THE RAVA IDLI AND PUDINA CHUTNEY MEDITATION
I was at a friend’s place last morning when his
wife served us some hot rava idlies with spicy pudina chutney. He
saw me eating in a hurry and said, “If you eat like this, you will miss out on
the glory of this food… Eat slowly, mindfully.”
I
instantly slowed down…
His
wife had prepared the food with loads of love. She had served it, too, with
loads of love. And, how was I treating it? Maybe, I never meant to hurt her or
my friend… But, No… I had no business to treat food the way I did – ‘mindlessly’.
“Mouth
alone cannot offer us the complete experience of relishing the food,” my friend
said, “our eyes, nose, hands, hearts – all do.” Then, my friend said an
interesting thing. “One reason why we do not pay attention to the food we eat
is, because we are overloaded with information…. The mind is constantly
disturbed. We need to throw out the garbage that we load in our minds.”
The
garbage?
“Do
we need so much of information that we stuff our minds with every day? What kind
of quality does it add to our lives? We need to keep our lives simple… Just the
way this food, here, does: If we joyfully, gratefully and mindfully eat this
food, just two idlies can give us a divine experience. On the other
hand, if we eat mindlessly and hurriedly, even a dozen idlies won’t
help.”
Meditation is not confined to our Yoga sessions
alone. Eating, bathing, washing, dressing up, tying our shoelaces, putting our
children to sleep, sitting on our toilet commodes, watching movies, listening
to songs, walking in the woods or even in busy market places, yes, even in our intimate
moments or moments in the graveyard – yes, meditation can and should take place
everywhere… It’s something we all need to remind ourselves with again and
again, each time we get ‘disconnected’…
Probably,
as my friend said, we can start with slowing down immediately where we are at the
moment – eating our idlies or taking our showers, forwarding and sharing
the ‘garbage’ on social media or kneeling down before God’s altar. Yes,
that’s the immediate thing we can start with… Slowing down… Cutting down… Being
mindful, grateful and joyful.
Then,
just two rava idlies and a tea spoon of pudina chutney can be
glorious in life!
GERALD
D’CUNHA
Pic.: Anil Bedi
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