The title of this article is a status update that flashed on my machine when I was wasting time classically by refreshing Facebook to see what my friends were upto. It was put by one of my most recent friends – Nitish. Man, the message has had some effect on me!  When I read it for the first time itself, it left a mark on my mind. After having ploughed through millions of non-essential tasks and inventing ways of dodging the urge to think more on this message, my brain has finally given up. It finally allowed my heart to wander again onto Facebook to Nitish’s profile and capture this message and made me blog on it.

Life, as they say is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.  Indeed it is. Life is a story written by the almighty and we are all characters in it.  We do not know the script ourselves, but by the way we are designed – we unknowingly end up acting on God’s script written for us (some of this script is deciphered by humans in the form of Horoscopes, Tarot Cards, Crystal Ball, Nadi Joshium etc.) It’s when we try to form a script of our own, that all hell breaks loose as it is against what we are pre-ordained or destined to do on earth. Hence life is now what happens to us while we were busy making other plans. This life is God’s gift to us. 

As we live this life, the Almighty has kept some challenges or battles for us to experience the breadth, width and height of our experiences in life.  It’s these challenges/ battles that make us the conqueror of unknown odds that each one of us is set out in to win over in this world, by Him.  By winning these unknown odds, we become the new ray of hope for millions of other human beings to follow us and supersede us in our good deeds.

No two battles are alike.

The battle of a poor wage earner in India or Sri Lanka is that of a daily minimum wage, enough food, water and access to basic health.

The battle of a person like you reading this article is to either reduce your tummy/ tone your body or to buy that 10 Million house you just saw your friend buy, but can’t afford it in your dreams.  You believe that your friend is lucky and getting what he wanted and not as unlucky as you are. But what do you know about your friend’s battles? He may be having a torrid family life or having a medical ailment in the family that required him to buy a house closer to the hospital, though the money was still out of his reach.

Our thought process - “I got the wrong end of the stick, unlike rest of the world” is wrong. We may never know what others battles are. Why be unkind and think that they are having a simpler battle than us? 

Why can’t we focus on telling ourselves “I will fight my battles hard and emerge as the conqueror of all hurdles bestowed by the Almighty?  Upon seeing my efforts, if the Almighty can also relax the battles of someone else, I would appreciate it”?  Isn’t this attitude better than the earlier one? We are not only being emphatic to others problems by being kind, but also adding positive energy to our own battles. In the end it’s all a battle of the mind. We have the power to control our thoughts, fight our own battles and yet be kind and emphatic to the world. 

So in future, if you have a chance to meet someone or think about anyone, just remember that they are fighting their own battles which are just as important to them as your battles are for you.