आजच्या म.टा. मध्ये प्रसिद्ध झालेली एका नवीन नाटकाची जाहिरात...
Sunday, October 17, 2010
सादर करीत आहे (५० डेसिबलचा) छोटा फटाका...
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आजोबा, मला पॊकेटमनी पुरत नाही. बाबा म्हणाले ’आजोबांकडे जा, मला पण तेच देतात.’
हं, बोल किती पाहिजेत?
नाही, मला आता माझा धंदा सुरू करायचाय, स्वतःच दुकान...!
आजोबा (सदगदीत होऊन): बाळा, किती लवकर हाताशी आलास रे...आजच तुला तुझं स्वतःच दुकान उघडून देतो...नाव काय ठेवणार आहेस?
’युवा सेना!!’ .......कसं वाटलं???
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Leadership vs Management and Gyan
A few days ago there was high-level Strategic Planning Meeting within my organization to plan for the internal goal/ initiative. The goal is to double the revenue by 2012 and to quadruple it by 2015!!! Certainly a very ambitious and daunting task…
So I was overwhelmed when I received following message in my Inbox:
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As we continue to march forward, we need to periodically reassess our market position and reinvent ourselves to stay relevant to our customer needs and expectations. We should anticipate emerging trends and align our strategies to capitalize on growth opportunities.
This year we will do this assessment and map out the charter for future growth and development at our Strategic Planning Meeting…and will share immediate communication and updates of these discussions with you on a daily basis...
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Now my excitement was not only because the organization was going to share with me the daily updates, thereby making me feel part of the BIG initiatives – creating a sense-of-belonging – but it was also because, I had this complaint about this organization for a long time, that nothing was planned, there was no strategy for growth, no vision, no action plan. Success had happened purely because they were present at right time and right place – and even the so-called ‘success’ was great or anything – just modest growth… So I was happy to finally see some Strategic Planning happening and was eager to know what our leaders (not just top but second and third tier management) think/ say. In last 2 years that I have been at this organization I have never seen how our BU head looks – forget about what he thinks and says! So I was all excited…
Now all my excitement faded and finally turned into anger and irritation when I read through the daily blabbering of so-called thought leaders at my organization. Here is the compilation of their ‘pearls of wisdom’ and then I will continue with my thoughts and cause for my irritation. (Pls. note that this was a Strategic Planning meet aimed at identifying action plan for a time-bound goal – to double and quadruple the revenue in 2 and 5 years respectively. Not some conclave where thought leaders sit together and discuss something abstract and totally unintelligible)
Excerpts:
XYZ has made good progress and we need to continue to enrich our passion and energy to support creativity and innovation. We need to continuously innovate to provide valuable products to our customers at right times with genuine customer orientation
Customers partner with us because we know more about them, respond to their needs, appreciate their business, build trust and form intimate relationships over the lifetime. We need to deepen relations with our customer and prospects and commit long term sustainable delights.
Without an action and execution plan, a vision is just a dream. Collaboration and execution will drive us to realize our goal. We need to visualize broadening of our roles that entails greater collaboration across business units, horizontals, support functions, markets and sectors.
To best serve our customers, we need to move beyond our silos and enable efficient sharing of knowledge and experiences. Collaboration and co-operation of activities are keys to effectively serve customers.
Participating at current year's ongoing Strategy meet, I am confident of one fact: XYZ is set for Unfettered Growth. We are geared for a new phase of larger growth and expansion.
We, as a team are planning for growth while keeping a careful eye on costs. I and my team are committed and getting ready for the goal, Are you?
XYZ has notably made progress and we should continue to optimize our market position harnessing our passion, talent and innovation. Our charter is to reduce time to market for fulfilling opportunities by engaging with key market influencers, drive new accounts to quickly become strategic accounts and with strong collaboration across the organization to Key accounts. We also focus on leadership training-developing and nurturing talent.
Integrated service offerings, product partnerships with leading and relevant players in market place and a globalized talent pool will only accelerate growth
XYZ’s Strategic Meet 2010 is focused on laying charter for XYZ’s future growth and development. Key areas of focus for us is aligning business services with IT structures and IT modernization amongst other key initiatives that we currently pursue
XYZ has exciting times ahead and with our commitment we progress towards our goal. To achieve this thrust, we need to collaborate, strive for zero defects in what we do and continuously look for opportunities
Involving, mentoring and training the identified talent will support taking up skill positions. Our focus is to build new accounts, have clear aligned new account strategies, enlarge footprint in existing accounts and focus on building product partnership and service offerings.
With a dedicated focus on these we will achieve growth
To continue delivering value to our customers and achieve the aspired growth, building domain expertise, differentiated accelerators and offerings and strategic product partnerships will be key. We need to commit ourselves to continue our efforts to position XYZ as the best on the outsourcing landscape.
XYZ Strategy Meeting 2010 is focused on building collaboration and integration for XYZ. External markets present very exciting opportunities in fields like Cloud Computing and Analytics for us to join forces and develop. XYZ Finance team will work in partnership with business groups to exploit these opportunities and be an enabler for future growth – funniest of all….from Finance team
XYZ is poised for growth and with collaboration we will build strength and take advantage of opportunities that arise in our industry. To drive us towards the goal, integrated IT-BPO service offerings, focus on new geographies and investment in technology and domain skills form key focus areas for us.
Key is to focus on what we want to achieve and execute it, and we will take XYZ to newer heights.
Our focus is on People Excellence as People excellence will lead to organizational excellence. While there will be focus on talent acquisition and training, the key drivers to People Excellence would be Leadership excellence, Process excellence, Innovation & Learning and Recognition & Employee Engagement.
We will together help XYZ progress to achieve its goal. … (HR – who else??!!)
XYZ’s verticals and horizontals, sales and support functions are all geared up to use collaborative efforts and use our strength to achieve our target. We should continue to provide innovative, offshore centric solutions to our customers. By focused process orientation we provide delivery excellence and value add to our clients.
Focus on geographical expansion of customer base beyond US and UK and geographical expansion of delivery centers beyond India will further fuel our progress towards our goal
XYZ’s talent is the source of its competitive advantage. I will personally drive 3 specific initiatives to help develop this key capability. Spend 2 hours every week on people development with my immediate and extended teams, participate at least 1 new hire induction every month and execute a structured engagement plan with our client facing teams – (This one came from the head of Strategic Initiatives – the only one that made sense and was relevant to the goal!)
XYZ’s journey gets better and better as the years roll on. While we are proud of our accomplishments, we know there is more work to be done. We know that success doesn’t belong to one area or one person; it belongs everywhere and to everyone and we will collaborate to ensure that XYZ’s exciting journey continues to go on.
There is much happening in the market place and we are recognizing and gearing ourselves to continue maintain our leadership market position. Disruptive technologies like Cloud Computing form our focus areas and we commit to take help our customers navigate through this turbulence.
We operate with a Global Mindset, support a Culture of Collaboration, foster a Passion for Learning, encourage Employee Development and Value The Individual. Key areas we focus today cover leveraging strong BNFS positioning using global experience, deliver strong set of service offerings and seed anchor accounts to ensure sustainable growth.
XYZ continues to draw strength from its employees, strong client relationships, excellent track record, and its strong positioning as it looks to achieve greater successes. Integrated service offerings, ownership and collaboration across the organization will support XYZ to reach newer heights
A lot of dedication, hard work and collaboration has led us to where we are today. We realize that there's no short cut or silver bullet for achieving success in the marketplace and with team work and leveraging each others strengths we will make a difference.
There is no one formula to success. Continuous innovation to deliver new valuable solutions and improving operational excellence remains our team’s charter. Addressing customer needs at right times and with right solutions is our focus.
Market is changing and so are customer needs. We focus to enhance XYZ’s market position by deploying newer and better marketing practices. Improving XYZ’s brand visibility, understanding trends and pulse of the market place and supporting XYZ’s sales endeavors forms our charter
Consistently delivering value to our customers is essential. We have a great platform which has potential to deliver value and we commit ourselves to leverage such critical service offerings to take to market.
We will focus on developing competition analysis framework to create growth opportunities. We plan to form capability leadership teams to execute and support various strategic initiatives. Key is to maintain operational excellence and people excellence. People are our assets and we will ensure People excellence by maintaining Effective People engagements, Transparent Performance Management and Clear career growth planning. Horizontal and Vertical Interlock and zero tolerance on Quality compliance will be our force.
We need to collaborate, execute and replicate our successes to ensure XYZ’s growth.
XYZ’s unity of talent, energy and new ideas is enormous. Maintaining the industry leading standards and working together as one is important. We will contribute to ensure we as XYZ are amongst the best on the outsourcing landscape
Our focus on Operational and People Excellence is going to lead XYZ to be recognized as the best in the industry. This will ensure world class IT shop floor for our customer delivering First time Right.
The Strategic Meet made evident that there is tremendous potential waiting to be harnessed within XYZ. It has led us to understand how we need to manage growth and collaborate to success
Our team will be focused to ensure customer delight. We will close on business solution SME's who are key drivers of growth. To ensure people excellence we will mentor emerging leaders and create opportunities of growth for our employees
My take away from the meeting is to take the ownership of my work, take initiatives for the organization, closely collaborate with my colleagues and departments and ensure that I leave no stone unturned to achieve our goals.
With our collective and sincere efforts, I am confident our growth will only multiply at a much rapid rate from here.
We will make strategic investments in building competencies around our core strategy.
We will ensure People Excellence by introducing new Career Tracks, deeply focus on Employee Engagement activities and enable Leadership Connection with our teams.
The “think big” excitement from the strategic meet must flow into every employee
Inculcating XYZ’s value system, creating a high performance work culture and providing ample opportunities to do different things using rotation is a key element that will be practiced to ensure people excellence.
We will focus on expanding existing accounts, winning large accounts. Expansion in other key geographies and investment in sales teams to expand outreach will help us build promising presence
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This was what the great leaders said during a five-day high-flying meet – considering their paychecks and the way the grand event was hosted – a good number of $$$ (6 digits sum at least – if not seven digits) must have been spent!
In the end I received the following message:
…The concluding Day 5 of Strategic Planning Meet was culminated into each BU and horizontal presenting their plan in support of our goal….
Our BU level plans are interlocked with horizontal and region plans. We will have a common definition of success and we will support each other to achieve as per defined objectives within specified timelines.
…
…
… clearly Collaboration and Ownership are essential to our success and we recognized these two themes as key.
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immediate attention to Operational/Delivery Excellence
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Business excellence will be a result of people, quality and delivery excellence.”
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How did you find this whole thing? If you were an employee, would you have been all charged up and excited and enlightened? Or would you have been confused and harassed by jargons, buzzwords, lack of clarity or action plan, to-do items???
The verbal diarrhea might have been well received by the participants of this meet but what did they prove or achieve by sharing this with all employees? Most employees ignored (promptly deleted emails without bothering to skim through the daily updates), many did not even know what Strategic Meet is or how it affects or influences them…few others who did care and bother to track the minutes were clueless, disappointed and irritated (like me!)
This got me thinking about a few things:
- Are these strategic meets (and similar other high-flying initiatives/ events) for real or gimmicks to fool media, customers, investors, employees and management themselves? Do they produce results? How many of such initiatives succeed and how many fail?
- Do such meets have any co-relation with what these leaders would do when they disperse and go back to Business As Usual?
- Do, at any point in time later, they measure the outcome vis-à-vis the strategic planning that was done earlier? Or do they just keep on sitting through the meetings as a ritual – without bothering about its effectiveness? (There was an earlier initiative in my organization – with some goals for 2010..that just evaporated as we entered 2010 and set new goals for 2012 and 2015…nobody at top bothered to discuss or reflect upon the earlier goal and take away from it. I am sure similar meetings/ presentations, brain-storming must have happened when the earlier goal was launched/ announced. And partly the same crowd must have sat through the recent strategic meet)
- Do people understand the intensity and significance of words ‘excellence’, ‘leveraging’, ‘innovation’, ‘end-to-end solution’ etc.? They have become so blunt and commonplace that you don’t feel excited hearing them… The head of strategic initiatives was the only person who spoke something tangible and actionable – the rest was Gyan (that too of inferior quality and jargon). I remember an incidence sometime back when we were preparing presentation for a prospective customer and the aim was to ‘demonstrate our capabilities and propose an end-to-end-solution’…a complete rowdy Account Manager (who was going to deliver the presentation!) looked at the first-cut (another buzzword…) and said ‘…arre kuch naya daalate hain iss baar…ek kaam kar, yeh Engagement Model wala slide edit kar…uss mein ek ‘Centre of Excellence’ ka box daal do. Aur usko ‘Knowledge Management’ aur ‘seamless integration with service offerings’ waale box ke saath join kar do. Achchha dikhegaa…thoda punch aayega solution mein!’ I was simultaneously laughing and feeling like punching that guy in nose! A few days ago a US senator called Indian IT giant Infosys ‘chop shop’ - a disgraceful remark aimed not just at Infosys but the entire Indian outsourcing industry. I am not too sure that his comments were entirely disgraceful and there was no element of truth in it. But that apart, what I was surprised at was – the entire industry (including respectful and thoughtful names) condemned such harsh words – but the same people seem to ignore when we demean and ridicule such words as ‘centre of excellence’ and ‘ innovation’ and ‘providing value to customer’. I do not see much difference in the two extremes – the US ridiculing our industry as chop-shop and we ridiculing customer’s intelligence by loosely using phrases ‘centre of excellence’, ‘best-in-class solutions’, ‘state of the art or cutting-edge technology’ etc. In fact if I were to choose between the two extremes, I would rather go with ‘chop-shop’ coz I see some element of truth there!
- Do people at top understand difference between Management and Leadership? Is it sufficient to wear designer suits and talk jargon to be considered as a Leader? One of the Ten Things of Google Philosophy says ‘You can be serious without a suit’ – most of the Indian leaders seem to think otherwise.
- Is is not necessary to talk sense and be relevant? What is such great fascination for high-flying hollow buzzwords? Why can’t people understand their role and restrict to their sphere of work? Look at the funniest comment above (marked in red). It comes from Finance department. Why on earth, the finance department – purely a support function within IT organization with no role to play in main business – would talk about (or even dare to mention) Cloud Computing? I guess the person would feel like a ‘social outcaste’ in that meet if he did not use that lingo…but that would not make him a laughing stock as he would (or did) – by talking about Cloud Computing.
- Lastly – how much of this Gyan is under the influence of management studies (MBA etc.) or imitating the ‘true leaders’??? I am sure most of these people wouldn’t have done MBA but may have some fascination for it. Or some might be reading the true thought leaders world-over and might desire to talk/ think like them. Nothing wrong in it – in fact it’s perfectly alright! But the problem is – if it is not backed by sound thinking and/ or owning/ inculcating that lingo then that talk remains superficial – only hollow bubbles of words. Quoting one leader at the above mentioned meeting ‘The “think big” excitement from the strategic meet must flow into every employee’…and for this to happen this excitement must first be real and honest at the source – the great leaders!
I am very much confident that the organization is NOT going to meet the goal (nowhere even closer) and have strong reasons/ data to support it. Let’s see what happens in reality. I will keep a close eye on how this story unfolds…
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
मराठी मोजमापे…
धान्य मोजण्याची मापं :
दोन नेळवी = एक कोळवे
दोन कोळवी = एक चिपटे
दोन चिपटी = एक मापटे
दोन मापटी = एक शेर
दोन शेर = एक अडशिरी
दोन अडशिर्या = एक पायली
सोळा पायल्या = एक मण
वीस मण = एक खंडी
चार शेर= एक पायली
आठ पायली= एक कुडव
आठ कुडव= एक गिध
वीस कुडव= एक खंडी.
एक शेर म्हणजे जवळपास ८५० ग्रॅम. एक पायली म्हणजे ४.५ कीलोला थोडे कमी भरते.
सोने-चांदी-औषध मोजण्याची मापं :
गुंज तुम्हाला माहीतच असेल. नसेल तर इथे पहा : गुंज
आठ गुंजा = एक मासा
बारा मासे = एक तोळा
अंक :
१ - एक
१० - दहा
१०० - शंभर
१००० - हजार
१०००० - दहा हजार
१००००० - लक्ष
१०००००० - दशलक्ष
१००००००० - कोटी
१०००००००० - दशकोटी
१००००००००० - अब्ज
१०००००००००० - खर्व
१००००००००००० - निखर्व
१०००००००००००० - महापद्म
१००००००००००००० - शंकू
१०००००००००००००० - जलधी
१००००००००००००००० - अन्त्य
१०००००००००००००००० - मध्य
१००००००००००००००००० - परार्ध
चलन :
तीन पै = एक पैसा
दोन पैसे = एक ढब्बू पैसा
दोन ढब्बू पैसे = एक आणा
दोन आणे = एक चवली
दोन चवल्या = एक पावली
दोन पावल्या = एक अधेली
दोन अधेल्या = एक रुपया
अंतर :
तीन फूट = एक यार्ड
१७६० यार्ड = एक मैल
दोन मैल = एक कोस
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Speech by JAVED AKHTAR at India Today Conclave...and response by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Javed Akhtar and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar both participated in India Today Conclave - where Javed Akhtar delivered this speech. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar responded to it later (not at the conclave).
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Spirituality: Halo or Hoax?
Speech by JAVED AKHTAR at India Today Conclave
I am quite sure ladies and gentlemen, that in this august assembly nobody would envy my position at this moment. Speaking after such a charismatic and formidable personality like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is like coming out of the pavilion to play after Tendulkar has made a sparkling century. But in some weak moment I had committed myself.
There are certain things that I would like to make very clear at the very outset. Dont get carried away by my name Javed Akhtar. I am not revealing a secret, I am saying something that I have said many times, in writing or on TV, in public I am an atheist, I have no religious beliefs. And obviously I dont believe in spirituality of some kind. Some kind!
Another thing. I am not standing here to criticize, analyze, or attack this gentleman who is sitting here. We have a very pleasant, civilized relation. I have always found him to be an extremely courteous person.
One is talking about an idea, an attitude, a mindset. Not any individual. I must tell you that when Rajeev opened this session, for a moment I felt that I have come to the wrong place. Because, if we are discussing the philosophy of Krishan and Gautam and Kabir, Vivekanand, then I have nothing to say. I can sit down right now. I am not here to discuss a glorious past of which I suppose every Indian is proud, and rightly so. I am here to discuss a dubious present.
India Today has invited me and I have come here to talk of spirituality today. Let's not be confused by this word spirituality, you can find two people with the same name and they can be totally different people. Ram Charit Manas was written by Tulsidas. And the television film has been made by Ramanand Sagar. Ramayan is common but I dont think it would be very wise to club Tulsidas with Ramanand Sagar. I remember, when he had written Ramcharit Manas, he had faced a kind of a social boycott. How could he write a holy book in such a language like Avadhi? Sometimes I wonder fundamentalists of all hues and all colors, religions and community show how similar they are. In 1798, a gentleman called Shah Abdul Qadir, in this very city, for the first time translated Quran in Urdu, and all the ulemas of that time gave fatwa against him that how could he translate this holy book in such a heathen language.
When Tulsi wrote Ramcharit Manas and he was boycotted, I remember a chowpai that he had written.
*Dhut kaho abdhut kaho rajput kaho ki julawa kohu*
*Kohu ki beti se beta na biahab, kohu ki jaat bigaar na chahu*
*Mang ke khaibo, mehjid ma raihbo, lebe ka ek na debe ka dohu*
Ramanand Sagar, when he made his television serial, he made millions. I am not undermining him, but obviously he is much lower in the rung. I will give you another example. Perhaps it would be more direct and more appropriate. Gautam came out of a palace and went into wilderness to find the truth. But nowadays we see, the modern age gurus, come out of the wilderness and wind up in the palaces. They are moving in the opposite direction. We can't talk of them in the same breath. So let us not hide behind names which are dear and respectable for every Indian.
When I was invited to give this talk, I felt that yes, I am an atheist, try to be a rationalist in any given situation, Maybe that's why I have been called. But suddenly I have realized that there is another quality that I share with Modern Age gurus. I work in films. We have lot in common. Both of us, sell dreams, both of us create illusions, both of us create icons, but with a difference. After three hours we put a placard 'the end'. Go back to reality. They don't.
So ladies and gentlemen, let me make it very clear that I have come to talk of this spirituality that has a supermarket in the world. Arms, drugs and spirituality these are the three big businesses in the world. But in arms and drugs you really have to do something, give something. That's the difference. Here you don't have to give anything.
In this supermarket you get instant Nirvana, Moksha by mail, a crash course in self realization, cosmic consciousness in four easy lessons. This supermarket has its chain all over the world, where the restless elite buy spiritual fast food. I am talking about this spirituality.
Plato in his dialogues has said many a wise thing, and one of them is before starting any discussion decide on the meanings of words. Let us try to decide on the meaning of this word spirituality. Does it mean love for mankind that transcends all religion, caste, creed, race? Is that so? Then I have no problem. Except that I call it humanity. Does it mean love of plants, trees, mountains, oceans, rivers, animals? The non-human world? If that is so, again I have no problem at all. Except that I call it environmental consciousness. Does spirituality mean heartfelt regard for social institutions like marriage, parenthood, fine arts, judiciary, freedom of expression. I have no problem again sir, how can I disagree here? I call it civil responsibility. Does spirituality mean going into your own world trying to understand the meaning of your own life? Who can object on that? I call it self-introspection, self assessment. Does spirituality mean Yoga? Thanks to Patanjali, who has given us the details of Yoga, *Yam, Yatam, aasan, pranayam*We may do it under any name, but if we are doing pranayam, wonderful. I call it health-care. Physical fitness.
Now is it a matter of only semantics. If all this is spirituality, then what is the discussion. All these words that I have used are extremely respectable and totally acceptable words. There is nothing abstract or intangible about them. So why stick to this word spirituality? What is there in spirituality that has not been covered by all these words? Is there something? If that is so then what is that?
Somebody in return can ask me what is my problem with this word. I am asking to change it, leave it, drop it, make it obsolete but why so? I will tell you what is my reservation. If spirituality means all this then there is no discussion. But there is something else which makes me uneasy. In a dictionary, the meaning of spirituality is rooted in a word called spirit. When mankind didn't know whether this earth is round or flat, he had decided that human beings are actually the combination of two things. Body and spirit. Body is temporary, it dies. But the spirit is, shall I say, non-biodegradable. In your body you have a liver and heart and intestines and the brain, but since the brain is a part of the body, and mind lies within the brain, it is inferior because ultimately the brain too shall die with the body, but don't worry, you are not going to die, because you are your spirit, and the spirit has the supreme consciousness that will remain, and whatever problem you have is because you listen to your mind. Stop listening to your mind. Listen to your spirit - the supreme consciousness that knows the cosmic truth. All right. Its not surprising that in Pune there is an ashram and I used to go there. I loved the oratory. On the gate of the lecture hall there was a placard. Leave your shoes and minds here. There are other gurus who don't mind if you carry your shoes. But minds? Sorry!
Now, if you leave your mind what do you do? You need the Guru to find the next station of consciousness. That hides somewhere in the spirit. He has reached the supreme consciousness, he knows the supreme truth. But can he tell you. No sir, he cannot tell you. So can you find out on your own? No sir, you need the guru for that. You need him but he cannot guarantee that you will know the ultimate truth and what is that ultimate truth? What is the cosmic truth? Relating to cosmos? I have really not been able to understand that. The moment we step out of the solar system the first star is Alpha Centuari. It is just four light years away. How do I relate to that!! What do I do!!
So the emperor is wearing robes that only the wise can see. And the emperor is becoming bigger and bigger. And there are more and more wise people who are appreciating the robe.
I used to think that actually spirituality is the second line of defense for the religious people. When they get embarrassed about traditional religion, when it starts looking too down-market, they hide behind this smokescreen of cosmos and super consciousness. But that is not the complete truth. Because the clientele of traditional religion and spirituality is different. You take the map of the world, you start marking places which are extremely religious, within India or outside India, Asia, Latin America, Europe wherever. You will find that wherever there is lot of religion there is lack of human rights. There is repression. Anywhere. Our Marxist friends used to say that religion is the opium of poor masses, the sigh of the oppressed. I don't want to get into that discussion. But spirituality nowadays is definitely the tranquilizer of the rich.
You see that the clientele is well heeled, it is the affluent class. Alright, so the guru gets power, high self esteem, status, wealth (which is not that important), power and lot of wealth too. What does the disciple get? When I looked at them carefully I realized that there are categories and categories of these disciples. Its not a monolith. There are different kinds of followers. Different kinds of disciples. One, who is rich, successful, doing extremely well in his life, making money, gaining property. Now, since he has everything he wants absolution too. So guru tells him - whatever you are doing, is *niskaam karma *you are playing a role, this is all *Maya*, the money that you are making everyday and the property that you are acquiring, you are not emotionally involved with it. You are just playing a role. You come to me because you are in search of eternal truth. Maybe your hands are dirty, but your spirit and soul are pure. And this man, he starts feeling wonderful about himself. For seven days he is exploiting the world, and at the end of the seven days when he goes and sits at the feet of the guru, he feels I am a sensitive person
There is another category. That too comes from the affluent class. But he is not the winner like the first one. You know winning or losing that is also relative. A rickshaw-wallah if he is gambling on the pavement and wins hundred rupees will feel victorious, and if a corporate man makes only 300 million dollars, while his brother is a billionaire, he will feel like a failure. Now, what does this rich failure do? He needs a guru to tell him who says that you have failed? You have other worlds, you have another vision, you have other sensibility that your brother doesn't have. He thinks that he is successful, wrong. The world is very cruel, you know. The world tells you honestly, no sir, you have got three out of ten. The other person has seven out of ten. Fair. They will treat you that way and they will meet you that way. There he gets compassion. There he plays another game.
Another category. And I will talk about this category not with contempt or with any sense of superiority, not any bitterness, but all the compassion available one that is a very big client of this modern day guru and today's spirituality, is the unhappy rich wife. Here is a person who put all her individuality, aspirations and dreams, and her being at the altar of marriage and in return she got an indifferent husband. Who at the most gave her a couple of children. Who is rather busy with his work, or busy with other women. This woman needs a shoulder. She knows that she is an existential failure. There is nothing to look forward to. She has a vacuous, empty, comfortable yet purposeless life. It's sad, but it is true.
Then there are other people. Who are suddenly traumatized. They lose a child. The wife dies. The husband dies. Or they lose the property, they lose their business. Something happens that shocks them and they ask why me? So who do they ask? They go to the Guru. And the guru tells him that this is Karma. But there is another world if you follow me. Where there is no pain. Where there is no death. Where there is immortality. Where there is only bliss. He tells all these unhappy souls follow me and I will take you to heaven, to paradise, where there is no pain. I am sorry sir, it is disappointing but true that there is no such paradise. Life will always have a certain quota of pain, of hurts, a possibility of defeats. But they do get some satisfaction.
Somebody may ask me if they are feeling better, if they are getting peace then what is your problem. It reminds me of a story that I have read. It's an old Indian story told by a sage, that a hungry dog finds a dry bone and tries to eat it and in the process bites its own tongue. And the tongue is bleeding and the dog feels that he is getting nourishment from the bone. I feel sad. I don't want them, these adults, to behave like this because I respect them. Drugs and alcohol are also supposed to give mental peace and serenity, but is that kind of piece or serenity desirable or advisable?
The answer is no. Any mental peace that is not anchored in rational thoughts is nothing but self-deception. Any serenity that takes you away from truth is just an illusion, a mirage. I know that there is a kind of a security in this which is like the security of a tri-cycle. If you are riding a tri-cycle you can't fall. But adults do not ride tricycles. They ride bi-cycles. They can even fall. It is a part of life.
There is one more kind. Like everybody who is the member of the golf club is not fond of golf. In the same way everybody who is seen in an ashram is not a spiritual person. A film producer who is an ardent follower of a guru, whose ashram is about two hours from Delhi once told me that you must go to my Guru. You will see the who's who of Delhi there. Let me tell you my Guruji is another Chandraswami in the making. Now this is a contact point for networking. I have great respect for people who are spiritual, or religious, and in spite of this they are good people. And I have a reason. I believe that like every emotion or feeling, you have a limitation.
You can see up to a point. And you can't see further. You can hear up to a point, but beyond that you won't be able to register sounds. You can mourn up to a point and then you will get over your mourning. You will feel happy up-to a point and then you will be through with your happiness. Same way, I am sure that you have a certain capacity for nobility also. You can be as noble and no more. Now suppose if we count this capacity for nobility in the average man as ten units, now anybody who goes to pray in a mosque five times is consuming his five units, there anybody who goes to the temple or sits in the feet of the Guru, he is consuming his quota of nobility there. And in a totally non-productive manner. I don't go to pray. I don't pray. If I don't go to any guru, or mosque or temple or church, what do I do with my quota of nobility. I will have to help somebody, feed somebody, give shelter to somebody. People who use their quota in worshipping, praying, adoring religious figures and spiritual figures, in spite of that, if they are left with some nobility, hats off to them.
You may ask me, that if I have this kind of ideas about religious people, why should I show such reverence for Krishan and Kabir and Gautam? You can ask me. I'll tell you why I respect them. These were the great contributors in the human civilization. They were born in different points of time in history, in different situations. But one thing is common in them. They stood up against injustice. They fought for the downtrodden. Whether it was Ravana, or Kansha or the pharaoh or the high priests or the British Samrajya in front of Gandhi or the communal empire of Firoze Tughlaq in the times of Kabir, they stood against that.
And what surprises me, and confirms my worst feelings, that today, the enlightened people who know the cosmic truth, none of them stand up against the powers that be. None of them raises his voice against the ruling classes and the privileged classes. Charity, yes, when it is approved and cleared by the establishment and the powers that be. But I want to know which was that guru which took the dalits to those temples which are still closed to them. I want to know which was that guru who stood for the rights of the Adivasis against the thekedaars and contractors. I want to know which was that guru who spoke about the victims of Gujarat and went to their relief camps. They are human beings too.
Sir, It is not enough to teach the rich how to breathe. It is the rich man's recreation. It is the hypocrites pretension. It is a mischievous deception. And you know that in the oxford dictionary, mischievous deception is a term that is used for a word, and that word is HOAX.
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... and the response by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (of Art of Living)
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It is funny that in a country like India spirituality is talked about as a hoax. How can something which is so obvious, which is part of millions of people, be taken as a hoax? Spirituality is not a halo of the few, it is the breath of every human being. Have people forgotten that freedom was achieved through spirituality as the prime means by Mahatma Gandhi?
It has become a fashion with journalists to blindly continue the colonial tradition of calling Hindu spiritual leaders a hoax. They called Mahatma Gandhi, Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo godmen and hoaxes, and their contemporaries continue to do so. Would they say this to Mother Teresa or the Dalai Lama? No! Only Indian spiritual leaders are singled out.
The India Today Conclave offered a basis for a discussion on spirituality, "Halo or Hoax?" Javed Akhtar joked, "In movies we create an illusion and then after three hours we put up a sign, The End, and make people step back into reality, whereas spiritual people also create an illusion but they do not put an end to it." The audience applauded. I smiled within and thought, yes, what this man says is correct, all that is created comes to an end. If something does not end then it is not created! Perhaps he didn't even realise the profound truth of what he was saying.
So in some way he tacitly accepted that the love and drama he creates in the movies does end, but the love and transformation created by spiritual people never end. Yes, this whole world is an illusion that never ends. I drew Adi Shankara from his sarcasm. What an enigma: the perception and the reality. So Mr Akhtar is actually saying that his reel love songs are false. If only he knew the reality: that his lyrics express the genuine feelings of thousands of youth when they come and sing his marvelous songs before me, with that spark of love in their eyes. Real-life love never ends; it moves from life to lifetimes.
Spirituality is intoxicating. Only those who step into it will know. Before criticising we need to do our homework. Has one visited ashrams, like the Ramakrishna Ashram, Ananda Mayi Ma Mutt, Brahma Kumaris', Gayatri Parivar, Pandurang Shastri, Sri Aurobindo Ashram or Art of Living? Has one spent time with saints? Only then does one's views carry weight, else they remain simple accusations only, a distorted perception, not reality.
Mr Akhtar thundered again: "All modern-day spiritualists are hypocrites". Many people froze as he dismissed the present-day gurus. Today there are millions of people who follow spirituality: are they all hypocrites? I appreciated that he could express his feelings boldly, without pretension. But the contempt that was exhibited for gurus was alarming. The hatred and frustration were obvious from his body language. It's not just Mr Akhtar. Many journalists, communists, atheists and naxalites live in that state of mind, of being anti-religious, anti-rich, anti-famous, anti-business.
Should I argue and put him down? No! I have never put anyone down. I can't deviate from my nature. So I simply said, everyone has the right to be ignorant.
A flash of Aurangzeb, who butchered thousands of gurus and would not listen to any reason or logic, came to mind. An intelligent man would look into all the avenues before he makes a comment or accusation. It is necessary to stand up for justice and expose the misdeeds of the world. Instead the so-called activists only engage in accusations. Blaming the entire modern-day spiritual guru and sadhu community is as foolish as branding the entire Muslim community as terrorists.
It is the medieval brahmanical mindset to always put down business and politics and the colonial mindset to denounce gurus. As a result we never expanded our political influence nor globalised our business until very recently.
Then came his next statement that Buddha went from the palace to the forest and today the gurus come from the forest to the palace. I said to myself, 'Come on! Buddha went to the forest when he was unhappy and miserable, and he came right back when he became a guru'. Any high school student knows this. Besides, every palace had a rajguru. Last year hundreds of sadhus were evicted from the caves and hermitages of the Himalayan region, near Haridwar, by the forest department. People generally think sadhus should live in forests with torn clothes but the forest department wanted to send them to the city!
The atheists have always fought with spiritual people. In those situations we should know how to act. It is pointless to argue with them. What do you say to a man who has never stepped into the realm of spirituality yet calls it a hoax? One cannot make a blind man see the light through his nose.
Unfortunately atheists are just fearful and good dramatists. A man who equates arms, drugs and spirituality is not going to change his opinion immediately and anyway his opinion is not going to matter for what is and what will be. Come on, I thought, sing a new song. My compassion grew.
Often activists seem to create rage and revenge in the victims; they cannot bring solace and creative action. In the name of justice they fume with hatred. This can lead to acts of violence like the recent killings of 19 sadhus in Uttar Pradesh. It has been an old tradition to glorify the dead, and call the living a hoax. Kabir had to put up with this as did Meera, Buddha, Jesus, Adi Shankara and many more. the wise do not mind the outburst of a few.
Spirituality is not a matter of the head, it is a matter of the heart. I had two choices: to argue and turn the conclave into a conflict or to keep silence. I chose the latter.
[Sri Sri Ravi Shankar]
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Spirituality: Halo or Hoax?
Speech by JAVED AKHTAR at India Today Conclave
I am quite sure ladies and gentlemen, that in this august assembly nobody would envy my position at this moment. Speaking after such a charismatic and formidable personality like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is like coming out of the pavilion to play after Tendulkar has made a sparkling century. But in some weak moment I had committed myself.
There are certain things that I would like to make very clear at the very outset. Dont get carried away by my name Javed Akhtar. I am not revealing a secret, I am saying something that I have said many times, in writing or on TV, in public I am an atheist, I have no religious beliefs. And obviously I dont believe in spirituality of some kind. Some kind!
Another thing. I am not standing here to criticize, analyze, or attack this gentleman who is sitting here. We have a very pleasant, civilized relation. I have always found him to be an extremely courteous person.
One is talking about an idea, an attitude, a mindset. Not any individual. I must tell you that when Rajeev opened this session, for a moment I felt that I have come to the wrong place. Because, if we are discussing the philosophy of Krishan and Gautam and Kabir, Vivekanand, then I have nothing to say. I can sit down right now. I am not here to discuss a glorious past of which I suppose every Indian is proud, and rightly so. I am here to discuss a dubious present.
India Today has invited me and I have come here to talk of spirituality today. Let's not be confused by this word spirituality, you can find two people with the same name and they can be totally different people. Ram Charit Manas was written by Tulsidas. And the television film has been made by Ramanand Sagar. Ramayan is common but I dont think it would be very wise to club Tulsidas with Ramanand Sagar. I remember, when he had written Ramcharit Manas, he had faced a kind of a social boycott. How could he write a holy book in such a language like Avadhi? Sometimes I wonder fundamentalists of all hues and all colors, religions and community show how similar they are. In 1798, a gentleman called Shah Abdul Qadir, in this very city, for the first time translated Quran in Urdu, and all the ulemas of that time gave fatwa against him that how could he translate this holy book in such a heathen language.
When Tulsi wrote Ramcharit Manas and he was boycotted, I remember a chowpai that he had written.
*Dhut kaho abdhut kaho rajput kaho ki julawa kohu*
*Kohu ki beti se beta na biahab, kohu ki jaat bigaar na chahu*
*Mang ke khaibo, mehjid ma raihbo, lebe ka ek na debe ka dohu*
Ramanand Sagar, when he made his television serial, he made millions. I am not undermining him, but obviously he is much lower in the rung. I will give you another example. Perhaps it would be more direct and more appropriate. Gautam came out of a palace and went into wilderness to find the truth. But nowadays we see, the modern age gurus, come out of the wilderness and wind up in the palaces. They are moving in the opposite direction. We can't talk of them in the same breath. So let us not hide behind names which are dear and respectable for every Indian.
When I was invited to give this talk, I felt that yes, I am an atheist, try to be a rationalist in any given situation, Maybe that's why I have been called. But suddenly I have realized that there is another quality that I share with Modern Age gurus. I work in films. We have lot in common. Both of us, sell dreams, both of us create illusions, both of us create icons, but with a difference. After three hours we put a placard 'the end'. Go back to reality. They don't.
So ladies and gentlemen, let me make it very clear that I have come to talk of this spirituality that has a supermarket in the world. Arms, drugs and spirituality these are the three big businesses in the world. But in arms and drugs you really have to do something, give something. That's the difference. Here you don't have to give anything.
In this supermarket you get instant Nirvana, Moksha by mail, a crash course in self realization, cosmic consciousness in four easy lessons. This supermarket has its chain all over the world, where the restless elite buy spiritual fast food. I am talking about this spirituality.
Plato in his dialogues has said many a wise thing, and one of them is before starting any discussion decide on the meanings of words. Let us try to decide on the meaning of this word spirituality. Does it mean love for mankind that transcends all religion, caste, creed, race? Is that so? Then I have no problem. Except that I call it humanity. Does it mean love of plants, trees, mountains, oceans, rivers, animals? The non-human world? If that is so, again I have no problem at all. Except that I call it environmental consciousness. Does spirituality mean heartfelt regard for social institutions like marriage, parenthood, fine arts, judiciary, freedom of expression. I have no problem again sir, how can I disagree here? I call it civil responsibility. Does spirituality mean going into your own world trying to understand the meaning of your own life? Who can object on that? I call it self-introspection, self assessment. Does spirituality mean Yoga? Thanks to Patanjali, who has given us the details of Yoga, *Yam, Yatam, aasan, pranayam*We may do it under any name, but if we are doing pranayam, wonderful. I call it health-care. Physical fitness.
Now is it a matter of only semantics. If all this is spirituality, then what is the discussion. All these words that I have used are extremely respectable and totally acceptable words. There is nothing abstract or intangible about them. So why stick to this word spirituality? What is there in spirituality that has not been covered by all these words? Is there something? If that is so then what is that?
Somebody in return can ask me what is my problem with this word. I am asking to change it, leave it, drop it, make it obsolete but why so? I will tell you what is my reservation. If spirituality means all this then there is no discussion. But there is something else which makes me uneasy. In a dictionary, the meaning of spirituality is rooted in a word called spirit. When mankind didn't know whether this earth is round or flat, he had decided that human beings are actually the combination of two things. Body and spirit. Body is temporary, it dies. But the spirit is, shall I say, non-biodegradable. In your body you have a liver and heart and intestines and the brain, but since the brain is a part of the body, and mind lies within the brain, it is inferior because ultimately the brain too shall die with the body, but don't worry, you are not going to die, because you are your spirit, and the spirit has the supreme consciousness that will remain, and whatever problem you have is because you listen to your mind. Stop listening to your mind. Listen to your spirit - the supreme consciousness that knows the cosmic truth. All right. Its not surprising that in Pune there is an ashram and I used to go there. I loved the oratory. On the gate of the lecture hall there was a placard. Leave your shoes and minds here. There are other gurus who don't mind if you carry your shoes. But minds? Sorry!
Now, if you leave your mind what do you do? You need the Guru to find the next station of consciousness. That hides somewhere in the spirit. He has reached the supreme consciousness, he knows the supreme truth. But can he tell you. No sir, he cannot tell you. So can you find out on your own? No sir, you need the guru for that. You need him but he cannot guarantee that you will know the ultimate truth and what is that ultimate truth? What is the cosmic truth? Relating to cosmos? I have really not been able to understand that. The moment we step out of the solar system the first star is Alpha Centuari. It is just four light years away. How do I relate to that!! What do I do!!
So the emperor is wearing robes that only the wise can see. And the emperor is becoming bigger and bigger. And there are more and more wise people who are appreciating the robe.
I used to think that actually spirituality is the second line of defense for the religious people. When they get embarrassed about traditional religion, when it starts looking too down-market, they hide behind this smokescreen of cosmos and super consciousness. But that is not the complete truth. Because the clientele of traditional religion and spirituality is different. You take the map of the world, you start marking places which are extremely religious, within India or outside India, Asia, Latin America, Europe wherever. You will find that wherever there is lot of religion there is lack of human rights. There is repression. Anywhere. Our Marxist friends used to say that religion is the opium of poor masses, the sigh of the oppressed. I don't want to get into that discussion. But spirituality nowadays is definitely the tranquilizer of the rich.
You see that the clientele is well heeled, it is the affluent class. Alright, so the guru gets power, high self esteem, status, wealth (which is not that important), power and lot of wealth too. What does the disciple get? When I looked at them carefully I realized that there are categories and categories of these disciples. Its not a monolith. There are different kinds of followers. Different kinds of disciples. One, who is rich, successful, doing extremely well in his life, making money, gaining property. Now, since he has everything he wants absolution too. So guru tells him - whatever you are doing, is *niskaam karma *you are playing a role, this is all *Maya*, the money that you are making everyday and the property that you are acquiring, you are not emotionally involved with it. You are just playing a role. You come to me because you are in search of eternal truth. Maybe your hands are dirty, but your spirit and soul are pure. And this man, he starts feeling wonderful about himself. For seven days he is exploiting the world, and at the end of the seven days when he goes and sits at the feet of the guru, he feels I am a sensitive person
There is another category. That too comes from the affluent class. But he is not the winner like the first one. You know winning or losing that is also relative. A rickshaw-wallah if he is gambling on the pavement and wins hundred rupees will feel victorious, and if a corporate man makes only 300 million dollars, while his brother is a billionaire, he will feel like a failure. Now, what does this rich failure do? He needs a guru to tell him who says that you have failed? You have other worlds, you have another vision, you have other sensibility that your brother doesn't have. He thinks that he is successful, wrong. The world is very cruel, you know. The world tells you honestly, no sir, you have got three out of ten. The other person has seven out of ten. Fair. They will treat you that way and they will meet you that way. There he gets compassion. There he plays another game.
Another category. And I will talk about this category not with contempt or with any sense of superiority, not any bitterness, but all the compassion available one that is a very big client of this modern day guru and today's spirituality, is the unhappy rich wife. Here is a person who put all her individuality, aspirations and dreams, and her being at the altar of marriage and in return she got an indifferent husband. Who at the most gave her a couple of children. Who is rather busy with his work, or busy with other women. This woman needs a shoulder. She knows that she is an existential failure. There is nothing to look forward to. She has a vacuous, empty, comfortable yet purposeless life. It's sad, but it is true.
Then there are other people. Who are suddenly traumatized. They lose a child. The wife dies. The husband dies. Or they lose the property, they lose their business. Something happens that shocks them and they ask why me? So who do they ask? They go to the Guru. And the guru tells him that this is Karma. But there is another world if you follow me. Where there is no pain. Where there is no death. Where there is immortality. Where there is only bliss. He tells all these unhappy souls follow me and I will take you to heaven, to paradise, where there is no pain. I am sorry sir, it is disappointing but true that there is no such paradise. Life will always have a certain quota of pain, of hurts, a possibility of defeats. But they do get some satisfaction.
Somebody may ask me if they are feeling better, if they are getting peace then what is your problem. It reminds me of a story that I have read. It's an old Indian story told by a sage, that a hungry dog finds a dry bone and tries to eat it and in the process bites its own tongue. And the tongue is bleeding and the dog feels that he is getting nourishment from the bone. I feel sad. I don't want them, these adults, to behave like this because I respect them. Drugs and alcohol are also supposed to give mental peace and serenity, but is that kind of piece or serenity desirable or advisable?
The answer is no. Any mental peace that is not anchored in rational thoughts is nothing but self-deception. Any serenity that takes you away from truth is just an illusion, a mirage. I know that there is a kind of a security in this which is like the security of a tri-cycle. If you are riding a tri-cycle you can't fall. But adults do not ride tricycles. They ride bi-cycles. They can even fall. It is a part of life.
There is one more kind. Like everybody who is the member of the golf club is not fond of golf. In the same way everybody who is seen in an ashram is not a spiritual person. A film producer who is an ardent follower of a guru, whose ashram is about two hours from Delhi once told me that you must go to my Guru. You will see the who's who of Delhi there. Let me tell you my Guruji is another Chandraswami in the making. Now this is a contact point for networking. I have great respect for people who are spiritual, or religious, and in spite of this they are good people. And I have a reason. I believe that like every emotion or feeling, you have a limitation.
You can see up to a point. And you can't see further. You can hear up to a point, but beyond that you won't be able to register sounds. You can mourn up to a point and then you will get over your mourning. You will feel happy up-to a point and then you will be through with your happiness. Same way, I am sure that you have a certain capacity for nobility also. You can be as noble and no more. Now suppose if we count this capacity for nobility in the average man as ten units, now anybody who goes to pray in a mosque five times is consuming his five units, there anybody who goes to the temple or sits in the feet of the Guru, he is consuming his quota of nobility there. And in a totally non-productive manner. I don't go to pray. I don't pray. If I don't go to any guru, or mosque or temple or church, what do I do with my quota of nobility. I will have to help somebody, feed somebody, give shelter to somebody. People who use their quota in worshipping, praying, adoring religious figures and spiritual figures, in spite of that, if they are left with some nobility, hats off to them.
You may ask me, that if I have this kind of ideas about religious people, why should I show such reverence for Krishan and Kabir and Gautam? You can ask me. I'll tell you why I respect them. These were the great contributors in the human civilization. They were born in different points of time in history, in different situations. But one thing is common in them. They stood up against injustice. They fought for the downtrodden. Whether it was Ravana, or Kansha or the pharaoh or the high priests or the British Samrajya in front of Gandhi or the communal empire of Firoze Tughlaq in the times of Kabir, they stood against that.
And what surprises me, and confirms my worst feelings, that today, the enlightened people who know the cosmic truth, none of them stand up against the powers that be. None of them raises his voice against the ruling classes and the privileged classes. Charity, yes, when it is approved and cleared by the establishment and the powers that be. But I want to know which was that guru which took the dalits to those temples which are still closed to them. I want to know which was that guru who stood for the rights of the Adivasis against the thekedaars and contractors. I want to know which was that guru who spoke about the victims of Gujarat and went to their relief camps. They are human beings too.
Sir, It is not enough to teach the rich how to breathe. It is the rich man's recreation. It is the hypocrites pretension. It is a mischievous deception. And you know that in the oxford dictionary, mischievous deception is a term that is used for a word, and that word is HOAX.
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... and the response by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (of Art of Living)
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It is funny that in a country like India spirituality is talked about as a hoax. How can something which is so obvious, which is part of millions of people, be taken as a hoax? Spirituality is not a halo of the few, it is the breath of every human being. Have people forgotten that freedom was achieved through spirituality as the prime means by Mahatma Gandhi?
It has become a fashion with journalists to blindly continue the colonial tradition of calling Hindu spiritual leaders a hoax. They called Mahatma Gandhi, Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo godmen and hoaxes, and their contemporaries continue to do so. Would they say this to Mother Teresa or the Dalai Lama? No! Only Indian spiritual leaders are singled out.
The India Today Conclave offered a basis for a discussion on spirituality, "Halo or Hoax?" Javed Akhtar joked, "In movies we create an illusion and then after three hours we put up a sign, The End, and make people step back into reality, whereas spiritual people also create an illusion but they do not put an end to it." The audience applauded. I smiled within and thought, yes, what this man says is correct, all that is created comes to an end. If something does not end then it is not created! Perhaps he didn't even realise the profound truth of what he was saying.
So in some way he tacitly accepted that the love and drama he creates in the movies does end, but the love and transformation created by spiritual people never end. Yes, this whole world is an illusion that never ends. I drew Adi Shankara from his sarcasm. What an enigma: the perception and the reality. So Mr Akhtar is actually saying that his reel love songs are false. If only he knew the reality: that his lyrics express the genuine feelings of thousands of youth when they come and sing his marvelous songs before me, with that spark of love in their eyes. Real-life love never ends; it moves from life to lifetimes.
Spirituality is intoxicating. Only those who step into it will know. Before criticising we need to do our homework. Has one visited ashrams, like the Ramakrishna Ashram, Ananda Mayi Ma Mutt, Brahma Kumaris', Gayatri Parivar, Pandurang Shastri, Sri Aurobindo Ashram or Art of Living? Has one spent time with saints? Only then does one's views carry weight, else they remain simple accusations only, a distorted perception, not reality.
Mr Akhtar thundered again: "All modern-day spiritualists are hypocrites". Many people froze as he dismissed the present-day gurus. Today there are millions of people who follow spirituality: are they all hypocrites? I appreciated that he could express his feelings boldly, without pretension. But the contempt that was exhibited for gurus was alarming. The hatred and frustration were obvious from his body language. It's not just Mr Akhtar. Many journalists, communists, atheists and naxalites live in that state of mind, of being anti-religious, anti-rich, anti-famous, anti-business.
Should I argue and put him down? No! I have never put anyone down. I can't deviate from my nature. So I simply said, everyone has the right to be ignorant.
A flash of Aurangzeb, who butchered thousands of gurus and would not listen to any reason or logic, came to mind. An intelligent man would look into all the avenues before he makes a comment or accusation. It is necessary to stand up for justice and expose the misdeeds of the world. Instead the so-called activists only engage in accusations. Blaming the entire modern-day spiritual guru and sadhu community is as foolish as branding the entire Muslim community as terrorists.
It is the medieval brahmanical mindset to always put down business and politics and the colonial mindset to denounce gurus. As a result we never expanded our political influence nor globalised our business until very recently.
Then came his next statement that Buddha went from the palace to the forest and today the gurus come from the forest to the palace. I said to myself, 'Come on! Buddha went to the forest when he was unhappy and miserable, and he came right back when he became a guru'. Any high school student knows this. Besides, every palace had a rajguru. Last year hundreds of sadhus were evicted from the caves and hermitages of the Himalayan region, near Haridwar, by the forest department. People generally think sadhus should live in forests with torn clothes but the forest department wanted to send them to the city!
The atheists have always fought with spiritual people. In those situations we should know how to act. It is pointless to argue with them. What do you say to a man who has never stepped into the realm of spirituality yet calls it a hoax? One cannot make a blind man see the light through his nose.
Unfortunately atheists are just fearful and good dramatists. A man who equates arms, drugs and spirituality is not going to change his opinion immediately and anyway his opinion is not going to matter for what is and what will be. Come on, I thought, sing a new song. My compassion grew.
Often activists seem to create rage and revenge in the victims; they cannot bring solace and creative action. In the name of justice they fume with hatred. This can lead to acts of violence like the recent killings of 19 sadhus in Uttar Pradesh. It has been an old tradition to glorify the dead, and call the living a hoax. Kabir had to put up with this as did Meera, Buddha, Jesus, Adi Shankara and many more. the wise do not mind the outburst of a few.
Spirituality is not a matter of the head, it is a matter of the heart. I had two choices: to argue and turn the conclave into a conflict or to keep silence. I chose the latter.
[Sri Sri Ravi Shankar]
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WOMEN EXPLAINED...
Forward this to all the guys for a good laugh, and to all the ladies who have a good sense of humor... :)
Friday, August 6, 2010
Did you know this? A fun fact about letters 'a', 'b', 'c' & 'd'
Did you know this...???
Fun facts about letters 'a', 'b', 'c' & 'd'
Letters 'a', 'b', 'c' & 'd' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 99
Letter 'd' comes for the first time in Hundred
Letters 'a', 'b' & 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999
Letter 'a' comes for the first time in Thousand
Letters 'b' & 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999,999,999
Letter 'b' comes for the first time in Billion
And
Letter 'c' does not appear anywhere in in the spellings of entire English Counting!!!
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