The Primacy of life - Privacy!

Nowadays nothing is private: our culture has become too confessional and self-expressive. People think that to hide one’s thoughts or feelings is to pretend not to have those thoughts or feelings. They assume that honesty requires one to express every inclination and impulse.

Adapted from J. David Velleman, "The Genesis of Shame"

Should people make more of an effort to keep some things private? 

21st century is an era of technology where agility and might are the only dominating factors. The world has turned out to be a global village with the advent of internet communication. Just a click and you're connected to a pal in the extreme pole! A coin can't help but have obverse and reverse for it is the very essence of existence! The introduction of the all-pervading social networks has exposed the individuals. It has made exchange of ideas and innovations easy but at the same time has throttled the privacy of men. Certainly each individual must have his or her own private space.

J K Rowling said, "we do not need magic to transform our world, all the power that we need is already within us"! Each individual is intrinsically unique and is bestowed with a quality or a style that has never been replicated in the past or will never be! Thus each one of us has the right to keep certain things private. It is a proven fact in psychology that people of like minds and having similar patterns of thoughts understand one another better. The same paradigm is apparent in our age old adage - birds of like feather flock together! A jigsaw puzzle can only fit into its complement and not otherwise, howsoever hard I may try. Similarly, it is simply impossible for a man of other mettle to understand the plight of his mate, howsoever munificent he may be! For a stinky rich man, it is impossible to digest that having buttermilk is a luxury! The frequencies don't match and the signals get dissipated in vain! Therefore, it is necessary that certain things must not be exposed for none other than our own selves are capable of understanding it.

People often get fussy when it comes to sharing things in public. Sometimes it not only robs them of their self-respect but also poisons relationships. Gossiping is the original sin that exists in humanity ever since Adam ate the apple of knowledge. It is not apt to blame any single individual; neither you nor me. But nonetheless no one can deny the existence of garrulous lot of guys and girls that keep on rambling for no substantial reason. Not all matters are worth sharing in public. For instance, if I go bankrupt I will certainly not like the condescending attitude of my neighbors. Instead all that I would need is motivation. But the society is full of cynical people seeking for an opportunity to hail derides upon the wretched! Thus it is detrimental at certain points in time to share our hearts out in public.

Apart from that there are also times in life where sharing our predicaments with others would only make them more sorrowful. Gandhiji, the epitome of truth, said that it is not a sin to lie for the betterment of others! If such a man as him is asking us to respond to the spur of the moment, we must really sleep upon his avowal! Even amidst the doldrums, where the patient is hovering over the eerie borderline of no-return, the doctor will always try to create a cozy and heralding milieu for him or her to convalesce. In such a case if the doctor does share his mind, it would only serve to aggravate the destitute beyond recovery! 'The Last Leaf' by O' Henry is a perfect embodiment of the above mentioned scenario! Keeping things a secret at times is the only way out!

It is clear from the above assertions that privacy is an essential element for us all. Without privacy it is difficult to survive. It is not true that the relations are judged on 'how much' you ventilate but it all depends on 'what all' you ventilate! Quality gains primacy over quantity! Anything that serves for the well-being of others or for our own selves is salutary. In situations where privacy plays the mellifluous tones of magic, it indeed is a boon to mankind!

The Yin and the Yan......

"In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story." - Walter Cronkite

Do you agree with Walter Cronkite that it's necessary to see both sides of an issue in order to discover the truth?

The symbol of judicial systems is a blindfolded lady bearing in her arms a weighing pan. The telling feature of this emblem is the blind fold. It is the disinterested person (NOT uninterested!) who can judge an issue impartially or serve as an arbiter. Bias in any wake of life whatsoever only causes us to lean more towards our predilections sheathing and distorting the absolute truth on the way.

“Every coin has two sides.” The life is full of paradoxes such as the yin and the yen. The facade of every reality cannot be deciphered without the complete knowledge. For instance, the media may air the massacre and condemn the army for it. This in turn would enrage the public. But it may be possible that the army had no alternative to prevent the outbreak from spreading far and wide. A rotten body part must be severed ere it consumes the salubrious whole in its flagrant flares!

Blind leads the blind. It is in the ‘dark night of the soul’ that we become the Ba Ba sheep. In the sheep mentality one does not think for oneself and falls an easy prey to his own orthodoxies, and prejudices. Our religions are perhaps the most striking examples of this type. The Muslims, the Hindus, the Christians and the 300 other categories hold on firmly to their tenets and become blood thirsty bigots slaying in the ‘holy name’ of ‘Proselytization’.

It is extremely vital for us to digest the wholesome reality. Chemistry of elements can be used to elucidate the importance of the full picture. The organic compounds, esp. nitro compounds, can be of great industrial utility provided one knows the ‘Safety temperature range’! Heating them beyond a certain temperature can spell disaster and can put you behind the bars for incendiarism!

Assessing a given situation from a holistic viewpoint one must look at the pros and the cons alike without favoring one over the other. Prejudices always are so very cloying and difficult to part from but at the end of the day they only serve to make us the frogs of the well. Be it pure sciences, religion or our very judicial systems one cannot accede to lopsided views or he or she is to defeat the cause he or she sought to foster.

The opportune obstacles!

"When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you, and be a loser. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure." - Mary Kay Ash

What is your view of the idea that every obstacle can be turned into an opportunity?

“You are stronger than you think and bolder than you believe yourself to be.” What lies ahead of us  and what has passed are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Some call it the snoring serpent, others call it Christ. Call it what you will but the entire energy of this infinite universe has been converged to an iridescent spot within this marvelous human form. To it nothing is impossible; even the obstacles can be converted to opportunities.

“Say to the yonder mountain, be thy removed and it shall be and nothing is impossible unto you.” Bible in its unfathomable wisdom reveals that humans are invincible, redoubtable creatures but their very nature. To such an obstinate will the seemingly indomitable obstacles cannot in a millennium serve as a deterrent. The positive outlook and the desire to grow, in its scintillating pencil of photons, makes the obstacles shine as a prospective opportunity.

The epitome of love and devotion Meera, in her unshakable fidelity towards lord Krishna, turned the noxious poison into a cup of elixir. At the verge of extreme passion does one transcend the limitations of physical barriers and enters into a dimensionally larger world where he or she experiences utter freedom and eternity where even the slightest shadow of an impediment is not palpable. Hence it is possible to turn an obstacle into opportunity.

The effervescent is not put down even but the most heart-breaking of the hindrances. He looks at every obstacle as a challenge to outgrow his present skin of limitation as does a snake! He endeavors consciously to awaken the giant within him while the cynical in his myopic and rotten outlook towards the world has got the nerve to transform even the opportunity into an obstacle!

 The number of permutations in this universe are practically infinite, and with the possibilities for individuals. To a will that obdurately fastens itself to an ideal, hauls it to the point of asphyxiation, unto it be glory! Such a person in his life full of cheerful optimism is able to focus on the odorous roses instead of focusing upon the prickly thistles. 

Fantasy is more important than knowledge

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has mean more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge." - Albert Einstein

"There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste." - Jahann Wolfgang von Goethe

Do you believe that fantasy or imagination is more important than knowledge?

The hieroglyphics of the antediluvian caves and the tapestries of the unknown centuries give insight into the intriguing human psychology. Even at present the traits of the Neanderthals permeate the lank strands of the infinitesimal building blocks of the body – that the scientists call DNA – and program us to readily decipher the pictorial and auditory impulses better than the dry information. In the light of this assertion it is evident that fantasy is more essential than knowledge.

Henry David Thoreau says that it is in the uncommon hours that we meet with success undreamt of on the quotidian plane. The great thinkers of our century like Napoleon Hill (the author of think and grow rich), Yoda, and William Blake have all emphasized on the psychological counterpart of the physical action. All great ideas descend in the pensive mood akin to that of words worth in the poem Daffodils.

Buddha said, “It is with our thoughts that we make our world.”  Eminent philosophers such as Neville goddard and Abrahm Hicks have asked us to ‘let go off the canoe.’ To push and pull causes strain while to allow oneself to fantasize the solutions of the perennially reiterating problems actually transforms our perspective enabling us to become more receptive greater knowledge.

The esoteric psychobabble is bemusing as such but is instrumental at this point in time. There are four brain frequencies: Alpha, Beta, theta and Delta. It is the lower frequencies of Theta and Delta where we fell rejuvenated. After a hectic, worked-up period of time the human brain needs relaxation or the fragile neurons would perish. Thus from a physical stance knowledge comes only because of the revitalizing effect produced by fantasizing.

A deep incision in the flesh – as many doctors have tried to – cannot find the soul. Similarly though not evinced, the function of imagination has to be discerned intuitively. Although it is not an empirical method we do find the veracity of above mentioned truths that fantasizing boosts one’s physical as well as mental acuity, enhances one’s self-esteem, and goads us to march forward to excavate the colossal mines of ‘formidable’ knowledge that abates the intricacies of life! 

There are no ugly things

“I never saw an ugly thing in my life; for let the form of an object be what it may – light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.” – John Constable

“If there is one thing worse than being an ugly duckling in a house of swans, it’s having the swans pretend there’s no difference.” – Teena Booth

Assignment: Is it true that there are no ugly things?

The ‘visor may be thatched but in there live Jove says Don Pedro a Shakespeare’s character in his play Much Ado About Nothing’! “Nothing is unclean of itself, but to him who esteemeth it to be unclean, to him it is unclean (Bible).“ The quintessence of human form lies deep within the heart of men – unadulterated as it were. Howsoever appalling or doggish the looks of our fellow mates may be, in there dwells the Juno’s swans, bubbling with unabated love and elated effervescence.

Appraising the phenomena of this vast universe and commending the theories and postulates of Quantum physics it is simply juvenile and imbecile to stick to the physical aspect of universe, for all is energy says the Physicists. And energy is formless! The apparent form (and thus the matter) is but an illusion of the incompetent senses!

The physical beauty is only one facet of this variegated reality. The seers of untold centuries – the antediluvian – have accentuated upon the everlasting spirit, the soul. The body is but a transient abode in its perpetual journey. The formless, the ever-free, the omnipresent, the omniscient, and the inexplicable is the self-definition of our lord – the ‘I AM’ as it is mentioned in the Bible. This eternal being cannot be construed by the senses. The evanescent body along with its beauty is like a bubble of a soap that may burst at any moment! The body is just a functional apparatus through which the almighty functions in diverse ways. Thus to categorize men or even for that matter inanimate things into beautiful and ugly is a folly. That which of its own self has no existence, that which is non-luminescent, how can it be ugly or beautiful? It simply is that which it is! And the spirit within, the part of the lord, how can it be a sinner?

The apartheid regime and the discrimination on the basis of skin color has stained our mother earth ever since. The caste and creed have left us in a deplorable state. The ‘tanned’ president of US, Barak Obama leave no room for the slightest scruple pertaining to the mettle of men! His efficiency and laudatory services to the world are unequalled. The world has witnessed millions of men such as Ashtavakra who in their demeanor were mutilated but indeed turned out to be enlightened masters. The verses of Ashtavakra - conserved in what is called the Mahageeta - resonate and goad the hearts of many somnambulist Bodhisattavas till date.  

Thus beauty to me is a figment of man’s imagination. And with the uprooting of the good, the evil must subside as it is the obverse of the same coin. The real essential part of the universe remains a conundrum even to the most erudite of the elites - beyond the classification by empirical scientific methods. Hence nothing of itself is ugly!

Ethics

Many people believe that being honest and honorable limits their options, their opportunities, their very ability to succeed. Unfortunately, in today’s me-first culture, ethics may be the only thing people choose to live without! They believe they have only two choices: 1 to win by doing whatever it takes, even if it is wrong, or 2 to be ethical and therefore lose. Few people set out to be dishonest, but nobody wants to lose.

Adapted from John C. Maxwell, There’s no such thing as “Business” Ethics.

Assignment: Does being ethical make it hard to successful? Plan and write an essay in which yo develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observation.

The zephyrs of the antediluvian – the ‘golden era’ have long been subdued. The glacial fangs of the nefarious times are the harbingers of the hum drums that we are to face in the 21^st century. As the does the snake shed off his skin, the humanity has peeled off the overcoat of ethics.

Morality and ethics, in a world that is driven by selfish motives, are redundant.  The politicians would vehemently and vociferously stand against what is known as corruption. I beg your pardon but I must redraft the old maxim – “Money is mightier than mind.’ Howsoever intellectual one may be, the proponents of materialistic avarice undermine his or her intelligence. At all places be it an honorary place of office or a pre-primary school the odds of the ones carrying those jingling pennies are greater than the ones bereft of them! Such is the trend!

The use of treachery or the slight-of-hand is but validated in our scriptures. Way back in the Dwapar era Lord Krishna goaded and exhorted Arjuna to pick up his weapons against the vagabonds of Dhritrashtra – the nadir of his blood line. To defeat and combat the evil one must get into his shoes and turn out in his attires. The epitome of truth had to bring in a ‘half-man’ to conquer the invincible Bhishma. Duryodhana was killed by manipulating the norms of a duel! Had it not been for all these, just Pandavas would never have been able to be victorious over the despotic Kavravas!

The egotistical attitudes of people are not lithe. Though it is said that virtue and truth are the best policies, it is not always the case. Gandhiji the man of truth and wisdom is reported to have approved of avoiding truth that aids to disparage others. A loving and encouraging milieu uplifts an individual way beyond the mundane ways of admonishing him or her.  Truth, virtue and the like may be rendered futile at some instant or the other. Although it is not a virtue to lie but to divulge the fact that one’s father has passed away at a time when he or she is stuck in a quagmire equally a sin.

The life is a mixture of sweet and bitter experiences spun intricately together from time immemorial. Virtue, moral and ethics are too stern and rigid to comply with the fluid, licentious world that we thrive in today. However a good blend of the ‘yin and yan’ will always make a nourishing, succulent and palatable plate, far removed from the vicissitudes of the saccharine or the acrimonious served alone!

Things do not change; we change

“Things do not change; we change.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Do we ourselves cause change in our lives by making certain decisions, or are we acted upon by events that happen around us?

Robert Frost in his poem, “The road not taken” states that “I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference” and “ages hence I shall remember it with a sigh.” Yes the sigh could be of fervent euphoria or a cynical penitence but the bottom line cries out from the verses that it was ‘I’ who decided to take the road less traveled by. Hence it is the personal decision of an individual that affects or afflicts him or her!

The entire human race has got an intelligible nerve to shake off all the responsibilities off its shoulders. We the couch potatoes – lying under snug, cozy bed sheets – blame the distant planets and constellations for marring our destiny, which is nothing but an act of complacency.

The circle of causes and effects is bewildering to the non-initiated. Osho in his book the ‘My way: The way of the white clouds’ lucidly mentions that ‘act as if the actor isn’t there and in the very acting will you become free of the despotic, tyrannical secondary causes beyond you.’ Thus it is solely our decision to do or to refrain from doing something that changes us and not the secondary cause (Events of life)!

The sheer force of human will has obliterated the most intimidating of the obstacles and has penetrated the darkest valleys of oblivion.  Medical science has combated fatal diseases such as T.B., astronauts have traveled far beyond our own solar system and the oceanographers have illumined the heretofore unexplored hearts of the ocean. Where there is will, there definitely is a way (and perchance if it isn’t, it shall be concocted)!

This ambidextrous creature has almost demystified this so-called unfathomable universe! Bible says, “Let the weak man say I’m strong!” The quintessence of every soul has the capacity to manifest unprecedented grandeur! Thus to assume a demeanor of a sheep and to bloat that the events shape our destiny and not our conscious decisions is an affront to our own divine nature! 

Teaching cannot induce learning

“If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others. One who ceases to learn cannot adequately teach.” – Tryon Edwards, Dictionary of Thoughts

Do you think that teaching something to another person can help you to lean or master a subject or process?

In the blockbuster movie ‘Lucy, Lucy herself asks a telling question, “What should I do with all these information that is welling up within me – Applied Mathematics, Quantum Physics etc.” and the professor gives the most trite of the responses, “pass it on!” The prokaryotes, the unicellular organisms since the advent of life on this planet has carried out this function of passing it on! As the fatuous beings grew more convoluted the idea of teaching came intro picture but I refute the assertion that teaching catalyzes learning.

The chief impedance on the way is arrogance. The pedestal of a teacher is quite exacting and at the same time equally respectable. Not all people can remain what they began their lives with. Gobs of us are so yielding that we often tend to condone to what we shouldn’t. The moment we rise to a podium we often become supercilious and look down upon others with a condescending attitude.

Spider man said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” To be a teacher is to accede the responsibility of a million tender lives, which in no case can be compromised. At any unseasonable instant should the teacher be available for his or her pupil. This life-time commitment saves no time for the progress of the teacher. A subject is too vast to be palatable and thus without enough leisure time learning in constrained schedule is not fruitful.

Learning is the most innovative act in the universe and never in an epoch will the same cliché be repeated. Mastering a subject demands ingeniousness which is not possible in the mechanical teaching-learning process. I may regurgitate flawlessly ‘my textbook’ without even knowing of the whereabouts of my neighbor!

Owing to the mechanical form of teaching and learning, the intimidating challenge it poses and the pitfalls of becoming haughty (which altogether curbs the possibility of any learning) it is evident that re-iterating the known will not add anything to that which already exists – for to gain something novel, one must do something out of the box – which at least is not teaching I must say! 

Procrastination is an ill

“Never do today what you can do tomorrow. Something may occur to make you regret your premature action.” – Aaron Burr

Do you agree with Aaron Burr that it’s wisest to put things off if you van?

“The slow and steady wins the race.” We know from the wisdom of antiquated ages that the assiduous, the industrious and the ingenious takes the loftier part of the cake.  The tenets to be successful and to be able to reap the golden rye are succinct simple: “Work more than others, expect less than others”, said Shakespeare. Pardon my officious intrusion but I must augment the list; be on time whenever possible.

Punctuality ameliorates the chances of success. In international organizations and firms one has to face indomitable competition. To secure a fortress in such a place one must accomplish the task at hand or more than that. The sooner the betters, for if I do not my colleague will outwit me by ingratiating my employers and thereby curb my chances to an incandescent future.

What must be done, has to be done whether today or tomorrow. Just out of torpid, languid and phlegmatic proclivities if I put something off to tomorrow, the possibilities are that I might as well not do it tomorrow!  History merely repeats itself – without exceptions, even though it may take an epoch! So the best policy is to force each nerve and sinew to do it today.

It is not always possible to get a more propitious prospect in the future. At times in life if one misses the chance he or she misses it forever and the future is overshadowed with murk indefinite. The best example that serves to elucidate this purpose is that of finding a suitor; it is better to settle for a so-so partner than to look for an impeccable piece of flesh and then to get frustrated not finding one – for there is none!

The cons follow the pros as the confounding might follows the day, yet one must outweigh the other! In this case we see that ‘pros’ of being on time outweighs the cons of procrastinating! Thus we must seize the moment and forget all about the future and pour our unreserved energy into the task at hand, never finding any excuses to put it off to tomorrow.

Personal Happiness is a personal choice

“I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life, than on the nature of those events themselves:

Which do you think contributes more to personal happiness: What happens to you or the way you respond to what happens?

Imagine an outing at your favorite inn. You’re being served the succulent sizzles and the manna-dew. Amidst the salubrious, cozy and Utopian milieu comes the waiter and spills the sauce all over your pristine dress! Now there are two options at your disposal; react and spoil your composure or respond and get the better of the predicament. However to my temperament the latter suits the better!

Abrahm hicks said that “if you will pay more attention to what is flowing from you towards something rather than focusing on your ill-fortunes things will go better right away.” Bible time and again reiterates that “give ye joy for mourning and beauty for ashes.” Spirituality consists of teaching an individual the art of responding to the most domineering and egregious conditions so that he or she can transform the prickly thistles to fragrant flowers.

It is not possible to create a completely favorable environment. Even the wealthiest person is unhappy because of ill-health; one may be sick of poverty, and yet another of ill-relationships – the list is perpetual. We can, with a little effort, see that is humanly impossible to grab hold of each amenity under the sun and thus should learn to appreciate the worth of what we have instead of weeping for the elusive!

Happiness at its root arises from a divine understanding of this drama of life. It is said that Buddha was a Bhikhhu – a beggar – but acted as if he were an emperor of the emperors! The consciousness of men is beyond the worldly bondage and thus it is simply insane to say that the external world adds to happiness. Bliss and joy are ethereal and thus omnipresent; what happens on the periphery is immaterial, what actually matters is our response towards the occurrence.

Scrutinizing and evaluating the grand scheme of things men must claim and assert his freedom over the material world by not letting it intrude in his territory of being which is all happiness. Understanding the real nature of evanescent and the imperishable, the frivolous grievances, futile prying and all sorts of ‘involuntary reflexes’ must stop. The moment we begin to ‘respond’ the adversities stop acting as if they were the berlin blockade and change to the doors that Saint Peter guards – as did the banished Duke Senior in ‘As you like’ written by William Shakespeare!

Motivation vs Talent

“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”  - Muhammad Ali

If you want to become an expert in a certain field, do you need to have more talent or more motivation?

“Who dares, wins.” Alex pang said, “Alas! If you could see what I see when I look at you.” The loftiest of the masterpieces of the world did once been brew in the minds and hearts of individuals and their embodiment in flesh was only the manifestation of a dogged, inexorable will that obliterated even the most domineering of the obstacles. Yes it is true that motivation is superior to talent in that it engenders the latter.

The Indian intellectual giant who shook the world with his mesmerizing intellect was Dr. A.P.J Kalam. A man in rags who had no sophisticated luxuries to cajole him dreamt of achieving something grandiose and in course did out-step the expectations of the world. Bob proctor, Albert Einstein (labelled by his teachers as a student incompetent to study) and the like were all at inceptions a dew drop in the vast ocean of life, barely noticed, but by their sheer ‘audacious will’ they accomplished that which the so–called talented scholars called impossible.

Mystics such as Neveille Goddard and Abrahm Hicks have ever since taught us to treat the external world is an extension of the psychological world that we create. “All that befalls a man is his own doing.” “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” It is upon the likeliness of the image that one holds of oneself, that he or she molds himself or herself into. The root cause of all action can be found by the digging into the immensely fecund land of one’s mind.

Like wright brothers each innovation has inevitably to pass through the bitter pangs of acrid pans, followed contemptuous mockery and finally through acclaim unabated! The most fragile and momentous moments are when one’s efforts are severely chastised. It is in these moments that a talented man may, of lack of motivation and will, stoop lower than the nadir while a meagerly talented man, sanguinely self-motivated, rises higher than the zenith.

Rudyard Kipling rightly said in his didactic poem ‘If’ that “men must never heave a word of his loss” and “must serve his turn long after its gone.” The wheels of talent alone would be gridlocked by the adversities on the perilous path, had it not been for the fuel of motivation to come to its rescue! Motivation has the ethereal might of summoning and shaking the deep-seated talents to life, to raise the ‘Lazerus’ from the dead; however the vice-versa isn’t true!

Happiness is an inner job

“No one is contended in this world, I believe. There is always something left to desire, and the last thing longed for always seems the most necessary to happiness.” – Marrie Corelli, A Romance of Two Worlds

Do you think that people are capable of finding happiness or are they always searching for something beyond what they have?

“Happiness is an inner job; do not seek it without”, said the great Indian enlightened Master Buddha. At the core of life is the very yearning of the eternal soul to seek fulfilment and complement that it ‘seemingly’ lacks. Alas! The utopian world is but a figment of imagination nowhere to be found. We live in a world that is full of itinerants, that try to wade their way to the fountain of happiness and are thus always in the vain quest of augmenting something more to the already abundant stream of life!

Leo Tolstoy in his story, “how much land does a man require” emphasizes the insatiable desire of humans. Like Pakhom many of us are in a rat race to grab materialistic possessions to which there is virtually no end and thus the bitter defeat is an inevitable consequence - the very desire serves as a deterrent.

In a land that is rife with paupers and half-starved mendicants the very idea of happiness is worthy of heaps of derides. Until and unless the basic necessities of an individual such as food are full filled he or she cannot make any progress toward the higher realms where he or she can find happiness in its true sense. A hungry man can never enjoy the mellifluous notes of Beethoven nor can he digest the sublime wisdom of the bible or the Gita!

Apart from abject poverty and ravenous desire that ignites unquenchable thirst, the soul of men seems to be ravished and blemished! Our myopic outset is the root cause of psychological troubles. Our political, economic and social structure that promotes capitalism will never allow an individual to be at rest with his or her own self lest he or she be made of some different mettle than clay and mud!

The golden age must have been the far-fetched illusion that pulls the curtains down upon the reality at the horizon! Happiness inherently is the virtue that springs forth from the deep of men but to search for the ephemeral – the fleeting is our nature! This is the greatest of the paradoxes – our search for more than we have – and thus we are bound to fail in our endeavors to be happy by burgeoning to the titanic vessel!

Failure is impossible

“Failure is impossible.” – Susan B. Anthony

Is it really impossible to fail? Are some failures simply unsuccessful attempts to accomplish what we set out to do, or do all failures ultimately provide some benefit, even if we can’t see it right away?

Susan Jeffers said, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” Who dares, wins. Failure and success happen to be the obverse and reverse of the same coin. The creator of this universe has not endowed even a single soul with infallible precociousness. Thus it is idiosyncratic trait of humans to fail, but failure doesn’t imply a full stop. Success is only a result of a thousand failures and hence the apparent failures are no failures at all but are blessings in disguise! it is simply impossible to fail!

Thomas Alva Addison – the inventor of the light bulb- failed a thousand times and said, “I’ve only found a thousand ways that don’t work!” People like Walt Disney have suffered great setbacks in their lives before they succeeded. In fact Disney attributed his success to the ‘kicks in the teeth that he received’. Even the ‘Upanishads’ show us the path of Neti-Neti (neglecting all untruth till one finds the truth). Thus the failures are like embellishments on the petticoat of a bashful maiden!

The iconoclasts and the heretics dominate the world. The radical people have throughout the history ousted the orthodoxical ones! Taking instances from history, people like Bhagat Singh have ignited hearts of individuals. The French revolution may have failed in its immediate motive to overthrow the haughty imperialism but in the longer run it did succeed. Thus we see that failure is impossible!

Failure and success are more or less the fixated belief systems that people bear. A Chinese proverb says, “A man who believes it cannot be done must not stop the one who is doing it.” The pessimistic turns the greatest of the fanfare into self-abasing caricature while the optimistic people have the knack of transforming the woes to hey-nonny-no!

Failure as such exist for the ones who believe that they do! Success and failures are subjective realities. Success is light and failure is dark; the great cause of the night is the lack of luminescence! Therefore the apparent failures must be - just as a philosopher’s stone converts base metal into gold – transmuted to success. The great valor and aptitude needed for the voyage is faithfully stuffed and ingrained with most munificent air of charity by the all mighty!  

Complaints

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” – Maya Angelou

Do you agree with Maya Angelou that it’s pointless to complain?

Ships are safe at the harbor but they aren’t meant to be moored there. The cuckoo at a distant tree in its euphonious notes calls out every morning as though it were challenging us to wade through the arduous life. Life is a daunting challenge, and looking at the plethora of things out there it is quite impossible for everything to fit our own whims and fancies. If we can we must, if we can’t, we mustn’t complain.

Peevishness and grumbling is an attitude of the sick, impoverished and the idle. The ideal breeding ground of negativity is idleness, for an empty mind is a devil’s home. When something falls out of our circle of influence to brood over our misfortune only exacerbates the present misery. If we are to be healthy and whole we must cast off all evils that deter us. Complaining serves only o waste our own previous time in vain and drains us off our verve without solving the grievance.

The productivity of men is directly proportional to his mental equanimity and freshness. The most ingenious of the ideas descend to us only when we are receptive to them. Amidst doldrums a person inherently becomes a pessimistic. And a pessimist not only fails in his personal life but also his social and interpersonal life. Therefore it is immaterial instrumental for one to avoid complaining if things cannot be changed.

A trash can cannot help but litter around. The only bounty it can afford to bestow unto others is malodor! Similarly a person who has tried and could not fork a desired change will be full of such self-itty and remorse (if he takes to complaining) This kind of a person will spread his noxious and lethal vibe to the very South Pole and infect even the most sturdy ad robust of us! A rotten mangoes has the potential to spoil the entire foliage and hence such people are pernicious villains to the well-being of the entire world!

The errand of life is the length of string - with a limited provision – that at any instant may be strained by Atropos! The emerald opportunity may slip away unnoticed, if we do not make wise use of it. Swami Vivekananda said, “To lose faith is worse than to be defeated.”  Not all things can change, after all we are all mortals and mortals shall we abide! To concede to this supreme reality and never air a complaint is authentic wisdom. 

Beautiful things can come from unpromising beginnings

“During a biology class on metamorphosis, a teacher showed her class a series of pictures. The first was of a caterpillar. The next was of the caterpillar forming a chrysalis. The last was of a beautiful monarch butterfly emerging from its cocoon. One student was so impressed by this that he wrote in his notebook: ‘beautiful things can come from unpromising beginnings.” – Jen Defulimakis, Collected Writings

Do you agree that “beautiful things can come from unpromising beginnings?”

The eastern spiritual undercurrent uses the symbol of a ‘Lotus’ in almost every wake of its practices. The enlightened Buddha is portrayed sitting on a lotus, the blossomed consciousness of an individual is termed as ‘Sahasrar’ – the thousand petal lotus. The lotus grows amidst mud but is not adulterated by it. The most fragile and vivid of the entities often originate from an unpromising beginning but often surpass even the highest of the summits!

Dr. Abdul Kalam, a great Indian scientist, has in his autobiography, ‘The wings of fire’, mentioned the toils that he has had to face. Poverty stricken and uneducated family is from where the exceptionally talented man was born – and birth is more or less an erratic accident! An unmatched intellect and a down to earth personality fits his description, even though his background had not even an iota of the grandeur that he later developed.

A body part unused becomes unusable. Same analogy can be extrapolated to the abstract psychological muscles. Adversities are those little challenges that strengthen us. Swami Vivekananda termed the world as a ‘Spiritual gym.’ A river that stops to flow sooner or later will become atrophied. Hence life must be an incessant flow and a flow can exist only if there is a disparity – a dip and a peak! It needs no further clarification to digest the fact that the most promising things must have arisen from the meaning – for that is the eternal law.

Can there be dark without light, or sweet without the acrimonious? The seemingly apparent paradoxes at its core are only the complements of one another. The very definition of good cannot have any value if there was no evil! Good thrives on evil and vice-versa! The world is the most bemusing of the jigsaw puzzles! The unpromising beginnings and the promising outcomes are actually not separate as we imagine them to be!

The human mind is beyond the power of articulation categorical. It will not accept anything in its organic unity, it has to have the factions of the promising and the unpromising. But eternal life has no obligations whatsoever to be fulfilled; everything complements, abets and helps the other rise, so it should not be astound if promising things bloom out of unpromising!