True way to live life

 

True way to live life

Pandit ji was conducting the worship. People were sitting with folded hands. After the worship, it was time for the havan (sacred fire ritual). Pandit ji invited everyone to participate in the havan. The havan materials were placed before everyone.

Pandit ji would chant the mantras and say, “Swāhā.”

As soon as Pandit ji said swāhā, people would take a pinch of havan material and offer it into the fire. The responsibility of offering the havan material was given to everyone, while the responsibility of pouring ghee into the fire at every swāhā was given to the head of the household.

There were many rounds of swāhā. I too was offering havan material into the fire. I noticed that everyone was offering very small amounts, fearing that the material might run out before the havan ended. The head of the household was also pouring ghee drop by drop, afraid that the ghee might get finished.

The chanting continued, swāhā continued, and the worship was completed.

I saw that all those who were saving their havan material out of fear that it might fall short were left with plenty of it. Hardly half the ghee had been used.

After the havan was over, Pandit ji told everyone to put all the remaining material into the fire. He also told the head of the household to pour all the remaining ghee into the fire pit.

Suddenly, a large amount of havan material was poured into the fire. All the ghee was also offered at once. The whole house filled with smoke. It became difficult to sit inside.

One by one, everybody had to leave the room.

Everyone was saying that there was no need to save the material unnecessarily. If we had offered it in the right proportion, the room would not have filled with smoke. Even the ghee should have been used in the correct proportion instead of being saved.

Anyway, until everything was fully burnt, it was not possible to re-enter the room. All of us stood outside, waiting for everything to burn down—waiting for everything to be swāhā.

Analysis of the story

Yesterday, I was thinking: every person present at that worship knew that whatever havan material they had, it had to be offered into the havan kund. Yet everyone held on to it. Everyone saved it, thinking they would need it later. This is exactly what we do. This is our nature. We keep saving so much for “the end.” We fail to understand that every worship must end. We gather so many things in preparation for living life, but we never end up using them. We buy clothes thinking we will wear them on some special day—but that day never comes. We save money thinking it will help us “one day,” but that day never comes.

The worship of life ends, and the life material remains unused. We become so engrossed in saving that we fail to understand that everything is ultimately meant to go into the last fire. What is the point of saving it? Remember—this world is the havan fire kund, and life is the worship. One day, everything has to merge into this fire. A good worship is one in which the life material is used in the right measure. A good life is one in which we do not have to work hard merely to accumulate things. Our hard work should be only to gather what is needed to live life fully.

– Presented by Dr. Vivek Arya