How to Overcome a Setback

Mind is confusion. Mind is never clear. It cannot be. Thoughts create clouds around you -- they are subtle clouds. A mist is created by them, and the clarity is lost. When thoughts disappear, when there are no more clouds around you, when you are in your simple beingness, clarity happens. Then you can see far away; then you can see to the very end of existence; then your gaze becomes penetrating -- to the very core of being.

So, start focusing on your problem, meditate on it. Meditation is clarity, absolute clarity, of vision. You cannot think about it. You have to drop thinking. When I say, 'You have to drop thinking,' don't conclude in a hurry, because I have to use language. So I say, 'Drop thinking,' but if you start dropping, you will miss, because again you will reduce it to a doing.

'Drop thinking' simply means: don't do anything. Sit. Let thoughts settle themselves. Let mind drop on its own accord. You just sit gazing at the wall, in a silent corner, not doing anything at all. Relaxed. Loose. With no effort. Not going, anywhere. As if you are falling asleep awake -- you are awake and you are relaxing but the whole body is falling into sleep. You remain alert inside but the whole body moves into deep relaxation.

Thoughts settle on their own accord, you need not jump amongst them; you need not try to put them right. It is as if a stream has become muddy...what do you do? Do you jump in it and start helping the stream to become clear. You will make it muddier by jumping in it. You simply sit on the bank. You wait. There is nothing to be done. Because whatsoever you do will make the stream more muddy If somebody has passed through a stream and the dead leaves have surfaced and the mud has arisen, just patience is needed. You simply sit on the bank. Watch, indifferently. And as the stream goes on flowing, the dead leaves will be taken away, and the mud will start settling because it cannot hang forever

After a while, suddenly you will become aware -- the stream is crystal-clear again.

These are the teachings of Osho

In simple terms Osho means to say that one should give enough time to his own body and mind to relax down. Once, your inner cyclonic feelings get settled down; you can concentrate on your present problems. You need a relaxed mind, an empty head and stress free heart to see and analyze your problems. So, first empty it. Then fill it only with the present situation. Stay unbiased. Slowly, go inside the details of the problem step by step. By moving step by step, you will be able to pin point the exact fault or the loop hole. As you have already known of the disasters and the side effects of the problem, so no need to measure its depth and waste your time. Better start looking for the solution to it. I perfectly believe there are hardly few things in the world which do not have any solution. Just hope your problem doesn’t lie among those listed one :-). I can understand professional problems are still easy to tackle but real fight comes while dealing with personal troubles. But, in both the cases a calm and peaceful mind is a must to handle the odds. Take the problem as a challenge. Now here lies your intellect, your true test when you have to build up “the best design “out of a set of worst garbage situations.

Hopefully, with patience and with devised strategy things will go well and you will get a hold of the situation soon. And if it doesn’t happen please don’t call me up in night and blame me for my suggestion. :-)

Burn <-> Die <-> Rise (Ashes to Phoenix)

Remember, Failure is not a failure until you accept it!! So it's easy never accept it :-)

Life is Bliss! Stay cool! Show your attitude! Make it a rule that you will enjoy, in both good and bad times.

Cheers!!
Shweta

Source: Influenced by the lecture of Osho on Meditation. I tried to mix it up with the problem solving strategy and have proposed my interpretation on the subject. Please pardon me if it doesn't connect :-)

Guilt

October mid’ 2009. After coming from office and after taking my dinner I usually take a walk in my balcony. A very relieving time pass for me. I ear my mp3, listen to some 90’s songs, look up in the sky and enjoy watching the bottom lights of airplanes traveling high above my house. Apart from that I love exploring the hand and waist movements of people doing a post dinner walk in the street.

Well, this day was also like every other normal day. I was having gala time in my balcony. Out of a sudden, to my bad, I witnessed an accident on the street. It was so fast that I could only see the after-effects. A baby dog, don’t know its gender, was crying out of pain. His/her leg was brutally crushed by a car. He/she got a serious injury in leg. It was bleeding! Again to my surprises, within minutes some three street dogs came to the spot to share his/her sorrow. All three of them encircled him/her. Accident took place in the middle of street so he/she was lying there only. For almost 1 hour he/she wept because of irresistible hurt. Meanwhile, people who were walking also realized his/her dire situation and for sure felt bad. How can I say that they genuinely felt bad? It’s because my and their facial expressions perfectly matched each other. So they genuinely felt bad and sad also.

Meanwhile, I got a call from my room-mate and she asked me to see her. After 5-10 minutes I came back to balcony to continue my walk. Ohh! Poor dog, guess, in between again he/she met some other accident as his/her body was completely crushed and the spot grew into a blood patch.

That night I could not sleep for a second. Whole night I kept on thinking if I am also converted into a living devil. For almost one hour I witnessed his/her pain but still was so much senseless and heartless that it didn’t motivate me to come down to street for help. I continuously questioned myself about the difference between me and other pass byres. He/she would have been alive if I would have called a veterinary doctor then and there or with the help of society members would have shifted him/her from the centre of road. And I suppose, there was nothing out of my reach, as I have got internet connection I could have easily checked nearby veterinary doctor. I too have a good mobile with good balance to make a call in emergency. I should have atleast given a try of calling a doctor. It is a second thought if the doctor gets ready to visit or not. I strongly feel Intention holds a deeper meaning over actions and outcomes.

But......... it’s a waste to think and feel guilty about it.....atleast now!!

Actually, the whole incident reminded me something very unfortunate, which happened to me many years back. I will start feeling sad, so do not wish to discuss it. But yes I could now also feel that pain, the “tadap”.

Each one of us has undergone the “tadap” in one or the other way but irony is we never feel it with same intensity when it happens with others. Instead we define our guilt as “I/We really feel sorry at the turn of events”.

I have lived both the life, of a victim as well as a merciless human also. I have no mouth to say that one should not do it! But yes one thing I can surely suggest, life doesn’t give a second chance to correct or overcome one’s guilt. If you have got another, please do not miss it!!

A Blast of Brutal Religion

Once a rich man wanted to do some service to the people of the area, where he lived.He constructed a temple. Soon he noticed that only the Hindus were going there for Prayers but not the Muslims. Then he constructed a mosque which was attended by Muslims for Namaj on all Fridays. But there was no sign of Christians in the vicinity of temple or mosque and then he constructed a church for the benefit of Christians who regularly attended their Mass on every Sundays. The rich man was disappointed to see that people were going to their respective places of worship only and nobody was stepping into other places of worship although they were nearby. The rich man wanted to do something where people of all community could go together and he finally decided to construct a public toilet…!

This way he fulfilled his wish to serve society and was contented enough to bring all the religions together.

I seriously pity on people. They are so much obsessed with their religion that they are not at all open to learn the good teachings which other religions have to offer. Why don’t we take religion as flowers? Like different flowers are planted in different gardens and each flower is unique and beautiful and has enough fragrance to spread in its surrounding. Similarly, there are different religions followed by different communities in different parts of the world. What is the issue in comparing it and fighting over it?

In the days of Buddha, or in the days of Lao-Tzu, the world was very very peaceful, natural, it was a heaven. Why? The population was very very small, one thing. People were not thinkers too much; they were more and more prone to feeling rather than thinking. And people were praying. In the morning, they would do the first thing and that would be a prayer. In the night they would do the last thing---the prayer. If we say prayer: it simply holds the meaning: “Good words, kind intentions and affirmations which you wish to have in your life. This is my individual view. My definition! But in general and with concern to society a Prayer is “sending blessing to all. Prayer is sending your compassion to all. Prayer is creating an antidote of negative thoughts - it is positively.”

But now situation has changed. People have realized their mind power. They never escape even a smallest situation to apply their brains. They hit their heads hard while making decisions both at professional and personal level. They have become very judgmental and extra cautious. Dear friend everything is fine but don’t you realize that you are missing the ease of life. It was really simple from the beginning use your mind in science and heart in relationships. But you love to complicate the things. You have developed habit to trade in everything. Not your fault also, spread of materialism, status differences, society’s influence on our thoughts, cheater’s frequency has increased to such a level that we are bound to follow our head over heart. We verify each and everything at the society beliefs and standards first

But is it that difficult to stay with your belief’s every time, without getting influenced?

I do not hold much experience in life. I am 25 only. But I would like to propose a belief. “If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinion for or against”. Hope, you will never get influenced by other’s this way as you know what truth is? If truth is to change better do it! else stay back.

According to a famous saying: “Mankind is like a bird with two wings, and those two wings are religion and science. Can a bird fly efficiently with just one wing??” Even I believe both are necessary but the condition is the ratio of the two should be balanced and right usage of organs in right condition i.e. brain in office and heart in relationship.

Osho says in support of heart “‘HEART doesn’t know what doubt is, heart doesn’t know what BELIEVE is- heart simply knows trust. Heart is like a small child; the small child clings to the father’s hand, and wherever the father is going the child is going, neither trusting nor doubting. The child is undivided. Doubt is half, belief is half. A child is still total Whole.”

If we look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars and if we have eyes we will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are----------------------- You know why?? I have answer to it because they are satisfied with whatever they have. I wish if we people also could hold same characteristics!!

Already much is said on religion the only thing which I would like to appeal to public is “ Please stop fooling yourself at the name of religion. Your inner-self is very well aware about this cheat. We cheat many people in our life but atleast don’t cheat yourself yaar!!!”

Note: Influenced with the teaching’s of Osho and Dr. Shivamurthy Swamiji and of course my own ideas :-)

As you sow so shall you reap

The story is of 19^th century. Kumari Vellai krishnamachari, a 10 year old girl lived with her parents in a small town of Shrirangampatnam located near Chennai. Vellai, literal meaning “white” in Telugu language, was a very innocent child, obviously every child is innocent but she had some unique qualities in her which you will realize slowly as you will read further.

Her name and her deeds were synonyms of each other. How a word “white” can be a synonym? Well, her values and her perception about her surroundings were very clear and transparent, without a mix of any sin, as apparent as color white. Again, how a 10 year old child can hold principles? Hmm, I told you she was different!! Though she never knew the explanation of her acts in words but was eligible enough to hear the sound of her conscious. Whatever she read from books or she heard from her elders she made a good note of it.

She was a real jolly female. She had loads of friends. Among them was Seema Nayyar. Seema was a daughter of society sweeper. They belonged to schedule caste. “Don’t play and don’t be a friend with a girl from such a low class background. There are complaints against you from other society people. You are ruining yourself as well as their children also by allowing her to play with your group. I should not see you with her anymore” Vellai’s parents shouted.

Vellai listened to her parents and did not utter a single word in reply. They took her silence as “I agree upon!”

Next day, she told her playmates that she is resigning from the post of play group. Now, both seema and vellai made their separate group and started playing. Since, Vellai was very good at handling the post of play group and devise the daily activities, she was badly missed by her friends and they too later joined her with Seema. All well! Nice!

One day group was playing cricket and being a superb player Vellai hit the ball across the boundaries (she used to strike well at bouncer balls :-)). The whole gang went to other society in the search of ball. They found it but to her surprises her gang was all busy playing with puppies. Vellai after checking out the anger of puppy’s mother warned her friends.

Fiery she-dog chased all of them. Hush-bush everyone ran!!! Except her. O man, she resided with the fact that one should not run if an animal chase you, be quiet! stay back and apparently animal will also cool down. Heheheheh. Poor fellow and was the only victim of she-dog. Her small and thin leg was quite fit inside the jaws of dog representing a full bone!! 

Everyone ran away except one. Yes, seema came back for her help and forcibly gripped the mouth of the frightened dog and shook the dog away. Wow!! What an example of bravery.
Till then society people landed down for help. Nothing happened to Vellai and seema, both were safe. Vellai got only few scratches on her leg.

Guess!! This was a return of favor.

Left to readers to understand, from where does this piece of strength came in both the kids- to go against parents, society and to compete with a dreadful animal.

I personally feel if you do right with right intention you are always guided and helped by your inner constitution and for sure there is no stage of our living at which it starts working. It is with us right from the birth, you just need to realize it!!

No matter how worse a situation is, no wonder if people support you, no upsets if you are generally misunderstood by the society: if you do good and remain fair with your deeds, even when situations do not allow you, in return you are definite to receive and realize its result and thus feel the blessings of the divine!

Well, my name also means "white" in Hindi language :-)

UnSpoken Words

Note: Definitely not for everyone but for the chosen one!

Post script:- Login ID: Place where we first met
Password: Starts with “J” middle letter is “T” and ends with “E”

Even after getting an access, you won’t be able to read it with your naked eye as I have written it using the ink of my emotions. So, please hold it under the flame of your pain. Read it with your full meditation. I know, a riddle is quoted inside the letter. But you can get the answer, if you deeply analyze your wishes by keeping aloof your beliefs, social pressure and exercise fairness. While reading, if you realize that the reasons of your sadness, point towards me than for sure answer of your dilemma/problem is only me.

Source: I got this letter from a fairy tale book. Please don’t ask me the name I have forgotten it. I really liked it so wished to post it on my blog. :-)

From Experiments to Patent : The Journey is the "Reward"

I always had a deep belief in the saying of Paul Gauguin “Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses – especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

The author (me only, represented as author in the full text) started my professional career with an engineering in Bioinformatics, a subject which teaches us the use of biological tools in computer language, can say a combination of 60% computer science and 40% biology. After that I did my masters in Biotechnology and thus changed my focus to a complete biological backdrop but finally landed in doing a job in the field of Patents i.e. in Law field. So, in short, a skip from computers->biology->law........seriously great!!...atleast I feel so :-)

The upcoming story gives a glance of how her knowledge in different fields (above mentioned) and various subjects, taught during the course of engineering helped her to draft a patent, thus, letting her realize how everything connects to everything else.

During the last year of author’s college, she experienced the rewards that flowed from academic and intellectual challenges. The challenge of researching and analyzing an unknown subject is the most enjoyable part of academic life.

As a part of her B.Tech thesis she, along with her two colleagues, worked on preparation of a plant based dye and its further use to stain proteins on gels after doing SDS-PAGE. The wide spread use of SDS-PAGE right from the schools, to colleges , to laboratories, to pathologies, to pharmaceutical industries gave the inspiration to come up with a better technique which could have preferences over widely used world known standard dye Coomassie Brilliant Blue dye in terms of cost, toxicity, sensitivity and time. Time and Toxicity was of paramount concern. Time, as overnight destaining of gel was required and thus quick results were not obtained. Toxicity, as special handling and utmost care was required while handling the gels. This thought gave a reason to work in this area. And finally the idea was fetched to improvise and to work on a better technique than Coomassie Brilliant Blue dye.

The logic behind using the extracts from henna was its long time usage to stain hands and hairs which in turn were made from keratin protein. The work was exciting and full of challenges. We knew that the final grading of our performance would be a binary result either a big zero or a great one. The challenge was accepted and target was to do unbelievable in four months.

Author started experimenting. Finally, author and her colleagues landed up with dark brown bands of proteins on gels after doing SDS-PAGE. The work was reproducible and henna extract was found efficient enough to stain all proteins of varying amounts.

This innovative and novel work led them to filing of a patent. The concept of keeping mix-vegetable in engineering, which included electronics, computers, management, biology, law was now transparently clear and justified. Lecture notes of law and surfing the relevant sites such as www.patentoffice.nic.in., gave a complete good start-up for a layman hitting his head in IP constitution. Author read the manual of practice and procedure, mentioned on the site and understood it by chalking out a flowchart. The flowchart, learnt during the computer science courses, aided in the understanding of the first process id and priority process in following up the instruction and procedure step by step. And thus accordingly she made a flowchart of the steps need to be followed during the course of writing and filing a patent

A right start keeps the record of right thing at right time in a right track. So, the initiation step was of main concern. Author went through general information for filing patent application in India, a booklet mentioned on the site. As of now, the first step was kept to put their invention under the litmus test criteria of novelty, industrial usefulness and technological advancement. After strengthening and crosschecking the validity of these three pillars, next was to look whether their invention falls under patentable invention heading or not. After successfully crossing the second hurdle, author was thrown to face the next and most important challenge of hunting the prior art. At this time she again thanked to her engineering knowledge of making Techno Economic Feasibility Reports in which students were asked to search for prior arts of a product or technology using USPTO and related databases.

Right from the school we were in a habit of writing experiments in laboratory workbook.From here the idea and skills of technical writing played the role of a catalyst in providing enrichment and standard to author's work which again followed the basic structure of including an abstract, complete description, results, drawings and pictures in support of foundlings.

Author’s work was now over. She completed the very first step of the flow chart i.e. chalking out the rough draft of patent application. Next was the time to follow the second step i.e. to hire a patent attorney.

It was a proud moment for author and her colleagues, when their midnight oil and hard work paid off. Author was congratulated by the patent attorney as 70% of her work was included in the final draft. Author and her colleagues came into limelight in college when patent got filed under the name “Henna Based Dye, Process for Preparing the Same and Use Thereof in SDS-PAGE Method” having patent application no. 1216/DEL/2007A which further got published in gazette of India. Her and the other team member names scrolled up at the very first page of university’s website. Later she was offered a course in Management in Intellectual Property Right in Queen’s Mary University, London, one of the giants in the patenting field.

After so much of good happenings, she was completely obsessed with the patenting field and guess this attitude of her was the consequence that made her wait for almost half an year to grab a job in the field of her choice. She restricted herself and applied for the jobs in legal area only and all this process took out her all patience. After a hard core struggle (struggle in both sense, nasty remarks which you get from society, friends when you are jobless and also your own concern for your future) of six months, she got her first job as a patent analyst.

In a nut shell, this experience made her views more strong about the fact that only dreaming and doing hard work is not sufficient but you need to hold a belief in yourself when situation doesn’t turn in your favor.

As per her the success mantra, both at personal and professional level is “A belief in a believe make things happen!!!”

Words of Wisdom : Swami Vivekananda

• “MY nature is love Him. And therefore I love. I do not pray for any-thing. I do not ask for anything. Let Him place me wherever He likes. I must love Him for love’s sake. I can not trade in love.”

• Beware of compromises. I do not mean that you are to get into antagonism with anybody, but you have to hold on to your own principles in weal or woe and never adjust them to others “fads” thought the greed of getting supporters.

• A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century.

• All power is within you. You can do anything and everything. Believe in that. Do not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. Stand up and express the divinity within you.

• The best guide in life is strength.

• Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.

• Be brave! Be strong! Be fearless! Even though you know you are going to be killed, fight till you “are killed.” Don’t die of fright. Die fighting. Don’t go down till you are knocked down.

• Hold fast to the soul, think only pure thoughts, and you will accomplish more than a regiment of mere preachers.

• Change is always subjective. To talk of evil and misery is nonsense, because they do not exist outside. If I am immune from all anger, I never feel angry. If am immune from all hatred, I never feel hatred.

• Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.

• First, believe in the world—that there is meaning behind everything.

• God is merciful to those whom He sees struggling heart and soul for realization. But remain idle, without any struggle, and you will see that His grace will never come.

• If superstition enters, the brain is gone.

• “The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.”