Reverence towards reverential people

Becoming reverential is quite tough... (I was to learn this only during my teenage.... And I still feel a little less fortunate about it, when my counterparts of kid age, some 500 years ago, got it 'just-like-that'!... The silver lining is that 'I discovered the advantage of reverence' )...

Some 'incidents' bring good-fortune along with it... If we are somehow-alert, we benefit this fortune.

Somewhere in my 4th or 5th standard, a late-comer to the 'academic-year' dropped in.. His name was 'announced'.. 'Manas Mukherjee'... The teacher asked the 'fellow' at the corner of the first bench to squeeze in a little.. And I was that 'fellow'... So this Manas-ji parked himself beside me.. The teacher also added, 'He is new ... not only to this school, but this city too.. so try to make him as comfortable-as-possible, till he gets used to this place, school, and our lessons'.. The teacher then looked at me and said, 'You.... help him, as and when needed'.. (To me, it at-once announced a tax-exemption from that ..... ranking in the 'class-monitor's list of names of 'those-who-talked' in the class!' The rule was, we talk only to the teacher when we have a doubt, and with the teacher when questions were answered--- almost like our MPs are 'expected' to address only the Speaker of the Lok-Sabha!... 'As-and-when-required' was adequate licence to remind the Monitor, to ignore my frequent whispers to this Manas-ji was to be treated as 'help' and not that criminal-act of talkativeness!)...

That is how I happened to ask him, 'Where do you come from?'.

“Kolkata” he said, and I discovered, he pronounces only with a 'kol' for 'Cal' of Calcutta... Now-a-days, we all are obliged to do the same when the spelling adheres to the correct phonetics.

'Pooja holidays' he said, when I asked about their usual spell-of-merriment..

And when he explained, 'Durga-pooja'.. I got alerted! The photo of Durga is slightly different from that of other deities.. At that kid age, the thought that occured to me was 'These people must be really very courageous, to afford to do a pooja to that kind of godess!' To me, it looked as if the Durga-ma had barely-calmed-down after a fierce spell of Krodh/anger... and any error by somebody while propitiating Her, might infuriate this anger very soon!.. I am not 'that-prepared' for such a risky-pooja right now, I felt then..

Much later, I revisited these early memories, and tried to 'guess'... such kind of propitiation might have to do a lot with 'Tantric' rituals too(Tantra, expects 'reverence' at very high levels.. As per Puranic stories, Parvati while learning Tantra from Lord Shiva, was initially found to be lacking that reverence a little, when the story-form called it 'shraddha' for easy understanding... )! And, somebody who is likely to revert to an earlier spell-of-anger a bit easily, is going to excuse/exempt only a deep-reverential-attitude,... especially when we humans are prone to fallibility! And so, the obvious choice of 'reverence-filled' form of propitiation, be it Tantra too!... Oh! If this guess is correct even to a little extent, then it does rhyme with the 'general-trait' that such people who 'specialise' in reverence (due to the very scope afforded by rituals, traditions, and its symbolisms), are also going to be well insulated from the temptation to 'seek' recognition and fame!.. What an amazing platform, from spiritual point of view! I felt thus... 'Now it is worth looking out for more such subtle details', I felt.. (And the rewards were ample).

The next best option(when “Becoming reverential is quite tough”), I found ..... was to consciously practice, cultivate and try out, a reverence towards reverential people! (people to whom, reverence was 'their way of being', a way of life, etc!). Obviously, the people around me now 'mattered' from this point-of-view also! And here, I happened to discover a side-benefit... Trust found its own way, from me into them, while, any pre-judice that crept it, collapsed a bit effortlessly, as the gaze-awareness kept looking out for a tiny-bleep/beep/blink even on that 'reverence-radar'! At times, these non-chasers of fame/recognition threw a glance of surprise at me, when their attention got caught at my over-enthusiastic stare at them!

Reverentially yours,

psn(4th June, 2014)