Stick With What You Know

 

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Stick With What You Know

It is said that experience teaches us everything we need to know – and life is the biggest teacher. But nevertheless, it is human tendency to explore the unknown and try to chart new waters. Nothing wrong with that either. It is just that when we step out into the unknown, the risks and pitfalls that one comes across could permanently put you down. Hence, it is best to stick to what we already know. This is true in all aspects of life, sports, ‘friends’, business, finance, stock markets, spirituality too.

When one tries to take risks, one is basically leveraging one’s position to try and get an early advantage – when your stars are on the rise this may catapult you on to a higher trajectory giving you early success. This does happen, as the saying goes - when you ride the tide as it rises it takes you farther than you expect. Similarly, risks can give you 2x, 4x, 10x, 20x rewards but mathematically they can also bring your reward to zero – because the higher the risk the greater the chance of 20x being affected by the multiple 0 – which will make 20x into 0 = 0. So, you fly high and ultimately end up with nothing other than stress, a bank overdraft and income which is now inadequate for the lifestyle we have become accustomed to because of the sudden high growth!

Swamiji says the quicker you rise, the greater the risk of falling, and when you fall the height from which you fall makes getting up very difficult. He explains it by giving an example of mountaineers – they start from the base camp and then keep climbing and stopping to get acclimatised to the oxygen at higher levels, and then continue climbing till they reach the peak. It is the same with spirituality, keep doing what you know, your basics should be solid – meditate regularly, love unconditionally, do not discriminate on any grounds, be mindful, show compassion and always be happy and joyous as you go through life.

Swamiji says we need to meditate only for half an hour everyday and for the rest of the 23.5 hours we should live in a state of meditation. What does this mean? It basically means we should live in the moment; the mind should be in the now – not vacillating between the past and the future. As far as the spiritual process is concerned you burn like an incense stick – slowly, thus giving out fragrance over a longer period of time. Stick to what you know – in all aspects of life, you may not become world famous, but you will definitely become popular in your own world defined by your own aura!