Right Now: House on Fire…!
If our home is on fire, would we wait for an invitation to leave that home? Better still, will we consult the experts on the position of the stars and the heavenly bodies, so that we can time our escape to perfection?! Maybe, we will update our FB status and ask our ‘friends’ for their comments and suggestions? Or, will we wait till we cannot wait anymore — wait for the extreme emergency to happen before we move our glorious hind part? Or, will we wait till we are burnt and then carry a regret, emit a cry of anguish, seek self-pity and maybe just maybe depart for the other world?
The answer is obvious. We will move out the instant we know there is fire. If we wait, we will wait to rescue something precious and escape from that place, faster than the master magician, Houdini. There will be a tremendous sense of urgency within us. We won’t wait for anything that is not precious.
Business is not doing well. You are losing money. The house is on fire. Don’t just stand watching it. Do something.
Married life is not going great guns. You are sadness personified. The house is on fire. Don’t just hope someone else will improve it for you. Don’t wait. Do something.
Health is not okay. You have narrated your disease script to more people than you know. Sympathies never improve health. Nutritious well-balanced diet, healthy life style, positive thoughts, balanced emotions, right treatment and medicines are necessary. Don’t wait. Do something.
You sway in negative emotions as much as the balloon does on a breezy day. You wait for the world to improve, change and understand you. Don’t wait. Do something.
Okay, let us move to another scenario. A thorn pricks our feet. We take another thorn to take out the first thorn. Here come the questions.
What should we do with the second thorn? (That thorn which ‘helped’ us to remove the first ‘painful’ thorn) Should we keep holding it in our hand? Should we frame it as a trophy? Should we store it forever? Or simply put, now that the second thorn’s work is over, we should carefully discard it?
Once again, we know, the answer is obvious. We will throw away the thorn since it has outlived its utility. Neither is the thorn of use to us. Neither are we of any use to the thorn. Then, why keep it. If we keep it, we might hurt ourselves.
It was a great relationship. For some reasons, good or bad, things did not work out. Both of you are no more ‘right’ for each other. Stop bickering. Move on…if you keep thinking about it, you will hurt yourself even more. With all due respects to you, time to move on. There is a long road ahead of you. Keep Moving… Smile and have fun. It’s not easy, I hear you say. The answer — The alternative is worse.
Hence, keep moving! If you stay in the burning house, no one gains, you lose. It’s not worth it. Keep Moving.
Okay, let us look at yet another scenario. You are going to a friend’s place for dinner. This is a much anticipated, much awaited dinner. You know your friend is an exceptional host. However, you are going to his home for the first time. The area where he lives is unfamiliar to you.
You had asked for directions. Your friend had created a lovely map with proper markings and given it to you. When he had explained, you were confident you will reach properly, without getting lost. Unfortunately, you have realized, the map looked much easier than the territory.
You are lost. You are flummoxed. You ask yourself, ‘How could you get lost?’
After all your chivalrous efforts to find the place has failed, after much prodding by your family members to call and ask your friend or ask someone on the road for directions, with perfect hilarious hesitation, you asked a passerby for directions. To your chagrin, he sarcastically informs, you have driven 550 meters past the turn you were supposed to take.
You have ‘missed’ the turn! You scratch your head in disbelief. You blame the incessant chattering of the girls in the car for the ‘miss’. Now, what will you do? Keep driving ahead for you are annoyed? Anyway, you have driven ahead 550 meters, why not keep driving ahead more?
Will you keep driving ahead to round off the distance you have already traveled ahead to 1000 meters? A rounded number looks cute and nice, isn’t it? Would you do that knowing fully well, to reach your destination, the right thing to do is to take a ‘u’ turn right now?
When our home is on fire, we will not wait for an invitation to leave that burning inferno.
When a thorn has been used to remove a disturbing thorn, we will not store that thorn for it has outlived its purpose.
When we are moving ahead but in the wrong direction, we will not wait any more and take an immediate ‘u’ turn.
I am having bad company / smoking / drinking / having an affair / into drugs / not exercising and I say I want to stop all that and then, I delay, isn’t it strange? I say to myself and all others, from my child’s birthday onwards, from my wife’s birthday onwards, after Christmas, from new year, after we move to the new home, once my business stabilizes, I am planning to give it up. Why not now?
When we know our circle of friends is not good for us, what do we do? When we know one of our friends is doing something ‘wrong’, what do we do? Hope that one day, by itself, things will get resolved? Do we still call ourselves a ‘friend’? Why not do something now? Will we wait for the fire in the home to stop by itself? Till that time, stay ‘inside’ the home? Ha!!!
When a ‘core’ employee is not sincere any more, what do we do? Hold on to him and look the other way? Scared? Hope he will change by himself. Why not do something now? Are you running this business based on your confidence on yourself or because he is there as your employee? If he dies, will you close your business down? Your competitors do not have your that particular employee. Then, how come they are successful?
Your employee is in the wrong direction. Will you wait and watch him going ahead in the wrong direction? Will you not insist on him taking a ‘u’ turn? If he refuses, will you not insist or ask him to get out of the car?
When late nights are leading to late morning wake-ups, leading to rush and fatigue the entire day, what do we do? We are not getting time for exercise or meditation. What would we do? Keep on having late nights and hope, one day, things will become better by itself. Would we keep on going in the wrong direction hoping, since the earth is round, one day, we will reach our destination?! Bah!!!
We claim we are in control. We claim we will never ever go out of control. Don’t all addicts make the same claim and cheat themselves every time?
Over a period of time we have developed this unhealthy habit of procrastinating everything that we need to do now. The sooner we get out of this negative habit, which severely hampers our progress and development, the better.
The right time to change is right now.
There will never be a better time to change than right now.
The best time to let go of habits that cheat us of ‘Life’, is right now.
The best time to let go of the past haunting memories is right now.
The best time to stop cheating is right now.
The best time to take a decision that has the power to change our lives, downside up is right now.
Let us get life right by doing something right now.
“Life is not lived in the tomb of the dead moments of the past, nor in the womb of the unborn moments of the future. Life is lived dynamically in the present moment.” — Sw. Chinmayananda
Living in the present means conscious action, not mechanical movements.
Chintu
With simple examples such as running out of a burning house, throwing away the thorn and taking a U-turn when necessary, Guruji has shown the value of acting on time and not procrastinating. Introspection and taking action without delay is the need of the hour: I remind myself.