Eternity express

Have you ever wondered what’s this race all about? Is it a race for survival or a race that we choose? Deadlines, timelines, winning the maths olympiad, he’s got a cooler car, she’s got a richer husband etc etc. Does one have to be a knowledgeable saint of some kind to get the answers? Of course not.  Here is an oversimplified analogy that might answer our role & experiences in this journey called life’ 

Imagine this

There is a train that is going from somewhere to anotherwhere.

It stops at stations. People get in & get off at these stations. Sometimes when the train is moving, some people manage to hop in & some others manage to hop off as well. Occasionally Some people are thrown off the train as well. No one stays in the train forever. 

I can keep going on & on like that train. However, since you are short of time, let’s get to the point. 

The train is eternity express. It started in the beginning of time & will keep going on till end of time. 

A person who gets into the train is equivalent to being born. Anyone who gets into the train has to get off the train at some point (die). Getting off the train at a station later is death by normal circumstances like disease / old age. Being thrown off a running train is like being murdered / given capital punishment. Jumping off the train is like committing a suicide & so on……

Well what are we getting at ….. we are trying to figure what is it that keeps the passengers going

Each coach has multiple doors. As people get into the train, they realize there are different sections in the coach. To every person a seat has been allocated by the railways company (logic not known).

In the coach as one reaches the allocated seat, they find new neighbours – It’s like a child is born in a family or born to a single mother. The child has no say in which family or which mother he/she is born to – educated family or illiterate family, drunkard father who beats the mother or loving father who spends all extra time, born in a brothel or born in a palace, whether the child is born with all physical limbs or without, whether he/she is born with dark skin or with fair, with long nose or short, with large eyes or small, straight hair or curly & so on……

If the person likes the seat & the berth & the neighbours, very good. If they do not like either the seat or the berth or the co-passenger, they try to move to a better place that seems good from the current seat. However only when they reach that place (that seemed good earlier), do they realize whether the reality is same as what they thought it is.

To reach that new seat, they either pay (in cash or kind) or use their social skills. It’s not their right to be allocated a different seat if they don’t like the first. It’s something that they inherited. 

If the child does not like the family or the circumstances which he/she has been born to, he/she tries to get out of it in future (when they grow up) – By making the right friends, by acquiring the right skills, by earning step by step to pay for what he/she wants. Sounds easy to do but of course it is not. There are certain things that the child has to live with, the whole life – the family he/she has been born to, the acts of the parents (good or bad), the color of the skin, the shape of the nose, the bone structure etc. etc. 

There are certain others which he/she can change – e.g. 1. Visual appearance – work out, eat well, be healthy & look stunningly attractive 2. Material assets – work hard, work smart, make the right connections at the right time, make the right bets, prioritize right & so on. 3. Intelligence – sharpening it by reading, speaking to people, never be content.

The people in the train have the option to move from one coach to another. There are different activities that happen in different coaches. Each time someone moves from one component to the other, they meet new people. They like some, they hate some, they do not have an opinion on the rest. Some people they like so much that they want to spend more time with, outside of the context of the meeting. Some they hate so much that they don’t want to cross paths with. At times there are verbal & even physical fights. There are rules of the train & the guards ensure general order is in the place. 

While going from coach to coach they sometimes go alone, sometimes with their neighbours. Almost no one accompanies another to all coaches & vice versa. 

Different phases of life are like moving from one compartment to other. While one can be school where one learns the basics, the other can be a university where one learns specifics. A child working at a tea stall learns a lot & so does the teenager working at a garage. During these phases, people come across others whom they like. Some become friends, some become lovers, some become foes. Rest are just a number. Not every friends is a friend forever, not every lover is a lover forever & surely not every foe is a foe forever. A foe becomes a friend, a friend becomes a lover, a lover becomes a foe etc etc – all sorts of permutations & combinations are possible. 

Now that I have given you a parallel conversation of the eternity express & life, think of the situations beyond the ones I mentioned. All of us will link it slightly differently as we have all had different life experiences. 

During the course of the train journey, the balance time to reach the destination reduces. Coz the last stop for that person is the only truth. Anyone who has boarded the train has to get off. The big idea is to ENJOY THE JOURNEY. 

What exactly is ENJOY THE JOURNEY

Different people have different ways to enjoy the journey – these perceptions of ‘enjoy’ change with time, exposure, satiation of the person & people constantly move on to something else & sometimes remain with the same till the end of the journey.

Strangely most people forget to look out of the window & enjoy the scenery, enjoy the food, drink, conversation, sleep, freedom etc etc.

Some remain focused on amassing (money, degrees, position, medals etc) single mindedly. Others do little bit of this & little bit of that. Out of the main pillars of life, usually it’s almost impossible to balance all simultaneously – career, family, friends, hobby/passion, health. The single-minded people run after one of them as that gives them happiness. Rest run after two or three pillars. Very rarely does someone balance all of this. For some with easy people around, balancing is easy. For others with difficult people around, balancing is more strenuous. 

A deep dive into why we do what we do, for now, for future, essentially points out to only one motive – we are all constantly trying to find happiness. Sometimes happiness is about earning, getting, winning, even snatching, at other times it is by giving. The perception of happiness depends from person to person, time to time, same person at different stages of life & so on……………..

To summarize – If we are always constantly trying to find happiness, the question to ask is ‘are we enjoying the journey enough’…… is happiness to me ‘earning’ or ‘spending’, is happiness ‘taking’ or ‘giving’ ………. It’s always either, never both. Earning to spend is ‘spending’, taking to give is ‘giving’ etc. this clarity helps the mind be at peace with self & hence with others.

Share your thoughts, be it in line with the above, or poles apart…