How Vivekananda continues to Inspire!

5 Minute Quick Read. 

["I only tell you this, that whoever reads this letter will imbibe my spirit! "
                                                                                                      - Swami Vivekananda" ]

Vivekananda is an inspiring personality. 

He enthralled the audience that listened to him at Chicago in 1893. He inspired hundreds after his return and these lectures are outlined in “Lectures from Colombo to Almora”. His contemporaries like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, and even Industrialist Jamshetji Tata expressed how he was influential. Mahatma Gandhi in Feb, 1921 at Belur, even said that, 

 I ask you, young men, not to go away empty-handed without imbibing something  of the spirit of the place where Swami Vivekananda lived and died”. 

His inspiration continues even to this date. I have at least half-dozen close friends who were inspired by his words, writings and are living their life as Monks or are serving full time, the poor and needy. They are walking the path shown by him. There are enumerable examples of how he continues to inspire. For instance, a famous story about Anna Hazare, social activist goes, that he was about to commit suicide and then read the works of Swamiji. It inspired him to pick up rural development and continues to inspire to serve India. 

I am always amused by the inspirational power of Swamiji’s words and writings. One can understand the influence on his contemporaries due to direct contact, but how come he continues to inspire people even today? 

Recently I came across a behavioral study about the inspiring power of words. Researchers used Poetry as a channel for inspiration. A group wrote Poetry and tested for their level of inspiration. Another group read this poetry and commented on various parameters. Total 36, 020 data points were collected.  

Researchers concluded that inspired writers were able to inspire average readers. Readers found poems as more sublime, insightful when writers were more inspired. Surprisingly efforts put into writing or originality of writing weren’t having any effect on the reader. And the only connection between reader and writers were poem!  

This kind of explains how Vivekananda continues to inspire. He was highly inspired person. He spoke about his Guru Sri Ramkrishna as, 

 ” My teacher, my master, my hero, my ideal, my God in life “. 

He mentioned at one point, 

“It is true I believe Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to have been inspired. But then I am myself inspired also. And you are inspired. And your disciples will be; and theirs after them; and so on, to the end of time! “   

What he wrote was from the deep truth he experienced. His expressions were just an outcome of his inner pure, inspired state of being. And hence his writings are more than the words, they are medium, the vehicle that continues to inspire and will continue to inspire us. 

References: 

Image Source: https://istore.chennaimath.org/product/letters-of-swami-vivekananda/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_and_legacy_of_Swami_Vivekananda  

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpspp0000094  

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/is-inspiration-contagious/  

https://advaitaashrama.org/cw/content.php  Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

How to Write a Lot !

5 minute read - Book Review of "How to Write a Lot"

[Image Source : https://www.amazon.in/How-Write-Lot-Practical-Productive-ebook/dp/B001Y35G60 ]

In general writing productivity and particular academic productivity boils down to simply how much one can write & publish. The book “Write a Lot” by Paul Silvia addresses this issue and gives practical solutions. Book is prescriptive and is a quick read. I could complete it in one sitting on the weekend. Few nuggets from the book: 

·  It quoted William Zinsser, “If writing seems hard, it’s because it is hard. It’s one of the hardest things people do.”  Author provides ways to simplify it. He points that finding a block of time or waiting for inspiration is a catastrophic. Also he shuns the idea about writers block, particularly for academic writers. Writer’s block hits only those who believe in it.

·  First advice he gives is to make a schedule, allot a time and stick to it. Daily two hours or so. One must protect this writing slot ruthlessly. Build and get into the habit of writing. This is single most important take away from the book.

·   He suggests writing first and revising later. But just produce something in the allocated slot.

·  Author gives the example of, Trollope – who despite full time job at post office published 63 books. That’s stunningly productive. Trollope’s writing schedule included 3 hours of writing every day before breakfast. He wrote average 250 words in 15 minutes.  

·  Second advice author gives is about goal setting. Goals for every month and then goals for the particular day. He suggests writing the goal down. Stick to them and emphasizes monitoring. He also advises rewarding oneself after goal achievement. Full cycle of goal setting theory included.

·  Third advice author gives on agraphia (inability to write) is to form a support group. A small group of academic only (He advises separate group for doctoral scholars). Group should meet once a week and focus on writings of each one. He advises to confront anyone who is lacking in writing or goal completion. And provides some tactics to bring him in the habit of writing (first advice). This is a kind of constructive social pressure to maintain the habit.

· He demonstrates how single habit of regular writing can bring good balance in work and life.

·  Book also gives a list of reference books on style, grammar, punctuation and motivation.

·  There are dedicated chapters on style, journal article and book writing. But I didn’t find them much in sync with the book topic. May be just filler.

·  I read that the new edition of the book is published in September, 2018 -with added chapter. The one I read is an older edition.

Paul Silvia himself writes a lot, daily from 08:45 to 10:00 AM in mortifying location. Being a social psychology faculty, he has beautifully blended the scientific principles of habits, motivation, and way to maintain them in this behavioural prescription for poor writers. I am also getting in the habit of daily writing, but couldn’t form the support group yet.  

Finally the book is persuasive, quick and essential read for anyone who wishes to be a productive writer. I am looking forward to read another book from him on writing – it is specific on research or journal writing in psychology.

Learning's from Japan!

This is my Project-8 or CC#8 of competent communicator manual in toastmasters.
(Though this is posted on blog on 27-Sept-2016, I delivered it in club on 30th-Mar-2013).

Project 8 is about getting comfortable with visual aids.

It's objectives are:

• Select visual aids that are appropriate for your message and the audience.
• Use visual aids correctly with ease and confidence. 

I leveraged on my stay in Japan, used "before-after" images to demonstrate it's "resilience" & articulated possible reasons of  resiliency. I used power-point slides  as visual aids.


Speech content is

Toast-masters Konnichiwa.

Konnichiwa is Hello or good day in Japanese.

After spending close to 8 years in Japan, a frequently asked Question is what’s learning for us – Indians!  I kept on thinking on this and came to conclusion that the Resilience is what we should learn from Japan.

Resilience is ability to find inner strength to bounce back from a set-back or challenge.

More resilient you are, faster you will bounce back.

Let’s understand This.  Japan is country prone to natural disasters. Earthquakes, Tsunami, & Typhoons – you name it and they have it.

For example this 11-th March 2011, Tsunami triggered by 9.0 Richter scale EQ.  This is third largest EQ every happened in this century.

It triggered Tsunami of 133 ft. high, and almost 30 ft. high waves hit the shores.

Disaster was telecasted almost all over the world. The damage was exorbitant.

This is just nothing. But Hiroshima-Nagasaki Bombings were worst!

When that “Little Boy” hit Hiroshima – The city was literary wiped off!

This is image of before and after the bombing.  Absolutely everything was wiped off.

Scientists said the radiation was so bad, that nothing will grow for 100 years there.

Damage to country and psyche of people was so bad, that they said, “Japan will never stand up again”.

But they were wrong!

This is Hiroshima today, the bustling city.

This garden that you see is just walk-away from the centre – where Bomb was dropped. See the greenery today.

One may claim that it is miracle; it is if it is happening only in Hiroshima.

But it works every-where in Japan.

Look at this, these images of Tsunami places – just one year after.

Look at this – not only roads, but even business are also functional.

Think – how the place will be after 40 or 50 years!

That’s Resilience – You bounce back from ashes!

This resilience is all about citizens and communities.

Citizens and communities are nothing but the Culture!!

What’s the culture of Japan, that’s making this possible!

Culture is really a complex thing to study & has long list of areas to think.
But let’s consider only 3 of them due to paucity of time.
First is Punctuality.
Can you see this man; he is actually setting his wrist-watch based on the train-timing.  Imagine this in India!
Here is 1920 poster that shows how much time each of this hair-style takes; within that time how long will you reach by train! It’s in 1920.Here is a late pass, which they issue to passenger in case the train is late by few minutes. You can hand-over this in your office and then office won’t mark you late! It is said that all such small efforts really counts and national inventory of Japan has dropped. That means to secure a critical item in Japan you need to plan only for 3 hours, this period is 3 months for India. !
2^nd is Discipline. It’s phenomenal in Japan. See this first image, its train station in Tokyo. Compare to any station that you know. And you see that Yellow line – It is textured line – so that even blind person can catch the train without any assistance. See those Station-Masters are struggling to close the crowded train and others are calmly waiting.  Here is another image of escalator. Can you see only one side is occupied neatly. Another side is kept vacant – so that someone who is in rush can run along. The real acid test of discipline comes when disaster strikes. See these both images are taken just during 11-Mar Tsunami incident. See how disciplined citizens are. There is absolutely no Chaos. I have an incident to share. It was pretty late night, I was returning from office. There was hardly anyone on the road, not even cars. A very drunken man was coming towards me. And it was still some distance, and he suddenly stopped. I could not understand what happened. I was still walking. And then I realized he stopped for road signal. That’s the discipline – it is ingrained in their blood.
Lastly it is cleanliness.
See this road; this is near to station towards school. It’s absolutely clean. I used to make a fun – by saying that their Public Toilets are cleaner than our kitchens.  See this inside of train. And the dust-bins – separate for burnable/unburnable/kitchen waste etc. You may feel this is inside premises and hence clean. See this. Cleaning products is multibillion $ industry in Japan. 600+ antibacterial products. They have some crazy things like touch less toilets, or virgin money. I will suggest checking this more on internet.
But what I feel that these three things punctuality, discipline and cleanliness will not make any country only a resilient but also a best place to live – what do you think?
It is not wonder that this great patriotic saint Vivekananda found this in his brief visit to Japan. He said this in 1897 in his interview to Hindu, that “I would wish that every one of our young men could visit Japan once at least in his lifetime”.So Toastmasters – when are you visiting to Japan?  Over to MOC. 

Disclaimer: Figures, images etc. are taken from online resources purely for learning purpose only.