Celebrate Life its the only one you have

By its very nature, Indian culture encourages you to celebrate every day of the calendar. The Indian calendar is dotted with innumerable festivals connected with religion, birthdays of gods and goddesses, birth and Nirvana anniversaries of great saints as well as national heroes; harvest celebrations; seasonal feasts; geophysical events; weddings and other sacraments and numerous ‘women only’ festivals in addition to temple visits, pilgrimages and folk fairs. These describe Brand India – a concept which teaches that life is a priceless gift of God and must be celebrated as an on-going festival by every individual.

Every day brings a shimmering new sunrise and ends with a sparkling sunset that carrier a new day in its womb. But along with the joy of living, life also brings grief, frustrations, unhappiness and disappointments caused by anger, guilt, hatred, jealousy, greed, lust, arrogance and attachment to indulgence. These are the negatives of human life. Life comprises a mixed basket of opposites which exist concurrently: Want and detachment; incessant activity and peace; aggression and surrender; stress and meditation; anger and forgiveness; selfishness and generosity- all these co-exist in us. When you want something desperately; your frantic activity in achieving your desires makes your aggressive, stressed and angry. Whenever things do not go you way, your heart sinks and you lose hope. This is the irony of life. On the one hand, it offers you the opportunity to live with joy, success and happiness. On the other hand, it puts all kinds of obstacles in your path to achieving these goals. This is perhaps the result of the basic conflict all of us face – we have a limitless mind and soul caged in a very limited body. Our dreams and desires are almost always larger than our physical existence. Our souls are permanent; but our bodies are eminently time-bound. This contrast is the cause of all misery, which comes to us throughout only one way to combat this inbuilt contradiction within us: We must begin our journey inward, step by step, into our inner being, which is a divine temple of peace.

So while you are on your relentless, mind-numbing journey towards the goal of success in every walk of life, you have to simultaneously begin your journey inward, cruising joyfully along the rainbow of self-analysis and self-questioning for improvement. At the end of it, you will surely find the promised pot of gold-peace and happiness, which no one can raise yourself to the heights of achievements your desire. You are your best friend. So also, you are your worst enemy.

As Adi Shankaracharya writes: A person who realizes the truth of four words – Nitya, Anitya, Viveka, Vichara – and applies it daily to his/her life, does not need any further knowledge. He/she finds happiness even in the midst of misery. Roughly translated, these four words mean:

Think what is permanent,

Understand what is impermanent or transient

Distinguish between the two with peace within the temple of your mind

Then mediate only upon that which is permanent.

This simple philosophy runs lie a golden thread through all India spiritual thought. If we accept the eternal truth of these words and remember it as a signpost through our frenetic rush towards, success and happiness, we are sure to find both in abundant measure.