The Simple Life

To become simple is to become powerful because life whispers its magical secrets into the ears of those who are simple at heart and mind.

- Satish Purohit

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

-Lao Tzu

It was Guru Poornima when the seeker reached the teacher’s hermitage in the forest.

“What is simplicity?” asked the seeker.

“Simplicity is living in constant awareness of the four realities," answered the teacher.

“What, pray, are the four?” asked the seeker.

“That we are wayfarers, that there is a way, that  there is a destination at the end of the way and that we need tiffin on way to the destination,” explained the sage.

“I am not sure I understand,” said the seeker.

“The soul is the wayfarer, life is the way, liberation is the destination and all we need to maintain body, mind and relationships as embodied beings is the tiffin. To live a life in awareness of these four truths is the way of simplicity. To live in ignorance of these four truths is to live in complexity,” answered the sage.

“Ah, I have been spending all my time preparing the tiffin, and I have not even begun my journey. I have made the seeking of wealth all of my life,” lamented the seeker.

“Acquisition of wealth is a means to an end. To hanker even for a grain of sand beyond what you need to stay alive is inviting needless complexity,” declared the wise teacher.

Ah! How beautiful it is to be simple and natural.

“As clear as springwater, as good as the earth and as simple as bread,” writes Margaret Mitchell in her book Gone with the Wind, while describing Melanie Hamilton, one of the key characters of her seminal novel.