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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