When Hearts Embrace Hearts-10 | No Game So Interesting!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-10

No Game So Interesting!

A mini story, just in four lines! 

‘My mother expired. I didn’t cry! 

I didn’t realize then what death meant. 

After decades, my father too died. Still, I didn’t cry! 

By then, I knew what death meant!’

The leech when it moves from one point to another, it spreads out and then shrinks its body.  Similarly, with death the soul abandons its nest and moves on through a newly opened door. The soul withdraws from all external sensory organs. It moves on to a new abode from the shell, devastated and now in shambles. When one realizes this transfer of soul from one abode to another, the fear about death disappears. When sure about a guest who is certain to come, instead of being fearful, one will be all set to receive it.

From the body of a person lying inside a secure ICU, who silently leaves the room? While surrounded by all near and dear ones, hoodwinking, who leaves all of them? Take care of him, says religion. Take care of whom? Of course not the mortal body - the origin of which is earth and finally decomposes and ends up as part of the same earth - but the soul which remains immortal!

The fragrance of the blooming flower, which enchants today won’t be so intense tomorrow. In a couple of days, it withers and drops. Sometime later, the plant also wilts. ‘Everything on this earth is ephemeral! And if you get attached to something transient, you will end up in despair,’ says the scripture in short. It’s sensible to watch life from a distance like we look at the paintings in an art gallery! You won’t be disappointed while watching it as well as leaving it.

Till the last breath, life should be lived joyfully. And the final breath should also be inhaled with joy. Every moment of our lives should be treasured. It’s true that everyone will taste death, but how many do relish life? Asks Khalil Gibran. There is a book titled “Is there Life before Death?” If the life hereafter has to be meaningful, the life before death has to be lived rewardingly. When the vacation is over the stay over also ends. Will have to return to their original abode! Death is such a certainty.

As Michael Naeemi puts, “When one leads a conscious life, there is no game as interesting as life.”

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-9 | Can't hold the horses

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-9

Can't hold the horses!

After playing for a while, it’s natural for kids to get fed up with any fancy toy. Mind sets sight on another. Old ones become unexciting, when one gets a new one. Fantasies keep scuttling from one to another. Even exhilarating landscapes or a beauty spot, if frequently visited loses its appeal. It isn’t our fault. It’s the veracity of us being human. The mind slithers with adding and subtracting one with another. Hands burn in the process of scampering, seeking pleasures! 

The biggest threat to a thief is the dog inside the compound of a house. Placating the dog is the only way he could accomplish his task. And, he throws a piece of poisoned meat. Instead of realizing its duty, the dog goes for the meat which ends in a disaster. It’s an example given by Narayana Guru about human beings getting euphoric about deceptive spectacles that loses their footing and ends up in danger.

Man was created from earth. We possess all the characteristics of earth. Its summer sometimes, winter after a while, spring, autumn, high and low tides! Incredible seasonal alterations! With decadent thoughts, how quick the mind gets polluted. They are successful who protects their souls from pollution despite cravings, says Quran.

The mind jumps into filth quickly and effortlessly. And, it’s quite cumbersome to get out of it. As Tagore said, ‘You have to just jump to drown and go down.  However, you should know swimming to get to the shore.’ 

Like the stone thrown upwards starts to descend as soon as it loses velocity, the mind engulfed in fantasies and caprices retreats once it loses charm. The magnitude of liability would have increased by the time one realizes that sins are in fact losses in life. We don’t need more losses in this short life. There are forbidden fruits that attract. There are a few which constantly tries to pull you towards it. Nevertheless, far you throw it, it falls near you. Mind is yet again in the hunt for it. Still, I don’t require it! 

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-8 | Like Snakes Shed Skin!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-8

Like Snakes Shed Skin!

“Animals and plants are better than human beings.”

“Why so?”

‘They don’t defy God. And never deviate from divine laws like human beings do.’

It’s true. But, I don’t want to be born so. I like the life of an intelligent and conscious human being, who accepts his transgressions when he commits it, his mind grieves and regrets his wrongdoings.

Life is the interval between tasks completed and some which one wish to accomplish, but couldn't. In most of the paths treaded, wandered away. Despite realizing the mistake, continued on same path for a while. Erred as a human being and leaned towards evil. Repentance is the decision, to take fresh steps without further slip-offs. It’s like reassessing and redefining one’s next moves like an experience of a snake shedding its skin. A few moments conversing with the Creator, weeping, bowing head down with quivering heart, and finally taking some fresh decisions. That few lonely moments would be the best gift one can reward one-self.

Every morning, after getting up from sleep, prostrating before God, the great sage Abdul Khader Gilani used to pray, “O my Lord! I shall not forget you anymore. For once, could you just have a glance of this slave of yours? That one flicker of a glance is enough for me to contented one whole lifetime.” 

Devotedly, evoke His holy names. Mountains of sins, you committed will vanish. Like ‘an ember of fire burns down a mountain of cotton’, said the great saint Ramakrishna Paramahansa.

These deceptive sights will all cease to exist. Losing all near and dear ones, one will become alone. Instantly after death, elements that constitute this body will decompose, and disintegrate. Remember, each moment of this life is recorded. What would be the reaction, if you realize someone recording you using a mobile phone while you are speaking? Your attitude and opinions will start to change, consciously! That’s how it is!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-7 | River flowing Directionless!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-7

River flowing Directionless!

A head of a state visited a psychiatry facility. He went around with a senior official enquiring about its functioning. While visiting cells, he came across a man who was hitting his head on the iron bars and wailing loudly. The Head realized that the man might have lost his mind and filled with excruciating pain. He enquired the reason of his misery. The officer said, “He has been here for a long period. He loved a woman, but couldn’t marry her. That mentally shattered him and he couldn’t cope up with the loss.”

In the next cell, a man was howling abuses loudly. There was an image of a woman on the wall. He was shouting at her. “What’s his story?” the Head asked. 

“He married a woman loved by someone else, and their married life was never peaceful and pleasant. Due to remorse and regret, his mental state got disturbed,” the officer explained.

How true! So many reasons for the mind to be upset! Dangling to the wings of despair, the mind breaks down into bits and pieces. Despite all material possessions, lack of peace makes this short life go topsy-turvy. 

One seeks happiness in someone else. Desires all pleasures from that person! And, the other person? He is also edgy. He seeks the same from someone else. And in this process of feeling unsatisfied in one’s own condition, and looking for comfort in others, fritters away the good moments of life. It reminds about the journey of the first couple on earth defying and deviating, seeking what's forbidden, which costs them the heavenly life. Consequently, their generations on earth too lose happiness of life. 

Mind is like wasp burrows, says Narayana Guru. The wasps co-exist peacefully in their nests without stinging each other or quarrelling. If someone disturbs it, it will attack in groups. Similarly, if mind is content, with what lawfully belongs to them, it will find peace. And, if it deviates towards other’s domain, it loses its balance. It revolts collectively and collapses. Deviant relationships and expectations are like rivers flowing in the wrong direction. No idea where it would flow. When asked what is poison? Rumi replied, “Unlawful desires.”

One thinks that many personalities reside in one person and at various points, try to become a different personality. Sometimes, we travel on the horses of cardinal senses directionless. At times, we overcome all such cravings. At a point, our inner self is at peace. At another moment, it’s on massive turmoil. If we don’t control our desires, it will take control of our lives.

When Hearts Embrace Hearts - 6 | Self-Addressed Letters

When Hearts Embrace Hearts - 6

Self-Addressed Letters

A story heard in childhood:

A milkman, who had to cross a river to reach the town, would always add water from the river in his milk can. He had many customers and his profits swelled. He had a daughter. He acquired and saved all the wealth for her wedding. And her marriage came close. He left to the town with all his earnings. And, bought costliest silk dresses and the latest and expensive gold ornaments, and left to his village.

It started drizzling when he reached the river bank. Without wasting time, he loaded all the goods into his boat and started rowing.  When he reached the middle of the river, the rain and wind intensified. He couldn’t row due to the wind and the flow of river, and eventually the boat capsized. The waves took away all expensive belongings he had bought with his lifelong savings.

The harms that we afflict are the self-addressed letters we sent. It will be promptly delivered. What one can do is – Go to those affected by our actions and cry before them. Seek their forgiveness! We would have forgotten the harm we did. They wouldn’t have forgotten. Recall everything and seek forgiveness!

There is an African Proverb - “The Axe Forgets, The Tree Remembers.”

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-5 | Dampness for Earth, Love for Human!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-5

Dampness for Earth, 

Love for Human!

A sparsely populated hamlet! There lives a writer in a tiny house atop a hillock. He stays there only during holidays. After spending a long vacation there, he is returning. A poor old lady known to the writer lives in a small hut down in the valley. When he went to her hut and bode her farewell, her face suddenly wilted. She told him, “Whenever I see the lighted lantern in the veranda of your house on the hillock, it gave me a feeling of assurance. I never felt lonely, with a light burning for me!”

His eyes welled up. Before bidding farewell and leaving, that noble man appointed a person to light a lantern in his house daily for that old woman.

Every person seeks such a light to avoid solitude. We wait for a person at every stage of our life. One who could surprise with love without any reason. One who could accept us as we are! There are some people like the confession box, who unconditionally forgives, knows everything and could say anything and everything to. Don’t need many of them. One such person is enough. Life won’t be dry and wry. Quran in ninety sixth verse of Chapter Maryam gives good news of such love for the noble persons.

Husband strayed into an illicit relationship. On deathbed after getting fatally injured in an accident, he revealed about that relationship to his beloved wife. “Won’t you forgive me?” He asked. She wept. Keeping her hand on his forehead, she said, “Whom can I forgive other than you?” That ever-burning light on the hillock is the heart of that innocent wife. Some wonderful souls are like, the kittens even if thrown and abandoned comes back and expresses love by rubbing its furry body looking for a cozy corner.

Affection is like an elixir for life. Shelter, clothes and food aren’t enough. Unconditional love is also required. If we don’t get good food, we will eat whatever comes our way. If pure love is denied, one will savour whatever love comes its way. Nobody should go through such a phase. That’s it. 

Rumi says: “Earth should be dampen, the sky bluish, the ocean calm, the wind soft, the flower fragrant and human being loved”

Love, keep loving, love till it prevails!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-4 | Memories!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-4

Memories!

A sage with one of his disciple is taking a stroll through the village. They see a crowd gathered near a small hut. There is commotion. Someone has died there. They enquired. The head of the family has expired. The loud cries coming out were painful and excruciating.

“O Sage! Why is God so cruel to human being?”

“What cruelty? Is someone’s death a cruelty? If nobody dies, what would happen to the world?”

“Had this person died after accomplishing all his obligations and attaining old age, their loved ones wouldn’t have to go through this painful ordeal?”

“The tasks that remain to be completed are in people’s thoughts. What Almighty intended is already complete.”

“O Sage! Isn’t the sudden death of someone like snatching away life mercilessly from this world?”

Never, even after death, they continue to remain in this world. In the lives of their loved ones, they will carry on as usual. It isn’t a likely possibility for everyone. Those who could bequeath good memories during the lifespan bestowed to them can only continue so in this world. Like the leaves shed by the trees become manure and nourishes and helps the forests to sustain. 

Utmost, the feast on this earth ends more or less in thirty thousand days. 

What’s the finest gift one can give somebody? Memories! Isn’t it? 

And, the most terrible gift! It’s memories again!  

Only memories stay back.

Seconds will vanish from the clocks of age! Dates will disappear from the calendars of life! The enchanting images from mind’s album will also fade away! The memories one bequeaths shall become part of us as salt melts in the sea. Prophet Abraham prayed and wished that coming generations should speak well about him. That’s what should be left behind. Hence, every moment on this earth becomes valuable and significant. Who knows about the final moment with the loved ones!

Their exist someone for each person! Someone like an anchor! Someone who won’t go away! Someone who would appear as memories and kiss heart! We should also try to remain inside someone. We would all end up as some tales for others to recount at the end of this rat race!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-3 ||| Feathers will wear away!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-3

Feathers will wear away!

Long ago, a group went to study the functioning of a reputed television manufacturing company. An establishment with a big factory! And, the factory was just a place where all parts were assembled. The various parts were manufactured by small-scale industrial units based in villages surrounding it. The circuit board was handled by housewives of a village. Their job was just to acid wash the painted boards and dry it. They had no clue about other functions of the product or the factory. And, when all the parts manufactured at various places were assembled inside the factory, the television became a reality!

Just think about our position. We hardly know anything about the universe and our own lives. We have a partial view of it. Look at a tree, and only one dimension of it is visible to us. The other facets remain hidden from our eyes. Some aspects of our lives are very vivid and some remains completely out of bound. Even our knowledge about those aspects we know is partial. Low creatures, who aren’t even aware when they shall return, a lifetime literally inside intensive care unit! Unpredictable, any moment!

We got some obligations to carry out. Just accomplish it. And get back to the actual Owner. Actions aren’t enough! Good actions are required. The time and space between life and death is meant for it, says a Holy Book.

Birds need feathers to fly. Once birds die, feathers start to wear away. The obligation of feathers end once birds stops flying. Whatever we possess in our lives are like the feathers. It helps us accomplish the obligations, Almighty has assigned us. Wealth, health, fortune and time – all of these will wear out. And, we shall return.

In front of us lies what the Scripture told, the Messenger conveyed and the Guide showed. We ourselves have to walk our way. Our success is our responsibility. Death is the full stop, before which we got to accomplish everything. When one looks through the keyhole, the vision is skewed and not whole. One gets to have the complete and perfect view when the door is opened. 

Life is the keyhole! And, death the door! 

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-2 | Thanks, My Sunshine! My Shade!

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-2

Thanks, My Sunshine! My Shade!

The final moments of Socrates! A set of disciples surrounded him with their ears all seeking his last few words. 

“O Sage, Do you have any debts to clear?” a disciple asked.

“Yes,” replied Socrates. He told them about a vow he had to fulfil!

“Any other debts?” asked another disciple.

Socrates closed his eyes and with a frail smile on his face just said, “There are enough debts, to all those human beings who made me Socrates. How am I going to repay all those?”

That great soul sobbed like a baby.

We too reached this position with the mercy of so many people, known and unknown. With the first touch of the doctor, midwife on birth, to the one known or unknown person who threw a fist of earth into our graves, when we departed, so many people’s love have embraced us all in our short journey called life. There isn’t enmity or hatred in the heart that hold gratitude to each smile and delight! Only love throbs. 

The whole of this life we owe others. For the love that flow non-stop from the Merciful One! For the unconditional affection our parents poured on us! For the feasts our close ones spread for us with warmth and fondness! For exposing us to the fountains of knowledge, by our beloved teachers! For the seeds of compassion sown by our companions!

The cup that we got may not be filled to the brim. But we can be grateful for having at least a cup in our hands. Grateful to the tears and delights that we experienced! O Creator! Thanks for the acceptances and rejections. 

Sugatha Kumari, a renowned poet wrote:

Gratitude for the sunshine in my way,

Gratitude for the burden on my shoulders,

Gratitude to the shade in my way,

Gratitude to the little cuckoo on the swaying branch,

Gratitude to the spiky ache in my way!

By lamenting, nothing changes and the lost won’t come back. This moment becomes contented when one is full of love and gratitude for everything that came by the way, and for all those one possess. A vertical line is enough to convert negative into positive. “Proclaim the blessings,” says Quran.

The clothe that one wear, the medicine that one take, the book that guides, the food that one consume, the vehicle that one rides upon, the technology that one uses to read this....! Efforts and contributions of many strangers are behind all these. Can’t we close our eyes for a moment and pray for them? Can’t we smile to the person next to us? Can’t we prostrate down in humility before the Almighty, who provided us all these? 

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-1 : Ignorance

When Hearts Embrace Hearts-1

Ignorance

The sage said, “In the pitch of darkness, someone fell into a ditch and held on to a branch of a tree. He held his grip very tightly till the crack of dawn fearing a deadly fall into the abyss below him, if he lost his control. Till the morning light appeared, scared and sweating, he spent the whole night without knowing that the ground was just a foot below his feet, had he just tried to touch it! When he saw the ground so close to his feet, he got down with a sigh of relief. Ignorance is nothing but the happiness and security which he lost the whole night scared and fretting for his precious life. This can affect us for a whole lifetime. Just keep your feet on the ground courageously. You may find your way out!”

Life becomes gloomy with fear when one misses the little peepholes of mercy that Lord has kept open. When all doors are closed, He keeps a window open. When young Abdullah died, who kept the aged Abdul Muttalib alive? Who gifted considerate Khadija, a lady with grit and courage? Who showered the rain of companionship without withering it away? In Chapter 93 of the Holy Quran, beloved Prophet is reminded about all these. Just try to recollect, aren’t there such Abdul Muttalib, Khadeeja and Aboobackers in our lives too? Yes, of course, they are there! Branches of trees to hold and fit for us to keep our feet grounded!

No ideology will suffice, if our inner selves are filled with despair, fear and regrets. We need to free ourselves from the thoughts that spread despair. We are always scared of tomorrow. Today is the same tomorrow that both you and I feared yesterday! Such tomorrows of fear will come and we will surely overcome it. 

Mind should be free of fear. It would have brought us many problems, just to prove our mettle and make us strong enough to overcome and resolve it. The One with us is Omnipotent. How easy it’s for Him to transform despairs into hopes. He needs not even seconds to convert teary and drained out eyes into glowing and invigorated ones.

There is a shepherd, walking on the hot sands of the desert, praying and chatting to his Creator. He himself explains it – “I am conversing with the One who created me and my sheep. He gave me eyes. He gave it vision. He made me see the world through it. He gave me hands to work. He made me realize the aroma of roses. In this wilderness, He is my Companion. In despairs and pains, my heart seeks Him alone.

We too need to seek the same ocean of mercy, same shores of fearlessness!

In the words of Indeevar: You, the Ocean! Me, the Thirst!