This week finds me traveling yet again to another city. I realize the sights and smells that greet me as I set alight also set the expectations.
Yet one thing has never changed in all my travels My inate ability to wake up at dawn no matter when I sleep. In the hotel room I am suddenly abound by precious time. I also enjoy the practice of having warm water with a just slight dip of a teabag for a second so its more flavored water than tea. I sense many moments of great connectedness in this unadulterated time of sipping tea. I love it best propped in bed with my feet all tucked in the warm sheets The warm concoction ever so gently bringing in the old familiar fuzzy feeling of being at ease, and accommodating my palate and me to the sensations of a new place. Over many such moments of serendipitousness & the familiar deju vus that wash over me, I have been privy to my musings in verses that flow effortlessly. Like I am doing in this now…
Moments matter and your movements in the moments matter a great deal. Hold this moment that is, in rapture and awe It’s precious for it will slip away Never to meet again in posterity. But in creating a ripple effect of positivity through the movements in the moment What is the future can manifest from this now Care to alter your life for the better. Alter your moves…
During the course of a Management Seminar, Mr. T.N.Seshan, former Chief Election Commissioner shared an experience he had while travelling in Uttar Pradesh with his wife.As they were travelling by road, they saw a large mango plantation filled with sparrow nests. Seshan’s wife decided to carry two nests to their home. The police escort called a young boy who was grazing cows and asked him to bring down two nests and offered to pay him Ten Rupees. The boy refused as Seshan raised the offer to Rupees Fifty. The boy told Seshan and his wife, “Sahib, I will not do it for whatever you will give. Inside these nests are baby sparrows. If I give those nests to you, in the evening, when the mother sparrow returns with food for the babies and does not find them there, she will cry. I do not have the heart to see that.”* Seshan and his wife were taken aback and felt small.Seshan later recounted that his position and the IAS label melted away in front of that little boy. He stood in front of the young boy feeling as small as a mustard seed. He added that after returning home, this incident continued to haunt him with guilt for several days. Education, position or social status is never a yardstick for the measure of humanity. Let’s not forget that knowledge is to know and understand the beauty of nature. We don’t achieve anything by gathering a lot of information as long as that information does not get transformed into wisdom. And wisdom is useless as long as we don’t apply it in our daily life.
Crown shyness is a phenomenon observed in fully grown trees of the same or often even different species where they maintain a distance between themselves and do not touch each other at the top forming a canopy with interesting gaps possibly for sunlight to enter or even to keep leaf eating insects from spreading .
There is much to understand and learn from nature
It’s amazing to see the wisdom of nature manifest in so many different ways around us.
Spatial awareness between trees are a striking example of the wisdom of balance in nature
There is always a reason, a wisdom we are yet to know…
After all
It is the very nature of Nature To be the great balancer To know when to rise and fall. To know when to give and take. To maintain the equilibrium.
To all my Care giving friends the lightworkers , the mentors and spiritual guiders, the motivators and healers on their special journey stepping in tandem with their calling! Keep going… you are on track!
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.
Yesterday afternoon I visited the local Crosswords book shop and spent time browsing through some amazing books. I was so enjoying my Sunday me time that I hardly realized how the day had turned to late evening as I stepped out. Walking down an aisle of steps my eyes fell on a very poignant sight. There was this little boy with a little basket, sitting by a busy street selling the very colorful & delicious Java/blackplum called Jamun in India.
He looked no older than 6 or 7 years. But there he was confidently telling me a price. I went near him, to pick up some myself, but realized his entire basket was really ripe and ready. I watched how he had a little steel glass by which he measured and gave me the quantity I asked for.
I watched his tiny hands at work and I thought to myself this little boy should be holding a book to read or write and here was this child ,selling fruits.
I struck a little conversation asking him if he goes to school, he said the last few years there has been no school, although he likes to study but now he is helping him family this way and this is fun too! There was something in the way he said it, that my heart warmed up to him.
Yes he is right, the school of life has a lesson for each of us at every turn. If we choose to see it so.
Although fate has ordained his life to be so in this now, I blessed him silently from my heart for a better life in time. I salute the little boy’s budding entrepreneurial spirit.
All Fused Bulbs are the Same ! A senior executive retired and shifted from his palatial official quarters to the housing society, where he owned a flat. He considered himself big and never talked to anyone. Even while walking in the society park every evening, he ignored others, looking at them with contempt. One day, it somehow transpired that an elderly person sitting beside him started a conversation, and they continued to meet. Every conversation was mostly a monologue with the retired executive harping on his pet topic, Nobody can imagine the big post and high position I held before retirement; I came here due to compulsions”; and so on, and the other elderly person used to listen to him quietly. After many days, when the retired executive was inquisitive about others, the elderly listener opened his mouth and said, After retirement, we are all like fused bulbs. It does not matter what a bulb’s wattage was, how much light or glitter it gave, after it gets fused. He continued, “I have been living in this society for the last 5 years and have not told anyone that I was a Member of the Parliament for two terms. On your right, over there is Vermaji, who retired as General Manager in Indian Railways. Over there is Singh Saheb, who was a Major General in the Army. That person sitting on the bench in spotless white dress is Mehraji, who was the chief of ISRO before retirement. He hasn’t revealed it to anyone, not even to me, but I know.” All fused bulbs are now the same – whatever its wattage was – 0, 10, 40, 60, 100 watts – it doesn’t matter now. Neither does it matter what type of bulb it was before it got fused – LED, CFL, Halogen, Incandescent, fluorescent, or decorative. And that, my friend, applies to you too. The day you understand this, you will find peace and tranquillity even in this housing society. The rising sun as well as the setting sun are both beautiful and adorable. But, in reality, the rising sun gets more importance and adoration, and is even worshipped , whereas the setting sun is not given the same reverence. It is better to understand this sooner than later. Our current designation, title and power are not permanent. Keeping lot of emotions with these things only complicate our life when we lose this one day. Remember that when the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. Enjoy what you have today . Have a fabulous time ahead…. 🙏🙏
A man, who regularly attended family & group meetings suddenly, without any notice, stopped participating. After a few weeks, one very cold night the leader of that group decided to visit him.
He found the man at home, alone, sitting in front of a fireplace where a bright fire burned.
The man welcomed the leader. There was great calm & silence.
The two men only watched the dancing flames around the logs that crackled in the fireplace.
After a few minutes the leader, without saying a word, examined the logs that formed the fire and selected one of them, glowing most brightly of all, and removed it to the side with a pair of tongs. Then he sat down again.
The host was paying attention to everything, fascinated. Before long, the lone log’s flame subsided, until there was only a momentary glow and the fire soon went out. In a short time what was previously bright light and heat had become nothing more than a black dead piece of wood. Very few words had been spoken since the greeting.
Before preparing to leave, the leader picked up the useless piece of wood with the tongs and placed it again in the middle of the fire. Immediately, the piece of wood was rekindled, fuelled by the light and heat of the burning logs around it.
When the leader was about to leave & had reached the door, the host said: ‘Thank you for your visit and for your beautiful lesson. I’ll return to the group soon.’
Why is a group important in our lives ?
Very simple: Because each member that withdraws takes fire and heat from the rest.
It’s worth reminding group members that they are a part of the flame.
It’s also good to remind us that we are all responsible for keeping each other’s flame burning. And we must promote the union among us so that the fire is really strong, effective and lasting. Keep the fire burning.
THEGROUPISALSOAFAMILY It doesn’t matter if sometimes we are bothered by so many messages, quarrels and misunderstandings.
What matters is to be connected. We are here to meet, message, learn, exchange ideas or simply to know that we are not alone
Intelligence Quotient (IQ): this is the measure of your level of comprehension. You need IQ to solve maths, memorize things, and recall lessons.
Emotional Quotient (EQ): this is the measure of your ability to maintain peace with others, keep to time, be responsible, be honest, respect boundaries, be humble, genuine and considerate.
Social Quotient (SQ): this is the measure of your ability to build a network of friends and maintain it over a long period of time.
People that have higher EQ and SQ tend to go further in life than those with a high IQ but low EQ and SQ. Most schools capitalize on improving IQ levels while EQ and SQ are played down.
A man of high IQ can end up being employed by a man of high EQ and SQ even though he has an average IQ.
Your EQ represents your Character, while your SQ represents your Charisma. Give in to habits that will improve these three Qs, especially your EQ and SQ.
Now there is a 4th one, a new paradigm:
The Adversity Quotient (AQ): The measure of your ability to go through a rough patch in life, and come out of it without losing your mind.
When faced with troubles, AQ determines who will give up, who will abandon their family, and who will consider suicide.
Parents please expose your children to other areas of life than just Academics. They should adore manual labour (never use work as a form of punishment), Sports and Arts.
Develop their IQ, as well as their EQ, SQ and AQ. They should become multifaceted human beings able to do things independently of their parents.
Finally, do not prepare the road for your children. Prepare your children for the road.”
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 Raj 
You must be logged in to post a comment.