Storm

Exiled, banished, for sins unknown

The soul wanders in despair 

There's some hope, yet, a feeling of breathlessness

Anguish that cannot be quenched

Like water can of fire

Wounds are deep, time hasn't healed the deepest scars.

Life goes on, like a turk

An illusion of normalcy for the heart and mind are caught in a storm.

Too big to fail

From cultivation to stacked piles of boxes - humans have taken consumerization far beyond what many management gurus or leadership theorists have thought about in the past. One evening, I went to walmart to pick up a couple of gallons of milk (yes, gallons - there used to be a time when we could get fresh milk in a vessel directly from the milkman) and I had to just stand frozen for a few minutes as I saw men, women, children busily stacking boxes in their cart, checking out products worth thousands of dollars. Its those stacks of boxes that in the first place put some money in the hands of those who are shopping now. Agreed. However, its a sad plight to see so many individuals who care much less for their jobs and dread to be at work on a Monday. We have lost all values in life which defines happiness and have gone on to create a real-life mega game in which we hoard paper money and cry over it when we lose some or all.

Future of Work, Companies, Countries...Life

We have seen how rough it can be when something becomes too big to fail - The dotcom bubble, the housing market bubble, so on and so forth. So where are we heading? There are uprisings throughout the middle east - people want freedom; and free people do not relish being instruments of others, says Handy. Think about it - do you like the fact that you have to obey someone else? If Libyans cannot stand Gadaffi, I am not sure how companies can think they can tell what their employees can and cannot do. How is it that Gadaffi's rule in Libya is being called dictatorship while companies that have their only mission set to making profits for outsides at the cost of their own be called capitalism?

Pure Existence

A few words for a great soul who just melted into pure existence...

Atraiva samviliyante brahmaiva san brahmapyeti

There are a few who do good deeds, a few who do great deeds...they are all noble souls. The only way they depart from the present is to melt into the Absolute. For all the pain the soul suffered, there is no better heavan or brahma-loka than to

Gray area of music piracy

Well, are there any of you who have not downloaded music/videos from the Internet without paying for it? If you are among the ones who say "Yes", I have to bow to you. Piracy is a lurking social evil in the world of technology. A person who would hesitate to shop-lift or commit some petty crimes does not hesitate to download a song or two without paying for the same. Is that piracy? If so, how would you classify borrowing a music CD to play on your music system? Is that piracy too? Complex, isn't it? The concept of ethics is no longer a clear line. There is always a gray area somewhere in the middle. I would say to everyone out there trying to download pirated music or for that matter any online content that is not a freeware, to think for a moment to come to the right decision.

My Moral Compass - Part 1

This will be the first post in a series...a collection of my contemplation on what my moral compass is and should be...

I grew up in a family and a society that taught me moral values through mythical short stories and religious scriptures, such as the vedas. Vedanta (the practice of veda) taught us ethical and moral responsibility through a concept called “Dharma”. The word “Dharma” means justice, what is right in a given circumstance, moral values of life, pious obligations of individuals, righteous conduct in every sphere of activity, being helpful to other living beings, giving charity to individuals in need of it or to a public cause or alms to the needy, natural qualities or characteristics or properties of living beings and things, duty and law as also constitutional law. One of the great Indian epics, the Mahabharata which is acclaimed as the Manava Kartavya Shastra (code of duties of human beings) contains a discussion on the topic of “Dharma”. Yudhistira asks Bhishma, who had mastered the knowledge of Dharma to explain the meaning and scope of “Dharma”. Bhishma replied thus:

It is most difficult to define Dharma. Dharma has been explained to be that which helps the upliftment of living beings. Therefore, that which ensures the welfare of living beings is surely Dharma. The learned rishis have declared that which sustains is Dharma.

These Dharmic values are put into action through Karma. Karma is a Sanskrit term meaning action or the measure of an action in terms of cause and effect. It is a way of examining the consequences of our actions. It is based on concept of the soul being eternal and will face the consequences of an action through infinity. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.". The concept of soul then places responsibility on the shoulders of each individual. The responsibility not necessarily inhibits free will. These metaphysical principles has defined my moral conduct and the underlying ethical values.


(to be continued...)

Desert Vagabond

Sher walked over the sand dunes,
Bathing under the starlit skies on a moonless night.
The distant hum of a silent desert,
Scared little Sher as he wandered across numerous lands.
The little boy had little to do,
No more dreams awoke him; no more sleep came to him.
Across the sand dunes, Sher saw a glimmer in the land,
Must have been a mirage, hard to know for little Sher?
Farther Sher went across the desert,
Days and nights seem to extend beyond infinity.
Sher wanted to end this journey and find his destiny,
How queer, the desert vagabond,
Knows not that the joy is not the destiny, but the passage in the desolate tract.