Life, Happiness and More

Rishita was a very bright student since her childhood. She was very friendly and helpful and so she was loved by everyone. It was during her first days of college, that she fell in love with a senior of her college.Everything was going on as usual. She felt that the world had become more colorful and beautiful since she had found the love of her life. But one day, suddenly she caught her boyfriend cheating on her. She was very angry ,depressed and hurt. She returned home quickly from college and decided to commit suicide. Both her parents were outside the house at that time. She quickly went to the kitchen and slit her wrist using the kitchen knife. When her parents returned they found her lying unconsciously on the floor, and blood flowing heavily from her wounded wrist. They immediately rushed her to the hospital. After few hours she was okay and had gained her consciousness. The doctor then allowed her parents to go near her bed and talk to her. Her mother was crying.

She asked her, 'Why did you take such a decision about your life, without even thinking of us? What problem is there in your life that you couldn't share with us and thought of ending your life?'. She then narrated her entire love story to her mom and how she found out her boyfriend cheating on her. She said, 'Mom, I thought he was the love of my life. I thought to spend my whole life happily with him. But he broke my trust, cheated on me, I don't feel like living life now. I feel that my life has no meaning without him. So, I decided to end my life'.

Her mom remained calm and after sometime replied, 'Listen, life is a beautiful journey. Life is a blessing and life is unpredictable. We never know when we have to bid goodbye to this beautiful journey. So, we should always try to live life to it's fullest. Death is the ultimate truth of life and the problems that we face in our day to day lives are just illusions compared to the pain given to us by the ultimate truth of life 'death'. Death, signifying the end of also signifies.... that nothing is forever... everything is temporary...be it our daily joy and happiness or be it our day to day problems. So, we should embrace .. enjoy the happiness, joy, we get in life and thank god for those feelings. Also, whenever we face a tough situation in , we should remember that it will not last forever and we should try to learn and re-discover ourselves from those tough situations.We should enjoy life's joys,success.... we should love all people around.... and we should try to learn from failures and adversities.'

Hearing to this, she said to her mom, 'Mom, I thought my relationship with him will last forever... and he made my life filled with happiness so much more. Now, that he is no more a part of my life, I feel that I will never be able to live life happily.'

Hearing this, her mother replied, 'We should enjoy life but without getting attached to a particular person or situation because attachment is the root of suffering. Whenever we are giving our power to stay to a particular person or object, we are depending on outer sources to make us happy. And while we may think that person or situation to which our life is attached may last forever... but it's not the truth... because nothing lasts forever. So, looking for happiness one should look within and not in outer sources. When you are at peace with yourself, your mind and your purpose... you need no outer sources to make yourself happy... and that is the secret of real happiness.' 

Listening to this, Rishita felt motivated and inspired. She asked her mom, 'But then what is the actual meaning of life?... I don't find any meaning to my life... after this incident that happened.' Her mom replied, 'Listen, life is a beautiful journey with each one of us having a specific purpose to serve in this journey... and each one of us has a different journey than others. So, one should find their purpose in life, work on it and embrace life each day with the new experiences that life has to offer us'. Listening to her mother's words... she felt inspired. She was no more sad and depressed about life and about the incident that happened. She again got in full enthusiasm to restart living life and re-discover herself in new ways....!