How many times have we unthinkingly wished someone - Hope you have a great day and year. You deserve the very best.
Someone said something similar in one of my whatsapp group yesterday. It triggered something in me, something which had been simmering in my sub-concious for quite a while now. When people say that "You deserve the best", do they mean that I am such a nice person that only good things should happen to me? Am I really such a nice person all the time, that I deserve all this goodness? Does this also mean that when something bad happens to me (as it will, because it is life) then it is because I haven't been good? Well, if that is true then this is a bigger scam than Santa's naughty and nice list. Maybe it is the adult version of the list!
The Hindu religion takes this list even further by propagating the naughty and nice tally across lifetimes. So, what I do in this life determine what I will be and what will happen to me in the next life. You better be good, no pressure! The Gita says do your job, don't worry about the result, implying that there is a link between what you do and what you get.
I don't buy it. I don't know why life throws us curveballs or is unexpectedly kind (sometimes) but I choose to believe that neither happens because we did something to "deserve" it. Since I don't have proof or logical argument for either side of the debate, I choose to believe with my heart and mind. Maybe it is reason enough that I don't think I would be able to handle the pressure of the alternative.
A friend mentioned that there is a school of thought where our 'soul' chooses for us and our circumstances are a result of those choices. He mentioned that the 'Autobiography of a Yogi' talked very convincingly about this school of thought. I haven't read the book so I don't know all the details but it seems that our soul starts making those choices even before we are born. I am intrigued and curious to know how this line of thinking explains the 'bad choices' our soul makes, like disease and death. I don't buy this thinking either but I will give it fair shot and post my thoughts after I read the book.
I find it really hard to believe that I did something so good that I deserved the breaks I have had the good fortune to get or that I did something so bad that I deserved the misfortunes. Nothing in this world is that black and white and the tallying system seems very complex. I would rather believe in fate - I did not 'deserve' to get the good or the bad, but it is my fate to go through both. One thing I know for sure, I am not sure if I deserved it or not, I am not sure if my soul chose it or not, but I am very thankful that I was born in the family I was. Even though life was very tough growing up, I am very thankful that I was born to parents who went to great lengths to educate their daughters. It is a big privilege in India where girls, even when educated are lovingly dictated to by brothers, fathers and husbands, and I hope I never take it for granted. Paying it forward may just mean some good karma for my next life!
Someone said something similar in one of my whatsapp group yesterday. It triggered something in me, something which had been simmering in my sub-concious for quite a while now. When people say that "You deserve the best", do they mean that I am such a nice person that only good things should happen to me? Am I really such a nice person all the time, that I deserve all this goodness? Does this also mean that when something bad happens to me (as it will, because it is life) then it is because I haven't been good? Well, if that is true then this is a bigger scam than Santa's naughty and nice list. Maybe it is the adult version of the list!
The Hindu religion takes this list even further by propagating the naughty and nice tally across lifetimes. So, what I do in this life determine what I will be and what will happen to me in the next life. You better be good, no pressure! The Gita says do your job, don't worry about the result, implying that there is a link between what you do and what you get.
I don't buy it. I don't know why life throws us curveballs or is unexpectedly kind (sometimes) but I choose to believe that neither happens because we did something to "deserve" it. Since I don't have proof or logical argument for either side of the debate, I choose to believe with my heart and mind. Maybe it is reason enough that I don't think I would be able to handle the pressure of the alternative.
A friend mentioned that there is a school of thought where our 'soul' chooses for us and our circumstances are a result of those choices. He mentioned that the 'Autobiography of a Yogi' talked very convincingly about this school of thought. I haven't read the book so I don't know all the details but it seems that our soul starts making those choices even before we are born. I am intrigued and curious to know how this line of thinking explains the 'bad choices' our soul makes, like disease and death. I don't buy this thinking either but I will give it fair shot and post my thoughts after I read the book.
I find it really hard to believe that I did something so good that I deserved the breaks I have had the good fortune to get or that I did something so bad that I deserved the misfortunes. Nothing in this world is that black and white and the tallying system seems very complex. I would rather believe in fate - I did not 'deserve' to get the good or the bad, but it is my fate to go through both. One thing I know for sure, I am not sure if I deserved it or not, I am not sure if my soul chose it or not, but I am very thankful that I was born in the family I was. Even though life was very tough growing up, I am very thankful that I was born to parents who went to great lengths to educate their daughters. It is a big privilege in India where girls, even when educated are lovingly dictated to by brothers, fathers and husbands, and I hope I never take it for granted. Paying it forward may just mean some good karma for my next life!
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