SOMEBODY ASKED GOD — WHAT AMAZES YOU ABOUT MANKIND

Recently, (courtesy the tremendous facility offered by the wide bouquet of streaming channels) I watched the 2016 Hindi movie — “Dear Zindagi” (translated in English to mean “Dear Life”). The film revolves around Kaira (essayed by the vivacious Alia Bhatt), a budding, talented but discontented cinematographer and a free — spirited psychologist, Dr Jehangir “Jug” Khan (very admirably portrayed by the evergreen Shah Rukh Khan).

Disgruntled, unhappy, and uncertain with her personal life and suffering from acute insomnia, Kaira, by chance, hears Dr Jehangir Khan speaking at a Mental Health Awareness Conference. Impressed by his unconventional methods and thought processes she reaches out to him and the film revolves around the sessions that she has with him.

While, on the whole, the movie is engaging and engrossing the following sentence, spoken by Dr Jehangir Khan in one of the sessions really stood out: -

“You cannot allow the ghosts of the past to blackmail your present for a wonderful future”.

Hidden behind the seemingly simple quote is an intensely profound thought having the capacity to transform our lives, exponentially for the better. As we go through life, we experience our fair share of disappointments, agonies, failures, frustrations on the one hand, which are invariably balanced by successes, achievements, joy, and appreciation on the other. Of course, over a representative timeline, which may sometimes extend to even the entire life, the positives and negatives do balance out — the end result being a stable, contended and happy life. In this scenario why should there be any scope for mental tensions, and above all, psychological disorders.

Sounds simple but the complex machinery that the human mind is does not work that way, with the failures, disappointments and frustrations ruling the roost and dominating the thought process. Protected by the skull, the human brain, a complex maze, is the center of consciousness controlling all voluntary and involuntary movements as well as our response to external events, situations and stimuli thereby requiring extraordinary effort to maintain some semblance of normalcy and balance. A situation which gets further compounded by external factors, on most of which the mind does not have any direct control.

As I can, almost, personally testify, it is these external events — how you have been(seemingly) unfairly treated, how life’s cards have been disparately disinclined towards you, how your personal and professional life is inferior compared to those around you — all these happenings, most or at least some of which should have been sieved from the inner folds of the mind continue, assiduously, to dominate. The result is perpetually frayed burrows exacerbated mental tensions, heightened and exponential levels of stress having the potential to lead to physical ailments (what in modern day terminology are termed as life-style diseases) arising mainly out of a distorted thought process. To put it in Dr Jehangir Khan’s words we allow the ghosts of the past, over which we now have no control, to blackmail our present which is real, to ruin our future, which we have premeditatively determined will be gloomy. Living in a state of denial, human beings have the uncanny ability to let the negatives overpower their minds leading to a ruinous state.

While I personally could and do relate to and am frequent pray to the ghosts of the past, it seems to be the most opportune time for the collective humanity to work towards getting the society rid of this scourge- sounds, easy, does it not, but to put it mildly, a task definitely requiring some effort as I have personally witnessed.

To begin, let us start counting and express gratitude for our blessings — while dwelling on my personal situation what gives me immense satisfaction and solace is the thought that, blessed as I am, with a congenial family and working environment, compared to the others around I am definitely well placed in life. By even the most pessimistic reckoning I should fall within the top ten percent of humanity in terms of the completeness, fulfilment and happiness that I am blessed with. Society, family, relatives, work, parents, siblings, friends, colleagues, peers, associates and what have you the entire package does not and should not lead to any unhappiness. After all you are definitely more provided for compared to the billions who struggle day and day out to eke out a marginal living, sometimes survive on alms and doles, whose daily earnings are uncertain and most of whom cannot see the dreams of their children fructify and take wings.

Again, easier said than done. Invariably the thought processes seem to fall into an incessant pattern where the feelings of ingratitude, incompetence, unhappiness, despondency, and intense dissatisfaction start to overpower and rule. Sounding rather simplistic but it is time that we all — what we rather self-gratifyingly call “Humanity” — start reacting positively to external situations and happenings over most of which we have only limited control. While calibration of the thought process is exceedingly difficult with our mind invariably falling off track, frequently and at the earliest opportunity, not only is an earnest beginning required to be made but the process must never be given up.

Aligned to this, something which has acquired focus in the wake of the outbreak of Covid-19 is the need to limit our wants, desires and needs. In a world where resources are dissipating rapidly, where mankind by his senseless burning up of the resources has been the cause of unmitigated environmental degradation, a situation where we are bordering on a major catastrophe, the need again here is, specially for beings who happen to be well provided, to adopt the path of sustainability. While your needs and comforts are undeniably met, it is the craving for luxuries that we need to control. Again, look around and you will see billions of people whose even basic necessities, far short of even, what economists, psychologists and purists call, minimal, are hardly met. This itself will enable you to rid your mind of all the deadwood it has managed to accumulate over time.

To conclude, as is my habit, is a Dalai Lama quote which I found very topical. His Holiness when asked what surprised him about humanity, very tellingly said: -

“Man

Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money;

Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health;

And then he is so anxious about the future;

That he does not enjoy the present;

The result being that he does not live in the present or the future;

He lives as if he is never going to die and then dies having never really lived”

Let us stop projecting our past into the further and stop living in perpetual fear. Replace the frown with a smile and remove the burrows on your face and banish the stress.