9. Discontentment Is A Lifestyle

In developed countries, we see people who have achieved whatever there is to achieve in their lifestyle.

The cost of this success, to showcase success in the society, is rather high. We are no different from Faustus. He sold his soul to the devil to attain wealth and comfort. We sell our eyes to buy a painting, our tongue to buy food, our legs to pay for the dance class!

Be clear! Everything we attain in the outer world is lifestyle. Lifestyle is achieved but the core of life is not. If we follow that lifestyle our life becomes a rat race. If we win the rat race, we are still a rat!

To bolster our ego, we continuously run from one thing to another. In the end, we feel foolish. As long as we are hot in the pursuit of something, we forget everything else around us. Once we have attained it, our desire for it has disappeared. Imagine that we want a car and totally focused on it.

Once get it, we realize that it was no big deal after all. Quite frequently we find that we have paid too much for the desire, too much of time and energy. As long as we run behind lifestyle, we feel pressured, stressed. We have no time to rest and enjoy our life. This leads to deep discontentment. Discontentment is a result of our lifestyle.

The Mahabharata (a Sanskrit epic) has a beautiful story about a king called Yayati. The king enjoyed all types of pleasures for one hundred years. When death was at his door, Yayati pleaded with death for an extension of one hundred years more. Death agreed to do so, provided one of his sons died in his place. One son agreed and Yayati got hundred years of life. But, at the end of another 100 years, Yayati wanted another hundred years of life. Yayati got his wish when one more son agreed to die in his place. This cycle happened ten more times. Yayati was still dissatisfied when death came for him.

Yama, God of death said: 'Yayati, you are adding oil to put out a fire! Can you quench your desires by adding more sensory pleasures? Can you quench discontentment by adding more to your lifestyle?" At that moment Yayati got the first glimpse of enlightenment or Satori.

Fulfillment lies not in the quantity or number of years , but in quality of life. Let us not add more years to our life. Instead add life to our years!