ON MAINTAINING BALANCE IN OUR LIVES

BALANCE IN OUR LIVES

WITHOUT BALANCE WE MAY DRIFT IN THE OCEAN

We have our highs and lows
Like high and low tides of ocean
Which touch the beaches
Then recede back
As it loses its vigor
This process just continues
Just like human existence
While in youth
Man has got speed
To go on in life
But as he grows old
He recedes in speed.
But during the periods
Of youth and oldage
Man has to have balance
To be equipoise in all situations
Both in highs and lows of his existence
Happiness should not make us go off the tangent
Sadness should not lower us to our lowest levels.

For joy to be our constant buddy

It is essential to have satiety

In what we have – earned with our efforts with utmost sincerity.

Without the unwanted traits like lust, greed and anger for a company.

To keep balance means to keep equanimity both in lows and highs of our lives. Literally speaking balance means equilibrium, poise, stability, steadiness etc. Thus balance is most essential for us otherwise we shall lose the poise, a little dislocation and we are out. 

LEARNING TO HAVE BALANCE IN LIFE BASED ON OUR EXPERIENCES

To keep balance or equi-poise is all very nice for all of us but it is not always that life is not sunshine and rainbow always. When such a situation dawns, our patience, persistence and tolerance come to our rescue. The more we gain experiences, the more learning process we are having. These experiences could be good or not so good. Here the life is tortuous.  Sometimes life throws us down the hill because of our faults due to our indiscretions, but after course corrections, we can take control, move forward despite some unsavory incidents and then being productive will always be helpful for regain our perspective. Having regained our perspective, we can lead a positive life on the plank of our experiences which the life has taught us. Steer clear of any controversies with our resilience and sincerity thus we can change our brain chemistry after knowing what stimulates our happy chemicals in the state of nature. Then it is easier to change, manage and be in sync to face the ups and downs of our lives.

It is not merely due to our normal routines and experiences thereof, it is mainly by following a spiritual directed life which could bestow balance in our life.  In Bhagwad Gia Lord Krishna advises Arjuna to remain steadfast in Yoga, perform your Karma without attachment to the fruits of your Karma and remaining the same both in success and failure.

It is also essential that we endeavour to keep on getting experiences and add to our knowledge. It is the knowledge about various things which helps us to take corrective action when it is needed. In order to live a purposeful and balanced life, we have to move multi-directional. For this to happen, we have to maintain a healthy poise and composure. Here our priorities should be pursued with utmost sincerity and zeal. Having balance means having acquired the main purpose of our existence.

BALANCE ON THE PHYSICAL PLANE

We must have observed the consequences of losing our physical balance. I do remember the incidence of losing my physical balance when I was swimming in a deep canal. While swimming, due to huge current, I lost balance and was about to be swept when suddenly I recovered my balance, I can only say, with God’s grace thus  saved my life. It was a split second recovery or otherwise I must have fallen into a different channel more virulent and deeper. I may not have been here writing this blog if this could have happened. That is the consequence of losing physical balance. Other people must have got some other experiences in losing balance.

LOSING MENTAL BALANCE

When our mind is not in our control, we tend to go off the tangent and may fall prey to three most undesirable elements lust, anger and greed – the destructive  Ku-Karmic deeds. Having overtaken by these three elements which are destructive in nature and detrimental to our forward movement.

HIGHS AND LOWS OF OUR EXISTENCE

There are two sides of the same coin: high and low, hot and cold, good and bad, day and night, high tide and neap-tide, birth and death, black and white, etc. In fact in everything there is opposite. And there should always a balance in all these aspects. If one aspect is more than the other then there is problem to maintain an equilibrium.

On our personal level, we feel too much pain and unhappiness when something goes amiss. In life everybody undergoes hard and not so hard times. Even the Avtars of Lord Vishnu; Lord Krishana and Lord  and Lord Rama surmounted many hardships and then only they could exterminate the evil in the form of evil Demon Kings Kamsa and Ravana with their unparallel spiritual orientation and resilience of highest order.  Imbalance results when we go awry in our thoughts, actions, attitude, habits, behavior etc.

BALANCE IN THE NATURE

We know how Mother Nature functions; there is a balance in all its activities. We are provided with the most essentials of our lives free (Air, Water and Sun) without which we cannot survive even for a minute. Similarly, there is a perfect balance in universe. Little imbalance created here and there is made good after sometimes by the nature.

The balance in nature is a principle which tells us that ecosystem is in stable equilibrium. If there is slightest change here and there then it is corrected by some negative feedback and then imbalance is corrected by the nature to bring it back to original state vis-à-vis the rest of the system. But if there is too much of imbalance which is difficult to be made good quickly then we shall have to face the consequences. This imbalance results in catastrophes like  excessive rains, floods, cyclones, tsunamis,  melting of snow in the Antaretic region due to increase in temperature in the atmosphere due to our own omissions and commissions the consequences of which would be too severe  etc. These manmade imbalance due to personal greed will have disastrous ramifications.

The imbalance to the ecology due to thousands of fires in the rainforests Amazon in Brazil is really very severe. It will cause environmental degradation of huge proportion.  It is construed as though ‘the planet’s lungs’ are on fire since 20 percent of Oxygen is got from the Amazon. These fires may be due to human greed for recovering more areas for cultivation and also for other commercial activities overlooking the imbalance which it is causing to the environment. If these fires are not extinguished quickly then we are in for disproportional consequences.  The recent held G-7 summit, the leaders from various countries were concerned about the Amazon fires and suggested various measures to douse these fires before it is too late. 

BALANCE IN THE SOCIETY

In our real life, we do not function on the principles of Nish-Kama Karma. We want to get something out of everything i.e. we have our own axe to grind in everything we do. By so doing, we do not have harmony and understanding between the members of the society thus suffer when there is a need of working in unison for attainment of common goal.

We can attain balance in our lives by living a life full of joy, healthy, harmonious with peace and satisfaction then we should act in multiple fronts.

• Total control of our mind – control over emotions and feelings.
• Control over our thoughts and actions thereto.
• Control over our diet for keeping our body healthy.
• Control over three misbalancing our life: anger, lust and greed. These three are the sworn enemies of the humanity.
• Our egocentric tendencies which makes us isolationist and sometimes anti-social.
•  Then the imbalance in the environment is really very far reaching implications. For example due to rise in environmental temperature, increase in pollution level both air and water, etc.  
• Then we have to keep a balance of how much of money we have and how much we have to spend. If we spend more than what we are having then we are in for trouble. Similar is the case with country’s finances – spending more than what a country has may lead to bankruptcy.

Essentially, if we want satiety, peace, harmony and want that we have satisfaction in  our life, it is important that we have balance in manifold areas. It is not acquired by having progress in one area and lackluster contentment in others. In life, sometimes, our own efforts may not pay dividends, we can seek the assistance of others who have attained a healthy balance in their life and is willingly ready to render a helping hand. Balance in life means no attachment at all with the fruits of our actions but our duty is to perform our KARMA.