A good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge

Once there was a little boy named Raj. He saw three monks in front of his home one day and told his mother that they should invite them for breakfast. So, he and his mother welcomed the three priests. All of them were pleased to see their affection. Then one monk said to Raj and his mother that the three of them cannot eat together at the same place, so they must choose one of them. The three of them named themselves as “Money”, “Love” and “Success”. Raj’s mother decided to discuss the situation with her husband. She said that they should invite ‘Money’, as he will bless us with wealth. Raj’s father told that they should invite ‘Success’, if we succeed automatically money will come. Then Raj interrupted and told them to invite ‘Love’, if we get love then we will be both successful and rich. Then the family invited ‘Love’ and the other two followed. Raj was surprised to see that and asked the one that said the three of them cannot eat together, to which the monk smiled and replied, wherever love goes success and money follows it.

A good life is a life which is inspired by love and guided by knowledge. If a person has the right mixture of both then he/she will be happy which simply means leading a very beautiful life. Success is not only money, fame or popularity. It also contains whether we are happy with our life or not. If we are not happy with ourselves, with our surroundings then no amount of money can bring us happiness. Same way, if we are living in the moment trying to savor it, then no matter how bad the situation is we will always find a way to be happy and lead a healthy and happy life.

Many theories and reports were developed to quantify good life such as Human Development Index, Gross Happiness Index, but none succeeded. A good life cannot be measured in terms of numbers, the happiness and success cannot be measured with a particular lifestyle. One can see billionaires not happy with their lives and homeless people having fun with each other. As every person is different in this world, the way of thinking is different as well. So, how one sees a wonderful life is different for everyone.

A business owner wants to earn more profit every day, a sportsperson wants to win every match in which he/she competes, a leader always wants to be at the top, a homeless person wants to have a house to reside. What is common in all these situations is that, our desire is never ending. As Lord Buddha said, people are unhappy because their desires have no limit. When a person achieves peace of mind only then he/she starts to look at his/her life as great, filled with joy. This can be done only when one has the love for work, family and the world backed by knowledge and skills.

Love is an internal feeling. It cannot be seen or touched. We can only sense it. Love is not limited to relations it is much bigger than that. Love for our job, love to know about different people, love to develop ourselves, it is endless. The most important thing about love is, if we achieve what we love then it feels like we are on cloud nine. Be it our dream job, dream destination, dream soulmate or anything, the satisfaction level is so high that it cannot be measured by money. It is this feeling that makes us try again and again until our goal is reached. It is the ultimate inspiration which makes our life beautiful.

Now if by only getting motivated our job would have been done, then many people would have written their names in the history books. To implement how we want to lead a life, we require action and with a direction. To get that direction we need knowledge. Knowledge is not anything which can only be obtained from books or one can learn it from real life situations. Like life, knowledge too is abundance and never ending. There is no one particular source. One can gain lessons from books and failures but can also learn from other people’s life situation, play, movies or any events for that matter. To gain information is one thing and to utilize it and in a good way is another. All the people in this world have knowledge but many don’t work on it or use it wisely because they lack wisdom.

Many thinkers, philosophers and leaders were born in this world. All of them had knowledge but only some of them used it for the greater good. People like Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler were brilliant tacticians and had immense knowledge, but they lack love for others. They lack wisdom, if they wanted, they would have used their skills to develop this world even more but just because they used it for their own reasons, they set a bad example for themselves forever. At the same time, we had people like, APJ Abdul Kalam, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abraham Lincoln who not only showed futuristic vision but also their love for their country and the world which made them legends in their field. Abraham Lincoln is still considered as one of the best examples that one can achieve anything if he/she has the desire and knowledge to do it.

Roger Federer, Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan are considered as perfection in their fields. It was not like that they were born like that. It is because they love their job and because they love their work, they still look for improvements, to develop themselves. They see other people’s efforts, analyze their previous mistakes and try to gain as much information as needed. That is the reason they became a maestro in their professions.

The seed of love will bloom brotherhood in the world and reduce many wrong practices. The knowledge that all of us are living beings will boost the spirit of love further making our life more enjoyable. Therefore, both love and knowledge are complementary to each other. If love is our heart then knowledge is our brain.