Wonderful Stories

Why we do comparison? Do you derive your identity by comparing yourself ?

Hi Everybody , my name is Chitransh and here to share my knowledge and learning about the above topic.I’m quite curious about the above question because it really troubles me alot.

We’re homosapiens and we are social-animals who love to live in community groups. So we created the concept of measurement because measurement helps us to label and categorize all things around us in order to make sense of the world.

We measured the World in order to organise our surrounding. Further due to our this habit of measuring the surrounding we stabilised a well organised civilisation. We travelled a long path from the ancient civilizations to modern 21st century civilization. Parallel our measuring habit eventually converted to comparing habit. Although the both word (measuring and comparing) may sound similar but theirs a key differences. Now let see the things from the start once again ……

We measured the world in order to create an organised surrounding. We organize the world into understandable units, such as the periodic table of all elements in chemistry, or the various taxonomies of plants and animals and diseases in biology.

Measurement is key to science, to understanding nature

However, with measurement also comes judgement—we not only measure, classify, organise, we also compare, create hierarchies.

We by own create the concept of superiority and inferiority. The idea of comparison is only good for goods it’s fails when we apply on ourselves or other. Since everyone here is unique , we all have different set of skills and capabilities. But this modern failed society will never recognise your uniqueness. They push you to join their failed institutions which are made in order to produce goddamm fucking robots who compete with each other to capture the top of their hierarchies. This comparison evokes feelings of inadequacy and jealousy in people. It fuels ambition and ignites conflicts.

When value comes from what I have, then the more I have, the more valuable I become. And so I want to ensure that I have more than you. That is why in the Ramayana, conflict begins with comparison. Kaikeyi hates being junior queen. So she wants her husband, Dasharatha, king of Ayodhya, to crown her son as heir, so that as queen mother she can dominate over the senior queen, Kaushalya.
My Gita by Devdutt Patnaik

The Soul/atma within you is the same as the Soul/atma within me. But if you and I are not in touch with our soul/atma, and we do not empathize with each other’s hungers and fears and potential, we will compare our respective skills/property to locate ourselves in a hierarchy and give ourselves an identity.

Look at the nature(Jungle), you will find there is a pecking order. But animal domination is not aspirational; it is necessary for survival in jungle. Domination ensures they get access to more food.

But we dominate to grant ourselves value, and feel better about our status. Our Social structures are designed in such a way that it gives you certain identity on the basis of what you have(materialistic property: wealth, knowledge, contacts and skills). They are invariably based on comparsion of the social body. I am better than you because what

I have is bigger or better or faster or richer or prettier or cheaper or nicer or nastier than yours.

By comparing our titles and estates we validate ourselves, make ourselves feel significant and relevant. We create this difference to make ourselves feel better about our worthless materialistic achievements. But we end up being miserable 😞 because their is always someone who have more than you and seems more happier than you.

Arjuna, the veil of measurements and hierarchies deludes all those who try to make sense of this material world with its three innate tendencies, unless they accept the reality of me, who cannot be measured or compared. Those trapped in this delusion of imagined boundaries behave like demons.
—Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 7, verses 13 to 15 (paraphrased).

This materialistic society distracts us from infinity and immortality, from the feeling that the world can continue without us. Delusion makes us feel important.

It is our imagination that gives value to things, purpose to an activity and identity to a thing.
Human imagination can attribute any value to anything.
It is in our hand to give meaning or wipe out meaning from anything.
So give value to those things that really matter. Filter out delusion/maya from your life.

‘सब माया है दोस्त’ means ‘the world is an illusion or a delusion’.
Popular hindi phrase

What it means is that the world can be whatever we imagine it to be—valuable or valueless, fuelling ambition.

In Vedanta there is a popular Sanskrit phrase, ‘Jagad mithya, brahma satya!’ It is translated as ‘the world is a mirage and only divinity is real’. We can manufacture depression and joy in our lives.

Arjuna, the wise look at a learned man, an outcaste, a cow, an elephant or a dog with an equal eye. A person who sees equality in all, and is in full control in all pleasant and unpleasant situations, has realized the divine for the divine is impartial too.
—Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 5, verses 18 to 20 (paraphrased).

Thanks for reading 😊

Folk tale based on the Mahabharata: Karna’s Chariot

A little girl was drinking milk from a pot when Karna’s chariot rolled past. Startled, she dropped the pot. The pot broke and the earth soaked up the milk. The girl began to cry. Karna saw this, stopped the chariot and decided to get the milk back for the little girl. He took the moist earth in his hand and squeezed out the milk in the pot, much to the girl’s astonishment and delight. Everyone praised the great warrior. Thus, Karna’s action yielded an expected output. But the outcome was unpredictable. The earth was furious that Karna had squeezed milk out of her. She swore that one day she would take her revenge. So on the battlefield of Kuru-kshetra, she grabbed hold of Karna’s chariot wheel, squeezing it as hard as he had squeezed her, forcing him to alight and pull the wheel free. And while he was thus distracted, with his back to the enemy, he was shot dead. His blood fell on the ground and the earth soaked it all up. Karna’s action thus had two reactions, an immediate one and a subsequent one. The immediate one was perceivable. The subsequent one was not. The latter reaction created the circumstances of Karna’s death.

In the Hindu scheme of things, circumstances are not created accidentally, or by others, but by our own actions of the past.

Arjuna, you have control over your action alone, not the fruits of your action. So do not be drawn to expectation, or inaction.
—Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, Verse 47 (paraphrased).

Krishna’s approach: How to deal with problems?

Once upon a time, Krishna and Balarama were on a journey. While travelling they have to pass through dangerous terrains and dense forest belonging to demons. It was late in winter and they decided to rest in the forest for the night. It was a dangerous forest, so Krishna suggested “Baladeva, you keep watch until midnight while I sleep, and I will be on watch from midnight till morning.” They both agreed and Krishna went to sleep.

A few hours passed, Krishna was sleeping sound. Balarama heard a growl at a distance, it was a terrifying sound. He walked a little further towards the sound. Now he could see a gigantic monster approaching him. The monster growled again, Balarama was very afraid, he trembled in fear.

Every time he trembled, the monster grew double in size. The monster grew bigger and bigger as it approached Balarama. Now the monster was standing very close to Balarama, it growled again. Terrified by the sound, size and terrible smell of the monster Balarama screamed “Krishna! Krishna!” and collapsed and fell unconscious.

Woken up by the call, Krishna followed the sound and found Balarama sleeping, Krishna thought, ‘It must be my turn now’ and started walking too and fro. Slowly Krishna recognized the monster standing nearby.

The monster growled at Krishna. “What do you want?” Krishna asked unafraid. The size of the monster decreased, it shrunk to half its size. “What are you doing here?” Krishna asked again and the monster shrunk again. Krishna kept questioning it expecting a reply, the monster kept shrinking every time he asked.

Now the monster was just 2 inches tall and looked cute and adorable. Krishna took it in his hand and placed it in his waist pocket. The night passed and Balarama woke in the morning.

Balarama saw Krishna and joyously shouted “Krishna! Krishna!”.

“Krishna! you don’t know what a terrible thing happened while you were asleep. There was a huge monster trying to kill us both. I don’t know how we survived, the last thing I remember is that I fainted.” Balarama said trying to recall yesterday night’s events.

Krishna took the little monster out of his pocket and said, “Is this the same monster?”
“Yes, but it was so big! how did it shrink?” asked Balarama.

“Every time I questioned it, it shrunk in size, finally it became this.”

Balarama told Krishna how the monster grew yesterday every time he was scared of it.

Then Krishna concluded,

“Every time we are afraid, our fears grow big, but every time we face them and question them, they become smaller and smaller.”
Krishna

Story :) 1 > Dilip Kumar : . Here is a throwback story about his encounter which changed the way he approached life.

He realised the lesson of humility in life.

Why we do comparison? Do you derive your identity by comparing yourself ?

Hi Everybody , my name is Chitransh and here to share my knowledge and learning about the above topic.I’m quite curious about the above question because it really troubles me alot. We’re homosapiens and we are social-animals who love to live in community groups. So we created the concept of measurement because measurement helps us…

by Chitransh Raj July 16, 2020July 16, 2020

Folk tale based on the Mahabharata: Karna’s Chariot

by Chitransh Raj July 10, 2020July 10, 2020

Krishna’s approach: How to deal with problems?

by Chitransh Raj June 29, 2020

Back in the day when Dilip Kumar was at the peak of his career, he met with an old gentleman on a flight. While all the passengers in the flight recognised him, the elderly gentlemen seemed nonchalant. Later when Kumar found out the man’s real identity, he realised the lesson of humility in life.

1960s can fondly be recalled as Dilip Kumar’s era of cinematic success where he was literally showered with awards and recognitions for his creative talent as an actor
With films like Deedar (1951), Aan (1952), Amar (1954), Insaniyat (1955), Devdas (1955), Azad (1955) and Madhumati (1958), all notable hits still remembered fondly, there was no doubt about Dilip Kumar’s fame and brilliance, which kept growing.

Back in those days, Dilip Kumar was flying among common people when an incident changed the way he approached life.
According to a throwback story by Times Now, Kumar was consumed by his success and stardom that he never realised that an even bigger persona was sitting inside the aeroplane.

Here is what Dilip Kumar says……

“At the peak of my career, I was once travelling by aeroplane. The passenger next to me was an elderly man dressed in a simple shirt and pant. He appeared middle class but seemed well-educated. Other passengers kept glancing at me, but this gentleman appeared to be unconcerned of me. He was reading his newspaper, looking out of the window and when tea came, he sipped it quietly.”

Dilip felt so disgraceful when this particular fellow sitting right by his side didn’t seem to care about him being in the plane, unlike the others

Kumar says that he tried to strike a conversation with the elderly man , and smiled. The elderly man courteously smiled back and said “hello”. he got in a conversation with the old man, and bought up the subject of movies and cinema and asked “Do you watch films?”

The elderly man replied, that he watches only a few films. “Oh! Very few…I did see one many years ago,”

Kumar mentioned that he worked in Film Industry. The elderly man replied… oh! thats nice. And asked Kumar What he exactly do in the cinema?. Kumar responded by saying that he is an actor. On hearing this, the man nodded & said, “Oh! That’s wonderful” And that was it…. Dilip felt quite disappointment on his very normal cold response but accepted it.

Ultimately when the flight was landed Kumar shook hands with the old man and told him his full name (expecting him to finally recognize him and value him like others in the plane).

The elderly man confidently replied –

“Thank you ………. I am J.R.D. Tata”

Recalling the encounter Dilip Kumar quoted………

“No matter how big you are there is someone bigger. Be humble, it costs nothing.“