"You are only splashing the water!.... It has nothing to do with 'swimming'... and now, don't continue with this, we too have to bathe..." said my cousins, when they saw me thumping the surface of the pond, in a hectic manner...
I stopped it 'abruptly' and sat 'too-quietly' , all at once (my own tool, 'a dramatic-effect', even in inaction!)..
That silence in me was a bit oppressive, and they offered further explanations! They said, "See, for merely floating, no activity even, is required... We need to push the water, only for moving within the water body... and that... is-swimming!" and when they added: " Even a dead body floats!" it really hit me! Yep! Why didn't I think of it before/earlier? :(
They(my cousins) were never into spiritual concepts.. but me?... What prevented me from 'connecting' that Shava-aasana, and the floating-practice, during a learning-of-swimming?
Hey! I chided myself... is it not easier to 'test-check' oneself.. whether I am 'really-relaxing' at physiological levels at least, during a Shava-aasana posture, by trying it out on water in a pond? The posture is not going to be supported by a firm-floor, when on surface of water... But 'test-conditions' are supposed to be non-supportive!
I quickly took a dive into the pool (the large pond), and surfaced only at the other end, to reassure my cousins that 'Hum kisi se kam nahi'... Then we had that game of chasing each other with underwater 'rule' ... They were a bit surprised, that I did not disclose my ability to swim well! But my agenda was something else... It had to do with 'perception-levels' which were attempted to be 'pre-embedded' in our ancient culture, so that swimming .. or the learning-to-swim... is as effortless as with a kid born into a fisherman's family (the kid doesn't even remember the exact date when he actually learn't to swim.. it happened some where during childhood, playing at the shores of the ocean! Where as the posh-counterpart.. pays a hefty fee per hour, adorns a sophisticated swim-wear, head-gear, goggles, and then all he manages for the first fee-paid-month is to splash the water of that shallow area swimming pool.. A win-win situation for the coach as well!... Spiritual classes too allow splashing of the concepts for quite a while! Because, we have turned it into a 'luxury for haves, not the have-nots!'... It would be quite some time when they realise that they need to learn to float with support of concepts, and then hopefully swim through it, and reach the 'other-shore'!)...
But 'default-upbringing' has its own advantages!
I struggled to convince my spouse that it is 'worth-learning' to make chappati's at home itself (outsourcing is not only costly, but also qualitatively inferior!)...
That is where I discovered that adults learn to cook those dishes easier, which they have been tasting from early childhood! A south Indian teenage girl is amazingly familiar with Rasam, and learns that subtle aspects which makes it uniquely fragrant, intoxicant-ly flavouring, and palatable/ly tasting etc.. The uninitiated-into-even-a-taste wala northerner begins with looking at it as a 'mere Imli ka paani'.. and the dish fails to make any impression at all, as something worth-learning!
But the 'process' of first learning well, and then trying to communicate the art of making a roti/chappati, did teach me a few subtle aspects which got diluted over the generations, even with most of the people whose staple food it is supposed to be!
We splash blogs and comments here, too often! Spiritual waters.. spiritual forum.. and there is no cost involved, at least in a tangible form... But if the concepts are going to become a thick coating over a period of time, and then the very same coating is going to prevent us from floating/swimming across it, due to the added weight, scrubbing it off, shedding the load, is going to be perhaps the hidden costs, when we really are going to shift our priorities, to learn to swim, being now fatigued with that splashing! (Our teacher told us on the first day of that Yoga-program thus “Please try to keep aside all your ideas/knowledge/etc.. what ever you had learn't till now about Yoga-etc .. and try to look at it afresh, like that LKG kid, who comes on the very first day of the school, without any pre-conceived notions about what a school is.. Otherwise, you may miss the 'experience' , and here we are into experiencing it, not about 'teaching' yet another 'ism' or so.. And while going back, you may take back your ideas too, without fail.. no problem about that!)
But, all these thoughts ... evoked a question in me... (apparently, this question seems too unconnected with these fragments of thoughts).. The question was "When is the average stage/time/age.. when the society decides to trust me as an individual?"... question..? Is it a question?... I tried with a few answers, like... "Voting age, when my vote will now 'count'!!! Driving licence.. when I will be licenced now.. to gate-crash, without injuring/damaging others on the way! When nobody is going to open the gate, the youth crashes-open the gate with the front tyre, pushes it with the foot, and 'drives-in' into his house-compound!..
Was there a time, when the people made efforts to ensure that a kid benefits an early-trust, when he is said to 'hail' from a certain kind of parentage, family, class-of-society, etc?..
Now, the only uniform that we 'like' to trust is perhaps that of a soldier in armed forces... Other uniforms, the very sight of it, worries us that we may lose something out of our purse (thanks to corruption-culture!)..
Splashing-ly yours,
psn(10th October, 2014)
I stopped it 'abruptly' and sat 'too-quietly' , all at once (my own tool, 'a dramatic-effect', even in inaction!)..
That silence in me was a bit oppressive, and they offered further explanations! They said, "See, for merely floating, no activity even, is required... We need to push the water, only for moving within the water body... and that... is-swimming!" and when they added: " Even a dead body floats!" it really hit me! Yep! Why didn't I think of it before/earlier? :(
They(my cousins) were never into spiritual concepts.. but me?... What prevented me from 'connecting' that Shava-aasana, and the floating-practice, during a learning-of-swimming?
Hey! I chided myself... is it not easier to 'test-check' oneself.. whether I am 'really-relaxing' at physiological levels at least, during a Shava-aasana posture, by trying it out on water in a pond? The posture is not going to be supported by a firm-floor, when on surface of water... But 'test-conditions' are supposed to be non-supportive!
I quickly took a dive into the pool (the large pond), and surfaced only at the other end, to reassure my cousins that 'Hum kisi se kam nahi'... Then we had that game of chasing each other with underwater 'rule' ... They were a bit surprised, that I did not disclose my ability to swim well! But my agenda was something else... It had to do with 'perception-levels' which were attempted to be 'pre-embedded' in our ancient culture, so that swimming .. or the learning-to-swim... is as effortless as with a kid born into a fisherman's family (the kid doesn't even remember the exact date when he actually learn't to swim.. it happened some where during childhood, playing at the shores of the ocean! Where as the posh-counterpart.. pays a hefty fee per hour, adorns a sophisticated swim-wear, head-gear, goggles, and then all he manages for the first fee-paid-month is to splash the water of that shallow area swimming pool.. A win-win situation for the coach as well!... Spiritual classes too allow splashing of the concepts for quite a while! Because, we have turned it into a 'luxury for haves, not the have-nots!'... It would be quite some time when they realise that they need to learn to float with support of concepts, and then hopefully swim through it, and reach the 'other-shore'!)...
But 'default-upbringing' has its own advantages!
I struggled to convince my spouse that it is 'worth-learning' to make chappati's at home itself (outsourcing is not only costly, but also qualitatively inferior!)...
That is where I discovered that adults learn to cook those dishes easier, which they have been tasting from early childhood! A south Indian teenage girl is amazingly familiar with Rasam, and learns that subtle aspects which makes it uniquely fragrant, intoxicant-ly flavouring, and palatable/ly tasting etc.. The uninitiated-into-even-a-taste wala northerner begins with looking at it as a 'mere Imli ka paani'.. and the dish fails to make any impression at all, as something worth-learning!
But the 'process' of first learning well, and then trying to communicate the art of making a roti/chappati, did teach me a few subtle aspects which got diluted over the generations, even with most of the people whose staple food it is supposed to be!
We splash blogs and comments here, too often! Spiritual waters.. spiritual forum.. and there is no cost involved, at least in a tangible form... But if the concepts are going to become a thick coating over a period of time, and then the very same coating is going to prevent us from floating/swimming across it, due to the added weight, scrubbing it off, shedding the load, is going to be perhaps the hidden costs, when we really are going to shift our priorities, to learn to swim, being now fatigued with that splashing! (Our teacher told us on the first day of that Yoga-program thus “Please try to keep aside all your ideas/knowledge/etc.. what ever you had learn't till now about Yoga-etc .. and try to look at it afresh, like that LKG kid, who comes on the very first day of the school, without any pre-conceived notions about what a school is.. Otherwise, you may miss the 'experience' , and here we are into experiencing it, not about 'teaching' yet another 'ism' or so.. And while going back, you may take back your ideas too, without fail.. no problem about that!)
But, all these thoughts ... evoked a question in me... (apparently, this question seems too unconnected with these fragments of thoughts).. The question was "When is the average stage/time/age.. when the society decides to trust me as an individual?"... question..? Is it a question?... I tried with a few answers, like... "Voting age, when my vote will now 'count'!!! Driving licence.. when I will be licenced now.. to gate-crash, without injuring/damaging others on the way! When nobody is going to open the gate, the youth crashes-open the gate with the front tyre, pushes it with the foot, and 'drives-in' into his house-compound!..
Was there a time, when the people made efforts to ensure that a kid benefits an early-trust, when he is said to 'hail' from a certain kind of parentage, family, class-of-society, etc?..
Now, the only uniform that we 'like' to trust is perhaps that of a soldier in armed forces... Other uniforms, the very sight of it, worries us that we may lose something out of our purse (thanks to corruption-culture!)..
Splashing-ly yours,
psn(10th October, 2014)
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