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A Fulfilled Life

We all are blessed with the human body which is the most wonderful machine on this earth. Fulfillment lies in the use of the human body and mind. It is like a car that is made to help us travel and explore the world. Suppose a car was alive, it would not fulfilled if we got its fuel tank filled, got the most beautiful garage made for its parking, kept it decorated with the most expensive flowers, wrapped it in a nice cover to keep it safe, and keep polishing the car every day. The fulfillment of the car would definitely lie in its best use. 

Aren't we doing the same thing to the human body? Some of us somehow want to fill our bodies with tasty food, good clothes, a comfortable home, nice vacations, and some security that we generally seek in money, so that we may keep getting all these comforts all our lives. We join a job and go to the office against our wishes so as to get money to have all these comforts. That is the reason that we crib almost every day during the weak and try to shrug off any responsibility and try to minimize the work at the office so that we can have fun and comfort. Effectively, we make 5 days a week painful so as to have those two days of comfort and pleasure. Some of us do not have the luxury of those 2 days and get only Sunday off. In any case, that fun also does not last very long and after a few hours of relaxation, we start being stressed due to the anticipated pain of the next week. That is how almost 80%-90% of our lives are wasted on something that we do not like.

Some of us are more ambitious and want to have greater comforts like bigger and more luxurious homes, branded clothes, and vacations abroad. We set different targets in terms of pay hikes, getting settled abroad, and having a good amount of money in our bank accounts. We make it a mission and keep working hard. We devote our weekends too to achieving the mission faster. We give away our family time and leisure. In the end, some of us get what we aimed at and some fail. Even if we get what we want, there is a hollowness, as to what to do now. Unable to bear with that hollowness, we set another target and we move on. Thus, such people are never ever satisfied and always believe that they will enjoy life when they achieve their target, and therefore always keep setting new targets the moment they achieve the first one to avoid the hollowness, and remain discontented and stressed always.

There are some more smarter ones. They feel that let us set up systems so that the entire world becomes quite comfortable. They believe in fairness, justice, and equality. They struggle to set up systems. They make great efforts to set up systems in a world that is filled with the people of the first and second types. That's quite a lot of struggle. Even if they somehow become successful in setting up the systems, such systems are damaged quite soon by vested interests. Unable to realize their foolishness, they again get back to work and try to set up a different system. Thus these people too spend almost the whole of their lives struggling to set up systems to make the lives of everybody around quite comfortable.

Probably, all three types of people do not realize that comfort is not the purpose of life. The purpose of the car is not to stay in the garage, get washed, and have the fuel tank full with the best of the fuel. The purpose of the car is to travel and help the passengers explore the path. The purpose of this body is to explore this world. The joy is in the process. The moment we change our mindset, our entire life changes. We enjoy going to the office to look forward to new opportunities to learn, we love to interact with the kids and family members to understand their perspective and help them understand the wider perspective of life, and we love traveling to different places so as to explore nature and even the man-made wonders, we love to read books so as to enjoy the journey and exploration of the author, we love to explore different subjects so as to understand life from different perspectives, we love to take up challenges so as to explore the hidden capabilities that we have. Every moment is an exploration and full of joy. We make the best use of the body and the mind and live a fulfilled life rather than wasting it to have certain comforts and pleasures, aiming to get more of these things by earning more money, or setting up systems so that everybody can have these pleasures. They are just our tools to live a fulfilled life. We are the masters of our senses and not their slaves. 


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