Return

A carpenter, who built timber houses, told his employer of his desire to retire. The contractor was sorry to see a good workman go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favour.

The carpenter said yes, but it was obvious that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy work and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When he went to hand over the keys, his boss arranged for a send-off function. He spoke of the carpenters’ commitment to his craft and announced an appropriate farewell gift. ‘You built the finest of homes and you deserve one of the same,’ saying so he handed back the key of the latest house built by the carpenter.

Imagine his predicament! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the mediocre home that he himself had built so poorly.

We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to give lesser than our best effort to the task at hand. Then with a shock we look at the situation of our creation and find that we are now living in the house we have built.

If we had realized that our efforts were going to return back to us, we would have done it differently. Our life today is the result of our attitudes and choices in the past. Our life tomorrow will be the result of our attitudes and the choices we make today.

Don’t retire from giving your best
Things we do return back to rest!

 - Pravin K. Sabnis

Liberation

Liberation refers to the process of freeing someone from another's control. Synonyms of the word ‘liberate’ are emancipate, free and release. While these words mean ‘to set loose from restraint or constraint’, ‘liberate’ stresses on the resulting state of liberty.

Liberty is freedom from limits on thought or behaviour. When we describe someone as liberated, we mean that they do not accept society's traditional values or restrictions on behaviour. It is about feeling free and being able to behave as you like.

Essentially it is about the shift in paradigm. In the first stage of Illusion, we believe that problems originate externally. By thinking thus, we empower what’s out there to control us. Putting the onus on others and external factors chains us to those very problems.

From victimhood, we must wake up to taking responsibility of our lives and the choices we make. The truth may be unpleasant but it is better than living a lie of illusion. We start seeing things logically and find ways to cope and be liberated.

We constantly evolve with new levels of liberation awaiting us. When we escape one box, we find ourselves in another one. The box eventually is in our mind conditioned by prejudices and fears. Stepping out of such consecutive boxes will lead to liberation.

Don’t get chained by constraints of the situation

The limiting box must be undone for liberation!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Career

The term ‘career’ has its roots in the Latin word – ‘carrera’ which literally means race. The pressure is increasing on our youth to make career choices without looking at dreams, aspirations and aptitude.

Unlike earlier, when career options were limited, today a plethora of potential professions are available. Yet, young students are being conditioned to attach value to few careers. Worse, they are being discouraged from pursuing childhood dreams.

Very few have the personal courage or the support to change tracks midway in their academic education. Too much pressure is generated by narrowing on select few career options. And most such career choices are at the cost of the real career – our life!

We must not distance ourselves from real living. Career is, after all, the progress of the course of life. Living is beyond so-called status and handsome remunerations. We need to examine whether our careers will permit us to have the time for the real needs of our life – family, community, the environment.

Don’t get careered by choice strife
Choose the priority career of ‘life’!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Flux

‘All is flux, nothing remains still!’ – Heraclitus, Greek philosopher

Change is the only constant. Stars form and collapse. Continents shift. Seasons change. Our body decays, the mind evolves and relationships change. But though we live in a world of constant flux, many fail to recognize it and distress is the result.

When we fail to accept flux, we cling to things. We cling to days gone by, to relationships and to possessions. Eventually, reality intervenes. When that, what we cling to, is taken from us, we face the reality of impermanence.

Remarkably, the pain arises even before the loss, in the form of fear. Though we know it is temporary, we live in fear of losing it. We can have a better life if we realize and accept the fact of flux.

We can learn to appreciate things we have but without staking our happiness on them. This helps to make better decisions. When we know that we will change and that other people will change, then we can identify the fresh approach that’s needed.

Admitting the flux may seem daunting, however it is actually liberating. In reality, we are just conceding something that we already know. When we bring it into the open, it is not so scary. We find that recognition of flux brings acceptance and bliss into our lives.

Clinging to things is a hurtful crux

Learn to accept the inevitable flux!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Astray

My mentor, Frederick Tucker’s favourite anecdote was of a traveller who had wandered off his route. He had no clue as to where he had reached and how to get back to his original road. After going around in circles, he a wise sage.

He told the sage, ‘I am lost. Please help me.’ The sage queried, ‘do you know where you have come from?’ On receiving a reply in the affirmative, the wise one prodded on, ‘Do you know where you want to go?’ The traveller nodded again.

The wise man calmly uttered a great truth, ‘if you know where you have come from and where you want to go, then you are not astray. You just need the connection to your way!’

Whenever astray, we can reconnect to our destination by recognizing the co-relation of the present location and the desired destination. We must discover potentials of a newer and different approach rather than just trying to get back to the old path.

If we cannot get back to the old path that we deviated from, we must find a newer way. And that is difficult, if we are mired in the belief that we are astray. The search for newer ways will get us back on track of our destination or lead us to a new terminus.

Whenever you feel lost and astray

Just find a newer and better way!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Appreciation

The tenth edition of Orchid Awards recognised excellence of Women Achievers in Goa. The founder and driving force, Asha Arondekar is constantly on the lookout for women, who like her, have taken a detour from the beaten path to carve their own niche.

 A self-made, first generation entrepreneur, she started working at the age of nineteen and over the years, she has been part of different ventures. She began in the pharmaceutical industry and later switched to wellness and started ‘Global to Local’ a store for rural and other women to stock their creations of eats and handcrafted stuff.

 She instituted the Awards in 2011 and focussed on recognising those whose efforts have gone unrecognised. Supported by husband Amol, daughter Niharika and a well-oiled team, she wants to pass on similar backing and inspiration to a larger audience.

 Achievers, seized by their passion and drive, often focus on only their personal dreams and aspirations. Along the way, they seek for appreciation and support. A few like Asha, appreciate others to acknowledge and encourage them. 

 Appreciation is a wonderful action for the receiver as well as the initiator. By appreciation we make excellence in others, our own property! Asha and her tribe use it to make the excellence of the achievers into the collective property of society.

 The symbolism in the title of the Awards is apt. Gathering orchids is a pleasant task but they have to be selected with diligence and presented appropriately for others to see and appreciate. That excellence of others will be of your ownership by appreciation.

Everyone craves appreciation, so do you,

Choose to recognise the good others do!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

childlike

A song by Jagjit Singh, ‘Kagaz ki kashti (paper boat) refers to the lament of a person who has earned wealth but craves for his child-like innocence. The first verse is a plea to ‘take away my riches, my fame, even my youth... but in return give me the monsoon from my childhood, the paper boat and the drops of rain.’

In childhood, the simplest of things are triggers for great happiness. We are happy with things around rather than the futile pursuit of happiness as a commodity. We crave for simple pleasures of childhood but choose to run the dash for complex materialism.

As children, we could play with an empty box or a stone or a paper boat... But as adults we tire easily and become dissatisfied with what we have. We are in hot pursuit of newer and further acquisitions.

The choice is simple. Stop lamenting and choose childhood attitudes... we must reclaim our childlike innocence and fascination for life’s simple pleasures found in contentment and connect with relationships and playfulness... we must step back to be childlike...

Make the paper boat, ride the dyke
Reclaim the attitude to be childlike!

- Pravin K. Sabnis