A mango - Breaking invisible boundaries

                                             
Yesterday, I went to a store to buy some vegetable. Seeing beautiful mangoes, on a spur I bought a few. A gentleman before me literally looked at every mango before selecting about 6 of them. After waiting for 5 min, I decided to quickly pick up the mangoes that 'felt' right. If these were not good then I would change them. So 4 came up quickly. Then there was one, which I realised I did not want, nevertheless 'felt' like picking up. So 5 mangoes came up with me to the cashier!

This is the story of that 5th mango!

After I came out of the store, I was debating within myself whether to go after my husband shopping in another nearby store or wait in the car. As I stood there unsure of what to do next, I noticed a girl of about 13 looking at me. She was part of a small family at what seemed their old paper mart / kabadi shop. ( For those who cant figure what it is - it is about 10ft x2 ft shop stacked with old newspapers bought from ppl like us and sold for a few rupees profit to recycling orgs). In her seemed to be an old, empty jewellery box from some jeweler, no doubt discarded by somebody better off. She was caressing the velvet where a necklace would have been. Her father and younger brother around busy with other 'junk'.

Seeing me and touching the velvet, she seemed to be looking at a fantasy .. She was seeing me right in front of her. Yet I seemed to be a fantasy just like necklace she would never have. I seemed to be a metaphor for the person she could never be. Short hair, jeans, confident walk, in a car....

I was a bit uncomfortable under her gaze. At that time, I was aware only of a young girl staring at me. A thought stuck me of giving her a mango from my stash. But then the pros and cons followed. A debate raged in me ...

She will be surprised... It will seem like charity...She might be offended....Am I trying to help her or what .Really, a mango? Whats that going to do for her?... Career guidance, coaching all that is helpful, but mango? What are you going to achieve?.....Well this is what I would be doing to a friend's daughter - Share a delicious mango..... She did look a bit like a friend's daughter.....She could have been one had she been born in in diff circumstance. .... But how do I go up there and do it. .. It seems wrong..I will seem like a weirdo...What will I tell Sampath.... Oh I wish Sampath would come back soon, so I dont have to deal with this....What is he doing there for so long! .....He ought to have come by now!....

Thought cycles in which our minds run - based on Patanjali

On a normal day this conversation would have gone on with no action happening. Today, before I could debate and decide within, I found myself stepping up to the girl, picking a mango  and offering it to her.( you guessed right the 5th mango!). No words flowed in the beginning. Only eye contact! All that was there in me was a wildly beating heart! She was startled. Obviously so. She looked around at her father for direction. While he was busy, she knew she could take the mango from me. She turned around and smiled. Took the mango.

I almost ran.( I ran in my mind, on the outside, I was carefully keeping up the pretense of a strong, confident woman). I went to the shop where Sampath was still there. This time thankful that I can be somewhere other than the car for sometime. Then after a couple of min, as we walked back, we passed her again. We exchanged smiles. As we drove off  , she waved at me with a cheerful smile and I waved back.
This time it was the wave of a friend. No charity here. It was acknowledgement of being lifted to hope, wonder and something different in operating in both of us now.

Suddenly I realised that an invisible barrier between two worlds were broken. You could look at this in different ways - 2 classes, 2 patterns within both of our minds.
For both of us, it was a shift from what was to what can be. I was no longer fantasy, I was real. Somehow, it seemed to bring back her confidence as if now she knew that she could be what she wanted to be.
For me too, I was no longer a prisoner of notions I held within, I could do, I could act on what I truly 'felt'.

I do not know whether they fought over who would get how much mango, or whether she should have accepted it or ......
But I know it changed her and it changed me. Boundaries built deep into us by unknown, unseen people was broken by a mango. Boundaries so deep , that they cannot be known by us, only their impacts on our decisions understood when we are out of them.

Perspective of Oneness in Queendom

There will be different perspectives governing the Queendom. That will be the basic premise from which every thinking will spring forth.

Every field today is ruled by a perspective. The thoughts and concepts produced by people carry the influence of that perspective or the fundamental idea which belong to that era. Akin to the seed from which the tree sprouts.

Queendom will have such fundamental perspective which would be completely different from the current one.

Oneness...

If we have a basic belief that we are all one at a deep level and we are able to experience it as such, our perspective about every thing will change. Being one at a deep level is not to negate the obvious differences between individuals, but to experience the source to be common to all.

In describing ourselves today, the number of labels we use indicate the narrowness of our identification. We identify ourselves with a minute slice of nature and then our field of perception gets limited by this identity. We become oblivious to realities outside the domains defined by our identity. This limited perception creates limited consciousness. In our current mainstream society, this perception is heavily influenced by marketing by media, companies, other humans, institutions, etc, resulting consciousness which is very materialistic and short sighted. This short sightedness creates distinctions and limitedness in our perceptions. We start to see things as for and against us. Consider the issue of fight between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka discussed in Chitra's article about Limitedness in thought on the Cauvery issue. 

This can change when individually our consciousness extends our perception to the Common Source of all Nature, the Source of which we are all different manifestations. That is the seed of Oneness as opposed to Limitedness. This consciousness spiritual in current meaning will become a fundamental assumption of the individual human psyche in Queendom.This Psycho-spiritual consciousness will be the wide spread consciousness of Queendom. The possibilities from this consciousness will be extremely unbelievable.

For example - Queendom can then easily integrate science and spirituality and create an universe which will not question the other but will only help the other to become reality.Instead of competing and fighting with one another, people in Queendom will collaborate and co create.

It is not a fantasy that we are talking about Queendom.  We are talking about a very fundamental perspective held by people in Queendom. This perspective is seeded in them out of their living experience. What of this perspective?

They will see the oneness in every one. Even though every one will be different, people in Queendom will also see the inherent psychic reality of oneness in every one. And they will relate with this oneness aspect. Such a relationship will give them a different experience which in turn will give them a different attitude. This attitude helps them to collaborate and co create.

The Web of consciousness surrounding Queendom will carry the belief that we are all one at a deep level and will be different at a manifested, and objective level. This subjective reality and the objective fact will be integrated in every one. This will help them see the oneness aspect in every one.

Holding this perspective helps them in many ways. Currently we are wasting huge amounts of psychic energy through our feelings like jealous, anger, envy depression,etc. This is because our basic belief is we are different. This belief creates a sense of insecurity and anxiety.We need to protect out interests from the other.

But once the basic belief is changed into "we are one" perspective, the people are not gripped and cringed by fear and insecurity. This will save them a lot of psychic energy which can be used for exploring new psychic avenues.

This subjective knowledge will alter the very view that we hold about the universe and people in the Queendom. Their way of life will be totally different, which we cannot imagine right now.

Though we can not imagine, let us attempt to be mindful and see the seeds of it that are being sown in the consciousness around us.

Queendom.....

So what is Queendom ?

The dictionary may suggest a land ruled by a Queen.
But shall we envisage a people where the feminine in the form of inclusion, care and affection is part of the mainstream pursuit? Further it is not just the mainstream but the moving factor for growth rather than the current pursuit for profit.

This is my idea of Queendom. A nation - of man, women and all other manifestations of nature living in harmony playing the role that they understand is theirs to play, nothing more nothing less.
- There is no place for greed or profit as the perspective is always of  'us' and not of 'me'. That is inclusion.
- Growth is directed towards providing for, creating new methods for wholesomeness and happiness not pleasure. That is care and affection.
- Education and its pursuit is for wisdom not knowledge. That is wisdom.

Though it seems like an imaginary land, the emergence of this Queendom in our midst is underway. Just look around, you will see the old world crumbling away.
We dont have territorial wars any more, only with terrorists. And these terrorists are very often fanatics excluded from the mainstream. But then ways of including warring sides is not there.
Even territorial disputes are fought with publicity, arm twisting, politics rather than brute force , ex Tibet.
But they are being fought.
Economies and economics of old are crumbling, old bastions of power are destabilizing. New economies and new economics are  about to emerge. But they have not yet emerged.
Old norms of relationships are shaken and booted out. Norms of fidelity, responsibility to parents, marriage are challenged, norms of gender and sexual orientations are challenged. But newer norms are not yet established.
Old Religions and rituals are preaching loudly in a last failing bid to hold the emerging generation. And then there is the new age spiritualists asking them to come to spirituality rather than religion. But then again even that is private, not mainstream.

It seems that many ways of working of the previous time seems to be coming to an end, newer ones are on the threshold of emerging. The battle for Queendom is at these thresholds. It comes on the wings of hope, faith, trust, love for humanity. It is often seemingly led by women. Women who are more naturally tuned to it but also by the great numbers of men whose presence is more invisible, but action is firm and supportive of these women.

These are the knights of Queendom and at the forefront of bringing a new consciousness for all of us.

Focus on Cauvery or on water? Limitedness in our thought

Today there is a state wide bandh in Karnataka against the Cauvery River Authority's direction to the State Govt to release 9000 Cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.
Click here for a  Link to an article from The Hindu

There is a team from the Centre visiting the Cauvery basin to assess the water and crop situation to give their information for a review.

As a citizen of Bangalore, I may fear the releasing water to Tamil Nadu in a year of low monsoon, because the water to my house might get affected. 

But the reality is that, while I hear protesters on the road swearing in the name of River Cauvery, I wonder whether we really give respect to water itself.

Most urban dwellers today have water supply from the municipality and regular in Bangalore. Many apartment complexes maintain swimming pools even. The basic water consumption per person is much higher than a rural household minus the irrigation. The original water source of Bangalore , its lakes have been encroached, dried, constructed upon, disposed sewage water into and so on. Having not taken care of its water resources within Bangalore, we imported water from  Cauvery at TK halli. Bangalore is to get about 1400 million liters a day from more than 120 km away using more than 190 km length of pipes. This consumes a whole lot of electricity too.

It is only recently that Bangalore has asked its citizens to do Rain water harvesting in their houses and offices. 

Bangalore expects water to be given to it all the way from Cauvery because it is the capital and it is the urban centre capable of making money through IT and other industries. So what if there is a shortfall of rain and less water for agriculture. With the money that it generates, we can always import food from a different poorer country!

Is this not water arrogance? 

another friend of this kind of arrogance is selfishness. See this getting revealed below ..

So the monsoon is less this season and the lower riparian state Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have to share  the limited water. Now Bangalore has to protect its water against not only the poorer rural Karnataka but also the powerful and equal contender of Tamil Nadu. So we shall fight for water. Incidentally it is also good business for a lot of people like the Kannada film industry, which uses this opportunity to ban all Tamil movies in Karnataka, for the liquor industry which sells liquor to vested interests to fuel the protesters, the pro kannada organisations who find a way of gaining publicity. None of them have any relation with water or agriculture but all benefit by protesting against Tamil and Tamil Nadu.

The process is well repeated and added to across the border in Tamil Nadu, for they are equally capable in it.

Is this not selfish ?

These attitudes and these fights are not only in Cauvery, not only in issues of water and not only in India. The basis of the problem is that each of us thinks that each of us are individuals distinct from others, desirous of a better life individually without looking at bettering all of us. This is the basic limitedness of our thought.

Who has heard the story of the water that goes as waste water, as untreated water from the city, the water that is used, thrown and splurged . Is this not the water that is waited for by the thirsty crops of both the states? 

We are so limited in our perception of ourselves as Bangaloreans, as Kannadigas, as Tamils, we fail to be citizens of the universe. 

As citizens of the universe can we not receive the rain as a blessing of the vulnerable eco system. Can we not share it like we share prasad or communion bread? We may have little but we can do so much with it if "we" operate rather than "I" and "you" operate. 

The amount of money we waste in protests and cause losses, if we were to use in things like harvesting, improving quality of pipes for transportation of water without evaporation losses, for dredging of lakes and reservoirs, for watershed development, we would all have more. Maybe none will have enough to splurge, but we all would have enough for a thriving life!

This would be the thought with the basis as "us" in contrast to "me". 

"We" receive rain, "we" have fossil fuels, "we" have diseases, "we" have the cures, "we" have poverty, "we" have resources, "we" are capable of working hard, "we" have the intelligence for making a planet better.

The consciousness shifts from me to we. 

Eco Leadership

Where have we derived our leadership qualities from? What impact has it created today by producing such leaders and allowing them to lead us so far?

When quantum physics started evolving, Newtonian physics went behind but the application areas are not dismissed. They are still useful. But they are not helpful to understand the quantum nature of the universe.

Similarly, the leadership models that we have followed so far is not going to be useful anymore

All the leadership models have in fact emanated from Scientific Management Theory of F M Taylor. In fact science was the ruling subject of intellectuals of t the time. Objective and logical thinking were the elements necessarily to be held and upheld if you want to prove yourself as thinker. Though not stayed openly, one cannot deny that in those days women and workers were not considered as thinkers as they were known for showing their emotions. The ruling belief was that emotional people cannot be logical and objective. In 18th Century, we find very less women researchers and almost no PhD holders from amongst women.

The advocacy of Scientific Management theory is -
 a) make profit,
 b)make the best of  workers capability,
c)maximise output with less input both manpower and materials,etc.

So the leadership styles were influenced by these concepts. It is not to blame F M Taylor for that matter, we bring this to our consciousness. There is Sanskrit saying: Lokham Thathvamasi which means Concepts defines the Universe.That is to say, we created our world based on these concepts. That is owned by us not to be blamed on Taylor.

There were more concepts than just Scientific Management Theory. There was Adam Smiths economics, Newtons predictive physics,etc. Highly deterministic, applied with specific goals involving what the person wants. The thinking wave of those days was objectivity,logic and deterministic. Even the prevalent psychology that emerged at this time was determinisitic with Freud and the American Behaviouristic schools prevailing over others life Gestalt.

In the name of focus we allowed limited perspective for leaders, in the of specialization, we stepped back from learning other subjects and other areas. It is not wrong to have focus and specialization, but where depth and vastness are needed, we sacrificed vastness. Where holistic thinking and focused approach are needed, we sacrificed holistic thinking. As a result we became selfish and self centred.

Nobody thought about Universal Management Theory. No one thought about Universal Leadership Model.The result is earth gets plundered, nature is abused, political strategy is meant to learn how to interfere with other nations sovernity.

Why should Somalians die without food and why should they now turn out to be hooligans of the ocean. Why should Bangladeshis migrate from their country to other nations and get killed.

For this kind of leadership, the consciousness of universal brotherhood is not a necessary perspective. Enshrined in the charter of UN, universal humanity is left for "flaky non profits", contribution to which eats into business profit, but necessary for publicity. Profit is mainstream and universal humanity is publicity.

Why not the wealth of earth be managed by universal citizens and directed for the benefit of all. We only need to learn higher management aspects in order to become universal citizens. We need to create models that are holistic than fermentative.

Unless we accommodate in our thinking the concept of Partnering with Universe, we cannot evolve further. The eco leadership model will provide foundation to such thinking.

Invoking the Connection

We are a part of the Universe and this fact is either known to us only as Knowledge or as an Idea but not really as an experience to us.

This aspect, which is out of our experiential realm, does create great damage in our everyday life; we are totally living unconnected with the environment causing a great damage to it and thus causing damage back to us.

Many people talk to make us understand the dangers of our way of life, though such talks and writings causes some kind of awareness, it seems we are not in reality aware of it in toto and what to do to save us. We may perhaps know certain responses like reducing the use of vehicles which cause danger to atmosphere through its emission of carbon monoxide, reduced use of electricity, restriction in the use of water and so on. And we expect that such initiatives should lead to continued availability of the natural resources leading to a conducive environment for human existence. But, year after year, the deteriorations are only increasing despite our so called efforts. We have, of course reasons to defend. We can say that all such efforts are really insufficient to alter the state and we need to do more and so on.

What we really need is to understand that we are all at the moment considering our existence as something separate, individualistic and in fact inimically isolated to the environment and to the Universe. We have not yet fully realized that we are parties to the Universe and we have to partner to the universal processes. This is the process we need to take on immediately. Such an initiative from our side will create a total change in our way of living and alter our current turmoil with the environment. We will inherently know what we have to do and how we have to live which alone is the solution to the current problem we are facing. Any initiatives other than this will always be short of achieving the desired goal. If we have to do that our current belief that we are individuals, separate beings will have to change and a new belief that we are part of the Universe has to come in; and our primary task is to partner with the Universe.

Is this too far away from reality? An approach to this answer is in checking our own experiences to see if we have experienced this. We have, sometimes, in our life experienced this one-ness with the Universe.

When we have felt a kind of sadness which cannot be explained properly when we see other human beings suffer in life, when we felt indescribable joy and energy when we are in the midst of nature, when we cuddle with our pets without inhibition, when we felt the soft touch of grass and flowers, and so. All such occasions have felt for more than ourselves, we have perceived more than what the 5 objective sensed have sensed, we have felt we are a part of a larger whole. It has mildly communicated to us our reality of interconnectedness. But we have moved away from such feelings and experiences by thinking bringing rational thinking.

We are also crippled by our inducted belief that we are not one with the Universe but are one above the Universe. Evolutionally, we set out to use the environment around us for our benefit to survive and then to thrive. However, in the industrial era the heroism of humanity was thought to be in manufacturing dream machines to artificially regulate every aspect of our life. The image of the hero was the enterprising man to mine, manufacture, build sky scrapers, machines, cities, etc. With rise of our expertise in this area we have now come to see ourselves as masters of our environment; our environment existing for us to use it, people included. A reflection of this attitude is in the disdain we have for rituals for nature like worship of the rain gods. Our belief in our own ability to predict rain, get water from dams and canals has reduced our reverence for the power of nature in the form of rains. Rains are no longer to be prayed for, they are now to be forecasted. It has also changed our relationship from being connected to it and partnering with it, to using it.

So, we have to resurrect our belief of oneness, see the systemic connection, feel interconnectedness, relate with responsibility and move to an attitude called holism.

We have such connection with the Universe in us. It is natural in us. But without realizing it, we cut the links and loose the interconnectedness at several locations.