Finding meaning to be meaningful

Find Meaning to Be Meaningful

Ancient Indian scriptures have described 4 Purusharthas or goals of human life as:-
1. DHARMA – Righteousness, Duty and Moral Values
2. ARTHA – Wealth & Prosperity
3. KAMA – Worldly Desires & Pleasure
4. MOKSHA – Liberation

These 4 principles are somehow related to 4 stages of life also. During childhood we spend most of our time to get education and as we grow younger, we learn dharma and moral values of life. Early adulthood is spent in earning prosperity and enjoying pleasures. And mature adulthood is devoted to spirituality and attaining liberation. Over a span of life, meaning changes. And the purpose of life is evolved and elevated.

If there is shortcoming in learning right values at the early /education stage, one is going to neither create prosperity righteously nor enjoy it morally. At the student age what we learn through senses. At the later stage we have to make sense of what we have sensed. At every age and every stage we have to find out meaning of our life and make life meaningful.

When we enter into the phase of work and family, we start creating resources, earn money, build wealth and relationships, gain name & fame. In others words we start building means and means have power to make you meaningful as well as meaningless. If the means are accumulated for selfish motto, your life become meaningless but if those are created for benefits of others, your life becomesmeaningful.

The problem with most of us is- we become so busy in creating wealth and enjoying pleasure that we forget Dharma which we have learned while taking education and end up in making our life meaningless.

5 tips to find meaning and make life meaningful:

1. While pursuing ARTHA and KAMA, do not forget DHARMA.
2. Ultimate purpose of life is to get liberation, everything else is intermediary.
3. Purpose of life gets evolved and elevated as our level of wisdom increases.
4. Do not worry about liberation; keep doing your KARMA righteously.
5. Forget about the past & don’t worry about future. Just live in the present moment with right moral values.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
काम अर्थ दोनों सधे, धर्म न पाये गत्य।
मोक्ष हमारे जीवन का, बस अंतिम है सत्य।।

Jealousy Fuels Competitiveness

Competitiveness and Jealousy

In the world where parents compare siblings and teachers compare students, it is not possible to have a positive competitive spiritalways. The issue arises whether that competitive spirit is without any jealousy or it is contaminated with jealousy. It is quite possible that a person is motivated due to jealousy which may developcompetitive spirit in him, which helps him achieve success in life. But when level of jealousy is higher it is quite possible that he does not enjoy the fruits of success. Because on the path of success his subjects (with whom he is/was jealous) will keep changing and he will always be dissatisfied.

Jealousy is like a fuel for developing a competitive spirit. In fact, it is not possible for a person to have high level of competitive spirit without having jealous outlook at any moment. Important is how one handles the consequences of his actions that are motivated by jealousy. Chances are very bleak that a person will enjoy happiness and bliss when his competitive spirit is fueled by jealousy.

Having competitive spirit fueled by jealousy is ok but the worst condition is when a person is jealous and do not develop any competitive spirit. That person will always lead a life of despair and disappointment.

5 Tips to handle Jealousy:

1. If you are jealous do not worry. Develop fire in your belly to achieve the next level of success.
2. Do not allow jealousy to let you go in inactive mode. Either be jealous and develop competitive spirit or evaporate the jealousy.
3. Mostly jealousy exists in close relationships. Do not allow jealousy to spoil the relationship.
4. Success is the sum total of several factors and few of them are not in your control. We call it destiny. So accept the fruits with humility.
5. Jealousy can set your goal or target but achievement purely depends on your efforts and your competitive spirit.

P.S. – The above blog is limited to work and career and do not include relationship and love.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
सकारात्मक जलन के, मद में जाओ डूब।
बस!प्रतियोगी भावना, तभी खिलेगी खूब।।

Expand Your Influence

I recall a term “Circle of Influence” explained by Stephen Covey in his book – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One of the past ministers in state government is my neighbor. We used to see lot of crowd in front of his house whenever he was at home during his minister-ship. But as soon as he lost the election and his position, he has become lonely. On the other hand there are great people who departed thousands of years ago from this earth but their followers are ever increasing.

If we deeply analyze them, we will find that it all depends on what is there at the center of Circle of Influence. Is it position, money, power, charisma, love or wisdom? The aura or circle of influence will be dependent on that fundamental nature of tangible and intangible things you choose. The influence of position, money will remain as long as they are with you. The day it is gone, your influence is finished but the aura of love, care and wisdom will last longer, sometimes even after you have left the planet.

Stephen covey explains that our success and effectiveness depends on how, when and where we are spending our time, energy and resources. If we focus on the areas which are out of our circle of influence, we will be wasting our time and energy. But if we focus within our circle of influence, results will be faster and better. One cannot control competitors but one’s product, services and employees are in their control. So they should focus on motivating employees, improving the quality of product and effectiveness of services. This principle can be applied to various problems and circumstances surrounding us. When you focus on your circle of influence, slowly your circle expands and your authority also widens.

5 tips to expand circle of influence:

1. Focus and deploy your resources within circle of your influence and ignore circle of no influence and circle of no concern.
2. Knowledge and wisdom is power. The durability of knowledge and wisdom will last longer than money and position.
3. In this modern era, social connectivity can help in expanding circle of influence.
4. Do not depend on one source of energy because once that source is finished your circle of influence will pounce like punctured balloon.
5. Life of intangible things like love, care, knowledge and wisdom is far longer than tangible things such as money and position.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
सदा बुद्धि और ज्ञान का, पैदा करो प्रभाव
सदगुण करते आपकी, कीर्ति का फैलाव।।

Nurture Natural Talent

Once upon a time God decided to conduct competition among all the things he created so far. Various things, plants, animals and human being came forward to participate. The first competition was for the Best Smell. Sandal-wood won the competition because it didn’t lose its amazing smell inspite of rubbing till end. The second competition was for the Best Taste. Sugarcane won the competition because it didn’t lose its sweet taste inspite of all twist and turns. Last competition was for the Best Appearance. Gold won the competition because it didn’t lose its shine inspite of continuous heating.

When God called all the three objects to give away the prize, he found that all of them were sad. He asked all of them for their reason of sadness. Sandal wood said, “God you gave me the best smell of universe, but didn’t bestow me any taste or beautiful appearance.” Sugar cane said, “God you gave me best taste, but neither smell nor good appearance.” Gold said, “God you gave me best appearance but neither gave any taste nor any smell.” God smiled and said, “I have all the 3 qualities, what you individually have. I have given one of my best qualities to you. You are supposed to maintain what is bestowed upon you and be happy.”

The man was standing and witnessing the entire event. He asked the God, “Sir you have given one specific quality to every creature. What about me? What is my inherent quality?” God said, “My son, you are unique! Objects, plants and animals of same type are similar in nature but every human being is unique. I have given you the mind and intellect to find that unique quality and continuously explore and flourish the same. However, humanity is the common quality I have granted to every human.” Humanity is defined as compassion, fellow feeling, brotherly love, empathy, benevolence, generosity, magnanimity etc.

5 tips to flourish your uniqueness.

1. Find out what you are best at. If not able to, take help of experts.

2. Parents and teachers have a greater responsibility to find out uniqueness of child. Flourish/ grow and refine it.

3. Focus on that unique quality and invest your time and energy to make it continuously better.

4. Whatever you do and wherever you reach, never leave humanity.

5. People may criticize you for the qualities or abilities you are not good at, just ignore them.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
हुनर छिपा है आप में,करिये जरा तलाश।
खुद को साबित कीजिये, करके सतत तराश।।

Control Your Senses

Once a motivational speaker placed one dot on a blank chart and asked everyone, what they can see. Everyone answered – a dot. Amusingly, you can see the small dot but not the emptiness on paper, he said. It’s like few people see half glass as half full and some view it as half empty. Our 5 senses – eyes, ears, nose, tongue and touch are always at work. What you see, hear, smell, taste and touch gets converted into feelings and they are transmitted to mind. When they are analyzed by our conscious mind they stay in our sub-conscious mind.

When two people see the same thing, there is a difference in their perception level. Different people perceive the same situation differently based on their education, background, experience, upbringing, knowledge etc. At this point it is relevant to recall the story of blind students and elephant as narrated in ancient Buddhist literature. Few blind students who had never seen and heard about elephant went into forest and found an elephant. Every blind person touched the different body parts of elephant and described elephant in their own way. Jainism also described it as ANEKANTAVAD doctrine of pluralism which explains that even the truth is perceived differently by different people based on their view points.

Our view point lies on the scale of highly negative thought at one end and highly positive thought on the other end. Here it is important to keep your needle towards the side of positive thoughts. As a human being it is quite natural that our thoughts may drift to negativity but we need to monitor & control our mind continuously to bring all senses and feelings towards positivity. Till we attainenlightenment, it is a continuous process to keep the horses of senses under control.

Someone has said, “What you sense, it becomes your feelings, feelings get converted into thoughts, thoughts becomes words, words get converted into action, action becomes habits, habit forms character and your character becomes your destiny. So control your senses, they make your destiny.

5 tips how to control senses:

1. Always be very conscious of your senses. Either your mind will control your senses or senses will start controlling your mind.
2. It is a natural tendency of senses to drift. Not to worry, you can get back towards positive side.
3. Reading good books or listening to motivational speeches helps in enhancing wisdom. In-turn they control senses effectively.
4. Do not feel guilty about negative thoughts, words or action. Past is not important, future is critical.
5. It is easy to control action, difficult to control words and very difficult to control thoughts. Deal accordingly.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
जिसने वश में कर लिया, अपने मन का मोर।
उसके हाथो में रहे, जीवन की ये डोर।।

Are You Effective?

If you are a competent person it does not mean you are effective. Our ability can give us efficiency but not necessarily the effectiveness. Efficiency can make you a better manager but effectiveness makes you a leader. If you are an effective person it does not mean you are efficient too. Efficiency is doing things accurately whereas effectiveness is doing the right things. Efficiency is climbing on a hill as fast as possible in a correct manner but effectiveness is climbing on the right hill. Efficiency is walking as fast as possible on the path but effectiveness is walking on the right path.

To achieve great success it is important that we are efficient as well as effective. But effectiveness is more important than efficiency. A good leader can achieve efficiency by getting things done from subordinates but effectiveness cannot be delegated.

5 qualities needed to become effective:

1. First and foremost quality needed is – Right Vision. One must be able to visualize entire jungle in a single seed.
2. One must be a strategist and should be able to select the right path to realize a vision.
3. One should select the right team to walk on the path selected to reach the final destination.
4. One must be an excellent crisis manager who can remain cool and think clearly in the situation of crisis.
5. One must be great motivator to lead his team with great enthusiasm and everlasting zeal.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
रहे लक्ष्य पर जो अडिग, लिए सोच सद्भाव।
जीवन की इस भीड़ में, उसका बने प्रभाव।।

Nurture the Nature

A very intelligent couple of parrot gave birth to 2 children. It so happened that one was taken by the sage and another by some uneducated notorious person. Both the child parrot got an excellent ability to articulate the human voice. The parrot that grew up in sage’s hut learned excellent civilized language and used to greet new comer with NAMASTE and other welcoming remarks. Whereas parrot nurtured at devil’s house learned very rough language and used to speak abusive words.

Often there arises a question whether our DNA is responsible for what we are or it is the environment we raised in. In my opinion both play an equally important role. An excellent seed can’t guarantee an excellent tree unless it is nurtured with care.

As a human being we fall on the scale of destiny at one end and our Karma at another end. Some people are extremely destiny dependent and some believe only in karma. But one must understand that as soon as we are born our DNA freezes & the cycle of karma begins. We can make our personality as we want, based on the intrinsic qualities. The tree is the product of a seed but every seed grows the way it is cultivated. We have no option but find out our basic nature and nurture it. Rather than blaming our destiny, we must focus on the present karma.

5 tips for best nurturing:

1. Every child is different. Find out the best quality and nurture that quality rather than focusing on attribute with no traces.
2. Do not compare and compete with others. It can be like a lion is compared with shark.
3. A successful human being is not who has accumulated power or wealth but who had maintained and nurtured his basic quality which is humanity.
4. People are not difficult, they are different. Try to find their nature and environment they grown in and deal accordingly.
5. As a human being our 3 main purposes are:
a) Love all Beings
b) Perform Duty Rightly
c) Enhance Wisdom

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
देखभाल जो ना मिले, मिले न अच्छी खाद।
उम्दा उन्नत बीज भी, हो जाते बरबाद ।।

Are you Fearless?

In India, CA (Chartered Accountant) is the only professional exam where students cannot predict their result and score with certainty. I recallmy exam days during late 1970’s, when our exam used to start at 10 am and I used to stop studying at 9am and listen local radio Vividh Bharati. My most of the friends studied till last minute. When they asked how come I used to be so relaxed, my reply would be “Institute of CA at the most will fail me.” If today I analyze my thought process, the reason for that calmness was that I used to think what worse can happen and accept the worst without much of the pain.

Top 10 most strong fears in order of their intensity are as follows:
1. Fear of Failure
2. Fear of Death
3. Fear of Rejection
4. Fear of Criticism
5. Fear of Loneliness
6. Fear of Misery
7. Fear of Disappointment
8. Fear of Illness
9. Fear of Unknown
10. Fear of Losing Freedom

Since fear is always about the future outcome, most of the time it is imaginary and psychological rather than logical. Fear leads to worry. Few fears may be genetic but most of the fears we learn during our nurturing, from parents, teachers, fellow students and surroundings. For example, Indian mothers may not allow their children to go nearwater and learn swimming whereas western mothers teach & put their 1 year old child in sea water for swimming.

5 tips to become fearless:

1. Actions are in our control. Result gets affected by lot of unforeseen forces so focus on action but do not worry about results.
2. Imagine what worst can happen and plan for that situation accordingly.
3. The best way to overcome fear is to “FACE IT” with confidence in mind and smile on the face. Fear will evaporate.
4. Align your thoughts, words and actions. That will make your character strong. People who never do any wrong to others are most fearless.
5. Ultimate fearless situation is when neither pleasure nor pain affects you. Such type of state is achieved by people like Lord Mahavira and Lord Buddha.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
बिना डरे करते चलें, हरदम अपने काम।
मारे डर के राह में, होते काम तमाम।।

Are You Learning?

We have an opportunity to learn at every moment, in every situation and from everyone around us. Thomas A. Harris, an American author & screenwriter in his bestselling book “I’m OK, You’re OK” has narrated 4 situations of human interactions as follows:

1. I am not OK, You are OK. Normally a child interacts in this way with parent.
2. I am OK, You are not OK. Normally parent communicates with a child in this way.
3. I am OK, You are OK. Normally an adult interact with another adult in this way.
4. I am not OK, You are not OK. A child may interact with another child in this way.

One learns best when he/she behaves like a child or student. When you behave like a parent, you stop learning. Learning is possible only when you think that your pot is still empty. When you have an ego that you know all and you need not learn anything, you start sliding down in knowledge and wisdom.

There are 2 ways to learn:
1. To learn from others failures and successes.
2. To learn from own failures and successes.

Wise person will use 1st option more than 2nd option because 1st option is the most easy and economical. However, when we learn through 2nd option, it may be time consuming and expensive but it is ever-lasting. In 2nd option one has to go through lot of pain and but that makes learning more effective.

Learning is not enough if it is not applied. Application of knowledge is wisdom. Learning lies between ignorance and wisdom. Learning can be about professional skill or personal attitude but important is that one continues learning till his/her last breath.

5 signs of a lifelong learner:

1. Learners are good listeners. They talk less & listen more.
2. Learners are inquisitive and question more.
3. Mostly the good readers are good learners also.
4. Learners are open to criticism. They have fewer egos.
5. Learners are adventurous.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
सुने अधिक कम बोल कर , रखे हमेशा ध्यान।
जीवन का हर पल हमें, बाँट रहा है ज्ञान।।

Are You Impartial?

“Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” You will find this phrase engraved on the side mirrors of vehicles. These convex mirrors provide better view of the field. It also makes objects appear smaller. There are mainly 3 types of lenses- Plain, Convex and Concave. When we use convex curved lens, the things will look farther and smaller and if we use concave lens, things will look closer and bigger.

Same happens with life! We see faults of others with concave lens and magnify them but their qualities with convex lens and ignore them. Whereas we see our faults with convex lens and our goodness with concave lens. We appreciate the people we like and we criticize the people we dislike. Using these lenses is the major cause of prejudices in relationship. Appreciating more than one deserve is equally bad as criticizing more than needed. Jainism and Buddhism gave principle of SAMYAK DRISHTI which means RIGHT VISION i.e. looking at the things as they are!

5 tips to be impartial:

1. As a human being it is quite natural that we get influenced negatively or positively but important is to readjust our thoughts to neutrality.
2. People may have their own perception about your partiality. However you need to continuously introspect your attitude.
3. Encourage feedback from your closed people to have judicious view of your actions.
4. The world is full of illusion. People are experts in wearing masks. Keep a penetrating view to look at reality.
5. In spite of all precautions, if you have behaved partiality, take corrective action to save the face.

दोहा अविनाश बागड़े
जैसे का तैसा दिखे, ना ही पक्ष विपक्ष।
सम्यक दृष्टि आपको, रखती है निष्पक्ष।।

Are you visionary?

It is difficult to conclude whether “Vision Activates Wings” or “Wings Elevates Vision” and whether “Action Illuminates Vision or “Vision Induces Action.” But there is no doubt that, Vision and Action both are essential ingredients and Vision precedes Action.Vision without action is just a wish and action without vision may not be effective.

Most of the leaders are good at visualizing the final goal and forming the effective strategy but they may be poor at execution. If they get support of good executing managers, they attain success easily. A great leader is one who can drive team on well thought out strategy towards the final goal. To have a pre-defined vision is the first step for having a winning and successful team. Having a shared vision can be the best situation but generally it so happens that leaders visualize and share their vision with their team with an aim to get it fine tuned and form a right strategy. But the very attribute of a great leader is to have a great vision at a first place and this cannot be delegated or passed on. Visionary person can either predict future with utmost accuracy or can build the future the way he/she wants.

5 attributes of a visionary:
1. Visionary leaders gain expertise in their domain.
2. They are deep thinkers with strong imagining capabilities.
3. They have an ability to visualize the consequences of their actions and strategies.
4. They are risk takers and have the courage to go ahead against all odds.
5. They may change the strategy but they rarely change their ultimate goal.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
खतरों से हैं खेलते , परिणामों को जान।
एक सफल नेतृत्व की , दूरदृष्टि पहचान।।

3 Mistakes, Human Make

Nothing is Perfect! Man is a bundle of mistakes. Life is a series of successes and failures. It is not possible to find a person who has not made any mistakes and has never failed. Mostly, we come to know whether our action was right or wrong only when we get the result of that action.

The root cause of every success and failure is our initial thoughts. Thoughts are the seeds of actions. Thought trigger emotions and emotions leads to actions. So, the process of actions can be divided in 4 major categories. The success of action mostly depends on what process we adopt. Since lot of external factors also determines the result of your action, the major reason of success and failure is the kind of process we adopt before taking action.

1. Thinking Without Action – This is the first common mistake people make. Such people just keep thinking and due to fear of failure, they do not take any action. Hence, there is no question of success.

2. Actions without Thinking – This is the second common mistake generally people make. Such types of people do not think about consequences but rashly take actions. Some time they may succeed but chances are more that their actions will not give proper results. Such people’s actions are governed by their emotions such as anger, unhappiness, overflow of happiness etc.

3. Non-Synchronization of Thoughts and Actions – This is the third common mistake generally people make. Their thoughts and actions are not synchronized. They know beforehand that if they take particular actions, result may be disastrous but their emotions so much dominate their intellect that they forget the consequences and take actions which are more driven by their lust. It may happen that they are escaped from negative consequences but when they fail, they fail miserably and consequences are severe. Quick money, lust for sex, etc. fall in this category.

4. Synchronization of Thoughts and Actions – This is the best process. Thinking properly about consequences and then taking action with well thought out strategy. Still it is not necessary that you will get success always but chances are that your actions will lead to success most of the times.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
मानव के हर कार्य का, होते बीज विचार।
हार जीत के मूल में, इनका ही आधार।।

Are You a Stretegist?

Strategist is a person who decides the path to be taken to reach final destination from the current position. Imagine that you want to conquer Mount Everest and presently you are at base camp. Good strategist will select the best path to reach the destination so that the journey is fast and safe. In our day to day life also we have short term and long term goals. The task of strategist is to make effective plans to achieve those goals.

Primarily in any organization, it’s a leader’s responsibility to set the vision and decide the strategy. Organization’s growth or declinedepends on leader’s vision and strategy. Apart from overall strategy, there can be several strategies as per functional areas such as marketing, finance, operations, HR etc. Strategy is the main component which decides whether an entire organization is working effectively or not. Once the strategy is decided then entire team walks efficiently on that path to reach the goal.

5 attributes needed to be a strategist:

1. Good strategy is a combination of experience and imagination. It is very difficult for a completely fresh candidate to be a good strategist.
2. Strategist believes in brainstorming. He develops maximum possible options to reach goal, evaluates them and selects the best one.
3. Strategist is a good team builder. He knows that for execution of his plans, he would need a strong and competent team.
4. Strategist is a good problem solver. He understands that lot of unforeseen factors will erupt during execution and he has to convert those problems into profits.
5. A good strategist always keeps Plan B as a backup. Strategist never falls in love with particular strategy. As soon as he finds that a particular strategy is no more useful, he immediately changes the path.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
चलिए सुनियोजित सदा, कर के सोच विचार।
लक्ष्य मिलेगा आपको, बस! अनुभव के द्वार।।

Love is optional but Hate shall never be an option

Generally, you do not love the one who harms you. A normal human being won’t love Dhatura, Pig or a Terrorist. For them, there are 3 options. Fight, Ignore and/or Hate. For example we may fight with mosquito, ignore the snake and hate the pig. We fight when we know we are more powerful and can win. We ignore when we know that there is no point in fighting because the opponent is more powerful than us and it is not going to harm if we ignore. However, we hate when it is neither possible to win nor to ignore. And it has either harmed us or we are fearful that it will harm us.

Every religion teaches us to love and not to hate. If one goes deep into the feeling of hate, one can find that winning & ignoring is almost impossible. We may feel defeated & sometimes angry which develops the feeling of hatred. But we have to realize that hate is responsible for depression, disappointment and stress which harms us only. Hate is like an acid. It can damage the vessel in which it is stored as well as destroy the object on which it is poured. Hate is too strong emotion to waste on someone you dislike. It’s not worth. In my personal opinion, hate is a psychological disease which eats us from within.

5 tips to deal with the feeling of Hate:

1. As soon as you feel that you are developing hatred for someone, stop and analyze the reasons for the same. It may be anger, jealousy, greed, or just an imaginary reason. Deal with those emotions wisely.

2. Try to see things from the object’s point of view. For example, you hate a Scorpio even though you have never experienced its sting. It is foolishness.

3. First try to replace your feeling of hate by ignoring. Try to be in-different with the object or subject you hate.

4. As you start looking from other’s point of view, your hate feeling may convert into sympathy and understanding.

5. Loving all is ultimate point of enlightenment which was achieved by persons like Buddha, Mahavira, Christ, Mohammad etc. They did not hate even the people who harmed them.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
प्रेम करें या ना करें, राहें अपने पास।
पर नफरत के रास्ते, मिले गले की फ़ांस।।

Retire? Never!!!

Person like Stephen Hawking and Abdul Kalam never retires. Not even after death.

Recently when I was devising a retirement policy for the company, the question- “When really a person should retire?” stuck my mind. Most of the companies set an age limit for retirement (normally between 58-65). But in my opinion it is not a wise policy. I have even seen septuagenarians with a very active & creative brain and also people in their 40’s, lethargic and uncreative. An organization should have a policy that the day the person stop adding any value or his contribution falls short in comparison to his compensation or he is not performing his duties diligently, he/she should be asked to retire. People who are doing purely physical job may start losing physical strength as they age. However, people whose job is purely intellectual; they may become more productive with age and experience.

However, if you are working for an organization that has a retirement policy then you have no option but to plan your next inning after retirement. I have seen many people at the time of retirement are physically and mentally fit but only because of not having planned about work-life post retirement, they suddenly start losing their physical and mental strength. And they start ageing rapidly. It may be social work or work with minimal remuneration; one must keep working till he is mentally active. Read about top 10 celebrities who despite of having some kind of physical disability became super-successful. Case of Stephen Hawking is worth reading. http://techblogbiz.blogspot.in/2006/09/ten-famous-disabled-persons-who-became.html?m=1

5 Tips for Planning Life Post Retirement:

1. One should never retire from work unless & until one becomes physically and mentally incapacitated.

2. In case your organization has a retirement policy, plan well in advance about how you are going to keep yourself occupied in constructive way.

3. Sometimes it becomes imperative to give chance to next generation, so it is better to handover reins at appropriate time but plan your future engagements properly.

4. In world there are lots of needy people and organizations who can benefit from your experience. That may not give you a monetary satisfaction but will give lot of spiritual satisfaction.

5. Last but not least; planning your finances, regular income, wealth and will is foremost.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
जब तक मन मस्तिष्क ये, दे ना हमें जवाब।
लगे रहे बस काम पे, नही उमर का दाब।।

Am I Foolish?

As long as one is silently ignorant, no one can call them foolish. The moment one opens mouth or act in the matters where their knowledge insufficient or despite of having knowledge one acts against their own wisdom, one’s foolishness is unfolded. Any of your action which is not in tune with your wisdom, may result into foolishness. In Indian mythology, Kalidas (AD 375) is regarded as a biggest fool for he cut the branch of a tree on which he was sitting! On the other hand, he is renowned for his creativity, intelligence & his contribution as a poet and writer.

We are neither intelligent all the time nor we are foolish all the time. However, if we act foolishly most of the time then we will be regarded as foolish and vice versa. The wisest people in the history have also committed foolish act at times wondering how they could act so foolishly.

5 conditions under which a person may act foolishly:-

1. Western psychotherapists say that a person acts foolishly when he/she is in HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired) condition when the threshold level of handling emotions reduces and he/she regrets later.
2. If one opens mouth before weighing the thoughts, chances are that he ends up being foolish.
3. If a person acts against his conscious, the consequences may end him up in the category of foolish.
4. When emotions dominate the thoughts, it is likely that one commits foolish act.
5. When a person start thinking that his knowledge and abilities are supreme, chances are bright that his intellect may let him down.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
बैठे हो जिस पर अभी, मत काटो वह डाल।
करने के पहले सदा , मेधा रखो संभाल।।

Nurture Angel Within

During earth formation, neither angel nor demon existed. At ancient times, humans were like all other animals. Their main purpose of existence was survival and reproduction. Nevertheless, human was one of the most intelligent animals, having mind, consciousness, intellect and ego of better quality. Beginning of inclination towards ownership became the root cause of all problems. Probably, that is the point when angels and demons birth took place.

Anyways, it is difficult to establish how we evolved but as on today every one of us carries an angel and a demon within us. We use them as a tool to fulfill our desires in self interest. If I ask entire human race, no one will agree that he/she has a demon within. He/she will prove with all his/her logics that he/she is a good person Alas, if this would have been the case; then there would have been no crime, no pain, no hate, no jealousy and no greed. The major problem of today’s life is that everyone wears a mask of an angel over his/her intentions of a demon.

I usually tell my friends that most of us worship God due to two main reasons. Either we have a greed to get something or a fear to loose something. The intensity of desire/ fear decides what is going to be picked up within us, weather an angel or a demon. When angel is selected, we spread happiness and pleasure around us but when we prefer demon, we always spread pain and problems around us.

If we analyze human acts, we can put them in following six categories:-

1. When a person acts with cruelty where his/her intentions is to completely destroy others. In this case, person is in complete control of a demon.

2. When a person acts to fulfill his/her desires and gets pleasure even at the cost of pains for others. Still the person is in control of a devil.

3. When a person is concerned about his/her own benefit and is not bothered whether others will get a pain or a pleasure, he is standing at the boundary where sometimes he acts like a devil and sometimes like an angel.

4. When a person never harms others for getting his/her own benefits, he/she is acting like an angel.

5. When a person just acts and is not bothered by pain or pleasure, he/she reaches stage known as enlightenment.

6. The worst situation is when a person acts with ill intentions wearing a mask of an angel. Nowadays, population of such persons is increasing day by day.

To achieve permanent bliss, destroy your demon, adopt angel and try to move towards enlightenment where neither you need a demon nor an angel.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
सुख दुःख के कारण कहीं,और नही श्रीमान।
अपने अंदर ही बसे ,साधु और शैतान ।।

Emotions Ignite Destiny

Previously I wrote 2 blogs “Dreams Drive Destiny” and “Actions Decided Destiny“. Now, I am writing on “Emotions Ignites Destiny”. You may get confused, whether it is emotions, or dreams or actions which decides destiny. Destiny is a destination and to reach destination we take up journey. Emotions, dreams, thoughts, actions are various processes which are required while having a journey. Most of you might have read that thoughts leads to actions, actions converts into habits, habits make character and character decides destiny. However, journey does not start from our thoughts; rather it starts from our emotions.

As soon as, our senses receive something from our surrounding environment, emotions are generated and are processed by ANTAHKARAN. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antahkarana. ANTAHKARAN has 4 inner organs as per Hindu mythology:-

1. Ahamkāra (ego) – identifies Atman (self) within our body as ‘I’
2. Buddhi (intellect) – controls decision making
3. Manas (mind) – controls sankalpa (will or resolution)
4. Chitta (memory) – deals with remembering and forgetting

Thoughts are generated and firmed up by processing emotions in ANTAHKARAN. So emotions are basic raw material for creating destiny. For example, you see Sachin Tendulkar playing marvelous cricket and you get mesmerized. So in this case, your emotions are basically generating thoughts that you should become like Sachin. You form dreams and to materialize those dreams, you take actions and your journey started towards your goal.

Emotions are just starting point. One wrong step and your destination changes hence management of emotions is extremely important. If you analyze all successful people, you will find that they have analyzed and managed their emotions in their area of success very effectively. In a day we develop thousands of emotions pertaining to various aspects of our life but we get result in the area where we take forward our emotions to thoughts, actions and so on.

5 tips to manage emotions:-

1. Be conscious about your emotions. Watch them carefully.
2. Use your mind and intellect carefully to process your emotions.
3. Emotions may be negative or positive. Both types of emotions need proper analysis and thought process before taking any action.
4. Imagining the consequence of action is pre-requisite for having proper fate of emotions.
5. Do not allow emotions to control you, control your emotions by utilizing 4 organs of ANTAHKARAN.

Change the Path, Not the Destination

Mountaineer will change the path if he comes across any obstacle on the way but his destination is always the Peak. A river changes the course but her destination is always the Ocean. On the path of life, we are in one of the five situations described below.

1. Person neither has any path nor any destination. Such people are mostly not doing much to alleviate their life and soul.

2. Person is actively doing something but neither the path nor the destination is clear to him. They may reach anywhere.

3. Person has knowledge that it is a good path but not much aware of about the destination. Mostly these people follow the footsteps of good soul and hope that they will also reach to good destination. Such people enjoy the journey and they are not much bothered about destination.

4. Person has clarity about destination but not sure of the path. They just keep the final destination in their mind and keep walking. They change the path as soon as realize that they are waking on wrong path.

5. Person who is clear about his destination and certain about the path. Quite possible that neither such destinations are great nor that path is exciting.

In case proper thought is not given while deciding final destination and consequences of walking on the path towards destination, chances are bright that one may have to change vision and mission frequently. That will result into waste of time, energy and resources.

Deep thinking, creativity, knowledge and experience are needed to decide vision or final destination. This will ensure effectiveness of your efforts. Right selection of path is needed to achieve highest efficiency. Though, effectiveness and efficiency both are needed for success in life; effectiveness is more critical.

It may happen that we need to change our strategy. However one shall not change the final goal unless it is established that there is no point in pursuing that goal.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
छेड़छाड़ मत कीजिये,, कभी ध्येय के संग।
बदल दीजिये रास्ता, अगर हो रहे तंग।।

How Management can avoid wasteful thinking hours of employees?

An employee’s thinking process may not be controlled by management. But what management gives employees to think is in the control of management. No organization and its management can guarantee that employee just thinks about organizational growth, if not all the time; then at least during office hours. Probably we all read/know that thoughts direct the words, words drive action, action leads to habit, habit develops character and character decides destiny. I am not sure whether only thinking approach of employees can build the destiny of organization. But I am sure that in some or other way performance of employees is affected their thought process. And employee’s performance is the major factor that decides organization’s fortune.

Few reasons for employees wasting their thinking hours are as follow:

1. Employee is having some serious domestic problem and he/sheis unable to concentrate at work place. Though such situations are not in the control of management but empathetic management will sense the problem and try to help employee to overcome so that their productivity remains unaffected.

2. Roles and responsibilities are not defined. Employees always wonder whether he/she is doing the duty properly or not.

3. Management keep procrastinating important issues without communicating appropriate reasons for the same and employees waste their productive hours thinking and gossiping. Clear communication solves the issue.

4. Lack of systems, procedures, processes & SOP’s leads to difficulty in handling even routine and repetitive issues. Employees keep wondering why management is dumb about such simple things.

5. Management is not pursuing inclusive growth where growth of employer and employees both go hand in hand. Management is concerned and bothered about their own growth but when question of employee’s growth arises, they either ignore it or exploit it. In such environment, employees may keep working because of no option but their mind and soul is not in unisonwith the body/organization.

There can be several other reasons where employee’s thinking maynot be in line with organizational thinking. The responsibility of management is to be alert to such mismatch and take appropriate action so that employee’s thoughts are always working in the interest of organization.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े

करे व्यवस्था में सदा, पैदा वह विश्वास।
कर्ता रहे विचार में, सदा कर्म के पास।।

How to see beyond masks?

n this world, 99 out of 100 people wear mask while interacting with others. Few people are so expert in changing the mask while dealing with different people, at different time and in different situations,that it is impossible to know the truth. Honestly, we have become so used to change the mask that we ourselves have forgotten our true identity; leaving a little chance for others to know our real nature, intentions and personality. Whether you are dealing with an employee, customer, supplier, boss, colleague, friend, relative or even your own spouse, possibility cannot be ruled out that person has something beyond his words and actions. However success of a person whether at home or at work depends on how accurately one can see beyond the mask and understand the real intentions of people. When our actions are in accordance with real intentions of people, effectiveness increasesmanifold. It is not that people always have bad intentions, even good intentions are hidden and one needs to know what lies beyond the mask. Sometimes it is almost impossible to know the real intentions of people but if we are alert and conscious, most of the time we will know that person has some hidden agenda and we will be alert next time.

5 tips on how to see beyond the mask:

1. Initially, start with zero level of trust with other party. It does not mean that we distrust the person. Even a person we trust the most, sometimes do not have right words to clarify his/her intentions.

2. Be alert in interaction. Be conscious. Keep alert your all senses. People convey 65% of their message through body language only.

3. Ask questions where answers are not just limited to Yes or No, but one is compelled to describe more and more.

4. Every person has his own reputation, aura and past record. If dealing first time, take referrals. More you know about a person, more it will be easy to crack his masks.

5. At the end if you have doubt on your judgment about a person’s intention, either withdraw or take no action or minimal action.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
मुखर मुखौटे हो रहे, चेहरे होते गौण।
चेहरों को पहचानिये, आखिर में है कौन।।

Let the kids learn value of money

If someone asks me, which are the 3 most important things forleading a successful life; I will answer relationships, work and money. Most of the education is to train for work but maintaining relationship and value of money needs to be learned from parents. Money is one of the most sought after commodity in our life. Value of money is well understood in lower and middle class families but children who are raised in higher middle class and rich families sometimes do not get proper opportunities to understand the value of money. It is nature’s rule that things which are abundant in nature are not valued much. A person living in desert knows importance of water so well that we cannot expect the same level of consciousness from a person who is living near river which is flowing with fresh water all the 365 days.

Teaching the value of money is prime responsibility of parents and grandparents. We cannot expect this from teachers. Most critical age is between 5-10 years when parents should be more careful in handling money matters in front of children. Fulfilling all reasonable and unreasonable desires of the child without any conditions, buying child’s attention and love through expensive gifts, spending money recklessly in front of children are few practices which create an impression in child’s mind that money is freely available. And those impressions and experiences becomes great hurdle throughout his/her life to overcome.

5 Tips to teach value of money to children particularly when you have abundance of it:

1. There is no problem in living in a big house, having all comforts, owning luxury cars etc. Important is to develop a habit of avoiding wasteful expenditure.

2. Be strict about unreasonable demands of the children and do not bend against emotional blackmail. What is unreasonable is one’sown wisdom.

3. Try to develop a system of give and take. Child gets reward for whatever good acts he does. Nothing should be easily available except basic needs.

4. Take him to charity trips. They must realize that they are fortunate to have luxuries in life.

5. Right, relevant and proper education must be top agenda for theparents.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
बचपन को बतलाइये, धन दौलत का मूल्य।
आगे जीने के लिए, होगी सीख अमूल्य।।

Follow & Spread UNIVERSALISM

Universalism is to eliminate pain from our life and filling our life with happiness. Founding words of Universalism is Wisdom, Love and Duty. In this world there is no one who is either not suffering from some pain or who is continuously trying to work for happiness in life. These pain and pleasure may be of any type, physical, emotional, mental, financial or spiritual. These pain and pleasure can be personal, professional or social. In last few years I made efforts to know the main cause of pain and pleasure and after lot of study, discussion and thought research, I have concluded that there are mainly 3 reasons for our suffering or not getting happiness. These are not new, every religion and philosophy has taught them but we keep forgetting and there is continuous need to be reminded.

From the point of importance, first basic reason for suffering is lack of wisdom. Ample information and knowledge is available at touch of finger but what we lack is wisdom. An ability to take right decisions, at right time, in right circumstances and with right people. It is easy to chose between right and wrong but very difficult between right and more right or wrong and more wrong. Our greed, selfishness, jealousy and fears do not allow us to think rationally and act wisely.

Second basic cause of our suffering is not doing our duty. In life we get many roles. Role of son, daughter, parent, spouse, employee, employer colleague, neighbour, citizen, friend etc. but we fail to understand about our duty as per our role. We decide our duty based on our own benefit rather than based on our role. Over doing duty can also be as harmful as not doing our duty. Sometimes we decide our duty based on response of other party. We give excuse that if other person is not doing his duty then why shall I do my duty. Doing your duty irrespective of the situation is key to happiness.

Third but most important basic reason for our suffering is lack of love. Due to greed, jealousy, selfishness and fear we have forgotten to love. We give love to only those people who fulfil our expectations or we have hope that our expectations will be fulfilled. Giving unconditional love is nowhere to be seen. It may not be possible to love all but at least we can take a vow that we will not hate anyone. The person whom we hate occupies more rent free space in our mind and thoughts as compared to person we love.

Among wisdom, duty and love, wisdom is supreme quality we need to have because quality of our duty and love can not be better than quality of our knowledge and wisdom. If you agree with me then let us take oath:

I pledge to my supreme almighty that I will:

1. Enhance my wisdom till my last breath.

2. Perform my duty regardless of situation.

3. Love all living beings unconditionally.

4. Abide by the above principles and keep making MITRA.

इस संसार में कोई भी ऐसा व्यक्ति नहीं जिसने कभी दुँख का अनुभव नहीं किया हैं ओर हर व्यक्ति हर पल प्रयत्नशील रहता है कि उसे सुख प्राप्त होता रहे। ये सुख और दुख शारीरिक, मानसिक, आर्थिक, सामाजिक, आत्मिक या ओर भी किसी प्रकार के हो सकते है। ये सुख और दुख निजी, व्यवसायिक या सार्वजनिक जीवन के बारे में हो सकते है। मैंने पिछले कुछ वर्षों में इस बारे में अध्ययन, चर्चा, मंथन एवं चिंतन करने का प्रयत्न किया और ये जानने कि कौशिश की कि सुख और दुख का मूल कारण क्या है। सब धर्मों एवं विचारधाराओं का अध्ययन करने का प्रयत्न किया। इस सब मंथन एवं चिंतन से जो कुछ समझ आया उसमें नया कुछ भी नहीं है या ऐसा कुछ नहीं है जिसे आप नहीं जानते है। लेकिन हम रोज की आपाधापी मे इन मूल कारणों को भुल जाते है। किसी भी समस्या का समाधान तब संभव हो जाता है जब हमें उसके मूल कारण पता हो। अबतक के चिंतन से मुझे समझ आया है कि हमारे हर सुख एवं दुख के ३ मूल कारण है।

मूल कारणों कि महत्ता के अनुसार अगर मे अपनी बात कहना चाहु तो सबसे पहला कारण है ज्ञान, ज्ञान कि कमी। सिर्फ़ जानकारी होना ज्ञान नहीं है। आज के युग में हर प्रकार की जानकारी गुगल पर उपलब्ध हैं लेकिन हम फिर भी समय, व्यक्ति एवं परिस्तिथि के अनुसार उचित निर्णय नहीं कर पाते हैं। हमारे स्वार्थ, ईर्ष्या, भय आदि हमारी बुद्धि को कुंठित कर देते है एवं हम अन्यायपूर्ण व्यवहार करने लग जाते हैं। सही एवं ग़लत के बीच निर्णय करना तो फिर भी आसान होता हैं लेकिन सही एवं ज़्यादा सही तथा ग़लत एवं ज़्यादा ग़लत के बीच निर्णय अत्यंत कठिन होता है व एसे निर्णय के लिये उच्च कोटि के ज्ञान की आवश्यकता होती हैं। यह बुद्धिमत्ता हमें मिलती है हमारे संस्कारो, शिक्षा एवं अनुभव से।

दूसरा मूल कारण है हमारे कर्म। जीवन एक रंगमंच है व हर पल हमें अलग अलग तरह की भूमिका निभानी पड़ती है। अकसर हम हमारी सही भूमिका पहचानने में विफल हो जाते है एवं अपने कर्तव्य का पालन नहीं कर पाते है या फिर हम एसे कर्म भी कर लेते है जो हमारे कर्तव्य की सीमा से बाहर है। हमारी अज्ञानता हमें हमारे सही कर्तव्य को पहचानने में बाधक हो जाती है। कर्तव्य से अधिक करना भी उतना ही दुखदायी बनाता है जितना कि कर्तव्य से कम करना। कई बार हमें हमारे कर्तव्य की जानकारी होती है लेकिन हम सिर्फ़ इसलिये अपने कर्तव्य का पालन नहीं करते है कि सामने वाला व्यक्ति अपने कर्तव्य का पालन नहीं कर रहा है। हमें हर परिस्तिथि मे अपने कर्तव्य को पहचान कर अपने कर्तव्य का पालन करते रहना चाहिये।

तीसरा लेकिन बहुत ही महत्वपूर्ण कारण है प्रेम की कमी। स्वार्थ, ईर्ष्या एवं भय ने हमारे जीवन से प्रेम को लगभग समाप्त ही कर दिया है। निस्वार्थ प्रेम तो देखने को ही नहीं मिलता हैं। हम प्रेम सिर्फ़ उसे ही देते है जो हमारी अपेक्षाएँ एवं आकांक्षाएँ पुरी करता है या पुरी करने की आशाएँ दिलाता है। अगर प्रेम करना कठिन है तो हम इतना तो कर ही सकते है कि किसी से नफ़रत या घ्रणा न करे। जब हम किसी को नापसंद करते है तो वह व्यक्ति हमारे मन एवं मस्तिष्क में ज़्यादा जगह बना लेता है।

प्रेम, ज्ञान एवं कर्म में ज्ञान सर्वोपरी है क्योंकि प्रेम एवं कर्म कि उत्तमता ज्ञान कि उत्तमता से बेहतर नहीं हो सकती। अगर आप मेरी बात से सहमत है तो हम आज शपथ ले कि:

मैं अपने ईश्वर को साक्षी मान कर शपथ लेता हुँ कि:

१) जीवन की अंतिम साँस तक अपने ज्ञान मे वृद्धि करुंगा।

२) हर परिस्थिति में अपने कर्तव्य का पालन करुंगा।

३) हर जीव को निस्वार्थ प्रेम करुंगा।

४) इन सिद्धांतों का पालन करते हुए मित्र बनाने का प्रयास करता रहुंगा।

VISION

One World

MISSION
To have a cheerful life by spreading LOVE and eliminating hatred.
To encourage people to perform their DUTY.
To reduce ignorance by enhancing WISDOM.

Main Principles:
1. Love All Beings. सबसे प्रेम करो।
2. Enhance Your Wisdom. अपना ज्ञान बढ़ाओ।
3. Do your Duty. कर्तव्य पालन करो।

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
तीन शब्द है जीवन में, बहुत अधिक बलवान।
देते जीवन को दिशा, प्रेम कर्म और ज्ञान।।

Enhance Your Wisdom

Ignorance is bliss. What you do not know cannot hurt you. Not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it. All these quotes suggest that less you know, happier you are. However all great philosophers, scientists and successful people had knowledge and wisdom as a great asset. Whether you talk about Buddha, Mahavir, Christ or Mohammad, all had great wisdom. Kabir and Rahim are still remembered for their wisdom.

Knowledge is power and wisdom is respected. To live a successful life one need to take right decisions at every step of journey and wise decisions are outcome of thorough knowledge and deep wisdom. Formal education helps in enhancing knowledge but lifelong learning is needed for continuous enhancement of wisdom. It is not necessary that a wise person always earn more money but certainly he leads a happy and satisfactory life.

5 tips to continuously enhance your wisdom:

1. If you have 8 hours to chop a tree, spend first 6 hours in sharpening the axe. Same way if have to speak for 2 minutes, spend minimum 6 minutes in contemplating what would be the right words. Meditation & deep thinking are the best tools to enhance wisdom.

2. Education is not limited to school/college. Rather education is a continuous process. We must have thirst for learning till last breath of life. We should do reading and writing on continuous basis as they help in gaining clarity of thoughts.

3. Keep the company of enlightened people. Listen them, question them and understand them.

4. Nature is the best teacher. Every plant, every animal, every human being and every non-living thing can teach us if we are ready to be a student.

5. Every religion, every philosophy has something good to offer. Keep your all senses alert for learning.

9 points of HL (Hate-Love) Scale

9 Points of HL SCALE about Human Relationship

You must be wondering what this HL stands for. It’s not Hemant Lodha. LoL. H stands for HATE and L stands for LOVE. This is same as Hedonic scale.

http://www.sensorysociety.org/knowledge/sspwiki/Pages/The%209-point%20Hedonic%20Scale.aspx

Our relationships can be broadly divided in 2 categories. One, we obtain during/after our birth in a particular family and another, we create as we grow. Relationship can be with friends, relatives (at home) or peers/colleagues (at work). At any stage of life, relationships can be placed at various points on HL scale. 9 points of hedonic scale are as follows:

1. Hate

2. High Disliking

3. Average Disliking

4. Low Disliking

5. Neutral

6. Low Liking

7. Average Liking

8. High Liking

9. Love

The secret of peace and happiness is to keep our relationships on the scale more towards L-Love rather than towards H-Hate. It is easier said than done but once we know at what point particular relationship stands than one can make conscious efforts to move towards L. Our ego, anger, jealousy, irritation etc. are major cause of holding or pushing the relationship more towards H but sacrifice, let go, maturity, caring, helping kind of attitude can push relationship more towards L. Every relationship needs to be tackled consciously.

5 steps to know how to move towards Love on HL scale:

1. First check where your relationship stands on scale from Hate to Love.

2. Depending on the importance of relationship set the target where you want to take your relationship on that scale.

3. Consciously analyze what are the factors from your side and other persons side is holding your relationship to move forward.

4. If possible talk to the other person candidly that you are genuinely interested in strengthening relationship with him/her.

5. Even if that person is not responding positively, you keep making efforts which are in your control.

दोहा अविनाश बागड़े द्वारा

सुख शांति सब को मिले, नहीं तनिक संदेह।
तजो घृणा के रास्ते, अपनाओ पथ- नेह।।

Are You a Strategist?

5 attributes needed to be a strategist:

1. Good strategy is a combination of experience and imagination. It is very difficult for a completely fresh candidate to be a good strategist.

2. Strategist believes in brainstorming. He develops maximum possible options to reach goal, evaluates them and selects the best one.

3. Strategist is a good team builder. He knows that for execution of his plans, he would need a strong and competent team.

4. Strategist is a good problem solver. He understands that lot of unforeseen factors will erupt during execution and he has to convert those problems into profits.

5. A good strategist always keeps Plan B as a backup. Strategist never falls in love with particular strategy. As soon as he finds that a particular strategy is no more useful, he immediately changes the path.

5WH for Decision Making

Decision making is part of our day to day life. Quality of life depends on quality of our decisions. It will not be wrong to say that our decisions drive our destiny. It’s strange that we do not get formal education about how to take effective decisions. Though quality of our decision depends on quality of our thoughts, knowledge and wisdom; however, if we follow 5WH method, we can improve quality of our decisions.

5WH is nothing but 6 types of questions. What, Why, Where, When, Who and How. The most important questions we need to answer before taking any decision is – What we want to do? And Why we want to do? All 6 type of questions are not important in all circumstances. However, one should try to write down all possible questions and probable answers before taking final decision. When we write, our thoughts become clearer and quality of decision becomes better.

Since every situation is unique from the perspective of time, person and circumstances. It is better not to apply previous decisions in current situation without rethinking with zero base. Quality of thoughts, words and actions differentiate 2 persons and proper answering of 5WH will determine quality of thoughts, words and actions.

कब कैसे क्यूँ कहाँ, कौन करे क्या काम।
जो सोचे हर बात को, उसका होगा नाम॥

7 Billion Dreams, 1 Planet, Consume with Care

You might have heard saying One Women 100 Suitor or in Hindi एक अनार सौ बीमार, that fits well with present condition of our planet earth. 7 billion people (dreams) and just one Mother Earth is supposed to fulfill the dreams of all by providing resources to each and every one.

f we spiritually look in to the situation, one will find that Mother Earth is least bothered about the weirdness of human dreams. Mother Earth has given 5 elements – Air, Water, Matter, Fire and Space and the overall quantity is fixed. Human can just change the composition, shape and color but in reality the total resources remains same. Mother Earth does not have worry about the rise or drop of temperatures, earthquakes or volcanoes, storms or tsunami. It is the human being who is getting affected by abusing the nature. Survival of human being is at stake and billions of other animals suffer without any fault. In the context of nature protection, animals are more intelligent species than human because they probably understand the balance needed on earth and hence they live in complete harmony with nature. But human being, who is continuously evolving and striving for the best resources, does not live or act according to nature’s will. In this process humans are destroying their own dwellings by acting against nature.

I go back to 1960s and recall my life as a child in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. We used to follow 3 principles (reduce, reuse and recycle) without any formal education or understanding their impact on environment. First R is Reduce our electric and water consumption to a bare minimum. We were not allowed to waste food and used to get new set of clothes only once in a year on diwali. Thus, Consumption was less even though people had enough money.

Reuse was the way of life. Like, using leftover food for breakfast on the next day morning by re-cooking it or using discarded cloth bags for buying vegetables and other shopping, making paper bags from used note books and old newspapers etc. I have gone through excellent example of water recycling. In Rajasthan there was an acute shortage of water. My mother use to give me bath in tub, reuse that water for washing the clothes in tub, again reuse the same water for mopping the floor and finally use the same water for flushing in the toilet. Now-a-days, this 3R concept is heard in corporate/environment conclaves but very little is known and practiced in modern urban homes.

5 tips for making WED meaningful:

1. Apply 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) in a day to day life in true sense.

2. Do not miss an opportunity to plant a tree and taking care of the same.

3. As far as possible, use renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, organic food and fertilizers etc.

4. Implement rain water harvesting in your premises.

5. Educate your children, friends and family about “Consume with Care” and forward this message in your groups.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
जल थल अग्नि वायु व्योम, मिले नही हैं दान।
सोच समझ वापर करें, धरा मिली वरदान।
दोहा by कबीर दास जी
माटी कहे कुम्हार से, तु क्या रौंदे मोय।
एक दिन ऐसा आएगा, मैं रौंदूगी तोय॥

Entering into 60th year. Launching UNIVERSALISM.

बुढ़ा सठिया गया हैं। Yes family and friends! I am completing 59 years today and entering into 60th year which the people worldwide think is an age when person starts becoming crazy, insane, less intellectual etc. I read somewhere that if you want to achieve something worthwhile then you should be crazy/ zealous about your conviction/ passion. Whatever the experience and learning I gained so far, I am convinced that there are 3 basic reasons for our sufferings and happiness. To create a positive difference around my soul and souls of my surroundings, today I am launching UNIVERSALISM.

What is Universalism?

Universalism is to eliminate pain from our life and fill our life with happiness. Founding words of Universalism are Wisdom, Love and Duty. In this world, there is no one who is not suffering from either some pain or who is not continuously trying to work for happiness in life. These pain and pleasures may be of any type- physical, emotional, mental, financial or spiritual. These pain and pleasures can be personal, professional or social. In last few years I made efforts to know the main cause of pain and pleasure. After a lot of study, discussion and research, I have concluded that there are mainly 3 reasons for our suffering. These are not new. Every religion and philosophy has taught them but we keep on forgetting and there is need to continuously remind them.

From the point of importance, first basic reason for suffering is Lack of Wisdom. Ample information and knowledge is available at touch of finger but what we lack is wisdom i.e. an ability to take right decisions at the right time, in right circumstances and with the right people. It is easy to choose between right and wrong. But it is very difficult to choose between right and more right or wrong and more wrong. Our greed, selfishness, jealousy and fears do not allow us to think rationally and act wisely.

Second basic cause of our suffering is Not Doing our Duty. In life we get many roles. Role of son, daughter, parent, spouse, employee, employer, colleague, neighbor, citizen, friend etc. but we fail to understand about our duty as per our role. We decide our duty according to our own benefit/convenience rather than according to our role. Over-doing any duty can be as harmful as not doing our duty. Sometimes we decide our duty based on the response of other party. We give excuse that if other person is not doing his/her duty then why shall I do my duty. Doing your duty irrespective of the situation is the key to happiness.

Third but most important basic reason for our suffering is Lack of Love. Due to greed, jealousy, selfishness and fear, we have forgotten to love. We love only those people who fulfill our expectations or we have hope that our expectations will be fulfilled. Giving unconditional love is nowhere seen. It may not be possible to love all but at least we can take a vow that we will not hate anyone. The person whom we hate occupies more rent free space in our mind and thoughts as compared to person we love.

Among wisdom, duty and love; wisdom is supreme attribute we need to have because quality of our duty and love cannot be better than quality of our knowledge and wisdom. If you agree with me then let us take oath:

I pledge to my supreme almighty that:

1. I will enhance my wisdom continuously.

2. I will perform my duty in every situation.

3. I will love all living beings unconditionally.

4. I will always promote these principles.

am launching UNIVERSALISM by launching website www.universalism.in

If you agree with my thoughts then take above vow and become my MITRA in the mission. To become MITRA, register on above site.

Dear family and friends, Your wishes and blessings for success of mission UNIVERSALISM will be the true gift from you on my birthday.

With Love.

Hemant C. Lodha

12th June, 2015.

Nagpur. India.

eScale – Scale of Extremes

Our life is always moving on scale of extremes from one end to the other end. Scale may be related to love relationship, work, money, fame, knowledge, performance, spirituality, skills, and our nature or for that matter anything. The scale is normally in the inclined position where good things are on the higher side and bad things are on the lower side. It is always little difficult to move up towards the good things but easy to slide down towards the bad things.

It may be necessary to be at the right position towards the most positive end always. Sometimes staying at the neutral position or little more towards positive side is enough. More important is to make sure that we do not slide towards negativity or do not stay on negative side for a long. The right position on scale is decided taking into consideration the people, time and situation. For example take the scale of hate to love which has different points in between such as dislike, neutral and like. It is not possible to love everybody in life but it is important that we do not hate or dislike anyone. Another example can be the scale of money. Where at one end there is an extreme poverty and at other end there is an extreme affluence. Your journey shall always be towards becoming rich/better than what you are today. You may not necessarily become the richest person on earth but it is important to have enough money to take care of worldly needs and live a comfortable life.

Important is to understand the scale of extremes about every aspect, to know where you stand on this scale, to decide your reasonable goal on the scale and move towards achieving that goal.

5 steps for walking on eScale:

1. First determine which aspect of life you want to check your position on eScale.

2. Create your milestones between 2 extremes from worst situation to the best situation with respect to time, people and circumstances.

3. Decide your goal on that scale which shall be rational and realistic.

4. Start making efforts to walk towards that goal.

5. Review in between – your position, efforts, strategy and goal. Keep walking forward.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
पैमाने पर नापिये, खुद को बारम्बार।
चले बुराई छोड़ के, अच्छाई के पार।।

4 Ns of Carnism

Carnism was a new term for me when I first read an article by ManekaGandhi. http://www.mathrubhumi.com/english/columns/fauna-forum/know-more-about-the-word-carnism-162381.html
My interest developed and I read more about Ms. Joy who coined this idea of No-to-Carnism in west.

Carnism is a combination of 2 words. ‘Carn’ means “flesh” or “of the flesh” and ‘ism’ means belief. Carnism is not only against meat but against all animal products. People who believe that killing animals and eating meat is normal, natural, necessity and nice for taste; they fall in this category. Carnism is opposite of vegan/vegetarianism and few Asian philosophies such as Jainism, Buddhism etc. who believe that animals and plants are also part of this universe having equal right as human beings to live in peace.

Normal: Carnism believes that it is normal to kill the animal and eat it where as Jainism etc. believe that every animal has equal right to live on this planet. An animal may not understand this principle that is dependent on other weak animals for its survival but a human being who has developed so many other alternatives for survival needs to understand principle of oneness and universality.

Natural: Carnism believes that all living beings are part of food chain on this planet. Buddhism etc thinks that human being is being bestowed with a quality to have compassion with another being so one shall not kill anyone if one has alternate source of survival. It shall be the last resource. For example you are on an island where there is no vegetation and survival is dependent only on sea food.

Necessary: Carnism believes that our body needs necessary vitamins and proteins and that are available in animal’s flesh. But millions of people who follow vegetarianism have proved that they get enough protein and vitamins from vegetarian diet. Human body and mind is not conditioned to have non-vegetarian food. It’s not at all necessary for survival.

Nice Taste: Carnism believes that non-vegetarian food is tastier than vegan food. Taste is individual’s preference. However vegetarian food can also be delicious, if one can develop. Taking life of someone just for the sake of taste cannot be the justified logic to kill and eat animals.

All followers of Carnism must note that killing precedes cooking of non-veg food. Most of the non-vegetarians have never seen killing of animals and their packaging. In U.S. and other western counties there are facilities where animals are cultured, killed and packed in complete closed plants. Human logic is amazing. They love dogs and eat pigs and worship cows.

To Win, Keep Wild Card!!

Always Carry Wild Card in Your Pocket

According to Google, Wild Card means:
1. A playing card that can have any value, suit, color, or other property in a game at the discretion of the player holding it.
2. An opportunity to enter a sports competition without having to take part in qualifying matches or be ranked at a particular level.

I will call Wild Card a sort of Brahmastra (ब्रह्मास्त्र) – the ultimate tool, which one can use to overcome most difficult situation in life. On lighter side, just as most of the females use their tears as a last resort to turn the entire table on their side. Whether in personal life or professional life, situation arises due to unexpected events in your environment which are out of your control. In personal life, events such as unexpected death of dear one, failure in any relationship etc., in professional life; events such as change of job, change of boss, unexpected entry of new product or new competitor, new government rule etc.

During ancient times, people used to practice lot of meditation to acquire various weapons. Similarly in this modern era one should prepare themselves by keeping all the senses alert and deeply imagine about unexpected events, devising alternatives to deal with such situations. Building and keeping wild cards means creating resources, alternatives etc. to deal with unexpected situations so that damage can be minimized or even benefit can be obtained from such situation. If you have wild cards, you can convert problems into opportunities. It may so happen that wild card is never used but that gives a feeling of insurance towards unwanted/unexpected event in life.

Many people keep very good relations with powerful people. So whenever the situation arises they can unleash the potential of their contacts. Major wild cards are in form of resources and contacts. Money is one of the most powerful wild card in present era. However, continuous enhancement of wisdom in your professional and personal wife will help you in dealing any difficult situation.

5 Tips to create wild cards in your armor:

1. Continuously enhance your wisdom so that you get very less surprises in your life.

2. Continuously build resources in your life in form of money, wealth, reputation and contacts. You never know when it will be able to pull you out of mess.

3. Use wild cards to convert your problems into opportunities. Creativity and innovation is needed to sharpen continuously.

4. Do not disclose your wild cards to opponent till last moment. It will give you strength and courage to deal with any situation.

5. Mental and emotional toughness is the strongest wild card one can develop by continuously enhancing wisdom.

दोहा अविनाश बागड़े

जीवन में जब कभी, कठिनाई आ जाय।
दूर करे जो औषधी, रामबाण कहलाय।।

Are you Creative?

If you are doing same activity in same way since more than 3 years,probably you are doing it wrong. In an era where your phone becomes obsolete in a year and the model of your car start looking old in 2 years, you cannot be called creative and innovative if you are not changing the ways of doing your job regularly. All humans are same in respect of number of senses, type of body parts and organs. What differentiate one person from another are their feelings, thinking pattern and actions. Performance of one becomes superior to other just because of amount of creativity and innovation one brings in his/her day to day life.

The question is how one can be more creative. Creativity is a function of brain. If your brain is already full with routine methods then you do not have possibility to come up with new ideas. To develop creativity, most important way is to keep your mind empty and place for new thoughts.

5 ways for becoming more creative:

1. Frequently check your methods with zero bases. Look into the processes as if you are looking at them first time.

2. Whenever any problem arises, go into depth, find the reasons and create some better way of doing things.

3. Always question your routine. There is always room for improvement.

4. Keep your mind relax few hours every day by listening music, singing songs, doing painting, meditating, reading book, writing blog etc. where you can be focused on single task or thought.

5. Keep enhancing your knowledge and wisdom by remaining consciously observant.

दोहा by अविनाश बागड़े
दुनिया में हर आदमी, दिखता एक समान।
सृजनशीलता ही उसे, देती है पहचान।।

4 Types of Organisation

If we try to establish correlation with animals in terms of how they live, we can compare & classify human organization in 4 different categories, analogously. Mostly animals live in the following 4 situations/states:

Jungle Raj:

In Jungle type of organization, power plays major role. Strong dominates weak. It lacks vision, effective strategy and efficient systems. Might is right. Authority is centralized. No delegation of power. Communication is one way from top to bottom. Authority is not given, rather it is grabbed. Favoritism is prevalent and justice/fairness is denied. Mostly autocratic kind of organizations falls in this category.

Stable (तबेला) type of organizations:

In this type of organization, employees are treated like pet animals. They are retained as long as they can give milk i.e prove their usefulness in any way to the employer. Hire and fire or use and throw kind of policy. Individual performance matters more than team work. Even some time team works is considered when there is union formation and hence threat to the owner. Most of the family organizations work in this fashion. If you perform, you get carrot and if not you are thrown out. Focus on training and development is less.

Zoo:

Zoo type of organizations are mostly bureaucratic where animal in one cage is not bothered and do not care about who is there in another cage. Most of the government organizations fall in this category. Systems are rigid and bureaucratic. Communication is formal. Team work is lacking. Individual goals matter more than organizational goals.

Circus:

This type of organization is very professional. Everyone is trained to perform in unison. Roles are defined but everyone needs to work in harmony. Systems are most efficient. Organizational goals are aligned to individual potentials. In such type of organization, unique lives united.

Let Unique Live United

I am writing this blog exclusively keeping in mind the date 15th August i.e., Independence Day of India. I am very active on social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, WhatsApp etc. I receive several messages everyday which are communally biased, politically motivated, un-authenticated rumors, hurting a particular group or an individual which really feels a lot.

India is a land of diversity. Whether it is religion, caste, community, language or economic disparity. We have no option but to live peacefully united and in harmony. Britishers were famous for divide and rule policy but even after 68 years of independence; our political party plays the same game of divide and rule. In era of social media explosion this may be disastrous and devastating.

The most unfortunate part is that majority of our population is illiterate. Their emotions and mind can be ruled by few shrewd politicians who can divert the mind & energy of such public for achieving the selfish motives. There is a great need to inform / enlighten every citizen that interest and safety of our country is above their caste, creed and religion. We may have individual faiths, liking and choices. But when we are united/collective, interest of country shall be supreme.

Good governance is possible where either the society is enlightened such as few European countries, U.S. etc. or where dictatorship is ruled such as Arab countries, China etc. In country like India, it will take few more decades for citizens become enlightened and political parties to be matured. Probably we need directed dictatorship in every state headed by a clean person.

My appeal on Independence Day to all educated and enlightened people is not to encourage the spread of messages which are biased or critical to particular group. We all are unique. Let us live United and follow Universalism.

रूप-रंग और जाति धर्म, अलग-अलग पहचान।
अनेकता में एकता, अपना हिन्दुस्तान ।।

Can Education Guarantee Wisdom?

Recently on 30th July 2015, two major events happened in India which has moved the entire population. Honorable and most revered personality Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam left for his heavenly abode and CA Yakub Memon was hanged for being guilty for 1993 Mumbai Blasts. I myself being a CA, question surfaced in my mind, “Can education guarantee wisdom?” Though my answer is plain NO, however I invite opinion of others.

In my opinion, wisdom is an ability to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong and acting accordingly. What we become is purely the result of our day to day decisions about our life. My mother cannot write her own name and father who ran an educational institute, once upon a time. But still I have always found that wisdom of my mother is superior i.e. she can differentiate between the right and wrong in more appropriate manner. Now-a-days, education has become a mere collection of information and formal degrees. Definitely it teaches us about the right and wrong but due to our selfish motives, we suppress that knowledge and act unwisely. It does not mean that educated people cannot be wise. Chances are better those educations can help a person become wiser but education does not guarantee that a person will act wisely.

Our conscious plays a major role in giving us signals for wise decisions but our greed and fear instigate us to act otherwise. Strong determination is needed to act according to our conscious. Wisdom do not guarantee that you will get wealth, fame and power in life but it certainly guarantee happiness and bliss in life.

5 Tips to act wisely:

1. Always be alert before action and listen voice of your conscious.

2. Continuously expand your wisdom by reading, writing, listening and thinking.

3. Develop strong will power and determination to resist negativity.

4. Keep happiness as main goal over money, fame and power.

5. To act once, listen twice and think four times.

Receive – Reflect – Respond

Except when we are sleeping, our mind is engaged in one of the 3 activities – Receiving, Reflecting and Responding. We receive inputs from our environment through our senses then we analyses those inputs by reflecting and finally we respond as per the decision/signal given by our brain.

Even the animals do all these 3 things. However, their capacity of reflection is limited to food, safety and sex. We human beings are fortunate to inherit better brain which reflects by analysing and understanding the situation based on present circumstances and past experiences. But irony is that most of us do not use full capacity and potential of reflection and very quickly respond without thinking about consequences.

5 Tips for better reflection on thoughts:

1. Do not react quickly. Hold your response if possible.

2. Analyze the inputs from various angles.

3. Try to see the situation from various stakeholders’ point of view.

4. Listen views of others who are concerned with situation.

5. Always keep plan B ready in case your response is not giving desired results.

रहे चपल जो सोच में, रखते चित्त सचेत।
वाणी पर अंकुश रखे, तो फल ईश्वर देत।।

keep Building Bridges

From first breath to last breath our personality changes at 4 levels. Physical, Psychological/ Emotional, Intellectual and Spiritual. Physical changes are visible. However other 3 changes may not be visible. Because of these changes one person is different from another person. Because of these differences each person behaves in a different way which sometimes becomes the reason of conflict.

In life every person we meet, we try to find common ground, attractions, liking and interests and develop relationship. These attractions and interests create bridges between 2 people’s at these 4 levels. If bridges are short and we keep strengthening these bridges, relationship become better and better. The day we build a bridge at spiritual level, relationship becomes long lasting.

Relationship at Physical level:
Physical relation may start with a handshake or a hug. If it happens with opposite sex, it may sometimes end up in sexual relations. It is more guided by sensual desires/needs and once that need is fulfilled, its attraction is lost. However this need may grow continuously, becoming a strong habit which helps couple to live longer together. However, if a need is exclusively at physical level, chances are more that it will be fulfilled soon and result into separation.

Relationship at Emotional level:
Most of the personal relationships whether with family, relatives or friends, are guided by emotions. Basis of emotional bonding is sacrifice, care and love. It works like an emotional bank account. The day you withdraw more than you have deposited, relationships start sliding. To make relationship strong on emotional ground it requires you to give, give and give.

Relationship at Intellectual level:
Most of the professional and social relationships are based on intellectual level. In such relationship, we give and we take. We give performance, we get reward. Reward may be in form of money, fame or power but such relationships are purely based on self interest.

Relationship at Spiritual level:
To develop such kind of relationship, it requires highest level of wisdom. At this level a person ignores all differences at physical, emotional and intellectual level and develops an ability to see another person at soul/ supreme level. He considers other person like himself (at the soul level). One accepts the other person as he is. Not as he wants. Differences, conflicts or confrontations completely melt down.

It is not that we have connection with another person at one level only. We have mostly mix of all these levels. The problem arises when these 4 levels are not in harmony and bridges created are weak or we burn those bridges by our stupidity. If you wish to have strong relationships, keep narrowing bridges and keep strengthening bridges by love, care, intelligence and wisdom.

5 tips for building bridges of relationship at different levels:

1. First decide to what extend you need to build bridge in particular relationship. For example, it may not be appropriate to have physical relation with a person other than spouse or intimate emotional relation with your office staff. Having right knowledge of limits in relationship is a key to develop long lasting relationship.

2. Each relationship is separate and each requires different bridge at all the 4 levels.

3. Keep building, narrowing, strengthening bridges by love, care, intelligence and wisdom.

4. Clear communication is a key to remove any misunderstanding and it helps in building everlasting relationship.

5. Keep analyzing relationship. It’s a continuous process. Accept mistakes without hesitation. Forget and forgive.

तन मन बुद्धि से बँधे , रिश्ते बने अनेक।
परम आत्मा से जुड़े, बिरला कोई एेक।।

Are You Tolerant?

Before we deeply analyze the level of tolerance, we need to understand real meaning of tolerance or intolerance. In-spite of having different views on any particular subject, about any individual or group, situation or circumstances, if one accommodates and respect other’s opposing views, that person is tolerant, otherwise intolerant. Whenever I want to know deeper meaning of any word, I turn to Hindi and Sanskrit. Not only because my entire education was done in Hindi language but I feel Sanskrit is a complete and logical language. In Hindi “TOLERANT” means SAHISHNU (सहिष्णु). It is a combination of 3 words – SAH (togetherness), EESH (God or supreme power) and ANU (Atom). So, when every particle in the universe lives in total harmony with each other, a society or an individual will be called Tolerant. People are naturally diverse; only tolerance can ensure the survival of mixed communities in every region of the globe. Entire cosmos is inter dependent and seeks to support each other.

On other hand men who are most intelligent but most selfish creature on this planet, eliminate other entities for their own greed. If we look at the history there are N numbers of incidences where rulers killed general public to force their thoughts and beliefs. From ages the world is divided physically psychologically, economically, intellectually and spiritually. For any being, survival is most important. Every creature has to be intolerant for basic needs such as food. The tiger when kills deer to fill his tummy, cannot be titled as intolerant creature. Once his hunger is satisfied, he will not attack anyone till he becomes hungry again. But human beings are the greediest creature and who keeps on crushing others for selfish reasons.

Before the invention of money/currency, societies were interdependent and had tolerant view for each other. Now days we are dependent on money and once we achieve enough of that, we start feeling independent and do not care for others.

Our behavior about Tolerance can be classified in 4 ways:-

Tolerance towards Tolerant people
Tolerance towards Intolerant people
Intolerance towards Tolerant people
Intolerance towards Intolerant people

I do not think that above behaviors need further explanation. One behaves as per his nurturing, education and experience. However the most unacceptable behavior is intolerance towards tolerant people. No person can be 100% tolerant or 100% intolerant. People adopt behavior as per time, people and circumstances. We cannot say whether tolerant behavior is good or intolerant behavior is bad. If our children behave immorally, we have to be intolerant. As a nation we cannot be tolerant towards a hostile country. We cannot be tolerant towards terrorists.

5 tips on how an individual or a society can be more tolerant:-

1. Listen patiently and carefully without jumping to any conclusion.

2. Try to understand other person’s point of view before expressing your opinion.

‘
3. The leaders of the societies, countries, religions, communities, celebrities need to be very sensitive before they express their views. They must express mature and tolerant views for other people who belong to different group than theirs.

4. Every human being must be free to have his own set of beliefs and values and others. And everyone should respect other’s beliefs and values even though their own beliefs and values are totally opposite of others.

5. Agree to Disagree – A real spiritual person is one who can accept other creature as they are, rather than as he wants! However, one shall not tolerate terrorists, murderers, thieves or destroyers.

जब सह, ईश व अणु मिले,
हो सहिष्णु निर्माण।
बाहर से हम अलग है,
भीतर एक ही प्राण H

Knowledge Vs. Wisdom

1. Knowledge is knowing about something or someone. Wisdom is application of knowledge.

2. Knowledge is curd, wisdom is butter.

3. Knowledge is right information wisdom is right decision.

4. Knowledge is information gathered from our all senses and out side resources, wisdom is gathered by मनन, चिंतन, मंथन within.

5. Knowledge is knowing what is right and what is wrong. Wisdom is selecting right.

6. Knowledge tells us what to talk, wisdom guide us when to talk, with whom to talk and how to talk.

7. Knowledge is gathered by more reading and observing wisdom requires more thinking and applying.

8. Dr. APJ and CA Memon, sakuni and Krishna, Ram and Ravan, all were educated and knowledgable but one out of two were more wise.

9. Knowledge can exist without wisdom but not other way round.

10. Knowledge is organised information. Wisdom is organised life.

Haiku by Hemant Lodha

है बीती रात
जन्मी ढेर आशायें
हो सुप्रभात।

स्वस्थ रहे
नैसर्गिक सुन्दरता
तन व मन।

प्रेम का रस
जब डालो सेवा में
सब सरस।

मैं ही मैं बसा
मैं में शहर फँसा
गाँव में मैं था।

साल जाने दो
छोड़ो ना कभी साथ
थाम लो हाथ।

प्यार नहीं है
रिस रिस के चले
ये कैसे रिश्ते?

हाँ हाँ हाँ हाँ हाँ
जैसा तुम समझो
ना ना ना ना ना

ज्ञान गंगा है
अजर अमर है
अविनाशी है।

रचनाएँ है
चाय की चुस्कियाँ है
ओर क्या चाहु?

बाप्पा मोर्या रे
हर घर पधारे
ख़ुशियाँ भरे।

बापा मोरियाँ
स्वागत है आपका
लवकर या।

रक्षा का वादा
कच्चा धागा जो बांधा
प्रेम बंधन।

मौन का अर्थ
जानेंगे जब हम
शब्द हो व्यर्थ।

गूगल गुरु
अलादीन चिराग़
हर जवाब।

गुरु जला दे
ज्ञान मय दीपक
अज्ञान भागे।

काम ही काम
कमाल के कलाम
तुम्हें सलाम।

क्षितिज भ्रम
नभ से घिरी धरा
बाँहों में भरा।

उत्साह सदा
उदासी यदा कदा
ख़ुशियाँ ज़्यादा।

समन्वय है
चुप्पी और आँखों में
दिल समझे।

आएगी आँधी
विचारों का मंथन
इंतज़ार है

बूँदों की लय
जब बीज से मिले
अंकुर फूटे।

सूरज जैसे,
कैसे बनाये रखु?
अतिउत्साह।

समय चक्र
अभिमान न कर
भाग्य का खेल।

उच्च विचार
उत्तम हो उच्चार
शुभ आचार।

शक्ति है एक
चलाती है सबको
नाम अनेक।

खुदा के बंदे
आसान है डगर
खुदा से डर।

जड़ की छोड़ो
नींव की कौन सोचे
माँ भी भूला दे।

सेवा कर्तव्य
डाक्टर हो या सीए
सब किजीए

तन या मन
चिकित्सक नमन
स्वस्थ करते।

ज़र्रा या इंशा
खुदा की है नेमत
ख़फ़ा हो मत।

जन्नत क्यों
गुनहगार सब
बता ए रब।

आँखो में देखु
डर ख़ुद डरता
डर मरता।

जो दिल में हैं
आँखो मे तू क्यूँ झाँके
जुंबा पे भी है।

आँख का पानी
गिरने मत देना
आँखो से पानी।

पेट में बंदा
चेहरा भी ना देखा
माँ प्रेम अंधा।

आई विपदा
वर्षा आँसू का पर्दा
दुख छुप जा।

छत टपके
किसान हाथ जोड़े
बरसो प्रभु।

अष्टांग योग
यम से समाधी का
करे प्रयोग।

दूध है हम
जो आवे घुल जावे
शक्कर तुम।

प्रेम करुणा
परम्परा हमारी
भक्ति अहिंसा।

है हर वक़्त
प्रतिक्षा भविष्य की
आज में जी लो।

सुनो चित्कार
रोये है ये धरती
मानव जाग

बादल चीर
थोड़ा है इंतज़ार
निकले नीर।

कम कमाना
निरंतर कमाना
यश कमाना।

कोख में जानी
अपनी पहचान
माँ तु महान।

सक्षम जीये
प्रकृति ले परीक्षा
ये ही जीवन।

मन ही गुरु
जलाओ ऐसी ज्योत
केवल ज्ञान।

भटके सब
फिर गुरु है कौन
असंमंजस।

सूर्योदय है
देखने का भ्रम है
सूर्यास्त भी है।

है सर्वभौम
प्रेम ज्ञान व कर्म
है मूलमंत्र

पत्थर पूजे
उसमें प्राण फुंके
क्यों हो पत्थर।

हम है हम
कैसा है ये वहम
मेरा अहंम।

बुद्ध शरण
दलितों का उद्धार
भीम चरण।

आज का प्रण
सम्मान स्नेह प्रेम
स्त्री को अर्पण

ना उड़े कभी
पँहुचू लक्ष्य तक
प्राण पखेरु

कर्मो का हल
सफल या विफल
चलाते रहो।

संभाल लु मैं
सामने करे वार
पीठ छलनी।

सुख व दुख
सिक्के के दो पहलु
अपना भाग्य

आत्मा अटल
जन्म मृत्यु से परे
कभी ना मरे

सुख दुख में
आप सबका साथ
धूप छॉव मे।

प्रात: नमन
जीवन में सुमन
खिले आपके।

माँ की आसीश
हमेशा है हाजीर
ना कोइ फ़ीस।

चाँद ओझल
आशा भरी किरणें
सूर्य निकला।

प्रेरणा आप
मेरे आदर्श रहे
अनंत काल।

मजबूत थी
डोर कच्चे धागे की
मोहब्बत थी।

देखो नीयत
आत्मा के आयने मे
हो ख़ैरियत।

ईश्वर तु है
सबके भीतर में
हर में तु है।

जो “हम” में है
वो बात ना तुम में
ना मुझ में है।

नशा कोई भी
तकलीफ़ करेगा
हो किसी को भी

ना मेरा वक़्त
किसी का सगा नहीं
ना तेरा वक़्त

बातों मे सार
हाइकु का प्रचार
बढ़ता प्यार

वार्तालाप हो
कभी भी आपस में
हाइकु में हो

५७५ वाह
गागर मे सागर
हाइकु वाह

हे रामपाल
कैसी है तेरी चाल
हुआ बेहाल

न जन्म कुछ,
आँख का झपकना,
ना मृत्यु कुछ।

ख़ुद गर्ज हुँ,
भला कर ना सका,
बुरा भी नहीं।

पन्ने लिखे जो,
पसीने की स्याही से,
वो सिकंदर।

विरोध छोड़ो,
अवरोध हो दूर,
जीना सहज।

ना मैं हुँ खुदा,
इंसान बन जाए
ना तु है खुदा।

पानी में देखा
अपने चेहरे में,
तुम को पाया।

चाँद को देखा,
शीतल चाँदनी में,
तुम को पाया।

फूलों को देखा,
नशीली महक में,
तुम को पाया।

आग को देखा,
उसकी तपन में,
तुम को पाया।

जहाँ भी देखा.
हर कण कण में,
तुम को पाया।

आयना हुँ मैं
ख़ुद को ही पाओगी,
जब देखोगी।

अब से तुम,
जीओ अपनी तरह,
मैं तो जी लूँगा।

सितारा मैं भी,
ईर्श्या क्यों करनी,
सितारा तु भी ।

बनो चुम्बक,
मंत्रमुग्ध हो जाए,
दुनिया सारी।

देने के लिये,
जिओ सारी ज़िंदगी,
लेते सब हैं ।

एसा करो की,
दुनिया याद करे,
जाने के बाद ।

तु भी हैं ख़ुश,
संयोग हुआ ऐसा,
मैं भी हुँ ख़ुश ।

अपना लिया,
छु कर मन मेरा,
कहाँ थी तुम ।
पसंद मुझे,
बारीश में भीगना,
बड़ा क्युँ हुआ?

पत्थर दिल,
समझें मुझे सब,
एेसा ही हुँ मैं ।

अज्ञानता है,
व्यर्थ कुछ भी नहीं,
ज्ञान को बढ़ा ।

इतना उठो,
कुर्सी रहे ना रहे,
ऊंचाई रहे ।

खोद ले मुझे,
इंतज़ार करना,
गाढुंगी तुझे ।

मेरा अमृत,
मिटा नहीं सकता,
तेरे विष को ।

मैं जो सोया था,
मिलन कैसे होता,
तु भी सोई थी ।

सुने कोई तो,
खामोशी की आवाज़,
पर वक्त किसे?

चाह है मुझे,
रिश्ता निभेगा जब,
तुम चाहो तो ।

ख़ामोशी भली,
तुम्हारी कटुता से,
आहत हुँ मैं ।

कमियाँ है सौ,
अपने आप को चाहु,
तुझे क्युँ नही?

जब सुख में,
याद करें मुझको,
दुख हो ही क्यों।

क्षमा याचना,
विनती है आपसे,
क्षमा बाँटना ।

जो आप देंगे,
उधार हैं मुझ पे,
वापस दूँगी ।

जिओ ऐसे की,
पर्दा गिरे तो भी,
तालियाँ रहे ।

अहं आकार,
मिटा नहीं पाया,
जीना बेकार ।

ठोकर खाई,
तोहमत मत दो,
बढ़ते चलो ।

अंधेरे में था,
गुरुदेव नमन,
दिन दिखाया ।

इस घर में,
सब एक हैं पर,
भाग्य अलग ।

मिट जाएगा
सारा अर्जित मान,
क्रोध ना कर ।

सकारात्मक,
सोच एवं शब्द,
ऊँचा उठा दे ।

क़दम उठे,
जब सही दिशा में,
मंजील मिलें।

मिलेगा सब,
जो तुम चाहते हो,
माँगो तो सही ।

Science & Spirituality

Many times curiosity arises, what is the relation between science and spirituality. In our SAPTARISHI group Pawan Sarda raised the subject whether science and spirituality is complementary, dependent or contrary. Other members of our group Dr. Prabodh, Acharya Aditya, Rajendra Singhi, Sanjay Trivedi and Sudha Agarwal deliberated on the matter. Based on the discussion my understanding about the subject is as follow.

Science is study of the object and spirituality is the study of the subject. For scientific progress we need buddhi (brain) and senses for spiritual enlightenment we need to use Buddhi (Mind) and Soul. Science is study of outside world and spirituality is quest for inside journey. So if we look at the purpose than we will conclude that both are contrary to each other.

Vedant says do not believe what people say. Experience yourself before believing any thing. Find out the cause and reason for everything and do not follow any thing blindly. Science also says that there is a cause and effect. So if we closely observe the process of science and spirituality we will find that it is same. Science and spirituality both want to know which is already there but so far Unknown. Only areas are different.

Science and spirituality is also dependent on each other. A spiritual person can not survive if he refuse to use the things which are developed by scientists and scientist when reaches to a point where his logic and knowledge is not working, he surrenders to spirituality.

Mr. Pawan rightly believes that ‘What’, ‘How’ & ‘When’ are answered by science but the ultimate ‘Why’ can only be answered through spirituality. Consciousness (which is the basis of spirituality) begins where science ends. Science believes: Everything is false until proven true. Spirituality says: Everything is true unless proven false. ‘Belief’ is scientific but ironically, science doesn’t believe in belief.

Diplomatically Say No

In my opinion saying NO to someone shall be last option. If a person is seeking your support in any way and in any matter, he/she considers you to be capable of for doing help. Person seeking your support may be family, colleague, friend or acquaintance. If your some time, money or resources can solve his problem, do not consider that you are doing favour to him. Either you are repaying your debt or he will repay you in future. Just help and forget without any expectations.

However some time it so happen that other person is taking undue advantage of your good nature or you are not having enough time, money or resources to help others. In such situation mostly there is no option left but to say NO but wait still you can have 2 options before flatly saying NO.

One is politely DEFER the matter for future and another is REFER the matter to someone else who can help. If both the options are not possible than politely say NO to person and if possible explain the reason why you can not help in the matter and why you have no option but to say NO.

5 Tips to before saying NO.

1) Help the people if you can. Giving without expectation gives immense satisfaction.

2) In case you are not in position to do NOW, politely defer for future.

3) In case you do not have capabilities to help in the matter REFER to other capable person if possible.

4) If not possible to help completely, try to give partial support.

5) If no option other then to say NO then say NO politely and if possible with reasons for not helping.

गलत फायदा आपका,ले कोई श्रीमान।
बड़े बखूबी ना कहें,कहते सभी सुजान।

दोहा – अविनाश बागड़े

Love the Women

I do not know how the word WoMEN invented but as per my definition Worth of Men is zero without WoMen. Men is worthless without love of women. Whether she is in our life as mother, sister, friend or wife, she need to be respected with love. If the men is sun, women are rays. If the men is moon, women are its brightness. If the men is water, women is its coolness. If the men is fire women is its warmness. If the men is air, women is its freshness. If the men is balloon, women is air in the balloon and if the men is tree women is its root.

Men is mostly guided by his duty but women need love along with duty. Women is mainly guided by love but she fulfils her duty with love. In Eastern culture women was worshipped from ages and particularly in Bharat Bhoomi women was well respected since civilisation barring last millennium. The prosperity of India attracted invaders and women needed to be guarded but slowly women was suppressed. However since last 50 years government of India and society is trying to empower women. On a lighter side after 50 years may be men starts asking for their rights.

Love the women, whatever relationship you are in with her. Do not treat women as your duty only. Fulfil duty with love. Happy women’s day.

5 tips to treat the women:

1) Do your duty towards women with love.

2) Women needs to be respected and cared for her feelings.

3) Develop EQ (Emotional Intelligence) to understand her feelings. She may be very talkative but expresses her needs in very subtle ways to her dear ones.

4) Do not appreciate another women in her presence. Most of the women have strong jealous feelings. Women please excuse me for this.

5) Men is worthless without women in life so drop your ego to keep them in your life.

माँ, बहना, पत्नी, सखा
चाहे सब सम्मान।
प्रेम उन्हें सादर करे
तभी बढ़ेगा मान।

Selfish & Selfless

Selfishness and Selflessness

Every living being whether plant, animal or human being has to be selfish to survive in this world. One needs food to survive, protection against the risks in life and enjoyment to reproduce. All these 3 things are not possible if one is not selfish. Question of whether one should be selfless or not does not arise for plants and animals but human always struggle with this dilemma. Consciousness and intellect which are unique endowments to human being, instigates him to think about selflessness and selfishness.

A man is the only creature who is seeking moksha & place in heaven, having fear of hell and rebirth. At the same time he is having greed for enjoyment through whatever he has created so far by using his brain in the direction of art, science and math.

Unlike any animal, human life falls between two extremes such as Angel and devil or Rama and Ravana or Krishna and Kansa. Selfishness takes him towards the extreme of negativeness and selflessness can help in achieving a place in heaven or ultimate moksha.

Selflessness is not possible as long as one is having greed for getting anything or fear of losing something. As long as love and hate will remain, selfishness cannot be avoided & achieving complete selflessness is impossible. Great people like Christ, Mohammada, Krishna, Rama, Mahavira, Buddha are exceptions. However, one should always take a path where his selfishness is not at the cost of others.

5 points to summarize Selfishness & Selflessness:

1) Achieving complete selflessness is not easy. For that one need to completely renounce the materialistic life which is not possible for the common man.

2) Selfishness is not bad as long as it is not at the cost of others.

3) Think and strive for Win-Win situation in life.

4) Clarify your interest and expectation then people do not mind your selfishness.

5) Once your worldly responsibilities are over, walk on the path of equanimity. This will take you towards complete selflessness.

13 Steps A Great Leader Takes

Success of any organization (whether it’s a business, political or social) solely depends on effectiveness of leader of the organization. You might have experienced that a great organization heads for disaster once there is change in leadership and a failing organization starts doing great once the leader is changed. Following are the 13 steps that every great leader takes and reason of success or failure is hidden in the effectiveness of these steps:

1) CoV – Clarity of Vision: A long term vision is the first step for leader. Great leaders can see an entire jungle in a single seed. If the vision of leader is not clear, entire organization will head to a direction which is not intended for. Final destination must be decided first before embarking journey. Stephen Covey’s 2nd habit (7 Habits of highly effective people) very nicely defines Begin With the End in Mind.

2) ARS – Adopt Right Strategies: Climbing Everest is not about just taking one path; rather sometimes no path is visible. Still based on facts, try to explore as many as possible options to reach your final destination. Because only the right strategy will decide how soon you reach to your goal.

3) GSR – Gather Sufficient Resources: Every project requires certain resources for its smooth completion. Resources may be men, material, machine or money. Many a times leaders fail to realize their dreams because sufficient resources are not available. At least minimum resources to run the project should be guaranteed.

4) ACM – Appoint Competent Manpower: One great American business leader said, “You take away my all businesses but leave my top 5 persons with me, I shall build the empire again very soon”. Leaders are very selective in appointing key people. Great leaders never compromise on quality and competence of their employees. One American organization replaces bottom 10% of man power strength every year.

5) CES – Create Efficient Systems: Most of the problems in organization are because of inefficient systems and not because of inefficient manpower. Even mediocre employees have been found giving great performances where systems are robust and efficient. People bring effectiveness but system brings efficiency.

6) ECR- Establish Cordial Relationships: Organization is a group of people which interacts with several other organizations and individuals such as employees, customers, suppliers, bankers, contractors, society etc. Cordial relationship among each other can reduce lot of hassles and increase productivity and performances of each one involved. Sometime systems can create bureaucracy but cordial relations can overcome inefficiency of systems. People have human tendency to deal with people whom they like and avoid people whom they dislike.

7) CAE – Clarify Ambitious Expectations: People particularly employees shall know what leader is expecting from them. Clear expectations helps people perform accordingly. Everyone involved shall be clear about their short term and long term targets and periodical review shall be there to make sure that everyone is heading in right direction.

8) AAR- Allocate Appropriate Resources: Resources are always scarce. It is leader’s duty to allocate resources based on priorities. To bring the cost saving in organization, optimum use of resources is must. Most of the times leaders gets bogged down in increasing revenues so much that proper utilization of resources get neglected and leads to un-availability of product and services.

9) SAB – Set Appropriate Boundaries: It is important to tell your people about what they need to do but at the same time it is equally important to tell what they should not do. Defining the rules of the game is necessary. Defining values and principles is important to have long term benefits.

10) LTW – Let Them Work: Once you have decided your vision, strategy, expectations and values, allow employees to work in their own way. Leave the HOW part of action with them. Do not do too much of interfering the way they work unless and until employee is fresh and needs experience.

11) ERS – Enforce Reporting System: Giving freedom to work does not mean absence of control. Devise proper reporting system. Daily reports, weekly reports, monthly report, quarterly reports and yearly reports. Proper reporting system keeps necessary check on performance and also avoids last minute surprises.

12) GCF – Give Continuous Feedback: I read a book One Minute Manager which advises giving feedback to your people instantly whether it is negative or positive. If a person is continuously breaking discipline, better to tell him immediately rather than waiting for the time of performance appraisal.

13) PEL – Promote Effective Leaders: Most of us fail in developing our own successor and that results into break on scalability of our own potentials. Bad leaders always live with a fear that if they develop someone, he will take over and they will become redundant. Great leaders identify talents and nurture them to take higher and higher responsibilities and once they find someone equally or smarter a person, they handover reigns to him and carry on for bigger purpose.

How to become Effectively Efficient?

In our day to day life we play dual roles. As a Manager, we manage the things and as a Leader, we lead the people. At higher level the role of leader is more prominent and at lower level the role of manager is more significant. Manager needs to be more efficient and leaders need to be more effective.

Efficiency is driving the car as fast as possible where as effectiveness is driving the car on the right road. Leader with a long term vision decides the right road whereas manager with the efficient systems and proper resources drives the vehicle as fast as possible. Efficiency and effectiveness, both are important but importance is subjected to the kind of role you are playing.

5 Tips to be more effective:

1) Create a long term vision. At least 5 years ahead.

2) ave a proper study of market and competitors.

3) Evaluate all possible paths and select which is most cost effective and quickest possible.

4) Keep alternate path ready.

5) Take quick action.

5 Tips to be more efficient:

1) Get competent people in your team.

2) Create efficient systems.

3) Define clear roles and responsibilities.

4) Set time bound goals and act accordingly.

5) Have proper feedback and review system.

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