God from Kena

A good translation on what Kena Upanishad says about God

• That which makes the tongue speak, but cannot be spoken by the tongue, that alone is God, not what people worship.
• That which makes the mind think, but cannot be though by the mind, that alone in God, not what people worship.
• That which makes the eye see, but cannot be seen by the eye, that alone is God, not what people worship.
• If you think that you know God, you know very little.
• All that you can know are ideas and images of God.
• I do not know God, nor can I say I don’t know it…
• If you understand the meaning of I neither know nor don’t know, you understand God.
• Those who realize that the God cannot be known, truly know.
• Those who claim that they know, know nothing.
• The ignorant think the God can be grasped by the Mind.  The wise know it beyond knowledge.
• When you see the God acts through you every moment, in every movement of mind or body, you attain true freedom.
• When you realize the truth and cling to nothing in the world, we enter eternal life.

Innovation and Apple

Apple is a very good innovator of new products and a leading product champion in the technology industry.  They are known to introduce state-of-the-art products long before their rivals can even imagine about those ideas.  But they do not follow-through by improving their processes and make these products available to the common user.  Apple has to work on improving their business processes and find effective ways to deliver these products through efficient distribution channels and marketing approaches.  The only way Apple can prevent the market share being taken away by its rivals who copy Apple’s innovations is to emerge as a process champion as well and work on reducing the cost of their products so that the customers do not turn away for a cheaper product.  They should also patent all of its ideas so that they can share the revenues with their rivals who use Apple’s patented ideas.

The core principle of Apple is innovation.  They promote creativity and innovation at all levels of their business.   Employees are given incentives for coming up with new product ideas and given the freedom to implement prototypes at the expense of the company.  They conduct workshops to develop the creative minds of employees and spreads the awarness that creativity and innovation are the keys to success in their industry.  Apple is a creative product champion and comes up with new products way before its rivals.  The competitors of Apple, like Dell, Acer, HP, IBM, follow the creative ideas of Apple and develop their own products using these ideas.  They distribute these products more effectively and gain the market share with a more competitive pricing model and improved business processes.

1902

Just came across some US statistics for 1902.  Thought of publishing it here:

• The average life expectancy in the US was 47.
• Only 14% of the homes in the US had a bathtub.
• Only 8 % of the homes had a telephone.
• A 3-min call from Denver to New York City cost $11.
• There were only 8,000 cars in the US & 144 mi. of paved roads.
• The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
• Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, & Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.
• The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
• The average wage in the US was 22 cents an hour.
• The average US worker made between $200 & $400 a year.
• A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year,  and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per yr.
• More than 95% of all births in the US took place at home.
• 90% of all US physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the  press and by the government as “substandard.”
• Sugar cost 4 cents a pound. Eggs were 14 cents a dozen.
• Coffee cost 15 cents a pound.
• Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
• Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason.
• The five leading causes of death in the US were:
  1. Pneumonia and influenza
  2. Tuberculosis
  3. Diarrhea
  4. Heart disease
  5. Stroke
• The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mex-  ico Hawaii & Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.
• The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was 30.
• Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented.
• There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
• One in ten US adults couldn’t read or write.  Only 6 % of all Americans had graduated from high school.
• Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates stomach & bowels, &  is a perfect guardian of health.”
• 18% of households in the US had at least one full-time servant.
• There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire US.

Achieving the work-life balance – it is more than good time management

A very good article in which, the author Derek Stockly talks about the importance of work-life balance and the impacts of an unbalanced work-life schedule on both personal and professional environment.  Technological advances and globalisation of business require people to work more than expected and always stay connected to the work force through emails, cell phones and pagers.  This steals a person’s time away from his family activities and create chaos and dissatisfaction.  It is important to achieve a good work-life balance, which can augment the time-management strategies.  This also includes finding time to write blogs

You have an impact, but its not visible in the short run…

Most often we forget to realize the impact that we can make as an individual to build up a system that works with integrity.   We always look at the short-term impact and decide that it is difficult to change the system single-handedly.  When the underlying system is so corrupt, people often consider bribes and corruption as part of the system.  Things can improve dramatically when people are educated more on the way they can affect the integrity of the system.  In India, it used to be very difficult, in the past, to get a driver’s license or a phone connection without bribing the public official.   Things have now improved considerably as people have realized that, with little patience, the system would continue to work even without bribing these people.  With more informative movements and educational clips through media, we are on the verge of having a corruption-free system.

It is also sometimes argued that one has no right to engage in another country’s  corruption because you will not be there to live with the consequences.  I am always confused regarding such arguments.  We know that the consequences of corruption is bad for all.  One would think that if you are not going to experience the consequence, it is fine to engage in a corruptive act.  I believe that the resistence should come from local citizens because they are the ones who are going to live with the consequences.  There is no righteousness, whether you are a foreign or a local citizen, when it comes to a corruptive act.