Just when you think that you own the world, there comes a strong blow from somewhere up there, says management guru Prof Arindam Chaudhuri .
THERE is no God. What we do, we do by ourselves and for ourselves. We are masters of our own life. I was sitting watching TV on the afternoon of 21st October, 1994 to be precise. And that’s what I would have said had anyone asked me about God before that afternoon. Till of course, that day when my mother told me, that a call had come from a Gurgaon Hospital informing her that my 19-year-old younger brother, Aurobindo, had died in a road accident.
In that one moment, the world of confidence came shattering down. First, it was hope against hope, that it may be someone else. Then it was acceptance. Then it was a sense of emptiness. And then the realisation that tells you never to think that you are the master of your life. Because just when you start thinking that you own the world there comes a strong blow from somewhere up there. It makes you realise your place in the Universe. We lose our humility and we start believing we are above all else. In reality, we are not. Because you can fight everything, but you can’t fight when your loved ones go.
Two of my six closest friends had lost their brothers in similar road accidents. I went to their funerals, I cried with them. But I realised when Aurobindo died that I had realised nothing. And felt so superficial having tried to console them. So, death is my link with God. It didn’t make me believe that God exists. But it sure made me believe that everything is not in our hands. And that’s when you start respecting the laws of nature. God, if you might call it that. And you start being humble in life. And it has nothing to do with the Roberto Cavalli or Gucci that I wear. Because God is in our minds. God is in my realisation that the Bentley I drive doesn’t make me any bigger. God is in our realisation that we are all here to do our duty. We achieve success. And God. For every successful man on earth will tell you the only difference they made was that they dared to undertake a journey they believed in. As the title of Steve Jobs autobiography, The journey is the reward! And it is no different from what Krishna says. ‘Tu karma kiye ja, phal ki chinta mat kar.’ That’s when we find God!
(Arindam Chaudhuri is a management guru)