Existential Harmony : meeting of advisory board of Social Harmony Chair

Existential Harmony : meeting of advisory board of Social Harmony Chair: Meeting of advisory board of social hrmony Chair. Meeting was held at Gujarat Vidyapith Ahemdabad on 3oth July 2013.                    ...

visit of Dr. S K. Tamotia

visit of
Dr. S. K. Tamotia
at
IASE Deemed University, Gandhi Vidya Mandir Sardarshahar on july 28th, 2013.

Dr. Shailendra Kumar Tamotia's brief details are as follows.
BE (Hons), ME (Soil), D.Engg.(Hon)
FIE, FISTD, FAIMA, FIIM, FIV, MIChE, MIME, MICA
Hon. Dean cum Director General & Vice Chairman
Bhavan’s Centre for Communication and Management
Former:
          Principal Advisor, Magnesium International, Australia
          Vice Chairman, VISA International Ltd.
          President  & Chief Executive Officer, INDAL
          President, Aditya Aluminium, HINDALCO
          Chairman cum Managing Director, NALCO
          Chief (DP&C), Kudremukh Iron Ore Co. Ltd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Seminar : IIIT Hyderadad - Human Values in Higher Education

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Experiences of Human Values in Corporate Learning - Rajul Asthna

My Experiences of Human Values in Corporate Learning

Between 2006 and 2009 I was senior vice president in-charge of learning at Satyam*. I had the responsibility to get people capability up so that they could be placed in billable roles with the minimum delay and minimum expenditure. My direct responsibility was for 97% of Satyam people globally, i.e. all but 3% of the top leaders. In 2008, that was about 48,000 people.

We had to contend with low employability of the intake pool. That was about 25% employability in our source pool of Indian engineering graduates and 35% employability in our source pool of Malaysian engineering graduates, according to the then current McKenzie reports. So we ended up investing 4-11 months of corporate learning in every fresher (new entry-level employee). A large percentage of this investment would walk out of the door at the end of the 2-year bond period – attrition at this level was as high as 50%. Even though overall attrition was at 10-13%, what mattered was the attrition amongst the most profitable billable people (freshers) and the most productive billable people (5-8 year experienced people). So at the 5-8 year experience level also we had to contend with talent and company knowledge walking out.

Even though we could hire experienced people, we had to ensure continuity of customer interface, project know-how, technical knowledge and company culture, and keep the payroll from becoming overly inflated. The key numbers we were looking for included:

1. Customer satisfaction
2. Days to billability for fresh graduates or bench days on account of lack of skills for experienced people
3. Attrition

We asked ourselves: Do employees have any allegiance to the company and vice versa? So what keeps people in the company? What propels some to excel and the rest to mediocrity? What makes some people „good‟ and others to „do what it takes‟? What keeps some people fresh & smiling while most others whither into routine & cynicism with the years?

Prevailing wisdom was that “people join good companies, and leave bad managers”; that “20% people do 80% of the work”; that “people want plum positions with minimal direct responsibility”; that “pay depends on the market”; that “people bring their morality from home”… and so on.

This was not a sudden or external change – I was becoming aware that „it‟ was happening to me too! I had no deep answers myself and I did not know where to turn for help.

All this said & done, the questions for me were “Can anything be done”? and “What can I do”?

We had explored several training approaches over the years, mostly for mid-level leaders. These included (in no particular order):

• Prof. Samba Murthy‟s Human Growth Lab (5 days)
• ISABS (5 days)
• ISISD (5 days)
• Robin Sharma‟s Grow the Leader workshop (5 days)
• Steven Covey‟s 7 Habits workshop (2 days)
• XLRI‟s Emotional Intelligence workshop (5 days)
• Gallup‟s Strengths Based Leadership program (5 days)
• Art of Living workshop (5 days)
• Oneness Breakthrough (3 days)
• Landmark (5 days)
• Swami Sukhbodhananda‟s Personal Effectiveness Program PEP (2 days)

As head of learning at Satyam, I was nominated member IIIT-Hyderabad‟s academic council and through that I met Rajeev Sangal, director of IIIT-Hyderabad. His simplicity, conceptual clarity, depth of knowledge and sincerity was immediately obvious. We became good family friends in due course. Since 2005 he had been inviting me for this 7-day workshop on Human Values. I did agree to attend to „check it out‟ in June 2006. The comprehensive view of reality did not leave any doubts. The method of self-verification encouraged me to take personal responsibility, and to conclude. I found the discussions to be most enriching and starting to end years of confusion.

The first workshop in 2006 was an eye opener. I did not absorb much in the first workshop – I was just sure that this was deep thought about everything that is and it is where I could find all the answers. I have attended many workshops after the first one. The Adhyayan workshop in 2008 in Kanpur was a turning point for me. I became quite aware of my current state and started making effort to understand further, to develop my competence, to be a better person at home and work.

One key thing I got was that everything that exists, is in order. It is not a chaos.Everything in Existence is related to everything else in a mutually fulfilling manner. If we recognize it as such, the fulfillment of the relationship leads to mutual happiness & mutual enrichment. If we are ignorant of this, we assume the relationship to be a zero sum game, and we compete – this leads to continuation of unhappiness and deprivation. With a very clear description of existence, one can place the events for what they are and make effort to harmonize, to be happy and prosperous.

Instead of sharing my workshop experiences, I tried to 'teach' my family what I had heard at the workshop. It was not taken the way I intended – and we are still trying to get over that! Now I understand that the solution is to focus on my own 'abhyas' till the others are assured by my actions and are then willing to discuss. My efforts in my family can be discussed separately.

Since there was a bit less „history‟ to deal with at work and there was this pre-existing positional authority, I feel there was some impact at the workplace. Here I‟d like to share 3 key experiences.

Experience #1: It is a matter of understanding (particularly about relationship) and feelings in relationship – it is not just about training.

Relationship is lasting; memory of physical facilities fades in due course of time When I was appointed head of learning in 2003, I inherited team of about 160 professionals. At that time a substantial portion of company profit was shared as incentive once or twice every year. It was distributed amongst permanent employees who were a certain level and above. We chose to be egalitarian and distributed the incentive to all employees and contractors, regardless of level. We could disburse the ASOP to employees only, so we compensated the contractors in cash. While this was appreciated by some at the time, it seems that there is no memory of this today – this is almost never a topic of discussion.

In 2008, we could develop a 1-day workshop we called 'Introduction to Excellence'. We did this in two forms – one as an essential part of the curriculum for long programs and two as a public program, open to employees and their families. We reached about 800 employees and families in the first 8 months of its introduction. The results were positive:

1. People work better together (we could observe this in the learning team)
2. People are keen to know – this discussion is needed
3. Some of the people have attended the full workshop after attending the 1-day workshop

Since 2006 I had started sending our master trainers (mostly behavioral) for the full workshop. The idea was to further develop our delivery capability. With the change of hands, change of leadership in learning, the 1-day workshop was dropped from the curriculum. Perhaps it was mostly on account of deeply held assumptions, which may take time and effort to deal with. Some people have continued with their adhyayan are still associated with the effort. I feel the work will start once the conditions are conducive, and the people are ready.

In all this, the most significant part was the discussions with the learning team, globally. I spent at least one day with each member of the team discussing the propositions.

After 2 years of leaving the company, people connect back and not just for references. They discuss their learning, they want advice or just share what they are doing. This has been most important and satisfying for me.

I understood that learning and progress is more a matter of relationship rather than that of skills. People value right understanding and feelings in relationship more than physical facilities, even in a corporate setting.

Experience #2: Management by relationship is effective & lasting; management primarily on the basis of positional authority is tiring

My style of management used to be quite conventional – to divide the work, assign it out and to review or evaluate progress. When things went well, we would generally over-evaluate the work, and when things went the other way, we used statements of condemnation – mostly because reviews were usually late into the timeline to take significant corrective action.

This change happened assiduously, I feel. I reduced the meetings to talk about what the others need to do and increased discussions where we would outline collective (mine and their) goals as well as the process steps – we started working as a bigger team, discussing more and more often and in more minute detail.

One example of this was the Faculty Development Program (FDP) we ran for faculty of colleges we hired from. The FDP had been running for several years as such. When we had an opportunity to run one for Malaysian colleges, I discussed the goals and process in detail with Brig. Daleep George, who was in-charge of our Campus Program. The result was a complete revamp of the FDP focused on purpose from the point of view of the faculty, their colleges and collectively for a larger goal “to improve student employability”. Inspite of having to rework several iterations, and to the nth level of detail, we could collective do a great job only because working in this way (in relationship and for a clear purpose) was not so tiring at all.

Another example is the work we did on developing integrated content and pedagogy for our entry level program. The idea was to integrate technical & behavioral content and its evaluation; and to deliver it on a large scale in a consistent and effective manner – we had planned for an intake of 12,000 entry level employees in 16-weeks a-piece, across 6 countries. This was a big project involving at least 20 key people; Dr. Prakash Goteti being one of the key leaders in this endeavor. The command and control mode had been tried out since 2002, but it just did not yield the results. In 2007, we could re-start this and reach somewhere we can call success. My success measure is people who call and reflect on its future; and the impact we could generate in terms of day-1 project-ready people.

There are several other examples. The most significant outcome from this entire set of experiences was that other departments asked our department to lead or co-lead inter-departmental projects. While we don‟t know how to measure trust, we could feel we were trusted.

As a result of all the efforts up until 2007 “through SLW, we have made a definitive statement towards our commitment to efficient learning and performance activities globally. And the world has noticed this. Early 2007, Satyam became the first company in Asia to be ranked 15th in the prestigious Training Top 125, a global ranking of best training organizations. In October 2007, Satyam was awarded the number 1 ranking in the American Society for Training and Development‟s (ASTD) BEST Awards 2007. This recognition also makes Satyam the first non-US organization and the first in Asia to make it to the number one slot at ASTD BEST” [Visit http://www.mahindrasatyam.com/careers/learning_satyam.asp to read about the impact. Since then the company was called Satyam and learning arm was called Satyam Learning World (SLW), I have taken the liberty to mention it as such].

Although I was free to, I chose not travel to the US to be at the ASTD awards ceremony in 2007. I was happy to be in Hyderabad with most of my team – I still remember, we were live at the Planet Satyam studio with all India, Malaysia and China locations online…

I understood that people do appreciate meaningful work and the value-add from a “bhagidar”. For me that feeling of meaningful value-add was more satisfying than anything obtained primarily on the basis of positional authority or any external accolade.

Experience #3: Decisions Post Satyam

On 7th January 2009, the company was rocked by an enormous scandal – Rs 7,000 crores of shareholder wealth had been misappropriated by few in power, allegedly led by the then chairman. The stock fell dramatically that day and over the next several days. From a high of Rs 544 in 2008, it fell to Rs 11.50 on 10th January 2009. The government of India stepped in with both a CBI inquiry as well as a relief package. Some social commentators see this saga more as a part of a broader problem relating to India's caste-based, family-owned corporate environment... I could see this as yet another example of exclusive focus on physical facilities; lack of right understanding and lack of fulfillment in relationship. I now wonder “would this have happened the way it did, had we started HV at Satyam several years ago”?

I left Satyam on 18th June 2009. For the next few months, I relaxed, explored and reflected.

Now what is the next step for me? Another job? Consult independently? Do something that would make a difference, make things better? I had no means to make a difference except a smattering of what I had understood from HV – what could I contribute? Upon reflection 4 important conclusions emerged:

1. That I want to do something meaningful, and to repair the damage done in the past
2. Sharmila‟s** support was definite and in the form of taking care of the home front, to start with
3. We had simple needs, even though not concretely articulated or estimated
4. We had enough confidence in our future earning potential and in savings to meet our needs

This was not a feeling of prosperity (samriddhi), but maybe just a glimpse. It was definitely enough for making my future commitment – I decided that rather than „yet another job‟, I would spend my time in understanding and in helping to promote human values.

Epilogue

I reached Kanpur at 3:00AM on 24th January 2010.

I am quite sure now that these experiences would not have taken place had it not been for this knowledge. And had it not been for Ganesh-ji and Didi. I also know that I have a lot more to understand, to learn and apply; and to repair the damage done in ignorance.

Collectively and individually, corporations are a dominant global force today – Of the 100 largest economies, over 51% are corporations, not governments. It is corporate agenda (profit) that is predominant.

I have understood that opposing a problem does not lead to a solution. Acceptance of the people and taking responsibility for a joint solution along with a vision of the whole can lead to a solution – facilitating small steps toward transformation.

Corporate Universities can play a significant role in shaping the agenda and culture of the corporation; and influencing individual behaviour. When corporations start working on values, the change can be swift – starting with establishment of trust in relationship, people can transform management models, corporate processes and corporate agenda.

I feel it is a part of my responsibility to do my bit to facilitate this transformation in education and in corporations; perhaps in small but definite steps.

*Satyam Computer Services Limited, now called Mahindra Satyam (OTC: SAYCY), a leading information, communications and technology (ICT) company providing top-class business consulting, information technology and communication services (see http://www.mahindrasatyam.com/corporate/about_us.asp)

**Sharmila, my wife, is a practicing paediatrician at Apollo, Secunderabad

Friday, 27 January 2012

Human Values Workshop: Bhutan, Himachal & UP

Run under the aegis of GBTU in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, and conducted by Ganesh-ji, the 12th Teacher Orientation Program on Human Values & Professional Ethics concluded on 24th Jan at IIT Kanpur.

There were 70 participants. In addition to teachers from GBTU and MTU, there were 21 participants from Royal University of Bhutan, including 6 senior deans and 2 senior participants from Himachal Pradesh Technical University, including the dean of studies.

The Royal University of Bhutan is planning to introduce this foundation course as a part of their Education for Gross National Happiness (GNH) module. Attached is their group feedback. The VC, Dasho Pema Thinley-ji, has committed to personally attending Ganesh-ji's next workshop on Human Values. The Education Minister may also participate. So they are taking this very sincerely. All national systems have been gearing up for this comprehensive goal, including planning commission and education. In July 2011, the General Assembly of the United Nations added Bhutan's model of GNH on its agenda to see whether it can be used as a development indicator.

Himachal Pradesh Technical University had already decided to introduce this foundation course. After the workshop, Dr. Pradeep Kumar, Dean of Studies, said that they have understood the significance of this effort more clearly during the course of the workshop. They plan to send the chairperson/director/principal of every college for this workshop as a preparation for introducing the foundation course, as a first step toward Value Based Education.

Consolidated feedback of the 21 Participants from Royal University of Bhutan

The workshop on Human Values and Professional Ethics has been fulfilling in many ways:

1. It has opened up new path to pursue the goal of GNH (and, over time, to facilitate GWH – Gross World Happiness).

2. It has made us realize the need to relook at the goals of our education and prepare for a paradigm shift to an education that empowers every student with the competence to live with definite human conduct.

3. The workshop has stimulated our thinking; it has made us realize and appreciate the values we already have. We have a renewed feeling of gratitude towards our family elders, teachers and all those who have instilled these values in us.

4. It has given us the direction for discovering the self on our own right – through a process of self exploration.

5. The workshop is so well designed that one can easily grasp its contents and relate to each one’s situation.

RECOMMEDATION TO RUB

1. This workshop is relevant for the policy makers and key decision makers. We recommend that VC and Minister of Education should attend this workshop.

2. Invite Prof. Bagaria and his team to Bhutan to conduct this workshop at a national level where most of our faculties could attend.

3. This course should be adopted as such, as a foundation course in the GNH module. It follows all the relevant guidelines for value education, i.e. it is applicable to all human beings, rational or amenable to reasoning, natural and verifiable. The content is all encompassing and its understanding can lead to human conduct, and thereby ensuring happiness and prosperity, which is the goal of GNH education.

4. RUB should adopt this program in the curriculum of teacher education.

5. This program is relevant for all, and it should also be introduced in school education.

6. We should, at an appropriate time, translate this into our language.

RECOMMENDATION TO COLLEGES

1. Identify a core group of faculties and develop their competencies to deliver the content

2. Organize workshop for the faculties

Procure the book written on this course for the library and make it available to all, including teachers and students

http://balendera1.blogspot.in/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=2

Excerpts from President’s address to the Nation on the eve of Independence Day (Aug 14, 2006)

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/54742456/%E2%80%9CJeevan-Vidya-experience-Jeevan

Excerpts from President’s address to the Nation on the eve of Independence Day
(Aug 14, 2006)

“Jeevan Vidya experience: Jeevan Vidya is being practiced by Prof
Ganesh Bagaria, IIT, Kanpur, Prof Rajeev Sangal, Director IIIT
(Hyderabad) and their teams. This scheme is concerned about addressing
the basic causes of major problems of violence, corruption, exploitation,
domination, terrorism and war. It has been found that violent and antisocial
behaviour, unless dealt with care and with professionalism, could
aggravate the extreme behaviour.
Jeevan Vidya develops tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty in
human conduct by enabling self-knowledge that understands harmony in
the self and in the entire existence. The academicians could bring about
marked change even among the inmates of jails through the use of these
techniques.
Jeevan Vidya is a 'teachable human value based skill' that can
address inherent conflicts within the mind of the individual, within families,
in organizations and in public life. Inner conflict is the very essence of
violence. For example, with the skills imparted, it would be possible to
reduce the overall period of secondary education from 25,000 hours of
teaching to 20,000 hours, since the children become more responsible and
productivity conscious. These experiments can be outreached to influence
many people by developing networks using ICT through our educational
system that needs to pay increasing attention to this aspect of human
development.
This process of imparting self-knowledge would promote a learning
atmosphere, where this whole movement of inquiry into knowledge, into
oneself, into the possibility of something beyond knowledge would bring
about naturally a psychological revolution. From this comes inevitably a
totally different order in human relationship and therefore society as a
whole. The intelligent understanding of this process itself can bring about a
profound change in the consciousness of mankind.”

Address and Interaction at the National Institute of Technology, Raipur,Chhattisgarh
07-11-2006 : Raipur, Chhattisgarh
Evolution of Enlightened Society
Thinking provides knowledge
Knowledge makes you great
I am indeed delighted to participate in the interaction meet with the
students of National Institute of Technology. I greet the students, and
congratulate the Faculty and staff of NIT, for shaping the young minds. I
always cherish interaction with the students and Faculty members. Since I
am in the midst of students who have undergone value education
organized in collaboration with “Abhyudaya Sansthan, Achhoti”, I would
like to talk on the topic “Evolution of Enlightened Society”.
Evolution of enlightened citizenship
I would like to put forth to this intellectual gathering, an action oriented
solution for evolving a happy, prosperous and peaceful society in our
planet, which I call as ‘Enlightened Society’. How do we create such an
enlightened society, which has three components (a) Education with value
system (b) Religion transforming into spirituality and (c) Economic
development for societal transformation? Let us discuss.
(a) Education with value system: The best part for a person is his or her
childhood and the learning period in school. The prime learning
environment is five to seventeen years' of age. Of course, at home, love
and affection are imparted. But again most of the time in a day is spent in
preparing school's homework and study, eat, play and sleep. Hence the
school hours for children are the best time for learning and need the best
of environment and mission oriented learning with value system. During
this stage, they need value based education in school and at home for
them to become good citizens. This reminds me the echo from a great
teacher's saying, "give me a child for seven years. Afterwards, let the God
or devil take the child. They cannot change the child." This indicates the
power of the great teachers. For parents and teachers, school campus and
home have to have an integrated mission that is education with value
system. They must inculcate moral leadership amongst children which
involves two aspects. First it requires the ability to have compelling and
powerful dreams or visions of human betterment, a state of things in which
human beings could be better off in the future than they are now.
Secondly, moral leadership requires a disposition to do the right thing and
influence others also to do the right thing. If the child misses the value
based education in the school, no government or society can establish a
transparent society or a society with integrity. During this period, it is
essential to elevate the young minds through a moral science class at least
for one hour each week, delivered by great teachers. That will elevate the
young minds to love the country, to love other human beings and elevate
the young to higher planes. Throughout the world in every school till the
age of 17, it is essential that moral science is taught. Such enlightened
individuals will definitely promote peace and harmony in the planet. Now, I
would like to share an experience that I have witnessed regarding religion
transforming into a dynamic spiritual force.
My interaction with Shri Nagaraj: I had an opportunity to meet Shri
Nagaraj and his team who are propagating the concept of Jeevan Vidya.
Also I read his book. Teachings of Shri Nagaraj can form part of a value
based education system. He says children must be allowed to gain the
experiences of life. We need not impose our ideas on others. Freedom
from illusion is a stage of moksha. We need to understand the meaning of
existence, life and humane conduct. If we understand these three we will
be sensible intelligent and wise. Shri Nagaraj further says the strength of
life does not reduce with its utilization. We can feel it. Our strength and
power increase and become stronger gradually with their utilization. These
important messages will enable the students to understand their potential
and contribute in a meaningful way to the society of which they are an
integral part.

Reminiscenes from Sukhi Jeevana

Reminiscenes from Sukhi Jeevana Residential Retreat at Melukote

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By Puneetkumar Pattar on 22:34

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Oscar Wilde said, "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all" and this has been becoming a stronger fact with each passing day on the earth, more with lives of people like me who live in cities that run 24x7 to transform their citizens into machines of economic power. Over the last many years, a lot of people have been revisiting life and attempting to find out if this is really what life means. I have been a party to it as well. Sitting in front of a computer with Microsoft's Excel and Adobe's Acrobat Reader for half the day, riding on the road that hardly has any space, breathing air that has more CO & CO2 instead of O2, lying on the bed like a dead body at the end of the day in order to rise to leave to work the next day, the routine has definitely made life miserable adding to physical unfitness, mental weakness and emotional imbalance in life. There's no one to blame except ourselves. The companies pay us for the work we do and we are extremely grateful to them. There is a dire need to strike a balance between work and life to ensure that we lead better lives.

In a mail that was forwarded to me, I noted that some Samaritans had taken an initiative to conduct a 3 Days Workshop on living life with wisdom. Titled 'Sukhi Jeevana Residential Retreat', the program was scheduled from Feb 15 to Feb 17, 2013 at Melukote. It was broadly based on the themes of Jeevan Vidya, Holistic and Simple Living, Food and Health, Education, Ecology, etc. The organizers identified themselves as Arivu Educational and Cultural Trust,Janapada Seva Trust and Suvidya. The facilitators named in the mail were Vinish Gupta andKaruna Morarji of Jeevan Shala Trust, Dr AN Nagaraju (an Agricultural Scientist who has authored books on Holistic Living) and Dr SN Gananath (Founder of Suvidya, Environmentalist and Educationalist). I had a look at my leave calendar and found that the attendance was possible. I sent out an email for registration and another mail to apply for leave.

On 14th, I boarded the Chamundi Express from Bangalore(6.20PM) and reached Mandya, the nearest railway station, at around 8PM. From there, I took a bus at 8.45PM and reachedMelukote at around 10PM. By around 10.30PM, I reached theHosa Jeevana Dari Farm on Melukote-Chinakurli road where the retreat was scheduled from the next day. A few participants were already present at the venue. I decided to go to sleep. Seeing that I had to sleep on the floor, I thought I would have a tough time. However, I was so tired that I dozed off quickly. Sometimes I think, what is the use of getting luxuries in life, especially early on in life? In a way, it makes us weak and just in case, life throws up difficulties in the future, we are in a fix. 

At 9AM on 15th, the retreat began. Some breakfast and tea preceded. Dr SN Gananathstarted the day stating that it was time for us to discover where we are headed. The retreat was an attempt to improve the quality of our lives by understanding relationships within us and the world around with emphasis on family, society and the nature. Of course, 30 people can't sit and solve the world's problems but we can definitely try to better our lives. As the birds chirped in the background and the pleasant sound of the movement of Charaka(spinning wheel) from an in-house cotton manufacturing unit hit our ears, we were experiencing a different life away from vehicle horns and ambulance sirens. The breeze kept reminding us silently that there is nothing wrong in the world, we just need to stitch things around to make life beautiful. Philosophies do not produce actions directly but influence the decisions and thereby, the actions. Each one of us wants to be happy and each one of us have our own definitions of happiness, thus creating this dynamic world.

The workshop formally commenced and the stage was handed over to Mr Vinish Gupta.Vinish Gupta, a linguist by formal training, has been a teacher and educator in different universities and colleges for over a decade. He has been involved with environmental and social movements and campaigns. He was also the member of a Buddhist monastic order for over a decade, during which time he had the opportunity to study and explore traditional Indian philosophies and systems of living. Vinish was educated at Jawaharlal Nehru University, at IIT Delhi, and at Deccan College, Pune. His current interests include value education, and design of environmentally sound systems and technologies. Vinish is the Managing Trustee of Jeevanshala Trust. He was accompanied by his wife, Karuna Morarji and their son, Naman. Karuna Morarji has a long-standing concern with understanding relationships between education and visions of human possibility and development. As an educator, she enjoys sharing an appreciation for critical social theory as a lens to see relationships between things that often appear independent and disconnected. Other current interests include food, film, processual/historical analysis and collaborative ways of teaching, learning and living. Karuna was educated in Sweden, India and USA. The duo, along with many others, have been proposing a better way of learning life through Jeevan Vidya.

Physical facilities are needed to lead a proper life. However, there is a need to examine how much physical facilities are needed and what their role is. It is also important to ask the question - besides physical facilities, what else is important in human life? The lack of attention to relationships leads to strife in the family, in spite of all the worldly successes. It is human relationships and human values that are a source of our perennial happiness. We all possess these human values inherently, and what is needed is to bring them out in each one of us.

The workshop addresses the self in the human being. It draws attention to human needs - need for human relationships, inherent desire to seek knowledge, and the joy that we naturally derive from these. In our current situation, we might be seeking different things. Thus, it brings about a dialogue between what we are and what we want to be. It does not posit happiness in an after-world, but here and now, based on a "humanness" common to all human beings. The approach is rational, secular and universal.

A Study of What IS

Most of our problems stem from false understanding. Jeevan Vidya is a study of ‘What Is’ (Jo Hai) and NOT of What is Not. For instance Light IS, but darkness is NOT. Darkness is the absence of light. There is existence of light – it can be brought to a place (say a lamp) but darkness cannot be brought to a place. What we call darkness is actually a shadow, which is created by putting an obstacle in the way of light. Similarly there is ‘samaadhaan’. ‘Samaadhaan’ is knowing what IS. Problems are an absence of Samaadhaan, when we do not know WHAT IS (Jo Hai). So problems like darkness have no real existence.

Language makes mental categories, without our being conscious of these categories. In most languages there is no distinction made between WHAT IS and WHAT IS NOT. From childhood we are taught to believe that we live in a world of opposites. For instance, we are taught that the opposite of light is darkness, opposite of good is evil etc. This gives a false impression as if both (the opposites) have an existence. But the reality is that one exists while the other has no existence. One is real (has bhav) while the other is false (or absence of the real or absence of what is, i.e., abhav). During the adhyayan prakriya one realizes that there is a difference between the word and its meaning (artha).

Background Questions

• Is it possible to UNDERSTAND?
• Is it possible to COMMUNICATE understanding?
• HOW MUCH/WHAT can one understand?
• How does it FEEL to understand?
• Can understanding be SHARED UNDERSTANDING?
• Is it possible to LIVE OUT one's UNDERSTANDING?
• How can the FACILITATOR/WORKSHOP help you in this process?

Jeevan Vidya - Self Exploration

Self Exploration is a dialogue between what you are and what you want to be. It helps us in knowing ourselves, better. With right understanding, we evolve. All the entities in existence are self organized, be it plants, animals, rivers, rocks, clouds, etc. Even human beings are self organized by default, but we keep hurting the organization frequently, leading to all catastrophes of the human life.

1. Content of Self Exploration
• Desire - Purpose, Aim, Objective of life = Happiness + Prosperity
• Program of Action - To understand and live in harmony
2. Process of Self Exploration
• Verify it on your right (on the basis of Natural Acceptance)

We all face situations with same pressures and yet, most times, our decisions are different. Further, decisions vary vastly from person to person. Jeevan Vidya dwells on what I am, my needs, relationships. – to be verified by every individual on their own right. Basis for verification is the self, so no stated truths here. Self Verification is the highest form of authentication. Natural (Spontaneous) Acceptance (Sahaj Sweekruti) is the same for all human beings Every statement is a proposition that each individual has to verify for himself/herself. Proof of understanding is in living it. If it can’t be lived, it is not true/not understood.

• Nirikshan - Verify with Self (Self Realization is true, trans-spatially, trans-temporally and trans-culturally)
• Parikshan - Verify with Others around
• Sarvekshan - Verify with All (universal)

Jindagi ka Lakshya - Sukh Samriddhi. The goal or objective of life is Happiness and Prosperity. While happiness can be defined as Harmony without and contradictions, Prosperity could be defined as A little more than what one wants. Fact that you do not have a choice makes you unhappy. The next level of prosperity comes on sharing. If you do not have anyone to share, you feel deprived. All through the workshop, the attempt is to focus on means, not words. There are no implied opposites  as it leads to mis-communication. There is a need to see the I through the eye. You get answers when you look at the I of other person and not just the eye.

On the first page of every economics text, we read that there are limited resources and unlimited wants and thus, we see deprivation

Deprivation

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Exploitation

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Corruption

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Opposition

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Struggles

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WAR

More than 50 wars are in progress around the world and most of these have been waged by nations that have all the physical facilities and yet, they feel deprived because their definition is prosperity is flawed. The most unfortunate fact we see around the globe is that the soldiers of different nations are standing facing against each other with guns in their hands. Yet, we call it as peace just because the trigger has not been pulled.

The world is snatching from people who already have less. The lesson that there are limited resources and unlimited wants has been the harbinger of all the fight for resources. The source of current problems seems to be an overemphasis on physical facilities, glamour, consumerist lifestyle, and a false sense of satisfaction in competition and one-upmanship (Neighbors Envy... Owners Pride...). The focus on the external things leads to ignorance about the concerns of the self. It leads to a blind race for wealth, position and jobs. Many times, in spite of achieving ones goals, the individual remains dissatisfied - jobs and positions that are intellectually and mentally unfulfilled  and wealth that breeds chaos in family, problems in society, and imbalance in nature.

In my own thoughts, I felt that the point that somebody doesn't have something shouldn't necessary result into deprivation. Most successful people take motivation from it and try to move on to achieve, of course, until the actions are in right direction and efforts are with understanding. I just tried to put up a corollary to the proposed theorem on deprivation to war.

Limited Resources, Unlimited Desires

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Motivation

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Exploration

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Goals

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Effort

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Success

Anyways, that apart, a Jeevan Vidya workshop is an intensive 40-hour learning experience that seeks to bring one’s attention to neglected and subtle facets of life; issues related to interpersonal relations, education, society, environment, aspirations, success are discussed and participants are provided critical tools to help them explore the rich web of connections between seemingly disparate aspects. There is no sermonizing. The facilitator presents sets of proposals, and helps participants bring their attention to bear on the inner workings of their thoughts, fears and aspirations. Gradually one begins to interrogate hidden assumptions and get a sharper, clearer view of the whole intricate fabric of life; one begins to see new possibilities for positive human action. The idea is to trigger an empowering, self-critical inner dialogue that begins with the workshop, but doesn't end with it.

We all live life on 3 major components which determine almost all that we do and aspire to do in life.

• Suvidha - Physical Facilities (Food, Clothing, Shelter, Instruments)
• Sambandh - Relationships
• Samajh - Right Understanding

Focus on Physical Facilities constitutes Animal Consciousness while focusing on all the 3 components in required proportions constitutes Human Consciousness. By moving from AC to HC, we develop and make our lives better. Unfortunately, the world has misunderstood the term Developing/Developed Country with the word Developing/Developed Economy. The world has forgotten that economy is a part of it. In the process, the economic interests have become way larger and significant than the nation's interests.

To be happy, one must have sound mind and sound body. Stress uses up a large volume of nutrients from the body. In the natural course of life, Fear (Bhay) and Enticement (Pralobhan) do not work.

Self & Body

An attempt is made to understand human beings as comprising of two entities that coexist together – the ‘body’ and the ‘Self’. The needs or requirements of the body (food clothing, shelter) and the self (to know, be satisfied, respect, love, help others, etc) are entirely different, both the needs are required to be fulfilled. This is the basic human design. It is quite easy to understand this distinction between the body and the self, once our attention is drawn to it. For instance the body tastes, smells, hears, touches, sees through its sensory organs and passes on the information to the self. It is then the self, who comprehends or makes sense out of all this. It also evaluates these senses – likes them, dislikes them etc.. It is the self who thinks, perceives, has likes and dislikes, reacts, responds etc.

But what we finally understand is that the need of the self is intangible in nature. It craves for intangibles like knowledge, happiness, trust, respect, love, bothers about people around it etc.. Also these needs (of the self) are constantly there, incessantly and are without any limits. While the needs of the body are those of the tangibles and are not incessant. For instance once we have had food we can eat again only after an interval. Also there is a definite limit to the food we consume. Likewise all the needs of the body are limited. But the need of the self is continuous.

All the participants were asked to list out what they want from life. A list of 50 desires was written on the board.

On completing this exercise, all these needs were analysed one by one to conclude that there are 2 types of needs that we all want

1. Needs of the body
2. Needs of the self

Our conditioning and teachings make no distinction between the self with the body. The two are taken as one therefore no distinction is ever made between the separate requirements of the two entities, which can be said to coexist in a human being. Because of this basic confusion most human beings put their entire effort in satisfying the bodily requirements. But satisfying the bodily needs does not satisfy the self. And the yearning of the self for the non material, the intangible remains in a human being. It is part of the human design. So the dissatisfaction remains. The dissatisfaction prompts the human being to strive for more and more tangible items because they are unable to understand the self -whose requirements are entirely different, intangible in nature. There are no limits to the demands of the self, for the intangible. The self wants happiness/satisfaction, love, respect, trust.

While needs of the body are the same for all the human beings, needs of the self vary materially. It was important to note that there is enough in this world to meed the needs of the body. The ones marked in red in the list above indicate the needs of the body. As far as the needs of self concerned, again, there are enough resources to meet them to an understandable extent. Further, on analyzing all the needs of the self, it was concluded that, ultimately, these all converge into the following 6 needs

1. Happiness
2. Justice
3. Relationship
4. Respect
5. Trust
6. Understanding

At any given point of time, there are 3 things that happen with human beings that end in decision making. This is called the mental visualization technique.

1. Ichha - Desire - Imaging
2. Vichaar - Thought - Analyzing
3. Asha - Selection or Expectation - Selection

For every action that we do, we are the Drishta (See-r), Kartha (Doer) and Bhuktha (Enjoy-er/Sufferer). Generally, all actions are taken in 3 motivations (directions)

1. Sensation
2. Preconditioning
3. Right Understanding

When we take actions based on right understanding, the results are better. We have to check the reason behind our actions and which motivation has influenced the decision.Swatantra (Self functioning or Self organized) decisions are no dependent on sensation or preconditioning. They come out from our own understanding. We create a Swarajya by spreading of the self awareness and self organized. In an example, a rich businessman wanted to buy a new car while his existing Honda City was in absolute working condition. The motivation had arisen on seeing the neighbor buy a new one. On discussing with someone, he realized that the reason is not good enough to indulge into. In case he bought one and someone else bought a better one, he would again feel deprived. So, finally, he decided not to buy a new car until the existing one was in reasonably unusable condition. More than Rs 10lacs, he saved himself from the trap of deprivation. People build floors and floors of buildings to fight such deprivation. It is, therefore, essential to understand what is required to be done and do it accordingly. We have to understand that the objective of advertisements is to make us unhappy with what we have. At most times, ads are scaring, misleading and yet, seducing.

In the process of education, we move from assuming to knowing. However, modern education has merely become a programming of preconditioning. The human inhabits the following ‘levels’ and has a need to understand the each of them and his relationship with and within each of them:

1. Within the self (knowledge of self, no contradiction within the self)
2. With the body (Healthy body)
3. With family (Mutually fulfilling relationships)
4. With society (Harmonious systems for functioning of the same)
5. With nature (Protection, enrichment and right utilization )
6. With the entire existence (Consists of space, atoms, molecules, etc - Know the relationship and fulfill it)

The whole of existence is in the form of co-existence, as units submerged in space. Each unit is in self-organization within itself and fulfills its relationship with all other units. Every unit is reflected onto every other unit. There is harmony in existence. One does not have to create the harmony, it is already available/there. One only needs to understand existence and align oneself with it. The basic human need is to understand this.

Nurture and Protection of the Body

The body is the most complicated and advanced physio chemical instrument. Whether one uses the body or abuses it, the natural acceptance of every human being is for the nurture and protection of the body. Some critical points to note here are

• Aahara-Vihaara - All intake, roughly food and lifestyle
• Vyaayam - In the normal course of life or to be supplemented by additional exercise
• Aushadha - In case food, lifestyle and exercise are not in sync, we need medicine
• Swasthya - Healthy body is one which can do what the mind tells. All organs are in harmony with the mind
• Sanyama - Only the self taking responsibility for the nurture and protection of the body

Unfortunately, today we work from 9am to 5pm to lead a hazardous lifestyle. Off late, we have started working from 7am to 9pm as well to ensure that we have money to buy medicines in the future. We earn to insure our health and our lives and yet, we fail to realize that we are not doing anything to facilitate a good health or a better life. A black liquid with a secret formula, proven to be dangerous for the health, is consumed without a second thought at an enormous premium to the production price. We call them soft drinks. We see ads where people stand with a cigar in hand and claim 'Life life, King size' and fall prey to them. When science itself says that skin is soluble and thus, whatever we put on the skin can very much enter our bodies, why do we produce cosmetics and related stuff? Even after knowing the harm, how/why we put anything our skin that we can't put in our mouth? Some questions are really challenging to answer. The body has an inbuilt cleaning mechanism. In fact, there is no need to use a soap as well. The body has an inbuilt time sensitivity system as well which initially runs on sunlight senses and further, based on lifestyle and changes, improves and advances to tell us time. We don't need a watch either.

The solution lies in Aahar-Vihaar and the relief lies in Aushada. We must focus on the solution.

Human seeks themselves as separate beings and that gives rise to loneliness. To overcome this sense of deprivation, we start doing all funny activities. We try to dominate others as it makes us feel expanded and kills loneliness. We also try to get affiliated to other people or groups to overcome being lonely. At times, we submit ourselves due to pressure. Neither domination nor submission is a permanent solution to loneliness. Human beings, by nature, want to be free and do what they want and thus, the fight to freedom will continue internally. Even when you constantly dictate terms to a child, he/she retaliates.
Extreme dominance creates an inferiority complex in the child
Extreme giving creates a superiority complex in the child
The best way to overcome loneliness is by loving everyone and treating them as equal to us. We must accept others' shortcomings as imperfections are a part and parcel of life. Instead of continuing our negative attitudes, it would be better now to love and live now. Ultimately, acceptance or rejection of all that hits our ears depends on how our mind perceives it. We ought to keep doing something good for others and love them with respect.

Anger comes to us as a result of expectations (exaggerated importance and unrealistic expectations). The mental visualization technique can help in overcoming the different complexes. One thing that you get from self righteousness is anger.

Harmony with Family

Propositions for Harmony with Family

1. Relationship IS between Self (I) and Self (I)
2. There are feelings in relationship
3. These feelings can be recognized and fulfilled
4. The recognition and fulfillment by right evaluation leads to natural happiness

Respect
Respect = Samman = Sam Maan = Samyak Mulyan = Right Evaluation

Adhimulyan = Over evaluation
Avamulyan = Under evaluation
Nirmulyan = Other evaluation

Right evaluation is naturally acceptable to all of us. However, since the past, we have been evaluation people based on differentiation of body (size, color, sex, age, etc), physical facilities (power, position, money, etc) and ideology. Through out the history, there is evidence of massive movements to end such differentiation as it leads to exploitation. We must evaluate everyone rightly and only then, respect is possible. When we do it, we realize that the other is strikingly similar to us. Perhaps, if we had not evaluated each other on the basis of our bodies, the cosmetics markets would have never taken birth. On the other hand, I was thinking that we must respect people with good health as the underlying assumption is that they would have done the required effort to maintain their bodies in good health. Of course, when we evaluate people based on body composition and feel good, it is only relative, ie, till someone better than us passes by. Life doesn't come with guarantees and warranties. It comes with possibilities. We must live with respect, in respect, eternally.

Understanding

Understanding is Sarvathomukhi, i.e., All encompassing, Preemptive and Irreversible

Trust

Assurance that the other also wants my happiness and prosperity (Abhay = Sukh Samruddhi ka Aashwasan)

Trust = Intention + Competence

Propositions for Intent

1. I want happiness for myself
2. I want happiness for others
3. The other wants happiness for himself/herself
4. The other wants my happiness

Propositions of Competence

1. I am able to always make myself happy
2. I am able to always make the other happy
3. The other is always able to make himself happy
4. The other is always able to make me happy

On analyzing trust as a combination of intent and competence, it was realized that people have right intentions at all times but they lack competence to execute their intention due to lack of right understanding and thus, create distrust in others. The lack of trust generally arises when we question the intent of the other person. As a general observation, when others do something wrong, we question their intent while when we do something wrong, we blame it on our competence and claim that our intent was right. In the process, the world has gotten so busy questioning others' intent that it hardly spends time to build people's competence. For example, we isolate a criminal from the world by locking him up in a prison as we question his intent. However, we should actually help him realize that he performed criminal acts due to low competence and help him move up the competence ladder and be a better person.

Today, we teach the children to become special. A teacher says in the class, "You all must come 1st", and that is never going to happen. The message given to us from childhood is that we are Vishesh (special) and the others are Shesh (the rest - others or the ordinary). We forget that the others too have been given the same message and thus, the race begins. The world further plays a spoilsport by rewarding special people. Race is good and rewards are better. However, the race should be for excellence, not for being special. The rewards should be for excellence. The focus should be for excellence of all children as that is achievable proposition. The world is heading towards low competency levels as we are not concentrating on systems to make people excellent. We put our man on the moon to prove that we are special while we never bothered to feed our fellow brothers who kept dying of hunger. We must remember that everything special comes to an end while excellence can only be explored further. Excellence comes with responsibility as well. For example, when we say, "Indian culture is special", we do not mean anything to be done from us. But then, when we say, "Indian culture is excellent", it bestows responsibility on us to ensure to continue the excellency. Wherever humans have paid attention, amazing results have been achieved. From soil, we have built mobiles and computers. However, we have forgotten to pay attention to some very important and critical parts of life which has created troubles in the nature. It has become more exotic to live with dogs because we can't live with humans. We have done things that are of tall order and in the process, the regular things like values have become tall orders. We, unfortunately, put a price to everything. Somebody even sold their virginity online. That is the extent of craziness we have reached.

Proposed Definitions of Values of Life

Affection = Feeling of being related to the other

Care (Mamtha) = Concern for the well being of the body of the other

Guidance (Vatsalya) = Concern for the well being of the self of the other

Reverence (Shraddha) = Feeling for excellence (of understanding)

Worship (Puja) = Any effort made towards excellence of understanding

Glory (Gaurav) = Feeling for people who have worked for excellence in the past

Gratitude (Krutagnyatha) = Feeling for people who have contributed for our excellence

Love (Prem) = Feeling of being related to all people (Poornatha ke anth mein Anubandhan)

Relationship

Sambandh - We have relationship with everyone and everything. The choice to recognize them or not is in our hands. Its just that we do not have contact (Sampark) with others. Relationships exist only in the presence of trust and respect. We must never make enemies with others as we end up sleeping with them (they never get out of our minds). Today, we have more guards and less security, more guns and more insecurity, more relief measures and less solutions.

Family

Set of people living in proximity, fulfilling values

Justice

Justice can happen between people only with their own trust and respect. Courts can only deliver a verdict, not justice. Justice happens when all the stakeholders understand each other's values. When the mood is either you or I, we get no solutions.

Marriage

Vivaah = Vidhi-Vadh Sambandh ka Nirvaah
Marriage is the fulfillment of a relationship in a proper way taking responsibility for nurture of children and passing on values to them and engaging in productive meaningful work as a family.

We must understand that we all have the same potentials. We excel in whatever we pay attention to. However, the world has certain definitions of success and thus, we all try to live by them. Excellence is attained by everybody in their own interests. It requires a great zeal of energy,enormous confidence and tremendous guts to go against what the world has defined as success, happiness or for that matter, what is good for all of us. We have to mark a distinction between the following points to grow, develop and live happily in life.

Assuming -> Knowing

Agreeing -> Understanding

Price -> Value

Relief -> Solution

Fear/Enticement -> Understanding

Special -> Excellent

Essential -> Optional

Complete happiness is achieved in life only when all the stakeholders are happy. It happens only in cases of win-win situations. We have been running behind things that are optional as they have been marketed to us as essential. In the process, the optional have become more powerful than essentials. 

Sapeksh Atma Vishwas - Self confidence dependent on others
Nirpeksh Atma Vishwas - Self confidence independent of others (absolute)

Natural acceptance needs not be majority's unanimity.

Anger is the manifestation of not having the solution in the situation. Once we see the solution, we become calm by default as our natural acceptance is for the solution.

Harmony in Society

At the society level, the decisions are taken by the lawmakers in the form of policies and guidelines. These policies and guidelines must be aimed at helping people reach their goals.

Maanav Lakshya = Human Goals

1. Samadhan = Resolution (Right Understanding)
2. Samriddhi = Prosperity
3. Abhay = Trust
4. Saha-Astitva = Coexistence, especially with the nature

To help people achieve these goals, the policies must focus on

1. Shiksha-Sanskar = Educated Living
2. Swasthya-Sanyam = Responsible Healthcare
3. Utpadan Karya Yojana = Productive Work (Right Utilization, Production, Protection)
4. Vinimaya Kosh = Exchange and Storage
5. Nyaya-Suraksha = Justice and Security

When we tried to analyze how policies are being framed, we find the following differences

• Policies do not focus on Abhay or trust (absence of fear). They only ensure that we are prepared to fight the fear (Nirbhaya).
• Policies have confused prosperity with monetary gains. Prosperity is the feeling that you have a little more than what you need.
• Exchange of goods should ideally focus on bettering one another's lives. However, the focus is on giving something in some form to snatch what the other person is having. It is a system of maximizing monetary profits.
• While we would store for future, corporations only concentrate on disposing off all that they have.
• Today's biggest insecurity is whether the nature will be able to fulfill our needs. This has triggered a chaos to consume now.

Harmony in Nature

In existence whatever we see – all the physical entities (the ikais) can be classified into four major categories. These are

1. Padarthavastha (or the material world)
• Inherent Nature is to ‘compose and decompose’
2. Pranavastha (the world of trees, plants and vegetation)
• Inherent Nature is to ‘grow’
3. Jeevavastha (the world of birds and animals)
• Inherent nature is ‘will to survive’
4. Gyanavastha (the human world ).
• Inherent nature is ‘will to survive’ with knowledge and happiness/satisfaction/sukh

There is harmony in the nature by default. All the three orders, Material Order, Plant Order and Animal Order are in harmony with one another. Even within themselves, there is an internal harmony. However, at the human order, there is neither harmony within us nor with the other orders. We must understand that no matter what we do, everything comes back to the material order. Thus, we have become responsible for spoiling the harmony in nature. Science says that 8 trees are enough for producing food for one person for his lifetime. Initially, medicines were coming from the plant or animal order. Man came in and started producing them from the material order. For a scientist, the whole world lives in the periodic table. He doesn't understand the relationship between these orders. Modifying the genes of plants not only corrupt the plant order but also spoil the animal order that consumes these plants. We know that plant order can be replenished and yet, we do not build homes using naturally available material and rather produce various substances that spoil the material order.

When water passes through the soil, they improve one another's quality and enrich themselves. Such systematic is the order in the nature. We have done tremendous research and developed technology to build devices and systems for our need but still, we have not done anything that could make us impermeable to diseases or bettered our lives in happier way. The happiness index only reports a lower number each year. The primary characters of the animal order aredeenatha, heenatha and kruratha. We distinguish ourselves from the animal order as we are featured withDheeratha, Veeratha and Udhaaratha. However, it seems that we have been progressing towards becoming one with the animal order in the race for physical desires.

Jeevan Vidya is presented in the form of the above propositions, and does not expect anything to be accepted on faith but to thoroughly examine the truth or veracity of these propositions. Through adhyayan prakriya (process of learning through propositions) it helps us understand the basic nature of all entities. The participants are requested to evaluate these propositions on their own right (adhikar) without taking any recourse to past beliefs (manyata). The basis of evaluating the propositions is natural acceptance or sahaj swikriti (which is inherent in every human being and does not change with space or time) instead of past beliefs or conditioning, which are subject to both space and time. Human beings of any race, color, creed, caste, sex or age tend to agree on certain issues e.g., ‘every one wants to be happy’ or ‘everyone wants respect and trust’ etc.. There are no disputes over such propositions. This agreement, which remains unaffected by time and space, stems from the fact that sahaj swikriti on such issues is inherent in all human beings. It is part of the design of a human being. The entire adhyayan prakriya is in the form of propositions and dialogue (samvaad). The adhyayan prakriya uses tarka (logic) and language for drawing the persons attention towards things in existence.

Jeevan Vidya is a human central existence based study. It helps us understand the basic nature of all entities - viz from atoms, molecules, space, planets, plants, animals, to the human being -needs, nature, behavior  etc. Jeevan Vidya is presented in the form of propositions, and does not expect anything to be accepted on faith but on the basis of rigorous self-examination the truth or veracity of these propositions. It is distinct fromadhyatmavaad or spirituality (which ultimately takes us into secrecy - rahasyavaad and reaches the conclusion that life is an illusion and consequently takes one towards eitherbhakti or virakti). On the other hand materialism (which denies anything but the senses and ultimately takes us in the direction of limitless consumption at the cost of the self & nature) has concluded that life is chaos. Vidya in some sense, comes up with a resolution for the Human Condition in its entirety. One is able to evaluate all states that one inhabits: within the Self, with Body, Family, Society, Nature & Existence and find answers to all questions that one may be concerned with. Vidya has no known similarity with any current human teaching or knowledge system and does not have any ritual, worship or supplication. Each human being has independent free will and evaluates all the propositions on his/her own right.

Conclusion

Limited Resources + Well Defined Needs = Prosperity

Holistic Living - Dr AN Nagaraju

Dr AN Nagaraju is 84 years old and says that he plans to live on for another 40-45 years. Well, the mere mention of these words can inspire a large number of people who plan to retire from work at 40 and the world at 60 in the ongoing craze of 'Live life, King size'. In the first 40 years of his life, he suffered from various health complications like arthritis, asthma, frequent headaches, psychological complexes, etc. He was working as an Agricultural Scientist in the United States of America. One fine day, he decided to head back to India and promote Organic Farming. When he started speaking about it, nobody took interest. However, he continued to focus. He also worked on health, diet and other factors relating to a holistic living. In the process, his health took a better shape and over the last 40 years, he has been living healthily. He doesn't need a chair while he delivers his lecture. It is very evident that chemical farming spoils the quality of food as well as the soil. Modifying food, the genes, corrupts the food severely. Though we can produce more quantity, the quantity will fall in the future as the soil will not have the required nutrients to facilitate the growth.

We are being brain washed to modern food and we have cheated our tongue by adding sugar. Cooked polish rice has become the biggest enemy of health. The world has forgotten all grains except Rice and Wheat in the run for economic growth. Thus, it would not be wrong to say that the best food to eat would be the ones which men ate when they were evolving from apes to human beings, in the absence of technology, i.e., Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts, etc. We have forgotten many nutritious millet that are wonderful for our body, solely because their shelf life is low and in case they are not sold, the retail outlets might make a loss on them. It is also interesting to note that crabs, frogs and similar animals have a vegetarian diet and thus, their body composition is different. Modern food, vegetarian as well as non vegetarian, comes along with enough harmful chemical contents to harm our bodies. However, we have been completely brain washed to pay no attention to this. A research shows that it would need at least 100 years of completely healthy food for our body to get to rid of the DDT content we intake every day. Fat is an essential component of balanced diet. Groundnut oil and Olive oil are recommended while sunflower and soybeans oil must be avoided.

When you enter a departmental store and look at the shelves, there is hardly anything that you would need. Yet, when you walk out, there is no space in the bags. The corporations have successfully transformed us from human beings to consumers. In other words, the animal consciousness has overtaken the human consciousness by miles. Eat Maggi once and you get addicted forever. The same is the case with Gobi Manchoorian or Pani Pooris. We must consciously make efforts to move from bad food to good food. By bad and good, it means bad or good for the body. A sudden jump can hurt metabolism and therefore, a silent move is essential.

The psychotropic drug industry is a million dollar industry now and has been growing at a great pace. This itself indicates where we are headed. More than 60% of our scientists are working on producing weapons of destruction. Ironically, according to our scientists, we already have weapons that if operated, have the energy to destroy earth 4 times and yet, they are working to build more. Have we forgotten that things, when destroyed once, cease to exist? Would it be wrong to say that the taxpayers money is being misused to create such jobs? We have forgotten that pain killers can only curtail the signals of pain reaching the brain and thus, giving us momentary relief. Ultimately, the body repairs itself in cases of injuries. We have to look for solutions and not for relief measures. We have to focus on value rather than price. Fresh air and drinking water are priceless.

Dr Nagaraju also spoke on the environment as well covering the points

• We all think, what can one person do? The history is full of examples of all that has been done by one person alone. We ought start working to make a difference. The support shall follow. There are numerous examples of people stopping the Government and corporations from installing factories that can damage the environment. Everything starts with one person.
• Pesticides used in chemical farming are the biggest pain points in our food value chain. The devastating effects are being seen in the form of cancer today. Cancer is not accidental. It is a creation of our greed for economic growth.
• The body produces cancerous cells everyday. However, the body also produces required components to kill these cells and keep the body healthy. With all the chemicals entering our body, we are losing the abilities to kill these cancerous cells through our immune system and thus, the need to kill them through other systems and in the process, kill ourselves.
• People have to come together and demand healthy and organic ways of farming lest there is all chance that we all will go back to farms. It is possible. It has taken only 2 decades to bring in all the industrial and service transformations.
• All the essential commodities we buy are polluted. Food that we buy comes with free diseases.
• Reverse Osmosis (RO) takes out all the minerals from the water. The process should only be used for hard water to make it soft. Using RO for regular water makes it dead water.

Video Session and Creative Sessions

After the 1st half of day one came to an end and it was lunch time. After the lunch, we listened the Ted talk by John Francis (http://www.ted.com/talks/john_francis_walks_the_earth.html). John Francis has been a planet-walker  traveling the globe by foot and sail with a message of environmental respect and responsibility (for 17 of those years without speaking).

The next on schedule were some creative sessions based on our interests. The options available were

• Haiku - Japanese poems
• Kirigamy - Paper cutting
• Cartooning
• Gaadhe Maathu (Riddles from Karnataka)

I chose to go ahead with Haiku. Haiku is a very short form of Japanese poetry, often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas "cutting word" between them, a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of separation and colors the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are related. The essence of haiku is "cutting". Traditionalhaiku consist of 17 syllables, in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 respectively. Any one of the three phrases may end with the cutting word. Although haiku are often stated to have 17 syllables, this is inaccurate as syllables and on are not the same. A Haiku in English is a short poem which uses imaginary language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition. It is a development of the Japanese haikupoetic form in the English language. The class was taken by Shashi Bhushan Singh. We read a few Haikus and started writing our own Haikus.

Some Haikus that I managed to write

Tri Color...

A glass of Beer...

Sachin Tendulkar...

Tired?

Black Ants on Red Wall...

More Reasons?

You and I...

A Cup of Chai...

Time flies...

Shaky Networks...

Vaastu Compliance...

Cheers...

People... Love...

Things... Use...

Permutations... Combinations...

Kirigamy - The Art of Paper Cutting

Cartooning

Video Sessions on Day 2

After lunch on day 2, we watched a video titled Small Pleasures (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flkFW5E0XcM). This was another evidence that happiness is a state of mind and we all can be happy if we have well defined desires in life. The parallel sessions on day 2 were on the following topics

1. Transitional Analysis
2. Anger Management
3. Video Session

I opted for the video session. We had a look at The Story of Stuff - How thing work, about stuff (http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/). The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. The Material Economy is a system in crisis as it is a linear system while we live on a finite planet. It has been bumping over its limits. In the process of focusing on the system, we have forgotten people who form the part of this system at all levels. The Government and Corporations have made the people slaves. The life cycle of products.

1. Extraction - Exploitation of resources
2. Production - Pollution. Toxins In, Toxins Out
3. Distribution - Externalizing the costs
4. Consumption - Buy or you lose your value in the world. Work - Watch - Shop
5. Disposal - Making other nations dumping backyards

The next video we looked at was Story of Bottled Water (http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-bottled-water/). It employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand - how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industry's attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces.The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all. In the process, I was thinking, perhaps, like Starbucks or Cafe Coffee Day rent their real estate space in the name of selling coffee, the water bottle companies are selling the plastic in the name of water.

We had a small discussion session after watching the videos where we tried to discuss the value chain, ecology, solutions to the graving problems, etc.

Self Introductions

The self introductions happened at the end of the first day. Everyone spoke a few lines about themselves and the purpose of attending the retreat. I had no purpose. I just wanted to get out of the city. But then, I have been thinking of this from a long time and it was only because of the concurrence of the theme of the workshop and my thoughts that I decided to go on.

Yoga

Yoga classes were conducted at 6AM on day 2 and day 3. The classes began with warming up session, followed by Pranayama and Meditation. Several asanas (positions) and breathing exercises were taught in the course of time. The yoga teacher, Sri Maruthi, was also kind to gift all the participants with a book that contained all information to get started with Yoga in daily life.

Kayytutthu - The eco-friendly dinner

The second day's dinner was a memorable one. The first day's dinner too was memorable for me considering it had all the stuff that I do not eat. Kayytutthu is a concept generally employed in North Karnataka where the mother (or father) prepares rice balls and hands them to the other members of the family for consumption. This has several reasons including care for the family, sharing, etc. I was remembering the song from Kaliyuga Bheema while I was experiencing this (www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ1pl0aPymI). It was a new concept for many people. It is similar to a family dinner.

Entertainment Program

After dinner on second day, we had an hour of variety entertainment session. Some participants sang songs, some performed a bit of music and some indulged in dance as well. The most catching part of the session, at least for me, was the Neele Aakash Mein, Chaand Taare Saath Mein ice breaker dance.

Chikki Making

One of the participants took an initiative on the third day to teach us how to prepare chikkis(a traditional ready to eat sweet made from groundnuts andjaggery). It was an interesting learning experience. While I did not participate in the preparation process, I did do the quality testing and certification.

The Mini Library

Kashaya and Lemon Tea

Though the regular tea and coffee was available, participants were encouraged to savor Kashaya and Lemon tea which have medicinal benefits.

Self help is the best help

All through the workshop, participants washed their own plates and tumblers. Doing our work by ourselves, in the presence of an opportunity to outsource, makes us humble.

Dariya Dil Dukaan

The entire workshop was based on volunteerism and gift culture. For all those participants who were unable to pay, scholarships were provided. The cost that participants had to bear was just the cost of food and boarding. It came to Rs 1150 per head for a total of 3 days, which almost blew my head off. I had initially estimated the cost to be Rs 1000 per day. This was another clear evidence between price and value. The Dariya Dil Dukaan (Large/Kind Heart Store) is a concept where all the people get all things that they do not use but believe that others could use and place them in the open. These products are displayed for some time and participants pick up whatever they need the most. It could be a book, a mobile charger, tripod stand, a recipe, a DVD etc. In the money dominated culture, it can be an enriching experience just to give something and receive something for free, with love.

Closing Comments

With no doubts, my 3 days were best spent. It was a joyous learning experience to meet many people who share similar thoughts, objectives and instincts and are seriously worried about bringing about a better world. I wholeheartedly thank all those who were involved in making this possible right from the facilitators to the organizers to the participants to the people who helped us extensively by cooking food and taking care of other necessities in these 3 days. It was a memorable experience and most of us are going to carry it with us for a long time to come. The reflections will continue to go on and I am certain that there will be fruitful activities performed as an outcome of the workshop. I got an opportunity to interact with many new people and learn more about their perspectives. It would not be wrong to say that I cherished every moment of the workshop.

I left the workshop by around 4pm and reached the hustly bustly Bangalore city at 10pm. As I retired to bed, I knew that the same old life awaited for me the next day. But then, I also knew that I am going to look forward to it with the new I.

Disclaimer: While most content has been written based on experience and learning, some content (especially textual) has been directly copied from other websites. Jeevan Vidya got its roots from Sri Agrahari Nagaraj, originally from Karnataka, living at Amarkanta, Madhya Pradesh. He belongs to a family of Vedamurthis and since his childhood, certain questions he had on Vedas were unanswered. He kept looking for answers by meeting and speaking several Gurus and in the process of this exploration, Jeevan Vidya was developed. At the age of 95, he continues to work as an Ayurvedic physician and says that he paid attention to this concept and thus, discovered. Anyone can pay more attention and discover more. Jeevan Shala Trust is one organization which is in the process of discovering more.

http://puneet3210.blogspot.in/2013/02/jeevan-vidya-vinish-gupta-sukhi-jeevana.html