Go B(u)y Happiness (continued..)

So we often think money can change unhappiness into happiness. How much money do we really need then to retain happiness in life? Is it only money that we want to be happy? Can this personal idea be extended to the society as well? Is the creation of wealth for oneself the only real problem in our world and the inability to do so the cause of poverty? Or is it the difference in our ability to distribute wealth? Why does communism fail to win favour in so many countries? Is capitalism built on the foundation of greed and selfish motives as alleged by communism? Is not the aggressive growth of china a manifestation of greed? Are democratic nations in any way less aggressive on growth? What is the right way of wealth sharing? How can we ensure we get what we want when we want it? Is human physical labour really inferior to intellectual labour? So much so that the human serving the society through physical labour - the more difficult form of service - lives for a lifetime in poverty while his 'learned' brethren -the recipient of such service - lives in riches? Can we put animals or machines as replacements for all forms of human physical labour? If not, why does an industrial worker earn less than an animal even when the later cannot take-up his workload? Is all human work that is not physical, superior to physical ones? Are all the products of intelligence of so much value to society?....

Putting it more direct - do not our systems of human service evaluation stink of greed too? Communism or capitalism, we have drawn our systems in ways that are poles apart in the manner they try to define growth. At every decision-point we humans always tend to bias ourselves to one side or the other. We seldom try to start thinking in the third direction - the one of vision, one of permanent conflict resolution, the one of convergence of thoughts. And the fact remains that we have failed as a civilization after having been through 5000 years of it. We still do not know how to build a successful social structure, a universal economy, a harmonious working style like that of Nature. We attach too much importance to triviality and ignore the virtues of cultivating a natural and impeccable human attitude too much. We run after artificial, imaginary glory of a seemingly high status in society and forget that in the process we are moving against the laws of Nature. We conclude, 'life is a battle', 'getting up there is really tough', 'only a few can succeed’ and so on.

Enter Nature. Look around how Nature sings its own success story showing us how to live. To get back on the right track, we have lessons all around in the natural world. We have so many team success stories. Have you heard of something like 'out a 100 tigers born, only a few become hunters', or 'out of a thousand albatross, only one completes its migratory cycle'? Why then do we hear so often and believe that 'only one among a thousand in the human society achieves success'? Look at that humble green grass out there. It gets trampled, mowed down, nibbled, uprooted by cattle, and dried out in patches in the sun..but give it some water and time and look how it flourishes. Not one or two blades but a whole expanse of them... saying no to die, though unresisting to all attacks, seemingly defenseless but persistently succeeding; drought? no issues! Life can spring out of dead earth with the first drop of water - whenever that happens. Desert? Life can wait for ages in patience. It doesn't make the earth less fertile. There are species of fish that exclusively live and die in deserts, in small puddles of temporary water, feeding themselves, breeding and letting other life forms feed on them; then dry out with the water, seeded in the soil, waiting for the next rain to come after an year or two...outstanding examples of surviving…united in adversity!

Nature builds everything to succeed equally. Isn't there something obviously and seriously flawed about our thinking? We get flawed in our thinking when the desire to create wealth comes with the desire to own it too...something radically wrong about our definition of success. It's a pity, we haven't taken adequate lessons from nature, and are instead too proud about our 'specializations' of 'traditional' and acquired knowledge. Knowledge that fails to carry us through adversities. In Nature, diversity and unity unfold and roll back into each other in time cycles. Differences arising out of diversity are not a cause of concern; adversity is not begotten out of differences. It’s a pity, the lessons from Nature are not a part of our tradition.

We humans lose heart so easily in the face of adversities - when things don't happen as we expect? Why does man then think the world is over, with a few failed seasons? Why is there a spurt of suicides with failed crops in the villages and a crashed Stock market in the cities? From that angle is the urban bankrupt more civilized than the rural unfortunate? What then do you see as the primary defect in the civilization that we live? Greed? Is it the only thing that drives us? We want to achieve and attain 'what nobody else can'! The whole problem is in the second part of the statement. Why are we not happy to achieve what everybody else can, as does everything else in Nature?

Think on that for a moment. Think of all the things we take for granted, think of those who are deprived of it. Think again, is not all of Nature around us trying desperately to show us how to share and succeed? Succeed by moving ahead together and not by getting over each other. There is no business of 'vertical' of growth in Nature! In fact if you are thinking of a 'vertical' ascent over other humans, there is no real growth at all. There is instead only an increasing risk of a great fall! The Universe designs only 'horizontals' and parallels. Where growth, success and well-being are shared; where problems are faced together, not between each other. Living in this horizontal, taking everyone else with us hand in hand alone would give us lasting success and perpetual Happiness. Polarization of wealth in our civilization, like the polarization of magnets, always creates a field of tension and conflict in between. Wars, terrorism, crime, petty thefts to trivial day-to-day words of abuse are all a product of tense activity in this space. What is then the way to distribute well-being? Amass wealth and give away to the poor and needy? Certainly not! The way for us as a civilization lies in creating abundant opportunities for others to create wealth….

More on this later.

With Luv,

Chiraag

Go B(u)y Happiness

Happiness! The last short story in my blog ended probably making us think on that. It should have made us re-examine the link between money and happiness - if at all it exists! Today and also in the days to come, I would have a volley of questions thrown up to you so that the thought process continues.

In classical science, we have saturated chemical solutions that contain a dissolved component at the verge of crystallization. You scratch with a glass rod on the inner wall of the beaker and lo! - a shower of lustrous specks seem to appear from nowhere in the thin fluid, precipitating into a brilliant base of sparkling crystals! In an informed and thinking society, thoughts crystallize into reality in the same manner whenever the situation calls for it. Each time social threats have challenged human existence, the collective intelligence of the society has met it with a spurt of creative actions to bring a radical transformation that was unheard of till then. But Rome was not built in a day. In order that we remain capable as a society to spring surprises in the face of challenges as they come, we need to be saturated with intensive thought and ideas to respond with unfailing precision and brilliance when the need arises - like the crystals in the beaker. But the preliminary slow process of saturation and concentration of thoughts takes place while we gradually free our minds of the unwanted social bindings and mental blocks that prevent change.

An Exit Interview

Mr Z is set to retire. He is the last man in our office, down the levels. He keeps to himself, never claiming to be capable of doing anything more than his routine. Neither is he a man of such knowledge to be called especially intelligent nor did he ever display such special traits, admirable or funny to be the center of attraction or gossip. But he's a man whom I have never seen grumbling about how little means he has at his disposal. That pleasant smile on his otherwise warty face, had always been sweetly infectious - true to the saying, face is the index of the mind!

The other day, Mr Z happened to walk into the cafeteria with his usual cranky steps that has since long stopped arousing curiosity and amusement amongst us colleagues. He glanced at me from the self-serve counter at a distance. I returned a welcome smile. Beaming with joy about know-not-what, he carried his decked plate past other tables to mine. After we exchanged our 'hello-how-are-you's, I reminded myself, he is left with few days at this office. I could not resist asking how he reflected upon his days in this Company where he has spent a big chunk of his life-time without much of rise up the corporate ladder. He smiled and spoke after a thoughtful silence, 'I had never been in the race to scale up that ladder….I had instead been going up another one – the ladder of happy living!'.

His eyes caught mine as if to confirm whether I was curious to learn more. Assured on that, he continued.

'Looking back', he said, 'I have made little money, but I've no regrets. I enjoyed life, saved as much as required, spent the rest. Never paid heed to what others said about what I spent for and how much I did. I never spent a buck where not required, spent a hundred where it was worth it. All that takes to be happy is this - know how to live with what we have, never thinking too much about what we don't'.

I smiled silently at him, letting him know I was keen on hearing him speak more on this. He went ahead.

'My outlook towards life had been simple.... It is years now since I had been to the theatre to watch a movie with my wife and kids. Why go to cinema if a good meal out could cost much lesser? I had always preferred to dine out and enjoy! Unlike being at the theatre, when you are out to dine you get the bonus of chatting with your most loved ones while you wait for the order to arrive. You wouldn't miss the distinct tinge of happiness on your wife's face for having called a day off at the kitchen while being able to pay her full attention to the merry chirping of her kids. You can relish the twinkle of excitement in their eyes when their favorite servings arrive. You can feel contented on having made them happy. In the cinema, we relate to the moods of the celluloid shadows and miss out the real ones on the faces of our dear ones'.

Why take a newspaper when the television can keep my wife entertained all noon and also gives me all the News to makeover my lazy evenings? The little saving therein is enough to sponsor some relaxed evenings with her at the coffee-house down street after a long walk. Why do I need a car just because everyone else has? Boxed up inside a car, I wonder if I would ever get the comfort of a relaxed walk with my better half, spiced up with all that family humour and gossip.... Setting spending priorities is a must. My wife stood by me in each of our little resolutions. She mirrored my attitude or should I say I mirrored hers?'

'A perfect marriage of thought and action!', I thought.

Mr Z continued, 'As a result I never had been in the minuses of life though I never made too much of the pluses. I never owned more than what was needed at the moment but always had enough for the rainy day'.

'Believe me,' he said, 'balancing spending with income or saving does not come in the way of sharing happiness. Its all a matter of outlook.'

He continued to emphasise his point further. 'I could gather enough nuts to fulfil the minimum expectations of my family. Those that I could not meet with money, I fulfilled it with love & affection, understanding & care... never placed my ego above my family. Never put them at stake for my differences with others at my workplace or the world out. Never compromised with my duty unto my employer. Today I have offers for light jobs even as my twilight years have started. Just because I own a history of commitment and loyalty unto all those who trusted me. Does it take anything more to ensure social security? Insecurity is an imaginary problem that people create out of their own defects, out of their fears'.

He paused here for a long moment, then continued.

'Ever wondered how and when a fish sleeps in water? But it does. You could only know it when you become a fish in your mind, when you acquire those characteristics of the fish that helps it strike a time-balance between need, circumstances & threats. And as long as we do not try to build on illusions and false self-estimates, we are safe in life. The trouble starts when we try build our world around our ego. Men of ego, like empty ruck-sacks, cannot stand erect for long. Realise this and feel grateful for Life that has not put us through too much of trouble. Don't put your happiness on stake, don't risk losing your job especially in these times of recession, when you know you are dependant on it to take care of your family. Don't run after money, run for the accomplishments within your reach and happiness is yours! Money will follow...as much as you need - not as much as you greed.'

Such simple mantra of happiness & success! Reminds me of the great American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, the Indian seer Sant Kabir, the more modern example of Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam... Didn't all of them exemplify a life lived on similar lines - lives full of content but not a bit of it brought in by material riches?

As he finished his short late lunch, he looked at his old watch and exclaimed, 'Sorry, Its time to move on to my duty, sir!'. He took a hasty leave. The slow eater that I am, I was still at the table contem'plating' while I watched Mr Z walk out of the cafeteria in arthritic steps. What a perfect mind inside a not-so-perfect body!

I wondered how many millionaires could boast of such contentment in life. After all, is not everyone struggling for that ultimate thing called Happiness?... the most important of our needs that we unfortunately often put last in the list of our priorities? If only we could think simpler and stop complicating our life with never-ending wish-lists...

Think different, think simple... Chiraag

More On Dealing With Change

This is an extract from ' The Lost World' by Michael Crichton which beautifully brings out the destructive potential of the human trait to resist change and unconventional thinking:

"What makes you think human beings are sentient and aware? There's no evidence for it. Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is a fight for conformity, not an effort for insight. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. Behavior associated with beliefs, policies and conformity to it has made Human beings so destructive, that we may sometimes think we're a kind of plague that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that it makes one think that maybe that's our function. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion."

This is a particularly powerful thought-provoking write-up - a critic’s point-of-view that calls for serious examination of the human attitude. Quite remarkable facts to be found in fiction! Sometimes good ideas are lost just because they are a small part of a greater work of fiction and very easily left out unrecognized by majority of readers. But a moment of reflection would reveal the enormity of facts behind it. Facts based on valid philosophies that are not fiction by any means.

My more flamboyant friends may find this a bit depressing. The most uncomfortable revelation many times appears thus for the emotional mind! But it is generally observed that only 5% of the human population becomes leaders, while the rest 95% are followers. Among the leaders, 4% are those who are simply reiterating what has been said before – old wine in new bottles. The rest 1% are the ones who bring a radically different perception that threatens to overturn all our beliefs hitherto. Copernicus (he discovered that it is the sun and not the earth which is at the center of the solar system) & Galileo (he propounded the law of falling objects and proved that Aristole was wrong!) are just two examples who fell in such cadre. They did meet their share of revulsion during their lifetime for the ‘crime’ of initiating a radical change of perception, a different one than what the all-powerful Church held in those days. But these were, thankfully, the ones that changed the course of human advancement in the right direction. If you think that was too old a case, remember how the world responded when the first test tube babies were announced, cloning was reported or surrogate motherhood was debated. All of these breakthrough bio-techs are today seeing their critics calm down while the advancements have taken a firm foothold in the same world that surged out initially against it.

But what if it happens to be the other way round? What if a handful of destructive thinkers manage to lure a majority of followers to keep clinging to distorted, misinterpreted, hard-line, fundamentalist iterations of the past in spite of the fact that there is no hope of progress offered by those perceptions that have lived their lives and are now set to be replaced by newer ones? What happens when the Old comes in the way of the New? What if 1% of leg-pullers manage to swerve the rest of the population away from the path of progress by exploiting the human tendency to resist change?

What Michael Crichton has quoted based on research is not about you and me, or a handful of positive thinkers. It is a more holistic view of what the human world is today. It does not say there is no hope. It only says the proportion of people who do not want to change is alarmingly high in the human race. The result – a handful of destructive brains still hold the threat to take over the world. A handful of people deciding to use nuclear arsenal can even today wipe the earth clean of humanity. Where would you, me and all the technological advancements stand then? There is technology to utilize nuclear power, is there a technology to prevent a dropped nuclear bomb from setting off? Is there a technology to identify a terrorist standing next to us? The point is, all the material good happening outside is at great risk unless we focus on weeding out all the moral bad that is contained inside those who are not with us in the effort to change for good.

Contrary to the common man’s ‘all-would-be-good-in-the-end’ attitude irrespective of what happens in the mean-time, what concerns us in the immediate future is not who is right but who is mightier. If a single evil-minded fundamentalist has a hundred times more determination to wipe out the human race than all the noble men who have all the great dreams for prosperity on Earth, the noble intentions don’t stand a chance; thanks to us commoners who are happy keeping our heads buried in the sand and think we are powerless, not in the fight and hence safe!

We ignore the fact that there may be a 'bomb', may be one for cultural destruction ticking away right next to us...

We can check this precarious situation if we, as a united human race, unanimously and consciously embrace change in the right direction and weed out this earth of all such forces that are stopping or could stop progress in the direction of peace and perpetual happiness. As long as we are still fighting for survival in a world ripped by threats, as long as we do not learn to excel in a competitive world by merit and not by force, we have not come a long way out of the cave-dwelling savage psychology that we humans had started out with.

Hope that the best of minds would come together for social leadership of a new kind to make this happen.

Chiraag

Dealing With Change

Human behavior is so unique but also so diverse; so common, but also so unpredictable. Consider why even after so many years of scientific advancement, psychology, among all the medical sciences, continues to fall more in the domain of interpretational wisdom than being a well defined science. Our mind is such a spring-board of chaos and wild imagination that it constantly urges us to change, to try new ideas. But we, do not want to change. It is a paradox that most of our socio-psychological problems stem out of our natural stubborn tendency to follow that one law of the Universe – The Law of Inertia. We so often avoid what we do not know. We do not want to know because that would change our beliefs. We do not want to change our beliefs because we see it as a threat to our well-being. We resist change. We fail to see that the Universe is a journey of transformation, of continuous morphing, of unending evolution, of constant change. As one popular quote goes, “change is the only permanent thing in the Universe’. But we, the common folk, are so slow to recognize and follow the right tide of change that by the time we come out of our inertia to encounter it, the water has already passed over our head, and we find ourselves being swept away by the tide that otherwise we were set to ride. We are helplessly inundated at a time when we should have been swimming ahead downstream favored by the giant wave. Fortunately sometimes, we do have tides that push us back to safe shores without even a bit of our deliberate effort. It leaves us in admiration for its power that, though beyond our control, been so benevolent to us. The irony is, whatever the drama, most of us are silent spectators who do not gear up to face change as it comes. We instead get tossed at the will of the Uncontrollable.

Out of every million of the human population, only one prodigy turns out to become a thought leader. Only a handful of the human race, play a pivotal role in transforming the society. Yet so often is it seen, massive social changes are initiated at an insignificantly small scale... just like the nuclear fission that makes a humble beginning with one tiny neutron; but given the critical mass, it can see such explosive growth that we humans could get wiped out along with a slice of earth! Such immense power at the mercy of so tiny a particle! Master that power and you have all that it needs to run a whole next generation! The point is, our future depends every time on how we recognize and deal with the most powerful ‘Agents of Change’, before it steers our civilisation without our consent!

Those few men and women who are set to turn around our social beliefs display such phenomenal speed in empowering human minds that we do not know when they would become a blessing or a boon to our existence. If that handful of change-agents are not content with Today and set out constructively, then we, the common folk, would be blessed. If otherwise, we would be cursed. Nelson Mandela and Bin Laden are the contemporary examples of favored and unfavored change-agents. But who takes over which of the fresh inquisitive minds remains a matter beyond the scope of our control. Only a sound moral, social leadership can guide the response of the masses onto the path of constructive growth and prosperity...

More on this in days to come...

With Luv,

Chiraag

The Universe Within

As we go about each day doing our daily chores, a thousand thoughts graze through the mind. We don't probably own them, for we do not know and cannot claim that they are the products of our intelligence. They just occur in response to situations and grow by our careful contemplation.... they open up a series of questions in our mind - sometimes inspiring, sometimes causing discomfort. But either way, these ponderings can serve as beacon lights to move forward in life; probably, they are showing some direction to apply our intelligence; persuading us to change our dead habits....

Most lessons on self management, our outlook about the world around us, our attitude, our intentions unto them are in response to our interpretation that come from the 'universe within'. Only it needs to be highlighted, deliberated and persuaded in one's own mind to be absorbed as new habits, to change our lives. The diverse topics that I intend to write on this blog are aimed at this objective.

YOU are no stranger to this 'universe within' that I am talking about. Every one carries a fraction of it inside one's mind – the power of imagination, the power of analyzing our interactions with the physical universe around us, the power of creativity, churning out ideas that can enlighten our lives.

Queer enough that the universe within does not fall in the realm of the three dimensions of the physical universe we know. The 'universe within' is indeed dimensionless! It occupies no space at all. Yet this infinitesimally small universe inside us unbelievably seems to prove its continuity and its expanse across minds through the spectacular similarity of human thought. On so many occasions, we humans think alike - unless some different streak of spontaneous thought sets in to steer our direction elsewhere. Some of those spark out brilliantly, igniting our imagination, enlightening our mind space.

I am no exception to this organization of the Universe within. But why do we have to keep these thoughts to ourselves? Why not know how many of us do think about the same questions? Why not know how much we think alike, thus fortifying our self confidence? Why not know if someone thinks better and build a better outlook ourselves? What if I give it a verbal shape? What if we try to strike a visual resonance among strikingly similar thoughts emerging in diverse minds? What if these streaks of light cluster together to shape a new group, a body, a culture, a neo-cyber civilization! A more enlightened tomorrow!

The Web has already started this process. We are only joining in late. There may be perverse critics who think the Web has made us lose contact with our neighbor. But they fail to see the fact that so many minds that yearned for silent interaction with the world out there, are finding an outlet to vent out their ideas and notions; to give, to share, to benefit someone else. While one door of our social interactions closes down, there are others that are opening. It would be wise if we do not try to force and break open the one that has shut close. Some other may be opening out into a Paradise...where we may have the pleasant surprise of meeting our neighbor again! Let's give it a try. Let's blog, let's express, let's impress, share joy and inspiration. Let's look for a purpose to live a meaningful life in the domain of this new expanse.

Fear not, friends! I won't be philosophical all the time in my blogs to come. Moods differ - and I do not really know what demeanor my mind would adopt in the days to come. But whatever I blog, the charge is not with me. The topics that trigger my thoughts come from somewhere else, from deep within. I hope, those streaks of light would converge at some point to make sound sense.

My task would be to make the 'generation-next' think through the world within about the world out there, about our civilisation and its defects, about how we can begin to set it right not necessarily through the massive exercise of mountain-moving in the society, but through the small first step of changing our mindset, thinking fresh and living it out without contamination.

Ever yours,
Chiraag