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Concern is Costly

The world is full of people who are driven by their life goals. Society praises achievers and criticizes failures. The hero defeats the villain, and that's why he is called a hero. We have an old tradition of hero worship and that's why everybody wants to be a hero of his family, community, organization, and so on. Slowly this deep desire to become a hero or winner gets into the bones of almost everybody since childhood. Everything is seen as a war and we want to win each one of them. We want to win over the discussions, leave other vehicles behind in the traffic, come first in the class, prove to the best kid of the parents, outsmart others in the office, win medals and awards, reach the best of the positions, and so on.

Quite often, the winners become so full of themselves that they lose sensitivity towards the people around them. People around become just a tool to fuel their winning streak. When these winners become the heads of families, they torture their kids to top the examinations and get admissions to the best of the universities, their kids should be the best in the town. When they become heads of the organizations, they want everybody to work day and night so that they may be termed as the best administrators. Everybody is just a tool to fulfill their ambitions. They divide people into two categories: useful and useless. 

So what is wrong with this? If these people are not so driven, organizations, societies, and families will be doomed. People are full of laziness and unless these people drive people, they will not work. There may be many more arguments in favor of such behavior. I feel that there is a crucial distinction between "working for the joy of winning" and "Working for the joy of working" which needs to be examined. When somebody is working for the joy of winning, he has tagged his happiness or joy to a future event called "winning". He will be happy when he comes first in the class, gets an award or reward, gets a particular position, or gets appreciation from the people. What is the state of mind till then? Constant suffering, struggle, and unpleasantness. He passes through hell in the process. By the time he reaches the goal, the law of inertia sets in, and out of the force of habit, he chooses another target and again starts suffering. 

In this constant struggle to reach the goal, such a person is so full of himself that there is no space left for others. The concern is costly. It may cost a win. The concentration shouldn't waver to reach the goal. After reaching the first goal, there is some relief from constant pain and stress. It works like drugs for alcohol addicts. Pain and suffering the whole of the day and suddenly the alcohol enters the blood and there is a feel-good for some moments and suffering again starts making such a person crave for the next dose of alcohol. There is no space in the mind to think of others. The concern will deprive such people of the next dose of winning. 

Different people set different targets and keep running the race to reach those targets. Some want to become wealthy or powerful, and some want fame. Some want to reach the top of the organizations and some want their kids to reach the top of the organizations. Some want spiritual realizations and some want to have occult powers. Some want to visit hundreds of countries and some want to get settled abroad. Desires take thousands of forms. One thing is uniform though. The moment "working is for the joy of winning" we become selfish and once we become selfish, there is no space for others. We have to have a tunnel view to win the race. 

Can we explore an alternative way of living? "Working for the joy of working" where work itself is a reward. Once we just open our eyes and see the reality, there are not many years left before the grad event: the moment of death. We will leave this body and enter into a different body. Just like checking out of a hotel and checking into a new one. Why have so much of a fixation with the hotel? It's just a place to take a rest so that the work may be done. Accumulating all the medals, awards, recognitions, positions, money and power has no use if the work for which we have taken this life is not done. That is why work itself is joy and this joy is instant. 

We do not have to suffer the whole of the journey to get a few moments of joy after reaching the destination. Why not enjoy the journey itself? When we enjoy the journey, we stay in the present moment and can see the sufferings of everybody around us and have empathy with them. We can't make a person fixated on winning be happy. He has chosen his own sufferings. But we can definitely help a few who are open to observing their own choices. Once we taste the freedom from fixations, we become concerned about all the people who are fixated because we can see their pain and suffering. The concern is not costly, rather the concern is a natural outcome of that inner connection that fills us with love and joy. A hungry man starving for the food will fight for the food and someone full of love and compassion will always share that around. 

प्रवाह

flow.pravah@gmail.com


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