Meditations on Transcendence

The nuclear disaster in Japan has reached to Chernobyl levels. It was so unanticipated. The earthquake followed by the tsunami and boom the reactor is damaged leading to uncontrolled radiation. ‘Padam padam etad vipadam’ – in this material world we court danger every moment. Danger means environment imposes things which tend to destroy our existence. The soul never gets destroyed but the conditioned soul is put into that virtual reality of being effaced. The unexpected events in nature which change the course of history are called the Black swan events. One can learn how properly to react to an unexpected event, one can never plan for it. Its like the surprise tests in IITs, one has to be on the go at all times. But why the world is designed for unexpected events? Of course the big bang guys who think the world was never designed but just happens will definitely not have an answer. The unexpected events are a sign that this place is not for permanent settlement, where death is staring ...

Coaches, consultants and advisors form an integral part of the formula to achieve excellence in any field. Be it team games like soccer, cricket or hockey, or individual games like tennis, badminton, coaches play a very important part in deciding the fate of matches and winning glory for the team. In soccer, many times the coach is more vital than the players. In 2010 we all experienced the mega sporting event on earth – the Soccer World Cup in South Africa - which comes once every four years. Spain defeated the Netherlands to take home the trophy. We experienced the contrasting strategies of coaches from Spain , Germany and the Netherlands . Germany depended on swift counter attacks whereas Netherlands depended on playing rough. The style of Spain was having possession and waiting for the gaps.

Happy new year 2011. The greetings were all around in the air as i arrived for the first day in office for 2011. Innumerable handshakes, SMS, emails!!! I joined in it part of group think, which makes one do a ritual just because everyone is doing. Inside me i was thinking ‘what is happy about arrival of a new year?’. I have wished for the past 30 years but nothing better has happened. Corruption levels have increased, crime rates are on rising trend in all major cities and around us. We are constantly at fear of an imminent terrorist attack. So why we are all part of this ritual of wishing when the First of January arrives every year? Have we become very mechanical in life? Have we stopped questioning the intent of anything due to the ever increasing busy life. By the time my first day in office had ended, i had got heavily cynical of these new year wishes. As i was overhearing numerous wishes over the phone across my cubicle i was feeling how empty these wishes are. How many times do ...

9 th chapter of Gita is called ‘the most confidential knowledge’ and it is also the king of all knowledge. What is the meaning of confidential? Suppose i talked to a friend and tell him this is very confidential – keep it to yourself. Confidential means some information is not for public consumption. The Sanskrit word used here is ‘Guhyam’ or secretive. Why do we like to share information with only certain set of people? Like government defence secrets are confidential because it can get into enemy hands and can cause problems to national security. Similarly in the corporate world there are design secrets, trade secrets which if made public can cause harm in harming shareholder interests. Competition, enemity these are some of the causes that we hold some information secret. But Sri Krishna is the Lord himself who does not have competition nor worthy enemies. He is ‘asmaurdha’ ‘ajita’ or unconquerable. Why is he classifying some information as confidential? Also whatever he has said i...

Every Hindu is aware of the word Dharma. People in India use it with different interpretations, in different context. The words 'Guru' and 'karma' have already gotten into the English dictionary being part of the vocabulary. It will not be much longer before the word 'Dharma' makes its way. What is the real meaning of the word Dharma? People usually associate with the english word 'duty'. Going deeper into sanskrit grammar, the word Dharma means 'spontaneous property of any object/entity'. Every object exhibits some natural property which cannot be disassociated from it. Like the property of sweetness is tightly coupled with entity sugar, flowing property is associated with water, heat with fire etc... one can go on. Dharma is an idea in people's mind on how a object generally behaves. Its a perception of reality unchangeable with time. Environmental influences can temporarily modify the property - like low temperature can modify the property...

Last week the movie Ravanan got released in multiple languages – Hindi, tamil, telugu. Its a ManiRatnam magnum opus scripted around the character of Ravana – the ten headed villain in Hindu epic Ramayana. Its about exploring the ten different characters in the same person and how they interact, conflict each other. Is it like a multiple personality disorder? I don’t know – haven’t seen the movie. There is a recent spate of movies based on our holy epics. If Rajneeti by Prakash Jha was a take on Mahabharatha, Mani’s version is inspired by Ramayana. In fact this is a first take on Ramayan being used as base for modern day story telling. Mani has to be credited for his creativity and for going in the direction of unexplored waters. What are these epics? Are they just stories, fables or reality? What makes them holy?

Recently 2 kinds of news are hogging the media space. The BP oil spill issue and the union carbide issue. Both have lot of things in common. BP oil spill is about the oil well deep inside the gulf of Mexico going berserk. The earth has oil inside it and we drill it for running automobiles and whole lot of things to enable mechanical motion. But this spill has caused irreparable damage to the environment. Whole ocean flora and fauna is dripped and bathed in viscous oil. Has led to irreversible damage to life. If we can empathize then one can understand the sad plight of life in the gulf of Mexico. The ripple effect on human civilisation will have a time lag but is sure to come. Whole world is a system with interdependent subsystems which need each other for survival and growth. So its only foolishness not to anticipate an impact in the near future. Marine specialists should extrapolate this event to possible child events that will be triggered in future. Why is humanity creating such a ...