The longer I live the more life feels like a river - one that flows through varied terrain, adapting to it, frothing and calm, to finally empty out in the infinite ocean.
Every life has two realities - an outer and inner one. Our outer reality consists of our physical body, relationships with people, nature and circumstance, that are all visible through our senses and we react and manage them the best we can through life. The other reality is our inner one, invisible to others, that motivates us with new thoughts and ideas that form our lived experience and forms the spirit of an individual being - human or animal. That spirit is like an unseen yet powerful seed that bears fruit. The seed which cannot be seen, but the fruit of which is quite different from tree to tree. Though our physical and mental abilities may have much to do with our genetics and inherited traits, the self selected nature of our spirit is ultimately what shapes our inner life and our experience, which often overcome the limitations of our inherited traits.Manjula Bose's Blogs
Tuesday 24 September 2024
Life is a divine romance
Sunday 11 August 2024
A priceless exchange
I remember, it was the year 1945, when Mahatma Gandhi visited Tagore’s Santiniketan, for a short time. That time the whole nation was burning with the fire of freedom movement.
Though Tagore passed away in 1941, still Gandhi with his great respect for Tagore, visited Santiniketan many times, to be drenched in peace. His visit in 1945 was for a short duration, because he was actively involved with the freedom movement of India.At the time I was six years old, and was unable to understand the gravity of the freedom movement and did not know the situation our country was passing through. But I felt the whole environment charged with some positive energy and momentum.
I remember my mind being fascinated by the one thing that captured my imagination the most - small little hand held national flags, affixed on thin popsicle straws that held deliciously sweet and colorful liquid treats. And they were being sold everywhere. I was much attracted to it, and had to have one. So after getting some insignificant sum of coins from my mother, I rushed out to get one for myself.
I stood surrounded by a huge gathering and found myself peering through the crowd at a frail little man, wearing a loin cloth, holding a donation box in his outstretched hand. And people where people pushing through the throng to put money into it with much enthusiasm and reverence. I was quite inspired by this collective energy and holding my coins tight in my hand, pushed through the crowd like a small rat, and emerged at the forefront to find myself face to face with him. I happily dropped my few precious coins in Gandhiji’s donation box. It must've been a moment of some amusement to Gandhiji to receive perhaps the smallest donation of the day from the smallest donor - a tiny five year old girl. Turning towards me, he bent a little, and gave me a smile that remains vividly etched in my memory even today . That smile had magic and divinity beneath it, which still inspires me in my ripe old age. A priceless gift for a few annas (pennies).Today when I think back at how significant that moment was, for me, for India and for the world, I'm amazed at how little we understand of what matters most till we look back.
Saturday 22 June 2024
The moments that last
Sometimes very insignificant things can turn out to be a significant source of satisfaction in life. These moments remain in our memory like a fragrance of a distant wild flower and bring with it a sweetness that remains.
Long back, when my elder son left for higher studies in America, and our younger son was equally busy with his multiple creative activities, and was away from home for long periods of time, I felt little lonely. I decided to overcome my empty nest syndrome by keeping myself happily busy with other kids. I was lucky to get a part time teaching job in a nearby school under Delhi University.It was a cold day in the month of December, returning from the school, I felt the icy winds piercing through my three layers of woollen clothing and was touching my bones. I was shivering like a dry leaf in the winter wind and quickly got into a cycle rickshaw , and asked the young driver to take me to my home.
As I settled down, I noticed the young driver (who was my son’s age) who was quite cheerful and confident, had just a thin cotton shawl as his winter wear.
Upon reaching home, I asked the boy to wait a little. I went inside, opened the cupboard of my son, where his winter blazer was hanging beautifully. I took it out, brought it to the boy, and asked him to put it on. I was surprised to notice that though he took it with a faint smile of gratitude, he didn't put it on, and silently looked on with a downward gaze. When I insisted that he try it on, he relented, took off his cotton shawl and threw the blazer around his neck and shoulder. It was then that I noticed that the boy had just one arm. He purposely covered his upper body with a loose shawl to hide his disability from the public eye should customers not pick him over others. I was moved to see that without asking for a help or or pity from others, this brave boy faced the challenges of life with dignity and courage. I was touched by his spirit, and we parted with a smile shared and a wish of good luck in life.Often such insignificant encounters, smiles of courage, kindness and gratitude, like twinkling stars brighten up our life’s journey, stays in our memory and like a fragrance, appears and disappears, but never gets lost.
Sunday 9 June 2024
On a river that flows
Varanasi ( Benaras or Kashi) is known as one of the oldest living cities in the world. As American author, Mark Twain commented, “ Benaras is older than history and tradition, older than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”
This city, situated on the banks of river Ganga, is known as the abode of Lord Shiva. All through the year, the city is throbbing with religious and cultural activities. Tourists come there to taste unique cuisines, to buy famous Benarasi silk sarees, and other handicrafts.
Along the side of the river there are 84 ghats, most of which are for puja ceremonies and bathing purposes and are tourist attractions with the exception of two - Manikarnika and Harish Chandra, which are reserved for last rights and cremation. Whenever I had the chance to visit this holy city, I never missed it, and in every visit, I was gifted with a new insight.
Once while accompanying my husband for a seminar there, I was asked by our friends to join them to see evening Ganga Arti (a holy fire ritual) at “ Dashashwamedh “ ghat, which draws thousands of people all through the year.
As we reached there, we saw a dozen of young boys, dressed up in traditional costumes, standing on high platforms doing Aarti - a graceful movement of traditional lamps with flames moving through the air in circular patterns - there were a multitude of them with all eyes focused on them while Sanskrit slokas were being chanted in the background. It was indeed an overwhelming experience and felt like I was transported to a different realm and a collective blessing was upon us all.
Below the ghat, tourists boats were waiting to take passengers, along the side of the river banks, as if they wanted to make us experience the full circle of life through that boat journey. We stepped down through the stairs and got into a boat, which was already full with passengers. Splashing sounds of the waves all around mixed mystically with the chanting and lights on the ghat above and made my mind more receptive to experience something new and unknown.
As our boat started moving towards Harish Chandra ghat in the fading twilight and sound receding into stillness, a. peaceful darkness engulfed us with nothing finite to hold on to. From a distance, we saw a sliver of a flame from an almost burnt out pyre, with all that was left of a life were embers glowing in the dark and a thin line of smoke dissolving into the night air. I noticed a solitary dog quenching his thirst at the river bank. In that moment, the whole environment whispered the truth of life’s journey - its impermanence, and its appearance and disappearance from eternity to eternity. As we can not hold back light, air or sound, we cannot hold back life. Only by enriching every moment with love and good deeds, one can make life meaningful. I remembered few beautiful lines uttered by the Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh,” It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent, when they are not. “
Sunday 12 May 2024
The world needs a nest
Every year 7th May (25th Baisakh ) is celebrated as Tagore’s birthday by many of his admirers. Some of them, who know me as an ex student of Santiniketan (Tagore’s University), kindly send some nice videos of Tagore to me. That really inspired me to write a few unique things about Santiniketan school, which was established by Tagore in 1901.
He was the first non European to get the Noble Prize for literature. Much of that money he spent for the development of his dream school in Santiniketan.
Much of his early life was spent at upper class British schools where he often looked out through the open window and loved to see the blue sky, flying birds,passers by and green trees. Perhaps that brought a feeling of freedom in his mind. He decided to make a school where children will learn while being free in nature .He wanted to bring a new trend of education, where children will be taught to be self reliant and helpful to others. Also being ready to develop a harmonious attitude towards the whole world, children should know about the past glory of ancient Vedic civilisation also.
In Santiniketan, except science classes, all other classes were taught under the shade of green trees. Children loved to acquire different knowledge while being in nature. Season changes, birds songs and fresh air enhanced their imagination and made them feel one with nature, and one with all. They were encouraged to participate in many other activities ( like, games, music, gardening,nature’s study, even occasional visits to nearby tribal villages with teachers. That education stands apart from today’s schooling system.Today children are more advanced with technology, more self centred, and love to stay secured and comfortable in the middle of four concrete walls.Tagore emphasised universal brotherhood, also fought against cast system (which was very strong in India that time ) through his literature and also through his schooling system. He realised, revolutionary change can come only through right education, which he described beautifully in these few lines of his poem from Gitanjali.
“Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high, where the world has not been broken up into fragments, by narrow domestic walls. ….where words come out from the depth of truth. …Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake“
At the entrance gate of the town he founded was written in Sanskrit, "yatra viswa bhavatyaka niram" which means “here the whole world comes together as returning to a nest.” Being attracted to Tagore's personality, many great people of the world came there and joined hands with Tagore to bring universal brotherhood in Santiniketan .