Myth-I Will Relax After I Retire
9:54:00 PMKrishna RaoYou have surely heard this a million times from the mouth of many people around you.
Tell me one person who has put his or her leg up and relaxed after they have retired.
Today, when I was watching my mother I just felt that she wants to get out of this painful journey called retired life and die as soon as she can. But life does not end that way, so she has to suffer some more of all the troubles the retired life begets.
There are a million schemes which tell you to 'sar uthake jiyo' and all the bull and have a meaningful retirement, but have you seen it work that way?
Just a few days ago I was watching a documentary on retired people in different part of the world and how they cope up with it.
The scenes depicted in South America showed locations where the old get together and play games in the evening-board games,lotto,some cards and so on.There was heavy smoke all over the place and the one thread which was common was the look which said on their faces-let me get away from all this!!!
The men are shown in bars,places of interest looking at artifacts or ruins, taking short journeys,meeting with distant relatives and just sleeping.
There is absolutely NO focus in their lives and no inclination to get somewhere or something to latch on to.
They do not have any sex life left in them,no past times with the spouses or activities which can keep their adrenalin running.
The women on the other hand are seen as taking care of the households, looking after the grand kids,chatting,playing some games and shopping for groceries.
Some of them were shown taking their time off to do some social activities.
I remember Baghban and some such movies and the common theme is how the kids and grand kids reject the parents or the grand parents.
That brings me to the understanding that retirement is as painful as life without purpose or productive activity.
There has to be some activity considering the age and time in life.
Life should never come to a complete stand still, nor should it be so sedentary that you are always keeping the doctors appointments for blood pressure,diabetes,etc etc.
Some of the activities that can be considered by those who retire would be taking up part time employment,some social causes,church or temple activities,hobbies which keeps you occupied,travels-if you can afford it, money making activities like investments in shares etc,spiritual quest,political activism, consultancy in the subject of your choice,teaching and so on.
The only advice to all you youngsters would be to not just plan for the financial part but to also take care of the spare time that you may have and keeping yourself perfectly fit or taking medications in time.
From my spiritual point of view- I would suggest that you should read and attend expositions on texts,attend satsangs,meet the saintly,go for pilgrimages,visit places of worship and keep your mind occupied with God and dwell on His past times in the company of the holy.
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