There are many parallels in the philosophies of Lord Krishna as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita and Jesus Christ in the Bible. This post highlights some of the parallels below
Christ: Judge not, lest ye be judged. Condemn not, lest ye be condemned.
Lord Krishna: Enlightened men are those who see the same in a Brahmana with learning, a cow, an elephant or a dog. In other words the yogi does not form opinions or judgments about others. A true yogi treats all persons with the same footing.
Christ: Love your enemy. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who treat you with disdain.
Lord Krishna: A true yogi is unaffected by praise or criticism. By always dwelling in the Atman he is unruffled by hatred, contempt or anger. According to the Gita, a true yogi is a person who is expansive in his heart. He has risen above the joy that comes from praise or the hurt that comes from bitter criticism
Christ: The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. For behold, the kingdom of the God is within you.
Lord Krishna: Above the senses, the mind, the intellect is the Atman which is within you. In the Upanishad’s this is also mentioned as “Tat tvam asi”, “Thou art that”. The Atman is inside you and we become aware of it through self-inquiry.
Christ: You cannot serve God and Mammon at the same. Here Mammon refers to the desire for wealth.
Lord Krishna: Perform niskama-karma or desireless action. Offer all the fruits of your action to God. Rise above desires and passion. Lord Krishna in the Gita enjoins us to rise above the rajasic nature of passion to a sattvic nature of principled living.
Though the words were different Lord Krishna and Jesus Christ were saying the same thing.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
A yardstick for life!
Is there a yardstick with which we can measure our lives? In his extremely thought provoking and insightful article "How will you measure your life?" Clayton M. Christensen, the Harvard Business School professor provides this extremely useful yardstick. He says "Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people."
What an extraordinary statement to make? We, as individuals, tend to measure our success in life based on achievement of personal glory, power, personal wealth etc. But what is really required for happiness and enduring satisfaction in our lives is in what way we are able to make the lives of those around us just a little better. This is truly a noble endeavor.
It does not mean that that the only way we can influence others is through charity. While charity can help there are possible several other ways in which we can help others. For e.g we could use our learning to educate. We could provide moral support to those who lack in confidence. We could spend some time in making happy those who are terminally ill or have some debilitating disease. There are several ways that we can extend our help and care for those around us.
But typically what happens is that we lead very self-centered lives. We are in a race to make the most money, grab a chuck of power, look to garner personal glory. We live a life that is self-centered all the time.
We may achieve success by way of fame,power and wealth but in the long run it may not give you as much a glow of satisfaction as helping others lead better lives.
We need to shift the focus of our lives from ourselves to those around us. That way we will lead a far more fulfilling life!
What an extraordinary statement to make? We, as individuals, tend to measure our success in life based on achievement of personal glory, power, personal wealth etc. But what is really required for happiness and enduring satisfaction in our lives is in what way we are able to make the lives of those around us just a little better. This is truly a noble endeavor.
It does not mean that that the only way we can influence others is through charity. While charity can help there are possible several other ways in which we can help others. For e.g we could use our learning to educate. We could provide moral support to those who lack in confidence. We could spend some time in making happy those who are terminally ill or have some debilitating disease. There are several ways that we can extend our help and care for those around us.
But typically what happens is that we lead very self-centered lives. We are in a race to make the most money, grab a chuck of power, look to garner personal glory. We live a life that is self-centered all the time.
We may achieve success by way of fame,power and wealth but in the long run it may not give you as much a glow of satisfaction as helping others lead better lives.
We need to shift the focus of our lives from ourselves to those around us. That way we will lead a far more fulfilling life!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Sermon on the Mount - Truly sublime
Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3- 5:48) and (Luke 6:20 – 6:49) is truly sublime in its grandeur. The sermon is awe inspiring and truly majestic in its depth, breadth and philosophical import. The sermon is based on the two fundamental pillars of love and mercy. Christ says that harboring anger against anyone as condemnable as murder itself. One does not need to commit an act to transgress righteous behavior. Evil thoughts by themselves are themselves heinous. Hence hatred, lust, contempt or jealousy is bad in itself. In fact Christ goes on to say “Judge not, lest ye be judged!” We have no right to criticize, pass judgments or opinions about others when we are less than perfect ourselves. There is no point criticizing about the “mote” in another’s eye when you have “beam” in your own eye.
The central point of Christ’s teachings is the need to repay with kindness any act of hatred towards you. This is contrary to the tit-for-tat and the eye for an eye we generally tend to react. For he says “for whosoever smites thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” and give, give freely to anybody who asks anything of you. With regard to charity Christ says “thy left hand should not know what thy right hand is doing”. There is no need to trumpet about one’s generosity and one’s kindness. This is similar to the Gita’s teaching which requires us to involve ourselves in charity without any regard to the expectations or fruits whatsoever.
Where the sermon truly sweeps you off your feet is where Christ asks to instead of loving our neighbor and hating our enemy to “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who despise and persecute you”. This is truly contrary to mankind’s years and years of conditioning where we react with animosity towards people we hate. We react with anger to insults and contempt. Christ asks to repay with love and kindness all acts of enmity and hatred.
With regard to forgiveness and mercy Christ’s response to Peter who asks him “how many times should I forgive my brother if he sins against me. Seven times?” To this Jesus says “Seventy times seven”. This is clearly a figure of speech and the crux is that we have to forgive and show mercy always and as many times as needed, simply because “so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you”. As human beings we err many times in our lives and God forgives us always.
What is really inspiring about the Sermon on the Mount is its all encompassing love and forgiveness that it preaches. Rather than behaving with anger and hatred towards people we hate, as we are programmed to react, we are encouraged to show mercy and behave with love and compassion. It really brings forth our human side of nature. The Sermon on the Mount is truly awe inspiring.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The lost art of listening
Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish in their parenting bible “How to talk so kids will listen and how to listen so kids will talk” provide excellent ideas in dealing with children. This book is a must for parents, would be parents and almost anybody interested in understanding the nuances of human nature.
In the book the authors come with the following situation:
Situation 1 (as per book) : Your boss asks you to complete a certain task. But because you are busy doing other things you miss the task completely and are the target for your boss’s outburst the next day.
Situation 2 (mine): Imagine it is you come home tired from office. Now assume that your spouse is interested in going out to a party and you are too tired to respond. You can expect your spouse to turn ballistic.
Situation 3 (mine): You are expecting a promotion in office and are on tenterhooks. But you come to realize that you have been passed over and your colleague who is a few years junior to you gets the promotion. You are completely deflated.
You are bound to be hurting in all the above 3 situations. Let us say that you relate this to a friend of yours. You are bound to get one of the following responses, according to the authors
The advice: This response is probably the one you will least interested in. The responses could be “You should have done your boss’s work first” or “You have to make sacrifices for your spouse” or in the 3rd situation “You did not work hard enough”
The philosophical response: This response could be “We are destined to enjoy or suffer. It is our karma”
The barrage of questions response: In this type of response you could face a volley of questions “Why did you ignore the boss’s request” or “did you not know that you had to go out with your spouse”. It could be “Did you make sure your boss knew your achievements etc.”
The empathic response: The listener may be sighing and say that he feels very sorry for your plight and he wished he/she could change your situation.
However, in most cases, you would not be interested in listening to criticism or even constructive suggestions. Most often what we want when we are hurting is a patient ear. Somebody who just listens to us in silence, probably with a faint acknowledgement accompanied by the nodding of the head. The solutions and advice can come later. We just want the pain to subside before we are ready to listen to anything.
In most cases when somebody pours their troubles to you, watch the signals carefully and respond appropriately. It is not necessary to give advice, be philosophical or even empathic. Just acknowledge the suffering by listening to them completely.
Let us resurrect “the lost art of listening.”
In the book the authors come with the following situation:
Situation 1 (as per book) : Your boss asks you to complete a certain task. But because you are busy doing other things you miss the task completely and are the target for your boss’s outburst the next day.
Situation 2 (mine): Imagine it is you come home tired from office. Now assume that your spouse is interested in going out to a party and you are too tired to respond. You can expect your spouse to turn ballistic.
Situation 3 (mine): You are expecting a promotion in office and are on tenterhooks. But you come to realize that you have been passed over and your colleague who is a few years junior to you gets the promotion. You are completely deflated.
You are bound to be hurting in all the above 3 situations. Let us say that you relate this to a friend of yours. You are bound to get one of the following responses, according to the authors
The advice: This response is probably the one you will least interested in. The responses could be “You should have done your boss’s work first” or “You have to make sacrifices for your spouse” or in the 3rd situation “You did not work hard enough”
The philosophical response: This response could be “We are destined to enjoy or suffer. It is our karma”
The barrage of questions response: In this type of response you could face a volley of questions “Why did you ignore the boss’s request” or “did you not know that you had to go out with your spouse”. It could be “Did you make sure your boss knew your achievements etc.”
The empathic response: The listener may be sighing and say that he feels very sorry for your plight and he wished he/she could change your situation.
However, in most cases, you would not be interested in listening to criticism or even constructive suggestions. Most often what we want when we are hurting is a patient ear. Somebody who just listens to us in silence, probably with a faint acknowledgement accompanied by the nodding of the head. The solutions and advice can come later. We just want the pain to subside before we are ready to listen to anything.
In most cases when somebody pours their troubles to you, watch the signals carefully and respond appropriately. It is not necessary to give advice, be philosophical or even empathic. Just acknowledge the suffering by listening to them completely.
Let us resurrect “the lost art of listening.”
Monday, October 24, 2011
The experience and the experiencer
Anger, envy, jealousy, pride or hatred – these are all negative emotions that bind us completely. Whenever these emotions hit us we are left reeling under the impact till much later. We are completely ensnared by its viciousness. Sometimes we get a little wiser as an afterthought, if we are vigilant. Otherwise we just wallow in the cruel tidal waves of the emotions.
The key thing to understand here is that when we are held in sway by these negative emotions is that there is “the experience” and there is “the experiencer”. More often than not we are not able to separate ourselves from the experience as it completely controls us and we do not have access to conscious reasoning. Whenever we are angry, jealous, proud or just egoistic we just are so completely full of it that we don’t realize that we are under the grip of an emotional storm.
What is important is to be able to detach ourselves from the onslaught of this mental maelstrom. We need to be able to look at “the experience” as being separate from us, “the experiencer”. When we are angry, we should be able to pause and tell ourselves “I feel anger” or when we feel proud we should be able to reflect on the feeling as “I am feeling proud”. This simple reframing of the situation can work wonders. Here we see ourselves the “I” as being different from the emotion “anger” or “pride”. We are able to distance ourselves from the fury of anger and look at it as an observer. Similarly when we feel proud or arrogant, we need to able to look at the pride as an observer.
This is an extremely difficult thing to do. Since, we have absolutely no control when the emotions of anger, hatred, jealousy or pride take over us. It takes a lot of practice to be able to see the experience as different from the experiencer i.e. ourselves. We need to be able to tell our minds “Get off, of me”. This requires a lot of insight into ourselves and enormous soul searching on our part.
But if we are able to successfully view the experience as being different from the experience we are bound to have attained a greater degree of control over our lives.
The key thing to understand here is that when we are held in sway by these negative emotions is that there is “the experience” and there is “the experiencer”. More often than not we are not able to separate ourselves from the experience as it completely controls us and we do not have access to conscious reasoning. Whenever we are angry, jealous, proud or just egoistic we just are so completely full of it that we don’t realize that we are under the grip of an emotional storm.
What is important is to be able to detach ourselves from the onslaught of this mental maelstrom. We need to be able to look at “the experience” as being separate from us, “the experiencer”. When we are angry, we should be able to pause and tell ourselves “I feel anger” or when we feel proud we should be able to reflect on the feeling as “I am feeling proud”. This simple reframing of the situation can work wonders. Here we see ourselves the “I” as being different from the emotion “anger” or “pride”. We are able to distance ourselves from the fury of anger and look at it as an observer. Similarly when we feel proud or arrogant, we need to able to look at the pride as an observer.
This is an extremely difficult thing to do. Since, we have absolutely no control when the emotions of anger, hatred, jealousy or pride take over us. It takes a lot of practice to be able to see the experience as different from the experiencer i.e. ourselves. We need to be able to tell our minds “Get off, of me”. This requires a lot of insight into ourselves and enormous soul searching on our part.
But if we are able to successfully view the experience as being different from the experience we are bound to have attained a greater degree of control over our lives.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Free will or fate? Fate it is.
Do we have free will? Or are all our actions pre-determined? In other words are we inextricably bound by fate, kismet or vidhi? I am sure most people would probably say that a human being has the ability to choose their actions in any situation.
When I was young I was told by my parents that our lives were pre-determined. That it was one’s vidhi or fate to suffer or enjoy in life. This could be because of one’s karma they said. As I grew older I realized that man has the ability to make a choice. As a conscious being we have the ability to choose one of several possible alternatives.
While this argument may sound plausible at a surface, when one probe deeper we find that we really do not have free will. Our current state in life is dependent on our past actions. The actions that we choose to take, at any point in life, are dependent in a large part on our past experiences. The choice we may take is dependent on our past reasons, our past conditioning, our current biases and current opinions. The actions that we take in the present are definitely determined by our conditioning in life.
Given the fact that our actions can only be based on our past experiences, does it make sense to think that our actions are independent of any past conditioning? The answer is an emphatic, No!
Clearly this indicates that our actions are determined by our past conditioning. Then where is the question of free will?
Free will pre-supposes that our actions in the present cannot be determined in any way and is in many ways, truly random. But this is clearly not true. In any given situation, our choice will depend on our past experience and we will act in the most optimum way. Our choice will depend on whether there is personal gain. For e.g. when we are insulted, we do feel hurt. That is true for most of us. May be a few enlightened souls, may choose to be detached from the insult. But a majority of human beings will behave in extremely predictable ways in any given situation. The only difference in behavior will only arise based on the slightly different experiences that different people have.
Otherwise our actions are truly predictable and will be based on past conditioning. We will chose to maximize our gains in any given situation and make the most rational choice.
Given this does it make sense to think that man has free will? Clearly not! The world and our lives are deterministic and we are all bound in fate.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Navigating the narrow path
When we are young - good and bad are usually in black and white. However as we grow older we realize that life and values in life are not so straight forward. There are many shades of grey that exist between the good on one side and evil on the other. Oftentimes we have to contend not with just the good and bad but with the good and the good.
We are forced to confront a hierarchy of values of life namely kindness, compassion, honesty, patience, tolerance and humility. How does one decide between two virtues in a situation? We are forced to wrestle between different virtues in a situation. This post looks at typical situations and tries to take a stab at navigating the narrow path between good, better and best…
Honesty is good, Tact is better: While honesty and stating facts as facts makes sense when one is young as we grow older we need to take a smarter approach towards handling different situations. Very often people feel offended when they are told the truth, particularly when they are wrong. They may feel insulted. In these situations we need to be more subtle in telling the truth. We need tact and tell the truth in a more palatable way. So honesty should include a good amount of tact and smarts.
Kindness is good, Indulgence is not: We all know that we have to be kind. So while our innate kindness may want us to part with a few coins to a beggar, it would it make no sense to constant shower the same beggar with a lot of money, assuming that the beggar is not physically handicapped and can earn an honest living. Similarly while we may want to be kind to our child we should not condone the child’s tantrums. Kindness and discipline go hand in hand. Kindness should be accompanied with dollops of good sense.
Humility is good, Servility is bad: Humility is a very misunderstood concept. We generally think humility is the opposite of pride. We think that humility means that we should try to underplay any achievements of ours. We assume incorrectly, that we must never, ever talk about things that we have done. Actually humility means being able to fully understand one’s strengths and weaknesses and having a realistic view vis-à-vis the world. We must realize that while we may be good there are many who are still better. So humility is being realistic about one’s achievements. However, we often confuse humility to being very servile. We think that to be humble means to just listen to everything and everybody. This is completely incorrect. So we need to humble but we should never be servile.
Self-esteem is important, Egoism is bad: Self esteem is extremely important. We need to take pride in our achievements. It is fine to highlight our achievements to others provided we are not arrogant. We should never compromise on our self-esteem. We should never be too egoistic in our own self. Excessive pride can sometimes border on narcissism. We need to have a balanced approach towards our achievements. Our successes should feed out self-pride but never make us excessively proud and arrogant.
While this post looks at different shades of a particular virtue the highest of all virtues is kindness and compassion. It is always more important to be kind than correct.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Atman - Do we need it?
Swami Vivekananda, in his discourse on Patanjali’s aphorisms (Complete works of Swami Vivekanada – Volume 1) explains the Atman thus. “The organs (Indriyas), together with the mind (Manas), the determinative faculty (Buddhi), and egoism (Ahamkâra), form the group called the Antahkarana (the internal instrument). They are but various processes in the mind-stuff, called Chitta. The waves of thought in the Chitta are called Vrittis (literally whirpool)… the intelligent soul is behind”.
Hence behind this physical frame of the mind and the senses is the Atman or the Soul. The Atman is described as being changeless, effulgent, omniscient and omnipotent. This is the definition of the Atman, the Self or the Soul according Hindu philosophy. Buddhism completely denies the existence of anything behind this physical body. Buddhism does not subscribe to the concept of a Personal Soul or the Self.
How do these two different philosophies, Hindu and Buddhist, deal with the problem of human suffering.
Suffering – The Buddhist Way
According to Buddhism, suffering is inevitable in human life. We have to accept suffering as a fact of this mortal existence. Buddhism also states that suffering is born of attachment, cessation of suffering is attainable and the path to cessation is based on taking the middle path given in his eight-fold path. The key aspect with the Buddhist way of handling misery in life is to accept this in our lives. Rather than trying to wish away suffering or imagining things we have to boldly accept it and strive to remove it by following the eight fold path based on right living, right speech etc. In many ways this is echoed in the Road Less travelled by Dr. Scott Peck who advocates accepting suffering in our lives. Dr. Peck mentions that if we run away from problems and pain in our lives we will tend to suffer from neurosis.
Suffering – The Hindu Way
The Hindu Way is the same for both pain and pleasure. The Hindu Way suggests a technique of detachment. It is based on the need to understand that pain and pleasure always only exists in the physical plane consisting of the mind and the physical body. Our suffering is because of the waves that are caused in our “chitta” or consciousness. Hinduism states that behind this physical frame of ours is our Soul which cannot be affected by pain, pleasure and is completely changeless.
While both approaches are equally valid, I personally prefer the Hindu way. The moment we understand that our interactions in this world are all because of activity of the mind and the physical senses we realize that we have a faculty that can transcend this physical frame. We can observe the changes that happen in our mind, the frustrations, the anger, the despair.
It is this higher faculty, of awareness, which enables us to be conscious of the perturbations in our physical frame, as it happens, is what I would like to call as the Atman or the Soul.
Hence I find a lot more comfort in the Atman concept.
Hence behind this physical frame of the mind and the senses is the Atman or the Soul. The Atman is described as being changeless, effulgent, omniscient and omnipotent. This is the definition of the Atman, the Self or the Soul according Hindu philosophy. Buddhism completely denies the existence of anything behind this physical body. Buddhism does not subscribe to the concept of a Personal Soul or the Self.
How do these two different philosophies, Hindu and Buddhist, deal with the problem of human suffering.
Suffering – The Buddhist Way
According to Buddhism, suffering is inevitable in human life. We have to accept suffering as a fact of this mortal existence. Buddhism also states that suffering is born of attachment, cessation of suffering is attainable and the path to cessation is based on taking the middle path given in his eight-fold path. The key aspect with the Buddhist way of handling misery in life is to accept this in our lives. Rather than trying to wish away suffering or imagining things we have to boldly accept it and strive to remove it by following the eight fold path based on right living, right speech etc. In many ways this is echoed in the Road Less travelled by Dr. Scott Peck who advocates accepting suffering in our lives. Dr. Peck mentions that if we run away from problems and pain in our lives we will tend to suffer from neurosis.
Suffering – The Hindu Way
The Hindu Way is the same for both pain and pleasure. The Hindu Way suggests a technique of detachment. It is based on the need to understand that pain and pleasure always only exists in the physical plane consisting of the mind and the physical body. Our suffering is because of the waves that are caused in our “chitta” or consciousness. Hinduism states that behind this physical frame of ours is our Soul which cannot be affected by pain, pleasure and is completely changeless.
While both approaches are equally valid, I personally prefer the Hindu way. The moment we understand that our interactions in this world are all because of activity of the mind and the physical senses we realize that we have a faculty that can transcend this physical frame. We can observe the changes that happen in our mind, the frustrations, the anger, the despair.
It is this higher faculty, of awareness, which enables us to be conscious of the perturbations in our physical frame, as it happens, is what I would like to call as the Atman or the Soul.
Hence I find a lot more comfort in the Atman concept.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Thought in Action
What is the structure of thought? Are thoughts made up of words? Superficially it may appear that all thinking is verbal. But on a closer reflection we realize that we really only verbalize when we are not able to focus on something well. We try to go slowly over the situation or event in words. Moreover if we analyze a little deeper we realize that we really don’t think in words.
For e.g. the word ‘spring’ can bring to our minds different thoughts depending on the context in which it is uttered. For e.g. when it the word spring is used while discussing the weather we immediately imagine the season spring. When we say that a person has a ‘spring’ in his step, we can easily visualize the person who is light footed and agile. Similarly the word spring can also being images of a coiled spring. So we don’t really think in terms of words. The next question is “do we think in terms of images or pictures?” Again there are times when we think in terms of images. But this is not a static image. Thinking when accompanied by images is usually dynamic and changing.
According to earlier psychological thought it was felt that the right hemisphere of the brain was creative, intuitive and artistic while the left hemisphere was analytical, rational and logical. Nowadays the thinking about how the brain processes information has undergone a sea-change. The prevalent notion these days is that the left hemisphere sees the world in sequential and ordered series of steps. On the contrary the right hemisphere is able to analyze a problem or a situation in parallel. The right hemisphere is able to view the situation holistically and intuitively.
In my opinion, our mind “works all at once”. When we are really in deep thought trying to solve a tricky problem or trying to analyze a difficult situation, our thoughts comprehend the conundrum “all at once”. Our brains attack the problem in many ways. It could attack the problem from the “outside-in” or “inside-out”. It could again be attempting to solve with a “top-down” approach or a “bottom-up” approach.
We really don’t know what is thought. The closest we can get to the thought process is to understand in terms of an executing computer program which operates on a set of data. While current programs execute sequentially the mind works in a combination of sequential and a holistic way. There are no known such real world implementations that mimic the thought activity of the brain. Recently IBM has come up with a cognitive computer which tries to mimic the interactions between clusters of neurons. This is very primitive and probably is the first attempt to mimic the brain. We are still miles away from understanding the structure of thought.
Till that time we can only think on “how we think”.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
The world as I see it...
We are all endowed with five physical senses. That’s obvious! I would like to maintain that we have sixth physical sense, namely the mind. We tend to separate the physical senses from the mind which we term as a mental faculty. But in reality we use the mind and the other five physical senses to see, feel, hear, touch, taste and perceive the external world.
Some may argue that the mind, in reality, does not require an external world. It can still be ticking and conscious in the absence of an external reality. But regardless, we perceive the world outside through these 6 sense organs. The mind with the brain is the 6th sense organ. I would like to consider the brain as the hardware and the mind as the software since the mind is essentially is made up of thought processes which operate on the brain.
I perceive the world through these 6 senses. The mind is made up of facts, ideas, experience, reasons. Based on our experiences we draw conclusions, form opinions and create ideas. We compartmentalize the world we experience into nice little partitions based on our past experiences.
Every waking moment I see the world through this apparatus of mine which is made of the mind and the other 5 physical senses. I create new experiences, I form new opinions. I form new biases. I react to this external world of events through this mind of mine which is repository of my past experiences.
So I look, hear, touch, taste, smell, conclude, reason and react to the external world of events. But then “who am I”. Am I my mind and the physical senses or is there more to me? Clearly I am not this apparatus of mine. Behind this apparatus is the life force which energizes my body and my mind and the other 5 senses enable me to perceive the world as it is.
Given the fact that I am beyond my senses and my mind with this experience do I need to be affected by things that are only perceived through my mind. Clearly not! While this understanding is important to our handling of pleasure and pain we need this physical body to actively participate in this world of ours.
So while we should not be affected by pleasure or pain which we only perceive through this physical body of ours, this very same physical body is what we have to actively live in the world and do service to others.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Key strategies to power your career
Success in professional life is rarely accidental. It is the result of a well thought out plan carried out to perfection as one moves from rung to rung in the organizational hierarchy. Here are some key strategies, which if pursued, will give a better control over your career and will make your rise in the organization fairly smooth
Learning to learn: This is by far the most important quality we need when we enter the professional world. We need to learn how to learn. We need to be able to absorb the essence of our task, assignment or project. Any work that we perform we need to know both what to learn and how to learn. We need to able to look above the immediate project requirements and appreciate its function in a holistic way. We need to fully understand the product, the technologies involved, what problem it solves and how it ultimately benefits the end user.
Depth over breadth and vice versa: If you are in the technical ladder make sure that your swim deep and long. Spend time learning the implications, intricacies and nuances of the technologies involved. Learn to appreciate the various tradeoffs that have to be taken in the work being done. On the contrary, if you are a project or a program manager focus on breadth rather on depth. Understand the benefits and shortcomings of the involved technology and various allied technologies. Understand industry trends and how the project fits in the organizational business plan.
Make the right moves: At every stage one has to be aware of where one is with respect to the goal. We need to monitor and make mid course corrections. It is quite likely that as you move along in your professional life you may want to switch technology domains or shift to management. These are conscious decisions that you will have to weigh and take as you go along. As you grow you have understand where you want to go and how you want to get there. This is the mark of a true leader. We will hit several crossroads during our career. Our decisions should be directed towards our long term goal. Make sure the choices you make contribute to your professional, monetary and emotional accounts.
Look from the other side of the fence: If you are technically inclined learn the basics of project & program management. Understand and appreciate the challenges of people management. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into a technical-only slot. If on the other hand you are a project manager you must spend time becoming tech savvy. Try to get an all round view of all related technology. Technical people prefer managers who are tech savvy.
Plan for Success: This is critical for career growth. Make sure you plan for success. In the words of Yogi Berra “If you don’t know where you are going you might wind up someplace else”. Bring focus to both short and long term goals and work towards achieving them.
Understand and appreciate “Management Speak”: This is something that is very critical to your career growth. Make sure you understand the jargon that senior management tends to use “for e.g. 10,000 ft view”, “project risks”, ”quality improvement”. Do not shy away from this type of management jargon. In the early years most of tend to take management jargon lightly. Put yourself in your boss’s shoes and understand and appreciate the challenges he faces. It is good idea to understand the direction your organization is heading with respect to other peer organizations
Network: Networking is a critical to your success in the long run. Get to know your peers, subordinates, your boss and his peers. The more you network, the better are the chances of your success. It is imperative that you not only grow your professional network but also keep it well-oiled. You will learn a lot of people skills by networking. Networking will keep you abreast of all the latest trends in the industry, besides many organizations prefer referrals while recruiting.
Visibility speaks: Success in the professional world depends a lot on your visibility to the top management. Make sure that you help or lead any effort that is organization or at least department wide. It is very important that you grab opportunities to lead. This will not only increase your visibility but will also improve your organizational skills and make you understand the challenges of making things happen.
You will spend close to a quarter of a century in your professional avatar. Having a proper plan and working towards your career goal is important to both your financial and emotional well being. So ensure that you make all the right moves in your career.
What drives us to do better?
What is it that impels us to do things better? What is it that goads to excel in certain things? We often hear the word ‘passion’ being bandied about. In fact passion is often used as an excuse when we are confronted with new learning new skills, domains. For example we will stay away from learning a musical instrument, or learning programming by conveniently saying that such skills require passion. But then what exactly is passion. Does passion just come about or does it have to be built in small steps?
In my opinion passion has to be patiently built in small stages. There are two essential ingredients in developing passion for anything. They are
Attitude: This is the first criteria when we are about to embark in learning something new. We need to have the right attitude. We should not assume that something is distasteful even before we start. We have to have an open mind when we are trying to learn something new. It could be painting, writing or playing a new musical instrument. We should free from any or all biases. We should approach the skill with an open mind. This is the most fundamental requirement to plant the seeds of passion in us.
The taste of progress: As we learn something new the taste of progress is what drives us to do better in any new skill. In whatever we are trying to learn when we start to see signs of progress we will be motivated to do better. As we learn the new skill our minds are constantly sending back feedback on our own progress. When we are able to perceive our own progress we will start to experience the thrill of learning. The taste of progress can be internal. It can be progress that we ourselves perceive. For example when we are learning to swim and we successfully are able to propel ourselves in water, for the first time, we will feel the flush of excitement.
On the other hand we can get feedback from others about our progress. For example when a person learning a new musical instrument is appreciated by others he/she is bound to feel the thrill of success. What goads a teacher is being able to see “the moment of understanding” in his/her students. An orator or an artiste would like to capture the complete attention of their audience and be able to feel their pulse during the performance. When a performer gets this feedback from the audience he/she is impelled to excel.
Hence passion does not happen by chance. It requires an open attitude and patience while learning. When you begin to taste progress and the ability to improvise at will you will be propelled to further improve and excel.
In my opinion passion has to be patiently built in small stages. There are two essential ingredients in developing passion for anything. They are
Attitude: This is the first criteria when we are about to embark in learning something new. We need to have the right attitude. We should not assume that something is distasteful even before we start. We have to have an open mind when we are trying to learn something new. It could be painting, writing or playing a new musical instrument. We should free from any or all biases. We should approach the skill with an open mind. This is the most fundamental requirement to plant the seeds of passion in us.
The taste of progress: As we learn something new the taste of progress is what drives us to do better in any new skill. In whatever we are trying to learn when we start to see signs of progress we will be motivated to do better. As we learn the new skill our minds are constantly sending back feedback on our own progress. When we are able to perceive our own progress we will start to experience the thrill of learning. The taste of progress can be internal. It can be progress that we ourselves perceive. For example when we are learning to swim and we successfully are able to propel ourselves in water, for the first time, we will feel the flush of excitement.
On the other hand we can get feedback from others about our progress. For example when a person learning a new musical instrument is appreciated by others he/she is bound to feel the thrill of success. What goads a teacher is being able to see “the moment of understanding” in his/her students. An orator or an artiste would like to capture the complete attention of their audience and be able to feel their pulse during the performance. When a performer gets this feedback from the audience he/she is impelled to excel.
Hence passion does not happen by chance. It requires an open attitude and patience while learning. When you begin to taste progress and the ability to improvise at will you will be propelled to further improve and excel.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
A Strategy for Happiness
Kenichi Ohmae in his classic book, “The Mind of a Strategist”, on organizational strategy, poses a very important question. While the book is devoted to strategies for solving organizational issues, the question he poses is pertinent even in our daily lives. This question that Kenichi Ohmae poses to us is this: Are the questions we ask designed to address the symptoms of a problem or are the questions so framed so as to point to possible solutions? In most cases, he says, we err towards asking questions that try to remedy particular symptoms.
This is what this post is going to focus on. There is an art to questioning. As Abraham Lincoln famously said, “I would prefer a man who asks the right questions to a man who knows the right answers”. With regard to happiness, we should not ask ourselves “Why am I unhappy?” rather we should ask ourselves, “How can I make myself happy?”
The former question tries to focus on our laundry list of problems. Each of us will always have a set of pet peeves in life. Such a question will only bring forward all our miseries in life. It could be not having the right job, not getting a promotion or people not subscribing to your point of your view. Whatever may be the reason, when we ask ourselves “Why am I unhappy?” we are setting ourselves for further unhappiness by dwelling on our problems in life.
The problem with the earlier question is that while it focuses on the issues in our life it does not point towards any solution. We will just be turned towards many things that are not in our control and we will feel helpless.
Rather the right question we should put to ourselves should be “How can I make myself happy?” With this type of questioning we are forced to look for constructive ways out of our present unhappy state. The answers could be as simple as starting a reading habit or it could be starting on some creative endeavor like painting, poetry or photography. Others may find peace in doing random acts of kindness.
So our strategy for happiness should be based on the right questions that we pose for ourselves. The art of asking the right questions actually goes beyond personal happiness. It can be used as an effective way of solving our daily problems in life.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Who am I?
“Who am I?” this question suddenly popped into my mind today. This question “Who am I?” has been plaguing philosophers for an eternity. Everybody from ancient Indian thinkers to Zen Buddhists has struggled with this question.
I was not interested in metaphysical concepts of the ‘I” as the soul or the atman. I wanted to look at myself as an ordinary observer and try to understand what this “I” is. With a little thought I came to realize that I am aware of my “I” through my pre-dispositions in life.
At the most basic level I am pure consciousness. “I” am the life force behind this mortal frame, the power behind my mind and intellect. However there is something unique in my “I”. I realized “I” was a bundle of fears, anxieties, likes and dislikes. I knew “myself” by how “I” reacted to external events. There were certain things that made me happy, certain things that made me sad, and other things that annoyed me. I had buttons which when pressed truly irritated me.
At a the surface it looked like “I” was just a product of my life’s experiences, a bundle of things I learnt from my childhood and things taught to me by my parents, teachers and friends and my environment.
So while “I” came into existence after my birth, am “I” just a sum total of my living years? With a little more thought I realized that this cannot be. Clearly “I” am more than just my experiences in life. I also have instincts and innate tendencies that were neither learnt nor taught to me in this life time. As a human being “I: was more inclined to go after pleasure and avoid anything either caused pain or disappointment. These came to me as a package from my birth. So where did these instincts and innate tendencies come from?
One answer, if one believes in the transmigration of the soul, according to Hindu and Buddhist philosophy we could say that my instincts are all the learned experiences of my soul which existed in other bodies before myself. Since this theory has neither been proved nor disproved I wanted a more rational explanation.
So I realized that my inborn instincts are the product of genetic transference from my ancestors. The experiences of my forefathers and ancestors were transferred from generation to generation to the now living and breathing “I”.
I came to the understanding that “I” was older than my own age. “I” had been living from millions of years. I realized that “I” was not just myself but much, much more.
I was not interested in metaphysical concepts of the ‘I” as the soul or the atman. I wanted to look at myself as an ordinary observer and try to understand what this “I” is. With a little thought I came to realize that I am aware of my “I” through my pre-dispositions in life.
At the most basic level I am pure consciousness. “I” am the life force behind this mortal frame, the power behind my mind and intellect. However there is something unique in my “I”. I realized “I” was a bundle of fears, anxieties, likes and dislikes. I knew “myself” by how “I” reacted to external events. There were certain things that made me happy, certain things that made me sad, and other things that annoyed me. I had buttons which when pressed truly irritated me.
At a the surface it looked like “I” was just a product of my life’s experiences, a bundle of things I learnt from my childhood and things taught to me by my parents, teachers and friends and my environment.
So while “I” came into existence after my birth, am “I” just a sum total of my living years? With a little more thought I realized that this cannot be. Clearly “I” am more than just my experiences in life. I also have instincts and innate tendencies that were neither learnt nor taught to me in this life time. As a human being “I: was more inclined to go after pleasure and avoid anything either caused pain or disappointment. These came to me as a package from my birth. So where did these instincts and innate tendencies come from?
One answer, if one believes in the transmigration of the soul, according to Hindu and Buddhist philosophy we could say that my instincts are all the learned experiences of my soul which existed in other bodies before myself. Since this theory has neither been proved nor disproved I wanted a more rational explanation.
So I realized that my inborn instincts are the product of genetic transference from my ancestors. The experiences of my forefathers and ancestors were transferred from generation to generation to the now living and breathing “I”.
I came to the understanding that “I” was older than my own age. “I” had been living from millions of years. I realized that “I” was not just myself but much, much more.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The edifice of self-esteem
We are not born with self-esteem. Self-esteem cannot be thrust on us. We can only achieve our self-esteem in our lives. The esteem with which we hold ourselves is always the result of our own unstinting efforts in achieving the goals that we have set for ourselves.
A person with self-esteem exudes quiet confidence.
The way to build our esteem is to set ourselves small, achievable goals in life and go about in achieving them. Each success that we achieve in our life adds to our internal fund of esteem. Our esteem has to be built brick by brick in a similar fashion that a large building is constructed. We need patience and commitment in building our esteem.
There are no shortcuts to self esteem. Success and fame achieved by accident or through devious means will not add to our self esteem. They can only inflate our ego or makes us vain. The vanity that results will not have affirm foundation as we will know in our hearts that the success was by chance or not well deserved.
However l victories that are achieved through honest effort, however small, will truly increase our own esteem. These successes are truly enduring and manifest itself in the self-pride that we develop. This is because we know in every fiber of our being that the success was well deserved and was a result of one’s own efforts.
It takes a long time to build one’s self-esteem. But once it is built it is difficult to destroy it. Self-esteem is like a fortress around oneself. A solid self-esteem can withstand any amount of derogatory and deprecatory comments. On the contrary, vanity in a person as a result of an inflated ego can easily be crushed. A person can be easily hurt if his opinion of himself/herself is a consequence of his/her ego.
Self-esteem is that magnificent edifice that we build for ourselves through our own untiring efforts. A person with self esteem is aware of his/her strengths and is also aware of his/her weaknesses. While self-esteem instills confidence in the person it also brings about a certain amount of humility.
Self esteem is truly the amalgamation of confidence and humility. While self esteem takes a long time to build it is well worth the effort.
A person with self-esteem exudes quiet confidence.
The way to build our esteem is to set ourselves small, achievable goals in life and go about in achieving them. Each success that we achieve in our life adds to our internal fund of esteem. Our esteem has to be built brick by brick in a similar fashion that a large building is constructed. We need patience and commitment in building our esteem.
There are no shortcuts to self esteem. Success and fame achieved by accident or through devious means will not add to our self esteem. They can only inflate our ego or makes us vain. The vanity that results will not have affirm foundation as we will know in our hearts that the success was by chance or not well deserved.
However l victories that are achieved through honest effort, however small, will truly increase our own esteem. These successes are truly enduring and manifest itself in the self-pride that we develop. This is because we know in every fiber of our being that the success was well deserved and was a result of one’s own efforts.
It takes a long time to build one’s self-esteem. But once it is built it is difficult to destroy it. Self-esteem is like a fortress around oneself. A solid self-esteem can withstand any amount of derogatory and deprecatory comments. On the contrary, vanity in a person as a result of an inflated ego can easily be crushed. A person can be easily hurt if his opinion of himself/herself is a consequence of his/her ego.
Self-esteem is that magnificent edifice that we build for ourselves through our own untiring efforts. A person with self esteem is aware of his/her strengths and is also aware of his/her weaknesses. While self-esteem instills confidence in the person it also brings about a certain amount of humility.
Self esteem is truly the amalgamation of confidence and humility. While self esteem takes a long time to build it is well worth the effort.
It's all in the mind
Life is not fair. How often does this thought crop up in our minds? We always feel that we are at the receiving end of the stick as opposed to our friends or colleagues who seem to have a great time. We can easily come up with umpteen reasons as to why we are worse off than our neighbor.
Why does this happen? Actually it all depends on our own perception of reality. We develop a distorted view of the world and our place in the scheme of things. For some reason our minds prefer to focus on the negatives of our life and the positives of others. For some unknown reason we prefer to feel miserable and lousy. To me it appears almost that by nature man tends to gravitate towards negativity in life. It is almost as if the mind would like to trick itself into believing that the world is loaded against it.
Our understanding of our own state is distorted and our perception of neighbor’s supposed cheer in life is completely incorrect. We tend to dwell on where things are wrong with us. Also we have only a partial view of our neighbor who seems to have it better than us.
Nothing can be farther from the truth. For one our neighbor has their own share of problems in the world to handle. Moreover our own life is not as bad as it seems to be. It is quite likely that there are certain areas where fate could have treated us better, but clearly there will be many things for which we need to be grateful for.
It is possible that at certain points in life, fate could have dealt us a bad hand. But what is important is how we respond to the situation. Rather than fretting and fuming about the unfairness of fate we could choose to take positive action to offset the effect of our fate. Moreover we should focus on the many blessings we have in life. For one we could be free of any debilitating disease or we could have a stable income and family etc.
If we only look around ourselves we will find many reasons to be grateful. We need to re-focus our mind to dwell on our little blessings rather than our faults.
We have to understand that our perception of reality and reality as it is are completely different. We have to free ourselves from the bleak picture that our mind creates for us.
Why does this happen? Actually it all depends on our own perception of reality. We develop a distorted view of the world and our place in the scheme of things. For some reason our minds prefer to focus on the negatives of our life and the positives of others. For some unknown reason we prefer to feel miserable and lousy. To me it appears almost that by nature man tends to gravitate towards negativity in life. It is almost as if the mind would like to trick itself into believing that the world is loaded against it.
Our understanding of our own state is distorted and our perception of neighbor’s supposed cheer in life is completely incorrect. We tend to dwell on where things are wrong with us. Also we have only a partial view of our neighbor who seems to have it better than us.
Nothing can be farther from the truth. For one our neighbor has their own share of problems in the world to handle. Moreover our own life is not as bad as it seems to be. It is quite likely that there are certain areas where fate could have treated us better, but clearly there will be many things for which we need to be grateful for.
It is possible that at certain points in life, fate could have dealt us a bad hand. But what is important is how we respond to the situation. Rather than fretting and fuming about the unfairness of fate we could choose to take positive action to offset the effect of our fate. Moreover we should focus on the many blessings we have in life. For one we could be free of any debilitating disease or we could have a stable income and family etc.
If we only look around ourselves we will find many reasons to be grateful. We need to re-focus our mind to dwell on our little blessings rather than our faults.
We have to understand that our perception of reality and reality as it is are completely different. We have to free ourselves from the bleak picture that our mind creates for us.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Corruption: The descent into hell
Here are some really dark and disturbing statistics.
1) Recent estimates from UNICEF (2006) state that each year, under nutrition contributes to the deaths of about 5.6 million children under the age of five.
2) Malaria is estimated to cause around 3 -5 million deaths annually
3) AIDs responsible for 5% of deaths worldwide and caused 2.3 - 2.5 million deaths in 2003.
4) 1.1 billion people lack good, clean water supplies, and 2.7 billion have no access to proper sanitation
In the view of these issues confronting the world the Copenhagen Consensus in 2004 & 2008 investigated the various options to address the problems facing the world. The Copenhagen Consensus tried to identify the top 3 problems that would need to be addressed assuming that $50 billion was available at its disposal to solve these problems. Based on their analysis it was identified that HIV/AIDs, malnutrition, trade development and malaria were the top 4 issues that should be addressed for maximum effect.
Now in the light of these pressing problems of the world I would like to take a look at the issue of corruption in public life by those in power.
What level of depravity would a person have to descend to in order to amass wealth for himself, his kith and kin and his descendants through wrongful means and deprive millions of their share? How can a person ignore the problems of everybody else and only focus on hoarding wealth through illegal means.
Corruption truly indicates a distorted view of oneself and the world. It is truly the height of selfishness. The corrupt politician not only lacks a heart but is also probably blind. If not he/she would definitely would be aware of the poverty and problems facing society and he would not cheat the world.
In this world where millions are starving, children are undernourished and malnourished, and a large section of the population lack clean drinking water we have politicians who cheat the country and its people of billions of dollars and stash it in foreign banks. How heartless can these people be?
I guess the Copenhagen Consensus could be given its $50 billion if we could only recover the billions of ill-gotten wealth from the corrupt politicians and put the money to good use in solving the problems of the world.
1) Recent estimates from UNICEF (2006) state that each year, under nutrition contributes to the deaths of about 5.6 million children under the age of five.
2) Malaria is estimated to cause around 3 -5 million deaths annually
3) AIDs responsible for 5% of deaths worldwide and caused 2.3 - 2.5 million deaths in 2003.
4) 1.1 billion people lack good, clean water supplies, and 2.7 billion have no access to proper sanitation
In the view of these issues confronting the world the Copenhagen Consensus in 2004 & 2008 investigated the various options to address the problems facing the world. The Copenhagen Consensus tried to identify the top 3 problems that would need to be addressed assuming that $50 billion was available at its disposal to solve these problems. Based on their analysis it was identified that HIV/AIDs, malnutrition, trade development and malaria were the top 4 issues that should be addressed for maximum effect.
Now in the light of these pressing problems of the world I would like to take a look at the issue of corruption in public life by those in power.
What level of depravity would a person have to descend to in order to amass wealth for himself, his kith and kin and his descendants through wrongful means and deprive millions of their share? How can a person ignore the problems of everybody else and only focus on hoarding wealth through illegal means.
Corruption truly indicates a distorted view of oneself and the world. It is truly the height of selfishness. The corrupt politician not only lacks a heart but is also probably blind. If not he/she would definitely would be aware of the poverty and problems facing society and he would not cheat the world.
In this world where millions are starving, children are undernourished and malnourished, and a large section of the population lack clean drinking water we have politicians who cheat the country and its people of billions of dollars and stash it in foreign banks. How heartless can these people be?
I guess the Copenhagen Consensus could be given its $50 billion if we could only recover the billions of ill-gotten wealth from the corrupt politicians and put the money to good use in solving the problems of the world.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The Grass on the other side is brown ...
Make no mistake “the grass on the other side of the fence is not green”. Usually our grouse in life is that our friends or neighbors are better off in life than we are. Nothing can be farther from the truth.
The reality is everybody in this world has his or her own share of problems. We are also given our own unique quota of problems. What differentiates one human being from another is how he or she goes about solving their problems.
The important thing in life is to recognize that though our friends and neighbors appear to have things that you don’t have they also go through tough times. The moment we realize this we need not fret and fume about how others have their lives all arranged and nicely parceled.
We just need to look at our own lives and tackle the problems that we are faced with. As long as we use our mind to skillfully solve problems we can tide over a lot of life’s difficulties.
We have to learn to accept that we are given a set of issues in this finite life of ours to solve and clear away. We need to put our minds in cleverly solving problems. We need to use our ingenuity to solve the problems that confront us and not fritter away our energies in sulking and envying the lives of others.
The moment we realize that everybody their share of problems and we fully confront our problems wholeheartedly we can keep our spirits cheerful and soaring high!
The reality is everybody in this world has his or her own share of problems. We are also given our own unique quota of problems. What differentiates one human being from another is how he or she goes about solving their problems.
The important thing in life is to recognize that though our friends and neighbors appear to have things that you don’t have they also go through tough times. The moment we realize this we need not fret and fume about how others have their lives all arranged and nicely parceled.
We just need to look at our own lives and tackle the problems that we are faced with. As long as we use our mind to skillfully solve problems we can tide over a lot of life’s difficulties.
We have to learn to accept that we are given a set of issues in this finite life of ours to solve and clear away. We need to put our minds in cleverly solving problems. We need to use our ingenuity to solve the problems that confront us and not fritter away our energies in sulking and envying the lives of others.
The moment we realize that everybody their share of problems and we fully confront our problems wholeheartedly we can keep our spirits cheerful and soaring high!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Key strategies to power your career
Success in professional life is rarely accidental. It is the result of a well thought out plan carried out to perfection as one moves from rung to rung in the organizational hierarchy. Here are some key strategies, which if pursued, will give a better control over your career and will make your rise in the organization fairly smooth
Learning to learn: This is by far the most important quality we need when we enter the professional world. We need to learn how to learn. We need to be able to absorb the essence of our task, assignment or project. Any work that we perform we need to know both what to learn and how to learn. We need to able to look above the immediate project requirements and appreciate its function in a holistic way. We need to fully understand the product, the technologies involved, what problem it solves and how it ultimately benefits the end user.
Depth over breadth and vice versa: If you are in the technical ladder make sure that your swim deep and long. Spend time learning the implications, intricacies and nuances of the technologies involved. Learn to appreciate the various tradeoffs that have to be taken in the work being done. On the contrary, if you are a project or a program manager focus on breadth rather on depth. Understand the benefits and shortcomings of the involved technology and various allied technologies. Understand industry trends and how the project fits in the organizational business plan.
Make the right moves: At every stage one has to be aware of where one is with respect to the goal. We need to monitor and make mid course corrections. It is quite likely that as you move along in your professional life you may want to switch technology domains or shift to management. These are conscious decisions that you will have to weigh and take as you go along. As you grow you have understand where you want to go and how you want to get there. This is the mark of a true leader. We will hit several crossroads during our career. Our decisions should be directed towards our long term goal. Make sure the choices you make contribute to your professional, monetary and emotional accounts.
Look from the other side of the fence: If you are technically inclined learn the basics of project & program management. Understand and appreciate the challenges of people management. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into a technical-only slot. If on the other hand you are a project manager you must spend time becoming tech savvy. Try to get an all round view of all related technology. Technical people prefer managers who are tech savvy.
Plan for Success: This is critical for career growth. Make sure you plan for success. In the words of Yogi Berra “If you don’t know where you are going you might wind up someplace else”. Bring focus to both short and long term goals and work towards achieving them.
Understand and appreciate “Management Speak”: This is something that is very critical to your career growth. Make sure you understand the jargon that senior management tends to use “for e.g. 10,000 ft view”, “project risks”, ”quality improvement”. Do not shy away from this type of management jargon. In the early years most of tend to take management jargon lightly. Put yourself in your boss’s shoes and understand and appreciate the challenges he faces. It is good idea to understand the direction your organization is heading with respect to other peer organizations
Network: Networking is a critical to your success in the long run. Get to know your peers, subordinates, your boss and his peers. The more you network, the better are the chances of your success. It is imperative that you not only grow your professional network but also keep it well-oiled. You will learn a lot of people skills by networking. Networking will keep you abreast of all the latest trends in the industry, besides many organizations prefer referrals while recruiting.
Visibility speaks: Success in the professional world depends a lot on your visibility to the top management. Make sure that you help or lead any effort that is organization or at least department wide. It is very important that you grab opportunities to lead. This will not only increase your visibility but will also improve your organizational skills and make you understand the challenges of making things happen.
You will spend close to a quarter of a century in your professional avatar. Having a proper plan and working towards your career goal is important to both your financial and emotional well being. So ensure that you make all the right moves in your career.
Diversifying Happiness
Man's primary goal in life,from time immemorial, is the pursuit of happiness. Our every endeavor in life is geared to the increase of our happiness quotient. We may be interested in joy through the attainment of Nirvana or in happiness through the acquisition of material wealth, power or glory.
Whatever be the pursuit the common denominator of all mankind's activities is for an increase in his happiness.
Given that we are interested in increasing our happiness or contentment levels it makes sense to identify ways to keep our happiness levels brimming or overflowing.
A common sense way to make sure that we are happy and joyful in life is to diversify our investment in many activities that can bring to us consequent happiness. We need to pursue several activities each of which can bring a certain level of happiness to us.
For example we could learn some new skill like playing a musical instrument, involving ourselves in creative activity etc. As we become more proficient we will can bask in a sense of achievement. We could also involve ourself in doing our bit to the needy and the underprivileged. From this activity we can derive satisfaction when we do our bit to the needy. We could try to spend quality time with our family on a regular basis. This can greatly contribute to your joy at home.
In any case it is important that our returns to our happiness pool is from several different and diverse activities that we have spawned off. At no point in time should we pin our happiness on the outcome of just one single event. For example if we were to pin our hopes on getting that promotion in office, getting a raise or for example getting admission in some college in which you have set your heart on you are setting yourself for some painful experience.
The key take away is that if our joy at any point in life is dependent on just one single event we can feel crushed if that does not happen.
The important thing in life is to ensure that we invest in several parallel activities in life and reap the returns from some or all of these events turning in our favor.
Hence to lead a happy life "diversify your happiness" and reap rich dividends of joy.
Whatever be the pursuit the common denominator of all mankind's activities is for an increase in his happiness.
Given that we are interested in increasing our happiness or contentment levels it makes sense to identify ways to keep our happiness levels brimming or overflowing.
A common sense way to make sure that we are happy and joyful in life is to diversify our investment in many activities that can bring to us consequent happiness. We need to pursue several activities each of which can bring a certain level of happiness to us.
For example we could learn some new skill like playing a musical instrument, involving ourselves in creative activity etc. As we become more proficient we will can bask in a sense of achievement. We could also involve ourself in doing our bit to the needy and the underprivileged. From this activity we can derive satisfaction when we do our bit to the needy. We could try to spend quality time with our family on a regular basis. This can greatly contribute to your joy at home.
In any case it is important that our returns to our happiness pool is from several different and diverse activities that we have spawned off. At no point in time should we pin our happiness on the outcome of just one single event. For example if we were to pin our hopes on getting that promotion in office, getting a raise or for example getting admission in some college in which you have set your heart on you are setting yourself for some painful experience.
The key take away is that if our joy at any point in life is dependent on just one single event we can feel crushed if that does not happen.
The important thing in life is to ensure that we invest in several parallel activities in life and reap the returns from some or all of these events turning in our favor.
Hence to lead a happy life "diversify your happiness" and reap rich dividends of joy.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
In search of power, glory and prosperity
What distinguishes man from animals is his ability to reason. Man has the ability to choose an action from a set of valid alternatives. The action that he chooses should be based on the values that he cherishes. Values can be anything as long as they are founded on true north principles of integrity, kindness and compassion.
How should man conduct himself in life? Are there valid goals that are worth pursuing? What should be basis for goals that we set for ourselves?
Any goal in life is good as long as it is the result of a rational choice that man makes based on his inner values in life.
For example one’s value could be acquisition of great wealth through legitimate means. The person may be keen on gaining riches through dint of hard work, judicious choices and opportunities that he is able to see.
On the other hand a person’s value could be attainment of power and the ability to drive things on attainment. Similarly others may yearn for fame.
All these are perfectly valid values and do give a person a purpose in life. What is wrong in wanting to be multi-millionaire, or to have the immense power or far flung glory? All these are perfectly reasonable goals in life. It is only necessary that achievement of these goals is done through legitimate means.
Wealth, if it is not just for one’s own selfish pleasure, can be put to great use for the uplifting of the underprivileged. Similarly, power, if it is not misused can drive a lot of good actions.
There is nothing wrong in wanting riches, power or fame as long as one is willing to put it to good use for oneself and for society. We do have a Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, who is using his fortune to eradicate diseases like malaria and polio from the face of the earth. We are all aware of Mahatma Gandhi who used his enormous moral power to win India’s freedom and to eliminate the evils of casteism and untouchability. Similarly we have a Michael Jordan or a Sachin Tendulkar who have achieved great fame and are role models for aspiring youngsters.
As long as our ambitions are grounded in good values of integrity, human kindness and compassion there is every reason to chase the dreams that we have.
How should man conduct himself in life? Are there valid goals that are worth pursuing? What should be basis for goals that we set for ourselves?
Any goal in life is good as long as it is the result of a rational choice that man makes based on his inner values in life.
For example one’s value could be acquisition of great wealth through legitimate means. The person may be keen on gaining riches through dint of hard work, judicious choices and opportunities that he is able to see.
On the other hand a person’s value could be attainment of power and the ability to drive things on attainment. Similarly others may yearn for fame.
All these are perfectly valid values and do give a person a purpose in life. What is wrong in wanting to be multi-millionaire, or to have the immense power or far flung glory? All these are perfectly reasonable goals in life. It is only necessary that achievement of these goals is done through legitimate means.
Wealth, if it is not just for one’s own selfish pleasure, can be put to great use for the uplifting of the underprivileged. Similarly, power, if it is not misused can drive a lot of good actions.
There is nothing wrong in wanting riches, power or fame as long as one is willing to put it to good use for oneself and for society. We do have a Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, who is using his fortune to eradicate diseases like malaria and polio from the face of the earth. We are all aware of Mahatma Gandhi who used his enormous moral power to win India’s freedom and to eliminate the evils of casteism and untouchability. Similarly we have a Michael Jordan or a Sachin Tendulkar who have achieved great fame and are role models for aspiring youngsters.
As long as our ambitions are grounded in good values of integrity, human kindness and compassion there is every reason to chase the dreams that we have.
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Rationale of Values
Ayn Rand in “Objectivist Ethics” discusses her reasoning behind ethics. Ethics are nothing but a code of values. Values represent a choice among a set of possible alternatives. How are values defined? Who has defined them and against what have they been defined. Ayn Rand argues that life is the standard against which any code of ethics should be measured. Anything that prolongs life is to be pursued against anything that results in death.
While life is the basis for measurement of ethics how does one decide what is “good” and what is “evil”? Is the concept of “good” and “evil” based on the whim of a person, or on whims of society or does it just come from some mystical books. How does one define what is “good” and what is “evil?” To this Ayn Rand suggests that anything that results in pleasure to mankind must necessarily be good and anything that induces pain must be evil. So all things that promote pleasure or happiness can be assumed as being good and those that cause suffering can be assumed to be evil. Also man has to use his reason to determine what causes happiness and what causes suffering and not base these on what has been said or told to him. He has to use his reason and make rational choices in life.
Based on these premises Ayn Rand shows that there is virtue in selfishness where the primary purpose of man is the pursuit of happiness based rational choices in life. She explains that a selfish pursuit of pleasure does not imply the harm or the hurting of others. She advocates a policy where each individual works towards his own happiness and collaborates with others in society through a policy of give and take akin to trade.
Based on the premise that life is the standard of measure for a code of ethics and definition of “good” as anything that promotes happiness and “evil” to be anything that causes suffering I would like to investigate whether the commonly known values stand up to this test. The only additional condition that I would like to add is that “good” is anything that promotes happiness for the individual and the larger happiness of the society and “evil” is anything that causes pain to individual or the larger part of the society.
Integrity: Integrity is the virtue where one follows one’s convictions based on what is right and what is wrong. Assuming that the individual has exercised his reason he is bound to have a sound system of convictions. When somebody goes against his/her own conviction then he/she is bound to feel unsettled resulting in suffering. Hence integrity can be shown as maintaining inner peace and is definitely a value to be adhered to.
Honesty: Honesty denotes that we deal with reality as it is and we done misrepresent reality to ourselves or to others. Imagine a world where this value is not adhered to. Then we will never know what reality is there will be utter confusion resulting in chaos or in other words suffering. So logically honesty is a value that promotes peace and contentment in the individual and the society
Kindness: What is the reasoning behind kindness? Clearly when somebody is kind to us our happiness increases. So it makes perfect sense that we can increase the happiness quotient of others and consequently our own by being kind to others. This is simply based on doing unto others those acts that would have made us happy if we were on the receiving end of the act.
Trust: Trust is the axis around which society revolves. Being trustworthy is necessary and basing our actions on trust is extremely important for the smooth progress of society. This value also clearly stands to reasoning and promotes the well being of the individual and society.
Humility: The virtue of humility signifies that one has a balanced view of one’s own achievements and capabilities. It implies an absence of arrogance while at the same time denotes strong self-esteem. The value of humility is clearly a virtue that promotes contentment as opposed to excessive which can cause untold suffering if the ego is hurt.
So it clearly can be seen that the values of integrity, kindness, humility, trust and others truly stand to the test of reason and logic and promotes peace and contentment which should be basis for all actions. Hence a life that is based on sound north values is surely a life worth living.
While life is the basis for measurement of ethics how does one decide what is “good” and what is “evil”? Is the concept of “good” and “evil” based on the whim of a person, or on whims of society or does it just come from some mystical books. How does one define what is “good” and what is “evil?” To this Ayn Rand suggests that anything that results in pleasure to mankind must necessarily be good and anything that induces pain must be evil. So all things that promote pleasure or happiness can be assumed as being good and those that cause suffering can be assumed to be evil. Also man has to use his reason to determine what causes happiness and what causes suffering and not base these on what has been said or told to him. He has to use his reason and make rational choices in life.
Based on these premises Ayn Rand shows that there is virtue in selfishness where the primary purpose of man is the pursuit of happiness based rational choices in life. She explains that a selfish pursuit of pleasure does not imply the harm or the hurting of others. She advocates a policy where each individual works towards his own happiness and collaborates with others in society through a policy of give and take akin to trade.
Based on the premise that life is the standard of measure for a code of ethics and definition of “good” as anything that promotes happiness and “evil” to be anything that causes suffering I would like to investigate whether the commonly known values stand up to this test. The only additional condition that I would like to add is that “good” is anything that promotes happiness for the individual and the larger happiness of the society and “evil” is anything that causes pain to individual or the larger part of the society.
Integrity: Integrity is the virtue where one follows one’s convictions based on what is right and what is wrong. Assuming that the individual has exercised his reason he is bound to have a sound system of convictions. When somebody goes against his/her own conviction then he/she is bound to feel unsettled resulting in suffering. Hence integrity can be shown as maintaining inner peace and is definitely a value to be adhered to.
Honesty: Honesty denotes that we deal with reality as it is and we done misrepresent reality to ourselves or to others. Imagine a world where this value is not adhered to. Then we will never know what reality is there will be utter confusion resulting in chaos or in other words suffering. So logically honesty is a value that promotes peace and contentment in the individual and the society
Kindness: What is the reasoning behind kindness? Clearly when somebody is kind to us our happiness increases. So it makes perfect sense that we can increase the happiness quotient of others and consequently our own by being kind to others. This is simply based on doing unto others those acts that would have made us happy if we were on the receiving end of the act.
Trust: Trust is the axis around which society revolves. Being trustworthy is necessary and basing our actions on trust is extremely important for the smooth progress of society. This value also clearly stands to reasoning and promotes the well being of the individual and society.
Humility: The virtue of humility signifies that one has a balanced view of one’s own achievements and capabilities. It implies an absence of arrogance while at the same time denotes strong self-esteem. The value of humility is clearly a virtue that promotes contentment as opposed to excessive which can cause untold suffering if the ego is hurt.
So it clearly can be seen that the values of integrity, kindness, humility, trust and others truly stand to the test of reason and logic and promotes peace and contentment which should be basis for all actions. Hence a life that is based on sound north values is surely a life worth living.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Virtue - Defying definition
Virtue denotes moral excellence according to the dictionary meaning. But can virtue be defined? We normally consider acts of honesty, kindness, humility, compassion as virtue. But on closer observation we find that virtues cannot be so easily defined.
In fact nothing is more nebulous than virtue. Every act that we perform cannot be viewed in isolation. We need to take a holistic view of the act - the situation, the circumstances, the cause and the consequences of the act before classifying the act as being morally excellent or not.
A naive definition of truth is generally understood to be a simple statement of a fact. This is what we as kids learn. However as we grow older we learn that sometimes we need tact rather than direct statement of facts - hence we sugar coat the truth. Other times we may have to tell a white lie where we withhold a certain part of the fact when we know that mere telling of the fact can cause greater harm than good. This brings to mind the anecdote in which a sage on being asked by bandits with murderous intentions whether he saw a man flee in a particular direction simply states the fact, resulting in the man being caught and killed. The sage could have told a white lie in this situation. In these situations truth which is pure and the highest virtue cannot be the simple statement of fact.
Another situation that can be considered is when a corporate needs to retrench a part of the workforce. For the employees affected by this move it does appear cruel. But in the eyes of the CEO such a move is necessary for long term health of the organization. In these situations again virtue cannot be easily defined. On the one hand it resulted in people losing jobs and earning capacity at least temporarily, while on the other hand it prevents further decay in the organization.
Was Robin Hood, who stole from the rich, to give to the poor justified in his act? While it may appear that Robin Hood was stealing on the other hand he was using the stolen wealth to help the poor. With this view can virtue be defined as an act in which the ends are noble, though the means are not? Or does virtue necessitate that both the means and the ends be morally justifiable.
The reality is virtue is relative in many ways and really needs to be viewed in totality. We can think of virtue as any act that provides the greatest good for the greatest number or the greatest good for the greatest time. In many ways the Hindu concept of dharma is closest to this view.
In fact at the highest realm of virtue, one virtue is really indistinguishable from another, Hence if we look at virtue as an act that produces the most beneficial consequence then truth, kindness, non-violence and compassion all merge together becoming virtually distinguishable.
Hence virtue at the highest level cannot be easily defined and is in reality an amalgam of many virtues.
In fact nothing is more nebulous than virtue. Every act that we perform cannot be viewed in isolation. We need to take a holistic view of the act - the situation, the circumstances, the cause and the consequences of the act before classifying the act as being morally excellent or not.
A naive definition of truth is generally understood to be a simple statement of a fact. This is what we as kids learn. However as we grow older we learn that sometimes we need tact rather than direct statement of facts - hence we sugar coat the truth. Other times we may have to tell a white lie where we withhold a certain part of the fact when we know that mere telling of the fact can cause greater harm than good. This brings to mind the anecdote in which a sage on being asked by bandits with murderous intentions whether he saw a man flee in a particular direction simply states the fact, resulting in the man being caught and killed. The sage could have told a white lie in this situation. In these situations truth which is pure and the highest virtue cannot be the simple statement of fact.
Another situation that can be considered is when a corporate needs to retrench a part of the workforce. For the employees affected by this move it does appear cruel. But in the eyes of the CEO such a move is necessary for long term health of the organization. In these situations again virtue cannot be easily defined. On the one hand it resulted in people losing jobs and earning capacity at least temporarily, while on the other hand it prevents further decay in the organization.
Was Robin Hood, who stole from the rich, to give to the poor justified in his act? While it may appear that Robin Hood was stealing on the other hand he was using the stolen wealth to help the poor. With this view can virtue be defined as an act in which the ends are noble, though the means are not? Or does virtue necessitate that both the means and the ends be morally justifiable.
The reality is virtue is relative in many ways and really needs to be viewed in totality. We can think of virtue as any act that provides the greatest good for the greatest number or the greatest good for the greatest time. In many ways the Hindu concept of dharma is closest to this view.
In fact at the highest realm of virtue, one virtue is really indistinguishable from another, Hence if we look at virtue as an act that produces the most beneficial consequence then truth, kindness, non-violence and compassion all merge together becoming virtually distinguishable.
Hence virtue at the highest level cannot be easily defined and is in reality an amalgam of many virtues.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Dissecting Desire
Desire, we are often told, is the root of all misery. But what is the root of desire? Is there something behind desire that makes us crave for certain things?
We may have desire for wealth, material possessions, an office promotion or fame. Is there a common denominator behind desire?
Whenever we want something we are usually prompted by thoughts of increased happiness, more satisfaction etc. For e.g. the reason most of us desire wealth is because we think that more wealth implies more happiness. To a large extent the thoughts of an increase in our happiness quotient is the result of our memory. We can easily recall our experiences when we have a pleasant experience because of more money. So in many cases the cause behind our desire is the memory that tells us that when we achieve the object of desire we will be happier. Our memory is based on past experiences of similar events. So our experience coupled with the pleasurable recollection of the experience is one of the causes of desire. Another factor behind desire is the thought of an increased comfort that will be ours when we get what we desire.
However another of the causes of our desire is an imagined future. For example when we crave for fame, power or a promotion at office we usually imagine that when we achieve that power or fame we will also win the esteem of our friends and relatives. To some extent the motivation for the need for an increase in the self-esteem in the eyes of others is driven by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in which esteem is the second most important need of mankind below the need for self-actualization. This feeling of an imagined increase in one’s value in the eyes of others is a powerful driver for a lot of our desires.
Hence the root of desire is either the lure of pleasure, the promise of more comfort or an increase in one’s esteem in the eyes of others.
Whatever the drivers are for our desire it is difficult to get rid of desire. Without the exercise of powerful restraint we really cannot suppress desire.
Repressing desire will only result in conflict and will usually result in a losing battle. The more judicious approach is to sublimate the desire we have for wealth, power or fame.
In my opinion, it is not wrong to desire more wealth, power or fame as long as one utilizes what one gets also for the benefit of others.
Clearly if the desire of wealth, recognition or power is not merely selfish but is also used for the benefit of society at large then it makes very good sense to go after what one desires.
We may have desire for wealth, material possessions, an office promotion or fame. Is there a common denominator behind desire?
Whenever we want something we are usually prompted by thoughts of increased happiness, more satisfaction etc. For e.g. the reason most of us desire wealth is because we think that more wealth implies more happiness. To a large extent the thoughts of an increase in our happiness quotient is the result of our memory. We can easily recall our experiences when we have a pleasant experience because of more money. So in many cases the cause behind our desire is the memory that tells us that when we achieve the object of desire we will be happier. Our memory is based on past experiences of similar events. So our experience coupled with the pleasurable recollection of the experience is one of the causes of desire. Another factor behind desire is the thought of an increased comfort that will be ours when we get what we desire.
However another of the causes of our desire is an imagined future. For example when we crave for fame, power or a promotion at office we usually imagine that when we achieve that power or fame we will also win the esteem of our friends and relatives. To some extent the motivation for the need for an increase in the self-esteem in the eyes of others is driven by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in which esteem is the second most important need of mankind below the need for self-actualization. This feeling of an imagined increase in one’s value in the eyes of others is a powerful driver for a lot of our desires.
Hence the root of desire is either the lure of pleasure, the promise of more comfort or an increase in one’s esteem in the eyes of others.
Whatever the drivers are for our desire it is difficult to get rid of desire. Without the exercise of powerful restraint we really cannot suppress desire.
Repressing desire will only result in conflict and will usually result in a losing battle. The more judicious approach is to sublimate the desire we have for wealth, power or fame.
In my opinion, it is not wrong to desire more wealth, power or fame as long as one utilizes what one gets also for the benefit of others.
Clearly if the desire of wealth, recognition or power is not merely selfish but is also used for the benefit of society at large then it makes very good sense to go after what one desires.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Center of Happiness
To most of us happiness depends on us getting that raise, a promotion, acquiring some material things or achieving recognition and respect etc. In all these cases the center of our happiness is our own petty self. Our happiness or lack of it is dependent on our own self-centered view of the world.
We expect some external event to happen which results in our happiness. We hold our happiness hostage to the occurrence the external event. We are in a way helpless as we are dependent on events happening to make us happy.
Why can’t we shift the center of our happiness from being centered on oneself to being centered on others?
This requires a radical shift in our mind set.
Can we change our world view such that we strive to make other happy in anyway? Can we make others happy by alleviating their suffering of others? Can we derive our own satisfaction and consequent happiness from this effort?
We can help others monetarily, mentally or morally.
That is the key? Why do we have to hold our happiness slave to some external event because our joy is centered on our self? Why cannot we move this center to the world around us and derive joy by making others happy.
If we are able to look beyond our own self-centered view of the world, to a more encompassing view of society at large, then the happiness that we gain by making others happy will be more enduring and more long lasting.
The other important fact is that we are in control of our actions in making others happy. We don’t have to feel helpless in waiting for some things to happen in our lives. We can proactively work towards help others and centering our happiness in our service for others.
We expect some external event to happen which results in our happiness. We hold our happiness hostage to the occurrence the external event. We are in a way helpless as we are dependent on events happening to make us happy.
Why can’t we shift the center of our happiness from being centered on oneself to being centered on others?
This requires a radical shift in our mind set.
Can we change our world view such that we strive to make other happy in anyway? Can we make others happy by alleviating their suffering of others? Can we derive our own satisfaction and consequent happiness from this effort?
We can help others monetarily, mentally or morally.
That is the key? Why do we have to hold our happiness slave to some external event because our joy is centered on our self? Why cannot we move this center to the world around us and derive joy by making others happy.
If we are able to look beyond our own self-centered view of the world, to a more encompassing view of society at large, then the happiness that we gain by making others happy will be more enduring and more long lasting.
The other important fact is that we are in control of our actions in making others happy. We don’t have to feel helpless in waiting for some things to happen in our lives. We can proactively work towards help others and centering our happiness in our service for others.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Causes of suffering
Suffering and misery are inevitable in life. While we cannot wish away our suffering it is definitely worthwhile to understand some of the causes behind our suffering.
The causes of misery are either in our past, in our present or in an imagined future.
Painful Past: Quite a few people suffer from this sort of misery. These people look back at their past lives and keep wishing that it had occurred in a different way. They are not able to come to terms with their failures, their sorrows and their indiscretions of the past. It really does not make sense to moan a painful past. What has happened has happened and we need to get over it. There is no sense in tying oneself into knots about the past which cannot be changed. We just need to get over it and move on in life.
Imagined Future: Then there are others who wish for a rosy future and fret and fume in the present. They sincerely hope for something in their future - a promotion, getting through some exam or acquiring some material possession. They are so are wound up in all their fantasies that they find the present drab and hence suffer. They live in an imagined world and fail to see reality as it is. It does not make sense to spoil the present based on an imagined future
Unbearable Present: The third type of suffering happens in the present. The causes behind this kind of suffering are many.
Conflict with our world view: This is the most common type of suffering that we face in the present i.e. we expect the world to behave in a certain way but people act in a completely different way. We expect our friends, our spouses, our colleagues to treat us with certain sensitivity. When this does not happen we feel utterly miserable.
Ego: This is another root cause of our misery. We tend have a certain opinion of ourselves. In some it may even border on vanity. When somebody treats us with disdain or insults us we feel utterly hurt and our ego is crushed. This can cause a lot of undue suffering.
Desire: This is the third cause of suffering in the present. We want many things in our life. We want money, wealth, recognition and respect. When our desires are not met we suffer.
While there is no easy way out of our suffering, becoming aware of the causes of our misery enables us to handle our lives better. As we learn the root causes we can devote our attention to the causes and eradicate them.
In this way we can at least strive for a more peaceful existence.
The causes of misery are either in our past, in our present or in an imagined future.
Painful Past: Quite a few people suffer from this sort of misery. These people look back at their past lives and keep wishing that it had occurred in a different way. They are not able to come to terms with their failures, their sorrows and their indiscretions of the past. It really does not make sense to moan a painful past. What has happened has happened and we need to get over it. There is no sense in tying oneself into knots about the past which cannot be changed. We just need to get over it and move on in life.
Imagined Future: Then there are others who wish for a rosy future and fret and fume in the present. They sincerely hope for something in their future - a promotion, getting through some exam or acquiring some material possession. They are so are wound up in all their fantasies that they find the present drab and hence suffer. They live in an imagined world and fail to see reality as it is. It does not make sense to spoil the present based on an imagined future
Unbearable Present: The third type of suffering happens in the present. The causes behind this kind of suffering are many.
Conflict with our world view: This is the most common type of suffering that we face in the present i.e. we expect the world to behave in a certain way but people act in a completely different way. We expect our friends, our spouses, our colleagues to treat us with certain sensitivity. When this does not happen we feel utterly miserable.
Ego: This is another root cause of our misery. We tend have a certain opinion of ourselves. In some it may even border on vanity. When somebody treats us with disdain or insults us we feel utterly hurt and our ego is crushed. This can cause a lot of undue suffering.
Desire: This is the third cause of suffering in the present. We want many things in our life. We want money, wealth, recognition and respect. When our desires are not met we suffer.
While there is no easy way out of our suffering, becoming aware of the causes of our misery enables us to handle our lives better. As we learn the root causes we can devote our attention to the causes and eradicate them.
In this way we can at least strive for a more peaceful existence.
Directing Mental energy
Thought in action utilizes energy. All kinds of mental activity require mental energy to be performed. All mental activity, whether it is for creating, analyzing, getting worked up or being jealous requires energy.
Since any activity that involves the mind requires energy it is important that we direct our mind into only towards fruitful and beneficial activities.
Whenever we get angry against someone, get irritated or frustrated we expend a lot of mental energy. When we spend a lot of time just getting worked we will feel exhausted after some time. There will be times where we repeatedly relive some situation and keep getting angrier and angrier. We will dwell on some cyclical thought which will enervate us. The energy that is spent in our irritations, frustrations or anger serves no purpose. This will only make us feel drained of energy.
On the other hand if we spend time directing our thoughts towards fruitful activities then the mental energy that we expend will give us some useful result. For example we could direct our thoughts to solving our immediate problems or in learning some new skill that will help us in our personal or professional life. Alternatively we could focus on planning for our future and taking necessary steps so that our path in the future is smooth.
This is judicious use of our mental energy.
But the problem with most of us is that we fritter away our mental energies in petty disagreements, in hate games, in irritations and anger. We do not realize that this sort of mental activity is a waste of our mental resources and will only makes us feel drained after some time.
If you feel angry about something or someone try to see the futility of it and get rid of it as soon as you can. Do not prolong this feeling. Re-focus your mind on some other useful activity.
Expending energy in wasteful activity like anger, frustration or irritation is equivalent to banging your head against a wall. It serves no useful purpose and we will only tend to feel tired.
So we must learn to avoid any sort of mental activity that serves no useful purpose and direct our mental energies towards creative and problem solving effort.
Since any activity that involves the mind requires energy it is important that we direct our mind into only towards fruitful and beneficial activities.
Whenever we get angry against someone, get irritated or frustrated we expend a lot of mental energy. When we spend a lot of time just getting worked we will feel exhausted after some time. There will be times where we repeatedly relive some situation and keep getting angrier and angrier. We will dwell on some cyclical thought which will enervate us. The energy that is spent in our irritations, frustrations or anger serves no purpose. This will only make us feel drained of energy.
On the other hand if we spend time directing our thoughts towards fruitful activities then the mental energy that we expend will give us some useful result. For example we could direct our thoughts to solving our immediate problems or in learning some new skill that will help us in our personal or professional life. Alternatively we could focus on planning for our future and taking necessary steps so that our path in the future is smooth.
This is judicious use of our mental energy.
But the problem with most of us is that we fritter away our mental energies in petty disagreements, in hate games, in irritations and anger. We do not realize that this sort of mental activity is a waste of our mental resources and will only makes us feel drained after some time.
If you feel angry about something or someone try to see the futility of it and get rid of it as soon as you can. Do not prolong this feeling. Re-focus your mind on some other useful activity.
Expending energy in wasteful activity like anger, frustration or irritation is equivalent to banging your head against a wall. It serves no useful purpose and we will only tend to feel tired.
So we must learn to avoid any sort of mental activity that serves no useful purpose and direct our mental energies towards creative and problem solving effort.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Delusions
Human beings are the only creatures who are capable of completely deceiving themselves. Our mind can create a web of lies and so completely fool us that we will not know what is right and what is wrong.
Take for example the mindless bomb blasts in Mumbai today. What can one think of the perpetrators of such a cruel act. What must be going through the minds of these people.
Clearly these terrorists must harbor a lot of hatred for all mankind in general. How can they justify the loss of lives. I am certain that they must be justifying their deeds by thinking that to achieve their goal they have to sacrifice lives. They must be rationalizing their actis by arguing with themselves and completely fooling themselves of what is right or what is wrong,
What propels them to commit such acts? Do they think of lives lost, the people injured? Do they realize that they will be putting a lot of people in pain. Do they choose to ignore all of this and subjugate all human suffering to their cause whatever it might be.
Are the terrorists incapable of feeling or is their mind so warped that they cannot comprehend tenderness and love.
They must be utilizing their reason for all the wrong purposes.
When people do not pursue their lives by following true north principles of love, compassion, kindness are bound to be led astray by their mind.
The mind can become the vessel for dialbolical deeds accompanied by thoughts justifying and reasoning the devilish act.
The mind of these terrorists must be devoid of any possible human trait.
May they wake up to good sense and truth. May these people see the innocent smile a child. May they realize the joy of happiness gained by making others happy.
Take for example the mindless bomb blasts in Mumbai today. What can one think of the perpetrators of such a cruel act. What must be going through the minds of these people.
Clearly these terrorists must harbor a lot of hatred for all mankind in general. How can they justify the loss of lives. I am certain that they must be justifying their deeds by thinking that to achieve their goal they have to sacrifice lives. They must be rationalizing their actis by arguing with themselves and completely fooling themselves of what is right or what is wrong,
What propels them to commit such acts? Do they think of lives lost, the people injured? Do they realize that they will be putting a lot of people in pain. Do they choose to ignore all of this and subjugate all human suffering to their cause whatever it might be.
Are the terrorists incapable of feeling or is their mind so warped that they cannot comprehend tenderness and love.
They must be utilizing their reason for all the wrong purposes.
When people do not pursue their lives by following true north principles of love, compassion, kindness are bound to be led astray by their mind.
The mind can become the vessel for dialbolical deeds accompanied by thoughts justifying and reasoning the devilish act.
The mind of these terrorists must be devoid of any possible human trait.
May they wake up to good sense and truth. May these people see the innocent smile a child. May they realize the joy of happiness gained by making others happy.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Imagination - Friend or Foe?
Our imagination can either behave as our friend or our foe. This depends on how we use this powerful faculty that has been bestowed on us. Our imagination can provide great service to us if we employ it properly, alternatively it can also be our greatest enemy.
Our imagination enables us to think creatively. We are able to visualize many things over and above they really are because of the faculty of our imagination. Some of the greatest works of art, music and literature are the products of fertile imagination. The eternal works of Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Mozart or a Vinci are the results of vivid imagination. Imagination if used properly can help us create, visualize and solve difficult problems. In these aspects our imagination is our greatest ally, helping us transcend ordinary realms of mortals and helps us to leave behind a lasting legacy.
But our imagination can also be our greatest enemy if we let our mind run loose. Sometimes when we are faced with problems in life our imagination starts running wild. We start to imagine all sorts of problems. We see disasters where there is none. We get overly stressed because we lose control of our minds and our imagination makes our lives a virtual nightmare.
The other side of this coin when our imagination can work against us is when we assume our own greatness where there is none. There are times where we assume that people are either praising us or criticizing us. Our imagination takes over our normal cool and reasoned approach and concocts a situation that is totally untrue. There are many times we start to assume things and attributing meaning to chance remarks because our imagination makes us do so. These are situation we have to be careful against. In these situations our imagination is our enemy and we have to step back and reason out logically any assumptions or conclusions we make.
Hence our imagination can be our ally or our worst enemy. We must know not only how to utilize our imagination but also when to utilize it. That is the most important lesson of all.
Our imagination enables us to think creatively. We are able to visualize many things over and above they really are because of the faculty of our imagination. Some of the greatest works of art, music and literature are the products of fertile imagination. The eternal works of Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Mozart or a Vinci are the results of vivid imagination. Imagination if used properly can help us create, visualize and solve difficult problems. In these aspects our imagination is our greatest ally, helping us transcend ordinary realms of mortals and helps us to leave behind a lasting legacy.
But our imagination can also be our greatest enemy if we let our mind run loose. Sometimes when we are faced with problems in life our imagination starts running wild. We start to imagine all sorts of problems. We see disasters where there is none. We get overly stressed because we lose control of our minds and our imagination makes our lives a virtual nightmare.
The other side of this coin when our imagination can work against us is when we assume our own greatness where there is none. There are times where we assume that people are either praising us or criticizing us. Our imagination takes over our normal cool and reasoned approach and concocts a situation that is totally untrue. There are many times we start to assume things and attributing meaning to chance remarks because our imagination makes us do so. These are situation we have to be careful against. In these situations our imagination is our enemy and we have to step back and reason out logically any assumptions or conclusions we make.
Hence our imagination can be our ally or our worst enemy. We must know not only how to utilize our imagination but also when to utilize it. That is the most important lesson of all.
Monday, June 27, 2011
The Futility of Knowledge
Knowledge in itself is futile. We may read every known philosophy book, learnt all the intricacies of the relation between the soul, ego, intellect and the mind. We may be well versed in psychology. We could be adept in different theories from Freud, Jung to Gestalt. We may learn about the importance of containing anger, hatred and envy. We may read about the merits of kindness and humility. But when push comes to shove our mind just goes back to its wanton ways.
How often do we hear of spiritual gurus involved in a scandal? I am sure psychiatrist themselves must occasionally suffer from mental lows. In fact the epics like Mahabharata also quote several examples of exalted sages who succumb to attractions of flesh and desire.
Knowledge by itself is useless unless it is internalized. While knowledge is useful in analyzing situation as an afterthought, it rarely comes to aid when one needs it most. Knowledge takes a backseat to our deepest desires and wishes which lay buried inside us. To some extent our responses are also partly due to centuries of programming and conditioning of the human race.
If we really want to take advantage of knowledge, then we have to consciously assimilate everything that we have learnt. We have to adopt the values that we learn and consciously internalize them day in and day out. It is a lifelong process in which we consciously re-wire the circuits in our brains and mind to behave in a certain way.
We have to consciously understand the inbuilt reasoning that goes beyond any philosophy or faith. We have to practice the values that we learn consciously and constantly.
Practice is not just limited to any new skill like swimming or music. Practice is also necessary for observing and maintaining true north principles.
If we do not consciously practice to internalize values that we learn knowledge will be like layers of cosmetic that can provide some temporary beauty. Such type of knowledge is only skin deep and will disappear.
True learning is learning that can withstand the test of time and any situation.
How often do we hear of spiritual gurus involved in a scandal? I am sure psychiatrist themselves must occasionally suffer from mental lows. In fact the epics like Mahabharata also quote several examples of exalted sages who succumb to attractions of flesh and desire.
Knowledge by itself is useless unless it is internalized. While knowledge is useful in analyzing situation as an afterthought, it rarely comes to aid when one needs it most. Knowledge takes a backseat to our deepest desires and wishes which lay buried inside us. To some extent our responses are also partly due to centuries of programming and conditioning of the human race.
If we really want to take advantage of knowledge, then we have to consciously assimilate everything that we have learnt. We have to adopt the values that we learn and consciously internalize them day in and day out. It is a lifelong process in which we consciously re-wire the circuits in our brains and mind to behave in a certain way.
We have to consciously understand the inbuilt reasoning that goes beyond any philosophy or faith. We have to practice the values that we learn consciously and constantly.
Practice is not just limited to any new skill like swimming or music. Practice is also necessary for observing and maintaining true north principles.
If we do not consciously practice to internalize values that we learn knowledge will be like layers of cosmetic that can provide some temporary beauty. Such type of knowledge is only skin deep and will disappear.
True learning is learning that can withstand the test of time and any situation.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The paradox of being both firm and flexible
Good human behavior is a paradox of sorts. While on the one hand we need to be firm there are times when we have to flexible.
Right living must be based on the highest virtues of love, kindness, compassion, integrity, humility, tolerance, commitment etc. If we were to base our lives on these values we will find that we have to be supple or flexible at times and firm or rigid during other times.
Take for example the virtues of love, kindness and compassion. If we truly love others or want to be kind to them, then we really have to elevate ourselves several notches to our higher self. Being kind and loving requires that we accommodate any acts of transgression on the part off others. We must be able to accept with a smile any offensive or rude remark. We must be able to return unkindness with love and kindness.
In other words our behavior based on the values of love, kindness and compassion must be like a blade of grass that bends under the weight of water droplet, only to regain its uprightness once the droplet has fallen off. Hence kindness and unconditional love requires in us a tolerance and acceptance of errors. In this situation we have to really supple and large hearted to receive any kind of bad behavior.
On the other hand virtues like integrity, humility or commitment behooves us to be firm in our behavior. We should not flinch in the face of money, fame or fortune. These values of integrity or honesty can never be compromised. We should never allow us to be tempted by quick money, fame or power.
We have to be firm in our resolve to see through any rough weather we may encounter in our lives. We should never weaken in our attitude and never compromise on these key values. In these aspects we need to be like the lotus leaf which remains unaffected by the water droplets on it. The principles of integrity, commitment are true north principles and should remain so through thick and thin.
Hence it can be seen that when we base our lives on virtues of kindness, love, integrity or commitment we need to be both firm and flexible as the virtue demands. It is difficult to do but is the real test of our character.
Right living must be based on the highest virtues of love, kindness, compassion, integrity, humility, tolerance, commitment etc. If we were to base our lives on these values we will find that we have to be supple or flexible at times and firm or rigid during other times.
Take for example the virtues of love, kindness and compassion. If we truly love others or want to be kind to them, then we really have to elevate ourselves several notches to our higher self. Being kind and loving requires that we accommodate any acts of transgression on the part off others. We must be able to accept with a smile any offensive or rude remark. We must be able to return unkindness with love and kindness.
In other words our behavior based on the values of love, kindness and compassion must be like a blade of grass that bends under the weight of water droplet, only to regain its uprightness once the droplet has fallen off. Hence kindness and unconditional love requires in us a tolerance and acceptance of errors. In this situation we have to really supple and large hearted to receive any kind of bad behavior.
On the other hand virtues like integrity, humility or commitment behooves us to be firm in our behavior. We should not flinch in the face of money, fame or fortune. These values of integrity or honesty can never be compromised. We should never allow us to be tempted by quick money, fame or power.
We have to be firm in our resolve to see through any rough weather we may encounter in our lives. We should never weaken in our attitude and never compromise on these key values. In these aspects we need to be like the lotus leaf which remains unaffected by the water droplets on it. The principles of integrity, commitment are true north principles and should remain so through thick and thin.
Hence it can be seen that when we base our lives on virtues of kindness, love, integrity or commitment we need to be both firm and flexible as the virtue demands. It is difficult to do but is the real test of our character.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Ridding oneself of the past history
All of us at any point in our lives will have a past history. Our past can be of 3 kinds
• a boring past
• a gory past
• a glorious past
A boring past: If our past has been boring then we really need to do something about it. We have probably simply drifted about in life without any ambition in life. We probably feel we have not have achieved anything worthwhile in life. If this is the case we really need to distance ourselves from our past. We need to set appropriate goals fired with the necessary ambition and we need to drive ourselves in life. As they say “nothing is impossible” as long as we put our heart and soul into achieving this.
A Gory Past: There are some who feel that their past has been nothing but a string of failures and defeats. Their past acts as a drag on their progress. They are constantly weighed by the guilt of failure and under achievement. These people have to just let go of the past and start afresh on the journey into the future. The past is in no way determines your future as long as you use your free will and choose to act differently. Failure in the past is no excuse for inactivity or being lethargic. If we let go off the past and focus on the future we can truly achieve great things
A Glorious Past: If you have a glorious past you may think there is no need for worry. But these people have the most difficult task ahead of them. We should not just bask in our past victories. People who live in past glories are doomed to failure at some future point because they are bound to be lulled into overconfidence. People with a glorious past with a lot of successes should really divorce their past and move into the future afresh. They should tackle the future unmindful of their past victories. This will make then humble and will also result from any overweening pride in oneself. This takes a lot of courage to start afresh when one can simply wallow in self pride. If we have the courage to start anew and focus on the task then we can add to our string of victories
Hence whether you have a boring, a gory or a glorious past we need to look at the future with fresh eyes without the weight of past failures or the pride of past successes. We need to travel light into the future.
• a boring past
• a gory past
• a glorious past
A boring past: If our past has been boring then we really need to do something about it. We have probably simply drifted about in life without any ambition in life. We probably feel we have not have achieved anything worthwhile in life. If this is the case we really need to distance ourselves from our past. We need to set appropriate goals fired with the necessary ambition and we need to drive ourselves in life. As they say “nothing is impossible” as long as we put our heart and soul into achieving this.
A Gory Past: There are some who feel that their past has been nothing but a string of failures and defeats. Their past acts as a drag on their progress. They are constantly weighed by the guilt of failure and under achievement. These people have to just let go of the past and start afresh on the journey into the future. The past is in no way determines your future as long as you use your free will and choose to act differently. Failure in the past is no excuse for inactivity or being lethargic. If we let go off the past and focus on the future we can truly achieve great things
A Glorious Past: If you have a glorious past you may think there is no need for worry. But these people have the most difficult task ahead of them. We should not just bask in our past victories. People who live in past glories are doomed to failure at some future point because they are bound to be lulled into overconfidence. People with a glorious past with a lot of successes should really divorce their past and move into the future afresh. They should tackle the future unmindful of their past victories. This will make then humble and will also result from any overweening pride in oneself. This takes a lot of courage to start afresh when one can simply wallow in self pride. If we have the courage to start anew and focus on the task then we can add to our string of victories
Hence whether you have a boring, a gory or a glorious past we need to look at the future with fresh eyes without the weight of past failures or the pride of past successes. We need to travel light into the future.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Of Brahman, Jungian Self archetype and Quantum Mechanics
In Hindu philosophy Brahman is considered to be the universal force that pervades the universe. The Brahman or the Atman is considered to indestructible, ineffable, colorless, beyond descriptio. The Brahman can be attained only in deep states of mysticism and the experience is one of total bliss. As is mentioned in Christian philosophy it is a state of peace that “passeth all understanding”. Further according to Hindu philosophy the world is an illusion or “maya” and we view the world through our “gunas” or nature. To be able to pierce this illusoriness of the phenomenal world requires a calm meditative approach to the world. We are required to transcend the illusion of the world and go to that universal consciousness or the Atman.
According to Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist, 1875. man has an ego behind which is the personal conscious, in some ways similar to the jiva atman. Jung also describes that the lowest strata of consciousness is the collective unconscious almost akin to the Brahman concept of Hinduism. Also man is made of several archetypes. An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way. Jung describes that the collective unconscious is made of several archetypes like the mother, the shadow, the anima, the animus and the self.. According to Jungian philosophy the goal of life is to realize the self. According to this the “self: archetype represents the transcendence of all opposites, when one is neither male nor female, neither ego nor shadow, neither good nor bad, neither conscious nor unconscious. This almost rings of the Upanishads which describes the Atman or Brahman through complete exclusion and negation as “not this, not this.. or na iti, na iti”. This is a striking parallel to the discovery of the self by the ancient Indian sages.
The reality as perceived by the sages is supposed to be beyond verbal description. The ancient Indian mystics state that behind the multitude of images that we see is the same and universal reality. Similarly, according to quantum mechanics, reality is a superposition of a number of possible states. The observed phenomenon is not independent of the observer. According to Heisenberg the atoms and elementary particles form a world of possibilities and potentialities, and not things and facts. What we observe, according to Heisenberg is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our mode of questioning. The famous thought experiment of Erwin Schrödinger illustrates a paradoxical situation in which a cat will be both alive and dead. This experiment just goes to show that reality is a superposition of several possibilities
This is analogous to the thinking of the ancients that there exists a reality behind the images of forms and things of this world. The underlying principle of the Brahman is universal and pervades the entire universe. . According the Hindu thought the reality that we observe are based on our senses. The reality of the Brahman is beyond all words and modes of expression.
It is amazing that the concepts of the ancient Indian ascetics about the phenomenal world and ultimate Reality still holds true after centuries of advancement in human thought.
According to Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist, 1875. man has an ego behind which is the personal conscious, in some ways similar to the jiva atman. Jung also describes that the lowest strata of consciousness is the collective unconscious almost akin to the Brahman concept of Hinduism. Also man is made of several archetypes. An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way. Jung describes that the collective unconscious is made of several archetypes like the mother, the shadow, the anima, the animus and the self.. According to Jungian philosophy the goal of life is to realize the self. According to this the “self: archetype represents the transcendence of all opposites, when one is neither male nor female, neither ego nor shadow, neither good nor bad, neither conscious nor unconscious. This almost rings of the Upanishads which describes the Atman or Brahman through complete exclusion and negation as “not this, not this.. or na iti, na iti”. This is a striking parallel to the discovery of the self by the ancient Indian sages.
The reality as perceived by the sages is supposed to be beyond verbal description. The ancient Indian mystics state that behind the multitude of images that we see is the same and universal reality. Similarly, according to quantum mechanics, reality is a superposition of a number of possible states. The observed phenomenon is not independent of the observer. According to Heisenberg the atoms and elementary particles form a world of possibilities and potentialities, and not things and facts. What we observe, according to Heisenberg is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our mode of questioning. The famous thought experiment of Erwin Schrödinger illustrates a paradoxical situation in which a cat will be both alive and dead. This experiment just goes to show that reality is a superposition of several possibilities
This is analogous to the thinking of the ancients that there exists a reality behind the images of forms and things of this world. The underlying principle of the Brahman is universal and pervades the entire universe. . According the Hindu thought the reality that we observe are based on our senses. The reality of the Brahman is beyond all words and modes of expression.
It is amazing that the concepts of the ancient Indian ascetics about the phenomenal world and ultimate Reality still holds true after centuries of advancement in human thought.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Dealing with a hierarchy of values
• What would do if on a day a hungry and homeless on the street begged for a few coins from you? Would you refuse because you consider begging is evil and should be abolished or would you part with a few coins?
• How would you react if you happened to witness somebody being cruel to another person? Would you be offended and accost the offender or would you just rationalize the act as the karma of the person undergoing the suffering?
• What would you if you were confronted with a situation where telling truth as it is bound to hurt the person receiving it? Would you refrain from telling the truth as an act of kindness or would you feel that you are compromising with your moral integrity?
• Would you advertise your achievements to somebody who does not know you or would your sense of humility prevent you from doing that?
These are typical situations that we go through in our daily lives. All of us would agree that we have to live a life of moral rectitude. We all tend to believe in a certain set of core values as the fundamental basis of principled behavior. We will all agree that all actions should be based on core values of kindness, compassion, honesty, humility, tolerance.
There is no argument that the above values are vital for good human character. However in our daily lives it never easy to determine the right course of action as the above 4 situations describe. Oftentimes based on the situation we have to order the values and choose one among them that is most appropriate in the given situation.
Typically we will have to deal a hierarchy of human values and pick the value that provides the greatest good in the given situation. It is not easy to make the decision. There is an interesting anecdote in the Mahabharata where a gang of bandits ask a sage whether he saw a man running in a particular direction. While the sage was aware of the murderous intent of the bandits, without batting an eyelid he tells them that the man was actually hiding in his hut. The bandits promptly catch the poor man and kill him. While the sage felt that we behaving honestly he could have at least with held the truth thus saving a life.
In my opinion, when there is a conflict of good human values the virtue that is most superior in any given circumstance is kindness and compassion. The Gita also clearly states “that he who is able to share the sorrow and joy of others is a true yogi”. Clearly compassion is high on the list of virtues of the Gita.
Hence when we are confronted with any situation we have to assess the situation, order the values in a hierarchical order and choose the action that provides the greatest good for the greatest time.
• How would you react if you happened to witness somebody being cruel to another person? Would you be offended and accost the offender or would you just rationalize the act as the karma of the person undergoing the suffering?
• What would you if you were confronted with a situation where telling truth as it is bound to hurt the person receiving it? Would you refrain from telling the truth as an act of kindness or would you feel that you are compromising with your moral integrity?
• Would you advertise your achievements to somebody who does not know you or would your sense of humility prevent you from doing that?
These are typical situations that we go through in our daily lives. All of us would agree that we have to live a life of moral rectitude. We all tend to believe in a certain set of core values as the fundamental basis of principled behavior. We will all agree that all actions should be based on core values of kindness, compassion, honesty, humility, tolerance.
There is no argument that the above values are vital for good human character. However in our daily lives it never easy to determine the right course of action as the above 4 situations describe. Oftentimes based on the situation we have to order the values and choose one among them that is most appropriate in the given situation.
Typically we will have to deal a hierarchy of human values and pick the value that provides the greatest good in the given situation. It is not easy to make the decision. There is an interesting anecdote in the Mahabharata where a gang of bandits ask a sage whether he saw a man running in a particular direction. While the sage was aware of the murderous intent of the bandits, without batting an eyelid he tells them that the man was actually hiding in his hut. The bandits promptly catch the poor man and kill him. While the sage felt that we behaving honestly he could have at least with held the truth thus saving a life.
In my opinion, when there is a conflict of good human values the virtue that is most superior in any given circumstance is kindness and compassion. The Gita also clearly states “that he who is able to share the sorrow and joy of others is a true yogi”. Clearly compassion is high on the list of virtues of the Gita.
Hence when we are confronted with any situation we have to assess the situation, order the values in a hierarchical order and choose the action that provides the greatest good for the greatest time.
In Search of Life's Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl’s classic book “Man’s search for meaning” recounts his experiences in a German concentration camp at Auschwitz during the peak of the Second World War. It talks about the horrendous experiences of the camp’s inmates in the bitter cold and the inhuman treatment meted to them by the Nazi guards. Frankl, a psychologist by profession, in his book tells that those who were better suited for survival were those who had some higher purpose to their lives. To him the higher spiritual calling was able to bring forward unknown reserves of inner strength.
He tells that those who had some inner purpose, some loftier goal were those who were able to withstand the inhumanness of the camp. According to Nietzsche “If a man know the why to his life, he can tolerate almost any how”.
The purpose of this blog is to emphasize the need for some meaning in our lives. Most of us just drift about in our daily lives, from one day to another. Then there are others who are so busy running from one crisis to another. Both these classes of people are soon bound to run into rough weather in life. The former who just let life carry them along are bound to get bored and listless. They will soon be crushed by ennui. The latter are bound ti get unduly stressed and frustrated by the chaos in their lives
What is need from all of us at any point in our lives is to have some meaning, a purpose for which we exist. It need not be any lofty goal such as eradicating human misery, or becoming a tennis player of world repute. We could just set ourselves simple goals. It could be something as simple as making reading a regular habit, exercising for half hour, four days a week or learning a new skill.
A life without meaning, without any ambition is like setting sail in the seas and being at the mercy of winds. We need some definite goals in our daily lives not only remove the humdrum of mundane existence but also to give us the joy of achievement in life. Also the pursuit of concrete goals in life will also give us inner strength to handle issues in life.
Besides, as we pursue these smaller goals in life regularly, in the course of time, our larger purpose may become apparent
We will feel more fulfilled when we achieve the little goals that we set ourselves.
He tells that those who had some inner purpose, some loftier goal were those who were able to withstand the inhumanness of the camp. According to Nietzsche “If a man know the why to his life, he can tolerate almost any how”.
The purpose of this blog is to emphasize the need for some meaning in our lives. Most of us just drift about in our daily lives, from one day to another. Then there are others who are so busy running from one crisis to another. Both these classes of people are soon bound to run into rough weather in life. The former who just let life carry them along are bound to get bored and listless. They will soon be crushed by ennui. The latter are bound ti get unduly stressed and frustrated by the chaos in their lives
What is need from all of us at any point in our lives is to have some meaning, a purpose for which we exist. It need not be any lofty goal such as eradicating human misery, or becoming a tennis player of world repute. We could just set ourselves simple goals. It could be something as simple as making reading a regular habit, exercising for half hour, four days a week or learning a new skill.
A life without meaning, without any ambition is like setting sail in the seas and being at the mercy of winds. We need some definite goals in our daily lives not only remove the humdrum of mundane existence but also to give us the joy of achievement in life. Also the pursuit of concrete goals in life will also give us inner strength to handle issues in life.
Besides, as we pursue these smaller goals in life regularly, in the course of time, our larger purpose may become apparent
We will feel more fulfilled when we achieve the little goals that we set ourselves.
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