The Dalai Lama when asked what surprised him most about humanity famously said "Man! Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.".This then is what I would like to disuss as the first of the four things for the Blogchatter prompt "4 Things about Today’s World that Puzzles Me". I would like to believe that this phenomenon developed over a period of time and today, it is at its zenith with human beings being prepared to sacrifice their health chasing money and then end up spending most of it to fight ill health. Obviously this attitude of the 'strategical' modern man is faulty because all other things pale into insignificane in the absence of good health.
There is a saying in Tamil that exhorts you to take care of the 'Wall' for "if only the wall exists can pictures be drawn on it." The Greek mythology and king Midas's story of running after gold at the expense of the basics also reminds us of the futility of sacrificing one's health for money. In the story the king asked for a boon which empowered him to turn into gold anything that he touched. He realized that the 'boon' was infact a 'curse' when his food turned into gold as he was about to eat it and his daughter a golden statue as he hugged her.
The second thing that puzzles me is why we allow the mobile phone to dominate our lives to such an extent that we are prepared to sacrifice the quality of our personal relationships in order to be its slave. It is a beautiful device that does a lot of things for us. Yet, when the servant becomes the master it can be a disaster. Like fire, by itself is neither good or bad. It provides us warmth during winter and serves as source for cooking tasty food. Yet when it goes out of control it becomes a source of destruction. The same is true for mobile phones. The power of the mobile phone over humans has been discussed in these short poems written by me in the year 2016 (1) Soulmate (2) Mute spectator. The super toy's power has only increased manifold since then!
1) https://rajeevianlinesandverses.blogspot.com/2016/03/soul-mate.html
2) https://rajeevianlinesandverses.blogspot.com/2016/07/mute-spectator.html
The third thing that puzzles me is the way we treat 'food'. Not very long ago India faced starvation deaths due to poverty, Today, although it is a lot better, it does not justify the amount of food we waste everyday be it in industrial canteens, reataurants or at home. I had read in the Readers Digest some time ago an incident related by an Indian student who was visiting friends in Germany. In true 'Indian style', they ordered a lot more food than they could possibly eat. Couple of elderly women were watching from a table nearby and then reached out for their phone. A little later, the police came and the boys had to give explanation as also assurances that they would never waste food in future.
It is not about your capacity to pay but about the wasting of world's valuable resources. The youngster who wrote the piece is to be complimented as he expressed regret and sense of shame in what they had done.The message would hopefully reach and alter the approach of a lot more people to 'food'. In this connection, it puzzles me why urban youngsters smear cake on faces of friends during birthday celebrations!
Finally I would like to end this post with this puzzling behaviour of human beings, particularly in 'today's world'. They hate, dislike, annoy and intimidate others as if there is no tomorrow. They know that death is inevitable. They see people around them die , yet behave as if it would not happen to them anytime in the near future. True awareness of the momentariness of life would have prompted them to savour it and lead a more purposeful and service oriented lives. Humans want to be treated with 'respect' and 'love' but do not want to extend the same courtesy to others. If only we realized during this short period that we are in the "Earth school", that we can live happy, uncomplicated lives if we "do unto others as we would be done by. "
By making amends in respect of all the four 'puzzling' matters that we have discussed in this post, we can lead more enriching and satisfying lives.
- NB: This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop www.theblogchatter.com
Eye opening, soul uplifting message!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Pushmaoteeji! So happy to receive your response to this post!
ReplyDeleteWell thought out and expressed. The four things need to be changed .
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Pankajam for sharing your thoughts on the subject!
DeleteReal food for thought and makes one to introspect. Wish we could take corrective action before it's too late.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for responding and sharing your thoughts on the subject!
ReplyDeleteSuch valid points! Needs some self-reflection and frequent self-assessment to take note of what is important and what truly matters.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your indepth analysis of the post!
DeleteHumans want to be treated with 'respect' and 'love' but do not want to extend the same courtesy to others. - what an astute observation.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Suchita for quoting from the post. So happy to hear from you!
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