Know thyself

The most important fact in life that remains a total mystery is to discover oneself. I have found this to be of paramount importance mainly because I think once a person knows what he or she is, the more s/he becomes content.

Of course, being content and civilization don't go hand in hand. Being content is to find out why nature has made you, what is your purpose in life, what is your dharma. To deny these facts is denying the very fabric that makes life on earth possible. After all we need to remember that however far we progress, we still are limited by nature. We are nature's beings, we were not created by us, but by nature.

I am also not in favor of saying that we just sit tight. Human by nature are born with brain that has capacities higher than any other animal on earth. You cannot be not chewing if you have teeth. The tact is to chew the right thing. Humans have every right to know how nature plays its games to control the earth, and universe. And that right we have exercised. Forensic experts can now put a face to a killer whose blood stains are found on the spot of murder by studying the DNA. I can write this article and put it for virtually anyone, who has telephone and modem, to read. Science and scientists, Engineers and Doctors have opened up whole avenues of doing things that only lead to conclude that we are knowing the nature better and better.

As is with everything, even this coin has a flipside. The side that shows that Internet crimes are a cause of panic to everyone, that animals are getting killed everywhere, that we are using up natural resources, and that this year the world has seen such weather conditions, it never had before. Why?

To learn and to know are 2 different things. History shows that while we invented our first petrol(gas) run car, we never imagined that we will be running short of gas, that they can pollute too. When we developed injections for protection from diseases, we will make ourselves so populous that we will start hogging in all the natural resources. And while we continue inventing more things for our convenience we always conveniently overlook its long term implications. I need not explain more, but in a nutshell, by learning about nature, we have made ourselves more vulnerable than becoming more adaptable to the nature. Ha! What a paradox! I think what we forget, and what I already mentioned earlier, is that we have not created earth. It was a creation by natural factors, it was a chaos that made it, it was right combination of chemicals. If we mess it up, rather than gelling with it, someday its going to go really awry.

So where does it all start? It all starts by knowing oneself, knowing one's own dharma and finding a role that suits us in the world.

In the end, I know I am opening another argument - the inventors dharma was to invent things. And that is where conscious comes into picture, that is where education comes into picture and that is where culture comes into picture. That will be next part though.

Knowledge is within

I read this a while ago. All knowledge is within. We just have to discover it from our own. So we take help of teacher(s) to make us aware of all that infinite knowledge that lies within us.

To corroborate with the theory that every person has a property (dharma) implies that we can only enlighten ourselves with the knowledge that lies within the bounds of our senses, that are a function of our dharma.

I have been thinking about this ever since I have decided to do an MBA. Why? Let us assume for the scope of this reading that any human is a function of his nature (DNA/Genes etc) and his nurture (surroundings, family etc). Let us give slightly larger weightage to nurture as is proved by Time Magazine's survey ("What makes you special" - November '03). To quantify, assume 70-30 for nurture-nature combo. Last 25 years of my life decided that MBA proves good to me. I have a good work experience, I have a degree from an acclaimed technical school in India, I read, I play, I am interested in people and what else, I can bore someone to death by writing!! I thought "heck! Let us give it a shot". So there I was writing my essays for all those coveted B-schools people aspire for. And then I went all awry with one question -
"Can leadership be taught?"

I thought negative. Leadership cannot be taught. I am either a leader or follower. I cannot be born a follower and be taught a leader, can I? Or vice versa! And then someone asked me this question in one of the interviews too. It was strange what ensued after the discussion, one of the interviewers asked me "So if you don't think leadership can be taught, why do an MBA?". Was I having a dream or is this the state of educationists or was he testing me? I told respectfully, "Sir, I think Leadership is inborn. MBA in my opinion educates people to take a scientific approach to their managerial roles, so they do not reinvent the wheel."

And then it set me thinking in another direction, not during the interview of course but later. Do people seriously think that they can be leaders because they have more knowledge? Can someone do THAT to me? I'd give more weightage to a person's opinion in case he is learned, but does that mean I give him the lead role? Manmohan Singh was a great Finance Minister(was because now he is PM). He changed the destiny of India in 1991 with liberalization. He is an amazing leader of Finance department, but is he a good leader of the nation? Does more knowledge lead people to believe that he is a great leader. On the contrary, Sonia, who is NOT a great knowledge person, has worked on her image so much that she score even above Vajpayee this time when poll was done about leadership. (India Today, Jan 30 '06). While knowledge is needed, but that alone cannot make a person leader.

With this I come to the point I made earlier. All knowledge is within. And I feel even more powerful when I say that statement, because one cannot be taught what one cannot understand. Not everyone can be APJ Abdul Kalam who joins ISRO as a Junior Scientist. We need to find that ourselves, i.e. where does our core competency lie. Once that is found we have discovered our Dharma, and then we can channelize our brain to acquire all the knowledge within.

For me, well I am still thinking. Action speak louder than words, but action often makes a lot of mess too... :-)

See beyond surface

One of my friends uses this term to tell my characteristic feature. Something I really used to take as complement. But no longer. No longer I consider this as a compliment or a quality to be proud about. Why? I will try to explain with some examples but believe me it will be difficult unless you have felt it yourself. I will first try put a scope to the people who have felt this at some point in time or the other -

1. An argument is going on, say, about whether US is a better to place to live and work, than India. Let's say you are a patriot, and your first thought is "No". But then you have actually visited US, and you think, "why not?". And then you come to a different plane, where you think that this argument is so person-oriented.

2. You are seeing a documentary on Animal planet about how new born mammals like elephants, zebras learn to walk. Several emotions flood your mind, including the vulnerability of those calves as against the protection we human give to our babies. From there your chain of thought goes on to a place where you think how humans, after learning (to small extent) the rules of nature is all up to play against it. Then you again think, how one person must have thought about doing it, and how he has changed the world.

If above thoughts come to you, please feel free to read on, else please be aware that you are going to have to think a lot.

Getting back to where I was, i.e. to see beyond surface. There is a certain sense that every person has which makes him compassionate about other humans. This feeling comes with his learning from his surroundings. Depending on his dominant genes, the person then builds his own sense of seeing the world. This sense, though largely is his own view, and therefore is bound to be biased, finds him make his way in life. Let us call this a person's Dharma or property.

It is evident that this dharma or property defines his or her Karma or deeds. In same conditions, an irate person might do something else and a calm person something very different.

But what if a person's Dharma is to understand other people's dharma? I am not calling this person compassionate, or even sympathetic. This person just has a tendency to learn what the other person is thinking. You might be tempted to call such a person passive and coward. Passive because such a person is incapable of action and coward as a result. Although both these words have a negative connotation, to this person it really does not matter. Because even if he thinks in a certain way, he cannot really say it out loud. He questions his own thoughts, weighs them if they are going to make any impact to anyone, and then takes his course.
If such a person is amongst a group of people his ideas do not match with, he feels out of place, but he also does not say it out, since he thinks what difference would it make to the people. None, and therefore, he shuts up and tries to comprehend what people are saying.
If such a person is amongst people of same thinking, he still would not be voluble. Simply because all of them know what each person thinks.
Such a person is incapable of thought, of action, simply because he/she does not understand the motives of the action or thought. They are unable to have a conviction because they are not convinced that the conviction would help others or not. They are individual to the core. If any actions or thoughts they are capable of are the ones that they truly believe will make their life better without compromising on any other person's life.

As is evident such people are also not capable to be in a relationship. Yes, any relationship, because they cannot experience things that go for making a relation. They can analyze like a neutral person, and probably be content to understand one person more.

And then again I do not speak of any other than me, because as I put this thought across I thought 'Hell, why am I even bothered?'....

Something Stupid - Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman

I know I stand in line
until you think you have the time
to spend an evening with me.

And if we go some place to dance
I know that there's a chance
you won't be leaving with me.

Then afterwards we drop into a quiet little place
and have a drink or two.
And then I go and spoil it all
by saying something stupid like "I love you"

I can see it in your eyes
that you despise the same old lies
you heard the night before.
And though it's just a line to you,
for me it's true and never felt so right before.

I practice every day to find some clever lines
to say to make the meaning come true,
But then I think I'll wait
until the evening gets late
and I'm alone with you.

The time is right,
your perfume fills my head,
the stars get red
and oh the night so blue.
And then I go
and spoil it all
by saying something stupid like "I love you"

The time is right,
your perfume fills my head,
the stars get red
and oh the night so blue.
And then I go
and spoil it all
by saying something stupid like "I love you"

"I love you""I love you""I love you"