Melancholy

Count from one to a hundred. Not slowly, not quickly—at a moderate pace. How long did it take? It should have taken around forty seconds. In just that span of time, somewhere on this earth, someone has committed suicide. By that calculation, nearly 800,000 people take their own lives each year! Can you imagine!

In those forty seconds during which perhaps you and I didn't even blink once, within that brief interval, a human being calmly, deliberately, with cool composure, ended their own existence. Research tells us that most people commit suicide to escape from depression.

Let me speak of two people.

Marilyn Monroe is considered the most beautiful and captivating actress of all time. In 1962, at just 36 years of age, she took her own life. By today's standards, her estate is worth 27 million US dollars! By last year's count, the films she starred in had earned 2 billion US dollars by then! Just think—in her mere 36 years of life, what immense influence, power, and wealth she had acquired!

If we speak of beauty, fame, and glory, there wasn't a single person who could even stand near her in those days. This woman's face always wore an enchanting smile. This ever-radiant actress lacked nothing in her life except peace of mind. Depression had been eating away at her bit by bit for years, something no one ever knew or cared to know until her death.

The woman whose dazzling smile could make the whole world tremble, whose beauty's flame could instantly burn the hearts of millions of young men, whose stardom constantly crushed the pride of any formidable actress—this person was profoundly unhappy. Behind all the laughter in her eyes lay deep pain and sorrow, layer upon layer. No one from the outside ever caught this aspect of her inner life. To everyone, Marilyn Monroe was the embodiment of vitality, beauty, and aristocracy!

She has wonderful quotes about life and living—search the internet and you'll find them. They'll touch you deeply. You'll think, who could be happier than this person! When your eyes and heart both get captivated by her inspirational words, you'll want to believe that someone who can think like this couldn't possibly harbor any sadness or depression. Oh, how miserable I am, and how happy she must be!

Yet reality was the opposite. People learned this reality only after her death. That's how it always is.

Those who have seen Sushant Singh Rajput's last movie 'Chhichhore' know that the main message of this film was—staying alive is what matters most! Now let's see what Sushant says in this movie!

"We spend our lives thinking about winning, losing, success, failure, and our life ends just like that! We get so absorbed in all this that we forget to live! Yet the most important thing in this life is...life itself!"

I misspoke a little! Actually, it's not Sushant saying this, but the character in that movie. What the movie's message was or wasn't has nothing to do with Sushant Singh Rajput. He is an artist; he performed exactly as the filmmaker wanted. Nothing more, nothing less! If that movie had advocated suicide, Sushant would have presented himself that way in the film. Every artist does exactly this.

What a superstar Sushant says in movies or public appearances, and how the private person Sushant actually is—these are completely different matters. Someone who is unhappy remains unhappy—whether they laugh or cry, they're still unhappy! Most people fail to understand this simple thing. We must remember that since he was a celebrity, he knew very well how people wanted to see him, exactly what words they wanted to hear from his mouth. And he had been presenting himself precisely that way. Every celebrity does this. To form opinions about their personal life based on this is utter foolishness.

This extremely talented, handsome, gifted man who appeared cheerful on the surface has today hanged himself in his own home. It's assumed that suffering from severe depression, becoming exhausted beyond endurance, unable to bear it any longer, he chose the path of self-destruction. He had been suffering from deep depression for nearly six months and was undergoing treatment for it. No, until this 34-year-old man departed, none of us kept track of that depression. At the end of the day, we never consider that he too is a human being, that he too suffers, that mental pain destroys him every single moment—these thoughts never occur to us or come too late. In truth, how many of us have learned to see celebrities from a humane perspective? How many of us possess that level of mental maturity?

Depression is a disease like any other physical illness. And an extremely dangerous disease. I used to do anti-suicide counseling at one time. In this life, expending incredible physical and mental labor, through continuous daily efforts, without payment or profit, I directly saved at least 74 people from suicide during that period. (I don't do this work much anymore. I no longer feel like giving my personal time to anyone. Humans are unimaginably ungrateful and treacherous creatures. They're so cruel and disloyal that they thrust the knife first into their benefactor's chest!...What's the point, brother! Life span is more important than immortality!) My experience tells me that most of the time, we cannot tell by looking at someone suffering from this disease that their death is quite imminent. They spend time laughing and playing with everyone, or simply exist alone in what appears to our eyes as a 'good and healthy' body. Those who lack the eyes to see into their mind can never understand that the person is gradually dying away...

Why does depression develop? Or why does it keep increasing day by day?

There can be many reasons behind it. Let me mention a few:
Perhaps they don't have a single person in this world who can understand their pain.
Perhaps they can't find anyone trustworthy to share their sorrows with.
Perhaps the only loving person who could have sheltered their wounded emotions is no longer by their side.
Perhaps during their moments of loneliness, they can't find anyone to rely on.
Perhaps the unspoken agonies in their chest have accumulated to become heavier than mountains.
Perhaps there's no one in this world who can understand them as they are, or accept them.
Perhaps their closest person has done something that they simply cannot reconcile with despite all efforts.
Perhaps they have no one to whom they can express all their mental tensions, pain, and grievances to lighten themselves.
Perhaps they don't have a single person in their life whom they can embrace and cry their heart out...
...and many more such things!

And then? To escape such an unbearable state, they choose the path of suicide!

Do you know what happens next? Everyone becomes busy searching for the cause of their death!

Why do we become eager to find the reason for someone's departure after they're gone? Where were we when they were dying in agony? If we must weep for someone, we should weep before they die, not after. I'm reminded of Santosh Sengupta's song lyrics—"To whom you gave no garland in life, why do you bring flowers in death? Whose face you never looked back at, why do your eyes overflow with tears for them?"

Compared to human death, all our ego, moral knowledge, stubbornness, anger, resentment, legitimacy, purity, education, degrees, and positions are utterly trivial matters. The greatest truth in this world is simply staying alive. Before this, all our logic, arguments, thoughts, knowledge, philosophy, understanding, religion, beliefs, experience, honesty, ego, success, failure, achievement, victory and defeat, all truth—everything is false, false, false! If I incite or push someone toward death through my position, actions, thoughts, or behavior, then no matter how pure, perfect, or flawless I may be, even if I'm innocent in the eyes of the whole world, I am in reality a despicable, heinous murderer. When someone truly leaves in hurt, there's no point in regret or remorse afterward—that's actually a form of hypocrisy!

Check on the person close to you. Or some friend or relative nearby. Perhaps someone very close to you is moving around, laughing, but can't find anyone to tell their troubles and pain to. No one wants to understand them, listen to them. Perhaps they've even decided...tomorrow, the day after, or at their convenience on some moonlit night or at dawn or during an evening glowing with fireflies...they too will very quietly follow their predecessors on the path to eternal freedom. Then please don't go around saying—they committed suicide, therefore they are a sinner! No one kills themselves for pleasure. If being unable to keep oneself alive is a sin, then whoever or those because of whom or whose neglect a person cannot keep themselves alive—they alone are the sinners of that sin! When the time comes...time itself will bear witness, time itself will judge!

Someone is laughing heartily, in their laughter you can hear the babbling sound of distant waterfalls, they're packed with fame, glory, wealth, establishment, and influence—this doesn't necessarily mean they're a happy person, at least much happier than you and me. Happiness has always been a relative matter like sorrow. Depression always corrodes slowly like cancer. Accept these truths. Yes, these are old, conventional platitudes; we all know them more or less. And because we know them, we don't accept them or forget to accept them. Before it's too late, take care of your mind, keep yourself well at any cost. What someone said or thought is a thousand times less important than simply staying alive, in your own way. In this world, there is no greater success or wealth than somehow managing to stay alive.

Listen to your beloved who is simultaneously caught in the grip of melancholy. Listen in complete silence. Do not impose any opinions upon them. They may not protest, may simply walk away in silence. What good would it do even if tears came that day? Would you get that person back? Today, give them the chance to speak. Listen to their pain—with your heart, taking time. Otherwise, one day, no matter how much you wish it, you will never be able to hear their voice again. Don’t you dare try to apply logic to their situation! Life doesn’t run on logic and argument. Life moves on faith, on emotion, and on humanity. Cast aside all your ego, beliefs, consciousness, intellect, and give them time in their own way. Perhaps, receiving just this small compassion from you, they can overcome their melancholy and manage to save themselves. A life remains in this world solely because of you—what could be more joyful than this!