Two thousand five hundred years ago, a prince from the formidable Sakya dynasty, in the quest of reality and truth, discarded his monarchical apparel to adorn ochre robes only to become Gautama the monk. He and his mind incessantly wandered till the attainment of truth and insight. Upon attaining enlightenment after performing arduous Tapas, Gautama the monk went on to become Buddha the enlightened and compassionate one. The mind of the prince turned Bikkhu and became hollow and empty from within and without to realise the pristine verisimilitude.
There is also a story of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Once a young evangelist who cast away the traditions and rituals of the catholic order only to serve the poor and infirm (particularly those afflicted by leprosy) was first to become a sister, then Mother Teressa after rendering yeoman selfless service to the populace of Kolkata (then Calcutta) and the humanity at large was canonised as the fourth Indian on the 4th September of 2016. She was set in stone as St Teressa of Calcutta by Pope Francis for the phenomenal work and the miracles which have taken place by just taking her name and by offering fervent prayers. These are two talismanic and iconic figures whom mankind should revere with a deep sense of gratitude.
These extraordinary individuals altered the trajectory of their lives by charting a concealed path. They possessed robust minds which were willing to take perilous decisions. Buddha and St Teressa were not confined to Monasteries and Convents respectively to live their lives as ascetics in contemplation, meditation, chastity and poverty. Both were prototypical individuals who transcended boundaries to carve a niche for themselves by providing an alternative ideology, a metaphor to the suffering multitudes.
An idea could emerge from imagination, visualisation or sheer frustration from the established working patterns. A savant, seeker, leader, sportsperson, monarch, scientist or an achiever attempts to execute something radical to break the ho-hum of life. In the process, something path breaking is attained. This separates them from ordinary human beings.
Way back in the year 1943 a young Swedish national Ingvar Kampard set up a company called IKEA. IKEA is the acronym for Ingvar Kampard Elmtaryd (the farm where he was raised at) Agunnaryd (his hometown in Sweden). Today it is one of the largest ready to assemble furniture companies in the world. At seventeen this strapping Swedish youth conceived this riveting idea, thereby garnering a gargantuan pie of the market share. He was blessed with a febrile mind and he honed the skills remarkably to realise his dreams.
Similarly, admittedly though the last word is still to be spoken and written about the latest coup in India’s telecom sector and the Jury is still out about Jio , Mukesh Ambani’s intrepid mind has stunned his competitors and customers alike. As the adage goes, the devil lies in the fine print, yet the bewildering idea will in all likelihood change the contours of the telecom sector in the country. There was a time when Jan Koum and Brian Acton were planning to join the Facebook, but ended up raking in 19billion dollars as Marc Zuckerberg acquired their product. This was nothing short of daylight intellectual robbery, by the two plucky software interlopers. There were no software or hardware glitches in their minds.
These are individuals who with their mettlesome and audacious moves hold the ordinary traveller gaze in askance. What differentiates them from rest of the pack. It is not the opacity of their thought process but looking for the out of box solutions which make them stand out.
While, IKEA sets up furniture in our households, Jio and WhatsApp provides the necessary seamless connectivity in communication it is intriguing to decipher the alphabets of the acronym(IKW). I stands for Intelligence, K signifies Knowledge and W represents Wisdom.
Intelligence, Knowledge and Wisdom need to be harnessed by humans in ample measure to metamorphose our minds and lives in order to become true achievers.
In the wired world today, we are girdled with a far superior technology in comparison to a few decades back and are ensconced by a plethora of gizmos at our disposal. In such circumstances through the proper usage of the faculties of intelligence, accumulating correct knowledge; genuine wisdom will dawn on us in order to separate the chaff from the grain for us to presage something advantageous for the society.
The product and service should necessarily be flexible, adaptable and positively for public good. Only in a such a scenario will the longevity of the article in question be ensured and assured. It is at this subterranean level an evolved human mind operates. It acts below the surface to achieve the targeted results.
Siddhartha with his superior intelligence grasped that he was encumbered by misery and suffering, he gained knowledge through the various techniques of pranayama and meditation and ultimately wisdom dawned on him in form of enlightenment. And he was then to expatiate on the four noble truths and the eight-fold path to mitigate ceaseless suffering. And today a seeker without living in the monastic order, living like any ordinary citizen could attain and experience bliss and enlightenment by practising the technique of Vipassana thereby expatriating all nugatory thoughts.
Similarly, in the Art of Living, through the regular practice of the Sudarshan Kriya a seeker can live in the present moment by banishing antipathetic thoughts. The benefits of both the practices arise through skill and patience. And the seeker should possess the requisite intelligence, knowledge and wisdom to traverse this path in an unwavering manner.
St Teressa of Calcutta too possessed enormous intelligence, knowledge and wisdom to establish the order of Missionaries of Charity to serve the distressed sections of humanity. The organisation provides succour to people across faiths. This act is itself is a miracle and a kind of canonisation.
The human mind should be developed into a sacred place, which is malleable to embrace positivity and confidence so as to harness the skills of intelligence, knowledge so that the Gods
-Taken from my secondbook,’Make the Mind Mt.Kailasa’.
ravivalluri 