Humans, we are, first of all, always… Is a very utopian state to be in, in any aspect. I will love you always. I will be happy always and I think it’s a very utopian state.
A lot of disturbances that we bring into our life is because we… The striving is there, but humans we are, that once in a way, the mind will shift.
It will distract itself. So it’s very important that we have this awareness to understand that when I’m not positive, that I know I’m not positive.
Just this awareness, that I have gone off track, just that awareness must be there. My grandfather used to say, “If every driver while driving the car can always remember he is on the road and never lose this thought, ninety percent of accidents will get eliminated.”.
It’s the question of somewhere sitting in the driver’s seat and forgetting that you are there on the road.
When that awareness is lost, in that momentary slip, something happens where you’re not able to take control of the entire thing. But as long as you can ensure that there is this proper awareness, then every time you drift away from your positivity, you’ll be able to re-anchor yourself. Buddha said “Buddham Saranam Gacchami. Dhammam Saranam Gacchami. Sangam Saranam Gacchami.”, essentially saying, till you reach a stage where who you are governs your environment…
Most of us are governed by our environment. Our environment plays a very, very strong role in our life.
So Buddha said, “Get your environment right and you’ll be able to get your mind right.”.
And how do I do that?
Buddham Saranam Gacchami. Find a way by which you can share a dynamic relationship to an evolved presence.
Evolved presence, not necessarily in spirituality. Let us say that you are pursuing economics, so you should be able to read a lot of articles, listen to a lot of speeches by an economist that you look up to.
You want to be an entrepreneur and some portion of your focus on the Internet must be to read about the case studies of world-class brands. The leadership style of the world’s best entrepreneurs, Buddham Saranam Gacchami.
Who is the best in whatever dimension of life that you want to scale? Who is the best? You want to be a singer. You should be listening to some of those voices, which is the style of singing that impresses you, or somebody’s work ethic in singing that creates a great inspiration in you.
And you should… Buddham Saranam Gacchami. Ensuring at least a few minutes everyday is disciplined in the way I keep relating to someone I truly look up to, in the dimension where I want to develop.
Dhammam Saranam Gacchami. Buddha was a practical person. He realized that it’s not possible for everybody to always be in the presence of an evolved presence.
So he said, “If you can’t be with a teacher all the time, be with the teachings all the time. If you cannot be with the messenger all the time, be with the message all the time!”.
And the most importantly, he said, “Dhammam Saranam Gacchami, Sangam Saranam Gacchami.”. Surround yourself with…
Sangam basically means surround yourself with like-minded people. But a set of drunkards are also like-minded people, a set of gamblers are also like-minded people. So I would prefer to slightly edit this and say, surround yourself with right-minded people.
Sometimes you will drift away and you need somebody to pull you. Sometimes, somebody else will drift away and we… In fact, this is one thing, the chances of you getting contaminated by Buddham and Dhammam is rare. You drift away when the people you relate with on a regular basis, personally or through whatever form of medium, when the people you relate with on a regular basis are not right-minded, that is when you get pessimistic.
That is when you start doubting, that is when you start…
You develop… People say that you pick up smoking or drinking by the company you keep.
That is how you become a gossiper! You become a gossiper because you are surrounded by people who gossip.
That is how you become a liar. That is how you give up the courage to be honest and you become a coward, to lie all the time, because you surround yourself with people who want to escape situations through lying.
It seems a set of students were sitting from a school, and one of the students proposed this to the rest of them. “Everything in life must be tried. These are growing years and we should get the best of our growing years, so everything in life must be tried!”
“So what if we smoke, so what if we drink? So what if we watch pornography? It’s an age where everything must be tried.” As one kept on saying, it seems one in the group… and I happened to know this person personally. His name is Chirag.
Chirag proposed to the group, “True, everything in life must be tried. Why not we try to be the best outgoing student in our school? Everything in life must be tried. Why can’t we be the topper? Everything in life must be tried. Why can’t we win a gold medal?”.
Why is it every time we say, when we say that everything in life must be tried, it’s always about a negative habit, it’s always about an addiction? Why can’t the same philosophy, everything in life must be tried, saying that? Especially if you’re still a school-going kid, everything in life must be tried. I’m going to go for a six-pack. Everything in life must be tried. I want to run a marathon.
Everything in life must be tried. I want to have the best willpower in all the people that I know, everything in my life must be tried!
I want to be that daughter my parents will feel proud every day, everything in life must be tried. So what’s your environment?
Are you surrounded by an environment which is all the time convincing you, everything must be tried and trying to drift you to negative directions?
Or are you surrounded by people where they’re saying everything must be tried and challenging you to be ambitious, challenging you to be an achiever, challenging you to make your potential count?
Sangam Saranam Gacchami. So ensure that you moderate this environment of yours.
Buddham Saranam Gacchami, Dhammam Saranam Gacchami, Sangam Saranam Gacchami.
And keep your awareness alive and every time you drift away from positivity, you’ll at least know that you’ve drifted away. And that’ll help you to realign yourself towards positive ways.
