Disillusioned

Life has many elevations and depressions of varying altitudes and depths. An elevation may occur in stature, in fortune, in influence, and in knowledge. A depression may occur in stature, in fortune, in influence but not in knowledge. Knowledge is an ever expanding investment. There are phases in life when we say everything is normal and according to plan, there are phases when these plans storm ahead and we say, “Oh God! Was I so deserving” and then there are phases when every good plan turns into a bed of thorns, we stare into an abyss and say, “All is lost.”

Emotions also sketch their own graph in life. There are states when we are contended with whatever we have, there are states when we are overwhelmed and there are states when we completely devoid of all energy. The two extremities of emotions are ‘extreme joy’ or ‘ecstasy’ and ‘grief’. Like emotions, status also has many names. There are prosperous times when we don’t have to look back and then there are times of downfall when we start perceiving everything in black and white and lose all hope. During happy times, one makes several friends who hope to profit from our sudden turn of fortune and during grief such friends change color like a chameleon. So who is our support during a tempest?

A wise man never forgets the existence of the supernatural who he believes to dispense justice at all times. “God observes everything but waits to test our patience and virtues.” Remember God for having bestowed happiness upon you during good times and don’t wail about how God allowed this to happen during grief. But do we really remember God in prosperous times? Don’t we pride ourselves on what we have accomplished and are audacious enough to say, “Without anybody’s help.” Don’t we overlook the misfortune of others and say, “They got what they deserved.” How we declare unjustified and undeserving the sudden turn of luck and fortune for someone, “How on Earth did he pull this off.”

So how do we forget God in good times and then repent and pray during bad times. How come we celebrate our success and abhor somebody else’s good fortune. How come we neglect to say our prayers and remember them when at the brink of a disaster? To the happy and prosperous man prayer is but a meaningless jumble of words until grief comes to explain to the unfortunate wretch the sublime language which is our means of communication with God. “How boring”, we say when we try to read the Holy Scriptures and “Bravo”, we say when are watching an action packed movie. We learn about how ‘truth’ is important but after numerous lies we are quick to say, “I am not Harish Chandra.” We learn about how ‘love’ is important but loathe and hate our neighbor who has loads of money. We even try to seek a place in heaven without practicing the virtues of truthful living and try to weigh the material aspects of our life. Measure your deeds not your wealth. Money and material things never accompany you at your deathbed but the deeds of your lifetime are stamped on your forehead. To seek ‘God’ and ‘heaven’ we must seek truth and impart the message of ‘love’.