Living Larger Than Life


Dr. Rajesh Bhola
India
Nov 16, 2012




clipEvery day people resolve to start over. Even if life is good, the possibility always exists that life could be great. It is true that God wants us to have great lives. In fact, He wants us to live larger than life. All too often we think that living large means adding more to our already crowded plates; we are always looking for the next deal, the next relationship, the next event – to take us to the next level. 

What story are we  really living? Many people feel as though their lives have not really begun yet; they are waiting for the right conditions to begin. Others feel as though it is all over already. Some feel a sense of purpose, but many feel that their lives are disjointed, inconsequential or seriously compromised.

In each life there is a large story and a little story. The little story is the story of the ego. ‘What was the little story of Abraham Lincoln?’ I suppose the answer is that he was born in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky, to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. The couple had two other children: Abraham’s older sister Sarah and younger brother Thomas, who died in infancy. Due to a land dispute, the Lincolns were forced to move from Kentucky to Perry County, Indiana in 1817, where the family “squatted” on public land to scrape out a living in a crude shelter – and farmed a small plot. When Abraham was nine years old his mother died of milk sickness, at the age of 34. If this were all there were to it, history would not have noticed Abraham. 

Undoubtedly, the satisfactions of the ego are gratifying, but they are exceedingly transitory. It is nice to be praised, or to meet with success and acclaim; and it is painful to be scorned and ridiculed, and to meet with failure and frustration. Such vicissitudes contain nothing lasting or substantial, and we should conserve the energy from them to serve some greater purpose. Real satisfaction is when the little story is integrated with, or even subsumed within, a large story that is itself worthwhile. Most people who have made a great contribution in life have gone through a period of wilderness, during which they not only came to terms with the defeats in their little story, but also found their place in the large one. The conversion in the wilderness, whereby a little life comes out of its individual backwater and enters the mainstream of the large river, is what is meant by enlightenment. By this step, the little ego is overcome.

The circumstances of our birth affect our story deeply. Lincoln was driven by the fact that his mother died when he was nine years old. If this had remained a little story we might simply have felt sorry for him. He would have grown up and sought solace; he would probably have become a rather depressed man, taking out his frustrations on those around him. As it was, he went out in search of the answer to a fundamental life problem- the meaning of suffering; not just for himself, but for all the slaves in America. He found a solution, and spent his life in bringing this message of hope to the downtrodden. In the process he set in motion a large story, which has given meaning to millions of other people’s lives, and provided a vehicle for untold good in America. His is a remarkable story, of a rise from humble beginnings to the highest office in the land. His distinctively human and humane personality, and historical role as saviour of America and emancipator of the slaves, has created a legacy that endures. His eloquence of democracy, and his insistence that the Union was worth saving, embody the ideals of self-government that all nations today strive to achieve.

A person who has integrated his life into the large story may come to be regarded as a great being; and, in retrospect, people then think it was all foretold. This is how we sell ourselves short. We think that our own lives are not so great. What our lives amount to depends on whether we find the courage to put them in the service of a large story. A large story brings with it a large task, the task of transforming energies into a driving power for the salvation of the world. Being part of the large story is what is meant by being on a right path. The large story is of spreading peace and harmony in the world, of a constructive and spirited response to obstacles encountered, and of harmony and co-operation. Without such a path of selflessness we will remain unable to rise and  participate in the large story. With the path, we can make our lives consequential in a great variety of wholesome ways. υ

Dr. Rajesh Bhola is President of Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working for the cause of children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities for more than 20 years

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