All Requests Tagged 'control' - Community life competence2024-03-29T05:17:04Zhttps://aidscompetence.ning.com/group/saltandinterfaithlearninggroup/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=control&feed=yes&xn_auth=noDelusions of a Control Freaktag:aidscompetence.ning.com,2013-06-22:2028109:Topic:1202722013-06-22T18:42:49.422ZDr. E. Mohamed Rafiquehttps://aidscompetence.ning.com/profile/DrEMohamedRafique
<p>My friend Prabhakar M. L. was once put up in a star hotel by the sea. He got the best room with the best view. He lay on the bed and looked through the large windows at the sunset over the sea. And as the day extinguished its lights in fading flaming colours of the dusk, a singular thought dawned on him: How insignificant man is?</p>
<p>For he looked at the gloaming before him and realized slowly that nothing in the world belonged to him. He looked at the things in the room that he had…</p>
<p>My friend Prabhakar M. L. was once put up in a star hotel by the sea. He got the best room with the best view. He lay on the bed and looked through the large windows at the sunset over the sea. And as the day extinguished its lights in fading flaming colours of the dusk, a singular thought dawned on him: How insignificant man is?</p>
<p>For he looked at the gloaming before him and realized slowly that nothing in the world belonged to him. He looked at the things in the room that he had just checked into. Not a thing in it was his. Today he lay on this bed, on the morrow he would have to leave it. Also, the garden outside the window, he would leave it. The beach beyond the garden, the sea, with the silhouettes of the boats, the whole sea beyond the horizon, the fast disappearing sun, nothing belonged to him.</p>
<p>When my friend told this to me a small chill ran up within me. It has preyed on me for over a year. I have shared Prabhakar's thoughts with other friends of mine. They resonate these same ideas.</p>
<p>One morning almost a year after Prabhakar had told me, I lay for a moment after I woke up, thinking about how people boast about how rich they were, and of their so called achievements. Instead, must I not think that this could be the last time I was waking up to a morning. I have no control as to whether I will wake up or pass away in my sleep.</p>
<p>As I open my eyes, squeezing out the last remnants of sleep, the first thought that barges into the fresh vistas of my mind is when I will not be able to keep out the eternal sleep, and my eyes sans vision, be closed for ever. Following this lead of thought, I ask myself if sleep has dreams, what does death have in store? Will life after-death be on a dream like plane? Maybe our greatest minds have not been able to fathom these simplest thoughts.</p>
<p>As I wash myself, I am reminded of the innate weakness of us human beings. How can I say whether I will wash myself the next time, or that it could be my dear and near who will wash me one last time. For I know not what Providence has willed and so it will be.</p>
<p>As I dress myself, I cannot help but think whether I will be dressed by others the next time. "Oh! Rituu, how deluded we are, when we say we are in total control!", I exclaimed to another friend of mine who also resonated similarly on this spiritual strain of thought.</p>
<p>Deluded indeed for we can hardly control even the smallest mosquito. For the one that breeds in Kerala's monsoon showers is hardly discernible to the naked eye, yet its bite stings as good as a bee's! In the many smites that we employ we may kill a couple of them. But can we take back from it whatever blood it has taken from us? Or even if we could take back that little blood which it has taken out, can we put it back into our bodies? Alternatively, can we take out those countless little micro-organisms that it has put in? Thus even the simple mosquito bite we are not in control! Much less the numerous microbes, viruses, and other organisms that live within, and upon us, all the time.</p>
<p>Yet we prefer to live in our deluded fool's paradise, ignoring, forgetting, or laughing off the reality of death, the elder sister of sleep, though we sleep rather blissfully every night.</p>