Hari
Om
Each 'Choose-day' we will investigate the process by
which we can reassess our activity and interaction with the world of plurality
and become more congruent within our personality.
We are reading "Tips for Happy
Living - jIvnsUÇai[
/jiivanasuutraani", by Swami Tejomayananda (Guru-ji). Choose-days writings
are here to prompt deeper thinking on the choices made on a daily basis and
seek to provide prompts for raising the standard of one's thinking and living.
This text composed in format of Sanskrit traditional teachings, speaks directly
to this purpose. As ever, the full text may be obtained from CM Publications - or your local centre
(see sidebar).
Having
established that good work and satisfying rest are part of the picture of
success, what can be an obstacle to it?
ivcarhIn<
kmR twa kmRhInae ivcarí iv)ltaya> kar[m!.2.
Vicaara-hiinam
karma tathaa karma-hiino vichaarashcha viphalataayaaH kaaranam ||2||
Thoughtless action and actionless thought are the
causes of failure.
Just
as, at the physical level, workaholism or laziness can lead to failure, here we
have the equivalent at the mental level. Let us discuss thoughtless action.
Well-thought-out (thoughtful) actions will result in success; however the
opposite is true where we give little thought to our actions. Correct thinking
is essential to success and must precede all action.
Some
do not think at all, some not enough and others think completely erroneously
prior to action. Such action is considered as tamaasika (very dull). To not
consider the consequences of how much time, or money, or resources are likely
to be spent; to not take into account potential for inconvenience or harm to
others; indeed, to not properly assess one's own involvement and ability to
undertake any given task… all these are very dull. Indiscriminate, rash,
whimsical, impulsive, sentimental… stupid… all these can be epithets for
thoughtless actions.
As
a parable for helping us to understand - just in case any of us think we are
immune to thoughtless action - Guruji tells;
A
woman left her child sleeping in the cradle and went to get water from the
well. On her return, she was greeted at the door by the pet mongoose, with
blood on its mouth. In a shocked state she thought the mongoose had harmed her
child. She killed it in anger and rushed to the child. It was sleeping
peacefully next to a dead cobra, which the mongoose had killed. She,
thereafter, deeply regretted her thoughtless action, for now she was also
without her pet.
Many
act in haste and repent at leisure.
What
then is actionless thinking? This is the pipe-dream, castles-in-the-air type of
thinking. Many keep planning what they will do when… some spend hours thinking
about the exercise they will do when they finally get out of bed or off their
couch. Such thinking is tiring, ennui sets in, so even the thinking slows down.
It
is wasteful of our mental capacity. There are those who are not physically
active, but are using their minds on high-level thinking, working out solutions
to various issues… but eventually action has to follow in order to prove the
thinking. To not follow through on our planning is very wasteful and will
certainly not lead to any form of success. The gap between what 'we should be'
and 'what we are' often results in a kind of personality collapse; self-esteem
drops, mood falls, more serious mental conditions start to prevail. It is a
vicious cycle.
There
are whole communities which are affected; circumstances are such where people
think all they have available to them is day-dreaming and 'if only this' or
'what if that'. When someone realises that following up the dreaming, the planning, with action is going to lead to fulfilment of that dream, they have moved out of thought-wasting and into thought-taming.
