#240 A seminar on Intuition, Intelligence and Innovation

A seminar on Intuition, Intelligence and Innovation

I was privileged to attend a seminar delivered by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in IIT(ISM) Dhanbad today. I have heard about this organisation before but never got an opportunity to attend a seminar addressed by Guruji. This seminar was one of a kind. Who does not know Shri Ravi Shankar?He is a founder of Art of Living organization which aims to build a violence free and stress-free society. This organisation is one of the largest organizations in India influencing a lot of lives. This has crossed around 150 countries and six continents leaving an impact over 370 millions people.

I would like to throw light on the life of Sri Ravi Shankar. He was born on May 13, 1956, in Tamil Nadu who later turned out to be a renowned spiritual leader. He founded a non-profit organization named ‘’Art of living’’ in 1981 and a Geneva-based charity, an international Association for human values in the year 1997. For his great service, he has received many awards.  He is a recipient of Padma Vibhushan which is the second highest civilian award by Indian government.

The topic of the seminar was too interesting, as he had to address a lot of audiences especially the students of IIT ,so it had to be something catchy. The topic was Intuition, Intelligence, and Innovation. The three terms mentioned here are independent of each other. In today’s world, we are under pressure to perform well in our respective professions. How does pressure influence our lives?? It has both positive and negative impacts. Let’s try to analyze. During our exam time, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to finish our courses. It enhances our productivity. We have only one notion in our mind at that time- to perform well. This is the positive aspect of the exam but we cannot ignore the fact that innovation does not come under pressure. Innovation is something that gets developed when we are in a relaxed state. Sometimes, exams create a lot of pressure which blocks mind to think something out of a box and innovation is a  way of thinking out of a box, by not limiting our mind to a particular area. Innovation is to use your presence of mind.

Life is very challenging and it always oscillates between the states of relaxation and responsibility. So, it is necessary to keep a balance between these two things. Your mind should be in your control so that you are aware of what is happening inside it. This is an essence of being intellectual. Have you ever figured out why you doze off easily in listening to long lectures?? That is because we don’t connect ourselves to what is being delivered in lecture. So we feel less interested. Waking up early in morning refreshes our minds to a great extent.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar also said that our lives should be full of fun. It should not be less than any adventure. In Hindu mythology also, Gods have been portrayed as mischievous.

The secret of being successful is to have a broad vision. It may seem impossible at present circumstance but to make it happen you have to take ample of challenges and go through a lot of trials. Ravi Shankar had a vision of organizing a seminar in a stadium in Berlin. He chose this venue because it was the place where world war commenced and through his seminar, he wanted to spread peace throughout the globe. Initially, there were a lot of challenges but it became a huge success at the end.

We have a lot of potential and enormous ideas stored within our minds. We should have faith in that. We don’t project ourselves the way we are, that’s why we don’t reach our destination.  The outcome of our action is not important but our attitude matters a lot. We always go after quantity but quality is what makes anything supreme. Spending quality time with your family or friends matters much. Do you know that a baby smiles 400 times a day whereas a youth smiles approximately 7 times? and this count further decreases when age increases.

Meditation is an act of being aware of yourself. In other words, meditation is practiced to cease the unwanted thoughts. By regular practice of meditation, one can experience tranquility.  It has got numerous advantages. Meditation keeps one healthy both physically and mentally. It clears out mind and makes mind free from any confusion which is required for taking any decision. Hence it improves decision taking the ability of a person.

How to develop an intuitive mind??

Intuition is the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need of conscious reasoning. One can have intuitive mind through meditation. An intuitive mind is always aware of what is happening in surroundings. So mediation helps in changing the structure of the brain and sharpens memory which are some of the prerequisites of an intuitive mind.

Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. So, it of utmost importance to gather knowledge from various sources, then only it can be applied to a particular situation efficiently. In order to experience intelligence, you have to think all the time that you have inherited it. By this way, you can develop confidence. Once confidence is developed, it pushes all the barrier of ignorance and makes you walk on a path of success. So, you need to identify your strength in order to develop intelligence.

In a nutshell, it can be said that pressure is one of the elements which plays a significant role in bringing success if one knows how to handle it in a proper manner. Working under pressure curbs thinking ability, as a result, it decreases the innovative power of the mind. Practically when pressure is low, intuition gets developed automatically. So, every youth has different abilities and all you need is to respect yourself and keep listening to your inner voice ...

Sweta Sarangi

3-3-2016