Vedanta - The Internal Laundry

SUDHAMAHI REGUNATHAN





Life and the experiences we go through cling to the soul as polluting particles. Just as mud sticks to a ball that falls into slush, so do our karmas cling to our soul, sullying it.Our endeavour in life should be to get rid of them and return to the pure soul. This is a two-pronged process: we have to get rid of all that we have accumulated so far, plus we have to prevent more from accumulating. Only then can we restore our soul to its original state of purity . It is all about laundry even in the spiritual world! How does one `wash' the soul? The `water' to wash off karmic particles clinging to the soul is a combination of neutrality and detach ment. Neutra lity and deta chment are in a sense simi lar. You can be neutral under any circumstance only when you are able to view it with detachment.When you allow your emotions to experience a particular situation, it becomes coloured by subjective perception, likes and dislikes.
Many of us have learnt not to make a public display of our emotions, particularly when they are negative. However, we experience them all the same. Just visualise that each time you go through a strong emotion, it is engulfing your soul...much like arteries get clogged with cholesterol.
When we experience emotions of love, hate and anger, we are adding on many more particles. If we are able to go through an experience without passions raging, then, no karmic particles are added on.

Jun 24 2015 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Civil Society Applauds India's Stand on Internet Governance

Neha Alawadhi

New Delhi





India decides to support multistakeholder model; implementation deemed the key

India's decision to support the multistakeholder model of internet governance has drawn mostly applause from civil society organisations and individuals who have been following the issue, even as they cautioned that implementation will determine the success of the model.A day after communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said India will support the multistakeholder model, reactions poured in on Tuesday, largely hailing the move to break the longstanding status quo on the issue.
“What matters now is how the approach articulated by the minister is translated into coordinated action across various fora, including ICANN, BRICS, and perhaps most crucially the UN WSIS+10 Review Process, which culminates in the meeting of the UN General Assembly in December 2015,“ said Vinay Kesari, a lawyer specialising in ICT and internet governance.
Not just at international fora, India also needs to figure out policies that support its multistakeholder stand within the country , said Arun Mohan Sukumar, senior fellow at the Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University . “Multistakeholderism is very attractive in principle but, as the ICANN experience shows, it is susceptible to concerns like elite capture and lack of accountability to the general public,“ he said.
Prasad made the announcement in a video address during the opening ceremony of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)'s 53rd public meet ing in Buenos Aires on Monday. ICANN manages the Domain Name System (DNS), which helps organise the internet with the allotment of domain names such as .com, .org and .net and has often come under the scanner for not being transparent enough.
The multistakeholder model involves all stakeholders such as businesses, civil society , governments, research institutions and non-governmental organisations in the dialogue, decision-making and implementation of policymaking and governance.
The external affairs minis try , telecom department and the department of electronics and IT have long held divergent views on issues of internet governance, with no clear stand being made at international platforms.
While welcoming the announcement, Sunil Abraham, executive director at the Centre for Internet and Society , said the minister could have explained in greater detail, especially the ongoing transition of internet governance control from US government to a multistakeholder model.
“He also spoke about government being responsible for security and human rights over the internet, which adds to the confusion over whether India will really let the internet be a fair and free medium,“ he said.
Prasanth Sugathan, counsel for the Software Freedom Law Centre, said the government should seek the views of other stakeholders as well on the issue. “When you talk of multistakeholderism, it should not be only at an international level. It should also happen at a national level. The government should have other parties also contributing to issues of internet governance,“ he said.

the speaking tree - Uncover Sheaths To Reveal Universal Consciousness

Pranav Khullar





The dialogue between Varuna and Bhrigu which lies at the heart of the Taittiriya Upanishad, is perhaps the earliest cosmological deconstruction of the concept of Brahmn, the Universal Consciousness. The opening instruction of Varuna positing food, vital force, eyes, ears, mind and speech as the doors to knowledge of Brahmn sets the tone for Bhrigu's initiation. This analysis of Brahmn is detailed through the story of the young Bhrigu who has set out to seek the bliss of Brahmn.Varuna instructs Brighu to do `tapas' or meditation, on doing which Bhrigu finds himself consumed by the idea of `anna', food, which nourishes and sustains all beings. Bhrigu realises the physicality of food to be the first principle which pervades all matter and nourishes it, and understands this to be the physical manifestation, the gross cosmic Virat swaroop or manifestation of Brahmn itself. With this knowledge of the annamaya kosha, the physical sheath, but with an incomplete feeling within himself, Bhrigu goes back to his father to teach him the knowledge of Brahmn. But the teacher directs him to delve deeper into the origin of food.
Bhrigu's introspection takes his mind deeper into the life-force, the throbbing vitality of prana, which energises all matter, running through all physical systems, just as electricity runs through cables to distribute energy or power.Bhrigu recognises this vitality to be behind the physical sheath, and this understanding of the pranamaya kosha, the energy-astral body, as the next manifestation of Brahmn and he goes back to his father.
Finding his father noncommittal still, on the question of Brahmn, Bhrigu enters a third of Brahmn, Bhrigu enters a third phase of meditation to focus on the subtler aspects of energy , to go into the idea behind it, which triggers this vitality . He realises that it is the mind itself which is providing the stimuli for this vitality, the mental sheath, which is the trigger for all senses of knowledge ­ still instinctual only , but emanating from the mind itself. Bhrigu senses that the mind, too, is a manifestation of Brahmn, yet scattered and incomplete.
The fourth phase of meditation takes him into the more subtle form of mind, the cognitive sheath which enables one to under stand cause and effect, an aware ness which causes the mind to distinguish and discriminate.
The manifestation of Brahmn as intellect excites Bhrigu, for it takes him close to comprehend ing the real nature of things. He is then told to inquire into the origin of thought itself.
The fifth and final phase of ion, at the behest of his father, meditation, at the behest of his father, awakens him to the inner space within, in which sat, existence, and chitta, consciousness, seem anchored in ananda, the expansive bliss within. Brahmn manifests as every atom of existence and in each perception of Consciousness, but these realisations may not necessarily make a soul happy and contented.
Bhrigu's intense desire to know Brahmn leads him to the state of anandamaya kosha or universal bliss, which lies beyond thought and desire. But importantly , it leads him to the realisation that the entire manifested world reflects the bliss of Brahmn equally ­ the Atman, the Self, manifests itself as five different sheaths, five different energy-levels, each as essential and central to the knowledge of Brahmn as the other. The Taittiriya inquiry into Creation is one of the most lifeaffirming contemplations of vedanta.
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On the record: ‘Poverty is a cognitive tax, it depletes our resources’

Policymakers needn’t throw everything they’ve learned out of the window — usually, when prices go up, people demand less of a product; we’re not arguing with that.

Written by Varun Gauri | Updated: June 22, 2015 12:27 am

The World Development Report 2015, ‘Mind, Society and Behaviour’, argues for policymakers to take a more realistic view of how people think and behave. The lead author of the report, VARUN GAURI, spoke to Parth Phiroze Mehrotra about how these insights can help arrive at small tweaks in policy that could generate big results:

The assertions that people are not individual maximisers, that they have cognitive blindspots, that they value social reputations, seem to upend traditional economic assumptions. Do economists have to go back to the drawing board?

In the traditional approach to economics, people are computers that can process all available information. They make decisions by and for themselves. What we say is that people actually think automatically much of the time, they think socially — other people are factors in their preferences — and they also have mental models that filter information. In the report, we focus on areas where policy interventions can reduce poverty in important ways. There may be other ways in which people are not maximising in the broader markets. Policymakers needn’t throw everything they’ve learned out of the window — usually, when prices go up, people demand less of a product; we’re not arguing with that. But these findings may affect some of our elasticities. The evidence now is fairly strong that people have cognitive limitations that lead them not to process all the available information. Poor people in particular suffer from a lot of cognitive constraints. And even you and I typically think automatically.

The report points out that because the cognitive limitations on poor people might be greater, changing the time at which they have to make a decision, say about schooling, to when they have more “bandwidth”, like post-harvest, might actually help them make better decisions. It sounds almost too good to be true.

This could be a cost-effective way to influence outcomes. A lot of pioneering work on this is by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir. They developed the idea of a “scarcity mindset”. The key finding is that poverty is a cognitive tax; it depletes our resources. We can “induce poverty” even in you and me — if we’re playing a videogame and make decisions quickly, we’ll act as if we’re poor, we’d be focused on the short term. The policy implication is that people should be supported when they make decisions. That could take the form of resources transferred at the time of decision-making or actual people, social workers, helping individuals to take decisions. Or it could take the form of simplification. Too many programmes are too complicated to sign up for — that itself is a cognitive tax. In Tangier, there was a credit for a water hook-up, but only 10 per cent signed up for it. When researchers went to people’s houses, they realised that people had the documentation, they just didn’t get around to signing up. After that intervention, the sign-up rate went up to 69 per cent. The hassle factor can be huge.

Jun 23 2015 : Mirror (Mumbai) State's first National Law Univ to come up at TISS Ankita Bhatkhande TWEETS @aanks   Jogeshwari plan junked, and the varsity will start in July this year Maharashtra's first National Law University (NLU) will be situated within the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and the academic year will begin in July, TISS Director Dr S Parasuraman confirmed to Mirror on Monday. Faculty interviews for the BA LLB and BCom LLB programmes for NLU were conducted on the TISS Deonar campus last week. Bhawani Prasad Panda, vice chancellor, NLU Mumbai, also confirmed that the institute will start in July: “We were looking for a good space to start with and had many options. Since TISS agreed, we decided to go ahead. We still haven't decided on the academic timeline for students.“It was announced in February that the NLU will be set up on government land in Jogeshwari, but Muslim groups protested that the land had been set aside for a community education hub. “We have given them [NLU] some space and infrastructure but we need some more funds for a bigger building that is proposed and have thus applied to the government for an advance of around Rs 60 lakh,“ said Parasuraman. He also spoke out about issues in TISS that have hit headlines ­ from the allegedly suppressed academic committee review report to the severe fund crunch faced by the institute that has delayed scholarships to several Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students. Besides the NLU, TISS has in the past few months signed several other collaborations ­ the one with Subhash Ghai's Whistling Woods in March being the most talked about and controversial one. Whistling Woods started advertising its courses with the TISS logo, and TISS students criticised the tieup saying that Whistling Woods is an elite institute on a disputed property where only rich kids can go and that it did not rhyme with TISS and its reputation for social inclusion. Parasuraman said that TISS does not make ad hoc collaborations and lays down basic principles that the collaborating organisation has to follow. “Our partnership with Whistling Woods is a mere collaboration,“ he said.“We are a social science institute and they are in the mainstream media. They have some of the most acclaimed people as visiting faculty and thus the students get better exposure with hands-on production, editing, etc. But at TISS, equal opportunity is what we always aim for and a mere collaboration doesn't mean that we will agree to all their terms. We have put some basic conditions before we sign the agreement, which we still haven't. First thing is that they should aim to generate good and sustainable livelihoods for all the students who graduate with the TISS-affiliated degree.Then, they have to give scholarships to all students from low income families and backward communities the way we do it in TISS as per government of India norms.“ In April, TISS was caught in a controversy over its alleged suppression of the academic committee report. Noted academics like Mrinal Miri and Samuel Paul had reportedly resigned from the committee because of its “slow paced working and lack in coordination amongst committee members“. Parasuraman said all the committee members are back and the report is expected by end June. “These people are senior academics.When the media writes something about them without checking facts, people tend to go into a shell,“ he said. “If people want to know the status of the report and other details of accounts and everything, they can always file their queries under RTI and we will give that to them.“ Asked if his resignation statement ­ that he had made soon after the newspaper reports ­ was just a response to the controversy, Parasuraman said: “Partly yes, but I did not say I will resign because of this. My term was supposed to get over in 2014 but as the director of the institute since 2004, I have some things to do before I leave. I am physically tired and I have other things to do like my own research and teaching. The institute will be open to applications for the new director soon and a selection committee will take a call on the other formalities.“ One of the biggest issues that Parasuraman faced in his 11-year tenure was a major fund crunch for government of India scholarships.Several students complained of delays in receiving the scholarships and blamed the institute. Parasuraman said the issue is nothing new: “Delays in releasing funds from the government have been there since the past several decades. Under the government of India scholarship, we get only 15 per cent of the total costs incurred for the two-year master's programme for our students; the institute has to bear the remaining 85 per cent. From providing travel and accommodation for the entrance exams to fee waivers for hostel, food and tuition fees, TISS covers all expenses.“

Jun 23 2015 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

ET By Invite - Smart, Successful and Still Not Happy? Here's Why

RAJ RAGHUNATHAN





Why aren't smart and successful people as happy as they could or should be?
Findings from several studies show there is, indeed, very little correlation between either smartness or success and happiness.For example, there is little correlation between education or intelligence (IQ) and happiness. Likewise, findings also show that, beyond a certain point, there's little correlation between material success and happiness. This is surprising because the smart and successful (s-and-s) are, by definition, better at achieving important goals. As such, given that happiness is one of our most important goals, one would think the s-and-s would be significantly happier than the rest of us.So, why are the s-and-s not happier than their not-so-smart-or-successful counterparts? As an increasing number of Indians become better educated and wealthier, this question is gaining greater prominence.
One explanation is that the very things that make one smart and successful come in the way of one's happiness. For example, the superior intelligence that characterises smart people makes them more aware of the meaninglessness (in the ultimate analysis) of their strivings. Likewise, the drive for achievement that characterises successful people makes them dissatisfied with their achievements. Another explanation that also accounts for the unhappiness of the sand-s is that the things that lead to smartness and success are different from those that lead to happiness. While the s-and-s may have figured out the determinants of smartness and success, they are just as clueless as the rest of us when it comes to the true determinants of happiness.
This raises the question: What are the true determinants of happiness?
The answer, in brief, is this. It turns out that beyond the satisfaction of basic necessities (food, clothing, shelter), we need three things to be happy . First, we need to feel that we are very good at something (dancing, painting, teaching, etc). Let's call this the need for mastery . Second, we need to feel a sense of intimacy or connection with at least one other person. Let's call this belongingness. And finally , we need to feel that we have the freedom to make our own decisions; that is, we need to feel that we aren't under others' control. Let's call this autonomy .
A lot of research, particularly in an area called self-determination theory , has confirmed the importance of all three goals for happiness, and most of us, at one level or another, appear to realise this. However, the mistake we make -and in this, the s-and-s are just as guilty as the rest of us -lies in the approach we take to fulfill these goals. We attempt to fulfill mastery through seeking superiority over others, which leads us to engage in social comparisons -on talent, wealth, beauty , etc. Comparing oneself with others, findings show, is a recipe for misery .Likewise, we attempt to fulfill belongingness through the need to be loved. Being too desirous of others' love too, findings show, lowers happiness levels. Finally , we attempt to fulfill autonomy through the seeking control over others or over outcomes. Once again, findings show that, although seeking control can enhance success and boost self-esteem, being overly control seeking lowers happiness.
As it turns out, there is another approach to seeking mastery, belongingness and autonomy that doesn't come in the way of happiness. This approach involves seeking mastery through the pursuit of passion, seeking belongingness through the need to love, and seeking autonomy through the need for internal control. In brief, pursuit of passion involves according greater weight to the things that we enjoy doing, than to things that bring us extrinsic rewards like money, fame, or power.
The need to love is self-explanatory; it involves being kind and compassionate.What's not so obvious about this need is that it's potentially a bigger determinant of happiness than any other need. (Findings show that we feel happier when we spend money on others than when we spend it on our selves.) Finally, the need for internal control has to do with gaining, what may be called, “personal mastery“ -mastery over one's own mind and feelings. When one has gained sufficient internal control, the desire for external control -control over others and over the external environment -becomes less pronounced and hence, one is less likely to be overly controlling of others or of the external environment.
Many people can intuitively see how pursuing passion, the need to love and internal control can enhance happiness levels. What they can't see as easily is that they are also a more reliable determinant of success. That is, not only are you likely to be happier, but you are also more likely to succeed -even in terms of extrinsic yardsticks like wealth, power or fame -if you pursue passion, seek the need to love and seek internal control than if you pursue superiority , seek the need to be loved and seek the need for external control.
Why? Because, in a nutshell, while the selfcenteredness and the “us versus them“ world view that fuels the pursuit of superiority , the need to be loved and the need for external control can come in handy when life is in danger or when we are engaged in mechanical tasks, they hinder success in the type of intellectual jobs you and I have, that involve creativity and team work. In intellectual jobs, findings show we are much more likely to succeed when we pursue passion (see `Drive' by Dan Pink), seek the need to love and give (`Give and Take' by Adam Grant), and have internal control (`Search Inside Yourself ' by Chade Meng Tan).The writer is professor of marketing at the McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin and visiting professor of marketing at the Indian School of Business

LETTER FROM NEW YORK

Attitudes on Indian women must change

In the international context, it is not useful to make excuses or rationalise the problems Indian women face

Recently, I was at a meeting with senior Indian diplomats. After a healthy discussion on India’s recent foreign policy accomplishments — defence agreements with the U.S., trade deals with China and Japan, and a general feeling of confidence surrounding the proactive international agenda of the Narendra Modi government, one of the members of the group raised the question of the appalling treatment of women in India. “This is one of the hardest questions I encounter as a diplomat,” the senior-most diplomat said. He went on to elaborate that this is not a country-specific problem. After all, he said, in total numbers the U.S. has more cases of rape and sexual assault than India does, including aggressive sexual assaults in university campuses. So, he concluded, the media, especially the international media, should stop singling out India on this issue.

Vishakha N. Desai

I found myself both distressed and slightly sympathetic on hearing his answer. On the one hand, as a historian and daughter of a Gandhian woman who fought for India’s independence and helped establish one of the first women’s organisations in the country, I know that explaining the role of women in India is complicated. Whenever I am asked this question in the U.S., I often say that it depends on the context.

It is very confusing for outsiders to make sense of the multivalent nature of Indian women’s position in society. They wonder: how is it that India can produce women political leaders, from a Prime Minister to Chief Ministers, but also rank amongst the countries with the highest levels of infanticide, with millions of “missing girls” as the Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen, has pointed out? How is it that India can boast of female executives in national financial institutions, but its women rank 140 out of 179 countries in the Mother’s Index Rank (compared to China, which ranks 61)?

Clearly, these apparent contradictions don’t fit neatly into easy generalisations. My 98-year-old mother was as upset as I was to hear about the horrible Nirbhaya case in Delhi. But when I went to see the recent theatrical production of the same name in New York, it left me distressed — it was mainly about anger and victimisation of young Indian women. Seeing the play in New York, where a majority of the audience had no knowledge of India or its complex cultural attitudes towards women, made me acutely aware of the dangers of projecting a one-dimensional view of any culture. I almost wanted to stand up and say, “Please, there is another side to this story: I am a second-generation feminist, and my mother was fighting for women’s dignity in 1935!”

Nonetheless, I had to acknowledge that for the large majority of Indian women, life is not only tough, but precarious. As a recent Economist article points out, resources spent on women in India are more uneven than in most countries. Women in India are far likelier to die giving birth, because of a lack of even basic medical assistance, than in China. The increased numbers of sexual assaults and rapes (at least in terms of reporting) in recent decades suggest that growing prosperity, if anything, has led to a greater clash of traditional attitudes with contemporary ambitions.

This brings us back to the discussion with Indian diplomats. In the international context, it is not useful to make excuses or rationalise the problems a large number of Indian women face. It would be far more effective if we first acknowledged that there is a serious problem in India. It is as much about attitudes as it is about policies.

Women’s groups in India were right to criticise Prime Minister Modi when he gave a backhanded compliment to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for being tough on terrorism “despite being a woman”. Such retrograde views, whether conscious or unconscious, are all too prevalent among Indian leaders. They have to be pointed out, and the leaders must be made accountable. Equally important, policies have to change, whether around increasing resources for strengthening the maternal health of women, or for educating girls and keeping them in schools.

Indian diplomats would do well if they first addressed the problem facing Indian women, pointed out what the government is doing or is willing to do to address the issue, and finally educated their international audiences about the complex nature of women’s roles in India. Only then can they place the issue in a global context and share their concerns for women everywhere, making sure that they denounce degrading of women no matter where they occur. It will not help to blame the media or external forces as being out to sully India’s reputation. India is strong enough today to acknowledge its problems and move forward by finding solutions. It will require consistent efforts to change age-old attitudes that kept women subservient.

(Vishakha N. Desai is Special Advisor for Global Affairs to the President and Professor of Practice, Columbia University, President Emerita, Asia Society.)

Keywords: Indian diplomats, Nirbhaya case, crime against women, media coverage, brand India