Inner peace is called 'inner' peace for a reason

Peace and happiness are very much like conjoined twins or two sides of the same coin, whatever way you like to look at them. One pulls along the other. They are also the most sought after state of being that everybody yearns for and works towards. People embark on different paths to achieve these twins. Some work their bottoms off to create wealth and find happiness in their professional success and money and others travel to exotic destinations to be closer to nature than they would ordinarily be and find happiness in those experiences. Some embrace sport as a way of life and find happiness in the adrenalin rush that it gives while some find the happiness and rush in food, drinks and other indulgences.

However, in spite of all this effort and the multiple paths people take, they realise that they sometimes end up with inner pieces and not inner peace. People who work hard many a time work too hard and burn their health up in the process. So much so that the Japs have coined a term ‘Karoshi’ for it, which translates to death by overwork. People who travel extensively have hidden health risks or social consequences. People in sports suffer injuries and people who indulge get addicted. So how do we attain this inner peace without the resultant side effects? Well, we don’t! Because peace and happiness cannot be achieved as they are already within you. Remember the blog ‘You are already happy’ that I wrote two years ago? (http://kingkongsfft.blogspot.in/2015/09/you-are-already-happy.html) This write-up is more of a supplement to it.

The irony of the whole situation is that the words ‘inner peace’ themselves signify that the peace is there somewhere inside all of us. But we always tend to look for it outside. That is human fallacy. We always love a challenge. We like to assume that anything that we are looking for is hidden in some elusive Shangri-La which nobody knows the whereabouts of. Peace is also one such unfortunate item. The day we decide to look inside our self and contemplate upon our self, the path to inner peace will reveal itself. We do not need to stand in some convoluted yoga asana for hours together as the sages do in epic movies.  We just need to peel off the layers of self-doubt and ego to attain inner peace. We are all basically like onions and if we peel off the non-palatable skin and layers we will end up with the fresh heart.

Peeling off the layers of ego and self-doubt is not as easy as peeling an onion for the evening curry though. We run away from relinquishing self-doubt and ego without fail. It takes the concerted effort of self and an outside force, usually a teacher or a coach to work towards that. The task of losing one’s ego is like pushing two magnets with the same polarity towards each other. They will repel each other vehemently. We will resist any attempt to break our ego and self-doubt because we feel that we are losing our self by doing that. This is because we as humans identify with our ego than with our true self. That is why a majority of the people who are requested to describe themselves will inordinately describe what job they do, where they live and what they have accomplished and not utter a word of what kind of people they are.

All this said and done, people who have knowledge of physics will tell you that two magnets with the same polarity will repel each other initially but when they come close enough, the stronger magnet will change the orientation of the magnetic domains of the weaker magnet and you will all of a sudden find that they are attracting each other. In the same way, if only we allow ourselves to alter our orientation (p.s : not the sexual one) and peel off the layers of ego and self-doubt we will in fact be able to peer into our ‘inner’ self and find inner peace.

In short, we need to let go and let ourselves be pulled towards inner peace than fight it. It is like diving from a plane 15,000 feet above the ground and letting gravity do the rest, except in the case of skydiving we better use a parachute, without which we will most definitely end up in pieces and find eternal peace. Well, let us stick to the metaphor for now! 

The most dangerous creature on the planet

It was a beautiful morning! The sky was a crystal blue as if a turquoise cloche covered the earth. The waters were serene except for an isolated wave every now and then. The best part of the sea for scuba diving they said. John slowly ambled his way to the edge of the boat, weighed in by the heavy scuba equipment. He had paid top dollar to get the best scuba dive organiser on the cape for this dive. He was accompanied by a guide from the dive organisers, a stocky fellow who looked like he did scuba diving from the moment he stepped out of high school, with a perpetual frown creasing his face. They eased themselves off the stern of the boat into the azure waters of the cape.

A half hour into the dive, John felt his muscles cramp a little, fruit of all the gallivanting and extra beer the previous night. He signalled to the guide that they need to head back. John was gauging the distance back to the boat when he felt a presence in the water next to him and that presence was definitely not the forever frowning guide; unless the guide knew how to swim at more than a forty kilometres per hour. Being a marine biologist, two words crossed his mind. Carcharodon Carcharias, or by the name that normal mortals know it by, the great white shark!  The boat was a good twenty metres away and John felt his muscles burn. It was not the beer or his lack of exercise this time, it was pure panic. John also realised that he was in the presence of one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet!

He swivelled around to spot the guide a few feet away, who was now gesturing for him to swim to the safety of the boat. So he aimed for the boat and swam with all the energy he could muster. The twenty meters started feeling like twenty miles and John wondered whether he was going to meet his death today. His knowledge of sharks didn’t help the situation. He knew that the great white didn’t have any natural predators and had gained the epithet of the Great White Death for good reason. It was responsible for the highest number of unprovoked attacks on humans. One of the most dangerous creatures on the planet!

When he got to a few metres of the boat, he decided to check on the guide. To his dismay John realised that the guide was no longer behind him! What was behind him though was a large murky shape the size of a minivan, a minivan that was approaching fast. The snout of a great white is very uncharacteristic of its reputation. It looks like the killer fish is approaching you with a bright wide smile with all its shiny teeth, to give you a hug. That is, until the teeth part and it bites your head off. The most dangerous creature on the planet! So John watched the shark rush towards him and along with it his imminent death. He was not a man of God, but at that moment he let out a cry for help to the Almighty. Then he shut his eyes and waited for his demise.

That was when he heard the sound, like the sound of metal hitting rubber. John slowly opened his eyes and realised that the azure clear waters around him were crimson red now. The great white which was going to make a meal of him was now drifting away from him, oozing blood with a harpoon pierced right through its head. He also felt a hand on his shoulder, the hand of the guide who had shot the shark dead. John felt an immense sense of relief and gratitude to the stocky guide with the perpetual frown. John also realised he was in the presence of the most dangerous creature on the planet! 

The battle wages within you, not outside

News articles and fights have become synonymous with each other nowadays. All that we hear or see when we put on the news or take up a news article is about how the rest of the world is fighting the ISIS in the Middle East, how law enforcement is fighting the jihadists, how the US is sabre rattling in the backyard of the Chinese and how the North Koreans are shooting missiles into the sky every other day. We also hear about the fight against corruption, inhumane treatment of animals, rape and theft; fight for property as also fight in the name of religion. Over the centuries, the reasons for fights or battles have shifted from extrinsic factors to intrinsic ideology. When that happens, the reasons to fight also multiply as ideologies differ from person to person.

This fact is surprisingly seen in the context of Yugas, which stand for eras or epochs of time as given in the Hindu puranic texts. The four primary yugas cited therein are the Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and the Kali Yuga. Though the texts talk about inception of time well before the start of the Satya Yuga, let us stick to these four cycles of time for the purpose of this discussion. Satya Yuga was the age of truth. There was utmost intelligence, virtuousness and content in that age. Hence there arose no question of war or fights. The second yuga was the Treta Yuga. The Indian epic Ramayana fell in this time cycle where Lord Rama fought and vanquished Ravana, the demon lord who kidnapped his wife Sita. In this yuga, it was a fight of good versus evil. The third yuga was the Dwapara yuga. The great war of Mahabharata fell in this time cycle where the Pandavas fought and defeated the Kauravas. The great war was a fight between two families for control of a nation. It signified the lust for power and control which lead to the fall of both parties in the end. The fourth yuga which is ongoing as per the texts is the Kali yuga, which is described as an age of darkness and ignorance. The fights which we see in this age are because of differences in personal beliefs and ideology. There are fights within families and communities because members don’t agree to the same thing.

Therefore, you see that as the cycles of humanity progress, the closer to oneself the fight gets. We have reached a stage where the battle is not for larger goals. It is not a fight of good against evil. It is not between nations anymore. Even the fight between nations is no longer just for control of resources or land. What is happening in the Middle East today is a typical example. Different factions of the same country are fighting among themselves because the beliefs and values of each faction are different.

This status is only going to worsen as the years pass by and will reach a stage where every person will be pulled in two different directions from within, to support a particular ideal or other; to do right as against wrong. What is right though? Does what I consider right, construe the same to you? Or is it wrong in your perspective? What do we do when we reach such a point of conflict? What we can do is cut out all the jargon and propaganda and turn within and reflect. Self-reflection really helps because many a time the answer to our questions is also within us. The problem is that we always turn outwards for the answer.

Inward  introspection sounds simple, but in fact is nowhere close to easy. Sitting in a lotus position on the floor, with eyes closed and listening to the hum of the ‘Om’ chant on audio as they show on the early morning meditation classes on TV will only help to the extent your doubts and questions start to resurface. Many a times we need a teacher, a guru in Indian parlance to lead our thoughts to the right answer or the state of questionless-ness if I may coin it that way. A guru need not always be a person with two hands and two legs. It can be an object or place or any other being which will trigger the self-search process within you. Since we spoke of the Mahabharata earlier and we are talking about a guru, let me draw from the 1^st Shloka of the Bhagavadgita, the sacred word of Lord Krishna to Arjuna, the warrior and the son of Pandu, right before the start of the great war. It goes thus:

“Dhrutarashtra Uvacha -  Dharmakshetre  kurukshetre  samaveda  yuyutsava!

Mamaka pandavaschaiva kimakurvata sanjaya!”

It translates to – “Dhrutarashtra said, ‘Oh Sanjaya! What did my people and the sons of Pandu, assembled with the desire of fighting in the Dharmabhumi of Kurukshetra do?’”

The blind king Dhrutarashtra, the king of the Kurus asks his charioteer what his sons the Kauravas and his nephews the Pandavas assembled on the battlefield of Kurukshetra do. In comparison we are like the blind king, full of ignorance and ego in this kali yuga trying to understand the truth out there. Sanjaya though a charioteer for Dhrutarashtra is in fact more than a charioteer. He is the guru or the conduit who will lead Dhrutarashtra to the truth by dispelling the darkness of doubts surrounding him. Similarly, we would be lucky to find our respective Sanjaya who will direct us to the truth and settle the turmoil within.

The Hindu puranas say the great lord himself will reincarnate as the warrior Kalki and emerge from the sacred land of Shambala (better known as Shangrila in Hollywood movies). He will be the harbinger of the end time (Kali yuga) after which he will usher in another peaceful and content epoch or Satya yuga. However, we needn’t wait for the sword wielding warrior to ride in on a horse. Each one of us can be a Kalki and our collective souls, Shambala.

In conclusion, in this age of ignorance, sin and conflict, it is time we introspect and find a way to win the battle within so that we don’t have to fight one outside.

Why the Hyderabadi driver is better than Vettel and Hamilton

I am an avid follower and a huge fan of Formula 1 racing. Though there are many versions of auto racing like production car racing, GT championships, stock racing like NASCAR which is a rage in the US, with all due respect to all these, F1 has always taken the cake away for me with its impeccable attention to technological and mechanical detail, the endurance and skill of the driver, the pit team strategy and the sheer thrill of watching those mean machines streak across the track. Trust me, if you are an F1 fan you should watch a race in person and take in the sounds, smell and sights of the F1 cars when they scream past you making the hair on your neck stand and giving you goose-bumps. 

This would make you wonder about the title of this write-up. If it was framed as a question, it would be rhetorical and the answer would be a big fat “No”. Therefore, this is intended only as a satirical take on the traffic situation at Hyderabad or any Indian city for that matter. As they say “If you learn to drive in India, you can drive anywhere else in the world.” Whether you will be trusted to do so is an entirely different story.

Now what is so special about a Hyderabadi driver?

Let us begin at the starting grid of the F1 race. The F1 drivers neatly assemble in a grid at the starting point and streak away when all the starting lights illuminate and blink off. Well the Hyderabadi driver is different. Traffic line, zebra crossing, lane discipline etc do not form part of his vocabulary. If he was made to line up on an F1 track, he and the other members of his breed will crowd at the start line like hungry spectators in a gladiator match ready to jump into the ring. You as a spectator need to be careful, as you may find him with his vehicle right inside the viewing paddock if the grid line is ‘full’. Further, the lights do not decide when he vrooms off; he decides when the lights should blink off!

If you thought Seb or Hami (for the benefit of the uninitiated, those are the nicknames of Vettel and Hamilton) follow some of the best driving lines around the track then you have got it wrong. The Hyderabadi driver flows like water in a brook or a gust of wind in a valley, following the path of least resistance. If he sees an inch of space then doubt you not, he will stuff his vehicle into it. If the vehicle in the front slows down, he will inevitably barge into the adjacent lane without any warning. It doesn’t matter whether his grandpa is in his death throes in that adjacent lane; he WILL run him over!

Then there is the time penalty or drive thru’ penalty that an F1 driver has to contend with if he joins the main race by driving over the pit lane line. But the Hyderabadi driver gives a plug nickel’s worth to such meaningless rules when he joins the main road traffic from a by lane or street. He will take such a nonchalant turn onto the main road and such a wide one when he is at it, as if he was taxiing a 747 instead of his car that he will either grind the whole traffic to a halt or get mowed down by a truck driven by “another” Hyderabadi driver as his fate deems fit; and all this without even a single glance at the oncoming traffic. If you ask him how brash his ignorance of basic traffic rules is he would just say “Traffic rules ki maaki kirkiri” which roughly translates to “Traffic rules’ mother’s (kirkiri doesn’t have any specific meaning and is used to represent something utterly irritating)”. The traffic cops hovering at the junctions will generally not mess with the Hyderabadi driver in spite of this disruption as his wrangling skills generally supersede that of the cop.

There is also the matter of overtaking other vehicles on the road. Formula 1 drivers have state-of-the-art technology to assist them overtake other drivers on the track, like for example, DRS or Drag Reduction System where the rear wing on his car is moveable to reduce drag or KERS which stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System where the energy on braking is stored and later converted to kinetic energy to give that extra thrust during overtaking. The Hyderabadi driver does not need such pitiful technology to overtake. In fact he would consider them as an insult to his driving skills. He will come by your side and slowly start edging towards you. That is the sign that he wants to overtake you and such manoeuvre maybe done at varying speeds depending upon your luck and how much paan the Hyderabadi driver had that morning. If you slow down, you will get home in one piece. If you do not, hallelujah!

Moving over to pit stops, the F1 drivers need to change their tyres atleast twice or as many as 3-4 times in a race and they have a fully equipped pit team to assist them in this job. But our Hyderabadi driver will simply get Rahim bhai from Ministry Road (that is where many car accessory showrooms and repair shops operate at Hyd) to patch up his tyres. That way he saves on the cost of the expensive and absolutely useless pit crew and their paraphernalia! What a waste of money right?

Finally, coming to the end of the race, Seb and Hami would be really happy to pass the guy with the Chequered Flag before anybody else does, thus signifying the end of the race. Well, our Hyderabadi driver would spit on the chequered flag and the guy holding it because nobody tells him when the race is over. He decides when the race is over! You may as well put a guy with a Shawarma stand in his stead.

In conclusion, I bet you would agree with me when I say the talented Seb and Hami and the Formula1 championship with its entire technology and glam quotient come nowhere close to the Hyderabadi driver and his Formula less maaki kirkiri!!!