One Simple tip for Richness

Do you think the above image is rich? or poor? Not clear on what I mean? Read on..

By itself the word "richness" means plentiful of something valuable. It could be color, texture, frequency, energy, intellect...many things AND wealth. Unfortunately with time, human advancement & modernization, the word "rich" has lost its richness and has reduced to mean only plentiful of money.

When I speak to or meet people around, am amused to notice that they are driven by the idea of "creating wealth". Companies, small and big, individuals young and old, are caught with the richness fever. Gradually creating wealth transforms to coveting wealth.

Turnover, bigger margins, salary hikes, assets!And whew! Exertion ensues!

Accumulation is a new skill everyone has to acquire and showcase in order to be considered worthy enough in social circles. And everyone slogs day & night to materialize their dreams. What everyone is forgetting is the fact that being rich is one of the easiest things to do! Yes.

Do this one simple thing: GIVE

We are so caught in our pursuits that we have forgotten this simple yet effective way to enhance our quality of life. Giving can be of various kinds.

1. Your colleague at work is struggling with an assignment - offer help

2.  A project not directly related to you is stuck - initiate

3. Someone needs ideas - give a few

4. Someone just needs a hearing - lend your ears

5. For a corporate, sharing margins is preferable over shrinking margins - you are richer with more people

Give all you can!!

Poverty (a sense of lacking) is in limiting and setting -up boundaries, raising glass walls between one entity i.e you and everything outside it. Every time you try to snatch, grab, fight or defeat you are limiting your own space of activity. Bringing restrictions upon yourself signals the brain of being deprived.

Let go of limitations. Expand boundaries instead. When your brain feels rich, it will reflect in your bank account too.

That which offers the greatest delight is widely accepted to be the richest & vice-versa. Eg: go back to the image above. You will agree it is rich because it is intense in color. A poor image would be one that has faded or doesn't offer visual delight.

Another eg: Is God rich or poor? Oh absolutely rich! And why?  He Gives!! There is an entire world asking from Him.

So it follows that the more able you are to offer delight to others the richer you will be known to be.

Why exert mindlessly? Give mindfully! And yes, don't mind the giving.

And tell me after a month whether or not you felt richer than before.  

A new outlook towards the purpose of marriage

Marriages are often accidents. People enter into wedlocks for various reasons except the right one. Yes! That’s true. Anyone who knows the real reason or purpose behind marriage will unhesitatingly say - it’s not required!

As an ordinary child born to the most normal parents, you go through life like a hurdle race -  surviving events after events the last one being your coffin! That’s what the effort is all about - to die an “extravagant death”. When I die, I want people around me - my sons, grandsons, daughters, on a cozy warm bed, in a 3BHK apartment/ bungalow, after being treated by the best of the doctors….so on and so forth! Other reasons for being convinced about marriage include hopes of romance (a faint possibility of course!), looking at the innocent faces of toothless kids, keeping your parents happy, putting couple faces on facebook, replaying bollywood scenes, companionship and what not! And yes, because you thought you loved somebody!

Have you ever wondered what all this effort has led you to? Generally a “drained-off” feeling!  

Even more so if you are to share your space with someone you perceive as incompatible.

So what do you do now? Divorce of course! And the whole story once again...and again!

Well, let’s us see whether there is anything better life has to offer.

Is marriage good or bad?

What purpose does it serve?

Do you notice that life is consistently a choice between two things - a pair of opposites? Like-dislike, compatible-incompatible, good-bad, loss-gain. And you feel forced to pick one of the two. But who or what defines good or bad? Who defines your nature? Who defines joy & sorrow? Think about it.

It’s your mind! Your mind believes certain words to be true and shapes you.

Your mind picks-up an identity. It limits you to only those chosen few words which you use to describe yourself often. I am strong, i'm shy, am rich, i'm lost, i’m indecisive, I need this & that. And therefore, these are the things that will make me happy and these other things will make me sad.  

Have you ever asked your mind whether what it believes to be true is really true? Many self-help books, mind-trainers and personality coaches use positive affirmations as way to success. This proves, what you call “your world” is a set of self-imposed limitations. And hence, the moment you decide to adopt a different set of words to define yourself, you become that. This means your mind is fluid, pliable and as reflective as water. It has the capacity to accommodate your nature and other people’s natures as well - all at the same time! Therefore, although you are born with a particular nature, you are not really tied to it. You can explore and grow from finite to infinite!

Coming back to the question on marriage, now visualize yourself with a person with exactly opposite set-of traits. Now that you have a water-like personality will it be easy or tough for you to navigate through the list of likes-dislikes? Is divorce still the only way out?

Transforming yourself can be challenging. But, is not life about that - growth, transformation and bringing forth a better version of yourself!!!

For all those of us who aren’t born gyanis, yet who are trying to explore life to find our respective treasures marriage is a platform to expand our sense of identity. In sharing our space, our time we come to realise the greater truth that after all it’s not about “me” alone!

And we become mature enough to include the entire universe as a family one day!