There was once a king who decided to play a game to convey a message to his subjects. He put himself in a huge hall that had one thousand doors. His task was to quickly find the door that would lead him to another world. The king started running around and touching each door. He knew nine hundred and ninety-nine doors appeared like doors but were not so. There was only one real door which could be opened to leave the room. Time was short and the king went about touching each door. When he came near the real door, he paused. He felt like scratching his head and began to do so. Then, he distractedly walked past and missed touching the real door leading to exit. That is how life is for most people. In an insignificant moment of distraction, the king missed his chance of opening the right door. Similarly, one takes a human birth after many births. In this human birth, which comes as a chance, we forfeit the gift of freedom for trivial issues and get lost in them. We miss opening the true door which leads us to freedom or moksha. My mother once told me that our whole life can be wasted, through one small error and I have observed this in people. A habit like smoking has practically killed a person I know. Another good soul has fallen prey to alcohol addiction and has destroyed his life. I have seen that even a habit such as wrong eating can lead a person to death bed. In life, a boss may utter something unpleasant at work. But if you go on worrying about that, your quality of life will be affected. I know someone whose daughter went through a bitter divorce. The daughter is well educated and works for a good company, but the mother is still constantly worried about her divorced daughter. In this worry, the mother misses the joy of being in the family and other good things in life. One small error is spoiling her life and health. It is true, a simple psychological error can really mess up our lives. That is why it is worthwhile to explore the reason for this. Actually, there are several reasons why this happens, but the most important one is our ego. The ego in us wants to survive its misery by hook or crook. It even creates its own unique brand of misery all the time. If we look at our lives, we will see that we don’t even listen to our body, mind, feelings, hurts, or upsets. If we listen to our sorrows, we will realize that our sorrows are an extension of some illusion that we are holding on to. For example, if you believe that married people are happy and your daughter is not married, you will worry because of the illusion that you carry. When the philosopher Socrates was asked – “Will I be happy if I get married or will I be happy not getting married,” he replied, “Either way you will be unhappy!” Happiness is not the result of marriage or not getting married. Happiness is an approach to life. Swami Sukhabodhananda
