Narrow Minded People Will Not Allow the Society to Prosper!

A view of the War Memorial Plaza  of 
Malaysia- a prosperous Asian nation with 
a high human development index

What is the difference between broadminded people and narrow minded people? 

Broadminded people have the following characteristics:

They are open to new ideas. They are keen to know more about others. They are willing to listen to find out their own weaknesses and willing to correct it willfully with conscious efforts.

Normally they become more balanced and matured as they gain more and more life experiences. 

They wholeheartedly encourage others to do good deeds and are willing to provide good and impartial advice to others when they are approached. As they grow up, they discard negative qualities such as envy, anger, anxiety, intolerance, prejudice, etc. As they grow, they acquire more and more knowledge and are keen to learn all the time. As they gain more and more knowledge, they understand their ignorance more and aspire to learn more.

Since they are broadminded, they become more and more aware about the true nature of God, regardless of their traditional learning or religious upbringing. They might also realize the purpose of life and may adopt a life style that is simple and humble regardless of their position or status.

They become more cultured and civilized with experience of life. They would never use their power, wealth and position for satisfying their own vested interests. 

They give first priority to the society than to their own personal interests. 

They would never argue with others for forcing their ideas or viewpoints. 

They would not get angry with others who are not accepting their view points or ideas, but my have sympathy for those ignorant fellows around them who have mind capacities much lower.

It is not difficult for them to understand good from bad and with time they develop the technique of appreciating good in every thing and in every deeds. They tend to become true mentors for those who are in their team.

They enjoy working, but they are not workaholics. They understand the importance of both work and leisure. They are truly balanced and are not addicted to any one particular thing always!

Broadminded people would prove to be very good leaders. But they would not adopt clever and cunning ways to climb up to leadership positions!

Since they have not closed their minds for new thoughts and ideas, they are bound to become more and more experienced with life experiences. Therefore they are the ones who lead the society towards cultural advancements, progress and development.

Broadminded people like reading , listening and learning the ideas and thoughts of others. They also like to share their thoughts with others. But they dislike to force their thoughts on others and also would not normally get carried away by the false teachings of others. Truly, many of them develop the capability to discern the right from the wrong over the years!

Children of broadminded people may be like the children of every one else during their initial years of growth. But later in their adulthood, these children do exhibit good qualities of their broadminded parent.

Broadminded nature is both inherent and acquired. Some people may have inherently better chances for developing a broadminded nature than others. But broadminded nature could also be nurtured and developed by conscious efforts. Education imparted by broadminded teachers help children to develop this quality, even when they have little of it inherently with them.

A society with more and more broadminded people would become more and more developed socially. The human development index of such societies would be higher than those societies where such individuals are a minority.

All the above said qualities are just the reverse for the narrow minded people, in varying degrees. Narrow minded people are those having inherent narrow mindedness and those who did not get the right kind of education to remove their inherent negative qualities.

Narrow minded children educated and trained by narrow minded teachers develop as hardcore narrow minded people in the society. They are full of jealousy, anger and envy towards all those who appear as successful in life. They cannot tolerate beauty anywhere. They keep devising ways and means to destroy good everywhere due to their jealousy. 

Narrow minded people are suspicious of others. Fear, anxiety, envy and anger keep fuming within them destroying their mind and body slowly. They keep their minds closed that they fail to learn from others. A few of them become dangerous extremists who get sadistic pleasure in inflicting injuries to others.

They are prone to develop false ideas and thoughts. It is easy for those cleverer among them to make them their blind followers. 

The more narrow minded people in a society, the more it tend to become underdeveloped socially. The narrow minded ones keep negating the good works of the broadminded people!

It is possible for narrow minded people to discard their negative qualities to some extent provided they get proper education and training from broadminded teachers. It is possible for the society to reduce the number of narrow minded people by devising and implementing broadminded education system. Such societies and nations are likely to progress culturally and socially in a much faster pace.

Narrow minded people might adopt all clever tactics to get in to leadership positions. They aspire for leadership positions not for doing any good for the society, but for deriving sadistic pleasures by inflicting problems to others. Power positions and leadership for them are for their own self enjoyment. And that is what they perceive with their narrow minds! Narrow minded leaders are likely to make their societies and nations deprived of all good things and might even inflict greater damages and pain to all due to their narrow minded decisions and actions.

Organizations headed by narrow minded people might show apparent success for a short while. But such organizations are bound to prove as failures in the long run.

Your narrow minded relative or neighbor or colleague or even spouse would never be able to accept your success. They would never appreciate you or provide you any complementary support in your acts and thoughts. Instead, they keep pulling you down either directly or indirectly that you find it difficult to live in peace. On the other hand, had they been broadminded, you would have become a happy achiever! When every one like you become a happy achiever, your society naturally become one high in human development index.

It is a good idea to have an introspection to find whether you have any narrow mindedness in you. Though it is difficult for narrow minded people to get rid of this negative and destructive quality, by conscious and willful efforts much desirable could be achieved.

Remember, becoming a broadminded personality is one of the greatest achievements in human life. There are many inherent rewards, though they may not be directly discernible always. Broadminded persons are not like touch-me-not plants. They would not show sudden outbursts of joy or gloom because they are balanced and matured. But within their minds they are loving and with full of peace. Many of them acquire the good qualities of Character, Competency, Compassion and Courage (the 4-Cs) as they grow up in their life, unlike the narrow minded ones.

Now let me give some illustrations that give the nature of narrow mindedness and broad mindedness from real life experiences:

In a particular organization, this narrow minded person become overnight successful and becomes elevated to the position of the chief executive. He had inherent weaknesses in many fronts and since he was narrow minded, he was not able to realize his weaknesses. Over the years he became highly suspicious of others and had developed a grudge to all those around him because of his inferiority complex. He was anxious to demonstrate that he was better than others and was waiting for an opportunity to teach all those others who directly or indirectly ignored his presence in the organization. By his good fortune, he got a family mentor who could catapult him to higher career positions regardless of his inherent weaknesses. And thus he became the CEO. He did not waste time to fulfill his desires of teaching all those others some befitting lessons causing much distress and damage to the organization as a whole! Since he was narrow minded, it was difficult for him to understand his mistakes and follies!

Sometimes, in an organization (it could be even a government), the new incoming head of the organization, if he or she is narrow minded, would tend to become too pre-occupied with such actions that are predominantly with the intention to negate the work of his or her predecessor due to certain kind of grudge that they have developed due to their narrow minds! The society as a whole suffers on account of this.

In a privately developed apartment complex in India, the builders had built dwelling units of a few different sizes. The residents later formed the owners' association and registered a society for the purpose of managing the common interest affairs of the apartment complex. Some knowledgeable and broadminded individuals helped in making the most acceptable bylaws in accordance with the laws of the land. The bye-laws considered all owners equally and they did not make any differentiation among themselves on account of the size of the apartment they owned. The association carried out the management smoothly as there was no disagreement among them. However, soon a few narrow minded among the lot began to play their crooked activities. They started creating divisions among themselves by demanding a change in the bye-laws allowing differential treatments of the members according to the size of their dwelling units. The management of the common facilities of the apartment complex soon began to go haywire affecting all who lived there.

A young couple were happily married and both were having their own successful professional careers. If they are narrow minded, marital disharmony would begin to spoil their peace both at home and at their work place. In many cases, this situation might reach to such heights that either one of them (most likely the wife, if it is in India) may leave the job or they go for a divorce. Depending upon the degree of narrow mindedness, they develop varying degrees of animosities among themselves. If the family members too are narrow minded, the husband-wife dispute soon envelop a larger group of people!

The management board of a company wants to provide some good incentives to all its employees because the majority in the board are broadminded people. They are willing to spend a sum as high as 10% of their annual profits for this purpose. The board entrusts the CEO to work out the details. The CEO in turn sets up a committee of three headed by a narrow minded finance official for a detailed study and for recommendations. The committee, greatly influenced by its head, finally gives a recommendation that in the final analysis was more of a disincentive rather than any incentive to the employees. Here the head of the committee being narrow minded was ready to give up his own benefits. He disliked the idea of the majority of the employees getting some better benefits!

A private school run by a society floated by an Indian church soon became very famous attracting a huge rush of parents to get their children admitted in this school. Soon the society's accounts began to swell with huge money as the cost of running the school was much lower than the amount of fees collected from the students. The funds were so huge now that there was no problem for the school to extent better pay and perks to the teachers and the staff. They could now also hire the best teachers and enhance the infrastructural facilities. They are also in a position to provide fee concessions to a good number of deserving children or to institute various scholarships. But unfortunately, the management committee of the school comprised of narrow minded Christians who could never understand the broadminded teachings of Jesus. The school, obviously, could not make any further progress due to this narrow mindedness!

A man in Kerala lives by the side of a main road. He has more than half acres of land where his house is located. But his financial situation is not so good. A million rupees can make his financial problems vanish for ever. This fellow has a neighbor who is financially much better than him. But this neighbor of his is unable to buy a car and use it because he does not have a proper approach road to his house. For making an approach road, the first mentioned person has to allocate some of his land for that purpose which he had been denying for quite some time now. The richer one now has offered more than a million rupees for the one or two cent of land that the first person has to spare for widening the approach road to his house. But the first man is so narrow minded and adamant that he would not budge. He prefers not to take the money. For him, the neighbor using the car conveniently is a bigger problem than his own financial problems! He does not want to solve his own problems because it gives some advantage to his neighbor!

Take the cases of the Aranmula airport proposal or the proposed liquor ban of Kerala. These are also typical examples of narrow minds in action!

In short, the more the individuals in a society are narrow minded, the more it is difficult for the society to prosper! 

Would you like to share some of your views about this in this forum?

Education Service through Societies: A Non Profit Service With Huge Potential Gains for Some !

Today let me use this columns to discuss about an honorable business in India which very eminent personalities use for gaining respect and money very safely and legally under the aegis of what are known as Societies.

Yes, I am referring to the modern education business of India.

Earlier I had written some blogs on the subject, which you may read by clicking the linked title below:

School Education System in India: Systematic Undermining of the Constitution !

In this blog let us examine how the school education business or for that matter any education system is established in the guise of social service or charity which ultimately provides the scope for gaining money and status legally, but not so much as a charitable service or mindset.

The legal framework for this activity is provided by a law that was enacted more than a century ago by the British Raj through this statute: The Societies Registration Act -1860

Many of the state governments of India had enacted statutes as applicable in those states based on the above said act with some modifications.

For example here you can see the rules framed by the Delhi Government for registration of Societies in Delhi:

Now we should appreciate the fact that the original act of 1860 was enacted to facilitate associations of like minded people to do some charitable non profit activity for the benefit of the people and not for making profits. Mostly the charity work used to be associated with some religious devotion as well and hence the act also recognized the religious aspect of the charitable work that could be managed through a Society formed in accordance with this act.

Therefore the Societies Act has only provisions for its members contributing to a common objective and does not have any provisions for the members to share any profits or money or wealth that the Society may possess in the course of time.

Any Society registered with the Registrar of Societies of the state is a legal entity set up under this statute.

Hundreds and perhaps thousands of Societies got set up in the past by various religious groups and even by various governments which run various institutions especially educational institutions for imparting knowledge. Thousands more are getting registered every year for various purposes especially for setting up educational institutions such as schools and colleges including public schools, engineering colleges, medical colleges and management institutions.

The management of the Socities are carried out by their governing committees or councils based on the bye-laws of the concerned Society. Elections are democratically done to elect the various office bearers such as the President, Secretary, Treasurer, etc. Essentially, it is the President of the Chairman who matters much in the management of a Society because it is this office bearer who has the controlling power in most instances.

Educational Societies have been good platforms for eminent personalities to get associated and get some additional influential and respectful position among the public.

But in the recent years it has become a forum for much unnoticed corruption and money laundering.

For example let us take a typical public school in India run by any such Society which has been in existence for the past few decades.

Typically such a school is likely to have a strength of 5000 students. Assuming that they collect an average fee of Rs 1500 per student per month (in the metros it is much higher !) the school collects something to the tune of Rs.9 Cr in a year as fees.

Typically this school would have nearly 100 teaching staff and another about 30 non-teaching staff.

Evenif the Society that runs the school makes a good payment to the staff it never exceeds an average of Rs 30,000/- per month per staff. That makes a cash outflow of Rs.4.68 Cr towards staff salaries, the major component of expenditure of the school.

Let us also assume that the school is well maintained and the school spends considerably for other such activities. Even when they spend another Rs 2.3 Cr for that, they make a neat Rs.2 Cr as yearly profit.

Since the money is gained by the Society under the Societies Registration Act with an objective of imparting knowledge on a non-profit charitable basis as declared in its objective, the Society is not required to pay any income tax.

The excess amount accumulates in the Society's bank account soon swelling to many crores in a couple of years that make the Society and its management committee powerful with regard to money.

Ofcourse they cannot share the profits as legal dividents as per the existing laws that govern the Societies.

But they can siphon out money by corrupt practices without any enforcement agency ever seriously watching them.

They can spend money for lavish constructions at exhorbitant rates and take huge kickbacks as commissions. They can make deals for purchase of land and other items and again take kickbacks.

And when this happens in the Societies formed by private citizens can we call these as corruption ?

The law is silent !

But in a way it is corruption, because the source of the funds of the Society comes from the fees paid by the general public for educating their children.

If the society had been a non-profit organization as defined in their bye-laws, they should not have charged the parents heavily on fees and other such things if their expenditure is well within their income.

In other words, the fees would have been commensurate with their expenditure which is subtantiated by proper audits and presented to the public.

There are many good schools and school running Societies and most of them have their own websites.

Interestingly, none of the schools publish their income expenditure statements. They are all secrets.

I also doubt whether they file any mandatory returns to the authorities.

Now with this kind of a legal situation, many businessmen are getting attracted to this field of education business.

Considering the fact that only seven individuals are needed to set up a Society, a few family members and relatives can form a Society, invest some money and establish a perennially paying business. Only thing that they should know is how to take back the money for their personal needs. They can appoint themselves as various kinds of officials of the Society and get paid in different ways.

To gain some respect, many such family run charities may have some retired influential government officials in their member list. In reality such members are actually dummy members with out any actual say or decision making powers.

Many Societies in India are cash rich and so they can determine the ways the governments work by various kinds of influences.

It is an area of power, money, influence and status.

Operating smoothly and invisibly.

And shamefully non-charitable !

Proliferation of such Societies, has no doubt, contributed to the rapid growth of private educational institutions in India in the recent past. 

Charity had not motivated many in the past, but the lure of money making in indirect manner through the same law, has now contributed to this growth.

But time has come for the governments to intervene to prevent such money laundering through such charitable Societies and find ways and means to differentiate actual charity work from pseudo charities.

It is time that people know what these Societies are doing with their money ?

It is time that they are made accountable ! 

What do you think ?

[You may also read this in this context : School Education: An Open Suggestion to the Government ! ] 

[View the linked list of all Blogs of the Author Here ! ]

The Beauty of Being In Harmony and Peace !

To really appreciate the beauty of harmony and peace you should taste the bitter ugliness of chaos caused by being in disharmony and tensions.

To some people the smooth sweetness of the ice cream is better felt good after a hot spicy meal !

But is it necessary to fight a war always to enjoy peace ?

Have you ever thought of enjoying a life fully in love, harmony and peace always in this earth ?

In my humble opinion a single man or a single woman cannot be the agents of peace and harmony always, because they are charged particles of life ! Of course they can make willful attempts of smoothening their charges and move around in apparent peace. But for natural peace of mind they need to be in the companionship of a complementary individual who is capable of making their charges at equilibrium and peace.

A man and a woman are designed for living as complementary pairs or complementary companions.

Alone a man or woman is not complete. Once paired up they are complete and should work in peaceful equilibrium, living together, moving together and working together.

In that complementary situation they make the most desirable human state of existence.

The loving family unit comes in to existence if they behave to work as complements to each other as a joined pair and not as repulsive individuals forcefully tied up.

As individuals they are different and charged with individual characteristics that seem at odds.

But when they become a couple of husband and wife, the opposing forces should complement and reinforce each other making a bonded pair stronger than the individuals forming the couple.

If the paired individuals learn to discard their individual traits for their new existence as a paired couple, they can enjoy perpetual peace and joy.

The family formed by such couples would make small units of heaven on earth.

There is no question of family discords !  

That is the way a civilized man and woman should behave once united as a married couple.

However, for uncivilized human beings who come under the category of barbarians this principle is not applicable.

Because peace , harmony and beauty can only be enjoyed by civilized individuals !

Barbarians perhaps enjoy fights, chaos and filth ! They only know whether they enjoy it or not !

To live as a couple in peaceful equilibrium under loving bondage always, the husband and wife should learn to forgo their individuals characteristics for a more enjoyable paired existence.

The husband should agree with the wife for all matters even when his individual feeling is otherwise.

The wife should agree with the husband for all matters even when her individual feeling is otherwise.

The husband should learn that the wife is prime in his life than all his other relations like his father, mother, brothers or sisters.

Likewise the wife should learn that the husband is prime in her life than all her other relations like her father, mother, brother or sisters.

For this pair even their child or children should be second only to the husband or the wife.

But once they practise it this way, surprisingly all others connected and related to them find them more desirable and loving than either the husband or the wife taken individually.

Then they become the way God wanted them to be !

For God prefers those who are peace makers and those who know peaceful co-existence.

Husband and wife couples in loving bondage and complementary companionships forming the fundamental units of the family are the greatest achievement of any civilized society or nation.

Such couples ensure fortunate families with happy children.

Such couples ensure that their children also make ideal couples when they grow up.

Such couples would also ensure that they are never old parasites for their grown up and coupled children.

Old age is the time for them to be mutually complementary for preparing themselves for the future complementary companionship beyond their material existence !

The life is much enjoyable and heavenly here on this earth if you know how to live it !

Longing for individual freedom and independence is not the solution. It is the method adopted by either spineless cowards or rebellious egoists in uncivilized groups exhibiting beastly or barbarian natures.

I would only say this: living in complementary companionship as husband and wife pair is a wonderful experience.

You can experience a heavenly life here in earth itself if you learn how to live like that.

That is my simple advice to all tensioned couples thinking of other options or live in a state of war and peace !

Does Satan Influence Our Minds ?

Though there are reasons for believing in the existence of invisible negative powers generally called and known as the 'Satanic forces' as opposed to the Power of God, I do not subscribe to the notion that Satan or any of such forces attributable to that name now has any power to invade my mind against my free will.

I believe in the Sovereign Power of God not only on our world but also on all and everything in our Universe.

Yet, there are powers of various kinds, seen and perhaps unseen, all around me that could be potentially harmful to me.

Certain dangers are within my own capacity to resist or avoid.

For certain other kinds, perhaps, I need the invisible super protection of God.

In what way God acts is beyond my ability to discern. So I leave it to Him !

What intrigues me is not this.

Is the so-called Satan or Satanic forces influenze the minds of people to work against the will of God to prevail on this world ?

Are the evil things what we see on this world are the results of such an influence ?

Or is it simply the result of the evil mind work of the humans of this world ?

Though a good majority of people prefer to attribute the evil that we see now in this world as due to the influence of the Satanic forces, I have a conviction to reasonably believe that the evil minds of people are more to be blamed than Satan for all the evil things that we see in this world.

In this world now, the wicked minds of people are at work rather than the 'poor satan'. Even if the latter aids in spreading the evils, it is with the full and active support of the people who willfully give up their minds to the satanic forces to invade and manipulate !

The ways of evil invaded minds at work are not always apparent to discern.

There are such atrocities which are very easy for all to label as evil. We keep hearing and seeing such things day in and day out.

But the deceptive ways of evil are not very easy to recognize and are much more dangerous. More than perpetuating direct cruelty or henious crimes, the deceptive acts prevent good works from getting done.

These are the subtle games people play ! The deceptive games of evil minds !

Some of you might have come across people who for no apparent reasons start opposing an idea which you, for all logical reasons, have found worth executing.

Perhaps you wanted to donate some money to a charitable organization. Perhaps you wanted to help a poor person. Perhaps you wanted your church committee which managed some schools or hospitals to pay better facilities to the staff instead of exploiting them just as some other greedy business men do. Perhaps you wanted to amend a byelaw of your society or trust which you honestly feel would be better for all.

You are perhaps one of those persons who could actually act to get  these good works done, but it also depends on the concurrence of some others in the concerned group.

Here comes the frustrating difficulty which you have never thought would arise.

Some of those in your concerned group, perhaps you never imagined that it could be he or she, would all of a sudden begin arguing or working against implementing the good work. A negative force appears in the scene from nowhere to oppose a decision favouring a good work.

The good idea that many of you wanted to get implemented would stand abrubptly abandoned. And your frustration would be that you never thought such oppositions would come from such people who always seemed as nice gentlemen or ladies. Sometimes your frustrations could go high because no kind of logical reasonings would make any difference. The opposition to the good idea appears too stubborn.

I had the opportunitty of talking to some such people who had stubbornly opposed certain good ideas from getting implemented.

What made me amazed was the sheer absence of any good reasoning for their behaviour. Their stubborn minds appear as if possessed ! Possessed by negative forces !

Sometimes this kind of stubbornness from some persons becomes the cause for conflicts and fights. Many house hold quarrels between husband and wife can be traced to an issue of this kind.

Is it a result of the influence of the invisible 'Satanic forces' that cause such attitudes in some people ?

Only those people can say. They only know the reasons for opposing good works !

If you are stubborn to some issue even without your own logical mind could reason out, then possibly you should doubt satanic invasion of your mind. Knowingly or unknowingly your mind is 'invaded'.

But God has designed you to be free willed. Unlike Satan, God does not change his rules every now and then.

If you allow Satan to pervade your mind,  it is again your own free will choice !

Deceptive ways of Satan will work only when you allow such a thing to happen !

Unfortunately for those who have fallen to such deceptions, it is not very easy to come out of it.

Because their minds are filled with pride and ego, another all pervading 'gift' from the forces opposing God. A gift that makes their minds not yielding to the corrective tools that God has so gracefully provided to them!

Ruling or Serving : What do we Seek ?

Is there an innate desire in man to rule over others ? I often wonder about this. I do introspect myself on this- do I have this desire to rule over others ? The answer would be in the affirmative. In nature we find this tendency in the animal kingdom. In the lower forms of life, there is a natural leader or king or queen. Insects, animals, birds and fish fight each other to establish superiority of one among it in the group. In a beehive, two queens cannot remain. In a herd of elephants, there can be only one tusker and head of the herd.

We are much more than the animals in our intellectual endowments and naturally we are all natural leaders. We too want to be ruling over others and would do all things possible to make it a reality. Poverty or richness is of no consequence. We want to rule over others, and aspire for it and scheme over it to make it true.

We won't let any opportunity go, if possible. We want to be the kings. What will happen if all of us are kings ? Where would be the common citizens ? That we do not want to waste time to think on such useless thoughts. Our aim is to control others, whether in family, society, office, workplace, anywhere and everywhere, if possible.

We are not bothered to follow the loving advices of great leaders like Jesus Christ about our insatiable ambition of becoming the kings. He had instructed us politely and set an example by himself on this very issue. He said ministering means serving and not ruling. Oh! we do not understand the difference !

We understand rulers as grave looking, non-smiling and serious rough-n-tough people who find sadistic pleasure in making the life of others around them miserable. If we can not make others cry, what is the use of such power to rule? We admire and like to worship great rulers, kings, presidents, prime ministers and the those down the hierarchy who posses such powers to kill, destroy and create havoc for the less powered. We just cannot admire those weak, graciously smiling or pious people who care for all and are compassionate. For us they are cowards!

At the most we may try to imitate the Jesus attire of peace and love till we capture the power! Then, we come to our 'powerful' true attire!

We use our religions, even if it is taught by Jesus himself, for the purpose of gaining the self importance. If we are not the leader our self for the time being, we would like to be with the powerful groups!

We don't agree with others, even when our inner self finds points for complete agreement in others views, because, we are afraid of losing importance and our opportunity for self ascertainment and leadership. Had we been agreement, we could have done great things! But we just don't care!

If we cannot be leaders in the larger group, we try to make smaller groups and try to be kings there. In any case, we need followers, not comrades nor equal partners !

Look at our religions. If our leadership aspirations are at stake with one god, we prefer to make as many gods as we like, or make as many postulates about god as we like to make our inner ambition realized.

Our governments, business corporates, enterprises, governmental and non governmental organizations all would go crumbling if we do not have this inbuilt desire of ruling others in our minds. If that is the case we won't have the politicians, the top officials and the tycoons to lead us. They won't do the tricks and the leg pulling they keep doing to reach the top ruling positions to lead the others!

There could be varying degrees of satisfying our instinct of controlling and ruling others. Some might go to the extreme of killing and exterminating and torturing his subjects to fulfill his desires. Others might be polished to a lesser degree, yet fulfilling the desire of ruling.

My mind keep asking me, is this natural instinct of mine be nourished ? Or is there any other way ? My inner self, tells me yes.

But I am yet to find a compassionate and caring brother or sister or human who has conquered and eliminated the compulsion for acquiring leadership without ego.

[Reproduced from the Author's Blog at SiliconIndia ]

[View the linked list of all Blogs of the Author Here ]

Escaping from the 'God-dog' Syndrome !

A person inducted as a responsible link in any organisational set up would immediately land in to a very complex behavioural situation. He or she is boss and subordinate to some one all at the same time ! An organisation regardless of its objective and purpose, is made up of an endless chain. But most people fail to understand this 'endless' characteristics of the organisation. What is apparent in an organisation is a powerful head with many weak tails, linked together by links of varying strengths and powers.

Human psychological trait is a mix of master-slave behaviours. Though both characteristics are essential for our survival, there is a danger of people forgetting this in built mechanism.

In an organisation when people are entrusted with various kinds of powers, they assume the role of the master or God. Those entrusted within their command then have to assume the role of the obedient servants. Some play their role as servants too well with unquestionable loyalty to their masters. In an organisation where a boss happens to have subordinates showing abnormal dog like loyalty there is a danger of the boss getting elevated to a pseudo psychic level of a god. The boss starts thinking as the god of all that he or she surveys!

The danger starts from this. Organisational career growth is a lure built in the system to exploit the ambition of people to move from the servant to master levels. But it works for only immature people who are so gullible and foolish into forgetting their real individual nature when someone praise them meaninglessly or award them with a temporary title of a 'higher' post.

So for all individuals in an organisation the 'god-dog' syndrome develops to varying degrees. For those at the top levels the god characteristics most prominent infront of those below. But unfortunately for this 'god' to maintain his or her  status as 'god' a higher level of 'dog' nature has to be exhibited infront of his or her boss. Thus the god-dog trait has to be highest at the highest levels. Such a situation makes these unfortunate fellows at the top organisational levels always in a pseudo mind set which makes them forget about their true self.

Many such pseudo gods face the 'fish-out-of-water' situation when they are out from the organisation by retirement or retrenchment.

Their life becomes pathetic at some point of time due to their earlier acquired pseudo god status with no 'dogs' to serve any more!

This syndrome is everywhere. But in the governmental organisations where 'gazetted' powers are more, the syndrome is more damaging. Damaging the true self of the individuals.

Organisations are made for the benefit of all individuals in the society and are groupings of conveniences for societal order and development.

As the society develops with all people contributing to a common cause, all individuals will become part of some organisation or many organisations at the same time.

They will have to play the roles of the master and the slave all at the same time.

But role plays should not change the true self.

But for immature individuals it is very difficult to realise the realities of life.

If they learn to escape from pseudo life situations such as the god-dog syndrome, it will do much good to them, to their family and the society all at the same time.

[Reproduced from the Author's Blog at SiliconIndia Website]

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Blessed are the Poor in Spirit !

“Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Those who are readers of the Bible might have read this famous discourse Jesus gave to the multitudes, many times. It is a verse from chapter 5 of the gospel according to St. Matthew in the New Testament Bible.

But have you ever thought of the deep lying message hidden in this verse? Only those who feel poor in spirit will ever hunger for righteousness. Only the humble seek for divine strength and crave spiritual power.

In the New Testament we also read about Jesus making his point clearer by telling the story of the two men visiting the temple to pray. One man was a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee was an important person of the society and the other was an ordinary worker of the society with little knowledge and importance. The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself: 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unlearned, unjust, adulterers, or even like this publican. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the publican, standing at some distance did not lift his eyes to heaven but beat his breast, and said, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus then explained that God heard the prayer of the poor publican. He said something like this: “I tell you that the publican went home with God's approval rather than the Pharisee, for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted."

Yet on another occasion some mothers brought their small children to Jesus for his blessings, but the disciples prevented them. Jesus reprimanded the disciples and said: "Do not prevent the little children to come to me; forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Verily, verily, I say to you, whosoever receives not the kingdom of God as a little child shall hardly enter therein.”

Remember, it is difficult for those with a high level of pride and ego to receive God’s grace and blessings. We have to learn to humble ourselves. Humility is the virtue that God likes. Ego and pride are vices that originate from powers that are ungodly and prevents one from receiving the graceful blessings from God. These vices are so destructive that those nurturing these knowingly or unknowingly are bound to destroy themselves, both materially and spiritually.

We often hear about ego clashes. A person blind with self pride cannot accept the view points of others. A society composed of egoistic persons can never hope to have peace. They are bound to clash till all of them perish. If not, peace and harmony will not be there. All will have to live in constant fear and anxiety about others like them. A person who nurtures self importance and pride in his or her own stature with little regard to others are not the children of God. They cannot love each other and care for others. They will do anything to satisfy their egos.

Violence often results from hurt feelings of egoistic persons. Egoistic persons cannot easily change. They feel that they are always right. Even when God himself were to offer them some good counseling, they are bound to reject it. No teacher can ever teach a student who boast himself of superior knowledge than the teacher himself. Knowledge is like water. It flows to low lying areas! We live in a society full of egoistic individuals. Though Jesus had tried to make us understand this again and again, we are yet to understand it.

Many claim to be Christians, followers of Jesus Christ. But they cannot change their ways and their heart. Their egos and pride do not allow them to be humble and accommodative. They cannot forgive others. They aspire for power, money, wealth, position and importance all for satisfying their egos. No matter what Jesus might have reminded them. They are all a divided lot fighting for superiority and never ever willing to accept what Jesus had taught them again and again. Their leaders might do the ritual of washing the feet of others as a meaningless imitation of what Jesus did centuries ago without ever forgoing their egos!

We believe in what we consider as right. But for evaluating right or wrong, our pride won’t even allow us to listen to our inner voice! Extreme pride and ego are characteristic traits of young adults migrating from childhood to adulthood. With age and experience, maturity develops. The more mature a person, the less his or her ego. Unfortunately, many people now-a-days only grow in age, but not in maturity. They seem to get no opportunity to learn from life experiences! But is it necessary to burn your fingers again and again to learn that fire can destroy? When in power many Saddams never ever imagine that they would one day face utter disgrace! When they enjoy power, money, wealth and position, they are high in spirit, making them potentially against divine providence.

True happiness, peace and love are characteristics of heaven. Our earth can be heaven. If only it is filled with blessed people. But to receive divine blessing, we need to empty our hearts of the all filling egos!

[Reproduced from the Author's Blog in SiliconIndia]

AMBITION IS GOOD, OVER AMBITION IS NOT !

Ambition or a desire to progress is an much needed characteristic for all human beings. Without ambition in the individuals, the society would be stagnant and non-progressive.

But the trouble is when ambition turns into over ambition in some individuals and societies.

Ambition without care and consideration to others is harmful. At the same time ambition has to be commensurate with individual capacities to fulfil the ambition in the right and fair manner.

There is a saying: ' A pint cannot hold a quart.' Inherent capacities cannot be exceeded.

You have a tumbler which can hold only 200 millilitre. That is its designed or inherent capacity. So there is no question of this tumbler holding more than 200 ml. If you pour more it would get spilled and spoil the area around.

Similarly, a person with certain kind of inherent mental and physical capacity cannot do a job which is beyond his natural capacity or ability. By efforts he can perhaps achieve the limits of his natural capacity but never exceed it.

This is something very important to be understood. All people are not alike and are not with the same abilities and capacities.

So attempting all to be treated alike would cause unpleasant situations.

Ambition of the individual has to be within his limits of abilities. If it is not, he will spoil the surroundings, if he tries to achieve over and above his natural abilities.

In India, we totally disregard this fact of life. We want to make those who do not have the natural abilities to discharge certain kinds of functions forcefully made to do those functions.

So we force some to become a doctor or engineer or administrator or manager even when they do not have the natural capacity to hold all those information and knowledge to discharge those functions effectively.

This is another situation in our country which leads to corruption.

Over ambition to hold a quart in a pint glass !

What a pity ?

[Source: BewareIndia ]

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