Surrendering to Life does not mean
inaction. It means acting duly but without any attachment to the outcome.
Someone who read my blogpost of yesterday
pinged me wanting to know if ‘surrendering to Life’ was ‘accepting defeat’ or ‘giving
up’. He said, “All our early Life, through being raised at home, through
teachers and peers at school and college, through seeing the way the world
behaves, we have been taught the theory of ‘survival of the fittest’. We have
been encouraged never ever to give up and keep competing. Isn’t then the
concept of ‘surrendering to Life’ a sign of weakness, a sign of ‘accepting that
Life has defeated you’?” This reader’s perspective merits a discussion.
First, let’s understand that Life is not a
competition. It is not a race either. And nor can you compete with Life. It is
perfectly fine for you to have goals, ambitions and aspirations. It is
absolutely fine for you to go after them with passion and focus. But, as you
may have well realized through your own experiences, you may not always get
what you want in Life – despite your best efforts. Or sometimes Life may act in
such a way that, without any immediately evident cause or reason, your Life
will change. And because your Life has changed, your aspirations will have to
change. You will have to accept and live with your new reality – knowing and
understanding that some things you planned may never be possible any more.
Let me give you an example. I know of a
young lady called Preethi Srinivasan. Had Life not literally felled her in 1998,
and left her a quadriplegic, Preethi would have played for the Indian Women’s
Cricket team. She overcame shock, grief and agony, accepted her new reality and
is now a motivational speaker who also runs this wonderful organization called
SoulFree (http://www.soulfree.org/who-is-soulfree/)
which she set up in 2013 to help people like her who are dealing with spinal
cord injuries. Now, can someone like Preethi, just wallow in self-pity and will
such wallowing restore her physical condition? What she can do is to live each
day fully – celebrating the Life she has. And she’s doing this remarkably well.
In fact, her Life is an inspiration to so many people – including me.
Now, if someone feels that Preethi has been
defeated by Life, they are sadly mistaken! And if someone feels that she should
be competing ‘better’ with Life, they must go live her Life before making that
comment! To me Preethi has embraced the Life she has with total acceptance and this
is the reason why she is a personification of the indefatigable human spirit.
Labels like ‘defeat’, ‘failure’, ‘loss’, ‘success’,
‘victory’ – all these are irrelevant in the context of Life. People who are
labeling themselves or others are “armchair theorists” – they keep rocking away
with their opinions but never really get going in Life!
There’s only one way you can respond to
Life. Which is to accept whatever comes your way, whatever happens to you, and
live your Life one day at a time. The action I talk about is doing whatever you
can do each day, doing it well, and leaving the outcome to Life. You just be
sincere with your living – and your doing. Leave what you are given at the end
of each day up to Life. Not doing what you can do in any context – well, that’s
inaction. Therefore, ‘surrendering to Life’ is not inaction. In fact, if you
truly understand the power of ‘surrendering to Life’, you will value a ‘good
night’s sleep’ as your biggest blessing, your greatest wealth at the end of each
day – and never the money you have made or the money that you are pining for!
The best principle, as I told my
reader friend, is to not think too much about Life. Just do your best daily – and
live with what you have been given, fully!
No comments:
Post a Comment