A LESSON LEARNED..

"Life is the best teacher". This is an old saying, passed on for generations now. But the significance of this saying has not aged at all. The mindful souls, learn each day because life is full of teaching. And it never stops teaching.

In some of my previous blogs, I have talked about humble living and greed free intentions. Both  are very much interlinked. A person who is humble will never be drawn towards greed. He lives a mindful life and draws energy from the fact that endeavours backed with greed never become successful.

The above is not just a fact but rather a truth. The work which begins with greed to back it will never become successful. Rather it would end badly. Many people must have realised it after facing humiliation and I am no exception. I have too learned it the hard way. Indeed life has unique ways to teach us the lessons for life.

The greed I am talking about is not always monetary in nature. It can be the greed for fame, promotion, attention, social upliftment etc. All such greeds blinds the eyes of mind. We start working in a haste. This haste does not allow us to keep track of our movements. With no mindfulness in our task, we have no control. And at the end, everything falls apart along with our greedy aspirations. Thankfully in my case the loss wasn't that big but a lesson is a lesson when we learn from it. I have indeed learned.

Well humans can never be flawless. One can not guarantee that one will never be greedy. It all depends on the situation and how well one can control one's emotions. But at the end the fact remains that our intention behind every work we do should be pure.

There are two other markers that can guide us back to the right path by indicating to us that we are doing something wrong. They are haste and over imagination.

When our judgement is clouded by greed we try to accomplish everything quickly. This haste to reach the end should be an eye opener that something in what we are doing is wrong. We should stop at that point. Reflect upon our task and then proceed mindfully.

The second is over imagination. Once we notice that we are over excited about the end result of our work and we can not stop imagining all good things at the end, we should immediately stop our work and judge the outcomes we are imagining. If the outcomes reflect greed in any form, which they will, we should immediately take steps to correct our wrong.

We should always learn from other's experiences. This would keep our outlook broad and would enable us to face the challenges posed by life with a mindful approach. You can also go through my other works for more such lessons that would definitely help you live a more mindful life. Here are some suggestions:-

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/04/blessing-in-disguise.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/02/silence-perils-of-excessive-talking.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/02/enhance-productivity-time-slotting-of.html

BEING DOWN TO EARTH..

Success is not a destination, it is a journey. This statement tells it all. We should not think success is a point in our lives, rather its life in itself. People often tend to associate success with luxuries and ease of living. They think it is the only way to be happy. But all of it is not true. There are billionaires who, as normal people think should be happy, but they suffer from regret and solitude. Thus considering that being on the top is all luxuries is a false notion in a whole.

Financial success is the most sought after success in the modern era. This has a popular trend. People associate financial success with luxuries, extravagance etc. But financial freedom is more important than financial success. And this is not a destination, rather it is a daily hustle. The hustle is the hard work that is needed to maintain that all, or else it would fade away soon enough. This hustle keeps the one with financial success aware of the difficulties and generates a feeling that keeps him/her humble. We often come across many individuals who have hefty sum as their bank balance but are very frugal and down to Earth. This is because they appreciate struggle. They know that no person is different, just the struggles for each one of us is. 

This appreciation for hard work and the process of success is not confined to the financial arena only. It's in every field. People who have hard struggles in life appreciate life. They take their struggles as building and teaching sessions that life provides for free. This makes them appreciative of others who have gone through the same. At this level of intelligence, competition and jealousy vanishes. People become humble because they have been taught to be humble by life, and we know life is the best teacher out there. 

Some individuals after getting success often think that they have achieved what they were destined to achieve. They start absorbing the glory that comes with success and in turn forget the hardships of life. They get the notion that they are now at the center of the universe and the entire universe is revolving around them. This is what kicks most of the individuals back down and they fall hard. It's life's way of teaching humility. Fame and glory are short lived , it requires continuous hustle with life to keep and maintain a position because nothing is stagnant. People who get it become leaders. They know the overnight success is a myth because it never lasts.

Now you must get that you are and never will be the center of the universe. There will always be someone who will work hard and leap a mile higher. The thing that is most important to keep leaping is to realise the fact that success is working each and every day. This makes individuals frugal. The realisation of not being at the center would enable one to be down to Earth person. We can pull out any example from the pack of people we know as successful and we will get one thing in common, that is they all have a down to earth personality. They may be surrounded by luxuries but they have never forgotten who they really are and what they had to sacrifice to be there. They appreciate struggle and hard work.

 Keep your head down and keep learning. A down to earth personality is rare, soo is frugality, but they both are gems that every one appreciates and respects..Hustle in life never ends but being down to earth sure does help..

VALUE OF FAILURES..

Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge. This is the most basic definition that we can obtain. But the process of learning is not as basic as this definition. Here we are not concentrating on the subjective knowledge by referring to learning. We are strictly in the arena of lessons of life. These are the knowledge which can be obtained through experience and not by mere reading about them.

Failure is perhaps the best teacher of all. It never leaves anyone without a lesson. The wise gain wisdom from them. While those who neglect the teachings get occupied in the vicious circle of life. It is rightly said that we can not come out empty handed from difficult situations. If on the other side of it we win, then we have its rewards. But if we fail, we gain experience that is worth more than materialistic possessions. 

There is a popular saying which we should keep in mind. It goes as" Everything we need to get through the hard times is within us"
This is a theological statement which explains that we are never served with anything we can not handle ourselves. We have passed hard times and we are not alone. Others who have lived before us have also faced similar situations and have overcome them. Their experiences are real life wisdoms. We can gain strength by reading about their struggles and often come out with solutions to our problems.

Learning is a continuous process because life never stops teaching. The day we stop learning will be the day we die. This continuous process needs a strong will power and a positive outlook. The hard times are the only things that would make our TED talks interesting. Thus we should never consider failure and hard times as some curse. We are lucky that life has chosen us to teach a valuable lesson. This lesson will only enrich us and make our wisdom deeper. One can never completely understand life. New phenomenons and new laws are discovered each day. The only thing we can value is the teaching that we get from failures. They are permanent and universal. 

With every set back we are offered with a new opportunity. We have to have the mindset to use the wisdom we have gained from the set back to our advantage. This is the true meaning of hustling with life. In this hustle we always gain. Life is full of prospects, we just need to look hard for them. Similarly failures are full of wisdom, we have to have the eye for it. A person trained by life is unstoppable. He is backed by experience and wisdom. This is the reason why corporates value wisdom and experience. Because money cannot buy such wisdom nor any college teaches them. If you are going through hard times just remember that nothing is permanent and at the end of this phase, we would always be on the winning side , whatever may be the outcome.....

IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD CIRCLE..

The group we hang out with truly defines us and our personality. Some can also say that our personality is shaped by the people we choose to hang out with. It is rightly said that we are as good as the circle we choose to be in.

People learn from their surrounding. They seek traits from all sort of sources, other people being the most important of these sources. Thus it is advisable to choose these people wisely. The group you want to be in should be in every way supportive and enriching. The result of choosing a wrong group to hang out with can be disastrous. It can result into complete deviation from the path you aimed to trail upon. Our focus thus while choosing our group should be on quality because quantity in no way helps in this race called life.

Leadership is an important quality in today's society. People who have such influential qualities are always of great value for corporates. This value is inculcated in us by the group we choose to be in. They are the people who support for a growth with pure heart and have healthy criticism to offer which moulds our character further. Life skills can be learnt. The thing that is crucial is that we choose the right source to learn them so that they don't backfire on us.

Taking about life skills, another important trait in leadership is mutual growth. Leaders lead the way so that everyone under them can achieve their aspirations. While being in a group we learn to have this mutual feeling of growth. Members together grow and handle the setbacks together. This the very reason that we find little contrast in a group which has been built with the primary aim of building mutually. Billionaires prefer the company of other billionaires in their group because this group would help them grow, learn from other members mistakes and most importantly handle the set backs together.

The value of things can never be known until we look back on their influence on us as a person. Similarly the value added to us by our group can only be known when we look back and analyse the sources of the traits in us that we value today. Almost every such trait must have been developed by being in the company of that select few or have been perfected by them. Having an influential group is very crucial but choosing those select few should not be done in haste. People add up at every stage of our life. We have to be the judge to know who are worth keeping and who are just for the time being. After all life is in the quality and not quantity..

HAPPINESS IN LIFE'S SIMPLICITY..

Happiness is perhaps the most desired feeling. People do a great extent of things so as to achieve happiness. Some people work very hard and accumulate a lot of riches in search for happiness. These people associate happiness with riches. They consider happiness to be a destination. When they accumulate riches and still don't feel happy, they spend those riches on materialistic possessions in hope to find that long desired happiness. But most often than not they get disappointed.

Happiness is a very powerful feeling, this is true. But what else is true is the fact that happiness is a choice. Every situation of life offers us two choices. One is to get the negative side and react accordingly. The other is to look for the positive side and choose to be happy. The second trait is rare. People react easily and showcase natural feelings like anger, sorrow etc but rarely choose to be happy. This is probably because of the misconception they have about happiness being a destination.

Some people live a more fulfilling and happy life than others. This is because these people choose to be happy. But the most important thing about them is that they do not associate happiness with some costly materialistic possession rather they know the secret of finding content in the small things that life offers. Simple things like birds chirping, sight of the rising sun, feeling of the wind blowing on the face, smile of a baby etc are abundant and can fill the soul with happiness only if one chooses to recognise them.

Life is a journey. Its short. The purpose of life is to live happily. If we postpone happiness to the later years in search for materialistic happiness, we are destined to die unhappy, having never lived at all. All other feelings are natural reactions but happiness is a choice. God had this planned for the souls to be fulfilled even in the harsh conditions that life throws at them. At times of war people see destruction. But the souls that are enriched can etch out happiness in such harsh scenarios because they have the eye to find the smallest of things that can make them happy. The simple sight of a grass growing on a war torn land can fill them with happiness and re-affirm their faith on God's will. 

Life is a flow chart of simple events. It is upon the individual in charge to direct the flow towards happiness. Simple things of life are very fulfilling. It requires no riches to be happy. The person who has understood this has enlightened his/her soul and is destined to have a satisfying death after a life heavenly lived. There is heaven where we want there to be a heaven, There is happiness where we want there to be happiness..Nothing suites better to end this flow of thoughts than this saying,"SIMPLE LIVING, HAPPY LIVING"

DECLUTTERING..

Our life has many things that demand our attention. Our dreams and aspirations are in constant demand of our time. They are the most important things in our life. But we are not able to give them the due attention as our life is cluttered with many other things that demand our attention. These things can literary be things and other social responsibilities. When we start to give our time to these. As a result the time demanded by the things that help us grow is unmet for because we all have the same 24 hours in a day.

The behaviour we talked about earlier is a major hurdle in the way of living a fulfilling life. The dreams that we have ,often remain dreams because of our life's clutter that drain away our precious time and strength. These clutter can be of many types. Relationships that pull us down can be a clutter. Things that we no longer use can be a clutter because they demand our attention. Social media is a big clutter of our lives. Our phones drain away most of our valuable time. We get indulged in mindless gossips thanks to social media sites. We spend endless hours gulping not so useful content on video sharing sites. And not to mention the time we lose just scrolling on the newsfeed on our social media sites. All these are life's clutter that should be done away with.

Saving ourselves from our phones can be very beneficial. Doing away with the apps that we rarely use along with cutting our time on social media gossips can be of great help which would result in spending time doing things that are useful and enriching. Our wardrobe is also a clutter of our lives. The time we spend every day deciding what to wear also clutters our mind. Simplifying our wardrobe can be of great help. This will help us restrict impulse purchases which has become easy thanks to the online retail apps. 

Decluttering simply means to get rid of the unnecessary things in our lives. Those mentioned above are just a few things of the massive clutter we accumulate throughout our lives. We come into this world with nothing and are going to leave this world in the same way. Thus there is absolutely no meaning of hoarding non necessary things in our lives.
Spending life with those things that are necessary makes our mind grow and help us flourish financially. When we are away from junk we are able to give quality to our lives. The time that this method saves is impressive and the value can be instantly felt. 

The simple living is a technique of the sages. People with their materialistic aspirations have done away with this technique. But it's coming back as well as getting due attention and popularity. The benefits are endless. Try decluttering your life and witness the growth yourself. Start from getting rid of the non necessary and go on adopting this as a way of living. Share this philosophy with others and let them enjoy the benefits offered by a simple life. If these benefits don't draw you towards it, then the financial freedom it offers sure will. YOUR LIFE IS YOURS TO BUILD, IT'S UP TO YOU HOW YOU WANT IT TO BE!! 

SIMPLE LIVING

Complexity is the trend now a days. Things are getting more and more complex. Human relationships are also following the same path. The things that were easy and simple earlier have gone through a radical change. The cause of such complexity can be attributed to the changing society. The demands from individuals have changed and the inter relationship between individuals have followed the same trend. The problem with this change is that people are not taking relationships for as it is. They judge everything from the eyes of their expectations. But here we are not going to talk about complexity of relationships rather we would look into the complexity that has creeped into our life as such.

Simple living is a concept that is gaining popularity now. The reason for its growing popularity is the problems that are being faced by individuals in their day to day lives. The attention of an individual in today's world is demanded by many things. These can be of both social construct as well as human construct. The demands of the society are all social construct that demand the time and attention of an individual. The era of social networks have complicated things further. One cannot remain away from these as these are now essential means to remain social. The other things being the human construct which individuals have created themselves to remain in the league with others.

Thus life today is cluttered with such demands that are now becoming more than just demands. They have been turning into social and moral duties. Replying to a email or a social media message is considered important as these are worth more than just conversation. They are the demands that one needs to see through as soon as possible. This is the reason behind growing popularity of the simple living- happy living concept.

The major focus should be on decluttering of life. Prioritising tasks is very essential today because there are a lot of distractions that are needed to be kept in check.The demands of the society will keep on increasing and it is upon us to filter these so that life as a whole does not get the beat out of it. The important thing that every individual should know is that we are not here to please everyone. We would always be bad in someone's book. So why waste time proving ourselves to every stone that hits us. Just get out of such thinking and live as simply as possible. Keep the distractions at a minimum and life at full. This in the long run will make you happy and prove helpful in searching for the greater good. SIMPLE LIVING IS THUS HAPPY LIVING and this can never go wrong..

INDIAN EXTRAVAGANCE

Celebrations are an important part of life that makes life interesting. We Indians have unique festivals and unique ways of celebrating them as well. The festivals in India are times of extravagance with most people spending huge sum of money so that they are accepted in the society as a rule abiding citizen. The celebrations can be social phenomenon or family phenomenon. But in both the cases society plays the determining role. 

India is a large and diverse county. The festivals and celebrations are different all over India. The ways of celebrations are also different. The festivals of same religion also varies from region to region in the way it is celebrated. Thus it is clear that diversity is vast in this subcontinent. The social festivals include religious festivals or some kind of community celebration. Such festivities are celebrated together. If someone tries to avoid such festivals they are often branded as anti social and are discriminated in the society. Similarly there are several family celebrations like marriages, birthdays, annaprasan etc. This sect has a mix of traditional as well as festivals that have been burrowed from other cultures such as anniversaries, birthdays etc. Although they are family celebrations they are hyped and the whole society gets involved. This helps in creating bonds that are crucial for a social being like the humans. But this also creates competition that leads to more spending and extravagance. Such spending is just to get social recognition and respect. People show their money and resources at these functions. From decorations to guests invited, all are planned and carried out with precision. Such behaviour is acceptable when a person is well off but when people with limited resources are pushed to spend on such extravagance then the problem starts. 

Such stupid game of showing off has put many under financial stress. Some have gone into debt for lifetime due to such spending. And such things are not exclusive to some, it is spread far and wide among all the societies in this subcontinent. This thinking of competition drives a very healthy business in India. People who are involved in event management use this ideology to get their clients spend more on the events just to look cool in the so called judgemental Indian society. This ideology is like a virus which spreads and is not limited to the current generation. The coming generations learn as they see,thus expecting a change is foolish and radical change is even more so.This drives many homes but extinguishes the happiness in many others.

 Change to this has to be gradual. People should know what is important and what is not. The concept of judgemental competition should be eradicated. The rule that all should follow is that the primary goal of living happily is to be rich and fulfilled, not to look rich and fulfilled. Think over it and change the deep seated ideology that corrupts most minds here in this society..

HOPE..

To go through any situation two things are necessary. First is an aim to achieve something or reach at a particular point. The second most important thing is HOPE to achieve that aim. Without hope everything would seem impossible. Every situation would become a burden in life. Life is meant to be lived with joy. This life becomes interesting when we direct it towards something. When we accomplish this first step the only thing remaining is hope and then we can achieve anything.

From the above it must not be concluded that hope to gain something would emerge from the very first moment. Well it is better if it does. The things when have a beginning from a hope are meant to go good. But hope may emerge at anytime. Some have set goals but gain the hope to achieve that goal only after a certain time or completing a certain path towards that goal.

A tired soul is always eager for something to lift it up. Hope is that thing that has saved many tired souls.When a person tired of failures gets a ray of hope, he is filled with energy to get go again and give his/her best.This ray of hope is often disguised. This is the reason many miss it. This varies from person to person.Life may through up many opportunities that lead someone out of a difficult situation. That opportunity serves as the ray of hope for that person towards a better life or anything he/she desires.

Hope is thus a feeling and going from the above discussion we can say that it is quite a strong one. But it is also true that this feeling depends on the person. Some people have the optimistic view point in life. These people are filled with hope because they are always etching the good things happening around them and consider them all helping them out. Thus quite evidently we can tell that hope is all around us. Well there are some cases in which it is more evident but it is always around. Its on us how we look at things and circumstances. Adopt a optimistic view point and see the magical changes it brings with it. BECAUSE HOPE GETS US GOING!! 

GROWTH AND FINANCIAL WELL BEING..

Our world has been advancing very fast. The pace of growth in India is very high. The high rate of industrialisation and urbanisation compliments this high growth rate. This has brought radical changes in our society and surrounding. People have good life style and have more disposable income which they happily spend on luxuries of life. There is poverty prevalent and but it has been showing a decreasing trend. The thing that is wrong with this growth is large scale concentration of wealth.

Well hard work needs to be remunerative to be attractive. If it is not remunerative then why people would be putting in soo much effort? The thing is that wealth is attracted towards the person who works hard as well as works smartly for it. This is his/her reward for putting in the extra effort than others. This extra effort needs a lot and has more than often shown consequences on their life. Thus wealth is the present day go to for peace of mind and satisfaction.

Cities are places of opportunities. This is true because cities widen the scope of economic growth by providing various monetary sources and financial knowledge. People pay more heed to the monetary sources and often neglect the financial knowledge that is needed to maintain that money and turn it into substantial wealth.This is the very reason why the wealth gets concentrated apart from various other reasons that aid this concentration.

Our education system was built to produce obedient workers. This has nothing to do with growth and imparting financial knowledge. One has to gain that knowledge through his/her own effort and sometimes by passing through hard times of life. Thus we rely more on experiences than on knowledge. 

The world is vast. We have many things to learn. We cannot learn all of it in our life time but our aim should be to learn as much as we can. One who thinks that learning stops after education years are over is destined to fail. This knowledge will open up new opportunities. That is exactly what one needs in this world. Seek guidance and knowledge all your life. Knowledge can fulfill your life and turn it into wealth in itself. This will let you have a fulfilling life and seek the riches you desire for the hypothetical mental peace on today's ERA..

ETERNAL LIVING..

Life is brutal. It is brutal because it has people who cant understand the sacrifices people make to keep them happy. Life lived for someone else gives a happiness that cannot be felt doing anything else. But when you decide to go on this path you must be clear that this path offers no gifts nor appreciation. You do not get recognised nor anyone talks about you. Yes that's the sacrifice you have to make if you want to keep others happy.

The path is full of hardships and everything opposite of calm is waiting for you. You need to know that you do this because this is what can get your soul pure and fix the mistakes that you have made in the past.Well you don't get to taste the fruit of fame but at the end you will get something more divine than all this. Something that is not fake nor can be faked. That is called true happiness. You get to come close with who you are and built yourself in a new way. You will change but guess what you will be thousand times better off than the souls that get grinded in this fake world.

People will never understand and will never be able to. You will be off their limits to judge. You get to answer to yourself. That day you become free. You become eternal being because you are in line with the best, you become rare. The society does not understand rare, it only knows to exploit but when they finally know the value they conserve. Thus become someone who is worthy enough to be conserved. Even if you are not conserved you will have the feeling that you have achieved something which is very rare on this Earth  i.e SELFLESSNESS..
Be you..work for your goal.. help others..be selfless..and as a gift take the most valued possession of this eternal presence..i.e a soul one with the higher being..

PEACE

PEACE OF MIND.

Our lives have become hectic in the present scenario. The race is on and the one who has not understood this rule is left behind devoid of even the basic human needs. This has ripped the peace of mind that we need to become a better person. 

The new rule says if you want peace of mind you need to have a good bank balance. The situation is like this because peace has been linked to human sustenance and fulfillment of material desires. Thus to have your material desires fulfilled you need to have a good financial health. This is supposed to bring peace. These material things are the new definition of peace.

Apart from above the most important definition of peace is absence of violence. This world is turning violent, crimes are on the rise. In this situation countries work hard to maintain peace. Thus this feeling of keeping everyone safe is considered peace. This is not wrong but no one ever thinks of the term mental peace or the peace of mind.

In the prehistoric times people had less things to worry about. They had to think about sustenance and only sustenance. Then the society changed and now people have multiple roles to play. The society demands more from them. Thus we get that the simple the life is the more peace of mind we have. A life without modern day burden and distractions is simply going to be peaceful. Its a choice we have to make, i.e to declutter our lives and get the peace needed for our soul. Thus peace of mind is in our hands.

As we know anger, sorrow, frustration, rage all of these emotions are natural but happiness is a choice that we and only we can give ourselves. Same is the case with peace. Its in our hands whether we want to live a peaceful life or not. Every situation offers us a choice, its in our hands how to react to it. Some reactions can make you peaceful some don't.

 A healthy body is a house for a healthy mind. Its the first necessity. Then comes our life choices and the things we surround our self with. The less cluttered our life is the more peaceful we become.

 Buddhism teaches us how to simplify our lives, because its important. Our mind needs to be free from desires of material wealth is order to achieve the higher good. This the teaching that we all should follow. The soul of every individual needs to grow to become enriched. When we serve our soul and mind with peace, our life transforms to become heavenly in literal sense..PEACE IS A FEELING THAT IS FELT IN EVERY THING WE DO, be it breathing, walking etc. Once you reach that stage, you are enlightened. But most importantly YOU ARE FREE..THAT IS WHAT PEACE IS ALL ABOUT..BEING FREE!!

JOURNEYS ARE IMPORTANT THAN DESTINATION

ENJOYING THE JOURNEYS.

In life we all run behind an aim which we think can give us the satisfaction we seek.In the race towards that point we forget to understand the deep wisdom that the journeys have to offer. The destination is important because without having a fixed goal we cannot live a fulfilling life. But the journeys are more important. The journeys which consist of ups and downs, Success and failure,have a lot to teach us. These are the experiences that matter and enrich our lives.

The journey towards a goal has many mesmerising events. One experiences many bitter truths. He/she learns the importance of living, and most important being the satisfaction that living for others has to offer. We call these as experiences. They are important because life does not stop when one reaches ones goal. It goes on. The wisdom that we have accumulated help in the journey that's ahead. It enables us to choose wisely and set achievable goals. One who learns from the experiences can avoid making the same mistakes and can in turn leap ahead in the race called LIFE.  

We feel happy when we achieve our goal. But when we reach our dream destination it does not feel that satisfying as we expected it to be. If one has not paid attention to the journey he/she has to go through to reach that dream destination , then he/she has missed the major chunk of his life and the experiences he could have gained. This would result in post success depression, when one feels aimless and looses interest in living. That is a real curse. Thus to avoid that void in the later part of life, its important we gather the courage to go ahead and pay heed to the journeys we go through, learn from them and enrich our mindset....DESTINATIONS ARE BEAUTIFUL BUT JOURNEYS ARE HEAVENLY..