Justifying your Individual existence

Justifying your Individual existence Having realised the true 'Purpose' of your life, achieving your dreams becomes easier What am I doing? Not at the moment, but 'what am I doing here on earth' or 'why am I given this very existence 'is a thought that hardly crosses our minds because we are often too entangled in our busy schedules to discern the actual purpose of our life. Most of us are doing justifiable chores like going to a college for becoming employable, preparing for a renowned entrance exam, working in an organisation, or running a family. All these are necessary aspects of life but do they befit the connotation – ‘goal of life’? Ironically, most of us encounter this detestable yet true fact that ‘we are like an aimless ship with no goal’, either in some grubby debate with our peers or in yet another heart breaking condition. And it is then that we realise how far we have drifted from what we ‘had to do’. The problem does not end there. We are drifting far apart from this ‘had to do’ with each passing minute, hour and day. But, what can come as a rescue is goal my dear friends, the trick lies in realisation. The sooner you realise the goal of your life – the lesser time would it take to make that goal come true thereby fetching you your due quota of respect. But this, many of you would agree, is easier said than done. Many of the motivational gurus and corporate mentors preach this concept of goal realisation these days. But the million-dollar question here is – How would I ascertain the Purpose of my life? And this purpose per say, is not getting a job, getting married to your best friend, earning a fat salary, or managing your routine responsibilities. This excludes the long-term goals even. It rather advocates the raison d'être why you are here after all - the very reason of your survival. Adjudge Yourself One may be an optimist or a nihilist. The latter category includes those individuals who do not perceive any meaning in life hence nullify a purpose. First decide which category do you belong to. In case you fall under the second one, it should not matter much. Just by not believing in the fact that you have a purpose cannot thwart you from realising it- people who do not believe in the gravitational force also trip. The only hitch here would be an elongated the realisation process. The Process Irrespective of your belief or non-belief in having a purpose, just invest one hour of a lifetime to find it. There are countless ways of zeroing in on your individual purpose, but the simplest of them all is as mentioned below. The only caution in putting the principle into practice is - your degree of openness to the method, and your belief in its success that would make it work faster for you. This implies simple logic of optimism. If you believe it, it is. Furthermore, the process would even work despite your anxiety and doubts towards it albeit at a slower speed. Depending upon your rationality and mindset, you may consider the process to be quite ‘idiotic’ or/and worthless but if you remain glued to it, it would yield the desired outcome for sure - just taking a little longer to congregate. What to do 1. Hook on to your lappy (laptop) 2. Just open a word page and type the following phrase – The real purpose of my existence is…….. 3. Now, just note down the very first reason that comes to your head. It may or may not be a full sentence. A small phrase is also okay. 4. Keep repeating the 3rd point unless such an answer is found that makes you cry. The one that makes you loose yourself in sheer ecstasy, joy, or passion is your purpose. Yes, that’s it. This is what you should have pursued but even if you were not aware of it till date – you still have all the time in the world. The Limitations The process, like its implications, appears quite a cakewalk to read but it has its own limitations. On an average, it would take around half an hour to de-clutter your head and to keep the social conditioning at bay. But the latter would keep hampering the real purpose from popping up. For a considerable amount of time, your mind would keep getting the old memories and false answers. But as the final answer would arrive, it would seem to be coming from an entirely different world. For individuals who remain ingrained in low-awareness living, the time taken for getting the right answer may stretch into hours. Strong perseverance however would definitely bring about the long-awaited emotional surge, irrespective of the number of wrong answers increasing from 50 to 60 to 70 and so on. Yet, pursue it despite a constant urge to shun it. Misleading equations During the process, you may encounter a mini-emotional outburst as well, but this may not make you cry indicating that they are not meant for the real purpose. Now, these answers must be highlighted and can be returned to for generating newer permutations. Individually each of these may reflect like a part of your wholesome purpose, but they aren’t complete. They should not be allowed to confuse you, resulting in a diversion from the real purpose. Albeit, the very popping up of such answers is a clear indication that you are close to the target! A legendary tale The above can be clearly understood by the example of a legendary Indian playwright namely Kalidasa. Every story about him starts with a clear mention of his extreme stupidity. Once it so happened that a few wise men of his native kingdom were passing by. They observed that Kalidasa was sitting on a branch of a tree and was sawing it off. These wise men were on an errand to search for one of the stupidest man in the region for playing a trick on their princess. The latter had abused them and to seek revenge, these people thought of getting the princess married off to a stupid person on the pretext of his being extremely wise. Thus, they found our protagonist to be quite a "fitting" contender for the royal hand of the princess. They presented Kalidasa as a great sage with a silence avowal, who could communicate only through gestures. The princess grilled the sage and Kalidasa made several gestures. The wise men interpreted those gestures in such a way that made the princess believe that Kalidasa as the most knowledgeable man in the entire kingdom and married him. But soon she discovered the prank and lamented marrying a dolt. She kicked Kalidasa out of her palace. This ridicule made Kalidasa feel very low and he decided to commit suicide by drowning himself in the river. He observed at the riverbank that the washerwomen who scoured and pounded clothes on the riverbank had worn down the rocks beside the river. He thought, "If merely washing clothes can wear down something as hard as stone, surely my thick, numb, stupid mind can also be worn down." This was the biggest transformation, as afterwards, the very same idiot became the most fluent and radiant poet in Indian history. His fame grew to such an extent that he is referred to as the Shakespeare of India. The Epilogue Once you find a satisfactory answer that can justify your existence, it would deeply resonate within you. The words penned down would yield a unique energy. But mere discovery of your purpose does not suffice; it needs regular follow ups. But finally, it would depend solely on you as to whether you want to be Kalidasa – an idiot or Kalidasa – the greatest Indian poet. So, my dear friends just get up, gear up your energies, discover your goal, materialise it and it would definitely help your dream come true!

Getting Trapped in the ‘trap’

Getting Trapped in the ‘trap’
Many a times we just go about by others’ opinions. Most of us may have even chosen our career stream just because someone else thought this was the only best thing we could ever do. But was that really true?

Have you ever crossed any terrain using elephants to carry out the logging work? I crossed one recently and was astonished to see that this mighty creature is tethered in its hours of leisure by a thin single rope. Although the rope is long enough to allow the elephants to move around, but it restricts them from wandering around the place.

Does this not sound surprising? On pragmatic terms, an elephant weighs some several thousand kilos and effectively no rope on earth can ever hold an elephant that decides to break free of its bondage.

The million dollar question here is ‘Why don't they do it, then?’

It is because their mental reflex has been conditioned to accept the rope ever since their childhood. An elephant calf when tethered for the first time is too small and weak to be straining against the rope. Although it tries its level best to break free yet it does no good for at that time, the calf has not got the power to break the rope.

And it is here that the famous memory of elephants starts working against them. These calves never forget their efforts in trying to break the rope and the resulting failure. And just because they were not able to break through the rope at that point in time; they start living on the assumption that they can never ever break it.

And a small rope thus gets the honor for holding a fully-grown elephant. This, my friends, is the power of thinking.
POWER OF THINKING
Not only animals, but some humans also showcase this trait. Various psychiatrists reiterate that people who were told as children that they weren't very good at a particular thing grew up believing that and never even tried that particular thing for the rest of their lives.

“No one on earth is perfect. Everyone may commit mistakes; the only need is to reassure an individual that his/her action was the best in regard to his/her individual capabilities. And this is the only way to foster positive energies,” says Dr Anurag Saluja, senior psychiatrist at Max Hospital.

This can be simplified by putting it as may be that a child might just need a little practice, or might need to be taught a better way of doing a particular task than s/he would know to be at par with his/her peer group. And, in the absence of such reassurances, children start exhibiting traits of severe shyness or start becoming introverts due to excessive peer pressure. What can work wonders here is a little encouragement from the parents.

Many a times it happens that a stressed out or irritable parent ignores the child. A mother might not have exhibited the patience to hear out the child’s full narrative of an event in the hurry to reach office in time. Whatever be the reason, phrases like "What do I do with you?" and/or "You'll never get it right!" mar the initiating instinct in the child forever. This or being laughed at by the father, mother, and/or a sibling may prove to be an ever bothering shackle like the rope around the ankle of an elephant and would never come to be recognized as the weak thing; it really is. And this incident of a child being mocked at by a dear one whose good opinion matters a lot; will hog-tie the person for life.

We, as human beings have been gifted with the most precious dispensation by the Providence in the form of rationality. This grants us the capacity to change our thinking as per context. If one learns to recognize the archaic limitations that held his/her instincts back from their real goal; they can simply breakthrough these as surely as an elephant could break a rope.

The only requirement here is to just put some thought to work and interpret what would we really love to do that we are not doing now? It can be a particular course of study, a profession to be pursued, and/or something that you just missed out on-a career, you always wanted to pursue, an interest that lies buried deep down your heart, or a hobby that soothes your tired spirits? Do you have any unfulfilled ambition that you shunned years back as someone sneered at you then and foretold that you would never be able to make it? Remember, absolute honesty is needed here. Being disheartened or scoffed is the most painful and embarrassing experience for a child, and most of us cope up with it by concealing the entire incident, in the deepest recess of our minds along with our much cherished ambition because we do not want to feel that trauma again.

Trust me, looking back at that ambition now would not bring back that trauma but would rather relieve you by enabling you finding out the reason you wanted to follow it and will also help you adjudge whether you still want to pursue it or not? In case, it turns out to be some such thing that you seem to have outgrown honestly; do not worry about it any more and just treat it like taking the sting out of a bad memory, getting rid of all the concerns
associated with it.

AN ETERNAL QUESTION
But before consigning your interests to the oblivion, do question yourself one last time.

If you were to live in a perfect world, and if you are ensured that pursuing your interest would never hurt again, and that you do possess the talent required to make it big, and there would be no failures, along with people around you applauding your skills, would you still want to walk away from it?

And if you hear the feeblest and tiniest voice inside you asking wistfully, ‘what if’; the job is done. Do go ahead and the world will see you marveling at the thing you were first ridiculed at. Remember, most of the technological advancements of 21st century were once mocked at. Every great thinker and philosopher was once shunned by our society.

Thence, it is not the people but your interest, what matters the most. Almost every skill can be learned and in such cases, happiness comes not from what one gets from life, but also from the creative energy that one puts into doing something he/she loves to do. Most of the people who mocked others' dreams have never even tried to realize their own ever. Therefore, just try and tap your latent talent once again and trust me, you can come out in flying colors.
Happy Exploring!!!