Business as usual

Weed control--weed pulling in saris

Learning a little bit about business approaches in India.  From what I am understanding through my own transaction and the comments from the native population,  a fundamental approach is to take advantage of the consumer--have the customer buy the apparent good quality product, but then slip in the broken/scratched/deficient product while getting it from the back room or in the delivery process.  The hope is that the consumer will be too tired/busy to fight the discrepancy.  I guess the strategy works a lot and it is so well known that the merchant/agent doesn't even flinch--it is just business as usual.  Interesting protection for a foreigner, because there is some legal fraud laws that the merchant can be held accountable and pay penalties for unlawful actions.  When this legal reality was brought to the attention of the fitness merchant, amazing how quickly everything started to shift.  We are not at the end, but the static on the screen was brought into a different focus.  Just being at an ashram on "spiritual hiatus" doesn't mean that the outside world isn't still at work.  Experiencing real horse trading:  show one fine steed and then slip in the old nag on delivery and hope no one notices.  Since I sell real horses for part of my income, I marvel at this ability to disconnect from the truth.  (Interesting to sit in India and look at the US's credit rating being downgraded---all for the sake of horse trading at a different scale--complex greed?)

The morning meditation was so quiet this morning: fresh rain, no traffic sounds, no dogs barking, minimal people moving about on a Sunday morning.  The silence was almost a noticeable distraction.  I didn't think I was that deep inwardly when I hear Baba yelling and I glance up to see him chasing something that is standing next to me--I think I probably snorted like a horse and went to shy it took me so by surprise--one of the ashram dogs was standing next to me while I was meditating.  I wouldn't have even minded except for the unexpected commotion.