The Traffic Jam _ AS - IT - IS

Jagan sat upon his motorcycle, the engine humming with quiet force, but the air was thick with the tension of the moment. The streets of Bangalore were a sea of halted vehicles, the world around him caught in the web of impatience and hurriedness. The traffic moved sluggishly, as though time itself had decided to slow, and Jagan’s body itched with frustration. His mind churned, the weight of the meeting ahead pressing on his chest. He was late. He was always late. The horns, the weaving through lanes, the clamour of others rushing , it felt as though the world had turned into a great, screaming beast.

“Why does this always happen to me?” 

Jagan muttered under his breath.

His mind clung to this thought, repeating it like an endless drumbeat. It was as though his entire life had become this traffic jam, stuck, forever moving but never arriving, a cycle of dissatisfaction.

But then, something shifted. A stillness, a calm, arose from within. In that very moment, Jagan understood what Mindfulness might have meant when he spoke of “just sitting” , of “being with things as they are.” It was not that the traffic changed, but that he had begun to change. He let go, ever so gently, of his expectations, his desire to control what he cannot control.

Budha once said 

“To be enlightened is to be completely present in each moment.” 

Jagan realized that the truth of his situation was not in escaping the traffic or rushing toward his meeting. The truth was in being fully present, in simply being in the traffic, without pushing against it, without trying to shape it into something it was not.

The engine idled quietly beneath him, and in the midst of the noise, Jagan observed with patience. The shimmering red lights, the slow, deliberate movements of the motorcycles, the faint rustling of the trees by the roadside everything was part of the unfolding moment. It was neither good nor bad. It was simply as it was.

Jagan closed his eyes, not in an attempt to escape, but in order to see more clearly. The world around him, so noisy, so full of demands, was not separate from his own mind. The moment of frustration, of rushing, was a moment within him, and so was the moment of peace.

He remembered the words of Budha : 

"The practice of the way is to enter the world of the moment, not to transcend it.” 

And in that instant, Jagan realised there was no place to go. The destination was not the meeting, nor the end of the traffic. The destination was right here, in this very moment. To rush toward it was to miss this moment.

The cars inched forward, but Jagan’s heart remained still. He saw the elderly man beside him, his fingers gently tapping a rhythm on the wheel ...just this. He noticed a child in the backseat, her laughter like the sound of a bell- kikikiii just this. Everything was alive, moving, unfolding as it should.

Jagan opened his eyes, and the traffic had not changed, but his perception had. He felt no need to hurry. The world would unfold in its own time, just as his life would. He simply needed to be present, to sit with it all, just as it was.

The road ahead cleared, and the vehicles moved, but Jagan’s pace was slow, deliberate. He was not moving toward a meeting. He was not running away from the traffic. He was simply moving with the moment. Each turn, each shift of the handlebars, each breath

💝an expression of the vastness of now.

Moral: 

“When we stop struggling against the moment, we find that it is already complete.”

Life moves as it moves. The world, with its traffic jams and deadlines, cannot be controlled. But when we accept it as it is, when we release the need to control and simply be present, we discover the peace that lies within. There is no “arriving” only the unfolding of each moment. And in this unfolding, we find our true practice.