Professional Excellence

         Professional excellence is an obsession. As soon as one forgets about it, he achieves it! One thinks that ‘ I should do this’, ‘I should do that’, and such thinking will not help in doing it for the simple reason that thought and action are two different things. If you think too much, you will not act. If you act, you are not thinking about that.  This is the nature of mind; one thing at a time, either it thinks or it acts. In examination, if you are thinking about the answer, you are not writing it. Action, as if in a trance, is what we observe in some hardworking, sincere and devoted people. These are successful people; people at the top. This is, again, the ‘akarma theory’. As long you are obsessed with it, you have no free will and will not be able to tap the hidden talent in you. You have to allow the mind to be calm and serene, so that ‘intuition’ takes over to provide you the much needed originality, perfection and excellence. Hence, the best one can do in the circumstances is to have an overall comprehensive view of things and put your whole energy and soul into it with devotion and surrender to the Lord Almighty. Slightest ego will spoil the whole exercise.  

     Some people have the knack of bulldozing every thing that comes in their way. They assert with pride and ego and seem to succeed. But, ultimately, it is the humble and the submissive ones that succeed. The weak, the timid and the shy submit to Lord’s will. The Lord will take care of everything; there is nothing that the Lord does not know. Persons who submit to Divine Will will have full faith in Him. They are not perturbed by small disappointments. Even small failures lead to successes in the long run. But, the strong egoists do not bend; their ego forms an adamantine wall and does not permit the vision of the Lord’s hidden hand. Total involvement is what is needed here.

       Professional excellence can be achieved by a simple technique of mind management. Just study your mind and its movement dispassionately while doing work. Watch and see how it is engaged in all sorts of trash and even harmful thoughts. Watching your mind can help gaining control over the mind to a great extent. The brain fibers become lighter and lose much of inertia when the mind is under watch by oneself. This is the ‘sakshi bhava’, ‘self-witnessing’ technique. ‘Choiceless awareness’ is very important. One should be consciously aware of what he is thinking or doing. This helps us to use our discretionary power in a proper way. Most of the time we are indulging in mindless activities and lose sense of discretion. We have to watch ourselves, watch our thoughts, and watch our mind.

       Normally, one does not bother to know how the mind works. Actually, it is important to know how the subconscious, super-conscious, and the conscious work. The unconscious activity is going on with out any aim; the conscious activity is with an aim or purpose; the higher conscious works with normal consciousness. Always higher conscious should be involved in all conscious activity in order to get the best result. A sense of inner awareness develops with the involvement of the higher conscious in normal conscious activities. This comes by practice. There is a great difference between the work done by a spiritual person and an ordinary person. This is the ‘Poorna Prajnya’ technique of mind management. This is very important for success in all activities; and, ultimately it is this approach that brings success, immense satisfaction and happiness in life.

        Remember the Mantra: “I am not the doer. I am not the enjoyer. I am not the cause of the success or failure. There is a ‘Guiding Force’, a cosmic force that pervades everybody and guides towards destiny”. One is mistaken if he thinks that he is the cause of success or failure in life.

       “One who thinks he knows, knows not; and one who thinks he knows not knows”. “He understands It, who conceives It not; and he understands It not, who conceives It. It is the unknown to the man of knowledge, but to the ignorant It is the known” [Kenopanishad 3]. If a person thinks he knows everything, he is stupid; he is living in the past. Even if he says that he knows God, he is living in the past. Even those who say that they had God-vision are living in the past with their memory. They are not living in the present. Having known God one has already transcended God and, remember, it is not possible to transcend Him. So what is it he is speaking?

        The more one knows of religious knowledge more it becomes unknown. The more one feels it is very difficult to know, more one feels he is too ignorant and helpless, the more God moves nearer to him. When someone really enters the divine, he comes to know that He, the Lord, is unknowable. He comes to know that there is no possibility of knowing Him. He always remains unknown, unknowable. He, the Lord Almighty, comes very near and still stays far, far beyond reach. He is within a wink of your eye and you can perceive Him in every lightning and thunder! He is like the fire in the molten lava, the magma. He is in the sun and beyond the sun. He is knowable and the unknown, as well as, the unknowable and the known!  One has to constantly strive for understanding Him, knowing Him, reaching Him, experiencing Him, realizing Him! The moment I realize or know Him I am not there; I become ‘That’. Similarly, the world is 'the other' and the moment we know it, it becomes 'our Self' and the ‘other’ ceases to exist. The World of illusion ceases to exist! This is the secret! He sits in us and directs all our actions according to our destiny. 

   The Lord is unknowable because 'He is no different from us'! tat srushtva tatevaanupravishat | meaning, "Having created creation, He entered it". He sits in us as the self of all and it is he who is the prana of the prana, prajnya of the prajnya. 

   Either I am here engaged in the mundane in my individual self with limited consciousness, or in Him, with Consciousness unbounded and all-inclusive. Thus, the nature of our existence is very clear- 'either here (in this mundane worldly existence) or there (with the Lord in pure consciousness)'!