Karmavore

I just read that 1% of the Mongol population is vegetarian.

That's revolutionary. The motherland of Genghis Khan whose soldiers drank the blood of horses to keep them going, has sown the seeds of a different kind of resilience, one that the world will really warm up to.

What struck most was this bit reproduced verbatim: “A lot of people think we’re crazy,” says Erdenchimeg, a chef at the Loving Hut, a chain owned by the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association, which promotes meditation and prayer. She became a vegetarian in 2008 and in recent months switched to veganism – all part of a commitment to lessening her impact on the environment, she says.

If we really need to go beyond lip-service in serving the cause of our Mother environment(al) protection, let us start with inconvenient personal examples. Shun meat... in all forms. Everything is karmic.

Hey Krishna Hey Yadava Hey Sakheti (11/40)

I was part of the can-collection drive, which is part of EEG's once-a-year reminder about conserving (the cans in our) environment. Once-a-year in a use-and-dispose culture is in itself a big thing, albeit.

One of the well-meaning seva wing ladies asked me if I have ever gotten into trouble for being candid. I replied that I was replaced for promptly that reason. And added that, if we really need to please, we need to please (the silent, ever-watching) God. I remember that Shitu Chudsama mentioned in the opening talk of WYCII that Swami is his ONLY friend.

Quite frankly, he who has God does not need Maslow. A true spiritual aspirant will be able to identify the thin, but clear distinction between respect and sycophancy. And realize that the latter is futile...

for God is our ONLY friend.

Efficiency at the speed of stress

I was talking to a friend about business the other day, and more specifically, about the obstacles to business in yesteryears and the current speed of doing business.

On reflection the lack of obstacles, and speed may not be such a good thing. Business at the speed of thought warrants thinking at the speed of light. We have blackberried our lives so much that life, family, and work have become one tragic continuum.

This is inevitable. What can be done though? There is no way we can head for the village anymore, but we can bring the village back into our head. The solution might be to slow down and pace ourselves. A hint that this was a method for me revealed itself when I read about how slow eating helps health. Slow everything helps health. We should consciously stop feeling uncomfortable when we are suddenly burdened with free time. We should endeavour to work efficiently without stress to necessitate efficient work output. I am figuring it out now, and making the effort to change.

Life is too long for us to not change, though too short for those who don't want to.

Till death do our egos apart

I was talkinhg to a new friend who, incidentally, runs an empire with only 75,000 people working for him, is unsurprisingly well educated and surprisingly very down to earth. We talked of many things, including death. Interestingly, this topic kinda killed all the preceding business talk, and brought life to the rest of the conversation.

I remember years back, on a Virgin flight to JFK, I was talking to my co-passenger who was rambling excitedly on her aspirations, when I asked very innocently,"What would happen if you were to die tomorrow?". She said she found it very offensive. I actually meant for it to be intrusive to her thinking, rather than offensive to her ego.

But such is life, and particularly death. Death is the biggest offense to life in general and ego in particular. Nothing is permanent, everything is freehold.

The Mumbai of Duality

Left: Lalit Intercontinental

Right: Dharavi

Mumbai: You step out of a five-star hotel with motorized curtains and soups that cost INR 500.00, to a street where people dry their clothes in their living room just under an over-bridge.

Life is built on hope. Survival of the species is premised on survival of the spirit. However, spirituality is built on contentment. Survival of the spark is premised on survival of equanimity. We can never be really happy looking up. For every C-class, there is an S-class.

The biggest folly in man is his quest for petty highs with the sophistication of high pettiness. Unfortunately, nobody ever took his Maybach or Presidency with him to the afterlife.

A touching yearly gesture of your love

While at the check-out at Spinneys yesterday, I saw a lot of Caucasian customers (and a few trying to be Caucasian) with bouquets filled with red stuff, that seemed to be the heads of decapitated rose-plants.

Of course, it had to be Valentine's day, that annual reminder for all lonely hearts as to how miserable their lives are. Why else would one choose a particular day of the year to express love, while having to desecrate innocent rose-plants on this account?

Of course, there is a more altruistic motive here, that of helping our poor, poor, Hallmarks shops, as not all 365 days have not yet been branded.

Wealth is health

I stopped by Spinney's yesterday, as part of my weekly ritual to replenish the chiller with the usual supplies for the week, including fresh vegetables, soy hotdogs and real orange juice. It set me back by, let's say, well over AED 100.00.

At the check-out stand, it somehow struck me (and so late, sadly) that I have actually spent 1/4th of a Bengali construction worker's salary on a single supplies-session, if only a part session. More specifically, I was just buying essential healthy provisions. It somehow seems very much possible that, in today's world, healthy food is for the rich. I am not saying that I am a rich person, only that I have been blessed to live a healthy life, should I wish to.

My dry and sad point is that, people less privileged cannot lead healthy lives, even if they want to. What kind of a world do we really live in? Rich get richer, healthier, smarter... poor get poorer, sicker, dumber. Not only is this an inequitable world, the inequitableness seems to be self-perpetuating.

How does one help the greater, if not grander cause here? I can't abjure healthy food options, because I will fall ill. How does recycling every bit of paper, or tipping where unnecessary help in the overall tragic order of things? I am really not sure of the connection, but am sure of the connectivity: where the physical is precluded, the metaphysical is active. We may not be able to produce for everyone, but we can pray for everyone.

Like a student in Kulwant Hall told me during Mahashivarathri that prayer is God's weakness. Seems very un-intellectual, albeit. But then, metaphysics is above physics.

Moon mission

I have targets on my cabin wall facing me, where I have stuck labels identifying goals that are yet to materialize after more than two years on cellophane. Not that they were too utopian, but then reality came in the way in the form of a well-fashioned recession. But that still doesn't stop me.

Moot point: You cannot achieve greatly if you cannot aim greatly. You cannot score high goals that you do not first set for yourself.

Coming Face to Phase

12.02.2010

A day/night of many firsts for the family. This is the first time:

1. the entire family has made a trip to Parthi.

2. Akshitha & Reshmi have seen the Avatar.

3. I sat through the night for Mahashivarathri.

4. I got an opportunity to do seva at the Ashram (helped with rinsing plates at the Western canteen).

5. I have seen Swami wear Maroon.

6. I have lost my sandals twice in any one place (very interesting that I just got a brand-new pair of sandals through my MIL and it was the exact replica of the pair I lost in Parthi during WYCII. They got reassigned just after the afternoon Darshan,- sandals are of spiritual significance).

7. Dhanya applied her medical skills for anyone in Parthi, though it was for her MIL in this instance.

8. I have ever prepared a list like this.

More significantly, I guess this is beginning of a new Phase for Akshitha, rather the birth of the Path for her. Interestingly, it could be for Dhanya as well. We never know Swami's ways, you know.

Greek Tragedy

Tragedy all right, but technically not Greek. Indian.

SABN at his always best:

... if having a skill or absence of a skill makes you have an ego, then that ego will be quashed. So if you are proud that you are not a politician, Swamy will make you realise that he is even prepared to make you even a bad guy only to constantly remind you that your work has to done in a detached fashion, the label that you get- good politician, good PR skills, bad communication skills etc actually makes no difference. If a bad label gets you more detached quickly gets you to remember your "nobodyness" quickly HE will ensure you get one in the most expeditious fashion.

Another Anonymous that is equal:

Always be sure of what you want from a particular act or service. If u wanted to serve and you have done it, it ends there. What others think or say is not your business.

Now, what's the tragedy here?This is the real tragedy: Where are these wise ones? It's sad for a society to suppress voices, especially ones that have reason. The above are too profound to be voices arrested in the dark dungeons of our organizational Darbar. But such is life.

Well, to go back to SABN, it really shouldn't matter. If Swami's way is chosen, it really doesn't matter. However, I am not talking about following dictates of the hierarchy. I am talking about thinking like generals, but accepting with equanimity, the duty of foot-soldiers.

Back from the hiatus

Back with a (someone else's) bang. Yet another SABN classic:

Serve Daridra Narayanas because they need and not Laxmi Narayanas.

Further PR damage

A youth wing member and close friend confided to me yesterday that one of my fundamental deficiencies was poor PR. I don't disagree, simply because I have always felt that PR is for politicians. And I have never wanted to be one. I have only one hand, the one that you see. Maybe one requires two hands to be popular.