Om Shanti... 24hrs of a multinational Joboholic by Swami Hridayananda

Prologue

A face that smiles becomes a flower. What is the flower of your choice? I choose the sunflower. If it is sunflower it smiles at the sun. You will be looking at the most powerful element in the universe. It can melt anything in fraction of a second. When the sunflower smiles at the sun it is never melted or burned.

So when the face is happy even the sun hesitates to destroy it to ashes. Instead, He will send his powerful energy into your life. You can absorb it as much as you want. You can store it as much as you want. His heart has melted down before your smile. The most powerful source of energy which could burn you into ashes has become your source of energy.

Om Shanti…

Have you ever seen a sunflower field? It is an amazing sight.

All the flowers face the same direction as if the president is coming to receive the guard of honor! So meticulously and systematically organized, looking at the most powerful element in the Universe.

Wow! What a scene!

What a wonderful scenery!

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The law of nature. Conditioning by the nature!

I do not know if you have noticed a sunflower in the same field facing the opposite direction. Yes. that’s me, Swami Hridayananda (the one who has happiness in his heart).

Om Shanti…

I know many of you do not know me. But now on, you will have to know me.

The flower that faces the opposite direction catches everyone’s eye. He is so special. He has made himself uncommon with a simple twist to the other direction.

When things are not working well in your life — change the direction or just twist yourself differently than the usual life. You need a lot of guts to do it. If you want to be noticed, change your ways.

Even if you change your ways, you will still get what all others get as a normal sunflower. But what you get is something EXTRA. And that extra is too uncommon.

So, what makes that extra an EXTRA, is nothing but a simple twist. A simple twist, but a rare move. That rare move makes you extraordinary and so special. Now, who makes it?

Good question, Not ‘ME’. But YOU.

Are you surprised? You can never say not at all!

Because without your awareness you can never do it!

How often are you able to make that twist in your life?

Swami Hridayananda

How easy is it for you?

Are you afraid to be unique in this beautiful garden on earth?

Don’t be afraid. You will still get the wind, other flowers get. But in your case you will get it from a different direction — different touch and different feeling. You feel it and ONLY YOU will feel it differently. It is exclusively yours. Now you are the only one who knows the secret formula. But you still can share it with others and help them experience what you are experiencing.

The beauty of all beauties…

Wait a minute! You are also eligible for the same sun’s energy, but with a difference. You have made it different. So different that the sun also looks at you differently, because you are looking at the sun from a different direction. You are special even for the sun.

Keep smiling, that is all you need to make your face a sunflower or a rose. Don’t forget, a smiling face becomes a flower. Now, you choose which flower. Rose, Sunflower, Lotus, Jasmine? Which is the flower of your choice? That is what adds the EXTRA to your life making it extraordinary or uncommon.

Om Shanti…

Swami Hridayananda unravels the joboholic culture, an offshoot of multinational corporate culture. It estranges you from your own self, family, health, mind and all sorts of 9

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relationship in the society, turning you into a social recluse, which Swami calls as joboholism. In this motivational trance fiction, Swami compares 24 hours of a joboholic with his own life to help you transform yourself into the sunflower which looks in opposite direction. Making you a ‘corporate rat’, and helping you to realize how your true self has been taken away from your very life.

This fiction — a cocktail of realities mixed with humor

— presents to you the naked realities of your own life, which is chained in the invisible chains of multinational corporate giant ghost.

You are not at all aware of the invisible chains, which lead you to that contagious disease, which the corporate injects to your subconscious level. As you go through the pages of this motivational trance fiction, don’t be surprised when Swami Hridayananda peppers age-old secrets in the form of a little advice now and then unlike in a normal fiction.

Perhaps offering you a buffet of everything you aspire in life without feeling shy or any inhibitions — an open writing from the heart, making it your own story without losing an iota of detail and depth. So enjoy the trance and still be aware of yourself and your life.

Om Shanti…

Swami Hridayananda

Chapter 1

My friend works with a multi-national company as an editor. His job is to edit the software manuals before it is given to the user. Basically to look into the language; its simplicity; making the sentences small and simple. It should read smooth and easily understandable for the user.

Software engineers who develop the program write the user manuals. Most of them have complicated thoughts and poor language. They have complicated thoughts and that is why they are software developers. However, a common user is not going to understand their complicated thoughts. So it needs to be made very simple in common man’s language.

It is pretty easy when you write your own thoughts. You can write the way you want. You can change it the way you think and you can modify the way you decide. However, when you have to write someone else’s thoughts — pretty tough job. You have to get into the other person’s mind and think on his line of thought. Sometimes you even have to

‘ping’ him on the internal chat and discuss with him. What he has meant by such and such sentence or sentences.

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My friend has been a journalist for about 17 years. He has a reputation of working with leading magazines and newspapers in India. As a journalist he worked under tremendous pressure. It is a 24x7 job. Not just an eight-hour office job — where once you leave the office you can relax with your family. If you are single you can have your own life with friends or interest groups. Go for parties.

Visit clubs and pubs. Socialize with like-minded people and have fun.

But for a journalist it is not a ‘full-time job’ but a ‘full-job life.’ Anytime he has to be prepared to get into the field.

Any news could be of interest to the public.

No matter what happens in the family. No matter what happens in his personal life. No matter what happens around a journalist. They have to be ready to capture the happenings, feed it into their laptops or record it in their video cameras. The next day or even the same day it has to be catered to the poor common man. Who is not aware of the happening. Who then will read it or watch it and either get depressed or get motivated by it. Perhaps, even say what do I have to do with it? Let me get back to my business, work or farm. This is not going to bring me my daily food.

So, as a journalist, my friend had lots of stress and tension of meeting deadlines. But once the deadline is met, he told Swami Hridayananda

me, they were free to do whatever they wanted. But they were at vigil every moment. Even if you were making love to your wife — you need to pull off and get into the field, my friend said.

Approximately, 10 years ago when he got married they planned their honeymoon trip to Nepal for two weeks.

They reached Nepal and checked into a hotel and on the second day of their stay, the internal riot began and so much chaos was happening there. And my friend instantly jumped into the field and started reporting. He told his wife to sit and watch T.V in the hotel. Because he was the only journalist from that newspaper readily available on the spot. So he had to forget about his honeymoon and act promptly. And his wife was damn pissed off about the whole thing. She could not digest it. Well. That is the life of a journalist.

Of course, you cannot blame the lady as it was her ‘first honeymoon’!

At the same time you get exposed to the news makers of the country. You get to know the powerful and the elite who rule the powerless. The lawmakers who break the laws for themselves and for their families. The scammers who loot the country in a democratic way and dump the loot into the depths of ‘Swiss Bank Sea’. You are always with the big guns in the society. So as a journalist you know 13

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the upbeats, low-beats and every pulse of the society if you love a ‘full-job life’.

Om Shanti…

Monday, 7.20pm. My friend has just returned from the office. I hear him opening the Godrej lock very gently. Each of us has independent keys. Because I never like someone depending on me or I depending on someone else. Each one should be independent, but closely dependent too.

Dependency breeds commitments and obligations. When you do something out of obligation it is not fun. Life does not have fun at all. What you do has to come freely from the heart. Feel the flow of your life and from your heart experience it. It is quite spontaneous and natural. Then there is fun for both the giver and the given.

I find my friend very tired and pale. As soon as he reaches his room he changes into a T-shirt and pajamas. Then he switches on his laptop. Meanwhile, he offers me two Swiss chocolates which he has brought for me from his office. He says that it was one of his friend’s birthday, who shared his maturity to Omega in the form of chocolates. I appreciate his thoughtfulness and concern for me.

Just thought about Swami Hridayananda, he tells me.

Recently I had told him that I have changed my name to Swami Hridayananda.

Swami Hridayananda

I have my reasons for changing the name. Some reasons of mine are really funny. You might even laugh at it. It is OK. I do laugh at it too. My friend and I also have a good laugh at home every day. We use the phrase Om Shanti…

Sometimes it is with good thoughts and good sense. Other times it is a slang in our vernacular. Maybe another time it could mean concern for each other. Still another one could be, tasting a delicious dish I have prepared.

Yes. Om Shanti… means a lot in our lives. In short, situations attribute the meaning to the phrase. We experience it as a life of happiness — a carefree living in our own space without tensions and stress of family burdens.

No strings attached, but all strings are totally tied. No tension; no fights; no worries about how to cook; what to cook. All silent communication — said in the same spirit and understood in the same spirit. Each of us live financially and ideologically independent lives.

Our talks enter like a wild fire into any territory of the globe and even the outer space. Any topic, any idea, any spiritual subject — freedom to move in the trance of talk. Learning from each other’s experiences with fun and seriousness.

Because you are learning from the experiencer himself. No distortion. No addition. As it is not a first-hand account, but a self-account. With all its feelings, emotions and joy of learning, and growth that happened in life. Making us 15

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wiser and simpler to enjoy life every moment and every NOW.

It is just three minutes since he came and settled himself on his chair. His laptop shows its desktop. He hurriedly opens a file in WordPad along with a PDF file. His fingers begin to play urgently on the keypad. He then copies something and pastes it on to WordPad. He makes some deletions, additions and wiggling with words etc… Meantime, I get a call from another friend asking me to collect something from him. I had asked the other friend to get it for me.

So I go to my friend’s door. His eyes are fixed on the computer screen. I break the silence with the usual salutation, Om Shanti…

He raises his head and looks at me. I say, "Shishya, come let us go out and get something. I need to meet someone.

It will take five minutes."

He says, Swami, you go ahead. I have so much to do.

Like a schoolboy doing his homework.

Again, I insist and persuade him to come with me.

All he says, I have so much to do Swami.

My efforts of enduring him go fruitless. I find it very unusual and entirely opposite to his nature. He has never said no when I call him for a walk or to go shopping. So I think there is something seriously happening to my friend.

He is bugged with some serious thoughts. Bothered with Swami Hridayananda

some kind of fear of what is laying ahead. Maybe the kind of stress and friction of the free corporate culture which he is not accustomed to.

The corporate multinational culture allows you to do anything you want. You are let free for your life. But they have your balls perfectly within their radius and signals.

Like you must have seen the remote-operated toy cars which children play with and have fun. The child has the entire control of the car in his hand. When he moves the lever, the car moves to the directions he wants the car to move. Although the car has all freedom to go anywhere as it is let free.

Understand, as long as the battery is charged the child has his control. Without the battery what can an electric car do? Just sit there and get dusted or get dumped into the trash bin? The child can either take out the battery and charge it or get a new one. Or even just dump the car and buy a new one.

Options are all around. Do you see it? I know you do see it.

So you are afraid of the consequences. The multinationals know how to keep you controlled and make you a job-addict or a joboholic. They pull the strings at your subconscious level, playing the psychic game for maximum outputs with