How To Live After Retirement.

How To Live After Retirement.                                     M.V.Ruparelia.

As soon as a person retires from service, he feels he has done a lot and now deserves rest! Retirement doesn't have to mean aimless walks and endless hours in a rocking chair, just brooding. He rests and does not remain active and most of the time, just lies down on sofa, read newspapers, watch TV, at the most goes to temples, ponders over upliftment of his Atma etc, and lead sedentary life, resulting in deteriorating health & connected problems! He thus abuses himself!! He develops inertia of doing nothing, does not want to learn anything new. He feels, he need not waste his energy, which requires to be preserved at this age! He forgets that we have unlimited energy and even in active life, we have used a very small % of our energy. In old age also, we have unlimited energy and the Principle is ``USE IT OR LOOSE IT. Due to unprecedented progress in Medical Science, especially in respect of Stem Cells & Gene replacements etc, Life Span of human beings is expected to be 200/600 years! According to Dr Deepak Chopra, Body is Ageless!! With the present scenario in our Country, the present generation of Senior Citizens is not going to die soon! Whatever the Span, the Death, though certain, cannot be predicted and as such each Senior Citizen has to accept that he has to live long and should therefore plan out  his own life style for good quality of his long innings of life. He has lot of time at his disposal, which he should use for self, family and society at large.

He must live life King Size. He must develop himself in all respects possible. He must learn new things, adopt all latest gadgets like mobile, computer etc, as necessary and which he can afford and encourage others to do same. He must look after his health, take proper diet, exercise, develop hobbies and take keen interest in surroundings. He must remember that Life is nothing but series of experiences to each one of us. On the basis of our experiences, we form habits, thinking process and our perceptions. We see the world as per our perceptions. As we see, so is our world to us. ``Dristi aisee Shrusti. As experiences are different to different persons, their perceptions are different and they see things and world differently! After retirement, say after 60/65 or so, one should be able to understand clearly and realize this process of Life based on experiences, habits and perceptions. As our perceptions are based on experiences, which we got in the then prevailing circumstances, we should be able to change/modify our perceptions with efforts, looking to the present circumstances, which are definitely different than those prevailing earlier. Everything and anything is not ``THIS`` or ``THAT`` (Neti-Neti) but it is as you believe and accept. This maturity of thoughts and understanding of perceptions should make us analyze and accept all situations and people, as they are and we should not feel bad about anything or anybody’s bad behavior with us! This philosophy of understanding shall keep us happy and we shall lead life peacefully and usefully. It is we, who have to help ourselves for our welfare, we are our friend and we are our enemy. It depends on us as to what we want and it is we only who can achieve what we want. We must avoid ego, one-up ship, hypocrisy and general tendency of criticizing others and everything, as many are doing. We must respect others and not treat others as inferior to us, we must not try to make show and take false credit for any achievements of others. We must develop apathy and see that we do not do anything to others, which we would not like being done to us. We should not have negative attitude leaving everything to God, Luck, Stars, Our actions of previous birth etc. Generally, man acts according to whims & fancies of his mind and such actions are generally detrimental & dangerous to his welfare and prosperity. In day to day dealings with others, one reacts without rational thoughts and does not act judiciously, resulting in confusion within, leading to dissatisfaction & discontentment in life. Intellect is a discriminating power over the mind. We have to develop our Intellect – the capacity to discriminate & analyze our feelings and then to act judiciously.

If we are staying in joint family, we must help in various matters, as possible without keeping an ego that we were big officers and such work of bringing milk, vegetables, house hold works, taking care of grand children etc are below our status. We need not interfere in day to day affairs of our children or others but surely we must give benefit of our experience, knowledge, organizing capacity etc to our family as well as society. We must stroke, when necessary, whether positive or negative, as the situation demands. Do not accept any unjust thing lying down, point out to the doer, authority, write, represent relentlessly. Have no inertia but speak up, as necessary. It is not necessary that we should get everything/everybody changed by our stroking/action but our aim should be to do our Best in the arising situations. We must teach our life partner how to live without us in case, we precede her. We should take more care of our spouse, explain & show all papers about Will, Pension , Investment etc.

Senior Citizens have no doubt given a lot to the Society in their prime time but have taken also a lot from Society. It is now time to reciprocate. We are given the Status of Senior Citizen with several privileges and some expectations from the Society & government. Retired life of many has no direction, no goal, and no necessity to progress or to develop the Self or Others! They must awake and find out fields of their choice to serve the community with or without honorarium and give benefit to the Society of their experience of their first innings. All educated Senior Citizens must try their best to bring all Senior Citizens out of inertia of remaining aloof & idle and encourage them to do something useful. There are lots of NGOs doing good work towards Society and those interested can join as active workers of such NGOs and give back to the Society, from which they have taken advantages so far. There are so many local social issues, which can be tackled by Senior Citizens. If one looks around with an open mind to do something useful, he will find lots of things to do. Social Interaction is very much necessary for Senior Citizens. You observe bad roads, bad treatment to others, lethargy in implementing good orders issued by governments; you must not sit tight doing nothing. We can take up various social issues properly and promptly with proper authorities and get what best can be got done. We can take part in all projects like teaching adults & street children, Family Planning, Polio Drops, HIV Awareness, Non-smoking, Drinking, Respect for women & handicaps, Special Drives like Census, Elections etc, Volunteering for Law & Order Situation jobs at the time of festivals & other special occasions, if physically possible. We can form or be members of Peace Committees of our areas, Social Clubs etc and be helpful in neighborhood areas during situations like floods, earthquakes etc. We can collect full data of all Senior Citizens residing in our area and coordinate with other agencies for help of different kinds to needy, with Police for safety, registration of maid servants etc. In the field of our expertise, we should give free counseling to Senior Citizens as well as others. We should regularly visit Hospitals, Old men’ Houses etc and look after requirements of Senior Citizens like giving company, reading for them, giving fruits etc, as possible by self or through others. We should join Senior Citizens Associations of our area and do good to Senior Citizens as well as others collectively. Take part in Services of various Social Organizations. We should write our experiences & opinions on various social situations & problems for benefit of the Society in the field of our expertise without pride or prejudice & without fear or favour. We can give our Comments on news items pertaining to Senior Citizens in Newspapers. In short, we must utilize our energy, knowledge, experience, wealth and whatever, we have got, for helping others in whatever way, we can.

Instead of brooding over the past, remaining overburdened with sole objective of waiting to meet almighty God, we must live in the present. Just as physical exercise is necessary for maintaining good health, using our brain properly and usefully is also necessary for our mental health. We should try our Best to help others and do social work, keeping us usefully busy, as serving Society is serving God. Absolute Happiness is the Goal of all human efforts. We have a common and firm belief that joy/ happiness experienced by us lie in sense objects and we therefore strive to acquire, possess and aggrandize more & more wealth and objects of the world. However, the fact is that same objects /circumstances / situations give different degree of joy/happiness or sorrow/unhappiness to different people and at different times to same people. Having worked for several years for acquiring wealth for our worldly joy/happiness, it is now time to get absolute happiness by helping others. Act, Act & Act (Do not React due to Habits and Do not Inact due to inertia) is the need of hour for leading Satisfying, Useful & Active Life after Retirement.