One Breath

I find that these days people are quite stressed up with life. Yes, they have their moments of laugh but deep down inside they are not really happy and satisfied. There is always this anxiety building up for many reasons from day to day. I find that people are under constant pressure to perform continuously, not so much for themselves but for the people around them and the society. And in all aspects of life and both professionally and personally.

How will I finish my studies ? Will I be able to get a job ? Will I be able to make money ? Will I get a nice girl/boy to marry ? Will I be able to fill the installments of the house/car etc successfully ? .... these are some of the common questions which I feel everyone has sometime or the other in his/her life. Then, there are questions about whether things would have been different. Would have been better if I had done an MBA and not Engg. Would have been better if my boyfriend/girlfriend did not left me. Would have been different if my loved ones never left me. There is always this pinch from the past which stays and keep poking at times.

Recently,  I was reading something and came across a very simple but thought provoking line:

hum aadmiyaan ik dami

It can be directly translated to: We are people of one breath. Though simple but I feel it has a pretty deep meaning. Human beings need one breath at a time to live. Our existence is dependent on each breath we take. The one which we have already taken is long gone and the one coming next does not yet exist. Thus, we must be more concerned about the current breath and not get lost in the last one or the coming one. This can also be seen in terms of another construct of like nakad (hard cash)  and udhaar (debt/loan). The breath already taken is like money spent. It will not come back. The one which has not arrived yet is like a loan and no one knows if that loan will actually be sanctioned. All we have is the current breath which is like nakad or hard cash. So, I think it makes sense to use that hard cash intelligently and not waste it on petty things. A poet quite beautifully quoted this idea in his poem in farsi:

yak dam bakhesh rah na burdam ke keesatam

aye waye nakadey zindagi, raye gaa gujast

The same analogy can be used with our behavior. We keep living in the pretext of past or in the anticipation of future and forget the present. If one closely look at the questions I listed above, one can definitely make the connection. The problems or stress which we have is because we keep living in the past or future but never in the present. I think the moment we acknowledge the importance of present, life would become much easier and satisfying. I would admit that it is easier said than done but still we must constantly keep reminding ourselves of the above mentioned phrase.