Hold your horses!
There’s an interesting tale told in the tradition of Tao. Once there was an old man who had a beautiful and strong horse that was the eye of awe, envy and desire of most in the village. People offered the old man huge sums of money to buy the horse yet the old man did not let go. One day, the man discovered that the horse had been stolen. All the people of the village gathered and started their moaning and rambling, “Oh how unfortunate! The old man got so greedy and now look, the horse has been stolen!” The wise old man replied, “The horse is missing. We do not know if this is good or bad. Just state the fact. ” Some days later, the horse came back and brought with him ten other similar horses. Once again the villagers were awed and said, “Oh how lucky this is! See the old man’s horse went away but has now brought ten others like him. He can now sell all of them and make ten times the money.”
“Oh, this is no luck. We do not know the future. The horse was missing and now it is back with ten more, that’s all.” replied the sage old man.
The next day, his son was trying to tame one of the new horses and in the process injured himself severely and became a cripple. Yet again, the village folk gathered to lament the supposed misfortune of the old man. “Look, how sad it is! The old man’s son has now become a cripple. And all of this because the new horses.” The old man, firm in his understanding and wisdom said- “There is no good or bad. My son is now a cripple and that’s the fact.”
Some time later, the nation went to war and the government picked up every young man from the village to fight but the old man’s son was spared as he was not of any use. The villagers now praised the old man’s luck, “How lucky you are! Your son was spared. We know all our sons will be killed. But at least your son will be there with you, cripple or not.” The wise man once again advised, “Do not label anything as good or bad. Your sons may or may not die. They’re gone to assist in the war and that’s the fact. ”
This ancient parable hold a lot of value for our individual lives. So often, we’re quick to (over)react to a situation in life that ultimately doesn’t turn out to be as worse as we imagine it to be. It is said that 80–90% of our perceived fear about the future never come to pass and yet, we put ourselves to torture over something that’s not yet happened. It’s one thing to torture yourself about what’s happened in the past or what’s happening now, but it takes special skill to use your own brain against you! And this is what we term as anxiety.
Pre-mature reactions, like pre mature ejaculations can ruin relationships! Visit any Indian town or village and you’d find the brick walls beaming bold messages(शीग्र पतन के रोगी जल्द सम्पर्क करें) about finding a cure to pre mature ejaculation. I sometimes wonder if we should also have some advertisements for curing our pre-mature reactions. Imagine, had pre mature ejaculation not been such an epidemic, the sex toy market for women would not have managed to be the rage it is.
On a serious note, life is a mystical experience. Each and every instance in life teaches you something but rather than trying to gain wisdom or experiencing the rainbow of emotional experiences that life has to offer, we resist and cause immense misery to our own selves. The bouquet of life offer joy, misery; health, disease; fulfilment, heartbreak; living and death. One cannot choose a particular emotion as each one, no matter what rank- high or low, which race, nationality, sex or religion has to experience all. What differentiates a person of wisdom from one who is constantly moaning is the ability to see beyond what’s happening right now. The future no one knows but at least, by being present and mindful that in the past many of your fears could not find manifestation(praise the lord!), do not be pessimistic about the present no matter how bleak it looks.
Lord Krishna says in the Bhagwad Gita, Chapter 2, text 14,
“The non permanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.”
Hold your horses, don’t be a victim of “शीग्र पतन”(premature reaction)and take life as it comes. As the old man would say, “it’s not good, it’s not bad. Just state the facts.”
Thank you for reading this. Blessings be upon your path.
Just stating the facts,
Kushagra K Singh
