Karma

While reading some random articles sometimes back, I came across an interesting thinking somewhere that the nature has failed to evolve in tandem with the evolving technology. I found that quite interesting. We have mobile phones, we have internet, TV, books, newspapers- many of these evolved radically in the last few years in terms of technology, availability and affordability. On the other hand, thousand years ago we had two hands, eight fingers, two thumbs and just one brain. That hasn’t changed with time! To overcome this gap, that one little brain has commanded its senses and its bodily servants to adapt to the new requirements, albeit to some extent. That brain has developed a skill to do things simultaneously, which is the skill of the new era, ‘multitasking’. It is amusing to observe the change in our lifestyles - at home or at work - over the years. We have different communication mediums at our disposal, which makes us available for more number of tasks simultaneously.

We are trained to think that life is easy with various scheduling programmes- from basic Outlook to more complex ones- which allow us to multitask. I will cite my experience to illustrate how flawed this thinking is. Earlier, I used to work on my tasks one-by-one. If something with higher priority came up during this, I would simply attempt the new more important one and then again resume the current task, mostly in chronological order. A task was never postponed in a sense that no new date or time was assigned for such low priority tasks. Now, for any task, I simply schedule it and assign a day to it on Outlook. I will also set a reminder for the task, which sounds cool because I need not bother remembering that task. So far so good. The trouble starts with postponing of the task if it is of lower priority, which I will do because I can still attempt it later when my gadget or software would remind me. Other new tasks will still keep coming up meanwhile. In the process, the task of lower priority will not be attempted whenever I can, but will be postponed to be attempted when I will be reminded for that. What I don’t realize is the stress it creates on my subconscious by remaining un-fulfilled during all this time.

There are countless such situations where we actually go on adding stress. In all these changes, we have stopped enjoying what we do. We have moved from the principle of ‘karma’ to more technical- ‘tasks’. The gadgets, which were meant to simplify our lives, are actually becoming our masters. We are so much engaged with our gadgets, be it mobile, web or TV, that we are losing touch with the real world. Solution? No one can offer that. Because the solution lies within us. Do not become a slave of time, of your tasks or your goals. Live in the moment and enjoy what you do. The tasks will be performed and the goals will be achieved in the process.