Para Dravyani Lostavat -- Treat money/belongings of other as mere stones/pile of mud.
Easy to say isn’t it? And easy to preach as well. We hear many people say that they don’t touch penny of other person. Sounds reasonable but the question would they not touch if instead of a penny, if there is a million at stake? That precisely is question and is what matters.
Best quote to example is from Bharata from Ramayana. Being younger brother of Rama, Bharata had no aspirations of becoming the king. How ever, because of twist in the tale, he had got the entire Ayodhya Kingdom at his disposal. He how ever denied to rule the kingdom that belongs to Rama. That is the reason why Bharata has become an exemplary character in Ramayana.
We need to be vigilant and careful in order not to get tempted by the fortune that comes up for which we are not entitled to. Sometimes the fortune at stake tempts u to invent justification for claiming it and thus calming the conscience and world shut up. But that will not make it lawful possession.
Now we come to a tricky question of what really qualifies as lawful possession of a person and what does not? One thing is for sure, lawfully earned wages, interest, rent of land/house etc., will surely qualify. Lawfully inherited money qualifies. But money pursued from parents by pestering them obviously does not qualify. Similarly money procured by torturing the in-laws for money in form of dowry or kind does not qualify.
The lawful word has changed its meaning offlate and there are few differences between contemporary law and Vedic law. For a Brahmin money or kind procured as donation for performing yagna or other vedic karmas, for teaching etc., comprise of lawful earned money. For Kshatriya, money procured by showing one’s strength in war is lawful. For Vaishyas the money procured through trade in form of profits is lawful. For other castes, money earned by offering services to people is lawfully earned money. Also Manu Dharma shastra says the property of parent is to be inherited by male children where as contemporary law states the property to be distributed uniformly between all children.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Ethics Series2: Matruvat Para Dareshu
We are in Kali Yuga which is termed as the last yuga in the list. It is the Yuga where Dharma suffers lot and Adharma reins. Kali Purusha is said to be seen with two things in his hand, sense organs and gold. This is a symbolic representation of features of yuga where people get attached to sensual desires and riches ie., Kama and Ardha with out bothering about Dharma. It is surely not a bad thing for a Grihasthu to get sense gratification and earn riches but if only they are achieved through Dharmic means. Here I try to inspect kama aspect.
Matruvat Para Dareshu -- Treat women other than one’s wife as mother
Even though at the face of it the above statement looks like giving a lesson to men, it is applicable to women as well. They did not explicitly mention about women either because they thought if men follow it religiously it works well or at the time of formulating the above statement women were pious and chaste. But in today’s context it needs to be clearly pointed that the statement is applicable to both men and women.
ParaDara in Sanskrit means other man’s wife and the statement talks about treating her as one would treat mother. Does it mean one can do bad and illegal things with a lady who is not any man’s wife at one point in time? Really smart, isn’t it, we are at exploiting the loopholes of the rules. When we apply rules of Syllogism, the above statement translates to treat every woman/girl who is not your wife as mother. This is to ensure unmarried/widowed girls/women are covered too and thus they are not exploited.
Transformation has occurred in girls too. Even though one cannot generalize it for all, but the cultural degradation has got its worst impact on girls. In the name of love they resort all bad deeds that degrade their character. The transformation has occurred multifold right from their dressing, behavior with boys, attitude, beliefs and this gave a chance to men to exploit them at will. Now only the way we bring up our next generation girl child can save us from the catastrophe. And it is responsibility of us to protect the girl child at all stages so that cultural degradation is stopped as per Manu
Pita rakshati Kaumare, -- Father should protect when she is child
bhartta rakshati yawwane, -- Husband should protect when she is in youth
rakshati sthavire putra -- Son to protect her when she is old.
Matruvat Para Dareshu -- Treat women other than one’s wife as mother
Even though at the face of it the above statement looks like giving a lesson to men, it is applicable to women as well. They did not explicitly mention about women either because they thought if men follow it religiously it works well or at the time of formulating the above statement women were pious and chaste. But in today’s context it needs to be clearly pointed that the statement is applicable to both men and women.
ParaDara in Sanskrit means other man’s wife and the statement talks about treating her as one would treat mother. Does it mean one can do bad and illegal things with a lady who is not any man’s wife at one point in time? Really smart, isn’t it, we are at exploiting the loopholes of the rules. When we apply rules of Syllogism, the above statement translates to treat every woman/girl who is not your wife as mother. This is to ensure unmarried/widowed girls/women are covered too and thus they are not exploited.
Transformation has occurred in girls too. Even though one cannot generalize it for all, but the cultural degradation has got its worst impact on girls. In the name of love they resort all bad deeds that degrade their character. The transformation has occurred multifold right from their dressing, behavior with boys, attitude, beliefs and this gave a chance to men to exploit them at will. Now only the way we bring up our next generation girl child can save us from the catastrophe. And it is responsibility of us to protect the girl child at all stages so that cultural degradation is stopped as per Manu
Pita rakshati Kaumare, -- Father should protect when she is child
bhartta rakshati yawwane, -- Husband should protect when she is in youth
rakshati sthavire putra -- Son to protect her when she is old.
Ethics Series1: Character is Destiny:
In School days we are taught “If wealth is lost nothing is lost, If Health is lost something is lost and If Character is lost everything is lost” This is one of my favorite probably because of the simple words it contains and the rhyming associated with them. It too k me years together to realize true meaning of these simple words and how important they are for a person. Wealth surely can be recovered if one puts effort. Health is difficult to recover but not impossible. Character once lost is something that cannot be recovered in this life no matter how much one tries to. Do we really put so much “price tag” on that item called Character today? I seriously doubt.
What is character? I would say it is sum total of all the behavior that puts us in line with the rules defined for humans. Why rules are defined only for humans? VivekaChudamani says “Jantunam Nara Janma Durlabham” which means out of all animals getting life of human is difficult. So it classifies man also as an animal. Science also says humans belongs to class called mammals and thus puts us along side animals. But what is the difference between humans and animals? No difference if we do not adhere to the established rules or Dharma.
An animal does not have to perform certain actions like brushing teeth, cleaning body and puja( a process that attempts to purify the mind) before consuming food. As soon as it finds it self hungry it can eat what ever is available to it. It is said that a tiger and snake consume its own cub/egg after giving birth, if they cannot find themselves a suitable prey to sustain itself. A human on the contrary has to identify the food that is suitable to him as per the rules defined by his birth and also needs to have the food cooked before consuming. Similarly animal when it finds a mate and has the urge to mate need not refer to Dharma Shastra for mating. A human on the contrary cannot mate with any other human he encounters. He/She has to confine him/herself to the institution named marriage. These are the very things that define and differentiate a human from other animals. If these rules are not followed such a human is no different from animal.
Does character really define destiny? It is not so easy to conclude in one’s life as the destiny is more of a long term scenario and we people cannot easily understand the consequence that is spread across in time dimension over years. Also it is not easy to relate the cause and effect by intuition when we there are so many events that appear to us like the cause. A corrupt officer would have assimilated a fortune by leading a life of parasite on common people. He could not easily draw conclusion that his arrogant, worthless kid was the destiny for the character he has exhibited in his life, isn’t it? He would attribute it to his son’s bad friend who corrupted him.
Character stuff looks very complex to understand for average person, some might say. There are thumb rules that give pointers to living with character.
Matruvat Para Dareshu -- Treat women other than one’s wife as mother
Para Dravyani Lostavat -- Treat money/belongings of other as mere stones
Atma Vat Sarva Bhuteshu – Treat other person as one treats oneself
What is character? I would say it is sum total of all the behavior that puts us in line with the rules defined for humans. Why rules are defined only for humans? VivekaChudamani says “Jantunam Nara Janma Durlabham” which means out of all animals getting life of human is difficult. So it classifies man also as an animal. Science also says humans belongs to class called mammals and thus puts us along side animals. But what is the difference between humans and animals? No difference if we do not adhere to the established rules or Dharma.
An animal does not have to perform certain actions like brushing teeth, cleaning body and puja( a process that attempts to purify the mind) before consuming food. As soon as it finds it self hungry it can eat what ever is available to it. It is said that a tiger and snake consume its own cub/egg after giving birth, if they cannot find themselves a suitable prey to sustain itself. A human on the contrary has to identify the food that is suitable to him as per the rules defined by his birth and also needs to have the food cooked before consuming. Similarly animal when it finds a mate and has the urge to mate need not refer to Dharma Shastra for mating. A human on the contrary cannot mate with any other human he encounters. He/She has to confine him/herself to the institution named marriage. These are the very things that define and differentiate a human from other animals. If these rules are not followed such a human is no different from animal.
Does character really define destiny? It is not so easy to conclude in one’s life as the destiny is more of a long term scenario and we people cannot easily understand the consequence that is spread across in time dimension over years. Also it is not easy to relate the cause and effect by intuition when we there are so many events that appear to us like the cause. A corrupt officer would have assimilated a fortune by leading a life of parasite on common people. He could not easily draw conclusion that his arrogant, worthless kid was the destiny for the character he has exhibited in his life, isn’t it? He would attribute it to his son’s bad friend who corrupted him.
Character stuff looks very complex to understand for average person, some might say. There are thumb rules that give pointers to living with character.
Matruvat Para Dareshu -- Treat women other than one’s wife as mother
Para Dravyani Lostavat -- Treat money/belongings of other as mere stones
Atma Vat Sarva Bhuteshu – Treat other person as one treats oneself
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Ethics
In an “I will do what I like” kind of world we have today, what relevance do we have to ethics? Is it really justifiable to have ethics in vogue in today’s context? Is it really true that we can do anything we want always? It reminds me of a small story I read in school
An English gentleman is walking on street waving his stick at his own will. In an unfortunate moment, the stick hit the nose of another gentleman who is coming from behind. When the second man objected, the first man replied that he has freedom to wave his stick at his own will to which second man said, “Your freedom ends where my nose begins”. He is absolutely right. It is very much applicable even when it comes to ethics.
We truly are not free to do everything we like. But let’s reserve this argument for later and assume we are. Just like the above story our freedom ends where other person’s begins. We do not have freedom to hurt or impact other person’s life by our actions/words/thoughts. Sometimes we do not realize that our actions are impacting our family, our kids, our friends and also our society. Who gives us right do so? This will bring us back to the first question “Are we really free to do everything we like, if we do not know what impact it will have on others in the long run?” Answer is big NO.
Why we need Ethics now?
The next argument that arises is “We are all taught good manners and good behavior by our parents since we are kids. Why we need discourses on Ethics again?” True most of our parents taught us what is good and what is bad when we were kids. But their biggest failure was they thought it was adequate to teach. Our earlier generation did not put into practice themselves the good things they taught their kids. That lead to our generation take easy on some of those things. Say for example a father teaches his son to be show respect to elders and the same person when he talks to his father or father like person in a harsh note, what the kid will learn from this contradiction. Say for example a mother teaches her daughter importance of chastity for a woman but what will the kid learn if the mother does not put that into practice in her own life?
By far our ethics have condensed to the level of what is convenient for us. And for every rule broken comes a justification. It looks very appropriate at the moment and justification very apt, if we overlook long term consequences of the situation. A simplest example is a boy and girl fall in love and disobeys traditional caste system to get married. Little will they realize that their marriage can create problems for rest of their family and even their kids!
What are Ethics anyways?
It would be over confidence if I consider myself as an expert in this field and start my discourses on the subject. Frankly speaking, I am trying to put some of the things I know into a organized manner. Not that I know everything, but I have gotten a chance to witness few things in the world by the way of my own deeds (right as well as wrong), by way of spectator to few deeds done by other and also a victim of deeds others committed for their own selfish gains. I would also add a disclaimer that some of the places you may find myself carried away a bit by the emotion and I seek your advance forgiveness. There starts a series of articles on ethics.
An English gentleman is walking on street waving his stick at his own will. In an unfortunate moment, the stick hit the nose of another gentleman who is coming from behind. When the second man objected, the first man replied that he has freedom to wave his stick at his own will to which second man said, “Your freedom ends where my nose begins”. He is absolutely right. It is very much applicable even when it comes to ethics.
We truly are not free to do everything we like. But let’s reserve this argument for later and assume we are. Just like the above story our freedom ends where other person’s begins. We do not have freedom to hurt or impact other person’s life by our actions/words/thoughts. Sometimes we do not realize that our actions are impacting our family, our kids, our friends and also our society. Who gives us right do so? This will bring us back to the first question “Are we really free to do everything we like, if we do not know what impact it will have on others in the long run?” Answer is big NO.
Why we need Ethics now?
The next argument that arises is “We are all taught good manners and good behavior by our parents since we are kids. Why we need discourses on Ethics again?” True most of our parents taught us what is good and what is bad when we were kids. But their biggest failure was they thought it was adequate to teach. Our earlier generation did not put into practice themselves the good things they taught their kids. That lead to our generation take easy on some of those things. Say for example a father teaches his son to be show respect to elders and the same person when he talks to his father or father like person in a harsh note, what the kid will learn from this contradiction. Say for example a mother teaches her daughter importance of chastity for a woman but what will the kid learn if the mother does not put that into practice in her own life?
By far our ethics have condensed to the level of what is convenient for us. And for every rule broken comes a justification. It looks very appropriate at the moment and justification very apt, if we overlook long term consequences of the situation. A simplest example is a boy and girl fall in love and disobeys traditional caste system to get married. Little will they realize that their marriage can create problems for rest of their family and even their kids!
What are Ethics anyways?
It would be over confidence if I consider myself as an expert in this field and start my discourses on the subject. Frankly speaking, I am trying to put some of the things I know into a organized manner. Not that I know everything, but I have gotten a chance to witness few things in the world by the way of my own deeds (right as well as wrong), by way of spectator to few deeds done by other and also a victim of deeds others committed for their own selfish gains. I would also add a disclaimer that some of the places you may find myself carried away a bit by the emotion and I seek your advance forgiveness. There starts a series of articles on ethics.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Sri Rama Rajyam
It is an open secret that Sri Rama Rajyam is a remake of legendary film Lava Kusa. No comparisons please.
Why to watch the film?
We are now at a phase when we hardly see any stories that relate to Hindu epics. People of the new generation hate to watch anything that is branded old, even if it is good. So Sri Rama Rajyam is refresher for a welcome change from stinking love stories, obscene songs and vulgar literature. If you have kids and you are either too busy or too lazy to read them stories from Ramayana, go watch this. If you are a Balakrishna fan, you may be disappointed as there is neither fight nor powerful dialogue, but because you are fan go watch this movie. If you have respect for the person named Bapu, for all his work in movies and art, you will watch this. If you have ever heard of another legendary writer named Mullapudi Venkataramana, you must watch this movie as this is his last contribution.
Comparison becomes inevitable:
No matter how much you try to eliminate any comparison between Lava Kusa and Sri Rama Rajyam, comparison becomes inevitable. There is an ocean of difference between the two movies that have been based on Uttara Ramayana. Titles is one area where probably Sri Rama Rajyam scores high, as the titles are neatly presented along side the art work of Bapu depicting entire Ramayana.
Acting:
NTR is a legend in himself and when it comes to enacting roles of Rama or Krishna, there is not a single person in the industry who can match him. It is fact that lot of people in Andhra Pradesh still can think of only NTR’s image when they think Lord Krishna. Balakrishna is no way near his father in the film. But if we compare apples to apples and not traverse across generations, we must give him due credit that there is no one else in the contemporaries who can enact Rama better than he did. He looked little old, which could have gone okay given the context of movie but one place the look became too awkward is scene o Sita Swayamvara where Rama is supposed to be 16 year old but looked like 60. Another side effect that is hard to ignore is while Rama looked to be aging, Sita looked young.
Anjali Devi’s enact of Sita in Lavakusa would make even stones weep for the pathos Sita is going through. Nayanatara did okay but is no where near.
Nageswara Rao may be a legend in his own right, how ever his enactment of Valmiki was again when compared to Nagayya’s divine pleasant enactment, does not find its merit. It could be because of extension of the character to give him importance spoiled merits of it.
Kantha Rao was time and again doubted for his acting capabilities but no one had any doubt on his award winning performance as Lakhmana in Lava Kusa was his peak and silences all doubt. Srikanth put all his effort but at times when the expression of pathos had to be prolonged to a duration, he could not contain it well. (esp in scene where Sita is left in forest)
Lava Kusa’s in old film were peerless and looked good as twins. In the latest version the kids did okay in the end but they did not look like twins and failed miserably when doing scenes of singing Ramayana.
Hanuma in old movies when ever required and where ever required was almost universally enacted by Arja Janardhana Rao. He looked as if he was born to do the role and probably because of the practice he looked convincing every time he came up on screen.
Music:
Ilayaraja may be a legend when it comes to melodies and has ruled the industry for decades. But in the current context we are comparing the songs composed by Ghantasala and they are peerless. There is a small anecdote worth mentioning here. During Lava Kusa time they approached Pendyala who was top music director at that time and because of his schedule and cost, they had to settle or Ghantasala. When the movie released, pendyala called up Ghantasala just to say that if he had got the movie he would not have composed such wonderful songs for the movie as Ghatasala did. Even today we remember Vinudu Vinudu Ramayana gadha song of Ramayana sang by Lava Kusas’. I did take the small song when Sita travels to forest very well as it looked more like tragedy song in modern love movie.
Taking:
I will try to write it short here because I wont be able to criticize Bapu- Ramana’s for the respect I have on the duo. I have seen their Sita Kalyanam may be a dozen times and Sampoorna Ramayanam another dozen times. Sri Rama Rajyam I am sure I will not manage to see dozen times.
Ramana Garu:
It hurts a lot to movie connoisseurs that Sri Rama Rajyam is his last work. He is person who has in depth knowledge of Ramayana. He has tried his best to embed knowledge of Ramayana in this film as well as other he worked. Inculcating a song on valmiki pariprasna to Narada Maharshi (Konvasmin Sampradam Loke.Sloka) as a song, Ramo Vigrahavan Dharmaha sloka in the screen play are few examples. He is the main reason behind my seeing the film,
Overall needless to say Lava Kusa scores over Sri Rama Rajyam
Why to watch the film?
We are now at a phase when we hardly see any stories that relate to Hindu epics. People of the new generation hate to watch anything that is branded old, even if it is good. So Sri Rama Rajyam is refresher for a welcome change from stinking love stories, obscene songs and vulgar literature. If you have kids and you are either too busy or too lazy to read them stories from Ramayana, go watch this. If you are a Balakrishna fan, you may be disappointed as there is neither fight nor powerful dialogue, but because you are fan go watch this movie. If you have respect for the person named Bapu, for all his work in movies and art, you will watch this. If you have ever heard of another legendary writer named Mullapudi Venkataramana, you must watch this movie as this is his last contribution.
Comparison becomes inevitable:
No matter how much you try to eliminate any comparison between Lava Kusa and Sri Rama Rajyam, comparison becomes inevitable. There is an ocean of difference between the two movies that have been based on Uttara Ramayana. Titles is one area where probably Sri Rama Rajyam scores high, as the titles are neatly presented along side the art work of Bapu depicting entire Ramayana.
Acting:
NTR is a legend in himself and when it comes to enacting roles of Rama or Krishna, there is not a single person in the industry who can match him. It is fact that lot of people in Andhra Pradesh still can think of only NTR’s image when they think Lord Krishna. Balakrishna is no way near his father in the film. But if we compare apples to apples and not traverse across generations, we must give him due credit that there is no one else in the contemporaries who can enact Rama better than he did. He looked little old, which could have gone okay given the context of movie but one place the look became too awkward is scene o Sita Swayamvara where Rama is supposed to be 16 year old but looked like 60. Another side effect that is hard to ignore is while Rama looked to be aging, Sita looked young.
Anjali Devi’s enact of Sita in Lavakusa would make even stones weep for the pathos Sita is going through. Nayanatara did okay but is no where near.
Nageswara Rao may be a legend in his own right, how ever his enactment of Valmiki was again when compared to Nagayya’s divine pleasant enactment, does not find its merit. It could be because of extension of the character to give him importance spoiled merits of it.
Kantha Rao was time and again doubted for his acting capabilities but no one had any doubt on his award winning performance as Lakhmana in Lava Kusa was his peak and silences all doubt. Srikanth put all his effort but at times when the expression of pathos had to be prolonged to a duration, he could not contain it well. (esp in scene where Sita is left in forest)
Lava Kusa’s in old film were peerless and looked good as twins. In the latest version the kids did okay in the end but they did not look like twins and failed miserably when doing scenes of singing Ramayana.
Hanuma in old movies when ever required and where ever required was almost universally enacted by Arja Janardhana Rao. He looked as if he was born to do the role and probably because of the practice he looked convincing every time he came up on screen.
Music:
Ilayaraja may be a legend when it comes to melodies and has ruled the industry for decades. But in the current context we are comparing the songs composed by Ghantasala and they are peerless. There is a small anecdote worth mentioning here. During Lava Kusa time they approached Pendyala who was top music director at that time and because of his schedule and cost, they had to settle or Ghantasala. When the movie released, pendyala called up Ghantasala just to say that if he had got the movie he would not have composed such wonderful songs for the movie as Ghatasala did. Even today we remember Vinudu Vinudu Ramayana gadha song of Ramayana sang by Lava Kusas’. I did take the small song when Sita travels to forest very well as it looked more like tragedy song in modern love movie.
Taking:
I will try to write it short here because I wont be able to criticize Bapu- Ramana’s for the respect I have on the duo. I have seen their Sita Kalyanam may be a dozen times and Sampoorna Ramayanam another dozen times. Sri Rama Rajyam I am sure I will not manage to see dozen times.
Ramana Garu:
It hurts a lot to movie connoisseurs that Sri Rama Rajyam is his last work. He is person who has in depth knowledge of Ramayana. He has tried his best to embed knowledge of Ramayana in this film as well as other he worked. Inculcating a song on valmiki pariprasna to Narada Maharshi (Konvasmin Sampradam Loke.Sloka) as a song, Ramo Vigrahavan Dharmaha sloka in the screen play are few examples. He is the main reason behind my seeing the film,
Overall needless to say Lava Kusa scores over Sri Rama Rajyam
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Control over Emotions
We human beings deal with emotions day in day out. Emotions are very precious and they do communicate the feelings with accurately. I will make an attempt to stress on importance of controlling emotions in different scenarios
Professional:
In workplace no matter how much we try not to take things personally, we fail doing so all the time. There would be scenarios when you feel frustrated by lack of cooperation from a colleague impacting our work, lack of understanding from manager on our personal commitments or lack of respect from the customer. It is natural to feel emotional during situations but one need to understand impact of display of emotion before doing so. A colleague rightly commented in recent team meeting “Unless you know to control your emotions, there is no growth”. Very much true indeed!! It is the cool headed people who will win in professional world. The winners do not display emotional side when faced with adverse situations and are rather busy in working out a way out of the situation. Also for most people emotion dampens thought process and thus comes in way of though process and so it must be avoided in work place where we should be result oriented.
Personal:
In personal life we go through lot of emotions that we encounter in our day to day interactions. The display or control of emotions has its impact on the relations we hold and so this must be judiciously and carefully done. In work place lack of emotional intelligence can cost a career, in personal life it can be even costlier and can make or break a relation. A display of adverse emotion in a hurry can sometimes strain a relation beyond a point and the damage can at times be irrepairable. So control over emotions in personal life is extremely important.
Spiritual:
In spiritual progress control over emotion is a must. Story of Viswamithra highlights importance of control of emotions. His tapasya got corrupted because of lack of control over anger and sense desires and had to start all over again. So Adi Sankara said
Kama Krodascha Lobhascha
Dehe Thistanthi Taskarah
Gnana Ratnapaharaya
Tasmat Jagrata Jagrata
The control over emotions comes a big way in spiritual progress and with out this one would lose the grip over spiritual progress. We usually find spiritually matured person in serene and calm mood more often which supports the case.
Professional:
In workplace no matter how much we try not to take things personally, we fail doing so all the time. There would be scenarios when you feel frustrated by lack of cooperation from a colleague impacting our work, lack of understanding from manager on our personal commitments or lack of respect from the customer. It is natural to feel emotional during situations but one need to understand impact of display of emotion before doing so. A colleague rightly commented in recent team meeting “Unless you know to control your emotions, there is no growth”. Very much true indeed!! It is the cool headed people who will win in professional world. The winners do not display emotional side when faced with adverse situations and are rather busy in working out a way out of the situation. Also for most people emotion dampens thought process and thus comes in way of though process and so it must be avoided in work place where we should be result oriented.
Personal:
In personal life we go through lot of emotions that we encounter in our day to day interactions. The display or control of emotions has its impact on the relations we hold and so this must be judiciously and carefully done. In work place lack of emotional intelligence can cost a career, in personal life it can be even costlier and can make or break a relation. A display of adverse emotion in a hurry can sometimes strain a relation beyond a point and the damage can at times be irrepairable. So control over emotions in personal life is extremely important.
Spiritual:
In spiritual progress control over emotion is a must. Story of Viswamithra highlights importance of control of emotions. His tapasya got corrupted because of lack of control over anger and sense desires and had to start all over again. So Adi Sankara said
Kama Krodascha Lobhascha
Dehe Thistanthi Taskarah
Gnana Ratnapaharaya
Tasmat Jagrata Jagrata
The control over emotions comes a big way in spiritual progress and with out this one would lose the grip over spiritual progress. We usually find spiritually matured person in serene and calm mood more often which supports the case.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Financial Planning -- A Commoner’s guide:
I am by no means a financial expert by my qualifications. I will consider my self as a commoner who has learnt his bit on financial planning and trying to put things forward.
1. Contingency Fund:
Many of us ignore importance of having the contingency fund to meet day-to-day expenses in event of job loss or temporary situation when the bread earner is unable to work. But it is necessary to ensure we cover the family expenses for the temporary situation. Financial experts suggest that value of contingency fund should be no less than take 3month net salary. My view is contingency fund should be able to cover the family expenses and any liabilities like home loan for three months. It is not necessary for this fund to cover for the investment plans as investment plans can wait for temporary glitch in earning. It is important to keep the contingency fund in liquid form and in safe avenues like bank FDs.
2. Risk Cover/Insurance Cover:
Every young man who starts earning must first start his future plans with Insurance plans. Insurance comes cheaper when you are young and becomes premium as you grow old in age. I will try not to sound too pessimistic, but we don’t want our loved ones to face financial turmoil incase any unfortunate incident that happens to bread earner. This is the primary reason for going for insurance and tax benefit should be the secondary reason. Term Insurance or pure Risk Cover will ensure our loved ones are secure financially in case unfortunate death and it is the cheapest insurance. There are other plans which club investment with insurance like ULIPs. It is the discretion of the individual which plan to go for, even though lot of financial planners advice against clubbing investment and insurance. Adequate risk cover for a bread earner should be at least 100 times net monthly salary.
3. Own House:
Many of the people of this generation have taken home loans and purchased a house of their own, thanks to income tax clauses and real estate boom. Whether the property appreciates at the rate one wants or not is a different matter, but one’s first goal after marriage is to purchase a house. Many people think about it for years with out closing in on purchase due to
a) Not adequate money at hand for downpayment
b) Not able to withstand the pressure of long duration home loan & risky private jobs
c) House Rates look beyond reach
Apart from emotional satisfaction one has for living in own house, house also provides a shelter for us when we retire at absolutely no cost (rent). It is also collateral against which we can bank on during adverse situations that can arise in life. One house is mandatory and more than one can be a very good investment option.
4. Child Plans:
A new kid in the house changes entire perspective for the house. New mothers become very busy in attending to the VIP who has just come into the world. New fathers start thinking about how they can secure the future of the kid. Unfortunately most of the things get limited to buying a child plan. I am not trying to state that buying a child plan is bad. But banking just on child plan is bad. It is not always that the off-the-shelf child plans give necessary returns and so you also need to have backup options like gold, some debt schemes, real estate. These can come handy while paying for child’s education and planning for their future.
5. Lifestyle Funds:
Every one of us want to have a lifestyle which can keep us contend and satisfied with our lives. It is purely individual’s preference what this means. One person would be happy if he can visit romantic/tourist places in world where as other would be happy if he can lay his hand on every latest gadget available and another would want his car size/car brand to grow along with his age. Mark your lifestyle needs and have a separate planning for meeting these goals.
6. Retirement Planning:
Whether we like it or not, we age and become old. We would not be having the necessary energy or avenues to earn at that point. If you are working in private sector, you would not be entitled to pension during retirement like our dads did. So we need to plan ahead to ensure we get adequate corpus when we retire. I will try to list some few options and this is by no means exhaustive list
a) EPF: 8.5% return. Tax free interest. Safe investment with government guarantee. You can increase your contribution to EPF any time by consulting your employer.
b) PPF: 8% compounded return. Tax free interest. Safe investment with government guarantee. Locking period of 15 years.
c) Pension/Annuity Plan: Long term plan. No lumpsum payment except on unfortunate event of death.
d) NPS: Long term plan. One third of the annuity amount can be withdrawn in lumpsum and rest will be paid monthly on maturity. Flipside is returns are taxable.
e) Equities/MF: High risk and thus chance of high return. Good for young investors and choice of fund has to be made as per risk appetite. Need to monitor a bit to ensure the required returns are accrued. When nearing goal, one needs to withdraw and park amount in safer avenue so that no surprise can come up later.
f) Real Estate: A very good avenue for long term. Invest in this avenue for both value appreciation and regular income in terms of rent. Like all high return investments this also comes at its own risks like fluctuation of real estate rates.
g) Gold: Glittery Investment. Investment can be made either in form of physical gold or via Gold ETFs. Physical gold has risks like security and purity of the material where as in ETFs one would not get to see the gold at all physically. Due to fluctuating prices, this can also be categorized as high risk avenue.
h) Fixed Deposits: Low risk and low return. Money would be safe in custody of a bank but the yield may not be adequate enough to beat inflation. Another minus is returns are taxable.
1. Contingency Fund:
Many of us ignore importance of having the contingency fund to meet day-to-day expenses in event of job loss or temporary situation when the bread earner is unable to work. But it is necessary to ensure we cover the family expenses for the temporary situation. Financial experts suggest that value of contingency fund should be no less than take 3month net salary. My view is contingency fund should be able to cover the family expenses and any liabilities like home loan for three months. It is not necessary for this fund to cover for the investment plans as investment plans can wait for temporary glitch in earning. It is important to keep the contingency fund in liquid form and in safe avenues like bank FDs.
2. Risk Cover/Insurance Cover:
Every young man who starts earning must first start his future plans with Insurance plans. Insurance comes cheaper when you are young and becomes premium as you grow old in age. I will try not to sound too pessimistic, but we don’t want our loved ones to face financial turmoil incase any unfortunate incident that happens to bread earner. This is the primary reason for going for insurance and tax benefit should be the secondary reason. Term Insurance or pure Risk Cover will ensure our loved ones are secure financially in case unfortunate death and it is the cheapest insurance. There are other plans which club investment with insurance like ULIPs. It is the discretion of the individual which plan to go for, even though lot of financial planners advice against clubbing investment and insurance. Adequate risk cover for a bread earner should be at least 100 times net monthly salary.
3. Own House:
Many of the people of this generation have taken home loans and purchased a house of their own, thanks to income tax clauses and real estate boom. Whether the property appreciates at the rate one wants or not is a different matter, but one’s first goal after marriage is to purchase a house. Many people think about it for years with out closing in on purchase due to
a) Not adequate money at hand for downpayment
b) Not able to withstand the pressure of long duration home loan & risky private jobs
c) House Rates look beyond reach
Apart from emotional satisfaction one has for living in own house, house also provides a shelter for us when we retire at absolutely no cost (rent). It is also collateral against which we can bank on during adverse situations that can arise in life. One house is mandatory and more than one can be a very good investment option.
4. Child Plans:
A new kid in the house changes entire perspective for the house. New mothers become very busy in attending to the VIP who has just come into the world. New fathers start thinking about how they can secure the future of the kid. Unfortunately most of the things get limited to buying a child plan. I am not trying to state that buying a child plan is bad. But banking just on child plan is bad. It is not always that the off-the-shelf child plans give necessary returns and so you also need to have backup options like gold, some debt schemes, real estate. These can come handy while paying for child’s education and planning for their future.
5. Lifestyle Funds:
Every one of us want to have a lifestyle which can keep us contend and satisfied with our lives. It is purely individual’s preference what this means. One person would be happy if he can visit romantic/tourist places in world where as other would be happy if he can lay his hand on every latest gadget available and another would want his car size/car brand to grow along with his age. Mark your lifestyle needs and have a separate planning for meeting these goals.
6. Retirement Planning:
Whether we like it or not, we age and become old. We would not be having the necessary energy or avenues to earn at that point. If you are working in private sector, you would not be entitled to pension during retirement like our dads did. So we need to plan ahead to ensure we get adequate corpus when we retire. I will try to list some few options and this is by no means exhaustive list
a) EPF: 8.5% return. Tax free interest. Safe investment with government guarantee. You can increase your contribution to EPF any time by consulting your employer.
b) PPF: 8% compounded return. Tax free interest. Safe investment with government guarantee. Locking period of 15 years.
c) Pension/Annuity Plan: Long term plan. No lumpsum payment except on unfortunate event of death.
d) NPS: Long term plan. One third of the annuity amount can be withdrawn in lumpsum and rest will be paid monthly on maturity. Flipside is returns are taxable.
e) Equities/MF: High risk and thus chance of high return. Good for young investors and choice of fund has to be made as per risk appetite. Need to monitor a bit to ensure the required returns are accrued. When nearing goal, one needs to withdraw and park amount in safer avenue so that no surprise can come up later.
f) Real Estate: A very good avenue for long term. Invest in this avenue for both value appreciation and regular income in terms of rent. Like all high return investments this also comes at its own risks like fluctuation of real estate rates.
g) Gold: Glittery Investment. Investment can be made either in form of physical gold or via Gold ETFs. Physical gold has risks like security and purity of the material where as in ETFs one would not get to see the gold at all physically. Due to fluctuating prices, this can also be categorized as high risk avenue.
h) Fixed Deposits: Low risk and low return. Money would be safe in custody of a bank but the yield may not be adequate enough to beat inflation. Another minus is returns are taxable.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Book Reading
My father proudly boasts when talking about his reading vocation that he has completed a city branch library's collection by the time he is in 8th standard. It draws a lot of admiration especially from people who don't read a lot. To people who struggle to traverse from the first page to last page of a single book, it surely looks like quite an achievement. During my childhood I looked up on my dad as a source of inspiration and as a man of achievement. How ever, I cannot say I took up habit of reading by drawing inspiration from him. More it appears to me so, because despite having an admiration for my dad, our paths diverged by the time I reached fag end of teenage.
It may have something to do with genes as science folks call it or it may have something to do with samskaras as religious/spiritual folks call it. Some tendencies came to me from childhood and my dad proved to be a catalyst. My dad did his best to ensure myself and my sister read every story of every child publication every month like chandamama, bala mithra, bala ranjani etc., The habit got cultivated in me and my sister never ever inclined to read anything outside college curriculum. So I need to think it is attributable to samskara or tendencies. As a kid I did not have the ability to distinguish between good read and bad read. My mother had to give up her habit of reading novels and other weekly magazines as she got scared that I am reading them when she was busy. I read everything starting from old news paper to anything that is available. Once when we were on a trip to holy place called MahaNandi, my family locked the room and vacated the choultry with out realizing that I was missing from them as I was busy reading an old news paper I found in the back side of choultry. Did this reading help me anyway? I think it surely did. In one of the school internal exams our telugu teacher who is little adventurous formulated question paper with one question that is out of syllabus. I became overnight star in school and my telugu teacher canvassed for me. On another occasion I stepped into class X's room to meet our head of department for telugu to nominate myself for essay writing competition. Our head of department was asking another out of syllabus question "who wrote book named Svarganiki Nichenalu? If you answer this you are smart and if you don't answer this you are waste as he is the best telugu poet to have lived in this century" No one could answer. I took cue from "best telugu poet" and gave him the correct answer. At that instant I became his favorite student.
During school days I have spent lot of my pocket money on books. Everytime there is a book exhibition by Vishalandra publication or Rama krishna mission, I used to find some book or other that is worth buying. Many a time I cursed my small pocket allowance as it is not providing for buying all the books I wanted to buy. During my 10th standard and Intermediate, my madness reached its pinnacle. Most of my dad's salary went towards my book allowance. I purchased virtually every book available for 10th class students and some observers felt they are seeing a state rank student. It is a different story that I completely disappointed them. During my intermediate instead of spending festival holiday time with my parents, I travelled to Vizag as my uncle promised me some physics books he used during his MSc that may come handy for me. This is all academics so it did not people bother much.
Even though adhoc here and there I read books that I can lay hands on, real turning point was when I playfully stepped into college library's top floor where among list of abandoned books I found the book Svarganiki Nichenalu. Curiosity motivated me to read it to understand why the writer was named "best poet". Thats my first real encounter with work of Viswanatha Satyanarayana and it has gotten an ocean of change in me. Later I read novel "Cheliyali Katta", which depicts the limits a woman must not cross and the upholds Indian marriage at the highest level. By the time I read "Veyi Padagalu" I am a disciple. Today I have read more than 25 of his novels, all of his telugu dramas. It is a completely different matter that lot of people looked at me in disbelief that I spent over 6000 bucks to buy the prized possession of his writings.
In between, for a brief period I turned my attention to English classics like David Copperfield, Three musketeers. Irrespective of the language the well written book brings an 'aha' experience to me. The experience of learning a new aspect be it related to Indian traditions, lifestyle of ancient french warriors, mannerisms of British people of centuries ago. Cannot say every new learning accumulated induced a transformation but it induced a value ad at maturity. Surely some of this maturity came handy when faced with adverse situations in life. More importantly reading has helped me learn some skills that are very important in life like understand the difference between right and wrong, importance of character and how good deeds pay in long run and bad deeds cost in long run. Reading also filled the vacuum created in life when I had no access/less access to intellectual company of friends. It helped me also reflect internally on how in real situation I would have reacted if a similar situation as in book arises. Even though it cant be counted for as preparedness as every challenge in life I faced so far is unique one and path chosen as well is unique to my personality.
One book that stands out that influenced me althrough life is Ramayan. It is the Adi Kavya written by Valmiki and depicts life of Seetha. Yes true!! It is life of Seetha than Rama that Valmiki has written. He himself described its as Seethaayascharitam mahat. There are so many characters in Ramayan that are so Dharmic. Lord Rama who is an embodiment of Dharma. Seetha who is divine lady has shown how a chaste wife should be and kshama guna to be displayed. Laksmana is a special brother whom Rama describes as with out Lakshman I don't need Ayodhya, I don't need this world and even Seetha. Hanuman supreme devotee. Bharata who impresses me a lot for he has relinquished Ayodhya that has been given to his rule. Even Ravana himself is an ideal villain and Hanuma spoke highly of Ravana's stature which got corrupted by one wrong deed he committed. Every character is so ideal that's people say Ramayana is Adarsa Jeevanam. There are days when I used to roam in Koti/Abids area for searching good books on roadside shops. On almost every occasion I ended up buying one version/copy of Ramayan atleast as it pained me a bit to see such a great book to be placed on road platform.
In these years I have also come across some books that should not be touched, if reader is kind of person who easily gets influenced. I threw away certain books written by Tapi Dharma Rao, who tried to proclaim certain bad ideas with extreme explanation and derogatory remarks to certain customs. (excepting may be his commentary on VijayaVilasam for which he received Sahitya academy award) I have refrained from touching anything that has name Ranganayakamma on the front page.Her Ramayana Vishavriksham aimed at finding faults in Lord Rama, a flawless character and embodiment of Dharma. But there is a learning there too. People intended in finding faults can do so with any one. If one can find faults with Rama, what about mere mortals like us? A best seller book like Men are Mars and Women are from Venus failed to impress me. I knowingly purchased a book called maidanam by Chalam where he presented a case for infidelity. Naturally I am not an admirer of such things but curiosity dragged me into purchase of that book as I learnt that great book like Cheliyali Katta was written merely to counter arguments made by Chalam and to show how flawed they are. It is different matter that after first page I felt it too gross to continue reading.
I will conclude with a quote that "A good book is not the one which thinks for you, a good is one which makes you think"
It may have something to do with genes as science folks call it or it may have something to do with samskaras as religious/spiritual folks call it. Some tendencies came to me from childhood and my dad proved to be a catalyst. My dad did his best to ensure myself and my sister read every story of every child publication every month like chandamama, bala mithra, bala ranjani etc., The habit got cultivated in me and my sister never ever inclined to read anything outside college curriculum. So I need to think it is attributable to samskara or tendencies. As a kid I did not have the ability to distinguish between good read and bad read. My mother had to give up her habit of reading novels and other weekly magazines as she got scared that I am reading them when she was busy. I read everything starting from old news paper to anything that is available. Once when we were on a trip to holy place called MahaNandi, my family locked the room and vacated the choultry with out realizing that I was missing from them as I was busy reading an old news paper I found in the back side of choultry. Did this reading help me anyway? I think it surely did. In one of the school internal exams our telugu teacher who is little adventurous formulated question paper with one question that is out of syllabus. I became overnight star in school and my telugu teacher canvassed for me. On another occasion I stepped into class X's room to meet our head of department for telugu to nominate myself for essay writing competition. Our head of department was asking another out of syllabus question "who wrote book named Svarganiki Nichenalu? If you answer this you are smart and if you don't answer this you are waste as he is the best telugu poet to have lived in this century" No one could answer. I took cue from "best telugu poet" and gave him the correct answer. At that instant I became his favorite student.
During school days I have spent lot of my pocket money on books. Everytime there is a book exhibition by Vishalandra publication or Rama krishna mission, I used to find some book or other that is worth buying. Many a time I cursed my small pocket allowance as it is not providing for buying all the books I wanted to buy. During my 10th standard and Intermediate, my madness reached its pinnacle. Most of my dad's salary went towards my book allowance. I purchased virtually every book available for 10th class students and some observers felt they are seeing a state rank student. It is a different story that I completely disappointed them. During my intermediate instead of spending festival holiday time with my parents, I travelled to Vizag as my uncle promised me some physics books he used during his MSc that may come handy for me. This is all academics so it did not people bother much.
Even though adhoc here and there I read books that I can lay hands on, real turning point was when I playfully stepped into college library's top floor where among list of abandoned books I found the book Svarganiki Nichenalu. Curiosity motivated me to read it to understand why the writer was named "best poet". Thats my first real encounter with work of Viswanatha Satyanarayana and it has gotten an ocean of change in me. Later I read novel "Cheliyali Katta", which depicts the limits a woman must not cross and the upholds Indian marriage at the highest level. By the time I read "Veyi Padagalu" I am a disciple. Today I have read more than 25 of his novels, all of his telugu dramas. It is a completely different matter that lot of people looked at me in disbelief that I spent over 6000 bucks to buy the prized possession of his writings.
In between, for a brief period I turned my attention to English classics like David Copperfield, Three musketeers. Irrespective of the language the well written book brings an 'aha' experience to me. The experience of learning a new aspect be it related to Indian traditions, lifestyle of ancient french warriors, mannerisms of British people of centuries ago. Cannot say every new learning accumulated induced a transformation but it induced a value ad at maturity. Surely some of this maturity came handy when faced with adverse situations in life. More importantly reading has helped me learn some skills that are very important in life like understand the difference between right and wrong, importance of character and how good deeds pay in long run and bad deeds cost in long run. Reading also filled the vacuum created in life when I had no access/less access to intellectual company of friends. It helped me also reflect internally on how in real situation I would have reacted if a similar situation as in book arises. Even though it cant be counted for as preparedness as every challenge in life I faced so far is unique one and path chosen as well is unique to my personality.
One book that stands out that influenced me althrough life is Ramayan. It is the Adi Kavya written by Valmiki and depicts life of Seetha. Yes true!! It is life of Seetha than Rama that Valmiki has written. He himself described its as Seethaayascharitam mahat. There are so many characters in Ramayan that are so Dharmic. Lord Rama who is an embodiment of Dharma. Seetha who is divine lady has shown how a chaste wife should be and kshama guna to be displayed. Laksmana is a special brother whom Rama describes as with out Lakshman I don't need Ayodhya, I don't need this world and even Seetha. Hanuman supreme devotee. Bharata who impresses me a lot for he has relinquished Ayodhya that has been given to his rule. Even Ravana himself is an ideal villain and Hanuma spoke highly of Ravana's stature which got corrupted by one wrong deed he committed. Every character is so ideal that's people say Ramayana is Adarsa Jeevanam. There are days when I used to roam in Koti/Abids area for searching good books on roadside shops. On almost every occasion I ended up buying one version/copy of Ramayan atleast as it pained me a bit to see such a great book to be placed on road platform.
In these years I have also come across some books that should not be touched, if reader is kind of person who easily gets influenced. I threw away certain books written by Tapi Dharma Rao, who tried to proclaim certain bad ideas with extreme explanation and derogatory remarks to certain customs. (excepting may be his commentary on VijayaVilasam for which he received Sahitya academy award) I have refrained from touching anything that has name Ranganayakamma on the front page.Her Ramayana Vishavriksham aimed at finding faults in Lord Rama, a flawless character and embodiment of Dharma. But there is a learning there too. People intended in finding faults can do so with any one. If one can find faults with Rama, what about mere mortals like us? A best seller book like Men are Mars and Women are from Venus failed to impress me. I knowingly purchased a book called maidanam by Chalam where he presented a case for infidelity. Naturally I am not an admirer of such things but curiosity dragged me into purchase of that book as I learnt that great book like Cheliyali Katta was written merely to counter arguments made by Chalam and to show how flawed they are. It is different matter that after first page I felt it too gross to continue reading.
I will conclude with a quote that "A good book is not the one which thinks for you, a good is one which makes you think"
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Shravana Kumara -- A Story from Ramayan
The story of Shravana Kumara depicts the dedicated service to parents. It dates back to time of King Dasaratha's rule.
A young Brahmin boy named Shravana Kumar lived in Dasaradha's kingdom. He is the only son of his parents, who both are very old, blind and weak in physical strength. As a dutiful son Shravana Kumar used to take care of his parents by providing with every need. He is very devoted son and as he knows his parents might face trouble if he leave them, he used to carry both his parents in a yoke/bangy (kavadi) where ever he travels.
One day his parents told him that they had become quite aged. They, therefore, wanted him to take them to the various places of pilgrimage : this could make them fully satisfied and give them abundant peace of mind. It is a typical Hindu belief that a pilgrimage to the various shrines and holy places undertaken in old age, purifies the soul and takes one nearer to one's Maker ere the icy hand of Death touches one. To a Hindu mind nothing is more precious, than becoming one with the great Maker of this Universe. As a dutiful son would have, Sharavana Kumar undertook the mission to satisfy the desire of pilgrimage requested by his parents.
Shravana Kumar was travelling through forest carrying his parents and due to length of journey and heat of summer his parents are thirsty and asked son to provide some water. Shravana Kumar placed the yoke containing both his parents under shade of a tree and went to nearest pond to fetch water. At that time King Dasaratha, who came for pleasure hunting expedition to the same forest, listened to the noise near the pond. He mistook the noise to be caused by a deer drinking water, shot an arrow in the direction of the noise which hit Shravana Kumara. Realizing the grave mistake committed the king rushed to the spot and found the brahmin boy reaching his last breathe. Shravana Kumar explained his parents position, requested the King to quench the thirst of his parents who are rested under the tree.
Dasaratha has fetched the water from the pond and offered the same to the parents of Shravana Kumar. Unable to hear the familiar voice of their beloved son and realizing that it is not their son who fetched the water for them, the old couple enquired the whereabouts of their son. When Dasaratha narrated how the hastiness of his action resulted in the death of their son, Shravana Kumar's mother died immediately of a heart attack. Sharavan Kumar's father died few moments later, cursing Dasaratha to meet similar death after being separated from his beloved son.
King Dasaratha who is childless at that point of time had mixed feelings. He felt sad for being responsible for the death of a family by his action. He at the same time reflected and felt happy a bit that in order for the curse to come true, he would be blessed with a son. Years later Dasaratha meets death when separated from his son Rama.
A young Brahmin boy named Shravana Kumar lived in Dasaradha's kingdom. He is the only son of his parents, who both are very old, blind and weak in physical strength. As a dutiful son Shravana Kumar used to take care of his parents by providing with every need. He is very devoted son and as he knows his parents might face trouble if he leave them, he used to carry both his parents in a yoke/bangy (kavadi) where ever he travels.
One day his parents told him that they had become quite aged. They, therefore, wanted him to take them to the various places of pilgrimage : this could make them fully satisfied and give them abundant peace of mind. It is a typical Hindu belief that a pilgrimage to the various shrines and holy places undertaken in old age, purifies the soul and takes one nearer to one's Maker ere the icy hand of Death touches one. To a Hindu mind nothing is more precious, than becoming one with the great Maker of this Universe. As a dutiful son would have, Sharavana Kumar undertook the mission to satisfy the desire of pilgrimage requested by his parents.
Shravana Kumar was travelling through forest carrying his parents and due to length of journey and heat of summer his parents are thirsty and asked son to provide some water. Shravana Kumar placed the yoke containing both his parents under shade of a tree and went to nearest pond to fetch water. At that time King Dasaratha, who came for pleasure hunting expedition to the same forest, listened to the noise near the pond. He mistook the noise to be caused by a deer drinking water, shot an arrow in the direction of the noise which hit Shravana Kumara. Realizing the grave mistake committed the king rushed to the spot and found the brahmin boy reaching his last breathe. Shravana Kumar explained his parents position, requested the King to quench the thirst of his parents who are rested under the tree.
Dasaratha has fetched the water from the pond and offered the same to the parents of Shravana Kumar. Unable to hear the familiar voice of their beloved son and realizing that it is not their son who fetched the water for them, the old couple enquired the whereabouts of their son. When Dasaratha narrated how the hastiness of his action resulted in the death of their son, Shravana Kumar's mother died immediately of a heart attack. Sharavan Kumar's father died few moments later, cursing Dasaratha to meet similar death after being separated from his beloved son.
King Dasaratha who is childless at that point of time had mixed feelings. He felt sad for being responsible for the death of a family by his action. He at the same time reflected and felt happy a bit that in order for the curse to come true, he would be blessed with a son. Years later Dasaratha meets death when separated from his son Rama.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
My Dad's Financial Theory
I always relied on my dad for any major financial decisions. In early days I used to inform even about paltry 2k loan given to my best friend as well to my dad. Even though my dad has not made best investment decisions in his own life, somehow I sensed accuracy of his judgement when it comes to my financial calls. Right from the day when to start my first LIC policy to when to plan for my car. Best of all came ofcourse during my house purchase. If he was not there to assist, I would not have purchased by house. The decision, when I look back now, has almost saved me from any probable financial crisis today. The timing was so right that it continues to be the best investment I made in my life.
There is how ever a peculiar way my dad manages his own finances. Given the fact that I became familiarized with finance through my job in a leading bank's IT department, some of my dad's decisions don't make whole lot of sense to me from investment/return stand point. His major strategy on investment is acquiring an asset through loan even though he has adequate cash at hand in form of debt instruments. For a person who is near retirement age, not much argument goes against his investments in debt instruments. But what amazes me is he finances his asset payment(assuming the asset is not having any tax benefit like a homeloan) via a bank loan and thus his net interest margin(NIM) is at least -6to -8 %. In layman's terms when his debt instruments pay him around 8-10% return where his bank loan eats up to 12-14% as interest payable. Only positive side of it is if the asset appreciates in its value then the negative NIM might get offset in time. If he employed his cash instead of loan, his appreciated asset would fetch him more profit.
His argument is simple. We lack financial discipline unless there is a liability enforced upon. We can easily pay back loan with out defaulting any installment but we do lack financial discipline to accumulate a lumpsum. For example he needs 5 lakhs to purchase an asset and he takes a bank loan by paying 12% interest for 3 years(despite having a 5laks cash in debt security) . He claims at the end of 3 years he would be in possession of asset and his 5 lakhs cash remains the same. But if he uses up his 5laks cash for asset purchase, he would mere have asset at his disposal at end of 3 years as he lacks financial discipline to accumulate the lumpsum of 5 lakhs back.
Practically what he says seems right to me even though from financial stand point it does not appeal to me. I made a very recent amend to this. When I had to fiance my car I did not rely on his theory. I instead emptied my pockets first by pulling out every penny in every bank account/FD. When I still fell short that's when I went to bank for loan. In this context my decision seemed right to me as car is all the more depreciating asset. Only thing I came to understand is financial indiscipline is catalyst that drives my dad's financial theory. So decided to be little more disciplined so that I can try and accumulate the lump sum I had before purchase of car. If I manage to do it I can say I had improved version of financial theory.
There is how ever a peculiar way my dad manages his own finances. Given the fact that I became familiarized with finance through my job in a leading bank's IT department, some of my dad's decisions don't make whole lot of sense to me from investment/return stand point. His major strategy on investment is acquiring an asset through loan even though he has adequate cash at hand in form of debt instruments. For a person who is near retirement age, not much argument goes against his investments in debt instruments. But what amazes me is he finances his asset payment(assuming the asset is not having any tax benefit like a homeloan) via a bank loan and thus his net interest margin(NIM) is at least -6to -8 %. In layman's terms when his debt instruments pay him around 8-10% return where his bank loan eats up to 12-14% as interest payable. Only positive side of it is if the asset appreciates in its value then the negative NIM might get offset in time. If he employed his cash instead of loan, his appreciated asset would fetch him more profit.
His argument is simple. We lack financial discipline unless there is a liability enforced upon. We can easily pay back loan with out defaulting any installment but we do lack financial discipline to accumulate a lumpsum. For example he needs 5 lakhs to purchase an asset and he takes a bank loan by paying 12% interest for 3 years(despite having a 5laks cash in debt security) . He claims at the end of 3 years he would be in possession of asset and his 5 lakhs cash remains the same. But if he uses up his 5laks cash for asset purchase, he would mere have asset at his disposal at end of 3 years as he lacks financial discipline to accumulate the lumpsum of 5 lakhs back.
Practically what he says seems right to me even though from financial stand point it does not appeal to me. I made a very recent amend to this. When I had to fiance my car I did not rely on his theory. I instead emptied my pockets first by pulling out every penny in every bank account/FD. When I still fell short that's when I went to bank for loan. In this context my decision seemed right to me as car is all the more depreciating asset. Only thing I came to understand is financial indiscipline is catalyst that drives my dad's financial theory. So decided to be little more disciplined so that I can try and accumulate the lump sum I had before purchase of car. If I manage to do it I can say I had improved version of financial theory.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Power of Friendship
World is going to celebrate friendship day in a week's time. I don't have admiration for reserving a day of the year for each relation ie., dad's day, mom's day, lover's day, son's day etc., But it does not really hurt me to write a small note abt power of friendship.
Friendship is one relation that gives an individual, to some extent, an opportunity to choose. We cannot choose our parents, we cant do so with our siblings. We just need to accept them as is. But in life we get opportunity to choose the friend we want. In my opening sentence I said 'to some extent'. Reason is even though it would appear to us we have ocean of opportunity with us to choose any as our friend, but a closer look reveals that we can only choose from the list of people we come across in life. One cannot choose to be friends with a sachin tendulkar or a ameer khan, if life does not provide him/her with an opportunity to meet them at all. Secondly, we want to be friend with a person but the relation only works when the other person also accepts the friendship. Thirdly, our samskaras do not allow us to make friends with some people even if we try to.
There goes an old saying that says 'show me your friends, I will tell who you are'. It means as one has choice on friendship, one would choose people who are similar to himself or herself, or one with whom one feel secure, or one who emancipates what one aspires to be. It does not necessarily means personalities match exactly but underlying fundamentals match. My feeling is that all my friends have whole lot of differences when it comes to personalities but what unifies us together is the commonality in the moral code.
Like none of my notes are complete with out reference to Ramayana or other epics. I will try to illustrate few friendships in our epics and how they made their impact to person's life. To begin with Ramayana, two brothers named Vali and Sugriva were there. Vali had a friend named Ravana and Sugriva had a friend named Rama. Sugriva prospered because of friendship to a good person and went on to become king of vanaras and Vali got killed by Rama. If we closely inspect, why Rama made friendship with Sugriva instead of Vali. Sugriva and Rama were in similar state when they met, Rama's wife stolen by Ravana and Sugriva's wife stolen by Vali. Further more inspection gives that Sugriva is a dharmic individual like Rama and so they were able to strike an accord.
In Mahabharata again were two brothers names Karna and Arjuna. Arjuna is close friend of Lord Krishna where as Karna made friendship with jealous Duryodhana. Karna's noble qualities faded by the company bad guys and thus had to meet death in the hands of Arjuna. Where as Arjuna prospered under friendship of Krishna. He gave timely advises like getting pasupata Astra from Krishna. It is Lord Krishna who motivates Arjuna before Kurukshetra war by teaching him Bhagavadgita.
Even in our life we would have noted we come across many friends at several points of time and not all of them stay for long. Not all of them make an impact as well. Good friends make a positive impact that we would carry althrough our life. Bad friends too make an impact albeit a killer impact that can nearly ruin the life.
To conclude, I am one such lucky individual to come across some nice people in my life who made deep impact to my life at different points of time. In gratitude I am sending this note to those wonderful people.
Friendship is one relation that gives an individual, to some extent, an opportunity to choose. We cannot choose our parents, we cant do so with our siblings. We just need to accept them as is. But in life we get opportunity to choose the friend we want. In my opening sentence I said 'to some extent'. Reason is even though it would appear to us we have ocean of opportunity with us to choose any as our friend, but a closer look reveals that we can only choose from the list of people we come across in life. One cannot choose to be friends with a sachin tendulkar or a ameer khan, if life does not provide him/her with an opportunity to meet them at all. Secondly, we want to be friend with a person but the relation only works when the other person also accepts the friendship. Thirdly, our samskaras do not allow us to make friends with some people even if we try to.
There goes an old saying that says 'show me your friends, I will tell who you are'. It means as one has choice on friendship, one would choose people who are similar to himself or herself, or one with whom one feel secure, or one who emancipates what one aspires to be. It does not necessarily means personalities match exactly but underlying fundamentals match. My feeling is that all my friends have whole lot of differences when it comes to personalities but what unifies us together is the commonality in the moral code.
Like none of my notes are complete with out reference to Ramayana or other epics. I will try to illustrate few friendships in our epics and how they made their impact to person's life. To begin with Ramayana, two brothers named Vali and Sugriva were there. Vali had a friend named Ravana and Sugriva had a friend named Rama. Sugriva prospered because of friendship to a good person and went on to become king of vanaras and Vali got killed by Rama. If we closely inspect, why Rama made friendship with Sugriva instead of Vali. Sugriva and Rama were in similar state when they met, Rama's wife stolen by Ravana and Sugriva's wife stolen by Vali. Further more inspection gives that Sugriva is a dharmic individual like Rama and so they were able to strike an accord.
In Mahabharata again were two brothers names Karna and Arjuna. Arjuna is close friend of Lord Krishna where as Karna made friendship with jealous Duryodhana. Karna's noble qualities faded by the company bad guys and thus had to meet death in the hands of Arjuna. Where as Arjuna prospered under friendship of Krishna. He gave timely advises like getting pasupata Astra from Krishna. It is Lord Krishna who motivates Arjuna before Kurukshetra war by teaching him Bhagavadgita.
Even in our life we would have noted we come across many friends at several points of time and not all of them stay for long. Not all of them make an impact as well. Good friends make a positive impact that we would carry althrough our life. Bad friends too make an impact albeit a killer impact that can nearly ruin the life.
To conclude, I am one such lucky individual to come across some nice people in my life who made deep impact to my life at different points of time. In gratitude I am sending this note to those wonderful people.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Morality
Morality is defined as sense of differentiating between what is good and bad. Moral code is the system of rules that defines morality.
Traditional system of morality prevalent in India is based on "fear" factor. A person does not steal money from other because of fear of police. A person does not indulge in infidelity due to fear of public ridicule. A person does not harm an innocent man due to fear of God. Fear factor is closely ties to the "result" one may get if indulged in bad deed. A thief would get imprisonment as result. An infidel individual would get disrespect in society as result. A person who does harm to an good man would get God's anger as result. The society functioned on this basic concept following morality. The moral code to be adhered to are defined in Smritis. The rulers at that point of time are well trained and learned in this moral code and most important of all they themselves adhered to this code. People had also fear that ruler would not pardon any one who did wrong. There was a King called Sagara whose son Asamanjasa used to kill boys by throwing them in to lake. King who got to know this threw his son out of his kingdom. So people in his kingdom very well know that if Sagara does not pardon his own son for wrong deed, he would not hesitate to punish any one else for wrong deed. Every one followed Dharma. Dharma was imbibed into education of all either by formal education or by moral stories shared by elders to children or by traditions enforced by family heads for every one to follow.
Times have changed!! They have not changed over night but changed over time and slowly. A group of disjoint people who named themselves as rationalists started to question the traditions. Not all of them are bad. Some of them had very genuine intent to change things that are outdated or out of context. Others, on the contrary, felt that everything old is outdated. They started disobeying traditions and continued to base their arguments on some flaws traditional system. Little did they realize that a system of such complexity cannot be built fool proof and little did they realize that new moral code they tried to propose had much more flaws than old one. Their system is based on very simple principle "do what you like". (it may not be as crude as I said but its the summary.) The Acharas enforced by elders are being denied stating they are old rules and we dont like to follow them. This sort of disregard for traditions by the individual's like/dislike rather than by merit started to deteriorate the morality of the society. Initial concept of "fear" started to fail as people started to become more reckless. The traditional concept works only if people feared police, society and more importantly God. Uniform moral code for all is replaced by individual customized moral code as per one's like or dislike. Irony here is person who does wrong deeds mastered the skill of giving justification for the deed to make it look good. No body wants to be called bad, isn't it? A thief who steal property of others, justified it as I stole from a person whose stomach is full or I stole to fill by stomach.
There is a person named ChitraGupta who keeps counting the sins of person and keeps a record. Sadly, he is not informed about this change of moral code and still counts the sins by old system. He was not informed that he needs to upgrade his system :-) So the result still catches up. Only difference is earlier when an innocent man is cheated by another and when the result of such deed comes in form of a misfortune to harmer or his family, then he used to understand that it is result of his sin. Now people dont understand that the misfortune is result of their sin and they think they have not committed a sin.
Traditional system of morality prevalent in India is based on "fear" factor. A person does not steal money from other because of fear of police. A person does not indulge in infidelity due to fear of public ridicule. A person does not harm an innocent man due to fear of God. Fear factor is closely ties to the "result" one may get if indulged in bad deed. A thief would get imprisonment as result. An infidel individual would get disrespect in society as result. A person who does harm to an good man would get God's anger as result. The society functioned on this basic concept following morality. The moral code to be adhered to are defined in Smritis. The rulers at that point of time are well trained and learned in this moral code and most important of all they themselves adhered to this code. People had also fear that ruler would not pardon any one who did wrong. There was a King called Sagara whose son Asamanjasa used to kill boys by throwing them in to lake. King who got to know this threw his son out of his kingdom. So people in his kingdom very well know that if Sagara does not pardon his own son for wrong deed, he would not hesitate to punish any one else for wrong deed. Every one followed Dharma. Dharma was imbibed into education of all either by formal education or by moral stories shared by elders to children or by traditions enforced by family heads for every one to follow.
Times have changed!! They have not changed over night but changed over time and slowly. A group of disjoint people who named themselves as rationalists started to question the traditions. Not all of them are bad. Some of them had very genuine intent to change things that are outdated or out of context. Others, on the contrary, felt that everything old is outdated. They started disobeying traditions and continued to base their arguments on some flaws traditional system. Little did they realize that a system of such complexity cannot be built fool proof and little did they realize that new moral code they tried to propose had much more flaws than old one. Their system is based on very simple principle "do what you like". (it may not be as crude as I said but its the summary.) The Acharas enforced by elders are being denied stating they are old rules and we dont like to follow them. This sort of disregard for traditions by the individual's like/dislike rather than by merit started to deteriorate the morality of the society. Initial concept of "fear" started to fail as people started to become more reckless. The traditional concept works only if people feared police, society and more importantly God. Uniform moral code for all is replaced by individual customized moral code as per one's like or dislike. Irony here is person who does wrong deeds mastered the skill of giving justification for the deed to make it look good. No body wants to be called bad, isn't it? A thief who steal property of others, justified it as I stole from a person whose stomach is full or I stole to fill by stomach.
There is a person named ChitraGupta who keeps counting the sins of person and keeps a record. Sadly, he is not informed about this change of moral code and still counts the sins by old system. He was not informed that he needs to upgrade his system :-) So the result still catches up. Only difference is earlier when an innocent man is cheated by another and when the result of such deed comes in form of a misfortune to harmer or his family, then he used to understand that it is result of his sin. Now people dont understand that the misfortune is result of their sin and they think they have not committed a sin.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Truth - An Analysis
Its not a new topic that has come to my mind all of a sudden. It is something that kept bothering me for over 20 years. Every single time I see a person hiding a plain truth or telling a lie, it used to come to my mind. Every single time I utter gruesome lie, the thought haunts me. Just trying to put what I had in mind.
I was told in childhood that speak truth always in school during moral education class. I studied story of Satya Harischandra who faced tough times in life but refused to utter lie. I was told story of Sree Rama who relinquished the throne to ensure his father's promise is not broken and sin of untruth does not haunt his father. It used to amuse me when the very people who taught me this lesson hide truth or tell untruth in practical life. I was confused if the lesson is only for preaching and not for practice, As I was growing up, I started to tell lies too. How ever my conscience initially used to tell me that I was doing wrong deed. Slowly every time my conscience points out a lie uttered, I started rationalizing it. Rationalizing stating that the lie was needed so as not to get blame, not to hurt someone, not to be put in a embarrassing situation. I backed myself up stating I am not cheating anyone by the lie, how ever I felt I was not right some where deep in heart. I also used to observe the lies others utter. I think it is not difficult to guess many a times if the person is speaking a truth or not, it somehow shows in the body language (either by the facial expression or overdose of gestures or by contradicting oneself in words or by giving excessive explanation when none was needed). I felt while telling the lie, the person is putting oneself under huge stress and it is shown in his/her bodylanguage. Still unsure why one has to bear that stress when plain truth is simple alternative.
From Scriptures:
1)
Mundaka Upanishad says
"satyameva jayate naanritam
satyena pantha vitato devayanah
yena aakramanti rshayo hi aaptkaamaa
yatra tat satyasya paramam nidhaanam"
Truth alone triumphs; not falsehood
The divine path is laid by truth through which,
the sages whose desires have been completely fulfilled
reach the Absolute, where Truth resides.
Very Clear message that truth is the only thing that needs to be advocated and not falsehood. Truth alone leads us to Absolute.
2)
Veda says
'Satyam vada, Dharmam chara, Karmam Kuru'
speak the truth and practice dharma, perfrom your duty
A small story from Mahabharata. Dronacharya teaches above lesson to kauravas and Pandavas one day. Next day except Yudhistar/Dharma Raju every one else tell teacher that they learnt it. Yudhistar takes more than a week to learn this. When Drona asked reason Yudhistar replies that he used to tell small lies just for sake of it while playing or playfully. He can claim to have learnt the lesson only when he stops doing it and it took him sometime to do so. That's why his chariot stands 2 feet above the ground. When he uttered a lie in Kurukshetra war abt death of Aswathama, his chariot also comes to ground like all other people. Such is the power of truth.
3) We need not be told story of Harischandra who stood for truth. I am trying to read abt the dynasty of Raghu vamsa rulers in Kalidasas Raghu Vamsa Kavyam.
4)
On the contrary
satyam bruyat priyam bruyat na bruyat satyam apriyam
priyam ca nanrutam bruyat esha dharmah sanatanah
Speak truth in such a way that it should be pleasing to others. Never speak truth, which is unpleasant to others. Never speak untruth, which might be pleasant. This is the path of eternal morality, sanatana dharma.
Unpoleasant truth is not to be told as per smriti and this is being used very conveniently for telling lies. As smriti karta says in intial slokas, if smriti contradicts with Veda, Veda is to be considered right. Not sure if we can interpret this that way?
5)
Potana Bhagavatam says
VArijAkshulandu, VaivAhikamulandu, PrAna Vitta MAna bhangamulandu paliki bonkavachchu
Breach of promise is allowed in the cases of love, marriage, threat to life, property, or respect
In this padya Sukracharaya says situations where lies are allowed. Its a different matter that Bali chakravarti did not agree with this and keeps his promise to Vamana and thus attain permanent place in history
I was told in childhood that speak truth always in school during moral education class. I studied story of Satya Harischandra who faced tough times in life but refused to utter lie. I was told story of Sree Rama who relinquished the throne to ensure his father's promise is not broken and sin of untruth does not haunt his father. It used to amuse me when the very people who taught me this lesson hide truth or tell untruth in practical life. I was confused if the lesson is only for preaching and not for practice, As I was growing up, I started to tell lies too. How ever my conscience initially used to tell me that I was doing wrong deed. Slowly every time my conscience points out a lie uttered, I started rationalizing it. Rationalizing stating that the lie was needed so as not to get blame, not to hurt someone, not to be put in a embarrassing situation. I backed myself up stating I am not cheating anyone by the lie, how ever I felt I was not right some where deep in heart. I also used to observe the lies others utter. I think it is not difficult to guess many a times if the person is speaking a truth or not, it somehow shows in the body language (either by the facial expression or overdose of gestures or by contradicting oneself in words or by giving excessive explanation when none was needed). I felt while telling the lie, the person is putting oneself under huge stress and it is shown in his/her bodylanguage. Still unsure why one has to bear that stress when plain truth is simple alternative.
From Scriptures:
1)
Mundaka Upanishad says
"satyameva jayate naanritam
satyena pantha vitato devayanah
yena aakramanti rshayo hi aaptkaamaa
yatra tat satyasya paramam nidhaanam"
Truth alone triumphs; not falsehood
The divine path is laid by truth through which,
the sages whose desires have been completely fulfilled
reach the Absolute, where Truth resides.
Very Clear message that truth is the only thing that needs to be advocated and not falsehood. Truth alone leads us to Absolute.
2)
Veda says
'Satyam vada, Dharmam chara, Karmam Kuru'
speak the truth and practice dharma, perfrom your duty
A small story from Mahabharata. Dronacharya teaches above lesson to kauravas and Pandavas one day. Next day except Yudhistar/Dharma Raju every one else tell teacher that they learnt it. Yudhistar takes more than a week to learn this. When Drona asked reason Yudhistar replies that he used to tell small lies just for sake of it while playing or playfully. He can claim to have learnt the lesson only when he stops doing it and it took him sometime to do so. That's why his chariot stands 2 feet above the ground. When he uttered a lie in Kurukshetra war abt death of Aswathama, his chariot also comes to ground like all other people. Such is the power of truth.
3) We need not be told story of Harischandra who stood for truth. I am trying to read abt the dynasty of Raghu vamsa rulers in Kalidasas Raghu Vamsa Kavyam.
4)
On the contrary
satyam bruyat priyam bruyat na bruyat satyam apriyam
priyam ca nanrutam bruyat esha dharmah sanatanah
Speak truth in such a way that it should be pleasing to others. Never speak truth, which is unpleasant to others. Never speak untruth, which might be pleasant. This is the path of eternal morality, sanatana dharma.
Unpoleasant truth is not to be told as per smriti and this is being used very conveniently for telling lies. As smriti karta says in intial slokas, if smriti contradicts with Veda, Veda is to be considered right. Not sure if we can interpret this that way?
5)
Potana Bhagavatam says
VArijAkshulandu, VaivAhikamulandu, PrAna Vitta MAna bhangamulandu paliki bonkavachchu
Breach of promise is allowed in the cases of love, marriage, threat to life, property, or respect
In this padya Sukracharaya says situations where lies are allowed. Its a different matter that Bali chakravarti did not agree with this and keeps his promise to Vamana and thus attain permanent place in history
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Worth/Price of a person:
What is the worth of a person? Can we put a price to it? We often hear people boasting I am “priceless”. Are they really? What exactly defines the worth of a person? Let me try and present my perspective here. I am not talking about earning capacity of an individual.
A traffic police catches a bike rider with some missing documents. Bike man offers 50 bucks and policeman talks rules. Bike man raises it to 100 bucks and still police does not relent. When the amount is raised to 200 bucks, policeman gives a soft warning and let go. So it takes 200 bucks for the policeman to give in. An officer in government cadre would say 200 bucks is too small amount, he might give in at 2000 bucks. A privileged official might give in at 20k bucks and people at even higher level might give in at much higher amount. So there is a price defined for every person.
Don’t get me wrong I am not talking about government official and bribe only. A auto rikshaw wala might observe that passenger has left his bag in auto. If the bag contains merely clothes, he might dutifully return the same to passenger or deposit at a police station. Will he do the same if it’s a wallet that he finds? Will he return the same if it’s a briefcase that contains a lakh?
Essentially the point is the real worth of a person is the price at which he bids good bye to the ethical standards defined. It need not be merely in monetary terms. It can be in kind or other variety of means. One fellow falls for girls other falls for exciting gadget that gets paid. One person gets scared of the power and gets rid of ethical standard. Every one has his/her own reasons to get compromised. Nevertheless that is a price for each person.
I don’t mean to say the class of individuals who don’t succumb, come what may, do not exist. They do exist. But they exist in very less quantity and they are also slowly getting extinct. Like save tiger campaign we really have a need to run a campaign to save these special individuals from getting extinct.
A traffic police catches a bike rider with some missing documents. Bike man offers 50 bucks and policeman talks rules. Bike man raises it to 100 bucks and still police does not relent. When the amount is raised to 200 bucks, policeman gives a soft warning and let go. So it takes 200 bucks for the policeman to give in. An officer in government cadre would say 200 bucks is too small amount, he might give in at 2000 bucks. A privileged official might give in at 20k bucks and people at even higher level might give in at much higher amount. So there is a price defined for every person.
Don’t get me wrong I am not talking about government official and bribe only. A auto rikshaw wala might observe that passenger has left his bag in auto. If the bag contains merely clothes, he might dutifully return the same to passenger or deposit at a police station. Will he do the same if it’s a wallet that he finds? Will he return the same if it’s a briefcase that contains a lakh?
Essentially the point is the real worth of a person is the price at which he bids good bye to the ethical standards defined. It need not be merely in monetary terms. It can be in kind or other variety of means. One fellow falls for girls other falls for exciting gadget that gets paid. One person gets scared of the power and gets rid of ethical standard. Every one has his/her own reasons to get compromised. Nevertheless that is a price for each person.
I don’t mean to say the class of individuals who don’t succumb, come what may, do not exist. They do exist. But they exist in very less quantity and they are also slowly getting extinct. Like save tiger campaign we really have a need to run a campaign to save these special individuals from getting extinct.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Teenmaar – Movie Review
Disclaimer: I am not a fan of Pawan Kalyan and if this review hurts your sentiments, it is merely due to the fact a spade is being called a spade and no malicious intent of hurting sentiments of people who cant see spade.
Now that I have given the disclaimer I am feeling light at heart. I don’t generally watch his movies during opening week. I avoid watching them in the first month too. I generally mitigate risk by reading reviews and consulting some victims before going to the theatre. This time I took an exception for two reasons. Second reason is I managed to get the tickets thanks to online booking system in multiplex theatres. (I voluntarily ignored the first reason as its my little secret)
Hey chikitha italiano pasta michealo. I know you did not understand this. Even I didn’t despite limited knowledge I have that pasta is Italian food. Movie is full of such dialogues which neither make sense to the story nor to the audience. Audience are saved because of this. Trouble lies in the rest of the movie which audience understand.
I did not watch the original hindi movie on which the story is based, Love Aaj Kal. Well to speak the truth the intent looked good going by the story. Story draws parallel between Love as it exists today and the olden days. Needless to say old love is nearly depicted as platonic and new one materialistic. Old love is depicted as firm in its existence and newer one opportunistic. This is what is supposed to be made as movie. You might ask why am I pissed off with this seemingly decent point? Well narration sucks!! Really!
It’s not new thing to us where two stories of past and present are merged in narration by the directors. Say for example Rang De Basanti does that very beautifully with out causing any boredom to the audience. Teenmaar does not seem to have such seamless integration in the narration which often bores the audience. The narration takes a dig at the confused state of today’s lovers, who don’t know what love means. To make matter worse it takes a dig at marriage system, when heroin realizes she is in love with other man a day after marriage. Sick, isn’t it? Pawan’s character has some resemblance to character played by ram charan in orange movie, I felt. He looked much more confused than Ram.
Music did not appeal a lot to me as I heard it frist time n screen. I am sure ANR would have felt bad for the way his hit song Basti Dorsani is used in this movie. Pawan’s action resembles that of what it was in Kushi/Jalsa despite the effort to show variation in the second character played of Arjun Palwai. Paresh Rawal holds real key to the movie with his narration of (G)olden love story to Hero. Trisha did justice to her role (despite the characterization blunder made) and might serve as crowd puller with her thigh and cleavage shows through out the movie. Other heroin neither had the scope nor the appeal. Director has left much to be desired as in the end I got confused if the message was supporting old love or newer version as they both seemed to have met same end.
Can some one help me understand what Teenmaar means and how its linked to the story?
Now that I have given the disclaimer I am feeling light at heart. I don’t generally watch his movies during opening week. I avoid watching them in the first month too. I generally mitigate risk by reading reviews and consulting some victims before going to the theatre. This time I took an exception for two reasons. Second reason is I managed to get the tickets thanks to online booking system in multiplex theatres. (I voluntarily ignored the first reason as its my little secret)
Hey chikitha italiano pasta michealo. I know you did not understand this. Even I didn’t despite limited knowledge I have that pasta is Italian food. Movie is full of such dialogues which neither make sense to the story nor to the audience. Audience are saved because of this. Trouble lies in the rest of the movie which audience understand.
I did not watch the original hindi movie on which the story is based, Love Aaj Kal. Well to speak the truth the intent looked good going by the story. Story draws parallel between Love as it exists today and the olden days. Needless to say old love is nearly depicted as platonic and new one materialistic. Old love is depicted as firm in its existence and newer one opportunistic. This is what is supposed to be made as movie. You might ask why am I pissed off with this seemingly decent point? Well narration sucks!! Really!
It’s not new thing to us where two stories of past and present are merged in narration by the directors. Say for example Rang De Basanti does that very beautifully with out causing any boredom to the audience. Teenmaar does not seem to have such seamless integration in the narration which often bores the audience. The narration takes a dig at the confused state of today’s lovers, who don’t know what love means. To make matter worse it takes a dig at marriage system, when heroin realizes she is in love with other man a day after marriage. Sick, isn’t it? Pawan’s character has some resemblance to character played by ram charan in orange movie, I felt. He looked much more confused than Ram.
Music did not appeal a lot to me as I heard it frist time n screen. I am sure ANR would have felt bad for the way his hit song Basti Dorsani is used in this movie. Pawan’s action resembles that of what it was in Kushi/Jalsa despite the effort to show variation in the second character played of Arjun Palwai. Paresh Rawal holds real key to the movie with his narration of (G)olden love story to Hero. Trisha did justice to her role (despite the characterization blunder made) and might serve as crowd puller with her thigh and cleavage shows through out the movie. Other heroin neither had the scope nor the appeal. Director has left much to be desired as in the end I got confused if the message was supporting old love or newer version as they both seemed to have met same end.
Can some one help me understand what Teenmaar means and how its linked to the story?
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
What is Maturity truely?
Science defines Maturity as a psychological term used to indicate how a person responds to the circumstances or environment in an appropriate and adaptive manner.
Maturity is a tricky concept. It changes too often for the folks who are adaptive as the definition goes, It does not change quite so for the folks who are less adaptive and cognizant of the circumstantial changes. We often hear people saying "I am mature enough to decide" In fact we would have ourselves said the same dialogue at least once in life. How many times have repented that the decision we have taken should have been done in different manner? If we are matured then, why did the decision go wrong? Answer is simple, we are not matured enough for the decision when we took it and we are not cognizant of the matter at that point in time. And now with this failure if we are adaptive, we would become more mature than what we were at the time of decision.
Maturity grows with experience. It does not always grow with age. There by goes a saying that Young people knows rules and old people know exception to the rules. As we accumulate age as we live through life, we can say old men appear more matured than the younger folks, with some notable exceptions. I am more matured than what I was when I was teenager. When I was proposing to the girl I loved, I backed my self up thinking I am matured person. But looking back the act looks stupid now as I am more matured today than I was when I am in teenage. I am sure a vast majority of us would feel like undoing certain things we have done, if there is such a chance, isn't it. Similarly certain acts we commit today, might look similar way years down the line.
Is maturity attributable to mistakes we commit in life? It appears so. I commit a mistake in life and learn from the mistake and thus become more mature. But practically in the short span of life allotted, one cannot afford to commit all mistakes by himself and learn from them. So one can become more mature by learning from the mistakes other people make. One other major source of maturity is wise words from elders and from reading good books. Hindu system of education is based on this concept. The Rishis, who are learned people with high maturity levels, teach the students the knowledge and also document the wisdom in to various scriptures.
Absolute maturity is something that is difficult to comprehend as a concept. As indicated earlier if maturity is for ever growing phenomenon, then how can we define a absolute maturity at all. For material world it looks like a impossible thing to achieve. For spiritual world this is some thing that can be defined. Upanishads state "Brahmavid brhamaiva bhavati" meaning he who knows ParaBrahman or the ultimate reality becomes Brahman himself. So such people can be recognized as absolute matured ones.
Maturity is a tricky concept. It changes too often for the folks who are adaptive as the definition goes, It does not change quite so for the folks who are less adaptive and cognizant of the circumstantial changes. We often hear people saying "I am mature enough to decide" In fact we would have ourselves said the same dialogue at least once in life. How many times have repented that the decision we have taken should have been done in different manner? If we are matured then, why did the decision go wrong? Answer is simple, we are not matured enough for the decision when we took it and we are not cognizant of the matter at that point in time. And now with this failure if we are adaptive, we would become more mature than what we were at the time of decision.
Maturity grows with experience. It does not always grow with age. There by goes a saying that Young people knows rules and old people know exception to the rules. As we accumulate age as we live through life, we can say old men appear more matured than the younger folks, with some notable exceptions. I am more matured than what I was when I was teenager. When I was proposing to the girl I loved, I backed my self up thinking I am matured person. But looking back the act looks stupid now as I am more matured today than I was when I am in teenage. I am sure a vast majority of us would feel like undoing certain things we have done, if there is such a chance, isn't it. Similarly certain acts we commit today, might look similar way years down the line.
Is maturity attributable to mistakes we commit in life? It appears so. I commit a mistake in life and learn from the mistake and thus become more mature. But practically in the short span of life allotted, one cannot afford to commit all mistakes by himself and learn from them. So one can become more mature by learning from the mistakes other people make. One other major source of maturity is wise words from elders and from reading good books. Hindu system of education is based on this concept. The Rishis, who are learned people with high maturity levels, teach the students the knowledge and also document the wisdom in to various scriptures.
Absolute maturity is something that is difficult to comprehend as a concept. As indicated earlier if maturity is for ever growing phenomenon, then how can we define a absolute maturity at all. For material world it looks like a impossible thing to achieve. For spiritual world this is some thing that can be defined. Upanishads state "Brahmavid brhamaiva bhavati" meaning he who knows ParaBrahman or the ultimate reality becomes Brahman himself. So such people can be recognized as absolute matured ones.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Bhisma Ekadasi
Bheeshma Pitamaha or Devavrata is famously known for his oath of life long celibacy. He is one of the strongest characters in mahabharata and also a famous warrior, who could keep Arjuna also at bay on his day. But he is also a very renowned devotee of Lord Krishna. He is the one who proposes Krisna's name for top honor during RajaSuya Yaga performed by Dharmaraj. He also directs Kauravas to listen to Lord Krishna's words and stop war as Lord Krishna knows fully what would happen in the war. Bhisma figures in list of great devotees as given below sloka.
PRAHLADA-NARADA-PARASARA-PUNDARIKA-VYASA-AMBARISA-SUKA-SAUNAKA- BHISMA-DALBHYAN RUKMANGADA UDDHAVA-
VIBHISANA-PHALGUNA ADIN PUNYANI IMAN PARAMA BHAGAVATAN MANAMI (SRI PADYAVALI-52, TADBHAKTANAM MAHATMYAM)
"Prahlada, Narada, Parasara, Pundarika, Vyasa, Ambarisha, Sukhadeva Gosvami, Saunaka Rsi, Bismadeva, Balbhya Rsi, Rukmangada, Uddhava, Vibhisana, Arjuna, etc. to all of these great personalities, I pay my humble obeisances. "
Lord Krishna makes a promise not to touch weapon in the kurukshetrsa war and Bhisma challenges Lord himself stating that he would make Lord touch weapon. Kind hearted Almighty Krishna, wanted to give victory in this small challenge to his devotee Bhisma. One day when Bhisma starts killing Pandava army and Arjuna was not in a position to stop Bhisma. For a moment Krishna jumps out of charriot and takes weapon of sudarsana chakra pretending to kill Bhisma. In this way Lord Krishna displayed to world how much he valued Bhisma and his challenge.
When Bhisma is on his death bed(ampasayya) Krishna takes Dharmaraj to him so that Dharmaraj can learn more details of Dharma from the veteran. In the same context Bhisma gives Vishnu Sahasranama Stotra that is praying lord with 1000 names. Today Vishnu Sahasranama has become one acumen of the devotees who are on philosophical path. (Need to mention here that Late MS Subbalakshmi has given more popularity to it with her voice)
Bhisma who has gotten a boon from his father for his strong character, pitru bhakti and vow he has taken for his father. The boon is called svachanda Marana, means ability to time his death at his wish. During war he generously gives Pandavas secret to stop him in war. He waits on deathbed for auspicious Uttarayana Kalam and attains niryana on Astami of auspicious magha masa. The ekadasi that follows is named after him as Bhisma Ekadasi. It is believed that Fasting on this particular day and spending time in Lord Vishnu's names can free people from the sins.
PRAHLADA-NARADA-PARASARA-PUNDARIKA-VYASA-AMBARISA-SUKA-SAUNAKA- BHISMA-DALBHYAN RUKMANGADA UDDHAVA-
VIBHISANA-PHALGUNA ADIN PUNYANI IMAN PARAMA BHAGAVATAN MANAMI (SRI PADYAVALI-52, TADBHAKTANAM MAHATMYAM)
"Prahlada, Narada, Parasara, Pundarika, Vyasa, Ambarisha, Sukhadeva Gosvami, Saunaka Rsi, Bismadeva, Balbhya Rsi, Rukmangada, Uddhava, Vibhisana, Arjuna, etc. to all of these great personalities, I pay my humble obeisances. "
Lord Krishna makes a promise not to touch weapon in the kurukshetrsa war and Bhisma challenges Lord himself stating that he would make Lord touch weapon. Kind hearted Almighty Krishna, wanted to give victory in this small challenge to his devotee Bhisma. One day when Bhisma starts killing Pandava army and Arjuna was not in a position to stop Bhisma. For a moment Krishna jumps out of charriot and takes weapon of sudarsana chakra pretending to kill Bhisma. In this way Lord Krishna displayed to world how much he valued Bhisma and his challenge.
When Bhisma is on his death bed(ampasayya) Krishna takes Dharmaraj to him so that Dharmaraj can learn more details of Dharma from the veteran. In the same context Bhisma gives Vishnu Sahasranama Stotra that is praying lord with 1000 names. Today Vishnu Sahasranama has become one acumen of the devotees who are on philosophical path. (Need to mention here that Late MS Subbalakshmi has given more popularity to it with her voice)
Bhisma who has gotten a boon from his father for his strong character, pitru bhakti and vow he has taken for his father. The boon is called svachanda Marana, means ability to time his death at his wish. During war he generously gives Pandavas secret to stop him in war. He waits on deathbed for auspicious Uttarayana Kalam and attains niryana on Astami of auspicious magha masa. The ekadasi that follows is named after him as Bhisma Ekadasi. It is believed that Fasting on this particular day and spending time in Lord Vishnu's names can free people from the sins.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Major Bhanu Chander -- A friend who will be remembered
My first meeting with him was not necessarily cordial. Even though he is my batch mate he joined 6 months late and that makes me senior enough to rag him. I made him arrange things in my otherwise clumsy room and cover all the holes on antique doors of the hostel so that I need not suffer in chilly winter. I am sure he would have cursed me at that point. Bt story does not end there, there is a special bonding began then and there. He became a closest buddy for the next few years.
He used to tell me how badly he wanted to be in Indian Air Force as a pilot. I listened to every story which he unfolded about defence. May be I did not take all of them seriously as I had internal feeling that once he lands up with a lucrative high paying job, he would give his passion a break. But I was proved wrong in years to come and he was damn serious in becoming a pilot.
Every time I had to walk into to canteen (All night canteen) I used to catch up with him and try to pull his leg over some thing or other. His smile looked so genuine every time he smiled. He used to admit honestly that he is not getting gist some hard core courses and happily mugging up for exam’s sake. He is not the smartest in college but he was pretty close to the smart guys in his Bpharm course that he pursued like a Defense project.
Soon after graduation every one went chasing their future. Most of the guys future was lucrative job, higher education often called MS or MBA. He is one of the two guys I know who went on to pursue their unfamiliar passion. (Other being Ashis Panda who dedicated his life to social service) I was on one side happy with the decision he made and on the other side was nervous. Reason is obvious because of the risk he is carrying with so much dignity.
We used to catch up at times over telephonic calls and just chanced to meet on Vizag road when he is on way to his hometown. I was happy to discover that his trademark smile still the same despite the matured army captain status he earned at that point. Like every other Aam Admi I did not miss any chance to boast that friend is in army as captain in time killing conversations with other friends.
Six months ago he called me to inform that he is getting married. I was happy and sad. Happy for him for the time has come for marriage and sad that I can’t make it as I myself was getting married around same time. That was the last time we talked. We talked at length about many things from how he chanced to meet his sweetheart, how he became pilot in army which is his passion to his Honda car.
When a friend of mine revealed the news of his death I was dumbfounded. I can’t help recollecting all the things I recounted above. Tears rolled from my eyes. May be God does not let good and extraordinary guys to stay on earth for so long as they are closer to His heart Swami Vivekananda die not live for long. Srinivasa Ramanujam did not live until his 40s. Major Bhanu leaves world at tender age of 29 leaving many friends like me sad in this world. Written with tearful eyes an feeling of deep condolences.
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