Five Essential Understandings

Monday, 16^th October 2017

Men & women have the following five basic understandings always in life-time. Some are aware of them. Many are not. Whether you know or not, the awareness is there, because you cannot exist on earth without it.

These are the five essential basic understandings: 1. Values 2. Dietetics 3. Concept of Exercise 4. Personal Economics and 5. Philosophy. You start your life with doing what ‘you like’. But later, when you become matured, you start understanding what ‘you should’. When you are young, you eat all that you like to. But when you are matured, you start choosing your food. There are food items which you should eat and should not. In your matured age, you follow what ‘you should’, rather than what ‘you like’. The transformation from what ‘you like’ to what ‘you should’, in all the above said five aspects, marks your growth as a human being.

There are people who say that they do not know anything about philosophy. They say that philosophy is too complicated to the understanding of ordinary people. There are even some scholars who say that ordinary people cannot understand philosophy. He/she is un-educated and not capable of understanding any philosophy. Let me share an experience I had some years back, related to this subject. One of my friends wanted me to talk to her father who was a drunkard, to bring him back to normal life. During my casual talk with him, he said, that he was working hard, making money, taking good care of his family and enjoying liqueur very often. What is wrong in it? (He didn’t mention that he was regularly beating his wife though, as if it was a right of husbands..) See, this is his philosophy. He gives value to his pleasure through liqueur more than anything else. Through this, his value system is also clear. He has a value system as well as philosophy. Only thing is that he is not aware about it. He is not able to understand or observe it because he didn’t get sufficient training for it. Instead, he heard from every corner that he cannot understand philosophy and it is difficult to follow value system. He trusted these ideas and followed easy and careless path. After regular efforts for a long time, we became successful in making him understand his wrong ideas. Once he changed his value system and philosophy, even though due to the force from his surrounding, it was easy for him to stop taking liqueur. Eventually he got convinced with his new values and philosophy which changed his life for good.

So whether you understand or not, your present life style is due to the five folded views you have about the concerned subject in life. Let’s try to understand each one of them.

1. Values: Values refer to what you give importance in life. Some people give importance to money more than anything else. Some people think that being famous is the most important thing. Many people think that doing something for the society is the most needed thing. A few others think that being a good person is the most important. Your value system is depending upon what you see as the most important. Your ideas of beauty, happiness, success etc. are depending upon your value system.

2. Dietetics: All human beings need to have food to survive. Nobody can exist without food. Each one has a concept of his/her own food habit, whether he/she knows it or not. The concept and attitude towards food in general called dietetics. Some people take this seriously and plan their diet in a healthy manner. Most of the people do not care about this.

3. Concept of Exercise: When you do a job sitting on a chair for a long time continuously, you may feel to stretch your hands and spine by standing on your toe. Why do you feel so? Because you know unconsciously that exercise in the form of the stretching is necessary for the free flow of blood and to re-energize your muscles. This feeling is nothing but your concept of exercise. This is natural to all human beings. Not only to human beings; you can see dogs and cats doing the same thing. This natural concept of your own exercise must be observed and developed properly to form your system of exercise for a healthy body and mind.

4. Personal Economics: No one can exist without using money for buying things and services. How to make money and spend properly is a matter of consideration for all human beings. You have it whether you have reflected upon and developed it scientifically or not. This is nothing but a personal way of money management. Some are good at it and some others are not.

5. Philosophy: Why do you live? What is happiness? What gives you happiness? What is success? How do you think that you can be successful? All human beings can face these questions; even though very little can give a clear answer. There is a reason for everybody to live. Most of them have no idea about the purpose of their lives. Similarly the majority is not consciously having a concept about their happiness, success etc. But unconsciously, all are concerned about their own happiness, success etc. In other words, all have their philosophy. But very few are aware of it.

All these five understandings are essential for human life. But very few are observing themselves to have a clear idea about it and transform it.

You start your life with what you like. What food you like. In what way you want to make money. In what way you like to lead your life. But day by day, you start understanding the world around you. You start observing you as well. You can compare your life with others’; and it may inspire you to rethink about yourself. As a result of it, you start managing each aspect in you. Your value system changes. Your food habits become more healthy. You follow better methods of exercises. You manage your economics in a better way. You follow a higher philosophy. This is called the growth in life.

All want to lead a happy and contented life.

Observe and Manage (OM) these five understandings in you. That is the way to be happy and contented.