Mind it! Start changing small actions and create new habits to conquer oneself.- 5 November 2014

[3] Start changing small actions and create new habits to conquer oneself.

Mind it! a diary of vagrant journeys within the mind.

Our immediate environment around us has been chosen or created by ourselves. Sometimes we do this selection mindlessly, and on most other times, we choose our action-initiators or inhibitors deliberately. Let us examine a simple example. We choose to watch TV at night. This is done mindlessly because others are doing so, and that seems like the only time to watch TV during the day as you are busy through the day. But, we also choose to watch some specific TV programmes, and we choose specifically the late hour until when we would watch TV. This is done specifically.

These choices stop us from doing our work in time, or if activated with proper deliberation, our initiators can help us in completing our tasks well in time. My elderly professor used to speak proudly of his students and his team to others and would acclaim that his students or his team members would never make it to a meeting or complete an activity in time. He would pause and then exclaim that his students and his team would always be at a meeting or complete their activity well before time.

I heard another professor explain to adult trainees that being able to complete tasks in time leads to a stress-free life. And, on the converse, not being able to complete actions in time creates stress, ill-health and also gets passed on to members of the family or colleagues and friends. I used to wonder if he was merely bluffing and trying to frighten the adult trainees to be serious about completing their tasks. It was not so. Immediately after he spoke, one after the other, each trainee stood up and recounted their personal experiences and agreed with the professor’s perceptions.

Most of the time, and with some friends that I know, all the time, we perceive ourselves as perfect individuals. We assume that we can do no wrong. We perceive ourselves as being a very objective individual, always able to judge what is correct and what is wrong, choose the right actions and deny ourselves wrongful actions. We feel that we have self-determination and that we can decide our plan of action for the day and go about and achieve it. Our short-term and long-term plans and actions are always completed to the best of our satisfaction, we claim to our friends and colleagues and family. We assume that all our actions are independent of compromise or judgement of others. We are wrong in all these assumptions. We are usually not able to achieve objective action, and we are never independent of the opinions and suggestions of others.

Let us examine a very popular and most familiar example that repeats itself every day around us. How many people we know who are chain-smokers or boozards? They know that they are wrong in their actions and habits. They attempt to break their habits and go for counselling and are also sometimes forcibly committed by their family or friends. They stop smoking and boozing, and after a while, they are back to their habits. What is the actual problem? We keep looking at others, at our environment, at our family and our friends and colleagues and compromise on our habits by judging others or learning from others.

The secret is that the source initiator for all our wrongful actions or non-actions or laziness or procrastination, the source is within our minds. We are responsible for not wanting to do something in the right time, in the correct manner and with the proper actions. We bring up some internal deep-down-in-the-mind thoughts that make it absolutely rightful and reasonable to avoid taking up actions that are necessary. We create a logical framework to postpone our actions.

How does it happen? When you reach your home after a strenuous 12 hour day, you find that the most comfortable place is the couch that is placed directly in front of the TV. I did a small experiment at my house. I removed the couch and other chairs placed in front of the TV and replaced them with a workout machine and exercising equipment and a yoga mat. I presumed that it would be the perfect change inducing innovation. It was not to be. My mind rebelled against doing exercise while watching TV, and similarly I could not sit on the couch and do nothing. After a day, the seating arrangement came back to the earlier positions, with the couch in front of the TV.

One should not choose drastic changes. Our mind rebels against us and creates a very strong inhibitor. Establish small and gradual changes. Remember, it takes about twenty-one days for our mind to accept a new habit, and it is usually about forty days for us to assimilate the new action as a normal behaviour. Place a potted plant next to the couch, and remove the side table where you would keep snacks, drinks or ice-cream. Is there a centre table in front of the couch? Remove it and place some bean bags and allow children and others to relax on them. Therefore, you have removed all options to eat snacks and also dinner while sitting in front of the TV.

This deliberate choice of making small changes should be extended to the office space also. Do you choose to drink a milky-extra sugar tea or coffee at the same time every day in the office? Make small changes. Walk to the canteen where they make the tea or coffee. Go alone. Talk to the attendant or canteen manager and change the manner in which you would have tea or coffee. Replace the sugar with sugar-free, or replace the milk with milk powder before choosing black or green tea with a slice of lemon without sugar or milk. Why? It is better to choose these life-saving habits much before you are forced to do so due to poor health.

Create small and effective changes in behaviour and habits. Ensure that you know your habits and addictions. Do you start the day with the morning newspaper? Junk that behaviour. It is the most threatening moment of the day when you are hijacking nearly sixty minutes of crucial get-up-and-go time in the morning. Read the newspaper later during the day, page by page at different times. Check the amount of time you need at the breakfast table and the cutlery that you use. Choose a smaller plate, and a smaller portion, perhaps taking more portions. It will force you to change your breakfast menu from an oil-driven omelette to a more healthy choice. Make these small changes for change is the only constant in your life, as the cliché goes. Mind it! 

Published earlier at - http://intellectualpost.com/mind-it-a-diary-of-vagrant-journeys-within-the-mind-3/

Mind it! On making a strategy for a plan to prepare a time management process to begin my work - 29 October 2014

[2] Mind it! a diary of vagrant journeys within the mind.

On making a strategy for a plan to prepare a time management process to begin my work

I usually think that I am unable to get all my work done in the time that it should be completed. I plan to do my work within the time that it should be done, but then I turn around, and find that the time has a-gone by, and there is nothing left. So, I take the smart road. I start planning my work. And usually I find that I have planned all my work very meticulously. Very soon, I reach the same milestone – that all the time has gone by while I was planning to do my work, and there is no time left to actually do the work that I was planning to work on...

Now, I have begun planning the time that I am going to work on how to plan perfectly. Very soon, I guess that I will be able to divide my day perfectly into exact working hours to (1) learn how to plan, (2) read very good planning strategies, (3) understand the best planning strategies and (4) start making a time-table to make good plans. This way, I will probably be preparing the best plan and a superb schedule on how to begin my work.

I am sure that you are now wondering as to why I am not just getting to my work and start finishing it, instead of planning my work. That is very silly. That is not the way of a super manager or an efficient worker. You have to have a time schedule, to-do lists, a perfect plan and a list of team members to delegate the various portions of the plan and monitor and supervise them while they begin to start the work that you were supposed to complete in the first place.

Very soon, I have begun to realise that I am never getting around to actually beginning my work. I have therefore made a good plan on visiting the best book stores and surf the e-marketing web pages to look for the most excellent authors and books on time management, planning work and knowing my best psychological barriers in planning my work. I have also prepared a good strategy to purchase such books. I go to the best book stores, look for the books and check the prices and look around if there are good sales. The best books are very costly. But, I am very intelligent. So, I write down the title of the book, or take a photograph with my cell phone, and get back to the house and surf 2-3 different e-marketing sites. At least one of them is bound to have a sale on these books. Of course, during festivals, New Year or Christmas or other times, they do have a super sale. I could wait for those times.

This usually takes about a month of careful surfing, keeping notes, checking my notebook, preparing a checklist of the books that I want to purchase, and marking out my e-calendar of the best super sale times. Finally, I am able to pick up the 4-5 really costly and most useful and most absolutely necessary got-to-have books that will help me understand my inner self, recognise my time schedules and the inherent problems that they have. One of these books is bound to help me understand the gap between my energy levels, my problems with my aerobics and thereby make it very clear that I probably need to take up yoga or meditation because I am too stressed out by thinking of my plans.

One of these excellent books instructed me that it is because of a bad sleeping pattern that had accumulated over several years that my sleep was putting off my insomnia and preventing me from picking up on strategic mistakes in my planning. Therefore, my bad planning was hijacking my strategies and time management and preventing me from doing any good work. So, I had to develop a strategy of my sleepless hours, and I had to prepare a strategy for my good sleep hours. Of course, some wise people had told me to do good reading during my sleepless hours, so I have an excellent collection of books and magazines, newspapers and web printouts to read up and catch up on whenever I cannot sleep. But, I seem to be always on the internet or watching news channels on the TV when I am awake, so I am not able to pick up my exact sleepless hours.

But the plan that seems to really work is when I am actually sleeping. The book advised me that our mind is the bestest when we are sleeping, and that since there are no distractions, and before we pass on to deep sleep, we are able to plan our next day in a most effective manner. So, I keep a diary, some pens and pencils, a couple of torches and candles and matches to be ready when the idea strikes. Of course, I can easily switch on the lights in the room and make decent notes, or not switch off the lights through the night, and be able to write down the thoughts whenever they come. But then, I would not be sleeping, would I?

I wait until I am fast asleep and I have begun to delve deeply into my dreams. And, suddenly I wake up. It’s usually because of a mosquito or a humid draft or just an unpleasant dream, or most usually, it is due to hearing my own loud snoring. I switch on the torch, pick up the diary and start writing down a list of to-do items that I should work on, immediately on waking up, or for the morrow. This list gets my mind to work on various other related actions, and I keep waking up again and again to keep writing and writing and writing. Finally I am happy that I have washed off all the points of distraction within my mind and I have written them away. Now, I can actually get to sleep well. Almost, of course!

There is also another strategy. It is popularly known as ‘minimalism’. This strategy is actually quite silly. The idea is that one should make small lists – about 3 or 5 or 10 items only in the morning or noon or evening or night, and as far as I am concerned, about 2 similar stages during the night after midnight. Start with these small lists, and try to do the first one on each list. Once you have ticked off the first item, go to an absolutely different list of entirely opposite themes. Take up a very different task and complete that one. Jump off to another thematic area, and complete another task. This helps you complete about 5-7-10 tasks in a day. This is quite silly, believe me. Who benefits by completing their work without a plan?

The entire idea is to plan your work properly with a very efficient strategy, after learning how to do it by reading it up on the best books that you should take all the time you have in selecting very carefully before you decide the best time of the day to do some good thinking about it all. Its very simple, really. Mind it!

Published at - http://intellectualpost.com/mind-it-a-diary-of-vagrant-journeys-within-the-mind-2/

Mind it! - The world seems to work against me - 20 October 2014

Mind it! a diary of vagrant journeys within the mind.

THE WORLD SEEMS TO WORK AGAINST ME.

There comes a time in our busy work schedules and demanding family lives that we begin to recognise that this world seems to determine the manner in which we should dedicate our time. We may have the best time planners, the best handheld palmtops, or the best dedicated software to manage our time, but day after day after day, we realise that more than five tasks out of ten are not completed. We make our lists, prioritise and partition our tasks and yet, we are nowhere near the end.

Every aspect of this fast changing world seems to work against us. The bestest time-saving enterprise of the world, i.e. the zero-paper e-mail facility, is supposed to be saving our times, changing our work behavior and yet, we seem to drown in it. I know of some friends who work with 6-10 email services, have 3-4 synonymous email ids, maintain a checklist of email passwords and finally, are never able to get their work completed.

It is certainly exciting to meet up with friends who were lost forever, 20-30-40 years since we were separated at school, neighborhood communities and college and professional lives. Facebook and the earlier much talked about Orkut were magical inventions. We discovered our long lost friends, got to know about who married whom, who was working where and developed internet networks anew, or established net jealousies. New colloquialisms came about, and we realised that envy about the progress of a friend from long ago, or a relative with whom we were not in touch with, is defined as “internet jealousy”. This trait leads one to lose oneself within social networking sites, stalk friends and relatives and destroy work or family hours and damage bonds that actually exist.

The latest quagmire of quicksand with spiraling whirlpools is the attraction to online shopping for books, furniture, jewellery and most welcome, even groceries. Today, I see office colleagues maintain shopping lists, comparative pricing between different online shopping sites, pocket diaries of passwords and log-in IDs, and a watch for sales, deals and offers. There was a time, once not so long ago, when 4-5 office colleagues would meet over Tea or moonlight to watch a movie in the theater nearby. That time has long gone and forever so. Colleagues do meet up nowadays, but they discuss comparative costs on online shopping and try to figure out how and when to pick up ‘good deals’.

The world is progressing and is taking us along with it. We are a daily partner in the progress. There is a lot of fun and joy and pleasure in being able to network with those 4-5 friends who never spoke to you while at school or college, and those 2-3 super intelligent college mates who looked away from you because they would never want to be caught talking to a nerd. So, we are happy chatting away with them and making sure that they understand the progress that you have made, vis-a-vis their life journey that does not seem to have got them anywhere.

Similarly, there is extreme joy in picking up that very cheap air ticket or that 75% discount in that one single book that you were delaying purchase of over the past two years. The “purchase one and get two free” offer is so obviously tempting that you wonder why did people go and spend hours walking around in a market or a mall. The easy-to-manage e-life is so good and so very perfect that it makes the history of the world and the history of human civilization look absolutely absurd and devoid of any possible initiative.

The inherent danger is never visible. The threat from this greatly facilitative world is in the impact on our time and the manner in which it destroys all work schedules and one never gets to recognize it. There is a very simple test. Make a list of ten ‘to-do’ items on a daily basis. Try to avoid repeating them over consecutive days. So, in like fifteen days, you have about 150 ‘to-do’ items to work on. How many do you actually achieve? Keep a watch and move the ones that were not completed, as ‘carry overs’ to the next day. I am guessing that in ten days, one would have more than ten ‘carry overs’ than the ten ‘to-do’ items. That is when you need to write down for yourself, that all your sophisticated attempts at time management are absolutely destroyed with the amount of time that you devote to e-surfing, e-networking and e-purchases.

So, how does one defeat this nefarious strategy of the world to continually distract you, direct your attention to matters of the world that do not really form any part of your work or family lives? You keep purchasing stuff that you do not need and you travel to different parts of the world for the only reason that the tickets were a ‘steal’, and you really did not need to go there. You purchase that great looking furniture only because they said that it was 70% off. But in doing all this, you were drowned in e-surfing for 3-4 hours of your 8-hour work day. It takes about a complete hour to de-addict and get back to regular work in a speedy tempo. That means that 50% of a work day is skipped and wished away in complete disdain.

I was recently invited by a family to join them for dinner. The entire family were known to me across three generations and I looked forward to meeting up with them and enjoying a good meal. The lady of the house was a good cook and I knew that she would have worked very spiritedly to plan and place at least a 3-4 course meal on the dinner table. I also looked forward to meeting my friend’s parents as I had known them through my childhood and their conservative and very orthodox approach to life and prevented me and my friend from indulging in any dangerous or unwanted adventures or lean to any bad addictions. My friend’s school and college going daughters would most certainly want to chat away with me, for I was the cool uncle that was so unlike their boring father.

I was in for a major major disappointment. The lady had ordered in for food from a nearby restaurant and she was proud to let me know that it was possible with a new ‘app’ in her new upgraded cellphone. All you had to do was go – ‘click, click, click, click’ – and “my husband ends up paying for the entire dinner, you know!” – She said, in an endless monologue about her cellphone and how she got in an online sale for Mothers Day. Her in-laws, my childhood harangues, were busy with their palmtops, checking up on jokes being circulated on their group ‘app’. To top it up, the old man scolded me for not having a ‘modern cellphone with good apps and Android and all that’, for how else could he share those good jokes with me? And as I guessed, the old man was actually forwarding the jokes from his group to his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters, who were sitting in the same room, without reading it out loudly to them.

I thought back to my childhood when my grandfather is reported to have tied me up to his great big wooden chair to prevent me from any escape because he wanted to read and recite the entire Ramayana to me, in great detail. And for years later, my parents would retell the stories of how I would jump around like Hanuman in order to escape from being tied up. I shudder in horror of what would have happened if it was done similarly in today’s e-connected world. The photograph would have been forwarded to everyone in Facebook, and there would have been innumerable analyses of how my grandfather was probably torturing a small kid.

Managing time in today’s world requires disciplined strategies to escape getting distracted and to avoid getting drowned in matters that takes us away from work hours or family hours. It may certainly sound very churlish to advice against doing what the entire world seems to be doing, and to avoid staying connected when the rest of the world is doing so. Take some time out and contemplate. How can one evolve and develop better time management measures within such distractive attractions? Establish a plan, determine goals in every major task and break it up into smaller tasks. Create an incentive plan to reward yourself for completing 3-5 tasks every day.

Ask questions about your working methods and about the output that is achieved. Are you satisfied? Was there a goal to the manner in which work schedule was planned for the day? Or, are you one of those persons who is content to watch the dawn and dusk and not worry about the day in between? Mind it!

Earlier published at - http://intellectualpost.com/mind-it-a-diary-of-vagrant-journeys-within-the-mind/

On the existence of ethereal dimensions - 18 July 2014

Those who have passed away, those who have gone ahead to the great skies above, do they come back to us, to talk to us in our dreams, and is it a real experience when their memories are extremely vivid in our minds while we sleep and after we are aware of our dreams? Can we go back to our sleep and our dreams because we do not want those precious moments to go away?

That which happens in our dreams, or as we are in deep sleep, is explained as something that has happened in our subconscious. Therefore there is a deliberate perception that what has happened, is not true. What if it were to be true? What if the events in our dreams cannot be interpreted truly by today's systems and sciences?

The ancient stories are replete with instances of astral journeys, of multi-dimensional living and of existence at different places at the same time. These are all categorised as presumptive stories and are not considered as true. What if they were to be true? Today's science needs proof, and for a theory to be postulated, systems require scientific proof to be repeated with the same set of circumstances.

The circumstances and sequence of events can certainly be repeated if the situations exist within our dimension of known truths - i.e., life and death. What if there were other dimensions that are not congruent with the known dimension of physical existence as we know it to be? The existence of other dimensions cannot be untrue or cannot be proven by physical laws as we know them.

If the act of dreaming, or of recounting events that can be met with in our dreams again and again, and of meeting those who are not alive, are allegorical to that of another dimension, an ethereal dimension, then one can look forward to sleep, in order to meet those whom we have lost and will not meet again.

What would be the precursors? If a loved one was gone at a very infant age, would the loved one grow in height and progress in age as the years go by? May not actually happen as such, because our ability to accept the person is limited to our physical logic. We knew them to be at a certain age, and even in our dreams, we cannot recognise them as having grown or become a different person. We look for them to be as they were, and we want them to be as they were known to us, when they were alive!

Can prayer be solace to the wounded mind? 18 July 2014

Can prayer be solace to the wounded mind? Can refuge in god be an answer to the troubled person? Is prayer, worship of god, indulgence in rituals, meditation, chanting and memorising of mantras, a form of escapism from attacking one's real problems?

If you want to say YES, you are correct in the statement or presumption. If you want to say NO, thus, again, you are correct in the statement or your presumption. It is up to you. The decision is yours. You can assume it to be true, and resort to prayer, and later, when someone advises against it, and you believe them, you can agree with them and stop all forms of prayer or ritual. You would be correct on both occasions.

Why? Because you have taken a decision. Denying any form of worship to God, is also recognising the aspect of God and prayer. Because you are consciously denying the perspective that prayer could be helpful. If you assume that prayer could be harmful, you are accepting the aspect of God and prayer, again. Similarly, if advised by another, or by your slippery mind to return to God, worship and prayer, you would be correct again, for again, you have taken a decision.

Prayer is a form of communication. If conveyed properly with faith, intense belief and dedication and repetition, you have determined a focus for your mind. You get to be single-minded and attentive to your needs. You will begin to initiate action in this regard, and perhaps you may work to achieve the goals in your prayer.

You create an island of solitude within your mind by your prayer, and your mind begin to accept the goal as inevitable. If you choose the welfare of your loved ones, your mind will not agree to any evil against them and will not permit words of anger. Your life will begin to reorient its dedication to the welfare of those who are close to you and included in your daily prayer.

What if all your prayers are for your well being alone? In that case, your logic and reasoning, guided by your peers, elders, mentors and your friends will help you choose the good over the bad and will help you select the rightful path. By your prayer and by dedication to God, you choose the option to frighten your mind to always choose the honest path over the evil path. Worship and prayer are the tools of good living and it is thus that you link yourself to the godliness in your mind.

The dilemma of Vitamin D for Indians - 26 April 2014

The dilemma of Vitamin D for Indians - Vitamin B12 or Vitamin D? 
Bharat Bhushan - 26 April 2014

We tend to dismiss tiredness as being caused by excessive work at office or at home, and usually we assume it is because of the humid nature of our atmosphere in most parts of peninsular India. We never realise that we actually do not do much work at office or home. We are usually sitting at an office desk, looking at papers and files, or sitting in front of the TV at home. So, how do we get excessively tired? Why do we feel fatigued and why do we 'crash' out at home after returning from the office?

For more than 15 yeas, I used to credit myself for being tired. I used to think that being tired and /or fatigued, was actually an achievement to prove that I was working very hard at office. Which was not true. There was no physical effort. All my work required me to sit at my desk, look and stare at the computer, work on some complicated correspondence, drafting and translating between two languages, scold - shout - discuss - debate stuff with my colleagues and fight over what was deemed good or bad in office issues. On my return to my house, I would feel very proud and splendid that I had achieved so many a small or big victory over my colleagues and seniors or juniors at the office. And then, plonk! I would be seated in front of the TV or back to the computer at home, to feel better about all the small victories that I had won.

I was getting irritated, upset, jittery and losing control over reactions. Over the past fifteen years, my ego placed it as my rightful tribute to myself on being a senior colleague at the workplace and having nobody to argue against me at the home. Hypertension, blood pressure, and aerobic degression are more obvious after effects and these led me, fortunately, to get a blood test done. And surprise, my Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D levels were abysmally low. Very low. Knowledgeable friends and concerned medico friends asked me to get it sorted out immediately with medical intervention. I have been doing so, and I am improving.

This is not meant to be an experiential monologue but merely to indicate that most Indians have no clue that they are deficient in Vitamin B12 or Vitamin D or both. There has to be a sudden or intentional change factor, in the manner of a knowledgeable friend or a honest medico who takes the trouble to uncover facts, even if it is obvious hypertension or excessive blood pressure. There is another indicator, that I was experiencing and I remembered that my father used to recount. This was, surprise of surprises, this was the sensation of pain. I have been a weightlifter and have won awards for powerlifting, and have been a long distance cyclist. I used to think that I was above actual physical pain. This was not so. The merest bite of a mosquito would be very painful and the marks left behind by a heavy shoulder bag would be sending sparks of pain through my back. Bending down to pick up something or carrying heavy luggage would send sensations down my spine.

This onset of pain, coupled with sedentary habits, should serve to be a warning to most Indians in peninsular India. If you sense persistent feelings of pain, tiredness, fatigue and degression to anger and uncontrolled reaction - please - go and get your blood tests done and get a report card at the earliest. Nowadays, most young medicos do insist that you should meet them with complete blood reports, for the truth is always hidden within those numbers. However, there is no transition to the established or deliberate intention to try and track down the unseen illnesses. What goes on within the mind, or the uncontrolled reaction, are hardly the tenor of discussion that you would have with your medical consultant, unless he or she is terribly persistent.

There is enough material out there, on the internet, if you simply google it out. But, you should want to do so, and you should want to accept that you are looking at a problem for the future. Office spaces and office work can contribute enormously to the perception that there is no problem. Each day at the office can be a victory. Every single small achievement, every single output can trace a path of victory or happening. This can be deluding and it can prevent you from going in for the complete medical check up. My office institution recently required all employees to go in to one of the city's top medical hospitals for a complete check-up. I went for the check-up after about 4-5 months. Most of my colleagues had gone in and had had their check-ups done. The reason that I had delayed was because I had got my medicals done about 8 months earlier, and I wanted the new results to be 12 months apart.

My suspicions were correct. Nobody had asked for Vitamin B12 or Vitamin D except for 1-3 persons, and they had done so because they had previously been diagnosed for deficiency. Even the most prominent blood-check facilities do not include Vitamin B12 or Vitamin D in their primary processes. They do it, only if you want to. This is the famous Catch 22 of our personal medical situations. Since you do not know of the problem that could be, you would not want to include the check for Vitamin B12 or Vitamin D. And, you can get it done, only if you want to do so. And you will not want it to be done, because you do not know that you could be deficient. And since you have not got the check up done, you will never know that you are deficient in these two vital vitamins.

Deficiency in Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D leads to a weakened immune system. This would mean that if you were to be low in Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D for more than a decade, you are already hit by several illnesses which will camouflage you from the deficiency of the vital vitamin. This is the dilemma for Indians. To know or not to know and thereby, never have to know.

the human mind - actions and derivations within - 20 April 2014

On the human mind - Is a semi-comatose person actually active within the mind? 
Bharat Bhushan - 20 April 2014

A very close friend of mine is in a coma. He has been in a coma for many years, and luckily for him, he went into a coma while in Canada. I was absolutely certain that he would not have survived if he would have gone into a coma while in India. The health services in Canada have taken care of him splendidly. Most splendidly. The system also took care of his family and provided various forms of support. He is a friend from childhood and I was deeply struck by his slipping into a coma. He was ever smiling, always active, full of good and positive energy and tremendously happy. He was always with good intentions.

It seems that he went into a coma through some diabetic trauma. In the meantime, his sons have grown up and are becoming adults. They would have totally enjoyed him when they were young boys. The health services escorts him once in a week to his house, allows him to enjoy family life and happiness and then takes him back to the hospital.

I keep wondering about it. How would he journey back to the hospital after meeting his wife and sons? Would he know that he would not see them for a week? Can he measure the time in his semi-comatose mind and does he know that it is time to go back to the house? Whenever he is at the hospital, does he actually know that he is semi-comatose, or does he know that he is at the hospital, and that his condition is not normal at all? These and many other questions pain me when I think about him. I do want to go to Canada and jog him back to a normal life.

All these questions have made me to wonder about the matters of the mind. I feel that the mind is the most mysterious frontier that Science and Man has not explored fully and that there are many challenges. It is known that people in a coma rarely reverse out of the situation into a normal manner. A family that is proximate to the situation would certainly know that nothing would be normal in the future. So, how would they react? How would they plan? Would they begin to anticipate the changes that they would have to make? There is a not-so-recent study based on the diagnosis of several comatose patients that them ind always stays active in spite of the body being in a vegetative state. So, if the family and doctors presume that the comatose man is no longer active in a mental ability, is it wrongful diagnosis?

Fortunately, the family of my childhood friend have tremendous faith in the ability of my friend to get back to normal. But, for how long would they continue to do so? Being in Canada, the medical teams must have explored the recesses of his brain with MRIs and Scans. I wonder what did they find? In time, would my friend be neglected by the medical teams, merely due to boredom? It would have certainly happened thus in India, a very long time ago, for sure.

Surprising statistics points out that nearly 300,000 persons ae in the vegetative state in the US alone. Do we have such statistics in India? For each State, or district or city? One of the important medical journal of the world claimed that a study showed that people who have been in a vegetative state for more than a year have little chances of recovery. It also said that a duration of more than a year can be justification for withdrawing medical treatment or support. But, the Canadian health services are, luckily, not following this line of thought. That is good for my friend who has been improving steadily. There is a condition that is now recognised as 'minimally conscious', and that prevents health services from withdrawing medical support to semi-comatose patients. 

How does 'thought' lead to an 'idea'? - 5 December 2012

How does 'thought' lead to an 'idea'? How does it get structured?
Bharat Bhushan - 5 December 2012

How does 'thought' lead to an idea and how does it get structured? How does it move forward? Can it lead to direct action? Can the action be taken almost immediately? How can thought be converted to action?

A thought would break up into several ideas by the nature of its birth, concept and the diversity of 'next-action' that would evolve by themselves. Different ideas would get established as various concepts of their own. These ideas will in turn generate action, and those action points could also be numerous. How many of those ideas can one follow up on? How can one accomplish all that needs to be done? There are some doubts that spring up instantly. Will not multiple thoughts and multiple ideas contribute to clutter in the mind? Will they not disturb the mind? How can the mind keep all such thoughts in separate clusters? How can the mind distinguish thoughts and ideas separately?

There is indeed a linear sequence from 'thought' to a 'possible plan'. Can one jump across from 'thought' directly to the 'plan'? Is that possible? Can one jump across without allowing the idea to be formed? What is the extent of detailed planning that one should do? Should it be in great detail? Sometimes, or most of the time, I feel, that one should not indulge in too much planning. One should go directly to action.

Is there circular motion in one's thoughts? Can one jump?

Can one jump from one aspect to the other without following the sequence? I do not think so. For nothing can happen without any action. What if 'inaction' would lead to some impact? What if there is impact even if we do not know the results? What if we assume that we know the impact of the action that we could have done and without having done so, we determine need for later action?

Does fear have its own velocity? - 2 January 2012

Does fear have its' own velocity? Are we hungry for our own fear?
Bharat Bhushan - 2 January 2012

Feeding into our fears is a primary tangent, going away from our actual lives. Fear is a tangent. It is meant to go away from us. Our mind does not allow it to happen. We make the 'impossible' to become a significant reality of our lives. We make the tangent turn back, after the point of intersection, and cause it to re-enter our lives. The tangent does not turn back. It never actually happens.

Our mind assumes with extreme certainty that the tangent of fear actually has turned back to re-enter our circle of life. This fallacy is pure myth. But, we cause the aspect of fear to assume primordial shape and substance. Fear evolves into fright, gets converted to a phobia, and changes into diurnal, nocturnal and daytime realities. the actual reality of fear touches our circle of life for only a brief moment in time.

The cause emerges from nowhere, some point of unknown origin, and establishes its own velocity and touches us and goes on its own manner, path and behaviour. There is only one reality in terms of fear. The reality of fear is that there is no reality. Fear never existed. It is our response to a situation, stimuli or understanding. Our response assumes a real and organic existence within our unclear lifestyles. Formative myths take strength from our insistent realities and demand to feed on our fears.

We get to be hungry for our own fear, and we want more of it. There is no satisfying our hunger, to use a cliche. We get to be happy with the aspect of being frightened inspite of the fact that it is not real. there is notable means of being stronger, and there are ways and means of avoiding fear. Associated thought leads to consolidation of fear and our refusal to part with it. We begin to establish ownership over our fear.

We love that we are in fear of a certain issue. We start deliberating over it, and we end up in being afraid of exploring alternatives to our fear. What was a tangent, and should have been allowed to continue on its path, is now accomodated within our lives, and is now resident within us. The tangent has now taken over the circle.

Is change very deceptive or is it merely a perception? - 1 January 2012

Does change actually happen or is it a deceptive perception within our minds?
Bharat Bhushan - 1 January 2012

People change. From a child, to a young person to an adult, as a spouse, as a young parent and as a middle-aged individual. Relationships change over the years. Proximacy may cause occasions for arguments and lead to dissension. Age-old perspectives can be deceptive within different periods of time. There is always a first time for beginning with all activities. The correct approach to understanding change is to accept it.

We may question change and we may hesitate. We analyse those who are close to us. We analyse too much. We examine intentions, behaviour, reasons, logic, friendship and enmities. Our assumptions become our convictions within our mind. Why? Because, we think we are correct. We determine the correctness of our deceptive perceptions within our minds.

Distance can also lead to the same ideas. "The myth of Sisyphus" tells us that "there is no punishment more severe than eternally futile labour." This is true within our minds. We are always at labour within our minds, determining how our close ones understand us and examine our actions towards them. We are always living out a myth. Any examination of the reasons of behaviour of those individuals close to us is always a dirty way of going about our lives.

There is always a supplier and a recepient of actions. We supply reasons for analysis and we assume reasons for the actions of others. It seems more and more apparent that each individual is a lonely island. We live by ourselves within our midns, and we  grow positively and negatively within ourselves. We lose objectivity, and we establish a bias within us.

Our value systems may destroy themselves within our lifetime. We are products of our own values and we cannot retain our value neutrality. Maintaining the freedom from our values is crucial because all our values are our assumptions to social facts. Empirically observable reality is a perception. Public opinion is a social fact. Qualitative matter being observed objectively is an endeavor. Relativity, within any particular context, should give us similar behavior patterns, which does not happen. We will end up nowhere as always, and this would become a trend. 

Loneliness can take you towards fear - 8 December 2009

Loneliness can lead to fear and develop in to an uncurable condition. 
Bharat Bhushan - 8 December 2009

There are unique points of time within our lives, when we move from one state of happening to the other. From being a school-going child to a junior college adolescent, and later as a young adult, to an undergraduate college. Much later, to a new job, or to postgraduate studies, and then again, to on-the-job training and thereafter to a longish career. At each moment of 'happening', one is saying goodbye to a set of friends, familiar situations, used-to time schedules and entering strange and new situations, new friends and unfamiliar bonds.

At this point of migration within our lives, we are alone. This could be for a short while, and it may not matter if there would be a couple of friends who would also migrate with you. If you are all alone, and the movement is from one geographical location to the other, even if within the same city, it can hit you hard. That moment of loneliness, if it stretches out, and there is no discussion or counseling within the house, and if you are a single child, that loneliness can lead to fear. This condition usually cannot be reverted unless recognised, and unless YOU want to be cured.

Each young adult has their own story. Some of it real, and some of it imagined, while dangerously, some of it as pure fiction within their minds. They have some assumptions about their friends, suspicions when a particular friend is more friendly with someone else, or if their parents fight over some issue, and they come to conclusions because of something that they have read, or seen on TV or discussed in social media. These assumptions become strong ideas, and later evolve as stories within their own right. From a tight school-time day schedule, the young adults are now in colleges and new workplaces and are able to organise or escape from their schedules. This leads to escapism within their own mind, and they never realise it.

And then, comes along a friend, or a book, or a twist in the story of a soap opera, and there is a sad and tragical situation that has happened. This has an easy impact on the mind of a young adult. Loneliness can easily create empty space within the mind. Not many of us realise it, but it is true that the mind operates in multiple channels. You are thinking of the day to come, when you are brushing your teeth, for example. When the lecturer in your college classroom is boring, you are thinking of the cricket match that is to come, and at the same moment, whispering to your friend, while staring at another handsome or beautiful classmate. So, you can do so many different actions at the same moment. This is true of our mind also.

Sad situations catalyse within the minds of young adults and make them imagine that the future holds terrible options for them. Their biggest fear is the break-up of the family, and along with that perspective, is the fear that their parents or elders could actually be correct when they point out their mistakes. Their friends do not do so, and they are usually in agreement with them. So, how could the parents or elders or teachers know better? There is one way to know that you are correct or you are wrong. If you are thinking it out within your head, all alone, and working out all the combinations and permutations, then you are usually very wrong. If you are discussing it out, or have written it in your diary and slept over it, or actually, if you have had an argument with your parents or elders, then you are mostly correct.

The young adult is totally confused about situations because of a chemical imbalance in their hormones as they are at that delicate stage in their lives. They have fallen in love, or have been infatuated, or been refused in love, or are confused about teensy weensy situations. "His hand touched mine, and he patted me on my back. Does he love me? Does he love me and nobody else?" Such doubts abound within the minds of the young adult. And when there are no answers, or, if there are disappointments, then the escape route is to create chaos within the house and within the family. This is the result of mythological situations within the mind that have developed into really familiar characters that are very friendly, because they occur within oneselves, or during sleep time.

Who would help cremate her mother? - 14 November 2009

Who would help cremate her mother? Who would be the first to help?
Bharat Bhushan - 14 November 2009

This was about six months after my father had passed on and I had helped him go ahead in an electric crematorium. I came to know about a lady colleague of mine, and that she had lost her mother on that day, and that she had gone on to the same crematorium to attend to the rituals. I looked around in my work place, and found that nobody had wanted to participate or attend the funeral. This was surprising because usually my colleagues were very cooperative and concerned. I met up with another colleague, and he was, as I knew, usually very emotional about such stuff, and he agreed to come with me to the crematorium.

We went up to where the lady's mother was placed and I was shocked. There were no mourners there. The lady colleague and her sister, were the only two persons standing under a shade nearby. The deceased had been placed near the place for the funeral pyre, all ready for the rituals. The lady colleague informed me that her brother had gone in search of a helper boy and the priest for the activity. Very politely, I asked her if there were other mourners, and if they had gone to the river to wash their feet, or if they were waiting nearby. She said, in a cool tenor, that there no other mourners. That was such a shock, for I knew that my lady colleague was a very popular person and quite well networked.

I asked my colleague to help me, and our vehicle driver also came forward, knowing fully well that my intentions were to get into the thick of action. We started collecting cow-dung cakes and firewood, and started piling them up near the location. Very soon, the lady's brother came along and brought about a helper who had keys to a shed with some more dry firewood and cow-dung cakes, and we managed to unearth a rickety trolley and brought about much more stuff to ignite. All in all, there were three relatives, three visitors (i.e., us) and a priest and a helper.

We had to untie the deceased, and none of us had a blade or knife to do it. My vehicle driver came to the rescue once again, and helped untie the sashes. The three of us and the brother moved the deceased on to the funeral pyre, and the rituals began. I could not but help go in flashback, to my mother and father, and how I had taken the easy way out by having them go on to the other world in an electric crematorium. And now, the Circle of Life had come about, and had me do seva at the feet of the deceased lady, help and get involved in the ritual, and actually lift her and place her on the pyre-site. I felt very humbled, and I felt that it was something that must have been naturally meant for me to get involved in.

The ashtalingams of the Girivalam at Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu

The eighth is the Esanya Lingam.

I am reminded of the aspect of the eighth Shiva lingam of Tiruvannamalai, and that the aspect is of walking through the funeral pyres before gazing on the diety. He wants you to know that you have nothing in life, in spite of all your achievements, that you have to surrender absolutely, for that is your final destination. And when you meet Lord Shiva at the eighth ashtalingam on the girivalam, you know entirely that you are empty, and you have given away everything, for HIM to bless you.

You know that you are successful in life, and you know that you have been excellently competitive in life. You are a good officer, a good father or mother, a good husband or spouse, a good son or daughter and all that... but, what is the use of any of this if you are not able to attend to the funeral rites of your parents? What is the use of giving in to other circumstances when you cannot mourn your parents? The worst part of karma in life is of cremating your own child. Nothing is worse than that. The next worst part of karma in life is of not cremating your parents, when they pass on.

The achievements of a good family life, of being a good parent and of being successful is all negated when you are left all alone at the cremation of your parents. My grandfather was known to be a good astrologer. So was my father. The two of them would discuss palmistry and astrology in expert tones whenever they would meet up, leaving my uncle and myself listening to them, patiently. Once, my grandfather surprised me completely. He looked at my father's palm and my palm and announced that I would be of no use to my father, and that I would never be of any support to him, and that he would not get my shoulder to lift him when he would pass away, and that I would not be at his funeral. Instead, my uncle's son and my aunt's son, my cousin brothers, and my sister would be there for him.

I heard it in silence and thought to myself, perhaps, he was correct. For, I was a birdwatcher and an intrepid vagabond traveler, and that possibly, I would be away when the moment would come. But, fate and the future had other plans. On that eventual night, I was alongside him, and my cousin brothers and my sister were nowhere. They never made it to the funeral. He passed on in a different city, from which he lived in, and where he was born. Nobody knew him, but on that morning, when the news spread, more than 200 of my colleagues, friends, acquaintances and staff-employees turned up, stood nearby as the rituals were conducted at my residence, and later, they journeyed to the crematorium, and stood by as he was readied for the rituals.

I met each and every one of them and to some I asked as to why did they come. My daughter's college principal and his colleague teachers had come to mourn at the crematorium. They had never met him. They did not know that he was in town. I asked them. The teachers said that their principal had said, "He was my friend's father, and we should be there." That was that. On that day, when my father's brother stood alongside me, he asked me at the crematorium, "Who are all these people? Did they know your father?" And, I was very proud, and smiling, when I said, "They mourn because it is correct to mourn the passing of a friend's father." And, I thought to myself, "They are all here, the more than 200 of them, they are here, to help me defeat the lines of fate on my palms."

The journey within the mind, through a trance. - 11 July 2009

The journey within the mind, through a trance. On the aspect of Shri Shankar Maharaj.
Bharat Bhushan - 11 July 2009

Today, is a welcome holiday, of sorts. I want to get in to my mind, inside my mind and vacate it of all my thoughts. How should one go about it? I was reading the most interesting book - "Towards the silver crest of the Himalayas" by Shri G. K. Pradhan. It is supposed to be a book about Shri Shankar Maharaj. I wonder if it is so true, but we do get the book at Katraj, near the Shri Shankar Maharaj temple. I have bought several copies of the book and have given them away.

I tried to read the book again but the heart does not seem to be in it. I want to try the meditation like the one done by Shri G. K. Pradhan in the Himalayas. Can it actually be done in that manner? The aspect of Shankar Maharaj and Swami Samarth are unique. When I begin to think of them, they get into my mind. If they can enter my mind, then they can certainly help to empty my mind. In the book, Shri G. K. Pradhan is asked by his guruji to meditate, and focus his mind. He does so, and immediately thereafter goes into a trance. When he wakes up, he finds that he has been in meditation for more than a year, if not more, and that his appearance has changed totally.

He is amazed and he wants to do it again, but is now worried that he may not wake up or come out of the trance in time. Therefore he writes the book's final chapter and sends it back to his home and goes back to sit in the trance. There is no news after that. I am really shaken up by that chapter in that book. Can it be possible? Can one go into meditation in a trance and be able to sit in the trance for hours, days, weeks, months and years?

Shri Shankar Maharaj

[Copyright with the original owner]

How is it biologically possible? Will the body not deteriorate and fade out? Will it not die out? I am curious. I want to try it out. I want to see if one can go into a trance. What if I focus on Shri Shankar Maharaj and /or Shri Swami Samarth? Can I meditate properly? Can one go into a trance if one tries to or wants to go into one? I will have to try it out and experiment. This will be like a journey of the mind and I should explore his journey.

Will people be able to choose their intentions if one wants to enter this journey? Will it be possible to come out of the journey and be able to get out of the tra

Do administrators use 'delay' as a means of exhibiting power? - 14 June 2009

Do administrators use 'delay' as a means of exhibiting power? Is 'delay' a deliberate process? 
Bharat Bhushan - 14 June 2009

During 1982 to 1992, when I was working with the Bombay Natural History Society, one of the most famous maxims about Dr. Salim Ali, the bird man of India, was, as he would say, one could always expect the BNHS representative to be never on time for a meeting or an appointment. As he would add, with a mischievous smile and after thought, that, the BNHS representative would always be before time for any meeting or an appointment. He would say that if one would look outside the meeting room, the BNHS person would be seated somewhere, doing some work, in those days, without cell phones or laptops.

This was known to one of the most famous Union Ministers of State for Environment who had come in from New Delhi to Mumbai to meet the BNHS before deciding on the final approval for establishment of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology. She was at the Raj Bhavan, Mumbai, with her son, who was 11-12 years old probably, at that time. I was sent to meet her and accompany her to Hornbill House. I was running late for a deadline to complete some documents and therefore, carried Dr. Salim Ali's portable typewriter with me, to work at the Raj Bhavan until the Hon. Minister would be ready to journey to Hornbill House. There I was, typing away, chatting with her son about bird-stamps, when the Hon. Minister came out of her room and smiled and said - there, you have proved what Dr. Salim Ali said about a BNHS person always being before time.

However, in the public sector, having met with several officers in their 'kingdoms', I have come to understand and recognise a very different paradigm. They seem to think that 'delay' is an obvious display of power and authority. If one would be 'on-time' or, 'before time', the ordinary janata would assume that the officer is of no importance, and has no work at all. Therefore, 'delay' is used as a weapon to assume a mythical position of being important and busy.

I have taught many sessions on 'time management' to the very same officers and clerks over the past many years, but I am yet to see any spark of acceptance or understanding in their eyes during a classroom lecture. Any emphasis on time management, on-time work output or before time and pro-active planning gets absolutely zero response. They listen to the lecture, waiting for my time to run out, and exhibit that total self-arrogance and disdain, that 'time management' is never for them. This seems to be a widespread perspective, amongst village-level, mofussil and urban and secretariat level officers, clerks and typists.

Of course, there are rare examples of non-conformists. But, they are totally dependent on those who would be working with them or delegating to. Thus, they are also  trapped. I had a brilliant boss who would always work as if his feet were on fire, and he had to absolutely rush across to the point of outcome. He would plan backwards from the eventual result, and he had invented a term for it - reverse time plan or, as he would usually refer to as - reverse action. He would set up action points from the point of output, and work backwards with time deadlines and expect his team and colleagues to work with him within that framework.

I have come to the conclusion that the public sector is not inefficient or less capable or less punctual. They simply do not want to be efficient, capable or punctual, for fear of being exposed as officers without enough work, or officers without power or authority. This can be in various ways. One of my senior officers would hold several meetings to plan a particular activity. He would call all officers, HoDs and functionaries and conduct all-day or half-day review and planning meetings. Circulars would be sent and compliance would be expected. Disciplinary action warnings would be conveyed.

My colleagues would pontificate or express their true perceptions during these meetings. My senior officer would ask for the minutes to be made, and he would take up 7-10 days to correct and re-correct and re-correct the draft documents of the minutes. Later, the minutes would be issued, and a follow-up meeting would be called. Action points would be reviewed and my colleagues would be asked to submit deliverables and proposals for expenditure based on such decisions. Finally, the senior officer would write deliberately on the file that such and such expenditure is illogical or beyond any reasonable scope and therefore the activity would not be taken forward.

This is 'delay' of the highest form. It is an actual art form. Everyone is convinced that they are working. Everyone is put to work. Actual deliverables are placed aside, and new deliverables are discovered or invented. And when permissions are asked for, the path is diverted. This requires considerable skill, persistent display of authority and repeated expressions of management abilities. This delay is not mere jargon. This is indeed a mode of deliberate demonstration of retaining status quo on the mythical aspect of being a senior officer.

In actual fact, this is debased intelligence and should be exposed as such.

Every meal is part of a bheeksha. Be humble. 14 February 2009

Every meal is part of a bheeksha. Be humble. Be happy that you got some food at least.
Bharat Bhushan - 14 February 2009

We get angry when we do not get food on time. We get angry when we do not get food to our liking. We get upset and irritated when the taste is just not right, the food is not warm, the colours are not correct or the arrangements are not up to our liking. What we do not realise is that at least, we ARE getting food, brought to us, and all we need to do is to eat it. I am not referring to the millions of poor starving people around the world who do not get food to eat. That is the obvious fact.

I am referring to the time that is to come in our own lives, when we cannot eat the food we would like to eat. We would not be allowed to eat sugar. Not allowed to eat deep fried food. Not allowed to eat sour, sweet, hot, tangy, spicy, salty, oily or gluten food. We will not be allowed to eat white bread, because it is bad for you, or not allowed to eat brown bread, because all wheat is bad for you. We cannot eat rice, because it is just not right, and we cannot eat fermented food because it is simply not the correct food for us.

So, be happy when you do get food, and someone has cooked it for you, even if it is cooked yesterday, or in the morning, and it comprises of just leftovers. Be happy and stuff your anger and cook in inside of you, and dump it somewhere. Forget your ego. You are nobody. You are of no value in this world, and getting angry about it all is of no worth at all. Who cares about your anger or your ego and if you did get food or did not get food in time? Who is upset in this world if the food that you got is tasty or not. You are an absolutely good for nothing human being in this world, and you should be grateful to the gods that you are at least being given some food to eat.

Sai Baba of Shirdi on his bheeksha rounds

[Copyright not known. Please inform.]

The best of humans have been bheekshus. They have become famous and have been followed for their values because they achieved victory over their temptation for food and became humble with the food that they received. Shirdi Sai Baba is certainly one of them. He went about from house to house with a bheekshu's bowl and gladly accepted whatever was given to him. In his earlier years at Shirdi, he was not given much, but later, most Shirdi dwellers were counting their blessings that they had been allowed to give bheeksha to Sai Baba.

He was a simple fakir and he was accepted by one and all because of his minimalist values and his ethics. He lived in a simple manner and yet, brought about a simple revolution by creating the langar at Shirdi. This common kitchen brought everyone together. Recently, an innovative forest officer told me of how he had established a successful common kitchen, only for his successor to have closed it upon his transfer. Imagine, what if Sai Baba's langar would have been closed down by his chosen disciples.

Sai Baba of Shirdi on his bheeksha route.

[Copyright unknown. Please inform.]

We live by our ego and we live by our inability to fight over our hunger. Would we accept what would be given to us in a bheekshu's bowl? Would we gladly have eaten up the unknown food? We cannot. Because, we think we have arrived. We think we have achieved so many good levels in life and that we deserve to eat good food, all our lives. There may come a time, when we would be drip-fed with liquid medicines and food juices. What would be the usefulness of all our achievements at that time in life? It would be best for us to conquer hunger and anger at this time, in our lives, than to lose all that we have at that moment when we think that we have become victorious.

There are several tales of inspiration in this regard. There is one famous tale of the Most Enlightened One explaining that he would not hesitate to eat non-vegetarian food, including stale meat, if it were to be part of the mixed food that he would get as bheeksha, for that is what was meant to come to him in his Circle of Life, and so be it. And, it is said that it was thus that he moved on to the greater temples above, for it was stale and contaminated food that brought him to that pass. Should I hesitate or refuse if I am given stale food? Do I have that right? Is it not biological matter that comprised of life at some earlier moment and that it was part of the living universe? Do I have the right to refuse to eat the food, even if it were to be stale or contaminated?

Lord Shiva receiving bheeksha from Goddess Annapurna

[Copyright unknown. Please inform.]

It is said that the very act of having any amount of cooked or uncooked food is to be able to count your own blessings. The gods above are happy that I could purchase food items, and the gods are glad with us, that our family could cook our food and be able to eat. This is the very aspect of Goddess Annapurna in Hindu thought, that to be able to have food in one's house, is to be blessed by the deity. Even Lord Shiva had to go to her, with his bheekshu's bowl and seek food as alms from Goddess Annapurna. There is that famous mythological tale of Lord Krishna walking in to a distraught Draupadi's cottage during their exile in the forests, when she did not have any food items or cooked food to satisfy the hunger of Sage Durvasa and his hundreds of disciples.

Let us be humble with the food that we get. We are but only bheekshus in our lives. We should accept the food that we get and say a prayer, and say thanks, and eat our share.

What are habits and addictions? Can one win over habits and addictions? - 14 January 2009

What are habits and addictions? Can one win over habits and addictions? How should one go about winning over oneself? 
Bharat Bhushan - 14 January 2009

Not all habits and addictions are about smoking or drinking or indulging in adultery or gambling. There are several more, regular, day-to-day, very normal activities that we get accustomed to that become our habits and grow into our addictions. And when we are challenged with a break in the routine, we get irritated, angry, upset and determined to achieve that addiction. In order to do so, we have many reasonable and rational arguments, or so it seems, and we are suddenly a victim to our own logic and escape routes.

My father had unique habits and addictions. In our 320 square feet - one bedroom kitchen ground floor apartment at Wadala, Mumbai, the kitchen flowed into the bedroom, and it converted into a living room when everyone had woken up. My father would wake up the earliest, and go into the kitchen, which could be seen by everyone who was sleeping in the living room. He would start washing the dirty leftover utensils from the previous nights' dinner, and he would do it very quietly. No noise. I know that is impossible, but he would do it, nevertheless. After that, he would boil the milk and make coffee for everyone, and a bottle of warm milk for my elder daughter, Harini.

She would have woken up, 2-3 years old, and would be watching him quietly, patiently. He would know that she was watching him, and would keep turning back and would mime the work that he was doing, that he was boiling milk, and now he was waiting for it to cool down, and that he was washing the drinking bottle and now he was pouring the milk into it, and then he would carefully step over one person at a time and bend down and give the bottle of milk to Harini, without waking me or my wife. My mother would have woken up and would be moving about, eager to take over her kitchen.

I once asked him. Why did he do this? Was he not the 'Master' of the house? And like most traditional Indian households, should he not have the women do all the work? Why did he have to wake up the earliest, and clean and wash all the dirty utensils and make coffee for everyone, even if my wife and sister were asleep, why would he make coffee for them? Was it not demeaning to him? He replied, without hesitation, and explained, that - "Washing dirty utensils is the best form of meditation and prayer to God, that there could ever be. Why should I allow anyone else to take away that opportunity from me? This way, I get to do my prayers and meditation at the very early hour, and I get to be happy even if I am selfish."

I never gave it much thought, but after having many escapades in my own life within the family, I have begun to understand what he meant by it. My mother had a different take on the entire situation. She said that he was just joking about meditation and prayer, but that he washed up on all the utensils because he wanted to make sure that my mother would be able to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner without any hassles. He just wanted to make sure that he put her to work before she left for school. These habits and addictions that they had - point out to me now, after so many long long years, how much they loved each other and cared for each other. This love, of wanting to do the dirty work, of having to slog it out in the early hours of the day, is a wonderful habit and addiction in life.

My mother would be sick and of ill-health most of the time. She would find it difficult to get to sleep and she would find it difficult to wake up and get ready. She would find it difficult to lift heavy objects because of the third operation that she had, for her hernia. She would find it difficult to keep standing at the kitchen and work on all the cooking. The heat would bother her, the water would be irritating and the confined premises of the kitchen, only about 24 square feet, with only 10 square feet of standing space, was very bothersome. But, she never ever complained about it. This ability to adjust, and the ability to accept ones' situation, and yet to be disciplined and time-bound, was also an addiction and a major troublesome habit for her. But, she never stopped until the day she retired.

Prayer and worship was another amazing habit and addiction for both my parents. They worshipped every day. My father would clean the prayer place, every day, morning and evening. This is something that I am never able to do so. I should get about to doing so. They had a routine, and it began with the first boiled milk of the day, and the first pouring of drinking water. They took the water and the milk to the deities, and without fail, every day, in the morning, the first thing in the morning, they would convey their thanks to the gods. This habit and persistent repetition, and the humility, is also a habit and addiction that my parents taught me, and unfortunately, something that I am yet to practice. 

Can we blame the situation for our failure? 8 December 2008

Can we blame the situation for our failure? Can we blame others when we fail?
Bharat Bhushan - 8 December 2008

The obvious answer, of course, is that we cannot. If it is entirely within us, then why do we fail? How do we fail? There must be some reason, and it must be outside of us, for we do not want to fail and we have made the perfect plan to implement any project or plan, and it was something outside of that plan or someone other than us who caused the failure. That is why we fail, not entirely because of us. So, why should we avoid blaming situations, causes, reasons and others for our failure?

Is there any failure in life? If the past was a myth and the future is not as yet true, and if the present is the only truth that there is, how could failure be an actual happening? We could not achieve some part or aspect or the entire plan at some point of time. So, is it a failure for the rest of our lives? No. There is much of life to roll on, and there are more and more opportunities to seek and to try and retrieve the non-success. I would like to recognise 'failure' as a 'non-success'. That is to say, that there are more and more opportunities to convert that non-success in to a success.

We seem to determine that we have failed. That recognition happens deep within us. We have set up a goal for ourselves, and we imagine that we have failed. Why? Because we think we are the most important living beings on this planet, and our success and failure is extremely important. Nothing can be farther from the truth. There is only one truth, and that is, we are of no consequence. Our success and our failure is of no consequence if it is relevant to us. It should be of use and of purpose to others, to nature and to the various living systems around us. Only then is our success of relevance to others. Only then, is our success is of any relevance.

If we fail in completing our goals, when our plan is of consequence to others, we should start again. That's all. It's that simple, actually. Start again.

We fail within ourselves. Our inner self, our thoughts, our mind and our resolve settle themselves into comfort, compromise or conflict. There is usually no convergence unless we determine that there should be. We weaken our plans by not resolving within ourselves to establish a definite plan and to keep working on it. This weakness creates a vulnerable perspective and we destroy our plan by agreeing to compromises such as - we will do it later - we will get it done by others - it is not so important - it is not my work, anyway - etc.

We are responsible for our mind, our inner self and our thoughts. We need to determine how we should think. We should be able to recognise the manner of thoughts that wander within us and we should be able to distinguish it from the ether and create crystal thoughts that can lead to action. We do not do so, most usually. We allow ourselves to be complacent. Let us look at a simple example. We are with a child and we want to convince the child to do some particular action. We can pat the child on the back with our palm and encourage the child to complete the action. We can also violently slap the child on the face with our palm and force the child to complete the action. What is the difference? Is our palm responsible? It is our intention that emerged from the thought within us that created a different action. We could have nurtured the child but we chose not to do so.

There was a road accident in which an infant child, about 3 1/2 years old, died within a bus-stand, when a out-of-control taxi climbed over the footpath and slammed in to the child within the bus-stand. The accompanying mother escaped with minor injuries and was traumatised. Everyone agreed with the mother about the terrible fate of the child and that there was no error on part of the mother, and that the situation was at fault, the road-design was at fault, the taxi-driver was at fault and the working condition of the taxi was at fault. So, the person was not at fault at all. How do we analyse such a terrible situation?

One has to understand that one should be mindful of the location that one is, all the time, especially when we are responsible for the life of the other defenseless person. If you are not going to think out the dangers and the problems that could emerge at such locations, then one is obviously at fault for not assuming that such and such danger could occur. There need not be a similar accident by the hour or every day or every week or every year. There need not be a similar accident, ever, in order to be alert and cautious. One has to understand that there would be accidents, and they could happen anywhere. And, that, they will happen.

Therefore, the most sensible option is to be cautious and to ensure that there is care taken in one's movements in a public thoroughfare. If you are walking about in open roads, through traffic, one has to be careful. Why are you cautious, when you are walking through traffic? Because, accidents can happen. But they do not happen by the hour, day, month or year. So many people walk about carelessly, and yet, they are not killed. So, are they absolutely foolish? No. They are cautious, within the core of their thoughts. They watch the traffic and make their way in a stubborn but careful manner. Except that, it is not obvious.

You are always at liberty to make up your mind. But, you should do so. You should make up your mind. You are at fault when you do not take caution, and you do not assume that such danger could happen to oneself, and to those whom we love dearly. That is when, blaming the situation or blaming the taxi-driver seems to be the correct option. That is simply wrong. We are to blame, for the failures in our lives, because we have not thought out our actions properly.

Minimalism - is there a need to be minimal? - 3 November 2008

Minimalism - is there a need to be minimal? Can one succeed in minimalism? 
Bharat Bhushan - 3 November 2008

Sometime back in 1990, I guess, I had gone to visit a senior journalist friend at his residential quarters above his newspaper offices, and I found him living out of some bare bookshelves, a coir mat and a pillow and very few other accessories. When I questioned him, he said that he was a minimalist. That was the first time that I had heard the word, and I liked it. It seemed to be almost like a religion with him, and I found that he actually believed in living it out in that manner. I was quite taken up by it, and I do try to follow the tenets, from time to time, sometimes succeeding, and mostly, failing.

It is indeed very difficult to become a minimalist. There is an entire science to it, seemingly. The theory or the paradigm is known as minimalism. There are many net pages and material to read from on the internet about minimalism. There are experts out there, and there is software especially made to help you become a minimalist. I would not be surprised if there was a cellphone app also made for it. But, if you go around collecting all this stuff, you would no longer qualify to be a minimalist.

One of the most popular theories is that it is the removal of all the stuff that we collect and getting rid of all the clutter that we live with. This can be at several planes in life. It can be simply to get rid of the material matter that one has collected, and at the other plane, it can be to get rid of the clutter within the mind. It can also be to getting rid of the work systems that do not work for us, and to getting rid of all the wasteful planning methods that we have that destroy our future.

So, simply put, minimalism helps us review our past, the present and the future. We need to get rid of something, some clutter, junk or our belongings, from each aspect, i.e., the past, the present and the future. We collect tremendous aspects of junk within our mind and within our thoughts. We search for vague happenings that have happened a long time ago in the past, and we pull them out, stretch them to more tensile fragility than a simple rubber band, and pretend that it has more importance for the present and the future than it would ever have been.

But, to become a minimalist, and to adopt minimalism, there has to be a deliberate decision. You really need to go ahead and want to do it. It cannot just be a thought and it cannot just be an idea. You need to actually start and get to doing it. There is no planning about becoming a minimalist. You start when you think about it, and you start doing it. Pick up the nearest object, give it away. Pick up your wallet, and decide that you will not purchase anything. Pick up your ATM card or credit card and keep them away for a fortnight. These are simple actions. They help get you started.

When one embarks on the path towards total quality management, the ISO 9001 system requires that the aspirant firm makes a very deliberate top management decision to want to achieve perfection. That is the same with minimalism. Your top management, i.e., your mind and your thought system, should take the decision and make it immediately deliberate by beginning and creating output. One of the theories is that you establish a relay or a tag sport within your house and your office to begin to get rid of stuff. Keep hitting a different spot and continue to pick up something and get rid of it.

We are all consumers. If we do not purchase, if we do not pick up, and if we do not want to take up something or some event, life does not halt at its orbit around our actions. It goes on. The reality is what happens, and it is never the aspect of what did not happen. Whatever did not happen, never existed. It is counter to what does exist. The thought of the aspect that did not exist, will always distract us. Others will contribute to the thoughts and evolve it into a disappointment. Understand the myth and accept the reality. It never existed. THAT is the truth.