Life vs Résumé

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On the deserted bank of river Ganga, which is flowing through the densest part of the forest somewhere near the Tehri Dam, stands a middle-aged man, staring at the crystal clear water of the river for an hour now. The immediate vicinity is still, both visually and aurally; as still as the heart of this despondent man. He wants to end his 35-year old life in the water of the holy river, but his inner instincts are not letting him do so. Finally, he resolved and looked at the surroundings in a way that was similar to a Hindu bride looking at her maternal house just before departing to her in-laws' house.

A moment later, the man sees a monk, silhouetted against the horizon. The monk has a magnetic effect on the man, and the man is completely drawn to him, by the glow that he has never seen in his whole life. He doesn’t even realize when the monk has come too close to him.

“So you got tired of this capricious life! And you want to end all now?" says the monk with the seriousness that beautifies his oval-shaped face.

“How do you know this baba?" asks the man impulsively.

“ ’How do I know’ is not the thing you should be concerned about. I know a lot many things about you that even you are ignorant of," replies the monk to the man bluntly.

Silence surrounds the conversation for a while. Both look at the water for a moment for no definite reason. The man is restless by the vague answers of the monk.

“Why do you want to commit suicide?” asks the monk in an indifferent tone.

“Because I find my life a downright failure. I never got what I wanted. I failed in the things that I tried and could never taste the success,” says the man with the sigh of grief.

“The problem is not with you. The problem is with your definition of success which has been shaped by your society, the endless feeds that your brain consumed on the social media, the newspaper considered success stories, loud motivational speakers, etc.,” says the monk.

“What do you mean by this baba?” asks the man.

“Okay. Now listen carefully to what I am saying. Humans have a natural cognitive bias that makes us view the world relative to other things instead of in absolutes. For example, if you’re viewing the price of something, your brain is going to compare that price relative to the other options on the table instead of just viewing the value of that thing itself. That is why you have discounts on sales. We are always comparing things relative to one another instead of viewing one thing as an absolute,” explains the monk.

“What is the point of discussing this irrelevant fact right now?” inquires the curious man.

“Don’t call it ‘irrelevant’. Everything that is happening in this universe has relevance with you because you are a part of this universe, and a part always has relevance with its whole. Your definition of success is shaped by the things that I mentioned earlier. I will call these things ‘shapers’. Shapers considered ‘successful people’ constitute 0.00000000001% of this world. Moreover, what you see and hear about those few persons through these ‘shapers’ is just 0.00000000001% of their so-called ‘successful lives’. Those things are just highlighted reels of their lives. Here the role of cognitive bias comes into play. Your brain ends up comparing 100% of your life with 0.00000000001% people’s 0.00000000001% of all the moments of their lives. Tell me how justifiable this comparison is? This is how you reached the stage you are now,” finishes the monk with a victorious smile. Silence surrounds the conversation once again.

“Finally,” says the monk,” build a life, not a résumé!”

The monk looks into the eyes of the man and jumps off the deserted bank of the river Ganga into the holy water. The monk is drowning, but he is bearing a satisfactory smile on his face. The water becomes red with the blood for a while, but soon everything comes to its normal state. The man stares down the river in incredulity. There is now within him a judge who by some rule unknown to him decided what should or what should not be done.

 

Image courtesy- gettyimages.in


 

 


Comments

  1. AsthaJuly 17, 2021 at 1:42 AM

    The end part of the monk jumping into the water is confusing, in the sense that idk what just happened and why?

    ReplyDelete

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