Karma : Is it real?

Many a times people say that it is their Karma which is guiding their life. They say their future is influenced by their Karma in the present. Good deeds and intent contribute to good Karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad Karma and future suffering. Karma is sometimes also associated with rebirth. But does Karma really have anything to do with our past, present and future? For understanding this it is very important to know what "Karma" actually means.

Karma (car-ma) is a word meaning the result of a person's actions as well as the actions themselves. It is a principle based on cause and effect. This means that our actions, whether good or bad, come back to us in our future. It is said that it helps people to understand their mistakes and learn lessons from life. This theory is popular in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. According to the Shatapatha Brahmana, "a man is born to the world he has made" and one is placed in a balance in the other world for an estimate of one's good and evil deed. Karma should not be confused with fate. The two are separate entities. Rather, Karma decides our fate. Karma refers to our actions and their natural reactions which shape up our destiny and determine our fate.

Human beings are said to produce karma in four ways:

• 1) through thoughts,
• 2) through right attitude,
• 3) through actions that we perform ourselves,
• 4) through actions others perform under our instructions.

So, back to our earlier question. How does Karma affect our lives? But does Karma even exist? Swami Sivananda Saraswati puts it as :

Some people die when they are eighty years old; some die when they are in the womb; some die at twenty; some at forty. What is the cause for the variation? Who has fixed the span of life for all? This clearly proves that there is the theory of Karma, that there is one Lord, who is the dispenser of the fruits of the actions of the Jivas, who fixes the span of life of the Jivas in accordance with their Karma or actions, who knows the exact relation between Karmas and their fruits.

Clearly, this makes me think for a moment about the particular existence of one Lord, and his/her being the dispenser of fruits in accordance to our Karma. But have a look at my example.

Suppose a man does business with a few people. After sometime, due to greed he cheats on his partners and shakes hands with new contacts. The new partners are clever and experienced people, they find him an easy target and take all his money. At this moment we can say that this was because of his bad Karma initially. He reaped as he sowed. But after that he learns a lesson and always makes it a point to remain faithful to any obligation. So was his Karma actually bad Karma? After all, it had a positive outcome. But we cannot say that it was a good thing that he cheated first. His actions and their outcomes were always under his control, he just didn't think about the outcomes they might have.

The truth is, that our actions and their outcomes are mostly under our control. However, we don't always think over our outcomes and therefore, we invented Karma. Karma is a desired outcome that is determined by some outside source that takes care of a problem for us. According to me Karma was invented just to hide the bad deeds of certain people under the pretext of a spiritual force. So Karma in no way affects our past, present or our future. So sit back and relax.

The Curious State Of Depression

A quick glance at the numbers shows us that approximately 121 million people ( that's a pretty big number) are suffering from some form of depression worldwide. A closer study of the demographics tells us that 36% people of the earlier number belong to India. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics reveal that a total of 1,35,445 people committed suicide in 2012 which amounts to a an average of 15 suicides an hour or 371 suicides daily. Further, a vast majority of these people are students in the age group 15-19. The rising number of suicides in students due to depression cannot go unnoticed. So what is it in India that is leading the students to take this drastic step? Is it their personal problems? Or, is it the complexity of the education system? Whose fault is this?

Before answering these questions, I would like to tell you about the state of depression. Even you might have suffered a little depression or heard from your friends about their depressed state. Its really hard to understand one's mind when he/she is in a depressed mood. What that person thinks, says or does is very different from their usual demeanor. So what makes them do these unusual activities? I can't actually explain that but we can say that at that time, a depressed person is concerned just about himself/herself. Depression is defined as a mood disorder, in which people become sad and pessimistic. Most people feel sad, discouraged, or "down" sometimes, but that is not depression. In clinical depression these feelings last for a long time and are combined with other symptoms. Someone with depression might have one of these symptoms : strong sad feelings or no strong feelings at all, feeling guilty, feeling helpless or hopeless, anxiety, fear, low self-esteem or a loss of interest in life.

I believe that young people are at high risk of depression because more and more youths are failing to meet achievement expectations due to limited opportunities and the rising population. According to the Lancet study, likely reasons for the rise in suicide among young people is the increased pressure that has come with new economic opportunity and social fragmentation. Another factor could be the increasing loneliness due to social networking, says Dr. Vikram Patel.

The young face very high competition and pressure from families to succeed. Many parents think their child should come first in the class. Of course, that can't always happen. The education system is to be blamed for the heavy load of the syllabus and filling up books with unneeded content which kids fail to understand. The government is equally responsible. With rapid development in India across all sectors, the government has failed to increase opportunities for students to succeed.

When youths start to despair, they often don't think to seek help, or shun the idea because "they think psychiatry is only for crazy people" said Dr. T.S. Sathyanarayana Rao, head of psychiatry at J. S. S. Medical College & Hospital in Mysore. While medical care in India has improved manifold over the decade, mental health is not a priority in India. It has to be a priority. Many people are not aware of the fact that mental health is behind suicide.

Crisis centers should be set up to handle situations regarding depression among people. Mental health care institutes are needed severely. Awareness programs are required not only for students, but also for their parents to recognize their child's ability and then set targets. The government has to look into the plot-holes of the existing education system and take up the required efforts immediately.

Until we meet again, stay happy!

Mindset : Book Review

Genre:psychology

All of us face certain situations, where we are discouraged by failure and giving up appears as the only escape from this gloomy place. We under-estimate and think of ourselves as dumb and good-for-nothing. This kind of mindset is known as fixed mindset. But if you take problems as challenges, stretch beyond your limits trying to find out a solution, then it's known as a growth mindset. 

Dr. Carol Dweck, professor at Stanford University, has conducted research on 'Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset', for around 20 years.

Recently, I completed reading the book Mindset, by Carol Dweck. Prior to reading the book, I had a fixed mindset. I used to give up on facing the slightest of difficulties, I wasn't interested in learning and assumed intelligence to be a fixed trait. But, when I started reading Mindset, I tried to transfer my mind into a growth mindset wherever I could. Gradually, I began considering my mistakes as stepping stones to learning new things. I realized that great qualities have to be cultivated. I challenged myself to perform in difficult situations and this whole new viewpoint opened up for me.​ I had a new love for learning.

In the following excerpt, Carol Dweck explains what happens when people practice and learn new things regularly :

“When we learn new things, these tiny connections in the brain actually multiply and get stronger. The more you challenge your mind to learn, the more your brain cells grow. Then, things that you once found very hard or even impossible - like speaking a foreign language or doing algebra - seem to become easy. The result is a stronger, smarter brain."

Cultivating a growth mindset can help you focus and prompt you to look for more opportunities to learn and grow.

It's a book which everyone should read and understand.

Discover and tune your mindset to the love of learning and achieving success.

Keep learning!!

Lost

When did I get lost?

Was it the day I stopped dreaming, or,

Was it the day I started day-dreaming?

Was it the day I resigned to fate, or,

Was it the day I stopped being one of a kind?

Was it the day I set the bar too low, or,

Was it the day I stopped taking risks?

Was it the day I took the road more traveled?

Or was all this the same day?

The day I lost myself.

Science vs Morality

There's always been a raging debate between science and morality. I've been trying to join in for a while but it's only recently that I realized what the intensity of this debate is. I've finally made up my mind and formulated some of my thoughts to be put down on paper.

I've heard quite a few scientists exclaim that science and morality should not be mixed up, because morality puts a huge restriction on scientists to do their job. What's the point of being a scientist if you have to go by the textbook? Science loses all essence if you try to impose rules.

A significant example would be the trial and condemnation of Galileo by the Roman Catholic Church, for promoting Copernicus's heliocentric theory, which were contradictory to the ideas of the Church(who aligned with theories of Aristotle and Plotemy).

But, we should also question our own morals and principles. There are numerous things that science has done to ease our lives. In fact, science has brought about revolutions in society. Science has given us the power to question and to investigate.

So, why are we, today, making science about power, dominance and ego? Why should a country's influence be decided by it's nuclear armory? Why should we feel threatened by science?

Indeed, science has become a tool and symbol of power. The power of science is being utilized to fight. Science, that taught us to question, is being used to shut us up.

However, if kept apart, science and morality change into two self-destructive entities. That being said, I believe that science should be driven and guided by morality, not by greed. Science and morality shouldn't be kept aside, because, with great power comes great responsibility!

Lost : Where?

Where did I get lost?

Was it among my dreams and desires, or,

Was it among my fairy-tales?

Was it in my playground, or,

Was it in my mental battleground?

Was it among my video games, or,

Was it among my history textbooks?

Was it Lavoisier, or,

Was it Einstein?

Where am I?

For I see myself only with a past and there's no light at the end of the tunnel.

Mind Games

Introduction

Although our brains are highly developed and capable of doing remarkable things, like solving complex math problems, they aren't perfect. There are times when our mind oversees things completely and deems certain things more important than others. Have a look.

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Try to guess what's odd with these pictures :

1.

2.

3.

Were you able to get them? The answers are :

1. The lady has an extra finger.

2. There's a phantom arm floating around.

3. The man has only one ear.

Colgate created this ingenious ad-campaign to promote their dental floss. The campaign was successful because it proved that food that remains on your teeth draws more attention than any physical defect. There is simply so much going on in the world around us at any given moment that our brains cannot attend to each and every detail. As a result, we can sometimes completely miss major changes that happen right in front of our eyes.

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The Invisible Gorilla Test

Many of you might know this, but it is really interesting! All you have to do is pay attention and count the number of passes the players wearing white shirts make with the basketball. Easy right! Go ahead and try it out.

At some point, a gorilla strolls into the middle of the action, faces the camera and thumps its chest, and then leaves, spending nine seconds on screen. Did you see the gorilla? This video is from an original research by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. When the actual study was carried out at Harvard University, it was found that half of the people who watched the video and counted the passes, missed the gorilla. It was as though the gorilla was invisible.

This is one of the best known experiments in psychology. This experiment reveals two things: that we are missing a lot of what goes on around us, and that we have no idea that we are missing so much.

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Mind Hacks

Our minds can be deceived pretty easily. They can be made to believe stuff quite conveniently as well. There are loads and loads of things going around at any given point of time, but does your brain take in account, everything? No, it doesn't. It sees only what you feel is important to you. Your brain listens to you, just as you listen to your brain. Here are some mental hacks you can try out :

1. If you are gloomy and sad, an act of faking a smile will make the brain act like its happy just because a smile is linked with joy. After a while, your brain will automatically sync with your smile and make you feel genuinely happy.

2. If you have a lot of work and you're procrastinating, remind yourself of the next day's tasks at night before sleeping. By doing this, your brain begins working on 'how to complete them', while you sleep.

3. The brain doesn't understand true or false very well. Tell it a story a 100 times and the brain will believe that its a real story. You can brainwash yourself.

4. Pomodoro Technique : You set yourself a timer of 25 minutes to do some task uninterrupted, with complete focus. NO checking messages, emails, making calls etc. Once the time is up, you give yourself a 5-10 minute break. Our brains are wired for rewards, so this is one way to make it more productive.

Happy Mind Hacking!