CAN WE 'STILL' OUR MIND ON OUR OWN?
A couple of days ago,
my wife and I attended a wedding reception. It was in the open air and it was
organized on a grand scale. Around 11.in the night, guests were still pouring
in while we were leaving… It suddenly started drizzling… “Oh, God, how will
they manage it, if it rains heavily?” I thought in my mind… Luckily, the
drizzle stopped!
It was not ‘my’
party. I was just a guest and my wife and I had even done with our dinner. So,
if it all someone had to ‘worry’ it was the hosts and not me… Still, the thought
consumed me for a while…
And, yesterday was the coveted
– and hyped-up-and-spiced-up – India-Pakistan cricket match in England. The
match was to start late in the afternoon (Indian time). In our morning Tai Chi
class, I heard some talking about the terror attack in London and the impact it
might have on the match. “There is probability of the match getting cancelled
due to security reasons,” one of them told emphatically. But, in the afternoon,
the match did start… But, as we know how predictable the English rain is… the
match got held up a couple of times!
“What if the rain
doesn’t stop?” I was thinking aloud, “So much is at stake!”
Nothing was at
stake as far as I was concerned, who, like all other ‘fools’ around the world,
was watching the match here in this remote corner of the world, thousands of
miles away from the stadium… I had ‘invested’ nothing and I had nothing to gain
or lose if the match got cancelled… Still, my mind, you see… that ‘emotional
investment’!
Two weeks ago, my
friend, Vivek, shared with me an experience. He had attended an Art of Living
event… There was a technical hitch and suddenly the mikes were not working… It
was a packed audience and there was an uneasy tension in the audience. But, the
chief speaker rose to the occasion, and, in a voice audible enough, he explained
to the tensed audience, that it was a simple and practical example of how mediation
would help one in crisis… “If we learn to remain calm,” he explained to his
audience, “we can handle any crisis in life.”
Can we ‘still’ our
mind on our own?”
In one of our P.D.
Workshops, I heard my friend, Soniya, telling our young ones the story of Arjuna
and Krishna… The occasion was the competition for finding the suitor for
Draupadi… Arjuna was to shoot the bird which was hung above but looking at the reflection
of the bird in the water below. Krishna, Aruna’s friend, guide and philosopher –
rather his God – said, “Go ahead”… But, Arjuna was perplexed… “I am doing everything
to win this competition,” he lamented before Lord Krishna, “what will you be
doing through my test, my struggle, my ordeal?”
“I shall make sure,
that the water is still,” Krishna concluded.
I need help. Grace!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.:Avinash Mantri
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