Passion

Every moment is a gift, when we stay open to what is appearing now

 – Janet and Chris Attwood

On Sunday, nearly 400 Goans attended Janet Attwood’s workshop on her simple yet profound – Passion Test. The event was organized by the GEMS Trust (Goa Entrepreneurial Mentoring Services Trust) to share valuable ways to empower passion amidst students and parents, educators and artists, entrepreneurs and youth.

Janet showed full evidence of her own passion in her animated expressive style. She got everyone to list ten passions and then used her successful template to help identify top five passions and evaluate them further as per the ‘Passion Test’. But the biggest learning was in her suggested power of three – intention, attention and no-tension – to define apt markers for each passion.

Janet explained that we are constantly creating the circumstances that surround us by the virtue of the beliefs we hold to be true. In fact our results always match our true intentions. But the intention will come to nought if we do not focus our attention on it. Often this attention will bring to fore fears and worries. Hence we need to acquire the simple, easy, effortless process of no-tension to align perfectly with our passion.

We can connect to true happiness when we connect to our passions. They reside in our mind alongside logic that seeks to dilute, defeat or demean them. Janet’s formula of uniting intention, attention and no-tension is the best way to impact our passion and happiness quotient. It is the effortless path to discovering our life purpose.

True intentions, focussed attention and no-tension
must ‘unite to impact’ each purposeful passion!

                              

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Human Dignity

Due to Murlidhar’s fearless stand against a Britisher’s abuse of an Indian bride, Mahatma Gandhi had called him as ‘Abhay Sadhak’ (seeker of fearlessness). However one night, when he saw a leper - a mass of flesh with no trace of fingers and sores in place of eyes and nose - he fled! Later, feeling ashamed he returned, picked up the leper, gave him food and took care of him until he died.

Murlidhar went on to grow in his fearlessness as Baba Amte. He devoted his life to the care and rehabilitation of leprosy patients, even allowing his body to be used for experiments to grow leprosy germs. However, he would say, ‘I have cured the leprosy of the body, now I must cure the leprosy of the mind.’

The sad reality of prejudiced fear has been seen once again. In a school in South Goa, parents are insisting on the removal of HIV positive orphans. The reasons for such inhuman demands are many. Lack of proper information about the dreaded disease has been further damned by wrong information by a few who are supposed to allay fears. But most pertinent is the trepidation that we feel for the one who we identify as someone like us.

The late Baba Amte would have articulated the need ‘to cure the HIV of the mind’! We know that the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) may or may not lead to AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome) - a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition. However, the HIV of the mind will lead to the death of humanity itself.

We can overcome the fear by uniting many ways. The first is to have the right facts. Secondly, deliberated reason must challenge the notion of the afflicted person being condemned by fate. To empathise with the person and their family, all we need to ask is, ‘what if it was us?’ But most importantly we need to remind ourselves of our duty towards the survival of human dignity.

Facts, reason and empathy will ensure human dignity
when they ‘unite to impact’ our true sense of duty!

                              

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Missing

Once, we went over to a relative’s place for a birthday dinner. We were three: my wife, my daughter and me. The hosts were three: husband, wife and daughter. The other guests were again a family of three. All in all, we were just nine persons for dinner. Imagine our shock, when we reached the dining room to see an over-laid dinner spread waiting for us.

There were two salads, at least five preparations of fish, two of chicken, one of mutton and three different preparations of vegetables; besides of course two types of rice and three varieties for dessert. While I was making a mental note of what to eat and what to skip, the other guest exclaimed, ‘Sol Kadi naa?’ (Konkani for a popular brew made from coconut milk and kokum). The poor hosts rushed to prepare the ‘missing’ item.

Indeed, I was bewildered at the ability of the person to note exactly what was missing. In fact, ‘sol kadi’ is my favourite too, but in the lavish spread, my choice was limited to pick a few preferences from within them. With so much around, I was least bothered about identifying what was missing.

It was unfair to the hosts to point out a flaw in their menu when they had far exceeded the requirement of a decent meal. But my sympathies were for the man who could only see what was missing. At the best of restaurants, he would be unhappy to find his ‘sol kadi’ missing. I could imagine his plight at his home dinners when he would consistently complain, ‘Sol Kadi naa?’

So often, we notice what is missing even when we are offered a plateful. Instead of being content with what we have, we crave for what we don’t have. That day, the host had given us their time, their space, their love and of course loads of food. It was pertinent to look at the many things we received and unite those receipts to impact our gratitude to what we got, rather than what we missed. How could we complain, ‘Sol Kadi naa?’

Look what lies on the plate, not what’s missing...

The receipts must ‘unite to impact’ thanksgiving!

                              

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.