A Password with Meaning

I was deeply depressed after a recent bitter fight with my close friend Deepak. I thought all day long about how badly he had treated me. I was filled with a lot of hurt and unhappiness within me. I knew that the right way to move forward is to forgive him, but it looked impossible to get myself to forgive.

I was still trying to recover from it, when I sat down at my desk and stared at the laptop screen. “Your password has expired, please change it”, a message flashed on the screen. In my company, we have to change our password every month. I remembered a tip I’d heard from a colleague, that we should try to choose a password that has some meaning. That way, it will be easy to remember, and we will repeat the meaningful phrase every time we unlock the screen.

So, I chose to go for a password with meaning. I was finding it impossible to concentrate on my work due to my painful memories. I decided to pick a password that will remind me that I should stop being a victim of my emotions, and be strong enough to handle them with maturity. I came up with the password – Forgive@him. I had to type this password several times a day, whenever my computer screen got locked. Every time I came back from lunch, I wrote ‘forgive him’. This simple action changed the way I looked at Deepak. That constant reminder of reconciliation led me to accept the way things happened and helped me deal with my mood.

By the time the computer asked me to change the password again the following month, I already felt liberated from the feeling of hurt. I thought of what is the next important thing I want to do in life, and I picked up the password – Reduce#weight. By repeating it many times a day, I gradually found myself being more conscious of my diet and regular in my exercise program, and that helped in reducing my weight.

Next I chose Save&invest, as I was not good in financial matters. In next couple of months, I could improve on that front as well. I made it a habit to pick a meaningful password – a phrase that will constantly remind me about an important goal I want to achieve. These daily reminders kept me motivated and excited about my goal and helped me realize it.

This simple practice of using a password with meaning has changed my life for better. Why not try it and see what it can do for you?

After a couple of years, I changed my password to *LifeIsBeautiful*.

Sow Well, Reap Well

One of the basic principle of nature is - "As you sow, so shall you reap". The outcome in our life is a direct reflection of our thoughts and actions. Here is an inspiring tale by Manohar Parrikar that illustrates this principle with a simple narrative.

My village is famous for its watermelons. When I was a child, the farmer would organize a watermelon-eating contest at the end of the harvest season in May. All the kids would be invited to eat as many watermelons as they wanted. It was an event that we used to eagerly look forward to every year.

Years later, I went to IIT Mumbai to study engineering. I went back to my village after six years. All this while, the taste of watermelons was still fresh in my memory. I went to the market looking for watermelons. They were all gone. The ones that were there were so small and relatively tasteless.

This surprised me, and I went to see one of the farmer who hosted the watermelon-eating contest. His son had taken over. He would still host the contest every year but there was a difference. When the older farmer gave us watermelons to eat he would ask us to spit out the seeds into a bowl. We were told not to bite into the seeds. He collected the seeds for his next crop. We were unpaid child workers, actually. He kept his best watermelons for the contest and he got the best seeds which would yield even bigger watermelons the next year.

His son, when he took over, realized that the larger watermelons would fetch more money in the market so he sold the larger ones and kept the smaller ones for the contest. The next year, the watermelons were smaller, the year later even smaller. In watermelons the generation is one year. In seven years, Parra's best watermelons were finished.

This story has a very powerful lesson. If we want to enjoy the fruit of success in life, we need to constantly work towards it, and sow good seeds with our constant efforts and good thoughts. This is the principle of nature. If you want to do well in academics, it is imperative that you study hard on a regular basis. If you want to excel in a sport, you must train regularly. If you want to be a good musician, you have to do your regular riyaz. You should not expect success if you have not put in the required effort for it. Similarly, if we want our children to grow up to be good humans, we have to impart good values in them in their childhood. We have to teach them with our own example.

Kabir has expressed this natural principle very well in this couplet:

करता रहा सो क्यों रहा,
अब करी क्यों पछताए |
बोये पेड़ बबूल का,
अमुआ कहा से पाए |

Meena Jain has a very inspiring comment to add to this:
If you you sow honesty, you will reap trust.
If you sow goodness, you will reap friends.
If you sow humility, you will reap greatness.
If you sow perseverance, you will reap victory.
If you sow consideration, you will reap harmony.
If you sow hard work, you will reap success.
If you sow forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
If you sow openness, you will reap intimacy.
If you sow patience, you will reap improvements.
If you sow faith, you will reap miracles.

But

If you sow dishonesty, you will reap distrust.
If you sow selfishness, you will reap loneliness.
If you sow pride, you will reap destruction.
If you sow jealousy, you will reap trouble.

सुन्दर विचारों की माला

I am grateful to my friends, who keeps sending me beautiful and inspiring messages. I am bringing a compilation of some of the best messages from them:                      

Self-Management 


नाम और पहचान भले ही छोटी हो,
मगर खुद की होनी चाहिए।                       

कुछ भी अच्छा या बुरा नहीं होता,
बस सोच उसे ऐसा बनाती है.                       

एक शख्स बनकर ना जिओ,
बल्कि एक शख्सियत बनकर जिओ...
क्योंकि शख्स तो मर जाता है,
पर शख्सियत हमेशा जिंदा रहती है... 


अगर दुनिया आपकी ईमानदारी पर संदेह करे तो दुखी नहीं होना चाहिये,
क्योंकि संदेह सोने की शुद्धता पर किया जाता है, लोहे की नहीं ।

किसी काम को करने के बारे में बहुत देर तक सोचते रहना
अक्सर उसके बिगड़ जाने का कारण बनता है।

वो शख्स जिंदगी में कभी नहीं हार सकता
जो दर्द बर्दाश्त करना जानता हों


जिनका स्वभाव अच्छा होता है।
उन्हें कभी प्रभाव दिखाने की जरूरत नहीं होती है।       


Relationships

रिश्ते एहसास के होते हैं,
अगर एहसास हो तो अजनबी भी अपने होते हैं,
और अगर एहसास ना हो तो अपने भी अजनबी हो जाते हैं।

खुद का मान अगर चाहो तो औरों का भी मान रखो..
कहने को अगर जीभ मिली है तो सुनने को भी कान है.                       

युद्ध को समाप्त करने का सबसे तेज़ तरीका है उसे हारना,
ख़ास तौर पर तब जब वो युद्ध अपनों के साथ हो।

दूसरों को नसीहत देना तथा आलोचना करना सबसे आसान काम है,
सबसे मुश्किल काम है चुप रहना और आलोचना सुनना !    

कोई हमारी गलतियां निकालता है तो हमें खुश होना चाहिए,
क्योंकि कोई तो है जो हमें पूर्ण दोष रहित बनाने के लिए अपना दिमाग और समय दे रहा है |

बिखरने" के बहाने तो बहुत मिल जायेंगे,
आओ हम "जुड़ने" के अवसर खोजे

अगर एक हारा हुआ इंसान हारने के बाद भी मुस्करा दे,
तो जीतने वाले को भी अपना बना लेता है|

तोड़ कर जोड़ लो चाहे हर चीज़ दुनिया की,
सब की मरम्मत मुमकिन है एतबार के सिवा |

किसी की "टाँग" खींचने के बजाय,
किसी का "हाथ" खींच कर उपर लेना बेहतर होता है !

Happiness

ख़ुशी पैसों पर नहीं, परिस्थितियों पर निर्भर करती है...
एक बच्चा गुब्बारा ख़रीद कर ख़ुश था तो दूसरा उसे बेच कर |

मिलता तो बहुत कुछ है इस ज़िन्दगी में,
बस हम गिनती उसी की करते है जो हासिल ना हो सका,
क्यों न जो है उसमे ख़ुश रहना सीखे?

जरूरी नहीं कि मिठाई खिलाकर दूसरों का मुंह मीठा करें,
आप मीठा बोलकर भी लोगों को खुशियाँ दे सकते हैं....

यदि आप अपनी ज़िंदगी से खुश नहीं हो,
तो सोचे उन लोगों के बारे में जो आप जैसी ज़िंदगी जीने के लिए तरसते है।