Humility - A Great Asset of Achievers

Oftentimes, being humble and polite is considered a sign of weakness. But this perception is not based on the deep understanding but on the superficial and usually prejudiced perception of the human behavior. However, if a humble person is analyzed closely and without prejudice, the perceived humility is usually a sign of deeply cultured roots hidden beneath the humble countenance. 

Humility is not always a sign of wisdom and deep learning. There might be a lot of persons who are deeply learned and experienced but are not humble. For them, their learning results in steadfastness and ego. Though such persons are obeyed or feared, such reaction is superficial. Even a person who obeys or fears the egotist does not have a genuine respect for the latter. The obedience is for the position, authority or power but not for person. 

On the other hand, there are people who are deeply learned, greatly experienced and highly cultured but are very humble and unassuming from the outside. They might not stamp their authority by force but they exude so much aura and good vibe that people around them naturally start showing respect to the person. Once there is respect, the obedience and following naturally happens. More importantly, such obedience and following is not conditional to the authority or power but the person. That means the respect and following continues irrespective of power & authority or lack of those. 

In an age best with outward showmanship, fashion and exaggeration of one's even trivial accomplishments, personal humility and down-to-earth outlook of life are few and far between, a person with cultured humility is an asset for the society. A lot of people can be inspired and encouraged by such personalities. These humble people force even the most arrogant of those to look back at themselves and self-evaluate. 

Today, I met a young academician in a respected management college. A young lady with valuable management degrees under her belt, she was very polite and down-to-earth. No doubt, deep culture and good grooming makes a person rooted and pragmatic. They know their abilities but do not flaunt it. They know their weaknesses and try to overcome rather than hide it. They show respect to others and rarely blow their own trumpet. The lady was one such person and by the sheer personality and humility she showed during almost an hour of interactions, I am sure she shall be a very successful human being in her chosen field of profession. I wish her every luck. 

Once again, this encounter has reminded me of a beautiful and deep ancient adage in Sanskrit:

विद्या ददाति विनयम्, विनयाद्याति पात्रताम, ।

पात्रत्वा धनमाप्नोति, धनात् धर्मम् तत: सुखम् ।।

Meaning - 

Education gives humility, humility leads to good personality and eligibility. 

Eligibility and quality leads to wealth. Wealth leads to ability of altruism and that leads to happiness. 

Humility is not a sign of weakness but of deep-rooted learning, culture and wisdom. It is a trait to be cherished, nurtured and respected. 

Wed 27 February 2019, 14:03 

Anger

There is a very popular saying in Nepali "रीस खा आफू, बुद्धि खा अर्को" translating as "Your anger eats up yourself. Your wisdom eats up others." In other words, you can conquer others by using your wisdom whereas your anger destroys yourself. 

Anger is an intense emotional response to a perceived provocation, threat or hurt. As in many other intense emotional reactions, anger also involves the person losing part of the normal sense of judgment or logic. A very angry person normally acts out of the instantaneous urge without pondering over the consequences. This normally leads to remorse later on once the anger subsides. 

In history, mythology and even in normal life experiences, there are numerous stories, anecdotes and experiences of the actions and consequences related to anger. 

In Hindu mythology, the sage Durvasa is a known for his anger. If a person is very angry or of angry disposition, the comparison is drawn with Durvasa. He was a great and learned sage but his primary identification was as a person of intense anger. He would curse anybody for minor or even false perceived faults and the person would have to pay more than the due share of the retributions. 

But, the fact that nature has created this emotion means there is some good use of it as well. A balanced bit of anger to show dissatisfaction, frustration or disappointment is useful to show one's children, subordinates, colleagues or even superiors that one's feeling is genuine and should be taken seriously. However, as any other emotional reaction, anger has to be controlled, moderate and justified. 

As indicated in the Nepali proverb in the beginning, an unjustified and disproportionate bout of anger makes one commit actions that one has to regret later on. There is a funny story that a butcher, out of frustration about the bluntness of his knife, conducted a derogative swipe down the knife with his palm (this is a long-standing gesture to show frustration, usually a downward swipe of your palm in front and close to the face of the victim), only to have his palm severely cut by the knife. There are other funny incidents that occur everyday such as kicking a solid wall, boxing a hard surface, smashing utensils etc that are result of anger and can only have negative results. One such clip is here.

There is a famous verse if Bhagvadgita that says "Indulgence leads to desire. Unfulfilled desire leads to anger. Anger leads to delusions, loss of sense and then destruction." Hence, anger is an emotion that needs to be controlled and moderated. For this, a good presence of mind, self-awareness and patience are some of the necessary virtues. 

Tuesday 19 February 2019

चिप्लिएका पाइलाहरू

टाकुरामा आँखा अड्याउँदै,
अलि थाकेजस्तो ढाड सोझ्याउँदै ।
पिंडुला र पाखुरी स्थीर पार्दै,
सुस्तरी तर दरिलो पाइला चालेथें ।।

पुगुंँला नपुगुंँलाको दोधारमा,
लडिएला उठिएलाको दोसांँधमा ।
आशा र महत्त्वाकांक्षाको साथ,
खुड्किलोमा पाइलो राखेथें ।।

सबैले भन्थे टाकुरो तिम्रो हो,
पाइलो चाल मात्र खुड्किलो तिम्रो हो ।
तिम्रा पाइलाले खुड्किलो चिन्छन्,
टाकुरोले तिमीलाईनै खोजेको छ ।।

कता कता लागेथ्यो साच्चै हो कि !
चढ्नु मेरो नियतिमै थियो कि ?
माथिबाट क्षितीजपारि हेर्ने आखाहरू,
नि:सन्देह मेरा आफ्नै आंँखा थिए कि ।।

नत्र ती सबै शुभेक्षाहरू के थिए?
त्यत्रा धेरै उत्प्रेरणाहरू किन थिए?
त्यसैले लागेथ्यो अव मेरो पालो,
टाकुरोबाट क्षितीज नियाल्ने, लागेथ्यो ।।

लागेथ्यो जीवनका हरेक टाकुरो झै,
यो टाकुरोले अर्को टाकुरो देखाउनेछ ।
एउटा अर्को कोशे ढुङ्गो भेटे झै,
अबिरल यात्राले नया पाइलो पाउने छ ।।

तर जब बादल फाटी उज्यालो आयो,
मेरा पाइला यथास्थानमा थिए, स्थिर ।
शिखरमा एउटा आकृति बसिसकेछ,
मेरो जहाँको त्यहिँ थियो, तल, जडबत् ।।

मेरो गति सुस्त, पाइला फितलो,
हठात् चिप्लिएछन्, लाग्छ उक्लिने अभ्यास पुगेन ।
वर्षौं देखि समथर हिंडेका मेरा पैतालाले,
उकालोको विश्वास जित्न सकेनन् र अलमलिए ।।

उकालो, ओरालो, टाकुरो, भँड्खारो,
जीवन यात्रा यस्तै अवयवहरूको संग्रह रहेछ ।
त्यसैले मेरा जडवत् पाइलाहरू फेरि दौडिनेछन्,
टाकुरो अझै ओझेल छैन, एक दिन चढ्नेछन् ।।

१६:२४ शुक्रबार २०७५ फाल्गुन ०३ (१५ फरबरी २०१९)

India's One Man Band - Extraordinary Passion

The link above shall take you to a YouTube video. The TEDx performance by Gladson Peter shall surprise you beyond your imagination. It is not the artistic magnificence that shall enthrall. It is the extraordinary passion of the 25 year old man towards music. He managed to carry multiple instruments strapped and clipped all around his body. 

Not only strapping up the instruments, he was playing them, separately and in unison. Normally people tend to give up or think pursuing a passion may be beyond their elements. But for Gladson Peter, even his problematic lung could not stop him from pushing himself to be a singer and a unique performer. From Ukulele to Guitar to Mouth Organ to Drum to Keyboard and a few others, he plays with his hands, his feet, his strides and his steps. 

For those wanting to pursue passion and do something unique, there could not be a better example. 

16:58 Saturday 09 February 2019

Amazing Art of Creating Stories

Stories touch hearts. Stories endure in minds. Stories make narratives palatable. Stories make information fun and lasting. Stories express profound messages in ordinary and easy language. Stories are the elixir of knowledge. They are the infallible weapons of mass dissemination of wisdom. Stories make learning fun, favorable and friendly. 

No wonder grandparents impart the ageless wisdom to their grandchildren through stories. No wonder good teachers weave their teachings around stories. No wonder scriptures are rife with stories of interest for all. No wonder storytelling is considered an art. An art of creating worlds out of words. An art of serving great knowledge and delivering great messages so that they are easy to fathom and remember. 

Creating a story is hence an immense art. A great story is a great work of creation that can change lives. The story of ant and the dove must have made countless people truthful in their relationships and faithful in honoring those. The story of the lying shepherd must have made zillions of minds hesitate from telling a lie. Stories of Ram, Sita, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Lao-Tse, Akbar & Birbal and countless others have been enriching people's lives since times immemorial and shall continue to do till the human quest for knowledge endures. 

How do they write stories? How a dozen paragraphs of simple words outlive multitudes of generations? How does it enter the minds storytellers or writers that they create a group of words and sentences that are indelible from people's minds? This can be asked of any poet, lyricist, novelist, motivational writer, researcher or any other creator of written magic. But this is piece is about stories. 

Stories have a central plot, the main message, central character and the characters around that central character to help it play out its role. The character, context, the items in the surroundings, the relevance of the items, meaning behind each item and character, sequence of events etc make up a story. It also depends upon when the story is written. Since these are acts of creativity, a story of same intention or message written at one time profoundly differs from the same written at other times. This is probably how a written piece can tell a lot about the context or the mood of the writer at the time of the writing. 

I found an amazing TEDx Talk about the act of writing story by an amazing speaker. He actually creates a context and a story withing the speech. He shows how plots, sub plots, characters, contexts, items, surroundings and sequence of events can be used to create a compelling piece. 

Reading stories is fun. Writing them, with proper understanding of the art form, must be many times more gratifying. Give it a shot. A journey of thousand miles starts with a single step and initial steps can be tentative, unsteady and faltering. But that is how everything starts. Endurance and perseverance makes everything steady. But start one has to. 

13:10 Saturday 09 Feb 2019

Fear of Losing

Contests and competitions are there to be won or at least they are there for your to put your best effort to win. There might be various other opinions about this. Spiritual scriptures, especially those who are fatalist, tend to advocate the passivity towards winning. That is, your actions are what you can control and not their outcomes. Hence, put your best effort and do not worry about the outcomes. This is so easier said than done. If one were not to worry about the outcome, why put in so much effort?

So, for all worldly activities, one tends to worry about the outcome however dispassionate one is about that. Results, after all, matter a lot. A single result in favor makes a lot of difference in the personal growth, career or academic, A single bad result sets one back in every respect associated with the activity. 

Having participated in a competitive effort and waiting for the result, I am also going through these conflicting thoughts. To the worrying family members and friends, I tend to wave a dismissive hand and indicate that I am not worried. But I am worried indeed. Interestingly, the my conflicting selves jostle for the prominence of their notions. The one that worries about the outcome is routinely quashed by the other, egotistic self that pretends not to worry and dismiss the anticipation with some reference to fatalism or spirituality. But the other self routinely props up and gnaws into my brain with worry about the future. 

What if I prevail? What if I do not? So and so will be achieved if I prevail. All that will be red herring if I do not prevail. What could I have done better to make sure that I prevail? Did I put in my best possible effort? Did I ignore something or procrastinate and will that cost me dear? Do I believe in the reassuring words of my near and dear ones? Do I assure myself with the help of those external assurances? Or are they irrelevant? Are they sham and artificial? 

They say if something is wished for with sincerely, that happens? Have I wished sincerely? If I have wished sincerely, same might be the case with others I am competing against? Whose wishes are more sincere? Whose dreams are more powerful? Whose luck is stronger? 

Do I prepare for celebration or sorrow? What would I do if I prevail? What would be my mental reaction if I do not? 

These thoughts, arguments, counter-arguments and questions shall perhaps grow more intense in the coming day or two. Probably once the unknown becomes known, my mind shall have true rest. If the outcome is positive, the rest will be joyful and quicker. If it is on the contrary, my fatalist self shall have to do some cajoling and persuasion to pacify my expectant self. The peace will come either way, through a happier path or a more thorny one. 

10:00 AM 08 February 2019