Mysorean

As you know I was in Bangalore over the last weekend. Celebrated the Independence Day by listening to the inspiring speech of Dr. Manmohan Singh.

One of my cousins wanted to go out to a Mall that had opened newly in the city. The ‘Garuda’ mall at Residency Road. Looks like a replica of the “Forum” in Koramangala. Just that this mall is bigger. Has one food joint and many brand stores. All the big brands seemed to have their presence there. ‘Bose’ audio systems was conspicuous by their absence. ‘Amoeba’ was building up their stall. Inox was running 6 screens and all full! There was practically no space at the Food Joint to sit. You have every cuisine available. From Katpadi Junction (typical South Indian dishes) to anything in Chinese, Italian, Mexican, etc. There’s a Shoppers’ Stop spread over three or four floors (I don’t remember).

Do I hear a “Wow!”? Well, yeah, wow! I am amazed at how many malls are springing up at Bangalore. Do all of them run on a loss? A yes to that question sounds so superficial considering the contagious growth of these malls. Big Bazaar, I am told, has opened another bigger one at some other area in Bangalore. If they are running on losses then such mushrooming growth wouldn’t be possible.

Such malls are a perfect display of Bangalore in its fullest glory. I felt totally out of place. I didn’t know what to do. I was silent for most of the time I was in that mall. My cousin felt I was so disinterested in the whole mall thing. Well, she wasn’t wrong for sure. I was disinterested, but I was getting this feeling that I no longer belonged to that place. The mall repelled me. I repelled the mall too I guess!

Yeah, I know that it’s a problem that I have. I don’t know what I didn’t like there. I am unable place a finger on that. I just felt like running away from that place. I somehow didn’t find myself at peace there. I will not go to any malls anymore. I didn’t find anything useful there. Atleast the “Forum” had a ‘Landmark’ where I could spend my time browsing the store. Even that was missing in “Garuda”.

The roads in Bangalore are as good as non-existent and the traffic in Bangalore can easily fill up all roads in three more cities at any given point of time. Parking, what do you mean by that? You will never find any space anywhere! Going around in Bangalore has become a pain considering the random assignment of direction to traffic movement on any road! If you have a sense of direction, you will lose it in Bangalore!

The Green cover is slowly vanishing. The weather is reaching extreme behaviour. The city is travelling towards doom at an incredible pace! Given a chance, I will stay away from Bangalore for the rest of my Life, unless of course it improves!

The saddest part is Bangalore happens to be my native. And it is sad to see the city disintegrate into pieces this way. I hope I can do something to get it back on track.

Tomorrow: Old friends are better than Gold

“Hi, what are you doing for this weekend?”

“I have planned a trip to Munnar. It’s a wonderful place you know. I booked the Club Mahindra resort long back. It’s a long weekend na, that’s why”

“Oh good! Enjoy! I have never been to Munnar. Hope you have a nice time”

“Thanks!”

Munnar, Kodaikannal, Pondicherry, Colombo and Singapore are the places a few people I know are going to on the long weekend of August 13, 14, 15. The more intelligent of them have applied 4 days leave and converted it into a jolly 10-day vacation. Brilliant!

Incidentally, August 15th happens to be the day we became independent from the British rule. For some strange reason, it has been made a National Holiday. I agree that it’s a reason to celebrate the anniversaries of the day we were liberated. And one way of celebration the Nation thought was by making it a holiday.

The Independence day is actually a result of the effort put in by the people of that age to help us live our lives today. There were several people who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the succeeding generations. When I say sacrifice, I point not only to those who died but there were those who contributed 100% of themselves to the cause called “Independence”.

Independence was not a right in those days. It was a cause to live. I don’t think we understand the gravity of the paradigm shift. The cause united millions of people. The cause gave people the ability to fast for months together as a mark of opposition. The people then didn’t have independence, they fought for it. The lucky ones got to enjoy the freedom. They realised the value of a free India.

The freedom fighters didn’t fight for nothing. If we are right now in a state that’s worse than when the British left, then they handed the Country to inefficient people like us. We can wash our hands off by saying that the Nehru family was the one that ruled us for almost half a century, they are responsible to the country’s present state of affairs. But, let us take the stand that the damage has been done, but it’s not beyond repair. We still have 600 million young people raring to go and make this country a developed country. We can win if each of us decides that we are going to do whatever is in our potential for India.

Independence Day should be a day when these promises are strengthened. We should remind ourselves of our commitment to this wonderful country. It’s a chance to do a review of the past one year and set new goals for this year. Do a conscious analysis of the past one year and write down three things that we have done for the Country. I am sure we will not even fill up the first field.

August 15th should be the day such decisions are taken. The only problem that India faces as a country is that we lack a cause. We stand united when there’s a Kargil, we stand united when there’s a Latur earthquake, we stand united whenever there’s a collective danger to the country. The danger to the country right now is that we will continue to remain developing if we don’t make the conscious decision of reaching the rural areas and helping them develop.

There’s no water in certain areas. And here I am getting to sell low cost computers to them. Is there a paradox? Actually, this is a paradox that will appear to us at every step. We can talk about this paradox sometime later. A short answer to the question is that, to provide essentials to the rural areas is the responsibility of the Government. I am willing to do my best if I am able to figure out how I can help the situation. They need to get out of certain non-core business and get into concentrating solely on the essentials. Well, these are huge topics. Lets take them up some other time.

In my humble (for sake of correct grammar, don’t take it seriously!) opinion, Independence Day should not be a Holiday. It should be a working day as usual. And with a Flag hoisting ceremony made compulsory at every workplace, educational institution, etc. We don’t need to have long speeches on the day. Just hoist the Flag, salute the people who sacrificed their lives for our sake, say the National Anthem with the pride of being an Indian and retain the pride for the rest of the year. Next year you can renew the ties with our Motherland with new vigour.

Jai Hind!

(This post was supposed to be posted yesterday)

Tomorrow: Bangalore

58 million handsets now. 250 million by 2008. On a guesstimate, I can say that about 60% of this market is going to generate business only on voice and sms. 150 million people will primarily use voice and sms. With the kind of price wars that we have seen in recent times, calls and sms’es are not going to be the cash cows. The money, or the profit as the professionals would like to call it, is in Value-Added Services (VAS). And that’s going to come from the remaining 100 million handsets/users depending on your inclination to make money! ;-)

VAS, as of now, includes services like setting caller ring tunes, downloading ringtones for your cellphone, downloading images of your favourite celebrity, MMS (You know this, right?! Courtesy: DPS) etc. Call me and you will hear “Yuhin chala chal raahi” from Swades instead of the boring Tring Tring!! That’s called a Caller ring tune. I am charged A monthly rental of Rs. 30/- for using this service, Rs. 15/- monthly rental for this song in particular. But before all this, I would have called the Service Provider to choose a song, right? That call costs me Rs. 6/- per minute. If this is not a Goldmine for the Industry, then tell me what is?!

Let us take a look at what could be the future Goldmines. Imagine you want to play a game with your friend in another city. All you will have to do is, logon to the Server of the Service Provider and send a request to your friend to join in. He will login from the other end and there you go, both of you are onto a game of Chess! No joysticks nothing! Your trackpad and your phone.

Well, the pricing structure for this could be based on many things. It could be based on the game you are choosing. It could be on the number of minutes you play the game. If you are a on a different scheme, this game could be a free access to you. Or else, one of you might have to pay for the whole game, the one who initiated is ideally the payee.

Lets move on to watching movies. The board meeting is really boring, and you want to watch a favourite movie of yours in the meanwhile to escape the yapping! You just get in to the server of your Service Provider and ask for your movie to be streamed your mobile. And there you are, transported into the celluloid world from the stiff collars and diplomatic idle talk.

Pricing again is a question of how big the movie is. Or even maybe, how recent the movie is. There could be a day when a movie has a cellphone release. Ram Gopal Varma’s “Industry” releasing in India for the first time on your cellphones. The best part is, you can tune into the movie whenever you want to and watch it right from the beginning. So, you don’t have to wait for the Friday reviews!

We get sms alerts from Banks right now. You can send a query to the bank’s database with your cellphone and get status updates of your banking accounts. The day is not far away when the bank will have a microsite (I am refraining from calling it a website because it will look small on your screens. But otherwise, it will be your usual website). You will access it from the browser on your cellphone and do a fund transfer to your friend’s account. Well, the other part could be that you will be able to track your wife’s credit card expenses over the cellphone!! Great, ain’t it?!!

This Bank service will become something for which we the end customers won’t pay upfront. The Bank will deduct a standard amount (Say Rs. 100/- per month) for providing this service. And they will have a back-end arrangement with the Cellphone Service Provider. Of course, this won’t be the first payment mode they will start with. They will definitely start with a per transaction fee and a minimum floor value on each transaction to get a hold of the volumes of transaction that will happen. The additional value I see in this model is that the per transaction overhead cost of the Bank will go down drastically. As everything is automated.

Where’s the opportunity to make money you ask? Open a company. Appser Private Limited. Please don’t go legal on me. I just thought of an abbreviation of Application + Server. Start building gaming, movie, banking, etc. can we think of more? applications that will interface with the middle and high-end mobiles in the market. Try making them talk to the stripped down browsers that are available in the mobiles. Otherwise, make relevant patches that can be added to the existing browsers on the cellphones and make them available for free download.

Now go to the Cellphone Service Providers and give him this idea that you will do the back-end management of these VAS servers. It’s a Goldmine. Atleast in India, I haven’t heard of anyone going in this direction. Of course, the networks are yet to mature to this requirement. A start in the direction is all that is necessary. The money here is going to be bigger than Gold!

Tomorrow: Independence Day

I still remember the hostel days during my undergrad when I used to walk upto an STD booth and wait in a queue to call up home for the customary once per week call. It’s wierd that most of the times I would not call home and be comfortable with myself. Anyway, that’s a different topic altogether. The point is there was something called an STD booth that was an integral part of my weekly routine. The presence of a routine is highly questionable you say? I agree unconditionally!

We were a gang of four as you have gangs during your student days. We always lived in our own world. Never bothered about what was happening to other gangs, or rather I should say that we were not even aware of who the other gangs were made up of! It was not arrogance, it was just a sign of how beautifully we complemented each other. We didn’t need to look beyond the four of us for anything.

It was the flower of friendship that bloomed and has now grown into a well-nurtured plant of eight years old. I shall write in detail about our friendship some other time. Just to give an idea: Our autograph books (we never signed for each other) are filled by various people. There was one comment that has stayed in my mind very strongly. “It’s surprising to see such pure friendship in today’s world of opportunistic connections. Sometimes, I have felt envious of your gang and wanted to be a part of it. Such was the bond that you guys shared”.

Yesterday, we had a conference call that kp (Krishnaprasad) enabled. Sam (Sameer, IITB) and I joined in. The other guy (Shastri) was on his way to his native. So, we couldn’t get him into the call. We talked for about an hour. Needless to say, it went off as if it was 10 minutes. At the end of it, Sam wished us happy anniversary. This guy has this knack of remembering all kinds of dates. (One example: October 11th 1997, Sam and Adi met for the second time in the CET counselling cell, Bangalore! Of course, I don’t remember the right date!) Both of were as usual waiting in silence for him to announce the Red Letter Day! But this time, Sam had a date that would hit the right emotional chord!August 14th was the day that our final sem exams had begun! Our last exam together.

After a lot of emotional discussion we arrived at one question. Did we ever think that we will be conversing over a conference call with each of us on our cell phones in the three metros? It was definitely out of our imagination at that point of time. As even cell phones were quite a technological fantasy for us. Today, merely 4 years from that day (only from the technological point of view please! We feel we have been away from each other for decades!), see where we are in terms of technology? We have cell phones. We are talking from our respective homes in our cities through a conference call! ?Undreamt of when we started our engineering!

Since, I was talking about the ‘last mile‘ syndrome that India is affected with. Here is a standing example of how we can overcome the problem. The cellphone industry overtook the number of landlines in the country within 5 years of their entry into the market. As a market, we have totally skipped the landline lifecycle and have directly entered the cellphone or the mobile industry as we calll it.

BSNL, Airtel and Hutch are the primary players in the GSM arena. While Reliance and Tata Indicom are the prime movers in the CDMA sector. The combined coverage is astounding. The call rates is one of the lowest in the World. With Hutch introducing the STD Hutch to Hutch at Re. 1, the price war has now entered new ground. To even think where this will lead to is just so exciting. We are at 58 million handsets (I remember reading this somewhere. I am not good with numbers. Please do confirm if you have the right figures). The potential is estimated to be atleast 200 million more. With price points falling (of handsets and call rates) with increasing volumes, the Indian Mobile Industry is a space to watch out for! All of us stand to be benefitted.

Tomorrow: Gold! Ahoy!

I was watching the highlights of the finals of the Indian Oil Cup 2005 between India and Sri Lanka. My friends had already told me about the fate that India had met with. But I was not ready to believe them. I was very confident it was going to be India’s day and we would thrash SL downright!

The turning point of the match, I believe, was the dismissal of Yuvraj Singh. The body language of the Lankans when Dravid and Singh were consolidating the Indian innings with their partnership was quite evident. Sagging shoulders, dropping heads, scratching heads, shouting at each other, etc. Just when the match was in our hands, there was this sweep that Yuvraj played straight into the hands of the square leg fielder.

After that the collapse was quick. I was able to immediately recall hundreds of such matches where India snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The Indo-Pak test which we lost by 12 runs is still fresh in my memory!

India has this block to run the last mile. We stumble at a very significant stage. The scent of victory probably intoxicates the men in the middle. This is true not only in terms of cricket. You may want to observe our Government machinery. The word “bureaucracy” has attained a negative connotation. We devise good policies at the top. The ones that hit the headlines are actually good news. You know the ones like “Rs. 70,000 crores budget allocated for Defense”, “Free Power for farmers”, “Golden Quadrilateral Project inaugurated”. These are all pieces of strategic vision.

Whether these schemes and policies actually hit the intended beneficiaries is doubtful. And why is it doubtful? A cynical mind would suggest that the scheme or policy was formulated with the intention of eating up the money. So, the question of reaching the end-point doesn’t arise at all. To such arguments, there is no answer.

Assuming that the intentions were there but we went wrong somewhere and then analysing to find out where we went wrong is a useful exercise. It will atleast help us as a country to aviod that mistake the next time and hence take a step towards a better future. For 57 years, we have been handling issues on our own. We need to learn quickly.

The learning curve takes a steep turn towards the top at a particular point in time. Is this period of two-three years that point of time? It probably is if you believe what Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam says and his Vision 2020. In 1992, with the opening up of the economy and devaluation of the rupee twice in 24 hrs, we were expected to be superpowers by 2000. Well, there’s another theory that says that those initiatives were more forced than a result of a conscious analytical mind. The same man who implemented those changes that gave rise to a new hope to the country is again at the helm of affairs. Is it fair to expect him to get it right this time?

If we get our last mile right, then yes, we have the right man at the top to get to where we want by 2020. And what does the last mile consist of? Only one thing. Commitment. If I am in the business of making computing affordable to the emerging markets, I need to give myself completely to it. Whether I succeed or not, I must be happy with the effort that I have put in. The people who come in touch with me must be enthused about what I am doing. I must radiate positive energy around me.

Imagine if this happens to you everytime you enter a Government office to pay your bills or apply for a tender. Whether you bag the tender or not, you will be happy that you have put in your best. Instead of the feeling: That guy paid him more than I did and hence he got the tender! Now, isn’t there a change in your attitude towards the system? I am sure there is. It’s just the last mile that’s not working.

We choke at the last mile. Once we overcome that, there’s no stopping us from a better future. India will emerge as a Nation that will be the centre for technology and spirituality. And since, it’s a spirituality-based position, we will continue in that position forever!

Tomorrow: Mobiles – A ‘last mile’ success story!

In this very miserable state of the body, we started out, we realized that infinite soul is inside us. If I hadn’t realized I would have lived in tremendous difficulties. Whoever knows the Atman goes beyond the stages of death. They become eternal. Those who remain in ignorance will come back to this world again and again.

(As told by Swami Gautamananda in his discourse on “Brihadaranyaka Upanishad” at Ramakrishna Ashram, Chennai)

Swamiji stopped here as it was time to wrap up. We shall continue when I attend the next discourse. I will not be attending the Sunday’s (14th August) discourse as I am in Bangalore for my cousin’s engagement. So we will lose continuity. My apologies for that. I will anyway update the blog daily. Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow: India and the last mile

Advaita says “I am brahma”. The body has created all ills. The body makes us ill. We think we are ill if our body is ill. Getting into a body is like gettting into a dense forest thinking I will come out easily. But actually, It is difficult to get out of a dense forest. The entering of a body is equalled to getting into an inaccessible forest. The Atman has entered the perilous body. There is no way to escape the miseries associated with this body.

Anything that is achieved by one man, must be possible to eb attained by everybody. When the awakened soul realizes that he is the infinite soul he realizes that he is the creator of the World. A person who has realized God, sees God in everyone.

For example, there was a lady called Gopalamma (Gopal is Lord Krishna’s another name, Amma is mother) who used to live on one end of River Ganga. The other side of which was Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s abode. Gopalamma was a widow ostracized from the society. But she had benevolent in-laws who would give her Rs. 500/- a year towards her livelihood. Gopalamma would donate that to a temple in her neighbourhood and also serve there. In turn, the temple would feed her with two meals per day. She used to stay in a haunted house. Haunted as considered by the local villagers.

One day, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa & a few of his disciples crossed the river and walked into Gopalamma’s haunted house. Once Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa entered the house, the ghosts became very restless and went and requested Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to leave so that they could stay comfortable. When the spiritually enlightened enter, the lesser ghosts couldn’t even exist peacefully in His presence. So, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and his disciples left the house. He had not informed the disciples of the incident lest they get scared and create a commotion.

Gopalamma would live in this house peacefully. She was a powerful spiritual person. She would do lots of penance and it helped her gain control over the ghosts. The Ghosts’ presence wouldn’t bother her at all. Gopalamma attained such heights that she was able to see Lord Krishna everywhere. The Lord would appear in the form of a small child and play with Gopalamma for hours together. Such sessions sometime extended upto months together.

During such sessions, Gopalamma would answer questions from the villagers regarding spirituality and other issues. Lord Krishna would actually answer the questions through Gopalamma. As long as Lord Krishna was there, Gopalamma would be able to answer all the questions. But once the Lord left, Gopalamma would say, “I can’t answer anymore. My Lord Krishna has left”.

Such is the power of spirituality. The enlightened being feels the oneness with Lord Brahma. This comes to people through hard spiritual exercises. All can escape misery through the knowledge of self.

Do we like whatever we do in our life? For example, if you are living in Mumbai, you have to get up at 4AM and catch the 5.02AM train. Is it enjoyable? Certainly not. This is the misery of our body. When spirituality wakes up, the miseries go away!

(As told by Swami Gautamananda in a discourse on “Brihadaranyaka Upanishad” at Ramakrishna Ashram, Chennai)

Tomorrow: Sloka 14.

The Atman has no fear. Fear comes with the possibilityof destruction. Atman full of joy. When we think that this world is infinity and we are one with that world, there is no fear. Attachment to the body, will get us only sorrow. We should realise that we are different from the body. That’s when the grief becomes attached to the body and not to the Atman.

An enlightened man, if he realises that he is the Atman or infinity, will never be unhappy. The realisation that “I am one with Brahma, the creator, the protector and destroyer”. A man is enlightened if he realizes he is the Atman. He will not have any desires. Desire arises out of attachment to worldly pleasures. All pleasure & all joy is in our soul.

A person who has infinite joy gets detached from the worldly joys. Like the saints who don’t want wealth and name, while we struggle for wealth and name throughout our lives. We want promotions and hikes to prove that we are better than the other. It’s an unending game of one-upmanship. Aspiration for higher things is always there. Whereas we are higher than everything else. We should realise that.

Physically, many things might not be possible. But spiritually we can go beyond all and everything. We can reach the highest point which is being one with the Divine. We are the divine.

For example, there was this kid who was studying in the school where the Swamiji was the Principal. This kid was exceptionally brilliant. So, Swamiji gave her a double promotion from Class 3 to Class 5. In Class 5, she would still top the class beating the closest contenders by 25 marks. So, she was given another double promotion to Class 7. So on and so forth, the kid went on till the tenth standard. Then from there she went to college and joined corporate organisation.

The point that Swamiji was trying to drive home was that, if you think that you are the body then you can grow only to a certain level. There is a limit to which you can grow. But once, we realise that we are the soul which is the infinite, why do we need to struggle in this body? Enlightened people decide to leave the body once their mission in Life is achieved.

Swami Vivekananda wanted to leave the body for two years upto the age of 38 as his mission in life was achieved. Once the desires of the body are fulfilled the body may be left. And we can go the God from where we started. We are in this body by the will of God. We are here for a specific Mission. Once the mission is achieved, we shall all go back to God.

This shows that everyone of us can escape from this world of misery to an infinite World of joy.

(This is as told by Swami Gautamananda in the discourse on “Brihadaranyaka Upanishad” at Ramakrishna Ashram, Chennai)

Tomorrow: Sloka 13

Got this extremely good forward on email.

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather’s shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.

The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. “We must do something about Grandfather,” said the son. “I’ve had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor”. So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed their dinners together.

Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. When the family glanced in Grandfather’s direction, sometimes he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The four-year-old watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, “What are you making?” Just as sweetly, the boy responded, “Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when you get old.” The four year old smiled and went back to work.

The words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took Grandfather’s hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.

I’ve learned that, regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.

I’ve learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But, if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.

I’ve learned that children’s eyes observe more than there ears ever hear and the example we set for them determines their actions.

I’ve learned that make a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life”. I’ve learned that every day, you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch — holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

It’s so nice. Having a Father’s day is not going to help this change come across. If you value your father, then you will take care of him every moment of your existence. It’s such gift to have a father. And appa amma, to have parents like you is enough. I can’t think of anything to better to ask from God anytime.

The discourse was on “Brihadaranyaka Upanishad” by Swami Gautamananda. Swamiji started of with a recap of the last shloka of last week’s discourse. We had ended on Sloka 11, last Sunday.

Sloka 11:

The external actions have to bring in inner development. We do so many rites and rituals (for eg. Going to temple, etc.) without knowing our spiritual self. Once we get into the rites and rituals in a mechanical way, such rituals will take us to the abode of misery and darkness. A person who does not evolve himself into conscious spirituality decays into a world of ignorance and darkness.

For example, we go to tirthyatras, say Amarnath. We go keeping our mind above everything, seeing infinity everywhere, chanting the name of the Lord. This automatically takes our mind to a higher state. We should be able to retain the state of mind even after coming back. On our way, there are co-passengers. We should treat all ofthem equally. All of us are in pursuit of the Lord. This equality should be maintained when in our daily life too. Otherwise, there are no lessons learnt from the pilgrimage.

Rituals become mechanical activities if we do not do it with concentration bhakti. We should become one with the divine while doing them, that’s when the rituals have meaning.

We are not mere human beings. We are Gods. We should realise that. If we don’t, we will continue to live in misery. We get attached to the Worldly pleasures and think that there’s nothing higher than that. But on attaining realisation, we attach ourselves to something higher. The highest joy of the “Atman” (soul) is not attached to this world.

This was a recap of what we heard last week. From tomorrow let’s understand the subsequent slokas, the ones that Swamiji touched upon yesterday.

Tomorrow: Sloka 12, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as told by Swami Gautamananda at Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.