I met a 74 years old retired Pilot and he has been wearing same 4 shirts for last 8 years. I asked him that he has so much of money, why he does not buy more clothes and he said that they are in good condition.
He does not need more clothes.
He said that I am happy because I can use same money for small children in the orphanage. I met another Chinese lady who use to donate all her income in the charity after keeping little for herself. She said that I really do not need so much of money. If I am earning may be because I am suppose to share rest. I got an opportunity to rub on the true beauty inside her and got a chance to sit with her for sometime. She said that in her younger days she use to buy many clothes.
In fact, sometimes, they lied untouched for years. One day she saw a small child shivering in cold wearing no warmers. She gave him her jacket which she had not worn for 4-5 years. He was very happy and since then his smile keeps warming her heart always. After that she said that now when she has crossed 65, she does not remember, how many dresses she had worn and how she looked in them or what compliment people gave to her. She remembers only those smiles which had touched her heart.
I was listening to her and could feel her heart smiling which was making my heart smile too. You do not have to speak words sometimes, and we shared lots of silent smiles after that. I could feel the free flow of love in our hearts.All our lives, we keep living with ego and this ego is so persistent that we do whatever we can do to increase it. It needs constant feeding. Infact buying more than what we need also is a sign, where we want to prove that we have so much more. I can afford to buy and I have so many clothes or anything.
The truth is what we need is very little than what we actually accumulate. We need to be happy in what we have. If we are unhappy and we lack the real content inside, we like to satisfy that need from outside. However, the truth is we would never be able to fill up that gap from outside. We need to explore our trueself from inside and live with the same reality. We all know we would die one day, we all know we will grow old, still we are unable to live with that reality.
I am not asking you to live with the fear of death, however, think once, if it would be your last day, what would you like to do, would you go and buy a new dress or would you do your best to be happy and make others smile.
You would get your answer.
I remember, I had met a middle aged man, who was hospitalized in his 50s. When he was going to hospital, he was in very sober mood and apologized for whatever wrong he had done and when he came back, he was his usual self again. Again after 5 years when he was hospitalize, he was in sober mood and then back to usual self again.
So when he thought that anything can happen to him, he remembered what all things he should not have done and he should have done instead and when he was healthy, he forgot those moments.Now the big question is do we want to live with this fake life where we know we are doing what we should not be doing or do we want to live with the reality of love?
This life is not about wearing expensive clothes or jewelry, its about love. Its about how much love you have and how much love you are able to share with everyone else around you. You cannot touch anyone’s life by wearing expensive clothes but you can definitely touch someone’s life by creating love.
~Sheetal Jain
