Do what you think is right to do. But avoid doing any favor until you have
reached a mental state where it is no more a favor as you are really doing it
for a broader (enlarged) "you". This saves you from the grief when
the favor is not well taken .
N L Sharma, Nov. 4, 1996
Service and Self-discipline
sev; a*r s\ym(
If properly used there is enough time in a human life-span even to achieve
what seems to be unachievable. But much of the time is not used because of lack
of self-discipline in one_s life. Now what is self-discipline? It is a
conscious effort to regulate one_s activities and life-style. How can one learn
to practice self-discipline? One way is that of asceticism or withdrawal (invOi?) from distractions by soothing the mind. The
other, and the more practical one, is that of loving-activism (in_k;m
kmRyog). Kids learn discipline when they care for their toys. Parents
learn discipline while raising their children. We all learn it through caring,
sharing, and service. And through self-discipline our dreams come true.
NLS, Nov. 18, 1997
Stand against injustice before you become a victim
While weaklings submit themselves to injustice and people with pride wait to
face it until their turn comes, noble are those who can sense it in advance by
identifying with those inflicted with injustice and gather courage to stand
against it before it is too late.
NLS, April 26, 1999
The Cosmic Laws
The world seems chaotic, yet there is an order when I get up every morning
and see the sun rising again from the east. It is an awesome feeling to sink in
that the seemingly chaotic universe ultimately abides by some norms what are
called the conservation laws in physics. Although, taken one at a time these
laws are only prohibitive in their character, as a complete set they lead to a
kind of inevitability. What I mean by prohibitive is that the principle of
conservation of energy, for example, does not necessarily allow all the
processes that do conserve energy but it certainly prohibits those that do not
conserve it. So prohibition rather than obedience seems to be the rule.
Nevertheless, energy conservation combined with momentum, angular momentum,
charge, and a few other conservation laws, sets in a kind of inevitability,
restricting chaos and creating apparent order. I said only apparent order
because deep down (at extremely high energies or small distances) things still
look chaotic. The laws, however, are very general (non-specific) and universal
in their scope. Would there even be any laws, were they too specific or
prescriptive? In about a dozen of commandments, the laws tell us what is not
allowed, leaving enormous possibilities of things that are allowed. And in
Richard Feynman_s words "whatever is not expressly forbidden is
mandatory". Prescriptive directives for every allowed phenomena would be
too much to expect from the Creator. By delegating his/her duties to these
cosmic laws, the Creator (if there ever was one!) has wisely relieved him/her-self
of the insurmountable daily burden of running the creation and at the same time
has absolved him/her-self of its rights and wrongs. Because of a small number
of rules, however, there are enormous creative potentialities and free-will
left for the creation to evolve into. Universe created under prescriptive
directives (a detailed recipe for running the show) would have been too narrow
in its scope, variety, and beauty. Or else, the list of directives would be too
long to be called laws.
N L Sharma, Feb. 25, 2K