I always say that there has been a difference between how I believe—or how people believe—they should live and how life is actually lived. There are lots of things that people believe or want to be true, but they are not true, and that can only be realized when you experience life.
When you are naive, when you are in your 20s, you cannot have that kind of intelligence because you are a product of your environment—the teachings of your parents, the teachings of your teachers, what you have been told, what you have read in books, what you have seen on TV or the internet, or wherever you got your information from.
But when you go out into the world, there is an inherent contradiction between what you believed would happen and what actually happens. Then you realize that nothing works in the same manner in which you were told.
There are people who are adamant about making it work, who want to believe what they have been told—and they are the ones who really fail in life. But the people who adapt quickly to the new information they gather and change themselves accordingly tend to become more successful.
Mediocrity is one of those things which is given to you in these circumstances. I truly believe that extremism is the most beautiful thing in life. This is my personal belief and it has no relation to what people think. I know people think in a very mediocre manner and they want nothing to be extreme—but extremism is good.
Like Tom Cruise, who does his own stunts even though he can hire a stuntman. It is a form of extremism, but it works for him because he gives everything he has to the project. Amitabh Bachchan does the same, and many other people do the same. They go to the extreme in whatever they are doing.
I wanted to do that, but I couldn’t—because I personally feel that sometimes the mediocrity that has been ingrained in me because of my upbringing comes in the way. I always do things that are only 70% to 80% useful, and I inherited those things from my parents.
My parents didn’t know any better. They did what they could. They did what they were told to do. They also learned from their superiors. They also learned from the world that existed before them.
I feel very fortunate that I got the opportunity to understand life—to see the contradiction in how successful people behave, how mediocre people behave, how failures behave. There is no amount of knowledge that can change you except what you perceive as something that will change you.
I have seen two people reading the same book and reaching different conclusions. The same goes for life. Two people may have similar experiences, but they will take different lessons from them.
Humans are the only animals that carry memory from previous generations. A dog will be a dog, and a dog’s son will also be a dog, and their sons will also be dogs, having the same memory, behaving in the same manner, and looking the same.
But humans have a tendency to adapt to the geography of a particular area and to inherit some information from their predecessors.
In India, we call it Poonarjanam. Poonarjanam is not the rebirth of the same body. Poonarjanam is the rebirth of the same mind—and it is not exactly the rebirth of the same mind. It is basically taking over the data of the father or grandfather and using it to an extent that most people don’t normally use.
We learn a lot, and I believe—and I have read a lot—about this in books on Brahmacharya and semen retention: that your semen contains your memory, and when you jerk off, you basically lose a part of that memory.
It has been said by Swami Vivekananda that if you keep Brahmacharya for 12 years, you will have an elephant’s memory and won’t forget anything in life.
Twelve years, however, is a very long time. To maintain something like Brahmacharya is a very, very difficult thing—more difficult than it sounds—because the chemicals in your body start to change. The hormones begin to alter your mind, and after a while, your mind is not in your control anymore.
Chemicals like zinc and magnesium are working on it. Your semen is made up of zinc, phosphorus, calcium—all these things. It is a tiny fragment of your own body and mind. It contains all the information.
Every sperm in your body contains the information of your entire body—and the thought at that moment. Every single thought you had is in that sperm.
When transferred to another person and a son is born, he will retain some of that memory. He wouldn’t know in his life why he is dreaming about certain things—why certain thoughts come to him when he has never experienced them, why he behaves in a particular manner.
For example, a person is very violent and gives birth to a kid. But after the kid is born, the person changes himself. Would that bring a change to the child? No, it wouldn’t.
When the child grows up, he may turn out to be violent. People will look at the father and the son and feel that the father is such a nice guy, but the kid is so violent. What they don’t know is that the father was once a violent man and transferred those thoughts and behavior patterns to his child at birth.
This is something most people, I believe, do not understand. This is a conclusion I have reached myself. I have no proof of it, and I cannot present any proof, because there are certain things for which proof cannot be presented.
These things are solely based on observations, conclusions, and inferences—until and unless an exception or alternate theory comes along to explain it better.
Right now, I have not found any behavioral theory or research that helps me understand this fact better.
This was my blog for today. I know it was a little abstract, but I’ll try to write better next time.