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I’ve seen a phenomenon with people who first start to write a book. They want to write a book that can change the world completely. This same idea is seen in the business world where people after spending a few years in corporate life start to get disillusioned by it and move to either a non-profit or start their own company in order to have a bigger, deeper impact on the world.
Unfortunately, though, you see these moves often and more often than not result in failures. So the book that is supposed to change the world typically never managed to get a publishing deal. Or the company that you’ve started to help the world flounders because you realize that there’s even more politics and bureaucracy in helping the world. And you realize you’re having an even lesser impact there. So today we will try to understand why that happens and how you can change the world positively today.
Why do these moves or changing the world moves typically result in failure?
To understand this wonderful Sanskrit concept of Dharma once again. And Dharma essentially is the innate tendency of any being. So the Dharma of the tree is to grow and bear fruit. But if the tree starts to think that I’m just one more tree among these hundreds of thousands of trees who’s bearing some small little fruit and this is not very impactful. And let me try to be like the river which is flowing through the whole country and is impacting millions of people. And starts to change its Dharma, it’s typically going to fail because that’s just not its innate thrust. The best way for the tree to be is to express itself fully in the form of a tree. And the Bhagwad Gita says this wonderfully when it says that your own duty done badly is better than someone else’s duty done well. So if you’re a tree and you are able to bear just small fruit that’s actually better than trying to become a river because that’s not in line with your natural thrust at all.
Which is how do you impact the world positively today?
Quite simply it is to act fully or express yourself fully in accordance with your Dharma. And the wonderful thing about being a human is that unlike a tree or a river or an animal whose Dharma is static, a human’s Dharma is a very dynamic concept which changes based on the actions that you do in the world as a result of which it has a reaction and those reactions will shape your destiny. So your Dharma is a fluid concept and you’re not stuck where you are. So for example, if I think of myself seven years ago, my Dharma was essentially to be in business with a small bit of creative instinct. Right, so I would say it was 95% business and 5% creativity. And I chose to express that mix of business and creativity in both my work and then I started to write a little on the side. And as I started to write if you look at my first novel that was published in 2008 Keep Off The Grass’ it is a novel set in corporate and campus. With some kind of very small spiritual and organically creative elements. But that kind of got me started and as a result I made a very deliberate effort to grow creatively. And I read a lot about writing and I chose to travel. And chose events to expand myself creatively and just also push myself in every dimension. Creatively and spiritually. And as a result if I look at my latest novel or look at my blogs and videos now, they have a deeper spiritual perspective and also are much more organically creative. And there’s no forced creativity in them. They’re just coming from within. So expression has become more creative and spiritual as I have gone along in this journey. Right, so it’s not a static concept at all. So in summary, your best way to have an impact in the world is to act in accordance with your Dharma. To not look left and right and to look at what other people are doing but to act in accordance with your thrust. And as you keep acting in accordance with your thrust your Dharma will change and perhaps your impact will get bigger and bigger and deeper and deeper in the world. So for example, if you’re an accountant today don’t look at someone who’s doing charity work and say I wish I could be that. Or look at a writer who’s impacting millions of people.
Rather try to help people in your accounting field And as you get deeper and deeper into helping people your Dharma will change as you go along. So even if I look at myself today I try not to benchmark with writers who are impacting hundreds of millions of people more than I do. Because of their creativity. Or at business people who are far more successful than I am because of their astuteness. Because I’m my own mix of business and creativity. And truly my duty is to express myself in the best way possible I can. And to grow and challenge myself to express myself in the best way possible I can. Rather than to look left and right and that is my Dharma.
So I hope this was useful and hope it helps you impact the world today. And I will see you next week.
This is Karan Bajaj and I want to offer you my free meditation video course today.
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