If You Want to Stay Well

 If you want to be well, you don't need to know about many things. Why bother thinking about things that don't please us, if they're not absolutely necessary? The economics of home and abroad, politics, social policies—all those other matters that hold no interest for you whatsoever—whatever anyone might say about them, you can live a perfectly joyful life without giving them a second thought. What delights another person may not delight you at all. This can happen, no matter! Who said what or didn't say what—there's no need to pay any heed to such things.

Your work belongs in its place, your life in its own. It's best never to tangle these two together. Work is merely one part of your life. There isn't a single person who, before dying, ever regretted: "Oh, if only I could have spent a little more time at the office!" If you sacrifice all the happiness of your life in the name of office, office, office, you won't gain anything extra that would have caused you great harm had you not obtained it! I've seen that people, running and running in the rat race, eventually cease to be human—they become rats.

What do you have that no one else possesses? The university you attended—thousands of others just like you have studied there. The results you achieved—many others have achieved the same results. The job or business you're doing—you're not the only person who can do it. Many have done it before you, are doing it now, and will do it in the future. But there's only one place where you are unique and singular. No one but you can take responsibility for your own life. The life that is yours will be shaped exactly as you wish it to be. Though fate has some calculations here, still, your decisions and efforts are clearly reflected in your life. Beyond the person everyone sees at the office, on the bus, in the car, in your checkbook, in front of your laptop or mobile—there lives another person in your heart, in your entire soul. Whether or not you arrange that person according to your own heart's desire is entirely in your own hands.

People these days are forgetting to talk with themselves, or they don't find the time, or they don't give themselves the time. The harmful effect of this falls directly upon their work. It deteriorates the quality of work and causes decline in both physical and mental health. If our minds are constantly filled with tensions about office, promotion, cars and houses and bank balances, when will we ever find time to live normally?

When did you last hear the ocean's roar? When did you last spend an entire afternoon by a river's edge? When did you last feel the morning chirping of birds? When did you last skip stones across pond water? When did you last have an unhurried conversation with someone dear to you? If that time was long ago, then carve out some time now. Time is running out, and we don't realize it. Someday there will be nothing left to do. We don't have as much time in our hands as we believe and think we do.

Turn off your mobile phone. Put your laptop away. Don't spare the television either. There isn't a single person on earth whose turning off these three things would stop the world from spinning.

Lose yourself in conversation with yourself, give yourself time. Read a good book, go somewhere you love to visit. To the mountains, to the sea, or at least take a walk around a nearby field or park. Help a stranger. Talk with someone with whom you have no selfish relationship, listen to the story of their life. Give time to someone who asks for your time and from whom you gain nothing by giving it. There's something to learn from everyone.

Pray for the one you love. Treat kindly the one who loves you. Both loving and honoring love are very good deeds. These two good deeds have rewards. Wait—you'll receive your reward in due time.

Walk the streets. Watch people, watch human life. Notice how the puchka vendor arranges puchkas on the plate, how the rickshaw puller pulls his rickshaw, how beggars try to win people's hearts. Have you ever talked with street children? Do you know that their life is also a street version of yours and mine? When did you last get drenched in moonlight? Do you still remember how everything looks when the sky is full of moonlight? Do you really know what color the moon takes on a full-moon night in spring?

Life isn't as bad as we think. Don't assume you have plenty of time. Spend some of your bank money on your own happiness. Spend some money for the welfare of helpless people. You'll see—it feels good. Experience what feeling good feels like before you die. Spend time with small children, spend time with some elderly people. The time won't be wasted—you must spend time for peace of mind.

Everyone wants to do something good in life. But what's the point of doing something good if you can't be well? The clock doesn't stop. Tick tick tick... it goes on. We think we're alive. Yet we're merely breathing, nothing more. Until our parents die, we all assume they'll never die. Similarly, we think the same way about ourselves. Something is going very wrong somewhere. Time really is running out. The light we see before our eyes is announcing the darkness.

Without overthinking, one day return from the children's school. Another day, go to a flower garden. Or to some distant mountain. Go alone. If you must take someone along who isn't to your liking, it's better to go alone. Life is short. Live before you die. Those who are dying—none of them, just like you and me, could ever imagine they'd leave this world so soon. Death keeps no calendar.

Life is a gift from the Creator. That we're alive—what harm would befall the world if we weren't here? All those things we stay so busy doing—would they stop if you and I weren't here? What's the point of ending all the happiness, comfort, joy, and laughter of life while thinking about work for which we are not indispensable?

Being alive today doesn't mean at all that you'll be alive tomorrow too. Life's guarantee extends only until this very moment. Enjoy as much as you can. Lotus flowers bloom in the pond, children play on the other side of the garden, some kites fly in the blue sky. The sun hasn't set yet, the light hasn't gone out yet, there's still a chance to see if you open your eyes. Learn to be happy; assume today is life's last day. No one gains anything from your sorrow. Everyone can pretend to be sad like that, but in the end, one must bear one's own suffering alone. Since we must go on living anyway, what's the point of not laughing?