ABOUT REVERIES - DESTINY'S MESSAGE

Yesterday I had this strange dream..
I dreamt that I was being born in this planet, in this time-space, but remembering everything... and my mother was giving me a discourse of what all things I shall have to forget to grow up into a 40yr.old man again.

Before she made me forget everything - those few seconds before I would become the helpless child newly-born with no memory, I had flashes of information wracking my head. I remembered that I have no official religion and it doesn't even have a name. It shall never have one. But it is not an organised religion.Organised religion is God-in-a-Web, the Great Spider in the centre of a thousand doctrines and rituals and mandatory beliefs. And people die in that web. So I have a nameless disorganised religion. I must have Something then.

I have a way of finding what is true for me. t is an experimental personal philosophy and it will never have a name, because a name is just a label. As soon as there's a label, ideas disappear and there is label-worship and label-bashing. And instead of living by a theme of ideas, people begin dying for labels. That the world needs a new religion is the last thing I wish for. My experimental privacy does not have a symbol. If it did have one, it wouldn't be an Om or a star or a crescent.If it were to have one, it shall be a cross without the bar - because I don't like 'bars'.

A cross without the bar is the number One. One in binary arithmetic means Not-Nothing, an Is instead of Isn't.One is the number of Life, no matter how many dreams I have, of Life.

A cross without a bar is the Capital 'I'.It reminds me that this nameless path is my personalised thinking, not to be suggested by circumstances.

A cross without the bar is a Little 'i'. It reminds me there's a test with a question that awaits the end of every dream I have.

And I was born again in time-space. How strange it felt,being born!Hours ago I was safe,floating, happy,systems working warm and well. Now the mind is a control room at nuclear breakdown - severe emergency. A hundred terror-bright, death-red warnings flashing : "Breathe now or die. Eat now or die. Falls kill, fire kills, water kills, enemies in the dark."

Never before have I seen so many bright precautions, and now I am wide-open,vulnerable and powerless,and I can't even sob the word for "HELP"!

I felt my mother reassuringly close to me.I wanted her to stay close till I've checked out on the fears of danger. "Tell me Ma what was I doing here?Did I pick this life for me,or did you?"
 Ma had answers, but all my questions were cries of a wailing new-born. The choice seemed to be to close my eyes, shut down all systems and sleep. So this was space-time, Land of no Other Choice. It is all blurs now but the more one sees, the worse it gets. Here is hunger, and thirst, and cold.

She stroked my head as she said, "Little one, the dragons outnumber you, and they lie. You can choose. You have two choices.. One - call their bluff, don't listen to their limits.Close your eyes, lift your spirit, remember who you are, beyond space, beyond time, never born, never dying..."
I relaxed,and let go.

"..and the physical world will raise a fist in victory-Dead! All eyes to swear your tiny body unbreathing, all flingers agree no pulse, sign a scroll to call your victory death.Another Choice: Win by losing. Before your outer walls break, as break they must, if you are to stay, uild an inner place to protect your Truth. Protect the fact that you are infinite life. Protect that the world you know exists with your consent and for your good reasons.. Protect that your purpose and mission is to shine love in your own playful life."

"Wow! Great to be here!And so much to learn"-I thought. Good. Yes,mortals love to learn. And I shall always love to learn.This seemed to be my first learning."

FIGHT ON TILL VICTORY, YOU CAN GIFT IT TO THE MAN OR WOMAN BESIDE YOU....

RAMAKRISHNA : THE ETERNAL FLAME

Today, on the 178th Birth Anniversary of Sri RamaKrishna, I had shared a post on him by my learned friend Amitava Chatterjee - he has rightfully discussed the relevance of the great man's teachings against the backdrop of today - contemporary times. It is impossible even for the audaciously loud and nosy parker that I am (with my irritating, 'omni-pervasive' nose in every possible pie around) to script an essay on RamaKrishna. 

I'm not mentioning the headlines of today's newspaper but I guess in troubled times like ours, it is important to look, feel and learn with the correct perspective, and Ramakrishna's teachings are amongst the best to refer to while one does that. A couple of points come to my mind though, which makes the philosopher yet more nobly unique. As I think deeper, I remember how I, as a 4 year old child, had reacted to the element of Ramkrishna's presence in the adult world - that at home and outside, while as years passed by and I grew up hopping up school classes. I guess I can analyze why he was a always comfortable presence in the princedom of my consciousness.  

RamaKrishna is perhaps the only divine philosopher who neither needed any practical institutionalized support, nor did he end up summarized in any block of man's sectarian Religiosity. In fact his philosophy prompted the birth of an institution that fulfills social duties and has spread its global embrace over time. 
Man tends to associate anything spiritual with personalized divinity. A particular occidental, and rather popular perspective that grossly looks upon RamaKrishna as a Hindu saint or preacher is an immense misperception. It is here I think it reveals the theocentricity of man's restrictive spiritual character.  


The beauty of his philosophy in this context is successfully visible in the lineage of his followers which has survived over generations. I' ve observed that those amongst us, even at this moment, who follow his "form" of principles are not overtly religious, particularly ceremonial religion, whatever religion they might be from. This shows an evolutionary trait of our society that is blossoming over time albeit silently, without the archetypal fanfare, and rightly so. 


I think this is the biggest Unique Success of his philosophy, for what else can man's spiritualism attain greater heights by, than the inclusive evolution of its own form over time.
I feel the ever ascending glory that keeps emanating from his spiritual core. We are a blessed lot. The flame, leading kindly light, shall burn forever.

VIVEKANANDA , THE FEARLESS INDIAN

The photograph of the letter posted as "BLESSINGS TO NIVEDITA" reads :

"The mother's heart, the hero's will,
The sweetness of the southern breeze,
The sacred charm and strength that dwell
On Aryan altars, flaming, free;
All these be yours, and many more
No ancient soul could dream before --
Be thou to India's future son
The mistress, servant, friend in one.

With the blessings of Vivekananda"

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WHAT DID VIVEKANANDA MEAN BY  "MISTRESS" HERE?

What I am going to write should sound sacrilegious  (But the nonconformist devil that I am, can't be defied, after I discovered long back that my alter-ego cannot be de-ified).

Narendranath was fearless, (the reason why Ramakrishna, who had always advised the common mortal to avoid Kamini & Kanchan as far as possible, felt The Spark in him, the one who could and eventually would carry forward His Message to the furthest confines of the universe ) - he doesn't care a hoot to write MiSTRESS here. I just think he didn't have an alternate word to put. 

In his times, the relationship of MISTRESS / Rakshita was well known in society (specially in houses bearing blue-blooded lineages of timeless financial abundance).

**I was born in a middle-class family, but coincidentally my great great paternal grandfather, ingloriously blue-blooded and may his soul rest in Silence, "maintained" one. I am congenitally red-blooded and stubbornly so. No shame here.** 

The relationship wouldn't be formalized by institutional auspice, and hushed voices whispered Adultery, and it was a vice - it meant a woman suffering at the expense of another if you get what I mean. It was a VICE, and  I'm sure Narendranath didn't mean Rakshita here (even when he describes relationships elsewhere as JOUBONER UPOBON & BANOPROSTHER BARANASI - ** please correct me here, I don't think I quote him correctly here) 

I don't believe in ways Good or Bad. It's been my personal choice to look at things and evaluate them in my own incomplete, unfit, ill-endowed capacity in relevance of Correctness. 

It's Right or Wrong for me - I don't have the audacity to even sermonize on the issue. I can only say - there seems to be a constant process of extrapolation of the two abstracts of Good and Bad with time, rather with "the times they are a'changing" and relevant issues even exchange sides of the fence where Judgment of Morality is seated. 

A woman suffering at the expense of another woman is Incorrect. Wrong. In any age or era, it shall be wrong Forever. 

Yet there have been relationships , and there shall be, not formalized FOR society's peace, and flies on the wall keep humming to the tune of which we (me included at times) tap our toes over coffee. I am not putting illustrious examples here with names of minstrels, poets, writers, artists for that's not my purpose.

In such a relationship not vetoed by Society, no other woman suffers at the expense of another, no family disintegrates as collateral damage, no soul betrays the trust and respect of another. Even if such a relationship bears unblemished Love and spiritual exchanges of two egos and evolves in consciousness, nothing GOOD seems to come out FOR the society to glorify it. And if it's not GOOD, it has to be BAD - such is the dictum the "vociferous section" of our society follows.

Nothing lies in such a relationship for me to cry foul. It's just that I find NOTHING INCORRECT here.

It's difficult to look at things which are shaded black and white by a colour-blind society, where the shade is controversially Grey. 

While I await my share of brickbats, I will just reiterate that this is what I understood by the word MISTRESS here, and Narendranath was definitely and simply at a loss of coinage of terms. He didn't mean the traditionally vilified RAKSHITA here. He just fearlessly put his affirmative stamp on affairs perhaps with a fearless causticity for future circumstances where Society becomes the moral judge. Perhaps by default?? 

AYE MALIK TERE BANDE HUM : God And I

http://youtu.be/YmYFRNXrPdk


It was a very pleasant moment today evening when I suddenly came across this  a well known Hindi movie song while reminiscing good old days gone by.(a favourite passtime of mine)

No day is like the one before. There's always something fresh and new - that is the Nature of Nature, Nature of Creation. It's upto us to identify it to use it to our advantage. But one thing I've known - you can identify it if you seek for it. There's no coin without a flip side -- just like there can't be evil without good, despair without hope, or death without life.

So today I heard the song anew, trembled inside, wondering what new has come with today's song. I didn't find any.

"AYE MAALIK TERE BANDE HUM" - It would be foolish if I try to analyze the song, its melody, the lyrics, the voice. Every generation has got this song in its marrow, which comes from the most poignant of sequences from V Shantaram's classic "Do Aankhein Bara Haath".

This is the most intense prayer-song I've ever heard. Being a cross between an Atheist & a Pantheist, my personal take on "Maalik"'s Nature, constitution, form, relevance and intent might vary extremely from that which is conventional & popular, and I've got my share of brickbats for that - simply speaking ostracization in every possible aspect of life in every possible way.

But that doesn't take away my right to comment on God's song with intent. It is my Freedom of Thought, Freedom to opine, Freedom to take a standpoint that gives some meaning to an otherwise sustained biophysiological process that makes in reality a truth - I am an human being.

And that's what matters.

I see in this song, the glorification of humankind - how wonderfully sublime and pure the attributes of humility, submission, loyalty, respect & faith of human mind. It reveals what Man/Woman possesses since birth, and how sincerely unconditional man's Love can be. It gets lost in deceipt, anger, greed, lust for power from era to era but perhaps it's these attributes that always sees Man through dark times to prevail in Love & Peace.

I see "Maalik" in Man's heart itself.

OUR PRIDE



Isn't she beautiful? The grace and the gentle waves along which she dances in the wind, breath-taking and reassuring -- Our Tricolour, the mother of our inspiration, the holy garment which India drapes around herself.

The spiritual strength of India that keeps on evolving showing us all the way to a Saffron sunrise of Wisdom : A pristine unblemished Truth in White, that tells India is Peace, the Wheel carriying India's movement forward, towards a predestined horizon of Life, Hope and Security.

The tricolour that brings tears to my eyes and gives me goose bumps - what a reassurance that India means unity in mind and spirit..I bow to you. 

There seems to be a magical captivating aura around it. It might be that our 'worshiping' attitude is a conditioned reflex -- what we have been exposed as kids, at home, in the neighbourhood, in school, in the air of the city we were born, and newspapers. But whatever be the "mode" in which we express our pride, it's the end-reaction that is significant and the only priority. (For me, it's one of the few rare things I'll never want to be explained about..).

India needs young people for advancement in rapid pace if we want to keep pace with that what elevates  the "third world" socio-political  status to the "developed" group. We need fresh and passionate minds so that we can look at things with clear vision and fresh perspective. 

It is the active and passionate participation of young generation to process its demands and ask with authority, in the international arena, for her legitimate rights.. A new India is being born and we are the ones who'll keep her on track. And we better not make the same mistakes....