IF YOU LOVE A FLOWER, DON'T PICK IT UP



















“One is never afraid of the unknown…
 one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”

- Jiddu Krishnamurti



I was a school boy when I first saw Vinod Khanna in the movie ‘Mere Apne’. He never ceased to fascinate me – challenge, inspire and even confuse me – ever since!

Like most around me, whatever I know about Vinod Khanna has come only through whatever I have read in newspapers and magazines, or watching television and his movies … or through pure grapevine. This Post, therefore, is not about Vinod Khanna, the glamours Greek God, that he had been on the silver screen, but about the fallible and vulnerable human that he came about to me from my own perception…

I always admired Viond Khanna’s looks… He looked stunning, a Greek God! But, I was aware, that what I was admiring was just an outer body of a mortal… It would wrinkle with age, look frail with sickness and age… The other day, when that picture of Vinod Khanna in the hospital was getting circulated on social media, like so many around me, I, too, couldn’t believe my eyes!  For a few days, I was in a denial mode… till the truth dawned upon me: “Hey, that’s how we all are going to be… simply mortals!”

When, at the height of his stardom and popularity, Vinod Khanna left his wife and  boys and went in search of his personal peace… trying to seek answers to his inner quest… about insecurities and emptiness in life… about love, relationships, fear, and ego… yes, when he did that, I remembered the night prince Siddhartha leaving his kingly palace… seeing the sick, the flailed, the dead and the blissful... Vinod Khanna sought answers to his questions in OSHO’s ashram.

In Osho’s ashram, Vinod Khanna spent several years as a gardener and a dish-washer… Yes, I can only imagine, all that was to drop the weight around him caused by the illusion of success and fame… and, maybe, to find peace at the heart of turmoil called relationship and love…

I am just guessing!

Let me unfurl a few pearls from OSHO:

 “If you love a flower, don’t pick it up. Because if you pick it up, it dies and it ceases to be what you love. So, if you love a flower, let it be. Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.”

“Experience life in all possible ways, good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light, summer-winter. Experience all the dualities. Don’t be afraid of experience, because the more experience you have, the more mature you become.”

“Drop the idea of becoming someone, because you are already a masterpiece. You cannot be improved. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it.”


Vinod Khanna has been an enigma to me! From the epicenter of show-business to the oblivion called ashram… again to the show-business, then, to the hardcore politics for almost a quarter century… a divorce and estranged family… a new-found love and marriage, a new family… and, then, the cancer in his bladder comes to intimidate him and take away even the last flicker out of his belly… Yes, when he is barely 70…

The Greek God was laid to rest, yesterday!






OSHO was an outspoken and controversial spiritual guru. On the other side of the spectrum, there was Jiddu Krishnamurti, who stripped everyone of their gullibility for a spiritual guru. OSHO would be blunt about many spiritual teachers, but not about Jiddu Krishnamurti. Despite Krishnamurti teaching all to be free from clinging to any gurus and seek truth directly… yes, despite this, OSHO considered Krishnamurti to be a true teacher. It was on OSHO’s advice, that Vinod Khanna got interested in Krishnamurti’s talks and teachings…

Let me pay my last respect to Vinod Khanna, with these two quotes from Jiddu Krishnamurti:

“We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something,
we are no longer free.”


“In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn,
the door is there and the key is in your hand.
Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.”


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: 1) Vinod Khanna in 'Mere Apne' (1971)  2) The last pic?
Courtesy: Internet

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi...
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How ...
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or pain...
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...