Dear Siddharth,
Have you heard the story of the crying woman inside the train? So, there was this woman who was sitting in a long distance train and her co-passenger who did not know her, was sitting in front of her. Two strangers sitting in front of each other.
So, the train left the station and after a while the co-passenger sees that the woman is tensed. He notices that people are tensed, nothing big about it. A few hours and he sees that she is actually worried, her forehead is freckled and she is showing physical signs of distress. She is fidgeting, she is looking here and there. He becomes a little concerned, but he thinks that she may be tensed because she is leaving a few people back.
There is something in the personal life which is keeping her nervous. The day passes and the night comes. And when the night comes he finds that she is actually shedding the tears. Her eyes are moist. So he gathers courage and asks her that what is wrong. She doesn’t reply.
He doesn’t press for the answer because one can’t press strangers for the answers. He goes off to sleep. It’s a long distance train. When he wakes up in the morning he finds that she is actually sobbing. Streams of tears are flowing down her eyes. He again asked her that if is there something wrong. ‘Is there someway I can help?’ She says nothing. So he keeps to himself. By the time the evening comes, it’s a long distance train as is being said, by the time evening comes the woman has gone mad with the grief. She is hitting against the wall. She is actually crying out.
Somehow this is too much for the man. He catches hold of her and said, ‘Please tell me what’s wrong? You are getting hysterical for what reason?’ She says, ‘Since yesterday I am sitting in the wrong train. And every passing station reminds me that I am sitting in the wrong train. That is why as the train is moving along, I am getting more and more depressed.’
That is the story of the most of working professionals. First you get into the wrong train, then at every station you have an opportunity to get down. Getting it!
Life gives you so much opportunity. It’s a long distance train, it stops at many places. You could have de-boarded it anytime. But then you don’t have the guts to get down either. First of all you are getting into the wrong train, and now you are in the wrong train you keep on going along.
As you go along, your suffering keeps increasing and increasing. First of all out of ignorance or out of fear, pressure or other kinds of influences, you choose the wrong direction of life. And then you find that you do not have the courage to change the direction. Don’t let that happen.
If you are really unique and you are actually individuals then your career choices will show that. Its more or less a herd mentality, that everybody wants to go in the same direction. How can the same kind of choice be the right choice for every body, if you are really unique?
It is obvious that our choices are not our choices. It is very obvious that our choices are not our choices. They are coming from our environment. But who has to live your life? You or the environment? Who will live your life? Would you live your life or those people would live your life which are giving you these choices? Yes!
Yes, YOU would live your life. If you are going to live your life, then you must find out that which really calls you.
There is a huge difference between work and calling. ‘Calling’ is a word that is used to describe the work that really beckons you. It is that which if not done will never leave you satisfied.
Most of us never respond to our calling. Most of us even do not know what this ‘calling’ is. It keeps beckoning you. It keeps giving you signals. If you are insensitive, you will not catch those signals. If you are afraid, then you don’t have space to listen to that little voice.
Ask yourself what is it that I can do even without being paid. Can you ask this question to yourself? What is this that I can do even without being paid? And if you find something that you can do, and nobody pays money for you, then that is your calling.
Find out something that you want to do even if you have to pay money for it. Instead of getting a salary or compensation even if you have to pay the money to do that, you will still do that. That is your calling. Are you getting it?
There is a character of Howard Roark, the architect in Any Rand’s ‘The Fountainhead’. “Architecture is his calling”. He has not taken admission in the architecture college because his papa had told him to. Architecture is his life force.
He designs a particular building and he says that I design it because I am in love with it. The client says, ‘No you change the design. If your design is constructed, it will cost me these many dollars extra.’ Roark says, ‘You deduct these many dollars from my fees but I will not change the design’. When that start happening then you know that this my calling. ‘If you want you can hold my entire fee, pay me anything but I will not change my design. I love this design.’
Is there anything of this nature in your life? And if there is, then it is beautiful. And if there is not, then you better find out.
I am opening the possibility to you. Would that not be beautiful? But that will not open up to you if you keep thinking that life is all about moving in a particular well-laid, well-determined directions. If you say that there are only one, or two, or ten ways of earning livelihood that the society has approved of and I will follow only those ways then there is no hope for you.
If you are really unique, then you must have your unique inclinations. Have you tried to nurture them? These unique inclinations could be anything. Somebody just might like watering plants, somebody may just enjoy reading comic books and it could be just anything. You are privileged that you are living in an age where the economy is more open than it was at any other point where you have the tremendous power of the internet, where the world is economically more prosperous than it ever was. Your country is growing at the heavy rate of growth. Why must you compromise? Remember, if we are compromising with work, we are compromising with life.
"You have just one life. As far as you are concerned there is only one life. One single precious life. Ask yourself that what am I doing with it."
If you have gained an education, it should liberate you. It should not enslave you. We find our education enslaving us. We start saying that after getting a big degree, how do I do any small task. ?
As all of we are individuals, we must find our individual calling. That is the only way of living. Everything else is hell.
For more clarity, just type Words into Silence in your search box.
AS
Have you heard the story of the crying woman inside the train? So, there was this woman who was sitting in a long distance train and her co-passenger who did not know her, was sitting in front of her. Two strangers sitting in front of each other.
So, the train left the station and after a while the co-passenger sees that the woman is tensed. He notices that people are tensed, nothing big about it. A few hours and he sees that she is actually worried, her forehead is freckled and she is showing physical signs of distress. She is fidgeting, she is looking here and there. He becomes a little concerned, but he thinks that she may be tensed because she is leaving a few people back.
There is something in the personal life which is keeping her nervous. The day passes and the night comes. And when the night comes he finds that she is actually shedding the tears. Her eyes are moist. So he gathers courage and asks her that what is wrong. She doesn’t reply.
He doesn’t press for the answer because one can’t press strangers for the answers. He goes off to sleep. It’s a long distance train. When he wakes up in the morning he finds that she is actually sobbing. Streams of tears are flowing down her eyes. He again asked her that if is there something wrong. ‘Is there someway I can help?’ She says nothing. So he keeps to himself. By the time the evening comes, it’s a long distance train as is being said, by the time evening comes the woman has gone mad with the grief. She is hitting against the wall. She is actually crying out.
Somehow this is too much for the man. He catches hold of her and said, ‘Please tell me what’s wrong? You are getting hysterical for what reason?’ She says, ‘Since yesterday I am sitting in the wrong train. And every passing station reminds me that I am sitting in the wrong train. That is why as the train is moving along, I am getting more and more depressed.’
That is the story of the most of working professionals. First you get into the wrong train, then at every station you have an opportunity to get down. Getting it!
Life gives you so much opportunity. It’s a long distance train, it stops at many places. You could have de-boarded it anytime. But then you don’t have the guts to get down either. First of all you are getting into the wrong train, and now you are in the wrong train you keep on going along.
As you go along, your suffering keeps increasing and increasing. First of all out of ignorance or out of fear, pressure or other kinds of influences, you choose the wrong direction of life. And then you find that you do not have the courage to change the direction. Don’t let that happen.
If you are really unique and you are actually individuals then your career choices will show that. Its more or less a herd mentality, that everybody wants to go in the same direction. How can the same kind of choice be the right choice for every body, if you are really unique?
It is obvious that our choices are not our choices. It is very obvious that our choices are not our choices. They are coming from our environment. But who has to live your life? You or the environment? Who will live your life? Would you live your life or those people would live your life which are giving you these choices? Yes!
Yes, YOU would live your life. If you are going to live your life, then you must find out that which really calls you.
There is a huge difference between work and calling. ‘Calling’ is a word that is used to describe the work that really beckons you. It is that which if not done will never leave you satisfied.
Most of us never respond to our calling. Most of us even do not know what this ‘calling’ is. It keeps beckoning you. It keeps giving you signals. If you are insensitive, you will not catch those signals. If you are afraid, then you don’t have space to listen to that little voice.
Ask yourself what is it that I can do even without being paid. Can you ask this question to yourself? What is this that I can do even without being paid? And if you find something that you can do, and nobody pays money for you, then that is your calling.
Find out something that you want to do even if you have to pay money for it. Instead of getting a salary or compensation even if you have to pay the money to do that, you will still do that. That is your calling. Are you getting it?
There is a character of Howard Roark, the architect in Any Rand’s ‘The Fountainhead’. “Architecture is his calling”. He has not taken admission in the architecture college because his papa had told him to. Architecture is his life force.
He designs a particular building and he says that I design it because I am in love with it. The client says, ‘No you change the design. If your design is constructed, it will cost me these many dollars extra.’ Roark says, ‘You deduct these many dollars from my fees but I will not change the design’. When that start happening then you know that this my calling. ‘If you want you can hold my entire fee, pay me anything but I will not change my design. I love this design.’
Is there anything of this nature in your life? And if there is, then it is beautiful. And if there is not, then you better find out.
I am opening the possibility to you. Would that not be beautiful? But that will not open up to you if you keep thinking that life is all about moving in a particular well-laid, well-determined directions. If you say that there are only one, or two, or ten ways of earning livelihood that the society has approved of and I will follow only those ways then there is no hope for you.
If you are really unique, then you must have your unique inclinations. Have you tried to nurture them? These unique inclinations could be anything. Somebody just might like watering plants, somebody may just enjoy reading comic books and it could be just anything. You are privileged that you are living in an age where the economy is more open than it was at any other point where you have the tremendous power of the internet, where the world is economically more prosperous than it ever was. Your country is growing at the heavy rate of growth. Why must you compromise? Remember, if we are compromising with work, we are compromising with life.
"You have just one life. As far as you are concerned there is only one life. One single precious life. Ask yourself that what am I doing with it."
If you have gained an education, it should liberate you. It should not enslave you. We find our education enslaving us. We start saying that after getting a big degree, how do I do any small task. ?
As all of we are individuals, we must find our individual calling. That is the only way of living. Everything else is hell.
For more clarity, just type Words into Silence in your search box.
AS
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