Life Lessons from a Man who has seen 12000 Deaths
Bhairav Nath Shukla is the Manager of Mukti Bhawan, a Varanasi hostel where people check-in to die. He shares key life lessons he has learnt over the past 44 years from his experience of witnessing 12000 deaths with Project Fuel team.
Some of these key life lessons include:
- Resolve all conflicts before you go
People carry so much baggage, unnecessarily, all through their life only wanting to drop it at the very end of their journey. The trick lies not in not having conflicts but in resolving them as soon as one can,
- Simplicity is the truth of life
People stop eating indulgent food when they know they are going to go. The understanding that dawns on many people in their final days is that they should’ve lived a simple life. They regret that the most.
- Filter out people’s bad traits
If you focus on the good qualities though, you spend that time getting to know them better or, maybe even, loving them.
- Be willing to seek help from others
We must help others, but more importantly, have the courage to seek help when we’re in need. Every person in the world knows more than us in some respect. And their knowledge can help us, only if we’re open to it.
- Find beauty in simple things
Pause to appreciate small things and find beauty in them. If minds are pre-occupied with “seemingly” more important things, it is hard to find joy in small things.
- Acceptance is liberation
Accept the situation so you are free to think what you want to do about it and how. Acceptance will liberate you and empower you.
- Accepting everyone as the same makes service easier
The day you treat everyone the same is the day you breathe light and worry less about who might feel offended or not. Make your job easier.
- If/When you find your purpose, do something about it
Take action on what truly matters.
- Habits become values
Building good habits happens over time, with practice. “It’s like building a muscle; you have to keep at it everyday.”
- Choose what you want to learn
The key lesson here is to be mindful of choosing what you deeply feel will be of value to you.
- You don’t break ties with people; you break ties with the thought they produce
The divorce is with the thought and never with the person. To understand that is to unburden yourself from being bitter and revengeful.
- 10 percent of what you earn should be kept aside for dharma
keep 10 percent of your income for goodwill.
/via @Project_Fuel (Source)