CNV2-I2-8-Executive Health
“Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation at the opposite pole” --Karl Marx.
Equality....
The principle of equality is at the core part of theory of communism. The dictionary meaning of equality is the situation or system in which everyone has same rights and advantages. Though the foundation of communism was well laid by Marx, his followers did not see it successfully spreading throughout the world because of victory of the proletariat or the ‘working class special leaders’. The history reveals that communist revolutions never yielded their intended utopias of equality.
Once there was a debate competition organised in a college campus, which I had a chance to watch. “Why the famous French Revolution took place? The inequality, injustice, favouritism, nepotism was seen all around. The competent and talented people were denied the opportunity to rise. Mere passing theoretical laws and rules did not change the ground reality. People in France were left with no other alternative except the bloody revolution. That is why I fully support the intention of revolution. I would go one step further, if I were made the President of any country and ask me to remove the widespread inequality, I would prefer becoming Robinhood and distribute the wealth equally among all my citizens. I would like to make all citizens happy” said the student in support of equality.
After his impressive delivery there was unexpected long silence in the opposite camp. The moderator of the debate was about to declare him the winner of the one-sided debate at that point of time. Then there came a strong but assertive voice from the opposite camp. “My dear friend’s suggestion for equal distribution of wealth among all citizens is nothing but a wishful thinking, which is miles away from the ground reality. We all human beings have similar type of hands and fingers, but do we do equal work? We all have clinically similar eyes, but do we all have a similar vision? We all have clinically similar digestive system but do we all digest food equally? We all have clinically similar brain with right and left distinct two halves; but do we all think alike? The answer is plain NO. We all have clinically similar body composition, bones, bone marrow, blood, body parts and organs; but do we have similar colour, size, height, built? … The answer is again plain NO.”
He further continued, “The creator has made us all look different, with different colour, height, intelligence etc. If the creator had made every human look equal and identical, it would cause hell lot of problems in our daily life. Inequality is the essence of life. A farmer cultivates mango trees in his farm. Does he get equal size mango fruits on all his trees? Does he get similar size mango fruits on the same tree? A teacher teaches lessons to all the students with equal energy, attention and love; but do all the students score equal marks in the exams? Some get A grade, some get B or C grade and some even fail. Why it happens? So, my friend’s suggestion of manmade, forced equality is merely a glorious wishful thinking and is miles away from the ground reality.” He concluded and close the debate. He was declared the winner.
In conclusion, inequality always disturbs the mental set up, that is why it is removed, and equality is imposed through rules and regulations may please all people, but it does not bring in the happiness as explained by the opposition group in the debate. Calmness leads to happiness and peace. Disturbed state of mind does not lead to calmness.
Equanimity....
The Bhagvad Gita provides deep insights in the domain of equanimity, which is the sign of self-realization, which comes after one stop identifying with body. The realized person gets liberated from birth and death cycle. Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure. The highest pleasure in terms of matter is sex pleasure as the whole world is moving under its spell. A liberated person does not get carried away by such pleasures. He remains in equipoised state.
Once a journalist asked India’s prime minister Late Indira Gandhi, whether politically she is leftist or rightist? She promptly replied, “I am neither leftist nor rightist. I am upright.” What she meant was India’s policy is not to lean either to left side or to right side, but to maintain stability by establishing equanimity. The equanimity comes from realigning the various files in the mental computer. It is all about inner engineering of our thought process. To realign thoughts is not impossible, though for some people, it is difficult. Indian Sage Patanjali wrote a beautiful book containing 195 poetic verses, called ‘Yoga Sutras’. In the very first verse he advises the top secret of achieving realignment of thoughts. He advises us to dispel all the mental afflictions.
योगचित्तवृत्तिनिरोध:||
(Meaning: Yoga is, in fact, the control of thought-waves in the mind)
- Patanjali yoga sutra 1:2
According to Yoga philosophy, the word mind has three components, viz. Manas = the recording faculty, which records impressions gathered by senses; buddhi = discriminative faculty; Ahamkara = ego-sense, which claims the impressions as knowledge.
They combinedly create a false impression that mind is intelligent and conscious. In fact, the mind is only accumulator or recordist of all the impressions. Because of the emergence of thought waves, these impressions become muddy and one gets into confusion. If we lash out a calm lake it creates ripples and the bottom of lake becomes muddy; the bottom cannot be seen. The ripples are like the thought waves, which create deep impressions and they are called samskaras. These samskaras are referred to as one’s nature. The samskaras are not permanent and with efforts they can be modified or replaced by the desired samskaras through simple yogic tools like Meditation.
Meditation....
It is common experience that when we try to recollect some old event or incidence or name of an old acquaintance, we close our eyes and try to search for it. We close our eyes to curtail the outwardly bound mind and to search within our mental computer for the old saved files. In fact, we get into the process called short meditation. Meditation is nothing but to look within. It is one of the key words in management workshops and seminars. There are various ways and means to go for deep meditation.
Prof. Arjun Naik, HOD Life Style Management, ITM Kharghar