Reading Time: 5 minutes
An avid fan of Sunil Gavaskar, I heard him (and read quite often) attributing his success to the “3 D’s”: determination, dedication, discipline. Sushmita explores its ramifications, exclusively for Different Truths.
Tall order it is, to allocate an order to the 3 D’s that Sunil Gavaskar acknowledges for his achievements. He surely has his own order, and whatever that might be, that has led him to all that he has been (and is being) led to. That matters to him, and to all he has enthralled—and still does, whenever the video recordings and clippings, with him on song, are seen.
3 D’s do not imply, in this case, three dimensions, but behold the seeds of and facilitate a meaningful life and realised living, a multi-dimensional life lived with these 3 D’s as the aides.
An avid fan of Sunil Gavaskar, I heard him (and read quite often) attributing his success to the “3 D’s” (as he used to mention): determination, dedication, discipline.
As a kid, couldn’t fathom the implications of this acknowledgment. But as it came from Sunil Gavaskar, I paid quite a bit of attention. Gradually, with the presence of these words in the consciousness, dancing and prancing, nudging and prodding, I found myself frequently glancing at them, wishing for their chronology—the order for and of these 3 D’s. I found myself chancing my own order!
And still, the process continues, as whatever order is ascribed, is found to hold, and not withhold the outcome that is Sunny Gavaskar for us. Ever an inspiration, he has even inspired to find an order for the 3 D’s, and in doing so, has yet again led to see oneness as the essence of life, there being no “lines,” truly, even between the words, their “syno-nymity”[i] beheld and upheld despite the apparent disparity, which cannot dissolve and veil the core singularity. Disparities, the infinite diversities, that we behold, are the infinite magnanimity and flexibility of life and its source, One and Infinite!
The order is ever perfect, and so nods Albert Einstein: “Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.” So, instead of trying to predict, called for is the complete immersion in one’s work, in one’s path of life—and when one is blessed to receive the “word” of one’s “calling,” give oneself fully to it. It is not just a source of enjoyment and fulfillment, and all that one wishes for, rather, is a source of inspiration and enjoyment for posterity, eternally, eternity indelibly imprinted with such works.
Called forth are hence the 3 D’s—not just for one’s calling, but also for even that we call mundane. So is ordained that determination, dedication and discipline be the essential “pre-dictions,” that care not for predictions, care not to predict, simply march ahead, without any figment and fragment of doubt in the mind.
Which comes first, and what is the order: Determination, dedication, discipline? Determination, discipline, dedication? Dedication, determination, discipline? Dedication, discipline, determination? Discipline, determination, dedication? Discipline, dedication, determination?
Constant is the churning…. Discipline of the mind is essential to invoke determination, which brings forth dedication spontaneously. Discipline facilitates dedication, which ensures determination. Determination is a must, to keep one from wavering, ensuring a disciplined mind facilitating dedication. Dedication to life, to the opportunity and platform[ii] called life, brings forth determination, ensuring discipline.
None can be negated or relegated, nor can be delegated to the other! Such is the beauty of life, life’s truths determined and realized by determination, dedication and discipline rolled into and as one, rolling out the “scroll” of life, beckoning us to scroll up and down and view the ups and downs in life, acknowledging, how we waded and wade through them, without trying to evade and avoid them. Determination, dedication and discipline determine how we perform, irrespective of the apparent, the ultimate achievement conveyed by the inner voice—which too can never be truly negated, relegated and delegated.
A disciplined mind enables the discernment of whether we are determined and dedicated or are simply driven by the urge for ego-gratification. Even such a drive calls for determination and dedication, though then, it is found to bear a connotation which is deemed negative. But truly, discipline, determination and dedication cannot be labeled as positive or negative. The perception-backed intentions decide the “direction” of determination, dedication and discipline, life, as a whole, a “discipline,” which ultimately makes us disciples of Truth—which stands the test of time, remaining unchanged.
Albert Einstein observes: “Truth is what stands the test of experience.”
So, it is with these 3 D’s, determining our experiences, determining how we taste the tests, not predicting but ensuring that we are guided to the perfect order that life follows, unfurls as, and flows with. Life ensures that we are led to commit and thus devote to, not de-vote, life, determined, ensuring the dedication, fostering the discipline, as it leads us on to the path of meaning and realization of the meaning of our life, dissolving all that fetters the mind, resolving all that festers. Hence, produced are the opportunities as “testers,” calling forth our determination, dedication and discipline to rise above the subtle (in the mind) and gross contradictions, the diction of life determined, dedicated and disciplined.
Completely dissolved in the process — to which Abraham Maslow calls, “What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualisation,” and Albert Einstein echoes, “We have to do the best that we can”—guided we are to the shores unimagined, absolutely disciplined, determined and dedicated, undeterred by the provocations of contradictions, enjoying every moment, learning every moment from the moments which put forth life’s grandeurs. So, Einstein mentioned to his son, in a letter: “That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes.” [iii]
So, whatever our personal chronology, of and for the 3 D’s, in one word, they convey and ensure: Immersion!
©Sushmita Mukherjee
Photos from the Internet
[i] http://www.differenttruths.com/literature/criticism/opportunity-a-platform/
[ii] http://www.differenttruths.com/literature/criticism/opportunity-a-platform/
[iii] [3] http://time.com/3765673/albert-einstein-secret-learning/ (accessed on 1 July 2018.)
#Wordwise #Sports #Criticism #SunilGavaskar #Diciplin #DifferentTruths
