Random Rants
- Ignore logic, trust emotion
- Seek Only good enough
- Embrace limits
- Choose what’s important not what’s urgent
- Remember that its limited
- Be mostly future focused, and only a little bit present and past focused
- Get in the zone - flow state
- Always choosing the changing option, the riskier option
- Use Stories, to share ideas or make a point
- Learn the cultural translations
- Learn the difference between - Growth vs. Fixed mindset(this was my biggest takeaway)
One of the paradoxes of human existence: The easier life gets, the harder humanity suffers!
If you disagree, how would you explain the fact that while we are living in the best of times as far as every creature comfort is concerned, and yet the highest number of people are unhappy 😭
Happy Sri Krishna Janmasthami 🙏
Happy Sri Krishna Janmasthami 🙏 to all of you!
I am a huge fan of Lord Krishna.
I have been through most of my life.
Of course for different reasons at different times (maybe we can get into those at a different time!)
There are plenty of stories, anecdotes and scriptures of Lord Krishna, I would like to mention some of them that have resonated with me over the years.
Of course, the first thing anyone who talks about Krishna also talks about is the Srimad Bhagavad Geeta. It is Lord Krishna instructing Arjuna on his duty to fight, in the middle of the battlefield. Through the metaphor of Arjuna God speaks to all of us on the right way to live. Many greats (Vikram Sarabhai, Abdul Kalam, Mahatma Gandhi) have cited Bhagavad Geeta as their go-to scripture in navigating life’s toughest battles.
It is also one of the most widely read, recited, studied, translated and researched spiritual books on the planet. It has over 700 verses/slokhas spread over 18 chapters. The Sanskrit Channel has an excellent chant with narration of the complete Geeta.
The Srimad Bhagavatam is another of the great spiritual texts dedicated to the life and Leela of the Lord. At 18000 verses, spanning 12 Cantos divided into 335 chapters. It is regarded as the distilled essence of vedantic purnas and has some of best and most significant stories of Lord Vishnu. It includes the 10th Canto which describes the avatar of Lord Krishna at its glorious best as well as the the Uddhava Geeta (check this out if you haven’t previously).
There are a few other stories as well that come to mind.
Lord’s story of his pure friendship with Sudhama is indeed moving.
His bond with Arjuna also has several memorable instances.
This instance where Lord Krishna praises Karna gives me goosebumps and humility.
For those who can understand Kannada this is a great message from Lord Krishna, deeply moving worth reflecting often.
Which is your favourite scripture or story of lord Krishna??
Derek Sivers TED Talk (2012)
I love Derek Sivers for several reasons and this TED talk is certainly one of them.
If you want to know the meaning of life, you’ll have to invest 18 mins and 56 seconds.
Life is Choice, how do we make good choices then?
Life is Time, how to use time wisely?
Life is Memory, how to make more memories?
Life is Communication, how to communicate well?
Life is Happiness how to be happy? By not seeking it all the time!
Life is Learning, how can you best learn?
What if, Life is Suffering? What if, Life is Love? What if, Life is Just replicating DNA?
The answer?!!!
Life has no inherent meaning of its own. It is you who gives the meaning.
Cheers to life 🍻🍻
For Contemplation - The Defining Day
One day you will wake up, not as a body,
But as a pure soul.
You will awaken to who you really are, to your mission in this world and to the values that govern existence.
When you wake up, all the situations you have experienced will make sense.
There will be no more pain or sadness.
Your entire past will be seen with gratitude and each experience as necessary and important for your growth.
When you wake up, there will be no more guilt. You will realize that everything you did was in the terms of what you had.
You will understand that you did the best you could and that your “mistakes” were attempts to find yourself.
And all guilt will become love and forgiveness of oneself.
When you wake up, you will love yourself.
You will stop comparing yourself to others and you will realize your uniqueness.
Finally you will understand that the beauty of each one is in being what you are, and that no norm can give you the strength of beauty that is to be authentic.
When you wake up, you won’t judge.
You will learn that each person is at a different level of evolution and even if the attitudes of others do not work for you, everyone has the right to try and learn from the consequences of their attitudes, because everyone is on the path of evolution.
When you wake up, you will value the present more, slow down your steps, express more what you feel and you will be open to the affection of those who love you.
You will look at all beings as souls, you will honor their existence, you will walk knowing that everything has a meaning and that a greater force moves your soul and your destiny.
When you wake up you will be in constant communion with the Universe and every gesture of yours will be a prayer.
We continue to live between dreams and open our eyes to reality and the depths of life.
Every situation we go through is a touch of life that calls us to wake up…
In the name of love!!
Source: Internet
Quantam mechanics of the mind: The nature of one’s thoughts change as one starts observing them with awareness.
Until eventually there are no thoughts and you bask in the silence and stillness.
Be chronically curious!
A perpetual learning machine!
Every time I feel a hint of arrogance or dissatisfaction of some kind, I revisit this iconic speech that best conveys the insignificance of our existence and pettiness of our EGO.
The Pale Blue 🔵 by Carl Sagan - A mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam, the only 🏠 we’ve ever known
Everyone makes mistakes, some are just better at hiding it than others.
Happy Independence Day - Letter to Motherland 🇮🇳
My eternal Mother,
Where do I begin and what do I say? Even as this humble human heart throbs in gratitude for the countless benedictions benevolently bestowed at your compassionate feet, many a doubt linger at the far corners of this questioning mind. After I spent over 30 years in the warm and tender embrace of your nurturing soil at last I manage to face my fears and take the plunge.
In writing to you I endeavor to understand the intricacies of my own existence while your infinite wisdom dispels the ignorance of my insignificance in the grand scheme of things. No words would suffice to express how greatly I feel about you. However, I feel morally obligated to write to you now more than ever as you are going through the mostly incredible time of your everlasting life.
I want to know mother how you came to be a true paradise of paradox. In you all the polar opposites seem to co-exist. It never seizes to amaze me, why would you nurture selfless souls who live for the sake of others while allowing corrupt crooks to thrive? Even as I attribute it to motherly compassion, I am confounded by the disparity of wealth distribution in your very home. How can you let a few loathe in richness while the many suffer their poverty in silence?
How is it that you make allowance for the hopes of hardworking heroes dashed while the dreams of the fortunate few are fulfilled? I can understand you giving birth to sons and daughters who further the frontiers of music and mathematics, but why bother to nurture terrorists and tyrants? How then do you ensure justice is served when injustice is rampant? On the one hand we as a nation strive for greatness while on the other we reek of meekness help me make sense of these confluence of conflicts.
Are you a but a mere fleeting mirage or an eternal unchanging reality? Am I to feel elated when the greatness of your glory soars over Himalayan heights or devastated when the character of my nation sinks into oceanic depths? It is incredibly gratifying to see you clad in pristine rivers and bejeweled with magnificent mountains. But then, I fail to reconcile all the impurities your children add-on to your clothes all the dents they cause into your ornaments. Is it greed or survival? Is it ignorance or innocence?
For all the questions that confound me, I would not have it any other way. For you are in me as much as I am in you; a culmination of contradictions and a miracle of creation. I am grateful to you for the gift of love, for the spark of life and for the light of knowledge that was vouchsafed upon me by the sole virtue of being born to you. Thank you for giving this opportunity to write to you and seek your blessings. Hope to hear from you sometime in the eternity.
Yours Forever,
Loving Child
Today I learnt that the Federal Reserve Bank (commonly known as a the Fed) is neither federal, nor holds any reserves and is definitely not bank you and I can visit to make normal financial transactions - www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthef…
John Lennon and My Favourite Super Power
Some years ago, in the early stages of my career, there was a question posed to all the participants in the training session.
The question was, if you could any super power, what would it be and why?
Many people gave a variety of answers, some interesting, some predictable.
When I had a chance to speak, I said I would make everyone happy forever.
While being dismissed as impossible but good idea. I was asked the proverbial why?
I said, if you are happy, nothing else matters and if you are not, nothing matters then either!
Coming to think of it, it was not a bad superpower to have and probably much needed now.
It was only much later that I discovered that the great John Lennon echoed my words of wisdom ☺️
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
~John Lennon
Steve Jobs on what seperates the doers from the dreamers. Be willing to ask and act
2023
Jan to June, now its gone!
July to December, something to remember!