Information – Positive Thinking
You too can get enlightened!
You too can get enlightened!
PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA, TNN
We all live at three levels. At the first level, we live in our head. We live using our intellect and logic. The second level is our heart. When we live with our heart, we use our emotions. In the third level we live at the core of our very being. We live in our identity.
When our intellect is heightened, when it ripens, it shines forth as common sense or intelligence. Although called common sense, it is a rare treasure, an uncommon thing on this planet Earth. Emotions can ripen. Deep emotions ripen into faith. When our being ripens it leads to enlightenment.
What is enlightenment? People have several strange notions about this word and concept. Let me explain it in simple words. Enlightenment is simply the experience of our inner energy. Enlightenment is related to the understanding and experience of our inner energy. It is not based on our physical activities, as we presume.
This concept although simple is not easy for people to understand or follow. Many people misunderstand this concept. Be clear: enlightenment is our individual experience. It is our experience of the inner energy.
There is no one who is barred for any reason, an alcoholic, man or woman, this caste or that caste, a criminal, each one is equally eligible for enlightenment as any one else is. A man has no edge over a woman. In fact, a woman lives in a higher energy plane than a man.
A person who claims to have led a pure and chaste life may not get enlightened at all. He has no edge over another who may be considered a sinner by religion and society. They both have the same chance of achieving enlightenment. Anyone can attain this status.
If you ask me, I will say that neither our activities nor actions are related to enlightenment. Enlightenment is within the reach of one and all. Everyone is eligible for enlightenment. Many people may take this as a licence to do whatever they want to do. They can create even bigger problems in the world.
Masters realise the potential problems this assertion can cause to the uninitiated public. That is why they don’t speak about it, freely and generally in public. Let us all work towards our enlightenment. Everyone can reach it, everyone is eligible and everyone is entitled to it. Nothing we do can stop us from reaching that state.
Managing anger to cut out negativety
Managing anger to cut out negativety
Harleen Kaur
“I will do what I want to do whether you like it or not.” Have you heard people talk like that without a care for anybody other than themselves?
Have you seen people get angry if things don’t happen their way? What follows is a lot of emotional turmoil for them and their family. We all like to have our way and in today’s world we actually demand it.
God forbid if things don’t happen the way we want them. Are we not experiencing a lot of road rage and rampant killings simply because we don’t have a grip over our anger. We just lose control!
My teacher grand master Choa Kok Sui (modern founder of Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga) says, “Anger is destructive.” So when someone is getting angry and you respond with anger, what you get back is only anger and more of it.
He says, “Some people sting a lot. Do not respond to their provocation, unless it is can be done incisively. The moment you react, you are psychologically entangled. This is exactly what they want. They want your attention. They want your energy. Do not respond. Keep your distance.”
Can you imagine not being angry if someone screams and shouts at you? Can you imagine just ignoring such a person or telling a person to calm down or simply walking away from such a situation?
He says, “Do not react or allow yourself to be sucked into a whirlpool of turmoil. Similar energies attract one another Gentleness will draw gentleness. Anger and hatred will only attract anger and hatred.” So what is our lesson from this? The only way to handle such people and situations is to forgive and forget.
Easier said than done but mindful daily practice can really inculcate the habit and give you amazing results. If you learn to forgive and forget you will be free! Free to be happy and peaceful. That is the only way. Otherwise, all of us will go on spreading negative energy and suffering because of it.
Silence yourself, not others!
Silence yourself, not others!
Pramahamsa Sri Nithyananda
In the olden days, people in India did not stitch clothes after sunset. This is because all stitching was done by hand with a needle. In the dim candle or kerosene lamp light it was not possible to see properly and one could get hurt by poking the fingers with needle.
Even now in India, some people will not stitch with a needle after sunset. Even seamstresses and tailors will not do it, though we now have electricity and lights. They may not even stitch using machines!
When we don’t have the necessary understanding of a practice, it becomes a dead rule, a superstition. With understanding, any rule can become a technique, a tool that helps us to lead life happily.
With deep understanding, it will dawn upon us that all rules were basically created to help people live blissfully and happily. The rules were meant to ensure that you were in peace with yourself and the others around you. Today, we have forgotten the basis for these rules. We create hell for ourselves and others with these rules.
There are people who truly believe that meditation and prayer will save their lives. They have been told so! They fuss a lot before they begin to meditate at home. They silence the children and all others around. They turn the whole household upside down. All for the sake of ten minutes of meditation!
Let us see how the meditation proceeds. The moment meditation begins, they doze off! After a minute or two, they will start swatting mosquitoes. A couple of minutes later, a major itch manifests on some part of their body. Then, the back will begin to ache. Enough is enough, they decide, “I will continue this tomorrow. It is enough for today.”
Meditation is done for the sake of peace and silence. Why meditate at all, if inner awareness cannot be created?
It is like a speaker trying to silence the listeners by out-shouting at them. Will it help? If the listener is not interested however much one shouts, it is of no use. You cannot silence your inner chatter by making others quiet. You need to become silent, not others.
We follow rules and tradition blindly. That is why religion has such a powerful hold on us. Let us awaken to the powers that are within us! Nature has endowed us with unimaginable energy to be free. Be alert, awake and reach for this liberation!
Need to stop waffling between flip & flop
Need to stop waffling between flip & flop
Vithal C Nadkarni
In his new movie, I Am Legend, Will Smith plays the last human survivor in virus-ridden New York. Real life is different: with four of his most recent movies — The Pursuit of Happiness, Hitch, Shark Tale and I, Robot — each grossing more than $300 million, the actor has already become a legend in a notoriously fickle industry.
What’s more, his trademark artlessness on screen is said to be the result of “one of Hollywood’s most meticulously planned and executed careers”. But it wasn’t always so. When he was 16, his first girlfriend walked out on him. That turned out to be a defining moment, he recalls, “In my mind, she cheated because I wasn’t good enough. I remember making the decision that I will never not be good enough again.”
His very first album as a rapper went on to win the first Grammy for a hip-hop act. At 21, when a friend suggested that they should probably have a goal now that they were going to LA, Smith replied without batting an eyelid: “I want to be the biggest movie star in the world.” He also backed his resolve with the notion that education was “the elixir for all problems”.
For all that initial success, “in the first five years in Los Angeles, Smith couldn’t get a meeting with a director or studio,” reports Time. They just didn’t seem to care. Here he was, a rapper who had gotten a most lucky break on the charts and a luckier run in a successful TV sitcom; if that was all he was supposed to be good at, wasn’t it time he resigned himself to a graceful exit euphemistically termed ‘Plan B’? “I don’t want to get too metaphysical,” Smith replies, “but by even contemplating a Plan B, you almost create the necessity for a Plan B.” Which is another way of stating his original resolve: take no survivors; don’t ever admit second-best options or the so-called parachute clause. Paradoxically, only when you deliberately cut off your exit thus do you stop waffling between flip and flop.
That’s when you hit upon that wonderful clarity of mind former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger extolled, which he said was born out of an absence of alternatives (or excuses). The Bhagvad Gita calls it atma-vinigraha the mental resolve necessary for attaining even satvic goals. But resolution backed by persistent present action is absolutely not to be confused with living in the future or hankering after the results. As a student of ‘universal patterns’, Smith knows this better than most.
Success storeys – Mr. Rizwan Sajan, Chairman DANUBE Group, Dubai
Success storeys – Mr. Rizwan Sajan, Chairman DANUBE Group, Dubai
By Sandhya Rajayer GULF NEWS Published: December 13, 2007, 23:17
In 15 years, Rizwan Sajan has risen from a Dh1,500 per month job to spearhead a business that is worth $200,000. Sandhya Rajayer speaks to the chairman of Danube Group to learn of his definition of success.
A lot has changed about Dubai in the last 30 years. The vast sandy stretches have morphed into a Manhattan-like skyline, the corner grocery stores have turned into air-conditioned multi-brand format supermarkets, the city roads that once saw Cadillacs and camels crossing paths are now set to welcome the metro. But the one thing that remains unchanged is the power of this city to breathe life into dreams, to reveal to the human mind the shape and size of things to come even if at that time there is no evidence that
the dream will take shape in the way you want.
Rizwan Sajan was 28 when he came to Dubai in 1992 to take up a job in a hardware store on a salary of Dh1,500 per month. Barely 15 years from then he has propelled himself on the path to success with a speed and determination that is astonishing to record. Today he is Chairman, Danube Group, a $200,000 building material company that distributes over 10,000 products, has retail outlets in the UAE, Bahrain, Muscat and India, and three sourcing centres in China and employs 400 people. But all of this was not like a walk in the park. A part of it has been like a roller coaster ride, another stretch like a trial by fire. But through it all remained intact Rizwan’s sheer grit.
This is his story:
Rizwan’s father passed away in 1980 when he was 16 years old. As the eldest son he realised it was up to him to find ways to support his family. So he wrote to his uncle in Kuwait, who ran a building material business, saying he was looking for work and was there anything his uncle could offer him? The response was in the affirmative – but, wrote his uncle, he would have to wait for two years in order to reach the legal age to work. Rizwan interpreted the answer to be a tactic in polite evasion. So he squashed all hopes of going to Kuwait. Instead, he continued his studies and attended morning college for his commerce graduate degree at Somaiyya College in Vidyavihar (an eastern suburb of Mumbai, India) and worked part-time at Nathani Steel, a company also based in the same suburb, in the evenings.
And so it was that two years later, Rizwan was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from his uncle in Kuwait enquiring if he was still interested in the job. Within a month, the job visa formalities were completed and he was on his way to a job in Kuwait. As he worked closely with his uncle, Rizwan began to understand the workings of the building material business inside out.
He was also sharp to build his personal assets, buy a car and over a span of 10 years, his reputation in the field turned rock solid.
He got married in 1987 and continued to work in Kuwait. But when the country was invaded by Saddam Hussain in August 1991, like several thousand other expats, Rizwan had to leave Kuwait overnight, and all that he had worked for and built up came to nought. He landed in Mumbai with about Rs150,000 in his pocket and felt as if he was back at the starting line.
Grasping at the tiniest straws of opportunity, Rizwan met up with a friend who owned a hardware business venture in Dubai. “I can still recall our meeting at the poolside restaurant (at Searock Hotel in Juhu, Mumbai) in vivid detail,” he says. “My friend asked me what kind of money I had been earning in Kuwait. About Dh15,000, inclusive of salary and commissions, I replied. ‘I can’t even think of paying you that much,’ he said. I wasn’t even dreaming of asking for that much, I responded. He offered me a job with a salary of Dh3,000 plus a 25 per cent commission on the sales. What did I have to lose? I didn’t have a job in hand anyway. I accepted the offer on the spot and he promised to send me the visa as soon as possible.”
A month later, there was no sign of the offer turning into reality. So he called his friend in Dubai only to be told that his business was lax and he could not afford to pay the salary promised earlier. “How much can you pay me?” Rizwan asked him point blank. ‘Dh1,500 plus 25 per cent commission,’ came the reply. Perhaps, Rizwan thought, it was the kind of offer that was very easy to refuse, which was why it was being offered to him. But Rizwan was desperate. He accepted the offer immediately. His only request was that he be provided accommodation and food. Fortunately for Rizwan, by the time he landed in Dubai in March 1992, the situation in Kuwait was back to normal and people had started returning to work. This meant that Rizwan’s business contacts were back in town as well and when word got round that he was in Dubai, they started placing orders with him for building material. Truckloads of cement, sanitary fittings, furniture .. all made their way from Rizwan’s new workplace to Kuwait. The friend who had offered him Dh1,500 quickly hiked his pay to the original sum of Dh3,000. With additional commissions, Rizwan began to earn about Dh8-10,000 per month.
But the whims of Lady Luck are known to none. So it was that just as he was beginning to taste success once more, his contacts in Kuwait went back to doing direct imports. Rizwan’s income stream started to dry up.
By this time Rizwan had fallen in love with Dubai. From the moment he had stepped off the plane, he had begun to feel at home. So he stood his ground in Dubai, convinced that it was worthwhile to hang in and keep trying. Eventually, it would all fall into place.
With exports to Kuwait having dried up, Rizwan was back to trading in small hardware. He realised that he had arrived at a crossroads as far as his career was concerned. He also realised that this was the moment to start thinking big. “So I suggested to my friend and employer that with my experience and contacts, we could expand the building material business and, say, trade in wood. This called for an investment of about a million dirhams. Not convinced about the returns on this risk, he refused.
“And thus it was that I parted ways with him,” Rizwan recalls.
This was barely 10 months after Rizwan had started working in Dubai and he had in his account a sum of Dh88,000 or so. His wife, Samira, was in India waiting to join him as soon as his business stabilised. “I told myself that there were two ways of looking at my situation. I could join one of the big companies that could use my expertise in the building material business or I could put my savings to good use and start my own business. Hopefully it would work, but if it didn’t, I would not have a problem getting a Dh5,000 job with a bigger company. Age was on my side, I was not even 30 at the time.”
After some hard thinking, Rizwan decided to start his own company – an indenting company – buying from a supplier, selling to a buyer and earning a commission on the transaction. However he had not reckoned with the strong resistance of big buyers. “I had a hard time for the first six months. My savings of Dh88,000 went into setting up initial capital, an office, a car and the expenses of day-to-day living even as there was no income.”
As luck would have it, Rizwan soon won the contract for supplying galvanised corrugated sheets to a company. His product was so good that it began to attract the attention of big traders who now agreed to buy from him. Things began to move slowly but steadily. To add momentum, Rizwan contacted some of his old supplier friends in Singapore and Romania. “I was frank with them. I told them that I did not have the money to pay for goods just yet but since they knew me, I hoped they would send me material on credit. I promised to pay as soon as the sale was concluded.” His good reputation was his greatest alibi. And so his business began to expand. Soon it was on a roll.
Today Danube runs the gamut of interior and exterior building material – scaffolding, steel and cement, ceramic flooring, bathroom and sanitary fittings, paints, wallpapers, glass, door fittings … He has partnered with some of the best names in the industry such as Kingplex, Halspan, Spano, Astroflame, Dorma, Nobili and many more.
Danube is now a wholesale and retail building material company with about 10 outlets within the UAE, two each in Bahrain and Muscat and in India. It has three branches also in China which act as their sourcing office. Rizwan opted for China as he found that “the (Chinese) government encourages investment and pulls out all the stops to create a conducive climate for economic development.”
(The reason for naming his company Danube Rizwan attributes to his many business trips to Romania. “I fell in love with the river Danube flowing through the country.”)
Obviously, on a journey in search of success as long as this, there are many milestones. Rizwan recalls one particular incident with a person who is now his biggest competitor. “In the initial days (of setting up my business), I had been chasing this person for an appointment, requesting for just a few minutes of his time. Finally one day he agreed to see me at 3 pm. Those days I used to work a split shift from 8 am to 2pm and 4 pm to midnight. I would go home have my lunch and take a nap before getting back to work at four.
“So the 3 o’clock appointment was a bit difficult for me and obviously I couldn’t request for a change in the time considering how difficult it had been to get an appointment in the first place! But I had dozed off in the afternoon for a bit and reached his office 10 minutes late. He just looked at his watch and said to me, ‘You are late for the appointment, you’ll have to take another one.’ I had no choice but to begin chasing him all over again for an appointment and this time I made sure I reached on time. I learned a lot of things from him but I also learnt the importance of punctuality,” Rizwan says.
Having enjoyed a ringside view of the building industry in Dubai for a long time, what does he have to say about the exponential growth of the industry? “I believe Dubai knows where it is headed. The growth is not temporary, it is here to stay.”
Obviously the building industry means more than bricks and mortar. They need to offer solutions for beautiful interiors. Danube’s House of Laminates in JAFZA, launched recently has plugged this gap. Customers usually walk in with the idea that laminates are old-fashioned and when they see the innovative designs and finishes on offer they are surprised into buying them.
“The challenge in the building industry today is to come up with innovations every day. The variety of wood, ebony, walnut, ash, for example, in place of the old staples of rose and teak are all customer driven.
“The average man does not settle for the ordinary, he wants something different even on a modest budget,” says Rizwan. “Even bathroom fittings have been subject to this demand for innovation and if earlier we talked of only a bathtub, we now have shower cubicles in different designs. The same goes for modular kitchens and different finishes for doors. The variety is truly amazing.”
The interiors of Rizwan and Samira’s home in the Dubai Marina have been totally designed by Samira. “I haven’t hammered in a single nail in my house,’ Rizwan says. Is there a glimmer of pride? Looks like it in his smiling eyes.
“Samira has always given me the freedom to focus a 100 per cent on my business. She has tackled all domestic issues with utmost ease throughout our married life of 19 years. Even when I was travelling almost six months a year in the initial stages of setting up the business, she didn’t mind it.”
Then he amends his statement. “I think I should say, there was a bit of cribbing, but not much,” he laughs.
Like all entrepreneurs who begin young did Rizwan too make a promise to himself that he would work hard and retire early? “I tell my wife this every morning,” he laughs again. “In fact I would often say to her that I would retire at 40. That was four years ago. Now I think I should change that to 50!”
Danube has been a part of almost all reputed projects in Dubai beginning with the Burj Al Arab, Media City and Knowledge Village. Among the current mega projects are the Burj Dubai, Down Town Dubai, Jumeirah Islands, International City, The Palm …
Rizwan’s definition of success in life is measured not by the savings in the bank account but the qualities that fill up an individual’s heart. A good human being is a successful human being, according to him.
“A lot of people have a lot of money but not all of them have the respect of their fellow human beings. That I think is the true mark of success. I live by the creed of live and let live – give every person the freedom to reach his goal. And this applies to my sales staff too as they don’t have to report on their daily sales calls. They have the freedom to chart their own course of action. Of course, if there is a shortfall in performance, we have to sit across the table and discuss how to change that.” Ultimately, what matters in life, he says, is whether you made a difference or not.
No place for happiness
No place for happiness
Ajit Bishnoi, New Delhi
There was a rich man who had everything that one can materially hope for; he had his personal plane, expensive cars, a large house, a villa in Spain, a thriving business, besides being blessed with a nice family.
However, what he did not possess was peace of mind and consequently any happiness – ‘ashantasya kutah sukham’ (Bhagavad Gita 2:66).
Somehow or the other it got into his head that very soon he would contact some terminal disease, like cancer and die.
Therefore he was focused on his body seeking signs that would indicate some malfunction. A headache would scare him of brain tumour; stomach discomfort would mean an ulcer; chest discomfort would point to a heart-attack and so on. He would seek emergency medical attention and every time the doctors would assure him of his physical well-being, after conducting extensive tests on him.
This went on for quite sometime until he became a complete mental wreck. A friend advised him to meet a well-known personality, who would have a solution for his problem. The rich man sought an appointment and went there. He was ushered into that man’s study and was asked to wait.
After a while, the wise man came and listened to him. He said nothing but sent for tea. The rich man was losing his patience since he heard no solutions.
He thought of leaving but stayed to drink tea, having come thus far. The host began to pour tea. He kept on pouring tea until it spilled over into the saucer “What are you doing? The cup is already full with tea and then you are leaving no space for any milk which I would like in my tea, besides sugar!” said the visitor.
Said the wise man: “Everyone must die. But you are not sick and far from being dead. You have filled your cup with misery and left no place for peace or happiness. Instead, count the blessings the kind Lord has bestowed upon you and be happy”.
The visitor was most impressed.
The first impression
The first impression
Young managers should resist the tendency to get carried away by appearances.
Sidin Vadukut
I recently received an e-mail from a reader of this column who is distraught with her current career situation: “Dear Sidin, I am a big fan of your column and I would like to say that it is clear from your writing that you are an extremely attractive man with a Greek god body and the intelligence to match. I hope the editors don’t think you fabricated that line in my letter. Because it is completely genuine.
I recently interviewed with a company in Mumbai and then accepted their offer. At the time of the interview, I was very impressed with the office and the facilities that I observed during my interaction with their top management. However, after joining I discovered that the company is run by the most miserly people I have ever met. They reuse old fax paper once the printing fades away. Also, the photocopy machine is coin operated. I got duped. Please write a column about this fraud that was committed on me.
Love , Natasha”
If I had a rupee for every time I have heard this story, there would be private wealth management people instead of bank collection agents clamouring outside my door right now. For the truth is that many, many young managers are duped by the spit and polish that they see in offices and office buildings. They are mesmerised by swanky furniture, fragrant restrooms and marble-floored lobbies. Only to find, post-employment, that they have been recruited by the slimiest recruiters possible.
Recently, a friend was puzzled to find out that his offer letter had his name filled in with pencil. After he signed it (in pencil), the HR people immediately photocopied it and then erased it clean to use with the next recruit. And all this in a company which had a three-floor atrium and potted plants and a slowly revolving sculpture of a water nymph in the lobby and so on. Currently, he reuses visiting cards.
Despite our advanced degrees in business and management we are, at the end of the day, human beings who are easily impressed by things like mugs with logos and shiny metal paperweights. Such are the frailties of the human spirit.
Thankfully, for all of you, you have me. I will now quickly guide you on how to measure your potential recruiter, client or business associate based purely on the easily observable items you may spot in their premises. Follow me for a life-changing set of tips.
Item : Shiny lobby with squeaky clean marble floors.
Alert: Why would the cleaners spend so much time soaping and rinsing and polishing? Simple. The boss comes to work every single day. No outstation trips or golfing holidays for him. Which means you will never be able to leave early or come in late. Proceed only if you deeply loathe work-life balance. Caution: Wet Floor.
Item: HR posters everywhere. In the lift. On the walls.
Alert: Looks like a great people-friendly place to work does it? Pshaw! You have walked into a place where HR not only has too much free time, but also copious amounts of money to spend. Expect to go for extensive leadership change programmes and team building exercises, which will normally be scheduled around wedding anniversary time.
Item: Outstanding catering with extensive cuisine choices. Lobby café.
Alert: ‘Go home for dinner with the family? When we have spaghetti bolognese and tiramisu in the canteen? And inch-thick wads of meal coupons? Impossible. You have sold your soul to us. Guahahaha…’
Item: State-of-the-art laptops for everyone along with features-rich Blackberries.
Alert: Wow! They invest so much on infrastructure for the employees, no? No! Instead you will soon begin to loathe both devices and will find yourself leaving them around unattended at cafes and airports hoping that someone would steal them. Also, changing the ringtone (set on Barbie Girl by the cheeky fellows in IT) is against company policy.
Item: Expensive champagne and Cuban cigars adorn the CEO’s lavish office.
Alert: What a sophisticated man! Must be enriching to work under him. Or so you think. In reality, you will soon be reporting to a semi-conscious gentleman who is on a slightly high all day:
You: “So from your perspective, as CEO, I really think that this is an acquisition that will add value to our overall product portfolio, long-term strategy and international expansion plans…”
CEO: “… I am the CEO? Hic!”
So as you can see, first impressions can be pretty risky things to go by. First impressions can be a minefield of career maladies for the gullible young manager. Thankfully, by using these tips you should be able to tiptoe past many of them.
Now, before we close the topic I know there is a burning question in your mind. What sort of recruiter is ideal? How do you know when a job is perfect? When do you know you’ve found the recruiter who will satisfy you for years and years?
Ideally, the interview takes place at a swanky restaurant over dinner. That way, you can knock back a few drinks too. (If the guy offers booze during lunch ask for the offer letter right away. Start work next morning.) You should be able to work from home. This omits the need for an office altogether. It also means that the dress code is a lungi and white banian. Lunch break is as and when you wish. Also, your remuneration should have nothing at all to do with the actual effort you put in. And whenever you need to send in reports to the office, they could send the receptionist to pick it up.
When you come to think of it, that’s a lot like freelance writing. Except for the receptionist. And the money.
Sigh.
See you all next fortnight. Till then you taking the care, wokay?
(The writer, an alumnus of IIM-A, was a management consultant before quitting to work as a freelance writer, author and general handyman. He blogs at http://www.whatay.com)
Prayer Is A Divine Act Of Absolute Surrender
Prayer Is A Divine Act Of Absolute Surrender
10 Dec 2007, 0059 hrs IST,Sanjukta Bhaduri
Prayer connects us with the Supreme. Many situations and challenges in life help us realise that we are merely playing our role in the stage of life. Nonetheless, in our daily life, we consider ourselves to be the master of both our actions and the results thereof, but we forget that we have a right over our actions but not of the result. We wonder about the result even before any action is taken and thus lose focus.
Prayer is an act of surrender to the Supreme; we stoop in order to be elevated; we bow with utmost reverence, exemplifying utmost humility to the Almighty. The power of prayer is tremendous and helps us overcome the toughest of challenges, hurdles and misfortunes. The principle in life is to put in the best in our efforts and surrender our actions to the Lord for He would take care of the rest.
A prayer is a most pious act. The sheer act of praying is associated with purity; we purify ourselves by praying. The sincerity and honesty with which we pray disappear soon after we end the prayer. We perform our daily duties routinely, very differently from the act of praying. Consequently we tend to become insincere to dharmic principles.
We get back from life what we give to life. Our life involves others also and many a time the helping hand we extend to others is prompted by selfishness. The issue which bothers us is whether we have gained something and if so, how much, from any given situation.
However, dharma stresses on doing what is right and not what is convenient. We ought to do our dharma with utmost sincerity and honesty as well as to help others without any hidden agenda of self-interest.
Prayer is an activity which gives immense satisfaction. While we pray, we feel content and satisfied, but the satisfaction dissipates fast enough. Generally, we pray for our well-being in terms of health, wealth, happiness, peace. Many a time, we look beyond ourselves too. Since we are genuinely concerned about our near and dear ones, we pray for their well-being also. However, we never apply this concept to the wider circle of people in our lives with whom we interact daily or even those we infrequently interact with.
Most often, we camouflage our jealousy with super- ficial expression of happiness, a smile or a few words of appreciation when we learn of the happiness of others. Just as in a prayer, the principle in life is to feel and be truly happy in others’ happiness. Only then can we have a sense of genuine well-being and sustain the satisfaction.
Traditionally, praying has been a daily ritual in most households. It enriches the person, brings happiness and helps us to remain calm and contented in adverse conditions. A life well lived does not necessarily imply living a materialistic, consumptive life; it could also mean living a satisfied, happy, peaceful and enriched life. Thus, understanding the meaning and essence of life and setting right goals and priorities accordingly are essential.
Life throws up both challenges and opportunities. The art of living is to seize the opportunity to transform one’s life into a prayer and using the power of prayer to cut through the challenges.
The writer teaches at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.
You Can Be Spiritual In Everything That You Do
7 Dec 2007, 0001 hrs IST,Acharya Mahaprajna
Why is it believed that spiritual practice is possible only within traditionally accepted limits and not outside them?
Meditation, observance of silence and physical relaxation are indeed spiritual practices but are speaking, eating, drinking, sitting and standing not spiritual practices?
The following story illustrates this point: Once two kings went hunting, riding their own chariots. One chariot got burnt down, while the horse pulling the other chariot died. Both kings were stranded. But they worked it out. One gave his chariot and the other his horse, and the two were able to return to town. This is called Dagdhashvarath.
The same is true of spiritual practice. In a fragmented or partial form it does not bring liberation. The integrity of spiritual practice is questioned by those who insist that it is possible only in a particular place, at a particular time and through a particular activity and not otherwise. One of the incongruities of life is spending two hours in spiritual practice and the remaining 22 hours in non-spiritual pursuits.
Anuvrat — giving up anything beyond the “I” — implies that there be no incongruity in life from the time one wakes up in the morning till one goes to bed, and there be uniformity of spiritual practice at all times of day and night.
Anuvrat manifests the nature of spiritual practice. In Sanskrit grammar, the word veepsa is used which means Vyaptumichcha, the desire to permeate or extend. In veepsa, saying the same word twice or four times is not considered a fault. It is in this sense (of veepsa) that the words ‘spiritual practice’ have been appended to anuvrat.
Meditation and yoga are necessary but by themselves they do not constitute spiritual practice. You need to remain spiritually alert in whatever you do throughout the day. A man who stayed in our camp recently was very religious.
Earlier, with great faith he would practise meditation and silence for four to five hours daily. But he was indifferent to good behaviour. As a result his family members were angry with him. His behaviour made them shun religion.
A man cannot be religious if his practice turns others away from it. Slowly, though, in the camp, his ideas got transformed. And so too, his life. As soon as he became alert about the connection spirituality had with all activity, he began to infuse everything he did with spiritual insight. All around him became happy.
It is pointless to believe in the possibility of doing meditation if your life is devoid of humane behaviour, if your ideas lack clarity and if you have rigid beliefs. It is a different matter if spiritual practice is viewed in a partial and fragmented manner. Fasting, meditation and observance of silence are means.
The success of spiritual practice will be in proportion to the diminution of distance between means and ends. A sthitpragya — person gifted with unshakable mental equilibrium — discourses on various themes throughout the day, yet he is in reality silent. Remaining silent in anger is not really silence. If it is, then even a heron can be called a meditator. Under this very illusion a sulking son went and sat down in a corner. He refused to eat. He was angry.
Should we call it fasting? Spiritual practice is neither in not doing something, nor in doing something. It lies in inner awakening, no matter whether it is accompanied by activity or inactivity.
A story of determination
A story of determination
H.S. Narasimha Kumar
DAVANGERE: He is from a barber’s family and helps his father in his profession. But helping his father did not make him slack in his studies.
B.S. Vijay Kumar scored 93 per cent in the second Pre-University Course exam held this year and stood first in his college, DRM Science College in Davangere. He secured the 3035th and 4922nd ranks respectively for medical and engineering seats in the Common Entrance Test.
Vijay, who has been performing well all through his academic life, wants to become an electronics engineer. He continues to assist his father in his profession, as he is yet to be admitted to an engineering college. Vijay does not want to pursue his studies elsewhere as he wants to continue assisting his father till he completes his education and gets a job to take care of the family. He hopes to do his engineering at the Bapuji Institute of Engineering and Technology (BIET) or at Brahamappa Devendrappa Thavannappanavar (BDT) Engineering College in Davangere.
Father proud
Despite concentrating on his studies, Vijay did never failed to attend to customers at his father’s shop. “In spite of telling him to concentrate on his studies instead of assisting me at the shop, Vijay used to continue to do both with ease. He has scored very good marks right from his childhood,” recalled Somashekarappa, his father. Despite having studied in a Kannada-medium school from the beginning, Vijay has a good vocabulary in English.
That Vijay is an extraordinary boy can be seen, and he has indeed set an example for other children.
ClicksandWrites 
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