Blog

Saint Kabir has been one of the most unique Indian poet – thinker. Kabir was a peak in spiritual consciousness. Let us explore his wisdom. Kabir is a man of candor. He has spoken extensively on the guru-shishya (teacher-student) relationship. In the whole world, I doubt if anyone has written so extensively on the teacher-student relationship as Kabir has. Most of his writings have been polluted...

As the International Women’s day draws near I was asked by an activist what are your comments on domestic violence against women? Here is my view. Domestic violence by man against woman is not so much a gender issue as it is a power issue. An unbiased study of history will demonstrate that often when one group is powerful enough to control another group and profit from that domination, they wil...

When I first started flying abroad I realized that Indian airlines don’t serve liquor on the flights. When I asked some people in the aviation ministry why was that so they said, Indian passengers will get drunk and misbehave. Later on the ban was lifted- today even the government owned Indian (Air Lines) serves liquor. I have checked with several pilots and cabin crew, the instances of intoxi...

In the last two pieces I have discussed how relevant is the advise of Chanakya given 2500 years ago both for parents and children of today. This mega mind also exhorted the Indian society to shed its hypocrisy as it makes India weak, inefficient and non credible. He says that a physically weak person develops a friendly nature. That is when you are physically weak you pose to be friendly becaus...

I am impressed with the media’s role in the coverage of the Mumbai attacks and the elections in the four states. First the Mumbai attacks. The greatest contribution that the media made here is it highlighted the anger of the people. To the discerning eye it was visible that the anger was not against the terrorist attacks only- it was as much against a Government that sucks. The terror attacks p...

Receptivity means the willingness to receive. It determines your learning quotient (LQ). Learning is important to one’s evolution. Else even if you do increasingly well materially, your personality may get frozen in time. But there are several barriers to receptivity. Let us classify them as natural barriers and artificial barriers. The greatest natural barrier to receptivity is age and circums...

In one of his experiments, B. F. Skinner, the famous Behavioural Psychologist, took a hungry rat and put him near the edge of a platform. On the floor below, he kept two boxes, identical looking boxes, both had food in them. The box on the Rat’s right, however, had also a trap door which would have prevented the rat from getting to the food as well as an electrical circuit which would provide a sh...

In my last two pieces I discussed how an overemphasis on spirituality can dilute action and how the so called spiritual gurus, often unknowingly, take you on a make-believe ride and make you miss life. Misdirected religion and spirituality can engender another problem. It can tie you up in rituals and superstition. You lose the power of differentiating the eternal teachings (Sanatana Dharma) fr...

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