When you end up having to fight
someone or something, or plain injustice, don’t let emotion rule you. Being
angry and emotional will only ruin your inner peace.
This morning’s Chennai
Times reports Tamil lyricist Thamarai’s on-going protest against her
husband Thiyagu. The couple have been estranged for a few months and Thamarai’s
been on a sit-in protest with her son Samaran outside Thiyagu’s office for the
last few days. She’s been demanding that her husband apologize to her and,
possibly, reunite with her. The media has been full of stories of her protest.
Today’s Chennai Times leads with this
heading, a quote from Thamarai, for a story by Janani Karthik: “I need the 20
years I spent with my husband back.”
Samaran and Thamarai sit in protest Picture Courtesy: Internet |
I felt sorry for Thamarai. Not just because she is
having to grapple with a personal challenge. But also because someone as
intelligent and as deeply soulful (her work in Tamil cinema in recent years is
unputdownable) as she is, has lost her equanimity and is responding in such a
futile manner to the situation. I am not even speaking in favor of or against
either Thamarai or Thiyagu. I don’t know them. If we were to go by Thamarai’s
version, Thiyagu left home in November last year and has been refusing to
resume ties with her ever since. Clearly, it shows that the couple have stopped
relating to each other. When there’s no relating between two people, what is
the point in berating the relationship – that too in public? I feel sorry for
Thamarai that she does not realize that her relationship with Thiyagu is dead.
It’s over. Even if they come back together, it will be more for a social need
than for experiencing the joy of being together. Also, by demanding something
which cannot happen – wanting back the 20 years she spent with him – Thamarai
is only causing herself more grief and agony. Which, although she claims
otherwise, will affect her craft – something that is the bliss factor in her
Life, something that she undoubtedly is a master of. In trying to shame Thiyagu
and in trying to win the sympathy of her professional circle and of her fans,
she’s simply on a mission to destroy her inner peace. In the context of a
marital dispute, there are laws and the country’s family courts are more than
equipped to sort out such an issue. In the context of her inner peace, she is
only ruining it further by resisting what has already happened to her and
failing to accept that her marriage with Thiaygu is, obviously, over! My
advice, unsolicited obviously, to Thamarai is this: forgive, even if you can’t
forget, simply let go and move on!
There’s a huge learning we can draw from l’affaire Thamarai. Very often in Life
we may end up feeling let down, trampled upon, pissed on and passed over. We
will want to avenge the person or the act or both. Every cell in our body will
want revenge. After all, who can accept or tolerate injustice? This is when we
must realize that the best way to win a battle is to not fight – emotionally –
at all. Emotions only make any matter worse. By all means fight, but don’t
respond emotionally. Chose a legal or sometimes a practical, strategic
approach. Think through what you want. And act with a plan. Don’t react. In a
dispute such as Thamarai’s and Thiyagu’s, public shaming will get neither party
anywhere. Definitely not to feeling peaceful. Remember that people always do
what they do because they feel they are right. In trying to tell someone that
they are wrong, when they believe they are right, you may well end up burning a
lot of your precious positive energy. You build up negativity and stress in you
and, eventually, turn depressive. Instead if you approach the situation with
peace, calm and – if possible, forgiveness, you will be able to operate with
more clarity. When you are able to see the situation – and your Life – more clearly,
you may really not want anything other than your inner peace. Most important,
you may not want to fight at all. That’s when you will
realize that there’s great value in forgiving someone, even if you can’t
necessarily forget what they did to you!
No comments:
Post a Comment