Monday,
13 May 2019
Honesty
and Rewards
Times in
The Speaking Tree | Spirituality | ET
By TK
MISHRA
When we
analyse rewards in terms of just power, position, possessions or profits,
somehow we fail to understand that such partial manifestation of results or
rewards neither includes nor excludes precious components like respect,
renunciation, realization and relationship. Results can be obtained by hook or
by crook.
But the
result obtained by using rightful means would be distinct and ideal. For
example, a student can obtain good marks using unfair means also. But, the one
who obtains good marks through honesty would be distinctive.
An honest
person gets matchless rewards in terms of respect and love. Sometime people may
support you in the absence of a suitable alternative or out of fear and
insecurity, or through having disinformation, but such support doesn’t get you
love or respect.
Likewise,
when the karma concept is in vogue or when you are fully dedicated to the given
work or duty itself, you develop a sense of renunciation, an essential
condition for peace and joy in your life.
Self-realisation
or self-awareness can also come about through the policy of honesty in life.
And finally, all long term relationships—emotional and functional—are created
and maintained on the principles of honesty. And therefore, it can be argued
that even though the current result or mandate may be dissuading, disheartening
or mesmerising, for the long-run and sustainable success, ‘Honesty is the best
policy’.
DISCLAIMER
: Views expressed above are the author's own.
Directing
Your Destiny
The
Speaking Tree | Spirituality | ET
Chaitanya
Charan Das
Is life
predestined? Or is it in our hands? With competition intensifying, changes
accelerating and many unpredictable and uncontrollable factors determining
results in today’s complex world, many people are re-examining the belief that
the individual can shape his destiny.
A
brilliant student, for instance, despite diligent studies, gets average marks,
whereas a mediocre student, with last-minute cramming, gets high grades. Are we
unwitting players in a cosmic lottery, with chance as the supreme arbiter? Or
are results handed down by destiny?
Some fear
that lazy people may opportunistically argue, “As the result is predestined,
why work hard?” and so become irresponsible and fatalistic. However, knowledge
of destiny does not justify fatalism because the Mahabharata clarifies,
“Destiny determines the results of our actions, not our actions themselves.”
When
people are uninformed about the role of destiny in determining results,
failures make them feel hopeless. “I am worthless and cannot do anything well,”
they say, even when they have the potential to perform well in the future.
Consequently, today, many needlessly suffer from an inferiority complex, low
self-esteem, depression and self-pity.
Krishna
says in the Gita that though we don’t determine the result, we do play a
significant role. The farmer must plough the field for favourable rainfall to
produce crops. Similarly, we must endeavour for destiny to produce results.
Hence, the Gita urges us to perform our duty without attachment.
DISCLAIMER
: Views expressed above are the author's own.
Quota
from the True Charm and Power of Vedanta
The ideal of Vedanta is to solve the problems of life, to
point out the aim of human existence and to make our ways of living better and
more harmonious with the universal Will
that is working in nature . It makes us realize that the will which is now
working through our bodies is , in reality, a part and parcel of that universal
Will which is known as Isvara or God . It teaches us that the body , or the pleasures
of the senses, are not the sumnam bonum of human existence and makes us feel
that at present we are living like slaves, bound hand and foot. We should
search for the emancipation from this slavery . its ideal is to open our eyes
to Truth or Reality which is unchangeable and eternal . it shows us how we can
live in this world without being overcome by sorrows and misery, and without
being affected by sufferings and misfortunes that are sure to fall on every
human being in some way or other. Its ideal teaches us how to conquer death in
this life and how we can embrace death without being frightened in the least. Above
all , the chief object of Vednata is to make us live the life of unselfishness
and purity and attain to perfection in this life. Although by the natural
process of evolution each individual will become perfect after going through all
stage of the chain of evolution and gaining experience at each step , still it
is a hard and most tedious process, not to be desired by those who know what
that process is . Therefore Vedanta tells us how we can escape that chain, and
how we can shorten the time of attaining to that perfection and get it in this
life, without coming again and again to reap the fruits of our work.
But, if
He exists?
I
drive joy There was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and
evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed
at him. One day they argued that he was wasting ten precious minutes on
something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well,
if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting ten minutes a day. But, if He
exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste ten
minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 10 minutes joy that
I derive 4m.
