Know your Strengths

As the financial year is nearing its close, accountants and treasurers are busy trying to wind up their transactions, sales and purchases. They cannot let things to spill over to the next year, which can only put them in trouble. At the end of the financial year, the most important document for the financial administrators is the balance sheet, otherwise called trial balance, wherein they would be able to find out their assets, liabilities, income and expenditure. The whole year in one page, and that is the proof of their financial management, how well or badly they had managed finance. There is hardly anything that they can hide here; it is the fact-sheet of their situation as far as finance is concerned. The income and expenditure, as a matter of fact, very much depend on two other factors, assets and liabilities.

I wish we take a trial balance at different junctures of our life, to become aware of the assets and liabilities. Why should we be concerned of the assets and liabilities? Our concern should be to increase the assets and reduce the liabilities, and only this can assure a better financial management. On the other hand, if the liabilities keep increasing and the assets start reducing, then there may come a time, when the institution may be forced to shut its doors. Income and expenditure should moderated on the basis of the assets and liabilities. It is a two way process: increase the assets and reduce liabilities. It is not enough to reduce liabilities, one should also attempt to increase assets, or else the institution may end up with nothing to live with, though they may not lose anything.

Today I would like to pause for a moment and take stock of my personal assets and liabilities; let me become conscious of them. At every important moment of my life, I decide on the basis of my assets and liabilities. It would be wrong to say that assets are good and liabilities are bad; these are two neutral realities. There are dangers that assets can become my death-knell, and liabilities sometimes may become my friend. The most important thing is that I keep before my eyes these two realities, so that I may discern properly before making any important decision. If I decide anything irrespective of my personal assets and liabilities, then I may have to regret later on. If need be, I should write and keep my assets and liabilities in a place where I make most of the decisions.

What do I mean by my personal assets? These are the things that I am really proud of; these are my good qualities, capabilities, talents, potentialities. For example, if I am aware that I have a potentiality to organize things and events, then when I get an opportunity I would not let it slip, but make use of it to reach out to others. On the other hand, if I am not good in singing, and decide to give lead in singing, then there would only be pandemonium. This is what is implied in one of the Indian proverbs, know the depth, before you put your foot forward in the river. It is possible you may not get an opportunity to pull out your legs after you mistakenly put your foot in deep waters.

Let me sit quietly today, in a place where I may not be disturbed by anyone for some ten minutes; let me take a dip into my inner self, feel myself as I fully am, with all my strengths and weaknesses. Let me go back in life to the earliest moment I can remember and move forward up to this very moment, taking note of the instances when I had shown signs of possessing great assets or liabilities. Let me pause there and assimilate it in such a way that it soars to my conscious self. It would be dangerous for me to embrace the assets and throw away the liabilities. I need to embrace both of them and grow in greater awareness that both of these can help me to live a meaning-full life.

The ‘Golden’ Silence

One of the first things that I noticed while sitting for about three hours at the Germany’s Munich airport was the quietness all around. It was not that there were no people at the airport, but it seemed they had nothing so much to talk to. There might be an occasional self-talk of the children playfully running here and there, but the adults were in their own world. Even when families when sitting one after another waiting to board a flight were immersed in quiet ruminations, or lost in their own concerns. There were many who wished to kill the apparent silence by reading novels, news papers and magazines. I was telling my companion, what a difference it made between the airport in Kolkata or Delhi and Munich. They were worlds apart, and in fact it is futile to even make a comparison, because we are talking about two different worlds.

Two worlds! Two worldviews and it is hard to wed them. Am I trying to make a futile comparison? To be frank, the point of comparison is only a starting point to note, how two groups of people consider silence. For the Indians, or as extension for all the Asians, silence is not golden; the spoken words are golden. For the Europeans, the reverse is true. They would not like to pour themselves out in needless spoken words, and therefore for them silence is golden. It would be quite stupidity on my part to propose one to another, for there is something wanting in both the views, and very seldom have I come across people who could strike a balance between killing silence, and deafening mutterings.

We do need silence to quieten our hearts and minds, and look inward, and each day should have a share of silence, at least at one point of day, either early in the morning or before retiring to bed. I would prefer to have at least 15 minutes of silence for me – all by myself, without any disturbance from any one! I would not like to be distracted by anyone, for whatsoever reason – no cell phones, no urgent message, no knocking on the door, no ringing of the door bell! This 15 minutes is precious to me, to delve deep into myself, to align the loose ends of myself, and become aware of the different currents that flow in and out of myself, and take stock of my life for that day (what I would like to call, to take personal audit for the day). If I am not able to give myself the gift of this ‘sacred’ time, then my words may be just meaningless and may mean just nothing, both to me and to others. We may call this time prayer, meditation, yoga, contemplation… but the purpose is the same. To take an inward journey into myself to re-assess my inner resources and to prepare them to meet the demands of the day.

The other side of the picture too is equally valid. The ability to speak out and to pour myself out to someone else does not come naturally. Too much of silence may lead to depression and later to mental imbalance. It is not enough to become aware of the inner currents within me, but I also need to share what is going on within me with someone who either shares certain of my inner resources, or with someone who would reflect my moorings like a mirror, so that I may be able to see my thoughts, words and deeds as objectively as possible. It is often too easy to keep ourselves engaged in useless talk; we do not engage in serious talk with strangers we meet at the railway station or in the bus or at the market place. Our words there are calculated and measure, so that even by mistake we don’t enter into the personal and private lives of the people we converse with. If only I engage myself with some meaningful conversation with someone I have great confidence in for at least a few minutes, then my life may begin to flower forth, and spread its fragrance all around me.

Today I would like to take a few minutes from the daily routine for myself, to enter into the inner recesses of myself, to discover the streams of silence running in and through me. Let me stay at her shores, look at her beauty and charm, allow my feelings and emotions drown in these streams, and be transformed. I would like to stay with these steams for a while, without in anyway trying to run away from her. Let me enjoy the silence spreading to all over my body, into all my veins. I would like to feel the graciousness of silence relaxing my entire body. I would also like to consider the different persons with whom I was able to engage in some meaningful conversation, the persons who have touched me and helped me to see beauty within me and outside of me, who make life still meaningful and beautiful. In the silence of my heart, I would like to thank all such people, who make my life worth living, and when I get an opportunity to open myself to them, I would like to articulate such sentiments to them, for silence when wedded to meaningful words can make my life truly significant! (Bruxelles)