law of karma value systems for success

Law of Karma – “Value Systems for Success”

Wrong notions of relationships Who is your wife? Who is your son/daughter? This world is extremely wonderful. Of whom are you? Who are you? From where have you come? Oh brother, think of that Truth here.

Having dealt with physical and emotional attachments in the previous two stanzas, this verse deals with intellectual attachment. It is far more binding than physical and emotional. How to liberate oneself from these? He is suggesting that we enquire into these mysterious relationships.

On the one hand he is saying, ‘inquire, who is your wife, who is your son/daughter, who are your relatives, etc, to develop a detachment from them. By the same token he is asserting a relationship by saying, ‘Oh brother’. This is an expression of the master’s objectivity. It is not the noble institution of family and the relationships that are taboo, but your entanglement in it. It is your possessiveness and selfish attachment to personalities as “my wife”, ‘my son’ or ‘my brother’ that you have been asked to examine. Give up your personal ties, selfish bondage and not the persons nor your relationship literally. When you give up your selfish attachment, your relationships improve.

..to be continued…

“Value Systems for Success” by M K Angajan


Develop a mental occupation with the Self within.. When you are under the veil of attachment, you believe that ‘when I finish my responsibilities in life, then I will take to spirituality or a higher path in life’. Before you realize it, you get into the deeper attachment of manhood. You hurry and worry to fulfill the passions of maternal or paternal obligations. You believe that when you retire, you will dedicate yourself to the service of God. You are later overpowered by the pangs of

old age and get obsessed with worries and anxieties. Thus, NO ONE, alas, is attached to Supreme Truth!

Waiting to finish your responsibility and to take up spirituality is like waiting for the waves to subside in the ocean for you to sail your boat! You will never find the ocean calm. Similarly, this also applies to take up spirituality in life. It is now or never.

The common complaint is lack of time for spirituality. Your attachments to the world consume all your time. Once your intellects is fired with the value of recognizing the Divinity, that becomes the priority. When you analyze the justification of lack of time, you realize that it only means that you lack the conviction to pursue the Spirit. Your lack of time only means that your lack of priority. Once the conviction is developed in and through all your duties and responsibilities, your intellect attunes itself to the Self.

The ability of attachment was bestowed upon mankind to attune and attach himself to the Supreme. But it is being misapplied for worldly pleasures because they provide quick joy. To attach yourself to the Lord by tearing yourself from attachment to worldly excitements needs enormous strength of character. Therefore, one needs to develop the strength of the intellect.




Develop a mental occupation with the Self within.. Today we are more concerned about the vehicle, the equipments, not our real Self. Our time and ability is only directed towards the equipments. To illustrate: A prince was riding a horse in a jungle. He later descended from the horse and slept under the tree. While he was asleep, a thief stole his horse. With much difficulty, he managed to reach his place. He then decided to invite all his friends and relatives for an elaborate banquet. As his friends were enjoying the party, one of them inquired about the reason for the party. He said “I am celebrate because of my horse was stolen in the jungle. “Have you gone crazy, you are celebrating because your horse was stolen? His friends retorted. “No dear friends, on the contrary, you have gone crazy.” The prince replied.

He then added, “Don’t you realize that although my horse was stolen, I am alive and unharmed? That is why I am celebrating.” The price was saved, but his vehicle was stolen.

What we are doing, however? We are doing the opposite. We are only concerned about the vehicle of viz, body-mind-intellect-ego and completely missing the Self – the actual rider. Imagine a man who spends hours cleaning his beautiful car, but he never has a bath and remains absolutely filthy! That is our plight today. We are only concerned about the vehicle and not the rider.




Develop a mental occupation with the Self within.. If you bring a piece of iron near a magnet, the magnet attracts the iron. If you were to replace the iron with a piece of wood, you will find that the magnet does not attract the wood piece. Now tie the wood piece together with the iron piece and bring this combination near the magnet. The magnet will attract the combination. In this case, though the combination gets attracted to the magnet, the wood piece remains unaffected.

Similarly, each one of us is a necessary combination of spirit and matter – the Self and the body-mind-intellect and ego equipment. Since you constantly identify with the equipment, you become one with the body, mind, intellect and ego and when the world affects the body, the mind, the intellect and ego, and then you feel you are affected. But the truth is the real YOU within remains unaffected.

However, this does not mean that spiritually developed person does not experience joy and sorrow. He also goes through the favourable and unfavourable experiences but they do not affect him. He is not affected by the fluctuations in life.

The message of the scriptures or any religion, therefore, is nothing but the shifting of one’s focus of attention from this world of perceptions, actions, emotions and thoughts to his inner Self, the Soul. Shift your focus from the vehicles of body-mind-

intellect-ego to the Self within. You gradually liberate yourself from the thralldom. You gain freedom from agitations. You become liberated.




Develop a mental occupation with the Self within.. The law of life is that as you think, so you become, and as you become, so you think.

You constantly think about the body and its perceptions and actions. You become a physical personality. Thereafter, your focus of attention is on physical things. When you continuously identify with the mind, you become an emotional personality. Your concern is only on emotions and feelings of yours and others. If you relentlessly think about the intellect, you become an intellectual personality. You then concerned about ideas and ideology, precepts and concepts. Identifying with the ego, you become an egoistic personality. Your ego arrogates all these experiences as yours. So, all your experiences are confined to physical, emotional, intellectual and egoistic. We do not seem to know anything beyond these.

Since you identify with and become one with the body-mind-intellect-ego equipment, whatever happens to the equipment happens to you. You suffer as a consequence.

The objective of spiritual life is to shift the focus of attention from the outer equipment to the Spirit within you. The Spirit within (the Self) goes through no fluctuations. It remains unaffected. When you focus upon the Spirit, you experience peace and bliss. All your sorrows and sufferings are caused by your attention being focused on the material equipment.



If you don't have peace in life, whatever you have (material world), will have no meaning!


Develop a mental occupation with the Self within Human being alone possesses the choice to direct his thoughts in a particular direction of his choice and to achieve a specific purpose. No other living being has the choice of directing its thought in a specific direction they want.

Every human being is a necessary combination of spirit and matter. Matter is the body, mind, intellect and ego equipment. Beyond the body, mind, intellect and ego are your essential Self - the spirit. The material elements are inert, but when they are in contact with the Self, the Atma within, there is a brilliant expression of life. Just as when an electric bulb comes into contact with electricity, there is light, although neither the bulb nor electricity by themselves have light in them. Similarly, when the body, mind, ego and intellect come in contact with the Self, there is the light of life.

The Self or Atma is our real Self, and the outer equipment is just the vehicle that enables us to contact the world. The problem today is that our focus of attention is all the time on the material equipment: the body, mind, intellect and ego.




Unreasonable preoccupation of the mind dissipates energy

When a boy, one is attached to play; when a youth, one is attached to a young woman; when old, one is attached to anxiety. No one, alas, is attached to Supreme Truth!

The verse talks about the biography of every human being who exhausts their life in empty purposes and meaningless attachments. Only a human being has the potential to realize the infinite Self. That is the purpose of human existence. But intoxicated with lust

and passion, he falls to the depths of degradation. The Guru here realizing the plight of man feels the pain and laments, Alas!

Here the master examines the obsession of human mind to the world at different stages of his growth in life and as a result he completely misses the higher aspect of life.

As a child one helplessly runs after playthings. During childhood your interest and attention is only upon the toys and play. We spend our childhood with our attachments to toys.

When the child grows up to be a youth, his vitality is dissipated in lust and passion for his beloved as well as unrealistic ambitions and an obsession for success, power, position, name and fame.

As old age creeps in, his head is laden with worries and anxieties, fears and insecurities arising from his own past selfish activities. He becomes a prisoner of past worries. He constantly worries about his children’s future, grandchildren’s safety and so on. Every activity is associated with anxiety, tension and fear.

Thus, his entire life is consumed by attachment to something or the other. He does not have any time or inclination to find out what is the essence of life, to surrender to something beyond the terrestrial attachment.




Your Body-Worship obstructs your progress..People often follow the two extremes in life. Either they pamper the body or they neglect it. Hardly anyone follows the middle path.

The body is a vehicle. You give it as much importance as you would give to your vehicle. You clean it, feed it, exercise it and keep it fit. No more, no less.

What is the value of an animal’s body after death? It is far higher than the value of the human body. If you analyze a human body after death, it has no monetary value. Your spouse may even fear that body. We cling to this passing entity under a delusion.

When you are attached to the physical body, your perception of the world gets limited to the physical things. You cannot conceive anything beyond the physical world. That is the law. Therefore, arise from this physical bondage to a higher plane of consciousness.

The next verse deals with our attachment to emotional realm.




Your Body-Worship obstructs your progress..The pampering of the body and your exaggerated concern for physical personality is often to impress others. You are looking at yourself through the eyes of others. There are only two types of people in the world:

One is people who entertain higher value, character and culture and who are not bothered about physical appearances. They intellectually X-ray through physical appearances and try to understand what your character is. You cannot impress them by your external show. The other set of people are those who are impressed by your appearance. They focus more on your external appearance. They lack character and culture. They are the people who are envious of you. They can act based on their envy against you. They will be detrimental to you.

Both the types are not in your favour. Therefore, whom you are trying to impress?

Ofcourse you have to be physically presentable. You have to be ‘rich but not gaudy’. You cannot neglect the physical body. At the same time there should not be an exaggerated attention to the physical personality. Do not pamper the body.




Your Body-Worship obstructs your progress

As long as there is breath in the body, so long people at home enquire of your welfare. Once the breath leaves and the body is decayed, even your own wife fears the very same body!

In the previous two verses the master awakened us to the reality that life is ephemeral and sorrow ridden. Having diagnosed the problem, what is the remedy? Merely exposing the problem without prescribing the solutions amounts to criticism and condemnation. A guide is one who exposes the problem and provides constructive solution. This stanza deals with detachment from bodily attachments. The following two verses give us powerful suggestions to get detached from emotional and intellectual aspects of our personality.

Here your uncontrollable obsession to the body worship and image maintenance is condemned. Here he uses the word ‘wife’. It has to be taken in the sense of spouse who gives so much regard and value to the body of the partner. Once the life is out, the same person who admired probably does not have any value for the body. The wife who adored the body may not even sleep in the same room for fear of him returning!




Your Dependents’ Motive..Ideally, when you are young, you ought to live a life of strife and struggle to serve and sacrifice for the community, nation and humanity. Seeking success, earning and saving are to be considered as a hobby not a full time engagement.

The real achievement is to be gained in self-development; one’s own inner contemplation and gaining mastery over the world so that long before the world rejects you , you can reject the world. Nay! You can grow above the world.

Retire in to a greater world of serenity and deep contemplation and more intense self-engagement and self-satisfaction.




Your Dependents’ Motive..Therefore he says ‘seek the truth’. All of us may not be able to seek that ultimate truth. If you cannot conceive that highest Truth, that goal in life which is Self-realisation, you should have to set an ideal or a relative goal in life which could be self-development. It is an effort to make yourself a better human being. If you cannot conceive even that, then have a goal in life that adds value to a common goal, a social purpose. Here, a goal or ideal means something that is beyond your selfish, personal interest. A goal must encompass a wider circle of people, not just fulfilling your personal desires. A selfless purpose will chasten and purify you personality.

Today people cannot see anything beyond their family - wife and children. When you cannot see the ultimate Truth or think of self-development, set up an ideal or a goal which could be development of the organization in which you are working or the growth of the society in which you are living. You have to pause and think about what you are doing in life. There has to be a purpose for your existence. Otherwise, it is routine mechanical existence, not any different from animal life.




Your Dependents’ Motive

As long as you have the ability to earn wealth, so long will your dependents be attached to you! Later, when you live with an infirm body, no one would ever speak a word to you in your own home!

The verse highlights the tendency of the mind to be dependent upon people who are close to you. It says: do not be carried away by dependents and your following. When people are following you, they are, invariably, following the capacity and the wealth you have.

As discussed earlier, wealth is a commodity that can be exchanged for sense objects. With wealth you cannot buy happiness or knowledge. You can only buy sense objects to cater to your ten sense organs. So long as you have the ability to generate sense objects, there will be a lot of followers. Later, when you live with an infirm body and your powers degenerate, the same people can desert you. Wealth here should be taken in a broad context. Wealth means any power – worldly or spiritual, political or scientific, artistic or technological. When you have fame, name and richness, you have lot of followers and you get carried away by that. You do not realize that they are only with you because you have some capacity or some special ability. Therefore, be objective. Do not get obsessed with this acquisition and possession.




The Nature of Our Life..

Facing challenges with peace of mind requires learning of certain psychological technique. Once you have mastered the technique, you can handle any challenge, big or small. You must understand that as the water on the lotus leaf is unsteady, so is life extremely unsteady. As “the entire world is consumed by disease, conceit and smitten with sorrow”, do not take the pessimistic view that life is full of sorrow. He is only asking you to see it from a different angle. Master the technique of living and change your attitude and your life thereafter would no more be riddled with disease and smitten with sorrow.

I asked for strength, and GOD gave me difficulties to make me strong

I asked for wisdom, and GOD gave me problems to solve

I asked for prosperity and GOD game me brain and brown to work

I asked for courage and GOD gave me challenges to overcome

I asked for love and GOD gave me troubled people to help

I asked for favours and GOD game me opportunities

I received nothing I wanted, I received everything I needed

My prayer has been answered “GOD gives food for every bird, but does not put it in their mouth”




The Nature of Our Life..

The farmer stopped the engine to stop the noise, but by stopping engine to stop the noise, the water also stopped being pumped. The horse rider said: “I asked you to stop the noise only, why did you stop water flow?” The farmer replied, “You can’t have water without the noise of the engine”.

Similarly in life, if you have to live happily, you must learn to live amidst problems. You cannot have a challenge-free, problem-free life. Life means challenges and continuous solutions to problems. Re-mould your attitude and you will enjoy solving problems and enjoy living. Once you have the right mental attitude, every aspect of life would be a treat since it would be enjoyable. Face any challenge joyfully like a sportsman.

Think deeper and analyze as to what is the difference between a happy and unhappy person? Can we say a happy person has fewer problems in life? Not necessarily. A happy person has enough problems. However, he has the right mental attitude and right perception. He does not perceive the problems as a problem. He sees challenges as an opportunity to showcase the talents and ability. Therefore, he enjoys facing the challenges.

Perfection in human being is in the ability to maintain the peace and cheer while facing the challenges and adversities of life. That is total quality individual. Remember, life is like a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you are made of.




Delusion of Intellect

Intelligence is often misunderstood to be the ability for right judgment. At the intellectual level, people believe that if a person is well informed in one or more subjects, he is an intellectual. To make the right judgment, you need the development of intellect. Intelligence is quite different from intellectual development. To be intellectual is the capacity of the intellect to control and channelize one’s body, mind and ego in the right direction based on values. This even a great academician may lack. So to believe ‘intelligence’ as being ‘intellectual’ is a delusion. To have intellectual development, one needs an

education on higher values. The intellect needs to be trained to regulate and guide the mind and the ego.




Delusion of Emotion

At the emotional level, many people misunderstand selfish attachment and infatuation to be true love. Attachment is when love is polluted with selfishness. Attachment is far from true love. It is inverted love. Attachment, in effect, is nothing short of hatred. When most people claim they love somebody, be it spouse, parents, family or children, what they mean is that they are affectionate to someone because that particular individual satisfies them either at the physical, emotional or intellectual level. Suppose the supply to any of these three levels of the personality is reduced or the supply is stopped fully, what happens to the love and affection? Invariably that ‘love’ diminishes.

Therefore, when you claim you love a person just introspect. Often the feeling to that person is because he or she is catering to your physical-emotional-intellectual demands, your whims and fancies. In effect, whom do you actually love? You love yourself. It is just the opposite of love. Selfish love is misunderstood as true love. It is delusion at the emotional level.



Delusion of wealth

Our understanding of richness is misleading. We believe that when we have a large bank balance, we are rich. You are rich, if your income exceeds your expenses and your expenses are equal to your wishes. Despite possessing expensive and innumerable assets, if your wishes and desires are more than your assets, you are considered a poor man. In the case of many people, although they are wealthy, their outgo often exceeds their income. As a result their upkeep becomes their downfall. Maintaining their status and standard of living becomes the cause of their downfall. Therefore, richness is in reduction of subjective wants rather than an increase in objective assets. “Poverty lies not in the decrease of wealth but in the increase of subjective wants” said Plato.




Sharpen the AXE..

What do you think of a man who does not have ten minutes to spare to sharpen the axe because he is busy cutting down the tree? Is it not absurd? But then what are we doing? Most people are very busy cutting down their tree. They do not have time to sharpen their axe – the mind and intellect – because they are so busy earning and acquiring.

The man struggled for hours to cut down the tree. If only he took ten minutes off to sharpen the axe, he could have accomplished his task in minutes. He could not spare ten minutes to sharpen the axe. Ten minutes seemed too expensive. But that ten minutes is a matter of the investment of time. Similarly, people complain of a lack of time to sharpen their inner tools. You need to put in a little effort everyday to sharpen the axe – your personality, your inner being. Just as any other machinery needs servicing and sharpening, your inner tools too need the same.

So, understanding the values, through the study of scriptures is nothing but the process of sharpening your inner personality so that you become very effective in your approach in any field of action. Remember the time that you use in enriching your inner self is an investment of time only. It is not spending. Perhaps, the most effective and rewarding investment of your time is to invest within yourself to recharge your personality.




The Happiness within..

There is a third group of people who understand that he problem has nothing to do with the external world but everything to do within one’s own self. They understand that the wrong mental attitude and their approach to the problem is the problem. They understand that the problem is not with the world. The world is a projection of their own mind; it is a reflection of their own thoughts. The right mental attitude gives the right approach to solve the problem. They focus on the inner self and try to rectify it within. Thereafter, they find that the world is perfect.

In the Mahabharatha, there is an interesting parable. Lord Krishna requested Duryodhana to find the most righteous person and bring him to the Lord. Duryodhana sets out on the mission. Krishna then called Yushistira and told him to bring him the wickedest person in the world. Yudhishtira also set on his mission to find a wicked person. At the end of the stipulated time, Dhuryodhanan came back stating: “Oh, Lord, I am so sorry I could not find’lord, I am sorry even one righteous person in the world.” After some time Yudhishthira came and said: I am sorry, I cannot find one wicked person in the world.” Yudhishtiran being Dharmarajan (king of virtue) could not find even one wicked person. Duryodhanan being wicked could not find a righteous person. The parable tries to convey the message: “as your mind, so the world.” Dhuryodhanan could only see wickedness in everyone while Yudhishitran could only see nobility everywhere, yet both searched in the same world.

Therefore, what needs transformation is, your mind and intellect. Vendata helps in rehabilitating your inner personality. It is a knowledge that restructures your inner system. There is nothing wrong with the outside world, let the world remain as it is. You need to bring the light of knowledge within. You will then know how to steer your way though the challenges of life.




Sharpen the AXE

In life you do not need much effort to get freedom from the problems of life. They are mere pinpricks in life. All that you need is a systematic study of about 45 minutes to 1 hour each morning to master the knowledge of living to sharpen your personality, to fine-tune your inner equipment. When you sharpen your personality, your application becomes very effective; you become dynamic at the same time you are able to maintain your peace of mind.

Once a man was trying to cut a tree with an axe. In spite of hours of effort, it was still not cut. He was weary and tired. At that time his friend happened to pass by. The friend asked him “what are you doing?” The man replied with frustration “can’t you see what I’am doing; I am trying to cut the tree” The friend enquired “how long have you been working at it” “Four hours” the man said. Surprised at the time taken, the friend picked up the axe and checked. He found the axe was very blunt. The friend then suggested to the man “why don’t you take ten minutes off and sharpen your axe, so that it cuts faster.” The man was very upset and said “please leave me alone, I am busy cutting the tree and I don’t have time to sharpen the axe”





A horse was once involved in a fight with a stag. The stag stabbed him with his antlers. The hose appealed to a hunter for help. The man said “I can help you; I have arrows in my hand. Take me on your back and I will destroy your enemy”. The man rode on the horse’s back and went into the forest and killed the snag. The horse was very happy. The horse thanked the man and said:” Dear Sir, I thank you. Now I want to leave you”. The man came up and said “Oh horse, where do you want to do? Now that I have come to know how useful you are, I will not let you go. You have to become my servant; you have to be my slave.” The horse was saved from the menace of the stag, but he had lost his freedom, he was bound permanently. So it is with man. He seeks a solution externally. His outward success gives rise to a new problem.

A man or a woman seeks solace in marriage for the problems they go through as an unmarried person. However, after the marriage, they are saved from many problems, but if they do not have the right attitude towards married life, if they do not know the technique of right relationship, marriage can get them into permanent problem! Saved from one problem, but got into permanent problem! It is like the treatment that the horse received at the hands of man. Changing outside factors for your internal problem often can become creation of new problem.

Samuel Johnson has brought out the idea thus: “The fountain of content must spring up in the mind and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove”





Similarly when there is a problem, one set of people tries to escape from the problem, while the others try to solve it from the wrong end. The more you run away from the problem, the more will the problem seem to follow you. Just pause and take a peep into your own self. The moment you believe that there is a problem in the outside world or if you believe there is happiness in the outside world, you will be in trouble. Seeking happiness or solutions in the external world is an unending chase. An Indian thinker views this interestingly “Looking for happiness in the outside world is like a blind man looking for a black cat, in a dark room, which is not there”.

Those people, who believe that the problem is in the outside world, face the problem squarely. They do not run away from the situation. They meet the challenges with courage, but they start from the wrong end. They believe that the problem is outside and seek the solution externally. That is where they go wrong. They never succeed in trying to solve the problem from the outside. The more they try to seek the solution outside, the deeper they get into the problem. Then they take refuge in the belief that “when trouble comes, it comes in battalions.” The external solution for an internal problem is but creation of new problem.





Happiness is what you make out of your own mind. It is not what happens to you that agitates you but your response to what happens to you. You cannot tailor make external situation but you can tailor

make an attitude to suit the situation. We cannot control the tragic things that happen to us, but we can control the way we face up to them. Yet people try to escape from the situation with the delusion that the world is producing mental agitation. They try to run away from the challenges.

Remember, you cannot escape from the problem by merely changing the situation or the environment you live in. You have to face the situation squarely.

On certain occasions in India, some mischievous street children have a peculiar way of entertaining themselves. They tie a tin to a donkey’s tail and they let-off a cracker near the donkey. The panic stricken donkey runs dragging the metal tin. Even after the cracker’s noise has stopped, the donkey continues to run because it hears the noise caused by the tin dragging along the ground. As it runs, the donkey believes that the noise is following him. What should the donkey do? The donkey simply has to stop, the noise will abate and the problem is solved. But the donkey believes that the problem is following him and runs until it gets exhausted and collapses.




The Happiness within

Examine your life. Is there happiness in the external world? Does the world provide happiness? Carefully analyze what we are enjoying in this world. A man takes a glass of whisky and believes there is joy in it. The same whisky is an object of abhorrence to an orthodox Brahmin. To a chain smoker, who is prevented from smoking for a long period, a cigarette may give lot of happiness, but for a non-smoker the same smoke is detestable.

The object is the same, but for one person it seems to provide happiness, and to another person it gives sorrow. If you say there is happiness in whisky, or in the cigarette then it should provide happiness to everybody, but that does not happen.

What gives happiness for one person, the same gives unhappiness to someone else. Therefore, happiness is a state of mind.

John Homer Miller presents the ideas as follows: “The greatest weakness of many people is that they do not realize their own strength. Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life, not so much by what happens to you as by the way you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”




The Happiness within

Human activities are directed towards acquiring joy and happiness. The acquisition and enjoyment are the two motivations of human actions. You avoid sorrow by acquiring material objects and court joy by containing the objects of pleasure. You are acquiring this material wealth with the belief that you can enjoy it later. You acquire wealth as a preparation against sorrow and actually contacting the object with a belief that you get pleasure out of it.

In this pursuit for happiness, your mistake is that your pursuit for happiness is always in the external world. We are seeking happiness at the wrong end. The quest for happiness in the external world is unending.

So long as we are seeking happiness in the external world, we will never find it. Seeking happiness in the world is like seeing mirage thinking that there is water available.

Arthur Schopenhaur, a German thinker, crystallized this idea as follows: “It is difficult to find happiness within one’s own self, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else”.




The influence of emotions over your decisions….

You like to indulge in ill talk and gossip. Early rising from bed is detestable. How many of us have understood the value of sleeping early and getting up early? To do physical exercise is detestable.

When it comes to intellectual exercises, like studying the scriptures, to strengthen the intellectual muscles, none have the time and inclination.

It is very painful and detestable in the beginning but you enjoy the pleasure of physical and mental health later. The immediate pleasure seduces your mind. They thrill you. We are tempted to choose that aspect that gives us instant joy.

The temporary and instant pleasures are the harbingers of future sorrow and suffering.




The influence of emotions over your decisions…

The world is structured to cater to the instant joys for your mind. The mind with base values only understands the fleeting pleasures and it is rather painful to withdraw from the instant joys of the world. The contact with instant pleasures of the world dilutes the right values of your intellect. That is the problem. It is the choices and decisions based on the momentary pleasures of the mind that bring about your downfall in life. It brings no success and progress. Yet, when you do not achieve the target you attribute your failure to GOD’s unkindness or to your bad destiny or wrong positioning of stars. You rush to an astrologer to conceive and define your destiny. How absurd!

We do not have the perception to see what our reward will be after we indulge in momentary pleasure. Therefore, your intellect must be educated and empowered with the right values in life. That will give you the vision and stamina to withstand the instant pain arising out of withdrawal from instant pleasures. This yields lasting joy and success.

To indulge in the senses is very easy, very pleasant and needs no education – everybody seems to do it very naturally. But to take any higher direction, an evolutionary direction for lasting peace and bliss, we need education on human values. And that is what the value scriptures have to offer.




The influence of emotions over your decisions..

The mind is like a child who craves for petty and instant pleasures. Suppose you give a child a choice between two gifts for his birthday – a cheque for a million dollars and a chocolate, the child would innocently rush towards the bar of chocolate and not the cheque. Why does the child choose the chocolate and not the money? It is because the child understands only the instant joys of life. The child does not understand with that amount of money he could buy chocolates for the rest of his life. The child does not understand the concept of lasting happiness.

Similarly, within you there is a child that makes choices. That child is your mind. In life, while you make your decisions, you are choosing chocolates, you choose petty pleasures, and you are missing out on valuable things because of your mind’s craving for ‘instant pleasures.’

When you are employed by an organization, you are paid for the quality of decisions you make in solving the problems. Finding solutions to problems involves processing data, quality thinking and precise decisions. Your mind has a tendency to influence decisions towards instant pleasures and impoverishing the quality of your decisions. Therefore, beware of this tendency of your mind.



The influence of emotions over your decisions

The law of life is that what is pleasurable in the beginning is like poison in the end and that which is detestable in the beginning is like nectar in the end.

When we make choices or decisions in life, we invariably are tempted to make a choice based on instant pleasure in the beginning. This is because we do not have the right values of life. Wrong values lead to wrong perceptions of life and eventually wrong decisions.

Your success and growth is determined by the quality of choices and decisions you make in your life. Therefore, it is imperative that you empower your intellect with values and principles of life to direct and channel your mind, ego and the body. The mind with its desires, likes and dislikes, feeling and emotions need not be stifled, but directed in the right direction.

The Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18, Verses 37 and 38, points out to mankind about the danger of making the decisions based on instant pleasure:

“That which at first is like venom but in the end is like nectar; that pleasure is said to be pure, born of the blissful knowledge of self”

“That which from the union of the senses with their objects, at first is as nectar, but in the end is like venom, that pleasure is termed as Rajasic (passionate)”




The Intellect

Among the three inner equipments, intellect is the most important aspect of your personality. It is the guiding factor within. The intellect is the ability to think and to decide. It is the capacity to reason, to discriminate, to analyze, to judge. The intellect is the capacity to control, to guide and to channel your body, mind and ego to the desired direction. Intellect is the seat of higher values. If the values can be compared to the headlights of a car, the intellect is the steering wheel. The intellect exercises its choices according to the value system.

The intellect is the reasoning ability, judging capacity, the discriminating faculty. It analyzes controls and supervises your actions, perceptions, emotions and thoughts. The intellect is the aspect in you, which controls and channelizes the desires, emotions, whims and fancies of the mind and arrogations of your ego.

The intellect is what gives direction to your mind. However, when your intellect is not strong enough to control the mind and ego, they in turn overpower and rule the intellect. Your decision making ability is under the mercy of your mind and ego.




The EGO

The ego is the claimant within you. Your ego claims the body-mind-intellect and their respective functions and objects. EGO claims your worldly possessions. My wealth, my family, my house, my children, my reputation, my image etc. These assertions and arrogations are made by the EGO. It claims ‘it is my perception’, ‘my action’ or ‘I am the actor’, my feeling’, my thinking’, my point of view’, and ‘my ideas’. These assertions and arrogations of your EGO need to be governed and controlled.

The ego is often misunderstood to be something negative, something detrimental. The truth is that the ego, by itself, is not detrimental. On the contrary, it is a potent, benevolent entity within you, provided you know the technique of using it. Lack of control over the ego, your inability to use the ego rightly, renders the ego detrimental. An uncontrolled, undisciplined ego is harmful. It develops arrogance in you. On the contrary a controlled, disciplined use of the ego is beneficial. It develops self-esteemed self worth in you. Self-esteem is an essential ingredient of success and progress.

The ego in you, if not supervised, causes devastation and destruction of human harmony within as well as without. Uncontrolled and undisciplined ego is a saboteur. It sabotages your career, your relationship, your peace of mind and your goal.




The Mind

Your mind contains emotions, feelings, desires, attachments, impulses, likes/dislikes and memory. These functions of your mind need to be controlled and channeled. It has to be given proper direction.

Otherwise they can cause enormous damage to your life. If your mind is not trained and disciplined, it can have harmful effect upon you. It can cause tremendous havoc in your life.

The uncontrolled mind creates mental agitation and suffering. You must realize that the human mind by itself has no proper direction and dimension. Your mind persistently craves worldly pleasures.

An untrained mind only aspires for the temporary pleasures that the world offers. It does not understand the lasting happiness. As you are making crucial choices and decisions in life, your decisions are often overpowered by desires and emotions of your mind rather than by clear discriminations of the intellect. You must realize that at every moment of your life, you have this choice of action. The choices you make is either based on right discrimination, proper values and reality or is based on mere instant pleasures, impulses and emotions of the mind.

If you allow your mind to overpower the decisions and choices, you suffer the sorrows thereof, you will experience failure.

‘..to be continued…



The Body..

The body by itself is inert equipment. It has no activity by itself. But what gives vitality, activity and momentum to the body is the mind and intellect. When I am interacting with you, I am relating to your mind and intellect and not to your body. The body, by itself, without the inner equipment would remain like any inert object such as wood or stone.

The mind and intellect are the two motivating factors that propel us into activity. They are the software of human behavior and actions. They are imperceptible, intangible but functional equipments. Since the mind-intellect-ego is the actual actor and motivator within, it is crucial that you understand what these equipments are and how you can maintain a proper interaction with the world with these equipments. Thus, you could be successful at the same time, maintain the invaluable peace of mind.




The Body

Your physical body is constituted of the ten sense organs. The body is the house of these senses. They are the five organs of perception and the five organs of action. The organs of perceptions are the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. The five organs of actions are the hands, legs, genitals, organs of evacuation, and the organ of speech. These ten senses are constantly directed towards the external world for perceptions and actions.

You receive stimuli from the world through the organs of perception. Having received the stimuli, the reactions take place within the mind-intellect-ego equipments. The reactions will depend upon the desires of the mind and the values of the intellect. Thereafter, you respond to the received stimulus through the organs of action.

Thus, your life is a cycle of receiving, reaction and response. This process goes on till you die.




The Human Composition

This is an era of intellectual giants but spiritual dwarfs, people who know more about lunar landscapes than their own inner geographies. Human beings have explored the external world explicitly, but have totally neglected the world within. They have not discovered the inner science. Therefore, it is essential to analyze and understand the human being and his inner dynamics.

A human being is a combination of spirit and matter. Spirit is the soul, the Self, the ‘Atman’ within. The material equipment includes the body, mind, ego and the intellect. The spirit by itself is inert, insentient. When these human equipments contact the spirit within there is expression of life. The spirit is one and the same in every individual like electricity is the same in all the electrical gadgets. But the expression of electricity varies from equipment to equipment. Electricity is expressed as light in electric bulbs, movement in a fan, refrigeration in a refrigerator, heat in a heater, etc. Heating and refrigeration are diametrically opposite properties, yet the electricity that is functioning in the heater as well as in the refrigerator is the same.

Similarly, the self or the spirit is the same in all human beings, in the best of saints or the worst of sinners. But the body-mind-ego-intellect equipment differs from person to person. The body, mind, ego and intellect are the equipment, which you are using to live your life, whatever your profession may be. The difference between a noble and an ignoble person, a vicious and a virtuous person, successful man and a failure is like the difference in the equipment.

Since you are using these equipments to live your life, it is imperative that you understand how these equipments function, what laws and principles apply in their functioning, and how we can use them effectively and efficiently.




Vedanta, the Science of the Self..

In this literature, the composition of the human machinery and its functions are analyzed. We shall also see how preciously Vedanta relates to our day-to-day life living. You have to spend considerable time and effort to imbibe it. Thus, as we go along, we scrutinize the human composition, its functions and how the values found in the scriptures relate to the effective functioning of these human tools in our day-to-day living. Vedanta, therefore, brings you a philosophy, a spiritual practice, which can be applied in your offices, in your homes, in social, official, political affairs, in fact, in all walks of life.

This approach to spirituality makes one physically dynamic and healthy, emotionally mature and stable, intellectually sharp and penetrating, socially conscious and friendly, professionally creative and competent. Above all, spiritually one is able to stand well above the pettiness of the world, and live from the level of pure consciousness. Thus, Vedanta has a practical relevance to every individual in all walks of life.




Vedanta, the Science of the Self

Vedanta is the science dealing with the human being, his life and living. Vedanta is the science of the soul, the technology of the human personality. The word Vedanta is made of two Sanskrit terms Veda and Anta. Veda means ‘knowledge’, Anta means ‘end’. Vedanta is the end of knowledge. It is the knowledge dealing with the human personality. Vedanta developed this science to its utmost perfection.

The knowledge of Vedanta was discovered by a gamut of ancient thinkers, sages and saints in India. They poured in their lifetime of efforts to research, meditate and discover the laws behind the proper working of human beings. However, the laws discovered by these ancient thinkers are universal irrespective of caste, colour, creed, nationality or religion. No religion has an extra claim or right over these truths. Isaac Newton, the scientist who discovered the law of gravity, has no more right or claim

over the functioning of the law than anybody else. Similarly the truths of Vedanta unearthed by the ancient seers are universal not meant for a particular sect alone.




The instruction manual of LIFE

Unfortunately, you attribute a religious tag to these scriptures and compartmentalize the universal truths as if they are meant for only a narrow religious sect. We discard a particular scriptural truth just because you do not belong to that particular religion. Do you reject the law of gravity on the basis that it was discovered by a person who does not belong to your religious denomination? Do you refrain from accepting the laws and principles of fire on the ground that it was discovered by one who does not belong to your nationality or religion?

In the same way, why do you not accept the universal spiritual laws of living contained in the literature of any religion? We develop a fanatical and blind allegiance to religious dogmas at the cost of our own life and peaceful living. We sell our liberty to a guru, master or prophet without engaging our thinking faculty. This, the catholicity of these universal truths is lost.





“The Brain is often compared with objects and performance figures in the real world to give us an idea of the complexity and power it has. One example is that if you compared all of the world’s telephone systems with the brain, by comparison they would only occupy space that was the size of a small pea! Another comparison is that the cray computer, one of the largest computers in the world, can make four hundred million calculations in a second. If it did that for one hundred years, it would equal to what the brain can do in a minute!” This is the potency every one of us command. You are, therefore, at the moment commanding an instrument that is probably over a million times more powerful than a super computer. How can you imagine operating such a potent tool without referring to an instruction manual?

The question now is what is the instruction manual for operating the human machinery? It is the scriptures that contain the instructions and values to use the tools within you. People think that just because you are born into a good family or a cultured family or even from a spiritually inclined family, you will imbibe this technique of living. This often does not necessarily happen. Unless you spend time and effort to imbibe it, it does not come naturally. Just because you are born and growing up as a human being, that does not mean that you know the technique, values and principles of human life. The proof of your ignorance of knowledge of life and living is that you lose your mental peace while you plunge into dynamic action. More responsibilities you take up greater your mental pressure you feel. The instruction manual for human beings, therefore, is the scriptures.

It does not matter if it is the Bible, Quran, Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads or the Dhamapada. All the scriptures have profound and universal messages for humanity to understand life and to operate the human machinery to live with the dignity and prestige of a human being.





The human being and his transactions in life is complex. The human being is a conscious mechanism. Unlike machines, man is intelligent and conscious. When you buy a machinery, you get an instruction manual to operate it. Often we find that people operate the gadget without referring to the instruction manual. Often they end up damaging the equipment. They become impatient and feel no need to refer to the manual. Just as all machinery comes with instruction manuals, so is it with the human conscious-machinery.

The human mechanism is far more complex than the most intricate and complex super computer, because it is intelligent and conscious. Therefore, you cannot afford to neglect the instruction manual before operating this human mechanism. The most complex and powerful machinery invented by human intelligence is said to be the super computer. It is estimated that the complexities and technology involved in the so-called powerful supercomputer is less than one tenth of the complexity involved in the functioning of an insect like a mosquito or an ant!

It is further estimated that it takes over two hundred thousand supercomputers to match the power and technology of the human brain. The average single brain cell dwarfs the capacity of the average personal computer. Think of the true potential of your brain. It is composed of millions of super-bio-computer chips that are super-bio-computers themselves.




Scriptures For Practical Living..

The younger generation today has a lot of energy. They are intelligent, bright and dynamic, however, they seems to lack of proper direction as well as the right values of life and living. Intelligence and energy bereft of discipline and positive attitude is disastrous.

As a result, their energy and abilities either remain dormant or are often directed in wrong channels. They find avenues to exhaust their energy at dance parties and funfair. With the energy and intelligence they have, they can make any country a super power.

Today’s youth is tomorrow’s prosperity. We need to introduce the values of life to their practical living. That is the need of the day. These human values are precisely what the scriptures expound.



Law of Karma

The role of Values in Life

We often come across people who achieve an incredible degree of worldly success, but remain under tremendous pressure. They remain mentally stressed and physically drained. Though they achieve growth and take up additional responsibilities, their mental pressure also increases proportionately. With all the success and glory they achieve, you will find them struggling with an inner thirst for fulfillment, a hunger for personal congruency and a deep need for developing their relationships with other people. The reason for this paradox is that the fundamental values and principles of life and living that they have focused upon and much less understood.

We take it for granted that right living comes naturally as we grow up; but that does not happen. Living is a science as well as an art. To be dynamic in your field of activity and at the same time maintain peace of mind you have to be an artist of life, a technocraft of your personality. It requires specific training and education. You need the training to know the technology of life and to gain mastery over yourself and your life.

In the untrained process of living, people are craving for two things – success and peace. Success is the tribute that the world pays to excellence. True success and enduring happiness is a result of incorporating and integrating the time tested values and principles of life in every fibre of your activities in your day-to-day living


MK Angajan

Law of Karma


What matters in life is not what you possess or what resources you have, but how you make the best of the circumstances of your life. It is not how best things turn out that matters, but how you make the best out of the way things turn out. You need to assimilate the higher values to make the best out of the way things turn out. Success is not a chance but a choice. It is something to be fabricated through conscious, deliberate choice and conscientious effort. Everyone sets goals and lays down plans of action. They perform vigorous actions. They put in enormous effort. They struggle hard. But the result they get is not commensurate with the effort and struggle. Effort has neither high productivity nor lasting satisfaction. Human life has lost its proper direction and deeper meaning. In the struggle there is competition, bitterness and suffering. Remember, to excel, you need not work better than anyone else. You need to work better than yourself. I have found that excellence is not so much a battle you fight with others, but a battle you fight with yourself, by constantly raising the bar and stretching yourself and your standards. It is a fight against your inequities and weaknesses. If you wish to change your life, the change must begin with your inner self. That is the best and the most satisfying and challenging part about excellence. In the words M.K. Gandhi “Be the change that you wish to see in the world”


MK Angajan

Law of Karma


We often hear some of the painful questions in life from people who ae in the professional and business world. Some of the questions are :

“I set goals; lay down my action plan and get all psyched for action, but when I get to work I get too impatient for the result. I expect too many things to happen too quickly. I develop anxiety and impatience. I then lose my enthusiasm. What is wrong with my approach, action and effort?

When I start working, even the small jobs weigh me down. Little jobs seem too heavy. I get exhausted too soon.

How do I switch off my mind from worries and anxieties while I am engaged in my work? I am not able to switch off my mind from worries related to work when I am with my family or in social engagement.

Inspite of my outward success there is still a thirst and hunger for fulfillment and personal satisfaction. Tremendous insecurity haunts me. I often experience sleepless nights. How do I find total satisfaction and fulfillment or meaning and purpose in my life?

My work, business as well as family life has become routine and monotonous. I am not able to sustain the job, energy and enthusiasm that I had at the beginning of my career and in my relationship with my spouse.


MK Angajan

Law of Karma


How do I instill the right mental attitudes to my workers? They seem to suffer from an attitudinal handicap with respect to their work. I get so frustrated pushing them to work.

I know that without challenges, life will have no progress. But I do not have the mental stamina to accept the fact and face it. How do I bring about the stamina and stability to face and overcome the indomitable challenges of life?

I have tremendous professional success, but at the cost of my personal joy, family life and marital harmony. My marriage has gone flat and insipid. We do not fight but there is no joy anymore in living together. The relationship has become mechanical. How do I rekindle the marital bliss and find a balance between my professional life and domestic living.

I am very active and dynamic and have even achieved a great deal in my life, but I am not able to maintain mental equanimity while I am working. Why is it that, as my responsibilities increase, the stress, worries, anxieties and inner pressure also increases?

Everything is all right in my life, but if only my spouse was more understanding and co-operative things would have been so much better!

I did everything to provide all the conveniences and facilities for my family and children but they still do not live upto my wishes and expectations. My children are tempted to all kinds of vices. They are rebellious and I have lost control over them.


MK Angajan



All is well with my job. But I cannot tolerate a particular colleague. That person always gets on my nerves.

I often regret having done what I thought was right. I go through feeling that I should not have done it! Why did I do this? I should not have agreed to that deal! I should not have given into the demand. In this way I often go through the pain-of-regret.

These are some of the problems and painful questions in the minds of modern people. These are problems that cannot be solved by altering, manipulating or even improving outward conveniences. These are the diseases that can be treated only by one’s own journey within through the process of self analysis. These are the difficulties that can be resolved only by gaining the mastery over one’s own self and over your life.

We try to analyses the inner software of the individual. It enunciates the value systems that will enable you to meet the challenges of life. It examines the above questions and brings out insightful and practical solutions. It enunciates the laws and the principles governing them. It elucidates the rules and regulations supporting them. It paves the ways to fulfill your aspirations in life. It explains the formulae and techniques of dynamic action and productivity without the shadow of stress, strain and burnout stalking it.




The art of effortless effort

There are three criteria for worldly success:

1. First of all, the effort must be enjoyable

2. Having put in the efforts, you must achieve the object of the desire or reach the goal and target you set

3. Having achieved your objective, you must continue to enjoy whatever you achieved.

If you fulfill these three conditions, then you can claim to be successful. Unfortunately, most people today claim they are successful just because they are able to achieve their target, they earn the object of desire. In effect, they are not only one third successful, for they fulfill only one criterion. Their effort is painful; they struggle and toil to achieve success. Having achieved, they often do not enjoy their achievement. If you had to ask a young man who graduated from university with flying colours about his days at the university and whether would he be willing to go through it again, he would probably say that he would not even want to think about it! This is because the effort was not enjoyable, although they have managed to achieve the objective. Then having achieved their objective, they not continue to enjoy it. How long do you enjoy the thrill of having a brand new car? A few days or weeks, perhaps! Thereafter, the novelty is lost, or you get neutralized to the joy of the car. Similarly, we do not enjoy other accomplishments that we desired so intensely such as a promotion in a job, a new house, family, wealth, a dream car etc.





Ralf Waldo Emerson has presented the concept of success as: “To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

To put in the effort effortlessly is an art, a technique. Vedanta explains the blueprint of ideal effort, the effortless effort. The way of life that would make a difference in your personal life, your career as well as to help and influence others.

The philosophy of Vedanta explains your inner personality and its relation to external actions. It elucidates the right attitudes and motives for making your efforts effortless. It lays down a construction plan of your career. It gives the prescription for overcoming the impediments to right effort. Thus, you shed the monotony and boredom in your career and effort. It gives you the formula to alter your life by altering your inner self, your attitudes, your value systems and your perception of life. You can alter your life by altering your attitudes. It cannot be achieved by merely changing the environment.





The book imbues you not only with activity and dynamism but also endows you with proper work ethics, higher value systems, right attitudes, nobler ambitions, powerful motivation, team spirit, management abilities as well as leadership skills. Thereafter, true success and enduring happiness is yours. A lack of the basic human values causes the executives in a corporation to look forward to getting away from work. There is neither enthusiasm nor motivation to work. They desperately look forward to holidays; they believe that to rest is to avoid work.

There are two types of workers. One type looks at the watch and says: “It’s only 5 o’clock”, while the others say: “It’s already 5 o’clock.” Listen to your psychological language. Are you saying: “It’s only 5 o’clock”, or are you saying: “It’s already 5 o’clock?” If it is the latter, you are looking for more time

because there is enthusiasm and inspiration to work. If you are saying the former, you do not have the inner motivation to discharge your responsibilities.

People believe rest is in getting away from work. According to Vedanta “Intense work is rest.” You must live a full life with performance of dynamic activity. If you cannot find rest in activity, it is improbable that you can find rest in getting away from your occupation. There should be no talk of retirement as action is the essence of life. Isavasaya Upanishad advices mankind: “By doing karma (action), indeed, should one wish to live here for a hundred years.”




Your Most Valuable Asset

Man is relentlessly striving to develop his personal worth and to increase his external assets. Your most

valuable asset, however, lies within you. The average man does not realize this. The greatest asset you

possess is not the properties you have invested in, the business-empire that you command, nor the

shares and investments that you have amassed! They may be very precious to you, but they are fleeting,

temporary and you have no control over them. They cannot be exchanged for the fulfillment that your

soul is craving. “Iron and gold are good for buying iron and gold”. That is all. The vast expanse of the

external world is small compared to what lies within you. Christ asserted: “The kingdom of heaven lies

within you.”





If I were to ask you to exchange some of your abilities like seeing and speaking for a million dollars, would you part with them? I am sure the answer would be an emphatic “no”. The fact that you are not

prepared to exchange even your two faculties for a million dollars reveals a lot. It proves that those two abilities are worth substantially more. That is why you are not prepared to exchange.

Now calculate, how many other faculties and functions you are enjoying right now? Beyond the body you have three invaluable assets: your Mind, Intellect and the Ego. These assets are priceless. Success arises when you are able to translate and apply these inner powers for a constructive and worthy purpose. Successful people have no supernatural powers. They simply know the technique of converting the inner assets into external wealth. To transform the inner assets, you need to master the technique of self-management. This inner asset is something that can be transformed into any achievement in the world. Bill Gates transformed into a business success, Mahatma Gandhi transformed the same into a political success. Budha transformed the same into a spiritual success. Henry Ford converted the same inner asset into industrial success.





When one does not realize the worth of the assets present within one, one’s mind develops a tendency to live on future hopes. Hope is when your mind is lingering on future happiness in advance. Most of the time we are living on future hopes forgetting the present blessings. Most people have an unrealistic approach towards happiness.

They invariably use the fatal conjunction “if” as a condition. “If I get a degree, I will be happy”, If I get married, I would be happy”, If only I had more wealth, how wonderful life would have been”, and this “if” goes on and on. Often they attain their goals only to discover new “ifs”. Or there arises next deadly conjunction “but”. They believe, “I now have a degree ‘but’ I have no job.” Having found employment, they discover a new ‘but’, or I have enough wealth ‘but’ I have no peace in the family.

Thus, throughout our life we live on ‘if only’ and ‘but’. Everybody believes they will acquire wealth and then retire and enjoy the wealth, but that never happens. Perhaps, it will be impossible to find one who amassed wealth actually sat and enjoyed wealth!





Contentment, however, does not mean that you have no aspirations in life. It does not mean that you do not set a goal or ideal in life. You could be content now and yet maintain the aspirations to grow in life. The desire when controlled becomes goals. Uncontrolled desires develop into avarice, greed or obsessions. To a man who has no legs, his happiness is in “having legs”. Ask a man who has two legs and he would say: “What is life? I am walking three kilometers a day. If only I had a bicycle, I will be very happy.” The man who owns a bicycle believes happiness lies in a scooter. Having acquired a scooter, he desires a car. After buying a car, he wishes he had a designer car.

There is no end to the cravings of the mind. The principle of growth is when you convert you desire into an ambition, an aspiration. You could have a very high and lofty aspiration and yet remain content in the present. That is an art. It is a skill to be cultivated.





The Bhagavad Gita, in the Sixteenth Chapter, Verses 12, 13 and 14 describes such a wrong psychological language of man as demoniac resolve:

Verse 12: “Bound by hundreds of bands of hope, succumbing to lust and wrath, they strive to obtain hoards of wealth unjustly for sensual enjoyment”

Verse 13: “This today have I gained, this object of desire I shall obtain; this is mine, also this wealth shall continue to be mine in future”

Verse 14: “This enemy I have slain and others also I shall slay; I am the lord, I am the enjoyer I am perfect, powerful and happy”

If you observe the trend of thought of such people, you will find they are constantly focusing on their rise at the cost of others, their happiness at the expense of others. Such a mind-set will keep your mind constantly agitated. Peace will always elude you.




Scriptures For Practical Living

It is essential that we understand the relevance of the scriptures to unleash the giant within and to learn the art and science of living. We explores how the time tested truths and realities of life enshrined in the ancient Vedantic scriptures can be applied in day-to-day living. Are these scriptural truths useful only for attaining an inconceivable and transcendental state of Self-realisation, without any practical relevance in worldly duties and responsibilities? Is spiritual life divorced from our business and profession?

These days, at the very mention of Vendanta or the scriptures, modern man conceives a picture of a saint mediating removed from all the worldly activities. They understand religion as anything unrelated to daily life and living. This literature examines how these scriptural values can be applied to modern dynamic living; in the work-a-day world.





Although we are living and growing, we do not seem to know the technique and dynamic of life and living. Are we living up to the dignity and prestige of a human being? How many of us can take a personal inventory and admit to ourselves that we live a life of joy and contentment? If you analyze people, you will find that they are far from happy despite achieving everything they wanted to. There is no real spirit in living. No real enthusiasm to discharge their duties and abilities. Work is not enjoyable anymore. There is no real living but a mechanical routine existence. This is because the science of living is not imbibed.

This technique of living does not come naturally; it should be learnt, imbibed and cultivated while you are young. When we talk about learning the values of life or the technique of living which is the theme of any scriptures, people invariably say “We will learn it when we retire, then we will have enough time.” What is the purpose of learning the art of living once we finish our lives? This is the reality today. That is why most people do not even encourage youngsters to study the scriptures. This knowledge has to be encouraged at the very beginning of life, and not after retirement.





Once there was an archer who enjoyed a reputation of great perfection and accuracy in archery. One day he was passing through a hamlet he noticed that several arrows had been shot with absolute accuracy on the trees and walls. Every arrow was right in the center of the bulls-eye. The archer enquired with the villagers, as to who was responsible for such perfect shots. The villagers said it was a crazy man who lived in the village. The villagers guided the archer to the abode of the man who had shot the arrows. He then requested the man with reverence and humility: “Though I enjoy a reputation of being a great archer, I still haven’t gained hundred percent perfection as you have achieved. I want to master the secret of your perfection in archery. Please teach me the skill.” The old man replied: “I will impart the technique on one condition – that you should not reveal the secret to anybody.” This was agreed to without hesitation, since the archer was eager to learn the skill.

Then the old man agreed to reveal his secret. He said: “The trouble with you people is that you draw the target first and then shoot, while the secret of my success is that I shoot first and then draw the target.” You may laugh at it, but do you realize what has been happening in the world?

When we talk of learning the scriptures which provide the science and technique of living, you say: “Perhaps, later, probably after retirement.” Once you finish your life, you want to learn the technique of living. You put the cart before the horse. You shoot first and draw the target!




Standard of Life Vs. Standard of Living

There are two aspects to life ‘standard-of-life’ and ‘standard-of-living’. The standard of life is the spiritual growth of an individual. It is determined by your spiritual life and the moral and ethical values that you uphold. It is the inner awakening of the real life within you. Your standard of living is the material acquisition, possessions, amenities and facilities that you enjoy. If we examine our lives today, we realize that we pay attention to living at the cost of life. The majority of people sacrifice life for their better living. They sacrifice health for wealth, and at the end of their life they sacrifice wealth to retain their health! Is that not strange? But true facts of life.

Unless you develop the standard-of-life, you cannot enjoy the standard-of-living. Life would remain filled with sorrow. Material objects alone cannot bring about satisfaction. For example, a ship requires two things to maintain its balance and to sail smoothly: the mast of the ship, which is above the surface of the water and the keel of the ship, which is below the water level. If the mast is too high or if it is not proportionate to the keel, the ship will topple over. Therefore, the keel should match the mast.

Similarly in life, the keel is compared to the values and the development of the individual and the mast is the external acquisition that one possesses. You may build a business empire for yourself. But unless you have the depth of character, the balance of life will go off and you will topple. Today, we seem to focus on increasing the height of the mast without doing anything with the keel. For a tree to withstand the force of wind, the root below must be proportionately deep. Only then will the tree remain stable. Similarly, the material growth and spiritual development of an individual must be balanced for peaceful living. To withstand the onslaught of worldly temptations, you must develop deep into your personality.




The Nature of Our Life

Today, we want to live life and at the same time have no problems and challenges. That is not possible because life is continuous solutions to problems, constant encounter of challenges. When your attitude is right, you can make use of the challenges in your favour for your progress. Just as a sail-ship makes use of the opposing wind to go against the direction of the wind by manipulating the sale, we can make use of the challenges for our progress by developing the right attitude towards life. A pessimist complaints about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. But a realist adjusts the sail according to the direction of the wind and makes use of wind to go ahead.

Similarly one with wrong values complains about the problems of life. Yet others become optimistic and expect the world to change according to their taste. The wise realize that what is needed in life is developing the right mental attitude. They transform their attitude and make use of the challenges to progress in the world.

There is an interesting parable that illustrates this idea. A horse rider once wanted to feed water to his horse as it was tired after a long ride. He came across a farmer who was pumping water to his field with a diesel engine. He asked the farmer whether his horse could drink some water. The farmer gladly permitted him to do so. The man led his horse towards the water but the horse refused to go near the water, as it was afraid of the engine noise. The rider requested the farmer to stop the engine so that the horse could drink water peacefully.





Life is nothing but continuous solutions to problems. Every aspect of life is a problem, fortunately! Where there are no problems and challenges, there is no life. That is the law. If there are no problems, life becomes too monotonous. The beauty of life is that you are always facing challenges. Life without challenge is life without substance. Just as a tennis player needs a strong opponent to enjoy the game, you need to have challenges in life to develop. The challenge also becomes enjoyable, if you have the right mental attitude. If you develop the right mental attitude, what you consider a challenge will turn out to be an opportunity.

Yet, we all crave a problem free life. When we say that we want a smooth and comfortable life without any problems, we do not know what we are asking for! We are actually asking for death, because where there are no problems, there is no life. Life cannot be without problems.

Why do we say that life is a continuous solution to problems? Analyze a day’s activities. You get up from your bed in the morning, rub your eyes, wash your face, clean your teeth etc. Are you not solving problems? Take a cup of tea, read the newspaper, have breakfast, go to the office to do your job. These are all solving problems. Even enjoying a movie is solving a problem. It is solving the problem of your desire to see the movie that bothers you. Thus you see, life is continuous solutions to problems and challenges. If you want to live happily, the only way is to develop the right mental attitude and go about life facing the problems. Remember, you cannot tailor-make the situation; you can only tailor-make the right mental attitude to suit the situation. Then you will enjoy the so-called challenge ridden life.





Life is nothing but continuous solutions to problems. Every aspect of life is a problem, fortunately! Where there are no problems and challenges, there is no life. That is the law. If there are no problems, life becomes too monotonous. The beauty of life is that you are always facing challenges. Life without challenge is life without substance. Just as a tennis player needs a strong opponent to enjoy the game, you need to have challenges in life to develop. The challenge also becomes enjoyable, if you have the right mental attitude. If you develop the right mental attitude, what you consider a challenge will turn out to be an opportunity.

Yet, we all crave a problem free life. When we say that we want a smooth and comfortable life without any problems, we do not know what we are asking for! We are actually asking for death, because where there are no problems, there is no life. Life cannot be without problems.

Why do we say that life is a continuous solution to problems? Analyze a day’s activities. You get up from your bed in the morning, rub your eyes, wash your face, clean your teeth etc. Are you not solving problems? Take a cup of tea, read the newspaper, have breakfast, go to the office to do your job. These are all solving problems. Even enjoying a movie is solving a problem. It is solving the problem of your desire to see the movie that bothers you. Thus you see, life is continuous solutions to problems and challenges. If you want to live happily, the only way is to develop the right mental attitude and go about

life facing the problems. Remember, you cannot tailor-make the situation; you can only tailor-make the right mental attitude to suit the situation. Then you will enjoy the so-called challenge ridden life.




Standard of Life Vs. Standard of Living..

Even a small wind of passion can topple and cause devastation to one’s personality. We are susceptible to a series of emotionally transmitted diseases. Despite material success, we experience unbearable stress and strain. As a result by the time we reach middle age, we are toppled by a series of psychosomatic diseases like blood pressure, blood sugar and physiological symptoms like aches and pains. When this stress and strain of life affects our heart, we suffer cardiac arrests and if it affects our head, we get into a state of depression. Most people go through this, to a lesser or greater extent. Therefore, we all should understand that life is extremely unstable. It is consumed by disease and conceit and smitten with sorrow. Just as the drop of water can fall back at any moment into the pond, so also is our life extremely unstable.

Though the truth is that life is unstable and that we can die at any moment, nobody in the world practically believes in death. You can see people dying all over every day; you see animals dying every day. You intellectually conceive that you will die. But nobody practically believes in death. Each one of us believes we are going to live for many more years. The older person in the world believes he will live many more years. There is a practical disbelieve in death, because your Self, the Soul, is imperishable and immortal. The immortal nature of your inner Self is attributed to the limited Self.




Standard of Life Vs. Standard of Living..

In China there said to be a particular type of Bamboo. If you plant a branch of the Bamboo, for about four long years the Bamboo wouldn’t grow. Even after giving all the nourishments with fertilizer, manure and water etc, you will not see any significant growth in the Bamboo. After four years, fifty year, within just two months the Bamboo grows up to a height of over seventy feet. You may wonder what the Bamboo is upto in the four years! During these four years the Bamboo is growing inside the ground. It is spreading its root in all directions. Once the Bamboo is firmly established on the ground only then it grows outside. We got to be as wise as the Bamboo. If the Bamboo were to grow seventy feet tall, before it is established on the ground, even a small wind can topple it.

Similarly in our life people have neither patience nor the perseverance to look within. They do not want to delve within their soul. They do not want to master themselves. They crave and pursue

external success. They even achieve it. But by middle age they almost break down by burn out. They suffer all sorts of psychological and physical illness. They eventually collapse.




The uncertainty of life..

A water drop on a lotus leaf is very unsteady, so also life is extremely unstable. Realise that the entire world is consumed by disease and conceit and smitten with sorrow ..

There is a striking illustration to highlight what our life resembles. A tiger chased a man for many miles until he managed to climb a tree. In his desperate attempt to climb the tree, he disturbed a beehive on the tree. The bees started stinging him profusely while the tiger was waiting below to devour him. The branch on which he perched was overhanging a pond full of crocodiles. In the midst of all this tension, the man saw the honey dripping from the disturbed beehive and he began to lick it.

The parable brings our attention to the crisis we go through in life. We endure domestic problems, labour problems, financial problems, undisciplined children, ill health of family members and other anxieties. In that predicament we go for small pleasures like going on holiday or to movie to escape the suffering. This is the way our life is. Therefore, it enriches our life to realize the realities of life.




The uncertainty of life

A water drop on a lotus leaf is very unsteady, so also life is extremely unstable. Realise that the entire world is consumed by disease and conceit and smitten with sorrow ..

In this uncertain life, people are conceited and behave as if everything is fully under their control and very certain. Life is not only unstable and uncertain but the entire world is consumed by disease (external problems) and sorrow (internal problems).

He says that the ‘entire world is smitten with sorrow.’ Every aspect of life is painful. Stress related diseases are growing in epidemic proportions. Birth is painful, growth is painful, disease and decay and death are all painful. These are the five metamorphic changes. Acquiring wealth is painful. You have to plan and scheme. You have to put in enormous effort, bring in machinery, erect the factory, manufacture the product and market it. You will then receive the financial benefits. Having acquired the money, you realize that preserving it is equally painful. Spending wealth is even more painful. So, what

exactly are we enjoying in wealth? This is why he urges us to reflect on the acquisition-preservation-spending and to seek the truth.




Resisting Temptations ..

Seeing the bosom and navel of a woman, do not fall prey to frenzied delusion…

People acquire wealth as a form of security, but if you do not have the right attitude towards it, you fear and insecurity also grows in proportion to the material security you build. That is the law.

When you feel insecure, you believe that acquisition of wealth will give you security. When you acquire wealth, you get attached to wealth; you go through the fear of losing it. You become more insecure. The truth is just the opposite. An untrained mind creates an obsession for wealth. Fear also grows proportionately to the attachment. So he says: “reflect over it again and again.” It is the reflection that establishes knowledge. You hear about it and think about it again and again.

A time will come when the thought gets crystallized and that crystallized thought motivates you into activity in the right direction. The ideas must be constantly ringing in your mind. Your intellect must be thinking about it again and again until that information brings about a transformation of your personality.

Your proficiency of knowledge should bring about efficiency in action. Therefore, reflect, contemplate, analyze, digest and assimilate the knowledge.





A water drop on a lotus leaf is very unsteady, so also life is extremely unstable. Realise that the entire world is consumed by disease and conceit and smitten with sorrow

The verse may sound very pessimistic. The difference between a cynic and a philosopher is that a cynic is one who understands the problem but has no solution to it and he constantly complains. Whereas a philosopher is one who understands the problem deeply and has a ready and practical solution for the problem. The master is only bringing the realities of life. He is holding a mirror before you and says, “this is what you are, and this is what your life is”.

He is highlighting the negative aspect because we can then develop the mental stamina to endure the challenges and go forward in life. Just as the sun hardens the mud and softens the wax, trials and tribulations can either break us or make us. It depends on what we are made of, our inner stuff or mental constitution and mental attitude.

Here he analyses life. It is ephemeral, as well as infested with pain and difficulties. The water drop does not stick to the lotus leaf, it is very unsteady and it may drop back into the pond at any moment. So is our life - unsteady and unpredictable. Life is in a constant state of flux. We carry on with our life based on belief and trust, not on certainties. The only thing that is certain is the uncertainty itself.

Yet most people have an expectation of certainties. They expect the world to be certain according to their taste. It will not be met with and that causes agitations.






So is the case with reputation. Reputation is the mere prattle of people, a false imposition. X talks about Y to somebody and that somebody relays that to another person. Thus, this idle talk builds up the reputation. Reputation is something that you crave when you do not have it. When you have it, you tend to detest it.

This has been the case with many famous people. An average man would welcome the opportunity to see his name and picture in a news paper, magazine or any other media. But people who had all the fame detested fame, like princes Diana. She refused to be photographed by Paparazzi. Millions adored Marilyn Monroe, yet she often felt isolated. Ultimately, she died a lonely death from an overdose of sleeping pills. For them fame was detestable.

Thus, apply “pratipaksha bhavana” and look life from a totally different angle whenever you are tempted by worldly joys.






In Sanskrit there is a term “Sakshi”. It means a witness, and impersonal observer or an uninvolved watcher. This should be your relationship with your pleasure and experiences.

How do you develop this objectivity and detachment?

The technique suggested here is called “Prathibhaksha Bhavana”. It is through an intellectual reflection that you re-evaluate the objects of enjoyment and view the same thing from different angles. Re-educate your mind through re-evaluation. At present, we only have a narrow vision and a lopsided perception. We do not have a holistic view. The master says, therefore, that if you look at it from all sides, you will understand the pain and sufferings involved in it.

When you are tantalize by the bosom and navel of a women (any object of temptation), apply the “prathibhaksha bhavana”. Ask yourself what is it about the women that is tempting you?

Look at it from a totally different angle. The women (object of temptation) is just the modification of flesh and fat in different permutations and combinations. If the same thing is bundled up and presented to you, it would be disgusting. The same applies to any temptation, be it temptation for power, reputation or wealth. Power is actually bondage. There is a saying that “the government is the people’s servant”. A government is meant to rule and make decisions for the welfare of the people. Thus, there is bondage even in power.





A water drop on a lotus leaf is very unsteady, so also life is extremely unstable. Realise that the entire world is consumed by disease and conceit and smitten with sorrow

The verse may sound very pessimistic. The difference between a cynic and a philosopher is that a cynic is one who understands the problem but has no solution to it and he constantly complains. Whereas a philosopher is one who understands the problem deeply and has a ready and practical solution for the problem. The master is only bringing the realities of life. He is holding a mirror before you and says, “this is what you are, and this is what your life is”.

He is highlighting the negative aspect because we can then develop the mental stamina to endure the challenges and go forward in life. Just as the sun hardens the mud and softens the wax, trials and tribulations can either break us or make us. It depends on what we are made of, our inner stuff or mental constitution and mental attitude.

Here he analyses life. It is ephemeral, as well as infested with pain and difficulties. The water drop does not stick to the lotus leaf, it is very unsteady and it may drop back into the pond at any moment. So is

our life - unsteady and unpredictable. Life is in a constant state of flux. We carry on with our life based on belief and trust, not on certainties. The only thing that is certain is the uncertainty itself.

Yet most people have an expectation of certainties. They expect the world to be certain according to their taste. It will not be met with and that causes agitations.






People acquire wealth as a form of security, but if you do not have the right attitude towards it, you fear and insecurity also grows in proportion to the material security you build. That is the law.

When you feel insecure, you believe that acquisition of wealth will give you security. When you acquire wealth, you get attached to wealth; you go through the fear of losing it. You become more insecure. The truth is just the opposite. An untrained mind creates an obsession for wealth. Fear also grows proportionately to the attachment. So he says: “reflect over it again and again.” It is the reflection that establishes knowledge. You hear about it and think about it again and again.

A time will come when the thought gets crystallized and that crystallized thought motivates you into activity in the right direction. The ideas must be constantly ringing in your mind. Your intellect must be thinking about it again and again until that information brings about a transformation of your personality.

Your proficiency of knowledge should bring about efficiency in action. Therefore, reflect, contemplate, analyze, digest and assimilate the knowledge.






In Sanskrit there is a term “Sakshi”. It means a witness, and impersonal observer or an uninvolved watcher. This should be your relationship with your pleasure and experiences.

How do you develop this objectivity and detachment?

The technique suggested here is called “Prathibhaksha Bhavana”. It is through an intellectual reflection that you re-evaluate the objects of enjoyment and view the same thing from different angles. Re-educate your mind through re-evaluation. At present, we only have a narrow vision and a lopsided

perception. We do not have a holistic view. The master says, therefore, that if you look at it from all sides, you will understand the pain and sufferings involved in it.

When you are tantalize by the bosom and navel of a women (any object of temptation), apply the “prathibhaksha bhavana”. Ask yourself what is it about the women that is tempting you?

Look at it from a totally different angle. The women (object of temptation) is just the modification of flesh and fat in different permutations and combinations. If the same thing is bundled up and presented to you, it would be disgusting. The same applies to any temptation, be it temptation for power, reputation or wealth. Power is actually bondage. There is a saying that “the government is the people’s servant”. A government is meant to rule and make decisions for the welfare of the people. Thus, there is bondage even in power.




Give up your thirst for accumulating wealth. Create in the mind thoughts of the reality, devoid of passion. Satisfy your mind with whatever wealth you get by your actions…

Satisfy your mind with whatever wealth you get by your actions. When you perform the ideal action or the right effort, you are bound to get the result you expect. Satisfaction and contentment comes not by the fulfillment of what you want. It comes from the realization of what you already have. Remember at any given time what you have is much more than one or two things you don’t have. Yet your mind’s focus is upon one thing that you don’t have. Result and benefits cannot bring any more happiness than understanding this law itself.

Your success in any field is the result of your own action. Put in your best effort without craving for the result thereof. Anxiety for the future result disturbs the equanimity and contentment of your mind. If you are not content with what you have today, you will never be content later, because it is the same mind you carry throughout. The mind goes on creating desires. You have to maintain a sense of contentment now and at the same time you have to aspire for higher things. Contentment does not mean a state of inactivity and inertia. It is not a state of complacency. You need to have a purpose and a goal in life.

In the pursuit of that goal, you maintain equanimity while you are acting. You will get the right result. Thus, the place to be happy is here and the time to be happy is right now.




Resisting Temptations

Seeing the bosom and navel of a woman, do not fall prey to frenzied delusion. That is (only) a modification of flesh and fat. Think well, thus, in your mind, again and again

The master does not evade facts and does not mince words just as a doctor has to be direct to help the patient. The verse talks about the second motivation of life, the enjoyment, while the previous verse explained the pursuit of wealth. “Woman” is taken to represent every enjoyment in the world because a woman is regarded as the strongest temptation to a man. It is not to be understood in a narrow sense as disrespect for woman. When he uses the word “woman”, the most powerful enjoyment is chosen to represent every worldly enjoyment. It is not to be misunderstood as an insult to womanhood. In India, women are given the highest regard. They refer to any female as mother. More over some of the most revered aspects are referred as mother; mother India, mother earth, mother tongue, mother nature etc.



It has often been said that God created Mothers, because He could not be everywhere, to wipe the tears, soothe the fears, share the laughters, nurture the minds, nourish the bodies, cherish the aspirations, and always be there, to take care and cheer everyone on His Earth. ...A Mother's Love has no substitute - and is equally showered on all her children, with just a little bit extra for the less successful or less fortunate among them.




Analyze why you enjoy a tragic movie. It is because you are apart from it; you are not a part of it. You are detached from it. After watching the movie you say “a great tragedy, a beautiful movie”. How can it be a tragedy and yet be beautiful? It is because you are detached from it.

Would anyone like to be in the position or go through the situation that the character in the tragedy went through? You would not like to. Yet you enjoyed the tragedy on the screen. Because you are detached from the movie. If you are objective in your life, you need not go to the theater and spend your time. You will enjoy every aspect of life.

Imagine a beautiful painting depicting a young prince lying on the bed about to die with his beautiful young bride and two little children weeping beside the bed. It is a sad seen, but a beautiful painting. You enjoy the sad scene of the painting because you are not a part of it. You probably cannot even imagine

being in the situation of the princess. Yet you do enjoy the peace of art. Because with reference to the painting you are objective.

This confirms that when you are detached from something, you enjoy it and when you get attached to any sensual pleasure you enter suffering. The only way to enjoy anything is to stand apart.





Seeing the bosom and navel of a woman, do not fall prey to frenzied delusion.

We are deluded by any sensual pleasure and chase them. He is not only taking about the instinctive urge for the opposite sex, but any worldly pleasure. Once your mind is deluded by way of pleasure, your intellect, the rational faculty, cannot exercise control over the mind. You get carried away and are victimized. Therefore, examine the initial thoughts arising in your mind, control them and sublimate the desires.

Enjoying any sensual pleasure is a skill; it is a technique. We do not know the art of contacting worldly pleasures. If you do not know how to enjoy a worldly pleasure, you either get neutralized to the pleasure, you get fed up or you get addicted to the enjoyment and you become a slave to the enjoyment. Thereafter, the sensual pleasures will rule you instead of you ruling them. A person smoking believes he is smoking a cigarette, but it is actually the other way round. The cigarette is smoking him. The alcohol is drinking the alcoholic. To enjoy anything; you need basic detachment and objectivity. As long as you are attached to anything in the world, you are bound to suffer. A man attached to his money suffers from the fear of losing it. Drop the feeling of “I”, “me” and “mine” in order to enjoy your possessions.





The nature of mind is that it develops an attachment for whatever it seeks. It is the deadly disease of the mind. It is far more serious than AIDS or Cancer that people fear. Since it is pertaining to the mind, something so deep and imperceptible, we do not understand the seriousness of it. Therefore he says, ‘Create in the mind the thoughts of Reality devoid of passion, devoid of any obsession.’

You may wonder whether you can still enjoy the worldly pleasures, such as your social life, once you take up higher values. Taking up higher values does not mean that you need to give up all pleasures. On

the contrary, you will be able to enjoy them much more. When there is a craving for anything, your enjoyment is interrupted with worries and anxieties. The only way to enjoy anything in life is to understand that you can do without it or if you are detached from it.

Attachment is the source of misery. It is the law of life. It is objectivity that is the source of enjoyment. When the scriptures say that you have to develop detachment, what does it mean? It means, ‘enjoy life in the right way’. Detachment and enjoyment are synonyms.





How do you give up the craving for wealth? He says: ‘Create in your mind the thoughts of reality’. Your mind finds difficulty in giving up anything in life, but you can take up something higher. When you conceive of something higher, the lower values, which are craving and desires, will naturally wane. Consider the example of a child who will not give up his toys. He is very attached to the toys. However, when you give him something of greater interest, for example a tricycle, the child instantly moves towards the tricycle abandoning the toys.

Later the child gets attached to a play-station or to storybooks and he will ignore the tricycle. When he grows up to become a youth, he gets attached to various passions of adolescence. Similarly as you grow, you get attached to higher things and the lower desires gradually decrease in intensity. You thus gain higher values in life. Your mind begins to enjoy subtler and finer joys and your mind drops the thirst for worldly pleasures.





“Money can buy luxuries but not happiness

Money can buy food but not appetite

Money can buy a house but not a home

Money can buy a bed but not sleep

Money can buy cosmetics but not beauty

Money can buy lust but not love

Money can buy service but not loyalty

Money can buy books but not knowledge

Money can buy obsequiousness but not respect

Money can buy status but not nobility

Money can buy recognition but not dignity

Money can buy position but not greatness

Money can buy power but not authority

Money can buy man but not GOD





Thrishna means thirst. The thirst for success is an impediment to success. Any pursuit in the world, if it carried out with craving and obsession, has two consequences. Firstly, you may not be able to achieve the end since the craving impairs your efficiency and performance. You will not be able to think clearly and you will not make the right decision. Secondly, even if you managed to achieve certain wealth you would be so attached to it that you would not be able to enjoy it.

The law is that when you are attached, you cannot enjoy the object-of-attachment as you will be constantly anxious about it.

Wealth is an entity that can be traded for sense objects. Wealth can buy colour and form for the eyes, sound for the ears, smell for the nose etc. However, wealth cannot buy happiness, love or knowledge.




Give up your thirst for accumulating wealth. Create in the mind thoughts of the reality, devoid of passion. Satisfy your mind with whatever wealth you get by your actions.

In Verses 2 and 3, he is talking about the two human motivations of life. They are avoiding sorrow and courting joy. These are the two motivations for whatever you do or avoid doing. You acquire wealth to avoid sorrow, as a preparation against sorrow. Then you court joy. You again pleasure by contacting them. These are the two driving factors in human life. This verse deals with the first motivation, the acquisition of wealth to avoid sorrow.

The Guru is imploring us to relinquish the uncontrollable craving for wealth. It is this thirst for wealth that is preventing the expression of your inner potential. It is not the wealth you have to give up but the craving, the irresistible yearning for wealth. The verse is not a licence for poverty, or condoning a life of meager living. The message here is that while you are pursuing a course of action; do not let your mind crave material rewards for your action. The craving for rewards and results reduce your efficiency and productivity. Your action loses power.




Success follows those who follow the Truth

That is the law. If your motive in life is to seek material wealth alone, success will elude you. However, if you pursue the higher aspect, the True, in and through all your worldly activities such as your business, profession, politics, sport, knowledge or love, success will be your shadow. It is said “Knock the door; it shall be opened unto you.” That is, knock at the door of a higher purpose and everything else will open for you.

Prosperity is a by-product of your progress in the path of higher and nobler values. Modern generation may not realize this vital law of life. To them this may seem a paradox. They are tempted to violate this unrelenting law and take short cut due to the temptation towards the instant benefit.

Taking short cut may bring short term pleasure, but they pay long term penalty. Reflect over this law and realize the essence of true satisfaction.




Spiritual Delusion

Spirituality is understood as mechanical rituals, blind faith and superstitious beliefs. Deluded by ignorance in the name of religion, people maintain a blind allegiance either to personal god, a prophet or a particular religious dogma without delving into the essence of religion. Thus, there is delusion even at the spiritual level.

Very rarely do people understand what true spirituality is. In the name of spirituality or religion one set of people run away from contacting the world; they shun worldly pleasures. They become frustrated individuals. The other set of people go all out and indulge in these pleasures. It is either complete abstinence or total indulgence. Both are wrong.




Delusion of Intellect..

One of the most serious mistakes we can make is to confuse the thing we call ‘intelligence’ with judgment. The two do not always or necessarily go together. Many persons of high intelligence have notoriously poor judgment. Today’s academic education makes you intelligent; load your mind with information. True education is not suffering your mind with external information. The information does not help you develop the intellect. Development of intellect needs special training. The intellect alone has the capacity to steer you through the rigorous challenges of life. That is through the clarity of thinking. So, this clarity of thinking is what takes you to higher perfection in every field of life. Unless you empower the intellect with the right values, you cannot steer yourself in the proper direction. The word education is derived from two Latin terms ‘ex’ and ‘ducere’. The word Ex means out and Ducere means to draw. Therefore, the word education means to draw out from within, not to stuff in. True education is the process by which you draw out, unveil the inner potential that lies within.



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