A close friend of mine used to say, “I wish, I was rich and had all the luxuries of life”. In contrary to this I used to be content as a middle class girl, as my needs were always limited and used to tell her that “you should be happy, having a shelter and clothes, that’s enough for a good and healthy lifestyle”. But she used to disagree with me. She used to say “Money and power are everything in life, without them a person is unsuccessful.
“Kehte hain agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho …
to puri kainaat usse tumtak pohunchane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai”.
By God’s grace she inherited a property which she had never dreamt about in her lifetime; it was her mother’s paternal property, which she had ignored after her mother’s death. Her happiness had no bound when the will was announced by the solicitors. She seemed to be the happiest person in this universe as her dream had come true.
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After her success many friends came to her life who tried to flatter her. You can praise someone for their actions, or the lack of it, while flattery can be vague, undefined, and even false. Here are some ways to spot the difference between praise and flattery. So I drifted from her, but stayed in touch with her as she was very close to my heart….
But she had forgotten me completely and I was completely a stranger to her by now.
Two best friends … the best of buddies were separated… all this due to the barrier of ego pride and arrogance.
After around eight years I got a call from an unknown number, as I received the call it was a known voice. My heart skipped a beat, as I had also waited for this call since long. Immediately I responded with excitement and compassion, “How are you”? She broke down and said “I want to meet you”. I said “sure tell me when are you free we shall meet”. My only condition was that I wouldn’t go to her house so she has to come to my home. She too agreed immediately and said “yes, the best place in my lifetime”.
She came to visit me with beautiful makeup and well dressed, but she looked very tired and sick. She was not the same as before, no chirpiness, no humour, but was in deep thought. It seemed as if she wanted to confess something that was killing her from inside…
I sat beside her and gave her time to open up. We had our favourite lunch watered rice, buto bhaja, sago bhaja, alu bharta, badi chura like the old days. After the lunch I could see the content in her face as if she had food after years…
DESTINY IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS TO US.
DESTINY LIES IN HOW WE RESPOND TO WHAT HAPPENS TO US.
Destiny is what comes to us in terms of situations, people’s behaviours, health and relationships. Destiny is created according to the Law of Karma – the energy we radiate into the world, returns to us. The energy we send out as thoughts, words and actions is called karma; and when the energy returns it is called destiny. Everything that is happening to us is a consequence of what we sent out.
Our mind keeps creating different types of THOUGHT….
As soon as a thought is created it gives rise to a FEELING…..
All our feelings put together about a person or situation develops our ATTITUDE about it….
Our attitude results in our action. Any action done repeatedly becomes our HABIT….
All our habits put together forms our PERSONALITY….
This personality exposes itself to the world and it’s interaction with other bodies results in destiny.
Thus the formed chain is: THOUGHTS – FEELINGS – ATTITUDE – ACTION – HABIT – PERSONALITY – DESTINY.
We are the creators of our destiny through our thought. Can we afford to create a wrong thought? Let us not think about how others behave, let us remember what we think about them is creating our destiny. If we want a destiny of happiness, love, contentment, health, we need to create it in our every thought, irrespective of how challenging the situation may be.
We are always in pursuit of happiness yet we often forget that money has no correlation with it.
After this meeting she used to meet me often holding my hand as if she did not want me go out of her life anymore.
After three months one day I got up from my sleep with lovely thoughts about my friend and her love for me. It was a feeling of happiness about finding my long lost friend.
Suddenly my phone rang, I picked up the phone.It was her call “please come soon, please come to my house once”.I said “no, I won’t you please come I am waiting for you.” She said, “please come just for five minutes”. As I dressed and reached her house, it was as if she was waiting for her last breath to leave, waiting in anticipation for the last time.
She left me and it was the greatest loss of my life…
Still I can hear her last words ringing in my ears “You were right, I was wrong… “.
Today also I miss her and pray for her. Pray for her happiness in another world, though not with me but in my heart forever….
Moral: Life is short. Real friends are rare. Money cannot buy happiness.
Stay safe, Take care
~ Nivedita Satpathy~
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