Spiritual knowledge
I would like to start with a story that triggered me to write this article.
In the court of a king, there was a jester who entertained the king everyday with his jokes and funny mannerism. Everyone in the court called him a “fool” including the king. Many years later when the king was on his death bed, all his people went to pay their last respects. The jester too went to meet the king. When he met the king, he asked the king a rather simple though very profound question – “When anyone has to go for a journey, they prepare for that journey well in advance. How come though you always knew you would have to take this journey of death, you never prepared yourself for the same? Now, tell me who is a fool?” The king, of course had no answer to this question.
In today’s time, do we all live our life like fools? The first reality of life when we are born is that we will die. However, we live our life as if we are immortal. Whether it is acquiring material wealth or academic certificates, we keep pursuing our definition of success. History is the biggest proof of the fact that we are all born to die and it is up to us how we live our life and what foot print we chose o leave behind.
I had a very touching experience as a parent when my son was 2 years old. He joined play school and was very happy to meet other children. The other children would cry to see their mother go. My son on the other hand would take a tissue and wipe the tears of those children and cheer them with ideas of being together for a day of fun. I cherish this incident because it speaks louder about his character rather than his educational accomplishments.
Our true intrinsic nature is to be caring, loving and giving. However, as we grow older, we tend to focus more on acquiring, taking and fearing. We mostly love people out of fear of loneliness rather than pure love for humanity.
I go for a walk along the sea very regularly because I enjoy walking. Of course, it supports the purpose of staying fit, but I do not agonize if I miss going any day for fear of putting on weight. I miss it more for the time that I get to explore my thoughts or observe the diversities of the city. I really don’t know how many people walk for the love of walking and how many walk for the fear of putting on weight. I notice most people walking purposefully, pushing their body desperately, as if saying, “Come on shape up!” Two segments of society look cheerful - the senior citizens and children – for meeting comrades or running free, respectively.
If you go into a gym, people exercise vigorously, panting, moving from machine to machine while looking enviously at all those fit muscled bodies. Are they there to feel good or miserable? When you exercise you are supposed to release hormones that should ideally make you feel happy. If however, the feeling you accumulate is of envy or misery of not achieving the targeted body or speed or fitness level, you have already marginalized the benefit of the activity.
I meet many people who talk extensively about self development. What I tend to notice is that not many give priority to the same. They are either too busy achieving the next profit target or too frustrated with life to give this a chance or too busy with family, kids and social commitments or are simply misguided.
I too pursued a life of academic qualifications and certifications and lived an ignorant life till few years ago. I was not controlling my life; the ups and downs of my relationships were controlling my life. My relationship with my career, my family, my friends, society and above all, myself, was governed by the immediacy of the moment.
I had never worked at developing my intellect in a focused manner. Whatever development had happened over the years was more by chance rather than design. The values given to me by my family, school, near and dear ones had contributed and shaped my life. The awareness or rather the consistency of living with consciousness was missing. I had of course done many things right or wrong, but I was not always aware of WHAT had caused my life to go right or wrong.
As Mahatma Gandhi very aptly said, “You must be the change you want to see”. If you want to see the world around yourself as possible, then first and foremost you need to see yourself as a possibility.
People at large spend lots of money on acquiring the best education, healthy-nutritious food or most fit and good looking body. I am curious to know how many people even think of developing their intellect. Even if some do, how much time or money are they willing to spend on the same relative to their physical body?
Schooling is important as it enables us to explore our inherent nature, understand human inter-action and world issues and of course, develop an avenue to earn money to buy all basic necessities. Looking after our body through nutritious food and exercise is also as essential since a healthy body allows us to carry actions. The most significant piece in the puzzle is the intellect. Here I would like to distinguish between the intelligence and the intellect. Our intelligence is sharpened through the information gathering process. It is our intellect that channelizes the appropriate use our intelligence.
The intellect or to make it simpler, the thought process determines the quality of our life. The intelligence has the ability to determine our standard of living. Do we live that life feeling satisfied or frustrated is up to the intellect. We may achieve social success through application of our skills and hard work but there may be a constant sense of agitation and dissatisfaction. The effort required to achieve that success in fact doubles because the body has to deal with the physical and mental pressure.
I would like to narrate another story – a poor man with an ugly face, crooked nose and mouth, walked the streets of a kingdom and people laughed and mocked at his looks. The king upon hearing about this man, asked him to be presented in the court. When the king saw his face, the king too started laughing. The poor man calmly responded, “I don’t know if you are laughing at me or the one who made me.”
We are born with certain physical and other attributes. How we use the same or how we react to our own attributes is entirely in our control. Here is where a fine distinction comes into play -- does the body possess you or do you possess the body, does wealth possess you or do you possess the wealth or does the relationship govern your life or do you govern the relationship.
Sadly, we value the thought process the least because the impact (in our perception) is not immediately externally visible. We don’t realize the significance of the need to develop mastery on our thought process or appreciate that the intellect like any other physical aspect of our body also requires nurturing. In fact, with clarity of thought, life becomes simpler, choices become easier and abundant time and resources become available. The higher the clarity of thought, the easier it is to take decisions or conduct yourself and hence, the less energy we expend towards any task. The spare energy and time can be channelized towards other activities.
Here is a typical corporate scenario -- an executive who is competitive and has extensive technical knowledge, may climb the professional ladder rapidly through commitment and hard work. He may carry the belief that only (or largely) he has the ability to take correct decisions or generate ideas or deliver quality. Consequently, he may not delegate the work or develop people adequately. This creates many organizational issues – the executive suffers from severe time crunch, the subordinates may not develop appropriately and the executive may not progress further. Of course, all this is not intentional because there is an underlying intent to succeed. What is missing is the awareness or the clarity of the repercussions of the behavior or thought process that has unknowingly become a pattern.
The same thought process manifests as a friend and a foe. To understand this, first and foremost, one needs to get aware of the pre-dominant thought process and its impact on one’s life. In the above instance, the individuals’ competitive behavior enables him to achieve professional success rapidly, confidently conduct himself amongst people and complete projects in a qualitative manner. On the other hand, the same thought process acts a barrier to tapping the hidden potential of self and others.
I would like to summarize with a quotation by Mahatma Gandhi, “Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”