Life’s greatest illusion

The costliest free gift.

I haven’t done shopping for a while. I usually don’t, until I feel the need to reward myself for achieving small goals I set quite often. Yesterday was one such reward-day, So I decided to buy a pair of jeans. I started to a nearby mall which has been running a “30% discount sale”, but on my way, I saw a big hoarding of an apparel brand store saying, “Buy One Get One Free”. Though the store is not so far, I was a little averse to go there doubting the quality, but then “Buy One Get One Free” is a tempting offer. I succumbed to the “Free” offer and ended up buying two pairs and spent more than what I should. I reached home and questioned myself, “What made me buy an extra pair?” May be because it’s free.No one wants to miss out on an opportunity to get something for nothing. Even though we might not use it, we still want to have it, because it’s free, isn’t it? But, do we make complete use of what we get for free? How does it matter, its free anyways? Are we not at loss if we don’t use them? No seems to be the answer, because the price of it is zero. But…

Let’s think, Is there anything that we all get for free, all of us? Yes, there is one thing. You and I were getting it for free since long and we will in the future as well. In fact it’s not just you and me, everyone in this world get it for free. No one needs to do anything for it, it just arrives on its own, free delivery to where ever you are. What’s that? Take a pause and think.

It’s called “Today”. It’s absolutely free. You don’t pay for the sun to rise and the moon to shine. The earth rotates and tomorrow a new one arrives. Though it’s a limited period offer, you get “every day” for nothing till your life lasts. When I see people around me wasting it, I recollect a story I read as a child,

Once upon a time a lark, beautiful and elegant, lived in the woods close to a trader’s house. One day, the lark saw the trader with a bag and asked him,

“Can I know what’s in that bag?”

“Sure, they are silk worms, I am going to the market to sell them”, replied the trader.

“Oh! Really, let’s make a deal then”, said the lark with a happy tone.

“What’s that”, questioned the trader.

Lark, replied, “Give me this bag of worms and I will give you few of my beautiful feathers”

Trader agreed and exchanged the bag of worms for the lark’s feathers. Again the next day, the trader was carrying a bag of worms and the lark made the same deal. The lark was enjoying the food without much effort. Days passed with the same deals, and the lark ended with smaller feathers with which it could not fly. As the lark could not find its food, it had to exchange the small feathers as well to survive. It did that, and finally lost all its feathers. The trader was no more interested in the lark and proceeded to the market. One day, while the trader was passing through the woods, he found the featherless lark dead on the ground. The trader smiled, picked up the lark and sold the lark along with the worms in the market.

Not a real life story to relate with, but many of us are like the lark. The lark did not pay anything for the feathers, like the way we did not for “Today”. We just got it. Now, what are we exchanging it for? What are we trading it with? Are we using it in the way we would, if we paid for it? Interesting thought, what if each of us has to pay The God for every day we want to live? Will we spend them the same way? I don’t think so.

To me, “Today” is the least priced yet most precious thing in this world. At zero cost, it gives us an opportunity to be what we want to be and it does it “every day”. After all, most of us don’t even live for 36500 days (100 years). It’s just thirty six thousand odd days, too little to waste. The only reason I find people wasting it is, there’s no price attached to it. But, they’ll end one day. The day you realize them ending, you will be in either of these two situations. One, you made the best use of them and when you think about your life on your death bed, you tell yourself, “it’s a life well lived, it couldn’t have been better than this” . Second, the free offer has ended and the days were long gone before you realize, life has come to an end and you think, “its a life wasted and it could have been much better”, and this single thought will break your heart. Make your own choice now. Not everything that comes free is always free; it has its own price that might cost you more than what you think. Use every day and live every day, it’s not free.

“In life, price, is not something we pay. it’s the loss, if we do not pay.”

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