Gemütlichkeit

Wearing failure like tight underwear, that makes one walk funny with a perpetual wedgie wedged close to the ass, world trots on. The rich are richer, the poor poorer, the disconnect between the stock markets and those close to foreclosures as vast it ever was, maybe the chasm harder to bridge than ever before.

Bhutto is almost killed, India almost plans to kill the Internet before it really grows in India, Salman Khan walks freely though a killer, Hizbullah and Al Qaeda are alive, but the good news is Berlin is the most livable city in the world. Washed clean of the blood it shed of those Jews and Gypsies and opponents of the Reich and freed from the weight of the nefarious iron curtain behind which crimes against human spirit were called socialism, it boasts of the good that Work-life balance produces.

Gemütlichkeit almost means cosiness, quality time spent in absence of anything hectic. According to Wikipedia "The underlying concept is that social tensions and certain environments can cause stress, resulting in a feeling of alienation. Gemütlichkeit is an active way of preventing such negative influences by going to places and/or meeting with people that are regarded to be gemütlich. A gemütlich person again is one that takes part in this lifestyle and knows about the tensions he/she is able to cause, and thus tries to avoid these things actively. This way an agreement is established to make an "environmentally cosy" site (Heuriger, garden, cellar, backyard restaurant, living room...) "socially cosy". One characteristic of a gemütlich situation is that one could blot out everything else (past, future, other places and absent people) and yet everything would be fine (an eternal "now and here"). Germans describe that as "leaving everything at the doorstep" (though a gemütlich place doesn't necessarily have to be inside a house)".

At the same time Berlin has some of the highest rents in Europe which demand that Berliners work hard in high technology arenas like Biotechnology and in powerhouses like BMW and Siemens.

Berlin Gemütlichkeit happens without a Guru's help and astrologer's predictions in the Newspapers and tarot reader's advice on morning TV. There's a new Jewish Center, there are cafes, bars, theaters, clean open spaces, modern infrastructure, absence of violent crime and severing of ties with the bloody past - which also means forgetting some of our own taboos and habits.

Its leaving the past behind to create a new present which makes Berlin so hip, so fun, so filled with Gemütlichkeit.

India should pull it's wedgie out - the wedgie made of hereditary succession, superstition, apathy, laziness, pinning blame and over dependence on Gurus and become like Berlin. Gurgaon is nice but it ain't no Berlin, Shanghai or London. It's all relative, so India Shining isn't a pinnacle it's a step so take longer steps, everyday, lest you're left behind. Stepping out of shadows of poverty doesn't mean one is out of the woods as there's a whole world to catch up with, so leave that yoga shivar, turn your back on that bearded guy who stymies your individuality by herding you like sheep in a pen of doctrine and mumbo jumbo, get a job, move out of your parents house and find out who you are and what will you do to make the world a better place.

Sri Sri Bhagwan is YOU, not that guy called an incarnation of someone by himself and his followers because each of us is born with an innate capacity to connect with God. The catalyst can't be God. Kabir may have misled the dim witted in exalting the Guru, because he wasn't thinking a Guy marshaling 1000s of crores as being your Guru while you slog and slave just trying to remain alive. A true Guru shares his wealth, shows you how to get where you want to be and is by your side till you make it, so Kabir's guru is that someone who teaches you how to overcome your weakness to get to the next step - maybe your Math teacher, and to a place where you are strong in all your weaknesses and alright being flawed, making money in a job and owning a flat instead of living in a kholi.

A teacher is worthy of respect, because a teacher has testimonials of his and her education. A college degree that proves pursuit of knowledge of a subject. The bearded guy wearing white or saffron rides a Rolls Royce because he scorns and scoffs questions about his learning and knowledge - where is his proof of having found what in which cave - because he bullies and shames the ignorant or the hopeful or the hopeless into believing and vanquishes questions with his arrogance of "how dare you ask, and if you ask you must be foolish, for you must know that ways of God can't be explained".

Agreed ways of God can't be explained. But pursuit of knowledge can be - like attending school, and in "higher" cases documentation of "miracles".

Big time preachers like Billy Graham, Robert Schuller, Oral Roberts and others are considered Bible scholars or charlatans, but never Jesus or Moses incarnate, as the moment they claim divinity they will be laughed out of success.

Don't believe your Guru's claim to divinity unless he has got you a cool job, a hot BMW and a fancy pad in Berlin because if your Guru can't get you there then why let him be your wedgie?