TO MOTHER WITH LOVE!

Mother's love is delicately layered, fragrantly pure and brightly hued like the petals of a perennial bloom! A humble tribute to the memory of my dear mother, whose death anniversary coincides with MAKAR SANSKRITI.

Makar Sanskriti (14^th January) is a religiously sacrosanct day. It stands for the first day of the month of Magh, the eleventh month according to Nanakshahi calendar. Magh symbolizes the cleansing process of the mind and body, devotion, charity and selfless service.

People flock to religious places to offer special prayers and listen to hymns and the name of the month from the lips of the priest. They take dips in ice-cold waters of the sacred water bodies including the ones on the premises of the religious places of their towns and cities. They wish each other happiness and good health for the days to come. Such is the holiness associated with 14 January, which falls on the next day after Lohri festival.

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For me the pious day carries the memories of a deeply felt loss. The passing away of my dear mother leaving me shattered, forlorn and orphaned. However, it also serves as a catalyst for commemorating her unique persona.  As the holy day dawns, I become conscious of the juxtaposition of an acute emotional vacuum together with the substantive feeling of her soothing presence floating lovingly around. My thoughts instinctively create a pathway of remembrances:  of her charm and steadfastness, unconditionality of her love, the privileged freedom to take her for granted, the foolish neglect to acknowledge her benevolent generosities, the occasional incivility to her in the foolhardiness of youth and the selfishness of childishly expecting whatever from her.

How grandly she bore it all!  While turning the pages of the book of memories my inner being resonates with a paradigm of images, though blurred but mirroring the myriad connotations of the purity of her soul. My heart contracts, cries, a lump gags the insides and hot tears come rushing down of their own accord. The questions raise their head inwardly as to why was she always selflessly toiling and looking after our needs, when many a time my siblings and I behaved like brats actually deserving reproach. Why did she always forgive and overlook numerous slips of the tongue and deviations on my part? When I recall   those moments, my mind strangely picks up the hazy pictures, my heart wrenches with unspeakable emotions, chokes and sheds silent tears.

How I envy mother’s fearlessness!  The strength of a steely character and a value system, which could overcome all obstacles, were innate to her. Her faith in the Almighty was unshakable. When I was young, often I’d hear her recite hymns in her sonorous voice creating an eerie mystical effect.

I imbibed the essence of her piety, and that has impregnated my being as an inheritance. Though far away somewhere in her heavenly abode, yet the sweet sensation of her protective fold lightens all sorrows. Her gentle and holy touch pervades my consciousness whenever I detach myself even momentarily from the hustle and bustle of daily living.  

My communication with her stays on an uninterrupted, unobtrusive, effortless zone. It floats forever. Unknowingly her soul merges imperceptibly with my interiority and anchors my life, guides me, listens to me and always stays close to me. Whenever life’s dilemmas had waylaid me and pulled me down, she responded to my silent prayers and instilled courage and confidence. My mind’s eye treasures the images of her beliefs, her pearls of homespun wisdom, not available anywhere anymore.

My heart fills with pride to realize how trusting she was considering present day unsound social alignments! True to herself, she never hesitated to speak her mind. Guarding her own interest above what is righteous was totally alien to her. Her simplicity is stuff for stories. Many expensive jewellery items she had, and never thought of wearing them herself and gifted all to her children.

Perhaps Mothers are like that!. Self-effacing, self-sacrificing and regal!

That the Almighty chose this hallowed day for her departure from this world--- was truly in consonance with the purity of her soul.

image courtesy: the internet. 

Friends, awaiting your thoughts on the subject.

STILLNESS IN THE LAP OF NATURE

Though it is peak of winter, this bush is aglow with pink woolly flowers

 Friends, I'm passionate about  articulating my impressions about the unique manifestations of nature, whenever I feel inspired. In fact it is my love for nature which keeps me going. Here is one simple personal insight.

 

The majestic row of trees in the park. I took this pic around noon

Quietude is a very graceful and desirable sensation. However, do we find it in the mad bad world of din and commotion of too many people in too little space? One feels lucky to receive this benediction occasionally. I was that lucky today. After a gap of many days, I restarted my ritual of a morning walk. I was propelled to do so unknowingly. While peeking out of the window for a glimpse of the outside world, I found it deliciously inviting. The sun was rising up on the horizon.  The mere sight was uplifting. Elevating! No wonder we pined for its sweet warmth. Dense fog and   bone chilling cold mauled our spirits. The golden hued light was too much to resist. Suddenly it looked priceless.

In the park, there was palpable silence. The hibernating trees seemed to doubt sun’s full presence. Smarting under the cold wave, they were crossing their fingers as to not show hasty delight lest it should again depart behind some sudden haze.

Though weathering the onslaught of wintery days, the trees looked regal. The stoic calm and pride was clearly visible. Not even a hint of despair in their bearing.  They don’t preach but teach by example. If one were conscious, the intellect would comprehend the cues nature unfolds. I gazed at them to assess, if they were acknowledging my presence, it appeared they hardly cared.

 In fact, they are conserving their energy. Perhaps they are making meticulous plans for the coming days, for ushering in the heavenly splendor of spring. For that, they must have put in place, a secret communication line with one another. May be allotting turns. For who would wear the green dreamy shoots first, who‘d follow suit, who’d be the last to spring a surprise. Thoughtful indeed!

 Though bereft of freshness, they exuded pleasing vitality. Their stately demeanor evoked a sense of well being, confidence and power within me. I lost myself in the towering presence pervading all around. The surreal sensation was part of an awakening, a confirmation of the mystery of our existence. Sorrows and unkindnesses of life lose their sting, when blessed with such ennobling moments.

Let us emulate nature. It bestows unconditional generosity. We’ll be enriched, if we have the ear to listen to its silent sermons. It withstands so many upheavals but never skips its wondrous cycle. Courage, self-belief, righteous path, dignity, patience and selflessness are the words, which float in the ambience.

The experience reaffirmed my faith in the holistic power of nature and its inimitable manifestations.

While immersed in these impressions, I slowly made my way home.

OUR UNIQUE MINDS

A healthy human being is gifted with a unique potent force of a conscious and awakened mind, which is wondrously dynamic. It is also generously enabling. It indiscriminately blesses us the wisdom to ensure a life of purpose, great abundance and success. How to use it, solely rests with us.

Human mind  visualizes and envisions the plan of action needed to achieve the desired results. Its imaginative power coupled with intuitive insights keep creating profound literature, pieces of art, dance forms, mind-blowing canvases of colors, artefacts and medical breakthroughs.

It lives out meditative practices to still its spinning wheel for attaining peace and tranquility for discharging the myriad tasks of everyday living. It prays to the Almighty to grant it the discriminating wisdom to adopt the righteous means to achieve goodwill and prosperity for all. Its thinking power has the potential of creating life-changing possibilities through discipline and confidence.

Though formless, our mind has infinite reservoir of love and oceans of varied positive emotions, which mostly remain untapped because of our narrow selfish considerations. Our pure consciousness, a nonphysical state possesses inimitable properties of acting out things to help us succeed in achieving the happiness, which we deserve from life. It has magic unlimited to change the course of our lives to our advantage. Sometimes it sets in motion day dreaming for thinking big genuinely and facilitates the brain to negotiate the process of action. In fact, mind and brain are complementary to each other. When the mind is crowded with thoughts, the brain tries to figure out how best to clarify and enhance the quality of thoughts for most effective execution. Mind by prodding the brain to fall in line turns invisible goals into visible reality.

Mind’s exceptional supremacy over us intervenes to help us bid adios to mood swings and adopt positive orientation to face life’s umpteen challenges. Studies have shown that a psychological practice ‘auto suggestion’ (Self talk) helps in training the mind to focus on a mantra of one’s choice for self-improvement and better health. Likewise cynical mind‘s obsession with negativities can be reversed into faith for the future through human mind’s healing capacities.

Our mind encloses eerie properties. Its unpredictability is sometimes scary.  It feels sad at sudden reminiscences or as a reaction to some unpleasant episode. It is thrilled likewise at a significant occurrence or some jolly memory in a context. It forgives wrongs done by others but also has the obduracy to nurse a hurt for a lifetime. Many times its whims and fancies stir us to perform unthinkable acts of generosity to others and many a time its narrow considerations turn us into inexcusable misers.

Its ripples of love have a wide range of categories. Love for siblings, parents, unconditional love of parents for their children, for those who rouse sympathy and tenderness and for great works of art and literature.

Our mind nurtures hates, perceived or intensely felt for people or things, which dwell in the subconscious and come to the fore suddenly by some trigger point. It harbors intense passions, to achieve which; it surmounts all obstacles, while inversely it amazingly exhibits complete apathy, disregard and detachment for many other existential matters.

Our mind never rests and unbeknown to us, spins a movie of our life nonstop. Even at night, in our dreams it is embroiled in situations better avoided in real life.  Many a time adversities of life pull its spirits down and at other times, it may feel being on cloud nine after enjoying a gourmet meal or baking a perfect cake or receiving an unexpected gift. Its emotional bounty is enviable. In the span of a single day the mind’s stream of conscious flow, if threaded into words can turn out to be a piece de resistance

Our mind smartly disallows to be trifled with and owns sweet guile and acuity to prevent curious intruders to have access to its core thoughts, racing in its lanes and by lanes.

 If given free rein to its naughtiness and skewed thinking, it can take recourse to violent means   to achieve questionable ends. However, with its good sense and astuteness, it can mobilize right thinking people to start a social movement for probity and social justice. It has a powerful ally in its conscience, which is the voice of sanity. When its arrogance stalls that voice, it degenerates into maddening behavioral patterns and suffers ignominy.

 In a woman the power of the mind can metamorphose her into the spirit of goddess Kaali, out to combat injustice and cruelty  or into  goddess of love and compassion when need arises.

Since times immemorial, great men and women harnessed mind’s miraculous prowess to act courageously for the larger good of human race. They were men of steely determination, who at the cost of their lives won freedom for their country, engineered the end of the curse of apartheid and managed to banish slavery, the inhumanity of man to man. They made history through their deeds and left indelible footprints on the sands of time.

 

Men like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs with their exceptional mental proficiency have revolutionized the communication systems, erased the man-made boundaries and created a global phenomenon. Their grit and never say die attitude born of their extraordinary mental ability speaks legions about their creative competence. There are examples unlimited of men and women who climbed the ladder of success in science, arts, music, medicine, social service, with unfailing mental courage and devoted their lives for the betterment of humanity, restored cultural heritage, gave joy and succor to the ailing and the needy. 

The gifted minds of scientists are pursuing unrelentingly the possibility of human habitation on other planets. The architects and engineers are designing mammoth bridges over water bodies, rail and road networks to connect cities and towns.  The ubiquitous presence of skyscrapers in metropolises don’t surprise any more. The committed minds have exploited waterpower, wind and sun-rays to generate power to run our factories, rails and make our lives much more comfortable and glamorous.

The steady and steadfast minds of theologians have pondered since centuries over the spiritual aspect of our faiths and beliefs and challenged our dogmas and perceptions. Great thinkers spent their whole lives for ruminating in-depth about the universal phenomenon and our place in it.

One can go on and on in describing the absolute being which nestles within each one of us. Which anchors our lives each moment.

Robert Browning's lines enthuse me to keep endeavoring to express myself.

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made.

Have we ever paused to analyze the infinite potentials of our minds, which apparently, we so meagerly utilize?

Friends, I welcome your perspective on the subject. Do say something. 

Image courtesy: Wikipedia  the free encyclopaedia

LOVE THIS IMAGE!

One of our friends emailed this beautiful image. It signifies not the truth but the whole truth. The image 


and the content say it all. :-))))


 Friends: I'd not help sharing it with you.

BLESSED MORNINGS

Morning is the blessed time of the day. There is always an air of indescribable solemnity and verve about it.  Getting up fresh after a nightlong sleep, one is ready to take on the world  with renewed vigor. Though we  perform the routine activities in the morning, yet each day starts differently from the other in terms of mood, inspiration and feeling of well being. Every day holds what, in its kitty, nobody knows. However, every morning brings a sense of expectation, mystery and hope in its fold. It signifies joy of being alive in spite of palpable moral crisis of our times. A good beginning imparts zest and confidence. The morning in a way defines the character of the day. It reinvents your strengths and resolves.

Waking up languorously, with mild playful stretches of limbs, gentle upward rub of the face with both hands, smoothing the lines, wiggling of the toes for pepping them up for the daylong onerous duty, nudging the body to be up and awake to welcome   a new morning and  silently praying to the unseen presence  for  making all this possible... This is what the morning miracle is all about. …

Straight to the first thing first, mission of making to the bathroom for swishing warm water in the mouth to refresh the breath and activate the cells, for their job ahead. Next the most pleasurable act of drawing the curtains aside for saying hello to the dawning light, to have a glimpse of the sparsely moving humanity, culminating with a soothing but passing gaze at the greenery around. Once again, the tacit bonding with the world gets going.

Next on the agenda is stepping out of the front door to bring in the morning papers while throwing just a glance at the headlines and no more. It is a pledge to keep away from forming an addictive habit, which steals a major chunk of your precious morning time.

 How I enjoy these chores at the start of a new day! The ability to extend a cheerful welcome to the rising sun and its warmth to come a visiting and fill the yet listless veins with the fire of its energy is no less than a benediction.

 Heading to the kitchen longingly for brewing the first cup of herbal tea (ginger, aniseed or cloves) in the cleanest pot, is a sacred experience like breaking a fast.  The aroma of the steeping tea fills the nostrils with a sweet sensation. The brew stimulates and rejuvenates the body and mind with feel good properties.

Still better, it is to start the day with a glass of warm water mixed with juice of a quarter of lemon. Great for propelling the cleansing process. Helps in alkalizing the body and balancing pH. levels. Also watches weight…

While sipping tea, I enjoy dashing to each room to straighten up things here or there and make a mental note of the errands needing attention. It gives a very satisfying feeling of potency by way of being in control of the household. The interesting part is that it takes so little time, but the benefits are stupendous in terms of running the household efficiently even as a professional. The bonus is enhanced output sans stress.

I care a lot more for creating a friendly and comfortable space in my bedroom. For that, I take special care in making up my bed and putting the things at convenient places. A pen, a notebook and tissue papers on the side table (sometimes I snack sitting snuggled in the quilt) are mandatory along with a few   copies of the Reader’s Digest for pleasure reading. The neat and tidy look gives me an adrenaline rush for ensuring the rest of the day to be fully productive.

Next on the daily almanac is some sort of indoor exercise. The whole of North India remains engulfed in fog these days and going for a morning walk is out of question. I am not a routine fanatic. I do things, the way I like. For example, I have started learning to exercise with lightweight dumbbells with inputs from the internet.   I have made a beginning with fifteen minutes of workout and then some stretching exercises. This I feel is a gainful way of warding off winter blues and to remain active and inspired.

Post some cooling off period- the sharpened appetite craves for some victuals. Mostly the breakfast consists of wheat or oats porridge, or roti made of wheat flour kneaded with finely chopped fenugreek leaves and eaten with homemade butter and curd. Sometimes it is toast with egg, boiled or omelet and a cup of hot milk.

After a lazing stint of browsing my favorite columns of the newspapers, sitting in the lawn, enjoying the balmy sunshine, I take up my day’s activities in earnest.

Friends, my morning schedule, a little this way or that way has helped me to vanquish procrastination and sloppiness from my system and lead a more positive and peaceful life.

Let’s know your priorities for the morning by sharing them with us.

 Image: courtesy google