STRESS AND
PUBLICITY DR. SHRINIWAS KASHALIKAR
It is natural that we feel like being famous and popular. The glamour tempts! The accolades attract! This goes on throughout life. But the question usually keeps recurring and reverberating is; what then? The publicity, popularity, fame and accolades can give us a sense of pride that can boost us no doubt, but only temporarily. We go in depression when the fame fades! Moreover it can be deceptive and hence traumatically disillusion us and disturb us! This is one of the major causes of stress! The wise people suggest that our happiness should be independent of inputs from outside.
Even though initially this may appear impossible, it is not. However I have found it very, very difficult! The practice of NAMASMARAN is said to make us really buoyant and fulfilled on our own; but the degree of commitment and dedication required in NAMSMARAN; is really immense and not easy to display, even when the necessities of reasonable survival are fulfilled. The reason for this is; even though NAMASMARAN is very personal, it also encompasses the core of the whole universe! Hence it is not a matter of petty achievements and trivial successes. It is a matter of the blossoming of your personality from within in such a way that the enlightening fragrance of your soul encompasses the whole universe! In fact; this is the reason why it can preempt your
dependence on and craving for publicity, fame, popularity and accolades! Your enlightenment is no more; mere personal, but it is universal and immortal; and keeps invigorating and rejuvenating billions after billions for millennia.