What really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.- Paulo Coelho

Few quotes by Sidney Sheldon - a) Life is like a novel. It's filled with suspense. You have no idea what is going to happend until you turn the page. b) "You have two choices. You can keep running and hiding and blaming the world for your problems, or you can stand up for yourself and decide to be somebody important."-

The Seven Spiritual Laws by Deepak Chopra 1) Everything is possible. We all have the gift of creating absolutely anything. There’s no limit to what we can do or be. 2) If you want to get something, give it. Always give with a happy heart. The greatest gift is feeling good. 3) When you make a choice, you change the future (karma). Your choices bring about changes. To make good choices, follow your heart. How do your choices make you feel? 4) Don’t say no —go with the flow. Create peace within by learning acceptance of what is outside our control. 5) Every time you wish or want, you plant a seed. Making your wish is like planting a seed and believing that it will grow. Let nature do the rest. 6) Be open to life and enjoy the journey. New ways and new ideas can lead to more happiness. 7) You are here for a reason. Your dharma is your purpose, path, or vision, the unique talent that you are here on Earth to share. Your dharma is your happiness

Time isn't demanding, although we all act as if the clock rules our existence. Time is meant to unfold according to your needs and wants. It will start to do that only if you give up the opposite belief-that time is in charge. ( Deepak Chopra)

There is no passion to be found playing small- in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. ( Nelson Mandela)

All of us have access to a higher form of intelligence, one that can allow us to see more of the world, to anticipate trends, to respond with speed and accuracy to any circumstance.This intelligence is cultivated by deeply immersing ourselves in a field of study and staying true to our inclination, no matter how unconventional our approach might seem to others. Through such intense immersion over many years we come to internalize and gain an intuitive feel for the complicated components of our field. When we fuse this intuitive feel with rational process, we expand our minds to the outer limits of our potential and are able to see into the secret core of life itself. We then come to have powers that approximate the instinctive force and speed of animals, but with the added reach that our human consciousness brings us. This power iswhat our brains were designed to attain, and we will be naturally led to this type of intelligence if we follow our inclinations to their ultimate ends.  

(Robert Greene)

Living in constant fear can kill you

I know many wealthy men who constantly live in fear of losing their profits. Even their blood pressure seems to rise and fall with the rise and fall of shares in the stock market. They fear taxes; they fear raids; they fear falling interest rates. It is not just money that makes a man rich. He who gives is richer than he who hoards his wealth, for the hoarder is under psychological pressure- constantly worried about losing what he has. Such a man is impoverished-regardless of how much he has.

When you give, you are alive. You experience an overflowing sense of abundance and joy.

( By J P Vaswani)

Sad Music evokes positive emotions

People like listening to sad music because it actually evokes positive emotions, according to a new study. Japanese researchers asked 44 volunteers, including both musicians and non-specialists, to listen to two pieces of sad music and one piece of happy music.

Each participant was required to use a set of keywords to rate both their perception of the music and their own emotional state. 

The sad pieces of music included Glinka's " La Separation" in F minor and Blumenfeld's Etude "Sur Mer" in G minor. The happy music piece was Granados's Allegro de Concierto in G major. To control for the "happy" effect of major key, they also played the minor-key pieces in major key, and vice versa.

The researchers said that sad music evoked contradictory emotions as participants felt sad music to be more tragic, less romantic, and less blithe than they felt.

( Source Times of India)

Along the way, I became a happier person.

Vahishta Mistry, a 29-year old marketing professional, had a car, a house, a well paying job and a close circle of friends. Yet, last month, he did something most of us have only dreamed of doing. He upped and left. After selling his possessions, he set out to explore the world. He talks about the the places he visits and the dreams he fulfills.

As I type out these words out, I feel as if I am at the centre of a storm; around me swirl a million loose ends that need to be tied up before I put my life into long term storage, and become a nomad for the next two years. In order to properly understand my story, you need to meet me as I was about a year ago.

Everything about my life could have been summed up in a terse biography much like the ones I read in my marketing job. I was in the words of research analysts everywhere, 29 years old, an SEC A+ urban male. I was single,but not unattached.

I owned my own house, albeit in Navi Mumbai (I counted this as a positive) and I commuted by my small car to work everyday.

I had a mortgage, credit card payments and two cats that made demands on my time, apart from a hectice social life.

Today, the cats are still around, but everything else is gone.

Change crept into my life when I first started hosting couch surfers. David Simon was a young Hungarian ex-banker with a crazy smile and a crazier story. He'd walked from Hungary to Dubai, and then, because he couldn't walk through Afghanistan and Pakistan because of a pesaky war, he was forced to fly to Mumbai. He's now somewhere between China and Japan, still walking.

Stephen ( I never learnt his surname) was an MIT professor. His too, was an interesting story- he is an expert on very large databases, and is routinely called to various companies and technical institutes, to lecture. By intelligently planning his routes ( he is a database nerd, after all) he has visited almost every historically, culturally and otherwise significant place on earth.

I began to see the start contrast between our lives. Mine was empty. I had tried to fill it with a house, car, a 42" television and other gadgets. All my pursuits were driven by an aspiration to fit in. I wasn't discovering anything. Nothing was new. I realized that I wanted, more than anything, to go out and see what was beyond the next block of buildings. I couldn't be satisfied with sitting at a desk any more. Within six months, I sold my house, quit my job and bought some tools- a Canon 60D camera, some lenses and a MacBook Pro. I also bought a back-pack and flight tickets. Along the way, I became a happier person.

Here's what I plan to do over the next 24 months. I will spend some days in England,from where I will head to New York. I will visit San Francisco, camping at national parks along the way. Then I will make my way to Mexico and the famed Copper Canyon Railroad, via Los Angeles. I will travel along the west coast of South America, from Colombia to Argentina and end the year in Brazil in time for the 2014 football world cup. I will camp, hunt and fish in the Rockies and Andes, visit the salt flats of the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia and see the Milky Way rising above my tent in the deserts of Utah.

So basically, my initial budget is 10 lakh. I have spent Rs 4.83 lakh buying flight tickets ( Mumbai to Newark, 10-day stop over in the UK was Rs 48,000; LA to Mexico was Rs 20,000; Brazil to Mumbai was Rs 1 lakh), a Canon 60D Camera, a Macbook Pro and back pack and camping gear Rs 80,000). To save money, i will couchsurf, not drink alcohol, eat cheap, camp and travel by bus when possible.

(Source:- Mumbai Mirror- By Vahishta Mistry)

Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.

(Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe)

“What we learn through failure becomes a precious part of us, strengthening us in everything we do. So let the tough things make you tougher"- Soichiro Honda- Founder Honda Motor Co-

Try something New

Take a leap
Never be afraid to try something new,
because life gets boring when you stay
within the limits of what you already know.
-( Anonymous)

Set yourself free
A mind that is stretched by a new experience
can never go back to its old dimensions.
- (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.)

Dive into discoveries
There are no great limits to growth because
there are no limits of human intelligence,
imagination, and wonder.
- (Ronald Reagan)
( Source :Junoon Theatre Workshop)

Many years ago, there lived in China a young man called Mogo, who earned his living breaking stones. Although he was strong and healthy, he was not satisfied with his work and complained about it day and night. One day, his guardian angel appeared to him. ‘You’re healthy and you have your whole life before you,’ said the angel. ‘All young men start off doing the same sort of job as you. Why are you always complaining?’

‘God has treated me unfairly and has not given me the chance to grow,’ replied Mogo.

Concerned, the angel went to ask the Lord for his help. ‘Do as you wish,’ said the Lord. ‘Everything that Mogo wants will be granted to him.’ 

The following day, Mogo was, as usual, breaking stones when he saw a carriage pass by bearing a nobleman laden with jewels. Wiping the sweat from his dirty face, Mogo said bitterly: ‘Why can’t I be a nobleman too? That is my destiny!’

‘So be it!’ murmured his angel, delighted. And Mogo was transformed into the owner of a big palace with a vast estate, with many servants and horses. He used to go out every day with his impressive train of followers and enjoyed seeing his former companions lined in front of him.

On one such afternoon, the heat was unbearable; even under his golden covers, Mogo was sweating as much as he used to in his days as a breaker of stones. He realised then that he wasn’t really that important: above him were princes and emperors, but higher than them all was the sun, who obeyed no one – the sun was the true king.

‘Dear angel, why can’t I be the sun? That must be my destiny!’ asked Mogo.

‘So be it!’ exclaimed the angel, concealing his sadness at such vaulting ambition. And Mogo became the sun, as he had wanted

While he was shining in the sky, admired for his immense power to ripen the grain or scorch it as he wished, a black spot started moving towards him. The dark stain grew larger and larger, and Mogo realised that it was a cloud spreading all around him, so that he could not longer see the Earth.

‘Angel!’ cried Mogo. ‘The cloud is stronger than the sun! My destiny is to be a cloud!’

‘So be it!’ replied the angel. Mogo was transformed into a cloud and he thought he had finally realised his dream.

‘I’m so powerful!’ he yelled as he obscured the sun. ’No one can beat me’; he thundered as he chased the waves. But on the deserted ocean shore stood a vast granite rock, as old as the world itself. Mogo thought that the rock was defying him and unleashed a storm such as the world had never seen. Vast, furious waves lashed the rock, trying to wrench it from the earth and hurl it into the depths of the sea.

Firm and impassive, the rock remained where it was. ‘Angel,’ sobbed Mogo, ‘the rock is stronger than the cloud! My destiny is to be a rock!‘ And Mogo was transformed into that rock.

‘Who can vanquish me now?’ he wondered. ‘I am the most powerful thing in the world!’ And so several years passed, until, one morning, Mogo felt something stabbing into his stone entrails, this was followed by intense pain, as if part of his granite body was being broken into pieces. Then he heard dull, insistent thuds and felt again that terrible pain.

Mad with fear, he cried: ‘Angel, someone is trying to kill me! He has more power than I do, I want to be like him!’

‘So be it!’ exclaimed the angel, weeping. And that was how Mogo went back to breaking stones.

Moral of the story:

Not satisfied from your life?

From stone breaking person to a noble person to sun and to a cloud and then to rock and to stone breaking person again: We should be happy wherever we are – whosoever we are and keep on making our life better! Wishing you a happy life.

( By Shirlei Massapust: From Paulo Coehlo’s collection of stories)

There was once a seeker who would meditate in a room for several hours each day. He wished to solve the mystery of life. He would not speak to anyone but would stay in the room, meditating almost all day.

One day, a dark cloud passed above the building, darkening the room. Once the cloud passed, the room became light again. Suddenly, the seeker came out of the room, went into the street and began dancing and singing with joy. Seeing this, the master asked, " What has made you so happy and full of laughter today? "

The seeker said, " I have just figured out the secret to life. All life is maya or illusion. One day the sky is clear. Then a cloud comes and darkens the sky.Then, the cloud passes and the sky is clear again. Such are the events of our life. All the ups and downs in life will pass away also.

This simple realisation brings forth a calm approach to life. Instead of reacting to happy and sad moods as the play of our life unfolds, we can learn to remain calm, realising they will all pass....

( By Sant Rajinder Singh- TOI)

You are angry , and you watch it. You are not just angry, a new element is introduced into it : you are watching it. And the miracle is that if you can watch anger, the anger disappears without being repressed.

(Source :TOI)

Sometimes just giving yourself permission to feel any emotion without judgement or censorship can lessen the intensity of those negative emotions. Almost like you are letting them out into the backyard to run around and get rid of some of that energy.
Instead of trying to alleviate some of the uncomfortable and unpleasant emotions you feel by "trying to be positive", try being negative instead. Seriously, try it sometime. This will help you get in touch with how you actually feel.
( By Augusten Burroughs)

Spend Money On others

The editors of forbes.com gave $5 or $20 randomly to 46 strangers. Half the group was told to spend the money on themselves, while the other half was told to spend it on others. Those who'd shared the cash felt much happier at the end of the day than those who'd spent it on themselves. There was no difference in happiness between those who spent $5 or $20, suggesting that it's not how much money you spend, but how you spend it, that can boost the spirit.

(source :- readersdigest.co.in)

• Hardwork and fun is what life is all about. As soon as something stops being fun, I think it's time to move on. Life is too short to be unhappy. Waking up stressed and miserable is not a good way to live.
• If you do still hve to work for a boss at a job you don't like, as almost everyone does at some point, don't moan about it. Have a positive outlook on life and just get on with it. Work hard and earn your pay. Enjoy the people you come into contact with through your job. And if you are still unhappy, make it instead your goal to divide your private life from your work life. Have fun in your own time, you will feel happier and you will enjoy your life and your job more.

( Richard Branson)

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. That's the mark of a true professional. ( Gautam Buddha)
Hard work is painful when life is devoid of purpose. But when you live for something greater than yourself and the gratification of your own ego, then hard work becomes a labour of love. ( Steve Pavlina)

• Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.
• Somewhere in your makeup there lies sleeping, the seed of achievement which if aroused and put into action, would carry you to heights, such as you may never have hoped to attain.

(Source: TOI)

Your thought is creative. Thought fused with feeling becomes a subjective faith or belief, and according to your belief it is done unto you. (MATT, 9:29)
(Joseph Murphy)

"The celebrated chemist Friedrich Von Stradonitz of Germany of the nineteenth century was completely puzzled because of his inability to solve a complex problem related to the structure of hydrocarbon called benzene. He was exhausted, tired and a frustrated and decided to utilise the power of the subconscious mind. In his sleep, he saw the image of a snake biting its own tail and turning around like a pin wheel. When he awoke next day, he got the long-sought answer, the circular arrangement of atoms, which is known as the benzene ring."

Very few of us are aware of it enough to use the power of subconscious mind. Except perhaps for a few eminent scientists, lawyers, doctors or businessmen. Many creative scientists have used the power of the subconscious mind to find solutions to complexities associated with their discoveries.

Your subsconcious mind does not need your advice to say what is to be done to overcome barriers, when there is a blockade in your daily life. It is continously alert. Positive in- positive out. It is entirely up to you, how you use its power.

(Source : The Times of India- By B D Basu)

Fable

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. This was in the initial days. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there.”

The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!” So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.”

After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be ... and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water... Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.”

What did Buddha emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless.” Having 'peace of mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside. It spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling that peace and grace.

(http://www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/stories.html#Story51)

Present Moment

Present moment living, getting in touch with your "now", is at the heart of effective living. There really is no other moment you can live. ( Wayne Dyer)

His simpler life

By Shrabonti Bagchi
March 30, 2013

When Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mukund Mohan decided to make his life simpler in 2001, he started by getting rid of the television. In fact, his four children - an 11-year-old daughter, seven-year-old twin girls and nine-year-old son - have practically grown up without a television in the house. The next year, Mukund, as he likes to be called, stopped wearing suits. In the following two years, he gave up wearing formal shirts and shoes. "I just took that whole process of deciding what to wear out of my morning routine. Life became much simpler when I owned a few T-shirts, pants and one pair of chappals, " says Mukund, who works as the CEO-in-residence at the Microsoft Accelerator in Bangalore (the Accelerator is a startup-mentoring programme run by Microsoft).

In 2008, when Mukund and his family moved from the US to Bangalore, he had already sold two Silicon Valley startups in the Internet and enterprise software markets, besides having worked in companies like Hewlett Packard, Ariba, Inc and CiscoSystems. In Bangalore, he founded and sold BuzzGain, a social media tracking service, to Meltwater in January 2010. By any standards, Mukund was a wealthy man.

But the move to India only "accelerated" the process of living simply with few possessions and fewer needs. In the US, Mukund was driving an Audi and a BMW;after moving to India, he bought a Maruti Alto. Even that is used sparingly and Mukund prefers to travel on the city bus. "It is possible to do things this way in India. In the US, it's tougher to walk down somewhere in the neighbourhood or use public transport as a family, " he says.

Mukund takes the bus every day from his house in north Bangalore to his office at the heart of the city - a distance of about 20 km. He laughs when you ask him why. "I like riding on the bus. I like watching people, talking to them. You can read on a bus. " While the small car they own is used to ferry the kids around at times, the family often takes bus rides together as well. "Waiting for the bus teaches you patience. Walking to catch a bus - not to mention running after it - is great exercise, " he adds. 

Achieving a simple lifestyle has become something of a mantra for him. He likes the challenges and the discipline it imposes on him and his children. For years now, he has been having only one of three things for breakfast - oatmeal, bread or idlis (and the bread could go soon).

The time saved in thinking of what to eat, planning the meal and shopping for it can be put to better use, he feels. "Almost 90 per cent of the time, dinner for us is daal and chapati. The kids may want pizza once in a while, and that's okay, " he says. "If you think about it, almost everything is an acquired need. Except for things like water, what do we really need? Basic food, basic living... it makes things so much less complicated, " he says. The area of Bangalore where he lives sees frequent power cuts. When that happens in Mukund's house, it's candlelight time. "We did have an inverter, but it stopped working a few years ago and we never replaced it. Now when the power goes, we just light candles. It's really not that tough, you know. And the kids actually enjoy it. They even do their homework by candlelight, " he says.

When Mukund sold his last company two years ago, initially he didn't really want to do anything by way of earning a living (he was even featured in a TOICrest story on early retirees). He didn't really need to work, and he wanted to spend time with his father, play with the kids and generally lead a retired life. But a few months later, he got involved with some start-ups he was advising and ended up heading the Accelerator, Microsoft's start-up incubator for its Azure cloud platform.

"To be honest, we are very well-todo, " says Mukund. "I draw a salary, and my wife takes care of our investments, for which we use fairly simple mechanisms. We have two money managers - one here and one in the US. Practically speaking, we don't need the money, " he says. The family doesn't spend more than 15-20 per cent of its income - and most of that goes into the children's education. They do live in a biggish fourbedroom villa, but there are six people to accommodate, and plus, "it would be too much trouble to move somewhere, says Mukund, "This is simpler. "

What was the easiest thing to scale back on when you downsized? Easiest thing to scale back on was food, especially chocolates. I used to love dark chocolate, but it wasn't tough to give it up What was the toughest/what did you miss the most? My gadgets. Now I have a rule. If my kids get a new toy, they have to give away something they already have. That way, not more than 20 toys are at home. I loved my gadgets, especially new cell phones. I would buy a new gadget each month What kept you from slipping back into the old lifestyle? Discipline and my kids since I have to be a role model for them. They keep me honest and ensure that I don't slip back into old habits

Why we can't get no satisfaction

In an interview with TOI-Crest, the author of books such as 'All The Money In The World: What The Happiest People Know About Getting And Spending' and '168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think', discusses the importance of money and time.

You say time is the ultimate luxury. Why?

Time is the ultimate luxury because while you can (at least theoretically) earn more money, no one can make more time. All the money in the world will not buy you a second more. Because we all have the same amount of time, exercising control over how you spend your time is the ultimate show of power - it amounts to making the most of a scarce resource. It follows from this that those with lots of time, like unemployed people, should be the richest, but clearly that is not the case, both literally and metaphorically

Unemployed people have a lot of free time, but they don't necessarily have pure control over it. After all, there are often money worries, which limit how much you can do with that time. You often wind up scrambling to do things to pay bills and that doesn't feel particularly powerful. When I talk about time as the ultimate luxury, it's that you know your time is very valuable - and yet you choose to spend it on things that the world doesn't necessarily reward. Like reading the paper while there are various calls and meetings going on, because that's what you want to do.

You've written a series of books on making the most of one's life. How important are money and material possessions in leading a fulfilling life?

I tend to think money matters for living a full life because money is a tool. Like any tool, it enables you to do things more efficiently and effectively. If you have grand goals, having more money will enable you to have a better shot at achieving them. Material goods are somewhat of a different matter. Money can be converted into material goods, but many things we think will make us happy don't necessarily do so. Furniture, for instance. You're better off buying cheap furniture and spending your money on travel and getting together with friends.

Do you think most people today have the wrong priorities? Where are they going wrong?

I don't necessarily think people have the wrong priorities. I think they just aren't using their money to effectively achieve their priorities. We want happiness, but we overspend on housing, which makes us cash poor, so we can't do the things that really are fun, which tend to be experiences. Humans are social creatures, and we have evolved to be somewhat obsessed about where we land in the hierarchy. We are always tempted to spend more on "positional goods" - that is, those items like houses, cars, and jewellery, which are easily compared. No one knows if your picnic was better than someone else's potluck dinner, so we have no temptation to overspend on such things. And yet those experiences are more correlated with happiness.

What is the single biggest change people should incorporate in their lives to make their existence more satisfying? 

To make life more satisfying, I advocate figuring out what matters most to you, and then spending as much time and money as possible on those things. Being in the right job - one that brings you great joy - is a good start. Then you're spending many of your waking hours doing something rewarding, and earning money doing it. That will certainly bring a lot of satisfaction.

(Source :-Amardeep Banerjee)

Goethe

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. The moment one definitely commits oneself, all sorts of things begin to happen that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the committed decision, raising in one's favor all manner of incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would come his way. " -- Goethe

Nice Quotes

a) The Tiny Seed knew that in order to Grow it needed to be dropped in Dirt, covered in Darkness, and struggle to reach the Light.
b) Let go or be dragged - Zen proverb
c) No one is Busy in this world. It's all about priorities.
d) Inner Peace Begins the Moment You choose Not to Allow Another Person or Event To control Your Emotions.
e) If It's still in your mind, it is worth taking the Risk..( Paulo Coelho)   (Source :- Internet)

Reaction/Response

Worth d read..

"At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of d cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky. The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but .. .it landed on another lady in d group. Now, it was the turn of d other lady in d group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, d cockroach next fell upon the waiter. D waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed d behavior of d cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of d restaurant. Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, d antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was d cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior? If so, then why was d waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies. I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me. It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me. More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life. Lessons learnt from the story: I understood, I should not react in life. I should always respond. The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded. Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands, to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry."

(source : Internet)

Meet the Minimalist

Source :- Lightness of being; Amardeep Banerjee
http://www.timescrest.com/society/lightness-of-being-10032

It was an accident that changed Rohan Narse's life. Narse was a high-profile investment banker who ran his own company in London, helping British and American clients invest in India. With an engineering degree from IIT-Banaras Hindu University and an MBA from IIMBangalore, he had worked with reputed companies such as Goldman Sachs, KPMG and Tata and came with a formidable CV. He was married with a son and daughter, loved splurging on suits and watches, drove a BMW and led what seemed like the perfect life.

But the high-stress job was silently taking a toll on his health and relationships. "In investment banking, your clients are CEOs, CFOs and big investment managers. You have to be logical, methodical and precise. The transactions are of significant value, so you can't leave anything to chance. It's all a mental game, " says the 47-year-old.

In June 2009, he was driving back home late one night when he fell asleep at the wheel of his car. "There was a big sound and I realised I had crashed into the concrete barrier of the M-25, London's high-speed Ring Road, " Narse says. "The air was cool and there was a smell of gunpowder from the nitrogen charge. Just after the accident, I felt a sense of extreme stillness. "

That was the turning point. The accident sent Narse on an existential quest. "I realised that there was no time to postpone things. What if I had died that day? What if I had been paralysed ?" He had dabbled in meditation and spirituality earlier, but now took it up in earnest. He began travelling to various countries to interact with different spiritual gurus, meeting, among other people, a tantra teacher from Greece and a zen teacher from Okinawa in Japan. It was finally a spiritually inclined mathematics professor in Varanasi who pointed him in the right direction. "I was trying out different stuff in those days, like tantra and sungazing. He told me that if I carried on like this, I would either go blind or mad. " The professor explained that it was through mindfulness, or awareness of the present moment, that one could lead a meaningful life.

Today, Narse has wound up his investment management venture and holds workshops on mindfulness for corporate organisations. In many ways, his story is typical of a self-made man who rose from the dumps, achieved great worldly success and then realised the futility of it all. Born in Belgaum, he grew up in a chawl in Mumbai's Chembur. He did not live in poverty - his father was an accountant with Burmah Shell and his mother a BEST employee - but it was far from a comfortable existence. "We lived in a 180 square-foot house with a room, a kitchen and a bathroom. There was a common balcony. It was exactly like what you see in the movies, " he says. He had a tough childhood. "My parents were very nice people but there was no chemistry between them. " He was sexually abused as a child by a maid, something he seems to have come to terms with. He has written about this in his book, In Search Of Silence, in which he talks about his life-changing experience.

Under these circumstances, education seemed to be the only route to a better life. He studied hard, got admission into what is now IIT-BHU and graduated as a mechanical engineer. He worked for a few years with Hindustan Motors and a multinational engineering firm, Sandvik Asia, before enrolling for an MBA at IIM-Bangalore. He then worked for a Tata firm and KPMG. In 1999, he was sent to London by KPMG.

In 2000, Narse joined Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. He worked hard, was paid extremely well, and went on three holidays a year with his family - in summer, winter and spring. He fancied suits and says he had 35-40 of them. He loved to buy costly watches and sent his children to expensive private schools. A director at the firm, he was deputed to New York for a year and the company flew him down to London every weekend so that he could be with his family.

It looked good from the outside, but the work left him exhausted. "The company took care of its employees - there was a gym, a 24-hour canteen and a taxi service if one worked late into the night - but that also meant that the lives of workers were centred around the company. The job looked good to those who were not from the industry, but the truth was that a director at an investment banking firm was not an exceptional designation. There were about 2, 000 directors in the company. I was not a partner and had no chance of being one. But to an outsider, it looked very glamorous because investment bankers got fourfive times the salary that people at a similar level got in other sectors. " 

He drank a lot, slept all through the weekends and fell ill quite often. A frustrated Narse left Goldman Sachs in 2005 to start his own investment management firm, Indian Ocean Ventures. "There was a lot of pressure here too, but of a different kind. There was no pressure of competition but immense pressure to perform and produce results.

These were the normal pressures of an entrepreneur. But I liked the fact that I was independent and could take decisions on my own, " he says.

Narse shut down his company in 2010, a year after the accident. He has since scaled down his lifestyle considerably. He earns anything between one-fourth to one-eighth of the amount of money he earned earlier, but says he leads a more fulfilling life. He now owns just two suits and two jackets, down from the earlier 35-40. He has a second-hand Mercedes car but says he prefers using public transport, his children go to public schools instead of posh private schools, and his diet has changed considerably. "I used to eat a lot of fast food earlier, but now I include a lot of fresh food in my diet, " he says. 

A part of this downsizing was also his decision to give up cricket. Narse was a talented batsman who was part of the Mumbai Under-19 probables during his early years. When he began living in England, he became a part of the third division Surrey league, playing against well-known cricketers like Sairaj Bahutule, Nilesh Kulkarni and Tatenda Taibu. He was a left-handed, middle order batsmen who was promoted to the opening slot. "Being an opener was like being an investment banker, " Narse jokes. "You had to dominate or be dominated. You had to deal with the swinging ball. " Then, one day, he just gave up the game. "Cricket wasn't me, it was a story given to me by my father, " he says.

How has the family taken to the new lifestyle? Narse says that his wife has always supported him. He says he hasn't compromised on the standard of living for the family: he lives in a gated community which ensures that his family is secure. Of course, his children don't go to expensive schools anymore but perhaps that is made for by the fact that he now spends quality time with them.

As for him, the downshift hasn't been difficult. "I was clear about why I was doing this, " he says. "I was earlier leading an empty, meaningless, unidirectional life but I now lead a more authentic life. The conversations I have with people are honest, a handshake is a genuine handshake. I think I have made more friends in the past three years than in the previous 30. " 

Q1. What was the easiest thing to scale back on when you downsized?

The frequency of holidays. It really did not matter because life felt good regardless

Q2.What was the toughest/what did you miss the most?

Nothing really. Sometimes I miss the wider interaction that I used to have with professionals across the globe and the cultural experiences that followed. That was a beautiful immersion

Q3.What kept you from slipping back into the old lifestyle?

I was happy and healthy 24/7. That was enough of a feeling to remain true to what I loved

A ship is safe in harbour, but that is not what a ship was built for. Begin with yourself. There is no time to waste. It is your duty to do your part. The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there! For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.

(Source: Mindchow & Bible)

That man is disciplined and happy who can prevail over the turmoil that springs from desire and anger. Before you desire to control the universe, you must first be able to completely control yourself. 
( Sun Myung Moon)

Very Nice Article

You are more Important than every THING that has come into your life.

The husband gifted a new car to his wife for her birthday. He first handed over the keys, then a pouch with all necessary documnets, including her driving license, and followed it up with a long hug. He then offered to take care of the children and asked her to go on a long drive. She thanked him with a kiss and she was gone with her auto-baby. Hardly a kilometre into the drive, she hit a median. She was safe, but the car was dented. She was consumed with guilt, " What will I tell him? How will he take it?" Thoughts and feelings ran amok. The police were quick to arrive at the accident scene.

"Can we see your license?" they demanded. Her hands still shivering, she reached for the pouch that her husband had given her. With tears rolling down her cheeks, as she picked the license from the pouch she noticed a 'post it' on it with her husband's handwriting, "Honey, in case of an accident, please remember, it is you that I love and not the car. Loving you."
Blessed are those who have understood that they be loving people and using things, and not loving things and using people.
A scratch on the car makes our blood pressure go up......but we don't seem to mind a scratch in our heart. I know of a man who broke an artefact by intentionally throwing it on the floor and then remarked, "For eighteen years it has been giving me tension- if it breaks , if it falls down.....I thought it was time to show who the boss is and gain some peace of mind."
I know of another person who gave a party because his Mercedez Benz was rammed and jammed in an accident. He explained, " Though the car is completely damaged, nothing happened to me, who was inside the car. Now that I am okay I can buy another car, but if the automobile was intact and I was gone- it wouldn't have made much sense."
Our life began with the 60-rupee toy car. When it broke, we cried. Then we upgraded oursleves to the 2000- rupee remote controlled car. When that got damaged, we wept. Then we were gifted the 20,000 rupee battery-operated car. When that stopped working, we were depressed. Then came the 4-lakh car, after that the 22-lakh SUV, followed by the 86-lakh luxury sedan....And , every time something happened to this machine, whether a scratch or a dent, the mercury of our tensions and worries went up. All in all, it seems our toys have grown, but we haven't.
A toy is just a toy. Buy toys. Buy more and more toys. But give them their rightful place. They are just there to be useful to you, to make your life comfortable and to entertain you. Don't ever waste another drop of your precious tears for a toy, no matter how dear the toy may be. After all, you are the dearest of them all.

(Source- Extracts from Unposted Letter)

Today is an eternal gift. Not everyone who went to sleep last night woke up this morning. The very fact you did, some force above still thinks you are worthy of another "Today". Recognise the heart of the divine behind this 24-hour material. Know, "Today" is a providential gift. Realise, abusing the gift is abusing the giver. Wasting a day of your life will amount to abusing the giver of this gift.
Today you will trade one day of your life for what you will get in return. So, make your today as productive as you can.
Buddha said, " Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, atleast we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, atleast we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so let us all be thankful."
(Source:- TTR, The Vocie Ra)

A young man asked Socrates the secret of success. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. They met.
Socrates asked the young man to walk with him towards the river. When the water got up to their neck, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The man struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him there unltil he started turning blue.
The young man struggled hard and finally managed to get out and the first thing he did was to gasp and take a deep breath. Socrates asked “What you wanted the most when you were there?” The man replied “air”.

Socrates said “that’s the most secret to success. When you want success as badly as you wanted air, you will get it. There is no other secret.”
A burning desire is the starting point of all accomplishment. Just like a small fire cannot give much heat, a weak desire cannot produce great result.

(source:- thatbone.com)

A giant ship engine failed
The ship's owners tried one expert after another
but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine
Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young
He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do.

After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something.
Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for 10,000 Dollars.

"What?! the owners exclaimed. He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill!
The man sent a bill that read :

Tapping with a hammer- $2.00

Knowing where to tap- $9,9998.00

"Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!

(Unknown)

In January 2010, a sensitive journalist wrote Payeng's incredible story in Assam's Dainik Janambhumi, and India suddenly took notice. Payeng was honoured as the "Forest Man of India" in New Delhi on Earth Day, 22 April 2012. Last September, the Planet workshops International Forum for a Sustainable Development invited him to speak at Evian, France. And in November, he received a Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award in Mumbai.
Sitting with Payeng over a meal , I asked him how he coped with the relentless news about poaching and deforestation in Assam.
"I have no time to worry about things I can't control," he smiled. "Infact I hardly have time to work on things I can control."
That simple philosophy by a simple cow-herder undrscores the most effective conservation strategy.
(GreenHeart)

a) When you enter nature's domain, really enter it by scuba diving, or walking in a rainforest, or trekking high up in the Himalayas, or, perhaps walking in a desert....humility is injected into you, without your ego being bruised, because you know you are not in competition with nature. This is one emotion that all humans must experience. ( Bittu Sahgal)
b) When you were young and getting started in England, were you able to relax ?
Anthony Hopkins : No, not really. When you are younger, you tend to be tense and it's all very important. As the years go by you think, oh well, let's just relax and enjoy it, it's all a game. (source : Readers Digest)

If you grow up with something that you have always enjoyed, loved and connected with a level where you feel totally contented, then life itself becomes joyous. When something has such an affect on you that it transports you to a different level of consciousness, you get an incredible amount of happiness and you feel like sharing the same with others. And that's how it's been with me; I feel a sublime, divine connect with my instrument. ( Ustad Zakir Hussain)