Life After FiftyRead

Only a few fortunate young people receive life after fifty

Only a few fortunate young people receive life after fifty. Young, because those who had grown old had already departed. Fulfilling the responsibilities of a family while establishing your standing in society is not a very difficult task, but it becomes possible only when you have not repeated your earlier mistakes again and again. Now there will be time to do something new. You also have many experiences with you, and with their help you can do a great deal. Do not think about how those experiences came to you. It is because of these experiences that you can now analyse every situation accurately and quickly, and have begun to understand the depth of life's values from very close quarters. These experiences are now your own; no one can take them away. All you have to do is set out on a new and final journey. The road is certainly new, but now it is as clear as your mind. Sheltered by your family, friends and a very large part of society, that road ahead will remain shaded.

No worldly attachment is holding you back now. That is because you have already accumulated what you needed for those for whom you were gathering it; the time of testing is over. And even if you have not, what of it? If you could not do it when your body had strength, there are now more reasons for your efforts to go in vain. But feel how much energy has entered your enthusiasm. The reason is your family, walking beside you, step for step. Your grandchildren are with you, supporting you like a walking stick. What does it matter if the body is growing old? There are so many examples before us of people who found the most important thing in their lives after fifty. Accumulating wealth, the fear of success or failure, and sensual pleasures have been left far behind. They were all chains that you have broken to reach this point. Now your soul is visible before you. It is happy as well as radiant. And why should it not be? You have fulfilled all your duties well on the way here; that is why God has given you this time. Now you must attain that which all our Puranas, Vedas and Upanishads speak of. Now you must live for a hundred years.

The second verse of the Isha Upanishad is:

The second verse of the Isha Upanishad is: कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेत् शतं समाः। एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे ॥ That is, a human being should wish to live for a hundred years while performing their duty, because this is how freedom from the bondage of action is attained. And when you have already crossed the halfway point, why not celebrate? Even after fifty, you should never think of inactivity. The time after fifty shows that the race is over, but it certainly does not mean that you should stop walking. Now the time has come when everything can be understood and known. The mind is completely calm, like a lake; all its restlessness has now settled. You have handed over your duties. There will be plenty of time for devotion and meditation, and, if you remain able, there is charity and good work to be done too. When the attraction of enjoyment itself is gone, what attachment can remain? Life has now begun to feel mature. Because there is time, you are finding the company of people with good thoughts who inspire you. This is now the time to prepare to free the soul, the time to give the tongue a rest, the time to gather up your dreams. It is the time to become an example and accomplish something new.

You may feel that your health does not remain good; that is natural. On reaching this stage, we have taken so much work from our senses that they too have grown weak. It happens to everyone. There is no one who has seen the end from the beginning. Even the heat in the shade of the setting sun diminishes in the evening. The sun whose pride was at its highest in the morning is not sad as it lowers its radiance; it looks more beautiful than it did in the morning. Why, then, should we human beings be sad? And those whose health was good—are they visible anywhere today? Thinking this way, let us end our sadness through our mental maturity and patience, and find uplifting company somewhere. There were dreams we had once left behind in the tears of our eyes, and interests we had never even mentioned to anyone. Come, let us talk about them. Fruit appears only when a tree matures; a baby tree never bears fruit.

Yes, there is someone sitting in front of us, sad and sorrowful. It seems he had not prepared properly for this day; he had not thought about it at all. Why did he keep flying after something that did not even exist? He lost his relationships in his ego. Whatever he received, he considered his own forever and kept displaying it to others. Amid that display, he never understood when it slipped away. The Maker of us all has still given him time for self-reflection. He should put it to that use, instead of sitting idle like this. Come, let us explain it to him.

There was a time when we played a great deal, but one day it suddenly seemed there was no time left

There was a time when we played a great deal, but one day it suddenly seemed there was no time left. There was so much work. We got married, had children, our parents grew old, and our responsibilities increased. In the midst of play, we realised that we no longer had time. Our friends, who used to visit, eventually came to think that our door was closed. But what of it? I still know where they all live. I can invite them, play with them, go out to those same old places, and laugh just as loudly. This is exactly why the time after fifty has come. I remember many faces, but had kept their images hidden only in my mind. Now the time has come when I will once again be able to see them in the eyes of a friend sitting before me. Get up with this thought.

We once failed, and that is why we got up again, moved on, and reached this point. Let our children not make the mistakes that we made. Come, let us explain all of that to them. The road ahead will then become easier for them. Adversities will come to them, give them a blessing, and depart. You, I and they are Shri Krishna, able to give knowledge to our loved ones even before the battle, so that victory belongs to them, happiness comes to them, and sadness stays far away. All that sadness was our share. We lived with it and defeated it too. Come, let us tell them how we did it. We wept, but you must not weep; you must always remain happy. This time did not simply arrive on its own. We pulled it here, seized it and brought it here, only for you, so that you could live by your own wishes, in your own way, and with your own pride. There was a time when I lost everything I had. This is the story we must tell them. We have plenty of time.