Nature
This stirring campaign made me realise that we are abusing not only women, but also what each of these 3 goddesses represent (Saraswati: Knowledge, Lakshmi: Wealth and Durga: Power).
We lust for them (running after degrees rather than wisdom, being obsessed with wealth and abusing power).
We lock them up (not freely sharing knowledge, wealth or power). And when we see them, we grab them, irrespective of our legitimacy (particularly true for Wealth and Power but also for Knowledge).
At the source of all of these abuses (women at a gross level and knowledge-wealth-power at the subtle) is our insecurity — because we have converted them to objects of raw desire, an end in themselves and completely stripped of dignity.
And at the highest level we have a strained relationship with the ultimate feminine — Nature (Prakriti) — we have been raping the earth for a while now. We have a choice to continue — and watch Durga turn into Kali as Nature moves from nurturing us to becoming increasingly hostile.
So, from deep-seated poverty, powerlessness and intellectual inferiority spring these desires — the pattern of blind desire and perversion may be directed towards women or towards wealth, power or knowledge.
It is this pattern that needs to be healed — first within ourselves and then in our patriarchal families — only then will there be some hope of restoring balance in society and on the planet.
**
13 March 2014: It is time to transition to movements where there are many leaders — many many leaders in fact, where no one person bears the burden of shining bright on behalf of everyone…..
It is time for us to build organisations and spaces where each person glows in their unique light, where each is celebrated irrespective of the ‘size’ of their contribution but only for the depth from which it flows……
It is time for leaders to let go of their desire to impose their visions and be spokespersons for others and instead, surrender to the wisdom of the larger collective which has its own music — not a solo vocal but a multi-piece orchestra :)
As Vinoba says,
“When we will all see our role in society as servants, we will all light up the sky together like countless stars on a dark night. Don’t think of society as the sky on a full moon night. The moon’s harsh light blinds us to the true and humble work of the stars. But on a moonless night, the true servants shine forth, as though they are connected invisibly in this vast and infinite cosmos.”
**
23 March 2014: So this Sunday morning, why don’t we discard our narrow definition of beauty?
Light skin, high cheek bones, sharp nose, well defined jaw lines, symmetry — all of which signals our primal selves about great reproductive mates…..
This highly limiting definition of what is beautiful makes all humanity try and run after it — it makes us celebrate and highlight the very few (who happen to look that way purely by chance).
It also makes us want to groom ourselves not to look more like we are but to get closer to those set notions of beauty.
This may have served us so far, but now, we are at a stage where we can let go of this set notion. We can learn to see beauty in every person (and not just beauty of soul / spirit, but physically as well)
It is a matter of the gaze — and an appreciative gaze can make each person feel beautiful in their own way and skin, rather than discriminate based on an outdated subconscious system.
Let us democratize beauty.
30 March 2014:
Live like a scientist.
Let curiosity be your guiding light — try things never done before, walk a different rhythm.
Live on the edge of humanity and push it forward — not as huge scientific revolutions but as small experiments in your own truth, in ways of living and doing.
Take the risk of looking like a fool — because most of the new things you try out will fail. They will seem embarrassingly foolish.
And yet, the very few of them which work will give you such joy!
Because they will be ways of living that you discovered for yourself, grounded in your experience and a result of your tinkering, trail and error.
Scientists push humanity forward — all that we enjoy today were bold and successful experiments by scientists of different types. And behind each thing we enjoy — right from the screens where we read to the what we eat or travel or do — there were countless failed experiments and endless hours.
The price of progress is paid by scientists while the rest of us selfishly keep consuming, passively hoping that someone else takes the hit.
Instead, let us all live like scientists — let us freely experiment, not only with technology but with art, culture and our very basic ways of living.
In that, we will have unleashed a new Renaissance.
28 March 2014:
Become an artist, today.
Live every moment like a true artist does.
Love like an artist, making your relationships works of art.
Work like an artist, expressing yourself through all you do.
And look at the world as a work of art too (if it gets too ugly look at it as a bad attempt at modern art)
The artist dances to the tunes of the inner voice……the artist doesn’t ‘work’ to produce something useful…….he just creates out of a higher purpose……something eternal and of immense beauty…..
Whatever that masterpiece does after that….who can tell? It can inspire….uplift….or lie in some dark dusty corner for years before unfurling its brilliance…..
The world needs works of art….it needs each of us to access the artist within and offer each moment, each act and each word as a work of art
**
5 April 2014: Knowledge follows a similar cycle each time in my life.
First, the discovery of a new concept, ideology or technique is thrilling — often unexpected. Like you bump into a place of immense beauty in an unplanned manner — or like a child discovers a unique sea shell on the beach.
Then, is the application of the knowledge — and the cool results it brings. That is like a gadget geek discovering various features of her new iPhone or car. As I use it, life gets better.
Once it has been ‘sort of’ internalized, it sits like a shiny trophy on my shelf of ideas. I flaunt it with pride, preach it, and treat it like the holy grail. It is THE answer. (So often, this is the point where we stop engaging with the knowledge and fossilize it)
As I continue to engage with it though, I start discovering places and areas where it does not apply. Or there is another theory on the way. The trophy moves to the attic and starts to gather dust. It is dismissed as a naive phase of life that has been outgrown.
But it stays somewhere, in my consciousness…..and at some stage, it strikes back. Its beauty and simplicity hits — in a much deeper way than I first understood. I am able to appreciate its power in new light. It is the same knowledge but it is a different me.
However, this time it doesn’t occur as the ultimate answer, but as an elegant lens to view the world from.
It now sits in my bedroom like an intricately crafted sandalwood flute, accessible when it is needed, and giving its mild fragrance at other times.
**
1 May 2014: Humanity does not have a particularly exceptional track record of handling visionaries and path-breakers….
We feel so threatened by them that we crucify them (Christ) , assassinate them (Gandhi) , ignore them (Tesla) or let them die bankrupt (Van Gogh)…
Fundamentally challenging status quo is a seriously risky proposition
**
6 May 2014: If you are reading this, clearly, the cards of life have been dealt in your favour. I can at the very least say that for myself.
I don’t have to work hard to grow the food I eat — farmers remotely toil under the sun, patiently watering, harvesting and then transporting the food to me. And then it is cooked for me, served neatly on a plate.
My life is powered by electricity generated far away (I am shielded from all pollution and effects) and from fossils dug deep within.
In the economy of abstractions, I was fortunate to be born to parents who could afford me an education, which in turn let me be on top of this world which values things differently.
So most of what I have today, as proud as I may feel for it, I can’t claim credit for. I live off the sacrifices of my previous generations, and in a system where I am privileged.
A part of me is filled with gratitude and would never want it any other way.
But another part of me knows that while this is how it is for me, it isn’t so for many many others. And that is the part which desires to reach out, to contribute, to help and to make a difference.
When a mosquito bites one hand, the other hand immediately springs into action, shooing it away. It doesn’t passively sit there, watching as the insect sucks away blood from the other hand….
And yet here we are, denying our interconnectedness — and seeing the unfairness of our world every single day and yet muffling our desire to serve, to give.
So many of us here share that feeling — and I pray that we find our own ways to restore the balance, to reach out and share and to enrich ourselves in the process
**
11 May 2014: Blind people in a dark room
When I say “I’m happy”, I articulate a feeling with words that seem to describe it (as I have been ‘taught’)
Next I reduce the it to a single font, single word meaning and type it out.
You read the single word, and map it back to some set of feelings you feel that you vaguely call ‘happy’ (by now your happy and my happy may be totally totally apart)
Then, you conclude you ‘like’ it (whatever you mean by like) and click that button.
I see your name aggregated with many other ‘likes’.
All this while we do not even know if the feelings are labelled with the right words, whether we feel the same thing when we use the same word and whether we are getting anywhere close to each other in communicating what we feel.
We are blind people in a dark room, having a conversation about light. :)
17 June 2014: There are subtle stories within me….very subtle
I look at them as they unfold…
With surprise.
Not knowing that they have already been told….
**
22 June 2014: You die every moment…..
and every moment you are reborn
**
9 July 2014:
This time, we are going to be a galaxy of stars on a moonless night….where each star shines in it’s own sparkle….
This time, the movement is not going to follow any single leader….it is going to follow the spirit of goodness that resides in each one….
This time round, we will figure our own truths, not borrow them….this time we will question freely and share freely…..
The transformation is not going to be with wars and bloodshed but with collective celebration and consensus….
We have evolved — and our ability to get along, to anchor in abundance and to solve issues without hurting anyone is only going to get better…
All we need to do is slow down….breathe….and let Nature take over!
**
18 July 2014: Let us be silent.
Totally, absolutely and completely silent.
Because that what we are speaking about is anyways beyond words. It cannot be described. Any attempts to get closer to it will only lead us further away from it.
It is not far. It does not have any magnitude. It doesn’t have to be reached — it is It.
So what do I say? Because anything I say is so pointless. There is nothing left to say — only total silence. That is the closest we can commune, that is the closest I can get to communicating the essence of what is.
Total, Deep and Absolute Silence.
**
27 Oct 2015:
This morning, I met the Earth…..Gaia…..
She was slowly turning from the October heat to the first bursts of cool November breeze….
She was grieving her own erosion…..and yet celebrating relentlessly with new blossoms and dancing birds….
She was beset with extremes…..with divides….and yet continued to hold an underlying unity….
A well-meaning psychiatrist would have diagnosed her with seasonal affective disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder all at once…..and recommended ‘hospitalisation’…..
So many of us….we are not ill…..we don’t need to be ‘cured’….we are just one with Her….with Life…with our Planet….
28 Jan 2016:
I pull you close and whisper in your ears….
“You are beautiful the way you are….I love you, you blessed child of the Lord….for ALL of who you are. Never forget that, OK?”
**
14 Feb 2016:
Love is the only craziness the world can afford to indulge in
**
16 June 2016: Is religion as practiced today a path to liberation or a form of control?
**
27th June 2016: Drop the umbrella….Have an affair with the rains :)
Actually what I wanted to say was this:
On a Monday morning, if you feel like curling in the bed with tea or getting drenched in the rains, do it.
Show up late for work — the faceless corporation that you labour for will lose a few pennies and dollars, your boss will be upset with you, work will get delayed.
Let it.
You don’t have to give in to the evil force that drags you to work at a fixed time every day — you are human, and humans love to play and chill as much as they love to work.
Tinker around a bit…you may be surprised what you can get away with :)
4 Sept 2016:
We’re the apes
who trade paper for food
Some accumulate paper
Others are out of food
**
20 Nov 2016: Can we have a world where everyone can ‘make it’?
Today, making it means being famous, rich or powerful. Only a handful can have these. The rest keep struggling and aspiring.
But what if ‘making it’ meant ‘being fully human’?
- Becoming more and more of yourself, authentically and fearlessly
- Expressing your deepest creative instincts
- Living a life aligned with your (and only your) values
- Striking a balance and really valuing it?
In such a world
- The prestigious alumni award of a B School may go to a work-from-home dad or a mom who managed her career while doing a rocking job of bringing up her baby!
- We would begin to look increasingly different from each other (as we discover ourselves) rather than clones of each other (thinking similar thoughts, living similar lives)
- The pyramid would no longer be crowded at the top cos we would no longer be a pyramid. We’d be a circle (or an amoeba) with a nucleus (that serves the value of continuity) and the edges (that continuously explore)
And hopefully in such a world, instead of judging our status updates by likes and comments, we would judge it by how real they are for us!
**
30 Nov 2016: To: Whoever this message is meant to reach
You are beautiful. You are complete. You are whole. You are adequate. You are enough.
Don’t let the seductive voices from outside lure you into believing otherwise.
Don’t attend too much to the harsh voice of judgement that sits inside you.
If your loved ones tell you you’re not OK, don’t listen to them. It says more about them than about you.
Look at yourself the way your mother would look at you the first time you were in her bosom.
See your magnificence, your innocence, your radiance, you exquisite, inimitable part of Nature….
The ancient stardust that swirls around as ‘you’ is dancing with the rest of the creation, this very moment.
Can you rest in your own glow?
**
11 Jan 2017: The purpose of my life is to have an extended vacation all the way till I die.
As a 1 year goal towards it, I am going to try to listen to a song.
**
23 Feb 2017: No one’s listening but I will still say it: We need to urgently slow down our research on AI.
There is no one regulating this, no ethical norms, no understanding of consequences — what is the hurry?
Why not first focus on the 3.5 billion who have as much money as the 8 richest people? Why not get them out of poverty first, USING all that we have innovated so far?
I don’t trust ourselves with anything powerful — case in point being nukes and GMO.
Can we slow down?
**
14 Mar 2017: If I’d be born where you’re born
If I’d have the same parents, the same experiences,
I would do EXACTLY what you’re doing.
How then can I hate you?
You are essentially me in an entirely different set of circumstances.
And I am you.
27 May 2017:
Driving ourselves, people and organizations based on truth and love is like using solar energy — the source will never deplete and we will only get better and better at using it.
Motivating using money or ideology is like using fossil fuels — you will need to keep intensifying and may start running out of it eventually.
All motivators are present at the same time but the question is — what is our primary source of energy?
14 July 2017: Airports make me emotional
We the children of God, in so many colours, shapes and sizes all running around…..its cute in a strange way…..
I feel like having one large group hug right at the centre of the airport in one giant celebration of being human and being alive at this moment….
**
25 July 2017:
The party’s just started to get groovier…..the beats are going boom boom…..the tempo’s moving…..the dance is growing bigger and the mischief is starting to sprout…..
We’re gonna celebrate our way into one of the most delicate and challenging transitions for humanity so far….guided by the spirit and wisdom of our ancestors, we, the souls currently alive in physical form on the Gaia are breaking out into a dance, a flash mob with her…..
Our tribe is here, by the invitation of every child that is ever going to be born from this moment….to convene and create a space for them where they can thrive and grow and bloom….
At this moment we take all the sacrifices made for us and in our name that have brought us so far…..we blend them with our intentions and efforts and talents and gifts and passion and compassion…
This blend, we offer to our Dear Mother…..watching us dance, she begins to smile….and slowly joins into the flowering……
What an incredible moment,
What a beautiful invitation life has made to our sprits!
Lets get going!!!!
**
26 July 2017: That no one location is better than another is so hard to grasp….
The king has a kingdom to rule while the barber roams carefree….they chat for a bit during the shave and discover each others worlds, their struggles, their hopes, their private thoughts….
And both walk away knowing that the experience of being human is so universal…..king or barber…..internally our lives are strikingly similar…..
**
4 Sept 2017: At best, what we have going on here is an overlap of worlds.
Outside of this overlap, each of us is living in our private Universes with our stories which revolve around us. We inhibit personal worlds with their own myths, fantasies and lore.
Within this overlap, making the grand assumption that the ‘Other’ exists and that we see the shared reality the same way, we continue to live on.
It gets even tricker when the conversation on ‘improving’ this shared reality comes up — because it ends up being a tug of war, each of us trying to pull it a little towards our personal visions of the way the world “should” be.
Perhaps, a wiser approach may be just to acknowledge that we are co-travellers on a short ride before and after which we anyways go our own ways.
While we’re on the ride, how do we make sure everyone’s comfortable, having fun and is at peace (even if they may just be figments of our own virtual reality simulation)?
Anything more than that seems like a response to our lives.
**
11 Nov 2018: Advertising engages in a very sophisticated form of violence. It is much closer to seduction without consent.
When it comes to ads, we have no control over what we’re going to be exposed to before hand. Pieces of visual information are forced into our psyche through hoardings and newspaper ads and online.
These are designed with greater and greater sophistication to affect us and make us buy.
This isn’t like your local vendor screaming the vegetable price at the top of his voice. It is a group of highly intelligent people using psychology, art and imagery to drive behaviour subconsciously.
If somebody would force something unknown down our throats we would protest and push it away. But we don’t do the same when content is forced down our eyes.
One can argue that you can dodge ads but that isn’t as simple — there are no ad free versions of Facebook and Youtube and so much of the content out there may just be ‘sponsored’ and not show up as ‘ads’.
Humanity’s own self-stimulation is an expensive project on many counts — on using some of our brightest minds, on pushing aspirations through the sky and on destroying the planet’s limited resources at an increasing pace.
There are no answers really except maybe to tax advertising more heavily — though I am not even sure if that will help.
Maybe we’ll have to develop ‘ad resistance’ just as we build resistance to various diseases….
**
21 Nov 2018: For those who have no leave for important matters, I would invite you to consider “falling ill”
This has to be planned before you asking for leave not after.
An intentional excuse of illness is a way of resisting a tyrannical system that refuses to grant you the freedom over your own time.
The system will tell you hundreds of stories about why you must show up…how important your work is, how crucial you are and what damage being absent will cause.
All these are mostly lies made up to make you comply
You must also acknowledge that the discomfort caused by showing up for work reluctantly is a form of illness that will hamper your work.
It is in the best interest of your employer and yourself that you call sick and miss work.
Stop making excuses around work…the purpose of work is to let you live a joyful life…work is not the purpose of life.
Experiment with falling sick so that you can do what you really want..it will make you healthier!
**
13 Feb 2019:
What’s more precious — the journey or the destination?
When I look at the developed world, I realise that we see that as a ‘destination’. A place where we’d like to get to someday, in terms of infrastructure and facilities.
When I look closely at it, I see that they have the fatigue of a passenger who has long completed the journey. Someone who is struggling to stay at the destination (of having developed) and being pulled back, pressured by others.
We, on the other hand, have the journey. The journey to our own growth.
The privilege of having a young population. The privilege of hope.
And we have the privilege of answering for ourselves what that journey should be, where should it lead to.
In every decision that we and our government takes, we are expressing our values and paving the path.
We’re constantly facing environment vs development, people vs development and wellbeing vs development kind of challenges.
Maybe we can see them as paradoxes. Maybe we can resolve them. Maybe we can live the questions.
The choice is ours but the real joy is the joy of having a journey to take….the journey to rediscovering our own greatness and living our tryst with destiny.
**
24 April 2019:
Better than endless confusion is to decide….any decision is okay, not-deciding is not okay…..
Better than deciding on any option is thinking through to decide on the ‘most appropriate’ option…you’ll never get to the best but for now, pick the most appropriate one….
Better than the thought through decision is the one that is systemic….factoring in the wisdom of body, emotions and omens as well as ripple effects of external systems on you (you make the decision n the decision also makes you….)
Even better than systemic decision is to act naturally, in the moment without interference of the stale mind (ref: bruce lee / JK and even Fukuoka)…
And even better than the hear-and-now decision is to relish the joy of confusion….to hold the discomfort…to treat it for what it is…a passing cloudy season before the sunshine of clarity will arrive…or maybe it won’t….some of us just love a cloudy day.
16 Aug 2017:
3 takeaways from today’s conversations
1. The Western frame* that divides (man-nature, mind-body etc) is problematic and crisis-inducing
2. I (and we) have been deeply schooled — so we look out our problems through these lenses (which is further problematic) : hence the response to the crisis is itself a part of the crisis!
3. No ONE “idea of India” — its “Ideas of Indias” that can truly do justice to our vast, ancient and diverse civilisation
- — (west-originated globally adapted)
**
5 Sept 2017: Being alive on this planet, at this time, is like an entry ticket to so many experiences of fun and adventure.
Many of these experiences require us to be present here in physical form — like being ‘in’ a certain game or some play area (with lots of games).
We as humanity, it seems to me, have crowded up at the entry ticket booth.
We’re jostling and pushing and pulling and playing petty games about who enters first and how much should tickets cost.
In doing this, we’re missing all that lies beyond.
Maybe we’re not interested.
Or maybe we can’t even imagine an unfettered life for us all….unfettered to ideology, belief, identity or to the vision of any particular future.
