Depression as Blessing

A recent research study found that traits like sadness and defeatism define depression but they have their positive side, too. The research conducted by the University of Basel, Switzerland, says depressive individuals perform better than their normal peers in decision-making tasks.

What is depression? Depression is a symptom of deprivation. When you think that you are seriously lacking in something that you earnestly desire, this thought is bound to lead to depression. Depression is not a physical phenomenon; it is psychological in nature. If you feel that you have gained what you wanted to gain, that will give you a sense of satisfaction. But when you feel that you have failed to achieve your goal it leads to depression. In the first case, your life very soon comes to a full stop, but in the second case your life goes on, punctuated by commas.

Unpleasant experiences are painful but they make a necessary contribution to advanced intellectual development. Without undergoing this kind of experience, no one can be a super achiever.

A survey undertaken earlier entailed studying the lives of one hundred super achievers in order to discover their common features. It observed that one common trait of all these super achievers was discontent.

Discontent not only leads to an unending passion to achieve some prospective goal but it also engenders an unremitting urge to achieve more and more. Thus it becomes the master key for a high degree of success, whatever the field of action. Where contentment puts a full stop to everything, discontent pushes you on a non-stop journey. This is the greatest advantage of depression.

History has always shown that those living in carefree comfort, and not therefore a prey to despair, have generally failed to achieve any notable success; in contrast to those who beset by adversity, have fallen into depression only to emerge subsequently as super achievers.

If, according to the law of nature, the journey of super achievement pursues a painful course, you are bound to keep to that course. In this case, you have only two options; either achieve super success by paying its natural price, or die without ever knowing super achievement

Nature has demonstrated this fact in several ways. For example, if you want a glass of apple juice, you have to crush an apple. This applies to anyone who wants to be a super achiever: He is to oblige to tread the thorny path prescribed by nature because, without fulfilling this condition, no one can reach his desired goal.

It is a fact of life that one who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth is fated to live out his life as an average person, whereas those who are born without this silver spoon contrive to achieve great success.

In the beginning, depression seems to be a curse but in the end, depression turns out to be a blessing. In fact, depression is only a temporary phase of life. It is in no way permanent. Depression is like a tedious journey. During this journey, you may be tired or bored, but when you reach your destination, you experience total happiness and satisfaction.

Freedom and Responsibility

Responsibility and freedom go together. If you don't want to take responsibility, you can't have freedom either. The two come together or they go together: If you shun responsibility, you have to accept slavery in some way or other.

Now, you had dreamed about freedom without every thinking that great responsibility will follow. Freedom you have, but you have not fulfilled the responsibility. Hence, sadness lingers around you. You are absolutely capable of removing this sadness. If you were capable of destroying your slavery, your chains, you are certainly capable of being creative.

Freedom means you will have to be responsible for every act, for every breath; whatever you do or don't do, you will be responsible. People are really in deep fear of freedom, although they talk about freedom. But my own experience is: Very few people really want freedom; because they are subconsciously aware that freedoms will b ring many problems that they are not ready to face. it is better to remain in cozy imprisonment. It is warmer, and what will you do with freedom? Unless you are ready to be a seeker, a searcher, a creator...... Very few people want to go on a pilgrimage or to go into deeper silences of the heart, or to take the responsibility of love. The implications are great.

You will have to dispel that darkness; otherwise sooner or later you will enter into a prison. You cannot go on burdening yourself with sadness. Before the burden becomes too much and forces you back into slavery, into imprisonment, change the whole situation by being a creative person. Just find out what is your joy in life, what you would like to create, what you would like to be, what you want to be your definition.

Freedom is simply an opportunity to find a definition for yourself, a true, authentic individuality, and a joy in making the world around you a little better, a little more beautiful - a few more roses, a little more greenery and a few more oases.

Madam Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, used to carry two bags in her hands, always. Either going for a morning walk or travelling in a train -those two bags were always in her hands. And she was throwing something out of those bags - from the window while sitting in the train - onto the side of the train.

People would ask, "Why do you do this?" She would say, "this has been my whole life's habit. these are seasonal flower seeds. I may not come back on this route again, but that does not matter: When the season comes and the flowers will blossom, thousands of people who pass every day in this line of railway trains will see those flowers, those colors. They will not know me. That does not matter.:

"One thing is certain: I am making a few people happy somewhere. That much I know. It does not matter whether they know it or not. What matters is that I have been doing something which will make somebody happy. Some children may come and pluck a few flowers and go home. Some lovers may come and make garlands for each other. And without their knowing, I will be part of their love. And I will be part of the joy of children. And I will be a part of those who will be simply passing by the path, seeing the beautiful flowers."

Body should be Healthy and Strong

Meaning: The line of Athervaved 5/3/1 says us that – for victory in the struggle in this world, it is necessary that the body be healthy and strong. A weak body does not have that strength and luster by which to rule and lead.

Message: Man is a social animal. He shines with the qualities of mutual cooperation and generosity. He opens many varieties of doors to knowledge, experience, means, production, contemplation and development by cooperating with others through intellectual and active cooperation and can move forward on the road to progress. But not every man can do this. There are also wicked, men with bad tendencies and bad conduct in the society who work for harming others, instead of mutual cooperation. They go on spreading bad thoughts, bad habits, bad customs and anarchy everywhere. Government can punish some criminals, provide the means for economic progress, but it is beyond
Government’s control to abolish individual foolishness, wickedness, social corruption and disorganizations.

In a democracy, the responsibility for human and societal reforms is that of public servants or social workers. They have to provide leadership to the society on this front. Only such men can be capable in raising high the level of the society and the nation. For that, first one’s own individual life has to be made of a high level so as to be able to influence others properly. He has to lay an ideal before the society by his own conduct. By looking at the sorrows and difficulties of others, he has to reduce his own facilities, has to deal courteously and in a civilized manner with others, speak pleasantly and keep his promises, has to adopt the policy of honesty and present the ideal of fulfilling properly his responsibility to the society. It is very difficult to change the bad customs in the society. For that he has to establish the traditions of healthy customs. For reforming the society, for running it and for spreading healthy traditions, constant struggle is required.

To develop such capacity for leadership, physical and spiritual strength is necessary. It is most important that the body be well built and disease-free. Gandhiji was extremely weak in built and very thin, but he had the brightness of spiritual strength which astounded the whole world. The daring produced by profound spiritual strength becomes capable of battling the bad customs of the society. In this battle there is resistance from every side, ridicule and non cooperation from the people and the social reformer has to make the tremendous effort of swimming against the current. Only with strong health at both individual and societal levels, the bliss and contentment of material and spiritual progress like that of civilized and organized people can be achieved.

This is the only royal road to victory in the struggle in this world.

PURPOSE OF THE MIND

To bring a sense of purpose and better quality into our lives we must look at the nature and working of our very mind itself. The mind is meant to absorb information, transform it into knowledge and lead it into action. Action and speech determined the quality of our life and these comes from the mind itself.

First let us understand the nature of absorption of the mind. Wise man who have delved into the truth of this have said that most people’s minds are as hard as a rock. Just as a rock is impervious to water, information that falls on a hard mind bounces off without a trace. A hard mind offers immense resistance to previously absorbed information that prevents the flow of knowledge and action.

Our mind must be as soft as a sponge for maximum absorption. Just as water can be easily absorbed by the sponge and squeezed out, a soft mind easily absorbs information and allows free flow of knowledge into action. The two processes are reversible –a soft or open mind can be easily hardened and a hard or closed mind can be easily softened.

What makes our mind hard or closed? Ancient sages have said that this is an automatic, front-line defense mechanism for the protection of our belief systems based on our state of ego. If we encounter an idea or a situation that is not in line with our thinking, we immediately closed our mind by putting up a block against it. Ego creates mindset. Mindset is a protective mechanism of self-defense because we are scared of what others think about our notions and beliefs. This mindset is self-destructive. For example, a simple discussion develops into an argument and leads to a verbal or physical fight.

Mere gathering of information by our mind is useless. We must transform this into knowledge. Our mind must be extremely pure to be able to perform this conversion efficiently. The results of an impure mind will rebound while the work of a pure mind will reach out for common welfare.

A pure, soft mind is gateway to divine living. Thinking positive isn’t enough, you need to think divine. Only then can we soften and purify our mind. We should review the working of our mind at least three times a day. Was my mind aggressive or calm? Did my words and actions hurt or bring joy to people? An object that slips out of our hand can be recovered, but an inappropriate word that slips out of our tongue cannot be erased. Self-review will free our mind of all obstruction. Ideas and inspiration flash freely in a pure mind to transform information to knowledge.

Three basic steps can be followed: First, allow others the freedom to be as they are, without imposing your mindset of thoughts and ideas. Second, have faith and belief that God is in you. Third, spend some time quietly everyday thinking about your inner self and chanting the name of God. This way our mind which seeks information can be changed into a mind meant for the transformation of our very life itself from human to Divine.

The light that comes from the sun illuminates the whole world, and that which is in the moon, and in the fire; know that light to be Mine.  - Bhagavad Gita 15:12

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KNOW YOUR VALUE SYSTEM

Every choice we make has consequences, whatever obvious or not. What seems a great choice at the moment may perhaps have negative consequences later on? A holistic way to approach choices and consequences is to examine our personal value system.

There once was mountaineering team that had prepared for three years for a competitive clime. When they finally began, somewhere after the second camp they came across a seriously injured climber in need of medical assistance. Those were the days of no cell phones. One of the members of the team, seeing the dire situation, and obviously out of a strong value system, decided to drop out of the climb and help to bring down the injured person. No amount of pleading from his team convinced him to do otherwise. And their argument was that “we have our own agenda and this case is of no concern to us”.

If you have been brought up to be caring as soon as a situation presents itself, you are prompted to action. Take the example of someone with a hundred-rupee note on a busy street corner looking desperately for change today for an auto rickshaw and getting refused by people around/ As  soon as you see this you know you have the required change as well as the willingness to relieve another person from difficulty and anxiety. You also know that you might one day be in the same situation. “Do unto others what you would like them the Golden Rule, because it is an eternal value.

So you approach the person, respond to the need and walk away. You feel good about yourself because there was congruence between your value system and the choice you made.

What is this ‘congruence?’ It is a match between value and action. Sometimes we are faced with choices that are not congruent with our value system; extreme ones are like having to perhaps pay a bribe for something that is our legitimate right.

How we respond to a situation depends on how strongly we wish to uphold our personal value system. It helps if you take time to write down a set of values that you believe in. Then comes the real test, of living the value. The strange thing is that, whenever we make a commitment to ourselves, all sorts of situations pot up to test us.

Making a good living, being peaceful, helpful, sharing resources – these are all values. Out of these values we make choices and take action. Interestingly, every choice we make has a price. In the case of the mountaineer he paid the price of not reaching the summit, with all the successes that could have followed; perhaps also of having let down his team. He let all that go for saving a life.

Values determine our action preferences and priorities. When asked why he had done this, the young mountaineer’s response was, “If I had let that young man die, no matter what success I achieved, I could not have lived with the thought for the rest of my life.” A rabbinic text encourages us: “in places where there are no human beings, be one.”

The yogic scheme of yamas talks about values that are connected with interactions with others. Another is the four-fold maîtri –karuna –mudita -upeksha or universal friendship, compassion; joy in others’ happiness and consideration for others. If you add these two sets you get a comprehensive value system that can stand the test of time and you will notice that all spiritual traditions are in conformity with these.

JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY

Even as children, we dream. We try to realize our dreams all throughout our lives. However, when our dreams remain unfulfilled, we tend to sink into dejection and get disillusioned. Of the several attributes that define humankind, there is I dare say just one which meets with more general approbation. That is we’re born with an innate feeling which tells us that we are a shade better than that intolerant neighbor and that incompetent colleague. This uncanny awareness constitutes one of the first characteristic of our being. Indeed, the most ordinary thing about each individual is the fact that he thinks himself a little bit out of the ordinary. In thinking, so we acknowledge only a portion of the truth, the other half of which we unwittingly choose to dismiss – the fact that every individual, without expectation is born different and is therefore, unique. It is true that the first step in the direction of unraveling our potential is to understand, in view of our circumstances, the role that we can best play. Discovering our uniqueness must be the starting point. Explaining the situation of one who is bereft of this knowledge, Prophet Muhammad said: “The condition of an unwise man is that of an animal who is not aware of why his master has tried it or untied it.” To me, the urgent, unaddressed question is: Why do most people, if they are born unique and consequently talented in some sense of the word, not achieve the success to which they are entitled? The answer to the question as to why many fail to actualize God-given gifts might, if looked at from different perspectives, have varying answers. To me, it is simply this: We have to pay a price to acquire anything at all in life. Nothing comes for free. Similarly the unique individual can be brought out into the light only after paying the due price. “Ek kaam ko karne ke liya dusre kaam chhodne padte hain” – to do one task, you might hav eto abandon some others – said a wise Sufi. Therefore, to bring to the surface that extra ordinaries, to reveal the measure of your mind, you must work towards achieving it with complete dedication and undivided attention, consigning all else to the back burner. It must be conceded, moreover, that this is not an easy path to tread. Embarking on such a journey calls for practicing an iron restraint over our whims and fancies, recognizing the need to control unruly emotions and avoiding every distraction. Problems that multiply our fears and shake our resolve will show up at every corner. It is in such situations that we must hold on. To overcome such unpleasant occurrences one ought to rise above life’s frivolities. The seeker will falter commit mistakes, and sometimes even get derailed; it will require colossal courage to get up again and march ahead with renewed zeal and determination. Life is an opportunity. It gives us the freedom to act as we would want to. If we fail to avail of this because of our own neglect, we shall have no justification for complaining later. The journey of Self-discovery can be rewarding nd exciting if only we focus more on positive as well as extraordinary aspects.

LIBERATION FROM PERSONHOOD

The brain’s various centers are each designated for a specific function. The senses take cognition of the environment. The anthropological basis of the nervous system was to facilitate an interaction with the environment, based on the individual’s awareness of being separate from the environment. All senses sub-serve the function of underlining a sense of discreteness. Touch, taste, sound, smell and vision are instruments of discrimination. The entity that integrates these inputs and collectively coordinates them as a subject is the assumed ‘identity. The coordinated output of separateness that the senses keep generating is ego.

The brain helps fragment awareness into the subjective ‘self’ and objective ‘non-self’ are vital for each other’s symbiotic existence. Our own identity relies on our ability to perceive our self as uniquely different and distanced from the environment. Various detrimental states of consciousness, such as feeling drowsy, deep sleep, semi consciousness or even an unconsciousness state are familiar. Therefore, it is only logical to believe in states where there is an incremental increase in the level of consciousness.

If identity was base merely on a deep rooted sense of discreteness that the senses generate, would a person, alone in a dark, quiet room – whose brain is not being fed with sensory inputs – consider himself as non-existent? N unconscious person doesn’t interact with the environment but might be assumed to possess an ‘am-ness’ that is partial and aware of only the ‘self’ without comprehending or interacting with the environment. It’s a state of partial awareness.

A seizure that arises in the portions of the limbic system – papologetically one of the oldest groups of neurons – could give rise to profound spiritual experiences. Repeated bursts of abnormal electrical activity can facilitate a new pathway within the compels network of neurons. This is called ‘kindling’ – where consciousness may be getting defragmenter leading to an un-split awareness.

All sense organs route their inputs through the limbic system and to various designated areas. The sensation of extreme bliss generated by un-split awareness gets triggered by the limbic system and not in the frontal lobes, the seats of intelligence and logical analysis. Such experiences are hence states of altered awareness rather than conclusions arising as a result of intellectual through processing of the brain. The experience or realization that the am-ness of subject and object are of the same essence could be that final frontier of consciousness evolution, the attainment of state of super consciousness. Faith and devotion as ways to salvation rely on the dismantling of the worshipper’s identity and becoming one with the worshipped. That is, perhaps inputs that serve to generate and maintain a separateness of the self are modulated or filtered within the limbic system – a state of comprehensive, un-resurrected oneness.

It’s a paradoxical situation of the observer becoming the observed without the meditation of sense3 organs, by expanding awareness to a supra sensory level. Realization may well be a modulation and ‘kindling’ of the neural pathways leading to a perception of oneness with the entire cosmos. It would  then really be more a liberation from the person rather than of the person.