Efficacy of Gayatri Mantra

Like most other kids born in Hindu families, I don’t remember when I was first introduced to Gayatri Mantra. My grand-parents didn’t belong to the educated class. My parents, though both highly educated, were not much into religious practices. And yet somehow Gayatri Mantra crept into my early childhood memories. And to a large extent even today it is the only mantra or hymn which I remember completely. For all others, I may struggle a little bit, or sometimes quite a bit, to be able to recall the words.

Thus not surprisingly, when during my pregnancy, the doctor and various internet sites suggested listening to some devotional light music during the day, my only and obvious choice was Gayatri Mantra recitation. And that was the beginning of the second phase of my association with this magic wand. As I began to take notice of its benefits, I decided to delve deep into the meanings and interpretations of this. What I found was in the least very interesting information, and to a large extent an eye opener. I have tried to compile the information and keep it in one place for future reference. Sharing the same here, in case some of you might find it useful.

The Origin

·         Originally quoted in Rig Veda, it may have been written 2500-3500 years ago, or may be even earlier.

·         It is also called Savitri Mantra, as it worships the God Savitr

·         This is the only mantra which is both an object and also the medium of worship

The Meaning

·         Mantra has 3 parts – praise, meditation & prayer. The divine is praised, it is meditated upon with reverence and then invoked to guide our path

·         Om is considered as a fundamental sound, used to invoke the divine ultimate absolute

·         Bhur, Bhuvah, Swaha refer to the three states of existence. There are multiple interpretations of these states. Some of them are

o   Past, present & future

o   Terrestrial, Celestial & the world connecting the two

o   Consciousness, semi-consciousness & unconsciousness

o   Earth, Atmosphere and Universe

o   Morning, noon & evening

o   Tamas, Rajas & Satvik

o   Gross, Subtle & Causal

·         Tat – it literally means that, here refers to the ultimate truth

·         Savitur – refers to the lord Savitr – the life generating energy source. It is the source of energy (like sun) inside any living creature, which inspires the physical, intellectual and spiritual activities

·         Vareniyam – is to choose the best

·         Bhargo – the self-luminous one, like the sun, the one which radiates with internal energy and inspires or generates life

·         Devasya – the divine, luminous radiating

·         Dheemahi – it is derived from the verb dhi, which means to think. Hence dheemahi means to meditate upon

·         Dhiyah – intellect, it is the plural of dhi, and hence refers to the collection of thoughts, thought processes and intellect

·         Yo – it means which

·         Nah – it refers to our

·         Prachodyat – to inspire, or to intensely move in a desired direction, and here the direction of self-realization

The Power

·         Ideally one should complete at least one round of 108 chants or one mala in one sitting. Time permit, you can do it in multiples of 108

·         It can also be done in rounds of 3, 9 or 27 chants

·         Gayatri Mantra is believed to have both the Mantra Shakti (the energy generated through only chanting) and the Prarthna Shakti (the energy generated though the prayers and understanding its meaning)

·         The words of Gayatri Mantra are believed to be arranged in a manner, which stimulate the energy centres within our body by mere recitation of the mantra, hence generating positive spiritual vibrations

The Science

·         Dr.Howard Steingeril, an American scientist, collected Mantras, Hymns and invocations from all over the world and from all religions, tested their strength in his Physiology Laboratory. It generates 110,000 sound waves per second, highest among all hymns collected from world over

·         The pressure on tongue, lips, vocal cord, palate and the sound of words entering through ears, along with the connecting regions in the brain, create vibrations or energy waves in the subtle body / glands / chakras / extrasensory energy centers in our body

·         Thus the correct pronunciation, tone and tune of the words recited become important for them to have the correct impact on the chanter

·         Words of the mantra, when recited in continuum, create an energy flow, which impacts both the internal and external environment of the human body

·         Thus repeated and continuous recitation is important for the energy flow to generate and gain further energy

·         The meaning of these words, when understood and repeated multiple times in form of a prayer, has an impact on the individual’s psyche and thought process, inducing further changes in the individual

·         Just like when we tie a stone at the end of a thread, and move it in a circular fashion, it gathers energy through its momentum, which when directed can act as an arrow or a weapon. Similarly, the energy generated through continuous cyclical recitation of the words, when channelized can impact the internal and external environment of the chanter

 

A learned person very rightly explained to me: you need to have a clean heart for Gayatri or any other mantra to work on it. If you have a clean heart, the mantra will add a golden sheen to it, making it glow with its divine light. On an unclean heart, it helps in removing the layers of anger, envy and all other similar negative emotions. This itself is important to take the individual to a higher spiritual platform. However, for that to happen, one must ensure to move towards a cleaner and healthy lifestyle, and not indulge in any vices.

Aristotle’s Rhetoric Vs Our Bakar

 

Very long ago I had shared a post through one of my social media accounts – “there is Ethos, Pathos & Logos, and then there is Bakar.”

During one of my recent online hop & read session (where you start reading something, and another link on the same page catches your fancy, so you jump to the new link, even if it’s a completely new topic), I again stumbled upon Aristotle’s Rhetoric. And my thoughts went rushing back to this post.

So let me first start with the introduction. No, no. I absolutely don’t mean to introduce you to Aristotle. I was only referring to the lesser mortal “Bakar”. Again, people from northern part of the country don’t need any introduction. Folks from the eastern states may identify more closely with ‘Adda’. Some of you may remember having heard or used the word bak***** (beep) during your student life, or maybe even after. And for people who have not been in either of the above categories, it is difficult to explain the real meaning of the word. Even more so the feel of it. Some of the online sources give it a rather demeaning explanation of ‘useless, baseless gossip’. I object. It has a greater and a deeper meaning & a larger purpose. And maybe you should continue reading to discover it. For those who already know what it means, hopefully you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it.

For the sake of consistency, I will stick to the name Bakar.

For me Bakar is an all encompassing term where you can include along with Aristotle’s rhetoric & dialectic, other more harsher and severe forms of debates and arguments, even fights. Wit & humour are also oft used skills. Simply stated one can use one or more of these tools to win an argument during a Bakar session. One can cross and criss-cross the boundaries of logic and truth, sometimes even decency, and repeatedly, for the sake of the argument. It is also a source of information as each participant puts forward his share of the knowledge to support or oppose the topic. And the best part is, whichever way the Bakar session may end, whoever may win, most of the time (and I say most because God likes to create exceptions for everything to prove his might) the participants leave with a smile, and gladly come back for the next round.

And I have a personal attachment to this phenomenon since some of these Bakar sessions have left deep marks on my memory and I guess even on ‘me’. For lack of any other prioritization criteria, I will stick to chronological order.

During student life, the most common and favorite Bakar sessions revolve around campus romances and break-ups. During one such Bakar session, a friend was boasting on being able to correctly predict the future of some of the relationships. This got the group excited, and we actually sat down with pen and paper, assigning ranking and probabilities of success for each pair. We even wrote down their strengths and weaknesses, and assigned weights to these, hence lending credibility to the discussion. It soon turned into a heated debate, with some of us trying to prove our superior understanding of human relations. We even tried deriving some vague formula for a successful relationship, based on the weighted average of the do’s & don’ts. The discussion, which touched a weak spot in the young hearts of early twenties, lasted a couple of long hours. Though none of us bothered to check our results with real life data, the memory of that day remained with me. Today when I look back, I feel that a seminar by any trained relationship counselor may not create an effect as that session of Bakar did.

Coming on to the office space, the canteen, break-out zones and smoking zones play as important a role in your career as your work-station. These are the windows of establishing connects, discovering opportunities, breeding ideas and sometimes even formulating policies. But dear friend, do remember to keep your eyes and ears open, and volume low. I happen to share one such coffee table discussion with the team HR. The conversation drifted towards the upcoming team carnival. I had not liked the invitation mail sent out, and openly stated so. Probably my coffee was a bit too strong that day, as I continued to debate how the event can be better organized, how to encourage employee participation and how such events can be used as a powerful tool to enhance employee satisfaction. The very next day my VP called me to his cabin, and suggested (you can imagine what a super-boss’s suggestion mean) if I could be a part of the employee engagement team, in addition to my existing responsibilities. Apparently the HR had shared some of my ideas with him. For me it turned out into an opportunity of establishing some key contacts, some additional work and loads of fun. But you can very well imagine how this could have flipped.

The above mentioned role, along with above stated benefits, presented many more opportunities for Bakar. During an office picnic, another round of Bakar was in progress. Some people joined, some moved away, and in the end only four of us were left. As night continued, our conversations became more and more animated and hilarious. Our repartees and banter completely ignored the boundaries of hierarchy and designations. And then the unexpected happened. Just when we were about to retire for the day, one of the guys knelt on his knees and proposed the other girl. Initially the two eye-witnesses, one being me, were as shocked as the dumbfounded girl standing there. There was a minute of complete silence. And then two eye-witnesses were rolling on floor laughing. But I think the other two took this a little more seriously, and now have been married for almost seven years.  

Another form of Bakar is free advice. Even if we are struggling to sail through our day-to-day challenges, we take the effort of solving other people’s problems. And even in absence of any acknowledgement, we continue doing it believing it to be our responsibility towards welfare of humanity. I have also, in all humbleness shared my simple solutions to people’s complex issues. But it is since the third trimester of pregnancy, that I have received more advice than is even possible for a computer to retain. All senior members of the fraternity (read mothers with kids elder to my daughter), share their experiences. From shopping list, to feeding and sleeping pattern, child’s growth and learning, my own diet programs and health-care, almost all imaginable topics are covered.

Moving on to the home front, almost all of my previous blogs and views therein, which you may have read (if you haven’t, just complete this and then look up the archives), were formed during the endless Bakar sessions I have shared with my favorite Bakar partner, my better half. Sometimes just two of us, and at others with group of friends and family, we have had endless discussions and debates on life. Life, being my favorite topic of Bakar. These Bakar sessions involve our principles (ethos), our emotions (pathos), our thinking and experiences (logos), and the agreements and disagreements (rhetoric & dialectic), and shape us into what we are.

Now, when I sit and turn the pages of my memoires, this seemingly innocuous category of conversations, aimed primarily at entertainment, to my mind is neither baseless nor useless. It is during some of these conversations, that the true character of an individual comes out. Other than being a great source of bonding, it is also an excellent source of information. Most of the people working in the field of sales & marketing, swear by it. Even if we ignore all of the above, as long as it provides us with a few hearty laughs, couple of giggles, and a smile to walk away with, I think it is worth indulging in.

So if you think you love your Bakar as much as I do, please join me for a session, whenever you have some free time. Or better still invite me over. But if the distances of time and space separate us, then lets use this platform to catch up. Till the time we get a chance to meet again.

I Bow as I Respect You As Much As I Respect Myself

I once met someone who told me, “Respect is the basis of every successful relationship. Even for a successful and happy marriage, respect is more important than love.”

The thought left me thinking. And it did have a lasting impact on my mind, and even more so on my life. So much so, that I ended up marrying him…..

And since then this word has inspired us time and again. It somehow creeps its way into our gossip sessions, (pseudo) intellectual discussions, our arguments and most of all in our fights.  We have time and again reached the conclusion that the word respect is used more often than it is understood, by most of us. And time and again we have had to remind ourselves, the true meaning of this word.

So what is respect? Greetings, bows, smiles and in some cases hugs – are generally regarded as day-to-day gestures of respect towards another person. On a higher pedestal, accepting others as they are, with their faults and mistakes, accepting their choices, and in some cases following their footsteps are also considered ways of showing respect. Then there are the oft quoted quotes – ‘respect is earned, not demanded’, ‘respect yourself if you want others to respect you’, ‘treat others with respect if you expect them to treat you with it’ etc etc.

I was once having a debate with a then-yet-to-be-married friend, on the merits vs perils of holy matrimony.  He was arguing that it is not the responsibility of managing a household which scares him, which he has to anyway manage staying alone. But he was worried that marriage would mean spending time, money & energy on additional things which are not his priority. For example, he continued, “I will have to go and attend classical music concerts, because my partner is interested in it. And thus I will end up wasting half my time on such things.”

At that point I had won the argument by confidently declaring that a healthy relationship only requires you to not stop her from going. But in reality it took me a long time, in fact a couple of years may be, to understand the deeper meaning of these emotions. To continue with the same example. If you allow your partner to follow his or her passion, in this case attending a classical music concert, then in my understanding that is only full-filling your responsibility. It doesn’t imply any greater emotion, than the basic responsibility of the relationship. I agree, there are people who may not even do this much, but then that can be the topic for another discussion. Coming back to our example, if you make an attempt to be with your partner for every such concert, that in my opinion is love. You like being with them, sharing time and being happy seeing them enjoy it. That is the satisfaction of love.  

However, being respectful demands something more. The way I look at things, if you really want to show respect, then you must ensure that your partner gets to follow his or her passion. And it is not easy. Because this requires consistency. This requires you create an infrastructure which supports them in meeting all the other responsibilities, while still taking out time for themselves. With you, or without you. Again coming back to the same example, from getting regular information on the upcoming concerts, to arranging the tickets, to taking up extra household work, so that they can sit back and enjoy the concert, without the thoughts of pending work haunting them. Doing some or most of these, consistently, over a period of time, shows that you respect the fact that your partner has an interest, which even though you don’t share, but you surely respect. And even if you have to pay a price for it, you are willing to let the dream bloom. This I think is the most difficult of the options.

Now the next set of obvious questions would be, how does it help me? As an individual? Because even if I show this and even a higher kind of respect for my partner, it may not get reciprocated. I completely agree. It may not. And it is pretty much beyond your control. You can try to earn it, even fight for it. But demanding it may not give desired returns.

Again, from what I have learnt, showing respect to yourself or others, helps you because it gets you in the habit of respecting. You develop the strength and capability to nurture this difficult emotion. However, to be able to earn it back, it is important that you maintain a balance. Show equal amount of respect for your own needs, thoughts and passions. When you do that, things become easier, as you move towards a higher level of being. And higher up the respect you have for yourself and for others, fills up the empty space, so much so that any missing contribution from front doesn’t leave a hollow.

So decide whichever suits you first. You can start showing respect to yourself, and then to others, or move in the opposite direction. But to be able to move up, one has to complete the circle.

 

I am a Six Sigma Trained Efficient Home Maker

I was fortunate for having worked in a corporate where six sigma principles were a way of life. Very early on in the company, both the company policy and my bosses made it mandatory for me to get trained in lean & six sigma principles, and to clear my exams for the same. And from then on, for every project and initiative, these became so much a part of approach, that I no longer needed a conscious effort to apply them.

It has been some time since I bid adieu to this great culture and the organization, to focus more on my family and personal life. But as they say, old habits die hard. And I continued to apply these wonderful principles to my small & daily challenges, till one day it struck me – oh, I am actually doing it. And when I looked around, I realized some of my colleagues (I mean other women I know of, who manage their houses) were also doing it. Just that they were only following one or two principles, but not naming it. And there was a lot of scope for learning & adopting more efficient practices.

And so I decided to pen down some of these. But before that a couple of statutory warnings:

First, this is not some kind of marketing gimmick, trying to push me ahead in the “best home-maker” race. I find it useful, and hence assumed that you may too.

Secondly, the way I am looking at the word home-maker is slightly simple, and slightly different from the more common usage of it. For example, even when I was spending 8-10 hours on my office desk, and was drawing a handsome salary for it, I was a home-maker. Because even then I was responsible for the production & consumption of 3 daily meals. I had to ensure timely payments to all the suppliers – milk, newspaper, groceries and domestic help. And I was responsible for maintenance and running of all material and machinery at home.

And last, but not the least, on the contrary most importantly – don’t blame me for trying to fool you with fancy names of simple things. Six sigma concepts are in fact so simple that one can adopt and practice them without realizing. The only difference is that when you do it consciously, you do it consistently.

Kanban – this approach has a Japanese name, but in a factory environment, it’s nothing but a billboard or a signboard. Translate it for your home, and these are the sticky notes we put up on the fridge, or on a board, reminding us of the pending tasks and things to be bought. Thanks to the smart-phone technology, I have mine on my phone. So I don’t need to remember to look at the list before I move out of home, I carry it with me. I edit my lists on the go, sometimes even in the shopping mall, soon after completing the purchase. To make things easier for myself, there is a different sticky for a different need – like personal work is separate from home-needs, and so are the ones for my husband & child.

Remove Waste – much similar to the daily garbage disposal, it is important to eliminate waste from your day. Sort, categorize and prioritize your needs, and remove whatever is not required. For example, I categorized tv watching, reading, browsing internet or FB in the same category as entertainment. Further, as per my prioritization, tv turned out to be a waste, and hence removed from my list. It doesn’t mean that the poor little television has been thrown out of the window. It only means that when the family gathers to catch up on daily news and soap operas, I sit with them with my phone or iPad, connected to the world-wide-web.

Prioritize – this is actually a step before waste management. But this is not a training program, hence I am free to choose my order. Coming back to the example, I figured that my daughter’s daily visit to the kid’s play area was more important for me than any other house-work. And thus I used to dedicatedly take her with me every evening. I know this is not a big deal, but I have seen mothers missing this ritual time & again as they have some pending house work, or they need to go grocery shopping or something else has come up. But once I decided on my priorities, I realized, I was able to manage all my pending work in the time available. No, I am not patting my back for being quicker than my friends, I am only saying that prioritization helped me learn how to manage my work. Because I decided I had limited time available, I had not much choice, but to learn to manage my work accordingly.

DMAIC – this is the most commonly used approach in six sigma projects. Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve & Control. Let me again help with an example. After my daughter was born, the physical and mental stress of managing my work, home & a baby started taking a toll on my health. There were no serious concerns, but some weight increase, some muscular pain, a general sense of lethargy and a clogged & irritable mind. Getting myself back on track was nothing less than a project, and an important one too. As I started working for it, the six sigma approach again came to my rescue.  

The first step was to clearly define my goals & objective. I wanted to shed those extra pounds, and get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Secondly, I wanted to build my stamina. Or more simply put, at the end of each day, when I hit the bed, none of my body parts should be shouting from pain, needing an oil massage or a muscle relaxing spray. And the third goal was to reach a more peaceful state of mind. Three clearly defined, measurable goals for a broad objective of a better “Me”.

At the measure stage I decided to regularly monitoring my performance on three parameters. First and the simplest was the movement on the weighing scale. Second was the use of a pain-relief aid in a given time period, say a week. And third, and most difficult to keep record of, was the number of times I was on the verge of or actually lost my temper say in day or in a week.

The third or the analyze stage required looking at various available options of working out, and then deciding the best one for me. In this case I decided to get trained in yoga, primarily because of ease of access and its proven effects on both physical and mental health.

The next stage – improve, implied improving my performance on each of the selected parameters. Regularly monitoring my performance, helped me keep a tab on my progress, and also worked as a motivating tool.

The last stage – the stage I am currently in – thankfully due to all the hard work of past few months. In this stage I try to ensure that I continue my training classes. I also monitor how I am faring on the three parameters (though now more as a pat on my back, rather than a need of monitoring).

 

In a nut-shell, six sigma principles have helped me improve my life. I am not comparing it with any other person. Maybe there are women, who are managing their responsibilities more efficiently than I am. But my only benchmark is my life and conditions.

Coming back to six sigma, these are not the only things which form part of this approach. These are also not the only ones I have adopted. I am only sharing these because I presume that even a lay man will be able to identify with them. What professional trainers take 3 full working days to explain, I can’t attempt to explain in 3 pages of a blog. Further, I used these technique, partly consciously, partly out of habit. Some of you might already be using these, or more such techniques. The only difference is that because of my training, I can attach a name to it.

If this article interests you enough, you can read up the vast literature available on Six Sigma tools & techniques. Or as an alternative, with little effort, you can even get yourself trained in the principles of six sigma. And the good piece of news here is that you needn't work with a large corporation, thanks to the presence of institutions like SigmaWay.

SigmaWay, a boutique consultancy firm, also provides lean and six sigma training for individuals from all walks of life. They have experienced and certified trainers, who have spent years practicing & sharing the benefits of these principles. Further, to make matters even more simpler, they are soon coming up with online training modules, making it easier for anyone to access these trainings from the comfort of their home or office, at the convenience of their time. For further details, you can visit the website www.gosigmaway.com

Today, when life is a race against time, a little efficiency in our day-to-day tasks, helps in adding more life to the already constrained time. A little time spent today on learning six sigma tools & techniques can prove to be an investment, saving multiple hours everyday in future. And in my opinion, getting trained is an important step. As I have already mentioned earlier, when you do it consciously, you do it consistently.