MONDAY MUSINGS SEASON 2, Episode 370 - Live a Life

By performing work as per individual’s nature, human beings can attain perfection. Hear from me and I will explain.. (Bhagavad Gita 18.45)

Do you want to become a millionaire?

In Mark Albion's book, “Making a Life, Making a Living”, he describes a study of 1500 business school graduates that took place from 1960 to 1980.

Based on their survey responses, the students were grouped into two categories. Group A (83% of the respondents) wanted to make money first, then pursue what they really wanted to do in life when they had more resources. Group B (17%), intended to pursue their true interests first with the belief that money would eventually follow. Twenty years later, the 101 from that study became millionaires. Only one came from Group A. There were 100 millionaires out of the 255 people in Group B. It appears that choosing happiness over money would be a sensible business decision. There are some caveats, of course. You need to make sure that the course of action you are considering is a viable alternative, not an altruistic fantasy.

“Do you want to become a millionaire?, follow your passion”

Don’t live a resume Live a life

Albion himself lived an example of his philosophy. Albion left his prestigious Harvard position to focus on socially responsible business and supporting service-minded professionals. In 1993, he co-founded #NetImpact (originally known as Students for Responsible Business), an organisation that grew to connect MBAs and professionals committed to combining business skills with social and environmental impact across more than 100 business schools. Albion had no regrets. In fact, he wished he had done it sooner. In an interview, Albion urged students not to fall into the trap of planning their careers based on what will look good on their resumes. Don't live a resume, live a life! He urged the students.

Failure is inevitable

सहजं कर्म कौन्तेय सदोषमपि न त्यजेत् | सर्वारम्भा हि दोषेण धूमेनाग्निरिवावृता: || Bhagavad Gita 18.48||

One should not abandon duties of one’s innate character, even if one sees failures in them, O son of Kunti. Indeed, all endeavours are veiled by some evil, as fire is by smoke.

Let me explain a few Sanskrit words in this sloka to get the correct interpretation:

Sahaja is generally used to refer to congenital ie by birth and hence many translations and interpretations give the meaning like ‘duties inherited by birth ie varnashrama duties’ but that is not the correct interpretation. If you go by that meaning, it would look like Lord Krishna is suggesting that we stick to our duty ordained to our caste, even if we don’t like it.

Consider the excellent simile used in this sloka and the correct meaning will come out clearly. Dhuma and Agni translate very easily and nicely as smoke and fire, respectively. There is no second opinion on this. Fire represents strength/vigour in literature, and smoke represents an ‘unwanted but unavoidable veil’. Lord Krishna compares the smoke to the defects and the fire to our strength. So, the initial reference must be for the duties which are our strength and not duties thrust on us because of our caste. As I said earlier, Sanskrit words have multiple meanings, and the correct meaning is determined by the context. Let us look at other meanings of Sahaja and dosha that align well with fire and smoke.

Innate is also another meaning for Sahaja. Sahajam karma means the work that is our innate nature; dosham also means "wrong" or "blame".

Kindle the fire in you

Lord Krishna gives a great motivational message in this sloka. Fire has a lot of energy, fire gives tremendous strength, but fire invariably comes with smoke, which inhibits fire’s true potential. We should not get dejected by the smoke and stop kindling the fire. Similarly, failures and blame are quite inevitable in life’s journey. Don’t go into the shell for the fear of blame and failure.

If you need fire, you have to be ready to face the smoke. If you want growth, you must be ready to face failures. Let the failures not slow down your growth.

Learn to get up and run every time you fall.

#PositiveNewsPage will continue from the next episode

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Conceived, compiled and posted as a weekly motivational newsletter #MondayMusings every Monday by Jaganathan T (www.authorjaganathan.com)