Quest to Achieve- Knowledge

Knowledge

Knowledge is the most irrevocable power. It is the internal voice which cannot be sidelined and it is the standalone voice which cannot be looked away from. It is the repository to make one excel. The strongest formula to make one achieve and the only way to make one concurrently shine.

Knowledge if not applied effortlessly and shared effectively to diverse occurrences in life will only bring about a dull and drab outlook towards life in general. It will be the transcending of the inevitable towards the lower realms of existence.

Knowledge is not a pool of depth which is only gained in school or an institute or on a podium or a platform to appeal and engage in. It is something which is developed, enhanced, measured, gauged and encompassed over a period of time through varied experiences of life. In order to make one self completely receptive in terms of absorbing the reality and becoming the beacon of hope in one’s shining armour.

What happens when you look at knowledge like a role play in terms of a degree or credits or accreditation and not as an envisioned path? Then it lands up been only half baked knowledge. It serves the purpose of engagement and enhancement only on a superficial level.

If knowledge finds its apt route then the highest of problems or hindrances or chaotic external factors in one’s life will not be able to stop the growth in a person. This is because knowledge makes the internal factors so strong that nothing else matters.There are various sources to gain knowledge. The most vital, crucial and by far the primary source to imbibe and identify knowledge is the teacher. Nobody can leave a hell- bent mark like a teacher can. If you have a good teacher you are indeed a blessed soul. If you have a superb teacher you are an enriched, blessed and enlightened soul.

An enlightened soul will only find credence in tremendous amount of knowledge. The juncture at which knowledge forms the basis of identifying one’s personality and brushing up the soul is what takes things miraculously forward. The essence of knowledge builds character, immense will and forges an attitude that gives us respectful individuals.

Respect was something which was not a part of Trishna’s life for a very long time. Trishna, a girl who had not received respect from others and had never commanded respect from others too. That was primarily because she was on a low self-esteem pedestal for a long time hence, she did not respect herself. Self-Esteem is such a powerful word which cannot be looked away from even if people do not want to build on it; figuratively speaking.

How can one develop and eventually maintain Self –Esteem, when the existence of subtle innocence has been butchered to the core? Why was the chastity lost for Trishna? It was because of years of turbulence in the mental stability of Trishna’s individuality been ripped off by jealously, irritation, anger, harassment, abuse and insecurity. However, she was not a kind of girl to give up easily. So she believed and only trusted hard for better and brighter times to show up. 

Enhancement of Self-Esteem needs to be looked into from the perspective of a tutor, a guide, a visionary, a teacher, a friend and a philosopher. The teacher is the most vital person who plants the seeds of self-esteem and makes one grow without debt. The person on the receiving end by default tends to get besotted by self esteem. This countdown of self esteem build up makes one resemble the solace of quantum energy in which the person becomes immersed in the viscosity of time. A teacher’s duty is to make one dwell into a holistic and goal oriented person who will never ever look away from anything dynamic and zestful.

Trishna always had the absolute honour and privilege to have met, witnessed and learnt from the finest of teachers. They utterly shaped her, made her accept herself and in turn love herself. They enamoured her to such an extent that she landed up been a person with utter gratitude. Displaying signs of gratitude is nothing less than been a person who loves oneself to the core. From been a person of zero self- esteem and self-worth to a person with truckloads of it is primarily because the vital source which is her teachers had done their job to the most precocious extent. 

Trishna’s teachers made her concentrate on what she has, can build up on and asked her be thankful for that. The essential practice was to focus on the positive instead of coherently focusing on all that she is lacking or all that she has witnessed in the past, to sum it up the negative. Her teachers in school had repetitively told Trishna that never ever stop believing in your dreams as that is what makes you, shapes you and forms you. Never ever settle for anything lesser than what needs to be yours, deservedly so. Never ever look at things as a way that will not change as things will always change, nothing can be rigid and stagnant as long as you choose to be flexible. Situations will always change for the better so do not settle for anything lesser than that. Never ever compromise and never ever give up. Always believe, grow and sometimes it’s essential to ‘just be.’

The most envisaged learning came from the tutor she learned fine arts that is drawing and painting. This person made her in sync with herself. Self –Esteem the word itself has self and esteem inbuilt in it. It makes you resonate with yourself. So if you do not value, respect and admire yourself then how will someone else do that? It lets you breathe and makes you showcase yourself fully from the inside to the outside.

Her art tutor or ‘guru’ showcased certain qualities which she could see and identify in herself too. The qualities she had never ever seen before and was all on the surface below the epidermis. Trishna’s tutor made her remove the layer of epidermis and made her dermis gleam. This was just not polishing of the skin layer but of the soul.

Trishna identified the qualities synonymous to beauty which is not just skin deep but also soul trenching. She had always been made to believe that she is an ugly person inside out by her parents. The constant hearing of such offensive words by way of slangs had tarnished her soul and her self-confidence too. However, when she met her tutor she was repetitively told that she is beautiful. It meant a lot to her. . This was her first step towards finding validity towards her very existence. It was more like an ugly duckling who had grown and emerged into a beautiful swan.

However, this phase of adulation soon dissipated into the outer chaos of finding answers towards many ‘whys’? This is when she observed her tutor by ways of how she conducted herself through all the possible hindrances and challenges that life had to offer. Her tutor sailed through them as she never saw them as obstacles but as opportunities to excel and as challenges to face and conquer.

This is when Trishna realised one thing that knowledge is not just about bookish attributes and accolades but also about absorbing facts and experiences from living, appealing and inspiring individuals. You always have the choice to learn from someone if you have the will to absorb what is been taught even if it’s unintended. As in this case the tutor’s role was to teach her to paint, which she did so phenomenally. Basically, as witnessed in an idle way that one should practice what one preaches.

This was around the same time when Trishna went on to finish her graduation in which she did not learn and engage much apart from only half-heartedly focusing on her academics. It was during her internship before she went on for her post-graduation that is her MBA that she started ‘reading’ and in turn engaging. She had been a casual reader so far but during her internship alongside painting time and again, Trishna started reading. She went on to be an avid reader. It halted to a certain extent during her MBA course but after that when she joined her first work place that is her first job she got glued on to reading like an iron piece to a magnet bar.

Trishna picked up any and every book that came to sight. It started evidently from biographies of recognised and captivating personalities who had a lot to share with others as visionaries, friends, philosophers and guides. A legacy of sorts in which they speak volumes to us out their stories, teachings and experiences in order for us to understand that not all of them have lived a life of fairies, roses and unicorns. Majority of them who have made it ‘big’ in life have done so through tremendous amount of hard work.

After she soaked in biographies, she moved into fiction which for long had been her beloved section as it made her enter into the imaginary world of various cherished characters. She never ever felt the need to come out of it. But then who says that something which does not exist and is only witnessed by the mind is not real? Fiction channelized her energies into the feeling and trusting that anything is possible. If you can imagine it you can make it happen. Fiction opened the doors to endless possibilities for her.

Non –fiction is where she found hardcore reality it grounded her and gave her a steady base. Trishna needed that shift in base as she had been in a virtual whirlpool of external negativity and had made that her predominant base. It had got nothing good out of her life and had only made her react to incidences. Non- fiction gave her a steady form of discipline and relevent factual analysis about herself.

It could possibly range from Spiritual to Self Help to Management to Travel to Fashion, name it. The point been during her first job and then onwards she started reading. It was pretty much a revelation of sorts for Trishna.

It made her feel lighter; it felt that she had a voice which she was not using to express for the longest time. It made her feel in sync with herself; she finally knew who she was. Just like her name Trishna which mean Thirst. . She could finally voice opinions, give view points, express concerns and even claim fault finding. All of this was possible only because she had accumulated enough knowledge.

It was around the same time like mentioned earlier Trishna had started painting again. She had changed her geography and to find a teacher to be similar or better than the first one would be quite a task. However, just like the first time around even this time she was blessed with a superb teacher. This tutor was far more spiritual too. She strongly believed and would always tell Trishna the same that if you are spiritual only then can you possibly paint. From this Trishna learned the depth of art: as techniques she was already well-versed with and was engaging in the same time and again.

The depth of craft, the depth of literature, the depth of character, the depth of colours, the depth of the brush strokes, the depth of her very nature all of this she understood only in the hands of her teacher. It made Trishna swell into a level of utmost compassion for her soul. This made her bow down in gratitude in what she possessed, what she absorbed, what she conserved and what she finally could give.

Trishna let go of one trait which had affected her for the longest time which was fear and along with that inadequacy. Though both had been streamlined to a certain extent, they found full closure when she started learning from this teacher. The premise had been that this teacher was also teaching her how to lead by example as she was conducting herself in a very efficacious and positive way. Trishna had the best learning of sorts from this teacher and absorbed as much as she could gauge in. It was some of the most honest, most heartfelt, most unfeigned paintings she had ever created and possibly would be difficult to recreate too.

By this time Trishna was a person with a voice of her own and had her own standing. However, what she was lacking to a certain extent was finesse. Inherently she was suave but that had been put away with a desire to prove oneself and she had become blaring and clear in terms of her dealings because of that. That amount of external noise to prove herself was only making her insipid in her dealings also she was becoming super aggressive and vehemently emotional. This vicious cycle had made her really overweight infact we could say obese. The knowledge she had accumulated so far had given her a lot in various parameters of confidence, strength, endurance and self- respect. Hence, enough been accumulated to translate into a whirlpool of tremendous self-esteem. However, what she was lacking was calmness.

The search to be calm and composed even if there is a storm or a gale or a tempest outside in your surroundings and even more so inside your head was never ending. Trishna realised she needed more experiential knowledge in terms of covering the last aspect of her personality to prove her worth to her inner self, that is when yoga knocked on her mental doorway. That was a holistic language of dealings which she cascaded through on and off during all her tumultuous times.

The oscillation of practicing yoga and not practicing yoga went on for years and then she finally realised that yoga is not just about deep breathing and about difficult postures. Of course, that forms the most vital part of the very experience. But yoga is about connecting to you. It is about connecting to your true self, your inner self, your rhythm and your well being. It is about making your mind, body and soul one. It is an experiential exercise which had to become a way of life, so yoga does not have to be performed one hour a day everyday but it should be performed in very action of life that you foresee, entail and live. That is what makes yoga the universal life source.

This universal life source that Trishna had got amazing glimpses of from various institutions, camps and gurus. These possible sources spread the knowledge of such an eternal experience to make several others gain from the superb benefits of the beautiful encounter with yoga. Each one of them have their ways of emergence, depth and ethos but all of them call out the same name.

This is possible once your self esteem is raised to the highest peak through the pedestal of yogic practices making you the sole pedestal of your own life journey. The knowledge accumulated through yoga makes you understand yourself better and once you have gained that inherent knowledge there is no stopping you as you are in control of your emotions, your well being, your flow and your aura.

The holistic spread is only once you apply all the knowledge that you have imbibed, accumulated and soaked in over the years through varied occurrences and episodes. This is where exposure becomes so vital and one of the most crucial steps in that is to immerse in the bed of knowledge as that can be the ultimate medicine of sorts. As it reforms, confirms, affirms and finally emerges to make one sway like the swan.

To know yourself you have to clean you from within and only surreal and contagious amount of knowledge can make you reach that pedestal of calm and composure. The never-ending zeal of been an enthusiastic student of life is what gets Trishna going. As knowledge is far more than what is acquired from an institute or an organisation. So been a perpetual student and learning from everything she can get her hand on became Trishna’s forever motto.

Knowledge is a deep journey which should never ever end. It is a journey which should never find a halt, so do absorb knowledge from as many sources as you can. Maybe knowledge should be seen and implemented as your most lethal weapon. This is how Trishna saw knowledge. It makes you delve into your array of weaknesses and ignore them; makes you identify your strengths and engage in them.

It is an essential tool for a lot of self reflection, self analysis and self learning. The combination of these things diverge Trishna to do well and excel in her life. This is what made her be her eventually. Learning how to let go of her entire trial and tribulations and thus, making her glow. This life enriching tool bought out the best in her. She could breathe and take it easy and finally just be. It was like a beacon of hope, like we already mentioned at the start of the narrative.

Life will always be like a box of chocolates, you will never know which flavour is in store for you till you open up the very box. One of the most powerful and self-effacing flavour in that box will be knowledge for sure. Grab it, explore with it and if possible spread it. It will not only make you shine but the ones you share and experience it with sparkle too.