5 September, New Delhi Public School: Once again, it was time for some involving and substantial chat with the school kids, the budding future of our nation. Walking them through the hurdles our mind presents before us, Swami Ji shared the trick of being a responsible grown-up and yet sticking to the secret of being relaxed deep within like a child. Let us –the child within ourselves, the child of God– explore through these!
Glimpse from Swami Ji’s discourse:
Whenever some new question/situation comes up –how to put an elephant in a fridge– not heard, understood or learned before, we tend to get confused that very instant. One big reason behind this is that we do not use our brains. Just by reading from here and there and listening from some random source that piece of information loses its concreteness. Its proper analysis and then decision-making followed by the application is what is required.
Wit is what makes a man different from all other creatures. But, at times, it leads to conflicts within us too. We have something else going on in our mind but we sugar-coat our voice and our expressions in front of others. Why, because this is how the brain works. Whatever we see or hear in our surroundings is bound to leave some impressions on our mind based on what we analyze and then decide. Now, the question is how to get the best of it?
Assuming, we do not how to swim. We have fallen in the water. What will we do? In panic, we might go even deeper by trying to be a do-it-yourselfer. For this, we need a skilled swimmer and a strong support to take us across this sea named life. And that skilled support is known as the teacher. If we truly crave to learn and do not wish to drown somewhere in between before making it to the goal, we need to surrender and have faith in our teachers. Mull over their abilities and their skills that we would like to see in ourselves. Let us not expect a masterful command of the English language from a Mathematics teacher and, vice versa; because if the interface is okay, transference is bound to happen properly. So, having absolute faith in their abilities we must try to gain as much as we can, remembering this very fact that we are connected with them to learn something. We cannot and we must not judge a person’s skills based on his outer personality.
Yet another thing, back in earlier days, teachers used to punish students for their mistakes. It is commonly said that those who got churned were the ones who could make out the best of their lives. But today, if someone points towards our drawbacks, we feel bad. Rather in future, we tend to hide those. But know this, by hiding they only strengthen. Considering a basic day-to-day example, we set an alarm for a particular time but then we almost always put it on snooze or turn it off. This denotes the lack of determination, aspiration, and motivation. In spite of knowing and understanding the right path, we ignore to walk over it.
To overcome this, we must keep on testing ourselves, or rather request our teachers to test us, to help us to grow and not to just fake around. Understand, in the end, it is us who are responsible for our own lives. Let’s stop complaining. Let’s forget what people are doing. Whatever we appreciate finds a place inside us, becomes a part of us. So, if we’ll appreciate or even just talk about misdemeanor happening around, they’ll start accumulating inside us.
God, the essence of life resides within each. During sleeping hours, we go inside and connect with Him. But as we start growing older, sleeping hours start to reduce contrary to a baby who profusely enjoys a deep sleep. So, let’s always be like a child but devoid ourselves of acting childish. Let’s not hide our mistakes and instead try not committing one. Why give a chance to others to point a finger at us, in the first place.
Therefore, 1) having faith in our teachers, 2) taking responsibility for our own life and, 3) without hiding our mistakes, our focus should be on improving our qualities instead of doubting ourselves. We must understand that there is nothing like weakness or inferiority complex, and rather focus on contemplating that how we can move on with it. Remember, it is all in our mind!
