Are You Smart?

Are you smart? If yes, just raise your hand. Ok, some of you might not raise, trying to be humble. Now, let me rephrase the question. Are you dumb? If yes, raise your hand. No one will raise their hand. We all are reasonably smart. We read, write, work somewhere, create stuff, debate on many topics and do so many other things. So we can safely assume we are smart. But what is smartness?

Close your eyes for a few minutes, think about smartness and see if you can say, what are the two traits that make one smart.  Try to name at least one.

One trait most of us can identify is “Creativity”. Every industry scouts for people with creativity. Our mind is used to working in auto mode and patterns. To think out of the box needs energy. To be creative we need to think about the problem for a long time. Pondering various solutions.

Now, what could be the second one? It is not that obvious. The trait is “Focus”. Focussing drains us a lot. The monkey mind never allows us to focus. Solutions elude us because we stop thinking about the problem for a longer period. The only other way to find the solution is we need to come back to the problem multiple times to find the solution. In the process we lose interest, the initial euphoria is gone and leave the problem as it is.

We need to contemplate on smartness and educate our future generations about smartness. Creativity and focus need lots of thinking. Sitting alone and munching on problems. In this digital era, with devices in our hands. It is becoming next to impossible to think. Every millisecond of free time that we get is spent on social media. With shorter videos like reels, shorts and WhatsApp posts, we have numerous content that serves our shorter attention span, entertaining us from the moment we wake up till we sleep. When every millisecond of free time is taken, where is the time to think, to focus and be creative?

Buddha used to contemplate a lot. Every night he used to meditate on various issues. All this contemplation resulted in him becoming Buddha one day. It was not the bodhi tree but his contemplation. Every morning the first thing Krishna used to do was to meditate on God. Imagine Sir Isaac newton with a mobile in his hand. All the great philosophers, scientists, and solution providers have done so much for society through their thoughts. The most beautiful thing in the world is our thoughts. Hindu scriptures mention creation as a godly trait. The Bramha Sakthi. It doesn’t mean just procreation. All the creative things that we can imagine and do are Bramha Sakthi.

Today, The younger generation (and us) are keener on consuming the freely available content. Let’s get back our free time. Instead of lowering our heads and looking at our devices, let’s raise our heads and look at the ceiling of our room or the sky. Let’s create solutions for the problems that plague our world. Let’s entertain the world with creativity. Let’s together make the “world smart again”.

R Rajesh Kumar

Awareness-Bliss-Contemplation.