3 PRACTICAL PILLARS TO SPIRITUALIZE YOUR DAILY LIFE | SWAMI SARVAPRIYANANDA

 

3 Practical Pillars to Spiritualize Your Daily Life | Swami Sarvapriyananda

3 PRACTICAL PILLARS TO SPIRITUALIZE YOUR DAILY LIFE | SWAMI SARVAPRIYANANDA

Let me deal with some aspects of this mind management through spirituality. 

One is the importance of attention.

 I don't I'm I'm sure you must have seen it a few years ago.

 There was um u there was a documentary on social media social dilemma I think. 

Yeah, 

you've seen it.

 Some of you no some of you have seen it. 

Yeah. 

So there I was introduced to this term the attention economy.

 The most valuable thing we have got in our our lives.

 The most valuable thing more than money is our attention. 

• Especially in this information world,
•  in this world which is connected,
•  everybody's trying to draw your attention. 

How you use your attention that makes a huge difference in our lives. 

There is a saying a psychologist has said this um what we attend to and how much attention we put on it makes the on that depends the quality of our lives. 

The quality of your life will depend on what you attend to and how much attention you give to it. 

the um I learned from that documentary and then later I did some reading that uh these companies they want our attention because apparently translates into revenue for them and so they're training us through these devices which we all of us have in our pockets they are uh training us to pay attention it seems that there is the the psychology of the Las Vegas slot machines where you you know gamble so um you will find your phone Sometimes it goes ping, 

sometimes ding and sometimes it vibrates. 

What is it doing? 

Some message is coming,

 something is coming from social media.

 Most of it is useless. 99.9% of it. 

One person may be useful information. 

But every time we pay attention, 

the phone is training us to attend to it the moment it gives some kind of signal to us. 

And as a result, 

our attention gets fractured.

 uh this capturing of our attention this has tremendously deletious effects on work on personal life there is a new term there's a new term called intermittent attention intermittent attention um scholars professors in in I'm sure here also you might have noticed this in um workplaces managers they have noticed that kids um in school or college or workers in meetings they are listening to the teacher or they are listening to the the the managers uh the to the person who's speaking but only intermittently so we are listening and then we look at our phones a little bit and then we listen again and then we look I I noticed this uh I had the opportunity to study for a while uh at a very uh elite university and one thing I would do is I went back to school after uh you know at at the age of 50. 

So for a few months and I would sit at the back of the the lecture hall and I would notice what the kids were doing.

 Very smart kids, 

some of the smartest in the world in that university. 

They were listening to the professor.

 It's not that they were not paying attention. 

Listening to the professor and then what were the what the professor was saying?

3 PRACTICAL PILLARS TO SPIRITUALIZE YOUR DAILY LIFE

 They would check up on the laptop a little bit.

 But then I noticed from that checking up it would link to something else and it will link to something and very soon they were checking their social media messages and then back to the professor again. 

Now this is extremely harmful. 

It's a tremendous loss. 

I mean companies will see a lot of productivity loss but personally it leads to a disintegration of of your inner psyche. 

There is a book Cal Newport um the name of the book is deep work. 

I read it recently where he puts forward a very interesting idea.

 He says in this age, 

the age we are living in this information age,

 this interconnected age, 

the value of deep work is tremendous for two reasons.

 One,

 he gave this very nice example from YouTube.

 He says if you look at YouTube music, 

you'll find one music video has got a million views and another music video has got a billion views. 

There are such music videos.

 Now he says this question.

 It cannot be that one song is a thousand times better than another song. 

One product cannot be a thousand times better than another product in the same product range. 

You know how is it that one is getting a million views and another one's getting a billion views. 

And the reason he says is in this age the way people consume has changed.

 I mean most of this will be known to you. 

Way people consume has changed. 

He come it's especially it struck me because it struck a chord in me that earlier when we were kids in our generation if you wanted to listen to music you would you know go to your local music shop those cassettes were available you would purchase them and what you purchased was more or less limited by what was available there. 

But now all the products in the world are instantly and in many cases freely available to you and to everybody. 

Now what you like that is available and you go straight to it and generally lots and lots of people will like the same thing and they go straight to it and the other products which might have earlier got some visibility they diminish sharply. 

So one or two products will get tremendous amount of response from the consumers and the rest will diminish. 

So he says there basically the point he makes is that you don't have to be a thousand times better than anybody else but what you really really have to be in order to even succeed or even survive in this world which is coming is to be a little better than everybody else in some little significantly better than the next person. 

And what contributes to that being better than others um is deep work. 

Deep work, 

concentrated work, 

focused work.

 And then he says the second reason why deep work is important is a negative reason because deep work is becoming more and more and more rare today because of this lack of concentration, 

this lack of focus, 

this scattered attention. 

And so what is happening is a lot of uh superficial smart looking on the surface work is going on. 

But if you probe a little deeper,

 I have asked professors in Ivy League colleges in the United States and they are worried.

 They're saying the this is doctoral students is turning in good work which looks good on the surface but if you probe a little deeper there is no depth of understanding of that particular issue. 

It's like doctoral students not even finishing one book cover to cover but they have little read little bits and pieces across the field.

 This is worrying and therefore he says that Cal Newport his conclusion is if you can do deep work that means concentrated work focused work you will get tremendous benefits in this world. 

It's a rare thing which you have and the demand for it is enormous. 

For the deep work, 

concentration is the key. 

I remembered Swami Viveand saying the difference between an ordinary person and a great person lies in the degree of concentration. 

as to sing only in the degree of concentration. 

what what does he mean you know intelligence and no he says in the degree of concentration and I began to notice this among the monks in our order um in universities and colleges like this I would go when I was invited to give talks I would all love to go to the library and sit there nowadays libraries are becoming less and less populated I've now seen libraries of new institutes which don't have books anymore they proudly show we are all entirely digital no books but I I would not only study I would watch the kids studying and I noticed one thing several years ago I was invited to u one of the leading engineering institutes of this country III Kpur I can tell you and I would sit and watch the students studying there and then years later in another engineering college um rather expensive one I uh was I was telling the students there you know the difference between say what is known as one of the best engineering colleges and yours is not in the quality of equipment.

 You have equally good equipment.

 It's not even in the quality of faculty. 

Your faculty is also very good. 

But I noticed one thing there in that IIT library.

 I would sit I would see see the students sitting from early in the morning studying there two three four hours I would go off for my lunch and come back six seven eight hours same kids sitting there in the same place and studying the computer department in those days computer departments as uh somebody pointed out it's one of the earliest and best computer departments here at that time it was I also saw it it was very impressive now it's outdated technology you don't have to have a big building with lots of computers but it was there I told the kids that see in that IIT I found 24 hours the computer department is busy because it's full of students and students waiting in line for a chance to work there and I went to your computer department your professors took me uh to show me all lines of shiny machines sitting there students nobody I asked where are the students don't you allow them after hours to work in the machines said no it's open nobody comes where are they out they are you know um you know on the bikes and outside the campers and so I said this is the difference the ability to focus on one thing and hold on to it for a long time you may think it's boring I was telling the kids it's not boring concentration um sustained attention is actually very energizing there is there was a psychologist called Mihi chicken mihi he wrote a book called flow he was one of the world's leading uh experts on attention and he said peak experiences in life. 

One of the characteristics of peak experiences the best experiences of our life is when there is sustained attention. 

• When we throw all our our attention on something could be a book,
•  could be an assignment, 
• could be a company, 
• could be a product of art or research in science or whatever it is. 

Swami Viveandanda gives us the secret. 

How do I get this fierce sustained concentration, the ability to focus?

 And the secret is very simple actually. 

He says, 

"Do whatever you are doing with the fullest possible attention." 

Do whatever you are doing with the fullest possible attention.

 I remember one of my friends,

 brilliant,

 brilliant man.

 He's a monk. 

But in his uh before he became a monk, 

he was a student, 

an engineer. 

He was you know this IIIT joint entrance examinations it's one of the toughest exams in the world many of you have you have come from that you have you have cleared it he was all India second second rank all India second in his batch and brilliant man in his uh IIT Kpur days also computer science one of the toppers now I noticed something about him whatever he did this monk whatever he did he would do with all his attention it's not just studying not just meditation I saw him cleaning the his room. 

Every grill of the window he would polish with fierce attention. 

He was not practicing.

 It was natural to him to do everything with enormous focus.

 I saw the truth of Swami Viveandanda's words, 

do whatever you're doing with the fullest possible attention. 

one little trick um insight actually from Mihi Jigs and Mihi's work the essential insight you can use it it's like hacking your attention he says it's a function of skills and challenge so if you're working on a certain problem we all have certain abilities which we have studied we have developed ourselves now if the challenge of the problem is more than your ability you get anxiety I don't know what's going on I don't know what to do if the challenge is much less than your ability, 

you get bored. 

And then here is the crucial thing,

 the secret to concentration.

 He says there is a narrow band where the challenge of the task matches your ability. 

You know, 

I can do this, 

but I really have to work hard to do it. 

It's like playing tennis or badminton with another opponent who is at your level. 

So maybe you can beat that guy,

 but you'll have to work really hard to you have to work at the edge of your performance envelope.

 So that is the secret of uh concentration. 

Make a habit of doing whatever you are doing with the fullest possible attention and work at the at that that band the narrow band where our abilities and the challenge of the task whatever the task is it matches.

 If the task is too difficult break it down. 

Use your intellect to break it down.

 Make it into manageable chunks.

 Take help. 

If the challenge is not enough, 

don't stay in that zone.

 Amp up up the challenge and make it more difficult.

 Um, I remember one of our noviceses in a classroom. 

It was a boring class.

 I noticed he was taking fierce notes, 

working very hard. 

What are you doing?

 He says, 

"Whatever the teacher is saying, I'm translating into Sanskrit and taking notes." 

Now,

 imagine that's so difficult.

 Why was he doing that?

 Working at the edge of his concentration. 

that you know the edge of his abilities.

 He was not practicing this. 

It was just a way of uh life for him. 

So this is one great secret. 

How do you spiritualize the mind?

 By fierce concentration by by valuing the power of attention.

 Give the fullest possible attention to whatever one is doing. 

One might ask when I'm doing my assignments I'll give full attention.

 when I'm gossiping with my friends, 

when I'm looking at my social media, 

why do I have to give fullest possible attention?

 There also Viveandanda answers. 

He says, 

"Remember you have only one mind.

 Remember it is the same mind.

 We don't have two minds. 

One mind for the really hard work, 

the important work, 

the assignments and the and the other mind for relaxing. 

No, we have only one mind. 

And so the way we do every little thing that will also impact the way we do important stuff in our lives. 

Those who are leaders of industry, 

those who are professors,

 you see it every day in your life among the people you work with. 

It's those who manage their minds.

 I also did an MBA by the way. [laughter] I remember now when we were just about to graduate. 

Many of you in your generation may not have heard the name Rousi Modi but he was a legend uh in the Tatas at one time. 

So he came to give us a talk. 

He was an invited speaker and the first thing he told us young MBAs on the verge of their career he stood up and he said I don't care for MBAs. 

Give me a young enthusiastic young man or woman. 

I will train them up to be intelligent enthusiastic. 

Two things intelligent enthusiastic. 

I will train them up to be better than any MBA.

 So I don't know what we we could say but anyway so um we have the the ability to manage your mind.

 Moving on second now this may not be the forum to say such a thing but I know it will connect with many of you privately.

 If you have a belief in God in some form, 

• doesn't matter what your religion is,
•  Hinduism,
•  Christianity, Islam, Judaism, 
• Sikhism,
•  it's a great great power in your life.

 Keep it private and the more private it is, 

the more powerful it is. 

Uh in Bengali there is a sayingto that means the more private you keep it,

 the more valuable it is, 

it more firm it becomes. 

So a deep faith Swami Viveanduk says that instead of a hundred different desires flowing out into the world collect it all into one almighty love of God in whichever form you worship it could be Kali or Krishna or Christ in whichever form it's a great great support in life you will discover as you go through challenges in life you're already at that stage of life where you are facing challenges um in college especially I was just talking in the United States it's sometimes sad to see young people at least I noticed one difference there young people from Indian parents they are being supported through college but many of the kids from white families I've noticed um they have to struggle through college so they are doing one or two jobs I saw one guy who studied in a really elite university in Southern California and when the it would close for summer the doms would be evacuated emptied the guy would be literally homeless because he cannot go back to his to his parents' home. 

Now this kind of challenge luckily you don't have to face it but very soon within few months placement and then jobs will start you will see a tremendous change uh coming over in your lives. 

• So a deep faith, 
• a deep love, 
• a deep reverence,
•  a deep awe, 

a place where without questioning I will bow down and surrender. 

It's very it'll be you're very lucky if you have got that.

 Uh or if you don't have it, 

develop it.

•  It might seem mechanical at first,
•  a devotional practice, 
• but develop it.

 Do it regardless.

 Don't make a show of it. 

Make it very private.

 a moment of prayer morning or evening a maybe a little shrine in your room and you put a few flowers there that is the devotional emotional side of it there's a lot of work in positive psychology on on this this front um Daniel Golman he gave a talk in Google showing that if you put a distribution of uh people how they have succeeded in their careers at Google you will find uh as far as IQ is concerned there isn't much of a spread because more or less people have been selected on the basis of success academic success but you will find there's a great spread in terms of EQ emotional quotient and therefore he shows the correlation between success at Google and other companies is correlated with the spread in EQ not in IQ more or less with the places where you work You already are in a place where more or less everybody is smart but everybody does not have the same emotional management skills and that makes a huge difference in your lives.

 This devotional aspect of spiritual life it's a it's a wonderful way of purifying and managing our emotions.

 Then third I will the final point I want to make here is not just for I me myself uh selfless rather than selfish.

 One of the greatest ways to manage our mind and to get fulfillment in life is to make our lives about others rather than our own instead of being about I me myself. 

Every leader in in every industry knows every you know in every organization not just industry they know the persons who are willing able and able to commit and open to doing stuff for others.

 It's not uh they are the ones who succeed. 

Those who are team players always you will see the the leaders in industry you'll ask them what do you want? 

They will say that we want people who can work with others. 

It's the grades you get uh your how great a communicator you are. 

All those things are important but secondary the ability to work with others and ability to work for others that is valuable. 

It's valuable in industry.

 It's valuable in every organization you work for. 

It's valuable in the family and it's above and most of all it's valuable for you for your own peace of mind. 

Swami Viveant says selflessness,

•  unselfishness is more paying but it takes maturity to understand that after a lot of struggle in life working for I, 
• me,
•  myself after 20, 30, 40 years, 

you find what do I have? 

What what have I got? 

Nothing much. 

But notice what you have done for others. 

When you look back upon that, 

you will always remember it with satisfaction down the years and decades. 

what I have done for others without thinking of a return from them that will always be a source of satisfaction. 

I know I can see many of the distinguished alumni here nodding because they have seen it in their own lives. 

It's not just theory for them but this is something and you can see it in your own class class uh in your you know the kids around you the other other students those who are helpful to others sort of naturally selfless they are the popular ones they are the ones who are respected and often they are the ones who get succeed in life not so much who get the best grades I I'll give you an example that monk my friend of of I told you about extraordinary smart monk who was a topper in his engineering and all You know I heard later they have a year book from the IIT IIT Kpur that where they say which department this person belonged to in that batch and so they wrote half humorously about this monk about him that he has a uh he has a BTech not only in computer science but Btech in electrical B tech in civil btech in mechanical bte in uh aviation why because apparently his door was open to students of all years and all disciplines They would bring their problems to him and he would sit and solve them for for them.

 He was always open to helping others. 

• So this altruistic, 
• this openness, 
• this bigness, 

this is a great way of making one's life fulfilling and being of great uh you know make your life a blessing and make the and be a blessing to those around you uh in your family among your friends uh in in your in the organizations you will work for. 

• So summing up these three points,
•  spiritualizing your life, 
• one is managing the mind,
•  especially managing your attention, 
• especially concentration. 

That's one. 

Number two is devotion in some form. 

Maybe unfashionable to say this, 

but I must say it.

 I'm a monk.

 You've called me to say this.

 So I I'll be failing in my duty if I don't share it with you. 

This is one of the greatest aids in spiritual life.

 Carl Jung Carl Jung, 

the great psychoanalyst. 

He says, 

"I have always found that past middle age, most mental illnesses can be traced to a divorce between the client and his church."

 That means his his religious beliefs. 

This lack of um some deep transcendent belief.

 Okay. 

So,

 I've sort of I'm going to wrap up now. 

And finally this openness to others this selflessness not selfishness. 

• These are the three pillars, 
• the practical aspects of Vanta, 
• Atman, 
• Brahman, 
• consciousness, 
• all that is very high stuff and it's wonderful philosophy. 

But it should be reflected in a focus in our lives, 

a deep devotion and surrender as a philosophy of life and a commitment to the welfare of those around us.