IS SKY, STILL, THE LIMIT?

“The sky is not the limit; but, your thoughts are.”

Debasish Mridha

“Sky is the limit!”

This statement is very inspiring, very, very empowering. It reminds us, that we have unimaginable amount of potential within us… We should, always, challenge our limitations; we should, always, aim high… Yes, aim at the sky!

Like most around me, I, too, chased the ‘sky’ for several years. It took many disappointments and disillusionment to drill a deep hole in my head and put this in: “Hello, sky doesn’t exist… except in your illusions.”

I became painfully aware of the reality, that I was not prepared to deal with a ‘Sky fall’. The voice kept warning me: “If you chase the sky, be ready for the sky fall, too!”

Most of us are blindly addicted to the ‘sky’: We want to be big, bigger and the biggest. We want to go high, higher and the highest. There is no area in life – right from business to education, from entertainment, media, self-help to spirituality – which is free from this addiction, this sky-obsession.  The argument in favour of it is, always, blunt: “What’s wrong with it?”

Everything, Sir!

Psyching ourselves with the fantasy, that ‘Sky is the limit’ is akin to feeding the beast in us… Once the beast grows, it goes out of our control!

Every time I see the media obsession – sorry, silly public-obsession – with some one like Baby Taimur, or some star-kids when they come of their gyms, it’s clear to me, that feeding the beast happens by design. I shudder to imagine the consequences of such insanity!

How more is really more, how big is really big and how high is really high?

What goes up has to come down. If, to go up like a rocket was my desire, then, let me not blame anyone when the rocket nosedives!

Small can be very subtle and beautiful… When we choose smallness consciously, it can be very, very fulfilling, too.

All that matters, at the end of the day, is a deep feeling of the day well-spent, a true sense of contributing, and a childlike sleep. Regrets and anxieties come straight from a restless mind… Appreciation of little pleasures and victories in day-to-day life, and cultivating enduring relationships help the mind rest well and the body to sleep well.

Happiness can be a very, very quiet feeling. After reading my last blog, mothers of two of my students privately messaged me. One wrote:

“Sir, I want to write so much on your article; but, I can’t do, because my English is not good.”

I simply replied:

“HaHa! Ma’am, you’ve already conveyed it through the language of the heart. English is too over-rated! Thanx.”

The other one had gently brought to my notice a spelling error. “Sir, in the sixth para, the spelling of Tarun.”

This parent is a genuine well-wisher of mine and a regular reader of my posts. Whenever she comes across some spelling or grammatical error, she gently brings them to my knowledge. I am so happy about it, that I keep teasing her as my ‘unpaid editor’!

Now, apart from that message, this woman had also shared the following video:

I was so awe-struck by this gentle rotation of Earth on its axis around the Sun, that I commented:

“Ma’am, it’s so beautiful! Even a little here and there, and we, along with our tallest mountains, will be under the oceans! So much for our egoes! Haan, Tarun ko teek karunga abhi ka abhi!”

‘Tarun’, of course, was just a metaphor… Even to correct a small spelling error needed my ego to be in check!

She concluded: “Hope we realize how miniscule we are! Lekin, kuch aise chalte jaise the world revolves around them!”

Is sky, still, the limit?

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics.:  Aziz Acharki  

Videos: 1. Aryeh Nirenberg 2. Brit Floyd