Letter to my daughter

A letter to my daughter, Sree, on the occasion of her 10th birthday

To my lovely daughter Sree,

Wish you a very happy birthday

May you celebrate many more birthdays in great health and prosperity

May the Supreme's divine grace engulf you ever and ever

On this landmark 10th birthday, I would like to tell you a few points which will guide you in the extraordinary journey that lies ahead.

First, let me start with a story:

               A young man was walking along the beach when he came across a saint who was going by. The saint said to the young man, "I would like to help you son. Take some pebbles in your bag and see your bag tomorrow. You will find both immense happiness and sorrow". So saying, the saint walked away. This man, though was hesitant whether to take them, thought there is no harm in trying and collected a handful and put them in his bag. The next day, when he opened it, what he found were diamonds in place of the pebbles. He jumped with joy as what he thought were ordinary stones turned out to be diamonds and the next moment, he fell down crying as he realised that he collected so few.

             This story conveys a very practical meaning that can build any life to the peak of excellence. Childhood is the time during which the foundation is built for a great future. What you do in your childhood plays an important role in what you achieve in your life. The knowledge you gain, the thinking you imbibe, the tastes you develop, the interests you nurture, the memories you make in this period stay with you the whole life and your decisions at all times depend subconsciously on these aspects of your childhood. These are the pebbles which you have to collect now that would become diamonds when you grow up.

At any point of time in future, you should not think like the young man in the story that "Oh, I could have done this. I could have done that". Do all you can NOW. This is the time. This time will never come back.

              From those who achieved nothing in their lives to those who ruled the world, all were given the same 24 hours every day. It so happens that some of those who rose to be the most successful actually hadn't had enough to eat or a good place to stay. Then, what made them reach unimaginable heights of success?

Single answer: Time Management

He who respects Time, Time bows to him. He will overcome Time.

He who wastes Time, Time walks over him. He will be forgotten.

As I said, everyone has the same 24 hours. You have to allot time in your daily routine to different activities based on what your priorities are.

Prioritisation

                      Fill your day with activities that will help you build a great future for yourself. Whatever activity gives you temporary pleasure but not long lasting happiness, reduce the time for it. Whatever activity that comes in way of anything you think is important, reject it outright. Plan your day, your week accordingly.

                      You spend quite a good time in front of screens (TV, Computer, Mobile, Tab etc). The screen time should be kept to bare minimum (just as much as necessary. not a second more than that) as that causes damage to eyes and also dulls your intellect and your imaginative creative abilities.

I will provide you some guidelines on what type of activities would help you more.

Before that, let me tell you an analogy.

Our Mind is like a garden.

                      When you helped with gardening, you would have noticed that the plants are treated very gently, regularly watering them and removing any waste accumulating at the plants. Only what nourishes the plants is given and what damages it is removed. Similarly, what you read, what you hear, what you speak, what you see all are inputs into your mind. That's why, we call them sense organs. If you give waste and nonsense through the sense organs, your mind will become a dustbin. If you give good nurturing thoughts, your mind will become a beautiful garden. So, what do you want your mind to be? A dustbin or a beautiful garden? Decide and do accordingly.

Reading

                   Reading is an activity that is immensely helpful. Develop your reading skills. You have to increase your reading speed. Some read letter by letter, some read word by word, some read sentence by sentence and so on. You can reach this sentence by sentence stage very fast, if you try. Keep reading. Keep reading. Read text books. Read story books. Read News papers. Read. Read. Read.

                   There is a thrill in reading. There is a happiness in reading. Once you experience the happiness in reading, you will never let go any opportunity to read. I experienced this thrill in my childhood and have been in love with reading all the time ever since. My definition of heaven, as I dreamt in childhood, would be a big library with all the books in the world and I would have all the time till eternity to read whatever I want without hunger or thirst. Reading and just reading.

                   While reading, use your creative mind to imagine what you are reading. Let it be a story, theory, maths, science whatever. What you read will be forgotten very fast. What you see is remembered for long. So, try to see what you are reading. It is not difficult. It would become a habit with little practice. Then, reading would be such a big fun.

               Do you get sleep while reading? That is because, your reading method is so boring. If you imagine whatever you are reading, you will be seeing it like a movie. A visual wonder. Whenever you try to recollect what you read, this vision will come back to you very fast and you can recollect easily whatever you want. Practice this technique diligently.

                   I said earlier that screen time dulls the intellect. Because, when you are watching on a screen, there is nothing left for you to imagine. The scene is playing out in front of you in brilliant colours. So, your mind need not do anything. That's why, it doesn't require any intelligence to sit in front of a TV and see a cartoon or movie and hence it is called 'Idiot Box'.

             Whenever you are reading, try to associate each point or paragraph with the previous one. If you do so, a link will be formed. When a question is asked, it will then become very easy for you to tell all the points because, they are now a chain. Pulling one point out pulls out all the points without forgetting any one. It is so fun to link seemingly unrelated points. It is such a wonderful game. Once you master this game, you will never forget a thing.

                 When you read a story or a chapter, you will remember almost the full the next day, but will start forgetting from the second day. So, always revise what you read the previous day before starting today's topic. That will reinforce your memory and prevent yesterday's reading from draining away. It will help more if you revise once a week, all that what you read the whole week. Apart from this, you will be having periodical exams when you will be revising again. But, if you revised every day and every week, you just need not worry about exams ever again.

                I started with reading and am telling about remembering and revising. Do you know why? Because, if you forget what you have read, some day you will think, "what is the fun in reading? Anyhow, it will be forgotten" and give up reading. That's why I am stressing on remembering what you read.

                    As you develop your reading skills and remembering capacity, become more and more selective in what you read. Like the garden example, don't fill your mind with nonsense. Choose wisely. As you read and read, you will know what to read and what not to.

For your class books, always read the same day whatever that is taught on that day. And also read what that will be taught the next day. You will not understand in full. You will get some doubts. Next day, when the teachers teaches the lesson in class, your doubts will be cleared. Then, if you come home and read the lesson once again, it will be very difficult to forget it. Because, by that time you heard the lesson thrice. Hearing the lesson you already read, from the teacher is such a wonderful experience, that once you feel the wonder, you will make it a daily compulsory habit. Try.

                   For other books, do not stop after a few pages. Story book or book for inspiration or any book, read as many pages as you want every day and keep reading every minute of your free time till you finish that book. Then only, go to another book. This will maintain your mind in line with whatever you are reading and make you understand and imbibe it better. This will also help you in reading many, many books.

Read. Recollect. Revise.

Reading is Fun. Reading is Play. Reading is Joy.

To reach this level of reading, it may take some practice. But, it is very very much worth it.

Playing

                 Playing is an activity that gives immediate enjoyment as well as long lasting memories and health. Play to your heart's fill, but within the time you allot to this activity. Playing can be a sport and/or a mind game. As said for reading, if you are playing, keep your mind fully in it. While playing, don't think of exam. While reading, don't think of play. Whatever you do, concentrate fully on that activity.

                    While playing, think how better you can play than yesterday. Try to improve your game everyday. Little and little, step by step if you improve yourself, one day you will suddenly find that you have come a long way, changed a lot, became a better you.

                   Play till you are drenched in sweat. That's a very good exercise. Play individually and as a team. Playing as a sports team promotes your capability to perform as a part of team which is very important when you will be a part of a team as a member or as a leader. Always remember the team is more important than any single member including yourself. It will also teach you sharing and sacrificing your own interests for others. That's a very good thing.

Additional Skills

                       Develop additional skills. For example, when you do drawing and craft work, try new things. Don't do the same things over and over again. Try to improve on what you are doing. Your competition is you. Always see what you drew and think for a second, is it better than what you drew yesterday. If it is not, then it means you wasted the time today. Think how it can be made better. Implement it. This strategy can be applied in studies, sports and all activities including drawing. You are very good at creativity related to art work. Develop it, practice it more regularly and become more and more efficient in it. Use your mind and hands with dexterity.

Speaking

                  Speak wisely. Talk only as much as necessary. If you keep talking, you are gaining nothing but wasting your breath. Be a good listener first. Practice listening without interruption. Listen with concentration. Listen with open mind. It will surprise you how much you can learn by just listening. A great speaker is first a greater listener. If you listen now to what all everyone says, one day, the world will listen to what you speak.

                    Practice speaking on a topic. Take a topic, make a note of what all the points you want to speak. Then prepare the notes on each point. Speak then. Speak like this with me or your friends. You can play this game with your friends. Select a topic. Give yourself some time to prepare and each one of your friends can speak. You can judge your friend and your friend will judge you. Whether you are able to speak without breaks, without hesitation is the key. Gradually, you will become a great speaker.

Yoga and Meditation

              Do Yoga. Learn and practice it every day. Yoga is not just stretching the body in gymnastic poses. It is very energising to body by giving strength to muscles and bones and also stimulating hormones in our body that give us immunity, help us heal faster and be more agile and active. You will never feel lazy if you do Yoga regularly.

                Practice meditation. Meditation is not just sitting idle. It has a higher goal and is a divine experience if you master it. To let you understand it, I will tell you something first.

         With your interest in reading books on Space Technology, you have already understood that our Earth is part of Solar System, the Solar System a part of Galaxy which again is a part of Universe and so on. So, in the entire Universe, our Solar system itself is a small tiny dot. So, what is Earth and what are we as individuals? What is our role and what is our significance?

           This entire Universe, whether you call sun, earth, person, animal whatever, is basically Energy. Energy of varying proportions. Energy of varying power. This Energy manifests in various forms for various functions. The same Energy that powers the Sun lies in you. Yes, it is true. The Same Energy in infinite proportion is what is called God. The different names and forms of what you have seen as to be of God are but different manifestations of the same infinite, all-encompassing energy which it took for a specific duty.

When we went to beach, you have seen waves coming towards us from the ocean. The wave forms, travels and falls back into the ocean. Similarly, we take birth, live and merge back into the infinite. Similarly, the Earth and Sun and all other stars form, thrive and merge back. The process goes on.

              If you take a single wave, what is it made up of ? The same water that the ocean is made up of. The same salt that lies in the water of the ocean. Absolutely, no difference. But, the wave appears to be different. Each wave has a distinct form and exists for some time. Similarly, we are the same energy that exists all across. We are made up of the same constitution the universe is made up of. In each and every one of us, lies unimaginably immense power concentrated.

Meditation is tapping into that infinite powerhouse. It is like recharging the phone connecting it to the power supply. When you meditate, you will get all kinds of thoughts. Just sit straight and observe them, like we observe the waves of the ocean. Do not interfere with them. Do not analyse them. Whatever thought that comes becomes very clear and fades off giving place to a new thought. With regular meditation, these thoughts become less and less frequent and in between thoughts, you will experience a thoughtless state. In that calmness of a thoughtless state, you will tap into the immense powerhouse of energy that powers this universe and once you experience this, you will never ever leave meditation.

             The gush of energy, the immense waterfall of power that will engulf you in meditation is incomparable to anything you will ever experience in life. You have to be patiently and diligently doing meditation for quite some time before you can get to that. But, as I know you fully, you would reach that state with very little effort. Not at all difficult but only if you try with your fullest interest.

         If you manage your time wisely with all the positive and enriching activities listed above, you will collect a huge quantity of pebbles that would become diamonds and bestow you with supreme happiness, unmatched prosperity and eternal wisdom.

Be Thankful

                  In this journey of life, remember to always be thankful to whatever you have. There are millions of people including children who do not have enough food to eat every day. They never complain about taste or particular type of food. They just want food to survive. There are many children in this world, for whom, the kind of life you are living is a very bright dream they wish to become true. So, be thankful to whatever you are provided with. Get the best out of everything.

                   Don't lose the sense of wonder you feel whenever you see the trees, rain, birds landing in our balcony. Don't lose the wonderful joy when you see a new toy. Value every single thing you have and never neglect any person or anything. Every thing is precious and everyone is invaluable.

                When you learn to appreciate all the seemingly little things and joys and be thankful every single day, you will become clearer and clearer every passing day and the Supreme power would choose you to carry on its function and in that way, unimaginable greatness shall be bestowed on you that will radiate across the universe. Believe me. It's true and achievable.

Give

                    Along with all these which would make you a better individual, always remember that the greatest joy is in giving. Give. Give. Give. Give knowledge, give wealth, give food, give joy. Whatever you want to yourself in huge quantities, try giving it first. You know that opening one door of our room doesn't give much air. Only when you open the other door too, we will get good air flow. Similarly, to be eligible to receive, you have to give first. Don't wait to have everything in abundance before giving. Give from whatever little you have.

Whatever you give to others shall come back to you multiplied many times

Give happiness. Give enjoyment. Give friendship. Give love.

You will get all these multiplied by infinity.

Wish you all happiness, all enjoyment and all fun.

With lots and lots of Love

Your loving Father,

Dr. Bhoopati

P.S. : Keep reading this letter again and again till the fullest impact hits you across. Try everything what you have read and keep trying.

Read this letter again after you tried. It will be much more happily satisfying

HAPPY BIRTHDAY