This is second article in the “Boost Your Productivity Series” if you haven’t read the first article please check that here. : Focused V/S Lazy mind
‘Some people make things happen.
Some people watch things happen.
And then there are those who wonder, “What the hell just happened?”’
~ Carroll Bryant
Success doesn’t embrace a person with an average mindset. Such people end up spending their lifespan beholding the events happening in life.
The success mindset is to be a conscious thinker. But what to think about?
Levels of Consciousness
The ancient Vedic wisdom classifies consciousness (or thought process) into 5 levels:
1. Food Consciousness (Anna-Maya)
“Oh, I should eat this, and that too to get pleasure”, defines such a living entity.
Examples : include but not limited to newborn babies, who want to consume anything they catch (poor discrimination).
For these people, they spend most of their intelligence figuring out how to arrange tasty food, thus they find little or not time for their goals of life.
2. Survival consciousness (Prana-Maya)
“To enjoy, I have to gratify my senses while protecting my life.”
The person is conscious of living symptoms and acts avoiding any danger to his life.
If one can live without being attacked or in a sense get’s a Government Job one feels himself happy.
Most people we meet are on this platform. They watch wonders happen.
They are after getting a secure future, for this they are ready to sacrifice their present to such an extend that they are practically dying today!
One vivid case study that, about 80% people who work (in any sector) today for living are working without their interests, they lack interest in their works, as a result they take to drugs.
The type of drugs they use depend on their income, but they take to drugs, some take to local biddis, some to costly cigars but the central point is, in order to make their living, they have put their present into a great danger.
3. Dream Consciousness (Mano-Maya)
These people get their happiness from their dreams. All day such people will dream of big big success but for that success their practical endeavours will be zero.
Their only happiness lies in day dreaming or sleeping.
Naturally they also watch wonders happens, and majority of the world are in this consciousness.
These three above are typically related with subconscious stage of control that we discussed in the first blog of the series.
But if one is fortunate to understand that the life does not end in sleeping, eating and has many other aspects also he begins to think, that is development of Intellectual consciousness.
4. Intellectual consciousness (Vijñāna-Maya)
“There is much more to life than just senses enjoyment. Who am I? Why am I alive? What is the purpose of my life?”
The pursuit of a meaningful life begins. The interest is beyond the sensual platform. It’s in creativity, innovation and fine arts for example. These people make wonders happen.
These people can actually work beyond just maintaining their lives, and can take up the problems that are happening in the world, in the society, they can think about such problems.
Question is how we can stay in Intellectual consciousness ? or How we can development such consciousness?
How to Develop Intellectual consciousness
There are several steps that help us develop and retain our intellectual consciousness
1. Developing Sattva Guna
Say if a person spends his major time thinking what to cook (as in Anna-Maya), then he will have less time to think of other things.
Sattva Guna is that quality that enables us to do these things with limited involvement, and there by allows us to think of higher subject matters.
You can checkout these tips for developing Sattva Guna check here.
2. Rising Early in the Morning
There are many medical studies which reveal that those who wake up early in the morning end up becoming more productive than their counterparts.
Some brilliant people who wake up early are :
- Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up 3:45 a.m.
- AOL CEO Tim Armstrong starts his day at 5:00 a.m
- PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi is in the office by 7.am. (which means she wakes up a lot early than 7am!)
- Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey wakes up before dawn for a 6-mile run. (other words before 6am he does his exercise)
And you can read more here in the Business Article. But the point is,
Rising Early is very very important, now question is how ?
You can refer this Guide for tips on how to wake up early everyday.
3. Monitoring Your mind
This is very good exercise if we want to control our mind.
When your mind gives you some thought, just do not act, write it down.
Then after some time see to the written note, you will understand if that thought is helpful for your goal or time waster.
4. Read Scriptures such as Gita.
Reading Gita will help you sharpen your intelligence allowing you to be more vigilant against your mind.
If you are wondering why youths should read Gita? We have more than 100’s of reasons, compiled why everyone should read Gita.
And especially for the small child between 6 to 15 years, they must be given daily Gita study.
If you argue that Gita is for old people, check here.
And then you can do wonders in your life.
But if we evaluate, the contributions that we do to the society in general, will all be temporary, we may make hospitals to prolong people’s life, that’s great. But in the plane of eternity the hospitals can not avoid death.
When a person starts to understand this reality, he surpasses the ordinary levels of consciousness and he turns towards developing fourth level of consciousness.
4. Soul consciousness
“My existence is beyond this temporary and mortal world.”
The person understands his blissful identity and acts on that platform.
He can save himself, such a person we can say can enter in the eternal Kingdom of the God, as it is mentioned in Gita also.
na tad bhāsayate sūryo
na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ
yad gatvā na nivartante
tad dhāma paramaṁ mama
That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world.
~ BG 15.6
5. God consciousness (Annand Maya)
“I am a son of God.” The person understands his eternal relationship with God.
Such a person can truly contribute to the world by sharing the message of God to the entire world.
He can truly bring real prosperity in the world.
By now our small team at GitaQuest has connected more than 200,000 people with Gita. And we have obtained thousands of testimonials where people share Gita has transformed their lives.
This is “Making wonders happen!” Raise your consciousness from “Survival” to “Intellectual” and beyond, until you come to Annand-Maya that is God Consciousness.
Raise, raise the quality of your thought process and Rise!
See you in the next article.
