42. Listen to Heart – Change is the only Constant….

Hari Bol...

42. Listen to Heart – Change is the only Constant….

I was quiet young to understand things in depth which I still feel that I am ignorant to understand deep meaning words and sentences and phrases. One day someone had told me, “Change is the only constant”. I still remember that I had asked him to repeat once again what he had said. He repeated, “Change is the only constant”. I just replied wahooo…. What a phrase!!! Great one….. Good one…. He replied to me, “It is not a phrase”. “What is it then?” I asked. He said, “gentleman it is a thought and you need to give a thought on this thought as you would face several situations in life on this thought that change is the only constant because constant is also not constant. Constant also keeps on changing”. Nothing stays. Nothing is permanent, not even feelings, people, and circumstances. They all change. That’s not being negative, that’s being realistic.

“Change is the only constant in life” - Heraclitus

“Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day” - Anonymous

 

 

Change is one of the only things that are always present in our work. On other hand Change is hard. Change isn’t easy. Change can cause pain. Some people welcome change but don’t fully take stock of the potential trouble spots. For others change is difficult and they seemingly fight against it every chance they get. And many people fall in the middle of those two extremes. It is not so easy to accept changes. You ask someone or for that matter someone advice you to make certain changes in your habits, nature, way of working, lifestyle, behavior, etc. the general tendency of all of us is to react rather we should act at least to give a thought on the advice. When we say that it is not easy to change then you must be thinking that I am contradicting my own statement and thought. I would like to say that I fully agree that Change is the only constant, so changes keeps on taking place in our life weather we accept it or not; it may happen that changes have taken place but we have not noticed it. It is our tendency not to accept anything suggested by others. In this scenario the change becomes painful. I would like to say, “Accept change. Change yourself to suit the change else change will change you to accept the change because change will take place in its own way and at its own time as change is the only constant.”

   

We were taught in the school that flowing water is always clean. One can drink water from a river as water is continuously flowing but never drink water from  a pond as the water is not flowing rather it is stagnate. In any stagnant water we find germs and algae. Everything flows, nothing stands still. Nothing endures but change.

Many a times we are suggested by our elders and well-wishers to improve our habits, nature, and behavior. They suggest us certain good habits and practices and ask us to be patient and practice those rigorously as the result will take time. Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character. Any change takes time. We can say that change has a direct relation with time. Change is directly proportional to time.

Change is constant. This is a well-known philosophical and scientific theory, discussed over many centuries by many different types of scientists and philosophers. Darwin was just one of them, and he related it to evolutionary biology and genetics. It is such a conundrum.  It makes me think of clocks and time because when you look at a clock, the time changes but the face of it is always constant.

Our Society is in a changing state always. Changes in attitudes, morals, technology, and economy affect our personal and professional lives. Companies don’t exist in a static world but is in a dynamic situation.  They have constant interaction with external forces such as competitors, customers, governments, stockholders, suppliers, society, and unions. Some change is directed from within and other times is it forced upon us by outside sources. Change can be stressful. This stress can manifest physically and mentally. Change that is dictated and not managed dooms most projects to ultimate failure. We need to manage the change smoothly.

·        Communication:  We must have open lines of communication. Part of communication involves in having a clear vision of past, present, and future. We have to know where we are before we can see where we are going.

·        Accepting: Accepting the fact that change is going to happen whether we like it or not.  A key to overcoming resistance to change is, again, communication, as well as respect and understanding.

·        Involvement: We need to involve all the concerned in making the change to happen to the greatest extent possible.

To paraphrase an old saying: The only constant in life is change. Life changes every day for every person in some way. We expect the seasons to change, children to grow taller, birthdays to keep piling on, strawberries in June and the crisp smell of fall in October … we expect to grow older … to watch children marry, to retire from our jobs and play with our grandchildren.  We even recognize that sickness and death are expected events in our lives.

Change is constant, even big change. But it is all a part of life and we can all learn and grow from it. And we can all help each other through. If a young child experiences an event that is beyond his or her skill level, he or she needs an adult to help learn new coping strategies or adapt a current skill. Being aware of the developmental tasks the child or youth is learning will help the adult identify the next steps to take. Adults can help by loving the child, talking with the child, showing the child new ways of dealing with the change, and accepting the child’s reactions to the event.

It is not difficult to forget that life will always be changing – we face something new every moment of the day! We need to embrace the changes that life has in store for us – they will make things flow more smoothly and we can bounce back from the major changes hopefully a little easier. We just have to always keep in mind that life truly is what we make of it…if we are always living in negativity then life will always seem like doom and gloom…

Change is a necessary evil. Change will occur whether we want it to or not.  Whether forced upon us from outside sources, or generated from within to meet the changing needs of society, change is going to happen.  How we manage this change is going to dictate our happiness level in the end. We all need to work together to make required or mandated changes as smooth and easy as possible.

Krishna said Arjuna that never indeed was I not, nor you, nor these rulers of men; and also none of us will cease to be hereafter.

A baby is born in the family. A name is given to the baby. His grandfather calls him as Madhav. His grandmother calls him as Babu. In school he is called by some of his friend as Kumar as his name is Madhav Kumar. He comes into the professional world he gets a tag of GET. He moves up the ladder and with experience he is rewarded with promotions and keeps on adding tags one by one. In the process he forgets his original identity. He forgets his real self and remembers himself as reel self. Nevertheless, one’s real self remains constant and changeless which a soul and rest all changes. It continues eternally.

The self remains the same throughout. The self is unchanged even after death. The same self-exist in all beings eternally. The cycle of birth and death continues and in the process one goes through changes.

Even Lord Vishnu in his incarnation (Avtar) changed. He came as ‘Ram’ on this earth to free people from the sins of Ravana and then he came as ‘Krishna’ to free people from the sins of Kansa and Kauravas.

All Glories to Lord Krishna & All His Loving Devotees….. Hari Bol……

Courtesy: Bhagavad-Gita As It Is (by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ) , Srimad Bhagavad-Gita ( by A. Parthasarathy  & www.gitadaily.com ) Chapter 2 : Text 12, www.google.com, Wikipedia. www.krishna.com, www.krishna.org, en.wikipedia.org