Problems - The Manure

The nature is the best example of a spontaneous organization which manages itself without any external controls. For example, the planetary motions are controlled by the position and gravitational attractions of the planets. The rain forest manages its own affairs by balancing the flora and fauna contained in it unless otherwise its eco-balance is disturbed by human de-forestation. It looks like the plan of nature is to create a self-sustaining mechanism with built-in principles controlling it by itself. This is evident from the simple observation of animals having least amount of health problems which is haunting the modern mankind such as hyper-tension, diabetes, heart problems and so on.

It is interesting to observe that there are no systems of health care in a rain forest and still the life is healthy and peaceful. In the name of civilization, mankind has moved far away from the natures plan. We are perennially unhappy about what we have and in the name of material pursuits we postpone living for a later date – “I will be happy when I have.....”, and this ends up as a “tomorrow syndrome”. In the end we “see” without a “vision”, we “hear” without “listening” and we are “alive” and not “living”! The higher intelligence nature bestowed on us is invested in “searching a black cat in a dark room while it is not there!” Let us examine little bit of the secrets of nature.

We like health against disease, sweet against bitter, happiness against sorrow and so on. In every aspect of ephemeral human experiences, there is pair of opposites. There are foods very tasty to tongue and few of them are not. We prefer the ones which are tasty and avoid those which are not. The secret of nature is; those foods which are tasty are not good for our heath and vice versa! One of those human follies is to feel happy when our expectations are met and resent the problems we face. Is there a “message” the nature conveys through problems? Napoleon Hill in his famous book “You can work your own miracles” says “Every problem is a seed of equivalent benefits”. It means at the outset the problem appears to be curse and later it proves to be a big opportunity in disguise!

At the outset when we face problems we tend to run away from it which is equivalent to throwing away the seed which contains great opportunities. The author says if you put the seed in the soil, it will germinate as a seedling, grow and bear fruits which we have never imagined that the seed contained it in its un-manifest form! It s a great wisdom when I read the book two decades ago and it really made miracles in my life when I started looking at all problems with this new perspective. It is a new paradigm that can revolutionize our lives.

When I was a child in my village, I used to observe during festivals people pull a big wooden car carrying the deity around the streets. As the car moves through the streets, one person will put a wooden wedge below the wheel almost obstructing the flow of the car. I used to wonder why this guy is preventing the car rolling across the street while all people are struggling to roll it. Later when I grew up I understood, but for that obstruction, the car will go direction less and the guy is really steering the car to its destination. Similarly, nature introduces problems as a means of showing direction to us.

Only when we are challenged we become better; diamond glitter only when polished, gold requires heating & beating to glitter. Those who have not faced sorrow and challenges remain as immature people. Indulgence keeps the soul at the “Muladhara chakra” levels only. Probably nature uses obstacle as the tools to explore human potentials.


I had the biggest blow in my life when I had to end up in a poly-technique at the age of 16 when I had the dream to enter an engineering college. Now I know why nature planned my life that way. I knew more about myself as a “self-made person” by pursuing my education till I got my M.Tech from IIT. I have the great joy of fighting with road blocks and converting them as a stepping stone. “Problems are manures; it stinks but helps to grow” is the wisdom Shri. Ravishankar has given to the modern mind.

In summary,

There is a great wisdom in understanding the principle of nature and following it for peace, health and prosperity. Follow the flora and fauna for their alignment with the nature; don’t ignore them as they are less evolved than human.

All that are conducive to your senses are not good for your being and vice versa!

"Problems are the seed of equivalent benefits”. Don’t resent when they appear in life.

Develop the paradigm that Problems are opportunities in disguise.

Carefully pick the seed without judgement and nurture them carefully to grow them till they bear fruits.

Jai Gurudev

Love

NC

About Life

We have no choice in life upon two things; the birth in this planet and leaving the same. The interim period between these two events is called “Life”. It is a collection of fleeting experiences which can neither be re-played nor stored. There are two paradigms about Life; one “it is a benediction to be a human” and another is result of “Karma” – the inevitable choice. The paradigms are the “Basic assumption” upon which all our beliefs and actions are based. Let’s examine the manifestation of these two basic assumptions.

When we come from the paradigm “life is a result of an inevitable choice” we tend to believe that our state of happiness or sorrow is decided by an external source. We tend to blame our parents for not sending us to a good school, our spouse for not supporting us and so on. In this state of mind one does not want to take responsibility for everything that is happening in their life. Once we blame external sources for our state, we have no responsibility to change anything. It is the best recipe to remain where we are. This state of melancholy is where many choose to remain and don’t want to rock the boat.

When we choose the paradigm of “It is a benediction to be a human”, we take life with a sportsmanship and play joyfully as play itself is the reward. In this state, we take charge of our life without blaming anyone for our progress or lack of it. We become the captain of our soul and steer our life for ourselves and the betterment of our fellow human being. People who lived with this paradigm have believed that in ultimate analysis “Nothing matters”. Think for a moment the anxiety our grand parents (who are in heaven now!) have gone through during their life. Does that have any meaning now? Similarly our concerns now will have no meaning later when we quit this planet. We will not be remembered as Jesus who is worshiped even after 2000 years of his earthly abode.

Alexander died at the age of 32, Jesus was in human form only for 37 years and Adhi Sankara lived only for 33 years in this planet. The foot prints these human beings have left are not erasable for many more millenniums. The contributions made by Edison by illuminating the world, Mother Theresa by bring smile in the face many poor, Mary Curie giving the great invention of radium and so on are the monuments of meaningful life lived by great people. All these people have come from the paradigm that “Life is a benediction” and “Nothing matters” which means that the doing is important rather than the fruits of action. If we are caught up with the fruit of action, we miss the target.

To summarize,

Life is a pair of opposites by design; hot & cold, happiness & sorrow, light & shadow and so on. If it is not so, one cannot appreciate the favourable ones. For example white cannot be defined if black is not there, light cannot be understood if darkness is not there and happiness cannot be recognized if sorrow is not defined. When we have faced ill health we have appreciated health. When we had headache we realized that we have something called head! It is like two ends of the same stick and trying to pick one without the other is foolishness. When we transcend these pair of opposites, we have arrived to our destination.

Life will be joyful experience only when we understand these realities of Life as a whole and live every day with a missionary zeal which will make our presence in this planet more meaningful.

Wish you a Great Life ahead.

Jai Gurudev

With Love

NC

About Happiness

In English language there are several words having the same connotation for “happiness”; joy, pleasure, glee, ecstasy, Bliss and so on. If the word Happiness is specific and beyond interpretation, there cannot be many words in the language. Lets us examine in details.

Before that let me deal with the confusion whether “Happiness” is a cause or an effect? This is important because, cause precedes effect. If we say happiness is an effect, we need to figure out what is the cause. There are two schools of thoughts; in material domain we need a cause to be happy – example: food closer to your choice makes you happy. In the spiritual domain “happiness is a state of mind” and hence you don’t need any cause to make it happen! In fact all Vedic literatures say that our real nature is happiness.

Let’s examine the different words and their connotations for better appreciation of our true nature:

Pleasure:

Pleasure is the “effect” of physical indulgence; as an example, an ice cream gives you a pleasure. Pleasure is in the lowest rung in the happiness scale. The same ice cream is taken beyond a point at a stretch, it will lead to nausea. It is also a fleeting experience and not lasting.

Joy:

Joy is at the emotional level and also the effect of a cause; for example when we have become the father of the child first time, we have experienced the joy. Although Joy is in the higher rung than pleasure, but still it depends on an external object to make us happy.

Glee:

You don’t find the exact meaning for the word Glee from the dictionary. The happiness we get when we see someone in trouble is “Glee”. For example we tend to laugh when someone slipped and fell down; catching ourselves immediately that it is indecent to do that. The cause here is someone else’s problem and it de-generates our being.

Bliss:

Bliss and ecstasy falls in the spiritual domain of happiness which comes from the paradigm that your very nature is “happiness” and you don’t need any external objects to act as a cause. For no reasons you are happy is a state of bliss. It only means all that you have to do is “Choose to be happy”. When the mind is in constant material pursuit, it is perennially looking forward to a physical indulgence or a material object to make you happy.

When one experiences a thoughtless state during the meditation, you experience the Bliss.

Ecstasy:

Ecstasy in spiritual domain is “Nirvana” the state one attains when he transcends the mind. This is an irreversible state of happiness. Vedic literatures argue this as the very purpose of our life.

Analysis:

What is the earthly use of knowing all this? For a modern man of material madness, these are Greek and Latin. Modern man is swayed like a ship in the rough sea without a compass and a captain. We always chase and amaze wealth hoping that it will give happiness and security. Alas! Only to find that object which gave the happiness on the day of acquiring it, failed to do the same all the time. On the other hand, the desire for a big car, upon acquiring it gave the anxiety of driving without a problem of parking or someone scratching it!

As the famous Zen proverb “You cannot pick the one end of the stick alone”. The happiness through material acquisition has its own share of misery. Beware of their limitations and move upwards in the rung of happiness ladder.

Jai Gurudev

NC