PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE'S LESSONS LEARNT

I am a part of 16 members close discussion group comprising of highly qualified and successful people in their respective professions. We meet once in a month to discuss a topic of interest and every speaker gets a chance of talking for 5 to 10 minutes of time. Today’s topic of discussion was “what lessons life has taught us in these years, and mention five of the most significant ones”. Having the nature and composition of the group, I was expecting a high-level presentation of wisdom gained through lessons of their lives, but it was a bit disappointing for me. Therefore, I thought of writing this article to understand what types of lessons of life we learn during our life span, and how to distinguish or differentiate between those lessons from the intellectual perspectives.

Ordinary examples of lessons we learn in our daily life due to the cause and effects, can be given by any common person. But intellectual deliberation is possible only when a person has been able to learn the true meaning of life, while facing obstacles and deriving the qualitative lessons out of it during their entire span of life. The qualitative lessons learnt through experience is called wisdom, and that should have been the focus of discussion and not the lessons we learn in our routine life. Lessons learnt in routine life are also lessons, but it does not induce the cognitive abilities to convert them into wisdom. They are mere examples of cause and effects, that if we do not do this then that will not happen, or if we do this than this will be the outcome. They are more mechanical in nature and can be understood even by a child. Whereas qualitative lessons are more abstract and unique.

A person’s life is constantly on the curving path of knowing, understanding and experiencing while learning lessons from his or her action in the process. For example: a child learns not to play with fire or touch the hot stove, as it may burn his fingers. A young student learns to study hard otherwise he or she may fail in the examination. An employee learns to work sincerely at workplace otherwise, he may be fired. A person learns to obey law, otherwise he may be penalized or arrested for wrong doing. If we drive recklessly then we might encounter an accident. In case of animals as well, they learn their lessons of behaving properly otherwise they may not get their food etc. These are all mechanical in nature and anybody can guess or assume, that if you do or do not do this then that will happen. Likewise, there may be thousands of examples in our lives which provides us the lesson to learn, and  its implications during our life span. They are directly proportional to cause and effects and not ambiguous in outcome.

Therefore, based on the above narrative, we may categorize different types of lessons we learn in our lives and we may put them in four categories:

 1. Educative Lessons: Any action or process of learning which educates us in understanding the life for survival in day to day life can be termed as educative lessons. These lessons give an insight of understanding of the true nature of materials and matter, nature and its naturality, protection and probability, and safety and survivability. These lessons are the direct outcome of cause and effects.

  2. Subjective Lessons: People learn and gain lessons from various mediums such as from reading of books, magazines, novel, audio-visual medias, and social medias, and derive their lessons of life based on such information system or experiences of other people. These lessons may be good or bad in nature and they depend upon the quality of medium we are exposed to.

  3. Objective Lessons: Any source of information or experience which gives a meaning to life to think positively and provides strength to overcome the situation effectively, may fall under this category. The objective lesson emboldens the thought process and energizes one’s outlook towards life.

  4. Cognitive Lessons: Any lesson learnt, which forces our mind to think intellectually and perceive the inherent cause triggering such deliberations, may fall under this category. This type of lessons, is the direct outcome of high-level of analytical or critical analysis and pondering on thoughts resulting out of perceived experiences. This is unique in nature and requires a lot of self realization and churning of consciousness to realize the wisdom. These lessons change one’s personality, outlook, thought process, behaviour towards each other and sensitivities of life.

Now after categorizing the lessons, it can be further analysed by understanding the attributes of the above lessons learnt. Lessons learnt may not be positive always, but it can also cast a shadow in one’s mind negatively. Therefore, attributes of lessons learnt in life can be negative or positive or both. 

Negative Attributes:

We learn the lessons of life through different path and experiences, and the process of experiencing, determines what lessons are going to help us in uplifting of our personality and mental standard. If our personality is of lower standard or if we grew in an environment full of negativity, then our lessons of life are mostly negative. For example, a businessman learns that by manipulating account books he can save a lot of money. A criminal learns the lesson how not to get caught after committing a crime. The lessons learnt in the aforesaid two examples, are to make money easy-way and protect being caught, but the ultimate impact or fall out, can be negative. In another example, if people are indulged in bribery, cheating, deceiving, flattery, sycophancy and if they gain and prosper by such methods, then their lessons of life would be filled with negative attributes.   Those who learn their lessons of life with negative attributes, suffers from stress, anxiety, jealousy, false pride, fearfulness, depression, obsession, and hypertension.

Positive Attributes:

If we learn quality lessons with positivity, then it gives an impetus to our personality. Our outlook towards people or the world change optimistically. We become enthusiastic, caring, loving, giving and understanding. A new synergy embodies our personality. We become hopeful, trusting, believing and joyful. The positive lessons provide a direction, hope and aspiration. Our minds are more relaxed, and a calm and tranquility pervades the personality. The life becomes more meaningful.

My lessons of life are largely influenced by my understanding of spiritualism. As a result, my presentation on the topic included the sum-total of my experience of life together with the wisdom earned through the process of learning.  Therefore, my presentation on lessons learnt were little away from the presentations made by other members. Here I have expanded them for clarity and for the readers to understand them philosophically.

  1. WHAT WE SOW, REAP THE SAME:

This lesson of life is quite universal, and everybody knows this principle of life affecting people. However, my context of lessons was focused on the family and children. Many people are so much self absorbed in developing their career or enjoying their own lives that they overlook or ignore the impacts they are making on children’s minds from the day one since their birth. They keep back biting people in front of them, use harsh or nasty languages at home, demonstrate their smartness or wickedness in fooling people or the social systems, disobey or insult their parents, use foul languages against their close family members, friends or neighbours, keep watching adult movies, smoke and drink in front of their children etc. They think that a baby or young child at home are unable to understand them or their language, or their outbursts or reactions, hence whatever they do is ok.

But babies or small children are watching everything, and an indirect registration is continuously going on to their subconscious mind. When they become adolescent, the subconscious mind starts unwinding and keeps showing them, whatever they saw, heard or listened as children. For them, every conversation or act they witnessed as children, are normal. Therefore, when they become adolescent, they start justifying words or actions he or she has heard or witnessed as a baby. When parents see their grown-up children’s bad behaviour then they are unable to understand why they are misbehaving with them or talking foul languages or gone astray. However, I do not rescind from the fact that there are exceptions, when children of extremely good parent, gone astray or Ratnakar dacoit becoming Sage Balimiki.

  2. GIVING AND LOVING DOES NOT GO WASTE:

The common nature of people is to give something to somebody and expect a return. This favor can be done in terms of money, materials, physical or emotional support. A parent educates their children in the hope of a return from them in terms of financial or physical support, when they are successful. A son keeps their parent at home so that they can cook or take care of their young children. A person donates money to charity so that he can get a tax relief or earn name and fame. We favor our friends and relatives and in turn we expect some short of return from them. We love our near and dear and expect the same response from them.

Therefore, the moment we have an expectation of a return or response; it is not giving or favouring out of love or affection; but it becomes a business. Loss and gains, ups and down are inherent nature of a business. There is no guarantee of perpetual gain or everlasting successes in business and in case of a loss, we get disturbed or depressed. The same way, if we do a favour to somebody and if that person does not respond the way we want, we get disturbed, frustrated and depressed. We also become upset, angry or revengeful.

My wisdom tells me that any giving or loving should be selfless and without any expectation, otherwise one should refrain themselves from such acts of falsely being generous. If the giving is done out of pure love, affection or helping somebody in dire need without intentions of favoring or profiting out of the situation, then such giving’s do not go waste, even if the recipient is unable to return the giving’s due to the personal or situational circumstances. As per the law of motion, every action has a reaction. Hence, any selflessly good work or giving out of love and affection or natural compassion, has to come back to the donor in this life. If the return, does not come in this life, then they have to come in the next life, or in the life of their children in various forms. They will never go waste. This is the reason that in this life, many people are startled, when they receive help from unknown sources or from the sources they do not expect.

  3. POSITIVE THINKING, HARD-WORK AND METHODICAL PLANNING ARE NOT THE ONLY MANTRAS FOR A SUCCESSFUL LIFE:

     I have witnessed life like an observer, and experienced that despite positive thinking, hard work and methodical planning, one may not get desired results. There is some kind of force which pulls you down right upon reaching the peak or holds you back when you are about to achieve 100% result. There is no dispute that positive thinking, hard work and methodical planning are the main attributes for success in life, but there is also an invisible and subtle force, which either pushes you to the top with little efforts, or one gets everything without much efforts, or you are pulled down or loose everything by a stroke of luck despite your vision, positive attitude, meticulous planning and best efforts.

    The anatomy of human brain is the same in case of every individual.  A group of people having same background, environment, education and exposures of life, should think and act the same way. But it is not the case. Everybody in a group think differently on the same topic. Has anybody thought what makes people think differently? Why children of the same parent grown up in the same environment, educated in the same school or college, having same friend circle, think differently on similar issues? Even Siamese twins are different in their thought process. This forces us to think that despite having the same hardware (anatomy);  our software (programming of our brain) is different, and somehow they are downloaded in our brain and makes every individual a unique person in the world. The downloaded software, programs our brains uniquely at different stages of our lives and forces us to think differently. As a result we act differently resulting in becoming a nice or gentle person or a wretched or horrendous person with our share of successes or failure. One can name it luck or karmic energy.

  4. KARMA IS THE SUPREME FORCE:

In the modern world, some talks about the zodiac signs and some quietly reads or watches on TV the general predictions based on their sign of birth. Whether they believe it or not, they do not dispute some similarities between the people having same zodiac signs. This is the reason that now top hiring managers in fortune 500 companies, hire people according to their zodiac signs and nature of work they are supposed to perform. For example, Geminites are very good in communication, sales and marketing; whereas Taurians look for practical pursuits and material rewards. Cancerians are astute and loyal but can be highly emotional. Leo’s can be intelligent and affectionate but crave to be the center of attraction and Virgos can be perfectionists to the core. Scorpions can be highly determined and Capricornians can be dependable, hard working but highly ambitious. Many people understand this and see these differences in day to day life in their family, society and at the work places, but unable to understand how it happens. Why people are different in nature and behaviour. There is no logical explanation of these differences in the modern world.

This is where the Indian age-old sciences of astrology, astronomy, palmistry, etc. come into the picture and only they can explain the cause of differences between the nature and behaviour of people. They provide tools to identify the karmic energies and understand their subtle impacts. The karmas of past lives are determining factors in the present life. This is the reason that every human being born on this earth have a predetermined path of their lives based on their karmas of past lives. Like a highway going to the fixed direction, whereas our efforts and positive thinking are side roads, which we develop with our hard work but ultimately culminates or merges into the same highway. 

Those who are born with good karmas of past lives, achieve everything with ease, despite being a crook in this life and people born with bad karmas of past lives, keep suffering socially or economically despite being one of the finest person on earth. This variation in human’s life cannot be defined logically otherwise. The knowledge of western world is too primitive to understand or identify the cause of this difference, and as a result they keep linking this phenomenon to the most basic principles of cause and effects. To my mind, they are still in the process of evolution.

  5. The Inevitable:

This wisdom of mine require some understanding of spiritualism and an elevated level of thought process. To understand this philosophy, one must connect several dots of different sciences thoughtfully and holistically, that how people are born differently. And if they are born differently, think differently and act differently, then there must be some hidden reasons behind this act of nature. And these acts of nature, must be in the form of energy entering our brain at the time of birth or various stages of lives, influencing our thought process and decision-making abilities, besides our school or college education. Energies entering our brains, must also justify its content, origin and influencing factors characterizing its quality and resultant impacts. Sage and Seers have named this energy as karmic energy or influence of Karma. Therefore, the invisible force of karma must program a person’s brain automatically and uniquely, without providing any control on such programming process of his or her brains.

Electronically, when we download a program or music or a software from the internet, then a file system is created on the hard disk. The file system provides a ‘link’ or ‘icon’ in the start menu or the address or status bar of our desktop or laptop and on the screen of mobile phone to show location of the file, so that the file could be activated automatically or by a click of mouse or by a finger touch. The same way, when the software of karmic energy is downloaded automatically from the cosmic mainframe upon our birth; the ‘links’ or ‘icons’ of different file system in the brain is presented through the nerve endings on our palm, our face or other parts of the body, showing the types or characteristics of karmic energies stored in our brain and what is going to be their implied meanings. Generally, people claiming to be qualified and educated, rejects the importance of these signs, because they have not researched or studied various branches of science. To hide their ignorance, they reject its existence without validly justifying their own sufferings or road blocks they have faced or gone through in their lives in terms of their career, personal, professional, educational, health, family and finance.

Therefore, shape of our palm, fingers, mounts, lines and markings are formed as natural 'icons' linking the karmic software stored in our brain, and accordingly they depict what type of a person we are or going to be, or what holds for us during our lifetime. Our Sage and Seers were scientists par excellence and they have also demonstrated the proof of such karmic energies vis a vis their relationships with different planets and constellation system at the time of our birth, in the form of a natal chart. The natal chart shows, what type of karmic energies would be reflected by the planets and the constellation system for downloading into our brain at different stages of our lives. I have already explained this phenomenon in my various articles such Philosophy of Luck, Philosophy of Karma, Philosophy of Destiny. Philosophy of Life etc.

Hence, according to my wisdom, if our life is pre-programmed due to the automatic downloading of karmic energies into our brains, and as a result, we are forced to think, and act uniquely, then should we credit ourselves for our successes or demean or ridicule others for their failure? Are people, really responsible for their acts as they unknowingly act in a unique way? Everybody knows that wrong acts will bring bad or disastrous result, but is it avoidable? Can we re-program or change the mind of people the way we want? If we cannot, then are we justified in blaming them for their acts? Are they not hostage to their mind and helpless in their acts or bad behaviour? The acid in a metal bowl, eats away the container itself. Should we not feel pity on them because of their acidic mentality and pray to God for their well being and educate them to drain out the acidic thoughts from their mind instead of becoming hostile? But if they are pre-programmed cosmically, then no education or lessons in the world can change their mental configuration. They may make a dent but cannot change the hard wiring inside the brain. I am sure, these answers can be given by people having less education but more wisdom and not by the people having more degrees and less wisdom.  

The philosophy "Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana, Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani"  (You have the right to work only but never to its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction) was already explained by lord Krishna in Srimad Bhagwadgita. According to me in scientific language, lord Krishna wanted to convey the message that - "we have no control on our acts or in other words we have no control on the downloading of karmic energies from the cosmic mainframe in to our brains, which we inherit from our past lives, and hence, they automatically configure our minds and shape our present lives. Since we do not know what types of karma or karmic energies are going to influence our lives in this life; it is our duty to try hard and do our best righteously without attachment to impending results, as we do not know what karma holds for us or how our brain under the influence of karma will force us to think, behave and act differently affecting results".

If you like this article, then I will look forward for your valuable comments for the enlightenment of other readers. If you have any doubts or concerns about my above thought process, or if you disagree, then please feel free to provide your comments, so that a debate could be initiated to clarify the doubts.

Suman Saran Sinha
A pursuer of logical quest.

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