Play like a child!

There was horrible noise coming from the TV serial in the hall. My wife was so busy giving instructions to the maid. I had a few minutes before my vedic classes. I went in to the study room to refer some books. I just looked out through the windows and fascinated by the vast sky above the trees. (We seldom look at sky in our city life!)

A flock of birds flying high above caught my attention. Fluttering their wings for some time, floating for a while, and going round, up and down, swing left and right. They must be enjoying their life. I was reminded of children. They are always playful. Happy when they play.

Mothers take a lot of effort to feed the children diverting their attention. Left for themselves, they want to play. I thought of the days when I used to play table tennis in the next house with my son and daughter. My wife used to shout at us as food was ready and we never wanted to end our game. This is very interesting. We all like to play! I was wondering about what should be the best way to spend time in old age? especially when you have no personal agenda and have reached a level of maturity of not to indulge in worldly transactions unnecessarily.

There are lots of similarities between great jnanis and children. Jnanis smile innocently like children all the time. Life is a game, entertainment to them. Most interesting thing for a child is to play. It has no hatred. It does not manipulate things, take things as they come.

Only human beings have to worry about spending the time. What do animals do? They are programmed to search for their food, digest, play, sleep and again search for food.

I was jealous of monkeys when I was in Rishikesh. What a wonderful life! They live in group, they get their food from the trees without much effort. They play all the time. They are also physically fit to jump from tree to tree with out going to any Gym, look smart and trim. They are also vegetarians! What else they want? Only these men must be away from them and not spoil their environment!

When you play, you forget your problems, forget yourself. You are like a child.

When the adult becomes child, he must be great! He has lost his ego the root cause of all problems. When you hate none, where is the problem? Is this the reason to start any game with a “love all”? Play like a child and enjoy like a jnani. Life is meaningful when you know how to enjoy it.

-Arasu Ramanujam