Are you sad?

Are you sad?

We keep working throughout to gain happiness. Despite our best efforts, that does not always happen. Even if we succeed in achieving our targets, it cannot provide lasting happiness. We need more than what we have already achieved as we notice that some persons have already achieved much more.We are sometimes confronted with adverse situations. We   keep trying for the best things to happen but the result may be exactly opposite. Naturally, such situations drive us to despondency. We feel lost. Sometimes, we fail to gauge the seriousness of problems confronting us. These miscalculations result in failures. We don’t achieve as per our expectations. We feel sad   in such moments.  But giving undue importance to such happenings of life does not help in any way.

 What to do in that situation? We should stop hankering for more and more. We have to find ways and means to remain satisfied with our achievements. Birds, animals. trees and for that matter the entire nature never complains to anybody, never asks for anything from anybody and remain self-satisfied. We must learn from these wonderful creations of God.

Life gives us adequate opportunities. But we attach undue importance to certain developments which, in fact, becomes a liability for our happy living. There are moments of crisis in everybody`s life. It needs to be handled properly. It needs to be faced boldly. Many people die daily but we are worried only when someone close to us dies. So, it is not death as such but the death of a particular person which troubles us.

. We should, therefore, accept the realities of life and take appropriate and timely decisions. Merely postponing decisions only complicates things Right decision at the right moment makes lot of difference. Lord Krishna helped Arjun to take the right decisions at the crucial moments in the Mahabharat battle and Arjun won the battle. So, let us decide with due alacrity and without ambiguity. If a situation is unavoidable, let us accept it gracefully. If we learn to act promptly, we can feel lesser burdened and may have sound sleep in the night.

We often get bored by doing same things again and again. . It is desirable that we do not get lost in daily routine. That will make our life more interesting. It is why the employers give weekly off or holiday. Purpose of such occasions is to engage ourselves in new pursuits., to develop new interests and spend time different from the daily routine. This enables us to refresh and to regain energy

One of the essential requirements to keep happiness is to forget and forgive. We can not expect everybody to act as per our likings. Sometimes someone may heart me. Sometimes, I may incur loss due to negligence of others. Some staff in the office may not be cooperative and may not be performing well. If we keep on correcting everybody, we can land ourselves in big trouble. A lot of our mental energy would get spoilt in monitoring such things. We should forgive such persons and pray to God for bringing peace and prosperity to all. It will definitely help us to live in peace and harmony with others.

Life is not a business and man is not a money minting machine. There are people who always keep calculating in terms of loss and profit which they would make out of everything they are doing but that does not give solace. Ultimately, they land up in great disappointments. The journey of life does not end at money minting machines. Many wealthy persons ultimately leave their assets here itself and leave this world alone. We must understand this. We must have wealth enough to meet our daily requirements so that we are not required to ask her others for that. Beyond that, wealth has meaning only if it is utilized in the welfare of human being. That alone can give mental peace.

Sometimes change of job makes lot of difference with our attitude. We often get tired doing same thing again and again. We have little choice in doing things of our choice at our workplace because we are dutybound to follow the instructions of our boss and to give output as per set guidelines but this can not be the things when we are out of workplace. We can set our own agenda and follow our own choice in our private matters. In that situation, we should give due importance to live a happy life and should set aside things which adds to mental tension.

When we feel sad and lost in the events of life which are mostly stories of the days lost, it is better to get engaged in something different. We may talk to our friends who might have now settled in a distant town or may start listening an old music which we had liked in our prime of youth or may go to see a movie. Because keeping engaged in thinking over the situations beyond our control does not help in anyway. We must make best of the time left with us. What is lost is lost. Let us switch to old music and see cinemas of our choice whenever we feel lonely and lost in things beyond our reach. Life can be music provided we develop positive thinking and accept things as it unfolds. Let us take it easy and enjoy!

We feel quite strong the moment we feel connected to almighty. Our sense of loneliness is derived mainly from lack of faith in God. It is not important whether we worship Him in one form or the other but we must keep contact with him. That alone can give us strength to remain calm in the midst of difficulties of life and bring about ultimate happiness.

About faith in God!

About faith in God!

Our sensory organs cannot register many things which otherwise exist because of their own limitations. We cannot, therefore, say for guarantee that the world is confined to what we actually see or feel. Possibility of   many things existing beyond it cannot be ruled out. What is that the Sun is so powerful that even millions of electric bulbs put together can not do. Where does so much energy come from? There are several such Suns existing in our galaxies and then that is not the end of the story. There are many galaxies with their own set of hidden mysteries. How so many planets, stars and galaxies are existing in this universe? Perhaps we know little about it. Scientists have been working upon all this. Nevertheless, our knowledge is insufficient to explain mysteries behind the universe.  

We often hear people talking about the existence of God. It is more relevant to talk about our own existence. We live in this world at the best for hundred year or so. In fact, many people die much earlier. The life of a man is a very small fraction when compared with that of the universe. Even the science   confirms that this earth and other planets have been in existence since billions of years. 

The question is: ‘Does our existence begin with birth and end with death. In so far as our physical existence is concerned, the answer is yes. If that is so, how are we going to explain the futility of comparing our life span with that of the universe. In fact, nobody knows for certainty as to when and how they came into existence. On the other hand, we live in this world for a very limited period and then also we keep challenging the might of nature. It is simply incomparable. We come to this world for a limited period and then leave it without any exception. In between, we should try and find out the reason behind our own existence. It is the result of our own past deeds which results in our birth and rebirth.

There are situations in our life which cannot be answered by application of mind alone. We cannot easily understand why someone becomes a great scholar whereas some people cannot even pass matriculation despite best efforts. Some people are good singers, some are good speakers like that. This can be easily understood by simple logic that nature has its own peculiarities which cannot be explained mathematically. Everybody grows according to his nature. We should not try to interfere in that and should never try to superimpose ourselves upon others. It is manifestation of God in different shapes. Unfortunately, we get fixed with our own notions and try to negate the views of others. That results in conflict with which the whole world is suffering.

These days many persons are suffering from mental problems like insomnia, depression, etc. The number of suicides is increasing day by day. Even school going students are killing their classmates over small things. Why is this happening? And do we need to control them or not? If we want to control such happenings, what is the remedy? One thing is clear that material prosperity does not necessarily lead to happiness in life. Despite so much wealth and scientific advancement, we do not have mental peace. At a time, when the whole world is looking at us for spiritual guidance, it is unfortunate that many of us are allured by and attracted towards materialistic approach to life. 

Why should one worry about the existence of God? Are we able to understand everything that we see in our day to day life? The answer is big NO. Why? Because if we are not a student of Physics we cannot understand the flow of electricity through a wire but everybody irrespective of his knowledge of the subject, does feel the impact of electricity in his day to day life. If we switch on, the fan starts working, the T.V. starts giving breaking news. Only a student of Chemistry can understand that water is a compound comprising of oxygen and Hydrogen combined together in definite proportion. But this knowledge is not required for drinking water. Anybody who is thirsty can take water and feel satisfied, he may or may not have the knowledge of actual composition of water. Similarly impact of God can be felt anywhere and everywhere without perhaps going into its details.

God does not need our support to prove His strength. It is felt everywhere automatically. We often try to define God asper our convenience and requirements. We have created different religions and divided humanity into different factions. God never told anybody to do like that. But we did and continue to justify it to achieve certain selfish motive. God is not definable into a particular shape nor can be explained through certain religious practices which we adopt as per our convenience for achieving material aspirations. People have given him different names according to their culture, language etc. It is unfortunate that people are fighting and even killing each other in the name of religion. That could never have been the intention of our forefathers.

Fighting with persons following different religion is the worst thing that can happen to humanity. God never told anybody to call him with a particular name or to read a particular book. We have done it on our own and then expect others to follow blindly. This is nothing but violence.it is unfortunate that people are resorting to violence and often killing persons in the name of God. It only goes to show that we do not have slightest understanding about religion. Let us stop hating people. It is important that we stop differentiating people in the name of religion. In fact, followers of many religious leaders have done too much harm to humanity because they wanted others to accept what they considered to be true. This has resulted in spread of hatred and absence of peace all over the world. We need to introspect.

Patience

Patience

Life is a peculiar mix of good and bad things. Everybody has to face ups and downs in his life. We cannot always get things of our choice. We have to accept many things unwillingly. Patience plays big role in such situations. Persons with patience can face the adverse situations boldly and can change them to their advantage by positive thinking and application of strong will power. Only patience can help to face adverse situations.

Persons with patience have done wonders. There are many such examples. One of such examples is the story of Dasarath Majhi. He was a poor labourer. He could not give proper medical care to his ailing wife and she ultimately died because the Doctor was living far away, behind a hill. Had there been a direct access through the hill he could have reached the Doctor in time and probably his wife could have been saved. This inspired him to cut the stones of the hill with simple instruments. He worked hard for years together to make road through the hill. Initially, people used to call him mad but things changed entirely when they really saw him achieving his goal by working single handed for years together. He is now praised by everybody.

All good things achieved or acquired needed efforts of years. The path to success is often full of hurdles. Many times, they had disappointments but they continued and ultimately reached the target. Many persons lost their lives while trying to climb the mount Everest but it was conquered ultimately. Thus, the story of success has many pathetic stories hidden behind it.

The entire process of life is a lesson for patience. A new born child remains totally dependent on his parents for survival. It takes efforts of years that the child is grown as an adult. In between, there is no substitute for patience on the parts of the parents who sacrifice everything in their command to let the child grow. Sometimes, the child becomes ill. Sometimes he fails in the school examination. Sometimes, he quarrels with the neighbour`s child and invites wrath of the neighbours but parents bear with everything with patience keeping welfare of the child in mind.

There are many examples where patience has paid a vital role in achieving the target. Lord Ram had to leave his kingdom and forced to live in the forest for fourteen years in obedience of the promise made by his father Dasarath to his step-mother Kaikeyi. He had to face lot of troubles during this period. Even his wife was abducted by the unsocial elements led by Ravana . He had to fight a lengthy battle to regain his honour and the wife. Because he stood for justice, he got support from many influential persons of that time which helped him to regain his wife and to defeat the mighty king Ravana. Similarly during Mahabharat period, the Pandavas had to fight with close relations to avenge the loss of reputation caused by humiliation inflicted by the Kauravas . He ultimately won the battle but it needed lot of patience and sacrifice. So, we must have patience if we are really interested in doing something remarkable.

These days the newspapers are full with the news of violence being committed on the spur of moment. People do not have patience and they become violent even for small things. Sometimes neighbours quarrel over parking space and it results in murder. Persons driving on roads do not have patience to adjust with the fellow passengers and start quarrelling.

We lose patience when we have too much attachment with the fruit of efforts made for achieving our aspired goal. We do something and expect the desired result without fail. This does not always happen. Life does not always follow the dotted line. The impact of our past deeds often follows us and it takes time to get rid of it. However, we are sure to succeed if we keep on doing and do not stop mid-way. If, however, we lose heart and stop making efforts midway we cannot do something remarkable. All things great achieved so far by mankind needed equally great efforts. We cannot achieve excellent by doing ordinary or little efforts. We have to be patient so that things happen as we had initially planned. Sustained efforts with patience can bring anything within our reach. Let us acquire it.

Lessons for parents!

Lessons for parents!

The great thing about a child is that he finds happiness out of everything. He does not need big things to enjoy. Because he is pure and unbiased so everything that comes across him, becomes a source of joy!

Every child comes to the world as an entirely new creation of God. Every day the child learns something. Every child is talented in its own way. We should find out the hidden talent of every individual child and try to give him the best facility in keeping with his interest. That will help him to develop to the fullest.

The best thing that parents can give to their child is education and character. These are permanent source of strength to future citizens. Parents should only try to let the child grow his potentiality to the fullest. If this is allowed to happen they can not only be a source of happiness to their parents but will definitely prove an asset to the society at large. Many millionaires have donated most of their assets for charity and left only a very small portion of it for their children because they did not want them to be spoilt with so much wealth in their hands at the outset (for which they did nothing to acquire). The best thing is that they must learn the art of earning themselves. Once they do this, they can themselves acquire wealth as per their ability and may reach to any height.

Many parents want to use their wards for the fulfilment of their unfulfilled dreams. They want their children to achieve what they themselves could not. Even when the child has no interest in Mathematics, some parents want them to be engineer as they themselves could not because of whatever reasons. Such students do not succeed and get frustrated due to wrong selection of subjects. Let us not forget that everybody has its own potentially and interests. It is not fare to force a child to adopt a career as per market requirements. That kills the basic instinct of a child to grow in his\her own way.If we allow them to choose career according to their choice they definitely would have a better chance to succeed.

Nobody can get everything he desires. What is required is our ability to be able to live in complete harmony with the present time so that our entire energy is focussed and utilised in positive direction. The basic purpose of entire education system should be to make the child self-dependent. He should be able to live his life independently. But there are many cases when parents keep on nagging their children unnecessarily. This does not serve the purpose. Such children ultimately fail to achieve and many times become source of trouble for their parents and the society as a whole.

These days most of the Parents do not have time for their children. They want to compensate for that with lot of money which they spend upon buying toys and other things of their choice. They do not delay even for a moment in fulfilling any such. That becomes a habit of the child. When such child grows he does not know to wait or adjust rather they want everything or anything that they desire. This attitude makes it very difficult for them to adjust in the society at a later stage when they are grown up persons and have to face odds and evens of life. This often results in attitudinal problems and abnormality in their behaviour.

Children learn most of things within the family. Our behaviour, way of talking with other family members and even attitude affect the growth of our children. They by all means try to copy those things. We practice one thing and try to teach something different to our children. That does not bring about the desired result. What children need most is a real example as set by their parents and family. It is, therefore, absolutely essential that parents themselves set good examples before them so that they develop as a good citizen later on.

Everybody gives his other best for their children. In fact, we get immense satisfaction in doing something good for them. Even the poorest want their children to be well educated so that they get better opportunities in their lives and achieve what we could not. But we make a mistake at this point. Everybody comes to this world with his own destiny. We cannot frame up them to fit into our personal ambitions. Moreover, everybody has different nature. Accordingly, his aptitude and likings too vary. We should try to find out the personal likings of our children and let them grow in that direction. We should and must not force our own ambitions upon them.

These days children live under lot of pressure. Securing the highest marks seems to be the end game. The fact of the matter is that parents are not satisfied even when his child gets above ninety percent because someone else has secured more than him. Are we expecting our children to work like a computer? Apart from intellectual growth, we must let our children inculcate moral values which play a dominant role in personality building of a child and gives them strength to fight the battle of life.

Many parents are too much concerned about performance of their children in the school or college examinations. No doubt such tests ae important but they cannot be given so much weightage that the basic purpose of education i.e. to develop self-dependent and confidant Youngman is affected adversely. As a guardian we can provide best facilities so the student. Sometimes things are not in the hand of the student and he may get less marks despite efforts. We keep scolding our children for not performing well examinations. That does not help in anyway. Instead we should do self-introspection and find out the real reason behind poor performance of the child. That may lead to his prosperity. After all, scoring good marks in examinations is not the end game and there are many people in this world who have done very well in their lives despite being an average student. So, what is important is to understand your child and his nature. If we do this, half the work is done!

How much really, we need?

How much really, we need?

Most of us keep acquiring wealth throughout our life. Ultimately, we die leaving everything that we acquired during our lifetime. Nothing goes along with us. This is an universal truth. Everybody knows this. Nevertheless, we keep running after wealth. We keep seeing our bank passbooks and ultimately die leaving the entire bank balance sometimes even without a nominee.

How much we really need? The answer is-Not much. Even the richest needs just a room with a bed to sleep. He cannot eat at the most say four times a day and can drive only one car. But things become different when we attach ego to everything. If a particular person lives in two bed rooms I must live in at least four bed room flat or so on. We want to look better than others by hook or crook. It is here that the problem germinates. We try to acquire things not only to meet out our essential requirement rather keep on craving for fulfilment of egocentric ambitions.

How much a greedy person requires, perhaps limitless. Why is it so? Because we are over ambitious. We are self-centred. We do not believe in almighty. We do not even believe in our own strength or in the capacity of our children. That is why we want to acquire enormous wealth so that not only myself but my generations together should remain affluent.

In the ancient time, there was a bad practice of burying servants and enough material things along with a dying king. This was done with the notion that the things buried along with the dead king would ultimately be made available to him as per his requirements. What was this? Nothing but foolishness. Many innocent persons used to lose their lives because of this.

Material achievements like money, land, house and posts are useful as long as these add to happiness in our lives. If they cross that limit and become a permanent source of trouble, then we must get out of such things. 

It is a universal truth that we leave everything while we depart from this world. Not even the richest men could carry anything. That is why many millionaires donate their wealth for charities. That gives peace of mind and helps in the welfare of mankind. They need to be helped for getting even the basic facilities like food and clothes. We can strengthen our soul by helping such persons.

While food is required for sustaining the body system, prayer is equally rather more important for spiritual requirement. We can not live in peace unless we develop the art of self-satisfaction . We must realize that the material achievements have their own limitations. These things cannot take us beyond a point. We must understand it and try to develop a sense of balance in our attitudes towards men and things around us. Then alone we can live a meaningful life.

There are many people in this world who have set examples in this regard. Having realised uselessness of enormous wealth, they gifted most of their assets for charity. We must have the source for fulfilment of the essential requirements like food, shelter, health and education. Anything beyond that should essentially be utilized for public welfare so that the deprived and the poor are able to live life like a human being.

There is no end to greed. The moment we are able to fulfil our one aspiration, something else crops up. This endless chain of unfulfilled desires continues till we leave this world when everything that we earned throughout our lives, are left out. This is the ultimate. We did not come to this world of our own choice nor shall we go as per our desire. In between we have freedom to choose our lives. The question is? -what is our choice. We can have our own ways but we can not get satisfaction out of material achievements’ sense of detachment with material things is required.