Janatha curfew

Janatha curfew

19 March 2020.

The whole nation was eagerly and anxiously looking forward to listen to Honorable PM's address to the citizens. 

As you know the TV channels have to discuss , debate immediately on this address.  Panelists were drawn from different strata. 

One of them was a Dr from a leading corporate Hospital group. 

It's interesting to listen to her. 

Every one in the panel was full of praise for our beloved PM and emphatic on the need to observe No-out on Sunday,  the 22nd March, between 7 am and 9 in the night,  practically the whole day.  And show our sincerity, solidarity to fight dreaded corona. 

Already with schools,  malls and cinemas shut,  there are memes on social media about how people struggle to manage kids' energies indoor. 

Well this Dr said it's time to do meditation. 

It kindled the writer in me to put forth and share what I hear people feel about,  I feel and the positives which experts feel about practice of meditation, in Indian languages dhyan. 

First let's explode the myth that it's for seers, Rishis and those who are in the evening of their life. And not for Grahasthas in the prime of their life and shouldering like Herculean the responsibility to maintain and upbring the family. 

In fact this is the time  when you would need it,  that's dhyan,  more.  Considering the stress and pressures under which you try to hold yourself together in the sea of multifarious responsibilities.

On one Sunday suddenly a client visited my home.  To my surprise he was clad in dhoti, khadhi half sleeve and sporting abundant vibuthi.  Whenever he visited,  he used to come in coat,  suit only. 

Sensing and reading my mind he began to clear, "Sir,  today we have Gurupuja for our great grandfather.  He attained Sanyas around 65 years of age."

He went on further, "I would also follow my great grandfather and plan to attain sanyas at my 55th year."

He was about 45.

I said,  "my dear friend, you can't have it like any business plan.  You don't know when and where the Buddha in you would wake up. "

Well any good thing has to come to its grand gala finale.. This piece too. 

Let me end it on a healthy note,  how dhyan helps you stay healthy despite any any environmental dread. 

Dhyan releases tension on the nuclie of the hypothalamus due to peaceful thoughts and the state of withdrawal from the body and influences it through continuous feedback of slow, rhythmic impulses. It also activates the functions of various endocrine glands and set up a useful homeostatic balance between various hormones,  thereby leading to good health and much more. 

No Duality

No Duality 

The physical frame rejoices pleasures

And

Suffers all pains. 

Man tries to avert suffering. 

Yes. 

Man succeeds. Overcomes the pain. 

But,  has pain gone once and for all? 

No. 

When one pain goes off another elsewhere crops up. 

What's the way out? 

The one and the only way is to be aware that it's only the physical body and mind that suffer the pain. Then are we just body and mind? 

No. 

Transcend these two and know that the knower and the known are one and the same. 

From the stage of our unquiet and wandering mind and the body,  how do we transcend? 

The Saints show the path:

Maha Periyava:

இந்த நிலைக்கு வருவதற்கு ஸுலபமான ஸாதனம் பக்தி உபாஸனை என்று அப்பைய தீக்ஷிதர் சொல்லியிருக்கிறார். அதை எல்லோரும் அநுஸரித்து அத்வைத ஸித்தியை அடைய வேண்டும். 

Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi:

சாதரணமாக அனுஷ்டிக்கப்படும் த்யானம் ஒரு கால எல்லைக்கு உட்பட்டது. ஒர் உருவத்தோடு தொடர்புடையது. இதயத்தில் ஒரு கடவுளின் உருவத்தையோ, புனித ஒலியையோ அல்லது இரண்டையுமோ த்யானிக்கிறோம். எனவே அதில் தியானிப்பவன்,  த்யானிக்கப்படும் பொருள் என்று சிலருக்கு சில காலம் பயன்படலாம். இவ்வாறு பிரிப்பது தவறு. பரம்பொருளோடு தொடர்ச்சியான உறவுக்குத் தடையாக இருப்பது மனம். அது தன் வலிமையைக் காட்டிக் கொண்டே இருக்கும்.  தான் செய்வது சரி என்று நம்மை நம்பச் செய்யும். 

மனத்தின் மூலத்தை நாடும் போது இந்தத் தவறு புலனாகிறது. மனத்தின் மூலம் ஆத்மிக இதயத்தை அடைவதே முடிவான தீர்வைத்தரும். 

Shri Krsna :

When we perform work in devotion, it purifies the mind and deepens our spiritual realization. Then when the mind becomes tranquil, meditation becomes the primary means of elevation. Through meditation, yogis strive to conquer their mind, for while the untrained mind is the worst enemy, the trained mind is the best friend. Shree Krishna cautions Arjun that one cannot attain success on the spiritual path by engaging in severe austerities, and hence one must be temperate in eating, work, recreation, and sleep. He then explains the sādhanā for uniting the mind with God. Just as a lamp in a windless place does not flicker, likewise the sādhak must hold the mind steady in meditation. The mind is indeed difficult to restrain, but by practice and detachment, it can be controlled. So, wherever it wanders, one should bring it back and continually focus it upon God. When the mind gets purified, it becomes established in transcendence. In that joyous state called samādhi, one experiences boundless divine bliss.

the quest...

The eternal quest..... 

Barbiturate. 

It's a new word popping up on my reading. 

Though I could get the sense of the word from the context,  couldn't help the craziness to find out the meaning.

Thanks to myriads of dictionaries,  here is what the word conveys:

barbiturate

/bɑːˈbɪtjʊrət,bɑːˈbɪtjʊreɪt/

Learn to pronounce

noun

any of a class of sedative and sleep-inducing drugs derived from barbituric acid.

CHEMISTRY

a salt or ester of barbituric acid.

Is it time we should go for drugs especially allopathic ones sparingly? 

No. I'm not an expert to deal at length on it. 

Yet can't help instinctively feel that frequency to pop up a tablet like lollipops somehow psychologically kills the natural healing system.  This in spite of world scaring corona. 

For your curiosity sake you may check it up with your doctor,  the family doctor. 

They won't spill the bean. 

My best half complained to my cardiologist that I'm not regular in taking medicines. 

He stared at me and posed, "why?".

I said, "sorry Dr.  Somehow I have an apprehension.  That these pollute our anatomy with chronic side effects."

He shot back, "hurrey, that's just very negligible not even about 2%.  I warn you please don't skip your medicines."

Do I mean never to follow prescriptions? 

Never ever. 

I feel like sharing my hide and seek tryst with prescribed drugs. 

In my sojourn of 4 days to Kashi I had not taken pressure and heart medicines. I was feeling absolutely fine. Of course I didn't check the BP.  There was walking,  walking and climbing stairs all the four days morning till night.  Though the body craved for rest,  we didn't feel unhearty or kind of any restlessness. Even as Kashi was wintry. Perhaps the body temperature due to lot of walking kept us warm. 

Back then to Chennai at its tropical best. 

Cough, strain to breathe and Eosinophilic asthma kept me on hook for a whole week.  I managed without drugs for about initial two days.  Third day couldn't manage any longer.  Dashed off that night to Doctor. His stethoscope intimated BP was normal - mind you even while skipping pressure medicine. But to ease off cough,  eosinophil he started scripting his prescription of 5 days course. 

This time I obeyed like tamed pet. 

Though the strain seemed to decline very slowly, it didn't go off fully even after I completed the full course of prescription. 

But couple of days later I just felt normal. 

The dhyan, accepting that you are not doing well, I'm afraid plays magical role in restoring normal health. Acknowledge medicine may play a complementary role but not full role. 

Even in the case of corona! 

MAHA SHIVRATHRI - 2020

Maha Shivrathri - 2020.

The night when you stay awake and in dhyan, you can see for yourself the dynamics in your energy level. 

The genetic trouble maker, viz., eosinophil just revisited and had been playing havoc with my health.  I didn't have a feeling of it for long since college days.  Even in wintry Kashi just a week ago, there was no sign of it in spite of lot of walking, climbing in the gullies exiting us to Gate No 1, mahadhwar to Lord Vishwanath mandir.  Strangely Mahadhwar, supposed to be the entry point to Mandir,  happens here to act as exiting way, a full half a kilo metre from the temple.

Well,

I need to blame my inconsistency in dhyan practice.

More than any medication what saved me from acute eosinophil discomfort,  what came to rescue was, I have no doubt to say, meditation only.

Isn’t it time that now with the revisit of eosinophil, I must get back to the practice?

Yes.

Time : 19:00 Hrs

Date : 21^st Feb 2020.

Sat comfortably in the sofa in sukhasana.

Let my eyes close.

Didn’t think anything.

Just watched the breath straining to do its natural flow.

Nor did I stop anything to come in my mind.

Neither did I get anything in my mind.

The healing calmness slowly descended.

How do you express the complete state bereft of any thought?!

To borrow from Sanskrit, it’s complete Nithsalanam.

No force at any moment during the entire session.

Yogis adept at Tapas call this a state of  bliss.

Absolutely no sense of any discomfort during the session.

Just about 20 minutes.

Slowly let my eyes open.

The physical frame felt very light.

Discomfort, though didn’t vanish once and for all, subsided.

I felt at ease.

Would surely recommend complement your medication with meditation.

Never ever discontinue the practice.

You sure will find yourself in the best of your health.

The wrap-up quotes:

Suffering is due to our disconnection with the inner soul. Meditation is establishing that connection

– Amit Ray

If you have time to breathe you have time to meditate. You breathe when you walk. You breathe when you stand. You breathe when you lie down.

– Ajahn Amaro

2020:A Yogic welcome

20:20

What a name?! 

For a game;

For a year. 

I just felt it a fit way to welcome you into this 20:20 in a Yogic way:

Tadasan - tree posture ;

Padahastasana - raise your arms, bend as far as backward as you can,  slowly bend forward and touch your toes;

Trikonasan - triangle posture;

Suryanamaskar - Sun salutation - Aditya hrudayam; it includes amidst many other the copra - pujangasan.  Wherein with your arms straight and firmly on your sides, you lift your body up from your waist and look up; 

Chakrasana - wheel posture, you will feel blood flow through your arms and to your head region, abode of your brain ;

Sarvangasan;

Halasan ;

Mayurasan; 

Dhanurasan - bow posture. 

Finally saavasan - restful corpse posture 

Followed by a few minutes of dhyan. 

You just don't get a workout for your body but these Asans carry you on a holy pilgrimage to your source of divine energy that you are made of. 

Soak in it day in and day out. 

You will reduce your medical bills.

May be you can do without medicines. 

The life journeys on smooth sail despite turmoils.  Your work blossoms out aesthetically.  You just don't help your own self. You benefit others too by your mere presence. 

May there be Peace, Bliss. 

Om Shanthi. 

My apology debts......

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 
― Maya Angelou

Maya Agnelou just flashes following couplet:

தீயினால் சுட்ட புண் உள் ஆறும் ஆறாதே 
நாவினால் சுட்ட வடு.

How blessed are we to
first have so learned sages, saints
and
have their words of wisdom serve as beckon lights
just, as time and again,
we are left stranded and groping;
not knowing which direction to turn to..

Well,

Yesterday, 18th April, 2019,
post lunch we set out to the Holy Hills,
Arunachala for Girivalam.

En route on 99th km from Chennai,
we broke journey for a brief halt to have
the caffeine.

No idea who wrote this precise algorithm
that never fails.
Algorithm that you must have the hot, steamy
cup of coffee a couple hours after your lunch.
The mind is programmed that it works in clock work precision.

In that restaurant cum a little shop selling soaps, oils, shampoo, books, seeds, saplings etc, etc.

The shop portion in that restaurant was in an enclosure, may be 10x10,  with air conditioning.

A sign board was placed outside the enclosure with the following words:

"Souls in
Soles out."

I could not help but appreciate the poetic sense - to say leave out your shoes - of the owner, an ex air force gentleman,
now running this shop employing well over 85% with local human resources.
I didn't get just a poetry sense.
But some lesson in local economic development too.

Talking of poetry, தீயினால் சுட்ட புண் உள்... , Maya Angelou............., there is an echo just reverberating the corridors of my heart.

There are number less occasions we get to hear paining curses, piercing words.
Not just that.   

அறிந்தும் , அறியாமலும் , தெரிந்தும் தெரியாமலும், there might have been similar occasions when we might also have caused pain to known, unknown, sentient and insentient. For reasons and no reasons, either with rhyme or without.

When we hurt,
we are under an illusion that we hurt others.
But don't cognize,
we internally hurt ourselves.

When we atone,
We recognize the oneness of all.
That unity brings peace, heals wounds.

Thank God, He structured conscience invariably to every mortal,  especially to introspect one's own variance with decency and values.

When it starts with a quote, to stick to the norm that it should end with a quote:

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.


Thank you for the patient reading.

Thankfully yours

Now the Summer is in full spree.

The Sun Lord scorches every specie beneath Him.

When strong souls, viz., the humanity  can weather, withstand and try its best to live up to ever soaring Global warming, what will poor souls like animals and birds do?

Especially when H2O is drying up?!

We keep getting endless social media, whatsapp advice that we need to keep a bowl of water on our balcony, so that winged creatures fly down and quench their thirst.

In India, sure you would have heard those days our grandmothers not only did keep a bowl of water but offered a little food, grains also.

I can vividly recall. My grandmother never started her day without first offering a little food to crows. 

The person offering food is blessed soul.

About a year ago, there was a shooting incident in US.  An Indian techie became victim to the bullets.  Later in an interview, his wife, from Andhra, said her spouse would love visiting friends and relatives.  He loved relishing good food.  Whenever his friends or relatives invited him for dinner and he enjoyed the food, never did he fail to profusely pray for the well being of the host.  He never failed to utter this slogan in praise of the host, "Anna dada sugino bhavandu".  When translated, it read may the host live well and with all comforts.

Such would be the blessings may be the birds sing in gratitude to the host.