Anywhere.
Anytime.
You are never really alone.
P.S.
Here in India, it’s Vasant Panchami today: the first day of the Spring. (Find out here what it is). I posted on this last year as well. Click here for that post – Cheers! Spring is Here.
Yay! The Rose Survived
(…in continuation with my post – Snow & Rose: Yesterday & Today)
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The usual life: The rose was a little uncomfortable that day, as if its intuition was trying to tell something, something full of coldness. But it have always known to be strong, content and happy, so it just kept calm and soaked the beauty of the mountains and smiled. And the others who looked at it also smiled with the rose. Smile is infectious
But then very soon, the situations got worse making the rose tremble and feel that soon it might no more be a part of this plant which have been its home since it remembers. It was hard to cope but then the rose decided to just let it be. The only feeling left was “hope”. The rose kept its hope alive.
The rose endured the unexpected and difficult situation it was in, through day and night, and kept praying for more strength. And then when it was least expecting it, its prayers got answered, as unexpectedly as the snow had arrived. It eventually got the sunshine. The rose smiled more than ever. Cheerfully it looked around: the nature was applauding it for the strength it had shown, showering it with its beauty and warm feelings. The rose had got few bruises and wounds, but it didn’t matter much, since it had survived: It was alive!
Here, have a look Continue reading
Sometimes I wonder, who am I? Where am I going? What am I supposed to achieve here? And these questions become strong and stronger when I think about the vastness of this Universe. Unimaginably big, and me? Well, I’m just one little creature here on Earth, a beautiful planet in this big whole picture. What is this picture anyways? Who knows the answers? So far, no one. No one at all…
I’m not lost, or confused, or sad. I’m loving “Life” but these type of questions keep coming in my mind now and then. And the most I can do is smile and wonder…
Anyways.
Here is one article by Deepak Chopra, who in my opinion is way ahead of me in seeking this mystery, yet beautiful journey, called LIFE.
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Walking The Pathless Path
by Deepak Chopra
Sometimes a lesson has to be repeated for thousands of years, not because it wasn’t learned the first time but because new people arrive on the scene. The lesson I’m thinking of was Siddhartha’s, a prince on the Nepalese border of northern India. He dropped everything and hit the road, becoming the original, or at least the most famous dharma bum. He travelled from master to master with his begging bowl, seeking enlightenment. As Gautama the monk he became impressively austere. Instead of a loving wife, a warm bed, and feasts, he tried the opposite: solitude, sleeping by the wayside, and subsisting on whatever scraps of food he could beg for.
It’s still an appealing choice, because we equate austerity with virtue. If the stress of a chaotic world is too much, perhaps harmony lies along a different, quieter, more solitary road. But the moral of Siddhartha’s tale led a different way. Leaving home didn’t bring enlightenment, nor did austerity, poverty, starving his body, or trying to force his mind to be still. Instead, Siddhartha became someone entirely transformed – the Buddha – when he hit upon a new road, the one called “the pathless path”.
The pathless path isn’t a straight line; it doesn’t even lead from point A to point B. The journey takes place entirely in consciousness. A mind overshadowed by fears, hopes, memories, past traumas, and old conditioning finds a way to become free. This sounds impossible at first. How can the mind that is trapped by pain also be the tool for freeing itself? How can a noisy mind find silence? How can peace emerge from discord?
The Buddha offered his answer, which is a variant on an even more ancient answer from the seers or rishis of Vedic India: transcend the personal mind and find universal mind. The personal mind is tied to the ego, and the ego is forever swinging from pleasure to pain and back again. But if you look at awareness when there is no pleasure or pain, when the mind is calm while simply existing, a fascinating journey begins. You have made the first step on the pathless path.
This is not to dismiss the other path, the one that takes you away from home into a retreat, ashram, meditation centre, or holy place. They have their own atmosphere; seekers have stopped there for a long time; therefore, the mind can breathe a different kind of air, so to speak, an air of tranquillity and peace. When you arrive at such a place, two things usually happen. You soak up the peace, enjoying the contrast with your busy life at home. At the same time you notice how loud your mind is, how much chaos it has absorbed. So these holy places can only suggest what the pathless path is about. Kabir sang of spiritual travellers: “There is nothing but water in the holy pools./ I know i have been swimming in them./ All the gods sculpted of wood or ivory can’t say a word./ I know, i have been crying out to them./ The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words./ I looked through their covers one day sideways./ What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through./ If you have not lived through something, it is not true.”
These lines don’t deny the worth of spiritual journeying, but they tell us that there is no substitute for first-hand experience. Where you go to find it is irrelevant. The true seeker after truth discovers, sooner or later, that truth was seeking him all along.
Source: TOI Speaking Tree
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Also, check out something related here:
I’m Strange by God Is There. One of my favorite blogs.
Winters are on their way back and spring has arrived along with its paraphernalia – colors, flowers, captivating butterflies never seen before, greenery everywhere… Oh what a beautiful sight.
Every season has a lot to offer. And I appreciate all of them. So many memories associated with each one of them, and so many more memories to create…
There are several other reasons which makes me like this season. It is neither too cold nor too hot. People come out of their cozy homes and prefer to walk around. There are many more smiles and happy faces. Well, that really makes my day, a smile, or better, a lot many smiles.
And as they say it - Spring is seen as a time of growth, renewal, of new life (both plant and animal) being born. Cheers to new life!
February is the month of spring. In India, there are two festivals associated with this season. Vasant Panchami and Holi (the festival of colors and fun!). Both are yet to come.
These days, while walking with friends, I often hear “Hey! look at those flowers..”, “Wow! I love flowers”. Well most of the times they sound like as if they are realizing this for the first time. 
. One of my friends also acknowledged his love for this season/month some days back. Here is what he said: 5 Reasons I Like February.
Who doesn’t love it? Surely everyone. Nature in its best form!
Happy Spring!
Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine. ~Jeffrey Glassberg
P.S.: Pictures in the slideshow were clicked by me during the past week in the CEERI gardens.
A professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it.
He held it up for all to see; asked the students,’ How much do you think this glass weighs? ‘
’50gms!’ …. ’100gms!’ ……’125gms’ ……the students answered.
‘I really don’t know unless I weigh it,’ said the professor, ‘but, my question is: What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?’
‘Nothing’ the students said.
‘Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour? ‘The professor asked.
‘Your arm would begin to ache’ said one of the students.
‘You’re right, now what would happen if I held it for a day?’
‘Your arm could go numb; you might have severe muscle stress; paralysis;
Have to go to hospital for sure! ‘Ventured another student; all the students laughed.
‘Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change? ‘ asked
The professor. ‘No’ the students said.
Then what caused the arm ache & the muscle stress?’
The students were puzzled.
‘Put the glass down!’ said one of the students.
‘Exactly!’ said the professor.’ Life’s problems are something like this.
Hold it for a few minutes in your head; they seem OK.
Think of them for a long time & they begin to ache. Hold it even longer & they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything.
It’s important to think of the challenges (problems) in your life, but
EVEN MORE IMPORTANT to ‘put them down’ at the end of every day before you go to sleep.
That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh & strong & can handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!’
Remember to PUT THE GLASS DOWN TODAY!
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Source: A forwarded mail from a friend.
Chuck Noland: We both had done the math. Kelly added it all up and… knew she had to let me go. I added it up, and knew that I had… lost her. ‘cos I was never gonna get off that island. I was gonna die there, totally alone. I was gonna get sick, or get injured or something. The only choice I had, the only thing I could control was when, and how, and where it was going to happen. So… I made a rope and I went up to the summit, to hang myself. I had to test it, you know? Of course. You know me. And the weight of the log, snapped the limb of the tree, so I-I – , I couldn’t even kill myself the way I wanted to. I had power over *nothing*. And that’s when this feeling came over me like a warm blanket. I knew, somehow, that I had to stay alive. Somehow. I had to keep breathing. Even though there was no reason to hope. And all my logic said that I would never see this place again. So that’s what I did. I stayed alive. I kept breathing. And one day my logic was proven all wrong because the tide came in, and gave me a sail. And now, here I am. I’m back. In Memphis, talking to you. I have ice in my glass… And I’ve lost her all over again. I’m so sad that I don’t have Kelly. But I’m so grateful that she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?
From the movie: Cast Away. A great movie and the lines above are the best of all.
Hope to live, hope for tomorrow.
A rose longed for the company of the bees, but none would come to her.
Even so, the flower was still capable of dreaming. When she felt all alone, she would imagine a garden filled with bees that came to kiss her. And so she managed to resist until the next day, when she opened her petals again.
“Aren’t you tired?” another rose asked her.
“No. I have to go on fighting.”
“Why?”
“Because if I don’t open up, I wither.”
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Reposted from Paulo Coelho’s Blog
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“What is yours will remain yours, even when it is not with you.”
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“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”
~George Washington Carver
Sunrise offers some of the brilliant combinations of constantly changing colors. Rarely any two sunrises are the same. I won’t say much here, let the pictures speak! Continue reading
For all the believers out there, this is the song for you. A very simple song, but with a HUGE message.
Lyrics here-
