"Mansingh Aunty is a dear family friend and her writings have been inspiring from time to time. She was aslo kind enough to let me use a PC with wordstar on it more than 2 decades ago... my first clicks on a keyboard..."
In the 11th Canto of Shrimad Bhagavatam, three chapters are devoted to the gurus in our lives. In all, 24 are listed and from each there is learning, if we are open to it. Let the world be your teacher. From the earth, learn patience and forbearance. The earth does not retaliate nor get angry — and we constantly abuse her. The mountains and trees serve others.
Learn that working for the welfare of the larger community is a path far superior to garnering benefits purely for self-interest; or worse, for hoarding such benefits. Be generous. Share your good fortune. Be like the wind, move freely, but do not get attached to any specific nor be tainted by any association. Be free. Just flow.
Python Wisdom
My personal favourite is the ajgar, the python, low on the ladder of evolution. It tackles the vicissitudes of life with a kind of evolved detachment: it accepts what comes its way and is content.
I see the ajgar as a wise conservationist who demands little from the earth and conserves maximum energy because, ultimately, the Universe does provide.
It may not be what you desire and expect but rather what you deserve dictated by your own actions and governed by its own inscrutable laws. This is an important lesson for the I-want-more and I-want-it-now generation driven by many kinds of appetites.
Gateways To Hell
The three gateways to Hell (read: a state of unhappiness) are Anger, Lust and Greed, the last being the ruling deity of our times. Looking back over the last ten years of my life I become aware of the many pitfalls I have avoided even without the advantage of studying the scriptures. An innate wisdom exists.
Let me quote an extract from my enquiry into life and death, which was published then. I pick the bit where Ilya, my granddaughter, taught me about anger. She was three years old, and her mother, my daughter, Oona, was 33 when they both died in 1996.
“How much Ilya taught me. ‘Ham ko vilyu na bolna.’ It puzzled me for a long time. Was Vilyu a character we had met in a story and she didn’t want to hear about him again? No. There was no Vilyu in any of the Winnie the Pooh stories we read, certainly none in the Jungle Book.
I broke it up into syllable: vil yu. Of course! She meant ‘Will you’, the imperative I tended to use when I was impatient. “Will you hurry up, please!” Or, “Will you open your mouth!” when she was taking forever to finish her food. “Don’t say ‘Will you…’ to me” is what she meant.” Impatience, the second cousin of Anger! It ranks on par with Greed, both fuelled by insatiable desire, stoked by frustration.
My mother, who could not see any ‘reason’ why the young ones had to go, also read anger in me in the years when she had to come to terms with the fact that she could no longer live alone, independently, any more. I quote again: “She realised that as an early octogenarian but didn’t quite accept it. I tended to be impatient with her too. I have become much more patient now. I am, in fact, learning a measure of equanimity.”
Love Others Too
The Universe does, indeed, provide. The household seemed depleted but there was another mother-and-daughter in place — my maid from Jharkhand and Raveena, her young daughter, Ilya’s in-house sibling. I quote again from what I wrote ten years ago: “And Raveena, too, is teaching me. If I am peremptory, she will put on her most winning smile, and say, ‘Ham ko pyar se bolo na.’ I have then to repeat it appropriately, lovingly, and I get immediate compliance.” Why should love be limited only to kin?
In the Guru Granth Sahib it is said there is no ‘anhoni’: that whatever happens, however dreadful and unfortunate it may seem, is meant to happen — at the time and in the circumstance of its happening in accordance with the larger scheme of the cosmic plan.
Ten years down, I have ceased questioning and my understanding grows. I have learned to live in the present and every moment is perfect.
(The Speaking Tree July 25 2010) www.speakingtree.in/public/view-article/Gurus-In-Our-Lives
For many years, these reels were quite giant metallic hoops. There are sometimes many hundreds of thousands of various attainable 1xbet korean outcomes of a game. The possibilities of getting a particular prize end result could range significantly for each game.
ReplyDelete