Manpreet Singh Chandoak BLOG The purpose of this website is To Spread Awareness among thousands of those, who still don't know about the Sikh Religion, or those would like to learn more about Sikhism. I am very fortunate, again with the blessings of the Gurus that I got this domain name. I don't know whether I can make the right use of this name, but I do want to put in this place to share my experiences as a Sikh. What I enjoy the most, is when still in today's world, I introduce to people what a Sikh is! There are still so many people who don't know what a Sikh is. Just in a recent conversation with one of my clients, a lady from Granada in Spain, she asked me why do you keep beard and are Sikh women restricted to do certain things? I really get on my toes when explaining and answering any thing about this wonderful feeling, of being a Sikh and living as a Sikh. What I can ask other Sikhs who often face such situations like mine, simply bring them to the home page of SikhCouncil.com where I have tried to answer the most general things, that I think every Human Being on the Planet Earth must know about Sikhism, no matter whether he or she has ever seen a Sikh in real life. Please keep checking as I keep posting my stories/articles, that would be from my autobiography book that I am still in the process of writing. In case you do like my thoughts, just write into me at m@8cm.net P.S. I do go off the track some times, when I am writing its from the inside, just general feelings, no offense to any kind of society or people would be ever made. ARTICLE 1 - Living Life to the Fullest © Manpreet Singh Chandoak, New Delhi, India I really like this line, we have all heard this line at least one in our lives, no matter which language we talk in. What can be an appropriate example of "Living Life to the Fullest". An example, where we can say, hey buddy don't waste your life, you gotto "Live Life to the Fullest" like XYZ Can we really justify that XYZ actually lived his/her life to the fullest. I know a plenty of people who have said me with proud that "yes, I live life to the fullest" and they almost all have very different kinds of nature. Mr. A that I know, his day begins with a glass of Wine and ends at any happening night club you heard about, he goes to work till 6 PM after which he says, its his personal life which involves going around with his girlfriends (not one but has many girlfriends), doing ... things, then going to some Disco theque, eating out and having fun. If we ask him, What is GOD ? - Well, God is something inside us, we have to feel him within us, he can't be met by going to any religious place, when we have fun, he is with us. Mr. B, his day begins in a Gurdwara, a religious place, where he devotes for his morning prayers, goes to work and then back to Gurdwara for the evening prayers. He eats Vegetarian food, does not drink alcohol, sleeps early and wakes up early. If we ask him, What is GOD ? - God is all around us, we pray to him for our well being, whatever we do he is watching us and we gotto pay for our sins and bad works we do. Pretty Good! 2 kind of Persons, with there 2 totally different lifestyles, yet I find both their versions of God as really good. Both of them said what I find to be correct, although we can form our own definition by mixing both of their versions. Anyway, now moving back to our topic, I personally feel a person can be said to live life to the fullest who is remembered even after his death. A normal good person can be remembered for at the most 1-2 generations after his death. Please see that I talk about death very often and If I know any truth in the world, that truth is Death, may god bless. I really think a person like Mahatma Gandhi lived life to the fullest - the reasons to support are, he did so wonderful things for the people of India, yet with one equipment called "Peace", I don't think any one can ever forget him in the next 1000 generations, his life is what is actual worth living, full respect to him. We come and we go, does anyone really care about us, who we were or what we did, its until people start recognizing from within, when the God they believe in, starts recognizing the God within us. I still don't understand what - Living Life to the Fullest would mean for me, a computer programmer by profession and CEO of a website company. I used to dream by thinking about Bill Gates when I was studying, I started website business without any person to help, no one in my far generations has ever done such computer business, my relatives are all cloth merchants. I have been a self starter through out, because I do feel a force who is there to tell me that "I am Me" and I can touch the sky too if I do commit myself to something. I dreamed and I started, saying God be with me, when I started to grow in business, I really started feeling that God is with me all the time, he does listen to us but thats when we don't think to harm others and we do our work with sincerety. We are so big so far, yet so small. I asked 3 people who work for us, like our home servant, the women who irons our clothes, dishwasher woman, etc - none of them knows who the current prime minister of India is!! 2 out of them don't know the name of our country, but they do have heard the word "India" before!! They don't know what a black or white color racism is, they don't know if there exists foriegn countries like Brazil or Germany where people who speak a different language live!! I felt like shame and so small by knowing about their knowledge. I have always felt the world is so small by talking with Americans and Britishers on phone all day and night because of my business, which is to deal with Non-Indians, yet the people who live so close to me have so less knowledge, yet they love the way they are!! We talk about exploring Mars, a seperate planet, yet there are people who don't know about their own country. But the conclusion is satisfaction, its good if they are satisfied this way by thinking the world is so small, because such people might be more disturbed in life, by coming to know about the probabilities in the modern day world. People who know more often become more confused in life and troubled, its good to know less - after all at the end of the day Love and Happiness in life is the main goal in everyone's life. Now the real thing - Living Life to the Fullest according to me is: 1. Doing the right things (which must be universally right too - for a person who destroys tallest business buildings and thinks he is right is actually the worst person, because killing of innocents and harming other humans is never acceptable in any kind of human society, such people are actually not religios but insane) 2. Doing something/anything so people do remember us even after we go (again never do destructive things, think positive, how people can praise us even when we are not there, that yes - he was the man or woman, I hope I could be like him/her) 3. Meditate and in everything we do remember that God is there - God is both within us and every where around us (when we are among good people, we feel proud that yes I like their company, this actually means that God is around us) 4. Have Confidence, but not over confidence (if you are beautiful, rich, good looking - still people may dislike you due to your habits and behaviour, so be conscious) 5. Think about reaching a goal which (thats my personal thinking too - think about your aims in life, because when you will fulfill them you would say, Thanks God for making giving me birth as a Human and see I did live life to the fullest) To End up, an excerpt from a nice writer, Happiness is what all of us seek. In our own distictitively different ways. Do we get it? Easily? Does it cost much? How does one go about achieving happiness? Is contentment happiness? In a recent study Indians and Bangladeshis, both with a huge population below poverty level, were found to rate evry high on the 'happiness scale'. A surprising find? I don't think so. Mahatma Gandhi once said "The earth has plenty to meet everyone's need, but not enough for one man's greed." If you read this complete Article carefully, I am sure it would bring atleast a 0.0001% impact on your views about life, and if it does, I would be the most happy person, Dhan Guru Nanak. Thank you, Manpreet Singh Chandoak - October 22, 2006 11:00 AM IST