Passing life by

My beautiful friend Jyotsna said: I am getting more and more forgetful by the day... I open the door of the fridge and wonder why I did it, I make a call to my husband in his office and forget what I had to tell him. I have no major issues in life, but I have started getting the feeling that life is passing me by, and I am letting it pass me by.

Both are symptoms of a lack of focus. You don't know where you're going so you're not going anywhere. If you find your focus in life, all else will fall in place; the fridge, the phone calls, everything else. You need a mission.

Answer this question and I will take it further: Suppose I tell you that you have only two more weeks to live. How would you spend the last 15 days of your life?

Jyotsna replied (July 9): My immediate answer is that I would first get a cosmetic surgery done, get a makeover, travel the world... But when I think deeply, I would do none of that. First, I would visit people who are dear to me.... People which whom I have lost touch over the years.. I've learnt that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have. After that I would donate all my personal wealth. Then in the end, make a trip to Japan to meet our sensei. I would spend the last days meditating, attending meetings, chanting...

So you've found your mission in life then. Love, charity, spirituality, community service. (Such a lofty mission, I must say! Would have probably been easier to get a makeover and travel the world!) Now, apply this mission to your life. 'Live each day like it's your last. Eventually you will be right.' Why waiting for the last 15 days of your life to fulfil it? As the ad would say, Just Do It.

The reason you haven't been able to make the love in your heart your mission is because it isn't considered a career enough; or is considered, at most, a noble pastime. There's no money in it, there are no promotion possibilities, there are no tangible perks. Only hard work, a few smiles and hugs and lovey-dovey feelings being exchanged. Who wants to make a profession or a mission out of something as silly as caring and sharing?

But the world lacks just these qualities, doesn't it? That's why you've been born, you and others like you. Who have nothing more precious to give than themselves. You have the highest mission of them all - not coming up with award-winning ad campaigns for bikes, not fighting legal battles, not marketing a film. Your mission is SAVING OUR SOULS. Do you realise how serious and important that is?

And you've been wasting your life wondering what you opened the fridge for?

Don't treat the greatest mission in the world like a trivial pastime. It's only as important as YOU think it is. Go for it the way your husband would go for his projects. The way I'd go for an article I sat down to edit, or the way a teacher would tackle a bundle of board exam answer sheets. With single-minded focus, determination and a time-frame. Think of how many people you would have loved and cared for in the time that you spent watching time pass you by? How many souls you would have healed and lives you would have touched?

Don't waste any more time. Start living NOW. Our world depends on you.