Moments so Far ...

Ignorance is bliss, they say and we experienced it. We left home at about 6:25 PM and reached Sri Sri Ravishankar ji's ashram at about 7 PM. It was rainy and the drive was little slushy. We went and had dinner at Annapoorneswari hall and enjoyed the special delicacies served on sunday evening. We were back in yagnashala at about 7:40 PM and sat down in peace listening to the bhajans. And then out of the blue the mesmerising voice of Rishi NityaPrayagji pierced the environment and were transformed into a rock concert. Not a single soul could sit on their feet and everybody was in air , jumping and coordinating all forms of steps in all forms of dance. You had sparkling faces of few young swamis in their white dhoties dancing to the rhythm. Some folks were forming train and running around the whole place. After the song he was urged with "once more" and "one more". Everybody wanted more. He obliged and gave "ori sakhi mangal gayo ri" and we were m...

प्रवृत्ति मैं आप कर्म करते हो, दोष को देखते हो ओर उसे सुधारते हो. आप दोषों को ढूँढ़ते नहीं हो, लेकिन वह जब आपके आस पास नज़र आते हैं तो आप उसको ठीक करने का प्रयाश करते हो.  निवृत्ति मैं आप अंतर्मुखी होते हो. आप बहाए मुखी नहीं होते है ओर अपने आप मैं विश्राम करते हो. आपकी निगाह सिर्फ अन्दर की तरफ होती हैं.  लेकिन हम प्रवृत्ति मैं अंतर मुखी हो जाते हैं ओर निष्क्रिये हो जाते हैं, निराशाबाद मैं चले जाते हैं ओर सोचतें हैं की "यह करके कोई फायदा नहीं होगा, क्यूं मैं आपना वक़्त बर्बाद करून".  ओर निवृत्ति मैं मन को चंचल कर देते हैं, उसको भागते हैं, थकते हैं, परेशान करते हैं. मन कहीं ओर होता है ओर शरीर वहीँ का वहीँ स्थूल. मन की बैचैनी शरीर मैं उतर जाती है. ओर शांत होने की वजह हम ओर दुखी हो जाते हैं.  यह शरीर स्थूल रूप मैं मिला है. जो तुम्हे मिला है उसे तो तुम जानते हो. यह सबके पास होता है ओर अलग अलग होता है. यह जीवन तुम्हे दिया जाता है की तुम इस स्थूल से सूक्ष्म की ओर बड़ो, अग्रसर हो. वही सूक्ष्म मैं अद्वैत है, सब एक है ओर चैतन्य शक्ति का मिलन है. जनक कहते हैं, अहो!! अल...

तुम बस मैं चड़ते हो फिर उतरते हो. तुम किसी एक जगह से चड़ते हो ओर किसी ओर जगह पर उतरते हो. अगर तुम जहाँ चडे ओर वहीँ उतर गए तो फिर बस मैं चड़ने का क्या फायदा. तुम कोई circus के घोड़े पर तो नहीं बैठे हो, बस एक ही जगह हो, न आगे जाते हो बस एक जगह खड़े खड़े हिलते डुलते हो. उसी प्रकार सारा ज्ञान पाने के लिए तुम हजारों बसोँ मैं चड़ो पर फिर उनसे उतरना भी सीखो. तुम ज्ञान के बंधन मैं भी नहीं बंध सकते हो. समाधी लगाना सीखो, समाधी मैं रहो, लेकिन उसे बंधन न बनायो.  तुमने कुछ पाया है, तुमने कुछ खोया है ओर अब तुम्हें  अब बहुत कुछ देना भी है.  तुम निःसंग हो, निष्क्रिये हो,  प्रकाशमान हो, निरंजन हो, शुद्ध हो.  तुम निरपेक्ष, निर्विकार हो, निर्भर ओर शीतल हो.  तुम्हे सिर्फ यह चिन्न मात्र चैतन्य का बोध हो, बस.  आप एक जीवन मैं कितना खाना खाते हो, कितने ट्रक भरकर खाना तुम्हारे मुख से होकर तुम्हारे अन्दर जाता है, आधे से ज्यादा तो निकल जाता है, बाकि शरीर बनाने मैं लग जाता है. जरा हिसाब लगा के देखो की अगर आप एक दिन मैं २ किलो खाना खाते हो तो एक ४० वर्ष की आयु मैं कितने टन ...

जो लोग मेरे पास आकर  कहते हैं की आत्म विस्वास कहाँ से लायें तो मैं उन्हें कहता हूँ की "भूल जाओ " तुम्हे आत्म विस्वास कभी नहीं मिल सकता. जिसे तुम बाहर ढूँढ़ते हो तुम उससे बने हो.  तुम निर्बल नहीं हो. तुम जो भी करते हो, सोचते हो उससे संसार पर उतना ही असर पड़ता है जितना तुम्हारे आस पास के लोगों का तुम पर पड़ता. तुम जितना ज्यादा शुद्ध होगे तुम्हारा असर उतना ज्यादा होगा. तुम स्नान करते हो तो तुम्हारा शरीर शुद्ध होता है. कुछ लोग जो हिप्पी होते हैं, उनके बाल उलझ जाते हैं ओर उसमें कीड़े मकोड़े अपना घोंसला बना लेते हैं. तुम सत्संग मैं होते हो, गाते हो, सुनते हो तो तुम्हारा मन शुद्ध होता है. तुम ज्ञान ग्रहण करते हो तो बुद्धि शुद्ध होती है. तुम सेवा करते हो तो तुम्हारा कर्म शुद्ध होता है, तुम्हारे आस पास के लोग शुद्ध होते हैं. तुम्हारा आस पड़ोस शुद्ध होता है.  तुम जितना ज्यादा शुद्ध होगे उतने ज्यादा निर्मल ओर सरल होगे. तुम साक्षी हो, तुम आत्मा हो. आत्मा ही साक्षी है. इसका तुम्हे बोध हो, बस, फिर तुम सुखी हो. इस सर्प रुपी संसार के परे तुम आनंद से पूर्ण हो, तृप्त हो हो, परमानन...

तुम एक शुद्ध आत्मा हो, अगर देखो तो तुम वही हो जो सब मैं हो ओर न देखो तो तुम किसी मैं नहीं हो. तुम जब तक अपनी शुद्धता तक नहीं पहुंचतें तब तक भय से मुक्त भी नहीं हो सकते.  अल्लाहाबाद के इंसान ने घर आकर अपने सरे परिवार जनों की हत्या कर दी. जब उसने प्राणायाम ओर ध्यान सिखा तब उसे लगा की पता नहीं तब क्या हो गया था. किस भूत ने उस पर हावी हो कर हत्या करा दी. वह अब साक्षी मान कर उस क्षण को देखता तो उसे भी अजीब लगता है.  हम सब भी अगर अपने पुर्व मैं जायें तो ऐसी कितनी घटनायें मिलेंगी जब हमने कुछ कहा हो ओर बाद मैं लगा हो की "यह मैंने कैसे कह दिया, मैंने उसका दिल ऐसे कैसे दुख दिया" दूसरों की छोड़ो, अगर तुम्हे शेयर बाज़ार मैं नुक्सान हो जाये तो तुम तुम्हारा चेहरा कितने लटक जाता है, तुम १० , २० ओर कभी कभी तो एक महीने तक उदाश रह लेते हो ओर दुःख से भरे रहते हो, उस अर्ध से इतना लगाव क्यूं जब तुम्हे पता है की यह शरीर भी तुम्हे एक दिन छोड़ के जाने वाला है. क्या तुम हंस कर कह सकते हो की "अरे यार, नुक्सान हो गया, अब आगे देखतें हैं." इसका मतलब यह नहीं की तुम किसी के मातम मैं जाके न...

तुम अभी इस वक़्त मुक्त हो सकते हो मगर उसमें एक यदि  लगा हुआ है. यह यदि तुम्हे इस देह से जोड़ा हुआ है. तुम जब सफ़र पर जाते हो तो सारा सामान पेटी मैं भरकर उसे कंधे पर रख कर, taxi ऑटो या बस से पहले स्टेशन जाते हो फिर ट्रेन के प्लात्फोर्म पर जाते हो, फिर अपने निर्धारित स्थान पर  जाकर  बैठ जाते हो. तब जाके विश्राम लेते हो. यह नहीं के आप रेल गाडी मैं आगे भागते हो ओर उम्मीद करते हो की आप जल्दी से अपनी मंजिल तक पहुँच जाओगे.  मुक्ति पाने के लिए भी आप को इतनी तो मेहनत करनी पड़ेगी. अपने तमो गुण से बहार आकर थोडा रजो गुण मैं तो जाना होगा, फिर जब थक जाओगे तो  विश्राम करोगे. उस विश्राम मैं मुक्ति अवस्य मिलेगी. क्या आज तक किसी को बैठे बैठे तमो गुण मैं बंधनों से मुक्ति मिली है. इतनी मेहनत करने के बाद तुम  चित्त मैं आराम करो  तब तुम्हे चेतना की अनुभूति होगी. तभी सुख की प्राप्ति होगी, तभी बंधन से मुक्ति होगी. न तो तुम यह शरीर हो, न मन हो, न ही तुम किसी वर्ण के हो जैसे ब्रह्मण, न ही किसी धर्म के हो जैसे हिन्दू मुसलमान, न तो किसी श्रम के हो जैसे गृहस्थ आश्रम/वृद्ध ...

Indian railways confirms one ticket in a family ticket where two ladies are travelling along with two kids. There were three tickets in waiting list 123 for past month and half. On the D-day one got confirmed. What will you do with your travel plans if you got into a scenario like that? I got a message yesterday night when I was trying to sleep from chunnu saying "Are you awake?". I ignored the message tuned and cursed the banks for sending their promotions late at night. Moments later I got a call from papa asking what to do in a scenario like this. You love the times in life when you dont know anything but are expected to advise. Mostly such advice gets ignored but you still give. I suggested they go to station and check with the great indian railways ticket collector, the men in black. Then I called chunnu in acknowledgment of his message. After all the message was not from bank. He informed me that the waiting list tickets get automatically canceled. I had never ...

अति मैं इंसान परेशान हो जाता है. इतना काम मैं विलीन हो जाये ओर  फिर थक जाये या फिर इतने आलस मैं रहे की सिर्फ अपना वजन बडाये. इसलिए मध्य मार्ग मैं चलो. जब हम पैदा हुए थे तब चार किलो के थे ओर अब ६०, ७०, ८०, ९०, ओर कोई तो १०० किलो का भी हो गया है. यह वजन अन्न से आता है. पञ्च तत्वों मैं पृथ्वी हमें वजन देती हैं. अन्न से मन भी बढता है. एक बार मुल्ला नसीरुद्दीन के यहाँ पांच साल तक सूखा पड़ा तो वह बहुत परेशान रहा. फिर  बारिश हुई, फसल आई तब भी वह दुखी था. किसी ने पुछा क्या हुआ मुल्ला, इतने दुखी क्यूं हो. उसने कहा "अब फसल काटनी पड़ेगी, मेहनत करनी पड़ेगी". सत्य  लेकिन इन पञ्च तत्वों से परे है. इस मृत्यु लोक मैं सब काल से परे नहीं है. पेड़ भी आते हैं ओर जाते हैं. शरीर भी आता है ओर जाता है. यह पञ्च तत्त्व मिल के कई प्रकार के प्राणी बनाते हैं, वह भी आते हैं ओर जाते है. एक तुम्हारा चित, तुम्हारा चैतन्य,  काल से परे है, वह हमेशा से था, है  ओर रहेगा. अगर तुम चित बोध को शरीर का साक्षी मान लो तब तुम्हारी पीड़ा कम हो सकती है, बंधन मिट सकतें हैं ओर मुक्ति की इच्क्षा प्रबल हो...

Can you? I was introduced to @gapingvoidart by a tweet from @ jaishankarj about the book Ignore everybody . I thought it was a casual read but then I was hooked. First thing I noticed was "You were getting 25% free to read and then you could take your buy decision." I read the 37 quotes in one go. Then I wanted to get insights into more and went ahead and read the rest of the stories attached to the quotes. The ones that touched me were Nobody cares. Do it for yourself. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours. Worrying about “Commercial vs. Artistic” is a complete waste of time. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.       Which ones touched you, please leave in comment. Then I was mesmerised by the cartoons for their simplicity and straight face. They wer...

सम्मान जहां होता है वहां कुछ दूरी भी होती है, स्नेह जहाँ होता है वहां सम्मान मुश्किल से मिलता है. हिंदी मैं एक कहावत है "घर की मुर्गी दाल बराबर ", अपने परिवार जनों से प्रेम तो बहुत है लेकिन उपेक्षा भी उतनी होती है.  इसलिए कृष्ण भी कहते हैं की "हे अर्जुन, तुम मुझको प्रिये हो इसलिए मैं तुम्हे भगवत गीता सुना रहा हूँ ". उसी प्रकार अष्टावक्र भी कहतें है "हे तात " अर्धात "तुम मुझे प्रिये हो इसलिए मैं तुम्हे अष्टावक्र गीता सुना रहा हूँ." आप अपने प्रिये जन को ही गीत सुनाते हो, न की दुश्मन को. एक राजा जिसके सामने सरे राज्य की दुःख दर्द की दास्तान पड़ी है वह साडी उम्र उसमें जकड़ा रह सकता है. या तो उसे पता छल जाये की यहाँ झूझने से कोई फायदा नहीं हैं. ओर मुक्ति की ओर चले या फिर चुप चाप ओर एक जन्म काम, अर्थ ओर धर्म मैं समय व्यर्ध करे. एक प्यास जगनी होगी. एक तड़प. वही तुम्हे मुक्ति की तरफ खींचेगी . बैठे बैठे कुछ नहीं मिलता है ओर न ही पोथियाँ पड़ने से ज्ञान आता है. उससे मिलो जिसने ज्ञान को अपने मैं ढाल दिया हो. अगर उसने तुम्हारी ऊँगली थाम की तो कुछ हो सकता है....

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Not really. It was back to basics advice. Stay focused. What is the problem? Does it really exist? Can you solve it? Segment your market and choose a line of business . Validate your real customers. Cold call. Meet on roadside. Find ways to cut across to them and say hello. Are you talking to the right audience? Grow a single line of business and then go for aggregation as value add . Bottomline - Go everywhere  Backgroud : It was fun evening. I did not have calling card. Luckily chatted with a friend in US and he said his folks had it here on 7th floor. I got the magicjack. Struggled with it till 7:45 with no luck. Only ringtone was the saving grace. No magic with magic jack. It was not my day to save money on calls. I had done my validation during the day and people suggested skype credits for good quality call. So at 7:50 I went and grabbed my credit and started punching the numbers, more than eager to lose the moolah, but skype rejected the card 5 times. Once you b...

Data is flowing in every direction and in every possible way. How do we use it to make effective decisions? How can it help us live a better life? Job portals have tonnes of resumes. How can a company reach out to most likely job prospects? How can job prospects reach out to the right fitment? How many times will you repeat shooting in the dark each time a recruitment requirement is thrown across to you? Mobile Operators have tonnes of SMS'es floating across. How can they put the content in context of the user who is sending it? How can they better their service and improve user experience? I get the same promotion three times a day and every day of the week. Why cant the system learn that this user is not interested in this offer at this moment of life?  In every stage of life we are in need of certain things. How can the services around you learn your need and send across the appropriate content and offer to meet them? How effective is mass mailing, mass SMS'es cam...

You say Hi, I am Dhaval.   You get - Ah Hi, I am so and so. Sometimes there will be awful pause. Sometimes you will be hungry to spit out something like    "I have this great ideas and I wanted it validated. You have been in this business for so long. Can you obtain your valuable advice for free?"   If you are lucky you can get , "Yes, Why dont we meet sometimes later at leisure so that we can do justice to your idea?"   If you are not then you will be thrusted a visiting card and the reciever will switch over to more activity elsewhere.   There could even be curiosity from other end and you could get "So, what do you do?" You were waiting for this and you start   "I am freelancer. I mostly develop apps on Google app engine , essentially in python and sometimes in java and google scripts. My focus is integration app that talks to various APIs offered from Google Data/Docs/Analytics/Adwords, Facebook , Twitter , Salesforce , Zoho " Ti...

You have developed a wonderful mobile app. You rave. You tweet. You blog. You carry it everywhere. Why is nobody buying it? Even your best friend are not ready to release Rs 50 to buy it. Forget your friends, your spouse is not keen to even have a look at it. What did you miss my friend? You have missed the end users. Your application is only 20-30% technical problem. The rest 70% is how you present it to the world, how to do market it, how do you know it really solves the problem your end users are currently facing. Its not a script that you wrote 10 years back and now converting into a movie. Why is it that less than 2% of developers on appstore make money? What did the rest do? How did they lose it? Its a simple lifecycle. You buy a Mac , a iphone , create a app, abide by appstore guideline and there it goes and gathers dust in some corner of appstore. Did you classify your app? Is your app used by the user once in his lifetime? Is it used by him intensely in his honeymoon p...

Image via Wikipedia I am the greatest proponent of open source but I have bills to pay. How will my app pay it for me? Audiences was the only word that the slide had on the big screen. Next billion users was on next slide. Users was on next slide. Marketing on next slide. A presentation where the slide had a word or two at the most. Only Atul Chitnis could make sense out of them and he did in his keynote address at appjam held at IIMB, Bangalore on 15th May. You have to keep your audience in mind. The next billion users will come on mobile and most of them are not coming from the PC/Computer world. Your user does not care about technology nor is he interested in the buzzwords. All he wants is a real time app which is easy to use and does what he paid it to do for him. Your user is not tech-savvy nor is he is a developer. They are neither enterprise users who use the mobile device as extension of their desktop. Apple has controlled the appstore . The quality control has e...

Image via Wikipedia Startup saturday is organized by headstart.in on every second saturday of every month for the past few years. Headstart.in is a great initiative by a group of go-getters about few years back. The venue is mostly a conference room in IIMB bangalore as the initiative is supported by NSR Cell. I have soaked my hands in freelancing for about a year and felt qualified to attend such a meet. My nerves betray me when I try to get social. This time I was adamant to push my luck. I have been alone for so many days. No team in physical form around. Social isolation . Lost connection with regular job goers and their pristine topics. Facebook was constructing their social graphs and what was I doing here in isolation?. A man alone in single island is good for a few days but then you need to ride the dolphin/shark/whale based on your luck and your accompanying stars. And I bit the social bullet and here are few glimpses. If you are not used to it then it could ...

Image via Wikipedia She is 34. She looks like 54. You cannot get thinner than her. She is bare bones. She is household help. We mostly call her "काम वाली बाई "or "अम्मा " or "Aunty". She works in an apartment complex and lives nearby in a small house. She has raised two kids and helped them with education . Now they are young adults on verge of employment. She does work in three houses. She takes care of one of the house for the whole day. She has been doing it for the last three-four years. She has work ethics, is honest, does not demand a pay hike nor better working condition. She does not complaint about excess workload. She does her work, efficiently and regularly, everyday of her life. She simple takes what is given. She does not expect more, nor in words nor through indirect actions. She will come to your house at 8, 10, 12 and 18:00 to check if you are there in case you go out anywhere during the day. She is a true believer and has complete fa...

Learning happens when you are free. If you are attached to a belief or a system of predefined procedures then learning will not be easy on you. You will be strained beyond your means and there will be tremoundous effort on your faculties to get into the rhythym of learning. Its like playing musical chairs. You are attentive to the music. You are attentive to the chairs and people ahead and behind you. Yet you dont stumble, hit or slip away. You are there and you are flowing to a rhythym. You are focused and your body and mind complex is continously adapting to the changing environs. You are nerves but you are constructive and have a smile on your face. An idea exchane is an event in which ideas are spoken as well as heard. Its not the metro heading towards you in full steam and crushing you under its weight. Its like rowing where you are trying to go upstream. There is some resistance from the stream but there is also assistance. When you row the stream listens to you and allows ...

He took the nation for a ride. He bludgeoned ordinary folks doing their everyday routine. He played with scores of human life and terminated them mercilessly. You spent crores of rupees for over a year in the name of fair trial, giving him exclusive jail room, manpower to protect, special judges and sessions court. How did you get that money? Through the taxes that the people killed paid to you for better part of your life. Why does TV media walking around in every nook and corner of country and world trying to ask people Does he deserve death or life? What sort of silly question is that? What kind of world are we living? Why do we encourage such media coverage? Why should be proud of home minister who gives kudos to judiciary who took away time from crores of cases pending in its cupboard to attend to this one? And today you have all the media hampering for sound bites and again following a judgement into the case of two filthy rich brothers over distribution of gas? It ...