In his long life of 89 years, Ruskin Bond has gained enormous experience and a large fan following across the country and beyond — among children who are still children, the children who have grown up into handsome youth, and the children who are getting ready to enter the senior citizen club. When he speaks, people listen. In fact, there are people who take the trouble to travel all the way to Mussoorie just to be able to meet him and listen to him in person.
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It was his birthday. I called him up with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement to extend my wishes. But upon my wishing a long life full of love, happiness and success, the way I do most of the time, he replied in a disappointed voice, “What use is a long life, living till 80 years, when my eyesight would have fallen, joints gone weak, maybe no teeth? It’s better to live a short but healthy life.” And he was saying all this on the day when he had reached 42 years of age! In short, he poured buckets of cold water on all the warmth I was trying to convey. I wanted to ask his rationale behind associating old age with fragility, weakness, and maybe multiple illnesses. Why couldn’t old age remind him of the long experience which he would have acquired, several people he would have come across, several bitter and sweet memories, several events which he would have witnessed in his life and which will certainly go down in history books one day? I wanted to ask these and several other similar questions. But it was his birthday and I did not want to upset him, irrespective of the fact that he himself did not find any charm in that.
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In one of my earlier posts i mentioned the importance of maintaining a harmony among different planes of our being — physical, mental and spiritual. In another post I explored various reasons behind the over-occupation with the physical while ignoring the mental plane. My hypothesis is that this preoccupation is due to an eagerness to impress others who are more likely to see our physical plane rather than the mental plane.
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Our individual self consists of body, mind and soul. However, the focus of nearly all our activities is on the body — taking food, doing exercise, and doing things which bring pleasure to our senses. This is further encouraged by print, electronic and social media through regular columns, advertisements and programmes. On the other hand, few people take interest in mental pursuits like reading books, writing, contemplating, analysing, and having deep, thoughtful and meaningful discussions with companions and colleagues. In our society, mental pursuits are mostly limited to collecting degrees and passing competitive exams. And the third part — the soul — is nearly always ignored. Nobody takes a pause to look into oneself, to connect with one’s own self, to search for the meaning of existence and life. So, in a way we are living life with only one-third of ourselves — the body. But mind and soul also demand our attention. If we have ignored our mind all along, then in moments of crisis, we have no idea what to do, we get restless and even trivial problems throw us into panic. And when the soul is starved, we feel it in the form of emptiness and vacuum inside. It is like a child crying out when it is hungry. Only that person leads a truly successful and happy life who gives equal attention to body, mind and soul.
photo credit: rajagopal_rajeev Tracking an Ibis flock via photopin (license)
photo credit: Anvica Espejo, espejito mágico ¿Qué nube es la más hermosa? via photopin (license)
Pradyot 