Shades of Being Alive

Recently I was part of a gathering called ‘Inner Dimensions of Climate Change’ with about 55 other people, healers, climate activists, community builders, practitioners from at least 30 countries. To my mind, its difficult to put them under any label - rather an intuitive sense brought us all together. It was the culmination of almost 4 years of work of Global Peace Initiative of Women and Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association. Here’s what struck me: Making the spirit, conscious - For long, I have felt it and for long the spiritual has guided my being and actions - however it acted like a side eye. In the process of this gathering, I was exposed to spiritual fields of other beings and gently I sensed the spiritual to be the central core of my life. All my pursuits, I am beginning to see are to rise higher or go deeper into this spiritual journey. I am beginning to come to realise that while action of any form is very important, the spiritual / inner space from where it...

The Interconnected Crisis  The world today is at the cusp of multi-fold crisis:  Ecological Crisis where we are consuming 1.5 times the rate at which Earth can replenish Socio-Economic Crisis where 26 individuals own as much wealth as bottom 50% of humanity and inequity is only getting skewed each year (Oxfam Inequity Report)  Spiritual Crisis with a remarkable self-alienation whose one of the consequences is rising number of suicides.  The crisis we believe, is civilizational. It asks of us some fundamental questions about dominant way of being, way of thinking and organising.  The Core Problem  The crises are created by a web of factors – like mono-cultured education, globalisation, industrial modernity and so on. However, one of the most significant phenomenon that has led to these crises is dismantling of communities particularly in the last 30 years at a rate unprecedented before. Because of (a) economic mobility (including displ...

The world is at the cusp of multifold crisis:  Ecological Crisis where we are consuming 1.5 times the rate at which Earth can replenish  Socio-Economic Crisis where 26 individuals own as much wealth as bottom 50% of humanity and inequity is only getting skewed (Oxfam Inequity Report)  Spiritual Crisis with a remarkable self-alienation whose one of the consequences is rising number of suicides.  The crises are created a web of factors, we wish to name the roots as we see it:  Firstly, our monocultural factory like schooling system produce consumers and workers whose humanity is layered with fearful pursuits of material excess. And that has created a system that work for only a few humans at the cost of other human beings, other beings and the environment. The education system was developed for a particular socio-cultural context where Industrial Revolution was rising, colonialism was the order of the day and the paradigm of man’s relationship with...

I often wonder about the dominant characteristics that define most of human behaviour at this point in history. In this exploration with other people in our team, we have come to four words that represent the ways of being for most of us on the planet. More, Busy, There and Easy. More More factories, more products, more impact. More has almost become synonymous with better. This is bred from a constant space of scarcity of what we have and a possibility of aspiring to have something more. Does more at any point bring fulfilment? It definitely keep the economy running. Busy Most of us are busy doing something. Experience of leisure has become rare. Busy lifestyles that are borne out of auctioning people’s time to large corporates or inter connected systems or our small smart phones. Interestingly, today's times are marked by mindless busyness. And sometimes, we are too busy to find time for things/people that matter. There Everyone seems to be working to get somew...

Gramya Manthan has been happening for 8 years in the same village cluster in Kanpur Dehat and we have been sitting in the shade of this banyan tree since then. Only this year, we began calling it Dadimaa Bargat (Grandmother Banyan). Gramya Manthan invites people to reflect on one’s days - how would it be to draw from a witness of 300 years, was a sense we tried to hold. Grandmother Banyan has seen several storms, monsoons, changes in her lifetime. One of the work that has happened to us and through us is to reclaim the sacred in nature. Looking at nature not just as a material resource but as a spirit. And not just nature outside - what would it be to not just look at our own bodies as a material resource? Another aspect to this has been experiencing a different rhythm of life than the rhythm most urbanites are used to - clock-time, weekday-weekend etc. Experiencing seasons, experiencing daylight and nightsky, experiencing birds chirping or trees shedding leaves. We would start the d...

A mentor of ours, Aseem described passion as capacity to suffer. One of the reasons why Gramya Manthan happens in peak summers in Uttar Pradesh is inviting people from all over the country to experience the rigour of the place that shows up in the heat. Within the team, we have discussed this several times on the need to do it in summers. It also acts as an auto self filter for non-serious candidates. Summers in rural can be hard in Northern India especially for young people from urban areas. In the middle of the program, we have been experimenting with creating a simulated experience around Food inequity - where people get divided into different economic classes and based on that they get their food through the day. A poor will get a roti and onion for instance and a rich may get delicacies complete with desert. Its a disruptive experience even for the holders of the experiment - the cohort surprises us each time. This time immediately after breakfast, unrest built up and th...

One of the participants, Aarti shared in one of her reflections, that it was difficult for her mother to let her go beyond 300 metres alone as a child. While as she visited a family in the village - Kaki asked a kid, Anjali from the neighbouring home to accompany her to show around the village. And Anjali walked with Arti the whole day around the village. Two things struck with her, the sense of freedom and comfort that Anjali had with the whole village and the idea of ‘home’. Kaki felt comfortable asking a neighbouring kid take a guest around and the kid accompanied her all along. ‘Home’ felt somewhat expanded to Aarti in the village. Environmental Wilderness obviously is endangered in our world, with forests being butchered and snow caps melting. However, the wilderness of the human heart is also endangered. Kids today are growing up in enclosed rooms with enclosed minds. Sedentary lifestyle is the order of the day. Trust in human relationships is encroached upon by transaction...

Seeing villages as a cultural reality and not just an infrastructural setup is the foundation of Gramya Manthan. The first thing most participants notice is the ‘lack’ - lack of toilets, lack of roads, lack of hygiene. Only gradually the abundance seeps in - richness of culture in the village. When the participants interacted with the culture of the villages, they by default connected with their own culture. 3 of the participants shared that while they served friends from the village during Daawat, they remembered how they organised and served at community events in Kerela or in Gurudwara in Punjab. Yash, one of the participants remembered how he missed the sparrows in his balcony in Delhi. Every participant came back feeling warmth and love from the way they were hosted in the villages - more than the discomfort of lack of facilities. The question we held was - ‘Will I be able to host the friends from the village in the city, in the same way they hosted me?’ With dismantling...

I have come to believe that one can learn way more about systems thinking from the village than from any book or any modern facility. Its visible in daily actions. Take, food. Crops harvested from fields, stored for household use, cooked and eaten or eaten uncooked. The inedible remains (like vegetable peels) go to the cattle as their food. That food from cattle becomes poop, which in turn is made into manure for the fields. To let more food grow. Take water ponds. Most villages have had a tradition of maintaining ponds. Annually they desilt it, using the top layer of soil for repairing their mudhouses. Water and housing system, interact with each other. Local awareness, limited resources unleashed deep systems thinking and doing in the village. It has taken a great deal of schooling and ‘working’ to take local systems awareness away from us. The other reason has been tyranny of convenience. We have traded awareness with comfort. In the Systems Thinking session in Gramya Manthan, part...

In me, a museum of experiences, of thoughts, of feelings In you, a visitor, may be a seer You can come in, but only with my permission To have a look at the stills, or the movings The dormants or the actives The painfuls or the joyfuls The hurts and the heals But only at certain times, visiting hours For at other times, I might be seeing it for myself Or my museum might be under maintainence, recovering from visitor shocks And while you visit it, be sure that your imprint shall be left hanging in one of the corners of my museum May be for others to see You are important to me Oh now, that I confessed to you that you are important to me  Let me invite you in an inner chamber I want to be calling it भव You see English is a limited language Anyway, I will say inner world I wonder what's this separation I want to be giving you a lifetime pass to my inner world. I hope you won't hurt it, consciously You are welcome, home.

One of the things I love and also miss is getting oiled up by my mother.  As an infant oiling up is considered very important to develop strength in the body - for me my Dadi took that job (I think).  As a child, oiling up is considered important to moisturise the body to have a more resilient skin, to let toxins go away.  As a teenage, oiling up is considered important to develop shiny features :p and become attractive. My mother didn't leave an oil unturned. Our favorite then was 'Hair & Care'. :)  As a young adult, oiling up is considered important to continue to nourish sweat pores as an outlet to toxins, energy and become more physically agile. At this time for me, those fancy moisturisers and deo's came into my life and reduced my sweat pore capacity and skin agility. As an adult, oiling up is considered important these days to not lose hair on the head. I miss my mum, and her oiling up and therefore hair density on my head is reducing....

Dearest Family Member, I hope this email finds you in joy and love.  On this Saturday morning, I have a question for you - Where have you experienced / seen these elements?  Clock   |   Bell    |    Time-table    |      Compartments    |      Uniform      |       Input >> Process >> Output Guessed? Yes, school. Anywhere else? Yes, Factory, Prison, Railway Stations, Shopping Malls and sometimes even in Homes. And if you inquire deeply you would find one or the other combination of these design elements in all modern social constructs we are part of. What have these design done - they have created a story of the world - story of separation, of competition, of rush, of standardisation, of self-limiting survival and of self-interest. What does this mean? Why on a Saturday morning? To that, please allow me to take you away from y...

Society and Market What makes a network of people, society and what makes them a market. The answer is simple - relationships.  When my mother would make a pickle for me in the summer sourced from mangoes dropped in the wind - that was in the realm of the society.  When all of us people in the village would gather around our pond to celebrate a festival of water, desilting the pond, repairing our houses with silt - that's society. When I would go out play cricket with friends from my village / colony - that's a society.  Water, drinkable directly from ponds and streams - society. Grinder, shared by a whole neighbourhood - society. Children learning from elders - society. Friend taking care of another in illness - society.  But alas, society is encroached upon. Society is no longer needed.  Because markets' taking over.   Pickle - easyday, buy one get one free - chemical-rich, plastic-ridden. Ponds - buy (export quality) water from p...

Dearest Family Member,  I hope January is bringing newer and healthier energy in you to pursue what your heart calls for.  While we were in Kutch, I met an elderly Dadi, she called herself 101 years old but never counted her age :) I asked her if she was scared of death and she said  'सब कुछ राम का है, जब चाहे ले लें '  (everything belongs to God and he can take it whenever he wants). Witnessing her, I felt she treaded lightly while being true to the role that she was given in her life. I have been thinking for myself, while I try to live my purpose a 100% -  what does it take to tread lightly? To not be a weight on the planet - physically, emotionally, spiritually . :) In our country and the world, there's remarkable polarisation, ego and fear and to us the most important way to engage with it - is to live our lives with very different anchors - of trust, acceptance and fearlessness.  What we also need is to cultivate a community that supp...

Learning from and observing my sister’s experience - I have come to understand that the bureaucracy trains people how to behave with power and how to be with power. And if you are wise, how to use power well. It inducts the candidate into the power structure that the country-people are serving for over 200 years.   It does not even touch (or touches very little) on how to empower, those you are serving.  The mindset with the bureaucracy has been more or less similar as it was during the colonial period. Hence, bureaucrats are to rule over the people. Although ironically they are called Civil Servants.  Having said that, if the governance part of this country is running - it is because of some amazing bureaucrats. There are numerous who have been able to get breakthrough implementations done with knowledgeable and wise decision-making and cooperation. And negotiation with other power-holders and power-brokers.  As most systems set up by British (like...

While surviving (financially) in this allegedly competitive world is important, my question to all those toiling away their time to earn money is what is the actual contribution you are making to the journey of humanity? Are we playing a small role in researching how to create better face recognition in the selfie camera? Or is figuring out how to sell a particular detergent in rural market? Or is guessing what the exchange rate would be tomorrow and therefore where to invest money for best returns? While they have a place in the whole structure, the question to ask is does it really bring a tiny movement upwards in the well-being of people or the planet? A simple way in, is to become aware of one’s own experience of doing the job. Is it fullfilling, enabling you to bring creative potential? Is it bringing you joy? Is it bringing you more self-knowledge? Do you look forward to the Mondays? When did our livelihoods got reduced to jobs that are done by human-doings who are replaceabl...