Up above the world so high.

Rediscovered an old piece, lay somewhere dormant in drafts. It is based on a slightly twisted/orphaned/poor understanding of science. 

Moon is a dark round shaped object, one of it is somewhere in the space near to our planet Earth. It does not possess its own light. Yet, over centuries, its majestic beauty has compelled to bring out the best of poets and singers. It stands powerfully and confidently in the dark night, all alone. Shining bright; mutely experiencing millions praise its worth throughout the globe. For so many years, its beauty has actually confused humans. Upon the discovery that moon is nothing but a mere reflection of Light bewildered us. It left us astounded at its capability to shine in the midst of nothingness. 

Moon reflects the Light from the Brighter side of Earth to the darker side of the Earth. It stands diligently, reflecting and guiding. Helping us determine our calenders, helping poets become poets, helping seekers become seekers; inspiring many. It just stands there. How calculated is its cycle of giving us light from its Light, gradually increasing, reaching the optimum and gradually decreasing again. But never for once, does it disappear from its duty of Reflecting Light. 

We too stumble upon such creations' Reflection on this planet. They reflect the beauty of Ultimate Beauty. They are in reality, nothing on their own, but the Most Precious Reflection of Light somewhere. When the night gets darker, they host our darkened paths with the Ray of Hope. An illustrative Beauty of Reality. A Reflection of Happiness from the Brighter side of Life. They feed us on the Light from the other side. They sustain our Faith. It is like, they inhale deeply from the Fresh and Joyful side of Life and blow it into your beings. They push us through the night with a moment by moment promise of The Dawn. They also often teach us to be the moon, for ourselves and others.

Praise or no praise, comfort or no comfort, whether we look up at the moon or not, the Moon remains. The moon did not start reflecting Light and guiding us just to acquire the praise of poets at the first place anyway. For it is attached to a Bigger Duty. To a Bigger Role. To a Bigger Light. For it has been created very empty to Reflect the Brightest. 

Every human has an orbiting duty of a moon within. It is a system synchronized with the dark and the bright days within and outside of us. Just like atoms bumping into each other, we too bump into each other; it is then, thus our duty to reflect the Brighter Side of Life into them. It is not a favour. It is not an extra deed. It is our duty. Praise or no praise, comfort or no comfort, whether we are looked up at or not, we should perform. For we were not created to acquire the praise at the first place anyway. For we have been attached to a Bigger Duty. To a Bigger Role. To a Bigger Role. To a Bigger Light. For we have been created empty to Reflect the Brightest. 

Not as Dark as we Think

What follows is a long patient discussion on a Reality we confuse and misunderstand. With the consent of the owner of these thoughts, I am putting it up on my blog.

There are two worlds in this World.

When somebody somewhere passes away, it seems the community has come to a halt. Every one who hears about the death apologizes and condoles. Humans step up and spring forth to help. To shoulder. To support. It seems every person of every age has a designated, predetermined role that they play once such a news is shared.

The combined effort of humans forgetting everything and participating in this ritual never fails to amaze me. The world continues. Yet we pause and reflect. No matter how distant or how close the deceased was to us, some sort of magnetic power bogs us down and makes us think. If not for a day, then at least for a moment. We all  pause. and reflect. On the reality. And in that moment, we feel a mirage breaking. We sense something hitting us. Some label it as Harsh Reality. Some say its the Fear of our own eventual Death. While others just deliberately occupy their minds in the rituals to ignore the very thought of Thinking about It.

We all will die, eventually, one way or the other. Today, tomorrow or maybe hundred years from now. From spiritual saints to atheists to murderers. Nobody has ever lived forever.

When it is such a common phenomena, then why is it that the magnetic power bogs us down when we hear of somebody's death. Why do we get upset? What is the feeling which we all feel, that shiver, that pause, that stillness, that numbness, that silence, that vacuum. There is nothing as contradictory as feeling so light yet heavy in that moment of Realization.

What is it that we Know yet don't acknowledge? Which world do we go to eventually? If Death is a Reality, then which reality are we living in at this point in time?

Well, maybe, there are two realities representing two worlds.

One World is that which we Really live in. And another world that we think we live in.

The world with a small "w" represents our lack of knowledge, courage and audacity to experience and do what we can in our capacity as human beings. The world with a capital "W" represents the vastness and actuality of

our very Existence.

Generally, we transcend from this world to that World when our bodies die. Different religions believe in different theories about life after death. But most of the religions agree to the transition.

In context of our faith, we say that when we die, our bodies decompose while our soul transcends to the Next World or the Hereafter. Maybe So. And then we are measured on a scale of goodness and evil. Based on

the scale's skewness, we are either thrown into hell or taken up to the Heavens.

Until recently, I was often scared to admit a feeling. I feel a bit funny when the descriptions of Heaven and Hell are given to me. I mean, long flowing milk channels and lush green mountains? It seems Heaven has been branded as the Switzerland of Hereafter. While maybe Hell as being thrown into Sun perhaps.

The descriptions seem miraculous. Impossible. Far from reality. Just like a few instances in our life. We all have experienced times of Miracles. Something out of equation. Something out of nature. Something absurd. Something we don't experience in our daily lives. 

What if what we perceive as Miracle is nothing but a mere figment of the Real World?

What if, as a new born, even we can experience the Real World?

What if, we all grow up to occupy ourselves in a bubble of reality. In an illusion of a real world. Gradually, year by year disconnecting ourselves from the Real World? From the Real Reality?

What if, at the time of somebody's death, at the time of our own near death experience, that moment, that pause, that silence, that nothingness is a Glimpse of That Real World which we have left far behind?

What if, we decide to die to this world and this reality before we physically die? Suddenly, the Cosmos, the Universe, the Nature, the Life and Death pattern, the Philosophy of Death might not seem that impossible.

In that state, Nothing might seem unreal. Nothing might seem shocking. It might in fact conclude into a Beautiful Pattern called Real World.

One of God's biggest traits is His mercy. They say, He is never unjust to even a particle of an atom. How then and why so will He ever take away his beings from the world leaving the loved ones in utter despair?

Since we live in a delusional world of a pseudo reality; we fail to understand the Real Definition and Purpose of Life and Death. We all are born into this world to give out benefits. Benefits to ourselves, to others, to nature, to universe, to history, to future, to present, to existence. Every single moment of ours is meant to benefit one

thing or the other. Even if we deny it or fail to acknowledge our role. We are still benefiting something, somebody at all times.

Once our purpose, our benefit quota ends, our role and our definition for this physical life expires. It is an extremely bitter truth, many would argue, but yes; when somebody leaves this world, then know for sure that his benefit to the others in this world had ended. His life any further on this plain of existence would not have marginally caused any further change. Because if he had any potential of further benefit left and God has taken him up then it would have been an act of injustice. And no religion defines the Divine as unjust.

The above is just a theory, one of the theories to comfort ourselves. To reason the plain straight forward reality called the Death. And to practically application of this theory is trying to die to this world before we physically die.

If the discussion of Death saddens and upsets us for any reason except our sins; then we are surely not living in the World of Reality. Reality embraces Death as a part of Life. Our attachment to the world and our busy lives makes us drift away from The Real World.

So perhaps, with a firm belief in the Beauty of Death, with a strong Faith in the Mercy of God and with a thorough understanding of God's Justice system, we might train and mature ourselves to meet the news of death more maturely. It might still pain. It might still lead to a tough transformational period. But it might be accompanied with a deep heart at True Peace, Connected to the Real World. On the outside, we might seem upset, on the inside the Real Peace sustains.

And that very Inner Peace can help us shoulder the other humans when they are undergoing a traumatic period of losing a loved one. For while living in the Real World, we'd know somebody's death is not really a loss. But a Reality crafted by God and misunderstood by us.

Ambitious

Every word has an essence. A meaning. A feeling. An emotion. A whole situation can at times be summed up in the power of just a few alphabets. Like a seed with the power of becoming a tree, like a shell encompassing million years old secrets, it is by far, one of the most intricate yet the simplest ways of defining a past, a present, a future.

One such word is Ambition. From a child whose ambition might be to become an astronaut; to a fresh graduate whose ambition might be to conquer the corporate world.
From a model who aspires to become Miss Universe to a cook who wants to open up a restaurant.

Ambition is the word that has empowered thousands of ideas. It has led to an inception of a dream in the mind, it has brought life to otherwise dead matter of the brain. The word has the magic of letting the humans achieve the unimaginable.

And in the midst of all this, the humans have yet again distorted its true meaning. With a word so magical and powerful, we have failed to do justice to its essence. It has become a mere adjective placed next to conventional dreams scribbled on a typical personal statement of a undergraduate. It has become the most widely used word thrown on the resumes mercilessly and tossed around projects in the board rooms.

And recently, it has experienced a traumatising exploitation behind the closed doors of young couples' bedrooms. It has been picked up by "Educated/liberated/career oriented" women to acquire "equality" with the opposite gender; to fight for "justice"; to fight for "freedom"; suddenly, the liberated educated women have awakened to the fact that they did not acquire education to give up their fancy careers and sit at home. Suddenly, they have realized they can equally be "Ambitious".

The problem of wrongly defining "Ambition" starts early in the childhood. Gone are the times when children wanted to be astronauts and doctors and engineers. Today, they want to be "Corporate Kings" with big flashy cars/bags/clothes (insert brands). Ambition has been substituted with a plaque which has already taken over the world.

The so-called ambitious child of today aggressively fights to acquire straight A's. Passionately competes to join the best graduate school. And once a graduate, he auctions his brain out to the best buyer in the market. For good 10 years, he is misguided in the name of Ambition. What he is seeking is materialistic possession.
His dreams can be described as aggressive but not as Ambitious.

- If you're ambitious, the graduate school should expand your vision. Your best management school should teach you the ability to become a management leader of your family as well.

- If you're ambitious, your journey should expand your horizons beyond just connecting ambitions to acquiring flashy cars and jobs.

- If you're ambitious, your exposure should make you realize your connectivity with the world is just a click away. You can put your innovation to practice. Be it googling British breakfast recipes to Chicken Aalo Qeema to blogging online.

- If you're ambitious, there are bigger things that should matter to you. If your ambitions are not helping raise ego-free, humble, wise, hard working, educated human beings then know well..the definition of Ambition needs to be corrected.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with passionately dreaming, enthusiastically striving, attending the best educational institutes and securing the best of the best jobs.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the above Only If our definition of Ambition is Bigger than that. If the above is limiting our growth as a Human, limiting our potential to a mere animal instinct then it is nothing but our distorted version of Ambition.

Most importantly, if our education and graduation is limiting us to just progressing aggressively in our career then know well, we've been fooled into wrongly defining Ambition for ourselves.

Teacher

I was trying to solve a maths problem; stuck and lazy to try any further, I got up from my seat and went to my teacher who was busy checking some papers. She looked at me and inquired if I had understood the concept correctly. I replied in affirmative nodding my head. She then smiled and asked me to go back to my seat and try again. 

Disappointed and tired at the fact that I would have to try it out again on my own, I ventured to my desk lazily. Few hours went by, I again went up to her. This time, she was not even apparently busy. Yet, she sent me back, asking me to keep trying on my own. 

I was so annoyed. Why was she not helping me? Days went by and every time I asked her for help, she told me to keep trying on my own. 

With exams drawing near, I started concentrating more on those math problems. I slowly started loving my mornings which I spent with those questions. Venturing in every way possible to solve the questions, I discovered my love for numbers. While eating, drinking, sleeping; all I could think of was how to solve those problems. Somewhere in the process, I realized the beauty of challenges and numbers. And thinking. And striving. The eureka moment when my brain shot me the best possible way of solving those problems; was indeed an indescribable feeling. I still can sense the joy, the delight of that minute. 

With my shoulders up high, with my laziness vanished and my enthusiasm beaming in my eyes, I went back to my teacher, proudly showing her my answers. She smiled back and said, I knew you'd be able to solve them on your own. 

Don't blame the Teacher when He is silently guiding you, slowly making you Realize your own potential; gradually making you fall in love with your capabilities; helping you discover your powers. For the Teacher's style of Teaching is not just limited to classroom sessions and lectures. 

He Teaches in ways unimaginable. 

Light

There was once a time when countless villages survived without electricity. Even a lesser number of towns had access to light. In such a situation, there was a generous rich man who decided to donate lights and electricity to a small village. However, after a few days the man received a complain that the lights were not working. Confused, he dispatched another batch of lights. Only this time to receive the same complain again. Blaming the newly discovered technology, he yet again sent out another bag of lights. However, the complain remained. Helpless and frustrated, he decided to visit the village and find out the problem. When he arrived at the village, he realized the whole village was actually devoid of the ability to see. They did not possess the sight to experience the colours of the world. No amount of electricity could make their visions bright. 

At times, we are exactly like the villagers of that village. We pray and search and explore for light to kill the darkness of our lives. We take on pain, we suffer extra just to get the glimpse of the Light which can drive away the ignorance from our existence. We long to experience the day of Light. Yet; we often fail. We often fail not because of the ample Light out there; but because of our own inability see it. 

The only difference being; the villagers were inherently blind. While, we are blind at will. We have closed our eyes. We want to follow the Right, we plead for Light; yet we close our eyes when it is right there beaming at us. The Light screams at us, showing us every possible way to the path we have pleaded to travel on. Yet; we somehow deny its existence. Our own veil of luxurious comfortable denial burdens our eyelids and eventually closes us to the Light we want. 

Our own impatience, our own confused norms and our own inabilities to stay awake makes us deny Light when it is right there. We lose not because He doesn't send out help, but because we are not ready to follow the Help. 

It is not the dark that should scare us, It is our inability to See and Experience the Light that should worry us. 

Weave On.

Our destinies are like intricately woven patterns. We are given the needle of free will and choice to weave our own destiny. However, how the pattern turns out to be is not completely in our hands.

The moment we halt, the second we pause, the minute we keep the needle down; is the time when our progress, our development, our growth stops.

It is extremely essential to keep weaving with our best skills. It is imperative to continue thinking, choosing, deciding and moving on. Uncertainties of how the overall pattern will turn out, which other threads will intertwine our paths is not the job of our needle.

It sometime lies beyond the powers of our free will. What lies within the powers of our hands is how we use our needle to welcome the other threads into our paths. How we let them mingle with our lines to formulate a pattern. At times, the pattern doesn't show, threads come, altering our weaving styles, influencing the colours of our paths, the sharpness of our needles and then drift away. No matter how much we want otherwise. In such a situation, knowing the very purpose of such temporary mingles and the power of their influences should be enough to continue.

Often, our progress of destiny seems halted. And that's the moment where we commit the error of halting our own weaving pattern. We keep the needle down. We stop deciding in the hopes of magic. We confuse
the definition of patience. We get bogged down by the heaviness of no progress on the pattern of destiny.

We forget that maybe, the progress just seems halted to us. Somewhere, the pattern is still weaving. The
life is till moving. The destinies are still being weaved. The threads will still enter and alter your pattern. Our stopping at this stage reflects our timidity. Reflects our lack of patience in keep going. We forget to fight the heaviness of nothingness with the Power of Patience and Faith.

We forget that the Magic happens only when we keep weaving. We forget to Trust the Bigger Picture. The Bigger Picture which promises to reveal the Bigger Pattern to us one day.

It is then when we need to realize the purpose of last threads which had altered and influenced our weaving patterns so beautifully. Let go of the reasoning and logics of those threads drifting away; let them drift away for their drifting away is being carved by their needles in their hands. It should restore our ability to take a deep breath, pick back our needles, and get back to weaving a beautiful pattern again.

For There is a Master of all Weavers sitting up there, smiling and taking us where we're meant to be.

Magic Carpet

For some personal reasons and otherwise, I have always detested and disliked the word Stubborn. Stubborn people may really get along well with me, but they've never been my personal favourite. 

However, recently, I discovered a completely different meaning of the word Stubborn. It was like a complete paradigm shift toward the word. The new perspective somehow struck me as odd.  Common to many, it was still alien to me. 

There are 7billion of us. I say, there are 7billion of us each one standing on an individual magic carpet. 

There are times when the magic carpet takes us for a ride. It enables us to discover/explore/experience new places/feelings/relationships/people. Then, there are times when the magic carpet stands firm and still beneath us; providing us the very ground we need to grow and prosper on firm footings. it gives us the security we need. 

And then, there are times, when we feel the magic carpet moving. Only now, the difference is, we feel it is being taken away. As if, it is slipping out from our firm footing. It is either an instant where we feel the magic carpet has been snatched from beneath in less than a second. Or it is a slow brutal process, occurring gradually and slowly. The carpet slightly moving from beneath, one moment at a time. 

At some point in time and in one way or the other, it happens so. And when it does; it feels like it is the time to stay Stubborn. 

Stubborn to the gratitude of the carpet's magical wonders of good times. 
Stubborn to the favours of the carpet's concrete foundation at learning times. 
Stubborn to the magical stability acquired with passing clouds and sunshines.
Stubborn to the very Trust and very Faith which the magical carpet was meant to teach. 

Stubborn to the Believe that letting go of the carpet will not let you fall, but will make you rise. Far Above and Beyond. 

Stubborn to the Self imparted by the Magic of the Carpet. 

Stubborn to letting the feeling of slipping carpet pass by. Letting the toes feel the carpet move. 

For the Real Magical Carpet is not meant to be held, it is meant to be felt. 

Staying Stubborn to Leap of Faith is the Magic. 

Sweet Blasphemy

A man carrying pride and arrogance on his shoulders looked at his parrot in the cage and smirked. He thought how a parrot lives a disappointing sad life. With wings and power to fly and explore, the parrot spends his whole life confined behind the metal bars of his cage. He sings melodious rhymes to make his master happy; he can only speak when spoken to. What a pathetic life indeed thought the man. 

What an unlucky bird.

As if reading his mind, the parrot looked at the man and smiled, "Why the smirk young man? Your smirk hides away the harsh realities of who is in actuality unlucky. A prisoner jailed. A prisoner who was gifted the freedom, yet chose to confine his mind behind the bars. A human who was born independent yet chose to commit  blasphemy. at all levels. of all kinds."

We are all blasphemers. We all commit blasphemy every day. We closely watch for people who insult our religion and our faith and then shoot/burn them down brutally in the name of protecting honour. In the name of blasphemy. While, all along, the real blasphemer lies within. 

We pray to feed our ego. We do good things to shut our conscience. And then, we take pride in small acts as if we have done a favour to God. to the Universe.

We wakeup everyday, get ready and leave to look for food, to protect livelihood. We replicate the behaviour of our ancestral apes in the meeting rooms. We drink when thirsty, we eat when hungry, we fight when angry, we cry when sad, we laugh when happy, we run wildly after inordinate desires of our heart. And then, we delve into proving gazillion philosophies of how we are different from animals.

We worship our selves. That's the highest kind of blasphemy. We walk into the prisons of our own attachments and shackle ourselves in the bounds of our greed. We then, take pride in being freer than a parrot in a cage. We create veils and veils of illusions of worship. We claim to worship God, but throughout, all we are doing is worshipping ourselves, our greed, our obsessions, our desires, our fame, our acknowledgement. Like a desperate prisoner, we use His name to worship our own selves.

We continue worshipping everything except what's needed and we continue suffering as a consequence. The cycle continues. The walls seem drawn close on us. We feel increasingly suffocated. Until we realize. Our realization automatically dissolves the first blasphemous veil which is making us suffer the unnecessary pain.

One by one, we appear for the tests of identifying and discarding the illusions from Reality. One by one we destroy our own gods of worship, one by one, we rip off the veils of ignorance, of blasphemous darkness. And its not easy.

But then, its only through committing sweet blasphemy, that we reach the Independence. Only the one who acknowledges his confines, realizes his power of freedom. Until then, we are worse than that parrot in the cage. The parrot who at least does not commit the sweet blasphemy. 

Rich

Recently, during a conversation with a friend, a topic of Richness came up. I being the fanatic of complicated thoughts; delved into the philosophies and deeper meanings of richness.

Richness is beyond materialism. It is a feeling. It is an emotion. It is satisfaction. Satisfaction which does not importantly be linked directly to attainment of materialistic goals and dreams. You are rich when you are happy. It is the very realization of gratitude.

While I was at it, trying my best to complicatedly define Richness; I sensed my friend's calmness. The fatherly calmness which motivates you to reach the answer my friend already had.

Finally giving up, I bounced back the question to my friend.

So what do you think Rich is!

My friend said, "So far to me rich is the love of staying poor."

I realized how at times, in our effort to define a beautiful concept, we just end up confining it. While I was busy confining it; my friend's simple, to the point definition seems to have liberated such a powerful concept of any adjectives and complicated logics.

We are often mistaken. There are words which have unarguably lost their true meaning and essence in this world. However, you and I in our attempt to explore their true meaning, make it even more complicated. We forget that often, a simple one line definition can possess the power of liberating the word of its distortions and give it back its True Essence.

He who has at least realized the true meaning of Rich, must be the richest of us all already.

Suicide

There are two kinds of suicides in this life that a human can and does commit. 

Firstly, the suicide of the physical body. Over one million people die of suicides every year. It is stated as the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. Various reasons and studies have been attributed to exploring the motivations behind ending one's own life. From childhood abuse to domestic violence to poverty to unexpected life traumas; all are said to trigger depression and negative suffering within. Suffering which gives birth to the pleasure of harming one's own physical self. A kind of painful pleasure that concludes in a suicide.

Second type of suicide is equally harmful. Often, a kind that paves way to the physical suicide. They say any destructive event does not just happen instantly. It is often backed by a series of small damages accumulated. 

This second kind of suicide is called the suicide of the soul. And just like physical suicide, various reasons can be attributed to the dying soul. We fail to nurture the soul in our good times. We fail to feed the right food to it. We deprive it from the Light it needs to shine. Thus, our soul becomes shallow and weak. 

And then, when the lightening strikes, when the things start going wrong; we are left stranded. Dumb founded. Because our soul does not have the capacity to fight. It is shallow from within. When Life starts snatching every single thing we possessed; one by one, we have nothing to fall back to. Soul, our insurance of bad times is bankrupt and unable to ventilate us. 

For years, we unknowingly take the painful pleasure of harming our soul. We deprive it of what it needs. And when it becomes empty enough; slowly and gradually harmful elements start cribbing in. Like bacteria, they install themselves silently in the confines of our empty souls. Negativity, suspicions, jealously, limited vision are the leading malignant bacteria of the soul. We deliberately give them home in our souls. Because, unknowingly, somewhere in our life, we had gotten addicted to the painful pleasure of harming our soul. 

And then, the path toward soul's suicide begins. When our body is deprived of any obsessions or a tragic event occurs; we naturally fall back on our souls. We experience our shallow souls as an addict experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Desperate to find peace, we pick up the pistol of darkening vision and shoot ourselves. We take refuge in the poisonous injection of black magic. We overdose ourselves on playing the victim. 

We deny absolutely any and every kind of Light to our soul. Possessed by the bacteria of the soul, with our own hands, we brutally and mercilessly suffocate our souls to death. We plan our soul's suicide long before we experience it. 

The first time we let ourselves deny any source of Light is the moment a bacteria of darkness is born. 

The first time we turn deaf to our conscience is the moment a loud bang of frustration is born. 

The first time we turn blind to our humanity is the moment a cloud of dark hatred engulfs our vision. 

The first time we sell our soul's inherent ability to Trust, To Believe and To Have Faith is the time we sow the first seed of soul's suicide. 

Just like the world is sceptical to openly discuss, address, cure and heal the problems of depression and anxiety in our society; exactly like that, we on an individual level are uncomfortable to address, cure and heal the problems of our soul, Both are the leading causes of untimely death. And every single one of us experience this discomfort and unease when we feed anything unhealthy to our souls. 

Be it any god of any religion, we pray for guidance, for prosperity. And when God diagnoses the problem hindering our path to prosperity and prescribes us a bitter medication through any suffering, we shun away. We refuse to take the medication for the soul and instead, get into harmful sweet tasting poisons. All throughout this process, our soul keeps screaming for Help, for Light, for Rescue. It keeps combating the negativity, the hatred we place in there.

That tiny little voice in the back of our heads tries its best to survive. For it knows, that a human is only alive if its Soul is alive. 

Pause, Hear and Reflect the voice of the Soul, for it is the only way to remain Human. 

Situations

There are three kinds of situations in this life. 
Good, Bad and the ones which can not be categorized. 
To each of these situations; there are humans involved backstage. Each human has a role. 

In good situations, the good characters triumph resulting in the situation being good. It is often their just decisions; their crisp thinking and ability to stay rational that the justice prevails. What should happen, happens. 

When we go through good situations in life, we cherish them. We feel them. We store them in our minds. We play their reruns countless times. Rerunning, reliving every single second of it again and again. 

In bad situations, the bad characters take the charge; resulting in the situation often being bad. Their irrational decisions; their lack of ability and courage to state the truth  just drowns everyone aboard, Lies, injustice and distorted versions of reality prevail in these situations.

We hate such situations. We dislike them. We detest them. We often want to avoid them. We even manage to live in denial for a long period of time failing to gather the courage needed to face these situations. But then, ultimately; time makes us realize. It makes us go through these situations. No.Matter.What. 

And then, we have situations we are unable to categorize. We are unsure if they are good or bad. We hunt for clues to pass our judgement and put them in one of the two kinds of situations. But we fail. With growing impatience, we desperately search for adjectives to label these situations. 

And this, third type of situation is the very situation which teaches us the most. That invincible urge to judge and react accordingly takes us by surprise because we are unable to. 

In our urge to define these situations, we often lose the most in this battlefield. Unable to combat any further, we give up. We grow tired and a serene sense of painful silence takes us over. A contradictory sense of burdened nothingness takes us over. And is it indeed in those moments of burdened devoid that the clouds of this situation subside. They somehow, leave us more acceptable. More mature. More understanding to the people, to the world and to our own selves.

In this very submission in the third situation, we learn the importance of silence, the power of leap of faith. Ultimately, it leads us to the knowledge of right and wrong. And finally, only these uncategorised situations teach us the worth of good and bad situations alike.

We don't any more have reruns of beautiful good situations or frustrated victimized bad situations; we truly grow above them. We truly start combating all the situations with the armour of patience and wisdom. Wisdom indescribable in words. Patience, only understood by those who have experienced the nameless situations. 

mirage to Reality

There are gazillions of journeys we undertake in one single lifetime. 

From our mother's womb to this world. From our house to our first school. From university to practical world. 

At every level of our life, at any point in time, every single one of us -7 billion are travelling, undertaking a journey. 

Among all these journeys, is a journey from Mirages to Reality. This Journey transcends and happens at a far distant level. It happens within us yet outside of us. Its path is so well defined and crystal clear yet so vague and indescribable. This is the only Journey which is the Fact of Life. All journeys start and end within a life time. This Journey never does. 

And every single one of us embark on this Journey. We can deny it. We can ignore it. We can refuse to acknowledge our travel; yet, strangely so, we still undertake this Journey. Regardless of creed, religion, faith, country or community. 

The highway of this Journey is full of mirages. Just like any other highway drive. Each mirage seems to reflect the distorted picture of the Sky Above. And in our attempt, in our hurry, in our enthusiasm to reach our destination soon, we mistake the mirage as Reality. 

Every time. Each time. Our enthusiasm rises. We reach there excitedly, only to end up suffering the pain. The pain of realizing that it is still not the Reality. 

A mere mirage on a Journey like this? I wonder. Not one. Not two. But so many. But why? A purposeful Journey like this one, where every moment is well carved for wondering, for Light, for Knowledge; why then is this Journey so full of mirages?

Tired and frustrated at the mirages, I finally decide to sit with one of them and ask. If you are nothing but a Figment of Reality, If you are nothing but a mere mirage, then why are you here disturbing my Journey? Giving me pain of not reaching the Reality. 

The mirage smiles back patiently and replies; If it hadn't been for all these mirages in your path; you wouldn't have realized the vacuum within you. You wouldn't have realized the Need for Reality within you. 

Our incomplete reality made you realize that you're looking for The Reality. 

Don't forget oh Human, you embarked upon this Journey only because you came running after one of the mirages. 

And I walked away on my Journey again thinking - I wouldn't have looked up to the Beauty of the Sky if it wasn't for the Sky's reflection in a mere mirage in the middle of the road. 

He does not go anywhere. We do.

One fine evening, something sparked a question - If God is all around us and within us, then how do we get to commit sins? If He is in our heart, then how do we commit sins with that same heart?

Aptly put, I decided to think.

We are not perfect. we all make mistakes. you and I. We all sin differently. All the time. Then we plead and cry and feel God. We fall in and out of love with Him. Constantly.

Its strange that He stays. We remain variable and moody in our relationship with Him; while He remains; through and through. Even stranger is the fact that we have somewhere started taking our relationship with God as granted. We have limited our relationship with Him in the definitions and conditions of how we tackle human
relationships.

It is like we have lost our route while driving down the highway and we ask God to take charge. We hand him over the steering wheel of our life and let Him put us back on the right track. We sit there humbly and happily letting God lead our lives till the point where His path seems to contradict with our style of life. We began to feel insecure. Slightly scared and challenged. Questions of "are we really ready to follow this path" start to crib in.

And that's where we lose. We slowly and gradually take the steering wheel back from God into our own hands. Willingly. Wrapped in gazillion illusions of denial and excuses; we put conditionality to our relationship with Him.  We think we are surrendering yet we don't. We think we are submitting to Him yet we fail. We deny ourselves the
very luxury of facing the truth. Because we are scared. Because somewhere we know that we have gotten up from our own hearts and walked away into darkness.

So, yes, how do we commit sins or disobey Him while He is within us residing in our hearts? We do that by getting up from our heart and walking away.

He does not go anywhere. We do.

Food for Thought

They say when an infant cries, it is either because he is hungry or because he is sleepy. 

Once the mother feeds the child, the child goes back to his happy self until he starts feeling hungry again. Same goes for grown up humans.

Hunger motivates humans to scavenge for food.  Food satisfies the bodily needs; nurtures the biological system and produces energy for us to use. The moment we have consumed the last bit of it; our body gears back into action compelling us to look for food.

There are two kinds of bodies within us which need to grow as we grow. Since our birth till our death, they are constantly dependent on what we feed them.

First is our body, when it feels hungry, it needs food. Second is our mind, when it feels hungry, it needs knowledge. Knowledge is the food for intellectual growth and progress. And just like hunger indicates our need for food; our ability to question indicates our craving for knowledge.

Questioning is an indication that our mind has consumed, accepted, processed whatever knowledge we had given to it. It is now looking for more. Questions spark the exploration for answers, for progress, for theories, for expansion.

Unfortunately, given poor recognition of the second kind of hunger, we have succumbed to shutting our mind. We avoid knowledge by killing our questions. Our questions reappear; just like our bodily hunger resurfaces if we try to kill it.

Yet we burry our questions. In this battle of ignorance and darkness, our minds starve for years and years at length.

A loss of bodily appetite is an indication of poor health. Potions of herbal and allopathic medicines have been devised to reignite bodily hunger. Children are given tonics to help them eat healthy.

A loss of ability to question is an indication of poor intellect and mind. It too requires tonics of provocative thinking; exercises encouraging observation. It requires us to tell children that it is safe to think; to explore; to read; to question. It needs us to create welcoming behavior of comfort zones around questions. A classroom, a relationship, a family table talk, a friends coffee session; all are dungeons of dead minds if they unwelcome questions and discourage observation.

Setting up schools and sending children to acquire the best ranked professional degrees is still not feeding the mind if it is not encouraging provocative thinking. It is like giving best quality health supplements to a patient who requires medicine for heartache.

A dying mind needs to burst the illusions of satisfaction and step into the world of wonders. A world of surprises and bewilderment is the natural habitat of a healthy mind.

If the apple a day keeps the doctor away, imagine the miracles of a question a day.