Krishna on Knowledge

Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth -- all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance. The Geeta 13:8-12

On Faith

From SarvaShiva, Seattle

"Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother" - Kahlil Gibran

"Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe" - Voltaire

"Reason is our soul's left hand, faith her right" - John Donne

"If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm" - Mahtama Gandhi

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase" Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe" - St. Augustine

"A man of courage is also full of faith" - Cicero

Why do we despair, agreed times are dire, fears real, but that faith works is also real because these men of great intellect and accomplishment would not embrace faith were it an illusion. Perhaps Faith is capabilities coupled with self-confidence in those, and maybe deployable skills are the only real foundation of  faith, separating day-dreams from faith, earned from anticipated or entitled.

On Experience

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so" - Douglas Adams

"Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust" - Karl Kraus

"Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment" - Fred Brooks

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely" - Auguste Rodin

"The only source of knowledge is experience" - Albert Einstein

Innocence is being a child, Experience is that child growing up, like Blake tells in Songs of Innocence and Experience.

On Silence

"The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak"- Baruch Spinoza

For centuries it's been said silence is golden yet we tarnish our image often by speaking too much, creating complications and hurt, when we could be happy and keep others happy by keeping quiet our need to express judgment

On Fear

From SarvaShiva, Seattle

“What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it” – J. Krishnamurti

And empirical knowledge, with all assumptions carefully removed, is the antidote to fear. Reality cannot be escaped but with knowledge translated into skills reality can be livable, even pleasurable, and us drivers not pawns.

"I Am That" - Swami Ram Tirth

Courtesy SarvaShiva, Seattle

I have no scruple of change, nor fear of death,
Nor was I ever born, Nor had I parents.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I cause no misery, nor am I miserable;
I have no enemy, nor am I enemy.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I am without form, without limit,
Beyond space, beyond time,
I am in everything, everything is in me.
I am the bliss of the universe, Everywhere am I.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I am without body or change of the body,
I am neither senses, nor object of the senses,
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I am neither sin, nor virtue,
Nor temple, nor worship
Nor pilgrimage, nor books.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That"

Swami Ram Tirth - 1873-1906

Very well could be an answer to, “Who am I”, so might as well get to know oneself.

Happiness Tools

Happiness is the pre-requisite to a healthy, mature, loving relationship with God.

The unhappy reach to God in want, not in love and celebration, making theirs a conditional, need based supplication teetering from hope to despair, often questioning and mostly dissatisfied.

To be happy is in our own hands – to a very large extent, if not entirely, and the basic simple, steps to happiness are:

1. Physical Fitness: healthy, fit body to afford and enjoy what we want most
2. Intellectual Refinement: open, trained mind equipped to adapt to and accept reality and change.
3. Financial Independence: essential self respect and dignity tool that elevates life from survival to living it up
4. Emotional Satisfaction and Security: secure bonds of faith where love is born and nurtured and adversities handled with equanimity.

So be happy. It is in your hands. It’s in your head. It’s in your grasp. When you hit the peak of all 4 you will be real close to experiencing God.

On Life

Courtesy SarvaShiva, Seattle

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life” - Charles Darwin

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first” – Mark Twain

“God writes a lot of comedy… the trouble is, he’s stuck with so many bad actors who don’t know how to play funny” – Garrison Keillor

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how” – Friedrich Nietzsche

To paraphrase: value time, let go of that sense of entitlement, deal with it all with humor and have a purpose.

God - our moral compass

Courtesy SarvaShiva, Seattle

"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is" - Albert Camus

With God as our moral compass we have a shot at finding the path to peace and happiness, without Him in that role we are ceratin to get lost and remain lost.

On Change

"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator" - Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

"Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

"Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal" - Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
 
"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad" - C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
 
"Change before you have to" - Jack Welch (1935)
 
“Surround yourself with people who are open to change. If you are always in the company of cynics, you will soon find yourself becoming like them. A cynic knows all the reasons why something cannot be done. Instead, spend time with people who have a "can-do" approach" - Azim Premji (1945)

For about 400 years its been agreed that change management is a good idea ... so what's new then, except the same old resistance?

On Peace

"He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees" - Benjamin Franklin

Prudence and peace co-exist.

Reason & Religion

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use" - Galileo Galilei

He stuck to his belief in Copernicanism supporting the heliocentric view despite bitter opposition from philosophers, astronomers and the Church, defying faith of his time.

Stephen Hawking said, "Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science".

We need Galileo, Gates, Jobs, (Ela) Bhatt, Mandela to inspire us to that higher place where human potential and innovation thrive, sitting cross legged chanting Om leads nowhere, neither does a jargon spewing Guru- successful life follows Galileo like pursuit of empirical knowledge.

On Success

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower" - Steve Jobs

In-n-Out, iPhone, Pixar, Flip, Prius are proof that innovation redefines expectation, and changes how we live.

"To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines" - Steve Jobs

Innovation + Discipline are the foundation of greatness for above companies, and will always remain the foundation of great firms and great managers who run them. Delorean was innovation without discipline; and GM no innovation since 1957.

It's the same world, just different attitudes.

Karma - Project Management of Life

Karma is, for all purposes, project management of life - project being all things we need to do, management being how. If we applied best business practices to our personal lives and relationships, relationship retention scores will improve, ROI on emotional investments will be high and chances of being happy for longer brighten, so it makes sense to act best at home and when off work than not.

Take those MBA, PMP, Black-belt skills and lessons to heart and build love and relationships on them as love and home don't deserve or need less than business. Education refines so seek refinement.

Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid, but know that that means prudently, sensitively, kindly bold or mighty forces could also crush. And since it's all here and now, the cause and effect as real as squandered or earned promotions and profits, be cognizant, manage expectations, and give more - just enough is not enough.

Revenge = self inflicted hurt

"He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well" - John Milton.

So forget, forgive and live.

Love = Praying

"He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all"

From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

An interpretation of Om

“OM, when considered as one letter, uttered by the help of one articulation, is the symbol of the Supreme Spirit. But when considered a trilateral word consisting of a, u, m, it implies the three Vedas, the three states of human nature, the divisions of the universe, and the three deities – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, agents in the creation, preservation and destruction of this world; or, properly speaking, the three principal attributes of the Supreme Being personified in those three deities. In this sense it implies, in fact, the universe controlled by the Supreme Spirit” - Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Advait in Leonardo da Vinci's words

"As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself” – Leonardo da Vinci

Hindus call it Advait, or non-duality – it simply means believe and pursue with conviction, one thing, one love, one pursuit at a time .

Durga - the Hindu Mother Goddess

Courtesy SarvaShiva, Seattle

Hindus hold Durga (दुर्गा, "the inaccessible" or "the invincible") or Maa Durga (Mother Durga) as the "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress". Durga is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having ten arms, riding a lion or a tiger, carrying weapons and a lotus flower, maintaining a meditative smile, and practicing mudras, or symbolic hand gestures.

An embodiment of creative feminine force (Shakti), Durga exists in a state of svātantrya (independence from the universe and anything/anybody else, i.e., self-sufficiency) and fierce compassion. Kali is considered by Hindus to be an aspect of Durga. Durga in Her Gauri incarnation is also the mother of Ganesha and Kartikeya. She is thus considered the fiercer, demon-fighting form of Shiva's wife, goddess Parvati. Durga manifests fearlessness and patience, and never loses her sense of humor, even during spiritual battles of epic proportion.

The word Shakti means divine feminine force, and Durga is the warrior aspect of the Divine Mother. Other incarnations include Annapurna and Karunamayi (karuna = kindness). Durga's darker aspect Kali is represented as the consort of the god Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing.

As a goddess, Durga's feminine power contains the energies of the gods. Each of her weapons was gifted to her by various gods: Shiva's Trishool (trident), Vishnu's Chakra (discus), Indra's Vajra (thunderbolt) etc.

According to the Devi Mahatmya story of the Markandeya Purana text, Durga was created as a warrior goddess to fight an asura (an inhumane force/demon) named Mahishasur. He had unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the nether worlds, and he could not be defeated by any man or god, anywhere. The gods went to Brahma, who had given Mahishasura the power to be the invincible conqueror of the universe. Brahma could do nothing. They made Brahma their leader and went to Vaikuntha — the place where Vishnu lay on Ananta Naag. They found both Vishnu and Shiva, and Brahma eloquently related the reign of terror Mahishasur had unleashed on the three worlds. Hearing this Vishnu, Shiva and all of the Gods became very angry and beams of fierce light emerged from their bodies. The blinding sea of light met at the Ashram of a priest named Katyan. The goddess Durga took the name Katyani from the priest and emerged from the sea of light. She introduced herself in the language of the Rig-Veda, saying she was the form of the supreme Brahman who had created all the gods. Now she had come to fight the demon to save the gods. They did not create her; it was her lila that she emerged from their combined energy. The Gods were blessed with her compassion.

Durga Chalisa is a 40 couplet invocation to Durga:

दुर्गा चालीसा 

नमो नमो दुर्गे सुख करनी,

नमो नमो अम्बे दुःख हरनी.

निराकार है ज्योति तुम्हारी,

तिहूँ लोक फेली उज्यारी.

शशि ललाट मुख महाविशाला,

नेत्र लाल भृकुटी विकराला.

रूप मातु को अधिक सुहावे,

दरस करत जन अति सुख पावे.

तुम संसार शक्ति लय कीना,

पालन हेतु अन्न धन दीना.

अन्नपूर्ण हुई जग पाला,

तुम्ही आदी सुंदरी बाला.

प्रलय काल सब नाशन हारी,

तुम गौरी शिवशंकर प्यारी.

शिव योगी तुम्हरे गुण गावें,

ब्रह्मा विष्णु तुम्हें नित ध्यावें.

रूप सरस्वती को तुम धारा,

दे सुबुद्धि ऋषि मुनिन उबारा.

धर्यो रूप नरसिम्हा को अम्बा,

प्रगट भई फाढ़ कर खम्बा.

रक्षा कर प्रहलाद बचायो,

हिरनाकुश को स्वर्ग पठायो.

लक्ष्मी रूप धरो जग माहीं,

श्री नारायण अंग समाहीं.

क्षीर सिन्धु में करत विलासा,

दया सिन्धु दीजे मन आसा.

हिंगलाज में तुम्हीं भवानी,

महिमा अमित ना जात बखानी.

मातंगी धूमावती माता,

भुवनेश्वरी बगला सुखदाता.

श्री भैरव तारा जग तारिणी,

छिन्न भाल भव दुःख निवारिणी.

केहरी वाहन सोह भवानी,

लंगूर वीर चलत अगवानी.

कर में खप्पर खड़ग विराजे,

जाको देख काल डर भाजे.

सोहे अस्त्र और त्रिशूला,

जाते उठत शत्रु हिय शूला.

नगरकोट में तुम्ही विराजत,

तिहूँ लोक में डंका बाजत.

शुम्भ निशुम्भ दानव तुम मारे,

रक्तबीज शंखन संहारे.

महिषासुर नृप अति अभिमानी,

जेहि अघ भार मही अकुलानी.

रूप कराल कालिका धारा,

सेना सहित तुम तिही संहारा.

पढ़ी गाढ़ संतन पर जब जब,

भई सहाय मातु तुम तब तब.

अमरपुरी अरु बासव लोका,

तब महिमा सब रहें अशोका.

ज्वाला में है ज्योति तुम्हारी,

तुम्हें सदा पूजें नर नारी.

प्रेम भक्ति से जो यश गावे,

दुःख दरिद्र निकट नहीं आवे.

ध्यावे तुम्हें जो नर मन लाई,

जनम मरण ताको छुटी जाई.

जोगी सुर-मुनि कहत पुकारी,

जोग ना हो बिन शक्ति तुम्हारी.

शंकर अचरज तप कीन्हों,

काम, क्रोध जीत सब लीन्हों.

निसिदिन ध्यान धरो शंकर को,

काहू कल नहीं सुमिरो तुम को.

शक्ति रूप को मर्म ना पायो,

शक्ति गयी तब मन पछितायो.

शरणागत हुई कीर्ति बखानी,

जय जय जय जगदम्ब भवानी.

भई प्रसन्न आदि जगदम्बा,

दई शक्ति नहीं कीन विलम्बा.

मोको मातु कष्ट अति घेरो,

तुम बिन कौन हरे दुःख मेरो.

आशा तृष्णा निपट सतावें,

मोह मदादिक सब बिन्सावें.

शत्रु नाश कीजे महारानी,

सुमिरों इकचित तुम्हें भवानी.

करो कृपा हे मातु दयाला,

रिद्धि-सिद्धि दे करहु निहाला.

जब लगि जिअयूं दया फल पाऊँ,

तुम्हरो यश मैं सदा सुनाऊँ.

दुर्गा चालीसा जो गावे,

सब सुख भोग परमपद पावे.

And, ॐ श्री दुर्गाय नमः - Om Sri Durgaya Namah -  is the simplest of Durga mantras.

Behind our own doors ...

“A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

We could spend our lives being centrifugal – dissipating our energies – by pushing others away or build bonds of attraction that fructify and multiply our efforts – and the start is simple: get with those who build harmony between us and ours.