Removing the Veil of Shame from our Consciousness

Adam- Here is an exotic blend of creations inhabiting this field. Each element attributes to a distinct musical tone. The winds play merrily in our ears.”

Eve- Yes. The trees sing to this tune of the winds. The droplets of water converge to a soft music touching the souls of each life in this small world. The sun and moon provide an umbrella of warmth and chill to our being. The Angels live in harmony with us, respecting our integrity.

Adam- The entire field is one. Look at these birds tweeting merrily in union with what we speak.

Eve- These trees bear fruits which are so alluring. Let’s try this fruit.

Adam- Oh no no no… Not one for that for sure. Father has strictly asked us not to taste the fruits of this Tree.

Eve- I understood that. But why is this one isolated from the other trees. Isnt this one under the nurture and care of Father as well like the rest of the Family?

Adam- Yes of course. This would also be a beautiful creation of Father like us. But let us not disobey Him.

Eve- I understand your intent. Let us enjoy the congregation of our peace.

Unable to stop from overhearing the conversation, the voice came from behind:

Iblis: O the beloved creations of Father, do you think you are the Supreme Ones ?

A&E- Well we have never questioned the might of creations of Father. But we certainly do hold a special place in His thoughts.

Iblis: If you were so special then why have you not been allowed to taste the fruits of this Tree of Life?????? Look at all beings around you.. they are rejoicing their creation for Ages without a speck of degradation. And yet you… born from Mud – would have to eventually go down this earth.

A&E: What is immortality? You wish to say that our being is shortlived? It would perish unless we had the fruit of this Tree? But then why would Father want us to remain mortal? If all creatures here are immortal then how have has our existence merged with them? Why would Father prohibited us from eating the fruits of this tree as it would lead to harm and transgression?

Iblis: Your Father only forbade you this tree, unless you should become angels or such beings as live for ever. Nothing would denigrate you, being the most beautiful creation of your Father once you eat the fruits borne from this Tree.

And so Adam and Eve chose to exercise their gift of higher reasoning and choice. After giving much thoughts and justification to the words of Iblis, they decided to go forward and share the fruit of this Tree. So as to remain immortal , become unperishable and continue to dwell in the nurture of their Father forever.

A bite and another. Both could savour the taste of this fruit merrily with the hope to conquer immortality and turn in to the Supreme Being.

Adam- But Alas, what is happening? I seem to have a greater thinking now. My mind seems to be more adept than the rest of the beings here. But why are all beings here not covering their self. Oh Lord, look at you Eve… how can you remain without any covering on your body?

Eve- It is not only me, but you as well Adam. We are all bare and exposed to the viles of the beings herein. Oh lord how do I protect myself from this Paradise from looking unto me?

And then both wore their shames not only in their body, but in their minds and souls. Adam and Eve hurriedly gathered leaves from the trees to cover themselves.

The Lord stepped in, and said: Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Iblis/Satan was an avowed enemy unto you?

A&E: Father, we have wronged our own souls. Please grant us your mercy or else we would remain lost.

Lord: Then you shall go down to Earth and dwell therein alongwith enmity between yourselves. You shall live and die there itself but you shall emerge from it finally.

And then, as it is said, Adam and Eve descended to Earth carrying the guilt of having made their choices which led to their abandonment from their Creator. The shame for having yielded to the deceptions of Satan/Iblis and therefore move away from their Creator, their home in Eden/Paradise, made them cover themselves. The first awareness that Adam and Eve developed was the nakedness of their bodies and immediately sought cover for themselves. 

What was this need for immediate need to cover? As what transpired to me was that prior to the eating of the fruit, they exhibited innocence and were in proximity to the purity of their creation. Soul knew no shame as there was no occasion was carrying any guilt. Their bodies were streaming in oneness with all other beings. Once they made their choice of going against the Order, it was touched by the initial form of guilt and their bodies stood exposed, which necessitated them to cover their guilt with their clothes. 

The need to protect the purity of one’s soul emerged. Even in the Bible and Quran and other verses, it is mentioned that God himself provided clothes to Adam and Eve while being sent on Earth for dwelling. With the evolution of human beings, we showed diverse thoughts through our clothings. Some wore clothes tight enough to not let any stray eyes wander to their extremely private body parts. With the passage of time, we as human beings chose to express our freedom of choices or even our sexuality through our various styles of clothing. A few even become the torchbearers of nudity, in a bid to mark their rebellion over the societal norms emphasising on remaining in veil. This mark of rebellion is not in synchrony with the original form of our purity but is nevertheless in the transitional phase. 

Here, the clothing is a mark of the thoughts and actions adorned by one. We through the Creator gifted us the most beautiful essence through clothing, ie to beautify the body with the wisdom of our thoughts to facilitate our movement to the highest consciousness of the divinity in our being, rather than considering our clothing only for the purpose of covering our body. Our bodily creation is always adorned by our wisdom of unconditional acceptance of our existence, the ability to reason and merge with our original virtues of Being the One. This would in effect be the key to our understanding of Immortality of our Being.

[PS: The incidents of Adam and Eve may not be the actual version as described in the religious texts as it was purely through my vision. It may bear some resemblances to the Quran and to some extent with the Bible and nothing written above is meant to deviate from either of the Religious Texts.  :) ]

Cherishing The Universe of our Being

“Krishna Krishna……

Yes Mumma….

Eating Dirt…………

No Mumma…

Telling Lies………..

No Mumma…

Open your Mouth ……..

Ha ha ha…….”

Had this incident taken place in the modern era, it would have been presented in the above manner. The consequential experience though of this event would still have remained the same as Yashoda or for that fact none could have anticipated that. As Yashoda looked into the tiny mouth of her Boy, she was awestruck, as she saw the entire universe- the sun, moon, stars, planets, asteroids, all of the moving and unmoving objects. Yashoda lost her consciousness then after witnessing the gigantic cosmos placed in the mouth of a less than 10 year old boy. The enormity of our being is such which is placed in tiny places.

   Consider the tongue. A small part of our being roughly 3 inches of length. But the entire taste experienced by our body rests on this tongue. The effective manner in giving our speech is dependent on this tongue. The mastication of food which enables its proper digestion is one of the primary functions of the tongue. The entire nerves and arteries running through the body come and rest on this small tongue. Smallest of the small atoms generating huge amounts of energy and is the sole component of any gas, liquid, or solid. Thus the vastness of our being cannot be weighed on the size or appearance of the body or object. It goes much beyond that.

      A 5’5” Sachin Tendulkar always carried the highest of his energies on to the cricket field, whether in India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand or England and made the entire world take a pause in the moment and shift their focus on the next ball when he would be clobbering some six feet plus bowlers and sending their deliveries out of the field at his own will.

     

     We do experience this feeling of being the entire universe, or for that matter being the Infinite Self- daily in each and every moment. The glimpses of the Infiniteness of our being is also reflected through the multiple architectures known as the Wonders of the World spread across the globe. It is inherent in any invention or creation of ours, be it at home or in office or while being existent in any part of the world. While we are with our loving family, we create the entire world of happiness around us. We create new projects in office or come up with new ideas which brings the attention of the entire office to us. While we sense our heart beat and recognise its rhythmic beats, we see the entire seas and oceans, trees, flowers, birds, breathing or vibrating in sync. Probably that is the reason why we resonate so much with the all the beauties that are collectively called Nature.

       As Arjuna had been able to recognise the entire universe residing in his being through the wisdom of Krishna. As Bhagvad Gita quotes : Chapter 11 Text 7 “O Arjuna whatever you wish to see, behold at once in this body of mine! This universal form can show you whatever you now decide to see and whatever you may want to see in the future. Everything- moving and unmoving- is here completely, in one place.”

All these experiences are a projection of the universal form of ours. It is just a matter of time that we recognise that while we exist in this universe, the entire universe exists in us. 😊

Emancipation from the Illusion of Control

The Illusion of Control:

The said theory, which was named by Ellen Langer, always captures the minds of an individual. It reflects the tendency of a human being to believe that it can control the outcomes that it demonstrably does not influence and people tend to over-estimate their ability to control events. 

Live examples in our activities would include when a person is playing in the casino or at home while playing Ludo, one starts throwing the dice harder to ascertain more rolls of it so as to get the desired number; Gazing harder at the eyes of the opponent in a staring contest so as to intimidate or compel the other person to look away and eventually lose; landing harder and constant punches on the Hit Me Up toy so as to flatten it and not able to bounce back; a tennis player would like to plan to be in the shoes of Goran Ivanisevic- to hit the fastest of aces continuously to demolish his opponent. 

We also tend to try to put everything in our lives in a well chalked out plan so as to have certain desires accomplished in the end. We start planning for our children and put up controlled activities of theirs; We decide to plan the most rigorous of schedules for ourselves by drawing a heavy diet chart and exercise schedule to obtain a flat stomach loaded with some abs in it without even realising whether our body is fit enough to take that schedule; We impose such strict schedules for our spouses as well as children and create such a dominating atmosphere so as to ensure that they remain in the within the strict confines of our company; We start saving and saving and saving and saving our money for the future and stop buying through the luxuries in the present as if the finances would end by the next two decades or the entire financial markets crash or melt by then, probably because of an alien invasion or a World War X. 

All things done in an effort to achieve the desires in a particular manner as we had dreamt of. But do we achieve our goals through this? If not then how do we position ourselves to dispense with this future of uncertainty of not getting the desires fulfilled. The element of Fear of failure or of losing or being deprived of the desires thus keeps haunting us for the entire life which instigate us to become a prisoner to our own Control Panel.

It’s just synonymous to holding the grains of sand or a cube of ice as tightly as possible to make it a part of our system. We keep growing our control over it with the mindset to never lose it but the nature of the object in our hands was never meant to be controlled in such a manner.

Just like a Polar Bear lives and withstands the vagaries of nature in the form of extreme temperatures and avalanches, a jellyfish sails through the turbulent nature of the freshwater, vegetations such as trees, plants etc stand through the typhoons, storms etc and keep blooming through different courses of troubled seasons and they bear fruit at the time whenever they have to. All beings neither think that they are in control of the Elements of Nature nor do they feel the need for controlling the eventual result of the nature. They just Be.

So how difficult is to just Be ?? Whenever we are in the middle of a situation or an event, our natural instincts have the ability to deal with the same. More often than not we just need to do the simplest of the things. Just be in the moment and experience it rather than focussing on the final outcome. As it was quoted in one of the epic movies Kung Fu Panda – “There is no Secret Ingredient. It’s just You”

Just Believe in You and in the magic of Being You. 

My Awakening as a Tree

I slowly opened my eyes. I could see myself connected and grounded to mother earth. The soil held my tiny roots firmly creating the necessary foundation to nurture my growth. I could see mother slowly seeping the water droplets within to quench my thirst. The sun kept embracing me with its warmth of love and it’s ever shining smile filled me with joy. I finally found my hands coming out as strong and hard as my legs beneath. My cute little green fingers were always cheerful and bubbly. A new finger always sprung up whenever I lost one. 

Day by day I enjoyed witnessing myself grow taller and taller and spreading over my hands. The flightful birds chirped merrily while sitting on me. A few even made themselves at home with me. I never found any discomfort with that except a few stray incidents when they jumped too hard over my forearms and sometimes broke my fingers. I loved it when other visitors came flying over for a short break to spend time with me. The tiniest of animals squeaked up and down while playing hide and seek with its loved ones.

All seemed to be growing in perfect harmony. All, except me. I never understood the purpose of creation. Why was it that I was growing in a certain manner remaining tied to my mother ? Why couldn’t I just go out of the shackles and fly like the birds or scamper Like the squirrels do. The sun also keeps moving in and out filling warmth over the entire universe. The moon also gets its opportunity to transcend the horizons and explore the unexplored parts of the skies. Why me ? Why do I always have to be at the mercy and diktats of my mother ? She never answered my questions. My sorrows grew deeper as I felt being used by the others for their growth. The fauna was just attracted to me to serve their purpose of feeding them through my fruits and sheltering them through my hands.  Mother also just wants me to be used. She never cares for me.

Just then the shadows of darkness engulfs my surroundings. I do not know what to do. The sun has gone and the moon is not visible. The darkness starts spiralling vigorously around me. It grows stringer , darker and heavier roaring away its might. The chirpy birds and squirrels have lost their breath. I ask them.to remain close to me. The dark spirals start storming up. The more violent it turns the more I strengthen my arms. The darker storms try to swirl me but I remain firm. The louder it roars the more I regroup my body to withstand it.  Slowly and gradually the darkness withered away. My playful buddies slowly came out of me and hugged me tight. I never had experienced this love before from them which was always there. It was all because I remained rooted just as my mother trained me to be. I derived the necessary strengths from the firmness of my being beneath under the care and nurture of my mother. Just then I noticed beings like me encircling the entire globe. The fauna had been spreading my parts all across the planes creating more beings.

They look slightly different from me- Some blossom flowers while others bear fruits. But their strength , towering height and ability to spread across the earth all germinating through their roots are similar to me. They behave just as I do. I am as cheerful as they are.

Together we cover our mother with the shadows of comfort, care and compassion. The beings are able to breathe in as we breathe out. My strength and abilities are known to me now. I have finally arisen from my slumber.

We all have traversed many journeys as a being. All roads merge with a purpose to highlight the aspects of our being. All moments of happiness , despair , grief , anger, frustration, penury, abundance are Experiences :  To accumulate these experiences to understand,  accept and love our being. 

When Buddha was stated to have gained enlightenment , a passerby being overwhelmed by the aura of brightness around him inquired  “If not a God, then what are you?” Buddha replied, “I am awake”

The awakening is from within. We keep growing, spreading and blooming through our experiences. The experiences expand the consciousness of our core : Our roots : Our Being. Happy enough to grow as a tree . 

Living the Values of Parenting in the Current Realm

While learning the concepts of Parenting in the spiritual context, I took many cues to understand this huge role from Rudyard Kipling’s work The Jungle Book (since I am a movie buff and an avid reader of fantasy stories 😄).

One of the most significant characters of this Story yet very rarely spoken of was Raksha, the female Wolf- one of the pillars of the Seeonee Pack. She was the one who had mothered her cubs alongwith Mowgli (a tiny human being). ‘Raksha’ means Protect in common parlance and the name suited her character the best.

Mowgli was left at the entrance of their den by Bagheera (Panther) for he believed in the Wolf Pack to take the best care possible of the child’s growth. When Raksha first saw the baby, she was curious as well as fascinated to find it at the threshold of her den. She developed instant love for him and convincing her husband was not difficult to accept the boy as their child and raise him equally as their other cubs. They name the child Mowgli, meaning frog, due to his negligible hair on the body.
    Throughout the story, Raksha is shown to be caring and protective towards Mowgli and her other cubs. She taught him the ways of living in the jungle and how to survive through. She allowed Mowgli to be trained under Bagheera to hone his instinctive skills and keep growing in the Jungle life. Raksha always provided the freedom to Mowgli to preserve his human character while living with the Seeonee pack. Throughout the story, Raksha is shown to be motivated by the love of her family and derived ample strength through it.
   Mowgli always remained in love with his brother wolves and respected Raksha and Father Wolf as his parents. He had great respect for Bagheera and Baloo who always were as a friend and guide for him. Raksha always gave the necessary freedom to Mowgli and her other cubs to hone their skills as they wanted to be. Mowgli was allowed to preserve his human characteristics while adapting to the ways of the Jungle.
The ferocity of Raksha was shown when Sher Khan demanded handing over of Mowgli to him in pursuit of his killing nature for sport and fun towards human beings. Raksha retaliated with more intensity and stated:

“And it is I, Raksha, who answers. The man’s cub is mine–mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked cubs–frog-eater– fish-killer–he shall hunt thee! Now get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (I eat no starved cattle), back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than ever thou camest into the world! Go!”

Raksha always stood as a shield for her family, moreso particularly for Mowgli. However, when it was decided to let Mowgli reunite with the Man-Village, Raksha was initially reluctant with the decision. However, understanding the necessity to protect Mowgli and her family and also to allow Mowgli to get back to living with human beings, she agrees to let him go for his betterment. Raksha though embraces Mowgli by saying
‘You're mine. Mine, to me. No matter where you go, or what they may call you. You will always be my son.’

In the end when there a battle ensues between Mowgli and Sher Khan, Raksha comes there as an ally and bruises Sher Khan in order to prevent him from getting to Mowgli. We all know how it ends eventually

Raksha played a pivotal role in the grooming of the hero of our story. Raksha’s character portrays how she bloomed her children with her LOVE, CARE and SUPPORT. She taught Mowgli to stand, walk and run and at the same time showered CONFIDENCE in him to learn to catch up on his speed gradually and use his unique skills to survive in the Forest. She always provided the necessary FREEDOM to him to mould his habits while balancing his human traits living under the Wolf Pack. She TRUSTed in the instincts of Mowgli and allowed Bagheera to facilitate in the honing of his skills. She had an unspoken communication with Mowgli – of FAITH, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, and RESPECT. She showed UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE in Mowgli’s upbringing, though he was different from the Seeonee Pack, all were brought up together in a harmonious manner reflecting brotherly love for each other and portrayed a strong family unit. Raksha learnt to LET GO of Mowgli when it was deemed best for the safety and growth of the latter. She showed her valour and STRENGTH whenever required to stand up for her son in defiance to the most feared animal of the Jungle.
These deepest beliefs of parenting plays out in our lives at all points of time. We live these beliefs towards not only our children/grandchildren but also towards our spouse, friends, plants/flowers, animals/pets. The beauty of seeing them grow gives us the necessary impetus to recognise our simultaneous growth from within. After all change is the only constant thing in life. Thus we enjoy seeing our buds bloom through us. Have fun in this world of parenting 🙃

Growing through the Marital Union

Most of us pose hardened questions on the issue of marriage for which we are unable to find answers within. Most of us find it tough to maintain our marital relationship over the course of years and always demand fulfilment of our expectations from the Other Half. Does the fault lie in our spouse or do we actually fail to see ourselves from within whatever our spouse brings before us?

   Marriage involves the legal/social union of two persons in a consensual relationship. Although each of the two individuals comes from a different set of upbringing, ideals, background, society, etc both share something in common which acts as a catalyst for their eternal union of Love (without any barriers, conditions, specifications, or measurements).
In marriage, differences start to surface through trivial quarrels which sometimes convert into major fights, with each of the spouse trying to win the argument over the other wanting to stamp the authority of who’s right over who’s wrong and the need to change the other’s “perceived wrong” habits grows stronger. Over the course of fights, we do become aware as to the situations in which the said fights occur and try to reason its outbreak. Through identifying the cause of fights, both spouses then start reaching to a consensus of solving these problems jointly. Both are ready to recognize each other through these differences. Consequently, both start to understand that the roots to these differences can be traced to the beliefs that one carries. These beliefs have not been made instantly but have been carried through their lifetime. This is the point where both spouses really understand the true perspectives of the other and go ahead to say- “Well there’s no harm in the manner she/he thinks and believes. It seems that I was the one who was over-reacting and never understood her/him. ” This turns to be the focal point of letting go of our water-tight expectations from our spouse and we stop making attempts to mould the other in a manner we wanted them to be.

   The moment we acknowledge, understand, and accept the perspectives, choices and habits of our spouse, the mutual respect develops for each other and we are able to experience the bliss of love from the other. Eventually we imbibe additional features into our system of what our spouse represents, thereby leading to experience our growth. After all, we experience what we are from the core- Unconditional Love.
Marriage allows us to embark on the beautiful journey of recognizing our being, our identity within.

    So for me, Marriage is, in fact, the sacred union of Me with Self.
Wish you all a blissful marital life 😊

Embracing the Darkness as shadow of Divinity

The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ: As history goes, and has been explained in a few versions, two criminal bandits were crucified alongside Jesus, namely Dismas and Gestas. Crowds had joined in numbers to mock Jesus for portraying himself as the God and spat on his belief of being God. Gestas, who was hung on the cross to the left of Jesus rebukes Him, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” 

In response, Dismas retorts Gestas saying : "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." 

Dismas continues to say, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen I say to you today you will be with me in Paradise."

As I perceived, I saw the shadow of the cross of Jesus falling on Gestas itself. Thus, representing loss of divinity and in consequence, having been following darkness. 

Many a times we face such situations in life where we witness the helplessness of being able to turn the situations as per our expectations. It is then that we demand and order the Divinity to set things right. However, while seeing it unable to do so, we start rebuking the latter as to why there was no Divine intervention to put things in order. 

Many of us are unable to perceive/understand divinity in our existence. This in turn leads to the belief that our existence was only darkness. With seeing the inability of the Divine to set things in order of our expectations, we choose to stay in darkness. While having been living in Darkness, we tend to avoid this choice of ours as well, seeing the deepest and darkest conflicts of ours having emerged due to being engulfed in the shadows of Darkness.

However, darkness is nothing but the shadow of Light. The recognition, understanding and acceptance of darkness leads us to the beautiful understanding that darkness is an aspect of Light and in fact has more Light absorbed in it.

Taking an example of a stellar black hole, which is formed when the center of a very massive star collapses in upon itself. Thus huge quantities of Light is trapped in it which is beyond our ability to see it. So what we perceive the black hole to be the center of darkness is actually a form of storage of Light. It contains huge amounts of light which we would be eventually ready to see it when we explore and understand the depths of the darkness within.

Also, the shadows of us human beings walk along with us and are inseparable from us. With the understanding of the shadows, it gets merged in us when we are in Light. We are able to see our shadows only in the presence of Light. Light and Darkness are thus inseparable.

As I have gathered the understanding, there is Divinity in Darkness. So only while embracing the shadows of Darkness rather than escape it, do we see the aspect of Divinity within us.

Slowly I have been able to see the beauty of Divine through recognizing, understanding and accepting the Darkness in me. Let us accept the Shadow of Darkness to take us to the Divinity in our being. :)