Joseph and David are great friends. They have grown up in the same locality. Studied in the same school and college, and both are fairly doing well in their own business lines. Their friendship is envied by one and all. They are always together in good and bad times, they are all weather friends. Then suddenly some misunderstanding crept in their friendship, for reasons best known to them. Since six years, they are not in talking terms with each other.
Suddenly Joseph developed some mysterious disease, and doctors concluded that it is not curable and his days are counted. Everyone wanted to meet him for one last time. All his friends and family, and even acquaintances paid their visit. But everyone was anxious to know whether David will visit his old-time friend Joseph who is in his deathbed. Their common friends and well wishers decided to patch up their differences and bring them back to their old self before it is too late. With great difficulty and a lot of deliberations they agreed to meet each other, on one condition that it should be a one-to-one meeting, and it should not last for more than fifteen minutes.
They met on the scheduled date. They are meeting after a long gap of six years. Initially it was difficult for them to start the conversations. But once it picked up it was a non-stop process. Both were busy strolling down memory lane. Time went by. It is almost two hours now and it is time for them to part.
David got up to take leave, then on a second thought Joseph said,
“David, we spent a nice time together and now I can peacefully leave this world. But I want to add one last thing; if at all by any chance I survive, please forget about this reconciliation meeting.”
The meeting was over.
“I just can’t believe how a man lying in his death bed can still carry the debris with him like this.”
“Over a period, man paints an image of himself, the basic ingredient of the paint being ego. It’s the mask hiding you from the self. After every success, the ego multiplies. Then a time comes when, whatever one does is only to boost his ego, or to safeguard his false prestige. He is never interested to know the real purpose of doing or the outcome of it.”
“How to come out of it?”
“Come back to the reality. Don’t get entangled in the web of attachments. You must leave this world one day after leaving everything behind. Make humility a way of life. Understand the purpose of your life. You have come here with a specific purpose, and you must leave when the time comes, without even getting a chance to say goodbye to your near and dear ones.
We all come to this planet as travellers on a tourist visa, and like any tourist visa, there is a time limit attached to it, and the interesting part is no one knows the time limit. No one can become a permanent resident here.”
The Bagwat Gita says,
“Do your duty, but do not concern yourself with the results.”
We have the right to do our duty, but the results are not dependent only upon our efforts. Avoid clinging to attachments.
