One day, while returning from the Children’s Home, I was waiting at the bus stop. As I was standing there, I noticed a bike with a couple and their son, a small boy, sitting in the middle. The mother got down from the back, went to a roadside cart, bought a few packets of tobacco, returned to the bike and handed it to the boy to hold. And they just rode off. I, on the other hand, went on a different mental and emotional journey within myself.
This made me zoom out and look at the bigger picture and ask myself “how can this issue really be solved and who are the actual stakeholders who need to work on it?” And up came a complex web of interconnected issues and stakeholders – companies who produce these products, investors who invest in them, advertisers who promote and market it, celebrities that endorse them, governments that allow these because of tax gains, and on and on went the list. This made me feel a little bit helpless but also a little more conscious about every small action of mine in all aspects of life. 🙂
And I was reminded of the Bodhisattva quote by Shantideva:
“For as long as space endures, And for as long as living beings remain, Until then may I too abide, To dispel the misery in the world.” –Shantideva–
