The way to harmony

The basis of science is trust in mathematics. If you do not trust mathematics, science cannot move an inch.

Similarly, business cannot move if the industry has no trust in customers and customers in their creditors. And human values are about trusting the good nature that we all are endowed and born with. I feel that success is really measured by the smiles a person has on his face. I won’t call someone successful if one is so tense, worried, disappointed, dejected and miserable. Who would want such a success?

There is a scientific discovery that a baby smiles 400 times a day and adolescent smiles only 17 times a day. But an adult does not smile at all. What is it that takes away this natural gift of humanity - smile, friendliness, compassion, broad-mindedness, scientific temper - we need to ponder on that.

If you ask a kid how many friends he has in the class, he will count on the fingers - 3, 4 or 5 in a classroom of 40-50 kids. Kids are unable to be friendly with all the 40-50 of their class when they come out of the school; how do you expect them to be friendly with the world? We have somehow failed to nurture the basic human values. We do not need to cultivate human values. They are part of our nature.

What really obstructs human values is stress and tension. If a person is tense, then his perception, observation and expression suffer. And you have only two ways to get rid of tension: either lessen your workload or increase the energy level. In today’s world, it is not possible to lessen the workload; it will keep on growing day by day.

The alternative is to increase our energy. We should take a look at different sources of energy. Food is our first source of energy - proper food and right amount of food, neither too much, nor too little. Second is proper sleep. Third, that is the most important source of energy, is breath, which we have ignored or forgotten about.

With every breath we exhale, we are throwing out carbon dioxide, toxins are going out of the system and blood is getting purified. Breath is such an important source of energy but we have not done much to learn and study about our breath. Breath is the key to eliminate these toxins, and harmonize emotions.

Neither in school nor at home, have we ever heard or learnt about how to manage our emotions. The ancient Vedas, yogic system with yoga and also Koreans with tai chi have used these techniques.

We can be creative and productive, and at the same time not lose the humanness that we are all born with. Just material things or comforts alone do not really make a person comfortable. He may have a good bed to sleep on, but may be unable to sleep due to insomnia or worry. He needs to get a broad understanding about himself and his priorities. Besides, develop a sense of caring for each other and smile more!