In Quest of Abundance: A Biography of Dr. Ranchhoddas Mohota

By Squadron Leader Dr. Pravin Bhatia

A book of knowledge is useless without wisdom: The Bible
Work, worship and wisdom lead to meditation: The Bhagavad Gita
An unclear mind leads to sorrow: Gautama Buddha
Man alone attains perfection, not even the gods: Vivekananda
Human beings want abundance in wealth, health, peace of mind, relationships and sleep.
Most of them get poverty, disease and misery.
Why is there so much difference between the aspirations and actual rewards of human beings?
There is a very simple reason for it. Human beings have not achieved abundance, despite its repeated mention in the Holy Scriptures, because they use their minds very poorly. They are obsessed with words like heart and knowledge. Both these have limited value. Heart only pumps blood. Knowledge is a range of information. This may be useful and useless. Human beings need creativity and wisdom to achieve abundance.
The book in your hand provides solutions to human misery. It is a biography of Dr R D Mohota, who has the answers to lead you to achieve abundance.
He has chosen the classroom to achieve this. There are two very important reasons for his choice. One, nearly twenty-five per cent of humanity is in the classroom. Second, education is the best way to make human minds creative and wise.
Dr R D Mohota has invented a revolutionary teaching technique which achieves all of the above.
Millions of students have been upgraded through it.
Read this books and you may take a giant step in achieving abundance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Mar 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781482888805

Squadron Leader Dr. Pravin Bhatia

Dr. Pravin Bhatia retired from the Indian Air Force in 1992 after twenty-four years as a squadron leader. He has written almost two hundred books and is the co-founder of Creative Educators, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that promotes the teaching technique of Dr. Ranchhoddas Mohota. He’s also the president of Nagpur Management Association and the director of education of SAARC Society International.

Book preview

Contents

Chapter 1

Unfolding of Potential

What to expect from this chapter?

The Trip for Salvation at the Age of Three

Badrinath and Kedarnath

Gangotri

Yamunotri

Jatipura

The Early Years after the Char Dham Yatra

Entry to Middle School

Excellence in Matriculation

Improving Family’s Educational Tradition

Creativity and Intelligence

Social life of R D

College Education

The Excellence of Marriage

Fear of Examination

The Drawing out of Information

Group Dynamics

From Knowledge to Wisdom

Chapter 2

Abundance in Management and Family Business

What to expect from this chapter?

All India Management Association

Family Business and Intelligence

The Darkness of Words

Skill Development and Intelligence

Smart, not Hard Work

Excellence in Business

Social Activities

Health and Intelligence

Nagpur Management Association

Indian Society for Training and Development, (ISTD) Nagpur Chapter

Executive Development

Chapter 3

Managers for the Nineties Programme

What to expect from this chapter?

Introduction

The Creation of a Manual

Constructivism and Quality Education

Question Method of Training

Choice of Aim

Relationship

The Manual for the Managers of the Nineties Programme

Determination

Management and Spirituality

Indian Culture and Prosperity

The Terror of Habits

The Training Manual

Imagination

Confidence

Initiative and Creative Excellence

Creativity Requires Vision and Good Ideas

Observation

Auto-suggestion

Concentration

Specialised Knowledge

Positive Thinking

Enthusiasm

Self-control

Cooperation

Initiative Creates Abundance

Creativity

Deduction through Observation

Listen to Creative Intelligence

Tolerance

Persistence

Confidence Comes from Belief

Tact

Principles of Business Management

Sales Management

Production Management

Personnel Management

Materials Management

Conclusion

Chapter 4

Intelligence Development Programme

What to expect from this chapter?

Introduction

Primacy of Existence

Consciousness

Organised Life

The Vedas on Intelligence

Samkhya

The Shrimad Bhagavad Gita

Can Emotions be Intelligent?

The Institute of Intelligence Development

Course of Intelligence Development

Question Method of Training

Ways to Develop Intelligence

Components of Intelligence

Yoga and Intelligence

Chapter 5

Creative Education from Intelligence Avenue

What to expect from this chapter?

Om and God

Tamas - Inability to Concentrate

The Concept of Prana

How to Use our Brain Power?

Work is Worship

The Types of Minds

Parents, Success and Children

There is No Value in Failure

Success in Examinations

Prepare a Page Table

The Science and Art of Reading

Preparing a Mind Map

Revision is a New Vision

One Hundred Percent Results in Schools

The Brain Must Assess What the Senses Acquire

Make Your Child a Genius

Parents and Students Must Take Charge of Education

Who is Engineering Indifferent to Existence?

Teachers as Instruments of Change

Who is to Blame for Human Misery?

The Danger of Knowledge Explosion

Greatness of Authors

Educational Institutions and Tuition Houses

The Greatest Crime is Improper Use of the Mind

Intelligence Engineering

Intelligence and Family

Influences on Dr Mohota

The Books that Influenced Dr R. D. Mohota

2005 to 2010

Chapter 6

From Ignorance to Wisdom

What to expect from this chapter?

Abundance and Perfection through Education

National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005

Aim of Education

The Value of Interaction and Constructivism

Knowledge and Understanding

Salvation through Creative Use of Knowledge

The Terror of Language

Health and Physical Education

Work and Education

The Environment of the School

Discipline and Management OF Participation

Teaching and Homework

Concept of Quality

Training Teachers to Become Facilitators in the Process of Learning

Shift from Teaching to Learning

Reforms in Education

Entrance Examinations

Work-cantered Education

Vocational Education and Training

Role of NGOs, Civil Society Groups, and Teacher Organisations

Constructivism and Education of the World

Training of Teachers

Dr R. D. Mohota’s teaching technique

Distribution of Subject Material

Reading the Pages Allotted

Preparing Notes

Group Discussion

Presentation by Groups

Questions and Answers

Presentation by other Groups

Demonstration for Mathematics

Advantages of Dr R. D. Mohota’s Teaching Technique

Creative Reading

Creative Speaking

We Become What We Think

Creative Writing

Creative Listening

What Can the Technique do to Uplift Humanity?

Conclusion

Foreword

This is the story of a man who can transform the world through education. It is the story of Dr Ranchhoddas Mohota, a man who is blessed with the ability to upgrade human minds. The word, transform is frequently linked with revolution. That is why the word appears more appropriate for the man whose work has changed the lives of millions of students.

In many ways, the process of transformation began sixty years ago. This transformation got momentum six years back. Today the transformation has gathered enough speed to be called a revolution.

Lack of ability to improve human brains adequately through education gave Dr Mohota the impetus to do something about it. Human beings can lose out to animals if they do not use their minds. A mosquito can give them a dozen or more illnesses. The humble housefly can probably trouble them even move. Human beings do not have the strength of an elephant or the claws of a lion. They cannot fly like a butterfly or swim underground like a fish. They cannot lift many times their body weight as does an ant. Yet, human beings survive better than animals because they adjust the environment to their needs. They build homes, grow food and protect themselves against the terrors of nature. The problem is that they have not yet done enough to remove even ordinary pains that trouble them.

Human beings have not evolved enough to protect themselves against many miseries. Most of them cannot even protect themselves against the pains other human beings can give to them. They die if war is inflicted on them. They die even when communal hatred raises its head. In fact, even a slightly disturbed man with a gun can create mayhem. This is a poor reflection of human excellence.

The poorest reflection of human beings is poverty. There are simply too many human beings who are very poor for us to believe that humanity has evolved in any substantial way.

There is enough evidence to tell us that human beings are not meant to fail. Yet, they fail in frightfully large numbers. We ought to stop and ponder why this happens. The cause may be laziness, though many human beings work very hard, like the Indian farmers. The rickshaw pullers barely survive despite back-breaking hard work. Many of them are also much focused. The only possible reason for failure can then be the poor use of the mind.

Is it possible to increase the excellence of human minds? Till a few years ago, scientists believed that human beings were intelligent or ordinary by birth. They linked human intelligence to genetics. Recent information in newspapers and on the internet shows that scientists have started to accept that the human mind can be made more intelligent and creative than it was at birth.

It is possible that Dr Mohota’s effort to improve the mind may have been the beginning of this change of thought in the world. The process to increase intelligence came in Dr Mohota’s mind almost sixty years back. Its seeds were put in his mind when he was barely sixteen. He took a lot more time to have the energy to convert these seeds into exquisite plants. It is only in the last twenty-five years that these plants have started to provide fragrant flowers.

Dr Mohota was born in an affluent family. He need not have studied. His brothers have flourished in business by studying much less than he has. In all probability, he became a DLitt and one of the earliest Indians to get a management degree, because of his desire to train his mind to create abundance. This desire was to later help him in very great ways in his business. This desire to create abundance may have been one of the reasons why the textile industry of his family has flourished even with its fifth generation. Most big business houses collapse after three generations.

Dr Mohota links the human mind with three words. These are creativity, intelligence and wisdom. These three words are absolutely crucial in whatever he does. It often pains him when he sees people squandering their minds on trivialities. He has lost many friends because of this. Friendship with most is linked with the passing of time, doing ordinary, even silly, things. For him, friendship is the creation of abundance and the formation of the Master Mind Club. This creation of excellence through common and great goals is what he wants in friends. Most of his friends reject this need to create excellence. Dr Mohota has no option but to reject them in return. He rejects them, not because he is not kind to people, but because his mind rebels against minds which do not want to seek abundance through excellence.

Mediocrity is a curse. Frivolity is the negation of every possible value that mankind must cherish. Dr Mohota is constantly aware of this.

This book is an attempt to help human beings to seek and acquire an abundance through creative use of their minds. It is also a warning against the mediocrity that human beings acquire due to poor use of their minds.

Dr Mohota is not against enjoyment. The only problem is that he links it with the creative use of the mind instead of a product that comes when the mind is made numb.

Most people think wisdom and intelligence mean the same. For Dr Mohota, wisdom is loftier than intelligence. That is why he endeavours to promote intelligence rather than wisdom through his various enterprises. He is so influenced by this word that he calls the house in which he lives as Intelligence Avenue.

A house is not an avenue, but the name reminds visitors that the entire lane in which the house is situated should inspire people to become intelligent.

Most of the earlier efforts that Dr R. D. Mohota made were linked with intelligence in the corporate world. They even began with the word. He mostly concentrated in his earlier ventures in intelligence with managers and executives.

Six years back Dr Mohota shifted from concentrating on executives to upgrading education in schools. This is probably when the word creativity became as relevant as the word intelligence. The two words combined have created an abundance of possibilities. Six million students in schools and colleges have been introduced to a revolutionary teaching technique invented by him. Fifty million will get its benefits in the next one year. The plan is to upgrade all the seventeen hundred million students of the world through the technique in the next ten years.

The tremendous response to this revolutionary teaching technique has inspired him to these lofty goals. Dr Mohota is 81 years old. Will he survive for ten more years? Yes! He will, perhaps, for twenty years or more. Creative and fulfilled minds generate health and extend the lifespan of human beings beyond normal limits. They also attain heights which normally appear impossible.

This is a great message. It must inspire people to use their minds creatively. This book is dedicated to those who are inspired to do this. May they have abundance in their lives!

About the Author

Picture%20Pravin%20Bhatia.jpg

The author of this book is a retired commissioned officer of the Indian Air Force. He retired as a Squadron Leader from the Indian Air Force in 1992 after twenty-four years.

The author wrote 150 books between 1993 and 2008. He was declared Author of the Year and Bestseller Author of the year in 2008 by India Today, the most prominent magazine of India. He has since then written 21 additional books. Some of these are being read or taught in countries throughout the world.

Since 2010, the author, Squadron Leader (Dr) Pravin Bhatia has trained millions of students in India through the teaching technique of Dr R. D. Mohota. He has made the technique popular in schools and colleges as well as in the corporate world.

The author is Co-founder of Creative Educators, the non-profit NGO which promotes the teaching technique of Dr R. D. Mohota.

The author can be contacted on the details given below:

Squadron Leader (Dr) Pravin Bhatia

82, KADBI CHOWK,

NAGPUR

INDIA – 440004

Mob: [phone]

91-9156625456

E-mail: [e-mail]

Co-founder, Creative Educators

President, Nagpur Management Association

Director, Education, SAARC Society International.

Chapter 1

Unfolding of Potential

What to expect from this chapter?

This is the beginning of the story an ordinary boy born to a rich business family who created excellence out of his mind for himself, for his family, his friends, and for the human race.

It is the story of a man who excelled at the topmost level of education where no one in his family had dreamed of going. His father had never crossed primary education, his mother had never been to school and his brothers never went beyond Class X. Even his wife did not know more than the alphabets of the Hindi language.

Yet, he and his wife acquired exceptional qualities of learning. He, Dr Ranchhodas Mohota (or R D) went on to do DLitt in Textile. His wife, Smt. Suryakanta Devi wrote thirty-six exquisite books on Indian philosophy and culture. Both inspired each other to reach great heights. He couldn’t have helped humanity to the extent he did without the inspiration of his wife. She could not have written books, which are referred by the saints and the intellectuals of Indian philosophy and culture, without his support and applause. It is a story of excellence, and of abundance in creating wealth, but more importantly in creating mental excellence. Every human being must read it. He or she would find a divine way of creating abundance.

The Trip for Salvation at the Age of Three

It was the month of May. The year was 1939. A caravan of twenty–five devotees trod along the treacherous slopes of the Himalayan Mountains. Their destination was the four holy shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.

Seth Mathuradas Mohota led the group of twenty–four others who had ventured out with him. His wife Shrimati Sirikuwaridev, and his four sons, Janakidas, Girdhardas, Gwaldar and Ranchhoddas were with him. They were accompanied by five servants and a maid. The sons were young. The eldest was ten and the youngest three. The remaining group was made up by luggage handlers.

Mrs Mohota was in a palanquin. Her youngest son Ranchhoddas huddled next to her. His brothers were in baskets carried by men.

Seth Mathuradas was in high spirits. The Himalayas can be beautiful at the worst of times, but they become majestic when the snow melts. Bright flowers bloom and there can be a riot of colours. Such beauty is rarely seen on earth. It is a place fit for the gods.

Seth Mathuradas was in high spirits for an even greater reason. The pilgrimage to the four sacred shrines had a very deep significance. It provided freedom from rebirth. It is called Moksha (salvation). Hindus consider life on earth painful. It is something to be endured as a punishment. Salvation from life means to be in the company of God. There can be no greater bliss than this divine experience.

Badrinath and Kedarnath

Badrinath is sacred because Nar Narayan did penance or tapasya here. Nar Narayan is an incarnation of Vishnu. It is believed that Ma Lakshmi became a berry tree to save Narayan. Berries are called adri in Sanskrit. That is how Badrinath got its name.

Badrinath’s name is uttered first among the four dhams because Nar Narayan did his Tapasya in Sat Yug, the first of the four yugs in Indian mythology. We are now in the last of the four yugas. It is called Kal Yug.

Kedarnath is always paired with Badrinath. That is why its name is uttered with it.

Gangotri

Gangotri is a town in Uttarkashi district in the state of Uttrakhand in India. It is situated on the banks of the River Bhagirathi. This river is the point of origin of the Ganga or the Ganges. Gangotri is situated in the greater Himalaya Range at the height of 10200 feet.

The Gangotri temple was built by Gurkha General Amar Singh Thapa.

Legend has it that the Goddess Ganga took the form of a river to wash the sins of King Bhagirath’s predecessors. Goddess Ganga was impressed by the severe penance that King Bhagirath did to remove the sins of his predecessors. She took the form of a river and its divine water is still considered sacred. It is believed to wash our sins.

River Bhagirathi becomes Ganga only at Devprayag where it meets the Alaknanda River. The origin of the river is at Gomukh. It is in the Gangotri glacier, which is nineteen kilometres from Gangotri.

Yamunotri

Yamunotri is the source of the Yamuna River. It is situated in the Himalayas at an altitude of 10885 feet, thirty kilometres north of Uttarkashi.

The Yamunotri’s source is the Champasar Glacier located in the Kalind Mountain at a height of 14509 feet. This glacier is not accessible. This explains why the Yamunotri shrine is located at the foot of the hill.

The Yamunotri temple is on the bank of the river. It was built by Maharaja Pratap Shah. The temple deteriorated over the years. It was rebuilt in the nineteenth century by Maharani Guleria of Jaipur.

The temple has hot water springs near it. They gush out from the mountains and are called Surya Kund. It contains the DivyaShila. It is worshipped before prayers are offered to the deity.

Jatipura

The Mohota family visited Jatipura after completing the pilgrimage of the four holy shrines in Uttrakhand. Jatipura is situated near Govardhan in Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh.

Jatipura was the home of the family god of the Mohota family. It was mandatory for the family to visit it after the visit of the four holy shrines.

Jatipura is named after Shri Girdharji. He was the eldest son of Vithalnathji, fondly called Gosainji. Girdharji was a recluse or Yati. That is how Yatipura or Jatipura got its name. It is 38 kilometre from Goverdhan, the world famous mountain where Lord Krishna enjoyed his divine sport or Raas Leela.

The Mohota family returned to Hinganghat. The young child’s grandmother wanted to know who all walked on foot. The elders had walked on foot. The three-year-old Ranchhodas henceforth called R D for convenience, boasted that he too had walked on foot. The grandmother was amused. However, she could not permit the child to tell a lie. She used wit to gracefully correct him. The chiding was so creative that the eighty-one-year-old still remembers it with fondness.

The pilgrimage to the four holy shrines was meant for very old human beings, those who had completed all their responsibilities on earth, and were prepared to die while attempting the arduous journey. Many of those who attempted the pilgrimage did not survive. The Mohota family survived because its members were very young. The eldest was just forty years old.

Why did the family undertake the journey? There may have been many reasons. The trip to the Himalayas was inviting. The four holy shrines made it very sacred. The family may have considered it a family outing.

R D remembers very little about it. All he remembers is repeatedly pleading with his mother to ask the driver to get the car for him. The palanquin was small and the journey could not have been of any significance to him.

Did the pilgrimage help the child? It is difficult to say. The child grew up into an intelligent man, and in all probability, the divinity of God resides in him.

Dr Mohota was born on 17 January 1936 in Hinganghat. It was then a small town of 35000 in Wardha district of Maharashtra. The year of his holy pilgrimage was 1939.

The Early Years after the Char Dham Yatra

R D does not have any great memory of his years between three and six. All he remembers is a tutor, Mr Yadavrao, who came to his home to teach him and prepare him for the examination of the third standard of the primary education. Ranchhoddas was only three years old.

The above means that he did not have conventional schooling till he cleared the third standard. His only entry into school was to appear for his examination. The very next year the child got admitted to the fourth standard of a primary school for regular studies.

R D completed his primary education when he was just seven years of age.

In all probability, the child did not step out of the house for sports or any games. He limited his playing and passing time with the servants, watchmen and drivers of the house. They all played or passed time in the compound of his house.

Entry to Middle School

Soon, the child entered the fifth standard and stood fourth in his annual examination. Two very important things happened in the school. First, the richness and the influence of family did not decide the child’s rank in school. Second, it showed that the child was intelligent and focused on studies. R D believes that he was not extraordinary in school in his earlier days. He managed to get the fourth rank, perhaps, because he had no distractions.

The child’s progress continued as he stood third in his sixth standard and then second in the seventh standard.

A violent turn was to take place when the child reached standard eight. He got 34th rank in the final examination. Why did this happen? R D does not have a clue because he can remember very little of his examination in standard eight. However, as a young child in class nine, he improved his resolve and concentration to stand second in his final examination.

This was the turning point in R D’s life since he never stood second in any examination thereafter. In all probability, his mind now acquired the priceless ability to concentrate. It is also possible that his mind started to grow and become more creative. R D himself rejects this, possibly because he is obsessed with rational thoughts. Yet, the ability to stand first in class ten was no small feat. This was the year 1949.

Excellence in Matriculation

In the 1950s, school education was slightly different than what it is today. In those days Class XI was deemed as matriculation. R D got the first division in his matriculation examination. This was a first in his family. Though R D’s father, Seth Mathuradasji Mohota could not read the words in the script he did recognise the unique feat of his son. He even announced it in front of others in recognition to the first great incident in the family’s educational history.

The young boy’s educational growth was remarkable, even sensational, in a household where education was not a priority. The business was flourishing and it was achieved without any formal education.

Improving Family’s Educational Tradition

Education, like many other great things, has been treated with ambivalence by great thinkers throughout the history of mankind. Lawrence J. Peter said, Education is a method by which one acquires a higher grade of prejudices. Montaigne preferred the company of peasants because they had not been sufficiently educated to reason incorrectly. Yet there were others like Epictetus, who said that only the educated were free.

The extreme emotions that education has generated, are in all probability, due to human ideas of what education should achieve. Despite modernisation, the twenty-first-century education is limited to doing well in examinations. These examinations advance learning by rote, as would a parrot. Parents, teachers, educationists and even profound thinkers admire children who score well in exams. There is hardly any discussion about how the student acquires information and what he does with it.

This is the main reason why education has done so little for humankind.

It is not as if great thinkers have not provided great reasons and direction for education. Few as they may have been the solutions are available for us to use. The best purpose of education was perhaps provided by Swami Vivekananda. He said, Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and remains there, undigested all your life… We must have life-building, man-making, character-building, assimilating of fine ideas and making them your life and character.

It is important that a few words of Vivekanand are made clear at this point. These are important because they can make the world think about them. These ideas are as yet undigested. That is why they remain unused.

Here undigested means that the ideas are not fully understood or used to create abundance through education. This education can generate an abundance of wealth and character.

The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live life, by