Search results for: happiness

Happiness – how?

28 Sunday Aug 2016

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There have been more than 10 blog posts related to happiness on my site. These posts included – ego, money, work we do, peace of mind etc. Recently, I came across a research – old one -by Dr Eric L. Zielnski. His research states that – about 50% of happiness levels of an individual is governed by genetic set, 40% by intention or say a desire and about 10% by circumstances of an individual.

Isn’t it interesting? If we assume this research is representative we are sure to be happy if we prepare ourselves. An article on this research added that genetics can be modified by our thoughts and actions. Awesome, if we decide to be happy we can be happy at least 90% of the times, isnt it?

I remember, when I met Dr Anand Saxena – my engineering professorsaxena-sir-25dec12 – in Dec 2012 he told me this –

गो धन, गज धन, काज धन, सबे रतन धन ख़ान|
जब आवे संतोष धन, ये सब धुरी समान||

Go dhan, gaj dhan, kaaj dhan sabe ratan dhan khan
Jab aave santosh dhan ye sab dhuri saman.

Meaning:

It is true that owning cattle, jewels or kingdoms is mine of wealth
But when you own wealth of contentment (satisfaction) those mines (cattle, jewels etc) of wealth become worthless (like dust)

To be happy one needs to be content. I think that is how the Buddha professed the four truths. There is misery, there is cause of misery and there is a way out. This way out is – being content and thats pretty much it, isnt it?

Lastly, what I think was – the Buddha taught the path just alter that 90%, created the Sangha or community to remove that 10% chance of circumstantial challenge. Hope after joining the community people didnt get into competition of being the first to be enlightened 😀

Permanent happiness – Favorite Season

19 Friday Aug 2016

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My Favorite Season will be a season or a moment when everyone finds out his / her purpose in life. My favorite season is the one when we achieve Permanent Happiness.

How often have you seen dragging yourself going from one thing to the other, from one place to the other and doing it because you “have” to do it. You do things because those are either social obligation or because these are required for survival. How many times – many of us – do things because you “want” to do it.

A time when everyone of us is doing what he/she wants to do we hopefully will see more constructive world. A world where if it rains it would be the best thing that can happen, if it is chilling winter it would be good and summers would also be enjoyable. Thankfully, I have witnessed almost every harsh season – almost flooding rains, harsh summers and for a short time, almost 0 degree winters. Even with these seasons, I could not find my favorite season, because when it was summer I was waiting for rains or winter, during rainy days I waited for sun to show up and so on. If we are not satisfied inside we cannot be happy. May be permanent happiness is a mirage!

It has been a quest for some years for me to identify the purpose of my life. After my MBA, there was a mail in my mail box – Manager Marketing for a liquor brand.

I asked one of my professor’s – “Sir I received this mail, should I give it a try?” happiness

He in return asked me – “do you feel excited about it?”

I said – “Sir I am a teetotaler, I do not encourage people drinking.”

He said – “Don’t even apply there. This job does not sound aligned to your personality. I am not saying you cannot do good work in this organization, but even if you do awesome in this role, you would end up losing yourself on your principles. It would make you dissatisfied in life.”

His point was – identify what you “want” to do, not what you “have” to do. There may be situations when answers are not straightforward – I want to do marketing. The job is for marketing. You will have to be more specific in that case – “Ok, not marketing of tobacco or liquor”.

Once I had been offered a similar situation. There are three businesses, online gambling, jewelry ecommerce and some other if you had money where would you invest? I selected jewelry ecommerce even though on all calculations I could find online gambling offers the biggest opportunity in terms of RoI (Returns on Investment). The person asked me why? I said I would not want to compromise on my principles, I do not encourage gambling and therefore even if it offers me better returns I would not consider this business.

If all of us can make rational decision on what we enjoy doing our works wont remain works, they would become hobbies. That time would be the best time for our society – that would be the best season to live on earth. Is not it? Otherwise – permanent happiness is a mirage!

This week’s topic for LBC was “My Favourite Season” suggested by Ramana uncleji. As usual I twisted it as per my choice – what I want to write instead of what I have to write. 🙂 You can read other blogs of other Loose Bloggers Consortium members at Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and Lin.

Image source – http://www.picserver.org/images/highway/phrases/happiness.jpg

Dichotomy on happiness…

03 Saturday Sep 2011

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“There are some things money cannot buy…” I am not talking about Master Card! Generally speaking, I was thinking that there are many things money cannot buy. In fact, the Buddha left his whole empire! He too knew there are “somethings money cannot buy”. This is where I had two minds, and thought to share these thoughts and request for feedbacks.

The first and foremost thing money cannot buy is LOVE, you are a better judge for this. Other important thing is happiness, in a spiritual context ‘bliss’.

Sometime back I decided to leave a very lucrative offer the reason was I knew at my heart of my heart, I would not want to do this work and would not enjoy the work. The other option was – nothing! So, it was a tough decision to leave something (something immensely rewarding) for nothing. Recently, I met one of my friends (he knew my previous decision) his first and repeated question to me was – ‘Are you happy?’ And all the time my answer was – ‘YES, are not you happy with what you are doing?’ His response was with many riders – “yes for ‘X’ I am happy, but because of ‘Y’ I have some issues, you know this and you know that and this is what and whatever whatever etc”.

I thought we take so many decisions “for” or “because of” some or the other things e.g. money. We tend to give drivers seat to our ‘mind’ for making criteria and decision too, while a rear seat to our ‘heart’. Relationship, emotions, all these relate to heart and we largely overlook these while making decision. However, being human we are driven largely by emotions and therefore there has to be a balance between rationality and emotion in decision making too.

Then came the second perspective – if one wants to be happy no one can stop him/her from being happy. Happiness is a very personal matter. Two persons in similar circumstances could have different feelings (one ecstatic and other wretched). Peace of mind cannot be bought in the market, it has to be felt. If it has to be felt, why cannot one be peaceful while doing whatever he/she is doing? … So the dichotomy is – do we make decision based on few factors and that is the reason for us to be happy or we are happy because we want to be happy and irrespective of the decision we make or irrespective of what happens in our life.

The question to ask is – happiness requires fulfillment of the CONDITIONS we create for being happy or it is a feeling irrespective of what happens in our life/to us? These conditions, to me, are never ending… as it happens to the squirrel in Ice Age-Trilogy and to Chaipau in Salaam Bombay“. Dichotomy of happiness is you decide on what you enjoy doing or you remain happy irrespective of the situation you are in….

Related blogs – Cause…, the Middle Path, No judgement its all about perception and Balancing Act, When will we stop?

A conversation

21 Tuesday Aug 2018

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My friend called me and said I want to talk to you. I said go ahead we can speak. He asked for specific time as his conversation was likely to be a longer one. So, we decided to speak after office hours on a Friday evening.

He called me and said – “You know what? I always took your opinions constructively and learnt from it. Whenever you spoke with me and at times when you badgered me for my naivety or mistakes it was learning. Now when I recently had a very bad such opinion from someone, I felt like getting buried in sand.”

I was surprised. I am bit harsh some times, however I never knew that I am pursued like this by someone. Yes, intentions were most of the times for helping the person. So, I asked for more details of the recent incident. He obliged and gave me a detailed account of what has just happened with him.

My friend was visibly upset. I knew he was kind enough not to give as good as he had got. Possibly he was not upto it, or he was not in such position. I sensed he was unhappy and this recent incident was depressing. So, I shared the following story with him –

———————

Happiness

Traveller; “What kind of weather are we going to have today?”
Shepherd: “The kind of weather I like.”
“How do you know it will be the kind of weather you like?”
“Having found out, sir, that I cannot always get what I like, I have learnt always to like what I get. So I am quite sure we will have the kind of weather I like.”

Happiness and unhappiness are in the way we meet events, not in the nature of those events themselves.

————————

We concluded the call, I said lets try to look at brighter side you learnt something. So, he himself concluded few points. One point was – next time if something goes beyond the agenda of discussion, I would bring it on agenda or I will stop digression. This is a common problem with many of us today. The digression was the culprit for my friend predicament. Not just digression but also little attention span. Well, I have to learn a lot before becoming such a coach to someone. My friend was kind enough to think I can be of any assistance.

Story source – Prayer of the frog book by Fr Antony DeMello, the book is available in two volumes Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Capitalism’s possible impact

10 Sunday Dec 2017

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Keynes in an essay had said “his grandchildren’s generation would only work 15 hours a week.” Apparently, that generation is in the workforce now. Are we working <2 working days a week? Far from it. According to some studies, working population of the developed countries are still working at least 34 hours a week (if not 40 hours). Possibly the prediction was incorrect by a generation.

On a leisure weekend, we were wandering in one of the biggest cities of Latin America last month. It was our first visit to the country. We were talking about the way of living there and possible future for us. I said, in future, we may be working for enjoying what we do, not for earning our living. So, when Keynes said working 15 hours a week, it is possible that rest of the time, people do what they otherwise would want to do – it can be work too. Given a choice I would want to study, read books, wrote blogs 🙂 share my knowledge etc. Some of it I still do though, but over the weekends. Was this the future that Keynes saw as possible? I think yes.

Uber, Apple and Google are working on autonomous cars. We’ve technology intervention in everything – industrial revolution brought partial automation, technology revolution increasing automation. It is possible that in future organizations will be minting money on robots alone. Hopefully when we reach that state, we will be beyond food, shelter and social standing. In fact that possibly can be one of the reasons for the following outcome of a research – population of developed countries are not that happy. Perhaps our mind has the habit of occupying itself. When there is nothing to be occupied with, either one is unhappy or one can think of bigger purpose in life.

The statistics can be contested such as – how were these 50 years compared? This discontent and prosperity will surely lead to the questions towards spirituality. When a society is prosperous that is when it starts or tend to move inwards – at times capitalism it is that provides opportunity to dig deeper within [From my previous blog]. I see a lot of people pursuing Buddhism or for that matter meditation in west.

Besides, when development will lead to unhappiness, the journey of inwards will start. People will ask question – what makes me happy? That is when people will start working for 15 hours a week for wages and rest for self. I see that as an impact of capitalism. When that happens economies would not remain purely capitalistic. There will be change in our approach of economy, it wont remain purely capitalist.

Image Source – https://twitter.com/nareshnshahani/status/938937338431807488 tweet from – Mr Naresh Shahani.

At times capitalism it is!

27 Monday Nov 2017

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CD of Jane Fonda can be more useful for you to learn Yoga – an Indian physical, mental and spiritual practice. When you watch her video you are likely to feel as if she is a native to this art, have you ever thought why? It is not a case of go Yoga alone that many Indians would neither know nor will be able to practice such things well. It is the case with practice of meditation – an eastern method of consciousness – too. Would not you be impressed with many foreigners not only talking seriously about meditation but also practicing meditation religiously and needless to say better than many Indians.

Have you ever wondered why? What happened that we have relegated such a unique knowledge to either books or only to religious institution? At the same time how the Western world has been taken to these practices with ease and are excelling in it? It would not be surprised that in next 100 years there would be more spiritual readers from the Western world than from India or South East Asia.

There was a time when India was prosperous. Prosperity makes one question the significance of life, after life and whys of existence. It is unlikely for a hungry stomach to think beyond food. It is difficult for a person in danger to think about higher purpose of life; not impossible but difficult for sure. I remember my professor Dr Anand Saxenasaxena-sir-25dec12 told me –

गो धन, गज धन, काज धन, सबे रतन धन ख़ान|
जब आवे संतोष धन, ये सब धुरी समान||

Go dhan, gaj dhan, kaaj dhan sabe ratan dhan khan
Jab aave santosh dhan ye sab dhuri saman.

Meaning:

It is true that owning cattle, jewels or kingdoms is mine of wealth
But when you own wealth of contentment (satisfaction) those mines (cattle, jewels etc) of wealth become worthless (like dust)

 

I love capitalism because it gives an individual the possibility to be prosperous. Prosperity, at least once, can give a person a chance to raise questions on existence. I believe capitalism and what follows, for example wealth, well-being, abundance etc may make one question – why and how of cycle of life. That is why probably Jane Fonda is a better practitioner of Yoga and many in West are turning towards meditation.

When a person goes beyond food, shelter and social standing one can think of bigger purpose in life. It has been story of many warriors in India – Mahavir or Buddha. Shashi Throor in one of his famous speech said before Britisher’s arrived in India, India had 23% of the world GDP. That is as much as if not more than current GDP of USA’s proportional GDP to the world. When a society is prosperous that is when it starts or tend to move inwards – at times capitalism it is that provides opportunity to dig deeper within. It seems very counter-intuitive though but that is how the logic of Business to the Buddha; that is how the journey for within may start for the West.

Purpose of life

04 Sunday Sep 2016

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targetHe wanted to become an engineer since his childhood, perhaps even before reaching his teens. It was not easy to get into an Engineering college those days so he had to toil, stop his extra curricular activities and concentrate on studies. The hard-work paid off, now, he was pursuing his engineering and it was a dream coming true. He asked himself now what? Well, let us enjoy this education and become an engineer what else?

With passage of each year, the question of “now what” become more prominent. He wondered what next? He thought to take up administrative services as his next goal. He filled the form, UPSC responded – instead of the admit card they had sent a letter – “your age is less than 20 years as of 31st July so you cannot take this exam in the current year.” He could have waited one more year but then his father was about to get retired in few years so except finding a job nothing could come to his mind. So, he set another goal, crack campus interview. By grace of God or he was lucky or may be because of his abilities he could secure a job on campus without much difficulty. He still had couple of months on campus to complete his final year. He was happy he got what he wanted. Thoughcliparti1_dream-clip-art_04.jpg this pleasure was short lived, his mind started playing tricks with him again – “Now, you have a job what next?”

He was a dreamer, ambitious and committed person. So, he kept on feeding to his mind – “I will work hard, prove myself.” So, the mind probing – “You have achieved what you set as your goals without much of difficulty so sure you will get those too, but what next?” He responded to the mind – “well, I would get promoted faster than anyone else!” Mind was in no mood to end the questioning – “What after that?” He said – “I will buy Hyundai Santro. Work hard, get promoted, buy Honda City. work harder buy a house. Work hard, get promoted buy a bigger house.” He couldn’t think beyond these simple cycles of Work hard, get promoted buy car, buy house and again go back to work hard. So the mind said – “Ok! you would get retired one day doing all this, isnt it?” What after that? Why are you going to do all this? What is the purpose? Can’t one survive in smaller house? Can’t one be happy in smaller home? Can one go beyond becoming a CEO? What next? Is there an end to your carving? Is there a full stop? Why are you doing or planning to do everything? What is driving you? He slept questioning this to himself.

He started asking himself – “Why I do what I do?” “What is the purpose of my life?” He came and asked me – “Dada (elder brother in some Indian languages), whats happening? Why we run around, except filling two square meal in stomach, do we have any bigger goal in life? Is there something beyond the physical world that we should strive for?”

I asked him – What is the purpose of your life? He said – “I wanted to be an engineer, now I am completing engineering. Next thing came in my mind was a job. Thankfully I got that too in campus interviews, but now I am questioning myself what next? why? How? What for?”

I told him – there are various reasons you are running from one goal to the other. These can be put in bigger buckets such as – emotions, social acceptance, materialistic wealth. I cannot say why you wanted to be an engineer but when you set that goal you attached your emotions to that goal – you were “Happy” or you got a “sense of satisfaction” when you achieved it. Than that was in your hand, you didn’t bother about becoming an engineer – because you were doing engineering and there was no way you couldn’t get it any further. So your mind wandered – what next? The next thing came to you was social acceptance as in, job security. Than materialistic goal of car and home and bigger cars & homes. Your mind kept on pursuing these thoughts – that is great. Most of the time people never think beyond first level (“of owning a car to what next”) of these thoughts. But it was good that you could somehow get confused and couldn’t get to the end of your running around. Even if you think you would be satisfied, happy and socially respected when you get something, become somebody that happiness or satisfaction will be short-lived.

Green-PastureI added – let me try to put these in further perspective – when you decided about a goal you feverishly ran to just get their. You missed the pasture in the race by just checking the milestones – “how much is left? Instead of enjoying the beauty of where you were standing.” I believe purpose of life is not just running from one point to the other making them as your goals. If you think of doing this; your goal will always be a moving target. No doubt you should have some or the other target, why not? But the purpose of your life should be being in present, staying satisfied with whatever you have, doing what best you could do to achieve your goals and yet you should not be feverish about your targets. When you die, you will leave everything here – your Hyundai Santro or Honda City or for that matter the big home you think you will buy when you are 55 (perhaps 34 years in the future!). You know Krishna said in the Geeta –

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ २-४७
Romans
Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,
Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani
Meaning –
You’ve a right to perform your prescribed action, but you’re not entitled to the fruits of your action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results your activities, and never be associated to not doing your duty.
———————————

So just do things, enjoy your journey, dont be feverish about collecting flags, batches or medals. Because whenever you have some medal as your goal, your subtle wish is happiness or satisfaction of getting that. So, basically your purpose is more to be happy or be satisfied. My learning in all these years has been – happiness and satisfaction cannot be achieved while your mind runs outside. You can be happy and satisfied when you are in the NOW.

Your purpose in life can be anything – set the target, plan and execute. Why worry about future, be in the present, be happy and satisfied. Happiness and satisfaction lie in the present not in the future not in achieving the goal.

Disclaimer – Please do not make a goal of bothering anyone else. Actually teachings of many religion – a very strong teaching of  Jainism – is not to harm others. So when you set a goal (or try to make a purpose of life) do not set it as killing others becoming a e.g. terrorist, at least consciously.

Purpose of my life – be Zorba the Buddha. Be in the present, enjoy life to the fullest and yet be completely aware about it. It is not something to be achieved, it is something to be lived. That is what I think “enlightenment” is.

This is an LBC (Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog post, check  Ramana Uncleji’s take on this weeks topic here and another perspective from Shackman uncleji is here Link.

Image source -Target https://pixabay.com/en/target-goal-business-icon-logo-1151287/

Dream – http://clipartzebraz.com/files/1/24044_dream-clip-art.html

Pasture http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I00008ApAOrqwYQI/s/900/900/Green-Pasture.jpg

LBC – Peace Of Mind

11 Saturday Jun 2016

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When I read the topic for Loose Bloggers Consortium, the very first thing came to my mind was this video from Kung Fu Panda 2. The other thought was that I have written a lot of blogs related to peace of mind earlier.

The conclusion of every blog post is that peace of mind comes from within and not outside. For example –

In the blog Peace of Mind – I started of thinking peace of mind comes from owning something or being at peace is independent of owning anything? I reasoned out that peace of mind is not in achieving something in life. However, peace of mind is being at peace with our mind in the present. Because the more we think more we complicate life – life is, simple!

In another blog Arrived… where? though peace of mind was not straightforward point of discussion, but something related was discussed. My brother in law asked me a very simple question – ‘what is home?’ ‘what is school?’ How do you define home/school etc” In that same discussion the conclusion was – home relates more to a feeling – comfort, peace.

In one more blog Dichotomy on happiness the question I ask was – happiness requires fulfillment of the CONDITIONS we create for being happy or it is a feeling irrespective of what happens in our life/to us? These conditions, to me, are never ending… as it happens to the squirrel in Ice Age-Trilogy and to Chaipau in Salaam Bombay“. Dichotomy of happiness is you decide on what you enjoy doing or you remain happy irrespective of the situation you are in….

In all these thoughts, the real peace of mind was understood when I first saw Dadaji (Dada Gavande), here is a tribute blog to Dadaji. “When I saw him for the first time, and later as well, I was completely awe stuck, everything, thought and feeling vanished. So much of serenity was flowing off his face that I had nothing to talk or ask.” If you want to experience such peace of mind, you either have to meet an enlightened master or be enlightened yourself.

There were about 10 or more blogs in which peace of mind was touched upon. For more of my thoughts on peace of mind, read What are you searching for? where really the question is to you. In another blog Is religion another organized crime? the point is have religion lost their meaning? In the blog Money what is it? I tried to create another fictitious currency. In another blog Fish will fly in its next birth how my sister tried pacifying her daughter whose fish had just died.

You can read all the blogs searched with “Peace of Mind” as searched term here

This topic for LBC was suggested by Ramana uncleji. You can read other blogs of other Loose Bloggers Consortium members at Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and Lin.

Blindness

19 Sunday Jul 2015

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My mother teaches in a school where there are few blind students also. She talks about them passionately and praises their intelligence beyond the other students. By chance I have not been closely associated with the blind people, however I have filled my eye donation form when I was 18 years. Yes, I would want any and every body part to be utilized after my death, the value of each organ will increase if it remains and be useful to someone after me. This “AFTER ME” puts me on another tangent of thoughts – we are not the body – but here I am not writing on those thoughts anyways.

So coming to the topic – Blindness. How do you define blindness? Inability to see, is that the only definition? According to me, the definition of blindness goes beyond just the inability to see. Or if I think more, in some sense of the word “see” may includes many things which we generally overlook.

‘Our’ perceptions create ‘our reality’ – than whatever is the truth.

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‘See’ should not be only associated with eyes. After your eyes see, what happens next? The mind creates a picture and mind infers the picture. The inference also has a sense of blindness too. Inability to infer, inability to understand and misconception of actions; these are few other things that need to be included in defining “blindness”. “Our” perceptions create “our” reality – than whatever is the truth.

quote-Helen-Keller-the-highest-result-of-education-is-tolerance-103858An example that came to my mind is related to a recent incident in the US. A young man unleashed gunfire in Tennessee military facilities. Initial reports were stating that it could be an act of terror. This man had stayed somewhere in Middle East for more than 1/2 year in 2014. His high school friends of this man say he was a good guy and it was shocking and unbelievable that he did it (paraphrase a CNN news report heard earlier). So point is what happened that this young man did what he did?

If I cannot see Blue color, I am color blind for that color, if I cannot see peace and only fed with what wrong is happening with “my community” by “other commutes” I am blinded by what good the other community is doing. Many a times, the bad is more of perception than a reality. This is how people are blinded to see only what they are told to see.

This Tennessee shooter was blinded in the same manner. That is also a kind of blindness too. The intolerance we see in many people is because they can only see what is right for them and they are blind for opinion of the other. Perhaps the young man got brainwashed by some education which was rather reverse of Education – “The highest result of education is tolerance” Helen Keller. [assuming it was a terror attack, as it was speculated initially]

“The highest result of education is tolerance” Helen Keller.

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In a similar manner, I am blinded to see only peace, growth, happiness. On a lighter note – I see many vehicles with their number plate as 23XY, reason is – my vehicle is numbered 2315, its not that these vehicles were not visible earlier, now I notice them intentionally and ignore vehicle with some other numbers.

I am late to write on this LBC post. This topic was suggested by Lin, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

Terrorist meets The Buddha

11 Saturday Apr 2015

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I heard a news that ISIS has sent a threat message to Sri Sri Ravishankar (Guruji). This blog is inspired from that message and story of The Buddha and angulimala. From This blog – …My Engineering college professor Dr Anand Swaroop Saxena told me some time in 2001 – “inherently people are not flawed, situation drive people to react in the way they react.”…

Just imagine if a terrorist crosses roads on which The Buddha is traveling! In this high-tech age, it isn’t same as Angulimala confronting The Buddha. Angulimala was having a purpose of making a garland of 1000 fingers (read the purpose here) and he had knife/sword. The current times are different, terrorist doesn’t need to be next to you, they can kill from a long distance. If the terrorist knows The Buddha, he (assuming most terrorists are male) wont come near, chances are that The Buddha will change his heart. But for argument sake imagine terrorist confronts The Buddha (Sri Sri).

What and how the discussion may start –Sri Sri ISIS threat
Terrorist (T) – I’m going to kill you.

The Buddha (B) – Why?

T – (confused, this fellow isn’t scared) – thinking… thinking… thinking… Because you’re a threat to us.

B – Threat? I don’t even have arms / weapon, instead you’ve. How can I be a threat? And what do you mean by “us”?

T – (again, confused never expected this logical question. Uses his logic whatever he has) I’m armed because of you. You’re a threat to my community.

B – How am I a threat to “Your community”? What is “YOUR community”. I never killed anyone why do you think I’m the reason of you keeping arms?

T – (totally confused) I don’t want to listen to your stupidities. You’re a threat to us.

B – Who is “us”? Did I bother you? Did I hurt you?

T – Your people and those who are against us hurt my people and therefore I’m here to kill you.

B – “Your people”… “My people” who are these? who is against YOU? How can you say that you represent the whole community? What is your community?

T – You’re against Islam and my people are all muslims in this world. “Your people” are all non-muslims of the world. They’ve not been
just to us.

B – Firstly, speak for yourself and don’t try to talk about millions of others who don’t know you and do not (may not) agree to your point of view. Secondly, I am not against any religion. My religion is compassion [author’s mind – provided this Terrorist understand what this god forsaken word “compassion” means], happiness, equality, human values, meditation, peace etc. Do you believe in any of these?

What unjust has anyone done to you? How can you speak about millions of others who are muslims, you have not met them and are happily living in their country of birth? How can you say justice wasn’t done to them? Furthermore, what harm am I causing you or likely to cause to you or in your words to your people? Am I killing them? Am I asking (advising) them to hate you? Am I asking (advising) them to do something that is against you?

At best I’ve helped some of the people in XYZ country to help each other and rescue those whom you want to kill. Is it incorrect? Do you have license to kill anyone and everyone you wish? Does your owning weapon means you’ve license to spread hatred, riots and terror? If that is the case there are nations that have abilities to finish the whole world numerous of times. Your one weapon is just nothing compared to that.

This time terrorist could not even comprehend and think of what all has been spoken and he has heard. Thanks to Ananda besides the Buddha, Ananda recited each sentence and gave him time to think of a reply.

T – (reply to firstly speak for yourself…) I represent my people.
T – (reply to secondly, I am not against any religion) You are against my religion. Why are you doing any rescue operations in XYZ country?  Meaning of my religion is peace, purity, submission and obedience to the GOD…

B – (to this The Buddha interrupted) have you taken (or they gave you) permission to speak on behalf of the people whom “you think”, you represent? Secondly, if your religion means “peace” what are you doing? Having arms in hand and killing people does it mean the meaning itself is wrong or you have interpreted your religion incorrectly?

T – (could not digest this) This is blasphemy you can’t question my religion who are you to question my faith and that is the problem
because of which I want to kill you? You are infidel.

B – Do you know what is the meaning of infidel? I am just questioning on your actions and interpretations of what you’ve in your mind. Infidel is the one who doesn’t have a religion. I listed out my religion is peace, compassion, happiness, equality, human values, meditation. Another meaning of infidel is one who is not in majority. Do you think you are in majority? Muslims all across the globe do not have gun in  their hands, according to that definition you are an infidel in – what you call it – “your community” itself. Moreover, when I said my religion includes peace, we’re on the same side, isn’t it? Your religion means peace to you. Why do you want to disregard your religion (peace) assuming you are protecting your religion by not obeying the meaning of your religion itself?

…

This may go on and on in author’s mind – the author is not the Buddha. Perhaps the Buddha (Sri Sri) would perfect the discussion with a compassionate glance, no single word. Who knows in the end – terrorist bows down with no argument left and becomes a true follower of peace.

Dedicated to Guruji (Sri Sri Ravishankar)

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