HOW MUCH DO YOU (NOT) KNOW YOUR SELF? = MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

HOW MUCH DO YOU (NOT)

KNOW YOUR SELF?

We have seen in the three previous Posts – (a) how our wants and needs differ in their basic nature, (b) the functioning of the physical quotient and Intellectual quotient and (c) the functioning of emotional, social and spiritual quotients.

It is astonishing to know – how little we know the body and its five quotients we are living with and  how this is affecting our life every moment!

We will continue the discussion on human needs with reference to two  classifications – one by Abraham Maslow (the five layer structure of human needs) and another, by the ancient Indian saints ( a four layered structure) .

ABRAMAHAM MASLOW’S

HUMAN NEEDS HIERARCHY

Abraham Maslow is very famous for his hierarchy of human needs developed in 1940-50s. It is usually presented in the shape of a multi layered triangle :

In Maslow’s Needs Triangle, we find FIVE layers of human needs. He calls the five layers of needs as Physiological needs, Safety needs, Love/belonging needs, Esteem needs and self Actualization needs.

Maslow felt that these needs are hierarchical in nature. That is, each need comes either before or after another set of needs as per a specific ranking or order of obtainment.

Maslow's needs pyramid starts at the bottom of the pyramid with the basic items of needs of air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep. When one is badly in need of these basic items – he cannot think of striving for higher layers of needs.

These are followed by the Safety needs - protection from Nature/elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc. This need arises – after total or at least partial fulfillment of survival needs of the first layer.

Next layer belongs to Love / belongingness needs -  such as a work group, family, Love and affection, relationships. This layer of needs arises – when satisfaction of 1^st and 2^nd layers of needs is fully or at least partially accomplished.

The next layer is – for  self-esteem, confidence, achievement motivation and commanding respect from others etc. The same logic as earlier holds good here. This arises after full or at least partial satisfaction of the third layer.

The uppermost layer is - for personal fulfillment. He mentions - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences as essential for self actualization. This also arises when the 4^th layer of needs is fully or partially satisfied.

In 1970s, the following further needs were added :

Cognitive needs - of knowledge, meaning, etc.

Aesthetic needs – for appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.

In 1990s, some have further added the following to the classification of needs :

Transcendence needs - helping others to achieve self actualization.

Maslow has written considerably on - how a person at the level of SELF ACTUALIZATION NEEDS views the world, much differently from others. A few of these are mentioned below :

Ø  Keen sense of reality - aware of real situations - objective judgment, rather than subjective

Ø  See problems in terms of challenges and situations requiring solutions, rather than see problems as personal complaints or excuses

Ø  Need for privacy and comfortable being alone

Ø  Reliant on own experiences and judgment - independent - not reliant on culture and environment to form opinions and views

Ø  Not susceptible to social pressures - non-conformist

Ø  Democratic, fair and non-discriminating - embracing and enjoying all cultures, races and individual styles

Ø  Socially compassionate - possessing humanity

Ø  Accepting others as they are and not trying to change people

Ø  Comfortable with oneself - despite any unconventional tendencies

Ø  A few close intimate friends rather than many surface relationships

Ø  Sense of humour directed at oneself or the human condition, rather than at the expense of others

Ø  Spontaneous and natural - true to oneself, rather than being how others want

Ø  Excited and interested in everything, even ordinary things

Ø  Creative, inventive and original

Ø  Seek peak experiences that leave a lasting impression

While there could be lot of criticism of Maslow’s theory – it is chiefly valuable for people and for governments – to strive for satisfaction of the particular layer of needs which is crying for immediate attention – for each specific individual or group of people. His concept of self actualization looks idealistic – but many people – but not all -  are inclined to go for SELF ACTUALIZATION needs after the first 4 levels.

Burton and other needs theorists included a few more in this list, like :

• Identity -Identity is a sense of self worth in relation to the outside world. Identity becomes a problem when one's identity is not recognized as legitimate, or when it is considered inferior or is threatened by others with different identifications.
• Cultural security -- is related to identity, the need for recognition of one's language, traditions, religion, cultural values, ideas, and concepts.
• Freedom -- is the condition of having no physical, political, or civil restraints; having the capacity to exercise choice in all aspects of one's life.
• Distributive justice -- is the need for the fair allocation of resources among all members of a community.
• Participation -- is the need to be able to actively partake in and influence civil society

The never ending additions to the list of needs shows that many wants are being classified as NEEDS now.

Many of these needs are listed from motivational angle – rather than ACTUAL NEEDS angle –which means that these are wants and not needs. The clear difference is – their non-satisfaction does not result in any great harm – except some dissatisfaction.

Are these our only NEEDS and WANTS? Are there others – which we are not even conscious of? In our current life – we find so many needs and wants. How should their means of their satisfaction be? Can we employ any type of means for satisfaction of our needs and ends? If I employ some means – which hurt others – what happens to me?

Why and how on earth – are all these WANTS  and NEEDS  becoming our WANTS and NEEDS at all?

We always think of – where did I come from? Where will I go after this life? If I do have an idea of the beyond – what are my needs for the beyond?

These questions too, are begging for our answers.

That will be covered in the next Post.

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HOW MUCH YOU (DO NOT) KNOW YOUR SELF? = EMOTIONAL QUOTIENT = SOCIAL QUOTIENT = SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT

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.

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HOW MUCH YOU (DO NOT) KNOW YOUR SELF? = PHYSICAL QUOTIENT & INTELLECTUAL QUOTIENT

HOW MUCH YOU

(DO NOT)

KNOW YOUR SELF?

PHYSICAL QUOTIENT 
&
INTELLECTUAL QUOTIENT

We have seen in the previous Post how our wants and needs differ in their basic nature.

One of the most ancient questions ever asked was and is – How much do we really know our self?  How do we explore and know  our Five Quotients? Are these the only constituents of us, or, are there more?

It is astonishing to know – how little most of us  know our own self and how this ignorance of our own self affects our life every moment!

And, for this very reason, it is instantly beneficial to know more of our self. That is the purpose of this Post.

As human beings, we all, essentially consist of  five quotients:

(i)                  a body or the physical quotient

(ii)               a Thinking faculty or the Intellectual quotient

(iii)               The Emotional quotient

(iv)               The Social quotient and

(v)                 The Spiritual quotient

Each of these five quotients of us has its distinct needs. Each of these has its influence on the other quotients too. We will briefly deal with the first two quotients in this post and see the remaining three in the next Post ( due to space constraint).

PHYSICAL QUOTIENT

Our physical body has distinct needs – like Food, Water, air, Work, Sleep, Sexual satisfaction, safety, security, shelter etc, to satisfy its basic requirements like hunger, thirst, rest and movement.

Our body is the only VISIBLE, TANGIBLE part of us. Everybody sees, hears, touches, smells or tastes (!!)  your physical quotient only and identifies you with it. This is all they can do with their five sensory organs. Each of the five sensory organs has its origins  in one of the five universal powers, we talked of in the previous Post. It derives its sensory power also from its originating universal power. More of it, in another Post.

Some needs of our Physical quotient, or PQ, are more urgent and immediate than others. When you don’t get air to breath, all that you wish for is – only air.

Body needs food a little less urgently than air, to satisfy its hunger. It needs – not any food, but wholesome, balanced diet. Sometimes, we eat not out of hunger, but out of habit or for social approval or to satisfy our taste buds.  Here lies the difference between need and want. Beware, if your wants travel in the opposite direction to the needs of you physical quotient.The PQ is not made to handle them at all. These wants are what we can term as BAD HABITS. Drinks, Drugs, smoking, excessive working, excessive sleeping, excessive eating, abstinence from eating are all BAD HABITS affecting the physical quotient. Your PQ will react adversely with some illness - to all these bad habits.

Body needs clean drinking water. Body itself needs to be cleaned periodically. But, applying scents etc is not a need but a want. Note that some wants are not against the body's needs, but enhance the body's utility.

Body needs movement and flexibility. Simply stated every part of it needs some work. In the absence of such work, the part lacking work tend to become inflexible and unhealthy.

Body picks up diseases due to various reasons - in which case, a cure becomes its immediate need.

Body needs a dress. But designer clothing is a want. Body needs a shelter from sun and rain. But, we may want many comforts in it.

Body when mature, develops the need for sexual satisfaction. Unlike other physical needs, this need usually involves another human being. Hence, this need needs to be addressed in mutually (and socially) acceptable ways. This need should not be allowed to develop into a mutually or socially unacceptable want. 

As we know, many wars between countries, many conflicts  between groups and many fights among individuals arise daily because of the want or desire for sexual satisfaction expressing itself in mutually or socially unacceptable ways. Sexual urge is a biological urge common to all living beings and human being is no exception. It pertains to PQ but has its reflections on IQ, EQ and social quotient.

Body sends out signals to us - on what it needs from time to time - all life. We must listen to those signals, identify body's needs and its responses to our actions - and take appropriate guidance from it. Hunger, thirst, pain, muscle pulls,  stomach heaviness, headache, sleepiness and so on are all distress signals requiring your attention. Feeling agile, healthy, light, refreshed etc are positive signals from the body - arising as a reward to you from some positive action of you. 

You must have (a) adequate awareness of what the body needs through its signals and from other scientific knowledge of the body (b) a commitment to keep it healthy strong and agile and (c) the willingness to get your body tested by experts (doctors, therapists etc) periodically for illness signals that you cannot detect yourself - through many of the modern tests.


Physical fitness requirement is not the same for all.It can  be (a) health related (b) sports related  or (c) skill related.The fitness required to climb a steep hill is not the same as the fitness required to carry huge weights or the fitness related to run a mile.You can't sacrifice health related fitness for any reason. Others are Add-ons.


You need to look at your whole body and examine it periodically - with the help of a mirror, or with an expert. You must also try to experience every  major change in your body by touch perception. Your body deserves all this attention from you. No doubt - this should not become an obsession in itself.

The important question about your body is - 

How much of your body do you really see, touch, experience directly and claim to know in your life? 

Your sensory experience of your body is STRICTLY LIMITED TO - THE OUTERMOST LAYER OF YOUR SKIN. 

You do not see, touch or otherwise experience directly anything inside that outer layer -  like your bones, nerves, heart, lungs and every thing else inside you. You are also quite sure that you don't want to see or touch them in your life!!.

What each of these parts inside you are doing at this moment is unknown to you. What goes inside you, be it air, food, drink or any thing else, you bid them adieu at the entrance of your body. What your body does with them happens without your conscious experience. 

And it is good – that you heart beats without your permission, your lungs, pancreas etc do their job without your knowledge and your blood circulation happens without your approval. You are not a competent master of them – and therefore they are put beyond your experience and control. The outermost layer of the skin is given to you and others - to see, to clean, to touch, to smell and enjoy - which is less than 0.01% of your body.

 
In effect, it is your body; you live with it for a hundred years – and yet you don’t know it . Most of what you claim as your body  functions totally out of your control!

And - that is good for you!!

INTELLECTUAL QUOTIENT

The intellectual quotient is awake and thinking when we are awake. Like breathing and heart beat, thinking is always on, as an automated process when we are awake. When we sleep, a small part of it is busy weaving our dreams and finishing some unfinished business of the waking time. Our IQ is a bundle of all of our past SENSORY INPUTS plus a little synthesis of the same done within the IQ. 

In intellectual quotient also, needs and wants are some times traveling in opposite directions. You need factual  information relevant to your needs. But most of the time, you go after or get information which is unnecessary or is at least  of secondary importance. What you need is not what you get. 

The paradox with IQ is that it too, like most of PQ, acts almost autonomously. 

As an experiment, try to stop the stream of thoughts going on in your IQ, for one minute. Try now. You can try as hard as you want. But You won't succeed in it. Alternatively, try not to think of any specific thing, say, the small mosquito – for five minutes. Try that. Same again.You fail. Now, think of your “spouse only” – and of none else - for next five minutes. That also, you can’t.  You are so frail in your IQ.

I know. We have experimented this in hundreds of workshops on thousands of people. Right now, you are a servant of your IQ most of the time. You have no fundamental freedom to think what you want - even if your country has granted you the fundamental right to think what you want.

You are barely conscious of the one thought which your IQ flashes before you each moment, without your permission, and takes it away and puts the next thought before you the next moment. Life has been going on as an un-ending movie show of thoughts placed before you by your IQ.  

Surely, you do try to learn a few new things consciously and put new info inside the IQ – but what the IQ does with it – is beyond your ability to control – most of the time. Also, you do direct the IQ periodically in certain directions  by trying to think of specific things – but, if you carefully observe, it is always trying to digress away  from the direction of thought you have chosen.  You do make efforts to think of specific subjects – and you do have a work-out in that effort with your IQ – but, the IQ doesn’t stop there. It goes off in other directions the moment you stop your exercise. Even when you are on your IQ exercises, it is constantly trying to run off. We talk of concentration. But, it is of a binary format. One moment on the subject, next off the subject, next on - and so on and off it goes.Try it next time and watch.Yet, your concentration exercises do benefit you immensely.

Like your Physical quotient your Intellectual quotient functioning is also  put out of your control – most of the time, and in many ways., because you are a very imperfect master of your IQ too.

You do benefit from that arrangement - as in the case of PQ.

We will know more about them soon..In next post we will examine the last three quotients.

*  *  *   TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT POST  *  *  *

LIFE'S BIGGEST PARADOX = OUR WANTS vs OUR NEEDS

What we want

vs

what we need

We are dealing with life’s biggest Paradox :  

The paradox of wants and needs.

We may want the moon. Or, even the Sun. Didn't you hear that some people were actually offering to sell land on the moon and some others buying it too. Often, our wants are like that.

But, what we need - may just be half a glass of water. Often, our needs are like that. This is the paradox of human life.

Let us take a closer look at the nature of our wants:

• It is a  well established ECONOMIC THEORY that human wants are UNLIMITED, and as each want is satisfied, ANOTHER WANT TAKES ITS PLACE. The whole science of Economics is based on this cardinal principle.
• We strive all our life for satisfying one want after other. But, nothing seems to end our stream of wants.
• Wants differ from individual to individual, and from time to time. For example, your wants in your childhood were different from those of your adolescence, which again were different from those of the youth, adulthood and old age.
• The Frequency, intensity and repetition of our wants (FIR) varies from individual to individual.
• Wants depend to a large extent - on our sensory and mental perception of the world.
• Wants depend largely on availability or potential availability of the want satisfying object. Not necessarily on availability to the individual wanting it – but its availability some where in the Universe.
• Wants may also go beyond such availability or even possibility of availability in future. In other words, wants can be hugely unrealistic.
• How do we satisfy such unrealistic wants? You have the medium of dreams!
• Wants need not necessarily arise out of needs.
• Unsatisfied wants, even the unrealistic wants – can cause as much suffering as unsatisfied NEEDS. 

There are many such characteristics of wants. We must recognize very clearly that our Wants are different from our NEEDS in many ways.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN

WANTS & NEEDS

Many people consider wants and needs as almost synonymous and same. This is incorrect.

• A child has many needs, but few wants.
• A saint has few needs and few wants.
• A student’s need is to read well. But his want may be different.
• A drunkard has the need for corrective therapy but not the want for it.

• Collectively, we need good governments, but individually, our want may propel us to vote in our person, however incompetent he or she may be. Collective needs may not coincide with individual wants.
• The earth provides every thing required for satisfaction of our needs – but not necessarily for our wants (or for our greed).
• MAN – A PRODUCT OF FIVE UNIVERSAL POWERS : We are a product of the five universal entities or universal powers, namely -  space, air, fire, water and earth. We are born as their product, grow as their product and finally dissipate and disperse back into them when we die. We periodically need to replenish these in us - for our survival, growth, health and continuity – in various ways. The five universal forces create these needs in us. And, they supply whatever is needed for satisfaction of these needs. This is all about the Life cycle.
• WANTS – AN OFF SHOOT OF OUR INTERNAL ENEMIES : While wants do arise for satisfaction of  our NEEDS, they also arise in us for other purposes. In ancient India, the negative emotions in us are equated with our biggest, internal enemies which cause unjustified wants in us beyond our justified needs. These enemies are - Kaama (undue desires), Krodha (anger), Lobha (Greed), Moha (Lust), Madha ( Pride), Maatsarya (enmity) and Bhaya (Fear). These thieves  sitting right inside us are said to be constantly robbing us of our most precious wealth – namely, our happiness. When modern economics talks of unlimited wants – we must understand that many (but not all) of such unlimited wants arise out of these negative emotions in us.
• NEEDS SAME – WANTS DIFFER : NEEDS of human beings are approximately same or similar. But, our Wants differ in infinite ways from one person to another.
• 5 QUOTIENTS & THEIR NEEDS : It is sometimes described that our needs are food, clothing and shelter only. This simplistic identification is incorrect. Human being is not a mere physical body. He has a thinking mind which has its needs, an emotional heart which has its needs, a social group to interact with, which has its needs and some thing  beyond all these in him – which requires things like peace, self awareness and so on. All these are needs. We will deal with the 5 QUOTIENTS  of the human being and their needs in more detail in the next Post.
• CONFLICTS : Your need and my need are usually not in conflict with each other. Nature provides the need and also the means to satisfy the need for both of us. Conflict between you and me is almost always between (i) your want and my need (ii) my want and your need and (iii) my want and your want – but very rarely between my need and your need.

This discussion makes it amply clear that equating wants with needs is wrong, and equating needs with mere food, clothing and shelter is equally wrong.

Most of the time, we are ignoring our needs and going after needless wants. A proper and clear perspective on needs is needed to eliminate these needless wants from our life.  

Our focus in Life must first be to fulfill our needs. If  we can make our wants and needs to synchronize and coincide, our efforts will result in immense fulfillment in our life. This must therefore be our life’s primary focus.  

We will therefore examine our needs (and wants) with reference to our five quotients in greater detail in the next Post.

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DO A GOOD DEED DAILY - DO A YAGNA EVERY DAY - MAKE THE WORLD HAPPIER.

  
DO A GOOD DEED

TODAY &

EVERYDAY

I was watching a movie the other day.

A run-of-the-mill, horror-thriller, which normally doesn't interest me.

But, one sentence spoken therein, by the Hero, caught my attention and  lingered on, in the depths of my heart, to finally get into this blog post. It is some thing like this.

"If people who are out to make the world worse, are not taking even one day off, why should I?

The hero dies trying to make a medicine for a terrible virus. That's beside the point. Just go through the sentence once again.

The point is - You and I - are we taking too many days off - from trying to make the world a better place - when those who are out to make the world a worse place are toiling hard without taking a single day off??!!

It does look like that.But, why is that so?

What have we - you and I -  done TODAY - to 

(1) make the world a  better place than yesterday and

(2) equally importantly, prevent some people at least, from making the world a worse place than yesterday?

I find the answers to these two questions a little disturbing. Quite often, on most of the days - the answer is - precious little. Almost nothing. 

We tend to remember the best deed we did last year - for the next ten years.You and I might even mention it our grand children. But, what prevents us from repeating such deeds more often?

I feel, the world needs it from us. 

And, we owe it to our own existence. 

There is nothing more to life than a deed that makes this world a better place to live, that brings a smile of joy to a face, that secures a life, or, somehow, contributes to the totality of happiness in the world.

So, what is it that should be  A TOP PRIORITY TARGET in our lives?

You and I have our personal, individual goals.They are fine. They are needed. 

But the TOPMOST PRIORITY in our life,according to me , is - bring some cheer in some hapless lives.Or, Reduce some suffering some where. 

How we do it is purely individualistic.

Just one word of appreciation once a day (or  even in two or three days ),to  any one who  deserves it, or who urgently needs it, may be good enough some times.We must consciously find some one like that - to appreciate. We owe it to him. We owe it to ourselves. It makes him / her happy. It makes us happy too.

Or, footing some one's education bill. Or, taking care of a child. Or some thing bigger, whatever we can.

Or, organizing a prayer for the benefit of the whole world.

Or, just pray  individually but whole heartedly - for the happiness of - say, our neighbours!

Do I or you need to define a GOOD DEED?

Any unselfish deed usually tends to be a good deed. In SANSKRIT, such unselfish deed, which makes the world a better place is called - YAGNA.

YAGNA is not, as usually misunderstood from the movies , pouring of Ghee into auspicious fire and chanting of some mantras - though, in a way, that also is done as YAGNA. More of that later.

YAGNA basically  represents - all UNSELFISH DEEDS, which make this world a better place - and covers human beings, all other living beings, dead ancestors, great wise men (sages ) and even the GODS (meaning, angels).

It is said  in the ancient times that - whatever deed you and I do - must be done as  YAGNA.

This, in a way, is what the movie hero meant, in his own way.

Let us perform one YAGNA every day.

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