From here to eternity

Time flies. But does it really? Actually the concept of time is a little misunderstood by people. There is no such thing as time, because the past, the present and the future exists simultaneously. Time is an illusion. It’s ruled by Saturn.

Like we cannot give that which we do not have already, we cannot lay claims on the future. That is something that we do not possess. Whereas the past and the present is all ours to be treasured. To claim the future, we will need to please the lord of the rings viz. Saturn.

Time never comes back. It’s like an arrow which has left the bow. Or a word that has been spoken. Hence the phrase “Do not bother about the past” although we will be able to traverse to the past and arrive at a different future. All these permutations have already happened in the universe.

Time will vanish on the D-day. (death) Because it is Lord Shiva, the ruler of Saturn who comes to pick us up. Whether it is greying of the hair or getting a big paunch. as time passes by, you are still the same person. Forget your name or physical attributes, you are just a spark of the divine.

And he who seems to enjoy the dance is the same as the dancer. When the knower and the known become one, time disappears …

Best Wishes

Guru30

Being a trainer ain’t easy

The role of an Acharya

The need for a good teacher is felt by every organization. A teacher can also be a mentor. Training is about sweat and blood. It saps you of your mental state, as one is constantly engaged with the students thoughts. The mark of a good trainer is that he teaches students how to fish than giving them a fish every day.

The trainer holds the position of a mother or father, constantly enduring the questions that come up in the minds of his students. A good trainer is like Narada, the Dev-Hrishi who always used to think of Lord Vishnu. No wonder Valmiki (the author of Ramayana) was his disciple. You can really achieve wisdom when you train people.

A trainer will be surprised to see different angles to his basic teachings, as the students feed him with more ideas and possibilities. Being a trainer is a tough job. To handle many students at the same time is a challenge. Everybody vies for your attention and you have to give them all personal consideration.

The mode of delivery is changing now. Earlier we used to have classroom theory trainings and then practical's. In the modern world these two functions are now performed in the same class. The other area that will be bullish will be online training. As video conferencing becomes more viable and cheaper, the means of teaching is also remote in nature.

A trainer can never be substituted with a e-learning programme for example. The eye-to-eye contact between 2 or more people will never be overtaken by remote training. A trainer grows faster than a person who does not share information. Training is not a panacea, but nevertheless it's a requirement for everyone.

Om Guruvaye Namaha !!!

Guru30

Will you bet on the BloomBox

There is so much hype about the BloomBox from Bloom Energy who are slated to launch their product this Wednesday. Whether it will live up to it's expectations, only time will tell. But the idea is neat. Generating clean electricity from fuel cells seems to be a good bet but, whether it will take off in large numbers remains to be seen.

The BloomBox is essentially made of ceramic plates sandwiched by a sand like material. They claim to produce clean energy with this. The Bloom Energy Server is distinct in four primary ways: it uses lower cost materials, provides unmatched efficiency in converting fuel to electricity, has the ability to run on a wide range of renewable or traditional fuels, and is more easily deployed and maintained.

Unlike traditional renewable energy technologies, like solar and wind, which are intermittent,

Bloom's technology can provide renewable power 24/7. Each Bloom Energy Server provides 100 kilowatts (kW) of power in roughly the footprint of a parking space. Each system generates enough power to meet the needs of approximately 100 average U.S. homes or a small office building. For more power, customers simply deploy multiple Energy Servers side by side.

The list of investors include people like the CEO, S.R. Sridhar and the likes of Arnold Schwarzenneger and Colin Powell. Bloom has funding of 400 milllion USD and has been working on the concept for the last 8 years. If this takes off as a disruptive technology, it's going to sell like hot cakes and upset a lot of people.

May God Bless the World and the Bloom Box people. (Let's hope that it takes off)

Guru30

www.BloomEnergy.com

The death of distance

If you think that distance makes the heart grow fonder, you may be right. From the days that a postal mail used to reach somebody after 4 days, we are in the era of email which takes seconds to reach the other person. The bandwidth issue is going to get better, with real time on the near horizon. But will this help?

This is a question that I have been asking myself for a long time. Real Time according to me is a pipedream. However fast the response may be there will always be an iota of seconds between the request and the response. For all practical purposes, in light of our limitations, we may reach that stage when we feel that real time is happening. Although, the right word is perceive not feel.

The heart is on an 'always on' connection. This very moment I'm typing this, the communication between other worlds and myself is 'on', although, I'm not able to perceive it through my mind. The mind has a limitation, whereas the heart doesn't. The mind is always moving, whereas the heart is stationary. Beyond the level of strings, we do not have an underlying unified theory.

With our mind, there is a limitation, because it knows atoms. The heart knows stories. That according to me is the major difference between the mind and the heart. To take it further, the mind also knows bits. Again deep down, they are particles. The heart works in the inverse way. From bottom up and manages to reach the top effortlessly in real time.

The heart is not limited by distance. With the mind, the thoughts can transcend distance, but still there is a time lag. We may reach the proportions of maybe 'Googol' level interactions, but the death of distance in its truest sense is the communication through the heart.

With lots of love

Guru30

 

The new high

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No. It's not a drug. We are talking about people online, especially those who spend more than 10 hours time daily. This is a new form of addiction. The virtual world or the internet is a place where people tend to spend more time than in the natural world. What can you do? The damn thing is so full of exciting opportunities and ideas that you can't stay away from it.

There is a feeling of being a watcher on the net. But with the prevalence of Web 2.0, it became interaction or sharing to be more precise. There is a great need for people to be heard and to know that their viewpoints are being considered by someone somewhere. Plus there is a thrill of talking to strangers without getting hurt physically.

All this conundrum adds up to things like restlessness, insomnia and many other syndromes. Anything in moderation is good. When we spend excess hour online, we become addicted and this keeps on increasing. Finally, without the machine, you don't have an identity. There are many antisocial types who are a result of this phenomenon.

We have to strike the right balance, between time that is spent online and that which goes into natural things. As long as we don't overdo it, we are safe. A virtual handshake doesn't have the authenticity of a real one. A virtual friend somewhere cannot look you into the eye, even if a webcam is handy.

So don't be a dork. Read a book instead of a PDF. Go out with a friends and chat rather than IM. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Balance will keep you steady.

Regards,

Guru30

The free market Roller Coaster

Great fears are being felt by people who are expecting the US markets to tumble by September. The Indian markets today have witnessed a down trend taking SENSEX below 18,000 psychological level. If the FII's start booking profit, then we are going to see a further fall in stock prices, especially companies with more export exposure.

But the above mentioned ebb is just in the near term. A country like India will feel the effect, but it's not going to be predominant. The simple reason being that domestic consumption in India can substitute for exports. If you look at the Auto Industry, it has been posting almost 23% YOY growth in the last quarter. Encouraging signs.

Lastly an economy like India is bullish in the long term. With other geographies trying to tackle the recession, India zooms ahead of the pack. Even China is bearish, despite the fact that they are an export economy. We hear stories of China downsizing factories in Schenzen , Guangdou and other locations.

When will Europe and America recover? We really do not know. There are different schools of thought. The banking system is the fundamental backbone of any country. What do you do, when a duck starts swimming like a swan? The cat is out of the bag. Now all ducks will have to get used to the fact that they simply cannot become swans, the short cut way.

There is so much of bad debt in the whole world (due to lack of regulations) that, it does not seem likely, that the markets will bounce back in the near future. But for India, the growth story will continue.

Ring the bells. Christmas is on its way.

Guru30

Strategy and the works

Strategy is normally the conception of an idea. This is followed by planning and execution. People think that, without a proper strategy, the remaining phases are at peril. Not today. Strategy is now evolved as planning and execution and they are often done using Agile Technologies first. The approach seems to have shifted from top-down to bottom-up.

The best way is to build a product as fast as possible, but release it as BETA to the public. As and when the bug list increases in size, we have to tackle them one by one in a severity manner. The live product or the next version should normally get it right, but mind you, the market may or may not accept the product.

If a product is way ahead of time, like say Google Wave, then it's bound to fail. On the other hand, if a product is shoddy then also the market will not accept it. The biggest hurdle in this equation is the market's readiness. This can only be gauged by doing market research either by yourself or an agency. For e.g. if you are building a website, it's good to opt for some SEO. (Search Engine Optimizations)

Strategy as taught in business schools is a classical concept and cent percentage is not applicable. In the age of the internet, we move at lightning speeds, we detect changes every second and we comply to them. The best way to be safe is a contract on T & M basis. (Time and Material) But there are many who are venturing into uncharted waters of product development.

If done right you will reap the sown, and if you missed something, well, the same mistake should not be repeated again. Always remember that the culture of the company will drive it's strategy and not the other way round.

Cheers

Guru30

Feel the power of love

Does love need a reason to exist? No, because it comes right from the irrational exuberance of the heart. You give some and you take some. But in order to get, you have to give first. And love is the greatest gift that you can give anyone. In terms of gifts, in terms of money or let it be anything that you are capable of giving. Give you must, for you to be able to receive.

Love is not just between animate objects. When it occurs between inanimate objects, the term given is gravity. That is also a form of love. When people emanate love, other things and people get drawn towards it. That is why the planets move around the Sun, because Sun is the father who gives his sunlight (a form of love) in exchange for nothing.

When love demands something in return, be sure that it is not love. By its very nature love is unconditional. It imposes no demands. Love doesn't make a person feel anxious. In fact when love arises in your heart, it makes you lighter and gives a wholesome feeling. The only way we can reason out about this concept is wisdom. The heart knows what the brain cannot feel.

Love exists between software's also. When a program talks to another program without expecting anything in return, it's a form of love. Thus in the classical definition, a procedure with arguments or global memory (semaphores) is displaying affection for the called program, but a function is selfish as it expects a return value. An unconditional jump is the greatest form of love.

So spread the message of love throughout this world, and very soon you will see a changed planet.

Lovingly

Guru30

A tribute to Google

A tribute to the company that I adore

Its name is Google. Started with a humble beginning in a dorm in 1998, this company has come a long way. It's offerings are multipartite and revolutionary in nature. The homepage still looks crisp without any advertisements. 'Don't be evil' is the tagline of this company where small teams write code to change the world.

Standing above the shoulders of Ph. D's and other bright minds who make this happen, Google has delivered the goods. Imagine search without it. Imagine online advertising without Adwords and paving a new economy using Adsense, where people make money. There are many other search engines today, but as of now 69% of searches across the globe are done on Google.

Google is not just a company. It has become a phenomenon. Google'd is a verb that we use now. From time to time, this company has proved that mathematics is the highest science. Look at Google translate, enabling conversion of languages. Look at Chrome. They have built a wonderful browser. And finally Android is the largest selling OS on mobile phones as of now.

Google provides a great workplace where you can spend 25% of your time on personal projects, some of which have turned into successful products. The task of organizing the world information is not easy. But these are people who don't take no for an answer. Proves that computing can be taken to its next level by a bunch of smart working people.

Hat's off to all of you who strive to make a positive impact on this world.

Guru30

 

 

My Life Studio

We use tools almost for everything, right from our cell phones to the screwdriver set. To manoeuvre us through this life also we require some DIY tools. There are four tools that we must definitely have in this toolbox. They are 1. Love 2. Humility 3. Thankfulness 4. Perseverance. The other tools that we can also use are humour, compassion, listening and joy.

Like we use IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to make our life easier, we must also possess the aforementioned tools in our IDE. We call this as the My Life IDE. Or better yet , My Life Studio. Like Visual Studio or Zend studio. Normally these Studios are a one stop shop for doing all possible kinds of development.

In an IDE we have the features of compilation, debugging and execution. The same holds good for our My Life Studio also. We should have a provision of translation, error correction and action. Of these the execution is the most important but has to come before translation to the target platform, which means adhering to the intended audience 's tastes and fixing any lacunas before we execute the plan.

In the same way, some of these Studio's can also incorporate the features of My Life Studio. For e.g. humour using some AI (Artificial Intelligence) algorithms, thankfulness based on error fixing counts and finally humility by letting the IDE talk to others in the market. If there is one issue today that we face in the computing industry, it is integration. Different systems work in different ways. Interoperability will be the new mantra. For the machine IDE's as well as the My Life Studio.

Best Regards in English

Guru30

The man-woman enigma

I'm sitting on a teddy and writing this post. Why do kids like Teddy bears? Why do girls like Barbies and boys like Ben10? It's because of the way we are wired up. Men and Women are different. While men are good at backend work, women are good at aesthetics or the front end. A User Experience (UX) is better done by a woman. This is my opinion, and I may be wrong.

Men like more action while women go for emotions. Today although we are working together, the generalized predictions like the above holds good. Men are more logical while women are more intuitive. I believe that a HR function headed by a woman makes more sense, as they are more sensitive to personal issues.

Men are physically stronger than women. But a women's strength lies in her inner beauty. The light that shone in her eyes is more context like than a man's. Men I find are more arduous than women. One problem with the fairer sex esp. in countries like India is working late hours. Although women are gearing up to jobs like in Contact Centres.

Kids after the age of three start developing their own personalities. This is when the ego kicks in and identity consciousness sets in. A girl normally copies her mother and the son follows his father. In numerology also the Sun is number 1 which denotes the father and mother which is number 2 stands for the moon.

Why women are considered as subordinates to men is beyond my grasp. The role of a women is very critical in society. After all, a mother is a natural phenomenon and a father is a social phenomenon.

Regards,

Guru30

 

 

Beyond the Obvious

There are two kinds of people in this world – they who speak from the heart and those who do it from the brain. (I mean at a particular point of time) The former are genuine as they do not have any hidden agenda's. The latter as you know can be devious and calculating. This is only when it comes to people. Birds, fishes etc. do not work with the brain.

The brain as you know is a tool, to help us achieve productivity. It becomes a grave problem when used to manipulate people and other objects. The messages emanating from the heart always bring joy. And those from the brain, which are joy like, are actually pleasures which don't last for long. Sometimes the brain starts to interfere with the hearts messages. This can prove to be fatal.

Look beyond the obvious. Don't get carried away by what people say or what you hear. Trust but verify. In fact, trusting is the hearts domain, whereas verifying is a tool based action i.e. with the help of the brain. When you look at anything, no matter what, all have a story behind them. From the tree growing in your backyard to the house that you live in.

Besides, you look at fiction novels which create stories and sometimes fantasies too. Epiphanies come from the heart. They are reminders to our busy tryst with the brain. Use both the heart and the brain judiciously. One is a spiritual centre and the other is a mechanic's machinery. Love what you do – a heart's way and do what you love – a brains domain.

See below the hood. Of all those wonderful things that God has gifted us and keeps showering on us. Learn to relate all events with stories, 'cause nothing beats a bedtime fable told by my dear grandma, who is no longer in this world.

Yours truly

Guru30

Stay happy always

In the modern world, how do we get enlightened? Let's focus on what this term means. For some it may be synonymous with success. But how do you define success? For most of the materialistic crowd, it's the first million. And when the bounty increases, you become more successful. Here's my definition of success – If you have achieved happiness in this life, you have been successful.

You really don't have to be very materialistic. Remember, happiness is a positive emotion. It sticks to you whatever you do. Once achieved, you can focus towards noble goals. For e.g. By helping somebody. And happiness is a state of mind. Adding a dimension of spirituality always helps. In order to be a complete individual we need to balance between our physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs.

Once we strike the right balance, we see that abundance fills our life. We become like a radio station transmitting a positive vibrant message. It's quite infectious in nature. But the moment you spread this happiness to others, your happiness grows automatically. For the yuppies, it's a win-win situation. What more do you want out of life? God has made us to be happy. We get entangled in the soap opera called the world, and start getting worried. Worry is one bad thing, that strays us from the original goal.

In computing also, a machine which is utilized fully, is a happy machine. Do machines feel happiness? Of course not. The people who use these machines become more productive and it automatically leads to happiness. In this sense, virtualization brings happiness. Social sharing brings happiness. Anti-virus programs help us achieve happiness. And most of all, watching those videos on Youtube can also be a cause of joy.

Stay happy. That is what God wants you to be.

Cheers,

Guru30

That special day

It's a festive season. Ramadan followed by Parsi New Year and now Onam and Raksha Bandhan is on way. What would life be without celebrating these special days? Each festival is unique in itself. There is a story behind each one of them. I'm not going to narrate the same, but in the bottom of my heart I celebrate all of them and wish my family and friends lots of joy.

Besides these days we also celebrate days like independence day, republic day (national days), fathers day, mothers day (family days) and of course the favourite birth day. Does a date mean so much that we cannot afford to miss it. There should be a way of celebrating the same on other days if we have missed the boat. Like belated birthdays.

In the computer world the most important day is the delivery day. This translates roughly to the date when promised work is delivered. These occur frequently. Depending on the methodology and type of project, we have different frequencies at which the delivery happens. Besides this, there is also the Go Live day and the RTM (Release to Manufacture) day.

Why do we have these days? Because without them life would be a monotonous drone. Imagine the impact of various days without plans. There will be nothing to look forward to. And after all we are a social bunch. We need to assemble together sometimes to have a bash. Share a gift. Some candies. Some decoration. Lots of wishes and friends and dear ones all around.

Party time. Enjoy …

Guru30

Towards a bright future …

You are the captain of my ship; you are the master of my soul. This is poetry that was true in the yester years when kings used to rule the kingdom. Good kings had such a good reputation that their junta used to follow them. Some even ready to lay down their lives. The military had a big say, unlike today when people have a voice above the soldiers.

To be a king is not easy. You have to balance your choices. The image that a king projects is of utmost importance, esp. in a monarchy. Democracy on the other hand works on crowdsourcing. This long tail is picking up with the advent of social networks. People want to see and be heard in a crowd. Everyone seems to crave for information.

Democracy will also be applicable in the technology of the future. Today the CPU is not the only central processing unit. There are many support chips like Graphic Controller GPU's which are as powerful as a CPU. CPU used to be the king but now with the arrival of multicores, there is now more than 1 CEO on the top.

Parallel processors capable of intelligence like predictive logic will be in vogue in the future. The decisions taken within a system will be more by voting and execution will be in a neural network fashion. Software will map readily to these kind of hardware, so much so that all operations will seem to be happening in a jiffy.

And after all what we are looking for is convenience to be replaced by the 'A-ha' factor. Wait for a couple of years and see where we will reach.

Towards a bright future …

Guru30

The divine play

We are all manifestations of the divine will. Everyone has a different mix of various characteristics. The basic elements viz. fire, earth, air and water are present inside each one of us in different proportions. There is a natural affinity for the four basic elements within our systems. The fifth element space also is present within our subsystem.

All these elements are spiritual in existence, but they take on different forms in varying proportions to form a human being. They have all achieved God realization, hence a complete avatar of any one of them is really not called for, except in dire circumstances. Like proliferation of evil to a great extent – incidentally this is what Krishna also says that he makes himself a body and comes back in each age.

There is a balance between the good and the bad. When this goes out of control, God manifests himself through his messengers or avatar's, call it as you may like. It's like a virus program that proliferates, escaping antivirus detections. As antivirus has to triumph finally, God comes back in human form. The good will never perish. The bad is a temporary glitch.

Remember the past can be traversed, but not the future. Both the good and bad forces are trying their best to get to the future. But the irony is that nobody will be able to get into the future, as there is none. The future gets created in the present. Like a USB disk which gets activated only when you plug it into the port. The plugging in is the present. But you will never be able to say if it's going to work or not. Mostly it will. But there is no absolute solution.

The future is probabilistic and the present is deterministic. What about the past? Well, it is like that USB disk which has been used. The trails can be maintained. And we can peep into the past. In fact we will even be able to travel into the past to change the present. But then again, the future is an enigma. Only one person knows it accurately. And that person is laughing at our desires to conquer this universe. Maybe one day, we will, but not as expected. We will chance upon it, with his blessings.

Happy Dreams …

Guru30

The art of a good presentation

Some people think that presentation is more important than content. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Agreed that presentation is required, but it is just the icing on the cake. Without good content, presentation won't cut it. Why do you think XML is more prevalent than HTML? Because XML is about data and HTML is about presentation.

Data is more important than the rendering or programs that manipulate the data. One golden rule in the computing world is GIGO. (Garbage In Garbage Out) Your computer is as good as the data that you input to it. Bad data will give you inaccurate results, finally skewing your decisions. A good presentation cannot hide the weakness in data.

Before you think of making a long drawn out presentation, keep in mind that the shorter it is, the sweeter. Give it a visual effect, restricting words to what is absolutely necessary. Look at how Steve Jobs presents, and you can learn a thing or two about good techniques. It's not just eye-candy people want. They want it to be substantiated by facts.

Facts live within windows. I mean in some boundaries. Analyse the data that you have in hand and think how well it can be rendered in a few words. But mind you, your data window will be the backbone of your presentation. Do you need Powerpoint always? No. Only if it is required. However working out a draft of your presentation on a piece of paper will do wonders.

Remove the clutter, only present what is essential.

Regards,

Guru30

Love and Greed

Love = Selflessness

Greed = Selfishness

Love Expands

Greed Contracts

Love unites

Greed Divides

There are many shades of love and greed, but the absolute form of both are opposite poles. When you say you love somebody it means that you are putting that persons needs first, well above your needs. You care more for that person than you care for yourself. Love is looking out. Greed is looking in. Love is qualitative. Greed is quantitative.

Love heals and renews the spirit. Greed is a scar on the spirit that we carry. Although the spirit is not cleavable, greed can make it lacklustre in appearance. Love is inner beauty. Greed is of the flesh. Love what you do and do what you love. Don't let greed come in the way. A noble thought translated into action is a form of love.

Be proud of the actions which emanate from love. Greed makes us look down. Love makes us look up. There is no end to love. Take sunlight for example or rains. They shower upon the just and the unjust. In a similar way, love does not judge. It is unconditional. Even if things don't turn out the way you want it to be, the very fact that you have loved will save you from the karmic repercussions

Love is passion when the intensity is more. But the passion should arise from the deep abyss of the heart. Love as many as you can. It takes you one step towards God. Love inspires you to action. And believe me, all actions arising from love will bear positive outcomes. It may not be evident in the beginning, but in due course of time, you will realize.

Be true to yourself. Spread the message of love to everybody on this beautiful planet.

Cheers

Guru30

On this special day – India’s Independence

Today is India's Independence day. I feel proud to be a part of this multi faceted, multi cultural and multi linguistic nation. It is home to more than a billion people. (almost 1/6^th of humanity) India is growing at a rapid pace with the software industry (of which I'm a part) clocking revenues of 64 Billion USD and a CAGR of almost 33%.

Did the recession affect our industry. Yes, to some extent as most of our exposure is to North America (around 60-65%) but we survived. Now it is 2010 and we have managed to turn the table around by hedging towards local and non-US markets. Although we are known as the software backhouse of the world, it's deterring to know that only 2% of the world's broadband connection is emanating from India.

The reason is quite complex. India has 2 distinct sides. A growing middleclass and rich population that is mostly dictating how the new emergent India should be. At the same time there is stark poverty of almost 40% who do not have access to things that we take for granted (like clean drinking water, schools and hospitals)

There is a lot that needs to be done. For example, removing caste-ism, eradicating corruption, technology availability for people who do not have access to the advances made all over the world. The education system also needs to be revamped. Besides this we have a mission to achieve good and accessible healthcare to all.

There is lot that can be said. But I would like to raise a toast to this country which has shaped my thoughts all these years. A song for you India:

If I have freedom in my heart

And in my soul I'm free

Angels alone that soar above

Enjoy such liberty.

Thank you India, for giving me the chance to speak up.

Jai Hind

Guru30

Don’t carry so much of baggage

As a sand dune moves in a desert storm, my thoughts rumble when things go out of control. But I have learnt to master the movement. When such thoughts strike me, I immediately run to God like a small child who is afraid to lose his best toy. And God the way he is, always lets me hide in the shadows and consoles me.

Then I realised this – there is nothing to lose or gain. Like energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. These are just passing moments. Like it's said in the Bible – 'And it came to pass'. All possessions and material gifts can't make us happy. The more the wealth, the more the worry. After all you have to manage it. This is a simple fact of life.

We can become a pauper from a king in the flash of a moment. And come to think about it – are we going to carry this all with us when we die? We have come empty handed here and will go back empty handed. The only thing that will stay with us will be the effects of our karma. As we sow, so shall we reap.

In this lifetime, we have to shed some light on the downtrodden. Now it doesn't matter if we do it through Twitter or a donation in kind. The fact is we have to help. At least one person if not the whole world. I had read a book sometime back about how we can be happy and the last law is to give it all away. We are like trustees – of wealth and good will. Let's put it to where and how it should be used. And maybe that will lighten our heart. A bit, perhaps.

Best Regards,

Guru30

Life I love you

What are you searching for, in those meandering ways? What you are trying to find is so close to you, yet you try to seek it far away. God is closer to us than the vein in our neck. The universe is within us. Just close your eyes and enjoy the beauty. All that is there in the worlds of earth and heaven are embedded in your heart.

Seek it. Feel it. Enjoy it. No more troublesome questions lurking in the synapses of your mind. Even if you haven't found it yet, don't fret, because that zaps your energy. You know the gift of life is like a 500 GB hard disk when all you require is 50 MB. So many things waiting to be discovered and absorbed by you and you alone.

Don't let this opportunity of a lifetime pass you by. Discover your true purpose. Let God enter all aspects of your life. Give him a free hand. Don't judge. Don't resist. Let things be the way they are. No point rebelling. All you have to do is yield. To the beauty of the things surrounding you, open the passageway to your heart.

Smell the roses as you walk by the garden. Look at people, smile and bring light into somebody's life surrounded by darkness. Move on. Embrace change. Enjoy the pace of life. Just for today think that nothing or no one is going to stop you to get to what you want. Work and play. Relax. Immerse yourself in prayer and thank him for the bounty he is blessed us all with.

To your wellbeing …

Guru30

To live is to die

To live is to die every moment. We are all created by our choice. With this choice we choose the future to be. To live means to live for the 'Now'. Embrace it with all you have, because that is the only truth. The past has gone and the future is a big '?'. Live wisely in the moment and the future will be bright. Make no mistakes; it's all about the present. The rest is conversation.

Somebody has said these wise words 'If you don't have what you like then you should like what you have.' Be content in the present whatever may be the situation. Look down below. There are lot of people who do not lead the blessed life that you do. But always look up to the clouds. Like they don't leave a mark when they travel, we should also wipe our past.

Let the present be immersed in joy and prayer. This will change your life from within. You will become a radiant person who will spread the message of love to the world. Whosever comes in contact with you will benefit from your aura. You may have learnt a lot of lessons. Now it's time for you to walk the talk. Tread softly, because you tread on people's dreams.

As the law of attraction holds good, you will attract the right situations and people into your life. A poem I read somewhere talks about a person who after crossing a bridge in a heavy storm, sees that bridge crumbling. He goes on to build another bridge. And people ask him why the need, because he has already reached the other shore. And he replies that it is for those who may want to come to the other side, that he is building the bridge.

Be considerate. Everybody has a story. Be sensitive. Empathize and learn to live a life of love.

God Bless,

Guru30

Get a grip

Has it ever happened to you that you were trying to say something and it just got off your mind? Has it ever happened to you that you were trying to say something but substituted it with something else? This happens quite frequently, with or without our knowledge. Words really cannot be a substitute to our experience.

And all experience is not necessarily spoken of or maybe remembered by the conscious mind. There are times when we try to string a sentence from words that we hardly knew to be our own. There are other times when words flow like a river, going on and on. Never stopping on the way and mounds of inspiration sometimes eggs us on.

In computer parlance, this is called caching – the latter phenomena of words flowing smoothly. Directly retrieving from the heart. Here the heart is the cache and the brain is the disk which is being cached. Although some of you may say that the heart knows everything that the brain doesn't. True. But this is just to illustrate a concept.

There is another concept of buffer overflow. This is the context of feelings overpowering words with something more meaningful. Although technically speaking, a buffer overflow is a type of error, used by malicious programs in a very deceptive way. It happens to some of us, when we are thinking of something and the emotions make us cry.

Let's get back to reality …

Guru30

Spirituality and Computing

What is the relation between spirituality and computing? Spirituality is a phenomenon where one or more than one individual is connected with the spirit or the soul. Computing at its core depth is about bits and bytes. A specific group of bits arranged in a certain way gives rise to a meaningful pattern in a humanistic way.

While the soul or the spirit is not binary in nature, its physical (body) and mental (mind) manifestations can be likened to the hardware and software aspects. The physical aspect is very important as hardware is required for whatever may be the functionality that it performs. As there are various hardware models, the body also can be different from person to person.

The mental aspect or the software is the most intriguing part of the equation. As there is no limit to the thoughts that arise in the mind, software also is an art form. Different parts of hardware do different things. The same is the case with the brain. The mind or the software can be made as complex as it can be.

Every passing second, the mind makes a choice (consciously or unconsciously) between two options. Even inside a computer the choice is always between a zero and one. Depending on the choice that either a person or a machine makes, some goals are achieved. These goals may be say, a small product functionality, or it can be a huge project. Any which ways, the simple ones and zeros decisions that we make will dictate the outcome.

One big difference between the software and the mind is that the mind is attached to feelings or emotions, which the software equivalent cannot be extrapolated. These things that make us human can never be substituted with a mathematical algorithm. And even if it is achieved , it will lack genuineness.

Finally without the hardware there will be no software or mind. And the hardware degrades with time, whereas software lends itself to modifications and improves with the passage of time.

As far as the spirit is concerned, it's pervading throughout the whole universe. And all other objects are embedded within it and they are loosely coupled. Maybe computing is also another form of manifestation of the spirit. At a different frequency, if you know what I mean.

Best regards,

Guru30

Identify the signal from the noise

Think with your heart and you will never go wrong. That sub-second response to a situation is God's calling to you. Learn to identify that among the myriad of information that keeps bombarding at us. Identify the signal from the noise. It's an 'always-on' connection that we have with higher intelligence. Let them guide us. Do not resist.

To go through life without listening to this channel is like a flower whose scent gets wasted in the desert. Listen to it closely. He is guiding us. The mind is just a tool. Do not think with the mind, as it likes complex things and the clutter. Try this out. Everyday sit in a corner without any disturbance for maybe half an hour. Just watch the mind paint the picture. Focus your attention onto the next thought. You will find that the mind gives up after some time.

This thoughtless state is what the sages refer to as 'This is That' . There is so much of tranquillity in this state that nothing seems to be a comparable experience. It really cannot be described. It has to be experienced. Words fail as they do stand for metaphors and not the actual truth. Whatever be the nature of the flux and change outside, deep within us we are all God-heads.

Shruti is what is heard and Smrithi is what is remembered. First listen to the Shruti – of the endless and the infinite. And then dissolve in the ethereal vibrations of the same. Remind yourself of these thoughts that a Shruti triggers. Better than thoughts, I should say the feeling. Visualize the Smrithi part and enjoy the beauty and intricacy of life just weaved for us.

If you learn to identify the noise from signal, this world would be heaven. And heaven is right here, within our grasp.

Cheers,

Guru30

To a better world …

Both Rama and Ravana were great warriors. But Rama stands for what is right. Hence he wins. In life also the truth triumphs in the end. Life is full of choices. The choices that we make, shapes the future of things to come. There are lies which are good. If a lie is said with the consideration of a positive effect on others, it's not a lie anymore. This is what Krishna says.

Spiritual works are not myths or folklore. They represent truth to its finest. They also provide us a guideline to walk on the paths of those who have succeeded before. In today's world, there are definitely some people who follow principles and they do not fall into oblivion. However truth and falsity have a lot of shades.

It takes a great amount of courage to walk on the steps of those who have thrived. Let me give you an example. A while back, I had taken classes for a batch from Iflex. (now its Oracle Financials) One of the girls broke down in the class. I could've said that it's not my problem. But I spoke to her and made her feel better. As a result she attended the classes without any problem from then on. I cherish this experience. At the same time, I have been at fault once when I did recognize that a person is on the verge of mental asphyxiation and I tried being tough on him as a manager.

You learn your lessons. Sometimes you make the right choice and sometimes you are wrong. Well, we have to correct the wrong ones, learn from them and move on. It's difficult to be a Rama or a Krishna, but then I guess we at least need to give it a shot. The aura that we have should be emanating positive waves that submerge the bad and bring out the glory of others. I don't see any point in saying we feel for the poverty problem but have done nothing for it.

The time is for action. Wake up now. Go to work.

Regards,

Guru30