There are some sessions where you simply lose track of time and move to an altogether different pedestal. These are some sessions which leave behind those technical sessions miles behind. It here that you start introspecting into the purpose of your life and deriving meaning in all the chaos around you.
He has been travelling tirelessly since days. Was on a flight en route to Sharjah even on Diwali. Took 2 days of sessions at Sharjah and then two days at Udaipur and then 261 km by road to Ahmedabad.Its around 10 PM in the night. Look at the energy and vigour in the professor's eyes. He seems to be defying age.
He starts by asking what the sessions so far have done to you. Different people give different replies. For you, its the realisation of the purpose of your life. Its being comfortable in your own skin and accepting the choices you've made in life with equanimity. Its the courage to tell that 24 year old youngster who is super keen on that I-Banking summer placements next week that you've grown beyond those over hyped CTCs. And rather than being defensive, you admitting with a big smile that those crazy M&A deal bonuses have been like the proverbial "sour grapes" for you. But you have no regrets :) Its waking up in the morning and uttering mantras to remember your parents and Guru instead of rushing for those whatsapp messages and emails configured on your cellphones, Its the resolve to consciously waste time during the day and slow down your processes. Its remembering the missionary zeals of the Tata Steel and the L&T workers, the visions of the Aravind Eye Cares etc
DVR Sir takes you through centuries on wisdom through constantly scribbling on the board with his chalk. From Socrates to Buddha to modern day practioners such as the authors of the following books.
1) The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle
2) A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
3) Still Me by
Christopher Reeve
4) Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
5) Many Masters Many Lives by Brian Weiss
He speaks of spirituality , refers to all religions as different paths of the same phenomenon of the 'i' meeting the 'I' - the Jeevatma meeting the Paramatma, individual consciousness meeting the supreme consciousness.
You ought to quiten the mind by shrugging off the irrelevant past and the non existent future, he says and live in Now. Be part of the expanded consciousness and then probably stop getting angry with people around, just like the tongue not smashing the teeth when it occasionally cuts it
To manage the self, you need an analytical mindset, to manage relationships, you need a collaborative mindset, to manage change, you need an action mindset, to manage context, you need a worldly mindset and to manage the self, you need a reflective mindset.
He extols the traits of renuniciation, generosity, virtue/restraint, loving kindness, wisdom, effort, forbearance, truthfullness, resolve and equanimity across the Apanaka, Makhadeva and Mahakapi forms of Buddha.
The multiple paths to happiness broadly classified into three buckets - Freedom, Family & Friends and Analysed Life.
Freedom manifests in money (which beyond a point reaches the plateau in terms of margina utility), health and hobbies
Family & Friends mans being happy with your relations and those 3-4 friends rather than those 5000 FB friends
Analysed life is the feeling that we are not just whiling away our time. That there is a vision and purpose of life leading to passion.
There were multiple reasons why we werent happy.
Seneca 40 BC said that anger comes due to unmet expectations (within and outside our control) while Montague who studied low self esteem says that its always due to
a) physical ( my nose is not so thin, I am not fair complexioned)
b) intellectual ( he is from IIT and me from a local govt college)
c) cultural inadequacy (he is a native Brit)
To bear hardships and the fear of failure, Neitsche said that the only way out was to keep evolving to a higher pedestal of life into a state of self realisation about who you are and why you are the way you are. If you are afraid of water, it could be because in a previous birth, you were a dog who was swamped to death in a river by a group of notorious boys, If you are claustrophobic, it could be because in a previous birth, you father, an Egyptian slave constructing the pyramids for the pharaohs must have put the little girl in you into a cave for rest and then forced to flee with the doors closed and you being suffocated to death. The more you start accepting yourself, the more fruitful life is. the mantra is to look at the ironical situations where a super gorgeous Jiya Khan commits suicide while you live a life punishing yourself for your poor looks.
Sadness is often due to
a) body identification (over-emphasis on I am having fever rather than the body having fever)
b) relative existence- my wife is not as beautiful is his, my car is not as luxurious as his
c) wanting to become rather than being
Pearls of wisdom
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