Life Lessons From Legendary Philosophers

And what trivial.Many people think of philosophy as someone else’s cup of tea. Philosophy seems dry stuff, for scholars and men of words, not those engaged in the daily hard work of living, working hard and trying to make something useful out of their lives. And yet, we are who we are today because of the great guiding lights who questioned what they saw, trying to understand what was good and what was not, how we ought to behave and what we ought to consider important.

Consider: we live in a democracy where individual enterprise and initiative is rewarded and every person has the right to be his best, a system called capitalism. We were a country born of an epoch-making non-violent movement called ahimsa. We believe in the freedom of speech and expression, and that all beings are created equal. Each of the boldened words in this paragraph expresses a philosophy.

The world’s greatest philosophers illuminate our lives with their insights and their deep wisdom. From their lives, inner quests and words, we have much to learn about how we may conduct our lives. Here are just a few great minds and their great lessons.

Socrates: “What you think, you become”

Socrates 470 BCE – 399 BCE

Greek philosopher

“The mind is everything. What you think you become.”

On February 15, 399 BC, a 70-year-old philosopher Socrates was sentenced to death. The crime: thinking for himself. He was charged with corrupting youth and not believing in the pantheon of Greek gods.

It is true that Socrates, who is regarded as the father of western philosophy, questioned everything he saw around him — and exhorted his students and others to do the same. After all, he was the founding father of rational debate and cross-examination. Think critically, he would exhort his student, scrutinize your lives. Do not believe what the world tells you; think it through for yourself.

For Socrates, the best part of being human was owning a thinking mind. Nothing mattered more to him that using that mind like a searchlight, to examine one’s inner self and outer environment, to seek the truth about everything.

It is said that as he aged, Socrates realized more and more how much there was to know, and how little he actually knew. ““The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.” he said.

What you think, you become

He believed that we are shaped by the thoughts we think. Look on the dark side of everything and you will be a cynical and depressed; look upon the bright side of things, and you will be optimistic and positive, and that attitude itself will lead to success.

“The mind is everything,” he said. “What you think, you become.”

So firm was his belief that man’s own mind influences his conduct more than any god, that he refused to believe in the pantheon of Greek gods that lived mythical lives and played on the top of Mount Olympus. Eventually, this was judged a crime punishable by death.

He is credited with a number of memory sayings about human beings’ critical thinking faculty.

An unexamined life is not worth living.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

We must find our own truth. We must ask questions, read books, and look at the other side.

Socrates was born in Athens during a period when Greece was the spiritual, cultural and political centre of the western world. His father was a mason and his mother a midwife, and lived well enough to encourage Socrates in his education and growth. He showed a voracious appetite for knowledge and learning, rapidly absorbing the thoughts of leading philosophers, thinkers and men of science and mathematics.

The Socratic method

One of Socrates most enduring contributions to the art and science of critical thinking is what is known today as the Socratic method, also known as the elenctic method. The Socratic method searches for general, commonly held truths that shape beliefs and scrutinizes them to determine their consistency with other beliefs. It is best described as a cooperative, turn-taking argument between individuals in which questions are asked and answered to stimulate critical thinking and eliminate weak or contradictory hypotheses in order to arrive at the inner truth of a matter. When individual A defends a point of view, individual B questions it to uncover the underlying assumptions and beliefs implicit in the defender and uncover a contradiction. Once a contradiction is uncovered, that perspective is kept aside and other assumptions examined.

Be courageous. Fight back.

Socrates’ parents could afford to start him off in life as a warrior in the Greek army. Socrates’ was a hoplite or foot soldier. In this role, he showed strength, courage, great stamina and endurance, once even rescuing the future Athenian leader Alcibiades during a war in 432 B.C. He fought in several battles of the Peloponnesian War. War instilled certain abiding values in him, one of them being courage. From Socrates we learn the importance of standing up for what you are fighting for, not turning tail and retreating. “He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy,” he used to say.

In modern life, our battles are in boardrooms and the halls of academia, in the urban centres of life but Socrates values still apply. When faced with a challenge, the only way to overcome it by standing tall, staying the course and fighting.

Be a voracious reader

It is tempting to think of Socrates as a sage-like man, wise, enlightened and benign. In reality, he was an oddball in Athens, barefoot, long-haired and unkempt within a society that valued refined standards of beauty. He was by all accounts physically not very handsome, with an upturned nose and bulging eyes. Despite his intellect and worldly network, he did not fit the Athenian mold of striving for fame, power and wealth. The way he lived exemplified his spirit of endlessly interrogating every assumption about virtue, wisdom and the good life.

One important lesson we learn from his life is the importance of reading. Like Bill Gates in our times, Socrates, living in an era before mass publishing, was nonetheless a voracious reader. “Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for,” he used to say.

Live the good life

Goodness mattered to Socrates. He spent his entire life closely examining virtues and vices, trying to understand the core and substance of moral values. A good life, according to him, was not one spent in luxury with wine and women, but one spent reaching for moral perfection. For a quest like this, he needed no material possessions, so he lived like a hermit.

“Live a good life, not a life chosen for you by someone else,” he said. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Don’t gossip

Socrates hated idle chatter. “Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people,” he used to say. There is an illustrative story about a man who approached him one day with some juicy gossip. Socrates replied that before the man shared his gossip, he needed to pass the “three filter” test.

The first filter, he explained, is truth. “Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to say is true?”

The man shook his head. “No, I actually just heard about it, and …”

“Well, then,” interrupted Socrates, “you don’t seem certain that it is true. Is what you want to say good or kind in that case?”

Again the man shook his head.

“So you neither know if it is true, and you say it isn’t good or kind. Tell me then, is this information either useful or necessary to me?

The man, now glum, replied, “No, not really.”

“Well, then,” Socrates said, turning on his heel, “please don’t say anything at all.”

Be as you wish to be seen

“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be,” Socrates would teach. “All human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them.”

Socrates’ word spoke to his deep interest in moral values. If you wish to be seen as honest, he was saying, then in reality be honest. If being perceived as courages is important, then display courage, make it your value. In this way, your actions define who you are seen to be.

In a modern context, this could be interpreted as saying that by acting “as if” we are already who we want to be, we begin manifesting that reality.

Plato: “Find the right role models”

Plato 427-347 BCE

Greek philosopher

“A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.”

Plato looked around at the Athens and Greece he was born into and he didn’t like what he saw. It was an unequal society: the rich were very rich and focused on getting even richer; the poor were getting further and further sidelined. Plato wasn’t impressed by the effete aristocrats he saw around him, the self-obsessed sports celebrities. He believed that the young learn from emulating the behavior, ideas and actions of their role models. It troubled him deeply that Athens’ so-called heroes displayed grave flaws of character that could profoundly influence and distort the next generation.

He was unhappy that the gods of Greek mythology, who could have been role models, were depicted as having very human flaws and weaknesses. When he saw someone at the pinnacle of worldly success, he liked to point out to his students how such a focus on the comforts of the body leads to a decline of the soul.

Find the right role model

Plato wanted to give Athens new role models, replacing the current crop with ideally wise and good people he called Guardians: models for everyone’s good development. These people would be distinguished by their record of public service, their modesty and simple habits, their dislike of the limelight and their wide and deep experience. They would be the most honoured and admired people in society.

This lesson holds value for a young person in today’s world, seduced by the promise of material wealth and riches but without enough attention to the equal growth of the soul.

Think critically

Plato was vitally concerned with the quality of thinking. It vexed him to see around a society of people who did not question things, did not thirst after new knowledge, and were complacent enough to take whatever was told to them without argument. To illustrate the great harm of such a life, he made up what is now famous as the allegory of the cave.

A group of prisoners are consigned to live in a cave for the rest of their lives. It is dark,, gloomy and ill-lit, and they spend their days watching shadows of different shapes and sizes flitting across their walls. They discuss the shadows, give them names such as cat and dog and tree, and pass their days making up theories and stories about the shadows.

One day, however, one of the men is set free and emerges from the cave into the harsh glare of daylight and reality. He is told that all the strange things he sees around him are real and that what he’d seen in the cave were illusions, no more than shadows. He realizes at last how wrong the people of the cave had been in their thinking.

But when he goes back and tries to tell them about their grave errors and the wonderful vibrant world outside, they get angry and offended, and finally tell him to leave them.

Plato would explain that the cave people believed that the shadows they saw were the ‘truth’, just like most of the world’s people who chase shadows based on money, education, fame, love and so on, because this is what they had been taught since their childhoods. The result of such thinking, however, is a banal life of mediocrity, forever out of touch with reality — and never being aware of it.

Plato wanted people to be like the man who left the cave and stood face to face with reality. He had to abandon his old beliefs, understand new truths and re-invent himself. Only a handful of the world’s people have the courage to dare to differ, live outside the ‘shadows’ and discover for themselves the ‘truths’ of life. Their lives are unfettered, unconstrained by other people’s limitations. Such people — such as Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, Isaac Newton, Einstein and others — permanently change our lives, and the course of history.

In his magnum opus, The Republic, Plato wrote a great deal about ‘common sense’, which to him was just about as bad as living in a cave. Such people unthinkingly and uncritically adopt the things they are told or which they hear said, without thinking carefully and logically about them. The Greeks called such beliefs doxa — things we believe to be true without feeling the need to prove why they are true. In the thirty-six books he wrote, Plato showed that doxa, the common man’s common sense, was riddled with errors, prejudices and superstitions.

Platio was a strong advocate of clear, critical thinking. The big lesson we can all learn from his cave allegory is to question our every assumption regarding whatever we consider to be true, to be real.

WMCJ: A map for life’s journey

Plato believes that human character and values rested on four pillars: Wisdom, Moderation, Courage and Justice. Let’s think of them as WMCJ: these four mega-virtues created a rock solid foundation for life success and deep, enduring happiness. Plato’s four tools give us a roadmap for excellence, achievement and greater fulfilment.

Wisdom is the ability to respond to the best in ourselves and take the right action in each moment. Wisdom is magical, and we recognize its truth when we experience it. We hear it in the words of untainted, open-eyed children and see it again and again in nature, in animals and in the inner workings of our hearts. The lesson for us is to live nothing to prove and nothing to lose.

You have achieved Moderation, or temperance, when you have conquered your basic instincts and learned to live with balance and honour. In this state, you have mastered your appetites and cravings and are utterly devoid of greed and want. Plato teaches us that we can indulge the senses and live lives of abundance and yet show moderation, discipline and restraint. Food, drink, and sex are all basics needed for survival but in excess they turn on us and destroy our cores.

Courage resides in your ability to overcome your own deep inner demons and fears and face difficulties with fortitude and bravery. In your personal life as you live a life based on your Vision, Mission and values, the opportunity for finding courage and showing it will arise again and again — at work, in friendships, within the family, and in your marital relationships. Courage engenders freedom and growth, and the universe opens its doors and portals for us.

Justice is the ability to be fair, to respect the rights of others and give them their due. Plato asks us to live and work with harmony, respect and integrity towards all whom we encounter.

Live minimally, be contented

Plato was born into wealth, unlike his friend, teacher and mentor, Socrates. Socrates was a hermit who cherished poverty. His appearance was slovenly, and he dressed in rags and tatters, walking barefoot, letting the world know how little he cared for material possessions. And this was the man who most influenced the thinking of Plato, who called him “the wisest, and justest and best of all men whom I have ever known.”

Plato was a student of Socrates but unlike his mentor, whose life and thought has come down to us as mainly hearsay, nearly everything that Plato wrote and said has been preserved intact. Many regard Plato as a pivotal figure in western philosophical thinking, and some regard him as the founder of religion and spirituality.

In his magnum opus, Republic, Plato really made his guru, Socrates, the central character. The ten volumes of Republic are written as Socratic dialogues exploring themes that preoccupied Plato all his life — the nature of justice, the qualities of a just man, and what a just city would look like. But in its essence, Republic is a prophetic warning against “wanting more”. Plato was deeply concerned with the effects of excesses and materialism on society and people.

Plato cautions us against greed, wanting too much of luxury, comfort, the trappings of a material life. If there is anything capable of making a society sick and destroying the human soul, he says, it is the craving for more and more and yet more. From Plato we learn that wanting too much can destroy you.

The Greeks had a word for it: pleonexia.It is a state of mind when one is always in competition with others. When you want to have a better cr than your neighbour, a prettier wife, a larger company, more net worth, brighter children, more vacations, more , more, more of everything. Always wanting to outdo others leads one to try to get what belongs to them, what isn’t one’s own.Eventually it is the desire for more recognition, more success, more status, more power, more comfort and pleasure.

In our own societies, titans like Azim Premji, Warren Buffett, and Steve Jobs are walking examples of people whose lives demonstrated the lesson Plato taught: the greater the success, these people seem to be telling us, the greater the simplicity of life, the fewer the needs, the greater the fulfilment.

Aristotle: “Have an open mind”

Aristotle 384-322 BCE

Greek philosopher

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

Aristotle was the third, and perhaps most eclectic, of three generations of philosophers that also includes Socrates and Plato (who taught Aristotles). He left Athens shortly after his teacher died and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored the young lad who would one day be known as Alexander the Great. But more than anything, it is perhaps the library that he established, the Lycaeum, that is his true heritage. Here he produced many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls. Including sophisticated treatises and dialogues. Only about a third of them has survived.

Think for yourself

Like Plato, Aristotle believed that our greatest gift is our ability to think — about anything we wish. And yet all around him were people who thought as they were told to, who believed what they were ordered to, and whose minds lay idle and in disuse.

We learn from Aristotle that it costs us nothing to entertain other people’s perspectives by listening and soaking in their opinions. Listening openly to someone else does not mean that we accept their opinion as our own. Instead, it acknowledges that we don’t know everything in life — and never will. Having a mind open to considering all that is placed before it allows you to examine situations and events from all angles before making up your own mind about it. It also signifies respect and tolerance for the way others think and their opinions.

This lesson from Aristotle resonates with a piece of advice that successful people have repeatedly offered about learning from others, whether it be through a mentor or coach, or through books, or reading other people’s biographies or even just watching YouTube videos of their advice and insights. We learn that the world’s most successful men and women did not just think differently, they also listened to others — and then thought for themselves

Know thyself

Aristotle saw around him people with no insights into themselves and no ability to evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses — the first step towards becoming a better person. “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom,” he said. The first step in knowing yourself, Aristotle taught, was to be able to see yourself as others see you.This third person view allows you to realize the differences between what you think your actions look like and how it appears to others. For Aristotle, becoming aware of who you are, with a clear map of your own strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, feelings and thoughts, was the greatest possible empowerment a person could have. Such deep self-knowledge was indispensable to success in life.

In The Source Code To Success, you have already read that self-knowledge is a lifelong process because as you learn about yourself, you are also growing in thought and perceptions and maturing. Aristotle’s advice is to know yourself is advice for life; you can never stop unpacking and gaining deeper insights into who you are.

It is difficult to think of Aristotle as just a philosopher. Unlike Plato and Aristotle, his thinking and discourses ranged over a wide range of subjects including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. No wonder he is known today as a philosopher and a scientist. He did not only invent formal logic but also descriptive biology, physics, psychology and comparative political institutions. His works were the first time a think had created a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.

Aristotle, who has frequently been called the “master of those who know” was revered by scientists who came centuries after him.. Charles Darwin, for example, describing his journey to the theory of evolution, said: “Linneaus and Cuvier were my two gods, but they were mere schoolboys compared to old Aristotle.” Aristotle’s system of botanical classifications remain a part of basic biology even today.

Create a habit of excellence

One of Aristotle’s most powerful sayings concerned the power of habit. “We are what we repeatedly do,” he said. “Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle believed firmly in the endless perfectibility of human beings in thought and deed. Nothing made greater sense to him than for a human being to keep his mind razor sharp, open and inquiring, constantly learning, and operate at a high level of excellence.

Reaching such a level, we learn from Aristotle, is a simple matter of treating excellence as a habit and repeating it again and again until it becomes second nature.

Criticism is inevitable

One of the consequences of being an original and courageous thinker, says Aristotle that you will be alone. Some may agree with you and follow you, but there will surely be others who deride you, try to bring you down and point out errors and flaws in your approach or plan.

Aristotle tells us that on the long and difficult journey towards success and fulfilment in life, we will have critics aplenty, because that is the nature of things, especially for those who think for themselves. The world has enough people who carry jealousy in their hearts or are just plain doubting thomases. For those who shrink from criticism, Aristotle puts it memorably: “To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”

Know your friends and keep them close

Aristotle once called friendship a “slow and ripening fruit”. In his works, he spoke of three kinds — friendships based on utility, where the prospect of mutual benefit holds the people together; friendships based on pleasure, such as enjoy of playing games together, or enjoying the same music, or physical intimacy; and friendships based on mutual appreciation of the virtues the other person cherishes as important.

Aristotle considered the first two to be no more than ‘accidental’ friendships, and destined to be short-lived and shallow. However, friendships based on virtues — the “friendship of the good”, as he called them are not transactional. They have deep foundations and can last through life.

Mahatma Gandhi: “Change yourself first”

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 1869-1948

Father of India, thinker, philosopher

“Be the change that you want to see in the world”

Winston Churchill once mocked Mahatma Gandhi as a “half naked fakir”. In fact, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi stood out so much from the people he was with that he would have seemed odd to just about anyone. As a young barrister in South Africa, his impeccable english and odd notions of equality drew everyone’s attention to him. In India, dressed sparingly in a dhoti and wearing wooden slippers and wireframe glasses, his philosophy of non-violent resistance and unusual methods of protest made him stand out, especially before a subjugated nation and the dominating British colonizers.

Gandhi teaches us far too many things about ourselves and his life itself has myriad lessons for everyone young and old. But the few lessons that he embodied in his own life, and encouraged others to follow

Change yourself first

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

These words have resonated profoundly all over the world, especially in an age of growing citizen activism. There are many things awry with our planet, and many people with the will and the idealism to want to change things for the better. Gandhi showed the world that a person’s integrity and credibility starts to take shape when he begins to walk the talk, and change inside so that he can bring about changes outside.

Remaining compassionate and staying peaceful were cornerstones of his philosophy. Even during the worst moments of his life, when he was jailed repeatedly, he never lost his cheerful; face and loving temperament. This inner conviction and the ability to live as he preached was what made him a formidable force.

Changing yourself from within is neither easy nor quickly done. It requires sincerity, humility, critical self-reflection, an ability to acknowledge flaws and improve upon them, and finally, to never feel content. There should be no point in a person’s life when he or she feels a sense of being perfect.

Watch your thoughts

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”

Gandhi knew that as much he needed to train and discipline his body to endure and be comfortable with harsh and spartan simplicity, it was his mind that needed to trained and kept in check. Actions begin as thoughts, and character stems from actions. Knowing this, Gandhi worked hardest on mastering his feelings and thoughts, knowing that as he thought, so he would be.

Gandhi’s advice teaches us that we need to work hard to cultivate constructive, productive and healthful habits of mind and body that can strengthen your spirit and keep you sure-footed on your road.

Strength in Forgiveness

Gandhi’s grandson said in an interview that one of the greatest lessons he had learned from his grandfather was — “Forgiveness is more manly than punishment.” To put aside thoughts of retribution and revenge, to subdue and quell anger and resentment towards someone who has done you harm – these require great inner steel and strength of character. Gandhi knew these are far, far more difficult to achieve in practice than expressing a short temper and seeking blood for blood.

“Nonviolence is not the same as passivity or cowardice,” Gandhi said. In a world where brute strength is taken as the sign of power, and might seem to make right, it is difficult to understand that the one who lashes back is the weaker of the two, because he could not control himself or his responses. Gandhi did not say, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” but that phrase correctly captures Gandhi’s rationale for forgiveness.

Know Your Own Value

There is a charming story Gandhi’s grandson Arun tells about the Mahatma’s autograph. At a time when Gandhi was immersed in various projects that needed funding, which the British controlled with a tight fist, he started charging Rs.5 for each autograph that he gave. One day the grandson, thinking he deserved one too, slipped his autograph book into the pile, but without any money inside.

When Gandhi saw it, he refused to sign it, even though it was for his grandson. “You should know that I don’t make exceptions, even for grandsons,” he said. “If you want my autograph, you will have to pay me for it or earn the money and pay me. Do not ask your parents for it.”

Eventually, Arun realized that his grandfather was teaching him a lesson: Gandhi had decided on the value of his signature. That value was for everyone, irrespective of their status or relationship with Gandhi.

Gandhi teaches us to recognize our value, just as he saw it in others. He recognized, with the greatest humility, who he was and what he was worth. Without the conviction of his own worth, he would not have been such a giant in India’s history.

Sadhguru: “Enhance your perception”

Sadhguru 1957-date

Indian mystic

“Learn from the mistakes of others, you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”

He’s been called ‘badass’ — which is a good thing — and he has had a passion for motorbikes from his youth.With his flowing white beard and Rajasthani style turban, Sadhguru looks more like a farmer than one of India’s most popular wise men and mystics. When he opens his mouth to speak, you hear articulate, expressive and nearly unaccented English, tinged with irony and gentle humour. It would be an understatement to say that is probably one of India’s most respected sages, known for his practical wisdom and insights, as well as the down to earth way in which he addresses the most obtuse questions.

He was born Jaggi Vasudev Mysore, Karnataka the youngest of four children in a Telugu family, His mother was a homemaker and father an ophthalmologist with the Indian Railways. Like all children of railway employees, Sadhguru’s childhood was an endless saga of transfers and changes of residences, with all that that implied : changes of school, friends, and environment,.

One day in September 1982 he rode his mobike up Chamundi Hill and sat on a rock, where he had his first spiritual experience. He describes his experience as follows:

. . . For the first time I did not know which was me and which was not me. Suddenly, what was me was just all over the place. The very rock on which I was sitting, the air that I breathed, the very atmosphere around me, I had just exploded into everything. . . I thought it lasted for ten to fifteen minutes but when I came back to my normal consciousness, I had been sitting there for about four-and-a-half-hours, fully conscious, eyes open. Time had just flipped.

That’s how Sadhguru’s spiritual life began. He founded the Isha Foundation, a non-profit organization and is involved in social outreach, education and environmental initiatives. He has written New York Times best sellers and addressed world leaders at the United National headquarters, and the World Economic Forum. In recognition of his contribution to the field of spirituality, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan civilian award in 2017.

Be a seeker

The “mystic on a moto”, as he has been called, has always been a great fan of what he calls “purposeless travel”. For 8 years in the early 80’s, Sadhguru zig-zagged through India living on his motorcycle. “There was a time when I literally lived on a motorcycle. When I rode somewhere, I never checked into a hotel, I just slept on my motorcycle. I would just put my bag on the motor crossbar and the handlebar, lie down and have a sound sleep.”

An easy rider who believes in “purposeless travel” is a perfect definition of a seeker. Sadhguru encourages us to stop being ‘believers’ and become instead seekers after the truth. The world, he says, is a battlefield where people’s beliefs are pitted against each other. People espouse hearsay, half-truths and anecdotes unquestioningly as the ‘truth’ — and then fight each other claiming that theirs is the real truth. We learn from Sadhguru to question our beliefs and assumptions and uncover the truth that lies beneath. This requires you to make room for other people’s opinions, listen with tolerance and carefully reflect on what it true, being ready to abandon your beliefs or pre-determined positioned if they seem flawed.

Live with intent

One of the most powerful lessons Sadhguru gives us relates directly to the core of this book, The Source Code To Success. He says that a life lived by chance is a life not lived at all. He urges you to take your life into your own hands and deliberately design it into what you want it to be, and then work hard to reach that pinnacle. “A few things may happen by chance,” he says. “But if you wait for the chance, good things will happen to you only when you are in your grave because things may take their time.”

A life lived by chance is fill with uncertainty, for you will never know what to expect next, good fortune or bad. Fear and anxiety are the result, and loss of control over your own destiny. Sadhguru teaches us to live so that this never happens to you. Choose to design your life and live with intent, he says. Your mind, body, decisions and actions belong to you; use them to shape your own future and success.

People such as Sadhguru, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Warren Buffett are walking, living examples of people who live every moment with intent. They had a clear vision, they knew their mission, and they lived illuminated by their values. What a coincidence that this is exactly what The Source Code To Success wants you to do as well.

Never forget that you’re mortal

Millions of people who go to bed tonight will not wake up tomorrow morning. Sadhguru draws our attention to the sheer miracle of being alive and it’s flip side — that one day you too will be no more. For many people, the end of life is filled with regrets and recriminations and afterthoughts for what they might have done differently. Sadhguru teaches us that a constant awareness of mortality sharpens your consciousness and makes you a person who takes nothing for granted.

“If you are conscious of your mortality, would you think you have time to crimp?” he asks. “Would you have time to fight with somebody? Would you have time to do rubbish with your life?” When you value life, you will know that all these are passing moments.

Living with an awareness of mortality makes one value life’s little things, small moments, passing glances, sweet touches. Such as waking up fresh and alive in the morning.

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Aristotle biography https://www.biography.com/scholar/aristotle

What were Aristotle’s accomplishments? http://tinyurl.com/yynvwqyj

7 must-read lessons from Aristotle https://motivationgrid.com/life-lessons-aristotle/

11 life lessons to learn from Aristotle http://tinyurl.com/hwf6ube

Aristotle http://tinyurl.com/y84bqpwy

Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship http://tinyurl.com/yyy6vs5p

Top 10 success principles to learn from Sadhguru http://tinyurl.com/yyw2bbue

6 Sadhguru principles that will change your life http://tinyurl.com/y6qqskko3

Man and machine http://tinyurl.com/y35hoqo2

Mystic on a moto http://tinyurl.com/y57ytqje

Isha website https://isha.sadhguru.org/in/en

Stop believing, start seeking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h74lAWWq88

Becoming seekers after truth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX-s0evYaLs

Jaggi Vasudev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaggi_Vasudev

Lessons of Mahatma Gandhi http://tinyurl.com/y2h52kym

5 life changing lessons to learn from Mahatma Gandhi http://tinyurl.com/y55ghetf

10 Life Lessons from Mahatma Gandhi for your child http://tinyurl.com/y5mwmgkg

Mahatma Gandhi biography https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mahatma-Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi’s autograph http://tinyurl.com/lkytuq7