There’s no denial ever in Life

Whatever is due to you will come on its own. And what is not due to you will never come to you – no matter how hard you try!

A feeling that causes much of our suffering is the one where we feel we “deserve” something. Seeking deservance is a natural human tendency. Most of us are hard-working, sincere and honest folks who believe that whatever we do must be compensated fairly and our contributions must be both recognized and rewarded. But this does not always happen in Life. Things we don’t ever want to happen to us, just happen to us, no matter how good or ethical we have been, and we feel Life’s being unfair to us. But through a rather inscrutable design, even if something’s delayed, and if it is due to come to you, it always comes. There’s no denial ever in Life.

NYC Officials with Ms.Talat Hamdani
Picture Source: The Hindu/Internet

Just yesterday, I read this news report of the 9/11 hero Mohammed Salman Hamdani being honored by New York City. Hamdani’s story is unique and relevant to our discussion. He was a 23-year-old Pakistani-American researcher and a certified Emergency Medical Technician. On the morning of 9/11, 2001, he rushed in to help when, on his way to work, he saw the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center burning and collapsing. Tragically, he was among the 3000 who perished in that terror attack. What was even more tragic was that the New York Police Department (NYPD) named Hamdani as among those responsible for plotting the attack on the Twin Towers with the al-Qaeda group. His family, led by his mother Talat Hamdani, fought this humiliation and sought redemption. 13 long years later, this week, the City of New York named a street after Hamdani in the Bayside neighborhood. While the NYPD had long seen their indictment of Hamdani as an error perhaps, Hamdani’s family hailed the naming of the 204th Street in the Bayside area as “Salman Hamdani Way”. They saw it as Hamdani’s sacrifice acknowledged and as a wiping out of all the humiliation and disgrace that his memory was wrongly subjected to. Talat, Hamdani’s mother, said: “My soul is calm.”

Can you imagine? Someone who goes in to help, ends up sacrificing his Life, but is named a terror suspect but, years later, a Street is named after him – something that will stay on for posterity? Bizarre isn’t it? But such is Life!

I have learnt that when things go wrong in Life, as they often will, and you don’t get what you believe you deserve, just make your point and move on. Don’t berate anyone or anything. Don’t hanker for justice by suffering and agonizing over what’s been denied to you. If you must really fight for what’s due to you, do so with a calm, calculated and stoic approach. When you bring in emotion into a fight such as this one, you are expending precious energy which may actually be useful for lasting the long haul. Righting a wrong is important. But perishing in the bargain, suffering, is avoidable. Because whatever’s due to you will come to you – no matter what. And if it doesn’t come, then, perhaps, it was never meant for you! Quoting a couplet from the Guru Granth Sahib, which says, pretty much, the same thing: “Apne Gham Ki Numaish Na Kar…Apne Naseeb Ki Azmaish Na Kar…Jo Tera Hai Khud Tere Paas Ayega…Har Roz Usse Paane Ki Kwaish Na Kar…Taqdeer Teri Apne Aap Hi Badlegi Aye Dost…Muskurana Seekh Le, Wajah Ki Talaash Na Kar!”