Living From Moment To Moment...

.Prafulla Kumar Mohanty.

Unborn tomorrow and dead yesterday/why fret about them if today be sweet - wrote Omar Khyayam. But the catch in the second line : If today be sweet. Every living being lives in the present moment, inevitably. But the moments are fleeting into future tomorrows chased by the yesterdays. Memory and dream inescapably crowd the present moment. A moment comes as eternity, lengthens the present both ways. You stand before the mirror after a lukewarm shower, humming a tune of a name- forgotten film, pick up the comb. The mind slips back to the shop where you picked it up yesterday and could not bargain as your phone rang and the sweet voice of your childhood friend invited you to her wedding anniversary dinner at May Fair. You were delighted to hear the loving voice of your friend after a long time. You promised to attend and thought of buying a present. You looked around the shop for something memorable. You remembered her wedding day. You were happy that day, you sang and were very happy seeing the match. The scenes of feasting and the flashy silky girls decorated from top to toe widened your lips a bit. You forgot your bargain and collected your change and stepped out when the  shopkeeper called you to collect your comb. You now smile and comb your hair and do your make up all the while trying to imagine how she would be looking now. She has married a top businessman, lived abroad for quite some years  and later settled in Bombay- oh, Mumbai. Before  leaving your dressing table mirror you think of your own party wear for the evening.

No moment is frozen. Moments tick away carrying the past and future. The present moment too is flowing from the past with its memories which lead you to your future plans and actions.  When you say "I live  from moment to moment" you perhaps think that you move from one dynamic situation to another and the situations are not related. Time and human mind are not like moving from one typing table to another. Its not like a disjointed progression of time where the consciousness moves with shifting logic to meet what a moment brings up from the maws of time . But what is this living moment to moment ?  Only when one is frustrated and has no hope for the morrow nor does he fall back upon the memories which his life lived in all his yesterday's thinks that all moments are eventless or loaded with horror and boredom. Who thinks like this? Only a person who has lost control over his life or is unable to give his personality thrust to the moments to flow in a certain direction, he alone gives up like Estragon saying, 'nothing to be done'. Such people blame faith and if they are believers they blame god. Life, as it were, ends every moment. This is an unmanly  or unwomanly  feeling which comes to  weak minds.

But these men and women will argue : What do you know about my life ? What has life given me except pain, misery and frustration? Well my dear, yes life has not given you anything because life never gives anything. You make your life worthwhile  by utilizing the potential which nature has given you. Intelligence, feelings, emotions, physical prowess - all have come with you naturally. If you are in a prison unlawfully break the prison. Escape by  collecting the keys to your cell by trapping your guard.  If you fail write to all authorities to reopen your case.  Write to the print and electronic media to give  you a hearing. If you fail to get any response write your own story. But if you are of Caliban material you will knock the door once and once only and give up if no response comes. That means you are denying life yourself. Life means pain, sickness, betrayal and all such negativities. But life has also given you courage, love, bravery and such positivities. Why give up at the slightest onslaught of misfortune? Life is not meant for sufferance. Life is a mental fight to conquer your share of glory in the world.

What if the son hasn't got a job for which you had trained him? What if your wife is a  bluestocking in spite of your love?  What if your boss trapped you to ignominy? You are man enough to find and seek alternatives. Shakuni in the Mahabharat is physically imperfect, all members of his clan including his parents, died before his eyes. But he did not give up. Like Milton's Satan you should say- What though the field be lost? All is not lost - the inconquerable Will  will pierce through the tunnel closed at both ends by his willpower. By his soulforce, if any, he will dispel the imposed darkness.

Man, I agree, is a delicate creature. His nerves are extremely sensitive to pain and the  diabolics of misfortune. But he must draw on the inner resolve  never to yield to even god. Prayers, Yajnas, fasts, temple visits are for the defeated. Those who cannot bend the moment and use them as bows run after the unseen powers which are impalpable. But Man is his own destiny maker. Try to overcome your misfortunes by taking them head on. Never submit to the injustice of  man and god. Fight till the end. Make your death crown your life with glory. Therefore make your moments flow with memories and dreams however distressing they may be.