From player to spectator

Oasis

I remember hearing this story from my grandmother. Once Goddess Lakshmi accused Lord Vishnu of bestowing his grace and liberating only those humans who were his devotees. Upon which the Lord gave her a free hand to pick a deserving candidate and liberate him or her from the miserable worldly, existence.

Goddess Lakshmi zeroed in on a hard-working weaver who had grown old weaving cloth and earning some money out of it. The Goddess appeared before him and offered him a boon of his choice. The weaver immediately asked that he be blessed with 4 hands so he could weave more and earn more!

In the Panchatantra version of this story, the foolish weaver asks to be blessed with two heads and four arms so that he could work simultaneously on two looms!

The weaver in the stories is so outrageously foolish that one tends to relegate the tale to the kids’ section. But in truth, the weaver is but a caricatured portrayal of what most of us turn out to be, in the course of our lives.

For, quite like the weaver, we spend years engaged in our jobs and end up creating an identity based on it. The material benefits, both the tangible and the intangible, provide the glue and ensure that the mind is entirely consumed by the chosen activity. Spiritual bankruptcy sets in as the mind does not think higher thoughts or introspect on the mysteries of life.

So much so that even when the earn-save phase of life tapers off, we look for some activity to stay relevant and engaged. Even though we are aware that we have entered the final ashrama of life, the mind deludes itself and stays busy with mundane, meaningless chores. In short, we make a conscious choice to remain stuck in the rut. The only consolation is that it is not a modern-day shortcoming. Even Arjuna was fully aware of this pitfall and asks Krishna what prevented the action-driven humans from aiming for a higher ideal.

In reply, Krishna points out that at the root of the obstacle is kaama or desire for worldly things and gratifications. The first discipline prescribed by Krishna to handle kaama is to limit the entry of sensory inputs.

In the modern times, when we are constantly enticed by the social media with information and entertainment, shutting out sensory inputs calls for discipline. For a senior citizen, the first step could be to make the mental shift from being a player to being a spectator.