"Mind" your knowledge

Ever wondered, the meaning of knowledge? The dictionary says it means the body of truths or facts accumulated in the course of time. Putting it simple, knowledge is whatever you have learnt, interpreted and stored, so that you can fetch it for usage, later. Rather for better usage. Knowledge is accumulated over a period of time. It never arrives at one go. You face many challenges to accumulate and retain this knowledge.

Let’s try to understand it with some fancy imaginations.
Our mind is like a bucket, which is filled with water. Our mind consists of knowledge. Here, knowledge denotes the water. We use water for daily purposes, similarly we use our mind for that matter knowledge to take various decisions in our day-to-day life. Knowledge is like water, it keeps you alive, gives you energy, and quenches your thirst of “knowing”, very much similar to knowledge. Your knowledge talks about you. You are recognized by the knowledge you possess. I believe, more knowledge, more understanding, better solutions. Sounds like, the more water you drink, more you replenish your body, more healthy you get? Correct. Therefore, Knowledge = Water.

Now, if the water is mixed with dirt, it will be of no use. Not for drinking, neither for washing clothes nor utensils. Still, if you use it, your clothes will be stained inspite of a wash, and your utensils will be soiled inspite of rinsing, or on consumption your health may suffer. The “dirt” I am talking here denotes/represents the bad emotions like grudges, selfishness, jealousy, malice, anger, bias, etc. All this “dirt” mixed with the knowledge is present inside your head. You can hardly take a rational decision when your knowledge contains such impurities.When you are driven by that “bad emotion” like anger or grudge, the water in your bucket is being stirred by a stirrer. You are riding on this bad emotion. The stirrer’s action denotes the riding action of the emotion. The stirrer mixes the knowledge with dirt, vigorously, to prepare a toxic concoction. Result. “polluted” knowledge. Remember the perils of using dirty water? Using this “polluted” knowledge, you won’t be able to make right decisions. Is there a way out? YES. Do not ride on the emotion. Be calm. Let the water settle. What happens when the water in the bucket is kept still for sometime? All the dirt settles at the bottom of the bucket. At this time you can access the upper layer of water which is free of dirt! Similarly, you must remain still when life throws those bad emotions at you. Be stable and then take a decision. Because the upper layer i.e. pure knowledge can be accessed only when your mind is calm and still.

Next, more important aspect. Knowledge management. Water will remain useful only if it keeps flowing. The flowing action denotes that it is “alive”. If it stops flowing, it stagnates. It becomes a breeding ground for dirt & insects to habituate. You will be reluctant to use such water. A good example, have you seen those ponds filled with water, the green bacteria floating on it? Using such water will add to your problems instead of solving them. Rather I will most likely use river water, which is flowing. Polluted water equals to polluted knowledge revisited! Knowledge must not be restricted from flowing. If it stagnates, it will rot. Our human body also cannot accumulate water for a longer time; we need to overhaul ourselves by drinking water and subsequently releasing it. We all agree for a good health we need to do that. Remember the advice given by our parents during our childhood “Don’t tell/teach this thing to your friend else he will get ahead of you” this would be the only parents’ advice, I would ask you to give up. Go share and increase your knowledge and take better decisions.

Life is a car journey

One night I was taking a walk on my building's terrace. I was just enjoying the breeze passing by me. Suddenly, a “philosophical” thought struck my mind. What is life? My mind answered “the way I live”. I thought that was a quick answer though the satisfaction was short lived. So, I dived more deep into the question to rise up with a better answer. I have a bridge running parallel to my building where cars were moving very fast (actually there was no traffic at that time ). Watching at those cars, a thought struck my mind, again. Life is like a car journey. Thoughts began to flow in. What do you need to drive a car? As far as I know, keys and fuel. But seriously, you should have three things. Direction, Control and Speed

You want to drive to your house but your car is heading towards the beach! Problem is wrong direction, no use of such a journey. No matter you drive a Lamborghini or a Maruti 800, it is dangerous if you have least control on it. You may probably land up with an accident if you delay a brake or a sharp turn. Every car covers a journey similar to a life. Our life is also a journey filled with different relationships, roles, emotions, actions, reactions, etc.

Imagine you have a Porsche 911 Turbo but you are driving at a speed of 30kmph! I cannot even imagine, can you? That is where speed comes into the picture.

Ok. Lets try the various combinations now.

One, suppose you have a Lamborghini moving towards the correct venue and you have complete control, but still moving at the speed of 30kmph. Boring? Right. This is what happens when you have a capacity of 3800cc and you are moving at only 30kmph. Heard people saying I am bored with life? Correct. Same case. Either they should step up the accelerator or they are on an inferior track (need to switch to a better road, job switch?). Now arises the question of how to know whether you are a Porsche or a Maruti. If you go further you will notice it is the engine they use and the power they generate. Lets call engine = your potential and power = your performance. So here we know the engine & power of the car. How to take ourselves to the Porsche level? Challenge yourself every time. Ask, can you do better than this? NO. Don’t give yourself a chance to doubt whether there exists something better than this! Just do it. You will be elevated to the Porsche level, steadily indeed. And obviously keep track of the track too. You never know when you will outperform and qualify for a better superior track.

Now another combination, suppose you are speeding in top gear towards the right direction with a Lamborghini but you hardly have control on the vehicle. No doubt, here you are prone to encounter an accident and book yourself a wheelchair or a pair of crutches. Heard of sports stars, film stars or celebrities moving up the ladder fast? Then sudden fall! These guys were caught unaware, no clue when, where and how to slow down or stop. You need to vaccinate yourself against this.

Even the third combination, won’t work. The only thing works is they all go hand in hand, synchronously. Let us derive a formula from above case studies. It looks like life must be balanced on a tripod stand, a platform atop a three-legged structure, where the three legs represent direction, control and speed. You can imagine how a tripod stand will look even if one leg has less/more length than the other two. Worst case all three legs have different length. For any difference, you run a risk of an accident/disability or getting bored or landing yourself at a wrong place or all of them at the same time! So, one must be well equipped with tripod’s qualities to drive his car alias life. That is what everyone would like to see and attain. Wish you Best of Luck for your car journey. Drive safely. Happy Journey!!