Why Habits?

 

 

First we make our habits, then our habits make us –Charles C. Noble

 

What do we make of habits? Nothing! We pass them off as obvious & granted, as blinking. But they reveal more about a character than even an autobiography. Habits tell you, what a person himself never knew about him. And this doesn’t take an Einstein to do so. Let us explore the world of habits.

For a start, let me define habit. It is a recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition. So this definition makes things, like your style of brushing teeth, washing hands, combing hair, wearing socks etc unique to you & your character. They become your DNA. So very much embedded & exact that even your dead body, if allowed, would do it exactly the same way. There are three microscopes through which habits could be observed and analyzed. Have a read.

Pursuits become habits.

If you go down to observe ourselves under, what I call, a “behavioral microscope”, you will find even petty facts like what way you tie the shoe lace, which hole of the waist belt you use, which way do you apply you lipstick, the way you prick nose, your food & eating manners, blah -blah. Just try and reflect upon that unique way in which you apply soap to your body. Or the flowchart of your bathing sequences. Look at the way you hold your pen or the way you write ‘r’ or ‘7”. It also involves observing things like what is the peculiar action you take when you yawn, sneeze or burp. Know them more & the more you will be known. Because, these habits make a “gentleman”.

Now, reflect yourselves under, what I term as, an “attitudinal microscope”. Find the peculiar emotions & thoughts a situation of anger, trouble, frustration, joy, success generate in you. The ethical & moral reactions to these things. Record the exact thoughts and the order, in which they come to your mind when you see, hear, feel, smell or taste anything. Try and put yourselves in various situations & you will have a wholesome database of habitual observations. The more you understand them, the more the World understands you. Let me call such person a “mental-man”.

The third and the most intricate microscope is the “spiritual microscope”. We have so far looked at the primary & the secondary layer of habits. Apart from these habits, there are certain habits pertaining to your subconscious and spiritual self. Try and reason, you feeling ecstatic listening to that favourite song of yours. Or when you visit a particular place, religious, adventurous or scenic, you get a certain sense of calm & nostalgia. Or when you are with the beloved person of your life, everything else ceases to matter. Or when even with no preconceived notions, we find get pulled and bound into some stranger’s aura. While with some the exact opposite happens. Also things like watching a movie, reading a book or even the company of a pet animal or a treasured gift give you an emotional and spiritual high.

While some of you might not agree, but all of these and the kind, form the third and the most important level of your “habitual sandwich”. Although nobody can perfect his spiritual habits, anyone who even attempts to do so, should be called nothing less than a “holy-man”. Look around and you will indeed find a lot of achievers & famous personalities who were aware of their spiritual habits and tried to better the habits.

“Habit is the nursery of errors.”

All the physical pain that exists in this world is mostly due to bad “behavioral habits”, like smoking or junk eating. And the emotional pain happens due to weak “attitudinal habits”, like negativity or depression. If want to see the results of absence of good “spiritual habits” then look at what brings destruction & uncontrolled aggression in the World. Be it a terrorist who explodes a bomb or a politician who makes an opportunity out of agony. A kid who steals co-benchers stationery or son whose parents address is a old-age home. For the world to become a better place to live in, our spiritual habits need to be given due attention and importance.

To cultivate better spiritual habits you need to train yourself on qualities like holistic goal making & goal fetching. The means should be atleast be equally, if not more important than the end. Three commandments for betterment of your spiritual habits can (sense of) Purpose, Patience and Purity.

Finally to sign it off,

“Things start out as hopes and end up as habits. -- Lillian Hellman”   

 

             

 

  

Why Rain?

I have just got up from a ‘heated’ dinner debate about the best season of them all.

One said “winter” for all the comforts it provides. The other said “summer”, firstly because of school holidays and secondly for its scientific importance in facilitating rains. I stood firm. On what? Off course on rainy season.

The reasons I gave them were more technical so that they don’t understand much of it and let me finish the dinner fast. So that I could write this column before the exponentially fast approaching deadline. But when I have actually sat down to write, I couldn’t think of anything but rain.

There’s something very unique and personal about everyone’s perception of rain. None of the other two seasons cause so much alteration of lifestyle, routine & the surrounding. You look at the kind of clothes you wear, the food you eat and the things you do. The very surroundings of the home that looked so boring now sport a new, fresh & vibrant look. It’s like someone has changed the wallpaper of your desktop or the theme of you mobile handset. The potholed roads give you a fun of the Essel World plus Water Kingdom. Getting late now has a royal excuse. Umbrellas are the latest accessories and raincoat the in-fashion clothing.

There are other things too that make rains the ‘king of good times’. This is the only season that affects all the five senses. Follow this.

Which is the best fragrance that a human nose can smell?

The smell of the soil after the first rains of the season.

Which is the most lovable sound to the ear?

The sound of rain droplets on a window pane, on a tin roof or in a lake.

And the best touch ever?

The feel of the rain trickling down on your hands from the spokes of the umbrella.

And which is the most wonderful sight?

The sight of the tallest tree in the locality dancing to the tune of the drizzling rain & gawky wind.

What taste’s the best?

When it rains, just open your mouth and look up into the sky.

Tell me anything in any other season that could provide such joy & pleasure to all your senses. The summer and the winter are too harsh (especially our Nagpur version) to make sense to any of the senses. And you cannot see, taste, hear or smell them. You can just feel it. And feel good or bad subjectively.

Apart from the aesthetic values, there’s a bit of spiritual potential to the rain.

All of the spiritual science talks of controlling & focusing your senses. Rain teaches and enables the same. It demands so much out of you that you forget everything and just loose yourself to it. That’s a prime example of the bhakti rasa. The spirit of compassion. Of devotion and focused attention. You should be in it so much so that nothing that is out of it should matter to you.

Rain does all of this to you. Can you imagine not talking of rain when it’s raining? Can you ignore the lightning that accompanies it? How can you ignore it when it is drenching you in and out? All this is symbolism of what it means to be compassionate. Compassion is always and all inclusive. And this is the process of self-realisation. You focus all your senses on something, so much that you are drenched, swallowed, smelled, seen and heard into it. And then when you have done this all that remains is your “self” and nothing else.

There’s another very personal thing that a famous man said about the rain.

“I like walking in the rain, because nobody can see me crying” – Charlie Chaplin.