Walking Yesterday, as I walked alone in the vast field where kids were playing Cricket, something about the grass blades and the sky turning peach at the edges touched deep within. At these moments one is transported to another time and space. It's like you have visited this void earlier but the bliss is pooled in these few moments when the soul grows the wings of the sky and the green Earth!Sunday, as I waited for my husband to emerge from the hair dressers, was observing a shopkeeper meticulously clean a box full of idols. It was an exercise in patience to see him rub each idol and then touch it to his fore head before placing it gently on the neatly folded cotton sheet in the box. Last was a black stone, amazing how God and his grace means so many different things to people!Today I was thinking just as I was finishing up my elaborate cooking, there might be some people in the final moments of their lives. Was wondering if that becomes like the mice called to their deaths by some pied piper! Just seconds, thats what it takes to stop this incessant flow of information into that thing programmed as 'me'. What's so great if it is brought to an end. And yet life is so beautiful, right now outside my window a silk cotton tree is about to burst into a peach glory. At the backdrop are the scarlet dotted branches of another silk cotton tree in full bloom. Yesterday, I took some pictures of these trees framing the sky so beautifully. Sometimes, the tiniest of grassblades with the little dangling seed pods fills the heart with so much love and wonder!
In the morning my son was reading the couplets by ' kabir' a saint who was a weaver and has delved deep into the human craving for the source of all bliss. One of the couplets meant, The rosary moves by the hand (or) the tongue twisting in the mouth, With the mind wandering everywhere, this isn't meditation (Oh uncouth!). Sarcasm on the rituals of religions!
These couplets are sung and they are so melodious that the learning of the deep philosophy is spontaneous. This is how the learning should be, painless and bringing joy into life. These humble saints mastered the art and sowed the seeds of deep spirituality in the masses. One talks about the date tree comparing a grown up without wisdom to this tree, which can't provide shade and the fruits are unreachable
The beauty of these couplets is that the common people from all walks of life sung these and as they sang these simple yet deep verses they imbibed the philosophy of something that cannot be forced-religious tolerance and the understanding that the rituals and the staunch practices were merely a means to reach an end, but due to human weakness for power these degraded to become the end of spirituality.
Now, it was not just the deep spirituality that they taught. A simple couplet talks about the importance of 'not procrastinating'. Do tomorrow's work today and today's work now! In a moment the wold will be over, when will you do the work my dear! One goes: Speak so gently that other person's heart is dissolved into the serenity.Your own being is sweetened, it will soothe others too!I simply can't figure out one thing, why did my parents name me ' Rina'. There re Hindu names with such beautiful meanings and this doesn't mean anything in Hindi. I looked for the meaning and it means ' one that dissolves' in Greek. Now what do I make of it, I am soluble? They say it was a new name so they kinda took to it. Wish the name had some meaning though! A rose by any..
Love the calm when I am not working full-time. Well, now I go to take a bath and then I will discuss poems and Mendel's law and salts and bases with the kid next door. Her mother and I have become good friends and she sends in yummy things as I share what I cook. It is wonderful to have a friend nearby
I guess I need to write in the blog, I go on and on her on this facebook, now I even know what's the limit and stop just short of it. Four and a half lines, filling hot water for the bath and the worst part is to decide what to wear. Will drag out corduroys and the cardigan and the silk top with missing buttons, that reminds me have to stitch the buttons. Well, in one flight from the spiritual to the mundane eh!
TheBrain wave: should I copy these into the blog and make one? Yay Eureka! So here it is!
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