Scriptural knowledge and its arrival in one's life

 I'm like that "Gadha" mentioned by Rancho in the movie - 3 idiots. I did my Computer Science Engineering, followed it up with 5 years of work experience in programming, then did an MBA, followed it up with 10+ years of work experience in product management, and am now pursuing an M.Sc. in Yoga.

I'm not ashamed of being a "Gadha"! 

I believe that it is a natural process of discovering our true potential and interests. Not everyone (like Rancho) will have the clarity to pursue Engineering at the age of 17, just because one loves machines. Even if one does have the clarity, it can be stifled or suppressed by family/financial/societal pressures.

I feel blessed to have the privilege of listening to some amazing lectures on Upanishads, Gita, and Yoga philosophy in my present course. I'm grateful that this knowledge is coming to me, at least in my early 40s and not in my 60s/70s. 

I see many students in their mid-20s in my batch who are receiving this knowledge. They are quite blessed to get such guidance at a young age. But the pressures of managing a career, job, course exams and other family responsibilities tend to make them deprioritize the real value of learning and instead, focus on studying for the sake of clearing the exams. It felt disheartening to hear this comment from a fellow student - "Why should we carry home the 1st-semester books after the exams? Wish I could just leave them back at the campus".

As I go deeper into the Upanishads, I'm sure I'll want to revisit the concepts I learned in the course by referring to the learning material.

Exams are not the be-all and end-all of learning a subject. Somehow, our system has ingrained this thought due to the excess importance given to grades/marks.

I understand that one needs to reach a certain level of maturity and life experience to realize the value of scriptural wisdom. But when one is given the opportunity to gain this wisdom at a young age, they are truly blessed and when this fact is recognized, it makes a huge difference in our approach to learning.

Relaxation and taking breaks

 The last few weeks have been hectic - preparing for exams, attending practicals classes, writing/editing the last few chapters of a new book, K traveling, and D falling sick in the same week, preparing and delivering a session on packaged and traditional foods, along with the regular household responsibilities. 

I usually sit on the sofa, stretch my legs, and watch a movie whenever I want to relax, typically in the evenings. Our kitty W loves to cuddle on my lap while I watch TV. It is our usual bonding routine! 

She noticed I had not been watching TV in the past few weeks. She was getting restless one evening and started shouting so much. I gave her food, milk, and water. But she didn't touch any of it. The meows persisted, even louder and more demanding. I sat on the sofa and she immediately jumped on me. I then realized that her meows were an order meant for me to sit down. She happily cleaned herself for some time, followed by purring, and cuddling, and slept like a log for the next hour.

Sometimes, we get so entrenched in all our tasks and projects that we don't feel the need to take a break. 

When we enjoy what we do, we don't feel the need to relax in front of the television.

When we loathe what we do, we resort to hours and hours of binge-watching TV to distract our minds from the stress and emotions of mundane work, dealing with egoistic, self-centered people who are part of the workplace.

Consciously making the time to relax is very much essential, irrespective of whether we enjoy our work or not. 

Please note, that "work" in this context implies everything we do in our daily routine. It is NOT limited to what we do at a workplace, for an employer earning a salary in exchange for our skills contribution. Whenever someone differentiates between working moms and stay-at-home moms, I find it a ridiculous comparison, as all moms are working - be it at home or in an external office premise. This topic needs a separate post and I shall pen it down later.

We choose to relax in our preferred ways. What I find relaxing may not be relaxing for another. For eg, my daughter loves to sing and she ends up singing for close to an hour. When we both play Antakshari, I feel exhausted after 20-25 minutes. I love to be engrossed in a non-fiction book for a couple of hours, but someone else might find it more tedious than relaxing. 

As with everything else, it is up to us to figure out our preferred ways to relax and not emulate what works for someone else.

The journey and the need for an expert

 Let's say one wants to go from point X to point Y.

Person A seems to know the route from X to Y. Or he is confident of figuring it out by himself using resources like a compass, a physical map, or Google Maps. He believes that the whole process of figuring out the route is more interesting and doesn't mind spending his time/effort on this process.

Person B prefers to be handheld by someone who is an expert in this route. He doesn't want to struggle independently and would rather rely on the expert's guidance. He believes that reaching point Y is the goal and if someone can assure to take us there, it is okay to take their help in exchange for a fee.

The perspectives and experiences gathered by these two persons will be quite different in their respective journeys. One cannot judge their choices - be it a self-relying or an expert-relying approach.

One cannot judge the "need" of an expert who offers such services for a fee as there are takers for such experts' guidance.

As long as the expert delivers on the promise made to Person B in reaching the destination, it is all fair and good.

In some cases, the expert promises Person B to take him to destination Y. In the end, Person B realizes he is nowhere close to Y and has ended up at a distant point Z. It is now up to Person B to unlearn the route, trace back his steps, and figure out an alternate route, leading to more distress and uncertainty. The expert ends up fooling more such people and making huge profits in this bargain.

What does the route X=>Y entail? What is this journey for? Is it

• to learn a new skill,
• to learn a new subject,
• to get a new perspective,
• to pursue a goal,
• to accomplish something,
• to gain knowledge,
• to identify our areas of improvement,
• to work on our areas of improvement,
• to grow in our material/spiritual pursuit?

As long as the journey and the end goal are concrete and can be articulated clearly, it is easier to find the right expert to help us on this path. For eg, if my X=>Y journey is to learn swimming in 3 months, I would seek the service of a swimming coach who has the experience and expertise. We would work out a plan together to achieve this goal.

Many times, we don't have the clarity in us about our journey and end goal. Without that clarity, if we try to seek an expert, there are high chances we might end up falling into the trap of self-proclaimed, fake gurus.

Are our goals truly ours?

Are our goals decided due to peer pressure?

Why do we even want to move from point X to point Y?

What's missing in point X?

What do we expect to gain at point Y?

What sort of hurdles do we expect to face in this journey of X=>Y?

Let's gain absolute clarity on these questions before we proceed with getting an expert's guidance.

Knowledge and Resolving Dilemmas

 I heard this statement in a Vedanta discourse and it made so much sense. It helped me connect many dots.

"As you gain more and more knowledge, you will have more and more dilemmas".

Let's unpack this statement.

At first glance, it might sound - "It is better not to pursue more knowledge as it might be unproductive. Ignorance is bliss".

We arrive at this conclusion because of the belief that dilemmas are bad or unproductive. We consider the effect (dilemmas) "not good" and so we end up blaming the cause (more knowledge).

Let's define the two terms in this statement:

Knowledge - any input or information coming from an external source

Dilemmas - having to decide between multiple options or choices

Let's say, a person ABC is affected by diabetes, but he is unaware that he has diabetes. When a sweet is offered to him, he accepts without any hesitation. He might even go for a second helping.

ABC now receives the knowledge through a routine blood test that he has been diagnosed with diabetes. When a sweet is now offered, he is in a dilemma - to accept it or not. Even if he accepts the first piece, he will hesitate to go for the second one. The knowledge has caused the dilemma.

If his mind overpowers his intellect, he will succumb to his temptation and prioritize immediate pleasure. He might even go for the second piece.

If his intellect is more powerful than his mind, he will gracefully say NO without being upset about his choice.

For the intellect to make the right choice, the knowledge required:

• Awareness that he has diabetes
• Sweet foods will spike his blood sugar levels
• His health is a priority - for his own sake and his family
• By gracefully saying NO, he wouldn't be disrespecting the guest who offered him the sweet

Dilemmas help us evaluate life choices and take us to the subsequent levels in our journey - self-awareness, self-growth, or spiritual journey - however you might want to call it.

Resolving dilemmas with the help of gathered knowledge awakens our intellect.

Resolution with objectivity - taking into account, various inputs and making an informed decision with the available knowledge sharpens our intellect.

We raise ethical and moral questions in our minds. We do not merely follow the herd.

We use our intellect's discriminatory powers (to discern between right and wrong) more often.

There are two challenges in this process:

1. Dilemmas in terms of the quantity or the number of attributes have to be manageable, or else we might end up in choice paralysis.
2. If the mind also gets involved in resolving dilemmas, when emotions start to play a predominant role, the process of discernment gets affected.

Without knowledge, there is no conflict or confusion. There is no awareness. This gives room for people with malicious intentions to exploit our ignorance for personal or business motives.

When we approach life with the belief that ignorance is bliss, we end up being at the same spot where we started. Life moves on, and years roll by. It might seem blissful at the outset, but you feel a sense of vacuum or unexplained emptiness.

Knowledge helps to "activate" the inherent intellect present in all of us. The activated intellect gets charged every time we gain new knowledge and resolve more dilemmas.

Given this importance, we should prioritize seeking knowledge and continuous learning throughout our lives. Knowledge from reliable, trustworthy sources with the right intentions makes all the difference. 

The Joy of pursuing your interests

 In the Gita chanting class yesterday, an elderly aunty joined in from the hospital. She said, "I underwent knee surgery and couldn't join the class yesterday. I'll be here for the next three days and will join the classes".

It felt so inspiring to see her sincerity and commitment to attend the classes despite her present condition. I see many senior citizens participating in these classes with so much dedication. 

Consistency becomes easier when we are enjoying the process rather than wondering (or worrying) about the end outcome. 

The materialistic world has made us overly concerned about "What's in it for me? Does this give money, power, position, or fame? What's the use of putting in the effort? How do I extract value from a new idea/initiative? Is there a monetization opportunity?".

Such a result-oriented mindset takes away the joy of doing. The pursuit of curiosity merely becomes a source of identifying business opportunities.

Doing things just for the sake of doing is slowly getting lost OR pushed to the list of retirement hobbies to take up after 60. My question to such folks is - "Dude, how are you so sure you'll live up to 60?"

A simple question - "Why I do what I do?" brings a lot of clarity. Be it a stressful job, a business idea, a competitive exam, or higher education - this question is a MUST before we embark on them or even when we are too involved in such pursuits. Following the herd might sound like a safe bet in our 20s when we are unsure about our inherent nature and our interests. Once we gain that clarity, it is better to carve out our own path. 

Waiting to LIVE AND EXPLORE in the 60s/70s is a huge risk we are taking. It is dependent on multiple factors - the lifespan that is fixed for us, health conditions - both physical and mental, future responsibilities and challenges, and the state of society.

The 12-year journey of discovering myself

 Yesterday, I presented a day-long session on packaged foods and traditional food wisdom to a group of educators focused on sustainability.  It was an interactive session that was well-received by an enthusiastic audience. I was so glad to be in that state of "speaking" flow after a long time, sharing my thoughts on various topics I'm passionate about.

While preparing the slides, I decided to reflect on my personal journey in the last 12 years and created this slide.

My journey started with understanding about food and how food impacts our health. As I reflected, it feels like an organic shift from one area to the other. I felt guided and directed by the higher power while learning, embracing, and sharing about these aspects. 

It also feels like the dots have connected beautifully when viewed through this lens of body-mind-intellect. As I re-read some of my older posts on food, nutrition, habits, etc, it brought a happy smile as this blog is a raw documentation of this journey.

There were multiple ups and downs, failures, and disappointments in these 12 years, having tried various experiments. On a personal level, it has been highly fulfilling and impactful. Once the learned knowledge got assimilated, I have been mostly consistent with habits, and changes I have incorporated in my life. 

But as far as taking the learnings and insights to a larger audience, my persistence levels weren't long-lasting. I try a new idea/initiative for at least 6 months up to a year. If I don't see much traction, I move on to the next.

I no longer spend time on social media as a content creator. I'm now absorbed in this space of quiet reflection, along with lots of learning and handling my responsibilities. 

Judgment in complete awareness

 This happened a few months back. While attending in-person and online classes as part of my MSc Yoga, we had a hectic schedule with back-to-back sessions on various subjects. 

One of the subjects was "Anatomy & Physiology". Our faculty had a lot of topics to cover in the limited time frame allocated to her. Most of us found the lectures hard to follow as it felt like too much information packed into a few classes. We also quickly passed judgments and comments that the faculty could have done a better job. 

We got the recordings of all our classes and as we took time to go through them in the comfort of our homes at our own pace, we realized that the faculty has done a fabulous job of discussing the key points of all the major systems. Although the lectures felt super-fast during the sessions, they were easy to understand when we applied our complete focus and attention.

As I reflected upon this experience, a few thoughts emerged:

Many times, we make quick judgments based on our initial experience. 

When we engage in an experience - be it a new situation or a new person, do we have all our faculties available to make a judgment? 

Sometimes, our bodies might be too tired. 

Our senses might have too much to absorb.

Our minds might be overloaded with emotions and feelings.

Our intellect might be intimidated by too much information.

In such a state, is it wise to make a quick judgment? 

System 1 thinking, as elaborated by Daniel Kahneman, is at play in such scenarios when we quickly judge something or someone. Such thinking, though helpful in many life-threatening situations, has its biases and pitfalls. We have heard of this popular phrase - "Don't judge a book by its cover". One more addendum to this could be - 

"Don't judge a book when you are not fully available to peruse through its contents".

Before we pass a judgment in our minds, let's ask ourselves - "Are all my faculties active? Am I making this judgment in full awareness?"

Intellectual poverty

 Over the last few weeks, I have been following the political news more closely, thanks to the Lok Sabha election results. One of the tweets I came across on X said something on these lines -

 "Politicians and political parties deliberately want people to remain poor so that they are dependent on freebies and vote promises."

As I thought about this statement, I realized this strategy is equally relevant to the self-proclaimed gurus who have mushroomed on social media on various topics. They would want their followers to blindly follow what they convey through their posts/workshops/courses and remain poor in their intellectual abilities.

As long as their followers remain intellectually poor, these false gurus can keep offering one course after another, minting money, and generating multiple revenue streams.

How do they ensure their followers fall for the tricks in their playbook? Here are a few observations:

• Groupthink - Ensure more praises are sung by certain "loyal" followers in a larger community - Whatsapp/telegram, etc

• Scarcity principle and leverage FOMO - "This course is only available for 100 people", "I do this course only once a year" etc

• Create an "aura" embellished by extreme ideologies that makes people curious and inquisitive about the "guru"

• Share as many testimonials as possible to convince people that their courses are life-altering experiences. Are these real or fake testimonials - no one bothers to ask.

• Keep the course outlines vague. Use statements like "May bring clarity" to avoid commitments or confrontations.

• Discourage people from asking questions. Make them feel stupid for even having a question in the first place.

• Pass on referrals on related topics to their close circle of other "gurus" so that the followers are made to be collectively dependent on this elite group

• Call all other sources of knowledge "inferior" - books, family elders, and traditions/rituals so that people would always depend on them (or their close-knit circle) for life advice.

• Project a holier-than-thou image through carefully curated reels on the topic they call themselves an "expert"

• Never allow people to have an alternate point of view that contradicts what the "coach" says. And more importantly, do not allow such different voices to get heard in the community

These are some of the tactics by which the common people, especially women who are on social media are deliberately kept intellectually poor by these so-called experts and coaches.