Got lucky with IDT and covered losses

Wow! it was miraculous. Got lucky with IDT there. Got into the frenzy at 12. 45  got out at 13.62 with 600 profit. I covered my losses in BKS.

I learnt a lesson and will never repeat it again. Not to buy any stocks below their 30 MA. Time to short the markets now.

Stocks to short are Netflix, CMG and many others that are diving.

I did a good thing getting out of BKS or I would be ruined. Never average down again. This is a less to learn. When people are selling , the stock keep going down. That stock would have been a solid stock to short. Not to purchase it for what ever reason like dividends. Dividends can be suspended anytime.

I am hoping the IDT will fall tomorrow. I can enter the stock but the market conditions are horrible. I can enter a considerable position into it.

I should have put some money in Scottrade. Share builder is not letting me short stocks.

Blunder with BKS

WOW!!!
the early morning 5 percent rise was because of the covering of the short sale. that was a good time to get rid of all the stocks but I did not. I just missed unfortunately.

I cannot understand when i will start following rules. I was literally screwed in this stock. I made all mistakes with this stock that need to be avoided. I bought a declining stock thinking that the stock will not go below its 52 week low of 16. Then when the stock fell 20 percent i tried to average it down, then now i got of the stock at a major loss. I should have got out of the stock at 14.50 instead i bought more. Now the stock looks like its going down even further and I sold everything off for a loss.

there are 3 stock that I have been making mistakes on 1. VZ 2. DPZ 3. BKS. I have been playing the wrong game with these stocks. Instead IDT, the stock that has very very high volume, i have been neglecting. Today it is up again 6 percent. Investors have dived into this stock with the highest volume ever on this stock. This is the stock to take a risk on. Not Bks or dpz or vz , stock that are declining. I needed to short those stocks long back. What a  fool i am. There is no end to this foolery. Feel like a idiot. Follow the rules. There are no exceptions. I was trying to get around it . sometimes one may make it but not always. Most of the time its a loss. One has to learn to get out of the market or short the market when conditions are not good. Do not average down or buy cyclical stocks with dividend yeilds. Just keep cash. Learn to keep cash and invest in stocks like IDT. 
I promise my self that I will never again by a stock that is declining or below its 30 day moving average. 

what should i do now. Should i get idt? may be i should what at what price. Will there be a pull back on this stock and what about market conditions?

holding volatile stocks is putting capital under risk in bear market

Unfortunately I got BKS as the only risky stock in my portfolio and guess what it slumped 20 % today. I took greater risk to cover the loss and bought more which is against the rules of the game. This stock was going below the 30 MA and should not be bought. I am realizing how stock that we think will not go below the 52 week low will pass the low and go even deeper low. It is utterly unpredictable. The last 52 low is by no means a standard to compare it with. There is some saving grace in this gamble. That is after a major fall for say 20 percent there is always a 5-6 raise within 1 or 2 days. To get out of the stock without loss one has to buy that these low prices and sell it at the average immediately. If one holds then it is the worst thing that can happen to the capital. I have experience holding stocks after averaging down. Thats the most dangerous thing. Never never hold a stock after averaging down. Once it comes to that average mine at 14.5 for BKS sell it and get of the danger boat. Though it gives a dividend of 7.5 percent at this rate this stock is too dangerous to hold at this capital and margin money. This stock never when below 13 from more than 15 years. I am hoping it will recover soon. The worst thing is to sell at a loss, the way i did for VZ. Thats the worst thing to do under frustration. I cannot let that happen this time. I am learning the lesson the hard way. Even with the smallest capital and risk buying below 30 day average is such a danger. Fortunately JNJ did not do the same thing. I just held good even though I bought it below the 30 day average. It is a an exceptional stock. One of the best stocks out there. Thats not a volatile stock like BKS. having a volatile stock in the portfolio right now is dangerous. The market will go down now. I have to find some stock to short not hold. This sharebuilder margin account does not allow me to short. That is ridiculous. I should keep this account only for holding dividend stocks and not take any risk. this BKS just counter fired on me.

This stock could be a good buy at these rates and held on. Except for the worst market conditions this stock is not such a bad buy at these rates. Looking at the historical charts, this stock always went up after a drastic fall. And falls like these have happened several times before. There are some stocks that fall 20 percent in a day but manage to recover. The only problem is the general selling market conditions. I am worried if the stock will go further down. I already got stocks on margin now.

I can keep my cool and after reading the CEO conference call, this company is not bankrupt to really worry about it. It will come back soon to at least the 16 dollar level. I am confident. So just hold on.

Apple iphone is going to be sold by verizon now. This stock can go up really high.

Bhopal tragedy

It took 2 decades for the government to propose to clean up the mess. Was it such a difficult solution to arrive at? Why has not the government cleaned it mess up earlier? why did it have to wait so long and have to wait till they win the court case again Union Carbide and seek the money. Why can't the government clean up with tax payers money earlier? One feels the Supreme court has been grossly negligent in this case. Every level in India has become apathetic. But at the same time there is some awakening because of news channels and news papers now.

Awaken India! You have been denied justice from a long long time. Journalism is awakening and with it also the civil rights movement. People  have been suppressed and the poor have suffered the burden of the land with closed fists and mouth. I am just disgusted even of thinking of the slums and how the people live over there.
I am lucky, I got a considerable good background and got educated. And the unlucky get no help.

All we need is efficient spending of tax money that mean good institutions that are uncorruptable. Political change is necessary. Without political change there can be no other change. All the money is thrown into a deep pit. All cosmetic solutions cannot solve this problem.

Three thousand dead instantly and many more with disease and no action by the government. Compared to this the recent shooting by terrorists was nothing. Where is the culprit ? Leave the culprit, not even the
dangerous chemicals were cleaned from the area after 2 decades. I am glad because of massive reporting and debates, at least now the government is taking up some responsibility. Shame on Indian people and patriotism. Our patriotism is high pitched when we talk of pakistan and when it comes to incidents like this we push it under the carpet as if this incident never happened. Lets edit the history, such incidents bear no justice. Poor have to die in this cruel country. Let us spare all the gossip for pakistan and kashmir.

Our political motives are hallow and impotent. No matter which party is in power, unless there is a call and demand from the news media, this sick democracy cannot hear the call of the dying.

One has to scream and scream and scream and only after a long pause of 2 decade that some answer came back.

Purusha

Deep sweetness in my mouth
Life is wonderful
Life stay this way
Purusha is the Lord
Lower purusha sacrifice
detach from mind and body
Let a higher force reveal
your true nature.
Sweetness pour into the mouth
I enjoy life in that sweetness.
I can taste it. It is sweet.
How can I keep this everyday?
Purusha learn to detach from mind
and sacrifice. know your great true nature.
Happy is life.
Know your true nature. Detach from mind and body.
I love myself. I am purusha. I love purusha.
He is so sweet. Intense happiness.
No sense enjoyment can come close to this intensity.
This is the best. Sweetness in my mouth.
Head is light. Mind is silent. Sweetness in mouth.
Lips are numb. sweetness pulls me inside.
I close my eyes. Go deeper into the sweetness.
Force coming down from between the eye brows.
Lips are sweet and tongue tastes sweet too.
I want to taste this wine every day.
Purusha detach, sacrifice action.
Do not think you are mind or body.
You are delight. You are the best.
Only when you sacrifice
you detach from mind and body
otherwise you think you are mind and body.
you lose into suffering
sacrifice and taste your own self
that is sweet and beautiful.
Purusha awaken, know thyself
you are the sweet wine
that my lips can taste.
you are not the mind or body
you are the best.
I love you. You are the best of my life.

Use Google stock screener for shorting NO NEWS STOCKS after a rally or a correction

It is hard to know which stocks to short when we observe only a few stock in our portfolio. It is a blunder to only think of shorting the stocks in the portfolio that you have. Most of the stable stocks are not good for shorting unless something like BP happens. BP was a good stock stort last month but I did not even short that stock. That was foolishness. I do not know why I did not short stocks last month. I cannot understand it.

Anyway, I kept looking for stocks to fall in the wrong directions. The stocks with good EPS are not that volatile and they have reached highs and are probably declining slowly. But the stock to really short are the ones that have negative EPS and those that rallied for no reason along with the good stocks like AAPL..like apple and CMG,NFLX. chipotle and netflix. When ever there is a rally the stocks at their 52 week lows or those that are at the bottom for whatever reason also rally along with the good stocks. So when the rally is over, these (i will say no news stocks with negative eps) NO NEWS stocks decline by as much as 50 percent from their highs.

No one knows these NO NEWS STOCKS. The only way to know them is by stock screening on google using
last price, 52 w high and 52w low, and eps , also high p/e helps.

using these indicators one can search for stocks that are good for shorting. since shorting is only allowed on stocks that are priced above 5 dollars, one can put a minimum of 10 at the last price and maximum 100.

Do not get stuck to your portfolio and looking in the wrong direction when there are a bunch of stocks to short. This also holds when stocks are moving up during a rally. Observe the S&p. if there is a rally, look for stock on stock screener. Look of the industry that is rallying. check if it broke the 30 MA with high volume etc.

Especially for shorting, this stock screener is very useful. Many stocks that have rallied can be targeted.
This is another lesson, I learnt today.

Deception of P/e ratio

why did I consider DPZ as a buy for a long term when it was declining? There is one prod to this buying low and selling high delusion, that is the P/E ratio. I considered DPZ for long term because of its low p/e ratio i.e 8. Hmmm.

There are stocks like Netflix that have a p/e of 55 now. It has not yet crossed the 30 day average yet. There are also several stock that showed up on google stock screener that had p/e of more than 100 that still kept going up. example UXG. look at this stock with a negative eps how it is rallying. So one should not look at the p/e and make decision for long term hold. Probably p/e is useful in selecting stocks for dividend  pay for a long term. But for all practical purposes p/e should not be the determinant for buying or selling stocks.

that is the reason why i lost money recently on DPZ. Profits in bull and bear market...i reason how pertinent this book is now. This book warns about this blunder.

confusion of long term hold and short term hold

It is natural to want to buy stocks for less and sell for more. But it is important at the same time that one does lose the original capital one invests. No matter what happens one should not risk the original capital. The first risk is that if the original capital is lost or decreased then further investment opportunities are lost in the future.

One should not get into the confusion and buy a stock that has rallied recently and declining from its 52 week highs below the 30 day MA. There is a great danger when one want to buy such a stock imagining that this stock will go up further in the future. An example is DPZ that touched its 52 high at 16 from 8 and coming back. Right now it is at 12. This was a perfect shorting stock at 15 when it crossed its 30 day moving average.

But there is a counter emotions and feelings in us that tell us to buy it cheap since the stock is declining. This is a blunder one easily falls to. Thinking of long term prospects one holds declining stocks like these that keep declining to no matter when. Then one get frustrated and sells them at a great loss to the capital. The second best thing if one got into such a bad decision is to sell it as soon as possible and get out.

(Do not buy sliding stocks below 30 day MA)----Number One on Blunder list

Got into DPZ, when it was declining form its high of 16$, bought it at 12.6, got out at 12.04 for a loss of a couple of hundred dollars. The confusion comes when one thinks of long term prospects at the same time with declining stocks. Since this stock moved from 8 to 16 in a rally last quarter, there is a greater downs side to this stock when compared with stocks like VZ (verizon) or BKS (barnes and nobles).

VZ and BKS are have not moved high in the last quarter and have been revolving around the more or less the same price. These are more like cyclicals. there is not so much down side with these stocks since the volatility is not high. The stocks the recently touched their 52 day high need to be shorted not bought and kept long term. This is the greatest delusion I keep falling to all the time and loosing money. All my gains get wiped away with this delusion.

I should have shorted the stocks after they passed the 30 day high. I would have made a ton of money and would have been in the positive side. I did not do that. I kept buying DPZ even when i was sliding down its 30 day MA. Why? Instead of shorting it. 


Rules change when the market is above and below the 30 MA. One has to reverse the mode. Cannot be prejudiced to ideology when facts are showing some other thing. 

And on Verizon which is a cyclical, which needs to be held on even is bad markets to let it come back, i sold it earlier. It is hard to hold stocks when they move lower then our buy price but when it is a cyclical and this stock has been going up and down. what is the reason to sell it at a loss?

Now is the time not to loose the capital.Devastating thing to do.

Feels like avenues of making money are over. This is the time to short the stocks not to hold them long. And especially not on stocks that have just visited their 52 week highs. Short. short. short.

I found BERX...look at this stock. Short this stock. It just touched its 52 week high. Coming down now. Observe its behavior.

Using Google stock search, I found some very interesting stocks that declined almost 50 percent. There was a trend of stocks that went to their 52 highs and retrieved back to almost 50 percent from the top.

the problem is that one only knows stocks that one sees in the portfolio. There are thousands of other stocks out of which some are behaving the way I want to be. But if one does not search them and take a moderate risk in shorting or buying them, then one has lost many opportunities. At least once a month stock screening is necessary. I could have shorted many declining stocks last month. But I did not get the idea of stock screening.
As stock that has considerable volume, with negative eps, or high p/e etc...is a good pick. after seaching I found so many stocks that I cannot believe. All I was doing was looking at my portfolio of good stock that do not decline. And in the case of DPZ it was just a stupid mistake, expecting it to move up when it was moving down 30 MA and going down. What foolishness.

Ethics of acting

I was watching this Indian actress who I know is married last year to another film actor. I saw her dance and make sexual and romantic gestures to another man in the movie. It makes me think about several moral and ethical standards of behavior of these actors. There are several possibilities happening at the same time. There are several audiences who have different motives to watch the movie. There are those audiences who just to go the movies for entertainment. They may or may not know the real life story of the actress. Of course what I am questioning also pertains to men and women alike. But they would like to see the beautiful looking women dance and enjoy the dance setting and movements. These actresses are also half naked, they have to show their body parts to look sexy. These are people who are sitting in a cinema hall or looking at these dances with families at homes. There are children watching these kind of half naked dances. What is the impact on different audiences  from these sexually promiscuous dances and acting.

Should we just get used to this kind of entertainment or may be never question the moral and ethical standards of actors? Some people act for money some for fame. But rare are those who act or make movies as a service to the society or for improving the standards of acting  and art itself. Most of them are trying to arousing the gross sensibilities of the audience.
This actress is acting this way before a hundred people in the shooting set. She is acting to show that she is in romantic affair with this guy. Everyone watching the shooting knows that. People who know her life story know that she is married to some other guy in real life and yet she is acting this way. Does it mean that on the name of acting one can forget our out of stage life and indulge in gross sensibilities that only excite a mass of unpolished audiences?
One cannot question such things. This is normal nowadays. All actors do it. I saw a movie that got an best award for this actress who sleeps with this teenager during the second world war and the director of the movie is the husband of the actress in real life. I can understand that while acting in a movie one forget ones real life and completely involves in serious acting. That is justifiable to some extent. But is it justifiable if one's acting is going to only touch gross sensibilities without any deeper necessity of the actress to indulge in such a way. English movie sex scenes have a correlation to the film story and flow but the Indian bollywood movie dance and romantic scene seem to happen at any time of the movie.

What disservice these actors are doing to the society? They are wasting their acting time and abilities and doing a damage to the art values of cinema. These movies with flippant sex gestures from either sexes
have become common in bollywood now. All our children watch these movies. How do we expect to become refined artistically with these dubious actors who sell their feelings for money and short lived fame? Women dancing half naked is only making things hard for women to get rid of the sexual object
status of the society. Feels like women will dance this way for another 500 years for wooing men in the movies. The more naked you are the more applause. You have the most wisdom. How covertly you have hidden you feelings for your real husband and how overtly you are acting as loving another one in a dance sequence that has no correlation to the theme of the underlying movie?
Men are no less stupid than women. Half naked men running after half naked women is bollywood masala at this present times. Rubbish movies to blunt our sensibilities and appreciation of human mutual friendship and love. Big names in bollywood, what are they doing to national art?

Irrational Exuberance

My search for proper long term investment brought me to this book " Irrational Exuberance" by Robert schilling. It is now considered as one of the classics of market irrationality. It is a thoroughly researched book documenting graphs from a hundred years. This book is about the hype created by media and general guru advice that stocks are always superior to other kinds of investments like the bonds or other inflation indexed bonds. But the truth according to the author is that it is not true. Just because in the past 2-3 decades stocks have outperformed other investments it does not mean it is true forever in the future. And especially for retirement investments like the 401 k stocks are the most risky. Because the elderly blindly invest in stocks to see them decline when they most need it. This has happened recently in 2008 market crash. Retirement funds have decreased by almost half. There is so much wrong advice around that we fall into the trap unawares. This the kind of book to remedy over enthusiasm about stocks and their truth in the past.
I found good advice at the end of the book to fight inflation. Stock dividends is one good way to beat the inflation but the problem with that individual investment is that the price of the stock is volatile and one may loose on the capital if the stock market conditions are not good. Of course on has to search for a fundamentally sound company to profit from increasing dividends but apart from that there are many other factors that influence the price of the stock, one of them is psychology of the investors at that time.
Coming to the good advice in the book is to invest in government inflation indexed bonds like TIPS. One can purchase them at Treasury direct website. These bonds are inflation adjusted and one never loses money because of inflation as one does if the capital money is sitting in bank accounts which give interest rates below inflation rate. These inflation bonds are good alternatives for long term retirement investments. Some of the money should definitely be used to buy TIPS. I opened an account online and may be diversify a certain amount in it too.
Apart from making more money, it is a difficult job just to secure the money hard owned money. Stocks can be a easy way to loose all one's saving if one does not sell soon when there is a market crash. The 30 day MA method is very useful to get out of the stock from looking at the 30 day MA of S&P or any other major index.
The usual guru advice to hold onto stocks when they are diving is a recipe for financial disaster. There is no other advice that can ruin ones saving. When the market is crashing one has to get out of stocks into money market funds which is equivalent to cash. If one does not do it, and listens to guru advice from fund managers, who often advice to hold on to stocks because they presume and advice that the stock market will come back to the past highs in a couple of years.
This false logic is also been dealt in this excellent book about irrationality.

Tax advantage of 401k and real interest rate

I had ideas of pulling out of 401k and then figured out the advantage from a friend. When one takes out money from the 401 k after 65 years of age one is charged the tax rate that pertains to that fiscal year. That means that if one goes part time or does not earn much at 65 years of age then the tax would be naturally less then when one is making a lot of money at young age. This model works out good if the one thinks that one will make less money as one ages. What if one is going to make more money later in life? In that case one has to pay more for the 401 K when withdrawing. But saving money for the future is a good idea. Even if one loses all the bets on other things, something is left in the 401k to spend the rest of the life.

Then about Real and Nominal interest rates, I realized that Nominal interest rates are high and one thinks that banks give more money for deposits. I was thinking why should the banks give more money in India, i.e like 10 % rates for deposits. They give such high rates because of double digit inflation rates in India. Compared to United States, where the inflation has almost stabilized at 2%, inflation in India is very high. And depositing money in bank is no safe way of fighting inflation.

One good way to fight inflation on a long run is to invest in stable stocks that give good dividends and also beat the inflation.
This is the wisdom of the day

Dividend yield calculation for S&P

If you are wondering what the S&P 500 dividend yield is? It is 1.83 %. I think it takes care of the inflation on a long term. One needs to compare this yield to the bond yield to find which one is beneficial and to distribute the portfolio.

http://www.indexarb.com/dividendYieldSortedsp.html

I found some very high dividend giving shares at this site. For example FTR right now gives 12.5 % and it is listed in the S&P. Verizon is at 6.8%. Of course one also has to look at the stock price before one invests. FTR also has a low stock price now and it has been stable all along the last year.

These utility companies have a lot of cash in hand and distribute as dividends. They are natural monopolies. These are the companies to invest at the low stock price and high dividend rates. They are stable companies too.
It is a good idea to have some of them in the portfolio for a long term investment. Certainly, 12.5 % interest for doing nothing is great.

Thoughts on Massive evacuation

I do not know for what reason but I keep worried about the state of evacuation in case of an emergency either of a natural disaster or artificial. Our cities are highly populated and there are small island crowded. Why is there no evacuation plan to move great numbers of people across international borders? In case of Earthquakes that come unawares there is no time to move but in case of a flood warning or hurricane, why is there no system to move people across borders. I guess every country is struggling to deal with its own problems.

What about United Nations or the NATO? What if scientists have found that this big hurricane is going to wipe the population from the small island? Will we allow them to die there without any help? Nations must allow more refugees into their countries especially the prosperous ones. Nations naturally do not want to waste their resources and tax money to fund others problems. That is a reason why a tax should be levied on people as an international fund for emergency services for cities or islands or nations under constant treat to disasters.

I would like to know if there is any such fund already in place? May be the United Nations web site can give me more information. So much money goes to waste in wars and weapons that there is no money left for useful purposes. It is as if money cannot be used for useful things. Progress comes in bits and pieces.

Experiment with Options using call options

Instead of investing all of one's capital into stocks that are almost at the end of their rallies, for example CMG , starbucks and netflicks , i thought may buying call options would be better. Since it puts less money at risk and the profit margin is greater. If one thinks that stocks are trailing at the end of the rally and one does not want to use the whole capital to risk and the economic conditions are vagary, I am thinking call options( if one thinks stocks will rise) is a good idea.

I am taking the guidance of " Options for the Beginner and Beyond" by Edward Olmstead. It is good book to start with and easy to understand. It also provides examples to show how to use options that fix different situations.

I probably will invest in Call options in stocks above their 30 MA and rising higher. Since I thought buying these stocks is putting too much risk on the capital. These stocks have rallied from the past 1 year to 6 months and almost doubled. Can one predict to what price they would rally? It is impossible to say  when they will stop rallying.

redistribute the portfolio during a stock market correction.

Last month was a good experience. Many of the stocks went below their 30 day averages. Some of the stock I owned also did the same. There was one stock CMG that did not go below the 30 day average but was just gently touch it. It topped at 143 where I sold it. But it came down to 122 onto the 30 day average. That was the time I guess to buy it again when the stock is still holding strong to the 30 day average. One has to sell all the stocks going below it and re distribute the portfolio.

I could have got more of CMG and rest of them should have left it as cash. Now VZ is going up again. My selling decision on VZ was absolutely bad timing. Though the loss was minute there was no need for it. Anyway the problem is when you buy below the 30 day average and when the stock goes down below your buying price its stressful and if drags on for a month it is even so. So going long term with such  stable stocks is not a problem. Even going long term it is important to buy the stock at a lower price. Since if invested at higher prices, there is a danger of getting a loss on the original capital. So even while investing in stable companies, stock price is important. Since the market has fallen or corrected a 20 percent drop is noticed on most stable companies.
This is a good time to invest and forget for sometime and just collect the dividends.

Another strategy is to make another portfolio for racy stocks jumping above the 30 day average like CMG and NEFLIX. These two stocks are text book examples of the stock moving above 30 day average rally. I made some money on CMG. I did not have enough capital at that time. But it was a good learning lesson.

One has to learn which stocks to keep and which ones to toss out during a correction. The ones not going below 30 day MA keep them. Those going down the 30 MA dump it. Thats the rule.

Also according to the book buy more on stocks that are holding well rather than selling. Very interesting behavior of the stocks.

Market is slumping again

Starting May, 2010 market has been slumping. It was time to short the market when it crossed the 30 day average on the S&P. It was a missed opportunity. It needs a lot of skill to do the right thing at the right time.  I am just out of this market for now. My profit of 1500 dollars has been wiped out in the last month and I am out with no loss or gain. As usual, one has to follow the rules of the game. Never, I repeat never buy when there is no high volume or when the stock is below its 30 day average. Do not put all your eggs in one basket.

Though I was out of the market and sold out all my position in  profit, I got into VZ hoping that it will not go down and it is a  very stable company at 28.13. I also gives a nice divident of 6. 7 %. but the problem is I invested everything into it. I also used my margin money. when I market is bear, what is the purpose of using margin money? It is actually stupid to do that. Anyway, people get crazy sometimes. ahahhahah

So right now I am in almost no loss no gain situation. I sold out everything and I am out. I cashed out and will get the check soon. It is hard to earn 7K. There was I time when I had to pay 7 K to the credit cards and it was a hell of a time ,trying to pay it off completely. I will just keep the money in saving account or send it to India. 
Now is definately not the time to invest in stock market. The rally has subsided. There is no confidence in the market. All the sectors are down. Get out and be in a safe position. Do not shoot until you are sure of the enemy or the enemy will find you. shooting is like buying and selling stock. Only bullets will be wasted. No results.


Also I learned to use PUTS to short the market. That is definitely the better way to do it. Good buy market for a couple of months atleast till i see the bullish indicators in some segment. 
Its very hard to be consistent and stick to the rules. The rule not to purchase anything below it 30 day average but I still put all my money in VZ at 28.30. Now it is 27.30. That was loss of 500 right away. Again i lost money on DPZ also buying it below the 30 day average. So if I want to trade I have to stick to the rules otherwise its only a waste of time. 

Thoughts on Death and construction of new society

All our plans, desires and aspirations for ourselves and others come to an end with the death of the body. Death is like a dead end to the long road of twists and turns, ditches and smooth rides.  We live for a certain amount of time on earth and we do not know what happens to us after the death of the body, unless we have knowledge of any other worlds other than our earth. Our short life for us is the most important experience. No one wants to be unhappy and no one aspires and plans to be unhappy. From where does this drive come from to be happy?

We want to maximize our enjoyment as much as we can during the limited time on earth. Each being that is alive including trees, insects, animals and humans have a power that they can exercise on each other. Man is an exception. He is the most advanced being who has a power to will and scheme independent of external natures complete control. Each being exercises its power according to the knowledge and power it has and tries to experience happiness by repetition of the act of happiness in the limited time on earth.

One the level of the society, the independent acts of individuals when they interact on each other become complex motives and ideologies. There is a drive to exercise to wield power of one group of people over the other. Politics in the real sense must bring equality, justice and a sense of order in the society. But politics is always a fight of one set of people against the other. There are people who want to come to power only to
control the society and experience the power slot. They do not care about justice and for the good of the society. These are the people who do not see death in its eyes. As long as they have power in their hands
they use it for self-aggrandizement and vanity. Death is waiting and it is inevitable. It is a folly that the human being when exercising his powers in life forgets that he is completely dependent on the body, to exercise his will and enjoy the power position. With the death of the body all his plans end. It is a hilarious end to mans hubris and ego.

We set our life around the unpredictable death. Death is like a step brother/sister we did not meet yet. Though we have a faint knowledge of it from hearsay we have never met it with our own eyes. It is powerful enemy we do not want to meet and accept its victory. Death is fear and the antonym of our happiness;death ends all our plans of everlasting happiness. Body is a like a used car that get more and more repairs as it get older. Eventually it is exhausted. Who is the person who drives this body?

It is hard to change the rules of the game on earth. To bring justice to an unjust society is a slow process. One needs to educate the people first about the importance of justice. One has to change things from bottom up. Any kind of lasting change can only come from bottom up. A few good people at the top can bring opportunities for the rest but they cannot change the whole set of rules of the game on earth. Every being has to learn to exercise their powers for the good of the society.  Education is a great tool that makes people aware of their power to change themselves and the society.

Once certain lousy rules start to take over a competent society, the society become corrupt and  nonchalant. It is hard to change such a society. Though individuals live for a short time period, the corrupt practices and mentality remains on earth. They do not die with the individual. People with powerful positions, those who are wealthy leave their power to others(family and friends). There is an uneven distribution of power within certain families on the society even though members of those families decease. They are the ones who control and decide the fate of the society. If these privileged people are good natured, something good happens to the society, but it seldom happens. The rich usually never step into the shoes of the poor. There is limited time and we have only one life. We do not want to experience the pain of hunger or any of the poor mans ills.

What is out of sight is out of our mind.We are always experiencing our own life separate from others. Our thoughts and desires drive us all the times. We can only love our family, because they are within the loci of our mind and body. Others who do not live in our house are strangers. We somehow cannot love them as our family. We want to leave the best things for our family and friends after our death as if they are going to live on earth forever. We have a complete misunderstanding of death. Death does not come to everybody at once. It consumes each at a different time.Each wants to leave the powers one acquires on earth before death to people who are like minded. We want to give the powers to the ones who think like us or who are genetically related to us. We cannot see the rest of the society. We can only see what our eyes show us. We are limited by our senses.

Unless power relationships change and power concentration is dispersed there is little hope for any positive  change in the society. Democracy allows such a change to some extent. We can elect nominees who are prudent and have a will to change the society. Human nature the way it is does not want to leave power slots once it gets the taste of manipulating power. It is ready to sacrifice wealth, time, morality in return for everlasting power. To be powerful among fellow humans boasts the ego. Probably it also gives happiness.
But elected officials who do not care about the state of the people are stalemating progress and better conditions on earth. They are wasting resources that should be used for the welfare of the people.


Even if within sight and within mind, we do not care unless some one is in our love zone. And the love zone is usually our primarily family and secondarily friends. This is the human limitation that hinders growth of the society. How does one care for everybody just like our family? How is it possible? Is it related to the knowledge of death of body and the liberation of consciousness from the epicenter of the body? Yes, indeed if our sense of identity becomes detached from the body and identifies with the consciousness, we no more include our family in the love zone but every conscious being on earth. Of course, we  have to follow a different set of rules for expediency for different levels of conscious beings, still our love zone has significantly
increased and cares for the society.


In the absence of any fundamental change in our identity, human being remains aloof from others suffering. It is up to certain enlightened and caring citizens to lead the troublesome path of establishing dharma and replacing the old, corrupt anachronisms. Every one has to die. The sinner and the saint dies. The only way to have
lasting change on society is to build institutions that can deliver proper functioning of the society. Some individuals together can build good institutions to do the same. The next generation has to keep up to the promise of the original intentions and make progress accordingly.Therefore knowing our limitations and the truth about death and the ultimate good of the society, we should act for lasting peace, prosperity and healthy functioning of the society.

The people in power slots like the politicians often want their family to escape suffering and like to send them abroad to foreign countries where they can enjoy the hoarded illegal wealth. The soul becomes corrupt and lives in a fairy land devoid of death. Man becomes a megalomaniac and boasts his powers even though death is waiting for him near his doorsteps. This is the state of affairs especially in developing countries that have lax rules and generally corrupt. One generation of corruption leaves another generation of corrupt. Although individuals die their legacy of corrupt behavior does not. The next generation of greedy and self centered people happily fill the slots. It is usually the members of the same family who have a privileged power advantage. These are the people who own large resources in the society. They own large areas of land, wealth and many factories that are necessary for the general functioning of the society. So, it becomes very difficult even in democracy for a good intentioned person to become a elected member of the society without
resources to fight the privileged members of society.

Power changes a man. Power makes a man have great control over other men. And for a soul that is ignorant about the truth of the body, it uses its privileged power to satisfy its desires on earth for happiness. It tries to trespass moral rules of conduct to satisfy its body pleasures. It becomes self --centered and the love zone constricts to oneself.  When this condition is wide spread in the society and the knowledge of happiness, there cannot be any lasting change in the society. No wonder people are corrupt because they care ignorant about
 what really can give lasting happiness. When a man taste a little power, he spends all his time thinking about how to exercise that minuscule power for his satisfaction rather than doing good justice of the society. Every one has to act and we act according to our knowledge of ourselves and the society. Since every human being
has certain power, wrong knowledge about our identity and purpose can disrupt the good functioning of the society.

People who realize and care for the society need to change their identity from our body, our family and our near and dear and enlarge our vision and bring every one into our care and love zone. One has to always think our existence on earth as temporary and act for building lasting good on earth. There is too much sickness, suffering and hopelessness. We need to be the beacon amidst darkness. Education of the youth is a great tool to care for the next generation and conditions on earth. Not the education to exploit and plunder the resources of earth but to care for it. We need an education that teaches us how to care our mother Earth.
We need an education to use our power for creating happiness on earth. We need an education that teaches us to protect ourselves from adverse attacks from ignorant and self-centered people. We need an education to be heroes and be a saving grace for the future.

We need an education that is diverse and multidimensional.  A large set of the youth in India are encouraged to get into engineering. Most of them do not have any idea why they are doing it. All they will get trained to operate some machines and earn a modest living. But this will not change the conditions of our corrupt society. Our youth is misled and they are diverted away from becoming active players in changing the power structure of the society. The power still lies with a few powerful families. Most of the youth does not know anything about economics( knowledge of power of wealth) or the politics (knowledge of power of  managing human resources). Hence, we end up being operators of machines and living a shameful life under corrupt
and meaningless hegemony. Unless we learn the skills of power manipulation there is no way the society can change. The wealthy families teach their children the skills of wealth management , so do the political families about politics but a large section of the youth has no idea of the importance of politics or of economics in their lives. This is a disaster for the democratic society where eventually power needs to be distributed from a few hands for justice to prevail. This has not been happening in India and also in developing countries.

Public money is deliberately diverted from education and processes the bring power sharing into the wallets of few corrupt families. There is a fear among the powerful that education of the masses may eventually lead to their peril and to their position in the society. Man fears the loss of power. He can do anything to stop that from happening. He hoards the money illegally for his family and love zone. Not being educated the youth has become handicapped. It is as if only a quarter of their brain is functioning. As the powerful few steal our tax money we have no idea what they are doing in front of us. We even sometimes encourage them to do so since we have no knowledge of the power play. We are manipulated, cheated and rendered useless and impotent. We are have become impotent organs of our society. The few privileged make all the decisions for us. Even though some of us may have a faint idea of the widespread cheating we lack the knowledge to fight it.

We celebrate and cheer within our love zone and societal impotence. This is our life.  Democracy is a sham in a society where power remains in a few privileged families and bars intelligent people from making choices for the society. Moreover, the elected representatives who are supposed to take care of us forget their responsibilities and thirst after more power or keeping their secure power positions. Though we apparently have a choice to elect and dethrone representatives, the choice is an illusion in a widely corrupt society. The choices given to us are commensurately corrupt. It is time to stand up and contest when the choices given to you are worse then yourself.

One example to discourage this transfer of wealth form one generation to another is to have estate tax, so that some part of the property goes to the state treasury. Usually such laws have loop holes and people in power know how to go around rules. That is what they learn from their heirs to learn to skip taxes and to never share power with others. They transfer stolen money to foreign countries that do not tax. A large amount of time and resources are put to doing illegal activities in these powerful families. What a waste of life? But then it shows results. On the other hand the engineer or the civil servant gets his taxes cut from his pay check directly without his will or participation in decision making.

 We need to empower our citizens with knowledge about ourselves and eventual death of the body. We have to shift our identity from the body to a higher level of mutual caring. A deep commitment among men has to arise for the lasting good of the society. A commitment to leave a legacy of happiness on earth after the death of this body. For this to happen man has to find within himself a greater source of happiness. We need to fight for establishing rules so that a greater power sharing becomes possible. More and more people need to
know about the ill effects of power with the privileged few. We need to become active participants in the working of the society, not impotent but masters of our destiny. We need to work on that all our life so that the next generation of youth can have the advantages we never had. Only then will there be happiness and justice on earth. A single individual cannot do anything but a cohesion of good intentioned individuals can bring a lasting change.