BAN LIQUOR – ECONOMY, GDP, GDH, PER CAPITA INCOME WILL BOOM IN INDIA/NATIONS!

Just 25 years back, if somebody used to drink liquor in India then it was very bad thing, people used to talk about that person in derogatory way and feel pity on him as that person was walking the wrong path. Today situation has turned around so much that if somebody is not drinking then he is considered as kid and drinking alcohol is associated with somebody’s manhood, some daring act & enjoyment.

What happened in this period and how come nobody is even noticing what is happening with people’s lives and economy of nation. If one observes how liquor got its position in Indian civilization then one finds Television, Cinema, bad politicians and greedy global businessmen have systematically done this.

If one observes movies of last 30-40 years in India, one can easily find one common thing in every movie & that is liquor glass, bottle in the hands of hero. Whether it is occasion of celebration or deep distress he will drink liquor. People always like to associate themselves to hero and they copy what hero is doing. This is exactly the point which liquor companies understood and targeted hero. Even if you see many TV commercials one can see many liquor ads in which liquor associated with Valor, bravery, celebration of the person who is drinking it. Again many famous cinema and sports personalities do these advertisements which are aired every few minutes on each channel which have huge impact on youngster’s minds. If you observe carefully, religious people do not drink liquor or get involved into any immoral act as their religiosity stops them, these days many movies are targeting this religiosity and trying to break people from that. Infact these days even television serials have many liquor scenes which are introduced in very subtler or blatant way. In India, % of men drinking liquor has gone up drastically and liquor companies are making huge money out of it but hunger for money is not satiated as they want more money. If one observes carefully then one can see women are being targeted now as if women start drinking, then it is again huge market and things are going in that direction. If you see many recent movies, liquor glass, bottle is in the hands of lead actress. Recently I was watching one TV serial along with family in which party is going on in one Punjabi family, suddenly one girl takes another girl (returned from Australia) into corner and asks her “Have you started drinking or not? or have you drowned name of Punjabis?”. I was stunned after seeing this. Punjabis are associated with liquor. Children of Guru Nanakji & Guru Gobind Singji who saved this nation is being associated with Liquor! This is shameful. Today if one visits de addiction centres then one can find many girls/women as well and this was not the scenario few years ago.

Another important aspect in liquor consumption is its availability and politicians have played major role here. If one recounts number of liquor shop or bar before 25 years and current numbers of bars and such shops then there is drastic difference. Number has gone up multifold and governments have given licenses to thousands of people. Many say there is huge corruption in that as well. One can easily find liquor shops on every road, you may not find milk dairy easily but you may find liquor shop easily. In one of the drought prone district of Maharashtra, there is no water for irrigation or drinking but there are 700 liquor shops/bars in entire district!

Another aspect which is playing out is free liquor! Whenever there are elections, politicians are giving free liquor for almost 1 or 2 weeks and youngsters drink it lot as it is free but then get hooked to it. Not only politicians but big corporate houses are doing same. You take IT companies, under the garb of project budget they allowed liquor in project parties which is free and young employees (even old ones as well) started drinking it heavily. One more route through which liquor is entering in people’s lives is social drinking. People think they are drinking little bit and that is fine and it is cool as well but soon this little bit turns to be major part of people’s lives and they don’t even realise.

If we look at the statistics of liquor in India alone then one must get concerned and stunned. More than 1/5^th of the alcohol produced in the world is consumed by Indians. According to one study liquor market in India is growing at 30%. In 2015 alone ~ 20 billion liters of liquor was sold. Value of whisky, wine, beer etc sold in a year amounts to near about 2 lakh crore (~30 billion dollars). All other types of liquors (toddy & country liquors) are not even considered in this. It is estimated that many people spend 50 to 60% of their income in alcohol. This means billions of dollars are flowing into the very few pockets (owners of these liquor companies).

Other dangerous aspects of high liquor consumption are domestic violence & abuse, fatal accidents (drink & drive), addictions, health hazards (lever getting damaged, brain damage, stomach related issues, depression etc), extra police efforts needed for tackling of crimes arising after alcohol consumption, untimely deaths, costs of putting people into deaddiction centers, loss of productivity, It is estimated that every day in India ~15 people die from alcohol and to me this number appears very small from what is the reality…These are the costs arising due to alcohol consumption and further billions of dollars go into this (several lakh crore). Just imagine how much money these liquor companies must be making across globe as many of them have presence across globe!

If costs and effects of alcohol are so big then what will happen if we ban it! It will be big boon to humanity and economy. Lakhs of crores that are going into pockets of handful of people will remain in the pockets of millions of people. Savings rate of people will increase. Many people will get out of poverty in few months. Once people have money in their pocket and they are in their consciousness & alert then only they will be able to buy other necessary things for their family Ex- Good cloths for children, toys for them, saree for wife, building good house, good utensils in kitchen, good quality of groceries, holiday with family. Just imagine how much economy will boom due to growing demand for various products and services. Money in circulation will increase and so tax collection of government as well! Right now money that goes into few pockets and gets locked will start circulating in market resulting into booming economy which will further create millions of jobs. Imagine money that will get saved in healthcare, increase in productivity, lesser burden to police means they will be able to dedicate their time to other more important issues. If one thinks carefully then Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Per capita Income will improve drastically due to booming economy.

Most important factor which will improve is GDH – Gross Domestic Happiness index. There will not be so many domestic violence or abuse incidents, there will not be untimely deaths after which small children and mothers struggle for their survival, more savings, more time for family, more jobs etc will result into happier families which is most important goal of any government or nation. Looking at all these factors first thing any sensible society should demand is ‘Ban On Liquor’ and any sensible government should first put this ban in place!

ONE OF THE REASON WHY FEAR ARISES…. GET RID OF IT….

I don’t think there is anyone who do not want to live fearless life. Fearlessness is the basic quality if one wants to live like true hero. Despite of this, rarely there is any one who have not feared of something in his/her life. Sometime or other fear pops up in our lives and many times we are not even aware that fear is taking over us and ruining our lives.

Swami Vivekananda says

“ It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment”

“The earth is enjoyed by heroes. This is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear”. Tell this to everybody “Have no fear”.

 

Everybody wants to live like hero. When we watch movies many of us are on the side of hero only and later on copy/mimic what hero did in that movie but one thing ruins our heroism and that is fear. Why this fear haunts so much that people even forget their lives to live?

One of the main reason I have found is selfishness. It is one of the biggest reasons fear pops in people’s lives and many of the times people are not even aware that they are being selfish. When our thoughts, our lives, our motives revolve only around ourselves this thing called fear keeps chasing us!

Just do this experiment with yourselves – whenever you are fearing something, someone or some situation ,central figure about whom you are thinking is yourself. This “I” or “My” is predominant there. We are always thinking about my life, my money, my wife, my children, I may get hurt, they may kill me, I may lose, I may get beaten up etc. Our central thought revolves around only ourselves. If you ask somebody to raise his/her voice against corruption or bad elements, many will say “I have family, children and I do not want to get involved into this”. They accept this injustice out of their fear and out of selfishness their thoughts are evolving only around themselves and which is leading to fear.

If somebody has fear of water then central thought is “I may get drowned”. If somebody has fear of exams then central thought is “I may fail”. Even few students do not attend exams out of fear. Fear takes over them and then they start feigning illness or something else. Ask someone to join Army and if he is fearful then he will say “I do not want to die so early”. Again this “I” takes over. Ask someone to stand up and address audience of 1000 people and out of fear and ego he /she may not be even able to stand up properly. Hands & legs may shake. Central thought of the person could be “Will they laugh at me? Will they accept me? Will I speak properly?” etc etc. People get drowned in thoughts of future where they are the only central figure.

It is out of fear, selfishness that people do not raise their voice against bad elements, corruption and wrong in society and this is biggest reason why many countries are in bad shape.

To overcome this fear, solution is very simple. One must broaden his/her vision. Start thinking about others, have higher and broader aim/vision. If you are thinking then think big, why to think about only about our one family, think about entire society, think about entire nation ,think about entire planet. More and more vision is broader, more and more responsibility is taken then this fear will disappear. When this selfishness will disappear then this fear will also stop popping up. When we start working towards bigger goal which will benefit for entire society then many of fears will disappear. Look at all the freedom fighters, look at all the soldiers they have no fear as they lived/ are living for bigger cause.

One needs to remember that there is difference between being fearlessness and being stupid. One cannot say that I am fearless so I will go and stand infront of train or one cannot say that I will go and stand up infront of roaring tiger as I am fearless, then that person is being stupid.

Once we overcome this fear then we can move in the right path and that too with speed and right now need of the time is people overcome this fear with broader vision!

“If you are really my children, you will fear nothing, stop at nothing. You will be like lions. No cowardice. Do you understand? Be true unto death!” – Swami Vivekananda.

WHAT CAN YOU DO IF YOU LOSE YOUR JOB?

In today’s world when most of us have moved away from farming and dairy which are basics of any economy and we are doing jobs given by somebody else may be in Banking, IT, Automobile, Manufacturing, Shopping Malls, Hotels, Restaurants etc, have you ever thought “what if I lose this job? What if I am fired?”. Somebody may tell you rather than this think positive or be positive but I always feel one must be positive and practical as well.

In today’s world, economy is driven by paper currency which in turn controlled by central bankers and their associated banks. As per their allocation of money businesses may thrive or collapse, economies may expand or shrink. There is too much dependency on such external factors and nobody knows what is cooking up at higher level but for sure many economies in the world are crumbling. What to do when you are financial dependent on somebody else? Always remember slavery begins first with financial dependence on somebody else and then it becomes mental habit. In today’s world most of the people are doing jobs offered by somebody else and not only that, most of them are having huge loans on them – home loans, car loans, personal loans, loans for businesses etc. This is double pressure – one from your employer and one from your banker as not only you need to secure your job but you need to repay your loan as well.

One more interesting factor is not only we are dependent for money on others but in reality we are dependent for many things on others. For Ex – Groceries, milk, vegetables, medicines etc. None of us is growing anything on our own. Everything we are just buying by paying money in malls or retail shops. What if such scenario happens that everybody has money but supply of groceries, milk etc is less. Just imagine under current circumstances when people store lesser and lesser groceries at home what chaos it may lead to. One cannot be independent in every aspect of life as life is interdependent but one must become independent in as many things as possible.

In such world it is always better to give a thought to the possibility “ what if I lose my job, what if economy crashes?”. Have you ever wondered what skillset we have and apart from our regular job what else we can do? Then it is better to do small exercise and see where we stand by asking one question to ourselves “What else can I do?”

• Can I start my own retail shop?
• Can I cook/prepare nice food/snacks and sell?
• Can I start my own automobile workshop?
• Will I be able to do farming?
• Will I be able to start my own dairy farm by procuring few cattle?
• Can I produce some beautiful wooden products/furniture?
• Can I do any painting work?
• Can I professionally sing?
• Can I professionally act in drama etc?
• Will I be able to teach any subject in School/College?
• Will I be able to stitch/weave any cloth?
• Will I be able to prepare any beautiful product from wool?
• Will I be able to do something in tourism industry? ………………….
• Can I prepare 100% natural (no chemicals &) Shampoo/soaps/detergents (made from natural ingredients) and sell?
• Will I be able to do any electrical/plumbing work?

This is small list and there are many such options for which one must see if he/she can do it or not. I feel one must prepare and gauge themselves on this and if more the answers of these questions are ‘NO’ then it is not a good scenario and it is better to learn and acquire9 more and more skills and be ready for any tougher times!

 

TIGERS are extremely important!

Today the way population of tigers is reducing with high speed is extremely alarming and not good for all of us. Our national animal is on the verge of extinction and most of us are not even aware that once upon a time we were called as land of tigers!

Tigers not only maintain ecology of Jungle but they are protectors of whole Jungle. If in a jungle there are sufficient no of tigers then nobody will dare to just enter like that and cut the jungle. Today our nation is losing forest land at very faster pace and so with it we are losing amount of rains. Wealth which jungle provides is much more than what we see. On top of this tigers always increase tourism and we are losing on this. Our nation is so huge but we have very less no of dedicated tiger reserves. Tigers of these reserves generate so much money through tourism. Recently one tigress of Ranthambore named ‘Machli’ died at the age of 19 years. She was the most photographed and she generated huge no of revenue though tourism. These beautiful animals are not only living for themselves but doing so much for others!

There is one more important fact which we don’t know about them. In nature every species signifies particular energy. In Hinduism one finds that every God is associated with particular animal. Every animal carries particular energy with it and spreads it. Every creature is absorbing & spreading energies. Happy people spread happiness, unhappy people spread sorrow, cribbers spread similar thing. That is why with few people we feel good and with few people we never want to be. They are emitting such vibes that we do not like it. Tigers are nature’s fearless, active, powerful, aggressive energy. This symbolizes mother goddess. She is fearless, powerful, active, and aggressive. That is why with her Moorthy (statue) tiger is always there. Tigers are carriers of nature’s highest pure energy. They spread similar thing in environment. You will never ever see a Tiger with his tail inside, they may go 2 steps back only to bounce back! One may say, lions are more powerful than them but know that Lions are Lazy as well & live in groups,  whereas Tigers are always active & hunt on their own. If fight is arranged between Lion & Tiger then don’t get surprised if Tiger wins. There are examples in history how Bengal Tigers have even defeated African Lions! It is extremely difficult to beat the energy of this beautiful animal called TIGER. If one has seen Tiger from close distance then only one realizes its beauty & strength. One ends up having only one feeling for this animal and that thing is Respect!

Today on one end we are losing the animal which spreads energy of valor & activism and on another end fear psychosis is gripping people mainly created by media. Every bad news is news. This is mantra of media. At any cost we need to protect Tigers. There are multiple reasons they are diminishing & there numbers will rise if action is taken at this every step.

• Madness of creating personal zoos in countries like US (cubs are smuggles for these)
• Madness of wearing cloths made of Tiger Skin – especially among rich people of countries like China
• Poaching
• Shortage of their food, recently 200 Nilgais were killed in Bihar (reason given was they damage crops of farmers), instead those could have used to increase their habitat in tiger reserves
• Territorial fight among themselves as year by year their territories are decreasing

Our nation had not only tigers but tiger like people/warriors. Today one may wonder what has happened to this giant nation & its people. From every side they are under attack but do not raise their voice much. Now time has come up that these tigers are protected & real tigers gets awakened!

WHAT WE FOCUS ON, GROWS IN OUR BODY & LIFE

In our day to day life rarely we notice or become aware of our mind, consciousness. We keep on passing each day without noticing on which things we are focusing or our mind is getting hooked on to which things, on which things we are spending our energies, what is the effect of those and how it is affecting us.

Henceforth start observing and you will notice that things on which we are focusing are growing in our life, energies on which we focus, start growing in our body!

If one focuses only on problem then soon that problem will become so big that we will not be able to do anything about it and we get easily defeated by it. If a student focuses only on the difficulty of a subject then soon he will be bogged down by it & for sure he will do bad in exams or even flunk in it. If a student focuses on various solutions to tackle difficulty then such solutions will grow & difficulty evaporates.

If a soldier/king keeps on only focusing on the mighty size of its enemy then soon he will get bogged down by this & he/she will either surrender or run away. Mighty enemy will further appear mightier. If one focuses on various ways to tackle his enemy then soon he will find many solutions which will result in his/her victory. King Shivaji is right example who amid so many enemies, began with so little resources but built empire for his people!

When people are in love, they see only good in their partner. Their relationship blossoms and they are very happy at that time. This goodness grows tremendously as consciousness of both is hooked on good of each other. People whose relationships are in trouble, you will observe that they are focusing on negative qualities or some mistakes of other person. Once consciousness shifts focus from goodness to mistakes, negativity then it grows tremendously. People don’t feel like talking with each other, staying with each other and finally they separate. Person around whom one was roaming saying ‘Honey, honey, honey….’ soon becomes bitter and leads to divorce.

If somebody criticizes us, uses bad words then people who get hurt more are the ones whose focus is on this criticism, that bad word. Soon it becomes so big that it fills people with anger, hatred, few lose confidence and even few are unable to sleep as the thing on which they focused has grown up so big. On another hand people who ignore bad words or take good criticism in positive way and improve then it do not affect them infact they start improving themselves & always moving forward.

Few people, out of their ego & jealousy focus only on negative qualities of others. They are always pinpointing others mistakes or what they lack or what is lacking in their qualities and soon these qualities grow in them as well. Their consciousness is always focused on wrong things and soon they become like those people with same qualities. When we focus on good qualities of others, their skills, praise them, at that time focus of our consciousness is on this goodness and not only we feel good and positive, soon we also start absorbing those good qualities. This is the reason, in Maharashtra many people who are followers of saint Dnyaneshwara, call each other as ‘Mauli’ (means saintly qualities in others or only good part of others). Seeing good in others doesn’t mean when thief has entered in our house start seeing goodness in him, if we do that he will take away everything! We must catch him & handover to police.

If we focus on what we do not have, if we focus on what we lack in life then this lack increases. Many times people who keep on crying about money, health, small house etc  you will find soon they land up in further mess or they lose further whatever they have. People who are unhappy and say lines like ‘I don’t have money’ , ‘I am very small guy but you guys are really big & rich’, ‘ I am poor guy’, ‘I am not healthy like you’, ‘my job is not good’ etc then know that such people never ever progress in their life. Every time lack increases in their life along with increase in their cries. On another hand people who are content and happy in whatever they have are always growing in their life. Their focus in on whatever they have with them and if they are content with that then they get showered with further more abundance. This is the reason people who have, content will be given more and people who crib, cry & complain that they do not have then whatever they have also will be snatched away!

INCREASE YOUR SAVINGS RATE…SMALL HOLES CAN SINK BIG SHIP…

These days many a times we hear people saying that “My savings are almost nil”, “My salary evaporates in first 10 days of month”, “I don’t know where my money is going”.

I think right now in current times we have lowest savings rates and we don’t know what to do or many times we even don’t realise that we are saving absolutely nothing. In current world of jobs where we are financially dependent on our employers and our no of years of employment are also fixed then it is very important that we have good savings with us to meet any crisis & our post retirement life which gets affected by rising inflation as well.

To begin with, best thing to do is to document our expenses. If you can’t do daily then its fine but do monthly. Atleast figure out which are the fixed expenses that you incur monthly these are the ones which whether you earn or not you will have to Pay. Figure out which are the expenses that are variable, costs of these expenses vary. Note down all such expenses with monthly cost incurred on them. Then extrapolate that cost as annually, 5 yearly & 10 yearly. I am sure you will get stunned looking at the huge amount we are spending on these items over 5 to 10 years.

Remember Saving happens over the period of time, you cannot have huge money in short period of time (unless lottery or some wrong business). Figure it out which are the avoidable expenses, which expenses you can reduce & take action on those. I have prepared one table with expenses extrapolated for 10 years. You can also prepare such table with relevant items & see the amount over period of time.

Now observe, out of your list, how many you can easily avoid, how many you are incurring because of your lethargy/ignorance. If you see whatever we are incurring as routine, is actually eating out lot of our money over the period of 5 to 10 years. Also notice that how many of these items were relevant before 10 to 15 years, how many newly got added. If we observe such items are increasing with every passing year. I have left few rows blank as values could be too variable & depends individual habits.

Even for our groceries, food, for so many things we just go to market and buy ready-made items. Our ancestors used to prepare most of the things at home. Still in rural India people prepare lot many things at home Ex- Pickle, papad, chutneys, masalas, chips, various snacks etc. So many things are prepared at home & it saves good money.

Can’t we wash our own car? Can’t we wash our own utensils? How many phones we need, how many gadgets. If you see these companies will keep bringing on newer versions of electronic goods, how much money we can spend on it. These companies are so big today mainly due to our lethargy/bad habits/succumbing to euphoria to own these gadgets.

If we see, we are living like kings/queens but we need to remember that we are common people and every common person cannot afford to live like king. When common people start living like King for sure they are going to go Bankrupt!

YOU CAN’T AVOID POLITICS…LEARN IT…

‘Politics’…As soon as people hear this word, many of them distort their faces. Many say Politics is bad, it is dirty world. Many of them stay away from it and many of them fear of it thinking it is extremely bad.

Whatever efforts one puts to stay away from politics, one cannot stay away from it. Whoever you are, where ever you are it is going to confront you and if you run away from it then slowly it will start haunting you.

Politics is not only there in political parties but it is there in our day to day lives. See some of the examples…You go to office and you hear many people saying ‘our office is filled with bad politics’. There are lobbies, boss favors particular people etc. It affects you…

If you are in some business then also you are going to face it. Your competitors will be playing all sorts of tricks and games to outsmart you to gain more and more business. You will have to face this politics.

If you are in government job then politics is at unimaginable level. Just look into police department. You will be horrified to see internal politics there and how much those people are under pressure. Same goes with any other departments. Right postings, promotions or holidays they face politics in everything.

If you are sportsman then also you will face it. Right from selection to leading your team everywhere people will try to outsmart you or by hook or crook gain prominent position. People play politics to control various sports organizations as well.

If you join some NGO or religious or spiritual organization then you may face politics there as well! In desire to achieve fame, to gain some power people try to outsmart each other.

If you are student then also there is politics. Out of competition or jealousy you will have to face it. If various companies are interviewing students for jobs from same college then one must see how suddenly friends become competitors and one can see politics there as well!

Look into the lives of these movie actors or TV actors. For getting good roles, a good movie there is politics. There are lobbies and if you go like very straight forward person there, you will be soon fried up! (Many of these actors/actress are already leading horrible lives but that is different story!).

Not only your enemies but you may get amazed to see that some of your friends also might be playing politics with you. Some of them will be with you only till the time there is some benefit from you. They leave you as soon as there job is done or there are no more benefits from you. They may leave you if they find someone else is more powerful or useful. They may cheat you out of their jealousy towards you.

Not only friends but your own relatives also might be playing politics with you. Just see around and you may notice that there could be politics going on in your family.

Basically it confronts us at so many places and in so many different roles. If one ignores it every time then soon he/she will be ignored as well. Today middle class is the biggest class on the planet and most of them stay away from politics and in return they are totally ignored by politicians. They take care of ultra-rich (out of favors) or poor (for votes).

Basically politics is art of taking care of people and ensuring welfare for all. It has very broad perspective. There is difference between politics and conspiracies. These days conspiracies are being called as politics. Politics is seeing & building the way of welfare for all. One needs to see opportunities for this, various innovative ideas, apply all strength and sacrifice whatever one can! Among all the difficult circumstances find out the good way and do good for all. If you need to do acting then do it, if you need to show little bit of anger then show it, be shrewd but bring good to all. Final aim must be to bring good for all. To forbid good people from joining mainstream politics various print & electronics media portray that it is the world of bad people and only goons enter and rule this world. Watch movies and see what kind of politicians are shown.

More and more you stay away from it, you will observe that more and more you are ending up towards losing side. Soon incapable undeserving people will start ruling you. Soon donkeys will start riding horses. Nations where youth don’t look into politics are in dilapidated condition. If you are running away from this politics then stop doing that right from this moment. First thing is face it. Observe it. Observe what people do, why they do, what people say & why do they say that. Check the intention of people (little bit). This observation can teach you many things and you will be aware of who is doing what. Who may harm you and who may support you. Who is good and who is not. To learn swimming one needs to enter water and then only one can learn. Similar way face politics and whatever situations come your way and keep learning your lessons. Remember straight trees are cut first and similar way very goodie goodie simple people also will land up in trouble. Be innocent & humble but at the same time remain firm and invulnerable. So do not run away from Politics but learn it!

OUR BRAIN IS SLAVE OF REPETITION

Nature has given us this beautiful gift – our physical body. Many of us rarely know or observe its functions and how it works. I am sure if we are asked where is liver or where is kidney in our body and what are their functions then many of us will not be able to tell. We are not taught about our body during our education period and we remain unaware of what is good or what is bad for our body. I am not doctor or medical student but I thought whatever I have learned through observation, experience, I shall put it down.

It is said that one of the wonders of this nature is our brain and if we carefully observe then it is very true. One property of our brain is it becomes slave of activities that we repeat. It gets used to it and then our body functions automatically like that without any efforts.

If we remember our childhood when we were learning numbers or alphabets what our teachers/parents were getting done from us, we were asked to write number ‘1’ 10 times or 100 times or move our pencil on ‘1’ again and again. If you observe what we were doing we were repeating that activity till the time we master it and just observe today we can easily write so many things without much effort but at one point of time we were struggling so much even to write simple alphabets. Even this article I am writing so easily. Our brain has become slave of it and we can do this very quickly without realizing this phenomenon.

When we were growing up and started learning & playing new sports, remember how much we struggled to learn those, football, basketball, badminton, cricket, archery etc. We played those again & again & mastered it. What did we do? We repeated it again and again and our brain became slave of it. Have you observed so many complex moves of particular sport we can do so easily because we have enslaved our brain by repeating things again and again. What is practice? You repeat your methods of playing and master over it. What is core to it, repetition!

Do you remember how we learned to drive Car! When first time we sat on driver seat how conscious we were. We were unable to perform so many functions of pressing accelerator, releasing clutch, using brakes, changing gears (if your car is not automatic) at appropriate timing. It was so difficult. We continued learning and today we can drive car so easily. We have repeated this activity so many times that we even do not realize that we are pressing accelerator, releasing clutch, changing gears. We are singing, thinking, even few are smoking while driving Car! So many complex activities our body is doing and many times we are not even aware of those. Our brain has been enslaved to it and it gets these functions automatically done.

When we were kids we all must have enjoyed bathing the most, playing in water, enjoying shower or enjoying each mug of water on our body. Now when we have grown up, many of us are constantly engulfed in many thoughts. We are thinking even taking bath. Even though we are lost, our brain is applying soap on our body, it is washing our body. Many times afterwards we think ‘Did I have a bath?’ as our mind was lost somewhere but our brain did the job. If we observe this phenomenon it is just amazing. Our brain got enslaved because of repetition of our bathing activity.

Remember when we started using first time computer/laptop how consciously we were pressing keyboard, looking at each button and pressing it consciously. After repeatedly using it now how fast we are using it and few people sometimes even look very minimal at keyboard and get their work done.

Sometimes we hear music so much, we listen few songs repeatedly and you will observe when later on we are not listening automatically we mumble those songs. Infact sometimes we wonder why particular song is coming in mind. We have repeatedly so much that it start showing its effect.

Few people have this habit of having tea or coffee as soon as they get up in the morning. If they don’t get it then they become restless, they get headache or they don’t feel fresh. They have repeated this activity so many times that their brain is enslaved to it.

Look at the people who are addicted to alcohol, smoking etc. Their brains are enslaved to it. Infact I have heard that few people can’t do their routine work unless and until they consume this. Their brain is enslaved to this and in turn they destroy their body and life!

You look at today’s marketing tactics, advertisements and their frequency. We are continuously bombarded by advertisements on television, internet, print media, radio, hoardings on road, on bus stations, train stations, airports, even on our tickets, theatres. We are continuously bombarded with advertisement. If you look at them most of them sell crap and look at advertisements, they are so ridiculous. Look at our brain how it works. When we first time see some ridiculous advertisement on television how we react – ‘What nonsense’, then few more repetitions and we start ignoring this nonsense, few more repetitions and then we are not even aware that it is non sense, further more repetitions & subtle mind gets used to it and further more people buy those products. This is how most of the big brands are created today who are making huge money. I checked nutritional facts of one of the cola brand, it has 0% vitamins, 0% minerals, no fats etc. Even though everything is zero, people are drinking those and companies are making billions of dollars. Look at continuous bombarding of so many beauty creams, beauty products, shampoos etc. Have they really benefited or we just buy by succumbing to advertisements. They could achieve this because they enslaved people’s brains by continuous bombarding of their advertisements.

Look at with what movies, TV serials, print & electronic media are bombarding us these days. Extra marital affairs, break ups, divorces, multiple marriages, vulgarity, movies filled with violence, serials filled with conspiracies, actor/actress drinking liquor & portraying it as cool thing to do. It is getting continuously bombarded as they want us to accept it as normal thing. Just see few decades back ‘Divorce’ was such big thing, people used get shocked to hear such news. Look at today, families are breaking up for small small things. Most of the wisdom we get is from our family & once it is broken then people lose wisdom and they can be easily fooled or trapped in any propaganda. It drives consumption & related business. When people separate from each other, they need different houses, television, fridge, utensils, furniture and so on. It creates big demand and big corporate houses make big money!

If we observe ,if we repeat whatever that is good then it will uplift us and benefit us and if we go on wrong path and repeat bad things then our downfall is imminent. If one wants to stop some bad habit then one of the ways they can do is do not repeat your activity for one week. Set target of one week. Don’t decide for whole life then it becomes big burden. Once one week is over then set target of two weeks and continue. One more thing you must ensure that do not look back and count since how many days you have not smoked or had liquor etc. I am sure this will help.

In India there is saying ‘Mooh me RAM aur haath me Kaam’ means one must have & repeats lords name and must have good work in his hand and move ahead in life. You repeat divinity’s name while performing your daily activities and make your life also divine. This is how ‘Mala’ (In India) or rosary also works. You repeat god’s name!

I am sure good repetitions will uplift us, I am also walking on the path and improving myself!

 

DEMON MAHISHASURA..REAL MEANING, GODDESS DURGA (MOTHER GODDESS / MOTHER NATURE) AND ITS CURRENT RELEVANCE…FREE YOURSELF OF THIS DEMON…

As I have mentioned in my first blog, our ancestors were very wise and they knew that over the years people’s dialect, culture, languages will change. Apart from writing things in scriptures, they presented most of things through pictures and symbols as well so that future generations will be able to understand through these. One such picture & story is of Demon Mahishasura and Goddess Durga. Lets see how it is relevant in current times.

General story goes like this, once upon a time there was a demon called ‘Mahishasura’. He had done severe penance/austerities and out of that he got a boon from Lord Shiva (Shiva is called as Destructor. He is destructor of all the bad thoughts in out head Ex – Thoughts of attacking someone, stealing something etc come in our head. He resides in our body as well. He resides in head and all bad thoughts are destroyed there). Boon was- no man, animal or god will be able to kill him. After getting this boon he thought himself as invincible and started misusing it and terrified all human beings and creatures. In his arrogance he forgot that woman can kill him. All people and even Gods approached mother goddess for help. Mother goddess took form of women called Durga and killed Mahishasura and freed planet from this demon.

Lets understand this demon first and then lets see its current relevance. Asura is the person with immense power who uses his/her power for selfish/evil motives. One of the meaning of Mahisa in the Sanskrit is Buffalo. That is why in above picture demon is shown sitting on buffalo. If you observe carefully buffalo is symbol of inertia. For example suppose you come across a buffalo on a road and you push the button of your vehicle’s horn so that this animal moves out of the way, you will observe that it do not move so easily as it is filled with inertia. Most of the times you will have to wait or go sideways but it will not move. Mahishasura means demon inertia gripped humans and Asuras made this to happen deliberately for their own selfish motives. Lets see how it helps them.

Today if we closely observe many people, infact many countries are under the grip of this inertia. Mother Nature has showered everything in every part of world. I mean all types of resources are available but people do not want to do anything. You can see this across many countries. See some examples…

• • Many parts where it rains in really good amount, they do not have clean potable water or water for irrigation. People are absolutely doing nothing to create more water reservoirs etc. They are waiting for some government scheme or some officer or leader to do something for them. Just imagine even few hundreds if join hands can dig one lake for themselves.

• • Many people are homeless today. Nature has given everything, wood, stones, sand etc. Such homeless people can come together and build their own homes with whatever resources they can collect from their surroundings. Educated people can also help them but we see very less time such thing happening

• • Farmers have their good arable farm lands but rather than learning better natural way of producing multiple crops, they run behind quick money making things, sow things which require less effort (like sugarcane). I have seen many of them do not even prepare their own seeds, own plants. They buy everything from outside and keep on increasing their input costs. Just little effort and they can make huge money but very few actually do it. Infact in many parts of the world people wait for special financial packages for governments to announce and they are happy to get such benefits. Infact it is becoming yearly norm to receive such benefits. People are not realizing that they are being paralyzed. In few parts of Africa they think that it is their birth right to receive these packages. This trend is emerging in India and other parts of world as well.

• • Many people in Europe do not take jobs, they live and enjoy the benefits provided by council or governments. Once in UK, I came across this news – one couple was living in council house with 5 or 6 children and each one of them was receiving per week monetary benefits. Reason he gave was, he lost his job and his wife is suffering from chronic depression! This is not good, this way almost half of the Europe is going towards bankruptcy and people are becoming paralyzed without learning any skills and work.

• • Another tactic used by few politicians is putting in place some public welfare schemes with corruption engulfed in it such as some rural employment schemes etc. Honestly speaking such schemes do more harm than any help. For Ex – In India Govt launched a scheme called MANREGA. If you are jobless then you register your name then you will be allocated some work and you will get some daily wages. People say most of the people do not do any work, they register their names and get benefits. Huge money of country is being wasted. Another harm it is causing is to farmers. They don’t get any labor for farm work as laborers are refusing to work as they are getting free money elsewhere.

• • In many parts of the world, if you tell people to learn good skills and start their own work such as plumbing, painting, and electrical work or start their own little business, they simply refuse to do anything. In fact many of them simply say give us some safe government job where I can retire without much headache.

• • Most of the people want good vegetables, fruits, grains to eat but none of them want to grow. Can’t we grow our own organic vegetables! So much land, water is available. We can easily do it. People prefer to buy from market which may have hazardous chemicals responsible for diseases like Cancer!

• • If you ask many organization managements, they say we are in need of good employees. Mind it good employees who have real knowledge and ready to work. There are more than 6 billion people and organizations are short of skilled people! This itself speaks a lot.

• • Rather than relying on hard work for making money, out of their inertia to do hard work and urge to become rich very early, people invest in many Ponzi schemes, take route of gambling and lose all their money or greedily buy shares, properties and lose everything at the end.

• • Nature has given so many herbs which are freely available around us. We can prepare our own medicines, tooth pastes, soaps, shampoos and many more such things. People say “who the hell will do this”. Things are readily available in market and buy from there. This is how big corporate houses are becoming bigger and bigger and on top of it their products have so many hazardous chemicals as well. Can’t we learn and prepare many things on our own?

• • Buying ready to eat, ready to cook or eating in restaurants and hotels is new trend. People do not even check what quality of food they are eating and how much money they are spending on it. If you visit rural India, everything is prepared in home. Right from pickle, sweets, lunch, dinner, various delicious food verities, everything is prepared at home. Extremely hygienic, nutritious, healthy food and on top of that you save huge money! If we don’t know then can’t we learn from the people who know and make our lives better?

• • You will observe when you are involved in some creative work then you will not have any sexual thoughts and when you are engulfed with sexual thoughts you will not be able to do nay creative work. We need to be aware of this. Excess of anything is bad. People who are involved in more sex, you will see them more lethargic, dull and inertia takes over them. Surprisingly if you look around, business houses are operating on tagline’ SEX sells’. Women are being used as sex symbols in movies or to sell products. Even pornography has become industry which is destroying many people’s lives.

There could be many such examples and this list can go on. Question is from our inertia who are benefitting? Many of the above examples are self-explaining – Politicians, big corporate houses, big money lenders such as bankers etc. Few are explained in detail

• • Our inertia to work and earn on our own leads to enjoying free perks from council/Govts which in turn is leading your country to Bankruptcy. So lenders and their associated politicians will take over your country.

• • Due to our inertia many corporate houses are becoming bigger and bigger as we are not preparing on our many things and buying from them. In this process, we are losing big money and money is getting accumulated in few hands.

• • Out of our inertia we do not do hard work, our farming goes in loss and then farmers sell their land which again bought by these politicians and big corporate houses or few rich people. If you observe, thousands of people are leaving farming every day.

• • Out of our inertia, every time we demand relief packages and paralyze ourselves. It is so easy for politicians to come in power buy throwing some money in front of people.

Then how to overcome this inertia and how it has engulfed us? How mother Goddess is related to it. Mother Goddess is symbol of energy. Our motherland is giving us food, water which we consume and get energy. If we have energy in us then we can walk, work or do any activity else we will not be able to do it. IF we have good energy created in us then inertia simply vanishes.

• • First thing we need to do is to be aware of the tactics used by politicians which make us paralyzed. Once we are aware then we remain alert and do not fall in that trap.

• • Next is good sleep. Right amount of sleep gives right amount of energy. If you sleep too much or too little then it is not going to help. Have 7-8 hours of sleep.

• • Next is food. Food creates energy in us. Kind of food you eat, same kind of energy it will create. If you eat quickly digestive food items then you will have very good energy created in you and you will overcome this inertia. If you have sedentary lifestyle and you eat food which takes lot of time to digest like meat, fish, etc then most of your energy will be used to digest that food only and you will feel sluggish, lethargic and this becomes your norm and inertia takes you over. Even if you stuff yourself with too much food then also lot of your energy is wasted in digesting that food and you become lethargic.

• • Next is avoid drinking buffalo milk. Prefer cow milk and that too of natural breeds. Buffalo milk has high fat content and takes time to digest compared to cow’s milk. Once again remember that what you eat or drink you become like that. You want to be lethargic like buffalo or active like cow?

• • Next is lack of physical activity – you will observe many times if lethargic people are forced to do some physical work, initially they are slow & resist but slowly their inertia goes down and they work very well. We all need some exercise daily to overcome this inertia. Yoga, Pranayama some exercises will help in this. Pranayama gives lot of energy to body. Every breath we take energizes our body and every breath we release relaxes our body so little bit of pranayama will help, if you do not know then quickly learn it as many teachers are available.

Transformation from Inertia to blissful activeness happen in three stages. As per food we eat, physical activity we do and purity we have in our thoughts and heart, our body remains in three Gunas (Guna means quality or Type) – Sattoguna or Rajoguna or Tamoguna. Each of these three Gunas have impact on you and are as below

Tamoguna – If you have Tamoguna then body has lot of laziness, lethargy, you do not want to work, lot of inertia and this is demon Mahishasura!

Rajoguna – If you have lot of Rajoguna then you will show symptoms like – You want to work to achieve something. You are too ambitious. Plans are going on in your mind like what are you going to do one after another. Your mind is running very fast and so you are. You want to be rich, want land, want to expand your kingdom. Many a times feverishness sets in to achieve those things and many times too much ambitious people land up in depression as well.

Satoguna – If you have Satoguna then you are working but with content in your heart and mind. You are in bliss, centered in you and not running behind things. Nothing can shake you. You will keep walking in your life with smile on your face. You work in blissful lstate but without constantly wondering or focusing on end result.

Ensure that you transform yourself from Tamoguna to Rajoguna and from Rajoguna to Satoguna! Correct food, correct exercise, meditations, yoga, pranayama will for surely transform this and pray to Mother Goddess to help you defeat this demon with her energy in you! Prayers do Work!

DON’T CONVERT PEOPLE YET SPREAD YOUR RELIGION!

In today’s world, we have so many religions, cultures, languages, music, costumes, food etc. Instead of seeing the beauty in this diversity and celebrating it, people are busy in converting people into their religion (for whatever reason), environment of distrust growing and people end up seeing only bad thing in others and end up separating from each other.

Whenever we speak of religions it becomes very sensitive issue and many times people boast that only my way is the way, only my religion is true, only my religion’s followers will get heaven, my religion’s followers are highest etc. In this whole process main crux of our faith is lost, ego sets in and then whole list of issues arise including riots and terrorism.

Lets look at it in simple terms our religions and what we can take from all in simple way. I am not any religious head but fortunate enough to be born in India and have visited many religious places, I felt let me put my feelings & thoughts in simple way. There could be many more things about every religion. Lets look at few of them

HINDUISM – Oldest religion followed by many on this planet. It is so vast that you cannot confine it into fixed set of ideas, methods or procedures. If you go and try to strictly find a Hindu in India then you will be stunned to see that every 200 kilometers everything changes, language, costumes, food, style of rituals etc. Hinduism is encompassing all ways. It has freedom for all, to worship type of GOD you want, the way you want to worship. You will find people worship rivers, mountains, trees infact whole nature. Whole nature is given respect and worshipped. You can worship it in Aakar (form) or Nirakaar (formless). If you want to go to temple then fine, if you want to meditate then that is also fine. You need to travel across India to understand its vastness which fills us with wonder. I don’t think we confine this way of life even in the boundaries of religion. Because of this freedom, Hinduism has survived till far and so many other religions also flourished in India. You don’t need to convert people to make them Hindu. One who is on his path and not distracting others from their path is Hindu. One who is respecting nature, one who is respecting all creatures is Hindu. If you respect your motherland and live for it then you are Hindu. I feel this is the time when all people understand this freedom of Hinduism which is true secularism.

Look around you, in greed for money, people are destroying nature, polluting motherland (by pesticides, plastic), polluting air & water. Corruption is spreading, people are fighting over religions, wars are destroying countries. This is the time when teachings of Hinduism need to spread.

ISLAM : – Saints say real meaning of Islam is surrender and peace. Surrender to divinity and peace within yourself and surrounding. If you are not peaceful then how will you spread peace. If you yourself are agitated, irritated, unhappy then you are going to spread same thing. Today is era where people really understand its true meaning and become peaceful and happy. True surrender happens when one is helpless. When you have tried all your options, put all your efforts but nothing is working then helplessness comes. In this helplessness you pray and for prayer to emerge you need to surrender. Such prayers get answered and fulfilled. So one who is peaceful and surrendered to divinity is already Islamic. You don’t need to convert him/her; infact you need to spread peace and happiness & automatically Islam will spread.

Few years back, I visited Jerusalem first time, I was walking innocently towards Al-Aqsa mosque and but at entrance itself I was stopped and told that you cannot enter. I asked why? Got answer that you are not muslim. I got stunned and shocked. In India I had never experienced this as we can go inside mosques and offer our prayers. I prayed from outside but thought of what is Muslim or Musalmaan? I have come to conclusion that it is nothing but Musallam- Iman . Musallam meaning very strong and Iman means Character/faith/honesty -one who is faithful for his/her motherland, duties.

Look around and today we see that corruption is spreading like cancer and trying to be omnipresent. It is spreading because people are becoming characterless and they are not honest in their duties. So it is need of time that you make Iman of people Musallam and wipe out corruption from this planet and create peace & happiness. You don’t need to convert people as whoever on this planet has his/her Iman musallam, he/she is Musalmaan.

CHRISTIANITY: – If we say Jesus then you don’t need to say Love and If you say Love then you don’t need to say Jesus. Love and Jesus are so synonyms. Just see how beautiful is this. If someone tells you that ‘Jesus is only way’ then tell them ‘Yes, it is true. Jesus is love and love is the only way’. Spread this love and automatically you spread Jesus and Christianity. If you think only followers of Jesus will be in heaven then it is wrong. Whoever is filled with love and spreading love is already on his path.

Infact this is the time when you need to spread love. Look around, so many people are in sorrow. Wars, corruption, poverty, diseases, loot, fear, disbelief, illiteracy, unemployment, depression are taking over society. This is the most important time when people need touch of love and they will get healed. Without any expectation and returns from others, work towards bringing genuine smile on others faces. Spread love, serve people and no need to convert people.

SIKHISM: – Whenever we say Sikhism, image of robust, happy and always ready to serve community appears in front of us. I am lucky as I got a chance to visit few Gurudwaras and got blessings there. If you visit Gurudwara then you will realize the meaning of selfless service. Everyone is ready to help each other. Selflessly lunger is run and food is served to all. I was stunned to see same level of service maintained even in London, in such an expensive place every one is offered food.

Robustness and fearlessness of Sikhs saved India for many centuries. Each mother dedicated her elder son for country’s cause. We need to spread this robustness, fearlessness and attitude of service. I feel every town, village, city must adopt this and start lunger. Out of poverty, no one shall remain hungry and shall not sleep empty stomach on this planet. Every household must contribute towards his country, city, village, society.

One para of Guru Gobind Singhji is stunning and tells about valor and removes any fear if we have

“Chirian to mein baaz tudaun
Gidran to mein sher banaun
Sawa lakh se ek ladaun
Tabe Gobind Singh Naam kahaun”

Meaning “It is when I make sparrows beat eagle, I turn jackals into lions, when I make 1 capable of fighting with 125000 alone then I am called Gobind Singh”. One must surrender to such Guru and get this valor & serve people.

BUDDHISM: – There is no bigger manifestation of Silence & peace like Buddha. He was born in the era when there was huge prosperity in India and when there were huge number of intellectuals. He himself was born in royal family but he left everything in conquest of truth and got enlighten in deeper silence.

He showed path to many and many got liberated along with him. His message of peace got spread almost across Asia. This is the most appropriate time to spread Buddha when earth is filled with so much violence, decreasing moral values, corruption , greed & endless desires of people which are leading them nowhere. For this purpose as well we don’t need to convert people.

We can observe similar things in all other religions take it Jainism, Judaism etc. If we observe basic teachings of all religions are same and they are of Love, peace. It is we in our Ego started converting people, infact since last few decades conversions are happening for the greed of power. Particular religions people will vote only to their religions leader so convert people and capture power. Instead of choosing leaders at looking at their honesty, valor, knowledge & service oriented attitude, people choose leaders looking at their religion! This is not good, people are cheating themselves!

We need to know and see that all religions are like beautiful rivers which are finally meeting same ocean. Various saints, messengers, Avatars came on this planet, showered their knowledge, love on humanity and uplifted humanity. Converting people from one religion to other is like trying to convert water into water so pls stop this & spread love to fill this planet with happiness!