Gerald D'Cunha

  “Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except yourself.” Gautama Buddha   I t is difficult to believe, that Siddhartha, the prince, had not stepped out of his palace till he was 29. His father, the king, did not want Siddhartha to chuck everything and become an ascetic… So, the young prince was confined to the dreamlike opulent-life inside the palace – for every luxury the palace could offer. But, then, what was feared came true… One day, the prince quietly went out to see what was going on in the real world… He first saw an old person, then a sick person, then a dead person, and, finally, an ascetic. As I said, at the outset, it is difficult to believe, that a 29-year-old married man, had not seen an old, a sick, a dead and an ascetic! And, when he did, the life of prince Siddhartha was destined to become the life of the Buddha, an enlightened one! Y ou and I are not shielded inside any palaces… We have been ‘seeing’ the real world since the day we were born. We...

A mother of eleventh-standard student (girl) was here, today, to enroll her daughter in my classes. The young one, a confident and bright girl, has joined a reputed college in the city and, the mother, like a truly involved parent, wants her daughter to do well in the Commerce field. “Sir, my problem is,” she explained to me, “that, I have my second child (son) who is just two-and-a-half-year old, and, I have to do ‘all this’ with him ‘all over again’.” I looked at the young girl, who was smiling on hearing what her mother was saying. “So, how can you help you mom, beta ?” I asked, “She has done ‘all that’ with you for ‘all these’ years… You are a young adult now. So, tell me what can you do to ease mom’s tension?”  I repeat these words almost every day in my class: “The greatest gift you can give to your parents, right now, is the trust and confidence in you… You have to make them feel that you are acting responsible for your affairs… that you are ab...