Happiness Mantra

© 2012 by Madhukar Kakade. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/23/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-7778-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-7777-8 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Original Marathi Book

Sukh Yeta Tumchya Dari

By Madhukar Kakade,

Mrs. Jayashree Madhukar Kakade

Flat No. 11, Purushottam Apartment

901, Deccan Gymkhana,

Pune—411004 (India)

Cover Page

Sagar Nene

Contents

Happiness Mantra—Author’s View

Personal Profile

Happiness Mantra—Translator’s View

Arvind Vishnu Paranjpe Personal Profile

Chapter 1    A PLEASANT LIFE

Chapter 2    I WELCOME MY SELF AND MY LIFE

Chapter 3    DEFECTS IN THOUGHTS

Chapter 4     TRUTH & ILLUSION

Chapter 5    MISCONCEPTION

Chapter 6    THE JOURNEY OF A MISUNDERSTANDING

Chapter 7    MISUNDERSTANDINGS

Chapter 8    HOW BEHAVIOR OF ONE AFFECTS ANOTHER

Chapter 9     THE THREE MANTRAS

Chapter 10    LET US NOT CONFRONT LIFE; LET US LIVE WITH IT

Chapter 11    SPIRITUALITY IN DAILY LIFE

Bond Forever—Author’s View

Bond Forever—Translator’s View

Happiness Mantra—Author’s View

Something happens; you like it and you feel happy;

Something else happens; you do not like it and you feel unhappy!

But when something has to happen, it happens without seeking your permission for it to happen!

Yet the fact remains that everything that happens is not without reason; your own deeds and actions, your efforts and struggle have a direct relation with every happening in your life!

If you feel that a certain happening was not expected or was improper, the reason is that your personal valuation of your efforts and your opinion about your deeds were at variance with the happening. You must understand and accept the fact that many factors which caused that happening were and are beyond your control!

Actual results can never match your expectations at all times.

At times results are totally opposite of your expectations and you are grieved; disappointments breed sorrow.

There is yet another source of SORROWS-ACCIDENTS!

But accidents are not a regular feature of life; accident is an accident-it is an exceptional happening; a sudden huge loss in business, a serious physical injury, an unexpected death—accidents happen in various forms and ruin lives.

If we wish to remain HAPPY, we must extricate ourselves from all pain!

We must strive hard and bring happiness back in our lives by creating it afresh.

Obviously this is the path of positive attitude towards life but unfortunately, it is easily said than done! Some people believe that if you have suffered a loss in your business, you must strive hard and earn profit double the loss and regain your happiness!

But it is not easy and may not be practical to earn that huge profit after suffering a heavy loss; however, assuming that you do earn profit of that magnitude, your pain for having suffered the huge loss earlier still lingers; human mind is a peculiar composition, it refuses to forget pain!

Is there no way out?

Of course there is a way out!

You must realize that sorrows are a necessary part of LIFE; therefore let us ACCEPT this fact; every individual experiences sorrows which assume forms different in the life of different individuals;

You must accept the reality that when a particular event happens, there always exists the possibility that it could never have happened!

Secondly, the circumstances surrounding you today and your particular position are facts of life; you have no choice but to accept these because they are directly responsible for your joys and sorrows; you think about these circumstances and about your particular position and these thoughts create joys and sorrows in your mind. The truth is that sorrows and happiness are NO CONCRETE ENTITIES, THEY ARE STATES OF HUMAN MIND! Just imagine that you run away from your day to day life and seek shelter in a secluded place far away from your normal residence; imagine further that there is total silence in that shelter where you see nothing and hear nothing except your own breath; even there your mind experiences sorrows and joys turn by turn! This happens because we adopt positive and negative attitudes turn by turn!

This tendency to be possessed by positive and negative attitudes arises out of our own VIEW OF LIFE; once you consciously change that view, miracles happen! Facts do not change; what does change is their effect on our mind! Your JOURNEY OF LIFE then becomes less painful; it can then be MADE ENJOYABLE!

Sorrows can never be eliminated from LIFE, they can never be avoided; what CAN be done is to CHANGE the way you look at them! If you change the angle of your vision, the poignancy of every sorrow gets blunt and your sadness gradually vanishes which is always a precursor to HAPPINESS!

You are then pleasantly surprised to discover that every moment, every second, every minute every hour, every day as it presents itself, is full of JOY & HAPPINESS! Do you ask for something different? When that happens, you realize that there is no need to postpone and keep waiting the JOYS OF LIFE (!); you do not have to look up, EXPECTENTLY, THAT SOME DAY IN FUTURE YOU MAY GAIN HAPPINESS; you don’t have to waste precious moments of your present life shedding tears; you experience that you are HAPPY at this very moment and will continue to be HAPPY FOREVER!

Sorrows and Happiness are part of human life; train your mind to ACCEPT them and to DISCOVER the POSITIVE ASPECTS HIDDEN IN THEM; POSITIVITY EXISTS EVERYWHERE BECAUSE IT IS AN ATTRIBUTE OF GOD AND HE IS OMNIPRESENT!

Let me repeat what I have been saying; I must REPEAT because that is so important!

You need to do just two things:

Accept the possibility that things may happen different from or totally opposite of your EXPECTATIONS; once you accept this as THE FACT OF LIFE there is no room for sorrows any more in the PRESENT!

Secondly, be sure that once you change the way you look at life, no sorrow can ever torment your mind!

You may be wondering HOW this miracle takes place!

That is precisely why I am bringing this book to you!

Madhukar Kakade

Personal Profile

Mr. Madhukar Kakade is a Mechanical Engineer by education. Since 1981, he is working with Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE), Pashan, Pune as a Class I Gazetted Officer

www.secretsofhappylife.org

e mail: [email protected]

Mr. Kakade, apart from being an avid reader of Marathi literature has also contributed to it in his own unique style. He has authored many books & articles and acted in dramas and plays.

What makes people unhappy? is one question which puts him in deep thought. Over the years he has tried his level best to find the answer(s) to this question. He shares his Secrets Of Happy Life with unhappy people by delivering lectures, conducting workshops and by offering one-to-one counseling

Role as a counselor

Mr. Kakade has been playing the role of a counselor since the year 2000. He specializes in:

•   Pre & Post Marriage Counseling

•   Career Counseling

•   Parental Counseling

•   Relationship Counseling

•   General Counseling

Role as a writer

Mr. Kakade has authored many books, dramas and articles. They include the following:

●   Books

o   Nanda Saukhya Bhare—Marathi

o   Sukha Yeta Tumchya Dari—Marathi

o   Purushartha—Marathi

o   Bond Forever—English

o   Happiness Mantra—English

●   Dramas

o   Wadal

o   Agnikund

o   Saptapadee

o   Waradhasta

o   Ladaki Soon

o   Dharpakad

o   Lagams

Role as an actor

Mr. Kakade has performed in many dramas and one-act plays. They include:

•   Lagnachi Bedi

•   Varacha Majala Rikama

•   Sasarebuwa Jara Japun

•   Atun Kirtan Varun Tamasha

•   Dev Manus

•   Saptapadi

•   Ladaki Soon

Role as a speaker

Mr. Kakade has delivered a series of lectures on varying topics such as:

•   Happy marriage life

•   Beginning of married life

•   Review at midnight

•   Sex—Happiness & Problems

•   Professional approach to married life

•   Spiritual approach to married life

•   Success, creative & progress

•   Frustration, The Dead End

•   Forget, Forgive & Leave

•   With free life

•   Act, React & Effect

Happiness Mantra—Translator’s View

„Man pines for what is NOT!"

Unfortunately, man further adds to his woes by refusing to recognize

What IS!

Man suffers because he fails to benefit from the innumerable offerings of Happiness, Joy and Bliss which GOD the ALMIGHTY bestows on us and which are strewn allover, at every step and at all times of man’s daily existence.

The author highlights precisely this fact and meticulously analyses behavior patterns of the common man.

Great men advise us to look at the half-full portion of a glass and to ignore the empty half;

The author teaches the reader

How to Discover, Taste and Enjoy ELIXIR out of a totally EMPTY cup!

The author initiates the reader with a unique MANTRA

„FORGET, FORGIVE AND LEAVE"

He insists that this MANTRA will enable the reader to discover happiness in every situation in life.

This book like the author’s earlier book BOND FOREVER has an appeal to the common man; it can make his day to day life happier, joyful and thoroughly enjoyable.

Therefore I feel this book also needs to reach every nook and corner of the world; one way to achieve that end is to present it in a language which is understood by the largest number of people which is English!

This is why I felt duty bound to translate it and present it to you.

I appeal to experts in other languages to take this book one more step ahead by translating it into other languages like

FRENCH, GERMAN, RUSSIAN, CHINESE etc.

Arvind Vishnu Paranjpe

Personal Profile

Mr. Arvind Vishnu Paranjpe is a retired Scientist and Deputy Director from Armament Research & Development Establishment PUNE. During his long service of 43 years he participated in the development and productionization of several ARMAMENT items.

Mr. Paranjpe graduated in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and History. He holds Masters Degrees in Applied Mathematics, History and Philosophy. Because of his social approach and loving nature, he has been friend, philosopher and guide to hundreds of people.

He is the founder secretary/chairman/president of the following co-operative organizations:

R&D Consumer Co-operative Stores Limited, Pune

ARMEX EMPLOYEES Co-operative Credit Society, Pune

SUMEDHA Co-operative Housing Society, PUNE

Presently Chairman of Shree Guru RAMAKRISHNA Co-operative Housing Society, Pune &

President of Ramakrishna Energy & Environment Foundation, Pune.

He was born in Pune, Maharshtra, India on 20th August, 1933. Today at the age of seventy eight he is as dynamic and active as he was in his thirties.

*     *     *

Chapter 1

A PLEASANT LIFE

What is a pleasant life?

The common man wants to lead his life according to his will; in his opinion, this means a pleasant life! We must appreciate that this interpretation is very important because it immediately establishes a direct relationship between our daily routine life and pleasure!

But do we really need to define everything afresh? I do not think so because generally speaking, every idea, every term and every concept has been analyzed, described and defined by our great philosophers, saints and thinkers! These are enshrined, along with the greatest truths realized by them, in various treatises and books!

Unfortunately, most of us never open these; we pack them up very respectfully and ceremoniously in expensive silks and offer our prayers to them. Do we realize that this amounts to showing contempt towards these great books?

These books are considered as holy, religious treatises and are respected as enshrining within them greatest principles and spiritual teachings! India boasts of a rich heritage of numerous such books written by devoted saints who have been bringing those teachings within reach of the common man by elucidating the teachings in a language understood by the common man and in a manner which can be easily adopted and practiced by him in his day to day life!

For the benefit of the illiterate masses, saints have been educating them by touring the entire country for ages and giving discourses, composing devotional songs and organizing other similar communication.

The authors of these great books were real stalwarts; they were gifted souls who were born with unique intelligent insight and an urge for finding the ULTIMATE TRUTH; spiritual realization came to them easily. Sant Dnyaneshwar created the great treatise „DNYANESHWARI" at the age of 16; this is perhaps the best commentary on BHAGWAD GEETA. The ULTIMATE TRUTH, which eludes great ascetics even after they perform penance for thousand years, was realized by great spiritual souls like Dnyaneshwar.

We know that scientists, thinkers, psychologists and philosophers all over the world have delivered to humanity a very rich treasure of knowledge; possibly, there is no subject under the sun which has escaped the scrutiny of these great people; name a subject or an idea and one would find many books written on it. Many of the conclusions and findings which emerge from this vast ocean of literature are no different from the teachings propounded by our saints from time immemorial. As science advances day by day, this identity gets fortified stronger and stronger.

Our great saints have been trying to educate the common man in light of the knowledge realized by them; this has been a continuous process, every age has its own set of problems and a different ambience and knowing this, our saints translate the age old knowledge into the language of the prevailing age so that the masses are able to assimilate that knowledge and can make use of it in their day to day life.

As a counselor trying to sort out family problems, I had an opportunity to experience some glimpses of that knowledge. My one and the single aim in writing this book is to acquaint the common man, particularly the modern youth with those glimpses, with all respect to the great men of our great country! I am thoroughly convinced that this book will bring you immense peace and prepare your mind to experience and enjoy every moment of your day to day life!

Mind & Pleasure

Modern science has reached a very important conclusion:

"MIND IS AN IMAGINARY SPACE! All our thoughts, passions, emotions, feelings and sentiments are born in the BRAIN; before these materialize in actual concrete actions, they must be fitted in a detailed plan of action; this process of preparing the plan is carried out in that space which is called the MIND. It is in this space that the aim of each action is defined; the manner in which the action has to be enacted and the speed with which the action needs to be carried out are also decided here; the possible effects of those actions and the severity of those effects are assessed in the same space; preparations to face all those effects are also made here! Before all this can happen, a great vigorous churning of thoughts, feelings and emotions takes place in this very space!

If this space is large, sensitive and capable of handling all situations, the person is wise; this person is prudent, practical, realistic and very balanced in his thoughts; by nature he is calm, affectionate and keen to help others; he has genuine respect for the rights of others; he acknowledges the noble principles of liberty, equality and fraternity.

When the thoughts, feelings and emotions born in the brain materialize into actions without the intense churning in the mind, the result, generally, is disastrous! Later the person may explain his erratic behavior by pleading that his mind was not in normal state; I would rather say that his mind did not exist for that period of time!

My dear friends, pleasures have arrived at your doorstep; before you start asking me questions like how’ and why’, you must welcome those pleasures; they have arrived at your service because you have done some good work before; this is the fruit of your own deeds that pleasures have arrived for you to enjoy, this is the practical working of the LAW OF KARMA which enables you to understand the precise worth of your actions in the past!

HIS GRACE AND KINDNESS have only accelerated the process of good deeds resulting into pleasures; please do not forget that GOD has chosen to accelerate that process only because your pious deeds made HIM appreciate your goodness and prompted HIM to be kind to you; this is my answer to your query—HOW is it that the PLEASURE INCARNATE has presented himself at my door.’

If you do not believe that the PLEASURE has indeed arrived at your doorstep, this book will prove it to you and will empower you to receive that pleasure and enjoy it to the full!

Pleasures & Happiness

Pleasure is a relative concept; the same pleasure delivered to the same person, may have different effects at different times; different pleasures may have the same effect on different individuals!

Pleasure is invariably associated with something; objects, individuals, ideas and pre-conceptions about objects and individuals, place, time, role models, values, aims in life, etc. Pleasure is also linked with emotions, ones capabilities and competence, ambitions, desires etc.

When we consider a single individual, all these entities vary over time; because CHANGE is one UNCHANGING CHARACTERISTIC of life! Naturally, pleasures associated with these entities also change. Therefore one is tempted to think that all pleasures are fickle; actually what does change is the effect which is produced by the pleasure because pleasure by itself has no meaning!

The mind desires happiness from pleasure; in fact it may not be incorrect to say that the entity which delivers happiness to the mind is PLEASURE! It is in this sense that I maintain that PLEASURE per se has no meaning!

HAPPINESS is GOD. In this form, HE PERMEATES EVERY THING; HIS presence is felt, prominently, in all forms of life. HE is omnipresent and independent; everything and every life are derived from HIM (but HE is connected to none). When we experience HIS presence, we are filled with joy leaving no space for anything else!

Therefore, we must train our mind to feel HIM every where and at all times; once the mind attains that state, happiness becomes independent of pleasure. When our vision becomes steady in HIM, all experiences become pleasant; one becomes a loving, merciful and sensible person who remains peaceful, contented and happy irrespective of anything and everything because now the ENTITY which brings happiness to him is the UNLIMITED SUPREME POWER, the essence of vitality—GOD!

Let us understand What Sorrow is?

Whatever brings HAPPINESS is pleasure; therefore, we are tempted to say, all that destroys HAPPINESS is sorrow!" When things happen according to our wishes we feel HAPPY; therefore, when things do not happen according to our wishes we feel sorrowful!

Thus one may be inclined to say that the word opposite of HAPPINESS is SORROW but in my opinion, this is wrong; nothing can contradict HAPPINESS, leave alone the idea of destroying it! The VITAL FORCE OF LIFE which pervades the entire universe is OMNIPOTENT, nothing can affect it! I would rather define SORROW as that which is unacceptable to us; when things do not happen according to ones wishes, sorrow creeps in; in that sense, I have listed below things which can cause sorrow.

1.   Disappointment, Cheating by others and Betrayal.

2.   Failure.

3.    Sickness.

4.    Total weakness, financial weakness in particular.

5.   Loneliness.

6.    Insult, Unacceptable treatment by others.

7.    Repentance, Feeling of guilt.

8.    Injustice, Coercion, Pain.

9.    Inferiority complex.

10.    Fear, Trepidation.

11.    Inability to identify what one wants or needs.

12.    Forced to act opposite to what had been decided earlier.

13.    One expects a certain position in the family and in the society but one fails to achieve that.

14.    One expects to get the life partner and a home according to ones dreams but in reality one fails to get both.

These are some of the common grievances of the common man; apart from these, some very personal reasons may exist. Exceptionally tragic situations can arise, calamities may strike the life of the common man and serious difficulties may threaten to disrupt his family; under such circumstances the common man gets demoralized; his brain and his heart both break down; and he feels totally defeated. No wonder he is grieved, no parroting can help! He must fend for himself. He must accept the fact that he has to put up a lonely fight and must ask his mind to be brave!

Let me suggest one MANTRA to you.

Some things happen; certain other things do not happen. Keep away from questions like this—Why do certain things happen and why other things do not happen?

Do not torment your mind thinking on―Why things do not happen?’’

Instead of wasting your precious time on that question, ACCEPT THAT THINGS DID NOT HAPPEN.

If you accept that fact quickly, the darkness in your mind will vanish and your eyes will be able to see clearly the path ahead! Find out what you can do under the given circumstances; once you clear off the obvious impossible from your mind, you will be able to think out the possibilities; once you understand what is beyond your reach, you will be able to identify things which you can get!

This is the only way to rid yourself of the cruel despondency which had been clouding your mind; only then you can focus your entire mental abilities and strength on things which are achievable; just put a cross against the impracticable things; by doing so you are going to save and preserve your energy and stamina which alone can pull you out of the mire!

You cannot turn the clock backwards; what has happened is gone, no one can retrieve it; forget it even though it has caused you immense harm. There is a saying, Do not cry over the spilt milk!’ Whatever is left with you is the reality; take care of that and if possible, enhance its value!

You must have a positive attitude towards life; your actions must respect that attitude and proceed in a positive direction. You must remember that an optimistic mind can achieve things which appear impossible to get; the optimistic mind will propel you out of the most difficult situations and will enable you to make a fresh start; sometimes you may not even be conscious of the new beginning!

THIS IS MY MANTRA WHICH IS A PROVED REMEDY; IT HAS WITHSTOOD THE TEST OF TIME!

Who am I?

Most of us are confronted by this question many occasions in life; and followed by this question, a host of other similar questions crop up in our minds—Why am I born and brought in this world? There are so many people around me, relatives, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, colleagues and others; what is my relationship with these people? What is the purpose of all these relationships? What is this society of which I am a part?

All these questions confuse ones mind and some times various thoughts torment it. One wonders how exactly are ones pleasures and happiness affected by these people and by the many things which are around him/her.

These tormenting thoughts are like bees; when you try to extract honey from their hive, they are aroused if their hive is disturbed and then they attack most ferociously and draw blood; but if you know the trick, you can procure the sweet honey from their hive without disturbing it; it may so happen that a few bees do get you and you suffer some odd bites; but if ultimately you are going to get the honey, a few bites may be worth it!

Therefore when thoughts start tormenting you, the first thing which must be done, is to keep cool, the mind should never lose its peace and poise, like you take care not to disturb the hive! Allow the mind to go to the root of all those thoughts; after a little effort and study, you get to the TRUTH, the HONEY; a little mental agony will be worth the ULTIMATE TRUTH!

What is True and What is False?

A normal person may be awake for about 16 hours and may be sleeping for the rest 8 hours; which portion is the real life? A normal human being sleeps for almost 20 years in his life time-will it be reasonable to assume that sleep is all false-hood? Sleep and wakefulness are two parts of the same ONE LIFE! Some people go beyond sleep and wakefulness and argue that the entire life is a FALSEHOOD! If that is so what is the reality?

It is true that we are born; it is also true that we will die! How is it then that the entire life between these two facts is false? Philosophically speaking, life may be considered as falsehood because the ULTIMATE TRUTH is only one which is GOD, THE SUPERIOR MOST AUTHORITY! There can be no other EXISTENCE!

Yet, for the common man, life has to be accepted as the reality; it is only through this life that he can reach the ULTIMATE TRUTH! The day to day life must be accepted because if you run away from the surroundings, you start dreaming and you create an imaginary world around you! Such illusions make the mind weak and gradually, without your knowledge, you may adopt a negative attitude towards life!

On the other hand when you accept the facts of day to day life, you become bold and develop a positive attitude towards life which is absolutely essential for making your life worth living. The positive attitude increases ones mental strength, one becomes affectionate; faith in the SUPREME POWER germinates in the mind and as it grows, it starts guiding the mind on the correct path.

But some unfortunate people continue to revel in their illusory world of their dreams; a time comes when the harsh realities of life destroy their dreams; some people take a lesson from such failures, they accept the realities of life and thus save themselves; others continue to deceive themselves in their dream world and perish in life. I want you not to perish; you must enjoy life; therefore you must ACCEPT life as it unfolds for you!

When I say that you must accept life as it is, I mean that you must accept yourself, your personality, your personal feelings and emotions, your own thoughts and your own assets (mental and physical) and shortcomings; once you thus accept yourself it becomes easy to accept the surrounding world including the various individuals in it!

For this process to begin, you must make a conscious and systematic effort to understand your self; you have your own likes and dislikes and because of those you must be excelling in certain activities with ease, comfort and happiness; you must engage yourself only in those activities wherein you can deliver the best in you; when you do that, your self confidence gets a boost and you start adoring yourself, you develop love to your own self which is a sure beginning of the wonderful experience of loving others. It is a great revelation that one has the ability to love others!

The ability to love others generates tremendous confidence in oneself; your life takes a leap forward; others start liking you, respecting you and adoring you when they become conscious of your love for them. This wonderful give and take of love between you and the surrounding people carries you to dizzying heights of happiness; and that precisely is what we want! This state is real PLEASURE!

How do We look at Life?

We come across some people who appear to be leading their life with a total lack of interest; they somehow exist! Most of them are well to do people; they are healthy, they eat well and digest everything they eat, they are wealthy and enjoy good family life! Yet they have no interest in anything; such people do not live, they carry out all their activities out of compulsion, as if some unknown entity is forcing them to do those activities; they just exist!

This is no spiritual revelation; this attitude is born not out of any positive philosophical detachment from life, it springs from a negative inertia and thus betrays a diseased mind! The mind of such a person is lifeless mire; it is a totally confused mind which is just incapable of experiencing the joys of life; some of these people are afraid of life, so they turn their back on it and start hating it!

Some people get lost in the routine of daily life; they follow a specific cumbersome drill; there is no time for leisurely activities, they cannot think of alternative routines which could complete the routine tasks in lesser time and with greater efficiency, at the same time making the whole effort enjoyable!

Naturally, they suffer not only the boredom but the same physical tiredness and the same mental torture for days, months and years! They cannot think of changing their routine even if they themselves are seriously sick or some family member is on his death bed! Whether it is a festival day or a mourning, they take pride in attending to their routine! Such people behave as if they have been carrying a very heavy load on their shoulders; the result is that they get exhausted and frustrated in life.

I feel we must treat life like a soft silk garment which has the potential to give us the pleasant warmth of real contentment. Every moment has its own unique ability to give you happiness; all that is required is to identify the pleasant content every moment holds within its fold!

One can learn this art of identifying the inherent but hidden joy in every moment by emulating the WARKARI (the traditional pilgrim who visits PANDHARPUR every year during the months of ASHADH & KARTIK); these pilgrims treat one another as GOD the very VITHOBA of PANDHARPUR; they have great love and respect for one another; they even touch the feet of their WARKARI friends; in the river at PANDHARPUR, they bathe each other like a mother bathes her children! They are so happy in doing all these activities that they virtually enjoy BLISS! This attitude of trying to experience divine pleasure from ordinary things and from the insignificant events of day to day routine is the secret of a happy life.

TODAY & TOMORROW

Poet KUSUMAGRAJ’, ONE OF THE GREATEST Marathi poets of modern MAHARASHTRA, wrote:

Every night bears in her womb the morning of the next day.

Generally, every one of us hopes that the next day would bring us something better (!); in fact the common man thrives only on this hope! There is nothing wrong in entertaining that hope but one has to understand that to make his ―TOMORROW better, he as to put in adequate efforts right ―TODAY; if you are keen to eat fruits from your own garden in future, you have to plant the saplings TODAY; if you wish to clear your college examination after six months with flying colors, you have to start studying right in earnest from this very moment! Your future must be such that you are eager to experience its joys; but that can happen only if your deeds to day are good!

In order to ensure that your expectations from life in future are fulfilled, you must act now; you must sow the right seeds now if you wish to reap a particular crop later! Even if you want a big amount free of cost, you must at least purchase a lottery ticket today!

Let Go, Forget & Forgive

This MANTRA of just three words has the capacity to save your life even under the most dangerous conditions!

Normally, people struggle, follow meticulously even complex exercises of the mind for improving their memory; people are keen to remember things but I am keen that you learn to forget things!

Generally, you do not remember the minute details of your breakfast nor do you make efforts to remember such minor unimportant things; this means that if you decide what to forget, you can definitely forget those things. If you are convinced that by forgetting certain things you may feel peaceful and happy, it is not difficult to forget; initially, you may find it to be not easy but after some conscious efforts, you become used to forget and over time, this becomes a habit so that you automatically forget unimportant things without making any special effort!

The common man has to suffer many unpleasant things in life; sorrow is an inescapable part of life; one has to suffer the pain of every sorrow and if you repeatedly remember every sorrow and pain in future, you gain nothing!

On the contrary, you are only torturing your mind; at the same time, one must appreciate that sorrows teach us many valuable lessons; one common effect of all sorrowful experiences is that it makes one humble! Humility teaches man to learn from past experiences; this education proves very valuable and useful in future.

Sorrows and unpleasant happenings visit us under different garbs; humiliation, failure and loss of prestige, defamation, deception, betrayal, offence, enemies and calamities—the list is endless! The common man has no choice but to suffer the pangs of all such sorrowful events; but all these sorrows and the associated bitter memories MUST be forgotten; if you cannot forget them as a matter of course, you have to decide, you must make up your mind, and you must be firm to forget!

You must also know that many times, the sorrows and their pain vanish from your mind, but they do so only apparently; they leave behind them hatred for the perpetrators and you harbor within your innermost mind an irrepressible burning desire of revenge; these two are worse than the memories of sorrow and pain because they damage your mind; your mind, over time, gets habituated to entertain hatred and ill-feelings for others who may not be aware of such feelings in your mind!

One method of guarding your mind against such harmful damages is to develop the trick of LET GO! I remember my father many times asking me to LET GO thoughts about certain unpleasant things which used to bother me too much; so much so that I used to brood for days on very minor incidents; many times they used to be utterly silly events. His advice has made deep impressions on my mind!

By continuing to brood on unpleasant things you achieve nothing; you do not achieve solace, you also cannot put the clock back and nullify the pain and grief which you suffered in the past. On the other hand the sad memories torment your mind and the mental tension leads to serious problems like demoralization, diffidence, inferiority complex and in some cases even heart ailments! The wisest course of action is to just forget the sad memories and enjoy the good things which life is offering you at this moment. If you cannot forget all those sad memories at one stroke, do it in stages, whatever method you adopt, the most important requirement is FORGET!

You must cultivate the habit of LETTING THINGS GO; you must learn to forget; this should become a part of your temperament so that you are able to look at things as a third party! Over a period of time, without your knowledge, you become philosophical and your attitude towards life undergoes a revolution; you suddenly acquire the ability to weigh relative relevance and importance of different events!

When you look back, you are amused to visualize your own foolishness in the past when you wasted your valuable time and energy in clinging to silly matters! You realize that half of those silly matters had no relevance whatsoever to your happiness!

The ability to FORGIVE is a panacea; it has a cure for every ailment; it has a tremendous benevolent effect on how your mind reacts and after some time, the mind itself undergoes a welcome change, the negative attributes of mind like hatred, contempt, envy, anger, revenge, remorse, wistfulness and the habit of grumbling against every thing start melting away and your mind becomes pure! Therefore, my dear friends cultivate the habit of forgiving others; if you feel your fate is against