CHAMPION IN THE CROWD

How do some people break away from the crowd to become champions that they
lead and guide while the rest of crowd just witnesses (with open mouth) this
progress with amazement? The champions enjoy the limelight, they are received
with trumpets blowing, bands beating the victory tunes, and people throng to
shake hands with them. The crowd follows the champions

Let us pick up a debate. Are Champions made? Or are Champions born? Does God
specially create these people and endow them with special gifts while denying the
vast majority of the population the rights to rise up. Has He designed a big majority
of the humankind with deficiencies, so that they will slog in poverty (not exactly in
money terms but in many terms). Has He given eyes to this majority group only to
witness those few rising stars and be amazed? While He gave eyes to those
champions to see beyond the present that they can easily seek what others can
never do?

The fact anyway remains that these champions also started their journey from
being a part of the crowd. While there can a be a few instances of childhood
brilliance later transformed into spectacular glory as they grow, the vast majority of
the Champions have emerged from (as if) out of no where. The world reckons their
superiority only when they have earned their crown and those glittering awards
which sparkle bright in the darkness of the mediocrity surrounding it. There have
been many instances where these champions have been de nied their due
recognition during their rising period. They might have even been insulted and
ignored before they earned their stardom.

Without much ado: END OF THE DEBATE: WE MIGHT BE BORN IN THE CROWD BY
DEFAULT, BUT WE CAN BECOME CHAMPIONS BY OUR DESIGN. WE DONT HAVE TO
REMAIN IN THE CROWD.

Not to believe this capacity of ours is only an easy way for shifting our responsibility
of becoming the champions to external conditions like Destiny or fate. It is another
method of licensing the laziness. An agreeable way to justify not attempting. An
escape route from the price in demand.

Then how do these champions break away from the crowd? What differentiates
these few people from their fellow beings? What propels their rise? What
accelerates their growth?

What happens to a person who likes being in the crowd?

Remaining too long in the crowd, creates an affinity towards that position. It spins a
web of laziness around him. The comfort inside becomes an addiction. Instead of
aspiring for the best, he starts reconciling with what is available immediately
around him. The vision does not recognise the bright colours out there, instead
becomes used to the darkness prevailing. The ears do not long for the victory band
out there but takes the eerie silence nearby as its lullaby.

Moving up into the higher levels of the life pyramid appears to be too big a price to
be paid for too small a return. Creativity becomes a crime, Desire is considered a
source of pain. Pettiness is the norm. Giants have no place there. In short the
waiting for the END begins.

This is a sort of forced liking. The human spirit inside is not designed for these
adjustments. Whenever the human spirit lifts it head to change the status quo,
immediately the mind commands it to withdraw. This is so often repeated that
even the powerful spirit gives up (for the time being) and prepares itself to wait for
long. It is like snuffing out the flame by throwing a huge blanket over it.

The human spirit is designed for greatness, it enjoys the freedom and is contend
only in contributing.

What happens when the person breaks away from the crowd and emerges as a
champion?

The thrill is unbound. Even the start of the struggle to get liberated from the crowd
itself becomes a delicious meal for the human spirit. He does not have to wait till
he is acclaimed as a champion to feel that thrill. The very first step to cut that chain
holding him down, in itself lifts him up in spirits. Happiness engulfs the whole of
him. The liberation process is ecstatic.

The ears start hearing the victory band, the melancholy instantly breaks. The vision
start seeing the rays of those bright colours ahead in life and the darkness
disappears instantly. The movement is full of feelings and lively. It tastes chocolates
and candies. It is as if suddenly the Heaven has just downed itself on him and he
would forever continue to live there.

Is being simple a crime?

No not at all. A champion can lead a simple life by choice. Mahatma Gandhi was an
epitome of a champion being simple. All the discussion above on crowd is not just
about possessing and amassing materials. Gandhi chose to be simple. That was his
design. He did not agree to submit to inhuman treatment. He did not give up his
rights. He fought for his rights. He suffered in the process of liberation. He was
jailed, physically abused and even insulted. But he continued his fight against
injustice.

For the materials he possessed, the wardrobe of hand spun cotton dhoties, hand
stitched leather chappals, the food menu of goat milk, ground nuts and a couple of
rotis he need not have invested so much efforts. He was never idle. Awake at 4.00
in the morning, sleeping during the later part of the night, filled every minute in
between with hard work. Writing letters, articles. Preparing notes, reading
biographies, holding negotiations, convincing people, walking kilometers and
fasting often and many other deeds filled the span in between his dawn and dusk.

The discussion about the crowd is specifically about the mindset. A mindset of
adjustments, compromises. Adjusting not because they are not capable of big
accomplishments but because either they are not aware about those capabilities or
just would not like to pay the price to make themselves deserving such
accomplishments
WE MIGHT HAVE COMMENCED OUR JOURNEY OF LIFE FROM BEING AN
INSEPARABLE PART OF THE CROWD, BUT WE DON'T HAVE TO REMAIN THERE. WE
CAN RISE OURSELVES UP AND BECOME THE CHAMPION IN THE CROWD.

When we realise the difference between what we want and what we have,
progress begins. The more acute we are aware about it more becomes our motive
to progress. A vast majority of people don't really have a picture of what they want.
This is the biggest stumbling block for progress.

Recently in one of our seminars, I gave an exercise to the participants. The

participants were a mix of businessmen, professionals, executives, housewives,
major students. I told them, "Imagine that the God who created you appears
before you and gives his pen to you and says, “It is with this magic pen that i write
your future. now i am giving this to you for five minutes, you can write whatever
you want, and all that you write, you will get in the future." Now start writing, mind
you only five minutes."

And i went around to see, what they are doing. For the first two minutes, most of
their sheets were empty. Some had written a few things, and then they had scored
off the same. Very few people got going from the word "go". At the end of 5
minutes, still some were struggling to finish even four lines. Some finished with two
or three lines quickly and were sitting idle, for the balance few minutes left.

What does this indicate?

1) Many of us do not really know what we want.

2) Many of us do not have a vision of our future.

3) Many of us are contended with a little more progress.

4) Some are even afraid of becoming highly successful

We create our program and then we live it.

Quite often you would have heard comparisons between a human being and a
computer. Let us do that once again. There are two aspects of a computer,
Hardware and the software. The hard disk, the circuits that connect various
components, the cabinet are examples of hardware. The operating systems like
Windows, Mac OS X, and other utility programs like Word, Excel, Pages, Numbers,
Keynote, Powerpoint are examples of Softwares. Similarly the human body, the
brain, the veins, the arteries, the nerves are examples of the hardware for humans
and the mind, the spirit, the thoughts, beliefs, knowledges, skills are examples of
the software.

Let us say a computer has a highly sophisticated hardware with great performing
capacity, but does not have certain programs installed, then the output or the
performance of the computer is that much diminished. Like for example let us take
a laptop with 750GB HD, 2.4GHZ intel core i5,4Gb memory, etc., but is not loaded
with MS Word, or MS powerpoint (Pages, or Keynote for Mac users), then this
computer can not be used to create a document or for showing slides to audience
to explain some concepts.

Let us say that this computer has a high quality hardware and also say it has got all
utility programs installed, but let us the computer in infected with virus or worms,
then again the performance of the computer is not up-to-the-mark.

So how do we make this computer to perform the best? Simple; by installing

programs which we need, by uninstalling programs like viruses and worms.

Let us say a person is well built, healthy, organs working top class (What in
insurance parlance is considered to be classi life), but has an inferiority complex
about himself, or does not believe in his capacity to perform the best or let us say
he has a negative attitude, then you will find that this person does not do well in
life, does not do well in his profession. If this person has to perform well then some
programs have to be installed in him and some of the presently running programs
have to be uninstalled.

Let me demonstrate the impact of programing. Look at the illustration given

hereunder:
What you are seeing is a horse carrying a bridegroom in a ceremonial welcome to
his marriage. In many parts of Asia you will find this type of a reception to the
bridegroom. The procession starts from a temple and winds it way to the place
where the marriage is performed. The relatives and the friends of the bridegroom
they dance all along the way merrily in accompaniment.

This horse is rented or let-out only to such functions. This horse will take anything
between 15 to 20 minutes to walk one KM.

Look at this:

This also is a horse, but this will run at a breath-taking speed of about 80 KMPH.
Both are horses. Whereas one takes 20 minutes to cover 1KM distance while the
other covers 80KM in one hour. What is the difference? Hardware? No. It is the
program that is governing the horse. The first one has been trained that it has to
walk slow. Otherwise who will rent it for a bridal ceremony? The second one has
been trained to run at 80 KMPH. Both of them have been conditioned, and that is
why they perform so differently, even though their hardwares almost similar.

In the same way we human beings also behave differently even though there may
not be significant differences in the hardware parts.

Look at this picture:

This is the picture of young Shivaji and his mother Jijabhai. During his younger days
his mother used to tell him stories of courageous warriors. She used to tell him
stories from the epics of Mahabaratha and Ramayana. She used to frequently nar
rate the valor of the Prince Abhimanyu from the epic of Mahabaratha. These
stories installed in child Shivaji the mindset of courage, fearlessness, self-esteem
and also qualities of leadership. He grew up to become the king of Maratha, He
stood up against a mighty Moghul king Aurangazeeb. Maharaj Shivaji headed an
army of 5000 to fight with an army of 25000 of the Moghul emperor. He won three
big wars, defending his soil and later died valiantly fighting for his soil. Even a
mention of the name Shivaji triggers a sense of pride amongst the youth in India.

Look at these pics:

These are pictures of the young Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and his mother
Putlibhai. Putlibhai used to tell stories of the Raja Harishchandra (Power of Truth)
and stories form the epic of Ramayana. The kindness of the Prince Rama, His
devotion to his parents, His nobility and above all the Righteousness of Lord Rama.
These stories influenced young Gandhi in a big way. He grew up with these
qualities, uncompromising on truth, Politeness and firmness, Assertive but not
aggressive, deep rooted to principles and ethics. These qualities made him the
leader of the masses. He became a non-violent rebel which the British raj in India
could not contain. Even with the mightiest of cavalries, ammunitions, fully loaded
armories, the government could not restrain Gandhi. Ultimately Gandhi won the
cause and got India its independence and established its Sovereignty. The world
now knows him as Mahatma Gandhi (A superior soul).

Let these examples not tempt us to believe that we are conditioned by our parents,
and some of us who have not achieved big things, because our parents have not
programed us that way. No, No, No, that is not the truth. While parents did have a
role in programing us, there are other aspects that has eventually programmed us
the way we are behaving now.

Look at this pic:

When we were sent into this Earth, our Creator had preloaded some programs
inside us. They are required to keep us alive. Most of those programs operate
involuntarily inside us and are governed by our subconscious mind.

Thereafter our parents started loading some programs inside us, like what we are
doing now to our children. Sometimes with good intentions we instal wrong
programs in the children. For example a mother says “Don't run, you will fall and
get hurt". "If you run, i am going to spank you hard, stop running". Good intention
but wrong programing. Father driving a car, to drop his son at his school, looks
around, sees no traffic cop, drives wrong side in an one-way road, drives, just a
couple of blocks to reach his school. Son is in the front seat watching. A wrong
program getting installed. It is alright to break rules, if you are not being watched.

After that our teachers install a few programs in us. Some of those programs are
related to knowledge building, some related to attitudes and beliefs and some
related to our habits.

But if you look at the picture, you will find beyond all these, we program ourselves.
This part is the major one and probably more sustainable in terms of operations.

How do we install a program or uninstall a program in a computer? Using input

devices like, keyboard, disk reader, scanner, touch screens, etc. In the same way we
install programs into us through our input devices. We are given 5 senses, which
act as our input devices. We can see (Visual), we can hear (Audio), we can touch
feel (Kinesthetic), We can smell (Olfactory) and we can taste Gustatory). Using
these input devices we upload informations from around us and we keep in stalling
programs inside us. These programs keep running all the while and operate us.

A person who keeps listening to pessimistic informations from his surroundings

quite often, is creating a program in him of disbeliefs, doubting all the
opportunities that come along way. A person who gets to watch sad events often,
who gets to witness people loosing money, going bankrupt, installs a program of
fear inside him.

Installing EMPOWERING PROGRAMS:

When we read biographies of great people we get inspired. Stories of successes

build confidence in us.

When we watch motivating movies, inspiring clippings we are inputting powerful

information to our mind.

We get volumes of information from our friends. They influence us a lot. Therefore
we need to choose them very carefully. A lazy bunch of friends keep talking about
being idle. They might even be laughing at people who work hard. They might be
assigning nick names to such dedicated workers like "Robot" "Bores". Their
philosophy is that Working is idiots monopoly, smart are those who can just take it
easy and enjoy their life.
While the philosophy of enjoying life is not a bad one at all, the dispute is in what is
meaning of "enjoying" or being happy. Let us not get confused between being
comfortable and being happy. Both are not the same. Comfort is body related,
happiness is mind related. If someone is sleeping quite late into the morning we
should not say that he is happily sleeping. What happiness can one get in sleeping.
Ut the most we can say he is comfortably sleeping. It can not be compared with
happiness. If idling is happiness, then what about the people who are in coma stage
in hospitals, can we say they are very happy. It is true that they do not suffer any
pain, but we would not like to exchange positions with them.

So using the input devices (Senses like visual, audio and kinesthetic) we can install
an empowering program that can make us a champion. Using the input devices we
can even uninstall some viruses that got installed already into us. I would therefore
urge you to read motivating stories, watch inspiring movies, listen to tapes and CDs
of worthy ideas, create a friend circle which is good natured, kind hearted,
motivated by big causes. When you do this on a consistent basis, we get the power
to move away from the crowd and become champion form the crowd.