It was a hectic weekend for Ravishkar Mitra alias Ravi ,as he rushed up with his office backlogs to catch up the Sanga Mithra Express, scheduled for departure by 21.30 hrs on Saturday to Mysore for attending his close friend’s marriage. Ravishkar Mitra, hailing from a lower middle class family found it extremely tough to handle the pressure and demanding situations both at personal and professional grounds. Sometimes he simply felt that he was incapable of handling the stress and it was well reflected in his work performance and decision making abilities. As a result, he was recently served a memo by his Employer highlighting the failures on his part and demanding better performance in the next quarter.
(All these thoughts ranging from his failures, weaknesses, family issues, health concerns squabbled out from his mind as he patiently waited for the arrival of the train.)
Ravi speaks to himself,
I don’t know why this happens to me every time? Whenever I try to solve an issue, another issue silently peeps out and I stand there where I initially started. Everyone like me loves to be stress free, perfect and earn good will and confidence of superiors at workplace. But what to do even bosses aren’t perfect. They don’t foster the culture of team work, they favor certain individuals whose personality falls in line with them even they commit mistakes.
My general opinion is that majority of the bosses don’t lead the team from the front but from the back that they don’t come along with you instead they come besides you and wait for the mistakes to happen as they themselves don’t even know when a mistake is going to happen since they are not the driving force behind you. They are contended to watch you from behind and the moment when you commit a mistake, they will start to act and if it fails, they will pass on the blame on you. The same thing happened with me. I consulted my boss several times during the project, but every time during critical stages, he simply washed down his hands and never took responsibility on his shoulders with the lame excuse that he is giving me a free hand to discharge my duties.
I don’t know why our superiors fail to understand that they are at the driving end and it is their responsibility to fine tune and correct the shortcomings of the team. They try to get the work done by instilling a sense of fear rather than freedom. My boss has not even consulted me or guided me to solve the issues before serving me a memo but apprised the project manager that I am not performing up to the standards. How to get the best out of this situation?
I don’t know why our superiors fail to understand that they are at the driving end and it is their responsibility to fine tune and correct the shortcomings of the team. They try to get the work done by instilling a sense of fear rather than freedom. My boss has not even consulted me or guided me to solve the issues before serving me a memo but apprised the project manager that I am not performing up to the standards. How to get the best out of this situation?
The announcement that the train has come on platform no: 1, disturbed my thought flow and I started to take my belongings to make myself ready to board the train. The train started to move and I have just moved to my seat (Upper Berth) and greeted everyone good night and soon started burying aside my thoughts about my workplace. The thought that I am going to meet some of my old college and school mates has given me some sense of relief since they can freshen up my disturbed stress full mind by their lively suggestions and that thought helped me to fall asleep that night.
(Shhhhhh.Shhh Thaaaadh dhooooom … All I heard was a heavy impact with exploding sound.
Next morning, I woke up to a different destination. I don’t know where I was heading to? It was a tranquil morning with ice-cold breeze overflowing with the jingles of birds and tiny insects. To sum up, I was in harmony, perfect sync with the nature.
Two important questions sneaked into my mind. Who am I and why I am here? I don’t understand the purpose of my visit to this place yet. I don’t remember where I belonged to before coming here?
Hey human being, what are you doing here? , sounded a voice behind me.
Am I a human being?. I don’t know that. Who are you? , I asked out of sheer weirdness.
Yes, you and I are human beings. We are here for a reason.
Can you please tell me the purpose and the reason behind our visit here?, I asked the other human being.
Well, we are here to unearth the basis our existence. We, human beings are equipped with five senses, a sixth sense (comes only by practice) and a few hundred enemies. Our existence here is time bound. Within the stipulated time, we have to discover the purpose behind our existence and to practice to live for that purpose. If we are unable to do that within the stipulated time frame, we have to visit again and again with a new body till we unearth the purpose behind our existence.
Thanks!. But how and where to start? How to use my five senses and the sixth sense? , I asked
He replied, Well , the experiences you encounter while travelling this journey will teach you that. But be careful. At first, you will make a lot of mistakes and make sure you won’t repeat the mistakes again.
“Your five senses are like five horses entangled to a golden chariot and your sixth sense is the charioteer and you are the human being travelling in the chariot.” You have to travel a lot patiently to trace out the reason. Equip your sixth senses to control your five senses. Otherwise your five senses will go astray and lead you to the places they like and you will land in trouble. All the best.
After taking his blessings, I left the place.
/(Towards the End of a lifetime)\.......
I don’t know how much time has passed by but I am not the same person. My reflexes have weakened: same case with my muscles, bones and my thought process. I have family commitments with me now. Now I wish to stay here for a longer duration to finish off my responsibilities. ( speaks to himself)
I chose to take rest under the shelter of the banyan tree. There I saw a human being meditating with some hymns. I waited for the person to open his eyes. It took a week for the person to open his eyes. I patiently waited. To my surprise, I found him to be the same person whom I had met before the start of my journey. Recognizing me instantly, the elderly sage said, “Hey fellow creature! How was your journey? Did you found out what you have searched for?
Well. I do not know what to say about it. I have lots of job to do besides that. I have spent most of the time concentrating on my job, family, and my belongings. Most of the time, I am influenced to act selfishly by certain core beliefs, superstitions followed by a certain sect of people of my time instinctively. Some occasions, I waited and prayed for God to turn up before me to show me the correct path to realize the purpose of Life. I have faced lots of problems, conflicts on several occasions and prayed to the almighty to bail me out. On some occasions I did come out successfully due to God’s grace. But on many occasions, I didn’t manage to do well.
However as I wished, God couldn’t turn up before me not even a single time. I went to many temples, forests in search of the almighty. How unsuccessful I was? Kindly advise me how to act now? Have you met God in your journey?
The Sage explained, “whatever life you have lived till now, you have concentrated on things that is confined by certain limits. Be it your wealth, materialistic desires, family issues,name & fame ..etc. You have to search the Truth which will never change with time, which is not confined to limits & restrictions. It remains constant. There are certain things in this universe, governed by limits which will be destroyed in less than a second before you can perceive, if the nature & Eternal laws governing the galaxies wish to do so. Your focus should be on the indestructible life force which is all prevailing inside you and in all beings and not governed by any limits.
For over the years, you are under the wrong perception that God is a separate entity bestowed with super natural powers to bail out the human beings and other creatures during testing times of disasters & problems. But it is not so. God represents the infinite limitless life force –comprising of five elements of this universe without which life will become extinct. God resides in the soul of all beings. It is us who choose to search God in temples and other things rather than inside our self. The universal divine Energy present in the temples should make further oriented to search God within yourselves to solve all the issues perceived by you in your life rather than waiting for any divine intervention.”
(After hearing this from the sage, I have no other option to regret and repent over my past deeds. Had I known this earlier, my Life would have been definitely better than this? )
Oh great sage,” I have been so frail for most of the time in my life. Kindly advise me regarding my future & further course of action .” I asked
The sage replied, “Ye greatest form of all creatures! The indestructible soul! Arise awake! Awake from this hypnotism of weakness. None is really week; the soul is infinite, omnipotent and omniscient. Stand up, assert yourself and proclaim the God inside you. Do not deny Him? Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes.
Wait, your time frame is nearing to an end. Shortly your soul will leave this body and you will take re-birth as a different individual in another body again and this cycle of birth and death continues till your soul attains perfection. You will not remember the deeds of your previous lives and your mind will be as fresh as a blank page with no scribblings. You have to start fresh again.
Don’t be afraid of death!. Things like your body which is governed by the limits will have to traverse the journey from Life to death since its birth. There is no other choice. Yet in this journey, you should devote some time to know the limitless entities such as Life force and the soul which is very much inside us as indestructible entities. Just like change of dress, death means discarding of worn out bodies and accepting new ones but the indestructible entities: - Life force and the soul remains constant forever.
The limitless soul is fed into this body which is governed by limits and through your five senses and the sixth sense, the God inside you through your inner voice will guide you to know your true self and the soul and will equip you to yearn and know the laws governing the limitless, indestructible Soul which made life to happen in the past and will make life to happen for the future generations. “
Oh great sage! Thanks for your great words! I am very much relieved now. ( I said)
(Shhhhhh.Shhh Thaaaadh dhooooom … All I heard was a heavy impact with exploding sound.
Next morning I woke up to a different destination (Apollo Hospital) surrounded by a team of doctors, nurses and my family members. They informed me that I have surpassed the critical condition and safe now. Further they added that I have met with an accident during the train journey and unconscious for a couple of days. All the incidents that happened during the time of my unconsciousness unfolded frame by frame in my mind. It is still unbelievable for me that all those events appeared so real to me.
Was it a dream? Or did those events happened real with different time frame during my unconsciousness? Whatever may be the case, these events made me to realize the importance and purpose of life and most importantly, Life, here in this planet was a blessing and not to be wasted just like I did till date? Till now, the things which were of prime significance to me such as amassing wealth, family feuds, materialistic desires, petty disputes, earning name and fame in society, craving for rich money-oriented selfish life style seem to be insignificant and crazy. It was a memorable day to remember. For the very first time, I began to look inwardly in my life focusing on the ultimate reality and the truth which never changes with time and by practicing detachment from the results of my actions, freedom from greed & hatred, I became stress free overflowing with joy & happiness.
I am confident that soon I will arrive at the solutions for both my personal and professional issues as my entire outlook towards my life has changed after this incident.
I already requested by friend to pen down this story of mine for the benefit of many youngsters like me and I am eagerly waiting to hear from my friends. Let all the Glory be to God.
References:
1) Gnana Yoga by Swami Vivekananda .2) To the Youth of India by Swami Vivekanada.
Send in your comments to karthikthewriter@yahoo.co.in
A Short Story by Karthik.
