‘You keep speaking so much about life is beautiful. Convince somebody like me, who has only three months to live, that life is beautiful’.
There was this lady who had come to meet me; she was 26. And she had the cancer of the bone marrows. And doctors had told her – she has only three more months to live. And when this happened, way back, we didn’t have such advanced cancer treatments. Now almost most of them, if we can detect it early enough, we save them and give them back a beautiful life. But at that stage, we had to let go of a lot of people.
And the doctors had told her that she had only three more months to live. And she was in a very ferocious voice, I think it was coming from a lot of pain within – ‘You keep speaking so much about life is beautiful. Convince somebody like me, who has only three months to live, that life is beautiful’. And she, her eyes were red and there were tears in her eyes.
I don’t know what come over me. I immediately told her – ‘How lucky you are! You know you have only three more months to live. You can plan your life. Look at my situation… So unfortunate. I’m thinking – I’ll live up to 96. And I can die one day later. I don’t know when I am dying. I can die one day later. And I’m thinking – I’ll live to 96 and Aaram se… have long term plans.
In your case you have such a big advantage. You already know you have only three months. Everything that you wanted to do in life, everything you have not yet done in life, everything you are inhibited about life – go and live it for the next three months.
Mahatria, it’s easy for you to say. Listen. And I told her, ‘The tragedy of life is not death. The tragedy of life is what dies within you when you are still alive’. The tragedy of life is not death. We all will die. Sooner or later is the question. The true tragedy is not this. The number of times you could have smiled today, you killed it today. The number of times you could have been happy today, you killed it today. The number of people you could have made feel loved, you killed it today. The number of people you could have appreciated today, we killed it today.
Tragedy of life is not the final death. Tragedy of life is what all of us are killing on a daily basis within us. Not allowing it to express itself. There’s so much music, so much dance, so much life, so much to express, so much to experience, so much to read, so much to dance to, so much to see, so much to taste. And we are allowing all of this to die on a daily basis.
When we do management programs, when we teach the entrepreneurs, we talk about a concept.
Watch me. I have about $100,000 here. Or you can keep it as… say 7 crores. Can you see seven crores here? All the money you want to see, green notes, or you want to see pink notes whatever. Can you see all the notes here? OK. Now on this side, I have another $100,000. I have another 7 crores. Can you also see this? Can you visualize? OK, now this seven crores somehow has caught fire and it’s burning. This $100,000 are burning right now. Can you see it burn? Don’t cry. Don’t cry. It’s OK. Just watch.
Can you see it burn? OK, which one of you sitting here right now, when you see this – Seven crores burning $100,000 burning. Which one of you sitting here will go and take this money from here and try to put off the fire. Put one more ₹1000, ₹2000 bundle on this to put off the fire. Take one more $100 bundle and put it on this to put off… Which one of you will do that. None of you will throw good money on bad money. None of you will throw good money on bad money. In fact, you will feel this is gone. At least let me save this. In accounting language, it’s called sunken cost. They say you have lost the seven crores. You can’t do anything about it. At least save those seven crores. You have lost this $100,000. You can’t do anything. At least save that.
What I’m trying to say is – Why are we throwing every day of life on death, which we cannot control. Why are we living our today thinking about death when we should be living our today thinking about life. Invest life on life, not on death.
In fact, I told her, ‘The tragedy of life is not that ultimate death. But what dies within you when you are still alive! I also told her – ‘Death is God’s domain. Let Him manage that. Life is man’s domain. Let’s manage this’. Birth was not my choice. Death will not be my choice. But how I live my life between these two terminals is my choice. And let me do complete justice to this choice. Let me do justice to today.
I told her, ‘Do something… Go to cancer hospital. And try to make a few people smile. Go and assist the nurses there. If you have to do that. You are a postgraduate, go and teach a few children. Do whatever you do it when God wants to call you back, let him call him back. But live it to the end’.
Of course, the story gets beautiful from here… No Internet, and I never had mobile phone those days. We used to have only landline. Every week, one postcard used to come. Those of you outside India may not understand this, but there is one of those postal instruments in India called Postcard. Every week one postcard used to come. Anna, naan innum uyirodu thaan irukkiren… (Brother, I’m still alive!) With her name signed. ‘I’m still alive’ and her name signed… After about six months, this woman who should have died in three months’ time… After six months I receive a postcard saying that ‘I have decided to fight a war with the very thing that is killing me’. She wrote it in Tamil. I’m saying it in English.
Because every letter of her’s… – ‘I’m still alive, brother, I’m still alive’ – with her name signed. That’s all it used to be, every week. Six months later, she wrote a postcard saying that ‘I’ve decided to fight a war against the very thing that’s killing me. I have started doing research on cancer’. She went on to live for another seven years. She got a Ph.D before she died, she finally died… But seven years is a lot of time. And that’s not important. For me, what is important and not even that she died as a Ph.D. For me, what was important is, for seven years, she lived every day by this one thing – ‘I’m not thinking about death, but I will not let anything die within me when I’m alive’.
And ever since, I no more teach ‘Live every day as if this is the last day of your life’. That let’s leave it to God. We don’t know when is the last day! But I teach – Live every day, recognizing today is the first day to the rest of your future. Today is the first day to the rest of your future. Your future begins now. Draw a line to your entire past. What a beautiful life, irrespective of how my entire past has been that I was a caterpillar in my past, starting today, I can live as a butterfly. So, my suggestion to you is not live as if, today is the last day of your life. Live recognizing today is the first day to the rest of your life. My future begins today.
