How to be Established in State of Highest Wisdom

In the Sky, there is no distinction of East & West; people create distinction out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.

~ Buddha

Hi Friends

I have been avoiding this topic for a long time but the piling of questions regarding Karma, Liberation from Karmic Bondage, Attaining Wisdom, Concept of God and others similar queries oblige me to say something on that which cannot be said.

Difference between knowledge and wisdom

Most of the time people use the word wisdom interchangeably with knowledge. But wisdom is completely different from knowledge. Knowledge is borrowed. Wisdom is your own. Knowledge comes from reading and listening and wisdom comes from experience.

So, I am not going to tell you the difference between knowledge and wisdom. On the other hand, I’d like you to experience the same on your own. For that, I’m sharing a story with you – the story, which you would have already heard in your childhood.

There lived a great sage who befriended some parrots. The parrots used to reside beside the sage’s cottage. The sage gave the parrots a mantra to save them from getting trapped in hunter’s trick. The parrots learnt the mantra by heart. They often used to sing it, “If a hunter will come, spread his net, put some grains on it, we will not get lured and trapped.”

Upon seeing these parrots sitting on a branch of a tree, a travelling hunter with the intention to trap them spread his net, put some grains on it and sat beneath the tree. Suddenly, the hunter heard them singing the same mantra. He got disappointed by knowing that the parrots had the knowledge of his intention and they would not get trapped by his trick.

Since he was tired, he decided to rest and took a nap there. When he awoke from his short sleep, to his surprise, the parrots were still singing the same mantra but inside his net of trap. By seeing that, he laughed. He laughed because he experienced the difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Merits of doing good deeds

Many come to me with the belief that doing good deeds will liberate them from their Karmic Bondages. I have also seen some bloggers writing that doing well frees oneself from the cycle of rebirths. People often ask me “What is written in scriptures to do to attain enlightenment?”

Somewhat similar questions were asked to Bodhidharma founder of Zen by the great Emperor Wu founder of Liang Dynasty of Chinese history. The story goes like this:

When Bodhidharma entered in China, Emperor Wu, himself, came to receive him because the news of Bodhidharma’s enlightenment had reached before his actual arrival. Emperor was a religious person and did contribute a lot in spreading the words of Buddha. He was curious to know what would be his reward in return for his virtuous deeds. Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma “How much karmic merit have I earned for ordaining Buddhist monks, building monasteries, having sutras copied, and commissioning Buddha images?” Bodhidharma calmly replied “None. Good deeds done with an intention to get something in return bring good karma, but no merit.”

Emperor was surprised with Bodhidharma’s reply. He shot back “So what is the highest meaning of noble truth?” Bodhidharma answered “There is no noble truth, there is only emptiness.” Emperor, by that time, got annoyed and retorted “Then, who is standing before me?” Bodhidharma laughed and said, “Don’t know, Sir.”

Karma and Karmic Bondage

What is Karma? What is Karmic Bondage? Why is Karma said to be bondage?

Karma is a vicious cycle of action and its consequences. Good action brings good consequences; evil action brings evil consequences. There is no escape from this vicious Karmic Cycle unless someone is there to do actions and face their consequences.

Karma is said as bondage because it binds oneself to action and its consequences. Liberation from Karmic Bondage is not about doing good actions but to come out of the vicious circle of actions – action generating another action and so on.

Karma is a cage. It doesn't matter whether it is of gold or steel. A cage is a cage. Good actions are gold cages. You are not free from doing good actions. You are not free from the cycle of cause and its effects. Good actions generate good consequences; that's all. You have to come again and again; you have to reincarnate to avail the good consequences generated by your past actions.

Freedom is transcending Karma. Liberation is freedom from the consequences of action; freedom from the cycle of cause and its effects – action and its consequences.

Why good equals evil in the path of attaining enlightenment

Once upon a time, an eagle was chasing a dove. The dove, while being chased, approached a man for seeking help. The man agreed to save the dove and asked the dove to come by his side. Then, the eagle asked the man, “If you save the dove, what’ll I eat?” The man said the eagle to eat another dove. The eagle asked the man, “Why’ll another dove die to save this dove?” So the man advised the eagle to eat a rat. Then, the eagle asked, “Why’ll a rat die to save this dove?” Finally, the man asked the eagle to eat him. The eagle laughed and said to the man, “How long can you feed me? Sooner or later after your death, I’ll eat this dove.”

The eagle found that the man was unnecessarily delaying and concluded him as extremely evil. But the dove found the man extremely good.

Look at these words: evil and good; both are attributed to the same man. What should the man do? If the man saves the dove, he’s depriving the eagle from its food and indirectly compelling the eagle to die of starvation. And, if he doesn’t save the dove, he’s indirectly helping the eagle in its killing because he can save it easily. What is good or right in this situation?

Good and evil or right and wrong aren’t absolute distinction but individual’s perspectives. What seems good to you may seem evil to others. They remain with individuals as long individuals exist and changes with individuality.

What to do to liberate from Karmic Bondage

One is not going to be free from Karmic Bondage unless one involves oneself in Karmic interactions. When ONE stops doing, he is liberated. Try to grab my words very carefully. My emphasis is not on doing but on one who is doing – the Doer. All the consequences have to be faced by the Doer. Generally, it is taken otherwise in terms of doing. Doing will carry on. Action will continue but there will be no doer to take the consequences of the action; there will be no individual remaining to attribute good or evil to him.

Remember when Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma, “Who is standing before me,” what did Bodhidharma reply? He said, “Don’t know;” he didn’t say, “I don’t know.” There wasn’t any trace of I-sense left within Bodhidharma.

It is I-sense which holds the attribution of good or evil; it is the I-sense which does actions and avails their consequences; it is this I-sense which is bound by Karma. The moment one renounces his ego of doer, he is enlightened, he is liberated from Karmic Bondage, and he becomes free from the cycle of rebirths.

Controlling is not wisdom

I often hear people saying that in State of Highest Wisdom, one stays calm, remains unaffected and steady in the state of both happiness and misery. So do not feel happy in happiness and miserable in misery.

Well, I agree with first part i.e. the definition of highest state of wisdom but find flaws and loopholes in the suggested path to attain it.

Actually, the problem is we have seen actions going on their own only in inanimate objects. We have seen the actions of only planets and other celestial bodies on their own. Science does not believe in creator theory; it believes that every activities of Universe are going on its own. We, a strong believer of science, start to believe that an action is possible without a doer and then read in scriptures that it is the highest state of wisdom. We begin to find a way to attain this state of non-doer.

We start to search what to do to attain the state of non-doer. From here, our misery begins. Our logical mind correlates inanimateness with highest state of wisdom and finds insensitivity as the way to attain it; that is why, advocates not to feel happy in happiness and miserable in misery.

Violation of basics

The advocacy of control violates the basic principles and requirements such as:

1. State of highest wisdom is not about the state of unconsciousness like zombies but to attain a state of full consciousness – Superconsciousness.
2. It is not about insensitiveness to pain and pleasure but transcendence of both.
3. It is not about controlling behaviour but to attain a state of non-doer.
4. It is not about I-sense but egolessness.
5. It is not a state of mind but a state beyond mind.
6. It is not about logic but a state of no-thought.

Performance without a performer

The question is not about what to do; the question ought to be how to do. There exists another way – a flawless path to attain State of Supreme Wisdom – the Path of Conscious Activity. It says that it doesn’t matter what you do, just do it consciously with full awareness.

Have you ever driven vehicles at a very high speed? Do you have any memories at that time while driving at such high speed? Do you ever feel that you are driving while driving at tremendous speed?

While performing any action with full consciousness, feelings cease. Feelings are the result of divided consciousness. Feelings are associated with self. When there is no self, there exist no feelings. Who is there to feel? Who will feel when no one remains?

Someone might experience the state of highest wisdom while driving at a very high speed. Driving at very high speed needs full consciousness to avoid accidents. Full consciousness means, no thinking; no thinking means no feelings; no feelings means no memories. Memories belong to self, so there is no self also while driving at high speed because you also don’t remember that you are driving. Because this very thought of driving may also distract and lead to accident. So, one thing is clear that when you are driving at such high speed you are also not present. The only statement could be passed is that driving is going on but there is no driver.

Infants are form of God

Driver’s face is reflecting the innocence of egolessness – Buddhahood in those moments of driving. It could be seen in the same manner as seen on the face of infants. Infants are pure, innocent, egoless. They are born without any sense of self. Researchers have proposed that children do not develop self-recognition skills and a personal identity until the age of 16-24 months.

Whatever infants do, they do with full consciousness. If they are crying, they become the cry. If they are laughing, they become the laugh. There lies no divided consciousness with them. Their crying or laughing is not the result of some emotional outburst but is the natural state of their being.

Live life as an actor

The world is a drama and everyone is playing a role in it as actor.

Have you seen actors playing their role on screen? Doesn’t their cry appear real? Do they cry in real? What do you think?

Yes, their cry appears real. Most use glycerine to shed tears. But the great actors do not need glycerine to shed tears. They just enter into the scene and given character, tears start to roll down their cheeks. They just empathize with the given character and tears begin to flow but after the shot they aren’t sad over what has happened with the character. They just give their 100% to shot and that is it. Same is the condition with happy scenes.

Misery begins when actors indulge in something which they are not supposed to do; when they mix the given role with their own real characters; when they start to play their role outside the plot.

Actors weep and laugh, but tears and laughter don’t bind them; actors remain untouched by them. When they love they do not love, when they fights they do not fight; they are never involved in their roles as worldly people are. They play a friend and a foe without being involved in friendship and enmity. They practice attachment and detachment simultaneously.

Where most people miss

When Hui Neng went to his master for seeking enlightenment, the master asked, “Do you want to know about enlightenment or attain enlightenment?” Hui Neng replied, “What do I do with knowledge of enlightenment? I have come to attain enlightenment.” The master said, “Okay, go help in the kitchen, and do not come again to me. Whenever it will be needed, I will come to you.”

No meditation was given to Hui Neng, no scriptures to read, no rituals to practice. Nothing was taught to him, he was just thrown into the kitchen.

Many years passed. Hui Neng obeyed his master and didn’t go to him again. He was simply doing the job assigned to him consciously. He was pounding rice and doing other works in the kitchen.

The master was about to die, the time had come to choose his successor, so he announced, “Those who think they are enlightened should compose a small poem of four lines. In those four lines you should put all that you have gained. And if the lines show that enlightenment has happened, I will choose the person as my successor.”

There was a great scholar in the monastery, and no one attempted the poem because everyone knew that he was going to win. He was a great knower of scriptures. He wrote something like this: “Mind is like a mirror, and dust gathers on it. Do not let the dust collect on it, clean it regularly and who knows this is enlightened.”

News spread that great poem had been written. Fellow disciples found it beautiful. They believed that it contained the very essence of all the scriptures – mind is like a mirror, and dust gathers on it; remove the dust, and you are enlightened. But master was not happy with the poem.

Murmuring started in the monastery among disciples that despite telling the whole gist of all the Vedas in just four lines, why was the master not happy? What more did he want?

The discussion also reached Hui Neng’s ears. He heard what had happened. The moment he heard those four lines, he laughed. So someone asked, “Why are you laughing, you fool? You do not know anything; you have been serving in the kitchen since the day you came here. What makes you laugh?”

Hui Neng said, “I don’t know how to write, and I am not an enlightened one either, but these lines are wrong. So if someone writes on my behalf, I can suggest the four lines.” He dictated, “There is no mind and there is no mirror, so where can the dust gather? One who knows this is enlightened.” And he was selected by the master as his successor.

Highest Wisdom is illogical by nature

Hui Neng was one of the greatest masters ever born. He gave the Koan. Koan means an absurd question which cannot be answered, any way you try. It is unanswerable. And one has to meditate on that unanswerable question. And when you think about that which cannot be thought, by and by, slowly and gradually, thinking becomes impossible. One day, suddenly the whole structure of thinking falls – shattered. Suddenly you are in a state of no-thought. That’s what highest state of wisdom is.

So I leave you with Penrose Triangle to think upon it and get established in the State of Highest Wisdom.

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1 Understanding That Will Transform Your Life Forever

To change the world, you need only perceive it in a different light.

~ Dr. Walter Doyle Staples

Hi Friends

Wish You a Very Happy, Prosperous and Healthy 2015! May This Year Bestow Peace and Wisdom to All of Us!

When I was thinking, which topic to start the New Year, I received a mail from Christie. I helped Christie, sometime ago, in setting priority in her life and gave the mantra: “Live by Priority.” In the recent mail, she asked me this beautiful question:

What is the one thing that I recommend her to work on this year to make her life better and happier?

I found the idea wonderful and decided to share that one thing with you too which I recommended to Christie. I didn’t ask her to work on some tough mental or physical exercise, which required willpower, to ease her stress or pain in difficult times.

Is willpower at our will?

I don’t think so. I read some self-help books which say to apply willpower in every matter as if there is some switch to turn our willpower on or off.

I didn’t ask her to be optimistic to enjoy happiness. After all, what is optimism? Optimism is a condition in which a person knows that he is in trouble and there is no way out but he has to expect the best; he has to believe that good will eventually triumph over evil – clouds of difficulty will part away on its own.

It is easy to talk about being optimistic and to apply willpower, but is it easy practically?

Interpretation is everything

Today, I’m going to share something more fundamental than these. I’m going to share with you a concept – the moment you grasp it fully, you will transform into a better and happier person forever. You don’t have to do anything; you just have to understand it; mere reading won’t serve the purpose. You have to, consciously, take it deep into your subconscious.

Let’s find out what that concept is! Look at the lines of the beautiful haiku, written by Kokila Gupta Pioneer of Hindi Haiku, below:

the kettle shattered
all scattered topsy turvy
my kids are awake!

— Sunshine n Blue Clouds

What do you draw from these lines? Let me tell you what I got from these:

Sad interpretation of the haiku

At first glance, I see a mother, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, who brings morning tea for her children. She couldn’t control the tremors in her hands, and kettle made up of bone china shatters on the ground. Her children awake from the noise. This event scatters all her hopes and dreams. Her life becomes topsy-turvy.

She doesn’t want to reveal her helplessness to them. Mother is a symbol of strength. Whenever we face any trouble and difficulty in life, most of us remember our mother. This is because we know that our mother had faced so much pain to bring us to this world and when she knows that we are in trouble, she could do anything to save us from any difficulty; she would even jump in fire to save our lives.

Her peace scatters. She is worried, “If she couldn’t control a kettle – even tremors in her hand, how will she save her children in difficulties?” She is thinking, “Now, it’s been revealed to her children; how do they believe that their mother will come to their rescue in difficult times?”

This meaning is sad and heart-wrenching, but is this the only meaning?

No. Let’s have a look on this:

Happy interpretation of the haiku

Mother always keeps the things at their proper place. She maintains a state of order in house. Children are always shouting and asking their mother about their things because they place their things anywhere and then forget where they have put those things. Mother collects those things from odd places and put them to their proper places.

Scattered things may be taken as a sign that children are present there. If we look from this perspective, they only indicate the presence of children in their active mode.

Now, I see a mother who enters in their children’s room at night to put scattered toys and other things at their proper place. She takes the teddy out of the bed and put blankets over her children to ensure their good sleep. She brings order in that room and leaves the room after switching the lights off.

When she comes in the morning, she sees toy kettle is shattered and all toys are again scattered around the room. Her children are awake and playing with them. She is thinking that all her yesterday’s hard work went into vain; she has to do it again. But she is not angry. Instead, she is happy. There is a smile on her face and that smile could not be put in words. In words of Hellen Keller, “The most and best beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”

This meaning is positive and pleasant, but could there be any other perspectives?

Yes. What do you say about this?

Interpretation beyond happiness and sorrow

The kettle shattered means Big Bang happened – the Universe was created. All scattered topsy-turvy could be seen as the concept of Universe as Upside Down Tree, espoused in Geeta. And, we, human beings – children of God, are supposed to be awakened to see the order amid chaos.

Doctrine of Upside Down Tree

What is the meaning of Universe as Upside Down Tree? What is the need to compare the Universe with an Upside Down Tree? What does it indicate?

It simply indicates that what we see outside is mere projection of ourselves; they are just echo of our own sounds.

I heard a story of a boy who once got angry with his mother and ran out of the house to the valley shouting at her “I hate you, I hate you.....” At valley, he heard the same voice echoing back. He got frightened and ran back to his mother for comfort and protection. He knows, somewhere in his subconscious, “Putro kuputro jayate, kumata na bhavati,” which means a child could be a bad child but no bad mother exists.

He went to her and said there lived a bad boy in the valley who yelled “I hate you, I hate you.....” Mother understood his predicament. She knew that he got scared from his own echo. We too get scared from our own echo and believe that someone is yelling at us.

Mother advised him to go again to the valley and say aloud “I love you, I love you....” He went and said; this time, to his surprise, he heard back, “I love you, I love you....” This taught a lesson to him that what you hear is the reflection of your own mood.

The concept of Inverted Tree is an indication that what we believe is true, in general, is not actually the truth; what we see in mirror is not the actual entity but only the reflection of ourselves. The meanings we draw, in our day to day life, come from within not from outside.

Knowledge is interpretation

Do you think the meanings I got from those lines lie in them? Do you think those lines are saying that meanings lie outside the lines?

Well, we can never know what those lines are saying; we can only know what we get from those lines. It’s worth repeating, “We can never know what others say; we can only know what we hear.”

Let it understand very clearly. The moment you understand it clearly, your life transforms. You cannot be the same person after realizing it in entirety. There is no way to remain the same.

Do objects have colour

We can only know through our senses. All the information collected by our senses comes before mind for interpretation. All the things we believe we know are only our interpretations. A normal human being interprets many colours in the information collected by his eyes. On the other hand, a colour blind cannot interpret colours in the same way as interpreted by a normal one in the information collected by his eyes.

What do you think colours lie in objects or within us? What do you think could you ever know the actual colour of any object?

Do words have meaning

We can never know anything outside of us; what we feel about outside of us is only our interpretation of outside and most of it is influenced by our state of mind. What we see, hear or feel is only reflection of our own mental state.

My first interpretation of those lines came just after watching the movie: “Love and other drugs.” Heroine in the movie is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. In a scene, a glass tumbler drops on ground and shatters because she couldn’t stop the tremors in her hands. My mind was under the influence of thoughts of Parkinson’s and tremors in hands at the time of interpretation.

My second interpretation was made after reading other reader’s comments on the post. At that time, some other thoughts were dominating my mind.

When I read those lines third time, I was in entirely different mental state because I had just finished my evening meditation. All my interpretations are reflections of my mental state.

Mind is a projector

The Doctrine of Upside Down Tree states what we see as upright is actually inverted and vice versa. The doctrine also states that to see the things upright, we have to invert ourselves – we have to reverse our focus of observation. We have to look within to find happiness instead of searching outside. That is why; Gandhiji said “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Let it understand in this way. The outside Universe is just a projection as the projection on cinema screen. You cannot bring change in the cinema by altering the screen. What is seen on the screen is projected by a projector. Our mind plays the role of a projector. But projector is not enough; we need reel to feed in the projector for projection. Our thoughts serve the purpose of reel. What we feed to our mind is projected outside.

To bring the change outside, we have to change inside by giving conscious thoughts to our mind. Under the influence of different thoughts, our mind interprets the same thing differently.

Outcome of reasoning are not facts

Once, a man spat on Buddha’s face. All Buddha’s disciple wanted to teach the man a lesson. But Buddha stopped his disciples from attacking him and let him go. At night, when the man was thinking about the incidence, he realized the blunder he did that morning. He comprehended how kind Buddha was! How Buddha save him! He couldn’t contend himself; tears burst from his eyes cats and dogs. He cried whole night out of repentance. He couldn’t sleep that night; his eyes had become red and swollen.

In early morning of next day, the man decided to go to Buddha for asking forgiveness. Upon seeing him entering the premise with swollen red eyes, Buddha’s disciple reasoned that this is because of his anger and hatred against Buddha and startled towards him with the intention to punish him. But, in fact, their interpretation was influenced by their own hatred and anger against the man. They were just seeing their own feeling of hatred and anger in his eyes. What they were seeing in his eyes was the reflection of their own mental state.

Buddha intervened and saved him once more. The man fell on Buddha’s feet, tears again started to gush down his cheeks. Buddha said to his disciples, “See the man; he is now a changed person. He is not the man who spat on me yesterday; otherwise, he would not have fallen on my feet. Transformation occurs within a moment by conscious understanding and realization.”

Why the same eyes appeared differently to Buddha and his disciples? Is that because they were in different mental state?

Taking responsibility is the key

Understand that you have the power over circumstances. It is you who define circumstances. It is you who put meaning in everything. It is you who define the rules of your happiness and sorrow. It is you who define the terms of your victory and defeat. You are the master of yourself. No one has power over you. It is you only who give others the power over yourself.

Next time, when you feel unpleasant over something, realize it is your own unpleasant mood that is reflecting in that particular thing or circumstances. Your realization, itself, instantly calms the unpleasant feeling within you. But the irony is you cannot realize immediately at an excited state that what you are facing is the projection of your own state of mind which is under your control.

Here is a solution for it: Whenever you find yourself in an excited state, try to relieve your mind from that state by regulating your breathing pattern – breathe in slowly and breathe out slowly. Breathe from diaphragm more than the upper chest. This abdominal breathing is one of the best relaxation techniques.

After gaining your composure, switch your mind to pleasant state by reminding yourself of some pleasant experiences of your past.

You may have experienced tears in your eyes and sulky mood when reliving some sad experiences of past. The same is true with reliving positive experiences, such as remembering the overall sense of well-being that comes from being deeply happy. This is because good memories can cause the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of pleasure.

I not only recommend you to switch your mind from unpleasant mood to pleasant one, but also advise you to switch your mind occasionally from happy to sad state of mind; so that you know you have absolute power over yourself and the circumstances around you. And happiness and sorrow are nothing but your state of mind which is under your direct control.

Define your happiness

It is not the circumstances that affect your life. It is not the circumstances that give you the feeling of success or failure, love or hatred, happiness or sorrow. It is the MEANING YOU DEFINE out of circumstances that determines your feeling of pleasure or pain.

I know a couple who used to fight with each other on small things. Their relationship was on the verge of collapse. In fact, they decided to live a separate life but couldn't live separately for more than three months. Their problem was that they couldn't stop fighting each other and they also couldn't leave each other. They finally realized that the problem lies in the definition: what they earlier defined as fighting, they now defined it as expression of love. The problem resolved and they began to live happily.

There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers.

~ Erich Fromm

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Hope the article fans the flame of POSITIVITY within you.

Have a nice day!

How to Live a Blissful Life

Be like the winds; move with the winds; go wherever they take you. And don’t choose.

~ Lao Tzu

Hi Friends......

Welcome to my blog. It is a great feeling to talk with you. Before entering into the topic, I’d like to thank you all for your love and support towards me. It was really a thrilling experience to receive a bunch of emails enquiring my well being, requesting for new posts and seeking personal advices. 

For those who are concerned about my health and well being, I’d like to inform them that I am perfectly alright. For last few days, I was just busy in my other jobs; so, couldn’t write here. And for those who were seeking advice, I hope that I replied to them on time. In future, I’ll try to respond within 2-3 days.

Today, I’m gonna share with you the Path to Blissful Life. The message is beautifully summarized in the enlightening verse of Kokila Gupta. She is Pioneer of Hindi Haiku. She is a personality with many facets. She is a teacher, reader, writer, illustrator, traveller, amateur photographer, gardener and many more. She writes at sunshineandblueclouds.blogspot.in and bikhremotimanke.wordpress.com. The depth of her understanding on life and spirituality could be felt from the following verse:

How to Live a Blissful Life?

Before knowing the way to blissful life, we should understand the meaning of life.

What is life?

What is life? How do you know that you are alive?

The simplest answer is by seeing others dying. Shocking! But truth. Do you know any other way of knowing that you are alive?

Death is the reference point of life. And, what is death? It is the absence of life. How do we know that someone is dead? By seeing ourselves alive. Life and death are complementary to each other. In fact, they are two different states of ourselves. If we introspect the characteristics of these two states – life and death, we find that life is like a stream while death is stagnant; life is motion while death is stationary.

Are motion and stationary absolute reality? Are they complete in itself?

No, they are relative concepts. They are complementary to each other. Motions are defined in respect of stationary objects and stationary objects are defined in respect of objects in motion. And, they are interchangeable, i.e. what appears in motion to you may appear stationary to others or vice versa. The best example to illustrate the idea is a train journey. When you are inside a train, it appears to you that trees are travelling, anything outside the train is travelling and you are static. And for others, who are outside, you are travelling inside a train and they are static. You also feel the same when you are standing outside and watch the passing train.

Motion and stillness are two states of object which are observer dependent. They depend on the way of observation; so is life and death. When we are in living state, death appears as motionless. May be when we are on the other side, opposite appears! Who knows?

Also read : Death – A Beginning or an End

Life is a journey not destination

Kokila has beautifully phrased “Jeevan Path” meaning “Path of Life” or “Alive State of Ourselves.”  Life is just like a train journey where we board into it at our birth and depart from it at our death. This life is, in fact, not the entire journey but a part of it – a journey of only one train. It doesn’t tell anything about our previous travels or journeys yet to come.

The problem or misery begins when we misinterpret life as destination instead of journey; when we start to think it in terms of permanent state instead of temporary state.

To avoid misery in life, we should behave with others as if we are travelling in a train. We make friends as well as enemies during our train journey. Sometimes we play and some other times we quarrel but when we get down of the train, these friendship or foeship do not affect us. The reason is: because we don’t form strong bond with them. It doesn’t mean that we form hollow relationship with our fellow passengers. No, they are as genuine as we form in our daily life. The only difference is that we don’t expect anything from them; we just enjoy the journey with them. We just follow our natural instinct without any prejudices or hidden agenda.  

What is your identity

What is your identity? Who are you? Are you the zygote who was once conceived inside a female body? Or the one who came out after delivery? Or the  toddler? Or the child? Or the adolescent? Or the adult? Who are you?

Most probably, you will say “all of these.” Now I challenge you, how could you be all of these if you are only one? It isn’t logical, is it? I further challenge you to take out the photograph of your childhood and stand before a mirror and prove that the person in the mirror and the person in the photograph are same and it is you in both of them. How you gonna prove it?

There is no way to prove it. You only know because someone has told you. In most of the cases, we are informed by our parents regarding our identity and we believe it to be true. It is better to say that what we know as our identity is actually the identity labelled by our parents to us.

Let it understand by a story. An eagle’s egg was placed in the nest of a chicken. The egg hatched and the little eagle grew up thinking it was a chicken. The eagle did what the chickens did. It scratched in the dirt for seeds. It clucked and cackled. It never flew more than a few feet because that is what the chickens did. One day he saw an eagle flying gracefully and majestically in the open sky. He asked the chickens: “What is that beautiful bird?” The chickens replied, “That is an eagle. He is an outstanding bird, but you cannot fly like him because you are just a chicken.” So the eagle never gave it a second thought, believing that to be the truth. He lived the life of a chicken and died as a chicken, depriving himself of his heritage because of the false identity labelled on him.

We, too, are living like this. Being an eagle, we are living a life of a chicken. Clouds are not boundary of sky. Sky is beyond clouds. Let the clouds part away. Try to see the sky through the gaps between the clouds. If dust settles on the glass of a mirror and nothing is seen but only dust and we think we are dust then it is nothing more than a sheer stupidity. Wipe the dust off the glass then you see your real self— true identity.

As you have noticed earlier that for a change or motion to occur, something unchangeable – something stationary is needed as reference. You are constantly changing from infant to child, child to adolescent, adolescent to adult and so on. There must be something within you as unchangeable as a reference point to observe these changes. Stop taking feedbacks from others about yourself and start to look within.

Also read: Memory – A Forged Identity Of Ourselves

Advantage of mind's limitation

In the Cosmos, everything is relative; nothing is absolute. In words of Einstein “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” The meaning only lies in our way of observation as in case with motion and static state. It is the state of observer which determines whether the object is in motion or static.

The state of observer is influenced by other things in the surrounding apart from the object of observation. Our mind, in fact, does not register any absolute state but only able to detect the relative difference between the observed object and its surrounding. When we compare 7 feet rod with 10 feet rod, mind registers it as small and when we compare the same 7 feet rod with 5 feet rod, it registers it as big.

The same comparison occurs also in the situation of miseries or happiness.  You can take advantage of it in enjoying your lives. At the time of problems or miseries, you can imagine of the worst things that could happen in that situation and feel happy that you didn’t hit by them.

Illusion due to prejudices

We have seen in previous section that how any observation depends more on observer than the object of observation. In this section we will see how our mind interprets the meaning differently under the influence of prejudices and sometime in entirely opposite direction.

The line “Jug me apni nijta laye kar” could be interpreted in two entirely different ways: First one would be to blend your ego into the world and look the world egoistically. And second one would be to harmonize yourself with the cosmos, acknowledging the differences as complement, and behave as unity.

The entire message from the reference point of our first interpretation of the third line conveys: “The secret of sustenance in life is to identify yourself with your ego, blend it with the world and see the world through it because that is the only world relevant for you.”

This is a very dangerous interpretation. Unfortunately, most of the time, we interpret in this manner only because of our prejudices. We are conditioned to think in terms of ego since the very childhood. Moreover, we are loaded with the ego of family, religion, nation and many more.

I’ve heard a story of a person who once went to learn the secret of blissful living from a Zen fakir. The fakir welcomed him with a cup of tea and then began pouring more from his kettle into it. The person shouted annoyingly “what are you doing? It’s already full. How could it accommodate more?” The fakir replied with a serene smile “I understand; but do you? How could I give you more if you already come overflowing?”

According to Zen saying, one who longs to be everywhere must not be anywhere. One who wants to be all cannot afford to be anything. There is no congruity between all and something; they just don't go together. You have to be nothing to become all. You have to relinquish your personal identity to gain cosmic identity.

Also read: Surrender - A Way to Freedom

Harmony is blissfulness

Harmony is the key to blissfulness not solution. Existence is paradoxical. Everything we observe in cosmos appears to us in pairs: day-night, hot-cold, light-dark, matter–antimatter, pleasure-pain, happiness-sorrow etc. It is not that they appear in pairs; it is our limitation of observation that we see them in pairs. We can only observe from some reference point and to generate that reference point, we divide the things into two. (Remember motion in reference of some static object and stationary state in reference of some motion.)

It is not only that we divide them into two but begin to believe them as a separate entity. Then the conflict arises – problem begins to upsurge. When problem surges, we try to find a solution for it. To find a solution, we start to compare between the two and choose one part against the other as solution. Then miseries begin.

One who chooses will always be incomplete, less than the whole, because the part he chooses will continue to delude him and the part he denies will continue to pursue and haunt him. He can never be rid of what he rejects and represses. That’s the cause of his misery.

You cannot find a solution of tree growth to a greater height by cutting its roots. You cannot find happiness as solution without sorrow. How would you know that you are happy without the reference of sorrow? Happiness could only be known from the reference point of sorrow.

Once, a boy was flying a kite with his father and asked him what kept the kite up. Dad replied, "The string." The boy surprised and said, "Dad, it is the string that is holding the kite down." The father then asked his son to release the kite from that holding if he thought so. The son broke the string. And then, the misery began.

A few minute earlier, he was happy. He was enjoying flying a kite. But now, he was sad. He was sad because he misunderstood the Law of Cosmos. Existence is paradoxical. The very things that are holding us down are also the things that are helping us fly. You cannot find a solution by choosing one against other.

There is a basic flaw in our understanding. We understand opposite as conflicting but, instead, they are complementary. The cosmos is a unity of contradictions and dialectics. It is composed of different and contradictory notes.

Harmony is the use of different and contradictory notes simultaneously. Harmony is a pleasing combination of elements as a whole. To be in harmony with cosmos means to be complete, to be integrated.

When you harmonize with Cosmos, you and cosmos become Unity. Then you just become synonym of cosmos. You don’t have anything of your own because there is nothing left other than you to be owned by you. Your individual identity becomes nothing. And you become whole.

Seeing the cosmos in oneself

It is just like watching programs on your television by tuning it to broadcasting frequency. You don’t need to be present at recording studio to watch the programs. You can watch them at your place on your television-set tuned in to the broadcasting frequency. In a similar fashion, you can see the cosmos within yourself when tuned in to it.

Let understand it from different perspective. A drop of water is same everywhere irrespective of its origin. It doesn’t matter where it lies: whether in ponds, lake, river, ocean or single droplet or even in ice or vapour. Its true identity i.e. its composition will always remain the same. It’s the same proportion of hydrogen and oxygen, you’ll find in every forms of water. It means if you understand one droplet of water, you understand the whole water. The same is the case with you and the cosmos. If you understand yourself, you understand the cosmos. If you are able to see your true self then you are able to see cosmos within yourself.

Surdas said “One drop of water is in the river and another is foul in the ditch by the roadside. But when they fall into the Ganga both alike become holy.” It means that it doesn’t matter what you are at present whether clean river or foul ditch; to become holy, you only need to unite with holy Ganga. When you fall in Ganga, you become Ganga. In a similar way, when you unite with cosmos, you become the cosmos.

There is a beautiful story of Vivekananda associated with this Bhajan of Surdas. Once, a party was organized by Maharaja of Khetri in his honour. In that party, when a dancer entered into the court to perform, Vivekananda rose to go out. He was prejudiced regarding the character of those dancers. Upon seeing the Vivekananda rising from his seat, another stanza of this bhajan broke out from her choked throat with tears pouring down her cheeks:

“O Lord, not look upon my evil qualities!  Your name, O Lord, is Same-sightedness. Make of us both the same Brahman! One piece of iron is in the image in the temple and other is in the hand of a murderer but when touched by philosophers’ stone both alike turn into gold. So Lord, do not look upon my evil qualities! Your name, Lord, is Same-sightedness.....”

Vivekananda was completely overwhelmed. He realized his mistake. He touched the feet of that dancer and begged for pardon. This is the secret of his blissful life. He never carried his ego with himself. He never let his ego come his way or overpowered by it. He never lived for false pride and importance.

Most of our energy goes into upholding our importance. If we're capable of losing some of that importance, two extraordinary things happen. First, we would free our energy from trying to maintain the illusory idea for grandeur; and second, we would provide ourselves with enough energy to catch a glimpse of the actual grandeur of the cosmos.

Ways to feel harmony with cosmos

• Practice choicelessness
• Spend time with nature
• Listen music without words
• Include dance in your life
• Try to observe the rhythm of your breathing in leisure
• Use the time on bed before sleeping for introspection

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the Universe.

~ Marcus Aurelius

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Change Your Action Change Your Attitude

Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.

-William James

A Russian Physiologist while studying digestion in dogs accidently noticed associativequestionre of learning. Dogs normally salivate upon seeing the food but he found a strange thing that dogs started to salivatn seeing the peophysiologicalusually fed them. Any object or event that dogs learned to associate with food would trigger the same response. To confirm associative learning, he conducted additional experiments. Among one of these was to ring a bell before feeding the dogs. After continuation of procedure for many days he rang the bell without presenting the food and found that the dogs salivated in the same way as if food was there. He was Ivan Petrovich Pavlov who received Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1904.

Our actions are associated with our feelings in the same way. They constitute a self sustaining system. They form a vicious circle in which feelings incite action and actions reaffirm those feelings. We, at any moment, are the cumulative effect of our actions. Our actions shape ourselves to a great extent.

The way we interact with others shapes our opinion of ourselves. What we do influences people's opinions of us; and from their reactions to our behavior we draw some part of our opinion of ourselves. A braggart antagonizes people, causing them to withdraw from him. From their reactions he comes to feel that he is adequate and that people are impossible to impress. Believing himself unnoticed and unheard, he invents stories of accomplishments even grandeur than he has talked in the past — a tactic which antagonizes people further, provoking reactions that in the end make him less desirable. His bragging is, by its influence on other people, producing an eventual change in his own attitudes toward himself.

The other way our action influences us is through our pre-suppositions. When one escapes from school to watch a movie and sees his neighbor standing outside the theater. And, the neighbor visits his house to meet his father in the evening. Would he able to meet his eyes with the neighbor? If not, then one thing is certain that his own behavior has influenced his perception of his neighbor. The neighbor may not even have seen him.

Our actions, whatever they are, mold our perceptions in someway. One thing is crystal clear that we are responsible for good or bad whatever we are at present. Whether we like it or not, everything that is happening at this moment is result of the choices made in the past. Unfortunately, a lot of people make choices unconsciously and therefore, don't think they are choices and yet they are. If I were to insult you, you'd most likely make the choice of being offended. If I were to pay you a complement, you'd most likely make the choice of being pleased or flattered. But think about it: it's still a choice.

Let me tell you about an experiment conducted by B. F. Skinner. He put a rat in his specially designed Skinner box fitted with light bulbs and a lever. The rat was subjected to unpleasant electric shocks through the floor of the box. As out of discomfort the rat moved about the box and accidentally knocked the lever which ceased the electric shocks. The rat quickly learned to go straight to the lever encountering occasional electric shocks a few times. The rat observed that bulbs were lighted just before the electric shock came on and also learned to avoid the electric shocks by pressing the lever when the lights came on. 

We learn in the same way as the rat in the experiment. We are born in chaos. We use trial and error. We find a pattern of attitudes that are acceptable, either because they please us or mitigate our fear in someway. We allowed those attitudes to motivate us. We widen the sweep of our activities, many of which reinstate this set of attitudes and lock them and we continue enlarging on our behavior. Though, we are infinite choice makers but have become bundles of conditioned reflexes that are constantly being triggered by people and circumstances into predictable outcomes of behavior.

We are hard-wired to think negatively at first instance to avoid potential dangers. Imagine, we're early Homo sapiens dwelling in caves. It is the dead of night and we're comfortable in our warm cave, asleep with our family. Suddenly, we hear an ominous noise outside the cave entrance. What do we do? Can we ignore this noise and sleep normally? No, we're mentally predisposed to take the negative view to defend ourselves from attack and possible death.

As it is said that excess of anything is bad; so, is the case with pessimism. In extreme cases, we give our negative thoughts the domineering power and they manifest in negative ways. The Law of Attraction says that we attract into our life whatever we think about.  Our dominant thoughts will find a way to manifest. Our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, and, by means with which no man is familiar, these “magnets” attract to us the forces, the people, and the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts. Our every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind.

Now, the question is what to do then? The answer is very simple: Change the thoughts. But, as easy it sounds, it isn't that easy. We don't have direct control over our thoughts. But we can change our thoughts by changing our action which is under our direct control. Recent researches show that by changing our action in really pretty easy and simple ways for a short span of time, we are able to change our state of mind from docile to powerful through physiological changes in our body.

It is found that in both human and non-human primates, expansive, open postures reflect high power, whereas contractive, closed postures reflect low power. Not only do these postures reflect power, they also produce it; in contrast to adopting low power poses, adopting high power poses increases explicit and implicit feelings of power and dominance, risk-taking behavior, action orientation, pain tolerance, and testosterone (the dominance hormone), while reducing stress, anxiety, and cortisol (the stress hormone). High testosterone means more confidence and low cortisol means less stress. High testosterone and low cortisol, a hormone profile that is characteristic of high-status and effective leaders and is induced by power posing, is associated with reduced stress, increased sense of personal control, and increased engagement and performance in competitive tasks.

In an experiment conducted by Amy Cuddy and her team, it is found that 2 minutes of high power pose increases testosterone level significantly and drops cortisol level while 2 minutes of lower power pose does the opposite. 

Thus, we can conclude that motion can be a precursor of emotion and attitude of a person can be changed by changing his physical action. A person can't act devoted for a long time without feeling devoted.

Luck Factor: How To Get Lucky

He worked by day

And toiled by night.

He gave up play

And some delight.

Dry books he read,

New things to learn.

And forged ahead,

Success to earn.

He plodded on with

Faith and pluck;

And when he won,

People called him lucky.

~Anonymous

Most of the times, these lines are interpreted as obsession of work. Edison said “When a man really Desires a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win.” When Edison said this, he didn’t mean to become obsessed with work — a workaholic. He simply meant to tighten one’s waist belt and wait for the opportunity. His emphasis was on preparation. In the words of Lombardi, “Everyone has a will to win but very few have the will to preparation to win.”

David J Schwartz in his book ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ wrote “Take a second look at what appears to be someone’s good luck. You'll find not luck but preparation, planning and success-producing thinking preceded his good fortune."

In order to accomplish anything in the Universe, one has to relinquish one’s attachment to it. The moment one relinquish one’s attachment to the result and concentrate only on preparation, one will have that one Desires. If a person is so dedicated that he doesn't divert his attention even for result, there is no doubt that he is going to succeed in his endeavor.

Attachment is based on fear and insecurity — fear of loosing. This divides one’s mind and steals some part of it to focus on thoughts of result instead of preparation. Work with divided-mind wouldn’t result in divided results but ends in no results. It is the conscious mind that knows how to fulfill every need and consciousness comes from being fully present in the moment.

The search for security is an illusion. The solution to this dilemma lies in the wisdom of uncertainty. Uncertainty is the ground of pure creativity and freedom. The unknown is the field of all possibilities, ever fresh, ever new, always opens to the creation of new manifestations. One characteristic of the field of all possibilities is infinite correlation. The field can orchestrate infinity of spacetime events to bring about the outcome that is intended. Between points A and B, there are infinite possibilities. With uncertainty factored in, one might change direction in any moment if one finds a higher ideal or something more exciting. One is also less likely to force solutions on problems, which enables one to stay alert to opportunities.

There lived a boy who was sent to buy two pastries. He was told that they would cost 6 bucks. He went to bakery and asked for two pastries. The bakery owner asked five bucks for the pastries but he started arguing that he was told that they would cost 6 and he would pay only 6 bucks. The owner understood his problem and said with a smile that 5 is lesser than 6. The boy finally realized his mistake, paid 5 bucks and took the pastries. This happens to most of the people who choose to force solution and miss higher opportunities.

The state of alertness — one’s preparedness in the present, in the field of uncertainty allows one to seize the opportunity. It is contained in every problem of life. Opportunity has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity. One can look at every problem one has in one’s life as an opportunity for some greater benefit.

I heard a story of a man who had a horse. One day his horse went somewhere and didn't return. The man went sad and thought himself unlucky. After three months all of a sudden his horse with some other 30 horses returned. He thought himself lucky. While riding on his horse the man fell down and got severely injured. At the same time war broke out with neighbouring countries and the king wanted every healthy individual to join army and fight for the country. The man due to severe injuries could not join the army and survived because his country was defeated and all the army men were brutually massacred. Now I give up to you to decide whether he is lucky or unlucky?

One can stay alert to opportunities by being grounded in the wisdom of uncertainty. When one’s preparedness meets opportunity, the solution will spontaneously appear. Luck is nothing but preparedness and opportunity coming together.

Edwin C Barnes wanted a partnership with Edison. Two difficulties stood in his way. He did not know Edison, and he did not have enough money to pay his railroad fare to his destination. These difficulties were sufficient to have discouraged the majority from making any attempt and declared themselves as unlucky. Luckily, he didn’t belong to the majority and decided to travel on a freight train rather than be defeated. He presented himself at Edison’s laboratory, and announced he had come to go into business with the inventor. But, he did not get his partnership with Edison on his first interview. He did get a chance to work in the Edison offices, at a very nominal wage, doing work that was unimportant to Edison, but most important to Barnes, because it gave him an opportunity to display his merchandise where his intended partner could see it. Months went by. Apparently nothing happened to bring the coveted goal which Barnes had set up in his mind. But something important was happening in Barnes’ mind. He was conscious of what’s going around him and was prepared for the moment. Then, one day, Edison had just perfected a new office device, known as, the Edison Dictating Machine. His salesmen were not enthusiastic over the machine. They did not believe it could be sold without great effort. Barnes saw his opportunity. He knew he could sell the Edison Dictating Machine. He suggested this to Edison, and promptly got his chance. He did sell the machine. In fact, he sold it so successfully that Edison gave him a contract to distribute and market it all over the nation.

Dr. Richard Wiseman, a noted psychologist and author of the book, Luck Factor, did extensive research over a period of 10 years in finding factors for good or bad luck. In one of his experiments he gave lucky and unlucky person a newspaper asked them to find out how many photos were inside. On average, unlucky people spent about 2 minutes on this exercise while lucky people spent seconds because on the paper’s second page — in big type — was the message “Stop counting: There are 43 photos in this newspaper.” Lucky people tended to spot the message. Unlucky ones didn’t. He put second one halfway through the paper: “Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250.” Again, the unlucky people missed it. He deduced from the experiment that unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they’re too busy looking for something else. Lucky people see what is there rather than just what they’re looking for.

Luck is all about positive believing and attitude. In an experiment on learning to be lucky, one unlucky subject said that after adjusting her attitude — expecting good fortune — not dwelling on negative — her bad luck has vanished. One day, she went shopping and found a dress she liked. But she didn’t buy it and when she returned to the store in a week, it was gone. Instead of slinking away disappointed, she looked around and found a better dress — for a less. Events like this made her a much happier person.

Purna was a disciple of Buddha who wanted to go on a pilgrimage taking the Buddha's message. Buddha asked, "Where are you going?" He said, "None of your sannyasins have gone to Sukha yet, I will go there." Buddha said, "It would be good if you don't go there. The people of that area are dangerous, this is why no one has gone. If they insult you what will happen to you?" Purna replied, "If they insult me then I will consider myself Lucky that they didn't beat me, they only insulted me." Buddha said, "And if they beat you what will happen to you Purna?" Purna replied, "I will consider myself Lucky that they didn't kill me, they only beat me." Buddha said, "One more question, if they kill you what will happen to you as you are dying?" Purna replied, "What else could happen? These are such good people that they have released me from living in this body in which I might have committed some mistake. Now no mistake is possible. They have released me from living in this body where my foot may have gone on wrong paths, anything could happen, I could stray off. They have liberated me from this body. I will die filled with kindness for them. I will die full of gratitude for them." Buddha said, "Then you go. Go anywhere. Wherever you go, you will find your HAPPINESS, because now you cannot see any MISERY."

Andrew Solomon for his book about "How family manages to deal with various kinds of challenges or unusual offspring" interviewed many mothers. One mother he interviewed had been raped as an adolescent and had a child following that rape which had thrown away her career plans and damaged all of her emotional relationships. But, when he met her, she was 50. He asked her “Do you often think about the man who raped you? She said “I used to think about him with anger but now with pity.” Andrew exclaimed pity! He thought she meant pity because the culprit was so unevolved as to have done this terrible thing. He asked “Pity?” And, she said “Yes, because he has a beautiful daughter and two beautiful grandchildren and he doesn’t know that and I do. So, as it turns out, I’m The LUCKY One.”

In order to be Lucky, don’t be judgmental. If you can’t be non-judgmental, try to see the positive part of an incidence. If you also can’t able to see positive side, try to imagine things worse than this and feel happy that it didn’t happen in real. 

Success ─ What Does It Mean?

Before coming to the word Success, let us have a look on following sentence

‘People know me as Rama’ 

What do you infer from this sentence? Probably most people will think that name of the person is Rama but a few will also consider the person having the virtues of Lord Rama of Hindu mythology. A few who have the second opinion must have somehow related to Hindu mythologies. People belonging to other communities, such as Christians or Muslims, who do not know anything about Lord Rama will come with first opinion. Further, we all are familiar with experience of coming with new ideas or interpretations each time when reading the same text again & again.

From this it is clear that the words or sentences do not have any specific meaning. It is we, who give meanings to them according to our consciousness. The same is true with the word Success. Every individual may have different meaning to success. For most of us, Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Dhirubhai Ambani, Thomas A. Edison, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King are the names of successful peoples. Some might think Mother Teresa, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammad, Gautam Buddha, Vivekananda are successful in real meaning. There is also not the scarcity of those for whom passing the exam, clearing the interview, getting a job, being doctor or engineer, marring a particular girl or boy mean success. 

I know a family which was teaching the meaning of success to a child as securing the top position in class terminal examinations. It was nothing to do with his overall percentage. There was much emphasis on top position rather than individual performance. In first terminal examination he got 95% but secured second position in the class. The parents were not happy with a significant percentage but advised him to top in the class. Boy was depressed, as he worked hard but no appreciation was given. But, he came out of depression and committed to himself that he would work hard and would pay more attention to studies. He fulfilled his commitment honestly and this time got 98% but got third position in the class. The parents reacted as if they were undressed in front of others. The father didn’t talk to the child for many days. The mother who was herself illiterate instead of having sympathy with the child cursed him very badly. As a consequence of these, the child changed his way of thinking and study. He paid more attention in remembering about top position than studying hard. He used to open his books and constantly thinking over securing top position in spite of reading the pages. As a result he got only 80% marks in subsequent examination but surprisingly got first position in the class. For that he was rewarded by having new bicycle, new video games and many more. No one was worrying for his very low percentage as compared to previous examinations. 

Looking from a different angle one may argue that the paper was tough so that overall percentage of the class is low, not only of his, and in previous examinations the paper was easy, so high overall percentage of class was observed. He was only not sincere. This may be true but if this is true then the credit of Being Successful doesn’t go to the child because the result was not the solely effort of the child, some other factors was also involved. It can also be stated as the failures of others. 

The average person puts only 25% of his energy & ability into his work. The world takes off his hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between the souls who devote 100%.

─ Andrew Carnegie

Success is one's achievement and if depends on others then it is worthless. Success must be related to one and his effort only. Percentage of success must be evaluated from the performance of an individual only excluding all the other factors. It should be a comparison between his maximum performance and his present performance. Success should be utilization of full potentiality of an individual.  There was a child who was writing examination and after finishing his writing, submitted the paper to the invigilator. While handing the paper to invigilator, he remembered that a comma was missing in the answer sheet which he mentioned to invigilator. He was assured that his paper was checked after putting the comma in the sheet. When paper was being checked, the examiner could not find the missing comma and the child was called to put it. He came and put the missing comma at appropriate place which was overlooked by the examiner. His paper was remarked by the statement ‘Examinee is better than examiner’. He was later became the first President of Republic India. His name was Dr. Rajendra Prasad. No one can analyze your performance or judge you correctly except YOU. 

Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.

    ─Charles Shultz

A cub was reared with puppies. It resembled itself as one among the puppies and learned all the skills of puppies and performed even better than actual puppies. Can it be called as Successful? No, it has the potentiality of becoming lion but due to ignorance leading a life of puppy. We too have enormous possibilities but being ignorant leading a menial life. 

Man isn’t the sum of what he is but the totality of what he might be.

─Anonymous

In the Olympic of 1960, Muhammad Ali won the gold medal in heavy weight boxing championship. He was Negro of Louisville. After returning to home, he was offered huge & massive welcome. Parties were held in honor of him all over the America. He was overwhelmed by all this. His childhood dream was to win that medal and he worked hard for it. He loved his achievement & his gold medal very much. He never let it out of his sight. He even slept with it. One day he went along with his friend in a restaurant in Louisville but he was not served because of being a Negro despite he was a Olympic Champion who bought pride to his motherland. He was abused by calling nigger. Some whites tried to snatch his medal. He was very disappointed and lastly what he did, he threw his medal in the middle of Ohio River. His friend was not happy with that with many questions in mind. Muhammad explained his feelings as "How could I put the answer together? I wasn’t sure of all the reasons. The Olympic Medal had been the most precious that had ever come to me. I worshipped it. It was proof of my performance, status, a symbol of belonging, of being a part of the team, a country, a world. It was my way of redeeming myself with my teachers & schoolmates, of letting them know that although I had not won scholastic victories, there was something inside me capable of victory. How could I explain I wanted something that mean more than that? Something that was so proud of me as I would be of it. Something that would let me what I know I had to be, my own kind of Champion.”

Success should mean a feeling of satisfaction- a enjoyable satisfaction. Success is happiness. Success is freedom. Success is blissful living.

A happy person is not a person in certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.

     ─Hugh Dawns

According to science of biological evolution, monkeys are the immediate ancestors of humans and have many similarities. One thing I found fascinating is catching of monkeys. A box, filled with eatables, having a hole big enough for entering monkey’s hand while open, is enough to trap a so called intelligent animal. It enters its hand to grasp the eatables by making a fist. After that the hand doesn’t come out due to fist formation and it is easy to snatch the monkey. The hand may come out by loosening its fist, opening its palm but in order to do that it has to sacrifice the desire of having eatables. The monkey thinks that it is free and have right to get what it wants and now the thing of desire is in its hand. It was happy but its happiness dries out as it was caught and put into cage for life long as a showpiece for entertainment of others.

Flies are fond of honey. They like honey very much. They are searching honey everywhere and when encounters go there to have it. They feel very happy while sipping honey but when try to fly after satisfaction their sting & feet get stuck to it and finally die there. In the case of monkeys eatables are there in their hands while flies case is one step ahead they taste it. But, can we call them Successful?

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired but controlling the desire.

         ─Epictetus

Set your goals according to your necessities not desires. A person is suffering from Diabetes and desires to have sugar. The family hides sugar from the range of his approach and offer karela (bitter melon) juice for the benefit of patient. He doesn’t like taste of karela and like to have sugar instead of it. He set a goal to search the hidden sugar and have some and he succeeded in that. Eating sugar is very harmful for the life of diabetic patient. He is hurting himself & inviting many serious health problems related to diabetes by eating sugars just for instant gratification. Can we call him Successful because he managed to get sugar in spite of all odds?

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.

─Earl Nightangle

There lived a saint who once was travelling through a dense forest full of deadly animals,  found himself being chased by a fierce tiger. He got frightened and started running haphazardly. While running, he looked back to enquire about the position of tiger, he noticed tiger was not eager rather enjoying chasing. He thought if tiger can enjoy at this moment, why not he? Flashing of this thought, in the mind of saint, changed his style of running. Now it became a game of hide & seek. Finally after travelling a large distance he found a tree and tried to climb over it but failed. He just managed to hang on a branch. Tiger also came there and sat beneath the tree waiting for him. He laughed at this situation. He had the courage to laugh at moments like this. He laughed more lauder this time when he saw two mice, one  black and another white, were biting the very branch upon which he was hanging. He was laughing because he understood the nature’s law of pleasure and fear. Now he could see the nature’s coded information- tiger as a symbol for death, white & black mice as days & nights which were continuously trying to bought him death. He had to choose between living with fear of death or try to get the best of moment. He found some strawberries beside his hands, plucked one, enjoyed eating it and got absorbed in the moment. He learned to taste the pleasure in the present moment.

Feel good because you choose to; feel sad because choose to, not because of events transpiring around you over which you have no control.

─David Simon

When Socrates was jailed and sentenced to death, he remained unperturbed on getting the news of capital punishment. He maintained his calmness of mind and said. “I have been preparing for death all my life. In fact I have never secretly or openly done a wrong to any man.” Saying so, Socrates smiled. This shows the courage arises from purity of the heart of a person who lives fearlessly and who dies cheerfully─ A Successful Legend in true meaning.

Fight with yourself. Why fight with external foes? He who conquers himself will acquire happiness.

─Lord Mahavira

When Alexander the Great was about to die, he told his ministers that his hands should be left hanging outside the coffin. When they complained that this was not the custom and wanted to understand the reason, he said, “I want people to see that in spite of all my conquests, I leave this world with empty hands.”

Why are we mad about desires and fulfilling them? For the sake of happiness and satisfaction associated with them only. Appearance of pleasure, surfaces with objective desire, is not pleasure in true sense. They are pseudo-pleasure as of monkeys and flies. They are like throne tucked in throat which cannot be either swallowed or ejected out of mouth easily. If objective desire remains unfulfilled, gives resentment, and if fulfilled, gives frustration because the feeling of pleasure is transitory and dies out. Satisfaction associated with objective desire exists as far as object exists but by getting the desire fulfilled, object dissolves so as feeling of satisfaction & pleasure associated with it. Our wandering mind is again stuck to another desire and we rush to fulfill it. If unfulfilled, gives resentment, and if fulfilled, gives frustration and this cycle goes on till our last breath until we change the place for searching pleasure. Pleasure is an individual’s feeling. It should not depend on others.

Success doesn’t mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war not every battle.

─Edwin C. Bliss    

Ultimate mean the last, the extreme point after that nothing exists. And objective goals are encountered every day, one after another like battles. Nothing completes by accomplishing it. You have to start from beginning again. It is not the ultimate war- a deterministic war, by winning which, you will become King of kings and there is no more fights to face. Success means victory over that deterministic war- the last war after that you will established as undefeatable. There will be no further battles to establish yourself. It is the war against You by Yourself. In fact it isn’t direct fight against you; it is actually the fight against your army men who take salary from you but works for opponent. They are enemy in disguise. You only have to do is to replace these men with your loyalists. In short, you have to change your problem solving approach i.e. the way of thinking.

The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is of all things, the most shameful and vile.

─Plato    

Success is associated with the personality of an individual not with the object of desire or fulfillment of desire itself. A successful personality can only have taste of success in every scoop of worldly soup. It is the way of living life. Being successful means having such a personality that every effort will lead towards achievement of goal- a worthy goal. In other words, every effort is having taste of success.