Funny way of Lateral Thinking

What is 25 divided by 5? Is it 5 or 14? Click here ! to know more.

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My interview with God

Did thunder clap and lightening flash as an old man with a big flowing beard descend from the skies? No. Did angels adorn the skies as a glowing man with shining luster and a smiling face speak to you? No. Then how can you say you spoke to God? I can see you asking me skeptically. Oh, and by the way (just to make things clear) I was not intoxicated when I posted this 🙂  And I am no religious fanatic either.
I believe that divinity is within each and every human being. We need to connect to the higher consciousness within us to express that divinity. When, I was meditating deeply one day, I could feel the connection to that higher consciousness strongly and thus this conversation sprang forth.

(Image courtesy: public domain pictures)
Who/What is God?
God is unconditional love, truth, bliss and more…

Where is God?
Within you, me, everything, everywhere

Are you and I then Gods?
Yes, we are ALL – an aspect of the whole……

How come I can’t do miracles?
What are miracles……… Don’t we define miracle as things that we cant explain yet? And what if you had a higher intelligence that you could explain its works? Would you call it a miracle yet? And who said you are not producing miracles? What about the woman who gives birth to a new life? What about the doctor who saves lives? What about the brain that unravels the mysteries of science?

That didn’t answer my question yet. When can I produce objects out of thin air? When can I disappear and appear?
You can when you are fully awake. But when you are, you wouldn’t feel the need to.

Am I not awake yet?
If you are asking that question, you are not awake yet.

How to be fully awake?
Awake, arise and stop not till the goal is reached.

Which religion do I follow?
Any religion, my child. They are just the stepping stones. Your journey begins from there.

How do I know if I am on the right path?
Enquire within. Keep asking questions. Spirituality allows you to grow. You grow as much effort as you put into it.

What if I am fully awake?
Help awaken other people 🙂

Prove that you are God?
We don’t need to prove. We are already doing it. We are co-creators. The state of being is the creation.

Why is there evil in this world?
As mentioned before you are a co-creator.

PS: This post is in no way intended to harm, offend, disrespect (or affect in any negative way) people of different faiths and beliefs. I love and respect the various religions and faiths as I believe all of them are different paths to the same goal. It just reflects my inner soul conversations. Peace, love and light to all.

Twinkle Twinkle little star – indian style

This was something that my friend referred to me.  It was Twinkle twinkle little star sung in different indian flavours. Quite entertaining,  I should say !! My day is made 🙂

The beauty of zen koans

 

     A kōan is a story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of Zen Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition. It is a learning tool intended to alter our perception of reality. The beautiful part of it is that your understanding of a koan will change as you change.  Some examples of a koan are:

“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear, does it make a sound?”

(Image courtesy: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net)

“If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.”

Koans are created to stimulate your thinking process. The meaning is what each one of us perceive it to be. So every one of us can have a different understanding of the koan. My understanding:

To proceed further in the path of spiritual progress we arrive at a point where we need to break our mental conditioning and beliefs and embrace the reality with an open mind. Progress in spirituality can happen only if our perception changes from the form to embrace the formless. So if we are stuck to the form of the Buddha in our mind, we need to break that image (“Kill the Buddha”) and embrace the formless. And that is what I understood from this koan. Similarly Sri Ramakrishna found enlightenment by cutting the image of Kali in his mind. Please read this link to know more on Sri Ramakrishna’s enlightenment
http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramakrishna/Ramakrishna_enlightenment.htm

One day, Jizo received one of Hofuku’s disciples and asked him, “How does your teacher instruct you?” “My teacher instructs me to shut my eyes and see no evil thing; to cover my ears and hear no evil sound; to stop my mind-activities and form no wrong ideas,” the monk replied. “I do not ask you to shut your eyes,” Jizo said, “but you do not see a thing. I do not ask you to cover your ears, but you do not hear a sound. I do not ask you to cease your mind-activities, but you do not form any idea at all.”

My understanding:

Our mind can do wonderful things provided we take care of it always. Just as a gardener is always conscious of his garden and works day and night to make it beautiful so also we should be completely aware of our mind and use it to bring the best out of us. We must conscientiously each and every moment decide what we should think and how we go about it. Master Jizo explains it beautifully by saying don’t shut your eyes (Be very aware of everything going around you) but do not see (don’t let your mind and consciousness see and participate in evil things – i.e. be aware of evil but don’t do evil). The same idea applies to hearing too. The last sentence regarding mind-activities pertains to the action of being actively calm and calmly active which I have explained in detail here https://maheshpoems.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/mind-and-its-works/

If you are interested in more such Zen koans you might wanna visit http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/97teachingtheultimate.html  (Again my disclaimer applies- I am not advertising or sponsoring this link. I neither know the author personally nor does he know me. I am just sharing this info with you.) I chanced upon that link recently and found that it houses a good collection of koans.

Mind and its Works

I once read in one of the Hinduism based spiritual articles that once you go deeper into meditation you don’t really need a time or a place to meditate. Ramana Maharishi once said that any activity that you do is meditation. Similarly Paramhansa Yogananda once mentioned “I am meditating as I give this lecture”. I didn’t understand this idea for quite a while. How could performing an activity become meditation?

(It is ironical that meditating upon it helped me to understand this ideology). Our mind is like a monkey. It always swings vigorously between the thoughts of the past and the future. Paramahamsa Nithyananda called it as TPS or “thoughts per second”. This mind races along with hundreds (or maybe thousands) of TPS that it forgets the present moment or rather the “NOW” (as mentioned by Eckhart Tolle in his book “The power of NOW”)

If we notice in our own lives, while performing most of our activities our mind would NOT be in the present moment. It would either be ruminating about the past or worrying about the future. The key to enlightenment lies in knowing when to switch off the mind. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says that the mind is an action rather than a noun. We need to use them when needed and switch them off when not needed. (It is similar to how we use our hands – we use them when needed and drop them to our side when not needed). If we don’t switch off the mind when not needed it becomes like an industry spewing poisonous chemicals into us by bringing the pain of the past or the fear of the future. Thus the poisoned mind becomes the wasted body.

A disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda once asked, “How can we meditate anywhere?” Yogananda replied, “By being actively calm and calmly active”. How could one be actively calm AND calmly active? If we can learn to channel our mind so that we could use it when needed and shut it off when not needed, then this state can be achieved. It would also release us from the anxiety, worry, fear of the future and the pain of the past. Imagine how beautiful life would then be!!

Motivational Quotes for the day

To quote Zig Ziglar, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” That sums up the reason why I keep posting motivational quotes often. So here goes your quota of bathing (er, motivation)

Imagine what all you could do if you do not know fear.

If you do not change, you can become extinct (Quote from Who Moved My Cheese?)

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Some men see things as they are and say, “Why?” I dream of things that never were and say, “Why not?” – George Bernard Shaw

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” – Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi

Attitude “There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.” – W. Clement Stone

“We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.” -H. G. Well

Lateral Thinking

Question 1.) I buy it but I cannot use it. My friend who made it does not need it. The person who uses it is not aware of the fact that he is using it. What is it?

Answer: Coffin.

Question 2.) Greater than God,
More evil than the devil.
The poor have it,
The rich need it.
If you eat it, you’ll die.
What is it?

Answer: Nothing.
NOTHING is greater than God,
NOTHING is more evil than the devil.
The poor have NOTHING,
The rich need NOTHING.
If you eat NOTHING, you’ll die.

Life. . .

Strolling along the sidewalk, at varying pace
A businessman and a saint come face-to-face;
Both with varying views of the rat race
Temporarily lock eyes in a powerful gaze.

Time seems to have frozen
With neither a word spoken
Eyes locked and lips pursed
Suddenly the bubble burst.

Traffic and noise sharply pierce the silent air
Both felt the stoic silence was too much to bear
Onwards they marched, not a word to spare
Contemplating about the things they care.

Thought the saint, “I sold myself
To get to God”, – “am I a business man?”
Whilst thought the businessman, “I gave up
Everything for money”, – “am I a saintly man?”

A little bit about myself…

My very good friend Kaddu tagged me (grr-she ALMOST cornered me into writing it!) Thank you kaddu, for tagging me (I shall seek my revenge some day!) So here it is. Personally I don’t believe much in tagging as a means to know more about others because a person’s thought process changes over time.  In fact if you give this same set of questions back to me in a few months I am not sure whether I may be giving the same answers. And yet, I leave this as an open tag. Anybody can pick up on this tag if they are interested.  

What bill do you hate paying the most?
None in specific, however I hate bills that need to be mailed or paid in person – I prefer online ALWAYS – fast and easy!

Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?
Haven’t had any.

What do you really want to be doing right now?
You really wouldn’t wanna know my thoughts, would you? (wink, wink!!)

How many colleges did you attend?
If you include universities in the list of colleges then 3. Jaya Engineering College to do my bachelors degree and Mississippi State University and Jackson State University to do my masters degree.

Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?
Office formals-A well ironed (I didn’t do the ironing, that’s why!!) white full-hand shirt because I am in office as I type this(after office hours, of course)

What are your thoughts on gas prices?
Alternative forms of fuel should become mainstream. US have monopoly on gas and its prices and this situation must change.

First thought when the alarm went off this morning?
HELP!! MY EYES ARE ON FIRE!!! – Last night I didn’t wash my hands thoroughly after cutting green chillies-just realized it as I rubbed my eyes.

Last thought before going to sleep last night?
Meditated before sleeping. I try to make my sleeping time 8 hours so that I can squeeze in an hour or two of meditation before 6-7 hours of sound sleep.

Do you miss being a child?
No, rather I would love being “actively involved” in the process of making one!! 😉 (just kidding)

What errand/chore do you despise?
Shopping!! And somehow I end up doing it more often than required. Next chore – cleaning my restroom.

Get up early or sleep in?
I prefer sleeping late at nights. Later, the better! Not been able to do so since I started working though.   

Have you found real love yet?
I discovered the ONLY true, unconditional, everlasting, infinite love 2.5 years back.

Favorite vacation spot?
Munnar, Ooty, kodaikanal are my favorite vacation spots in India.

What do you get every time you go into Wal-Mart?
Fruits, fruit juices, bread, eggs, chicken, dairy products, bakery items and sometimes fried chicken, okra (the last two mostly when I go with my friend Noel)

Beach or lake?
Both. I love watching pretty much any water filled area.

Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?
If marriage is considered as a faithful commitment to the other half and the beginning of a lifelong fulfilling relationship then it can never be seen as outdated.

Sopranos or Desperate Housewives?
Why isn’t there any “desperate househusbands”? 😉 Personally, I prefer sitcoms, though. Sitcoms like Friends, My wife and kids, King of queens, Two and a half men, According to Jim, Bernie Mac Show, and everybody loves Raymond.

Famous person to have dinner with?
AbdulKalam, Nandan Nilekani, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Swami Nithyananda – to name a few.

Ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?
Never. And hope not to!

Book or Movie?
Love both of them in their original contexts. However wouldn’t prefer one version adapt to the other (like converting a book to a movie)

Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth?
Doesn’t rest room count as one?  

Do you go to church?
Used to go (for about a year) to know more about Christianity but stopped going after I found out that they advocate only churchianity.

At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or a new relationship?
Am ready for both, the latter especially!

How old are you?
I was born on 25^th September 1981.

Do you have a go-to person?
The ONLY go-to person I always have is my real love. (See answer 12) I also try to be a go-to person to my friends.

Are you where you want to be in life?
I am truly happy for what I am and where I am – yet I can never say “YES” to this question – coz the moment I have achieved all my goals I would stop dreaming.

Growing up, what were your favorite cartoons?
Tom & Jerry and Popeye the Sailor Man.

What about you do you think has changed the most?
I have become more balanced (emotionally stable), independent, spiritual and have started feeling a deep love for people. And yet I have a long way to go in bettering myself. I am aware that I have just started.

Looking back at high school were they the best years of your life?
All 27 years of my life have been my best years 😀

Are there times you still feel like a kid?
I always try to be a kid at heart. A beautiful innocence with no ill feeling, ever forgiving, ever loving and smiling – I try to fill my inner space with such feelings, although frequently I fail too!   

Did you ever own troll dolls?
Eww….troll dolls, who ever thought about such an idea???

Did you have a pager?
Never!

Where was the hang out spot when you were a teenager?
Home-sweet-home  😀

Who do you think impacted your life the most?
Spirituality impacted my life the most. My dear master Paramhansa Yogananda introduced me to spirituality which has helped me to evolve into a better human being with understanding.

Was there a teacher or authority figure that stood out for you?
Quite a few.  Mrs. Meryl DSouza- my 4^th standard teacher – she was instrumental in bringing out the poet in me, Janardhan Sir – Tamil teacher who held the classes captive with his ready wit and high energy,  Anu ma’am in college – who had a passion for teaching and cared for her students. After coming to US it is Dr. Blair- for having saved me from disaster, Dr. Morris – for his inspiring and innovative methods of teaching and Dr. Donald Smith – who was more like a father figure to me.

Do you tell stories that start with “when I was your age”?
Naah… I would get bored of it myself.

Effective Job search techniques

 

 Story: A woodcutter worked for a company for five years but never got a raise. The company hired Bill and within a year he got a raise. This caused resentment in John and he went to his boss to talk about it. The boss said “You are still cutting the same number of trees you were cutting five years ago. We are a result-oriented company and would be happy to give you a raise if your productivity goes up”. John went back, started hitting harder and putting in longer hours but he still wasn’t able to cut more trees. He went back to his boss and told him his dilemma. The boss told John to go talk to Bill. “May be there is something Bill knows that you and I don’t”. John asked Bill how he managed to cut more trees. Bill answered, “After every tree I cut, I take a break for two minutes and sharpen my axe. When was the last time you sharpened your axe?”(*) John got his answer.

I know many of us would be searching/are searching for a job at some point of time or the other. I have provided a compendium of links below which can help you “sharpen your axe”. It is written by various authors/professionals who are/have been in the industry/HR.

These are some job search techniques that might help you an edge over your competitors. However my take on the part that mentions that you could lengthen your resume is 50-50. Probably we could put it this way – if you are over 35 and have enough experience relevant to the current job listing then you could maybe list your resume over a page.
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-classic_job_search_techniques_you_should_use-517

This article in MSN careers concerns with a better job search during recession. This post has quite a few important points that would help us to try a different approach to job hunting. It is an interesting post to check out!
http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-1631-Job-Search-Better-Job-Searching-in-a-Recession/?sc_extcmp=JS_1631_advice&SiteId=cbmsn41631

Tom Musback from Yahoo! Hot jobs has mentioned that the economy shouldn’t discourage or dissuade people who want to find a new job. Networking with friends, people is of paramount importance that has to be done at every stage of life. Most of the links provided focus on this aspect.
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-6_job_hunting_advantages-510
This article from Yahoo! focuses on how to make your resume stand out from the others. He has mentioned a very important point. Talking in numbers has far more value than plainly stating facts. In fact you are marketing yourself in a way that you can sell yourself effectively.
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-experts-make_your_resume_stand_out_from_the_pack-44

Wouldn’t it help to know what the recruiters and interviewers have in their mind when it comes to selecting the right person for the job? Wouldn’t it help if we could speak to a few interviewers and find out what things we, as job seekers, could avoid doing to get a good job? This article focuses exactly on that.
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-recruiters_reveal_pet_peeves_about_job_seekers-865

This is one of my favorite personal finance blogs. The author J D Roth has given 20 very useful job interview tips. It also contains a sample video of what not to do during an interview. http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/05/21/20-job-interview-tips/

Rediff has compiled a list of FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) during interviews and the responses to those questions. It is a very good read.
http://getahead.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/jun/25/slide-show-1-personal-interview-faqs-and-their-answers.htm

* – I got the story from “You can win” by Shiv Khera