Right Livelihood

Except the criminal enterprises prohibited by law, all professions are deemed as right ways of earning a livelihood. 

But on closer inspection, an entirely unpalatable truth emerges. Many professions appear as amoral at best, if not quite dishonest. A noted lawyer has stated of a case that an equally good case can be made out for either side. What about Justice & Truth in this case?

Advertising & Salesmanship are other professions where mendacity is an essential asset. It is doubtful if one can make a good livelihood in these careers if one scrupulously speaks the truth. Horse dealing in earlier times & used car dealing in the present time can hardly be remunerative if the dealer is to be true to his word.

Stock brokering has lost its lustre because of big bull operatives like Harshad Mehta & Ketan Parekh. Even the giants of investment banking have come under the cloud of unethical practices.

Prior to the entry of Corporates into the medical care system, one would visit doctors hoping for effective & economic cures, where the patient's health would be the top priority. Now, with the Corporate Chain of Super Speciality Hospitals, the ARPOB (Average Revenue Per Occupied Bed) & BOR (Bed Occupancy Rate) have taken over as the priority concerns, to enable the health care units to stay economically viable.

Other establishments feeding the concerns about the body are beauty parlours & gyms. One wonders whether people were not attractive & fit before the advent of these. A misuse of a gym, followed by the needless death of a film star, has done nothing to lessen this craze. Instances are also cited of damage to health because of questionable treatments in beauty parlours.

Last, but not least, is the ever-magnetic field of politics. A prominent politician has asserted that it is impossible to survive without factoring in institutional corruption.

Can these ways be considered as earning a right livelihood?

Use of CPM for Achieving Life Goals

Many bemoan the lack of time for activities in which they are interested. Critical Path Method, used in Project Management, can be used to address this issue.

The way is this. The (optional?) activities one likes can be sandwiched between essential activities in CPM. For example, an exercise activity (like walking to fetch groceries) can precede an essential activity like preparing or eating a meal. So that if one doesn't walk, one doesn't eat!

A very busy surgeon would play a vigorous game of squash after duty, before going home. So if he doesn't play, he can't go home!

If a person is fond of practising music, he/she should arrange their schedule, so that they can't leave for work without their morning riyaz. There is an apocryphal story of the legendary teacher Ustad Allauddin Khan denying food to his disciples unless they practiced enough!

Similarly with reading/writing. The ubiquitous Sudha Murthy had a creative urge to write, but no free time in her hectic day. So she decided just to get up an hour earlier so that she wrote before her day began. Similarly an avid reader can pledge to go to bed only after reading at least 100 pages!

The trick is to internalise activities of interest into one's daily inescapable routine so that one cannot pass a day without doing them.

Of course, it cannot be emphasized enough that this internalising interest into routine is possible only if one has EXCEPTIONAL FOCUS & MENTAL DISCIPLINE.

Qualifications & Education are NOT synonymous

"Educational Qualifications" is a phrase which is very common. But the two words may even be part of an Oxymoron. Qualifications are acquired, not for knowledge's sake, but to acquire a job, wealth & status. Education, however is a life-long process of absorbing knowledge & culture. A qualified person will pull down his/her shutters after attaining a position, showing no further interest in anything. An educated person, typically keeps an open growing mind, especially in the conscientious subjects of politics & religion, instead of becoming dogmatic.

An example will suffice. A qualified man who has studied Newton to get a degree & position, may totally shut his mind & even persecute Einstein's followers because Newton said light travels in a straight line & Einstein proved they can also bend!

God forbid when these people with just their qualifications also acquire power over their hapless fellow beings, behaving like the tyrants of old! That is quite likely to happen as they do not have the humaneness that true education & culture can bring.

Professions where abuse is normalised

There are at least three legitimate professions where one may not succeed if one does not abuse personally one's opponent.

The first is politics. Instead of engaging in constructive activities, the opposition at any given time is always indulging in hurling personal abuses at their opponents, instead of criticising their policies.

The second is law. Instead of getting at the truth & serving justice, the lawyers' main task is character assassination of the opposition witnesses. In fact, so brutal may be the cross-examination that witnesses faint. This legal activity may be worse than the (illegal) third degree imposed by the police.

The third is sport, especially the most popular one, cricket. Instead of fostering "The Sporting Spirit", it has given many cases of life long hatred. (Ex. Botham-Chapell). It is very sad that the once "gentleman's game" has normalised abuse, euphemistically called "sledging."

Orchestral Music Depicting Nature

Beethoven "Pastoral Symphony" in F major, Op.68.

1.Joyous sensations roused by arrival in the country. Allegro ma non troppo.

2.Scene by the brook. Andante molto mosso.

3.Merry gathering of peasants. Allegro.

4.Thunderstorm. Allegro

5.The shepherds' singing glad and grateful feelings after the storm. Allegretto.

Strauss "An Alpine Symphony" Op.64.

1.Night

2.Sunrise

3.The Ascent

4.Entering the forest

5.Wandering by the brook

6.By the waterfall

7.Apparition

8.Flowery meadows

9.In the mountain pasture

10.On the wrong track through thickets & undergrowth

11.On the glacier

12.Precarious moments

13.On the summit

14.Vision

15.Rising mists

16.The sun gradually dims

17.Elegy

18.Calm before the storm

19.Thunderstorm. Descent

20.Sunset

21.Epilogue

22.Night

Ralph Vaughn Williams "Sinfonia Antartica"

Though this composer's Third Symphony was called "Pastoral", it was based on his first world war experiences in France & could be called his "War Requiem". It was unique in that all four movements were slow.

However, his seventh, called "Sinfonia Antartica" depicted nature at the South Pole. It had female chorus, solo soprano, piano & organ.

1. Prelude Andante Maestoso. Prefaced by Shelley's Prometheus Unbound.

2.⁠ ⁠Scherzo Moderato. Psalm 104, dealing with deep sea & whales.

3.⁠ ⁠Landscape Lento S.T.Coleridge hymns.

4.⁠ ⁠Intermezzo Andante Sostenuto Quote from John Donne.

5.⁠ ⁠Epilogue Alla Marcia Moderato Prefaced by tragic final entry from Cap.Scott's diary.

Imelda Lambertini, the Italian "Koluru Kodagusu"

Imelda, on her fifth birthday, requested to receive the Eucharist, which, however was given to only persons over 14. At 9, she went to live with the nuns. Two years later, she was praying in church, when the sacristan noticed a light above her head. He fetched the priest, who seeing it, immediately gave her the Eucharist. She continued kneeling & praying. After sometime, a nun came to fetch her & found her smiling but immobile. On touching her, she collapsed, dead at 11.

In the Veerashiva tradition of Karnataka, there is legend of Koluru Kodagusu, a young girl. Her parents did ritual worship of Shiva (in the form of a linga). Once they deputed Kodagusu to take the ritual offering. She took it & assumed Shiva would consume it. When He didn't, she broke down & cried piteously. Shiva, moved, came down in human form & consumed it. When she reported it, her parents did not believe her & accused her of having eaten it herself. Disconsolate, she ran back to the temple, followed by her parents. They saw her body enter the linga. Frantic, they clutched her hair but too late. Legend has it that even now a few strands of hair are sticking to the linga.

The Other Meaning of Darwin

Charles Darwin's pathbreaking "The Origin of Species" was followed by "The Descent of Man." Here Darwin meant genealogical descent of humans from earlier animal species. It may be mentioned here in passing that this idea was anticipated in the Hindu Dashavatara theory. Bronowski produced a TV series & a book called "The Ascent of Man" where he implied the cultural ascent or rising from earlier animal species.

The only difference between humans & the rest of creation is curiosity about the external world & who may have created it. (God?). Sadly these differences seem to be vanishing, pulling down humans towards non human creation. The only human interest seems to be strictly confined to acquiring material wealth & status,  hitting out all other interests out of the park. We seem to be building a human (?) society without God (apart from temple runs to get wealth & status) & without any interest in culture.

The only acceptable human goals especially in India seem to be clearing competitive exams (and on succeeding, become like the infamous dog-walking couple) or build a successful start-up, and become a slave driving corporate honcho, exploiting vulnerable fellow creatures. 

Darwin might be turning in his grave to see the (social & cultural) descent of man into the abyss of a (biblical) "Golden Calf" worshipping society of unapologetic philistines.