SELF EFFECTIVENESS IMPORTANT LESSONS

The other day I was reading Geeta trying to understand the wisdom given by Lord Krishna to the entire human mankind. At first glance, it appeared that the overall context of whole Geeta as said by Lord Krishna to warrior Arjuna is, we should perform all the tasks as well as duties which our occupation assigns us but have to relinquish the results to God. If I am a soldier then I should fight enemy without fear and without judging who the enemy is. However there is another side of the story which needs to be highlighted.

It is said that Arjuna was greatest archer of his time and was invincible in the skill of archery. Nobody could compete with him nor could win against his skill. When all the negotiations between Pandavas and Kauravas broke down and even the peace brokered by Krishna came futile, it became clear that the war of Mahabharata was imminent between them.

Both sides started preparing for war. It was crucial to frame the war rules so that the war could be fought on the basis of values and ethics. The day was decided. The night before the war, experts from both the camps started working on setting up war games so that they can maximize damage to their opponents and win. But the reality was something which was poles apart. Everybody was under stress and could not go to sleep. Tomorrow was the eventful day for everyone. Nobody knew what will happen.

As the sun rose, the drama began to unfold. The sky was clear. A line was drawn between two armies. Scores of soldiers started gathering on both the side of the line. As each minutes passed thousands and thousands of soldiers stood before each other; waiting for the war signal. It was unique experience for every one standing there and was a moment of face off for all the warriors engulfed by unlimited emotions. It was a moment when almost the earth stood still.

Then a dramatic thing happened. Arjuna standing in a chariot asked Krishna to move and bring it a little bit forward so that he could see kauravas, his half brothers closely. Suddenly it struck him that that people whom he was staring were all his brothers with whom he had blood relations. His heart flooded with love and tears started rolling from his eyes. Sobbing vehemently he slumped on the floor of the chariot and dropped his bow. He was so depressed by the thought that his arrows would hurt all of them and might kill them; he lost his sense of invincibility. More so he lost sense of self esteem or self value.

When Krishna saw Arjuna loosing self effectiveness and was imbalanced to experience his loss of sense of invincibility, he could see loss of war coming close to Pandava’s side. It was time for him to take centre stage of the situation and to see that Arjuna not only got complete control over his sense of invincibility but also that evil forces were defeated convincingly. It took almost three hours for Krishna to convince him that performing duties as warrior was his first responsibility without thinking who the enemy was. Not only that to make him understand how God controls this universe, he had to show his infinite form. That was the defining moment when Arjuna vowed to finish all his enemies. The rest was the epic war of Mahabharata fought for humanizing the whole mankind.

The question comes is what is this self value or self esteem? I feel it is the disposition which we experience when we do any laudable task and become praiseworthy. After which we experience happiness and wellness, respect and love, achievement and success. This helps us to face challenges of life. Self effectiveness and self respect are integral part of self esteem. Self effectiveness is the confidence in our ability to think, judge and decide any thing. Generally when we have confidence in our ability to think and perform, we automatically gain self effectiveness however if we loose self confidence, it gives rise to inefficiency.

Arjuna slumped in his chariot and started weeping for his cousins and half brothers as he lost his effectiveness and self esteem because of his distorted emotionality which Krishna had to step in and restore.

We all need occasional repair of our self effectiveness. Self effectiveness generates sense of self control over our life. It is core of our existence. We can take complete charge of our life and are able to control most of the circumstances. If we want to assert our thoughts or want to live with joy and happiness, this comes with self effectiveness.

FACTS ABOUT CHANGES IN LIFE

One of the thorniest issues encompassing human behavior is to resist change that walks up into our day to day life. It is a six letter dirty word that brings cold shivers down into our spine because most of us fear of something horrible that might mess up our lives. We do not force ourselves to test our assumptions and lock our minds to do things which are worn out by time.

Isn’t it very easy to lock ourselves to such state of mind? Indeed it is very easy when we see other people locking themselves into same kind of conduct again and again. Nobody likes applying pressure to their minds because we know for certain that we would face severe resistance from our mind. Infact I would say resistance is a kind of shadow always accompanying to changes. So we continue to do things the way they are done before. Our current and past habits play very important role as all habits are deeply ingrained in our nervous system. They are considered sacred and any attempt to change these habits raises violent rebellion within us.

Some may say I am desperate to turn thing around me for better but I do not know how. Some may feel it is just waste of time and energy because every one around me told me that it is not possible or is very hard to change.

We always try to bring changes to our lives which are just peripheral in nature or bring external empowerment. Purchasing a new car, buying a big apartment in rich urban backdrop or buying third generation electronic gadgets or doing things that make us feel good reinforces our assumptions about success in life. Truly speaking though these things bring immense superficial pleasure and psychological satisfaction of owning them, the truth is they do not empower us spiritually. With each sunrise, we pursue them madly without knowing that these forces have taken complete control of our lives. We should questions to ourselves do they have real power to enrich our spiritual lives. Do they really satisfy our spiritual needs?

Though these things make our lives easy and also make us feel good, the happiness is not enduring. It is momentary. The happiness may last for few minutes or say few hours or say for few days. But after their influence gets warded off, we start looking at new things that make us feel good again. The cycle persists once more and it continues till we are stressed out. After that we loose our effectiveness to have a hold over our destiny.

It seems that during certain age of our life, urgency of everything take control of our lives. On one hand we assume that not picking up phone would result into missed out opportunity with our client or our high profile manager; on the other hand, we do not even read mails which might make difference to our lives yet put them off for reading time and again. We just cannot master our way to organize our work and do not distinguish the difference between what is important and what is urgent.

The solution is simple. We have to take control of our emotions. We have to make our lives simple by enriching ourselves with spirituality that empowers us to manage our emotions in more successful ways. Spirituality brings positive impact on our lives and has strength and ability to change destiny.