Be Happy - A Little Extra Effort Can Gain You A Lot.

During last year, I was attending a class how to get a insurance policy from a person you do not expect that he would be ready. It happens that many times, we make a picture of a person at our own. It is called the failure of reading. He might be in need of some insurance and expecting you to knock him at. But you did not go. Some other agent contacted him and got the business. When you come to know, you say, “Oh! It was unexpected.” Similarly, many things you could have done if you didn't know earlier that you couldn't do them. Many people never make a serious effort to achieve worthwhile objectives because they assume they can't reach them.

Just you make even a little extra effort! You can achieve a lot. Sir Walter Raleigh attended a prestigious boarding school when he was a youngster. He was an excellent student and wanted to be number one in his class.

However, one lad always finished ahead of him, so he determined to discover the secret. Each night when he prepared for bed, he looked across the grounds that separated his room from that of his competitor and noticed that his candle was still burning.

One night he noticed that the other boy studied only about fifteen minutes longer than he did. After that, Sir Walter Raleigh studied an extra twenty minutes every night. At the end of the year he was the number one student.

Many students miss out on a college scholarship because they did not study an additional twenty minutes each day. Over 98 percent of all scholarships are either academic or hardship, so some deserving students miss out not because of lack of ability, but because of lack of effort.

Many times people grow frustrated because promotions or raises don't come as fast as they think they should, so they jump ship when just around the corner the promotion awaits.

I have often used the phrase "and then some," that you should keep every promise, and then some; give your clients or customers everything they expect, and then some; give whatever you do an honest effort, and then some.

I believe that little extra effort -- that going ahead from where they are to do the best they can with what they have, and then some -- is what separates the successful from the would-be successful.

For taking that little extra effort, you need to have a little motivation. That is essential for all of us to succeed in achieving our goals. It can help us focus and work hard for achieving success in life.

How would you get motivation? Whenever you focus on your target, you will get motivation. Here, the goal is the most important. If you have focussed well and determined to achieve that goal, you will be able to gather resources for that too and you can make extra efforts also.

Be Happy - A Little Extra Effort Can Gain You A Lot.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All. (Part 8)

Ensuring appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all is a difficult task in view of the world wide greed for authority and money. It is true that at some point of time, every one of us seeks a little bit of authority and sufficient resources to support ourselves for meeting our expenses. And it is not bad if I consider that as you work best to your capacity, you too would naturally require that much amount of money and authority to lead your life peacefully and that much won’t affect my survival to the intolerable extent. But how the intolerance would be assessed is some tricky question. If you ask me to adjudge it myself, for me even sky won’t be limit. I will have to have some tolerance to be defined by myself otherwise there would be conflict of the interests always. For that, we need codes of conduct for each segment of the society.

In the earlier posts, I suggested some should-be workings for different segments. For other segments, we can have such codes. If we follow our respective codes, every other person will respect you as he would be peaceful to ascertain that you are not going to exceed your limits defined by the code. If you do, you will disturb the web. Such disturbance would definitely affect you too.

A code of conduct is always more than a list of rules. It is an expression of the values and an extensive definition of the policies of the segment for which that code has been formulated. A written code of conduct has little or no value in and of itself if it is not consistent with the long-term goals and practices. A well thought-out code of conduct is a meaningful, useful document that the members of the segment actually use whereas a provisional, perfunctory code of conduct is an unpleasant reminder of the tendency of the segment to compensate for its own shortsightedness by means of rules and regulations.

Whenever we formulate code of conduct for a particular segment, we must define the goal of demarcating that segment, its contribution and values to the society, its responsibilities and rights as well. It must provide the punitive action if the code is not followed by any of the member(s). We must solicit the opinions of the members of the segment so that once enforced, they must have answerability. There must always be review from time to time to adjust according to the changing circumstances, traditions and new inventions/discoveries. If we all work according to the pre-set codes, we feel that there would be peaceful living environment for all whatever sort of economy we may implement for the welfare of our society and our nation as a whole.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All. (Part 7)

As on date, Judiciary is an important part of our civilized society. It has been seen that the most of the crimes have taken shape due to frustration created in the society because of injustice. Either justice has not been exercised properly, that has been delivered too late or the concerned person has not been convinced with the process. If there is a proper justice system in the society, there is no fear of any grabbing, cheating or committing any criminal offense with anyone and the people can live peacefully. If the people is able to live peacefully, they can earn properly and appropriate distribution of wealth can be effectuated amongst all.

Judicial system must also be sincere in delivering the justice to the subjects. The professionals who are attorneys, law students, or members of other professional groups should keep themselves bound by the appropriate professional duties of their respective roles. All personnel transactions, including selection, appointment, promotion, transfer, and assignment of judiciary employees, should be based on bona fide work-related factors and should not be based on personal relationships or on any form of favoritism.

A judiciary employee should not be appointed by or assigned to a person who is a member of the employee's immediate family, nor should there be any assignments as supervisor and subordinate between employees engaged in a dating relationship. Further. Persons should not be appointed as court employees when their relatives are employees of a law-enforcement agency within the same unit of government and when that appointment creates an appearance that the law-enforcement agency may have an improper influence over court matters.

The members of the judiciary system may:

1. Uphold the Constitution and laws of the State and faithfully carry out all duties assigned. Judiciary employees should put loyalty to the principles above loyalty to persons or parties.

2. Endeavor at all times to perform official duties properly, courteously, and with diligence.

3. Maintain or obtain current licenses or certificates as may be required by law or court rule for their employment.

4. Not intentionally alter, falsify, destroy, mutilate, backdate, or fail to make required entries on any records within the employee's control. However, he/she is not prohibited to make alteration or expungement of records or documents pursuant to a court order.

5. In the conduct of official duties not discriminate on the basis of, or manifest by words or conduct, bias or prejudice based on race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, language, marital status, socioeconomic status, or handicap.

6. Not give legal advice outside the scope of his or her judiciary employment.

7. Not refuse to enforce or otherwise carry out any properly issued rule or order of court, nor should court employees exceed that authority.

8. Not disclose to any unauthorized person for any purpose any confidential information acquired in the course of employment, or knowingly acquired through unauthorized disclosure by another.

9. Report confidential information to an appropriate authority within the judicial system when the employee reasonably believes that that information is or may be evidence of a violation of law. This obligation does not preclude reporting to a law enforcement or other appropriate authority. No court employee should be made adversely affected for disclosing such confidential information to an appropriate authority.

10. Not disclose confidential information obtained in the course of employment, if he is terminated due to any reason.

11. Observe high standards of conduct so that the integrity and independence of the courts may be preserved, and should avoid impropriety or the appearance of impropriety.

12. Not risk subjecting themselves to improper influences, participating in activities or allowing themselves to be used in such manner as to impair the dignity and esteem in which the court should be held.

13. Not use or attempt to use the official position or the prestige of judicial affiliation to secure special privileges or exemptions for the employee or for others. For example, an employee should not use official letterhead for private business correspondence, write letters of recommendation on official letterhead (other than when requested to give a reference on current or former co-workers or subordinates seeking new employment), nor carry a judiciary business card unless authorized by the appointing authority.

14. Not solicit, accept, or agree to accept any gifts, loans, gratuities, discounts, favors, hospitality, or services directly or indirectly from any attorney or other person who has had or is likely to have any professional or official transaction with such employee or with the employee's court or office.

15. Not solicit, accept or agree to accept any gifts, loans, gratuities, discounts, favors, hospitality, or services from anyone:

1) based on any understanding, whether explicit or implicit, that the official actions, decisions, or judgment of any employee would be influenced thereby;
2) under circumstances from which one reasonably could infer that the purpose of the donor is to influence the court employee in the performance of official duties.

16. not work by being unduly affected by favoritism, cronyism, kinship, rank, position, or influence of any person in the discharge of official duties.

17. Not request or accept any outside fee or additional compensation for advice or assistance given in the course of the employment.

18. Regulate outside activities to minimize the risk of conflict with court-related duties. Generally a conflict of interest exists when the court employee's objective ability or independence of judgment in the performance of his or her job is impaired or reasonably may appear to be impaired. Outside employment or other activities, whether related to judicial administration or not, must not involve the court employee in conflict of interest nor appear to do so, nor encroach on or conflict with judiciary-related duties.

19. Take the court-related duties first over all outside activities.

20. Take his/her position with the court system as the primary employment. If any non-paying activities are undertaken for social welfare, they must be capable of being fulfilled regularly outside of normal working hours.

21. make utmost efforts to deliver the decision at the earliest.

22. Accept the assignment or teach, lecture, or write on any subject, so long as:

I. any compensation is commensurate with the prevailing rate;
II. any presentation or document clearly states that the employee is not speaking on behalf of the Court or the judiciary system, unless the employee has expressly been authorized to do so; and
III. no confidential information is disclosed.

23. For law clerks, permission to teach, lecture or write should require approval of the judge for whom the law clerk works.

24. Obtain the written permission of the Administrative Director prior to undertaking outside consulting work;

25. Not engage in outside employment that involves the use of judiciary equipment, materials, supplies, telephone services, office space, computer time, or facilities.

26. Not engage in outside employment that requires, induces, or encourages the employee to disclose information acquired in the course of the judiciary employment. Information obtained during employment with the judiciary should not be used for the benefit of the outside employment.

27. Not accept any job after retirement.

28. Not engage in outside employment with attorneys, persons, or business entities who regularly appear in court or regularly providing goods or services to the judiciary. 28. Not engage in outside employment that involves any kind of supervisory relationship with another judiciary employee when a supervisory relationship exists in their judiciary employment. 29. Not engage in political activity. In particular a judiciary employee should not:

1. hold an elective governmental office or position.
2. be a candidate for such office or position.
3. hold an office or position of leadership in or serve as spokesperson for a political party, organization, or club supporting partisan political activity.

The above list is not exhaustive and can be modified/added to but with intention to provide a healthy judicial system to the nation so that all the people may feel mental peace if someone tries to encroach upon his interests or hurt him physically, economically or socially.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All. (Part 6)

Earlier, I mentioned in this column, why an appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all is necessary and now how? I feel that if all the segments of the society determine to lead an honest and sincere life, the wealth will automatically get appropriately distributed amongst all. If we give up our greed, we can care for others too. If we care for others, one day those people would be under moral pressure to look after your interests as well. For that we need a moral code of conduct for each segment. That code must be self imposed to gain success. If we impose, there would be a lot of problems and in process of solving those problems, we may loose our target.

Our society has many sections – economically, there are service class, self employeds, businessmen and investors. Functionally, there are persons working in judiciary, politicians, bureaucrats, professionals etc. Since most of our working concentrates upon money, businessman who mainly works with money has an important role in our lives, in the economy of the society and the nation. They too need a code of conduct in this direction.

There is widespread notion that business and trade sectors have no concern for the welfare of consumers. It is popularly believed that business exits just to make money at the cost of consumers. While this may be true to a large extent, it is also true that the business community has made certain efforts to protect the interest of consumers and win their confidence. They can codify their behavior as follow:

1. They must maintain a fair measure and guard against adulteration.

2. Since customers are entitled to courtesy, promptness and good service, every endeavor should be made to see that they receive them.

3. Regarding safety, norms should be followed as per accepted standards laid down by statutory bodies in the respective countries.

4. They must not use sex symbols unless relevant to the products.

5. They must give relevant information with the products. Information of a misleading nature should not be given.

6. They must ensure that they are following environmental protection norms as specified by the regulatory bodies.

7. The businessmen must charge only fair and reasonable prices and any change in prices should be brought to the notice of the consumer. They must not charge a higher price or withhold goods in times of scarcity.

8. They must not trade in spurious and adulterate goods.

9. They must not publish misleading advertisements and deal knowingly in smuggled goods.

10. They must maintain accuracy in weights and measures of goods.

11. They must ensure that the quality of good/ products manufactured or sold is under proper labeling and disclosure of the information as be required.

12. They must remain committed to maintaining the highest degree of integrity in all the dealings with potential, current and past customers, both in terms of normal commercial confidentiality, and the protection of all personal information received in the course of providing the business services concerned. They must extend the same standards to all the customers, suppliers and associates.

13. They must always conduct their services honestly and honourably to expect their clients and suppliers to do the same.

14. Their actions and advice must always conform to relevant law, and believe that all businesses and organizations, should avoid causing any adverse effect on the human rights of people in the organizations they deal with, the local and wider environments, and the well-being of society at large.

15. They should not provide a service to a direct competitor of a customer already with whom they had entertained. They must try to avoid any dealings with competitor companies even after the cessation of services to a customers unless there have been specific understanding.

16. They must have contracts in the form of a detailed proposal, including aims, activities, costs, timescales and deliverables.

17. They must safeguard the intellectual property and moral rights of each customer.

18. They must maintain the quality of what they do through constant ongoing review with their customers/clients, of all aims, activities, outcomes and the cost-effectiveness of every activity.

19. They must encourage regular review meetings and provide regular progress reports.

20. They must always strive to be fair and objective in their advice and actions, and should never be influenced in the decisions, actions or recommendations by issues of gender, race, creed, colour, age or personal disability.

21. They must keep themselves accountable to the social welfare always.

This list is not exhaustive and can be modified/ added to. Since with the appropriate distribution of the wealth amongst all we can make every one stress-free, we can attempt in this direction.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All. (Part 5)

Politics is a process of governance through public offer. A person who is in politics is involved in influencing public decision making. On the other hand, Bureaucrats are civil or public servants who comprise the administration of the Government. They not only implement the policies of the Government but also help to shape them. Bureaucrats play an important role in executing the schemes launched by the government. Today, they are often as the receiving ends of politics. If the present day pressure on bureaucrats is not eased, we may not be able to deliver the goods to the people.

In any form of governance, the bureaucrats have to be strong enough to withstand changes in the political hierarchy in order to make the institution survives. Politicians, at the helm of affairs, come and go with alarming regularity. It is only the bureaucrats that hold the nation together by ensuring the implementation of the principles and the policies laid down in the constitution. Regrettably, no political party is prepared to concede even a modicum of independence to its civil servants, called the pillars of administration.

Another major challenge, a bureaucrats faces today is in the context of fast expanding role of Government in the economic, social and scientific spheres. Since he works under anonymity, the people do not know most of his problem. His code of conduct also prohibits from airing his feelings, disappointments and the resultant frustration. The system, as it exists today, fails to tap the full potential of the bureaucrats. Then there is the issue of excessive centralization. Ministers sit tight on vital policy matters making its implementation slow and tardy. Autonomy of bureaucrats is generally found conspicuous by its absence because of tactics adopted by the politicians.

We can define the code of conduct as follow:

1. The essential function of a bureaucrat is to counsel the political bosses in their need for making the right decision for the general good and common welfare. It comprises laying down the policy guidelines and then implementation them without fear or favor in light of the provisions made in the constitution and the ground realities all above the consideration for caste, creed or color.

2. Since they join the bureaucracy after touch competition, they must oppose nepotism, personal greed, undue pressure and corrupt practices of their bosses.

3. Bureaucrats have to be objective, fair, honest and dispassionate in the discharge of their duties. A bureaucrat who is imbued with zeal and enthusiasm, however, soon finds that all his sincere efforts to being useful to the society come to enough on account of political interference in his to-day working. As a result, enthusiasm wanes and either he works in tandem with his ever changing political bosses or treats his job as a routine one. In both cases it is the people who suffer.

4. For good governance, every issue needs protracted discussions with various parties before being resolved. This has compelled political parties to get committed bureaucrats to do the various jobs. The bureaucrats know how the system works, but they may not be fully aware of the difficulties at grass roots level. They must get exposure to the grass roots also.

5. They must present rational and incorruptible behavior with all who come in their contact without getting provoked due to any emotional attack. Their attitude should be of a zealous reformer who wants to bring about positive changes within the provisions of the Constitution. For that, they must oppose the wrongs if any committed by the political wing due to their vested interests.

6. In interest of the welfare of the nation, every member of bureaucracy is required to observe sincerely and diligently the duties and responsibilities enshrined for him.

If we all observe ideal code of conduct, we can ensure appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All (Part 4)

To ensure appropriate distribution of wealth, we need firstly to perform, sincerely and diligently, our duties and responsibilities towards the nation and society. It is essential all the more when we talk about our rights. Yesterday, I had made some submissions regarding code of conduct for the citizen since every person of a State, whether he is a politician, an employee, an army-man, a policeman, a judicial officer or a businessman, he is firstly a citizen of that country.

As majority of the governments are being run on democratic pattern, there is need for the effective roles by the politicians or those who are in politics directly or indirectly. They influence the governance and the lives of the subjects as well.

Today an impression has gained ground that politics is the last resort of rogue and therefore majority of them are dishonest to a lesser or greater degree. We often hear people around us saying, "Politics is a dirty game, “Every sort of person except a politician can be reformed," and so on and so forth, Such is the popular apathy towards the field of politics that its rating as a profession is very low.

However, unlike the popular impression all politicians are not of the tarnished bandwagon. The negative opinion is basically prejudiced. There may be unwanted politicians with shades of grey, dominating the scene, but good people with true social service motto, are not completely wanting.

As Shakespeare has said "There is noting good or bad but thinking makes it so". Merely talking of corruption and dirtiness prevailing in politics cannot get rid of evil. Even Gandhi had an evasive attitude towards politics. He means way from it, owning to its corrupt and dirty particles. But simply keeping a distance cannot convert the profession into a respectable one. Except for a few people, nobody has made it a top choice. The reputation of politics cannot be improved if no truthful, courteous and considerate man of principle enters this field. Like a coin, politics also has two faces. One side are the persons who are elected and the other who are not elected. As in a coin, both these faces are equal and no one is preferred to the other if the basic function and duty of a politician is taken into consideration. But today, a successful politician is considered as that person who wins the election. It no doubt shows people's confidence in him but it also encourages short term politics and programmers with a view to win the election.

Voters and taxpayers who elect politicians to office and pay their salaries should be able to feel confident that their elected officials will exercise fiduciary and moral responsibility while serving their constituency.

The power politicians wield, with its Machiavellian potential for corruption and abuse, demands that they be held to an even higher standard than the troops they deploy in defense of our country.

Main duties which a politician must look into to perform can be as follows:

1. One of the major problems facing many countries is the preservation of unity, integrity and sovereignty. But it is the duty of a politician to act as a thread to bind all pearls into a single chain, giving up their vote bank policy.

2. One of the reason for people to be misled by politicians and political parties is the prevailing illiteracy and people' ignorance about various laws and their rights. It serves the purpose of politicians and people can be easily fooled and cheated. Thus, political illiteracy is dangerous as it kills the basic meaning of democracy. The politicians must make themselves literate to understand the problems of the public and suggest the solutions. Since they are law makers and if the law makers are not educated, they can not make good laws. Before entering into politics, they must gain minimum educational qualification and keep themselves refresh from time to time.

3. A politician does not wish to be retired at any age whereas in all other fields, there is a limit to the age for working. He must get retired from all the posts of profit/income/salary at certain age like 70 years to provide space to the younger generation to take over.

4. A politician must maintain transparency of his financial gains he makes out with his political contacts.

5. A politician must display respect to the law of the soil even in his personal matters. He must not misuse his position and never let any other one to misuse his name/position/contacts for any purpose.

6. He must not participate in any religious or caste oriented function publically, nor should he promote any superstitious traditions by participating publically. If he has some personal views, he must keep them up to himself only.

Similarly, other sections of the society must have some code of conduct to observe in the national interest. If we all perform sincerely, we can ensure appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all for the happiness of all.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All (Part 3)

After we feel convinced why there must be an appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all, we may consider how it should be ensured. Instead of going through the various merits and demerits of the various systems, we may just find out what is the best for the common people. An administrative system which believes in corruption-less, result-oriented and productivity based governance can do it. For this we may need such public servants who are ready to work beyond their self interests. Public servants include the persons we elect in Government, we select for bureaucracy and judiciary, the persons who work for our defense and police services and the persons who render professional services in health, education and other areas.

For corruption-less, result-oriented and productivity based governance, we may have to bring about radical change in our character and make it more public-oriented. So far we have been seeing that a person who had not been able to earn well to feed himself becomes multi-millionaire once he is able to have some connection with someone in the Government. His interest in politics makes the politics as a tool of earning instead of doing something in social welfare. If a leader is alleged to have earned something beyond his known and lawful sources, he is not penalized. Many bureaucrats have been found to have amassed wealth wrongfully. There is no action of confiscation of such wealth. It appears that our present mechanism is not competent. Majority of the persons in judiciary have been involved in corrupt practices. There is no stern action against those who have committed crimes publically. In such system, only those can prosper who do not have any ethical values towards the society and the nation.

However, no system can be perfect unless that is supported by the duty-bound administrators and subjects. For that, we need to have some code of conduct for each section of society. Since every person of a State, whether he is a politician, an employee, an army-man, a policeman, a judicial officer or a businessman, he is firstly a citizen of that country. Therefore, as citizen, we must ensure that:

1. We are willingly ready to sacrifice even our own life and all of our possessions for our country. Our Motherland should be our first and highest consideration. Let us inculcate in our children and members of our family pious love for our country, the spirit of patriotism and service to the nation and fellow citizens.

2. We lead a righteous life.

3. We maintain our incorruptible character full of ethics and sincerity for each other giving up our greed and jealousy to ensure the nation's welfare and its future stability.

4. We maintain and build up proper and pollution free environment for safeguarding the health of ourselves, our family members and fellow citizens.

5. We eradicate the evils of bribery, corruption, selfishness, immorality, dishonesty and misconduct and the evils of gambling, liquor-drinking, drug-taking, tobacco-smoking, betel-chewing, gender-discretion, eve-teasing, dowry, expensive marriages and other superstitious practices are given up.

6. We inform the appropriate authorities if we see someone to be disloyal to the nation. Disloyalty to our Nation is crime and unpardonable sin.

7. We do not spoil, misuse, steal or destroy National property. We are custodian of public property. We should preserve it with love and care. Let us keep our country neat and clean. This is our sacred duty.

8. Our entire fellow citizens are brethren. We feel this fraternity. Let us all love each other and one another and be united because, we are one family.

9. We have equal reverence for all religions, creeds and faiths. Let us love the followers of our faiths as our own brother. Let us treat others as we wish to be treated by them.

10. At all cost we avoid every type of violence and hatred for, this is a blot on the fair name of the Nation. It is soul- killing and cause great harm to our country's welfare and development. It is totally opposed to our Nation's ideal.

11. We adopt simple living and high thinking. Let us not be extravagant. Let us avoid waste. Let us practise frugality. Let us share what we have with our less fortunate fellow citizens.

12. We respect the rule of law and uphold social justice. In this lies the guarantee of our welfare and orderly progress towards better State.

13. We are compassionate towards all creatures. Compassion is a divine quality.

14. We affirm that non-injury is our highest virtue. Protection of animals is our sacred duty. We may try to become an embodiment of kindness compassion and goodness in your every day life.

15. We make amends of our past lapse to restore proper Ecology. We must protect our natural environment. Helping in maintaining the ecological balance is our duty. It is indispensable for our safe living and highest welfare. We may consider that polluting of public places and polluting of air and water of the country is a national crime.

16. We are united against all internal and external disturbances. United we stand, divided we fall. The more united the people of a country, the greater is their ability to withstand all obstacles and dangers. We should live in close harmony and loving goodwill with all our countrymen. Love of our country means love of our countrymen. This is the most invaluable service a Citizen can offer to his Motherland.

17. We re-orient our education for enriching and enhancing the quality of life of our youth and students. Our process of education should incorporate within it the imparting of the basic knowledge of nation's culture.

18. We carry out our sincere efforts to achieve something in lawful manner and do not adopt any short cut method by encroaching upon other's share in-genuinely.

19. We promote sports and provide equal opportunities to all.

20. We do not prefer for any particular caste, class or creed for any particular benefit.

The above list is not exhaustive – we can add up our duties as we think appropriate and perform in the best interests of the nation. Then, we won’t have any problem for appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All (Part 2)

Yesterday, I tried to quote about the present economic condition as put up by Robert Frank in his article on Sunday, August 1, 2010. We can solve a number of problems just by ensuring appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all. But why? and how? These are two questions – they are important because they relate to our mental peace. If we get appropriate solution to these questions, we can solve a number of problems as on date.

From time to time, we have been experimenting over various forms of economy to provide a suitable answer to the needs of our people world over. Some countries went for socialism; some opted for communism and some for capitalism. A few countries adopted mixed economy. New and newer systems of economy continue to evolve to get solution of the problem but we see that the crimes including financial ones are increasing day-by-day. We feel that still we could not have perfect solution of our problem. If we do not have mental peace, we all would have mental stress and that would not help us to lead our lives comfortably.

The first question is why we should ensure appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all. It is required to be solved out because we know that there is good imbalance in the distribution of the wealth amongst all in the society. The majority of the human beings are not able to meet their basic needs properly whereas a few hands have control on the major part of the resources. Those who are rich might be having the wealth due to inheritance or self earning become target by the have-nots. Sometime we feel that some of the terrorism has come out of the frustration felt for a long period by the have-nots in the society and impressed with their success in some instances, the others have adopted terror as tool of the solution they seek for their problems. We need to look into this aspect also at some stage of our working.

We must ensure appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all because we need mental peace and happy life for ourselves and our children, because we need that we may lead our lives peacefully and comfortably without being attacked by others out of their jealousy and greed. Why other people are jealous to us is another question in this context. Why should they get jealous with us? It is human psychology that when we get failed to secure appropriate results of our efforts, we develop some kind of jealousy to get the other’s possessions. Some time such jealousy nature becomes so violent that we do not care for the purity of our means to achieve that stage of progress what the target people get. If we consider the root of progress, we can solve the problem to better extent.

Some people are found to be greedy. They are never satisfied with their possessions and ironically, some of them do not try sincerely to get the additions at their own. Here, they would try to get the target additions even by giving up the ethics and creating law and order problem. They need to be tackled as per the rule of the soil. They must be restrained to take up law and order in their hands for getting additions to meet their greed firstly through psychological pursuance and if you fail, you may use administrative power. We must ensure that they are not able to get additions if they do not deserve it. If they deserve the additions, they must get them in a lawful manner.

Every state has pious duty to meet the expectations of the subjects and in this direction, suitable system is devised to deliver the goods but we have been witnessing the public unrest here and there meaning that the systems being adopted have failed somewhere to meet the expectations of the subjects fully. Every system has its own merits and demerits – there is a great need to adopt the best one and adjust it according to the individual circumstances.

We have been seeing for time that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through a system of exploitation. Another form of economy is communism which is often used to refer to the policies of the various communist states, which were authoritarian governments that had centrally planned economies and ownership of all the means of production. We saw some states to believe in socialism. Socialism is an economic and political theory based on public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources.

Keeping in view the merits and demerits of capitalism and communism, we are seeing mixed economy to have come in practice. A mixed economy is an economy that includes a variety of private and government control, or a mixture of capitalism and socialism. This system too has not been able to deliver the best results so far.

What we understand as a layman, a normal citizen wishes to have right to equality, freedom from exploitation, freedom of religion, Cultural and educational rights, freedom to move about within the territory, freedom to do trade, commerce and intercourse with others, freedom to have material possessions with right to Education and live with security assured by law and order from internal and external disturbances. That normal citizen does not have much concern with the form of economy a State may enforce. Initially, he is interested to meet his basic needs. After meeting his basic needs, he proceeds further towards his further aspirations. He may put up the resistance only when he feels that a particular system imposes some bindings upon his freedoms which were earlier available.

Therefore, the State is required to ensure that there is no limitation imposed upon the subjects on any account in terms of his freedom specified above. Only in case of emergency, as the State may proclaim due to internal disturbances created in maintaining law and order or by financial break downs or due to external disturbances on account of some foreign aggression, some freedoms can be curbed. In normal times, the State can ensure appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all through various schemes.

We may continue this topic to the next post.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of Wealth Amongst All.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of wealth Amongst All (Part 1)

It looks strange to me too when I advise someone to ensure appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all. Why should you do it? Why should I do it? And why should he or they should do it? We are earning better because we have worked in right direction with a lot of labor and sincerity. Why should we care for others who do not wish to work, who do not work in right direction or who work but with lesser amount of sincerity? But sometime it happens in our society that some people do not get success in spite of the best of their efforts – either due to their own inability, someone is stifling/creating problem in their ways or they have lack of resources at their disposal. If they are competent enough to work but are not able to get success due to lack of material resources, it can create frustration when they do not get success in spite of their hard labor. It creates imbalance in the society.

At one hand, people do not have sufficient funds to arrange for their meals timely and on the other hands; the rich section of the society has spills of the funds going waste in the presence of have-nots people. Earlier, none was caring how the rich spend their money. Most of the people have been busy to earn for them. But now, some persons are keeping eyes over you how you are earning and they can attack upon your resources if an opportunity arises.

Yes, most of us are doing it these days. Robert Frank writes in his article on Sunday, August 1, 2010 that Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product, or the value of all goods and services produced in the nation. And spending by the rich now accounts for the largest share of consumer outlays in at least 20 years.

According to new research from Moody's Analytics, the top 5% of Americans by income account for 37% of all consumer outlays. Outlays include consumer spending, interest payments on installment debt and transfer payments. By contrast, the bottom 80% by income account for 39.5% of all consumer outlays.

It is no surprise, of course, that the rich spend so much, since they earn a disproportionate share of income. According to economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, the top 10% of earners captured about half of all income as of 2007.

What is surprising is just how much or our consumer economy is now dependent on the rich, and how that share has increased as the U.S. emerges from recession. In the third quarter of 1990, the top 5% accounted for 25% of consumer outlays. That held relatively steady until the mid-1990s, when it started inching up past 30%. It dipped in 2003 and again in 2008, but started surging in 2009 amid the greatest bull market rally in history, with the Dow Jones Industry Average rising nearly 50% in the last nine months of the year.

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics, cites two main reasons for the increase. First, the wealthy panicked during the financial crisis and stopped spending. When markets rebounded, they came out of their shells and started spending again. "I think that pent-up demand was unleashed," he said. "It was an unusually high rate of spending."

The second reason is that those people in the middle- and lower-income groups are struggling to pay off debt and stay afloat amid rising unemployment, as Friday's data reminds us. That has crimped their spending.

The data may be a further sign that the U.S. is becoming a Plutonomy–an economy dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthy. And Plutonomies are far less stable than economies built on more evenly distributed income and mass consumption. "I don't think it's healthy for the economy to be so dependent on the top 2% of the income distribution," Mr. Zandi said. He added that, "In the near term it highlights the fragility of the recovery."

In fact, the recent spending of the wealthy may be unsustainable. Their savings rate has gone from more than 26% in 2008 to a negative 7% in the first quarter of 2010, according to the Moody's Analytics data. They still have lots of savings. But the massive draw on that in the past two years is unlikely to continue at the same pace.

"I think we're already seeing a slowdown in spending by this group," Mr. Zandi says. And that should be a worry for all of us.

If it continues further, some imbalance can be witnessed in the economy, that can create frustration in some sections of the society – not good for the whole.

I may discuss further in my next post how to ensure appropriate distribution of wealth amongst all.

Be Happy – Ensure Appropriate Distribution of wealth Amongst All.

Be Happy – Prefer Mental Peace over Money.

Is it not strange that I am asking you to prefer your mental peace over money? We understand the importance of power of money that it plays in satisfying our needs – whether those needs are our essential, social and luxury related. If you have sufficient money in your coffers or at your disposal in any shape, you may have consolation in your mind. But sometime availability of money does not ensure mental peace and we run impatiently for gathering more and more in spite of the fact we know that we may perhaps be not able to enjoy our earlier collection fully.

We are mad even then. Why? Why do we loose our mental peace in this process? Whenever I have an opportunity to meet some gathering, I find that majority of the people present there would be discussing about their sufferings and the perceived cause for which suffering is a lack of money to meet their needs. It is this perceived lack of money that becomes the focus of their situation, blinding them to our True Source of Infinite Abundance.

One of the most detrimental issues with humanity today, is the obsession with money and material possessions, entirely human creation. God did not make out anything to be called “money”. It is our creation. Our distant ancestors were manifesting everything they required relative to their specific needs at their stage of evolution, long before “money” was even conceived by more recent humanity. The only reason people are so dependent on money is because they believe that money is an absolute necessity, required in order to realize their wishes, needs and desires.

If everyone in the world ceases focusing on money, the illusion of money may not be sustained and would accordingly cease to exist as a concept along with the misery it causes. While people hold and hang on to this belief about money it will always be a self-perpetuating aspect of their experience, and such people will remain a slave to money for the duration of their entire physical life.

From a human perspective, money somehow is supposed to represent value. But what is "value"? Value is a purely notional concept relative to the perception of each individual. The notion of value fluctuates dramatically as the “economy”, “rate of inflation”, “foreign exchange rates” and many other such human constructs, change.

The irony is that even these factors, in and of themselves are simply human constructs, which can and are often manipulated by world governments, institutions and in particular central banks for their own ends. No one really understands how or on what basis the central banks print money. We are given to understand that the amount of money in circulation is supposed to be “backed” by the equivalent in reserves of gold, but of course there is no way for most people to verify this is actually the case.

In any case, only a very small percentage of the money in the world tangibly exists in the form of physical coins and notes. Most money exists only in the form of electronic data - bits and bytes held on a network of computer systems that can simply move money around at the touch of a computer key.

The so called "central banks" which control money supply, can, and do generate millions, billions even trillions of monetary units which you can call as Rupee, Dollars, Pounds, Yens, Yuan, whatsoever you may name, out of thin air, as we saw a couple of years ago during the "banking crisis". In the case of the "Federal Reserve" - which is a privately owned company - this notional money is then "lent" to the government who have to pay interest on that money - interest which becomes a huge burden on the economy and which is ultimately paid for by the people in the street.

Money is therefore, like religion, primarily an instrument of control.

This raises the question then - if trillions of dollars can be generated at the push of a button, why should there be so much lack in the world today with its resultant misery - surely there must be enough to go around?

So, even “money” itself is a notional concept—an illusion existing only to perpetuate the human concept of “value”, but which for many people, businesses and governments has long been an obsession at the expense of everything else including compassion, service, Love and the needs of the majority.

It is not, never has been and never will be within the sphere of human Beings to decide how things should be expressed into physical reality where they can be experienced.

It is this erroneous belief that is one of the greatest sources of all misery, with people making money the centre of their priorities. Again, “money” is at one level simply a human construct, a notional method of exchange, and at the most basic level most money does not really exist in a tangible form except for the few percent that remains in circulation in the form of notes and coins that people can “spend” in exchange for products and services.

In reality money has never been necessary to obtain our every wish, need and desire.
Our ancient ancestors lived quite happily without money, because they understood the True Source of Supply.

People may say “well they did not have the luxuries that we do today”, but that again is materialistic thinking. True mental peace is not, never has been and never will be measured in terms of money and material possessions—it is always relative to each individual. One person’s poverty is the next person’s riches.

Society has always encouraged people to compare themselves with others, thereby desiring bigger and better things to keep up appearances. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Money is the fuel of materialism and the basis for the enforcement of human power over what is perceived as “others—one of the main reasons that humanity has been heading away from its own true purpose and destiny and towards potential disaster.

While so many people focus on money as an object of power, control and means of obtaining goods and services, it will be associated with the Energy that perpetuates that same power, and so the association of money with power and control will be perpetuated.

While we all create our own realities at an individual level, the same is also true at a consensual level of the human Mind - upon the collective Mental Plane of the Human Mind. While the consensus Consciousness of the majority of Human Beings is that money is important and necessary, then this will always remain a consensus reality.

Again—money is in fact nothing more than a large-scale illusion perpetuated on a massive scale. While people place so much emphasis on money, and while money can be used as an instrument of control and power, this situation will continue until humanity eventually awakes, and recognizes the illusion of money for what it truly is.

Money is intangible and unreal. Money is Energy - it flows in to our Life Experience and out of our Life Experience. The more freely it flows, the more Abundance we Experience. If we constrict the flow of "money Energy" through for example, fear of debt, fear of spending, being "miserly" and so on, it is akin to putting a kink in a hosepipe, restricting the flow of water, or even stopping it altogether.

So approach "money" as a flowing of unrestricted Energy, never attaching any form of thought pattern to it, never being afraid to receive or spend it, never fearing or doubting its Source of Supply, and I am sure you will be surprised and delighted with the positive effects upon your life Experience.

You may classify your needs into the following categories –

1. Essential needs 2. Social needs 3. Luxury needs.

When you are able to meet your essential needs smoothly, afford social needs after meeting your essential needs and ignore luxury needs if you can not afford them smoothly, you will have mental peace and that is required preference over your money gathering.

Be Happy – Prefer Mental Peace Over Money.

Be Happy – Adjust with Adolescence

Yesterday, I had made certain submissions regarding our retirement. Today, a little bit about Adolescence!

Adolescence as we understand is a transitional period of development between youth and maturity. It is an important period in everyone’s life while all other periods of the life span are important, adolescence needs a little more care and sensitivity from parents together with good food habits. Adequate nutrition is a vital need of adolescence.

Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased independence allowed by the parents or legal guardians and less supervision, contrary to the preadolescence stage. When we see our children coming on this age, we send them to high school and colleges. So, as parents, we are left with limited period of our teenagers time to be spent with us. This adds up to our responsibility to bring up our child to be healthy adult.

Adolescents have also been an important factor in many movements for positive social change around the world. The popular history of adolescents participating in these movements may perhaps start with Joan of Arc, and extend to present times with popular youth activism, student activism, and other efforts to make the youth voice heard.

Adolescence is characterized by a number of cognitive, emotional, physical and attitudinal changes, which can be a cause of conflict on one hand and positive personality development on the other. The home environment and parents are still important for the behaviors and choices of adolescents. Adolescents who have a good relationship with their parents are less likely to engage in various risk behaviors, such as smoking, drinking or fighting. In conflict with their parents, adolescents are more flexible than younger children, but more hostile and rigid compared to adults. The topics of conflicts between adolescents and their parents are often about the extent to which parents can control and supervise the adolescent, for instance conflicts about chores, schoolwork, law and order, adventurous plays and the adolescent's right to privacy.

Proper nutrition of our teenage could prevent them from medical problems like weak bones, hormonal imbalance, acne, thyroid juvenile diabetes and weight problems. A majority of changes take place during adolescence. This period is characterised by rapid increases in height and weight due to hormonal changes and sexual maturation.
Physiological changes occur at puberty due to the increased secretion of hormones released by the pituitary glands. These hormones in return stimulate production and release of other hormones like ‘Androgens’ and ‘oestrogens’.

At the adolescence age, the child feels full of energy to undertake any job and for better productivity, that needs constant supervision which may however cause some irritation at their end. Some of the features of this age can be briefed as below:

• Developing Multiple Plans.

Many young people leave high school with a narrow plan of action and with few alternatives. They fully expect to be successful with the plan and are not prepared to face any barriers. Developing flexibility in career planning requires a sense of purpose, problem solving skills, and several plans. Helpful strategies include visualization, lateral thinking, assessing options, and decision making in a context of uncertainty.

• Self-Advocacy and Marketing.

As young people move towards further education, or into the labour market, it is critical for them to market and advocate for themselves. With scarce opportunities and confusing bureaucracies, there is a need to develop communication skills, self-confidence, organizational adaptability, and effectiveness in human relations. This requires activities such as mentoring, role-played practice, and ongoing economic, emotional, and informational support.

• Managing Changing Relationships.

The emotional and social changes adolescents experience can challenge young people as they try to cope with barriers in the education system and labour market. Friends provide emotional support, but this is a time when friendship patterns are changing. Parents are needed for emotional, material, and information support, but, at the same time, they need to allow young people sufficient room to develop their own sense of identity. Coping with relationship issues can be facilitated through communication, human relationship training, and problem solving, which blurs most of the traditional distinction between career and personal counseling.


• Meeting Basic Needs.

Young people have a strong need for community. Other central needs include having a sense of meaning in life, physical and emotional security, and basic structure in relationships and living. As young people mover beyond high school, many of these basic needs require revaluation. In addition to changing relationships, questions emerge as to how to make a living, how to plan meaningful activities, and how to effectively manage time. To facilitate these changes, young people need to establish a sense of purpose and understand how they are meeting their current and future needs. Counsellors can help clarify these issues. Without this type of developmental assistance, young people often lack the resilience to manoeuvre within increasingly competitive educational and labour market environments.

• Coping with Stress.

Adolescence is a period of considerable stress. While much of the stress can by minimized through support, persistence, and active decision making and planning, there still will be times when young people find themselves in difficult situations. Coping with stress is associated with various competencies such as organizational adaptability, human relations, problem solving, and self-confidence. Particular strategies for stress management include relaxation techniques, managing 'self talk,' focusing, and using support systems.


• Coping with Loss.

We were surprised at the extent to which young people were influenced by various personal losses. These losses involved death in the family (usually grand parents) and the experience of parental separation and divorce. The impact of these losses upon career events was considerable, suggesting a definite need for youth to develop competence in handling loss and grieving. Counseling in this domain blurs many of the traditional distinctions between the personal and career areas.


• Bridging Programs.

Many young people lack "hands-on" experience as they attempt to enter the world of work. Many also are unfamiliar with, and fearful of, moving into post-secondary education. To address this concern, counsellors need to develop work experience and co-op education programs to help young people acquire the necessary experience. Post-secondary education entry programs can also play an important role in easing transition difficulties.


• Information and Information Access.

The challenge in the information age is not only how to gather information, but how to turn information into personally relevant knowledge. Young people need up-to-date information on careers, education programs, and market trends. They must also develop skills to assess the relevance of information. Acquiring these skills involves both theoretical and applied knowledge. Counselling strategies within this domain include helping young people develop research, interviewing, and critical analysis skills.

• Requiring time to adjust to changes

Puberty is much more than just a simple physiological readjustment. Menstruation is traumatic experience for considerable number of girls children find it difficult to either fit into adults or children. Some experience weakness and dullness in body due to the hormonal changes. They need time to adjust themselves. Similarly, male children also feel attraction with the opposite gender and try to come closer. We need to have close supervision with balanced freedom to enable them to understand each other. We can give them some inputs of sex education at this age.

• Becoming A Role Model

Practise what you preach. Healthy eating and regular exercise should be a part of everyone’s daily routine in the family. Availability of high calorie snacks or desserts should not be in the family. It’s much easier for the child if everyone in the house follows the same guidelines. Good habits adopted during these prime developmental years set life long habits. You are required not to be a nagging parent. You must protect their self esteem and avoid strict diet plans or with holding or depriving your child of food.


• Keeping A Check On Their Activities

Adolescence makes the child feel sexually mature. This could attract the child to explore sexual activities. Another problem faced at this age is eating disorders. It is an emotional and physical problem associated with obsession with weight or body shape. The most common are Anorexia, Bulimia and Binge eating. Educate your child of the problems these habits could lead too.

• Meeting Their Increased Nutritional Requirements

The nutritional requirement is conditioned primarily by a ‘spurt’ in growth. The requirement reach maximum during this period of childhood due to anabolic activities. The calorie requirement in proportion to the body size is much more compared to an adult. An average adolescent boy needs 2400-2800 calories where as a girl needs 2100-2300 calories per day. In case of obesity the child should be encouraged to increase the amount of exercise rather than cut down on calories. But on the same time it is very important to come down to normal weight as after 16 years of age it becomes very difficult to lose weight. Obese girls face a lot of problems during puberty like scanty or irregular periods.

The need for additional protein at pubertal growth has been stressed fro the building and maintenance of new body tissue. Special care has to be taken of the girls due to the monthly loss of blood. Protein is one of the major constituent of blood. Protein is one of the major constituent of blood. Emphasis should be laid on good quality proteins like sprouts, soyabeans, milk, eggs and meat. Proteins should be encouraged to be taken in first half of the day of better digestion.

20-30% of total calories in an adolescent’s diet should come from fats. The fats should be preferably rich in folic acid. A combination of ghee refined oils and mustard oil is the best. Avoid hydrogenated fats. Butter Oil made is very important for the formation bones. Avoid fried foods to prevent acne very common in adolescents. Do not restrict carbohydrates for obese children as they are required providing the increased demands of energy.

The excessive need of vitamins and minerals can be met by including a wide range of healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy products etc. Certain minerals like calcium and iron have to be taken extra care off. Bringing in the importance of health in your young could give way to a healthy future for them. This is the best gift a family can give to adolescents.

Briefly I may say that at this age,
• Career counseling needs to encompass a greater range of issues. • Personal and career issues are inextricably intertwined for young people. • The ways in which young people make some of their transition experiences greatly influence their psychological well being. • Families and friends form a strong base for support in the transition period.
Be Happy - Adjust with Adolescence.

Be Happy – Enjoy Your Retirement

Retirement is that point in your life when you stop your employment completely.You may also semi-retire by reducing work hours. Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to work any more (by illness or accident).

In most countries, the idea of retirement is of recent origin, being introduced during the 19th and 20th centuries. Previously, low life expectancy and the absence of pension arrangements meant that most workers continued to work until death. Germany is the first country to introduce retirement in the 1880s. Nowadays most developed countries have systems to provide pensions on retirement in old age, which may be sponsored by employers and/or the state. In many poorer countries, support for the old is still mainly provided through the family.

Today, retirement with a pension is considered a right of the worker in many societies, and hard ideological, social, cultural and political battles have been fought over whether this is a right. In many western countries this right is mentioned in national constitutions.

Retirement might coincide with important life changes; a retired worker might move to a new location, for example a retirement community, thereby having less frequent contact with their previous social context and adopting a new lifestyle. Often retirees volunteer for charities and other community organizations. Tourism is a common marker of retirement and for some becomes a way of life, such as for so called grey nomads. Often retirees are called upon to care for grandchildren and occasionally aged parents. For many it gives them more time to devote to a hobby or sport such as golf or sailing. On the other hand, many retirees feel restless and suffer from depression as a result of their new situation. Either because of the sudden increase in free time, or because of a decline in their personal health, the newly retired are one of the most vulnerable societal groups when it comes to depression.

Many people in the later years of their lives, live separately not to become a burden on the active members of their families, but they require assistance, due to failing health, the highest degree of assistance – in some countries – being provided in a nursing home. Those who need care, but are not in need of constant assistance, may choose to live in a retirement home.

It is true that real life begins at retirement. When you get retirement – whether that is due to your age, your intention or some other reason, you get relieved of your routine duties. You are asked to dig out work for yourself afresh. But the trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.

When a man retires and time is no longer a matter of urgent importance, his colleagues generally present him with a watch to manage his time which is available with him free of all routine tensions. When a man retires, his wife gets twice the husband but only half the income. Actually, a retired husband is often a wife's full-time job.

Some people understand retirement as troublesome because when they were not retired, they had some work to keep them busy. But after retirement, they do not have any work to do. They feel themselves unable to fix up any schedule for them. It is applicable to those persons who have been working as per the orders given by some other ones and who never took their initiatives to do something at their own.

If you take retirement with positive attitude, you will find that it is the best gift to you. No gold watch could ever top it because you will now have a plenty of tension free time to accomplish your dreams which you could not do earlier due to your tight programming of the duties you had taken whether you had been an employee somewhere, self employed professionals or some businessman. It is your longest coffee break. If you go through the benefits of retirement, you will find it to be a discovery of beauty as you might not had sufficient time before to notice the beauty of your grand kids, your wife, the tree outside your very own front door. And, the beauty of tension free time itself.

However, for some people, retirement presents a challenge how to spend time without earning and/or spending money. For that, you can develop your hobbies well in time. I have seen some friends who had developed their hobbies to enjoy their retirement long before they stopped working. They still work vigorously but with the changed targets. They assume that the retirement means some rest from the routine work and the rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.

When you retire, think and act as if you were still working; when you're still working, think and act a bit as if you were already retired – you can enjoy the both worlds. Retirement means no pressure, no stress, and no heartache. This depends upon you as to how you take your retirement. You are not just retiring from the company; you are also retiring from your stress, your commute, your alarm clock, and your iron.

You must prepare yourself for retirement well in time if you really wish to enjoy retirement. The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before your boss announces your retirement. The only change which you may feel after retirement would be just switching your boss – from the one who hired you to the one who married you. You may retire from work, but not from life.

After retirement, you may enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So you can do it three or four times a day. You may have choices: enjoy life to its fullest, relax, watch TV, read the news paper from start to end, chat with friends, eat and drink what and when you want, play cards, window shop, go to exotic places. But you can’t spend all your retired life like this. You won’t enjoy them forever. You need to engage in other activities also that provide you purpose, challenge, adventure, and feeling of accomplishment, happiness, and satisfaction.

Retirement is not resignation from life, but an opportunity to life a full, dynamic life. It is not a time to sit and wait for destiny to show you the door, but to do something that would make things better. And in doing so, you also enrich your own life. This way, you won’t get into the habit of debating the meaning of life.

Purpose is the engine that powers and drives life. Without purpose, you would get bored and depressed. Wilfred Peterson summed up the art of retirement thus: “Don’t retire… aspire”. Aspire to work for those causes you’ve always believed in. practise the art of filling you moments with enriching experiences that will give new meaning and depth to your retired life.

As a student, you wanted to become a professional. During employment you were too busy in earning money and accomplishing career-oriented goals. As a parent you were busy raising family and providing for your child’s education. Perhaps you did not have time or even the aptitude to understand questions like who you were, what the real purpose of your life was, what your real interests were. Retirement is the time to ponder over all these questions and accomplish what you really want to do from the core of your heart. Retirement gives you ample opportunity to discover the real purpose of life and pursue activities that express your true self.

To fulfil only personal and selfish interests is restrictive. You need to reach beyond, to serve a higher purpose that benefits all. All your working life you have taken so much. You exploited natural resources and degraded the environment to make life more comfortable. May be you harmed others in furthering your own selfish interests. What have you done or given in return? Perhaps nothing! Retirement is the time you could give something back to society.

Work now for those causes you’ve always believed in. There is an endless number of ways we can help make this world a more beautiful, lovable and peaceful place. Pursue one or more of these purposes in your retirement: helping the needy, doing social work and community networking, promoting an environmental cause, starting a home for the elderly, conserving heritage, fighting corruption, writing a book, investing something useful and translating inspiring literature from one language to another.

These pursuits may not be very rewarding financially. However, they are a source of immense happiness and fulfillment, which is the core desire of all human beings. Sometimes you may even spend some money from your own pocket to benefit others. Remember: There is no joy like the joy of serving others.

Be Happy – Enjoy Your Retirement.

Be Happy – Don’t Take Any Action Hurriedly.

In our busy life, we see every one of us is running after some target. Sometime, some of us do not think about the propriety of the target even. We are running because some other is also running. Where? I do not know and he does not know. Perhaps he is copying me or I am copying him. We did not ask each other why we are running. When we reach at destination, we find that our efforts were not worth of that result. This is unplanned work. This is what we did hurriedly wasting a lot of our energy, resources and time.

We must restore ourselves, we must think over our working strategy more carefully and repeatedly, carefully examining all the relevant factors and problems arising and likely to arise, to arrive at some decision. Once we decide on some issue, we must determine to achieve that target. We should not get weak and helpless to give up. We witness that those who are weak commit suicide when they get unexpected results against their efforts. They do not re-examine themselves where they had not performed well. From a grown up perspective, it is a waste of a young life.

Not doing well in exams is certainly no reason to end our life. History proves that most successful people have not necessarily been academically brilliant. But, for students whose whole world is the exam at the moment, there seems no life beyond it. It’s only when you remove yourself from a situation and place yourself at a distance that things fall into the right perspective.

A lot of people give in to pressure when they break up with a partner. Even if they don’t take the drastic step of ending their lives, they may waste years in depression. And yet, life moves on. Some years later, comfortably wrapped in another relationship, they realize the futility of all that heartburn. If only they had been able to distance themselves from the situation then, how much simpler life would have seemed and how much less painful the transition.

Apart from the losers who give up, there are those who, under pressure, fight back like cornered animals, not caring whether they are biting or hurting an enemy or a friend. So badly affected are they by the situation that they forget how to distinguish between friend and foe and even start snapping at helping hands extended towards them. Again, if only they could step away and consider the situation in a larger context, life would seem so much better.

The pain of a moment, though deadening in its intensity, is but one blip when viewed on the larger canvas of an entire life. The trick of getting over the moment is to remove yourself from it. A friend talks of how whenever overpowered, she mentally imagines herself in another time and place. She looks down upon herself stuck in the situation from outside and suddenly finds everything so much more tolerable. When she is confronted by someone she finds overpowering and scary, say an overbearing boss, she tells herself he is just one human being in just one organization in this vast city, which again is just one city among thousands others in a world that is part of larger Universe…..

And, suddenly the overbearing guy in front of her has been reduced to such a puny status that he seems laughable! And once you can laugh at someone, your fear of him vanishes. So she manages to mentally elevate herself and reduce the fearsome guy who confronts her. The same logic can be applied to a situation as well.

Of course another friend gave this technique quite a laughably ridiculous turn when she shared a trick she had read she had read somewhere. When she feels overpowered by someone, all she does is imagine them naked --in the buff, in their pristine glory as the Good Lord sent them! That reduces the guy to nothingness right before her eyes!

One must admire such a fertile imagination, one that turns a feared person to an object of ridicule! When this happens, she confesses she is hard pressed to control her laughter and by now has completely overcome her fear and wriggled out of her corner with confidence!

And so, just a step back at the right time, a view from a distance can help make a situation look far better than it does when you surround yourself with it. Life is bound to have its ups and downs and so long as we know that one follows the other, we should be fine. There is no greater consolation than the age old “This too shall pass…”

It is therefore advisable that we must take action after thorough thinking and once decided, we must proceed on. If any wrong gets committed, we may feel that it has been a lesson to us and we should repeat in future and the consequences which are happening would pass in course of time.

Be happy - Don’t Take Any Action Hurriedly.

Be happy – Cure Cancer Through Ayurveda

No doubt, chemical based therapies are being practiced to provide quick relief against pains but they are not found to be curing through the roots of the diseases. For that purpose, nature based therapy is recognized best amongst all. Ayurveda is nature based therapy on which I had made some submissions here in my post dated June 3, 2009. About a year back, one of my close friends got brain tumor. Some doctors advised for immediate surgery and some others advised us to have medicinal treatment. Different therapies were applied for its cure. The following are some of the notes made during those traumatic days.

In general discussions with the leading doctors in India about the treatment of cancer, we were assured that by killing the cell we can cure cancer. It is the theory of modern science which suggests for surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. It is observed that when surgery takes place or biopsies are taken, the multiplication of cancer cells increased a lot. Radiotherapy means X-rays and cobalt rays are generally used to burn the residual part of cancer after surgery. Due to the effect of radiation the immunity of surrounding healthy cells decreases. So, they are prone to cancer. That is why the possibility of metastasis and recurrence increases. However, specialised toxic medicines used in chemotherapy stop all the cell division either they are normal or cancerous.

We were told that that chemotherapy and radiotherapy may have the following side effects:

• Vomiting, nausea
• Dehydration
• Mouth ulcer with pain
• Gastric ulcer
• Loss of appetite
• Loss of body hairs
• Skin infection
• Severe weakness
• Irregular menses
• Severely low immunity
• Anemia
• Renal toxicity

Some well wisher advised us to go for ayurveda. Under ayurveda, the theory of killing the cell is changed to ‘Rejuvenate the cell’. This theory works at DNA level. It means that cancerous cell will rejuvenate into normal healthy cell. For this, first of all we have to understand why cancer occurs?

According to evolution theory, when ecological factor of any living being is changed to the extent that the living being can not survive any more, then they develop a tendency to change the form. Similar situation takes place in the part of body which is ill since long time. That part does not follow the instruction of the brain. To save the identity of the part uncontrolled, multiplication of the cells starts and develops into cancer.

Yuktivyapashrya suggests Panchkarma. It has five steps – oilation and fomentation in the preparatory phases followed by Vaman, Virechan, Vasti Nasya and Raktmokshan to eliminate the possibility of recurrence of the disease. Vata, pitta and kapha are balanced by Panchkarma therapy. In spite of this, cancer is a critical disease which can not be cured just with the herbs. That needs ras-rasayan comprising of metals like gold, silver, copper, zinc, bronze, iron etc. Gems like diamond, ruby, pearl etc. are also being used in form of ashes for medicines. Purification of mercury is very important because it is considered to be very lethal in the natural form. When it is purified by applying all the stages of treatment with herbal medication, it is like nector.

There are a lot of doubts related to ashes in modern sciences. With the application of nano technology in the research, it has been found that there is no toxicity or harmful effect left after the application of ashes. However, it is very much essential that we follow the treatment process step by step as described in ancient ayurvedic texts to control the multiplication of the cells within 1 to 3 months.

According to ayurveda, the uncontrolled multiplication of cells certainly stops within 1 to 3 months depending upon the size of the tumour. If it is narcotic, some surgical intervention can be recommended but chemotherapy and radiation is not required.

The cancerous tumour is dissolved totally by means of Ras-Rasayan Medicines and Punch Karma. In the process of liquification, the well defined tumour gets dissolved into an irregular mass which can be viewed by means of CT scan/MRI/Ultrasound. Sometime, there can be an increase of the size in the reports due to irregular shape. That shape is not removed through surgical operation but slowly absorbed through the medicines by the veins and lymphatic expelled out of the body within 3 to 4 months.

If the condition of the tumour has deteriorated to the extent of formation of pus cells or necrosis and multiple wounds even then the liquification process results favourably and the tumour gets dissolved. In that circumstances, we need to take care of the wounds and effects of the dissolution on the affected part. If wounds are inside the body, we may have modern surgical methods to adopt and if they have come out on body, we can follow the ayurvedic treatment.

Since the ayurveda treatment suited to our patient, we had decided to carry on and today, he is well.

Be Happy – We Can Consider To Adopt Ayurveda To Cure Cancer.