Growing old? Feel the joy

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Amrit Sadhana [1]

Happiness, like wine, matures with old age. If a research report published in the New York Times recently is to be believed, people beyond 50 are found to be much more happier than those between 18 and 50.
The results, published online on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences website, are good news for old people, and for those who are getting old. On the global measure, people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves, and then, apparently, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point there is a sharp reversal and people keep getting happier as they age. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than they were at 18.
And this phenomenon is not driven by things that happen in life. Predominantly, something very deep and human seems to be driving this. Several psychology researchers wonder why at age 50 do things seem to start to change.
Eastern wisdom has answered this question. The ancient sages have divided life in four stages based on the physical and psychological state of the human mind. They call it four ashramas or stages of life, namely the state of celibacy, the householder, the vanaprastha and the sannyas. The sannyasi devotes his life to attain to peace and bliss, so his life is much more fulfilled than the younger people. The sages have looked at life vertically, not horizontally. And they have done this with the knowledge that the body is merely a vehicle that inhabits the consciousness.
Osho has talked about a seven-year cycle of change. Every seven years the body and mind take a new turn. If we say life moves in a cycle of seven years, the age 42 is the turning point when a person changes from being materialistic to being spiritual. His need for meditation becomes stronger and if he finds the right doorway he starts growing up instead of growing old. He spends time in meditation and the spiritual search.
Osho explains the enigma of Western psychologists, about why old age seems to be happier than youth: “Youth cannot have depth, and youth cannot have calm understanding. Youth is feverish, it is a tumultuous time. You have to pass through many experiences, sweet and bitter. You have to pass through many stages of feverishness, of ecstasy, of excitement; only then a moment comes when you start understanding. Those experiences prepare you, they cleanse you. A really old man is wise, he has some light in him. He has lived his life, he has become ripe. He knows what life is: he knows its joys, its sorrows, its hells and its heavens. A great understanding has arisen in him, and a compassion and a love”.
When you are becoming old joyously, old age has a beauty of its own, a grandeur of its own, a ripeness, a maturity, a centering. Young people have nothing compared to the experienced, to those who have lived life and who know it is all just a game.
The moment a person comes to the point where life seems to be just a game, his old age is so beautiful, so graceful; no young person can comprehend or experience this. An old person’s white hair looks like white snow on the highest peak of mountains. He will die with joy. He has lived his life and now he is entering into a new phase — death. He will not be reluctant. If he accepted old age joyously, he will accept death also dancingly. He will go with death dancing.

— Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.