By M L Satyan
Coimbatore, April 16, 2024: We have been boasting of our science, technology, military and weapon power. Every country has been spending enormous amount of money for procuring arms, weapons and nuclear power.
Our human pride, our imagined self-importance, status and money power, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe is often challenged by a tiny, unseen and deadly virus, as it happened during covid period.
In the mad rat-race trying to achieve ‘fake development’, human beings forgot that they were almost dust particles in the vast universe. Hence, they wanted to conquer the whole world for which they ran, flew and roamed everywhere, including visit to other planets.
But today the fear of a small virus has made the human beings realize that they are in no way better than animals, birds, reptiles, insects, trees, mountains, rivers and seas that enjoy a great freedom.
Today one small tiny virus has the ability to prick the human pride. It can challenge our science, technology, medical advancement, wealth, popularity, military, weapons and powerful positions. Countries have realised their foolishness of procuring dangerous weapons rather than creating basic and holistic health care systems with appropriate medical equipment that would save people during pandemic/disaster time.
As a consequence of our wrong priorities, we have lost and are losing millions of precious lives since we are not “fully capable” of saving them.
Human society today lives amid a lot of stress or tensions. Everyone – male or female; young or old; husband or wife; parent or child; teacher or student; employer or employee; doctor or patient; rich or poor; educated or uneducated; rural-based or urban-based; travelling by air or road; living in India or abroad – is submerged in a stress-filled life.
A few major reasons could be financial ambition, career-related ambition or political ambition. When ambitions and over-ambitions, are more, we are not spared of stress. What can be done?
“Just leave it” can be a wonderful mantra. If we know the value of it, we will not be suffering as much as we do in our lives. It is worth practising this mantra as follows:
• When the children grow up and take their own decisions, do not impose your views and decisions, just leave it!
• Try convincing a person once or twice. If he or she refuses to get convinced,
just leave it!
• Your frequency does not match with everyone in life. If you cannot connect with someone, just leave it!
• After a certain age, if someone criticises you, do not get upset, just leave it!
• When you realise that nothing is in your hands, stop worrying about others and the future, just leave it!
• When the gap between your wish-list and your capabilities increases, stop self-expectations, just leave it!
• Everyone’s path of life, duration of life, quality of life is different, so stop comparing, just leave it!
• People have positive and negative sides. Stop looking at only the negative side, just leave it!
• When it is hot, do not grumble, just leave it!
• When it is cold, do not complain about the cold weather, just leave it!
• When it rains, do not blame the seasonal or unseasonal rain, just leave it!
• Life has given you such a wonderful treasure of experience, stop counting what you do not have, just leave it!
Here is a thought-provoking anecdote. A man was on his death bed. When he realized it, he saw God coming closer with a suitcase in his hand. This is the dialogue between them:
God: Alright son, it is time to go!
Man: So soon? I have many future plans for my life.
God: I am sorry, but it is time to go.
Man: What do you have in that suitcase?
God: Your belongings.
Man: My belongings? Do you mean my things, clothes and money?
God: Those things were never yours. They belong to the earth.
Man: Are these my memories?
God: No. They belong to time.
Man: Are these my talents?
God: No. They belong to circumstance.
Man: Are these my friends?
God: No son. They belong to the path you travelled.
Man: Are they my wife, children and relatives?
God: No. they belong to your heart.
Man: Then, it must be my body.
God: No. It belongs to dust.
Man: Then, surely it must be my soul.
God: You are sadly mistaken son. Your soul belongs to me.
Filled with fear, the man took the suitcase from God’s hand and opened it. It was empty. He was heartbroken and tears rolled down his cheeks. With great hesitation he asked God.
Man: Does this mean that I never owned anything?
God: That’s right. You never owned anything.
Man: Then, what was mine?
God: Your MOMENTS. Every moment you lived was yours. Life is just a moment.
The Bhagavad Gita tells us:
“What have you lost that you cry for?
What did you bring that you have lost?
What did you create that was destroyed?
What you have taken has been from here.
What you gave has been given here.
What belongs to you today belonged to someone yesterday
and will belong to someone else tomorrow.”
Every human being comes into this world empty-handed and will leave this world empty-handed. This is the TRUTH. We must learn to live this momentary life meaningfully. Let us follow the mantra “Just Leave it” and lead a stress-free and a happy life.
M.L. Satyan’s article captioned “Just Leave it – Mantra for stress-free life” is a pretty good suggestion to tide over today’s tension in our lives. Of course there are different Mantras by different gurus for a stress-free life. Osho Rajneesh was also considered one such guru who encouraged all kinds of physical indulgences. One of his famous quotes was:
I am not going to give you a destination.
I can only give you a direction –
awake, throbbing with life,
unknown, always surprising, unpredictable.
I’m not going to give you a map.
I can give you only a great passion to discover.
Famous filmstar Vinod Khanna was one of his ardent disciples. On the other hand Fr Anil Dev of Matridham Ashram, Varanasi urges us to lead a spartan and prayerful life of serving the poor and needy to enjoy a tension-free life.
But we humans are strange creations of God who bestowed us with our Free Will without many Advisories. Former prelates Franco Mulakkal, K.A. William and even Gallela Prasad are classic examples who did everything to give a stressful life to the faithful of their dioceses and beyond. They became international figures for celebrating Mantras which were certainly not akin to Christ’s life of `Servant-Leadership.’ In their defence they may cite the early adulthood of Augustine of Hippo now called St Augustine, Doctor of the Church! After all self-indulgence is also a form of “Just Leave it”
Besides “Just Leave it” if not “turn the other cheek” mantra is not in the human nature which invariably revels in flexing muscles. Russia, North Korea, China, Iran and Israel are classic examples. Even the current Indian politicians are no less. PM Modi and Rajnath Singh’s ‘Atankbadiyoko Ghar me ghus ke mara jaata hai’ remarks are certainly not “Just Leave it” as propounded by Satyan with all the best intentions.