The Path of Light to Light

1. Many believe that someone who dances beautifully must live a life as graceful as their dance movements—a completely mistaken notion.

The idea that a writer's personal life mirrors their writing is an even greater misconception. The writer and their work are entirely separate entities. Yet in our society, we judge a person's character by their writing, and determine their nature by the fictional characters they create. If their story's characters are bad, then they too must be bad; if good, then they too must be good—many readers harbor such childish notions. Nothing is more ridiculous than such reader immaturity.

In our country, sexual fidelity is still considered the sole determinant of good character. A household may run on a husband's bribery money without objection, but if he merely chats with a woman on messenger, his character is deemed corrupt—this is how most wives in our country still think. Such a nation will naturally take time to become corruption-free! We cannot escape certain stereotypical thinking. Someone acts, therefore they're bad; someone mingles with the opposite sex, therefore they're bad; someone comes home late, therefore they're bad; someone is fashion-conscious, therefore they're bad; someone doesn't practice religion, therefore they're bad; someone speaks directly without hypocrisy, therefore they're bad—and so much more! We live surrounded by such misconceptions. But what is right? What's right is that being this, that, the other, such-and-such, so-and-so, like this, like that, etc.—none of this means someone is good or bad. Goodness or badness are inherent human qualities.

Another thing worth noting: someone may be excellent at their work yet not be a good person. The same person who excels outside the home may be wretched within it. At an awards show, when Deepika Padukone was asked in front of my favorite Shah Rukh Khan, "Is Shah Rukh better as a person or as an actor?" Deepika smiled and gave a diplomatic answer: "He acts at being a good person." Dear reader, what did you understand?

2. "Forgiveness is a noble quality." Yes, undoubtedly! But do you know who has benefited from this precious maxim? Those who always receive forgiveness, every single time. What happens here is that most often, the person doing the forgiving keeps forgiving, while the other person keeps taking advantage. Only those who, having received forgiveness, maintain its dignity throughout their lives deserve forgiveness—not the others.

3. Try responding to someone's "How are you?" by smiling beautifully and saying, "I'm doing wonderfully!" and see what happens! What might happen? Many will furrow their brows and look at you as if this were bad news. Many will think to themselves, "Why? Why should they be doing wonderfully? I can barely manage to say 'I'm fine,' and here they are saying 'wonderfully'? Just wait, I'll show them!" Others, unable to keep it to themselves, will blurt out, "Why, sister? No work at the office these days?" "Brother, you must have won the lottery, right? Or was it a prize bond?" Will you try practicing saying this "wonderfully" during these difficult times? You'll understand the "excellence" of the word "wonderful" yourself. People ask others, "How are you?" and want to hear, "I'm doing badly," or "Just getting by somehow," or "How can one be well these days!" An easy way to anger people is to respond with something like "I'm doing extremely well."

4. In this world, there are many people for whom no one will even notice their final breath, yet at least one person cares about your inexplicable sadness. Still you say you're an unhappy person! Is that really true? If so, then what kind of person is that poor soul whose living or dying makes no difference to anyone in the world?

5. Many of our good potential achievements and good works are lost beneath two thoughts: "I could do it if I wanted to, but I feel too lazy," or "I can do it later, besides, there's plenty of time!" Someone will eventually move beyond such thinking and claim the achievement on time! Laziness or the habit of postponing work can only save you if you could make everyone in the world like you—which is never possible. So there are two groups in this world. The first group does the work and shows it; the second group shows excuses for not being able to do the work.

6. No one is mine, no one in this world cares about me, I don't have this or that, I haven't traveled abroad, I still don't have an iPhone, I don't own a piece of land on the moon!—how many have such litanies of suffering? Do you often think, "My suffering is the greatest in this world"? Very well. I'm right here beside you. Take a three-day challenge. For a total of seventy-two hours, eat nothing except water. No matter how much it hurts, don't eat. After surviving three days on just water, you won't die. After spending three days like this, sit down with a plate of rice before you. I want to know what your feelings are at that moment. (Though I have serious doubts whether you can actually control yourself and go without eating for three days.) Now tell me, what were you saying earlier? What were your complaints? Do you still have them? Can you remember any of that? How do you feel? Yes, you've understood correctly—what you're feeling is right. Everything we have or don't have besides that plate of rice is unnecessary. Everything else has alternatives, but rice can only be replaced by rice. (Here I've used "rice" metaphorically. And incidentally, there are many people in this world who are truly forced to spend their days in such hunger.) I'm reminded of a dialogue from my favorite movie "22 Shravan": "Do you know the difference between rice-dal and biryani? The first is necessity, the second is luxury."

7. Let me share an interesting fact. If you could see some posts in girls' groups and their comments, and know the topics girls discuss with each other in inboxes, you'd understand that it's not just aliens who are alien—many girls are alien too. There isn't a single subject in the world that girls can't talk about. There isn't a single subject in the world that girls can't create problems over. There isn't a single subject in the world that girls can accept simply without complicating it. Girls possess the most complex brains on earth. Only those who have suffered can imagine what trivial, utterly trivial things a girl can take offense over—no one else can even conceive of it. The other day, my friend sent his girlfriend a motivational video showing how a person came from village to city with just a hundred taka in his pocket and became worth hundreds of crores through his own effort, intelligence, and immense hard work. After watching the video, the girl reacted furiously and asked my friend, "Do you think I'm greedy for money? Do you think I'm lustful for your wealth? Disgusting! After today, you will never speak to me again." At that moment, in my friend's "Honorable Speaker" heart, perhaps this was playing... "Millions of stars in the sky, but only one moon... eeeya eeeya!"

8. Let me share a secret power—"knowing how to ignore." You'll notice that ignoring most things and most people around you won't harm you at all, but will actually benefit you. More importantly, most of the constantly occurring things and people around you deserve exactly this ignoring. The more you pay attention to surrounding events and people, the more suffering and trouble you'll have to endure. There's only one fundamental principle for staying well in this world—CTN. (Note: this doesn't stand for "Cable TV Network"!)

9. A person who can catch their own mistakes and flaws cannot have their mistakes caught by anyone else. Do you know what happens in the life of someone who can do this continuously? I'll tell the truth! Mistakes are trivial things—after a certain time, no one else can catch that person anyway! They'll no longer remain within reach, they'll have moved so far ahead that they can only be seen with the eyes, no longer touched. And the rest will remain in the same place, like ten other ordinary insignificant people, forgiving themselves with great self-satisfaction.

10.
- Suppose someone accidentally drops five hundred, one thousand, ten thousand taka in front of you. What would you do?
- Amazing! What would I do, you ask? I'd return it. Don't I have morality? Do you think the upbringing my family gave me is like that? I may have less money, but you're asking me such a question! Shame! And what would I even do with that little money anyway?
- What if the amount increases? Say it reaches six digits... or seven... or eight... then what? Tell me the truth!
- ………………………………………………………
- What happened? Speak up...!
- Well... I mean... well...!

(But yes, there are such people in the world who wouldn't take that six-seven-eight or however many digits of money. For them, others' money is others' money, never their own. Who are they? They are those few people in the world—the limited edition, priceless humans who may be insignificant in wealth, but when considered in terms of spirit, the entire world comes to prostrate at their feet like defeated soldiers, bowed in reverence and respect!)