Don’t take yourself or Life too seriously. At the end of
the day, Life’s but a dream!
A couple of years ago, a young lady came to
meet me and my wife, feeling totally despondent about Life. She was separating
from her husband, she had two young children and her business was just not
working out. She had accumulated a lot of debt – most of it from family. She
was wondering if there was any meaning to Life. She asked me: “What’s the point
of Life if there’s so much pain in going through it?” I am sure this is a
question each of us has asked ourselves at least once in our lifetime so far.
I shared with her a story from the Life of the
great Chinese mystic, Chuang Tzu (a.k.a Zhuang Zhou or Zhuangzi, 369 BCE ~ 286
BCE).
One morning, sitting in his bed, Chuang Tzu looked
very sad. His disciples had never seen him so sad. And never after waking up
had he remained in his bed, sitting. What had happened? Was he sick?
They gathered around and asked him, “Master,
what is the matter?” He said, “The matter is really difficult, I cannot solve
it; perhaps you may be of some help. I will tell you what is the matter. In the
night I dreamed that I had become a butterfly, and I was moving from one flower
to another flower.”
One of the disciples said, “This is nothing to
be sad about. In dreams we all do strange things; and this is not a bad thing,
to be a butterfly – colorful, beautiful, moving from one juicy flower to
another juicy flower. Why are you so worried?”
He said, “You have not heard the whole thing.
The problem is, now I am awake and I am wondering whether Chuang Tzu dreamed
that he is a butterfly, or now the butterfly has gone to sleep and is dreaming
she is Chuang Tzu.”
As Chuang Tzu shared his dilemma, his disciples
remained silent. They understood the import of Chuang Tzu’s poser. This is what
all the scriptures have been saying – that everything is ‘maya’. Everything is a dream. So, why the strife?
Why worry, why the anxiety, grief, guilt, anger and sorrow? Chuang Tzu taught
his disciples this: “Continue easy with Life and you
are on the right path.” He didn’t
say this way or that way was right. He said, whatever you are going through, go
through it with ease, don’t resist, don’t fight, don’t aggress. Just go easy.
Because whatever is happening to you is just a dream. It will soon be over. So,
don’t gloat over your riches or your successes. It’s a dream that’s soon to
die. Don’t bemoan your sorrows. But it too is a dream and will be over soon.
I met that young lady recently. We had been
mentoring her, holding her hand and helping her understand Life better, over
these two years. But in the past quarter we had not met her. So, when she came
over, I noticed how much she had evolved. I saw a twinkle in her eyes, a
radiance on her face and an enthusiasm in her step. I asked her how things
were. And she replied: “Nothing’s changed – the marriage is still going through
the final rites, the kids are a handful and the business is deep in the dumps.
But I am taking it all easy. And so, I am at peace and I am very happy.”
Sometimes, Life can weigh you down. Things just
won’t go the way you want them to. That’s the time to learn to take Life easy. As
the famous song from the Tamil movie ‘Kadhalan’
(1994, Shankar, A.R.Rahman; Hindi – ‘Hum Se
Hai Muqabla’) goes, (have a), “….Take
it easy, policy!” And have it now – Oh! Yes! Abhi!
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