In our journey of life, we come across favourable and unfavourable people and situations. And we have a natural tendency to cling to them. Even though people leave and situations change, we hold on to the memory and relive our negative and positive experiences. While it’s a natural human process to recall our past experiences with people and of situations, when we obsess over it, it robs us of our present. Each phase of our life has something new to offer - a new experience, a new learning, a new unfolding of the present. It may or may not be pleasant, but it’s a new experience nonetheless. Life is all about moving ahead, the past is gone. Nothing we say or do can alter it, for better or for worse. It is best to let go of that which has receded naturally. That, which is still effortlessly a part of the present from our past alone is worth keeping. When we make an audacious bid to hold on to people and situations that have run their course in our life, we rob them of their magic. They may be a part of our life but they can’t seem to animate our world anymore. What had once seemed magical can now seem burdensome. We cling to them as a relic of the good times we shared. But, in doing so, we close ourselves to new and fresh experiences. The same goes for our negative experiences. When we cling to our negative experiences from the past, we extend our suffering. Some of us make our situation worse by vowing to take revenge and becoming vindictive. Revenge is a reaction that traps us in the web of karma. It is best to let go of our past losses and leave the accounting to Chitra Gupta (Yama’s accountant). Legend has it, that as the assistant of the god of death (Yama), he meticulously maintains a record of our actions. He is totally dispassionate in his judgement, so we can rely on him to do justice. We can use our present to heal our past wounds and utilize our energy to meet new challenges that life throws at us. [related-post] Life is changing constantly; it has something new to offer to us at every moment. We live in our past at the cost of our present and waste away our life. Osho, the Zen master sums it up best when he says: “The fool goes on missing everything. The wise man enjoys everything. He enjoys the day and the night. He enjoys the summer and the winter. He enjoys life and he enjoys death. He is a non-clinger; in non-clinging is bliss.”
