The real King

Undefeatable Alexander the great was repeatedly defeated in arguments by Diogenes. Diogenes was a beggar, who lived in a tub, in Alexander the great’s empire. This is a paradoxical world, almost always kings are defeated by beggars.

“I am Alexander the great” said the monarch

“I am Diogenes, the cynic.” beggar replied

 "Ask of me any boon you like." Alexander to the sunning Diogenes

"Stand out of my light."

“What are your plans, Alexander?” Diogenes asked laying on the shore in the morning sun

“To conquer and subjugate Greece” Alexander replied

“Then what?”Diogenes asked

“Conquer and subjugate Asia Minor “Alexander continued

“And then?”

“Conquer the world”

“What next?”

“Then, I will relax and enjoy.”

“But, I am relaxing and enjoying in the sun right now. Why so much trouble?”

Alexander is reported to have said, "Had I not been Alexander, I should have liked to be Diogenes." As it turned out, both Diogenes and Alexander died on the same day in 323 B.C. Alexander was 33 and Diogenes was 90.

It doesn’t matter if you live in a tub or 100 palaces, what matters is -what exactly you consider yourself? You can be a beggar and live like a king and you can be a king living like a beggar. 

UGLY IS BEAUTIFUL!!!

My granny used to have a mango tree in her lawn. One evening strolling around her garden, I saw a chameleon sitting on the mango tree. The chameleon had just jumped from the creeper and, its color was slowly changing from green to brown. Suddenly a thought pumped in my mind “It is a chameleon”, my lips curled downwards.

Granma was watching me .She walked slowly to me and asked “Isn’t it amazing how it changes its color?” I looked at her and said” But, it’s ugly. It is a chameleon Granma.”Granma smiled.

Few days later we walked to the market and Granma hit into a lorry accidently. Lorry bashed into a scooter that was driven by a young guy. He fell over a bucket of tomatoes. A bunch of young boys cracked up. Looking around he yelled “You ugly old women, look what you have done?”

Those words pinched my heart. Later that night I asked mom “Ma is grandma ugly?”

“Who told you that?” Ma asked

“The guy at the market said she was old and ugly.”

“But, she is the most beautiful women I have ever met. That means you have not noticed her properly?”Ma replied

I went to the Granma’s room. She was sleeping. I looked at her face. That was the most beautiful face I had ever seen: a face filled with compassion, love and grace.

It was beautiful because I was ready to see it. I could feel it because I wanted to feel her. Since then I have never seen an ugly thing and. even today I can tell you that old is beautiful and chameleons are fascinating.

See without judgment, hear without prejudice and feel without inhibitions: heaven is here, here is heaven. All is beautiful.

Thought of the day

Give your dreams a chance, they really want to work.

Machine made man

The topic reminds me of a prudent parable. 

A customer waiting to collect his grocery from a village grocer was curious watching a bull turning the log and in turn driving the pulley on its own. The customer asked

“Your bull seems very obedient”

The grocer laughed and called the customer nearer

“Do you see that small bread?” Grocer indicated to a piece of bread tied on the bull’s horns

“Yes” replied the customer

“Well, the bull is simply trying to grab it”

It will go in circles till evening and when the day is over I will untie the bread and feed it.

When use become dependence it is impossible to tell who drives whom. 

Though man started with using machines to his convenience, he has eventually landed to being used up by machines.  Bigger cars drive us and expensive mobiles speak about us. Our possessions establish our own worth. Therefore we work hard to own a bigger car, a better mobile and a better television .Our work schedules pertain to the availability and functioning of machines from morning nine to evening six.

Man is caught in reverse ownership of machines. 

Was Jesus- a God?

“May those who have Eyes, See; and those who have Ears, Hear” Jesus Forgot to include “may those who can reason, have the courage to accept their wrongs”. Being seen and heard became the foundation of Jesus of Nazerath’s execution. It is calamitous that malign criminals stroll free or at the most spend their life locked in the jail rooms but, compassionate authentic wise men are almost always killed brutally. From Jesus to Buddha to Mahatma Gandhi almost all good harmless influential people were executed.

Man is born with an inherent capability to distinguish between good and bad. No law can match the reasoning of an evolved being. Each of us has a clear understanding of where we stand, what we do and what should be done. But we all differ in our capacity to accept it, so we keep ignoring it to much or less extent. These few great men were the ones who had the total capacity and courage to accept and change themselves for the better.

Jesus , Buddha , Mahavir were authentic men, real men: as man should be. They were a yardstick for human existence; a challenge to mankind; an Everest to cliffs. But, they reminded fellow men of their pettiness. There is a very ancient saying that if you want to make one stick look small erect a bigger stick adjacent to it. So they stood like a pole to the moon.

Executing them was an effort to reestablish lost superiority in some way. But when one brutally murders someone utterly innocent, guilt remains. Calling Jesus, Buddha and Mahavir God is a subtle way to hide guilt: the guilt of all wrongs we did to them: Of killing absolutely sane people for insane reasons.

And naming them God is also a way to guard our betterment. It is an excuse for us in being as we are. We want to remain at the lowest because lowest needs no effort: It is an easy path. All good men turn to Gods and Mahatma’s and all bad remain to be human. Adolf Hitler was a human, so was Joseph Stalin and Mao-Tse Tung and so on.

Two sides of a coin

With great power lies great responsibility. Unlike nature that has very efficient methods of balancing power centers, man’s power centers are haphazard and self-regulated. Man is the only creature who can simultaneously live in two worlds: one on the inside and other on the outside.

And both can be diametrically opposite.

Besides, man can use borrowed powers: the powers developed by peaceful intelligent people can be used by destructive, unintelligent people. Creative growth solutions meant for peace and development can be used for destruction, genocide and terror. This combination of delusion and acquired potency brings forth counterfeit leaders and politicians and a hollow or forced governing system.

Every governing system no matter how beneficently conceived eventually tends to exploit the weaker segments of society. History shows us many examples of the worst implementations of benign ideologies. Communism conceived for equality and sanity has been applied by most insane dictators. Equal powers for all is used as all powers for one. Karl Marx and Lenin could never have imagined communism the way it was applied by Stalin.

Albert Einstein considered the theory of relativity that resulted in atom bomb, as his single greatest mistake in life. On the other hand, Harry Truman celebrated the night Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed.

Money that was invented as an excellent solution for relative worth has become the root of all evil among humans. A solution designed for active easy flow became an excellent method for passive, concealed hoardings.

Any creative idea comes as a coin: with both positive and negative sides. The owner is free to encash any of its sides. He is free to buy bread or poison from it. Ironically nature has no substitutes for wisdom. And it has no shortcuts to acquiring it either. Hard earned knowledge always carries wisdom within itself whereas book-acquired knowledge doesn’t. A life lived honestly and fearlessly produces knowledgeable and wise men: men with empathy, righteousness and intelligence.

Contrarily, pseudo knowledge earned in degrees, skills and techniques results in egotistical, destructive and rigid men. Men who do not know the worth or effect of power never hesitate to use it for wrong reasons.

It is a paradox that the more knowledgeable a person becomes the less he yearns for power. It seems as if in some warped way, power attracts the corruptible. A wise person will always hesitate to lead masses whereas an immature person will always rush towards it. So much so that he wouldn’t object to crushing others to succeed in his ambitions. Men love to reap where they never sowed.

Acquiring power helps a person ignore or hide his inferiorities or complexes.

But the fact remains that the big shots are only little shots that keep on shooting. Contemporary society which confuses power with greatness, has encouraged this mutation to flourish. Our social system has a tendency to respect the wrong attributes in subtle ways. The human power pyramid is working upside down. Rather than respecting individuals we respect possessions. This is one of the greatest tragedies of life as we know it to be.

Without a doubt….the right power in right hands blended with knowledge, wisdom, love and respect for life is humanity’s most urgent need at this time.

Recession-Another opportunity for profiting employers

Recession has turned the job market upside down, and employers are making most of it. Be it in the name of cost cutting or organization restructuring, employees are being sacked and sent on forced leave recklessly, rendering them clueless. And the system appears more to be a human juicer squeezing all fitness from the dependents. In such a case government's concern for the unemployed is questionable.

In a system where every person has hands in other's pocket and eyes on others assets, companies have planned a virtual circle of a collective pocket so they extract more from employees separate pockets. You sack and I hire the same employee at much less salary. Where on one side the companies are hastily sacking its employees, on the other side the same companies are posting newer vacancies for the same profiles. Too many fish in the job sea and it is a perfect catch. Baffled employee is left with no option but to accept whatever is offered.

Convincing and gold polished empty words work no more. When the time has come system is a butcher shop with absolutely no place for values and emotions. And the worst part is that all of it seems to go so smooth. Another silk cover on bleeding wounds and we wait until it turns into gangrene. There is no time for little sins, for desired attention there has to be huge downfall. We wait for mass suicides and increased crimes. Then authorities come in picture cutting rotten parts from the system.

One of my friends, who was a part of the bunch of 130 employees that was sacked without even a day's notice, checked all options but resorting to legal advice. What is the use of such protective system where the ones for whom it is established themselves are afraid of it?

This article is yet to complete as we wait for a brighter sun to shine: Wait for ethics to revive and, systems to become responsible enough not only for themselves but also for the masses surrounding them.