In the forest of your mind
Wanders many creatures
Of thoughts,
Great and small
Playing the game
Vying for attention
Fighting for Survival
To be heard and to be listened to
To be acted upon and manifest itself.
Your history and future
Dancing a tango with each other
In this present moment
But in-between and betwixt…
There is a space of quiet
Of all pervading calm
Within lies a lake of stillness
Or call it a pool of peace.
A watering hole of wisdom
A centering space of simplicity
As all illusory creations of the mind
Partake in a regeneration.
As the thoughts refresh themselves
The mind collects itself once more
All is Serene and tranquil inches now
Peace pools in and life evolves…
Why this Prejudice… Of running life down Of praising one gender Of shaming one another
Why these violations… Of human life Of dignity? Of personal freedom
Why these exploitations… Of weak by strong? Of bullying And aggressions.
Life is meant to live To express itself For itself! Its not born to be at mercy! What makes one life Assume superiority And think it has power Over the other?
Let practice respect for one another Then teach children To respect the differences And acknowledge the diversities.
Our pride and prejudices Have only caused war and illwill Let us share empathy & goodwill And let go our hatred and malices
Let us not discriminate Every colour is beautiful to see Every life has a reason to be Just as you and me.
During one of his travels, Kalidasa (the Great Poet) felt very thirsty and looked around for water. He saw a woman drawing water from a well.
He went up to her and asked her for water. She agreed to give him water, but asked him, “Who are you? Introduce yourself.”
Now Kalidasa thought that an ordinary village woman was not worthy of knowing who Kalidasa was. So he said, “I am a traveller.”
But his lady replied, “In this world there are only 2 travellers – the Sun and the Moon. Both Rise and Set every day and keep travelling perpetually.”
Then Kalidasa said, “Alright then, I am a guest.” The lady promptly replied, “In this world there are only 2 guests – Youth and Wealth … both are temporary and hence can only be called as guests.”
Intrigued Kalidasa said, “I am a Tolerant person (sahansheel vyakti).” Now the lady replied, “In this world only 2 truly know the meaning of Tolerance – Bhoomi (Earth) and Tree. How much ever you stamp the earth or throw stones at the tree (for the fruits), both continue to nurture us.”
Now Kalidasa was completely perplexed. He said, “Fine. I am a stubborn person (hatavaadi).” The lady smiled and said, “There are only 2 truly stubborn personalities – our nails and our hair. We keep cutting them non-stop, but they continue to grow.”
Kalidasa had been patient so far, but now in anger he said, “I am a fool”. Now the lady gave a wide smile and said, “There are only 2 kinds of fools in this world – a King who rules without having any capability or knowledge & a Minister who is a sycophant to such a King and lavishes praises on such a useless king.”
Kalidasa realised that he had been outsmarted. He fell at the feet of the lady and when he touched her feet and then got up, whom did he see?
Mother Saraswati – the Goddess of Learning and Wisdom. She said, “Kalidasa, you are wise. But only if you know yourself do you become a Manushya (human being). A person without any awareness of self has not reached the pinnacle of being a Human.
Note:
The Guru who recounted this story in His Teachings said, “Children should become a Manushya & know themselves. More than teaching them how to earn more money and become rich, parents should teach them to become aware of themselves and become better Human beings.
Wouldn’t you agree?
What do you think of this ancient story and its relevance to our education today?
How far have we really come with the so called knowledge?
What legacy will we really be leaving behind for our children tomorrow?
When can we bridge this growing gap between learning for knowledge and learning for understanding?
How can we transform our methods of education where we educate not just the mind but also the human heart?
For the truth is that…
Humanity needs us all to be humane more than ever before to survive!
Air and Space Water Form
All elements of being
This beautiful world of ours
Blesses us much
So much gratitude
For these elements of life.
We are born of it and we need it to survive
Every thing has a reason to be
The river of time
The water that flows
The shape of things
The spaces we occupy
The air that we breathe
All matters for life and living.
We breathe air to live in space
This air that we breathe
We often take for granted
This air is the gift of earth around us.
We need to value its presence
We need to keep it pure and clean
For what we breathe we are
For our actions depend upon it.
A ship floats in water
Not just because of buoyancy
But because there is air tight space
A space that contains air
A space that aids the displacement
A space that balances the weight
A space that lightens the load
The shape makes a difference
In the way the weight is carried
The shape of the ship makes it float.
Displacing water equal to its weight
Helping it to stay afloat.
Archimedes’ principle, physical law of buoyancy, discovered by the ancient Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes, stating that any body completely or partially submerged in a fluid (gas or liquid) at rest is acted upon by an upward, or buoyant, force, the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body. The volume of displaced fluid is equivalent to the volume of an object fully immersed in a fluid or to that fraction of the volume below the surface for an object partially submerged in a liquid. The weight of the displaced portion of the fluid is equivalent to the magnitude of the buoyant force. The buoyant force on a body floating in a liquid or gas is also equivalent in magnitude to the weight of the floating object and is opposite in direction; the object neither rises nor sinks. For example, a ship that is launched sinks into the ocean until the weight of the water it displaces is just equal to its own weight. As the ship is loaded, it sinks deeper, displacing more water, and so the magnitude of the buoyant force continuously matches the weight of the ship and its cargo.
Qualities of a Leader mentioned by the esteemed and the honourable Dr Abdul Kalam Azad. All these are valuable qualities in leadership.
A Visionary:
Without knowing where to lead the followers how can a leader execute his plan?
Equanimity
Without being able to be balanced in equanimity in both actions and attitude, how can a leader be able to ride the storms and manifest the changes in the challenges?
Nobility
Without enabling the heart and mind to be transparent to each other, how can a leader be synched in the decisions taken?
An Explorer
Without being open to an explorer’s mindset how can the leadership survive in this cutthroat world?
A decision maker
Without a focused approach and timely decisions taken with courage how can leadership know what to do ahead?
Integrity: Without a sense of honesty and morality how can the leader lead others?
And I love the wisdom in these words. For this is what to me, is the sign of a great leader.
A Professor started his class on a very serious Topic. The moment he turned towards the blackboard, one of the students whistled. He turned, looked at the class and asked the Whistler’s name. No one answered.
The Professor peacefully kept the Pen in his pocket saying: “Lecture ends here. I’ll tell you a story to utilise the remaining time”.
Everyone became interested.
“Yesterday night I tried hard to sleep, but it was miles away from my eyes, so I thought I’d better get petrol in my car, which will save my time next morning and might induce sleep. After having my tank full, I started roaming in that area, enjoying the peace of a traffic free ride.
Suddenly, on the corner I saw a girl who was as young and beautiful as the clothes she was wearing. Must have been returning from a party. Out of courtesy, I turned my car towards her and asked if I may be of any help. She asked me if I could drop her to her home, she’ll be very obliged, to which I agreed.
She sat in the front seat with me. We started talking, and to my amazement she was very intelligent, had control on many topics which many youngsters don’t.
When we reached her address, she admitted my courteous nature and behavior and accepted that she would love to meet again.
I also admitted her intelligence and beauty and that I’ve also started liking her. I told her about my job as a professor in the university.
The girl asked my number, which I gave her willingly. Then she asked me a favor, to which i couldn’t have denied naturally.
She said that her brother is a student in the same university, and asked me to take care of him, since we’ll meeting each other more now.
I asked the name of the student. She said that I’ll recognise him with one of his very prominent quality, *He whistles a lot!*
All eyes in the classroom turned towards the boy who had whistled.
The professor said: “I didn’t buy my Ph. D in Psychology.. I earned it”.
Whenever we get too drawn into the vortex of living life and whenever it starts to feel like a burden and like there is no lightness in the moments it is perhaps time to take a check on our own way of being. So today I am heart fully sharing my dear mother’s two bits on the way of peaceful life and living… I have re read it earlier for to balance my own thoughts as well.:))
Already a lot has been said and written about this. So many experts in different fields have shown so many ways to attain peace.
Peace- the ultimate human need even after reaching peaks of success in their fields. It eludes even the so called achieved souls.
Humans have various desires and find various ways to fulfill them.
Need for wealth, health, love, knowledge, family , status, fame, power, comforts… . the list goes on. To achieve them they go through various states of hardships n emotional turbulence . Perseverance, hard work, focus and luck help them to achieve their goals. But after attaining all these is one peaceful?
Unfortunately the more one gains, the greater is the loss of inner peace. Loads of pressure weighs down them.
The need for more never get satiated. Contentment is always on the other side of the river.Because our expectation keeps on increasing .
From childhood one has to live to the expectations of people surrounding them and in the process then they grow up, they start expecting the same from all around them .
Whichever field or whatever state they are, there is always expectations. Family , friend, society, teachers, work place, children, lifestyle, appearance, behavior befitting their age n status…expectations everywhere.; either by us or from us at all stages of our life. Again it is endless. Peace still eludes .
Like the most difficult puzzles have very simple solutions , life problems also can be simplified.
Simply working towards reducing and gradually ceasing the expecting from others or living to other’s expectations.
Be yourself , let others be themselves.
Never shy away from our duty or ignore social responsibilities or inner values. Doing without expectations. But it is not easy to transcend basic human nature. More than desires, our expectations not happening cause us more sorrow. All are not yogis or saints. But peace is ultimately desired by all. If every one adheres to practice non expectation, peace will befriend the surrounding .
Do your duty, Be dedicated, Be grateful , Be understanding ,Be helpful, Be kind and compassionate,
Be selfless , all without expectations.
Your due will come to you in its own time in its own way.
Such is Cosmic law.
No expectation –
No disappointment –
No arguments –
No disharmony –
Peaceful existence
With whomever or wherever one be, adopt, adjust & accept. Happiness & peace will follow.
When acceptance becomes our nature the rest become easier.
One word mantra to peace
Live, let live.
Stop Expecting.
Start Accepting.
Live happily.
A youngster was attending a video conference with his Manager who was upset over the background noises. The Youngster turned around and told his grandmother to keep quiet.
She walked towards the youngster, to take a look into what he was doing and saw a person on the Monitor and asked, “Who is he?”
The youngster muted his audio and video and said, “He is my Manager”.
She said, “I want to talk to your Manager”. But the youngster denied. By the time the Manager started pinging the youngster and the youngster unmuted to talk and his grandmother shouted, “Manager I want to talk to you”.
The Manager agreed and the youngster unmuted the video. The grandmother, with a smile said, “Namaskara” and introduced herself and the Manager also greeted her.
She said, “You look upset”.
The Manager said, “Yeah, some kind of work tension, a lot of noise around your house and we are not able complete the meeting in time”.
The Grand Mother asked, “May I help solve your problem?”
Her grandson was stopping her and telling her to keep quiet.
The Manager said, “It’s ok, let her speak”.
The Grandmother narrated, “Once there was a Young man, who sat under a tree for taking rest. He was continuously hearing a bird’s sound. He lifted his head and seeing a bird, started chasing it, so that he could peacefully take some rest. The bird came closer to him and said, “You are taking rest under my nest. I will not ask you to leave this place but you should learn to co-exist with us”.
The Grandmother looked at both of them and said, “Your Home is your nest” where you are supposed to take rest and bond with your dear and near ones. I do understand the Covid-19 situation, but you should also understand that our home is not your office.
*When we come to visit our family members at your office place, we are expected to behave professionally or maintain a certain decorum.*
Similarly, when you are using our home for your office work, you should understand the situation at our home.
There is nothing wrong with working from home, but remember, it is the family members benevolent nature, that is keeping the corporate world functioning today and the economy running.
She looked at the manager and asked, “Am I correct ?”
*The Manager’s mother peeped and said “You are absolutely right”.* 👍😊
