We seek a joyful life. Yet, we miss it. The jeremiad over mounting mental tensions and worries are understandable. We are unaware of the power of giving. We are busy taking from others, not in giving something to others. Mother Teresa told her sisters in the Missionaries of Charity: “Give till it hurts.”
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Joy is the denouement of contentment. Wants should be kept at the minimum. Proliferation of wants brings only sorrow. Most people create troubles for themselves, and they are worried about them. Nature is kind enough to meet everybody’s need, but not greed, declared Gandhiji.
Joy also emerges from a forgiving nature — a supreme nature. One who displays patience to bear with others’ shortcomings, mistakes, hatred, jealousy, wrong doings and so on, can certainly rise above to become great. The best medicine is to forget and forgive to enjoy mental peace. Tennyson wrote: replace pride by modesty, overcome hypocricy by simplicity, remove hatred by love.
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Compassion is capable of curbing such worries. Compassion leads to service. It is defined as a sense of concern that arises in us in the face of someone who is in need or someone who is in pain. It is a deep awareness of, and sympathy for, suffering of others. Mere awareness is not enough. We have to help the unfortunate people. Albert Einstein had said: “Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”
Albert Schweitzer, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, had said: “The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others. Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not find peace for himself.”
We should respect the “Law of Giving”. At present, it is functioning in the reverse direction. We are busy with accumulation of wealth. There are abstruse dangers. There is a threat to our wealth, and threat to ourselves. Helping others, on the other hand, leads to the blossoming of a new state of consciousness.
Some studies have shown that in the occupational sphere also, it is the givers who rise to the top of the success ladder; others stagnate in the middle. The givers enjoy high reputation. It is sagacious to move from self-centredness to other-centredness. Experts also advise us to do something totally different. We have to break the routine so that new ones emerge. It may be a tough exercise. But, crossing the Rubicon is not an uphill task.
satyasundaram@yahoo.com