My life learnings Part 3

 

My life learnings- Part 3

 

 

Very often I used to wonder about concept of or the meaning of Karmayogi. I read about this concept in my younger days in some of the Tamil Novels like Kalki’s Thyaga Boomi which became a movie in 1940 or Madisar Mami by written Devibhala one of the Tamil Author. But I was not sure whether I could follow it in real life as, very often, we are influenced by our own thoughts and personal prejudices. However, this concept was explained through simple story which I read in a book:

“A sage was offering his morning prayers on a river bank. During that time, he observed an insect struggling to get out of the river water, as it could not withstand the strong currents of river. The sage tried to help the insect by taking in his hands and leave the insect by in river bed. But as soon as the sage leaves the insect on river bed, it would go back into the river. Every time the insect went into water, it started struggling and the sage kept on helping it by taking it out. And every time sage tried to help, the insect would bite or sting the sage’s hands and sage used to ignore. Despite the pain he felt, the sage kept trying to help the insect to take out of the water. One of the disciples of the sage, who was observing this, asked ”Every time you help the insect out, it stings you bites you and goes back in the water and struggles. Yet, you persist on helping the insect. Why?” The sage replied ”Pricking and stinging my hand is the insect’s dharma and protecting the insect from trouble is my dharma”. He taught to the disciple “Never stop your duties to others just because other person pricks you or other person tries to ignore or humiliate you”, the sage advised. I understood the concept of Karmayogi from this.

In my real life I have come across only few people who were Karmayogis. To achieve this a person should have faced more challenges in life or a person should have made lot of sacrifices to attain this level. The reason is simple. In my view people gets matured and attain wisdom only by facing and learning out of challenges. One of my real life heroes was my parents and they were real Karmayogis. Some of the learnings from my parents made a significant difference to me in my life. Let me be honest in this confession. It took time for me to realise the importance of their teachings and follow it. In my formative days I could not accept some of their teachings but later I realized the importance of those teachings. I realized the importance of it when I faced the difficult and challenging situations.

I just pick up few learnings from my parents which left an indelible mark on my life and helped me to overcome many challenging situations.

·       Have a focus on what you do and do that with utmost sincerity, honesty and with a passion. It is the hard work, passion and focus that will make the difference in life.

·       In life Relationships are more important and never spoil any relations and don’t burn bridges with anybody.

·       Duty comes first and rights need not follow with duties.

·       God brings the man in deep waters not to drown him but to cleanse him.

·       Help or support anybody without expecting anything in return as any expectations behind the help or support will lose the love and charm on relationships.

·       A person whom we help or support may go against us. But never bother as the help is a Dharma and that Dharma will protect us as an invisible hand forever.

·       Our path should be righteous path and don’t bother about the path chosen by others be a competitor or contemporary. Their path may be incorrect but your path should be correct and righteous path.

·       If any person insults or humiliates us or speaks bad about us just learn to ignore. It is as good as a person spitting on Sky by lying on floor and  facing sky. (I could not follow this advice in my earlier days as I used to have a Tit for Tat policy. But it took years for me to accept this as I realized it is futile to be confrontational.)

Failures and disappointments are part of life

Failures are part of life and in real life we face with more disappointments and more challenges. As written in my earlier blogs I have more trophies of failures and disappointments than success. Every failure and disappointment taught me to look at life in a different way.

 

My first disappointment or challenge was the day when I lost my father. I passed CA in January 1989. My father motivated me, encouraged me and he used to stay awake when I was preparing for CA exams.[1] Getting a hot milk in flask, be awake till I finish my studies in night despite he was an early riser. I got the results on January 14,1989 and I passed successfully and I was about to take my first employment on February 15 1989. Unfortunately I lost my father on February 14, 1989 morning. The only night I was away from my dad was on February 13^th night,  as I used to be with my dad and sleep in a small bed next to him from the day, I know this world. I was completely devastated and it took three to four weeks for me to overcome the loss. I listened to Adi Sankara’s song Bhaja Govindam song sung by M.S.Subbalakshmi multiple times and I listened to one para “Punarabhi Jananam Punarabhi Maranam”.

 

I realized that the best way for me to overcome is follow what my dad taught me in my life. The wisdom that I received out of all the disappointments is to leave the disappointment behind me and focus on life and go ahead with life with what I like most and what I am passionate about. The moral of the story for me from all challenges, failures and disappointments is that “ You create your own space in life. You have a role to play in life. God has created role for everybody and you fulfill that role in a more accomplished manner”. If I need to explain in practical way we are driving in highways and the road guys keep the board “Take Diversion”. We will not stop travelling and we chose the said route due to diversion and ultimately, we may reach destination. It may take time to reach but reaching destination is certain. Never ever compare our destination with other destination as the god has created destination for each person.

 

I can give  an example of great Cricketer S.Venkatraghavan. He was a great off spinner and but unfortunately, he was treated not so well by the BCCI powers at that time. The worst thing that could happen to him which cannot happen to any Cricketer was that he had to know his removal from Captaincy from Air India Pilot when he announced in flight after 1979 England Tour. I always rate his cricketing intelligence, Cricket knowledge and Cricketing Hard work as far superior to any of his contemporaries. His focus on Cricket was so high that he became the only cricket player in world to have don various roles: Indian player, Indian Captain, Indian Cricket Administrator, Indian Cricket selector, Indian Cricket Manager, Cricket Commentrator and finally the most acclaimed International Cricket Umpire.  His focus on Cricket game brought laurels to him and to game.

 

The moral of the story “It is the passion and focus that brings best from us and nothing else.”

 

Aspire for Contribution and not appreciation

 

One of the important tenets of Karmayogi is to “ Aspire for Contribution and not appreciation”. Never expect appreciation on what you have done or contributed to others as in my view God has destined you to support or help others. In life everybody cannot help or support others as, in my view, God has given that trait, ability and relations only for few to help and support others.

 

Cho S Ramaswamy[2] in his “Vande Mataram” novel gives a few life teachings before each chapter. ( It is a great novel on the lines of Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities.) In that novel before each chapter he says four lines about life in Sanskrit and gives Tamil translation.[3] In Chapter 12 he mentions the following four lines:

 

Sanskrit Version	Tamil Version ( Translated in English)
Swakruthasyobhakarasya athma slakanane, mudhapraphanam adamatha.	Talking by self on  help or support done to others by self is a lowest trait.
Swakruthasyobhakarasya anyamukha slakanane, mudhapraphanam Madhyamatha.	Listening to others on our help or support to others is an average trait.
Swakruthasyobhakarasya sathyovismaranam Uthamatha.	Forgetting the help or support done to others is a greatest virtue.

 

The learning for me is that “In life it is better to forget what you have done or contributed to others. Keeping a memory of that creates an unwanted or undue expectations which would spoil the relations”.

 

 

Conclusion

 

God has created this life and has given this life to enjoy. Challenges, Disappointments and failures are part of life. I believe in having a passion in what I do and focus on what I do. I am sure God has created a lovely space and destination for all and for me too.  “With the blessing of my Living God Jagadguru Kanchi Sankaracharya and with the wishes of my parents I will reach the destination destined for me.”  Where it is and what it is. It is the wish of God and my Living God.

 

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[1] He created the interest in me in reading Literature, listening to Carnatic Classical Music etc.  

[2] Cho is a great Tamil Political Satirist and has written fantastic dramas and editor of leading Tamil Journal “Thuglak”.

[3]g There is an important twist on this Sanskrit and Tamil Translation and since it is not relevant to this blog I am not mentioning here.