JAAN HAI TOH JAHAN HAI















“Once you choose hope, anything is possible.”

-      Christopher Reeve

-       
We all are sailing in the same boat, now. Yes, our President, Prime Minister and Mukesh Ambani included… The Pope, The Super Powers and The Super Stars included. And, whether we sail this rough sea aboard our Titanics or village boats, the storm doesn’t ask who we are… Just as Werner Erhard said, “If you stand in the rain, you get wet, whether we understand water or not.”

What ‘is’ is what ‘is’… Not what we want it to be… Not how we want it to be. That’s why, the early we learn not to argue with the reality, the peaceful our hearts will be. Byron Katie keeps reminding us, “Sweethearts, we don’t get to vote on reality.”

Just as the plight in which we all – yes The Presidents, The Prime Ministers, The Bill Gates, The Jack Mas, The Ambanis and The Adanis, The Tom Hanks, Bachchans and Rajnikants, you,  me and the one who sleeps on the pavement - find ourselves in. Yes, we all are trying our ‘bestest’ to pass this test. But, we can’t escape the reality of what ‘is’… If the Titanic is destined to doom, it will…

And, I am not a prophet of doom… I am only a believer of what ‘is’!

Therefore, like my co-passengers in the boat, I am also extremely anxious, worried, scared – what will happen? How will I survive… both jaan and jahan as our PM described it, last night… Yes, “Jaan hai toh Jahan hai”?







“Deva maka bokshi… Deva maka vansai… Hanv vanslyar bhikh magon katholon,”  My grandfather would have prayed this way in Konkani… “God, forgive me…God, save me… If I survive, I am prepared to even beg and eat!”

There was a timeless message in that sarcastic prayer… When the boat goes down, the priority is not saving what we have amassed in our Antilias… but, to simply run, and save ourselves…

Yes, people who live in their Antilias and we who live in our humble homes… and, those who sleep on the pavements – yes, right now, all of us have our own fears to face… our own problems to handle… Each one’s problem is huge enough for him… Each of us, presently, is staring at a blank sky!

But, then, there is hope: The storms never last… The seas will calm down… That’s how this world and this Life have functioned for eons. Let’s try our best to save ourselves… and, let’s be prepared to ‘beg and eat’, should it be so...

“The homeless do not panic,” a friend of mine shared this message, last night, immediately after our Prime Minister’s speech. Well, they do panic, I seriously think so. But, there is wisdom in what my friend wanted to convey through this message: “Hello, the higher go our Antilias, the higher go our anxieties and fear.”

So, let’s remind ourselves with our PM last-night’s imagery: ‘Jaan hai toh Jahan hai.” Which means, if we have Life, we can do wonders…

And, let me, also, pray to God with my grandfather’s prayer… “God, if you save me, I will be prepared even to beg and eat”!

It’s okay to panic… It’s okay to be human… It’s okay if we all remember the ‘Venkat’ only in our ‘sankat’…

Yes, yes, ‘jaan’ is the most important thing, now… Nothing else is!

Yes, at least now!



GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.:www.youtube.com

Video:Neil Diamond/biarrtiz59

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