WHY STILL I FEEL PROUD TO LIVE IN INDIA?

WHY STILL  I FEEL PROUD TO LIVE IN INDIA?

PROUD INDIAN !

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The question indicates some element of prejudice in it - filthiness, extreme poverty, unhygienic foods,illiteracy, poor living condition, poor state of public transport,etc.

I intent to answer not as patriotic staunch Indian but more so as a retired,happy and active person living in India right from my birth (and till my death- God forbids).

Therefore I don't need lavish photographs and videos to substantiate what I say.

I think it is our mind that desires to perceive the world around through our sense organs.

 And it is our mind which decides what to perceive.

THE GREAT TRADITIONAL VALUES

Image source: My mobile Gallery

For example when a student who wishes to pursue higher education,when he happens to come to city, he will eagerly desire to collect the information regarding well known schools and colleges in that locality,the quality of faculties,the availability of coaching classes,the libraries.

He will be least bothered to find out about the locations of bars and restaurants, the movie theaters,the molls,the gardens as he has no interest in that.

A farmer concerned with farming will be focusing on new techniques in farming,research in genetically modified seeds,  new breeds of farm animals etc.

A womanizer will try to find the places in the locality to serve his carnal purpose.

In short,what one sees depends on what is already in one's mind.

Now what is that which guides one's mind in deciding what to perceive in the world around?

It is one's sarasar vivesk ie one's power of discretion.

This power of discretion enable one to discrete between good and bad,moral and amoral,truth and untruth,violence and non-violence,justice and injustice, and such opposite polar values in life. 

And not only that,the power of discretion also enables to decide the appropriate choice of the two.

In addition to the above, one is able to take responsibility for the consequences of one's own decisions instead of running away from the reality.

It is obvious India is leading IT revolution because of application of sarasar vivek. Human welfare is dominant purpose instead of intentions to dominate the world. 

It is worth mentioning here that in the history of past centuries, India has never invaded any country in the world. 

All the fights it has indulged in have been for self defense.

And advancement in materialistic world never guarantees peace of mind. It may give happiness for a duration. But after that human always try to seek spiritual path to attain peace of mind.

It is for this reason that for centuries in the past and even now people from developed and richest countries turn Eastward to India for their spiritual attainment.

Then  do not care about what I have initially mentioned in the beginning -

Poverty,illiteracy, unhygienic living condition,blind faith and other such things.

In India people having ensured physical hygiene also give importance to mental hygiene. For this,they are more particular about taking mental bath after the physical bath.

I need not elaborate about physical bath. Every body knows that. 

But a little elaboration on mental bath.

It is now proven fact that health of mind affects physical health. Hence it is essential to have regular mental health.

First thing in this direction is one has to clean one's mind by eradicating all the negative thoughts. And the space so cleared should be filled in by positive thoughts.

It is for this reason that we Indians after taking bath perform prayers,then read shlokas and stotras from our religious scripture and by this way impress our mind to absorb ancient wisdom of our ancestors, and life values towards attaining peace of mind. 

Because it is a fact that one life is not enough to learn and attain wisdom essential for one's spiritual progress.

It is for this reason there is no question of compulsion to still live in India.

Even every Indian desires to welcome one's own death on the beloved mother land.

What do you say?

Next time .....

WHAT CAN BE MOST EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION?

WHAT CAN BE MOST EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION?

The most important thing in communication is its effectiveness.

I would like to give small example of my own experience recently I had. I was at home on leave. A young salesman rang the bell. While welcoming him I requested him to sit comfortably. And asked the purpose of his visit. And he started quite in a speed rather difficult to catch on what he was saying. He started like I am so and so, am graduate in Mass Communication Science, doing MBA and as a part of our training I have undertaken this job to gain some experience. This some how with efforts I could gather as he was going on in full speed blah blah blah without bothering to know whether I understood or not and after finishing he waited looking expectantly at me.

I told him that though he was a student of mass communication, here he was communicating to me individually and even that he was not doing it effectively. Then how will he be able to communicate at mass level? As a effective communicator he must take care that what he intends to communicate is received at the other end properly and understood.

I brought to his notice politely that he simply went on telling me about him in such a speed he appeared to be unaware or did not bother about whether the things he was trying to communicate to me were understood by me.

So explaining further I told him that in communication two individuals are involved -one who wants to communicate and the other is the one to whom the communication is to be made.

The effective communication is achieved only when the one who wants to communicate does so ensuring that the one to whom communication is made has received and understood the message properly.

In this regard, one will find that mother nature’s communication is very effective. For example, when a baby is conceived, the expecting mother gets effective communication about the conceiving of baby by certain symptoms like mood changes,headaches,low backache and pain, fatigue, morning sickness,nausea etc.

Even doctors often advise us to read the signals of our body. This is the way nature communicates us effectively that some thing is wrong with hour health.

Feeling pain is effective signal by nature that one needs medical attention and treatment for the affected area.

Another example is toothache. Normal tooth does not cause any pain. But the intensity of the pain communicates effectively the need of necessary dental treatment.

In a calm and peaceful jungle, if suddenly monkeys and birds start making noise it is a strong signal for others about presence of a tiger or lion and the like and this is effective communication for every one in the vicinity to be alert.

Likewise a pet dog at the door starts barking the moment it notices any intruders and alerts its master. This is effective communication.

I vaguely remember one article on the ways of effective communication by male and female in different species of birds  and animals. Having realized the different ways of effective communication adopted by these animals and birds one really appreciates the mother nature.

In human beings also, if one observes, there are so many forms of communication adopted by male and female for the purpose.

A young child communicates its hunger by crying. And a mother is well aware that the reason for a child to cry is not only hunger but there can be other reason also- like wet diaper, getting hurt itself etc. But the mother nature has made this provision of crying by a child to draw attentions of others immediately.

The nature communicates to a child in her own way to learn and stand properly, walk properly, start speaking and so on.

It is obvious that the way the mother nature accomplishes effective communication has great relevance not only today but for ever.

Only essential thing is we must understand how communication can be made significant by its effectiveness.

Am I correct?

Next time .....

WHY LIFE DOES NOT HAVE HAPPY MOMENTS ONLY?

WHY LIFE DOES NOT HAVE HAPPY MOMENTS ONLY?

This is typical question that arises in one's mind during the course of life.

One has to accept that life is having that specialty of ups and downs, happiness and misery, and such polarities and one is hardly willing to accept this reality.

Why Life Does Not Have Happy Moments Only? 

WHY LIFE DOES NOT HAVE HAPPY MOMENTS ONLY?

Now, how to be able to accept this reality?

One must have observed that in our Indian climatic conditions there are three seasons,viz. hot summer,intense monsoon and coldest winter.

Normally,in hot summer one goes on complaining about hardships like exhaustive hot temperature,sweating,tiredness etc and eagerly waits for that relief giving monsoon. It is for this experience of having gone through the intense hot climate that one eagerly waits for arrival of monsoon and has real experience of enjoying the rain,the drop down in temperature, every plant and animal getting the great relief from the hot monsoon season. But only the hard and rigorous experience of hot summer deserves credit for this great feeling of relief!

WHY LIFE DOES NOT HAVE HAPPY MOMENTS ONLY?

Same way,one after having received and enjoyed the great relief from monsoon gets agitated and fed up with insistent or torrential rain and looks for relief again and waits for change in climate. And then one welcomes cold winter.

One must note that because of hardships in hot summer one is able to enjoy the great relief of monsoon.  Similarly because of hardships of intense and torrential rains it is worth welcoming cold winter.

The point is unless one goes through sadness and misery in life one is not able to realize the significance of happiness in life. This fact adds value to happiness.

WHY LIFE DOES NOT HAVE HAPPY MOMENTS ONLY?

If we have only happiness life we will not be able to understand the meaning and significance of value of happiness and our life would have become dull, tasteless, colorless and odorless.  And we must not forget that every one in life seeks happiness.

It will be wisdom shown and implemented that if one accepts eagerly happiness then naturally  it's one's prime responsibility too to accept sadness, and nothing wrong in that.

WHY LIFE DOES NOT HAVE HAPPY MOMENTS ONLY?

But we human being always seek perennial happiness,comforts, luxury and not willing to accept any interruption in the same, not even any trace of sadness or  misery.

The mother nature always reminds us human beings that life is full or polarities,and  polarities should equally be accepted.

What do you think?

Next time ......

WHY I AM GETTING SCARED WHEN EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE?

WHY I AM GETTING SCARED WHEN EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE?

This is typical psychological tendency one can observe in old generation,especially in relation to a new born or young child when a grandma or mother follows the rite of removing effect of an evil eye on the child.

Though this is more prevalent in Indian culture, I think it may be a natural feeling of  caring and loving mothers and grandmothers all over the world.

A loving mother always has this feeling that her baby is very cute, how it smiles, how it responds to her, how healthy it looks, and so on.  Even when she is busy in other household works, her mind is always preoccupied by her baby. A feeling dominates her of how fortunate she is to have such beautiful baby, her husband, her family,  so  happy and ideal life she is having that people are envious of her. Even she finds her to be  envious of herself. And at such moment she gets scared, that she may lose her fortune at any moment and perhaps  she will be the most  miserable one at next moment.

In such cases, the old lady in the family or neighborhood advises her to perform the rite of removing effect of an evil eye on the child by applying a black spot of collyrium  on the cheek of the child below the neck. 

And wow, there it is ! The fantastic result in that the mother gets psychological relief, she has no worries any more, and continue to cherish the divine opportunity of having a cute lovely child. 

The rite reflects the pure love and care a grandma or mother has towards the child.

Similar rite is performed when a newly wed couple is entering the house on first occasion.

Psychologically,the very act of the rite gives tremendous relief to the performer.

When one feels that things right now are too good to believe to be true and at the same time gets scared of probability of something bad will happen, one really gets restless. And try to look for solutions.

One must take all rational and practical precautions possible towards maintaining and enjoying the fortune of having good things in life. Besides, one may contemplate on how to do this?

The effective way out is believe strongly in the theory of karma ie do good and get good.

Do no harm and get no harm.

Pray for universal peace and love.

Pray for welfare and happiness to all.

Pray for prosperity of all.

And lead and live life peacefully.

Next time......

HOW TO AVOID SHYNESS AND BECOME SELF CONFIDENT?

HOW TO AVOID SHYNESS AND BECOME SELF CONFIDENT?

First thing necessary is to understand why one feels shy?

It is something like being camera conscious. One has the dominating feeling that people are looking at me,what they will comment,am doing it right? And so on.

See the flowers above. They are fully bloomed and there is no shyness. Least bothered about the surroundings.

One must realize that people have no time to waste on us unless their some or the other purpose is served. Therefore one should not bother too much about others' opinion and comments.

The feeling of hesitation has origin at lack of confidence.

One is not sure whether one is doing right or wrong, ethical or unethical, moral or amoral and so on. And hence hesitation and shyness, feeling of awkwardness etc.

For overcoming this feeling of shyness one has to build self confidence.

For this one has to understand the significance of values in life and the important role they play in one's life such as freedom,peace, love, compassion,mercy, pity and so on .

This process enables one to discrete between the polarities in life values like truth and untruth, right and wrong, justice and injustice, ethical and unethical,right and wrong,and having ability to discrete, one is able to make right choices in the process of decision making in life and will accept full responsibility of the consequences of one's own decision making in life.

Thus,one will be full of confidence in the social activities and there will not be any trace of shyness in one's behavior.

Next time.....

HOW TO OVERCOME INFERIORITY COMPLEX?

HOW TO OVERCOME INFERIORITY COMPLEX?

The question reminds me of a story heard in my childhood which I still find very much relevant today.

A young swan gets drifted away from it's mother and finds itself with a family of a duck and ducklings. It felt sad, being away from mother, felt its appearance not matching with that of the ducklings and thus was trying to keep itself away from the ducklings.  

The ducklings also started teasing “You are not normal like us. You are not as beautiful as we are.” They even complained to their mother not to extend any love and care to the young swan. It just does not belong to the family.

The young swan gets more sad, depressed and disappointed with self. It wept and wept. But as days passed the young swan bloomed into its  full natural beauty and it realized it has it's own beauty and felt that it is not inferior to them but in fact much superior to them as every body around started ignoring the ducklings and looking at it with due appreciation.

This is life. And the concept of beauty differs from culture to culture,nation to nation. For example in China and Japan a girl with small feet is regarded as beautiful.

In some countries a girl with thin lips is regarded as beautiful.  In African culture, a girl with thick lips seen as beautiful. Thus there are so many different criteria in different countries.  But still,this is not the subject to ponder over.

One has to understand and have ability to understand superfluous aspects in personality of own as well as that of others. And for that matter in life itself.  We have this tendency of giving importance to the superfluous things in life. And we are not aware of this fact.

One must appreciate the really good virtues and try to imbibe them.

For this reason one must be aware of sarasar vivek and ability to discrete between the polar values like truth and untruth,good and bad,right and wrong,and so on. This also enables one to make right choice while making decisions in one's life.

This sarasar vivek enables one to understand as to how much importance is to be given to others'opinion, how to prevent others from influencing one's own life.

Thus, one also realizes that physical beauty is not all unless it is complemented with good behavior, good attitude,good thinking and a lively approach towards others in general and the life in particular.

This also helps in building self confidence which is most important while interacting with others.

This will surely help one to overcome the feeling of inferiority complex due to not being good looking and ignoring humiliating comments of others.

Next time .....

HOW TO GET FREE FROM ALL WORRIES AND FEARS AND LIVE HAPPILY?

HOW TO GET FREE FROM ALL WORRIES AND FEARS AND LIVE HAPPILY?

HOW TO GET FREE FROM ALL WORRIES AND FEARS AND LIVE HAPPILY?

HOW TO GET FREE FROM ALL WORRIES AND FEARS AND LIVE HAPPILY?

In this article, I intend to share my learning through own experiences in life regarding my attitude towards worries and fears and how I overcome them effectively.

It was my observation that fear and worries are related to the past and future. 

And the past is over and cannot be undone and corrected. 

Therefore one thing is clear.  It is not going to serve any purpose to think about past.

And regarding future one goes on imagining all the probabilities. One dreams the things happening and they do not happen and hence  gets anxiety,tension and what not.

One of my colleagues had this habit. He used to start imagining about what his boss will remark about his performance,the shortcomings,the anticipated questions and answers, and how he will justify and substantiate his own acts in a a way full of his claim about own sincerity,feelings and what not. Therefore once I explained to him how he was wrong in engaging his mind unnecessarily and wasting his energy and time. Fortunately he understood and mended his ways.

Thus, it was my learning that thinking about future only results in worries, anxiety, and disturbed state of mind.

HOW TO GET FREE FROM ALL WORRIES AND FEARS AND LIVE HAPPILY?

I find there is a strong analogy in this regard with the attitude of a saint. It is worth to observe a saint, his attitude, his approach to life in general etc. See how tension free he always is.

A saint will never speak about his own life,his past life,his parents,his childhood,his background like educational, financial,social. To that extent his mind is free of any agitation. Similarly a saint never speaks of future in his own context. He may speak so about spiritual path, the achievement of transformation in life relating to his followers. As his mind is free of all the worldly botheration, one can find him always happy.

Having avoided to think of the past and worrying about future  is not enough to be happy like a saint.

HOW TO GET FREE FROM ALL WORRIES AND FEARS AND LIVE HAPPILY?

What is the reason one has fears and worries in mind?

The answer is we are very much attached to our collections and relations.

Generally we are entangled in the collections of things and the relations. We are inclined to give so much importance to these two aspects that we utilize our entire life but still we are not having peace of mind.  Happiness is next thing.

All we worry about is what will happen to my family? My assets? And so on.

Another reason can be attributed to the conditioning of one's mind regarding hell and heaven.

It is natural one wants guaranteed place at heaven. No body is prepared even to think of hell.

But what about the bad things one has done or caused to happen knowingly or unknowingly? 

Thus one gets fears and worries. 

Now how to overcome this ?

HOW TO GET FREE FROM ALL WORRIES AND FEARS AND LIVE HAPPILY?

Our sarasar vivek buddhi tells us that one must be able to discrete between truth and untruth, justice and injustice, right and wrong, moral and amoral,love and hatred and so on and adopt the right one in his life so that there is no probability of committing any wrong act leading to bad karma.

At the same time one should respect the supreme values in life like freedom, love,peace, compassion,respect to every living entity on the earth on the way of doing good karma, ie good acts, acts of merit.

Thus one will become Ajat Shatru ie one who has no enemy.

We human are rational and hence superior to animals.  Therefore, we must apply our own sarasar vivek i.e. power of discretion in this regard and adhere to the good values of life while adapting to more practical life.

This approach will enable one to achieve peace of mind and will not have even any trace of fear and worry.

Next time.....

HOW TO BECOME INFLUENTIAL?

HOW TO BECOME INFLUENTIAL?

One has to first decide for what purpose one desires to become influential person.

The probable reasons may be -

• the desire not to get influenced by others.
• the desire to get the work done by others correctly/in one's own favour.
• for selfish purpose.
• the desire for commercial gains.
• the desire to improving others.
• the desire to bring transformation in people’s life on their spiritual path.

Setting aside all other probable reasons, considering the last important reason, let me ponder.

When one desires to influence other's life it must be a serious and benevolent desire.

For this,the basic intention being good one,one has to be balanced minded. For this one must be aware of one's own sarasar vivek and the ability to apply the same for serving as guidance to the people on their path of spirituality.

And further one must make others aware of their sarasar vivek and the methods to build it strongly in the course of life.

Now how to build, improve and strengthen one's sarasar vivek?

For this one can first make oneself aware of good values in life. One must understand what are the supreme values in life. Like love, peace, freedom, welfare of human and so on. 

Quality reading is one of the best way to serve the above purpose.

And remember,only reading is not enough. One must try to implement what the good values learnt in one's own life on the way to achieve transformation in own life.

Engaging oneself in the company of wisdom, i e sat sang, is another effective way.

For this one need not to go for physical company but one must meditate on the good teaching of wise people. This will serve the purpose.

And when one has intention of influencing others for their own good, and not for own vested interests, that gives added strength for influencing others.

Next time .....

HOW TO IMPROVE CONCENTRATION?

HOW TO IMPROVE CONCENTRATION?

THE EYE OF THE PARROT

First step is realizing the significance of concentration.

In this regard one can recall the story of the great Archer, Arjuna and his brothers while learning archery from Guru Dronacharya.

Guru Dronacharya gave all of them a test wherein they were required to take aim at the eye of a parrot sitting on a  branch of the tree. Then the Guru asked each one of the students what he was seeing. Every student answered in a different way.

One said I can see the blue sky and the parrot.

Another said I can see green  branch and the parrot.

Another one said I can see all the blue sky,the green  branch,and the parrot.

Arjuna said I can see only eye of the parrot.

Guru Dronacharya was pleased with the answer and told his students that the level of one's   concentration should be like that of Arjuna.

The moral of the story is obvious.

One's set goal is eye of the parrot. The branch of tree, the blue sky, and all other things  together  have potential to distract one self away from the goal.

Therefore one has to identify the things likely to create hurdle by causing distraction in the path of pursuing one's set goal. Having identified so,one should remove them effectively at once.

With intense desire to achieve the set goal and realizing the need  to concentrate on the set goal one can identify and modify ways to concentrate and pursue the goal in effective manners.

One's sarasar vivek playes effective role in this direction.

Next time.....

WHAT ARE THE HABITS WORTH ADOPTING FOR IMPROVING ONE'S OWN LIFE?

WHAT ARE THE HABITS WORTH ADOPTING FOR IMPROVING ONE'S OWN LIFE?

After my voluntary retirement about 5 years ago,with effective application of wisdom gained out of my own life experiences, I pondered over the way of life ahead I must lead.

I was, and am,well aware that for wisdom gained out of our own experiences,one life is not enough. So one has to learn from wisdom of others also.

This made me aware of the treasure of wisdom of our earlier generations - ancient wisdom.

For this reading and learning was inevitable. I also realized that reading only is not enough. What is the significance of knowledge gained if it is not practised for our own transformation in life?

The purpose of the life is to learn and strengthen our wisdom and adopting it to achieve progress towards transformation of life.

For this purpose it is essential to have sound mental and physical health.

For this I took following steps -

For mental health-

I started to read books on positive thinking, good moral thoughts, wisdom thoughts of old people, self help books, and so on.

I stopped wasting valuable time in watching TV programs depicting and encouraging negativity,reading newspapers in detail. Even if by chance I happen to come across such things I warn my mind “not for me”.

I earnestly try to implement good thing I learn from reading. For example , I read autobiography of one retired medical practitioner who mentions that he daily does 12 Surya namaskaras i.e. sun salutations, pranayams,walking, keeping himself busy positively, being compassionate, always wish good for others, praying for peace and welfare of people in the world. There are so many things one can learn and practice. This has rewarded him good health.

Now if we read books and learn some thing , this must be followed by practice in one's life. This will ensure not only good health, but also enable us achieve complete transformation of our life. Positive thinking, good wishes for all,prayer for prevalence of peace in the world are the things which help us to have sound mental health. And remember, sound mental health leads to sound physical health.

And I must add here that it is characteristic of Indian culture to pray for universal peace. Remember the mantra "Om Shanti Shanti Shanti" ?

Apart from reading books, observing people,their life, places around, enable us to learn more and more.

For sound physical health I have implemented following-

Surya namaskaras, half an hour pranayam, about an hour morning walk, half an hour Yoga Nidra, (I intend to write in detail about this topic in near future).

I do all my works personally,except cooking. The purpose is to be independent as far as possible and ensure I do not give unnecessary troubles to my family members .

The above together form the ideal  habits worth adopting not only for improving my life but also achieving transformation in my life.

Next time......

WHAT CAN BE THE IDEAL DEATH ?

WHAT CAN BE THE IDEAL DEATH ?

Every living entity is going to die. Once this universal truth  is accepted, one is inclined to know what kind of death is awaiting? 

Will it be-

all of a sudden, heart attack, heart failure etc.?

accidental - giving no scope for preparation?

Ageing process, growing older and older and perishing?

Remaining bedridden for days and months indefinitely?

Remaining alive on life supporting system uncertainly?

This is not some thing like having curiosity or eagerness but merely reaction of uncertain nature of death.  

In fact, even for small ordinary events, one goes through the exercise of preparations in details, covering almost all aspects of the event, and if necessary even hires the services of those specialist event managers.  

But that is in the ordinary course of life.  

In our regional language Marathi, there is a saying meaning and expressing guiltiness  that "due to this busy schedule of the day today life, the concerns, the responsibilities, the commitments, the engagements, how unfortunate to be not able even to remember God and his presence."

In normal life, one is not prepared even to think about one's own death. So much is one's mind scared and excuses for being preoccupied with the material world around. 

And when one unfortunately happens to find oneself staring at the inevitable death,due to sufferings and pain originating from old age, terminal stage of poor health, ultimately finds a true friend in the form of own death. The one which is going to give permanent relief from physical suffering for ever. 

And then what is peaceful death?

Embracing own death in unconscious stage, is it peaceful death?

And is peaceful death significant for one's  spiritual progress ?

If life is viewed as a span of time period when our soul evolves learning and learning from life experiences,the ultimate aim being to uplift our soul to the level to qualify for merging in the universal soul , the stage of Moksha, then the last opportunity to learn what is death should not be missed while embracing death.

To wish to have peaceful death, though natural, it is some thing like denying  oneself the opportunity of having experience of death and creating hurdle in the path of our soul's ultimate transformation.

Next time .....

HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED?

HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED?

The effective way is to listen to one's inner voice.

This inner voice is one's sarasar vivek.

It is significant and plays important role in one's life . Only one must be aware of that.

This power enables one to discrete between the polarities in values in life such as truth and untruth, justice and injustice, ethical and unethical,right and wrong, violence and non-violence, moral and amoral and so on.

Sarasasr vivek also enables one make right choice in life as also develope ability to accept consequences of one's own decision making.

Thus , applying own sarasar vivek one is able to set the goal to be achieved.

Having set the goal next step is getting motivated.

There are many methods.

Self affirmations is one of such effective methods. There are audios and videos on self affirmations for health,career, happiness,etc and one may use the one as per one's requirement.

Self affirmation implemented just before going to bed and immediately after getting up in the morning is most effective.

Visualization is another method wherein one in relaxed state of mind visualizes to have achieved the goal.

Reading and watching TV programs on the relevant positive subject also keep one motivated on the path to achieve the set goal.

And one who is aware of process of motivation and it's significance in achieving set goals will willingly find many more ways to stay motivated on the highly demanding path to success.

Next time....