The Law of Detachment

The following post is very well written. I read it somewhere and I am not sure who wrote it. But whoever wrote this my due regards to him/her. Read on ....

The human mind has a tendency to get attached to anything it contacts. Your attachment has deadly effects on your life and peace of mind. Therefore, you need to develop a spirit of detachment. You cannot get detached from anything naturally. It needs conscious deliberate effort. You cannot forcefully pull yourself away from those things that you are attached to.

...To detach yourself from lower, you need to get attached to something higher. Attach to higher values and nobler ideals. The lower attachments will wane away. Just as although children are obsessed with toys, when they taste the joy of something better, like play station or a bicycle, they drop the attachment to the toys.

Similarly what are the toys that make us joy? Our toys are money, name, fame, power, position, status and family. Apart from these toys that are making your joys, you have to set a goal, you have to have a mission in life, and this mission must be beyond your selfish personal interest. It is a purpose that satisfies a larger interest. Perform dynamic action; thereafter peace and success will be your gain.

We secluded ourselves to assimilate wisdom and then emerged into the world to help humanity. To establish ourselves, we have to withdraw from the routine sensual existence. That, however, does not mean that we have to retire, that is not the idea. If you want to master the desires, you need to stay away from the sensual environment. You need not retire fulltime. You may do it for a short while on a regular basis. You need to frequently resort to a spiritual environment to recharge yourself, to imbibe higher values. Being amidst worldly enjoyments it is rather difficult to gain the strength of detachment because the spiritual inputs are washed away by the torrents of sensual temptations.

Detachment is an attitude of non-involvement. Detachment is rather subtle to understand and even more difficult to practice. The sense of detachment is not mere physical abstinence. When you detach yourself physically from pleasure without the mental detachment, which amounts to hypocrisy. The state of detachment is the attitude of not letting the objects of the world affect you or rule you. It is not what you do but how you do it that confers the statement of detachment upon you. Through non-attachment, there arises freedom from delusion.

Attachment blinds your perception of the realities of life. Delusion is false belief out of misunderstanding. Just as when a boy or a girl who is obsessed with the opposite sex is deluded and does not perceive the true nature of the other person and realities of married life. Detachment enables you to see the total scheme of things. You gain freedom from delusion. You begin to get established more and more in Truth the Truth of Life! We all came to this world with empty hands; and will leave the world with empty hands!

Random Thought

"The hands that help are holier than the lips that pray."

Taken @ Ameerpet, Hyderabad - 2012

Moving with Time - My Mum

It's your road....

and your's alone...

Others may walk

it with you,

but no one can

walk it for you!

Taken @ Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, Mcleodganj - Oct 2012

Clouds - one of my favourite

“A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed...It feels an impulsion...this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons.” Richard Bach

Taken @ Madapur, Hyderbad - 25th Sept, 2012

I, Me, Myself

Many forgettable moments,

Just one life!

Many unfulfilled wishes,

Just one hope.....an evening with myself :)

Taken @ Maredumilli August, 2011

Innocence at its best

“......But I have sometimes thought that a woman's nature is like a great house full of rooms: there is the hall, through which everyone passes in going in and out; the drawing-room, where one receives formal visits; the sitting-room, where the members of the family come and go as they list; but beyond that, far beyond, are other rooms, the handles of whose doors perhaps are never turned; no one knows the way to them, no one knows whither they lead; and in the innermost room, the holy of holies, the soul sits alone and waits for a footstep that never comes.”

One of my favourite clicks - Taken @ Rishikesh - 2012

Diya Photography

"Deepajyothi Parabrahma

Deepajyothi Janardhana

Deepo Me Hara Tu Paapam

Deepaa Jyothir Namostute" 

Disarray

On days of mere existence, I sometimes wonder. I wonder about the life! The love, the friendship, the relationships, the animosity, the anger, the books, the music, the movies, the trash - "The Unintended". The ones that are/were mightily longed for. The thoughts that are consuming me. The people that are keeping me busy. Everything and anything. Sigh!

A silent ache. I want to be in solitude - in quiet with me and myself. I am quietened. I am looking. Looking at you for answers for my unsolved puzzles, for my unanswered questions and the unspeakable that you do. And I am quietened by that charming smile of yours.I am mere reflection of the person I used to be. I try. I try so hard - I want to cry. :) I am crying. I am laughing. I am smiling. I am frowning. But you don't care. No body cares! But I will wait till -death and beyond, till you respond to my unsolved mysteries, to my questions. I will wait patiently. :) Amen!

No One To Blame - Swami Vivekananda

The sun goes down, its crimson rays
Light up the dying day;
A startled glance I throw behind
And count my triumph shame;
No one but me to blame.

Each day my life I make or mar,
Each deed begets its kind,
Good good, bad bad, the tide once set
No one can stop or stem;
No one but me to blame.

I am my own embodied past;
Therein the plan was made;
The will, the thought, to that conform,
To that the outer frame;
No one but me to blame.

Love comes reflected back as love,
Hate breeds more fierce hate,
They mete their measures, lay on me
Through life and death their claim;
No one but me to blame.

I cast off fear and vain remorse,
I feel my Karma's sway
I face the ghosts my deeds have raised —
Joy, sorrow, censure, fame;
No one but me to blame.

Good, bad, love, hate, and pleasure, pain
Forever linked go,
I dream of pleasure without pain,
It never, never came;
No one but me to blame.

I give up hate, I give up love,
My thirst for life is gone;
Eternal death is what I want,
Nirvanam goes life's flame;
No one is left to blame.

One only man, one only God, one ever perfect soul,
One only sage who ever scorned the dark and dubious ways,
One only man who dared think and dared show the goal —
That death is curse, and so is life, and best when stops to be

Business Analysis - Difference between Wireframes & Prototypes

I had a wrong notion till yesterday that wireframes and prototypes (terms/tools) used in Business Analysis are same. However, there is a huge difference between the two. The terms "wireframe" and "prototype" are often used interchangeably – possibly due to convenience or misunderstanding. Below are the detailed insights on same.

Wireframe

A wireframe is a visual illustration of one web page. It's simply means to illustrate the features, content and links that need to appear on a page so that the design team can mock up a visual interface and the programmers understand page features and how they are supposed to work. One of the main purpose of a wireframe is to show where each item should be placed on a page. Once a wireframe starts becoming interactive – including animations, clickable navigation and state functionality – it crosses the line into a prototype. Some of the best free wireframing tools available are :

• Mocking Bird
• Lovely Charts
• Cacoo
• Gliffy
• Lumzy
• Mockflow

Prototype

A prototype is fully functional working model of a final product. A prototype actually imitates some functionality of the finished product. In the most basic sense, a low-fidelity prototype is often referred to as a "clickable" or "functional" wireframe.It embodies more of a sense of engagement rather than purely of visual appearance. Axure RP Pro is one of the best prototyping tool used. It can be used as a wireframe tool as well.

Wireframes and Prototypes facilitate communication

Wireframes and prototypes primarily differ in terms of functionality but both serve as useful communication tools for BA teams to create better, more user-centered products. They also help in producing better results than just having the developers jump right into building after goals are set.

Wireframes and prototypes also help stakeholders visualize the project specifications - based on research, goals and assumed requirements - giving them enough information to provide early, useful feedback and get a product to market faster.

Note : The content of this post has been taken from various websites

And the Proud Certified Counsellor of SEVA

Read more @  Seva Details

My First White Hair

Probably by looking at the title of the post many of you out there would wonder what makes me write this post. People prefer to write about their first love, about their first date, about first baby (grin).

While I was admiring myself (as I do it every day) in the mirror today - I saw a first strand of grey hair. Sounds funny! Now days one can see white hair in babies as well but wooo I have got my first grey hair.

Grey hair – for many it might be a cause of worry….for which hair dye or henna to apply but I think I have really grown wiser and that too that just one day before I add one more year to my age. :D. Wonderful Birthday gift.

Decennium

Winter, chill, silence in dark, sound of rain, flowing water, mountains, emotions, love, attachments, spirituality, divinity, books scattered on the bed, coffee, familiar stranger(s), conversations - I wonder how just thinking about such things can make me pen down some lines in my blog. There is multitude of thoughts going across my mind right now. Sigh! Let me put down something.

Rain hasn’t been too kind lately. Dark clouds fill up the evening sky only to disappear within minutes. A sudden cold breeze crosses in the sky. No rain drops even an hour later. I remember there were times during college days when standing on a bus stop on busy road amidst heavy crowd, rain would splash without a signal of caution.

Rain is something which I have always adored - it gives respite, solace to the seeking soul. The beautiful sound of rain is a blessing for a writer or for someone who wishes the ink to flow. And as I write this post my memories take me 10 years back when the city/people were unknown to me. Yes I am 10 year old (not by age certainly) although I wish I was.:)

I just realized that this is my 10th year in the city. A decade of my lifetime has been spent in this wonderful city. As I look back - I see so much has changed - life, relations, and friends. It has been a surreal experience to spend a decade in this city with wonderful lot of people around. So much to learn from every one's experience. So many conversations - funny, happiness shared, love, fights, friendship, emotions, feelings and what not.

Unbelievable how time just flies. Right before your eyes, but you don't recognize.

Desires, Experiences

                                                                                                       

Rishikesh, 15/03/2012 - 2:30 PM

As Swami Ji says - "Nobody loves division. Any division, physiological division for that matter, yields a cause for conflict and also a lack. When "I" find myself a seeker seeking for the sought the desirable is away from me. The very fact that I seek is because what is to be gained is away from me. And therefore until the sought is gained the seeker goes on."

Human beings always seek and I am not an exception to it. I have been seeking (still don't know what) and I will do so till I find it. Sitting peacefully in font of a river and watching it flow aimlessly and mountains behind had been my long lasting desire. I had been (in fact still have)  having dreams and dejavus of it. Today as a seeker my desire is met - sitting closely on the banks of the river Ganga and mountains in the vicinity. The serene environment - hopefully I am not dreaming. Even if I am who cares - I realize that moment is here. I will enjoy it to the maximum.

Valentine's Special - From the extracts of "The Alchemist"

Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked, when they had made camp that day.

“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”

“But my heart is agitated,” the boy said. “It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and it’s become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I’m thinking about her.”

“Well, that’s good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say.”

“My heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. “It doesn’t want me to go on."

“That makes sense. Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.”

“Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?”

“Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. ”

“You mean I should listen, even if it’s treasonous?”

“Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them.

“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

Women Power - Breaking invisible barriers to realize dormant potential

Amongst the numerous things that fascinated me a month back in Udaipur, the historic capital of the Mewar Dynasty (I had made a quick visit to the astounding City Palace - built by Maharana Udai Singh - sitting in all its majesty on a hilltop overlooking the marvelous Lake Pichola and the Lake Palace), the ones that caught my attention the most were the Zanana Chambers (segregated chambers built for women) and the various paintings showing women behind screens and inside chambers. They stood in stark contrast to the celebration of the strength, might and power that the 'men' stood for. I came into the airport a few hours later and came across an article in Forbes India that listed the 100 most powerful women this year. Couldn't help my mind drifting into thoughts around how the role played by women in society has evolved over the centuries and more significantly, what it would take to tap into this huge reservoir of unrealised potential.

Over a period of time, my perception of women and their role in society has changed quite dramatically. There were times at school when boys and girls used to engage in the 'battle of the sexes' trying to prove the futility of the existence of the other sex to eachother (now, how cruel could that be!). There were times a decade later when the 'feminist' movement became stronger in cities like Delhi demanding 'equal rights' and equality in treatment. In the years to come, I have seen them play that 'complementary' as well as 'independent' role in every walk of life (family, society, corporate, politics, academics) - providing leadership where necessary and providing that critical balance in family for men to operate at other times.
I am writing this note as I realize with every interaction that this immense potential in a large percentage of women today still remains dormant and slowly fades away without being realized. Let me start with what I have learnt from the various kinds of women I have seen, interacted and heard about.

1) Working closely the last few years with the players in the Microfinance industry, I understood partially the basis of this enormous strength in the Microfinance model - women. While the industry itself may be in doldrums today, there are a lot of learnings that can be taken away. There are 30 million borrowers today in the country availing Microfinance loans and more than 95% of these borrowers are women. All Microfinance Institutions in India and most of them globally (with the exception of a few who also have men) as a rule work almost solely with women. The model is so well understood and appreciated today that none of the new institutions even spend time questioning this rationale. Having spent time in various villages interacting with numerous rural women (old and young) who are part of Self Help Groups and Joint Liability Groups, and looking at their male counterparts, I realize why.

2) My own experience with women labour at home - be it the maid, the cook or the nanny. To me, they characterize what people with single-minded dedication can achieve. Most of these women are those who are willing to work all kinds of extended hours and stretch themselves to the hilt to make sure that their children can go to school and do not suffer ignominiously like their parents. Mind you, it is not making the two ends meet that they are most concerned about. The ability to fight against all kinds of odds with unparalleled grit and determination comes from this single-minded focus on the goal of educating their children and making them successful. Whenever I find youngsters today immersed excessively in various kinds of distractions with easy access to money, I remind myself the virtue of setting goals and working towards them. While your maid or cook could be examples, there are scores of women out there who exemplify what men and women are capable of achieving when one is working towards a goal, how priorities automatically get assigned in one's life, how you start looking for those distractions that help you achieve your goals.

3) My wife, and mothers - seeing within close quarters what it is like to be a mother and take up the full-time responsibility of raising a child. I have seen other women who have otherwise been perceived as nonproductive and wasteful become more efficient and productive naturally and purely by virtue of this transformation in role. Not only does one begin to manage one's time better, but one tends to become more assertive and oriented towards results and outcomes rather than the process. It is a fabulous management lesson on how a person transforms as soon as they take up a larger role with ownership, responsibility and accountability coming naturally to them. In short, they end up imbibing all the qualities that would be considered fantastic to have in the typical corporate world.

4) My experience with women in the Corporate world.

Entire Corporate World is full of examples of women who have made it big notwithstanding the numerous challenges of motherhood, gender bias

etc.https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/A_business_case_for_women_2192

5) Women in politics and activism: While there are numerous examples of women who have held positions of power, the three women musketeers today of Indian State politics (the leaders of UP, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal) are fantastic examples of the immense power and influence that women can wield.

Senseless Scribbling

We may be apart but we still bind with an unseen force,
Like moon and sun we are, like water and sky, like waves and ocean
We may be poles apart, we may be like parallel lines with no defined destination
Yet I am sure we will meet some where........
Somewhere where there are no norms and where free birds soar to the heights in the sky
We will meet somewhere where being lone does not hurt
Where feeling and emotions are valued much more than rules and regulations of society
Where there is no religion, no caste, no creed, where there is serenity, where divine is soul and where there is -  JUST YOU and JUST ME! :)