Life is not a race!
Once
Chinese philosopher Chuaang-Ju was catching fish near a river bank. A messenger
of the king appeared suddenly and told him about the king`s desire to appoint him
as the Prime Minister. Chuaang told the messenger:” I have heard that the king
has a shield of a divine tortoise in his museum. Suppose the tortoise becomes alive.
Would it in that case like to reside in the museum or would prefer to return to
the morass where he was originally born? The representative replied: “He would
have liked to return to the morass.” Chuaang-Ju replied: “I too would like the
same. Men loose peace of mind after getting power. Sometimes they even lose
their lives. “Please tell the king that I too would like to return to the morass”.
Happiness is never achieved by running after money and power.
Most
of the problems we confront in our day to day life are our own creation. How?
Because we are mostly busy in comparing ourselves with others. He has a bigger
house. His children are much well placed. His company is making lot of profits.
I am not progressing like someone else. My position is superior to others. All
these comparisons with others create lot of pressure in our mind. Instead of
keeping our minds engaged in such negativities, we can show mercy to ourselves
by engaging constructively. It does not mean that we should not try to progress
and remain satisfied with our achievements but we should avoid comparison with the
achievements of others.
Everybody
has its own achievements. Problem arises when we start comparing ourselves with
others. Someone is in politics for thirty years. Naturally, he would have grown
enough in his own line and became MP, MLA or even Minister. Someone else is in
the Government job. He would grow in his own cadre and according to his own
seniority. Like that. At the end of the day, you cannot and should not say that
you could not rise like your neighbour, or relative or friend for that matter.
Actually speaking, we can relish life much better by developing an art of
oneness and a sense of integration with the aspirations and achievements of
others. If we remain confined to our own self and keep envying with others, we
can never live a happy and satisfied life.
Life
is not a race. We have come here to live our own lives in our own style and
according to our nature. Of course, we cannot exercise our right to live
independently without any full stop. There has to be limitations so that there
are opportunities for others to live happily. Life is also not meant to mint
money. Had it been so, God would have made us adult right way so that we start
earning immediately after we come to this world. But there is childhood, then
at the end the old age. In between we become young, then middle aged and so on.
Thus, requirements of body and mind keep changing. Unfortunately, we sometimes
fail to synchronize ourselves with this change. This results in avoidable
disappointments.
One
of the greatest problem being faced by humanity these days, is trust deficit.
We are unable to confide in even with our nears and dears. We cannot share our
mental burden with our neighbourhood. We do not mix with our co-workers. The result
is- increased number of people are committing suicide. The number of persons
with depression is growing tremendously.
Most
of the people commit suicide due to self-created isolation. The keep themselves
confined. The result is that they are often overpowered by the negativities. It
is not possible nor desirable to share and discuss once everything with
everybody but the issues which are making our lives miserable need to be shared
with the people whom we trust. But the problem is you cannot create trustworthy
friendship overnight.
I
remember one incident when a friend of mine was immensely upset over some
office problem. Luckily, I met with him during morning walk in Lodhi Garden. He
did not look normal. He was not answering my queries properly. I understood,
all was not well with him. I tried to involve him in talk. He opened up
gradually and told me that he was intending to commit suicide because of great
injustice done to him by the Department in denying him the promotion which was
due. I had a lengthy discussion. I tried to dissuade him from worrying too much
about things which were not in our control. He seemed better. Next day he met
me again and thanked a lot for healthy discussion but for which he could have
gone to any extent ,even committing
suicide. The purpose of narrating this incident here is to make the reader
aware about the importance of sharing things with nears and dears.
Many
people remain worrying throughout. There could not by anything worse than this.
I have myself been a great sufferer due to this habit. Actually, worry does not
bring any solution rather it maximizes the problems by creating new problems
mainly because we often hurt people, may be unwillingly in such state of mind.
Worry
keeps you mentally involved. You lose lot of mental energy in meaningless
things. That time and energy could have been better utilized in finding new
friends, reading new books or gossiping with friends of positive thinking which
could have brought out new light in our lives. If we are in trouble, the answer
is not to get engrossed in it rather to remain peaceful and concentrate upon
the possible solutions.
We
all have to struggle throughout the day to earn livelihood. At the end of the
day we come back to our home. Many times, there is a jam on the road. We have
to wait for hours to reach our destination. By the time we reach our house, we
are tired. We definitely need something to unwind ourselves. It can be a hot
cup of tea brought by your wife or smiling children or a smiling aged parent who kept waiting for
hours for their children to return.
Sometimes
we get irritated even with the slightest inconvenience. We start shouting at
others. He also reacts accordingly. Things get out of hand soon. Many people
suffer heavily in such situations. The question is: “why such things happen”?
Why people are so much irritated even at small happenings in day to life?
The
newspapers are flooded with the reports of violence caused without much
justification. Someone bringing his scooter in front of a running car, gets
violent for nothing. He strikes against the glass and breaks open it. The
driver inside the car also speaks something. Both get out of control and start
beating each other with the result that both are seriously injured and one of
them dies on way to the hospital. Such incidents are daily reported in the
newspapers/televisions. But the question is: why such things are happening? Can
we stop such violent behaviour?
Over
expectations from others is also often cause of tension. Besides mutual
relationship too is adversely affected. We are not bothered about the problems
of others and put our interest above
everything. This often leads to conflict of interest. We should not do
something which we do not want others to do with me. Suppose someone asks me to
help him get a job, or to give a loan of hefty amount without even considering
whether it is within my means. Then we may often have to face frustration.
Because the expectations which are not rational and are without proper
consideration often get rejected and ultimately result in disappointments.
Most
of the people are running after money. To them material achievements is everything.
They want power. They want high position. They want to be well known. But at
what cost? Even when you have already gained these things, your cravings are
not over. You want something more. This something more has created an endless
struggle within. People are fighting with themselves. They are on constant war
with their own self. The question is: why??
Negative
thinking is our worst enemy. We keep worrying about the future. This does not
help in anyway. It spoils our mental and physical health. It adversely affects
our capacity to take on the ups and downs of life. Once we are able to come out
of it, we can go much beyond our imagination. There are infinite possibilities.
We are here to achieve. But that needs a positive mind.
Problems
that we confront in our everyday life is our own creation and we alone can
solve them. Making others responsible for our own failures is a human weakness.
We assign all good achievements to our own credit and fix responsibilities for
our failures on others. That never can bring peace and harmony in our lives. We
have to develop the art of acceptance. All good and bad things that happen in
course of our lives should not be allowed to dominate us. We cannot control others.
We cannot decide about many things that happen in our lives but we can
certainly control ourselves and decide how to react. If you can do this, we
will be opening the door to perfect peace of mind.
Peace
of mind is the greatest asset which we can possess costs nothing but it cannot
be bought . It can only be practised.”Ashantasya kuto sukham”?Lord
Krishna repeatedly stressed upon the need to renounce attachment but not the
world so that one can live in peace with himself and with the world outside.
This world is nothing but reflection of our own mind.”Yas munde tas
brahmande”that means we see outside only things which are already in our
mind. If we constantly think ill about a person, we are bound to treat him
accordingly. Naturally, he too would react in the same fashion. Thus, a chain
reaction starts. We just keep on reacting. This never gives peace of mind. We
have to act and to stop reacting to the developments in order that we are able
to live a contended and satisfied life!
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