‘The Money Maker and the Machine’

To merely say that ‘An organization serves multiple purposes’ is not going to impress any genuine thinker. Now, come on! This is a fact that we are familiar with. But to give an appraisal for the sake of giving an appraisal is pathetic. I know of times when an individual does his job well but the management is seldom satisfied. The concept of work not only needs redefining but the exploitation that was initially disguised now appears too blatant. Work is viewed as more difficult than studies and naturally because it is highly intrusive. There are organizations (whose names I will not mention) that expect not just professional output but also personal gimmicks. It is not their business to be taken in by style and interpersonal skills that they can use to their advantage. Now such caprice sidelines work and gives way to extraneous aspects of human life in the wake of the professional one.
Coming back to the so called ‘appraisal’ if you are creative they complain that you are not disciplined. If you are disciplined they level the charge against you that you are too rigid. Working as you can see in such stifling conditions extracts from the slave not just slavery but also ‘life’. This is clearly not a delightful experience. Working as you can see under such unreasonable demands drains you of your self-esteem. This is not what you were meant for. There are opportunities, plenty of them but how many of them are enjoyable. How many of them are worth your time? You may argue that most people work for a living and not for pleasure but that is what slavery is all about. The question then is – do you wish to be a slave or do you wish to become one with what you relish doing?
You may be wondering what the purpose of this article is. Is it to debunk work or is it a justification of personal choice? Mine is a justification of personal choice. Everything you do professionally seems to need a formal sanction and an approval. This is true even in academics. You’re ability to survive creatively lies in your ability to convince your superiors and not necessarily through a clear explanation. This is where the problem is. First, you are encouraged to have a passion. It is not enough if you say that you want to do what you choose to do because you have to do it but you need to have a passion for it which is why you choose to do it and of course. This has become a ready-made answer for many candidates. The employer or the superior is well aware of it but plays along and then it is no longer a lie because it is acceptable. When for personal reasons someone lies, the lie retains its identity.
My point is that there is an issue of expectations. On the one hand through self-righteousness they urge you not to have expectations as that has become a popular philosophy. On the other they say that they sack people who are not result-oriented. Now isn’t this self-contradictory? The philosophy has its place in the order of things purely for its glamour value. It serves the function of a two-edged sword. The user is the man in power. The one who bleeds is the overpowered. There is no legitimate translation of hard work and sincerity in a transaction that is quite self-defeating. The only motive behind such transactions is wealth but what’s the use in wealth if it is only going to kill your mental health? What’s the use in generating money when life itself is made to look funny? The original motive behind making money is obviously that without money you will be miserable. Then you may say take the middle of the road view. But the appraisal will say, you need to freak out more. You need to be more open and free.
This is the mask of the market at the moment. It is a mask that shows itself to be a mask but does not want you to identify it as a mask for then you will not be hired. What is one to do in such a situation? Probably now is the time to look at this problem and see how it can be bypassed to seek other means that will give you happiness that money and skill no longer seem to guarantee.

The Concept Of Significance

Hands can touch not only what the eyes can see. Where there are bread crumbs, ants are bound to come together. Supposing you pick each crumb and keep reducing it, the ants will retreat as the crumbs gradually fade away into nothingness. A Physicist may argue that you are left with atoms, sub atomic particles ad infinitum and that you can never do away with existence. But then those ants are not after atoms. They are after a biological significance. The body like the mind signifies what it can see only and what satiates it acquires a significance of necessity. What it can't notice, its impulse denies. The ants themselves are minute yet complex. A man relative to the cosmos is minute but is also as complex to himself as the ant is to itself. When his presence is lost, other beings deny him because the ties have vanished along with their consciousness of him. What he does may never affect them and what others do may never affect him.

Going by the established fact of the physicist, there is the infinity in the finite. The ants' finite survival of their infinity depends on the crumbs that are significant to the extent of guaranteeing their survival. Man too follows suit. Suppose I see a dark cave. I notice its darkness. My consciousness depends on my sense perception for I notice nothing there. But it is possible that there may be a creature there. Significance is intangible matter. When it disintegrates you can't measure it.

Nothingness too is as immeasurable as infinity. A glass full of air is as full as a glass full of water. The one who drinks it makes it different. This is because he can only drink water. He can't drink air the same way. From the point of view of thirst air cannot quench his thirst and is for this purpose biologically insignificant. The body depends on sensation. The mind depends on measurement. There is only a gross difference between the two. Body is not conscious of an object that does not fulfil its sensation. The mind cannot assess what it cannot measure to the effect of plain judgement. Neither is self reliant.

A Frozen Clock

If to and fro motions were likely to be still,
Would time lose gravity?
Planets last only in their orbit,
So swift hours of a day live to die in one way!
But who can speak for bright stars?
In dwindling nights all we care about are tube lights
No wonder midnight hours are quiet.
If to and fro motions were likely to begin
Is there no way of stepping out?
Why go through these circular motions
When no pendulum has any momentum?
Look and observe - secrets of chaos
Caused by an oscillation of a cosmic pendulum!
Even if destroyed it vacillates
Even when glorified it oscillates
Time being adamant in its presence
Vanishes when devoid of value
So vanishes all consciousness
Where then is a still pendulum?

Container in the Contained

Knowledge is love's own desire
You don't know what you're learning
You just feel it worth the attention
To touch your wild thoughts
As you would crazy children.

Path keeps you in a container
But you're not in a wine glass
So you will have to flow out
To ebb the curbs on your shapes.

Wisdom is like that but you lose it
Each time you try to grab it
For it is liquid in thought's shape
But you cannot freeze it.

Concrete learner must be an architect
He knows how to design his learning
Who rebuilds from the base new designs
Wisdom preserves draped constructions.

Choka

An island is lost
Don't forget a human soul;
Not the last is lost
Retrieve you can the submerged.
Gone is the spirit,
Hides behind your memory.
Soul is a statue
You live without your body
Do I know you did exist?

Zen

Bustle in the streets
Blazing sun's heat
Find shades of silence.

Senryo

Mirage not just seen,
Boy thinks it's his love ringing;
It's the fax machine!