Letting go is not difficult. It is deciding to let go
that is difficult. So, here’s a simple perspective on what it takes to let go!
When we try to control anything, we experience
satisfaction and triumph in the short-term, but we are struggling with pain and
suffering in the long-term. When we let go, there's pain initially, but joy and
bliss abound in the long-term. This applies to opinions, money, relationships,
children, careers and any challenging situation in Life.
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| The luckless rescue operation to save Thimanna (inset) Picture Courtesy: Internet |
I read a story in the papers last week of a
farmer in Karnataka, Hanumanthappa Hatti, who had to take a heart-wrenching
decision to let go. Hatti’s six-year-old son Thimanna had fallen into an
abandoned borewell in their farm in Bagalkot. After three days of hectic rescue
operations, Hatti pleaded with the district government officials to stop the
rescue mission. Already a 75 ft trench had been dug to reach Thimanna who was
believed to be stuck at 160 ft in the 300 ft-deep borewell. To reach the boy,
the rescue mission team had decided to dig further, in an-L shape, even as
almost everyone gave very little chance for the boy to emerge alive. Oxygen
levels in the borewell beyond a certain point were nil, and at 160 ft, the
chances of survival after three days was nil too. It was at this time that
Hatti made the decision. He said already three lakh cubic metres of mud had
been hauled out from the borewell. To fill the borewell back and reclaim his
sugarcane crop will already require a humungous financial outlay – which was
beyond Hatti’s means. If they were to dig further, Hatti reasoned, his costs
would only go up with no chance of finding his boy alive. “I won't get back my
son alive after all this that is being done. I should at least save my land for
the future of my two daughters,” he told reporters at his farm.
Hatti’s is a classic case of letting go –
complete with the difficulty involved in making that crucial decision. Letting
go is not about giving up. It is about accepting that there are some things in
Life that simply cannot be.
The desire to control is an ego-based response.
It represents a view within us, however subconscious it may be, that we are
causing_and will want to continue to cause__things to happen the way they are.
The decision to let go, is a spiritual decision, made in acceptance of and in
surrender to a Higher Energy. When we let go, we feel a pain, an initial ache,
but we also feel good. We feel a sense of relief, just the opposite of how we
felt while we were clinging on to that situation__fighting, agonizing, suffering.
Mitch Albom, the author of the beautiful book, ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’, awakens us to a new perspective: “Sometimes
when you sacrifice something precious, you are not losing it, you are just
passing it on to someone else.”
What a wonderful way to inspire all of us to
let go. So, the choice is with us. Within us. To control or to let go. Let go,
because you and I are mere voyagers, who came with nothing and will go with
nothing. We will have led a meaningful Life if it can epitomize love and peace.
By letting go, as the struggle within us ceases, we will
become love and peace!
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