Abundance

What is the least abundant part of our knowledge base? The unobvious answer is the knowledge of abundance. Man is mostly oblivious of the fact that nature has bestowed everyone with abundance — of invaluable, immense and unlimited resources that are capable of providing him with progress without having to vie with his fellow beings. And this ignorance is the main cause of ill feelings like jealousy, hatred, one-upmanship, etc. It also creates the feeling of less in him as he sees only less and misses the more lying within. ‘The sky is the limit’ happens only when man competes with himself as he is unrestrained to go after and even exceed the goals while when he competes with others, he restricts himself to reach only up to their levels, and even if he exceeds them, he loses the motivation, for they are not there anymore to compete with.

If we consider the self-governed, but not autopiloted, journey of competition-within as a river, then the knowledges that come from the environs are the tributaries that add value to the mountain springs, i.e., the river in you. A river cannot compete with its tributaries as they are there to feed, not to fend off, the river. So it is counterproductive to compete with the elements —  like your friends or foes — of the environs that you dwell. Friends and foes alike give lessons to learn from though the lessons may differ in nature. The knowledge from those lessons, however, are the tributaries to you, and the wise decision is to let them feed you. But, how can man get himself out of this debilitating, self-limiting matrix of competing with others? A paradigm shift in thinking and behavior that will surely makes him hit the jackpot lying within is inevitable. That shift is fueled by the redefining and reinventing realization resulting from an internal churning whose rules are unique but do look arbitrary to others.

The realization is that there is enough for everyone on the earth and that competition with imaginary or real contenders is not the way to harvest the unlimited wherewithal planned for you by nature. Rather, healthy competition  — both: for and against — with oneself to find the abundance-within is the thoroughfare to the abundance out there. How do I compete with myself? It is impossible for today to compete with tomorrow, but it is within the realm of possibility for today to compete with yesterday. Today needs to be an improvised version of yesterday, meaning man’s learnings from the deeds of his past and putting them into use can equip him to self-compete in order to create a better tomorrow. Today is the theatre of that creation, and the higher the level of activities in this theatre, the better the utilization of the resources to create a better tomorrow.

The abundance of resources in you has no limit unless you put a cap on it. And this unimaginably high resource trove can largely be captured in one term: intellect. Though emotions have immense value and importance to individual existence, I am deliberately keeping emotional elements out of the resources because emotions cannot prove or disapprove facts and that mining of the resources from within is a fact-based voyage. Intelligence and wisdom are the manifestations of human intellect. In other words, harvesting of man’s intellect is done by the tools of intelligence and wisdom.

It will be suboptimal to chain down the term: intelligence to any particular definition, but we can say that intelligent thinking shows the ways to choose from while wisdom chooses the best way. Wording in a different way, intelligence does mind-mining that lets out not-good, good, better and the best out of a man while wisdom functions as the judge to zero in on the best. Intelligence is aided by skills, abilities, capabilities and acquired as well as basic knowledges. The adage that none other you decide your destiny implies how intelligently and wisely you utilize the intellect latent in you.

The most beautiful part of intellectual abundance is that it is packed in layers. Touching upon one layer of this abundance and mining it using your intelligence and wisdom will automatically connect you to the next layer of abundance planted in you by nature. That is why success, which is the accomplishment of a pre-set goal, is never a full-stop but a pause to ponder over and connect to the next layer of progress. In order to maintain the continuum, an abundance-savvy nature ensures that it provides abundance to a man, both inside and outside him, when he gets ready to take it handful. This getting-ready is competition-within. A man who is ready from within will find abundance everywhere outside. There is no stopping of such a man because he is not competing to take away anyone’s resources but competing with himself — letting loose his unfathomable intellect to take away the dues allocated to him by nature. He realizes that resources out there are aplenty and that he has to only present himself to claim his share as anyone else can do.

A telltale example of abundance is the relation between the fishermen and the waters of the oceans and the seas. The vastness of these waterbodies is an epitome of resource-abundance that nature has openly concealed for man to meaningfully exploit. And none other than fishermen know the true meaning of this nature’s gift! Fishermen of a fishing vessel do not compete with their counterparts of another vessel for a better catch while casting nets, rather they compete with themselves by dwelling deep into the resources-within like their experiences and the knowledge to gauge the waters for a good catch. Competition for a better catch is anathema among fishermen because fishermen know that oceans and seas had never intended to have their resources exploited that way. Abundance does not call for external competition, and shoals and schools of fishes are the signboards by nature to reemphasize this point.

Time and nature are the best teachers; while time teaches lessons from our past, nature keep its doors open to anyone keen to observe and learn from how it operates. The message of abundance is the best lesson that nature is conveying , and missing it is likely, but hitting it is not a chance but a choice that man has to make deliberately.

Note: This article of mine was published in the souvenir that came out duting the eve of International Fisheries Congress and Expo 2024 organized by Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) & College of Fisheries Panangad Alumni Association (COFPAA).