Let The Life Flow

My parents are ardent supporters of a political party whose ideology is different from what I and my siblings stand for.   So at times a discussion on political scenario in the family gatherings generates heated exchanges. During one such discussion my mother declared that she hates Muslims. It gave me a punch for thought. I stopped for a moment and then asked my 72 year old mother, “Have you been harmed by any Muslim in your life Ma?” And it was her turn for a pause. She finally said, “No”. But her antipathy towards Muslims decides her political perception and may be some other life aspects. And ‘a realization’ knocked me like a bolt. She has not been harmed nor done any good to her by any Muslim. She in fact has interacted with only one Muslim family in her entire life. And I know that interaction was always cordial till it lasted. They were neighbor to her brother’s family. When her brother’s family shifted out to some other place this interaction ceased.   Where from...

Recently I went for a get together of my high school batch mates. Never had thought a possibility of that exists and when it suddenly came to my conscious it was definitely a surprise. But joining and experiencing the high energy of that congregation was a pleasant surprise. I could not recognize most of the male batch mates at the first sight. But it was not awkward as the non recognition of the other was mutual in most cases. And that made the reintroduction process a fun game of guessing and failing and re-guessing and at times failing and at times shouting out their names with sheer pleasure of recollection of their names. What was surprising however to me was towards the end of the day when I looked those faces I felt there was not much change in their facial contours from the memory I had of them. Amazing! My mind had mapped out the new faces with the old ones stored in my subconscious and all the changes that seemed discords had been overlooked…! The impact of more than t...

Since childhood I was curious about existence. Who am I?  I remember as a child, probably when I was 9/10 year old I used to ask other friends, “Who are you? “The friends used to say “I am X, Y or Z”. My second question used to be “where are you?” The friends’ usual answer was “I am here.”  I used to ask “how do you know you are here?” Either amused or irritated the friends’ reply used to be “Cann’t you see? Here I am” pointing a finger at some part of their body, usually chest. My counter used to be “That is your chest. Where are you?” If the friend used to show me any other part my question used to be again “You are showing your --- body part. Where are you? It used to end in a irritated response from my friends like “Ok, ok do not try to be smart” or “ Ok, we know you ask smart questions”  and so on. Invariably there was no answer. I did not have an answer nor them. I used to ask this question to myself. This is my hand; this is my leg, my face and so on....

A week back while cleaning my bookself I opened an old 'intention book' of mine. I had not looked into it for some years now and almost forgotten what was in it. Flipping through I found many of my intentions have come true over the time! :) Some intentions I found showed some of the confusions I had faced then. Some intentions looked irrelevant now. If I look back,  this intention book was a resultant action after I first read the book The Secret and learnt about the Vision Board of John Assaraf . I had read about how to his surprise he found that he owned and was living in the house which he had put to his vision board some time back. After that I had read many more write ups and books on the subject and out of curiosity had devised my own version of putting intentions on record - An Intention Book. One of the intention in my book was to design my house by a famous Interior Designer.  At that point of time that was something way out of my reach and an ultimate luxury....

Almost a year and I had not even visited my page. Its like a pause. No movement here. Nothing changes in this limited space. But was it really a pause? When I stop in one point, that does not stop everything. That only showed to me that my movement has changed direction. But life moves all the moment, all along. I was engrossed learning the nuances of designing interiors and it was fascinating. In fact now I understand there is nothing in this life; which when I take interest and get into is not fascinating. So many possibilities life holds in one moment. And when I put my choice on one, it opens up again numerous possibilities and it is a continuous game. Only I need to have the intention of playing. I was not writting - pause. I was sketching so many lines and curves to get so many different forms and shapes on paper. Hours and hours moved on. My mind was not thinking of words- pause. In stead it was visualising spaces made beautiful with different forms and colours - moving on ...

I was feeling down and low. Recovering from a viral fever. As it happens with me often, something in me inspired to pull out my copy of Deepak Chopra 's book ' Ageless Body Timeless Mind ' and flip through randomly. It was about being with nature. Deepak talked about the value of being with nature, even if for a short while in the day. He talked about if got opportunity to lie down on grass stretching out the body and soak up some sun.  My body was aching severely, head was reeling and my mood was in depression. But a thought raced through my head like a lightning. I have developed and nurturing the small lawn in front of my house for last two years, but have never ever thought of lying down on the grass! Leave alone lying on it, I have not even sat on the bare grass on my lawn! I have this lovely little patch of green and the thought had never come! I tried to remember when was the last when I had stretched myself on green grass anywhere and it was years back! I gave ...

Awareness, in itself, is curative - Fritz Pearls   During my 20 days retreat for Vipassana in 2008, I met the teacher Mr Baburam Yadav. During the 19 days of silence I had thought he would be around 60 to 65. On the 20 th day after the metta when we came out of silence, many of us wanted to express our gratitude to both the conducting teachers. That is when I came to know that he was 82. If that piece of information was startling even more fascinating was his journey of letting go.  While listening to a meditator’s physical problem and how that was making it difficult for him to meditate, he was explaining about equanimity and letting go. In that conversation he talked about his own experience of physical difficulty and meditation and healing.  When he was diagnosed that he was at the last stages of cancer and in doctor’s opinion he had a month to live if he does not go through a surgery. And what was his chance of survival post surgery? It seems the do...