Something struck me suddenly while having a discussion. So much pomp and show, and so much expenditure, people make in their ceremonies. For what? You ask them, after they have attended the functions, whether they are happy and how long they will remain so. If somebody dared to tell the truth, the reality would be that it was just a momentary joy. Even while coming back from the ceremony, the joy would have already faded away. In fact, for most people, it was never a joy with their hearts filled with feelings of comparison and jealousy. Still, people spend crores of rupees on these functions.
Isn't it such an expensive way to get the pleasure. Each family that participates in these functions and ceremonies spends thousands of rupees, sometimes even lakhs. Lakhs of rupees spent for such a momentary joy. In fact, people save money for years, dreaming of organising these functions for their children's weddings. Years of savings spent for a few moments of joy. On the other hand, people who live meaningful lives enjoy the process. A scientist enjoys the process of discovering the truth behind some phenomenon of nature, an enterpreneur enjoys building an enterprise from scratch to give wings to his ideas, an author spends months together to give shape to his ideas in the form of a book, a student works tirelessly for years to get admission to a good university, a life coach works patiently to get an entry into the psyche of the people he wants to help come out of stress and depression, a sportsman who constantly challenges the world record set by himself, an astraunaut who prepares himself for decades just to be able to cross the boundaries of space to enter into the outer space, a fighter pilot who fights the pull of gravity many times more than the gravity at the Earth and yet hits dot on the target to save the country form enemies.
These people enjoy every moment of the process. The process may be challenging yet deeply fulfilling. What is the difference? When the locus of our lives is to have fun, joy will run away from us. The more we please the senses, the more they feel depleted. That's why once we enjoy a kick, getting the same kick again is more costly. That's what happens to the drug addicts. The first dose of drugs gives a kick, and getting the same kick would require a heavier dose of the drugs, and slowly they increase the dose of the drugs until they damage their entire body as a side effect. The same thing happens to sugar addicts. To get the same spike of sugar in the body, we consume more and more sugar, more processed food and chocolates and sweets and at a time, the body gives up, and we develop diabetes.
On the other hand, the people who enjoy the process do not want spikes. Since they enjoy the process, they derive joy from working on the project they have taken on themselves. An artist finds joy in performing on stage; a social reformer in working with people; an author in writing a book; and a scientist in unravelling the secrets of nature. That's why their joy is not expensive, unlike the pleasure that a sugar addict gets by spoiling his health, a drug addict gets by compromising his immunity and brain, a person addicted to social validation gets by spending his time and energy on the social functions and events. I don't know why people choose such an expensive path to pleasure when joy is so easily available to all of us. We just have to discover our passion and live life accordingly.
We are trapped in our little wells. Whatever little we know with our experience and exposure, we feel that to be the end of the world, like a frog in a well. The well is also connected to underground water sources, so its water never dries up. We keep finding new sources of pleasure within the well. There is hardly any occasion for us to come out of the well, especially if most people around us also seem to enjoy themselves within the well. Though there is always a rope inside the well. We can get hold of the breath and come out of the well to realise the vastness of the ocean. Doing something that we are passionate about is that rope that takes us out of that little well of pleasure. While doing the things we are passionate about, we realise the vastness of the ocean. We realise that there are numerous things to create in this world. In fact, life appears to be too short with so many things to do. We set ourselves free of the addiction to these expensive sources of temporary pleasure since we learn to enjoy what we do. That's when the false feeling about the scarcity of resources also disappears, and we feel truly rich inside. We want to use every moment of our lives to explore and create, using the precious gifts of our bodies and our brains.
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