Happy New Year

Hi Friend,
As we turn the last page of our calendar, as we reckon its short-lived importance, our memories of the past are converged with the dreams of the future. Mails and sms could have already startedpouring in from friends, relatives, acquaintances and icici, pantaloon,and the ilk. Before there is a digital jam, i would like to share a few thoughts on this "wrinkle on the face of time". Right from the time of the emergence of self-reflectiveconscious in man, I'm sure, he has been pondering over "purpose of life""happiness" and "success" with appended erotemes. There has beenincomprehensible and unimaginable evolution from the moment that clumsyand understandably-naked hero asked those questions till the moment youare reading this electronic mail. Yet erotemes are not completelyexcalaimated. Times have come and gone, civilizations rose and ruined,cultures were born and died, many a zeitgeist bloomed yet we our basicentities of life are the same. Genes and much required memes are at ourmercy. I believed that we have hair weaving and nail rubbing therapies,but man(un)kind's experience is still a comb to the bald. We still havefundamental entities keep buzzing in our minds. Oriental philosophies(India,China and Japan) have enough answers but i would like to explainthe same through occidental methods:
In 1943, a psychologist Abraham Maslow came up with this five-layeredhierarchical pyramid to explain these. With material needs at the bottom and self-actualization at thetop. Material gains offer happiness up to the point that ensuressurvival and provides some social status. After that comes security, anability to feel sure that you can defend what is yours. After that comesa desire to love and be loved, to belong to a community or group that isgreater than oneself. Many stop here and lead supposedly happy lives (Do you really think that you think about your fellow people andcommunity?). Others keep climbing to the next level of self-esteem, and finally self-actualization. What is this elusive self-actualization? It comes from recognizing that you are exercising 100% of your mental and physical facilities in your own unique way, towards a goal that isgreater than the needs of your own self. This is fueled by an individualpurpose, i believe, which has dynamic assimilation of psychological integration and differentiation of your all energies. It is when one becomes magnanimous, achieving the purpose of life, tasting the highest happiness and experiencing the ultimate success.
Yet there is another revelation on the same questions by my favorite author, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. In his phenomenal book "Flow", heclinically explains the state of one's life's optimal experience what hecalls as "Flow". What we call ecstasy or highest bliss is flow. It isthe ultimate happiness. It is the state where all your energies are manifested at their best, it is when the action and the actor are merged, it is when there is seamless fusion of time and space, it is when you are merged with the highest entity or consciousness. Let me join the dots for you by mathematically explaining it. On a higher note, when your energies and capabilities are almost equal to the challenges or when challenges challenge you, there is high probability of experiencing "Flow". But if you look at the graph, area of flow region keeps increasing as you move higher. It implies to taste higher success and experience higher happiness, you must consciously invest lot of time to upgrade your energies, skills and capabilities (mental, physical,emotional and spiritual). And now, if you integrate the two approaches, one by Maslow and the other by Mihalyi, I'm sure you would exclaim and beam a smile to lead a richer, purposeful, thoughtful, progressive and indeed, a happy life. And at the third layer, we have been talking a lot of corruption, terrorism, defunct policy making, and the system. Lets stop talking and start doing, cause they are tied to our happiness directly, isn't it. At least this New Year post should drive home the point!! For success is:
To laugh often and much;

to win the respect of the wise

and the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty;

to find the best in others;

to leave the world a bit better,

whether by a healthy child,

a garden patchor a redeemed social condition;

to know even one life has breathed easier

because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded

Well the summum bonum and joi de vivre depends on shared collective systems. So as Gandhiji puts it "You must be change you wish to see inthe world" or as Martin Luther King echoes " The greatest tragedy of a society is not because of the acts of the wicked people but the appalling silence of the good and educated" Time is the unique capital and its progressively diminishing in its quantity but appreciating in its value. So in this new times, let all of us channelize our energies and "capital"for the greater, better, richer and joyful life. Alto and nike!!
May you have a wonderful time ahead. Happy New Year. Enoy the video: http://www.findingjoymovie.com/

Adios amigo:)