did and to those whom I worked for.  I was distressed when those who were not ’sincere’ to the assignment get all the recognition and the devoted ones being overlook.  I questioned it but did nothing about it, moral uprightness was intertwined in the fabric of my being… I was not able to get out of it.

Then I came across this ‘Karma – Bhakthi – Jnana’  system.  I started interacting with this concept with the ‘Triune brain Theory’ and understood this new dimension of Devotion or Bhakthi.  I came to realise that most of us have Bhakthi on Bhakthi, or in other words devoted to stay devote.  Most work places have good people, most education institutions have good students but do they think? 

The focus of Bhakthi must be on Jnana.  The devotion to truth, knowledge and wisdom is important.  Hence Karma-Bhakth-Jnana are not three different silos operating independently.  They need to to be intermeshed and have to work together only then will works(karma) will happen through Knowledge (jnana)

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The weak are strong

Gayatri lives on the pavement... look at her smile

Photo Courtesy -  Felix Chandran

Topsy Turvy wisdom – Boomadevi

I was busy in the kitchen trying to bake a cake when this man walked in carrying a huge smile and with a small load of coconuts in his hand.  When I saw his face, it sure did not ring a bell, it tweeted.

This cheerful man introduced himself and says that he was involved in the construction of the house and had a short story to narrate about the times he had to work in the rains and complete his job.

He caught my attention and I was engaged in a conversation.  “They why sell coconuts?”  I asked him.  Then he narrated his accident on how he fell from the third floor of a buildings as the scaffolding collapsed.  And then came out with the most marvelous statement “I LIVE BECAUSE WHEN I FELL NOBODY WAS AROUND”  Strange, really strange, as you may feel, “thankfully no one was around”….well I would have wished to have fallen with people around me, so that I would reach the hospital in the ‘golden hour’

I demanded explanation..  he went on to say, “when I fell, he got up and found his leg broken, thats it.  If some had seem him fall, they would have screamed out of fear waking up “Boomadevi” (goddess of the earth), who would have consumed me”

He sure does know about the blood brain barrier and the power of fear.

The eye of the Tigress

Those eyes can speak, but then all eyes should anyway. While many, lets call them the ‘feast types’, train their eyes to feast on the goodness around there are some,  use their eyes to to change situations and lives.  Every human is born with this spatial visual ability, weather their eyes can see or not, handling space in the mind is an inherent human ability.  And every human is born with this ability to move their limbs, to walk, to handle food, to point, to hold etc.  So these are basic skills that we are born with and we live with, some barely survive and some attain great heights.

And some attain significance and impact many lives.  How do they do it?  When I heard about Ananda Shankar Jayant for the first time at the TED India conference, my mind was blow apart by her beauty, speech and dance. Wanting to know her was my only thought.  And I did.

Yesterday I met up with Ananda, and as she spoke with ebbuliance and energy while  my mind wandered off and kept wandering.  She said that she looked at her ‘menacing challenge’ in the eye.  Eye ball to eye ball the ‘challenge’ blinked.  I was sharing this with my friend Joseph, who came up with this amazing metaphor of a ship in the eye of a storm.  The captain cannot afford to be blink or stop on his tracks, he needs to keep sailing regardless of the danger, knowing fully well that to voyage through the storm is the only way to handle the storm even if the ship is forced to change its course or remain stationary.  Its the storm that passes by.  Its not the ship that passes the storm.  The storm has to go, it has to go somewhere and it surely will.

Ananda skippered her life well, she came through her storm stronger by looking down at it.

Her eyes doth not see the way most eyes do, it is inspired by the way she has trained her body to dance and produce art and  use it to take her enthusiasm from one place to another.  I realized that if we were to use our basic skills, handed over to us on a default mode, and turn it around to produce art and rhythm only then, can we actually carry the tag of ‘humanbeing‘ proudly on or chest.  If not we either give ourselves to the basest of emotions and deeds or we just fall under the broad category of ‘humanism’

………………………………………………………….

Dr. Ananda Shankar Jayant is the convener of the Natyakala Conference 09 you can visit their site at www.natyakalaconference.com

Read about her talk at TED India ‘Power of Stories’  TED link

Also visit www.anandashankarjayant.com

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The diary of a Digital Migrant – TEDx Experience

My first exposure  Technology was when I flipped through the pages of a magazine (The Time or Newsweek I cant remember)  on the sidewalks near the Bata Showroom in Mount Road.  Till such time I was quite in awe at the Radio we possessed, that took its own time to switch on (Analog) but provided us with some wonderful programs such as – Listeners choice, Horlicks Suchitravin Kudumbam etc and  the BBC that sounded like screeches and screams of sinners who were falling into a boothakuzlhi.

This magazine carried a cover story on this new technological device that can do basic math and it was called – Calculator. As a school student Math was an anathema – well the types who liked maths became successful engineers in life the others either owned companies employing  engineers or  became vagabonds.

So this calculator on the magazine cover actually promised me a bright future… “become a genius without being one” was probably the line that propped up in my head.  This was too good to be true to my mind, at the point in time.  I probably did a quick – Space & Time analysis (with my analog mind) and I placed the calculator in the ‘bizzare  slot’ of my mind that also had rockets, atom bombs and machine guns.  Then I sat back and sulked over the fact that  this calculator, that can be my deliverer and my liberator,  will never reach my hands in my life time.

Exactly one year later I jumped till my shorts slipped down, my aunt from Malaysia bought one for my Dad.  And my poor dad was not able to figure out how to use it so he willingly handed it over to me.   I spent hours and hours pouring my mind over it, stripped it open and tried to find the genius within….  and in 4 months I had junked it.  I needed an upgrade.

Thus began my journey.  For on that day.. I made up my mind that I will never accept anything as life solution and always develop a greed for more.  Greed actually helps, you see, contrary to what the good old people say.  The greed, the desire, the evil intent (thanks Prashanthi) can actually drive one.

So when I sit with this wonderful set of guys in the TEDx meeting I still find myself to be a immigrant with a valid passport,  and I rely on this digital natives to make me understand the new work culture that is technology driven..  Iam a gorging and feasting on it.  Every meeting I attend I end up being enriched, and few small wires make the connection within.

It gives me great delight when my country men from the Analog world look at me in awe or disdain, and murmur here comes our messiah lets kill him.

Thats what TEDx Chennai is for me.

Cast your Bread

Nearly 25 years ago I walked into this small company to discuss some advertising plans and do business.  I was drawn into the product and its capability to change the way we was clothes, it was an uninteresting chemical but some how I got interested and did some study.

Today the same company has clocked rs. 1000 crores, a major player and I had the opportunity to train the top management on Leadership.  I recalled my knowledge about the product and it helped me connect with them instantly.

Remembered this wonderful statement “cast your bread upon waters and it will come back to you”

The two day, quite a strenuous program, ended today … the time was reflection was very moving…  I had goose bumps when every single participant came forward and shared his decision to take up challenges and learning.  The cherry was the MD himself making a 5 minute speech, tracing his rise to the top.  A gracious man, who said that he was not worthy enough to be given the opportunity to head a company  of this stature (that makes him more than worthy)  and he moved each of us with his commitment to produce leaders to serve the society (not just the company)

Shining eyes… moist eyes.

The Dash Poem by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke of the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard;
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
And more often wear a smile,
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

© 1996 Linda Ellis

TEDx Script

Few excited people on facebook connected

Passionate about watching videos on TED

Lets have some real face time, they all said

Glugged Cafe Latte, the time they wasted

And one good evening, WTF they all said

Instead of watching lets do it instead

They got the license to organize TEDx

They got excited as it rhymed with sex

13842 mails, 7673 tweets clearly expressed

The motivation of 20 freaks who adored TED

They glugged more lattes and went late to bed

And woke up every morn with a groggy head

Now that all talks are shot on camera RED

They plan to do a ‘V Camp’ next and hit the bed

TEDxChennai Planning meet up

TEDx Meet on Nov20 at CCD Ispahani