A friend shared a wonderful conversation between Lord Krishna and the great warrior Karna.

Karna starts narrating how unfair life had been to him – his mother left him at birth; he did not receive his training from the greatest teacher because he was not from the warrior caste ( Kshatriya ); he was cursed by the owner of a cow that was accidentally hit by his arrow; his teacher cursed him that he would forget everything when his teacher came to know who his real mother was; he was disgraced during Draupadi’s Swayamvar; his mother finally revealed to him the truth, only to save her other sons; whatever he received was through Duryodhan’s charity. Therefore, Karna asks Krishna, how could he be wrong in siding with Duryodhan.

Krishna replied – Karna, I was born in a jail; death awaited him before my birth; the day I was born I was separated from my real parents; there were multiple attempts on my life as a child; I had no army and only joined a gurukul at the age of 16; I had to move my whole community from the banks of Yamuna to save them from a demon; I had to kill my own uncle; my efforts in trying to bring about truce failed to stop the deadliest of war.

He goes on to say that even though each one of us faces challenges in life, it does not give us a licence to walk the wrong path. What is right, is known to us deep down, and no matter how many times we have fallen, what is important is how we react to each fall.

I found this story very relevant, and a great reminder for giving us perspective.

Nobody has a perfect life. The greatness of how we live is not in having no challenges, but in the way we respond to the challenges that come our way.

We go through experiences in life that seem unfair. Often we don’t understand why we go through certain things, but we need to understand that we have a choice; we can either complain or become a student, treating each experience as a learning.

It is easy to justify veering off a path because we too have been wronged. Though easier said than done, we need to tap into the Higher in us and keep hearing the inner voice to guide us and give us the much-needed perspective.

Stories of conversations have a beautiful way of conveying messages. But we need to learn to keep having these conversations when we feel that life is unfair and the burden becomes too heavy to carry. And when we reflect in our time of silence, we will realise the simple truth – our life is not determined by the shoes we wear, but by the steps we take.

(Picture – Vevey, Switzerland)