"Nishkaam Karma" is perhaps one of the greatest contributions of the Bhagvad Gita to world philosophy. It seems to be a sure-shot model for living a pleasant life. Yet our religious gurus and self-help books rarely preach this vital concept; in fact, they go to the extent of misinterpreting it in models such as "work and you will definitely be rewarded" and creating the notion of a gullible and corrupt God. I wonder why this simple concept has become so rarely practiced.
On some reflection, I feel that we have been built physically and mentally only to work, to contribute. We require food and shelter, so we may have energy to work. We are given the ability and desire to learn, so that we can contribute better, work more efficiently. We have been given the sense to identify excellence or laxity in our work, so we may ensure the former. We have been given the sense of liking and choice, so we may identify what kind of work we can be best at. And finally, we're gifted a conscience, which ensures that we choose a positive and constructive area of work. Nature has clearly built us to work and contribute to the world in our own positive way.
Executing this right and duty to contribute seems to have no negatives or challenges. Working keeps us fit to live and continue working. Improvising on our efforts exercises and satisfies our mind. Remaining synchronous with our conscience, and detachment from results ensure a mind free from anxiety, free to be innocent, intelligent and creative. We can be our real selves, free to trust and love everyone, unhindered by the baggage of their past actions. Our positive contributions, our trust and love deliver happiness to the world around us, which thereby becomes even easier to work in. I find it hard to see any flaw in nature's design for us.
Nishkaam Karma builds utopia for us wherever we are. We have the ability to pursue it regardless of age, sex, wealth, or location. We can find Nishkaam Karma practiced by people across religions - the famous ones range from Mother Teresa to Warren Buffett to Gandhiji to Albert Einstein to Peter Drucker's grandmother (read his autobiography sometime).
Yet this practice is almost extinct in our world today. Despite longer lives, excellent technology for convenience, and stronger world peace, we are not at peace with life. We worry about wealth, security, reputation, what not! We look for opportunities to feel hurt, rather than opportunities to serve. Rather than take moral judgments through our in-built conscience (which only gets stronger through practice), we outsource them to religion. We observe religious practices with zeal and lack of logic matched only by that of OCD patients. While nature gives us friends and colleagues and family to love innocently and contribute positively to, we seek importance and superiority. We deliberately choose not to trust people and find it wise to be "shrewd" and protect our possessions - wasting energy securing ourselves from many who may actually desire only our well-being. Seriously, are we this stupid?!
Organized religions of today reinforce our deviation from happiness. They ask us to bypass our conscience and sense of logic, and outsource judgments to their "one-show-fits-all" illogical rules, many of which were actually defined to be practical centuries ago. Our religious leaders interpret and even evolve our philosophical heritage for their convenience - it is much easier to tell stories of demons and family feuds of Ramayana and Mahabharata, than to teach the concepts behind the Upanishadas and Vedas, or guide us in figuring the principles that should govern our lives. It is obviously easier for them to sell the idea of a "Transactional God" - a Being full of limitations, who punishes and rewards, who can be bribed and fooled, and who we can distract through daily pujas and offerings.
I am not against religion. True religion is nothing but philosophy. Religion offers suggestions about life. Hinduism is not the only religion talking of detached service - Jainism is not merely about wealth offerings and paryushana, but rather absolute detachment (which is now merely symbolic and ignored); Buddhism is about a quest for spiritual awareness and a benign life, not the creation of gold-plated Buddha statues; Christianity is not the set of rules on abortion and gay marriage - it is about seeking "to understand, not be understood; to love, more than be loved".
It seems plain stupidity of us to go against our natural inclination and choose a life of misery over happiness. My preliminary analysis says that our tendency to learn from others (who currently practice this stupidity) makes us defy our natural inclination and logic. This has strengthened over generations, and here we are.
Fortunately, we can reverse this any day, very easily, by changing our choice. It is also on us to make sure that we do not distract the still-innocent next generation from following their natural inclination, right and duty to only enjoy making positive contributions throughout life.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
The Weakness of Positive Emotions
I was giving a pep talk to my colleagues yesterday, when I had an interesting realization - we fail at achieving our positive targets because of the weakness of our positive emotions.
Interesting words, "positive emotions" and "positive targets"... Let me clarify. Negative emotions include anger, vengeance, fear, desperation, etc. Negative targets are the targets we seek being driven by our negative emotions - say the desire to hurt someone, desire to save someone, to escape from a scary place, and so on. Positive emotions include enthusiasm, care, ambition, etc. They are usually propelled from within us, and not by some negative situation around us. Positive targets, ones that emerge from these positive emotions, include the desire to grow, improve, become slim-n-fit, help, etc.
We all know the story of the lady who, on finding her infant trapped, gets a miraculous bout of energy out of nowhere, and succeeds in saving her child. We know countless stories of weak people exacting revenge on big villains. We ourselves get driven when we are desperate - when we are chased by a dog, or when we have to give a critical examination - we know no fevers, no ailments, no tiredness. Yet we do not have this desperation when we work for our careers, our products, our pro-active fitness plans, and so on.
For most of us, positive emotions are much weaker than negative emotions. People who can strengthen their positive emotions - who can maintain a resolve even when no desperation exists - end up succeeding. I read once that Azim Premji and Narayana Murthy work 70-80 hours a week. The President of the United States puts in no less. Follow Mukesh Ambani or Bill Gates - you will find no difference. It's not that they won't survive if they don't work this hard - they have far surpassed levels of achievement that most of us dream of. They succeeded, and continue to succeed, because they have reinforced their positive emotions.
It is uncommon to find positive emotions succeed. When we try to build our careers, we allow social occasions, travel excursions, health issues, family problems, TV shows, pretty much every little thing, to distract us. We therefore fail to achieve great successes of the scale that people tend to reach through fear or vengeance. And it is therefore unsurprising that positively successful people are also uncommon.
We need to ask ourselves - why can we not wake up at 4 AM and put in 12 or 14 hours of work even if we don't have external pressure? It is fine if we accept that we are not serious about our positive ambitions - that we wish to achieve them by fluke if at all - rather than apply halfhearted efforts that are bound to fail. Let the serious amongst us realize this common weakness, and choose to apply thrust towards their positive targets no less than the miracle energy we tend to receive under duress.
Interesting words, "positive emotions" and "positive targets"... Let me clarify. Negative emotions include anger, vengeance, fear, desperation, etc. Negative targets are the targets we seek being driven by our negative emotions - say the desire to hurt someone, desire to save someone, to escape from a scary place, and so on. Positive emotions include enthusiasm, care, ambition, etc. They are usually propelled from within us, and not by some negative situation around us. Positive targets, ones that emerge from these positive emotions, include the desire to grow, improve, become slim-n-fit, help, etc.
We all know the story of the lady who, on finding her infant trapped, gets a miraculous bout of energy out of nowhere, and succeeds in saving her child. We know countless stories of weak people exacting revenge on big villains. We ourselves get driven when we are desperate - when we are chased by a dog, or when we have to give a critical examination - we know no fevers, no ailments, no tiredness. Yet we do not have this desperation when we work for our careers, our products, our pro-active fitness plans, and so on.
For most of us, positive emotions are much weaker than negative emotions. People who can strengthen their positive emotions - who can maintain a resolve even when no desperation exists - end up succeeding. I read once that Azim Premji and Narayana Murthy work 70-80 hours a week. The President of the United States puts in no less. Follow Mukesh Ambani or Bill Gates - you will find no difference. It's not that they won't survive if they don't work this hard - they have far surpassed levels of achievement that most of us dream of. They succeeded, and continue to succeed, because they have reinforced their positive emotions.
It is uncommon to find positive emotions succeed. When we try to build our careers, we allow social occasions, travel excursions, health issues, family problems, TV shows, pretty much every little thing, to distract us. We therefore fail to achieve great successes of the scale that people tend to reach through fear or vengeance. And it is therefore unsurprising that positively successful people are also uncommon.
We need to ask ourselves - why can we not wake up at 4 AM and put in 12 or 14 hours of work even if we don't have external pressure? It is fine if we accept that we are not serious about our positive ambitions - that we wish to achieve them by fluke if at all - rather than apply halfhearted efforts that are bound to fail. Let the serious amongst us realize this common weakness, and choose to apply thrust towards their positive targets no less than the miracle energy we tend to receive under duress.
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