An Untold Story Part I

Life puts us in many unsettling situations. Whether the situation threatens us or we respond to it with joy in our heart, it’s totally up to us. When life threw lemons at me, I was the kind of person who threw the lemons back to life and got injured in the process. But now I am learning to make a perfect lemonade for me.

Some situations are occurring in such a sequence that I am forced to realize that all of us are here for some learning. We all must go through our individual lessons, there is no other way. We go through our lessons joyfully or with a big frown on our face, the choice is ours.

I must instantiate once particular situation which is worth a mention. While I was in India, often in office, local employees spoke in their mother tongue at work. Those People usually ignore the fact that there are other people working nearby who do not understand their language and will find their continuous talk irritating .The worst situation I faced is like this. In a meeting room, ten people will be gathered to talk to onsite team and in the middle of the discussion, three people will start a cross talk in their regional language with the onsite guy who happens to know their language and suddenly all rest of us will lose the track of what’s going on.

The company HR issues notice time to time to employees to refrain speaking their mother tongue in office, but nothing would stop some people. After all, they loved their language.

Personally I never appreciated it. I used to be a whistleblower and took all such incidents to senior management demanding to stop such unprofessional manners. Now I am in North America working as a Consultant with one of the healthcare clients and after many years the history is repeating itself in form of a few newly joined Tamil guys who work near my desk keep talking in Tamil language, which is hammering to ears but this time I am not complaining. I get what the universe is trying to tell me. The Universe’s message is “as long as you react to this situation, I will re-create this for you wherever you go“. So what I am doing now ? Now after all these years of yoga and meditation, I have finally got the ability to make the world around me disappear if I want so. So when the unwanted words try to reach me, I just close my eyes and make those words lose their weight .

Trust me , all lessons are for our good. Whenever I get into any awkward situations which threatens to drain the positive energy out of myself, I draw inspiration from the below story of Indian mythology.

To fight and conquer the mighty demons, it was decided that Lord Vishnu would be reincarnated as Krishna. He was to be born as a child to Vasudeva and Devaki in Mathura and was to be shifted to Gokul, where he was to grow up under the parentage of Nanda and Yashoda. As he would be a little baby, the task of such transfer was entrusted to Vasudeva. Vasudeva was told that at the time of the birth, it would be dark outside, all the guards would be asleep, jail doors would be open to assist him in carrying out his task to perfection, however he was to complete the entire task within a very short time span, after which everybody would be awake and life would return back to normal.

On that day, when Vasudeva was carrying the God, he spotted a herd of donkeys. On seeing Vasudeva, they started braying at the top of their voice. Vasudeva requested them to keep silent as that would awake guards & other citizens and the important work he is entrusted with could be jeopardized. However donkeys insisted on continuing unless Vasudeva touches every donkey’s feet. Vasudeva mentioned that he is carrying God and for him to touch every donkey’s feet, he needs to put the little baby on the ground. However those animals still persisted with their demand coupled with occasional braying.

Left with no option, Vasudeva went ahead with the task of touching every donkey’s feet. Feeling satiated, the donkeys stopped braying. Vasudeva completed his work and came back to Mathura safely within the stipulated time. Donkeys meanwhile had a gala time enjoying how they forced a human being to submit to their whims.

What happened after that is known to all of us. So here are my takeaways.

Lesson 1 - Even if you are living your life your way and in line with the overall macro vision of the things, there would be enough donkeys around to insist you living your life their way.

Lesson 2 - You should not feel ashamed or frustrated being forced to stoop to a level lower than donkeys, if that’s the only way the important job entrusted to you can be completed.

Lesson 3 and most important – Only you know the criticality of your task at hand and what works for you . After all Vasudeva’s task was critical in saving the entire earth, including those very donkeys!. However others may not be aware of your life’s journey , let alone appreciating it. Even if you become a laughing stock for the world, you should generate satisfaction from within about your skills and capabilities to live life your way, which will be good for everybody at the end .