Sunday 8 March 2015

My wanderings - 4

               The life teaches many  lessons to each and every individual irrespective of his field of occupation or Profession.   Maxim Gorky a renowned writer of Russia who is famous for his book 'THE MOTHER' has also written  his Autobiography in two parts' My Childhood 'and 'My Universities'. He has never  formally attended a school and not to speak of  joining universities. He has done all the odd jobs in his childhood as a domestic servant, bakers help and  shop Assistant. Latter in his youth he  spent time with  many ruffians, failures in life and dejected persons, whom he refers as  great teachers in his pursuit of knowledge. Most of characters in his books are same  type of persons from whom he learned great lessons of life  and which inspired  him to write his great classics.
Same is the case with another great writer of Russia Fyodor Dostoevsky, who is famous for his books 'Crime and Punishment' and 'Brothers Karamazov'. He  has spent his time with criminals , drunkards and persons discarded by society which prompted him to author best books of world. Dostoevsky was also  considered as a great expert on criminal psychology.
Therefore, a positive approach to a calamity can change it into  an opportunity and negative approach can turn every opportunity into calamity. It is well said that we should hate the sin but not the sinner.
Learning  from the  experiences of life is a great option available  and  that is not confined to particular group of persons only and formal colleges and universities are not the only  platforms of learning.
In our Hindu scriptures like 'Ekadashaskand'  the writer describes  a prostitute as his teacher because he learns from her the lesson of concentration, with which she is waiting for her customers.
There are some exceptions also which can not be ruled out. Moreover,
experience is not  a form of legacy which can be inherited like deposits or property by the descendent. If you want to teach someone from your own experience, he will not learn. He learns only with his own experiences.
Vivekananda a great saint of India has said , Don't believe a thing if somebody has said it so. Don't believe a thing if you  have read it from a book. Find out the truth yourself and that is realization.
The experiences influence convictions and the different  experience on same subject  can form different convictions. A person deceived in love by a woman will form the opinion that all the  woman are deceitful and a man having good experience of love with woman will adore such relationship.
                     Life is a great university which gives opportunity to every person to learn with his own experiences and  dejections and failures in life, are great teachers which lead him to success.  I quote here an Urdu couplet

Rang lati hain hina pather pe gis Jane ke  baad
Aqal aati hain bashar KO thokre khane ke  baad

Mehndi becomes colorful only after grinding it on stone
Man becomes wise only after failures and dejections

Realization of facts  behind the experiences of life,  sometimes, accelerate the learning process in the university of life, overcoming hurdles like failures and dejections and paving way for success and glory. However only success should not be the ultimate aim of life. Learning from the experiences of  life and harnessing the same for the betterment of society also leaves enough scope for achieving the aims and aspirations cherished by some persons.
Coming on the lighter side I am sharing a personal incident about one of my colleagues working with me in the Bank , who had once confided to me that he was  interested in philosophy but had to join bank because of financial constraints. Once chatting with our boss in our lunch hours we started discussing philosophy and literature. Our boss told us that these philosophers are queer type of people, who can mostly be found  in colleges and  universities. My friend had a  reservation for this comment of our boss. He replied to boss," No Sir, I don't agree with you.   philosophers  can be found anywhere. Even in Banks you can find  them". Perhaps  he was attracting the attention of boss to himself.
It appeared to be a joke at that time. But it was conveying the  message  that philosophy and literature are not  the domain of some professions  and can not remain confined to the four  walls of some educational institutions only.  But this whole world  is arena for  learning and experiencing the stark reality of life, which forms the basis of all philosophies and literature.

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