I have seen people fighting over the smallest of things. Women fighting for the fourth seat in the local trains. Families breaking up over property disputes. Couple parting ways due to petty issues. Disputes between religions. Disputes within religions. Disputes, Disputes everywhere. Sometimes I wonder, why do people fight so much? Why do every human being find the need to keep asserting their rights time and again? Why do we feel betrayed, if we have to compromise on any of our rights? Why do our ego’s , more popularly known as “self- respect”, play such a predominant role in our life?
Maybe because most of us take our life too seriously. So much so, we do not want to settle for anything lesser. All of us want to claim the best of what is available. I remember my father telling me when I was younger, “Life is too short, to take anything too seriously”. Anything that is supremely important to us today, becomes irrelevant a few years down the line. We even wonder then, did we really fight for something so unimportant? If our fight and our arguments are going to be eventually irrelevant, why do we invest so much energy in it today? That is exactly because we take life way too seriously.
Humans are conditioned to believe that there is nothing more grave or important than what they are going through. However, that is false. If we look around, there are millions of people who have way bigger challenges. They are moving mountains in their lives, and we are just worried about pebbles. Strange, ain’t it?
Let me tell you about a friend of mine. She got married at the age of 24. It was a love marriage. At the age of 27, she suddenly lost her husband to kidney failure. For the last 12 odd years, as she was slowly attempting to move on and finally accept the void created by losing a life partner, she also lost her biggest cheerleader, her father a few days ago to a heart attack. She could not even meet him or say a final goodbye or give him a last hug. Can we even fathom the pain in her life? Can we for a moment step into her shoes and think what she would be going through?
Everyone has problems in their lives. But, there are way too many people who have way bigger challenges. If we acknowledge the challenges and pain people are going through, probably we would take life a little easier.
As I was listening to Sadhguru, he mentioned, “The life we are living is just a journey. How you are living in the present is actually going to define how your true life after death is going to be”. With every passing day, all of us are inching closer towards our final destination. When we wish someone a “Happy Birthday”, we are actually reminding him that he has lost a year of his life and he is one year closer to death, closer to the final destination. Death is not a curse. If we understand life after death, we will slowly start looking at it as a blessing. Death is ultimate freedom. Freedom from the pains of the physical body, freedom from worldly problems, freedom from emotions and freedom from expectations.
If we know that we are nothing but temporary passengers on this planet, awaiting our final destination, where we will have to get off leaving everything behind, all alone. No possessions, no family, no friends, no ego, no nothing. Then why are we fighting today for all of these things, which are not even going to accompany us to our final destination? We are fighting, because we still do not know the purpose of our lives. We are busy taking ourselves way too seriously.
It is high time we accept that life is not going to last forever. Neither are the things we are fighting for today are going to last forever. It is okay, if we have to give someone else a part of our belonging, it is okay if we have to share the fourth seat in a train with another woman, it is just okay. As human beings it is our prerogative, to make this life memorable, for us as well us people around us. We may not have it again. We may probably not even have the next moment. Live it, till it lasts!!
