Meditations on Transcendence

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

The newly appointed government in india declared the annual budget. Budget an exercise of resource allocation. Government has income and expenditure just like any functional organization. Major part of the income comes from the tax payer. How this income is allocated to different developmental projects. Most governmental development projects are not for profits. But the thing created by the project has to be maintained for its sustained use. A budget is also a planning exercise which needs lots of foresight. There are both allocation for yearly projects and continued input to long term projects. How does a governmental budget contrast a corporate budget? ROI for each budget allocation component is critical for corporate. There are various scenarios. New investments, continued investments, short term profits - corporates are measured by quarterly results - hence a balance between long term and short term allocations is very critical. The 3 major activities of a corporation are operatin

After i switched companies, my new company asked me travel to Munich for 3 weeks. This was my second trip to Europe and the longest. The earlier trip was to Milano for 2 weeks. These trips happened at different times of my spiritual evolution. I was a rookie when i went to Milano having the childlike enthusiasm of a novice. How to maintain ones consciosuness inflight and during trips abroad is a challenge and one learns with multiple experiences. Food impacts consciosuness like nothing else. A spiritualist is always careful on what he eats, where and when. Once having tasted the high levels, a spiritual aspirant fears going down due to temptation of the tongue. I always ensure that i take an apartment so that iam not at the mercy of meat restaurants. One always finds good yogurt in western countries with flavored yogurt being an exception. Flavored yogurt has gelatin in it which can be an animal derivative. In contrast to US, europe is better that their ice creams and desserts dont hav

The other day as i was wading thru the morning traffic, i couldnt help but notice the new big billboard on MG road opposite HSBC bank. The vibrant dashing colors attracted my attention. The bangalore metro in construction slows down the speed after one crosses the Raheja tower circle on MG road. This makes it easy for one to catch glimpse of huge billboards on both sides of the road. The billboard read -'Kahani Hamare Mahabharath ki' with a very attractive huge cutout of the Pandavas. A new serial during everyday prime time 9PM on 9X channel. I became very excited due to my new found resurgent interest in knowing Mahabharatha in detail. My old college pal rekindled this interest in me after he showed a very authentic translation by Kisori Ganguli hosted for free on the internet. Also i became happy for my kids that they can sleep off the day by remembering the woderfully divine characters of Mahabharath rather than the Rajiv Sharmas of 'Minchu'. We wanted to come out of