Are you ready 'Let Go' ???

I always used to wonder how saints, monks lead a simple life, undisturbed by what's going around them. The saints were also detached from most of the material world. Yet they spread love and care to all of the world around them. They never get angry, emotional or worried and yet we perceive them to be completely in control of the situation.

Not a long time ago, I met one such person. A saintly soul, who I believe had the knowledge and divine power to solve all of my life's problems. The problems people brought to him were mostly health related, sometimes personal problems. The therapies and solutions he suggested to these problems worked more often than not. It was almost like had a magic wand. 

Like me, there were lot more people who came to him. He always had a solution to all their worries. He was never short of time or patience.  Though most of them never followed the  suggestions, he never held it against them. When they came back and mentioned that they did not follow his suggestions, He was always patient, calm, continued to help them find solutions. Every time, they were  treated  with the same care and concern. 

Like all people, I went to him with my problems. The problems were sometime related to my career, interpersonal relations, health, family, friends etc. Miraculously, his solutions worked each time. This happened for several years. 

One day, he passed away. I was sad, helpless. There was no dearth of problems though. But there was no one to suggest. I had no option but to find out solutions myself. I dug in deep, used all my experience....thought, thought and thought... Solutions never occurred. 

I started wondering... "How was He able to find solutions for not only my problems, but for everyone ". It took days, weeks. I was not able to find an answer.

Most problems, arguments, conflicts in day to day life  used to arise due to the imaginary sense of control I had in mind. Whenever  I 'perceived' that something was not alright, like most people I worried about it, wanted to take control, be in charge and fix it. Seldom did I succeed. I ended up being unhappy.

I asked myself. 

"What was common  to solutions to most of my earlier problems?" 

I kept asking the same question for many days. 

One fine day things changed, I connected the dots. I was able to find one common aspect that  was almost the only logical  'lowest common denominator' of most of my solutions.

"Let Go"

Most of the time, the solution was to "Let Go" of the situation or the concern or the negative thought.

Finally i found the magic wand. The solution was simple, yet powerful. 

To Solve a problem, all that I needed was to answer a few questions to myself.

1) Am I angry or disappointed  or worried at someone/angry? Is that anger affecting me? Does it benefit me being angry? Being angry/worried allows me to be happy?

The answer is NO. Whatever I was feeling was not making me happy and peaceful. Once I 'Let Go' of the feelings which made me unhappy, the mind naturally returned to a state of happiness.

2) Feeling helpless about a situation? Is the situation out of control? Feeling unhappy about a situation?

More often than not, when I analyzed the situation, there was more than one factor in a given situation which was out of my control. It didn't make much sense to hang on and think that I could take charge and control the situation. All that had to be done was to 'ACKNOWLEDGE that the situation exists'.

'Let go' of the urge to control something which is not under your control. The mind had less work to do. Less unnecessary work in fact. Mind returns to a peaceful state. Infact nothing's changed around you. Its just that mind has 'let go'

3) Worried about someone around you(relative or friend or even a random person)?

Is Worrying going to fix things? It was again going back to the imaginary sense of control I was trying to gain by thinking that I could fix other's problems or carrying the burden of others. Yes I could be of help to others, but worrying didn't change anything. All i had to do was 'Let go' of the imaginary control and worry. Once I did that, there was less load on the mind. The mind was able to function with more freedom. See things in perspective. All I did was 'Let go'

This is my experience. 

Life's by no means perfect, but way more happy than before. I have tried to 'let go'

Are you ready to do the same???

- Kaushik