Why Do I Consider Frequent Rate Control Exercise By the Reserve Bank Not Good?

I presume that you have some idea about the basic functions of a central bank in any economy or country. In India it is called the Reserve Bank of India or RBI while in the United States of America it is called the Federal Reserve System and in the United Kingdom it is the Bank of England. There is no standards as to how a central banking organization of a country is to be named and these institutions are known differently in different countries or economic regions.

Essentially, the central bank functions more or less independently and its main function is to control or direct the country's economy properly with various monetary measures or policies adopted from time to time. The central banking system though may be called independent of the government, it is not practically so always. The government does have influence on its functioning, though exercised by indirect means and methods.

The central banking system uses its powers vested on it by appropriate legislation or laws for framing and implementing the monetary policies of the country. Just as individuals deposit money in commercial banks or take loans from them, the central banking system functions as a banking system for the banks. In other words, banks can maintain an account with the central bank and they get an interest for their deposits and they are charged for any loans they take. 

The interest rate at which the central bank lends money to the commercial bank is called the Repo Rate while the interest rate they obtain on their deposits is called the Reverse Repo Rate. The central bank can mandate how much money that the individual banks need to deposit with it at any time. This is called the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR). Thus the Repo Rate, Reverse Repo Rate and the CRR are often used by the central bank authority for exercising controls on the economy by changing those appropriately. These are like the accelerator, brake and steering of a car!

A car driver can use the pedals and the steering for controlling the speed and direction of the car the way he wants. In a similar way, the head of the central bank ( e.g. the governor of the Reserve Bank of India) can use the control tools for giving direction and speed of the economy.

But a passenger sitting on a car may not feel comfortable when the driver uses his pedals and steering quite abruptly or irrationally or too frequently. We call such a driver a novice who does not know how to drive properly. The car drive could be chaotic and may even prone to accidents. The passengers would be scared for their lives by sitting in such a car. The behavior of such a driver becomes too unpredictable when he happens to drive in a crowded place with narrow roads. His chaotic drive becomes too panicky if he happens to have a master who scolds him too often.

Same applies in the case of the head of the central bank as well. The economy becomes chaotic and unpredictable when such a head cuts rates or enhances rates abruptly or too frequently. The people who happen to be in such an economy become too panicky and confused not knowing what to do next. They may curse the fellow who creates this mess or may even try to jump out of the economy.

When a novice driver starts behaving unprofessionally, there appears many bystanders who cries out various instructions to the driver from the outside for various reasons. Some want to see the fun. Some wants to see and accident taking place. Some may even want to make some money out of the chaos by crooked means.

In a similar way, when an economy starts behaving chaotically under the chaotic policy steps too frequently implemented by the head of its central bank there could be outsiders who start giving directions from outside for their own vested interests. They may be the media, the representatives of business entities, the politicians or even the general public!

When an economy is in an unsteady equilibrium its dynamics becomes unpredictable. In such a situation some people make windfall gains while the majority make huge losses. It is always the uninformed masses that suffer the most. When an insane driver drives the car in a crowded place, it is always the innocent bystanders who get affected adversely!

In short, such a situation takes out the confidence of the people in the economy and the policy makers that drives the economy. More than the certified driving skills, it is the confidence of the passengers that makes a driver more desirable!

And public confidence is the most important thing for a stable and progressive economy. Public confidence comes when the economy is in a steady state of progress that is more or less predictable. Measures taken to control inflation might cause deflation too quickly in an unpredictable economy and frequent happenings of these situation further worsens the situation. Peoples' confidence in monetary policies deteriorates and people begin to bypass the governmental systems in their own manner. And that is not good for any nation!

When an unsteady behavior sets in for an economy, any quick action to set it right could further enhance the instability. That is the general rule for any control system, applicable for the economy as well.

The way the RBI tries to control the Indian economy is causing worries though the media bystanders are extending all praise. ( News-1 / News-2/ News-3) 

My worries are on account of the following:

1. The Indian stock market cannot ensure safety of savings of the majority public as the Foreign Institutional Investors can suck out public money at periodic intervals of their choice making the uninformed public helplessly watching their savings evaporate suddenly without any notice. Stock market investments are subject to risks and therefore there should be dependable investment options with reasonably good returns such as the bank fixed deposits. The monetary policy makers should not do their acts without addressing this issue.

2. The government has washed its hands from the responsibility of paying pensions to the retired people. Neither the government nor the private organizations now has any guaranteed pension scheme which offers some reasonable income to the retired population. Even the present savings linked pension plans are mere brainwash systems which are too poorly managed causing great sufferings to its members. When pension funds are invested in equities, the same money sucking by the FIIs keep happening which the government nor the RBI can prevent. What the people want is guarantees to their savings!

3. A growing economy in paper with macro economic data do not necessarily safeguard the interests of the individual citizens. When jobs or incomes from employment are proceeding towards the no guarantee mode, how can people take long term loans from banks? If long term loan EMIs to work, it is essential that long term fixed deposits with guaranteed returns also should work simultaneously.

4. Floating point interest system is essentially a cheating system. It is not market driven or based on ethical practices. Once the people understand it well, the confidence in banking system would diminish. It is neither good for the banks nor for its customers in the long run.

5. Unsteady monetary policies help only some individuals to make huge money by way of corruption and it does not ensure good governance.

6. Indian business houses that make huge profits from low interest regime do not pass on the benefits to the general public or even its employees. Neither they do any thing to enhance employment opportunities.

Let me stress this once again. Confidence in the economy and its monetary policies are more important and that cannot happen when the policies change too rapidly and too irrationally without due consideration of ground realities of the nation.

My Answers to Some of the Pertinent Questions that You Have in Your Mind: Question-2 About Eating Meat!

Your Question: I hate the non-vegetarian people and those involved in killing animals and eating their flesh deliciously. I do not understand how modern humans be so cruel? I believe in ahimsa and wish to practice it as taught by the great religions of India, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Moreover, it has been scientifically proven that meat eating is not good for health. Humans have no right to take away other lives. That is what our scriptures teach us. So both on religious and health counts, governments should take all steps to promote vegetarianism as an accepted culture and ban all kinds of non-vegetarian practices. What do you say?

My Answer: I do not know how much you have learnt or understood from your own sacred texts such as the Mahabharata or the Upanishads. Before I give my own thoughts in to the subject matter, I would like to recall a story from the great epic of the Hindus, the Mahabharata. I have simplified it by omitting much of the details and the style of text for better comprehension.  (You may go to page giving the English translation of Mahabharata that depicts this story in detail by clicking this link!)

Once the great Pandava King Yudhishthira wanted to know about human virtues and morality and asked this difficult question to the great sage of wisdom, Markandeya.

" Oh! Great Saint! I want to know about the subtle truths about morality" the king requested the saint.

In response, Markandeya told the king a story about what a simple housewife taught a wise ascetic named Kausika. This learned Brahman saint Kaushika was a scholar and a principled yogi. He had great abilities enriched with the power of asceticism and devotion to the study of the Vedas, Angas and the Upanishads. 

One day this great saint was sitting under a tree and was reciting the sacred texts in order to enhance his priestly power. A female crane sitting on the branches of the tree happened to drop her excreta just at that time which fell on the body of the saint making the Brahman feel polluted and unholy. He became very angry and looked up to see the bird. His angry stare powered by his yogic capabilities caused the poor bird to die and fell down to his feet immediately. Seeing the dead bird, the Brahman for a moment felt remorse because his anger now had violated the principle of ahimsa (non-violence). 

" I had done a bad deed out of my anger" he kept repeating this in his mind.

Anyway, he proceeded walking to the village nearby. He felt hungry and thirsty and he needed something to eat and drink. As it was the practice for the yogis to seek alms in such times of bodily needs, this saint then proceeded to a village home of a peasant. He found the housewife alone there and asked for alms from her. 

The simple village woman showed all respect to the saint and requested him to stay till she made the food to satiate his hunger. 

At that very moment her husband, the farmer entered the house after the day's hard work at his field. The obedient housewife immediately went to attend her husband momentarily forgetting the saint waiting for food and water. Seeing the poor village woman ignoring his saintly presence and needs, the Brahman felt highly angry once again. But the lady remembered about the waiting saint just the moment she had satisfactorily attended to the needs of her husband. She then proceeded to the saint and requested him to be patient for some more time for her to do the needful.

The saint now had been fuming from anger because this village woman had dared to ignore an accomplished saint like him. His hunger added oil to his anger from his hurt ego. He stared at the woman reflecting his annoyed face. Then the lady said to him humbly:

" Sire, please forgive me. I got a bit delayed because I had to attend to my tired husband. My husband is my supreme god. He came hungry and tired and it was my duty to attend him. But now I am free and I will attend to your needs."

Hearing this, the Brahmana's anger exceeded and he retorted like this:

" You ignorant village woman! How dare you ignore esteemed Brahmans like me? Do you not know the manners? Do you not know that we are like fire when we are angry? Do you not understand that our anger can even destroy the whole earth?"

" But I am not that she-crane, my lord!" the woman replied.

The egoistic Brahman was stunt. He became speechless. How come this simple village woman came to know about the incident that happened some time ago? Surely, she must be some goddess living in disguise. The Brahman thought. His anger began to fade out to awe!

" O! learned Rishi ! Remove your anger which is arising out of your ego.O you the spiritually enlightened! It had been said that the study of the Vedas, tranquility of soul, simplicity of behavior, and repression of the senses, constitute the eternal duties of the Brahmana. Those full  with virtue and morals have said that truth and honesty are the highest virtue. But, it seems to me that you with your highest learning has not comprehended what virtue really means. If you are interested in knowing what virtue really is, I advice you to go to the city of Mithila in search of the virtuous butcher. He would teach you what it really is". The lady advised the saint.

The Brahmana, now humbled by this lady then proceeded in search of the butcher to learn about the reality of virtue. He began to meditate on the subtle ways of morality and virtue and decided to go in search of the virtuous butcher of Mithila about whom the village woman told. He went in search of him and finally reached him.

Seeing the saint, the butcher acknowledged that he knew why the saint traveled this much in search of such a man like him who butchered animals and sold their meat to people to eat. But the Brahmana at heart was dejected by the profession of this man and so he said:

" Why do you do such a cruel trade? Do you not realize the fact that killing is a sin? This profession does not fit you. You should look for some other noble job instead". 

Hearing this, the butcher told the saint humbly like this: 

" O spiritually exalted Brahman! This profession I am doing is the only work I know. This has been the work of my parents and my forefathers. Perhaps this is the job ordained to me by God. I am only doing my job dutifully. But I always speak the truth, never envy others; and give to the best of my power. I live upon what remains after serving the gods, guests, and those that depend on me. I never speak ill of anything, small or great."

As Kausika was too willing now to learn from this meat vendor, the latter gave him a long sermon on the various aspects of human virtues and morals.His sermon covered the real meaning of ahimsa (non-violence), the food habits of people and about meat eating that some of the Brahmans considered as unholy and sinful. The following are some of those things that this man doing an unholy profession told Kausika who had been of the thought that he was the wisest and the most virtuous one:

"Those animals that are slain by me and whose meat I sell, also acquire karma, because with their meat, gods and guests and servants are provided with tasty food. It is said authoritatively that herbs and vegetables, deer, birds and wild animals constitute the food of all creatures. And, O Brahmana! king Sivi, the son of Usinara, of great forbearance attained heaven, which is hard to reach, giving away his own flesh. And in the past, O Brahmana! two thousand animals used to be killed every day in the kitchen of king Rantideva; and in the same manner two thousand cows were killed every day and this king Rantideva acquired  reputation by distributing food with meat every day. For the performance of the four monthly rites animals ought to be sacrificed daily. 'The sacred fire is fond of animal food,' this saying has come down to us. And at sacrifices animals are invariably killed by spiritually elevated Brahmanas, and these animals being purged of sin, by chanting of hymns, go to heaven. If, O Brahmana! the sacred fire had not been so fond of animal food in ancient times, it could never have become the food of any one. And in this matter of animal food, this rule has been laid down by Munis:--Whoever partakes of animal food after having first offered it duly and respectfully to the gods  is not polluted by the act."

"And, O good Brahmana!, knowing this to be the consequence of my own actions, I obtain my livelihood from this profession. Forsaking  one's own occupation is considered to be a sin and the act of sticking to one's own profession is without doubt a meritorious act."

"Agriculture is considered to be a praiseworthy occupation, but it is well-known that even there, great harm is done to animal life; and in the operation of digging the earth with the plough, numberless creatures in the ground as also various other forms of animal life are destroyed. Don't you think so? O good Brahmana! the seeds of rice and other such cereals are all living organisms. What is your opinion on this matter? Men, O Brahmana! hunt wild animals and kill them and eat their meat; they also cut  trees and herbs; but, O Brahmana! there are innumerable living organisms in trees, in fruits, as also in water; don't you think so? This whole creation, O Brahmana! is full of animal life, sustaining itself with food derived from living organisms. Do you not notice that fish preys upon fish, and that various species of animals prey upon other species, and there are species the members of which prey upon each other? Men, O Brahmana! while walking about here and there, kill many creatures in the ground by trampling on them, and even men of wisdom and enlightenment destroy animal life in various ways, even while sleeping. What have you to say to this?--The earth and the air all swarm with living organisms, which are unconsciously destroyed by men from mere ignorance. Is  this not so?"

"The commandment that people should not do harm to any creature, was ordained of old by men, who were ignorant of the true facts of the case. For, O Brahmana! there is not a man on the face of this earth, who is free from the sin of doing injury to creatures. After full consideration, the conclusion is irresistible that there is not a single man who is free from the sin of doing injury to animal life. Even the sage, O good Brahmana! whose vow is to do harm to no creature, does inflict injury to animal life. Only, on account of greater considerations, the harm is less." 

The butcher further gave a lengthy discourse on many other aspects to Kaushika. 

King Yudhishthira listened to the detailed story as told by Markandeya. in response to his doubts on human virtues and morality.

My dear friend! I hope you could find the answer to your thoughts about animal slaughter, non-vegetarianism, etc from the brief narrative I reproduced from the story given in the Mahabharata, the sacred text of the prominent religion of India. 

I think it important to give another quote from my favorite book of life guidance, in this context:

"Adam and Eve and their first generation of children did not use the flesh of animals for food. They subsisted wholly upon "the fruits of the trees." After the first generation all of the descendants of Adam began to partake of dairy products, but many of them continued to follow a non-flesh diet. Many of the southern tribes with whom they later united were also non-flesh eaters. Later on, most of these vegetarian tribes migrated to the east and survived as now admixed in the peoples of India." ( The Urantia Book 76:4.4)

To conclude this discussion, I would say this. All living beings need energy for living. The higher order living beings (the immortals) have been provided with the ability to absorb energy directly from the universal energy circuits just as the plants take sunlight and convert it in to chemically stored energy such as the carbohydrates for the lower order animals to sustain. Similarly lower order animals eat the chemically stored energy and convert it into concentrated energy source such as the complex fats and proteins in the form of flesh which are used by still higher forms of animals. Some animals including humans can use both stored up energy of the plants and the animals for their own energy needs. And all these systems are divinely created for a purpose. It is not necessary that all humans have the mind capacity to understand all the secrets of divine creation.

What you eat or relish is according to your anatomy and that keeps changing or progressing according to divine plans. Thus a discussion on the superiority of any kind of eating habit is of no special use. Only stupid humans with lower mind capacities could become boastful of their superiority on account of any of their physiological or mental or spiritual qualities. Humans do differ and that difference is for serving each other and not for establishing overpowering superiority over others!

But in the due course of time, humans would advance further biologically and spiritually. In those times, the human capacity to transform energy for self sustenance would also increase many fold. Perhaps then, humans no longer need to eat concentrated energy source such as animal flesh. Their liking for such foods naturally vanish.

But till such times, it is better that we refrain from judging our fellow beings on account of their eating habits.

While non-violence is the best policy, humans are not to be foolish adherents of non-violence when the world is yet to become a perfected abode. Problematic life forms need to be tackled!

But it is of a greater problem when humans kill each other in the name of ahimsa, meat or beef eating, spiritual beliefs, etc. Do you think God would ever favor a person who resort to violence for the sake of his own erroneous ideas about his own religion? Do you think humans know more than God? Do you think God needs human protection?

I earnestly hope you understand what I wanted to say.

My Answers to Some of the Pertinent Questions that You Have in Your Mind: Question-1 About God!

Your Question : I am getting confused now-a-days. People around me say there is God. I don't see Him around, but sometimes I reason that there should be some one who is behind everything. But at times I also get carried away by the rationalist thoughts expressed by some of our learned scientists and thinkers who say there is nobody called God. I am not able to make up my mind. Is there any God really out there? If so, what is He like?

My Answer: I too had gone through this stage of confusion for many years when my mind was in the process of learning and analyzing. But eventually I came to the conclusion that it is very much rational and logical to believe in the existence of God rather than to deny that fact. 

Slowly I learned more about God which I had shared with my readers some time ago in this blog-Know More About God. 

Remember that God is the Supreme Creator and therefore the Supreme Father of the Universes and as a Father, God loves all His Creations. 

Many people among us have a tendency to reject the idea of God when we begin to be a bit scientifically oriented. As we progress in scientific knowledge, our faith in God is likely to get enhanced. 

Ideally our faith in God should logically progress to such levels that we no longer would reject God's love! 

Many of you may be confused with the ideas about God that are propagated by the leaders and followers of our established religions. While I do not reject all those ideas as wrong per se, it is essential to remember that no human being can ever give a complete picture or description of God any time because God is the Infinite Creator and eternally existent Personality beyond the reach of our intelligence to comprehend! (You may read this blog about God and religion that I shared some time ago). 

When I say that God has created us all, some of you might get a kind of pleasure to make me cornered by asking the childish question - who created God? Should I stress again that it is too childish a question?

Many religions have traditions that are involved in pleasing God with various rituals and sacrifices. All these originate from the human concept of pleasing an angry God. The underdeveloped human mind awfully fear power of destruction rather than the power of love! Even now, many of us respect a boss or father who does not hesitate to use his power upon you mercilessly rather than the one who hesitates to use his power upon you on account of his loving mercy! It is very difficult for the immature human mind to accept that the all powerful God hesitates to destroy wrongdoers mercilessly with immediate effect! It is very much within the acceptance of the immature human mind to visualize an angry God who gets pleased by persistent prayers for mercy!

If you happen to have a reasonably developed mind that ask questions on such things that your mind does not fully accept, I do not say that you are going against God. On the contrary, God would be pleased with those of his lowly intelligent human creations when they use their God-provided intelligence properly in the right direction. God has given intelligence to his creations for using it rather than keeping it aside and behaving like a stupid fellow!

As the Creator of the universes God indeed should have willed or planned something great for all his creations. The intelligent created beings like us should live according to that will as far as we understand that. Asking questions to explore possible answers is an act of creativity in which our Creator would definitely be pleased. And if that is so, God, the Supreme Intelligence of the Universe, would not be pleased with those humans who refuse to advance and progress in mind! Sticking stupidly to the traditions of their ancient under-developed ancestors without analyzing those with the intelligent logical mind is indeed something that God does not like of human beings!

It is not difficult for any logical mind to conclude that the concept of God getting pleased with blood sacrifices is essentially an erroneous notion! Does the all powerful God require your support and help? Think about it with your open mind! 

I feel it quite logical and essential that we have religion. But then religion should be essentially concerned with our faith in God and our reciprocating love towards Him. Rituals, in my opinion, are not to be considered as real worship, though we have been doing rituals as part of our worship for long. Religious rituals are not essential for us to love God. 

Nevertheless, if some underdeveloped humans still want to continue with some worship rituals, let them do so till such time the individuals concerned attain desirable levels of mind progress to understand the futility of such rituals. 

I consider religion as a universal binding force. Religion should bind humans in universal brotherhood through the fatherhood of God. Religion is not something that should divide humans. Unfortunately our religions are divided as of now and they are no unifying force at present. Varying degrees of understanding in humans make them differing in their religious opinions and thoughts. When self righteousness is added to it, the differing opinions become agents of conflicts! Rigid opinions give rise to fanaticism. Religious fanatics and zealots cannot tolerate what this author expresses here or elsewhere even when such opinions are merely harmless views!    
I do not consider it appropriate for any of our conventional religions spending their energies in converting others to their fold. 

While discussions about various view points and concepts among people about God may be good for them to understand truths and untruths in their concepts and ideas, it may not be good to argue over a topic about which they have no absolute knowledge or full comprehension. 

It is unfortunate that ignorant humans keep fighting among themselves in the name of God and religion! 

But this phenomena would cease sometime later when the average mind of humans develop above a certain level. 

Many ardent followers of religions believe that there is some negative power that works against God and call it the evil or Satan. For them what they follow is of god while others are of Satan. The pity is that they all point their fingers to others as satanic that eventually make all them accusing each other as satanic. In this process they fail to recognize what is divine and what is devilish! 

I would like to assert this: there is no power in the universe as equal to God. But at the same time there are creations of God with free will like us who, due to the free thinking mind, might act against the will of God. Such creations of God that work against the will of God could either be humans or even superior intelligent creations of God. 

The possibility of such intelligent but clever beings influencing other gullible intelligent beings cannot be overruled. 

To understand the implications of that we should know more about the spiritual evolution of mankind. 

Many among us pray and worship for gaining wealth, money, power and importance during our short lives on earth. We say that it is a blessing from God. Is it really so? 

In reality this is our greatest conceptual blunder and this concept among people is augmented by clever manipulations from invisible powers that are willfully against God. 

God does not give extra favor to any one for his sycophantic prayers or worship. 

Sycophancy is a nature that is essentially anti-God or evil. Unfortunately, this evil is predominant in the world today. This also would gradually vanish in the future when humans become more mature in mind. 

And remember this- if God has planned something, it would happen at some time now or later. 

God has a purpose and whether we agree or disagree it makes no difference! The will of God would prevail. 

God is no respecter of persons that it is necessary for Him to give satisfactory answers to his maturing children always, though He does so often out of his love to his creations! 

Also remember this. If the question about God has arisen in your mind, that itself is a good sign of the possibility of you becoming aligned with God sooner or later. 

Keep nurturing your thoughts towards God and love Him as your invisible but all powerful loving father who knows all about you and your needs. When you really understand God, you will learn to live a life on earth that is most rewarding and meaningful, devoid of all anxieties and worries! 

May God bless you!

What Happens When Your Enthusiasm Overtakes Your Wisdom?

It is very important for human beings to be balanced in mind. Mind balance is what is called maturity of mind. Some may call it a sane mind. Only a human being with a sane mind can have wisdom or the capacity to listen to the feeble life guidance that originate from a source that transcends the inbuilt intelligence of the brain.

It is not necessary for me to ascertain the fact that an imbalanced mind akin to insanity. And insanity takes away the human qualities in various ways. While insanity is mostly a curable brain disorder in these days, various forms of insanity are non distinguishable often. That makes it impossible for a good majority of people to seek ways and means to rectify the mind disorder they might possess in some degree or the other!

In this article, I wish to discuss about some subtle forms of mind imbalances that many of the modern day individuals or groups of people may have in varying degrees that are not usually distinguished or recognized as insanity always.

The fundamental principle of to judge any imbalance is deviation from the normal. Mind is no exception to this rule. Applying this logic, we may safely conclude that any thing in excess from normal is a kind of insanity.

A good human being should have compassion to fellow beings and other life forms.But when this compassion becomes irrationally imbalanced it becomes insanity causing loss of wisdom.

Imagine the case of such an irrational human being. The good trait of compassion in this human being could be too much in this individual making him or her soon becoming filled with too much enthusiasm to safeguard other life forms. This over enthusiasm soon envelopes the mind of this individual to such an extent that he or she would soon transforms to become a fanatic ideologist in the guise of a life protector. He or she may become a fanatic environmentalist who cannot withstand the idea of any kind of a damage to a green plant or a tree for any purpose whatsoever!

Another version of such a fanatic life protector may assume the guise of an animal protector that he or she would make the lives of fellow human beings a misery by making a hue and cry about some other sane fellow beings killing some street dogs that have become a danger to the society or some other human beings slaughtering animals for eating their meat or for other purposes. 

Their compassion to other life forms soon turn to a kind of sadism that they take insane pleasure in troubling other human beings who do not agree their line of thoughts. When their insanity goes to higher levels, these fellows would not even mind the destruction of other human beings who are not agreeing to them, simply forgetting their original compassion to life fully! 

Some other kinds become obsessed with their spirituality or religion fully forgetting the fundamental that their spiritual or religious teachings do not really encourage them to be with animosity to other human beings. Teaching god's love, they become insane proponents of evil! They make war cries to kill other innocent human beings who do not agree with their view points of spirituality or religion. They call those of the kinds that not like them as satanic and venture out to destroy all those for and on behalf of god, fully forgetting that it is the satanic mind in them that makes them to behave ungodly. Here too the problem essentially lies with the subtle insanity that they have! They do not realize that it is their insane mind in them that is causing wisdom to vanish from them!

Then there is another kind of insane fellows. These are the types who instigate insanity among their fellow beings and find sadistic pleasure when such others become more and more insane to cause troubles in the society.

Yet another kind of insane fellows keep praying to their gods instead of doing anything to stop insanity among their fellow beings keep rising. They keep thinking that it is the gods who play with the minds of people. A person known to me recently told me that God is really a sadist who keep turning the people against each other and enjoying them fighting and killing each other! I failed to convince him that it is not God, but we ourselves are the problem creators because of our imperfections and our varying types and degrees of insanity!

Subtle insanity is very difficult to detect and treat. Wise counselling by more balanced individuals could be beneficial to bring an individual to normalcy when the kind of feeble mind imbalance on any count is at its nascent state of development. But when more and more of the modern humans are victims of some forms of subtle insanity and when modern humans are abandoning their habits of talking to each other, the number of persons with imbalanced minds are on the rise!

Wise men from the old had theorized that the idle minds are devil's workshop. In reality when humans have lesser challenges to live, their minds become more and more idle. For many, this period poses another great challenge in life. Material comforts are no more the challenge and they fail to transcend their minds beyond materialism. Human beings are expected to use their minds for seeking advanced truths of life when material challenges are overcome. Unfortunately, a good majority of humans fail to do so. They try to get themselves immersed in materialistic thoughts even after material life challenges are no more any real challenges to them. In that process, they slip back to thought processes of degradation that causes subtle insanity to set in. Without they ever realizing, their minds have become the devil's workshops! 

I do not know if the real devil is actually playing any role in this or not. There are some possibilities for that for some people. But on the whole, it is the individuals themselves who are responsible for this degradation of mind.

To come out of it, it is essential for humans to know the purpose of their lives. Yes, I am talking about the purpose of human life and not about the purpose of life in plants and animals. While there is some purpose in the latter, the purpose of life in humans is much more important. To learn about that, subtle insanity has to be taken out from the mind first. And that is possible only when the individual concerned recognizes his or her immaturity of mind in order to set it right!

Why Should We Invest in Big Business if it Generates Only Meager Employment?

Today is Vishvakarma Puja Day in India, the day in which the working class Hindus in most factories and work places across the nation to pay homage to the divine architect god, Vishvakarma Bhagavan (god). The practice of worshiping Vishvakarma on a working day at the work place was started in a big way by the management of the first integrated steel plant in India -The Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO) at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand state, India, several decades ago. It is celebrated generally on 17th September every year and is very popular in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, etc where most of the iron and steel industries of India are located.

Some decades ago, the integrated steel plant managements allowed general public to visit the large works areas on the Vishvakarma Day and the steel workers and their families and relatives celebrated the day by conducting pujas (worship) of the god in the various productions shops and offices of the steel plants with full enthusiasm. This practice of allowing the general public to the work places of the steel plants got stopped when some governmental authorities put an end to it citing security concerns.

But the practice of worshiping the god in the work place on this day by the employees is being continued in these work temples of modern India. The day, though not a holiday, is a practically a kind of holiday for the workmen as the main work during this day is the puja activities!

The Tata steel management has perhaps sponsored this puja in a big way to promote the concept of work is worship and to keep the morale of the working class high by attaching divinity to work and also to invoke the god for their safety and prosperity in an otherwise risky working place.

In those days, an integrated steel plant used to be the real prime mover of the economy as it provided employment to millions of people, directly and indirectly. The government too used to consider the steel plants with due respect and regards as they knew its importance to the economy of the nation well, regardless of the fact that a steel plant actually showed any profits on its balance sheets. In reality, the integrated steel plants generated huge wealth and distributed it by being the main economic driver and the employment creator even when they showed meager profits or even losses on the balance sheets.

Moreover, the integrated steel plants never used to be considered as an industry which needs to show quick profits. It used to be a stable and steady business operation in a massive way and provided much income to the government by way of direct and indirect taxes and also provided direct and indirect employment to so many people who earned decent incomes.

In later years, some unthinking economists and media men made so much hues and cries over the balance sheets of the steel plants and stupidly declared them as wealth destroyers on the basis of the balance sheet evaluations which forced the steel plants to change track from their earlier concepts. Then began the foolish acts where profits were projected above employment. The future generations lost the opportunity to work stably in these work temples of India (perhaps elsewhere too, like the USA)

The thrust of the steel industry shifted to final balance sheet profit making rather than overall wealth creation! As a result the steel industry globally resorted to massive investments to enhance capacities to produce massively without creating equivalent employment opportunities! On the other hand, stupidity of economists and media caused fly by wire industries and businesses to get prominence in the society as main wealth creators. The stress shifted to quick profitability rather than consistency and overall benefit to society on a long term basis.

This stupidity of the so-called media savvy economists caused great damage to all nations due to the stupid globalization that set in without any one seriously studying the overall imbalances that could potentially generate. No one really realized the great harm due to such imbalances in the economies of the world working under conditions that are in no way to be termed as a level playing field! The market driven economies of the world forcibly came in to existence by the vision-less policies of some of the world leaders under influence by the modern day short sighted economists have now come to a stage of full scale collapse. It is affecting millions of young people across the world now. Young people in millions are becoming jobless now and their populations are increasing.

While the media savvy economists keep playing with their macro economic theories based on statistics of numbers, the ground realities are some thing else.

See these reports which should be sufficient to open the eyes of any one with some common sense:

In the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, for 368 posts of the lowest paid peon's job 2.3 million young jobless people have sent their applications! The report says that out of these some 175000 are engineering and commerce graduates. There are also some 255 odd PhD holders!(Read this report!)

On the other hand, highly skilled Indian youths are just fleeing the country for job opportunities abroad as they fail to find any worth while job within their own country! ( Read these: Report-1 & Report-2). Some say the brain and arm drain is good for India as it brings valuable foreign exchange to the country to make its monetary system strong. Some others are of the opinion that the high exodus of Indian youths to other countries in search of employment should be encouraged at all costs by training the Indian youths for employment outside rather than for their own country. Yet some others see the migrating Indians as a great opportunity to spread the Indian culture worldwide. I am not going in to that debate.

The reality is that India is failing to provide employment to its millions and millions of youths within the country. Some Indian industrialists keep complaining about the Indian education system; the education system of India does not enhance skills of the youths that they can be employed, they argue.

But the Indian policy makers and administrators seem to lack the sense and ability to convert the potential strengths of India to more and more opportunities. There actions are not enough to tackle the growing problem of unemployment. They should introspect why the 'make in India' campaigns are not giving measurable and notable results.

As I have written in some blogs earlier, one of the most important action that the Indian administration should do is to enhance the incomes of the people at the lower economic strata so that domestic consumption of goods and services increase and demand rises.

There are many ways by which the government can boost the employment opportunities in the country. But the first objective and priority of the government should be employment generation and nothing else. The government should consider giving appreciable tax rebates for companies and organisations who are good in creating more and more permanent jobs with salaries of employees above the minimum income taxable level. In other words, corporate tax level should come down as the employee strengths above taxable salary level increase.

It should be the priority of the government to find new job avenues. Firms that come up with new concepts and ideas which enhances employment should be given priority for government approvals rather than those coming up with higher capital expenditure or higher returns only.

Technical and financial audits of all investments should be made mandatory. More and more private audit organizations should be allowed to be set up for this purpose. Similarly for all doctors and hospitals, it should be mandatory to provide the medical reports to the patient within a reasonable time of say one week so that the report could be filed with the medical insurance companies or for other purposes as decided by the patients or their relatives. The authorities should study the employment generation potential and the practice of medical transcriptions within India in the coming years.

Social security system should be enhanced with higher returns to the participants instead of the peanut schemes of the government as of now. If needed more and more social security organizations should be set up. Contributions to the social security system should be made mandatory for all working individuals. All working individuals should have just one social security number and the system of joining, continuation and getting benefits should be simple and practical instead of the present member unfriendly systems. 

Real estate companies should be allowed to run and manage the colonies and the flats they build and sell on a long term basis on a chargeable basis in a professional manner. The present system of forcing the owners associations to manage the residential colonies and apartment complexes should be discontinued. The real estate companies should also be allowed to set up residential complexes with units leased on rental charges. 

Skills and training need to be given due importance. It should be mandatory for employers to employ people with proven training and skills for a particular technical or professional job. In other words, the skills imparted at professional college levels should continue in the job front as well. The practices of employing any tom-dick-and-harry for any job should be restricted by statutes. Employers must be mandated to issue specific skill and experience certificates to employees on an annual basis which should be used to build the national skill and experience pool.

It should be mandatory for professionals to be members of their professional associations or institutions which are recognized by the government. Those who are not members of such professional guilds should not be allowed to work in that profession. It should be the responsibility of these guilds to ensure minimum professional skill and experience levels for their members for a particular professional job.

There are several other things that could be thought of. But for all these, the primary objective should be employment generation and all other objectives should come later.

If there is a will, there is a way.

Will our leaders listen? Will our leaders lead this country to prosper for the benefit of each and every citizen? Will they use their thought faculties properly and act? Let us wait and watch. After all, our leaders too are from our own lots! If we think better, they too would.

10 Successful Indian Women Entrepreneurs Who Converted Challenges into Opportunities!

I honor entrepreneurs more than the politicians and the bureaucrats because they are the real managerial leaders who successfully mobilize men(women), material and money in a sustainable manner to enhance wealth of the nation. More importantly, they are the ones who create sustainable employment opportunities to those of their kind who are not so enterprising. 

It is very much possible that the entrepreneurs, industrialists and the businessmen have been generally identified as a kind of workaholics in the society who are mostly interested in making profits for themselves at the cost of others. The communists call them capitalist exploiters of the society. It is not that this definition is without any substance. 

It is a sad reality that a good majority of capitalists are domineering exploiters who in the process of achieving greater heights of business success become prey to their over ambitions and greed that they fail to recognize the genuine aspirations and needs of the working classes. 

In reality entrepreneurs are ambitious people who have a greater degree of enthusiasm to do some thing big and a greater desire to make money than the common people. They are driven by the passion to work and overcome challenges to achieve big. No doubt, these are good qualities. But the problem comes when their ambitions turn into over ambitions and their love for money and power get converted in to insatiable greed. And that is philargyria-the insatiable greed for money and material pleasures! I had written about it some time earlier also.

But greedy businessmen and women are becoming a thing of the past. Now more and more young entrepreneurs are arising in the society who are driven by the passion to do some thing good for the society instead of satiating their own selfish needs. And that is definitely a good sign!

When such good leaders arise in the society, it is our duty to honor them and appreciate their good deeds. We should also appreciate the fact that no business can survive unless it is sustainable. Sustainability requires that the business processes are reasonably profitable and are done in accordance with the laws of the land as far as feasible. A business is good when it provides employment and satisfies the needs of the society honestly with out adopting fraudulent practices.

But setting up a business and managing it successfully in an environment of conflicts, unfair competition and impractical laws and governmental systems is indeed a challenge that can make a normal leisure loving human to lose his or her cool. It is a stressful feat indeed that could make even a strong man to become weak both mentally and physically.

When that is the case, what should we say when we find successful first timers belonging to the so-called weaker sex from an underdeveloped nation like our India who had over come myriads of life challenges to become successful entrepreneurs? 

I simply say, salute them! They are real heroines of not reel life, but real life!

I have read about the achievements of a few of such ladies of India in some of the websites. I am sharing below the links that give some salient information about 10 of them with my readers:

1. Jyothi Reddi - the farm labourer who became an IT CEO 

2. Roopa Hungund- the technology entrepreneur 

3. Rashmi Singh _ The art entrepreneur

4. Kalpana Saroj- the exploited girl turned CEO of steel industry

5. Kiran Majumdar Shaw- the formidable women entrepreneur

6. Chanda Kochhar- the woman who made ICICI bank click.

7. Neelam Dhawan- the non-IT lady who took IT under control

10. Shahnaz Husain- the pioneer in beauty clinic  business

The above are just illustrations. I have omitted the names of ladies who took the reins of family businesses.

While I honor and salute the success of such ladies, I also earnestly wish that they do their entrepreneurial responsibilities honestly without getting trapped in philargyria-the insatiable greed for money and power that keep trapping several of their male counter parts!

Two Stories that I Want to Share With Religious Bigots!

Once upon a time there was a very wealthy king who was a loving, but strict father to his five sons and five daughters. He loved his children equally and he did not favor any of his children on account of any of their special abilities or standing. He gave every one equal opportunities. But all his children had different abilities and qualities in varying degrees. None of them could be considered equal in all respects. Hence the wealthy king did not make any one his sole successor. Instead he preferred to divide his estate among his children and delegated them some rights to manage their own parts of the estates while the ultimate control remained with the king himself.

His children also grew up and they had children of their own. As independent administrators of their own parts of the estates that their father vested with them, they too worked to make their estates better and now for convenience they were now living in their own mansions strategically located within their own estates. This physical separation now prevented his grandchildren and their children to know more about their grandfather, the original king. As time passed, for the subsequent generations the grandfather king was just a story and not a reality.

Now there was competition among the children and the grand children and the great grandchildren. The healthy competition of the earlier generations now deteriorated in to unhealthy competition among the cousins of the third and fourth generations. Some of the children of the old king died and the king himself, being of a better health lived.

The cousin brothers and sisters began forgetting the fact that they are descendants of the same grandfather. They began to glorify the greatness of their own fathers at the cost of the great grand father.

Competition and the quest for projecting one's own superiority over the others now caused conflicts and fights among the cousin brothers and sisters. My father is greater and more powerful than yours. They yelled at each other while they fought to their own destruction.

Now how does the great grandfather react to this situation? What should he do with these warring great grand children? He is still very powerful. He can use his power to imprison or evict or punish his errant grandchildren. But he is not able to do so because his grandfatherly love to his descendants restrain him from doing so. So he prefers to wait patiently hoping that good sense would come to these misguided grand children some time later.

And in your opinion, what should the grand father do in this situation to end the conflict among his hundreds of grand children? The irony is that all these warring groups take his name while fighting each other!

The other story is perhaps known to many of you.

It is the story of the five blind persons who proceeded to 'see' an elephant in the zoo. 

The zoo keeper was compassionate to their blindness. So he allowed them to feel the elephant for themselves. So one blind man felt the elephant's tusk, another its trunk, another its legs, another its tail and yet another its body.

They returned back to their homes and told their children about the elephant. The first blind man taught his son that the elephant is like a hard bent thing with a pointed end like a dagger.

The second one taught his child that the elephant is like a fat python that some time ago came to their hut to swallow their goat.

The third one told his daughter that the elephant is like big pillars of the temple in the village.

The fourth  one told his daughter that the elephant is like a flexible broom that her mother used to sweep.

The fifth one told his son that the elephant is like a big rock that they have in their field.

Now the children of these blind men met and began to discuss about the elephant. Each one believed their own father and began to describe the elephant the way they are taught and they could not agree to each other.

But they wanted to show their superiority with their own knowledge. They were not willing to accept the truth in the other ones' descriptions.

So they quarreled over the matter. 

My dear friend! When I learn about our religious bigots and spiritually blind fellow beings who fight each other about their own superiority of beliefs these stories come to my mind.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis:A Test Case for the Human Maturity Index Evaluation!

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,  I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

[Quote from the New Testament Bible: Matthew Chapter-25: 31-46: The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats]

[IMAGE COURTSEY-BBC NEWS-CLICK IMAGE TO READ THE NEWS]

As a human being, my mind gets disturbed and I face mental distress when I hear and read about human agonies elsewhere. My eyes get moistened with joy when I read about other human beings come to the rescue of people who are in distress. When I read about immature, ignorant, cunning and egoistic humans who keep scheming about ways to put their fellow beings in to suffering in some manner or the other, my anger gets converted to a kind of sympathy arising out of shame and helplessness. I feel ashamed because such kinds also exist in the species to which I too belong!

I was ashamed of the German people of the World War-2 times because I had heard much about them and their leader Adolf Hitler who ordered millions of innocent Jews to be killed mercilessly and brutally. When I happen to read about such leaders and such peoples and such human individuals, I get a feeling of living in the barbaric times of human evolution of the pre-historic times! It becomes difficult to my mind to accept modern day maturity of humans as a reality!

But reading this BBC news today about the present day leadership of unified Germany caused my eyes to get wet. The German people and their leadership have migrated much towards real humanity now. As a collective they have come forward to help a wave of suffering fellow beings from Syria regardless of their ethnicity or religious non-compatibility! They are doing it when all the other well-to-do Europeans, Americans and the rich Arabs have ignored the cries of the suffering humanity from Syria and elsewhere!

It is about them Jesus Christ had told long back. How do they call themselves as followers of Jesus Christ?

Religions supposedly teach people the virtues of compassion, love and mercy. The religious texts may also have past histories of various groups of people who suffered a lot due to the errors committed by some among them or their leaders.

Christians believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate in human form who kept on teaching about the virtues of love and compassion. People who call themselves as Christians filled the length and breadth of earth ever since. But their imperfections remained within them as usual.

They kept chanting 'Kyrie eleison' (Lord, have mercy!) and 'Kriste eleison' (Christ, have mercy!) repeatedly in their church worships, without knowing the ways in which they kept disobeying the divine commandments, day in and day out!

The followers of Christ successfully established powerful empires that culminated in to the western and the eastern forms of Christianity all of which disagreed with each other in one way or the other. Keeping the symbol of peace and love in front they kept fighting each other due to their mental imperfections! They kept doing mistakes that they called as sins and kept praying for mercy and redemption!

The two thousand years of their history was not anything of peace or love! To add to their woes, they were confronted by modified faith systems of the zealots who were willing to die and kill others in the name of the all merciful God!

The people of Syria  is facing the political turmoil linked to religious bigotry not for the first time now. They were in it for centuries ever since religious faith in a merciful God became corrupted by hopelessly immature humans.

My forefathers had to flee Syria long ago when religious bigotry of the middle east flared up due to the so called holy wars and the crusades! Historians say it happened a thousand odd years ago.

The Christian Syrians of those days became refugees and the lot among them who came to the Malabar coast of India, duly mixed with the locals and established the various Syrian Christian denominations of Kerala called the nasranis or the St.Thomas Christians .

As wars and battles had been a regular feature of these regions, fleeing is not any thing new for Syrians and their fellow beings in and around those regions.

But these things happened in the past when leaders of people were more of the beastly kind than those who were born in the modern times in the recent years.

Unfortunately that is what is happening. Who could have imagined that it could happen to the people of modern Syria under the president-ship of a highly educated post graduate eye specialist doctor educated in one of the best medical schools of modern United Kingdom?

When such things do happen, it goes beyond human logic and wisdom. That is when people talk about the invisible powers of the devil that keep influencing the gullible minds of imperfect humans.

Religious, political and economic speculations and theories keep getting invented.

But the pity is when those of the humans whose minds are not yet hardened or influenced by evil powers keep sitting indifferent or unconcerned.

And their silence is a greater error and a sin that elicit future ramification that has to be born by present and future generations of mankind.

And if they happen to believe in the final judgement day, they also need to believe in the possibility of their souls getting called for explanations! Will they hear this voice then:

'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels'.

I do not know.

But one thing is sure. The Syrian refugee crisis now is a test case for evaluating human mental progress. I call it the Human Maturity Index or the human maturity status. Visit this page if you are interested in checking your maturity status.