Why I stopped 'trying' to be good

 Why I stopped 'trying' to be good?

Throughout my kid age, and even during adulthood, I kept struggling in vain, trying to be 'good'.

Problem was, I had to compromise too often with my own 'sensibility' and had to do something very senseless, just in order to be "good".

somewhere in 1992, somebody opened my eyes to 'see' something which was already quite obvious. Just that, my perception levels were not good_enough to 'observe' what I was able to 'see'.
The eye_opener said "See, if you have be 'good' there have to be 9 others around you who are bad! If all are equally_good, where is the distinction ?" 
I gotcha👍(got it)
The second half of the eye opener was something I didn't have to 'practice' afresh! (It is going to be embarrassing to even read it, so  I omit it🙏. It calls for something not-at-all easy, though damn simple!)


When I stopped 'trying' to be good (to others, to suit their tastes, their comfort zones, their advantage in handling/exploiting me), the consequences were very much on expected lines!🙏 
I became, very different things to different peepals/people:
a) Not so good, but just-okay. ( I help them only when they really need, and ask for it)
b) not good (when they ask me to do what they_want me to do, when they too know it is not the right thing for me to do in that situation.  Like, they dump abnormally excess food onto my plate as my host, and 'expect' me to stuff it into my stomach, suffer indigestion, and other consequences! I tell them very politely : "My stomach is not your garbage_bin 🙏. I shall remember to be careful, when you serve my food!")
c) Un_amenable, bad (when I refuse to part with my hard_earned savings, to give them a non-refundable loan to enable them for their_routine_essentials, Where as they frittered away their adequate income to pamper their 'luxury' desires, way_beyond their means!)

I was not 'causing' any deliberate/intentional/sadistic inconvenience/harm/injury/hurdle etc to anyone around.   Quite simple---my own life pursuit was already a huge task for me to chase.  Spirituality. And any idiot like me, on a spiritual path, is automaticallly_harmless to all others around. The very basic-requirements for the journey are such, that my thoughts, words & deeds(actions) are entirely my bijness, and nothing to do with anyone else😂.

But, if I mind my_own_business,  I am a sitting duck to a few around (Materialistic mind of the present day is such, their antenna is ever looking for a 'scape goat' to exploit). 
Here, a story I had heard in my kid age, helped me to reach for my common_sense 🙏. A snake decided to be 'good'. I decided to follow a saint's advise 'not to bite humans with its poisonous fangs'.  It suited the humans around, when it did not 'pose' a threat to their lives.  One day, kids were playing nearby where the snake was taking rest, coiled.  (A still snake doesn't get noticed! Please remember to check and verify this. Looks like a mystery, but it's true 🙏). Accidentally, the ball with_which they were playing hit the snake.  They expected the snake to get angry and bite. But our_snake was on the path of trying_to_be_good 👍.  It did not react.  Kids grew curious.  They threw a tiny pebble. No reaction. Emboldened, they used larger stones and enjoyed hurting the snake.  With great difficulty, the snake withstood the injuries and remained_good.  When it could bear no more, it crawled away, and headed straight to its Guru, that saint and complained "see ...  I tried to follow your advise, and I am now bruised, bleeding, and suffering 😭"
The saint said, " I had only asked you not_to_bite.  Did I ask you not to Hisss????"
Story over! 
I used the 'common_sense' in that story.  I hisss (like a snake), and those few who "take me for granted" now keep a safe distance.   For my part,  I don't carry any hate/anger/dislike/etc against them(these negatives are a hurdle on spiritual path 🙏). I become 'dead' to them, as far as I am concerned. And, we can''t exploit a 'dead' fool!😩😉...  I don't 'exist' in their experience. 


Very Badly yours,
psn(6th March, 2026)

Lessons for me from the Iran war

 Lessons for me, from Iran War

Iran’s ability to “withstand” even 6 days, has surprised many of the attackers. Did they underestimate Iran? 

Underestimate what_exactly? Weapons or their strong will ?

Or their practice with facing adversities from nature & humans?

Other nations who had ‘weakness' for crude oil ( dependence) jumped in 😜

Bharat withstood invasions OF ALL KINDS for thousands of years.

Whether “Indians” are resilient or not….the irreligious Hinduism of Indians is RESILIENT. 😜

Individuals who are able to protect their own Hinduism within themselves, are protected by_the_Hinduism inside_them, PROPORTIONATELY 😜. ( Dharmo rakhshati Rakshita 🙏).

Core of Hinduism is Sanatan Dharma.

The essence of Sanatan Dharma is the 4 declaratory truths.

Experiential-awareness, STABILISED within,  of the 4 declaratory truths ( MahaVakyas) is the ultimate protection against any kind of invasion/war 🙏

It works for me ( to the 00.00001% extent) that I managed thus far 😰.   Enough to reassure me that I need not keep checking the map/milestones(scriptures) all the time, time to time, to know whether I am on the correct route/road/track 🙏.  My only job is to continue my journey. Clarity is there about the ‘road’ leading me towards the destination. The road and journey itself will become the destination ( mystic secret 😜). My baby_steps....choicelessness is the only freedom ever. 

I can't do much, if Iran or its enemies decide to fight_to_finish. But I can learn from them both 🙏. 

Peacefully yours,

psn( 6 Mar, 2026)

 Scriptures

3 march 2026

[03/03, 10:54 am] a query, seeking my_vieews:

 I love listening to Upanyasam and Bhagawata Puranam. It falls in the realm of belief. However I feel it has its own value. Reading scriptures also helps. Your views.

[03/03, 10:59 am] PSN:

 Okay....

My personal/private/individual take......

on this.....

"All the known scriptures, in all its various forms( written, remembered, spoken, lectured, propounded etc) are....either a roadmap or a milestone for a seeker. By themselves they don't 'lead' us unto Moksha"

This principle worked for_me too well 👍

psn(3 march, 2026)

Post script:  then, what else ?

Walk the pathless path👍(with or without a Guru 😜🙏)

Proof: AadiShankara already tolded "नहि नहि रक्षति डुकृञ्करणे" 

Khunnas(खुन्नस,in hindi, Vindictiveness)

 Khunnas(खुन्नस,in hindi, Vindictiveness)

I love this word "Khunnas(खुन्नस,in hindi).....

Love is due to the innocence in the "people" who use it tooo often :))

Mumbaikars!
Yesss!
They observe its occurrence often because they don't carry it themselves!
I shall give an irrefutable evidence 🙏
Does 'vindictiveness'/Khunnas(खुन्नस,) allow "inclusiveness"??????🙏
Now,   without inclusiveness can any 'Metro' (like Mumbai, with all its highest attributes that can be only envied, not acquired, by any other metro of that-size, be posssible???
MOST-COSMOPOLITON city 🙏( Financial capital of Bharat---- they defied the maxim "money and power corrupts)


The secret(now)
Somehow, aam aadmi of mumbai decided to walk fast!
We hasten our speed with a purpose (to catch a bus before it leaves the bus-stop. A housewife hastens towards the stove "Oh! The milk is boiled. shouldn't allow it to spill over.  A cowherd hastens towards a cow which might get lost, if allowed to continue its diverted walk :)) .... and so on)
A mumbaikar walks damn f a s t....  without needing any purpose. I had to stand+stare on the famous Dadar-overbridge, for 60 full minutes just-to-observe common folks scurrying in both-directions, with a stern look, without any 'purpose'.   "Keep busy" must have been a Unison mantra they imbibed as a CONTAGION :)) ....  a fresher to mumbai , who are in thousands, each day, from nook & corner of Bharat (that is India), pour in, and manage to find the means of livelihood. They learn in 'no_time' to adjust to ABSENCE OF Basic_amenities, increasing  EACH_DAY,  due to swelling influx!

Now, the secret 🙏....
Inclusiveness is the adhesive, that holds, INDIVIDUALS, ....  INDIVIDUALLY-together!( Not needing any boss/dada/leader/neta/priest/religious-head).
Incrementing the 'pace' of life (despite severe odds... Super crowded local trains, streets, overbridges, living spaces of match-box sizes) keeps the mind 'free' from Khunnas/vindictiveness.  The minor ailments like greed, desire, jealousy, etc doesn't get ENOUGH Nutrients to thrive in the mind. :)) 
Innocence is unawares, because it is an inevitable by-product in mass_scale, in a cluster called "Mumbaikars". Yessss! innocence out of ignorance/unawareness, is vulnerable to exploitation 24/7 🙏

It then dawned on me...   "Hey! the core essence of Sanatan Dharma" (VasudaivaKutumbakam) is available as a remnant in Mumbai!!!!  Name is camouflaged as... "cosmopoliton" city! 

I still love Mumbaikars 🙏
Quite innocently and grossly unawares, they end up being a Guru to me privately, personally, about one-ness, togetherness, jointness, about Vasudaiva Kutumbakam.  Even Ajmal Kasab (himself a victim of radicalisation), couldn't 'CONTAIN' the resilience of Mumbaikar towards Sanatan Dharma. Mumbai bounces back to 'life' at super speed even after the Worst kind of any terror attack!
My only worry is, we non-Mumbaikars (world-minus-mumbaikars) do-not-know-even, how to preserve this rare species with their "mumbaikarNess"🙏

My heartfelt NAMAN 🙏 TO each of the 'nameless' mumbaikar of Mumbai. 

Without any खुन्नस, Yours,
psn( 3rd March, 2026)

Learning and studying

 Learning and studying 

😂

I will make it ‘simple’ 🙏

( Not my problem, if “simple is not always easy” ….in this case too, for any reader, in grasping the distinction between the 2😥🙏)

My mom died an illiterate 🙏 ( zero scope for “studies” ….the way literacy is ‘structured’ in the design of “education” in schools 🙏)

She ‘learnt’ telugu very well. Well_enough to become inter-woven seamlessly with telugu_born locals at Hyderabad 🙏. ( Probably, ‘how to learn’ was an inherited karma, in her, when her elder sister-----also an illiterate , wedded before puberty ----managed to learn Telugu+ sanskrit well enough to pose a formidable threat to pandits in Sanskrit, experts in the ancient tarka_shastra, at a remote village ‘inkoluu’ ( near Chirala, Andhra Pradesh) 🙏

I ‘studied’ telugu as a subject(2nd language) at school, from 4th to 12th, and even ‘passed’ with good marks😜🙏👍👍

But I never managed to ‘learn’ the language, except for faltering with even the ‘working knowledge’ level required for basic/primitive communication with Telugu_only_peepals/People 😜🙏.

Matter over.

Switch on your “already available+ inbuilt Sense_of_discrimination”, if at all your priorities permit your mind to ‘perceive’ the distinction judiciously 🙏

Studiously yours,

psn(2 Mar 2026)

Postscript 

 A joke...

Kids of rich guys try to Study swimming at a swimming school, but are hesitant to jump into a turbulent river to swim across.

Whereas,

An illiterate kid of a poor fisherman 'learns' enough swimming ( naturally) to wade through powerful waves at the shores of a mighty Ocean 😜

 An honest confession:

My tribal Brethren in deep African jungles are ....

*_hundred times better Learned than me(🙏), about  mother_nature, when they live_with nature, because I have only_studied nature in my school, as a subject "nature study & hygeine"_* 😞

Clarity versus confusion

 Clarity Versus Confusion

😔

I need clarity(of my-mind) to write something sensible and worthwhile on this 🙏 

The reader needs some clarity to pick flaws in the basic premise of what I propose to write. The advantage for a reader over me is, he can re-visit to read (even if I remove this blog due to a sense of shame of having indulged in stupidity of spreading 'confusion', clever ones among readers might copypaste the words in the meanwhile 😆)

Without the  intervention of emotions, the brain as a processor, seldom 'causes' any confusion, by itself. (A robot doesn't store or report any 'confusion' about its own data. The data might be flawed, wrong, erroneous etc... But 'confusion' is absent. Inconclusiveness, uncertainity, etc precede the emotional state called 'confusion'. But confusion can be isolated with its symptoms like 'no peace of mind' 

We know of a 'confused mind'. We do not refer to a confused brain. 
Dreams are not 'found' to be confusing as yet!😊 (earlier,  I had written about 'boring dream' 😊, just to induce 'confusion' and hoping to lead it to clarity!)

Excessive confusion is vulnerable, and susceptible to driving a mind in either of the two directions, depending on the emotional stability we are equipped  with at that point of time. A stable emotion leads to clarity (a bit rare in the present day situation).. ...  negative emotions are a passport to intensifying the confusion driving us towards madness. And when madness overpowers, anger, frustration, etc can cause harm to oneself, one way or the other. If we can identify 'confusion' snowballing, we are a 'bit' safe. It's like "If I can see a lightening, I escaped it!!"😉

Reading 'about' confusion shouldn't 'create' confusion, normally 🙏
Clarity might evade clarity about itself, but only if we play tricks of looking for shortcuts 😊

Emotional stability insulates us from confusion to a great extent. (Cunning scammers, political toolkit manufacturers, find it difficult to 'trap' emotionally stable minds 😭. Politicians find "sympathy-Wave" as a golden opporChutney to grab power, when their misdeeds are 'fresh' in the minds of the voters).

"I am here due to my madness, not for my stupidity 😠" growled an inmate of a mental health home from the window. A fellow lost the wheel fastening nuts into a gutter, after replacing a puctured wheel of a car/4-wheeler. He was "confused".  He was looking around to find out "What to do now???". That inmate of mental health home was watching the drama, and offered help(actually, clarity), saying "remove one nut from each of the 3 wheels, fasten it on the 4th wheel". Damn thing  worked!!! The car can move slowly till it reaches a nearest 'spares-shop'.  Surprised at-the-clarity of an in-mate of a mental health home, the car driver exclaimed to him "Thank you!!!!!!  But what are you doing here???😕 Now, the confusion is about "So-much clarity, and still in a mental hospital???why???"
That's where our dear mental patient offers 'Clarity' saying " I am here for my madness, not stupidity"
(I leave it to the 'clarity' of the readers to find our "why that mad inmate had 'clarity' as against the 'confusion' of a 'sane & mentally healthy' fellow trying to fit the 4th wheel....)

Expert_Techies are even-confused about "why am I getting confused 'always' when dealing with relationships?" ( programming needs only "logic" and zero emotions.  They invoke 'robotic' precision while coding....  not while_designing, because the emotions are shut-down temporarily, leaving the processor called 'brain' to reach its peak_level_efficiency 😊, engaging in only logical calculations!)

Two drunkards were quarrelling.  One was saying "this is the Sun, up there on the sky!". The other quarreled "Nah! It's the moon!".  No confusion. Both are clear about what they say👍. They started fighting about "I am right, you are wrong". A third fellow appeared. He was sober. They compelled him to 'settle' the issue.  He-got-confused!!!  Supporting one fellow will anger the other fellow! "What to do?"(usual symptom of confusion).  His-CLARITY had nothing to do with Sun-or-Moon issue. He politely said "See, I am quite new to this place! I don't know whether a Sun or a Moon rises at this hour to be seen in_this_place...  I am not competent to judge accurately 🙏" .  They both nodded. They let him off, to seek Justice elsewhere 😉 


Clearly yours,
psn(2 march, 2026)

Am I dreaming?

 Am I dreaming?

(third blog of the day🙏😥... couldn't think of losing this funny thought!)

I am not going to ask you whether you get a question "like 'am I dreaming?' while you are also inside your dream" (needless embarrassment).

Instead, what if I ask you "were you ever aware that you were BREATHING, while inside your dream?" This question might make better sense 😔. We can work out the possibilities using Logic 😉.... Dream is possible only during_sleep. And when asleep, our sense organs get withdrawn👍.... Breath awareness is dependent on sensory level of perception only!

De-addiction centers

When nothing else seems to work, the psychiatrists there suggest "meditation" for de-addiction. But if my blogs seem to cause any possible 'addiction'....   please try verifying with a psychiatrist, who can answer without charging any fees 😊( because, my own view is my blogs can cause only de-addiction of the mind, and any de-addiction is related only via/through a mind only!)

Breathing

We are alive only due to the fact that we are breathing (obviating even breath is indeed a 'capability' a siddhi, possible  through the desi Yogic practices, but somebody who is adept at being alive without needing to breathe, doesn't bother to read my blogs, except for pure-fun!).
Is not breathing a non-commercial activity? And, it is 'the' most important activity of our life. Unfortunately, our mind refuses to make it into a habit, to be aware of our breath 😉. Try as much as you like👍.... breath awareness isn't going to oblige us in becoming a habit! In fact, mind does everything possible, all-the-time, whenever we try to maintain the awareness that we are breathing, to divert our attention 😭
Are we not denying ourselves the opporChutney to get de-addicted from commercializing our mind, when we argue "why the hell should I try to become aware of my breath???" 
Breathing is the most vital activity in our life,
Breath is a 24/7 activity that is 100% non-commercial. (No need to 'want/desire/etc' to breathe for any exclusive  commercial greed/gain/benefit/selfishness/etc. We rush to a doctor when we gasp for breath becasuse some other greed or desire wants us to live😉. When a baby is breathless, it simply struggles, it does not 'request' for help!).  We can (if interested) use a thought like "I am never idle. I am contributing towards life to happen on this planet, when I am exhaling. Plants need my exhalation to live. I am immensely grateful to the greenery around for the oxygen they exhale, and I need it inevitably to live".  (Breath awareness has much higher potentials, than we can imagine, using a 'mind' 😇... but that is for a 'seeker' to know about it).

dreamily yours,
psn(28th Feb, 2026)

 

 

Gratitude and commitment at its BEST for ever

 Gratitude and commitment at its BEST for ever

This narrative is purely from an epic story 🙏

Impossible to prove that it really happened 🙏

But, if and only if, a mind can afford to deepen its perception to delve into the Symbolism embedded in it, a concept related to cosmic laws ( sanatan dharma) will manifest ‘scientifically’. ( Unfortunately for a modern mind, the entire bulk of Hindu_literature is loaded with heavy symbolism 😭. Exactly why, the incompetent minds become self_styled propounders of Hindu spirituality, and end up desecrating its values!)

The story:

Highest ever gratitude: Shiva says to Dadhichi, a rishi :”dear Dadhichi, you saved me the embarrassment of ‘asking' you for something which shall henceforth be known as the highest sacrifice ever, when you gave it to me voluntarily”.( The item was a crucial component for Vajraayudha, a sophisticated missile 🙂)

Not stopping with this expression of unprecedented gratitude, Shiva proceeded to display his Unprecedented Commitment 🙏.

Highest ever commitment: Shiva personally says to Mrs Dadhichi “Henceforth, Madam…you are my personal responsibility” ( no delegating or outsourcing to other Gods, who are OMNIPOTENT likewise 🙏)

Humbly yours,

psn(28 Feb, 2026)

Postscript:  this way of viewing these two sequential incidents continue to inspire me to ‘try’ gratitude & commitment to my_humble and diminutively meagre best🙏

Commercialization of mind

 Commercialization of mind

Do we not wonder ‘what is happening with we_humans?’ Where are we heading to?

Nah!!!   We “think” we are wondering. But in reality, we stopped “wondering” ( as a quality in us) at the kid age itself. Parenting has ‘become' (got reduced into) teaching logical skills to the kids in exclusivity of emotional skills. Wondering is an emotional skill! 

A.I. The robot doesn't ‘wonder’. Logical ‘values’ are precise, and can at best only keep asking questions.  Wondering includes asking, but asking is not wondering🙏

So, we ‘ask’ what is happening with us?(Logic allows asking. Only emotional skill can afford “vismaya”/wondering. )

Asking doesn't bother to ‘wait' for a sensible answer. Illogical to ‘wait' without defining ‘how long’?

When emotions(positive) peak, needs are fewer! Test it by yourselves 🙏. When we are too_happy, we are not too fussy about comforts, not even needs like mild_hunger, and we say “it's okay 👍…I am floating in joy(actually, happiness, not joy😜)

Negative emotions are the nutrients and nourishment, for the enslaving-logic,  to dictate our lives. ( Positive emotions are inclusive, whereas negative emotions tend to be divisive).  Logic divides and only thereafter it can ‘calculate’ using addition, multiplication, comparison, and Excel in Hedging_funds, future profits 😜

That's how we became commercialized. 🤣🤣🤣. 

There is hardly any commercial interest in re-acquiring positive emotions 😥 😭. Without skills and potential in positive emotions, how can we experience joyousness?  Happiness is when a mind feels a match between desires and the situation. Mismatch ‘used’ to just disappoint. Today mismatch is capable of stress/hypertension and such big things 🤣👍👍

Are we not improving our commercialized minds????( A question, not that I wonder🙏)

We market instead of bartering, selling or trading. ( Advantage is, we can create a “market” for anything & anywhere.  Vote-bank, fake_spirituality, a market for newer and created diseases/corona/covid-19…. etc…just anything that we can think of👍. To hell with trust👍)

Marketing strategy has evolved.

From providing the 'basic needs' (thousand years ago)

It improvised to 'creating' a need (cleverness, but still a small amount of honesty is left), hundred years ago 

Next, it shifted to creating a "Dependency" . Here, honesty had_to_be abandoned 🙏😢

We depend on anything we buy, use, see for the first time even 🙏🤣

Mobile handset is not working (missing, stolen), see what happens to my_mind? My sorrow at a condolence meeting turns into a worry, occupied by tension 😜

Switch off the electric supply for 4 plus hours, and a surgical strike via sky is a success (radars are out into deep coma, and batteries are not recharged.)

Human intellect struggles for nominal recognition when evaluation is outsourced to A.I. enabled robots to give marks in University 😜. 

It's okay 👍.  Whatever seems to work! Logic 🙏 ( Don't complain about growing psychological disorders, breaking down of relationships, depletion of emotional happiness…. Forget ‘joy’.)

Cosmic laws are infallible. Divided fragments of ‘one’ will eventually collide mutually to merge into the blackhole (shiva_tatva, nothingness. 😜). The few fragments which escape will joyously wait, for eternity! When we “become” a pure joy, eternity is eternally this_moment_only🙏👍. No logic can make me understand this. I can only trust.

Non-commercially yours,

psn(28 Feb, 2026)

Open secret of Joint Family

 Open secret of Joint Family

Somehow, I feel   usually emphatic about this blog.
I feel like 'not to bother about any concurrence from any reader'. Not an ideal thought. Not a healthy sign for a blogger 😓

But, I am genuinely receptive to any well considered disagreement with my views, to ensure that I keep my learning curve vertical, not horizontally flat alongside aging 😜


Reverence towards well-deserved-Elderliness (not related to age) was the only factor that sustained a Large family.
We coined the word "Joint" family, only when families broke/shrunk. Otherwise, the "Large" had a wider scope of inclusiveness without bounds 🤣Not just a joint-family within blood-relatives. Almost any reverential person around was considered+treated as a part of one's own family! 

My personal experience:  In 1967, a huge number of uninvited villagers congregated themselves at a private ritual conducted for-me. The formal invitees were less than 20% . The ritual itself, (I realised only-decades later,) is supposed to be the most important one in my life! But the by-product was of no lesser significance, in as much as that, it opened my eyes to a mega manifestation/display of 'what a Large family used to 'look like'(not exactly "was") in the ancient days !!!!"  The body language of the elders of the village looked like 'they were all a part of my/our household itself'. Their activities assumed an air of "we are privileged to do our part in this ritual". Much to the surprise(and a little disappointment too) of the 'elders in our family', my dad ordered me to present the token-fee of Rs5/- to the entire gang of local musicians who rendered a highly-charged emotional performance on their musical instruments(mind you, quite un-solicited) for an hour during the auspicious chant-hours.  I cheerfully obeyed my dad's instructions, in prostrating fully before the chief musician, before submitting the 5 rupee note with the traditional betel leaves and areca nut. That man was in tears of gratitude at this unexpected display of reverence from a freshly initiated-lad of just 13 !

I realised experientially, the distinction between eastern(Bharat) culture and western(modern) culture. Ours 'was' a reverential culture. Theirs 'is' a freedom culture. We have adopted theirs, forsaking ours. Reverence, obviates the need to look for freedom and independence. From a distance, reverence and slavery 'look-alike' 😉 Can't help!

Emphatically yours,
psn(26 Feb, 2026)

Merit and competence

 

Merit and competence

One of the few pairs of words about which, we seem to have clarity about their distinction, and yet we miss the distinction during its application.

“I do not know what merits I had earned, in my past life, to deserve so much of love/comforts/wealth/prosperity/etc, in this life time !” A few humble souls express thus, when they feel gratitude for something they received, without working for it. The choice of word is ‘merit’ and not competence. So, merit is earned from others, where as competence is acquired, at the minimal requirement level.

A very meritorious youth, with a gold medal in academics, meets disappointment when he himself discovers that he lacks competence to handle a routine situation at the workplace, which is so-effortlessly handled by a fellow who got the same qualification with barely just-pass-marks. Merit was ‘official recognition’ accorded by competent authorities in the academia!!! Then, what went wrong??? Probably, the criteria for ‘merit’ lacked something that missed to ensure a minimal competence required at the workplace, where the work is related to the same professional qualification. (we are not trying to plug loopholes in our ‘system’ here. We are merely trying to attempt a ‘clarity’ between the two, which will help us to function better in our routine life personally and individually).

In rare few professions, where competence is crucial to survival, we are clever to ensure competence. For instance, in armed forces, even a barber, a sweeper, or a driver, needs some basic training to handle a simple rifle or a gun, at least to save himself, when he becomes the sole survivor of an infiltrated attack by the soldiers from the other side. Minimum competence is ensured. Merit is when a soldier gets decorated with war medals, for a performance far exceeding the highest levels of ‘competence’ expected from a soldier. A doctor, given a job, without adequate competence, ends up granting ‘moksha’ to more number of patients than his meritorious counterpart, but only in the form of a clinical death, and nothing to do with the ‘spirit’. We need to re-calibrate our norms while diluting the levels of competence for certain jobs, in our laws!

Ability or capability is just a potential which could be latent and untapped as yet. Competence is often evaluated by a parameter/yardstick, when incompetence is likely to cause any disruption to any routine affecting any person/s. That is why the ‘competence’ gets stripped off during the period of ‘suspension’ of a Cop! His abilities/capabilities remain intact. But competence to deploy it is denied by the civilian norms.

I was wondering about these terms ‘competence’ and ‘merit’ in relation to my personal and private arena of pursuit. Spirituality !
A story, I heard.... Once, Aadi Shankara told his disciples “assemble for an important lesson today”. Every disciple eagerly made it to the classroom, excitedly waiting for that ‘important’ lesson. But the teacher, AadiShankara, seemed to be still waiting for ‘somebody’. Everybody grew curious! Who is he waiting for? We all are here. Nobody is missing. Then whom-for is he waiting ? Then suddenly, looking out of the small window, a lad appeared, picking a few flowers for the next worship/Puja, from the front-yard a little away. Shankara kept looking at that flower-picker. One of the disciples remarked to the teacher “Sir, he is just an idiot meant to be used to do only odd jobs like picking flowers, sweeping, cleaning, fetching water etc. Why wait for him? He isn’t capable of understanding the lessons taught to us. Incompetent. (and so on)” But Shankara shot a side glance at that humble lad, with a spiritual war-head mounted on that ‘glance’. At once that lad ‘attained’ a coveted state of lighting_up of his intellect, and he started singing a praise for his Guru, (famous verse ‘thotaka-Ashtakam’ I guess), and prostrated to his Guru, Aadi Shankara with deep gratitude and reverence ! Merits of that lad’s past life was accorded due recognition by the Guru, and the parameters of ability, capacity, or competence was bypassed by the guru, in granting a spiritual attainment. (I have a personal experience of having performed a spiritual practice, without any prior practice!.  I fetched the first levels of results the very first day!. Traditionally, this practice is said to require some 22 years, including a whole set of other rigorous practices, as a preparation for this one. A combo of 2 mudras, and 1 kriya! This experience compelled me to concede that there is indeed a past life, and even a carry-forwards of its merits, by the spirit, waiting for a 'mind' to utilise it at the physical and material level of this world . I would therefore recommend to await an experience without blindly conceding or negating the theory about any past/future lives!)

Incompetence, inabiltiy, disability, incapacitatedness, etc had no relevance for spiritual evolvement. These qualities are relevant only for material world. Yet, these very qualities, if put to use by us to the best of our abilities, would fetch us a ‘merit’ enough to deserve the highest human possibility, which is a spiritual attainment. To me, it appears, that there are not water-tight compartments between these distinct words. Doing my very best, always, leads me quite naturally, climbing on the ladder of heirarchy, towards the highest merits. Maybe over a few lifetimes!

Incompetently yours,

psn(26 Feb, 2026)

Serious Fun

 A viral video clip.

A joke, using most popular questions asked to celebrities!

I too forwarded it, being amazed by the answers, because I too had ‘evaded’ these questions thrust on to me by ‘elders,’ with their ‘preachy_stuff’ 😜

Teach the ‘basics’ of ‘life_itself’ to a kid and he won't need these fanciful things like “big dream, big problems, big secrets, big plans, best hobbies, and most importantly a  “thought” for motivation” 😜😜😜

( Do I need these, to “live” sensibly? Intellect is far more powerful than a dream, problem, secret_gimmick, future plan, stupid hobby, or getting stuck into a ‘thought’ in the name of “motivating thoughts”.  Humans are ‘endowed’ with a huge potential to stay at the peak levels of intellect 🙏. Our epic story of krishna, in Mahabharat, shows how a Yogi like krishna goes through all kinds of situations in life, and yet stays untouched by any of those! His advice, the Song_Divine, bhagavadgita, is enough to reach the highest human POSSIBILITY 🙏. )

The joke:

1).what's your BIGGEST dream?

Answer: my biggest dream is to dream big

2).What's your biggest problem?

Answer: my biggest problem is to know what's my problem 

3)what is the secret of  success?

Answer: secret of success is a big secret 

4)do you have a specific future plan?

Answer: my future plan is to plan my future 

5)What is your favourite hobby?

Answer: my favourite hobby is to decide my hobby!

6) what do you do to stay motivated?

Answer : I motivate myself to stay motivated 

My response to this joke: 

It was for "fun".

Apparently, it looks like, he is missing his priorities, in trying to hoodwink the very tools/aids/questions which helps a person to set the priorities right.

But inadvertently, his answers seem to sync with the basics of spirituality 😜

Look again and see where it would take him if he seriously implemented his replies 🤣

( I never got caught up with any of these questions asked to this fellow 😜. Yet, I think I didn't miss the priorities either👍)

Blankly yours,

psn (25 Feb, 2026)

Paa into paa

 Paa into paa

A classroom joke in my school days 🙏😂

“Paa into paa” the teacher was dictating the “principle” in physics 😓

Desi kids 🙏

Not familiar with phoren accent, not Equipped with the ‘embedded’ software as an interface to decrypt the accent and Reach the correct word “power” 😭

A kid thought ‘aloud’ by mistake 😓

He uttered “ paa into paa????”( his TONE was conveying his ‘bewilderment’ 🙏🥵)

Teacher “😡😡😡😡”( stern look, with a perceptible pause in her dictaShun! 

We all laughed. Teacher now angry square (anger²).

Physics….. fulcrum…..

“Power X powerArm = Load X loadArm” that's all 🙏

Galileo: “give me a fulcrum long enough, and I shall LIFT the Warald/world👍” ( figuratively an example to afford easy_learning of Concept involved 😓.  “Power required to lift a load, on a fulcrum is INVERSELY proportional to the length of the power arm.”( interpretation of laaa/law)!

That teacher was ‘highly’ kwaliFied, compared to several other aged ones. Ironically, we kids had a better reason to revere those humbal/humble elders a bit more😓( buzurGee/elderliNess). That, was the bone of contention 🙏

Jocularly yours,

psn(24 Feb, 2026)