Friday, May 29, 2009

Start Living, Right living

Imagine that you are dead. I know it is difficult to imagine that but we all know that death is inevitable. It can happen at any time. And when it happens, all that we have accumulated in form of savings, property, relationships etc. will have to leave behind along with the well preserved and cared for body. Only our memories will remain and that too will vanish over a period of time.

Now imagine that you have been given a fresh lease of life - for a short indeterminate period of time. What will you do now? How will you behave? What things will be important and what will capture your attention? What kind of thoughts will run through your mind when you know that you have just a few more days / moments left to live?

Would you not start seeing things in a fresh perspective? Will you not start abandoning the mad pursuit of activities aimed at gratifying yourself? Will you not be bursting with love for life and everything you see knowing that you will enjoy all these but for a short period of time? Will you have any time for negative thoughts like anger, hatred, envy or even mere dislike? Will you not appreciate everything as a magnificent creation of God? Will you not see the awesome presence of God in everything?

In reality, it is a fact that we have a very unpredictable life span. And yet we live as if we are going to live forever. We forget to enjoy today and plan for a tomorrow that is so uncertain. We waste our precious moments doing meaningless things. Wake up to the reality. Start living. Loving. Serving. Creating happy memories. Becoming selfless. Spreading joy as if there is no tomorrow. And indeed, if there is a tomorrow, do more of these things.

"A great life is nothing more than a series of well lived days strung together like a necklace of pearls." Robin Sharma

"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be "happy". I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honourable, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference, that you lived at all." Leo C. Rosten

5 comments:

Manivannan Sadasivam said...

A short and simple post packed with a powerful message. Beautifully written!

Such thoughts are the need of the hour, I must say. If we are aware of this simple, and inevitable truth, how joyful this world would be...makes me long!

Thanks for the thoughtful post.

Have a good day, brother :-)

KParthasarathi said...

There is a sanskrit sloka
ajaraamaravath pragyo vidyamartham cha saadhayeth/
gruheetha iva kesheshu mruthyunaa dharmam aachareth//
We should think we would live long while learning and acquiring wealth and not allow the fear of death imepedus.But when it comes to doing charity,offering worship to God we should not defer thinking we would live long.We should constantly keep in mind that Yama is holding our hair in his hands to take away our life anytime.
Nice post

Vishwanath Seshadri said...

Dear Mani, thanks for your encouraging comments..

KP Sir, your comments have given a new perspective to the blog.. thanks

Vijay V said...

Rightly said...
If we need to know the value of life, we need to know and accept the reality that we are marching towards death. Death remains us the gift we have it with us called "life".

Thanks for this beautiful remainder message Sir.

Vijay Vishwanathan.

Avin said...

Enlightening post.Love like there is no tomorrow and live as if you will live forever.