This blog is about me contemplating and trying to make sense of this fascinating journey called life and penning down various life lessons that I learn along the way.....
So make yourself a nice cup of coffee..pull a chair and sit back and enjoy the little ponderings that I share with you...


Friday, July 18, 2014

I am the soul that lives within.....


Life is the most amazing teacher. Every single day through simple daily instances it teaches you something new about your own self and pushes you to go deeper and deeper to question your belief systems. Makes you wonder about everything that you thoughtlessly judged as good or bad before. 
Worth noting them down...life's little musings... with all its contradictions and humour.. Nothing heavy today.. just some simple wonderings....
 
And the other day, a simple act of getting a photograph done got me thinking and musing over what I actually am.  Made me question what is my outer me and what is my inner me? And who sees what?


 

"I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within." - Rumi
 
 
So the other day, I wanted some instant passport size pictures done. I went to this cute little shop and the guy there quickly clicked my picture and went to take the printout. And while I was waiting there, I could see him working on his computer.  I was curious to know what is he exactly doing with my picture so I went near him to watch him work. And I was so fascinated by what I saw. 
 
This guy had opened my picture in photoshop and was working on my face. He very sincerely removed every single blemish from my face, he nicely smoothened my cheeks and made me a shade fairer. He didn't stop at that, he then went on to fix my hair too. He nicely with his paintbrush adjusted them, rubbed out the ones that were flying out of place and made me prim and proper. One part of me wanted to tell him.. Dude, I look just fine the way I am!! and I am not going to pay you extra for this "fixing." But he was doing it all so sincerely and as a matter of factly that I  just smilingly waited for the final result. I wanted to know how exactly, did this person think, I "should" look like? :)
 
And then very pleased with his job gave me my printouts. And obviously I looked great in it!! And it made me wonder, Really? Who can I even show this picture to? This is not even me. :) And even if I ended up showing it to people they would simply dismiss it as a fudged photograph, right?
 
But then I remembered something which made me wonder even more. Remember in the earlier days (Did I just say that!!?? ;)) Well, yeah, so before photoshop, I should say :). So earlier, when we would go to take a picture, they would give you a few minutes to fix yourself. There would be a small corner where you could look in the mirror, put on some talcum powder and comb your hair. And after this ritual you would sit there and properly get a picture taken, right? 
 
Come to think of it, didn't the photoshop guy do the same thing on my picture? He put some concealer on my face and added some pink on my cheeks and brushed my hair...but only digitally didn't he? So then, it's still me, right? :) What's really wrong with that?
 
And so many people feel compelled to do that every single day of their life, right? No, I am not talking about basic hygiene and being "presentable" here. I am talking about actually picking up a brush and painting your face... putting on some makeup to enhance our looks..that's perfectly okay, right? So why does it feel wrong if we do it on photoshop? Why does that feel like fudging? Something to think about.....
 
And imagine, if I put this picture of mine on social networks, people would actually think this is what I look like! There are some people who probably we will never meet again in physical life but we are virtually connected to them on a daily basis. And with this picture, their entire lifetime they would think.. this is what I look like, with flawless smooth skin, a shade fairer and perfect hair!!! Talk about reality...and being yourself...

But what if I put on some makeup on my actual face and post that picture. Wouldn't I be doing the same fudging? How come that's alright?

And would I feel my authentic self with people who thought and wanted me to look flawless like that? Is it even worth it?

When I get stressed or depressed I tend to put on weight...when I start healing I automatically loose all my extra weight.. sometimes I colour my hair red...sometimes I straighten them out prim and proper... sometimes I like them loosely curly and flowing. I look different when I wake up in the mornings. I look different when I feel happy. I look different when I am sad or angry....
So this outer me keeps changing all the time and sometimes not even in my control. They say, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and the one who doesn't see the inner me....sees who and what then?

Reminds me of the day that I was going to get my glasses for the first time with my Dad and my sister. I was in my 10th standard then so obviously I was not very happy and a bit sad then. And my astute Dad had sensed that and he very sweetly with very few words told me that anyone who can't see the real me beyond my glasses was so not worth it. And that was the biggest advice I carry with me always and in some ways it got me thinking at an early age about the joy of being my authentic self and the real me...Who was this me beyond my glasses? I found it a very fascinating idea...

But yes..there's one enhancer that I myself am addicted to.. and that's my eye kohl...my kaajal pencil...and as I ponder more about it.. I guess that's where it leads to... the eyes..
The eyes are the windows to our soul, they say. Is that where my inner me resides? :)



 
 
 


Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Let Our Children Just Be....



I am truly blessed to have been meeting really wonderful souls as my journey continues. And a few months back, I met a wonderful friend, Lissa and through her I had the opportunity to know about her little sister Tara. Tara, a lovely 12 year old beautiful soul, left this world on 10th March 2014 but is still spiritually connected to all of us. This amazing soul left behind a treasure cove of wonderful metaphysical and thought provoking writings at such a young age. The Universe feels like a safe and wonderful place to be in because pure beings like her are still a part of it. And she shows the proof of her eternal existence through her lovely poems which she left behind for her loved ones and the rest of the world.
Through some of her metaphysical writings, Tara, a little 12 year old girl displays a lingering memory of our true identity, that we are not just the bodies and the physical form that we appear to be in. And she expressed it beautifully through her thoughts and feelings. Her lovely thought provoking poems simply amaze me. Makes me wonder, if a 12 year old child can be true to her feelings why can’t we all be. And she seems to keep inspiring us all in multiple ways….


Tara is a true example of our delightful children who have come down here with a mission to make this world a better place. They are wonderful, sensitive beings who possess many special unique talents and are gifted in their own way. The eternal question “Who am I?” which haunts us all throughout our lives is arising in their minds at a very young age.
Perhaps, because they have not yet forgotten the reality of who we really are. But many children these days get misunderstood because of lack of spiritual awareness of parents. In the name of “focus” we teach our children to repress all such beautiful wonderings that come to the minds of little children naturally. Many of the children are very spiritually aware and are highly evolved souls and have many questions regarding God, heaven, hell, good, bad and everything else under the sun. Sometimes, they even have answers that we ourselves are seeking. The real question is, are we prepared for them? Or are we so “intelligent” and practical that have we never “wasted” any time thinking about all this “stuff” in our own lives?
Tara’s words in her poem …Who am I?
Who am I? Am I a human?
Am I an animal? Am I a soul?
Or just a body?
But though now I lie in this bed,
One day I will be on my own feet running and all of my dreams will come true.
But I still have to find who I am…..
In the above poem, this little 12 year old girl feels the need to find who out she truly is and knows there is much more to her than what simply appears to be.  Have we tried to really find who we are? All souls are beautiful and pure when they come down and are full of such wonderings before they get polluted by our limited conditioning.
And as a mother of a boy, it also makes me wonder, would we have been so accepting of our little boys too? A boy writing metaphysical poetry! That’s all fine, but he has to be focused, strong and aggressive to “do” something “real” in life, right? We probably would have even secretly worried a bit about him.
Imagine this very familiar scene, A bunch of little boys are playing in the playground and somehow the ones who are most aggressive, loud, dominating and wanting to control everything will always be labelled as a potential “leader” material by some observer. And to be nice, nobody around defies this label given to such boys. But you think the other boys are not listening and learning from this? Ofcourse, they are. So what has happened here? Firstly, the aggressive boy’s behaviour gets encouraged and secondly, silently the other boys have learnt that this is what one has to do to be a leader. Leader? Really? Leader of what? And where will such a leader lead us to? Seems like not a very nice place to me.
A boy writing metaphysical poems would probably be seen as an aberration and a cause of concern for his parents. There seems to be no apparent place in today’s world for thought leadership or so we think and hence end up inculcating wrong values. And where did this all imbalance start? At that playground… when nobody taught fairness, the importance of being kind, compassionate and caring towards one’s own friends to these little boys. How many of us would come back home and openly name and discuss these control dramas which people knowingly/unknowingly play and how each unique child can handle these situations without emulating another child? How many of us put our energies and thoughts in this direction?
And then we watch the television and complain about crime against women and innocent people and feel horrible about these same grown boys….. But where did this all start? Where did they learn that aggression and manipulation is what gets you things? At that playground, when some parent thoughtlessly tried to show off their leadership assessment skills….and others were too “nice” and kept quiet or discuss this uncomfortable situation openly with their children.
Children are just pure children. We are the ones who begin slotting them in gender roles and fixed templates. We forget the importance of letting them grow as holistic people and not just as boys or girls. The path of self-actualisation requires us to balance our masculine and feminine energies and not supress either of them. It’s important to encourage sensitivity, kindness, creativity, responsibility, co-operation and assertiveness in all humans…both girls and boys equally.
Yes, we all are worried about the future and the careers of our children in today’s competitive world. But thinking from a scarcity mentality won’t get us anywhere. If we just allow our children to be who they are and help them in exploring and honing their various unique talents, then they will develop high self esteem, and will love to put in the required hours to master their talents willingly and then eventually be successful and fulfilled in their life. It is us parents who are not aware enough and hence have a very closed view of careers and life which we pass on to our children. Just to give a simple example, if our child likes music then our closed mind only imagines him playing in a rock band or a classical concert and we discourage him to go ahead with it as a career. We never imagine that maybe this child will open music schools countrywide or will make music education accessible to everyone or teach a better way of learning music to the coming generations or combine his love of music, maths and science and come up with something totally new. It is our limited imagination and awareness which makes us worry and transfer our insecurities to them and want them to be a certain way and grow up in a certain fixed template. Imagine billions and billions of children growing up in a few fixed set templates about life. Really?
To me personally, Jonathan Livingstone Seagul is one of the best books that you can read to your child and help them celebrate who they really are and how only by truly being who they are, will they shine and end up finding their “own” tribe.
Tara is a beautiful example of our wonderful children who are immensely wise, unique, thoughtful and talented. It is us parents who need to realise and remember this sacred responsibility that we undertook. We need to be more aware and be open to their unique talents and to the idea that they may end up being teachers, healers, writers, artists, musicians, sportsmen or take up careers and life paths which our little minds cannot even imagine at this point in time.
Also Tara’s writings and her thoughts inspire us adults in a way, that we don’t need to “Be” something to write out our pure thoughts and wonderings. She truthfully wrote what she had to because she was connected to her Source and her intuitive wisdom. And aren’t we all? She was not worried who will publish her material, who will read it and who will like it? She just simply wrote. She just simply was, who she was and hence inspiring us all to “Just Be” who we are....
I AM that I AM…..and that’s enough….
You can read more about lovely Tara and her writings on http://estrademagazine.com/tara-chazot/