The stages in a person’s life:

 

At the cross road look back from where you came, decide where to go
and go without looking back

The stages in a person’s life:

William Shakespeare wrote about the seven ages of man in As you like it. Being a man of the theatre, he conceived a person’s life to fall into these seven ages. They are:  1. Baby or infant 2.School boy or child 3.Lover 4.Soldier 5. Judge 6.Old man 7. Extreme old age, again like a child.  The seven ages are characterized by the roles played by a person over a lifetime; on the stage of the world in a drama called Life.

In India, we believe that a person inhabits the distinct phases of life also called as Ashramas or shelters and these are: Brahmacharya Ashram or Student age, Grihastashram or Householder, Vanaprashthashram or Retirement  and Sanyasashram ( Renouncement). These four ashramas are cited in the ancient Hindu texts, the responsibilities and duties are prescribed for each ashrama for  every person living in the Ashrama. We spend a considerable amount of time in each ashrama,  accepting our responsibilities and perform our duties  prescribed  for us. We perform our assigned roles and discharge our responsibilities as best as we can. In a civilized society , the Ashramas also regulate social behaviour.  A person’s life becomes orderly, safe and predictable. A person who discharges the duties diligently also gets accepted in society as a responsible citizen.

The theory of the Lifecycle of a living organism describes the stages of birth, infancy, growth, maturity and decline as forming the lifecycle. Death ends the lifecycle of the old. The old world recedes and a new world is born building on the legacy of the old and the lifecycle continues.

For the purposes of this discussion, we can look at these turning points ( decision Points): 1. Entering School 2 Entering College 3. Seeking Employment, 4. Getting  married 5. Building a Career and parenting,  6. Retirement & Post retirement activities, 7 Old age dependency. At each of these turning points we make important decisions affecting our future.  The seamless progression from one turning point to another, is what most of us would consider as the royal road of life. It is a road that we take in the normal course. It is a road that most of us take

The road that most people follow is commonplace, it is even, it is unexciting and when shorn of all the excitement, it is also dull. Yet, journeying on it, a person learns the valuable lessons of life

Whichever way we look at it, the stops or turning points are important because we make decisions that make or mar our lives for good.  The first turning point is faced by our parents. They make the choice of which school we should go. We have no choice in the matter, the parents decide which school we should go to. But once there, we have to follow and do our best in order to please our parents. Benefitting from our school years is secondary at this stage but enjoying and having a good time at school rests entirely with us.

In India, the parents decide which college we should go, which occupation or job we should do and  even which girl to marry.  Elsewhere, the individual is considered grown up adequately to make life’s decisions. Whoever decides, the consequences of such decisions have to be borne by the individual who accepts these decisions. And this is a lesson that Life teaches us.

 A turning point marks the end of one stage and the start of the next. At the stop, we may look back from where we came, decide where we want to go and then choose a path to follow, there is no turning back. We have to continue moving on the road till we reach the next turning point. An interesting feature is that each previous stage that we live influences the way we will live the next stage.  

At each turning point, we face a number of choices. We have to choose whether we like it or not. When we don’t make a choice ourselves, others make it for us.

George Bernard Shaw has said  “Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.” 

When we suffer failure, pangs of regret, and feelings of guilt about all that we did and ought not to have done. We ask ourselves why such things happen to us. We search for answers and find many reasons why we failed.  When we realize that there is no magic wand to attain success, we begin to prepare to face what life throws at us, and seek satisfaction of performing better. We would have learnt a valuable lesson that life teaches us.   We would then have better control over our own lives and attain our purposes for each succeeding stage of our lives and in departing leave behind a better world.

The stops mentioned here, provide us with moments when we take stock of how we lived our lives and how we would want to live in the future. It is a time to reflect and set our compass to have the direction that we would choose.

When we pass all the turning points, our life’s journey comes to an end and we prepare to depart from this world. It is our choice, though, how we will leave this world for the generations that follow. Do we make their world a better place than the one we inherited or we leave a world that is worse; chaotic and hostile to them?  It is how we decide to live our lives that makes the difference between the life of one person and another.

 

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