I felt very humble on reading the recent editorial(Mauritian Abroad/Quarterly). Krish Veeramah said he was in need of nothing being grateful “if I could retain all my faculties.” This is pure wisdom earned through life experience; pure happiness is indeed the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.

In this materialistic world very few people think like this; this is why we do not know and in fact we don’t experience real happiness. Be grateful for needing nothing because everything belongs to us if we can appreciate the depth of this philosophy.

In November last year on Divali day for a few days I lost my sight through a detached retina; instead of enjoying the light of this festival my world crumbled and felt at a loss until surgery saved the day. I was back to near normal by Christmas to put the tree up and enjoy the light again. I was lucky and counted my blessings. My cup is full and runneth over; I shall not want; I sang for joy. This is a great experience; my sight was loss and now I can see. This is pure joy. Losing one’s faculties is a tremendous loss; regaining them gives pure happiness. Retaining all one faculties throughout one’s life is enough to be grateful for. Let’s live and learn, and above all learn to live gracefully.

I can really appreciate the feelings and plight of those 42,000,000 people worldwide who cannot see. Over 100 million people living in rich America are visually disabled. I am grateful and in need of nothing. All these visually impaired/blind people are coping as best they can; and yet many of them have developed special talents to manage their personal situation. We must learn from them. In many walks of life the blind are leading the way; and we who are gifted with good sight are slow or unwilling to follow. What a tragedy!

We have neither inner vision nor a determined willingness to make an extra effort to contribute to the restoration of peace in this troubled world.

This year 2008 being numerologically a 1 (one) we must decide to make a fresh start in any humble way to bring relief to the vulnerable, the underprivileged, the sick, the lame, the deaf and the blind. Let’s cut down our soaring appetites, reduce wastes, and be ecologically friendly. These simple steps will definitely save us from great tragedy. Now sit back and count your blessings.

David.lingiah@ntlworld.com