Legacy

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by Viswamitra, May 19, 2019.

  1. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    I am 65 years young as of May 13th and I spent the day introspecting what personal growth and development I had experienced in those many years of my life. I was not going to list the regrets as I consider them water down the bridge. I have purposefully decided to focus my attention to the positives so that the time left could be better utilized going forward.

    Acceptance: The pains I had experienced in my life have made me a better person. My patience and perseverance to focus on leading a quality life made me face those stormy days with the mindset, “these would also pass” like any other passing clouds. Clouds can hide the bright side of me for a while but not forever. I understood by controlling my reactions and the time I spend reacting to the happenings around me could substantially change the world around me. Instead of having a shield to protect me from such pains, I made my mind stronger to receive and dispatch them instead of dwelling on them for a long period of time. I learned to disconnect the experiences so that there is no legacy of anything left in the mind as it formatted and reformatted itself from time to time.

    Attitude: My experiences taught me to accept people as they are. I am not here to change anyone but change myself. I spent most of the time understanding my own strengths and weaknesses and worked on them. In some cases, I had learned to accept my limitations as well. Finding those strengths gave me the courage to attempt things I would have never ventured to do while finding those weaknesses helped me to watch the fellow beings carefully how they overcome those weaknesses. I had established a firm belief that people come into my life with a reason whether they are young or younger to teach me something and watching them address some of the issues they encountered were scintillating experiences.

    Courage: For some strange reason, being the youngest child in the family, my parents and brother always asked me to be careful and given a chance, they did the job for me instead of letting me venture into anything. This experience built a fear almost for anything and everything in life be it traveling alone, attempting something new, writing an exam after thorough preparation, playing a sport without fear of getting hurt and many more. I realized quickly that I need to change that forever and I decided to venture into so many things on my own with courage and conviction whether they are good or bad. In the process, I made a lot of mistakes but slowly built a courage to do things on my own and face the consequences of my bad actions.

    Spirituality: Had I known spirituality was not something separate from our real life earlier, I would have done many things differently. After 40 years, I started paying attention to learning spiritual practices that resulted in mid-course correction in my life. I realized that there is something inside me more powerful than the total of my experiences registered in my mind projecting the logical decisions. I could invoke that power if I change my life into right living including how I treat people around me, how I communicate with them and how I help them succeed in life. It is like what we sow is what we harvest. I found that happiness can be derived from peace, peace can be achieved only through a simple mind, and mind can become simple only by overwhelming it with right thoughts and desire to do right actions.

    I am still work-in-progress and many more miles to go where I need to be. I am enjoying the processes I have put into practice in life than looking at the results of every one of my actions. I like the road I have taken already. I am listening carefully to everything that people around me say to make my life better. It doesn’t matter who they are and what matters the most is what change it brings into my life. I have learned that the entire life runs like a movie when a person goes through a transition period and I am not sure how I would feel when that movie runs at the end of my life. I am only hoping that movie needs to be good to watch as it is the last opportunity for me to entertain myself in my life.
     
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  2. iyerviji

    iyerviji Finest Post Winner

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    Glad to read about your journey in life. All the best to you . Your post will help youngsters

    At times parents should give them opportunity to be independent so that they understand life and know how to face it.

    My younger brother was dependent on us. He could not study in English medium. Could study only up to Xth. Our Depot in Calcutta wanted a candidate. I had mentioned about my brother to my boss.when this vacancy came he told me to send him Calcutta. But I was thinking how to send him to Calcutta for a job. But my boss told me send him then only he will learn to be independent. That was a turning point in his life. He joined as a clerk first then he became Godown Keeper. He was transferred to Patna,then Mumbai , Chennai and finally to Lucknow as Depot Manager. He got married to my husband's niece and she also travelled with him. Children also had to find a school. In his single salary hegot his two daughters married to a well Todo family and both have settled down.He had many upsandownsbut with his wife's support he could manage everything. From Lucknow he came to Mumbai after taking VRS. He became insurance agent . Now at the age if 72 yrs he is working inCompany in Bangalore.

    If we have God's grace, elder's blessings and luck life will be successful I feel
     
  3. Anusha2917

    Anusha2917 IL Hall of Fame

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    What is best about this is : In process of sharing your life experience you have done an amazing job in passing on the message to youngsters. That's why I get the title. : LEGACY.
    To read ,re read and understand why acceptance courage attitude and spirituality is important.
    Very well explained and I loved the courage part. Because I can relate to my dad who is the younger son.
     
    Last edited: May 19, 2019
  4. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Vijiakka,

    Thank you for sharing your brother's experience here confirming that some independence gives the courage and faith for people to succeed in life. It is so encouraging to learn about how he grew in life with consistent efforts supported by his wife. I agree with you that Grace of God, Blessings of elders and luck are absolutely essential but most importantly, one should put a lot of effort into making the life interesting and pleasant.
     
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  5. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    :hello:I tend to agree what all you stated in the post since I am in the same wave length.
    2. In god’s scheme of things, I consider all of us and other species too are “work-in-progress” and this status stands from cradle to grave for humanity.
    3. Life at every stage, every turn is a long learning curve and none can ever claim that they had learnt everything in life.
    4. One should not wither away with hardships and obstacles, criticise others, and ever in a mood to learn from every human being as each being is created unique or and possessed unique talents.
    5. Courage and right attitude determines person’s altitude in life.
    A wonderful self analysis applicable to one and all to follow and practise to turn into a matured personality.
    6. As long as a person strives toward helping the society- the downtrodden- the orphans irrespective of their age and those ailing and keeping social good at heart it is immaterial whether he or she believes in God or not. Thanthai periyar was a staunch atheist but he strived and struggled major part of his life for uplift of the downtrodden. He sat by the body of Sir Rajagopalachari - a theist for several hours and bereaved. That was a x mas day. Both did their best to society that helped evolving and upliftment of a section of society.
    Thanks and Regards.
    God bless both Theist and honest Atheist.
     
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  6. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    @Anusha2917,

    Thank you for your kind response. I personally gained a lot from listening to people much younger than me and if the youngsters learn from this thread, it will give me a satisfaction that I have given it back to those who deserved to get it back. I owe a lot I learned in my life to the youngsters who taught me many lessons in life. Each one of what I had mentioned above changed my life significantly.
     
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  7. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Thyagarajan Sir,

    Excellent summary of what I was trying to convey point by point. No one can ever claim to have achieved everything that they came to achieve. One can only make efforts and focus on the right processes of right living. As you rightly said, every human being and in fact, every specie created has unique qualities that one can learn from watching. There is never an end to learning in life.

    You gave a perfect example of people who served the society in their own ways, one with great sense of belief in the scriptures and the other breaking the unnecessary ritual practices the society incorporated without any reason with no relevance to the scriptures. I had attended EVR's meetings as much as attending Pravasanam of learned people and I came out with the impression that both view points had great values to add to life. EVR taught so much to the community for uplifting people through his writings and speaches. Rajaji through conducting his life with principles taught so much besides his writings.
     
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  8. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    I like this younger brother story. It just goes to show that one has to leave the comforts of "HOME" so that one can excel without any consideration of "what would people say?" or "should someone from palghat's upstanding family be a nightwatchman, clerk, or a godown keeper ?". Many who go far away from home to make a living, are like people tossed into water with hardly a swimming lesson. And then, they learn to swim, and survive.
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2019
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  9. iyerviji

    iyerviji Finest Post Winner

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    Is it a compliment .
     
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  10. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    yes; very much so.
    Going to a far away place, where people have different language(Bengali), culture, food habits, and such is like the NRI experience. Going back as a failure is not an option.
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2019
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