Month: November 2020

Here’s an incident narrated by a good friend. She and her family went to a car showroom to buy a car. They had a budget in mind. The salesman came over and began his pitch. When my friend and her family then began to discuss options amongst themselves, they spoke in their mother tongue. As luck would have it, this was the mother tongue of the salesman as well. He immediately switched over to that language, figured out exactly what they wanted, and told them about precisely the car that would fit their needs, and budget. My friend says their family booked the car the very same day.

Here is my learning from the salesman’s actions. If I listen well enough, and make the other person feel comfortable (like by using their own mother tongue, or even by just smiling, and genuinely caring for the other person), then I will always improve my chances of getting the best possible outcome (here, a quick sale).

A few days ago, I had a bank job to take care of. Going to the bank during Covid19 is avoidable. Why there are still offline forms to be filled for ‘change of address’, when the whole world is going digital beats me. Sensing my discomfort, my relationship manager quickly and voluntarily offered to send a branch courier person to my house pick up the form.

These may be small things, but they go a long way in building relationships. Over time, we may forget the specifics of what someone did for us, but we will not forget how they made us feel.

A king was pleased with one of his subjects, and granted him a boon. “Make a wish, and it is yours.” The man desperately wanted a bigger house to fit his growing family in, so he asked the king for one. “Your wish is my command!” And the king’s men built a big house for the subject.

Nice story. Except, by some measure, the subject didn’t do his homework well. People came to him and told him that he frittered away his golden opportunity. Some said he could have asked for money, gold, ornaments or land. Still others told him to think bigger. The king was obligated to keep his word, and so the subject could have asked for control over the king’s army, or treasury or even his entire kingdom.

One saint came by, and said if there was one thing he should have asked, it would have been the power that enabled the king to give such wishes – the power of generosity and selflessness.

Notwithstanding these remarks, and putting ourselves in the shoes of the subject, what should we ask for? We pray every day. We go to temples, and we ask for money, for status and for other short lived objects and experiences. The Power who we are praying to, has the capacity to give us anything. Instead of praying for that which is Infinite, we are praying for temporary, ephemeral and inconsequential things.

Going back to the cricket reference that was highlighted here, yesterday’s blog brought up 200 posts! My heartfelt gratitude to you for reading this far. I’m super excited for us all to continue this journey of self-transformation together.

At this meaningful (for me at least!) juncture, I thought it would be useful to highlight some key posts so far, which can help us revisit solutions to our most common questions. So here they are – 10 of them – in no particular order:

1. When will I become successful? – Link
2. How can I get rich? – Link
3. How much is enough? – Link
4. What is the right time for spirituality? – Link
5. On free will and choices – Link
6. Can we improve ourselves? And how? – Link
7. What is the secret of spirituality? – Link
8. How can I be unique, successful and amazing? – Link
9. Am I important? – Link
10. What is in it for me? – Link

Thanks again for giving this blog your time. If you like it, please spread the word. If you don’t, I’d love to hear your feedback.

Next stop: 300!

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace."

You know these lyrics. They’re from the amazing song called Imagine, by the legendary John Lennon (from The Beatles). When I was a kid, I used to love this song. I still do. But back then, it was all about the music and the tune, and less about the words. Ask me today, and I’ll say its almost entirely about the lyrics, and very little about the music.

My childhood was spent reading tons and tons of books of all kinds. I specifically loved comics – the Amar Chitra Kathas, the Tintins and the Asterix-Obelixes. And one thing I hated were my history books. I had a chance to re-read a few of these recently. And my word, what a revelation it was!

The books were the same and the songs were the same. Even the movies from those days are the same. All taken from a few decades ago. But one and only one thing had changed – decisively and conclusively. And that was me. The same is applicable to you as well. Just like a nuclear physicist will look at a 12th grade physics book and glean so much more from it than the 12th grader it was intended for. Same book, different interpretations.

Unlike (most) other animals on this earth, we are uniquely capable of generating experiences, learning new things and applying these principles, in order to grow ourselves. Imagine if we could do this for our books on spirituality, self-help books, motivational books etc. We could become outstanding versions of our current selves, irrespective of how good we are to start with.

There’s an interesting book called God Lived With Them, authored by Swami Chetanananda. It describes the lives and ways of select disciples of the late spiritual master Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

While there can be so many takeaways from the book, one thing struck me as very relevant for practical worldly life. And that is the need to integrate sensibility with spirituality. We have touched on this aspect several times here at FHN. But reading about it as applied by Sri Ramakrishna himself, is quite an eye opener.

The Master is often considered as the greatest Goddess Kali devotee that ever lived. He used to lovingly refer to her as his Divine Mother, and the relationship they shared was surreal. He would very often go into deep states of meditation (called samadhi), and be lost in divinity for hours on end. In this god-intoxicated state, Ramakrishna would be totally unaware of his physical body and surroundings. Even so, he would always instruct some disciples around him to protect his physical body. Why should he do that? Because the Guru’s body is key to benefitting the rest of humanity. And hence the disciples are dutybound to protect their Guru.

We can argue that Ramakrishna was spiritually realized and hence could have taken care of his own body, perhaps through some ‘magic’. But he did not. He was practical and sensible. Just as we should be too, all the more if we have not reached the upper echelons of spirituality.