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...

“Between the stimulus and the response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” Dr. Victor Frankl in ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’ W hat Dr. Frankl tries to convey to us is this: Our behaviour is not necessarily the result of what happens to us… It’s not necessary for us to react, instinctively, to someone’s comments, however taunting or nasty they may sound… There is no need for us to be a fish for his bait. Let the taunt be just that - a taunt. Let the nasty comment be just that - a nasty comment. In fact, unless we attach a special meaning to those comments, they remain just someone’s words. They become ‘nasty’ only if we allow them to be. The interpretation we give and the meaning we attach to those words make all the difference. So, Dr. Frankl’s explanation makes it difficult for us to complain and play the victim’s role… that, someone’s behaviour towards us is responsible for our ...

“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but, to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself, now and then, in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Isaac Newton S ometimes, a thought crosses my mind: Did the Buddha, Jesus, Nanak, Kabir, Sai of Shirdi, Mirabai, Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, Michelangelo, Darwin, Newton and Einstein and so many ‘greats’ like them – ever worry about someone stealing or copying their ‘stuff’? Sorry for making their colossal work appear so trivial to be called ‘stuff’! Those were the days when ‘Intellectual Property’ was not a ‘property’ yet… and Hashtags, copy rights, patent rights and branding had not found their place in the lexicons… And, yes, yes… those were the days when the houses had no doors… Quite literally! I smile when I think of this: Some houses, even today, still do not ...

Pic.: Usha Prasadh ”If the room is dark for twenty years, it doesn’t take another twenty years to bring light in.” - Sri Sri Ravishankar T here is no direct road to heaven… No short-cut, no express-ways or flyovers… and, certainly there are no ‘freeways’… The road to heaven ‘has to be’ through this world – through its plateaus, plains and mountains… through its jungles and deserts, rivers and seas… through its conflicts, sorrows, joys and  jubilation … None of, here, wants life to be tough. But, the life ‘is’ tough. All of us want our problems to go, once and for all. But, they don’t. The more we try to shut ourselves from the problems and sufferings of this world, the more and more they come to haunt us… Closing our eyes to the reality of this world will not help us… Opening our eyes to them, will! Prince Siddhartha’s father, the King, did not want his little son to see and experience the problems and sufferings of the wo...