Dear Patron,

Weight of Invisible Burdens

There is a guesthouse in Varanasi, where people check in to die. It’s called “Kashi Labh Mukti Bhawan’. There is a strong belief that if you breathe your last in Kashi (Varanasi), you attain ‘Kashi Labh’ “nirvana”. Bhairav Nath Shukla, the manager of Mukti Bhawan is the most interesting personality who has witnessed more than 12,000 deaths. He shares very important life lessons from his long-standing career.

One of the most resonating life lessons is, ‘Resolve all conflicts before you go.’

Shri Ram Sagar Mishr, a Sanskrit scholar of his times. Mishr was the eldest of six brothers checked to the guesthouse, carrying his little paan case, and asked for room numbers 3 to be reserved for him. He was sure that he would pass away on the sixteenth day after his arrival. On the fourteenth day, he called on his younger brother of forty years to come see him. That day he relieved and resolved his conflict which was making his heart heavy. Both wept for long before Mishr took few last breathes.

Shukla has seen this story play out in many forms over the years. He said, People carry so much baggage unnecessarily all through their lives, only wanting to drop it at the very end of their journey. The trick doesn’t lie in not having conflicts but in resolving them as soon as one can.

The story stands very much similar to investment portfolios of investors. Investors load up their portfolios with so much weight from hot tips from friends, media and relatives, filling IPOs, chasing past returns etc. In the end, the portfolios end completely loaded with not performing stocks / funds.

A wise investor resolves the non-performance as soon as it is visible in portfolio. An immediate action would definitely a better choice than weeping for the undone regrets in the end.

Investors should get their portfolios checked at least once in a year for portfolio monitoring. This is the most important part we carry out for investors during their investment journey.

Nishit SIddharth Shah