Why is life so complicated? Why can’t I accept situations more easily?

Q:Why is life so complicated? Why can’t I accept situations more easily? 

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: 

Why should life be simple? Life is complicated and that is what makes it fun. There is beauty, there is thrill in life. It is when you feel very tired that you feel “Oh, it is all so complicated. Let me get away from it all”. When you are bubbling with energy, then you do not feel this way. You feel tired from the complications when you lack energy. When you are tired, you want everything to be simple. . Got it? That is what it is.

See, is eating a banana simple or complicated? When you take a bite of the banana, then the starch gets mixed with the saliva. Then it goes into the stomach where the digestive acid digests it. Then it has to give a signal to the brain to release the enzymes for digestion. It is all so complicated. The liver, the pancreas and other organs secrete juices and it gets mixed in the duodenum of the intestine. Then it goes in the big intestine and finally gets absorbed in the blood. Oh God! It is so complicated. So do you think it is simple or complicated? (Laughter)

When you are looking at me, do you think the process of sight is very simple? When you look at me or at anything, you will realize how light falls on any object, and then enters the eye. The image formed in the eye is initially upside down on the retina. Just ask an ophthalmologist and you will understand how complicated it is. Is there any one thing that is simple in your body? No! There are 50,000 types of bacteria in your intestine. Did you know that? Even if 10 types out of these 50,000 are missing, you will have some problem or another. So, all the 50,000 bacteria need to be present for you to feel healthy. And the bacteria are very territorial. If another five different bacteria enter the body, they will send out signals and you will have diarrhoea or constipation. Similarly, there are three different kinds of bacteria on your forehead. They are called mites and they all stay in their respective zones. In the scalp there is another kind of mite. The mites on the forehead do not cross into another mites’ region. Did you know that? How many of you are hearing it for the first time? You know that in India there is a custom of applying Vibhuti (sacred ash) on the forehead in the form of three lines. There must be some correlation between this and that (the three mites on the forehead and applying Vibhuti). Three different kinds of mites live on your forehead, and it is different for different people.