Man lives on hope! Another plane vanishes. We all have hopes. We all wish so much that the flight returns and the people aboard are found safe and sound. That is hope. We all live on hope.
Don’t we hope for the best even in the worst possible scenario? When we know that there is even the faintest of chances for success, we hope for the best.
Man hopes that the deformed fetus that is struggling to survive lives. We hope the new year brings cheer and lots of happiness for your beloved. We visualize the coming season will be wonderful. We pray that the student sitting for exam has an easy answer paper. We hope the results will be good. We all hope that you get a good job with good salary. We pin our hopes that the slave gets his freedom. We hope that God listens to our prayers. The movie producer hopes his picture is a hit. The girl thinks she has the magic recipe for weight reduction. He hopes he will win the lottery this time.
Hope is a big word with four letters. It has too many dreams filled in it. Too many aspirations stuffed inside. Lots of desires at stake, wants to fulfill and needs for human existence. Without hope these won’t find fruition.
So every normal human being pins his hopes on success but the sage has no such desires.
Why doesn’t the sage have any desires or hopes?
He knows that anything that has to be will be. By hoping or desiring nothing will change the final outcome of anything in this world. He knows fully well the end result is in no ones hand except God alone. So he just prays to God for whatever He wills it for him. He accepts anything at all. Whether it is success or failure, win or loss, birth or death, sufferings or happiness. It really doesn’t make a difference to him even if the outcome is disastrous.
Why does he not have any such aspirations?
It’s because he believes whosoever has written this grand plan of life knows it best. Can that Writer not know what would happen otherwise?
When everything is dependent on the karma of that person, why would he think otherwise? Only that which is due to that individual will come about and not some other. Secondly, the world has to progress and move on so he knows that if there is an end of a relationship, it would mean beginning of another. So why would he rue when he knows that the destiny writer knows His job best.
The sage always lives in a state of equanimity and is equipoised. He doesn’t blame anyone for any kind of outcome since he knows that God uses the manifest beings for a greater purpose.
The sage doesn’t get perturbed during crisis situations or happy tidings. He faces both these with a steady mind.
Why doesn’t a normal human being hope for then? Can he become like the sage? Not at all. He has to keep on hoping and working. If the wheels of life have to move this world ahead then they better move on the four lettered word called hope. Hope is like a bait which pulls the fish of desire to bite it. He gets trapped in the world of desire and this desire pushes his world towards more desires.
Just observe a young woman desirous of getting married, searches and hopes that the man of her dreams arrives. She has hoped of him being rich, handsome, wise and loving. When that dream crashes, she dreams again of another good life. Till the very end of her life she lives on hope. Now can you go tell her that nothing that she has thought about will ever come true? You know very well that there is no dream man in this world.
There are no such utopian worlds existing out there. Finally everything has to come to an end. But let her live on hopes.
So man craves for every little happinesses he could run after. These are fueled by desire and kindled with hope.
The sage doesn’t hope since he is absolutely certain that this world is uncertain and unreal and any kind of hope is just temporary relief from worldly pain and sufferings. He knows only God is real and rest is illusory.
Here is hoping that your next year brings more good tidings and better life. Amen.
Image Courtesy : Pixabay
