We Often Lose, Only To Gain
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
8 June 2023
A tale from the Bhagwat Puran:
A crow once flew
into the sky with a piece of meat in its beak. Twenty other crows set out in
hot pursuit and began to attack it viciously. When the crow finally dropped the
meat, its pursuers left it alone and flew off shrieking after the morsel.
Said the crow, “I’ve
lost the meat and gained this peaceful sky."
Said a Zen monk:
"When my
house burnt down, I got an unobstructed view of the moon at night!”
The so-called losses and gains are relative
perceptions which are understood only in a context and often with hindsight
wisdom. Sri Aurobindo cleared all six extremely difficult steps to becoming an
ICS. But he failed in the last Equestrian Test and had to come back to India
from England. An elderly relative in Bengal consoled him by suggesting that it
was time for him to introspect and take the next step after meditative
thinking.
And that meditative thinking metamorphosed
Sri Aurobindo's whole existence. Had he cleared the last hurdle to become an
ICS, he would have had status and money but he would also have spent his whole
life, licking the boots of the Brits just the way all ICS officers did during
the British Raj. They remained spineless servants of the Brits and sang hymns
and hosannas in praise of the English. Aurobindo's 'failure' in England paved
the way for a far greater success.
Though there's no definite method in the
lives of humans and things often appear at random, it has been my personal
experience that a loss provides a plethora of perspectives and options, whereas
success restricts you to a limited space. Comforts in life don't jolt you but
miseries stir you. It's all about how we perceive losses and miseries that
visit our life in rotations.
Sufis believe that when you've nothing,
you've everything. "Faqat Ek Kashkool Haath Mein Tha/ Tamaam Kaainaat
Uss Mein Utarti Chali Gayee” (I only had a bowl-mendicant's bowl- in my
possession, the whole universe descended into it). The great mystic Nizami was
a rich man who lost everything when fate turned its face. This turned out to be
a blessing in disguise for the young Nizami, who thanked his (ostensibly
dismal) fate and became a Darvesh who wrote, "Makhzan-al-Asraar" (A
Treasure of Mysteries), "Khusrau wa Shirin," "Laila wa Majnu " "Iskandar Nama" and " Haft
Paikar " (Seven Beauties; Haft: Seven in Persian; we say Hafta for
a week).
Ill-fate carries concealed blessings in its
wake is an old Arabic proverb. But its relevance is eternal. This is the truth,
clear and plain, we often lose only to gain.
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam,
Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to
Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in
several languages including Persian.
URL:
https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/lose-gain/d/129946
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