Tag Archives: Capitalism

Middle Path “Bakaiti”!

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Most of us might have had the chance to come across the concept of “middle path” laid down in Buddhism as maintaining a balanced life, controlling our tendencies to tilt towards any kind of extremes.

From a capitalist point of view, it’s nothing but an opportunity lost, to accumulate loads of wealth and in turn become successful.

From a traditional Oriental point of view, though, the middle path offers one to utilise the opportunity one is bestowed with, sheerly because one is born a human.

If you are wondering, what that opportunity might be, it is getting answers to the questions that the mankind and possibly you, might be having since the time you began to have a cognisance of your existence in this world.

What this might be visualised as, is to picture a man standing on a T-junction, where in,

Walking on one path means doing the usual in moderation, without giving a thought as to where it’s heading,

Second one being adopting sanyas, or giving up the worldly desires and going in search of truth,

And the third, which is not as dramatic as the above two; the drama in first being the ignorance or the willingness to ignore the possibility;

The drama in second being the dissociation with what we consider life;

3rd one, is to lead a 2-sub-path life at the same time;

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One, where you are conscious about the accumulations at the same time, keeping a check on the tendency to accumulate;

Second, where you work towards realising the truth and figuring out the fundamental answers of life.

What this 3rd, 2-sub-path solution, does for you is,

To give you that one-shot at figuring out the truth, at the same time making sure that your survival is well taken care of, assuming that the benchmark for survival is much lower than, let’s say, owning and moving around in a Helicopter 😉

The only question is whether mankind in general and you in particular, is prepared to and would want to walk the path.

Source for the Image: https://unsplash.com/search/photos/crossroad

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Scaling the Irony!

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In the past decade or so, I have seen the start up ecosystem mature big time. The reasons might be different, ranging from jumping on the band wagon to cash in at the right time to really being concerned about something that one might find amiss in the society that they live in, and few for the sheer want of making it big some day.

What has facilitated the above is a transition from a capitalist to a market economy, where instead of few people holding all resources, the money is there to be got from the market if they consider you worthy enough of the same, which more often than not, comes down to the kind of network one has and the profiles of the founders.

Among this buzz, what has remained a constant theme to look for is the numbers, be it the investors who talk nothing but numbers to founders who try to achieve the same as they would want to raise money, which fortunately or unfortunately becomes the goal of many startups.

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In this rush for numbers, at times, the very purpose of establishing a business takes a beating. Any business or organization, both from a fundamental ethical point of view as well as practical sustainable point of view, is supposed to cater to the well being of it’s clientele.

For those who are trying to make bucks and move out in the short term, the above might not be so relevant, but for those who have put their skin in the game, it might make great sense to focus on the well being of their customers, if they want to be in it for a long term and see their venture evolve into what the world today refers to as unicorns. 

So far so good, but as a society, if you notice, all the so called unicorns and other multinationals, the foundations on which they prosper, tend to be human misery, what most seem to encourage is a consumerist mindset, which, in a way, goes against the very fundamentals of well being.

Many would argue that the circumstances are such and that they are only cashing in on the reality, and scaling on the basis of the irony that projects well being but goes against the very nature of the same.

Fair enough as it might sound, just wonder, whether the very parameters of success can be bent to cater to the real well being of the ecosystem that we live in and the kind we belong to.

Source for the Image: http://digestafrica.com/ugandan-startups-know-scaling/