‘That’s it? That’s all there is to washing clothes?’ I asked feigning an incredulous expression.

‘Yes. This wash cycle will last for a couple of hours after which the clothes will need to be put out on the clothesline outside for their final spell of air-drying.’

This was when I asked for some Surf powder, placed it on the white palette that I had and looked at it intently.

‘You have two hours,’ she said almost challenging me, ‘can we have a photo-session with this detergent?’

I brought out my palette and poured some of this powder on it. I touched it and even smelled it.

‘Your camera,’ insisted my wife. Her focus is always one step ahead of my inquisitiveness.

‘Both these pics look so different even though they are of the same thing and were clicked at almost the same time,’ mused my wife.

‘Hmmm… the particles look so calm, undisturbed in their own silent world of light and shadow…’ I paused for a moment to watch my wife nod thoughtfully, and then continued, ‘See the light and the shadows. Doesn’t it appear like the play of good and bad in real life?’

Thoughts on a detergent - 01

I then looked closely at the next picture that i had clicked and wondered at the texture that I saw. I also noticed that it was the presence of colour there that seemed so much like a city as viewed from above. A snowed in city with houses having rooftops that were blue and orange. The snow in mounds in some places and the short pathways that told me of neighbours having stepped out to meet another. I told my wife about this fantasy of mine.

She said, ‘Hmmm… yes, and it also tells how lifeless everything is from a distance. Silence everywhere. No people singing, no children playing games, no dogs barking, no radios blaring away some melody, no…’ and her voice seemed to trail off as if she too was suddenly under the spell of this thought.

I smiled and thought: ‘A mere spoonful of detergent has given us some really deep moments of introspection.’

Thoughts on a detergent - 02

It was at this precise moment that my hand accidentally pressed some key and the next picture popped up on the screen. my wife simply gasped at the picture and said, ‘This is amazing!’

‘Amazing?’ I wasn’t so sure of that judgement.

‘Yes,’ she seemed confident of her pronouncement, ‘look at the picture in continuation with the earlier one and you’ll know how life seems so complete, so endless… and then this picture throws that feeling out of gear. This immediately tells me that there are ends, there are shores, there are boundaries, and there are worlds other than the one we are aware of.’

I looked at the picture closely, thought for a while and nodded an agreement.

‘Yes, this picture probably also tells us how much there is to be discovered. How much there is that is not evident and that…’

‘Well,’ interjected my wife, ‘we are all genuine islands like a spoonful of detergent spread on a tiled floor!’ She looked triumphantly towards me and I smiled a smile that clearly meant that she did have the ultimate creative slogan to this picture!

Thoughts on a detergent - 03

The next picture that we opened seemed to echo a similar thought. What appears so consuming at close quarters seems so lonesome, so alone, so isolated when seen in a bigger perspective! Some detergent in a glass was actually like watching an entire galaxy… or maybe a part of the universe…

‘And what I like in this picture,’ said a thoughtful wife, ‘is the hazy hand that is holding the glass. God really doesn’t have a definition as yet and we don’t not know what there is beyond our immediate vision.’

How true. We keep presuming that the entire universe has certain similar or familiar structures… but look at this picture. Doesn’t it tell you how wrong perceptions could really be? All you need is a little detergent in a glass to open your mind to a futuristic vision that is non-existent right now!

Thoughts on a detergent - 04

The next few pictures seemed to be going all out to agree with us. We saw islands, we saw islands trapped in a perspective that seemed familiar, we saw islands that could be shaken into a different shape or size by a mere flick of the hand… we saw how vision must really go beyond what is obvious, we saw how minds in a different thought-set could conjure up conclusions that would be true and yet so untrue.

We actually sat down after some time to wonder if we had ever gone so deep into philosophy earlier… and if not, why?

‘I know the answer to that last query…,’ I said.

‘No big deal,’ replied my wife, and continued, ‘it is because we never had surf excelmatic to give us some exclusive moments of thoughtfulness!’

I smiled. She smiled.

Thoughts on a detergent - 05

We then thought of giving captions to some of the other pictures that followed.

‘Let us call this one “A Mini Guide To The Universe”, I said.

‘OK,’ came the prompt reply.

Thoughts on a detergent - 06

‘Wait,’ warned my wife, ‘let me think of a caption for this one.’

She thought for a while and wrote: The bubbles that live.

‘Seems good,’ I said, ‘ now we are philosophising on not some detergent but a detergent powder that has gone and created an entirely different form of existence with water.’

‘Quite appropriate, as hydrogen and oxygen are indeed the basics ingredients of life!’

Thoughts on a detergent - 07

We spent some time admiring the way bubbles behaved, the way they appeared in direct light. Life did seem so pure, so unadulterated, so transparent…

Thoughts on a detergent - 08

Even when all around was dark, it was this picture that made the two of think of the wonderful opportunities that were still possible.

‘Darkness isn’t really something to be feared.’

‘Yes, as there is always a source of light that will come to rescue sooner or later,’ I hesitatingly added.

‘Do sources of light really come to rescue us?’ wondered my wife.

I kept quiet but did tell myself to resume such thought-debates every time that was washing to be done.

Thoughts on a detergent - 09

This picture below seemed so much like people getting closer to one source of light.

‘Is this why we take up religion? Is this why we want to read the scriptures? Is this what the wise men are always trying to tell us?’

‘Sort of….’ said my wife.

Thoughts on a detergent - 10

‘What is this space for?’ I asked.

After a lot of discussion we concluded that gaps were a natural phenomenon. Gaps or spaces were the only entity that made life possible. Gaps were the catalyst that made creative conclusions possible. Gaps were meant to be filled… and yet, there were gaps being created everywhere, all the time. Gaps and spaces were not life itself… but their absence would not possibly be very healthy for life as there would no longer be much left to find and discover.

‘Almost like having clothes that never get dirty.’

‘Now that’s a good analogy,’ I said.

Thoughts on a detergent - 11

This one was a monochromatic version of the philosophy of bubbles and we looked at it for a long time before reminding ourselves that it isn’t colour that is everything in life. Depth can be seen and felt even when colour cannot be perceived.

Thoughts on a detergent - 12

‘Let us call this picture… Curious Lives,’ I said, almost in a whisper.

Seeing my wife not able to understand, I continued, ‘I had put in a drop of red ink in this detergent solution and then the same source of light that we had been seeing in earlier pictures turned into something that the mind could never have thought of.’

‘OK, so it reminds you of curious lives,’ she asked, ‘ does it?’

‘Yes, because when I saw the result, I had forgotten that I had dropped some ink… and and was curious to know why and how this effect came by.’

‘That explains.’

Thoughts on a detergent - 13

‘So did you drop some black ink here?’

I smiled and replied, ‘ No, this is the same picture in black & white mode.’

‘So it is obvious that what we do and how we behave can affect our own conclusion.’

I was amazed at this conclusion, I must say. I looked admiringly at my wife and said, ‘This is an amazing answer. And this is certainly true.’

Thoughts on a detergent - 14

By the time we reached the last picture I had clicked, the philosophical juices had been converted into an animated discussion on the role of different colours being mixed in a detergent solution.

‘See this picture,’ I said, ‘ even though there is colour mixed in the bubbly solution, does it really affect the shape, the size, the behaviour of bubbles?’

‘Yes,’ said my wife, ‘ and it doesn’t affect the way they seem to be converging upon some solution for their own existence. This probably tells us that language, region, and any other form of difference added to life cannot really change the basic search patterns of a human mind.’

‘Well said.’

Thoughts on a detergent - 15

We had spent almost two hours photographing surf excelmatic powder and then discussing life and its intricacies as they appeared… and this was exciting. We were convinced that we would repeat such exercises every time the washing of clothes allowed us that liberty.

Arvind Passey
25 November 2011

Your will, dear flake, I ask again
To choose your here or there?
The snowflake simply turned and asked: can
You dodge that snowflake there?

© Arvind Passey
29 March 2011

Image credit: Bountiful Blessings Farm

There is a lot to earn if you learn
To let in art inside your heart
And never rush, for you may crush
Or just scramble everything apart!

You get thematic if you’re mathematical
And never sick if just physical
But remember that every member
Of an actuary can’t act theatrical!

Poetry, we know, is strong
And you may rue if you’re true, but truly
The ‘if’ in life does no wrong
Quite unlike the bull in bully!

Spring can ring in a lusty time
Of courtship that is ours
And if we don’t rime with crime
We’ll find a new high in bars!

No ape or goat in a scapegoat
And there’s no car in scare
An inner voice floats in afloat
To make the word seem fair!

Words too then have a life within
They wait until they’re called
And then get drunk when origin
They find, with gin, installed!

© Arvind Passey
18 February 2011

This story has simple sentences. No difficult words. No harsh judgements. No desperate attempt at trying to sound unique. The old man or Santiago, his skiff, the fish he caught, the sharks, and the sea have unified diversities. The connections, if I be allowed to reflect, emerge from Santiago’s thoughts, and effectively create bonds of empathy between the fears of affluence and the desperation in the Third World, the theory of ‘karma’ and the speculations of destiny, contended resilience and joyful resignation — and all done without employing complexities and verbiage that even I was compelled to resort to in this last sentence.
Santiago tells us in a plain language, all that we keep trying to suppress. Why else does he think aloud — ‘I hope I do not have to fight again ….. I hope so much I do not have to fight again.’ Which Nation, what situation would not relate to words like: ‘Could it have been hunger that made him desperate, or was he frightened by something in the night? May be he suddenly felt fear. But he was such a calm, strong fish and he seemed so fearless and so confident. It is strange.’
It isn’t just wisdom that exists within books that I am talking of. Everybody, from a practical-joker to a management trainee must listen to the old man telling himself — ‘ I must hold his pain where it is, he thought. Mine does not matter. I can control mine. But his pain could drive him mad.’ That’s the way Hemingway has fused the tangible with the intangible.
Ernest Miller Hemingway, you’ll always be with me asking me through Santiago to ‘keep awake and steer. You may have much luck yet.’ And even ‘ when you are beaten’, it is easy. I’ll agree because it is the old man saying so: ‘ I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought. Nothing, he said aloud, I went out too far.’

Feature image credit: Photobucket

Meditation can help us all… a counselor can have more conversions, a designer can create more harmony, marketing people communicate better, HR can interact more meaningfully… and so on. For meditation to help, we need to know some vital features of this science… or is it a discipline? I leave that to you to decide.

The Upanishads, illuminating our real nature, say:
“From Delight we came into existence.
In Delight we grow.
At the end of our journey’s close,
Into Delight we retire.”

Our instinctive reaction is to question the basis of these words. Life has its stress and moments are full of scurrying activities that make the waking hours seem less. There are deadlines to be met, chores need attention, relationships need time, and one has to consistently keep building one’s net of material security. Can delight really find itself in this chaos? Are the Upanishads correct in their analysis? What do the sages mean when they ask us to ‘peel away our layers of ignorance so we can once more bring to the fore the light of our soul?’

The Gurus keep chanting: ‘Quieten your mind!’ Is that easy? Is it easy to detach yourself from the frenzied mainstream of living? No, it isn’t. We mortals can never completely STOP the inflow of thoughts. However, by sitting quietly, we can begin to feel more relaxed, also just focusing on our breathing helps lessen symptoms of stress.

I was once talking to Surakshit Goswami, the leading yoga and meditation expert, and he remarked that relaxation is just one of the benefits of meditation. He went on to explain that a quiet mind tends to discretely stay away from being judgmental, critical, and too analytical. Acceptance becomes an intrinsic part of such a mind. When this happens, the mind adopts a quiet stance and decision-making becomes coherent and intuitively correct. The major benefit of a quiet mind is making intuitively correct decisions!

Thus meditation enables us to go beyond the intellectual mind and enter the spiritual heart. This is where our inner self resides and it is not in its inherent nature to criticize or separate through judgments. As meditative abilities evolve, this inner self develops a protective layer against inane and aimless thoughts. If there is any other way to ward off such thoughts, we will anyway discover inner peace and inner joy. The secret here is to promote a stillness of the mind and evolving through stillness. This stillness is not dependant on outer circumstances. In simpler terms, if happiness is relying on outer circumstances, the mind can only assume that it is happy. Once this reliance is done away with, happiness transcends its ‘assumptive stage’ and becomes real! Happiness is thus self-generated. This self generation can be won through meditation.

“True inner joy is self-created.
It does not depend on outer circumstances.
A river is flowing in and through you carrying the message of joy.
This divine joy is the sole purpose of life.”
From ‘Wings of Joy’ by Sri Chinmoy

Another vital aspect is the new-age instant expectations that are so rampant these days. Meditation is not 2-minute fix that you take out of a pouch, heat, and serve! Tell me, could A R Rahman be as innovatively creative if he just sat down and started writing music scores? What no one ever sees is the hours of practice and riyaaz that goes behind each of his musical creation. The same is true with all of us. No good ad emerges without research, browsing, and practice. Similarly, the more you practice meditation, greater will be the benefits. The mind behaves like a monkey; flitting from one attraction to another… it takes patience and practice to evolve this monkey into a Mahatma! Practice exercises of concentration and meditation and then our mind ceases to remain a monkey and we will begin to attain greater peace of mind.

Let me add here that any venture without enthusiasm and energy tends to taper and fizzle out! Therefore, meditate with zest, zing… and a smile!

Years back when I was a cadet at the Indian Military Academy, my PT instructor said: ‘Ek fauji ke liye meditation bahut practical hai!’ We all smiled and thought: ‘Chalo, kuch time ke liye rest karte hain!’ The instructor was seemingly clairvoyant and just said aloud:  ‘When we become more aware of our inner source of peace we will also be able to easily detach ourselves from minor irritations and minor problems. The mind can be tricky and exaggerate small problems into seemingly large and unconquerable problems. You don’t want to see your enemy bigger than it actually is? Do you?’ We were convinced. Inner poise is essential for sane decision-making. In today’s life, it is meditation that will make me market-ready!

The ultimate goal of meditation is much beyond being market-ready or being able to sight the real enemy and aim better! Nirvana is another name given to benefits beyond this… but this can happen only when we lose our sense of attachment to the individual ego and instead become aware of our real nature which is inseparably one with transcendental consciousness. All that I can say now is: Begin before your mind becomes an uncontrollable monkey!

[Arvind Passey]
[2008]
Published in ‘The Learner’

On Myself

My sketch in words, my life in verse
Some past from thoughts — some good, some worse.

Like everyone, some falls to dwell
Like civilization — all pell-mell.

Though every fall was life to me
With every fall I got to see

A view no less but just different
New views, more views — made me different.

A new experience at each site
New ways to solve. More wins. More might!

They made me mightier …not than you…
Just inside me, so I could view

And feel and reach my either ends
And push them much beyond their ends.

My life, I said, was all pell-mell
With this and that; a trough, a swell.

No storms, no strife — then life would rot.
For stagnant times, hard winds I bought.

These lines though may be romantic –
No fact to probe, to pulp, to prick…

These lines are me and do reflect
The way I see, all I select.

Such places where we discover
Soft edges to all sharp stones,
Wipe the dust to then uncover
All the friendly ghosts and gnomes!

All the twists and all the turns
We shall make for times to come
That is how the future learns -
Gives moments a friendly hum!

On terrain that undulates
And seeks to hide from our sight
We will take turns, open gates -
Be where only heavens might.

And navigate with the stars
That twinkle bright in our eyes
Darkness then will be a farce
That can never win, entice!

Only friends who go as one
To see, to free all the strife
That merge with life and the fun -
Only friends discover life!

[Arvind Passey]
[2007]

not every moment
comes laden with you.

every prayer said
is not for the Gods.
so, earthy wishes
will they not
be fulfilled?

not every moment
comes laden with you.

moments from the past
are no longer here.
so, will they now cease
to bring back
smiles i had?

not every moment
comes laden with you.

not every raindrop
will kiss your lips first
so, do i now stop
myself from
kissing you?

not every moment
comes laden with you.

not every moment
comes laden with you.
so, turn the pages
pick the best
and just smile!

[Arvind Passey]
[2007]

Will the above sentence lead to a spiritual evolution? It may, for an individual, but where many are involved, a bit of paradise-engineering may be needed! Truth is that nirvana depends on individual happiness and well-being. Gone are the days when GDP and GNP ruled the roost – it is now the GWI that matters! GWI, for the uninitiated, is the ‘Gross Well-being Index’ and it has a lot of spiritual implications built into it. The basic tenets of the word ‘spiritual’ mean a planet full of happy people. It is true that care for human well-being is indeed paradise-engineering. This form of engineering involves a better comprehension of economic values, ecological concerns, political maturity, and inter-personal efforts. Happiness index thus depends not just on individual perception and acceptance, but also on tangible initiatives taken by the decision-makers at all levels.

The aim of individuals, families, organizations and even countries must be to promote a creation of conditions that are most likely to improve the quality of life in the most equitable way. Paradise-engineering is thus all about care for human-beings. It is an attitude that starts with an individual and must necessarily proliferate to infuse all others with the same perspective.

Significantly, it is the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered around the world that has captured the attention of all. It is the first ever index to combine environmental impact with well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which country by country, people live long and happy lives.

The term GWI was coined by Bhutan’s King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972. The aim of GWI is be a beacon for the economic and development plans and generally serves as a unifying vision for the planning process. For Bhutan, the aim was to serve their unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values.

Real evolution is based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance.

Thus human well-being consists of five dimensions:

1. Long lives in good health and a stable population base.

2. Wealth to secure basic needs and livelihoods as well as to promote enterprise and prosperity.

3. Knowledge to live sustainably and fulfill potential as well as a vibrant culture.

4. A community that upholds the freedom of members, has an open and clean government, and which is safe from violence and crime.

5. Benefits that are shared equally by males and females and shared equitably among all strata of society.

The idea that public policy should be more closely tied to well-being — how people feel about their lives — is catching on. “There is a growing interest in some policymaking circles in looking at these measures,” says Richard Easterlin, economics professor at the University of Southern California. He continues: “We have been misguided in dismissing what people say about how happy they are and simply assuming that if they are consuming more apples and buying more cars they are better off. There are efforts to devise a new economic index that would measure well-being gauged by things like satisfaction with personal relationships, employment, and meaning and purpose in life, as well as, for example, the extent new drugs and technology improve standards of living. To put in straight-forward and simple terms, the happiness index according to OPHI (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative) will have these components:

1. Decent work

2. Physical safety

3. Empowerment

4. Measure of shame

5. Subjective humiliation

There are a few questions here that may be relevant while discussing the well-being index.

Does poverty mean a negative GWI?

Does a higher consumption of luxury goods mean a higher GWI?

Is the proliferation of religious institutions and dogmas related to GWI?

Will a higher GWI result in environmental damage?

The goal of life should not be limited to production, consumption, more production and more consumption. There is no necessary relationship between the level of possession and the level of well-being. Now when the question asked is ‘what is happiness’, the answer is that happiness is NOT to be equated with money!

“We have to think of human well-being in broader terms,” said Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley, Bhutan’s home minister and ex-prime minister. “Material well-being is only one component. That doesn’t ensure that you’re at peace with your environment and in harmony with each other.”

Let us all remember that GWI too needs the emotive strength of a phrase like: kar Ke Dikhayenge!

[Arvind Passey]
[July 2007]
Published in PrepTalk, July 2007

Aisi apni LIFE ho!

Hansi ki delight ho,
Kisi se difference slight ho,
Kabhi na koi fight ho,
Har pal right ho…

Aisi apni LIFE ho!

Dil kabhi na tight ho,
Khushi kabhi na quiet ho,
Kahin koi na fright ho,
Bright light delight ho…

Aisi apni LIFE ho!

[Arvind Passey]
[2007]