“One size fits all” – method of teaching must go….

“One size fits all” – method of teaching must go….

While every aspect of our life has evolved to suit the needs of the day and of the future, the only one to have been stuck badly in time is the way our education and methods of teaching work.  In fact none of our education is aimed at making the children future ready.  They are in fact tuned to making them robotic machines who will do by command.

This method is from the industrial revolution period where machines were supposed to do a job in a particular way and no tinkering was allowed – lest the outcome may change.

one-size-fits-allWhen you can customize almost anything in today’s world to suit your specific needs – from Facebook pages, your profile, your designer clothing, to cars, homes, looks et al; then why not the way you are taught?  The way education is delivered to you?

While everyone agrees that each one of us is unique in our own way and have tastes which differ from one another, our educationist and teachers don’t treat us that way.  In fact when they do not respect our uniqueness is when they make
us feel inadequate all of the time.  You got to be lucky if the teaching method is suited to your likes.  Come to think of it – ‘Luck’ seems to be playing a major role in guiding my personality towards success.

Let’s look at how the ancient ‘Gurukul’ used to operate and I take the case of ‘Guru Dronacharya’ on whose name awards are also given to teachers.  He identified the uniqueness in each of his students and trained them purely to be specialists in that skill.  He produced geniuses from each one of them he trained or coached
.  While the ‘values’ education remained the foundation, the skill development used to be highly customized.

It strengthens the case to do away with “One size fits all”  method of teaching in schools, colleges and other educational institutions.  There is an increasing need to customise.

Valuing and Respecting the Uniqueness of each individual is the key guidance for facilitating their path towards success and greatness.

If you are a teacher, educationist or a policy maker and are interested in this idea, its time to put this to practice.  Even I have some ideas.  Ask me 🙂

Please share this as widely as possible so that it reaches every corner of the world.  It could be a change for our future – your future – and generations to come…..

When you fight……..

When you fight……..

When you fight you give life to what you are fighting with.  Whatsoever it may be – quit smoking, waking up early, breaking a habit or in a relationship.

That is what you observe when you are in an argument with someone.  The more you get into the fight the more energy and enthusiasm you provide the other person to stay
Don't fight itin the fight.  The best way is to not fight it, allow it to pass and
see that it dissolves very quickly and you are able to make the change.

It applies to every habit you want to change or work on.  Try it…

GOD cannot be a goal! Cannot be achieved!

GOD cannot be a goal!  Cannot be achieved!

All those who run around from one worship place to other, one guru to other in search of GOD must understand that it can’t be your goal to find GOD.

The more you run, the more effort you put to find GOD in the outside world through various means the more difficult it would get.  In fact, it is contrary to what we have always been told that “GOD is within and in all”

A supreme self that cannot be defined or described but only be realised.

Cause that which can be defined comes with a beginning and an end and has boundaries.  The ‘Brahman” is ever present and is unavoidable, its the whole all encompassing entity.  Quite like ‘Self’.

Therefore it is quite difficult for you to define ‘yourself’ as well.  Try and you will see that it is almost impossible to clearly define or provide a complete definition of yourself.

The only way is to probably allow yourselves to ‘dissolve’ in the process of life as it is.  Just ‘to be’.

That probably will be the greatest of all worship to the GOD within.

अहं ब्रह्मास्मिति – I am the infinite reality.

No one can help you find you.  If anyone claims to do so is far away from his reality.

The only possibility is to ‘realise’ GOD.  तत्त्वमसि – Tat Tvam Asi – Thou art that…… or “You are that”

Culture is not a ‘Liberating’ experience – Discard it

Culture is not a ‘Liberating’ experience

‘This is not in our culture’; ‘Our cultures don’t match’; ‘Don’t try to impose your culture’; or plainly ‘don’t learn this or that culture’.

How often have you heard this common refrain from people?  All the more in today’s global environment.

This very fact indicates to you that ‘Culture’ is binding and not a very liberating experience.  The moment you define what a ‘culture’ is, you give it some boundary and with it some norms.  And many of us have not even applied our thought/mind to this as it has been passed on from generations.

All you do today is try and align or rebel against the pre-defined culture.  Where is the role of your mind in all this?  Have you been able to even think through all this?  Are you not spending a whole lot of energy in either defending or conforming to the culture you were born in or conditioned to accept?

By this logic, I think you were not even born ‘liberated’.

This is not only a cause for today’s conflicting times but also the cause of grave internal conflict of your mind.

What do you think?  Has culture liberated you in the true sense?  Has it helped you to find the truth on your own?  Are you not bound already?…

Don’t try to know the unknown!

Don’t try to know the unknown!

You don’t have to work very hard to try and find the unknown.  When the time cometh and you are confronted with situations which demand an appropriate response, it shall be revealed to you.

You should not waste your energies in trying to figure out or find the unknown.  Instead all your energies should be put to use for what has been revealed as a natural process of your growth in this world.

You run from ashram to ashram, guru to guru to find out that which you do not know while completely missing the point of being in the moment.  If life gives you a playground it also provides you with an intrinsic ability to play in it.  You discover this along the way.

This is precisely the reason why we learn to swim if and when we want to play with water, learn to drive when we are confronted with the need to commute long distances.  If you don’t have money, you learn to live by your meagre means and when you have a need for luxuries you work hard to get them.  This is a purely natural process and has been happening from time immemorial.

The trouble begins when you start to try and figure out the unknown and start to prepare for situations which have not yet manifested.  You end up creating situations for that which you have already prepared for.  Let me explain – If you have built weapons of mass destruction to prepare for an eventuality, you will be tempted to test them out for reliability.  You then find excuses to wage war which are not directly relevant to your life in general and thereby end up manifesting the mass destruction.  This is precisely what the Americans got caught into.  Similar are many programs which waste your time, energy and resources in preparing for the unknown.

On the contrary let me explain how you are always prepared and endowed with an intrinsic ability to find your way.  When you want to clean a comb of all the dirt, you figure out that a tooth brush can do the trick for you.  You don’t sit frustrated by the fact that you do no have the knowledge or skill set to clean a dirty comb.

The point I am trying to make is – don’t get fooled by people who promise to teach you skills to transcend barriers and know the yet unknown.

“Believe that GOD has provided a playground and instilled in each one of us the ability to play in it”

It requires a great belief in ‘YOURSELF’!

How ‘labelling’ destroys your life and Self-awareness’?

Labelling comes with a huge cost; the cost of pre-defined boundaries, prejudices, stereotypes and more importantly your inability to become more self-aware.

limiting-labels

Right from the time you are born to death ‘labels’ follow you all along and these somehow start to guide or misguide your life.  Precisely the reason most are not completely satisfied with the way they lead their life or it currently is.

Let me explain this with a few examples.  As a child when you are labeled as a ‘brat’ most people around you tend to expect a certain brashness in your behavior and in every action of yours they see a little bit of it.  Repeatedly then name-calling you or terming you that way you start to believe that indeed you are one and continue to rebel against this.  The more you rebel to get to your core identity the more you are labeled and this cyclic process is what you get caught in.

There are innumerable examples like this.  The moment you see a bird which has already been labeled a ‘parrot’, ‘peacock’, ‘woodpecker’ a ‘crow’ an ‘owl’ a ‘vulture, you stop seeing the real beauty of its flight, its color, its character.  So much so that you stop observing.  It ends up just as a tick mark that you spotted a ‘labeled’ bird.

The list of such labelling can go on and on including sensitive ideas like ‘god’, ‘satan’, ‘secular’, ‘communal’, ‘democrat’ and ‘republic’.

The reason I raise this topic for discussion is to ask you this “Did you become self-aware of the several labels you came across in your life?”  “Was it a pre-defined one?”  “How has it impacted you?”

Is it true about yourself?  What have been the labels given to you/on you?

Did you ‘label’ this article in your mind even before you started reading?  What impact/influence did it have?  Did you try to be more aware of the questions I am trying to raise?

Only when you take off the ‘labels’ will you truly enjoy in complete awareness.

Of false Yogis and the market of ‘Nirvana’

It’s time to call the bluff of false Yogis and gurus who ply their trade in the market of ‘bliss’ and ‘nirvana’.

If you ever wanted to be at peace with yourself, you must stop seeking quick-fixes and solutions from sources whose own credentials may be questionable.

baby-yoga-poseStarting with the concepts of aligning your energies, kundalini, meditation, knowing oneself and beyond and the fad diets and prayers to achieve peace, the market is huge.

Most Yogis try to tell you that you are not yet evolved and it takes years of ascetic living to reach the state in which they are in.  The elusive state which even they find it difficult to explain.  When you ask them the question, they rebuke you by saying “those who experience it cannot explain it – it will be unimaginable…. and so on”

You have also been handed down a path in the form of various ‘ashrams’ the brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sanyasa.  You try to diligently go through all even though you might not have been satisfied or fully contended with the current.  This is precisely the reason why people often complain or regret about what they ‘could have been’ or ‘could not do’ or ‘enjoy’ in the past.  You seem to be in a hurry to move from one ‘ashrama’ to the ‘other’ and feel that only when you reach ‘sanyasa’ the race is finished and you are the victor.

I don’t think life is about this stupid race. As long as you are thankful to be who you are in this world and are enjoying every moment of what you do, you do not need the assistance of any yogi or guru.  You will always be in a blissful state.

It is all the falsehood dished out to you in the name of meditation, yoga, exercise, diet which is rarely in alignment with your intrinsic needs which keeps you dissatisfied.  The problem also is that it is been packaged so well and hard sold to you that you refuse to believe otherwise.

Try and ask anyone who goes to these meditation sessions of some of these new age gurus and yogis and they would vouch for the efficacy of the system and the methods they are following.  Even though deep within they know that it is not working.  Their ‘Ego’ doesn’t permit them to accept the reality.  They continue to remain in the make believe.  They keep repeating that it is working and to prove to others, keep visiting these centres and come back and let know that they are now rejuvenated and feeling blissful.

In fact this deep rooted ‘hypocritical’ living is what makes people stressed, discontented and frustrated with life.  Jumping from one method to the other in search of peace and happiness.  In the process, some even destroy the lives of their near and dear.

The simple fact is ‘do what you do with all the energy and enthusiasm’ you will always be in the ‘so-called’ meditative state.  Stop ‘Engineering’ yourself and ‘Re-engineering’.  Don’t be defensive about your life – as it is now.  You don’t have to explain or convince others about your happiness and contentment.

This world is wonderful and beautiful ‘As Is’.

Haven’t you seen a child in a meditative state?

Is God ‘biased’ or ‘partial’?

“God is not biased or shows no partiality”.  I answered my son when he questioned me as to why when we pray to the lord everyday the results are not similar?  Why is it that some are rich and the others not so?

My answer itself manifested from the lessons I learnt from the lords discourse in the Bhagvad Gita.

God is a mass of Dynamism, the source of all activities and achievements.  We are given the equipment through which we can, as we like invoke this infinite energy and if used carefully and effectively, we can reach the goal of our activities.  If we misuse them, the very same divine force can be the cause of our disaster.

It is like the ‘fuel-strength’ of Petrol which can be converted into horse-power through the mechanism under the bonnet.  We can invoke the horse-power to reach our destination, or we can easily end up into a mass of twisted wreckage on the way-side and become a bundle of broken bones.  The accidents are caused by the carelessness  of the driver, although the strength and power with which the car moves is supplied by the same petrol.  The strength in the petrol had no attachment for those whom it guided home safe. Nor can we say that it had a hatred for those whom it wrecked.  With neither attachment nor hatred, the petrol gives its power when invoked through the mechanism of the engine.  How to make use of the power depends upon us and our wisdom in employing it.

Similarly, an electric plug in the house can be made use of to hear a song over the radio, to cool ourselves with a fan, to boil water, to cook or to warm the room with a heater; it all depends upon what instrument we plug into it.  It is never possible that electricity flowing through a fan, of its own accord, can start emitting fire or light.  Similarly you can fulfil all your goals or desires according to the type of our invocations.

By coming into this world ‘God’ has already manifested in you and available always.  It is upto you as to how you want to invoke the divine power.

‘Rags to riches stories

Collateral damage is inevitable for a higher cause..

Active resistance to evil is the central idea of the doctrine expounded by Krishna through the discourse of ‘Geeta’.

As Arjuna ponders over the probably loss of several innocent lives including several peace-loving, highly intellectual and culturally similar people offering to buy peace through self-defeat, Krishna educates him of the fatality of such an attempt.

When poison afflicts one part of the body and it becomes imperative to cut-off that part, you don’t think twice abwar_of_ran_bhumi__krishna__by_theartist100-d6l0ug9out the pain it can bring and the possibility of living without it.  You look at the larger cause and do the ‘surgical strike’.

India faces the ‘Arjuna syndrome’ and has been for the last 60 odd years.  Each time there comes a call of for action, it ponders over the loss of innocent lives on both sides of the border and tries to buy peace by dialogue.  As much as offer for dialogue is the first logical step, it cannot remain the only option.  The menace of Duryodhana and his Kaurava atrocities keep increasing, as much as we saw post ‘pandavas’ pardon after he attempts to burn them alive in the palace.  What followed was the attack on the modesty of Draupadi in full view of the so called ‘intellectuals’.

I see the same situation prevalent today.  There are the so called ‘intellectuals’ who propound the idea of ‘peace’, attempt to broker ties inspite of repeatedly being under attack. The opposite side always takes courage from the fact that there are ‘Bhishmas’ and ‘Dronas’ who will overlook their follies and side them inspite of…

Currently, the Americans are playing the role of ‘Bhisma’, the Russians are playing ‘Drona’ and the Chinese are playing ‘Shakuni’.  In this scheme of things, there is a need for taking a leaf out of Krishna’s doctrine.  He propounds ‘action’ and lets Arjuna know that inspite of his best efforts at avoiding a war, the only way to put an end to the prevailing situations is to take up arms and fight the battle.  He lets Arjuna know that the collateral damage is inevitable; that he may have to kill some of his own in order to achieve a larger cause.

As much as it applies to the Indian context today, it applies to our ‘Self’ as well.  You will have to fight the battle within yourselves and kill some of your own ‘ego’, ‘selfishness’, ‘desire’, ‘arrogance’ and many of the negativities which may exist.  Never mind, in the process you will probably have some collateral damage, in terms of your relationships.

You may lose an ‘Abhimanyu’ here and a ‘Drona’ there……

Are you ready for realizing your higher cause?

Desire to please is a fertile ground for your ‘Guilt’

The psychology of guilt is deep-rooted in self-judgment.  The sense that we have done something wrong.  It is anger turned inward which arises when we violate our belief systems.  Much of this negative self-judgment was taught to us as children.

Guilt.jpgguilt comes often from our childhood because we were raised to please others.  We learnt to sell ourselves for the affection of others.  We were taught to be good little boys and girls, tending to the wishes of others rather than forming our own strong identities.  We are not really encouraged to be independent or interdependent.  We were trained to make others needs and lives important and neglecting our own.  Often we fail to know how to meet our needs for our own happiness.

One clear symptom of this is an inability to say no.  We’re taught to please others by agreeing to their requests.  As parents we are unhappy when our children say no.  In fact, it’s wonderful when children learn to say ‘no’ in appropriate situations.  We all should learn to say ‘no’ – early, loud and clear.

The desire to please others is a fertile ground for guilt, but not the only one.  Sometimes you may also feel guilty when we try to assert our independence.  This can particularly be a problem for children who are still forming their identities.

As parents, it takes great responsibility and care to help your children form their own identity, for which you should allow them their ‘choice’.  You should feel comfortable that they too have the ‘right’ to disagree with you; say ‘no’.

You have to set your children ‘free’; help them be themselves.  Do you have the courage?