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.
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