'Let go' of your Richard Parker! ❤️

Learning to Let Go...! ❤️

Life Lessons from - 

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

&

Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love

Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love have a lot of convergences betwixt them!

Both books delve deep into the nature of reality, explorations of spirituality and end on a highly philosophical note!

Both books have a hundred or a hundred-plus chapters on them!

For those of you researchers planning to work on Martel’s Life of Pi, I would suggest that you also read, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn as well, for those amazing parallels that awaken themselves quite effortlessly to the ardent reader!

Coming back,

Well, both the lead characters – Pi and Gilbert are on a journey!

And the journey not only gives them memories but also valuable take-aways for life.

It’s a journey of transformation!

In short, a journey of ‘Let Go…’

As in the ‘Journey of the Magi’ by T. S. Eliot, where the Magi say, ‘We were no longer at ease in the old dispensation!’

‘No longer at ease in the old dispensation!’

So much for the power of such power-journeys – transformative in their import and therapeutic in their appeal as well!

A cursory stylistic reading of both the books side by side, is sure gonna yield rich-o-rich dividends for the informed reader.

In this little post, me thought of taking the phrase, ‘Let go’ from the two books – Life of Pi & Eat, Pray, Love and ruminate a little on the subject, as a closure to our discussions.

Quite interestingly, the phrase, ‘Let go’ occurs 18 times in Life of Pi and 20 times in Eat, Pray, Love!

When does an emotional pain happen to you?

When you’ve made an emotional investment on something or somebody much more than you do on investing in yourself!

As critic Scupin Richard rightly points out, ‘Learning to let go, then becomes a conscious act of detaching yourself from all things unpleasant’.

So yes! let us have a look at some of the things that we need to ‘let go’ –

First and foremost, the Clutter!

Yes! The more the clutter you have piled up in your life over a long period of time, the less space you will have for the ‘new’ to happen in your blessed life!

So let go of the clutter!

Think about what clutters your life right now. Then press the exit or the escape button on those clutters!

Secondly, toxic habits!

Are there any toxic habits in your life that eat away your precious time? It’s time to let go of such toxic habits rightaway from your life!

Thirdly, toxic people!

Are there people in your life who always speak negatively about you, and criticise you all of the time? They are toxic by all means to your health and mental well-being! Let go of such people rightaway. Don’t have any communication or relationship with them at any point of time! They are energy vampires who drain you of your energy and motivation for life.

Fourthly, on what others think about you!

When you are constantly worried about what think or talk or comment about you, you are allowing them to ‘control’ and to ‘direct’ your life according to their will and wish!

Don’t give the ‘remote controller’ to remotely control you in any way!

Finally, on all the grudges and feeling of hurt that have the power to pull you down!

When someone hurts you, you have two options on you: yes! you can either hold on to the grudge and anger, or you can embrace forgiveness, let go of the hurt, and move on with your life.

Holding on and on to a grudge can only make you more and more bitter and it can even distract you from your present, leading to anxiety and even depression. So let go of the negative feelings and the grudge, as quick as possible!

Coming back, 

Now let’s have a look at Pi!

Towards the initial stages of his boat days on the high seas, he says –

Something in me did not want to give up on life, was unwilling to let go, wanted to fight to the very end. Where that part of me got the heart, I don't know.

The same Pi, towards the end of the book, achieves a blissful self-realisation when he cultivates the power of empathy.

He says –

I let myself down the side. I was afraid to let go, afraid that so close to deliverance, in two feet of water, I would drown. I looked ahead to see how far I had to go.

The glance gave me one of my last images of Richard Parker, for at that precise moment he jumped over me. I saw his body, so immeasurably vital, stretched in the air above me, a fleeting, furred rainbow.

He didn't look at me. He ran a hundred yards or so along the shore before turning in. His gait was clumsy and uncoordinated. He fell several times.

At the edge of the jungle, he stopped. I was certain he would turn my way. He would look at me. He would flatten his ears.

He would growl. In some such way, he would conclude our relationship. He did nothing of the sort. He only looked fixedly into the jungle.

Then Richard Parker, companion of my torment, awful, fierce thing that kept me alive, moved forward and disappeared forever from my life. I struggled to shore and fell upon the sand. I looked about.

I was truly alone, orphaned not only of my family, but now of Richard Parker, and nearly, I thought, of God.

Of course, I wasn't.

Richard Parkers come into our life for a season! 

Respect your Richard Parker!

But don’t be possessive about Richard Parker!

Thank God for parking Parker in your life for a brief yet lovely time of your sweet life!

Then you gotta let him go!

Coming to Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, -

Says the protagonist [Gilbert]

Meanwhile, David and I had broken up again. This time, it seemed, for good. Or maybe not - we couldn’t totally let go of it. Often I was still overcome with a desire to sacrifice everything for the love of him.

And if you’re not careful, that can’s gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it.”

“But I love him.”

“So love him.”

“But I miss him.”

“So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, and then drop it. You’re just afraid to let go of the last bits of David because then you’ll really be alone, and Liz Gilbert is scared to death of what will happen if she’s really alone.

But here’s what you gotta understand, Groceries. If you clear out all that space in your mind that you’re using right now to obsess about this guy, you’ll have a vacuum there, an open spot—a door-way!

Here again, you have a Richard telling her to let go!

Adding on…

At some point, as Richard keeps telling me, you gotta let go and sit still and allow contentment to come to you.

Letting go, of course, is a scary enterprise for those of us who believe that the world revolves only because it has a handle on the top of it which we personally turn, and that if we were to drop this handle for even a moment, well—that would be the end of the universe. But try dropping it, Groceries.

This is the message I’m getting. Sit quietly for now and cease your relentless participation. Watch what happens.

The birds do not crash dead out of the sky in mid-flight, after all.

The trees do not wither and die, the rivers do not run red with blood. Life continues to go on.

Even the Italian post office will keep limping along, doing its own thing without you—why are you so sure that your micromanagement of every moment in this whole world is so essential?

Why don’t you let it be?

She then observes, the most fierce experiences come when I let go of some last fearful reserve and permit a veritable turbine of energy to unleash itself up my spine.

The INSTRUCTIONS FOR FREEDOM that are in Chapter 60 are the real icing on the cake!

Here goes –

INSTRUCTIONS FOR FREEDOM

1. Life’s metaphors are God’s instructions.

2. You have just climbed up and above the roof. There is nothing between you and the Infinite. Now, let go.

3. The day is ending. It’s time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful. Now, let go.

4. Your wish for resolution was a prayer. Your being here is God’s response. Let go, and watch the stars come out - on the outside and on the inside.

5. With all your heart, ask for grace, and let go.

6. With all your heart, forgive him, FORGIVE YOURSELF, and let him go.

7. Let your intention be freedom from useless suffering. Then, let go.

8. Watch the heat of day pass into the cool night. Let go.

9. When the karma of a relationship is done, only love remains. It’s safe. Let go.

10. When the past has passed from you at last, let go. Then climb down and begin the rest of your life. With great joy!

The joys of letting go, are beautifully evoked in Chapter 99 –

Why did life ever seem difficult?

I call my friend Susan back in New York City one day, and listen as she confides to me, over the typical urban police sirens wailing in the background, the latest details of her latest broken heart.

My voice comes out in the cool, smooth tones of a late-nite, jazz-radio DJ, as I tell her how she just has to let go, man, how she’s gotta learn that everything is just perfect as it is already, that the universe provides, baby, that it’s all peace and harmony out there . . .

I can almost hear her rolling her eyes as she says over the sirens, “Spoken like a woman who already had four orgasms today.”

That’s then the power and the beauty, the joy and the delight of letting go, dear folks!

So why wait! Let it go!

And Celebrate your ‘let go’s as well!

In your own sweet ways!

Me thought of ending this lovely ‘let it go’ post with a favourite quote from the immortal musical – The Sound of Music – a musical that offers such great life lessons!

I quote –

“When the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.”

May this new ‘window’ open up so beautifully for you, as soon as possible in your life, and may this window fill you with the finest and purest of love, joy, peace and laughter! 

When you let go of the clutter, you make space for the ‘new’ blessings, ‘new’ joys and the prosperous ‘new’ life that’s waiting there for you.