Once an arrow leaves the bow or the bullet leaves the gun it cannot be reversed or recalled. It will continue towards its intended target or until its velocity becomes zero.

Similarly, there are certain things that can’t be reversed or regained.

1) Action:

Once a karma or an action is performed, whether a positive one or a negative one, it is bound to leave an impression on the mind and give result or bear fruit in time. We have no choice but to experience and exhaust the result as a consequence of our action. If a person slaps another person, no amount of apologies to the person can reverse the act of slapping. A knife pierced into someone’s body and the consequent pain that will result to that person, can’t be reversed. Even if the wound is healed, it will leave a scar on the body and a negative impression on the mind of the performer of action and a sense of guilt and regret.

Therefore, always act cautiously and intelligently so that there is no room for any guilt or regret later.

2) Words:

Sometimes some words are spoken in certain situation, which we may regret later. Even though we may apologize, it may still leave some scar on the mind of the one to whom they were spoken and a sense of guilt and regret in our own minds.

So one must be careful with one’s speech and not utter something which one may live to regret.

3) Occasion:

Many a times we miss occasions, when we could have done something good for our near and dear ones, or occasions when we could have expressed our affection for them, or said

something nice to them. Seasons come and go in cycles, but an occasion that happened at a particular place and at a particular time will never come back.

In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take, relationship we were afraid to have and the decisions we waited too long to make.

Bitterest tears are shed on the grave for deeds that were not done or words that were never expressed though we always meant to do so.

So when an occasion or an opportunity presents itself for us to do something good for our near and dear ones we should do it immediately, instead of having regrets later.

Similarly, when we have an occasion or an opportunity to express our affections and feelings or to say something nice, we should do it immediately, or else we may not get such an occasion or worse, the person may no more be around.

4) Time:

If we lose wealth it can be earned again. If we lose our health it may also be regained. But it is not so with time. Time is the most precious thing because it is limited. It is the only thing that cannot be renewed, recovered or reproduced. Once it is lost it is lost forever. Nothing and no one can turn the clock back for us. Wastage of time is the most extravagant wastage. It can never be recovered.

Therefore every moment is precious. No one has the power to change even a moment of the past. What has already happened, no one can do anything about it. We cannot change even a moment of our past. We have no choice but to accept the past as it is and move on. Never dwell in the past. Never ever live in regret. Our relationship with the past should be limited to the lessons we have learnt from the past events and experiences.

Similarly, short term or long term planning for the future is fine, but we should not worry about the future too much. It is anyway mired in uncertainties.

The present moment is the most important moment, because that is all that we have at our disposal. If the present moment is the cumulative effect of our total past, then the total past modified in the present will be the future. If we live our present perfectly it will make our future perfect. Always live hundred percent in the present moment, without the regrets of the past and the fear of the future, which exists in imagination as worries and anxieties.

“The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power,
To tell just when the hands will stop,
At late or early hour

Now is the only time you own,
Live, learn, toil with a will,

Place no faith in tomorrow,
For the clock may then be still”