My encounter with Mr. Hanumana...

This was an incident which occurred yesterday when I took my son to the small zoo here at Guindy. As my son was hungry, I gave him a small bun and asked him to eat it. He refused and gave it back to me and I kept it back within the bag along with the rest of the bun packet.

But unknowing to us there was a Mr. Hanumana (read monkey) watching us closely from a distance! As soon as I kept the bun packet back into the bag the monkey approached us and snatched the bag from my hand like it belonged to him or her (I am not sure!). My son burst into tears and wanted his bun back right then...anyways!

This is what monkeys generally do when we innocently tempt them with goodies in our hand. But what made me write this post was the brazen 'fearlessness' which I noticed in the eyes of the monkey. It was just so raw...I was trying to shoo it away and it didn't seem to bother about anything. Looking at its eyes which were so fear-free and direct made me retreat. This is when I thought fearlessness...what an amazing quality to have and your eyes are the best window to express them. Maybe back then, while the Britishers ruled us, I think it is this kind of fearlessness that they saw in our freedom fighters eyes which made them squinch and leave. The fearlessness in somebody's eyes can instill the feeling of fear in somebody else...can we manage to be fearless in all circumstances or only in the pursuit of things that we must have, does fearlessness come from being ignorant or from the belief that we can face anything that may come up...hmm...now I know why Lord Hanuman is associated with fearlessness...Jai Shri Ram bakth Hanuman!

How honest are we...?

I am like a sponge, I tend to absorb the goodness of others or the positive vibes around me...this post is dedicated to one of my friend whom I met during my management course. She inspired me to write this blog by her honesty...! When we say 'honest' immediately we think about someone who is prompt at returning his debt, not lying and so on.

But when we look at it at another level, there are so many layers to Honesty which I feel is such a glorious quality. It can be expressed in so many myriad ways that at the first look of it 'honesty' may not seem the right word to be used in the context. But when we look deeper at the heart of it, we can see that it is indeed honesty.

Coming to my friend, I was inspired by how she prepared for our exams we had recently. She basically prepares from all angles - studied the text book, referred the net, referred the questions papers, referred to notes (though they were not of very high quality ;-)), referred to friends' to get any related info - basically leave no stone or should I say 'source of info' unturned! How I wish I had prepared like this during my engineering days! Anyways, so she makes sure that the understanding she has about the subject is complete from all aspects and that there is not a single gap left. I feel that the kind of efforts she puts in is just a reflection of her honesty. She wants to get good marks, no doubt but first and foremost she wants to be honest to herself about her knowledge of the subject and she makes sure that she is by putting in all possible efforts. Did I forget to mention, that she is part-time working Mom with two kids! She is not doing it just for the sake of doing it which I feel is a very important aspect of a honest being. Also I think preparing like this will help us remember everything better and clearly which will ensure that we will never forget the essence of what we have learnt. This is very essential in today's competitive world since the more we learn and the more we retain the more we grow in all aspects. I just wish I had met her much earlier probably during my school days but then again, I am not sure that back then I would have been able to absorb all this!

But on similar lines, what with me being drawn more on the spiritual side and all that nowadays ;-), I was thinking about how 'honest' we are in seeking God, our creator. When we can put in so much efforts for our worldly pursuits then how much efforts do you think we should put in to seek out the Divine, who is all powerful, all pervading, all knowing? Are we going to the temple/church/mosque just for the sake of it or to really feel and experience God? For an exam the results of our preparation will directly reflect in the results, but how will we know the results of the success we had in our pursuit of God, how and where will that reflect? Just an open question to everyone...

Imagine a world...

...where it is just another dump yard with all its fertility lost and we humans are living on some hi-tech space ship thousands of miles above the earth. Sounds familiar, isn't it...? It is the common theme in most sci-fi, techno-babble movies where people are living like zombies and actually just 'existing' scared of each other and moving around in super-fast mini space-ships hardly interacting with each other...! hmmm....would you like to be a part of this world...? Yes, it is probably true that all of us tend to imagine tomorrow's world to be like this what with the rapid advancement in technology and the equally rapid deterioration of human values and ethics. So there is not doubt that this is what we will get as an end result....

But why can't our brains imagine something different...a world with probably some technology in it but also a host of other positive things like saintly, collective and loving people! Too hard to imagine...right? But let's just give it a try...

Probably it will be fast-rewind rather than fast forward but let us imagine a world where each one of us shines with love, each one of us is ready to help the other with no fear or ulterior motive in our minds, each one of us respects the other as one respects the self, a world where there is no disease, no pain, no crimes, no hospitals, no medicines, no chemicals, no pollution, no politics,...Imagine each one of us being so righteous, so fearless, so honest, so sincere, so sweet, hmmm, feels so good just thinking about it...my brain is probably not even capable of doing justice in describing how great this kind of a world would be...probably many of you reading this may feel that it may be too much of 'sweet' to digest but while we can imagine the opposite then why not this? The truth is we find it easy to imagine a human created world but fail to see a world where God has taken over in the complete sense and human beings exist with the complete knowledge and understanding of the Divine presence. So the human being at this stage becomes a beautiful musical instrument with God's divine essence flowing within them and it becomes an indisputable fact unlike the case today. Just think, will you still be mediocre when you sense the presence of a great illuminating light within you, obviously not.

Is it so difficult for us turn back time and bring back all that was or is even now considered 'ideal and good'? Is it so difficult to change ourselves to be that...? Probably it is for us, but it may not be for our future generations to come. I am sure that they will come with a unique realization that they are God's chosen children and that they should respect all of creation. I am hoping that this golden age comes upon us sooner than later...here's to positive hopes!