In The Flow..

Life is shrinking every day. Each day death defeats life and conquers the span life claims it to be hers. This is a movement. Call it living or dying. It is not a war but we may make one of it. By complaining, by cribbing, by pushing too hard against life, by being adamant and over ambitious, we call in for a war. Life succumbs no matter what and death wins over life. And yet in spirit (in essence), life triumphs because it lives, it experiences, it shares, it creates and gives in when time is ripe.

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The antagonism between life and death is apparent. It exists till the effort to be and continue living is too strong in us. When our desires are strongly rooted in the world, the movement of life becomes sluggish and gets filled with obstacles. We often forget our identity as evolved and spiritual species and we wrongly identify ourselves with the objects of our desire. Wealth, health, fame, recognition, success, comfort, loved ones and the like become our obsession and we engage unlimited time and energy in the pursuit of these things. At times our desires are destructive and take the form of hurting, injuring, competing, killing, humiliating, bullying, exploiting and controlling. This further distracts our attention and takes us farther from the goal of self realization.

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Devoid of negative and positive desires, the flow of life and the evolution of one’s self becomes simpler and fluent. The key to this is coded in the phrases – ‘Let go’ and ‘Forgive and forget’. Depending on how strongly one is entangled with the desires of the world, these axioms (of letting go and forgiving) appear difficult or easy to imbibe. The more you are of the world the more difficult it is to implement the philosophy of letting go and forgiveness. Socrates did not complain when he was given the cup of poison after the unjust trial against him and Jesus asked the ignorant to be forgiven when he was being crucified. This was because Socrates and Jesus are the kind of people who thoroughly understand that the world is not a permanent abode. They lived their life to its fullest and left effortlessly when the time of departure arrived. Our life is a transient phenomenon and the joy of it is in giving and moving rather than in extorting and hoarding. If one has lived in this way, dying wouldn’t be a matter of complaint and regret. Life is a movement and forgiving and letting go is its essence.

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There is conflict and antagonism when you fight death. There is harmony and peace when you live and die in a flow of acceptance. While one lives, there is suffering, there is pain, and there is desire, happiness, pleasure, work, success, family, responsibility and an unending series of events and experiences. We all deal with it. But when we stop making too much fuss about it, when we stop whining about things, when we learn to say, “It’s alright” to ourselves and others and when we are humble enough to accept life as it comes, we glide. We soar, at least at times, on higher altitudes and live a life of freedom, of grace and of gratitude. We live a life worth living and die a death worth embracing.

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Nilesh P Megnani is a professor of philosophy who teaches not just the academics of his subject but the purpose of it to his students. He writes whenever he feel inspired and believes life  is workable hypothesis and love, the elusive potion that might transform humanity Connect with on neelvijayalaxmi@gmail.com