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.

No country for poor people

Trump has announced a Gold Card scheme that invites people with USD 5 Million to get US Citizenship. Whilst this may sound outrageous, most countries lay out similar Red Carpets for wealthy people, the definition of wealthy however could differ…No one wants the poor people and couldn’t care less what happens to them(deportation, death, …)

In today’s world, whether you live or die is determined by how much money you have and the worst part is we don’t even think that there is something wrong with this line of thinking…

Money is not the culprit, it just provides a medium of exchange and storage. The real culprit is human greed coupled with complete apathy for what happens to others so long as you get what you want…

So, the castles of future are being built on graves of human values and we think we are progressing since our GDP is growing by…%

Time to wake up and smell the coffee?

Travel light

What does a person need to survive? Roti, kapada aur makan but we have our own definitions of what kind of Roti, Kapada and Makan we need, which complicates things and we realise it especially when we travel wherein we have to choose what to take with us and what to leave behind. In fact, the more you carry, the more of a burden(physical, mental and financial) it is in the journey…

And so it is with life, wherein the baggage is attachments -physical, emotional and intellectual, we keep accumulating despite knowing that we would have to leave everything behind.

Letting go of attachments/conditions to the life journey makes the journey lighter and more enjoyable. Try it….

Travel and tell no one

In the age of Social Media, “tell no one” seems blasphemous, it is the very reason for existence for most people to post on social media what they ate, where they travelled, whom they met, etc. They live by the maxim”If you didn’t post it, did it even happen?” It has reached an extent where people no longer know what they truly want and are living lives between what posts would be “liked” by other people.

People want others to know that they have done charity, that they are truly living a happy life, etc. There is a life beyond all these appearances of importance/happiness which you have to find for yourself and be courageous enough to do it for yourself without wanting others to know about it.

Free yourself from yourself.

All is One, One is All

All humans need the same things and yet we have managed complicating our lifestyles so much. When we live in an ashram with the same dress code, dietary restrictions and a bed/mattress to sleep on, we realise that we can live simply but we choose not to, for our own complicated reasons.

We fill our homes with more things than we can use in lifetimes, we chase tasty food, drink, bodily comfort and sensual pleasures and begin to tell ourselves this is life, which is far from truth.

This is all due to the misconception that you are different from others and you spend a lifetime trying to enhance the difference instead of dissolving it. Life actually begins when you accept and realise that we are all the same…

All is One, One is All…

Spiritual Liberation

If spiritual liberation were a matter of being able to pay for the costliest facility at the Mahakumbh then the Bezos, Musk, Ambani’s, Adani’s, Job’s, would have been at the top of the “liberated” list. But it doesn’t work that way. The last I checked, you have to move away from attachments and go deep within yourself to find your Self, which is “liberation”.

I don’t think Kabir, Sai Baba, Ramana Maharshi, or multitudes of other saints even attended a Kumbh Mela and yet they are liberated souls. In fact, I am yet to hear of someone being liberated by the holy dip on Mauni Amavasya except for the unfortunate souls liberated in the stampede that ensued because of all the hype created. Don’t you think we are missing the point somewhere?

In my view, you don’t need to go to a Mahakumbh/ Kashi/ Ayodhya/ Mecca/ Vatican City or Kailash Mansarovar to be liberated. You have to introspect and ask yourself what does spiritual liberation exactly mean to you and be brave enough to work towards letting go of whatever stands in the way. Liberation is within you, don’t go looking for it elsewhere…

Games you can’t win

There are games intentionally designed in a manner that you just cannot win, wherein there are endless pursuits, deteriorating situations, unpredictable outcomes, these are to teach you that everything in life is not about winning and that you cannot have everything, …Sounds familiar? That’s what our own life is trying to teach us – you cannot have everything your way, you cannot keep winning and most importantly it is not about winning.

Unfortunately our entire system is created on the basis of win or lose whether it be Presidential Elections or Sports or Business outcomes…You are trying to get your moment under the sun by winning in something, in a life where win/lose really doesn’t matter, it simply goes on. You try to get more wins than anyone else in a game of your choosing and think that is life…Whilst life is not about winning, it is about accepting that it is a game wherein there is no winning or losing, it is about enjoying the game which is completely forgotten.

Win or lose doesn’t matter, are you enjoying the game is all that does. Are you?

Love – as an emotion or state?

Love is just a word, the meaning you assign to it is up to you. Love, as commonly understood in today’s age, is an emotion that is used for interpersonal relations – it is an emotion. It changes from time to time, person to person, place to place, thing to thing. Many “I love you” end up in marriages and very soon in divorces…

The emotion of “love” that you give/receive to/from a parent, sibling, friend, spouse, children, etc is different and changes from time to time; parents (especially mothers) love is perhaps the only love that more or less remains constant for their child/ren over their lifetime since the child/ren are just an extension of “I/Me/Mine” for the parents…

Generally, the more you care about the feelings of others(being sensitive), the more loving you are considered and vice-versa, but ultimately it’s emotional and transactional…

Then there is another kind of love that is experienced by Self Realised souls wherein when your individuality/ego has dissolved and you are in a state of love, you love everything and everyone. This is a state of love that emerges when “I/Me/Mine” has dissolved.

Whether you want to continue experiencing love as an ever changing emotion or take up the opportunity to experience it as a permanent state of being by dissolving “I/Me/Mine”, well that is up to you.

Die empty

Don’t wait, fulfill all desires, is a message that most authors influenced by the Western materialistic thinking will convey, either through a story or through a self improvement book…

Whilst most authors influenced by Eastern Philosophical thought would say desires are the very cause of your suffering…

Both seem to be right in their own ways but who do you follow?

Desires, by their very nature, are endless loops. You fulfill one and another replaces it, perhaps the same one with greater intensity. You then are a monkey in the desire fulfillment circus and you think that life is meant to fulfill desires and nothing could be far from truth. You are not born to fulfill desires, you are born because you have desires…

Liberation is not achieved through accumulating (whether material things or experiences) since you are dependent on the object being accumulated. Liberation is achieved through letting go and being independent… So the key to dying empty is not to keep chasing desires but to rise above them through meditation and experiencing the essence of “this too shall pass”…

Self Discovery

Everyone comes to a stage in their lives wherein all symbolism, rituals seem meaningless and it is best that the pot made out of thoughts, beliefs, ideas, rituals, religious symbolism is broken so that you can start your journey towards truth.

The whole point of a boat is to get you to the other side of the river, not get attached to it. Religious symbolism, rituals, etc is the boat that gets you to the other side, you have to leave the boat and get on to your onward journey…

The best journey is the one of Self Discovery through silence, wherein you allow the divinity within to guide you. If you haven’t started yet, what are you waiting for?

Hum Ko Man Ki Shakti Dena

Peter Drucker said – You can’t manage what you don’t measure, but what measures/parameters do you use for the most important things in life that ultimately matter most – love, happiness, friendship, trust, confidence…?

What you achieved or not in measurable things in the previous year/s doesn’t matter, begin the new year with the right parameters to act upon and make the remainder of your life beautiful. How? You don’t need complicated, difficult to understand Mantra’s/philosophies, this prayer written by Gulzar is simple to understand and yet provides very powerful direction

hum ko manaki shakti denaa, mana vijaya karedusaroki jaya se pahale, khudako jaya kare
hum ko manaki shakti denaa

bheda-bhaava apane dilase, saaf kara sake
dusarose bhul ho to, maaf kara sake
jhutha se bache rahe, sachakaa dama bhare
dusaroki jayase pahale, khudako jaya kare
hum ko manaki shakti denaa

mushkile pade to hamape, itanaa karma kara
saatha de to dharm kaa, chale to dharm para
khudape hausalaa rahe, badi se na dare
dusaroki jayase pahale, khudako jaya kare
hum ko manaki shakti denaa

Another new year dawns soon, whether to make it happy or not by looking at & doing the right things, is upto you…