Win Hearts

Rabindranath Tagore met with a man in search of true love.

The man asked: “Whether true love exists?”

Rabindranath Tagore asked him to follow him. He took the man to farmland where a lady labourer was working. Living in scarce poverty used her stola to hang her newly born baby on the pipal tree. Her face and body were wet with sweat.

Rabindranath said: “This is true love. A mother has used her stola to hang her child so that the baby can rest comfortably under pipal shadow, and she continues working hard to feed the baby. What you see on her face is not an ordinary sweat but nector drops — I call it Shrambindu.”

Do you feel anger, bitterness, resentment and other negative feelings because someone or something happened in your life?
You are not alone — It’s just that people often don’t like to admit it, but holding grudges is common for people to respond to their feelings when they’ve been wronged.

During my workshops with students, I ask them to write their grudges on paper. Once they finish writing all their grudges, I ask them to put them in the fire and see it burning. The spark lit on their face is unmissable.

Try it yourself whenever you feel angry, bitter, sad, mad, worried, or exhausted. It works!!!

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2.15, the God Krishna says, “That person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both situation is certainly eligible for liberation.”

A diseased person happily consumes the bitter medicine with the hope that it will help him get cured. A person opts for a painful surgery to get removed the specific organ/object from his body to live better. Likewise, the distressful situation should be considered as the pathway to happiness. This understanding alone can bring so much of comfort and happiness in everyone’s life.

Our whole life has become a kind of struggle to possess material objects that can please our senses and provide illusory comforts. Every moment we are into the war like situation to accumulate material objects that can bring pleasure.

That big car, house, comfort, lavish lifestyle, etc. More we get habitual of these more distressed we become. And once we are trapped into the net, it’s never ending situation. Recently, I was told by a son of billionaire that he wants to buy a studio apartment and wish to live a simple and ordinary life.

The true happiness comes with the realization that nothing is permanent. The happiness of being millionaire is only until you live in the society of poor people. You move to a society of billionaires and then your’s being a millionaire will be a painful experience. Your state of happiness changes based on the lens from which you look at life.

The liberation is felt only when you put in use your material possession for the right purpose. When your capacities and capabilities are used for helping the needy ones. You choose to live life within the necessities rather than being surrounded with self-pleasing objects and comforts. You are bound to suffer the biggest distress – the complete waste of life in trying to gain the pleasure while swimming against the flow of the river.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter2.13 God Krishna explains, “Embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.”

What we see ourselves is the composition of the body and the spirit. Our body constantly keeps changing – the death of childhood causes adulthood, the death of adulthood causes elderhood, and so on so forth. It’s said there are 8.4 million species on our planet, and every spirit travels through all these yonis, including the time spent in heaven and hell. Spirit beneath us remains the same, only the physical appearance changes.

The one who understands this self-destructing nature of our physical body never suffers the bewilderment.

Birth and death are not our righteousness – it’s of our physical body. Our soul is immortal and keeps changing its physical form as we change the old and outdated clothes. If we keep our attachment to the clothes we wear, we will never be able to replace them.

Before you build a solid business, you need to build it on a solid opportunity (a.k.a idea) while going through your best experiences, biggest frustration, and everyday challenges people are facing. Take clues from the work you are doing right now or something that you think needs to be done differently.

Once you get the idea, survey the people you think will benefit the most and ask, “Where is the opportunity?”

Identify it, then go back to the drawing board and construct a solution to the frustration found in a group of customers.

Acts the way the customer needs it to act, not the Entrepreneur.

“How will my business look to the customer?”

“How will my business stand out from all the rest?”

Within the customer is a continuing parade of changing wants, begging to be satisfied. Find out what those wants are and what they will be in the future.

Lead Yourself by taking up the responsibility of your own work and your own deed delivering what you commit you will.

Lead Your Team by communicating clearly, aligning members with your goals, and understanding their desires and goals well.
Lead your family by having respect, clear communication, avoiding criticism, stopping being judgemental, listening to your family members, expressing love and appreciation, and frequently bringing together family members to celebrate joys, milestones, and celebrations.
Lead your community by setting goals for it, taking responsibility and getting it done, and involving stakeholders.
Lead your country by having a balanced view of righteousness, wealth and actions.
Lead Your Industry by spreading your message outside your wall in a way that it inspires people. For this to happen, you need to stop micromanaging, start learning and build profound connections with people who matter to you and your industry.

Dewdrops stuck on the grass leave evaporate as soon as it comes in contact with the sunshine in the morning. But, when the same dewdrop falls into the sea, it merges with the seawater, retains its existence, and adds a drop of water to the ocean reservoir.

Our relationship with God is somewhat similar to the dewdrop relationship with the sea.
There is a significant similarity between the dewdrop’s relationship with the sea and ours with God. To forget God is to miss the whole purpose of your existence. The great sages are not the fool that they have chosen to give up the material world to live in the supreme existence of God. One who’s ever experienced a tiny moment of godliness will give away all the material pleasures of the world. And then the matter of material disturbances are just the matter – the profit or loss, life or death, appreciation or blemish – they may just make you feel helpless momentarily. Still, you always live protected under God’s security. You attain a happy state of mind, a state that is untouched by the events of daily life. That joy will be so permanent that even the fear of death won’t shake you. How could Jesus say, in the face of crucifixion, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

I am sure you know that billionaires and beggars are just like you – all have a heart, all have struggled through challenges, and all feel a streak of genius.

I was profoundly impacted by noticing an incident while traveling along with Dr. Subhash Chandra, the founder and chairman of Zee Entertainment. A liftman saluted him, showing his gratitude when he entered the lift. He immediately reciprocated, “Namaste! How are you?” The glow on the face of the liftman was worth a billion.

Later, he told me, “It is so important to acknowledge the gratitude irrespective of from whom you receive it.”

I learned that you must have a deep respect and understanding for people from all walks of life. Becoming fabulously wealthy or intellectual doesn’t make anyone better – it only means that you have been a bit more fortunate, and fortunes are won and lost every moment.