Change

If there is anything constant in this universe, it is the
phenomenon of change. Change is continuous, constant and persistent. Everything
is changing all around us, whether perceptibly or imperceptibly, and whether we
like it or not. It is truly said, “One cannot step in the same river twice”. The
river appears to be the same, but the water is continuously flowing. When we
step for a second time in the river, the water is different.

Time changes everything. It is said that in a period of seven
years every single cell of our body changes ! What was once powerful and
almighty can become weak and powerless with the passage of time. One is reminded
of the famous lines :

This refers to the incident in Mahabharat when Arjun the
mighty warrior who had vanquished many a great warriors in battles was bested by
a robber named Kaba, though still Arjun had his famous bow Gandiv and his
arrows.

In the modern times, the speed of change has increased beyond
imagination. The changes taking place now are mind boggling. In early nineteen
sixties Allwyn Toffler wrote in ‘The Future Shock’ that life on this planet
could be estimated to be around 50,000 years, i.e., about 800
generations. The change seen by the world in the last generation itself is more
than the sum total of changes seen in the earlier 799 generations ! We know that
since then (1960s) the speed at which change is taking place has increased
manifold.

It is said that the weekday edition of the New York Times
contains more information than the average man was exposed to during his entire
lifetime in the 7th Century England ! We then are living in times where things
are changing at the speed of whirlwind all around us and we have to cope with
the changes taking place. Bill Gates has written a book on the subject ‘Business
at the speed of thought’. The title metaphorically represents the pace of
‘change’.

As I perceive, there are two distinct types of changes. One
is the cyclic change which one observes in nature. The sun rises every morning,
and travels through the day to set in the evening, and rises again the next day.
The tide comes and ebbs away with regularity which is predictable. Winter is
followed by spring, summer, and by autumn, once again to be followed by winter.
This law of nature is relatively easy to understand and accept.

The other change is what we see in our life itself. A seed
sprouts, becomes a tree, and one day it decays and falls. A baby is born; the
baby becomes a child, and then a young person. The young becomes old and dies.
Somehow we fail to understand and accept this that we are impermanent, and that
we also have to go someday. Similarly when going is good, we tend to believe
that the happy days will last forever and that no sorrow will ever cross our
path . . . . When bad times hit us we feel that our miseries will never end. We
fail to understand that the night will turn into day and that ‘this too shall
pass’. It is very very imperative that we learn to adapt to ‘change’. Otherwise
we too can be wiped out and become extinct like the mighty dinosaurs which once
roamed freely over the surface of this earth.

We also have to accept that the gates of change are locked
from within. Unless we decide to change ourselves, no outside agency will be
able to change us.

At the same time, we have to learn to accept that old age,
disease, and death are all inevitable. Bhagwan Buddha asks in ‘Anguttora Nikaya’
to the Bhikkhus to contemplate on the following :

Buddha asks us to contemplate on the changes and accept them
with grace.

Let us then take heed to the valuable words of Buddha,
contemplate on the inevitability of change and be ready to meet whatever
changes, life brings.

The issue is : how do we meet this challenge of change ? The answer is by
‘faith’. Faith in God and above all, faith in ourselves.