Hello and welcome to episode 77 of The Ask Sri Vishwanath Show. Today I want to talk about get started with anything, including spirituality. We will talk about the secret that Krishna has to share.
Today’s question comes from Shilpa and she says “I make plans but don’t follow them. This happens all the time, I get really frustrated and I don’t know what to do. How do I get started?”
This is a great question. Most of us go through this in some shape or form. I will give you some advice and I will also leave links to previous episodes that I think will help you out a lot.
The first thing we need to look at is the educational system. Right from the start we are told to learn ten or twenty things in one year at once. We tell people they need to learn so many subjects at the same time. If I were head of education the first change I would make would be to limit the subjects to only one per year. When you focus on just one thing you have a better chance of becoming an expert in that one thing. You broaden yourself and then go deep.
An effect
The great ones say if you are chasing you are losing. When you study multiple subjects you will find that you are always trying to chase knowledge. We spoke before about not feeling bad if you don’t get it right away because thoughts and habits are an effect. You cannot choose a thought you can only be detached. We are only picking the thoughts that have risen to the surface. If you read episodes 74 to 76 you will get a more in depth explanation of this.
We only pick the thoughts from the surface and the cause of everything is the gunas. So if you are planning and nothing is happening it is because the timeline and the script are not in your favour and because the thoughts beneath the surface are tamasic. The tamas gunas will push the tamasic thoughts to the surface.
Start executing
You can plan and plan and plan all you want but what you need to do is to start executing. You need to start executing your sattvic gunas. I will share some of my story with you. I got stuck when I started doing these videos and articles. I always wanted to make these short videos but I was always delaying it. I delayed it for over a year. For a year I watched other people making these videos and I started watching videos on productivity by Gary Vaynerchuk. He is a master on execution and I highly encourage you follow him.
Gary in one of his video shows was upset that he had a huge fan following made all these videos for them but no one was following what he was saying and I felt the same way. I had all this video equipment and I had the time so there was nothing to really stop me. Like you and others my gunas was tamasic. I was thinking and planning but not executing. That day I decided that I would film my first video. If you look at my first video you will see that it is not as polished as my newer ones but the important thing is that I did it.
You just need to do it. It doesn’t matter if the results are not perfect because when you start executing a momentum will start. You should never listen to your mind when you want to do certain things. At the start your mind can get carried away. I was thinking of making 100 or 200 videos when I hadn’t even filmed the first one. It is important to not let your mind get carried away. I started with one and now I’m on 77 and I feel great because of it.
We need to have faith in the power of simplicity. It’s the simple things that are important. If you are not executing you should know that it is because of the tamasic gunas. I just want you to write the word execution on a piece of paper and put it somewhere that you will see it. When you start executing your sattvic gunas will start pushing powerful thoughts to the surface.
Start meditating in the morning and focus on this verse: “Him the weapons cannot cut, fire cannot burn, water cannot wet, wind cannot dry. The self cannot be cut, dried, burned or wetted…Eternal, all pervasive, stable, immovable, everlasting the Self Reigns” When you get close to the consciousness you will have the power to call on your sattvic gunas to push those powerful thoughts to the surface.
It doesn’t matter if you haven’t executed in the past year or 5 years or even 10 years. You can still start executing today. Do it not by chasing the thought or by telling yourself you are going to do this or that. Do it by simply telling yourself that all you have to do is start executing. That will push those sattvic thoughts to the top.
Power hour
You can do this by having a power hour. Don’t start your day by checking emails and social media. Begin your day by meditating on the verse I mentioned above. Have a power hour where you take a page and write one thing that you will execute today. All you need to do is that one thing. It doesn’t matter if you takes you one minute or ten minutes just execute that one thing. Remember one thing a day is 365 things in a year.
It’s simple. I did one video a day so here we are on day 77 and I have 77 videos. It’s that easy. Never underestimate the power of simplicity. One power hour a day is 7 in a week and 365 hours a year. That is a great achievement. So start with that one activity tomorrow. As you progress you can do more than one hour but just stick to one for now.
The bridge
I want to share a story with you. Ram was building a bridge with the help of all the animals that were there. There was a small squirrel and it wanted to help. All of the monkeys laughed at the squirrel. They dismissed him as he was so small and they didn’t think he could help. Ram told them that every contribution is important and even the squirrel is doing his best. Ram took the squirrel and stroked its back to thank it. They say this is why the squirrel has 3 lines on its back from Ram’s fingers running across its fur.
Size does not matter. What matters is that each of them gave their full potential. Vivekananda said “I don’t believe in reforms I believe in growth. I don’t want to take the position of God and tell people what to do. I want to be the squirrel in building Ram’s bridge, happy to put his little quota of sand towards the pile. That is my position,”
Keep your quota simple and little by little your bridge will come together. Once this happens you will get to the other side.
I hope I answered your question. You keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them.