Focus On What You Want – In Gita Verse 1.2 Sañjaya said: O King, after looking over the army arranged in military formation by the sons of Pāṇḍu, King Duryodhana walked up to his teacher and his commander of army Dronacharya.
Actions Speak Louder Than Words: before Duryodhana spoke he revealed his focus through his action. He walked to his teacher and his commander of army Dronacharya without his team. It clearly shows from his action that he did not wanted to restructure his strategy after looking over the army arranged in military formation by the sons of Pāṇḍu, to win the war. He just wanted to defeat them. Lot of difference is there when we want to win the war and defeat someone.
Universe doesn’t understand the language of others or mine. It only understands where your focus is. As Duryodhana’s focus was on defeating the Pandavas his strategy and action was how to defeat and in that process he lost the war.
From our childhood we have always been told by our parents, elders and teachers “Always wish good for others.” Why? One of the reason is when we wish good for others good comes to us. They also told us whenever we want to give something to others give them the best. At that time due to our immaturity we couldn’t understand this. This is the reason whenever something goes wrong we need to check what was our thinking when we are giving to someone.
Let me share with you one incidence of Manohar Parrikar’s life – Watermelon Festival:
In September 2016, the humble resident of Parra, Goa, addressed an audience at the 14th FGI Awards for Excellence held at Vadodara. It was there that he gave one of his most memorable speeches. It was a speech where he recounts his childhood, growing up in the village of Parra and taking part in the famous ‘Watermelon Festival’. It seemed like a trivial story, one that was meant to evoke a sense of humanity – but it was so much more. Here’s what he said: “I am from the village of Parra in Goa, hence we are called Parrikars. My village is famous for its watermelons. When I was a child, the farmers would organize a watermelon-eating contest at the end of the harvest season in the month of May. All the kids would be invited to eat as many watermelons as they wanted. Years later, I went to IIT Mumbai to study engineering. I went back to my village after six and a half years. I went to the market looking for watermelons. They were all gone. The ones that were there were so small. I went to see the farmer who hosted the watermelon-eating contest. His son had taken over. He would host the contest but there was a difference.
When the older farmer gave us watermelons to eat he would ask us to spit out the seeds into a bowl. We were told not to bite into the seeds. He was collecting the seeds for his next crop. We were unpaid child laborers, actually. He kept his best watermelons for the contest and he got the best seeds which would yield even bigger watermelons the next year. He would also distribute the seeds to the farmers in his neighbourhood. The farmers sowed these seeds to grow watermelons. When the wind blew it carried the pollen from the flowers to his watermelon crop which received better pollen for fertilisation and produced desired watermelons.
His son, when he took over, realized that the larger watermelons would fetch more money in the market so he sold the larger ones and kept the smaller ones for the contest. The next year, the watermelons were smaller, the year later even smaller.
In watermelons, the generation is one year. In seven years, Parra’s best watermelons were finished. In humans, generations change after 25 years. It will take us 200 years to figure out where we had gone wrong while raising and educating our children. Unless we employ our best to train the next generation, this is what can happen to us.”
Unless we become aware of where is our focus and correcting ourselves to shift our focus from receiving to giving, we cannot get best from our act – shifting from Duty To Responsibility.
We always act out of our duty and not from responsibility. This is the reason we are not able to create environment of love or godliness which is residing in us. For example all over the world the main duty of the woman is to take care of food for every family member. When we sit at the dining table we expect the woman to serve the food. This same act can be viewed from a different perspective, it’s her duty but can I participate in her duty. With this thought you may help her to arrange the dining table to serve the food. The whole environment changes, from duty to participation. This is everyone’s responsibility to create loving environment. No one can stop you except yourself. Through this small shift in our thinking the universe will create miracles for you.
