Karma to Vasana - the journey

 A 10-year-old boy meets a hungry stray cat. He feels sorry and asks his parents to get cat food to feed her. They buy him a small packet of food, and he happily feeds and plays with the cat. The cat responds with a soft purr and acknowledges the kid for his kind act. The action performed is karma.

The same boy often sees the stray cat in his vicinity and continues to feed her. This has become a daily activity, and the boy feeds the cat and plays with her for some time. The habit formed is samskara.

The boy grows up and travels a lot around the country. Whenever he sees a stray cat, he tries to give some food and pet him/her. Strangely enough, wherever he travels, he stumbles upon a stray cat on the road. It feels like there is an attraction or an energy that brings him and the cat together. The constant engagement with this habit has now turned into his tendency or vasana.

This vasana continues with him for the rest of his life. The more he engages with it, the more likely he will carry this tendency forward to his next life.

Every karma we do has the likelihood of turning into a vasana. 

Vasanas are the basis of our unconscious responses. Vasanas are the foundation based on which our consciousness gets conditioned. 

Let's be mindful of our habits and pay more attention to the ones that affect our physical and mental health - smoking, alcohol, binge-watching TV, addictions, excess social media, overeating, excess shopping, overindulging our senses, hoarding stuff, anger, rage, etc. They not only deteriorate the quality of our present life but also have the potential to be carried forward to subsequent lives with more intensity.

Book Review: The Fall of the Human Intellect by A. Parthasarathy

 "The Fall of the Human Intellect" by Shri Parthasarathy ji is a crisp and short book of 140 pages, and it took me almost 3 months to finish. This is such a kind of book that needs time to contemplate and reflect upon the points discussed. More importantly, given its condensed nature, it requires deeper explanation and analogies to connect to the topics. 

I'm grateful to YouTube for bringing this book and Vedanta Academy to my attention. I signed up for the book discussion sessions organized by Vedanta Institute Kolkata. The weekly sessions conducted by Ramaswamy ji have been insightful with beautiful explanations and correlations drawn based on the topics from the book. He brings in a lot of clarity through references from scriptures and personal anecdotes.

Thanks to the YouTube recommendation algorithm, I came across Vedanta Institute London's channel where the recordings of the book discussion sessions conducted by Bhaskar ji are uploaded every week. Bhaskar ji articulates the topics so well with easy-to-relate examples and powerful one-liners. I look forward to his lecture every Tue morning and jot down detailed notes.

The book reading experience, aptly supported by lectures from two scholars of Vedanta, has helped me understand the topic of "Intellect", factors that have led to its deterioration, and the impact we are facing because of its downfall - both from an individual and society point of view, and ways to develop one's intellect.

From the point of view of the book, the author has provided convincing arguments on the derangement of our intellect and why it is an important problem to address in our society. He sets the foundation by explaining how our Self expresses itself through multiple roles, resulting in various personalities. He then takes us on a journey to help us understand how the mind wreaks havoc when not governed by the intellect. Our likes/dislikes, desires, and anxieties take precedence, leading to attachment and bondage. 

Intellect plays a vital role in looking at life objectively, in thinking, deciding, and making life choices, and in the way we relate to the world. There are too many valuable takeaways in the chapters that stress the role of intellect. For eg, the author talks about the lack of individual assessment in humans. We bucket ourselves into groups and judge our character and personality based on the group(s) we belong to. This is similar to how we name all tigers as aggressive. The author argues that each individual has a unique fingerprint of vasanas or tendencies and every human helplessly manifests his own nature.

The differences between mind and intellect, intelligence and intellect, knowledge and wisdom are well explained. 

The language is simple and easy to understand without any complex jargon. He has also used multiple references (poems and stories) from English literature to drive home certain key points. I so wish this book was more descriptive as the topics discussed need more coverage and detailing.

A few of my favorite phrases:

"Unrestricted indulgence kills the enjoyment that you seek".

"One needs an intellect to notice the absence of intellect."

"Concentration is the technique exercised by the intellect to hold the mind on the present occupation without allowing it to slip into the past or future".

"Knowledge has to be drawn out of students. Not thrust into them".

"A person possessing a strong intellect acts cautiously to keep his desires contained within the wealth acquired".

The learnings and takeaways from this book can be greatly enhanced if you sign up for the book discussion sessions organized by Vedanta Academy in various cities/countries, along with reading the book at a slow pace.

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.