11 posts tagged with "sevaka"

Sevaka and Sakha have a cycle. These cycles are the 8 limbs for sevaka and the Capital, Team, Venture cycle for sakha. What I realize is that I must simply improve both these cycles. Each of these have simple outcomes. By simplifying the outcomes the cycle becomes easier and easier to manage.

• Sevaka. Each of the limbs needs to be reviewed and improved daily. Find any part that you are not doing well and figure out a way to improve it.
• Sakha. Capital, Team and Ventures all require optimizations. Each piece has simplified outputs.

By focusing on these two cycles the goal becomes in essence an engineering and quality problem. The outcomes for each are now known. Further, the way to approach this is through the quality equation.

• Quality. Focus on what is wrong and improve each piece. Learn as needed to improve that piece without trying to add a bunch of books for no reason. Depth is better than shallowness. Adding knowledge to improve the cycles. Each of these cycles has depth both for the individual and the business.
• Simplify. Simplicity is better than complexity. So each piece will be simplified continuously.
• Output Metric. Each piece also has a specific measurable outcome making it easy to understand how we are doing.

All of this means that the tasks that are done, etc. will be to optimize the above. The goal is to go quickly through each of the cycles and optimize as fast as possible.

I made the practice of the sevaka unnecessarily complex. A fault of my own ignorance and misunderstanding and lack of depth of knowledge. To simplify I am going back to the eight limbs of Patanjali as the core practice. When I started a year ago I wanted to incorporate the four yogas into a single practice but now realize that the eight limbs already combine the four. Maharishi Patanjali already figured it out, I being some guy don't need to replace this system with my own when I haven't even fully figured out His.

So I am simplifying the sevaka path to just be the practice of the astanga while incorporating the Vedanta philosophy. This simplifies the entire sevaka path to just be the Patanjali path which makes it much much easier to communicate as well as knowing what aspects of the path I need to improve.

• All yoga is now under sevaka.

The niti are 4 principles that seem to be a part of not only business but also religious doctrine. Every religion says to serve others. What they don’t give is the blueprint for how to serve which I believe the world of business actually gives us which is a process of standardization, removal of wasted acts, and continuous improvement. These four principles are there whether we are developing ourselves or the world.

Yoga can mean Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga or Jnana Yoga. There are different paths. A synthesis of the four is a balanced path. I think these four paths are described by a deep understanding of the Hanuman Chalisa, Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. These three texts give a strong basis internally. Further taking the acts of what these say is lifetimes of work.

Third is that there needs to be a baseline knowledge between every team member. When two people are talking they need to know what each person is talking about. A core language needs to be developed between members so that everyone is speaking and thinking in a similar way. This is the process of the training a sevaka.

Fourth is the individual business units that are run. These units are small, focused on a singular problem, and execute based on a standardized methodology. My goal is to make my work better society by promoting and reforming Santana Dharma. We must do the same process of niti into society removing waste like caste and creed and continuously improving society with by strengthening dharma.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” - Peter Drucker

I have failed as a businessman because I have focused on strategy instead of culture. To win is not to get a bunch of mercenaries and tell them what to work on. It is to create a common identity, a common epistemology. The common culture defined through epistemology leads to the creation of strategies and the eventual execution. The strategy continues long past the individual who created the system.

In business then the goal is not to just work on something but to have an epistemology on how to understand the world and how to then execute upon it.

A sevaka is the base unit of that epistemology. All sevakas needs to have a common culture a common way of understanding the world and a common purpose that leads to the desired outcome. This supersedes any individuality that a person may have. It requires a common culture and understanding and thinking about knowledge.

| By performing their prescribed duties, King Janak and others attained | perfection. You should also perform your duties to set an example for the good | of the world. Whatever actions great persons perform, common people follow. | Whatever standards they set, all the world pursues. -Bhagavad Gita 3.20-3.21

I am merging JnanaPress into abhiyerra under sevaka. As a part of the process of continuously improving myself having my sadhana be separate from myself as an example I set to others is not useful. If I am going to be leading businesses I need to myself become an example of what I am leading. I don’t expect what I am doing to be independent. I intend to be the first sevaka where what I propose I follow.

I can’t always meditate or sit for prayer. Further, my study is all over the place and not consistent so I am trying to simplify my Routine. Instead of having three types of Meditation I will just have one. This will just be a meditation for 20 minutes and study of the shastras for 10. So a 30 minute block of study. This simplifies the practice and I have the exact same type of meditation every time so that I can get into a groove.

Having three different types of meditations is not fruitful and is a bit distracting. By having a single type I can get into the same type of meditation every time. Secondly, having the study after the meditation I can focus after clearing my mind instead of distracting it. I am performing a Raja Yoga which is “yogas citta vritti nirodah” so distracting the mind by focusing on a verse first seems to be counterintuitive. So my focus is to read the texts after.

Lastly, I may not always be able to meet the meditation time. So if I cannot meet it I will focus on working on studying the shastras or study some spiritual text.

There is something to be said about being a Hindu living in the West. India still is a hierarchical society, while it is changing it is moving quite slowly. Being in America that didn’t exist. It is a flat society with upward mobility, and while I do think that the American Empire is in decline, I do not think America itself is.

America has a lot of attributes that I think can be balanced by the ideas of Hinduism. America is a hyperindividual society, India is still a society built on family bonds. There is a constraint on what one can do in India or what the family wants, America is ideologically built on individualism and pursuing one’s own goals. I don’t think either one is right, and the balance of both is where things lay.

You need individualism to take the risk of starting a business or doing something entrepreneurial and different within the workspace, you need a moral bond that ties you to the family with the goal of uplifting the entire family up. Both are needed. I think we are weirdly returning to that equilibrium anyways with both societies chasing after the values of the other.

I do think America is going to become more conservative and religious over time. I do think India is going to become more individualist over time. But the goal is an equilibrium.

Modernity is not wrong, it is wrong when it is unconstrained like it has been in the West. Modernity has given immense progress, but has led people to unhappy within that progress. What we in America need is a moral footing.

I made my Sadhana too complex to the point where I burnt out. Trying so aggressively to incorporate all the practices and study all the texts of Sivananda, Chinamaya, Dayananda, Vivekananda and Ramakrishna has led to be feeling like I am not doing enough and putting spiritual pressure. The goal is to free oneself not feel like you are adding another weight.

The number of scriptures and commentaries are endless. Each of the yogas has distinct practices that are unique to each path. I realize while we need to do all the paths there needs to be one which is the primary. But I was trying to practice Raja Yoga while making Jnana the actual practice. This dichotomy of practicing the wrong thing for what I wanted to focus on has been detrimental since Jnana is philosophical in nature while Raja should be about stilling the mind.

So I am simplifying my practice with only a couple of texts being my primary focus and everything else being secondary. These texts are:

• Karma: Ramakrishna / Sri Sarada Devi / Vivekananda Complete Works
• Bhakti: Hanuman Chalisa
• Raja: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
• Jnana: Bhagavad Gita

Yes, I know core Vedanta is textual study of Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Brahma Sutras the ultimate realization of Advaita but I don’t think it is the primary path for me. I am more action oriented and experimental in nature and Raja is the path that fulfills this goal not trying to decipher philosophical texts. It is for this reason I am focusing largely on practical texts as those to read. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are practical in their explanations. Yoga Sutras are specific in their recommendations. The Bhagavad Gita ties the yogas into a comprehensive whole.

I will be using supplementary texts to fill in the gaps of the primary texts. They are there to help realize the Raja Yoga goal of “yogas citta vritti nirodahah.” So my goal is to read things that assist in attaining the goal. These can be either spiritual or not.

I have synthesized the Four Yogas into the Eight Limbs of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Raja Yoga serves as the overarching framework with Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, Hatha, and Japa Yoga incorporated. This creates a practice that incorporates the yogas.

There are many, many different yogas and to incorporate them all is difficult. The difficulty lies in that each system has its own sadhana. Having each yoga as a separate path that is followed is like jumping around from one practice to another without any real structure and depth.

So I have incorporated nearly all of the Yogas into the Eight Limbs of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras grouped as follows:

• Karma Yoga into Yama
• Bhakti and Jnana Yoga into Niyama
• Hatha Yoga into Asana and Pranayama
• Japa Yoga into Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi

What does this mean in practice? It means that understanding Patanjali's Yoga Sutras deeply is the key part of my sadhana as all of the other yogas are incorporated into it.

Secondly, it incorporates all parts of life: work, devotion, knowledge, health, and meditation. I did not think Hatha Yoga would play such a significant role but here we are.

In another way it simplifies the practice quite a bit. There is a set study and practice for each limb.

यावानर्थ उदपाने सर्वत: सम्प्लुतोदके | तावान्सर्वेषु वेदेषु ब्राह्मणस्य विजानत: || 46||

To an enlightened person who has known the Self, all the Vedas are of as much use as is a reservoir of water in a place where there is a flood.

• Bhagavad Gita 2.46

I am rolling back on my Vedanta practice and focusing on Yoga practice for the time being. Advaita Vedanta is subtle and I don’t have the mental stillness to understand those subtleties. So I am rolling back my focus to be completely around Yoga and disciplining myself around Patanjali's 8 Limbs first. While the Vedanta philosophy is what I ultimately aspire for I need to purify the body before ultimately focusing on the Vedantic philosophy.

This is in part a larger problem I am facing. The goal of Sadhana is liberation. But it seems now I am addicted to the reading of texts instead of the practice. The practice is what is important, the texts are ways to improve the practice. Over time as the mind achieves stillness that is when Vedanta and the pure essence of reality can be learned.

As part of this focus on Yoga practice I am fine tuning my Sadhana framework by focusing on a few key key teachers. I am working my way through their teachings and incorporating them into my practice. But at some point I will run out of the teachings to read and will have to focus on the practice itself.

I think that is the point.