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Sri Swami Sivanandaji
In our grand Indian culture they conceived of life in
four stages: the preliminary stage, the development stage, the flowering
or blossoming stage and the culminating fruitful stage. The satisfactory
growth of the latter three stages truly depends upon the management of
the first stage.
The Student Stage
The supreme value of the student period is incalculable. Student life
is the most precious life. The way in which you utilise this period will
decide the nature of the coming years that lie ahead of you. Your happiness,
your success, your honour and your good name all depend upon the way in
which you live now. In this present period, you are preparing your future.
Remember this.
I wish you to be great. The world has put its faith in you. Your elders
keep their hope upon you. Now is the time for you to wisely mould your
life, your character, your physical health, and your entire nature. It
is like the laying of the foundation for an important building you wish
to construct. If this building is something very important to you, then
just think how much more important its proper foundation becomes in your
view. The strong and continued existence of the building depends certainly
upon the foundation. This is the stage you are now in.
Let your preparations be wise, correct, and of such a kind that will lead
to your true welfare, supreme good, and lasting happiness. You should
acquire knowledge not only of History, Geography, Mathematics, etc., but
also about human nature, the science of self-control, the art of developing
a pure mind, the duties of men and women, and the proper relationship
between you, the world and God.
Thus, the first 25 years of human life should be dedicated to acquiring
good health, perfect character, self-control and all that is necessary
for you to know in order to live life righteously, to be financially independent
via some trade or profession, and to thus attain lasting satisfaction
and happiness.
The second Stage : Married Life
Having already created a firm and ideal foundation, the student enters
into the second stage of life, the householder's life. One is not merely
entering into a physical partnership with another physical creature, is
not entering into a social relationship with another family, but is entering
into a spiritual partnership with another soul in order to fulfil a mutually
shared divine destiny, so that the relationship between husband and wife
is essentially a spiritual partnership between two souls. Your spouse
is to you everything: companion, friend, consoler, helper and partner
in this great spiritual adventure. Such is the ideal and total concept
of this relationship.
With such an understanding, the home becomes not only a place for living
the normal worldly existence, but also a place of worship and devotion.
Daily worship, helping those in need, and honouring the guest (especially
the chance visitor who happens to be at your door at the time of food)
become primary duties of householders.
Another aspect of the householders' duty is to evolve between themselves
reciprocally a certain ideal behaviour of mutual love, honouring each
other's individual freedom. Such an atmosphere becomes the ideal ground
for nurturing the new generation. The children find that between their
parents exists a beautiful relationship of harmony, love, mutual respect
and tolerance, which creates an ideal atmosphere for their growth. Through
their personal relationship the parents place before the children an exemplary
way of conducting themselves which becomes the first educational process
of the child. Home is, therefore, the nursery of the nation, nursery of
the world. Providing an ideal setting and an ideal atmosphere for the
generation of tomorrow is an important duty of the married couple.
Third Stage : Retirement
Having fulfilled the duties of raising children, making them adults capable
of standing on their own feet, a new stage of life comes into being. Up
till now you were entirely preoccupied with your family and your profession,
providing for your parents, wife, children and other dependants. To a
certain extent, it was a self-centred life, although one practised selflessness
for the sake of the children and family. But now one must give way to
the new generation.
Having retired, with a little more leisure on your hands, and with a vast
reservoir of professional experience and expertise, one has the time to
become true selfless servants of the society, to become altruists and
philanthropists. This is also the time for husband and wife, together,
to enter more into the inner life, study, meditation, prayer, pilgrimage.
We must realise that a time comes when we have to say "Good-bye".
We have to prepare for that last journey.
the fourth Stage : Reunciation
At this time of life the only duty is to gather together one's mind and
place it upon the Supreme Being. That is the fourth quarter of life, the
sunset period of one's life, when all your relationships and connections
are coming to a close. At this time, your entire mind should be fixed
upon the Eternal, no more on the passing world. You have fulfilled all
your duties, and now you have to depart. The river is reaching the ocean,
and a time will come when it has to merge into the ocean.
Here one's mind has become calm, steady and pure. One's heart is desireless
and free from all cravings. One is established in perfect self-restraint
and virtue. This ideal state is the fruit of right living. Here, one automatically
becomes absorbed in the contemplation of the Supreme and moves towards
God-experience. He or she reaps the harvest of a rich inner spiritual
life, supreme peace and bliss, obtaining that ultimate objective for which
one has taken birth.
That is the goal to be reached. What must you do? How must you live? How
should you manage life satisfactorily? There are Twelve Keys to successfully
managing one's life. They are listed here below:
TWELVE KEYS TO HAPPINESS AND
SUCCESS
1. Develop A clear Cut Aim
First, you must form a correct conception of how you wish to develop and
perfect yourself. You must cultivate a clear-cut idea of what you want
to become. Without such an aim, your life cannot move forward powerfully
and progressively. You will be pulled in different directions and your
mind will be distracted and much energy will be wasted. You can avoid
all this if you have a well-defined aim or a set of a few definite objectives.
Then there is no confusion in your way. You know what you wish to attain
and in which direction to proceed. Therefore, you also understand what
is right and what is wrong. What is desirable and what is undesirable.
What is to be accepted and what is to be rejected in moving towards your
aim of life. Such definiteness gives you great inner strength. It develops
will power. It makes you a positive personality. There will be no more
negative trends in your life.
2. Draw Up a wise Programme
The second important thing is to draw up for yourself a wise programme
to help you to develop along the desired lines and to gradually attain
the aim of life. Such a programme will provide a plan of action in meeting
with all problems that face the young student, the growing youth, to deal
with all the situations that arise in your life, to meet and overcome
temptations with a firm mind and to surmount obstacles with boldness and
self-confidence. The power to do this exists within you already in its
latent state. It has to be unfolded and activated. A proper understanding
of your own mind, its behavior and habits, and the law that governs the
inner activity of the mind become very, very helpful in living this wonderful
and interesting period of your life.
3. guard Your Health
Now we come to the factors upon which depends the proper working out of
your programme of life. Health is the key factor. Without health you can
do nothing. Without health you can succeed neither in studies, nor in
character-building, nor in sports and social activities, nor in home-life.
Health is a matter of careful living. It is got not only from things you
eat and drink, but it is also obtained from your wise and careful avoiding
of such things that are not good for your health. Eat for your health.
Eat for your strength and not for your taste. Eat to live and to serve.
Do not live to eat. Eat simple food. Go to bed early and get up early.
Acquire healthy habits. Do regular exercise daily. Be moderate in eating
and drinking. Chew your food thoroughly. Do not overeat. Do not eat without
hunger. Avoid things that do not agree with you.
Learn about your body. Understand the inner organs. Know about a woman's
monthly cycle. Eating food with calcium and iron now will help your body
later on, when you are pregnant.
4. Conserve your energy
Then you must conserve your energy. Never waste your energy in useless
pursuits. Too much talking and gossiping, aimless wandering, habit of
worrying, losing your temper frequently-all these drain away your energy.
Give up all habits that are likely to have an adverse effect on health.
Smoking and illegal drugs are a curse upon students. Be established in
perfect brahmacharya. Abstain from sexual activity. Preserve health, conserve
energy, develop physical and mental strength and thus lay the foundation
of a successful life.
5. Value Character
Value character more than anything else on earth. Be perfectly truthful.
Do not let your speech be vulgar or rude. Speech must be clean, polite
and joy-giving. Cast away egoism, pride and selfishness. These three form
the blemish upon human character. They arise out of ignorance and greed.
Ignorance makes you proud and egoistic. Greed makes you selfish. They
lead to dishonour and unhappiness and failure in life. By leading a simple
life and having a cheerful disposition under all circumstances, you can
overcome selfishness and egoism. Your life and conduct must be the cause
of happiness in other people.
6. Adop Virtues
Adopt certain virtues and principles and stick to them in all your activities.
Never leave these principles. Never move away from virtue. These principles
will be your true friends and helpers. They will assure your progress
and ultimately grant you supreme happiness and success. Periodically make
certain simple resolutions to practise those virtues. Maintain a personal
diary wherein you make a careful note of your day-to-day conduct, speech
and behavior. This will reveal to you how far you are advancing and show
you your mistakes and where you must correct yourself. Such a diary will
be your friend. It will reveal your weaknesses and teach you humility.
7. Pray to God
Pray to God and ask Him for inner strength and guidance. God's Divine
Name has immense power. Repeat His Name always and remember Him in all
situations. Remember God with love in your heart. Have absolute faith
in your inseparable relationship with Him. Cultivate constant remembrance
of God by seeing His invisible presence in and through all things in this
universe. God is not far away from you. God is here and now. He is the
all-pervading Reality, the ever-present Divine Spirit pervading this entire
universe. And also He is your innermost Self. He is closer to you than
your very breath. Never forget this. Even when you are engaged in your
daily activity, begin to feel the presence of God.
8. Reflect on Idea Personalities
Reflect upon the lives of ideal personalities. Draw strength and inspiration
from their lives and teachings. Try to mould your life upon their pattern.
Always have a great ideal before your mind. Think of it at all times-morning,
noon, evening and night. Develop it into the constant background of your
thought. Then your mind will never be idle or vacant. This is important
because right thinking is the key to noble living.
9. Be Kind
Out of your life there must flow ceaseless love, kindness and compassion.
Never hurt anyone. Never hurt even the least of God's creatures either
by thought, word or action. Even in dreams you should never think of harming
or hurting any creature. This sublime principle of non-injury, harmlessness,
is given a very great place in the eternal Vedic way of life. Be a centre
of help, be a centre of benefit, be a centre of happiness and peace to
all. Never injure, never hurt, never harm any living creature.
10. Be aboulutely truthul
You must be rooted in absolute truthfulness. Even at the cost of your
life, never utter falsehood. Never be dishonest in any of your dealings
with anyone in this world. Be a person of integrity, of verity. Become
established in truthfulness in thought, word and deed. Truth is God. One
who practises truthfulness rigidly will attain God. God is present in
this human world as the sublime principle of truthfulness.
11. Sarve Others
The vexing problems of this modern world, its clashes and conflicts, its
greed and exploitation, its hatred and hostilities, its mad craze for
selfish acquisition will never cease or be relieved until and unless there
is a change of outlook in man towards his neighbours and towards the life
around him. Man makes life what it is. And life around man is but a reflection
of what he is. The only rational and lasting solution to the afflictions
that beset the organised society of civilised persons is a reinstating
of the spirit of selfless giving into its rightful place. The more you
give of yourself, the greater will be your conquest over sorrow and suffering
and your ascent into peace and bliss.
There can be no greater joy than seeing the smile on someone's face whom
you have helped. The gift of giving comes back a hundred fold in inner
peace and contentment. It is a greater good to find ways to help those
outside the family. Don't be afraid to offer to help carry something for
an old or disabled person. Your healthy body was created for service to
the world.
12. Think Nobly
As you think, so you will become, just as you reap what you sow. In the
same way, you will ultimately experience and attain what you constantly
think and feel. Your inner thoughts lead to outer action. Repeated actions
grow into habits. Such habits become permanent qualities in your very
nature. This nature goes to form your character. Your future and your
destiny is the direct result of your character. Understand this very well.
Carefully bear this in your mind. Think and act with this knowledge. Your
inner thoughts are the seeds of your ultimate destiny. Safeguard your
thoughts and feelings. Think nobly and virtuously. You will become a noble
man or woman. You will attain greatness and make your life fruitful. More
than all the books that you read and study, more than all your lessons
and examinations, more important than everything in life is the cultivation
of virtues. This is the source of ultimate happiness. Become good and
great.
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