Traveller, A Guest Post By Naga R. Dhoopati

You have been testing me, Life,
I do not know. Why me?

Of all the people,
Of all the things I went through,
You keep throwing them at me,
and I keep overcoming them.
Hurdles and hurdles….
All people pass by me
All chances pass by me
I am always behind in the race… I don’t know why I have to race,
nor do I know if I possess the speed to catch up with the world….
for now I am stagnant, resting on this rock
Nothing here moves, nor any passers go by this route
I am not sure what I am awaiting, nor what I am searching for anymore.
I am here, just here,with the road, the dirt, the grass
At night I gaze at the stars, on a draw of a breath,
I question the universe, for what may come,
for the distance I have to travel, and, the paths I have to cross….

Homeless man sleeping, Varanasi, 2010 (by Justin Whitaker)

“Truth is abusively re-interpreted as everything is perfect as it is. Tell that to the people who are dying of thirst or hunger, or to the people who are being raped or sick or stoned to death… Under the name of Truth, this is equivalent to actually injecting oneself with a massive dose of anæsthetic, de facto a refusal to engage with suffering… This is the opposite of waking up. Running away from suffering is known as a self-defeating strategy: even when it temporarily ‘works,’ the possible return of suffering is enough to make anguish and anxiety (i.e. new suffering) arise”- Denis Wallez, “The Middle Way is not Oneness.” G+

Reading this article made me cry today. I felt at least someone understands the pain I go through when I feel nothing is changing in the lives of people, and I feel helpless as I cannot help everyone. Many times people say, it is the karma of the people who are suffering, we can’t really do much to help them. It is not justified to watch people suffer without doing anything to help them in their situation. That actually might help fill our bag of bad karma quickly, if you do nothing to help the people/ animals who needs a lift. People watch things happening around, but many do not take time to look into a solution.Our busy lives, our own bills take away our attention.

Slums of India:

When you look at the pictures of India, you see beauty, the Taj-Mahal, temples, and beautiful clothing. When you really step in, you see more things like this (video).

I feel people don’t see them as a problem at all. It is unnoticed, and uncared environment. It surprises me that on one side, you see the cleanliness of people during prayers and at temples, but such images lead us to forget that there are real people who are living in dirt. I notice this on my visits; there is trash everywhere and people keep adding to it. No one really cares. Many people get sick during the rainy season with malaria, high fevers, and gastroenteritis. Thousands of people die due to these preventable and treatable illnesses.

In a 2012 WHO report, there were 219 million cases of malaria and it estimated 660,000 deaths from the year 2010. WHO celebrated world Malaria day on April 22nd-2013.

Roll Back Malaria (.pdf) is a WHO program seeking to control malaria. In India many people use mosquito repellents, mosquito bats and mosquito nets. They go around in the evening/night with them, close all the doors and killing mosquitoes. My kids enjoyed doing that, it gives a sound and a small spark each time you hit a mosquito. I am sure everyone in India gains the karma of killing mosquitoes.

However, not everyone can afford these things and are thus susceptible to illnesses due to their low income, inability to afford medical care, and their poor living conditions. Watching people on the streets and walking away may not be the solution. We may let the man in the photo or the others live on the streets, be homeless out in the heat, rain, or in cold winters only if we all can be comfortable living under the same circumstances. A solution cannot lie in letting others suffer what we wouldn’t bear.

A quote I came across in a previous article at this blog: