WHAT IS ESSENTIAL IS INVISIBLE TO THE EYE













“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly…
What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“Your finger prints are unique… Your voice is unique… You are unique… There is no one in this world that is exactly like you… Because, God doesn’t create duplicates.”
Well, I have said this countless times, to countless people, and from countless platforms…
But, I did not discover this so-called ‘truth’ about us. I heard it from others and just began to believe in it. And, because I believe in it so much, I keep telling others the same…
Yes, with the hope that they, too, would believe in it…
Trying to remind someone - ‘You are unique’… ‘You are special’… ‘There is no one in this world that is exactly like you’ etc, etc… can make the fellow feel good. It’s like telling our partner in our intimate moments, “Oh darling, you are so amazing, so, so, so special’! And, it’s like reading Linda Goodman’s cult-classic, ‘Sun Signs’… She is so good in telling each one of us about our kundali, that we actually start believing in her…
“Gerry, you are a Leo. You are born to rule… You are born to lead!”… Such a nice prophecy… Feels so, so, so good… ‘Thank you so much Linda… Muhaaaaaaa.’ To fry it in our desi ghee: ‘Aap ka muh me ghee shakkar’! ‘God bless you’!
May God bless each one of us. If He has created us, why would He abandon us?
The Kingdom of God – if you like to call it so – is within our own bosoms. Yes, like Tolstoy, Gandhi and Christ did, I, too, have believed in this ‘truth’… That, the kingdom of God is within us… It is there right at the centre of our hearts, our bosoms, as Lao Tzu said: “At the centre of your being, you have the answer… You know who you are and you know what you want.”

Do we really know who we are and what we want? How are we supposed to discover it? Reading Linda’s predictions? Showing our palms and fingerprints to ‘experts’?

Maybe… I don’t know.

But, I know this…

To know who I am and what I want, I must learn to listen to my heart…

I am able to listen to my heart - very, very clearly - when I spend more and more time with myself…

When I walk more and more in the quiet places… in the woods, along the hillsides, near the seas, rivers or ponds…

When I learn to trace my hunches – my intuitions – and trust them…

When I immerse in a good book, song or a movie…

When I travel… look out of the window…

When I pray…play…

When I simply sit in front of God’s altar… alone, surrendering, seeking…

When I behold the innocence of little children...  Pets…


When I visit a hospital, a graveyard…

When I behold a bridal dance or a burial…

Yes, I must be alone, quiet… with myself… with Nature… with Life!

And, yes, I know this: “What is essential is invisible to the eye!”


GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Rekha Srikar Shenoy
Video: Movie clips/YouTube

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