The art of selfless living

Out of all religious and sacred scriptures, the Bhagwad Gita is the one which provides the teachings of self-management and self-reliant distinctly.  From these teachings, you are somewhat able to identify the nature of the world, your own personality and how you connect yourself with the external world.  It saves you from sudden shocks of life. It also provides you a bit of enjoyment  even in the midst of your sufferings. Our world is a convolution of different types of allurement and all the incidences occurred here swirl in a mix of pairs of opposites. No one can predict when it gets changed as it is completely unpredictable.  In this disharmonious situation, to expect a fixed pattern of living is like collecting pebbles sitting on the bank of a sea.  Through your self-management, you must assess the world, its surroundings and the people you interact regularly.  You must recognize all these elements, which includes living and non-living beings  for what they are. You acknowledge their presence and make the interaction in such a way that shows your desire for selfless living.   All of us are tuned to follow our fixed pattern of thoughts and we are not able to go beyond the boundary of inborn traits or what has been taught by our parents and the people who influence us in our adolescence. With these teachings imbibed, it would be difficult for you to identify the difference between an unruly person and a calm person in the spiritual level. In the same way, you will not recognize the importance of a knowledgeable person against an illiterate. But exercising your maturity, you  have to deal with them in a way that they don’t get upset with your behavior and that is the fundamental principle of selfless living.

Look within yourself:

Always look within yourself  and ascertain one important factor. Try to find out what drives you to take action. How it is possible that at some point of time, you are calm and quiet and some other time, you are agitated and disturbed. What makes you to be happy any unhappy?  Why are you so jealous when your colleague gets promoted? Why you pass on sleepless nights despite you have adequate wealth?  You must evaluate to find out what are your weaknesses and strengths.  Are you not ambitious?  Arjuna, one of the most acclaimed warriors just exhausted mentally in the battlefield of Kurukshetra as he was not keen to fight against his own relatives.  But Krishna, his dear friend preaches to energize him and ultimately, he fought with all his courage and won the battle.  So, how can you  be victorious in your life battle?  The first lesson that Gita teaches us is to live on the basis of our knowledge and the power of intellect, but not on the whims and fancies of the mind.  Our mind always provokes us to do the wrong things when we are supposed to take corrective actions.  You have to use your existing intellect, and strengthen it.  You have to always think, reflect, introspect, analyze and then question yourself  before getting involved in any activities.

Importance of goal-setting and thoughts:

The goal which you must fix to achieve should not be based on self-interest.  In fact, any goal based on self-centered interests, even producing results will not fetch mental satisfaction in the broader perspective. You must come out from the myopia of your own thoughts.  If you think your interest all the while, then you cannot lead or learn how to live selflessly.  You have to rise above nepotism. You must think to favor   others.  Search for various avenues through which you can pass on the benefits of your skills, intellect, knowledge and wisdom to others.  If you think that others will only help you for your existence, then the same thoughts are miserably selfish type.  A few, who think for others and serve them, are happy.  If you are able to bring a shift in your thoughts focusing you against me, you will be blessed with divine spirit and your level of desires will go down.  You will become spiritually evolved.  You must move from a strongly entrenched feeling of separateness  to that of oneness.  The Hindu mythology and the sacred scripture Rig Veda describe this world as a one community.  There is no separate identity.  The whole universe is a one family integrating with each other.  In today’s boisterous environment, we see the opposite things are mostly happening.  There is an intense fight in between the family members.  The students are shouting on teachers. One brother is harming another. The partners in the business get bogged down in acrimonious ultimately spoiling the business, which was once flourishing like anything.  The benefactors are considered as malefactors.  The concept of oneness is drastically changed to separateness.  But the spirit of oneness only brings the painstaking situations with joy and mediocrity to excellence.  You can watch that loving people always care for others.

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Don’t move aimlessly:

People, who believe in negativities keep roaming aimlessly and suffer anxieties and despair. Another thing is that oneness leads to enlightenment. Shankaracharya says that adequate knowledge differentiates between the permanent and impermanent.  Everything in this world is short-lived.  The passing of all material and objective allurement are transient, ephemeral and for a while.  If you are wise enough and able to hone your intellect, you will seldom invest your precious time in worldly desires, rather you will search for the permanent in the midst of impermanence.  Live your life honestly and sincerely.  Do not try to show off and sell yourself.  Be calm and have patience.  Enjoy the world by serving others without any self motives. The world will be at your feet.