Life and Death

The one thing which is most debatable in present context is "Life and Death". What is Life? What is death? Which is more dominant force of the two? Or are both the two sides of same coin? These are few questions, answers to which might have always been in the quest of ignited minds, the great scholars and preachers.

Since centuries, the monks have been passing their knowledge of life, death and their relation from generations to generations. Despite their toiling hard human mind as a whole has not been able to absorb the every bit of this vast knowledge. There are a lot of misperceptions among human beings about the life and the death.

While life is something always looked forward to by the human being, death is one thing people are most afraid of. Birth or what we call start of a life is always celebrated and looked with optimism while death is the reality no one wants to face. Even thinking of the same is somewhat linked with pessimism. As mentioned in numerous pearls of wisdom written by scholars "worry (pessimism) is like a pyre".

I, certainly am not enlightened enough to discuss the two most supreme subject Life and Death and their relavance but good enough to understand with my little experience that life and death are certainly not two side of the same coin. While life, no matter how much someone connect to it is uncertain; the death is always certain and inevitable. People celebrate birth, excited over a new life unknown of the brutal cycle of mirage and fallacy it puts one in which can only be broken by death.

It is written in many holy writs and sacred text of most religions that soul is intact and unharmed. Death and life are just two sides of the same coin. Soul is always stuck in the cycle of life and death and get integrated in that divine soul on attaining Moksha. But all that to me is just text and message passed from one to another with no substantial proof. What happens to a soul after death is unknown and a great mystery. The only thing known is that death puts an end to the misery of soul in the current world. No matter how much one is afraid of this eternal truth, death is the one which frees one and ends the misery. This is the truth everyone knows but rather than preparing oneself to accept it, stuck in the mirage of life, we just run away from this reality to avoid it as much as possible.

We see what we want to see and this attachment to fallacy of life and false ignorance of ultimate truth is the root cause of suffering and pain in this world. Until unless we will break this chain of falsehood, suffering will remain eternal.

The Uncertainty of Life

Life is one of the most uncertain things in this world or universe. No matter how cautious you are, no matter how much time you invest in learning from those books or videos about how to live a better life; you can never get ahead of whats in store for you in future. We plan our day keeping in mind what we want to achieve in future. All our activities are directed towards retirement, marriage, children education and other distant things.

We leave our home early in the morning for office to work hard to please boss hoping for a pay-raise, We believe that a handsome bank balance would give us a better life which will be free from adversaries. But, is it true? Does a better salary or having few lovely moments make you feel everything is under your control. If you think so, you are be- fooling yourself. It does help you to feel better and do your duty towards your loved ones, your colleagues, your organisation and your society, but it doesn't make you altogether the controller of everything.

People spend a lot of their valuable time in visiting astrologers, palm reader or other fortune teller. They think these impostors know everything about their future. The all they can do is to try predict something unpredictable. Astrologer has even no idea that on his way to home tonight he is going to be robbed. You don't know the marriage you have planned for years and finally going to happen will be fruitful or not. 

All this might seem negative to the ones who read it superficially but what I am trying to convey is that life is not something which you can predict in advance but it is something that you have to live as it comes. You must be thinking now that the ideal way of life is to be selfish, live in present and don't give a damn about future. It is certainly not this also. Prudent planning for a better future is must but ruining your present just for the sake of a better future is something which will never help you. One need to relish everything that come on its own.

We can not control others action and what impact they will have on us. All we can do is control our reactions and action.

There is no point in saving for future by sacrificing needs of present. You never know, if you will ever make to the time you are saving for. We must discharge our duty towards our work, our family and friends and in return we should except nothing but our inner satisfaction. Life is so unpredictable that you have no idea how much you will survive. you may live up to 100 years and watch your progenies blossom or else you may leave the world as you take your first breath in this world. One can not have control over how long he lives, but he can surely define how his life will be as long as he lives. 

A very well know dialogue from a Bollywood movie goes as: 

जिंदगी बड़ी होनी चाहिए, बाबू मोशाय लम्बी नहीं

SOULMATE- SOME STORIES NEVER END

In the earlier part, we saw what happens when a drunk man came across a girl in a restaurant. All his past memories started flashing in front of his eyes. His love, the incomplete story and the number of questions left unanswered. The time is there to get those answers..

        It had been almost 2 years since she left mysteriously. His mind started telling him that those few months with her were nothing but only a mirage though his heart was in no mood to come out of this fantasy. His life had changed thoroughly since then. He was no longer a happy go lucky person who used to live in present and enjoying everything around him. His face had turned pale and filled with wrinkles, and he had never smiled after that. The beauty of full moon light started seeming him like a curse. Once a party-freak, now he would avoid social gathering as much as possible. All he was concerned about was her memories of those days and wish to relive once again. In her quest he had almost ruined himself, started drinking like hell and got disconnected with outer world. He had no more desire to live but there was only one thing that kept his heart beating, a wish to see her one more time, a wish to ask her why she left her and never let her go again.

        He told his mind, "No more hide and seek for now. Finally, the time has come to clear everything. Why she left him in the middle? Was his love not enough to keep her happy? Here she is, just few yards away." All he had to do was to get up from his table and reach her.  As he stood up there was a call once again from the same unknown number. He didn't want to be disturbed by anything in the middle as he was going to talk to her so he picked up the phone. The very next moment he answered phone, he almost fell on the ground in shock. He could believe neither his ears nor eyes. What he heard contradicted what his eyes were seeing. The call was from Sneha's mom who told him that after battling for one and a half year Sneha had succumbed to her injuries  "What? When ? How? why no one informed me earlier?", all he could say before tears came flowing from eyes. 

          She told him, "That night on your birthday, she called us to tell about you. She was very excited with the thought of marrying you. She left early in the morning to see you but may be God had his own plans. On her way she met an fatal accident."  She continued, "It was so severe that she had been kept in ICU for months, her right side paralyzed, her legs were amputated and brain damaged to a great extant and docs told us that she wont survive long as she infected some incurable infection. She took promise from us that we would not contact you and tell you about this. She didn't want you to see her in this state broken. So, she cut short all communication and even his close friends were not aware about that." "Today morning when she took her last breath holding your photo in her hand. Despite longing for you morning to evening she couldn't muster the courage to inform you." her mother added taking a deep breath as he wiped his tears.

         He drank some water and wiped his tears but they kept flowing from the eyes. Now everything got clear to him. Why she had not contacted him since then? Where she had been gone? All questions were answered. He wiped off his tears and looked up at the same place where he had seen her few minutes before. The table was empty, he went near it and found no one near by and sat there with hands on his head. As he looked down he noticed something engraved in the table. Sneha 💙 Sanjay was engraved in it. It was the same table where they had sat for his birthday that night. They had talked for hours. Promises were made to be happy and keep each other happy. 

             Now after such a long time she (her spirit) was still there. She had come to see how he was doing and whether her sacrifice was worth enough to see him smiling again. The only reason she went missing for years was to see him moving in his life. But what he had done, apart from only ruining himself in drinking and his grief. He wasted all her sacrifice and disappointed her. She would be hurt seeing him in this condition. Now, the time had come. the time to undo all the bad things and make a new start. It's time to change himself once again and live life. Even if she was not their physically but her soul would be with him always watching him, thats why she was his soulmate. He must take care of himself and live for their love by living life, doing all the crazy things she used to like. This will be the only way he can feel her around him every moment. 

Bodies can be taken apart after death but soul can't be taken away. Soul always remains with you whether the person is alive or dead. That's what soulmate is. Life ends but not the soulmate. Their stories continues forever whether in this world or another..................

Soulmate-The Beginning

         A young man in his early thirties was sitting in Zayka Taste of Life Bar & Restaurant with his friends. He ordered one more bottle of Vodka though he had already been one bottle down. At the moment he was so hard drunk that he could barely stand on his own. It was not a birthday party or something special like that but since his heartbreak last year it had been a usual way of his life, leaving late from office, reaching home drunk with no social life apart from few partners in drinking. His friends asked him to leave for home but he insisted on staying for couple of more hours.

                  As he was filling his glass, his phone rang, flashing an unknown number. He stood up and reeling on his way he reached the entrance gate to attend the call. As he opened the door, he saw a beautiful lady in red dress approaching the entrance. Before he could see her face properly she had crossed doorway and came in. He went ahead and was about to answer the call but something caught his attention. That face, may be he had seen it before, may be he knew that face. He turned back and got to his seat again. As he stumbled upon the chair, his friends looked at him, while he was busy in staring at the face sitting two tables away from him. After few seconds he realized where he had seen her.

                   It was the same face which had changed his world for once and all. He remembered everything about her. Her blond hair to eyelashes, dark blue eyes to beautifully curved pink lips; everything was inscribed in his heart. They had first met in a friend wedding 2 years ago. He was on the stage to congratulate his friends when he saw her clicking some random selfies at a far corner in a beautiful red dress. She seemed like an angel. He immediately stepped down and approached her and introduced himself to her. It was a normal conversation that day. After that he hadn't seen her for a month until they met again in a rock concert one day. "Hi! Sa......", she was unable to recall his name. He completed her, "Sanjay it is. How's you Sneha?" After a healthy long conversation that day, they exchanged their numbers. As their office was not too far, they would usually meet on their way back home. 

                  He had already fallen for her that wedding day and soon she also started realizing that. Now their whole time was reserved for each other. Early morning calls with morning kisses were more frequent than brushing and bathing. She would leave late from the office to meet him for some quality time together at Cafe Coffee Day and KFC other times. The weekend used to be spend watching movie, holding hand in hand, sitting in parks with his head in her lap; daydreaming about future. Everything was going fine and boy had planned to propose her for marriage on his birthday. His birthday this year was going to be special for him.

                    They met in a restaurant on his birthday. She had come in that red dress which she had wore when they met for the first time. She hugged him and kissed. They had dinner and a champagne. On their way back to home, he stopped in the middle, few yards away from home; holding her hand he bent on one knee, took out a box from his pocket and presented her a beautiful diamond ring. "Will you marry me?" he asked. "Will tell you tomorrow.", saying this she rushed towards her home. That night he could do nothing but kept tossing up either side of the bed. He was eagerly waiting for the next morning. Lost in all his thoughts he fell asleep around 5:00 AM. Next morning, he checked out his phone, surprised to see there was not a single message nor a call from her. He called number of times but there was no answer from other end. Fearing something wrong, he went to her home only to found out it was locked. He inquired here and there, asked from his friends and neighbours but all in vain.

So, what happened that day? Why she didn't come and where was she lost? was the girl sitting in front of him was the same girl or just another hallucination as he had experienced in last one year? All these questions might be answered in next part when he could muster up the courage to get up and speak to that girl.

Faith- Unleash The Power

         Faith or trust or different other names as we all know it. Faith is the most powerful instrument to help you build your success blocks. When we have faith in something there is no question of doubt or suspicion. Faith is a quintessential tool to overcome all the odds in life. It very well does so by eliminating the first obstacle in your path of personal or professional or say spiritual success i.e. doubts. You can't have a healthy relationship if you are suspicious of your partner's intention. Your dream success is never going to turn into reality as long as you have doubt in your teammates, your boss and even your abilities.

         As you sow the seeds of faith in your heart; you will see the success sprouting. All odds will turn into your favour. Faith can do wonders. Remember that early childhood memories when you got hurt badly and wept loudly, but as soon as you were in your mother arms you turned calm. It is not because your wound had cured suddenly like a miracle but cause of the faith you had in your mother that if she is around everything is going to be okay.

         Once a national level Volleyball player was travelling in a train, when she was thrown out of the train in an attempt of chain-snatching by goons. Her career was ended as she lost her one leg. For an ordinary man or woman this would have been the end of life and all hopes. But that lady didn't accepted this as her fate. She had faith that she was no less than other person. 2 years later, in 2013 she went on her quest to prove herself and climb the highest peak Mount Everest. The girl was Arunima Sinha, first female amputee to scale down the highest peak in world. Her faith in herself made her achieve the feat which even normal people can't do. She knew the power of faith and how to use it.

Your dream can never be turned into reality unless you have a faith in them. Faith is to believe something you don't see.

          It's the power of faith which all the great leaders and achievers have used to achieve something which seems impossible to the ordinary world. When no one believed in their vision they kept faith in themselves. Abraham Lincoln could not have ended the racism, had he no faith in his dream to make the world a better place. A 16-year old small boy, Sachin could never have hit a giant speedster with 150+ kmph bowling speed for a six, had he not trusted himself. For decades, we have been ruled by the persons we have faith in. Joe Frasier, the first man who defeated legendary boxer Mohammed Ali after 32 winning streak had nothing but this faith to turn his dream into reality.

           Inside every person's heart is the ocean full of gems, All we need to do is to have faith, breath in and take a deep dive inside this ocean to discover this hidden treasure. Next time when you find yourself in a tough situation, have faith in yourself and the almighty that this is temporal and everything will be alright in the end.

EDUCATION SYSTEM- HAS IT SERVED ITS PURPOSE

The sole purpose of education is to bring out all round development of human mind and promote creativity. Since ages proponents of education advocated it as the tool to free one from all the regressive barriers and promote creativity. All the countries seem to boast about their increasing education rate time and again, but now the time has come for some introspection.

The present education system has brought us into a state where we are left with no choice but to analyze if we are heading in the right direction or not. The kind of education, our generation is having, had done more harm than benefiting us. We have lost our USP i.e. creativity, curiosity, art. In turn we are trapped in the cobweb of competitiveness, greediness and materialism. We claim to know a lot about this world despite nothing about our own mind and soul.

Can you tell your uniqueness? What differentiate you in the crowd of billions of folks out there? May be you think you can. May be you think you got the elixir of life when you swallowed those life improving books written by some great minds. May be you will try to frame your answer based on some manipulative life lessons social media posts with titles like “12 reasons you are a natural born leader” even if you don’t feel you are or '10 signs you are the most chilled out person ever.” These type of articles rather than helping us out are creating another trap for the people to lose their abilities to think. We are forced to think the way the writer wants us to think. If one wants us to be satisfied with whatever we got as there are few more deprived than us; we stop pushing ourselves to achieve more.

Now here comes the ridiculous concept of modern system when we try to measure intangible happiness in numbers. Can anyone please explain how can we measure any country’s happiness in numbers and well being in graphs? We have started to think, feel and talk in the language of numbers so that it can be understood by computers. We have already started to make babies who are genetically superior by destroying all the uniqueness so that they can fit in this education system.

All we have become is a machine with programming chip to derive action. May be one day we all start to talk in binary script in the influence of artificial intelligence by losing all our creativity and beauty. We have already become the victim of this system but we have to be sure that it does not repeat with future generations. Let them live their dream and don’t push in the never ending marathon of competitiveness. We don’t need alike thinker’s army, we need people who know the world by knowing themselves. people who are spiritually rich, morally right and harmonized with beautiful nature.

The true purpose of education is to make minds not careers.

The Lone Wolf- I

    Sandhya, a lone wolf, sitting at the window in her dark room was lost in her deep thoughts for hours that day. She was startled when her 8-year old brother Rohan came running to her with hands full of colors. "Sister, what are you doing here? Come, join us." he seemed excited. "Its Holi. it's about celebration. How come you not play Holi." he added. For a second she wiped her tears, got up, held his hand and put some colors on his face and then she was lost again in the darkness which was much better than the superficial shining of the world.

        Holi!!!! she tried to recall the word. She remember what she was taught in school,"Holi, the festival of colors, fun and love. The multiple variant of colors wash away all the bad stains of hatred and jealousy from one's heart. Heart is filled with only one colour, the colour of love and brotherhood. As the effigy of evil "Holika" is burnt on the eve of Holi, it is presumed that people have burnt their sins and evils inside them."

    She had just started relishing those childhood memories of Holi, when the haunting memories of last year came back to her. His world was brought to ruins on the same day. How could she forgot her worst nightmare turning into reality. She was kind of girls who loved to live on their own and enjoy everything. She had lived every single second of her life with full joy and had no regret(except one). One day, but one day it was all over, blink of an eye and it was all gone. 

       It was a formal gathering of friends on the eve of Holi to celebrate the occassion. She agreed to be a part of it having no idea that a monster was on her way to gulp her happiness, her freedom and everything she had been proud of. As the Liquor went down the throats, the demon raised their heads. She had abstained from liquor knowing the repercussions it brought with itself unaware that despite being on right path you are still vulnerable to the actions of wrongdoers. Her closest friends had lost their sense or who knows it was their real face. She was molested and her dignity was shattered in the hands of her own friends whom she had trusted most. Every dream was crushed under the feet of those beasts beneath the skin of human.

        The free bird inside her had died (precisely killed) and her own friends fed on her like a vulture on dead flash. Those cruel hands which reached her in the name of playing colors tore apart not only her clothes but her soul. Even when she tried to raised her voice for seeking justice, it was suppressed by none other than her own parents in the name of social disgrace. She had been blamed, questions were raised on her dignity but no one dared to bring the culprits to the book. Even after one year of incidence nothing has changed except her whole world getting shrinked to a dark corner in her room. The culprits are still around searching for another prey this Holi too. 

          The story of Sandhya makes a heavy blow on the double face of society. What happened to her after this? Was she able to left behind her past? All this we may come to know later on. At the moment, we need to ask a few questions first. Is the sanctity of Holi or other festivals still intact after repeated cases of molestation behind the cover of festivals are raising? Does they thoroughly annihilate the evils of a person or just another myth? and do they really signifies victory of just over unjust? We have had enough of all the anecdote and proverbs about festival of colors. Blah blah blah .. and its never going to stop.

        The truth is it has lost its true spirit. The same festival which is supposed to wipe out all evils has become the opportunity for social evils. Creating nuisance after drinking is a common scene everywhere. People see it as an opportunity to sexually harass females in the name of festivities. Teasing girls by throwing balloons and finding an excuse to touch them here and there inappropriately in the name of playing colors. All these evils have established their roots deep in the society. 

           We have to look inside our soul and ask ourselves where are we leading the society. Are we on the right path? Until answer to these questions would be sought number of Sandhya's will keep increasing. The conscience of society will keep tearing apart. 

If, someday when society is free of these evils and conscience of every person on the earth is clear then only we can rejoice everything on the earth.