Framework to live life to the fullest: Life Bane Jhingalala!

If we were asked “What comes to our mind when we mean living life to the fullest?”, the first thing that comes to the mind is the state of tranquility(Bliss)  that we have, followed by mental comfort ,  emotional comfort &  Physical wellbeing. These could be termed as Spiritual quotient, mental quotient, emotional quotient & physical quotient.   A healthy balance of these entire enables one to a feel of living to the fullest.  An unbalance even in one of them reduces the life quotient. It is the Communion of body (PQ), mind (MQ), heart (EQ), soul (SQ)  

LQ = SQ + MQ+ EQ+ PQ 

1.  “SQ” Spiritual Quotient (Bliss): Tranquil state of mind can be described as the spiritual part of any being. This is bestowed on only human beings as they are the ones chosen by the lord with a freedom to choose. Considering the various righteousness qualities we have a free will to follow them or discard them. But the universal truth is that the qualities of righteousness are the torch bearers for the existence of humanity.  Spirituality grows with simple qualities like truth, nobility, kindness, Love, Empathy, God fearing, good character, loyalty, reliability   etc. These are the ones which perpetually enlighten our conscience and help us merge with the supreme power which is the goal of our existence. The intensity in these qualities increases the spiritual quotient and gives one and all an unimaginable tranquil state of mind. It is our lifeline connecting us to the aspect of our Creator/Sustainer living within us.    The tools which relate to the quotient include ones faith, traditions, religions and beliefs as well. This quotient is acquired over the years of a human’s life and perhaps one which requires the longest duration of learning.    

2.  “MQ” Mental quotient. :  This includes our intelligence, mindset and growth as an individual. It has got more to do with the mind. Mind is the most difficult to control and if one has learnt to control that with the best of intellect then the craving and acquiring of knowledge is the most simplest. The feeling of fulfillment we get as we acquire new skills and gather knowledge is immeasurable. This is one entity which begins right from birth. Each stage of growth as a child, student, youth, adult and old age is   rejuvenated in the process of increasing the mental quotient.  Not only is the mind source of our intelligence but also the bed to our emotions, attitudes & determinations which constitute to form ones personality or mindset. Thoughts become things. “Thoughts” represents our mindset while “things” means our wants. Thus, it concludes that: MIND leads our WANTS, Which means the mind is at the drivers seat to lead the life to live the fullest. 

3.   EQ” Emotional quotient:  This has been quite often being discussed off late with    similar importance as to IQ.  It includes our feelings, maturity and relationships with other people. Its this which creates a network of friends, relatives, colleagues etc who add the spice to our life. None would find life joyful without people around them. We water and fertilize the flower of our relationship every day to keep it growing and flourishing. As we feel the happiness we derive in the process of living, the commitment becomes “'full filling” as well “full feeling”. Thus For maintaining and flourishing the relationships and to lead it to a matured level   EQ plays an important role. This includes understanding oneself with the strengths and fallacies as well and also our response to life’s circumstances.  Knowledge of emotions (EQ) and intelligence (IQ) should go hand in hand, if we want to live life to the fullest.

4.      “PQ” Physical quotient:  This includes our physical body and health.  “When Health is lost something is lost” Health is the indication of our existence. In case that is affected all the other faculties simultaneously suffer. It is in fact the physical framework for the existence of the other balancing entities namely SQ, MQ & EQ.  “The body is like a temple to the human being. Hence it has to be maintained with all its grandeur and with due respect” A good physical health is important for one to perform up to their potential. Regardless of age, fitness can be described as a condition that helps individuals look, feel and do their best. Physical fitness is the ability to endure, bear up, withstand stress and carry on in circumstances where an unfit person could not continue

Our life is like a cake. We have the recipe – the way we do things and we have the ingredients – our beliefs, our thoughts and our emotions prepared in the mould of the physical body. Hence like one rotten egg spoil the entire cake lets safeguard ourselves from any negative beliefs, thoughts or emotions and ensure a strong mould.       

It is only through changing the ingredients that we can start changing our life, and it is only through a change of recipe - or way of doing things- that we can get a different result.

Live life to the fullest !

Apna har din aise jiyo, jaise ki aakhri ho
Jiyo toh iss pal aise jiyo, jaise ki aakhri ho
Apna har din aise jiyo, jaise ki aakhri ho
Jiyo toh iss pal aise jiyo, jaise ki aakhri ho

Just watched Golmaal 3 last evening!  A whole time entertainer!  Punch in various dialogues. The one most striking - "Add life to your day, not days to your life". What a message in the same.

      "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
-  Abraham Lincoln

Coming to the crux of the message have we anytime pondered on this?

OK. Let’s begin the day today adding life to it.  How do we do that? Well my experience put the following in the forefront.

Positive thoughts  for the day : All of us do have a lot of thoughts in our mind , some really worrying , some refreshing , some painful , some joyful...... . Of all this, let us take an oath that we would begin the day only with the most cherished thoughts. That   sets the day rolling without any hurdles what so ever. God forbidden if there could be any hurdles, the positive feelings of joy would nullify them by empowering one and all to face and solve them.
Duniya ki baatein waatein chhod ke
Gummo ki baahon ko marod ke
Khushi khadi hai jis mod pe
We got to go that way, we got to go that way
What we focus our attention on grows and becomes a more important part of our experience. Hence let us focus on the positive happy thoughts and experiences and begin our day.

Live a passionate life: I have been given this duty in my life. Let me accomplish what has been destined & sail through this voyage of life with all its glory. Let me feel the passion to live every second of this voyage in their bountiful experiences… Let’s begin the day with these sparkling thoughts to rejuvenate ourselves to add life to our day. Let’s learn to enjoy every bit of activity that we do through the day. Passionate life is continuously learning, loving & growing without any doubt.        

Realize your unique potential: Every man is bestowed with a unique quality, ability, art or any developmental potential. Harness this potential and plan your life. This ability would be possible only by daily practice of visualizing the results of your potential. This does not mean Day dreaming but a constant awareness to get to know what your potential is and capitalize the same.    

Live each day as if it were my last, but learn each day as if I'll live forever:  Recall the happenings of the previous day silently. You cannot change what had happened. But certainly they must have made marks on your life. Let experiences each day teach you   a new lesson which could be cherished through years for a successful voyage in the vast sea of life. 

Some lovely music, a walk in the garden tip toeing on the rhythms with the music or else enjoy the sounds of the dawn. Sound in Mumbai would mean not the chirping of birds, but the cycle bell sounds of the milk vendors & paper vendors and bustling autos that have just begun their day. These have become part of any Mumbaite. We have learnt to accept these sounds of dawn. Well the fortunate ones who could walk around with the Mp3 player could start the day from 5 am with various bhakti geet from channels. Such in their own world are contented that they have begun the day most peacefully.

Be aware of every moment:  Time to have your bath. Enjoy the water drops trickle all over you from the shower. Have a nice breath of the scented soap. Recall the fragrance of your favorite flowers! Watch the lather on your body whither away like froth from the sea as you stand under the shower.Oh! How fresh am I? Ready for a jubilant day..... At your breakfast table....... Feel the aroma of coffee /Tea. How refreshing is it? Do not gulp it down with thoughts of what has to follow for the day. Celebrate all the wonders and precious moments that make your life special!

Enjoy Good Food:  How often have you wondered why there are so many of food outlets across the Globe. Is it just for your survival? Oh No...... Mankind spends enough of resources toiling and making them the most relishing, divine. Oh Yeh ! What a variety across the globe? We all do relish quite a variety of them too. Direct satisfaction to our taste buds which could be really measured on a scale of ten. Right? On a daily basis have we ever enjoyed each morsel that we are destined to? Remember one of the greatest pleasures is to eat great food and enjoy every bit of it. (All of us earn for bread & butter. Do we really have time and mindset to really appreciate that when we have it? We drag the day along running for the money to get these............?)

Thanksgiving: Oh I had a wonderful day to live! Thank you God to have given me this to make my stay here worthy of living. Have we anytime gone to bed with this attitude? OK. Let’s start today. Get back to me with your feelings after following this. Let's be amazed of our existence and show gratitude to the power what ever you may call GOD, Krishna, Allah, and Jesus Christ..... Think of those special moments you are grateful for!
           

God is everywhere! Why Can’t I see him?

Just want to share with you a real life story that one  Balavihar teacher shared with us in a study group.

The teacher said one boy in 2nd grade suddenly asked her "You say God is there. Then why can't I see him?"

She was kind of stumped by that question and was trying to think of an answer.

Suddenly another boy raised hand and said "Teacher I know the answer, can I tell?"

She said "Go ahead". Here is the conversation that took place between them.

Boy 1 (original question): You say God is there then why can't I see him?

Boy 2: You can't see him because he is hiding.

Boy 1: Why is he hiding?

Boy 2: Just for Play!

Boy1: If he is hiding then how can I find him?

Boy 2: He is playing 'hide and seek', silly! You have to 'seek him' to find him.

Boy 1: Where exactly is he hiding?

Boy 2: Everywhere. In that plant, in me, in you.

Boy 1: Then where can I seek him?

Boy 2: Seek in yourself silly, which is closest to you. Why would you want to seek somewhere else when you can find him in yourself?

Boy 1: OK, got it.

Well said:  The fundamental truth of the mahàvàkya—Tat tvam asi or Aham brahmàsmi is that I am not the small limited entity encased in this body and the mind. I have infinite possibilities to manifest. But how is it that I do not know that I am the Infinite, that I am the omniscient?

Happiness ! Happiness ! Happiness !

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." - Aristotle

Happiness is the undying quest of every beings life. The human mind goes hither thither seeking this! But has the mankind realized Happiness is the inner quality of each man. Seek this within you; manifest it to the entire world. It is well said “A Happy day goes all the way, your sad tires in a smile”

What is Happiness? What is the feeling it creates in any being? Is it not a tonic to the mind, body and to the entire universe who share the same with you? Happiness has no boundaries but that does have a boundary within you. Could make out the Punch in this remark?

To make matters simple Happiness is something we have to decide to dig from with in. It is not outsourced. Once the gem is unearthed the brilliance pervades all through you as well on the one you share with. It is contagious spreading the positive vibration to the entire universe boundless!

"Remember, happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have, it depends solely upon what you think."
Dale Carnegie

Our Happiness is our responsibility! Your Happiness is your responsibility! While things around you could change and go bad, it is you who decides  how you  respond to them. You can decide to be happy. Take responsibility to chose to be so for your life.

"A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment,
when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted."
George Santayana

"The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so."
William Ralph Inge

Be childlike……. Children more often have a habit of watching things with melancholy, giggle, and chuckle; clap the hands and what not. The object they see may seem to be meaningless to adults. As adults we have no time to enjoy the little things that God has given us. We keep going round & round thinking of various goals (Wealth, Power, position,) for one single goal Happiness.   

We do not realize: "Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands,
but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is."
Maxim Gorky.

When we were children we thought parental controls ruin our happiness, when students exams & teachers, when employed the bosses, when married the spouse & when old our sons & daughters. Recap at this stage kindles our nostalgic memories as a child, student and on and on …..  

Hence “Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness."
George Orwell

"It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time and be bored all the while."
Don Marquis

"If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day."
W. Beran Wolfe

24 Hrs a day round the clock activity, with not a wink to think! Work creatively. Creativity is a fodder to Happiness. Use your talents to the brim. Master a lot of your passions. Watch your success in all these. Learn something new every day. Do your best to improve yourself but don’t be obsessed by it. Do not search for Happiness for in the search the mystery remains a mystery. See it all over, and then you have mastered solving the puzzle. It is mind that matters & Mind has a nasty habit of going with out any controls on its own. Use your intellect to drive to this Goal of Happiness. It is a drive not beyond but into oneself.     

"A world full of happiness is not beyond human power to create; the obstacles imposed by inanimate nature are not insuperable. The real obstacles lie in the heart of man, and the cure for these is a firm hope, informed and fortified by thought."
Bertrand Russell

In the journey of life we come across a lot of relationships, some just a brush some become our part and some share our lives. Let’s build these relationships as a priority to enjoy the Happiness and share among ourselves. Happiness shared does not lose its power but becomes multifold – The mathematics of Happiness.     

"Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place
to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so."
Robert Green Ingersoll

As you travel up the lane of life remember to recall all those happy moments which have made you sail through all this while. Get energized to go on & on with this spirit. Forget the unpleasant past. Count your blessings!

"I had rather have a fool make me merry, than experience make me sad."
William Shakespeare