Enjoy the Show

The movie of our life often resembles an epic trilogy without an ending. It has become so difficult to see beyond the present scene. We become so engrossed and focused on our current situation that we lose sight of the ending. We lose sight of the bigger picture.

As slaves of our minds, we feel the need to be in control. Like a drum raging without rhythm, the mind jumps from beat to beat, from thoughts to fears to the dramas, and it never tires of doing so. All we need to do is to make it stop! An actor in the midst of reading his script does not have the judgment to decipher the scene he is reading at present, because he has not come to the end of the script. Neither does a critic write a review about the movie he is watching during intermission. He knows he has to wait until the end of the show to form a more reasonable and fair opinion.

Whether one is an actor or in the audience, the focus is on the present moment. Worrying about where our careers, families, relationships will be a year from today and whether or not we will be happy a year from now, will not make any sense to us even if we had the answers to our worrisome questions.

There is a certain freedom in the realization that nothing more is expected of us than to just be in the now. Just as when a movie is being watched, the audience knows to shift their focus from one scene to the next. They are detached from the movie knowing that the tears as well as the laughter are but temporary. When we detach ourselves from the scenes transpiring in our lives, the hands of our Master become visible in every little detail that unfolds. When we resolve to stay in the present moment, a story carefully planned with the most minute details will become transparent to us. With the determination to do so, along with unwavering faith, our Master’s play does become evident. And then patiently, yet with bated breath we await the unfolding of the perfect, error-free ending; the “aha” moment which always takes one back, full circle. His symphony, if we can learn to focus on it, puts us in a trance that we will only be too happy to stay in. This state of mind eventually craves the wonder that is experienced at the arrival of very many “aha” moments, which will be gracefully granted if we allow their beauty into our life.

As disciples of a perfect Master, we are assured that our only requirement is to keep the Master’s teachings in our lives at every moment. Nothing else. When we live in the present moment with our Master, it defies our limited understanding of the world. When we live in the present moment with only our Master, it intensifies our understanding of the script. When we watch a movie by an esteemed film director, we often anticipate a good story with a fulfilling ending. With that awareness, we are able to sit back, relax and fully enjoy the show.

In a letter written to his friend in the early 1970s, Maharaj Charan Singh remarked:

Whatever has to happen has already happened, and we mortals are just helpless spectators. If we can just withdraw this ‘self’, then only can we enjoy this drama of life.
_{Legacy of Love}

When we come to life’s crossroads, and have absolutely no direction, all we have to do is reach out our hands to let the Lord lead us, and he absolutely will, hand in hand. We need to have faith that in every uncertain moment in our life, there is certainty; that there is a plan. In all that is evil and unfortunate, there is also some blessing. The weaver of our story is carefully, meticulously and lovingly, adding the unavoidable heartaches along with all the joyous moments, to build up to the most perfect ending to our story – an ending that suits us best. When a story culminates, one often looks back with a renewed understanding that everything that did not come to be in our lives, played an equally important role as everything that did. And when everything falls into place in the end with the Lord’s grace, it is then that we will realize the play of the Master’s hand and the sheer genius of the master plan.

Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the Author pleases to make it. If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one. If it be His pleasure you should act a poor man, a cripple, a governor, or a private person, see that you act it naturally. For this is your business to act well the character assigned you; to choose it is another’s.
_{Epictetus, Encheiridion}