If you can dream and not make dreams your master
These are the infamous lines of Rudyard Kipling from his poem “If”. This poem has played a singular role in defining me what I am today. I carry this poem in my purse and not only in times of need and crisis, but sometimes just for some self motivation I read this poem and it has never failed to electrify my senses and rekindle the passion for life. Yet, I would beg to disagree with Rudyard Kipling regarding the very lines that I have quoted and I wish he had written it
If you can make dreams your master and work like a slave for your dreams.
How many of us day dream about our life? How many of us start our day in the toilet seat with those five minutes of powerful dreaming and perfect planning for the day, living out the activities of the day mentally as we wish them to occur. The four by four feet cubicle is a perfect dream spot. And then another great dream spot is your car. You get inside the car, zip up the windows, switch on the music, adjust the air conditioner and start your drive. It’s then a private universe, where you are the king. As the outside world zooms past in fast pace, how many times we find ourselves taking off on our own track? Its dangerous I know, but involuntarily I have done it many times. Even when I have driven through the busiest of the roads, at the end when I arrive, I wouldn’t remember a thing about the journey. But I had just established the greatest business empire of the world! And yes, ofcourse I had been dreaming all along the journey for sure.
These are the infamous lines of Rudyard Kipling from his poem “If”. This poem has played a singular role in defining me what I am today. I carry this poem in my purse and not only in times of need and crisis, but sometimes just for some self motivation I read this poem and it has never failed to electrify my senses and rekindle the passion for life. Yet, I would beg to disagree with Rudyard Kipling regarding the very lines that I have quoted and I wish he had written it
If you can make dreams your master and work like a slave for your dreams.
How many of us day dream about our life? How many of us start our day in the toilet seat with those five minutes of powerful dreaming and perfect planning for the day, living out the activities of the day mentally as we wish them to occur. The four by four feet cubicle is a perfect dream spot. And then another great dream spot is your car. You get inside the car, zip up the windows, switch on the music, adjust the air conditioner and start your drive. It’s then a private universe, where you are the king. As the outside world zooms past in fast pace, how many times we find ourselves taking off on our own track? Its dangerous I know, but involuntarily I have done it many times. Even when I have driven through the busiest of the roads, at the end when I arrive, I wouldn’t remember a thing about the journey. But I had just established the greatest business empire of the world! And yes, ofcourse I had been dreaming all along the journey for sure.
Most of the spectacular feats that I have achieved in my life have all been the ones that I have dreamt about. There are things I used to dream and relive over a thousand times in mind, which, at the time of dreaming were the most impossible things that any sane mind would reasonably believe that it would come true. And in my conscious mind, I too believed and would tell myself that its mere stupidity to even dream of such a thing. But subconsciously, somehow I enjoyed this day dreaming and would continue to do so. And in more than many cases, my so called impossible dreams would become a reality sooner than later. It has happened time and again. Many a times I would get carried away and disclose what I was dreaming about to my friends and my friends would admonish me that I am too outspoken and explained that people would term it as arrogance and even I may be subjected to shame if I don’t achieve my dreams. But the fear of not achieving my dreams has never been able to prevent me from dreaming.
Now coming to some motivational talk. I feel dreams always come with a power to achieve them and make them a reality. If you are passionate about a certain thing and dream and relive it a thousand times, your subconscious mind is being channelised into that direction and works silently towards your objective. All your actions and thoughts are directed towards that and combined with conscious efforts at the superficial level, it almost always makes it a reality. There are so many examples that I can quote from my personal life, that I have dreamt and enacted in my mind before they actually became true. But what equally matters is that your dreams must be substantiated by concrete actions on ground. Many times, even if I didn’t want to do a thing consciously, my subconscious mind would drive my conscious mind towards that end which would finally see me achieve my dreams. I must also confess, that many times I have pushed myself to do things even when I was down and out, to save my face, because I couldn’t let it go just like that as I had already disclosed to my friends, which may range from a mere mention to a loud boasting about what I had intended to achieve. Finally to conlcude, I would just mention a line from the greatest book of all times on pursuing your dreams, The Alchemist, by Paulo Celho.
If you are passionate about your dreams, the whole world will conspire to see that it is realized.
And it has been one hundred percent true in my life! Today if people hear what I am dreaming about tomorrow, they will certainly laugh. But then, they laughed even yesterday when I told them what I would be today. And I am not too much off the target!!
Now coming to some motivational talk. I feel dreams always come with a power to achieve them and make them a reality. If you are passionate about a certain thing and dream and relive it a thousand times, your subconscious mind is being channelised into that direction and works silently towards your objective. All your actions and thoughts are directed towards that and combined with conscious efforts at the superficial level, it almost always makes it a reality. There are so many examples that I can quote from my personal life, that I have dreamt and enacted in my mind before they actually became true. But what equally matters is that your dreams must be substantiated by concrete actions on ground. Many times, even if I didn’t want to do a thing consciously, my subconscious mind would drive my conscious mind towards that end which would finally see me achieve my dreams. I must also confess, that many times I have pushed myself to do things even when I was down and out, to save my face, because I couldn’t let it go just like that as I had already disclosed to my friends, which may range from a mere mention to a loud boasting about what I had intended to achieve. Finally to conlcude, I would just mention a line from the greatest book of all times on pursuing your dreams, The Alchemist, by Paulo Celho.
If you are passionate about your dreams, the whole world will conspire to see that it is realized.
And it has been one hundred percent true in my life! Today if people hear what I am dreaming about tomorrow, they will certainly laugh. But then, they laughed even yesterday when I told them what I would be today. And I am not too much off the target!!
10 comments:
If you can make dreams your master and work like a slave for your dreams.
Is there not a difference between saying "I am a servant", and "I am a servant at the king's palace"?
Ade daan...what if your dream is just to have a big bungalow on the sea side? You may finally enjoy it when you achieve it. But, what is the real worth of a sea side bungalow? That is why he says don't make dreams your master.
Also, you need to dream to achieve. Why should anyone achieve anything at all? What is so great in success and achievements that one should go after it?
Any answers?
Well ram...
Kipling says..."dream.but dont just dream.do come concrete action on ground" The poem IF is all about personal achievement and reaching where you want to go.
Now, about achievement.What is achievement? why you always have to see it in materialistic point of view?
Lets talk about buddha.Buddha attained nirvana. He wanted to achieve nirvana. So even in this most noble thought, hidden behind is a desire. Mutrum thuranda munivar nu solrom...He never was created that way...and till such time he attained nirvana, he was driven by the desire to attain nirvana. So desire is everywhere.Even in buddha.
Towards that objective,he worked.He had a dream of seeing a world without calamity and suffering. And he worked like a slave for that dream, so much so that he attained nirvana...and formulated his own teachings.
so even buddha went after his dream and relentlessly he went.So their is nothing wrong in setting your aim.
Now, why materialistic aim??? I ask why not? As long as it is giving direction to your life, as long as it ensures that you are not a parasite on this world, as long as it is under established norms of ethics, whats wrong in pursuing wealth? or fame?
If you have no aim in life, you will be just a parasite on this earth, feeding on others...because even that 4ft cloth you wrap around your body comes from someone else's hardwork, why that far, you came out of your mothers womb safely,because of a doctor who himself wanted to achieve something in life.So, in a society, you are indebted to contribute.The world is where it is today because of achievers and not renouncers.in both positve and negative sense!!
hmm...just a point to clarify...buddha did not go after nirvana...nirvana came to him...
the story goes that he was disillusioned, and wanted answers...and the best thing he did was to search for the answers in himself...he didn't dream of finding an answer.
when you dream of becoming a great cardiologist, you imagine yourself with the steth around your neck, checking people's ECG etc. When you dream of having a Ferrari and a sea side bungalow, you picturise them in your mind. But, you can never dream yourself to be a saint. Of course, you can dream yourself to sit with kaavi vastram. But a saint is not one who wears kaavi vastram. It is something you cannot dream about. There is no picture of that in your mind. Thus, it is not a desire in the same way as owning a Ferrari or a sea side bungalow. It is not even a dream.
If Gautama ever dreamed to be a Buddha, he could not have become the Buddha...sounds paradoxical isn't it? Yes...it is so.
You see, it is true that we need to dream to achieve. But to whom is this achievement useful? To the achiever? Never. It is to the world, and world alone. The moment you see that a person dreams not for himself, he achieves not for himself, and that whatever he dreams and achieves goes to the world, he undergoes a paradigm shift. To him, the imprtance of dream is no more personal. There is no more desire. He will dream to achieve something because he realises that it is his duty to dream. This frees him.
Therefore, when you dream you should dream high, and not of small things. Understand why you dream, and its relevance in the large picture, and then dream. Else it becomes the representative of a selfish desire.
I hope i have made sense here, because these thoughts are as alien to me, as they are to you. I have just done some rapid typing of whatever has entered my head.
Ram....I beg to disagree with you. Let me illustrate my point of view with another basic example of life.
Lets take the concept of procreation. God created living beings and he created an excellent mechanism of sustaining this life in earth by the very "wants, desires and selfish motives" you are trying to shun. How?
To procreate, man and women needs to copulate. There was a danger that they never would want to do that. What will happen?
This world wouldnt there anymore.
So sustain that process of procreation, before a man dies, he attached an unmatchable pleasure that takes man to hts of happiness
and self satisfaction that he is tempted to do it. The sexual urge of any man is the highest embodiment of selfish desire. Because when that urge comes to him, its all about a burning desire to get satisfied of the self, that in the first instance makes him look for his partner . Man doesnt think of satisfying a women, Neither does he think he is doing a noble job of procreation, at the time of feeling the urge, at that first instance that makes him look for his partner. Its just a process to satisfy the selfish desire. There can be nothing more
selfish than satisfaction of ones sexual urge. And the moment of esctacy so results is the highest form of achievment for, it provides a highest sense of happiness and harmony, that you can ever experience, next to being with god!!
This trait is inherited from animals. So you cant say that this is a result of any ills of society or due to any acquired traits of man.
So, it is but apparent that even god never intended to keep the wants away from creatures (man included) and infact he cleverly used it as a tool to sustain life and procreation.
And, in the true sense, If man has to renounce, then he must first renounce this desire of sexual satisfaction, (which indeed is propagated in hinduism) meaning that in an ideal world, where every one takes renounciation, there would be no procreation and hence this is a path to destruction. thats why many sages from hindu culture, recognised this and indeed got married.
But can there be more hypocrisy, than saying that we have renounced without having shunned our sexual desires? And if indeed we do so, arent we going against nature in a destructive path that god never intended in the first place???
Think About it.
And, in the true sense, If man has to renounce, then he must first renounce this desire of sexual satisfaction, (which indeed is propagated in hinduism) meaning that in an ideal world, where every one takes renounciation, there would be no procreation and hence this is a path to destruction. thats why many sages from hindu culture, recognised this and indeed got married.
There are a lot of assumptions in your argument. I call then assumptions because we take some things for granted and think that things can never be any other way. We refuse to question our own beliefs.
You believe that a desire for sex is an absolute must for procreation. That is where you are wrong. Nature has created this desire so that people do it automatically. It is Nature's program into you and me. We are just living out the program. Have you ever asked whether it is possible for procreation to take place without a desire for sex? If so, to most of our minds, the answer is NO. But is it really NO? WHy not YES? Why can we not think of procreation taking place without a desire for sex?
You said that in an ideal world where people renounce everything, we would move towards destruction. You have failed to realise that in an ideal world, people also know their duties, and the relevance of different processes. They would know that they would have to copulate in order that the species is sustained. Therefore, they would do it. In an ideal world of enlightened human beings, people would recognise their duties, and perform them because they know that when each one performs his duty the whole world runs smoothly. There is no desire in their actions. They would copulate not because they have desire.
Thus, when you recognise your duties, and there is the wisdom that you have nothing to do other than perform your duties, there will be no problems, including the continuation of the species. This is enlightenment. Further, your actions are no more animal-like, in the sense that they are no more programmed.
Have you ever thought of the negative sides of sexual desire? Pornography, rape, harrassment of women, sexual perversion, teenage pregnancy, STDs, prostitution, pedophilia, indecent exposure on screen, and what not. What do you have to say about these? You still think desire is a merit?
Well, the negative sides are man's misuse and greed for this basic want. Indeed, this is a vice.
But what I am talking ab is that one micro second of man's life when the urge is produced, that causes the urge.What produces the urge? Its the desire.Think about it.
In an ideal world, people would do their duties. Its logical that they would perform the act of sex for noble thoughts alone. But still, the drive to perform this act, the feeling which causes the feeling to perform a noble act of procreation would still irrefutably be a desire and a need.Thats the way god has created living beings and programed them to sustain this world.
And well...procreation by other means??? hard to even imagine...now I feel you are trying to rebel just for the sake of it...
wow , u ppl should try out at auditions for sanskar or aastha channel.
u know its very easy for me 2 dream.
i mean i start thinking bout say a song and end up imagining that i am in a foreign prison...dont know why and how i linked up to that just dreaming.
but i definitely approve that dream are a very powerful motivation. the only thing more powerful than dreams is vision.
Hi Shashank,
Possibly, you are too much afraid to handle success. Thats why a song gets you in prison.
It would be interesting to check your dreams and interpret them. Google for good dream sites. It would be a good time pass when on bench!!;)
Thanks for spending time in my blog site. I was wondering if someone reads mine at all these days.:)
arey u got me wrong doc.
i meant that i suppose i am thinking, for eg:abt a song, i keep thinking abt it, some char in the song ,the name of that char, similar and somehow keep jumpin here and there and like endup far from where i started. not just a prison or even a song to start with.
i wanted to tell how much unable i am to concentrate even whilst day dreamin!
and u dnt have to thank for me spending time on ur blog. its a nice blog and evry nice blog deserves a fan club.
i got ur blog link thru 'i hav been book tagged' post of urs.
@ Shashank
Ok. I understood.
And thanks to you,my hit counter is increasing daily!!LOL.
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