15^th July 2021 – Have you seen the yesteryear’s blockbuster ‘Anand’ which starred Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan? If you did, you probably are familiar with its famous dialogue. “Babu Moshai, zindagi badi hone chahiye lambi nahi” which means that the life should be big not long. Well, for the movie plot and its story, the dialogue made some sense as the main protagonist was suffering from a deadly disease and was about to die.

Setting aside the emotions and passion of movie’s story-line, the famous dialogue is a complete contradiction to the Vedic and scientific knowledge. Thank God, the dialogue did not make much sense to the doctors. Else, they would have stopped making any medical advancements and improving the life expectancy rates. As per the below mantra from Shukla Yajurveda, we pray to Ishwar or Paramatma that we live till 100 years, all our body parts (including our 5 basic senses) work for 100 years and we remain healthy and wise till the time we die.

पश्येम शरदः शतं जीवेम शरदः शतं श्रुणुयाम शरदः शतं प्रब्रवाम शरदः शतमदीनाः स्याम शरदः शतं

The learning from Vedas does not end at this prayer. The journey begins when the humankind starts learning the way in which these 100 years should be spent. ‘Zindagi lambi aur badi dono hi honi chahiye, babu moshai.’