Intellect & Content ~ This week

SALT ~ This week ~ Intellect

I am sure each one of us has met a decent share of people who are dumb / stupid and don’t understand few things making us doubt their level of common sense. In whatever little life that I have seen till now I have also come across some people who actually make me wonder if this is really happening. My immediate reaction is ‘How can someone be so dumb?’

Recently I had gone to one of my colleagues place on a weekend. We were usually chit chatting about our office and then we both started cribbing about the dullards we were surrounded with, how they had made our life difficult and why were they even needed in the first place etc etc. Unknown to both of us her father was listening to our conversation. After a while he joined us for tea and snacks and began to inquire about the office. My colleague just casually mentioned about a new joinee who was dumb beyond description and how the work was getting affected due to this.

He smiled and kept his cup down,’ You know, these people are not dumb. It is not their fault that they are like this.’

My colleague sticking to her nature started arguing,’ Papa… you don’t know anything. It is their fault. They can use their brains na...they just simply switch it off saving it for God knows when. If only they could use their brains our life would become easier.’

Uncle asked,’ How can say so surely they have brains which they are not using?’

We both were dumbstruck. I said,’ Uncle.. this is logical . Every human has brains right…?’

Uncle:’ You are right… but does everyone have same size of brains or intellect as I like to call it?’

We both did not know what to say so Uncle continued, ‘See he is making the optimum use of the available resources. God gave him a brain; he used it to the maximum possible limit. But sadly his best did not reach even remotely closer to your average hence this issue. It is not his fault. That is what God has given him and that is the reason he is below you. At the position he is supposed to be and you his superior because of your intellect. Had he got similar brains he would have been at your place na?  In this world of God each one of us has a role to play- starting from a housefly to an elephant. Everyone has his or her own importance in this world which cannot be challenged based on the intellect. If you think like this, then donkey is a useless animal. But when you think of carrying load can you think of anyone else but a donkey. No... Because that is donkey’s speciality and uniqueness. We all are unique and special in our own way. The only thing is someone needs to recognize these things to get the best out of us. In our cases we had recognized it ourselves hence we are able to deliver desired results. But these people need help in recognizing their talent. You should be glad for having been given a chance to make someone aware about his/her real uniqueness rather than crib about it; for that is the sign of a real leader.’

That day uncle taught us how intellect was not the right measure for an individual. What was important is what the individual contributes! Our intellect reflects from our behavior and the way we treat people who are both above us and below us. Our behavior defines us and makes us a nice human being. Any numbers of degrees or certificates we have are useless if at the end of the day we are not a good human being.

Lesson Learnt : Each one of us is unique and special, only the ways are different. Just because I excel in something does not mean I look down upon others who don’t excel in that thing. Never consider yourself lesser than others or treat anyone lesser than you.

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PEPPER ~ This week ~ Content 

Last week I had to travel to another city by train for work. I kind of enjoy this 'official breaks' as it gives me a lot of time to think, observe, analyze, write and read. Usually I carry my diary and a book to read  or write during the journey. But this time, I had a very interesting person sitting next to me in the train. 

As I began scribbling furiously in my notebook that gentleman asked me,’What is that you write with so much interest? It surely does not seem to be official… since the time train has started I have been observing you and you have just been writing. Deeply lost in your thoughts…’I smiled at him and explained about my blog. He was also reading a book on his religion.

Somewhere during the discussion our talks went to the greed which has entered into each one of our lives these days. We want more of everything and are not content with anything that we have. He explained the book that he was reading was by some spiritual guru and he was trying to teach the readers how to be content in life. As I heard this I got curious and asked him to explain it to me.

He said the guru had said that being content is a feeling which comes from within. And to get that feeling we have to start with our basic necessities. So if today you are about to have lunch, instead of the usual 5-6 type of things which you have daily try having only 3-4. Tell your heart; be content with this much food day. Do this with clothes also. Gradually bring the numbers down as days pass. It is said that anything done for 3 weeks becomes a habit like brushing. Nobody reminds you to brush. Every day the first thing you do when you get up is reach out for your brush. Likewise, continue doing this consciously for 3 weeks and it will become a habit for you. After that there is no looking back. You will see yourself applying this rule of contentment in each and every aspect of your life.

Till then I always thought contentment is something deeply spiritual and it requires a lot of experience with age to reach that level. But from what I could understand is that contentment is a process to which you need to train your body. The earlier the better; to lead a happy, contented life!

Lesson Learnt : Being content with whatever you have is a fine art which sometimes takes the entire life to be mastered while sometimes it is only matter of few moments, but it is an ongoing process through which you need to let you body go through time and again.

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