Amarnath Yatra – Unique Example of Religious Interdepen​dence & Confluence

Amarnath Holy Shrine, one of the highly religious & pious pilgrimage points for Hindu Devotees. This is the place where Lord Shiva has narrated Bhagwad Gita or the secrets of Immortality and creation of Universe to Mata Parvati, Lord Shiva’s Wife. Story goes like this Mata Parvati insisted that she may be told secret of being immortal. For long Lord Shiva continued postponing. Finally on persistent demand from Mata Parvati, he made up his mind to tell the immortal secret .He started for lonely place where no living being could listen to it . He chose Amarnath Cave . In preparation to that He left Nandi (The Bull which He used to ride ) at Pahalgam (Bail gaon) .At Chandanwari He released Moon from his hairs (Jataon). At the banks of Lake Sheshnag, He released his snake. At Panjtarni, Lord Shiva left the Five Elements behind (Earth , Water, Air , Fire and Sky) which makes the living being . Subsequently Lord Shiva entered the Holy Amarnath Cave along with Mata Parvati. While narrating the story Lord Shiva takes his Samadhi on the Deer Skin but one egg which was lying beneath the Deer skin remained protected. Rest of the area around his Asan is burnt by Lord Shiva through fire to ensure there is no living being present their in the cave. It is believed to be non living and more over it was protected by Shiva -Parvati Asan (Bed). The pair of pigeons which were born out of this egg became immortal having listened the secret of immortality (Amar Katha) & can still be seen at Amarnath ji.

Amarnath is in the land of Kashmir (in the state of J&K) which is an integral part of India. India is a secular state with maximum inter religious violence and Kashmir is one of the places which has witnessed this more often than any other state since independence. Kashmir is active with all political parties and fundamental groups seeking autonomy and religious independence. There lies Amarnath 75 Kms + 16 Km of trek from Srinagar ( capital of J&K) where every year Lord Shiva abode (Shivling) is formed with Ice and Snow. There are 2 ways to reach Amarnath through Palagham – a trek of 26 Kms or through Baltal a rough hilly steep, slopy terrain of 16 km.

99% of the devotees visiting Amarnath Shrine are Hindus. The journey can be covered in four modes, on foot, on horse, on a Palaki (a steel chair tied in bamboo carried by 4 people on their shoulders) and through helicopter. Helicopter booking is not easily available and has to be followed by minimum of 6 Km of steep trek. Thus most pilgrims use first 3 modes to finish their Yatra to Amarnath. As mentioned in earlier part, that Lord Shiva chose a place where no living being can reach forget a human, one can imagine how arduous the journey to reach Holy cave is. It needs mental strength apart from physical fitness and most important support of Muslim brethren. There Kashmiri Muslim men, act as Pittos to carry luggage and children of pilgrim who prefer walking. Devotees who go on horses, donkeys and Kacchars, get these owners (Ghodawala) walk all the way up and come back down at the speed of the horse. Palakiwalas have the toughest job of walking in 3 feet broad muddy and rocky road along with horses and foot Yatris coordinating with three other colleagues of theirs maintaining the same speed ensuring same walking rhythm carrying 70 Kg to 130 Kg individuals on their shoulders. The path or the road is so narrow that one wrong step and one would meet death instantly. Thus dependence becomes all the more high on the Yatris facilitators.

Due to environmental issues and High Court order, there are no permanent structures near or on the way to Amarnath and thus these Kashmiri muslim people sell all essentials including water, juice, biscuits, tents on rent, bedding and linen on rent etc.
Amarnath Yatra is generally open for a period of 1.5 months to 2 months starting from June end of Mid August. Every year approx 5 lacs pilgrims visit the Holy Cave of Amarnath and each of these 5 lac Yatris in one way or the other take help, support or depend on those Kashmiri Muslim brethren to enable them in completing their Yatra Peacefully and with convenience. These Kashmiris do these jobs for their livelihood with no hang ups of going to Hindu’s Pilgrimage place. Infact most of them have equal or higher regard for the Shiva’s Shrine and listen keenly on the story behind the same.
In all our sacred books we have given importance to Karta (doer) as well as to the medium (enabler), which in this case is our Kashmir brethren without whose help, the Yatra would never have been complete.

Dealmakers - Good and Successful

Why are certain individuals good deal makers. Answer is simple, they communicate their thoughts, more importantly their decisions, and their beliefs to the counter party through their subconscious mind. In olden days, around 300 - 400 years back, when people needed to communicate, they used to pass the message through universal rays. Environment, nature is the fastest means of communication. That is the same reason, how animals sense the danger prevailing in their vicinity and activate their respective protective shield or react to the danger.

History tells us that Chanakya has effectively used this technique to pass codes and lessons to his famous disciple Chandragupt Maurya. Same has been used by Dhronacharya for hi s favourite disciple Arjun. So what is this art? If we put it in simple words, energy flows from a higher level to a lower level like water. Hence, human beings who have more inner strength and higher energy levels emit rays more particularly energy rays directed towards the person with whom he needs to communicate. Those rays are so strong that they hit the target subconsciously and create an opinion as per the desires of sender. In turn, the mind of the receiver gets

aligned with the sender and hence large deals are clicked. A lower version of it is also called telepathy, where message is conveyed without real physical communication. Telepathy generally happens between individuals who are closely emotionally connected.

While for deal making emotional connect is not the most important ingredient. What is extremely important is to observe and listen to the target. This would help the sender in getting a detailed understanding of the communication process and

hitting the target when in a situation when he is most vulnerable with very low energy levels. Individuals who are adamant, rigid and stubborn are easy targets. For these kind of people once the idea/thought/ belief is sent and it gets in the subconscious mind of the individual, the person starts believing that the very same opinion and thought is his and he doesn't part with it. People who are flexible and erratic and have a disruptive thought process, are not the easiest nuts to crack. Even after

transmitting the thoughts, in other times, they change and modify those opinions received initially by them.

Thus deal making is an input and output, it helps in making people realise their inner strength and high inner strengths and energy levels enables deals to materialise.

World of the Ugly, Bad and Good

Current world environment and economic position can be summed in a single word Ugly. One needn’t be genius or Einstein to figure out why? Europe is under severe crisis, emerging markets' growth prospects are getting curtailed, China world's growth engine is slowing down, US unemployment figures are surging again and if you want other reasons, learned economists in and around us would give several more reasons to get depressed.

So this is the Ugly Side of our World in which we are all currently living in, with uncertainty looming large on Job front , financial stability, political environment and social structure.

Has this Ugly side brought some thing Good to us and in our lives or only Bad has emerged? I would argue that ugly scene of the market, had led to emergence of good and bad together.

Collaboration Vs Isolation - Organizations which work in Isolation during these tough times, would really find the environment Bad. But this is the time for collaboration, not only internally with in the departments but collaborating with like minded organizations and individuals who can manage one leg of the transaction and other can be completed by you. Need to connect with others increases as the environment becomes more unpredictable, CHALLENGING and uncertain. Good part is one start opening his / her cards folder. Starts talking and figuring out opportunities which otherwise, one wouldn't have bothered to look at.

Client Centricity Vs Client Indifference - During Ugly times, Client Pull revenue and client pull servicing dries up. Automatic call and autopilot business goes away. Thus individuals who have been thriving on farming and nurturing face the heat and starts feeling the pinch of bad times. What good happens during these times is that Client centricity increases. Individuals and Organisations focus more on client needs, spends more time to ensure client satisfaction and delight, in the bargain clients’ and organizations who adapt this methodology gets larger share of the shrinking pie. Hunting during these times along with farming and nurturing brings good times, and profitability to organisations.

Knowledge sharing with less / No external support - Ugly times leads to reduction in support and knowledge staff as organisations start focusing more on producers then on facilitators. Bad happens when organisation doesn’t understand the internal knowledge base with constant spends on external resources and consulting services. Good happens to an organisation when business development unit brings in knowledge and know how to source and execute in a compliant fashion and that knowledge of facilitation and execution together is gained in the process leading to individual and organisational growth.

Bickering and back biting - Humans when faced with challenging situation has a habit of complaining, bickering and bitching. That is bad, as it creates unhealthy and political environment in the organisation. But when the uncertainty looms large, people come together forcibly (Fear of drowning leads to holding each other) to bicker and then good happens, as people together start working and start sharing execution and revenue generation possibilities.

Merger of farmers and hunters - Bad Happens where Farmers and Hunters are not combined and are disjoint. Good happens when Hunters, farm as well as nurture.

Forced outbound activity might seem tough and bad from individual's perspective as it removes complacency but it brings Good for the individual and for the organisation.

Innovation - Bad invades us when innovation dies and especially during strained times. Good happens when you start thinking out of box and delivers solutions beyond ordinary.

High Delivery & Performance – Truth Behind it

Most Human Resource specialists and psychologist believe money is great motivator. Surely it does. As its applicable everywhere, exceptions to it are prevalent. Same hold good for corporate world as well.


As per the Maslow’s Hierarchy theory,

Physiological and safety needs form the bottom of the Pyramid. Money / Monetary gains, material awards etc are a part of that. This might hold good for majority of individuals who have average aspiration, Will power and Self belief.



For individuals who desire to be different, wish to bring material change in the space they are operating, have different needs. For them Safety and physiological needs don’t form a part of hygiene elements. For them to stick with a firm, organization and deliver results they need two most important things.

1. Freedom to Operate & Execute

2. Ideation & Innovation & Execute


These individuals form a good part of corporate world but due to firm/ organization’s inability to realize their basic needs, these unsatisfied souls keep hopping jobs sometimes under the garb of poor culture, some times citing excuses of inadequate money, sometimes insecurities of their superiors etc.


These form almost five to six percentile of the total work force and are found in all fields of life including Corporate circles. Their category of individuals has ability to contribute almost 80% of the firms business and profits for which they are working.

Typical characteristics

• Fast Operators

• Self Motivated, with No requirement of motivational talks (Gyan)

• Desire to bring material change in and around them

• Highly result oriented

• Always have paucity of time to finish current and jump to next

• Multi task

• Highly networked

• Totally Updated

• Never Say “ No / Can’t Happen” Attitude


Only shortcoming for these kinds of people is Immortality. They need to be remembered for whatever they have done even when they are not around.

Most of the great leaders, thinkers, reformers including Lenin, Karl Marx, Mao Zedong fall under this category.

These skills generally can’t be developed. Either they are by birth or an individual inculcates due to a past incident or event he has witnessed or experienced.

For them the Philosophy is that they rather work on much higher speed and hence desire that they should have complete freedom on the way they address the Problem. Due to their ideation and innovation, for the firm which gives them above mentioned 2 desired things in their operating environment, the financial success of the firm is a must and in turn they benefit from it.
Unfortunately most of these individuals are not vocal on the work undertake as they don’t have any complexes or insecurities and thus most organizations miss to identify them. Such firms which take cognizance of these people would grow much faster.

Job Satisfaction - A myth

Most People say they don't love their job. Is their job or profession something really which is meant to be loved? Inherently why do most people , who undertake various jobs, work at the first place? Most common reason which comes to mind is to satisfy their basic requirement of necessary evil MONEY. Job or Work is a medium to earn money for survival.

Let's see our history, during ancient times of Harappa Valley Civilization, people used to choose their profession on the basis of their skill sets. So if the person is keen on doing farming, he would become an agriculturist, or if the individual likes fighting and has fascination for weaponry , he would become a क्षत्रिय। All this was done to ensure person's inner ability which to a certain extent is already present can be honed and the struggle or the pain which he has to go through for undertaking his job responsibilities or basically to earn his living reduces.

As the races grew, population on planet increase, meritocracy was taken over by succession or which later turned into caste system. Son of a priest would grow to become a priest, children of warriors to become warriors. Again the reason why it was done, as humans we know that any job or or any work we undertake and continue to do, because of the presence of certain things or absence of certain things , would always make us unhappy. Thus to reduce this unhappiness and get the work done with affluence and to earn the living with relative ease, best positive route is to choose parental/ ancestral profession, the chances of then getting totally frustrated is lower.

There is a very famous saying, don't know who wrote it, but very pertinent, " Grass is always greener on the other side."
Struggling actors wish to get a single role on camera, the one who is on camera wants to be on small screen, actors of small screen wish for big screen, the ones on big screen wish to become legendary artists, the ones who are known in India wish to reach Hollywood, the ones in Hollywood, wish to be rich like their friends who are industrialists, industrialists who have tonnes of money need power like politicians. Politicians who have power wish to do things differently and desire to become immortal and the need cycle continues. So does the dissatisfaction and unhappiness. If that be the case, finding happiness and satisfaction in your work life is like a Mirage . which you think exists and when you go near, its just an eyewash - ब्रह्म।
Some HR managers understand that and they camouflage the work with other add -ons with which an individual feels happy and clings on his current assignment much longer despite of being unhappy. Smart Human Resources people use, work life balance, flexible hours, engaging family, overseas trips, rewards, recognition etc. The whole thinking behind this is to ensure that the individual sticks on with the profession or the assignment and keeps his eye on the benefits given by the firm and suppresses his anguish and outrage at work.
We spend money, do things to achieve happiness and joy in life. If work starts providing us the same then, instead of we earning money from our firms, we should start paying them.
In a nutshell to look for happiness or JOB satisfaction if one says so is something, unreal and if somebody is saying that he is just trying to fool you as he doesn't want to share his truth with you.

Democracy, Socialism & Communism

Democracy is defined as a government in which ALL ADULTS who are citizens share power and resources through elected representatives.
Biggest lacunae in democracy is the presumption that the adults take sensible decisions while electing their representative and are not influenced by false promises, caste ,creed,colour,monetary benefits ,sect, race religious affiliations etc. Hence democracy is suitable in places where one has independent opinion not impacted by forces which aim at grabbing power and misusing the resources and trust imposed in the elected representatives by the masses.

Is Communism a better way of managing people and enabling equi distribution of wealth in various social sub sections.
Communism is a ideology 0r a political system that proclaims abolition of of class wise oppression and exploitation of poor by rich and foundation of social system based on common possession of the means of production and equal distribution of goods.
Communism as others have its own set of shortcomings. It generally pushes a party or an individual at the helm of affairs, who in turn starts using the available resources for his own whims and fancies. Communism ignores creativity, leads to one party or one man rule, thereby masses following and obeying the regulations set by the leader with nobody checking or controlling the same and the leader thus having no accountability.

Then Socialism must be the answer or is it not lets see
Socialism is a mechanism whereby important resources are controlled by the state and state intervenes and ensures proper utilization of those for the benefit of the subject it actually belongs to.
Somewhere close but not there as missing links in socialism is accountability to the state on the proper usage of the resources. Ensuring the benefits or the scare resources and the monetary gains arising there from reaches the end user of the social strata who needs it badly.

Then What ................. What should be done, what should the new economic order look like to ensure that limited wealth is not in the hands of limited individuals or organisations.

Should have a system having all the three above and something more. Lets call it
COMMUNO SOCIO DEMOCRACY.

Communism versus Capitalism - What's right?

According to Karl Marx : "Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence."

In the present state of affairs , is Communism or capitalism, which is the correct way. Capitalism provides unequal opportunities, resources and benefits to select individuals or large corporations which make use of them to widen the gap in the society making poor more starved and rich even more richer. It creates inequality in the social strata thereby making rift even larger between small and big, between haves and have nots, leading to social and economic unrest.

Is then communism a better way of leading the society. Generally communism takes path of autocracy, where individuals become larger than the state over throwing the current regime. Also communism leads to inefficiencies in the system, as there result for each one is fixed and equally distributed, there is no space for meritocracy hard work and perseverance.