Where my mind speaks...
the world gets to know.

Know me through my writings
and share my words, thoughts and emotions.

1. Does Honesty Pay?
2. Success-achieving the goal
3. Regimentation-a disciplined freedom
4. Creativity-the path to excellence

TOP

Honestly, generally speaking, means truthfully. But it carries a much broader sense with it. Does honesty pay? The answer given by most of us will be negative. But it can be proved beyond doubt that honesty pays both from philosophical approach as well as materialistic approach. It is true that honesty is the best policy.

Materialistic Approach
All materialists argue we require wealth in form of house, car, various electronic devices, etc. To achieve this goal of comfortable living, they believe it is not necessary to be truthful always. But one thing they forget is that, they are doing these for themselves only. But, if he is not O.K., what is the use of becoming rich? To be more specific, in most cases, to earn a living, they misappropriate money. They even try to destroy their opponents. Hence they are in no mood to enjoy mental satisfaction. Due to this, their health condition deteriorates. So ultimately, they encounter the reality that they have gained wealth at the cost of their health. No health clubs/hospitals can open up any avenue for better living comprising of both, as the persons concerned are always fearful of being displaced in the competition.

Taking an honest approach, we can always earn a good living along with good health not at the cost of oneself. So it is upto you to judge between slow suicide or slow earning. The best medicine is to follow honesty patiently and with confirmative attitude. Thus, we have seen persons considering themselves clever are actually fools.

Philosophical Approach
We came to this world alone and so we will leave alone. We all form part of a greater time cycle whose sole witness is our soul-not our body. Hence, the primary goal is to satisfy our soul, which is eternal. It is true when we require four basic ingredients for our living ¾¾ food, shelter, clothing and happiness (food for our soul). Whatever we do we are instructed by our inner self (soul). Whenever we disregard it and act on instructions from our mind, we tend to get dishonest. When we were children, our mind and soul were in perfect harmony. But as we grow, we learn to compromise. We basically then follow this route:

Pure instructions from soul ---------> Mind acts as filter---Material check--> Filtered Instruction

A true and sincere person pursues relentlessly the policy of honesty. The others make mockery of him/her. May be it is true that the person in question makes less earning, but he is happy. The fourth ingredient is not supplied in case of others. One popular argument is we live in our lifetime in a materialistic world and so we should be. But my question is "Does life end here?" It has been stated earlier that we can follow a state-of-art living with being honest. Thus, once again we arrive at the same conclusion- "Honesty is the best policy."

Conclusion
Does honesty pay? Definitely- it nourishes our inner self. Thus, honesty in a way is a necessity also, without which we cannot run very long. The main problem is that we fail to recognize that honesty has no attachment to our body but to our soul. Hence, we are surrounded by those silly questions.

TOP

"According as one acts, according as one conducts himself, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action. But people say, 'A person is made (not of acts, but) of desires only.'(I say), as his desire, such is resolve; such action he performs; what action he performs, that he procures for himself."--- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

The above bears a clear testimony that a man is judged by his deeds. Success is a winning strategy in layman's language. In short SUCCESS stands for State (S), You (U), Can(C), Change(C), Emphatically (E), Suiting (S), Self (S). However, there is an ultimate stage when, after all achievements, a man's ambition takes him to a point of no return. He then dissociates from the material world, I shall discuss that stage in detail later on. < p>Let us first judge the different observations of different people, regarding success. Then only we can comment on success.

Ask a beggar about success. He surely tells you, "Wealth accumulation is success." Ask him, "How long?" -No reply.

Ask a student the same question. He will answer "Getting good marks and ultimately to shine above all. " Ask him, "To what level? "-No reply.

Ask a happy couple, "Are you successful?" They will say, "Yes, our love is a success." Now again ask them, "How can you relate success to love? Is that success! "-No answer.

Ask all, "Please tell me whether success is a series of successful episodes integrated or there is a success thinkable but unreachable"-No answer.

Thus we observe all of us consider ourselves successful at a point of time in our life and at the same time they hesitate to point to ultimate success.

What actually happens is that, we fall into an infinite loop of probability where in long run there is equal chance of failure and success. At one stage we attain success. This naturally generates higher ambition within us. Thus we again come at a stage of unreachable success i.e., in other words failure.

Only when we can dissociate from the loop after passing through certain stages of physiology, safety, belongingness, esteem and status and achieving some finer qualities like desire, commitment, integrity, responsibility and perseverance-we can say we reached the stage of self-actualization, which in other word is 'ultimate success'.

A close look at 'men of success' will reveal the above fact. Success is not a jackpot. We should follow a rule/formula to achieve what we call real success.

The stages are-

1. Set a goal for yourself (BASIC STAGE).

2. Chalk out a winning strategy. Check out your abilities & disabilities. Look before you leap (PREPARETORY STAGE).

3. With a concentrated, dedicated and determined attitude march to goal post (IMPLEMENTATION STAGE).

4. Stage of self-satisfaction after introspection (ULTIMATE STAGE).

Most of us cannot reach the final stage. This may be attributed to the fact of disability in mastering the art of introspection.

Thus success is analogous to a particle flowing river meeting an ocean. When we are born we enter into our life. Similarly, a particle from a mountain (origin) falls into a river. Similarly, other particles can join them in the river. Only a few particles can reach the giant ocean. Most of them get silted in the midway and form sandbars. They resemble the life of the persons after achieving a lot of fame and fortune to come to standstill. Here, those particles, similarly, are prominent but stationary. It should be noted that they all started their journey with setting their goal to the ocean.

Strategies for success:

Till now we have discussed the different stages of success. Now, we should take a look at the much hyped 'winning strategy'.

1. Goal- You must have a target. Otherwise, it is hard to recognize when you reach it. Moreover, without goal, it is difficult to focus on to assure a superior execution. Jack Brannigan in his famous book, "The Secrets of Success and Happiness" has added that having a goal is not enough. It must be smart. A smart goal is a goal that is achievable and which does not set up you in failure.

2. Focus-Converge your attention to your goal. According to many eminent 'men of success' the best way to be reminded of the goal is to write it in large fonts and post it in front of you. If distracted somehow, find the source of distraction and rectify it.

3. Preparation-The main part of it involves serious hard work. We must remember that we only reap what we sow.

4. Timing-The only method of obtaining good timing is through repetition or experience.

5. Attitude-The attitude of a confident person is the can do attitude. Confidence is the result of many successful accomplishments.

6. Risk Taking-Here, I refer to the calculated risk not the risk of gambling. Thus a famous advertisement slogan says, "The greatest risk is not taking one."

7. Luck-It is the phenomenon of successful people having been in right place in right time.

8. Failures-Have you ever heard- "Failure is the pillar of success."? The important thing is not to be afraid of failure. Isn't it better to do something and fail than doing nothing?

SUMMING UP

I will present it in form of JACK BRANNINGAN TABLE. But before that in his own words-"Play the game of life with the attitude of playing to win and not with the attitude of playing not to lose."

Item	Playing not to lose	Playing to win
Value	Survival	Progress
Main Goal	Security	Prosperity
Behaviour Model	Avoid being wrong, being rejected, and failing.	Reaching your ultimate capacity, the best you can do
Reactions	1.Self-protection and self-promotion. 2.Staying inside your comfort zone. 3.Irrational thinking. 4.A closed mind. 5.Blame others.	1.Base truth on objective reality. 2.Make decisions rationally. 3.Outside comfort zone. 4.Can't fail. 5.Take accountability
Results	Being right. Being in control. Being accepted. Comfort. Convenience.	Success. Growth. Fun. Joy. Understanding.

Keeping promise

At the beginning I have promised you to discuss in detail the form of self-actualization (Ultimate Stage). Till now we have oriented ourselves for the disclosure of this stage.

Any work done for interest is slavery and to check it we can say any work done with love has happiness/satisfaction inherent in it. This is the essence of Karma Yoga. The final stage pertains to freedom from duty to anyone including self. This stage has relevance to inner self (soul). At this stage the transition from body to soul is complete. We can distinctly identify the moving soul from our physical self. Attaining this stage is itself a great success. Sometimes, it is referred to as salvation. A feeling of fulfillment of capabilities only remains in front of oneself. That is to say he reaches the epitome of his personal ability. So it is well understood that we need to look into our very self to realize whether any ability remains unfulfilled. For that we must introspect. Thus we need to grasp the art of introspection.

Until now, we have said introspection is the way to ultimate success after the stage of implementation. But we haven't asked ourselves why self-actualization instead of self-satisfaction.

The hidden answer is that we come to terms to what we can do and we cannot. A clear vision of possible and impossible actualizes us. That is why Aristotle, the Greek philosopher introduced 'thinking' as a secret to success. Otherwise, we shall not be satisfied, as desire has no limit.

However, I repeat, it should be noted that we must encounter all the previous stages in Maslow's model of hierchy of needs and wants. Otherwise, fulfillment of one's own abilities is not complete.

Now, we can remember-"State u can change emphatically suiting self is success."

Conclusion: I have explained, "achieving the goal" in the larger context of success. The most important part of it revolves round the building of one's own character. A diamond character will shine with success as its prime characteristic. A character is a portrait of mankind, an inventor of abilities, a rationale for success and the pathfinder for salvation. Therefore, it is our holy duty to build our own character with the sense of wisdom in the best possible manner. The remaining task of "achieving the goal will then be relatively easy.

However, it should be clearly kept in mind that achievement of goal does not come by mere imitation. It is purely authentic in nature.

TOP

Have you ever gazed at the prepossessing sky at night? You will soon find yourself in midst of a huge universe enjoying freedom to expand limitlessly. And more so, you will look at the eloquent sequins vigorously transmitting abundant energy. By enduring freedom where has the element of regimentation gone away? Most of you will say - "The master of the universe has his own tricks and we have no answer to them." But sorry, I beg to differ. The essence of creativity in the divine workshop called universe is the answer to it. Yes, in spite of flamboyant unboundedness in the universe the stars reside like Regina. The sidereal organization in the ever-expanding universe is the direct result of regimentation. The spangles have their freedom to illuminate the entire cosmos but they are allocated their free space outside which they cannot move. This whole story reveals the essence of regimentation in form of disciplined freedom in our universe. Even the smallest particles have their own energy but have to follow the rule of the nature. Some critics argue that science says world is ruled by 'chaos theory' including the Big Bang Theory. However, they seem to forget that even chaos theory follows a certain law of physics. Thus we again come to regimentation. This was all about the extraterrestrial regimentation. Let us now come down to our very own earth.

Every element in our ecosystem has the space to manoeuvre within its own jurisdiction. Even in our own civilized world humans enjoy freedom under control in form of society or in the larger context of nation.

Self-control is the key to proper regimentation. In the childhood days parents in home and teachers in school supplement the deficiency of control. Maturity is a consequence of proper regimentation.

The core issue of disciplined freedom is striking the right balance. We cannot either jettison discipline or accept it in lieu of emancipation. Thus in ways both are complimentary to each other. By this time only a part of our job is completed; we have understood only the importance and necessity of disciplined freedom in form of regimentation. The two remaining stages are how to regiment and ultimately to put it in the realm of practice. We are gifted with the greatest treasure in form of intellect. A sincere pondering can cajole you to get aptly regimented instead of following the ardent type blindly.

Characteristics of regimented individuals
Let us see the important traits of regimentation in human beings - perseverance, honesty, discipline, positive thinking, love and fellow feeling. We shall discuss all of them taking one after another.

a) Perseverance: The people show this brightest gem in their character when he continues steadfastly in spite of difficulties. Good analytical ability and perfect timing while taking decisions must precede this.

b) Honesty: The lack of honesty flakes one's integrity as persona grata. Mind acting in unison with soul is a phenomenon called honesty. Honesty is the basic precondition to disciplined freedom. Honesty is that divine light that elucidates our personality.

c)Discipline: We have to obey the law of nature like other floras and faunas. Discipline, in other words, is self-control or rather self-regulation. The prerequisite to discipline is to know oneself better and introspection is the technique. Discipline also inculcates respect for others.

d)Positive thinking: Thinking is again unbounded. But we have to partition it in terms of good and evil as positive and negative. We must restrict our movements in positive thinking only. In other words we need to be optimistic in our life.

e)Love: Love is the inviolable expression of amity with nature. In many western countries there is a saying " If you cannot love yourself how can you love others. First of all you have to love yourself." Yes, love is for distribution; but without the feeling of love in yourself how can you think of distributing it.

f)Fellow feeling: The specter of super-regimentation can only be controlled by this divine quality. We are all interlinked in our ecosystem. We must accept each other's existence for the sake of our own survival. Such is the glory of fellow feeling that in the oriental countries we often preach others to serve others in preference to own self. We exist in nature and have to part with everything good or bad in nature. Great saints like Jesus Christ had gone to the extent of forgiving their own traitors. That's God's grace. But fellow feeling should have also its own limitation in the sense that we must not resort to indulging criminals or supporting any misdeeds. This check is taken care of by honesty.

Thus we have seen the characteristic images of bounded freedom. We have also seen that every quality is unique and useful for other qualities to survive under properly controlled regime. I can tell you a simple trick to judge your proper regimentation. If you feel that you are a puppet in the hand of society then you are not enjoying your freedom. Else if, you feel that you are very much part of your society and equally participating to enhance it qualitatively then may be sanguine enough to believe that you are enjoying disciplined freedom.

Regimentation, discipline and freedom can be directly linked to our character. A character is a portrait of mankind, an inventor of abilities, a rationale for success and pathfinder for salvation. Introspection leads to regimentation and regimentation leads to a good character of an individual. A regimented yet balanced individual is a 'Good Samaritan' not only to the society but also to the nature itself.

A regimented mind is an asset to any concern. In national armies people learn how to regiment not only physically but also mentally. A placid mind with quick but correct decision making abilities coupled with masculine physical power can never be defeated in a battle. It is to be noted that technological prowess is also handiwork of dedicated mental power. The monks, chess players or for that matter any successful sportsperson must undergo proper regimentation.

We learn discipline in our schools or homes in our childhood. But regimentation is an adult concept. The trinity of confidence, determination and responsibility builds up a balanced regimentation i.e., disciplined freedom in a person.

All these while we were talking about disciplined freedom. But what if we resolve to bow to strict regimentation! The answer is it is equivalent to enormous loss of creativity. Creativity encapsulates talent, mood, quintessence and feeling of the person to give the form of expression called creation. The broad basis of creativity is the multifold intuition revolving around the freedom of expression. The glamour of creativity lies in the theory of independence. Thus, if it is lost then it will be detrimental to the advancement of our society.

Regimentation modeling (R.M.)

Personality is considered to be a very important component in R.M. In a work situation different personalities are interacting with each other and as such there are generating various stimuli, which is sufficient to forge into a concerted pattern of behavior. Human behavior is very complex as it identifies a whole set of related responses. A stimulus interacts with an individual both physiologically as well as emotionally and generates a condition within the individual to behave in a particular fashion. His behavior is also subjected to the various forces created by the group values and pressures. There are separate behavioristic and cognitive R.M. theories but these are all integrated to form the Social Learning Theory. According to this theory learning can occur through modeling and self-control processes. Most of what we learn comes from watching models such as parents, teachers, peers, etc. Another component of this theory is learning through direct experience. Introspection helps in this process. According to the social experiments engineered by Edward Tolman, behavior is purposive and conditional. He suggested that human behavior (H.B.) is not based on reinforcement. An individual must not only associate stimulus and response and consequent experiences but must also determine the things that connect his mind i.e., an individual does not have a simple choice; rather a complex interaction takes place in selective learning among thinking, emotion, perception and motivation.

Redemption through self-control

The following steps are very useful in attaining sobriety (self-discipline) and composure (self-control): -

1. To restrain the senses and the mind from their respective objects, that is, to sever their connection with them.

2. To bring the senses and the mind under one's control.

Control of the mind includes the control of the senses as well because Lord Krishna in Gita has advised Arjuna to subdue the mind after the senses have been brought under control. Samyama (restraint) is the collective name for Dharna (concentration) and Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (complete absorption). For he whose senses are mastered is known to have a stable mind - Gita.

Conclusion

Proper regimentation, in layman's language, is to utilize his own freedom without curbing other's one. We must indoctrinate the traits of balanced regimented mind. The scientific way to achieve this is introspection. We the human beings are bequeathed with one of the best brains and one of the choicest intellects. We must tax our brain to collect the esteemed revenue in form of regimentation - a disciplined freedom.

Wisdom results from cognizance. It is the gateway to regimentation. But we should have the wisdom to utilize wisdom in a proper manner. As somebody has said we must discipline the discipline. Any thing going out of legitimate proportions is undesirable whether it's discipline or freedom. A regimented mind will show regimented actions and consolidate them to cherished outcome. Regimentation comes through prolonged practice stretched by wisdom. It is rather the strategy for that ultimate success which we long for. Regimentation modeling showed us the complex process involved in it. Regimentation is not an abstract art but the art that is practiced in real domain. The time scale of valid implementation may vary from person to person. It is a test of temperament under the jurisdiction of intellect. Regimentation has a close camaraderie with spiritualism; basically it is the essence of it. It goes beyond the domain of sylvan concept of religion to the field of universalism.

Similarly, we should develop our intellect too. The intellect is replete with impurity, ignorance, misconception, doubt, unsteadiness and many other faults. Gita says, "The intellect which correctly determines the path of activity and renunciation, what ought to be done and what should not be done, what is fear and what is fearlessness and what is bondage and what is liberation, that intellect is Sattwika." Realizing this, one should try to develop one's intellect. When a man's Buddhi (intellect) becomes sattwika, firmness, valor, abstinence (self-discipline), forgiveness, compassion, tranquility, gratification, equability (self-control), guilelessness and other virtues automatically appear in him. The sattwika qualities constitute vidya (the light of wisdom).

Through the control of the mind, the intellect, the vital airs, the senses and the body, a man can conquer this world and the next and can also achieve the highest good. Perfection in any kind of yoga or course of spiritual discipline - Gyanayoga (Path of knowledge), Karmayoga (Path of action), Bhaktiyoga (Path of devotion) and Dhyanayoga (Path of meditation) can be achieved only through control of mind, intellect, sense and body. When mind is completely silenced through repeated effort (at concentration) and dispassion, it is easier to still the senses thereby. Lord Krishna in Gita tells Arjuna, " You must first control your senses, and get rid of this evil thing, which obstructs Gyana (knowledge of the Absolute or Nirguna Brahma) and Vigyana (knowledge of Sakara Brahma or Manifest Divinity). The senses are said to be greater than the body, but greater than the senses is the mind. Greater than the mind is intellect; and what is greater than the intellect is the Self."

Testimony of Regimentation- a disciplined freedom

Item	BEHAVIORISTIC MODEL	COGNITIVE MODEL
Body	Physiological stimuli	Emotional stimuli
Senses	Composure (self-control)	Sobriety (self-discipline)
Mind	Samyama (restraint)	Purposive and conditional
Intellect	Sattwika (quality intellect)	Vidya (light of wisdom)
Self	Character	Creativity

Summing Up

Thus the clear picture emerging out is the ability to balance between discipline and freedom. The idea is comprehensible and the technique is known. The part of application is best left to my readers.

TOP

Selected but not yet published in Latent Talent