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In one of his poems,
Pablo Neruda suggests that if we were not “so single-minded / about keeping our
lives moving” we would be a happier lot. We take life too seriously. Take a
specimen from our species. Let’s call him Raj. Raj is a ‘focused’ student. He
studies all the time. In addition to his school studies is the entrance coaching.
Finally he gets admission to one of the best institutions of higher learning.
He becomes a professional success eventually. Now he is single-minded about
constructing a good house. Then marriage, children and their quality education,
promotion in the job, and so on. Raj is a great ‘success’. Is he?
Does Raj ever live his life? He exists. He succeeds by the standards of plebeian
perceptions. He may appear to be happy too. He has his occasional holidays with
his family, hasn’t he? He goes abroad to enjoy them. He has everything he
wants, apparently.
The reality is Raj may not be happy at all. Worse, he may not even be
aware of that deep inner discontent. He has no time for such awareness. He is
single-minded about keeping his life successful.
As Kazantzakis’s Zorba said, happiness is as simple and frugal as a
glass of wine, a roast chestnut and the sound of the sea. Unless we learn to
stand in awe before a pansy on the wayside, unless we are able to listen to the
music of the wafting breeze, unless we can smile genuinely at the little child
on the way, we may be taking life too seriously. And hence we may not be fully
human and fully alive.
Zorba is a happy man. His philosophy is: “to have no ambition and to
work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to
need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left
and the sea to your right and to realise of a sudden that in your heart, life
has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.”
Life is simple. We make it complex and complicated. When we realise the
simplicity, we also realise that happiness is all around us all the time
available as freely and as naturally as the air we breathe.
PS. Written for In[di]spire Edition 255: #FullyHumanFullyAlive
Wonderful post
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteWonderful narration. Its true that life is simple, if we let it be...but unneccesarily we only complicate it.
ReplyDeleteOften our outlooks are shaped by our society. If we can be a little independent of social pressures, happiness is within reach!
DeleteA glass of wine and roasted chestnuts are excellent metaphors to represent the 'simple' pleasures of life... but a person like me would need to work his ass off to afford this simplicity. But I do agree with your point of view... loved this post.
ReplyDeleteIn case you haven't read Zorba the Greek, i would highly recommend it.
DeleteNice post... "Life is simple. We make it complex and complicated" - its true Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it.
DeleteInspiring post 👍 Thanks for sharing 🙂
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure. Thanks for the appreciation.
Delete"Happiness is as simple and frugal as a glass of wine, a roast chestnut and the sound of the sea".
ReplyDeleteYes, happiness is simply the state of the mind. That state could be brought on by different things for different people.
Yeah, for different people the metaphors of happiness vary but ultimately it's a state of mind which is quite common.
DeleteAs Zorba says, “The idea is everything. You believe, and a sliver from an old door becomes a piece of the True Cross. You don’t believe, and the entire True Cross becomes an old door.”
ReplyDeleteThe idea is to believe in an idea.
Zorba himself would dismiss the cross as a sliver of wood. Sanctity of life should not be usurped by such idols and totems.
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Very nice take on the prompt Sir, totally agree with the views.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jyotirmoy.
Deleteabsolutely correct. life is simple in its original form. we make it complex.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the endorsement.
DeleteTo be involved with life ,the near ones and the acquainted....and yet manage a semblance of detachment; is an ideal way of being. This is what I understood from the " Zorba" portion of the article. An inspiring and thought provoking article, Sir
ReplyDeleteIt's worth reading the entire Zorba. You understood that bit so well.
Delete