Precious Life (Contributed by Shri CV Ramachandran)

Even though death is imminent and we have to depart from the earth leaving behind our kith & kin, wealth and what not; as is seen today, majority of the people are greedy for acquiring umpteen amount of wealth vis-a-vis power and in the process they are madly running here and there without giving importance to exercise, timely intake, proper rest etc., not to speak of religious rituals and parental care. With the quality and facilities in life improving day by day, they try and identify with other people who are better off, and imitate them. In the process, they try and live out what we call the ego-ideal without caring for the limited sources that may be at their disposal. By the time they realize what they are doing, it will be too late. So, ironically if their life is compared to “mushrooms” there is nothing wrong in it.

Majority of young people of this jet-age days want to start off with major jumps in life with extravagant better-halves. They expect to achieve everything overnight for which they are prepared to even change colour like chameleon, without realizing that a lot of hard work goes into those overnight successes.

As illustrated in Vedas, “Maya” is a huge saw and lust, anger, greed, pride, jealousy, hatred, egoism etc. are the teeth of this big saw. As per the existing state of affairs, a higher percentage of people are caught up in the teeth of this saw due to one reason or the other and ultimately are crushed. However, a meagre percentage who are endowed with purity, sacrificing tendency, love and devotion to duty are not hurt instead escape through divine grace. Ultimately their aim in life ought to be peace with painless departure, of course leaving behind many to weep and remember their good deeds for a longer period.

So our prayer should be - Oh God, take away the wealth of those who exploit others, without sharing it with those who really toil to earn! Oh Lord Almighty bestow on us the privilege of enjoying the wealth earned by honest and hard labour during our limited period of life.