Kar Balah Tho Ho Balah

Dear One,

Greetings!

Now wait a minute. Before your imagination change gears, let me clarify; it's not a modern off shoot to Kabbalah. In fact, it is an interesting interpretation made by a dear friend, of course from the word 'Kabbalah'. He says, his philosophy of life is very simple and uncomplicated - 'Kar Bhalah Tho Ho Balah'. If  loosely translated it means - 'Do good to others and good shall be done unto you.'

I couldn't agree more with this simple philosophy of life. The most beautiful things in life are the simplest, but we are masters of complexity, hence we elaborate it, so to fill at least a thousand unread pages. We have all the means to lead a simple and happy life, but we seldom take heed of this simple philosophy and live by it. Life is to live by the moment and not a lifeless theory to expound and understand it. If understood it shall no longer remain a beautiful mystery. It shall become like a movie with a known and an expected ending.

I, as many, often end up brooding of my future. What will it be? How will it be? Will I have enough to sustain myself and my family? Will I have all the luxuries that I dreamed of - a beautiful house, a big car, loads of moolah etc. Well, the list never ends or does it? In this mad rat race, we often fail to experience the beauty of today's sunrise, by thinking about tomorrow's sunset. (By the way, sunset too looks beautiful) 

However, for a few select ones, life is a different ball game, with a different set of rules. They do dream big and manage to fulfill it through their ardent efforts, only to realize the utter futility of it in some unexpected way at some unexpected point. Then their life heads for a big 'U' turn, changing everything for better or for worse.

I have known this person for quite some time now and he is a distant relative of mine. He was ear marked to become life's favored son, or at least that's what people who knew him believed to be so. He was highly intelligent, well educated and had an enviable high flying career. He had everything a well settled life could have and then one day it happened.

It is one thing to live your life by people's speculation and another, to life your life on your own terms. We are creatures of opinions and we think we are answerable to all the people we care, for our successes and more so for our failures. We have to abide by what they think is right for us, completely forgetting the fact that we have just one chance to write our own story, rather than play a stereotype role in someone else's story.

This relative of mine, one day realized the futility of his wealthy yet meaningless life. It flashed in his mind that all the money and assets he had, was just adding to his earthly woes. So he simply gave them away. Yes, he gave them up and packed his bags to a remote village in rural South India to start a rustic milk production business. Everyone revolted of his disastrous move, but he listened respectfully to everything that everyone had to say and he did exactly what he always wanted to do.

People could not understand this eccentric behavior of a man who was destined for great personal success. What on earth made him abruptly end his high flying career and settle down in a backward village to sell milk for a paltry profit? No one knew and he too was least bothered to explain his eccentric actions to anyone. He was branded to be hopeless, by worldly standards, yet his eyes shone with an unearthly light of satisfaction and quiet happiness. He had, at last managed to find the true purpose of his life.

We all come with a unique purpose to find and fulfill. Most of us give it up midway, and begin to think, the ultimate purpose of life is to earn money, get promoted, get married, raise children and work hard for their upbringing only to end up living our dreams through our children's eyes. For most of us the purpose of life is to wonder as to what the actual purpose of life is anyway. We keep speculating all our lives and a very few like this man go bravely in search of it and find it to live it. To take a step forward, you have to be courageous enough to leave a step behind.

I respect and admire this man who is now in his early forties. He leads a life of a recluse, supplying milk to the simple village folks, teaching their children to read and write and doing all the menial day to day work with a smile. The simple villagers see him as their benefactor and shower him with genuine respect and love, which he could have never earned if he had stuck to his previous avatar. Love, like life, is best savored simple and straight from the source.

Many years back, I was fortunate to meet him unexpectedly for a few hours. We spoke on various topics, as he is highly intelligent, well versed and richly informed, even though he is virtually cut off from urban civilization. Curiosity took the better of me, and I asked him what prompted him to take such a brave step of faith?

He looked at me squarely, and with supreme satisfaction he said - "You have to do, what you have to do!"

That day, I returned home with a sense of invisible pride of knowing a man who followed his heart and lived his OWN dream and not a borrowed one.

I want to do the same. (Not sell milk by the way! ;-)

Peace in oneself. Peace in the world.