Everything You Always Wanted to Know About B+

How do you see people who are habitually positive thinkers? Do you think they are a part of some weird species with foolish dreams in their mind, ignoring the hard realities of life completely? Or does it sound like interesting stuff to you theoretically, but seems very complicated in practice. Or you may agree that positive thinking is good in practical life, but may have many questions about it, like:

• How do I find out if I am a positive thinker?
• If positive thinking is good for us, we would be naturally wired to be positive. Why all this effort?
• Are you telling me that nothing bad happens to those who think positive? Is it not a like a stock market bubble that is going to burst some day?
• Okay, I am convinced. How do I become a positive thinker?
• I have started being positive. But I still keep getting negative thoughts once in a while. How do I stop these?
• How far can my positive attitude alone can carry me? What lifeline do I have when faced with a extremely challenging situation in life on which I have little control? 

In this post, I will try to answer these questions. I will keep it short as I am writing it on a Friday evening. Initially thinking like a geek, I wanted to use the title "A FAQ on Being Positive", but I chose to reuse a popular phrase to catch your attention :)

How do I find out if I am a positive thinker?
Chances are that you may not know if you are a positive thinker or negative thinker. To find it out, observe yourself for a few days. Do not control your thoughts. Think and behave as you would do normally, but stay in touch with yourself and observe your behavior closely. Make a list of positive and negative phrases for yourself. You can start with the following list and extend it:

Positive              Negative
Yes                      No
Will try               Impossible
Good                   Bad
Hopeful               Hopeless
Luckily                Bad luck as usual                
Like                     Hate             
I look forward     No point
Exciting               Boring

Now pay attention to the language you use in every day life and count the occurrence of the above phrases. If you tend to use words on the left list more often, you are a positive thinker, else you may be a negative thinker.

If positive thinking is good for us, we would be naturally wired to be positive. Why all this effort?
Unfortunately, we are not naturally wired to be a positive thinker. If we allow ourselves to drift freely, we are more likely to end up being a negative thinker. Positive thinking is a skill that you need to learn, just like you learn to speak a language. You work on it gradually and with regular effort and practice, it gets easier over time. It may feel uneasy initially, but you will find that if you do not give up, it become a natural habit with time. 


Are you telling me that nothing bad happens to those who think positive? Is it not like a stock market bubble that will burst some day and leave me disillusioned? 
Be assured that it is not a bubble that will burst, but a life skill that will change you forever. Having said that, do not think that nothing bad happens to a positive thinker. Bad news and bad times are scattered all around us and are as much a reality of life as happiness. The key difference is that as a positive thinker, you learn to look at it as a glass that is half full, not half empty. Armed with your positive approach, you also handle the adversity differently, in a much better way. One more factor is that you avoid the secondary trouble you may get into by worrying too much about your problems.



Okay, I am convinced. How do I become a positive thinker?
Its a very interesting journey. A good place to start is by reading inspirational books and articles (like this blog). Talk to positive people around you to exchange notes. Apply these ideas that you learn in your day-to-day life. In the beginning, catch yourself after you have said something negative and correct it immediately. Later on catch your negative thoughts and learn to switch them.   


I have started being positive. But I still keep getting negative thoughts once in a while. How do I stop these?
You do not need to aim for perfection. It is fine to have occasional negative thoughts. It is just like chillies in your food. A little amount of chilly does not harm, and can even spice up the food, but can you eat a meal full of chillies?

How far can my positive attitude alone can carry me? How do I face extremely challenging situation in life on which I have little control?  
Faced with tough situation, you may need to resort to lifelines. You have two lifelines in this game - Phone a Friend, and Ask Him. You can seek guidance from a like-minded friend or family member when faced with a huge challenge. Many times, talking about a problem leads to the solution popping out like a bread from a toaster. The ultimate lifeline available to you is Ask Him. Take your problems to the Almighty, and use your faith in Him to sustain your confidence. Above all, be assured that He will do what is in your best interest. 

Do you have more questions that are not covered in this post? Do let me know through comments.

What is all this stuff about Religious Differences ?

I remember the following prayer we used to recite everyday in school:   

यम शैवा समुपासते, शिव इति, ब्रह्मेति वेदांती न

बौध बुध इति, प्रमाण पटवः, कर्तेति नैयायिकः

अर्हंनित्यथा जैन शासनार्थ, कर्मेति मीमांसका

क्राइस्ट क्रिस्तुरिति क्रियापरारतः, अल्लेती मोहम्मदः

सोयम नो विदधातु वज्चिता फ़लाम, त्रैलोक्य नाथो हरी
(Please ignore the errors in the text)

I knew at that time that these words roughly mean the following:

May the Lord of the universe, the remover of evil, whom  

the devotees of Shiva worship as Shiva,

the Vedantins as Brahman,

the Buddhists as Buddha,

the Naiyaayikas who specialize in knowledge as the chief agent,

those devoted to the Jain religion as Arhant,

the ritualists of the Mimamsa school as Karma,

the Christians as Christ,

the Mohammedans as Allah,

may He grant us all our heart’s desires.

However, I did not know the powerful implication of these words at that time. This prayer holds the key to bridging the religious differences and the resultant problems. How? Read on.

These days, we see a lot of hatred between different faiths, particularly between Hindu and Muslims. For example, you must have come across the following propaganda:

• Fight for protecting your Hindu brothers, else we will be extinct.
• Islam is in danger, come together to protect it.
• These people are out to convert all Hindus. Let us stop their nefarious designs.
• Let us all fight this Jehad against the enemies of Islam.
• Wake up and save Hindutva before it is too late.

This creates an impression that Hindus and Muslims have been fighting and they must fight each other. To support this view are numerous communal riots that have taken place throughout the country over the years. If you are a Hindu, such propaganda makes you view every Muslim with suspicion and hatred. If you are a Muslim, this makes you hate Hindus. Not only that, you feel encouraged to stop being passive and to take active part in this perpetual conflict between communities.

At times, one tends to get carried away with this flood of religious hatred, but then it feels counter intuitive and the heart shouts a loud, "STOP and THINK AGAIN". A question pops up, "As a Hindu, why do I have to hate Muslims and vice-versa?" Imagine the following situations for a moment:

• You are a Hindu and your Muslim neighbor is attacked in a riot, should you not help him just because he is from different religion? 
• You are a Hindu and you come across Muslims in your day-to-day life. Are they all hostile towards you?
• You have a very close friend, and he chooses to embrace Islam one day and becomes a Muslim. Will it change your behavior toward him? Will you consider him as your enemy from that day onwards?
• You have a long term enemy who is a Muslim. If he has a change of heart and becomes a Hindu, will it end your hatred towards him?

The above thought exercises must have convinced you that merely being Hindu or Muslim does not make a person an object of your love or hatred.Then why do WE have to fight THEM? One argument that we hear very often is that you have to do it to save your religion, else it will be extinct. Well, this is a very interesting myth. God is all powerful, and certainly He does not need our help to survive. As an example, Parsis are a very small community, but that does not mean that they have got eliminated by the bigger communities.

You may say that Hindus and Muslims are fundamentally poles apart, so they are destined to fight each other, but let us take a closer look at these differences that can not be reconciled. I list commonly cited differences below:

• Worship different Gods. 
• Different religious beliefs about life, death, soul, rebirth, and God.
• Different customs 
• Different position on idol worship

Worship different Gods

It is a myth that we worship different Gods, instead like the prayer says, we worship the same God  in different form, and give Him a different name. Every religion says that God is all powerful being, present everywhere. How is it possible to have more than one instances of such an all powerful being? It HAS to be the same God for everyone. 

Different religious beliefs about life, death, soul, rebirth, and God

Who can claim that he knows the real truth about the matters of life, death, soul and God? Every religion like Jainism, Buddhism, Parsis, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity has a different view on these issues. But this difference is not sufficient ground to breed hatred between the communities. If Jains and Hindus can co-exist peacefully, why not Muslims and Hindus?

Different customs 

Within Hindus there are wide range of customs practiced by different people. As you go to different states, you see very different customs. So, why should customs cause trouble? We live in a free society; I am free to follow my customs and you are free to follow yours.

Different Position on Idol Worship

Islam prohibits Idol Worship, and this is often seen as a key cause of conflict. However, when I discussed it with some Muslim friends, it became clear that the real objection is to worship an Idol like God. But if we look closely, Hindus treat the Idol not as God Himself, but more as a symbol through which they worship the supreme God. If that was not the case, they would not be doing visarjan of the Idol (Why would you immerse your God in water after you are done with your puja?). This is a vital point, which can really help bridge this gap between the two.

To conclude, religious difference should not cause hatred between communities. As a minimum we should learn to live together peacefully with our differences. At another level, we can also get the benefit of a richer spirituality from our differences. Religion is meant for seeking the purpose of life. Every religion has looked differently and discovered a part of the answer to this question. Let us not just hold on to our partial truth and discard what others have found. Let us use all the knowledge available to form a more complete answer. When we adopt this mindset, we will stop seeing the religious differences as a cause for conflict.  

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Sanjay Srivastava came up with this beautiful quote on this topic: 

If your God asks you to kill me, then he certainly did not create me. If he did not create me, he is a fake God.