Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
Kabeer reflects on the nature of time while observing a river. He contemplates his colleague Sonu’s abandoned house and the futility of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Drawing on wisdom from Buddha and Krishna, he emphasizes the importance of living in the present and focusing on actions rather than predictions.
Standing on the bank of a river, Kabeer was staring at the ripples. Many ripples of the quietly flowing river were rearing and dying down. His back was towards the “Ghat” with several temples and a big “Peepal” (Ficus) tree. The waving leaves of the tree were rattling to produce a low-pitched, harsh sound. Tintinnabulation from temples added a spiritual hue to the whole ambience.
Competing ripples of the river, his thoughts were coming and going. A small flowering plant with a lone bright tangerine flower and a few buds attracted his attention. The beautiful flower eased his mental flow. He grinned and tenderly touched it. The warm hue of the flower soothed his mind and helped slow down the gush of thoughts. One thing that stuck and kept lingering in his mind was about one of his colleagues, Sonu.
While coming here, he passed past a closed house. The house belonged to Sonu but now it was uninhabited and looked deserted. Kabeer was thinking about Sonu and his way of thinking.
It was his hay day when Sonu constructed the house, ostensibly for his family. Sonu used to talk a lot about his plans and his cupidity. “What the empty and deserted house would say if it had a voice,” Kabeer murmured to himself and took a deep breath while casting a glance at the house. “It is now a thing of the past,” he concluded.
Kabeer recalled the time when Sonu planned his new house, despite already having a fairly large one, seemingly to secure his family’s future. His family was nuclear and consisted of only four members: himself, his wife and two children. The elder one was a daughter whom he married a quinquennium before. His younger child was serving in a company and earning a handsome salary. He too was married and was having a child.
“Why was he desperate about having an extra house?” Murmuring, Kabeer asked himself. He thought further, “Whom was he trying to secure? His children were independent and were busy in their world,” he deeply exhaled while thinking.
People flog a dead horse on their future and past. Thinking about the past and feeling gloomy is a common feature in a person who deliberately wants to live in the past and is involved in inflicting self-pain. It is their favourite pastime to imagine the mistakes (?) committed by them and lament about their current situation. Had they not done this, they would have been in a better position than today is their favourite sentence. They are not ready to understand the fact that the past is nonexistent. It has become a distant dream which can often be remembered but can’t be lived again.
Like the bud that Kabeer saw on the base of the Ficus tree at the Ghat, the past almost instantly becomes an incidence of the past. Soon after the bud blooms to become a flower, it starts losing its sheen and then wilts. The moments swiftly come, stay for a few moments and vanish like a wisp of fragrant smoke. They leave their fragrance for a few moments, which wanes after some time. It is the now which never wanes. It is eternal in the sense that people always live in the current, not in the past or future.
No one has seen the future nor will ever see it. The future is about to come, and it doesn’t give us time to think or plan. Moments after the now becomes past, the future is seen knocking at the door. It enters in the form of the current before anyone can think about it. Past is history. It’s important to learn lessons from the past, even though it can’t be repeated. So, is there any point in overthinking about the future?
People search for solace in forecasters and soothsayers. They search for solutions in almanacks and predictions. Astrologers and tarro card readers forecast the future of a person. Ironically, they don’t even know about themselves and what is in the future’s offering for them. They, though, try to throw their weight on by their ostensible skill on the psyche of the people to impose their predictions.
Lord Buddha was moved by four different sightings of a series of human life and left home to search for the answer. He wandered for years, observed hard penances and kept himself starved but could get nothing. Ultimately, at a gravid stage of his life, realization dawned on him in Bodhgaya under a Ficus tree (also known as Mahabodhi Tree). He realized and preached that there is sorrow and akso that there is a cause behind every sorrow. Removing the cause will remove the sorrow. Did Buddha not suffer? Despite all realizations and knowledge could he change his future incident that took away his life? Could he avoid his painful ending?
Lord Ram and Krishna also faced the odds and pains of their share. They could not avoid the pain and suffering and bear the brunt of curses and even demeaning words said about them. They acted as a human beings. Being the incarnation in human form, they, despite being Almighty, did not defy the rule of the Supreme. They could not, as human incarnations, predict the future. Ram cried like an ordinary human being when his wife Sita was abducted and he tried to search her everywhere.
The appropriate answer about the future is preached by Lord Krishna in Geeta. Lord Krishna repeatedly says that one has no control over the future. He emphasized “Karma”. It is the deed which determines the future. A good deed done in the right amount and right direction is bound to fruit. No algorithm or prediction can solve the problem. It is why Lord Krishna underscores the importance of “Karma”, saying that it is only the deeds which are in our hands, not the result. He, thus, says not to wait for the result.
Overthinking and not doing deeds is unfruitful and infructuous. It is only now which allows working towards attaining the future goal. Past has gone and future is yet to come, so there is no point in thinking about them. As has been said earlier, knowing the past is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses to plan the future suitably. The future can be planned, and work needs to be done on it, but thinking excessively is like living in a fool’s paradise. It needs to be avoided.
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