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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Ignorance or Simplicity?

Krishna was playing his flute sitting under a champa tree by the river Jamuna. It was late in the afternoon, dense clouds were gathering in the sky. Music floating around him gathered numerous peacocks, deers and calves around him to soak in the  nectar dropping around Krishna.He was lost deep in ecstasy, waiting for Radha rani, she promised to meet him by the river today.

Hari Keshav was a seventy year old man with frail bones. In the village across the river his daughter had a baby girl, he wanted to see her and bless her before he leaves his old frame. He set off limping and clutching on his staff towards the river.The river was swollen and dark, evening was setting in and there were no boats in sight. He contemplated crossing the river without a boat.He knew he has no time to wait so he got into the turbulent river hoping to cross it somehow, within moments currents overpowered him and he started drifting away.


Krishna's ecstasy was disrupted by his call for help. He was playing flute so Radha- rani can follow the sound and find him, without which she could be lost in the forest. He made an image of himself with loose earth and mud and put his flute in the hand of that figure that looked just like him, then he requested the wind to play the flute till he returns. Wind happily played along and divine music floated in the air again.

Krishna then transformed his outer appearance to look like an ordinary being. He became a big and muscular woodcutter and he leaped into the river to save the old man. Krishna lifted him in his arms, crossed the river and gently placed the old man on the ground. Hearing Krishna's flute Hari keshav bolted and rushed to Krishna's replica, bowed and cried to him, thanking him again and again. He forgot all about the woodcutter who saved his life and did not even turn around to thank him.
Krishna smiled thinking human beings are so blind, they refuse to see the divine in other humans but go prostrate before lifeless images. Divinity lies in simplicity but not in ignorance. He told the story to Radha-rani amused by the ignorance of the poor old soul.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter eggs

Cecilia was boiling potatoes in the kitchen, helping her mother to lay the supper on the table. Her mother Margaret asked her to go out with a handful of grain to collect the eggs from the garden.

Cecilia went to the garden, sprayed the grains on a  patch of soil, within minutes fresh eggs peaked out of the soil, she took them out, cleaned them,  kept them carefully in a basket and rushed back in. It was a regularity for the children of the house to rush out pour a mug of water over green plants and collect a pint of milk draining off the soil.

They were a family of five, one ailing mother who worked hard from the first ray of the morning till dusk. Two brothers and one little sister Bonita.When their father got killed in the war, Margaret went to the small prayer room in their countryside cottage. She cried her heart out and prayer to the Virgin to help her feed her children. Those were tough times, to have food on the table twice a day was a luxury.
Virgin appeared to her in her dream that night and asked her to have faith.

When Cecilia grew up she got married to a young coach driver from the neighborhood.  A few day after the wedding, one morning he asked Cecilia to get some eggs from the pen. Following the old habit she went out sprayed the grains on the  ground collected eggs and headed back in. Her husband found the spare eggs in the pen that evening and inquired with Cecilia.In her simplicity she told him about the eggs coming out of the ground. He thought she has lost her mind and told her it is not possible. He went out with her and asked her to bring the eggs out of the soil, with doubts in her mind now and skepticism from her husband, she sprayed the grains but nothing emerged from the ground.

A few days later when she went back to visit her mother, she narrated the incidence and told her that everyone else in the village gets their eggs from the hens and milk from cows.Margaret smiled and said "yes you are right, now you no longer need to feed the earth with grains, you have hens and cows to fulfill that need."

Later on she thanked the Virgin for giving them food for all those difficult years.For keeping her children alive and healthy. A silver tear of love and ecstasy rolled down from the image of Mother Mary resting over her mantelpiece that night.


Magic might be about illusion, but faith can create miracles. Whenever we get sick simple believe that God is going to heal us works faster than medicines, it also makes medicines more effective. When we are sick we can fill ourselves with light every time we go to sleep and next morning fevers, infections, pain and aches are all gone. It is as simple as cleaning ourselves off all the dirt, grime and dust by taking a shower. A shower of light from the divine brings us the same cleaning and healing. All we need is faith in the biggest healer of all and a will to get better.



Monday, April 25, 2011

Thunderbolts of memory.

Aliya was chasing her mother,who was forcefully  taken by the slave traders, her little brother followed her through the narrow lanes of the desert settlements.

The brother and sister lost their way and ended up at the shifting dunes, thirsty and exhausted by the merciless desert sun they collapsed on the ground, luckily the caravan passing by found them and took them along with the rest to the coastal town of Marrakash.
It was the hub of the slave trade and the caravan sold them to willing buyers for a few coins. The brother and sister were separated.

Aliya was renamed as Mahenasheen and was trained to become one of the finest belly dancer in the city. She threw herself into the world of music, she felt healed and forgot all painful memories of her childhood when her body swayed with the drum beats and her feet played with the soft cool sands.

Her body swayed like a serpent, when she danced men were mesmerized.The most wealthy sheikh heard about Mahenasheen's exceptional talent and decided to see it for himself.

Her beauty and dance both captivated Shiekh Hameed, he showered her with gold that night. It was a great night of celebration under the crisp clear desert sky but something bigger than that had happened the same night. Sheikh body-guard felt immense attraction for the dancer, whenever their eyes met their was an electric current that went down his spine, he had seen many beautiful women but the intensity with which he felt drawn to her was unbelievable.

Mahenasheen noticed the handsome young man and felt pulled towards him, yet there was a flicker of recognition in her mind. Later in the night, the strangers met again, he sneaked into her tent, they made passionate love, merging into each other with some unknown yet very deep longing.

She noticed a triangular pattern of moles on his bare back, she immediately understood. Later when lovers talked she told him the story of her childhood and about her painful separation with her baby brother.Stunned, he ran out of the tent. He was ashamed beyond measure, unknowingly he did something unthinkable yet he thought about the currents of electricity that ran down his spine as soon as he saw her.How could he not remember her. Aliya his sister, all these years he searched every corner of the desert looking for his sister.

Sometimes when we meet strangers we subconsciously communicate the message, longing, love, hatred, anger that we have carried from before. Most of the times we are designed to read them as signals of sexual attraction, but that's just our DNA doing a somersault in recognition. It is only noticeable in a fraction of a moment when our eyes meet(perhaps that's why eyes are called the windows to the soul).For someone more observant and aware it can be a doorway to revisit the memory and understand the purpose of meeting again. Knowing what is left to be done makes it easier for both the beings.When we are not aware, we meet, interact and settle something from the past and create something new and the chain reaction continues.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Spongy Buddha.


Buddha was deep in meditation, blissful slow ecstasy was flowing through his being, he lost all awareness of time, space, body, mind and soul. Slowly the high vibe started ebbing and he felt immense pain in his physical being, he felt he was burning in flames, his throat felt dry and lips felt chapped, all within a few moments.Eventually all the ecstasy turned into pain. He forced his eyes opened and found a little fawn, separated from his mother,  weak with exhaustion, hunger and thirst, he collapsed right into Buddhas lap.Buddha took him to his cave, gave him water and food and slowly it healed and grew into a playful doe, that attracted several other deers into the vihara.


One night he was meditating under his favorite Banyan tree, it was a full moon night, ecstasy was flowing into his beings, dropping like cool nectar of the silvery moon. He was jolted out of his reverie by some unknown gripping fear, he felt fear creating walls around him, he felt animosity and hostility he opened his eyes to find that a pack of wolves have surrounded him from all sides and were circling around him, inching closer. Buddha understood the cause behind his physical body communicating fear to him. He mentally commanded Ananda to carry a burning torch towards him. Ananda understood the emergency and ran out with a torch and staff, seeing him coming close the wolves retreated.


It was the fag end of summer; a thunderstorm announced the arrival of the first rain. Buddha in his meditative state savoured each and every drop and drenched himself to the core, He became the rain and dropped with joyous abundance over crops, fields, forests and parched lands. He felt the ecstasy of the earth and loose soil flowing with tiny rivulets, joining bigger streams. He became one with the celebration of Mother Earth.Again the joy was halted by severe stinging on his neck, back and arms. The ants have made a home in his hair as he sat still for weeks together, now the sudden pouring rain forced them out and they started to bite and sting in a frenzy to save themselves.


Buddha felt pain, but he decided to get to the core of these repeated events. As he went deeper he understood the cause. When he meditated and assimilated with the divine, he dropped all barriers. One has to be free of all resistance and denial to be one with the creator. Anything we resits creates barriers to achieving that oneness. While he assimilated with the rain, fragrant morning spring breeze, birds chirping in his Vihara, silent nights of the forest, stillness of a snake with full belly, playfulness of gushing streams; he also dropped all barriers that allowed pain, anger, hostility and suffering from other beings to assimilate with him.When he is opening himself and saying yes to all things perfect and beautiful he needs to have the same openness and acceptance for all the suffering, pain and other undesirable things.Only then all barriers can truly be dropped. When we stop resisting the bad we also unknowingly open ourselves to the pure and beautiful.When 'No' drops from your state, the Existence says yes to everything you do.



He understood that divine, the loving creator of all sees no barrier, no distinction, everything is pure everything is the reflection of his love.When he has no judgments of good and bad , right or wrong,his
beings cannot attain him till they drop all barriers and judgments and accept whatever comes their way with unconditional love and openness. That's when the ultimate transformation takes place.
Only then can a being attain true union with the creator.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Might is right.

The Hustlebucks resided on the western part of the green mountain ranges, they were one of the earliest batches of living beings on earth. They looked a lot like modern day silverback gorillas, big, strong and fierce but they were twice as tall and bipedals like humans.On the eastern part of the valley were the brown haired shorter version of prehistoric human, the Brazenheads who looked a lot like modern day Orangutans.


Doodh-ganga or the river of celestial ocean inundated the western part of the mountain, whoever drank from that river grew very strong physically and became almost immortal. This rendered immense power to the Hustlebucks over the Brazenheads, they grew aggressive and drove away the rest of the communities of early monkeys to far corners of the valley.


They plundered the forests, terrorized other small animals and became a menace. Their physical strength compensated for their lack of intelligence, yet at the same time power in the hands of witless is more dangerous than in the hands of the cunning.

The Brazenheads though small were wiser. They understood through stray incidences that drinking the water of the milky river one may help them to attain supreme strength that lasts for a long time. They devised a plan, instead of encountering the Hustlebucks head-on they decided to sneak upto the river one monkey at a time, drink the water of the celestial river and disappear into darkness quietly.

Before the Hustlebucks understood anything; almost all the Brazenhead developed immense strength and physical endurance.  With their physical power and intelligence they soon conquered over Hustlebucks.

Being low in intelligence the Hustlebucks failed to comprehend that their opponents are matching them in physical strength, they fought continuously till their population was almost wiped off.

Some injured ones retreated to deeper ends of the forest, the Brazenhead's felt sympathy for them but knew that their lack of intelligence would incite them to fight till they die. So they left them alone.

The Brazenheads eventually became the ancestors of homosapiens and the Hustlebucks formed the missing link and went back to the star ship they came from. The inherent  intelligence and associated compassion and emotions enabled the Brazenhead seeds to steer the course of life on earth. Based on this adage the theory of survival of the fittest came about several eons later.


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Power of Creation.

King Kramand was given a boon by the Goddess, he was given the power of creation through his emotions.

When he was happy little puppies came out of his feet, when he was joyous hundreds of colourful birds flew out of his heart, when he felt irritated many bugs and bees buzzed out of his ears.
When he felt anxiety many rhinos and horses rushed out of his forehead. When he went for a battle armies of powerful elephants and horses came out of his arms and surrounded the the enemy's army.

His friend Garudadhwaja from the neighboring kingdom worried over his growing might and decided to dilute his power. He flew to him one day and talked about various rumours spreading about his manhood in the surrounding kingdoms. He told him how people are speculating that King Kramand is a hermaphrodite or an eunuch . How can a man give birth to living beings? He must be a woman dressed a man?

These concocted stories created a flutter in his mind, utterly confused about his gender now, he started to observe expressions of people around him to know if its really true.He observed women to see if he is similar to them. More he observed and thought more the thought took roots in his psyche that he must be losing his manhood and turning into a woman or a eunuch.

Doubts and mistrust tarnish a man's soul.

Karmand lost faith in himself and went and pleaded to the Goddess to take her boon back from him. Immensely saddened by his request and inability to see the truth, Goddess emerged from eternity to put his creative powers to sleep. 

Karmand soon realized his mistake, he started losing his vitality and his hair turned grey, his skin looked pale and his eyes lost the sparkle. He lost his stature as a mighty king and was attacked by the enemy kings who now were more powerful and fearless,they regained their kingdoms from him.
After losing many battles he lost faith in himself, he left for the forest and gave charge of his kingdom to his eldest son.

He walked for several days later he found shelter in a deserted Goddess' temple. He cleaned it up and made it livable again.He prayed for several years to the goddess to return his boon to him, but his prayers were not answered. Later he gave up hope and stop praying for his creative powers and started living a simple life of a sanyasi.

Years of detachment allowed him to let go of all ego associations, whether he was powerful or weak, king or a servant, rich or poor, man or a woman became immaterial to him. He found an immense source of joy pouring out of his heart.

  Unexpectedly, one day Goddess appeared and told him "Kramand ! I never took the boon away from you, It is asleep and not lost, it was never lost, you can never lose your own power of creation. You and awaken it whenever you want". Jolted by the vision and message of the Goddess, he danced around the temple like a mad person".


He evoked his creative power again slowly, but this time because of his serene and calm joyousness, He created fragrant flowers, streams gushing with sweet cool water, colourful vibrant birds chirping melodies songs, green big trees, beautiful meadows and splendid moonlit nights, where he joyously sat and meditated and merged with Goddess experiencing the ultimate ecstasy in his being.

Monday, April 11, 2011

The White Scarf!

Sharon did her daily chores and rushed to the side of the ailing queen.The palace has come alive after months of sickness and lonely silence around. The princes, princess, royals, officials and other expecting heirs were beginning to gather in the precinct, hoping to inherit a piece of the pie.
It has been years earlier as a chambermaid and now as a nurse to the bedridden queen. She did her job with utter diligence and cared truly for the queen. Queen understood this and appreciated her sincerity.

She was buried with royal honour and her children and relatives returned to the palace for a public reading of the inheritance. Her portrait was hanging over an imposing mantle piece. She left all her estate, property, carriages, rights, privileges, clothes, jewels , drapes, china and garden for her children, relatives, grandchildren, officers, court men, servants and caretakers.

Sharon was eagerly waiting for one piece of jewel one royal antique that would take care of her old age. She was an orphan with no family, she did not fancy being rich or married, all she wanted was to live a modest life once she leaves the palace.Not a pin was named to her, she felt edgy the list was long and endless, everything word by word, account by account was given out and nothing for her yet.

Finally the executioner of the will called out her name, she lit up. Turned out that queen left one of her pale silk white scarf as a memory to her. Shocked at the humiliation, she quietly stepped out of the crowd and accepted the souvenir and exited, trail of mocking laughs of hawk like relatives followed her to her cottage.

 She felt hurt how could otherwise affectionate and wise Queen not know of her poverty and leave something from her immense wealth to take care of her.

Years of servitude got her nothing. Immense frustration got the better of her.She threw the scarf out of her kitchen window.It landed on the hedge outside. Gloomy evening was followed by a chilly night and dewy morning, now soaked piece of cloth revealed a map, that showed the secret passage to queens small hidden treasure which she thought Sharon truly deserved to inherit, but did not trust her royals and relatives enough to hand it to her honestly.

Afternoon sun took away the moisture and wind took the scarf with it to another place,  looking for someone who held more faith in others than in her own faithfulness.


The Daughter of Basilic

North of Gandak and Kalindi rivers in the Himalayas was an ancient kingdom of mountain warriors.
The king Angom had three wives.


The middle one was certainly not the prettiest or beautiful like the other two. Yet the king loved her the most for her wit, intelligence and her fierce independent spirit.
She gave birth to two sons Yashdhar and Deodhar. The other two queens had little daughters.This made them envious too, they craved for king's attention and wished he would love them even half as much as he loved Sheyana.

Unaware of all these emotions Sheyana was content exploring the universe with aplomb.She loved horseriding, hunting, creating new things every day.


She had immense love for the little girls, she taught them archery, horse riding and many other things. Unlike their pretty and subdued mothers those two little beings,were turning into fierce and passionate beings.

The mothers felt attachment for Sheyana and needed her advice on various matters yet her confidence and self believe twisted their emotions in confusing ways.
One day the youngest queen could not control herself, knowing Sheyana's love for adventure she told her about the dangerous serpent of the placid mountain lake, knowing fully well no one has ever come back alive from the territory of the mighty serpent Basilic.

Sheyana was trapped, she immediately decided to take off to see this beautiful wild creature, blissfully unaware of his might. When the youngest queen confessed to the eldest one, she reprimanded her and proceeded to dissuade Sheyana. But Sheyana took off like a gust of wind from the palace, she rushed to the king and told him that his beloved Queen has headed right into the doors  of death.

Anghom was worried , but he was curious to see how Sheyana would tackle the beast.He sent out his soldiers to protect her but instructed them to not interfere till she needs help. The soldiers and the king watched over her from a distance.


Sheyana summoned the might serpent, a giant fiery green serpent surface and angrily splashed the waters of the placid lake with his tail . Sheyana was mesmerized by the power , energy and beauty of the beast. She stared right into his eyes, two scorching rays of golden yellow light stared back at her. Suddenly her eyes radiated back similar columns of light into the beasts eyes but her light was silvery white.

The two of them jolted with immense force and were thrown unconscious next to each other, watching this, the soldier fell on their knees and bowed to the divinity of the queen.

 In her unconscious state she remembered being the daughter of a snake king living under the water. Even then she was a restless fiery woman, looking for more adventure, longing to see the entire universe. She felt trapped under water in her eternal form as a snake princess, angry and restless she started attacking innocent snake people, broke their eggs and disturbed the peace of the kingdom.

Angry and helpless father Basilic banished her and she spiralled out as queen Sheyana.
Basilic blessed and held his beloved daughter one more time; he gently bit her on her big toe to bring her back to consciousness as Sheyana again, and the mark served as a reminder of who she really was.

She came back to the palace with the king more poised and wiser. She decided to differentiate between exploring her own identity and exploring herself through others. The two queens were relieved to have her back safe and resigned to live a life of little less affection from their husband.