Self Realization lesson 2

Till last year, I get angry very easily and quite frequently. I become so obsessed with myself that sometimes I dint speak to my wife for more than 24 hours. This looks quite crazy and unbelievable to me now if I look back in a hindsight in the sense how can I hurt myself and others for so long. Yes, when we get angry we are the first one to get hurt. But today, I think if everything or small small things keep on making me angry, then doesn’t it mean that I giving my control in hands of others. 

For instance, think if the people have the power to play with my mood, then how can I expect my mood to remain stable. Give it a thought. First of all, we have to understand that I should have complete control over my thoughts. If someone had said something rude or harsh, I have a choice. I have a choice to react instantly or to respond. I have a choice to become angry or to ignore or to put myself in his shoes or to remain calm. People can only say rude things but they cannot enter inside us and control our thoughts. It is very much possible that we can have control on our thoughts even faced by something unfavorable. I would only advise to keep your remote control with you. If you are driving to your workplace and in the midst of traffic jam, everyone seems to work against you like Autowallah giving you side, Bike rider driving rash and you are losing your temper, then you need to look back and go deeper to understand how weak you are if everything external is enough to make you disturb. Sorry, No you are not weak at all but you have forgotten that you have the remote control of your happiness. You just have to remind yourself that no one has the control to control your mood. I can pretty much understand that inculcating such thought process can be difficult and time taking but there is no harm in adopting this and practicing. One thing I am sure it works. It works for me, it will work for you. It has worked for thousands of souls out there. Just believe it and remember your task when something is making you angry, it’s time to snatch your remote.

 Check my another post in this series Self realization here.

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Self realization lesson 1

There is 1 thing that I learned very hard way. My belief become more strong when I listened again by some of the best speakers.

My personnel take about competition.

Whenever I tried competing with other people, I always performed very well, competition does boosts my performance but only for a short amount of time and after that I break down. But whenever I am competing with myself such that to improve myself every day without competing with anyone just myself only then I sustain.

Competition is just a external short term motivation that help you to excel for some time but if you want to sustain, you have to bring the zeal from inside and nothing can help you in doing that except your thoughts.

Also, competition does not let you enjoy your journey as it just focuses on ends. But life is all about journey. We have limited destinations and milestones and this life is all about journey connecting those. So, it is very important that journey should be beautiful. Even if you purchase any flight or rail ticket, it always says have a safe journey.

I remember 1 instance during my morning walk in botanical garden.It was told to me by 1 old person as a part of story sharing session in laughter club. He told that 1 youngster started walk, then run, then he started using stopwatch and then he target to increase his speed. There is nothing wrong in this but he get so obsesses with timings that he forgets to enjoy the gift of life i.e. morning walk. After sometime, he get bored of this and started hitting gym. On the other hand, there are people who never misses their morning walk, they are not worried about timings and all, they just enjoyed their morning time with the company of nature. They may be slow but are regular.

And miles to go before I sleep. . .  .  .  .  .  .  .    .      .           .           .             .    . . . . .  Robert Frost

Check my another post in this series Self realization here.

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Trip to Chilkur Balaji Temple : Hyderabad

This temple was used to be a very small temple in a village called Chilkur, some 25 kilometers from Hyderabad, with very few visitors and that too local only and from nearby villages. It is only in last 10-15 years that fate of this temple is changed and it becomes one of the most popular and crowded temples of Andhra Pradesh. 

It is also known as Visa temple. It is believed to be the only temple of India which is known to help the devotees to get their VISAs to travel abroad with specialization in US VISAs obtaining which is really a very big challenge these days due to the new stringent rules. 

I am planning to visit this place from a long time not with the intention of getting VISA but out of inquisitiveness. And on 1 fine Sunday, my plan materialized. We started from our home at 5:30 am in the morning. We started early because I was very well aware that this temple attracts huge number of crowd especially on weekends. We reached temple at 6:30 am and there was decent crowd in the temple, however no queue. After a Darshan, we take 11 rounds of Parikrama (circumambulation) around main temple. It is believed that once your wish is fulfilled, then you have to come back and do 108 rounds of Parikrama. Since it is quite difficult to remember, numeric card is given free with numbers from 1 to 108 written on it so that once you complete 1 round, you mark it on paper. 

There is an amazing story behind why this temple became as the VISA temple of India. It is believed that few people reiterated their tale of getting Visa after visiting this temple to the priests of the temple. And these tales passed like conflagration with word of mouth and rest is the history, as we all know it. 

This is a temple of youngsters. I have heard this sentence from many people and read it at many places but was not sure what it is implying unless I visited the temple. There is 1 commentary going on in the temple by the priest with really high voice on loudspeakers instead of Bhajan/spiritual songs and he is talking about the attachment of our youth with Facebook and other social media site. I was kind of shocked and at the same time, the cognizant of the priests about Social media were also appreciable.  It is when I realized why this place is called as the temple of youngsters.            

Also, it is continuously announced by the priests that please keep your eyes open during the Darshan as God wants to see the sincerity in your eyes. 

One of the good things about this temple is that they do not have any Hundi for donation; however they have mentioned different bank accounts on the walls of the temple and thus, if you want to contribute, you can directly transfer the amount in bank account and thereby ensuring that your money is going straight to the hands of Temple management committee. 

After completing the Darshan, we had a breakfast just outside the temple. This place reminds me of Shakumbara Devi near my hometown Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, where we used to go frequently with my family members.

We have completed everything by 7:30 am and decided to go back. Early morning ride on Activa and that too in villages of Andhra Pradesh away from the traffic of Hyderabad was quite a break. 

I would recommend this place to everyone especially if you are looking for a small picnic with your family for half day. I will also suggest to go as early as possible in the morning to  beat the crowd and also to enjoy the ride more. 

On our route back to Hyderabad, we passed through Mrugvani National park. As we have lot of time at our disposal and we have already completed everything before the time as we planned so we thought of visiting this place. But then came to know that this place will open at 9am. So, we waited. There was nobody except 2 of us and 1 security guard. 
 

Please let me know if you have any questions/doubts regarding planning your trip to this place.

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Grapevine Communication

Courtesy: Google Images

Grapevine communication - What is it and why should we avoid it ?

This was the topic discussed yesterday during one of the sessions of Spiritual Awakening in our office. One of the lady with very impressive credentials in psychology demonstrated a very powerful value based activity to help us ingest some of the beautiful lessons of life.

Let me first share the activity.

She called the 5 volunteers and then asked 4 of them to go out of the room. 

Now, she explained a scenario and asked the volunteer to enact that scenario. The scenario was that you went to supermarket, take the trolley and then you purchase the 1^st item on your way, rejecting 2^nd item and then again selecting 3^rd item and at the end do a payment and came out. 

After explaining the scenario, she called the one of the volunteer from outside and told him to observe and then repeat the same actions of the volunteer. After this situation was put into action by 1st volunteer, she called the third volunteer from out and asked him to observe and then repeat the action of the 2^nd volunteer. This activity continued till the performance of last volunteer.

And then she asked the volunteers in the reverse fashion that what they think they were doing. The message was distorted completely. May be by now, you have understood the significance of the activity. If not, stay tuned. Last volunteer told us that he thought he was putting the garland around some big personalities and at the end, put the remaining garlands in basket. Second last volunteer told us that he thought he was collecting books from different shelves and then putting it in a school bag. Another one thought he was in a book store. The next one told us the right answer that he is in a supermarket and doing shopping but added so much masala/material by himself. He purchased too many items and thus did not follow his predecessor properly. By the time, massage crosses 3, 4 ears, it had completely lost its meaning. 

Do you know why?

Perception.

 Yes, every one of us perceives the given situations as per his fears; mentality and they needn’t to be necessarily true. Thus, we cannot always believe on our eyes and also the information from the second hand source because that source perceives it as per his mentality which may not be true. 

In terms of management and corporate, grapevine is a term for this type of communication. We must avoid such communications/gossips not only for saving ourselves from landing in trouble but also in order to build trust and reputation.