Gradually, they raise out of the pond of water; much like slowly appearing over the pond. It just gives an illusion that they are raising from the pond. If you pause and discern, each of them seem to have two overlapping forms. One bigger, more obvious form, which is what you immediately see. To see the smaller and fainter form, you need to squint a bit and look elsewhere to discern. This is who they really are. Both the forms are overlapped, independent, and held together by invisible elastic strings. There are many of them raising from the pond. They all looked very calm. Quite at peace.

One of them is a dwarf. I try squint to decipher his true form. It is a stiff-ish one but familiar, highly ornamented and has multiple hands. His outer form, the dwarf, carries a short stout stick. He climbs up and walks into temple. He settles down in the garbha griha. He sits down comfortably, I cannot discern any idol within. Perhaps the sanctorum was empty.

I am in a great hurry, but compulsively turn back to ask – Why now? And why appear after all this time?
He responds – But you did believe. Back in 2014.

Back  in 2014? Today is 2012, isn’t it? What does he mean? 

It takes about 5 min; to be a part of the change!
Go on now…

Just round the corner, we will all be electing our leaders and deciding our policies via mobile phones.

Here is why -

Indian democracy is the largest.
50% of the population are turning up to vote.
66% of the population is under 35.
63% of the people have access to mobile phones.
There are more mobile phones than toilets in India.

If your mind is occupied by an addiction, no matter how innocent; say wanting to eat chocolate, your mind is not free to think about things it would have otherwise wandered into, stumbled upon or explored in detail. It is instead caught up in the mundane and is such a waste!

It’s exciting times ahead folks!

Stephen Cohey, coined a word, and explained it better as an ‘abundance mindset’. If this appears to be too simplistic & too basic, isn’t it how all great ideas appear?

Try an experiment; When you feel something, say anger, pride, happiness about someone. And if you can pause, pause and see if you can find out somehow, what that someone is feeling towards you. Most likely they will be feeling the EXACT SAME FEELING!

This is funny. I am thinking you are stupid, and you are thinking the very same? You are thinking the call-center chappie is rude, guess what he is thinking of you? You’re thinking you are not appreciated in the work space; Guess what… yeah… you get my drift…

Karaagre Vasate Lakshmi
Karamadhye Saraswati
Karamoole Sthite Gauri
Prabhaate Karadarshanam

(Go here for translation)

Each day I recite this. And of course, you know, I try all kinds of visualizations to keep up with this – B/W, Line drawings, many sorts of abstractions – and typical one that usually wins is like a soft soothingly animated version of Ravi Verma. I typically am mighty pleased when I get the form really human-like and believable.

Anyway, today’s Aha – wasn’t about the visualisation at all. The key element in this is not the all powerful goddesses – which another day I will say, it is about. The key element is really the ‘Hands!’ the Karas.
It’s repeated thrice here (significant, don’t you agree!). Should have been clued into it earlier!

Someone, sensible somewhere figured it out. That it’s all is in our hands, in our control. It’s symbolic. Lakshmi for the ability to sustain (also represented as wealth), Saraswati for ability to persue and achieve learning (also represented as knowledge) and Gauri ability to sustain human relationships. I get it – ‘It’s all in my hands!’ So each day, morning as I look at my hands and I am telling myself ‘its all in my hands!’ – ‘I just didn’t know it!’.

But REALLY now, what IS in my control? Most things aren’t. So, imagine that these (represented by the three symbols) are and aren’t in your control. It is the actions that are in our control – the doing, the initiations to influence your sustenance, your learning and your relationships. And it is also a ‘day to day’ control model. We don’t get a complete control – its a ‘present day’ or ‘present moment’ idea. The results of the actions aren’t. (the shloka doesn’t work the results in)

Now, I feel like a complete-pseudo-modern prophet. Parroting what most Hindu Gurus probably already have said it – can’t you picture Mr. Sri Krishna himself, or Buddha, Paramahamsa, Osho, JK all sorta saying this in different words? About the control thing – that it is and it isn’t.

Not saying anything. But still pretty pleased. 

It’s called a sunshower. I Wikipedia it, apparently similar animal wedding sayings exist across the world for this phenomenon.  Foxes wedding, Bear’s wedding, elves wedding? Take your pick.

Not aloud – not to the dead body – not to anybody. Everyone was saying idiotic things. Someone said ‘thank god – he was not married’.

He was lying in the middle of the room. I ran out of the room in a couple of seconds. The dead body was very oppressive. On the way my sister had said – ‘so quickly people become dead bodies – its no longer him’. In the room, my aunt & uncle were conversing abnormally loud – about God and his crappy reasons, their poor dead son, their prayers being in vain, their misfortune. They didn’t understand. What is to understand? Death is not understood – its only a fact.

‘Silence is better than a thousand words’ or some such thing the poster said in his house. Did he choose this poster? An image of two people in a boat at night. Someone had thought this ugly image worked for the words. Actually, the words fit better with an image of death. Ugly death.

I saw fleeting glimpses of folks touching his face for the last time. Was there a point to that? My mind repulsed at it. Its a dead body.

I want you to know I love you. Are you going through shit – I will not judge. I will share your super happiness – I will be super proud and tell the whole world. I love you. And here is a hug for all those happy and sad times I missed, a hug when we are still alive.

A thousand thoughts floated by ‘what if it were my son?’ or ‘…my daughter, my loved one?’ That’s when the grief hit people and they would weep convulsively, scrub away the tears.

I lived through that real grief. About 10 years ago, I lost a friend whom I loved dearly. That grief was like being hit by a train. Everything went extremely slow and extremely fast at the same time. I didn’t remember anything. Not the air hostess offering tissues or the next person looking fearfully at me weeping. I didn’t remember the questions or the answers. But I remember the horrendous weight of grief all those days. You could slice that grief and play football or something – it was that real. It took years to get out of the guilt. The survivors guilt. Every laugh, joy, simple life rewards of walking, breathing hence forth for a long time makes you feel guilty ‘How could you live, and be happy when someone you loved died?’ Really how could you?

Today I felt wiser. I wanted to laugh. To ask people to recount the stories of the man they knew – What really ticked for him? What made him laugh? He laughed didn’t he? He lived a good life, didn’t he?

We are all the same. We die. Is there a master program that calculates whats the best bet of keeping someone alive. And eliminate the rest. There’s is no reason for our existence anyway. It may be sensible to be sensible, ‘don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, don’t hold grudges, don’t kill, eat well, pray and be healthy, meditate’. And then, if were lucky, we will die quickly and easily like him.

A jovial young boy. Long ago maybe 20 years ago – when we were very young and wore embarrassing clothes that were in fashion – we all had gotten dressed up to get pictures taken in a photo studio – no one owned personal cameras then. We were all laughing really really hard. ‘What had made us laugh that day. Were we laughing at ourselves?’ – I asked. He looked like he’d open his eyes, laugh again and say ‘Tada!! Practical joke!’.

‘Bugger you escaped life. You died!’ I said. ‘Escaped from the entire shebang of hopeless useless miserable shit-hole life. Love, sadness, success, children, death, divorce. Every thing!’