Almost one year of posting in Mumbai as Assistant Commissioner is getting over. Till December I really did not have much time to think anything other than the income tax assessment. With a constant assurance to my Senior Tax Assistant that the work will be considerably lesser in the coming months, I somehow got the work done from her. Then came a small little lull in the month of January only for the coming storm of pending appeal effects, unattended rectifications, consolidating arrear and demand collection register along with understanding and reconciling the figures of CAP I report. I had to demonstrate everything to my Sr TA by doing it myself. And had to bear her constant complaints that she was doing calculations for the first time after her high school. Somehow, I got the works for Jan and Feb done only to know and realize that I am far behind in the terms of collection of taxes. The month of March saw a hell lot of work with constant pestering, phone calls, persuasion, voice modulations and face changes to recover the demands which I had raised in the first year of my assessment. I finally succeeded to recover majority of the demand in which I felt that the assessee will not win at the appellate stage. It finally culminated in the making of CAP I report myself so as to depict correctly the work done by me.

The first year left on me a kind of mixed feeling. While I am very happy that I could do all the works assigned to me with the highest efficiency I could offer, yet the staff crunch and lack of supportive systems practically tested my endurance like anything. And the biggest bravery is that you have to have a smiling face despite all this.

Having said this, apart from meeting all the professional targets, something else happened in between. From somewhere, I heard the name of Tapovan Swami. He was the Guru of Swami Chinmayanand. I searched on net and found that his most acclaimed book is ‘Iswara Darshan’. Originally written in Sanskrit, then translated to Malayalam and subsequently to English, this book has come out as a result of pious life of a greatly courageous man. Each and every word of this book has to be read very carefully as we had read ‘Concepts of Physics’ by HC Verma for JEE. This book suddenly invigorated my basic propensity, striving for Bhagvan. I had almost forgotten spirituality in my quest to understand and master Income-tax Act. A sure relief from that, I started reading all major works of Tapovan Swami, Swami Chinmayananda and others. A brief list is as follows:-

  1. Iswara Darshan
  2. Wanderings in the Himalayas
  3. Kailas Yatra
  4. Commentary on Bhagvad Geeta by Swami Chinmayananda
  5. Sanskrita Prabodhini by Swami Pragyatirtha
  6. Bhakti Yoga by Swami Niranjananada
  7. Shiv Puran
  8. Soordas Bhajan
  9. Shrimad Gyaneshwari by Sant Gyaneshwar of Maharashtra
  10. Sowmya Kaseesha Stotram
  11. Astavakra Geeta
  12. Commentary of Shankaracharya on Geeta

The list goes on and on. I am still into all this. After a lot of introspection, reading, thinking and professional working, what has culminated is as follows:-

Never neglect Bhagvan in your day-to-day activities. Make Him the centre point of your existence. Make His pleasure as the single goal of your life. Follow His orders as enshrined in Geeta. Do all your duties, personal, professional and spiritual, with highest possible efficiency and least possible attachment. In all honesty, go through the scriptures with submissive mindset in a regular fashion. This world is not a place which you can ignore. Professional excellence is an absolute must.

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