Manage your sufferings
All people have a family. Be that a 2 member family or be that 10 member family. Family here includes extended family too.
Now, whenever there is sickness, accident, or failure in a family to any one person, the whole family goes through the pain and consequently suffers. To feel the pain of a family member, passing through difficult times, is but natural, and is very well understandable. This suffering is unavoidable.
In the foregoing context, let us have a look at two important events we all are witnessing these days in India. A cricket carnival of T20 matches in India, and celebration of festival of democracy/ dance of democracy, and witnessing polls all over the country.
Let us first look at ongoing T20 matches we all tune in every evening. Since I am from Jaipur, I support RR, and in their crucial match against RCB the other day, went through harrowing palpitating experience, when against all odds of RR staring a defeat, Powell brings them back into the game by scoring 18 runs in one over, and RR wins the crucial eliminator match.
I went through huge sufferings when RR was in all likelihood about to lose the game, and was at Cloud 9 when they pulled out victory from no where.
Yesterday, RR unfortunately lost their qualifier match against SRH, and now they are out of contention. RR loss brought in unwanted gloom and sufferings in our family, and I believe of their supporters' family too.
I was wondering why we people become so attached to Team we associate ourselves to, even when we do not have even a single Team member from our family playing the match. Why can't we enjoy the match without taking sides. This sufferings from associating ourselves to Teams we back up.......is that really warranted? I call this as self-imposed suffering.
Similarly, look at election process going on in India. Though they call it a festival of democracy, dance of democracy, but both the spirit of festival and dance are severely missing. All political parties, on the other hands, are engaged in stripping the opponent parties, their leaders, and show us their ugliest part, even of their ancestors, and showcase fictional gloomy situations against each other that it looks like a horror story unfolding.
In the media, there are experts on both sides, trying to showcase the worst which may befall on people if the other party wins. People have formed their own opinions on political parties and their leaders, and sub-consciously pray that the party/people they support should win.
Come 4th June, when the counting of votes begin, and we shall come to know which party shall form the Govt. The people who supported the party which loses shall again experience huge sufferings, as the results didn't go as per their expectations.
Again, this too shall be self-imposed suffering; for people who lose elections shall not be the one related to any one of us directly, except for the fact that we supported and voted for them. Now to suffer on behalf of those who lost, who are not even remotely related to us, is too penalizing on self.
While sulking and sufferings on account of our family members, when they pass through difficult times is understandable, but one certainly can avoid this self-imposed sufferings by staying away from getting too attached to thing/people/party/places which are impersonal to us.
Manage your sufferings. Detach and be a witness, And enjoy the dance and party.