How emptiness of mind makes one blissful?

You might have heard Mystics, Spiritual Guru's, Saints claim the blissful state one achieves on the path to spirituality. If spirituality is giving up of desires, being grateful for what we have and emptying our minds from worries and useless thoughts, then instead of leading empty life how one becomes blissful? I had asked this question myself a couple of times and I think I have found an answer. Here it is.

Human psychology, by its nature, makes the effort needed and the impact created by happiness and sadness largely unequal. Somewhere I had read that if you had said a bad word to someone, it takes 16 good words to make up for it. Such a huge disparity, right? Similarly, the sadness would be much deeper if you lose some money (some significant amount) than the elevated happiness gained by incoming of equal amount of money. It takes good effort to reach the state of happiness and it is difficult to stay there for a longer time. On the other hand, sadness just occupies our minds in no time and without any effort of ours. All these things tell one thing. Sadness is more natural to humans and we are likely to spend more time being unhappy than happy.

When someone gets on the spiritual path, he is at peace with his past. He does not repent his mistakes or the missed opportunities or about anything that had happened with him in the past. He has accepted all of them. Similarly when he has pruned his ambitions and kept a check on them by remaining humble and thankful for what life has already given him, there are not many desires left. He would take life as it comes. This would mean there is not any anxiety about the future as well. With these two things - past and present gone from his mind, he is focused on the present. That takes away lots of unnecessary thinking. He thus has achieved emotional balance and peace of mind. His mind is comparatively emptier than a regular person.

Since sadness was more natural to humans and emptying our minds gets rid of sadness (along with happiness), what it leads to is a relieved state of mind. If having no diseases is healthy, having no traces of sadness is a blissful state. Since I have not achieved this blissful state for myself, I am not qualified to say this for sure. But I could observe and relate how things would evolve and my own sporadic experiences of a relived mind would tell me this would be it. Higher the expectation, higher the dissatisfaction in life. No expectation would get rid of default sadness of life and leads to blissful state.

Shortness of life

A cousin of mine, 7 years younger than me, who was in prime health died suddenly and unexpectedly yesterday. Though I don't know for sure if he had any undetected health issues but there were no visible signs of it. I feel a great loss losing such a gentle younger brother. The pain his wife and parents are going through can't be described in words. The person they invested in and cared for so long, was gone in no time. 

If this can happen to him, it can happen to anybody. When death strikes, one will not have time to say goodbye to even his loved ones. Such is shortness of life. But when we are alive, we behave like we are going to be here forever and make very long term plans but what is in store for us we are not sure. Life poses such an uncertainty too. What we need to realize is, life may not give us any options when it is time to end our story. But when there are options, we can choose wisely and live life as we aspired to rather than postponing it for another day.

I pray to God to bless my cousin so that his soul rests in peace. And also I pray to God bless us to realize what is important to us in our lives before the shortness of life ends it.

DHFL Resolution: Winners & Losers

Disclaimer: I am invested in Piramal Enterprises (even before DHFL came into picture). My views might be biased, though I strive to be not.

After couple of rounds of bidding, finally Piramal Enterprises has emerged as the winner. Let us look into who would gain and at what cost. Also see why it would make sense to creditors and the banking, NBFC and regulatory system in large to conclude this deal. Also let us see who lost everything with this deal.

DHFL's books

First let us take a short look at DHFL's books. Their promoter is in jail for siphoning off of funds. Company's net worth is negative (Liabilities are more than assets). They have not honored the payments to their creditors for more than an year. They have serious asset liability mismatch and if there were no takers for it, this company had to be closed with a serious blow to the entire system.

	Assets	Liabilities
DHFL (Based on their investor presentations)	Loan Book: 87,000 crores	Borrowings: 91,000 crores
	Wholesale Loans: ~50,000 crores Retail Loans: Rest minus investments	~50% of borrowings are form banks (SBI Major lender: ~10,000 cores) ~10% deposits Rest through bonds, ECB, NHB etc.
	Risk: ~20,000 crores loans may not be recovered	Banks have recognized the whole exposure as NPA Depositors & bond holders are not paid interest and not able to liquidate.

What does Piramal offer? 

Let us see what Piramal is offering through their bid.

• 37,250 crores Total
• 12,700 crores of upfront cash and rest will be paid in 10 years

What Piramal would get back is assets (DHFL's loan book) of approx. 60,000 crores. The key risk is, they would get to know the real value of the loan book only after they get to manage it. Some more of bad loans which is not accounted so far may turnout out be additional hole in the balance sheet. The business will need new management and systems, so it will need fresh investments. Also it has to face many legal battles that would surely come in the way. Bigger risks and bigger payoffs are in store for Piramal and investors in his company.

What lenders would get?

Though they have to take significant hair cut, remember they have already written-off their exposure. Any money going back is profit for them now. Upfront cash payments from Piramal and rest amount becoming regular loans improve the situation of banks, so they accepted this deal. It is better to recover whatever is possible than losing the entire amount.

Are regulators happy?

Surely. If you look at IL&FS which went dead few years ago and still the issues not getting resolved, DHFL finding a suitor in less than 2 years is a good move for the whole industry and the system. One reduced headache for RBI, SEBI, NCLT and the insurance regulator IRDA. This improves the confidence in the system in resolving such large scale issues.

Who would lose out entirely?

The shareholders of DHFL. 39% holding by promoters, 55% holding by retail investors and 3.5% holding by LIC will find their investment written off completely. It's recent market capital was around 1,000 crores that would disappear. (Unless Piramal decides to run this company separately which is not their plan either).

What would DHFL's existing customers & employees get?

Piramal said they would not let go any of the existing employees. So it is a relief for them. For customers, this would be a good news as their interest payments would reduce in time as Piramal's credit cost would be lower and they would pass it to existing customers of DHFL benefitting them.

Conclusion: 

Promoters of DHFL have paid a huge price. (Though they are facing charges of siphoning of 30,000 crores). If they had shown integrity and patience, they still would have made good money legally and ethically. But now along with them, equity investors of DHFL are losing their money too. Lenders did lose partially and it is their business to take risk while lending.

Ajay Piramal, an opportunist risk taker, a honed businessman known to acquire and sell companies, is likely to manage this acquisition well, benefiting himself and his shareholders. It may take 2-3 years to integrate it fully into his business and give him the benefits of retail portfolio his company needed. Any risks, I suppose are already priced in and discounted for it. So there would be fewer negative surprises for his company. Positive surprises would not be many either.

Overall, this is a positive step for the financial system of India.

ಅಭಯಾರಣ್ಯ ಮಧ್ಯದ ಶಿವಾಲಯ: ಬೇಲದಕುಪ್ಪೆ

ಕಳೆದ ವರ್ಷ ಶಿವರಾತ್ರಿ ಸಮಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವುದಾದರೂ ಹೊಸ ಜಾಗಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಬೇಕು ಎಂದುಕೊಂಡಾಗ ಸಹೋದ್ಯೋಗಿಯೊಬ್ಬ ಸೂಚಿಸಿದ್ದು ಕಾಡಿನ ಮಧ್ಯೆ ಇರುವ ಈ ದೇವಾಲಯವನ್ನು. ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆಯೇ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟು, ಮೈಸೂರು, ನಂಜನಗೂಡು ಮಾರ್ಗವಾಗಿ (ಹಾಗೆಯೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ತಿಂಡಿ ತಿಂದುಕೊಂಡು), ಗುಂಡ್ಲುಪೇಟೆ ಪಟ್ಟಣಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಮುಂಚೆಯೇ ಬಲಕ್ಕೆ ತಿರುಗಿ, ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಅರ್ಧ ಗಂಟೆಗೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಪಯಣದಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ಬೇಲದಕುಪ್ಪೆ ತಲುಪಿದಾಗ ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನದ ಹೊತ್ತು. ಈ ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನ ಇರುವುದು ಬಂಡೀಪುರದ ಅಭಯಾರಣ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ. ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನಕ್ಕಿಂತ ೪ ಕಿ.ಮೀ. ಮುಂಚೆಯೇ ಇರುವ ಅರಣ್ಯ ಇಲಾಖೆಯ ಚೆಕ್ ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ವಿವರ ಕೊಟ್ಟು ದಟ್ಟ ಕಾಡಿನ ಮಾರ್ಗವಾಗಿ ಸಾಗಬೇಕು. ಪ್ರಯಾಣಿಕರು ಮತ್ತು ಕಾಡು ಪ್ರಾಣಿಗಳು ಒಬ್ಬರಿಗೊಬ್ಬರು ತೊಂದರೆ ಕೊಡಬಾರದೆಂದು ಮಾರ್ಗಮಧ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಅರಣ್ಯ ಇಲಾಖೆಯ ಕಾವಲುಗಾರರು ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಸಶಸ್ತ್ರವಾಗಿ ನಿಂತಿರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಹಚ್ಚ ಹಸಿರಿನ, ಪ್ರಶಾಂತ ಜಾಗದಲ್ಲಿ, ಮುಗಿಲು ಮುಟ್ಟಲು ಪೈಪೋಟಿ ನಡೆಸುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಬೆಳೆದ ನಿಂತ ಎತ್ತರದ ಮರಗಳ ಮಧ್ಯೆ, ಮಹದೇಶ್ವರ ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನವಿದೆ. ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲೇ ಇರುವ ಹೊಂಡದಲ್ಲಿ ನೀರು ಕುಡಿಯಲು ಸಾಲು ಸಾಲು ಜಿಂಕೆಗಳು, ಆಗೊಮ್ಮೆ ಈಗೊಮ್ಮೆ ಬಂದು ಹೋಗುವ ಕಾಡು ಹಂದಿಗಳನ್ನು ಕೂಡ ಕಾಣಬಹುದು. ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನದ ಮುಂದಿನ ವಿಶಾಲ ಬಯಲು, ದೈವ ಭಕ್ತರಿಗೂ, ಪರಿಸರ ಪ್ರಿಯರಿಗೂ ಹಾಗೆ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೂ ಕೆಲ ಸಮಯ ಕಳೆಯಲು ಅವಕಾಶ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಡುತ್ತದೆ. ಕುಡಿಯುವ ನೀರಿನ ಸೌಲಭ್ಯವಿದ್ದು, ನೀವು ತಿಂಡಿಯನ್ನು ಕಟ್ಟಿಕೊಂಡು ಹೋದರೆ ಉತ್ತಮ.

ವಾಪಸ್ಸು ಗುಂಡ್ಲುಪೇಟೆಗೆ ಬಂದು, ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಬಂಡೀಪುರದ ಅರಣ್ಯ ಸಫಾರಿಗೆ ಹೋದಾಗ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಕಂಡದ್ದು ಅವೇ ಜಿಂಕೆಗಳು. ಆದರೆ ಅಪರೂಪಕ್ಕೆ ಎಂಬಂತೆ ಚಿರತೆ ಕೂಡ ಕಾಣಿಸಿತು. ಸಾಯಂಕಾಲಕ್ಕೆ ನಂಜನಗೂಡಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಶ್ರೀಕಂಠೇಶ್ವರನ ದರ್ಶನಕ್ಕೆಂದು ಹೋದರೆ, ಅಲ್ಲಿ ನೆರೆದದ್ದು ಲಕ್ಷಾಂತರ ಜನಸ್ತೋಮ. ಅವರೆಲ್ಲ ಶಿವರಾತ್ರಿಯನ್ನು ಶಿವನ ಸಾನ್ನಿಧ್ಯದಲ್ಲೆ ಕಳೆಯಲೆಂದು ಬಂದವರು.

 

ಈ ಪ್ರವಾಸಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಬಂದು ಕೇವಲ ಒಂದೇ ವರ್ಷ ಕಳೆದಿದ್ದರೂ , ಎಷ್ಟೋ ಸಮಯ ಕಳೆದು ಹೋದ ಹಾಗೆ ಅನಿಸುತ್ತಿದೆ.

ಬಂಡೀಪುರ ಅಭಯಾರಣ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಬೇಲದಕುಪ್ಪೆ 

ಮಹದೇಶ್ವರನ ಸನ್ನಿಧಿಯಲ್ಲಿ

ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನ ಪಕ್ಕದ  ಹೊಂಡದಲ್ಲಿ ನೀರು ಕುಡಿಯಲು ಬಂದಿರುವ ಜಿಂಕೆಗಳು

ನಂಜನಗೂಡಿನ ಶ್ರೀಕಂಠೇಶ್ವರ ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಶಿವರಾತ್ರಿಯಂದು ನೆರೆದಿದ್ದ ಜನಸ್ತೋಮ

ವಿದಾಯ ೨೦೨೦; ಸುಸ್ವಾಗತ ೨೦೨೧!

ಈ ವರ್ಷ ಉಂಟು ಮಾಡಿದ ಭೀತಿ, ಕಸಿದುಕೊಂಡ ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ, ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಗೆ ಆದ ಹಾನಿ ಅಪಾರ. ನಾವಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದರೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತರು, ಬಂಧುಗಳು ಕೊರೊನ ಧಾಳಿಯ ನೇರ ಸಂಕಟ ಅನುಭವಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಮಕ್ಕಳು ಶಾಲೆಯ ಕಡೆಗೆ ತಲೆಯೇ ಹಾಕಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಎಷ್ಟೋ ತಿಂಗಳುಗಳ ಕಾಲ ರಸ್ತೆ, ಮಾರುಕಟ್ಟೆಗಳು ಮುಕ್ತವಾಗಿ ಇರದಿದ್ದರೂ, ಇಂಟರ್ನೆಟ್ ಮುಕ್ತವಾಗಿ ಇತ್ತಲ್ಲ. ನಾವುಗಳು ಮನೆಯ ಒಂದು ರೂಮಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸೇರಿಕೊಂಡು ಆಫೀಸ್ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುತ್ತ ಬಂದದ್ದಾಯ್ತು. ಒಂದು ಬಾಗಿಲು ಮುಚ್ಚಿದರೆ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಬಾಗಿಲು ತೆರೆಯುತ್ತೆ ಅಂತಾರಲ್ಲ. ನಮಗೆ ಇದ್ದ ಅವಕಾಶಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಂಡು, ಹಾಗೋ, ಹೀಗೋ, ವಿನೋದವೋ-ವಿಷಾದವೋ ಈ ವರ್ಷ ಕಳೆದದ್ದಾಯ್ತು.

ಸಾಂಕ್ರಾಮಿಕ ರೋಗಗಳು ನಮ್ಮ ಪೀಳಿಗೆಗೆ ಅನುಭವ ಇರದಿದ್ದರೂ, ಇತಿಹಾಸದ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳು ಅವು ಉಂಟು ಮಾಡಿದ ಅನಾಹುತಗಳನ್ನು ತಿಳಿಸಿ ಕೊಡುತ್ತವೆ. ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಯು ಕಾಲ ಕಳೆದಂತೆ ಹೊಸ ಜೀವಿಗಳನ್ನು ಹುಟ್ಟು ಹಾಕುತ್ತ,  ಇದ್ದವುಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾರ್ಪಡಿಸುತ್ತ, ಹೊಂದಾಣಿಕೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳದವನ್ನು ಹೊಸಕಿ ಹಾಕುತ್ತ ಹೋಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಕಾಲಕ್ಕೆ ತಕ್ಕಂತೆ ಹೊಂದಾಣಿಕೆ ಆಗದ ಎಷ್ಟೋ ಜೀವಿಗಳು, ಪ್ರಾಣಿ-ಪಕ್ಷಿಗಳು ಭೂಮಿಯಿಂದ ಕಣ್ಮರೆಯಾಗಿ ಹೋಗಿವೆ. ಆದರೆ ಮನುಷ್ಯ ಪ್ರಾಣಿ ತನ್ನ ಬುದ್ದಿವಂತಿಕೆಯಿಂದ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಯನ್ನು ತುಳಿಯಲು ನೋಡುತ್ತಾನಾದರೂ, ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗದಿದ್ದಾಗ ಬಲು ಬೇಗ ಹೊಂದಾಣಿಕೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಬದುಕು ಉಳಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾನೆ. ಆ ಹೊಂದಾಣಿಕೆ ಅವನನ್ನು ಉಳಿದೆಲ್ಲ ಜೀವಿಗಳಿಗಿಂತ ಭಿನ್ನವಾಗಿಸಿ, ಭೂಮಿ ಇರುವವರೆಗೆ ಮಾನವನೂ ಇರಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯ ಎನ್ನುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡಿದೆ.   

ಬರುವ ವರ್ಷ ಶುಭವಾಗಿರಲಿ ಎಂದು ನಾವೆಲ್ಲ ಹಾರೈಸಿದರು, ಅದು ತನ್ನ ಒಡಲಲ್ಲಿ ಏನೆಲ್ಲಾ ಇಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡಿದೆಯೋ ಕಾದು ನೋಡಬೇಕು. ಅದು ಹೂಮಳೆ ಸುರಿಸಿದರು ಇಲ್ಲ ವಿಷ ಕಾರಿದರು ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗಬೇಕು. ಅದನ್ನೇ ನಾವು ನಿನ್ನೆಯಿಂದ ಕಲಿತಿರುವುದು ಮತ್ತು ನಾಳೆಗೆ ಕೊಂಡೊಯ್ಯುತ್ತಿರುವುದು. ಇದನ್ನೇ ಒಂದು ಹಾಡಾಗಿಸಿದ್ದರಲ್ಲ ಚಿ.ಉದಯಶಂಕರ್. ರಾಜಣ್ಣನ ಧ್ವನಿಯಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಈ ಗೀತೆ ಕಾಲಾತೀತವೆನ್ನುವಂತೆ, ಹಿಂದಿಗೂ, ಇಂದಿಗೂ ಮತ್ತು ಮುಂದೆಯೂ ನಮ್ಮ ಜೀವನಕ್ಕೆ ಅನ್ವಯಿಸುತ್ತದೆ.

"ಕಾಲವು ಕುಣಿಸಿದಂತೆ, ಆ ವಿಧಿ ಎಣಿಸಿದಂತೆ, 

ಆಡುವ ಸಮಯದ ಗೊಂಬೆ ಮಾನವ"   

ನಿಜ, ನಾವು ನೀವೆಲ್ಲರೂ ಸಮಯದ ಗೊಂಬೆಗಳಲ್ಲವೇ? ವರ್ಷ ಒಂದು ಕಳೆದು ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಬಂದರೇನು? ಆದರೂ ರೂಢಿ ತಪ್ಪದೆ, ನಿಮಗೆ ಹೊಸ ವರ್ಷ ಶುಭ ತರಲೆಂದು ಕೋರುತ್ತೇನೆ.