I am a product of...

My own past looked like someone else’s past. This is what exactly I felt when I was requested to address over 800 MBA students in my organization. I had to take a session on sharing my experiences and wisdom on how to make a career in the corporate world. Initially I was a bit nervous as that would be the first time I would be addressing such a big gathering. But, on the day of the session, I was in my zone and gave the best ever speech for 2 hours. There was huge applause and appreciation from all the students. At the end of the session, there was a great sense of satisfaction in me that I could contribute to the students in helping them to build a better career.

About 15 years ago, I was a person who was very shy, low on confidence and dare to face the crowd. In all the earlier attempts of even talking to small group of people in an informal setting was a huge effort for me to overcome. I failed consistently and I thought I will never be able to make it in my lifetime. Today, it is the same me who could address such a large gathering of people and make sense to them. This is why my own past looks like someone else’s past.

After taking the session in my organization, I was driving back to my home in my luxury car. There was mixed feeling of joy and surprise within me. I couldn’t believe myself that I could move from where to here. While there was a lot of effort from my side to reach this level, but then what surprised me was how come I alone could reach this stage as compared to some of my friends and colleagues who are still struggling to move forward. This was even more intrigue to digest as I understood from my teacher that all human-beings are created with same potential.

What is so unique in me? What is my composition that makes me so different and able to get surprised myself? Some of these questions were trying to find answers within me. I was searching within me and I recollected the learning from my teacher that only human-being comprises of Physical, Mental, Emotional, Intellectual and Spiritual personality. Wherein,

Physical personality is the body that I am gifted with and it is only with this body I can do anything. Without this body, I don’t exist. The world identifies me as a human-being through my physical personality. Using this body I am able to manifest many thoughts into action.

Mental personality is the flow of thoughts that I am capable of handling. It is this personality of me that monitors the thoughts both outwards and inwards of me. Quality of my life is directly dependent on the quality of my thoughts. Mind is the only faculty that has the capability to monitor the thoughts and regulate them in a direction.

Emotional personality is my ability to relate with myself and to the world. There is no life without relationship and we cannot escape from it. Even if don’t want anything and anyone, I still need to relate with myself. Hence, my emotional personality plays a crucial role that determines my ability to move ahead in life.

Intellectual personality is that faculty of mine that differentiates right and wrong. We as a human-being are driven by certain values which are nothing but our belief on what is right and what is wrong. This applies to me and to the world as well. My intellectual personality helping me to steer life in the direction in which I consider it is right.

Spiritual personality is the defining force within me that made me. It is this same personality that made this universe and all the living and non-living. This is the existential reality. This is the force that steers me and I don’t have control over it. I can only attempt to understand it and align myself to the laws of life. The more I am aligned to the laws of life, the higher my state of spiritual personality.

All the above 5 personalities ultimately determines who I am. These 5 personalities make me a complete human-being. This seems quite clear to me but then I was still thinking that these 5 personalities again common for everyone. If that is the case, what makes me? What identifies me as so special and unique? This is something I couldn’t find a convincing answer. I definitely do not want to call it as luck or fortune or previous karma.

As I was thinking deeper into it, I realized that each of these 5 personalities are nurtured and developed in me over a period of time. In that sense, I am not a finished product at any stage. This is an ongoing process. I am a product in development and there are many forces that influence in this process of building my personality. But there must be some big influence on each of these personalities that shapes me.  I wanted to take a stock of what shapes these personalities in me and who contribute the maximum:

Physical personality: This physical form of me was brought to this world by mother (Matha). Without her nurturing me in her womb and her efforts even after my birth, I do not exist. This is the reason why she is my biggest inspiration and I can dedicate the greater part of my physical personality to my mother. She is the architect and built the foundation of my physical personality.

Mental personality: Flow of thoughts is driven by the values. My value system is greatly influenced by the beliefs that are sown in me. The architect of my beliefs is my father (Pitha). He is the hero of my life and he is a mega personality. I try to follow and imitate him knowingly or unknowingly. I cannot separate my father in building my foundation of values. His contribution is the highest in chiselling my value system to its fineness.

Emotional personality: This is very touchy and feely element of me. I learn to express the best in the presence of my friends (Mithra). My friends or even a single best friend can exactly tell me what I am feeling within. This is the wonderful power of friendship. A friend can be any person including spouse, colleague, neighbour, boss, schoolmate, college mate or relative. A friend in my life helps me to shape my emotions during the course of building this wonderful relationship. A true friendship is one relationship where there is no expectation from each other. We simply want to relate with each other and be true to ourselves in expressing ourselves. This is the best relationship that builds my emotional personality.

Intellectual personality: My intelligence is gained through the knowledge that I gather. The best way I gather knowledge is through my teacher (Guru). My teacher or guru is the person who enlightens me with the knowledge that helps me to identify myself with rights and wrongs. The teacher also helps me to learn and realize all the other personalities within me.

Spiritual personality: Spirituality is the most confused aspect. In my view, spirituality is my ability to recognize the presence of that force (which created me) in everything that I relate with. In order to achieve this, I first need to anchor myself to one faith through which I can identify myself, relate with and then will be able to see that force in everything outside of me. I would call that faith as God (Deivam). God is not an intellectual understanding but is a personality. God is that personality that I should be able to relate with my heart. Therefore it would be a first step for me to identify a form in which I build my faith through which I can recognize the spiritual personality.

If I have to summarise, I am a product of Matha, Pitha, Mithra, Guru and Deivam. Matha is my mother, Pitha is my father, Mithra is my friend, Guru is my teacher and Deivam is my god. All the five of them have great influence in shaping my 5 personalities. If we remove any one of them, I will be incomplete and imbalanced. It is these 5 personalities make me what I am today. I am a product of each one of them and all of them. I can even conclude that if my life is going great, it is because that I have all the 5 of them are positively influencing my 5 personalities. If there are any challenges in my life, it only means that somewhere I am not paying attention to the teachings of any one of them.

In that sense, I am a product of my Matha, Pitha, Mithra, Guru and Deivam. They shape me and they are the reason for what I am today. I am grateful to each one of them. With all of them together, everything is possible. It is with this belief I stride myself to soar to new heights of exploring this human potential.