Take me tonight to the river and wash my illusions away

And one day the eyes of your spirit will open

And you shall know all things …

---- Essene Gospel of Peace

Truth is the easiest way to get to God. Right thoughts. Right words. Right action. If you practice this in the light of truth, you shall reach your destination. Surely. Fill the mind with pleasant thoughts. Use your words prudently. Finally, act on your thoughts after making sure that they do not lead to bad karma. Do not be self-centred. Be an observer. There are three kinds of observations.

• Observe your inner self
• Observe those around you
• Observe what is outside of you and others

As we practice all the above three, our perception increases, till such a limit, that we see God everywhere. And that is the sole truth. We came from God’s world with our fists closed and nothing with us. As we grew up, we started hoarding things and called them ours. The irony is that we will go back to God’s land without any of these possessions. With palms wide open.

Aye ghame zindagi, khucch to de mashwara (Oh grieving life, give me some recommendation)

Ek tarf uska ghar,ek taraf maikada. (On one side is his house, and on the other side is the bar)

---- Ghazal, Pankaj Udhas

This sums up the precarious position in which one finds him/herself. Where to go ? On one side you find God’s way and on the other side is the attraction of Maya. (this illusory world). The bar is a metaphor for life where we get drunk (with our desires). Most of us live in the world for enjoyment that it can give us, not knowing that all these enjoyments are transient in nature. The only true enjoyment is in God, which is unchanging. But still we are caught up in the frivolous ways of life. We keep labelling things. This is mine, this is yours. And so on. Once we break out of this selfish clutch, we proceed towards God’s way. A lot of people, do not even bother to realize God and hence die with the music still in their hearts. This is really tragic.

Lord Buddha used to ask people ‘Koi paraga?’, which means anyone for the other shore ? He is one of those holy people who not only attained Nirvana, but brought that capability to people. His four noble truths and eightfold path is the shortcut to Nirvana. When he attained enlightenment under a Bodhi tree, his face was so radiant, that people asked him ‘Are you God ?’. And his reply was ‘No. I’m awake.’ He is one of those great souls who came down from the Buddhic plane to the Physical plane to impart his teachings to the world. Another example of a great soul is Jesus Christ, who descended from the ‘Love plane’ (Heart Chakra) to the physical realm to spread his word of Love to the entire world. There have been many sages who have entered Nirvana, but some of them chose to shed their physical sheaths. They still guide us from a higher plane.

The initial step of awakening is simply left to ourselves. Once we walk two steps on this path, then there are angels/guides/gurus who help us out in progressing towards higher planes. However, the first step is breaking our mental barrier, and that is solely our responsibility. Everyone has a guardian angel. But for the angel to be helping us out, we have to first help ourselves. These guides (devas/ pitris) all descend on Earth, through the rays of the Sun and the Moon. Their only aim is, to help us achieve higher forms of consciousness. To promote us to the next level, till we reach God. (purity) So do not for a moment think that shedding the physical body is the end. We keep living on. The spoken word does not go back to the tongue. But the sunlight that came out of the Sun, shall return back to the Sun. That’s our journey. Like a wave on the ocean shore. To the ocean we shall return back, eventually.

In times to come …

Guru30

This is the end

This is the end.

Beautiful friend.

This is the end.

My only friend the end.

Of everything that stands the end.

Of safety and surprise the end.

I’ll never look into your eyes again.

(Jim Morrison – The Doors)

People throughout the ages have been concocting stories of doom and death. Prophecies of apocalypse and destruction has been a salient part of scriptures also. Why are we so fascinated with these folklores of doom ? Why do we have a fixation on them ? One reason could be the mindset that we are all mortal beings. We see people falling to death, right, left and centre. All around us. So does this mean that death is the great equalizer ? Not at all. Death is just one chapter of this great book called life. We are all on different chapters, indicating the progress that we made in this life. In times to come, more chapters will be written and a final standing ovation, before we become a yogi (somebody who is united with God) That will be the end of this glorious book which we seem to be desperate to protect.

Inside our bodies, we have cells. These cells keep dividing and finally they become old and are no longer in a position to divide further. This is the end of the cell. Actually scientists and doctors have found that it’s an enzyme called telomerase whose production once stopped leads to the so called ‘cell-death’. We have tails for our cells called telomeres. These structures keep getting shorter with the passage of time, till a situation comes when telomeres are no longer present. When death happens to a person, his physical body leaves first. This is an instruction from the brain to all the cells to notify of the end. The senses then die one by one. Then the breathing stops. That is the end of the pranic body. Have you seen a person who loses different faculties of the body step by step. While he is dying, we say yeah he is becoming one with God. Finally the consciousness also leaves the body. When this happens, the individual is proclaimed dead.

When I say consciousness leaves the body, it simply means that our awareness gets de-focussed from our body. Consciousness is not necessarily within the body, as it can be non local. When we have lost our body and sense, a great sense of peace pervades us. In fact people who have undergone NDE (Near Death Experience) have experienced moments of bliss and also astral projections of our body, watching our dead body and people all around us. Similarly some people recollect their previous birth experience indicating that reincarnation is true. People have a fear of hell in the afterlife. They believe that it’s a place where people atone for their sins. Is that true ? I do not know. Hell according to me is the state of mind. If you are a living being, still depressed, then you are in hell, already.

In the Katha Upanishad, mention is made of person named Nachiketa, who asks the God of Death (Yama) to teach him the secret of Death. When Death asks him to ask of anything else, but this secret, he simply refuses. Yama doesn’t have an option, but to teach him the secret. There is another character – a sage called Shukracharya (teacher of Asuras) who has been taught the secret of Sanjivani (Bringing the dead back to life) by Lord Shiva. The best way to avoid Death is to not notice him when he comes knocking on your door. Pray to God. He will help you out with a solution. With technology our life span is getting extended, as we have more proactive means of identifying diseases before they become fatal. Also with augmented body parts, our life span will increase. But one thing is for sure. We cannot avoid death, as long as we carry this body with us. So welcome it with arms wide open because it’s the door to salvation.

Finally …

Guru30

The five questions of life

 

1. Who am I
2. What’s my purpose
3. How can I be happy
4. What should I do
5. Where is the end

 

Who am I

Ask yourself this question from your heart, and you will get just one answer – consciousness. You are not your name, address, driving license number or other artefacts, which you uphold so dearly. You are not your body. Also, you are not your thoughts. All these things are destructible. They will not survive forever. In short, you are a spiritual soul undergoing a physical experience. Tat tvam asi. (You are That) Brahman or the Soul is the only thing that is real, rest everything is unreal. So how do you apply it to life ? Well, to start with, be in the awareness that there is no place in this universe where God is naught. See yourself in others or see others in yourself. Know that consciousness is experiencing all of this. Go a little further to help others.Be passionate, empathetic and considerate.

What’s my purpose

When God created you, he put in the same divine purpose into all beings. To realize God. That is the the only purpose. To achieve this there are many ways or paths. Now whichever path you trod, the destination is the one and the same. Some people think that their purpose is to be an artist or a doctor or an engineer etc, Well these are just vocations. Doing the duties without any impurity takes us towards God. The talents are many. So are the ways. But all of them done in a selfless manner takes you closer to God. Live your passion. Keep yourself engaged. Do not get caught up in thinking, because it is unending. Also, it’s a distraction. Your heart knows things that your mind doesn’t. Another word for God is Love. We are all here to experience Love in all ways. Practically speaking, the distance between you and God is a smile.

How can I be happy

Happiness is simply the presence of Love at all times. If you are happy, you radiate positive energy. To be happy, the following tips are useful :

• Keep smiling
• Have complete faith in God
• Remember God always
• Live passionately
• Be focussed

There are many other ways that can lead to happiness. But my wish for you is that you find true happiness within yourself. The day you fathomed yourself, is the day when you will be most happy.

What should I do

The answer to that is to live a full life. and by full life, I mean a life filled with awareness. In short, a life full of happiness. Know that whatever path you may choose your goal should be to realize God in that journey. Thus the journey is God and so is the destination. Make it worth experiencing. Well, you will come across your trials and tribulations when you walk the path. This is your learning. You may make mistakes, but you have to learn from them. Daily you have to walk, bit by bit, till you start striding. And then, the striding will give to running and finally a marathon. How you fare in the marathon will all depend on what has been your experience till then. Do not let ideologies taint you. Be yourself.

Where is the end

Well, there is none. Life is like a 400 metre pass the baton, sprint. Once you run your 100 metres, you have to pass on the baton to others who will run the next 100 and so on. Death is just a small experience that happens to us. But by no means, do we die. Life is like a big book of many chapters (newborn, toddler, child, teenager, adult, middle age, old age) Finally it’s time to write your epilogue. But unlike the book, the story does not end here. Whatever has been your realization in this lifetime, you carry it with you, till you are born again, to write a better book. This keeps on continuing, till you find that the book itself was God and so were your chapters. And once you realize this in completeness, you have transcended space time. Now you are left with just your will – which becomes divine will. And you can choose to do whatever is to be done. You have become one with God.

Let truth win …

Guru30

What do you want to do today

Numbers, shapes and colours are all God given. In the quest for science, we have chanced upon these properties of the divine. Besides these, we can also say that we discovered music and dance also. We are constantly changing these art forms to evolve new methods of inquiry. Or simply put, we carve for new experiences. We are in a participatory universe continually co-creating new possibilities. We are surrounded by potential. Both inside and outside. But in this race to control, we have caused a lot of damage to nature. So much so that, the effects of such rampant thoughtless acts are causing phenomenon like global warming and El Nino. The common thread that underlies human discovery and inventions is the urge to control everything. Not realizing that too much of control, really restricts the freedom. The freedom to be what we aspire to be. The freedom to express ourselves the way we intend to. The freedom to share our experience with others.

One of our inventions – the computer is also created to simply obey instructions. We do not want any independent thinking from machines. Now, with artificial intelligence, we can say that computers have started to think. Yes, deep down, it’s nothing other than an algorithm. Created by humans for consumption by humans. Computers are eerily accurate and boredom or tirelessness do not dawn upon them. They are highly rational. Now we are trying to apply computing to arts. Can a computer ever be able to appreciate a painting or a sunset ? Surely, not the way we do. However objectively speaking, they may be able to emulate a human emotion, without feeling it. Or if God is experiencing the world from the computer’s perspective, we really do not know what kind of experience will it be. Will a computer become aware ? A discipline such as machine learning is advancing the computer towards awareness. But this awareness won’t be anything like human awareness.

Virtual reality is picking up. Facebook bought Oculus Rift, a company that has a virtual reality device that can augment our sense of the world, thus providing us a more fuller experience. Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo! once told the story of a small boy who had a penny with him and didn’t know what to do with it. Should he share with his brother, should he put it in the piggy bank ? Finally he decides to take a ride on a roller coaster. This story proves that in the days to come, we will be looking for better experiences. And unlike false methods like depending on external stimulants (drugs), to get a high, we are staring at products that can really stimulate us. You know the difference between 3-D, 4-D, 5-D TV. Well, as we go higher, our enjoyment of the environment goes higher. Virtual and Augmented reality are going to steal the show of the future and unleash some real great experiences that we will treasure and share with others.

So what happens to insights through things like predictive analytics. Well, they will be there, but everything will revolve around how the results are presented. You see, we love stories. And the tools which paint a story of insights, is surely going to win in the future. Instead of showing a chart, we will be able to storify the insight and thus making it more relevant and useful. The onus of this will be with the data that we work with. The more data (N=all) the better. But data should be clean and in context of the question being posed by the user. Co-relations are great, but at times, we would want to know the causation also. In the future, this will also be narrated as a tale that gives us meaning. People will produce more and possess less. The activity would be important because doing it right can only guarantee a good outcome. The journey or the way, will be more important than the goal as we make room for God to have as much of variety in the experiences that come across our way.

To that unforgettable moment …

Guru30

The importance of attention

The most important quality that anyone can possess is the ability to give undivided attention to his/her surroundings. This means one pointed focus. When you shine your light of attention, the thoughts inside your mind automatically vanish. How many times in a day does your attention wander ? You must have noticed that very often it happens so. When you are not concentrating, the effect of the object wanes. You do not get it fully. You must work through the gap which is nothing but your awareness. You will have a heightened sense of experience, if you operate with your full attention. In fact, this is what love is. 100% attention in the present.You see things as they are. And you experience them real. If there is one thing we must do, it is to cultivate silence. Stop that mind chatter. And just listen. When a person speaks, do not interrupt him. Listen fully. Do not let your attention swing outside the focus of attention. There are so many distractions while you are trying to concentrate. Filter them out. Like noise cancelling headphones. You must have one for yourself.

Like sunlight when it passes through a magnifying glass (convex) can burn paper, so should be the heightened awareness of the mind. When we reach this stage, we will be able to experience the universe around us, in a deeper sense. Because finally who are you ? You are that awareness – pure potential. Your name, your possessions, your relations or your physical body is not going to endure forever. What is left is pure awareness or consciousness trying to experience what is around through you. You are the medium of expression. Know that this consciousness or awareness or potential or whatever you may call it, is indestructible. It survives even after death. You are moving towards purity or perfection. When your awareness is 100%, you become God like. All the good qualities like love, peace, joy, equanimity etc. will become your nature. In the Bible it’s said ‘You know God, when you know yourself’. The day that happens is your transformation.

When you realize that you are much more than a physical body covered by flesh and bones, you have started your quest. In order to answer your questions, you have to delve deep into yourself. Flush out the negatives that you have and attenuate your positive. Apply your innate talent to fields which you love. Do not spend time on things you dislike, although you may be a victim of circumstances. Please persevere while you wait for your dreams to come true. It’s easy to marry the person that you love, but to love a person after marriage requires effort. If your situation is not amenable to you, take steps to change it. Everyday, you may work on a snippet. But slowly and surely, things will change. You can also aim for a rapid transformation by becoming more aware or sensitive to everything around you. To love sometimes you have to be vulnerable. That’s a risk you have to take. But who is going to hurt whom, when we are all the same awareness that is tucked away somewhere in the cradle of the Universe.

Life is very much like a movie. There are three aspects of it : The observer, the observed and the process of observing it. When we are watching a movie we feel that it is real, like a dream. When we sit in a theatre watching a movie, our attention is on what is being projected on a screen. In life, similarly, the projection is on reality (screen) and the projector is our mind. The process of observing it, varies from person to person. Some people put all the attention to the screen. Some people sleep in cinemas. Some people simply think, while watching the movie. So why do we go to cinema’s ? The answer is, for the experience. Companies which make products with a great user experience will thrive. This applies to all aspects of our life. We are creatures of experience. Because deep down we are all observers or pure awareness. A majority of people are unaware of their awareness, and hence we need to bring a new world order. I’m reminded of John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ and if it were to come true, the world would be a magical place to live. To change the world, you have to change yourself. And when you do it out of a deep sense of awareness, you will experience a world as the dreamers had dreamed of.

One world !

Guru30

Work – the ticket to Nirvana

Most of our life we spend working. We wake up in the morning. Get ready for work. Commute (for those not working from home). Work. Return back home. Sleep and get ready for a new day. Somebody described a worker as a

A man who shaves and takes the train

And rides back home to shave again

This is our routine. It’s so easy to get locked into a ritual and get comfortable in it. So much so that, we get perturbed when there is a deviation from the normal. Change is so hard. But it is so boring to have a groundhog day (Daily the same routine). Most of us succumb to this phenomenon. However some manage to break the shackles of monotony. Change the status-quo. The younger generation seem to be more receptive to change. This is because, unlike the older people, they are not prejudiced. Their mind and beliefs are still malleable. For some people, it’s a daily dose of thrill that they want to experience. While for others, it may be an obligation. People work for different reasons. Some for growing, some for the knowledge, some for the money and so on. Whatever may be the case, one thing we all know is that we must keep working.

Work is worship. You should enjoy the work that you do. Like a carpenter who whistles while he is sawing. Work for work’s sake. Not the results. Some of you think that we work for the end results. That is not true. If our work is perfect, the end result is almost guaranteed. It’s not the destination, but the path that is important. There are different ways of achieving the goal. The most important part of the work is the execution. But first you must have the skills. And before that comes talent. You see, most of us have been blesses with one or multiple talents. We must identify this first and only work where we can apply it. Talent once converted to skills that we acquire is the logical way looking ahead. An most important is our style of working or the way we execute that work. In NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) there are three kinds of personalities : Visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. We may be any of these types but what matters is what we bring to the table. There is a saying :

Trust in God, but bring Data to the table.

This data that you bring to the table is your talent, skills and execution style.. To paraphrase

Talent >>> Skills >>> Style of execution.

We are like a servo motor. A servo motor improves it’s output over time. It achieves this by feeding back the error to the input, so that the next time around, you get a better output. We are also a learning machine. However, some people do not learn from their mistakes. This may be due to many reasons :

• They have not understood what the mistake was
• They are not having the skill to correct it
• They are slow learners
• They are thick headed

Our aim while working should be for perfection. And in this race against time, we have to be very agile and alert. Gone are the days when we had time at our disposal and we could manage the schedule. In today’s world of bits, changes happen faster than the speed of light. You were working on something and maybe because of myriad reasons, you may have to disrupt your own work and pick up something new for competitive advantage.

The great sages of the past mentioned about two terms : Action and Inaction.

Action is focussed work when you forget the mind. Inaction is the opposite of that. Action in Inaction means that although you may be idling, you are working.away. Because you are not still. You get thoughts and that automatically drives you. While Inaction in action means that although you are working, there is a deep silence in you. This concept has to be understood clearly. Your work is your karma. One way to realize God is through work. You may have read a lot of books, but this is not the final word. The word is an experience to be had. And through work we can get liberated. Instead of picking up a book, if you pick up a guitar and play, chances are, you will achieve realization sooner. Work, where and when, you forget yourself is true work. Work is your ticket to Nirvana. Like master Yoda said to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars : ‘No try. Do’

All the best,

Guru30

Be still and know that I’m God

All roads lead to Rome. It doesn’t matter what is the path that you walk on, they all lead to God. Every single one of us have our own paths. Some are way ahead, some are lagging behind. The destination is not important, the journey is. Keep walking and enjoy the experience. It’s not for a far out goal that we live. It’s for the sheer ecstasy that we feel when we walk on the path. In this path, you may come across detours. Simply take it. Do not wait to think. Feel it. Feel everything around you. Smell the earth, hear the rustle of the leaves, hear the chirps of the birds. What if you are in a city ? While you are driving, feel how you control the car. Hear the various sounds that emanate from your car. Turn on the music. Look around the scenery. Feel the wind in the face. Or simply hail God’s name while you are driving or walking or shopping. This is called Dhikr in Islam (Remembrance of Allah) and Japam in Hinduism. If you have a mantra reiterate it. Maybe prayer verses. You will find an immense amount of peace dawn upon you. Next time you are tense, just take two deep breaths and remember God.

There is only one purpose in life for all of us. And that is to experience God and his mysterious ways. We have to go through life simply with awareness. Knowing that we are not separate from others. We all are connected through a single fabric. Hopi Indians mention about the Spider Mother, how She weaved an infinite web in the beginning. We are all part of this web and hence connected to each other.  What is our individual identity – nothing – it’s just a bundle of thoughts arising in the mind that gives us a sense of separateness from everything else. The actual – us – is simply consciousness. So are all those transient things and life forms around us. There are different levels of consciousness. For example, we as human beings are aware of our existence. We are all at different stages of evolution. When we perceive the power of God in all that’s around us, including people, our life takes on a special meaning. We automatically radiate peace, love and equanimity.

To achieve this level of awareness is not a simple task. Because the mind is like a drunken monkey, over and above which, the monkey is bit by a snake. Imagine the conundrum. But the mind can be quietened by practices like meditation or yoga. Simply engaging ourselves in our work is another way of experiencing God. In the Bible it is said ‘Be still and know that I’m God’. When you forsake the endless thoughts running in your mind, what is simply left is nothing but consciousness. When the mind ceases to be, we realize Him/Her. And as our progress in quietening the mind increases, we find ourselves to be fulfilled. The mind should be used only as a problem solving tool. Do not let it run your life. Because life is a beautiful dream to be lived fully. Life is qualitative in nature. So drink deep from the fountain called life. This life as a form that has been given to us, is to contemplate God. To experience Him/Her in it’s entirety.

We affect everything around us. An experiment carried out by some scientists was to have a jar full of photons, the air having been sucked out. When you try to observe them they are in chaos state. Then the scientist’s introduced a piece of DNA inside the jar. Suddenly all the photons formed a pattern. This proves that DNA an influence particles like photons. Surprisingly, when the DNA was removed from the jar, the photons were still in arrangement. Another experiment in quantum physics was to split a photon into two particles. These two photons were fired away in opposite directions. When a fork came, both the photons chose the same path. This was repeated again and again. How do the photons choose the same path, although being separated. They seem to be communicating with each other, although separated.This phenomenon is called quantum entanglement. Which simply means that space time does not become a limitation for particles which are separated. This exercise proves that we are all connected with everything in the Universe. Despite knowing that we are all divine creatures, we bicker over territory, go to war and misuse our brains.

However, there is a global awakening happening. We are feeling it in the innards of our selves. To solve the petty problems of mankind, we have to raise ourselves and learn that not only are we blessed, everything around us is. We are living in a sacred universe, which reveals itself to us, when it deems us fit to receive the revelation. Till then.

Keep on keeping on …

Guru30

From desire to destiny

You are what your deepest driving desire is.

As is your desire, so is your will

As is your will, so is your deed

As is your deed, so is your destiny

(BrihadAranyaka Upanishad)

Desire is like that seed when placed in fertile soil (the Field) gives rise to shoots and finally a tree. The only catch is that you should be willing to wait. You have to nurture this desire regularly. Like a seed requires water to grow, your desire needs constant focus from your side. You can try visualization and relive the desire every now and then. The results may not be as you would expect. You get back what you are entitled to. Some people say that you can force the Universe to give you what you want. This is sheer nonsense. It is like saying that you can win a war in today’s world with swords and knives. The Universe will give you the results when you are ready. Have you heard the saying that the master appears before the student when he/she is ready. Basically, what this means is that you have to raise your vibration levels. You have to let go of your conflicts and step into abundance. This is a mindset which says that the world is not a zero sum game. (unlike the stock market) There is plenty out there for you and everyone else. Your desire drives you, but you should be in the right state of mind to receive the gifts.

Desire is pretty much like writing a computer program. You have an idea (desire) which you want to fructify. This idea leads to specification or planning (akin to visualization) and then you get ready to do it (your willpower). Next you start writing the program (your deed) and how you perform this deed will shape the results (destiny) You may follow a particular methodology to take you to the end result. If you don’t get what you expected, there can be changes in the program, till you refine it to perform exactly as you anticipated. For your program to work, you should choose the correct operating system and the tools used to perform coding and testing. You should have a platform (ecosystem) where you can deploy your program, right from testing to staging to production environment. All the different steps above done correctly will lead to precise results. Right from your desire to your deeds, all will end well if you have envisaged and executed the plan flawlessly. The more clearly you have pictured the outcome in the beginning, the more accurate would be your results.

Some people say that desire is the root cause of all problems. Not true. Desire is what drives us. Even God had a primordial desire of creating this world and that’s how we got here. What is bad is not desire, but the attachment to the desire. Which means hankering after the results. You should be able to work on all desires without worrying about the outcome. When you do your execution, you should enjoy the work and not focus on the outcome too much. Of course, you should carry the picture of what you are expecting, but not so much as to cause negative effects like stress or worry. Just enjoy your work, the rest will follow. Have the belief that, in the future, you will see it happening. Do not worry too much about the path. The path may be difficult. But keep walking. One thing you should keep in mind is that we have a right to our desire, but not to it’s fruits. The fruits are simply gifts from God. So thank him once you receive your bounty.

So what are the things that we should keep in mind? The golden rule is that there are no rules. Just guidelines. All these standards and practices are like planetary positions at a particular time. They will have their effect if we do nothing. Within each of us, lies the power to overturn any situation into success. However adverse the conditions might be, still we have within us an indomitable force to turn it around through the power of our will. Like in Apollo 13, the tagline is ‘Failure is not an option’, we can try not to fail. However if we do, it means it’s learning time. Learn the lessons and try again, till you succeed. What is important is the knowing that all these things are controlled by a subtle force, not visible to the naked eye or other senses. Deep down, there is an infinite intelligence that is guiding us towards our final goal. And we are not separate from this field. Everything is woven into the fabric of life, as if they are all connected. Trust in this force and know that you are blessed.

‘Ask and ye shall receive’, is very true. But do not forget to wait and work hard till the time that you are granted what you wished for.

To your desires …

Guru30

Love makes the world go around

I don’t know much

But I know I love you

That may be, all I need to know

(English Romantic Song)

Knowledge is passé. You can find it all on the internet. One thing that the internet does not give you is Wisdom – your ability to discriminate between what is good and bad. Wisdom coming from a love angle is very powerful. It can benefit not just yourself but the whole world. Love is a feeling of expansiveness, peace and equanimity. All you need to do is love others as much as you love yourself. Deep down we are all beings of love. But it gets shrouded in the worldly affairs. Like a violet gets hidden behind a mossy stone, love is also hidden away in the depths of our being. Let it awaken. See the world through love. Speak the heart’s language. Because the heart has wisdom that the mind does not. Love is that universal language that we all are capable of, but don’t practice it in a moment to moment fashion. We are so inundated with the surroundings and our perceptions, that we forget to see things from the heart. Instead we judge and criticize. Hate can only be cured by love.

Do not wander here and there. See the world through the eyes of love and see how things around you change. If there is a prayer that we should say to God, it should be to feel love always, no matter what the situation may be. Love is infectious. If you radiate love in your surroundings, you become a magnet. You will trigger everything around you, to feel it. This not only includes human  beings, but the entire flora and fauna. Love is not something that is within you or outside of you. It permeates everywhere. In other words, love is the effect of consciousness. We feel it. But can’t describe it. The Supreme Being of which we are a part, is made up of Love – in entirety. The field as well as the knower of field is made up of love molecules. It takes up different forms for the experience of itself. Every single moment we are bathed in love. When we are in love there is a strong supply of Oxytocin in our blood. This is the chemistry. But what triggers that Oxytocin is our state of mind.

Helen Keller once said “The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.” Stay in that feeling. The heart wants what it wants. There is no reason that can be applied to it. Love makes us open up. We become more vulnerable. But somebody once said “Its better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” This opening up of the inner chambers of our heart is worth the risk of rejection. When we truly come from love, there is no stopping it. And this language is the universal language. Like we have the US dollar as the reserve currency, the currency of the universe is Love. And that is the only currency that we need to possess. Maybe all the time, we are not radiating warmth, but just change your frequency level and see how you were born to do only one thing – spread love. That has been the message of all prophets. Love is prime time. This fashion never goes out of vogue.

A small cuddly hug, a speech heard with empathy, a look of love and all the small gestures that can make the world a better place – go ahead – do it. The imminent need of today’s problems worldwide can be solved only with Love. It’s a panacea. And when all of us are elevated to this level – the awakening will happen. It’s not our education. Neither is it the knowledge that we have acquired. It’s all about experience. The more that we have experiences of love, the more we grow. A simple smile is all it takes to spread it. Mahatma Gandhi once said “Where there is love, there is life” and you can imagine what a powerhouse of love, he was. If you look at all the crimes being committed by people, it’s because of a lack of love. Of course, these people also feel love. But it is so covered up by their psyche, that they entirely subjugate it and listen to the voices in their head. What the world needs today is a good solid dose of love and only we can make it happen, if we practice spreading love wherever we go.

Lovingly yours,

Guru30

How to get rid of confusions

We get confused sometime, and this happens because of conflict. Our mind has accumulated many things that we consider right or wrong. When we are in a situation that does not agree with our values, we get confused. The problem particularly happens when what we are experiencing seems contradictory to what we hold inside us. Our prejudices make us see things through a coloured lens. We do not see things as they are, but as we want to see them. It’s convenient and acceptable to us. Most of the conflicts in organizations happen because of people’s mind sets, about what they agree and disagree upon. If you look at surveys, you will clearly see that, not all people have the same stand on issues. While some of these may have a majority still there are people who may have an exact contra-opinion to yours.

So why does this happen ? The answer is variety. The world would be a dull place, if we had everyone agreeing to everything. Look at a democracy model, where the majority vote wins. Look at autocracy ,where a minority controls a majority. People have picked up various experiences throughout life and this pretty much dictates their outlook. One reason why we get confused is, because we don’t view things objectively. By this I mean, seeing things the way we are. We mix our notions and preferences to all situations. Often, we see strong opinionated people who vehemently oppose things that they disagree with. While there are other people who feel offended, at times.

The confusion applies to the world of technology also. You see, software is a set of abstractions. Layers built upon layers. If a program has to communicate with another program, both of them have to be at a particular level, to get the handshake going. For example, if say that data has to be passed between two programs, then the data should be on an agreed upon format. If they are talking thru JSON (Javascript Object Notation) then both have to be able to parse JSON text. Else if they are talking on XML (Extensible Markup Language) then both must have an XML parser. This is at the data level. A process level may share things thru REST (Representational State Transfer) or say SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) – both, a way of communicating.

The difference between programs and human beings is that we talk at many levels at once, while a program can operate only on one instruction,at a particular time. This is the architecture of most of the processors. It’s called SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data). We can fight confusion in many ways. Some of them are :

• Don’t react in any situation.
• View things objectively.
• Focus on the receiver (Gauge his/her level)
• Maintain a diary (Jot down the experience, things will start becoming clear)
• Question your values

A broad outlook on life sometimes helps. Also be resilient like a warrior who gets hurt but continues to fight till the end. Confusions come and go. Solve it. With this, you will become a better person, till you reach a level where you see that in the context of the highest, there is no confusion. It’s all within our mind. Look at nature. Do you come across any contradictions? No. Everything has been crafted out of wit and it all works as seamlessly as possible. We are the only species on the planet who gets confused. And we have all the tools that are required to remove it. Deep inside each one of us, is the answer to all questions. Access this well, and you will realize that the only thing that is stopping you from reaching that clarity is yourself. So get out of the way.

Best wishes,

Guru30

You are born twice

You are born twice. The first one – when you come out of your mother’s womb. The second one – when you realize your self. The day that your confusions vanish away and you see clearly who you are, is your second birthday. You will see a world where everywhere you can see your self and the whole of the universe within your self. From the focus on outside, you will turn inward. And suddenly you realize that all the answers are within your self. The distinction between you and what is outside of you will vanish. Your heightened sense of awareness will make you more peaceful and joyful. You will behold the world with a childish sense of awe, and you will feel gratitude flowing within you. You will feel existence as the biggest miracle that defies elucidation.

There are three main ways in which you can realize yourself:

1. Through your actions
2. Through knowledge
3. Through devotion

Your daily actions without reflection will not take you there. You have to consciously do things. When you reach perfection in your skill, you will get an insight. This is the wisdom that you collect, as you go ahead in life. The more perfect you become in your actions, the more you will realize the truth. However self esteem should not turn into false pride. So beware of that.

There are people who learn about truth from the knowledge that they collect. When they see patterns (intelligence) within knowledge and find a simplistic method of assimilating all the knowledge that they are accumulating, it can lead to some insights. Say you are researching a topic. When you go to the depths and understand the subject from a 360 degree view, you will get an epiphany.

Some people are grateful to the Universe. When they feel this from the bottom of their heart, a strange thing begins to happen. They become more happy.  These people always think good about others and pray for not just themselves but everyone. The moment you start communicating with the Universe, you will find that you are being guided. It’s this awareness when sharpened becomes revelation.

For some people,  awareness seems to come and go. But there are people who live the awareness in all moments. The day you live like that is your real birthday – celebrate it, because the whole universe is flowering away and dancing to the tunes of life. Do not miss the boat. Once you get in the boat, know that the river is endless. So all you have to do is just paddle and then make way for other people who want to have the same experience.

Happy Birthday …

Guru30

7 steps to stay happy

Happiness is a feeling. Joy is an emotion. The difference being that happiness is deeply engrained into our psyche. It is permanent. Whereas Joy is a fleeting glimpse of happiness. We do several things to be joyful. But it doesn’t stay forever. What we should be aiming for is happiness -  a state of mind when we feel peace and joy, always. So here are some tips for you to stay happy :

Remember God always.

Come from the angle that God is everywhere. This simple awareness can make you feel at ease, no matter whatever be the situation. When you get a break, just reminisce God. There are some people who keep talking to God always. Just hear that voice in the quietness, guiding you to your destination.

Stay Calm.

An event is not good or bad. It’s our interpretation that makes it good or bad. So whatever you may come across in a day, be firmly planted in awareness. The event you may not be able to control, but the reaction to it is for you to choose. So stay calm.

Let that mind chatter stop

An average of 25,000 thoughts cross our mind everyday. Thoughts in turn fire emotions. What you feel is actually what you have been thinking about. So anytime the thoughts start chatter in your brain, come back to being the witness. Do not judge or criticize them. Let it pass. Just observe. You will be quiet very soon. Remember, you are not your thoughts, but awareness itself.

Follow a schedule

From the time that you wake up to the moment that you fall asleep, keep a schedule for yourself. For eg: you drink a warm cup of lemon water in the morning, then you grab a cup of coffee and then you get ready for work etc. The routine is good, but do not overstretch it or under do it. Be realistic about what you have to accomplish in a day and then just follow it. Once in a while, break the routine.

Eat good food and drink plenty of water

You should always eat fresh food. Stop eating the refrigerated food. Do not skip a wholesome breakfast, lunch and dinner. Drink a lot of water. On an average 2 litres per day. While eating or drinking, feel the food and the water. Did you know that your thoughts get affected by the kind of food you eat?

Reflect on the day

Before the end of the day, analyse what happened. Learn from it. You may have made a mistake or you may have handled situations very well. Whatever it may be, recollect it and reflect on it. These are life lessons. Learn from mistakes and amplify your positive attributes.

Get a good night’s sleep

Sleeping well is an essential requirement. While in sleep, our body rejuvenates itself, does damage repair and cleans all toxins in our system. Aim for a deep sleep. Before going to sleep, do not think of unwanted things. Put all your botheration's to rest and sleep like a baby. Average recommended sleep hours : six hours.

Towards your well being,

Guru30

Limitations of Software

Software creation is a trade off between time, features and budget. You don’t get all the time in the world. So the clock ticks away towards a deadline. The feature set or scope is what defines the software. You cannot possibly have all use cases. Some of them you may keep and some may either be dropped or postponed for the next release. This promise has been funded by investors/company/individual. So you have a limited budget within which you have to make the agreed upon software feasible. Making software is more of an art than science. You have to have the right tools, methodology and people to achieve success. Of this, the most important is the last one : people. It’s teamwork in the end.

The architecture of software is the very foundation that has to be weighed in correctly. For example, to create software on the cloud, you have to have loosely coupled applications. This simply means that your class/object dependencies with other classes/objects is minor. If say, you are using MVC (Model View Controller) , a type of design pattern for say, your UI (User Interface), a good choice for the Javascript Library would be Angular. (created by Google) Architecture dictates the development environment. What tools to use, what libraries to use and what programming language to use. If your foundation is strong, you will go on to build great software else if your architecture is weak, you may come across challenges.

Another thing that can affect your software development is the methodology that you choose. For example you may use Agile methodology. This is captured in the Agile Manifesto which says, we prefer :

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

There are many different types of this methodology, the most popular being Scrum. There are different actors in this methodology, for example. the product owner (who is responsible for collecting the user stories) , the Scrum Master (Team lead) etc. Agile is very interactive in nature and team work is a hallmark. Nowadays, you hear the term DevOps. This is simply involving Development, Operations , Testing and Stakeholders all owing collective responsibility of the software. Typically, you use some form of Agile development (iterative,  mostly).

Despite using the right tools, right methodology on a strong architecture, we still have software bugs. You see, people are in a hurry to release software. This comprises their quality. The general idea is get out version 1.0 and bugs and change requests can be plugged into the upcoming features. The biggest limitation of software is it’s features. A business has to accommodate itself to this new features. Which means, more so often, software dictates process changes in order for it to be used. Well, this is prevalent in ready made software (both shrink wrapped and cloud versions). There can be new improvements in the next releases. But they either make the software easier to use or make it more difficult.

However, to combat these limitations, most of the software provides:

1. A parameter list that can be altered. (a limited amount of features over which you have control)
2. A plugin library. (third party developers can release addons to the software that can make it more powerful)
3. An API for you to be able to extend the software through programming.

If a software is well balanced, it will have some or all of the features above. But, as said earlier, software development is a trade off. There is no such thing as Software Nirvana. But people working on the same may achieve good insights to take them to the ultimate goal of life – their own emancipation.

Cheers,

Guru30

The Emperor’s Mind

There is intelligence everywhere. I’m not referring it to intelligence of human beings, but that which is pervasive. It exists everywhere. Although we can’t see it, we know that it is there. How else do you explain a seed planted and nourished gives rise to a tree ? Or take our immune system. How does it manage trillions of activities within our body and keeps us away from harmful pathogens ? To date, we have not manufactured seeds that can become a tree without soil or water. This supreme intelligence is very subtle in its actions. We don’t see it, because it vanishes before we get to it. It’s neither ahead of us nor is it behind. Neither up, nor down. North, South, East, West. No where. Although, the paradox is that it is anywhere, it chooses to be.

What we call as intelligence is a toddler compared to this supreme intelligence. Physicists talk about a hidden field from which matter arises. The Higgs field. Some people say that we are looking at God’s mind. This field seems to be the thing through which God experiences everything. The field is omnipresent. Thus if you are sitting in a chair, as you experience the chair, the chair is also experiencing you. There is no difference between the observer and the observed. Your mind is arising from the same field. Classical physics seems to be like Sthula (Macro) and Quantum physics seems to be like Sukshma (Micro) aspects of this field. God applied to macro and the micro world. We are all a part of a sentient universe where not just aggregates (like us, the flora and the fauna) but also subatomic particles are sentient.

In the computer world, the intelligence used to reside in programs created by programmers. Now, that is not the case. There is intelligence within data. By this we mean there are hidden patterns. Applying different models, we mine the information. Intelligence that we are looking for in data, is nothing but the Higgs field within what we are observing. There may be some data which is outside our scope of what we are looking for. And then there is dark data. That which we are trying to extrapolate. What we refer to as data is no longer data or information or knowledge. We are looking at intelligence itself. To detect a pattern we may have to write an algorithm, but what if data arrives with intelligence. Then all that is left is, to apply our wisdom to it. And that is the future.

Data can be analysed and dissected. By applying different techniques, we can mine the data and represent it visually. But there is no use of this exercise, if we can’t derive a conclusion out of it. Machines today are learning the patterns within data through supervised and unsupervised methods. There are many techniques like regression, classification, fragmentation etc. that can be used to understand data better. Artificial intelligence is catching up fast. Soon we will have different layers of intelligence within data. This will be processed by the machines to help us make better decisions. Today, the intelligence resides in many places. For example, within the data in servers, at the network edges and a part of it in clients.(Heavy Javascript and apps)

All this may sound a little fuzzy, but the real intelligence that we are looking for is, in the experience of it. The ‘aha’ moment. And that experience is paramount to our search for true meaning. Real intelligence is, when we are aware of the force that pervades everywhere - the one and only true and highest form of intelligence. Finally, all intelligences arise from it’s cradle and make sense when they are consumed. And oh! By the way, this supreme intelligence is always on our side and wishes well for all of us.

100%

Guru30

The death of privacy

Data deluge is increasing. We are capturing more and more information about different people day by day. For example, Google collects all the search information of a person using their search engine. So whatever search you have given in the past, is in Google servers. Whatever you have posted on Facebook is also available. Daily your online profile is getting created better and better. Your online identity is getting bigger than your physical identity. Some companies are trying to build a unique profile of individuals across various channels. This is called MDM (Master Data Management). You may be using different apps and websites to transact. All this is being captured and your unique identity is emerging in the virtual world.

Slowly and steadily, you are losing your privacy. The opt-out feature of services is getting depleted. Anybody who can scour through the millions of channels available out there, can build your identity. Companies claim that they are collecting all these information for your own good. For instance, targeted ads, analytics etc. But are we really safe in these companies / governments hands ? In India, about 80% of the population have undergone biometrics (iris scan and fingerprint) identification to get a unique number called Aadhar number. This document is supposedly for all people who can for instance open a bank account, transfer money and so on. The question that begs attention is that, is this data safe in governments hands ?

What if the server’s got hacked and our identity is in the wrong hands ? The late millennial and the 21st century born people, are facing another dilemma. For them, the network is a given. They engage by going to various websites and running apps daily without much thinking about what is happening behind the scenes. Today’s parents have to advise their children about privacy and security at an early age. Forget about birds and bees explanation. So much of information about us is available online in God knows which all servers. I recently met a person, who I did research about and told him his entire story. He was surprised as he said that he is not active in social media. I told him where I got the information and he told me that he never put his profile there. He was both perplexed and furious.

Everyone – your government, your groups, the companies and others are trying to collect  as much information about you as possible. The cloud is making it more accessible. The future is a mixed bag of predictions. If you are living in a democracy, more and more regulatory laws will come into effect. These may not be perfect, but they will improve over time. If you are living in a autocracy or monarchy, the government may subjugate you further, by having your private data. Think about Wiki-Leaks, when one person or a group exposes data to the world. Think of the recent hacks on Ashley-Madison (affairs website for married people). It can cause so much embarrassment. In the future there may be insurances for protecting you and your family’s data online.

We are sitting on a ticking clock. Only time will tell, if all that technology is enabling, is for the wellbeing of mankind. This is the classic tale of good and bad. I have a feeling that says good will win, because there is a basic premise : All good things are permanent and all bad things are temporary. Data permanence may turn out to be a boon than bane.

Best,

Guru30

How to get to God

Consider that you have to drink coconut water. What do you do ? You break open the coconut and then you drink the water, right. If you have seen a coconut that grows on a coconut tree, you will see that it is a 3 step process :

• Peel the outer layer (fibre)
• Break the second layer (hard shell and the eatable part of the coconut)
• Get the water

God is like that coconut water. To experience the taste, you have to break open 8 layers :

Layer 1 : Earth

Your physical body and all the organs are made of this substance. You have to know that when you die, you came from Earth and you go back to Earth.

Layer 2 : Water

72% of your body is made of water. Water has memory. For example, if you keep water near a positive person, when you freeze it, it will form fine crystals. When you keep it near a negative person, and then you freeze it, it forms disturbing patterns. This is scientifically proven.

Layer 3 : Air

We breathe air. Every second you breathe in quadzillion atoms and you breathe out also the same number. Your body absorbs this air and passes the oxygen from the lungs to various parts. So every moment you are changing, one major reason, being Air.

Layer 4 : Fire

About 4% of our body is made of this substance. For example, to digest food, you require hydrochloric acid. In effect, it is fire that makes the digestion possible.

Layer 5 : Akasha (space)

Along with the above four elements, there is lot of empty space in between. This is Akasha, or in other words pure Space (Vaccum) – some people refer to it as Dark Matter or Dark Energy. Although, we don’t know much about it, to date.

Layer 6 : Aham

This is your memory. Your baggage. Some people also call it as Ego. Ego is not always bad, although a form of it called Ahamkara (false pride) is.

Layer 7 : Consciousness

This is our Soul. The one who is aware. For example who is the person who makes the eyes see, or who is the person that makes the ear hear. That’s you consciousness.

Layer 8 : Nature

This is the external perception of the mind. Whatever is out there, is real, but we perceive only a part that is filtered by our mind. In the penultimate stage of meditation, we see the boundary between consciousness and nature vanish.

And if you succeed to see through all these layers, you will taste the essence of this life, which is nothing but God.

In Computer science classes you are taught about the OSI Network layer made of 7 parts: The deepest is the hardware ; consider that God is that hardware that you are looking for final emancipation.

To your journey …

Guru30

Do you trust that software

Software is nothing but a bunch of instructions given to the hardware underlying it. Do you know that the average car has 10 million lines of code built into it ? How do you know that it is doing things that are agreeable to you ? For example is it sending this information about the car back to companies, for them to keep improving ? Worse yet, is it sending the information to insurance companies ? Can these companies make use of the data of our car for competitive advantage and selling us newer policies ? Is there a way we can opt out ? From the dashboard of the car, we are not able to access all this intelligence built into. Some parts, yes. But what about the hidden ones ?

The operating systems like Windows, OSX and Linux are also multimillion lines of code. Somehow, we trust them to do their job correctly. But what if there are Easter eggs in it ? These software, for that matter any software, comes with a hidden payload. A lot of it is obvious to us, but a lot many are not so obvious. Besides, there can be vulnerability within the software, that can open the door for hackers. Of course, the companies send us patches, but are they effective. What if there is a zero day exploit ? By the time that they send us the patches, our machines are already compromised. How many different types of malware do we protect ourselves from. We run firewalls, antivirus software, ad blockers etc. But the sad truth is that there is no 100% solution. We are still vulnerable.

Take a look at what these e-commerce companies do. They extract every ounce of our interaction with them and run machine learning or predictive analytics software to better understand us. If they use it to improve our own services, good. But when they use our data to make suggestions to other customers also, isn’t it a violation of our privacy ? Do you know that sites like Amazon even keep track of our mouse movements to know exactly where we were hovering ? Secure encryption is a myth. Some sites even use malware like code (written in javascript mostly) to do things like SQL Injection, Buffer overflow and other types of attacks. Recently I read the news that Kaspersky, a popular antivirus provider has vulnerabilities in its own antivirus software. So where do we go ?

This all boils down to one thing : Trust. We are all social beings and we trust easily. We hope that these people who write software, do so with good intent. Big companies do not have any underlying intentions in causing us harm. But one frustrated programmer can make all the difference. Most of us do not read the EULA (End User License Agreement) or the Privacy and Protection policies, because they are long and use a lot of legal terms which all of us do not understand. But trust is the cornerstone of all our interactions. You see, we are all good people and we must not doubt others, as long as our trust is not misplaced. If by any chance we do come across a trust problem, we become sceptical.

Software is something that we have no control over, unless we are a hard core programmer. And most of us are not. Hence, we can just hope that the newer software that is released in the market, will somehow hold up the trust that we put in a individual programmer, a team or a vendor. If there is a breach, we switch our loyalties. But mind you, nothing can give you a 100% seamless experience. We are living in a probabilistic world. There is just one person who you can fully trust and that is God, and his channel to you is purely subjective and 100% encrypted. No compromises. A channel which is fully made for you, forever.

Much Love,

Guru30

Travel mantra

I have been travelling the whole week, and here’s some tips for you when you travel the next time :

Research about your destination

Look at the map. Be aware of your final destination to your hotel/guest house route. See how long does it take to travel. If you plan to take a cab/bus/tube check the fare. Check the rules for tips or other addons. Learn to say in the local language, how are you, hello and thank you. If you carry a translator with you, well and good, else use google translate.

Gadget compatibility

Your power plug may not work in the destination. Get a global adapter. Check if you can afford to buy a global SIM card for your mobile phone. Else look at local SIM availability options. Carry a power bank, if the battery on your gadgets run out frequently. Do not use airport Wi-Fi. The messages are nor encrypted and there can be malware.

Strike a conversation with strangers

This is very important. Wherever you go, you come across different kind of people. Start with your hello’s and move on to other things that interest you. If language is a barrier, use the translator. Be considerate. Know that you are talking to a human just like you. For service personnel, tip them well.

The way of the warrior

Learn the manners of your destination. People sometimes arrive late in a meeting, which is taken as a rude gesture by some people, even if you have a valid reason. Arrive on time or earlier. Start early. Keep a margin of safety always. Dress up according to the need and be interactive when you deal with people.

About the Hotel / Guest House

Some of them do offer good service. But if you have checked into a budget hotel, they may not be that forthcoming or prompt. For example, the hotel where I was staying forgot to wake me up in the morning, although I had asked for a early wake up call. So carry your own alarm. You can set alarm in your mobile phone. Maybe the linen is not good or the food is not up to the mark. Research about the hotel before you book.

Carry your ID’s

ID’s are required by airlines and hotels as it is regulatory. So your passport or your social security card or your permanent account number may come inn handy. Most of the time your passport is good enough. About your visa – you may have to collect the original at the destination airport or your stamped / paper visa may be sufficient.

Treat people right

Remember that you are interacting with people who have the same physical needs as you. Their emotional needs may be different. Be aware that everyone has a story just like you and treat them from a considerate heart. Do not get angry or anxious. Enjoy the experience and leave behind an indelible mark with your honest and transparent interaction that you have with other souls.

Cheers for the next time you travel.

Guru30

The age of the machines

In August, 2015 the world had 4.4 zettabytes of data. That is equal to 4.4 trillion gigabytes. And only 0.5% of this data is analysed. So much of data is collected on a day-to-day basis, but much of it just sits somewhere without being attended to. The data deluge will get worse. By 2017, we will be having 44 zettabytes of data. So what do you with this deluge. For an individual or a small company, this doesn’t make a difference. At least for now. But the need for a competitive advantage will force everyone on this planet to depend on Analytics. This will be made possible by Data Analytics tools. When useful data is analysed, we get insights about us, our companies, our nations and other things. Co-relations can be made to detect hidden patterns within data and we will also further be able to predict the cause of a particular situation.

We are all creatures of limitations. There is a finite amount of thinking that we can do or what can be observed through our senses. Hence we need machines. They augment our senses and thus transcend some of our limitations. Another reason why we can use machines is because they are fast and uncannily accurate. But machines do break down. But they do not require food or water. They are also not social animals. They also can be operated in a 24 by 7 schedule. They do not require sleep. All they require is a constant supply of electricity. Now, I’m not talking about mechanical machines (like the analog watch). In this new age, a majority of machines will be digital. We are witnessing the rise of the machines in this age.

When we talk of technology, there are 2 aspects of it :

• How do they work ?
• Where can it be applied ?

The first aspect is quite complex. With hardware and software exploding everyday, we have invented so many myriad of tools and techniques to make them work. There are infrastructure related issues (means how does the machine perform in a particular foundation). Then there are the applications which are connected to this massive infrastructure through platforms. There are many platforms out there, not necessarily inter-operable. When a new product comes to the market, the initial curiosity can be intriguing. If this product succeeds by demonstrating its prowess, the market votes up for it. If this product promises to plug in a need hole, then it may be a winner.

However, the important thing about technology is not how it works – but where it is applied. What problem does it solve ? How does that affect the bottom line ? As humans we are always looking at solutions to problems. If a product or a service demonstrates this successfully, we don’t mind opening our wallet. For every new product there are features and limitations. If the benefits outweigh the costs, it’s a winner. Some of them go on to become viral. One of the greatest drawbacks of human beings is that we think linearly. Whereas we can find a lot of people / companies growing at an exponential rate. If you are a startup, this is the mindset that you should be having. But while you are at it, do not forget to smell the roses along the way. Remember that we have reached here with support from God, and there is no reason not to say ‘Hello’ to him once in a while. Because he is enjoying the show as much as you are.

Good luck,

Guru30

What happens to us after death

Nobody has returned from the afterworld, to tell us that this is the way it is. But there are many graphical descriptions in the books. Is there a heaven or a hell ? Some cultures do not refer to hell, as they say there are two worlds only. Out of our imagination, we have created so many different worlds. Heaven or Hell is what we are in a particular moment. If we are happy and come from joy, we are in Heaven. Whereas, if we are depressed or feeling like a grouch, we are in Hell. That is as far as our state of mind is concerned. Beyond this, is a state when we experience the universal consciousness. This state is the one referred to as one without a second, in the great scriptures. This is the state that we should be aiming for. If life is worth living, it’s sole purpose is to realize ourselves in this state.

So, what does this have to do with death? Well, we have to have this realization in our life time, in order to avoid rebirth. A person who comes from this state, is always peaceful and happy. He sees himself in others and others in him. This state can also be called as the God-realized state. Actually we don’t realize God. We become God like. Existence becomes a bliss and every moment seems to merge with other moments. Time becomes an illusion and we become like that pigeon or the lion who, when asked ‘What time is it now?’ replies ‘Of course, the time is now’. There is no longer a past or a future. This enlightened person just lives for the present moment.

When such a person dies, his soul merges with the universal soul. There is no rebirth for this person. Mind you, we will keep talking births, as long as we do not achieve this unified goal. Such a person’s karmic footprint is washed away and he has a zero balance in his karmic account. But what happens to a person who has not realized this state ? Well, for one, his body is not there anymore. So the senses are no longer working. His brain with which he processes information also is no longer there. So thoughts are also absent. But his life moments are recorded in Akashic records. The resulting karma, will dictate as to what will happen to this person. Will he be waiting for some time for a rebirth, or immediately be cast into a world and all that will depend upon what he has accumulated in this life.

Death is not a full stop. It’s just a comma. Your soul can never die, as it awaits for emancipation. The only thing that can happen to your soul, is that it will take on new bodies and get reincarnated in a new form. Now is the chance for the soul to attain realization. Or else the cycle continues. Are these all predestined? No. They all happen according to individual efforts. Astrology, palmistry and other occult sciences can just predict the conditions. It’s like giving you a map. But when you traverse the map, what experience you will collect, is entirely up to you. The soul is the only noun in the universe. And as your body faces the life tunes, it gets older with experience. The idea is to realize that you are a part of God, before you die. Because this very state (samskara) will be predominant when death strikes you. Much about what happens to you after death will be directly related with the way you have lived.

Death will not die. Neither do you. As you are an everlasting soul in the bosom of God.

To your liberation,

Guru30

The ultimate knowledge

If you read the Vedanta, there are 7 Mahavakyas (Great sentences) in it :

Brahma satyam jagan mithya

This simply means that Brahman is real and the world is unreal. Brahman is a reference to our soul. Jagan (World) with all it’s variations is not reality. It is just our perception. We all perceive the world in our own ways. An insect experiences the world in a different way compared to a bird or a human. Perceptions come and go. They are not permanent in nature. The soul is something that never took birth or never faces death. Hence the only truth is the soul. The word mithya means unreal and that denotes the experience of the world that we are in.

Ekam evadvitiyam brahma

Brahman is one, without a second. Ekam means one and evadvitiyam means without a moment. Brahman or our soul is not entrapped by the time illusion that we have. It simply supersedes time. Hence it is without a second. As time passes, we see changes in our body, thoughts etc. But the soul is not affected by time. As a lotus flower which is found in a muddy place, steers itself away from it’s surroundings, we must also be pure (realize the soul) and take ourselves away from the material world. Because, you see, everything in the material world is impermanent.

Prajnanam brahman

Brahman is supreme knowledge. Prjananam is Praj (Supreme) and Gnanam (Knowledge). We all think that we are well equipped in the world with our doctorates or masters. But that knowledge is not sufficient. True knowledge is knowledge of Brahman (Soul). When we realize the soul, we can say that we have achieved the purpose of life. Hence our life should be devoted to the study of soul, as this is the highest knowledge that we can ever possess. You may have read the entire library, but if you do not know the soul, you still are a toddler.

Tat tvam asi

You are That or This is what you are. Tat (You) , tvam (Are) and asi (That). You may have mistaken yourself for an entity with a name that belongs to yourself. You have a last name, you have your fathers name and the world recognizes you by this. You may also have some conceptions about you. But here’s the truth : You are just the soul (Brahman). All other identities are false. They are not permanent in nature. They all go away, once you die. Hence you must realize it during your lifetime, that you are that – or the soul and nothing else.

Ayam atma brahma

This simply means that the Atman (Soul) and Brahman are the same. There is no distinction between them. Some people call the Brahman as the Supersoul or God himself. But the atman or your soul is not qualitatively different from the Supersoul. You are a part  and parcel of the very God that exits in the depths of you and only this part of you is not going to go away, anytime. Thus, your atman (some people also refer it to as Jivatma) and God is same. In other words, you are not the drop in the ocean, but the ocean itself. So realize this truth.

Aham brahmasmi

I’m Brahman. This realization is said to take years of effort to materialize. You simply can’t say that your are the soul. You have to realize it. Through practices like Meditation. Imagine the moment you come to this realization, that you are Brahman and the whole world that you perceive, is being experience by Brahman, who is nothing but yourself. As human beings, we are a privileged class. We have the awareness that can take us to this level. (In the Upanishads, mention is made of the state called ‘turiya’ where we realize God in the full meaning of it.)

Sarvam khalvidam brahma

Sarvam (everything) – khalvidam (indeed this) is Brahman. This is the ultimate stage of realization, where you see that everything around us, including us, is pervaded by God. Here. in this state, whatever we see or experience around us, we see God in it. God or Brahman exists everywhere. The penultimate stage to this is when we realize that we are Brahman, then we realize that the world around us (nature) is Brahman and thus finally we realize that everything is Brahman. And this is the realization that we should come to. There is nothing beyond this. Brahman (God) is truth, Truth is God.

Bless

Guru30

How to make your dreams come true

Do you dream a lot or a little ? I’m not talking about the dreams that you get when you sleep. What I’m referring to is the things in your life that you want to achieve. Do you have a plan for them ? Have you started working towards them ? Did you think and visualize the details of your dream ? For example, if you want to make a million dollars a year, what is it that you can contribute to make it happen ? Do you have the requisite skills ? If you don’t, do you plan to get yourself trained in those skills that you are lacking ? Do you believe in the law of attraction ? I do. But without the effort part of it, you are bound to receive what you have been getting till now. Without raising your level, you won’t get much of traction. The word ‘DREAM’ is an acronym. Here’s the breakup for that :

‘D’ : Decide

Once you have sorted through those thoughts that seem to run in your head always, you have to arrive at a conclusion. Ask yourself what is it that makes you perk up, or what is it that you can do without much effort ? I mean, what is it that comes to you naturally ? Well, you are cut out to be that. Maybe a doctor or a journalist or whatever. Once you have decided that this is what you are going to be, then don’t turn back. Go for it on full steam. Some people may actually try to give you an advice that they think is apt. Do not listen to naysayers. This is about you and you are the only person who can decide what you will be in the future. So listen to your heart’s voice and go right after it.

‘R’ : Respond

Respond to situations in a way that makes you feel happy. We all have good and bad days. But it is for us to decide whether the so called bad days were really bad or just lessons towards making us better. Do not let bad days deter you. Remember, whatever may be the situation, the response is for us to choose. And this ability is correctly termed as responsibility – the ability for you to respond in an appropriate manner. Do not go against your values – never. Do not criticize. Choose a positive response always, however negative the ambience may be. If somebody makes you angry, it’s not about the other person. It’s what is brewing inside of you. The only person who can change this feeling is you.

‘E’ – Enthuse

Without energy, nothing is possible. You must raise yourself up to the stage that you want to get to. Say you are at level A. And you want to get to level ‘B’. So what does it take to get up there. The answer in one word – your energy level. You have to raise your vibrations to get there. Like what Tony Robbins says ‘Everyday you have to raise your standard’. People complain that the law of attraction does not work. It will, if you change your energy levels. If there is no change, the Universe responds to you as it always has been, which means in the same way as before. Be passionate about your goals. A person who does not have passion for what he/she is after, is already a dead person. Ask yourself, do I want to be dead or alive, bubbling with energy ?

‘A’ – Act

None of the three steps above is going to be of use, if you do not act upon the opportunities that come your way. You see God keeps sending us these opportunities disguised as work. You have to grab them and sweat it out. There is no other way out. If Lord Krishna were alive today, his message to mankind would be ‘Go, do your job!’. There is no escaping this. Work is worship. All the results of your actions are based on how you have worked on a particular opportunity that God has sent. However, don’t go overboard. The results are not in your hands. Work with an attitude, where you do work for work’s sake – that is, get excited about it. The results will automatically come. Action without intensity or involvement is going to be a dull action. So put all your heart into what you do.

‘M’ – Mastermind

This simply means that you have to network. No point in having all these skills and capabilities, if the world doesn’t know that such a person exists. Your relationship when you network should be a two way communication. Not only are you interested in showcasing yourself, but you should be interested in other people genuinely. This helps you, because you can pass on the opportunities that come your way to others, if you find that, you cannot fulfil it. This also helps you in building a trust relationship with several people. Some within your bandwidth (your interests) and some outside. Maybe you will go on to become best friends with some of these people. So do not ignore these facts. Networking is the final step which will land you into opportunities.

If you follow the above five steps, I do not see any reason, why you will not be able to reach where you want to be. So what are you waiting for ? Go ahead with all you have got and with God’s blessings, you will definitely make it.

To your dreams,

Guru30

Experiencing God

How do you experience God? In normal state of consciousness, it’s not possible. Simply because there is too much of background noise. By that I mean distractions from outside and our own thoughts running amuck in our brains. God can only be experienced when the mind is calm and we are in an altered state of consciousness. This state can be induced through techniques such as meditation. Or some people just seem to snap into it, for no particular reason. I have had such experiences when all I feel is an awareness of something so powerful communicating with me, unstoppable tears and a feeling of awe in everything that I see. During the moments, I feel perfectly at peace with myself. The feeling is there for some time (hours and minutes) and then I return back to my normal state. I’m sure everyone experiences this in their lifetime.

Objectively experiencing God is through convincing  our logic which really is not that effective. If you are looking at an object, who is the person that is observing the object? That you can say is yourself. But you get a feeling that you are aware of you watching this object. Where is that awareness coming from. There cannot be two of you. One watching the object and one watching you, watching the object. This awareness simply is called consciousness. The first one watching the object is simply trying to analyse the object, which is our brain. In other words it is our thoughts. The second person who is watching all of this is consciousness. In fact, if you look clearly, the first person is a myth. It’s just a thought. It exists only for a second or two, but the second person is always there watching us. And this is our consciousness.

When our mind is quiet, we can experience this watcher first hand. It does not judge, nor does it discriminate. It just observes. And that’s all it does. So what’s the point? The observer is experiencing the world through us. We are just a medium. Why does the observer do that? Well, the world is full of so many wonderful things that the observer is enjoying what it perceives. So who is this observer? It’s our consciousness. If you read the Bhagvad Gita, God says that he/she is the knower of the field. In short, this observer is God. The field refers to the external world. Or nature. Going a bit further, God also says that he/she is the field itself. In short, God is observing God created things. This is to get that feeling or experience.

As we go progressively in various stages of meditation, we come across both of these. First stage : we feel that we are the knower of the field. In short, we are experiencing purusha or our soul. The second stage: We feel that we are Prakriti or nature (what is being observed) which simply means that we are also the observed. And the final stage: There is no distinction between the observer and the observed. Both are myself. And now the wall crumbles down. We are in union with the universe, where we feel that we are the universe itself. It’s very tough to explain this. We have to experience it ourselves. The best way is to calm the mind and start meditating. We don’t need external stimulants to achieve this. We are all individual waves in the ocean that connects us all. Souls immersed in a universal soul. In short, we all come from the same place and return to the same – the ocean. This life is just a short itinerary in those millions of voyages that we have to undertake till we become one with God.

Best Wishes,

Guru30

Consciousness explained

Consciousness is an elusive thing, because we all have it, but somehow we fail to nail it, as to what it is exactly. Some people correctly identify consciousness to be something we have all along except, when we are in deep sleep. Even while dreaming we can be aware of consciousness. Some think that our brain produces consciousness. This theory does not hold water, as in deep sleep also, the brain is active. So where does our sense of consciousness go during that time ? The greatest damage has been done by Descartes saying ‘I think, therefore Iam !’ Thinking is not to be equated with consciousness. Our thoughts emanate in the brain. And consciousness is not in the brain. It’s non-local. So here are some aspects of consciousness to ponder upon :

1. It is fundamental

Like mass, space, time etc, consciousness seems to be a fundamental concept imbibed in our universe. This calls upon a scientific theory for the same. However the reason why we have not been able to make much progress in this front is because consciousness is subjective. Although we all seem to have consciousness, our experiences are varied. No two are the same. Neuroscience suggests that there are trillions of possibilities embedded within our brains. These possibilities are images and stories. We always connect our experiences with these built in possibilities, and either strengthen or weaken them. Where do these images and stories come from ? Well, they are collected as we grow from childhood to being adults. Some even say past karma. However these memories don’t suggest that they are the only ones out there. Some spiritualists also claim that we have access to Akashic records outside the brain. This brings us to the concept of mind, the brain being the physical expression of that. The mind is thus much more than the brain.

2. It is universal

This is the panpsychic theory of consciousness which suggests that consciousness is embedded into everything from a human to a sub-atomic particle. However their complexity varies. While we are much complex creatures, a subatomic particle has a very low degree of consciousness. This theory seems to be a natural offshoot of the above point that we made a while ago. Thus we have group consciousness, societal consciousness, internet consciousness, global consciousness and a universe that is sentient. The idea in religious literature is of a super soul that is God and we being a miniscule part of it. However, small it may be, it has the same properties and potential of the super soul. Like the poet Rumi said it ‘We are not a drop in the ocean, but the ocean in the drop’. Even worms, insects and cats have soul’s. Forget that, even walls do. Everything is immersed in the soul energy. However, the degree of awareness is different. For eg: your cat may have an awareness that does not exceed yours but does when compared to an earthworm.

3. It is non computational

Not all theories can be explained by mathematics. There are many places where mathematics simply cannot answer the conundrums. For eg: parts of

• Classical Physics
• Field theory
• Quantum Mechanics
• Things outside quantum mechanics

The soul does not seem to work on computations. The experience that we go through, is not a set of ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV instructions. It’s a feeling, that is produced by various factors like the emotions, senses, processing, memory etc. Spiritualists give the term ‘Qualia’ for experiences that are fundamental for example the shape circle or the color red. These somehow add up to give us a summative experience. We are not sure as to how it works, but it does. The difference between a computer and consciousness is that a computer cannot be selective about it’s input, whereas consciousness seems to know what to filter. This property can also be seen in the brain.

4. It is information intensive

The more the information a system holds, the higher the degree of consciousness in it. This is naturally so. We are complex beings and we have a high degree of consciousness. A computer which holds lesser information is not as conscious as we are. However, the difference is in the processing. Unlike a computer which executes a set of instructions, consciousness can be experienced through things like epiphanies, deja-vu’s and law of attraction, to name a few. Our experiences seems to have visualized the state before itself. A computer cannot beforehand predict the outcome, without going though the instructions. Yes, looking at the data, some amount of predictions is possible. But in the case of consciousness, even data does not seem to be required. It’s a far more form of an advanced technology.

If in some words, we were to explain the term beauty, only consciousness can do that by giving us the experience of it. Can you ever define it? The beauty of a sunset can only be felt and never be explained by words.

To your awakening,

Guru30

Software is eating the world

Software is eating the world. (Marc Andreesson)

Software comes in various flavours. There is the OS, the middleware and the applications. There is a host of other software falling into categories like utilities, plug-ins, games etc. Software has the following characteristics:

• It works on top of hardware. Thus hardware is a must.
• Software has a personality.
• Deep down it’s a bunch of zeroes and ones.

Here are some varieties:

The know it all

This kind of software is the one which chases the holy grail. The best example is Windows 10 which claims to work on all kinds of devices (hardware). That is as far as the OS is concerned. In applications, it would be ERP, which claims to work for the entire organization. These software tries to keep up to the integration challenge.

The specialist

This is a niche seeker. For example, Salesforce.com which is a CRM software. These software solve a single problem of an individual, a department or the organization. Most of the software in the market follow this model.

The change seeker

These kind of software keeps on getting updated with changes which are frequent in nature, say in days and weeks. Good example would be OS’s which keeps releasing patches or anti-virus software which keeps updating its signature list.

The leader

The software in this category aims at a leadership position. The no. 1 database software is ORACLE which until now did not have a contender. Another example would be Wordpress, which seems to vie for the position of blogging leader.

The follower

For a particular category of software, there are many followers. For instance, blogger and tumblr are followers of Wordpress in the blogging world. ORACLE ERP is a follower to SAP. SugarCRM is a follower of SalesForce.

The above is just a peep into the many more kinds of software categories. Software development is both art and science, as well. The new category of self modifying software is quite eerie, as they promise a world of software which will arise without human intervention. Whatever maybe the case, we are in a world where we cannot live without software.

Best

Guru30

How are we similar to a Machine

If you consider yourself as a Computer, there are five things important to you :

• CPU
• Memory
• Storage
• Bandwidth
• Network

CPU

Our brain acts like a parallel processing computer. One where there is no single CPU but multiples. These CPU’s crunch incoming data from our senses and produce reactions. There are three parts of the brain:

• The reptilian brain (Fight / Flight Response)
• The Limbic system (Emotions)
• The pre-frontal cortex (Day to day survival needs)

The reptilian brain is synonymous to exception handling in CPU of a computer. The limbic system are the instructions which trigger the output- for example displaying a video. The pre-frontal cortex is like the Operating System which does things like Garbage cleaning (some are done by the compiler/interpreter itself), Deadlock resolution etc.

The brain can be in any one of the states of consciousness:

• Beta (awakened state)
• Alpha (Relaxed state)
• Theta (Nearing Sleep)
• Delta (Deep Sleep)

In a CPU this correlates to the Clock speed of the computer. The CPU further consists of the microinstructions (instruction set), the registers and memory. In our brains, this is the beliefs and values and the different kinds of memory that we possess.

Memory

The brain has memory (both short term and long term). Even the cells have memory,in it’s DNA. Memory that is used for day to day activities is the short term memory, whereas memory inside a CPU is in the ROM (instruction set) . The long term memory is the RAM of the system. Note that when we sleep, the RAM is no longer required. But the short term memory is. (Instruction set in ROM)

Storage

For a computer, the storage is in the form of Hard Disks or SSD’s. For the brain, we have memory in the form of subconscious which can be compared to storage.

Bandwidth

Is the throughput, or how much of data can be processed. This refers to the size of the data bus of a CPU. (32 bits / 64 bits etc). For our brain as it’s a parallel computer and responds through many neural pathways, the bandwidth can be very high.

Network

This is the external senses through which we perceive the world and respond. For a Computer it can be the ethernet connection or the Wi-Fi speed.

It looks like we and our silicon neighbours are quite identical and as time passes by we will see the similarities increase, till a point where a human will be half machine and half human.

And that will be the arrival of Kalki, the next avatar of God.

Awaiting

Guru30

Till death do we part

Do not get attached to the thoughts that come in your mind. They keep coming and going. No reason to get stuck to any of them. In the same way, do not dodge emotions/feelings that make you feel bad. Let them come and go. As you know, none of these thoughts or emotions are permanent in nature. Pretty much like life. Still we take life so seriously. We plan, strategize, do all that makes us feel good. Not knowing that the average life span of seventy-seven years will pass like a blink. Whichever way you may have lived, you have come here with empty hands and will go back empty handed. Ironic, isn’t it ? But during the time that you are a guest of this beautiful planet, you have a job to do. To make it better, in any way, that you are capable of. Fend not just for yourself, but others too. Bring a smile to one more face or a million faces, if you can. And you would’ve lived your life well…

So what is the purpose of all this? Well, the answer is zilch. Nothing. You have to find your own purpose, or better yet, create it. You see, life is like a football match. Some get to play the goalkeeper, some get to play the referee. When the match starts (when you are born) everybody is cheering you. You have a limited time (a lifespan) to play the match well. When the match ends (death) everyone returns back home. In the meanwhile, either you have played well or not, your turn is over. People may remember you, if you played well. Or else your name gets buried with the names of those who did not make a difference. Playing a match is not that difficult, however scoring a goal is. That is what makes you a winner. No matter what, you must score.

There will always be people who are antagonistic to your ways. You just can’t avoid that. But the magic is to keep believing in your dreams, still when the opposition is loudest. Do not give up your dreams and goals. Do not stop and falter, when you are in adverse situations. You should bounce back even more when the circumstances are harsh. That shows that you are made of metal. So strong that pressure does not bend it. Water does not rust it. The wind does not erode it. Once you have figured out what you want to do, go right after it, with full determination. To rest for  a while, it’s OK. But do not quit. Failures are just breakpoints. You need to watch your moves – your strategies – if they are not getting you where you are headed. Make the appropriate change and then get on it.

Now what if you pass away in the midst of all the action- with some unfulfilled dreams? Do not fret. The fact that you have tried your best is enough. Maybe you won’t end up in the legends list. But you will also not be on the wayfarer’s. There is a lot of scope for someone alike you, who (he/she) can complete your dreams. Give it a chance. But you must have had some traction with your goals. Things that you count as important. Some milestones achieved. Say you are a businessman who dreamt of building a billion dollar business. And it’s still in the millions when you had to go away. Maybe someone will pick up the threads and make your dream complete. You see – the dream is important – not who does it. Because folks – this life is a very short affair – live it to the best you can, when you can, till you can.

To your dreams,

Guru30