Presently, my classmates and I are wading through some voluminous assignments in a determined bid to reach the unfriendly deadline and stare it in the face. As a result, despite a commendable morale, tempers flare, frustration tolerance dips and the occasional chorus of lamentation fills the air! :)
Just yesterday, my father called me from another city asking me how things were with me. Quite uncharacteristically, I did not respond with the cheerful "all well!" but immediately proceeded to unload my wealth of grievances onto his ears. Out came the stories about how there isn't all that much time left, how I have so much to do, how many hours I must work everyday and how I will not be able to do some of the routine tasks that I perform at home. I was expecting some stereotypical remark like "It's OK", "Don't worry." or "It will pass", but no, my father's response was anything but what I had imagined. He just interrupted me half way and in the sincerest possible tone asked me "What help do you need?"...just about every annoyance I was feeling vapourised in that second. There was nothing that I needed from him in terms of help (I could hardly tell him to write my copious notes for me!), but that one empathic and genuine question gave me all the help I needed and more.
I love my old man!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Little Games
For about a month now, I've been reading a few pages of "Journey to Self Realization" a selection of the live teachings/speeches of Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (author of "Autobiography of a Yogi" and whom I fondly refer to as "PY") each night, just before going to bed. It is a part of my attempt to nurture and develop the spiritual part of my existence (and it also helps me to sleep rather well!).
PY is a being who will show you the fact that there is Divinity all around. He will challenge your beliefs in the physical/material 'reality' and tell tell you how to manifest any reality you desire. He will show you that Hinduism and Christianity have essential similarities and bring you to the ultimate oneness that all religions initially spoke about, but have now all but lost due to poor education, fundamentalism, radicalism and ridiculous desires to conquer each other. But most importantly, he will show you how God has endowed you with the power to transcend your limitations and raise your consciousness to levels far beyond what you presently experience.
Something that I learned from this book was the fact that God lovingly plays little games with all creatures. The cosmic vastness of God's sense of humour is reflected in the way in which God answers our prayers...from the smallest and barely remembered to the most repeated and affirmed ones. I won't go into the complexities of this explanation; I'd much rather give and example from my life.
Just the other day, I started a brief internship in a hospital, where my task was to provide assessment and therapy for an alcoholic client. It was challenging and complex task, further complicated by the fact that I had several other projects running concurrently. The long commute to the hospital and returning home only to find that I had loads more work to do was not really giving me much time to rest. So, one night, when I was working well past midnight, I silently lamented to God that I was just not being able to sleep for my normal 6-7 hours and I was most unhappy about it. The next morning, my mother woke me up, saying that it was 8 o' clock (the time that I should actually have been boarding the bus that would take me to the hospital). Needless to say, there was a mad flurry of activity, including bedclothes scattered in a single sweep, bleary eyed rummaging in the closet and other frantic attempts to organise everything quickly...you see, I had to be in the hospital at 9 am (and it usually takes about one hour by bus).
Five minutes later as I was hurriedly shaving, I prayed again, saying, "Thank you for giving me the extra sleep, I feel very rested (which was true, I felt amazingly refreshed and not just because of the adrenalin rush), but you are going to have to make sure that I get to the hospital in time!" When I rushed out of my room another five minutes later (having somehow managed to bathe and dress neatly), my father noticing the state I was just offered to instruct his driver to take me to the hospital in his car. I suppose the gratitude on my face was only too apparent because he just told me to chill and make sure I carried something to eat!
By 8:20 am I was on the road (which did not leave me nearly enough time to avoid the beginnings of peak hour traffic), urging the driver to go faster, even though I knew there was only so much he could do! To make things (apparently) worse, we got stuck in a bad traffic snarl near Sion. Once again, I spoke to the Universe, while trying to chomp through an apple at the same time, saying, "Please...I have to get there in time. 9 o' clock it has to be!". Somehow we crawled out of the traffic jam, with me shooting glares at all cars around mine. No sooner were we out of Sion, we hit the next big traffic-jam-point, King's circle. As our car added itself to the ensuing pileup, the signal went green. Imagine my consternation when the traffic refused to budge. I was just about to vent my annoyance in yet another demand when our car started moving and I realised that for some reason the cars were moving, but slowly. Nevertheless, as soon as we crossed the signal, all cars picked up pace and in particular, my driver - being the master of all Mumbai roads - took the shortest possible route to the hospital...quite different from the circuitous route that the bus takes. I could simply not believe it, when we drew up in the Hospital's portico sharp at 9am, well in time for my work there.
I could literally feel the universe's mirth. It was just wonderful...there's nothing like a bit of cosmic humour...these are the practical jokes that you can really sit back and enjoy without feeling even a bit embarrassed.
PY is a being who will show you the fact that there is Divinity all around. He will challenge your beliefs in the physical/material 'reality' and tell tell you how to manifest any reality you desire. He will show you that Hinduism and Christianity have essential similarities and bring you to the ultimate oneness that all religions initially spoke about, but have now all but lost due to poor education, fundamentalism, radicalism and ridiculous desires to conquer each other. But most importantly, he will show you how God has endowed you with the power to transcend your limitations and raise your consciousness to levels far beyond what you presently experience.
Something that I learned from this book was the fact that God lovingly plays little games with all creatures. The cosmic vastness of God's sense of humour is reflected in the way in which God answers our prayers...from the smallest and barely remembered to the most repeated and affirmed ones. I won't go into the complexities of this explanation; I'd much rather give and example from my life.
Just the other day, I started a brief internship in a hospital, where my task was to provide assessment and therapy for an alcoholic client. It was challenging and complex task, further complicated by the fact that I had several other projects running concurrently. The long commute to the hospital and returning home only to find that I had loads more work to do was not really giving me much time to rest. So, one night, when I was working well past midnight, I silently lamented to God that I was just not being able to sleep for my normal 6-7 hours and I was most unhappy about it. The next morning, my mother woke me up, saying that it was 8 o' clock (the time that I should actually have been boarding the bus that would take me to the hospital). Needless to say, there was a mad flurry of activity, including bedclothes scattered in a single sweep, bleary eyed rummaging in the closet and other frantic attempts to organise everything quickly...you see, I had to be in the hospital at 9 am (and it usually takes about one hour by bus).
Five minutes later as I was hurriedly shaving, I prayed again, saying, "Thank you for giving me the extra sleep, I feel very rested (which was true, I felt amazingly refreshed and not just because of the adrenalin rush), but you are going to have to make sure that I get to the hospital in time!" When I rushed out of my room another five minutes later (having somehow managed to bathe and dress neatly), my father noticing the state I was just offered to instruct his driver to take me to the hospital in his car. I suppose the gratitude on my face was only too apparent because he just told me to chill and make sure I carried something to eat!
By 8:20 am I was on the road (which did not leave me nearly enough time to avoid the beginnings of peak hour traffic), urging the driver to go faster, even though I knew there was only so much he could do! To make things (apparently) worse, we got stuck in a bad traffic snarl near Sion. Once again, I spoke to the Universe, while trying to chomp through an apple at the same time, saying, "Please...I have to get there in time. 9 o' clock it has to be!". Somehow we crawled out of the traffic jam, with me shooting glares at all cars around mine. No sooner were we out of Sion, we hit the next big traffic-jam-point, King's circle. As our car added itself to the ensuing pileup, the signal went green. Imagine my consternation when the traffic refused to budge. I was just about to vent my annoyance in yet another demand when our car started moving and I realised that for some reason the cars were moving, but slowly. Nevertheless, as soon as we crossed the signal, all cars picked up pace and in particular, my driver - being the master of all Mumbai roads - took the shortest possible route to the hospital...quite different from the circuitous route that the bus takes. I could simply not believe it, when we drew up in the Hospital's portico sharp at 9am, well in time for my work there.
I could literally feel the universe's mirth. It was just wonderful...there's nothing like a bit of cosmic humour...these are the practical jokes that you can really sit back and enjoy without feeling even a bit embarrassed.
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