Part 2

I have been struggling for a very long time to accept the saying, "At some time you have to stop dreaming what you want and start doing what you were born for." I think I heard that in a Hollywood movie.

Now, at the outset, this quote sounds, to say the least, disappointing. But anyone who has been under the sun for a few years on his own would realize that there is a lot that we want/desire/wish in life. Some of those things are downright fantasies with reality being as far away as is Kingdom Come in life. I mean, practically speaking, there is a lot that depends on things which are simply not in our control or if they are, we have to make superhuman efforts to ensure that ordinary frailties don't do us in.

For example, every kid on the block might dream of becoming a 'Fighter Pilot!' But with time, other truths dawn upon him and thankfully the Air Force does not even need so many pilots. Similarly, I once met a creative in an ad-agency who told me that he meets at least one person every day who wants to make a film!

That brings me to the second clause in the 'what to do' question. And that is WHY?

A lot of reasons can be attributed for this 'WHY' question. I happened to be watching 'Rang De Basanti' again yesterday and came across at least two major reasons in the film for driving us. Patriotism and love.

To make things more generalized, let us call these (truth/moral/principles/ethics), on the one hand and love, on the other. Now these are terms which are only fancied by glassy eyed kids according to practical people so other factors like MONEY (which is a BBIIGG one), professional satisfaction (intellectual/creative kicks we get out of using our grey matter) are other reasons which come readily to mind.

There are still others who are driven by the sole desire to serve others. Now that's a an infinitesimally small number of saints, for most of such people whom we know of only "ASSUME" that they are doing good, more often than not, knowingly or unknowingly they are just satiating some other inner desire/need.

Not digressing any further, we come back to the main question of 'WHY' in choosing what we do. For a lot of impractical fools like me, to live and die for just money, perks or the happiness of a select few (read family and friends) who claim to love us and whom be feel obliged to reciprocate or actually profess to love. Now lets look into this. As the Beatles said, 'Money Can't Buy Me Love' (and I would like to extend that to happiness), and very often when the money begins to drain out you truly understand the meaning of love and the the strength of relationships. Often, those relationships which last the strain of monetary struggle are those which would stay with you, at least for the lifetime, no matter WHAT YOU DO or HOW MUCH YOU EARN. They form those select coterie of people who are doomed to love you no matter what happens. God Bless Them and help them recover from their insanity.

But even these people, whom will be with us for at best a lifetime cannot be the reason for what you do because when you spend 10 hours a day working far from these loved ones, what matters is the 'WORK IN THOSE 10 HOURS' rather than anything else.

Other than dreams and fantasies (for which we might or might not possess the requisite skills or resources, or may be just the grit!), we do have some gifts, analytical or creative which help us have a living where after a certain number of compromises we can manage to create an environment to survive.

Coming to the most important part. What about happiness ? Remember, PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS !!

So is happiness a function of what we DO or who are/who we BE?

I apologize for throwing the readers from a so-far fairly practical line of thought into what is widely accepted as spiritual quandary.

From whatever little I have read or heard from people who manage to stay happy NO MATTER WHAT (and where, and when), happiness ain't a function of what you do, where you are, whom you are with (or not with), but just a state of mind, the length and intensity of which are directly proportional to your consonance with an element (which is very difficult to describe, and something over which I have been pondered over the last five minutes as I struggle to make it effable) which is at best described by an abstraction which the human mind chooses to call God/the Self or whatever you call that concept which beyond the intellect.

Having established, the most important human need in terms of something which almost sounds unattainable and even futile to think about at times, the fact is that all of us, irrespective of our religion (or even the fact whether we are agnostics or not) do strive in millions of ways for that state of mind which can be called best attuned to that Divine force.

Luckily for us, from whatever little I have read or observed, it is the intensity and sincerity and not the methodology which matters in this pursuit...of happiness. Meditation, zen, tao, sketching, painting, music, day-to-day work (!!...by the way that MORE THAN ANYTHING else), relationships and anything and everything which can be said to compose the fabric of life contributes in this pursuit and leads to paths (perceptibly and imperceptibly) which we walk consciously or in sleep walking state what the Indian scriptures call Maya and which we call reality (everyday life) and which Einstein described with these attributes, "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one."

What's more, for those of us who desire from the core of our hearts to live for something higher than which is offered by the monotonous daily humdrum of daily life, walking this path often makes us an instrument, often unknowingly, in the service of mankind. And someday, just by our presence we are able to bring smiles to the faces of our fellow beings, and I mean genuine heart-felt long lasting smiles of satisfaction and contentment rather than those which Close-Up commercials promise by pasting them on faces of beautiful (well paid) damsels.

So coming back to square-one, what to do?

Well, I guess, anything as long as your antennas are focused to THAT right frequency for the periods and durations of time where one can soak in enough of that 'Happy' element in order to last the rest of the day.

Other than what you do, how you do it, is widely believed to be inconsequential. I guess someone said that the 'Devil lies in the details.'

There's one more point I would like to touch upon before I terminate this rather LOOONG blog post. And that is, right and wrong.

I mean, there are some things which appear downright wrong while doing. For example, umm..let us say..killing beings etc. Now although that appears an extreme and a long continuum of such things could be listed which various people might find reprehensible to various degrees, the low down on this aspect appears to be that apparently even a butcher selling meat can be realize if he just focuses sincerely on his responsibility towards his family and the society, just as a butcher, as a son, as a brother, as a husband, as a father and all that which life makes us during the course of our lives.


And this, my dear friends comes right from Vedanta, the holy scriptures of Hindus which strictly talks against 'killing' and eating 'non-veg' and all other sins which a lot of people readily acknowledge. But apparently, even the Rishis of ancient times seemed to acknowledge what I read in one of Paulo Coelho's books, "It is not what goes inside men's mouths that is sinful but what comes out of it."

At this, I would like to stay full stop for this post.

:-)