The Universal One

What has been the toughest moment of your life or the most difficult phase of your life? Try to recall. Has there been any? If so, then how did you get out of it, or come out of that situation ? Ask yourself, how?

The first answer that will come to your mind will surely be your knowledge, your presence of mind, your belief or your confidence. The name of some particular person can come to your mind without whom you could not possibly have done it. But there also, that person extended his helping hand only because you decided to approach him or confide to him. There also your faith, your reasoning, your intellect and your wisdom come to the fore.

If someone extended his helping hand on his own, he was God-sent, or possibly God Himself. Such people are rarest of the rare.

In ninety nine percent cases ones' knowledge, belief, intellect and wisdom play the prime role. So, have faith in yourself, always, in all situations. You have all the power in you to save and guide yourself to safety, security and prosperity. You are complete in yourself in all respects. You are pure and perfect. The Almighty has made you that way. Never think you are weak and incomplete. You are an integral part of that Universal One, whose numerous manifestations you see all around you. Just bring that realization within yourself. Know yourself. This will make you spiritually strong.

Your prosperity, your spiritual enlightenment will bring prosperity for everyone around you, for, when you become strong spiritually, you will start feeling for others more, and you will start loving, caring for and helping every living being on this earth, including yourself.

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Heaven, Beauty and Love

All that is beautiful belongs to the heaven. But where is the heaven? The place where we feel like going when we feel tired after a whole day's work is surely the heaven. We beautify that place according to our wish. Ones' heaven is his world of beauties.

There are so many things in this material world. Out of these we only choose the beautiful things to decorate our heaven. So that is our heaven.

Beauty lies in between heaven and earth. All communication between heaven and earth takes place in terms of beauties. At the heart of such beauties the heavenly music keeps on humming.

Thus we can experience heaven only with the help of beauty; we can visualize a wonderful world with blue skies, cool breeze, green pastures and sweet fragrance of flowers. It is from this world that the heavenly light enters into our room. Our heart gets filled up with a longing for an everlasting happiness. Our heart starts singing that heavenly song, and looks for a special someone with whom it can share this beauty.

Beauty, with its enormous patience, keeps on revealing itself in front of our eyes and ears with an expectation that some day we will surely appreciate and enjoy.

We want to get rid of the parasitic world and come out into broad daylight. We would definitely love to do that. But who will bring us out ? Beauty itself, as love has no figure of its own. It is beauty that helps love to find a figurative form.

When love is a feeling, beauty provides the words; when love points out to the heart, beauty gives it the tune; when love is life, beauty gives it the figure.

That is why beauty arouses love, and love conversely depicts beauty. Thus, heaven, beauty and love always move together.

Translation based on Bengali works (articles) by Rabindranath Tagore.

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Philosophy of Everyday Life - A small fragment - 3

Though it is advised that one must always think positive, it does not always happen that way. Some negative thoughts somehow creep in at times and give trouble for some time. During such times one must remember that no matter what flashes across the mind as a negative apprehension, he must not utter or speak it out loudly. It must not come out from the mouth, unless absolutely necessary. We are, after all, spiritual beings having human experience.

My grandmother (born 1885), who died in the year 1976 at the age of 91, used to say that at times words spoken out might fall into place. Negative remarks must be avoided as far as possible. So any view of the future with anxiety, alarm or fear must not be spoken out loudly. I always felt that there was something of value in her philosophy, in her spiritual approach, which possibly experience had taught her to obey.

Instead of saying, "If you don't do this, such and such things may happen", one should say, "Do that, because it is always good".

Don't think this is a superstition. It has got something to do with ones' act of speaking, ones' utterance, which may carry something more than what one can apprehend, be more complex than what one can observe. It has got something to do with spirituality. Remember Hamlet's remark, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy", written by W. Shakespeare.

However, acceptance or non-acceptance is still each person's own choice.

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Save, even a little bit

We need to consume things in order to survive, in order to keep us alive and going. While consuming things we must keep one thing in mind. This is not the last time. We will need to consume again after an interval, whatever its duration be - food or other stuff. So one must be prudent enough to save something for future consumption. In no way shall over-consumption engulf us because of easy availability. We must save something from today's share for the future.

One can always do that if he or she so wishes. I see my mother do something everyday. While taking out rice grains to cook, everyday after taking out the day's share, she keeps a small handful of grains back into the rice bucket from the day's share; just a small amount which won't make any difference at all as to the quantity required for the day. This act has taught me a great lesson.

It is basically the habit to save that is being talked about. This habit is somehow related to self-restraint. It is a habit that can be cultured through practice. No matter where one is standing, one always needs this quality to move along securely.

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You are Strong, know yourself and manifest your nature

At times, during the course of his day-to-day life, one may feel embarrassed or ashamed of some of his own behaviour, committed most unknowingly or unintentionally. These are apparently totally trivial in nature. Still the conscience does not approve them. For that one must bring in repentance and ask God to forgive him. He will surely forgive.

But there are times when one is wrongfully penalized and insulted, or humiliated and victimized by others. Then he gets morally injured. This may dampen the spirit and make him look down upon himself. He may not be half as guilty as he may think. At such times one finds him at a loss as to how to reinstate his spirit and reintegrate him with dignity and respect. Days, months, or even years may go by before he can get hold of himself.

At such times one must first try to forgive them who have driven him into this mental state. Once he can do this, he will start feeling better. What God says is that "Vengeance is mine. Never take it upon yourself." Though it is difficult, one has to do to it. No personal confrontation, please.

Next, one must try to think about his past life that he has passed by with honour and dignity. If his experience of existentialism has been very good and nice, it can continue to remain so for years to come. No one can change it. There is also no need to change it because of the mishap. None can persuade a person to give up his faith or belief. To get strong one must heighten his perspective and recall his moral and ethical values. One must be firm in his belief that no one has the right to judge him by his own standards and values. Except love, there is no way by which anyone can bind the other down to his own ideas. In this world the Almighty has assigned everybody a place most generously.

If the other person has limitations in his thought process, he has every right to remain there. One must never judge him or despise him in spite of the injury or humiliation he has inflicted upon. If someone looks down upon another with contempt or aversion, that is his limitation, not the person's who is looked down upon. Let the other person stay within his limits. He may not be so interested in knowing the ultimate truth.

One must remain calm and positive and just think about the reasons by which he is still carrying on with life. This will lift his spirit and reinstate his pride. One must never bind himself down to others limitations. One may feel afraid of more criticism, of being ostracized. One must get rid of all these by knowing oneself as an integral part of that Universal One. One must never feel shaky to face them who have humiliated or injured him. He must remain firm in his belief and strength will come from within.

One must look for the ultimate truth that lies ahead. If one looks for it, he will surely find it. Once the highest truth, which is manifestation of ones' own true nature, is realized, his spirituality will attain new heights. No one will then be able to humiliate, harm or injure him.

All truth are universal and for all. One must absorb them within him and feel supreme, and one day he will be able to worship himself.

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Romanticism, a word or two

To understand romanticism we must first try to find out what constitutes romanticism. What is of paramount importance is the creative, ever-imaginative mind, which tries to express its experiences and ideas to create an atmosphere of serenity and tranquility that eludes us most of the times in our everyday life.

A sense of dissatisfaction with the realities of life urges the romantic mind to create a world of its own where all strain and stress of the soul may be eliminated. An atmosphere of peace and beauty may be found where the soul can find solace. A romantic mind is firm in its belief that something needs to be done to eliminate the drudgery of everyday life, so that it may experience the beauty of this wonderful world blissfully.

The romantic mind is inwardly contented and satisfied with the fact that it exists with a profound blessedness in an objective world full of wonders. At the same time it is highly dissatisfied with the distasteful nature of daily life.

The classical mind looks at all the sufferings, miseries and emotional distress as things that enhance the value and beauty of life. The romantic mind sees incompleteness in every sphere of life and seeks to fill up every nook and corner with serenity and blissfulness.

The romantic mind somehow tries to escape from the harsh realities of life and creates its own world. On one hand it is revolutionary, on the other hand it is stunningly imaginative and creative. At the bottom of it lies the ever-expanding nature of the soul of a romantic that suffocates in a world filled with routine drudgery.

Having faith in one's imagination is the true essence of romanticism. A romantic mind interacts with the nature on the whole and draws nectar from it to feed its ever-changing mood. Thus nature also attains an individuality in the mind of a romantic man. This individuality, with a distinct existence, forms the image of God in a romantic mind.

The succulent or juicy vitality of life can only be embraced through romanticism. Complacency never finds a place in the romantic mind. It overflows with abstraction, splendour and the unthinkable, defying all existing norms.

The ever-expanding horizon of human imagination would never have been visible without this romantic feeling. The subtle feeling, the deft touch, the wonderful gesture, the casual yet razor-sharp glance or the heavenly music can all be attributed to romanticism.

Romantic artists and literary figures have always been strikingly innovative or inventive in their ideas and creations to synthesize the heavenly music and the subtle rhythm of life into a unified whole which eludes men so often.

Romantic minds surely make this world a better place to live in. It creates for himself, as well as others an imaginary world of ideal reality where one can venture, whenever he wishes, to find peace and happiness.

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Philosophy of Everyday Life - A small fragment - 2

If one can carry on with life without much craving for money, then surely he has a mind that needs to be excavated and studied, his value system to be understood, and possibly adopted in retail, if not wholesale. He possibly is a person much closer to the nature, the mother earth. He surely must have understood how to preserve his own self. Being closer to the nature surely may not be the only way to preserve oneself, but surely one of the oldest and simple. He is a person guided more by spiritual instincts rather that material aspects. He has wisdom, courage, self-restraint and sense of judgement, the four main virtues that lead to moral excellence. So he possibly bears moral excellence, which promotes personal well-being. It is personal well-being that eventually gives birth to collective well-being. Conversely, in collective well-being lies the secret of personal well-being.

However, the philosophy depicted above may not necessarily be conversely true. A person with craving for money may also have the same above-mentioned moral excellence. No, it is certainly not always conversely true.

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Philosophy of Everyday Life - A small fragment - 1

In this world we live for others the same way we live for ourselves. If we look too much after our own needs, desires and wishes, we would surely be labelled as selfish. That does not do justice to the cause of our existence in this world. We do not want that. Our conscience also prevents us from living only for ourselves. It is just not humane. This is one side of the coin.

Let us see what is there one the other side. While looking after other people's needs and desires we can't afford to be lavish and extravagant to an indefinite extent. Extravagant plainly means exceeding the limits of reason or necessity. Somewhere we have to hold back something for ourselves also. We have to keep something in reserve for ourselves also. We must not exhaust ourselves in the process. There are areas in everybody's life where he will find no help from anybody, rather seldom find any help from anybody. In those areas we are alone to look after ourselves. Areas might crop up where nobody will come to our rescue. We shall have to get out by virtue of our own strength only. There might be someone out there, somewhere, willing to help us, but how get contacted with him ? It may not be always possible. So, again we are alone. So, we must keep something in reserve for those areas to pull ourselves through.

People who have a tendency to give lavishly need to assess their ability, though it is a very difficult task in itself. One must ascertain how much he needs to preserve for himself. The remaining he can surely spend for others.

Thus, somewhere one has to draw a line, however slender, while looking after other people's needs and desires. That we must do good to others has not become a questionable area. There is no denying the fact that mankind should forever continue to do so. But, in that act, somewhere some line has to be drawn, to save ourselves from getting exhausted physically or mentally, or both. In this context we must also remember that it is not possible to satisfy everybody in every way or every respect.

Also read : Expectation

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Dancer's Pose

A typical Dancer's pose. This is a pencil drawing done in 2008. The paper colour, used here, depicts serenity.

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Creativity and Spirituality

An idle mind can never be creative. For creativity to flourish, the mind must always be active. Hunger for knowledge fuels creativity because knowledge generates ideas within the mind. Such ideas in turn give rise to creative impulse.

The manner in which the mind knows things differs from person to person. Driven by the creative impulse, imaginative power and the manner in which the mind has registered the objects, the creator starts to fiddle with those ideas which get refined further and further as a result of its passage through very complex mental processes. The very complexity of these mental processes depends upon ones' intellect. Ultimately a form comes in mind, which has some aesthetic value. Now the person proceeds to give that ultimate idea a concrete form. A creation may take any form, shape or size.

A creation consists of two primary aspects:

1. The Outward appearance

2. The Inner significance

It is the inner significance that is more important in a creative work.

Creativity depends on how the mind relates itself to the outer world and interacts with it to draw refined inferences. This process of refinement has no limit. It can never be limited by any outer impact.

Creativity takes its highest form when it is regarded as the same as worshipping the God. Creation is nothing but making offerings to the God. It is to recognize the wish of God as to why he was sent to this world. This takes the creator closer to the God and makes him spiritual. Spirituality is an ultimate or immaterial reality, an inner path allowing a person to discover the true essence of his being. It helps a person to find the deepest values and meanings by which he lives. Thus creative people are surely more spiritual and psychic. Through his urge for creation he realizes and understands why he has come to this world, what is the task he should accomplish before he leaves this world. Thus creativity gives birth to and nourishes spirituality.

A psychic is a person who has the ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception because of their imaginative power.

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The Meadow

This has been painted with an impressionist idea in mind. The impressionist style is one of my favourites. The colour composition is to be noted here. Click on the picture to have a detailed view.

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Philosophy, the easy way

The two main senses are that, we see things with our eyes and listen to words with our ears. In this way we analyze reality by our senses. What we see and listen guide and control our thoughts. In many ways our thoughts are guided by our past experiences also. Through experience our thoughts and beliefs constantly take up new shapes, thereby enriching our mind. Our knowledge grows. Ever increasing knowledge makes us hungry to acquire more. This way we keep on moving towards the ultimate truth, the eternal truth. We develop the ability to move beyond what is perceived by our senses and move towards eternal bliss, the heavenly peace and happiness. Thus we tend to become free. Seeing everything in the light of this constantly enriched mind is the philosophy of life.

Within us there is something very vital and significant which keeps us going. Eternity is the key-word of this vital aspect. That is embedded within us. We normally tend to see things as they appear to our eyes and ears, failing to visualize them in the light of eternity.

Eternity is existence altogether outside time where categories of past, present, and future just do not apply. One has to look at things from a much higher perspective, in the light of eternity, and then only one can find the truth lying underneath. One needs to shift one's vision and visualize things and happenings with one's inner eye.

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality — that is, concepts such as holy and evil, good and bad, justice, virtue, etc.

Morality is a sense of conduct that helps one to differentiate intentions and actions between those that are right or wrong.

Wisdom is the deep understanding and realization of people, entity, events or situations, using one's principles, reason and knowledge, so as to choose and act to produce the optimum results. It is also the ability to ascertain what is true or right.

Wisdom can be achieved if one seeks ethics, virtue and aesthetics and lead a simple life full of trust and independence. Independence and autonomy will give one faith, which in turn will sow the seeds of truth. It is truth that will set one free.

Science deals with material aspects; philosophy deals mainly with the abstract things of life. It provides food to the mind. It starts by 'doubting' and criticizing something, some faith, and some belief. This way it goes on eliminating the false beliefs and builds up a concrete base of true knowledge. It deals with those areas where it is very difficult to attain perfect knowledge, areas where everything cannot be exactly known. That is why these areas are abstract.

Philosophy sets its own goals and tries to achieve them with reason and vision. The knowledge it acquires in these new areas are the foundations upon which things get perfected, upon which principles and rules get drawn up, upon which the well-being of the future of this universe is built up. It prepares the anvil.

Philosophy never deals with anything in isolation. It tries to define and describe something with respect to the whole to get down to the very bottom of it. In this way it seeks to find out the exact worth, the real worth of its findings, which leads one to the ultimate truth. Evaluating something with respect to past experience and knowledge and present circumstance is the essence. In the process philosophy gives birth to wisdom which teaches one what to desire and what not to desire. All facts and findings then get moulded into its true form with respect to desire and need, keeping also in mind all 'other' facts and figures.

It may not be able to give with certainty all the answers to the 'doubts' it creates, but surely it provides one with many possible answers which broadens the thought process and sets one free from customs, dogmas, fears and unrealistic hopes. It takes things from personal to universal level. In the process it makes one's mind more imaginative, creative and intellectual. It makes one's mind greater and wider.

The joy and happiness that one can gets through acquisition of knowledge, and understanding the true worth of it, is the noblest form of joy and happiness.

A philosopher can hear the holy music that comes from the heaven and keeps on moving towards that direction from which that music is coming. Along his path he leaves behind the fruits of his conquest for mankind to pick up, understand, use and enjoy.

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You can make hay even at midnight if you so wish

You can make hay even at midnight if you so wish. What you wish is very important to you. You wish something because it is good ? No. You consider it good because you wish to have it or attain it. What you wish is good or not will depend upon your sense of morality, ethics and wisdom.

Morality is a sense of conduct that helps one to differentiate intentions and actions between those that are right or wrong.

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality — that is, concepts such as holy and evil, good and bad, justice, virtue, etc.

Wisdom is the deep understanding and realization of people, entity, events or situations, using one's principles, reason and knowledge, so as to choose and act to produce the optimum results. It is also the ability to ascertain what is true or right.

Keep these three senses very, very sharp and positive, and your wishes and longings will always be good, either for yourself or for others.

You will surely pursue something only when you know that it will help you to persevere, to strive. Here your reasoning, your intellect and your wisdom will play a big role. Because these three things can only make you independent, or so to say, autonomous. A person is said to be autonomous or independent when he becomes matured, matured enough to think for himself also. He now possesses enough reasoning power, intellect and wisdom to break all barriers, imposed or otherwise, and come out of his self-imposed exile. He comes out of the fallacy that these is no harm in thinking about his own good. That does not make him selfish. This takes him to an enlightened path. Just a plain and simple thing to understand - how will one do good to others if he himself is not fit and strong enough ? So first take care of yourself - then turn towards others and do good for them also.

How earnestly you long for something decides whether you will be able to attain it or not. In all your endeavours you will come across obstacles, not one or two but many, and also not very easy ones. You have to overcome each, one after another. The more noble is the cause, the more obstacles you will face. A time will come when you may feel that everything is going dead wrong, and then you may feel like giving up. Never!!!!! Because this is your hardest obstacle - the feeling or urge to give up. You have to overcome this also as your success is very near to you. After this point you will meet with total success. So never give up. A ball does not bounce up until it hits the floor. That's it.

Enlightenment is not possible without knowledge. Knowledge is an all-pervasive affair. We first acquire knowledge to become educated, so that we can earn enough to make a decent living. Further knowledge makes us more educated. Till this stage knowledge is need-based. When acquisition of knowledge ceases to be need-based, an educated person starts getting transformed into a learned person. Now he learns out of sheer joy!

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Deep Thought

A woman, drowned in some deep thought. This is a pencil drawing, done in 2008.

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A Confession

There are millions and millions of people in this world who do more work than me everyday. That also they do to earn their living, and possibly not always out of sheer joy and happiness. One has to be fortunate enough to get some work everyday which he can do out of sheer joy and happiness.

My job is to bring new hope for people whom I come across daily, however small it may be. Number of people I come across daily are getting lesser and lesser, as I am getting older. If I fill up all my time with duties, I suffer from some kind of suffocation. All my thoughts seem to get buried underneath. So I need to keep myself somewhat free. But that is not always possible. So at times I am forced to suffocate. Doing something out of a sense of duty could never motivate me. If I at all have to do something, it has to come straight from the heart, giving me delight and joy.

I have tried a lot to keep myself tied up with duties. Then I feel like a caged bird. My mind wishes to flutter its wings in the open sky. But my sense of responsibility prevents me from doing so. Two entirely different forces keep me pulling at opposite directions. I find it so very difficult to manage both ends. Never have I been able to make anyone understand this tussle.

Possibly my mind is like the clouds in the sky, always drifting from one place to another. But like cloud, I must bring rain in other people's lives. There is one thing I need to tell everyone around me. If you can do a job yourself, do it yourself. Don't call me. If you can't do it, or can't do it alone, call me. I may come handy. But please always let me know what you are doing. My advice may be helpful. I can do brain work with ease than manual work. That is my way of doing things, my way of fulfilling my responsibilities. Also, at times I need to conserve my energy for the more important occasion.

Most people do not seem to appreciate my way. I feel so helpless at times.

Translation into English based on the Bengali works (essays) of Rabindranath Tagore

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Either a Manager or a Worker

A person cannot be both a manager and a worker at the same time. He has to be either a worker or a manager. As a manager he will be having a lot of mental work, lot of decision making to do.

Whereas as a worker he will have more physical work to do. People lying in between have to do less of both in varying proportions.

Both types of work are equally tiring. It is not that that the manager sits quietly in a room and enjoys leisure hours. Only his work is not visible outside. Whereas in case of a worker his physical work is visible and easily recognizable. The same concept applies among different members of a family also.

Work itself is tiring, be it mental or physical. However, it brings joy also if something is accomplished.

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Temple of Lord Shiva

A painting of a very old temple of Lord Shiva, in the village of Dilakash, West-Bengal, India, done in watercolour. It dates back to the 17th century. Roots of a banyan tree has gone deep into the temple. Do not miss the cow standing in the background.

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Decision Making

Decision making is the primary job of a manager. A manager has to manage the three "M"s, namely men, material and money. In theory there may be various laid down principles regarding how to make the best possible decision, how to select the best path in order to accomplish a task. However, in practice one mostly has to take decisions base on the principle of "rejecting the worst", not "selecting the best". By going on rejecting the worst one can move closer and closer to the best or ideal situation. One's objective should therefore be to get as much closer as possible to that theoretical best, by rejecting the worst as much as practicable.

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Leisure

This is a watercolor painting on paper, edited just a bit to sharpen the scanned picture.

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Conscience

Listen to your conscience. It is the only way to prosper, because it is God talking to you.

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Set the Right Path

Everyday we write up the history of our future. What we do today, we see its reflection tomorrow. So today is the day to select the right path, do the right things and stay focussed on the brighter things of life. Then only we can leave a brighter and healthier world for generations to come.

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Renewal of Faith and Belief

You may lose some of your old faith or belief at certain points of your life. Don't allow it to break your heart. New faith will evolve out of it. It will come from within. If you lose some, you also gain some. Life goes on like that.

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Right Selection

If Sir Issac Newton had tried his hand in cooking, he would have surely become one of the greatest cooks of all time. But then we won't be having the Laws of Motion. So one must try to make the right selection as to what use he will put his time, experience and intelligence to. One's claim to superiority depends upon the use he has put to his time, experience and intelligence.

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Open and Positive

Keep your mind always open and positive. One Day you may see something so wonderful as no one has seen before, experience the happiness no one has dreamt of before.

If not today, some day God will surely bless you. Keep yourself prepared for that day to hold it for good.

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Amidst Nature

This is a watercolour painting, done in the year 1982. The place seemed to be very peaceful. A peaceful place is any artist's paradise.

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Confession of an artist

I like very much to sit in one corner of my room and try to visualize things. I know most of them will never be materialized; yet it gives me a lot of pleasure. Not that I never have the desire to move out of my corner at times. But not for long durations. I have duties and responsibilities to perform. I am surely aware of that.

The corner of my room I need to calm down myself. Inside me my mind wishes to work alone. Crowd makes me feel disturbed. All my thoughts get scattered and go astray. I cannot concentrate on my work. I feel apprehensive. So I need to be alone at times according to my wish, though not always, to think clearly, to look at my surroundings vividly, to understand nature perfectly, and express my thoughts distinctly. The expressions of my thoughts, in whatever form they be, should reflect the knowledge and vision that I have gained through imagination, observation, experience and wisdom. Not that I do not like company of other people. Only my mind needs some free space to work out things clearly.

When I feel sad everything becomes too heavy to bear. I feel depressed. On the contrary, when I am happy I feel I can pull the entire burden myself alone. I feel happy just as I accomplish a task, just as I take a step forward. Then I feel I must accomplish more such things and I will surely succeed in my mission.

Overall I surely feel that my mission will be successful. Some people will surely remember my works. Just then I feel I must keep up my good work. That helps to keep me right on track. I know I have to keep on trying to accomplish my mission alone. Even if I succeed a little in giving something good and everlasting to mankind and reveal the eternal truth, and thereby serve my God, I shall not feel that my life has been wasted.

Translation into English based on the Bengali works (essay) of Rabindranath Tagore

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The Late Evening Glow

One must have seen the evening glow of the sun when it sets. Initially the glow is yellow in colour. Afterwards it becomes slightly orange. It is that late glow of the setting sun that I have tried to capture in this painting. Don't miss the hut and the trees along the horizon. This is a typical village scene in India.

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How to motivate oneself with the most basic principles

Idleness makes life dull. One must indulge in whatever good work one can lay his hands upon. Blessed is he who has found work. He needs no more blessing. If one has no work in hand and feeling dull about it, one must write. Write whatever one can. If one cannot write anything, then even, he can write that he cannot write anything, and possibly with the reasons why he cannot write. That will do.

Reason to do work: Private or public. Private reason is doing something because one has to, mainly to earn his livelihood, or at times, to get out of idleness.

Public reason is doing something on the public sphere because one opts to improve one's private function. Although someone may find his job or function disagreeable, the task must be completed for society to flow consistently.

1. Intellect: It is a property of the mind that improves one's overall ability to perform better. It involves understanding, communication, learning, learning from past experiences, planning, and problem solving.

2. Reasoning power: This tells us how one builds up his logic to draw conclusions or arrive at decisions. Such decisions must not be impulsive.

3. Wisdom: It is how one understands and realizes people, entities, things, events, happenings or situations in order to choose or act consistently and produce the optimum results by spending a reasonable period-of-time and amount-of-energy. Wisdom is the ability to effectively and efficiently apply perceptions and knowledge and produce the desired results. Wisdom also includes comprehension of what is true or right.

These three will help one to ascertain what is a good work. Subjectively, Work may be divided into two basic parts,

Physical work and mental work.

Physical work involves our body more, while mental work involves our mind more. Too much emphasis on any one of the two is not good. Too much of physical work makes the body suffer. Too much of mental work makes the mind, and consequently the body, suffer. One must strike a balance between the two, as mind and body are highly interlinked.

Physical work improves one's nervous system and precision power, which in turn helps the brain to think better and perform better. Balanced improvement of these two helps one to think more analytically and perform with greater precision. Knowledge goes a long way to help one in this regard.

One needs rest after work. Again, rest also may be either physical, or mental. Mental rest is best achieved through sleep. Some light entertainment can also bring mental rest. That improves the involuntary systems of one's body, thereby improving one's physical ability to perform better.

Driving a screw through the wood can be of great help to improve one's involuntary systems. Mending a torn book may be another example. Writing is also a great exercise of the brain, as well as of the hand. Writing improves one's rhythm and poise. One must write at least two pages everyday. Taking dictations from someone and improving one's writing speed does a world of good. Take up any job you find handy, even if you do not find it joyful. Keep engaged. Tomorrow you may find another job, which will be very much to your liking. In life, most of the times it is not selection of the best, but it is rejection of the worst. Remember this.

After all the theoretical discussions, we now need to come to the point. Let us take up the most obvious question. Why are we lacking in motivation? What is keeping us away? We can devote al our time, brain and energy to do something only when we know that we will be rewarded adequately.

1. Money is a big motivator.

2. Ambition is also another great motivator, which some people have very little, while some have immense. The majority falls in between.

3. Doing something for others works as a big motivator for some people. They do not find joy in doing something for his own. Are you of this kind? Ask yourself and recognize yourself. It may be a loved one, your entire family, or the neighbourhood, or an even bigger group.

4. Creating something of everlasting value works perfectly well as a motivator. Creativity motivates us immensely.

5. Desire for fame, honour or power also work as good motivators.

Just try to find what motivates you the most. Once you find it, your job is half done.

6. Lastly, try to drive away memories of past failures from your mind. That kills motivation. No harm if you have failed in the past. That does never mean that you will fail this time also. So drive all such thoughts away.
If we can clearly see that by accomplishing a task we can reach a certain goal, obviously we will devote all our energy towards it. So we must first try to find the goal, the aim or the objective.

Positive Thinking: One must have the inner urge to take up a job. Then, one must think positively in so far as finishing the job successfully is concerned. Positive thinking will bring in courage. Courage will bring in faith. Faith, in turn, will bring in confidence in oneself. Confidence will boost up one's overall skill and ability to perform better and better. One's chances of success will improve dramatically.

Courage is the sum total of one's intellect, reasoning power and wisdom. These three makes a person autonomous. Autonomy gives courage. When a person becomes autonomous, he attains maturity, and gets enlightened. One must also never get afraid to think about oneself. It is not selfishness in any way, as long as he thinks about other's well-being also.

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Sitting Lady

This is a pencil drawing done on water-coloured paper in 2008. Some enhancements have been made to darken the pencil lines.

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The Passenger

This is a pencil drawing done from a real life scene. I kept the details in mind and did this after coming back home.

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Creativity

Creativity presupposes the existence of some philosophical thoughts, and philosophy begins in wonder! It begins at a point when one starts thinking that he knows nothing much about anything. That opens up the mind and one's mind becomes ready or hungry to acquire every knowledge.

However, Mere acquisition of knowledge is not all. Knowledge without analysis and synthesis is of no use. There must be an element of creativity in it, or so to say, an element of building up something new out of the old in it. It is imagination that fuels creativity. With an imaginative mind one can process or analyze the knowledge and improve upon it. Oh! no, all this is too down to the earth and brief. All these we all of us know.

Let us have a nice journey to the bottom of this aspect. Actually the very essence of philosophy lies in being able to keep one's thoughts and feelings very simple, very elementary. So one does not get mixed up, and proceed to solve the most complex puzzles of life in a step by step manner.

God has sent men to this world filled with an ability to understand the real truth lying at the bottom of every entity, event or happening. One's conscience is really the presence of God in him. One must never make a mistake to know His existence within him in the form of his conscience. The Almighty gives one everything he needs to lead a healthy life. Surely He gives all that is necessary for a person to live, otherwise how does one survive and carry on with his life and prosper even ?

But most of the times one grows impatient if the Almighty makes some delay in giving something to that someone. One is never satisfied with what one has got. Even after getting it he keeps on asking for more. Comfort or craving for it engulfs one. Even if one does not have enough of something, one must not blame Him for not giving enough. One must know that He has to look after every living being of this wonderful world.

Hidden within that scarce means or resource, that He has given us, lies a mine full of treasure. One must accept what is scarce gleefully, and he will get more in future. If one tries to grab bigger portions without being satisfied with what he has, one might have to lose the small portion that he today possesses. A sense of satisfaction must prevail at every stage. In abundance creativity loses much of its essence. Every grass root cannot grow up into a paddy plant. It will find it impossible to achieve. This impossibility is nothing but natural.

However, one must keep his mind open to achieve and attain more. One must always be well prepared to toil for that. One must never think that something is very easily achievable. This makes one less and less creative. If creativity dies then all laughter, joy and merriment also vanishes. There must always be some unfulfilled areas in one's life, some scarcity, so to say. Some areas must be dark. One must preserve those unfulfilled areas, those scarcities, with utmost care. Else hunger for knowledge, imagination, creativity, laughter, joy and happiness will vanish.

Scarcity gives birth to and also nourishes one's creative aspects, which in turn keeps life flowing. To put it in a more easy way one can say that necessity is the mother of all inventions, which in turn brings prosperity through creativity.

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How to develop a liking for your studies and be a successful student

All students are not born with the same level of intelligence and diligence. In this respect students vastly differ from one another. A few remain glued to their text books and notes, while there are some who start studying seriously just 2/3 weeks before the examination. In between lies the vast majority of students who keep in touch with their studies as a routine affair without giving much thought to it, and somehow manage to get a presentable grade and pass out. The following is a very basic method to do well in studies. If a student is following any other methodology with success, he should NOT change it. There surely may be many other study methodologies which also work very well, or even better. A student must remember that success at school level determines how one will fare at the graduate level in college. The school level may be subdivided into three sections.

1. Junior school level Here the teacher plays the most important role which they do quite successfully. One will seldom find a kid who does not know how to count from 1 to 10, or who does not recognize the alphabets or colors correctly, or can't add 2 and 7. Here parents also play a major role.

2. Middle school level The middle school is the most important in a student's academic career. At this level his logical thinking starts growing and he either develops a liking for his studies, or does not, or remain somewhere in between. At this level the basic principles of Arithmetic, Geometry and Algebra are introduced. A student must know that Mathematics is the most important subject. It is very difficult to overcome any shortcoming, that remains at this level, in the high school level. A student must pay great attention to Mathematics at the middle school level. A student who gets a good grade in Mathematics seldom does badly in other subjects.

3. High school level A student's performance at the high school level depends upon what he has studied and learnt at the middle school level. If the foundation at the middle school level is good, a student will surely do well at the high school level. Most of the things, that are taught at the high school level, have their foundation laid at the middle school level. If a student does well at the high school level, he will surely do well in Graduate and Post-graduate level. RULE NUMBER 1 Liking or rather loving to study. What is the secret behind it ? Once a student starts liking and loving his studies, his job is almost half done. Students basically dislike studies because they don't find it interesting. They don't find studies interesting when they fail to grasp or understand the subject matter properly. Only then a student sets that subject aside. A STUDENT MUST NEVER SET ASIDE SOME SUBJECT MATTER HE HAS FAILED TO GRASP OR UNDERSTAND PROPERLY. A student must get all his doubts cleared, about any and every subject, anyhow, from his teachers, parents, or whoever. Once a student starts understanding his lessons well, he will surely develop a liking for his studies. That is sure. This liking-disliking aspect starts at the middle school level, starting most of the times with the subject Mathematics, and other science subjects.
So that is our RULE NUMBER 1. GETTING ALL DOUBTS CLEARED AT ONCE.

RULE NUMBER 2. In order to do well in examinations a student has to MEMORIZE his lessons well. THERE IS NO SHORT CUT METHOD FOR THIS. A student must work hard for this. Students tend to forget their lessons easily as they are playful. How to overcome that ? Here we will break up the subjects into three subdivisions.
1. Mathematics.
2. Other Science subjects, like Physics, Chemistry, Biology etc.
3. Remaining subjects English, History, Geography, etc.

1. For Mathematics, the only rule is, UNDERSTAND THOROUGHLY THE BASIC RULES AS TO HOW TO SOLVE A PROBLEM. He must fall back upon his teacher, or parent or whoever immediately, if he fails to understand the method properly. MEMORIZE THE METHOD. THEN, PRACTISE SOLVING SUMS AND PROBLEMS EVERY DAY, STARTING FROM DAY NUMBER 1. Solve a few sums and problems everyday, do it everyday. Take up sums and problems from various books and solve them. Try to move a bit ahead of your classroom lessons, if possible. This will help a lot during the examinations. This everyday-practice is necessary as Mathematics get erased from memory soon.

2. For other science subjects the rule is,

a) Understand the subject matter very thoroughly and clearly.

b) Take up a lesson. Break it up into manageable small parts(say two/three pages, max.five). By small parts it is meant that as much that can be completed in a session of two hours, plus-minus 30 minutes. Take up one such part and try to memorize it. Read it thoroughly, over and over again. At one point of time it will come to stay in memory. This is CALLED BUILDING UP A LAYER IN MEMORY.(BLM).

c) In the next session, when a student again takes up the same lesson, (within the next 2/3 days) he must try to recapitulate the previous session's part, and then take up a new part. One has to build up layers in his memory by recapitulating the lessons UNSEEN. Each time a student recapitulates a part, unseen, or partly seen and partly unseen, it builds up a layer in the memory (BLM). The more the number of layers, the more permanent it becomes in memory. One day it will surely become permanent. Next, a student should refresh the memory as and when he finds it necessary. This way he should complete each and every lesson. Before examination, say two months, a student should make a routine with date, time, and lesson/part of a lesson to be taken up on a particular date and time. He should strictly follow this routine.

3. For all other subjects also, he should do the same as stated in 2. (a), (b) and (c).

RULE NUMBER 3. STUDY EVERYDAY, MATHEMATICS, MOST CERTAINLY EVERY DAY. ON ANY PARTICULAR DAY, SOLVE MATHEMATICS (Sums and Problems) AFTER FINISHING STUDYING OTHER SUBJECT/SUBJECTS. He must not take up more than two/three subjects on a particular session. A student should not ignore any subject. He must try to develop a liking for ENGLISH as a subject. In his leisure hours, he must write essays sometimes, on various topics.

RULE NUMBER 4. At home, a student must review his progress himself by writing down his lessons from memory at times. This writing may not be possible for all the lessons of all subjects, that is true. He must do it as much as possible. Any part forgotten must immediately be refreshed in memory by opening the book and going through that portion. If a student finds it difficult to keep a particular lesson in memory, he should try to recapitulate it, as much as he can, from memory, at night in bed, before falling asleep.

RULE NUMBER 5. A student should study for six days a week. Relax on one day every week, if he feels confident that he can afford to do so. But once he starts liking his studies, he will find it difficult to stay away from books. A student must not think about all the subjects and the full study-load all at a time. Take one day at a time, or at the most 3 days at a time. A student must study at least six hours daily, broken up into two parts. Before examination it may have to be increased.

RULE NUMBER 6. A student must sleep well on the night before the examination. That will keep the nerves cool and active, and the memory fresh. Never stay awake on the night before the examination.

Knowledge brings happiness and a student must always have the courage to know.

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The Peaceful Slumber

This is also a pencil drawing done from real life. The sleep seemed to be very peaceful and I wanted to capture that peacefulness in my drawing.

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Life and Destiny

Goats have very little horns. Its requirement to dig the ground or do such other odd jobs is fulfilled by that. On the contrary, deers have long horns, most of which is of no use to it. Yet we enjoy and appreciate the beauty of a deer's otherwise useless horn. Similarly, the river flows in its own way. But very little water is put to real good use. Most of the water maintains the flow of the river save and except a little, which is used for irrigation. This maintenance of flow is important. The river must flow. We common people are also like that. We maintain the flow of mankind. After our deaths, nobody will ever write a biography on our lives. Nobody will build up our statue. After death very few people become immortal. That is why the world is still habitable.

Wise men say, "Get up, do some work. Do not waste time." There are people who do very little work and truly they waste a lot of time. But there is another class of people who cannot do their work properly. They spoil the work as well as the time. There is no harm if you cannot do any real good work. We common people are here to maintain the flow only. That is what God wants us to do. And Jesus Christ sacrificed his life only for us - the common mass. All great men have worked only for the welfare of mankind.....and the whole mankind is primarily composed of common people like us.

Everything in nature, like the grass, the stars, the sun and the moon, are all doing just that. Each of these does not ever try to go beyond their capacity. They devote themselves to their tasks very religiously. The grass never tries to become a big tree, or a small star never tries to become the sun, and thereby waste their energy. That is why so much beauty, peace and tranquility prevails in nature. Everything remains well within limits.

So we should not lament. It is the majority that keeps everything in motion. We are like tiny ripples in an ocean, without which the ocean will lose its greatness. Same way a large portion of all that nature has given to us is wasted, like sunlight. All grass does not produce rice. Very little of these are of any real value. The most common variety of grass simply covers the dust with a soothing green colour and gives the earth a soft, tender appearance. That is its job.

Mankind is basically divided into two parts. One part comprises ninety per cent while the remaining ten per cent makes up the other part. This ninety per cent mostly remains cool and calm. The other ten per cent always remains disturbed. Whenever a portion of this so called ninety per cent wishes to move to the other part and consequently tries to gain importance, they become restless, disturbed and quite agitated. That then becomes a dangerous situation for all and sundry. It becomes an unholy situation for all. Many a lives may be lost and they must get themselves prepared for that.

The river flows towards the sea. That is its wish ..... to get united with it. But a river can never become a sea. It can only get united with it. It is the same thing with us also. We can only get united with God.
The river passes through many a hills and dales, forests, villages, but never stops at any of these. It keeps on moving towards its destination, the sea.

We also, through all our actions, are constantly moving towards God. And that is at the root of all our peace, joy and happiness. The more we move towards Him, the more peace we get. We get so many things during the course of life, but we are unable to hold them for good. Ultimately we leave everything to get united with Him. That is our destiny ..... like the river. We can move closer to Him only when we exchange love and sympathy with others. That is the message of God. That is why we get so much peace when we get love from others, or are able to love others. Really we move one step closer to Him. The more we love others, the more peace we get. And then we feel just great.

Translation into English based on the Bengali works (essay) of Rabindranath Tagore

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Marriage and its intricacies

Marriage involves us completely, body and mind, and therefore tests us, makes and unmakes us, as men and women. It requires an always shifting or changing responsiveness that keeps us human and alive. We are reminded day by day, that we 'realize' the joy it promises, through our readiness to enter into the responsibilities it brings. Through him or her the partner discovers the whole mankind.

Marriage is an incarnation of love. It is the expression and open acknowledgment of a living affection that binds two people together, or rather two souls together. Beyond that love knows no rules. We all love affection. But we also love peace, we love security - and love is always insecure.

No marriage lives up to its expectations - least of all when the partners claim it does. No marriage is a full utilization of all the possibilities it offers. Somewhere even the luckiest of us falls short. We relinquish the adventure for the sake of security. We get tired of the life-giving friction that restores warmth and sensitivity to any human relationship. In marriage we hold ourselves apart for the sake of peace. The more peace-loving a person is, the more he or she holds himself or herself apart. We cease to explore the other, either because we find the quest too strenuous, or because we think that we have discovered all there is to know. We become satisfied with one another - which is another form of being satisfied with oneself. We waste our vital energies elsewhere separately.

Forgiveness in marriage is a passionate turning and returning to the beginning of our love and hope. It is our acknowledgment of failure and our active longing to have it redeemed. It is the re-affirmation of our hope that life is yet before us with all its colours and vigour. We forgive when we are ready to have our hearts broken, not before that.

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The Narrow Stream

A marshy area with big grasses, not frequented by people.

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One's Neighbour

Who is our neighbour ? There he is. We meet him in the street, at work, on the bus, or even over the garden wall. We also know him through different print media, the internet, different statistics, or even appeals for help. He is always there wanting us to turn towards him and make him realize what he is failing to realize right now. He may not know what he is missing. It is our responsibility to make him realize that. This is the challenge that is constantly being thrown towards us by our neighbour.

We are not human beings having spiritual experience. We are really spiritual beings having human experience. It takes a lifetime to come to know another person, and the knowledge is not gained once and for all, but by continuous adventures.

Every situation calls for a new response and every response creates a unique situation. In this responsiveness we not only come to know the other person, but we come to know ourselves also. We must have the imagination, the energy and the sympathy to experience our neighbour's life like we do about ourselves. We shall love them as we love ourselves, we shall want to do to him what I wish him to do for me. What we do to ourselves, we shall do to him as well, as a son of his parents, a husband of his wife, a friend of his friends. Any action which takes him for less would clearly be inhuman. We shall not be able to love ourselves until we come to love our neighbours as 'ourselves'. Whatever we do for our neighbour, it has to come from within ourselves as a spontaneous response. If we do something for him out of a sense of duty, we will surely miss him as a neighbour. We surely do not want him to show the same attitude towards us, a heartless, dutiful one. If we find any attitude of our neighbour not acceptable, then there must be something in us which is also unacceptable, unneighbourly. If we hate them, we would not be able to love ourselves, If we do not trust others, it shows that fundamentally we do not trust ourselves. If we are afraid of others, we should realize that there is much in us of which we are afraid of, and of which others have every reason to be afraid of. We are dissatisfied with others when we are dissatisfied with ourselves. Thus neighbourhood is a place where life is not worth living if we turn ourselves away from our neighbour.

What we see in the world is only ourselves as we see ourselves in the deep and honest privacy of our own heart. Our attitude to our neighbours reveals what we are.

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