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AVIS Viswanathan Quotes

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Famous AVIS Viswanathan Quotes

“When you are coping with a challenging phase in Life, try this approach. Do all that you possibly, and practically, can in the given context, even if you don’t like doing such stuff. And then pour your heart into your art, into whatever you love doing. Do this daily. Soon, you will train your mind to go with the flow. That’s really how you learn to go with the flow. One day at a time, slowly, surely…”

“Death is integral to the process of Life. When your time is up, when your number is called, you have to go. You can never negotiate with death. Yet, don’t fear it. Celebrate it! Being conscious and aware of your unavoidable, impending, death helps you immensely. It keeps you away from postponing your Happiness and encourages you to live a meaningful, purposeful, happy, contented Life.”

“Life is intrinsically meaningless. Because you came with nothing and you will go with nothing. But you can bring meaning to your Life by doing something that makes you come alive, anything that makes you enthusiastic about the process of living. This is what living purposefully is all about, doing what you love, doing what can make this a better world.”

“When you are non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering in any enduring, painful, situation, particularly in a crisis, you can only be happy despite your circumstances. Happiness then is the perfect antidote to uncertainty. It helps you drop anchor; it drenches you in equanimity and makes you live your Life, fully, fearlessly, one precious moment at a time. This is how you don’t just survive uncertainty, but how you thrive in it!”

“When you feel dejected that your love and your sacrifice are not recognized by those around you, remember that you only have a right to your actions, to your choices. You don't have a right to expect them to be appreciated, valued or understood by others. This is an irrefutable, non-negotiable, truth about Life. Such is Life. So, stop lamenting, simply accept this suchness of Life and move on…”

“When a sense of emptiness and hopelessness grips you, try being useful. Don’t ask what’s in it for you. Just be useful. In any context in Life, no matter what you are going through and how challenged you are, you can always be useful. So, try being useful to someone, in whatever small way. Then see how your Life transforms magically. Your self-worth is always a function of how useful you are to the world, to your world. It is not about what you have for yourself, it is all about how much of yourself that you are giving to others.”

“Once you decide to never compromise on all that which makes you happy, you will find a great clarity arriving in your Life. You will then only do what gives you Happiness. Therefore, whatever you choose to do, you will get better, and better, at doing it. Because you are enjoying doing it, because it makes you come alive. This is how Happiness drives High-Performance in Life!”

“There will be times in Life when you will find yourself in a deep, dark, hole. And you will not see any way out. Every idea you believed in will be challenged. This includes your faith in yourself…and you may even end up asking if there is really a God up there who still values ‘goodness’! In such times, know that you are not the first person to experience darkness in Life and you are certainly not alone. This is how Life works. Everyone has to bear their cross, everyone has the go through their spell of darkness – feeling clueless, helpless and hopeless…these are part of the process of Life. Realizing this truth, that such is Life, that you control nothing and you have to go through what you have to go through…this awakening, this is what enlightenment is all about. It is through experiencing darkness and pain that you see the light, soak in grace and learn to be happy despite the circumstances.”

“I have often seen this about Life…that when a door closes on you, when people reject you, when what you desperately want does not come to you despite your best efforts and prayers…all this happens only because you are meant to be walking through a different door, you are meant to be meeting other people and only because it is ordained that you receive something else, which you have not even imagined…that which is truly meant for you. So, don’t grieve when you don’t get what you want; what you want is immaterial…What Life believes you need is what you eventually, always, get!”

“We are all a product of our experiences, of what happens to us, of what we go through. We make choices, we stumble, we fall, we endure pain, we go through intense strife, suffering and yet, eventually, we do awaken to what we believe is a greater understanding of Life. Each of us is a miracle in that sense – it is indeed a miracle that we have survived what we have been through! Clearly, I wouldn't be able to do what I am doing, or even say this with so much conviction, without going through what I have gone through. This is so true for you too. Isn't it a miracle that Life curates such unique experiences to help us be who we are, to do what we do, so people may learn and benefit from each of us, one way or the other?”

“The key to Happiness is dropping all your wants. Even "wanting to be happy" is an expectation that can cause you so much anxiety and unhappiness. Just being, embracing what is, chipping away at what you can do in a given context, and doing what you love doing, will suffice to live a full, meaningful, Life. Clearly Happiness cannot, and must not, be pursued; simply being, consistently just being, at some point in your journey, upon reflection, will reveal to you that it is a great quality to have lived/live Life by.”

“Life will always come up with three demands: 1. Asking for your time to be invested in what you love doing 2. Asking you to urgently focus on what you don't like doing (sometimes what you intensely dislike) but stuff which is unavoidable and important 3. Asking you to try and keep doing multiple stuff that definitely interest you, excite you, but are not your Bliss...they are likeable stuff, but not exactly loveable stuff. Often times, you end up constantly responding to Demands 2 & 3 - 2, because they are non-negotiable and 3, because they are enticing, seductive, also financially rewarding. Now, if you did not have an idea about what you love, what your Bliss is, what your Purpose in Life is, you can dabble in 2 & 3, until you have your "1 Zone" clearly defined. But if you have a clear idea of 1, stay with 1 & 2. Make Demand 1 your non-negotiable too. You will live happily ever after!!!”

“Do you find your Bliss or does your Bliss find you? When you step out of the earning-a-living or economic circle of your Life, when you are willing to allow Life to lead you, your Bliss will come calling. It will come back, again and again, whenever you step out of the earning-a-living circle…until you embrace it, until you make your Bliss your Life! This is an irrefutable truth, this is how Life works!”

“Conviction is an inside job. It is a very personal feeling. It is intuitive. You can’t explain it. Words will fail you. And it is your Bliss that fuels your conviction. Your Bliss will drive you to take decisions, make choices, convince people and it will draw you into its fold…into a beautiful, magical space where logic hardly matters or prevails!”

“I think social media and WhatsApp are extremely worthy if you use them, like everything else, intelligently. There is some (limited) good, useful, content out there, there is definitely some utility for these tools/platforms and we must stay with those in focus. There is no point in berating their intrusive and mindless nature/character. Know the beast. Tame it. Use it for its true benefits. This holds the key to your inner peace and Happiness!”

“In a way, we are all imprisoned by our beliefs, our opinions, our fears and our worries. We are therefore causing our own suffering. We are responsible for our unhappiness. Happiness truly is a decision. It is the ability to unshackle ourselves, to break free from all those people, events and things that makes us intensely unhappy. And this ability manifests itself in you when you understand that Life is intrinsically a limited-period offer and when you realize that by postponing your Happiness, you are actually squandering an opportunity of a lifetime – literally!!!”

“Resentment is a natural human response to people and situations that you don’t wish were there in your Life in the first place. So, don’t try to resist resentment, don’t push it away. Anything that you resist, will persist. Instead, examine the futility of feeling resentful against someone or an event or circumstance. Ask yourself if your resentment is serving any Purpose. By your being resentful against someone or with what has happened, can you undo the past, can you transform the individual that has made you feel this way? If you reflect on how you are feeling you will find that you are the one who is cooking within you. To stop the cooking, to escape that miserable feeling, you must let your resentment go, you must dissolve it. Forgiveness is the only way. Forgive the other person, forgive Life, even forgive yourself for having allowed resentment to fester in you …and see how, magically, instantaneously, you feel liberated and happy!”

“Don’t give anyone else the responsibility of your Life. If you do, then don’t complain about being unhappy. Not that you will not face upheavals and challenges if you own the responsibility for your actions and choices. You sure will. But at least you may have well made those decisions based on what you thought would make you happy. So, you certainly can’t complain. When you learn to be non-complaining, despite the circumstances, you eventually end up being happy!”

“Life must be celebrated in all its simple, everyday moments…If you pause to admire a dew drop or a falling leaf or feel the air in your lungs or understand the miracle in being able to twiddle your toes without having to touch them, you will appreciate the magic and beauty in your Life! There is romance in the air, 24 x 7, and a celebration is waiting for you at every step… provided you are ready and willing to pay attention and be dazzled!”

“Don't let what you are going through make you doubt who you are or what you are capable of. The intrinsic nature of Life is to provide for you, care for you and give you all that you need. Surely, you may not always get what you want – including results, rewards and recognition that you deem are rightfully due to you! Not getting what you want does not mean Life is being cruel or that there is a conspiracy against you. It only means that whatever you are wanting, and not getting, just now is not meant for you!”

“When your Life’s Purpose comes calling, nothing else will matter! It will embrace you and you will be drawn into it. This is because your Purpose is the reason for your creation. You see, money is a human invention; you were not created to just make money. You were created to be happy, to serve, to make the world a better place. Which is why, your Purpose is also referred to as your “calling”. Truly, your Purpose is calling you! Step out of your earning-a-living bubble and allow your Purpose to lead you onward. Witness then, magically, how doors open, how the relevant people walk into your Life and how you end up doing all that you love doing and are meant to do. When you live a Life of Purpose, you live happily despite the circumstances.”

“Sometimes the best way to deal with a broken family is to leave its members to be at peace within their own broken worlds. When each one is at peace with who they are, with the problems they are dealing with and are not sure of the way forward, then letting things be, just be, is a sane option. At least each one is individually at peace. And that’s no small miracle! People being born into a family does not necessarily ensure that they stay together. It takes trust and transparency to build and nurture families. When these values cease to exist, merely coming together under a roof is a lie. It achieves no purpose!”

“Not reacting with anger, but responding with compassion and equanimity, is a personal choice. Particularly so, in an explosive situation, when someone is provoking you, by trampling all over your self-esteem. How can you employ compassion when someone is spewing venom? Well, if you observe their behavior closely, someone causing you pain and anguish is actually suffering a lot within themselves. Their thoughts and actions are only reflecting their distressed state of mind. They surely know not what they are doing. So, respond – don’t react – with compassion. Ahimsa is not just non-violent action. It includes non-violent thought as well. Respond with ahimsa – that’s the best way to disarm your ‘opponent’! When you leave the other party guessing, as to why you are not striking back, you have won the battle without even fighting it. Isn’t that a great way to be protect your inner peace and profit from it?”

“When you selflessly offer whatever you have – your art, your time, your wealth – to make the world a better place, there is nothing to achieve, nothing to prove, nothing to claim and nowhere to reach. Then all you are doing is giving, offering, whatever is flowing through you. Try being this way for a day or just for an hour perhaps. You will see how happy you are. You will realize that this is a beautiful place to be in. You will realize that you are a mere instrument for divinity to work through you. When you are in that place then none of the worldly measures matter to you…success, failure, reward, recognition, victory, defeat…nothing is relevant anymore. You are truly living then because you are giving!”

“Understand the futility of hurting and being vengeful. What is the point with either? Someone has wronged you. And they have done it only because they saw it as right. Your getting even with them will only make you suffer more. It is not going to make them any better or realize that they have wronged you. Instead, they are going to retaliate. And then the process of vengeance will go on and on…never ending. You carry a hurt only as long as you think about the person that caused it as someone who has wronged you. Instead think of that someone as one who is lost in Life, who knows not what he or she is doing. And then watch your anger, your hurt, transform into something beautiful and liberating for you – forgiveness!”

“People drift apart after falling in love and getting married because they compartmentalize their lives – one part that was before the marriage and the other that is after the marriage. So, the event of a marriage places a full stop; it ends one phase of the relationship and begins another. This full stop is unnecessary. In Life, everything new soon starts seeming and feeling old; romance then receives lower priority because the courtship is over, the marriage is done, dusted – and in some cases, sadly, dead too. That’s why people who fall in love, fall out of love too. But what if you imagine that the marriage never happened? Won’t the loving be continuous then? Great companionships thrive when you never let marriage take centerstage. Treat marriage, if at all you must marry, like just another date in your courtship calendar. That’s how the loving is ongoing, it is flowing.”

“Each of us has to go through what we have to go through. And what we go through makes us who we are. If you are dealing with a crisis just now, know that your own journey is surely leading you to your awakening, to your enlightenment. But you may wonder why does an awakening, or enlightenment, often come through such intense strife and pain? Well, such is Life! We must celebrate this suchness of Life! It is after trying many different mantras, methods, practices and after experiencing every emotion in its entirety that you come to understanding, soaking in, and celebrating the suchness of Life. That is how you learn the art of being non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering. That is how you find Happiness in what is and learn to live fully despite your challenged circumstances!”

“Don’t get attached to a label called religion which society has stuck on you. After all, the Life-giving source – the breath that you and I take and what keeps us alive – is the same. Which is why, religion and rituals are totally avoidable. Yes, there’s a Higher Energy that governs all of us. It is both the creator and the destroyer. So, as part of celebrating yourself, if you want to go to some place to celebrate that Higher Energy (if you believe the Energy is location-specific) – Sabarimalai, Ajmer Sharif, Velankanni, Amritsar, Mecca, Vatican, wherever – simply go. But please don’t get waylaid by people who tell you that religion dictates or rituals demand this and that from you. Do what you feel like to enable your communion with divinity. Just be sure to be happy doing what you are doing. Nothing else – and no one else – really matters!”

“When someone lets you down or chooses to disagree with you, your anger, your grief, arises from their behavior. Or so you believe. But if you observe your thoughts closely, you will find that it is your mind that rushes off immediately to demand: “How dare they treat me like this?” So, essentially, it is your expectation of that person, that they must behave in certain way that is causing you agony. Just drop that expectation. And you will not have any suffering on account of anyone or their actions anymore. Herein lies the secret to remaining unmoved, detached and dispassionate about what others are saying or doing to you. This is the way you protect your inner peace and happiness.”

“Pain is not a monster that is out to annihilate you as is popularly believed. Pain is a great teacher. While you can’t avoid pain, it teaches you, through your acceptance of any Life situation, that suffering is optional; that there is a lot of Life during and after a crisis. Truly, acceptance of a painful situation is the only way to deal with it.”

“The truth is that this Life is a miracle, every moment you are alive is a miracle…the sunrise, the sunset, the dew drop, the moon, the stars, the birds chirping…every thing, and everyone, around you is a miracle. But you miss these everyday miracles because you are steeped in grief, in pining for what is over, what is dead and isn’t there or you are gripped by anxiety and fear, worrying about the unborn future, about what is still to arrive. You are so consumed by imagining that your Life is one endless saga of problems that you don’t see the magic and beauty of your Life, of your miracles. In fact, this human form you have is a miracle; despite your frailties, your circumstances and your vulnerabilities, “you are the miracle you seek”!”

“Everything that's happening to you, to me, to us, is part of an inscrutable Master Plan. And that grand design is not flawed! Everything is the way it should be and is going exactly per that Plan! And today is always better than yesterday. At least your ability to deal with what you are faced with has improved with one more day's effort of dealing with it.”