Category Archives: Life

Life, Management, Politics, Psychology, Search for truth

MOTIVES, MOTIVES!

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Last week, Srini discussed ‘politics of management’. Clearly, almost every agent in that kind of a political environment has hidden motives, or personal agenda. An agent’s personal agenda must be kept hidden, quite simply because it is not aligned with organizational goals; discussing it openly would let the cat out of the bag – and allow others to plot against it.

Srini made it clear that one learns about such politics only when one gets into the real word – which is where one runs into conflicting human motives. Text-book knowledge of management principles cannot impart the valuable lessons which real life experience does. In text-books, human beings are assumed to take up some idealized roles – as ‘director’, ‘manager’ … and so on. Real human emotions and motives cannot be captured in text-books.

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Business, Happiness, Life, Management, Power

Politics of Management

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Over the years, R. Srinivasan (Srini to friends), a co-editor of the blog, has written many posts originating in his work as independent management consultant. Today we are re-posting one of Srini’s earlier posts, which we believe readers will find of great interest.

One of the first lessons in management schools is titled Principles and Practice of Management, which forms the core basis of understanding how modern organizations are supposed to be managed. However, as one gets into the real world, every student of management, and even those who do not have formal management education, soon come to realize that there is one more ‘P’ that governs the management of organizations. This ‘P’ is not formally stated anywhere; I have decided to call it ‘the politics of management’.

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Civilization, Economy, Gautam Buddha, Life, Money, Society

MY REALIZATION WITH MONEY     

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Guest post by Jayram Daya

IIT Bombay Mech Engg batch of 1968 may remember Jayram Daya as being a sensitive, good-natured classmate from Hostel 2, an artist, and a citizen of South Africa. Since those student days, Jayram has successfully established a business in South Africa, handed the business over to his two sons, and is now happily pursuing higher interests in the next stage of life. He is in Sanyaas Ashram, but also, in his own words: I’m an engineer, an entrepreneur, a storyteller, a poet, an author, a painter, a photographer, a blogger, a philosopher, and a visionary.

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Civilization, Happiness, Karma, Life, Search for truth

CIVILIZATION – 6

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THE FOUR-STAGE ROADMAP

[Important note: In this post, the notation ‘H/SD’ is used as shorthand for ‘Hinduism/Sanatan Dharma‘, which are the two commonly used references to the vast ancient spiritual heritage of India.]

In print or electronic media, we often see language such as: ‘According to the concepts of H/SD, the four stages of human life are Brahmacharya, Gruhastha, Vanaprastha, Sanyasa.’

Such language carries a risk of erroneous understanding. ‘H/SD’ does not coerce or urge a person to behave in a certain way, or to plan his life in prescribed stages. It is entirely up to the individual – through his wisdom, or lack thereof – to understand and cherish human life the best he can. Truths do guide the individual – but only to the extent he finds and assimilates them.

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Civilization, Karma, Life, Politics, Society

CIVILIZATION – 5

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NOT IN MY NAME!

The previous post (here) touched upon one’s duties, responsibilities and moral accountability. Can the burden of Karma – of accountability for one’s actions – be transferred to another by the ties of marriage, family, clan, friendship, business, money, politics … or whatever else?

The answer is, ‘NO. Karma is strictly an individual matter’. But, as we know, a desperate person will try anything to avoid the inevitable payback for his wrong actions, including attempts to deflect the payback to others.

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Civilization, Conflict, Karma, Life, Society

CIVILIZATION – 4

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BROTHER, HUSBAND, KINSMEN, CONFLICT

Karma operates at the deepest level of our being. Therefore its working cannot be grasped without rigorous introspection and true empathy with another person’s condition. Nonetheless, all of us do pick up hints now and then, from ancient stories and from the life around us.

A famous story in the Bible has Cain asking God, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’

Cain was denying any responsibility for the well-being of his younger bother Abel and – by implication – for the well-being of other human beings. In fact the jealous Cain had killed Abel prior to this exchange with God, and therefore that question was also Cain’s attempt to cover up his horrendous crime. The story goes that, thereafter, Cain lived the life of a restless wanderer.

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Civilization, Communities, Happiness, Karma, Life

CIVILIZATION – 3

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THE LAWS OF KARMA

Our earlier two posts (here and here) discussed the war economy, and the fact that nations must also face the consequences of their actions. Thus each of these posts was a specific instance of the inexorable laws of karma at work. That should not surprise anyone, given that the blog aims to seek out root causes of the multifarious phenomena we see around us!

At this stage, we thought that a brief discussion about the laws of karma was also needed – and so here it is!

Imagine that, for the first time in your life, you are passing through a thick forest. Foliage is so thick that daylight barely reaches ground level. Turning back is not an option, because you know your life’s goal lies ahead. As you move, you walk into branches and bushes, slip, stumble, hurt yourself, tire, be bitten by bugs, be fearful, be thirsty … and much more. You curse your fate. You curse the forest. But if you are wise, and if you persevere, you will make it through the forest and achieve your life’s goal.

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Civilization, Delusion, Life, Politics, Power

CIVILIZATION – 2

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AS YOU SOW, SO YOU SHALL REAP

[This post outlines a current trend which we feel should be watched. To keep it from becoming too long to hold the reader’s interest, we have not included the factual evidence which proves the trend. For the interested reader, we have provided brief allusions to evidence available on the internet. Readers are welcome to also request us for more specific explanations.]

The United States of America (US) rates itself as ‘an exceptional and indispensable nation’. Statements made by US presidents from Ronald Reagan onwards – easily searchable on the web – make this attitude clear to anyone who can put two and two together and get the right answer. During his time on the world stage, Barack Obama said: ‘I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being’. His method was to speak with so much panache that people would not notice the inherent absurdity.

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Civilization, Life, Questions, Society

CIVILIZATION – 1

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Off and on, we come across ‘expert opinion’ stressing the goals of ‘saving the western civilization’ and ‘deterring Russia and China’. The language used implies clearly that ‘western civilization’ here has undisguised, in-your-face geopolitical motivation.

‘Civilization’ and ‘deterrence’ is in fact a very strange combination of notions, tempting us to dig deeper into the matter.

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Communities, Life, Philosophy, Questions, To the reader

TREASURE HUNT

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Over the last few weeks, a truth has dawned on this seeker.

Internet is flooded with opinions … answers … narratives … theories … viewpoints … self-promotions … whatever. Almost every person on our beloved planet is able to share something of that kind with almost every other person on the planet. This is in fact a mind-boggling gift of technology.

Thank you, Internet!

But there is clearly a HUGE down side to all this. What is an individual to make of this unprecedented, incredible information overload?

THE TRUTH LIES WITHIN, AS DOES THE TEST OF TRUTH.

In the absence of these two crucial elements, an individual is literally lost — drowned? — in the flood of information.

Therefore, instead of hawking yet another opinion … answer … narrative … theory … viewpoint … whatever … Why not try something else? 

Why not prompt … provoke … nudge … prod … the search for answers in the recesses of the individual mind? That should be fun!

Questions will be posted — or, to be more precise, points to ponder. The hope is that these will generate answers. Not ‘perfect’ answers, of course, because there is no such thing. But honest and authentic attempts, offered to others in the spirit of sharing.

Join the treasure hunt!

Watch this space.