Learn to Live with Nature
(Vinod Anand)
Each one of us is very special and each one of us is trying his best to survive. You might ask: ‘In what way am I special?’ Or, ‘what makes me unique’? ‘What is the best strategy I should adopt to survive?’
However, your worries about yourself and your lack of abilities are not what should occupy your mind. Ask only one question, “Who am I? How do I know myself?” When you ask this question, then all self-doubts will vanish. When we are not interested in knowing our own selves, we waste time on many things.
If you engage your mind in finding answers to questions like: Who am I? How can I know who I am? Where did I come from? How can I go back? Why am I here, for such a short period? When you ask these kinds of questions, answers will come! You will find clarity.
When you create an interest in yourself, then you will know how great you are, how super you are. Then you will know the value of your existence. When you don’t know the value of existence, then you’re crying, suffering, complaining -- life is always miserable. When you know your own value, then you will be proud!
You will not cry if you just think about it, you will find that you are living your life in accordance to or in order to impress some ten people. Ten is an arbitrary number. The more popular ones may say they want to impress fifty…. The fact remains that these people decide how your life works because you are always thinking of showing them that, “I am something.”
In this competition and race, you lose true perspective of life. When you lose perspective, I would say that your life is a waste. I am using strong words because I am hoping that maybe one word will hit you: Satsang. Satsang is not about words spoken for your joy or pleasure. Satsang means words spoken with your well-being in mind, spoken for your well-being. Sometimes they may be what you do not wish to hear -- because we are so full of inertia, we don’t want to change! Sharp words can bring about change.
It can get rid of your inertia nature breaks her inertia. Forget the world and what you are doing to impress others. Here is a simple example. A mango tree flowers and then yields fruits… Somebody grows these mangoes; somebody else is eating the fruit. But the mango tree does not know for whom it is making so many mangoes. This is nature.
It only knows that it has to flower seasonally and yield fruits. Learn from nature, live with nature. If you constantly worry about who will enjoy the fruits of your action, you have problems; you are tense and you will not able to function productively. In Nature, somebody makes and somebody else uses… so why look to the fruits of your action? Once you act without expectation, you will find yourself.
VINOD K.ANAND: A BRIEF PROFILE
Born in 1939, and holding Master’s Degree both in Mathematics (1959) and Economics (1961), and Doctorate Degree in Economics (1970), Dr. Vinod K.Anand has about forty five years of teaching, research, and project work experience in Economic Theory (both micro and macro), Quantitative Economics, Public Economics, New Political Economy, and Development Economics with a special focus on economic and social provisions revolving around poverty, inequality, and unemployment issues, and also on informal sector studies. His last assignment was at the National University of Lesotho (Southern Africa) from 2006 to 2008. Prior to that he was placed as Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of North-West in the Republic of South Africa, and University of Allahabad in India, Professor at the National University of Lesotho, Associate Professor at the University of Botswana, Gaborone in Botswana, and at Gezira University in Wad Medani, Sudan, Head, Department of Arts and Social Sciences, Yola in Nigeria, Principal Lecturer in Economics at Maiduguri University in Nigeria, and as Lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Nigeria. Professor Anand has by now published more than 80 research papers in standard academic journals, authored 11 books, supervised a number of doctoral theses, was examiner for more than twenty Ph.D. theses, and has wide consultancy experience both in India and abroad, essentially in the African continent. This includes holding the position of Primary Researcher, Principal Consultant etc. in a number of Research Projects sponsored and funded by Universities, Governments, and International Bodies like, USAID, IDRC, and AERC. His publications include a variety of themes revolving around Economic Theory, New Political Economy, Quantitative Economics, Development Economics, and Informal Sector Studies. His consultancy assignments in India, Nigeria, Sudan, Botswana, and the Republic of South Africa include Non-Directory Enterprises in Allahabad, India, Small Scale Enterprises in the Northern States of Nigeria, The Absolute Poverty Line in Sudan, The Small Scale Enterprises in Wad Medani, Sudan, Micro and Small Scale Enterprises in Botswana, The Place of Non-Formal Micro-Enterprises in Botswana, Resettlement of a Squatter Community in the Vryburg District of North West Province in the Republic of South Africa, Trade and Investment Development Programme for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises: Support for NTSIKA in the Republic of South Africa, and Development of the Manufacturing Sector in the Republic of South Africa’s North West Province: An Approach Based on Firm Level Surveys. Professor Anand has also extensively participated in a number of conferences, offered many seminars, participated in a number of workshops, and delivered a variety of Refresher Lectures at different venues both in India and abroad. Dr. Anand was placed at the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla in the State Himachal Pradesh, India as a Fellow from 2001 to 2003, and had completed a theoretical and qualitative research project/monograph on the Employment Profile of Micro Enterprises in the State of Himachal Pradseh, India.