Saturday, July 28, 2018

Hidden gems-3 Expertise




                                Hidden gems -3       Expertise


       It is faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes life worth living.
   
       Work and learning are the two ingredients of life. Learning is a natural food for the mind. And work, the natural food for limbs of the body, involves the application of both the body and the mind.

Nobody is born an expert. But everyone of us have some talent hidden in us.
" It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of." -swift.
If we keep on doing things, we will strike our talent and goal.
Whatever we study or do we should love doing it. If we study a subject, we should never limit it with only one book. The more materials , we collect from other sources, all the more the subject and work will be exciting. Then nothing will be a burden. No more stress.
'The more we do, the more we can do ,
   the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.' - Hazlitt
 On the other hand, there will be a feeling of unique joy. Furthermore, the thirst and excitement will lead to expertise in that particular field. Interest and thirst will lead to curiosity. When you are curious, you find lots of interesting things to do. Curiosity enhances imagination, creativity and innovation, imparting uniqueness to the learner.
Constantly learn new things. The brain's ability to absorb increases as we learn more and more. Develop your skills and learn new ones, more knowledge equals more motivation. Consistency slowly makes for perfection. Management of time, consistency , work ethics, focus on the goal are key factors for success. Mistakes are common. A person who never made a mistake might have never tried anything new. We must love what we do in order to get the excitement. If we work with whatever tools we have, better tools will be found as we go along.
When we love the process more than the outcome, the end positive results will come naturally and easily and we will feel more motivated to do more and more.
Everyday becomes an opportunity for us to do better than what we did the previous day.
To put it aptly in the words of Steve Jobs -
'If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The Vision will push you.'

A farmer had two sons. He sent them to cut down two trees and finish the work by evening.
Both of them started cutting the trees. The first son would cut for sometime , go out somewhere for sometime and then resume work. He was doing the work in this fashion and finished cutting down the entire tree by evening. The second son never took rest but went on cutting the tree continuously , yet he could not complete the given task by the stipulated time . The younger brother was perplexed and asked his elder brother, " I went on doing the work continuosly and could not finish it on time where as you kept on going out for short , short intervals, yet finished the work even before time. It is so strange !"

The first son replied, " Nothing strange in this, my dear brother ! I went out in between not for rest or food but to sharpen my Saw so that I could come and cut the tree more vigorously with the sharpened Saw. That is why I could finish the work easily without much effort ."

This echoes the words of Abraham Lincon : " Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe."

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Hidden gems - 2 Significance of Religion





                                      Hidden gems - 2   Significance of Religion




               Religion has played a cohesive bond among people. It is natural that people believing in the same religion, have stood by each other, with much strength and constancy .

    Religion is a disciplined way of life which instils a faith in higher Authority. It is the greatest motivating power for realising that infinite energy which is the birth right and nature of every man.

  In building up character, in making for everything that is good and great, in bringing peace to others and peace to one's own self, religion is the highest motivating power.

Names of the religions are different as they arose in different parts of the world in different times. But the same human values to be followed ,are advocated by all of them.  Fanatics take religion into their hands and cause destruction in the name of promoting their religion. It is the greed for power, land
fame and ignorance that mars the purity of religion.

Regarding the necessity and value of religion in leading a disciplined and harmonius life, Mahatma Gandhi says, ' If someone says that he does not believe in religion, it tantamounts to the saying, ' I breathe but I don't have a nose.'










Hidden gems - 1 Glory of mother

 



                                               Glory of mother




          Once, a man asked Swami Vivekananda, " Swamiji , why do you give so much importance to woman in your speeches ? What is so special about them. Like men, they have also been created by the  Creator". To this question, Swamiji did not reply, he simply pointed to a stone and asked the man to tie it around his belly and walk. The weight of the stone might be around four or five pounds. The man did not understand anything , but obeyed the order. He wrapped the stone in a cloth and tied it around his belly and tried to walk. The stone was heavy and could not put a step ahead. He cried in pain. Then the Swamiji replied, " This is the answer to your question. A woman, your mother carried you in her body for ten months bearing it joyfully . You are not able to bear it even for a second. Do you understand now ? That is why woman is the greatest and noblest creation of God."

Love, compassion, service all unconditional, all epitomized only one in the word ' mother .'

The sublime devotion and mystic connection that a mother has with her off-spring is beyond the description of words.

The most striking feature of woman is that she, not only gives birth to a child but also nurtures him with human values to make him a worthy creation of God, dedicated to the welfare of the world.
In indian culture, the principle of motherhood outranks everything because of her chastity. In fact, the purity and structure of the society is preserved only by the chastity of women.She is the visible manifestation of God. . Even the monks are required to touch the earth with their foreheads before their mothers.

There is a popular saying in Sanskrit-

" Mother and Motherland is superior to even heaven."

The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. The highest credit given to mother is seen in the following quote by E.M. Forster,

" I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars."