SGI Members Testmonial - Ajay Malhotras Experience Hello Friends, I am Ajay Malhotra, practicing for past 14 years. I joined this practice, when I was pursuing my CA & I wanted to clear that as soon as possible. Soon after I joined this practice, I had a facial paralytic attack. Doctors were not sure of my complete recovery, but I determined to overcome this karma through daimoku. Though I was not able to speak properly, I enhanced chanting daimoku in my mind. The actual proof came & my paralysis started disappearing. This beginner’s benefit strengthened my faith & I steadfastly moved to my next target that was to clear my CA exams. Studying towards it was tough for me due to recent paralysis, but I resorted to daimoku to increase my stamina to study. During this time, I also faced an objection from my parents towards this practice. I was not allowed to do gongyo. I started doing gongyo while hiding, before anyone woke up or a lot of times in bathroom as well, but never missed my gongyo. The actual proof came & I was able to clear all CA exams in one attempt. I was one of the youngest persons in India to clear the CA at young age of 21 years. This actual proof further enhanced my faith & softened my parents a bit. I started doing gongyo in front of them & also started to attend meetings. I plunged myself in forefront of Kosen Rufu activities. As my activities increased, our family faced a severe crisis due to which my parent’s objection to this practice increased again and a day before I was about to get my gohonzon, I was asked to quit this practice. I chanted extensively, determining to continue faith. My parents finally agreed & I could enshrine Gohonzon at our home. During this time of family crisis, my office also became very hectic & I used to spent 16-18 hours in office everyday. Gosho says “Continue chanting no matter what happens”. Now, I could feel its depth in my life. Without giving up, I continued to chant extensively and also take part in activities. The actual proof came & I was selected by my office to go to US for a long term assignment. This opportunity was very rare. Looking at this actual proof, my parents started appreciating this practice. When I landed in Kansas , USA , I found that there were hardly any youth division members practicing there. I realized that my mission in coming to that specific city of US was to raise capable youth division members. I determined to raise capable youth division members before I left back from US. Without any immediate personal guidance at hand I had only Gohonzon & Sensei’s guidance to fall back on. I based my entire struggle on daimoku and used to drive hundreds of miles to encourage just one or two members. During a training course in US, I got a guidance that youth should have unlimited dreams & should continue to strive for them without giving up. Encouraged by this, I sent a determination to Sensei that I would become world’s best corporate executive & I would bring glory to my mentor through my career. From that day on, fulfillment of this determination became the sole purpose of my life. I chanted to get wisdom to take practical steps towards it. I realized, that in order to fulfill this determination, I would need additional qualification. I kept a target to enroll in MBA in US, which was very tough. My prayers were answered, & I cleared entrance exams & enrolled in a good university in US. My office also agreed to fund the entire fee. Doing MBA along-with a hectic job was tough, but I took pride in that, since it was for a mission. All this while, I also continued to exert to strengthen the district in Kansas City . We were not only able to raise capable youth division, but also established Sokahan & Byakuren organization. Due to my hard work and daimoku, I was also recommended a promotion in office. I was about to become the youngest person in our company to reach that level, but soon my life was about to take a turn. Looking at my steep growth, I was subjected to office politics and some people hindered my growth. Once again, I stepped up my efforts in practice and continued to pray for happiness of people creating this situation in my life. Things worsened and I was forced to come back to India and despite a recommended promotion, I was given a demotion. That came as a jolt to me. I felt, I was so close to take first step towards fulfilling my determination to Sensei, but everything seemed to be slipping out of my hands. I questioned myself, that when all I was doing was based on daimoku & directed towards fulfillment of my determination to Sensei, why this happened to me? I had no option but to quit my MBA in between, & come back to India at a demoted role. Following lines of Sensei were my support, “Even though you practice faith, you may encounter an unfortunate incident. But meeting with misfortune does not mean that your prayer to the gohonzon will not be answered – your prayers will definitely be answered. As you persevere you will later see that everything is moving in a positive direction for your happiness within protection of Myoho.” Though I was deeply impacted, I did not let my determination sway. I still wanted to fulfill my determination to Sensei that was to bring glory to my mentor through my career. In the mean time, I got an offer from another good company. I chanted a lot of daimoku to take the right step through wisdom. I finally decided to take up this job. As I got into the job, I realized that the job profile was lower than what I was told. That was the time I realized the blizzards of karma coming my way. Though I realized that it was my mission to change this karma & prove greatness of gohonzon, each day, I had to fight my depression through daimoku. There were times that for days together I could not sleep, I started stammering in my speech too. My source of determination was the training that we got in Vanguard University , where I learned how Toda Sensei & Ikeda Sensei advanced kosen rufu despite the fact that their business was destroyed multiple times. My job was very hectic and being so busy at work, I decided that no matter what happens I would scratch time from the day to progress kosen rufu. Since, I was not able to attend a lot of meetings, I determined to work behind the scenes. Each day after working for 18 hours and reaching home at 2 at night, I used to chant that all the YMDs of our district must accomplish breakthroughs in their life and success of all meetings. For whatever short time, I continued to meet YMDs on weekends. I have a long journey to office. I started using that time to call up and encourage members and also read Sensei’s guidance. That proved to be a training for me on how to effectively use each minute. I also exerted hard at my work place. Seeing people who were juniors to me in workplace advancing ahead of me in career, I admit that there were times when thoughts came - Why am I doing this for a demoted role, but then suddenly Sensei’s guidance used to flash in my mind that at workplace, YMDs should exert twice as hard as people around. I determined that instead of using office politics as a means, I would use strategy of Lotus Sutra to rise at my workplace. Results started coming in and due to my hard work and daimoku, I got my department some very significant victories which were very rare and exceptional in our organization. I started building trust at my office. The actual proof of building trust at workplace started coming in when the senior management of the company said that when Ajay is put for significant tasks, you are sure to win. This was a clear proof that strategy of lotus sutra is far more superior and assuring than any office politics. One of the other benefit I got was that my role was changed, and because of that, I started coming at 10 at night instead of 2 at night. In December 2006, I was awarded the highest individual award of our Organization in India . This award is not decided by the bosses, but by subordinates and competitors. More than 2000 employees are eligible for this, but only 10 get this and I got maximum number of nominations. Last month, another big recognition came in when I won the highest recognition that a person can receive in our company throughout the world. There were lots of senior leaders that were nominated for that including some Vice Presidents, but I was the only one from our department in India to get selected for that. As part of this award, our company is sponsoring a vacation trip for me to Canada for a week with wife. Recently, I got an opportunity to take first concrete step towards fulfilling the promise that I made to Sensei 5 years back that was to bring glory to my mentor through my conduct in organization. To highlight my exemplary performance, my company decided to publish my interview in our company’s global news letter, which is read by close to 1500 employees of company including some very senior leaders across various countries. I became first ever person in India to be given this opportunity. When asked who inspires me to work hard each day in office, I took this as an opportunity to introduce Sensei to my organization & told that it was my mentor Ikeda Sensei who has always inspired me to create value, remain happy and never give up amidst any adversity in life. These lines actually got published and were read by my colleagues & senior leaders and I got an opportunity to tell them more about Sensei. When I look back, I see that there were numerous times when circumstances, on the face of it, told me that my prayers are not answered despite my best efforts, but I realize that this was the working of gohonzon in my life. I believe this was a strict training customized just for me, so that I can learn to be convinced about the greatness of gohonzon under any circumstances no matter what. Otherwise, I would have grown arrogant & would not have developed strong conviction in gohonzon Today I determine that in this year of Advancement & Victory, I would show concrete proof of my victory at workplace, fight alongside each YMD to raise capable leaders in my district & chapter and attend SGI training course. I also determine that I would continue to pursue my path of unlimited dreams and through my career, I would prove that a corporate executive who a student of Ikeda university is far more successful than any other who uses politics or power to rise.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 05:39:14 +0000
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