Tragic Optimism - The Transience of Life

Musings from a ‘reclusive’ Recliner – 0500 hrs -29 Dec 2018

                                                                                             ~ Lally Virk

Every now and then I reflect on various aspects of life……and share my thoughts with the people I consider my ‘extended family’.

This time, it’s on Life itself……🤔.

Tragic Optimism - The Transience of Life.

Yes……I do know that joys are portable, happiness is contagious but sorrows are your own.

At the very outset, I would like to draw an analogy with something we are all very familiar and have grown up with, more so, us Alumni of the prestigious National Defence Academy. I refer to the famous ‘Cherry Blossom’. There is so much labour of love that goes into it’s application, the sweat, the spit & the polish, to finally get that perfect shine & glisten that we so gloriously adorn as we march out proudly ‘into the world’.

One storm and, alas, it all falls apart as the ‘grime of reality’ masks the shine.

Isn’t that, what life is all about ?

Continuing with Life and my ‘Cherry Blossom’ analogy. Each year the ‘Cherry Blossom’ flower blooms intensely, yet only for a brief period of time. As the flowers die and the petals fall, cherry blossoms line the streets like a layer of soft, pink snow, and are most beautiful when captured between the precipice of life and death.

That is precisely the unique appeal of the ‘Cherry Blossoms’, their aesthetic focuses on the unavoidable ‘transience’ of the material world that exists. The fragility and inherent brevity of an instance of awe, such as the blooming of the cherry blossoms, only aids in heightening the event’s stunning, albeit melancholic nature. Because it only lasts for such a short period, it is undoubtedly appreciated more.

Understanding and accepting that innate uncertainty of life helps us evade the overwhelming feeling of ‘morbidity associated with impermanence’, instead, highlighting our ability to enjoy life by appreciating its fleeting moments.

The unavoidable nature of the finite existence is contrasted with the never-ending stream of change, as life continues to occur despite the continuous passing of objects and experiences. The realisation of impermanence is therefore bittersweet, tinged with mourning, and yet also capable of recognising the beauty of change in itself.

Every year the cherry blossoms die. But every year they come back once again, to coat the streets in their ethereal and incomparable demise…..the cycle of life & death continues.

Tragic Optimism – the transience of life……….!!

Let me narrate this wonderful story told by this great soul. The story of this young woman whose death he witnessed in a concentration camp. It is a simple story. There is little to tell and it may sound as if he had invented it; but to me it seems like a poem. This young woman knew that she would die in the next few days. But when he talked to her she was cheerful in spite of this knowledge. "I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard," she told him. "In my former life I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously." Pointing through the window of the hut, she said, "This tree here is the only friend I have in my loneliness." Through that window she could see just one branch of a chestnut tree, and on the branch were two blossoms. "I often talk to this tree," she said to me. He was startled and didn't quite know how to take her words. Was she delirious? Did she have occasional hallucinations? Anxiously he asked her if the tree replied. "Yes." What did it say to you? She answered, "It said to me, 'I am here — I am here — I am life, I am the transience of life."

In my life, I have wondered ever so often as to why I exist? What is my purpose in life? Is there even a purpose in life? If there is, what is it?

Because life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans. We toil, we sweat and we shed tears to build and to create for tomorrow. A tomorrow we do not know if it exists or a tomorrow which may never come.

Of late, ever so often I have thought of the  transience of life to such an extent that it has changed my perspective to life and has engrained itself within the window of my soul.

As my faith began to totter, I have also questioned Waheguru. My conversations with him have become more animated. But what comes back to me time & again is ‘bundled humility’. And as humility grows within me, the concept of life begins to extend beyond death. My thoughts begin to change as more and more light falls on my path to salvation.

It inspires even more humility as well as contentment in me, for "this too shall pass". Of course I have had a full life, so it's easier for me to take it in my stride. Maybe, when I was thirty and younger, I would not have been able to countenance or shoulder the burden of this sense of foreboding.

Today, as I go through the greatest test of my life, I do realize that the gap between my apprehensive  comprehension and Waheguru’s judgment is being bridged by the faith my partner has and always had in Waheguru, as she feels the closing pages of our life have to be the ones ‘He’ intended for us.

Today, I sense the continuity of life; sense the relief of suffering; sense the naturalness of death, and sense the valorisation of life.

I realise that through our eyes, the Universe perceives itself. Through our ears, the Universe can hear its harmonies. By being a witness, the Universe becomes conscious! Through our perception of Life‘s magnificence, we see the glory of all created; we experience the awesomeness of the Creator.

Life is both precious and poignant, and so we must be thankful for our short domain on earth. To go on unmindful of the wonders in life and our individual blessings, more so mine, is to be out of touch and perhaps even arrogant.

I think of friends whose lives have been taken too early and, today more than ever before, I am aware and grateful for every extra moment God has given me and the gift of every extra day, from now and beyond.

Never a moment, am I unaware of the transience and the vanity of human life. I do know that even though my life may be transient, but life itself is not. I may run out of tomorrows, but there will still be tomorrows. Birth pushes, death pulls. Can I slow the time between……!!?

I do realise that the salvation of man is through love and in love itself.

I do also realise that these are just screams of shattered sunset dreams and echoes of a pained heart.

Today like never before, the sounds of the earth write the music of my soul as I slowly walk into myself….…..and when it’s time to go, I pray that my soul can fly unfettered with no grudges, bitterness, anger or regret to a place where, I know, time ceases to exist.

To Infinity.

Yes, there is Tragic Optimism in the Transience of Life. 🤔

                                                                                                    ~ Major Harpal Singh Virk (Veteran).