What I Witnessed While Returning From Maa Kali Temple Today

While returning from the Maa Kali temple today, I witnessed something that left me deeply unsettled.

It began as a verbal argument on the street. When I saw, two girls were beating and slapping a young boy — he couldn’t have been more than 5'2", and from his appearance, seemed to be a labourer. Then a healthy boy from girls' side came started abusing and beating him badly. I parked my Scooter, told my wife and son to stay at a safe distance, and stepped forward to enquire from the bystanders about what had happened but before I could fully understand, two-three more tall boys, around my height (5'10"), came and started abusing that labourer and beating him badly.

It quickly turned from a confrontation into one-sided violence.

Sensing he could be badly injured, I tried to pacify those tall boys, telling them to get the matter resolved and not resort to physical abuse. They kept beating. So I pulled the small boy out of their clutches and put him aside to ensure his safety.

What struck me most was his reaction. Even in that state, the poor man was more concerned about his Activa and his slippers than his own injuries. I told him to first save himself, the rest the gym boys would manage.

I sincerely thank the gym boys and some shop owners who immediately came to save him. It was just because of them that we were able to save the poor man.

I am not writing this to judge who was right or wrong in the initial argument — I did not see the beginning. But I am writing this because of what it became, and it is something very disappointing.

When does a disagreement give us the right to become a mob? When did we stop seeing a person and start seeing only an opportunity to display dominance? He was beaten and dominated all because he was weak. And the most disturbing part was not just the beating, but the ease with which a verbal argument turned into collective cruelty.

And yet, there was hope — in strangers who chose to intervene instead of just watching.

I had gone to pray for strength. Today I was reminded: real strength is not in beating someone down, it is in pulling someone out.

Now while I am writing all this just a small thought tweaked in my mind, "Why I helped that poor boy?"

"Why I risked my life as I have lumbar issues?"

When Education Forgot the Hands

June 25, 2014, Flashback

"We had adopted the liberal model of education in which we gave much preference to knowledge and neglected the importance of skills... we scissor the importance of the dignity of labour and the teachings of Lord Krishna and Shri Guru Nanak Dev." 

— Sudhir Singh

Twelve years later, this flashback feels less like a memory and more like a prophecy.

We did exactly what I already talked about. We built an education system that taught our children how to describe work, but not how to do work. Degrees became more valuable than dexterity. A child who could write a 500-word essay on a carpenter was considered more educated than the carpenter himself!

And the biggest adversity is that no one wants to do menial work anymore.

Not because the work is undignified, but because we made education undignified for work. We taught productivity as a PowerPoint slide, not as sweat on the forehead.

This is where we cut ourselves off from our own roots:

1. Lord Krishna as the Karmayogi: In the Gita, Krishna never glorifies mere contemplation. He glorifies nishkam karma - skilled, dedicated action. Arjuna was not asked to just read about archery, he was asked to pick up the Gandiva and fight.

2. Shri Guru Nanak Dev as the Kirti Karni: "Kirat Karo" i.e. earn through honest labour - was placed alongside Naam Japo and Vand Chhako. Labour was not menial; it was spiritual. The langar was not served by degrees, it was served by hands.

Our old, skill-based model of education understood this. The liberal model we adopted replaced the Aashrams based on pragmatic approach with the classroom, and the guru with the textbook. Yes, now textbooks are more important than the Guru because their first responsibility is to complete syllabus. Syllabus!

Today, as India talks about Skill India, NEP 2020, and vocational training from Class 6, we are essentially trying to go back to what we left. We are trying to re-stitch the dignity of labour that we once scissored away.

The question I raised in 2014 remains in 2026: Will we produce well informed clerks, or will we produce those who can elevate the society to its fullest? 

But to produce the latter, we need to work on individuality first...

बुद्ध का गृह-त्याग: आलोचना से परे एक चिंतन

14 जुलाई 2025, मेरी डायरी से

कल कक्षा में एक विद्यार्थी ने बहुत मासूमियत से पूछा — "सर, क्या बुद्ध ने परिवार छोड़कर सही किया था?"

यह प्रश्न मुझे अक्सर सुनने को मिलता है। कई बार कुछ विचारक और महिला सशक्तिकरण पर कार्य करने वाले साथी भी इस प्रसंग को लेकर अपनी चिंता व्यक्त करते हैं। उनकी भावना का मैं सम्मान करता हूँ, क्योंकि उनका उद्देश्य भी संवेदनशीलता और न्याय को बढ़ावा देना ही है।

पर इस विषय पर थोड़ा गहराई से, उस समय के संदर्भ में सोचना आवश्यक लगता है।

एक राजकुमार का निर्णय

यह याद रखना महत्वपूर्ण है कि गृह-त्याग करने वाले सिद्धार्थ गौतम एक राजा के पुत्र थे। राजमहल में यशोधरा और राहुल पूरी तरह सुरक्षित थे। उन्हें किसी प्रकार के अभाव का भय नहीं था।

सिद्धार्थ ने दुःख को बहुत निकट से देखा था — वृद्धावस्था, रोग और मृत्यु। उनके मन में यह विचार गहरा होता गया कि उनके इस छोटे परिवार से परे एक बहुत बड़ा परिवार है — समाज। उन्हें लगा कि शायद उनके चिंतन और साधना से इस व्यापक दुःख का कोई समाधान निकल सके।

उस काल की सामाजिक और राजनीतिक परिस्थितियों में, एक शासक के रूप में रहते हुए इस प्रकार की आध्यात्मिक खोज संभव नहीं थी। इसलिए उन्होंने एक कठिन व्यक्तिगत निर्णय लिया।

दो पक्षों को समझने की आवश्यकता

कभी-कभी मैं सोचता हूँ — जब बुद्ध जैसे व्यक्तित्व पर भी प्रश्न उठाए गए, तो हम जैसे तो बहुत छोटे हैं। आलोचना जीवन का स्वाभाविक हिस्सा है।

मेरा मानना है कि इस प्रसंग को किसी एक दृष्टिकोण से देखना उचित नहीं होगा। एक ओर सिद्धार्थ की सत्य की खोज थी, तो दूसरी ओर यशोधरा का धैर्य और त्याग भी था। उन्होंने भी अपने पति को सत्य की खोज के लिए जाने की अनुमति दी — इसमें भी एक प्रकार की आंतरिक शक्ति झलकती है।

महिला सशक्तिकरण के विमर्श में हम यदि यशोधरा के इस धैर्य और समझ को भी स्थान दें, तो चर्चा और भी समृद्ध हो सकती है।

निष्कर्ष

बुद्ध के निर्णय को सही या गलत के खांचे में रखने के बजाय, यदि हम उसे करुणा, संदर्भ और तत्कालीन परिस्थितियों के आलोक में देखें, तो हमें अधिक स्पष्टता मिल सकती है।

उद्देश्य किसी की आलोचना करना नहीं, बल्कि एक-दूसरे के दृष्टिकोण को समझते हुए संवाद को आगे बढ़ाना है।

When Duality Vanishes: A Spiritual Existentialism

When you are in duality, you feel resentment. You preach. You become judgemental — not just towards others, but towards your own self, because you follow the old touchstone: believing yourself to be only body and mind. And here comes the real problem — you mistake the rope for a serpent.

Whose fault is it?

Perhaps no one's. We inherited old patterns — rituals without understanding, beliefs without experience, paths that began as sincere quests and slowly hardened into rigid structures. They taught us to divide the world to make sense of it: good and evil, pure and impure, us and them.

I don't reject spirituality. I question the second-hand kind. I find it painful when people label others as sinners, predict hell for them, and present themselves as examples of purity. The body, by nature, is imperfect — none of us can claim absolute purity.

Sometimes this self-righteousness may reflect deeper psychological patterns — a lack of empathy, an excessive need for validation — traits associated in psychology with narcissistic tendencies. I worry that many who appear deeply religious may be struggling with such inner wounds without realizing it. But does that mean we should hate them? No. They need understanding, and where needed, compassionate professional support.

And please, let us not use psychological terms as insults. Nowadays such words are thrown around as abuse rather than used with care, and that is disappointing.

True spirituality is not about temples, scriptures, or gurus as idols. It is about direct seeing. It is about learning the best from all traditions, yet still keeping alive the quest for one's own path.

It is existential in the deepest sense: you are here, now, alive, and no one can live this truth for you.

When duality vanishes, the Self flourishes — not as a religious concept, but as a lived stillness. You stop needing to label every moment as good or evil, because you see they were only judgments of a frightened mind.

Such a person doesn't become indifferent. He becomes responsible. Without waiting for outer forgiveness, without escaping toward an imagined heaven, he creates meaning here — in how he acts, how he loves, how he remains still in movement.

Break the old pattern of borrowed belief. Welcome the new way of inner inquiry.

The Forest Has No Touchstone

 In my last post, Strength Is Not About Body or Mind: It's there inside You, I wrote that true strength comes from your drive, your inner quest, your connection with yourself.

Today I want to take that further.

Do we need to think like others to look wise? Do we need a touchstone to prove our thinking is correct? I don't think so. I hardly bother.

Why? 

Because I don't like to be the shadow of someone. I am unique of my kind. And I want to give that same space to everyone, because we all are somewhere looking for our True Self.

But when we start chasing the world, the fashion, the trend, we become their prey. They successfully kill our very quest — and that quest is the key to unlock the door of self-discovery.

Yesterday I spoke about stillness in movement, about nature thinking in rhythms. Strength came from aligning with that rhythm.

Today I understand: you cannot align with nature while you are busy aligning with people who are dead inside. 

Sorry, they aren't people even. They are simply crowd -- walking Zombies, without individuality. 

Why?

Because in the race of validation, they lost themselves. They kill a possibility, a path. They killed their inner self just for others' approval and now nothing is left...only wandering...

No ill-wills. Just sympathy. Because deep down, they lost themselves. They didn't even start their journey.

But, is it really important?

Yes, it's very important to start your own journey, to discover your very origin in your own unique way.

Let there be many ways. Let there are many truths. Nothing to be worried because finally there will be only one truth -- Consciousness Without The Curtain of Mind.

The way I choose is actually not a way. It is a dense forest where danger can come anytime and from anywhere. And we don't have time to prepare. But in that danger we will get something, something which belongs to us, something which we ourselves are — Nature.

In the crowd, you learn to imitate. In the forest, you learn to originate.

I choose the forest.

Strength Is Not About Body or Mind: It's there inside You

In my last post, The Thread That Thinks, Feels and Acts, I wrote that thinking preserves our individuality, and that aligned thought strengthens us from within.

This morning's walk showed me how.

Strength is not about body or mind. It's more about your drive, your inner quest, your connection with yourself, your inner blissfulness. Achieve that connection, and your mind will get strength itself, your body will get strength itself.

I woke up early and just watched my surroundings — nothing, just stillness in movement. The sun was rising, however, it looked perfectly still. The birds were chirping all around, however, their voices didn't sound like noise.

I stood for 5 minutes. It worked like meditation.

As I wrote yesterday, nature thinks in rhythms, not in anxious movements. When we connect our mind to that rhythm, we become self-aware. Let the creator of mind and body be with us. Let nature be with us.

When we remember our origin, thinking stops being a burden and becomes meditation itself. And from that divinity, true strength comes.

The Thread That Thinks, Feels and Acts: Returning to Our Origin

Thinking makes us different. Not better, not worse — just unique.

In a world that rewards copying, reacting, and fitting in, the simple act of truly thinking preserves our individuality. No two minds think alike, and that is not a flaw to fix. It is a divinity to protect.

Thinking is good — when it is aligned. An aligned thought strengthens us from within. It doesn't scatter, it gathers. It doesn't shout, it clarifies.

And when that thinking is connected with nature, it beautifies life. Watch a tree: it does not hurry, yet it grows. Watch a river: it does not force, yet it reaches the ocean. Nature thinks in rhythms, not in anxieties. When we connect our mind to that rhythm, we become self-aware, not self-conscious.

We should, we have, we need to get that divinity which enlightens us.

Let the divinity of that thread be with us — that connects thought to source. Let's be united with our origin, the very origin from where the mind gets the energy to think, to feel, to act and to work.

We did not create the mind and body. It's creator is nature itself.  So let the creator of mind and body be with us.

Let the nature be with us, for it gives us strength to think, to feel and to act — not in isolation, but in harmony.

When we remember our origin, thinking stops being a burden and becomes meditation itself.