Beautiful mornings. Serene sounds. Mum’s goodbye kiss. An early bus. Smiles at work. A pleasing email. The right coffee. A new concept. A chance to hum one of my favorite numbers. A chance to talk aloud to myself…..very very few days are perfectly blended with all these ingredients. In fact, hardly was there a day in the past couple of months when I did not think of Daniel Powter’s popular single.
Not just me 
As I look around, I see everyone running their daily slaloms, on ice as slippery as time, with a zillion obstacles to manouevre about. Some win, and enjoy their perfect days, some fall and sing to themselves, “You Had a Bad Day!”….for how long will they sing? how many times will they fall? will they win the race? what do they want from the race?
The answer is simple. We all paint a pretty picture of our tomorrow. We all want to be somewhere. And X number of things go into obtaining Y number of results which will put us ‘somewhere’. At the end of the day it is all for “I”, “Me”, or “Self”.
The 47th verse in The Gita prescribes nishkama karma or selfless action. “To action alone hast thou a right and never at all to its fruits; let not the fruits of action be thy motive; neither let there be in thee any attachment to inaction”
Wait a minute! If I do not set the goal, i.e., do not make the fruits of action my motive, how do I work towards it? I’ve delved deeper….we certainly do not take those words literally. This verse talks about a stage after setting your goals. However, the problem lies with the balancing act. The balance between constant action and decision of inaction. A constant imbalance causes stress. Stress plays the silent din. The silent din one day leaves your mind jaded. Jaded to the extent where everything gets affected in small doses – work, study, family, friends, and hobbies.
Not to say what we want for oursleves may not be noble or ethical, but the question is when will we let the mind rest? When will we stop? Of course, I want to finish that doctorate, of course, I want to create a positive change, of course, one day I want to adopt a child, of course, I want to build the dream library, of course, I want to reach out to the less privileged, of course, I want to educate, of course, I want to apologize to the hearts I’ve broken, of course, I’ll have a book on my name someday, of course, I’ll have my VAIO soon, of course I would not mind a “McDreamy” for a boss….
When will I stop? I guess I have the answer to that too….
A: Just as soon as I make the next post!
