For some 10 to 12 years now, whenever Diwali is around, my mind gets preoccupied with thoughts that may sound weird and may be baffling to some but I can’t help but think of those…! With all my childhood memories of Diwali that includes new clothes, creative lanterns, decorative rangoli, roaming around to feel the celebration fervor in the air, meeting and greeting of friends, relatives and all the near-and-dear-ones without prejudice and total Diwali budget of 500 Rupees for the family of 5… I stand almost startled with nostalgia on the verge of Diwali these days…! Some might find the reason of this in AGING and others might settle for their all-time favorite analysis of my-self as WHIMSICAL. But that is not the point…
A well-to-do gentleman was washing his car in his front yard when he saw a man sitting on the bench across the road who seemed to be hungry, sick and penniless. After quite an analysis of the situation the gentleman decided to offer some help to the man on the bench to show his generosity and feeling a little good about himself. The moment the gentleman asked the drifter ‘Do you need any help…?’ three magical words from the believed beggar came…
Don’t We All…!?!
That’s the point… Don’t we all need to think about, hmmm… everything…!?! Like –
Why do we study for results and not the joy of learning and bliss of enrichment anymore…?
Why have we become so aware of our rights and ignorant of our responsibilities…?
Why do we need a house that is twice as big for even our distant family put altogether…?
Why have we become sensitive of our material prosperity and indifferent of spiritual poverty…?
Why do we feel need to buy another car before the warranty period of first one is not over yet…?
Why it is only the time with family when we take them to doctor or some obligatory formal function…?
Why do we still think our children as our long-term investment plans and treat them like Debentures…?
Why do we need old-age-homes as many as picnic spots around and even populated exactly like those...?
Why do we watch the so-called entertainment that we do and what do we inherit from it… I, Me and Myself…?!?
Why do we need portability for everything from mobiles to relationships when we know that nothing is permanent…?
Why do we need to pay thousands to learn something that could have been learnt with open mind and awaken senses…?
Why we have six lane and eight lane broad expressways and a mind that is too narrow to accommodate a fourth person…?
Why do we select the program to attend by skimming the audience and not quality of the program or pleasure we may get…?
Why do we spend most of the time with them for whom we are just an option and keep those alone and waiting for whom we are the world…?
Why do we offer a tip of 100 bucks to the waiter at restaurant but hesitate to take out a 10 rupee note instead of coin for a needy and helpless beggar…?
Why do we keep on doing things that are not gratifying and work with people that we don’t like and keep ourselves busy depriving of quality times to earn the money that is never enough to pay for the things that we don’t need as we don’t have neither the time nor the energy to enjoy them…?
And finally, Why don’t we feel the same joy that we used to get in 500 bucks upon spending say 50,000 nowadays…? I am not talking about inflation here, mind you…!
The list could be unending but I have to stop somewhere. What I intended with this was there could not be more apt occasion than the Festival of Lights for this enlightenment and I wish on this auspicious occasion we, at least start thinking about those questions and practice to take away everywhere my two favriote questions for at least the rest of the life starting from today…
‘Is it worth it…?’ and ‘At the cost of what…?’
Wishing you all a very Enlightening Diwali and Enriching New Year…!
Stay tuned and BE A-W-A-R-E…!
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