B: Benign

In medical parlance, aggressive life-threatening diseases are loosly categorized into 2 categories; malignant or benign.

Malignant implies that the diseases is spreadable and will engulf other organs if not treated. Sometimes, even treatment does not help if the diseases is especially aggressive. Benign mean that the disease will not spread, it may sometimes be necessary to remove it and other times, it can be left alone.

The reason I bring this is the nature of these two types determine the attention they receive and consequently their impact. Malignant prognosis are usually aggressively treated, given lots of attention by drug companies and my healthcare professionals. Benign ones are usually less focused upon. Malignancy implies stubbornness, one-way track, destructiveness while Benign implies softness, malleability.

Life is like that. Those who are stubborn, rigid and stick to some human-formed straitjacket are those who are often the most hurt and trampled upon. People who are adaptable, who flow with the stream and who are not too rigid are the people who get their views across and who are usually successful in life.

Another analogy is regarding teeth and tongue, as explained in the Hindi serial “Surya Putra Karna”. Krishna explains the following:

“A human is not born with teeth, it appears at around 6-8 months. In the lifetime of the human, teeth falls twice; first time when baby teeth are replaced by permanent ones and second time usually during old age. This is in spite of teeth being hard and able to withstand most pressures that we throw upon it.

However, humans are born with tongues. They are with us since our first forage into the world and stay with us even after we die. This is despite the fact that the tongue is soft and sensitive. It gets affected by everything; heat, cold, too much liquid, too little liquid etc.

Behaviour is the same. People who are hard, stubborn, rigid do not last long. It’s the people who are adaptable, who are flexible, open-minded and willing to learn, who survive the longest”

Which one are you: Teeth or Tongue?