Our Villains :-))

Perhaps, we humans are the species that happens to face too many villains in our life :-))

Other life forms, we assume to be having their quota of villains too!

A lion sights a herd of deer grazing at a lush green patch of grass (the scenes of “Discovery Channel”, or “Animal Planet” etc)...
The deer is blissfully unaware of its(the lion's) scent, till the direction of the wind changes... then, all of a sudden there is a scramble... The wind God did not oblige the Lion-Ji till the 'last-mile' :-))
There ensues a chase ... somebody gets caught.... that is it.

(What we don't notice is that this-lion doesn't keep running after the rest of the deers for at least till its next hunger session)!

A shopkeeper sights a 'thirsty' customer... Very soon, the shopwala 'realises' that this customer came into a disproportionate amount of currency, and is too-keen to convert it into 'luxury-goods'... the chase now has nothing to do with 'needs' of either the shopkeeper or the customer... The price quoted, the wares traded are disproportionate till either of them finishes their stock :-))

Right from kid age, when I saw that all the bed-time stories have one common element in it... there has to be a 'villain' in it... I also 'noted' that my life is never going to be without-one :-))
Each living person is a story. Whether noticed or not, published or not, recorded or not, sung or not.
And so , there is a villain in it too!
It also occurred to me, and much to my surprise.... that we too 'become' a villain to somebody, whether we like it or not :-((

And then, I saw, there are 'natural-villains' ... that role is just thrust upon them... It comes like some factory-fitted-accessory .. (and therefore that query by a prospective bride “Any luggage?” it took a while for me to decipher this word 'luggage'... but it was too late by-then... I had become a luggage too!).

We can't blame the 'society'... We collectively made it into one, over the generations...
When my tiny cousins were refusing to pull themselves out of bed, I tried a trick “Hey, teacher is calling” ( the anxiety filled tone, coupled with that sharp-urgency, shook them up, and they felt greatly 'cheated' when they discovered that it was a false-alarm... 'how can a school teacher show-up beside the bed of a student's home?')...

The boss at the office is a natural villain...
There was a branch of a bank at Mumbai (Museum Savings Branch), dedicated for catering only one-class of customers.... savings bank account holders... there, the bosses used to say “We needn't shout at slow-working-clerks... customers to that job better! They have a local fast-train waiting to leave within minutes, at the nearby station! So, only fast-clerks survive at the 'public-counters' of that branch.

The neta finds his voters to be a 'formidable-villain' only once in 5 years... After that, he is the 'natural-villain'..

Hey! What is happening with our 'relationships'?... I wondered..
I was curious to find out if I can just manage to stay right inside this game, and yet remain untouched by this 'villainous-relationship' with fellow-human beings?
It then occurred to me, “why not look at them as a structure, tailored to behave only the way that they are?..”... it seemed to work well, to barely manage to extricate myself from that mesh. Not content with that, I even attempted to disengage them from their roles of 'playing a villain' :-))

Yes, it did work... But it meant a Herculean task. Quite risky one too, most of the times! For instance, when something like a 'reservation-policy' is hammered into somebody as his 'birth-right', where is the incentive for him to become non-parasitical? But, it did work with a few, and it gave me a great sense of 'meaningful-living', while just working at 'earning a living'...

A porcupine cannot possibly be motivated to give me a harmless bear-hug!.. But it can be motivated to play-by-rules.. Ooops! It was not about 'real-porcupines'... the human counterparts, I mean!

Villainously yours,
psn(21st December, 2016)

I don't know!

Very few don't know its use :)

It works too well! Most often, it is used to absolve oneself from any act of omission or commission, and the 'benevolence' thrust upon others by our-own-created social ethics ensures that we 'escape' with this “I don't know” :-))

Out of compulsions, we had to accept a few 'codes' being incorporated, to avoid abuse of this “I don't know” ... and the Judge says, “ignorance of law is no-excuse” ... (somebody walks on the middle of the road, he doesn't know that there are traffic rules to obey, since he came into a civilized location for the first time out of a Jungle, and he can't use this “I don't/didn't know” business! :-)) }

I was amused to see a wonderful movie , where the director has beautifully 'planned' a character, a jungle dweller who doesn't 'use' this “I don't know” {The Gods must be crazy—movie}.. he is almost indifferent to being arrested and put in jail :-)) he is that-innocent !

At times, our own 'democracy' turns against us... We are deliberately kept inside the “I don't know”, and then suddenly on the evening of 8th December, 2016, at 8 pm, “we know” about a demonetization... and then it is “from each, according to his accumulation.. & ... to each according to his need,” etc :-))... Interpretation abounds! The least hit, obviously are going to be those who happened to have very less of 'needs' !

When spirituality, ... the path... refuses to budge, despite hectic efforts to 'know'... there is no recourse, no forum to plead ! The irony is that, the 'spirit' wouldn't spare us till we know! Whatever else we do, it just keeps haunting us, chasing us, for eternity :-)) ...

For that matter, 'nature' doesn't allow this excuse of 'I don't know/ I didn't know' ... {spoil the ecology, and learn the consequences the-hard-way :-)) ...}

Animals and other creatures don't 'use' an “I don't know/I didn't know”... despite, things that they can never know! (They just submit , blissfully unaware of their getting 'punished' for ignorance! Rat cakes work everytime! They just eat it and die!)...

Not so with humans!
We can know, and that.... creates our problems!

Intellect, is a faculty that can expand its potential , when coupled with consciously-maintained-awareness, and alertness, at its peak levels... and then ... a possibility opens up, where we can know, what we like to know (though we still don't 'know everything')... and hopefully, it even leads to knowing that, after which nothing else remains to be known!

The first thing I had to learn was... my journey was mine alone!
The rules , therefore it follows, concern me-alone!

One such rule was to use this “I don't know” with great discretion, using the 'sense' of discrimination, very judiciously too! (no matter, what price I have to pay, towards this!)...

For instance... I shouldn't use “I don't know” or “I didn't know” to make way for a “I don't want to know”.. I needn't to know a lot many things, but none of those ought to hinder my knowing what I do-need to know! (that was a problem!)...

Oh yes, ... I was rather fortunate to have had a look at this “concept” pretty early, and therefore was amply rewarded too! The 'process' of knowing things that I came-across, took a gallop-pace, quite often! (it is the deep urge to share, that meets a heavy rebound, and quite often too... The cure, to contain this urge, is so elusive, and evasive!.. it looks like, this urge has decided to stay put, till the very end :-)) Anyway, that's my personal and private problem, so no point sharing that—its details).

Knowingly yours,

psn (10th December, 2016)

Morning hours

A very curious thought occurred to me.
About these early morning hours.

The more I thought about it, the curiosity to 'look' at it kept increasing!

But, when the thought occurred about 'sharing' these thoughts, I had to make sure that there was some take-away at least, for a reader, beyond the sheer entertainment value.

So now, it is entirely up to the reader to firstly verify whether my-experience of it is also-true with them. Otherwise it is pointless to even read any further.

We need to compare. But only with our own selves(so a 'healthy' comparison, perhaps!).
Suppose we are at a place where there is nothing to do for the whole day. Like for instance, we went to some hill station for a holiday, and it turned out to be a 'downpour' of rains, and there was nothing else to do except sit inside a hotel room, and keep looking the heavy rains through the glass window!

We woke up at around 6 am... the whole day passed off, almost doing nothing fruitful, except feeding ourselves.

The first 2 or 3 hours of the day, compared to the rest of the hours of the day, seems to have passed a little faster.

Now, this seems to be true, where ever we are, what ever we did that day, and however the day was for us (the situation)...

And then, I was reminded of a few 'punch lines' , sayings etc.. Like, “lose 5 minutes of the morning and keep searching/looking for it, for the rest of the day”, and 'early to rise, early to bed” etc...
The people must have realised right during the ancient days, that there is something 'precious' about the early mornings!

Somehow, the 'mind' seems to cooperate better during an-early-morning!

My curiosity is about 'why-so' of the mind... (for,/because, ... it is the mind that is the key to life-itself! Body, by itself, though it seems to be a problem when it 'carries' some ailment, seems to 'behave' better when the mind is totally-out-of-order ! Inmates of a mental nursing home are usually-healthy, body-wise :-)) , though not wise other-wise!)

The 'logic' of it takes us to the 'activity' (or the inactivity-rather), that precedes the 'freshness' of the mornings. It is the mind that feels the freshness (of a morning), more. And anything that is/feels 'fresh' hastens the passage of time in our 'experience' (though we know, the spring-mechanism of that wall-clock, works at the same speed 24 X 7)!

The clarity of it became bright, when I started climbing on to the intensity-part of the spiritual practices :-))

And then came the 'trick' to invoke the morning-wala-effect at any time of the rest of the day! The meditations (as a practice). Oh yes, ... as if to 'vouch' for my experience of it, a few of my colleagues at work place too, did say “Hey, you look as fresh as you were at 9 am?” (that was their version of a little bit of 'freshness', which lasts for just few minutes of each day, at workplace :-)), and they don't even bother to 'look' for it after the first half-an-hour!).

I managed to make my day, when it could feel fresh at any time of the day, thus! And, we do-live only a day at-a-time isn't it!

(I leave it to the readers to delve into the why-so of the magic of the mornings, because each individual deals with one's own way of life... I was only interested to 'nudge' others, about the wonderful aspect of this quick-passage of time, which includes a wholesome package-gift with it)!

Good morning of yours,

psn(1st of December, 2016)