Saturday, January 30, 2010
My eyes opened and the next moment my hand reached out for my cell phone waiting to fill my sleeping room with just the right kind of melody to bring about transition from my semi-conscious state to a state of wide awake ness. A sense of wonder filled me as I realized that my body clock had once again been immaculate. Exactly two minutes later, the promised music got played and I quickly pressed the ‘disable’ key on my cell phone so as not to disturb my better half in his best hours of sleep.
A relaxed cup of hot ginger-flavored chai completed my waking up process. Soon after, I was in front of the bathroom mirror filling my mouth with ‘the best mouthwash in the whole wide world’. Why my mouthwash sounds like a line from a fairy-tale is a tale I am willing to tell. After using and discarding every available mouthwash in both India and the USA, I decided to hunt for ‘the one and only’ kind of mouthwash on the World Wide Web. My efforts brought me closer to some of the spices resting right inside my kitchen. Cinnamon, Clove, Fennel became my close friends but still my search for the perfect thing wasn’t over. I finally found the recipe for my fairy-tale mouthwash and it read something like one part 3% hydrogen peroxide, one part distilled water, a pinch of table salt and a pinch of sodium bicarbonate. I agree that this fairy-tale has shades of ‘Shrek’ in it, but the crux of the matter is that it worked.
I freshened up fast and sat down on an aasan comprising layers of straw mat and a thick cotton rug in my meditation centre. My meditation centre is in the North-east corner of my spacious living room separated from the rest of the room by a partition screen made of intricately carved sheesham wood. There is a small corner-shaped marble temple in there. I bowed before the deities residing in my temple and started meditating on their formless, boundless, infinite power.
Having re-established my connection with the Divine, I was ready to perform my duties towards my household comprising my husband, an 8-year old son and a 4-year old daughter. After sending everyone to their work-areas and getting the house thoroughly cleaned by my silent and efficient maid-servant, I was free to apply myself to my essay writing. I am currently writing an essay titled ‘The Ocean and the River’. This essay is about some of my experiences in the recent past and involves a lot of flashback taking place in my mind. While revisiting the happenings of the past, I have realized that happy and positive memories about people and incidents fill my body and mind with vitality, whereas, sad and negative memories drain away the energy. I have thus, started appreciating the importance of the policy to ‘forgive and forget’ as it is in our best interest only.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Satyam Shivam Sundaram
Sunday, January 31, 2010
I watched the movie ‘Rocket Singh- salesman of the year’ with my husband last night. The movie had some powerful messages. It upheld the right values- Satyam Shivam Sundaram ie Truth, Goodness and Beauty. The world is divided between people who either live by the values of Power, Money and Lust, or by the values of Truth, Love and Beauty. The movie truthfully depicted that the path to excellence is replete with rejection, mockery and humiliation and can be treaded upon only by those who are ready to follow their dreams without any expectations. Bhagwad Gita’s message of ‘Nishkaam Karma’ gets manifested in the protagonist’s struggle to achieve the right ends by using the right means only.
I watched the movie ‘Rocket Singh- salesman of the year’ with my husband last night. The movie had some powerful messages. It upheld the right values- Satyam Shivam Sundaram ie Truth, Goodness and Beauty. The world is divided between people who either live by the values of Power, Money and Lust, or by the values of Truth, Love and Beauty. The movie truthfully depicted that the path to excellence is replete with rejection, mockery and humiliation and can be treaded upon only by those who are ready to follow their dreams without any expectations. Bhagwad Gita’s message of ‘Nishkaam Karma’ gets manifested in the protagonist’s struggle to achieve the right ends by using the right means only.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
One day of Conscious Living - The Prelude
Friday, January 29, 2010
Be the change that you want to see in the world - Mahatma Gandhi
I would like to introduce myself as someone who has finally understood, theoretically for now, Gandhiji’s message to ‘be the change’. I want to ‘be the change’ in practice as well, and for that, I’ve decided to refer to the wise words and images from the holy book Mahabharata and Aamir Khan’s movie Taare Zameen Par respectively.
Dharmaraj Yudhishthir and his brothers were under the tutelage of Guru Dronacharya. One day, Guruji asked all his students to learn the line ‘sada satya bolo’ ie always speak the truth. The next day, on being asked to repeat the lesson of the previous day, everyone except Yudhishthir repeated the line. Guruji was surprised that Yudhishthir couldn’t remember such a simple line and asked him to come prepared with it the next day. The next day and many days thereafter, Yudhishthir found himself unable to repeat the lesson. Guruji finally lost his temper with Yudhishthir and admonished him before his class-mates. He, however, stood blank faced and accepted his failure in not having managed to pass a day without being untruthful in some way or the other. Guruji was stunned at the explanation given by him. He hugged him and said that it was his good fortune to have a student who taught him the true meaning of learning by transforming a mere sentence into a way of living.
The protagonist in the movie, the little boy, maintained a thick drawing book in which he drew one picture each day. His dismal academic performance frustrated his parents and they sent him to a boarding school against his wish. A few months later, the boy’s teacher comes to meet his parents at his house and finds his thick drawing book. On slowly turning over the pages of that book, he found each page exactly like the other; but as he speedily runs the pages between his fingers, he discovers that the book had been made to replicate a scene in motion applying the same technique as used by an animation movie maker.
Now if I try to combine the lesson from the Mahabharta with the animation movie making technique portrayed in the movie Taare Zameen Par, I get to understand that if I want to ‘be the change’, then I have to work on each day of my life in such a way that even though most of the things that I do during a single day may appear to be repetitive, but some little thing slowly and almost imperceptibly changes each day making my life appear like a scene in motion that finally attains the desirable change.
After having shared with you my desire to ‘be the change’ as well as the technique that I plan to employ for fulfilling my desire, I sit down to draw in the first page of my drawing book. I trust in God to assist me in completing one such page daily.
Be the change that you want to see in the world - Mahatma Gandhi
I would like to introduce myself as someone who has finally understood, theoretically for now, Gandhiji’s message to ‘be the change’. I want to ‘be the change’ in practice as well, and for that, I’ve decided to refer to the wise words and images from the holy book Mahabharata and Aamir Khan’s movie Taare Zameen Par respectively.
Dharmaraj Yudhishthir and his brothers were under the tutelage of Guru Dronacharya. One day, Guruji asked all his students to learn the line ‘sada satya bolo’ ie always speak the truth. The next day, on being asked to repeat the lesson of the previous day, everyone except Yudhishthir repeated the line. Guruji was surprised that Yudhishthir couldn’t remember such a simple line and asked him to come prepared with it the next day. The next day and many days thereafter, Yudhishthir found himself unable to repeat the lesson. Guruji finally lost his temper with Yudhishthir and admonished him before his class-mates. He, however, stood blank faced and accepted his failure in not having managed to pass a day without being untruthful in some way or the other. Guruji was stunned at the explanation given by him. He hugged him and said that it was his good fortune to have a student who taught him the true meaning of learning by transforming a mere sentence into a way of living.
The protagonist in the movie, the little boy, maintained a thick drawing book in which he drew one picture each day. His dismal academic performance frustrated his parents and they sent him to a boarding school against his wish. A few months later, the boy’s teacher comes to meet his parents at his house and finds his thick drawing book. On slowly turning over the pages of that book, he found each page exactly like the other; but as he speedily runs the pages between his fingers, he discovers that the book had been made to replicate a scene in motion applying the same technique as used by an animation movie maker.
Now if I try to combine the lesson from the Mahabharta with the animation movie making technique portrayed in the movie Taare Zameen Par, I get to understand that if I want to ‘be the change’, then I have to work on each day of my life in such a way that even though most of the things that I do during a single day may appear to be repetitive, but some little thing slowly and almost imperceptibly changes each day making my life appear like a scene in motion that finally attains the desirable change.
After having shared with you my desire to ‘be the change’ as well as the technique that I plan to employ for fulfilling my desire, I sit down to draw in the first page of my drawing book. I trust in God to assist me in completing one such page daily.
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