27. Listen to Heart – Identifying Inability is the best Ability….

Hari Bol....

27. Listen to Heart – Identifying Inability is the best Ability….

The human beings are the gifts of Lord. Everyone is full of abilities. The designing process of the Lord is so strong that that there is no defect. The Lord ensures that we are capable of doing good things. Due to man’s materialistic desires in this materialistic world we get attracted towards the wrong things and practices. This makes our soul impure day by day and we forget the purpose of life. We create our own purpose of life. The Lord abodes in everyone’s heart and He guides us for the right path. Due to our blindness we do not listen to the heart i.e. we ignore the Lord’s path and choose the wrong one. We kill the abilities within ourselves and allow the inabilities to take over.

Agnosia is a general term for a loss of ability to recognize objects, people, sounds, shapes, or smells i.e. the inability to attach appropriate meaning to objective sense-data. It usually is used when the primary sense organ involved is not impaired. Agnosia is a general term relating to a loss of language ability. Apraxia is a general term for disorders of practice. These conditions are usually caused by brain injury due to trauma, stroke and/or tumor.

Once a child is born he should be guided towards the right path. It is the duty of the parents and teachers to make us aware the purpose of life and ensures that the abilities of the child are explored. We find someone is weak in some field but very strong in the other field. It could be to his interest. A man can increase his ability if he has a knack of it. It is only because he is able to identify the field of his interest and moves in that particular direction with full honesty and dedication.

The great legend Amitabh Bachchan identified his skill in the field of acting that is why he did not move to other field. In fact he tried Politics but realized that he lacked in abilities of politicians and decided to quit from politics and started focusing in his field of acting.  Bharat Ratan Sachin Tendulkar explored himself and decided to move in the field of sports and he selected Cricket. He made Cricket as his life. Our Honorable Ex-President Bharat Ratan Abdul Kalam decided to be in the field if Science and if he permits me to say that still we remember him more as a Scientist rather than his political career as President of India. The list can be endless with such examples. We all should give standing ovation to these great personalities from whom we learn every day in our life.

In this competitive world we all focus in identifying our abilities. I remember a colleague of mine had shared about Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and I have been practicing to nourish my EQ through various training programs, articles, discussions, etc. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is followed now days to nourish one’s ability. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to identify, use, understand, and manage emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict. Emotional intelligence impacts many different aspects of our daily life, such as the way you behave and the way we interact with others. If we have high emotional intelligence we are able to recognize our own emotional state and the emotional states of others, and engage with people in a way that draws them to us. We can use this understanding of emotions to relate better to other people, form healthier relationships, achieve greater success at work, and lead a more fulfilling life. As we know, it’s not the smartest people that are the most successful or the most fulfilled in life. We probably know people who are academically brilliant and yet are socially inept and unsuccessful at work or in their personal relationships. Intellectual intelligence (IQ) isn’t enough on its own to be successful in life. Your IQ can help you get into college, but it’s your EQ that will help you manage the stress and emotions when facing your final exams.

All information to the brain comes through our senses, and when this information is stressful or emotional, instinct will take over and our ability to act will be limited to freeze the response. Therefore, to have access to the wide range of choices and the ability to make good decisions, we need to be able to bring our emotions into balance. Memory is also strongly linked to emotion. By learning to stay connected to the emotional part of your brain as well as the rational, you’ll not only expand your range of choices when it comes to responding to a new event, but you’ll also factor emotional memory into your decision-making process. This will help prevent you from continually repeating earlier mistakes. To improve your emotional intelligence and your decision-making abilities, you need to understand and manage your emotions. This is accomplished by developing key skills for controlling and managing overwhelming stress and becoming an effective communicator.

I would like to share some of my learning which I was going through an article about Ability and Inability.

Natural Ability and Inability:

Natural ability is to do as you will, irrespective of any direction in view of motive. In the definition of natural ability, they keep entirely out of view, the doctrine which they hold to be true, that the will is invariably and inevitably determined by motives. Some state the natural ability, to be the possession of the faculties of a moral being.

The natural ability is no ability at all. Observe, the definition of natural ability, “the power to act or do as you will, leaving out of view the question whether you have power to choose in a given case, or given direction, or not. Now, everyone knows that the power to act depends on the power to choose.” If a given course of conduct is proposed to me, it is naturally impossible for me to pursue it, unless I can choose to do so. But if such motives are not presented to my mind, as to make that course appear the most agreeable, I am unable to choose to pursue it, and I am, therefore, in the highest sense, naturally unable to pursue that course. Now, who does not see, that an ability to act or do as you will, is no ability at all, unless you have ability to choose in that direction.

The impossibility of executing our volitions or doing as we will, they term, natural inability. Observe, natural ability, according to them, is the power to do as you will, or to execute your volitions. Natural inability is the want of power to do as you will. If, for example, you put forth volitions to accomplish a certain object, and are unable to execute, or bring about the thing at which you aim, this is natural inability.

Moral Ability and Inability:

Moral ability is the presence of such motives as to determine the will by this kind of misnamed certainty. Their natural inability, so far as morality or virtue is concerned, is no inability at all. In morals, the will is the deed. The absence of sufficient motives to determine the will with kind of misnamed certainty, they call moral inability. It is called a moral inability, not because it is not a real inability, but because it is inability of will. The virtue or vice of any action does not lie in any outward act, but in the choice or intention of the mind. If the choice or intention exists, but we are really unable to execute our intention, we are as virtuous or as vicious as if we had executed it. It should always be understood that obedience and disobedience in the eye of God consists in acts of will. If a man wills, or really intends, in accordance with the will of God, although he may be unable to do as he wills, or to accomplish the thing he intends, yet the will is taken for the deed, and he is as virtuous as if he did accomplish it.

Their moral ability is no ability at all. For observe, that moral ability, according to them consists in the presence of such motives, as to produce choice, by necessity, or as they say, or certainty, is nothing else than sheer necessity. To call it certainty, and then so explain the certainty, as to make it sheer and absolute necessity, is only to trifle on a momentous subject. The fact is, that their moral ability is nothing else than choice produced by necessity-motive producing choice in the same way, or by a connection the same in kind, that unites a physical cause with its effect. Now, if men are disposed to call this certainty, and tell us to remember that they mean certainty and not necessity, are we to throw away our common sense, and even our intellectual perception, of the fact, that this certainty is nothing more nor less than sheer necessity.

Their moral inability is an absolute natural inability. Observe, moral inability with them, is the absence of sufficient motives to produce choice, by this kind of misnamed certainty of which I have just been speaking. It is an inability to choose for want of sufficient motives to produce choice, or which is the same thing with them, the sense of the most agreeable. In other words, they are unable to choose for want of sufficient motives, and this is called a moral inability, because it is an inability to choose. Now, why call this a moral inability, when it is self-evident, that it is nothing else than natural inability. It is the highest, and most proper and perfect kind of inability, an inability to will, and of course, and of necessity, an inability to act, and is it not nonsensical, by introducing the word moral, to attempt to distinguish this from a natural inability.

Saurabh had gone for his work as his daily routine. Saurabh went around the plant. The work was going as per plan. After having his lunch he was going through some mails. There was knocking sound on the door with a voice, “Sir main andar aa sakta huon (Sir, May I come in?)”. Saurabh answered in positive to Sameer. Sameer said that he wanted to discuss something with Saurabh. Saurabh asked him if Sameer had any problem. He also very openly said, “A big problem”. Saurabh asked him, “Are you not getting water. Do you want more plants?” Sameer is a gardener in the office. He said, “I would like to discuss about my future with you. What is my future?” Saurabh was astonished and puzzled. “Sameer, you would become a senior gardener in this office then you might get a chance to look after another offices’ garden”, Saurabh answered. Sameer asked, “What next sir”? Saurabh was bowled. Sameer said, “Sir, please answer else, I have a proposal. I would like to operate machines. I am working in an industry. If I want to grow I should learn technical aspects”. Saurabh was just quietly listening to his great thought. He continued, “I want permission from you to request the operator to teach me.” Saurabh stood up and said, “Move ahead with your great thoughts and wish you all the success to fulfill your dreams.” He knew his inability to operate a machine and started working to improve his ability and remove his inability. Saurabh found him really slogging hard to turn around. Within few days Saurabh observed him operating him a milling machine. After few months Saurabh saw that Sameer was doing welding. One day there was a problem in Robot welding machine. The production line had stopped. Some suggested Saurabh to call Sameer. Saurabh did so. Sameer was able to correct the program and made the robot in working condition. Saurabh and all other team members really congratulated Sameer that day from core of their heart. I really cherish his story. I really learn how to be motivated from him keeping your emotions in control. He was focused. He was dedicated. He had his respect for Karma. He was looking for an opportunity. How a person can identify his inability and converts it to one of his best ability. This could happen because Sameer listened to his heart and decided to move ahead.

Arjuna was confused but now he started realizing his Karma. So he surrendered himself to his master Krishna and asked for his advice. He accepted that he was unable to understand his duty as a Khashtriya. He realized his inability and now he was ready to convert his inability to his best ability as a warrior under the guidance of his friend cum master. Arjuna admitted his inability and pleaded to Krishna, “I am your disciple. I take refuge in you. Tell me decisively the best course of action for my ultimate good.” The surrender by Arjuna to Krishna was complete for which Krishna was waiting. The master only gives advice when the disciple is fully prepared to receive it from mind and heart. Gita wisdom explains that a much more fundamental intoxication comes from the bodily conception of life, wherein we forgetting that we are souls mistake ourselves to be the body and act only for bodily pleasures, even when they run against our spiritual purposes. Despite being inebriated, we drive through the roadways of life, often unaware that we may be violating the karmic laws that govern all traffic in the universe. Fortunately, he recognized the foundational error that underlay and undercut all his argumentation. With disarming candor, he confessed his cognitive dissonance to his friend and his mentor Krishna, and asked for clear guidance. The subsequent guidance empowered Arjuna to act responsibly even amidst the most demanding circumstances and against overwhelmingly unfavorable odds.

As long as we imagine that we can tackle life’s problems on our own, we can’t seek or gain Krishna’s help. That was Arjuna’s situation at the start of the Bhagavad-gita. Only when he realized that all his claims to strength had got him nowhere did he turn to Krishna for help, as the Bhagavad-gita indicates. Krishna’s subsequent message of love empowered him to face not just the specific crisis confronting him but also to cross over all the crises that comprise material existence. Krishna’s help came to Arjuna in many inconceivable ways. Not always by removing his problems but always by drawing out his dormant and potent spiritual qualities, thereby raising him beyond those problems.

Krishna’s message – the text of the Gita – is readily available to us. But its wisdom and power will become available to us only when we become strong enough to admit that we are not strong enough. If we too like Arjuna can begin by accepting our inability and work for converting it to the best ability by seeking spiritual guidance, Gita wisdom stands ready to empower us. 

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 7