There are more grumblers and moaners than there are happy people, in the world. The following is story sent by a friend of mine, which is reproduced, without adding a single word, from my side. It shows, that it is upto each one of us to adopt any attitude of happiness or unhappiness, empowerment or disempowerment.
One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?" "It was great, Dad." "Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked. "Oh yeah," said the son. "So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father. The son answered:
"I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."
The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."
A perspective, of how things happen, or are, or how we view them, is both amazing and fantastic. We should never succumb to the temptation of believing that our outlook is everybody's perspective.
We should not be like the people who see through the keyholes of doors and feel that all things are keyhole shaped or can be covered as such. A one rupee coin, will hide all the stars in the galaxy, if you put it up against your eye.
All of us see things as we want to view them and not as they are. If we are wrong, we should not feel ashamed, in admitting the same and correcting ourselves for future. When we want to do something, it is not necessary, that we can succeed in our own way. There are always different and additional ways of doing things. If none of them succeeds, then there are others and different alternatives.
It is exactly like reaching our house, or destination an altogether a different way. However, there can be more than one way to reach our destination. I stay in Dwarka, a suburb of Delhi. I can reach it from four different ways, from Gurgaon, from Domestic Airport, from International Airport, from Dabri side and by train. Any of the ways is good enough for reaching my destination.
Same is true of my visiting Jalalabad, where my ancestral lands are located. I can reach by train, from Delhi to Ferozpore and from Ferozpore to Jalalabad either by train, or travel all the way from Delhi to Jalalabad by road. Even for going by road, there are more than two ways.
If we become dogmatic of having our way and doing the things we want to do, in one particular way, there are good chances of our getting stuck up. There are, always different perspectives, to look at things in our life and in the life of people we come across. If we look at life, with the perspective of light and shade and finding something good, we will always find it. We can also find misery and terrible tragedy, if we fancy and court the same.
I live in Dwarka, a suburb of Delhi, which is about 25 kilometres, from the Central Delhi, a place of happening and all programmes. Many people commiserate with me, for straying at Dwarka. I tell them, that it is the best thing, which could have happened, as there is no chaotic traffic, plenty of parking space and a lot of open spaces and park, for exercising and walking around.
I tell them, that is a difference of perspective between us. It makes no difference, to a retired person, as to where he or she lives, because of, easy availability of connectivity and communications, through internet, phones, mobile phones, as well as, public and private transport, It is upto us to have a helpful and positive perspective on the things, we come across in our lives.
For our blissful and a cheerful life, we must not loose consciousness and discernment of who we are. Loosing perspective on life can make us unhappy. Our minds have more power than our hands, as it cannot merely grasp, but has the power to change our life.
Right perspective, means our right attitude not only towards our life, but also towards others. But whatever we do, or see, in our own life, or in the life of others, we see it, from our own perception and viewpoint. It is exactly like, those having a hammer, tending to look, upon every problem, as a nail.
It is our perception and our point of view, which identifies the difference, between a mountain and a mole hill or makes the one, the other. Our bias and impartiality, is again, something, which is in the eyes of the beholder. In order to make something clean, something else, has to become dirty. Let us be fair, but generally we are not. We judge others by their behaviours and ourselves by our intentions. We do not see things, as they are, but as, what we are and what we expect them to be.
What is true by lamp light and at one given time, may not necessarily, be true during the sun light. The vital thing in life is to be balanced. The future is unpredictable. Hypothetical questions, get only, hypothetical answers. The problem with a lot of people, is not the lack of solution, but the lack of identification of the problem, they want to solve.
If you want, to move forward, in life, make sure that you are moving in the right directions, of your aspiration. You must strike at the root of your difficulties and not be, just content to hack the branches. Ultimately it boils down to how we look at things and not on, how are things in themselves. The smallest and the most insignificant things has more meaning in life, for some people, than what is the greatest thing rated by the world. It is exactly like the same boundary around our house, which keeps us, sage, as it keeps thieves and robbers away. We must learn to view things optimistically and expectantly, for a happier and a better life.
By Joginder Singh
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