For the tide is about to turn….

You always feel good if someone sympathizes with  you for your loss or misfortune. Although sympathy/empathy is necessary for a person to regroup and recover, it will do more harm than good if you let it run longer. In bad times, our whole body acts like black hole which can digest all kind words and help thrown towards it and still not get satiated.

You need to remember that times change for everyone and everyone goes through bad phase at one or another point in their life. If many of the great people of the past and present hadn’t shown courage to come out their misfortunes, you wouldn’t have many luxuries and utilities of today.

You have had your share of sympathies, now it’s  time to show COURAGE. You have done it before and you can do it AGAIN. Resolute and be firm in your decision as the tide is about to turn. Start with the way you think and the rest will follow.

The only prayer….

Q. “Who is the God?”

A. “Time is the God”

Q. “What is the prayer”

A. “Honest, just and effective use of Time is your only prayer”

 

If you believe this, you will never be unhappy again.

If you pray this you, you will never be in need of anything again.

 

PS: Structure comes from a dialogue from the movie – The Great Debaters.

No complaints please… only tries

Water goes up in the air in the form of gas and comes down again as solid or liquid. Then it travels from mountain to oceans through meandering rivers withstanding hits from gravels, sand, silt, clay, hard rocks, soft rocks and what not. When it adepts to the turbulent ways of ocean, the intense heat from Sun forces it to change not only its shape but also its inner traits. These forceful changes go on eternally for water but it NEVER complains.  Rather at every change it comes out as winner, be it transforming into its purest form leaving behind salt of the ocean or being used for irrigation for the sustenance of humanity.

If a lifeless thing such as water cannot avoid change, how can you? If it can take every change as a chance to excel, why can’t you?  If it can work for a cause in all its form, so you can.  As they say change is the only constant.  Don’t complain, just try and we will have a winner right there.

Are you confused too?

They bumped into each other after fourteen years.  Roy was driving a Mercedes while his friend, Tom, was riding in a cab. Their eyes met when their cars were waiting at a traffic signal.  Soon they were sitting in a café discussing life thus far. While Roy gloried in his success and achievements, Tom listened to his stories with rapt attention. Finally Roy asked Tom what his life had been.  Tom said his life hadn’t been that complex to explain. By God’s grace, he had managed to feed his family and then save some by doing what he loved doing.

“But why?” interrupted Roy.

“You were exceptional during college days and we all thought you will be the most successful among us”

“Don’t you have desires anymore to live in a big house, drive a fancy car and travel around the world?”

Tom smiled and asked Roy calmly, “why do we desire all that in the first place? To be happy, right? ”

“And look at me, don’t I look happy”

“I don’t get bored for a moment while working as I do what I love the most.  The work gives me enough money to take care of my family’s needs and they do not complain.  You may be eating big meals in big restaurant every other day but ultimately when it goes in your stomach it all breaks down to sugar and serve the same purpose – provide nutrient & energy.  Our stomachs don’t care only our tongues tell the difference between foods.  But then I have trained my taste buds and the brain to feel as delighted at eating at home as yours at a restaurant.  It is just a choice that I made and I am happy with that”, Tom added.

“If I go your route it will never end – the CHASE. Today, you need million bucks a year, may be, to live a decent life as per your standards.  And you still desire to earn many more millions in coming years.  When you fulfill one of your desires the other will set in and thus the chase continues.  There is nothing wrong in being ambitious and that ambition can be any.  But what matters is if you are happy and content with that choice. Are you?, he asked Roy.

Roy thought for a moment and then said, “Honestly I do feel great at times when I get importance among my friends and society. But my family always complains that I don’t give enough time to them. When I am alone, I am not confident in the route I have chosen. I am always anxious that something or other will go wrong. At times I wonder what the best way to live life is?”

“True, we all are initially”, added Tom, ” but then you are the only one who can find YOUR true way to live a happy life. And you will if you try.  You will not believe in my true way if I tell you so. You don’t need any outside help; rather all you need is a sincere attempt. You have all the knowledge, wisdom and experience to determine your true way. Go find ONE for yourself ”

 

…….. tbc

 

Inspiring – excellence in the ordinary

• I went to bank other day and show a physically disabled yet vibrant lady laboring to sit on the chair all by herself. She had to do it many times in a single day and yet she  greets you with the perfect smile. If she can do it why can’t you? Are your pains greater than hers?
• “What is the point of resting this body when one day it shall too pass” said a 75 years old lady living nearby my house. Even at this age, she will help you day and night without complaining or getting tired. Everyone’s work is her work.  Amazing!
• I met my father’s friend who recently lost his beloved teenage son and yet he was so lively and cheerful. I think that is the way to live this life. No matter what keep going….

Wrong is Right

Very often I think which act is wrong and which one is right. Almost all of us have a tendency to criticize others for nothing. In fact when people gossip about somebody, discussion will mostly be around bad side of that person. They make comments such as he stole a lady’s purse other day; he doesn’t fit in this society; he is greedy; she is a call girl; and he steals to feed is family . The basic question which bothers me is who decides what is wrong and what is right? You, me or a bunch of people called as society?  Practically it is decided by the majority in society. Over a period of time they had compiled a list of morals & ethics which says what is wrong and what is right. But are they right and should we follow each one of them?

Every rule is meant to be broken.  Every rules needs to be modified. Right? If we don’t do things which are not in that list then life will become monotonous and nothing new will happen in the world. You can imagine this from the very fact that many great inventors were ignored by this very great society when they invented things. Some Classic examples are:

• Galileo was branded as a heretic and sent to prison for declaring that the earth traveled around the sun
• Milton (1996) explained how the invention of what is now considered a very ordinary object, the light bulb, was initially mired in controversy and disbelief.

 

You did not ask society before taking birth on this land. If you believe in God then you were sent here by Him to follow your own rules. In this very society, people take contradictory stands for an event. Society in itself is confused and you will be wasting your time to figure out the good side of society. So do whatever you feel is right. In the end all wrongs are right and all rights are wrong. For example –

1. Many people feel that Saddam Hussein did nothing wrong and rather he was simply running his country efficiently. But then US and others think otherwise for their own reasons
2. There are people who feel that Mahatma Gandhi didn’t do as good as he did bad to the country. He let down country for propagating his own ambitions.But there are others who worship him for what he did. He is called father of the nation in India for nothing.
3.  Lord Krishna had thousand wives. He did many things which are very wrong as the list of wrongs and rights compiled by the society and still we worship Him as almighty. 

You get only one life and it is short. If you live it by standards set by others then you will be simply wasting it.  Moreover  you do not take anything with you – not even your so called good or bad deeds. What matters is how feel as you age and how you feel when you die. So live free and die happy. As I said all wrongs are right and all rights wrongs, you just need to change the perception.

Bring it in open and it will be gone

Once in a while accidentally you say out one of your zealously guarded secret to a friend(s) and immediately regret for bringing it out in open. Why? because all along you thought you are the only one in the world experiencing that fear. However, immediately, you feel a wave of relief going up your spine when you hear your friend seconding your fear. For so long you have lived under tremendous stress just because you felt you are only one in that hell. Well, you are not and that is the case with most fears you have.

It’s  a human nature that they feel safe in the crowd. It requires tremendous resources to guard your house if it is in open. Same goes for our secrets/fears. We waste lots of our emotional energy in guarding our so called lonely secrets. But as soon as we get to know they (the secrets) are not alone but rather got a huge company we feel relaxed and safe.

People don’t  bring them open for the fear of :-

• looking weak in the eyes of friends & family
• backlash from society if it is not socially acceptable/widespread
• other implications that I can’t recollect at the moment 🙂

so you are fearing the fear of society to let out your fears. I don’t know what I have written in the previous sentence but I think that’s what it is :-).  I will read it again tomorrow and make changes if required.

Does it all really worth the energy spent in guarding the secret? May be and may be not. You wouldn’t know in advance. So what is the way out? I think you should make sincere effort to bring these secrets out in open – first with your most trusted friend(s) or family member. However if you are really scared to do that in one go then you can try to make it look fictitious – tell it as a story with an anonymous protagonist. If still not convinced then at least check the waters by putting in the most innocent looking secret for swimming. If it turns out good then flush them all one after another and feel the peace of universe.

 

 

 

What stops you?

Have you ever pondered over where you are now  vis-a-vis where you could have been? You would have only if you did not achieve heights as per your potential. What is it that becomes the biggest obstacle in one’s life to fulfill dreams? Of course you will get thousand different answers if you ask this to thousand different people. People will point out causes as per their wisdom and from their experiences. The biggest will always be lack of motivation. But if you have a motivation then, I think,  the second biggest obstacle is the lack of courage to act as per your conscience.  You can call it fear –  fear of being mocked, fear of failing, fear of being looked down by society, by peers and by friends. What will they think if what I am thinking isn’t right? What will happen to my reputation? will they still love me or respect me? These very questions put limitations in the minds of people to achieve what they actually can.

Seriously if just stop being scared and simply things that you want to do, you will be where you want to be. You will be respected for just doing something even if you fail it.  Respected not only by others but also by your inner self and that’s what matters the most in the end. Moreover, you anyway haven’t achieved anything by being prisoner to such fears then what’s wrong in trying life by being out of this prison.  You don’t need to go anywhere for advice just listen your heart and you will find all solutions. However it is the courage that you need to show to implement those solutions. Forget about people or society or anyone else for that matters. If something feels right then just do it.

Moreover we are not immortals. Everyone has to die. Then why not live a life full of attempts, failure or success doesn’t matter,  instead of waiting for death just by doing nothing and blaming the circumstances. Nobody knows what is the essence of life, but at least we can try to live a meaningful life. Who knows you might get enlightened some day and get to know the essence of life.