Life is a gift given to us by Divinity, to live, enjoy, learn and experience. It is full of beauty. It is full of miracles. The rising sun which spreads its orange reds in the skies, the cool breeze in the morning, the fragrant flowers, the lush and colourful fruits, the sea of green grass which is rice and wheat and which feeds and nourishes us, the tweets of the birds and the strength of the animals, majesty of the hills, the stillness of the lakes, the vast skies and countless stars -we are surrounded by miracles, every moment of our lives. The pleasure of the breathing, the coordinated movement of the limbs as they swing in walk and action, the delicious flavours we taste and eat, the refreshing fragrances we smell and enjoy, our ability and capacity to think and work are all divine gifts and miracles.
Every moment of life is different and is filled with surprises. Each surprise is a gift from the Supreme Source. But we rarely enjoy any of the surprises bestowed on us. We have preconceived notions about what is a surprise or a gift; about what we should receive and when we must get them. When things do not happen as per our plans and expectations, we are disappointed and we are not able to enjoy or relish the gifts and surprises bestowed on us each moment of our lives. Our expectations contaminate our experiences and we lose the ability to enjoy the gifts and miracles of day to day lives.
We are unable to see and appreciate beauty and miracles of life. We seem incapable of experiencing fun and laughing at the surprises of life. Our life has become very boring. Nothing moves us or enchants us anymore. It takes something very extraordinary to please us and extraordinary things do not happen daily. Hence we are bored all the time and life is a drag. What should be a bubbling and exciting life is now a humdrum. We deny ourselves all good things and we suffer and poison ourselves. Look at this little story – it is the story of our lives:
Once there was a crane with two heads with a single trunk and common stomach. One day one of the heads found a jar of nectar and wanted to eat it. The other head butted in and wanted to taste it. The first head refused to give the nectar to the second head. Enraged, the second head found a jar of poison and ate it to punish the first head. The poison reached the common stomach. Both the heads died.
The first head and second head of the bird were parts of the same. The first head of the bird denied the goodness of nectar to the second head and did not have it either. The second head ate poison wanting to punish the first. But the heads did not realise that they were one ultimately and denying the nectar to one and not consuming it was denying the blessings of it in totality. We must learn not to be indifferent to the gifts and glories of life. We must train ourselves to see the miracle of life. We must enjoy and allow the blessings of Divinity to nurture and strengthen us. We must not deny ourselves the miracles and gifts of life and poison ourselves.
Let us learn to enjoy the cool breeze on our face, the sweat pouring off our body when we walk, exercise and work, the sweetness of water as it rolls down our tongue when we drink our fill and the incredible mechanism that is our body and the marvels of its functions. Let us look at the skies and marvel at the Milky Way and the colossal intelligence of God which governs and makes every minute part of creation work with clockwork precision.
Let us not take life for granted. Let us learn to appreciate every small joy and at the end of the day we have a huge bundle of joys. Let us learn to accept the things which just happen, the surprises of life and go along with them. These surprises will take us in new bylanes of life and not our dull routines and we can enjoy the new enchanting sceneries of these places. Life has a large lush variety of surprises for us which are adventurous, exciting and teach us new things and add new colours to our lives. Only a true lover of God has the ability to accept and enjoy life as it is. Let us do our SitaRam mantra and meditation and increase our depths of love for God. Let us enjoy every moment of life.
