language selector

Radio Ruhaniyat: May 06, 2017

Life and the Ant! The Hassles Of Life!




Hello everyone and thanks for tuning in to Radio Ruhaniyat! I’d like to share a beautiful article on Life and the Ant.

One morning a man spent nearly an hour watching a tiny ant carry a huge feather across his back terrace. Several times it was confronted by obstacles in its path and after a momentary pause it would make the necessary detour. At one point the ant had to negotiate a crack in the concrete about 10mm wide. After brief contemplation the ant laid the feather over the crack, walked across it and picked up the feather on the other side; then continued on its journey.

It was fascinating to see the ingenuity of this ant, one of God's smallest creatures. It served to reinforce the miracle of creation. Here was a minute insect, lacking in size yet equipped with a brain to reason, explore, discover and overcome. But this ant, like the two-legged co-residents of this planet, also shared human failings.

After some time the ant finally reached its destination - a flower bed at the end of the terrace and a small hole that was the entrance to its underground home. And it was here that the ant finally met its match. How could that large feather possibly fit down small hole? Of course it couldn't. So the ant, after all this trouble and exercising great ingenuity, overcoming problems all along the way, just abandoned the feather and went home.

The ant had not thought the problem through before it began its epic journey and in the end the feather was nothing more than a burden. Isn't life like that?....... It took the ant a trip across the back terrace to realize that all it had been carrying was an unnecessary burden. But we humans spend an entire lifetime only to find out in the end that all we had been carrying throughout our lives, were; unnecessary burdens!

We worry about our family; we worry about money or the lack of it, about work, about where we live, about all sorts of things. These are all burdens - the things we pick up along life's path and lug them around the obstacles and over the crevasses that life will bring, only to find that at the destination they are useless and we can't take them with us...

Alexander the Great was known for his wealth and ruled almost the entire world! But when he got sick and was on his death bed, all his money could not save him. The best of doctors from around the world could not cure him. Before he died, he expressed his desire and asked that when he died, his hands be kept outside the casket so that the whole world could see that he left empty handed.

No matter how much wealth he collected all his life, none of it was of any use to him when he left this world. No matter how we live our lives, ultimately when we leave this world, all that goes with us, is our spiritual knowledge. Nothing that is material, accompanies us when we die. Then why are we investing in material possessions which will be left behind? Why aren’t we investing in the ultimate asset of spiritual knowledge-which will be ours till eternity? The sooner we realize this, the better off we would be. Time is invaluable and once gone: never comes back. This human birth is of the same essence! Once gone, the opportunity to invest in God Knowledge and hence achieve salvation; is lost for time immemorial. This cycle of births and rebirths is a concept that everyone should be aware of, because only then, the significance of the human life is understood.

We spend so much time caught up in the hassles of life, not realizing that this is not what we came into this world for. Life is all about the relationship between the soul and the super soul and we do it while we avail all our material comforts. There is nothing wrong with living in the comforts of life. It is absolutely okay to enjoy the material aspects as long as we are doing it morally and ethically. However, we cannot give priority to the material world by putting spirituality on the back shelf. As long as we can give a prime role to God and spirituality, all material comforts are a blessing that come along as a package reward.

God and God Knowledge should be a sub-conscious awareness at all times. No matter what we do, all day long, doing it with the awareness of God, puts everything in perspective. Life achieves eternal bliss. Forgetting this main purpose of life is more like dragging the burdens of life and realizing in the end that it wasn’t worth it. Life is worth only when it is lived with the essence of God! This is the ultimate truth!

An employee came to USA from India to finish a project with an American firm. His visit was for about a week which would have been more than enough to get the project done. He came and was in awe of the western world. He landed on a weekend and thought that he had time for some sight-seeing till the work world resumed on Monday. He was amazed by the glitz and the glamour. On Monday, he could not hold himself back and wanted another day of sight-seeing and thought he will go to the company on Tuesday. One day led to another and he got so carried away with the attractions of this new world that an entire week passed away and then it was time for him to board his flight and return back to India. In the interim, he could not finish the project that he actually came for.

This is exactly what we all are doing in life! We come in to achieve a spiritual goal, but get so caught up in the glitz and glamour of life, that we forget the actual purpose of life!

-Until next time, this is Preet Sahi reminding you to Stay Spiritual!