Ser ko sawa ser

I was talking to one of my South Indian friend and the talk just went on about rants and complaints about college. Now my friend is very good with language. He profoundly uses latin, greek.. homer..Horace etc in his writings and all.. One of his favorite quote is c’est la vie… meaning “that is life”..
So when we were ranting about our college.. I mentioned the above quote.. and he was like… Sample this then..and he started sending me all his knowledge about greek and latin quotes.. .c'est la vie...que sera sera...carpe diem...vini vici vidi..
I was like wow yaar.. I threw a ser and u are giving me back sawa ser..
My friend being a south Indian now didn’t know the meaning of Ser ko sawa ser.. and me being a lazy person as I am just asked him to google it and see for himself..
He actually googled it but found out different meanings for this quote. He sent me the list and asked me which one was correct.When I read it.. I just couldn’t stop laughing out loud :)
Sample this –
Ser ko sawa ser kab milta hai..
1. Jab ser chidiyaghar say niqal kar jungle mein jata haiiiiiiii (*When the lion comes out of the zoo and goes to jungle)
Errr.. was the question about ser or Sher.. the lion?. :) Oh well, still, it makes out the correct sense of the proverb if given a thought!!
2. Jab uski shaadi hoti hai (*When he gets married)
Wow man.. Now this is what I call brevity.. I like this.. Brings out the deep meaning of the proverb (* devil grin)
3. Har ser ko taiyar rahna chahiye kabhi bhi mil sakta hai ( Every lion must be prepared, for he can meet anyone anytime)
Now this was profound.. m impressed by the interpretation
4. Kabhi nahi. (*Never)
Hmm.. okay, I got it.. the person is so self obsessed that he thinks he is the best and will not get meet any sawa ser in his life.. cool yaar..
5. Jab saamnewala usse bhi hosiyaar hai tab. (* When the other person is more intelligent that you are)
Ab isko kya interpret karu.. this is meaning in just plain hindi..

I later explained the correct meaning to him but poor chap.. the googled meanings were all in hindi and he couldn’t get the jokes..

Consumers of a Satsang Program

Just some random thought when we had our lecture on Intelligently interacting with others. During the lecture, we discussed the phenomenon of Selfishness in human beings.
Our class was asked the question whether think they that human beings are selfish or not, Whatever human beings do, do they do it for their own sake?
About 90% of the students replied that yes, Human beings are selfish by nature.
The teacher however was not happy with the result. He believed that there are good people in the world who are not selfish and that our generation could not be that cynical about the misery, pains, and misdeeds about the world.
To reply to that opinion, what we said was – actually we do a lot of good but that good is also done to satisfy our ego or to have mental peace. When we help somebody, we know that it would come back to us- So we help others to help ourselves. We get mental peace and satisfaction by helping others.
Like , if you help somebody and that person thanks you profusely.. your reaction probably would be .. Hey look, I too benefited after helping you.
So, the point is that even the society accepts that everything you do, you actually do it for your own self.. and thus QED.. Human beings are selfish by nature.


The teacher had a very wonderful point to add here which I would like to say here..
He said.. Actually Human beings are not selfish.. But when asked to justify their stance that why did they help.. they resort to the fact that Look Boss, I am selfish , that’s why I did it.
Why they do so is actually to adjust in the society where it is expected to be selfish
How many times have you thought of your own self when you helped somebody.. very very few times.. You just help. Because it is your inherit nature..
But when asked for justification, because of the societal norms.. you accept that you had a selfish motive but in actual you are not.


The explanation sounded very logical to me but when I extended the theory to various Satsangs and Pravachans being held all over our country, I thought maybe, they are not teaching societal norms but they are the ones who are actually setting them..
When I go to some satsang.. I am being taught to help others.. It will increase my good karma.. I will attain bliss.. etc etc
What I fail to get is
1. The institutions that preach about the ultimate objective of moksha , why should they teach about the benefit of self
2. By expounding the benefits to self, aren’t they making us human beings think in a more selfish way.

Some random thoughts.. don’t have the time to potray my thoughts sequentially.. coz as usual I am very bad at co-relation

Connecting the dots..

Lets see if the dots can be connected to form a linear relationship or is it just my imagination..

If you have noticed, there are many advertisements which say that that 90% of the Indian households say “ This is the best product” or “Choice of over 80,million people” etc. The obvious thing that marketers here are doing is that the product is good, that is why it is liked by so many people.

Now, suppose , there is a product for which you have large no of choices to select from. You evaluate and after considerable deliberation you chose a product. After some days, when a friend or relative sees the product and makes some comment about it which are not in sync with what you perceive as the actual value of the product, you tend to have doubts about your purchase. Normal human nature, aint it. On top of it, your spouse/family/ society don’t approve of your choice, what would you like to do.
1. Either you would like to do away with product with the thoughts like.. Why did I buy this crap man…
2. You would make some efforts to collect more information about it and try to justify it to your peers ( but you yourself would have that doubt)
3. You would be “taamsik” about it.. No action on your part.. chalta hai yaar.. ab le liya to ab kya kar sakte hain..
4. You would rationalize your decision by observing how many other people also did the same.. Now some some intelligent, or some person you are in awe of.. or lets say .. 90% Indians also also made the same decision as you, you would be somewhat complacent that yes, it was not wrong what you did.. and you would be satisfied with the rationale.

Now this is where I am trying to connect the dots..
You want to know that your product is preferred by so many people across the world.. why because at some point.. you feel dissatisfied with it..
Now marketers who promote their product by telling consumers that look buddy .. so many people also do it..aren’t they subscribing to the fact that yes, there would be doubt among there consumers, so lets do something to clear their doubts..
Aren't they conforming to the fact, that their product is indeed creating a disequilibrium in the minds of the customer.. that the perceived value of their product is not equal to the actual value of product and that there is a better product in the market..

Just my theory .. will see if my MBA answers this ques or not..
P.S – The idea behind this post came when I was reading “Theory of cognitive dissonance”