The magic of breathing

What reigns are to a horse, our breathing is to the mind. When our mind - like a horse without reigns roams about in all directions, only by proper breathing techniques can one bring back stability and peace of mind. I was lucky to get information from my nephew about an upcoming course on scientific breathing techniques by Sri Sri RaviShankarji. The name of that course was "Happiness Mahotsav" - which means celebration of happiness. I was very much attracted to the name and felt an intense desire to join this celebration. The duration of the course was 4 days, it was conducted online and by trained young teachers. They taught us different techniques of breathing. These classes were very enjoyable and were punctuated with jokes, discussions and question and answer sessions. The last day was very special, when Sri Sri RaviShankarji joined us online from Bangalore, and taught us "Sudarshan Kriya". It is also a breathing technique which is practiced in slow, medium and in high speed several times. It energizes body and mind. To be happy , we all need a healthy body and mind. But happiness is something that arises from within. It is like the fragrance of a flower that emerges from the inner being and emanates all around it. And in the case of human beings it is our positive attitude, loving and forgiving nature, that make us happy and help us to spread happiness all around. So Sri Sri advised always to maintain a positive attitude, even in adversities. Explaining this point further he said, "life is interesting, because it has many shades of opposites". They are two sides to every coin and they appear to enhance each others' values. As we welcome the warm morning rays of the sun after a long cold night, we must appreciate that the sun's rays derive their value because the night is there. When we encounter challenges with courage, we become more strong, innovative and empathetic. He also mentioned that since neither our nature nor external circumstances are in our control, we should not feel frustrated if we cannot change them, it is better to accept them instead of resisting and work to adapt our inner experience of it peacefully. It reminds me of a Zen saying, that by bending down, the marsh grass can survive in a violent storm, but not a big tree. We also must cultivate the quality of even mindedness, otherwise our key of happiness will be in the pocket of others and like a football, our emotions will be tossed up and down with the comments of others. Though we should be ever ready to correct our faults, we must cultivate inner stability, courage and a forgiving attitude. Forgiveness is a great quality. If we can forgive other's faults, we can be happy and can make others happy too. Finally Sri Sri reminded us, always to be in present. Being aware of the present, if we think and act appropriately, then one can build upon a glorious past and a bright future. Life is like a river that flows to be one with the ocean. Self-realized souls come through many ages to guide us on how to be one with the supreme. but our success depends on our will-power, good effort and good karma. Life is a puzzle but only till we find the key within ourselves.

Of new years and new beginnings

We all look forward to welcoming the New Year, with many hopes to be fulfilled .The year 2021 is also no exception. We were all tired of the previous year which brought despair, fear and death in human life. We were all looking eagerly to find a new way out of it. Some inspiring lines from Tagore came to mind, which made me ponder a little deeper. He wrote, "this incense of mine unless burnt does not yield any fragrance." I thought about it, and realized that the true changes come not with changing time, but by actually burning the incense, which is to say, actualizing our true fragrant potential from within. In changing our state of mind. Real change comes from within, not without and when the urge for change comes - to make life better, we can really do so by using that desire to force changes within our mind. Otherwise our insatiable mind tends to cling to small material comforts that constantly come and go and forgets about bigger duties towards life. This pandemic has surely made us better in many ways. It has been a shared challenge and we are more empathetic to each other now. Also it has made us more family oriented, we have relearnt to share house hold chores happily. Scientists have invented new vaccines. Children learnt to follow online classes quite successfully. Even at the age of 81, I learnt to follow discourses online and give interviews through zoom. These are all very inspiring achievements for all of us. On the whole, adversity has made us more inward looking, alert and creative. We all have stepped in to a new year with challenges, hopes and confidence. Time is like an unending ocean, through which we navigate with our little boat of life. When that little boat collapses with a strong wind, we become one with the ocean and learn to swim. Losing our small identity, we learn to embrace our large identity and accept life as a whole.As Swami Yogananda said, " your fulfillment lies not in obtaining the objects of your desire, but in the unfoldment of your soul qualities and in making the effort to succeed in worthwhile endeavors "

Old is gold...not always!

There is a saying, "Old is Gold". Life gets a golden touch of wisdom when it passes through a long period of time and the many ups and downs of experiences. Though in old age, everything does not always look very golden. Failing health and loneliness often catch up and demoralize the spirit of elderly people. In my life I also could not escape from these problems. When my children went away to U.S.A for higher studies, when my husband passed away, I also felt. very lonely. I tried to bring some purpose in life. I started doing some social work in an orphanage, also published my husband's unfinished book, and traveled a lot and so on. Now when I look back to my younger days, I laugh at my own immature ways. I thought old age comes to others, but will never haunt me. Every day I looked at the mirror, but did not know, when and how old age crept in like a silent thief, and captured the fort of my whole existence. I became slower in movements. I was alarmed when I first noticed a few gray hairs on my head. Now my whole head looks like a white snow ball, and I feel quite happy about it. I realized old age must be accepted gracefully. Luckily I have few good friends with whom I can spend hours playing scrabble, or discussing politics. Sometimes we plan to go to nurseries to pick up some exotic plants for my garden. Often I compare life with a river. Making a gurgling sound, the river flows down from the mountain top, and dances in the sunlight. But before it ends its journey by being one with the ocean, it nourishes all life on its two sides. It makes the land of its two sides fertile for habitation. Human life is also the same. When it proceeds towards old age, it becomes wiser, calmer, tolerant and forgiving. But sometimes suddenly like a tsunami, hard winds blow, and shatter the raft of our life into pieces. At the age of 81, I also experienced such a blow in my life. Last year , when I was happily touring in America, I suddenly fell ill, andwas admitted in an I.C.U at a hospital. I was treated well, but my illness shattered my confidence, and took away joy from my life. I came back to India, got wonderful medical treatment, and loving support from my relatives and dear friends, but I never lost my faith in God, and tried my best to come out from that dark period of my life. After a year of sincere effort, I could get back to my normal self. I became confident, and joyfully embraced life again. There is a saying, that every dark cloud has a silver lining. It is so true. I know sufferings come to teach us something. If we can learn that lesson, we become richer in mind. We never know, when and how our life will take a turn. We can only surrender, and pray to God to guide us in right direction I feel every moment is so very precious to me now. I have no right to be gloomy or sad in any situation. I try to share my joy, my knowledge and prosperity with others who are not so fortunate. That gives me enormous joy. I realize, life is to give, not to take.

Advice from a sage for a householder

I was remembering a story of a man, who was in search of a touch stone that could turn anything into gold. Once he picked it up, but unknowingly threw it away, and lost it for ever. It happens in our lives also. Moments come which touch our soul, inspire us, but we forget about them. Looking back, I find many such glittering moments, which are still now stored in my memory, and become a source of inspiration whenever I think of them. Long back, one such incident happened, when I met a sadhu in Allahabad who was hundred years old. From Delhi I went to Allahabad for a few days, and stayed with our family friends. It was a summer morning, and our friend suggested to have sadhu Darshan first, and then start our sight seeing. So next morning, we all got into a car, and drove towards Jhusi. Jhusi is situated just opposite side of sangam, which is a very sacred place. Sangam means Union. Three rivers Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati unite in that spot, and people from all over the world come to have a holy dip there. But very few people know about Jhusi, which is quite barren and rocky When we reached there, one old lady (disciple of the sadhu) cordially invited us, served us a cold drink made from fresh lemons from the garden, and comfortably seated us in a porch. Another disciple of eighty years old came and announced, sadhu baba will come and bless us after we had our lunch and rested a while. I was amazed to see their loving hospitality. I realized that their attitude was very different from ordinary householders like us. Selfless service was the path, which they followed always. THe eldest sadhu, who keeps always silent came to bless us after we had our lunch and rest. He came and sat erect on a slightly elevated platform in the middle. I was waiting for this moment to ask him 'Baba we are house holders, we have expectations from others, and when they are not fulfilled, feel very frustrated. That frustration makes me more miserable, please show me the way out." He remained calm for some time. Then he said a few words, which changed my life. He said three things. 1. Do not expect any thing from any body. 2. Do not criticize others and third 3, you have a human life, if you can do some thing good, do it. These words seem to be very simple. But if we think deeply, we find all miseries and conflicts have their roots in criticism and expectations. If we can uproot these two evils from our mind, then peace is guaranteed. Now I am in my ripe old age of 81, and try to apply his instructions in my life. I believe, spiritual people can see the house holders problems better, and can offer better solutions to us.

The river of life

Early in the winter of 2008 I accompanied my husband to Benaras, where he was going to attend a conference in B.H.U.(Benaras Hindu University). This old city has its own charm, with famous temples, ghats,silk sarees, perfume, and many other things. The conference programme was tightly scheduled and kept all participants very busy for the whole day, so we few ladies decided to explore Benaras on our own. One afternoon we decided to have a boat ride on river Ganga, which covered all important ghats of Benaras. We started walking through crowded lanes to reach our destination, known as Dashaswamedh ghat. Going through the crowded lanes and stepping down through numerous sets of stairs, we finally reached the river bank. Dashaswamedh ghat was glowing in the warm light of the setting sun and shimmering with garlands of light along the waters edge. The whole atmosphere was vibrant and joyous and sound of spiritual music. Trained young boys were standing on high platforms, with thousands of flickering earthen lamps in their hands doing Arati (evening Puja) of the holy river Ganga. We stepped down through another set of stairs and got into a boat that already had many tourists on it. The boatman was accustomed to ferrying crowded boats full of passengers everyday and while passing through many ghats, he was narrating the story of each. And as the light dimmed with the setting sun it was as if it was the gradual shift in the phases of human life, which passes through childhood to youth and old age. When we reached our last destination, Harish Chandra Ghat in total darkness and draped in stillness. Only a dim flicker remained of a burning pyre. All the relatives and friends left after the last rites and only a thirsty dog remained, licking water from the edge of the river Ganges. The whole journey was like a magical spell. I could see the journey of human life is also the same as this river's and the ghats is where it slows down for a final rest before merging into the ocean. The sparkling glamour of a spring that emerges from the mountain comes to to embrace the silence of darkness forever. Like a river, life also passes through all the twists and turns, the ups and downs, finally to be dissolved in eternity and to lose it's individual identity forever. Nobody comes or goes with one. That is the truth of each soul. This magic spell held my mind all through my return journey. I was very much present with everybody, but still my mind remained aloof, as if floating in the air. The same crowded lanes could not disturb it any more. I was in the crowd, but the crowd was not in me.

Gandhiji's smile

It was late December in 1946, when Gandhiji came to Santiniketan, a small town near Calcutta where I spent my early years. His visit coincided with annual fair (paus mela) and there was a lot of excitement in the air. I was a young girl of seven, and did not know much about Gandhiji. But I did know quite well that there were these thumb sized national flags being sold everywhere - flags that were attached to what really did catch my attention - the flagpole, which was a thin long colorful plastic straw filled with different flavors of sugary honey. As a young child, this captured my imagination and I was very much wanted to have one. I got few paisas (cents) from my mother, and holding them tightly clasped in my hand, ran to to purchase one. When I reached the mela ground, I found many people were streaming towards some other direction. I was curious and changed my direction and followed them. The crowd moved towards the central ground,"Gour Prangan"c(which was named after Gour Gopal Ghosh, who was my late father). That ground was used for all the big events that came to town and upon reaching there, I found the grounds flooded with people. And on a high platform stood a frail looking man on in the middle, wrapped up in a white cotton cloth, standing there and was saying something. He was also holding what I understood to be a donation box in his hand, where people were giving whatever money they could afford. With my immature mind I could understand that he was collecting money for the freedom movement.The whole atmosphere inspired me a lot. Though I neither had much understanding of the greatness of Gandhiji, nor did I know about freedom movement, I was attracted to the personality of this frail man making a speech and realized that some good work was being done. So like a small mouse in a maze, I squeezed through the crowd and managed to come near the central platform, where Gandhiji was standing with his donation box. All through I was holding those few coins tight in my hand and as if through an unseen force pushing me forward, I came right upto Gandhiji and put my precious few coins in his donation box. He was surprised at my gesture, and looked at me, to give me a kind, loving and bewildered smile, which stayed imprinted in my mind forever. Whenever I talk or think of him, I can see that smile vividly in my mind even now. I have now come to a ripe old age and like a river, I have passed through many ups and downs. But my childhood memory of Gandhiji remains clear and fragrant like the morning dew. Whenever I talk about him, his divine smile flashes in my mind and makes me feel blessed. I bow down to God, who inspired me to give my life's first donation to Gandhiji, for a good cause. I feel fortunate to have been brought up in Tagore's Santiniketan, where I got many opportunities to come close to many great souls.

Courage and Circumstance

It was the year 1989. My life revolved happily around family members, specially with my sons and our pet dog Sherry.I was involved with their activities, and my time was spend joyfully. When my elder son left for higher studies to U.S.A, a sudden vacuum came in my life. To fill up my emotional emptiness, I started looking for a job. And soon with God's grace, I got a part time job in a school run under C.I.E, {central Institute of Education}. I remember one cold December morning, when I came out from the school, I was shivering in the biting cold winds which pierced through three layers of my woollen clothes and chilled my bones. Luckily I saw a young rickshaw puller standing nearby, waiting for a customer. I got into it, and was surprised to see the courage (and poverty) of that young boy, who was just wrapped up in a thin cotton cloth. Immediately I decided that upon reaching home I must give him my son's school blazer to him, which was hanging unused in the closet. As soon as I reached home, I asked him to wait and went in to bring the blazer. As he was just expecting his fare and nothing more, when I gave him some extra money and also the blazer, he gave a faint smile, neatly folded the coat, and put it in his basket. I was surprised to see his illogical behavior of not putting the coat on immediately in the biting cold and asked him why he wouldn't wear it. put it on. He was adamant, and insisted that he would try it on later. I was persistent and asked him again to put it on and this time he could'nt refuse. He pulled off his cotton shawl, and to my surprise I saw he had only one arm. He realized if he hadn't kept that well hidden, he wouldn't get a single customer since people wouldn't risk riding with a one armed rickshaw puller. I bowed to his courage to make a living against all odds, and to God for the opportunity to help someone in such need. He did put on the coat, and with a big smile left our house. If we are little sensitive to the lives of others, we can find such courage in the face of adversity and brave hearts everywhere. Be it a rose seller, a shoe shine boy, or another one of the hundreds of people who make a hard living in the streets. Their acts of daily courage are scattered like gems. I fill up my memory with such experiences, and when I feel low, they bring the light of hope into my mind and courage into my heart.