In his book Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman,
physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman narrates this story – when he was
around 12 years old Feynman got a reputation for fixing radios. Once he was
asked to fix a radio that made an ear piercing noise when it was switched on
and it took a few minutes before the music started playing. The initial noise
ruined the listening experience.
Feynman thought for a while and
figured that the valves in the radio were heating up in the wrong order. The
amplifier valve was heating first and started making the crackling noise
because the tuner valve had not heated yet and the static was getting amplified.
Feynman swapped the valves such that now the tuner valve heated first and by
the time the amplifier valve heated up the radio was properly tuned into a channel.
When switched on there was no harsh sound, instead the radio was silent for a
few minutes and then played melodious music.
Like the valves in the radio,
we humans have three lamps or three types of fires within us - To Have, To Do
and To Be. The ‘to have’ or the fire of desire leads us to want the next bigger
car or the next bigger house. The ‘to do’ fire spurs us to action and the ‘to
be’ fire guides self-introspection and leads to deeper self-awareness.
Usually our ‘to have’ fire
lights up first and makes us want more and more material possessions. This fire
of desire then leads to the lighting of the ‘to do’ fire and motivates us to
act to acquire the possessions we desire. We tell ourselves that once we have
adequate wealth we will then light our ‘to be’ fire.
We need to pause and consider
if this sequence of lamps lighting up – to have, to do and to be, is it leading
to a joyful life in the long run, or is it leading to an anxious, stressful
experience like the noisy radio?
Should we not shape our life
such that our ‘to be’ lamp lights up first and we become more self-aware, more
self-regulated and develop an internal locus of control? Would this not allow
us to make more conscious and better choices? Choices that will then guide our
‘to have’ lamp – to have without becoming compulsive, to have while letting
others and future generations have too, to have without compromising the larger
good.
This will then fire up the ‘to
do’ lamp and lead to action that is focused at pursuing thought-through choices
that allow us to flourish, without harming other inhabitants of the planet or
our environment.
This Diwali light the lamps
within… in the right sequence.
