Kontrast

It was a chance factor that Kevin was just as old to fit in the two different walks of life. He had been invited to attend a workshop on the 

‘Power of Subconscious Mind’.

 Well he was an adult with a boyish face but had lost lot of hair on his scalp. So, it would be difficult to judge his age band. Maybe he would fit as a 20-year-old, and he could also be called a 40-year-old.

Only a few at his age would be able to handle the pressure of being a sole guy. It was about the use of the power of mind that he was going to attend. And he had already used the power of his mind in the most unusual ways. He wanted to see what extra the workshop would give him. He chuckled to himself that the mentor would teach something which he had practiced and forgotten.

The law of chance is very strange. We do not know what the morrow will bring. We plan, and we plan and then something happens that shakes the foundations of the greatest foolproof plans. Or wouldn’t Napoleon and Hitler have won against Russia? The basis of this uncertainty is what makes God and Fate unique and powerful.

It was early morning after Kevin woke up from his sleep. He had slept late, for the night he had spent writing the misfortunes of an engineer. He wanted to sleep again, but he reminded himself he had a workshop to attend. So, in his dazed state he did his morning chores. And he left for the venue. He had arrived 30 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. It was a big building. And he saw an entrance that clearly disclosed the way inside. What he didn’t notice was that the entrance was narrow. When he had entered, he saw it was actually the back-door entrance to the building. Anyway, he was inside, there were numerous boys and girls entering a large hall like a file of ants. As he had entered from the backdoor, he wasn’t frisked by the guards who were at the front gate, and thinking that everyone was taking the limited seats, so he quickly went in, and took a seat in the last row.

He looked around him. All were young students, mostly adolescents. He sat next to a young guy, and waited for the show to begin. They had strictly told everyone to switch off their mobile phones. Listening to them was something the audience had to do. A quiet listening, without asking any questions.  

The host began with, “Dear, you will find some of the speakers who are much young. But I hope you won’t judge them by their age, but by the knowledge they have. We all are here to share our experience and knowledge. And we can learn from anyone. And those who have to share their experience and knowledge are teachers. So, please do respect your teachers even if they are younger than you.”

Kevin was listening intently and feeling uncomfortable. This was not going like what a lecture on subconscious mind should be! He had seen in the brochure that children below 20 were not allowed. And here almost everyone was around 20 or less. The hall door was closed, and several sentinels were spread around as if to guard everyone’s activity. Suddenly he felt cold, like he was a fish out of water. He had been allowed to enter the hideouts of a vampire because he resembled one.

What if his identity was revealed? What if everyone knew that he had come uninvited? Creepy thoughts entered his mind. And suddenly he felt anxious, his palpitations increased. He wasn’t at the right place, and if he got up to go he would draw everyone’s attention. It would feel everyone’s stare was like arrows piercing his body. He would better stay where he was, and listen to the talk until they gave a break.

After the host welcomed the chief speaker to deliver his lecture, everyone applauded with loud claps. The speaker was named Gourav. He began by lecturing the importance of money.

He asked the audience, “How can we earn money?”

Someone in the audience answered, “By doing a job”.

“And how much do you earn?” Gourav asked.

He said around some 35 dollars a week.

Then Gourav went to the board which was there on the stage. He wrote an equation,

I = T x R.

Where, I = Income, T = Time, and R = Rate

Income of an individual was the product of time put into work and his rate per unit time. So to increase income, anyone would have to either increase time or rate or both.

“In a job, there is an equilibrium between the boss and the employee. The worker want’s an increase in his rate while the boss wants an increment in the work done. Increasing the rate will require perseverance in the work. And you can increase the time for a certain level, which we call working overtime. Beyond a certain number of hours, increasing the time is not possible. So how do we increase the income?

93% of humans are job seekers and only 7 % are job providers. We all know that people earn more in business than in job. But do we have the capital to establish a business? The answer is ‘No’. At his age, we lack that much funds to establish a business. An average retail store would require around 10 -15 lakh rupees (20, 000 dollars) capital. And here we are earning 35 dollars a week. So do you think we can establish a business?

That’s not possible. Then what is the way? Join our company. You will just have to pay 233 dollars, and we will give you computer training. Our books are simple and easy to understand. How many of you have laptops?”

A very few of them raised their hands.

“So, we have provided pictures in our book, and it will be very easy for you to understand. And there is something special about this company. If you are involved in this program, and if you add 2 more people you will get around 21 dollars after they pay. And if they further add people to the program, then it will come up the chain and you will be paid again. Do not ask your parents. Because they won’t give you the correct advice. If you have a pain in stomach, where do you go? To the doctor, not to mechanic. So, if you need advice come to us. Do not ask any ‘Kaka Babu’ who knows everything. They will give you the wrong advice. We are here to bring personality development in you. We will teach you how to dress, how to look, how to talk, and face people on stage. There are many who can speak wonders when they are with their friends but when they come on the stage, their mouth dries and they can hardly say anything.

See, we will help you to increase the number of hours. This is called team work. Do you know how much, Tata earns in a day? About 9 crore rupees. And how much work is done by his company in a day? Around 55,65,000 hours. How can a person with 24 hours can work so many hours work in a day? That is because he makes other do his work.

 What does Tata sell? He sells everything. From, salt, needle to cars, and cellphones. But have any of you received a call from Mr. Tata, saying that your table salt has finished, I am going to come and supply it to you? No. None. That’s because he makes other work for him. Clever man makes others work for them. Only fools work for others. But then the majority of us are fools.

How many of you are unhappy with your performance in the board exams? How much did you get?”

Someone in the audience said 48%.

“We are there for you. People will make you feel useless with your performance. But here will make your dreams possible. We will guide you to help you achieve your dreams. Everyone, even your parents have said, that you are worthless - good for nothing. But here, we will make you realize your true worth.

See, by joining this company, I bought a laptop worth 35,000 rupees. That was three years ago. I am currently doing B. Com and am in the second year. I was able to go to Goa on a tour. Then I went to Jaipur. My senior over there, he has toured Bali, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Goa, Jaipur, Ladhak, Sri Lanka, and many more places. You also can join this elite group if you are willing to work hard for this company.

When you go out to such places as Thailand, you will come across young individuals who are willing to take risks. You will find them snorkeling, paragliding, etc. And then, you will see some older individuals, who won’t take the risk even to take a ride on a water scooter. And what do they take? Medicines, of hypertension and sugar, in the morning and evening that they carry with them all along.

Those who are willing to join, should be from a good family. Poverty doesn’t matter, but there should be no criminal case against him. And in today’s world, no one is poor. See, a rickshaw puller eats, 3-4 packets of Gutkha in a day. If you add, it will be around 20 rupees Gutkha in a day. Which will be more than seven thousand rupees in a year. Can you tell this man is poor?

 There are other who drink alcohol, worth thousands of rupees each year. And a poor man says he has no money. But then when his wife falls ill, he manages to arrange the money for the doctor fees and the hospital bill. This term “poor” is relative. So, do not call yourself poor that you can’t afford the fees.

I want to introduce some of our members who have worked for this company and reaped huge benefits. And if you need any help, ask these people. Not even your parents, or any

 ‘Kaka Babu’. 

They won’t give you the right advice.”

A guy came up.

“This year I bought a new motor bike worth 95,000 rupees. I have worked in this organization, and I have bought three motor bikes. The first time I bought a bike worth 35,000 rupees. Next time, I bought a bike worth 70,000 rupees. And now, when my friend didn’t let me touch his dad’s bike saying it was above my status, I took the challenge to show him that I could purchase, what his dad could, but he couldn’t.”

Another girl came up. She said she had bought a LCD worth 14,000 rupees for her mother. And then, there were others who came up and told the precise monetary worth of the items they had bought.

It was more of showing off their material wealth, what they had acquired at so young age. Saying about the worth of items in monetary value would lure the young average students, who were determined to make some money.

The seminar ended. And Kevin, quickly ran out of the hall. He had entered the wrong place, but maybe to listen to the right words. He saw there had been a large faction that was being silently fooled by the clever and their needs were not properly met.

Kevin stood for some time deciding whether to go to the “mind session” or not. He saw that it was on being held on the third floor. Finally, he thought of attending the workshop. He must have missed the last two hours, but still 4 of the total 6 hours remained. He could still catch up something good. When knowledge was so freely available, he wouldn’t miss the chance of attending.

With some hesitancy he entered, but saw the workshop going in full progress. There must have been around 250 people. Yes, all were above 20 years. Many were old. And they all looked serious and full of concern. The instructor was telling them how to remove a bad memory from their mind.

He called 3 individuals to come up on the stage. He gave them each a pen, and made them sit on a chair facing the audience. Then he asked them to close their eyes and imagine the pen was a remote. Then they had to imagine there was a transparent glass wall, beyond which there was an old TV. He asked them to switch on the TV using the remote and play the bad memory on it. He asked them to breathe deeply, and then pause the memory at one point. Then stare at it, for a while and say, I am deleting this scene. And switch off the TV, using the remote. Now, they can only see the blank TV. He then asked them, to imagine the glass wall has vanished. Then he told them to go and smash the Television. Yes, that was the end of the bad memories. Then he asked them to say to themselves that

“I have permanently deleted these memories from my mind.” 

Then he told them to open their eyes. 

It was something which the mind needed some training. Then he talked about the “Tiger”. The tiger is in our mind. A word for fear. Something that made people diabetic. Something that created all the autoimmune diseases. No amount of medicine could cure the disease. Because, the root cause lay in the mind. Only healing the mind by getting rid of the tiger could cure the disease.

Then he talked about three types of people. 

The kinesthetic- who loved touching, the auditory- who loved hearing, and the visual-who loved seeing. 

A visual boss would say, show me what you have done, while an auditory boss would say, tell me what you have done. While a kinesthetic boss would love to feel your work.

The wife who is an auditory, would love to hear praises about her beauty. No amount of gifts would satisfy her. While a visual wife would be happy to receive gifts. And lucky are those whose wife is kinesthetic. A hug, would give her happiness.

Then he talked about seven traits of successful people. They were, (1). Environment. (2). Behaviour (3). Capabilities. (4). Beliefs. (5). Values). (6). Focus, and (7). Identity. He added another trait of Spirituality in the end. For success, he said - Be consistent, be loud in your actions. Challenge the mightiest. And stay young in mind.

Someone asked how they could make their children pay attention to their studies and improve their memory.

Something that was important for parents to learn.

No one’s memory was bad. And memory getting bad with age was just a myth. You had just to visualize the words. With a projector he showed a list of about 40 words. They were ordinary words, but memorizing in a sequence would have been a tremendous task. But then he asked the audience to visualize the words in a particular order with colours included while visualizing. And he made the audience practice in the session. The results were wonderful. Even Kevin wondered, how easily he could memorize the words in a sequence so easily.

And then he revealed that colours and moving pictures are more eye grasping and easy to memorize. When things are unique, it is easier to remember them. In a crowd, no one would remember a normal guy. But what if there was someone who had a tail? It would not only bring attention but improve the memory of the incident as well. So, try to make your session with your children colourful and moving. They will pay more attention.

Finally, he marketed about his therapy, and asked those who needed therapy (for anxiety, depression, etc.) could buy his CDs for discounted prices.

Kevin saw the two different faces of human society. On one side there were kids who weren’t bright, were struggling financially and wanted to do something in life. They however had the peace of mind. And on other side there were prodigious people, and many were from affluent families. They had made a life for themselves. They had everything materialistic that the kids would have dreamt of. But then, with greatness and power comes responsibility and loss of peace of the mind.

A prodigy studying in the best engineering college, but can’t remove some images from his mind that doesn’t let him be at peace. Or a very average student who struggled to get admission in some ordinary college and tried to make his both ends meet. What would anyone choose?

Kevin had attended two very different lectures. One was those who were struggling to make money and some mark in the society. But they were healthy and had peace. The other were those people who had achieved real life success. But they had mental issues. Anxiety, and some bad memories haunted them.

Life is a real contrast. We may not have everything at the same time. But what we do have, it is our duty realize its worth and enjoy it. Life is different for everyone. We all have a different question paper to solve. And therefore we cannot copy anyone. Doing so, will make us a failure. We are unique in our own way, our life is unique, and the sooner we realize it the better we can live and thrive!

Do not feel ashamed for things you have done

For the battle of life has just begun.

But you should be ashamed of the things you didn’t do,

When you had the time and energy in you!

Live the life you want in your way,

Let not others judgement make you sway.

Live your life well, mate for there is no morrow,

Today is you have, both for happiness and sorrow!

What can change your future but you?

Not the stars, but the actions you do!

Carve a path for yourself in this deep water,

So that it may be a guide for those who falter!

Work dear mate, but work for your soul too,

When dead, there will be nothing for yourself, only You!

Note- The lecture which Kevin attended first was of 

APLL Smart Value Company. 

The second one was

NLP Training by Ram Verma.