“The mind is everything. What you think, you become” – Buddha

Recently, I have come across the above saying. It was not the first time I have read that but it did not mean much before. As the old saying goes, one will only enjoy the fruit when he is hungry, I am at that point in my personal and professional life where I could comprehend and relate to what the saying meant.

India, as a civilisation has invaluable wisdom passed down over generations. People influenced under Westernised form of calculating the assets which are of tangible nature never understand the value our great sages and spiritual gurus have shared us. Their learnings, teachings, wisdom, discipline is something of intangible nature that was worn automatically and unknowingly into the very fabric of our culture.

I never understood the concept of only basing the development or standard of living on the so called GDP or per-capita income. Though that is a good indicator of standard of living in general, it is not and can never be an absolute determinant of a happy society. Also, this paradox can easily be observed when we compare the happiness levels of Scandinavian countries with that of lone, simple, landlocked himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. The variation between their per-capita incomes is very high but when it comes to the happiness index, they score almost the same.

Even we, as a society observe this everyday wherein generally urban people who earn well are lot more stressed out and unhappy compared to the rural people who are just making their ends meet depending on highly uncertain agriculture profession. So, this begs the question, have we all irrelevantly linked the income with happiness or is it more about the mindset one needs to adopt in order to lead a happier life ?

In this age of social media, AI, Internet etc, where the negative news is made viral at the speed of light, we should focus on our roots, the invaluable and everlasting wisdom passed down by our elders, great thinkers, reformers etc to understand that what we perceive is what we become.

Though the toxic and negative news, incidents are viral and have a far greater reach, we shall never forget that the truth and kindness exists in the world a lot more than we think of, that is what is driving us without our knowledge. A small act of kindness can sometimes alter the course of life of a person. So, never lose hope and the person you are among this confused quagmire.

Kindness and humanity are alive, but they like to work behind the scenes.