Intelligence And Wisdom

 Watching a movie yesterday,I stumbled upon a great explanation of intelligence vs. wisdom..

What I have seen in the stuttering community that all of us (including me) are intelligent-I mean really really intelligent when it comes to stammering.In blogs and stuttering groups and even in SHG's each and every one of us has all the right remedies to our stuttering problems,and the majority of them can be pretty helpful.You dont believe me ????? Just type a query regarding your problem in any of the stuttering group on Facebook and you will get like a hundred replies in an hour.

So if each and every one of us know so much,why are the majority of us still suffering ????? Thats because we are intelligent but lack wisdom.

Still confused ???? Okay let me put it in a simple way-All of us know jogging everyday in the morning has great benefits.This is knowledge.Actually jogging everyday is wisdom.Wisdom means practicing your knowledge in your real life.

You know that voluntary stuttering is good for you,but a wise person practices this in his life.He believes in his knowledge and makes it a part of his life.I can quote infinite examples like this but I guess you have got what i am trying to convey here.

And how to know yourself if you are wise or intelligent ?????? Just ask yourself a simple question-Am I really happy ???? The answer to this question is your answer will tell if you really are wise or just a wiki on stuttering.

Want to quit? wait a minute..

"..Why I stammer,why i become a stammerer amongst all my cousins and friends-- this thought is coming continuously to me? What is the process of desensitization? how can I remove the thought for the time being that I am a stammerer which is constantly hovering around me. I just want to be out of this three year program. I have not been able to study and 2 exams are starting from next week (midterm). I accept my stammering but I dont love it ...life has become a hell. I am planning to quit.."

John & Lisa.........a different love story

Don't be afraid of the title..........it is not going to be like Ramgopal verma's "Not a love story" :-)

We all Have encountered with few romantic stints with beautiful girls ; the list may be long for senior experienced guys like Dr.Sachin,Mr.Jasbir & Mr.Manimaran.

Few days back, in process of improving my writing & expressing skills, i just got an idea (don't ask about the inspiration though), so i tried to put it on paper.

It turned out a nice short story, what i would call it as.

So here it is, a short story by a stammerer which non stammerers can enjoy too...........

John, 27 yrs, is very happy; a bit excited too. It is Friday, that is, 2 holidays to come, Saturday & Sunday. This is not the sole reason for his excitement though. After finishing early hour tasks at the office desk, he stared a bit at Lisa, his colleague. Lisa is looking very sweet, wearing black top & blue jeans. Her uncovered white flesh sparkling in John's eyes. He approaches Lisa's desk with a smiling face, collecting some ides in his mind to start a light funny conversation.

As always, Lisa greets him with a smiling face; John responds to her gracefully.

John- hey Lisa, did you hear, Titanic is going to re-release in 3D coming April.

Lisa-Oh really!!! It will be so nice to see that wonderful movie again in theatre. I guess, 3D version will not lower the magic of real movie, if not make it better atleast.

They both share a big smile on their faces.

John tries further to keep this momentum by cracking some jokes.

John- I have already booked 1 ticket for me for the 1^st day, 1^st show. Have you booked yours too???

Lisa (laughing) - Oh really???? You booked your ticket almost 1 year before the release. James Cameron (Maker of movie Titanic) must be a very good friend of you then.Hahahahahaha

John- Off course!!! So should I ask him to book a ticket for you too? John looks in her eyes smiling.

Suddenly, John’s mind suggested him that he should invite her for a date by inviting her to watch a movie together. Although it was not at all John’s intention initially. It can be termed as ‘Power of Mind’, when a thought suddenly occupies you allover & make you do something, you never expected.

John-Well, Titanic got some time. Would you like to join me tonight for an evening show at the local theatre to see the movie? I don’t know which one they are screening.

John tried to be very playful giving this humble invitation to Lisa, trying to show no desperacy for it.

Lisa-well John, our relation is not that type that we should go on seeing a movie alone. Isn’t it?

Lisa smiles a bit without looking at John & get busy at her files lying at her desk.

John- Well said Lisa!!! I agree. John too returned back to his desk

John –Hey Carl, have you completed John Miller & Co.’s file.

John is trying to show that he is very little upset at the moment……..

After few hours, John calls Lisa through intercom to make some office inquiry.

John-Lisa, Carl has completed his part of work for John Miller & Co.’s file. Have you completed yours part too.

John is Sr.Executive there, used to go through the files completed by officers like Lisa, Carl & present the final reports to department head.

Lisa- very soon sir, I will completed it by 3 to 3.30 PM.

John-OK, no problem. Please take care not to be any late than 4 PM as I need to go through it & report to Mr. Johnson by today evening.

John tries to maintain same tone of voice as he do normally while talking to Lisa, to dismiss the impact of today’s Lisa’s denial to his proposal.

Lisa – Don’t worry sir.

She cut the call gracefully putting down the receiver back & get back to her work.

Time passes gradually….Lisa is quite busy in office work. Also, John leaving behind that bitter experience of proposal rejection, made himself involved in office work. The pressure of finishing all important files by evening being the last few hours before weekend also helped John.

It is 5PM now; people have started to check out of the office. John is sorting out the papers & notes; Lisa has already left the office. John is looking at Lisa after confirming that he is not going to have an eye contact with her as she is moving out. His mind is now relaxed enough to remember that early day incident again. With finished off, John left the office & get in to his car.

His hands are at car steering, his body is relaxing on the driver’s seat; his mind is still wondering around that incident.

There is quite interesting to observe John getting so disturbed, as he offered Lisa the invitation in a casual way without sincerity.

But, Now the situation is different. He is feeling more & more upset with time. He is looking calm & composed outside but fuming inside that how can an ordinary looking & ordinarily earning Lisa can deny him, in spite of the fact that Lisa is also single as do John himself.

John just confirmed her single status few days back when he asked her about her boy friend.

There have been sufficient signs that his weekend is going to spoil. This is what exactly happened. In the whole weekend, his mind keep on trying to find possible reasons for Lisa’s NO.

Also, been an egoistic person by heart, he decided not to talk to Lisa ever, except for professional needs.

Time doesn’t care if anyone is happy or sad; it keeps on ticking & running as always. So without bothering at all about John, time reached the Monday morning. It is Monday morning about 6.30 in the clock, John had woke up. It was about an hour earlier than John’s normal wake up time.

Being working with the same company since a fair long time, Monday mornings were not exciting him anymore to get ready & reach the office as do in his early job days. But today it was even worse as his mind hadn’t relaxed even for a minute for all this weekend & now he was forced to jump in that 5 day boring non sense (JobJ) again, to add on, he is going to see LISA again there in the office.

Feeling all this shit in his mind, he just fell down on his bed again, trying to sleep again just like a player who have surrendered all over down with no more spirit left to fight.

As he was lying on the bed with closed eyes, suddenly a saying (quote) came in my mind just like a ray of light in a dark night. It was – ‘don’t take your life seriously……it is totally temporary’.

Suddenly this beautiful saying occupies his mind all over leaving almost no space for frustration or sadness. Now realizing more & more about the fragile nature of life through this beautiful collection of words, his anger & complaints towards his job & LISA started to melt. Now, he was feeling very light just like a broken leaf, just moving with the direction of wind freely flowing without any struggle to oppose the wind.

Suddenly his eyes were opened……….he checked the clock……..it was only 6.50 AM……….so only 20 min passed……….but it seemed as if he spent a whole life in those 20 minutes. Now he was feeling like a new man, totally free from all those feelings of frustration, anger, self pity etc.

He finished all his early morning doable things & drove his car to the office with a smile on his face & more importantly similar spirit inside. Now he was neither angry with LISA nor to himself. Now he was no more tired or bored of his job. He have just tasted the essence of life in those 20 minutes. Now he decided NOT TO TAKE HIS LIFE SERIOUSLY AT ALL & TO ENJOY IT IN A TRUE SPIRIT.

So he entered his office with a true smile on his face greeting the peon…………greeting LISA whose cabin is just near the entry door………greet other officers & entered his cabin.

Now, his computer & files were giving so much pleasure to him………..everything was so fresh………he was excited to check the new mails in his inbox rather than abusing the mail senders figuring all mails just wastage of time…….

Now, he was a true lover……..to LISA….to all mankind……& off course to himself……although he didn’t decided to quit his search for a new LISA (may be jennifer or michelle or linda or any other).

Speaking about stammering

Naveen is one of the members of the Bangalore SHG from the very first meeting itself. I still remember the first meeting and was really surprised to see a person like him in the meeting as he was speaking fluently. He told he acquired this habit when he was in seventh standard and that he was a good speaker and an actor before that. He spoke a lot about the problems of stammering like running away from situations in which he had to speak and his struggles to hide his stammering. He told none in his company knew he was a stammerer.

Recently he sent a mail to the group telling he faced some personal tragedies and was living in his native place which was around 100 KMs from Bangalore and was travelling daily to Bangalore and back. His stammering had also aggravated due to this. In addition to that he was denied a promotion to the managerial post in his company. His CEO felt he had some attitudinal issues as he always used to reply in monologues to him and always avoided talking to him over the phone. He did this as he didn’t want them to know about his stammering. He asked for suggestions to come out of this situation.

Most of us including Dr. Sachin suggested him to speak to the CEO about his problem and to avoid hiding his problem. Though he was a bit apprehensive, in the end he decided to speak to him about this. After a few days he sent a mail telling he had a discussion with his CEO about stammering. His CEO told him that he knew about his stammering and that he was waiting for him to talk to him about this! He promised all his help to him and asked him to work on his presentation skill and prove to himself that he was a good presenter.

After a few days, he sent one more mail telling he talked to one more director of the company and she also told she knew about his stammering and used to communicate to him only through the mail because of that. He always used to speak in monologues and she thought that was the best way to talk to him! She advised him to practice yoga and meditation and offered all the help.

These incidents show the advantages of not hiding the stammering. We undergo a great amount of tension hiding our stammering and most of the time stammering comes out on its own without our knowledge. Most of the time the listeners are not concerned about the stammering but about our habit of running away from the situations and going into a shell. Sometimes they might even offer help! So, let us not hide the stammering. Let us remove some tension by openly speaking about it.

Talk The Walk with a friend..

I am an American living in India and residing in an ashram since 2002. The place where I live is an inter-religious community composed of spiritual aspirants from around the world who come to do their sadhana in the presence of the great enlightened sage Chandra Swami Udasin. I am a brahmachari and have chosen to live a life devoted to meditation, prayer, service and other spiritual practices in order to progress towards the direct realization of the Divine.

Dr. Srivastava and I became friends about 3-4 years ago during one of his visits to the ashram for satsang. Chandra Swamiji introduced us indirectly by giving me a copy of Sachin’s little booklet on stammering which Sachin had recently presented to Swamiji after also dedicating to him.

I have had a stutter for as long as I can remember and in fact have no childhood memories without it. The severity of my speech impediment has fluctuated over the course of my life, as it does for most stutters I have learned. Fortunately I have always had plenty of understanding and patient friends who stood by me regardless of my impediment but also have nearly always had quite a lot of anxiety as the backdrop of my life experiences due to interactions where I failed to be understood properly or because of the subtle rejection from others I experienced when stuttering and the accompanying pain that this caused.

My friendship with Sachin has been a great blessing and I do not doubt that it is and has been a form of divine intervention to help me heal the ‘old wounds.’ He has freely shared so many resources with me and has been a stable and enthusiastic support in rediscovering my voice.

So early one morning at Sachin’s invitation we headed for the mountains, just the two of us, with a few litres of water and a couple boxes of sweets and namkeens for nourishment. Our destination: the Badraraj Temple not too far from Mussorie. What a hike! The views from the very beginning were spectacular. Winding stone paths, steep ascents, pine trees, cool breezes and sprinkling raindrops now and again. We made our way to the isolated temple at a very peaceful pace. Once arriving we enjoyed even more majestic views of the surrounding valley and rivers and took a little time to meditate before heading back down the other side of the mountain.

It was my first hike in India and was a real treat to finally get the opportunity to wander along the mountain trails instead of just admiring their beauty from a distance within the ashram confines. During the hike I attempted to be more aware of my speech habits, the one’s that I knew needed to be investigated more closely.

One of the things I became more aware from Sachin’s assistance was that I still often avoided eye contact when I blocked. Over the last few years I had made improvement with this old habit and had seen that it only reinforced negative feelings about myself and was a form of fear of other’s reactions as well as non-acceptance of myself. So, I have been learning to try to be more courageous. To remain concentrated on my listener’s eyes during my stuttering and to also not to anticipate being rejected and project that on myself, from them, and also to have more compassion for my listeners. All in all it was a very enjoyable day and I would highly recommend it to all who get the chance.
Anant Chaitanya

Table topics

Once Ramakrishna Paramhamsa asked young Narendra: what is your ambition? What do you want to achieve in life?

Narendranath replied: I want to get established in Samadhi for days altogether; Surfacing once in 3-4 days, just to eat a little and then be lost again in the bliss of samadhi!”

To his great surprise, his teacher reacted quite unexpectedly: What? I thought you will be like a Banyan tree, sheltering many tired travelers. But all you seem to care is your own Samadhi- just like small minded worldly people!..

Narendranath was a great disciple of a great teacher; he understood the message- and eventually became the Banyan tree, known today as Swami Vivekanand. We, Indians, dont tire of quoting and re-quoting him, because he really gave us our self-esteem, when we as a nation were down and out, under centuries of colonial rule.

I was reminded of this incident while reading the comments to a debate on TM on this blog sometime back. Fortunately, everyone was in agreement on one point: TM is not for everyone. This is true for every organization, including TISA. There is an “Ideal” audience for every organization. And this ideal audience is going to differ from organization to organization. Even in America, where TM started in 1924 and has branches all over, National Stuttering Association (NSA) was started in 1977 and is doing very well- and has been described as the largest self-help organization. Same goes for England. I leave the interpretation to discerning readers.

I as a counselor have recommended TM to SOME people; But I have also recommended Martial arts, Classical Vocal music, reading stories to blind children, volunteering in slums, Bungee jumping, solo-trekking, Eckhart Tolle, Vipassana, Brahmavidya, meditation, broad reading, writing on blog, voluntary stuttering etc. to MANY people, based on their needs at a particular point in life. Above all, I have recommended & practiced Acceptance.

But the “table topic” for today is: are YOU going to be a banyan tree? or seek just your “private” salvation? Yes, that is the big question. Any speakers? Or writers? Please leave comments- and I assure you no marks will be deducted for spelling / grammar mistakes or "Aah, ooh, err" etc. :-)

Beauty Of God's Perfection

Hello all,

Just before some days , my mom joined me where I live now. My family comprises of Me and My sweet mom.

Today at around late evening, I stepped out of my home to bring home medicine for my mom, who is suffering from fever. I discovered that only medical store in my tiny village was already closed ! ( Yes, I live in a village where even getting a english newspaper to read is NOT possible. And I also teach in government school in a village). I went home disappointed. Then, when I opened my bag for one of my books, I found a medicine for fever !!! It was a packet of 6 medicines and 5 were consumed by me before a week or two and only one tablet was left !! I couldn't recall why did I consume only 5 tablets and not 6 !!
Did God already know that I'll be in need of one tablet later ?
Well, We'll never be able to completely explore this answer. Its out of human reach, I think.

I was so happy and gave that one tablet to my mom to consume it. And she felt little better after few hours.

Shall I entitle this as 'Beauty of God's perfection'?.
This is why I posted this with the same title.
Same is the case with stammering.
We never know what planning He, The Almighty, has framed for us.
Sometimes, we all are so busy ,either with external worldy materialistic stuff or thinking too much about our stammering ,that we miss to introspect God's perfect plannings.
We know God gave us stammering but at times we miss to dig many other unique abilities and latent potentials that He may have given us !!

May God Bless Us All and Give Us Strength And Spirit Of NOT To Give Up Against Stammering !

-
WindStorm