Vivek Rajan Vivek's Blog
June 16, 2014
Rich people and Money
Why are rich people so miserly? They have so much and ideally they should give at least a percentage of it. After all, they own such big businesses. What you make in a year, they make in a sneeze. That hurts huh? Sorry. You wish you could make $200,000 every time you sneezed. That would be a nice way to live, now wouldn’t it?
Well, you have to go back in time. You have to go back to the point where it all began. In most cases it began with an insult or a slight. Those who are obscenely rich don’t care about the money. They want to be recognized, noticed and respected. It is this fierce urge to be counted that drives them to make their millions and billions.
They began as a nobodies. And the truth is – the world is very unkind to a nobody. So the upward journey was no walk in the park for these guys. They were hit, kicked, punched, beaten and had to go through god knows what to get to where they are now.
None of it was handed over to them on a platter. They earned it, every single penny of it. On the way up, they took enormous risks. For every one millionaire or billionaire there are millions who fell by the wayside. This game is not for the faint of heart.
Also, there is no support system on the way up. It’s a lonely game. Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone. Even successful people who have hit a rough patch have found out that when the going gets tough, most rats will abandon the ship. For better opportunities and plumper posts. Loyalty? What’s that you ask?
You expect a lot from them but the little that they asked from you was not given. This is the crux of the situation. They’ve seen your true colors. You’re not as innocent or saintly or morally upright as you claim to be. A little adversity and you crack.
When you snigger at them, it makes matters worse. They hold on to their wealth even more fiercely. Those fools, they bark. What do they know about me or my life. I know they don’t care. They never did when I asked for help and support. Now all they want is my money.
Again, exceptions exist. That’s why they’re called exceptions. We’re all fighting our own battles, each and every one of us, players on this giant stage who are playing our parts without any awareness. Maybe it’s more fun to direct the whole show you say. Well, then let’s start by waking up. Until then, this scenario will keep playing itself out a million times over.
May 26, 2014
Reasons Behind a Business Decision
People regularly comment on how ruthless businesses have become, how they don’t really care about the customer and the fact that – the only thing that matters is the bottom line. Eventually, the entire blame is thrown on the CEO or the person who owns the business.
Who really is to blame? And more importantly, how would you have behaved had you been put in the same situation they find themselves in? Would you have acted benevolently? Let’s find out.
All big organizations have layers. Let’s take the people at the middle and the bottom who can be hired and fired for no rhyme or reason, and whose jobs hang by a slender thread. If the economy sneezes and the chairman catches a cold, those in the middle and the bottom end up on a stretcher.
Most are married, mouths have to be fed, so putting food on the table trumps everything else in life. Decisions taken at the top are shoved down. Those down the line have to open their mouths and swallow and then say thank you, politely. Even if it’s a wrong decision (morally), people execute it because for all practical purposes they have no choice. The fear of being fired and being unemployed and not having any money to take care of the family is so overwhelming that most would do anything to avoid such a situation.
Okay, enough said about the underlings. Time to go to the top. How would you, yes you, like to be labelled a failure? That’s not an option you reply. Well, the same goes for those at the top. If you think the competition at the bottom is fierce, boy o’ boy is it a million times worse at the top.
The fear of being crushed by the competition and losing everything is so overwhelming that those at the top will do anything to remain at the top. After all, it took a lifetime to get there. All that blood, sweat and tears has to pay off. This is no time for morality or spirituality. This is the time to bask in all the glory. After all, we’ll be dead in a few years they say. One foot’s already in the grave. If you only knew the medical problems I have, you’d be happy you’re not in my place they retort.
Deep down everyone is driven by fear. It’s very easy to point fingers and say that so and so is wrong. We’re all wrong. And to correct that wrong is easier said than done. In most cases it will never happen. Because we are all a product of our memories. Even if you want to do something good, a scar from the past, small or big will resurface and you’ll do the exact opposite. Just to protect yourself from further harm.
Yes, there are those who are rotten. Those are exceptional cases. The vast majority, whether they be at the top, middle or bottom are just helpless souls who have got themselves into the situation they find themselves in – by mistake and are powerless to change it.
The only way is to let go. Ha! Nice joke I hear you say. I’d rather die in hell that let go of the trappings of success. Well my friend , that you already are.
April 19, 2014
Trees, Gravity and Us
We look at trees and laugh. They’re stationary and rooted to one spot. We’re free to roam around. Really?
The truth is we’re stuck just like the trees. Or else trees would not exist in our world, our universe, our reality. Our energy projects our reality, one out of the infinite possible realities.
Think of your life. Are you really free to do what you what to do? Go where you want to go? Buy what you want to buy? Be where you want to be?
The answer in a vast majority of cases (99%) is a resounding no. We’re stuck to our jobs, houses, families and heaven knows what else.
Also, trees don’t have any responsibilities. They’re stuck but stuck without responsibilities. All they have to do is grow and hang around. We have to grow, hang around and carry a truck on our head. Looks like trees got a much better deal than us.
Which brings us to our next topic – Gravity. As I mentioned in an earlier post, gravity is nothing but our “inability” to let go of rubbish. We hang on to old stuff desperately and in the process burden ourselves.
We can let go but we don’t. Why you ask? Because of fear. Fear of the good stuff. Psychologically it has been proven that people don’t want to embrace the good stuff, they just want to run away from the bad stuff; most like being somewhere in the middle.
The vast majority aren’t even aware that they are hanging on to the bad stuff. The funny thing about this bad stuff is that it is right where we can’t see it, but its right in front of you. Huh? I hear you say.
Here’s an analogy. Your nose is right in front of your eyes but you never notice it until you focus on it. Now you know where to look for the bad stuff. It’s right there lurking where you least expect it.
When a rocket lifts off, the maximum amount of fuel is burnt in the first 60 seconds or so. After that, the atmosphere gets lighter and lighter until it finally escapes the earth’s gravitational pull.
Life’s just like that. You need a tremendous amount of energy to escape this madness or you’ll be a hamster running in circles for eternities. But to do so you have to be designed like a rocket, you have to be as light as possible.
Most genuinely put in a lot of effort to uplift themselves from the situation they find themselves in. But during lift off, they bring along donkeys, monkeys and hippos. The lift off is a failure and they come crashing down. They blame life and give up.
Giving up is great. Do it immediately. Give up all the donkeys, monkeys and hippos in your life and get ready for lift off. You might not escape the earth’s gravitational field in the first attempt but you’ll be flying like an eagle. Royal, rarefied and regal. You’ll cover hundreds of miles in the blink of an eye without so much as flapping your wings.
Now that’s what life really is.
March 6, 2014
Age and Maturity
It’s very common for older people to exert their authority over younger folk just because of the age factor. We’re older than you; we’ve experienced a lot more and hence know a lot more than you do. Hence, you have to listen to us.
But then you begin to wonder. Why is that not true? Ideally, that should be the case. Older people should be wiser and more mature than the young. But’s that’s not always the case. There are young people who are wise beyond time.
How did things get so mixed up you ask?
Well, if you take the scientific theory of the Big Bang, everything came into existence at the same time. Let’s call this everything – energy. If you probe a little deeper, you are nothing but energy. The same goes for anything and everything that surrounds you. It’s all energy; it’s the same energy that was there when everything began.
So if everything began at the same time and everything is the same energy that was present at the very beginning of time, then the only conclusion one can draw is – everything is of the same age. Or to put it more succinctly, the grandparents(energy) and the grandchildren(energy) are of the same age.
Are you thoroughly confused by now? Discombobulated as the English would say. Take the example of a Formula One or Indy or Nascar race. Tens of car start at the same time. In the very first lap there are accidents. Some drop out, the rest return to the paddock to get fixed and return to the race. As the race progresses, cars get overtaken and eventually get lapped (where the first car is now ahead by an entire lap).
So is the case with life and humans. Everything started at the same time but down the line things happened. For practical purposes we invented the past and the future. Spiritually, only the present exists. If that is the case then the past and the future don’t exist.
If the past and the future don’t exist, that means linear time is an illusion. Which means that age is an illusion because age is a derivative of time. But since we have come to the conclusion that time doesn’t exist because the past and the future don’t exist, they are but fragments of our imagination, and only the present exists, hence asking someone how old they are is irrelevant. You might re-enter the race with a new car, but the ‘you’ in the car is still the same.
We are all of the same age because we are all of the same energy. But how come this energy is uneven? Why isn’t everyone blessed with maturity? Why do fools exist or rather why do fools bloom more easily?
Water exists in three states – solid ice, flowing liquid and gaseous vapour. Scientifically they are all water, the molecular structure is the same. They are same yet different. Is there something that we need to learn from this? Maybe water wasn’t meant for drinking? Maybe we can survive without it? Maybe we’ve given birth to it through our consciousness.
Whatever be the case, this energy that we call water can exist – maybe in a million different states. Our inferior senses (that can decipher only a narrow part of the electromagnetic spectrum) can only see, feel, hear, taste and touch it as ice, water and vapour.
Maybe fools are like solid ice, dense and unmoving or they move like a glacier, 2 inches every year. Maybe those who have opened up are like water and those who have attained sainthood are like vapour, they float straight up. They are no longer tied to earthly energy and can escape what science calls gravity, which is really nothing but our “inability” to let go of all the useless stuff.
February 14, 2014
Returning the Gift
As I looked at the cover, I saw a lotus and the color purple which meant that the author was vibrating at a higher frequency than most on this planet. The book can basically be divided into two: Tolle and Adyashanti cover the more philosophical and theoretical aspects of life whereas Laura and Timothy talk about the practical aspects of putting spirituality into action. So it’s well balanced.
Tolle and Adyashhanti are for the more serious reader or rather the more evolved soul and some things that they say may be difficult to digest for the newbie.
For eg:
Donoso: Is there such a thing as hope?
Tolle: I wouldn’t recommend it. Because it gives you more of the future, traps you in it, rather than letting you be in the here and now.
Most are told never to give up, that there is always hope and something good will happen in the future when the simple truth is that everything you want is available to you at this instant in time, you only have to realize it and more importantly accept it.
Adyashanti makes two great points (amongst others) when he says:
People have an awakening experience on Saturday, and then by Monday morning, they have to go back to work. That’s challenging for a lot of people. The support structure or understanding from those around does not exist currently in most countries.
We’re waiting for some grand leader who will inspire us. It kept repeating in my mind and I suddenly saw that waiting for someone else to awaken is ridiculous. What am I waiting for? When are we going to awaken? And this brought all of the energy back to myself.
The practical experiments that Laura (Forgiveness in Rwanda) and Timothy (Seeds of Peace) talk about are heart-warming. They end up broadening your perspective that will help you lead a better and different life. The reader will gain a lot by reading what they have to say.
Negatives: Statements like ‘I need to give this burden away to God’ and there are three kinds of business in life: my business, other peoples business and God’s business’ and ‘God has the responsibility for ultimate justice, not us’ contradict the oneness concept espoused by Tolle and Adyashanti. This leads to a fractured experience for the more evolved reader who understands the very essence of Tolle’s and Adyashanti’s teachings.
In a nutshell – A must read for almost everyone on this planet, small books like these that are 70 pages long will go a long way in healing the planet rather than reading sacred texts that go into the thousands.
January 4, 2014
How to get out of this world Alive?
ego
It’s a fascinating book, one of the best I’ve ever read and the language is incredibly lucid because the author has experienced or realized that which he wishes to expound. I read it in one sitting with a smile on my face. When was the last time I read a book, smiling all along as I read it? I can’t think of any.
This book is on par with that of Eckhart Tolle’s ‘Power of Now’ and I am surprised not many know of it. A must read for everyone, even if you don’t understand it, go through it, for when you reach a point in life where everything around you is crumbling, you will think of this book and when you read it again, you will understand everything that the author wishes to convey.
The two keys and the four maps is a system that has the ability to destroy itself which is of utmost importance if one has to die as a caterpillar and take birth as a butterfly. The book shows you the path to dissolve yourself or attain unity consciousness and for that everything that you stand for has to melt into nothingness just as the awareness of the sun’s rays melt the snow, and the flowing water is turned into vapor where it becomes formless and merges with the universe.
The questions that the author asks you to ask yourself are very thought provoking and help you uncover your true self. He puts it very nicely – Myths and folk tales often tell the same story. A knight clad in armor, the ego rides deep in the dark forest. His task is to vanquish dragons and demons – his guilt, his fears, his conflicts. On setting foot in the castle, he removes his armour and embraces the Sleeping Beauty lying in a glass coffin who instantly wakes up. This scene represents the union with your true nature.
To put things in perspective a human goes through four phases – kama (sensual), artha (wealth), dharma (righteousness), and sanyasa (enlightenment). This book will be well understood by those who have crossed the Artha phase. The author is aware of this and says ‘No matter your position in life, economic stability is an invaluable base if you wish to have enough time to learn about yourself.’
December 18, 2013
Genghis Khan and a European Princess
The Grip of God is an incredibly gripping trilogy with ‘The Tiger and the Dove’ being the first of the three. It’s a factual account of history written as a story in flawless English. Great pains have been taken to get the facts right by pouring over old historical records and even using the help of distinguished historians and linguists. The editing is world class.
A sprightly teenage princess from Europe gets caught in the terrifying grip of the Mongols who under the leadership of Genghis Khan almost ran over the world. Few people from a faraway land were able to topple established kingdoms in Europe who had ten times the number of soldiers and arsenal.
Just their name struck terror into the enemies’ hearts. Why? What was the reason for this? Europe was saved by the skin of its teeth due to a strange twist of fate. Will it happen again? Will they learn from it or are they condemned to repeat their follies?
Deep tactical, philosophical and spiritual wealth is embedded into the story. The story moves fast, the description of rural and royal life, their respective thoughts, beliefs, ambitions and delusions are all recounted very beautifully.
Will the brave princess ever be able to escape her dreadful captors or is she destined to live the rest of her life as a concubine satisfying the lust of the brutes like those caught before her?
At 400 pages you might think that the book is too long but once you finish it, you’ll be longing for more, much more. You’re in luck, for there are two more books in the series. It thoroughly deserves 5 stars and more. A must read. You will learn a lot and be much wiser when you finish.
