In retrospect I see many such situations in my life but one time in particular was so scary and shocking for me that it stands out above the rest. A harsh reminder of how critical it is to be alert to what lies within us and also to all that surrounds us.

A couple of years ago I was driving to office on a hot summer morning. As I came to the T-Junction to take a left on the street where our office is located I see lying in front of my car on the road a man wearing hardly any clothes, blood clotted on the right side of his face, big black ants crawling all over his face and neck, lying on his back, thin and wasted, his parched mouth hanging open and a vacant look in his eyes as if he were dead.

I stopped the car and kept staring at him in a state of disbelief and fear. Fear because I thought I was seeing death in its most naked and brutal form and disbelief because he looked just like someone I knew who had passed away not too long ago and whose death I had not entirely dealt with until then. Cars passed by without stopping and even though there was a part of my brain which was registering that no one was stopping to help him, caught up as I was in my own state of shock and distress the only question that kept turning in my mind was why I was having to go through this? In this kind of a daze, I turned the corner and reached office, climbed the steps, unlocked the door, walked in and sat down and continued to ponder over what I had seen for another five minutes or so, until what I had done hit me like a ton of bricks.

I grabbed my bag, ran out of the office and zoomed down the street to where I had seen the man lying. The only thought now turning in my head was that what if he had in fact been alive and had died in the last ten minutes because I had been so inattentive, so self involved, so trapped in my own emotions. How would I ever forgive myself? He was still there in the same posture I had left him in. I ran to him, checked him for a pulse which was thankfully there, dusted the ants off his body, rang some door bells and got some water for him, called police emergency who arrived quite promptly and got him a ride to AIIMS (hospital).

When it was all over, I slumped back in the drivers seat deeply grateful that he had been alive when I got to him and hugely appalled at how inattentive and self-absorbed I had been. That stranger gave me an important lesson that day on how the only thing really worth fearing in life are moments of such inattentiveness which can end up not only creating darkness for yourself but also for others.

We’re often just so caught up in our own emotions, troubles, needs, desires that there is really nothing much we are able to contribute to life around us. And if we’re not being able to support life then we can be sure that we’re digging lots of dark pits for ourselves in the process. Triggering off series of disasters which we may not be aware of but which will have an impact on our lives because what goes around does come around. In this particular case if anything had happened to this man I would have blamed myself for it and it would have hung over me like a dark cloud forever.

I guess what I’m saying is that it’s really just the quality of attentiveness that we put into our daily lives that has the power to either make us generous, productive, happy, successful people who are connected to the pulse of life or to turn us into insular, fearful, self obsessed, life negating people, perceiving ourselves constantly as victims of circumstance.

In one moment of inattentiveness yours or someone else’s life could change forever.

In one moment of attentiveness yours or someone else’s life could change forever.

I guess that’s really as simple as it gets!

To conclude here’s an amazing story from Buddha’s life. One day while in conversation with a disciple Buddha raised his hand to wave off a fly buzzing around his face. However a second later he raised his hand again, slowly and carefully this time and repeated the gesture in silence. The disciple looked on confused since there was no fly the second time around. He asked Buddha why he had repeated a gesture that became meaningless since there was no fly now. Here is his inimitable reply; “ the first time I raised my hand I was engrossed in our conversation and raised my hand inattentively to wave off the fly. As soon as I became aware of my error I repeated the gesture in complete awareness for myself. If my hand can be raised in inattentiveness once, then how can I be sure that tomorrow the same inattentive hand cannot perhaps take the life of another?”

If any of you would like to share lessons of life that you have learnt either though a moment of attention or unawareness I would love to hear them.