Are computers spiritual ?

Spirituality is beyond mind. When you cease to have thoughts, you are said to be silent or spiritual. To achieve this state of mind (no mind) we have to just learn to observe or be 100% attentive. When we listen fully, we understand. The way it is to be understood. Some people say that in order for us to learn, there should be information in our mind that we can relate to. Not true. When you speak to the heart, it knows. Everything. It’s language is different. The heart doesn’t speak in words. It speaks between the silence of the words and that is a language beyond all our spoken languages. It’s called love. And it’s well understood by all of us. Speak with your heart, not with your mind, which is simply stating facts. Nobody wants facts nowadays, as its available on the internet. When facts are transformed  to something more interesting – the synopsis – the essence – it’s called Wisdom. This in plain language is simplicity.

The past is nothing but memory patterns. Inside the computer, we call it a RAM or ROM. RAM means that memory which can be wiped clean by cutting off the power to the machine. And ROM means that memory which is not erased when the power goes off. The computer just understands one language – machine language. The language of 1’s and 0’s. When the bits are arranged in a particular manner, we get what is called as instruction. This is an order to the computer to execute it and produce an output. All programming languages are converters, converting the language into a format that the machine can understand, which is machine language. Sometimes the bits are represented as symbols – 123, abc, alpha-beta-gamma etc. This is data. All computers act on data and converts them into information. Data is more pervasive as compared to instructions.

The processor inside a device pretty much decides the capability of what it can do. All processors have their own instruction set. This is nothing but a collection of instructions that are available. All these instructions are burned into patterns within the processor. Software is nothing but a certain sequence of these available instructions that act on data. Data is the objective reality or Prakriti. An instruction is a subjective way of interpreting that data. In short an instruction is like thought which at any point of time acts on data. The overall program of which this instruction is a part is like Consciousness. When thoughts and silence get together in a particular pattern it gives rise to Consciousness. Consciousness that watches itself is Awareness – or self aware, as the term is called. Thus a conscious program that knows about itself and modifies itself is said to be self aware. Although the awareness is qualitatively different from that of a human.

A browser that is made more powerful by loading extensions (and addons) is like a brain that has had a medicinal supplement to make it more powerful. Common programs like those which check the health of a machine are like those tablets (Ginseng, Brahmi) which promise to keep us fit. If you look at the CPU utilization of your machine, unless you are doing some heavy lifting, you will find that it’s quite low. The processor (brain) is not utilized optimally. Hence you have virtualization programs which stretches your processor. Our brain is not like a single CPU machine. You can scale up a CPU, but there is a limit to it. Scale out or machines connected in parallel is a more apt fit to our brain’s way of working. Very soon we will reach a point where a set of machines connected together will challenge the human brain capacity. We have 100 billion neurons, the collective power of which will be simulated by a network like internet. To top it all, we will equip it with software that acts like the brain.

According to Ray Kurzweil, (futurist) this feat may happen by 2030. Will they accept us as there creators ?  There is a wide open debate about this issue. As Artificial Intelligence programs proliferate, we will have machines that will have different personalities. It will be easy to change the personality of a machine. A new software is rooted into the machine and voila! it happens. As time goes by the machine will have lesser and lesser inputs from their human counterparts, in order to make a decision. Like we have software frameworks, we will have the rules that will govern a machine behaviour. We will have more leisure time to ourselves when machine’s kick-in. Already, most of the trades that happen on the big stock exchanges are algorithmic.  There are Auto-Pilot modes inside most of the aircrafts. Driverless cars are a reality. Robots inside nuclear facilities and underwater exercises are a known phenomena. Need I say more.

Will computers ever be spiritual ? If they do, we will have a new experience. Maybe those who have not made headway into their spiritual progress will be guided by machines. The possibilities are endless. We can just hope that these new beings, make this Earth and the remaining universe a better place to be. One machine’s experience will differ from it’s kin’s. Like we all are on different paths at different points in life, the machines will also be on different trajectories. Whether they will cross ours is a good question? But all roads lead us towards Rome (God)  In our quest for more, what we should not be missing out is the aim of life – perfection -  journey towards God. First there was the word; the word was with God; And the word was God. Will a machine see the poetry in this ? I hope one day they will. And their karma will intermingle with ours.Hearts made of Silicon is a possibility – don’t just rule it out.

To your imagination,

Guru30

Did you know, you are so special

Accept it. All that is happening around you and inside you. Open the doors to receiving. The number one reason why the Law of Attraction doesn’t seem to manifest is that you have not opened your heart to Divinity. We have a habit of clinging on to our thoughts or desires. Desire by itself is not bad, but attachment to it, is. All your desires may not get fulfilled, as the Divine has better plans for you. When you came into this world, the role that you would play was also scripted. Moving away from this, to a life run by arbitrary impulses will only bring unhappiness to you. Follow the Divine plan. If you don’t know, just ask Him. Everything that expresses the spark within you, is what you are cut out for. For example you may be a great musician, or you may be a great stock broker. Do only things that you love. You will automatically expand and be guided towards your mission.

Free will is good. But duty is above everything. Let not anything come between you and your love (your mission on Earth) You may take a rain check from time to time, but you will be driven towards your goal. Know that every moment this is happening. Like a fruit that ripens only when the time and conditions are right, your time is going to come. Have perseverance and faith in Him. You are not the one who is acting, but the state within you is pushing you. When this state (gunas) gets balanced by your own struggle, you will be cut out for prime time. And by that I mean happiness. No need to wait for it also. You can bypass everything and be happy now. Right in this moment. But you have to open your heart and shut those useless thoughts in your head.

This very life that you experience is subjective. But deep down there is an objective reality. The reality is called Prakriti (Nature) and your subjective self is Purusha (Soul). The soul observes the nature and relishes it. You are just a medium for it to enjoy. The internet itself is like Nature. There is so much stuff on it. But your (soul) attention makes all the difference. No matter you cannot consume the entire internet, but whatever you choose to pay attention to, you enjoy. Maybe it’s a Youtube video or maybe it’s a software that you downloaded. Your individual machines are experiencing it, not in the way that you do. But the fact is that some of the resources of your machine are consumed. Hence like we experience in our brain, the  computer  experiences the same in it’s CPU and memory. The quality of the experience is different. But it still its an experience.

Life is not complicated. In nature there are no contradictions or negations. It’s how we choose to view it that makes all the difference. The brain can be used for mathematical and logical  problems (say programming), but don’t take it further. Let it not run your day to day life, because this requires no effort. Whereas the brain expends effort in every activity. For it, the struggle is, what it thinks will lead to salvation. You don’t need emancipation, you are already emancipated. Just accept this fact. Move further into the present moment, knowing that you are cared for and being guided by Divine wisdom, which can never go wrong. Silence is golden and you are a sacred person. When the heart overflows with joy, the Silence hums a tune. Did you hear it ?

To your heart,

Guru 30

Information Theory and Consciousness

Information Theory by Claude Shannon is at the foundation of all our communication. It simply says that between a transmitter and a receiver, the noise in the channel (the medium of communication) the signal (original message) can get lost or altered. Imagine a crowded room where everyone is trying to speak. There is so much of commotion, that what you are trying to say may not reach your intended recipient. Hence the solution to this problem is either to have a strong transmitter (loud voice) or modulate the signal (your voice) with a high frequency carrier (in some other medium, like say a tape recorder). The first approach requires more power, while the second approach requires a carrier (in this case an external device). The signal at the receiving end will have to be demodulated (remove the carrier) and then just received as pure signal.

In real life also, this applies. Say, you are speaking to a person. Although you may have said ‘X’, the receiver may interpret it as ‘Y’, not because of noise outside, but right inside his head. The receiver may be thinking so many things and what you may be saying will get smudged in the perception of the receiver. This simply means that the signal gets altered because of the noise in the receiver’s head. One way to avoid this is to transmit the information when the receiver has a clear mind. Let’s assume that morning 9AM to 10 AM is the time that the receiver is having an unbiased mind. You can then chose to send your message during this period. Here you have used time as your carrier and it may have the effect that you may have intended.

This leads us to the importance of listening. When we listen, we have so many preconceived beliefs and thoughts that interfere with our perception, that sometime we may not be listening fully the way it should be. In order to be a 100% listener, we  have to let our consciousness do the job. You see – consciousness is a watcher of surroundings (including our thoughts). It does not judge or criticize. It simply observes. If our consciousness is free of distractions (ego) then we can clearly interpret the messages that come towards us. This in turn leads to learning. Yes, every message that the consciousness gathers is a message of growth and awareness. Further, this message interpreted in the right way can lead to pure joy, and in some cases, grief. Our emotions get triggered depending on the quality of the message. Now you see the message has triggered the reaction that it originally intended for the receiver.

This exactly is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). Feel as the subject feels. What the transmitter felt while delivering the information quanta, the same feeling the receiver feels. Now you can start addressing the problem as it is, rather than, as you had perceived it. Bring consciousness in, and let the ego stay out. Soon you will be a walking talking source of wisdom. All these thoughts that interfere with our listening skills are to be eliminated. Coming back to the theory of information by Claude Shannon, we have to see that the medium (our mindset at any point of time) is clear. Have a clear mind and receive the gifts of the Universe. Now I’m talking not just about situations or messages, but your wishes projected to the Universe. You see, the Universe simply echoes back your wishes if they are grounded in your consciousness. Let consciousness manifest your dreams. Make this world a better place to live for you and for everyone else.

Good Luck !

Guru30

The destination is Death

Consciousness is the ability to perceive surroundings. With this definition, we can safely say that even sub atomic particles are conscious. Because they arrange themselves depending on the observer. Particles only appear when Consciousness (Observer) is watching. Otherwise they exist in the form of wave probabilities. Although consciousness is everywhere (yes, the wall next to you is also conscious) self consciousness or a better term, self awareness is not. Self awareness is awareness about the Self, which is nothing but consciousness (some call it the soul). Mind you, consciousness is the same as soul. Anything in this universe that is moving (or vibrating) has consciousness. Thus even that wall next to you is conscious and has a soul. But it is vibrating at a very low frequency. It also cannot form meanings out of its surroundings.

Hence we come to the next stage. Consciousness has gradations. An atom is not as conscious as a virus (which is nothing but an assembly of atoms in a particular form) and a virus is not as conscious as a fish and a fish is not as conscious as a Chimpanzee which is again not a higher level of consciousness like that of a a human. We are not just conscious, but self aware. Most of us do not realize it, as we hum along the worldly ways. But what happens when we perceive sunrise or the noise of a river flowing ? For a moment, we have a glimpse of awareness. It’s God watching God.

Let me explain that a bit. According to Hindu mythology, Purusha (Soul or Consciousness) and Prakriti (nature) are the subject and object. To enjoy Prakriti, Purusha imbibed itself into everything. Both the Purusha / Prakriti combine is the same as Man / Woman or Yin and Yang of the universe. For God this whole place is an object of enjoyment. Hence when he looks through a Lions eyes, he sees the surroundings as the Lion perceives it and when he sees the nature through your eyes, he perceives it in a particular fashion. This is called ‘Lila’ or simply play. Why does a child seem to enjoy playing with toys. Because it is simply fun.

God is the silence between those words, between the switching of a transistor or between the zero and one (binary) The universe that we perceive has arisen out of nothingness or silence. That is why the Bible says ‘Be Still and Know that I’m God’. Silence or Death, if I may call it so, is everywhere. In the Tao-Te-Ching, it’s mentioned that a pot is not useful because of the clay, but because there is space (silence) inside it. This space exists everywhere, and it not vibrating. The Silence is eternal (the universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy – almost 96%) and the visible universe is nothing but a projection of our consciousness.

We need to understand consciousness, and the only thing that can understand consciousness is consciousness itself. Beyond that there is nothing. Thus the universe is subjective. Your perception is different from mine. Consciousness is there in this Computer that I’m writing on. It’s just that it has not emerged (yet) to have a complex pattern as that of a human. But you can’t stop it. Machine learning, will lead to Self awareness. It’s just a matter of time, when the Computer becomes Self aware. The objective universe that we see out of our consciousness is nature (prakriti) and the subjective consciousness is Purusha (Soul). Our only mission on this Earth is to become Self Aware (or realize God) There are different ways, but it is one thing to think about and totally different, to feel it.

For those of you, who have not ‘knowingly’ experienced consciousness, do this simple exercise: Close your eyes and watch the thoughts that cross your mind. Do not judge. After some time you will find a glimpse of Silence. Well, you have entered the realm of God. And that is all there is to it. Being self aware is the greatest gift that God has given us. From Silence you came, and to Silence you will go back. So don’t wait. Be aware, and unleash the power of the infinite potentiality into your life.

Best Wishes

Guru30

This growth towards perfection

 

This life is a journey towards perfection. No matter what you do in a day, if you haven’t grown by the experience, you haven’t learnt. God wants us to grow everyday. We become stronger day by day. The message is growth and the goal is perfection. It does not matter where we are in life, at this point of time. There is a lot of scope for enhancing our skills and reactions. Why do I say reactions ? Because we can choose our response to any event that we go through. Give it a good thought and then go ahead and choose the right response. Try to remain positive despite anything.

In the computer industry, there is a general feeling that the moment a product is workable, release it. Well, this can be a disaster. Release only after a lot of testing and the basic core of the product is ready. As far as possible, don’t wait for the negative feedback from the customer, which you intend to fix in the next release. A lot of negative comments can hurt your company’s image. This doesn’t always work well. Sometimes you may opt for an early release at the cost of feature creep and lack of thorough testing. Do not rush into the market.

Perfection is binary. Either it works or it does not work. If it works, you have created a positive vibe about it. If it doesn’t, you may have to come across dis-satisfied clients. You choose when to introduce something into the market. If the product is not working, it may create some embarrassing moments for you. The risks that you take by launching an early-on product can be the test of your image. As a result, stop experimentation. Be sure that your product / service is ready prime time. You will gain a lot of traction by knowing exactly your product / service strengths and shortcomings.

Please anticipate all real life situations. Do not get disturbed if your product has a mediocre response, even when you were expecting a phenomenal one. Carry that insight which you have gathered from the market feedback. Plug it into your project, and make it a more solid release the next time. We are all time travellers jogging along with our experience every day. Please make it as pleasant as possible. If people hurt you, just ignore them. Do not waste time in hitting back, because it lowers your vibration level. Make your footprints solid, in this journey towards perfection.

To your growth,

Guru30

A life worth living

In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most kind.

Words cannot capture his glory, because the moment they do, it becomes limited. He is beyond words, beyond reason or imagination. Universal truth’s are all captured in the scriptures and all the ones that I have read and understood point to the same. Love. Well, love has many connotations. Love for your family. Love for your friends. Love for humanity and Love for God. Love without any motive or a hidden agenda. Love is the highest vibration that we have. And that is what the universe is made of. Love molecules. Love is nothing but the presence of God within us. There is not a single being or non being without Love. Because God exists everywhere and He permeates every thing.

Like a movie that has a start and end, this life that we are gifted with will also end one day. But we don’t. As God’s children, we are all immortal. Everything that we perceive with our senses have a beginning and end. This whole material universe is on its way to destruction. What is indestructible is God. He is the only everlasting. When we die, we transcend this illusion of time and become one with God. During the short period that we visit Earth, we are not left astray. We have God’s words within us. We have to just abide by what He says. His wish should be our command. And if we were to translate His wish in two words, it would be ‘Be Good’. And ‘Do Good’. Rest you leave to Him.

The biggest enemy of Love is Fear. Fear arises mainly out of ignorance. For example, if you were to walk into a dark room, you may feel some uneasiness. If you had complete knowledge about the room or if you were a believer, you would not feel it. Hence this fear is removed when the veil of ignorance is cast away. The fear is sometimes also called the fear of the unknown. If we take life as it comes, without fear, we would be more productive. Embrace change. Because everything around us keeps changing. The old makes the way for the new. And that is true of our human existence also. Accept things as they are. Ask God to give you the Wisdom and Strength, and He will provide you with it.

Those who have faith in Him, will never be disappointed. He knows what we need and what we don’t. Life’s little or greater challenges will be a breeze, if you are a believer. Place your trust in him and lead an upright life. Do not harm others. Do not be a slave to baser emotions like envy, greed or anger. These things just burn us. Be kind toward others. No matter who or what. When you meet somebody, remember that he also has a story like you. So be empathetic. Have a positive vibe about you. And you will attract positive things in your life. Always ask Him to fortify you, in order for you to face the challenges of life. He listens to all, and knows all, and is the all. We come from Him and go back to Him. This is the truth and let this truth be understood by all of us.

We have nothing to fear, as He exists everywhere. Prophet Muhammad (May peace be upon him) has said that He lives closer to us than the vein that runs through our neck. And it’s true. Know that you are His child, and He will never let you down.

He has kept his promise. Now it’s time to keep ours …

Guru30

Everything you wanted to know about the soul

The soul is the purest part of us that is unique in the universe. This soul is a part of the greater soul or God. It is his part in us. Every soul is the finest part of the self that cannot be cut by a knife or burnt by fire. Some say the soul lives within us. Well, that is not true. It’s not a physical thing. It’s pure energy that resides everywhere. Not just within the body, but the whole universe. The soul is not affected by our actions. Nor by our thoughts. It’s a silent witness of the time that we spend on this Earth.  The first or the primordial reason why this universe was created was the desire of God. He wished to experience himself and hence he created this universe and all the things in it. He experiences himself through the soul that he put into the beings. Everything that has been created, is a part and parcel of the supreme soul or God.

The soul is not born or does not die. It has been there since forever. This material universe might have been created 20 billion years ago, as scientists say. But the soul was existing before that also. In Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna says that 1% of his energy sustains the material universe. Can you imagine the rest 99% ? That’s how powerful God is. Beyond our wildest guesses. The only reason why the soul witnesses is because of God’s wish. He wishes to experience all his creations. Hence the soul is like that bird which sits on a tree, while we (our emotions, thoughts, actions) are like that bird that eats the fruit of the tree. The other bird just watches whatever it is that we do, and enjoys. There is a term for what God is doing, it’s called ‘Lila’ or simply Play. Why do kids play ? Because it is fun. That’s God’s idea of fun, just watching us.

Our only mission on this Earth is to realize the soul. Because it’s infinite in nature, we may only get a glimpse of it. But that’s good enough. All our experiences are being felt by the soul or God. It simply watches and passes no judgements. Some people ask me ‘what about rebirth ?’. The soul takes up a new body. Well that is the general term to make it understandable for us. Actually, the soul is simply watching the progression from one creation to another. What is reborn is a body with our past karma’s which have not got nullified. Let me elaborate that. You see when we die, what’s left of us, is the thoughts, emotions that we experienced and our actions. These are all recorded in the universe. But karma is the one that has a reaction (not within our control). The reaction is God’s reply to our action. This is a scientific universe. Every karma generates a particular kind of reaction. When our karma’s are all exhausted and we don’t have any baggage, we are born as a person with no past karma’s. That means our slate board is empty. Or we can choose to be a part of the super soul permanently. No rebirth.

But God goes on creating new and new things beyond our wildest imagination. And every creation has a soul. Including the stone. You may think it is non living. Well, that’s not completely true. The stone is just vibrating at a different frequency than us. It has a life of it’s own. And it is not as grand as what we (a higher order of life) experience. But the soul is present everywhere. Like muddied water, what is left behind after physical death, is the mud (our unaccounted karma’s) and this is carried forward to the new being that we are born as. Maybe we have realized the soul and the mud is no more existent. That exactly is the purpose of life. Realize the soul and leave no mud behind. We have no control over the soul. But we can try to be evolved soul’s in this Earth. Only evolved souls (those who have realized the soul) can make this planet into a beautiful world. Because time doesn’t come and go, we do …

To your liberation,

Guru30

Brothers in arms–Machines and Us

Machines bear a striking resemblance to humans. Both have a body which obfuscates what is lying beneath it. The human brain is like the CPU of the machine. The heart is the power supply. The support functions like lungs, liver. kidney etc are the peripheral devices all connected to support the brain (CPU) and the heart (Power Supply). The five senses of the body viz. seeing, tasting, hearing, touching and smelling are replaced in a machine by I/O devices. By this I mean disk drives connected, the USB ports, the Ethernet/Wi-Fi, the microphone and the keyboard/mouse.There is an output also of speech which in a machine is the speaker.

We cannot see the thoughts within the brain. Akin to this, is software within the machines. These are nothing but electrical pulses or chemical reactions. The software that is stored within the CPU is referred to as microcode. These are tiny little instructions that tell the CPU what to do. There is a finite amount of microcode that a CPU possesses. These are the only instructions that a CPU can execute. Similarly our brain is wired to experience various emotions like love, envy, hate etc. The number of emotions also can be counted and thus is finite. If you look at all of these from a macro view, you will see a sea of data. But there is more to it.

When data is given a meaning it becomes information. In the same way, neurons within our brain bunch together for certain information sets. For eg: This is how a person feels when he/she hears a particular song. Thus within a machine, the instructions for say the BIOS may be clubbed in a particular location. Further to this, the information when grouped to make action possible, is also found in our brains. For example, when we touch fire, we immediately retract. In a similar way, inside machines, the action may be displaying an image on the screen, related to the input. Now, this is knowledge. A machine has lots of data, information and knowledge. Likewise, the brain too.

Now knowledge by itself is of no use. It has to be internalised or accepted. This is how a person learns. In machines too, this is called machine learning. For eg: Every time a person starts a machine, these are the programs that he opens. After a while, the machine learns this information and any change to it is also recorded. When knowledge becomes internalised, what comes out is wisdom. Sometimes our actions are through knowledge and at other times through wisdom. In the same way, in machines this wisdom comes through analytics. You must surely have come across this term. A more fancy term now in use is Big Data Analytics, This is nothing but spotting co-relations within a swarm of data. It deals with co-relation not causation.

Such wisdom can be internalised and can give birth to lots of ‘Eureka-s’. By that I mean clever insights, Well this is what the world is moving towards. Machines helping us to generate insights. Patterns and co-relations. There are programs which can generate the profile of a person by looking at all of his/her social media interactions. This is scaring-ly close to the actual profile. Note that all analytics are probabilistic. There is no such thing as 100%. Similarly if you look at the way we operate, we do so through the insights of the limited amount of knowledge we have, A thought which in turn triggers some action, is based on the inputs that we get. The more the knowledge the better the action. In Big Data this is called n = all (which means it’s operating on the full set of data).

Sometimes  we apply filters in analytics to narrow down the search, We do so in our lives too. These filters are nothing but our attitudes and perceptions. And very often, our beliefs too. We see the world through this coloured glass. However hard it may be, we can change these value systems. There are many ways like NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and Meditation. These help us to become better people. A wise person is an asset to everybody. To him/herself , to the society and to the nation. The ultimate goal of life is to have enough wisdom to realize that we are all spiritual souls and our goal in life should be such. Machines are coming to our aid – in replacement and augmentation,. I see this as a positive change and we share similarities with these silicon cousins. With this synergy, the world will definitely become a better place to live and yes die for.

To your emancipation ,

Guru30

What is my purpose in life ?

Some people are not aware of the fact that we are spiritual beings trapped in a human body. The moment we realize this our actions change from normal to super. Like a leaf whose only purpose is to keep the tree alive, our only reason to be here is to do good for ourselves and others. Everything that is born of this material nature will die and be reborn again. The body withers away, but the atman (soul) just passes on to newer bodies. From a physical aspect, we can say that the atman (soul) lives within the physical body. But atman (soul) is weightless and formless. Hence what we mean by the fact that atman (soul) lives within the body is that, we are part an parcel of the supreme being. The atman (soul) may not physically be within the body, but that is our inner truth.

The purpose of life is to realize this atman (soul) and then there is nothing more to be found. Some people have figured out the truth but only a handful of people have digested the fact. The people who have really realized the atman (soul) can be distinguished by their actions. Although all actions lead to work, all work is not because of actions. Those actions where  the work is done for work’s sake and not for the fruits of the action, the karma (action) is called nishkama yoga. Such a person who follows this dictum, does not worry about the results.   You have to realize one thing clearly – the result is not within your hands. It’s a giving from God. The results are not a fluke of luck, but based on scientific principles. All of the universe follows science. (discovered and to be discovered)

Some people mistakenly think that desire is bad and causes all problems. This is partially true for those desires where the attachment to the results is there. Desire is a primal force and everyone moves ahead like the donkey with the carrot in front of it. No problem. But don’t get attached to it. Do work for work’s sake. If you desire success, so be it, but the moment you make it your to agenda or you can’t live without it, then it becomes dangerous. Once more let me repeat : Desire is good as long as we do our karma with a sense of detachment. Don’t get affected by something that did not go well, although you put in a lot of effort. Well, God has different plans for you.

Very often, the results of an action may not be in the form that you were envisaging it. Whatever it may be, thank God an move on. Knowledge by itself is not useful. When we accept the knowledge and align ourselves in our efforts, then knowledge becomes powerful. One word for the same would be Wisdom. Everything in this universe is subject to the laws of birth and death. Our Sun also will burn out after 5 billion years. Knowing this great truth is not enough. Accept it. This life on Earth is a short detour. We came from God’s kingdom and we will return there upon liquidation. So relax and enjoy the show of your life. You are the director, actor, producer and cameraman. Become a nishkama yogi and sever all your attachments and move on with the wisdom of the atman (soul)

Three cheers,

Guru30

What will you do before and after you die ?

Life is a snap. One moment you are awake and then you depart. To where ? We don’t know. This collective 80 years (average life span) passes on like a breeze leaving everything behind. The trail is visible for some days and then the world moves on. You are a forgotten person. Does the world really need you ? No. Make way for the new that is emerging and pass on your legacy to them. They will improve upon whatever it is that you have left behind or discard it and start anew. Death is not tragic it’s just a means of giving the budding souls a chance to perform better. As time ticks by, progress is achieved. New avenues. New things. New souls.

Death should be a reason for celebration as it’s exiting this world and entering newer places. Also this body really can’t keep fighting forever. You have to discard it and be free. As pure energy without mass. Floating in the ne-therlands of yore. No more running errands and wake up in the morning to catch the tube. No more meetings. No more cleaning up the house. No more watching TV. Cool, uh? All time for ourselves only. We can do what we please. Because we are in a world where you don’t have rules. Have I been to this world ? No. But the way I imagine it is, an energy particle freely wandering in the universe. That’s what happens after death.

So in the meanwhile what happens on Earth? Well, whatever it is that we have left behind will become somebody else’s. Typically a kin’s. So give it a good thought. What legacy are you going to leave behind ? Is it going to be a house with million dollars ? Is it a book that you have authored ? Is it a bunch of friends that care for you ? Whatever it is that you leave behind will be your signature. So what signature are you going to be leave behind ? What would you like to be written on your grave ? Did you live the life that you wanted to leave ? Were some of your wishes unfulfilled ? Did you have a grudge or two before you died ?

Lots of things to think upon. So if you want to live with all your heart, live every day as if it is your last day. What goals to accomplish ? Plan of the day. Encounters. Deliverables. And finally before you sleep, check of things that you did. And thank God that you are not already dead. Greet every morning as a gift from God to do all those things that you had wished that you would do or achieve. Perfect a signature talk. That will be your style. Yours and yours only. Flash it across all people you come across. You will be magnetic. Once again, remind yourself that any time we may be liquidated from this world. So do your best and leave the rest to God. Amen !

Guru30

How to get rid of those contradictions

In the world that we live, we come across a lot of contradictions. For example some health experts say that we should have three square meals a day. Some say we have to munch every hour. Similarly, in management, some say that one model is better over others. There are so many of these contradictions in life that sometimes we get confused and don’t know what to choose. While it may be difficult to make a decision, there is help available. And that is within ourselves. We are innately programmed to pursue the right choice. Listen to that feeble – faint voice that comes from within and you won’t go wrong. For sure. This is that higher calling that is guiding us every second.

Some religions say that God lives within ourselves, while some say that God is an external phenomenon. Some say he is male while others say she is female. In the morning before getting ready for the office, we hurry a lot, although we know that hurry is not good. Well, how are we going to reach office on time if we miss our regular bus ? Is there an age limit for doing yoga. Some say 5 and others 10. So many different views from so many different people. Some say that revengeful feelings are poisonous for our health and others say that we are spurred on by them. So should we keep them or learn to forgive. Some say that birth number 7 is lucky others say 3. Which one to believe ?

Actually, the more we listen to these gurus the more we are bound to get confused. Life is very simple. It’s learnt by living it. Fine, we need a guru advice once too often, but don’t start putting it into practice without thinking the pros and cons of the advice. We all come  equipped with all the answers. The question that we pose has an answer within ourselves, no need to look out. We should have a good value system and a servo motor like natures. (Servo motors correct their output automatically by feeding themselves with error input and thus correcting the output). By that I mean we should improve ourselves with every tick of the clock.

Look at nature. Does it have any contradictions ? Well, no.  All the opposites are within our minds and we need to get rid of them. All birds fly. All fishes swim. (there may be an exception or two, but these are special cases) While humans are the only ones who behave like different animals in different circumstances, forgetting that they are human. So what does it mean to be human ? Well, we are a privileged class. We have awareness. Of ourselves and of the surroundings. We can perceive higher powers through sensory and extra sensory perception. We can feel our soul and most importantly, within each of us is a treasure trove of information. Knowing this, we should stop listening to our lower selves and carve a life towards progress through spiritual calling.

To your evolution …

Guru30

Talent, Attitude and Execution

We all want to succeed in life. It all depends on what we mean by success. For somebody success is making a million dollars. For somebody else, it’s how famous you are. Some people think that being appreciated in the office is a mark of success. Thus the definition varies from person to person. For me success is the ability of tuning with God’s progress. That means being in sync with nature’s flow. You see there are three things needed for success in the real world.  They are talent, attitude and execution. If these three are complimenting each other, one achieves a lot of success in the worldly sense. So let’s explore each one of them.

First comes talent. You see, God has gifted all of us with a lot of latent talent. Some of them manifest in our lives, and some go unnoticed. Someone is a good singer, somebody else is a good artist and maybe we have some people who are good at channelizing their emotions. All different types of talents exist in this multi-faceted world. For talented people, one thing is common. They have all realized that they are talented.  And this realization is the first step. Once we realize our talent we have to sharpen it. Like the saw that needs a sharpening every now and then. So does talent. Once it is sharpened and perfected, it becomes a master script for that person. Remember to develop it.

Second comes  attitude. Many a people, have open and closed attitudes. Open people are flexible to ideas and are willing to change. Closed people are not very receptive to new ideas. It’s like the difference between introverts an extroverts, although not always. Some people  have deep set beliefs which make them extra hard. They are not willing to change. It’s better to be an optimist  than a pessimist. An optimist always carries a positive attitude and is available for new ideas. Plus he/she is willing to change. For succeeding in life, this is a must have qualification. Because in life things don’t happen the way we want always. Hence we must have the courage to change if required.          

The third attribute that a successful person has is efficiency in execution. If you notice this is the last and most important step. Some people really execute well. Some people don’t seem to live up to their act. It varies. The idea is to be professional in work that we do to such an extent that people notice that you are a dependable person. Fanatic Support, like Rackspace calls it’s webhosting. Attitude does make a difference. But most important is execution. The style and panache that we add to everyday work. People who finish with finesse, finish first and are remembered by all. Some top management people like CEO’s sometimes are so far away from their front desk (customer facing) that they develop error-prone strategies. Always dirty your hands and then execute, with all your passion. You will succeed.

To your best,

Guru30

Who am I ?

Has this question bothered you many times? Since eons, man has been trying to find a satisfactory answer to this question. Some people associate this question with the most straight forward solution of a name. Yes. Their own name. That is quite simple. The point to observe is that the name is something we get baptized mostly by our family. Do we really respond to a name when we are say 3 months old? As we grow up we associate ourselves with our name. And them it becomes a primary part of our ego. When people start calling our names, we actually feel good. We also to a lot of extent rationalize our name’s existence when others address us by the same.

But this is just the beginning, or the tip of the iceberg. Beyond that brain identification of name, lies a subtle identity of who we are. We are actually souls trapped within a body with brain. A spiritual being, if I may. Actually, we are all God’s children and part and parcel of the infinite spark. Thus, this makes us beings with infinite potential. We can dream of anything and make it come true. As Richard Bach says “You are not given a dream, without being given the power to make it come true.” Or as Aerosmith sings “Dream on. Dream on, till your dreams come true.”

The Ego identification of the name is very powerful. So powerful that it can drown all other emotions and beliefs that we may have. To override beliefs, the Ego really has to be strong. All thoughts are filtered by the Ego, before it reaches the subconscious. Hence we may not be seeing the reality as it is. The Ego is a master mind bender and can edit the gut feel thoughts also. The Ego works in the beta scale, while the mind can work on lower vibrations like delta,theta and alpha. The Ego is so strong that some of these mental states induce can also contain remnants of it. It just doesn’t disappear, because if it were to, we would be brain dead.

A world of opportunity exists in the realm of the divine and this can only be achieved by silencing the Ego. So how do we really bypass the Ego. There are many ways. One of them is Meditation. Another one is Holosync. And the list goes on. The idea is to put ourselves in a lower vibrational state, so that we can feel the power of the silence. It’s in the gap that God exists. 99.99% of the universe is made of space. Did you know that? And this space or the infinite silence is where we come from and to where we will go after our death. so don’t be identified by a simple name. We are all much more than that and are divine beings meant to enjoy bliss.

Forever …

Guru30

Never lose your hope

No matter what your present looks like or no matter if your past has been traumatic, keep in mind that you have to be hopeful. Of a better tomorrow, a better world. Keep your hope high. Never give in to  those negative thoughts that haunt you everyday. They make you cynical. I know it’s very difficult to stay positive always. But try hard, one day you will make it. To the top. And there is no stopping you. The only thing that lies between you and your dream is the effort. So work hard and stay focussed. You will reach your destination soon.

You have to actually enjoy the journey, although you are focussed towards your goal. Keep your hopes high, and only think positive. The name of the game is to avoid distractions which put you in a negative spiral. Think of your positive moments. Every day you wake up, think of your greatest achievement and keep savouring it throughout the day. At the end of the day, consciously review what thoughts did you think in the day. How much of them are cornering on hope.

Hope is the light that guides us always. It eggs us on. The light at the end of the tunnel is what you should be viewing. There are many people who have faced challenges in life, but never gave up. Because they know that one day they will make it. Humour can be a very useful tool to put us in a good mood. Use it prudently. Another thing that can put us in a positive frame is walking. Along with nature. It helps us stay calm and focussed. Try whatever puts you in a good mood.

Once again, let me tell you –> Never give up.The lives of great men are examples that we can emulate. They were also made of the same stuff that we are. Hence, I don’t see a plausible reason why we can’t make it. Time is going forward. It never comes back. So bury your past, focus on the future and live in the present. Be happy always and make somebody smile everyday. Keep improving, and never ever give up the hope for your dream. It’s just at the end of the block.

Keep Walking …

Guru30

The power of will

One thing that we definitely need in life is Focus. Imagine if we were to attend to all the thoughts that cross our mind, we would go crazy. Our focus determines our future path. If our focus is not clear, we need to take steps to reinstate it. Remember the good old saying “Focus on what you are good at”. That is a golden maxim. We are all born with so many talents, we just need to spend time on what we are good at. That itself will last a long time. Now what about things we are not good at ? We have to keep improving on them. But will we get sufficient time to focus on both. I don’t know. Maybe yes or maybe not.

In our lifetime, we worry about so many unnecessary things. The focus gets scattered if we do that. I cannot tell you what to focus on, except that if it’s good go for it. But what may seem good to you may not be the same for another person. So go by your gut feel. It’s right. You may tend to lose focus, if you simply let your mind decide everything. By that I mean your Ego. That too, the selfish Ego. Learn to listen to nature. You will soon discover the pleasantness that comes along with it, which helps us focus. Some people are able to focus better than others.

But in the end, we all require it. To succeed. What we focus upon becomes true. I mean it manifests. What we spend more time upon, is surely the thing that will blossom. You know the magnifying glass when held in sunlight, can burn a piece of paper. Now, that is cutting edge focus. If we are able to concentrate our focus to such an extent, it can prove to be beneficial for us. Focus has depth. In fact it is depth. The work that we do is a result of our focus on the subject. If we have really done our job with focus, it will turn out to be exceptional. Nothing short.

Focus brings confidence along with it. It also aids in better recall. Because what we focus on gets imprinted in our memories and hence we are able to recollect it better. Focus on what you need out of life, and then go get it. Another synonym for focus is concentration. The more, the better. Say goodbye to distractions. Focus on your work now. And soon you will realize that what seems to be an effort, will come naturally to you. And then you will be in the flow of things. Quite naturally. As focus becomes a habit for you, the truth will begin to emerge from the veil that seems to cover it.

To your success,

Guru30

Once you have dreamed it, go right after it !

Do you have regrets? Of how things could have been? Everyone in this world has the same story. Looking back, there are things which bother us because of the way it worked out. You swear to yourself that next time it would be different. Well, that’s it. You have learned your lesson. Now let it go. Do not keep reminiscing unpleasant situations. Because they put you in a ‘down’ mood. Always be in a jovial positive mood. Those things which bother you from the past are just time guzzlers and will impact the way you work today. No matter how bad it would have been, take my advice, let it go. Forgive yourself first before forgiving others. Most of the people do not achieve the pinnacle of success, because the fear of failure keeps haunting them. Are you one of them? Tell me any one person who has not failed before he hit the news. We all do. So accept failure as a lesson and try not to repeat it.

Think of failure as a motivator than something that puts you off. If you don’t succeed at first, try again. And then again and again, till you reach the goal. Failure should make you a better person if you learned some lessons from it. Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan and all other great personalities have failed many times before they hit the ‘A-ha’ moment. So do not be afraid to fail. Have you heard of that saying that a soldier who gets up when wounded, to fight, falls again, but gets up again, is the real soldier. In one word, perseverance. Keep trying. If plan A doesn’t work out, try plan B. But before you proceed, understand why the earlier plan did not work. Maybe the plan was not well thought of. Or maybe the market research was faulty. Whatever it be, identify it, so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes again. Come what may, there is only one option viz. success.

Most of the innovations do not happen in surroundings of plenty. They are born in adverse circumstances. So you may have your challenges, but you have to find a way out. First and the most important – Believe in yourself. You are God’s spark. You are destined to do great things. Mundane things are for people who believe in status-quo. You are born gifted with certain talent. Identify that calling within you and go right after it. Do not even pay heed to nay-sayers. Those who are truly on your side will spur you on. If you have come across some of your short comings, try to eliminate them or better yet outsource the part that you are not good at. This is pure startup advice. For those in jobs, you can hire the talent like say accounting, law at a fees. Pretty much like outsourcing. When you wake up in the morning, there should be a rush of energy that tells you of things that remain as errands on your to-do list of the day.

Do not be blind. Always sit back and analyze your actions. I suggest when you are taking the shower or simply before sleep. Run the day through you and analyze what actions went well and what went wrong. IF your day is about to start, visualize, what you are going to do. I use an organizer which I fire up every morning to record the tasks and events. (new as well as pending) Remember the Bible saying, Knock and it shall be opened for you. All you got to do is put in the work. Some people think that simply asking the Universe will bring it to them. Well, you have to factor in the work required to make it come true. If your intent is true and your work perfect, there is nothing in this world that can stop you from achieving what you want. It’s a magical world and we are all magical beings (spirits trapped inside a human body). The spirit is limitless and that’s what we all are. Without beginning or end. Life is just a fun ride. So enjoy that as long as it lasts.

To your dreams …

Guru30

Progress is the only aim of life

Is life a big riddle? I don’t think so. The only purpose of life is progress – to evolve. In all ways. When you see around, there are some people who are more evolved than others. You can make out that. By evolution, I don’t mean a person who has more knowledge or money. But wisdom. Knowledge applied and absorbed. A person who is more spiritually evolved than others is simply so, because of his/her actions. Actions which leads towards freedom, emancipation and wisdom. In the great epic, the Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishna mentions of three ways in which a person progresses towards God realization. They are : through your actions (karma), through knowledge (jnana) and through prayer (bhakti). All these roads lead to the same point, which is God. And when I say progress in life, it’s towards achieving God realization. We have to remove our weaknesses and amplify our strengths. As we move towards perfection (God), we move one step towards liberation.

Liberation from what? To dissolve our cycle of repeated births and deaths. Once we get to that purely refined state we eliminate rebirth. We become one with God. Till then we have to keep on learning. And take births till our evolution is complete. There have been many wise people in the history of Earth who have achieved this goal. And they have passed on the knowledge down the generations. Different religions prescribe different ways. But all point towards one ultimate truth, which is God. There have been prophets throughout history who have brought the message of God. In fact Lord Krishna says that, when evil proliferates, he takes birth in human form to eradicate it. In his next avatar, he will be half man and half machine (Kalki) Evil is a minority phenomenon. It really doesn’t really exist, because one who is evil is actually at the lower scale of human evolution.

But there have been people in the history who were murderers, but with a change of heart, went on to realize God. Hence, you really don’t have to wait for many births. You can do it in this lifetime. It’s entirely up to you. All it take is courage and wisdom. Daily add new learning's to your internal database. Learn, Reflect and Act. Thus daily you will add on to yourself. You have to make progress step by step and work towards perfection. If you do this diligently, one day you will become a refined soul like the great ones. Remember to share your wisdom with others. From normal to Godliness. That is the only aim. Keep on keeping on. Listen to that inner voice of yours which will guide you in the right direction. Never go against your conscience. Be good. Do good, And all that you do will automatically come back to you. If it doesn’t, persevere. It will, one day.

Even if you don’t consciously progress, you will, without your knowledge. Look around you. There is progress everywhere. For example, in technology. Imagine what you were using ten years ago and what you are using today. The chips inside the computers are becoming more and more powerful, giving them astonishing capabilities. Computers will assist us in our spiritual evolution. Already they help us to b more efficent and accurate. They will help us with insights, sing analytics. Such insights can be classified as a type of wisdom. With the advent of Big Data and associated analytics, Computers are embracing a whole range of new inputs and collating it to give us the information that we seek. Technology today is all-pervasive. And very soon you will find them giving us sermons in the church instead of a priest or calling the people for their daily prayers and soon assist everyone with whatever it is that the are after. Shortcut to evolution.

Plenty of it coming everyone’s way …

Guru30

Trust in yourself

If there is one thing that can be deemed to be the most important aspect of life, it can be summed up in one word: ‘Trust’. First trust yourself. Do not play games. It’s very essential to believe in yourself. You are like a beacon for the rest of the world or I must say Universe, to be more appropriate. You radiate energy. Every single moment. Never listen to anyone who tries to put you down. You are not inferior to anyone, neither are you superior. All are born equal. We all come from the Universe and we shall all return back once our tenure on this planet is completed. Like Richard Bach says in his book ‘There is only one way to know whether your mission on Earth is complete. If you are alive, it isn’t.’ We are all born with a mission. To serve others, in whatever way we can. All of us do that to a certain extent. Our goal should be to multiply the effort. The more we reach out to the better.

Technology today helps us to reach out more people than we could have imagined a 100 years ago at the speed of light. There are social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. where we can post our thoughts to be immediately received by people. Isn’t that exciting? Our goal of serving more people is enabled by technology. The mobile phone is another wonderful tool to reach out people. We can have multiple level conversations by using tools like Snapchat, Wechat etc. Technology is getting faster and better. In today’s world, hardly anyone is left out. Even people living in rural areas are now connected. You don’t really need a full fledged computer to stay in touch. A smartphone or even a low end mobile (with SMS facility) will do. If you have a GPRS connection, then accessing the internet can become easy. You can send mails, browse and access social networking sites.

Let’s come back to the topic of Trust’. When you send a mail, you don’t assume that it won’t be delivered. When you are viewing a profile on LinkedIn, you don’t think that somebody is watching you. Likewise when you are chatting, you know that others are not privy to your conversation. We trust technology to be safe. But still we hear about hacking and other maladies. Are we living in a secure world? Before I tell you the truth, let’s look at what makes technology possible. It’s a combination of hardware and software, the latter being more prominent. You see when you buy software, you are just buying bits and bytes. It’s invisible. You can’t touch it or see it. However you can see how it works. Now let’s say you bought Microsoft Windows. There is no way for you to know what those millions of lines of software code contains. Maybe they contain easter eggs plated by some upset programmer. So to answer your question whether we live in a secure world, the truth is ‘No’.

This  doesn’t imply that we be paranoid. To a lot of extent, software works as it is advertised. Most of the websites provide secure credentials to protect your data. The number of websites, apps etc. that are safe are more compared to those that aren’t. But you never know what will happen tomorrow. For example, what will happen to me, if my laptop crashes tomorrow and I lose all that data on it. Especially when I haven’t backed it up. So now we come back to the question, do we trust technology? Yes to a great extent. 90% if you ask me. It’s the same when we deal with people. Do we trust all of them. If your answer is ‘Yes’ you are probably naïve and if your answer is ‘No’ you are a pessimist. But the most important part of al this is to trust yourself unconditionally. You are the master of your fate. You are the captain of your soul. So go ahead and do whatever you believe in. Have firm faith. and this time it should not be 90%. Make it 100% and things will materialize.

Promise.

Guru30

Tech Predictions - 2014

Welcome to 2014! Here are my technology predictions for this year:

1. Cloud computing will take off. Hybrid clouds to be in vogue. More people will embrace cloud as they realize the hidden potential and value in them. The IaaS scene will be invaded by Telecom providers and vendors like Amazon, Microsoft and Google will move to PaaS. The migration won’t be completed in 2014 although this year the initiation is bound to happen.
2. Big Data (Hadoop and SQL Hadoop) will emerge as a mainstream tool for analyzing thousands of records and identify the pin in the haystack. Big Data by itself is not useful, but when coupled with analytics will be a force to contend with. BigData will mostly be used with NoSQL repositories.
3. Mobile and BYOD to double this year. As companies try to tackle the management challenges when facing security issues, they would increase number of helpdesk personnel to manage the same. Independent vendors can note the need of automated programs for this space. Right now there are not many players.
4. Wearable computing to see new entrants competing with the likes of Google and Samsung and would come out with innovative products. Like Google Glass and Samsung Gear, there will be new entrants especially in healthcare.
5. Intranets to get a major facelift in terms of new interface and integration. Sharepoint and web based intranets to excel. Company core data will be transformed for consumption on the intranet. Integration with all other value adding applications is imminent.
6. Ecommerce to become more verticalised. Many vendors would emerge as specialty vendors selling more than their wares. Ecommerce companies will partner with each other to fill in the gaps and there will be some consolidation in this space. Sales will rocket - 150% is my guess.
7. Laptops and Notebooks to make a comeback. They were really never going to be replaced with Tablets. Tablets are complimentary. PC sales would increase compared to the dismal figures of 2013. Revival of office computing, as more take on to Tablets after office hours.
8. Internet of things (Sensors etc) will start seeing more software vendors which offer a variety of programs to monitor the same. This will pave the way for Big Data revolution. Although sound analytics will be required to make decisions based on the Internet of things. The whole earth will become one big interconnected place.
9. Security will be a major concern among management. As hackers get more sophisticated, there will be newer tools besides antivirus which can deal with different attack vectors. Malware in all its forms will be tackled and sites would become more secure. The ghost of NSA would still lurk in the minds of people.
10. New super chips to make appearance. For example Graphene based chips, although I doubt if production of such chips would start in 2014. Chips with more cores and GPU capability to invade the scene. Low power chips and SSDD to become more prevalent.

That’s my list for this year.

Happy 2014 to all of you.

Many Thanks.

Guru30