Prince Aniket- The Timid Brave Man

Aniket was  timid, docile and sensitive by temperament since birth, unlike his elder sister princess Karnavali. She was outgoing, smart, brave, and a bit too strong willed. King Arhanya had various moments of desperation trying to make a man out of the boy. But any strictness on his part made the prince wither like a delicate flower. He constantly worried about prince Aniket ever making a strong successor for his throne. On the other hand, the princess loved horse riding, archery, and war training. She was skillful, brave and unafraid.

            Every time the king experienced a failed attempt to make a strong ruler out of his delicate son ; the sheer candor of his daughter made him insanely mad, he would reprimand her, curb her freedom, and took away her privileges. Karnavali grew up resenting her father’s unjust behavior towards her owing to her brother’s timidity. As she grew up, such experiences of failing to teach prince Aniket archery, martial arts, or any other skill of a warrior made her more determined to master those traits. She grew up to resent her brother with unspeakable vehemence. She openly bullied him while he played with small birds and animals in the royal gardens. She would shoot the animals right before his eyes sending him running teary eyed to their mother for comfort. The prince eventually became her outlet for all her anger and frustration. Soon she started to mock him in front of servants and attendants.  The royal servants liked the sweet tempered prince but they did not see an able ruler in him. 

            One day the king sent a proposal of his daughter to the neighboring kingdom but offer was duly rejected because of the rash temperament of the princess Karnavali. Her attitude had rubbed off many diplomats and messengers the wrong way. The king finally decided to organize a swaymvar (bride chooses the groom on her own accord). The grand day came. The royal palace was decorated; elaborate food preparations were made. The entire court waited all day but not one suitor turned up. Dressed in all the regalia, Karnavali could not take the humiliation any more and in front of the entire court, she started making jibes at her brother Aniket. The prince silently endured the humiliation because he understood her pain. The father watched helplessly partly because he himself was scared of her daughter’s sharp tongue. He was afraid that she would say something rash to him in front of the court and partly because he was ashamed of his timid son who was no better than a delicate woman in his eyes. 

      He silently watched his son being humiliated. The final blow came when Karnavali called him eunuch in disguise and that he should hide his face somewhere or kill him self. Deeply hurt, prince Aniket walked out of the court in defeated silence. Next day he left the palace without saying a word to anyone. Father did not even bother to stop him as if he secretly wished the cause of his embarrassment to disappear from his palace. Prince Aniket walked deep into the jungle. The night fell with its spooky eeriness all around him. But a broken heart knows no fear. 

 From a distant well, he heard muffled cries for help. He paced forward following the moonlight guiding him into the well. Peeping into the well, he asked,

“did anyone call for help?” Out came a reply, “Yes, please help me”. I fell down this well today while chasing a deer today. My ankle is broken. It’s a dry well, can you please come down and carry me out on your shoulders.” Aniket’s compassionate heart did not think twice as he climbed down the stairwell of the dark well. Not even slightly aware of what was awaiting him. 

             

He made assuring sounds to the stranger as he descended into the well. When he reached the bottom, he found no one there. Instead, as he called out, a reply came from the top of the well asking him to come out. Puzzled he climbed out to find a radiant Sadhu standing by the well smiling at him benevolently. Silvery etheric light emanated from his face and body. He asked Aniket to follow him to his place. He found Sadhu’s calmness soothing his aching soul. The gentle kindness, which reflected in his own inner being. On their way, the Sadhu said, “you must know prince, it takes a very brave and fearless man to follow the voice of a stranger in the darkness of the night in a strange forest and descend down a well to save another human being. You are indeed a brave, fearless and a compassionate man.” These words struck Aniket like lightening. Till today, people had called him silly, coward and a timid man. Sadhu smiled again knowing his chain of thoughts. 

            The life at the ashram suited him perfectly and blended well with his calm temperament. His inner being blossomed with joy after finding his true home. He was taught how to gather wood, use a bow and arrow to hunt for food, protect himself against wild animals, and to take care of his inner self through meditative practices.In a few years, he grew into a strong, muscular, and a self-assured man. His arrows never missed the target. 

    One day the Sadhu asked him how he never misses a target. Prince replied, “I do everything while remembering the Divine even when I shoot an arrow and hence I never miss the target.” Sadhu understood that the time had come to send him back to his kingdom.  Prince protested that he is happy here but the sage insisted that he must perform his royal duties too while remembering the Divine.

     Upon reaching the palace and meeting his father again, the king could not believe his luck. He was so happy with the transformation of his son that he offered his throne to him right away. But Aniket refused and said that he would serve his father as long as he is the king. He also suggested that his sister Karnavali should be made the prime minister owing to her exceptional administrative abilities. 

All these years, Karnavali thought she was the rightful heir to the throne. Karnavali saw her dream of taking over the kingdom demolishing before her eyes. She burned with anger. She tried every trick to humiliate him verbally but Aniket’s poise surprised her. He defeated her in every shooting dual, games, races and martial arts. It made her more furious when nothing worked. Desperate, one day she poisoned his food. Aniket like every other act ate that food while remembering the Divine. And that very moment the poison in the food turned into nectar. Watching this unbelievable event, Karnavali realized the propensity of her crimes against her innocent little brother. Filled with repentance, she asked for his forgiveness. Unperturbed, Prince Aniket told her, “I don’t need you to be sorry. I would rather see you happy. I know how unfairly you were treated as a child. But I am glad that today you understand that I was not the one to be blamed for that injustice. I suffered just the same and even more as a child.”

            For the first time, the two embraced each other and shed tears. Karnavali’s heart opened as tears of pain flowed from her eyes. A noble suitor married her soon after and took her to his city. Thereafter the king died. Aniket became known as the brave, mighty and a compassionate ruler. He ruled successfully for 58 years creating a powerful and successful empire.

The Blizzard.

It was a chilly November evening in 1802.Andrew and Jack were walking across the frozen, still forest. Their was no other sound except that of there footsteps muffled by the soft snow. It was a cold winter evening in the Alps. The skies were turning ominously grey. They have been walking for hours after losing their way in the snow blizzard. They were childhood friends who grew up together in the Alpine countryside. Like their fathers they graduated into their ancestral profession as lumbar jacks.

Today during a heavy blizzard they took shelter in a gathering of tall snow covered pines. Every now and then a heavy layer of snow would slip off from the weary branches and plop down soundlessly.

They could not navigate their way back into the village instead wandered deep into the forest trying to find their way out. They were cold, bruised, tired and hungry and heavy with sleep. They both were trying to keep the other one awake, as sleeping out in that blizzard would mean a certain death. Suddenly Jack let out a shriek of disbelieve. Andrew looked at him half scared that Jack has spotted some hungry wild animal.

It was the light of a lamp coming from an isolated cottage in the forest. They found a new surge of energy as a they ran across the frozen terrain towards their beacon of hope.They knocked on the cottage till it was answered by a kind looking old woman. She looked at them and asked them to come in, she said she has been waiting for them. She went towards the kitchen to fix them some hot stew and asked them to sit close to the fireplace. 

 

Slightly confused and yet in disbelieve, they followed her instructions without hesitation. Later over supper she talked about their day and about the blizzard and how the blizzard worried her about their safety. They thought may be the old woman is confused or suffering from memory loss. What they found most amusing was her calling them Henry and Thomas with such conviction that they almost believed it.

Morning they thanked her for her hospitality and took off. The sky was still grey,they hardly walked for a hundred yards before the blizzard hit them again with renewed fury.They scurried back to the cottage and knocked but their was no response. The fire place was cold and the old woman Eliza could not be found anywhere.Worried for the frail old woman's safety they went looking around the house and came back disappointed. They finally decided to find some wood to rekindle the fire. They went in the backyard and found a stack of dried wood.

Fire brought back some life into their numb fingers. Later they stepped into a small locked room in the corner to find the whereabouts or a photo of the missing woman. What they saw shook them to their spine. The cobweb covered skeleton of old woman Eliza was resting on a rocking chair wearing the same outfit as last nights. That corner of the room had a window with a view of the forest. It appeared as if she was sitting on the rocking chair looking out into the forest for someone to return home, perhaps Henry and Thomas they reflected sadly.
Spooked out of their wits they stepped out of the room and waited for the blizzard to subside. Next morning nature took mercy on the two young men and allowed them to find their way back to the village.
When they shared their unbelievable story the grand old man of the village chided them not to make joke of such serious things. He later explained that about 50 years ago in a similar notorious blizzard the two, father-son lumberjacks Henry and Thomas were buried deep into the snow, they gave them a quite burial and prayed that no one is waiting for them to return home, because nobody in the village knew of their whereabouts.They knew their names because they would many a times end up working in close proximity with the other lumberjacks of that village.

That night Andrew and Jack had a tough time finding sleep. Their restless minds jostled to comprehend their experience and they both felt sad for the kind old woman Elisa.

What they did not know was that in the year 1749 father-son Henry and Thomas were no other but the two friends Jack and Andrew who came back in this life to complete an unfinished business. The divine coincidences pushed them back to their previous home where a wife and mother waited in agony for years with hot food in the kitchen and fire burning in the cottage to usher them home to safety and comfort. They never returned and Eliza left the world looking out of that window waiting for them sitting on that rocking chair. The soul left with nothing but just one desire to see her two beloved men to come back home to safety. Her longing created the events that brought the two men home to safety from a ruthless blizzard and saved their lives.

In sickness and health...

Shambhu was a poor farmer who owned a very small piece of land in the Vidharbha region (present day Maharastra). He and his wife Prema toiled day and night to grow food grains to sustain themselves and to take care of their two year old toddler Karna. Those were tough times but hard work and good amount of rain kept them afloat and content with their lives.

The following year a prolonged drought affected the kingdom. Shambhu had  sown the seeds into the earth and waited in vain for weeks. All the stored food was soon over. Everyone in the village had the same story. Everyone was surviving on meager meals. A month later the couple became week, they eyes sank like dark pits behind their cheek bones. The toddlers ribs could be counted from a distance. They were all desperate for food and water. They prayed deeply for respite.The last well in the village dried out, to walk several miles to the next source was getting increasing difficult for his weak body. The toddler was losing his consciousness and mother cried in anguish.

Frustrated and helpless he ran out into the parched fields and yelled at his merciless God who was watching them and his helpless child die a slow painful death. He cursed with deep pain and asked his God to take him first if he is so keen on taking a life.
After dusk they went to bed hungry, starving and staring at the thatched roof with hollow sleepless eyes. He murmured a quiet apology through his lips.
That night dark clouds gathered in the area, it rained and it poured. The villager's heart were lifted with hope. They rejoiced to see puddles of water in their fields the following morning. Within days the seeds sprouted like hungry infants seeking their mother's milk. In a few weeks green crops were standing on their fields. There was promise of abundant food again. They regained their health and admired their toddler who ran around the fields with gusto.

However, the out-pour continued incessantly, even after the rainy season. The earth was filled and saturated; and the water level started to pool around their homes. Soon the entire village was flooded. Shambhu's little mud house was soon submerged halfway. The family took shelter on the roof. Again looking at his terrified wife and child. He yelled at God for being so cruel.
This time he heard it loud and clear.

" Shambhu when everything was fine you did not remember me, then came the drought and you prayed day and night for water, so I gave you water. Then you forgot me again, now sitting on top of your submerged home you remember me again?"
" Why cant you remember me when you are sad and when you are happy. When times are good and when times are bad."

Shambhu was not sure whether he actually heard it or he was simply delirious from exhaustion.
He promised from that moment on  he would remember his Vitahala (form of Lord Krishna that he worshiped as his supreme deity)  before all good things in his life.

Next morning the water receded and the family survived. Everything went back to normal. Shambhu prayed before the beginning of his day and at its end. He prayed before his first morsel of every meal thanking the supreme provider for that meal. Several years of fulfillment drifted past. Their son grew up and helped his father in the field. One day hungry after a long day of work in the field, he put a morsel of food in his mouth without thanking God. He was filled with regret and disgust at his own weak nature. He left the house immediately to repent for his forgetfulness.

In the forest he sat in a cave and vowed never to eat again. How could he forget his Vithala his savior, protector and provider. He went hungry for days. He cried incessantly out of love for his Vithala asking for forgiveness. One night in the dark forest he saw a bright figure in golden light walking towards him with a platter full of tastiest and fragrant food towards him. It was none other but Vithala himself who could not see his devotee go hungry. He sat before Shambhu who was overwhelmed with joy, he wept in ecstasy. Vithala fed him food with his own hands. Through his tears he heard Vithala speak " Shambu I cannot see my devotee go hungry, your love called me from the heaven to come down and feed you. Shambhu dont love me so much, I have so many of my children to take care of. I cannot go and feed all of them"
As Shambhu laughed, Vithala melted back into the forest.

Gratitude for what we have is our biggest prayer to God. Our love for our creator can compel him to come to us and show us that he cares about us more than we can ever know. He is watching over us through good and bad times and filling us with his love and light every moment.

"Dukh Mein Simran Sab Kare, Sukh Mein Kare Na Koye
Jo Sukh Mein Simran Kare, Tau Dukh Kahe Ko Hoye." -Kabir Amritwani.

While suffering everyone prays and Remembers Him, in joy no one does
If one prays and remembers Him in happiness, why would sorrow come?- Saint Kabirdas


The suffering we experience in this world are designed to wake us up. We are awake when we realize God. If we remember God in our happy times, then we can not experience suffering.Because in difficult times the divine presence in our being makes all the suffering remain only on the surface while inside we  are wrapped up in bliss and joy. Cocooned in his love and mercy.

 

Surrender the mind.

Hope is an antidote to despair; a medicine of the divine healer to keep ourselves prepared for what is coming. The frustration and grief accumulated in the present moment takes away our capacity to create a beautiful future for ourselves. It clouds our hearts and binds ourselves to a repetitive loop of sadness and multiplicity of similar occurrences. Simply because we allow our fears to blindfold ourselves. We cannot see the beauty, the fulfillment that awaits us. It restrains us from following the divine plan.

There are two choices a human being can make in the course of different good and bad events of his life. One is to take charge, believe that we are responsible for setting everything right, to create happiness and fulfillment for ourselves. By allowing ourselves the delusion that we are the doers.  The cause and creation of all events in our lives. It gives us the power to exercise our will and direct the circumstances of our life. It has several disadvantages, primary disadvantage being the limitation of the mind to truly grasp the cause behind our circumstances and thereby creating any random effect because of the choices that we are making.

The other choice is rather simple, in fact too simple for us to believe, accept and to act in accordance with it. That is to follow the divine plan that is essentially designed to see us through the misery and pain into the realm of joy and consciousness. When we understand that all events good or bad ( which is again just a perception of our mind) are in fact created according to the divine plan. It is up to us to accept, learn from such circumstances and trust the divine to see us through both. 

When we remember to remember the divine in our happy moments, it prepares us to go in a similar manner towards facing hardships, loss, sadness or grief. It helps us to accept what our karmas have generated and put before us as these challenges that we must overcome and rise above. Happier times and circumstances would follow as a natural course.

Everything is cyclical in this universe,  birth follows death and death follows the birth, they are inseparable. Similarly happiness follows grief and grief follows happiness. They are both a certainty, the only thing that is changeable in this arrangement is our choice. When we accept hardships as a part of the bigger plan to resolve the imprints of our past actions from our consciousness; we accept it with open arms  and what follows seems more like floating above the circumstances rather then allowing those severe circumstances to drown us in fear and despair.

Choice is always ours, to accept that everything happens for a good reason and trust that the divine force that is testing our mettle through these hardships would make sure that we are not lost in our own darkness.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining and all silver linings exist to define the dark clouds. It up to us to focus of the light that envelops the darkness or to be lost in the darkness by forgetting that there is ought to be light surrounding the darkness.

The Sugar-coated Truth.

Once there was a beautiful girl called Parvati. She was an innocent effervescent being who loved  playing in the mango orchards all day with her friends.

 Rabbits, koyals and monkeys were her friends. She talked little with her human companions and more with the trees, clouds and animals.

One day an old fakir was passing through the village, he saw the little girl in a deep and animated conversation with a mango tree. It made him smile instantaneously. The girl reminded him of the beauty and simplicity of his childhood. 

How he valued and loved all forms of life. He decided that this girl deserves to stay in this blissful innocent state for the rest of her life. 

He walked upto her and offered her an enchanted orange. The girl remembered her mother telling her not to accept gifts from strangers. Though she understood that fakir's intentions were good, she refused his offer. Fakir shrugged his shoulders thinking atleast he tried.

The girl thought about what happened in the day, she decided to talk to the fakir the next morning and accept the orange that she had refused earlier. Fakir waited for her the next day by the orchards and gave her a little peanut instead of an orange. Again because she was conditioned not to demand things from people she gratefully accepted what he offered. When she ate that small peanut she felt the taste of the sweetest candy filling her mouth. She desired more for that taste, so the next day she waited there for the old fakir. Sure enough he showed up ready with another peanut. 

Days and months passed by, this game continued. Her elder siblings and friends got married one by one and started their own families. Whereas Kaashi desired nothing more than the taste of that enchanting peanut. She cared little about food, clothes or jewels. Her parents finally decided to get her married to a nice boy from a nearby village. She did not protest, the only question that weighed on her mind was what will happen to her fakir and will she be able to live without the everlasting sweet taste of those candies.

She migrated to her new home. Kaashi and her husband laughed, played and enjoyed their domesticity for a few years. Soon something started to gnaw at her being, she missed the fakir and those enchanted peanuts. All she longed for was the deepest truest sweetness that filled her being. She felt more and more empty by the day till she could not take it anymore. She fell severely sick; local healers and vaidhyas could not diagnose the disease that afflicted her. 

Finally the boy's family decided to send her back to her parents. When she reached home her parents were heartbroken to see their vibrant child in that state. She felt better being back under her parents care but she missed her fakir and those candies. She inquired from everyone but nobody had seen him in years. She sighed as she resigned to her fate;  a life without that sweetness.

That night in her dreams fakir showed up, they chatted about old times. Then she asked the fakir about those candy peanuts. He laughed and said there were no peanuts ever. What he offered her was a glimpse of the sweetness of divine. Just a glimpse a day! And she was so hooked that she yearned for the divine, that deep love, she missed it so much that it made her sick with longing.

 It dawned on Kaashi, 'what he said was true he always asked her " Are you hungry child?" When she said "yes". He would touch her forehead and offer her the peanut. The sweetness was never in those peanuts, they could be bought a dime a dozen from anywhere. The deepest fragrant sweetness that blossomed into her, came through the touch that conveyed the divine samadhi  of the Fakir to her. Peanut was just an illusion. She understood the secret and smiled. She took the old fakir blessings and thanked him for helping her to retain the memory of the divine in her being all those years. It was so effortless she thought!

She started her inner journey from that moment onwards. Everything else was unrolling as divine will before her eyes thereafter. All the external circumstances and relationships appeared like a divine play to her. She witnessed, indulged, laughed, played and smiled till she found the right moment to drop the cocoon to join the ever-flowing bliss.

The Phoenix of the Forest.

On the outskirts of the village of Samastipur there was deep dark forest full of dangerous animals. The villagers would even hear tigers distant roars and hyenas laughing in the dark hours of the night. People were afraid to leave their homes after dusk, except one man. His names was Pala, after his mother passed away from prolonged illness his only living relative was his little brother who was brutally tortured to death by a local landowner. His brother worked as an unpaid slave. He died of hunger and overexertion because the landowner refused to give him food.

Pala worked as a woodcutter in the forest. Overtime he became familiar with different pathways leading to rich corners of the kingdom. Sometime he would see opulent wedding procession  passing by. Glittering with gold and diamonds, loaded with all kinds of rich fruits and sweets. It made him feel anguish when he would remember his little brother's shriveled face when he found him, after slogging for months in the forest collecting and selling wood to gather enough money to buy freedom for his brother. 

He left the village experiencing apathy and disapproval from the known faces of his childhood and found his home in the jungle. His anger and frustration with the world grew manifold. Hatred brewed in his veins for years. His inner being hardened  to the beauty of life. He felt almost no connection to life there was not a drop of joy left in his soul. He transformed from a vulnerable and trusting young man to a vengeance seeking sociopath.

He started to terrorize the passers-by with his angry shouting and attempts to attack them with an axe. He developed a reputation of the most dreaded being in the forest. Now he would loot and rob the rich merchants, their wedding processions and hack the bodies of his victims in the most cruel way. Each blow accounting for the cruelty the world bestowed on him. He would crush their heads under boulders and chop of their fingers. He wore the fingers of his victims as garlands around his neck. Soon he came to be known as the dreaded decoit Angulimala ( one who wears garland of fingers). He did not care about the money and jewellery that he robbed from people. All he wanted was to hack and kill, more violence he unleashed on others more hateful he became. Hatred and vengeance became his reason to live. He lived to hate and spew his poison on anyone who crossed his path. His area became marked as the most dangerous zone in the region and was duly avoided by one and all. 

An old monk was about to take that route one morning. The guards warned him and tried to dissuade him from risking his life. The monk gave a radiant smile and said "To me life and death are the same I am beyond both now, they are both beautiful and full of bliss. It is immaterial to me if my fate goes either ways." The guards shrugged their shoulders in disbelieve and let the monk follow his path.

As he came closer to Angulimaal's territory smell of death and rotten flesh hit his senses. He almost felt the forest being angry at the perpetrator for this savagery. Fighting this wave of repulsion he moved further. Now he could sense the deep anger and hatred that reeked through the decoit's body.

He heard his footsteps following him, first out of an impulse to hunt all humans that ever crossed his path, then out of curiosity towards the one who had the courage to face him, the one who is known as death himself!

He mocked the monk "You cant find peace so you came in search of violence".

The monk said "I did, that is why I am here to give it to you.You almost seem belittled Angulimaal! that I am not scared of you."

Offended but intrigued Angulimaal retorted " I think you don't have any peace in you that why you have come to be killed and leave this world because it is irrelevant for you to live neither do you have the pleasures of the world nor do you have inner peace".

The monk calmly replied I can prove it to you that I do have inner peace, if I fail you can butcher me right here at this very spot into a 100 pieces and wear which ever part of the carcass around your neck."

Angulimaal fell for the bait, he agreed, but on the condition that the Monk cannot touch him or try to give him a sermon about peace. Apparently he gave a death sentence to many a fake sadhus who tried to preach him about the law of dharma and karma.

Monk sat right under the very tree banyan tree which was the site of the massacre of numerous innocent beings. He closed his eyes and forgot all about his external existence and went into a deep and blissful union with God. His body exuded the fragrance of a million magnolias that wiped away all the stench that was emanating from the rotten corpses for miles. All the dead bodies decomposed instantly and assimilated with the earth. The monk said a prayer to give peace to all the disambodied souls that were clamoring persistently around Angulimaal asking for the reason why he killed them.

Then the monk moved his focus on Angulimaal and said "why are you so sad Angulimaal?."

Angulimaal broke down sobbing incessantly at his feet. He cried because for the first after his brothers death anyone ever said a kind word to him. He cried for the anguish he felt, the pain and emptiness that turned him into an angry beast. He cried for what he had done, his each act of hatred, each murder flashed before him as he wept. He cried in agony as the enormity of his deeds loomed like a dark shadow over him. 

In between sobs he chided the Monk " why did you not come earlier? Why did you not come to me earlier?"

Monk looked at the vicious criminal that he came searching for, instead he found a rejected, sad and helpless boy hiding in the deep dark cave of his grieve. He said "Because it was not time for me. From the darkest of your acts, the fragrant flower will blossom. I could not have interfered with this divine process, so I had to wait before you could create enough karmas to earn your penance and salvation".

Angulimaal leapt towards his axe in an attempt to kill himself. Monk stopped him and said killing yourself would be a bigger crime than all the death that he has caused in his entire life.

Angulimaal dropped his axe and begged the monk to kill him.

The Monk felt deep compassion for the lost and aggrieved soul. He said "Angulimaal whats done cannot be undone but do good deeds for the rest of your lives and pray for forgiveness to God.Thats your only path to salvation".

Angulimaal touched his feet and took the monk's words to his heart. He lived like a monk, he cleaned the forest of his acts and sat and prayed for peace of each and every person that he had killed.

He looked after each and every tree and sapling in the forest with great reverence and care. He took care of injured and sick animals. He persevered and revered all forms of life. He mediated on the name of God asking for forgiveness. His penance was so sincere and his regret so deep that his heart healed and his being blossomed in that purity. Like a clump of earth mined from the ground holds both gold and dirt, it only reveals the purest metal when it is put through the molten fire.  He did severe penance and found the deep blissful presence of God in his being. He later wrote an epic on the supreme creator in his majestic form on earth.

When he left his body all the birds, animals and trees of the forest sang for the glorious fallen star that rose like a phoenix and claimed his space in the divine realm.

Affirmations on the path.

My  friend picks up her phone to find numerical synchronicity reflecting back at her, showing the time to be 12:12; like several other times past week when she would see 10:10 or 12:34 or several other such chronical coincidences.

Excitedly she asks me every time "PK what does it mean???"

I smile looking at her inner happiness as she is stepping on her inner path. The first few baby steps filled with endless sense of wonder at the things happening around you. Our puny little mind failing to grasp the vastness of the intelligence that created us, the apparently chaotic world with its precise organization.

I see myself in her how I was a decade ago when I got on the path and discovered the same numerical synchronicity. I asked my Guru in the same amazed tone "what does it mean?". He smiled indulgently and said " That means like meets like." I did not quite get it but I was too naive to know such cryptic answers require an inner query but at that stage we are like little toddlers any answer would suffice even if it turns out to be a key to a puzzle and not the answer.

My friend goes all out searching for the meaning of these number on the world wide web. She found sites claiming it is about spiritual journey/ purpose/angelic presence/2012.... and the list goes on. The conjectures are several but the answer is just one. It lies as a very cryptic codes thrown so loudly in our faces and yet we miss them. 

I came across a TV series called The Touch, about a child communicating in numbers instead of words.I jolted a little it's there again! the numbers and synchronicity is back.!!!!

For people on the path sometimes the push becomes so clear through several messages that our inner self starts feeling that we are about to stumble upon some big secret of the universe. It feels like we are on the brink of something so big, so evidently there and yet we are missing it.

It happened once in 2007 when I came upon the principle of relativity given by Einstein (rather the principle of relativity was given to him) and when the message was getting clearer I felt such an excitement of discovering something that is always in front of my eyes. I go through it every day yet when I 'got it' I was overwhelmed by the unfathomable vastness and the meaning it holds.

When such realizations happen we become aware of the divine presence in every thing. All things become sacred all life animate and inanimate becomes divine. A stone on your palms beats and pulsates like our heart. We commune with the universe. The mother invites us to experience the limitlessness of our beings. The curtain lifts and the light show begins.

The signs are very clear we start attracting similar energies, we meet more and more people exploring and trying to figure out 'what it means'.The Mother is bundling up souls so they can progress faster by helping each other. Just like a classroom. 

As we progress further we come across people who are at the same/similar level of spiritual progression.Then it is about recognizing our soul families. Further more we come across those who ARE Divine and yet they do not reveal it. As Ramakrishna Paramahansa once said "True men of God do not smell of Krishna". One's who have found the divine truth are unable to convey the beauty and limitlessness of the divine love surrounding all of us from around and within. When I meet such people I soak in their presence, feel the love they exuberate and get drunk in the bliss they feel. 

By the paths that converge by careful design the creator makes sure his children receive his messages and signs and find confirmation of his love by looking at others on the path.

The beauty of this path is that it has no levels high or low its about going inwards, the deeper we go the enormity of the universe pervades us.

One day we find ourselves sitting in an imperfect world feeling limitless joy filtering through an afternoon sun on a drying spring flower dancing with the wind. The sound of people talking, mixed with honking snarling traffic and dogs barking turns into surreal amalgamation of us reflecting through the windows of our eyes and exploring this beautiful life through our bodies. The infinite joy inside rediscovers the infinite in the ordinary and the mundane. As this discovery dawns upon us nothing remains mundane and no one remains ordinary. Everyone is divine and everything is divinity.

 The Universe is talking to us but are we listening??

The African continent:

A tropical storm:

A galaxy:

An egg:

Human Ear:

Monalisa's Potrait

Water splash from hair

A Shell

Roman cabbage

A Pine Cone

    Fern Plant

All of them are organized in a precise and identical symmetry called the Fibonacci Golden Spiral using the integer sequence 

 

when organized as a spiral it looks like this spiral created by drawing circular arcs connecting the opposite corners of squares. It uses the squares of sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and 34.