Ask me whatever you want. Ten people asked their desires
First one Countless money & a big business to run
2nd one
The most powerful position in the world
3rd one I need fame & fortune like a topmost world famous actor
4th I have to become the most beautiful person that the whole world becomes mad after me
Like this each of the nine people asked their desires which God gave them immediately.
The tenth person asked I want the most contented , peaceful & blissful stage which a man can achieve.
The rest of the 9 looked at him laughing.
Peace of mind, contented heart.
For that only we asked whatever we wanted . When we get whatever we wanted peace & contentment will follow.
God looked at them and said I’ve given whatever you all wanted. Now you all can go.
The He turned towards the tenth person and said, ‘you wait here. I need to talk to you. I’ll come after some time. ‘ He left.
Now the rest of the 9 hesitated & stayed back so anxious to know what God is going to give him.
In spite of getting whatever they wanted they became jealous over the man who has not got anything till then.
As time passed, their anxiety grew & they forgot to enjoy what they have got. There went their peace & happiness.
The tenth man waited patiently. He became so peaceful & content that God is coming to talk with him.
Who are we. The tenth person or the rest . Decide.
Our thoughts decide who we are.
Translation from a Tamil social media share by my mother Anjana.
Have shared my artwork here for I felt it was apt for the story above, in depicting the 10th man who is at bliss and peace in the merging of thoughts in divine consciousness.
There is great power in a circle that is inclusive and expansive.
Speaking of organizations a clear organisational structure helps to understand the relations of positions in an organisation with respect to position and authority. There are many ways that organisations are structured and each have their own pros and cons. Traditional flat structure to pyramid, circular to modern network structures etc. The value of taking the right structural approach in building organisations cannot be undermined.
The strength of circles:
The circle appears hierarchical with its power core and expansive with concentric spread of power yet its very strength is in its form that helps align values in teams.
For transformative change to align with the core values, trust and transparency is paramount to foster and this needs an inclusive and expansive approach inside out in a circular manner that is consistent to sustain. The organisation needs to support a circular structure with open door policies on communication, and work on learning and development to create accessible training programmes across the spectrum.
The circular structure has a clear psychological advantage in the form itself as leaders are not positioned at the top, making it easier for the vision accessible for one and all, thus increasing collaboration as it considers different departments as part of the same whole.
There are infinite possibilities of growth, in a circle of team, increasing a sense of belonging, mutual respect, and engagement of human potential, in the realisation that no one is as strong as all of us.
Poetry is a brilliant trickster As much a true friend For it masks the truth cleverly in words As much as it heals away in the expressions.
In the letting go of dense emotions Is the channeling towards balance To the lightness of being Where there is space created In between thoughts and actions For more cathartic connections.
Poetry revives the spirit of the soul Through soulful words that flow Out of nowhere explicable For it has a purpose of its own In trust know, that it finds itself The path its meant to be.
Be it poetry or prose, fiction or non fiction, words can be the gamechanger.
All That You Seek Around You Already Have Within You
All the knowing That you may need You have enough Seek your truth Around and within You are enough Already all is within you Have trust hope and faith Within you all is awaiting You to know, You.
How many of you writers, have felt people equating your creative writing with your life?
As a writer I do know that creativity comes up in the most unexpected moments. It may have or not at all have anything to your own experiences. Much of the creative process can happen in attention to details as a keen observer, in witness mode , in associations of thoughts and feelings and in sensing emotions in empathy, concern or care, that may have or not have any personal connotations.
Writing is the freedom of expression in flights of imagination, its a beautiful art and that is free for interpretation once it has been published. For the writer has chosen to let it go…
How it came to be, is a mystery sometimes to the Author too😉
If I were to keep feelings aside I would perhaps become cold And impersonal Perhaps I may function perfectly Like a robot. Wonder if I would be well at all For feelings are a great balancer.
To repress our feelings And take decisions would make our decisions lopsided.
I am therefore I feel I feel therefore I am.
Whether it’s personal or professional decisions, our feelings do make a difference and play a role in our decisions. We can perhaps bring to awareness how we are feeling in the Now and use this mindfully to bring a sense of balance in our thoughts & actions. But to think or say, we can be completely devoid of it is not necessarily true for we are built in such a way where our emotions, feelings and our thoughts in every moment is deeply interconnected, in more ways than one.
Feelings of empathy compassion and acts of kindness are deeply entwined.
How you are being in the now has much to do with how you are feeling.
To do anything well you need all of you & your senses to come together. How we choose to act upon our feelings and in what manner will depend on us.
Sharing a thought provoking forward that came my way…
I was 9.
There was pensive silence at home when days after the happy news of my dads promotion in a nationalised bank he received orders of transfer as a branch manager to a small village in Rajasthan. We were then in Ahmedabad and this also happened to be the time he was building a house next to our ancestral home.
I had seen him struggle with numbers, adding, subtracting, circling staff loans and FDs he would break and putting a question mark against a few empty spaces in the total.
A house is usually a one time in one life effort so everyone goes all out and makes that one room more than what can be afforded and still finds one room less than what was needed. Javed Akhtar puts it beautifully बम्बई में बस एक ही गम हैं, हरेकके पास एक कमरा कम हे.
The joint family home housed 14 of us from age 5 to 95 years.
Today I watch both the houses abandoned and nature taking over the garden my mother used to tend for hours every day. The Jamun, the Drumstick a few Ashok, Neem and Peepal have survived but all beauty is both transient and fragile and the law of entropy powerful. The lovely flowers of myriad colours are all gone. I wonder what happened to the peacock family that came everyday and ate from my moms hand. The Bulbul, the sparrows, the parrots, spotted flycatchers, Cuckoos, a huge troop of monkeys that once in a month would upset the order of the place.
Once people leave, a home becomes a house. Initially I didn’t feel like selling and now I don’t feel like going. Time has taken away ten of its fourteen occupants.
I walk around our neighbourhood and see similar fate of so many homes once full of life now replaced or lying still.
Why do we stretch and stress to build houses? In most cases our kids won’t need it or worse fight over it. What is this human folly of attempting permanent ownership in a leased life with an uncertain tenure given by a landlord whose terms are non-negotiable and there is no court of appeal.
One day all we have built with love and EMIs will either be demolished, fought over, sold or lie in ruins.
Every time I fill a form that asks for ‘permanent address’ I smile at human folly.
There is a Zen story that an old monk walked into a Kings palace demanding he wanted to spend the night in this Inn and the guards told him, “What Inn, can’t you see its a palace?”. The monk said “I came here a few decades back someone was staying there, a few years later someone else took the throne from him, then someone else. Any place where the occupant keeps changing is an Inn.”
George Carlin says “house is just a place where you keep your stuff as you go out and get more stuff”.
As houses get bigger families get smaller. When the house has occupants, we desire privacy and when the nest empties we crave for company.
Birds and Animals must be laughing at us humans that give up living in order to build their dream home and in the end depart the Inn they mistook as a permanent residence.
Savvy Raj 
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