The Golden Age in the circle of life

Walking in the park today, I marvelled at the golden carpet created by the leaves shed by the Sukhchain trees that lined the periphery. Nowadays, Chandigarh is full of golden leaves strewn here, there and everywhere. As I walked along the path I noticed the bright golden marigold flowers, some big and others small, bobbing their heads as they swayed to the cool breeze.

Golden were the marigolds and golden the leaves. The marigolds were bright; the leaves pale. But each was akin to gold in its purest form. And each had their own kind of beauty and appeal. I saw the masses of golden leaves collected in the flower beds at the bottom of the marigold bushes. I thought to myself: These dried leaves shall soon decompose to form manure and shall lose their identity as they become one with the soil.

The soil is what nourishes the marigolds as it does all other plants and trees. All plants are born of the soil and to the soil they return. Each one’s journey may not be as simple and smooth as the golden leaves but eventually everything returns home. This is the cycle of life.

As I stared at the tall trees towering above, a solitary golden leaf caressed my head before it sailed down to join its troop in the flower bed. A sturdy marigold nodded its head at me, as if in agreement with my thoughts, “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.”

Come to think of it, why only plants? Isn’t this the cycle of life for each one who takes birth? We are nourished by the bounties provided by earth, air, water, fire and space and needless to say, the love of our kith and kin. In fact, the human body is constituted of the five elements. In the cycle of life, we are born, we take nourishment from the five elements, we grow up and strive to shine. Some shine more, others less. Eventually, we grow old and we die. Our body is returned to the five elements of which it was constituted in the first place. Such an amazing process, designed by the Creator!

Everything comes full circle. Everything goes back to nature. Nothing goes waste.

Incidentally, yesterday I visited a friend’s home and met her mother after a long time. Aunty looked frail. She had lost weight but somehow she looked beautiful. As I mentally compared her wrinkled yet glowing skin to that of the younger generation around, I noticed the maze of lines that time and age had etched on her face. The criss-cross pattern on her cheeks told a story of a life full of meaning. Surely, she too had been through the process of heating and beating that gold goes through at the hands of a goldsmith. She looked like an epitome of peace, contentment and grace. Simply golden!

As I continued my walk, my attention was reclaimed by the aged golden leaves strewn all over. I remembered aunty and realised that old age makes you beautiful and golden if you are at peace with your inner self. Truly, childhood is golden but old age is perhaps the golden age! It is the eternal truth that whoever is born, has to go one day. But aging gracefully and living peacefully is an art that only a few have mastered.

OLD AGE MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL AND GOLDEN IF YOU ARE AT PEACE WITH YOUR INNER SELF.