What is Life - Part 3
I would like to continue my comparison of life with another
metaphor. This time I would like to compare with a vehicle. By vehicle, I mean
it can be a two-wheeler, three wheeler , four wheeler any vehicle in which a
human can travel from point A to point B.
Let me consider a four wheeler. Now the body of the four
wheeler can be compared to the human body. The driver of the vehicle is like
the soul of the body. Just like the driver and the vehicle are different,
similarly the soul and the body are different. However the vehicle is used to
move from one point to the other. Similarly we can consider life as a journey
and move from place to place. Now let us see how a vehicle can be compared to
life in more depth.
As I said, the body of the vehicle is like our human body.
The steering of the vehicle can be rotated as per our desire, following which
the vehicle tends to move in that
direction. Similarly, our intellect is like the steering. Based on what
decisions the intellect makes, the body will follow it. In case the destination
is not known, what do we use which will navigate us? Obviously nowadays, we use
the Google Map and the GPS which will navigate us safe to our destination.
Similarly, if we are not knowing what to do or not sure where to head in life,
we use out instincts or we go by our intrinsic values. By values, I mean what
we value the most, we will go towards it. For instance, if a person values
being independent as the value number 1, he or she will most likely choose to
be self –employed or if a person’s value is to be safe and secure, the person
may choose to be in government job or get employed in an organization. So what I am trying to emphasize is that based
on our priorities of our values, we choose to do different things. Now let us
look at the brakes which are present in the vehicle. We apply brakes either
when we encounter a hurdle or a hump on the road etc. Basically we apply brakes
to stop the vehicle to get damaged and also for our safety. Similarly in life,
many a times we have to halt . This halt may be in the form of being silent or
being patient or not reacting to a situation etc. Sometimes someone may have
told something very harsh at us or may have scolded us or even may have hit us
physically. In such cases , just like applying brakes to halt the vehicle, we
also need to apply brakes using our mind.
If we do not apply brakes the vehicle or even we may get hurt. Similarly
if we do not apply brake in life, the situation may worsen furthermore or may
harm you a lot. So one must develop the art of applying brakes at the right
place and the right time. Sometimes maintaining silence in certain situations
is in itself the best solution. Now when we use the vehicle extensively day in
day out without bothering to maintain it , imagine what would be the
consequences. Let us assume you have totally forgotten to check the air
pressure of the tyres and you are on a long trip. Obviously sooner or later the
tyre will become flat. Let us say you have been postponing to pour engine oil
to the vehicle and now it has already exceeded the due date. You very well know
that the engine will conk off anytime. Imagine you have not serviced your car
and it is already more than a month that you should have given for service and
you continue driving the vehicle. What is going to happen? You know the answer,
the vehicle may anytime breakup or just stop functioning properly. Similarly if
we do not maintain our human body the inevitable is going to happen. Let us
begin with eating. Imagine you are eating all unhealthy food like fast food or
too many fried things or eating too many times from restaurants. Obviously you may face problems like indigestion
or may contract disease or catch a fever etc. Now let us consider our physical
fitness. Imagine there is absolutely no exercise for the body. You are not
allocating any time for exercises and you are continuously eating and working .
Obviously sooner or later the body will show up with symptoms like fatigue or
obsesity or diabetes etc. Now consider the sleeping pattern. Imagine you do not
sleep adequately . It may be lack of sleep or even over sleeping. Both the
instances are not good for the body. We all know what lack of sleep can do to
us. One tends to get short-tempered, high irritability and lack of focus and also
lack of memory. Over sleeping also is not good , as it leads to a lazy
attitude, low energy levels and so on. Now let us consider our mind. Just like
the physical body the mind is equally or sometimes I feel more important than
the body. Imagine you keep dumping always negative information in the form of
watching too many crime stories or reading about bad news or messaging about
all the negative things in life to friends. The mind is like a storehouse and
it will keep accumulating whatever you feed it. If the storehouse is full of
bad things or negativity, even if you want to think positive, it will become a
challenge because there is no place in the storehouse where positive things are
there. No wonder we keep hearing news about people who commit suicides or
commit heinous crimes, because their storehouse of their mind is completely
filled with unwanted stuff. Hence it is very important what we feed our mind on
a daily basis. It may be what you read or what you see or what you talk to your
friends, relatives or colleagues and also what type of friends you have. In
fact that reminds me of a popular quote which says “You will be judged by the
friends you have and the books you read” Maybe in the present age reading books
can be replaced by what you read in social media, be it Facebook or Instagram
or what you choose to see in YouTube etc. So we need to take care of the
vehicle very carefully, otherwise the vehicle, as in our life may breakdown any
moment.
I had said that the driver is different from the vehicle in
the beginning of this article. Similarly when we are aware of the fact that we
are immortal souls inside this vehicle called body, our entire perspective of
life will be changed for the good. Isn’t it? If we maintain this perspective,
we would very well know that we are temporarily housed in this body and as long
as you are in this body, better to take care and maintain it, just like we
would do to a vehicle. If this thought process is there in us throughout our
life we will not get too much attached to anything and will not be too disappointed
even if we lose something in life. Just like we change a vehicle after few
years or after we feel we need a change, same it is with life. When it is time
to die, we just need to remember that we are only changing the vehicle, whereas
we as a soul will never ever die and can never die, because soul is immortal
Conclusion:
Just like the vehicle be very careful of you take care of
the vehicle and also be careful where
are you turning the steering. Otherwise, once the vehicle gets damaged, it
takes lot of time to restore it to the original state and sometimes the damage
is so much on the vehicle that it is better to discard the vehicle. We need to
ensure that this does not happen to our vehicle which is the body and mind.
Finally remember that we have temporarily hired a vehicle in which we are
housed. Once our time comes, we just need to go to a new vehicle.
Dinkar Jagadish Rao,
Certified Master Neuro Linguistic Trainer,
Certified First Degree Self Hynotist,
Certified Third Degree Reiki Master,
Personality Development Trainer,
For more details visit www.dynamitesolutions.in
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