There will be times in Life when
everything will seem so unstuck, so unsure, so unpredictable. Whenever you feel
this way, don’t let it all cook within you – just turn around and go to sleep!
Last
night when I lay down to sleep, I felt the same way myself.
I had
been watching Rang De Basanti
(Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, 2006) for the umpteenth time on TV – somehow the move
never tires you out; it instead grows on you. In the wake of the Chennai
Floods, every issue that DJ and his friends raise in the movie, made me feel
very disturbed. Since there is a strong apprehension among most people in
Chennai that the floods were a result of poor decision-making by the
authorities concerned, issues like lack of accountability, leadership and
collective public action to challenge and change status quo – magnified by the RDB
viewing – made me restless. And then there is our enduring bankruptcy and the
uncertain future looming large: of dealing with every day – practical, survival-related
– challenges as 2016 arrives. We are yet to begin repaying our debt and the
discomfort of living with – and in – such a seemingly-endless situation is
immense. Our daughter’s graduate studies are coming up in 2016 and our son has
a niggling medical condition that needs attention. My end of the family still
chooses to remain estranged, while we don’t have the means yet to financially
reciprocate all the day-to-day support that Vaani’s end of the family provides
us.
Phew!
Sometimes, I just wish that all this incompleteness – and the restlessness it
causes – simply dissolves. Yes, I am
human too.
That’s
when I recalled a learning that my college mate from Kerala, Rajmohan Pillai,
of the Beta Group, had shared with me some years ago. He had told me, while
buying me and Vaani a multigrain sub at a Subway in Nungambakkam, Chennai: “Vaani
and AVIS, don’t try to solve all your problems all at once. You simply can’t.
Just be at them, just be; and over time, they will all get resolved.” I never
understood the import of what Rajmohan was teaching us when he first said this.
But over the years, I have greatly valued his advice.
So, I just turned off the TV and went to sleep. I
slept well.
My
practice of mouna (daily silence
periods) and my spiritual evolution has helped me realize the futility of
worrying. So, last night, I wasn’t worrying. Yes those worrisome thoughts were
arising. But I was choosing to remain unaffected by them. Yet, there is an
incompleteness I felt. And, from experience, let me tell you feeling incomplete
at such times is very natural. The human mind craves for so much control on
Life situations. But Life is more powerful. She can never quite be tamed. We
often don’t understand this truth about Life and respond to such incompleteness
in one of two – or both – ways: we worry and/or we connect the dots of all that
is wrong with our Life and magnify a pimple to look like a tumor! Both
responses are futile – worrying cannot solve problems and linking all your
problems up only confounds an already complex situation!
The best
way, I have learnt, is to switch off the mind when it goes into an overdrive on
either – or both – fronts. To switch off the mind, you must just live in the
present. The mind can only thrive when it is generating thoughts from the dead past
or predicting the unknown future. In the present the mind is powerless. Last
night, since even my attempt to be in the present – watching RDB – turned out to be disturbing me, I
simply went to sleep. And I believe there’s nothing wrong with that choice. Let’s
understand that each problem in Life is unique. Each one has a tenure. No
problem in your Life – or mine – is going away unless it has served its time –
and purpose! So, when you can’t solve a problem with your (human) intellect,
agonizing over it is of no use. You simply have to try again – and again and
again and again – with a fresh perspective, with renewed energy and vigor.
As I go
down to work on my Life and its myriad, incomplete, situations, I wish you too
luck. If we can’t immediately solve our problems, let’s at least avoid
connecting the dots and making everything seem menacing and scary! This is the only way to inner peace and strength when you are
in the throes of a storm!
No comments:
Post a Comment