This morning, a thought suddenly came to my mind. Mathematics has great lessons for living life. Take, for example, zero. If you add zero to some other number, there is no change. Similarly, if you have a discussion with someone with zero ability, nothing will be added. We may spend our whole lives at zero, and at the end of life, nothing will have been added. What if we multiply some number by zero? The outcome is zero. Otherwise, multiplication increases the value significantly. Many combinations and permutations are created. Suppose a person knows two subjects: History and Economics. The second person knows two different subjects: Psychology and Philosophy. When they come together and form an alliance, they get four different skills. They can blend History with Psychology, History with Philosophy, Economics with Psychology, and Economics with Philosophy. Thus, they both acquire four different skills. Their individual skills multiply. On the contrary, if we blend with a zero, a person who knows nothing and keep spending more and more time with that person, you will also turn into zero.
Does that mean that zero is a waste of life? If somebody does not know anything, does that person become untouchable? Not at all. You place zero after one, and it becomes ten. It just requires openness. If a person is open to receiving, he can just make any knowledgeable person his teacher and learn a lot. If zero follows one, it becomes ten, while if it follows nine, it becomes ninety. If it follows zero, that remains zero. So while choosing our company and role models, we have to be extremely cautious. When we read profound books, have discussions with profound people, watch profound movies, and take teachings from great teachers, our understanding of life grows manyfold.
Now, coming to negative numbers, if you add one and minus one, you get zero. When you spend time with a negative person, the outcome of the discussion is zero. You may try to bring the discussion to track, but that negativity will bring the net outcome to zero. That's why, when you have a choice, you should avoid the company of negative people. Duryodhana will try to imprison even Krishna. Bhishma and Vidura spent their whole lives with Duryodhana and kept advising him, yet nothing changed, and their lives were wasted.
You multiply any positive number by minus one, and it will become negative. When we stay constantly with negative people, we become negative too. Ego is contagious. Look at Karna: such an exceptional warrior, and such a great human being who can donate even his Kavach and Kundal, whose entire life was to give to others. Yet, such a poor existence. Because he allied with Duryodhana, he associated with a negative person.
A negative person will never be open, and therefore minus one cannot follow plus one. Duryodhana will never follow Bhishma or Vidura. His ego is so big that he can't think of being open to learning. However, plus one can follow minus one, and that's what happens in this world time and again. The minuses lead the world, and all the pluses follow them, making the whole of the world a place where battles and fights take over peace and growth. The pluses don't realise that if they follow the minus, they too turn into minus. If plus one follows minus one, it becomes minus eleven. Mathematics has great lessons for life.
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