Tales from Karma Kitchen

Last Sunday, a team of 9 Stanford students headed to serve at the magical Karma Kitchen in Berkeley. Pavi Mehta, lead coordinator of Karma Kitchen that week, wrote in the following:

There were nine of you, fired up and ready to go when Viral and I arrived just after nine on Sunday. The largest set-up crew we've ever had, arguably the most sincere and most definitely the only crew that's arrived carrying its own meditation cushions :) We zipped through readying the space and settled into a circle of silence --- still strangers at this point (we hadn't done intros yet), but when we opened our eyes at the end of that period, a quiet bond had already been forged.

Susan set the tone for the day, sharing the story of her eighty-something year old mother in Alaska, who without a moments hesitation had gifted a small fortune so that a man on the street with frostbite could save his leg. Connecting that spirit of unconditional giving with Karma Kitchen she gave gratitude for the space. Over the next six hours we would each attempt to keep that flame of generosity burning bright.

Incidentally we broke an interesting KK record this Sunday --- for the highest number of Stanford grad students serving tables, washing dishes, busing tables and plating food :) You guys rocked! And the stories that came from the day were special.

The Nicest Person I Meet

Gopal who saw a guest "doodling" on a piece of paper at her table, later discovered that doodle to be a flawless piece of art that she gifted to him. He decided to pay-it-forward, to a nine-year-old boy who was scribbling an uncomplimentary note at his table :) "Look what he's writing," says his mother, "are you sure you want to give him this?" Replies Gopal, "I was just given this picture and decided I would give it away to the nicest person I met today. And yes I'd still like to give it to him." The child received the gift, quickly discarded his not-nice-note and substituted it with the more benign drawing of a ship :)

Pudding of Heaven

Earlier in the circle MJ talked of the power of transformation that comes alive at Karma Kitchen --- those moments come in surprisingly humble ways -- like Chinmay's experience with a guest who had repeatedly refused his offer of rice pudding and then shared with him the story of a saint in the marketplace who was handing out flowers to passerbys. As the story goes, people hurried past him, either too suspicious, arrogant or preoccupied to receive his offering. And as the story goes, if any man or woman had stopped that day to receive the unconditional gift in front of them, he or she would have entered the gates of heaven. "Your offers of pudding and my refusals remind me of this story," says the guest laughing. And now the Pudding of Heaven might just be the new name of our dessert and a great lesson in learning how to truly receive :)

The Tipping Point

So many other stories from the day. A table of four who come for the first time and are touched to discover that you can't tip your server at Karma Kitchen. Volunteers who slip into whatever role is needed of them, including making the naan (thank you MJ and Jazz!). Offerings of homemade Sauerkraut, homegrown oranges and a giant persimmon that appear on the Kindness Table, the serendipity of a volunteer who finds herself serving her grown up daughter's grade school music teacher, the unexpected delightof a first-time plater (Kranthi) who served up a steady stream of dishes to reflect smilingly at the resulting feeling of glowing satisfaction, "as if I'd cooked the entire meal myself!" ...

Thank you all for your presence at Karma Kitchen this Sunday. It was a real joy to serve together and we hope to have you with us again on a future week. Sign up for volunteering will be online as usual. Attached is the crew photo. Snippets from the notes people shared will be posted later this week on the story section of the Karma Kitchen website.

Some more volunteer reflections:

Chinmay: The first thing that came to my mind about volunteering in Karma Kitchen was - "free food". I'm certainly not proud of this, but its an honest fact about the expectations of a typical grad student. As it turns out, there's something better than excellent, Indian free food that I brought home with me that day.

After the stressful midterms this day came like a savior. It was an early Sunday morning when we headed down to Berkely (No affinity intended, Beat Cal !!!). The atmosphere at Karma kitchen was exciting. I am grateful for the opportunity to meditate before we started working. I found it calming but instilling this positive energy in you at the same time. Everyone settled immediately into their volunteer roles with an amazing sense of coordination, thanks to our inspiring leaders Viral and Pavi and the KK veterans - MJ, Jazz and "gentle Susan" (I hope I got the spelling right). Viral and Pavi I must say did an excellent job in turning a bunch of amateurs into a seemingly well organized crew.

Then came the customers ! I could recall each one of the faces I saw on that day. I couldn't tell when it stopped being a restaurant and started to feel more like somebody's living room as Viral accurately described (during orientation). I was taken aback by the courtesy that these people were showing me. I was like - isn't that my job ! Serendipity was in the air. You could notice the twinkle in people's eyes when they saw the gifts being given to them. I think the "pay it forward" thing went from being a concept to realization in a matter of hours. (If only this applied to my experiments ! damn). I actually saw people forget that delicious food, which is very difficult to do and share stuff, stories (pudding of heaven), fruits, drawings with people they've just met.

If only karma kitchen served the world!

It was a genuinely happy experience for me. I loved working with all the guys volunteering there. I absolutely adore Viral and Pavi for this unconditional act of generosity that they perform so tirelessly. I think I've received a greater sense of satisfaction as compared to the efforts that I put in. I am definitely game for another day at the Karma Kitchen.

Somik: I am grateful for the opportunity to serve at KK. By meditating in a group for 20 minutes before we started, things had really slowed down for me, and although a lot of activity was going on around, I felt relaxed. Seeing a smile on the lips of patrons was special. There was one elderly gentleman who sat at a table intently poring over his book. As I walked over to give him his check, he looked up and asked if I knew that we are free. I nodded (and wished that I could be more aware of it). He asked me if my grandmother had told me that. I nodded again. And he cracked up with a big smile as he talked about the value of grandparents. And right there, in that moment, he felt like my grandfather. He told me about his life, how he'd drive taxis in Alaska for some part of the year, and study metaphysics in Berkeley for the other part, and how he didn't think it was worth the trouble to rent an apartment like other people. He lived in his van, and took his showers in the public restrooms, happy and free, studying metaphysics. And there he was at Karma Kitchen, starting a metaphysical conversation with great love!

# posted by Capital Socialist/Social Capitalist @ 9:16 AM 0 comments

Dr. Ariyaratne's talk

On Thursday, Oct 15, 2009, we had a deeply inspiring talk given by a man who has spent six decades in active service and meditation. The talk was featured prominently by the Stanford Daily.

Dr. Ariyaratne started off by sharing the secret of meditation - that of becoming a scientist of the mind. By observing what goes on in the mind, we can go toward developing equanimity. He warned us against reacting - it is always better to respond after contemplation from a space of silence than to react from a space of anxiety and confusion.

He shared the incredible story of Swami Vivekananda and Rockefeller in his own special style and reiterated Swami Vivekananda's message of trusteeship of wealth, not ownership. As he spoke about the foundation of Sarvodaya, Dr. Ari lay emphasis on spirituality and morality. This brought an excellent question from the audience - "What is the difference between spirituality and morality?" Dr. Ari said that spirituality is the space where all distinctions and labels ceased to exist. That is where we just are. Morality is a much lower idea than spirituality, where distinctions do come in. It just has been seen that those who pursue spirituality naturally follow the rules of morality. For example, a spiritual person would find it very hard to tell a lie or deceive others. His idea of morality seemed to be much larger than the dictums of any creed - they were based on universal ideas of "truth-telling" and "right action."

He made a clarion call toward developing "purushatva" or personality (or strength of character). People with a strong character and willpower can do a lot of good for themselves and society, and therefore, Sarvodaya's aim is to help develop such character and willpower.

Next, here are a few reflections that have been shared by some of those who attended the talk.

"I can relate to Dr. Ari's comment that learning doesn't happen in the universities, it happens when you're out in the field trying to put things into practice. Some of my biggest life lessons I learned from a bunch of 7 year olds as I was trying to teach them to play soccer. The 45 minute meditation was tough and totally awesome ..."

"I am very thankful for a once in a lifetime experience of meeting such a spiritual person, a true Karma Yogi, a person who took spiritual and moral principles with a deep conviction and empowered people through service and kindness. My main take away from Dr. Ariyaratne's talk is inspiration - inspiration to pursue noble silence, inspiration to follow the path that I feel is right, inspiration to pursue service with the realization that "self-belief" is very important in such endeavors - this self or I should not be limited to the physical me but should be ever expanded to include more and more people and living beings into the "I".

Dr. Ariyaratne's description of the fundamental ideas on which Sarvodaya are based provides an excellent, proven, and working model for how grassroots-level community development can occur with the right spiritual and moral focus. The existence and functioning of such an organization provides a lot of hope for the future. At the same time, I realized during the talk that I need to become actively part of such a change. I should not limit such ideas to just thoughts but convert it into action. This was another take away that I got from the wonderful talk."

"He started his talk quoting a phrase from the Dhammachakkapawattana sutta which was the Buddha's first sermon-"Chakkung udapadi----"- meaning "Vision arose, knowledge arose, wisdom arose, science arose, and light arose in me". Dr. Ari said (something like) he was inspired by these five (attributes?) of the Buddha.

He said that he would call the meditation we did at the beginning "Noble silence" because during that time we were free from the things we were accustomed to do with our six senses. Instead we were either just looking or trying to look at the constant process of breathing in and out which were are doing since our birth, or thinking of well being of others if we were doing something like loving kindness meditation.

He said that "Love is love" and there are no barriers from religion, race, etc., meaning that it is universal.

On his basic principles, he mentioned that he has adopted the gradual development at six phases-self awakening, family awakening, village awakening, city awakening, country awakening, and the world awakening - throughout his Sarvodaya movement. They all lead to the next, seems very logical."

Thanks to Christine for taking photos (note the art in the background - that was Project Love's contribution). If anyone else has photos, please do share them with us. You can also check some thought-provoking questions on Michael's blog.

Looking at the gifts that were left in the Gift Room at the end of the day, it was awesome that all the meditation handbooks are gone. We should get more at the next event. The Art Room raised some interesting questions, and Michael should be sharing the resulting art soon.

# posted by Capital Socialist/Social Capitalist @ 10:45 AM 2 comments

What is your 1000-year plan?

Imagine a speaker who starts off with the question, "What is your 1000-year plan?" This was Prof. Anil Gupta, a man who has stretched the boundaries of intellectual property rights to bring it to rural innovators, who are normally ignored by mainstream society.

Speaking to a diverse group in the Summer Quarter (Aug 2, 2009), Prof. Gupta shared the story of Shankaracharya, a young monk who started four centers of dharma in the four corners of India with a 1000-year plan of providing a beacon of guidance to humanity. These institutions still exist, a thousand years after they were founded, and inspire society with its adherence to truth and service. A more recent manifestation of this service is in the Shankar Netralaya hospital, known for its excellence in eye-care service in South India. Prof. Gupta made the point that in modern society, we are able to take out a whole town or city with a bomb. In ancient society, wherever an enlightened teacher arrived, even if it was in a forest, a new township and direction for life would emerge.

Prof. Gupta encouraged the audience to think for humanity with a horizon that reaches far beyond our lifetimes. Such a mindset would help us give priority to long-term benefits over short-term benefits, and we will find ourselves invariably thinking about what we value at our core.

He then shared his hypothesis - that innovation happens in an environment of scarcity, not abundance. Therefore, there are many innovation stories waiting to be told in the poorest communities of society, and they have much to give us in terms of creativity. To prove this, Prof. Gupta embarked on a journey across South Asia, criss-crossing village communities and becoming an observer of innovation. He became an expert on such innovations and one day, he realized that he'd made money with the knowledge imparted to him by rural innovators, and yet, his income tax return did not show any money that had gone to them. Bothered by this inequity, he decided to create a mechanism to encourage and support rural innovators.

The result is the HoneyBee Network, a massive database of innovation that takes our breath away with its expanse and creativity. The name is significant - a honeybee takes nectar from every flower and supports the flower's interest by pollinating it. It is symbolic of the symbiotic relationship we have with all beings in the universe. The network aims at catalyzing such a relationship between innovators and entrepreneurs. Prof. Gupta is perhaps the first to focus on Microventure formation (different from Microfinance, which focuses on proven businesses). Microventures are about innovations which are not yet in the market.

Here are some inspiring videos that have been produced by the network for Discovery Channel.



It was fascinating to hear that the tree-climbing apparatus in the video above was used by an east-coast professor to facilitate research on birds (yes, such researchers do need to climb trees) and to learn that tree-climbing was an unsolved problem until Appachan came along. Prof. Gupta remarked that we normally exercise on cycling machines but don't produce anything useful. Remya, the innovator behind the cycling washing machine, had managed to connect an opportunity for exercise with the need to wash clothes.

Over the course of the evening, we saw several other innovations, like the bicycle with a spring which speeds up, instead of slowing down, when going over bumps (by converting the bump into useful energy). Then, there was the man who would grind wheat on his two-wheeler. We heard about the farmers of Bangladesh, which faces famine and flood in the same year. They plant banana crops surrounded by other crops. When there is a flood, the banana crop absorbs most of the water. Later, when there is a famine, it releases this water to surrounding crops. What an ingenious discovery!

We saw the picture of a house in Kashmir, where the walls still look fresh with paint, after more than a decade. It turns out that jute powder was mixed with the paint. Jute has the property of being antibacterial, and is much cheaper than other chemicals used in hospitals to kill germs. This could revolutionize the construction of hospitals in any developing country if it were known more widely.

Finally, Prof. Gupta opined that the farmer suicides in India were preventable if the farmers had access to the innovation network. They wouldn't need to go to the market to get fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and turn their farming process into the unsustainable endeavor that it has become today. Honeybee has documented several combinations of plants that support and protect each other naturally. All of Honeybee's database is freely available to all and many of the innovations are patented, so that innovators can share in the prosperity that comes from productizing their creation, which Prof. Gupta felt would happen in the traditional markets which had such mechanisms. It was an interesting observation that innovation happens in the fringes of society, far from the markets, but to bring it to regular people, we have to get back to the mainstream markets.

Prof. Gupta is on our mentor blog, and one of these days, we will hear from him. Here is a little group photograph with some of the attendees at the end of the event (thanks to Sachi for all the photographs).

# posted by Capital Socialist/Social Capitalist @ 3:00 PM 0 comments

A Different Activity Fair

We took a table at the Stanford Activities Fair in White Plaza last Friday, from 12-4 PM. This time, it was a different activity fair for us. Our focus was to find ways of serving the community, and two voluntary activities that took place in this spirit were the distribution of an orientation document (Mental Muscle) and wisdom scrolls.

Wisdom scrolls have their genesis in Wednesdays, and are a really cool gift to pass out. They are inspirational quotes printed artistically, without any organization name on it. A mail to Viral and Pavi (from CharityFocus) and we received the entire set of quotes without any questions asked. Hafiz (from CharityFocus) shared his experience with the logistics of printing it. Varun and Sundar gifted their time to obtain funding and print out the orientation document and the scrolls. As an aside, it turns out that Sarvodaya is the first group to have requested for funding for an activity in the Activity Fair :).

On Friday, when the scrolls finally arrived at the table, it turned out that we didn't have enough time to roll all of them. Sundar hit upon a brilliant idea - we could give people the opportunity to roll scrolls as a way to pay-it-forward to the next person who visits our table. The first four to do this were MS&E Phd students. When management science meets compassion, impressive results follow. One of the Phd students (Lauren) gave us the gift of her attention to efficiency and pointed out that we should cut all the ribbons in advance so people can quickly tie up the scrolls. It made sense - and we started cutting. She then led the others in rolling enough scrolls to fill up our box!

As people started stopping by, we realized that we didn't want to talk about Sarvodaya, and yet, we had a sign-up sheet on the table. At one point, we thought we had to step it up. So we turned the sign-up sheet upside down, and made a decision not to mention signups at all, unless our visitor asked for it explicitly. The moment we made this decision, there was so much relief to be felt - we could focus on just giving.

Many stories emerged. An elderly lady stopped to give us a gift. We tagged her back with a scroll, and described the idea as "doing small things with great heart." She was so touched by it that she nodded, "that's what really counts," and left in tears.

Just when the sun couldn't shine any brighter, Audrey showed up with a pack of 6 chilled bottles of water so we could quench our thirst. We weren't expecting it - and were thrilled! We consumed two, and decided to gift the rest.

The afternoon was also an afternoon of discovery. We were placed in the community service section, and we proceeded to tag the people at the tables around us with wisdom scrolls, offering to support their activities whenever they needed help. Michael discovered a group called Project Love, which has a mission similar to ours. We tagged them of course, and have asked them to count on us for help.

Here are some thoughts shared by Sarvodaya volunteers at the table.

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Sundar Chandrasekaran: Setting up the Sarvodaya table representing “Gandhi and King’s Community” on campus is one of the beautiful instances that I will always remember, whenever I flip through the pages of my life at Stanford. Handing out wisdom scrolls and the orientation document to the new incoming students was really wonderful. What was more fulfilling to me was to see these simple gifts bring a smile on their face and touch their hearts’. Many appreciated the concept of “Pay it Forward” and jumped at the opportunity to participate by rolling up these wisdom scrolls and putting them in the box, to be received by some stranger they may never meet!

When Somik told me that there was an elderly women who started crying after experiencing the whole package of “Random Acts of Kindness” at our table, I was stunned to see the phenomenal impact of reaching directly to a person’s soul. I got to experience this myself when I was visiting other tables, randomly tagging people with our gifts. I came across some other group’s table where a girl from China was standing all alone. I went near her and said “I have a gift for you! It has no organization's name on it and it is just a random act of kindness!!”. She asked me if she could open it, and after reading the inspiring thought was so overwhelmed that she was choking and could not express her feelings. I’m sure that moment made her day and in-turn it made mine too. This got her interested in knowing about what organization I belonged to and what my group did. I could really see the pull of such simple acts of kindness! That day, I even got an opportunity to have my lunch while serving people in this manner and my food tasted better! The activities fair had a truly profound impact on me…

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Kapeesh Saraf: When I reached the activity fair, I met Sundar who was glowing from performing simple act of kindness - distributing the "Wisdom scrolls" to random strangers. He seemed to be reveling in a sense of fulfilment from the service he was performing. I was a little surprised by this. I was aware how good these simple kindnesses and gifts can make one feel, but maybe because I hadn't done something like that myself in a while, I couldn't quite get it.

After a while, I picked up a couple of water bottles (at Somik's insistence) and decided to look for people who looked thirsty. I found a couple of people sitting at a table in the activities fair with empty bottles in front of them. I walked up, told them what I was doing and gave them the water bottles. They were pleasantly surprised by this, and it was cool to see them smile and appreciate the gesture. In that sense, the power of random acts of kindness did dawn upon me.

On a more philosophical note, living in India for so long has inured me to not being too nice to random people. The concept of just doing small acts of goodness and letting the message spread does seem like a beautiful one. I don't (yet) believe that this is the only or best way to create value or change in the world. On the contrary, these small acts of kindness sometimes make us feel that we are doing more than our fair share of goodness and keep us from engaging more intensely in helping those in need.

That said, it sure as hell is good to just be nice!

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Michael Zeligs: Read Michael's inspiring post here and feel free to respond on our mailing list.

# posted by Capital Socialist/Social Capitalist @ 3:20 PM 0 comments

Talk by Dan Pallotta is now online

Dan Pallotta's talk which was co-sponsored by Sarvodaya along with the Decisions and Ethics Center is finally online, courtesy of the Stanford Center for Professional Development.

For those of you who've missed Dan's talk, you can watch it embedded in this post below.

For those receiving this post through email, you can view Dan's talk on Blip TV.

# posted by Capital Socialist/Social Capitalist @ 9:59 PM 0 comments

Madhu and Meghna's visit to Stanford

Madhu and Meghna are modern-day heroes, who've followed their heart to serve society by making films that inspire us to serve. We had the good fortune last Saturday to hear their personal story, interspersed with clips of films they've made and films they've inspired others to make. It all started when, at a critical moment of decision-making, they received a $3,000 state-of-the-art film camera with a smile card. Until that point, they were wavering, with their heart was pulling them to start a venture to inspire spiritual filmmaking in India, but their pockets were empty. To this day, they do not know who gifted them the camera. But they took the gift as a sign that when there is a great desire to do good, the means will follow.

So, Madhu and Meghna decided to trust the universe and start their journey, and boy, what a journey! They've founded Mam Movies (Mam means "I am" in Sanskrit), which among other things, organizes a yearly event, titled "I am the Change," where 101 filmmaker teams get paired with 101 NGOs to tell stories of service in 101 hours. The event is a work-in-progress with Madhu and Meghna innovating on the format each year. Here is their open-source film store (where everything on display is a gift). Bringing the gift economy to filmmaking is a terrific idea. A new initiative of Mam Movies is Metta Media.

We've snagged them to blog for Sarvodaya (check Whole Films), so stay tuned on their adventures. Their work is a great gift to society and we are very grateful to have been touched by these two unique individuals and we look forward to a future visit from them.

Here are some photographs from their visit:

Group Discussions...	Madhu explaining a point...
Sarvodaya and CharityFocus friends..	Varun, Meghna and Kapeesh..

Outside the Bechtel International Center, Stanford University

# posted by Capital Socialist/Social Capitalist @ 11:16 AM 1 comments

Cylinders of Success

Last week, about 25 students and community members attended a 2-hour workshop with Jullien Gordon, the "Purpose Finder". With Jullien as our fearless leader, we each answered the golden question: What is my personal and professional purpose?

Jullien has developed a day-long course, called "Driving School for Life", that leads students through a process of articulating one's own purpose. The analogy he takes is of an automobile: to drive smoothly along the highway of life, we need to make sure we have all the essential components. The components are what he calls the 8 P's, a.k.a. 8 cylinders of Success: Principles (my dashboard), Passions (my keys), Problems (my fuel), People (my motor), Positioning (my lane), Pioneers (my pace cars), Picture (my road map), and Possibility (my momentum). Jullien has carefully conducted research on personal and professional success (Csikszentmihalyi, Gladwell, Poras et. al.) and studied many of world's most successful/happy/passionate people (Bill Gates, Oprah, Steve Irwin the "Crocodile Hunter"). The Driving School is a systematic process for putting each of us on a path to living in alignment with the common themes Jullien found in his research.

We went through filling out our 8 cylinders on beautiful posters that Jullien had for each of us. We also did some interesting activities.

Among the favorites were:

• Filling out the 'Dashboard': What are three ways I measure my success in life and work?
• Writing out careers that start with each letter of the alphabet, from A-Z. Lesson: There are so many things out there that we can do; open yourself up to the possibility
• Text message 3 friends, asking them what they think you are passionate about (loved this one!)
• Taking your keys out of your pocket and asking yourself, "What are all of these keys for, and do I really need them?" One student had a house key and a duplicate on the same chain :)

Personally, I got a lot out of the course. I realized that my number-one passion is currently meditation :) since I make time for it even when I don't have any time. The course concludes with writing a personal purpose statement. I arrived (and was quite delighted) with "Improve my community through self-improvement". I think the most valuable aspect of the course was being walked through the process of actually articulating (on paper) things that often just stay floating in your head. I think this helps focus on concrete objectives, and, at least in my case, helps reveal one's true motivations and intentions.

I wasn't the only one who felt the power of the course. Jullien received numerous comments about how helpful they found it. I observed smiles all around :) I think one great testament to the value was that most of the students stuck through the course even though we started an hour late and a band was blaring next door for the final 20 minutes :)


It was really inspirational to be with Jullien. The man oozes positive energy. A 26-year-old who has found his life's passion, is unflinchingly pursuing it, and doing it all while positively impacting others and keeping a smile on his face. Just amazing. He traveled especially from NY to give us this special 2-hour version of his course, which was itself offered as a gift to us (the full course has a fee). Not to mention he offers Driving School for Life as part of his full time business while also writing a book. Don't know how he packs it all in, but I do know he's one of those cars on the highway of life that you look at and just admire. Keep riding brother!

# posted by Neil Patel @ 12:16 AM 0 comments