Are you living a good life?

They had just begun to teach us Cursive Writing and I was on the floor doing my homework when I overheard this conversation between my Grandfather and a visitor. There is no correlation between the two but our Brain has funny ways of storing memories. Since they started teaching cursive writing in the 3rd grade, I know that I was eight years old then. 

Something my Grandfather said got imprinted probably for the way he said it. He said a good life is when you do not have to deal with Black, White and Khaki coats. 

Courts, Hospitals and Police station if you don’t need to visit, it is a good life. 

The process of going through our courts itself is the punishment! 

In my annual health check up as I was shuttled between tests, I was passing through Departments of Pain…Cardiology, Endocrinology, Oncology, Hepatology, Urology, Nephrology, Radiology, Pathology, Pulmonology, Neurology, Ophthalmology etc. The wise old man was right. While we run after presence of pleasant things, it is the absence of the unpleasant that is condition enough to make life beautiful.

Joy is our natural state. The absence of pain - physical or emotional. We really do not need anything more to be happy. They say, “A healthy man has many desires, a sick man only one”. We consistently get this math wrong. This simple truth. Absence of pain is joy. Every day we wake up without pain is a miracle. Disease has causes, health is a miracle.

Third way in which life can go wrong brings us to the men in khaki - the Police. Am sure you agree. 

Yoshi asked his master, “Sensei, I have done everything you said, why am I not happy?” Sensei was sitting under a Cherry Blossom tree seeing the flowers dance in the sunlight and said, “Happiness, like sunshine cannot be grasped directly, it is only reflected. Let me tell you a story.” 

Once a monk finds a magic lamp and out comes a genie granting three wishes. End global hunger the monk asks, that cannot be done says the Genie. Make everyone happy - the monk’s second wish is also turned down. The last wish is granted, when the monk says, “ Make me always content”.

Yoshi says, “But Sensei what’s that got to do with happiness?”, to which the master says, “Like the monk, you cannot force happiness through wishes or demands. It comes from within. Happiness is granted to those who learn to be content with what they have in each moment.”

I would add a fourth - a loan collector at your door.  The absence of these four is pleasure enough.

Play your game. Chase your dreams. The pursuit of money, wealth, fame, power, we don’t need to feel guilty of. They have their place too. Just do not make the mistake of linking your happiness to the outcome of these pursuits. 

इश्क़ की राह पर जो मिले वो ही सही 
ये मिले ये भी सही वो मिले वो भी सही 

On this romantic road of life, I accept whatever I get. It's good if I get what I want, if not, am happy with that too!

To live a good life, we must first know what it is! 

#sbfc