You’ll agree that life is a newspaper.

Newspaper has front page news. Life has front page news of “Me and Mine”

Newspaper revolves around juicy news items. Life thrives on gossip.

Newspaper dabbles in political news. Life dabbles in family politics.

Newspaper publishes art news. Life broadcasts “my and my children” art news – singing, music and dance performances, awards won and so on.

Newspaper publishes advertisements. Life publishes advertisements of my self-importance – the job title I have, the big house I live in, the expensive car I drive, the power and influence I have in the society and so on.

Newspaper reports on sports. Life itself is nothing but a sport. But sometimes I’m not a good sport in the sport of life.

Newspaper has an obituary section. So does life.

Newspaper  recycles old news. Life does the same.

Today’s newspaper becomes tomorrow’s waste paper. Life wasted today becomes a wasted life tomorrow.

 

The waste newspaper is recycled. Life is also recycled – to a new birth and to a new life.

Proofreading plight! [1]

 

Newspaper has an editor and a proof reader. The proof reader looks for mistakes in the copy and corrects them.

Not a newspaper editor! [Source]

 

The editor looks at the substance of the story, approves or disapproves its publication and guides the newspaper in line with its vision and mission.

Here, my life doesn’t quite measure up to the newspaper

 

I’m an expert in looking at others’ faults! [Source]

You see, my life is mostly proof reading only. I’ve become an expert in looking at the mistakes of others. In doing so, I miss the substance of what they say or do. I miss the silent cry for help in their bursts of anger. I miss their slight offense I had caused them. I miss my own lack of proper understanding of a person or a situation.

Lacking proper editorship of my life, I take my eyes off the substance of what life is all about, lose sight of the vision of the newspaper that my life is and fail to guide my life in its proper mission.

To get back on the mission of life, I must be both an editor and a proof reader in my life.

I must become a proofreader to look for and correct only my faults – not others. I must become an editor to look for the substance and the message in all happenings, people and situations in my life.

The substance and the message in all things in life is not what others do or don’t do and is not what happens or doesn’t happen. It is what I do and it is what I am in any situation that counts.

The mission of life is to give love and receive love. This love is beyond physical forms and is utterly selfless. The vision of life is to become this selfless love itself.

The editor in me must guide me on this mission towards this vision. The proof reader in me must look for and correct the two mistakes of selfishness and self-aggrandizement in my thinking, way of looking at things and conduct.

Life of love thus lived then becomes a newspaper that is truly worth reading. To be read not just once and thrown away. But to be read, cherished and read again and again. And again.

I read some of these old and priceless newspapers even today. These are the life-stories of devotees and of devotion. They are known as Srimad Bhagavatam.

 

 

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