SENSE AND SIMPLICITY
I have always been a great fan of the concept of simplicity. "Keep life simple" has been the mantra I have tried to practice and more often preach to people around me.The success rate has been amazing whenever I have kept things simple,but again the irony is that it is very difficult to do so. What makes life not so simple.......? is a question I have put to myself ever so often.
"It's not that simple. Things won't work that way"is a cliche I hear too many times. May be maths or physics or electronics is not so simple(and more often things don't work here) but life on the whole....? I always feel life is one question with a one word answer "Do you want to be happy?" If the answer is a yes,you do the few things that make you happy;
The fact that we link happiness with comfort,authority,ambition,power.....makes us reach for things we would otherwise leave alone and drive us away from simplicity,and the more eternal concept of happiness.
The central thing to simplicity is to see 2+2 as 4. It is to believe in ourselves.It is also to trust others' abilities and instincts-till they prove you wrong. The inability to trust the next person is,
according to me,one simple reason why things get so complicated. And our "ability" to read between lines and suspect others needlessly hinders our quest to happiness.
One major roadblock on our way to keeping things simple,is our EGO. This stands very bold though definitely not as beautiful.The perception that the other person is always wrong or rather the misconception that we are always right, along with the desire to stamp our authority on every Tom,Dick and Harry is a path fraught with complications.
More basic,I feel ,is our lack of a single philosophy or a set of core values typical to our character.
Some of us are the life of a party,while a few of us prefer solitude.Most of us want to fly:being ambitious,wanting power;while there are many who prefer to remain grounded:humility being the essence of their lives.
Yet complications do occur when we want to swap roles with the other side-when we are not satisfied with the gifts we have.
The paradox is that the beggar lacks the wealth of a billionaire but the billionaire lacks the contentment of a beggar. The toast is that both fail to realise the value of what they possess!!!
Nothing though,makes life more complicated than human relationships. The ups and downs, the expectations,the hope,the disappointment can create mayhem in the emotional world and wreak havoc in physical world. Again our fundamental inability here is that we fail to realise that there are limitations to each person. And on most occassions we are at a loss to figure what is it that we expect from a person. The bigger question.......what do we do when the person fails to deliver? These questions loop around themselves and more often our personality is what gets caught in this loop.
The solution here is to understand the fundamental fact that WE need to take care of ourselves.
And if for whatever reason you are more of a pain in somebody else's life in the long run or vice versa: keep yourself away. It will untie the knots or atleast provide much needed deliverance.
To achieve a sense of simplicity is a key milestone on the path to happiness.It is here that most of us falter. It is indeed the shortest route to happiness. But as I wind this piece up, a quote clouds my mind.
"It is so simple to be happy
But it is so difficult to be simple!"
I have always been a great fan of the concept of simplicity. "Keep life simple" has been the mantra I have tried to practice and more often preach to people around me.The success rate has been amazing whenever I have kept things simple,but again the irony is that it is very difficult to do so. What makes life not so simple.......? is a question I have put to myself ever so often.
"It's not that simple. Things won't work that way"is a cliche I hear too many times. May be maths or physics or electronics is not so simple(and more often things don't work here) but life on the whole....? I always feel life is one question with a one word answer "Do you want to be happy?" If the answer is a yes,you do the few things that make you happy;
The fact that we link happiness with comfort,authority,ambition,power.....makes us reach for things we would otherwise leave alone and drive us away from simplicity,and the more eternal concept of happiness.
The central thing to simplicity is to see 2+2 as 4. It is to believe in ourselves.It is also to trust others' abilities and instincts-till they prove you wrong. The inability to trust the next person is,
according to me,one simple reason why things get so complicated. And our "ability" to read between lines and suspect others needlessly hinders our quest to happiness.
One major roadblock on our way to keeping things simple,is our EGO. This stands very bold though definitely not as beautiful.The perception that the other person is always wrong or rather the misconception that we are always right, along with the desire to stamp our authority on every Tom,Dick and Harry is a path fraught with complications.
More basic,I feel ,is our lack of a single philosophy or a set of core values typical to our character.
Some of us are the life of a party,while a few of us prefer solitude.Most of us want to fly:being ambitious,wanting power;while there are many who prefer to remain grounded:humility being the essence of their lives.
Yet complications do occur when we want to swap roles with the other side-when we are not satisfied with the gifts we have.
The paradox is that the beggar lacks the wealth of a billionaire but the billionaire lacks the contentment of a beggar. The toast is that both fail to realise the value of what they possess!!!
Nothing though,makes life more complicated than human relationships. The ups and downs, the expectations,the hope,the disappointment can create mayhem in the emotional world and wreak havoc in physical world. Again our fundamental inability here is that we fail to realise that there are limitations to each person. And on most occassions we are at a loss to figure what is it that we expect from a person. The bigger question.......what do we do when the person fails to deliver? These questions loop around themselves and more often our personality is what gets caught in this loop.
The solution here is to understand the fundamental fact that WE need to take care of ourselves.
And if for whatever reason you are more of a pain in somebody else's life in the long run or vice versa: keep yourself away. It will untie the knots or atleast provide much needed deliverance.
To achieve a sense of simplicity is a key milestone on the path to happiness.It is here that most of us falter. It is indeed the shortest route to happiness. But as I wind this piece up, a quote clouds my mind.
"It is so simple to be happy
But it is so difficult to be simple!"
hey its really nice...u've told everythin which u keep tellin me in class:P
ReplyDeletelife is beautiful!!
keep it going!!!
ur rt..its difficult to b simple..
Jahapana... Thussi Great ho...
ReplyDeleteU r simply Fantabulous, ur post speaks it all..
But, what is simplicity?? Funnily enough, as explored in the passage, simplicity is itself complex!!!!!! The path to a simple contented life is as simple provided we find out what is simple for us in the first place!!
ReplyDeleteGood aloka..
ReplyDeleteits not somethin new for us(me n abhi),u keep tellin it to us.n ya i'm proud to b ur sisya(atleast in the skit),learnt a lot from u n surely will learn a lot more.
n ya i like the part which spoke bout relationships n hat ego part..
waiting to listen a lot more from u.
Alok, there is a lot of maturity in your work, your thought's are extremely trenchant. liked your space, keep up the good work.
ReplyDeletewonderful post...
ReplyDelete@The paradox is that the beggar lacks the wealth of a billionaire but the billionaire lacks the contentment of a beggar. The toast is that both fail to realise the value of what they possess!!!---------> very nice