I.D SONI
Meaning of Life: The majority of people is hurriedly conclude that there is no ‘meaning to life.’ According to them Death is the end of life and that is all. It is because they never bothered to know the real purpose of life.
Human life has the prerogative to solve all the problems of life. The animals, trees and aquatics do not have this privilege. That is why it is said that, “The highest form of ‘himsa’ (violence) is to keep in darkness the human being who is in his developed consciousness of life.”
Set a Goal for better meaningful life and then realise it: We set for ourselves short-term goals. So long as we have some goal, we feel our life is meaningful. But almost all our goals are transitory. We realise one goal and then we are after another. We must realise that the ‘quest’ for ‘life’s meaningful’ is a ‘spiritual quest’, which each one of us has to undertake. Every one’s life is meaningful, provided we change our attitude towards what life brings to us. The life of a teacher or a student, a doctor or an engineer, business-man or a sweeper, for that matter, everyone’s life could be meaningful provided each lives his life with the aim of ‘self-actualisation’, and ‘self-transcendence.’
Bring in spirituality in daily life: What humanity needs today is something more than rites and dogmas. Humanity today needs reassurance. Let us, therefore, understand the value of message such as one that was given by the seers and sages; the rishis and saints in the long ago. They taught us how to live the true life, the new life, a life of simplicity and sympathy and service, a life of new awakening, of self-effacement and self-realization. The humble way to lead such a life is to do little, simple tasks with love and devotion and offer them to lord. If we wish to walk this way, we must learn to become humble. In utter surrender, we must say to the lord: “O, lord, we are nothing, thou art all.” The pilgrims of the little way are not bothered about what other people think of them. They are not even hurt if someone humiliates them. They remain calm even when they are criticized. If we are criticised, we get angry and our reaction is to hit back. When we get angry, we immediately react tit-for-tat. The pilgrims of the little way believe in forgiving and forgetting. They know that what is hurt is the ego and they are out to annihilate the ego. Let us, therefore, try our best to live a significant life by adopting the above said little way as taught by saints. It will go a long way to lead a daily spiritual life.
Live a life of creativity: The very nature of the word “creativity” itself implies bring into existence that which does not already exist. And yet for most of us, our daily lives are filled with the repetitive and the habituated. We move through the basic routine of getting up, getting ready and going to work with one sequence after another, early if ever noticing that we are engaging this repetitive process day after, day after, day after.
Creativity has its roots in curiosity. Without curiosity, there would never be the questions to which we seek answers. Without curiosity, there would be no reason for us to go anywhere new or meet new people or think of new thought. And yet how many of us have become stuck in the habituated way of living our lives, applying our greatest creative expression to finding a variety of ways to explain and describe why we can’t have the life we want.
Ask ourselves: whose permission do we need to be able to begin to live our life in a way that leaves us feeling alive, dynamic and energetic? The answer to this question will expand us into a new level of expression. The future is uncertain…..but this uncertainty is at the heart of human creativity.
Imagine what our life could become if we got curious-about ourselves, about our world-view and about our motivation for making the choices we make. Suddenly life would be filled with astute observations and their corresponding, life expanding insights.
Insufficient roles keep coming our way. No matter, let us give our best performance for better success: In a given life, we might be playing the role of matter, father, brother, daughter, clerk, officer, business magnate or a road sweeper. We must try to give the best performance, no matter how insignificant the role. In a way, there are no insignificant roles. It is our attitude that matters. Success of any concern/movement is dependent on each one performing his or her role well; we are also dependent on other actors in real life.
Live in the moment: All too often we get caught up obsessing about the past or worrying about the future. When our time runs out in this life, we will realise that it is only the present that matters.
The past is gone, and the future is not a guarantee. The only thing we have a control over is how we act and what we do with our time right now.
Close the door on the past. Process the things we learned, apply the lessons to our current life and then never look back. Have a plan for our future but don’t over think it. Live is the present tense. Get out there and live today. Tomorrow is not a done deal.
vii) Live for yourself:
When people realize that their life is almost over, they look back with a kind of clarity they never had before, it becomes apparent that dreams they had been chasing all those years were the wrong ones.
They were living a life based on external pressure. Their goals were based on what they thought they should do, what they believed they were expected to do, or what someone else told them to do.
We only get one life to live. Why live it for someone else? Have the courage to be true to our deepest desires. Ask ourself what it is that we really want out of our life, and then go for it.
School of life is the spirit of giving and the art of caring:
Life is also a school. There are some archetypal experiences, like motherhood, poverty etc. Which each ego has to experience in one life or the other. Perhaps the greatest thing we can learn from the school of life is the spirit of giving, and the art of caring. We are put in a certain painful or unfavourable situation again and again till we learn the necessary lesson.
Learning is a never ending process:
For most of us learning is very slow. We live under the wrong impression that one life is not sufficient to complete this course and keep prolonging our self-liberation process. If the average life span of a person be 70 years, he spends nearly 65 years on things like playing, studying, sleeping, eating, bathing, shopping, working, recreating etc. If not now, then when? In olden times, an inquiry was set up to find the cause when the battle was lost.
Failures are lessons in Disguise: Some of the toughest lessons we learn in life are from our failures. While making big mistakes does not feel like an awesome learning opportunity at the time, that is exactly what they are.
Learn to embrace them instead of letting them weigh us down. In fact, take risks and leave our comfort zone as often as we can, even if it means that we risk failure. Our failures are gifts. They teach us to accept ourselves as we are. They teach us to face our fear. And they teach us integrity. Our failures are the reasons we are able to grow into great people. Learn to love them.
Actions speak louder than words: Even though most of us have probably heard this popular phrase, it can take a lifetime to fully understand it.
We believe the lies of the world, of other people, and from ourselves. We allow people to continually mistreat us and we choose to believe the words that promise it won’t happen again.
We tell ourselves that we are going to change our lives (get healthier, finish our education, make more money), but we never take action towards our goals. The words provide temporary comfort, but action is what truly defines who we are and who others are.
If we can talk the talk, we should walk the walk. Be true to the words that leave our mouth, but trust others based on their actions rather than their words.
Show Gratitude: The older we get, the more we appreciate all the things we have in life. Yet we still tend to focus on all of the things that we do not have. Establishing the habit of gratitude is the true key to happiness. With true appreciation, we will be enlightened in life. We will beable to live in the current moment and be thankful for all of the amazing things that make our life worth living.
So start taking the time today to appreciate everything we have from the warm shower we are able to take each morning and the food in our pantry, to the job we have and our family who we love.
Our lives should never be filled with regret, yet there is a remorse epidemic that plagues many people and they are trying. These people realize that their lives would have been much fuller had they only learned these lessons earlier. Don’t let these mistakes take away the beauty in our life. Take a moment to learn these life lessons today.
To be continued
(The writer is President, Home of Aged & Infirm, Ambphalla, Jammu)
