Universal Consciousness

Here are some beautiful writings I read a couple of days ago on Universal Consciousness or the Universal Truth.

Love that one who
when you shall cease to be
will not Himself cease to be
That you may become one
who will never cease to be
- By the Persian poet, Abu Said Ibn Abi al-Khair.

I also liked what the same poet has to say about seeking the Essence of understanding...

If you keep seeking the jewel of understanding,
then you are a mine of understanding in the making.
If you live to reach the Essence one day,
then your life itself is an expression of the Essence.
Know that in the final analysis
you are that which you search for.

The Upanishad too talks beautifully of Madhu-Vidya, or the knowledge of the interconnectedness of things...

Madhu-Vidyā is an insight into the nature of things, which reveals that there are no such things as subjects or objects. The fact of experience itself is a repudiation of the phenomenal notion that subjects are cut off from objects, as if the one has no connection with the other. If there has been a gulf of difference, unbridgeable, between the experiencing consciousness and the object outside, there would be no such thing as experience at all. The great revelation of the sage Dadhyaṅṅ Ātharvaṇa is that the Adhyātma (everything that is inside) and the Adhibhūta (everything that is outside in the world) are linked together by the Adhidaiva (everything that is transcendent), and a transcendent Divine Presence connects the phenomenal subject and the phenomenal object, through an invisible force, so that we have a universe of interrelated particulars, one entering the other, one merging into the other, one coalescing with the other like the waves in the ocean, and not the universe we see with our eyes, as a house divided against itself.

As all the spokes
are held together in the hub of a wheel
Just so in this soul
all things, all Gods,
all worlds, all breathing things
all selves
are held together
- From the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Principles for Product Marketing

Inspired by these Principles to Design by, I thought I will put down my Principles for Product Marketing, an area I've been working on and studying for some years. It goes without saying that these are entirely my personal views.

Marketing Serves Target Customers.
It is important to be clear about Who are your target customers, What do they need, How does your product add value to them and How are you different from anyone else. Understand also if your market is a one-size-fits-all market (is there any such thing), or how you can segment your market or if you are catering to the “long tail” of customers. Marketing is about aiming your product and your message for your targeted customers. The channel / mode for putting the message across will flow from that - be innovative in the usage of channels.

Marketing is about Simplifying.
There is a danger for functionally / technologically ‘rich’ products to fall into the “Products that do too much” trap. This means that instead of attracting customers we could actually end up putting off customers by creating a perception of our products as either “too complex for our needs” or too “ahead of our time”. It does not help to boast about your product capabilities if these are features that are not important to your customers. The lesser the better works best for your marketing message.

Great Marketing reflects Great Personality.
Marketing is not restricted to the looks of the product or the advertising or the PR. The creation and maintenance of a brand through marketing runs deep and wide. It covers the complete experience that users or customers have through different interactions with the organization, its people, its products and its service. Also, just like with individuals with great personality, core values go a long way in establishing the brand personality and in winning customer stickiness. Have you figured out the core values for your product / organization?

Marketing Changes with the Times.
Does this sound contradictory to the above principle, you may ask…for instance, how can core values change? The answer lies in the fact that just as the individual grows best with a “growth mind-set” rather than a “fixed mind-set”, the essence of product marketing is to ensure that the products you are offering are in tune with the market and competitive landscape. Ask yourself if it is time to go back to the first principle.

Marketing cannot be done for Vapour.
This can always be a tough one for marketers. I refer here to marketing of initiatives (product / organization-wide) that have no basis at all other than as a vague idea in someone’s fertile imagination. The best way is to dig deeper to find out as much information about the initiative – why is this being rolled out (is it just a fad), who will this benefit, what are the timelines for roll-out, for upgrade-like initiatives – what is the plan to ease customers into the new. Take up the marketing for something only if and when you are convinced about it yourself.

Age no bar

Just got back from a wonderful Goan holiday with the family. With Appa (dad) there too it has been a pleasure as always to see him and the kids get along so fabulously. Seeing their mutual joy, its almost as if there is no age difference between them. And yet they are learning from each other all the while.

Walking, running or swimming through the waves can be one of the most exhilarating experiences. I realize that the oceans and the waves continue to exude the same feelings of amazement and wonder within me. Its interesting to observe that there is a pattern to a lot that is happening with the ocean (I may write about this some other time).

The holiday was immediately followed by memories of a momentous occasion - the day when the world at large, and my parents and near and dear ones in particular, welcomed the arrival of a great person. For such a momentous occasion, it seems like the day was spent in a relatively ordinary way with none of the customary celebrations that rock the neighbourhood. All the more reason to get into self-introspection mode.

It is good to be 35. 35, rather the 30s in general, feel good. And fun. And wholesome. It feels more mid-life than any other age (when Appa and I were talking yesterday, we realised I am almost half his age. Now his is a good age to have lived, especially considering he has atleast twice almost not made it till here) .

At 35, there is this much that''s been done and experienced, and there is that much that is yet to be explored. To be enjoyed. To be lived.

I don't know and wouldn't care to know what my lifespan is going to be. I just know that there is this one life I have. And I want to live it to the fullest that I can. I sure hope I'm not the one stopping myself from doing so.

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life"

It was only recently that I found out that it was Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, who came up with this quote. Its amazing that this thought from the 500's BC is still, if not all the more, valid in today's times - when questions of work satisfaction, a fulfilled work life have been faced not just by me, but I find from my interactions that a lot of people are contemplating this and are at different stages of career-altering decisions because of this. (I'm still trying to imagine the long, pointy-moustached Confucius thinking of this quote in ancient China, but I will park these thoughts for another time)

Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on the outlook), leaders of companies have a tougher time motivating and retaining the set of people for whom work satisfaction matters. There is a belief as stated in this article that the key is for leaders to find out from these people - Deep down, when they’re honest with themselves – what do they really want to do? Once they determine that and communicate it, you can see if it is aligned with the company’s needs.

There is alignment of individual goals to company goals and everyone lives happily ever after. Sounds like a fairy tale? It does to me. What I am trying to understand is:
- Can this actually work in larger companies facing all the standard issues around business growth, customer focus, employee retention. How do the goals of 100s and 1000s of employees align with those of the company?
- Can there actually be an alignment of everyone's individual goals that add up to the company's goal?
- Who is responsible for ensuring the alignment - is it only the person(s) at the top running the company or does this need to happen at every level in the organization?
- If individual goals are kept at the forefront, will this not create siloes where people are only set on achieving their own goals - and could not really bother themselves with checking how this impacts the company's goals?

What is all the more interesting is to understand what happens when the same set of employees who earlier believed that that their goals matter, find that the person(s) at the top now have changed and the new set of leaders have a completely divergent view. And their view is that the organization and its goals are larger than the individuals and their goals.

Dots and connections

Lonely is the face
That seeks to know more
As it tries to keep pace
with what the world's got in store

The world has its own ways
of showing the road
Aren't reflections on the lonely face
Mere shades of the universal code?

Copyright - Dipali Ekbote

I wrote this poem in response to a beautiful poem someone sent me - the poem is called Corner Seat by Louis MacNeice. After I wrote this poem, I happened to be talking with a few people and the discussions veered toward the concepts of destiny, higher power, universal truth. If I were to explain universal code', I would try this -

All things - inhabitants of the universe, or happenings on the universe - are dots that are connected. These connections are known best by the higher power. Some of us are more aware of the dots, but can't really make out the connections. Some of us can make sense of the connections, in real-time or in hindsight. Some of us can never see the dots, nor the connections.

Wouldn't it be interesting to 'break the universal code' to find the connections between the dots?

In the meanwhile, from my next blog onwards, I plan to write on the topics that I find interesting to understand more of - on how the corporate world functions, on leadership... Ofcourse, I would love to continue sharing poems, maybe my own or those written by others that I find interesting.

The oceans deep

What is it about the ocean
That never ceases to amaze me

Is it the tirelessness of the tides
Or the timelessness of the waters
Or is it just my envy
Of the myriad creatures it rides

Is it the energy of the waves
As they call from its dark depths
Reaching out to the pristine beach
or come crashing below jagged cliffs

Giving each time to the land
a little of themselves
Leaving a little of the ocean
As memories on the sand

Taking each time with the waves
Into their innermost depths
All that the shores are ready to let go
Or are these what the ocean craves?

Absorbing their newness
Befriending some, rejecting some
Mulling over those
it is not quite sure of

Maybe it's about all of these after all
The energy and the tirelessness
The sharing and the timelessness

Visible through the flurry of activity on the shores
Invisible in the deepest secrets held for centuries
Visible in the life it has sprung forth
And in the lives it has swallowed

What is it about the ocean
That never ceases to amaze me
That always beckons
Yet can chillingly threaten


Copyright - Dipali Ekbote

Awakening

The boy had a dream
Of adventures and treasure hunts
A life full of action
Time never enough

The boy grew up
The world around him whizzed past
Everyone's desires aflame
His dreams – they stayed the same

Some called him an idealist
Still to learn the rigours of life
Throw him out
Let him feel the strife

The boy is now a man
Ready to take on the world
Little realizing
That his world is his dream
Not to be awakened from
Not to be awake for

Copyright-Dipali Ekbote

Troughs and peaks

Troughs and peaks
I knew of them, quite well
maybe once in two years
maybe twice in a year

Did they begin after my first baby's birth
or sharpen after my mother's death?
Or were they always there
Along the continuum of childhood days
and adolescence?

The peaks arrived often
but weren't taken seriously
In the confidence of my hard work
Or could it just be that I was Destiny's child

Or was I?

So then why did the troughs come by
stealthily and silently with a predator's footfall
and stay ever longer
Nothin too quick, just lingering

Thoughts of thinking too much
Aware of strong wills and fearlessness
What does dispassionate mean
to the inherently passionate?

Is this a change taking place?
To know the difference -
What do troughs mean to the fearless
And peaks to Destiny's child?

To sense the uncertainties of life
The insecurities of people
The bitterness of betrayal
The silence of neglect

To sense that this is the outside
There is the real thing
Inside of me
Passionate as ever
Alive as ever

Let the troughs hover
and the peaks tempt
The real thing
is to know the calm
Within

- Copyright-Dipali Ekbote