Thought 158: Saying without thinking

To "Say and then think" is even worse than to "act and then think". They say that “We are the masters of our unsaid words and slaves of those we let slip through".

Every one, no matter how old, commits mistakes. A child or a young person is perhaps more prone to commit mistakes than a mature person. When children commit mistakes, for instance, we lose our temper and yell at them. We heap the blame on them and call for explanation, causing a lot of harm to their psyche. In our anger, we may say many things to them without thinking and then, we feel sorry later.

Whenever we say something to the children and they get hurt – what has produced the hurt? It is the words - and the thoughts behind the words. How powerful these words are! And we use this power without thinking. Instead, if we were to say, "OK, child, whatever has been done, is done. You, like anyone else, cannot undo what has been done. There is no point in worrying over it now - there is nothing you can do after the event. Let us see what we can learn from this mistake", the child would not feel hurt at all; on the other hand, he may in all probability, overcome this habit though self-effort itself.

The next thought is about “How you allow a crisis to build”

Thought 157: Acting without thinking

There are some people who have a habit of acting without thinking – because they are not alert most of the time. They are creatures of habit. The compulsive eaters come under this category; they eat ice creams, for instance, without thinking - even when they have severe cold. They eat a lot of food by habit whether they are hungry or not – and become obese. There are also the compulsive drinkers – who keep drinking every day whether they need a drink or not; these persons keep drinking every day until they get drunk. After some time, drinking becomes a habit with them – and eventually, they become alcoholics and destroy themselves.

There are many persons who act without thinking and regret immediately. I know an old gentleman who hit a child on the head just because the ball with which the child was playing hit his car which was parked nearby. When the parents of the child came to protest, he regretted and apologized profusely. Children do these things and when such things happen, the elders should not act impulsively without thinking. There are many people who act impulsively and commit crimes, even heinous crimes – without thinking. If only they pause for a while (and count say, from 1 to 10), many of them would refrain from committing those heinous crimes.

In the Telugu language, there is an expression called, “Pulliah Vemvaram”. Once upon a time, in a small village in the Andhra Pradesh, a land lord told his servant Pulliah, “Heh, Pulliah, tomorrow morning, you will have to go to Vemvaram (another small village a few miles away)”. The next morning, the land Lord was looking for Pulliah but he was no where to be seen. After some time, Pulliah makes an appearance and informs the land lord with beaming countenance, which was also oozing delight and satisfaction for a job well executed, “Sir, I went to Vemvaram early in the morning and came back”. The land lord was aghast. He said, “Why did you go to Vemvaram and what did you do there?” Pulliah answered innocently, “I do not know all that. Last night you told me to go to Vemvaram and early in the morning, I went there as instructed by you - and came back!” These are the people who do things mechanically.

The persons, who act mechanically without thinking, do so because their father or mother did act in this manner under similar circumstances – and they think it is the right thing to do even now. They refuse to think for themselves. I know a gentleman who got his daughter married (a few years ago) when she was just 14 years – because his father did exactly the same thing for his sister when she was 14. If only he gave a thought to this – he would have realized that what his father did to his sister may have been alright perhaps in those days – but it certainly is not alright in these modern times. Thus, the tendency to act without thinking is a habit, which runs in some families. These people believe in tradition – tradition takes precedence always in their lives over intelligent and thoughtful living.

If a young person has a habit of acting mechanically without thinking, he needs guidance to overcome this habit. He will overcome this habit, only if you were to sit with him and help him overcome the habit. This is positive thinking and you will be seeding a wholesome, new, positive approach and attitude in the youngster, when you guide him properly and positively in this manner.

When you act or decide mechanically without thinking, things will go wrong - most of the time. When they go wrong, you worry – then, worry becomes your main preoccupation. When you are not worrying, your mind is either napping or snoozing. Life's important things always catch us napping, because we are not alert.

Further, if a person commits a mistake now, the consequences of this mistake will catch up with him only some time in future. By not correcting this habit of acting first and then thinking later, you are not only making your present unhappy, but you are committing your future also to unhappiness.

The next thought is about “Saying without thinking”

Thought 156: Dealing with difficult people

This world is made of all kinds of people. There are friendly persons; there are hostile persons too. The hostile persons do not conform exactly to your standards of good behavior. They may not share your values also. Many of them may probably cause a lot of annoyance to you by their crude and insensitive behavior; may irritate you frequently; may constantly work to cross purposes; may be a little too loud to your liking; may even look incapable to you but succeed nevertheless. You find very often that you have to get on amicably with some or all of these types of persons - and this sets up stresses for you.

Many of these difficult people are belligerent for no reason. They try to bite you when you go near them – like wild animals. They are negative people. They are highly egoistic. They are arrogant – and think that they alone are right all the time. They look down and try to trample on you for no reason. Every body meets one or two of this type in their life time.

Actually the difficult people are very unhappy people. They carry some hurt inside – and when they do not know how to deal with this hurt, they turn belligerent. Most of the time, such persons are in a state of bewilderment; because of which, they deal with life in a state of confusion. When you are bewildered, you tend to take unnecessary positions and try to defend them, even if those positions are silly. And they never bother to correct themselves; they also do not endeavor to control their bellicose habits, which have entrenched themselves in their minds.

It is not easy to deal with difficult people. There are no tried and proven rules. This is a typical "dirty" problem. You have to deal with each difficult person on a trial and error basis.

The next thought is about “Acting without thinking”

Thought 155: On criticizing others

Some people are in the habit of criticizing others - even for trifling mistakes. Criticizing with a view to finding fault is not good; it hurts the self-esteem of the other person. When a person is hurt, he never learns; he only gets into the defensive mode. Pointing out mistakes with the intention of making the person to improve himself is OK, provided of course, the other person perceives it as such, positively. However, if he views it negatively, it would only result in eroding his self-esteem. It is very important for parents to note – when they are dealing especially with their teenage children.

Most people who are in the habit of criticizing even for small errors, never think of complimenting a person, even for jobs well done. If you do not compliment excellence, you should not comment on shoddiness also.

Never let go an opportunity to complement people for their accomplishments, however, trifling they are. There is nothing like a bit of applause to raise one's self esteem.

The next thought is about "Dealing with difficult people".

Thought 154: Leaders vs Managers (Continued)

A leader is not afraid of "change". He is supremely confident that he can manage any situation - because, he can innovate and improvise.

A leader is open-minded and can learn from any source. He has very few mental roadblocks. He loves whatever he does and likes the people with whom he works. “Instead of barking orders and pushing people around, a leader finds it more effective to steer people quietly but firmly”.

The Leader makes people participate intimately in the problems of the work place and this is how he succeeds to get superior performance and motivation from those who work with him. He is always with his people - always accessible. He loves to be in the trenches along with his "soldiers".

The next thought is about “On criticizing others”

Thought 154: Leaders vs Managers (Continued)

People follow someone only when he has something that they admire. A leader has followers – his followers admire something that he has. The manager does not have followers. The followers have faith in their leader – and faith means to believe implicitly. The followers follow the leader, not because, the latter asked or forced them to follow, but because, the leader inspired them in some inexplicable way. It is more an emotional affair between them.

The most important reason why people follow leaders, however, is that they perceive the leader to be committed to their interests and welfare. They see him giving priority for their welfare; it is always uppermost in his mind. His own interests take a back seat – in comparison to the interests of his followers.

A leader is one who has vision. “I had a dream”, proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr, who lead the movement for the emancipation of the blacks from the white supremacy in the USA. The leader has a charisma, by virtue of which, he inspires “ordinary persons to perform extraordinary tasks”. To get them to do this, he innovates and improvises, as needed. He can take risks and therefore, generally, sets his sights on big victories as opposed to small gains. A leader aims at, not only efficiency but, more importantly, aims at effectiveness. He can sacrifice efficiency, if effectiveness has to be achieved at the cost of efficiency. According to the well-known management expert, Peter Drucker, efficiency is to do a thing right, while effectiveness is to do the right thing.

A leader controls, more through trust, than by rules. He operates on the fundamental law – “you have to put in the bank first, before you can cash a check”. He relies more on the human side of the organization and less on rules and regulations. He organizes all collective activities through teams, rather than through committees. He motivates the teams to deal with visions and imaginative solutions, unlike the committees, which operate on the basis of an agenda.

The next thought is also about “Leaders vs Managers (Continued)”

Thought 154: Leaders vs Managers

A manager ensures that the system works in the manner it is expected to work. He is the custodian of the rules and regulations in an organization and it is his job to enforce them. A manager is concerned with efficiency.

While the manager is concerned with efficiency, the leader is concerned with efficiency as well as effectiveness. If “efficiency is doing a thing right, effectiveness is doing the right thing”, says Peter Drucker, the management Guru.

A leader is one who has vision. He has charisma, by virtue of which, he inspires “ordinary persons to perform extraordinarily”. People follow someone only when - he has something that they admire. A leader has followers. The manager does not have followers of that type - generally.

A Manager mostly says “yes” to get cooperation from subordinates – and he is usually afraid to say “no”, for fear of non-cooperation. The leader can say “no” and still get cheerful and enthusiastic cooperation. The followers would willingly do anything that their leader tells them to do - they do not need any extra patting on the back to do so. They like him; they trust him. He is their role-model.

The next thought is about “Leaders vs Managers (Continued)”

Thought 153: Expectations in life

Everyone has some expectations in life. Maslow said that there is a hierarchy in these expectations – that is, unless the lower level expectations are satisfied properly, man is not interested in the higher levels.

The first level of expectation is food, thirst, sex. This is the basic level of expectations. If this is not satisfied, the higher expectations do not appeal to any person. If a beggar (homeless person), who is not sure of his next meal, is offered the honorary position of president of a society, he will not be interested at all. He will say, “Give me some food instead of this honorary position”. Once the basic level is satisfied, the person wants to ensure that he has this food etc every day – that is, he looks for security, which is the next higher level. If the security is also satisfied, then and only then, does he crave for the next level – which is recognition in the society. When this is also satisfied, he wants self-actualisation or fulfilment. Thus, the higher level of expectation becomes important or relevant to him only when the lower levels are all satisfied.

The next thought is about “Leaders vs Managers”

Thought 152: Living in the present

There is more to life than spending all your time worrying about the future or feeling guilty over the past. You must enjoy friendships, relationships, your work, your hobbies, the bliss of marriage and children, physical exercise or work out, entertainment, vacation, nature, gardening, reading and a host of other things that make life colorful, fulfilled and exciting. You can experience all these wonderful things provided you stop living in the past and also in the future - and start living in the present.

The truth is that in life, you can look into the last page, but not into the next page. Tomorrow is unknown - and anything unknown is fraught with fear. Tomorrow is like a post-dated check - which can not be cashed now.

And it is most unproductive, and even counter-productive, to ruminate over yesterday. Any amount of pondering over it, cannot bring it back for you - you cannot undo what has already been done

Tomorrow never happens. Today is what matters. Today is like the cash in hand - to be enjoyed. Plan for tomorrow, but live in the present.

The next thought is about “Expectations in life”

Thought 151: You can never be right all the time

There are some persons who think that they can never go wrong; they strongly believe that they are right 100% of the time. These are the highly egocentric persons of this world. They feel that they know everything; and what is worse is that they think others do not know anything! In any conversation, they have a compulsion to dominate and they do dominate with an attitude; and this attitude seems to verbalize, “I have the answer – what is the question?”

It is important to realize that one can never be right 100% of the time. If your judgment is good, you can be right a large part of the time. This implies that you can be wrong the remaining time. This is the best - the best of us can achieve. The rest of us achieve much less. Unfortunately, there are some who think that they are always right - the superman syndrome. The superman never existed except in fiction and will never exist outside the fiction. Human beings are quite fallible. If you attempt 100 things, I think that it is a remarkable fete, if you succeed in 50 to 60 of them. The average man may succeed in 30 of them, if he is a thinking person. No one should ever worry that he has not succeeded in all the 100 things attempted. It is simply not possible. It is said that every failure supports the ultimate success, if you have faith in yourself and in God.

The next thought is about “Living in the present”

Thought 150: The crystal ball will not work

If you can lean over the "present" and can try to peak into the "future", you will never make a mistake. In life, however, there is no way to look into the "next page" – not even into the next moment. In the real world, the crystal ball does not work.

There is always a measure of uncertainty in anything that you wish to accomplish. One of the ironies of life is that you must assume that you know the future and act. Inaction in the face of uncertainty is no virtue. It is the action in the face of uncertainty that is needed. A manager is trained to take decisions against the backdrop of uncertainty. He does not like to gamble - but he is willing to take calculated risks. The office clerk will not take such calculated risks. He can only act, if he is certain that he will not be blamed, should something go wrong. This is a typical bureaucratic tradition of ensuring safety. The "Yes Minister" is always safe. The manager is willing to take the blame.

The next thought is about “You can never be right all the time”

Thought 149: What is decency

Keeping your promises even if others do not, is decency. Keeping secrets even if others do not, is decency. Not forgetting to return what you borrowed, even if others do forget, is decency. Not rejecting old and tried friendships while making more interesting friendships, is decency. Never wishing to others what you do not like to happen to you, is decency. To be nice and helpful to neighbors, even if they are not, is decency. Having sympathy for those who are not so fortunate as you are in terms of money, education and other accomplishments, is decency. To love animals and birds, which are so helpless to defend themselves against the cruelty and selfishness of human beings, is decency. Not causing pollution is decency. Constantly advocating against pollution is also decency. Looking after your old parents is decency. Doing the right thing (what they like and also what is good for them) for your wife and children, is decency. Never letting down your friends and well wishers, is decency. Giving your very best for the employer, who pays your monthly pay check, is decency. Can you add to this list? Can you try to abide by these rules? If you try to do that, you are a decent person.

The next thought is about “The crystal ball will not work”

THought 148: Seeking Approval

There is nothing wrong in enjoying a little compliment, an affectionate pat on the back and a little bit of applause from time to time, says Dr Wayne Dyer. You do want to be thought of well by your bosses, spouses, children, neighbors, colleagues, friends, peers and relatives. You feel good and you like to do things, which please them. But, when seeking approval of persons constantly becomes a compulsion, it sets up a stress for you. You are always anxious to please them and feel worried that you may not have done enough in this regard. At times, you may feel concerned with disapproval. This sets up more stress for you.

Every one has an agenda of his own – and they want you to do things or behave in a way to promote their agenda; they are not at all interested in your agenda. If you do not do what they want you to do, they show their disapproval – which is designed in a subtle manner to make you feel uncomfortable or upset.

When you try to please others habitually, you are being controlled by them. By withholding approval, they have the power to modify your behavior. You have given them this power. If seeking approval becomes a habit, you lose your self-confidence and self-esteem. You can gain your power back only when you start doing things to please your self and not others. You can get rid of your stress when “what others think of you” becomes a thing of no consequence and what you think of yourself becomes important.

The sooner you realize that you can never please every one, no matter what you do and that you can never get rid of their disapproval, the better for you.

The next thought is about “What is decency”

Thought 147: Why people behave the way they do?

Sometimes people behave in a way that upsets you. Many persons have behaved badly towards me - apparently for no reason. Previously, I used to get upset when they tried to upset me! Now, I have learnt to ignore this person. I am satisfied that it is his nature to behave this way. I cannot change his nature. He alone can change his nature.

People do take an instant dislike or like to persons. Each person behaves according to the nature and quality of his mind. If this is understood, this kind of problem gets greatly minimized.

Swami Dayananda says that the animals are above reproach in this respect. They do not understand what is a rational behavior and therefore, they do not know how to behave irrationally. You do not find fault with a mosquito, for instance, for biting you? What all you do is to get rid of it or find a cure for its bite, but you do not entertain any animosity against it. You know it bites because it does not know anything better; it does not know that it should not bite you!

Similarly, people also behave helplessly as dictated by their in-born tendencies, called, Samskaras (Vaasanas). If you had the same past, you would have done the same thing too. If you understand this, you are a mature person.

Thought 146: We constantly judge people

Whether we like it or not, all of us are constantly judging people. The more mature we are, the more objective this judgment is going to be. For instance, during my service, I was a member of the departmental promotion committee of a Technical Organization. I was always surprised and even shocked, sometimes, how a few members in this committee, judged the candidates for promotion based on their face, complexion and other irrelevant features – and not based on their professional knowledge and skills.

It is smart to keep your likes and dislikes on hold while judging people. Such persons are mature and their judgment will be found correct more often than not. They have well honed judging skills, which got developed over a period of time. They can smartly docket a person in no time at all.

Many people talk highly of themselves; they usually over-estimate themselves and their brood. There may be any number of reasons for this but we are not concerned with those reasons. How much of what they say should we believe? There is a need for judgment here again – because this is crucial.

I want to strike a note of caution here. People may over-estimate themselves - but do not under-estimate them, because they overestimate themselves.

Greed, untrustworthiness, negative attitudes and similar traits show out very easily in people – they stick out a mile. You do not need much maturity to detect them. It is only when these traits are smartly camouflaged that you really need all the judging skills that you can muster, supplemented by your sixth sense. Whenever there is a doubt, it is good to go by what your sixth sense says.

Keep a distance from people whom you judge as greedy, untrustworthy and prone to thinking negatively.

The next thought is about “Why people behave the way they do?”

Thought 145: About Friends and Enemies

Everyone has friends - and enemies; everyone has persons, whom he labels as “good” and “bad”. Labels are, of course, purely subjective.

Every one has 'good' and 'bad' in him. Everyone has an agenda of his own - which makes him a friend to some and an enemy to others. You should consider him good or bad to you, not because some one says so, but because you find him so.

Every one has likes and dislikes. Every one has ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in him. Everyone has an agenda of his own – which makes him a friend to some and an enemy to others. You should consider him good or bad to you, not because some one says so, but because you find him so.

Most people do not really know who their well wishers are. Some persons are naïve – they accept every one who flatters them as friends. An enemy evidently appears as an enemy but a friend, who is really an enemy, cannot be seen in his true colours so easily. Remember, a friend is your well wisher; he comes to your help without expecting any return. Those who are not your well wishers (friends) in this sense, are your acquaintances. In this world, every one has his/her own agenda. Every one is primarily interested in himself/herself, although they may profess or pretend that they are more interested in promoting your interests like a friend. The intelligent person would be able to see through this pretense – and come to know the real nature of the so called friend.

I always advise my children to keenly observe the behaviour of their so called friends – classify them properly into friends and acquaintances. A friend is one who helps without expecting a return. An acquaintance is one who does business deals – “if I do this for you, what will you do for me?” One should have a small circle of close (real) friends and a large circle of acquaintances.

The next thought is about “We constantly judge people”

Thought 144: It is good to focus on work but not on its result (Continued)

Understand that the fact that you have no control over the fruits of your action, however, should not make you frustrated and stop all action; one should not renounce action out of frustration or fear. When you are afraid of something and you run away from it, then you have yielded to the immensity of the problem. When you run away from anything out of fear, it means, that you still have likes and dislikes (Raaga-Dveshas). When you have likes and dislikes still in your mind, you cannot give up action; they would always drive you to act - and you are helpless here.

When you give up action for any reason (for example, out of fear), it becomes dereliction of duty. You just do not like a particular action – and you want to escape from it. This is what the Bhagavaan refers here as inaction. Attachment to inaction is neither possible nor good. How can you live in this world without performing some action? Action is inescapable. However, neglecting to do what you have to do is not good – from both secular point of view as well as the spiritual point of view.

Vedaanta says – you must work but give up the notion that you are working to fulfill your desires; you are only working to please the god because He wants every one to play his roles in this world considering them as his sacred duties. Vedaanta also says give up your ego; and also give up the notion that you are working for gaining something. This is what an artist does; while painting the picture, he is not aware that he is doing it; he simply loves his work and keeps on working on that basis. Such a work gets success and recognition. Action thus, is a spiritual practice, fundamentally.

The next thought is “About Friends and Enemies”

Thought 144: It is good to focus on work but not on its result (Continued)

Bhagavaan Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (2.47), “Karmanye Vaadhi-kaaraste Maa Phaleshu Kadaachana Maa Karma Phala-heturbhur Maate Sango-stva Karmani =You have a choice in action, but never in its results (Maa Kadaachana). The result is determined by me”.

This Sloka (Verse) is not advocating that one should perform every action without expecting a result. No one performs any action without expecting a result. When one undertakes to do something, he expects a result, even though he knows that he has no control over the result. This expectation of a result, which is quite natural, is not a problem. The problem comes only when you get attached to the result.

The word “Adhikaara” (used in this Sloka) actually means the right - the right to choose a particular option, out of several options available to you for performing Karma (action). You have freedom to decide what work you want to do and how you propose to do it - this is your right. You are not, unfortunately, in a position to choose the result that you want; you are helpless with reference to the result. The result is decided in accordance with the law of cause and effect. This law was not authored by any one here. It is Isvara’s (God’s) law. He alone decides the result of every action in the world.

All Karmas are undertaken to produce the desired results. Since you perform a particular Karma to produce a specific result, it appears that you have figured out, which Karma would produce which result. If you are a thinking person, you would very soon find out that what you figured out, is not really as predictable as you thought it is. What you want is one thing and what you get is not exactly what you wanted. Frequently, it is quite the opposite. And you are helpless about this.

Your power and knowledge are limited. That is your status as a Jeeva. You do have a choice, but only over the action. You have none over the result. You perform the Karma and the result is taken care of. If you had power over the result, then, every one of your Karmas would have been successful. But because you are not omniscient, you do not know that a particular Karma would produce a given result. What the result is would depend on so many unknown factors. Since you do not have choice over the result, you should recognize this limitation. This is the limitation in knowledge and power. All human beings have the same kind of limitation.
The next thought is also about “It is good to focus on work but not on its result (Continued)”

Thought 143: It is good to focus on work but not on its result

You have to work – always. The Japanese work hard and are prosperous. If you do not work, you cannot even maintain your body. The body needs to be exercised to be in good shape and health. You should not only work, but you should also glorify your work. Those who work intelligently alone are going to prosper. There is no short cut to success except through hard and intelligent work. Work alone makes you great. Remember, it is as easy to be great as it is to be small.

In this materialistic world, we are taught, right from childhood, that one should have ambitions in life and pursue them with a single-minded perseverance. In the present day society, selfish action is admired and selfless action is pitied. We never do anything, if it does not profit us in some way. Every thing that we do must advance some worldly objective or the other for us. Disinterested action is generally considered wasteful. This is what all the management books proclaim. This is what the success-oriented western society preaches and practices. We want results - and we constantly work for their achievement.

When we constantly focus on the outcome or the lack of it, we get worked up over it. When the mind is worked up over the outcome of a task even before the task begins, it cannot concentrate on the task properly. The worry and anxiety invested in the present moments, transforms into fear of the future.

Tomorrow is only a continuation of today, just as today is a continuation of yesterday. What we invest in the present will decide how prosperous we are going to be in the future. An action today defines the fruit of this action tomorrow. When we waste the precious present moments in imaginary fears for tomorrow, we do not invest in the present moments efficiently.

On the other hand, if you focus your entire store of energy in the present moments and concentrate exclusively on what you do, you give an inspired input. Excellence in input ensures excellence in output. A single-minded devotion to work will always end up in a brilliant success - besides giving job satisfaction. If it is success that you want, then, do not strive with a mind ridden with anxiety and fear for the outcome. Even in this materialistic world, focusing on the input exclusively, with no thought of the output (as stipulated in Karma-Yoga) is very essential for success.
The next thought is about “It is good to focus on work but not on its result (Continued)

Thought 142: Time is our most important resource

In Engineering management, they tell you that money, materials, men and machines - the 4 M's - are supposed to be the only resources for man. To this list, I add "Time" also. Of these five, I would consider "time" as the most valuable.

Time cannot be compressed; neither can it be expanded. No one can tamper with time; you can manipulate everything else in this creation but you can’t manipulate time. Have you ever thought “what is this time”, which is so clearly beyond the capabilities of human beings to manipulate? Who created “Time”? In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna Paramaatnma says that no one created time – because He is the “Time” (Kaala) itself. Who created the Paramatma? Who can manipulate the Paramaatma?

Coming back to more mundane view of time, anything non-renewable is more valuable, compared to that, which is renewable. The non-renewable substances are always in a limited supply. Take for instance, energy from gas (petrol). It is non-renewable energy - its availability is limited. Whereas the solar energy is renewable. An unlimited amount of it is available to you. We can afford to waste a little bit of the solar energy or use it liberally, because it is a renewable energy - and an unlimited supply of which is available to us. But the supply of gas is limited - it is expected to last a couple of decades more, at the current rate of usage. Therefore, we have to be extremely careful in its usage.

Time is irreversible – which means that what is gone is gone for ever, irretrievably; a minute wasted is gone forever. Money wasted can be replaced when necessary. Machines and Man power also can be replaced when necessary. But how can you replace the minutes that have gone by? For the manager, therefore, time is the most valuable resource; it is totally non-renewable. Good managers are conscious of this fact - and use time very efficiently.

The next thought is about “It is good to focus on work but not on its result”

Thought 141: You are a conscious being in your body but you are not your body

Every one comes into this world for a temporary sojourn, seeking happiness. While we look for happiness, we end up invariably experiencing sorrow for the most part. That is the nature of life on this planet. Nevertheless, we never seem to learn from experience - we still look, with great expectations, for happiness that is not there. When the visa expires, we exit and reappear later (in the next incarnation), with another temporary visa, looking again for happiness as before. This cycle goes on and on, like this, until one realizes his folly and strives to gain freedom from birth, which is called “Moksha” in Hindu philosophy (Vedaanta). Vedaanta is derived from Vedas, which are the ageless Hindu books of knowledge – which are still considered relevant.

Human birth is a rare opportunity. Of all the lord's creatures, the human being alone is endowed with intellect (Buddhi). Intellect helps you gain wisdom – discriminating knowledge. Wisdom tells you that your goal should be Moksha. Moksha leads to eternal peace and happiness.

The body-mind complex is inert – and you are a conscious being in your body-mind complex. This conscious being is called the Aatma, which is Awareness. Moksha is to know that you are the Aatma, which is the Awareness - and that you are not the body-mind complex.

Time and death are irreversible and their inevitability causes fear. There is no death to the conscious being inside the body-mind complex. Body alone dies because it is born. Everything born must die one day or the other. There is neither birth nor death to the conscious being in the body – because he is not born. He lives on and on, forever, timelessly.

The next thought is about “Time is our most important resource”

Thought 140: The Vision of the Vedas

The vision of the Vedas is that you are the Aatma, which is Brahman. This is a profound knowledge. It is like no other knowledge. It is the mother of all knowledge. One needs a certain maturity to be able to understand and make use of this knowledge. When people have no interest in becoming mature, this knowledge does not produce the results that it produces in those, who are interested in becoming mature.

Man is born totally ignorant of who he is. He is the Aatma, but being under the influence of Maayaa, he does not realize this truth. He thinks that he is his body-mind complex. When Man thinks that he is his body-mind complex, he is known a Jeeva. When he realises that he is the Aatma and not the body-mind complex, he attains Moksha. Moksha is not a place like Vaikuntha or Kailaasa. It is Jnaanam (Knowledge of the self). When man attains Moksha, he gains liberation from Karma and Janma.

Until the Moksha is attained, Vedas say that the Jeeva keeps on returning to Samsaara (the world) through rebirth – any number of times.

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Thought 139: About Upanishads

Vedas tell us that Nirguna Brahman or the Paramaatma, is the Ultimate Truth – which is the Awareness pervading every nook and cranny of the entire universe. The knowledge of the Ultimate Truth is also known as the knowledge of the self. It is the knowledge about you, who is the Aatma. The fundamental questions of life such as “Who is the God, “Who am I?”, “What is my goal in life”, etc, are all answered in the Vedas. This portion of the Vedas is called Jnaana Kaanda; Jnaana Kaanda is also called the Upanishad or Vedaanta.

Upanishads focus on spiritual and philosophical teachings; they discuss Brahman, the universe and the beings of the universe and their interrelationships. Upanishads constitute the core of Hindu philosophy called “Vedaanta”(the end portion of the Vedas).

It is believed that 1108 Upanishads existed originally. They have been able to identify only 108 of them. Of these 108 also, Chandogyopanishad, Mundukopanishad, Aittereyopanishad, Manduukyopanishad, Taittiriyopanishad, Kenopanishad, Kathopanishad, Isaavaasyopanishad, Prasnopanishad, Brihadaaranyakopanishad, Svetaasvataropanishad, Jaabaalopanishad, Muktikopanishad, Kaivalyopanishad, Mahaa-Naaraayanopanishad, are only now available in English script for study by the modern man.

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Thought 138: More about the Vedas

The Sanskrit word “Veda” means "knowledge". Veda is derived from the root “Vid”, which means "to know". Vedas are the discoveries of the laws of nature, the laws governing the universe and also the laws about the beings living in it - and also about the Ultimate Truth (Paramaatma). The Veda Mantras are recited at Hindu prayers, religious functions and other auspicious occasions.

Hindus revere the Vedas as eternal truths - revealed to the ancient sages. They are the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism. Vedas are the main source of knowledge for the Hindus. All Hindu spiritual knowledge and also knowledge about Hindu gods and goddesses is derived from the Vedas. Vedas are not books composed by men in any period of history. Rather, they were revealed as the eternal truths to the ancient Rishis during their meditations. This is the reason why Vedas are called “Apaurusheya Grantha” meaning “not of human composition”; that is, they are authorless works. Later, Sage Veda Vyaasa compiled and codified them into four Vedas.

The four Vedas are Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Saama Veda and Atharvana Veda. Of these, the first three are also called “Trayee", meaning "the triple sacred sciences" of - reciting hymns (Rig Veda), performing sacrifices (Yajur Veda) and chanting (Saama Veda).

The Rig Veda Mantras, which are verses of praise set in a metre, are intended for loud recitation. Yajur Veda Mantras are in prose and intended for recitation in a lower tone at sacrifices. Saama Veda Mantras, which are set in a lyrical metre, are intended for chanting at the Soma ceremonies.

The fourth Veda, Atharvana Veda, was added to the “Trayee” subsequently. The Atharvana Veda like the Rigveda, is a collection of hymns mixed with incantations. By a mere recitation of those Mantras, it is supposed to bring about long life, cures for diseases, the destruction of enemies, etc.

Each Veda is divided into four parts – namely, Samhita, Braahmana, Aranyakaa and Upanishads. Samhitaas are hymns containing sacred Mantras. The other three parts, which are Braahmans, Aranyakas (wilderness texts) and Upanishads are usually in prose. The first two parts are called the Karma Kaandaa (ritualistic portion), while the last two form the Jnaana Kaandaa (knowledge portion).

Vedas (Karma Kaanda) discuss Dharma comprising the laws governing the individual (Jeeva), the world (Jagat) and the Creator (Isvara) and their inter-relationship. The laws of Karma by which man can lead a successful life in this world are also discussed in detail in this portion of the Vedas. If you desire a particular result, the Karma Kaanda recommends the performance of certain rituals, which get you that very result. Karma Kaanda also tells you what you should do and what you should not do. It also tells you the consequences of violating the do’s and don’ts enjoined in it.

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Thought 137: What are Srutis and Smritis

The ancient Rishis develped, over the millenia, a vast body of religious scriptures (Saastras) for Hinduism. This literature principally consists of Srutis and Smritis. Sruti is what is directly experienced by the Vedic seers during their contemplation or meditation; they represent the spiritual experiences of these Vedic seers.

In general, Srutis and Smritis represent the whole body of Hindu religious and spiritual knowledge and wisdom, which the Paramaatma wanted to pass on to the world through the ancient sages. All knowledge about Dharma originated from these Srutis and Smritis.

Vedas are Srutis. They are the foremost in authority, importance and antiquity. The Bhagavad Gita, which is a part of the Mahaabhaarataa, is sometimes called a summary of the spiritual teachings of the Vedas.

Smritis refer to what is remembered from the teachings of the ancient seers describing their spiritual experiences. Aagamas, Itihaasas and Puraanas are Smritis. Aagamas describe the rules for rituals, rites and worship of gods. There are five of them; for the worship of Ganesa, for the worship of Sakti, for the worship of Suurya, for the worship of Siva and for the worship of Vishnu. Itihaasas are epics – which are mythological stories, such as Raamaayana and Mahaabhaarata. Puraanas are moral stories. There are 18 Puraanas. Each Puraana upholds a moral value.

These scriptures (Srutis and Smritis) expound on theology, philosophy and mythology, providing spiritual insights and guidance on the practice of Dharma. Dharma means living a religious life performing all duties and other religious stipulations prescribed for a person in the Saastras. Sanaatna Dharma means Eternal Dharma; it is ever lasting Dharma. It also means universal religion.

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Thought 136: The Guru-Sishya Parampara

In the ancient times, there was a tradition (Parampara) in India to pass on knowledge by Gurus (teachers) to their Sishyas (disciples) through oral teaching, which is known as “Guru-Sishya Parampara”. In this ancient tradition, the Guru is totally dedicated to imparting knowledge to his students, in a climate of care, discipline, love and affection. Teaching in the ancient Hindu system was considered a noble and sacred duty. The teacher carefully selected only those students who conformed to the highest standards of personal integrity and scholarship. This, in no way, resembles the commercial arrangement of modern day schools. The ancient Hindu education system is a totally dedicated system; the student is totally dedicated to learning and the teacher is equally totally dedicated to imparting knowledge.

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Thought 135: The ancient body of religious knowledge

Rishis were the ancient sages of India. They were holy men who spent all their time doing Tapas or meditation or teaching the Saastras (Scriptures) to a few carefully chosen disciples. They were seers – they had visions during their contemplation/meditation. All Hindus, who have a “Gotra”, are the descendents of these Rishis or their early ancestors who tended the cows of these ancient Rishis.

These Rishis developed a great body of religious literature for the Hindu religion. We have this store of knowledge coming down to us from generation to generation, mostly by word of mouth, through the lineage of, what is known as the “Guru-Sishya Parampara” - and also to a limited extent, through ancient writings on palm leaves.


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Thought 134: What is Hinduism

The Greeks pronounce the word “Sindhu”, which is the Sanskrit name of the Indus River (Sindhu River) in the Northwest India, as “Hindu”. When the army of Alexander the Great invaded India around 300 BC, they called all those who lived in the Indian subcontinent on or beyond the "Sindhu" river as Hindus - and from then onwards, we came to be called Hindus. Before that, Hinduism was known as the “Sanaatana Dharma”, which is the real name of our religion.

Hinduism is world’s oldest religion, which originated in the Vedic civilization. There are now nearly 800 million Hindus living in India alone. Many countries in south east Asia, Eastern Africa and the west Indies also have small Hindu communities – which still retain their Hindu identity, worship Hindu gods and follow most of the Hindu traditions and rituals.

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Thought 133: Transcendental Meditation

Meditation (Dhyaana) is a huge Vedaantic concept which is practiced in a very simple way. It is an inseparable part of the spiritual life; it is the most important and powerful component of the spiritual practice (Saadhana). Meditation in general is practiced purely as a trnsaction of the mind (Manasaa Vyaapaara) for the sake of gaining concentration (Ekaagrata). It is frequently described as an uninterrupted (continuous) stream of thoughts about the God – like the continuous flow of oil from one vessel to another.

Meditation is now accepted as a cure for hypertension, insomnia, stomach ulcers, back pain, asthma etc. If you have spiritual interests also, you focus attention inward and try to glimpse into the vast and peaceful spiritual horizon. The inner experience of divinity gives you an extraordinary tranquility and detachment. But, the spiritual persons, who practice meditation, consider the therapeutic benefit merely as a fringe benefit.

In the Patanajali’s Ashtaanga Yoga, meditation is to be practiced in three stages.
Pratyaahaara: Mind which has strong tendency to go out into the world of objects is restrained to remain within and stop wandering hither and thither. The external thoughts are sought to be eleiminated with this technique.
Dhaarana: Mind is strongly directed to think of god exclusively. (in the early stages unsuccessfully). Mind is very unruly like a wid horse. It has to be persistently and relentlessly restrained. When thoughts from the internally memory bank pop out the meditattor is required to ignore them.
Dhyaana: continuous uninterrupted flow of thoughts about god

Transcendental meditation is a specialized form of Meditation, which has been popularized all over the world through the pioneering efforts of Maharshi Mahesh Yogi. They call this type of meditation as “An appointment with yourself”. It is considered very efficacious in easing tensions – resulting in relaxation. You do not need to be either religious or spiritual for practicing this meditation.

Man has a vast memory bank in his subconscious mind. There are invariably some memories in it, which relate to guilt, stress, fear, trauma etc – experiences with which the person could not cope up earlier when they occurred. They remain in the subconscious mind – weighing heavily on the person. They are a burden, which the person continues to carry with him. As long as they continue to exert their pressure, the person continues to move in life with fear, agony and sorrow – and he finds no thrill in living this way. Unless, these accumulated agonizing memories are brought out and sublimated, they continue to torment the person.

Fortunately, these memories have a way of coming to the surface suddenly, during the quiet moments of meditation - like bubbles coming to the surface in a quiet pond, when decaying organic matter underneath, releases a gas. These are the unassimilated, undigested and hurtful experiences, which lie buried deep within the subconscious mind, which now bubble up and disappear forever. These memories pop up without any seeming connection and relevancy. They should not be considered as disturbances – and opposed. You let them bubble up. Just leave them alone – and they disappear. It is for this reason that in TM, you are advised not to concentrate – they positively discourage concentration.

In this form of meditation, you tie your self to some "Mantra" and allow yourself to slip out of your conscious awareness, freely and unobtrusively. You do not oppose thoughts as they appear, one after another, while you close your eyes and repeat the mantra silently. Let the thoughts come and go freely. Mantra brings you up every now and then, from wherever you happen to have wandered. You keep going and coming back – all the time. When you go down, the mantra brings you up. It is just like dipping your self into a deep well, after making sure that you will not sink – and the mantra is supposed to ensure this. You dip into your subconscious mind and bring out the accumulated tension.

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Thought 132: Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress

All religions recognize that prayer is an excellent form of worship. All of us pray at some time or the other; you very rarely find a human beng who does not pray at some time or the other. Even atheists pray when placed in highly traumatic circumstances – such as advanced stages of cancer; they try to make their peace with their maker when they realize that they are about to depart on their final journey.

Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress. It relieves anxiety and tension, by unburdening the mind and establishing direct emotional communion with the God. Every prayer emanates from the heart – it is an outpouring of the heart. The hearts of devotees cry out in prayer – especially in highly stressful circumstances, like Gajendra or Draupadi. Because the prayer is a spontaneous outpouring of the heart, it has no standard format. The prayer is only as efficacious as your sincerety, faith in god and devotion.

A prayer is a private conversation between you and your creator. A prayer is a recognition of your helplessness in this world of mortals – and also a recognition that there are higher powers ruling over the destinies of mortals. Unless you believe in God, you do not pray; prayer presupposes some amount of faith in God. While praying, you become sincere and humble - which is your immediate reward.

In prayer, you plug into your God and seek relief; you supplicate yourself to God. You petition the God for granting you some thing which you desire immediately. A soul under torment, longing for His help, conceives Him capable of granting this prayer. You have faith that He will provide the relief - from whatever is troubling you. You can, of course, ask for calmness, peace and tranquility, although, people normally do not seek these things from God. Your faith makes you believe that your prayer will be granted - and this belief itself is therapeutic. Prayer purifies your mind; it has a cleansing effect - which is very supportive, when you are under tension.

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Thought 131: The Bananas

Roger Maillot, the stress management consultant, calls problems "bananas". He recounts an interesting episode in catching monkeys. They are caught in some countries by putting a banana in a bamboo box, with the vertical bamboo members of the box close together - not too close that the monkey cannot put its hand inside but close enough for it not being able to remove its hand with the banana in it. The monkey remains in that helpless position until caught! If it drops the banana, it can remove its hand and escape, but this strategy does not occur to it. It does not occur to many people also.

Stop worrying about dirty problems or “bananas”. There is no percentage in it. Worrying about them does not take you to the solution. Dr Wayne Dyer defines worry as "immobilization now about a future happening". You waste energy on a behavior, which has no potential or real benefit to you. Worry, in any form, for any reason, is wasteful and degrades the quality of life.

The moral of this story is that you must learn to “let go” – “let go” all the emotional traps; “let go” all the negative loads; “Let go” all the toxic emotions and toxic thoughts; “let go” hostility, guilt and fear; “let go” the egocentric attitudes. And see how light and relaxed you feel. If you learn to “let go”, you can be free - and be peaceful and happy.

The next thought is about “Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress”

Thought 131: The Bananas

Roger Maillot, the stress management consultant, calls problems "bananas". He recounts an interesting episode in catching monkeys. They are caught in some countries by putting a banana in a bamboo box, with the vertical bamboo members of the box close together - not too close that the monkey cannot put its hand inside but close enough for it not being able to remove its hand with the banana in it. The monkey remains in that helpless position until caught! If it drops the banana, it can remove its hand and escape, but this strategy does not occur to it. It does not occur to many people also.

Stop worrying about dirty problems or “bananas”. There is no percentage in it. Worrying about them does not take you to the solution. Dr Wayne Dyer defines worry as "immobilization now about a future happening". You waste energy on a behavior, which has no potential or real benefit to you. Worry, in any form, for any reason, is wasteful and degrades the quality of life.

The moral of this story is that you must learn to “let go” – “let go” all the emotional traps; “let go” all the negative loads; “Let go” all the toxic emotions and toxic thoughts; “let go” hostility, guilt and fear; “let go” the egocentric attitudes. And see how light and relaxed you feel. If you learn to “let go”, you can be free - and be peaceful and happy.

The next thought is about “Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress”

Thought 131: The Bananas

Roger Maillot, the stress management consultant, calls problems "bananas". He recounts an interesting episode in catching monkeys. They are caught in some countries by putting a banana in a bamboo box, with the vertical bamboo members of the box close together - not too close that the monkey cannot put its hand inside but close enough for it not being able to remove its hand with the banana in it. The monkey remains in that helpless position until caught! If it drops the banana, it can remove its hand and escape, but this strategy does not occur to it. It does not occur to many people also.

Stop worrying about dirty problems or “bananas”. There is no percentage in it. Worrying about them does not take you to the solution. Dr Wayne Dyer defines worry as "immobilization now about a future happening". You waste energy on a behavior, which has no potential or real benefit to you. Worry, in any form, for any reason, is wasteful and degrades the quality of life.

The moral of this story is that you must learn to “let go” – “let go” all the emotional traps; “let go” all the negative loads; “Let go” all the toxic emotions and toxic thoughts; “let go” hostility, guilt and fear; “let go” the egocentric attitudes. And see how light and relaxed you feel. If you learn to “let go”, you can be free - and be peaceful and happy.

The next thought is about “Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress”

Thought 131: The Bananas

Roger Maillot, the stress management consultant, calls problems "bananas". He recounts an interesting episode in catching monkeys. They are caught in some countries by putting a banana in a bamboo box, with the vertical bamboo members of the box close together - not too close that the monkey cannot put its hand inside but close enough for it not being able to remove its hand with the banana in it. The monkey remains in that helpless position until caught! If it drops the banana, it can remove its hand and escape, but this strategy does not occur to it. It does not occur to many people also.

Stop worrying about dirty problems or “bananas”. There is no percentage in it. Worrying about them does not take you to the solution. Dr Wayne Dyer defines worry as "immobilization now about a future happening". You waste energy on a behavior, which has no potential or real benefit to you. Worry, in any form, for any reason, is wasteful and degrades the quality of life.

The moral of this story is that you must learn to “let go” – “let go” all the emotional traps; “let go” all the negative loads; “Let go” all the toxic emotions and toxic thoughts; “let go” hostility, guilt and fear; “let go” the egocentric attitudes. And see how light and relaxed you feel. If you learn to “let go”, you can be free - and be peaceful and happy.

The next thought is about “Prayer is an excellent method of relieving stress”

Thought 130: Stress has become unavoidable

A person goes to work for two primary reasons. One, of course, is to earn his or her livelihood. The other equally important drive is to socialize. If you do not go to work, you degenerate. This is why people, who lose jobs, for whatever reason and those who retire, get easily bored, demoralized and depressed, when remaining idle at home. It is said that an idle man’s brain is a devil’s workshop. Boredom drives these people to all sorts of mischief – alcoholism, for instance, is one offshoot of such a boredom.

At the same time, when you have a job and go to work, the work environment interacts with you - not always pleasantly. This interaction very often results in some amount of stress. As a matter of fact, there is usually some amount of stress in every occupation and in every work environment.

The say that emotions like medicine should be in a proper dosage to be effective. This principle is observed more in its breach than in its compliance. Emotions have direct impact on health. There are many instances of body reaction relating to the state of the mind. You blush when you are embarrassed. Your face becomes red when you are angry. You become pale when you are frightened. When you feel frightened, the heart rate increases rapidly. Sadness and melancholy can produce loss of appetite. Mind and breathing are connected in some way. When you are disturbed - anger, shock, fear etc - your breathing becomes irregular. We know that rhythmic breathing calms the mind.

Emotional stress is what you feel when a loved one passes away. It manifests itself in depression, grief, sadness, loneliness, helplessness. Under the influence of this type of stress, you may get immobilized and neglect your health, your job etc. If you are a habitual cynic, these effects will be accentuated further.

Stress related disorders like, high blood pressure, insomnia, ulcers, migraine headaches, are now being cured by body-mind therapies like meditation, relaxation response, hypnosis etc. Thus, the evidence that bodies and minds effect each other appears overwhelming. Now, it is more or less accepted that "thinking well helps making you well".

The next thought is about “The Bananas”

Thought 129: The Body-Mind Connection

Certain physical ailments are influenced by mental factors – which indicates the "body-mind" connection. Continuous stress induces the body to pump increasing amounts of hormones into the blood stream. These hormones, Dr Herbert Benson writes, produce tension headaches and anxiety attacks - important symptoms of which are nausea, vomiting, short temper, insomnia and many phobias. These chemical messengers (hormones) can inhibit immune action also. It is now well established that the body-mind interactions influence migraine head aches, ulcers, high blood pressure and back pain, etc. When people are in a pressure cooker for a long time, they eat badly, sleep badly, exercise badly, work badly and even think badly.

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Tought 128: Innovation through Technology

Technology has been changing constantly; these days, it is changing faster than ever before. “If it can be done, it is obsolete” - this is how technology is leaping forward. If you do not update yourself, you become obsolete.

The world too has been changing constantly. Every system changes constantly. According to the laws of thermodynamics, every system deteriorates, if left to itself without intervention. This deterioration from order to disorder is called Entropy.

The experienced manager knows that every system has entropy. But he cannot be at all places, all at the same time, to find out about it. However, the efficient manager has a helicopter view of his system of operations all the time – and when necessary, he zooms to the trouble spots to intervene as needed. When something goes wrong, the good manager does not immediately ask "who did it?" Rather, he asks, "What went wrong" and fixes it as soon as possible, whatever went wrong.

These are challenging times everywhere – especially in India. Challenging times require challenging attitudes. Those who develop these attitudes, survive - and even prosper. Those who cannot muster enough innovative thinking and courage, who let themselves be overwhelmed by circumstances and meekly submit to them, find alibis instead of solutions to their problems.

Technology finds innovative solutions to every challenge. That is what technology is all about. That is how the Silicon Valley thrives and prospers. The spirited young people of the valley convert every challenge into money, through innovative solutions. These converters are not big operators – they are “lean, mean and nimble”. They are not afraid to step out of the beaten track - and explore the unfamiliar turf.

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Thought 127: There is an immense mass of information being thrown at you now

My parents did not have so much information thrown at them - as is being done by the media these days. Their information needs were also meager. What all they needed to know to live comfortably was the nearest school for their children, the nearest doctor and the nearest grocery store. A few other services were delivered at home. Life was very simple in those days.

But the times have changed. Life is becoming increasingly more and more complex every day. One income is not sufficient any more for comfortable living. Two income families have come to stay. Time has become extremely important for both husband and wife. This has brought in its wake many changes in life styles.

The need for information also changed with the times. We are seeing, with a monotonous regularity, rapid technological changes, cycles of boom and recession, rising and falling inflation rates - all of them and many more such parameters, having a direct impact on our day to day living.

This is the modern Hitech and IT age - and you are literally battered with information. It is believed that information is growing in geometric proportion. We do not even know how much of it is factual and to be believed - and how much of it is spin and therefore, is irrelevant to our needs. The sheer volume of it, however, is mind-boggling.

There is a large and profitable Information Technology industry growing rapidly, which is constantly churning out new information and throwing it at us. In the USA alone, there are 1400 TV stations, several hundred newspapers and magazines. Some of these newspapers have about 100 pages on week days and about 300 pages in their Sunday editions. There are several hundred cable and long distance telephone companies. To cap it all, there is, of course, the Internet. All of them are constantly trying to literally drown us in information.

We are confused most of the time; perhaps even worried that we may miss something vital. There is also a lurking suspicion in our minds that we are being deliberately conned by sharp operators. We do not know any more what to believe - and what not to believe.

Information is not knowledge. It has to be processed - if it has to become knowledge. You have to sift through the information, analyze it, establish its objectivity, classify what is relevant to your needs and store the classified information in a proper place for timely and easy retrieval for it to become useful knowledge. This processed information has also to be updated continually.

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Thought 126: You are the target of the media blitz

Information is constantly beamed at you - by the media and also by the internet, if you are a regular surfer. The media is constantly communicating with you all the time, perhaps subliminally too. Some of the information beamed at you is designed to mislead you into decisions and actions, which may be inimical to your own interests.

Therefore, the information churned out by the media is frequently not processed properly for your use. The raw data has to be evaluated and filtered and processed for accuracy of facts, as well as, for relevance to your needs. Filtered and processed information is value-added information and therefore, can be quite costly.

It is not enough if you acquire the proper information once. It has to be updated constantly. We know now that the information gets obsolete very rapidly. This puts pressure on you. You are never sure that you are not operating on obsolete information.

If you do not have proper information with you, you will be at the mercy of those high pressure sales people, who are eager to sell you something and take away your money. There is a mad rush to get at your purse strings and separate you from your money, somehow, any old how.

The business community looks after its own interests much better than ordinary consumers. The ordinary consumers too should do the same. Self help is the best help. You become aggressive and design your own counter measures.

Consumer societies are one answer to this. We can also choose the sources of
information - the news paper, the magazine, the TV station, friends, neighbors, the school, the job, etc, from where we get information. Not easy, but we have to think on these lines.

We have to know our needs precisely and decide which sources of the information are likely to satisfy our needs properly. Our objective is to prepare ourselves for taking good decisions, because, "Your decision is only as good as the information that you have".

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Thought 125: Mind is a powerful instrument

All consciousness in a person is in the mind. All knowledge in a person is also in the mind. All the good in a person is also in the mind – in the form of thoughts. All evil (impurities such as anger, hatred, arrogance, jealousy, selfishness, etc) is also in the mind - in the form of thoughts again. All sorrow too is in the mind – in the form of thoughts only. All worry too is in the mind in the form of thoughts again. All happiness also is in the mind in the form of thoughts. All likes and dislikes (Raag-Dveshas) are also in the mind. The truth is that you are sucked into these thoughts as if you were in a powerful whirlpool; try as you may, you cannot come out of it easily.

Mind plays games with us – because of impurities like the Raaga-Dveshas (likes and dislikes), selfishness, jealousy, hatred, arrogance, etc in it. An idle mind, they say, is the devil’s workshop. It sets up conflicts of all sorts – all the time. Conflicts cause turmoil in your mind and when the mind is in turmoil, you will never have peace. And without peace, you will have no happiness.

Mind is so powerful that (being presently in India) if you think that you are in a distant place like the USA, you are there instantly. This means that it can transcend space and time dimensions.

Mind is like a double-edged sword. What it sets up, it can also undo. It all depends – whether you have control over it or it has control over you. When you have control over the mind, it flows in a positive direction and you will enjoy what you experience and vice-versa.

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Thought 124: Vedaanta helps you to purify your Vaasanas

Man has freedom of action. He could be positive and be beneficial to the society around him or he can also be negative and harmful and destructive to the society around him. Man can consciously exhaust his Vaasanas and rise up. He could also reinforce his Vaasanas and sink down to the depths of degradation.

Vaasanas are impurities, which obscure the divine nature in man. When you wipe out Vaasanas, you realize yourself - which is Moksha (liberation from Karma and Janma). Man minus Vaasanas is God. Vedaanta teaches you how to neutralize the effects of your Vaasanas.

Man has choice of action – unlike other living creatures. You do not expect a tiger to be kind and considerate. It must pounce and kill – and that is all what it knows. A cow on the other hand is gentle, meek and mild – and it can never be cruel like a tiger. Thus, all animals tread a beaten path. These animals fulfill their Vaasanas in the realm of activities, which indicates their nature. They lead a choice less pattern of life. Man, however, has choice of action. Through self-effort, man can change the pattern of his life; he can change his Vaasanas and even his Praarabdha. Self-effort gives you freedom regardless of the nature of the Vaasanas. (Swami Tejomayananda)

When not manifest, Vaasanas remain dormant in your potential nature. They are in that state when you are in deep sleep. During the wakeful state, they begin to manifest as thoughts in your intellect (thoughts in your intellect are always dictated by your Vaasanas). In the second stage of manifestation, they express themselves as desires in the mind. In the final stage, they (the desires) express themselves as actions.

Thus, as long as Vaasanas exist in you, thoughts, desires and actions will constantly flow out of you. The state of Vaasanlessnes is the state of thoughtlessness or the state of desirelessness or the state of actionlessness – which is called Moksha.

You cannot abstain from action while the Vaasanas are still present in you. People practice self-denial externally – not realizing that Vaasanas, thoughts and desires are still present internally, which putrefy the internal personality. Such practices lead to suppression rather than sublimation of the personality.

The next thought is about Mind is a powerful instrument

Thought 123: Vaasanas drive you helplessly to commit sin

Arjuna asks the Bhagavaan Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, “Why people behave as they do – irrationally most of the time. They often commit evil actions, even when they know that it is wrong to do so. Some unknown force seems to always impel them into committing the sin in spite of themselves” (BG 6.33, 6.34). The Bhagavaan replies that Vaasanas are the reason why people helplessly behave as they do. Vaasanas are very powerful. Even the Jnaanis find that they are helplessly controlled by their Vaasanas.

Every one picks up a host of likes and dislikes as he journeys along in every life. Every mind has likes and dislikes. Every one views the world through his likes and dislikes. The world that enters a mind is the one that got distorted by the two lenses called, “likes” and “dislikes”. Thus, the world that is stored in any mind is a modified world – modified by its likes and dislikes. This is a private world of fantasy and fancy of a person – which is uniquely his own. The individual, even while viewing the objective world created by Isvara, actually interacts in terms of his own private world - and develops subjective responses. Thus, these likes and dislikes define the world that a person would like to live in. These likes and dislikes are identified with the Vaasanas of a person.

The next thought is about “Vedaanta helps you to purify your Vaasanas”

Thought 122: About Vaasanas

Every individual possesses a separate and distinct nature, which expresses itself in a unique manner. This inherent tendency, this innate bent of mind, this unique aptitude, and this individualistic nature, characteristic to a person, is what we call a Samskaara (in Vedaanta). sed. Samskaaras are known as Vaasanas – when you carry them forward to the next Janma. And we do carry our Samskaaras from one Janma to the next. Like the software programs in a computer, Vaasanas remain with you no matter how many births you take – until you throw them out (erase) them.

Vaasanas, which are subtle impressions on the mind, are responsible for your unique personality; Vaasanas are the nucleus of your personality. You are the substantial form of your insubstantial Vaasanas. Vaasana literally means a fragrance. Your Vaasanas are your individual and unique fragrances.

In a Hindu temple, for instance, the idol of the deity is located in the innermost of the three enclosures (Praakaaras). The Puujaari burns camphor (which has a unique fragrance) to light up the idol, which is in darkness in the inner most enclosure. When the camphor burns shedding its fragrance, God (idol) becomes visible to the devotees. In a human body too, the self is surrounded by three enclosures (Stuula, Suukshma and Kaarana Sareeras). Just like in the temple, here too, the self, which is in the inner most of these three material layers, becomes visible only, when you shed your unique fragrances by burning your Vaasanas. The Vaasanas get burnt up in the fire of knowledge of the self. In this sense, Deham (body) is a Devaalayam (temple).

Thoughts, desires and actions emanate from your Vaasanas in the same way that sounds emanate from the grooves of a gramophone record. As long as Vaasanas exist in you, thoughts desires and actions will constantly flow out of you. You cannot abstain from action while the Vaasanas are still present in you.

The Vaasanas are the result of past actions. At the same time, Vaasanas also become the cause - and action becomes the result. This cycle goes on like the seed and the tree or the egg and the hen. This is the cause and effect phenomenon in action. Thus,

• Past actions produce the present Vaasanas
• Present Vaasanas produce future actions

The next thought is about Vaasanas drive you helplessly to commit sin.

Thought 121: Reprogramming yourself

Information that gets into the subconscious mind is the basis of all your beliefs and actions. What gets through into the subconscious mind, however, is what is allowed to get through by the conscious belief system, which acts as an aperture with a shutter. The belief system closes and opens the shutter of this aperture; this is how it regulates the flow of information into the subconscious mind. Any information, which runs counter to the belief system is effectively filtered out. This is how the subconscious mind acquires all its limitations. Subconscious mind has no limitations except those put on it by your belief system and your self-talk. The information, which gets through, determines your self-image. Your self-image determines, in turn, your performance. You can always, of course, improve your self-image, by reprogramming your subconscious mind.

The thinking, analysis and determining part - that is, the reprogramming part - is done by the conscious mind. The conscious mind tells the subconscious mind what is to be done. The subconscious mind implicitly obeys the commands of the conscious mind. Since it cannot think, subconscious mind believes that whatever has been told by the conscious mind is the truth. Subconscious mind acts like a computer, obeying the set of instructions programmed into it; “garbage in and garbage out” has far as the subconscious mind is concerned. If the program says "you can do it", subconscious can do it and it does it. Nothing is impossible for it. On the other hand, if the program says "you cannot do it", subconscious mind cannot do it. It will not do it also.

Negative attitudes – which are a legacy of the programming of the childhood days (see thought 56) - give rise to negative self-talk in you. This is how you continue to put limitations on yourself. These limitations are programmed into you by your self-talk. These are the tendencies (Samskaaras) that you acquire. You can only act according to what has been programmed into you.

However, you do not have to carry the burden of these tendencies all through your life. You can change – provided, of course, you have the determination for doing so. Just as, when you load a new program into a computer, it will ignore the old program and execute the new program, your subconscious mind also executes the new program, deleting effectively, what has been programmed earlier. It is easy to do that. This is done through a technique called, imprinting. Dr Robert Anthony, in his book, "The Total Success", describes this technique in great detail. If you reprogram yourself properly using this technique, you can overcome many of the limitations that have been programmed into you in your childhood. You can, thus, cancel most of the limitations of your past and start with a new promise and a new expectancy. The learning process, which started when you were born, therefore, need not stop when you grow up. Reprogramming is continuing education. Education is a "womb to tomb" occupation for man.

The next thought is “About Vaasanas”

Thought 120: About your mind and self talk

You are always associated with your mind. You always go wherever your mind goes. Because of this, you may be tempted to assume that you are the mind. You are not your mind; you are the Awareness, which vivifies your mind. Mind gains consciousness because of the presence of Awareness in it.

Mind is where happiness and sorrow reside. Mind is a flow of thoughts. Happiness is a thought. Sorrow is also a thought. You are not your thoughts. You are the Awareness over which thoughts ride piggy-back.

You can always dissociate from any thought that you do not like. You can always dissociate your self from sorrow. Dissociation from sorrow is happiness.

Your mind is always talking. It is never silent. You are vaguely aware of this self talk. Self talk is registered in your subconscious mind. What is registered in your subconscious mind is what determines your nature. Curb the self talk, which is negative. Encourage the self talk which is positive. This is how you can become a positive person with high self esteem.

The next thought is about “Reprogramming yourself”

Thought 119: About Likes and Dislikes (Continued)

You are born with certain likes and dislikes. You are not only born with some likes and dislikes - but you also pick up some more likes and dislikes in every life, unknowingly, of course. These likes and dislikes are buried in every person’s subconscious mind and this “sub” will surface at the right time. These buried likes and dislikes are called Samskaaras.

Our ears, skin, eyes, tongue (palate) and nose are called the sense organs – which are five in number. They sense sound, touch, form and color, taste and smell respectively – which are, therefore, called the objects of the senses or sense objects. Every sense object is either liked or disliked.

Every person is attracted by what appears agreeable to his mind and repulsed by what appears disagreeable to his mind. Agreeability and disagreeability do not, of course, inhere in the objects; they are only in the mind of the person viewing the objects. The buried likes and dislikes, which are the Samskaaras, decide what is agreeable and what is disagreeable.

Likes and dislikes are also called Raagas and Dveshas (in Sanskrit). Every person expresses his nature in terms of his Raagas and Dveshas, over which, he seldom has any control. The senses themselves do not have these likes and dislikes. Senses merely report about their (sense) objects and the person develops the likes and dislikes - develops Raaga and Dvesha to those sense objects, based on his Samskaaras.

When you analyze carefully, your activities are not caused by your “Raaga-Dveshas” - but by your identification with them. Although every person is endowed with a “free will”, this “free will” cannot determine what thoughts you should have and what thoughts you should not; they are only decided by your identification with your Raaga-Dveshas. But the “free-will” can determine how far you should go with each thought as it arises in your mind. By refusing not to dwell on certain thoughts, you can get out of the spell of your “Raaga-Dveshas”.

Avoid coming under the spell of your Raaga-Dveshas, because, they are your enemies. Actually, Raaga-Dveshas by themselves are not the enemies - but when you come under their spell, they turn into your enemies. When you deliver yourself into their hands, you do precisely what they want you to do - and you do not do what you should be doing in your own interest.

The next thought is “About your mind and self talk”

Thought 119: About Likes and Dislikes

Every one has likes and dislikes. You too have them. Likes and dislikes are the contact lenses through which everyone looks at the world. When you look at the world through your likes and dislikes, you create a private world of your own. This is a subjective world – which you superimpose over the objective world created by God. Your interaction with the world, then onwards, is always on the basis of this superimposed, subjective, private world of your own creation.

This is how a belief system is built up in each individual. Beliefs could be many and varied. For instance, you may believe that “X” is a bad person and “Y” is a good person. Once this kind of belief is formed, you refuse to see facts that do not support your belief. You refuse to see the good aspects of “X”, as also, the bad aspects of “Y”. Any information, which opposes your belief is not allowed to enter – the shutter closes against such information, as in a camera.

Because of these preconceived notions, you believe what you want to believe – and therefore, you are never objective. Those, who are subjective, are always at a disadvantage, than those who are objective. These preconceived notions (formed as a result of your likes and dislikes) do not allow you to take proper decisions – because your decision is only as good as the information that you have.

Consider, for instance, that you are assessing the suitability of a person for a professional job. His professional skills alone should decide your opinion of his performance and value to the organization – not his looks, sex or race, language, culture, caste, community, etc. In practice, you find that professional skill and capability will never be the sole criterion. There will always be extraneous considerations, which are going to ultimately decide his suitability or otherwise.

The next thought is about Likes and dislikes (Continued)

Thought 118: The Natural “You” and the Unnatural “You”

Hunger, thirst, sleep etc just happen – they are not the result of your thinking. Anger, hatred, sadness, depression etc, on the other hand, involve thinking; your mind produces them.

In the thinking, which brings anger, hatred, sadness, depression etc, your mind does not seek your permission; it does these things ignoring your upbringing, culture, education etc. The “natural you”, of course, is quite different from the person, who becomes angry, hateful, sad and depressed.

Mind can bring senses, body, reason, culture and everything else under its control. For instance, no one wants to be unhappy - but one is unhappy frequently, all the same. No one enjoys being angry, but one becomes angry frequently, all the same - uncontrollably angry, at times. Anger, hatred, sadness, depression etc are all conditions of mind, indicating some kind of internal conflict, over which, persons seldom seem to have much control. Any kind of conflict causes unhappiness.

Anger, hatred, sadness, depression, etc are not your real nature. If they are your nature, then, you would be happy when you are angry, when you hate, when you are sad, when you are depressed, etc. Our experience shows that no one is happy when angry, when hating, when sad, when depressed, etc. Anger, hatred, sadness, depression, etc are unstable states – they make a person unstable. It is easy to disturb an unstable state. Disturb the unstable states of your mind - and become happy.

Happiness is natural to a person. Happiness is a stable state. We do not want to disturb this state. When we disturb this state, we become unhappy.

Thus, in every individual, there exist two persons - a “natural person” who is happy, cheerful, enthusiastic and an “unnatural person”, who is afflicted by anger, hatred, sadness, depression etc. Occupying the same mind, this “unnatural person” seems to take charge, as long as the moods, such as anger, hatred, sadness, depression, etc, last.

Your goal should be – to be the “natural you” more time in a day than the “unnatural you”. This reduces conflict in your mind – which makes you more happy. Dr Seuss says “Be who you are and say what you feel - because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind”.

The next thought is “About likes and dislikes”

Thought 117: Insecurity generates fear

Every one of us have some measure of insecurity in us; some may have more while others have less. The feeling of insecurity generates fear. Most people are plagued by a vague fear. They will not be able to clearly define what it is which is bothering them; they experience a kind of foreboding subliminally as if a time bomb is sitting out there, which is going to explode at anytime in their face. They are always looking for bomb shelters.

The insecure persons think that by giving away things or money and generally pleasing people, they are ensuring their bomb shelters. Little do they know that those who want to take things or money freely from others, are only out there to grab anything that they can get freely. They are interested in providing shelters for themselves - and not for their benefactors. That is why they say that a fool and his money are soon parted.

The persons who help without expecting anything in return, are the ones, who have values and live by those values. These are called good Samaritans (called “Suhrids” in Sanskrit). These persons loathe to accept anything freely from others – sometimes not even in return for some good they did earlier. These are the rare persons – who are not easily seen these days in this world. When you find one, thank your good fortune, cultivate him. Such noble persons are your real bomb shelters.

By far, the best bomb shelter is faith in god. If you really have faith in the lord and surrender to him, he takes care of your well-being.
“Today I have what I need - but what about tomorrow?” This fear is typically caused by sense of insecurity and every person has this fear. In fact this is a great fear for every person – next in intensity only to the fear of death. Bhagavad Gita gives a good solution for this fear.

Bhagavaan Krishna says that the devotees who have boundless faith in the God, need not worry about their Yoga-Kshema (daily bread and security), because it is His responsibility to take care of the Yoga-Kshema of such devotees. "Ananya Chintayantomaam Yejanah Paryupasate, Tesham Nityabhi Yuktaanaam Yoga Kshemam Vavahmyam = "For those who are always one with me (devoted to me intensely), I take care of their Yoga-Kshema” (Bhagavad Gita, 9.22)

The next thought is about “The Natural “You” and the Unnatural “You”

Thought 116: All fear is also in the mind only

Every person experiences some fears - such as the fear of heights, fear of closed spaces, fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of noise, fear of darkness, fear of appearing ridiculous, fear of mountains, fear of forests, fear of snakes, fear of Yoga-Kshema, fear of death etc. They say that a coward dies thousand times every day – because of these fears. A brave person dies only once – ultimately when it is time for him to depart from this planet, which is inevitable in the space-time dimension.

Fear is a thought in your mind and you are afraid of your own thoughts. Fear is man's greatest enemy. Fear is behind failure, sickness and poor human relations. [Dr Joseph Murphy]

Man is born only with two fears - the fear of falling and the fear of noise. These are normal fears and they are good. You set them up for self-preservation. All other fears are acquired fears. [Dr Joseph Murphy]

Fear of failure, fear of appearing ridiculous, fear of exposing the ego to hurt and fear of being rejected are fears that have a profound effect on one's self confidence.[Dr Robert Anthony]

Fear of death is another great fear for every person. Every one knows that he has to go one day or the other. And yet, we fear this inevitable death. We are prepared to do anything to postpone death even for a few minutes - and we are willing to spend any amount of money for this. I know one relative of my wife, who showed us the way to die gracefully. One astrologer told this wonderful old gentleman that he would die on a particular date and at a particular time on that day. As that particular day arrived, he got up early in the morning, bathed himself as usual, offered his usual daily prayers, lay himself on a mat with Darbhas (Darbhas are sacred grass) spread over it and was awaiting for Yama (the god of death) to come and take his life away! Of course the astrologer was wrong and this person lived a few more years. Is it not amazing the way this wonderful person dealt with death – which is feared by every human being.

The next thought is about “Insecurity generates fear”

Thought 115: All knowledge is in the mind

The term mind is used here to indicate both mind and Buddhi. Mind is an inanimate thing. Mind is “Prakriti” - and “Prakriti” becomes vivified by the mere presence of “Purusha” in it. Consciousness is “Purusha”. Consciousness is centered in the mind.

There is a three-fold division of the Electromagnetic spectrum into - Ultraviolet, Visible and Infrared. There is a three-fold division of Audio spectrum also into – Ultra-sound (sub-sonic), sonic and supersonic. In the same way, there is a three-fold division of conscious also – sub-conscious, conscious and super-conscious.

In a superconductor, there is virtually no resistance. Therefore, the electric current keeps on flowing – without any obstruction, for ever. There is no more wastage of electricity through heat – because there is no resistance in it, which opposes it, causing heat. Similarly, in a super-conscious state, knowledge keeps on flowing without obstruction – because there are no likes and dislikes and other impurities such as arrogance, jealousy, hatred, greed, selfishness, etc in the mind opposing the flow of knowledge. Thus, when a person gets rid of his likes and dislikes and other impurities, he becomes a super-conductor – gaining the super-conscious state.

All knowledge takes place only in the mind – and no where else. Therefore, the less the impurities in the mind, the better is the flow of the knowledge in it; and such a mind is deemed to have attained the super conscious state. Einstein had very little prejudices, preconceived notions and impurities in his mind – and therefore, he is deemed to have gained a super conscious state. Thus, what distinguishes an Einstein from an ordinary individual is the purity of mind - leading to free flow of knowledge.

When you are able to get rid of your likes and dislikes and other impurities from your mind, you also gain equanimity. Equanimity makes you objective, reflective and non-reactive. Thus, in the super-conscious state, you not only have super-knowledge, but you also gain peace – because you are objective, reflective and non-reactive. And this peace is synonymous with happiness. Vedaanta shows the way to gain this kind of peace and happiness through various Yogas.

The next thought is about “All fear is also in the mind only”

Thought 114: Vedaanta is a science

In science, we proceed from the known to understand what is unknown hitherto to us. So it is in Vedaanta too. The world is known to you. Study and understand it well. From there, proceed to explore the unknown. This is science. Vedaanta is a science – the science of spirituality.
We experience sorrow most of the time in life – and this is our major problem. All other problems that we experience in every day life are minor problems; actually, these minor problems are only corollaries of this major problem in the sense that the latter always culminate in anxiety and misery or grief.

We commonly think that spirituality has nothing to do with the normal day to day living; it cannot resolve any of our day to day living problems – especially the problem of our sorrow, which is our major problem. Vedaanta tells you that it is not true; it asks you to follow certain spiritual principles of Vedaantic philosophy and apply them in your daily life to find out for yourself if those principles are valid and whether they actually solve your problems of sorrow or not. If Vedaanta paves the way to solve your problem of sorrow in life, we conclude that Vedaanta is not just an intellectual exercise; rather, it is a vibrant experience in life.

Vedaanta says that everything in this universe can be reduced to three entities, which are - god, the universe and you. The entire Vedaanta is a serious and practical exposition on these three entities - and their interrelationships. Vedaanta gives you knowledge to come out of your ignorance. This is higher knowledge – which shows the path to the knowledge of the self. This knowledge would be given only to some one who is not only qualified for receiving it – but also is interested in having it.

Vedaanta teaches you to know the truth about yourself. Did the seed come from the tree or the tree from the seed. Did the hen come from the egg or the egg from the hen. Which is the cause and which is the effect. Does cause comes first or the effect.

Of course the cause comes first. If you pursue this logic, there must have been a causeless cause – the very first entity that appeared without a cause – and which caused the Srishti (the Creation). Religions call this causeless cause as God. It does not stop by saying that there is a god ruling over the destinies of mortals. Vedaanta unravels this mystery “X” called the god. Vedaanta leads to the knowledge of the god or the self.

Water, heat, pressure flow from high to low. So does knowledge too. Thus, knowledge flows from the known to the unknown. This is the law – which has no exceptions.
You cannot capture god with words, feelings or thoughts. Finite efforts cannot gain the infinity for you. But this Vedaaantic knowledge takes you to the point when you understand what your real nature is – and then you experience the truth.

The next thought is about “All knowledge is in the mind”

Thought 113: Count your blessings and be happy

All of us want a little more happiness than what we have at present. Therefore, we do Karma (action to get our desires satisfied) in the hope that the result of this Karma gives us more happiness. But our Karma rarely gives us what we want. We are limited beings – because of our limitations, we always want “more” of everything to compensate for these assumed limitations.

Man’s “wants” begin the very instant he comes into this world – when he wants milk and starts yelling for it. Beginning thus, his “wants” drive him all through his life. This “I want” is a fundamental “want”. All of us are constantly driven by this engine called, “I want”.

Man always “wants” – something or the other. In general, man always wants things that he does not already possess; things that he already has, have no more attraction for him. But there are exceptions to this rule. Some wealthy persons, especially, those who have become rich newly, for instance, are never satisfied with what they have; they always want more of the same, no matter how wealthy they already may be. When they get more, they want some more. There is never any end to their wanting.

This “I want” is a big problem in every life; in fact, it is the biggest problem; it is what is responsible for all Man’s misery. He feels miserable most of the time because he cannot get his “wants” satisfied most of the time. This is the reality of living – and Vedaanta, which is discussed in the Upanishads, deals with the reality of living.

Vedaanta teaches you how to gain the freedom from this “I want”; it teaches you not to lament over what you do not have; it teaches you to count your blessings and be happy.

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Thought 112: Aananda is the absolute happiness (Continued)

Do you know that all rivers inevitably flow into the ocean; they are created that way. The rivers get their water through rains (from clouds, which form as result of evaporation of waters of the ocean) from the ocean and they flow back into the ocean ultimately. Our bodies are derived from food, which is derived from the earth and when the bodies die, they go back into the earth. This is the rule here – “Everything must go back ultimately into the source from which it originated”.

Worldly happiness is like the river waters. As a rule, all rivers flow into the ocean. The ocean, however, does not depend on outside sources of water for its existence - it has all the water it needs in itself. It is full by itself. It is majestic by its own right.

A river flows across many places and it may even change its course at times. Also, when there are severe rains, the river cannot contain itself within its normal boundaries – it overflows its boundaries and inundates the adjacent lands.

Unlike a river, the ocean has fixed boundaries and it never ever crosses its fixed boundaries; the ocean is virtually grounded. The ocean is always full. It is full before the rivers discharge their waters into it. It is also full to the same extent, even after the rivers discharge their waters into it. It never ever overflows its banks – no matter how many rivers discharge their waters into it, they fail to raise its level. The extra water gets absorbed quietly, without producing any change in its level - without causing any disturbance in it.

Also, the ocean does not dry up when the rivers cease to discharge their waters into it. It always remains calm and undisturbed – and full.

Like the ocean, the Jnaani (the man of wisdom) is always full. His fullness (which is the absolute happiness) does not depend on presence and absence of objects of this world. In him, desires get quietly earthed as they enter. Even if innumerable sense objects constantly pour their stimuli into his mind, they fail to disturb him; they get quietly resolved in his Buddhi.
Aananda is an experience one would gain when a person is with himself. For instance, when a desire is fulfilled, one is happy – and this momentary happiness is because of being with oneself. At that moment, a person is totally satisfied with himself – and he does not want to be something else (he does not want more happiness than that)
Aananda is the fundamental nature of all human beings. The objects, which seem to give some happiness or sorrow, do not possess the happiness or sorrow – they are merely instruments which give happiness or sorrow. When there are clouds, the sun is masked. When the winds drive away the clouds, the vision of sun is produced – but the sun has always been there. The wind has no role to play in this - other than being an instrument to remove the clouds. So it is with the absolute happiness. The worldly objects or the happy situations clear the gloom or the sorrow that is masking the happiness, which is always present in your self.

The next thought is about “Count your blessings and be happy”