I Did not even know then, that it did not work!.....
That was the tender age at which the elders around me liberally showered me with this adage....
That 'showering' in my experience can be likened to a hasty father pouring a bucket full of iced water over the lazy son, refusing to get up from sleep, when it is getting late for school...!
It made me feel cold, when I tried to think over 'how to implement' this 'turning inwards'! (Today, eminent psychiatrists are there to teach us, not to give 'abstract' sermons to children... and a famous example is, shouting at a child who is comfortably perched on a tall feeble branch of that tree “Don't fall”.... That kid finds it difficult to 'carry out' how NOT-TO-FALL... instead, the psychiatrists suggests, try telling the kid “Hold Firmly....” (on to the nearby stronger branch till help reaches...).
But, I had a kind of obstinacy. This obstinacy of mine 'stood me in good stead' in many ways in making a 'reasonable' progress on my yet another obstinate pursuit.... that one, ...of spiritual path! I had been wondering what made me admire those 'aghoris' when most people turned their mind away instantly on reading about what they do! Maybe, I too had a mild, crude form of it in my own 'sense' of that obstinacy! As if to confirm, my mind had churned out a blog about 'breaking point' some time ago!
Anyway,.... turning inwards turned out to be a 'nosey' business (oh! Almost literally!)... Nothing spiritual about my experiments trying to 'experience'... but I did notice the oddities about my nose, at an age when it can be said 'you are too young for that.....(too subtle to notice)'... I had been noticing that 'good' cooks found their appetite 'died' after cooking for a large crowd... Their hunger remained, and they satiated it with another couple of rounds of beverages like 'strong' coffee or tea, and used the same dialogue “I feel well fed, when I find the guests have liked the taste'... Elders tried to 'explain' to me that.... maybe, they are too tired to eat ..... I was not to be put of with such 'touch and go' observations. I was a 'nosey' kid, and found that they(the cooks) tested the aroma with their nostrils too often, to avoid any penal deductions from cooking-fee, for lack of taste! How do they guarantee the taste, by just smelling it? The vast examples of bulk of people approving the smell (fragrance) to be the yard-stick, seemed to console me.... Till, .... I tested with a 'precious' condiment... that 'Elaichi' which was used to top-up the sweet dish 'payasam' or sweet-porridge like thing... The rule was to add it only after the dish had reasonably cooled down.... I tested, tasting the grain of elaichi clove , pinch-clipping my nose for a few seconds! The taste became evident only after releasing the nose! That's it.... There could be several dishes we taste only through our nostrils! (some where I had once read that minutely sliced tiny pieces of onion and apple are indistingushable, if tasted, with clipped nose! I don't know for sure, but am inclined to say... maybe....)
This 'nosey' attitude of mine (not that 'obstinate' attitude.... that one was about doing 'what ever it takes' kind of attitude!).... this 'nosey' attitude led me to admire the nose of a blind man who could smell sunset! (Courtesy: Old Hindi Movie: Koshish... that blind man amazed the hero, announcing on a sea beach, that the sun had 'just' set!... They wondered 'how a blind man.....' and he explained... 'I can smell the sunset'!). I learnt that the sense organs can subtitute each other's function in a crisis, or say “outsource” its job, even 'at-will'..... a lesson that helped me to climb at a slightly higher pace when asked to 'perfect' the art of 'naadi-shuddi' through 'sukha-pranayama' , and such other subtle practices to map-the-inward-turning-path!
Next surprise came about 'inside' when they told me the difference between vital organs and important organs! Eyes are important, but not vital to just 'living' (or we may say 'vegetating'), where as, the kidney being a vital one has ample evidence when we frequent a hospital and 'hear' that 'if his/her kidney is not doing well, it is an indication.... time to inform close relatives! Please see, we do not bother about the 'vitality' of our stomach, and pamper the 'importance' (important to us, .... or.. “we”.... the 'impotent'... shall we say :)....inability to 'respond' to 'liveliness of stomach' the headquarters of all ailments!. This inability is not excusable like that 'differently' abled.... it is 'defiantly' abled, an obstinacy that 'need-not-go-unpunished' ...}... importance... of those few centimeters of taste buds with all the junk that we can find at that unearthly hour in the 'metros' and proudly proclaim, 'metro-lives-at-midnight'!!! {So, ... abuse of condiments, impedes the progress on spiritual path also... brahma-granthi... a knotty problem at 'physical' level, retarding us from turning inwards.}
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