New Year 2013!

Dear Readers and Friends,

Wish you a very happy NEW YEAR 2013! There are times in life when we must contemplate but there are moments when we must celebrate too. Celebration is one way to wake our selves from sleep, examine our thoughts and processes, make necessary course corrections and carry on with new vigour towards a more contented life!

Some one asked me the other day whether it is important to be happy or to be content. Interesting question. To be happy implies that we have got what we want and perhaps have received more than what we aimed for. To be content implies that we have found that what we have been looking for actually has always been in us and this realisation sends a warm exilaration through our selves.

Now to be happy or content is the way we look at life. The sum total of our experiences and perceptions will dictate which way we will look. Both are needed in their own right, let me assure you. Some times we must seek and get happiness (in small things) but for the most part we must seek to be content.

Contentment is not compromise. Contentment is being. It is to be what we are and to accept it without conditions and pretences.

If  you ask me, for the time being I am content to share this thought with you. Should any of you decide to contemplate and in the process be happy to have contemplated, well, that is a matter for me to be happy too!  

Festival of Lights!

Deepavali aka Diwali, the Indian festival of lights is today.

Lore says that Lord Krishna slayed Naraka Asur on this day. The Asur's mother, hearing her son's fate was overwhelmed with sorrow and ran into the battlefield in a state of despair and tremendous wail. Krishna's heart melt at her plight and He told her that while her son met with his fate that he deserved, she may ask of any boon to soothe her soul. The mother asked that wicked as her son may be,now that the darkness of his sins are over,let there be lights in remebrance of him. Thus began the tradition of lighting lamps that symbolize the end of darkness and the beginning of light and hope in our hearts of the good things that light represents.

There is yet another story that Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya on this day and the citizens welcomed him with lights to celebrate his victory over Ravan, the greatest of all Asur kings!

Either way, today represents the day when darkness will be slayed by light and a new beginning will be made.

Asathoma sath gamaya (from the untruth, lead me to the truth)
Thamasoma jyothir gamaya (from darkness, lead me to the light)
Mrithyoma amritham gamaya (from death, lead me to eternal life)
Om shanthi shanthi shanthi! (let there be peace, peace and peace!)

What we need to understand is that light is the other side of darkness and life the other side of death. They can not exist in isolation and if the positive has to triumph, the negative must exist. So do not despise the negative. Just control it so that the positive shines. Enjoy life responsibly, love others and if you must face unhappiness, look to the other side.

There is Deepavali everyday. We just have to stop, appreciate and indulge!

Happy Deepavali!!


 

Celebrate your being!

Long time ago, a professor of English Literature said that not withstanding the achievements and the consequent laurels that we may receive in life, if we learn to enjoy small things in life, we would be happy. It was on the occasion of our graduation in the college. As is with every other young man graduating from college anywhere in the world, our eyes were full of hope and hearts were full of dreams. Someone wanted to be an engineer; someone a chartered accountant; someone else a lawyer and yet another, an army officer or an IAS. Dreams, hopes and tons of anxiety too. We all wanted to succeed and have hoards of money in the bank; a Fiat at least if not a Mercedes; since miss worlds were relatively unknown, a wife like the heroines of the movies of our time; and a palatial bungalow to live in! Small things in life? Come on professor, how can we live our dreams if we are content with small things? Big, bigger and the biggest, if you do not mind, please.

The professor laughed and we thought he was being funny. He went on to tell us that one thing which he thoroughly enjoys – every Sunday, early in the morning, his wife gets up and after completing her bath prepares a simple breakfast. [Those of us from traditional families in Tamil Nadu know that taking a head bath (an indianised word for shampooing your hair!) means using herbal powders to rub your scalp and hair clean and then drying it with the smoke from ‘sambrani’ powder put in a coal brazier. As is customary, filter coffee (aahhh! the very word is soothing to the soul of Tamilians!!) is then prepared along with the traditional breakfast of idlies, coconut chutney and the quintessential sambar] Oh, sorry, I got lost. Let me get back to the professor!

With a tray containing idlies that are as soft and white as jasmine flowers, sambar with small onions and the heady aromatic filter coffee, the lady goes to wake up the professor. In his own words, even as she opens the door of the bedroom, unable to resist the drool, he jumps out of the bed, brushes in a jiffy and dives into the bowl of sambar! He then goes ahead putting the soft idlies into the bowl of sambar and drinks it like as though there was no tomorrow. The filter coffee can no longer be resisted then. He even wipes the tip of the glass clean with his tongue, burps happily like a new born, pecks a kiss at his wife’s cheek and then…..curls up and goes back to sleep in a state of bliss. Tenderly his wife pats him on his cheek, pulls the cover over him and leaves the bedroom, letting him snore!

The professor, with an impish but sincere smile, told us that he actually lives the six days of the week only for the Sunday morning. Every thing else in his life revolves around his Sunday and his loving wife ensures that he has it that way!!

He then asked everyone of us to talk about something in our life that we actually enjoyed doing. After hearing his story we ended up wondering whether we actually thought of ‘enjoying’ life. Yeah, even after thirty years of this event, I wonder whether I have understood what the professor actually meant. I have remembered and recounted this incident to a variety of people – my sons, wife, friends, students and some casual listeners. Everyone liked the story but I do not know if the meaning ever struck them. I do hope so.

It is easy to say that enjoying today is more important than living for tomorrow. What if I do not have a house? What if I have no money in my old age? What if my neighbours think poor of me because I have not educated my children in Yale or Oxford? What happens to my honor when my neighbor drives around in a BMW and I eke it out on a Maruti Alto? What happens when I do not retire with a million dollars in my savings? What happens?

Actually nothing. Nothing happens.

We may have everything and yet unable to enjoy a moment of unrestrained peace. Wonder what ‘unrestrained’ peace is? Take for example that you are on a holiday at Phuket. Good hotel, food, beach, your wife at her romantic best and then your mind is stuck on the one deal that you need to make another million dollars. Hope you know how the holiday would pass? That is what I mean by ‘unrestrained’ peace.

Let us live for those small moments that actually fill our life with joy. Whether it be with family or with friends; whether it is prayer or manual labor; whether it is to give or to receive, let us find that which makes us vibe with the Universal Self for it is the embodiment of all joy, the source of bliss!

                              LIVE LIFE. CELEBRATE YOUR BEING!    

Love me if you can...

What do you do when you want to say something?

Just say it!

Pretty simple it sounds but not quite so. Saying things that affect no one like “I am hungry”, “I will go home”, “I am tired”, “can I sleep” are simple and you will say them a thousand times without batting an eyelid. Try saying “I hate you” and you will realize how difficult it is to hate a person. Funny it may sound, but try saying “I love you” and you will find your conscience asking ‘do you, really?’

Petty differences arise everyday with people we live and work with everyday. It is so very difficult to agree with everyone at all times and then there are moments when you have to say NO not only to an idea but to some person also. You may even think that it is not possible to accept the idea or the person ever again. Stop for a while in such situations before declaring ‘universal hatred’. Think whether you also may be seen in the same light by that person and ‘hated’ so. Do you really hate that person or just his ideas?

I was going through Jalaludin Mohammed Rumi’s Masnavi and Fihi ma Fihi. Rumi incidentally is accepted universally as the founder-philosopher-saint of the school of Islamic thought that we know as Sufism. He asks if a saint who is immersed in God slaps another person, is it the saint or God who has slapped the person? The most common repertoire would be to say that if he is a real saint, first of all he would not slap. Secondly, why are we dragging an invisible God into the acts of a human? It is the saint and he must repent his action.

Think again. If he is a saint and has renounced his worldly likes and dislikes for the love of God, there is no reason to suspect that he would slap a person for something as silly as personal dislike. Secondly, if someone ventures and manages to tread over the virtuous to an extent that even he would give a slap, then our man deserves the slap and it is indeed the and of God that gave him the slap. The faithful and sincere devotee is actually a manifestation of God and His love for fellow humans. Hate and mischief towards such a soul is actually mischief towards one’s own self. Hatred therefore is mischief manifesting itself towards own self. It is difficult to hate your own self. That is why it is very difficult to hate (in real terms) some one else too.

Well the question then is, why is it also difficult to say ‘I love you’ so easily?

How many of us actually ‘love’ someone or something? Will we do beyond the call of every compulsion, fear or temptation what the ‘love’ actually demands of us? Will we sacrifice everything that we have, including our honor and wealth, for what we love? Will we simply surrender ourselves to that which we love? If the unconditional answer is ‘yes’, perhaps we could say that we love that person or thing. If not, then perhaps what we have towards the person is a strong ‘like’ or ‘desire’ which are matters of emotion. Love is a matter of the spirit.

The best example that I can think of quoting is that of the most favored of all of Lord Krishna’s Gopis, Radha. In one of the bhajans by Hari Om Sharan, there is a line:

US WAQT JALDI AANA   (when the time for my soul to depart comes, you [Krishna] must appear before me quickly)

RADHEY KO SAAT LAANA (bring Radha with you)

NAHI SHYAM BOOL JAANA (hey Krishna, do not forget to bring her!)

Those of us familiar with the stories of Krishna will know that He is the incarnation of Vishnu, Lakshmi is his spiritual consort and even as Krishna, He had two consorts, Rukmini and Satyabhama. So why ask him to come posthaste but with Radha? There were a thousand Gopis in Mathura but they had their role only in his childhood. They played with him and by His grace, received the good fortune of being His play mates. Why not ask Him to come and be present by Himself or at best with His actual consort?

The answer is in the word ‘love’. Think of you as Krishna. There are hundreds of Gopis adoring you and there is this Radha who completely devotes herself to your love. She dances with you, plays with you, surrenders herself to the mellifluous notes of the flute and remains ever in tearful joy and bliss of your company. Under the circumstances, even without such a girl prompting you, you would have got married to her and made her your queen. She would have enjoyed the pomp, glory and a richly deserving life of a queen as your love. In the instant case however, Radha just continued to live in her love for Krishna so much that such material rewards like being a queen had no meaning for her. She remained so much in Krishna that even Krishna came to be known as Radheyshyam than Shayamradhey. Her loves permeates His persona and even His being as God. Together, they symbolize LOVE in its truest form. The thousands of bhajans and songs in praise of Radha’s love for Krishna are testimony to the fact that ‘Love’ goes beyond the physical and symbolic – it is actually spiritual.

It is difficult to love or hate anyone, unless we actually cross the threshold of the physical and tread into the spiritual. Of course, we are guided by such sentiments in our daily lives that, at best, can only be classified as emotional likes and dislikes. Learning to love and if needed, to hate, is a matter of spiritual discovery. Like in every other creation of God, both love and hate exist but they exist beyond our emotional range. They both are a state of existence that needs to be experienced.

I am reminded of a line my professor quoted while teaching child psychology:

LOVE ME IF YOU CAN, HATE ME IF YOU MUST. BUT NEVER IGNORE ME!         

Learning to distinguish between mere like or dislike and love or hate is important as the former will keep us tied in our mundane and the latter would embark us on a journey that will transform our life!

Learning to Love

And then it happened!

We never thought we will get bitten by this bug, though both of our children have been literally after us to succumb to the 'bite'!

We went visiting our friend and laughed our guts out at his "St Bernard and 240 idlies" stories and my wife fell for one of the pups of the dashcund mother in his house.

So here she is, Olive as the kids have named and Oly as we call her, all of 75 days old, in our home!!

It has happened and the best thing is I am beginning to feel that I never knew how to love. I feel quite lost and she being a puppy, must feel quite lost too. The children are quite excited but are again trying to discover ways to get close to her. The only person who seems to be perfectly at home with Oly is my wife. Perhaps her maternal instincts are the cue.

Just pray that we learn to love and love her well, our Oly!  

For the dog lovers of the world!

The other day we dropped in to a friend’s house. It was to be a courtesy visit but turned out to be an interesting day out for us. Though we knew that this friend of ours liked dogs, we had never seen him keeping any earlier. His wife was not very keen and he used to talk about an ashram for his dogs where he would spend the rest of his life, etc…

As we parked our vehicle, we found a small shed in which an alert rottweiler was giving us the best of his stares. As the gate opened, a lively daschund mother and two 60 day old puppies wound themselves around our feet. Seeing our raised eyebrow and smiles, our friend, with an impish grin, pointed to the terrace and whistled. Two cheparapakkam hounds immediately stuck their heads out and cast their gauging look on us! ‘Wow’ said my wife and asked him how he managed. So the stories started. But the best among his adventures with his pets is narrated below.

For long he had drooled about having a St Bernard and finally got one (for a handsome price) from an acquaintance who brought a year old from Switzerland. As he proudly walked the three + feet tall, four feet long big fellow with a face as big as a cow, his wife unilaterally declared that either he (the dog) stays or she stays. (Don’t think that she is hard-hearted. She is one of the finest and affectionate beings that we have met so far. Her reaction perhaps is predictable considering the number of pets already at home!) So, a friendly query was initiated and a tea estate owner-friend offered to keep him. So the fellow was taken to the friend’s place at Ooty and necessary introductions were made. Leaving the fellow there, my friend hardly had left the town when he received a panic call from his friend pleading him to take the fellow back. The inquiry revealed that the docile fellow (keep his size in mind, please!) got scared of the sight of the mother of the friend (considering the cold climate, his mother had wrapped herself with some four sweaters, a couple of scarves and a balaclava cap when she met the dog!) had barked at the top of his voice. The poor old lady, seeing and hearing a St Bernard bark at her, had swooned requiring medical help! So, the St Bernard was put back into his car and brought back.

Since the St Bernard can not be taken home, my friend arranged to keep the fellow in his office and appointed the watchman as caretaker, soon as driving into the town. Next day, the sincere watchman rang up to find out what should he feed the fellow with. “Give him idlies”, my friend ordered.

Seeing the size of the dog, the watchman brought 10 idlies. The poor hungry fellow gobbled them in one go. So the watchman went and fetched some more. At the end of the feeding session, the now practically poor watchman rang up to say that 240 idlies have been fed and yet the dog looked hungry! On top of that the hotel from where idlies were brought had run out of dough!! Seeing a huge dog gobble down 240 idlies, a crowd had gathered and it was difficult for him to leave the dog alone to go and fetch some more idlies!!!

My friend left whatever he was doing and went running and jumping to a vet first with the dog!

My wife and I were in splits hearing these stories. Our friend kept reeling out the incidents with an embarrassing smile. And by God, our day was made.

We do not have a pet yet. Managing two sons, I suppose, is no mean feat by itself! But both of us would like to salute the dog lovers of the world. Your patience and the selfless, unconditional love that you shower on your pet makes you guys very special and better humans than many others.

God bless you all!   

When you believe!

There are moments in life when doubts hang like dark clouds and the hope seems to drain like water from the clouds. And in those moments, there is always something very apt that can pep our hearts up and make us realise that 'even this shall pass'. One of the loveliest songs by Whitney Houston comes to my mind. the lyrics are here to read:

Many nights we've prayed

With no proof anyone could hear

In our hearts a hopeful song

We barely understood

Now we are not afraid

Although we know there's much to fear

We were moving mountains long

Before we knew we could oh yes

there can be miracles when you believe

Though hope is frail it's hard to kill

Who knows what miracles you can achieve

When you believe somehow you will

You will when you believe

Oh yeah in this time of fear

When prayer so often proves in vain

Hope seems like the summer birds

Too swiftly flown away

Yet now i'm standing here

My heart so full i can't explain

Seeking faith and speaking words

I never thought i'll say

[repeat 1]

They don't always happen when you ask

And it's easy to give in to your fears

But when you're blinded by your pain

Can't see the way get through the rain

A small but still resilient voice

Says hope is very near oh

[repeat 1]

You will when you

You will when you believe

Just believe

I believe i believe

Just believe

You will when you believe 

JUST BELIEVE!!

 

He is on fifteen ....

He is fifteen, going on sixteen!

Those of you who have seen the movie ‘Sound of Music’ may recollect the song ‘ I am on sixteen, going on seventeen..’. I did, when my fifteen sent me the first poem written by him. Here is the poem:

Manzil jho thi utni paas

Ab door lagne lagi hae

Dil ki dhadkan se

Sitaron ki roshni ban gayi hae

Likh ke to bata nahi sakta

Uski kushboo thi kaisi

Shayad thi kisi apsara ki

Bag ki poolon jaisi

Khwaabon ke sunhere panno mein

Likha tha sirf uska naam

Manzil thi, voh thi mere jaan

Dhoondta rehta hoon

Mein uske koi nishan

Lekin sirf yaadein milti he

Uske jaise koi kahani.

In lafzon mein

Kabhi naa bata paaunga

Ki kitna mein use …

Bas ek aur baar

Dekhna chahunga.

All I can say is that it is wonderful to be sixteen. We have all been once and the butterflies of those days still dance in the gardens of our memories. Eons seem to have gone by, but then what is life without memories that are balm to the soul; that make you feel the wonder called love; recollect those gardens of yore when we roamed free like butterflies, without a worry, without anxieties, without a thought, without knowing what life held for us in store! Safe in the knowledge of the love of our parents, comforted by our surroundings, indulging the presence of like minded friends and living just that day!!

Oh, it is wonderful to be sixteen and I am happy to see my fifteen becoming sixteen!

Re-live Your Childhood!

If u don't act naughty while you are young, you won't have anything to smile about when you are older..

These are lines from an FB post of a friend of mine and actually I started to laugh, thinking of something that happened in my childhood.

There was this classmate and friend of mine in a small village called Veppanapally in Tamil Nadu. We were about 12 years old. He was so fond of a trick that used to set the whole street laugh their guts out. In those days, in the villages it was common sight to find donkeys lazing around, particularly near the garbage bins (you know those round shaped cement drums that forever over flew!). When ever he saw one fellow lying around, this great friend of mine used to sneak upon the donkey from behind, pounce on to his back, hold on to the ears of the hapless animal and kick him on the sides. The puzzled and frightened donkey then will run about the street braying like mad, with our ‘rodeo’ riding on him like a king! The whole street will come out and burst out laughing at the rodeo show!! At the most convenient bend of the street, the rodeo will jump off, hooting ‘ho, ho, ho!!’ and the donkey will run faster than ever dashing and bumping into everything on its way.

So one day when the show was over and my triumphant hero was coming back beaming from ear to ear. Someone stopped him and asked him, ‘one hell of a fellow you are. But why do you trouble the poor animal like this?’

My friend stopped and thought for a while. Then as would befit a simple, naughty 12 year old, he said, ‘actually, I enjoy the ride. That’s why!’

Childhood is the most memorable part of life. And so, once in a while, take a little time out, laze around on a rocking chair and re-live your childhood. It actually does wonders to your mental health. If you do not believe me, all you have to do is just once give yourself about 15 minutes and see how your life transforms!

Just only one advice – do not try doing those 'naughty' things again. At our age people will think we are ‘nuts’ - not ‘naughty’!!!  

If you love me, let me know...

There were these lines in a song by Olivia Newton –John that made me wonder about love or should I say our concept of love (at least mine in any case!):

If you love me, let me know

If you don’t, let me go…

Do we really love the ones for whom we proclaim our love at the drop of a hat? Wife, children, friends, parents…… what an offensive thought!

But then this question continues to haunt me. As I keep thinking about this, I started to count the number of ‘bonds’ to which I have attached each of them in order to ‘prove’ that I love them and they love me. There were innumerable (unwritten) conditions that we both have to adjust to and accommodate as a test of ever lasting love.

It does not matter whether personal dreams and aspirations, not of the whimsical order, but some of the calling of the heart, are to be sacrificed. After all, what is love without sacrifice? The ‘suffering’ that may ensue is not a suffering. It is the reward for your love! And I demand it in the name of love!

When such thoughts were running wild on my mind, suddenly I was reminded of Khalil Gibran and the meaning of those two lines flashed like a million volt bulb!

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.


Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.


Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

If you love me, let me know

If you don’t, let me go……

The Sparrow Who Did Not Fly South!

This is one my most favourite stories, particularly with reference to the work place:

There was once this sparrow who decided not to fly south for the winters. Though all his clan left, he happily went about chirping in the frozen steppes. But then, it became bitterly cold and the snow made it difficult to find food. So one day, he decided to follow his instincts to the south.

As he soared up and above, his feathers became frosted and wings heavy. In spite of his best efforts, he found himself spiraling down and fell into the snow below.

As he lay freezing to his death, a cow passing by dropped her dung on him. The warm dung defrosted his wings and made him feel light. Happy to be alive, he put his head out and started singing.

Hearing a bird sing, a cat came from nowhere, found the chirping sparrow and promptly ate him up.

The morals of the story, I suppose, have universal appeal:

·        All those who ‘mess’ on you are not necessarily your enemy

·        All those who take you out of ‘mess’ are not necessarily your friends

·        If you are warm and happy in a pile of ‘mess’, it is better to keep your mouth shut!

The Mystery Called Life!

Quite some time ago, a friend of mine called and complained non-stop about his boss. ‘Rakshas hein rakshas, juice nikhal deta hein! (in Hindustani, a fiend who drinks your blood!). Kabhi kabhi man karta hein, bhag jaon yahan se (feel like running away from here!). Like in all such situations at work place, he also had a ‘friend’ to pour his heart out (apart from ‘tele’ friends like me). Since it was some time since we had spoken, I rang him up to say ‘hi!’ He almost broke down on the phone. Here is what he told me.

His sister was due to be married and everything had been arranged. As the marriage was to be solemnized in the groom’s city, a bus was arranged to convey the bride and family to that place. The joyous melee in the bus turned into a nightmare enroute. Driver lost control and banged into a huge tree. Apart from others, the bride got crushed between two seats. The rest was mayhem.

An sos was flashed for the treatment. Some help came from here and there. The ‘trusted’ friend of his office was no where to be seen. Considerable money was locked up as advances to the hotel, marriage hall, caterers, et al. He was in a spin.

And then the ‘rakshas’ appeared in the hospital. After confabulations with the doctors, he handed them a cheque sufficient to see her through o her health. As the dumbfounded friend kept looking on, the ‘rakshas’ wagged a finger at him before leaving and told him to rejoin duty the day she is stable!

‘Yaar, mein jaan bhi dei dun uske liye, tho bhi khum hoga (I can even give my life for him, friend). Bloody hell, to think that I was cursing him all the time those days!’

Human beings are the most complicated things that God ever made. Though HE is supposed to be in every thing, how He will manifest, what He is capable of doing and in whose heart you will find His reflection – well, that perhaps is the mystery called life!

St Francis of Assisi

Long ago when in college, I happened attend the college chapel on a Sunday. We had an elderly priest, who chose that day to speak about prayer.  What he said got embedded into our hearts for a very long time to come:

Actually it does not matter to which faith that we belong. What is important is to have faith. What is important is to believe that we can be instruments of God to spread the message of love, joy, peace and forgiveness.

After the service, the elderly priest went about distributing one of the most touching prayers that I have come across, to everyone in the congregation – Prayer of St Francis of Assisi.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To be loved, as to love.  

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Many, many years later, another apostle of love who walked the Earth during our lifetime, Mother Theresa, delivered the same prayer with a little variation while addressing the UN in 1985: 

Make us worthy Lord to serve our fellow men throughout the world,

Who live and die in poverty and hunger.

Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread

And by our understanding love give peace and joy.

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace.

That where there is hatred I may bring love,

That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness,

That where there is discord, I may bring harmony,

That where there is error I may bring truth,

That where there is doubt I may bring faith,

That where there is despair I may bring hope,

That where there are shadows I may bring light,

That where there is sadness I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted,

To understand than to be understood,

To love than to be loved.

For it is by forgetting self that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven,

it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

Amen.

Great souls, I suppose, think alike!

What we find in our self is what we will find in others!

I was not feeling very well. So went to meet our doctor. While waiting in the clinic, I chanced upon a poster that most hospitals display. It was about a hospital in Dieunne (Dijon) run by Sisters of St Martha. The Sisters have been serving the sick from 1443 AD. Wow! What dedication, I said to myself and decided to check upon the same in the net. What I found on the net really set me thinking about life and faith.

Martha, along with her sister Mary and brother Lazarus lived in Bethany, a village about two miles from Jerusalem. Jesus was fond of the family and came to visit them thrice. The first time when Jesus arrived, Martha readily welcomed him in and immediately set about preparing food for Christ. To her dismay She found her sister Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to him, instead of helping her. So she complained to Jesus. Jesus smiled and said:

You worry about so many things while she is doing what one must!

Martha, realizing the true implication of what Jesus said, remained devoted to him. During his later visit, she even left the grieving household to listen to him. Later, she went to Avignon (Tarascon), where legend has it that she flayed a dragon and became the patron saint of hospitality.

In many ways Martha reflects the normal humans that we are, always worried about something or other. If the past does not worry us, then it is our future that bugs us. If it is not our wife, then it is the children. If it is not the boss, then it is some colleague. If it is not an enemy, then it is our friends. In the constant process of these worries, there is only one thing that we seem to forget – to have faith and to live today.

Faith is not about God. It is about one’s self. When we do not have faith in our self, how can we ever have faith in God?

What we find in our self is what we will find in others!

If we do not believe this all we have to do is look around.

There are millions of ‘faithful’ we see who go to their temples, masjids and churches without fail.

Just across the fence, we also see thousands of non-believers and atheists.

Both seem to have the same amount of joy and sorrow mixed in their cups.

Is there a case then to believe that there is a God for only those who believe? For the rest who do not, there is a NO-GOD?

Much after the great war, the story goes in Mahabharatha, Kunthi the mother of Pandavas, called the famous charioteer, Vidhur, and said:

Go to Dwaraka and ask Sri Krishna to come here. It has been a while since I have seen him.

So, Vidhur meets Sri Krishna, who readily accepts the invitation.

As the chariot rolled, Krishna noticed that Vidhur was rather silent and withdrawn. When queried, Vidhur simply replied:

Lord, you are omniscient and I need not elaborate.

My dear Vidhur, if there is something that you want to know, then you must ask!

So be it, Lord, then. You knew that brothers would kill brothers and millions would perish on the battlefield. You being the Lord God could have prevented this. All you had to do was to wish it that way and the Kaurava and Pandava clan would have lived happily ever after. Instead you let them kill each other. Why?

Krishna smiled. Tell me Vidhur, what did the brothers ask me when they came to see me before the war?

Well, Duryodhana who came first asked for your army to fight on his side and Arjuna who came later asked for you to be his charioteer.

Did they get what they wanted?

Yes, my Lord. Duryodhana believed that he will win the war, with the army on his side. Arjuna believed that he will win the war with you on his side. Eventually, Arjuna won, for you the Lord God was with him.

Sri Krishna laughed. Vidhur you seem to have missed something.

Insightful and intelligent that Vidhur was, he understood. Yes, my Lord, none of the brothers believed that they could live together in peace. Though both of them came to you, all they believed was mutual destruction. That is what they got!

So, my dear Vidhur, it is not what I want that you will get. It is what you desire from the core of your heart that you will get. Have faith!

Have faith. What we find in our self is what we will find in others! 

The Sun will Shine!

 This is one of my favourites from Jim Reeves. Since the song says it all, there is nothing that I can add!

I had lived a life of sin in this world were living in
I had done forbidden things I shouldn't do
I ask a beggar along the way, & u can tell me where to stay
Where I'd find real happiness and love that's true

Across the bridge, there's no more sorrow
Across the bridge, theres' no more pain
The Sun will shine across the river
And you'll never be unhappy again

follow footsteps of the King and you'll hear the voices ring
They'll be singing out the glory of the Lamb
The river of Jordan will be near, the sound of trumpets you will hear
You'll behold the special place ever known to man

Across the bridge, there's no more sorrow
Across the bridge, theres' no more pain
The Sun will shine across the river
And you'll never be unhappy again

Across the bridge, there's no more sorrow
Across the bridge, theres' no more pain
The Sun will shine across the river
And you'll never be unhappy again

You will never be alone if you love!

There is a time for everything – to love, to give, to care, etc and a time to feel lonely, sick, desolate, etc also. If we carefully evaluate our day, we will know this is true. Then what make a happy man and a sad one?

Can you feel happy that you felt alone and sad as much as you felt wanted and loved? Someone told me that you have to be a philosopher to feel so. I do not know anything about philosophy. Therefore, I can not evaluate. However, there is something I can share in the form of a story:

A great king once felt extraordinarily lonely and desolate. He had a dozen doting queens, two dozen loving children, adoring citizens and a bunch of loyal ministers. Yet one day, he felt lonely and desolate.

As is customary, he called for the wisest among his ministers and confided in him how he felt. The minister thought long and hard about this and said:

O king, you are lonely because there is something that you are yet to achieve but can not figure out what. Otherwise, look at you. No man can ever boast of what you have.

The king was silent for sometime. Then he asked the minister to arrange the trial of one of the most notorious criminals in custody. The case was quite a complicated one and the cruelty supposedly exhibited by the criminal had shocked everyone’s conscience.

The minister thought the King wanted to meet out some extra-ordinary punishment and thereby jolt his lonely heart out of desolation.

So the trial commenced. As it concluded and time came for the King’s judgment, a strange silence fell on the crowd. The criminal in any case knew that he would be a dead man and so stood quietly awaiting the sentence. The king was in deep contemplation. At the end, the king said:

Bring forth the victim’s family. So they came forward.

Swear to me that by this man’s blood your child will come back to life.

The family stood puzzled and told him that it can never be. Their child was dead.

Then, swear to me that your child’s soul will rejoice when this man’s blood is spilt.

The family was not sure. No one had seen a dead soul rejoicing.

If this man’s blood is of no use to you then, why do you want him dead?

The family did not know what to say.

The king then asked the criminal:

If by your death you can not bring the child back, how then do you want to pay them back?

The criminal looked at the mother of the child and said:

I do not know. I have sinned and would like to pay them back by my labor, my king. I can not bring their child back. But I can work their field and season after season; can give them a good harvest.

So be it, then. Free this man so that he is a slave to the family to work on their land. As for the grieving mother, learn to forgive the sin this man committed. May be you will find the smile of your child in every harvest this man brings to your home!

After the trial, the minister was puzzled and asked his king how the trial helped him overcome his loneliness. The king said:

Compassion, my dear minister, is the antidote for loneliness!

The 'Friendly Colleague'!

It was quite interesting. I mean the way two colleagues were vying with each other to have the boss’s complete attention. Competition in the office and professional jealousy is something that most of us live with everyday. Some of us cope with and some loose out. At the end of the day, however, one finds that the winner is actually equal to the loser (or vice versa).

There are reasons for saying so.

First, look at what every boss actually needs. He needs out put and achievement of goals. If one thinks that he became boss just to fulfill his personal needs, well, there are better myths to believe. He was an achiever and therefore he reached! He knows that you also want to reach and it is but natural that you have to achieve first.

Second, look at what you need. If you are looking for a life long friend by cozying up to your boss, well, it is better you give it a second thought. There are better avenues to make friends. Honestly, you are actually looking for becoming a boss your self. There is nothing wrong in that, by the way. Every reasonable man must want to grow. It is just that you got to work to become what you want to be!

So how do we balance these aspects. Simple –

First, be a professional in your field.

Second, be nice and courteous to your boss.

Third, remember, he wants results more than friendship.

Fourth and last, if it so happens that you do become friends, consolidate the relationship by all means (after all good friends are hard to come by!), but do not mix work with friendship!!  

Unknown, Unheard, Unsung!

Long time ago, a journalist who visited one of the forward and difficult frontiers concluded his article on the troops deployed there with these words:

“These are the real heroes – unknown, unheard, unsung!”

The debate is not about why the nation must remember its heroes. It is about character. Patriotism is also an attribute of character that reflects in the actions of a country. A few hundred thousand troops singing the glory of the nation does not make the nation patriotic. It is the billions of citizens’ faith in their own nation and their actions guided by such faith that makes the nation patriotic.

Many a times we discuss the actions of certain powers in the world stage and tend to brand them as ‘pushy’ ‘self centered’ or even ‘open display of their might’. If we sit down and analyse we will find that they are actually motivated not by the desire to bulldoze another country, but to uphold their national interest (sometimes, at all cost!). Patent actions such as these are actual display of ‘patriotism’ by a country. There will be costs to bear. But then, the nation does what it is convinced that it must do. Courage of conviction is not merely a praiseworthy attribute of an individual, it is the touch stone by which strong nations and weaklings are marked out. The size of the country actually has nothing to do with its courage of conviction. Even historically, it is David who fell Goliath!

Anyway, today’s scribble was to be about one of the most solemn tributes that has ever been paid to the Indian soldier in a battlefield that hardly few would know – battle of the Mishmi plains (Namti plain), 1962. The poem inscribed in the simple marble plaque was written by Bernard S Dougal, who was the Deputy Commissioner at that time. What a patriotic civil servant he must have been!

The sentinel hills

That around us stand
Bear witness that

We loved our land.

Amidst shattered rock

And flaming pines,
We fought and died

On Namti plains.

O Lohit, gently by us glide,
Pale stars above softly shine,

As we sleep here

In Sun and rain

        - Bernard S Dougal

Our salute to the gallant men of the Sikh, Dogra and Garwal platoons who defended the Lohit with their lives!

In case interested, for more details on the battle and monument, check out the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walong

http://bhavanajagat.com/tag/mishmi-tribes/