Beginning of the End

In my article “The Balancing Act” I had highlighted how India will go on to a celebration mode from October and this will continue right till December. The other day we as a nation celebrated Diwali, Dusherra and Kali Puja and the recurring theme in all of these was the ultimate triumph of ‘Good over Evil’. The gloom and doom world scenario has affected all and sundry but that did not stop us from staging a grand celebration. In fact festivities like this, reinforces our belief and gives us the confidence to surge ahead in spite of all the impediments.

If we look at the human history we will see that at various points of time human beings have made great strides but at the same time in some other period there were moments of anxiety, depression and destruction. The important thing is we have always been able to evade all of these and looked ahead to a brighter tomorrow. In fact more often that not, just after the bad patches we have had some of the most glorious times. This interplay of good and bad actually can be traced to the Chinese philosophy of “Taoism” which is very well depicted in Yin and Yang. The Taoist saw all changes in nature as manifestations of the dynamic interplay between polar opposite’s Yin and Yang. Whenever you want to achieve anything they said, you should start with its opposite. Thus said Lao Tzu:-

“In order to contract a thing, you should surely expand it first

  In order to weaken, one will surely strengthen first.

  In order to take, one should surely give first”

This philosophy talks of eternal truth and the basic building block on which the world today stands. Having understood this and know very well that in order to strengthen one has to weaken first, I cannot help but correlate the recent chain of events to this all powerful wisdom. Even in our lives there are bound to be turbulent times, setbacks, failings and disappointment, but unless we have witness such events how much will our appreciation be for the good times is anybody’s guess. From the biographies that I have come across I have recognized that the best people have undergone the worst of times and invariably they have come out as a better human being. Good, Bad, Boom, Doom, +ve , -ve and so on are the two sides of the same coin and to maintain equilibrium both these contrasting events have to live in harmony with one another. Hence it won’t be wrong to say that what we are witnessing today is just the beginning of the end….

....Sac