What a life!!!!

Ever contemplated how our lives are shaping up? Ever given a thought about the path we are treading? Ever wondered where all those years after we graduated have gone? Recently I indulged in this endeavour of trying to answer these questions. Don't ask me if I have that much free time. That's another topic altogether. Coming back to those questions, I got lost in thought while I was thinking (ofcourse it's an uncharted territory. What else do you expect? :-). Some time later lot of random thoughts flooded my mind. It seemed they are all random at first glance, but after carefully revisiting them made me realise one essential but always neglected and ignored fact which is our uncanny inclination to stress, strain and sorrow or in other words our reluctance to be content, happy and peaceful. I guess our approach to life is fundamentally wrong. I will tell you why.

Normally we think with our brains and act with our hearts not realising that it should be the other way round. Let me give an example. We can consider our own careers. In school days we would have had some idea of what we want to become in our lives, which career to pursue etc. This is what our hearts want. We should have directed all our efforts towards achieving it. But in no time that gets suppressed. We start to think with our brains like which job would give me a good salary? how much salary is enough to manage my family, to repay my EMI? and compel our hearts to set into that mould. From that point onwards it's a downward spiral in our lives with all the uncontrollable emotions taking control of the rest of our lives. We start working because we have to and not because we want to. There's a name for the one who has to work irrespective of his or her willingness or under compulsion, and that name is 'slave'. We drag our lives working, because we have to and not because we want to.

The moment we stop working like slaves and begin working like masters, that's the moment worth spending our lives for. For that too we have to work. But as Swami Vivekananda says "Work is seldom sweet. It's only when love greases its wheels that it runs smoothly. It's a constant friction otherwise". So it's better to work like a master, relax a moment, replenish our vital resources with love that doesn't cost a thing and get back to work, because there's nothing else for us to do in here. If we get this right, it could well make us shout "What a life!" at the end of our physical lives.