Before Investing In Stock Market, Listen First To Those Who Suffered Losses!

Since last two years, people across world are investing like crazy in stock markets, especially in India. Everybody is thinking that they are experts as markets are going up and when it is going up then Who Cares…

Important thing to note is as per one report, out of all people who invest in market, only 5% make money. Hardly anybody knows this fact but when entire environment around you is floating around stories such as Mr X is millionaire by investing in ABC stock etc and on every business channel so called analyst are screaming Buy, Buy, Buy then one ends up thinking he/she has got a Hen that is going to give Golden egg everyday and they start thinking themselves as a great investor but only till the time reality bites.

In stock market, probability of people making losses is way higher than people who make money so better listen to those first who have suffered losses in markets. By listening to them, by understanding mistakes done by them one realises things not to do and that is most important thing while investing as most of the so called analyst are telling you only what to do and that is Buy, Buy, Buy!

First better understand what not to do and that will lead you to making lesser and lesser mistakes and will take you towards higher chances of making money. Many people do courses on how to invest in stock markets but I tell people first learn how not to invest as many people burn their fingers and lose hard earned money and one such example is myself.

I still remember, it was year of 2007 and I had newly joined TCS and at that time I was reading in business papers that sub prime crisis was brewing in US but I couldn’t understand it fully and after few days those news disappeared. Suddenly stock markets across world started going up, I think from Sep 2007. In India it was crazy, you put your money in any stock and that stock was going up. Whatever stocks I bought they were going up. Initially I was investing carefully but when crazy run started, all around hot tips were floating and reaching every other guy, I think I lost my track. In IT companies no body used to work from 9:30 AM till 3:30 PM (duration when markets were open) as everybody was busy trading. Right from top management till bottom layer employees everybody was busy in markets. After 3:30, during coffee break, everybody used to discuss with each other and tell how big money they made and how better they are than Warren Buffet!

In this frenzy environment, I lost my habit of looking at companies – who they are, what they do and started following other’s advises, following hot tips and at that time it was working also. Everyday my stocks were going up, my portfolio was going up everyday by 10,000 rupees which was lot of money for me. This whole setup was working with everybody as at that time horses, donkeys, pigs (all types of stocks) were running very fast. Everybody was thinking that he/she is sitting on good Arabi horse but unfortunately when Sub-Prime crisis broke out people realised that the horse on which they were sitting was not horse but donkey or pig.

In Jan 2008, ‘NIFTY’ – India’s stock index had hit two consecutive days lower circuits and whole world changed for investors. My stocks were hitting lower circuits everyday and forget about profits, I was not even able to sell stocks as there were no buyers. All my profits were wiped out and on top I suffered good amount of losses. Almost everybody suffered huge losses but nobody used to speak about it. Nobody used to open trading portal or even utter a word called ‘Stock Market’. During chats of Coffee breaks all such losers used to tell each other how Smart they were and how they sold before crash but truth was everybody was bleeding!

I refused to give up and decided to dig deeper and find out what actually happened. Later on what I found was when we all retail investors were buying, all big sharks were selling and all of us were stuck in nonsense stocks. I looked back at the events of last 12 months and found out complete madness in which many of us were stuck. I realised how foolish I was. I learned my lessons and few of the learnings are below,

1. Value your money – Know that money you are investing is very hard earned money, You have worked many hours, handling work pressures, meeting deadlines and deliverables, surviving all types of politics, so pls value your money as when one starts investing blindly in stock market then he/she loses awareness of how much they are putting in and that too so casually. First thing is know how much you want to put in. Come what may do not cross that limit, whatever amount of profits you foresee and whatever your greed compels you to put more, Stop!, know that its your hard earned money!
2. Listen to people who incurred losses – First talk to as many people possible who have suffered losses. Understand what not to do, and note down all the things and see if such patterns exists in you and markets. Avoid all such mistakes and you will be better placed.
3. Stay away from hot tips – When any bubble is created, hot tips float around. They reach you and you start thinking that you got something that nobody else knows and you end up putting lot of money in it. Know that when you are putting money, some big shark must be selling as for every buyer there has to be sellers. Fix one thing in your mind that you are at the bottom layer of this structure of Stock Market. If some hot tip has reached you means it has crossed all layers and it is not at all hot tip, it has been ensured that it reaches you to fool you. If at all it is hot tip then it will never reach you, big sharks would have already made money out of it.
4. Understand P&L and Balance Sheet– Understanding basic Profit & Loss statement and Balance Sheet of any company is basic criteria and if you don’t understand it then pls do not put a single penny! Stay away from stock market, its not for you!
5. Switch off all Business News Channels – Many people follow advises of puppets giving advises on nonsense business channels, pls switch off those. If they knew so much with accuracy then they would have invested that way and long back they would have become billionaires. One true incident that I saw – In India on one such channel, one show comes where in retail investors call them and 3-4 so called analyst guide them on television. It was year of 2008, one investor dialled in and asked one analyst saying I have bought ABC share for 1000 rupees with so and so quantity what shall I do now? On that Analyst replied – Ohh, such a wrong price, you bought it at very high price, very wrong. Hearing this investor told him, 3-4 weeks back on the same show you had advised all people to buy this stock with so and so price target. So called Analyst got red faced and then quickly said ‘Sell Now’ and they quickly switched to next caller. So stay away from these nonsense analyst.
6. Nobody is sitting to make money for others – In stock market, no body is sitting to make money for others. Infact everybody is looking at their own portfolio and how can they make more money, so do come out of mirage that Mutual funds and SIPs are there for you. Sorry to say but through these products, people are giving constant flow of money in the hands of fund managers to whom they have never seen or met. People are not ready to give money to their friends, neighbour, relatives or own brother/sister but they give thousands easily to unknown guy because he has promised some good returns! This is absolute nonsense!
7. Sellers Make Money – Fix in your mind – Only sellers make money in stock market. If you don’t sell then all your grown up valuation of stocks is on paper and when markets crash then all those profits evaporate and stocks go in negative.  People can’t handle this pain and sell in losses and sway from virtual profits to real losses. If you observe so called analysts, business channels etc are 95% of time giving recommendation of only BUY! If you see somebody saying SELL this stock then you start feeling negative about stock and feel something is not good. Know that selling stock doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong, that means you are making money or reducing your risk.
8. Everybody cannot be Warren Buffet – New investors read lot about big investors such as Warren Buffett and start devising various strategies. My simple advise is to stop this madness. All these Multi billionaires operate at very high level, they are well connected with politicians, various Chairmans/CEOs/Directors and know beforehand what is going to happen. They are better placed to make money so come out of mirage that by reading some book you will be billionaire!
9.  Learn to value things – In India 1 kg rice costs anywhere between 40-100 rupees kg (depending on its quality) but if I offer people same rice at 2000 rupees KG then will anybody buy? Of course no, infact people will make fun of me and ask me to get lost! They can do it because they know value of it. Believe it or not, in stock market people buy such rice (stocks) for 2000 rupees and big sharks end up laughing at them. Learn how to value stocks. How many shares company has issued, per share how much profits company is making, compared to those profits at what price that share price is, what is PE ratio (Price to earnings ratio), how much is debt on the company, how much is book value, is company making profits since last 4-5 years, is annual report showing good prospect about future etc. If you can’t do this then stay away from stock market else you will end up buying rice for 2000 rupees KG. When TESLA was trading at PE ratio of more than 300 (which is absolute madness), retailers were buying and Elon Musk was selling! All such retailers are sitting on good amount of losses.
10. Note down your success strategy – Whenever you make money, note down your strategy, what you did right, what went well. Who knows you might have found new way of investing. Better keep track of things that went well.
11. Avoid subscribing to IPOs – I avoid subscribing to IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) as most of the IPOs are so overpriced that most of the investors suffer losses. When any company issues its IPO, it ensures that it is priced at very high price as then only they can collect max money from market and all investment bankers help them in doing so as they get huge fees and commissions out of this. When markets are in bubble, maximum IPOs come and even loss making companies collect billions of dollars, currently many such examples are there in India.
12. High Risk, High Losses – In stock market, many people will tell you that if you take high risk then there is high return. I tell you this is 100% false. I have seen if one takes high risk then he/she has suffered high losses. Infact if one observes all the big investors, they are hardly taking any risk, infact they always look for cheap valuations and guaranteed returns. No such investor is taking risk, as word ‘Risk’ itself conveys some kind of loss is there. Instead of taking risk, invest judiciously.
13. Stay away from futures market – I have seen many people get into it and go bankrupt. It is extremely risky as one can lose huge money in one single bet. Stay away from this
14. Stay away from Herd and Herd Mentality – This is the last and most important aspect. Inconfident, less courageous people always follow herd. Such people find safety and security in herd but I tell you if you follow herd in stock market for sure you will incur heavy losses. In this herd, stampede will happen and you will get crushed! Study independently which will boost your confidence and stand firm ignoring herd and you will make money!

HAPPY INVESTING!

—PRITAM—

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!

HOW AEROPLANE MANUFACTURERS MAKING HUMONGOUS MONEY FROM INDIANS/NATIONS…

If you remember, just few years back if somebody wanted to travel by air then it was big thing because air tickets were very expensive and only very rich people could afford those. Now in today’s times we see that any Tom/Harry is travelling by planes. What happened suddenly? How is this happening? Who is real gainer and who is real loser?

What I have understood is only beneficiary of more people travelling by planes are aero plane manufacturers (there are 2 to 3 companies only). Countries like India have little good rail network and people used this mode of transport for years as it is cheaper and long-distance trains are available. On the other hand, flight tickets were very expensive which only rich could afford.

Simple rule of business says If you want to sell anything then there must be demand in the market for that product and to sell more and more planes, manufacturer need its demand, means more and more people must travel by flights then only more and more airlines will give orders for more and more planes. Why will people travel by planes if they have cheaper train options? There are various ways how it is achieved.

First thing is move away people who are travelling in trains in higher classes (by paying little more money than ordinary classes) towards flights. Its done by increasing its fare constantly and making flight fares cheaper at the same time. If one sees now, fares of first class in trains are equal to or expensive than flight ticket. After 2014 infact all types of AC coach fares have almost doubled and on few trains dynamic pricing has been introduced which is further expensive. At the same time over the years absolutely no investment has been made in upgrading trains and rail infra whereas huge taxpayer money has been put in developing and modernizing airports. If one goes to airport and train station in India then can immediately make out the difference.

While travelling in long journey anybody would like to save time and high-speed trains and flights are the best option for this. If one sees, there is hardly any long distance high speed train in India then if one wants to save time then only option left is flight. Now government is trying to build one high speed train but that to for short distance and that too by spending humongous money.

Question comes how come flight tickets have become so cheaper? Simple answer is airlines are selling those at extremely cheaper prices. Next question comes, planes are very expensive, they have limited seats (can’t carry 700-800 people like trains), their maintenance is very expensive, airports fees are higher, aviation fuel is expensive then how come they are selling at such low price? Are they making any profits? Answer is No. Most of the airways in India are making good amount of losses. Then question comes if they are making losses then how come they are running business because you need money to run it. Answer is loans, yes they are getting loans from banks for most of their operations, right from plane purchase to day to day working capital most of it is coming through banks. Then one must think how come banks are lending them if they are making losses and what the hell is mortgage? This is the question where each one of us must tumble after deep diving into it. At least I don’t think that loans are given after security and depositor’s money is not at all safe. Recently one of the airline’s owner went bankrupt and he ran away to some other country and did not pay any loans of banks. Those loans are NPAs for banks. Banks are giving loans from depositor’s money which is of Indians.

Under such scenario, why will people travel by trains when they have equally priced flight option available where people can save time and experience great infrastructure of airports. As increasingly more people travel by Air, airlines need more and more planes. In order to purchase those they need more and more money which is given by banks from people’s very own deposits! More and more they give orders to aero plane manufacturers, more and more money is made by these manufacturers. Basically, these manufacturers are making money through Indians pocket which is coming to them in the form unsecured loans.

Not only this, now these guys are not satisfied by this, now they want more demand of planes, so in India government is developing airports almost at every city and government is asking all airlines to fly people at cheaper prices. This will result in furthermore demand and that is how one of the airline’s spokesperson was recently informing that India needs almost 2100 planes in near future! Imagine amount of money which will flow towards them!

Now what will happen if airlines go bankrupt and unable to pay back loans? Bankers will have huge NPAs, in such scenario either government will bail out banks/private airlines (from taxpayers money) or bankers will not return people’s money and banks will go bankrupt!

Question comes to mind is, Do so many people running these things have hand in hand – Aero plane manufacturers, airlines, bankers, politicians? Looking at the history and current situation at least my mind says Yes to this. We as Indians must ask many questions to government and keep our money safe!

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!

 

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!

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!

 

KASHMIR ISSUE…GREAT GAME OF INTERNATIONALLY SPONSORED POLITICS…HEAVEN TURNED INTO HELL…

 

Once king Jahangir had said “Agar kahi swarg hai to wo yahi hai yahi hai yahi hai…”… “If at all there is heaven then this is it…this is it…this is it…” It is true as Kashmir is really beautiful and is heaven.

We need to see how come this heaven turned into hell and by whom and for what? Rarely we try to see actual facts and see things from larger angle and try to analyze what is really happening and to whom it is affecting? Who is on the gaining end and who is on the losing end?

From centuries Kashmir was a peaceful region where Kashmiri Pandits, Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists lived together peacefully. You will not find a single instance of riot or fight among them for anything. Absolutely not a single thing. Then how come suddenly in last few decades everything turned upside down and this peaceful, beautiful region ended up into violence, chaos. If we look carefully at history then this whole game begins from the partition of Bharat now called as India. British partitioned this holy land called Bharat and suddenly one virtual country called Pakistan was created. Land of Baloch, Sindh, Punjab and Pashtuns were suddenly declared as Pakistan. Huge massacre happened in the riots which emerged afterwards and till date no body is held responsible for the same. Huge number of cattle were destroyed which was one of the livelihood of many people. British looted Bharat for almost one and half century and on top of that people destroyed their economic resources as well. If we look at the economic condition of people at that time then it was very bad and so was a newly formed center called Pakistan (It is not a country). One piece of land (Princely state) called Kashmir did not merge itself into India or Pakistan and King of Kashmir was thinking what to do about his state. He wanted to remain independent but newly formed center called Pakistan immediately attacked Kashmir. This is very interesting. How come newly formed state which is economically poor, everything is in chaos and disorder, immediately attacked Kashmir? Even well established, well developed countries think a lot before attacking some other country. Answer is simple, it looks like this state is created by British to create their proxy Army by using youth of Pakistan. If you observe, ISI of Pakistan and their Army journals and officers have huge plum properties of acres in Briton. If you check history of their every ruler, prime minister, president then each one of them has studied in Briton or US and has rich family background and has no connect with poor families of Pakistan. It looks like till date all of them are sponsored by big people from US and UK. Same thing happened in late 1940s and Pakistan got all the resources from them and immediately attacked Kashmir. King of Kashmir then realized his mistake and reached immediately to govt of India. Sardar Patel who was then home minister of country took strong stand and defeated this Pakistan’s Army and Kashmir was incorporated in India. Imagine our own people separated from us, Pakistan got created, they were given weapons and they attacked their own land, killed their own people and created conflict for their own People.

Next bad thing happened with Kashmir is passing of Article 370 which granted it independent status with bare minimum interference of Central govt and that too requires permission of state government. Just imagine, state which was recently attacked, enemies are looking for further opportunities and you give it independent status. People of Kashmir were left in further vulnerable status and they were not even aware of what further chaos that were planned for them. This means our politicians were/are equally involved in misery of people of Kashmir. In between many regimes changed in Pakistan, many assassinations of their own leaders, many military rules were enforced but few things remained central to its policy Destruction of economy of their own country, destruction of education, spreading poverty and increasing Zamindari, radicalizing youth and giving birth to same western sponsored military generals who dance to western power’s tunes and use these radicalized youth where ever western powers want. They used them in Afghanistan, Baluchistan and after lot of planning in Kashmir as well.

For almost 2 decades Kashmir remained in this state and suddenly during late eighties politics began in the valley. Politicians incited hatred against community of Pundits and lot many people’s properties were destroyed. As per reports, many of the political leaders, their party workers were involved and actually took part in riots. If we carefully observe who takes part in riots – people who do not have any work, who are paid, few fanatics, political leaders. Common people who have work and job to look after their families never get into this nonsense. Once riots start rumors are spread, media gives it air in most fearful fashion and fear is instigated in people’s mind and heart. Media reports it one community against other and people who are not involved in it also get dragged into it and they bear unnecessary brunt of it.

Later on in the beginning of 1990’s situation deteriorated and radicalized people began giving threats and killing of people and all pundits were asked to leave. Is it possible without support of local political leaders? Absolutely No. From where people got the weapons? From across the border, where these western sponsored Pakistani Army generals & politicians are looking for such opportunities to radicalize youth who unfortunately destroy their own motherland and finally themselves. Benazir Bhutto was prominent Pakistani leader who instigated youth at that time. Timing of these incidents collide when there was weak leadership in central government of India. Out of fear for their lives, most Kashmiri Pundits moved out of valley and then Kashmir landed up in the hands of these politicians who provoked people for riots. Not all Muslims were involved in all these things. In fact many of them asked Kashmiri pundits not to leave valley as this is their homeland and in fact they protected many and this is the reason almost 750 to 800 Kashmiri pundit families are still staying in valley. Many wanted to help but could not come to help as they feared for their own life as militants with political support were killing. Whole situation was portrayed as all Muslims targeted Hindus, of course many got carried away and joined riots but not all.

Afterwards real economic, social plundering of valley began. Whole region fell in the hands of few politicians who themselves are living in plush properties, are rich and common people’s fate was left in darkness. Surprisingly you will find many of the Kashmir’s politicians again studied in UK and US and have properties there as well. Despite of such beauty and nature’s all around blessings, no development happened, no good education facilities, no agricultural growth. In fact if you visit few of the rural areas of Kashmir, people don’t even know what refrigerator is. They are very poor. Over the time Militancy increased in Kashmir. Whether youths agree or not they were forced into militancy. There are today ample examples of youths who got out of it and they tell their horrible stories. How they suffered and how they were used. Sometimes even youths who leave such terrorist groups and start their normal life are killed in Kashmir. Look at the Kashmir which is under territorial control of Pakistan. What is happening with People who are on that side now. Terrorist camps are run there. Youths are forced into terrorism and GOD only knows in which part of the world they are deported. What have people achieved by separating from India? People must come out of this mirage and perception that Pakistan is country. It is military center operated by ISI run on the funds of few western powers and this proxy army has been even used in the destruction of Middle East as well.

Look at the economic havoc created by this issue and despite of being in heaven, people are living in very bad condition. All people of Kashmir are clearly losers from all sides! Then question comes who are the ultimate gainers? What I have found is few western powers or rather few western politicians, businessman and few of our own country’s people – politicians, Bollywood also have equal hand in it, yes Bollywood as well! Look at the total area of Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. How many apple orchards are there. Is this land utilized to its full potential, absolutely No. In Kashmir itself not much. Ideally this region of our country should have developed to its full potential and this region not only would have supplied Apples to India but would have exported to many other countries! People and our country would have been Rich! Forget about exporting, today India imports so many Apples from few internationally dominant countries and we lose money and potential jobs. When everyday your whole area is publicized negatively with news of militancy and literally zero development by local politicians how come these areas will grow? Same goes for Saffron. Kashmir produces finest saffron in the world which has high medicinal properties. Are we utilizing it to its highest potential? Are people getting fair prices, is enough employment generated out of it? Answer is No…Same goes for Shawls, Carpets, Wooden Crafts etc…Kashmir is surrounded by beautiful Himalayas and good amount snowfall also happens in valley. Imagine how many jobs would have created by various dedicated trekking corridors, dedicated ice skating areas. This place would have been full of tourist all around the year.

Next most important aspect of Kashmir is Tourism. It is the most affected sector of this area. Most beautiful land and its tourism is hit badly. If this issue would not have been there, not only from India but from across the world tourist would have landed up in Kashmir for their vacations. Now though tourist come but very few. Imagine amount of jobs tourism would have created. Hotels, Restaurants, Local shopping, sightseeing and many more such opportunities. People of Kashmir would have earned so much money that they would have become one of the richest on planet. Government also would have collected huge taxes which they would have used in many other areas. I have observed that media publishes most negative news about Kashmir. Not only Militancy but even small cloud burst is shown in big way and even today due to this negativity many tourist cancel visiting Kashmir. Local people may not be realizing this play of Media. At one point of time negativity was so high that people used to not even dare to think about trip to Kashmir! Though situation has little improved today but it is far away from even good. Then where do tourist land up? First destination is Switzerland then few other European countries, Malaysia, Thailand. Billions of dollars which would have gone to Kashmir are going there. Bollywood has assisted in great way in destroying tourism of Kashmir. After early nineties you will observe, most of the scenic movies of Bollywood are shot in Switzerland. Even one of the producer and director has one train named after him in Switzerland. Most of his movies he made in Switzerland and developed their tourism in great way. In fact in one of the most hit movie which was released in 1995, a very good love story in which perfect marketing of Switzerland was done. Knives, bells, trains, nice mountains and nice backgrounds. If you go to Switzerland they exactly sell such bells, knives and Indian tourist are ahead in buying them. In fact that movie posters are kept at few places. If you ask me to title that movie, I will name it as “Dilwale bewakoof banakar paisa uda le jayenge”. After this movie many movies came which were shot in Europe and in subtle way did develop tourism there. I am not against Europe or Switzerland, it is beautiful but Kashmir is also equally beautiful or far more beautiful and it will be cheaper option to the people of world compared to other tourist places. We as tourist go to other places and show off our tour to others but never pay attention to our own burning heaven. Just see after early nineties Bollywood produced what kind of movies on Kashmir. Gone are the days of movies like ‘Kashmir ki Kali’. Movies which come are only based on terror, militancy, kidnapping which terrify people. Never ever they show beauty of Kashmir. If people can go to Kashmir to shoot such movies then why can’t they make movies which portray beauty of region and promote tourism for region.

From all of the above thing, to me Issue of Kashmir cannot be looked into isolation. To me it looks well planned and well organized internationally driven event in which lot many people of our country are involved. What I have seen is, it is ensured that in every way people of this country lose and few big western powers gain. When Kashmiri pundits where moved out from valley they were living in refugee camps. Look at the condition of those camps. It is terrible. Lot many of us didn’t even know that they are living like this as this is never news in print and electronic media. Why our own politicians never paid attention towards them. Why are they not even given proper homes to live. Who has stopped politicians from this? Will they blame militants for this issue? Are they not equally part in larger conspiracy? Are all of them getting equal share of money at the cost of nation, at the cost of Kashmir and its people? At least my mind says yes to it.

Even today many of local people of Kashmir want Pundits to return to their homes. I feel they only can solve this issue now. All the people who are currently living in Kashmir must unite and demand bringing back Kashmiri Pundits. They must put pressure on their politicians and ask them to put this thing as main agenda. Prosperity comes where peace is and poverty rules where violence is happening.Whatever happened has happened, now they must come forward and bring back their brothers into valley and start new life for themselves and for this Country!

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!

SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF BAKRA EID AS WELL AS BAKRA BALI INFRONT OF DEVI (MOTHER GODDESS)…ITS IMPORTANCE IN CURRENT TIMES

I feel lucky to have grown up into multi-cultural and multi religious environment as it has taught me many things and many times I see many similarities in basic intention of many rituals but many times we are not aware, do not pay attention to or put our ego ahead of everything and miss the main crux of the entire thing. Many times people do not take interest or even fear sometimes to look at other religions rituals and what good we can take from them.

Since childhood I am seeing these two rituals of giving bali (sacrificing) of bakra (male goat) infront of Devi (Mother Goddess) and Bakra Eid. Though I am not any religious head or follower of both these rituals, I feel there is a great spiritual side behind both these rituals and lets see what it is (There are and coud be man religious reasons for celebrating this but I am focusing on spiritual side)

Our ancestors were very wise and they just didn’t start any rituals just for the sake of starting, I find that they have considered upto great extent how human mind works, what kind of situations they face in their life, various natural cycles and how all can come together and celebrate this journey called life.

Just think why ancestors thought of giving sacrifice of Bakra only. There are so many animals on planet, why this particular animal is chosen? If you see, goats move in a herd. They are always in group and if you see most of the times they are moving in direction where herd is moving. Basically it is this herd mentality and you will never see that a goat or sheep separates from group and decides to move ahead alone. They become fearful under little bit of stress or threat and finally they may fall pray to predator. They cannot roar like a lion and face difficult situations. Little bit of adverse situation and you will see that all will start running around and they will chose the path which others have chosen, without thinking. Just observe and you will see this fact. In fact look at the ones which are in the middle of herd. They have absolutely no clue where they are heading and what is in store for them. I am trying to stress this herd mentality and fear of this animal as both these attitudes go hand in hand.

Both these herd mentality and fear are there in humans as well and I feel this is the most appropriate time to highlight how it is working and people are succumbing to it and bringing great harm/loss to themselves, society and nation. Herd mentality of humans is nothing but without courage, out of fear they do what others are doing. Just copy or move along with masses while taking decisions of your life and look at the few situations how it has harmed and is actually harming, infact from childhood many of us are doing this…

• • Just because media/builders creates environment that all are buying flats, houses and rates are going to go up, many of us rushed to buy bought & invested in many flats. Many have taken big loans and now scratching heads for its repayment….herd mentality…

• • Look at students….if 4-5 of them are studying together then while studying many times they look at each others progress…If somebody had progressed more then they become fearful and panic, then they understand or not they try to finish at the same speed as others…herd mentality..

• • While taking admissions to various graduation, post-graduation courses, students look at others. what others are doing, in which direction others are moving. If mob is moving towards engineering then take it, Information technology then move there. Without thinking ones own capability, practical situation, they move in this herd mentality…

• • Just because stock markets are moving up, others are investing in it and if you don’t then you will be left behind, without knowledge, without thinking, many start investing. Listening to any crap recommendation people put any amount of money and lose it! Stock market crash of 2008-09 is simple of example of this and I have seen many who were just rushing to make money…herd mentality…

• • These days if you read news on websites of these news papers or news channels then many times you will see news like this “So and so Photo of so and so actress or Video has went viral”. Now many click on it just because it has gone viral and with these clicks it actually goes viral!…herd mentality…these news people know this and deliberately they put news as “So and so thing has gone viral…”

• • Somebody comes and tells people that I will double your money in next 1 or 2 years or you create chain of members and you will get so and so money. They give examples of other people who have invested, who are making money. Many feel secure sighting others investment and they also invest in it. Later on when it turns out to be a Ponzi scheme, all people lose money!…herd mentality…

• • Another simple example, if you are going to buy vegetables, fruits in market and if there are 10 people sitting there, you will observe that shop where there is little rush people first go there and buy there..

• • Many are succumbing to anxiety created & marketing done for new launches of cellular phones, people rush to buy as whole world is running to buy those and people end up spending huge amount of money. Just check, these phone companies are now having such big valuation that they can buy some country!…its due to this herd mentality…

• • Just because some movie shows some new style of clothing, many run to buy them. Infact you will be amazed to see how few underwear brands got popularity. Lead actor used to show elastic of his brand above his jeans and many started using that… Imagine movies which are mostly based on fake, hypothetical stories and are largely based on imagination of some director or based on propaganda of producer, are ruling life of people…

• • Some advertisement on TV shows that most of dentists recommend our toothpaste and many start buying that…herd mentality…rather than driven by one’s own intellect, knowledge, experience, how these advertisements are driving people. If you want to see how people succumb to advertisements & marketing, visit their bathroom once and you will see 2-3 types of shampoos, 2-3 types of conditioners, faces wash, hair creams, sun creams, cold creams, various soaps and what not…Check once on how many people these products have actually worked, you will find none and people are wasting lot of money. Infact they are filled with so many harmful chemicals which are going inside your body through your skin.

• • Private universities publish their various research and people believe it and start following/behaving like that as many times their finding are presented in percentages Ex- Research suggest if people don’t use ground nut oil then heart attack % reduces by 50%. Now without checking facts many started using palm oil. Now many scientists tell that ground nut oil is best. In this process many farmers lost money making crop called groundnut and few greedy ones made money. One ridiculous research I came across – “If husband and wife together drink liquor then they are more happy”. You will see many such stupid researches in media around you. These are driven purely for increasing demand of particular products and flourishing few businesses.

• • Propaganda was driven that chemical pesticides help in producing more crop. Many farmers succumbed to this so called green revolution. Without checking facts many have used these and polluted their land. These pesticides are resulting in so many severe diseases to humans and many times I feel more than green revolution, it is cancer revolution.

• • Media is making people fearful and coward by showing only negative news. Rarely we see any positive or good news in newspapers or news channels. This is creating fear psychosis in people and people fear to raise their voice against injustice.

• • If news channels show that, any saint has done some wrong thing then without verifying real facts just because all are blaming saint, people also start blaming them. In India one saint was accused of murder and media people showed that news for more than 2000 hours and people immediately made him demon and people forgot that it was accusation and not verdict of court. He was harassed for nine years but finally it got proved that he did nothing and he is innocent. This news media showed for hardly for eight minutes. Despite of this example, people still get driven by herd mentality. Even today some accusation on any saint and you will see tsunami of reactions. Many are just cursing because others are cursing.

• • Just because actor/hero & actress is drinking liquor or smoking, many yougnsters start doing same thinking it is cool thing to do. If few friends are doing party and few of them are drinking alcohol or smoking then you will observe that many non-drinkers and non-smokers succumb into it and they also begin, very few stand out and say I will not!

There are many more such examples and basic intention of highlighting these is to portray harm which we are causing in this herd mentality. We need to sacrifice this herd mentality and emerge as true lion in our life. Even today in rural parts of india, if some child becomes very fearful then people say “once sacrifice bakra in front of mother goddess”. Mother goddess symbolizes fearlessness, energy & activism. You sacrifice your fear & herd mentality to her and emerge fearless, filled with energy. Henceforth lets sacrifice our herd mentality, fear & emerge as lion to serve our country. This Bakra Eid sacrifice these two things and emerge as lion to serve your  family, society and country. Many people debate whether to give bali of actual animal in rituals – then sentiments of people are attached to it since many years people are following it. My personal opinion and heart tells that not to kill animal physically for rituals (for eating meat is different and for rituals different) but various religious heads can sit together, ponder and decide with people what is best for all but know one thing for sure that country is waiting for many lions!