"Mistakes matter. How you recover from them matters even more. The best way to handle a mistake is to learn from the mistake. Then you’ll not repeat it nor ever be paralyzed by the fear of making another mistake."

"It is said: There is no nourishment like happiness and no illness like worry. Constantly feast on the nourishment of happiness."

“Will power should be understood to be the strength of mind which makes it capable of meeting success or failure with equanimity.” ~ Ramana Maharshi

If you want to do anything you find a way. If you don't want to do anything you find an excuse.

Like the trained eye of a jeweler who discriminates the real from the imitation, you can learn to discriminate what is true and what is false.

Detachment is being close to what you most want to be free from and using it to make you grow.

I cannot afford to overlook the influence that other people have on me. To what extent do I check that I am not being influenced by gossip? Negativity in the mind is like poison. Negative thoughts are the seeds of negative actions. Gossip and guessing bring sorrow, heaviness and distrust. Hear no Evil; See no Evil; Speak no evil; Think no Evil.

Rest does not come with sleeping, it comes with waking up in knowledge. This is both an insight and an action of enlightenment. When we are enlightened we realize that real rest is possible only when we become free of illusion and we no longer struggle against life. Illusion is the idea that what other people should be or do, what we want them to. The truth is that all is as it should be, despite appearances, or our perceptions of others to the contrary. This means you can be easy on yourself, easy with others and easy with the world around you. Easiness is a virtue, an attractive one at that. It is much more influential than force. So quit forcing, end the struggling and...relax!

Bhagvad Geeta - Introduction..

If the Upanishads are the textbooks of philosophical principles discussing man, world and God, the Geeta is handbook of instructions as to how ever human being can come to live the subtle philosophical principles of Vedanta in the actual work-a-day world.

Bhagvad Geeta

I recently read an exceptional commentary on "The Holy Geeta" by Swami Chinmayananda.  His clarity of thoughts, logic and interpretations of all the 701 verses is exceptional.

As Swami Vivekananda said Geeta is a bouquet composed of the beautiful flowers of spiritual truths collected from the Upanishads.

I plan to start collecting the crux or the gold nuggets from the book for my re review and contemplations.  All the text will be verbatim from the book.  Hope it helps the readers as well.

- Manish.

Stochastic Probability Theory - Pregnant Deer Scenario

Consider this scenario: In a remote forest, a pregnant deer is about to give birth to a baby. It finds a remote grass field near by a river and slowly goes there thinking it would be safe. As she moves slowly, she gets labor pain, at the same moment, dark clouds gather around that area and lightning starts a forest fire. Turning left she sees a hunter who is aiming an arrow from a distance. As she tries to move towards right, she pots a hungry lion approaching towards her.

Stochastic Probability Theory - Pregnant Deer Scenario

What can the pregnant deer do ….as she is already under labor pain ?

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What do you think will happen?

Will the deer survive?

Will it give birth to a fawn?

Will the fawn survive? or

Will everything be burnt by the forest fire?
…
…

That particular moment?
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Can the deer go left? – Hunter’s arrow is pointing

Can she go right? – Hungry male lion approaching
Can she move up ? – Forest fire

Can she move down ? – Fierce river

Answer: She does nothing. She just focuses on giving birth to a new LIFE.
The sequence of events that happens at that fraction of a second (moment) are as follows:

In a spur of MOMENT …a lightning strikes (already it is cloudy ) and blinds the eyes of the Hunter. At that MOMENT, he releases the arrow missing and zipping past the deer. At that MOMENT the arrow hits and injures the lion badly. At that MOMENT, it starts to rain heavily and puts out the forest fire. At that next MOMENT, the deer gives birth to a healthy fawn.
In our life, it’s our MOMENT of CHOICE and we all have to deal with such negative thoughts from all sides always. Some thoughts are so powerful they overpower us and make us clueless. Let us not decide anything in a hurry. Let’s think of ourselves as the pregnant deer with the ultimate happy ending. Anything can happen in a MOMENT in this life. If you are religious, superstitious, atheist, agnostic… or whatever… you can attribute this MOMENT as divine intervention, faith, sudden luck, chance (serendipity), coincidence… or a simple ‘don’t know’. We all feel the same. But, whatever one may call it, I would see the priority of the deer in that given moment was to giving birth to a baby…because LIFE IS PRECIOUS.

Hence, whether you are deer or a human, keep that faith and hope within you always.

The gap between what you say and what you do, between what you promise and what you deliver, is like a drain in the road. The drain is where water escapes, just as your power will seep away if there is a difference between your words and your actions. Ask yourself everyday, were your thoughts, words and actions aligned? Ask someone else what they saw in you too. Feedback is the food of all positive change.

Cesar Kuriyama: One second every day

There are so many tiny, beautiful, funny, tragic moments in your life -- how are you going to remember them all? Director Cesar Kuriyama shoots one second of video every day as part of an ongoing project to collect all the special bits of his life.

Great souls take advantage of every moment and every opportunity to give happiness to others through kindness in their thoughts; such souls are willing to overlook weaknesses and mistakes and have the desire to help everyone reach their potential.

Abundance is to see that there are endless possibilities before us. And at the same time, still see an incredibly rich existence right where we are. It is a feeling of gratitude for everything and everyone we have in our life.

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure

At her Harvard commencement speech, "Harry Potter" author JK Rowling offers some powerful, heartening advice to dreamers and overachievers, including one hard-won lesson that she deems "worth more than any qualification I ever earned."
 

Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward.