Life Light Legacy

Image credit: Shogo Narita@Unsplash.com A friend recently fell prey to a scam and ended up transferring a huge amount of money. When it happens to others or you look at it in retrospect, it may seem avoidable. But it may be harder to detect while it's happening. The only protection we have is raising awareness and having as many safety checks in place as we can. I'm writing this post to share whatever I think can help. Please share in comments if you have more ideas. 1. All these scams tend to exploit the human emotions of fear and greed.  => Learn to recognize these emotions coming up and don't do any financial transaction under the grip of these emotions. Have an agreement with yourself that before doing any financial transaction under fear or greed, you will consult XYZ (any trusted adviser and well-wisher). In most cases they will be able to see through it and bring in sanity. If nothing, it will buy you time and in that additional time you may end up seeing things ...

    Image source: GenAI tool In the Chapter 4 of Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna shares a powerful perspective on the art of responding . He says: The way people approach me is how I respond to them. In all ways people follow my path. ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम् | मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्या: पार्थ सर्वश: || 4.11 Typically the verse is translated as: how people approach me is how I reciprocate to them. It seems what is being alluded to here is the dynamic of action and reaction. You do this to me and I will do the same to you. But that's not the message Krishna wants to give. Mahatma Gandhi said that - " An eye for an eye will make the world blind. " What Krishna is teaching instead is the art of response. And the best way to understand the verse is through the analogy of cricket. Let's say Krishna is batting and Arjuna is bowling. If Krishna says - "How you bowl to me is how I will bat." does he mean reciprocation? In other words does a master b...

                 Source: unsplash.com (Kumiko Shimizu) Facets of life Human life has multiple facets to it. Listing out a few(in no particular order). Career Health Family Finances Friends Spirituality Service Learning Self-expression Hobbies ... Imagine each facet is a petal on the flower called life.  Each petal contributes to the beauty of the flower. The beauty of a flower isn't because of any one particular petal. The beauty of a flower is in its  fullness .  Looking at life this way gives a powerful framework for living. How? Zoom out and see the full flower Many times we obsess on one particular area (petal) and judge our life based only on that. At that time it's a good idea to zoom out and see the big picture. Sharing some examples from my life. The time when I felt stuck in my career was the time I was flourishing in my spiritual journey. I was disappointed when I looked at my career in isolation but not when I ...

  Tehuliyang,  NH113, Arunachal Pradesh "What do you mean by accept people and situations as they are?" a participant asked in a course I was teaching. I said - keeping your mind calm under any situation and then doing what you need to do. On May 1, en-route Walong, Arunachal Pradesh we were met with a landslide and road block in NH113 near Tehuliyang. This was because of heavy, unexpected and incessant rains. We waited for sometime and decided that the safer option was to retreat to the origin ( Khupa ). After coming back a few kilometers, we saw that the road that we had passed an hour back was now flooded with water up-to many feet. There was no way to go further. We were trapped. It was afternoon and rain was pouring. No mobile network. The road clearing work could not start till the weather improved. It was beginning to get dark. We had children and senior citizen in-laws accompanying us. Other than some light snacks for munching we did not have any food. If ever...

         Image credit: Searched and downloaded from google.com The Bhagvad Gita is perhaps one of the most uplifting, inspirational and transformational one-on-one of all times. There are great lessons in the Bhagvad Gita on the art of 1/1. Before delving into that, a few words on how not to do 1/1 based on my personal experience. Nolite facere (don't do that) X did not show up for the meetings. After waiting for some time, I used to ping only to find out X is busy with something and would ask for re-schedule. The pattern repeated even after re-scheduling. Y canceled the meeting the previous day stating some "valid" reason. Better than X but still not helpful as we could not talk. Even when Y showed up, it was all about Y talking and not listening. Z had the meeting at the scheduled time and place. However nothing was done about what was discussed in the meeting. I did not walk out feeling empowered, clear or supported. It was like 30 mins or more spent talking...

                     Image credit: Google search and download Every time I hear Dr. Jaishankar (Hon. External Affairs Minister, India) speak at any forum, I see someone cut out for the job, doing what he loves and making a difference/impact. In other words, a combination of competence , passion doing what is needed/required . This is exactly how Bhagvad Gita distinguishes Varna, choosing your work (in society) based on your tendencies and skills.  चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागश: | 4.13 The four categories of occupations were created by Me according to people’s qualities and activities . श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुण: परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् | स्वभावनियतं कर्म कुर्वन्नाप्नोति किल्बिषम् || 18.47 It is better to do one’s own dharma, even though imperfectly, than to do another’s dharma, even though perfectly. By doing one’s innate duties , a person does not incur sin. मिथ्यैष व्यवसायस्ते प्रकृतिस्त्वां नियोक्ष्यति || ...

                                 Image credit: Google search   From Monday (26 Feb 2024) I'm taking on a new role as an architect for Citrix Enterprise Browser.  The timeline for my six and a half year journey looks like this:  Netscaler ADM (2017 - 2018) --> Citrix API Platform (2018 - 2019) --> Intelligent Workspace (2020 - 2021) --> Technology Strategy Organisation (2021 - 2022) --> Citrix Analytics for Security (2022 - 2023) --> Citrix Director/Monitor (2023 - 2024) --> Citrix Enterprise Browser .  In 2021, when I was only half way through this, a very senior exec told me: " So much change is not good for your career. " Change is hard and change is disruptive to say the least.  With so much change:  you can't get comfortable, settled and relaxed. you don't rise up the ladder as much as people who continue in one area. people forget y...