​Key to success – Go DEEP

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Am I not able to all of you behind? I thank all of you for coming here today morning. I thank the organisers, the scholars for inviting me.
I was asked to speak on the topic The Key to Success. So, I will be speaking in terms of an acronym, DEEP. We all need to go deep in our life in order to achieve success.
So, DEEP is an acronym which has four parts. DEEP So, I will talk about its four parts. When we want to achieve any success, first we desire, this is what I want to achieve.
And then after that, I am here right now, I need to go there. How do I do that? So, I envision a path. Envision a trajectory for going there.
And after that, nothing comes free. We have to endeavour. And while we are moving along, there are some things in our control, some things not in our control.
So, to harmonise the things that are not in our control, we can breathe. Let’s go over these one by one. So, when we talk about desire, our desires can come from various sources.
Our driving desires have to come from inside us. If they come from outside, then they are very peripheral desires. Many times, we start something, you know, I want to become a doctor.
And people start off as a doctor and then maybe half way down, they say, no, no, there is too much trouble over here. I don’t want to choose this career. They go to some other career.
Now, as far as a small hobby is concerned, changing hobbies are fine. We can have different hobbies. But when it comes to a vocation in life, if we keep changing things, it’s like digging at ten different places.
Even if there is gold over there or water over there, whatever we are digging, it rarely exists on the surface. It has to go deep down. So, that’s why, if we are going to perceive a particular goal in our life, then that has to be something which needs to be internalised.
If you are doing something just because others want us to do it, yes, others may be the initial stimuli. We saw somebody who was a doctor, we saw somebody who was a firefighter, we saw somebody who was a scientist. That’s what I want to achieve in my life.
That’s fine. But sooner or later, that desire has to be internalised. If the desire is not internalised, then when obstacles come in, if the desire is internalised, then whatever comes in, we and that ambition are one unit.
But, when the obstacles are too strong and we have not internalised the desire, then we and that ambition are not yet one. We are two separate things. This is too much trouble.
Let me give this up. So, if the desire comes from inside, then we can actually persevere through difficulties. And a lot of our desires today are determined by the media, by the corporate controlled media, which is how to get us, buy this, eat this, consume this, enjoy this.
And when these sort of superficial desires crowd our mind, then our deeper desires, what we are really meant to do in our life, that rarely surfaces. Like if we are listening to a radio and there’s a lot of noise, then if we want to listen to a particular broadcasting station, unless we can tune out the noise, we can’t hear that broadcasting station. So, the superficial desires that we have, the desires that the world has induced inside us, they are like the noise.
And what we ourselves want to achieve, what is our innermost aspiration, what we are meant to contribute in this world, that is something which comes from deep within. So, unless we tune out the superficial desires which are dictated by the world, we can’t find out what it is that we are really meant to do. So, we, of course, have to do different things in our life.
When I am talking about success in life, I am talking in terms of a long-term aspiration in our life. And that has to be something which comes from inside us. And when something is not an internal desire, it is more of an external proposition that we have accepted, then we are always second guessing ourselves, comparing ourselves with someone else.
And you think, oh, this person is so good, I am not so good, I am not that good, this person speaks so well, this person talks, this person manages so well, this person delegates so well, I can’t do that well. And when we start comparing ourselves with others, especially if somebody has been very successful in a particular field and I am not there, then we basically can be inspired sometimes, but sometimes we may just become depressed by that. So, we have to know that we are all here for a purpose.
If God had wanted us to be somebody else, He would have made somebody else. The fact that He has made you, you, means that you are meant to contribute as you. You are meant to contribute as the original you, not as the Xerox copy of someone else.
So, to find out who the original you is, that is not just a matter of hairstyle, that is not just a matter of the kind of specs we wear, the kind of dress we wear, all this is fine. It’s a part of the image, which is also important in life. But much more important than image is our own character, who we are essentially.
And, although normally when we talk about desires, we think of things out there which I desire, which is fine, but our desires have to come from inside. The desires also come from outside, then they won’t last. And we will become like a small boat in a storm.
This wave comes and takes it this way, that wave comes and takes it that way. But, when the desire has come from deep within us, then we become not like a boat, but we become like a ship, in a way which is large enough to resist the waves and keep moving in its own trajectory. Now, in life, we can’t always do what we desire.
There are two options, either we do what we desire, or we desire what we do. That means that there are some times in life when we have to do some things which we don’t like to do so much. Even if I am pursuing my dream career, say, if I want to be a musician and I have become a musician.
But even as a musician, I may have to deal with people. Even in the music industry, there is politics. I may have to deal with that.
And I say, I don’t want to deal with this. But life doesn’t work like that. Even when we have to do something which we want to do, at that time, we also have to do many other things associated which we don’t want to do.
And this is the time when we start dragging our feet. Dragging our feet is a saying or it’s an idiom which has come from how parents have to deal with children. The parents say, I want to take the children to school.
A child doesn’t want to go to school. The parents have to leave and the child drags the feet, doesn’t move the feet only. So, like that, we can see many times in our life, when we have to do some things, we drag our feet.
I had to do it. I had to postpone it. Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow. And when we drag our feet, two things happen.
The problem doesn’t become easier. The problem still has to be dealt with. If something has to be done, it has to be done.
And if I don’t do it, now I drag my feet, two things happen is, because I have kept putting it off more and more and more, the mind starts making it seem bigger and bigger and bigger. And then eventually when I have to do it, I feel burdened. And because we have kept putting it off, especially in a team where others need me to do it, then others start getting a negative image of us.
This person is lazy. This person is a procrastinator. This person is not responsible.
So, it’s good that we do what we desire. We find out our deepest desires and pursue our vocation according to our desires. But, in life when we have to do something which we don’t desire to do, at that time we have to accept.
This is what I have to do. Now, let me desire it. How can I desire something which I really don’t want to do? Desire what you do means, I have to do it.
I don’t want to do it. But then at that time we use our intelligence. We use our intelligence to convince ourselves.
Okay, I don’t really like to study this subject. I like this whole course, but in this course this subject is terrible. But then, to get a degree in this course, I have to study this subject.
Then, sometimes we have to do things which we don’t like to do in order to get to do the things which we like to do. So, at that time, when our feelings are enemies, are obstructing us, then our intelligence has to become the force which moves us forwards. And for such times, journaling is very helpful.
Journaling means, it’s not just we write down our feelings and write down our thoughts and write down our experiences. All that is fine. But journaling is often a tool, a very effective tool to help us deal with ourselves.
That means inside us, there are two different forces. There is one force which sees the long term and is wise, is pragmatic. There is another force which is operated by feelings.
I don’t feel like doing it, I won’t do it. And when this side within us, the impulsive side, that becomes strong, at that time we just feel paralysed. We just don’t feel like doing it.
So, at that time, to activate the intelligence also is difficult. But, if at that time we have already something written down, why am I doing this? Why is this important for me? We have that written down, that is like, our intelligence is available to us in a ready form external. We can keep those notes, those points of why this is important for me in our, maybe in our phone or in a diary and then we look at it.
So, this is when the lower side within us takes control and doesn’t allow our higher side to function internally. Then, if we have kept the product of the higher side externally available, then we can get a greater strength to push on. So, sometimes our desires will pull us in the right, desires will show us the right way.
But, as other times when the desires don’t show us the right way, at that time, we need our intelligence to show us the right way. So, desire, I have talked about two parts. First is, go deep to find our deepest desires.
And, while pursuing what is our aspiration, what is our calling, when our desires mislead us or obstruct us, at that time, use our intelligence. So, this intelligence is like our stored accumulation of our desire, of the rationale, something else is important for me, for that I will accept this, I will tolerate this and I will move on. Now, let’s move on to the next part.
Envision. Now, vision without action is just a dream. But, action without vision is often a nightmare.
What this means is that, suppose, somebody suppose say you have a car and you come out of your room and then go out. Now, when we go out in the car, we might just be going for a ride. But, if you are in an unknown place and then you start going for a ride without knowing where you are going.
Then, the more we are riding in the car, the more we are getting lost. So, on the other hand, if I just sit in the room and think I’ll go here, I’ll go there, I’ll go there. If we don’t go out and drive, we are not going to get anywhere.
So, if we just sit and dream and don’t do anything, that is of no use. The dream, what transforms a dream into a vision is a plan. I have a dream, say, I want to go to I want to go to California.
Somebody has a dream. What transforms a dream into a vision is a plan. Without a plan, it’s just a daydream.
It’s just a fantasy. So, vision without action is just a dream. It becomes a vision when there is a plan about how to translate it to action.
So, if I want to go in a particular career, we may not have a clear plan. I’ll come to the clarity of the plans in the next slide. But here, it’s important to always have a plan for how we are going to act.
If we don’t make plans for ourselves, our mind makes plans for us. The mind is, the word mind has many different meanings. I’ll be later introducing the spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, which is an ancient yoga text.
Now, the Bhagavad Gita uses the word mind to refer to an inner force within us, which often is impulsive and works against us. So, if we don’t make plans for ourselves, the mind makes plans for us. And when the mind makes plans, often its plans are things which sabotage us.
They’re short-term impulsive and they end up sabotaging us. So, we need to have a plan for how we want to go ahead. On the other hand, if there is action, so, vision without action means that I’m simply thinking but not doing anything.
But on the other hand, if I do and don’t think, and the result is just like I go in a car and I don’t know where I’m going. We end up lost. Sometimes we do a lot of work and after doing a lot of work, we come to know this is not what I was supposed to do.
It’s like somebody is climbing up a big building, maybe to some construction worker is say climbing up a tall building to try to really clean the wall and they place the ladder, climb up maybe 50 steps and then somebody comes and tells them actually what you are meant to clean that wall? It’s a complete waste of time. So, if you do not have a plan, then action often becomes a misdirection. It becomes a nightmare.
Oh, I wasted so much time. So, the plan is what helps us to make our action productive. And this is where many of us either go towards this extreme or that extreme.
Some of us are just too impulsive and act without thinking or others keep thinking and never acting. So, we have to have balance of thinking as well as acting. And this brings us to another point that when we envision sometimes we make some plans and the plans don’t work.
And sometimes when the plans don’t work, we just give up. My plan is never working. I’ll just give it up.
Plans may not work but planning works. What does that mean? Plans refer to specific things we decide. Morning I’ll do this.
Afternoon I’ll do this. Evening I’ll do this. 5 o’clock I’ll do this.
6 o’clock I’ll do this. 7 o’clock I’ll do this. Now, when we start planning at this level, quite often the plans don’t work because life comes in the way.
Somebody comes and they have urgent work for us or somebody else gives us an errand to do or maybe falls sick. Things always go wrong in life and life comes in the way. So, when life comes in the way, we may not be able to execute our plans.
And one extreme is that if I plan, I expect all my plans to work to a microscope in detail. And that, when we try to do that, we basically succumb to the temptation of perfectionism. Now, perfectionism means every single thing I do, it has to be perfect.
Life doesn’t work like that. We start and we improve. I’ll talk about that in the endeavour.
But we don’t have to necessarily make sure that every single one of our plans works. Planning, on the other hand, is more generic. Plans are specific.
Planning is more generic means that planning enables us to get a sense of direction. Say, again, I’ll take this journey metaphor repeatedly. Suppose we are going on a journey.
If say, I have to go a distance of 500 miles and say the speed limit is 70 miles. That means I can reach within around 7-8 hours I should be able to reach. That’s the rough time estimate I make.
And along the way I know there is some place where there is a lot of traffic. So I’ll assume that it will take me 9 hours. Now, this is a general sense of planning.
Now, we may not decide, okay, we may plan also. Okay, I’ll take this route and then I’ll take this route and then I’ll take this route. But if along the way we come to know, okay, there’s an accident on this route, there’s a delay, so we might change the route.
So planning means basically having a general idea of where I’m going and how I should go there. But plans refer to the specific route choices that we make. So, once we have a general direction and a general trajectory ready, within that we can make variations.
So if we don’t have a, we don’t do any planning itself, that means we don’t have a general direction for our life, overall direction for our life. And then we can’t achieve anything much. Again, we become like a boat that is buffeted here and there by the waves.
Sometimes, especially, now you see that when you are in a college or in a school, there’s a course and we’re not always like all the subjects, we may not feel about studying, but at least when we are in academic year, some work is happening. We’re learning something, some constructive things happen. Suppose after that we have vacations and in the vacations we don’t plan, you know, I want to study this or I want to learn this skill.
I want to develop this hobby. But if you don’t make a plan, then, if we are not making a great planning, the whole vacation goes away. What did I do? The whole time is spent away like that.
I don’t know what I did. Sometimes on a weekend, at the end of the weekend, what did I do in the last weekend? Just, okay, this person came to me, we chatted over here, I surfed on the net over there, I went and went here, I did that, and the whole time went away. So, planning, now I’m not saying that there is no room for leisure.
Leisure is also important. But, if you don’t have a, if you don’t do planning, then, we are just left at the mercy of circumstances and people. So, plans may not work, but planning works.
And here’s the difference between the clock and the compass. You know, if we try to make our plans based on the clock, this time, this time, this time, that can cause too much stress sometimes. But, if our planning is like a compass, this is the direction I need to go.
And, okay, I have four areas in my life. I have my relationships, I have my career, I have my health, and I have my, let’s say, three areas. Okay, on these three areas, I have to move forward.
These are my friends, I want to spend some time with them. This is my career, I need to study, study, and for my health, I have to go to a gym or whatever. So, we have these areas and we have a general direction in that.
So, that will help us to move onwards. This is about envisioning, having a plan about how to move ahead. Then we come to the third part that is Endeavour.
So, Endeavour, so it is that practise makes one perfect. It is true. Anything that we start off, we don’t do it perfectly right at the beginning, unless we are prodigies or geniuses.
Even when somebody is a very good singer, by practising, they learn to sing better. Somebody is good at computer programming, by practising, they improve their programming. Now, practise makes one perfect, but practise is not just a matter of external actions.
Along with the external actions, there are internal attitudes. That means our external actions are not just biological functions. They are result of psychological dispositions.
If somebody is a public speaker or they want to become a public speaker, at one level, the more they speak in public, the more practise they have, the more their stage fright will go away. The more they will be able to recognise a problem. It’s not so, nobody is going to come and eat me up on the stage.
I can speak and people do hear if I have something meaningful to speak. So, by practise at one level, by repeatedly doing the activity of public speaking, we will become better. But at another level, it is not just actions.
What needs to be changed also needs to be attitude. So, if we have a negative attitude, say for example, whenever we go on a stage to speak in public, there is a voice inside us that says, you are going to forget everything. You are going to become full of yourself.
You are going to be disgraced. Now, when this voice comes in, this voice is again the voice of the mind. It is trying to sabotage us.
So now, actually, with respect to the mind, we have options. You know, we don’t have to listen to its voice. So, I’ll explain a little bit about what the mind is.
So, in the Bhagavad Gita, as I mentioned in the ancient yoga text, it describes that our existence is three-level. No, we are not just the physical bodies. There is a three-level existence in the body, the mind, and the soul.
If you compare with the computer system, it is like the hardware, the software, and the user. So, the mind is like the software. The software is essential for using the hardware.
If I get a brand new computer, which has no software at all, I won’t be able to do anything with it. I need some OS, I need some programmes, I need some applications. All these come under software.
So, like that, the mind is the intermediate link between us, we are the souls, and the puts. But this software, sometimes, you may have seen that in the software, sometimes some malware gets installed. And it keeps, maybe it keeps giving a prompt, visit this website, make this your default search engine, use this app.
And sometimes you try to say no, no, it just keeps prompting again and again and again. So, when the software, when some corruption comes in the software, that misdirects our energy. Sometimes some software gets installed, and they change the home page of our browser.
As soon as we open the browser, suddenly it goes to the site which you don’t want to go to at all. All this is because of the software getting affected. So, the mind is our software.
And our software is affected in many different ways by our past actions and our present circumstances. And if the software is corrupted, or the software is defective, it can sabotage our efforts. So, for example, if we go in for public speaking, and at that time, there is this voice inside us, you are going to make a fool of yourself.
Now, if I start hearing this voice, I’m going to make a fool of myself. Then by hearing that voice, actually I become fearful. And then I make a fool of myself.
But because of the software, it doesn’t take control. The mind, which is there inside us, the mind can only propose, it cannot impose. That means, when you say it can only propose, this voice inside us may say many things.
This voice may offer an excuse that you’re not good enough, you don’t look good enough, you don’t speak fluently enough, you’re not smart enough, you’re not this, you’re not that. There are so many ways in the mind, you may say negative. But actually, just like a software may give some auto prompt.
If I’m looking at a webpage, and suddenly, maybe they have some pop-up comes over. The pop-up comes up. Okay, who do you like to buy this? Who do you like to see this? Now, the pop-up, it comes up, but only when I click the link, then I go and transport it to that page.
So, what we should see when the voice comes up within, now, it’s a pop-up. A digital pop-up comes up on our computer, like that a mental pop-up comes in our inside us, in the mind. But when this pop-up comes up, we don’t have to click on the link.
That means, just because some voice is there inside me, that does not mean it is my voice, nor does it mean that I have to act on this voice. It’s just a voice which is there, it’ll come, it’ll go. If I don’t click on it, it’ll just stay in the background, afterwards it’ll go away.
The only difference is that when it’s a digital pop-up, we have to physically go and click it, then it’ll open. But when it’s a mental pop-up, what causes it to become a full, occupy our inner screen, is just our attention. That means, we pay a little attention to it.
So, right now we are sitting here in this talk, a mental pop-up may come. I think I have got a Facebook notification. This thought comes up.
Now, once this thought comes up, if you pay attention to that, what happens? What could the notification be? Who is going to send some message to me? What was I expecting? And then that completely blocks our mental screen and then unless we look at it and find out, there is no one. Nobody is sending a message. Then again we focus.
So, what has happened? The thought came in the mind, but if we give attention to that thought, it grows. So, the principle in dealing with the mind is that whatever catches our attention, catches us. Whatever catches our attention, catches us.
So, if we pay attention, we get caught by that. So, I’ll move to the last part now. Pray.
Now, when you talk about the key to success, there are two things always to remember. There are some things which are in our control and some things which are not. So, there is endeavour and there is destiny.
When both of them come together, that leads to success. So, a simple example of this could be farming. When a person, when a farmer is ploughing the field, at that time, the ploughing of the field, the sowing of the land, sowing of the seeds, all that is a part of the endeavour of the farmer.
But that alone does not determine success. The rains have to come and the rains have to come on time in adequate quantity. So, sometimes it may work out in our life that despite our best endeavours, the destiny may not be favourable.
So, I may study very well, but in the time of exam, I may just fall sick and I’m not able to appear for the exam. Or, I may study very well and just before the exam, I get an accident and I’m in the hospital, I can’t go to the hospital. Or, I study very well, but sometimes some strange questions come up which I’m not prepared for.
So, there is the factor of destiny in the lives of all of us. So, this is very evident in sports. Have any of you heard about cricket? It’s not the insect cricket, the sports cricket.
So, cricket, there is a very famous batsman from Australia and he had this superstition, we call it superstition, that every time when he would go out to bat, just like in, you are more familiar with baseball here. So, just like in baseball, you have a batter. So, like that in cricket, there is a batsman, we call it, batsperson, you could say.
So, he, this Australian batsman, he had this notion that whenever he would go out to bat, he would go from the pavilion, first, he would go to the restrooms and all the commodes, he would close the lids and then he would go out to bat. And when he would come back, if he would get out early, instead of going back to the pavilion, first, he would go to the restrooms. If any commodes would be open, he would be so furious and would go and blast his team members.
Who kept the commodes open? Because of that, I got up. You say, what is this? It’s crazy. What has this got to do with that? What has the status of the commode lids got to do with the batting? But the idea is, even players, they know that performance matters in sports but performance is not all that matters.
And many different sports players have their own amulets, they have their own charms. There’s a famous tennis player who would wear an earring only in one ear. And as long as that earring would be there, he would think, oh, I’m going to play well.
So there is… Now, what is this? These players may not exactly accept destiny but they understand that there is something beyond my control which also shapes the result. So there is our action and there is higher sanction. Both of them, they work together for producing the results.
And if we think that only my actions are going to produce the result, then sometimes we may unnecessarily depress ourselves because we may have done our best but just the factors at that time were not favourable. Sometimes destiny may be unfavourable and because of that we may not get certain results. So we don’t have to become too discouraged because in any situation that we are in, there are things in our control, things not in our control.
If we start taking ownership of things not in our control, then we unnecessarily beat ourselves up. So, here, what does prayer do? Prayer connects us with the higher power that is in charge of the universe. Now, most of us, I’ll talk about these two things, we can change anxiety to intensity by simply a shift of focus.
When, in any situation we are in, say tomorrow you have an interview and you can feel worried about what will happen. Will I be able to pass? Will I be able to answer the questions properly? Will I be presentable? Will I be selected? And the more we think of all these things, what is going to happen exactly tomorrow, what kind of questions are going to come, what people are going to think about me, that is not in my control. The more I think about the things that are not in my control, the more I subject myself to anxiety.
If we just shift our focus to what is in my control. What is in my control is that I have 24 hours, let me prepare, let me focus. If I just do that, then that brings intensity.
So, what we need simply is a shift of focus from things that are not in our control to things that are in our control. So, now still we may worry, but what about the things not in my control? Tomorrow when the interview is going to come, what am I going to do at that time? So, actually when we focus on things that are not in our control, we subject ourselves to anxiety. Anxiety is the interest we worry or anxiety is the interest that we pay on loans we have not yet taken.
Loans we have not yet taken, problems that are not yet materialised. We are actually worrying ourselves and subjecting ourselves to problems like that. So, what is not in control is not out of control.
That means it is under some higher control. Every day when we eat food, actually the process by which these foods get digested is very complex. Nowadays there is an attempt to have artificial substitutes or aids whenever people have any problem with their physical parts.
If somebody’s hand gets cut, they can have an artificial hand. If their heart is not working properly, they can have a pacemaker. Their kidney is not working properly, they can have some external support.
Now a lot of people have digestive problems. So, researchers thought can we make an artificial digesting machine? A replacement for the stomach, can we put it inside the body? And then they found that actually what they would need is not a machine but they would need a factory. And not just a factory but a chain of factories.
Why? Because the sheer amount of processing, the sheer amount of complex reactions that happen after we eat food, for it to be digested and converted to energy is enormously complex. That means if we consider a biomarker, from a science perspective, work is forced into displacement. So now if you consider work as forced into displacement, the amount of work that is performed inside the body to digest one morsel of food that we eat, that work is actually more than the average amount of work a person performs throughout the day.
When we eat the food, the peristalsis, the moment that happens at the alimentary canal, as the food goes down, as it gets processed, as it gets digested, it’s a phenomenal amount of work. So, who is doing all that work? We just eat the food and forget it. The only time we think about digestion is when it doesn’t work.
That’s the time we think about it. But actually there is a higher power in charge which takes care of things ultimately. So what is not in our control is not out of control.
It is under a higher control. And that control is the control of the source of everything. So when we pray, we connect with that source.
So now, what are the ways in which we can connect with that source? No. There are two main ways. There is prayer and there is meditation.
Prayer is when we speak to the source. Meditation is when the source speaks to us. And both of these are ways in which we connect with the reality higher than our present reality.
So when we connect with the higher reality, we develop inner calmness, we develop inner clarity. And we can counter anxiety. It’s like if somebody is caught in a flood in the ground, they will feel threatened.
But if there is a rescue helicopter which comes and raises them above, and from that perspective you can say, okay, now I am safe. Now let me see what I can do to help others. Just as rising above a helicopter can free one from the immediate sense of threat and fear, similarly when we practise meditation, when we connect with spiritual reality, we rise above.
And when we rise above, then we can actually deal with the situations with greater maturity, greater clarity. So prayer connects us to a power greater than our own. And that power can help us in two ways.
One is that some things which are not achievable for us, by that power’s grace, those things become achievable. And other times, if those things are not achievable, we can shift our focus. Okay, this is not working out, something else will work out.
Now when, sometimes when, if you don’t have a spiritual understanding of life, then our life becomes like a straitjacket. This is what I want to do. If I can’t do it, frustrated.
What is the use of all this? But, when one door closes in our life, often another door opens. But if you are so caught in glaring at the closed door, then you miss out on the door that is open. So spirituality opens us to higher, higher guidance in our life, by which we can see the doors that are open.
Sometimes we go to a mango tree and shake the mango tree. But, what may happen is an apple may fall. That means we have a particular plan and we want something to work out in that way.
The child is hungry and the child shakes the mango tree. And the child is looking, oh this mango is not falling, I am shaking so much. Shaking, shaking, shaking.
But in the nearby, an apple has fallen down. I will take an apple, eat it, and satisfy the hunger. So like that, sometimes we endeavour a lot in a particular way.
But things don’t work out. So when things don’t work out, that doesn’t mean nothing has worked out. It simply means that there is some other plan that is working out.
So we have to be open to that plan. And spirituality brings us to this combination of focus and openness. We focus on doing the best that we can and we are open for things beyond our control.
To be able to respond to them in the appropriate way. And then when we work thus with this combination of focus and openness, we can use the opportunity that we have right now in the best of our capacity by staying open to other opportunities that may open up and that may herald something better for us. So I will summarise.
I was talking about the keys of success. Go deep. Deep, deep, deep, deep.
Does anyone remember what was deep? Desire. So I talked about external desires which are superficial. They are like noise.
They may clutter our consciousness. We need to go inside and find out what is truly important for us and focus our energy on that. And when we act according to our desire, still there are two situations.
Sometimes we can do as we desire or sometimes we may have to do things that we don’t desire. At that time we have to use our intelligence to understand the importance of that and perceive it. To drag the feet.
Whatever we have to do, we do it wholeheartedly using our desire or using our intelligence. And what are the first key? Anyone remember? Envision. Envision means that if I have a desire to go for a drive, where do I want to go? So I have a plan.
So action without vision often becomes like a nightmare. Just go out and I am lost. I don’t know where to go now.
On the other hand, vision without action is simply a dream. We all have many dreams. I want to become like this.
I want to become like that. But what transforms the dream into a vision is a plan. It’s a goal.
This is where I want to go. And when you talk about envisioning, we discussed that plans may not work. But what works? Planning works.
Thank you. That means that we get a general sense of direction. This is where I want to go.
This is the path I am going. Sometimes I have to make some adjustments. So rather than planning based on seed planning like clock based plans, you can see it more like a compass based orientation.
Thus we can put C here. What is the second E? Endeavour. Endeavour means that whatever we are trying to achieve, become good at, we all have to practise.
Do it repeatedly. When we do it repeatedly, it’s not just a matter of repetition of action. It is also a matter of rectification of attitudes.
If I have a negative attitude, that negative attitude, see I’ll give an example of public speaking, that voice within can sabotage me. And what is this sabotaging voice, where does it come from? It’s because that is software and hardware. So in the software, sometimes there can be corruption.
Just like a software can make us do, a software and a computer can make us change our home page or make, bring some popups like that from the mind, some popups can come up. When these popups come up, at that time, we have to know they can only propose, they cannot impose. So whatever catches our attention, catches us.
If we don’t pay attention to them, then they won’t be able to trouble us. And when we endeavour, that means we don’t listen to these negative voices. Then we can actually put our heart into what we are doing.
We can endeavour wholeheartedly. And that brings us last to the part of P. P was Prey. So Prey actually acknowledges that whatever we want to succeed in, there are certain things in our control, certain things not in our control.
So our endeavour alone doesn’t lead to success. Endeavour plus testing, it leads to success. For example, a farmer has to plough and sow, but after that grains have to come.
Then the grains will come. Similarly, sometimes we have put in our best effort and still the results may not come if the destiny is not favourable. So what does preying do in such a situation? Preying helps us to it opens our consciousness to higher reality.
And once we connect, access to that higher reality, we understand that that which is not in my control is not out of control. There is some plan operating. Eating food is in my control, but digestion, somebody else is doing it, something else is doing it.
I don’t even pay attention to it. So like that, there is a higher power in charge of the universe. And I just need to harmonise with it.
So when we pray, praying is not just a simple yeah, we can fold our hands or raise our hands and pray. But praying is not just the external rituals, it’s an act of connecting our consciousness to higher reality. So from the mental to the spiritual, we are souls and we connect to the spiritual reality.
Then we get calmness and clarity. So praying is when we speak to the souls and meditation is when the souls, we hear the souls. So I didn’t mention much about meditation specifically.
There are different forms of meditation. We practise mantra meditation. We chant a particular mantra.
We find this mantra very powerful in terms of calming and focussing the mind. But there are different traditions and they have different sacred songs which can be tapped. But when we connect with this higher reality, then what happens? When things are beyond our control, then instead of anxiety, we can bring intensity.
That which is not in my control, some other force will take care of that. Let me focus on that which is in my control. So from anxiety, it can shift to intensity.
And sometimes the things will work out, sometimes things will not work out. If we have spirituality in our life, we will do our part better and we will increase the probability of things working out. But when things don’t work out, rather than resenting or getting frustrated, we can stay calm and look for the door that can open.
Instead of glaring at the closed door, we look for an open door. We are shaking a mango tree vigorously, but we may find that an apple has fallen. So success will sometimes come to us in some other form than what we would expect.
That is also success. So by having this combination of focus on doing what we can while being open, by having the openness to things which are not our control, we can all progress towards success in our chosen areas of life. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions or comments? Yes, please. Yes. So to be honest, someone mentioned this kind of meditation to me a while ago, and being a Catholic person, but a kind of Catholic person that is kind of distant from his or her own religion, because I believe in my religion, but I don’t practise it as strictly as I guess I’m supposed to, right? I open my mind to other types of religions and things, and it’s really interesting to me these concepts that you’ve explained, right? So I was really drawing my attention to them.
Thank you. So, actually, when we talk about different religious traditions, we can see these basically like different universities. Ultimately, universities are meant to give education, to raise a person to a higher level of understanding, to a higher level of preparedness for dealing with life.
So like that, different religions are essentially different ways for helping our spiritual evolution. So what is important is that we grow spiritual. So, the religion on.
So, different religions offer us different pathways. We keep the purpose in mind. The Bhagavad Gita, the book which I talked about, it concludes with a very dramatic declaration.
It says, give up all religions. sarva-dharman parityajya. You say, how can a religious book say give up all religions? But the purpose is, give up all religions, sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam sarva-dharman parityajya, and become devoted to the absolute.
So, religion is meant for God. God is not meant for religion. That means, sometimes people got so caught in their own religious practises that their religion becomes, makes them very close-minded.
Not only close-minded, sometimes it can make them fanatical also. Fanatical means the idea that my religion is the only one. That’s like saying, my university is the only valid university.
All the universities are false. That’s not true. There can be different universities.
So, the extreme version of this, which we are seeing unfortunately in the world today, is where you say, if you are not following my religion, you are going to go to hell. And some fanatics say, we will get you to hell faster also. So, this happens because, what has happened? Religion has not remained as a way to God.
God has become misappropriated. God has become a tool for religion. So, religion is meant for God.
God is not meant for religion. So, when the purpose is clear, then what path we follow is not all that important. We can follow our path faithfully without having to become intolerant about other paths.
But when we are not clear about the ultimate goal, then the path itself seems to be a cliff. It’s like somebody is climbing up a mountain. There can be different ways of going up the mountain.
Now, if I have gone high up the mountain, I can say, that person has also gone high up on that path. That person has gone high up on that path. But, if somebody doesn’t understand the purpose ultimately to climb up and get to the top.
Somebody thinks that taking the path alone is important. The path is not important, the purpose is important. So, in general tradition, we feel inspired to practise.
If we can connect ourselves to our souls, to our spiritual side, we will have more stability and clarity in coping with life’s ups and downs. Any other comments or questions? Yes, please. Is there a way to take advantage of who I am? There are people that say that when you want to procrastinate, you are doing things that you like to do.
It’s sad that those things that you are trying to do remain past. So, is there a way to take advantage of procrastination to do what you want to do? Okay. So, is there a way that we can use procrastination positively? Yeah.
There are times when certain things require a certain level of preparedness to do things. So, for example, my primary service apart from speaking is I am a writer. So, when I write, I know that sometimes some ideas require some time to grow.
An idea is like a baby. The baby has to gestate in the mother’s womb before it can come out. We can’t bring out the baby beforehand.
So, like that, sometimes I get an idea and it’s an idea I want to write on. But, I just don’t feel inspired to write at a particular time. And sometimes the inspiration comes after some time.
So, sometimes certain things, it may not just be the right time for them. Now, of course, if I have a writing deadline, publishing deadline, then I have a right. But, in our life, there are certain activities that are deadline bound and certain things which are important but may not be deadline bound.
So, if we don’t feel inspired to do something right now and it’s not absolutely urgent to do it right now, then the important thing is that we engage ourselves constructively and do something else with it. And, at the back of the mind, if there’s an idea, it is there at the back of the mind, it is growing, growing, growing. And eventually, when the idea has grown enough, then, just like a baby when they’re grown, the baby delivers.
So, like that, when the idea has grown enough, then when we act on it, it actually, it takes up a very good form when it comes out. So, it’s possible that some ideas, there’s a particular time when they come. So, the important thing is that we should not be defined by what we are not doing.
We should be defined by what we are doing. In procrastination, the focus is not what I am doing. The focus is what I don’t feel like doing.
That means I have to write on my computer, but I don’t feel like writing. So, then I just visit some website and read some news. I watch some movie.
I just chit chat on social media. So, what is happening? These things, they’re not really important. But, my focus is, oh, I don’t want to do this, so I find something else to do in that time.
But rather, okay, I want to do this, but right now I am not inspired to do this. So, if I have a plan, during this time, I can do this, this, this. Then, our focus is not on avoidance.
Our focus is on engagement. It’s true that different engagements can have different times. And some ideas may not germinate unless they are ready.
That’s perfectly fine. But our focus of attention should not be, oh, I don’t want to do this, so I am finding something else to do. This time is meant for this, but because I don’t feel like doing it, so I find some other things to do.
If it’s not like that, okay, I am going to do this, but I am not ready for this, then I have these other things to do. So, that way, if we have planned engagements in terms of if I am not able to do this, see, inspiration-driven activities especially, they cannot be legislated quite often. But then, we can’t leave ourselves to our feelings entire.
So, if I don’t feel like doing something, that doesn’t mean that I just waste my time. Rather, I have a plan of some other things which I can do. And then, I do those other things in a planned way, and then later on when I am inspired, I come back and do the things which I need to do.
So, dealing with our feelings is like fighting a war. Sometimes our feelings are on our side, sometimes our feelings are against us. So, when our feelings are against us, then we are fighting a war within us.
At that time, now when we are fighting a war, we have a general general understanding. This is the territory I want to give. But depending on how the enemy is attacking, we may have to use different weapons at different times.
So, similarly, depending on what kind of feelings are coming in, what kind of situation we are in, we may have to use different strategies to deal with procrastination. Sometimes procrastination, we just have to deal with, no, no matter how I feel, I am just going to do this right now. No matter what quality comes out, I just do it.
Later on, I can improve the quality. That is one way as a writer, I can work every day, maybe half an hour, one hour, I am going to write. I just put thousand words down on my paper, whatever the words may be.
It can be garbage, but I put it there. That’s one way I deal with the feelings. Another way is, okay, I am not really feeling, I want to do this project but I am not feeling inspired, then I do something else.
But that is not just deterrent, it’s out of the spur of the moment, which is basically avoiding what I am supposed to do. But rather, that is also a planned engagement. So when dealing with our feelings, we can’t always stick to one battle plan because the same battle plan may work today, it may not work tomorrow.
So we have to be flexible to see what works and adopt that. So the important thing at the end of the day is that we are productive. If I am not productive in this particular field, then I am productive in this field.
So that way we can move onwards. Does that answer your question? Any other questions or comments? Yes, please. As a person, I know my likes and dislikes, but what I feel I do know about myself is myself.
How can I connect to myself spiritually if I am not well engaged in those areas? I know it’s a general question, but I am very disconnected from the spiritual side of myself. So we know our likes and dislikes, but still how do we connect with ourselves at our core? Yes, it’s a very important question. Firstly, we need knowledge.
There is specific, there is generic spiritual knowledge and there is specific spiritual knowledge. Now, suppose this room is completely dark and the door opens. Now, when the door opens and it’s completely dark, we’ll be uncertain who is coming.
Is it a friend who has come in? Is it an enemy who has come in? Is it a thief who has come to steal something? We’ll be uncertain. We’ll be insecure. We’ll always be second-guessing ourselves.
What’s happening? But if you can turn on a light, then you can say, oh, this person who has come is a friend. This person, I don’t know. It’s a stranger.
This person is a big thief. I had to call the police. I had to push this person out right away.
So basically, before we can identify the specifics, specific people who are in the room, the first thing we have to do is turn on the light. Without turning on the light, if I try to identify the people, it becomes a very big struggle. So like that, to understand who we are specifically, in terms of our core self, it’s important to have general spiritual knowledge.
General spiritual knowledge is like turning on the light. there are any branch of knowledge, any area of enquiry, if you want to go deeper, we refer to the books in that area. If I want to learn something about, say, when I came to Panama, I wanted to read something about Panama.
So I went on Wikipedia and looked at Panama. So there are reasonably reliable sources of knowledge which we use for learning more about the subject. So to understand the self, we have to look at books that give us knowledge about the self.
So the Bhagavad Gita is one book which actually starts with this question itself. Who are you? Now identity is the foundation of our activity. So the Bhagavad Gita begins with a very dramatic setting where a warrior is confused.
What should I do? What should I not do? And then the speaker of the Gita doesn’t answer that specific question. You should do this, you shouldn’t do this. Begins by saying, before you can decide what you have to do, understand who you are.
And the Bhagavad Gita gives us quite an elaborate understanding of who we are. So by studying spiritual books like the Bhagavad Gita, we get general spiritual knowledge. General spiritual knowledge is like turning on the light.
That light, this light I’m referring to is the light of our inner world. So when our inner territory becomes illumined, when all the doors of our senses are illumined, at that time we can see clearly what is what. So at that time when our inner territory is illumined, we can understand okay, this is my light.
But this is a very mild light. This is a very strong thing which I like. I feel passionate about this.
This light is a mild light. This is like a strong aversion light. And like that we can move backward, backward, more deeper inwards and come to our core.
So what is it that defines our core? Our core, the Gita explains, is consciousness. It is because we have consciousness that we have likes and dislikes. It is because we have consciousness that we have desires.
It is because we have consciousness that we are able to feel anything, be aware of anything. So consciousness basically means awareness of things around us and awareness of ourselves. It’s basically awareness.
So that awareness comes from a spark of spirit. That spark of spirit is actually who we are at our core. Now, what ultimately we want at our core is we have many desires, many likes, many dislikes.
What we want is actually to love and to be loved. We want talents, we want wealth, we want power. All these things we want because we hope that these things will make us more lovable in the eyes of others.
So you want to love and you want to be loved. That is our core. So, now, the Gita explains that this longing to love, that cannot be fulfilled only at the horizontal level.
It needs to be fulfilled vertically also. Horizontally means by people around us. You know, we can have partners, we can have relatives, we can have friends.
And in that, we get some amount of satisfaction. But this longing to love and be loved, it also needs to be directed vertically. Vertically means it has to be directed towards our source.
That source can be known by different names. It can be called God, it can be called Bhagavad Gita. Bhagavad Gita calls it by the name Krishna.
The important thing is that when our longing for love is directed vertically, then that brings the fullest illumination in our heart, inside us. That means, things become the most clear. When we connect ourselves with the source in a mood of loving devotion, then what we are meant to do in our life becomes very clear.
Because we understand fully who we are. It’s like light which illuminates some things, but if sunlight comes, sunlight practically illuminates everything. So knowledge, spiritual knowledge, that takes us to the level of knowledge of the source that becomes not just like turning on a light, it becomes like getting sunlight.
Everything becomes clear. So usually, if we, now this may all seem very abstract right now, but right now it’s in terms of conceptual analysis. In terms of practise, if we just start practising meditation regularly, that meditation itself will actually act like a small torchlight in the room.
Every day that we meditate, we are basically taking a torchlight and directing it inwards. And that meditation which acts as a torchlight will make things clearer and clearer. And they will understand what is truly important for me, who I am, and what is it that drives me in my life.
These things become clear when we have illumined our inner territory. Does this answer your question? Any other comments or questions? Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you.
Thank you.