Mar 5, 2011

Expectations

Expectations. The root cause of sadness. Question: Should we have expectations?

Let us discuss a situation. My situation. I didn't expect anything from my CAT. But I managed to score a pretty good score. I was extremely happy. After that, I expected a number of IIM Calls and didn't get them. I was irritated and sad with that situation. So, expectations let to irritation and sadness right? May be yes. I am certain a low CAT score would not have affected me because I never expected anything from the test.

You want your friends to behave in a certain manner. When they do not live up to that certain behavior then it affects you. Or me at least. A fight with some random person on the street will leave you angry for 10 mins and you will forget it. Imagine the same with your family. Does it not spoil your mood? Yes, of course it does. That is because you expect certain things from your family members.

Just continuing the above example, and my initial question. Should we have expectations? I guess yes. You just need to draw a line where your expectations turn into things that will affect you the most. It is justified that you expect your parents to pamper you, to be with you when you need them the most. It is justified that you expect your friends to be supportive of you. But then care should be taken that the lack of living up to those expectations does not leave you sad and disheartened.

I am not saying that expectation is the only cause of sadness. There can be many others too. Expectations just form a major chunk of them. If every one of us follows the saying as below, I don't think we will ever be sad because of expectations:
आपना काम कर, फल की चिंता ना कर
But one needs a great will power to follow the above saying. It is almost next to impossible to follow. It is this that we need to achieve. Drive out the expectations from our mind. I will end by saying:
Live the present, think about the future but don't expect anything from the future.