Dharmic tips for proper goal setting

            Time flows ceaselessly. Unlike the traditional Hindu calendar that tracked the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars to divide time, the modern Gregorian calendar lacks both scientific probity and logical basis. Apart from its global acceptance, it also forms the basis for even more odd traditions. One such exercise is the annual ritual of setting annual resolutions, every January. Before the month ends, most resolutions are already broken. The majority waits for the next January to reset; some make attempts to get back on track. The most dominant ideas to improve include accumulating more wealth or get rid of debt, getting better health and relationships. It may be amusing that these perennial favorites need not depend on a specific day to arrive; one may improve from where we are. 

            Whilst these are good goals to improve some dimensions of human living, the lack of a comprehensive idea of who we are hinders not only in the achievement of the goals we set, but also setting them in the first place.

            Every time one makes a sankalpah and gives up, it causes a serious dent in the Will of the individual. With every dent, the ability to act upon the next sankalpah gets weakend. On the contrary, with every small successful accomplishment, the will gets strengthened. We are either building on our strengths or our weaknesses. The more we exacerbate one, it dominates our mental persona. There may be a few amongst us who may be the contrarians to this trend, but they are a small minority.

            Is there an alternate way to improve ourselves, besides these western, emotionally appealing, yet ineffective methods? The wisdom of the great rishis that created and nourished Sanatana Dharma comes to our rescue. Let us dive into this nectarine wisdom and fish some pearls. We will explore three simple angles that can give us more depth to our understanding and also aid in growing in multiple dimensions simultaneously.

Body-Mind-Intellect

            In an earlier blog, BMI – Swami Chinmayananada’s teaching aid article, we understood that humans have two sets of instruments – Bahishkarana (the external instrument) namely the body and Antahkarana (the internal instrument) namely the mind (manas) and the intellect (buddhi).  The lack of having an understanding of the interconnectedness is our nemesis in spiritually evolving while leading a normal, yet upward mobile life.

            The western idea lacks many equivalent concepts and hence has no corresponding words. Let us not lose the original idea by using a wrong equivalent. Can yoga be called as exercise, when anyone with a functional neuron will know it is much more than one word? Vedanta helps us understand that the body through an idea called indriya. Indra is often equated with aatma, many times wrongly translated as Soul. Indriya is a saadhana, a tool/aid to perceive jnana (roughly translated as knowledge), in other words, these are agencies that connect the aatma with the rest of the prapancha, the universe of five elements.

            Indriya is primarily of two types – a set of channels employed to bring the external world inside, the entrance doors, namely Jnana Indriyas and another set of channels that expresses the internal world’s perceptions, feelings and thinking, the exit doors, namely Karma Indriyas.

            The five Jnana Indriyas­ are chakshu (sense of seeing - eyes), shrotra (sense of hearing -ears), ghraana (sense of smell – nose), rasana (sense of taste – tongue) and twak (sense of touch – skin).

            The five karma indriyas are vaak (organ of speech), paani (grasping organs – hands), paada (organ for locomotion – feet), paayu (organ for excretion – rectum) and upastha (organ for regeneration).

            Manas is also referred as Ubhaya Indriya, as it serves the internal as well as external gateways and also functions as an organ. 

            What has goal setting to do with this understanding of Vedanta? Unless one understands one’s own composition, it is literally impossible to set proper goals. While setting goals, one must not only know the functioning of BMI, but also start having a better grasp on how vasanas play a critical part in either aiding or hindering our cause. It helps us understand one angle of why we fail or succeed.  Vasana understanding is not only for rehabilitating any form of addiction, but to train our mind and intellect to a higher purpose.

            As most of us have experienced in our daily lives, even the most powerful will gets unnerved due to the vasanas of the mind.  Training the mind is perhaps more difficult than overpowering the entire world.  Arjuna submits to Krishna in the 6^th chapter of Bhagavad Gita that the mind is restless and it may be easier to tame the wind than the mind.

            Our rishis have given two powerful tools – sama and dama. We have seen this in detail in our discussion – How anyone can become a Brahmana – Bhagwan Krishna’s insight. Sama is an internal restraint. Dama is restraint of the indriyas. Let us apply this to our goals. If someone wants to avoid sweets, not letting the eyes see sweets, not going to the shop to buy or even if offered, not letting the tongue to taste or hang too close to the smell of sweetmaking constitute restraint of indriyas, namely  dama. On the other hand, we train our mind to a higher value system by educating ourselves on the effect, reminding of the higher purpose, anything that builds viveka and vairagya will constitute as sama.

            These powerful techniques work, but the catch is when we secularize it and apply it without any proper understanding. The lack of higher purpose behind our goals nullifies the efficacy of these tools as well. It becomes imperative to get a larger vision than a mere Body-Mind-Intellect goal, hence Purusharthas.

Purushartha – Dharma-Artha-Kama-Moksha – (Read the link for a deeper insight) 

            The biggest failure of all goal setting is to limit all understanding and action to only Artha and Kama. Failure to peg these two within Dharma results in not only undesired results, but also costs us by not achieving our potential. From the linked article we understand that the purpose of Dharma is Moksha. Ignoring any of these four aspects result in not only more stress, chaos in our own lives but also in the world we live in. 

            As most of the objects of the world keep our indriyas fixated upon the Artha-Kama trap, and as there is no way out of the limitations for a mind that is trapped in these eddy currents. The objects of our desire, enmeshed with our weak vairagya and viveka keep us very limited in our vision. Unless one takes root in dharma, we will be deprived of the loftier vision of Moksha. 

            Higher the vision, higher is the ability to rise successfully and overcome the basal side. Naturally a lot of our goals get accomplished as a bonus, be it health, wealth or the miscellaneous commonly set goals which most of us struggle forever.

Vyashti Samashti

            When setting goals, another major drawback is being limited to one’s own self. We are connected to the reset of the universe in every palpable way, yet we ignore both the connection and its significance. When one understands that interdependence is much higher principle over dependence or independence and is more inclusive and empowering, shifting our vision to the former enables not only easier goal setting, but also achieving. When my goal not only borrows on others’ success and my achievement translates to the success of others, it becomes a powerful ecosystem to reinforce success all around us.

Vyashti refers to the individual level (microcosm) and Samashti refers to the cosmic level (macrocosm). Only with an understanding of the Vyashti one can infer that the Samashti is nothing but more of the same and is a fraction of it, though the latter is more than the sum total of it. A proper understanding results how our individual actions impact the universe and vice versa. 

            Leading a sense driven life makes us blind to the subtler understanding. Hence a goal setting based only on sense achievements or gratification, fails to lift the human standards. How does making a million dollars or getting a six pack go beyond the mere goal, without grasping how it can alter with a proper understanding? Such an understanding may even challenge many of our goals we set today and point out the sharp lack of correct ones. Does that mean it is wrong to set such goals? Most definitely not. But if all our goals are in a selfish zone, then we are not taking advantage of our own potential or tapping into higher realms. Can we tag sharing our experiences and influencing others positively with correct knowledge as a part of the goal by being a testimony, then we are thinking more than our own six pack or millionaire status.

            The emotional strength one derives by a smaller vision is limited by its very definition. Imagine the freedom fighters that fought for the well being for a larger cause and the emotional strength behind their goals. A person who feeds 50 people in his factory has limited vision as opposed to one envisioning a thousand employees.  The larger the vision, the larger the energy one can tap into, as long as the selfish ego doesn’t bloat to cover the vision. 

            Bhagavad Gita 6.5 sloka advises us to use the higher Self to raise the lower self. 

उद्धरॆत् आत्मना आत्मानं न आत्मानम् अवसादयॆत् ।
आत्म एव हि आत्मनः बंधुः आत्म एव रिपुः आत्मनः ॥

uddharEt AtmanA AtmAnaM na AtmAnam avasAdayEt |
Atma eva hi AtmanaH baMdhuH Atma eva ripuH AtmanaH || Bhagavad Gita 6.5 ||

Unless one layers the Cosmic Self and maps it the daily life by a proper understanding or the  Purusharthas and correctly tapping the BMI to its potential, one will remain most certainly under the veil of the senses. This veil, referred as Maya gives us an altered perception of ourselves and our relationship with the world and keeps us from tapping our true inner potential.

Once we start living to our potential, our lives will not only be more meaningful to ourselves, but also others. Also behind every goal, we see and feel the weight of the Universe as opposed to the weight being felt on our puny bloated egos. 

Thus the vedantic understanding helps us to set proper goals, in more areas than we are used to and the goals themselves act as guides. Here are few prescriptions towards this end.

Dharmic prescription

• Get a better understanding of yourself using BMI – Swami Chinmayananada’s teaching, vasanas and other vedantic concepts.

• Traditional yoga angas­ – yama and niyama help in establishing subtler guidelines to be followed everyday that help in our long term overall growth.

• Get to know more about your own Self by reading scriptures regularly. Depending on the individual’s specific needs a plethora of texts are available be it itihasapuranas, Upanishads, dharma shastras.

• Ensure there is regular Satsang, this is not necessarily living in an ashram, but reading scriptures, doing Sadhana and connecting with the inner self, studying, listening to materials of great rishis and sages.

• Ensure that we give not only due care for the body, but also the mind and intellect. Include the wellbeing of the society.

• Make sure we get closer to the dharmic ecosystem that is under grave threat due to our ignorance and apathy.

• Understand the interconnectedness of the indriyas, manas, vasanas and sense objects. Let this better perception aid our setting up and achieving the goals.

• Include the well being of others as a part of our goals. To start with it may be just the family or extended family, eventually include society at large, the nation or civilization, and encompass all living beings. This expanded vision will help us keep on a proper track.

Let this higher understanding help us in growing us overall, in all dimensions. May Paramatma’s unlimited grace be upon us to give us clear vision of our goals and strength and guidance to achieve them. May we all raise ourselves by the HIGHER SELF and be unlimited Sat-Chit-Ananda.

Om Tat Sat