On the new economic revolution

New economic manifesto (Arthakranti) is the new manifesto..
the new manifesto of the real freedom struggle.
(www.arthakranti.org)
The first one was about political freedom from an invading nation

We gained that freedom through peace and non-violence
And the leadership of a Mahatma
Of a Gandhi who touched the heart of millions
Because he genuinely identified with their reality
He lived it not just talked about it
A true servant leader

A leader of men and women
Who wore a Dhoti around the waist
Another piece of cotton draped around his shoulders
His stick carried him everywhere
Or was it the relentless energy to fulfill the purpose

He too was a deeply spiritual man
A man who forever “experimented with truth”
A man who walked his talk
A man who truly understood the pain of the other
A man who did not just weep tears
But move a whole nation to overcome its fears
And walk the high road to freedom

A long hiatus of the “non-aligned” “Socialistic path
A mish mash of doctrines
Butchering the design
Corrupting the systems all around
A recipe for a slide into a deep abyss
Almost it was too late

But then rushed in the era of liberalisation and the globalisation
Not becaue we were ready
But because we could not affort to be isolated
You see, beggars can not be choosers

So the IMF, the world bank,
The coca colas and the McDonalds licked their chops
For the huge market – the Indian billion
Was suddenly fair game
So started the new journey
Of the new tyranny
Of the new slavery

On the one hand there was the real possibility
Of access to truly world class produce and service
There was the ending of the lousy goods and the mute acceptance
The ending of the “protected field”
Looked good for the rich and the moneyed.

Ah but what a price to pay
For the latest stuff that money can buy
Destruction of the Indian way!

On Arthakranti

Globalisation is here to stay,
MNCs and FIIs with deep pockets dominate the market play.
All business, yes everyone, big or small,
Must compete to stay afloat in the global mall.

No more the option to level the field with government subsidies,
(Thank god) It is the end of (second-rate) domestic monopolies.
For you and me – no more the safety of high interest bank deposits,
No social security, rapidly vanishing retirement benefits.

And yet, there is an ever expanding tax net,
Income, sales, excise, direct and indirect.
The tragedy is that government coffers are forever empty,
Instead there is ever spreading cancer of black money.

How can then the common man feel good at all?
You and I, search for a miracle, a breakthrough in this breakdown
Is there a glimmer of hope in the weary eye?
Is there a new dawn rising in the dark sky?

Is the future really going to be bright?
Much has been talked and tried,
There have been many a broken promises, election-time and otherwise,
But wait --- A design for an economic miracle is in sight

The miracle cure for the ailing world is here
(http://www.arthakranti.org)
From rags to riches --India shall have her rightful place in the Global village.
You and I can live an honest, principled, prosperous and peaceful life.

There will be a new revolution from a Global market

to a home called Earth

– a true Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

Prayer for passage

I am at this critical juncture
Most of the time feeling like a tyre-tube with a puncture
An old nail of “Self-doubt”
Keeps piercing
Till I become flat – within and without

Receive mails, respond to some
Pending actions is a long list
Doing some, but “reluctant / frightened” to do most
Physically very unfit over the last few weeks
Worries and self-criticism take a heavy toll
It is like a mist, which I create through my own breath
And then fight to clear off.

This seems to be the big dragon
Which I must learn to face without weapons or armour
Love myself with all my shortcomings and fears
Me, of little faith and much arrogance
Tuning out more frequently and severely from the Divine Guidance
Then tuning in, staying true and feeling the blues!

Wanted to be the wisest
The challenge is to be wise
Searching for that illusive peace
That sense of well being and well doing
Getting swept by the fears and anxieties
Unable to face, often freezing and then fleeing

Have had experience of flow
Of great blessings and the loving glow
Right now feel cut off from the creative source
Focused on what is missing rather than what is
Unwilling to allow the emptying
Panicking and seeking escape into feeling good

All through life, especially work-life,
One seems to have walked through in sort of a daze
No real purpose, it appears till the CEL idea hit
Then lost the way
In power play
And after that in the search for the illusive (impossible?) security

What will I do? What will I contribute
Dialogue – listen, speak, inquire
Integral philosophy
Explore trek and music
Play and dance
The vision of “master class”
Will replace the endless struggle for safety and security
For impossible guarantee

Time to be me –
in full glory of the GOD who breathes in / for me!!

I pray for passage
I pray for my birth
I free myself from the burden of knowing
I am true and loving
Totally accepting the shadow
Releasing myself from the conditioning
I give-in to the compelling voice within
I cease the need to know-everything
I am tuning-in GOD!
Clean the cob-webs and send your light in!!

Looking inside, looking ahead

What a time this is / has been
Of being stripped of all pretenses
Of facing all the lurking monsters
Of melting down
Of near-panic and withdrawing into a shell
Of denying life by denying death
Of seeking comfort, stability, security in the world outside
When the real answer lies deep inside

No such thing as (dis)comfort, (in)security, (in)stability
Games, our memories and our thoughts play
Realising the magnitude of the challenge,
The knees buckle, the heart nearly gives up,
The brain freezes over, the “not good enough” voices take over

AND THEN
A light begins to reach the closed eyes
Like a bud opening to the “risk” of flowering
Freely giving what it has – no comparisons, no hesitation

Conditioning -- what strengthens it is our own thinking
What a perfect, a nearly perfect trap
No escape from self
Only Love, to melt away
The encrustation of eons

Divine, sublime – at one level mere ideas for the mind
And yet the very substance of life
Mystery has to be revealed,

not explained and not understood

Trust we don’t, strut we do
All it leads to is a rusty us
Worn out, fragile,
Always seeking to look good

rather than be good and do good

Ah! The alchemy of life
To take matter and make it breathe and grow
To self-organise!

Words always point but stop well short of the ultimate
How else can it be?

Magic, love, flow, creation
Shadow, fears, stuck, desperation
What a dance!
Heart wrenching, exhausting, too much to handle!

But then wise men say, you invite challenges for your own growth
And God never gives you anything you can’t handle

So there
Dare to LOVE
Live On Vital Energy!

This is me

At this point in time and with my blindness about me of course!

Here at this delicious, delicate and definite turning point stands a man
A man who has allowed himself to be broken by the gentle hands of the Universe
Not once but for real, many times
and yet only one time

A man who remains an only child of his biological parents
A man who lived life exactly as it occurred sensible to him
A man who now has grown up to have the sense to listen to the deeper calling
A man who intends to serve this deepest calling
“To be a friend in the eternal journey of being and becoming”

A man, a person, a being, a becoming!

As Krishanji said, “You are the World”
As the “Flame of awareness” burns brighter and deeper
The warts of the ego drives and the samskars of centuries burn to a crisp
Sometimes willingly and gladly
Many times (foolishly may be) with a great deal of anguish

What a blessing the last 45 years have been
Through all the twists and turns and ups and downs
Through the thick and the thin, through all the storms
– real ones and the teacup ones!

Being buffeted between a value system here and a philosophy there
A wanderer and many times a wonderer
but most of the time a worried warrior
How many false battles and how many lost causes

But always, great friends and phenomenal coaches and guides –
GURUS in the full sense of the word..
so many have helped in lifting the veil of inner darkness
and yet one always was alone!
And yet many more darknesses remained to be faced
But now with the light of life in the eyes
And the song of “Unconditional love” in the heart

Soul, Atman, call it what you will
But that inner light
The universal personal guide
Beckons and directs.. sometimes gently sometimes strongly
But forever forward in the journey of awakening

The east and the west
The Hindu and the Christian
And all the other shades in between
The north and the south
The wealthy and the needy
And all the other shades in between
The Happy and the harried
And all the other shades in between
The wise and the otherwise
And all the others in between
All are me and I am the whole spectrum

From a worm to a butterfly through the gooey mess inside the cocoon
From the tadpole to the frog to the beautiful prince
From the becoming to the being!
What journey this has been
The journey of awakening and sleeping and waking up again!

And this is where I am
In the eye of the thunderstorm
A servant of the force that sustains us all
A midwife, a child, a mother, a father
A wondering traveler
A grateful living being!

A devotee of the Lord’s lotus feet!!

This day (October 13, 2005)

My eyes are feeling tired and heavy
My stomach and guts are in a churn
I can so easily fall into the dark and dreary
But I sense that with commitment things are about to turn

There is traveling and staying away from home
There is a string of broken promises and failed plans
There is a rising concern about the balance of payments at home
There is a large gap between possibilities / potential and realities / performance

In face of all of this
I seem to be waiting for insight
A sign, a symbol, a push from the Divine light
Three and half years since I stopped being an employee
Much explored, much understood, much more to perceive
The critical, the must-do is to be true

Learning to plan, to execute the plan
Learning to reflect on the outcomes
To participate in the design of the life one is here to live

Home with Savita is where my heaven is
Seeing Srushti blossom into a young lady
Nurturing Sohum into a healthy and fun boyhood

Being Present and Being Loving!

On Wonder and Wisdom (from the Internet)

Wisdom begins in Wonder – Socrates

Money can help you to get medicine but not health.

Money can help you get soft pillows, but not sound sleep.

Money can help you get material comforts, but not eternal bliss.

Money can help you get ornaments, but not beauty.

Money will get you an electric earphone, but not natural hearing.

Attain the supreme wealth, wisdom and you will have everything

Strings for Living

Live Simply
Think Deeply
Act Swiftly
Appreciate Completely

Love Deeply
Speak Softly
Listen Genuinely
Smile Broadly

Weep heartily
Thank whole heartedly
Apologize Sincerely
Dance Freely

Sincerity + Silence + No Preference = Divine Voice

Thought of my mind
Emotion of my heart
All is Yours
Whatever You do with me
Whatever comes to me from You
Will lead to Divine Rapture!

LIFE = Living + Integrating + Facing+ Enjoying

From Measure, manipulate, money, make-believe
to
Wonder, Wisdom, Wealth and Wholeness



Wonder --> Wisdom --> Wealth --> Wholeness
(And back again)

Do remember this mantra!
At all times!
For all situations!

What is Fitness?

1. What effect does Diet have on the well-being of ones physical state, emotional state, intellectually capacity and spiritual Sadhana?
2. Till when is this a significant factor?
3. What is the “appropriate diet for a seeker? And then what is an appropriate diet for a “peaceful” warrior?
   
4. Actually the larger question is what enables a fitness on all dimensions – a wholesome fitness such that one truly engages with life – steadily and surely responding to challenges. What makes us fit to Encounter Life?
   
5. Surely there is food, there is what we drink – the quantity, the quality and the frequency. There is also the rhythm of the day – time of waking and time of sleeping; times of studying and times of meditating; times of “working” and times of “Spacing out”; times of prayer and times of sheer play.
   
6. There is the languaging, the expressing of ones inner life!
   
7. There is the taking in of various inputs, through various media
   
8. Somewhere in all of this is the wholesome engaging with life. A living differently that makes a difference – in ever widening circles of influence
9. This then is the manifestation of purnatva, of Wholeness in daily life

On Money

I was reading some-time back
An article in “Times of India”
containing interviews of industrialists
on state-of-Pune Roads.
The sum and substance as I recollect,
was we must have good roads in the city
as it is bad for the image, travel time increases, injuries increase, etc.
The key message appears to be,
if we want our city to attract investment
then we must pay attention to infrastructure.

May be I am over generalizing,
but isn’t the same thought process at work, at the national level.
Look good, (may be even be good?!)
so that an appropriate “investor” finds you attractive
so that he/she INVESTS.

Even using sustainable energy
has become good business
after oil prices have gone through the roof.

Again money is driving the change
but are the fundamental patterns of greed changing?

The only “working” solution on pollution and traffic in cities
is healthy public transportation system.

Of course, one can argue against the need to move “bio-mass” when thoughts can move at almost no cost across the globe.

Alternatively,
a network of self-contained communities
may reduce the need for transportation and all the associated complexities.

The human world we know it today,
is structured
around the pattern of consumption and ownership.

The more we consume, the better it is.
The more we own the happier we allow ourselves to be.

Money comes in here
both as a measure and a store of “Value”.
It is designed to be a “yard stick”
and it in itself
becomes our most valued possession.

So what is “Value”?
Do we Value the same things as our forefathers did?
Do we Value the same things through out our lives?

What are the “Exchanges” we partake in
to survive as biological beings?
No one wants to die
– for we have this abiding belief
that this body is really all that matters.

If you see the physical comforts we crave,
the whole world seems to be screaming
for a “pain-free” life
of “splendid style”
– some foolish notion of perfection
– achievable through acquisition of things we own!

The way the society is structured,
so the logic goes,
each one of must contribute
and must comply – more or less.

Everywhere around us
the “manifested” attention
seems to be on stuff money can buy
– better home, clothes, food, toys –
standard-of-living – standard of consumption,
including increasingly expensive education!

Is society to serve Man
or man to feed the Social Machine?

What does it mean to possess money?
Is it a possibility of exchange?
Is it a sense of misplaced richness / greatness?

Money has become the de-facto measure of man.
It is the only commonly accepted denomination
of everything social!

Social identity today,
for most of us,
is driven by money we have,
we are making or can make!

A bit like saying
how much oxygen can I own?
Do I own any at all?
Who is the I who owns anything?
What do I consume?

Technology centric living demands money.
What is the measure of value in nature?

What will we see
if we look at the life of a cell
within this gross body, I call me?
Is that “life” merely “incidental”?
What does it mean to be “multi-cellular”?

Where is the “whole” embedded?
So are “we” parts / members
of a nested sets of larger wholes? Wholons?

The way we live today,
are we becoming like cancer cells,
ignoring the health of the whole,
by feeding and replicating
the all-consuming, greedy, selves?

What is death and what is life?

Money is big for “social” animal.
Today it appears to ensure biological survival
besides emotional!

On Plans and intentions

1. How often have “I” stated that I shall do a certain thing or be in a particular state? How often have I been able to keep my word? May be 50 percent of the time, at best! Why?
2. Where do the promises, the plans, the intentions actually come from?
   As a reaction to current circumstances, out of a need to reduce the discomfort, to maximize my gain?
   Or as a genuine insight into contribution I must make to ensure the desired outcome?
3. For instance take this plan to write and take a writing break. What is all this about?
4. Is it a genuine response to an impulse within – which seeks to communicate to self and others the essentials of life?
5. Or Is it an ego drive to feel important?
6. To give vent to many a thoughts
   or
   is it to see with a fresh pair of eyes such that the freshness a reality for-ever?
7. There is a lot to be said about the power of intentions. A clearly held intent often is the pivot around which a situation, a life, even entire societies change.
8. Life throws so many swinging Yorkers. You can spend a life-time digging them out. Instead if the intention is to win, by scoring runs, then like Sir Viv Richards, you can step up and tonk the meanie for a big six over extra cover!
9. All it takes is a clean hit through the line
   You need to step-up
   Trust your ability and your judgment
   Stay totally fit (heart and body, mind and soul) all-the-time so as to perform whenever called upon!
10. This is feasible if you have a healthy image of your self and your role in life. To stay fit, requires either real attention, vigilance 24 by 7, or sheer Grace (One can argue that even the capacity to be vigilant also is a sign of Grace)
11. Plans are outputs for a process called planning. For a plan to stand a chance, there has to be a clarity about the desired outcome, the current reality as well as a sound theory, an “approach to design” of getting from Current Reality to Desired Future.
12. And this is never enough! As you start acting on the plan, it in itself triggers a dynamic which changes the “reality”, besides the own inherent dynamic nature of Reality!
13. So plans often have to undergo many a changes but that is what planning is all about!
14. Plans can be useful filters to sift “noise” from music. However, there is always a case for paying attention to the noise as well. It is only then “new, emergent music” breaks through, changing our very notions of music.
15. So intentions are actually Goals which give us a direction for our movement – our unfolding, our growing, out maturing – Not just accomplishing a task!
16. In other words, there are outcomes, which appear desirable, even required, from where we stand and what we know!
17. Plans are then, more like maps we build to navigate the terra incognita between “here” and “there”.
18. Now one can plan “from here to there” or “from there to here”, i.e. From the known to the desired via the unknown or From the desired through the unknown to the known!
    
19. Another way to look at it is that this is not a journey in space or in time but an unfolding in the space of our minds, in the eternal now.
    
20. It is a journey only because we think of it in this way. It could also be seen as creating conditions for the desired “unfolding” to happen.
    A bit like what happens in Nature, where the collaboration – together laboring of the seed and environment is required to make the tree happen
    
21. The seed has every intention of becoming a tree!
    Does it “will” into existence suitable conditions including where it falls?
22. Do all seeds, germinate to full blown, adulthood?
    
    Certainly not. What happens to the “failed” once? Do they not contribute by becoming manure that enriches the soil, which helps the successful seeds in their journey?!
    
23. So isn't a “failed” plan, but a key ingredient in the plan that “succeeds”?
24. What is success? Is it always reaching the envisioned goal? Or it is developing the sensitivity to course correct not only the journey but also the very goal?!
    
25. Like right now, there is a deep questioning, around the world, about the consumption driven, “I”-centric, control driven, Nature-dominating, world-view prevalent for at least few hundred, if not few thousand years. (Affluenza as it is so aptly named)
    
26. Back to plans and intentions and direction of “planning”
    
27. The purpose of “purpose” and “goals” is to give a direction to our travels, our explorations, may be even a meaning significant enough to get us to travel in the first instance!
    
28. But no journey can be truly undertaken if we do not know where we are, at least in relation to where we want to go, if not in some absolute sense.
    
29. Also required for the journey is preparation in terms of our readiness, our fitness as well as the equipment and supplies we are willing to carry.
    
30. This preparation is driven by the “road map” and the road, planned and actual, in turn is shaped by the preparation. (Ah, the inescapable circularity of life!)
31. The road taken is sometimes, (rarely, very rarely,) as per the proposed map, mostly taking us to the “chosen” destination and then often enough, for the perceptive, aware traveler, into completely new vistas and journeys
    
32. The notion of arriving at a destination is an interesting one. It is related to this whole business of Goal, of an ideal, of a preferred place other than where one is!
    
33. May be the whole journey is about being the “newer” me by becoming all the intermediate “me” ?!
    
34. Hence "planning as learning" is a correct, appropriate way of going about life .
    
35. Planning in present-continuous is therefore everything, synonymous with the very act of Living.
36. Plans which are intermediate, working maps, are useful in navigating through distractions – within and without.
37. However, typical of God’s design, this instrument, the plan, can become a deadly distraction if we forget that the map is not the territory and even a bigger one if we forget what Krishnaji said so beautifully, “Truth is a pathless land”
    
38. So we become less and less of who we are conditioned to be, sometimes becoming who we desire to be,
    At all times seeking to be who we fully Are.
    Which is in totality to be JUST BE!
    
39. So the intention is to BE! And then the plan has to be a device to warn us when are merely becoming as per latest fashion rather than being!
    
40. So What is this dance of being and becoming, the so called eternal dance?
41. Is it a shedding of ignorance, at a pace we can handle?
42. Is it a slow dawning that beneath all conditioning, the “Reality” was always accessible, always livable, if we could shed our fears and our cravings for security.
43. Accessible the moment we BE(come) Whole.
44. We cease the journey of individualism and become indivisible
    Whole! Purna! (Via wonder, Wisdom, and wealth)

On Rage, Anger, Blindness

There are instances where someone, anyone will do something which I do not agree with.
When I express my disagreement, often strongly,
because of the way I say
and because that is what they are also struggling with,
the situation rapidly descends into an all too familiar mess.


I see them become defensive,
I get angry, that makes them more so.
I quickly slip into dealing with images of their dumbness
and negate the very real help they are trying to offer
and it quickly becomes another brick in the wall.

Connection with self and Divine is in shambles.
Am I living out of memory?
Already parroting theory while questioning all other theory?!

Gurudom here I come
and now on the precipice of self flagellation.
The endearing humanness is on the wane.
Where is the lightness of Wonder?

Problem to be solved
versus Mystery to be revealed
versus Discovering Divinity moment to moment

DDM2M implies complete acceptance of what is
– without this there will always be conflict
and therefore the reactions of anger etc.

Acceptance of “what is”
IS Love!!

On “Independence day”

1. Supposed to be a special day for a place called India – the day we claim we got independence, political for sure – from the imperialist British forces.
2. What is a nation? Is it the geographical boundaries or its currency or its people or its contribution to the world-at-large? Or is it a shared grand illusion?
3. An Illusion that meets many ends of many folks.
   Creates a greater identity for most.
   Gives ways in which we claim ownership of a piece of God’s creation.
4. A mechanism to create semblance of an external order.
   A way in which the “finest” acts can be canalized in the service of an “ideal” – of a just, a strong, a caring “Nation-state” which promises to look after the safety and security of its citizens and their properties.
5. History says that we lived in groups since time immemorial. We call ourselves social animals – as if the rest are not.
6. The idea of a nation as a geo-political entity, appears to be a logical limit to the size of the group – stretch it to the be the world and it appears, that unless there are aliens out there, this is one size too large!
7. We are impelled by the search for an identity, which is more permanent and greater than our physical selves.
8. The need for biological security, for the continuation of our bodies, is a very basic instinct. Given that we are physically much weaker than most around us, survival must have driven the growth of the intellect. Or may be that was the grand design experiment – can “subtle” overcome the gross? – may be that indeed is the story of all Life.
9. To take inanimate matter, in a world which in its natural state, is always “running down”, and to create the intricate web – called Life, what brilliance!!
10. This need for survival, leads to social clustering, as it does in many a “meek” animal. In any social setting, there is a natural tendency for coordination. This leads to innovations like language, norms, communities, villages and inexorably the nation-state, a concept which has divided us humans as much it has united us humans!!
11. Turning to the concepts of independence and freedom –
    Who can be free? Who can be independent? And freedom and independence from what?
12. Are independence and freedom equivalent?
    Independence implies not be dependent on anybody else
    Freedom implies no bondages of any kind

On “Emptiness”

1. Over the last few days there has crept over me a certain stillness, a certain silence.
2. The doer in me gets restless.
3. The worrier in me seeks to take over and goad me into the all too familiar “Doom Loop”.
4. The Doer screams, “Man the only way out is to do something, do anything! Look at the pending work-stack!”
5. There is the new understanding
   about self, the world and the unfolding!Something old is dying, something new is birthing
6. It is that twilight zone, zone of emptinessA land neither here not there
7. It is like the space between the inhalation and the exhalation (or between the exhalation and the inhalation?!)
8. It is truly a “Pregnant Pause”
9. Appears empty – empty of pre-conception, of knowing, of ego, of I
10. But is full of HIS PRESENCE!

Intellectuality versus Spirituality

On why high intellect is a curse by itself!

The intellect allows one to perceive with great clarity a whole lot of complexity. This is the very purpose of the gift!

It is one of the key intelligences – the one around “analytics” and “articulation”

Last few centuries of education, due to the design of the industrial era, has emphasized this aspect of human capability at the expense of other capabilities

All “progress”, i.e. conquest of nature, thus far has been due to this intellect.

Inevitably, the “linear thinking”, seemed to be winning for many decades!

…till its very success forged a closer inter-linkage between hereto distinct communities!

Like, an inevitable law of the universe, the cause of growth becomes the seed of Death!

Hence in this technology centric world of today, right in the midst of the miracle of the Internet, is a growing search, restlessness for a deeper quiet, a resting place, a Home!

A search for the one thing available in abundance – Love!

The land of Divine!

On Arrogance and Ignorance

1. Arrogance is a stance I take when I need to feel good about myself in a situation, at any cost
2. I try to be “better”, at least appear to be better, in a situation by comparing with others
3. Comparison of one image with another – my memory of me with my memory of the other!
4. Nothing can be more tragic!
5. This whole arrogance trip, springs from the “Ignorance”
6. Ignorance of being One with the Divine
7. And naturally of the absence of a real Other!
8. So ignorance gets a man to become arrogant!
9. Also diffident, excited, down, angry!
10. All states, which take one away from Love and Compassion!

On meditation, spiritual practice and such likes

1. There are so many techniques available, passing fads and all, to “Transcend” the mind.
2. All need the mind, to transcend the mind!
3. So neither the mind, nor the body can be “unwilling” for this transcendence to happen.
4. Yet so much of the prevalent practices are based on “overcoming” these lower / grosser bodies!
5. Why? I wonder!
6. Guess, part of this is stated in the early reflection on “What is real?” or may be that is the root of this misdirection.
7. Create a divide called “sacred” versus “spiritual” and then spend lifetimes “transcending” this “self-created” ignorance!
8. What is then Divine?
9. If everywhere around and inside, is all the time “That” then what is so special?
10. Why does it have to be special?
11. Isn’t this need for “special”, “higher”, a mere extension of the fragmentation, of lack of an intrinsic order?

What is Real? What is this idea called Progress?

1. If everything, is in essence, Divine, then what is Maya?
   
2. Folks have said, through the centuries, that the physical is unreal, because it is ephemeral, changing!
   
3. It has created the unending quest for the Real, for the Eternal!
   
4. An unending conflict between “What is” and “What is possible” ( Actually “What is desired”)
   
5. Tied to this, naturally is this whole notion of Progress!
   
6. Thus progress involves (requires?) the notion of the Ideal, and of course of the Striving towards it!
   
7. The whole of thought and society born of it is, driven by the centrality of this notion of progress, of improvement.
   
8. The west – searched outwards
   The east – searched inwards
   But
   Both at some fundamental level, rejected the Now, the What is, the Present!
   
9. Both searches ran their full course, to pay homage to the “Ultimate reality” as they perceived it. But never reconciled this and the other baby dualities in any meaningful way.
   
10. West looked for better Science, and the East for better Religion
    
11. So I wonder what is real? What is progress?
    And therefore
    Do we really Learn?
    
12. There are theories and philosophies-a-plenty.
    There are even more methods and a still larger set of tools.
    All with a claim to fame – large or small, of “Liberating” us only if we adopt it as the “key”!
    
13. Big time Contradiction!
    How can any model hold a dynamic, living, infinity called Reality?
    
14. How can there be a journey in time and in space to a place called Now and here?!
    
15. Every thing and non-thing is real. The body is real, so is this whole mechanism of thought called mind and the alleged source called the Spirit
    
16. Why create divides and spend life-times healing them?
    
17. Is this what Adi Sankara had seen in Advaita?
    
18. How can those born of a sexual relationship between man and woman, reject the reality of Sex?
    Why do they engage in this schism?
    Why do they declare “all things bodily” are unreal?
    
19. Transcendence, is different, radically different than negation!
    
20. Not, “Neti, Neti!” but “Ehiwa, Ehiwa” is the mantra! Not “not this, not this” but “here only, here only”
    
21. It is about becoming aware (of ignorance) and not about gaining any new knowledge!
    
22. It is the fundamental Unlearning that produces any useful Learning!
    
23. How can there be a directional Journey, in a cyclical universe?
    A cycle of birth --> growth ---> death ---> reform ---> birth…
    
24. Ending of form is visible, so that is real too.
    
25. But the “IS” continues and therefore that is real too!

God with Four Hands and a Smile

1. Hand 1: Gentle Caress with a Lotus
   
2. Hand 2: Conch -- Direct personal call over the Celestial Cell!
   
3. Hand 3: Mace to give blows to wake us up from our ignorant slumber
   
4. Hand 4: Sword: Terminate…Sorry! Must come Again after a sanity break…Severe Undo!
   
5. All this service with a Serene Smile
   
6. Evolve my Child, Evolve!
   

Appreciation

1. Every achievement is His Grace
   
2. Every set-back an even greater showering of Grace
   
3. She sends Signals
   
4. If we tune-in we would be Home!
   
5. We tune-her out!
   
6. We tune-in to our Fears, Desires and Greed!
   
7. We tune-out Our Need!
   
8. Our basic need for Her Divine Love
   
9. This is the only appreciation we need
   
10. This is available 24 by 7!

Mumukshu Unraveled

1. Mumukshu is one who seeks Moksha.
   
2. Moksha is indeed about Liberation. But from what?
   
3. Not from cycle of life and death (Effect)
   
4. But from Ignorance (cause)!
   
5. Ignorance of What?
   
6. Ignorance of the primal knowledge that you are His!
   
7. Once you are free of ignorance you can be “His/Her” Agent for Eons
   
8. That simply is the real Goal!

Here we go

Was almost five years ago this time of the year, when I was searching a name for the "solo consulting / capacity discovery" work that I had set out to do then, this trioka of Wonder, Wisdom and Wealth was gifted. It looked like an eternal spiral to me then.

Sometime later I realised that the axis and the goal of this eternal movement is Wholeness -- the discovery of the oneness of all that is. So much to learn and unlearn -- wonder is the only action! Gratitude the only "response"