We tend to intellectualize too much about spirituality whereas in reality good habits lead to more peace than anything else. Are they not an excellent spiritual tool ?

First, I shall explain what I understand by spirituality. Anything that is legal, moral and leads to peace, happiness and equanimity comes under the purview of proactive applied spirituality which emphasizes more on prevention rather than cure . It has more to do with correct thinking since incorrect thinking leads to wrong action and undesirable consequences. It is concerned more to solve problem at the cause level than at the effect level( Running after different types of meditations and divine knowledge).

A newly appointed assistant manager turned out to be so talented that within a year and a half he got three cars( When he joined the company he had a motorcycle) and six promotions in one and a quarter year whereas in India, sometimes it takes a lifetime to own a car and a house. He even inspired a poem out of me.

Talented he may have been but I had more experience. He did not know a simple fact that when a payment has to be made, the person making the payment has to put a “PAID” stamp on the bill and even the Material Inspection receipt to avoid making a payment again. I brought that to his notice. Since he had become my boss, during the year end review when we were discussing my increment, I cited the above example and similar other examples to strengthen my case. His spontaneous reaction was these were minor issues. I tried to prevail upon him that this was in the nature of “ A small spark creates a big fire” and “ A small leak sinks a big ship” . If supposing you make a few payments wrong, the existence of the company goes under then how could he retain his job. On still not being totally convinced, I told him the joke in which when a customer at a garage refuses to pay what in his perception are exorbitant charges and on being asked what he should pay so much for the mechanic replies, “ One rupee for hitting and ninety nine for knowing where to and how much force to hit.”. That settled the issue in my favor.

Habit is one such issue which has not got the importance that it deserves. Although one comes across quotes like “Habit makes or mar one’s fortune “ or even “ you make your habits and they make your future”, why are habits not given their due importance right from childhood from the educating fraternity. Following KASH(Knowledge, Application, Skills, Habits) principle, I would give almost 35-40% weightage to habits which should be formally prevailed upon in schools.

The above example of payments is more in the nature of an administrative habit. The sad part is that MBA and all the courses are more concerned with the factual knowledge than the procedural knowledge because of the snobbishness associated with it. It is so fashionable to talk about Yoga and Meditation( upmarket appeal) to cure tension whereas the underlying reason of the problem maybe some habit which on the surface seems less harmful. It is important to do meditation but it is also important to solve the problem at the root and doing the former without the latter is putting the cart before the horse because prevention is better than cure. Even educational institutions should invite outsiders to part with their procedural knowledge and not elucidate on the factual knowledge.

In fact the so called professionals and government servants take full advantage of the lack of procedural knowledge in their respective fields and fleece the client or the man on the street. I have myself seen govt officials behaving like bloodhounds and pouncing and charging on every minor mistake that one made. It almost seems that their real job is mistake detecting.

Paper habits, thinking habits( thoughts expand themselves, thought pattern reinforce themselves) Communicating habits, Personal hygiene habits, Posture habits and these days even minor habits like eating which is ideally supposed to be done with full concentration. Once in a while one comes across an article in which it is given “ First learn to listen. Then Listen to learn”. This is the right way(first process- then input) but the education system does exactly the reverse .They will not change because of the snobbishness that knowledge and intelligence enjoy vis-à-vis habits.

To sum up, “Men do more things through habit than through reason”, “A habit cannot be forced out of the window, it can be coaxed out one step at a time”, “Habit knows no cure.etc “, “We are slaves or our habits”” amply states the case.

We can infer that good habits enable peace and happiness and bad habits vice-versa and therefore good habits a definite must for true spirituality as they are an excellent spiritual tool.

All this is best summarized in the KASH principle- Knowledge, Application, Skills and if I may say last but not the least Habits.