Balance! Balance Balance Balance!

Once Gautam Buddha, after a long period of austerities and meditation, was just walking alongside a river when he heard very beautiful music floating towards him from a grove of trees nearby. Curious, he walked that way to find out who was playing. There, sitting quietly in the shade of a tree, was a simple villager playing the Ektara (a one stringed instrument played by plucking). Fatigued, in need of rest, and feeling as if the music was touching his very soul, Buddha decided to sit there for a while.

After some time the ektara seemed to go out of tune a bit. The musician stopped and tightened the string. He played a few notes to check if the instrument was in tune now. Turned out he had tightened the string a little too much. So he slackened it a little bit. After a few such attempts at tightening and loosening the string, the notes again sounded just right.

The musician started playing again, turned to Buddha, and said with a smile: The string has to be tightened just right for the music to sound beautiful.

It is said that these simple words spoken by a simple villager were like a flash of lightning in Buddha's mind! That moment he realized that much of life works on the same principle!

You need leisure to know yourself, to contemplate, to be with loved ones, laugh a bit, love a lot. But too much leisure, and you become lazy! This laziness prevents you from working hard and keeping yourself in good form in your studies and work.

There is competition in life. But if you get too competitive, you lose the spirit of cooperation, of taking others along. This takes away your humanity. You dry up inside and there is no joy, no bliss in life. But if you help before ensuring that others have put in their best effort, you make them irresponsible and prone to looking for shortcuts.

You sleep too little, there's a problem. You sleep too much, problem! Sleep just right, and you feel refreshed and energetic.

Ditto with food! Eat too much: problem. Eat too little: problem. Eat just right, all ok!

Eat just for taste without paying heed to nutrition, problem. All nutrition, no taste: Ugh! Find the balance: all good.

Relationships: Balance, Balance, Balance.

Balance. Balance. Balance.

Musicians and music, I'm telling you, that's where the hope is :) !