Be healthy... stop watching TV

Be healthy... stop watching TV for your sake! OK before you get confused let me explain. I have been subjected to an experiment by destiny where I was not allowed to switch on the TV (aptly named as the idiot box) due to the Public Exams of my children.

And that was an eye-opener.

I never knew that I had so much free time to spare (of course after the exams were over and my set-top box was disabled due to a long break). What else did I stand to gain? Read on...


This article is not about any tech device or advice on technicalities. It is a post on human expenses. What is meant by human-expenditure? Let me explain in detail. 

Warning! This may be a lengthy article so please bear with me.

I believe we are all living a life that needs to be anchored to some loft ideals and overall direction in a positive learning process and we do have a tendency to do that, by nature; it is inbuilt in all of us. What we do not do properly, is in identifying those things that lift us in a positive direction. 

We tend to get so involved with the senses that all signals that appeal to our sense organs tend to create a veil clouding our intellect. What is that veil? It takes time to realize that there is a 'veil of dust' clouding our intellect, and that too with great difficulty, as we are going against our body's pull to get to the source of that pull. That veil is the craving of the sense organs to satiate themselves. It is that veil that makes us NOT to go for a walk or stop doing something productive. It is that veil that causes addiction to that self-gratification of the senses.
It is that mindless addiction that happens in a state of unconscious living.  A life without awareness of what is good. Nowadays schools do not teach morals. They teach facts and knowledge that is of use in the physical world. Back in those days when I studied my classes had a moral-science class that was usually on the last day of the week (Friday). And in those days we discussed many things that would propel us in a positive direction.

When a man understands something as bad and unhealthy for the spirit, then he will not do it again. For eg., in the body level we understand that flame is a bad thing to touch as we may have got burnt once in our life (as toddlers) and that experience was so deep that we never felt the need to take an oath to NOT touch it. We just don't do it because we know deep down...
However when we go from the gross to the subtle the intellect does not have that depth of analysis in everyday life as we do not have the skill to listen to it and push the information to that same depth atleast not at all times of the day. In other words we need to be yanked out of our comfort zones to understand what is happening in our life in its true light and color. More like as though we are living a life of self-hypnosis and self-imposed conditioning layers.

Our attachment to all sensual (as in coming from the sense organs) signals is derived from our body. And what we do with those signals is the job of our mind. Take it or discard it. But when you see a carbonated drink being gulped by a action super star (who BTW makes millions by that advertisement) we will see that it creates a chaotic scenario in our interpretation corner of the brain.

And most of the time we see these ads in a state of stress-busting zero-analysis time of the day. The mind is triggered to work in the office or outside the home but at home we are half-aware. So these ads get impregnated as positive signal in the minds of the watchers.

Imagine if a TV ad of 1 minute duration can pummel your mind to a state of zombie-like acceptance then what could a mindless serial (especially those that continue to drag and drag for years without having a shred of sense in the storyline) do to your psyche?

I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist but I can say what happened personally is that initially there was a sense of deprivation and withdrawal symptom but then the higher cause of my children's examination sunk in. More than me it was my better half who felt the impact of this abstinence as she was well entrenched in most of the going-ons in the serials of the idiot-box while I was only hooked to one. Later we took it in our stride, and now, we have that master-switch to switch it off if it borders on the insane. 

Now I know why the serial actresses always were thick make-up and gorgeous sarees and outfits - to keep all of us occupied. The women look at the glorious costumes that the actresses wear while the men look at the ladies. Sometimes wondering why the heck is that female having mascara while asleep or just waking up. And all that is so loudly seen in the HD TV!!!

Even now as the TV is blaring in all its glory, I am writing this article, as I know that it is a waste of time, especially in watching a program that exposes the wrong-doings of a reality dance show for kids, and the very first ad that I heard was an ad for upcoming reality show auditions in the various metros in India! What an ironic way to prove that these channels are dumb asses!

So if you are addicted to watching TV serials or senseless reality shows, take a time out. Learn gardening or start writing a blog. You will never know how well you can write unless you write!
Not that all channels are bad but to choose one that will fit your goals, requires discretion... and to not watch the negative ones requires a lot of will-power and retrospection.

More later!