This is a story of a couple that went to watch a movie. The movie was good and enjoyable but there was somebody in the back seat constantly making a rustling sound with his paper bag of popcorn. Somehow this prevented the couple from getting fully engrossed in the movie and enjoying it fully.
This story is a metaphor for our lives. In our case the problem is different. We get too engrossed in the “movie of our life”, so much so that we forget that it is only a movie and the show will end one day. What we need in fact is somebody in the back seat making a gentle rustling sound to remind us of this.
There are some who have suggested that the shock of grief and the pain of suffering in our life plays this role. It is equivalent to the rustling sound in the back seat that reminds us to keep ourselves separate from the movie and not get too engrossed in it.
But why get so engrossed in the movie that an on-screen tragedy causes us to shed real tears? Why get so intoxicated in the movie experience that we forget who we really are? A better way to remind us of our true identity is yoga. Yoga can be equivalent to the rustling noise coming from the back seat that allows us to keep our distance from on-screen happenings. Yoga can allow us to remove our attachment from the ego and its drama. It can allow us to focus our energy in being who we really are.
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Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah. The metaphor of the rustling paper was something that was first evoked either by the sage Ramana Maharishi or one of his prominent followers.