HOW MUCH YOU
(DO NOT)
KNOW YOUR SELF?
(OR)
THE FIVE QUOTIENT STRUCTURE
We have seen in the two previous Posts – (a) how our wants and needs differ in their basic nature and (b) how our physical quotient and Intellectual quotient function largely autonomously and out of our control.
It is astonishing to know – how little we know our body and our mind which are our principle aids in living every moment and how little control we have on these parts of us!
We will continue the discussion on the other three quotients.
EMOTIONAL QUOTIENT
Emotional Quotient is the seat of positive emotions like, happiness, love, peace, compassion, kindness and so on, which enhance the quality of our life and promote the well being of all the 5 quotients.
But, EQ is also the seat of negative emotions like - anger, lust, greed, pride and jealousy, which depress the quality of our life and throw us and others into great dangers.
This means, we must promote positive emotions in us and minimize, or even eliminate, our negative emotions.
The foremost positive emotion is happiness. Aristotle had said that happiness is the main goal of – whatever effort we make in life. Most others concur with this opinion of Aristotle. Happiness is our main goal, our main focus, and our most innate need. We NEED it and we want it.
Unlike the actions that happen in physical quotient and intellectual quotient where the goals go on shifting with time, the only goal in Emotional quotient, which is a life long, continuous goal, is happiness. For this reason, it is said that what happens outside you is ACTION. But what happens inside you, specially, in the emotional quotient, is LIFE.
How do we achieve this life time goal of happiness with our Emotional quotient? Four essential requirements for this are - (i) Awareness of our own Emotions - why, when and how they arise in us (ii) Efficient management of our emotions – towards the achievement of our happiness (iii) Awareness of others’ emotions - why, when and how they arise and finally (iv) Building healthy relationships with others based on the knowledge of working of their and our EQ.
Evidently, this boils down to intra-personal relationship and inter-personal relationships. Both these relationships need emotional stability and clear perception of our EQ requirements.
Like PQ and IQ, while our goal (or need) is happiness, more often, we act against that goal our self. This happens due to arousal of negative emotions like Ego, Anger, jealousy etc in us.
Like PQ and EQ, Emotional Quotient also largely remains autonomous and out of our control. This is – when it acts FREE. But, this is one quotient – which can be trained more easily - to obey us much better than the PQ and IQ.
The goal of LONG TERM HAPPINESS must of course be kept consciously central to all of our actions in all the 5 quotients.
From the intellectual quotient, Positive thinking can cause positive emotions leading to happiness and negative thinking can cause negative emotions leading to unhappiness and suffering. Every thought is usually accompanied by a corresponding emotion. But, once the emotion is initiated, it exerts enormous influence on the thought process itself. It can become a spiral, one feeding on the other.
For this reason – Indian spiritual sciences strongly advocate the conscious initiation of positive thoughts and through tem, positive emotions, right in the early morning – and avoidance of all those actions which can cause negative thinking and negative emotions – especially in the morning.
This is because, whatever emotions and thoughts you initiate in the early morning tend to have spiraling effect throughout the day and dominate the day. Yoga, meditation, prayer etc are highly effective in keeping you with positive thoughts and positive emotions throughout the day. On the other hand, early morning TV or other NEWS can keep you angry, agitated or morose throughout the day.
Likewise, the last thing before going to bed must be a good meditation and prayer and not a TV program. This ensures a peaceful and joyful sleep. If you life time goal is happiness – make your choice wisely.
From the physical quotient side, healthy living and timely satisfaction of the PQ’s needs leads to positive emotions and happiness. Unhealthy living and non-satisfaction of needs leads to unhappiness. WANTS running counter to your needs – invariably create negative thoughts, negative emotions and negative effects on PQ.
We need to inculcate consciously in us – positive emotions like love, joy, happiness, compassion, helpfulness and so on to remain as emotionally healthy and happy individuals. We must consciously avoid negative emotions (springing from negative thoughts) like anger, hatred, jealousy etc.
These are our basic emotional needs – building positive emotions and avoiding negative emotions. The emotional quotient is influenced by the physical quotient and intellectual quotient and in turn, exerts huge influence on both of them. Where love is – there, positive thinking also prevails. Where happiness is – there physical health also remains strong.
There are of course certain aspects of Emotional quotient – which we will deal with in future Blog Posts in much greater detail:
(a) How do men and women differ in respect of EQ (and IQ & PQ too) and what are their special EQ needs?
(b) How marital relation is influenced / affected by such differences in EQ needs?
(c) How needs of EQ change over the age – from childhood to Old age and death?
(d) How do we gain control on our Negative Emotions like anger, fear, jealousy, hatred and so on?
(e) Finally – how does it FEEL to be EMOTIONLESS? A contradiction?
SOCIAL QUOTIENT
This is the extended individual. An individual’s social relationships, including those with his spouse, children, parents, relations, friends, colleagues, customers, bosses, leaders, followers etc, extends the personality or domain of the individual.
The whole world may be big. But, any individual’s world is small – and is limited to this circle within which he operates – and it is his social quotient.
The social quotient has enormous influence on the physical, intellectual and emotional quotients of the individual and vice versa. We need to see the dominant emotion in any social quotient or society. In some societies, mutual love and co-operation is dominant. Some societies cherish physical strength. Some societies give higher importance to intellectual activities. In some societies, mutual distrust and even hatred dominate. Some societies may be constantly at war with other societies or even internally. It is difficult for such societies to enjoy happiness and joy of the variety that is easily felt and enjoyed by Societies which are united by love and mutual co-operation.
The dominant emotion of the society is therefore an important factor in the social quotient of the Individual. Leaders of societies must understand this well – and strive to unify societies based on love and mutual co-operation.
Within the larger society – you, as an individual, must choose people whose PQ,IQ and EQ are complimentary to yours. Social quotient requires a spirit of INCLUSIVENESS in you.
Like PQ, IQ and EQ – social quotient also is largely autonomous. You are born into a social quotient – consisting of your parents, brothers, sisters etc and get inducted later into a larger SQ consisting of school mates, office colleagues etc – and your choice is either NIL or very limited in all these.
Social Quotient is all about inter-personal relationships and success therein. We will deal with this extensively in future Posts.
SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT
Other than the PQ, the exact location of IQ, EQ and SQ within us – is difficult to pin point. The spiritual quotient is the most difficult of all. Whether it exists at all – is difficult to prove – with ordinary logic involving sensory and intellectual inputs and outputs.
It is difficult to talk of the spirit which we have not seen or felt. Some psychologists talk of spiritual quotient almost as if it is like the emotional quotient. Peace, love, happiness, compassion are talked of as the attributes of the spiritual quotient. This however is not correct. The Sp.Q is beyond the first four quotients. And, it is accessible in special ways.
How do you access the spiritual quotient?
When all other quotients fall silent, a new awareness arises in us – which leads us to the spiritual quotient. We discover that the other four quotients are our sheaths – and we are the spiritual quotient in essence. The spiritual quotient is our real SELF.
Even when all other sheaths or quotients die, the spiritual quotient or our real self remains. The challenge for us is – accessing the REAL SELF when we are still alive. The best known way is – YOGA.
The ancient Indian sage, Patanjali has laid down an eight-fold path to self realization. You can see references to it, in many posts of this blog. I warmly commend to all readers to take to Yoga, under a competent Guru. Start off right away.
At every stage of Yoga, you have many benefits for all the other quotients. Your level of peace and joy too will go on increasing. As you practice deeper levels of meditation, these four quotients fall into beautiful silence and the spiritual quotient slowly becomes active and shining. There is no way you will miss your real self, as it unfolds.
* * * E N D * * *
No comments:
Post a Comment