Saturday, January 23, 2010

Who is your driver?

Who is your driver?


You drive your own car? How about the vehicle called 'life'? Do you drive your own life too?


Everybody starts to drive their own life, at some point in time. That's the beginning of identification with 'I, Me and Mine'. I did this. I did that. OK, fine. When people think they are in the driving seat and enjoy some initial successes, it get's into their head and then soon after they have one massive proverbial crash. That's when they wonder if they were such a good driver as they thought. Some light bulb goes up in their head and realize that there is a better driver called God. So, very reluctantly they vacate driving seat and hand over the driving to God. But, they still want to be actively involved. So, they sit next to the driver and become navigator. Navigator for the life. What a joke?


Once in navigator's seat they do not sit quietly, they start interfering with God's driving. First and foremost sin is to second guess everything that the driver does. Giving him all bad advice. Disturbing him. Telling him this and that. God tolerates it for a while and then says either shut up or he would leave driving again. Now the navigator gets it. He knows how was his own life when he was driving it for himself. Although he has missed the excitement of driving for a while now, life seems better with God doing the driving.


The divine driver, God, needs some quiet time to carry us through some treacherous roads or when road conditions are really bad. He asks us to go to the back seat, pull up the blanket and get some sleep. He really does not want us to be involved much for that time being. These are exactly the years when nothing significant happens in life. Smart people understand that they are going through some not too-scenic-road. So, they heed to God's advice and take a nap in the back seat.


With enormous mercy, God drives us out of that bad patch of road and horrible traffic. He knew the sights would not be beautiful. So, he had asked us to take a nap. At some point, when the scenic route begins, God wakes us up and ask us to start enjoying the scenery while keeping our mouth shut and not interfering with his driving. That we must continue to do. What? Not to interfere with his divine driving. By asking us to enjoy the scenery, God is telling us that now it's safe to open up to life's experiences once again. Life is nothing but a series of experiences. So, enjoying the scenery is to opening to those experience when it's safe to do so.


Sooner we realize that we are better off not being our own drivers, better we will be. We have such a qualified and wonderful driver who is ever ready to drive us wherever we want to go. He knows the destination and wants to take us all there. Without realizing this higher purpose, we try to take charge of our own life. Whatever that means and screw it up so badly that God needs to have our lives towed, repaired and reconditioned before he can become our driver. In his limitless mercy, he does that too. He has to because he is responsible for seeing every soul reaches nirvana sooner or later. So, smart are those who stop driving themselves as early as possible and shift themselves to the backseat. Even in backseat, sit quietly and follow guidelines.


If we choose to drive our own lives, all we end up doing is to drive ourselves crazy.


Ford said -"I do not worry. I just do my job. I leave all worrying to God. That's His job."


Cheers!


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