Life is a Tightrope Walk

driver hits you. Naturally, you become angry and you want to beat him up, but you think that if you turn violent, the police will arrest you and take you to jail, so you try to quell your anger and control your emotions. In your business, you have suffered some loss and have fallen into despair, but you think: ‘I have lost the present, and if I become despairing, I will lose the future also.’ So you control your emotions and try to find a balance between two opposite mental trends. There are hundreds of such situations in our daily lives. We face them every day. No one is an exception. In most situations, two opposite states of mind vie with each other, and if we incline more towards one, we suffer with regard to the other. Life is, indeed, like a tightrope walk. If you lean to one side, you are bound to fall. So save yourself from leaning to one side, and maintain a balance between the two sides. This is the only formula for a safe journey in life. For example, a student who failed in an examination, falls into despair and frustration, and decides to commit suicide. Then he remembers the well-known saying: try, try, try again. He then starts rethinking his future plans, and says, ‘If I have lost the first chance, there is every possibility that I will be able to avail of the second chance.’ He therefore starts studying with renewed diligence, appears in the second examination and passes with good marks. This student was able to maintain a balance between two opposite choices and was saved.