Heart of the tree
A vision that made me happy today
Cheer fills the air
Sun kissed leaves shining bright
The ground feels delightfully cool
Under the giant canopy
Fresh breeze and heady fragrance wafting through
Life is truly fine and well
Under this giant tree….
Savvy
Some of you might have read this before but I have posted it as it’s worth reading again and again 😊
Motivational Story – The Bamboo Tree
A man got frustrated with life. Despite all the hard work and effort, failure was all that he learnt. Feeling defeated with life, he left everything and exiled himself in the woods. There he met a Hermit. The disappointed man shared is failure with the hermit. “Give me one good reason not to quit?”- He pleaded the Hermit
“Look”, the hermit said, pointing towards two plants. “Do you see that fern and bamboo there?
“Yes”, the man nodded.
“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them water, light and fertilizer. Within a short period of time the fern quickly grew from the earth”, the hermit continued.
“But despite the Bamboo seed being watered and nurtured for years, it did not outwardly grow as much as an inch. In fact, nothing at all happened in the first year. There was no sign of growth. But, I did not give up on the Bamboo seed and continued to water and nurture it. By the fifth year, a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. And within six months, the tree grew a hundred feet tall.”
“So, did the bamboo tree lie dormant for four years only to grow exponentially in the fifth?” the hermit asked. Baffled by the question the man kept quiet. “The answer is quite obvious. The little tree was growing underground, developing a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year and beyond. Had the tree not developed a strong foundation, it would not have sustained its life as it grew.”
“Did you know that all the time you had been struggling, you were growing strong roots”, remarked the hermit
The man learned his lesson that day. He learnt the value of persistence and hard work. The fern and the bamboo stood right in front of him as he walked towards his life to continue to work on his dreams
A share from ISHA UPANISHAD
The Shanti Mantra :
Om purnamadah purnamidam purnat purnamudacyate | purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavashishyate || Om Shantih Shantih Shantih hi||
This is One of the greatest gift to the humanity.
The concept of Zero comes from this very Shanti Mantra.
In linear mathematics, we will always find that when something is taken out from something, that something from which things are taken out lacks.
If we take some furniture out from a room then that room is minus those furniture.
That means this room is not what it had before.
This is a linear thinking.
But here the Rishis gave us a completely different outlook towards life.
The spherical thinking is :
That is full. And this is also full.
This fullness has come from that fullness. And in spite of this fullness having come from that fullness, that still remains full.
A mother gives birth to a baby.
A baby is also complete. The mother is also complete.
Just because the baby is born, the mother is not lacking something. In fact, it has added to her glory.
The concept of Zero, without which nothing could have happened in this planet.
No computer technology, no science could have progressed.
That has (its) origin here in this very Shanti Mantra.
From the fullness, comes out the fullness, and still the fullness remains fullness.
We can go on analyzing this very Shanti Mantra on various levels:
Spiritual level, Material level, level of Mathematics, level of Physics etc.
It is pregnant with huge information.
When we share our Peace with others, our peace will not be lost.
When we share our Knowledge with others, we won’t lose the knowledge.
It remains complete inside us.
Similarly, this Universe, in fact it is multi-verse, enormously huge, is dynamic. Many things are being born here everyday and dissolving back into it everyday.
Still both the manifest is complete and the unmanifest is also complete.
The Rishis say Shanti Shanti Shanti – three times.
When our environment is disturbed, we cannot sit there and think about or contemplate on Knowledge.
When the Knowledge is to flow and transfer, the environment needs to be Congenial.
Our body-mind complex needs to be fit on the third level, the level of the Self, the Being and Inner Peace. Hence Shanti-Peace is emphasised.
A Peaceful mind can probe into something beyond, can grasp that something which cannot be grasped by the little mind.
The intellect cannot access to things which our spirit can get access to.
And for that the wholeness is essential.
▪️
Informative share
Interestingly , 50% of a person’s bones & 50% of the muscles, are in the two legs.
Do walk
▪️The largest & strongest joints & bones of the human body are also in the legs.
3-7k steps / day
▪️Strong bones, strong muscles and flexible joints form the Iron Triangle that carries the most important load i.e. the human body.”
▪️70% of human activity and burning of energy in one’s life is done by the two feet.
▪️Do you know this ? When a person is young, his/ her thighs have enough strength , to lift a small car of 800 kg !
▪️The foot is the center of body locomotion.
▪️Both the legs together have 50% of the nerves of the human body, 50% of the blood vessels and 50% of the blood is flowing through them.
▪️ It is the largest circulatory network that connects the body.
So walk daily.
▪️Only when the feet are healthy then the convention current of blood flows , smoothly, so people who have strong leg muscles will definitely have a strong heart. Walk.
▪️Aging starts from the feet upwards
▪️As a person gets older, the accuracy & speed of transmission of instructions between the brain and the legs decreases, unlike when a person is young. Please walk
▪️In addition, the so-called Bone Fertilizer Calcium will sooner or later be lost with the passage of time, making the elderly more prone to bone fractures. WALK.
▪️Bone fractures in the elderly can easily trigger a series of complications, especially fatal diseases such as brain thrombosis.
▪️Do you know that 15% of elderly patients generally, will die max. within a year of a thigh-bone fracture !! Walk daily without fail
▪️ Exercising the legs, is never too late, even after the age of 60 years.
▪️Although our feet/legs will gradually age with time, exercising our feet/ legs is a life-long task.
Walk 3000-7000 steps
▪️Only by regular strengthening the legs, one can prevent or reduce further aging. Walk 365 days
▪️ Please walk for at least 30-40 minutes daily to ensure that your legs receive sufficient exercise and to ensure that your leg muscles remain healthy.
Do share this valuable information with all your friends & family members, as everyone is ageing on a daily basis…
_
Engagement is an involvement
It involves committment.
Engagement is an action
It involves doing, a deed
Engagement is a focused interest
To do whatever is possible.
Engagement can be a moral obligation.
What are your daily engagements?
What keeps you engaged in them?
Savvy
My friend Ali Anani from Jordan proposed an interesting question last evening.
“As a poet dear Savvy I just wonder how much do you trust planning?”
Here are my musings…
Poets and Planning
A poet has a lot of structuring to do…
The poet steps out of the box
Knowing only too well that thoughts needs to align in time.
Without trust in the divine plan there is no way the poet can create.
And without a plan that visualizes the bigger picture as much as the little details, the verse will not make sense.
So poets and planning have much to do in trustfulness.
Now speaking personally,
Spontaneity seems to surge
In the throes of a thought wave.
Yet much is happens in following the flow.
Synergies are sensed
In the amalgamation and associations.
Of thoughts into verses.
As words then fill the void spaces
Making meaning out of matter.
Spontaneity too then is preordained in the divine plan
And poets are simply messengers
Enriching thoughts in a meter of sorts.
To make the ordinary words come alive!
Savvy
Power of one candle to light the darkness
Power of one tree to give shade
Power in one smile to change the mood
Power of one hand to feed the hungry
Power of one kind word to change hearts
Power of one heart to ignite hope in the world
Power of one touch to lift the soul
Just one heartfelt move… makes all the difference!
Life reflects itself through the things you do, the people you meet as well as in your passions and perseverances, in so many intriguing yet enthralling ways.
One such beautiful reflection I experienced in my travels earlier in France.
A sense of deja vu, a throwback to the fond memories of teaching dances to people in the different places, all thanks to the Dance & the magic of movements.
While visiting France I met my colleague from the world of dance, Celine Maheo who resides in Rennes
Celine is a practicing clinical psychologist and an Argentine tango dancer.
What’s beautiful is that she is a dedicated professional who uses the dance therapy for helping Parkinson’s patients with their movements through Tango dance sessions.
My interest was piqued, as earlier I had been conducting very similar dance sessions as well, especially remembered our Seniors Dance for Wellness workshops back in India.
So over a beautiful meet and greet sipping cups of hot herbal tea at the Les Grands Gamin at the heart of Rennes, ensued a free flowing conversation where we exchanged notes on each others life. Our passion for dancing was the visible to see as we hardly knew how moments passed by.
To dance is to sense connections beyond the dancing bodies.
To dance is to honour life and its unique expressions in the movements.
Savvy Raj
And when Celine invited me to her next Tango Therapy Workshop, it was an offer I could not refuse. I was actually keen to understand whether and how the cultural differences change the way of conducting and experiencing workshops here.
Dancing can improve the mobility and balance in senior adults.
Adapting the dance to suit the requirements of the group, like simplifying the steps, the placement of the feet, improves their coordination, mobility and balance.
The dance session was deeply engrossing & truly inspiring to witness and participate as well. The music played that day stayed with me well after the session.
So the next step turned out to be me conducting a Chacha session for them. The challenges of language barriers were surrmounted easily as Celine offered to translate my teaching from English to French.
Everything fell in place beautifully and voila time flew again.We danced a bit of Chacha that day and also some more in the next few sessions as well. I was told later by the learners how much they enjoyed it!
It was an amazing experience sharing the joys of movements and I thank Celine for her inclusivity in requesting me to conduct the dance sessions as well. And I deeply appreciate all her beautiful learners that I met,connected and danced with. It was a truly warm and wonderful time spent with them all.
After the sessions we would gather together and discuss opening many facets of the learning and imbibing. It was a beautiful way of empathising and understanding each other.
Some of the beautiful souls I got to interact with in the few months I was there.
Dance has a way of soothing your entire being and bringing forth and connecting you with the depth of who you are. That is when dance begins to feel meaningful and transforms life.
The dance connects established, in those sessions is a beautiful memory etched in my heart, that I will cherish forever.
I chanced on these beautiful moments again as I found the photos I clicked back then and I decided to give them a little artistic effect.
All across the world April 29th every year is celebrated as International Dance Day, although every day is a great day to dance!
I dedicate this post to all my dance friends and colleagues and all the dance educators in the world who are making the world a better place, with every step in time.
Savvy Raj
These inspiring words are by William Martin The Parent’s Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents 🙂
The ordinary can be a gift in disguise 🙂
The Degrees that we acquire
Are but an endorsement of our skillsets
But degrees do not define our nature.
No matter the set expectations.
Our behavior day in & out,
Is a testimony to our true education
No amount of degrees can guarantee our behaviour.
Our ways of being and our attitude towards others speaks a lot more…
Of how we apply our education in our lives.
Savvy
Allow the self some food for thought
Acknowlege that there is something more
To understand learn and explore
Allow space for growth
To evolve in the journey
There is much knowledge gained this way
And much to discover more along the way.
Savvy
Universal Oneness is an awareness
In reflections of the truth of the being
Interweaved and interconnected in every life .
Strength shines through the vulnerabilities.
As a power in the very fragility
Touched by divine grace
Enmeshed in the senses
Fired in the cauldron of life and living
Comes a consciousness of the flow
In and around us
Beyond the illusion of separation.
Is the dance of connection.
Savvy
Savvy
Keep being the best you can be
Keep the hope alive in your heart
Keep sharing the light with in
There is much in every one of us
That inspires the world around
Keep living and keep inspiring.
Savvy
We need to see beyond survival
We need to go beyond adapting
We need to transform our life
Beyond the present perceptions
That we are conditioned by
We need to release the fear and anxiety
And apprehensions that we are living with
We need to build the peace within.
We can touch transcendence
Through faith, prayers & meditations
For insights to stabilize and get embodied
In such a stage of conscious presence
As we build our self awareness
We vibrate and tune into new frequencies
We hear and listen more and evolve
In our unique journeys.
©Savvy Raj
Savvy Raj 
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