“What are you thinking about? Looks like the training
program has given you some food for thought” Lulu, my parrot, asked as he nibbled
at chillies.
“Yes, I was attending a training program. The trainer
asked “When have you experienced extraordinary abundance in your life?” I am
still thinking about it.” I said.
“So what did you say?” Lulu asked me.
“I told him an incident when I helped a person. There was such a happiness in his eyes! It was doubled in my heart. It was a high!”
“You have to fly high like we parrots do. That’s the way to
experience great abundance. You have to glide on the wind streams. That is how
you will experience, quite literally a flow” said Lulu. “You men stand on terra
firma; you cannot experience what I am talking about.”
“But that does not take away the pleasure we experience.
When we experience it, it is something that can’t be described.” I continued, “I
think in order to experience extraordinary abundance, we must cross some mental
barrier. It is like an aeroplane crossing sound barrier. It was perhaps
experienced by the man who successfully crossed Niagara waterfall – he did rope
walking over it. Or perhaps like Sergie Bubka who does breath-taking pole
vaulting and clears new heights.”
“You are right. One always competes against himself. That
is another way to experience it.”
“But I guess the results are better when you make a
difference to the lives of others. I do not know if I will have the same feeling
if I win a lottery.” I said.
“Nice to see that you want to earn your money. As for
winning lottery, you don’t have to do anything except spending a few rupees to
buy a lottery ticket and then leave it to the blessings of the God.”
“Hmmm… “
“Do you realise that when the success factor is not attributable
to yourself, you don’t experience the kind of pleasure and happiness? In a
sense you must ‘earn’ your experience of abundance. Will winning a lottery give
you a high like you got from that incident?” Lulu thought aloud.
“Let me win a lottery and then answer that question!” I
said.
“The trainer asked you to narrate an incident about experiencing
extraordinary abundance in your life, right? What did your friends say when you
told them about the incident?” Lulu.
“They appreciated it and moved on to tell theirs.”
“Did anybody ‘fish for compliments?’”
“Fishing for compliments? Oh, not at all, not at all!” I
said.
“That is the difference, you see.” Lulu said, “When you
work on contributing to others’ lives meaningfully, you move an inch towards
enlightenment. You don’t depend on others’ encouragement to draw energy. You don't have to! You get so self propelled. Do you
get me?” Lulu asked me.
“The trainer said that when you focus on ‘contribution
goals’, like those you mentioned, you turn ‘heliotropic.’”
“Oh…Life is actually simple, trainers complicate it!” Lulu
said as he offered Guava to me.
Vivek