Birth-days are for reflecting whether one's birth has been fruitful - to self and society

Thank you for the birthday greetings.



Birth-days are for reflecting whether one's birth has been fruitful - to self and society.




Warm regards


Srinivas

srinivas@illumine.info

Happy Birthday, Mr V Srinivas!

Happy Birthday, Mr V Srinivas,

CEO and Lead Researcher, Illumine Knowledge Resources, Mumbai

and our guiding light in the journey of citizenship.

We adore you!

- CitizenSBI Blog

Enlightened Citizenship

A Treasure-Trove

A Must Visit Website

Illumine has launched a website on Enlightened Citizenship. This is an attempt to invite people into the shared space of enlightened citizenship.

The spiritual and philosophical pillars of enlightened citizenship were laid down by Swami Ranganathananada. The website provides his extensive biography and a rich glimpse into his works.

Enlightened Citizenship is a treasure-trove of writings and talks of Mr V Srinivas - the founder CEO and lead researcher of Illumine - who has been deeply engaged in actualizing Swami Ranganathananda's "Science of Human Possibilities" in the form of constructs, knowledge tools, and institutional models. He believes that this translation will enable different segments of society to realize the promise of this new science in their day-to-day life.

The website is a compendium of a series of Foundation Notes bringing out the nuances of the enlightened citizen ideal.

Enlightened Citizenship is one of the most potent weapons we have to fight corruption and apathy in our public services. Accordingly, the website contains valuable interpretive presentations of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Ranganathananda and Mr Srinivas on enlightened citizenship and public administration.

It has also a whole section dedicated to enlightened citizenship and education as one of the critical challenges facing us is embedment of Citizenship Thinking in tomorrow's India (our students and children). 

The website also provides a window to Project Citizen SBI - a gigantic transformative exercise of India's largest Bank.

 The site is anchored by Mr V Srinivas and managed by Illumine Lab Communications - a division of Illumine Knowledge Resources. It may be reached at http://www.enlightenedcitizenship.org/

The CitizenSBI Blog congratulates Team Illumine for putting up this wonderful site of immense value in public domain and strongly recommends it to all our readers.

CoolBisht / Indore

Building one's life in the Ideal of Fulfillment

By V. Srinivas

How does a person, caught up in the warp and weft of daily struggle, of the pressure of income, family relationships, inter-personal conflicts, and the pressures from one's own desires, fears, aspirations, and responses, engage with himself and the world, such that he or she can mould himself into a person living, breathing, and realizing the Ideal of Fulfillment?

To answer this question, one must first examine what the Ideal of Fulfillment means to such a person. One can answer this question simplistically and say "O, the Ideal of Fulfillment is so vast, so immense that each one's interpretation is unique and personal to that human being"

While this is true, it is also true that the Ideal of Fulfillment is also a General Model for living in the world. It is this "General Model" that we seek to perceive.

This Ideal is first and foremost a philosophy of total human fulfillment. Total human fulfillment means "complete and total manifestation of all the positive inherent in the human being".

A person living the Ideal of Fulfillment is living at the peak of his or her potential as a human being.

The Ideal of Fulfillment is secondly, a new mode of science – the science of developing human beings along the pathways of their intrinsic capacities rather than along the pathways of extrinsic (acquired) skills. Put another way, this is the science of developing "inside-out" action in humans and human systems in the context of "outside-in" forces.

This is a new mode of science because it demands that we engage with "relational knowledge" more than with "objective" knowledge. Objective knowledge represents the world outside us. "Subjective" knowledge represents the world within us. Relational knowledge focuses on the interactions between the world within us and the world outside us. Motivation, Inspiration, Commitment, Loyalty, Team-spirit, these are in the realm of "relational knowledge". Such relational knowledge being the heart of all human behavior at an interpersonal and collective level.

The Ideal of Fulfillment is also a "technology" – a framework of models and applications that allow us to solve certain classes of challenges more effectively than in the past.

This "technology" underlying the Ideal of Fulfillment we call "Enablement".

Enablement represents the capacity to serve other human beings in the highest possible manner such that he who serves is not just gratified by the outcomes but is also simultaneously invoked and put on the path of personal excellence.

Put another way, enablement is the technology of "personally transforming work" – work that consciously and purposively shapes the individuals concerned besides shaping the objects and events around in similar fashion.

This three-fold perspective of the Ideal of Fulfillment remains at the backdrop when we take up the question of moulding one's life in that Ideal.

To mould oneself in the Ideal of Fulfillment would mean putting into place two key building blocks – which Swami Vivekananda succinctly summarised as "Tyaga & Seva" – renunciation and service.

What do renunciation and service mean in the context of one's living in the world? Renunciation and Service would, in their highest sense in the world mean being able to combine a deep seriousness of intent in every moment of life with an equally deep commitment to one's own and every other person's evolutionary freedom in the same context.

Deep seriousness of intent – in its most palpable and living sense – manifests as complete identification with the subject, object, or task at hand – a complete burring of the boundaries between the observer and the observed.

(see Box 1 for 'the practice of utmost seriousness in every action').

Commitment to evolutionary freedom – in oneself and others – means the primary recognition that the purpose of all work, all results, all struggle is human evolution – and that all "context" in work is valid insofar as it supports that evolution. In short, the complete identification with subject born of deep seriousness of intent is counter-balanced by the complete willingness to let go of the same subject – if it does not support or consciously comes in the way of evolutionary freedom.

(see Box 2 for ‘the recognition of evolutionary freedom in every individual').

Seen together – tyaga-seva - renunciation-service – seriousness of intent and commitment to evolutionary freedom – represent the building blocks of one's journey to the Ideal of Fulfillment.

A life of utmost seriousness combined with complete evolutionary freedom would lead to both great external achievement and deep personal peace. It would lead to intense engagements wrapped around a sharply defined "structural frame of human respect and mutual concern".

Such a life would be "successful" – in both societal and personal terms – not in any abstract sense of awards or recognition, but in terms of an everyday experiencing of growing meaning and strengthening purpose.

Box 1: The practice of utmost seriousness in every action.


What is seriousness? To be able to apply oneself wholly and completely – without the distortions of personal motive – onto the task or subject or person at hand – would be called seriousness.

To be serious about a task means to be serious about its purpose, to be serious about defining its "value" clearly and without obfuscation, to be able to establish the right resources – tools, capacities and information – needed to realized the value expected. And furthermore to be serious about carrying out all the necessary changes in oneself and the environment – so that the resources fructify into a realized value in the context of the purpose.



Box 2: The recognition of evolutionary freedom in every individual

To be able to recognize that man is at the center of all work is easier said than lived. Ever so often we "shift" from the people purpose to the apparent results born in a situation. Indeed it may be argued that collectives of individuals exist such that a "larger purpose" be served – but the counter argument is that there is no higher purpose than the people involved – those who work and those who benefit from the work – directly or indirectly.

When we say that people are the purpose of work – we mean people in the sense of being evolutionary entities – human beings who are marching through time – sometimes winning – sometimes losing – but always evolving.

This recognition means that we may not always be "nice" or "comfortable" to human beings in our choices at work – but it means that we always ensure that each person involved has the space and wherewithal to refine that experience into an evolutionary possibility for oneself.


V. Srinivas has spent more than 20 years working on the question of knowledge and how it enables human societies in ways that other resources do not. He currently leads the team at "Illumine Knowledge Resources", a design lab and consulting firm specializing in "architecting design collectives' in various institutional and community settings. He is based in Mumbai, India and can be reached at srinivas@illumine.info 

courtesy: illumine.info

Copyright 2006, Illumine

Compensation is a function of the mind

By V Srinivas

Why should I work hard?

Why should I struggle?

Why should I put myself into any difficulty for the sake of any other person?

These questions, and our answers to them, are the basis for our entire approach (motivation level) to work.

Prajnasya murkhasya ca karye-yoge

Samatvam-abhyeti tanur na buddhih

“When any work is done by an enlightened man or by and unenlightened man, there is similarity with respect to the body (only) but not with respect to buddhi (reason and will)”

A sick child is nursed by the mother. Another sick child is nursed by a maid. The two actions are similar, but the mind behind those two actions are dissimilar.

The quality of an action is determined by the quality of the mind behind the action.

If the mind is inattentive, the the job is not done well. On the other hand, if the mind is attentive then the job is done well. If the mind seeks only the end result – i.e., marks, then a student’s quality of will be restricted to doing well in the exam. On the other hand if the mind seeks knowledge, with a short term goal of doing well in the exam then the student’s quality of study will accordingly be such that he of she has mastered the subject at hand.

Clearly, what the mind seeks determines the energy and efforts that goes beyond any action.

“What the mind seeks” can be put in management language as “compensation” or “pay off”.

What compensation we seek determines how we will work – the quality of our involvement, the depth of our struggle, our willingness to go beyond the call of duty, our capacity to act with integrity and boldness, our ability to set aside our ego and personal pride in favor of the purpose at hand.

In short, the “compensation” we seek determines the “depth of our involvement and commitment” to the work at hand.

courtesy: IBECOME THINK

The Evolutionary Perspective of Man

By V. Srinivas

The Evolutionary Perspective refers to man’s capacity to grow, respond, change, transform within the context of life.

It defines man as having two dimensions – one, the biological dimension, and a second, the trans-biological dimension

The biological dimension sees evolution as adaptability to circumstances. (The biological imperative).

The trans-biological dimension sees evolution as the capacity to become what we choose to become (The aspirational imperative)

An organization’s leader can, through precept and practice, raise the consciousness of a collective in such a way that it releases itself from a reactive “we need to adapt to changing circumstances” view of life and grows into a free intentioned “we choose to create a new future for ourselves and society” view of life.

Such a movement may be viewed as a release from ‘biological perspective’ of organizational life (survival of the fittest) to a ‘wisdom perspective’ of organizational life (enabling each one of us to manifest the infinite possibilities within oneself)

Extract from Paper: “Wisdom Perspectives - Perspectives, Principles, Practices; December 2009; V. Srinivas)

'Becoming' is discovering one's true calling

Discovering one’s true calling

One’s true calling lies in the journey
to realization of one’s ideal.

One’s ideal represents the
summation of one’s passions,
one’s aspirations, competencies,
and one’s engagement with
life as it presents itself.

The realization of one’s ideal
results in a transmutation
of all of one’s energies into
a single frame of Living,
not in the ‘now’, not in the
past, present or future, but
living in one’s infinite possibility.

- written by V. Srinivas on 20th January 2010

Courtesy: Living Knowledge

Swami Vivekananda: Inner Fruits

One of the finest examples of the outcome for a person with inner fruits is Swami Vivekananda.
Mr V Srinivas, CEO and Lead Reseacher, Illumine Knowledge Resources, Mumbai narrated this wonderful story about him to a group of Master Facilitators at LHO, Mumbai on the 14th of November 2009.

When Swami Vivekanada went to America . . .
(Over to Mr Srinivas. Please watch the A/V)

V Srinivas

This is a humble tribute to Shri V Srinivas, CEO and Lead Researcher, Illumine Knowledge Resources and his dedicated team members.

I have never witnessed such deep commitment to any ideal in any individual in my entire life time. He is the person whom I can openly adore, admire and follow. To me he is more than any yogi or saint. It's God's grace that we have him with us. I feel proud and privileged to be associated with such a genuine and meaningful cause - Project Citizen-SBI.

It is really difficult to express my gratitude to him in words. I wish him all the very best in all his endeavours!