Signal Mantra

Have you ever smiled looking at the traffic signal light ?  Weird question?   NOT REALLY !  Read on  🙂 

On a pleasant breezy Tuesday evening in Mumbai  , I decided to treat my recently  joined  office colleague with a unique name -Ojhal (which means disappear)to my favorite haunt – COSTA COFFEE shop. We arrive at a busy intersection and were waiting for the traffic signal of our lane to turn green.  We happen to witness a bike accident which changed the way we look at the traffic signal and in turn life itself .

Both the drivers involved in the accident had one thing in common – both had  jumped the signal . The biker decided to take a risk of trying to beat the orange light , while the car driver could not be patient enough  for signal to turn Green.

As expected we began discussing the chain of events while waiting for our coffee.. and Ojhal commented , if both the drivers had not jumped the respective signals , the accident wouldn’t have happened.  This comment triggered me to look within (which I had not done for a long time) that how often we ignore the subtle warnings of life . Not only that  we actually CHOOSE to ignore these messages without realizing that we are  full steam ahead towards impending disaster. (Just as the biker chose to ignore the message of orange light). Similarly instead of tiding over the trouble with patience and perseverance we tend to struggle the most and in the desperate search to find the exit to the problem , we become impatient and commit an act that augments our suffering ! (Like the car driver).Then one day we turn a corner and BOOM ! life pops up a pleasant surprise suddenly drenching us with a wave of happiness. Everything in life seems that little bit more brighter , our smiles little bit more bigger and we cease to experience the suffering. Now here is the “Ripley’s believe it or not “ fact – instead of enjoying the experience of happiness , the greedy beings that we are , we try to prolong  the experience and soon begin to experiment without realizing we are flirting with disaster.  Thus we come full circle and the cycle continues relentlessly – life sends a warning – we ignore –  disaster – happiness – experimenting ……  I tell you , we humans are simple yet  ‘love to be complicated‘  creatures .

Our Coffees arrive and the aroma of the freshly ground costa rican coffee bean emanating from the cup , edges me on to introspect further. I began to see a pattern in the way life functions which is amazingly similar to the traffic signal . The warnings (like the orange light) comes for very short duration. Probably this is why we fail to notice. While either of the two extremes – be it pain suffering (Red light)or Happiness(Green light) lasts pretty much equally reflecting the balancing character of Mother Nature. And just as Green Light always follows the Red light , Good times always follow the bad times ! (NEVER vice-versa)

This is probably how life manages the traffic of our experiences .. just like the traffic signal !

I have begun to call this interpretation as  – the “S I G N A L”  Mantra

If we just heed to “the Orange messages” of Life and be a little more patient during ”the  Red times”  we will surely limit the extent of the suffering and enjoy more of “the Green Times” !

Now everytime I see the traffic signal , I SMILE !  and ………so will you !  🙂

Hope you liked this read …please do leave a comment or thoughts.