Customer View

You must see the benefits, features and limitations of your product or services from potential buyer's scale of values, not your own; you must prioritize on the benefits that are of value to them.

Understanding Mind Functions and Senses

It is so obvious that our body is a marvel like a modern computer with various components designed for function inside us which will help us to navigate life in a better way. Also the study of our Mind in its true sense, will help us to develop efficient IoT ecosystems, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics or Machine Learning, and other Cognitive Solutions

Normally the explanations we have received till now are either too "Biological" or too "Abstract" in spiritual terms that we cannot relate it to the reality we live in. Following is the closest explanation of Mind, Body, Intellect and the invisible GREATER SELF. There are different interpretation of the GREATER SELF depending on what path a human being follow in their lives in terms of work, what environment and religion they have been brought up or what parental belief has been passed on to them.

Figure below, tries to summarize the point which can be taken as universal knowledge.

Mapped these internals of Mind`s 4 Components, the 5 inputs and 5 outputs.

Broadly, the process is as below :
1) Our physical body has 5 Sensors (IMPORTERS) which accumulate information from the real world. These are Ears, Skin, Eyes, Tounge & Nose

2) Process it using what we know as Mind or Mann in normal language. Which actually has 4 distinct component with specific capabilities and goals

3) As a result of Processing in point 2, the result takes the form of action in external world using the 5 Organs of Actions (EXPORTERS). These are Tongue (Speech), Hands, Feet, Genital And Anus.

4) Normally data using the sensors (IMPORTER) enters into your processing unit.
- This is received by "Manas" which is responsible for receiving the signal. Also it generates thoughts as a result of receiving that signal. "Manas" then passes it to "Chitta", which is kind of "Lake of information" or storage of our past impressions.
- Chitta be viewed as Hard Disk/RAM/Memory which has all the past information. The "Chitta", based on your unique past impressions will "give an inclination to your thoughts". This has all your good and bad memories, good and bad experiences, emotions etc. Lot of people directly operate from Chitta which is not correct.
- The thought will move to "Buddhi" which actually is responsible for "Knowing, Deciding", Judging & discrimination". After making the decision or even before it, it might reach to "Ahamkara),
- Ahamkara (The "I-maker" Ego), which will validate/interfere in what Buddhi decided. Lot of people relate themselves to this as "I", which is wrong. Buddhi should be the decision maker in this system which is overtaken by Manas, Chitta or Aham.

5) These 4 components are like a Spoke of a wheel with a firm central part which is a "Real Self" or "Real I", not moving and just "Observing" and not interfering. This "Real I" is like a common energy field flowing all around the universe just like electricity flowing around us. You cannot see it but you can sense it when it lights up a bulb. You cannot see the "Real I", but that is kind of a power which makes all your 10 senses working. Self Realization is knowing yourself as "Electricity" and not as a physical body (gross matter) and mind (the processor).

6) It is said the all the praying, spiritual practices are focused on sharpening your "Buddhi". Some spiritual leaders identify this "Mind" as just a "Mirror", what they see, is reflected, in an automated way. The whole Yoga activities are pointed towards "Polishing this mirror" i.e empowering Buddhi to make right decisions and help in knowing the "Real I" which is apart from this system. Also it is said that we need to contemplate on this "KNOWLEDGE" of greater SELF/ELECTRICITY during our meditation.

This is the real nature of Mind and not as we call it as "mind" or "I".
This is such a paradigm changing view of the Body and Mind. This should be the first step when getting in the process of defining Body, Mind and Soul( which is nothing but a Pure Energy).

It is amazing the ancient Vedic Texts offer such a great insights for someone who is interested in this journey inwards.

The "Enlightenment" journey starts with KNOWING of this knowledge, then CONTEMPLATING in this thought, IMBIBING it completely, & finally EXPERIENCE-ing it.

What is Creativity

Creativity is the art of turning new ideas into reality. It is characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.

Creativity begins with a foundation of knowledge, learning a discipline, and mastering a way of thinking. You become creative by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using imagination and synthesizing information. It is like learning a sport. Vedanta helps develop the attitude that nurtures creativity and the discipline to transform it into action. 

How to select a worthy project for Innovation

Many are trying to come up with innovative ideas daily and if you are thinking hard, you can come along at least 10 such ideas daily which excites you and you want to start working on them right away. But before diving into it, you need to understand that this idea which will be converted into a product meets some basic approaches in selecting one.

Here, a Phd inventor who had a long career in B2B business along with B2C business throws light on some fundamental things which one needs to take care before putting resource and money on it.

Two kinds of RnD projects are undertaken for any technological innovation & creating new markets all together. This is different than disruptive innovation I talked about in the earlier posts. This is not just bringing some technology in market and make if accessible and affordable, rather this is near to new use case of technology combining different fields of science.

Those 2 approaches are 
1) SEEDS : Based on available technology SEEDS /set of technologies,  a problem to be solved is selected
2) NEEDS : Out of human needs, a problem to be solved is selected.

When it comes to technological innovation one has to select based on NEEDS to realize it`s full potential. This is a basis of selecting a problem to be resolved. This separates a fancy non-useful invention from a really useful ones. Innovation has to stem from the needs. Picking such theme is a vital first step towards making some new and useful.

Once you have selected that pass it through this 4 level filter.
Level 1) Check it is no available elsewhere and even if it available it is implemented in a lousy way and inventors kind of given up on that idea and unable to take ahead at all.
Level 2) Validate that it is something which people really want
level  3) Make sure the end result make people`s life better
Level 4) Has a substantially high technological hurdle or requires collaboration from multiple scientific and engineering disciplines.

How to develop discipline in your life

Decide a long term goal/ambition but break it down to years, months, days and in hours if possible to make it a digestible, doable, tangible series of short terms goals.

1) Set short term goal. For another 1 day, or another 2 weeks or a month or 3 month..I will do this and this

2) Reward yourself once you achieve that short term goal. Your brain will feel motivated to do it again

3) Don't listen to your heart or mind once you have decided to do something on the path of success. This is a controversial statement, but this works like a charm. Your mind will give you hundreds of reason excuses not to do ..it will distract you...will confuse you..you will have to remind yourself that mind is your servant and not your master..if it says pickup iPad ..I m your master..I will not..it will not be able to do in its own...there it will loose and cannot force you..Mind`s kingdom is just in thoughts..not in physical world..

3) Just do it...carry on..start doing it

4) If you do this for 6 weeks (it opens the mental pathway in brain) it will become habit and your mind starts obeying you ..Repeat it..e.g.: get up early in the morning...Pillow alarm..wake me up 5 in the morning...it becomes part of you....it comes naturally to u...make it a part of your life

And once it becomes part of our lives, it gets the muscle memory. Just like we do not forget swimming, cycling, the new habit finds it way like that.

Disruptive Innovation Theory

Disruptive innovation, a term coined by Clayton Christensen, describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.

In Summary it means:

1) Away fro ma common notion, disruptive innovation is not a technological breakthrough, but it makes a product or service affordable and accessible. Like Uber or AriBnB. They didn`t invent mobile technology but they found out such a great use case which kind of exploded the personal transportation and renting business.

2) On one hand Experts/Scientists solve the big problems and come up with the new technology, On the other hand,   disruptions are the one who democratize those technologies which brings that particular product or service in hands of everyone. If in a lab stage, they take it to the masses. If only used by handful people, give a twist so that it can reach to all. Apple and MS did this and brought the computers on every desk in early 1980s..

3) When Disruptive innovation happens, most of the times,

 it`s not about how radical the new technology is,

 but it means the incumbent product or service is not based on the same markets and value networks which is already available in the new market. For example a company offers a very heavy loading service where as customer need a light weight, even lesser service for their purpose.

4) Most of the time, the disruption starts at low end of product and service with affordable pricing but reasonable quality, but slowly develops the portfolio to service all ranges of that line of services.

When the big companies fail due to disruption innovation,

it is more of a Management phenomenon, than the technology in itself.

The dilemma of the incumbent is to take action or not when this new segment is being created. Should the incumbent go for creating a low end product or should they improve the product to sell it to their existing set of customers for more attention are the questions which arise in this Dilemma.

Japanese car maker Toyota did disruptive innovation to US Car makers Ford and GM by offering cheaper sub compact cars. Korean car maker like Kia disrupted Toyota by offering cheaper cars even than Toyota. Chinese automakers are now disrupting Korean car makers. And the cycle continues.

The formal theory goes as follows;

As companies tend to innovate faster than their customers’ needs evolve, most organizations eventually end up producing products or services that are actually too sophisticated, too expensive, and too complicated for many customers in their market.

Companies pursue these “sustaining innovations” at the higher tiers of their markets because this is what has historically helped them succeed: by charging the highest prices to their most demanding and sophisticated customers at the top of the market, companies will achieve the greatest profitability.

However, by doing so, companies unwittingly open the door to “disruptive innovations” at the bottom of the market. An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers at the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.

Characteristics of disruptive businesses, at least in their initial stages, can include:  lower gross margins, smaller target markets, and simpler products and services that may not appear as attractive as existing solutions when compared against traditional performance metrics.  Because these lower tiers of the market offer lower gross margins, they are unattractive to other firms moving upward in the market, creating space at the bottom of the market for new disruptive competitors to emerge.

Symbolism in Mahabharata has spiritual insight

Imagine Draupadi as the human body. The Pandavas, the five senses, are wedded to it. Their first cousins, a hundred in number, the Kauravas, are present in the form of the tendencies of the mind.

Yudhishthir thinks that he is a good gambler and so would win over the Kauravas. The senses also think that they can win over the tendencies of the mind. The Pandavas keep gambling till they lose everything, including themselves and their beloved wife, Draupadi. Likewise, we lose everything when we gamble with our tendencies, and, like the Pandavas, end up in spiritual exile. The body is demeaned, like Draupadi was, and only divine intervention can save it. However, our body does not abandon us, even when we lead it into exile.

However, there are some good tendencies also. There are many good people in the Kaurava camp. But, Krishna advises Arjuna to kill all of them, implying that all tendencies, both good and evil should be exterminated. They are already dead, he says. You are only an instrument in making this evident.
If a person has to gain enlightenment he must overcome all the tendencies of the mind, good or bad. These do not have an existence, apart from what we have given them they are already dead. However, we keep them alive by our own acts, and, by our own acts, we can kill them all. Only then will we be free.

Kurukshetra is the world in which we live this life, witnessing a war between our senses and our mind's tendencies.

Dhritarashtra symbolises the mind, which gives birth, in a sense, to our tendencies. He was blind ^ as the mind is to its tendencies. His wife, Gandhari, was not blind but chose to blindfold herself. Even when we have a choice to see, we choose not to see.
None of the Pandavas were born of their mother's husband, Pandu. Their mother, Kunti, had been given a chant, which invoked various gods who fathered the Pandavas. The Sun was the father of Karna. Dharma, the god of duty was the father of Yudhishthir and Indra the king of gods was the father of Arjuna. The god of wind, symbolising strength, was the father of Bhishma and the Ashwini Kumars were the fathers of Nakul and Sahdev.


Our senses are basically part of our divinity, the instruments born to keep us in this form. The original name of their mother was Pritha, signifying Prithvi, the Earth, and she took the name Kunti when Kuntibhoja adopted her. So, the Pandavas were born through the conjoining of the Earth and the divine ^ the body and the spirit.
Karna was born of the Sun-god and the Earth mother. He is a symbol of our ego. Like him, our ego is also armoured. Only the guru's intervention could get the armour removed. Similarly, the guru helps the seeker in killing his ego.


Krishna's form, too, is symbolic. Deep blue is the colour of eternity. It is the colour of the sky, and of the deep ocean. Yellow is the colour of the earth. A deep blue god-image enclosed in yellow clothes symbolises the spirit clothed in the body. Krishna, then, is a symbol of the body and spirit, a symbol of you and me in our enlightened form. When we become aware of our true self, we realise that there is no difference between us and Krishna or Vishnu, of whom he is an incarnation, as, indeed are we.

Courtesy: ToI

Everybody is like a seed.

Everyone is like a seed.It has to go with the flow of nature. Take nourishment from water and soil and just break free and sprout. It will take time but surely it will happen.

But if a seed decide to be adamant and do not want to come out of shell, do not allow soil and water to do its job, it will never sprout.

The nature will not just stop there, it will destroy the seed and make it just a part of soil, one with soil, one with nature, in its own way.

Whereas if you allow yourself to sprout, you are designed to grow and bear fruits and flowers which have the purpose of serving someone else and grow the nature.

पथ की पहचान - Knowing the Path

पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

पुस्तकों में है नहीं
छापी गई इसकी कहानी
हाल इसका ज्ञात होता
है न औरों की जबानी

अनगिनत राही गए
इस राह से उनका पता क्या
पर गए कुछ लोग इस पर
छोड़ पैरों की निशानी

यह निशानी मूक होकर
भी बहुत कुछ बोलती है
खोल इसका अर्थ पंथी
पंथ का अनुमान कर ले।

पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

यह बुरा है या कि अच्छा
व्यर्थ दिन इस पर बिताना
अब असंभव छोड़ यह पथ
दूसरे पर पग बढ़ाना

तू इसे अच्छा समझ
यात्रा सरल इससे बनेगी
सोच मत केवल तुझे ही
यह पड़ा मन में बिठाना

हर सफल पंथी यही
विश्वास ले इस पर बढ़ा है
तू इसी पर आज अपने
चित्त का अवधान कर ले।

पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

है अनिश्चित किस जगह पर
सरित गिरि गह्वर मिलेंगे
है अनिश्चित किस जगह पर
बाग वन सुंदर मिलेंगे

किस जगह यात्रा खतम हो
जाएगी यह भी अनिश्चित
है अनिश्चित कब सुमन कब
कंटकों के शर मिलेंगे

कौन सहसा छू जाएँगे
मिलेंगे कौन सहसा
आ पड़े कुछ भी रुकेगा
तू न ऐसी आन कर ले।

पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

Harivansh Rai Bacchan 

Some questions will not have answers - Accept it

Kisa Gautami was a young woman from a wealthy family who was happily married to an important merchant. When her only son was one-year-old, he fell ill and died suddenly. Kisa Gautami was struck with grief, she could not bare the death of her only child. Weeping and groaning, she took her dead baby in her arms and went from house to house begging all the people in the town for news of a way to bring her son back to life.

Of course, nobody could help her but Kisa Gautami would not give up. Finally she came across a Buddhist who advised her to go and see the Buddha himself.

When she carried the dead child to the Buddha and told Him her sad story, He listened with patience and compassion, and then said to her, "Kisa Gautami, there is only one way to solve your problem. Go and find me four or five mustard seeds from any family in which there has never been a death."

Kisa Gautami was filled with hope, and set off straight away to find such a household. But very soon she discovered that every family she visited had experienced the death of one person or another. At last, she understood what the Buddha had wanted her to find out for herself — that suffering is a part of life, and death comes to us all. Once Kisa Guatami accepted the fact that death is inevitable, she could stop her grieving. She took the child's body away and later returned to the Buddha to become one of His followers.

Some questions will never have answers and when you live without questions will help you live in "NOW"

Kashta, Dukkha and the Power in YOU !

Difficulties(Kashta) is something what happens to you and is an external activity happening from outside your body. Sadness(Dukkha) is a feeling which emerges from inside our body, our mind and is purely an internal reaction to the Kashta. Buddha spent his whole life giving this message that "Kashtas" are inevitable.

All positive, self improvement or spiritual books reads, learning, activities or practices cannot control 'Kashtas' but will slowly change how you react to them and definitely help in reducing the 'Dukkhas'.

Also as Steven Covey say in his bestseller book, " Between stimulus and response there is a 'space'. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

What we do in that moment determines the step we take ahead, the journey we choose and goals we move toward.

As Mel Robbins put it, no reading or motivation reads will help if we don't take the step towards what we want to do in that very particular moment of decision, then ultimately nothing will change. Life is all about those 100s of small decisions and actions we take consciously or unconsciously which will determine the path we take and the destinations we reach. Indecision and inaction is also a decision which has its consequences.

Modern thinkers also have mixed this concept with the term "Attitude" meaning how you react to a particular situations shows your attitude and makes everyone unique.

This applies to anything you want to do like any old habit you want to change, want to go on better diet, better heath, better relationships, better productivity at work or any higher life goal where our mind and body need to be coherent to achieve the goal.

So essentially, it comes down to those small moments of decisions everyday. If we first become aware of it, then consciously we can change those and taking "right turns" leading to the "right destination"