A Small Story

A young and successful New York investment banker visited his psychiatrist doctor one day for relief from stress. The psychiatrist prescribed a vacation and told him to relax. He also suggested he should go fishing as it is a deep relaxation technique.

The young banker bought himself some nice designer clothes and special fishing shoes, and the most expensive fishing equipment available, including designer bait. He flew to the suggested fishing location and checked into a modern hotel. The next morning, he woke up early and, following the recommendations of the hotel concierge, he walked down to the riverbank. He chose a shady spot, sat down, and started to relax with the fishing rod in his hand and a pipe in his mouth. Minutes passed by, and soon one hour had gone past. He wasn't getting even a nibble.

He was starting to get irritated.

Then he noticed an old man ambling down in worn-out shorts and a worn-out vest, holding a fishing rod made out of some tree twig. The old man settled a few feet away from him downstream. He smiled to himself at the comic picture that he saw of the old man.

As he was still struggling to make his first catch, he suddenly noticed that the old man was catching fish at regular intervals and throwing them back into the river. The banker watched for awhile and got furious. But there was nothing he could do, so he just sat, sulking. Looking up after a while, he noticed the old man smiling at him from where he was. He was shouting out a friendly, 'Hi!'

The old man then walked up to the banker's place. He made a few adjustments to his tackle, replaced the designer bait with some squirming worms he was carrying and soon, the banker too was catching fish!

Excited about the turn of events, the young banker asked the old man what he did for a living. The man replied that he did nothing! He just fished and relaxed. The banker couldn't believe his ears. He started explaining to the man how much he was missing by not working as a professional like him in the big city. He told him that he too could make a lot of money by training people to fish, and that he would be happy to introduce him to a whole bunch of rich people.

The old man asked the banker what he hoped to do after making all his money. The banker said, 'I plan to make lots of money, to marry and to have children.' 'And then?' asked the old man. The banker said, 'I will build a big house and travel on luxurious vacation tours.' 'And then?' asked the old man. 'Oh, I will finally relax and spend all my time fishing,' the young banker said, 'just as I am doing now.' The old man looked at him and said, 'But, that's what I'm already doing now!' We always live with the notion that we need to struggle and worry and we reserve enjoyment and relaxation for old age times. Be very clear, if you live with this attitude, when you are ready to relax, you will not know how to! We also feel that living a hectic life is the only way to spend our youth usefully. We can live a hectic life. There is no problem in that but we need to live with awareness. If we live with awareness, we will not be giving such advice to the old man. We will have such equanimity of mind that these lopsided ideas will not enter us.

If we keep running, our worries only pile up, and depression happens. We forget that in the rat race, even if we win, we remain a rat!