As per the tales from Indian ancient mythology, a king once got a premonition that he will die after a couple of days. And as the human nature will have it, he got thinking that what should he do in the rest couple of days remaining in his life. He called upon the chief priest, his top bureaucrats, and his close family members to discuss the issue.
The chief priest declared that the king is a one in a billion human soul who is lucky enough to know it in advance that he will die soon. Only a handful of people in this world have got this privilege to know that their last day is approaching.
The king came to a conclusion, in agreement with all the people around him that there were several pending things which were of prime importance and those need to be finished before the demise of the king. The king then issued all the commands to his subordinates to get things done, and plan for his successor.
King actually died when the day came. But what was different (as compared to the death of other kings in the neighboring states) was that things were sorted, people were calm, there were no questions with the leadership and future of the state. The king did it all while he was alive.
Now, connect this story to our lives. Do we live a life when we can be sure that after our life is suddenly snapped there will be no chaos, no unanswered questions, and the debates on several aspects after we die? I doubt. We all have some loose ends to fix, but we keep on waiting for the right time to come.
A recent event, which has gone now was a clear way of the nature to say that take this opportunity and think what all needs to be fixed – The End of the world, as per the Mayans, written centuries ago! We all could rubbish the whole thing, but imagine, if we took Mayans a bit more seriously we would have all sat down and tried to make a list of things we need to do before we die on the dooms day.
However, coming from the Indian background, I have to say that this Mayans warning was a symbolic way of saying to we humans that this world, and our lives are just the momentary things on the vast time scales, and they are bound to come to an end. And we human beings should arrange and architect our lives as to live in the plug-and-play manner. Our presence or absence should not make any difference to the world. And this could only happen when we truly believe that we are all here for a role to play, and a purpose to fulfill, all to be done in a short span of time.
So, while we may rejoice the fact that there was no Doom’s Day, and rubbish that Mayans were incredibly wrong in their predictions. I would suggest that Thank Mayans for their symbolic warning they offered us centuries ago. And take into account what you believe is your true purpose in this life, and what role you are playing in this world. Concentrate on the two, fix the loose ends of your life, and become someone who if plugged out from the system doesn’t affect the system.
Sarsij Nayanam 