Bad roads !!

A road with full of pits also leads to discomfort in a relationship

Words: 399
Reading Time: 2 mins 14 secs

Mumbai, the financial capital of India and my hometown has one thing which discomforts and irritates all of its inhabitants - the roads - are full of pits/trenches. The shock absorbers of any vehicle are completed put to a test to ensure a smooth ride. But we cannot in any way build better shock abs and hence and should thus try and built better roads. Better roads are built by an efficient spend on infrastructure, use of the perfect materials and minimal corruption! While reading this you must be wondering as to what I am trying to reach to !! I am putting ahead the similarity between the two - relationship and bad roads !

A relationship - may whatever it may be - siblings, friends, bf/gfs - they dont matter, they all take the same road. The road in the relationship completely dictates the comfort that one would be in the relationship. It completely depends on the way the vehicle is driven !! There are ways of driving the relationship - you either take it slow over the pits thus ensuring minimum discomfort, or you simple steer to avoid those pitfalls. There is also one more method which you wouldnt want to take which is driving fast anyhow the road maybe which would be disastrous for the vehicle as well as the passengers !!

A relationship is a very tender, cannot bear major disturbances while in journey. Once you go through a bad stretch, one will and should ensure that it (the pits) are avoided next time or the vehicle is slowed down to great extent! Once a relationship is through a turbulence, the vehicle has to be pulled back to its normal speed with great efforts - shifting to lower gears and pulling it back to normal speed. The relationship also thus goes to the base where it started from and has to be pulled up from the lower gears to higher speeds !! So as mentioned above, the roads must be built with efficient spend on the infrastructure and good materials, ensures that the roads are built for the future..

Though the road authorities claim that only 3% of the accidents on the road are due to bad roads, I feel the number would be much higher than that because of Bad Roads !! Happiness is where you get smooth and pit-free roads in life !!

Pacifying Yourself !

There are 2 things humans have created to pacify themselves in this world. Each and every person in his life sees times when he is down,depressed and has the whole world against him. At such times does he give up, does he fight back or keeps going as the water flows in a river ? Frankly speaking, I would not know what would he do in such a case.. would purely depend on individual preferences..

But according to my observations of the world what I have seen, man has himself developed / believed in certain things which keep him afloat above all the depressions he has in his life. Those things would help him get out of the same. Would certainly like to say that it is " believed " that those things would help him get out of those depressions.. Those couple of things are

1. God

2. Destiny / Luck - whatever u call they are the same

God is our ultimate belief.. we always attribute our happiness as well as sadness to God. We always say whatever happens is for the best because God has decided that for us. We always pray to god, in our good times as well as bad times. Does our prayers get answered ?

For destiny, we have heard many people or I myself have cursed or praised my luck several times !! "It must have been written in my destiny" is what most of the people end up saying. Isnt it ?

Does God Answer Our Prayers?

If God were to fulfill the desires of people according to their prayers then the Impartial Lord would become "partial" towards those who pray.

Then how does God fulfill the desires of His devotees?

Lord Krishna says "Whatever form a devotee seeks to worship with "faith" that "faith" of his I make firm in him". (Bhagavad Gita7/21)

From the material Standpoint, when we pray, and deter¬mine to achieve something we develop a "faith" in the goal and confidence in ourselves to do so. Faith is a, growing belief rooted in understanding. As this "faith" increases, the mind becomes more and more efficient. A single - pointed mind is indeed a mighty force against which no obstacles can stand for long. This "faith" irrespective of the chosen goal, is that which ultimately takes each one of us to our success.

Then what? How does one gain the fulfillment of his desire?

Reinforced with that "faith" in his chosen field man works harder. The Lord admits that by "His" grace that "faith" increases and consequently the efforts also increase with the increase of "faith". We put forth more and more efforts and as a result our desires are fulfilled. So, to say that we have been praying for years and our prayers have never been heard is the complaint of not those who pray but those, who only beg, without constantly striving hard to achieve.

From the spiritual standpoint, this verse is a very important one as it has carved out a distinct character for the Hindus—their unbelievable sense of tolerance towards all other religions in the world. The Hindu knows that "Truth is one; sages call it by different names." In whatever form man worships his God with "faith", in that form God shall be revealed to him.

Both in material and spiritual successes the secret of achievement is one and the same. If one desires the worldly things one gains them; if the spiritual experience, then one gains that too. If one's desires are materialistic •then one will seek them through worldly "devatas" (powers) and find one's immediate fulfillment.

Efforts remaining the same, the results depend upon whether we strive out-worldly for the passing joys, or dive inward to reach the permanent Bliss in the Self. In short, we can have what we wish for, if only our powers of wishing are powerful enough. Prayer brings about the necessary mental integration in ourselves, and assures our success
in any field of endeavor.

Remember, prayer is not beggary. Nor is it merely an exaggerated glorification of some unknown entity called God repeated mechanically by the mouth in a language which is unknown to the devotee. Prayer is invocation with the mind contemplating on the greater Reality of Life, the Essential Life that energizes, activates, thrills the inert world
of matter into living creatures, expands itself and in this expansion it soars higher into kingdoms of joyous experiences and true unfoldments.

Author : Swami Chinmayananda
Source : Swami Chinmayananda

Perception

Does the way in which the worlds perceives you matter at all ?

Words: 512
Reading time: little less than 3 mins

Perception, to define it in simple words, would be the way someone perceives another being to be. His/her characteristics, behaviour, good points, bad points are all stored in the minds of the audience based on previous instances. Once those are stored, they always are refreshed when that person is back in front of them. To change one's perception is very difficult - thats what people say.

"First Impression is the Last impression" is always the phrase repeated by many professors to their students to help them understand that once the impression is created in the mind, theres very little scope to change that again. Many many people in this world feel that one has to be himself / herself and not copy anyone else's traits. I do not completely disagree that, but at the end of the day it matters a lot when it comes to interaction with the world. The world would make a big picture about your character, positives, negatives etc and will always keep an impression in his/her mind. The next time you meet the same person, he already knows the way you behave and the way you socialize. Let me take an example, I am known to be a short tempered person, yeah theres still a divide on this within the social circle I am with most of the times. But those who have perceived me to be a short-tempered person will always ensure they dont cross the lines when being with me. Now personally I feel, I have very much overcome that short - temperedness (whatever it took me to realize, read Anger Management) Even today when a person meets me it has always been to my notice, that s/he still feels I havent done my lessons properly. Its all about perception. It might be atmost difficult to change a perception that has been bred in the minds for quite a long time now.

Imagine people going for an interview, the first impression is the last impression truly. The way you approach situations, problems is answered in the perception created in the interviewer's mind and yes of course, thats created by you itself, Isnt it ? Once you are done with the interview, you might get a feedback that you might be expecting but something that would not be expecting. The strangest thing would be to create such a perception to the interviewer which might not be the case - the so called wrong-impression.

Till today, It hasnt been possible to read peoples mind and possibly change the way they think about you as a person. The only way one can change the perception is to change the thinking method that one employs. Put yourself in the person's position and assess your behaviour - a best and the only method according to me for introspection. Perception cannot be destroyed, but can be modified and at the end of the day, I think its the way the world looks towards you as a person which matters the most and not that of the "man in the mirror" !!!