Recently my friend’s mother had a surgery done, and after a lot of
suffering and support from family and friends, she is back to her
normal life. This made me think about the value of life and being
healthy.
It made me think, what that old lady would do for the rest of her life.
Will what she would do in the rest of her life be worth all the pains
that she and her well-wishers went through?
More than that, am I doing full justice to the life and health that
I am enjoying today?
To find an answer to this question and to correct myself, let me
ask myself a few questions.
Suppose a doctor does a full check on my body and tells me that I have
just one more hour to live. How will I spend the one “golden” hour?
Will I spend at work, or at home? Will spend with family or friends
or alone? Let me think.
One thing for sure. I will not disclose this “one hour” situation to
anyone. I am sure that they will feel sad and not let me spend that
one hour in peace.
I will recollect the list of people from whom I had parted with a sour
experience and call them up or visit them or at least send an email
asking for forgiveness.
Will I spend with family? May be. I will tell my daughter a few
stories, which she has been asking for a long time. I will play a
few games with her to make her happy.
Will I spend with friends? I dont think so. There is nothing of
value that I can give them in a short span of one hour.
Will I spend at work? No. At any point of time, things can be
managed by others even if I am not there. If I am not there,
there are so many others who can fill my place.
Will I spend alone? May be the last 15 minutes. I do spend
enough time alone everyday. There is nothing new to be done.
Will I go to a temple? May be not. But, as I said, I will spend
the last 15 minutes alone in the private chapel at home.
Now, suppose, instead of one hour, it is one day. How different
will I spend my time?
May be half a day at work, to make sure that everything is in
place, so that someone else can fill my place easily.
The rest of the time will be more like the one hour in the earlier
case.
Now, suppose, instead of one day, it is six months. How will I
spend the six months?
Hmm… This is interesting. It will not be much different than
the life I live now. I will continue in my work. May be I will
spend slightly more time with family than now. May be slightly
more time in music, reading and alone. Otherwise I am pretty
fine with the current life.
If anyone would want to lead a significantly different life in these
situations, then I would say they have to sit back and see if they
are doing the right thing currently.
Coming back to the first question, what makes me think that my
life is worth living? What makes me think that I am doing full
justice to my life?
Well, my aim in life to become perfect. So I do keep watch,
introspect and try to improve my thoughts, words and actions.
Wherever possible, I try to help people who seek help. I am
contributing to my workplace and family as my duty in those
places demand. I try not to waste time. I try not to hurt myself
or others. I try to keep myself always constructively busy. I
feel this is enough to keep my life useful and worth living.
If I get into a situation where I would have to take recourse
to a lot of money and time from my near and dear ones to
get back to life, what amount of effort is worth what amount
of recovery? I feel, if I can get fully conscious internally and
I can talk or write (or type), any amount of investment is
justified. I dont need sight or hearing or even the ability to
move. Just the ability to think clearly and communicate is
enough. It is worth the effort. My life will be of some value.