Many years back, I was disappointed that I did not get into Goldman Sachs when some of my MBA classmates who I was sure were not as qualified got through. And for those who don't know, Investment Bankers are (were) the most pampered lot of all. They live in private jets when not Manhattan penthouses, and drop by to Monaco for weekend breaks.
It all went well for many of us lesser MBAs, though far better for those in Wall Street. Till one fine sunny morning, a plane ran into the World Trade Centre and many didn't live to tell the tale. This is what I happened to recollect when I read about the Air India Express tragedy. Such is the lullaby of life, you go to sleep when you least expect it. And when it happens, no power or prestige can preclude it. In one unassuming moment, achievements, ranks, fame, name, recognition, all cease to exist.
In spite of all the personal discomfort and universal disdain, this is where spiritual grounding helps you. To connect, even if it be in sporadic spurts, to the truth that all this will not last. But to gain that timeless concord with the symphony of Real-ity, you have to keep peeling off the many layers of make-up that prevent you from coming face to face with your true face.
Many remain ensconced comfortably with the make-up. Some want to see beyond. Alas, even Courage comes with Grace. Notwithstanding, God is still an Accountant, and every small entry matters.
The question remains: Do we want comfort, or do we want credit?
Gospel of St Mathew-"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Poor "in spirit", does not mean giving away our riches, endowments or our happiness to charity but being ever ready, to bear for God's sake, any painful or humble condition that we may get to meet as His blessing for our existence and evolution. Poor in spirit is realizing that we own and possess nothing and everything that we call as ours- homes, cars, riches, kith and kin -can be gone in moment. In the Air India Express crash a man loses 16 of his relatives, including wife and children, who were travelling on the ill feted aircraft to attend the funeral of his grandmother who died the day before. Two days before 17 of your relatives are alive and two days after, life has very little meaning for you- you are hollow and empty.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of life is to realize everyone of us is nothing but hollow and empty. A hollow and empty container can neither store comfort nor carry credit to the afterlife!
In reality- Nothing that we do matters. When everything, our very breath and life belongs to Him, we can at most live only for the day; we can live only for the present moment. Enlightenment, Kingdom of God, Heaven, is nothing but truly living in the present moment. In enlightenment, the memory of who we are in this physical world is forgotten and the desire of who we want to be in this material world is forsaken!
There are only two ways to live your life, per Einstein- One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." I believe there is just one way to live- Everything we have got and will get, everything we do is an achievement, is a miracle!
Every moment is a moment to be spent in gratitude yet it is indeed a great wonder that we have time in that small window of a moment to do all that we should not be doing! We are no body yet every moment of our life, we want to prove we are somebody, indispensible to the cause of this very existence. We own nothing yet we live and act as though we control everything. Who we are and who we want to be- for most of us this is all life is about!
Swamy has said- “There is no better Dharma or right conduct than compassion”. When we see the plight of those of us living in ignorance and utter delusion of power and pelf, achievements, ranks, fame, name, recognition, the plight of those who can neither heed the voice of reason nor the call of the conscience, the only course of action available is to be tolerant and show compassion. We need to invoke divine compassion for ourselves as well for who is to say whether or not , we are in the same boat!
To dwell upon one's failures and successes is itself materialism of the truest "maya". FAILURE & SUCCESS IS SO figurative if one forgot to love one and other. To love someone with equanimity you have to first love yourself completely. I SERIOUSLY doubt whether people ever pray or thank for having been made the way they are rather than comparing gosh how the joneses live.Given the fact we are structured and disciplined to always think ahead in life , is it sinful or unrighteous to look back and see there are people who are disabled while 99 % of you are physically endowed with qualities for which you can conventionally and happily overlook whilst still cribbing of what you didnt possess???
ReplyDeleteThe beauty & irony of life is its transience. We procastinate our good deeds while we live out our negative passions in a whim. The moment you see your own flaws, that moment changes your own destiny.Its beautiful to see that we can point out flaws in everything that others do , but gosh could those same flaws exist in all of us???.
Another "Blessed, Poor in Spirit Story" written by a Sai Devotee
ReplyDelete"My life in this lifetime is the life of a perfectly ordinary nobody. I was not meant to be an acclaimed musician, an accomplished scientist, a popular movie star, or an admired leader. I wasn't meant to be a lowly criminal, a poor refugee, a hungry orphan, or a renounced saint. All I was meant to be was to be me - a simple, ordinary person - neither rich nor poor, neither famous nor infamous, neither admired nor denounced, neither beautiful nor ugly, neither accomplished not unaccomplished - just simply, ordinarily me.
Then what is this life for, if it's not meant to accomplish something, achieve something, strive for something? When I was little, I looked up to famous people as role models - for being able to 'accomplish' something. Now I know that the accomplishment itself may be material, the reason for their accomplishment is their spirit. They've been given talents and a purpose in life. Their lessons come through their struggles to accomplish. That is their path to God. But the world looks up to them for their accomplishments alone, and so they try to accomplish more - they hanker after what it means to be accomplished - fame, wealth, power, popularity, admiration. Slowly the ego gets bigger, the heart becomes smaller, and the spirit is lost. But when they can find their way back to God, that's when they've truly accomplished something.
On the other hand is the bottom rung of people - orphans, poor, sick, lowly, troubled. For them, their trials seem to be their path to God. Their lives seem filled with unfortunate struggles. While they say pain and trouble is the shortest path to God, most of them seem so occupied in eking out a living, tending to their day to day meager lives, that all their hope is lost and life becomes a burden. Blessed are they who can find their hope again, and find their way to God again.
My ordinary life - the one I've been blessed with - doesn't seem ordinary anymore - it seems meaningful, graceful, comforting. I don't have to spend most of my life trying to right my material world around me. I have been granted a perfectly ordinary life -every need already taken care of, every want made unnecessary. I've been planted in an already tended garden and my purpose in life is not to strive to ground my roots, but to look up to find the sun and bloom. Most days, my day is neither high nor low, neither excitable nor depressed, neither overly happy nor utterly sad - it's just a calm, contented quiet day. To have an ordinary day like that is my accomplishment. To have a life filled with such ordinary days is my achievement. I am blessed!"