This Diwali, It's Time To Leave The Ice Cream Ideology And Adopt The Candle Ideology Of Life

Dear readers, first of all wish you all a very happy and a prosperous Diwali. This is a festival of lights, and lights have an important influence in our lives. Lights give us clarity and remove all doubts which are created by darkness.

As an Indian, I have a unique observation in this festival. On Diwali we light candles and also by this time of the year most of us (not all) stop eating ice creams. One might wonder what is the correlation between candles and ice creams.

Let’s try to understand this...Most of us love to eat ice creams. For people who eat ice creams, it’s good to eat ice creams but If we consciously observe, the ideology behind eating the ice cream is to enjoy it, before it melts. And we must live life like an ice cream, enjoy it before it melts.

If we look at the candle, it melts itself gradually and gives light to others. So the ideology here is, give light to others before you melt.

A ice cream is finished or has to be finished, but the candle is complete when it burns. Hence exemplifies the difference between finish and complete. It is said if you get a good life partner you are complete, but if you get a bad one you are finished.

This world is full of ice creams, today it needs a few candles. We love people like Aziz Premji for his foundation to commit 1125 crores to tackle Covid 19 crisis. All those people who have gone out of the way to help out the destitute in the current crisis are no less than the candles of the society.

There are several organizations who have taken the burden but have neither reduced the salaries nor the count of their employees. Palam Kalyan Sunadarm from Chennai gave away his salaries to educate the poor. He was recognized by American government and was given an award of 5 million US $. He gave away even that for the education of the poor.

We all cannot be the candles to that extreme, but just because we cannot be the candles, should we continue to be the ice creams?, utilizing the resources for our own benefits before they finish. Once a poor man went to a hermit and started to lament about his destitute. Hermit told him that he was poor because he does not do charity, donation or giving acts.

Being surprised he said, I am already poor, how and what can I give? Hermit told him that he has 5 valuable gems which he can share with others. Gem number one is your smile, which comes free and has positive influence and impact on the other person. Gem number two is your pair of eyes with which you can see people with love and affection, and show them that they are cared for. Gem number three is your speech with which you can appreciate genuinely.

Your fourth gem is your heart with which you can pray, wish and carry the expression of wellbeing of everyone who comes your way. Your last and the most important gem is your body with which you can help and assist people in several ways. If you will contribute for the wellbeing of others, your wellbeing will be taken care of automatically by others, and you will not be poor anymore.

So adopt a candle ideology one does not need to be affluent. (refer to my article Influence without affluence)

People with ice cream ideology mostly create lots of money, but those with candle ideology creates lots of wealth. If we define wealth, it can be understood with a simple linear equation

“WEALTH = MONEY + PEOPLE + SUPPORT”

We must remember that people love us when we are born and also love us when we die. In between we have to manage. We can do that well, by starting our journey of transformation, from an ice cream to a candle in our lives.

As mentioned above Diwali in India also signifies the time to start the journey from leaving the ice cream ideology and adopt the candle ideology of life. Happy Diwali again, may the extra lights of the festival help you find your purpose of life and help you explore possibilities....All the best...

(The author is a Lucknow-based leadership coach, corporate trainer and an Internationally certified Design Thinking Master practitioner)