Short and Small

Life's Lessons - Joseph Mattappally

I think it is time, space and costumes which are the most shrinking three things in this universe. It could be because of our continuing crazy lookout for ‘short and small’ everywhere. There lived a Tom who had great problem reaching the office in time. The Boss threatened to fire him if he didn't do something about it. Tom went to his doctor who gave him a pill and told him to take it before he goes to bed. Tom slept well and in fact beat the alarm in the morning early by almost two hours. He had a leisurely breakfast and that day he drove cheerfully to his office. 'Boss', he said, 'The pill actually worked! 'That's all fine' said the boss, 'but where were you yesterday?' Same has become the case with us too. In our frantic run to compress everything into small or short, we miss not only yesterdays but tomorrows too. If we take our communication strategies for example, it has now become ‘structured codes meaning something else’. ‘We will do it’ means ‘You will do it.’ ‘We are a team’ means ‘I am not the only one to be blamed.’ ‘That is a good question’ means ‘I do not know anything about it.’ Deepak Chopra, the great thinker and writer once said, “I love you simply means I trade you.” So goes…

I have heard the story of an English school teacher, looking for rooms in a small town in Switzerland. He asked the local school headmaster to make recommendations. He showed her several different places and she finally settled on a small cottage not far from the town centre. However, on her way home, it occurred to her that she didn't notice a Water Closet (WC); so she immediately sent an email to the headmaster asking if there was a WC in or near the cottage. On receiving the email, the headmaster was troubled, because he was not totally familiar with many English abbreviations. He then decided to ask his friend, the local parish Priest, who concluded that the lady was referring to a ‘Wayside Chapel’, so they sent her the following reply: ‘I am delighted to inform you that the WC is situated only 2 miles from the cottage you rented, and it is set amongst a beautiful grove of trees with wonderful scenery, and it is capable of seating up to 250 people, however there is also standing room for another 100 people. In fact, sometimes it is so busy, we actually have people standing outside the open doors peering inside to observe the various proceedings inside! The WC only opens on Wednesdays and Sundays. My father recently donated a bell and the bell rings every time somebody enters the WC’. The Email had a Post Script too which read, ‘Remember to bring your camera, as I am sure you will want to keep a memento of your visit to our WC. Our newspaper editor attends every session of the WC and he usually publishes selected photographs in our town newspaper ‘The Sentinel’. 

It is Benjamin Disraeli who said, “Life is too short to be small.” As Albert Einstein once put it, “Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.” They should be right, as we reduce ourselves to the minimum, we unknowingly miss our ability to expand. 

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Short Cuts

Health and Happiness - Dr Dwarakanath

Shankara has removed one very important doubt, ‘without true knowledge, life in this world is a mixture of sorrow and pleasure’. This mixture only helps increasing body-consciousness and life will become a hell. We will be tossed up and down by temporary pleasures and pains. Shankara prescribes four important points to put into practice sincerely. They are, (1) regular reading of holy books, (2) daily recitation of god’s name or worship of him, (3) keep the company of the good, noble and holy people, and (4) serve the poor and the needy by sharing the wealth one has. Only knowledge of self will give solace and strength to bear and tide over the sorrows and pleasures in life. The easy way to obtain this true knowledge of the self is to read, understand and practice the principles laid down in Gita and meditate upon that primordial Energy- Shakti, which is all-pervading, in and through the atom to atma (soul). Again Shankara prescribed a convenient and at the same time scientific method to do this. He says that when the mind is drawn to something evil, seek the company of the good, noble and holy people. If we have wealth, spend it with full joy, for the sake of those who do not have, the poor, to wipe their tears, instead of squandering carelessly in wasteful deeds. 

Shankara is suggesting here two pronged strategy to break open the shackles that we put on ourselves by conditioning our thoughts and actions. He says, first, that read Gita, as it explains both the goal and the path. Gita also gives different techniques of living. Secondly, recite the thousand names of the lord with one-pointed devotion. it means very clearly that by reading and understanding Gita one acquires the true knowledge and with that one learns to distinguish between shreyas and preyas, good and bad, true and false, permanent and impermanent, pleasure and pain and chose that one, which is good for the development and refinement of the self. By reciting the name of the lord, we develop devotion on that force, which is running the whole universe every minute in a systematic and orderly manner. As we keep doing these two regularly, we are definite to learn both the knowledge required to refine the soul and intensify bhakti in ones heart over a period of time. 

The path will become very clear if we try to approach the goal from these two approaches, although if we opt for even one path, at the end of it, we will come to know about the second path automatically. Therefore, one path, i.e., either knowledge or devotion, is sufficient, but so as to quicken the process, it is better to have these two legs to walk properly. reading holy book with full devotion and with a sincere approach to learn the basic truth coupled with regular Sadhana- practice will help us to understand the Maya- delusion and ultimately to overcome it by his divine grace. Mere study does not lead us to anywhere, although study is absolutely necessary for the intellectual satisfaction of the seeker. Unless the ideas gained from reading scriptures are diligently put into practice in one's life, the acquired knowledge will not get us the required result. The biggest enemy of human being is our ego. Sincere and devotional reading of holy books will fill one's heart with humility, love and real joy. The first and the strongest sign of ego is development of body-consciousness. Identifying our self with "i" is the biggest stumbling block for the spiritual progress. Most of us, human beings are under the wrong notion that we get real pleasure if we succeed in keeping the body comfortable. Gita teaches the basic difference between the body and the soul and how to overcome the body-consciousness, so that we are always established in the soul-consciousness, which is the real happiness.

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Living Perfectly

Smart Plus - Rakesh Mittal I A S 

My wife is a very good lady but the world around her keeps upsetting her every now and then. However, the frequency is going down with the growth of wisdom. Once, she got upset over a matter, which was quite justified for a normal person but not for a truly wise one. While I took worldly care of her grievance, I was unhappy over her lack of wisdom in dealing with the situation. So sometime after the event, I sat with her and helped in her introspection.  Fortunately she was responsive and I could convince her that there was no point in getting upset due to the imperfections of the world as it would continue to remain so. The only solution was to learn living perfectly in an imperfect world. Thereafter, I did some contemplation over the subject and this is what I am sharing here.

First of all I admit that it is not as simple as said. The imperfections of the world do upset us and we have all the justification to complain.  Some complaints may even be helpful but surely one cannot make the world perfect.  In fact, imperfection is necessary for the existence of the world. Even the creation of the world was the result of an imperfection. The word creation implies dynamism and there can be no dynamism without imbalance of forces which in turn means imperfection. In a state of perfection nothing will move and perhaps the world itself will cease to exist. So for the existence of the world, imperfection is necessary.

The purpose of this analysis is to make one accept the imperfectness of the world as a reality. This acceptance will itself help us not to get upset most of the time but surely the end objective is not achieved. This stage in essence implies tolerance of the world which is not a perfectly healthy stage. It points towards hidden anger which is an obstruction in one’s growth.  A person with such an attitude will perhaps not be able to lessen the imperfections of the world. At best he will not add to them.  There is also a possibility of his crossing the threshold limit in a more upsetting situation and thus taking him to the state of reaction from tolerance.

Now arises the question how to rise above the state of ‘tolerance’ which I would call the state of ‘acceptance’. Here the word ‘acceptance’ is not being used as something passive.  In fact it indicates a state of extreme dynamism which means appearing static due to fast motion.  To reach this state, one has to see that imperfectness of the world as an opportunity to make oneself perfect. So when you see a poor person, a feeling of sharing should develop. A person in distress should evoke compassion in you. An angry person should create a feeling of love. A person trying to harm you should be seen as ignorant.  Outwardly we may behave in a worldly manner depending upon the situation, but within, the feeling should always be one of dynamic acceptance. If one is able to reach this state, he will never complain about the imperfectness of the world. On the other hand, he will silently contribute to lessen this imperfectness by making himself perfect. After all, the world is constituted of individuals and the imperfectness of the world is nothing but the sum-total of the imperfectness of individuals.  So making oneself perfect automatically lessens the imperfectness of the world.

Next time you come across an imperfect situation, see it as an opportunity, for making yourself perfect. In this process your attitude towards those who upset you will change. You will then feel that such persons are like a ladder which helps you to rise above and to make you perfect. And living perfectly is the only option in this imperfect world.

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The Muaym Mission

Message of Peace - Justice P K Shamsuddin

Muaym then proceeded to the Meccan camp and informed them that Banu Qurayza had repented their violation of the covenant with Mohammed and they were trying to appease Mohammed. He also advised them not to send their men to the tribe of Qurayza apprehending that Banu Qurayza might cheat them and leave them to Mohammed who would in turn execute them. Thereafter Muaym proceeded to the camp of Gatafan and warned of the serious consequences if they may have to face the Meccan defeat. The leaders of the Meccans and Gatafan began to ponder over the matter. Abu Sufian sent a message to Kab the leader of Banu Qurayza asking him to advance an attack on Mohammed’s army, promising that the Meccan army also will simultaneously attack Mohammed. This messenger was sent back with the message that the next day was the day of Sabbath and the Jews would neither fight nor work.  

From the context of Banu Qurayza, Abu Sufian came to the conclusion that the words of Muaym were true. However, he again tried to persuade them to attack Mohammed asking them to hold Sabbath for another day, since attacking Mohammed has become extremely necessary according to them. Abu Sufian also warned them that unless they join the Meccans in the battle, he will declare the pact with them invalid and submit them to the Meccan attack. When Banu Qurayza heard of the message of Abu Sufian they reiterated their decision not to violate Sabbath reminding the messenger of the divine wrath. Further, they demanded security and guarantee to their future security. Their response dissipated more doubt in the mind of Abu Sufian regarding the report of Muaym. He discussed the problem with the leaders of Gatafan and found the great discomfort and the reluctance of these tribes to fight.

Thus, the plan of the Muslims worked. Further, on the same night a strong wind blew and there was heavy rain fall. Thunder deafened them and lightning was blunting. In the wild storm the tent of the Meccans fell down and brought havoc in the Meccan camps.  It struck fear in their hearts and they thought that the Muslims would use the opportunity to attack them. Tulayhah Ibn Khuwayhah was the first one to openly advise the Meccans and their alliance to flee for their lives. Abu Sufian also endorsed this suggestion and thereupon the army of the Meccans started to withdraw. The storm continued and all the Meccan allies also withdrew from Mediana.

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What a World? What is Life?

Blooming Stars - Swami (Dr) Snehananda Jyoti

A mother in Vietnam gives up one of her identical twin girls at birth as she does not have the finances to take care of both. The girl lands up in California, USA, and after years is now ready to go to UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) Medical School to become a doctor. She does not know the fate of her twin sister in Vietnam. As a refugee from Somalia in 1993, she finished her Bachelor’s degree in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is collecting money for the starving children in Somalia. She knows starvation as she fled it when she was six years old. A girl from the orphanage of Mother Theresa’s Sisters of Charity in Calcutta adopted by a friend of mine in St. Louis, Missouri, is a surgeon. She wonders about the children left behind in the orphanage in Calcutta. A boy who was given birth by a 15 year old Brahmin girl in Chennai and abandoned to die in a garbage barrel was salvaged and adopted years ago in USA is a smart young man doing very well. Girls in USA are trying to connect with disadvantaged girls in the world through Girl Up, a campaign of the United Nations Foundation. Many poor children, especially  girls, in Africa and Asia who spent most of their waking hours trying to fetch water and firewood to cook the little food they have to barely stay alive. The irony is many affluent girls in the USA are obsessed with their weight and shape, and succumb to Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa (Eating Disorders related to excessive obsession with body shape and weight) while many children ( girls and boys) in the world die of malnutrition or starvation. They also have too many outfits, and are faced with a decision as to what to wear every morning or for a special occasion while many girls in Asia and Africa do not have a change of clothes or are in tatters.

I have been back in the United States from India for about five weeks. The debate about raising the Debt Ceiling so the US would not default on its debt on August 2, 2011, was on everybody’s mind, and consumed a great deal of time and energy through meaningless bickering and theatrics, and brought the US and the world (the US economy, the biggest in the world, affects the global economy) to the brink of an economic disaster. Still the last minute bill passed in both houses of the US legislative body and signed by the US president sent economic shock waves across the world. The debate showed that the government is not only divided but it is dysfunctional. The politicians in the US as well as in India are mostly irrational, and cater to people’s emotions, and tell the majority of unthinking people what they want to hear to get elected.  Individuals, families, and governments living beyond their means and spending money that they do not have through unscrupulous borrowing or deficit financing are creating  unsustainable and artificial economies that are not related to realities in many developed countries, especially the US, Greece, Spain, Italy.  This tragic situation adversely affects hard-working persons who consciously live within their income. Another thing I observed was the preoccupation with temperature and how that affects every one’s work and life. The temperature in St. Louis has been in the 90’s Fahrenheit (90F=32.2C). The effect on people of the frequent weather broadcast during the day, and the dramtic moan and groan the weather broadcaster gives while broadcasting with also the heat index is very profound indeed. Hardly a conversation without the mention of how hot the weather is. [Needless to say, I prefer the naturally air-conditioned weather (mostly in the 70’s F or below throughout the year) around the Ashram in Munnar, India.] What kind of a world are we living in? What is life after all? Are the things that need to prepare us for a rich purposeful life eluding us?

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Mouse Fire

Life's Lessons - Joseph Mattappally

Two small industrialists were sharing their difficulties of running their business. "I started a new practice last year," one of them said. "I insist that each of my employees take at least a week off every three months." "Why in the world would you do that?" asked the second. "It's the best way I know of to learn which ones I can do without," the first one answered. 

This joke did not strike me at all just because I already knew that the way people think and react these days have become surprisingly odd. I don’t know how each of you might assess this recent story of a state government office in India. The good news of sanctioning seventeen crores of Rupees as part of draught relief in Karnataka should have pleased the drought affected poor villagers struggling hard to find something eatable. The story but goes on telling that the whole amount was spent on poojas (religious services), in 34,000 temples across the state, all to please the rain God. I was shocked to hear this spirituality trick of the temple priests. Do these sole distributors of heavenly attributes go out of mind? Similar senseless spirituality is found almost in every religions. May be because of the amusing decisions of a few, the whole community concerned is put to shame. The priests are not bothered about the suffering many. But they cannot at all admit a cut or break in the tithe or a periodical donation on some name. 

I don’t know if we have reached the climax of the game, at least in India. If so, the time for an equal and opposite reaction is not that far. Who says that the laity is so weak for an up rise? See, how a little mouse took revenge on a householder. The story is as narrated by the Associated Press. A man caught a mouse at his house and tossed it into a garden bonfire of burning leaves. The burning mouse ran back into the house setting fire to it. The whole house burned to the ground. Just like the young industrialist, why don’t we at least try finding the rigid expensive religious practices, without which we can continue in peace? 

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Don't be Alienated

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

In every process of rejuvenation there is an act of self actualization or self regulation, because the moment one creates something one has to ensure full participation in the act of creation. That full involvement occurs only when one is able to exercise free will. Otherwise, a person who is not involved in a particular activity will naturally be alienated from the action as well as the context in which he is acting. This process of alienation is a very serious one and the person who himself alienates from the context, as well as the action, will never be able to make anything novel or anything creative. It is the total involvement of the person in the context as well as in the action that makes him really free and such a person should be able to create something, in the sense that he must be able actualize whatever be the potentialities in him. The range of the actualization as well as the range of the potentialities may be changing from person to person or place to place. A person who is actualizing something alone need not be great – this rule is applicable to a great writer and a great craftsman.

A person who is able to actualize whatever he has with him must be able to produce something and such an act of creation must be able to surpass the test of times. The test of times means that an act of creation must be able to survive irrespective of the temporal changes. This is what is meant by the term novelty. So the act of creation is a novel action and in that novel action the person actualizes whatever he has with him in the potential form. If there is a cent percent involvement in that actualization that can be treated as self-realization in the context in which one acts. So, self-realization is the aim of a creative artist. The moment one feels that he has actualized whatever he has with him then he can be sure of the fact that act has been a creative one. Such an act of creation really leads the whole nation to prosperity and progress. A progressive society is one that gives maximum opportunity to its members for the actualization of their talents. This is one of the reasons why the fascist societies are not able to survive the test of the times. Such a society will never be able to preserve the right of its individuals to create with maximum involvement in the said context. This is one of the reasons why the fascist maxims are failing in due course. Fascism will never be able to entertain the free will of the individual and since they are not able to do that they won’t be able to help those members of the society to actualize their capacities; it can be in any form.

A man can be creative in a business field just like genuine artist. So we cannot say that only artists and writers are creative and business men are not. This style of thought never makes any sense. Business men can also be creative provided they also blossom into full. This is applicable to every area of action including religious service. Take for example any business man or an industrialist, who is making money and he cannot enjoy the total of his creation for himself alone. That is another characteristic of the art of creation. The art of creation guarantees its enjoyment not to the creator alone but to other persons who need not be gifted to live in a particular favour. Take for ex. Ford. The Ford industry has made money, and whatever Ford has made, that money is utilized also by the persons who are not directly linked to him. This is the case of a businessman in India too. My point is that whatever be the art of creation, one of the aims is that any activity of creation is not exclusively meant for the creator alone; it is meant for the whole public in the sense that it also includes the generations to come. 

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