Raj ~ A Choice Of Life !

 Today as I was taking a stroll in my neighborhood park, I could see a man passed my vicinity , he seems to be a known face, though wearing a mask, I could decipher he could be my old buddy with whom I have shared some momentous moments of my life in my early childhood.

As we were circumambulating the park periphery, the next meeting was bound to happen, as I saw him coming towards me, I was more certain of the grandeur of his presence and took courage to call him by his name “Raj” – though with a fear of being wrong.

Just having done so, he downed his mask and I took a sigh of relief – Indeed my observation came to be true and it was him , my childhood friend Raj, but there was a total change in his clamor- he was seem to be living a life of seclusion, for so a life of a mendicant (“Sanyas” as we call it in Hinduism).

As we met, we exchanged some age old pleasantries – our own style that we always had but he was a bit restrained as his ‘New look and life’ didn’t permitted him to cross boundaries and tread a path which he had foregone.

The only question which came to my mind looking at his this state of living was “ What have you done to yourself, how and why this complete transition!” – listening to this , he smiled and then slowly talked about his transition from a regular day to day householder to nomadic life and finally taking the path of Sanyas and in complete bhakti and splendor of Lord Krishna!

He told me, he took this stand about eight to ten years ago, leaving all his near and dear ones, including his children and wife – hearing this, I become more inquisitive and asked him, why was this done?

HE was as comatose as his listening to my quest, he thus answered “Something inside me changed completely, and I didn’t want to live a materialistic life full of falsifying ego’s and rat race competition! Ever since I took this path, I have completely detached myself from worldly existence and have thus immersed in all completeness in praise of the Lord – I am a very satisfied soul and no quest for any relationship or materialism!”

I had no more questions to portray for him, we started to chat about generalities of life and living, where humanity is going and what is instore for all of us as we are becoming slaves of materialism and overloading information. He was very amazed about the fast-paced life man has started to live. “In the spiritual world, there is no need to rush for anything”  , he said, further clarifying, everything is self-evolving and there is nothing you or I shall be doing what it is not destined in our path of living!”

The chat became filled with gravity of thoughts, I was liking the spiritual prudence this man had gained whilst I did not completely recon his decision of leaving all of his near and dear ones, but after all it was his life and what path he chose to tread, if his family has accepted it as their destiny , no problem.

Further as time passed, there was lot of talks which we discussed, reminiscing our bygone cricket fights and our cycling sprints – I felt that time has actually stood still, and I just wanted it to be like that!

But alas, we cannot hold time together, there came the moment that we had to say “Adieu” until we meet again and when he comes back to Delhi from Mathura – I have no clue when that will happen, till then I would reminisce my moments today with my childhood friend but now a learned man altogether at a different trajectory of life which might look at ease but actually is full of discipline and focus – May he achieve his spiritual quest for which he took such a big stand , my best wishes would always be with him as a soul who had privilege to call you a friend for life!

~ A Bench-able Soul ~

 Sitting at meadows of time, the gentle old man just comes and places himself in solitude. There is no exchange of pleasantries, just a semblance of presence pasts me through a whisper of grass and the friction of his shoes.

He faces the sun and suddenly bows down his head as his ageing body cannot take the direct sunshine on himself. Time is our mirror which shows our own self though it might happen after some years of our life. A sudden though gushing through my mind knows me to think otherwise – Uncle must have been young in his heydays and have spend much of his active life working but now that the cycle of destiny and living has started to show cause , the fragility of body has started to show around. 

This would happen to all of us, if we are lucky to reach this stage of life – just factoring in the toil we are taking on our own selves and the style of life we live now a days. Our old seniors are our best examples of living life magnanimously and at the optimum. With less they have certainly attained more – the have done the balancing act which none of us are able to do in our current life – many of us just succumb to the worldly pressures and just give up or start to tread another path.

I see many old souls who share their feelings and emotions and what right or wrong they did during their adventure of life – many just open up their heart and soul in tandem with what they really don’t want us to do in our heydays of living, coz one day would come that we would all sit in seclusion of our thoughts and reminisce our past and filter out things and situations which we could have behaved otherwise !

Now that I see uncle quite often coming to park to have his share of sunlight, I just see a life coming to a natural end, an end which we all have to come to sometime from now. But many of us would surely want the end to be full of satiated desires and a life lived with completeness and kind gratitude towards our creator for giving us this beautiful opportunity to live life with all its goodness – with parents who were so lovable, our friends and even our foes who taught us different vagaries of living and of course our elders who showered their love and blessing in all that we did during our earthly sojourn.

As my time to move neared by, I just prayed to my creator for the beauty of life and feelings which he has given me to observe such simplicities of life and to ponder upon its silent meanings, till then my observations would always be…

~ The Act of Friendship ~

Manohar Lal  seems to be a name which makes one believe of historic times, but when I came to know about this name it was total oxymoron – I could not believe that my new found friend just standing in front of me was no more that 7-8 years of age!

Manohar just loiters around in the street whilst his mother and father are engrossed as a daily wager and struggling to earn as much during, the day so that the family does not sleep empty stomach in the night!

He has been given a key responsibility of taking care of his toddler sister – Nandini he calls her with affection. He is enormously protective of his young sister and always give her precedence in whatever task he does with her – be it being given a toy or a packet of biscuit or anything which he gets from his parents or people of society!

He is my morning friend as he is mostly awake early in the morning when I see his parents struggling to prepare early breakfast and lunch as during the day they are not fortunate enough to cook again – being daily wage laborer’s from Rajasthan, they need to finish their morning chores and rush to the building site – basement of which is their current home as of now. They live a nomadic life and are always on the move , wherever their owner takes a contract.

The other day we both were at our conversation best and to my utter surprise he started to oblige me with a ‘Thank-You’ – this gave me an encouragement to converse with this little toddler in the other language and I generally asked him the following

“Do you go to School”

‘Yes” he said with an enthusiastic affirmation.

“Which School” was my obvious second question to which he replied.

“Sarakari School”

Which Class do you study ?

He kept mum – I secretly presumed that this could be an over head transmission for this sweet friend of mine but quite soon my assumptions was put to rest and his answer came after much thinking

“IInd Class.”

Having given all the answers correctly and to the point, he deserved a pat on the back and also a small gift which he humbly accepted and again said ‘Thanks.”, the meeting thus ended on a happy note!

Nowadays, I see him happy roaming around on the streets along with his sister and making full use of the sunshine. Early in the morning that Manohar is awake as he starts to reprimand his sister for any wrong-doing she does in oblivion. The love and grandeur design of destiny has made them meet in this pane as brother and sister and all I can say in my silent blessing is that “May God always Bless them and they study well and become quite unlike their parents and thus break this vicious circle of poverty which the whole family is currently stuck in.”

The only sad part would be that this is an ephemeral 231friendship that I sowed as when the building next to mine would be completed, his parents would have to uproot and again would reconstruct their humble dwelling when marching orders come from the contractor , till then, I am always in company of a cute little being which I had to meet in this time of the year!

~ A Morning Rendezvous ~

 

What could be a perfect start to your day in life – the splendidness of morning and its freshness just sinks in when you just start to observe the timeless panorama in front of you when dawn has just stepped in. The true sparkle and magnanimity of nature bestows its full semblance and throws opens its divine romance.

The true love of its motherly glance just makes you feel wanted and a sense of thankful anticipation is what you want to give back to nature’s benevolence.

The only impediment which stops us to meet this morning musings is our lethargy – almost all of us a later risers in life, more so, many of us working from home and in no hurry to achieve the unachievable of beating the harsh traffic of Delhi roads and gushing through serpentine queues to be the very first.

A day came in my life when I promised myself a rendezvous with dawn and when everything just looked fresh and pure – The first thing which needed my attention was my timely sleep. This was achieved with much alacrity with the sole purpose and enthusiasm of getting early next morning.

Alas! the alarm clock did its duty and make me leave snooze a little before it rang again and up I was, kicking myself out of bed – A fastidious dressing up and going through my daily morning chores, I wasted no time to be in the part to get that glimpse I always dreamt of !

 The fresh minted dew gave the rays of sun its evocative sunshine which came out as a marvel to the eye – the lush green grass stole my heart and I got me mesmerized with its sheen. Taking a deep breath, I started to jog, the air was as fresh as I had ever breathed over a long-long time. I could sense its newness as if it was just spewed on me – a welcome gift from mother nature!

I could feel the chill of the morning but was equally observant with the warmth of fresh rays of sun, a combination of both made me think about what I had been missing since ages!  I could glimpse through the passing happy faces, walking briskly or jogging their way out with a semblance of freshness of a newly born. The love of nature was all free for us to be enjoyed and but also be thankful about.

As time finally passed, I could accommodate myself into the gift of nature , what it bring forth in its pristine indulgence of early morning – for those who still laze around in the cool comforts of their bed, they really are missing an opportunity of a lifetime !

~ Life is a Celebration ~

Life tends to be a celebration when we ought to celebrate each and every moment engrossed with eternal happiness. Our daily living and attributes of life comes from our mind which is always restless and tends to be so during the day when we perform multitasking and giving keynote deliveries to satiate all and the sundry!

We need certain occasions to smile and show our inert happiness hidden in far reaching depths of our thoughts – but thinking otherwise, do we really need occasions, festivals or dates to enjoy life – for me life tends to be a brilliant opportunity bestowed on you which is to be loved and celebrated every day, every moment of your breath!

Just remind yourself of the limited amount of time you are here, not only to achieve the material things and inanimate objects but to offer gratitude to the higher power for the opportunity given to you to exist. Open your inner self to celebrate your existence and see for yourself how life embraces you. You will always feel elated for no good reason, always a smile on your face will welcome anybody your meet during the day – try this experiment one day and wake up early and silently pray to your higher self with a prayer of humble gratitude and see the wonder happening during the day !You will find enough reasons to smile throughout the day – negative situations and scenarios would be self-defeating and with effortless living, you shall tend to grace the occasion with a awe-inspiring positivity, after all you came to this world without asking anyone and so shall you depart without being asked.

Look consciously around you – all this is already happening, but you have tamed your mind to the far-reaching impossibilities of this not happening to you. There are many such repentances which you shall have if you keep on postponing this celebration of each day in life!

A study in new York on terminally ill patients showed the last wish they could just want to be fructified lead to some unexpected results – most of the patients wanted to spend more time with their loved ones, many wanted to visit far off places in solitude, some wanted to write, some wanted to paint , many wasted their life on accumulating inanimate objects of desire but now repented that they should have been minimalist in their behavior.

So please, start celebrating the festival of life with what you want to do each day and which you had been postponing since time immemorial – after all the least good you can do to yourself is to have less of atonements  when your final day comes till then, Happy Living….