Fear

One person had a frequent dream of demon following him. Person was running scary with that demon. Person used to run and demon used to follow him.  His nights were sleepless due to this scary dream. Once the person decided to confront the demon when he would follow him and he would ask him the question why he was following him. 

Next day, when the demon arrived in the dream of the person, he asked the demon, “Hey, you are troubling me for so many days. Why are you following me? What do you want?”

Demon smiled and replied, “How should I know this? You must know; it is your dream.”  

We are like that same person always scare about unknown things and we don’t know why we are scary. The fear brings lot of “Ifs” in our life. “Would I miss the flight, would the taxi pick me on time? Is booking confirmed? What will happened if he says No? And so on…

The fear of losing something is the major obstacle in the success. I have seen some people that have the fear of winning. My one friend was offered the position outside the country by his company. Friend denied the offer only due to fear. Success and failures are the part of life but taking opportunities are important.  Most of the people loose opportunities by just not taking these opportunities. The reason is just fear. In 1999, I had referred one vacancy to my classmate. He even did not turn up for an interview. When asked, he mentioned that the company sometimes transfers employees frequently at different site and it might happen with him also. He had to struggle a lot to get the job in future.

Imagine how many opportunities we might have losing by not asking something. The fear of “will that person/salesman give it.”

I like the TV commercial of Tata Sky for the reason where one person fears to ask something (change in currency to bank robbers or lift to the soldier) and then catch line of asking “If I get two connections, will I get the discount.”    

          

First thing first in life should be to remove the fear of thinking and asking something which is really not fearful. One should not suppress his happiness for non existing things. Fear is just like TOMORROW that never comes.  So why should think about it.  Be calculative, assess obstacles, imagine the output, life will be full of possessiveness.

Independence and Inner Freedom



Happy Independence Day! 



We had an inauguration ceremony of school constructed under CSR initiative by our company near Pune. After the function, students and teachers sung the national song, “Vande Mataram. I was thrilled while singing the same. (I fear some people even don’t remember the full version. They may also mistake between national anthem and national song.) What is the message? And only free person can enjoy the innerness of the words in national song and national anthem.

Freedom is the great word. Freedom gives the respect to the person.  But words alone are powerless. Only actions can make a difference. The function of these words is to inspire us to think, and then to act and make a difference.

Mahatma Gandhi had a dream of freeing the nation from British and he did that. Freedom fighters struggled a lot to get the status which we are enjoying today. We got the independence. But do we value this independence? As a species we have evolved to a level of consciousness, whereby we are no longer able to avoid our responsibility. Reclaiming our power is essential to both our individual survival and the healing of our nation. Let’s not discuss what’s happening in India and how the freedom and democracy is abused by everybody including us. We should not blame only politicians; we are responsible for the fate. But where is the end?

Think for a moment, how the world would be if all people had chosen not to strive for their dreams and make a difference. People like Mahatma Gandhi, Vir Sawarkar, Pandit Nehru, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa...

You may look at these names and feel somewhat intimidated and be tempted to ask, “Can I really make a difference? Is it worth the price I would have to pay?” It is easier to live a compromised, mediocre life, hoping that someone else makes a difference, while you read about it. However, if that was your choice, you wouldn’t be reading this article now. Now is a time for action.

It is time to confront our upbringing, conditioning and circumstances. We all had and have people in our life, telling us that dreams are for children, encouraging us to be matured. Making a difference is like throwing a pebble in a pool. The ripples spread from the center to larger and larger circles of influence. It begins within you. Time has come to respect the freedom and take some responsibilities. It is the time of referring back to civil science which we learned during our high school. Not so much difficult. You have to come out from the capsule and take small steps like taking a freedom from preoccupied conditioning.

What we need more today is running the second freedom movement, personally, professionally and off course, as a responsible citizen of nation. Freedom from indiscipline, freedom for unresponsiveness, freedom from dishonesty, freedom from negative thinking, freedom from jealousy, freedom from inhumanity and freedom from every evil which we have within us and within society.

Let’s understand the real meaning of freedom. Happy Independence Day!

Do you have a choice?

If you get a chance to go back in your past and change your past decisions, would you change some decisions? I can certainly say that you would definitely like to change few which had adversely affected your life. But the fact is that we can’t go and change our past. We have to live with the past we have.

The only thing we can do to choose that decision. I remember the conversion happened with my friend. We both were studying our management. One day he came with new shirt.

“Vinod, usually my parents buy shirt for me, but this is the shirt of my choice,” he said.

“Oh really?” I asked, “How you did that?”

“Yesterday, I went to the shop, asked salesperson to show me shirts and I choose one.” He replied.

“Do you think you choose the shirt?” I asked.

“Off course, I chose one.”

“You did not choose the shirt.”

“Then?”

“You saw different shirt and out of these entire lot, you selected best shirt. Is this a choice? No. you took the decision to purchase one shirt out of different shirts. There were different alternative before you and you chose one. This is not a choice, but mere you decision to purchase a best suited shirt.”

“You are crazy, you are impossible. This is all philosophy. You are playing with words.”  He laughed.

“May be! Did you have in mind what you want? And did you get in shop exactly what you had in mind?”

“No. How it is possible?” Friend asked me.

“You find out the answer.” I smiled and put the ball in his court. I remember, the discussion on choice and decision continued almost for 2 hours and we could not conclude.  

What we do in life. We take decisions and we say that we have the choice.

What you do in decisions? You have different alternatives with you and you select one option which you think is a better. In life everybody checks different alternatives; even arrange marriages are based on decisions.  

What is the choice? Choice is what you like. Choice is the freedom of choosing something with all good or bad qualities.

Taking decision is the inevitable part of life and nescience of alternative can make your life measurable. However once the decision is taken, you should not worry of its consequences. You can not go in the past and change your decisions. There should not be any regret, only lessons. We should learn from the past and go ahead.

Choose whatever you get. Choosing is accepting what you have. Choosing is accepting with wholly and not partially. You can not accept well and ignore bad.

When it comes to relations, you have to choose your relation wholly with good or bad traits. And that is the freedom of choosing. That is the choice. Even if you have any alternative in front you, have should choose thy whole heartedly.