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!