"Mommy, you took my money!!!"

My little niece is all sentimental about her granny's birthday. Decides to buy her a gift with her own 'pocket money'. Breaks her piggy bank to get a pile of coins. Mightily proud, but blissfully unaware that it adds up to around Rs. 10 (around a dollar in purchasing power) Holding her Mom's hand, off she goes to the neighborhood grocery store. Unfortunately, everything she wants is not what she can afford. The shopkeeper finally tells her that she can get a small packet of biscuits for that money. The child is happy..and takes out her pile of coins in front of the flustered shopkeeper. My aunt(her mom) tries to mitigate the awkwardness, by handing a 10 rupee currency note to the shopkeeper, taking all the coins and stuffing them her own bag!! "Mommy!!! you took my money!!!!!" screams the angry kid. First they did not give her the stuff she wanted for her granny, now they take her money too! My aunt, even more flustered, tries to explain the mathematics, but the anger wont stop!! :)

From ownership to cooperation

Can we move from the "This part is mine"  to the "I am responsible for this part" mindset? From ownership to cooperation. One is based on the illusion of division. It assumes that one part can flourish even if another withers and dies. That its POSSIBLE for the part to flourish regardless of the whole. And then wonders why all efforts to "control" what it "owns" seem to fail. The other sees the unity of the whole, hence accepts that it cannot control it. The brain might "control" the heart, but needs blood from it to do so. The heart might control the food for the brain, but depends on the brain to do so. Once we see this, We stop controlling the part, and start  contributing to the whole. Boundaries and borders  then become statements of responsibility instead of ownership.

Probing Economic 'principles' of the 'free' market

Too many things are taken at face value. For example, economic law 101: When supply drops, prices rise. But we forget that they NEED not. It is at the seller's discretion. He may choose to sell the last kilo of grain to the rich fat guy who offers a thousand rupees, or give it away to the starving family for free.

"But that's absurd! Resources are limited, and takers too many. Prices allow for balance..."

The Sunflower

The little Sunflower bloomed to its first morning. Life sent a thrill though its spine, as the morning breeze caressed it. It felt good about every one of its hundreds of golden petals, and an exciting anticipation of the potential that lay ahead. It raised its eyes to its maiden glimpse of the world - but what was this! It was being stared back by these Red petaled things. Their petals curled and folded into each other - each expression unique in itself. Their aghast expression screaming how weird it looked. The Sunflower was shocked. 

Is this how it was supposed to look? Why had God made it into an abomination? With an excess of petals. And none of it grown to the glorious size of the petals these beautiful beings possessed. And it felt naked, vulenrable - with its delicate center exposed, while theirs was safely tucked inside their petals. How could God be so cruel? No matter how hard it tried to curl its petals - it only managed to distort itself into more ugliness. And its color? There was nothing it could do about it anyway. The life energy slowly draining from it under its intense and genuine effort...the once beautiful Sunflower slowly withered. No matter how much it tried to change - it could not. It felt humiliated at this cruel joke. As it curled up and died.

Messy thoughts

Most 'complex problems' are often euphemisms for mess that we ourselves create. Like a messy room from where you scream "Mom!! I can't find my socks!!!" 

'Cool' Mom finds it unquestioningly for you..its a miracle! And 'complex' technology invents the sock-finder that can detect your socks through a truck load of clothes. As the complex technology becomes more common, the complex mess becomes more 'normal'...A costly sock-finder upgrade becomes inevitable. It finds what you want from double the mess in half the time. What a relief! Gen-X kids wonder "How did they even survive in the old days without the sock finder!!" Can't blame them..they have inherited a messy world where the sock-finder is a basic need. 

'Uncool' Mom screams "Why the heck do you need $2000 for a sock-finder to escape from the mess you created?" and hands you a $2 broom. Problem solved(??)

Maybe this is too simple...the real world is very complex...it demands people who offer solutions. Simplicity demands asking the right questions that pierce the mess to reveal the answers. Creating a mess again becomes impossible.

Solutions are achieved, answers are just revealed. If the answer is too complex, we have probably not understood the problem yet.

The funny thing about humans is we are ok to be unhappy, as long as we can prove it's not our fault

Western Vs Indian Classical music

Searched for this topic a lot on the Internet. But the most common answers are "exam oriented". Jumping to the the technical parts like harmony Vs melody, sonatas Vs Raags, common terms in Western classical music, their equivalents in Indian classical. At the end, you end up knowing a lot, but understanding nothing.

What is the 'nature' of these two forms of music? What do they cater to? What are their 'characteristics'? So have tried to capture my own understanding as best I could. 

Why do we need God?

Since we use the word 'need', we are alluding to inventing God in the idol/human/conceptual form. A God who judges, forgives, gifts, audits and engages in other "human" transactions.

Identity

We are what we think - which is not entirely correct. Thoughts change and identity by definition has to something 'static'. Something that survives the passage of time. So that it is 'secured'. Solid ground. 

Beliefs
This need is filled by our bundle of beliefs/conditioning which SEEM more 'solid', but are without foundation. The mind faces a constant INSECURITY of losing this solid ground, the beliefs. It can afford to lose one belief, provided it gets another equally solid and 'convincing' belief in return.  

. 

God
That's where God and religion comes in. God is the ultimate projection of all things not explained, hence feared. If there is no answer, blame it on God. Love him, hate him, give up on him, become an atheist - but at least the mind has an ANSWER for anything that threatens its existence. We can afford to shift responsibility, give up control. 'Count' on somebody. We often call that 'Faith'.

Power games
Wherever there is someone to give up control, there is someone to happily take it. That is where the 'institutions' and the power games come in. You have to conform to their practices, but they guarantee you an EXPLANATION in return. An explanation that is in sync with your EXISTING beliefs - no matter how scary. Your identity is secure. Hence God and her agents become necessary

So are beliefs, identity, faith, religions, Godpersons all bad?
Not at all!

• Identity is not bad. It is simply a need of the mind, not the mind itself.
• Beliefs are not bad. They are just a need of the mind to bridge the vaccuum of ignorance(what we do NOT know), to connect the dots(what we DO know) - so that we keep creating our path as we walk, and do not stop walking. Simple logic dictates that we we do not assume that the path we created is the only path. the problem is not in having beliefs, but in assuming they are facts. That is a recipe for self-contradictions, conflicts, struggles and wars.
• Religions are not bad - they are simply paths forged by majority beliefs. Again, the problem is not in following religion, but in assuming it is the 'right' one.  Religion might be the same. But its interpretation and hence, paths created are as many as the followers. Religion might allow for convenient categorization - but the fact is that every human human forges her own path.
• Faith is not bad. But if it is an excuse to shift responsibility, then we are fooling ourselves. Regardless of the word used.
• Godpersons are not bad. But our dependency on them is, and they exploiting it is. The solution is of course not to renounce all Godpersons, but to understand why the dependency is born. Without dependency, control cannot exist.

So is God just an excuse to blame?
Yes - if that God is a product of a petty mind and its beliefs. A belief created by us, in our own petty form and then granted 'life'. We are the makers of God in this case, rather than the other way round! Reality lies beyond it. Or more correctly - underlie it. Whether we call it God, Brahman does not matter. What matters is it is not the 'beliefs' that we fight on. And that the word is immaterial. It is like the waves calling the Ocean 'God' and then feeling offended if one wave says 'God does not exist'. The offence itself indicates that they consider themselves separate, ignorant of their oneness. And if one can see that, who would you have left to blame? Who's 'destiny' would you curse? Who would you call evil? The oneness becomes obvious - that it is all part of the same process. The moment we understand God, the need for God stops.