Random musings of Dr. M Sathya Prasad

This is a compilation of some of my own quotations while pondering from time to time.

Rules of life:

Golden: Don’t care a shit about those who don’t care a shit about you

Diamond: Trust just a few men and never, never any woman.

Character

• Just as you have the right to make mistakes, you also have the accountability to face the consequences and the responsibility of not repeating them.

• The state of your happiness depends upon whether you are a part of the problem or part of the solution. For happiness, identify problems, but be part of the solution 

• By and large, cultivating virtue is an easier way to be independent

• Allowance for several small rectifiable mistakes is a potent guard against one large mistake that could collapse the entire structure (e.g., trying out small quantities of recipes and perfecting it before scaling it to a banquet)

• You call it a honey trap. I call it a booby trap.

• Developing good habits is the easiest way to ease into self-control.

• Not letting go is punishment twice.

• Gather yourself tighter. Don’t give up!

• Outgrow urges.

• It is never too late to change. Don’t care for what others may say. They don’t matter. It is your life, and it is none of anybody’s business.

• Greatness is a choice. Attitude is a choice. Attitude is greatness.

• Enjoyment is enjoyable only when it is rare and earned.

• Jealousy is a cancer of the soul

• Anything that is inviting could be dangerous. Ulysses and Sirens

• I admire a person with intelligence. I respect a person with character. I worship a person with both.

• Urge defeats purpose

• …and so, let me tell you a great truth firmly and without any hesitation whatsoever – ‘The secret to a contented and happy life lies in giving great importance to the task in hand and least importance to ourselves. We should all, perhaps, be loyal subordinates to our responsibilities. It is okay to be ruled by our duties until we learn to master those, rather than being subjugated by our feelings. Our duties and the successful completion of those should be the custodians of our well-being. We all want to be somebody. Real happiness lies in working hard and yet managing to be a nobody.’

• When I came back to India for good in 2004, what shocked me was that in most places, courage, competence and character have been replaced by cunning, corruption, and connection.

• Don’t get carried away and talk more than what you had originally intended to talk about during any conversation.

• Silence cannot be silenced by arguments

• Don’t argue since most arguments end up becoming a battle of wits instead of a battle of facts

• The only thing worse than violence is the provocation that leads to it

• What you achieve is destiny. How you achieve is your choice.

• I start my relationships like a transparent glass plate. You can see through. I make no assumptions. Over the course of my relationship with you, I transform into a mirror. What is you see in me reflects yourself.

Corporates

• Modern corporate forces us to operate in the Rajas-Tamas zone and seldom in the Sattvic zone

• The best way to succeed materially is to conform to your superior's irrationality.

• To an extent, Indian religious institutions are trying to inculcate Sanathana Dharma in a Corporate Framework.

• Globalisation - from an asset-based mindset to a commodity-based mindset, and sadly, it has started trickling into marriage as well.

• Performance appraisal must be contributive and participative; not punitive and retributive.

• Definition of manager: He whose lifeline hangs in the balance on deadlines

• It is not a mere plan made well. It is the will to execute it as well.

• Appraisal bell-curve forces us to compare our two normal and healthy eyes, artificially anoint one as a high performer and the other as a subpar and finally yank out the one deemed as subpar and make you blind in one eye!

• The objective could be measured. The subjective should be felt. Performance is a combination of both the subjective and the objective. The objective could be counted. The subjective could be counted upon. Unfortunately, since the business has no feelings, it ignores subjectivity and counts on what could be counted instead of that which could be counted upon!

• MBAs focus on income. Engineers care about the outcome.

• Indians don’t celebrate; they hero-worship. Indian corporates are filled with a bunch of insecure people.

• It is not possible to do what we enjoy and still make a living, since such a thing does not exist. It is wiser to adapt oneself to reality rather than a futile search for an elusive ideal life.

Economics & Commerce

• Saudi oil equivalent is lithium in China

• Stability should not lead to stagnation

• Money is a service transportation device.

• Commercials create fantasies and prey on our inadequacies

• Money is becoming expensive

• The world doesn’t wait

• Spending on spectacle lens is utility; on the frame is vanity

• Antique cars look like jewellery. These are assets that gain value over time. Modern cars are utilities; commodities. These lose value over time.

• Sad that some young men these days prefer the stock market over hard work.

• Western corporate greed is responsible for creating a mighty China

• Socialism feeds the weaker baby. Capitalism feeds the stronger one.

• There is no unemployed goat

• For the same eatable, I like being served by a vending machine than a waiter. The waiter expects a tip. Neither would I have to tip the machine, nor would I want the machine to tip on me. 

Happiness

• Happiness is like a mosquito. If you try to catch it, it always slips. But sit still patiently with a swatter, and it would come to you.

• Get inspired by others, but compete with yourself and better yourself every time, like Sergei Bubka. Better your records. Beat your records.

• Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

• It is paradoxical as to how much placebos play a role in our physical and mental well-being – more mental than physical!

• Eat snacks slowly

• Concern for something is cerebral. Worry is emotional.

• I don’t seek anymore ‘kick out of life’ since I have had enough kicks from life.

Human nature

• Both my happiness and sorrow have no meaning.

• Our trouble is not ignorance but inaction

• The beauty of the future lies in its unpredictability and the past, in retrospection.

• If you are lost in thoughts and allow the cake to get burnt, better be King Alfred.

• Don’t get trapped by your thoughts

• If you don't introspect, you will suddenly wake up one day to realise that all along you have been leading a wrong life.

• I have the right to choose my attitude

• Participation and concentration are related. We can concentrate on things only when we participate. We concentrate on an interesting movie because subconsciously, we participate in that illusion. We, by nature, are participatory. Our real nature is to concentrate.

• Our keenness for gossip is proof enough that we are afraid of spending time with ourselves and often want to escape into and explore a world beyond ourselves. He who confronts himself is wise indeed and has no value for gossip. 

• People often confuse flights of fantasy with imagination. The former is a sterile pipedream while the latter is fertile, virile and endeavours to push the limits of human possibilities.

• Imagination must not become flights of fantasy

• What is the use of curiosity if it doesn’t lead to any usefulness?

• Coronavirus has forcibly masked our mouths and noses as if to force us to keep our mouths shut and not poke our noses into others’ business.

• Either a money maker or a knowledge seeker – seldom both.

• Desire is not will. Resolution is not to resolve.

• In those days, we eagerly awaited the postman to deliver a letter. Today, we are even more frequently checking our WhatsApp messages.

• Fairy tales for children are a great placebo

• Maturity is a logical emotion

• He bends over backwards because of his huge tummy.

• I never understood what labour pain could be until the day I suffered some severe constipation.

Logic

• The problem with any analysis is that it completely misses the element of surprise

• The unstructured should also find a place in the structure. The other way around is not possible.

• Lawyers must not argue their cases, and surgeons must not operate on their child. Reason takes a back seat where emotion overwhelms.

• Passion annihilates options.

• Passion hijacks reason (since passion substitutes itself for reason).

• They say that it is only the straight tree that gets cut. Let us get it straight. Straight trees get cut for all the right reasons. They might go for construction or solid furniture, or at best might be sculpted to be cherished for years to come. The death of a straight tree leads to eternal glory! Crooked trees are at best used as firewood. They either rot or get burnt to ashes. Straight or crooked? Now take your pick!

• If the absolute truth is that “truth is relative”, should we conclude that what is absolute is relative? The irony of life!

• When I say truth is relative, it might be someone’s relative; certainly not mine!

• The one alive believes he is an immortal, and the dead doesn’t know he has died!

• If you eat bread every day, then are you a thoroughbred?

• If the laundry fellow is a thief, should we say that the iron man steals?

• If it is too good to be true, it is too good to be true. I realised it the hard way in my life.

Miscellaneous

• Elba tore apart Bonaparte

• My convictions are not dogmas.

• Should we call a constipated walrus, “sealed”?

• Childhood ignorance offered me more solace than informed adulthood.

• Every evening, sparks fly in my home – too many mosquitoes, and I use the electronic swatter.

• He who laughs at his jokes gets the satisfaction that he has at least one fan – himself.

• I was happy when my doctor told me that I was an influencer. I misheard him. He told me that I had influenza.

• I never needed to prove myself! Never. Prove myself to whom? Prove myself for what?

• A house where a woman is not respected is doomed. Likewise, a house where a woman dominates is also doomed.

• Did you notice that most Japanese have names that sound like cars and motorcycles! Suzuki, Kawasaki, etc.   😊

• Do you name an Indian submarine Subramani?

• One thing common between her and the universe is that both keep expanding

• Never argue with women. Either they win, or you lose.

• The following five control India (in the given order): Politicians, Businessmen (includes media), Godmen, Movie Stars, and Government Bureaucrats.

• If you take a rock and cover it, would you call it a covered boulder? (pun – coward, bolder)

• Checking WhatsApp every ten minutes is no different from submitting a Unix batch job and checking for results every ten minutes. It is all dopamine rush.

Relationship

• A yes master is worse than an enemy

• Proximity is a privilege

• Every Napoleon suffers a Talleyrand.

• Heaven is not what you inherit, but what you create. Go around creating heavens.

• Don’t care an F about those who don’t care an F about you!

• Modernity has driven old people from age-old homes to old-age homes.

• My presence might not be felt as much as my absence.

• Trust, but not fully.

• I admire biased people more than neutral ones. I find the latter opportunistic parasites. They don’t take a stand and generally lack ideals. I especially despise those who have taken help from me and take a neutral stand in a dispute between me and someone else. I love those who take sides. At least they take a stand, unlike these spineless neutral ones!

• It is noble to give meaning to others’ lives

• I can’t agree more with the guy who likened the love of a woman to a fresh and glistening morning dew drop, which has equal probability to land on a rose petal as on a turd.

• You might not have inherited heaven; at least you could create one around you!

• The better it is, the less you ask for help from colleagues or business partners. It becomes awkward during ideological confrontations.

• However good a friend could be, please don’t pat him on the back when he is peeing. I did this once and was cursed for 7 generations (forward and backwards).

• Finger-pointing is Euclidian – others are squarely blamed and roundly criticised!

• Often, the reason is drowned out by the noise

• Someone who is not your friend need not be your enemy

• The very few who love me love me not for what I am, but despite what I am.

• Thick as thieves because a lot is at stake. Very high collateral.

• Take your phone or email personal contact list and ask how many you would stand up for and who on the list would stand up for you.

• The institution or compulsion of marriage was created because we lack the discipline of animals

Religion & Spirituality

• Religion is disciplined irrationality; spirituality is rational self-realization

• Law is at the action level. Dharma is at the thought level.

• Imagination is more important than knowledge. The choice of what to imagine and imagining the same intensely is meditation.

• Sastra has applied dharma.

• Law and Dharma are like a teeter-totter (see-saw); when one goes up, the other comes down. More of one means less of the other. Codified Dharma is Sastra.

• Oh! Spirituality!! Save me from religion!!

• The difference between Science and Spirituality is that the former could be explained plain and simple. Spirituality is a uniquely personal experience where words fail.

• Law: Action precedes understanding. Dharma: Understanding precedes action

• Detachment is the only way. But detachment should not lead to abandoning responsibilities. There should be a sort of detached attachment. The detached Attachment is Karma Yoga. The attached Detachment is a dereliction of duty.

• I left the USA for good several years ago. One of the reasons is my realisation that being a practising Brahmin abroad is as out of place as being fully clothed in a nudist camp. Sheer hypocrisy! Despite all its shortcomings, India is still a Yoga Bhoomi, thanks to its sages of yore.

• Except for a very, very few, most Sanyasis are unfit to advise householders on how to lead a family life. Their views are often dangerous, bereft of experience. For example, please read the book by one Swami Ramsukhdas titled “How to lead a household life” (https://book.gitapress.org/product-style-5/gita-press-229/ and https://www.amazon.in/Lead-Household-Life-Ramsukhdas-Swami/dp/8129300354/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=how+to+lead+a+household+life&qid=1605196146&s=books&sr=1-1. I neither need such Swamis nor do I care for their preposterous teachings!

• Sincere atheism and pure faith converge in the Upanishads

• Obsession is the opposite of Advaita

• I find George Carlin to be more credible, honest, sincere, and truthful than the many godmen and spiritualists I have come across.

• Anything short of Advaita is an adulterated mix of placebo and reality in varying proportions. Advaita alone is real. Rests are mere grey and fuzzy shades of reality with dollops of placebo.

• Do your duty to the best possible extent and then rely on prayers

• Advaita is the leftover after the annihilation of all mental constructs. It is final. The rest are mere steps leading to Advaita – a one-way journey. Upon reaching the top, the means (ladder, placebo) are no longer relevant, but their importance is recognised nonetheless

• Don’t believe in anyone alive who discourses on what happens after death

• Advaita means that, except you, everything else is simulated. What you think of as you is also simulated. That which cannot be simulated is the real you. Therefore, your thoughts are also simulated. So, the reality is not what you think it is since it has nothing to do with thoughts.

• Advaita is a leftover state. Advaita happens. Progressive annihilation results in a residue that cannot be annihilated. That is Advaita. Our true nature, which is our real self, untainted, becomes apparent to itself. Advaita is a state of being uninfluenced and perfect abidance. Self, abiding in itself. There is neither a thinker nor a thought. There is neither a subject nor an object. It is not intellectual. It is experiential. It cannot be explained since explanations involve intellect. Intellectual explanations are relativistic and never absolute. What you are reading now is intellectual – on my part and yours as well.

• Should I either eat medicine or pray for a cure? Medicine is for the body. Prayer is for the soul.

• Medicine heals the body; Prayer heals the soul.

• Meditation is the time spent on oneself – and one’s self.

• When you manage your thoughts, that is jnana. When you are controlled by your thoughts, that is Maya.

• The world runs on placebos – on hope – and religion is one of the best-invented placebos. Placebos are unreal, but real.

• What is the difference between religion and spirituality? Religion: “That man is great and therefore follow him”. Spirituality: “That man is great, and it proves that you have in you the potential to become what he is.”

• Advaita is a state of no placebos. Corollary: Except Advaita, all else are placebos. Maya and placebo are synonyms.

• Most beliefs are placebos

• In retrospect, I feel happy that God (?) refused to answer some of my prayers and unhappy that He (?) answered a few!

• Perhaps God is the most powerful and useful placebo invented by mankind.

• Fantasy is the intensification of Maya. Imagination is the annihilation of Maya.

• The only domain in which you could be selfish is your own spiritual development. It is an intensely personal journey. I wouldn’t even call it selfishness, but enlightened self-interest.

• You might have heard of the terms religious fanatics, religious zealots, etc. Have you ever heard of the term spiritual fanatic? Never. Spirituality is between you and yourself. An enlightened I, me and myself.

• Science pursues evidence. Experience ensues spirituality – and that is personal.

• My prayers are the reflection of the wide gap that exists in me between my ignorance and wisdom.

• Spirituality evolves through introspection, not instructions.

• It is what it is. My struggle is my evolution. My evolution is my struggle. Evolution needs no solution. The solution is in evolution. The destination is a mirage.

• Maya may not necessarily be an enemy. There is good maya, and there is bad maya. For example, a personal God is a good maya. A healthy body is good maya. A healthy body is necessary for performing sadhana, which results in self-realisation where the body no longer matters. So one needs a healthy body to start with to realise the body is maya. That is the irony. Shastras demarcate the good maya from the bad. Good maya is essential until the annihilation of maya. So good Maya is self-annihilating. Bad Maya is a downward spiral.

• In the state of Advaita, there is no winning or losing. Just being!

• There is no difference between an earnest atheist and a staunch advaitist.

• The sick and frail are unfit for spiritual sadhana. A healthy mind in a healthy body. That develops willpower.

• Intellect discerns. It is differentiative. Advaita is integrative. Integrates what? Sarvam Brahmam. Differentiation doesn’t exist.

• What is sadhana? It is a systematic process where the intellect destroys itself by clear and courageous reasoning – kaschid deerahah, Katopanishad.

• What is athma vichara or self-enquiry? It is our intellect self-destructing by rational reasoning by itself on itself.

• Intellect should be used for courageous reasoning, which progressively leads to diminishing returns, ultimately resulting in silence.

• Intellect is essential, and maya is also essential for both to slowly fade away to oblivion. Dwaita is good maya. Advaita is no maya.

• Maya is indispensable in Dwaita. Jeevathma and Paramathma are distinct. Maya has a big role to play. Severe achara anushtaanams. Highly disciplined. Dualism. Prema. Bhagavatham. Subject & Object are distinct and separate

• Maya would eventually be dismissed in Vishisthaadvaita. Jeevathma is a part of Paramathma. Maya has some role to play. Qualified monism. Vishnu Sahasranamam. Paasuram. Subject & object are distinct but not separate. Bhakti

• Maya has no role to play in Advaita. No distinction between jeevathma and paramathma. Sravam Brahmam. Non-dualism. Vedanta. Upanishads. Subject = object. Jnana.

• Dwaitam – Bhagavatham. Visishtaadvaitham – Vishnu Sahasranamam. Advaitham – Vedanta / Upanishads. All three – Bhagavad Gita.

• We have to keep explaining until the returns diminish to nothing. There comes a point when no more explanations matter, and all that remains is silence.

• Keep on sincerely questioning until there are no more questions left and no more answers required. That is true silence.

• Advaita is a useful self-destruction of intellect.

• Advaita prods us to enquire, "Who am I?" The easiest approach is to analyse "Who/What I am not." Whatever is left, "That I am!" The answer, therefore, is, "I am everything else (the residue) remaining after realising that 'I am not anything else.'"

Science

• Either artificial intelligence or natural stupidity!

• Legacy is an encumbrance in innovation

• Science always unlearns, relearns, and revises itself, and that is its greatness. Science is not dogmatic.

• Experiments should lead to contained failure and scalable success

Wisdom

• Wisdom is a manifestation of grandeur that intelligence struggles to understand

• The butcher cuts to kill; the surgeon cuts to save. Wisdom is to look beyond the mere act of cutting. The action is apparent, but the intention is latent

• Even a crow or a raven is intelligent. That doesn’t mean it has any wisdom. There lies the difference between intelligence and wisdom. You may have artificial intelligence, but there could be no artificial wisdom. There is nothing artificial about wisdom.

• The wise have risen above the urge

• The wise have risen above logic. The intelligent are trapped in logic.

• Oftentimes, what I desire is not what I really need.

• The wise does what is necessary. The fool does what he desires.

• I don’t give much importance to my thoughts unless they serve some useful purpose.

• Don’t comment on others’ looks. Neither of you had the choice.