Being simple is a very complex thing for many; and being
complex is the easiest thing. Let’s just take a common place example. We walk
into a coffee shop. A Smart, smiling and English speaking boy or girl, complete
with her brown apron greets you from the other side of the counter and asks
what you would you like to have. You settle for a Café Latte or Espresso,
whatever. Soon comes another query: Sir, small, medium, large? You have already decided it is medium and you
say it. ‘Sir, you would like it strong or light?’ You answer that question hiding
your discomfort. Would like to have cream or without cream? Now, what’s that?
You have asked for a coffee and the boy has already complicated things. You get
a medium cup of coffee and an atrocious bill. You pay and drink the concoction as
if it were hemlock. Drinking a cup of coffee could be that complex an affair. There
are people who suddenly tell you: I will take you for a wonderful filter coffee
or some delicious ice cream. Some may even suggest a ‘pan’. Then they drive you
around the city for twenty minutes and all the way you will have to listen to
their narratives on the kind of filter coffees or ice creams they have had.
While you invent some equally bombastic story, from the back seat, a little
nine year old chimes in, ‘Mom, you did not tell about our funny ice cream trip
in Alaska last summer.’ You have already lost the game before that claim.
Life could be much simpler. Asking too many questions for
the sake of asking questions is one way that most of the people make simple
things complex. If you understood what someone has just said, you don’t have
questions. If you have not, you have some. But after some stage in your life,
you don’t have many questions. You don’t need to be really old to realize this.
People make things complex at times to invite questions. So in answering those
questions a major chunk of the time in office or anywhere is spent. People feel
important when they ask questions and in turn make things complex. A person
with an average IQ could understand anything around him/her without asking too
many questions. Even if an issue is explained at the board room, if you are a
staff member and worth of your salt, you would immediately grab the nuances of
what is stated; that’s why you are there in the boardroom. But somehow, in the
name of brainstorming so many precious human hours are spent without much
result. People fly off to retreats and sea shores or hills to do brainstorming.
A majority of the problems that human beings face today could be solved while
sitting in the loo. There is nothing very complex about life. There are no such
problems that do not have an answer. One just needs to silently face those
questions; loo is the best place to do that.
I have seen a number of people wasting their time in arguing
certain issues and feeling miserable when they are not able to convince the
other party. First of all argument is one way of making simple things complex.
In life nothing could be achieved by arguing with anyone. An argument starts
because the other party believes in something different than what you believe.
If both the parties are stuck at their own belief patterns no argument is going
to win one over the other side. Then how issues could be solved? If arguments
do not arise then issues automatically die out. There at some corner of the
country, a good for nothing fellow clad in some religious attire makes an
absolutely foolish statement and the so called intelligent people take the cue
and start arguing. Look at our debate television. Apart from being mere
entertainment and slight persuasion, these television programs are a huge
amount of wasting human energy and time for silly matters. If we decide to
simplify things, then definitely the arguments will start. If someone says, JNU
students use 3000 condoms per month we should just laugh it off. If some cartoonists
come up with brilliant cartoons on the issue, we should enjoy it and make our
lives simple. In the name of involving in the democratic process, we enter into
arguments regarding things about which most of us do not have in depth
knowledge or authority. In the free for all scenario, we make life complex and
miserable.
To make life simple, as people believe generally, they need
not go to faraway places seeking solace and simplicity. Rural areas are as
complex as the urban places as in rural areas too we find human beings who do
not have much to do with their brains. We could be very simple people by being
intensely aware of things and keep off from many things. We make a lot of noise
about growing traffic. The best way is to take off our car from the roads. We
get morally agitated when the city is littered by filth. What we need to do is to
avoid littering the city ourselves. When there is water shortage, instead of
complaining, use water judiciously. In the name of organic life, instead of
driving kilometers to buy organic vegetables, better plant some vegetables in
your backyard. When life is simplified, problems vanish. Many people think that
our presence in social matters is a must to maintain the democratic process. The
best way is to choose your representatives judiciously; instead of making a
ruckus after selecting anti-social people as your representatives. People need
a high amount of awareness to lead a simple life.
Unfortunately, simple life is always misunderstood. Many
people think that a simple person is a ‘poor’ person. Most of the great
personalities are very simple people. I have come across so many great people
with great contributions to society but absolutely unassuming in their presence,
manners and mannerisms. Once I was visiting a museum located in a mall in Delhi
and at the corridor I happened to cross paths with the famous writer Arundhati
Roy. She was walking in such way that she was almost hiding herself and not
making a big deal about herself being the ‘Arundhati Roy’. Simplicity is a way
of life; it does not have anything to do with what you wear, how you travel and
what do you eat. When you are simple, you are caring about the other people.
You understand a simple human being your pain as well as the pain of others. Simplicity
is largely about shedding the ego. One does not attend yoga classes or get into
spiritual retreat to kill ego. One just needs to understand what simplicity is.
Simplicity and ego are inversely proportional; when one increases the other
decreases. So when you are a simple person, you don’t have any problem with the
other. I have seen people, crossing their legs in packed metro trains as if
they own the whole space. It comes from three things; lack of confidence and
self-worth, high amount of arrogance and total ignorance. A simple person need
not assert; his/her simplicity is simply the assertion of being a good soul.
Simplicity in life is the ability to hark upon the voices
that comes not only from inside but also from outside. Generally, the spiritual
gurus tell you to listen to your inner voices. But however you try, you will be
able to listen to your inner voice unless and until you could hear the voices
of outside. What you hear generally as the voice of the outside world is the
undefined cacophony. We recognize conversations out of habit. We understand the
traffic because we are tuned to the noise of the traffic. That is not the
outside voice. There are innumerable voices that lay outside us. The chirping
of birds, whispering of beetles, ants, crickets and other creatures, the
gurgling voice of a stream, the softy voices of dew drops, the hissing of
bamboo thickets, rustling of leaves, clattering of rain drops on a roof,
lisping of a child and the noises made by butterfly wings and smiles on the
lips of the people. Once you hear these voices above all the din of the routine
noises, you automatically hear the inner voice that advices you to be simple.
The day you hear your inner voice, you cannot nothing but be simple in your
life. Stop arguing; give more time to listening. When you listen to the voices
of the other, you understand that it is not different from your own. But when you
argue you fail to hear the other. You are in a race and in an argument with one
and all that’s why you need a vacation to go to hills to listen to the voices
that are right next your window pane. Listen to it. You are simple and alright.
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