In the sound of the Chisel

In this poem I have tried to express one important mystery of life. There are aspects of nature, which are hidden from its appearance. For example, the mathematical relationship between the integers and harmonics is invisible. The melody and that blissful feeling of listening to the Mozart’s symphony, is beyond the details of the musical instruments involved. There is a complete invisible essence which makes the symphony so divine.

For example, if you connect four dots, you get a square. Connecting another three dots, will give you a cuboid. See, we are creating 6 different planes out of those extra 3 dots. Now, the comprehension of those 6 new plains in the 3D model, is beyond those 3 extra dots those were used.

The idea is that the essence of everyday life is beyond the transactional realities that are appreciated by our 5 senses apparently. The physical world is just a partial truth. There is always a confluence between the physical and the divine, to create anything worthwhile. The physical perishes away. It just transiently tries to hold that divine essence. And after some time, that essence flows to some other physical form.

To explain this better, it was Pythagoras in 570BC who tried to investigate the nature of the solar system, and had postulated with his rudimentary means that earth is NOT the center of universe, and it just rotates around a ball of fire, along with all the other planets. See, this theory of Pythagoras was not visible to him directly. He investigated, and mathematically analyzed the cosmos, and came up with this idea. One thousand years later, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was the first man to make a serious attempt to apply mathematics to find laws of celestial motion. His faith that heavens must be arranged in a harmonious pattern that reveals itself in simple mathematical relationships led him to formulate several generalizations about the planets. Today most of the formulations of Kepler are regarded as landmarks of fundamental Physics. Now see, the idea is beyond the invisibility part. There another beautiful aspect. That is the aspect of continuum and immortality. The beautiful idea of Pythagoras lived beyond his life. 1000 years later the idea was re-evaluated by Kepler and Copernicus to formulate a new paradigm of solar system, which was till then being dogmatically believed as having Earth as the center point (Thanks to the influence of Roman Catholic Church, misguiding the world, in the name of their own personalized idea of God and His creation). Notice that the meme – the idea- was greater than the physical form of either Pythagoras, Kepler of Copernicus. It was something beyond – divine, omnipotent, omnipresent, and perfect! Is that not God?

The following story is about Angella Rizabella Grace – Michel Simoni’s Love. When the entire universe is head over heels with the beauty of this lady in form, what Simoni sees is the essence of her beauty beyond her form. She is being described as beautiful means of expression of that ethereal and celestial beauty being condensed on her form, for a limited time, brought about by the sound of the Simoni’s chisel and his profound and unshakable love for her.

In the sound of the Chisel

Merged the infinite with the limited,

Comprehendible was the immortal,

In the garb of the perishable!

A profound Confluence was on show,

Of the divine and the earthly,

The form and the non-form!

For busy was Simoni,

Chipping out those extra bits,

Out of the perfection he was creating,

The sculpture of the angel

With the Most Beautiful Eyes –

 Angella Rizabella Grace!

The gasping Divine Beauty,

Magically had descended

Far from the heavens un-seen,

Invisible and unfathomed,

To the worlds of the mortals!

With every sound of the Chisel,

Embracing was that invisible and hidden,

Perfect Beauty in its form pristine,

Through contours on the surface of the

White and cold marble!

Stunned and intoxicated all the

Bees and insects and the birds,

The flora and fauna at large,

The sky, ocean and the entire cosmos,

Expectant of an ounce of nectar,

Like restless hummingbirds,

All of them flocked to her,

Surrounding Angella!

Frenzied in delirium,

Love soaked hearts of the entire creation,

Desperate all were

To contain the profound beauty,

In their small life and even smaller heart –

Owning for themselves, forever –

The cold, white marble,

Of the fragile and aging,

But the perfect mannequin!

Handicapped was the universe,

Trapped inside the bondage of its ignorace,

And even shorter attention and whims,

Could see just that was just a mirage –

The transient and temporal,

The only the partial truth,

The incomplete beauty!

It was just Simoni and the silent oak tree in his garden,

Who had the glimpse of the beauty profound and complete!

Through the sound of the chisel,

They were the only ones,

To feel the perfection beneath

The stone, the curves and contours!

The beauty did not belong to the mannequin,

Nor did it belong to the throbbing restless delirium of the lovers.

Beneath all the humdrum of the sameness of forms,

Was that invisible beauty that was perfect and novel!

That was the glimpse of God!

The pure Godliness of those Most Beautiful Eyes!

Simoni in the flow of his handiwork,

Was meditating at the beauty beneath the form.

The eternal shower of grandeur, of elegance and grace,

Was coming from faraway heavens invisible,

Through the channel of the chisel’s sound,

Surrendering to the bondage of his ardent love!

Through Simoni’s ardor, and his finesse,

The intangible gave a peek of itself,

In the form of Angella Rizabella Grace!

Through his art, work, and passion,

Was Simoni able to be attuned to the source -

The genesis of the eternal flow

Of love, beauty, harmony and perfection!

He knew it was through him,

And the symphony of his chisel,

Did the profound intoxication of love,

Flow to the cold and white stone!

Also he knew the beauty was not his,

And so it was of none!

Beyond the realities –

Hard and Cold,

Of the physical world,

Simoni and the oak tree,

Was able to establish their link

With that invisible, impersonal and infinite!

They knew it was the gaps between their thoughts,

In the stillness was the potential bud,

Of all that was beautiful and divine!

That infinite creative sap,

Connected Simoni with the Gods!

For Gods could express themselves,

On the people and things of the mortal world,

Through the art of Simoni!

Either hidden or destroyed,

By the different finalities of the senses,

The Mortal world had lost its connection,

To the ever nourishing nectar!

But, in the hours of silence,

Simoni and the oak tree,

Could redeem their lost link!

It was just about being in the love with the Truth,

With passion and silence,

Investigating the profundity of life,

Discovering the mystery invisible

Beyond the distractions of appearance!

For more poems on Michel Simoni refer - http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/search/label/SIMONI%20SERIES
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Remembering Veblen

Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born Torsten Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American economist and sociologist, and a leader of the so-called institutional economics movement. Besides his technical work he was a popular and witty critic of capitalism, as shown by his best known book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).
Veblen is famous in the history of economic thought for combining a Darwinian evolutionary perspective with his new institutionalist approach to economic analysis. He combined sociology with economics in his masterpiece, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), arguing there was a basic distinction between the productiveness of "industry," run by engineers, which manufactures goods, and the parasitism of "business," which exists only to make profits for a leisure class. The chief activity of the leisure class was "conspicuous consumption", and their economic contribution is "waste," activity that contributes nothing to productivity. The American economy was therefore made inefficient and corrupt by the businessmen, though he never made that claim explicit. Veblen believed that technological advances were the driving force behind cultural change, but, unlike many contemporaries, he refused to connect change with progress.
Veblen, in his writings smashed the big lie of the theory of capitalism of Adam Smith, the idea of the “invisible hand” of free market. Classical economists inspired by the Smith’s school of thought, had always portrayed capitalism as a reflection of timeless truth and eternal laws. But Veblen had a refreshing perspective. He treated economics as a Darwinian cultural science. He found conflict, force and fraud persisting in a society supposedly harmonized by contracts, laws, and peaceful rules of natural exchanges.
Now certainly holding such audaciously different way of thinking speaks for the place from where this person was coming from. Certainly he was one of those rebels, who did not have an orthodox conditioning of the traditional education. He was born on the Wisconsin frontier in 1857 to Norwegian Immigrants. He embarked on graduate studies at the John Hopkins and then at Yale, where he received his doctorate in Philosophy in 1884. But as he disbelieved in supernaturalism, he disqualified himself from teaching philosophy in a God fearing college or university. (John Hopkins, Yale, Harvard – all these universities were born out of Protestant Christian movements, and had a deep belief in God and His ways). The next seven years he passed reading, unneeded and un-employed, on farms owned by his father. Eventually he found work teaching economics as a low level instructor at the university of Chicago, where in 1899, where he wrote his first and most famous book “The Theory of Leisure Class”. Nobody has attacked the strategic imperative of consumer capitalism – confusing personal worth with accumulation and display of commodities – with a more vicious erudition than Veblen in this great book.
The Roaring Twenties (around 1920s principally in London and USA, which was marked my extreme economic prosperity, materialism and consumerism), left him a defeated man. During his last years he lived alone, unemployed and impoverished, in a small cabin in the hills surrounding Palo Alto. He survived on the strength of donations from admirers.
The conspicuous in-attention given today to Veblen’s criticism of business cant conceal his broad relevance. The corporation, he said burst into the 19th century as nothing more creative than a collective credit transactions; it was an institution mobilized by business class for the purpose of seizing control of the industrial process from workers, farmers and engineers. Business enterprise was “a competitive endeavor to realize the largest gains in terms of price”. The point was to manipulate markets, to maximize profits, using methods of chicanery and prevarication against consumers. “Its aim and end is not productive work,” he wrote, “but profitable business; and its corporate activities are not in the nature of workmanship but of salesmanship”. He indicated that Industry made useful things for human needs, but business made money.
Veblen’s distinction between the Industry and Business reads like an advanced memorandum on the follies of growth as the tonic for our malaise. Against the barrage of pecuniary language directed our way by consultants, management theorists, self help gurus, venture capitalists, financial journalists and other vested interests, he said America’s enormous productive capacities suffered from a corporate form designed to make money, whatever the cost, while denying the workers a chance of meaningful participation. Business destruction of farming, handicrafts, and small scale production, combined with its plunder of natural resources, has left us – just as Veblen warned  - with ancestral memories of craftsmanship.
The best we can hope for; while our politicians wrangle of business’s debts and securities, is to return to the same stupefying jobs once held and to pay for the privilege of turning ourselves into brads. Liberals meanwhile make new idols of rapacious businessmen such as Steve Jobs, and Warren Buffet, and evangelical Christians make common cause with their natural enemies  - libertarians.
America, left and right, remains in thrall to what Veblen called the “business metaphysics” – a superstition deeply engrained in the classical school of Adam Smith’s economics, inspired by Protestant Christianity – “The market is not an impersonal, fallible mechanism for distributing resources. It is a source of spiritual values, and it is never wrong. The “invisible hand” distributes virtues and honor along with wealth. God wants you to be rich. But rich or poor you have what you deserve.”

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The Voice

Meditating atop Mount Olympus,
The great Apollo was moved.
Touched he was with a voice –
That was silky, thin,
Like a mist on the petal of a rose pristine.
It was like a the thin melody of the Violin
Against the silence of his meditation!
It was like a submissive touch of the satin,
Enthralling his inner soul to heights of bliss!

Opened his eyes,
Stunned with the voice,
Looked hither and thither Apollo
To find that divine damsel –
The source of the voice – the divine song!

For sure he knew
It was from a higher plane –
A plane even he never aspired to be.
But intrigued was he to his core,
To find the voice,
Coming from the lowly lands of the mortals,
Deep down the Mount Olympus.

Restless was Apollo,
For he wanted to see the damsel,
Fascinated with the voice,
Expectant was his heart,
To see the elegant angel!

Hundred years did he roamed,
Forests to Hills,
Streams to Fields,
One Horizon after the other,
Gauging the Seven Seas,
Apollo could not find that lady,
The lady with the Vivacious Voice!

Tired and exhausted, landed Apollo
In the palace of Simoni.
Expecting an answer from
His favorite disciple!

As he neared Simoni’s studio,
The voice was sharper and clearer!
Hundred years of exploration,
Seemed to come to an end!
For the song was clearer than ever before,
Coming from the sculpture of Simoni!

Apollo asked Simoni –
“Who is this damsel, carved in marble?”
“She is Angella – The lady with the Most Beautiful Eyes”,
Replied Simoni.

Immediately possessive,
Ordered Apollo to Simoni –
“Give me your Angela! I need her!”
But before the words could leave his heart,
Realized Apollo –
“Beauty cannot be owned, by even the Gods”.
Restrained he himself immediately!

But then in the love to make the creation beautiful,
Apollo requested Angella to give her voice,
To the Nature and the Creation as a whole!
On his knees did Apollo plead –
“O lady with the Most Beautiful Eyes,
Can thou render thy voice,
To the Swings of the Spring,
To the laughter of the Sunflowers,
To the surrender of the Tulips,
To the gushing passionate Ocean,
To the carefree vagabond wind,
To the dynamic ever-flowing stream!
 Request I to render your voice,
To the whole creation of mine,
For the world would never be as beautiful,
Without your love,
Without your passionate throb!”

The divine damsel,
Obliged the magnanimous Apollo,
With her passing gift,
Rendering her voice to
The source of all that is beautiful,
In Nature and the world of mortals!

Since then, the world shimmered with a Beauty new found!
A depth new discovered!
Envied even the Heavens looking down
On the impeccable and perfect,
The world of the mortals!

Beautified the Vivacious Voice,
The entire creation,
In various textures –
Sometimes caring and caressing,
Nurturing the cradle of humanity,
To grow to better and more beautiful,
Over eons and ages!

And at times,
Bold, Courageous, Audacious, Assertive,
Fearless, and Cruising through,
Crushing civilizations one after another,
Perishing the old and stale,
Giving way to the new and agile!
Always the voice sang the story
Of victory of good over the evil,
Of the sustenance of Beauty over the Gross,
Of divinity over the mortality!


Her voice have been hidden and alive,
In the entire creation,
Giving it that unique sheen,
That unspoken enchantment,
That un-discovered secret of Love!
Mystifying generations after generations,
Lives after lives!
Camouflaged in subtlety!
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Long Live the voice!

Each time I have listened to Jagjit Singh ji, I have been transported to a different world of finesse, of dreamlike peace, of a thick and mushy travel into the saga of love! Without his voice, those awesome poems would have been awesome for sure, but they would not have touched the heights of divinity I believe. Being a Bengali, I have a limited vocabulary for Punjabi and Urdu. When I started listening to Jagjit Singh ji, in my school days, hardly I got much of what he was trying to say. But the depth of his voice was too mesmerizing. It has a typical pitch, a thick bass, and subtle vibration, which directly resonated with my heart! There was a direct connection between his poems and the swelling waves of emotions deep inside my heart.
My most favorites of his renditions are -
1. Kal chaudwi ki raat thi, Shab bhar raha charcha tera - What a grace! He had embroidered the poem with an awesome elegance, pride and so much depth of the lover's steadfast love, with the chisel of his beautiful voice! "Hum chup rahe, hum has diye....manjoor tha parda tera". In this poem the poet compares the beloved with the moon. Apparently the night was moonlit, but not due to the celestial moon, but because of someone much more angelic - the beloved! The lover was the only who knew the secret. But he did not open up. He preferred to leave it unsaid. The world kept thinking it was the magic of the moon, believing the myth. The reality was something else. It was the radiance of the crowning glory of the beloved! The best part is that listening to this song, there is a visual appeal. Rather I would say I feel with all my senses that magic of the beloved. And the subtle ignorance of the world. The world thinks the beauty of the night is just due to what is visible and said and appreciated - the moon. But the real reason of all the magnificence was the presence of the beloved! Jagjit Singh ji was totally immersed into the poem, and his Godlike voice, oozed out the sap of love out from the poem.
With any other signer these words in the poem, would be just words. But Jagjit Singh ji's voice had the quality which psychologists called synesthesia; where what is heard can also be seen.

2. It was the song from "Arth", "Tum itna jo muskura rahey ho.." that showed the cinema going folks in India what a good ghazal can achieve. It captured a marital siscord like nothing else. Ghazal singers can invoke sanctimonious pendantry about their art, but Jagjit Singh ji was not among them. He brought the elite ivory tower of Ghazal guild, close to the simple heart of the average cine goers. He was truly a game changer.

3. Who can forget the opening line from Gulzar's serial on "Mirza Ghalib". THe sounds of saarangi giving way to "Ballimaran ki mohalley ki wo pechida gallian.." - just words but with a quality that can make you see the lane in which Mirza Ghalib was born right down to the sound of goat's bleating.

The list continues with Jhuki Jhuki se nazaar, Hoton se choolo tum, Hoswalon ko khabar kya, bekhudi kya cheez hai, tumko dekha to yeh khayal aya, na chitthi na koi sandesh....

Jagji Singh ji might be gone, but the magic of his voice, the memories of growing up with him, the reminisces of discovering him will remain. And many more generations will fall in love with the man who brought ghazals out of cloistered elite mehfils into the public domain.

During these days of losing greatest of my inspirations each other day, starting from Steve Jobs, then Jagjit Singh ji, and then Dennis Richie, it has been a series of gloomy days, remembering the masters, the maestros - the souls who contribute their individual parts to make this world a better and more beautiful place to live. 

Expressing my heartfelt homage to Jagjit Singh ji - The Voice that shall live long, caressing the soul with the warmth of love, depth and meaning!

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Life is just a means; not an end.

Of late I have come to realize that my life is just a means, and not end to itself. So is everything in my life, including myself. Let me explain.
My life comprises of the following major components –

1.    My Persona –
The identity of mine, my personality, my personal ego, that aspect of my existence that I call as “I”, is just a means, and not an end to itself. It is a means to explore, learn, grow, make a positive difference to the community I belong, to make a meaningful contribution to the place I work, to create a safe, nurturing and warm ecosystem for my family, friends, and colleagues, to create a legacy that enables mankind to think, conceive and act better in some way or the other. I have earlier in some of my poems and essays, have termed this aspect of mine as being a “link”; a link between the problem and a possible inspiring and effective solution; a link between the higher self and lower baser emotions. Persona acts as a vehicle to implement the higher ideals, the divinity, in the world of form. It is a means, ofcourse!

Many a time I have a propensity to slip down to consider the persona as an end. This is exactly when I expect things for myself, or when the ego is at play, trying to establish its self importance.  It also raises its ugly head when I tend not to understand others, and their perspective, when I hate someone, or envy or feel jealous of someone. Also the same thing is visible when I expect someone to behave in a particular way, and feel sad to find them behave totally contrary to the expectation. All these are various forms of holding the self importance – viewing my persona as an end. Certainly this brings an avalanche of sorrow and causes an immense leak of time and energy.

Hence I keep reminding myself that who I am, is just a means, and not an end. This gives me a lot of freedom, and lightness. It appears to me as a big baggage is out of my shoulder. I feel more in harmony with life.

2.    My Family –
The same thing holds good in the context of my family. Family for me is a means to create a loving and nourishing ecosystem for growth, fulfillment and well being of all the people associated. It is an avenue to feel and provide that un-conditional care, affection, love and bond. It is the starting point for the bigger goal of universal love and compassion.

This perspective provides that space for things going against what I expect or would like to. There might be points of disconnect and discontents among family members. There might even be certain misunderstandings. But putting the context in place, things become easier to handle. The ego is kept at bay. Certainly this level of thinking is based and built over the point 1, explained above.

3.    My Friends –
Friends for me are those few people in my life whom I like, without any judgment, or conditions. These people understand me for who I am. They know my follies, and shortcomings, but still love me. We get together and create things beautiful and creative. We converse together and stimulate each other intellectually. We are always available to each other whenever we need each other’s support. There certainly is an intersection between this group of people and the Family. For example my wife is my best friend, who knows me and understands me more than anyone in the world. Friends are, in my view, angels from heavens. They are the shadows of God, who help us to live life more optimally, for each other.

Now, coming to the means and ends. The moment you consider friends as an end, life becomes a prison. You get attached and possessive about the person. You have strict set of expectations from the other person. But the problem is that humans evolve. They change. And more importantly we are all different and unique. It is just not possible for any other human being to mould in the typical slot of my expectation. That attempt would be trying to fix a square peg in a round hole.

In his most openly philosophical work, “Civilization and its Discontents,” Freud maintained that our psyches are layered. As he explained it, much as Rome is built upon the ruins of past Romes, our emotions are stratified: what is past and below lives on and informs what is above, even if we refuse to acknowledge it. This law of the inner life also applies in telling ways to how we relate to so-called cold-facts. Given the pasts and social conditionings of all humans are different and unique, they tend to understand things differently. It is a lost game to expect people to behave in a particular way.

Psychologically every person has a very personal and unique way in looking at things in life. I have tried to explain the same in my previous essay - http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-every-man-is-island-entire-to.html
Given so many things so very unique, private and exclusive in each of us, it certainly is a lost game considering humans and relationships as “ends”. They should rather be considered as a dynamic means to express out what is inspiring and beautiful for one and his life.

Extrapolating the same context, the philosophy works even in romantic relationships. Moment the people involved consider the other as an end, the demise of the warmth in the relationship is eminent. Most the cases of divorce, heart breaks, and stresses involving romantic relationship is an inability in the part of the people involved in considering the relationship as a means, to a different end – an end to evolve, grow, learn, provide for each other, creating expressions of beauty and inspirations, support each other, help each other to express themselves differently, the way each wants. See, it is crucial to move the focus of the “end” away from the needs of the self, and consider the relationship as a means of self awareness, growth, and nourishing of the self and also the other. It is about providing that space to each other. Being able to do this is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

4.    Institutions –
Institutions in my life include my work place, other institutions I attend to, either for pursuing a hobby, or for some other social activities. Each of these institutions is again a means for me to learn, grow, contribute and create a meaning for my life. It is about an effort to increase the relevance of my being alive.

Not considering these institutions as an end also involves not expecting anything from them, for my efforts give towards them. My actions in service of these institutions are whole and complete by themselves. They are not done in an expectation of any reward or recognition. This is because my actions are way to my wisdom. They help me grow, learn, and fulfill the meaning of my existence. These institutions provide a framework for my actions. The visions and missions these institutions stand for, give meaning to my life. These inspire me, so I am part of these institutions. They invoke certain actions from me, which makes me fulfilled.
The point is not just about fulfillment. It is also about providing an ecosystem to act. Action for me it the way to self realization. I have tried to explain this aspect of action in my essay - http://criativ-mind.blogspot.com/2011/10/musing-from-marcus-aurelius.html

5.    My Emotions -
Emotions are earthly. They have evolutionary connotations. They are hardwired in our brains and body, and have their own finalities. Those finalities might not be the most optimum or inspiring. Emotions are the calls of the ancient genes we carry. They at most times are gross, and inappropriate at a particular contemporary situation.

Emotions should also be taken as a means, and not as an end. Emotions can be a beautiful means to express one’s true self. It can be a means to create a work of art, or an astounding scientific work. Emotions help us to bond with others, create communities, and play bigger games. Emotions enable us to leave a unique legacy behind, which leaves imprints of beauty when we are no more.

But, the moment emotions are taken as an “end”, problems arise. A self indulgent pursuit of hedonism neither helps the subject involved, nor the bigger community. Being a slave to emotions enslaves the persona to be puppetted by the selfish genes. In the long run that causes distress for humanity as a whole.

Emotions have to be transmuted, beautified, sanctified, and shaped to create works of art and inspirations. They cannot be mutilated. But certainly can be transmuted and transformed.

6.    My Possessions –
I consider the worldly possessions I have, also as means, and not an end in themselves. For example owning a car, is not an end to itself. It is rather a means to safe, fast and comfortable travel from one place to other. A house is not an end to itself. Rather it is just a means to create a safe, secure and peaceful ecosystem for the family and friends.

This helps to create an un-attached perspective on one’s own possessions.


This idea of viewing life as a means and not as an end, to me, is a practical approach to an age old teachings of the scriptures of not being attached. Life and all its aspects are transient. They change. They are dynamic. Hindu philosophy names it as “Maya”. Buddhism calls it “Mara”. And other major schools of philosophies have their own labels to the same. Suffering is caused in the human world, when people get attached to illusion. All the aspects of life, including life itself is not permanent, and is destined to end in near future. It certainly is a lost game to be attached to the worldly matters, and considering them as an “end”. Having said that, I just want to clarify myself that I am not advocating austerity or solitude. It is just a reminder that all enchanting worldly matters are transient, and they need to be viewed as a “means” and not “ends”.
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Steve Jobs - A Heartfelt Homage.

An adopted child, Mr Jobs caught the computing bug while growing up in Silicon Valley. As a teenager in the late 1960s he met Steve Wozniak in HP during his summer job. But it was only after dropping out of college, travelling to India, becoming a Buddhist and experimenting with psychedelic drugs that Mr Jobs returned to California to co-found Apple with Mr Wozniak, in his parents’ garage, on an April Fool’s Day in 1976.

He once said, “A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions. His great rival, Bill Gates, he suggested, would be “a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger”.

In retrospect, Mr Jobs was a man ahead of his time during his first stint at Apple. Computing’s early years were dominated by technical types. But his emphasis on design and ease of use gave him the edge later on. Elegance, simplicity and an understanding of other fields came to matter in a world in which computers have become fashion items, carried by everyone, that can do almost anything. “Technology alone is not enough,” said Mr Jobs at the end of his speech introducing the iPad 2, in March 2011. “It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing.” It was an unusual statement for the head of a technology firm.

Mr Job’s on-stage persona as a Zen-like mystic notwithstanding, Mr Jobs was an autocratic manager with a fierce temper. But his egomania was largely justified. He eschewed market researchers and focus groups, preferring to trust his own instincts when evaluating potential new products. “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them,” he said. His judgment proved uncannily accurate: by end of his career the far outweighed the misses.

 Although his authoritarian streak was well known, Mr Jobs was nevertheless good at attracting talent. Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design guru, Phil Schiller, its marketing leader, Scott Forstall, the head of its mobile-software operation and Mr Cook, the firm’s new chief executive and former chief operating office, are all world-class managers. When he was asked how he chose members of his team, Mr Jobs said he always looked for bright and competent people. But more important, he added, was to find people who cared a great deal about precisely the same things that mattered to him.

The strength of Apple’s senior team is one reason that the firm’s share price barely flinched when news emerged last month that Mr Jobs was relinquishing his role as chief executive and becoming executive chairman. Another is that he left it in an extremely good position to take advantage of changes sweeping through the world of technology Under his guidance, Apple has developed not just amazing hardware, but also “cloud” based services such as its iTunes online music store and its new “iCloud” services, which allows people to store all sorts of contents on Apple’s servers and access it on all sorts of devices.

Another striking – and often underappreciated – aspect of Mr Job’s success was his ability to say no. At a company like Apple, thousands of ideas bubble up each year for new products and services that it could launch. The hardest thing for its leader is to decide which ones merit attention. Mr Jobs had an uncanny knack of winnowing out the wheat from the mountain of chaff.

It remains to be seen whether this disciples who are now running the show can make equally smart choices and whether Apple will be able to prosper without its magician-in-chief at the helm. The lukewarm response to this week’s launch of its new iPhone 4S should give some cause of concern. Without Mr Jobs, Apple suddenly looked much more like just another technology firm, rather than a producer of magical products that excite the world. With Google and its allies chasing it in smartphones, and Amazon’s launch of a bold new tablet computer, Apple faces serious competition for the first time in the new markets it has created.

I read much of the contents written in the paragraphs above in this week’s edition of The Economist. Most of these are already known to me as well as you, along with Mr Job’s Hollywood style comeback – creating Pixar Animations, Next Computers and then leading his own child – Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy to being the largest technology firm, even ahead of Microsoft! But it was a good way to pay homage to the master, by re-capitulating what he stood for in his life.

Yet another instance I see – this time in the life of Mr Jobs – someone who fought throughout his life, to bring down something divine to the world of mortals. As he rightly said, people will not believe something till they were shown that. Repeatedly he showed to the world how to design a computer, a tablet pc, a cell phone properly. Before the advent of iPhone, iMac, Macbook, iPad, world did not even have an inkling to what a properly made such equipments can be.

Many such masters have used their lives to create that inspiration from the precincts of the Non-Form to the world of mortals. From the ancient world were Pythagoras in around 400BC, and then followed by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. On the other parts of the world were The Buddha, and more recent were Mozart, Michelangelo, Jesus, Einstein, Newton, Fynemann and many more. All these humans were instances of inspirations, with varied experiences, each trying to bring into the world, which did not exist during their times. Generations have hailed them, worshipped them and venerated them saying that they were ahead of times – they were some Avatars. The sources of such phenomenon was the heart of creativity – Being holistically a disciple of life; about viewing life as a mystery, and oneself as a philosopher trying to investigate the same. In the process, such awe-inspiring creations fall out as side-effects.

Steve Jobs had been one of my Inspirations, who did exactly the same in his life – standing for a continuous battle towards perfection – towards creating something that never existed – in an effort to ascend humanity to the next level – closer to that Omniscience and Aesthetics of the Gods.

I would not mourn saying Steve Jobs passed away. Yes, his physical self has ceased to exist, and that is a huge loss to humanity and to Apple for sure. But I would not mourn saying Steve Jobs passed away. He was much more than his physical self. The aspects of his that makes him legendary are immortal and ever inspiring.His audacious creativity, fearlessness, Never give up attitude, perfection at his work, his guts to dream disruptively big were part of what made him "Steve Jobs". These ethereal virtues will persist to eternity and beyond. Steve-You will be alive forever, in the hearts of mortals and Gods-for generations to come.

Till all the crowd of followers and copiers are in the search of a new genius to copy ideas from, and thousands of professionals being manufactured in the conveyer belts of stereotyped schools and universities, here I pay my homage to a short but intense life lived by an extra-ordinary person - pushing human race to evolve to a more beautiful world - the iWorld.
RESPECT FOR THE MAN - THE VISION - THE REBEL - THE PERFECTION - THE STEVE JOBS.

A side note – I was happy to learn that Mr Jobs had converted to Buddhism, and that he had spent years in ashrams with the Buddhist monks, before he started Apple. Certainly you need to re-establish that eternal connection, to do anything near to what Mr Jobs did in his life. 

I want to end this essay of paying my tribute and respect to this great soul, by quoting a favorite quote from Mr Jobs himself -
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I have ever encountered to help me make big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride,all fear of embarrassment of failure - these things just fall away in the face of death,leaving what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the traps of thinking you have something to lose. You already are naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

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At the Altar of Aphrodite.

Thunder and Lightning all around,
Was that a tumultuous day.
It was the Compliments day,
Around 15th century,
When the people all over Florence,
Expressed their heartiest
Complements to their love!

Like the fluttering hummingbird,
Restless in mid air,
In trance of the sweetness of being in love,
Sinking in the taste of the intoxicating nectar
Of his beloved flower,
Each lover was busy,
Cherishing the blessings of his love,
Creating music and songs,
As an ode to his damsel delight!

Walked Simoni  along the long winding path uphill,
To the Altar of Aphrodite.
Sat by the side of the Rock – Cold, White and Shiny,
Sang Simoni –

Tempted I too to shower on u
Complements loads
On your angelic beauty
Your Most Beautiful Eyes
And your Amorous Flamboyance.

But when I think deep into
Your intoxicating presence
Both in person and in spirit
Forced I am to acknowledge
That special thing beyond your physical charm.
That aspect of yourself which is divine
That is immortal.
That source of the Ethereal Attraction!

Yes I know the essence is beyond
Those Most Beautiful Eyes.
The Essence is in part in the guild of
Creativity, Passion, Compassion, Care, Affection
Inspiration, Aspiration, An enlivening dream!
That unalterable will, Fearless glance,
That unfaltering Commitment to Perfection,
That strong and steady stand,
That feeling of eternal bond!

A Symbolic Instance of all that is Beautiful,
You stand,
For all those godly showers of blessings,
You bring to the earthly world of mortals,
Being that channel divine,
Of the dew of blessings of love from
The distant hallowed lands Of the Gods!

Here I compliment you the Lady with Light,
For some you are Venus, for some Aphrodite!
But for me you are the fairy damsel,
Diffusing the music of love,
Into the being of the whole creation,
From the precinct of the Non Form!
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Reminiscence of the Spirit

The beauty behind the red tulip,
The invisible aesthetics beyond
The notes of the symphony!

The profound enthrallment
Upon hearing the voice of the beloved!
The perfect rapture,
Experienced upon her mere glance!

That numbing trance,
Being intoxicated to the core
Held absolutely powerless,
Like a lovelorn kite,
Winnowing ecstatic in the lap of
Meandering wind!
With the sheer memory
Of someone special!

That restful peace,
Bowing down at the altar of God,
That perfect Being,
Beyond the idol, the mantras, the myths.
That feeling of being in the Presence,
Pristine and Pious –
A state which is just to feel!

The never ending flow of energy,
In the bonhomie steps of the little child,
Always brimming with joy,
Day and night – without any break!

That feeling of pride,
Garbed with the sheen of gratitude,
Reflecting on one’s own creation –
A work of art – an artifact of toil and perfection!

That selfless love of the mother,
Beneath her words and care,
Something which is just too profound,
To be even expressed in world of form!

The longing beneath the tears of the lover,
Having lost his love forever,
A longing beyond the reach of mortals,
A longing eternal,
Holding in the cosmos in cohesion,
Held tight in the bond of love!

The pride and grace,
Of the unspoken love!
The voice hidden in the ocean of silence,
The un-expectant, un-conditional spirit,
Beneath the trivial daily chores!

The magic of the laughter of accomplishment,
Having learnt to walk,
That tiny tot!

That invisible bliss of fulfillment,
Retiring to the bed,
After a long toiling day of good work!

The invincible of spirit
Of defiance of pain,
Of the terminally ill,
Smiling away at life!

The warmth of being at home,
With family and friends,
The assurance of being liked and accepted,
For who one is and one is not!

The angelic nostalgia,
Of visiting one’s alma mater.
Treading the memory lanes,
Tattered through the excesses of time!

The magic of the first love,
That lightness of heart,
The jump in the feet,
That feeling of the heart getting out,
Brimming with deep love,
For the damsel divine!

The beauty of those poems,
Written with heartfelt dedication
To that special one,
With the voice sweeter than that of the nightingale,
And the glance casting charm on all mortals.

Reminiscences Simoni,
The Fount of Omniscience,
Love that is not of earth!
Holding a place in physical realm -
Either in form of a Sacred Shrine,
Or in form of the Damsel Divine,
With the Most Beautiful Eyes!
Or in the form of the majestic grandeur
Of the Pantheon,
Or in the form of the perfect
Beauty of the Aphrodite!

Simoni plays hide and seek,
With the Spirit Eternal,
Invisible and Intangible –
Binding in place the beauty of form!
In profound reminiscence of the Spirit,
Beyond and Beneath
Everything so rigid condensed in the
Illusive churn of Maya!

For the essence of that Spirit is Eternal,
Independent it is of the whim of any mortal!
Untouched by the decay of time,
Out of the cycle of causation,
Ever flourishing in its full youth,
The Spirit enchants the heart of Simoni,
Forever and Ever!
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The Infinite I

When it comes to being a human, it is an amazing opportunity. More than numerous of awesome blisses of being a human, to me the most interesting one is about the inherent infinitude of possibilities a human can be in his one single life!

A person might be a wonderful poet, a singer, a painter, a nuclear scientist, a golfer, a swimmer, a biker, a lover, a father, a husband, a social worker, a son, a brother, a friend, and what not! Each of these aspects of his personality is a world in its own – each a profound way of expressing who he is – each whole and complete in itself!

Given this whole sea of possibilities, I guess it is an interesting choice each human is destined to take – what she cherishes to be. Irrespective of the circumstances of her life, irrespective of how others treat her, irrespective of what she owns and does not, she can always choose to be one what inspires her.

It is beyond cherishing that gift of choice. It is about having that awareness that we as humans are not a uni-dimensional being. Rather we are infinite sea of potentialities.

In a typical corporate world, a person is rated against 4-5 goals set on her. In an academic setting, a person is rated against 5-10 questions asked in the exam. People judge others based on what they observe about them or their work. In each of these endeavors, I feel we are losing a great opportunity to really know someone in reality.

Certainly it is impossible to know someone in entirety, as each time you label someone something, you forgo the possibility of her become somebody more. Human beings are open ended possibilities. It is an utter naivety to judge and rate people in one or two dimensions that we know of. Being a human is much more profound.

Talking of the self, our emotions are ways of expression of who we are. Also our actions, our takes, our beliefs and attitude, express some aspects of ourselves. But the beauty is that all these aspects are independent and honorable. Each gives a glimpse of our multi-faceted existence. In his love sonnets, Shakespeare had been the most passionate lover. He had been a good family man at the same time. He was a great historian and sociologist, in making his greatest plays. At the same time he had a wonderful bent towards music and visual art. So, just if I label Shakespeare as a playwright, it would be an injustice to the profound being Shakespeare was as a person.

Same applies to all humans, in even their humblest of the forms.

I guess the challenge of life is about choosing what one wants to express out. What one chooses to be. And then using what life has to offer, as means to express that true self of one. Philosophers and mystics have given various names to that true inner self. And life presents a unique opportunity to discover that  unique real self, and express that out in form – in the physical world. There is always an invisible potential inherent and latent in the self, which longs to be discovered and carved out in form.

Sometimes, emotions tend to take their own character, against that true self. Most of these are driven by natural selection – the strong pull of our genes and hormones. Certainly they play trick and it is a lost game to be able to subdue them. But, one may attempt to transmute these baser calls, to something profound and higher, which aide one to express her true self. Most of the greatest contributors in the world of literature and art had successfully been able to do so. It was either Tagore, Shakespeare or Mozart – each had some un-requited part of their baser self, which they transmuted to divine work of creation.

So, the idea also is not subduing the basic instincts of being a human. Rather it is about consciously transmuting that ancient drive to create something inspiring. It is about exercising discrimination and control, to create beauty.

It is easy to be an animal. But it is a work of art to be a human. It is not just good to be a human, but it is doing justice to the profound being endowed to us by natural selection making us human. Being some lesser version of ourselves, is a big opportunity forgone. 

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A musing from Marcus Aurelius.

WASTE NO MORE TIME TALKING ABOUT GREAT SOULS AND HOW THEY SHOULD BE. BECOME ONE YOURSELF.
- Marcus Aurelius.

It is one thing that just talking is not fun. Way to a meaningful life is about being in action. All that is true that without experience and the guts of acting an ideal way of life, any sort of preaching is flimsy and superficial; there is no power to the whole way of being. Action is the key. Ofcourse it has to be preceded with contemplation and understanding.

But here Marcus Aurelius hints into something more subtle and profound. I point out these as follows –
1.    He hints on the sense of urgency, by saying, “waste no more time talking about….”
Humanity has spent enough time in talking about great souls. Most of the life is spent being awed with the greatness of people. Men consider the great souls as a separate league altogether, and keep singing in praise what they have done or said. The Euphoria starts in talk and ends in talk. Marcus Aurelius says that is time wasted. And men should wake up immediately from this self imposed slumber, and be that great soul, what inspires him. It is about being Jesus, not just being a Christian. It is about being Buddha, and not just be a Buddhist.

2.    The second part of the first sentence – “…and how they should be.”, is also very interesting. Most of the fabled legends remain immortal through eternity, in the folklores of generations after generation. Over time, these folklores take their own character, and portray an extended portrait of the subject. There might be some grey areas, which the common man of a particular time in history might find derogatory, or in-correct. Marcus Aurelius says that it is a waste of time to speak about what those great souls should have been, and what  they should have not been. It is an extreme naivety to profess about someone’s action, without having an idea what the person was going through when he took that action. It has been experimentally proved by modern psychologists, evolutionary biologists, and neurologists, that the mind of every human is unique, and she lives in her unique illusion of what she thinks life is. No one can actually realistically know the other in entirety. It is biologically impossible. We try our best to make our point in the form of language and other modes of communication. But one’s consciousness is so very private and uniquely positioned, that it is statistically impossible for another human to have the same vantage point.

3.    The second sentence – “Become one yourself”. This sentence de-mystifies greatness. It says that no matter how great is the legend, it is possible for a common man to become that. This tries to bring the mythic aura of the great souls to earthly realities. It says that no matter what, you can be that! That gives a sense of freedom to humanity. It gives a hope that we are free and capable to be what inspires us. Life might be an interesting journey in trying to be that greatness which makes our heart pound stronger.

4.    One more thing about this is the importance of action is very important to understand. As also illustrated by Krishna in the Bhagavat Gita –
“The path of knowledge is the same as the path of action.” What this means is that “path of action,” i.e., of what is called Right Action, when it is attained, merges with the path of knowledge. At this point, they become one and the same; but this is because that action is no longer action as we normally understand it, but something quite different: it is wisdom in activity and, ultimately just Wisdom. So we can see that in order to reach this path of Wisdom, a man cannot be bound to the action he is carrying out, but must be immersed in the Law, and act from there.

This is a very profound dimension of action. Most of the western thought comprehends action as a means to achieve some goal. So goes the old saying, "You reap as you sow." It is as if, it is about reaping a reward, an action is done. Action is just an intermediate thing that is done, to actually get the primary goal - its reward. But in this case, Bhagavat Gita gives much depth into the word - action. Krishna says action as a "Wisdom in activity". That is truly profound! Action is whole and complete by itself. It is by doing an action, one "becomes", and not "has". Action is the only way to really appreciate something in its entirety - to ingrain the knowledge in the self. 

It is one thing that action should be done without any expectation of rewards; action is not a means to get something, rather it is a path to wisdom – it is wisdom in activity. But the more important thing that Marcus Aurelius points out in these words is that action is the way to really understand that wisdom of the great soul. It is only by being a Buddha can you ever understand the true knowledge and wisdom what Buddha taught. 

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