The charvaka philosophy

15K Kms on my Royal Enfield classic Chrome 500

     It has been a long time since I wrote about my motorcycle drive, The Royal Enfield Classic 500. The last thing I wrote was about the feeling after riding 500Kms. The thing is it took very little time to reach that mile stone. However, the present mile stone of 15K Kms has taken a very, very long time considering the amount of distances and places bikers cover in their journey. But, the drive still feels fresh and every day the drive is new. The adrenaline rush is still the same. The grunt on the bike is still the same. 

     The lockdown gave me the opportunity to drive the bike like I would have dreamt of driving in the Himalayas. Working for a company which cannot afford a lockdown, gave me the opportunity of taking the beast to the sea, and boy, did I take him to the sea, I took him to the ocean. It was like I wasted 20 odd years by waiting on the bike. Waiting on the reason that the bike is so bulky, so heavy. What a journey it has been. I never felt so comfortable on any bike I have driven to date. Even on bikes which are supposed to be comfortable, I have been the opposite. There is a joy when I drive the bike which cannot be expressed, explained. 

     In my (very) younger days, I always thought that going "fast" is what is biking about. Oh, boy, was I wrong. Cruising at a constant speed is what is biking about. It is more about the journey than the destination. Yes, I can hear you, the bottom line is all it matters. But, whenever anybody wants to reason out the causes for the bottom line, then you always try to remember the journey, However, alas, you dont remember much, because all your efforts were on the destination. 

     Newton's laws of motions have been now constrained to the things visible to the naked eye and comprehensible to the naked eye. And when that man told that "Eveybody moves(likes to move) in a straight line and in uniform motion", he knew what he was talking about. There is a certain joy in cruising, There is a certain joy in constant velocity. There is a certain joy in not creating an opposing force, there is a joy in blending. The joy of driving.... 

     The bike is as good as it was bought. It has the same sheen in its chrome finish. In fact the company has now brought the same chrome finish for its 350cc lines of bikes, which was exclusive to the 500cc for all these years. A fresh wash and the bike starts gleaming. It is like it is grinning with its mouth wide open, ear to ear. It is like an invitation to start a new journey. It is like there is no end. It is like you can make the same journey, provided you decide that what matters is the journey and not the destination. It is like.....

Use happiness instead of fear/intimidation/punishment

            I have been reading a lot of articles regarding the troubles taken by the security agencies to find out more abut the issues created on their own. To remove one thorn you use another thorn and you start thinking that the thorn you used are better ones. But you have now created a thorn which is mightier than the one just removed. That same thorn will now start biting you in an indirect way. The thorn knows its owner and its creator. It will be careful not to bite the creator directly. But a time will come where the signature of the thorn bite is recognized by its creator.

            Now the creator is at crossroads. It knows that it cannot create a new, a better, thorn. The creator has learned from his mistake. Now the creator has no option but to use brute force to remove the thorn. In the process the creator has to undergo a lot of pain. The thorn has learnt from the mistakes of the one it dislodged. It is now housed deeper. The more you confront it, the more the pain. Now the creator resorts to really try to know ways to dislodge the The thorn now has so many branches it is difficult to decide the master branch. You destroy a master branch, another tertiary branch will take the place of the main branch. This tertiary branch will not do any mistakes done by the previous master branch. Continuous learning. This is an infinite loop with no end in sight with the infinite pain both on the creator and the thorn. Instead of inflicting pain and then eliciting information/response form the thorn, why shouldn't we allow it to grow itself into a nice plant which would yield edible fruits. Why not give the thorn so much happiness, near ecstasy, show it the paradise lost and then show them the paradise found. why don't we show the thorn that heaven is right here, on earth and can be experienced right now. why not lead the thorn through the dark prison gates to a place of high life. Why not show it the fruits of capitalism(which the capitalists are good at) why not tell them how it works or how they can make it work.

          Dont we talk aplenty when we are happy. Dont we cry when we are ecstatic. Make then so happy and at the same time sad by showing them what can be done with a little bit of hard work and education. People talk when they are happy. They do. In fact the let off all the guards when they are happy than when they are punished. Cant you remember the number of times it has worked with your boss, spouse, parents. Haven't you asked the most endearing request when the sponsor is the happiest. With this effort we may not be able to convince the thorn about happiness in the world but even if we create a small doubt in their minds it will go a long way in stopping people form carrying out ghastly deeds. There are plenty of examples of anti establishments wherein a doubt was created in their minds regarding their efforts and come over to the mainline to try that last ditch effort all because of a small doubt regarding their present activities. This is where the establishment should work seriously and support these and make them fine examples of the happiness available at the crossover. Every single case can be an example for aplenty. It should not do anything negative with the lot crossing over. The establishment should be very careful here. Compare it with confrontation logic wherein the response from the thorn will be based on older experiences/doctored thoughts and not on logic.

          Show them where they stand in the supply side. Show them the demand waiting for this supply which they are capable of creating. Instead of building bullet proof dark alleyed buildings and spending the tax payers money in using this investment on these misguided people let us spend the same amount of money in giving these people greater happiness and show them how they are using up the happiness of plenty others who are toiling hard and are not on the supply/demand map because these people are eating away at their expense. Open them out like this. When people are happy they are the most chatty. Get that information from the ecstatic captors and try to bring other people into the establishment. This can be done very easily considering the share of these people are minuscule. Let us kill the demon which capitalism has created by using the very fruits of capitalism. Normally these alternate groups are formed based on common ideologies. Creating a doubt in few of the people will result in clash of ideologies which will bring out the best. Ideologies should always be in question.