Balance... The only thing that matters
Balance... just like how one cycles. Visually, cycling seems so difficult but ask the cyclist and she surely has no idea why anyone would think so. Remember when you learnt how to cycle. You straddled and pushed the paddle, fearfully removed your other foot off the ground, the handle shook violently and BAM! you fell. That's exactly how everyone learns to cycle... No exceptions. You try it again and maybe after a couple of failed attempts, you are able to move forward a few meters albeit in a snake-like movement. In no time, you are cycling like an expert wondering why you were so afraid of it in the first place. You still had no idea how you were balancing on two wheels, it's just that you were. You however knew that to keep moving forward, you need to keep it balanced and that is only possible if you kept pedaling.
Life, my friend, is exactly like that. The only thing that matters is BALANCE which can only be achieved if you keep pedaling. Let me try to explain.
Entire nature survives on balance. Our solar system survives on balance. Imagine what would happen if Earth's rotation was not balanced to the gravitational force? Imagine what would happen if the oxygen and carbon-dioxide was not balanced by mammals & plants? All natural calamities occur due to a slight dis-balance of something or the other - earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, droughts, everything. The only way nature keeps the balance is by continuously pedaling - the earth never stops rotating and we never stop breathing.
Bordering on sounding philosophical, life is best enjoyed when it is balanced. Classical sayings like "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" or "Work hard, Play harder" effectively point at maintaining balance. A saint who just meditates in an ashram searching for God is tilted towards spiritualism and misses out on the earthly comforts. On the other extreme is someone who spends her entire life in earning more and more money and loses out on the spiritual gains. On one hand there is someone who sacrifices his sleep to work more and suffers health issues and on the other there is another person who sleeps to much and hence doesn't earn much. So we need to have a work-life balance. Even when it comes to food, we are advised to have a balanced diet that includes all essential elements of sustenance, lack or excess of any one of which can create havoc with out health. Males are balanced by Females. Young are balanced by Old. We balance the hot by making it cooler and cold by making it warmer.
So if balance is everywhere, if balance is sacrosanct, if balance is the foundation of the entire creation then as a society we should not strive to reach an idyllic state since it is never going to happen. A crime-free society will never happen since all crime in the world is balanced by good deeds elsewhere. Poverty will never end since the poor is balanced by the rich, since the money earned by one is the same money spent by the other. If everyone starts saving then how will the economy grow? Gender equality will remain a dream unfulfilled since men are balanced by women (or the other way round depending upon how you want to see it). The Right wing and the Left will always be there to balance the societal views. Vegetarianism will be balanced by non-vegetarianism. Light by Darkness. At any given point in time, half of the world is in darkness, half of the world is sleeping (ignoring the people who sleep at work but then even this would be balanced on both sides of the world).
Effectively we need to all learn to live with the contrast. We need to enjoy the extremities instead of complaining since that is the way it has been and that is the way it will be. Ultimately, we can only appreciate something when there is something completely contrasting to compare it with. Imagine if there was no darkness would we ever appreciate light? For every PRO there is a CON, for every YIN there is a YANG...
That's the fun... Imagine how boring it would be if there were no comparisons, no contrasts, no opposites...
Life, my friend, is exactly like that. The only thing that matters is BALANCE which can only be achieved if you keep pedaling. Let me try to explain.Entire nature survives on balance. Our solar system survives on balance. Imagine what would happen if Earth's rotation was not balanced to the gravitational force? Imagine what would happen if the oxygen and carbon-dioxide was not balanced by mammals & plants? All natural calamities occur due to a slight dis-balance of something or the other - earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, droughts, everything. The only way nature keeps the balance is by continuously pedaling - the earth never stops rotating and we never stop breathing.
Bordering on sounding philosophical, life is best enjoyed when it is balanced. Classical sayings like "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" or "Work hard, Play harder" effectively point at maintaining balance. A saint who just meditates in an ashram searching for God is tilted towards spiritualism and misses out on the earthly comforts. On the other extreme is someone who spends her entire life in earning more and more money and loses out on the spiritual gains. On one hand there is someone who sacrifices his sleep to work more and suffers health issues and on the other there is another person who sleeps to much and hence doesn't earn much. So we need to have a work-life balance. Even when it comes to food, we are advised to have a balanced diet that includes all essential elements of sustenance, lack or excess of any one of which can create havoc with out health. Males are balanced by Females. Young are balanced by Old. We balance the hot by making it cooler and cold by making it warmer.
So if balance is everywhere, if balance is sacrosanct, if balance is the foundation of the entire creation then as a society we should not strive to reach an idyllic state since it is never going to happen. A crime-free society will never happen since all crime in the world is balanced by good deeds elsewhere. Poverty will never end since the poor is balanced by the rich, since the money earned by one is the same money spent by the other. If everyone starts saving then how will the economy grow? Gender equality will remain a dream unfulfilled since men are balanced by women (or the other way round depending upon how you want to see it). The Right wing and the Left will always be there to balance the societal views. Vegetarianism will be balanced by non-vegetarianism. Light by Darkness. At any given point in time, half of the world is in darkness, half of the world is sleeping (ignoring the people who sleep at work but then even this would be balanced on both sides of the world).
Effectively we need to all learn to live with the contrast. We need to enjoy the extremities instead of complaining since that is the way it has been and that is the way it will be. Ultimately, we can only appreciate something when there is something completely contrasting to compare it with. Imagine if there was no darkness would we ever appreciate light? For every PRO there is a CON, for every YIN there is a YANG...
That's the fun... Imagine how boring it would be if there were no comparisons, no contrasts, no opposites...
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