The first thought that often strikes us is a visceral reaction, whether it’s towards something abstract or material. It’s curious how we spend our lives pursuing perfection, without realizing that perfection lies within imperfection. Isn’t this profoundly significant?
Allow me to start by sharing that in my social circle, I’m often labeled as a strong and empowered woman. Paradoxically, my granny’s last words were that I should allow myself to be vulnerable. Weakness, something I’ve rarely considered, is now at the center of my reflection. I’ve always strived to keep everything “perfect,” but the universe seems to hint at something different. I dare say this is not exclusive to my experience as a woman. Shouldn’t men also embrace their vulnerability?
I remember the words of a man who claimed that a man’s primary pursuit is his own security. My perspective shifted radically just a week ago. Vulnerability provides us with the opportunity to express our emotions. Why wait for an inevitable loss? Isn’t death, ultimately, a personal apocalypse? It’s this very vulnerability that drives us to love. Is love, perhaps, an essential requirement for happiness?
Happiness, at its core, doesn’t depend on anyone but ourselves. We shouldn’t become someone else’s project. We’ll always carry bad habits, but by recognizing the impact we have on the world, we can work on improving them over time. Wisdom isn’t gained overnight. To share it with others, we must first love ourselves. No one should be another person’s project, nor should anyone seek a project to give life meaning.
I once heard a story about a prince on a quest to find the meaning of life. The prince encountered a spirit who asked him, “If you had three goddesses to choose from as your wife, which would you choose: Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty; Athena, the goddess of wisdom; or Isis, the goddess of power and magic?”
The prince chose Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The spirit explained that wisdom is more valuable than beauty or power. Wisdom allows us to live fulfilling and meaningful lives. No one becomes wise overnight; after all, the only resource we possess is time, as Sadh Guru reminds us: “Karma doesn’t reside in what happens to us, but in how we experience and respond to what happens to us.”
We often live our lives building defenses against negativity or avoiding situations. We forget that, in the end, we take with us only what we’ve built within us with our time. Instead of struggling to find solutions, we should understand that we have the power to perceive a situation as a problem or an opportunity, even when it concerns ourselves.
I’ve been deeply moved by the wisdom shared by Sadh Guru this week, reminding me that after death, none of our worries matter. He mentions in one of his interviews that, at our core as humans, we are all losers and winners of time. We can’t win more time; we can only make the most of the time we have, as it’s a finite resource.
With time, we age, and our physical appearance changes, affecting everyone regardless of gender. However, it’s essential to value inner beauty and accept ourselves as we are. Age adds nothing to our soul; the soul is the only thing that endures beyond time. If we believe in the soul, we should focus our energies on building, improving, and reforming it.
We often focus on our external appearance and neglect our inner world. True beauty lies in how we perceive life, reflecting who we are on the inside.
In the end, what we do with our time is what matters. We are tiny particles in the vast universe, and nature eventually reclaims us, like dust carried away by the wind. Taking care of our personal appearance isn’t negative; finding a balance between our appearance and our essence will guide us toward inner peace, like a reflection in a mirror.
