Author: Ajit Bam

Explorer, Philanthropist, Mentor: Exploring and researching on practices of Self Realisation Philanthropist: engaged in projects with social and environmental impact Mentor: guiding people crystallise and achieve their material and spiritual goals Background: Former CEO of Mahindra Integrated Business Solutions- an Advisory and Business Process Management Arm of the Diversified US$ 17 Billion Mahindra Group. Ajit was responsible for transforming a Shared Services Centre of the Mahindra Group into a full-fledged Advisory and Business Process Management Company with products/services spanning Strategy & Enterprise Risk Management Advisory to Digitization and Transactional Outsourcing. He has over 23 years of experience in the industry as an Entrepreneur. He has built businesses in Music Publishing, Media (Compact Discs/DVD’s) Manufacturing, Logistics and Financial Services and is currently nurturing his own initiative called FREE (Forests, Renewable Energy and Environment) & associated with NPO Trusts/ Organizations and mentoring select people and a few start-ups in his personal capacity. A Chartered Accountant by Qualification with extensive continuing education in Executive Management Programs @ Harvard Business School, Michigan- Ross Business School, IIM-A He has pursued spiritual interests since an early age exploring inner facets of self through Vipassana, Isha Yoga, Kriya Yoga, other yogic approaches / meditation techniques An Avid Marathoner, trekker/mountaineer, scuba diver, writer and motorbike traveller, is passionate about exploring the outer world as much as the inner.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

You can only be truly at complete peace when you are yourself at peace, living in a peaceful community/country and the world is also at peace. The latter 2 are beyond your control & can only be a good wish but the first one is very much in your control. If you observe closely, there are 3 causes for our suffering and they are brought upon by our own memory(past), imagination(future) and judgement(present), all 3 need to be silenced for you to experience peace.

Hence Dhyana wherein you are at Source and the mind is silent, this is the best gift you can give yourself and to the world.

Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti 

In-dependence

Freedom is independence but so long as there exists dependence on almost all aspects of life, we would never know what is freedom….

Biological, Financial, Emotional, Intellectual – we are entangled in a web of dependencies, a sum total of which is the dependence on “I/Me/Mine” which is a combination of how you define yourself biologically(Body), financially(status), emotionally(relations), intellectually(titles & roles you play), wherein you believe that you exist independent of everything around you, which is Maya.

How you disentangle yourself from this illusion of separate existence is the spiritual journey of peeling off the layers till nothing remains and you realise that you are nothing and yet everything, which are but two sides of the same coin….

Kindness

During travel you come across people from various countries, cultures, backgrounds, dressing, languages, etc. You realise that however different you are, your needs to survive are the same though the imputed needs for comfort and luxury differ radically.

In such situations, how do you communicate with each other? Best communication is that of kindness and that doesn’t apply only to when you are travelling but starts at home, society, work place, etc. Kindness is what is missing and that is why the world is what it is, choosing war mongering leaders and suffering the consequences…

Never too late to up your kindness quotient. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step…

Ceasefire

Finally a ceasefire, so business as usual? Does this wipe out the pain and suffering caused to the world? But who cares? So long as the objectives of Power/Wealth/Fame are met – wars will be fought, people will suffer and that, is reality.

Will there ever be a world without wars? At least history doesn’t say so. Like change, even wars are a constant and that is because humans have never been collectively able to wipe out greed, lust, jealousy, … from themselves. That, I thought, was the purpose of every religion but even though everyone professes to follow some religion, they interpret it in a manner that justifies their greed, jealousy, lust, etc. And so the circus continues.

To stay at peace within yourself and with others around you is the greatest religion that one can follow, all the rest is just noise….

Chaos

On a flight I took recently, a drunk man was allowed to board despite everyone (including the airline staff) noticing his state and his unruly behaviour soon upon boarding. Everyone hoped that the man would settle down but he did not. He created such a ruckus throughout the flight abusing the stewardesses, captain, fellow passengers(some of who were helping in managing the drunk, some were eager to knock him out and some were just wishing that peace prevailed)…

Eventually, after 3 hrs of not being served any food/drink, the flight landed but time had already passed and none of us were able to notice the beauty of flying over some of the highest mountains in the world…

And then it struck me that the same thing is happening in the world, some madmen creating ruckus, some trying to manage them, some hoping for peace, with no clarity as to when this flight will land, only to board another similar flight…

So finding peace in the midst of chaos is an essential life skill…

Better version

Just because the Sun is called different things in different cultures/languages does not make the Sun any different or any more personal to anyone.

And so it is with the concept of God – whether you believe or not or by what name you refer to God, doesn’t really matter.

The only thing that matters is whether such a belief/name inspires you to be a better version of yourself in thoughts, words and deeds…

Be inclusive

We may think we are different from others since we follow different religions/faith, believe in different things but the irrefutable fact is that we are humans first and humans last and humanity, love & compassion should be the foundation of our existence.

Be inclusive, celebrate all festivals拾❤️

Celebration in silent charity

Celebration is usually at the culmination of an achievement by an individual/team. Tougher the achievement, more joyous is your feeling and more the reason to celebrate. When there is no achievement, what are you celebrating? Festivals, Marriages, Birthdays, Milestones, etc. Multiple reasons to celebrate but unfortunately the mantra of louder the better is the generally accepted norm these days – a DJ with gigantic speakers(Noise pollution)or worse still there are Karaoke parties where everyone has to endure the torture, Alcohol flowing accompanied with rich oily food that only harms your health(Body pollution), fireworks (Air Pollution), dancing on the roads and blocking traffic(time pollution)etc. Why is creating pollution the way to celebrate? 

Could we redefine celebration to be acts of health, charity, sharing our blessings with the less fortunate ones, improving the quality of the overall environment by planting more trees, etc? Just imagine what a world it would be if we are able to make this small change in the way we celebrate. We would be gifting ourselves and the generations to come a healthier, kinder, unpolluted world and above all an Art of Celebrating.