“Hello World”…err….if you thought I was learning some scripting language, you are mistaken. I actually meant to say "Hello Word". Now if you are wondering why, the reason is I took quite a big break in writing something and opened my MS Word after a long time ;-)Alright, if you have survived my first paragraph, you can be proud of belonging to a rare breed (I always try to weed out the lucky in my first paragraph)! On a serious note, I felt I should write about certain things which have put me in a whirlpool for the last two months. These have put me in great pain; made me think; got me angry; made me halt from the race called life (we do this very rarely) and ponder on my life’s goals/priorities.
If you are asking me as to why on earth should you be reading this? Well, we always have something to learn from others experience, more so if it is not so pleasant. Most of these things you might be knowing, even I did! However, when it comes to putting them into practice we forget them or fail to execute. Theoretical knowledge alone does not help, now I am able to relate more with companies asking for experience and rejecting my resume!
Lesson 1: Never outsource your happiness or sadness
Lot of times (or all the time!) I tend to depend on external objects/events/people for my happiness. When things don’t happen the way we expect it to, I am dejected. That occupies most of my thoughts and I feel emotionally drained. More important things in life are put to the backburner. Moments of solitude are a pain and moments with friends/family are devoid of the usual fun. It was then that lesson 1 was reminded to me by a talk I heard. Well, how exactly do we do this? I myself am figuring this out but atleast reminding myself that my true nature is “Sat-Chit-Ananda” or eternal bliss helps. Also, reminding myself that I am the soul which cannot be wet by water, burned by fire, cut by sword, leave alone getting troubled by these events is a big help.
Lesson 2: The other side is always green!
Wondering what this strange lesson is? Let me tell you what happened. I went to the house of “A” and while casually discussing something, I said that a particular person was “not of any use” because they had a different set of thoughts/tastes. “A” very quickly asked me “So, that means the person is not required? Is he/she not one among us? Do we leave them and march ahead?”
When he said that I remembered the words of Guruji (or may be Swami Vivekananda, not sure). I don’t recall the exact words but it was like this “the signs of a highly evolved society depends on the role of the lowliest, weakest in the society. “ The emphasis was on the importance of everyone in the society, be he someone subscribing to our viewpoint or not, whether he is intelligent or not, whether he is strong or otherwise. Though I have read this before, it made a mark in me at this juncture. I realized that every person has something unique to contribute to the society, if we see someone as “not of any use”, it is because of our failure to see that uniqueness in the other person. Now do you get it, the other side is always green!
Lesson 3: Constantly search for the “I” hiding in “You”.
This is the most important thing I learned about myself. While speaking to “A” again, I told him how I had reacted to someone. That person had come to offer me help when I needed it. I on the other hand declined their help. In spite of that, the person “walked that extra mile” to help me out. What did I do? I got angry with them, and even decided not to speak again and ironically “walked that extra mile” to return their favor! Three words which “A” said struck me as a bolt from the blue “This is ego”. I never ever heard anyone in my life say that to me before. I was taken aback because I never realized that I was so.
In fact, I tried to explain my behavior to him and “A” said “Don’t cover your ego with flowery language”. If that was not enough, he then used the Brahma Astra by saying “You talk so much about Guruji and you are acting like this, what Sairamji?” A continued “Let me ask you one more thing, let’s say you meet a swamiji whose principles , ideas you don’t agree. Will you fall on his feet?” I was acting like a rabbit staring at a pair of blazing headlights on a highway. After some thinking I said “It is difficult” and thus proved! I never realized that I had this in me. Though lot of times, I read about how ego and how it can destroy one, I never stopped to introspect whether I was egoistic. Now, I learnt that I should constantly search for the “I” hiding in “me”.
The past few days have been very eventful with lot of learning about myself and life in general. I have been reading Guruji’s “Bunch of Thoughts” for quite sometime now but I realize that the same words appear more potent now than ever before. The tremendous potential for improvement in us makes life so exciting and worth living. At the end of this long read, if you feel you have gained something out of my little experience, I am happy. If you felt that you have wasted some valuable time reading crap and feel sad, read Lesson 1 again - Don’t outsource your happiness!
