Benchmark

 Benchmark 

A very irritating word, when we ourselves are ‘expected’ to touch or surpass it in that relevant field of human excellence.

As a kid, I used to be naturally tempted to vicariously teleport myself into far past times of the epic stories, like Ramayana, Mahabharat 😜 ( I used to “visualise” myself as a “kid-citizen” . I was such an idiot, I could have as_well visualized being at my dad's age!🥵. A constricted mind can visualise only_thus. Think_BIG wasn't in my Syllabus 🙏)

The “support” system that I am receiving as a kid of the 20th century was dismal , when I looked at Ramayana/Mahabharat days. Between the 2, the name_itself suggested that Ramayana is a better choice 😜. Mahabharat, the ‘title-itself’ is used today to denote a mega war, of words, even within families 🤣. When a tiny speck of wisdom walked in, I discovered, “Ram rajya” is not-at-all about the “fellow called Rama”! His life was tragic🙏🤣 …. The BENCHMARK set by the “society as a whole” was best🙏🙂  A name was needed to “refer” to THE PEEPALS/people, of that_time….  Hence the tragic hero's name ( ofcourse, Rama is a character to be a ‘benchmark’ for going through ‘hell’ in our lives, and yet remain steady 🙏)

Today,

Who is responsible for notching that “benchmark” a little higher? ( Was my_personal koschan/question ⁉️….. not worth, discussing this with ANYONE around me😭)

Then, I concluded….. “Let me keep doing my_best!”( That's all one can do, at any ‘given' point of time 😜….

Not that, there are no_benchmarks in our society 🙏. When my son decided to SHIFT to a ‘better’ इschool, after 7th, he asked for “plain trouble” 🤣… His ‘ranking’ slid down to 11th or so! But he noticed that, the support from the “character" of his classmates was a much more valuable thing. The mere company (bla-bla between kids) replaced the “strain” of parenting CONSIDERABLY🙏( ofcourse , I do have_to concede, our efforts till his 7th, started sprouting when nourishment was rich around).

As parents age, today…..the same ‘good & dutiful’ kids, now married, with kids, find it difficult to get_along with their aged oldies, under the_same_roof 🤣….  Sense of gratitude, duty, ‘moral responsibility’ etc is still there,🙏, but the ‘functionality' is sought_to_be from a ‘safe_distance’ only!😜( Neither the oldies, nor their children BOTHERED about any “benchmark” in the relationship of this phase of life. It is only getting worse with each “next” generations!

Benchmark set by us, today …is a matter of personal choice!

( As a society, there are a ‘few’ samples still available. Israelis, as a nation,.... parsis, a microscopic community are an unreachable samples for others. I heard that Japanese are so_loyal to their employers, that, even 4 generations work under the same master, ignoring the lack of recognition, even in monetary terms!

Certain BENCHMARKS, can be carried_forward, as an ACHIEVEMENT ( even if we failed to ACCOMPLISH anything noteworthy, in this lifetime 😜) Spiritual arena 🙏….  I must concede, my pursuit of this spiritual benchmark was owing to my far_past! Difficult to ‘convince’ anyone. But, my experience says “by ruling out all other possibilities, far_past is the only-possibility”.

Usually,  the benchmark we set for ourselves, turns burdensome for worldly items of life….. tortuous for spiritual practices 😓…. but only till we transcend that “breaking-point”🤣…. After that, it is joyous to live by that_benchmark.

BenchingLy yours,

psn(31 july, 2025)

Focus

 Focus

Not concentration. Just a focus.

A lens of a camera reflects a blurred image of its focal length doesn't match the distance between the camera and the object sought to be focused upon.

Our eyes are “short_sighted” if the focus of far away objects is blurred. 

A squint eyed person uses a slight tilt to improve the focus of the “pair” of the eyes, on an object.

An expert shooter closes one eye, only when a gadget called a gun, rifle or revolver can substitute for the lack of “judgement_of_depth” of the object, with just_one_eye!

Focus of our mind? 😛 

( Our mind itself is its yardstick, to measure it's own focus-quality! )

A true joke! 

I decided to bestow the best in me at that point of time, as a ‘gift’ to an youngster, who was close to me in many ways! Value addition was my objective, and I had decided to do my best_ever 🙏

That youngster was going to face the first competitive exam of the life! Plus_two….. ironically, an exam designed to filter the qualified ones only, had turned itself, functionally, into a competitive one, to eliminate even the qualified ones, for the selectivity_criteria of next level of literacy called ‘graduation’. Number game. Higher cut-off marks, merit, etc.

Focus, as a quality of an examiner, became a decisive factor when slogging, hardwork etc was confined to the limitations of time called “24/7”.

I spoke for an hour and a half.

That youngster kept staring at me for the entire 1½ hours, hardly-even blinking the eyes. 

Later, soon after that youngster had left my house, my sister, a witness to the whole ‘drama’ let out a huge laughter and teased me saying “did you notice? Everything you said just passed above the head of your ‘victim’ . That youngster managed to keep the eyes riveted on you, without allowing anything you said to enter the head😜!”

She was 💯 % right! I could realise that! One of my ‘most miserable failures’, despite my best efforts. 

The whole night, I had to focus on my disappointment, to recoup my composure to normalcy. Next morning, I blogged that talk of previous evening to that youngster. As a rare gesture, ‘divinity' whom I address as “maya Madam” gifted me with unimaginable rewards for that blog. A total stranger read that blog years later, re-read it several times for a few days, testing it for its efficacy beyond doubt, to verify if it was this blog, which caused him to reach a state of being, where his mind was of no consequence at all 🙏 😜. He took another few years to tell me, about what my Blog did to him, describing his efforts to make sure that it wasn't any coincidence or chance( scientific reasoning stipulated “an element of REPITITIOUSNESS” for any experience to climb the ladder of postulate, theory, concept and law¡😜). His hesitation was because he knew, that, what happened with him was unbelievable! But I assured him that I was quite familiar with that ‘phenomenon’, due to my years of spiritual practices and quest! ( I deliberately omitted mentioning the traditional name of that ‘state of being’ to afford him climb up further. That name might boost his ‘ego’. And ego stagnates any Spiritual growth 🙏).

Anticlimax 

Defocused eyes, and a gaze into nothingNess, is a powerful tool, in the spiritual traditions of India that is Bharat, since the ancient times 🙏. 

Please relax your “focus” if any by now 🙏

Focusedly yours,

psn(27 july, 2025)

Teaching skills

 Teaching skills

For my personal understanding, I observed my teachers at school, and could notice that they can be classified into 3 broad categories. ( This type of classification has nothing to do with any popular, authentic, or official, kinds of classification. In fact the ‘best’ teacher as per my_personal imagination might NEVER fetch even a tiny speck of recognition….. forget about a “best teacher award”😂

1)this teacher does just a job( for wages). Nothing more. If any student learns something, call it a lucky kid🙏😜😜

2)this teacher is a ‘bit’ concerned about whether a few atleast are able to understand. ( Reality is those few are anyway going to learn with or without a_teacher. Any batch of 50 kids will contain about 4 to 5 kids who learn a bit. This teacher can even ‘brag’ 20 years later that “these 5 were MY STUDENTS 👍” , and these 5 will also ENDORSE this teacher 😜. No mention about “why the other 45 remained dull”

3)My favourite type🙏. These rare+few teachers feel “my responsibility to make sure, that kids learn”( salary is a mere CONSEQUENCE, not their only_purpose for teaching). They ask questions to randomly picked kids across the classroom, to “find out” whether they ‘taught' well? They repeat the lesson if 4 out of 6 kids are unable to answer. Each class is an “examination” for this teacher, whereas for their students, the exams are only 6 times an year. 

The teaching skills….. the way I see, is inversely proportional to the “level” of toughness of lessons 🙏. ( An LKG teacher needs HIGHEST level of skills to teach 13 to 26 alphabets of English, 1 to 10 numerals, rhymes etc. A PhD teacher needs only GnawLedge, and has to give ‘bits’ of hint, about how to Gnaw bits of ledges of undiscovered forest of trees of knowledge…😜)

My bad luck! I came to know, how worthless I was, when I agreed to Volunteer for providing ‘backup’ support to freshers who went through a basic a spiritual program. I was supposed to ‘show’ them the right way of doing certain spiritual practices. Over a period of more than 5 years , I experienced the ‘trials and tribulations ‘ of the ancient Guru's, who were setting rigorous standards for accepting a disciple. And I could ‘visualise’ the highest humanly possible levels of good_teaching skills required only_for spiritual teachers😓😥😭

( The silver lining of my turbulent phase of volunteering was…. I formulated a guess_work of the ‘syllabus’ of ancient Gurukul 😜🙏… 4 items in that syllabus, but it is treated as irrelevant today👍)

Dumbly yours,

psn(19 july, 2025)

Inherited Karma

 Inherited Karma 

🤣

Average minds of present day would ‘repel’ at the very mention of this phrase.

If the mind can afford to merely “look” , then understand, possibly_grasp, and only_then try to disagree, or agree, this phrase can serve a utilitarian purpose 🙏

Did we not inherit our human frame?( We were not a dog, who approached an AI-enabled digitaly_driven 3-D factory to get our frame converted …..dog—>human !

Medically, we can also concede, inheriting certain chronic_type of dis-eases, or at least a vulnerability to it( weak heart/lungs/liver/pancreas/stomach….vital organs 🙏

Karma? Not really a convincing item.

Look at affinity towards nervous stimulants like coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol etc.  kids born of a lineage of addicts, will need more restraints than others, to keep_away from its temptations 😜….  It's a ‘karma', which is a bit easy on our logical brains, to digest.

“Difficult to convince” category! Subtle but very strong.  Family traditions, languages, culture etc. A mother tongue has the ‘potential’ to creep_in, into a child ill-fated to be left at a foreign land, and lucky to visit the land of his biological parents after adulthood.

“More difficult to convince “ category….. acquired karma's, if strong enough , can permeate into the progeny to become an inherited karma😜🙏… genetic engineering 🙏

A true kshatriya would need lesser intensity of training than a true Vysya ( say, an Agrawal, a dedicated business_community) …..when both these join army with the same age, in the same batch.

Again, a “true” Agarwal, even if illiterate, has a greater potential to prosper in running a business, than a well_groomed MBA gold medalist from other non_business community! Hardly any ‘beggars’ among Agarwals🤣.    Here, the ‘Agarwals’ are morally OBLIGED to maintain_awareness(not mere remembering is enough) that….Shri Agrasen was a KING, not a businessMan😜. He was enlightened, and hence CAPABLE of transfusing potential of Vysya-Dharma, a very sacred quality,  into his disciples/followers/progeny. 

“Toughest to get convinced”.....Acquired karma, sustaining for ages, is evidenced in the chants of a janeu_dhaari_pappu, recalling his rishi_lineage_roots, while seeking blessings from an ‘elderly’(+COMPETENT to bless–person ), after prostrating to him/her. Rishi might have been himself,  a shudra_caste by birth😜. But he acquired spiritual karma lasting for eternity 🙏

Acquired karma, sought to be infused( not transfusing), got SOPHISTICATED and came to be known as “nuptials” a ritual, done during a congenial time( nothing but “setting” lab_conditions for ‘seeding’ 🙏).

“Initiation” is yet another classic example of “seeding” a subtle spiritual karma, into a fertile recipient, at a right time, after supplementing that recipient with sophisticated preparations for best_receptivity of the seeding. Hopefully, this seed_karma would bear the fruits of “highest human possibility”.

Kaarmically yours(🙏),

psn(7 jul2025)