REFLECTIONS ON LIFE

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REFLECTIONS ON LIFE

The other day I asked my friend, “ Do you live to eat or eat to live?”. He suddenly looked perplexed and did not answer. He seemed to think for awhile. Most of us do not know the nature and purpose of life. we take life casually and are not much concerned about its turns and tides. Life is not a bed of roses or is it a bed of thorns. It is a mixture  of both. But man wants to live happily for ever and does not like sorrow to visit him. “ To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all”  says Oscar Wilde. Man is a social animal. He is distinguished from the ordinary animal by his power of intellect and power of discrimination. Is it enough if he exists similar to the animal that eats, sleeps, and reproduces periodically? Hence mere existence is of no consequence. He has to establish that he is different from the beast! He should aim high and leave footprints in the sands of time! Only then he would be remembered as in the case of many great men whom we remember today. He should achieve something great and worth the memory physically, mentally or spiritually.

“ In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life; it goes on” says the famous poet Robert Frost. Time and tide waits for no man. Life goes on for ever and it's continuity can never be arrested. Ages and centuries have gone by and generations have changed accordingly.It is for man to live and adjust and accommodate himself to the changing conditions of life. He cannot afford to be a square peg in a round hole.You cannot have too many lives! “ You may live once, but if you do it right, once is enough” says another writer. How do you live your life? According to  Albert Einstein” There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.The other is as though everything is a miracle.” It can be with a scientific bent of mind with God given rationalism or wondering at the incredible and indescribable nature and other creations as miracles of God! After all science is mere invention and discovery of the miracles manifested by the Almighty! There are certain dreamers who forget to live their lives always engrossed in them.That causes disillusionment.

“ Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor” remarks another great writer.  “All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players”  said Shakespeare. It is a dream and drama for those with a philosophical bent of mind.The rich can have all the fun they want in their life but it is definitely a tragedy for the poor who would suffer for want of money in this work a day world! Life is short; “Smile while you still have teeth” is what another writer says! Life is considered as short as lightning that illuminates the world in a fraction of a second and dies immediately.  “Vidyut chalam jivitam” is the Sanskrit saying. Caught in the shackles of samsara man is drowned in the mire of material life and does not think of releasing himself from it. He forgets to seek spiritual progress and salvation! By the time he wakes up the damage is done and he is lost! So within the the short duration of his life he has to achieve something worthy to redeem his life.

According to the famous philosopher Confucius, “ Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Man is a bundle of desires. There is no saturation point for his desires. Fulfilment of one desire leads to another and there is no end.There is disappointment and frustration when the desire is not fulfilled. The inner enemies assail him. Greed, jealousy, ego, arrogance, pride and prestige lead him astray from the path of fulfilment of the goal of life and righteousness! He becomes the architect of his destiny, good or bad, by this own volition.As Abraham Lincoln puts it, “ln the end, it is not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years.” You should not consider life as a problem to be solve.   It is a reality to be experienced.

The purpose of Life is to be happy, but what kind of happiness? Is it the pleasure that is trivial and transitory or the happiness and bliss of eternal peace and contentment? Man prefers generally the former to the latter. But that is not the purpose for which man is created. He has to realize who he is. He should know that he is not the body but the indestructible soul, the atmic principle that is omnipresent in the universe and manifests in every creature. It is said that he lives who lives for others. Service to humanity and the deserving elevates man to spiritual level leading him to Divinity. “ Life’s persistent and urgent  question is ,’what are you doing for others?’ says Martin Luther King. “Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it” it is said. It is appropriate to conclude with the words of Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai Baba: “Life is a song; sing it. Life is a game; play it. Life is a Challenge; meet it. Life is a dream; realize it. Life is a sacrifice; offer it. Life is LOVE; enjoy it”.