It’s time to Renew Our Lives!

Renew the spirit of life – make a fresh start. Throw away the accumulated dead matter, the emotional garbage of the past, and the negative energy that has built up over the years. Offload the dead weeds; make a new beginning, now and here!

"Make a fresh start in 2023. Throw away the accumulated dead matter, the emotional garbage of the past, the negative energy built up over the years. Offload the dead weeds, the negativity; make a new beginning, now and here"

I often wonder when man will learn to live a life of serenity. When will he give up those ceaseless desires that drive him and haunt him, to begin a new phase on the journey of life? It is said that this world is a lake. The waters of which are rejuvenating. Man can live in the world and can work on his ‘self ’ for growth and development. Man has to develop a yearning for the Lord. Doing his daily chores, he should call out, “O Lord, make me anew. Make me peaceful. For, I am a peaceful soul.”

Let me ask each one of you: Are you happy with the way you live your life? Has the rat race left you with a sense of achievement and satisfaction? Do you get joy and contentment from gossip, interference in other people’s life, and thoughtless bickering? Do you achieve anything by wasting your energies on utterly futile pursuits? Maybe, at the peak of frustration, you come to realise that your life has been wasted, that you have thrown away golden moments which could have been more productive, more constructive, and better organised.

Renowned writer, Wayne Dyer, uses the same metaphor of the drama, to tell us: “Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”

Why do we cling to the past? I think it is because we do not realise what the bard said so memorably: “all the world is a stage, and all the men and women are merely players”. This world is a leela, the Divine play of the Lord; and each of us is assigned to play a role. The role is played under the benevolent supervision of the Divine Producer-Director. A play has several characters, some good and some evil. Just as actors play their part on the stage, so too do we live our lives – the characters may be obnoxious, fighting among themselves, or staging an emotional portrayal of hate, love, and grief. Once the curtain falls, they return back to the green room, wipe the makeup off their faces, change into their everyday clothes and resume their ordinary lives. The villain and the hero vowed to destroy each other, embrace and congratulate each other, wish all the actors good night, and depart for their homes, once the play is over.

Similarly, we too have come here to ‘play our role’ in several relationships. Once we leave this physical body and enter the life beyond, we return to our homeland, to our True Self. Then we realise that the hurt, sorrow, grief, hate and envy accumulated over a lifetime are nothing but needless, irrelevant waste. These negative emotions get embedded deep in the subconscious and stay with us. If we don’t wipe them away at the end of every performance, they will be carried into our next life, creating more misery and unhappiness.

The point is that the unhappiness we experience in life is our own creation. As I said earlier, it is we who have chosen the role we are to play in this life. We have written the script and chosen our part. The script is ours, and so is the dialogue. It is no use blaming others for it. The script is written after much thought and enacted under the perfect direction of the Director and the Producer. After the play, we too meet each other, hug, and embrace with joy. In the same way, saints urge us to stand outside of ourselves and witness our acts; to view our life as audiences view a play, an enactment, or a movie. This will help us to be detached. Much of the ‘excess baggage’ of negative emotions would fall by the wayside, making our earth pilgrimage easier and happier for all concerned with us.

It is good to wrap up all of today’s ups and downs, and lose them in your sleep, so that you may open a fresh new page on the morrow.

Renew the spirit of life – make a fresh start in 2023. Throw away the accumulated dead matter, the emotional garbage of the past, the negative energy that has built up over the years. Offload the dead weeds, the negativity; make a new beginning, now and here.