YOU ANT, MAKE THE ELEPHANT DANCE TO YOUR TUNE






Pic.: Vinod Krishnan

“The elephant may be a mighty animal,” my friend Soniya told me last afternoon, “but, even a tiny ant can make him dance!”

Obviously, what Soniya wanted to tell me was this: If we assume we are some mighty elephants, let’s not look down upon the tiny ants around us… Yes, any moment, even the tiniest of them can sneak into one of our giant ears, and make our life miserable! Similarly, if we assume we are nothing – too small, too insignificant in life… let’s not forget about our irrepressible power to make the Goliath dance, powerlessly!

But, Sonia had come on a mission, last noon. “Sir, you are going very, very slow in implementing your vision,” she began to persuade me, “You need to move quickly… You need to act fast.”

Soniya was right. I remembered the beautiful fable - ‘The Ant and the Elephant’. In this little classic, the author, Vince Poscente, drills down the message: Look friend, in life, if you have to move forward and fast, if you have to achieve your goals, accomplish your mission, then be aware of your conscious and subconscious minds. Your conscious mind is like the tiny ant who knows what she wants to achieve, where she wants to go.  It processes about two-thousand neurons a second. On the other side, your subconscious mind is like the giant elephant, who, bloated with tons and tons of fears, doubts, false beliefs, prejudices and ignorance, argues with you as to why you can’t achieve your goal, why you can’t’ reach there. It can process – hold your breath – four-billion neurons a second! And, if you are that ant headed towards west sitting on an elephant who is headed towards east… yes, imagine, how will you ever reach your destination!

The moral of the story, therefore, is: If you have to reach a certain destination, let your conscious mind and the subconscious mind, both, walk together in the direction you desire… Let the ant make the elephant dance to her tune!


We all are familiar with this drama within us… The ant-like conscious mind dreams; and, suddenly, the elephant-like subconscious mind wakes up with a billion reasons why we wouldn't be able to realized our dreams….

The desire and dreams come from the conscious mind…
The fears and doubts come from the subconscious mind…

I had bought and read Vince Poscente’s book, ‘The Ant and the Elephant’, nearly two years ago. Perhaps, Soniya had come, last afternoon, to remind me to read the book, all over again… yes, when I needed its message the most… “Don’t get frightened of the big elephant,” perhaps, she wanted to assure me, “sneak into one of his flappy ears, and make him dance to your tune!”

Thank-you Sonia…




GERALD D’CUNHA

Video courtesy: YouTube


Comments

Seema Nair said…
Beautiful! - Seema Nair
December 10, 2014 at 8:52 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi...
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How ...
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or pain...
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...