Living on your island

Each one of us in a way is an island and we live on one, somewhere deep within our hearts, the sacred space that is reached through the meanderingly warm bylanes cemented by our memories, hope and unforgettable moments of life.

A space so profound within that often it leads to a belief that alters with the perception of the real. Such is the fallacy of the theatre we intriguingly have known of and thence called the journey, life. A word as powerful and yet so fragile in its essence as the believed synonyms, Love and Lord. 

We all talk and share with others, a part of us and a part of them. We choose to be a part of people's lives and moment, happy and grey alike, but somewhere a part of us remains truly ours, inviolable and silently watching like the child who walks for the first time to candy store. Silent and in an inexpressible daze.

There are thoughts and words we do not talk or share and they gather like the leaves of autumn somewhere within. As they begin to come together and the tide of time flows like the stream that flows silently yet with a poignant poise into the dark alleys of the forest, Out of this arises a Phoenix like need to awaken and share, for it gets very lonesome on the island. As time passes we pick up each leaf as though bookmarked with an instance we held so special and relive them time and over again in our hearts only to know we are still in company of ourselves on the island others may feel is lonely. Loneliness turns to an acceptance and celebration of being with one called Aloneness. A metaphor of knowing there are enough bookmarks to relive and live by over and again. 

There, We tend to sit under our favourite tree whose roots as deep as our questions by the never resting stream of thought that flows by as we pelt stones of ponder in due introspect as the ripples of our silent conversations within appear only to elude at very next instant. 
Ah the time slows and we quite oft even come out of the island only to discover new reasons to go back even more strongly and somewhere a little more fragile. 

Though nature desires, we live up to the paradigm of being social animals Alas, the furred versions to us seek and live for the moment as it passes, unlike we, the social version to them, who find it close to an unachievable feat that can never live in the now until it is the one we have dreamt of it yesterday and wished of realising it in the future. The day gone by is but a today's memory and the tomorrow well, another today's dream. 

The words woven by the string of introspective memoirs inspired by my daily life is an ode to every unforgettable moment and the people who shaped my journey to my island within and out of it. A story shared by many who walk with a pensive hope for all things good and know that Life is nothing but a happy experience and it ought to be one however the divine forgetfulness of our soul as it takes birth, leads to the search of what we have already known,know and still tend to seek. This journey leads us through different lives simultaneously taking on a different role every Monet yet bound to the impervious child within that remains a watcher experiencing it all in a myriad hues inexpressible, turning the cuckoo on the branch within, silent. 

One such melody within, is this introspective memoir I humbly offer for you to relish and with a prayer to cajole you to walk with me in the journey as your own. While you sit on your island within, under the cool shade of the favourite flowering tree and the peeping warm sun through the fluffy clouds in the blue sky the mountains watch over you and the birds chirp their most precious sonnets in silence as you embark on the journey of my memories recollected in tranquility to my dreaded moment where it all began, The Farewell Hour.


This is the Introduction to the Book, yours truly has been working on. 
Thought of sharing it with you all.

time to ponder and pen..
Ratin

Relating and relationships

Another day in due silence within, the need to know more as alive as a new born baby! I work with a myriad people and many affect and many more don't. I get to wonder so many interwoven strands of relating I ask " why is it so difficult to relate" I answer- Because you are not you yet. There is an inner emptiness and the fear that if you relate with somebody, sooner or later you will be exposed as empty. Hence it seems safer to keep a distance with people; at least you can pretend you are. You are not. You are not yet born, you are only an opportunity. You are not yet a fulfillment -- and only two fulfilled persons can relate. To relate is one of the greatest things of life: to relate means to love, to relate means to share. But before you can share, you must have. And before you can love you must be full of love, overflowing with love. Two seeds cannot relate, they are closed. Two flowers can relate; they are open, they can send their fragrances to each other, they can dance in the same sun and in the same wind, they can have a dialogue, they can whisper. But that is not possible for two seeds. Seeds are utterly closed, windowless -- how to relate? And that is the situation. Man is born as a seed; he can become a flower, he may not. It all depends on you, what you do with yourself; it all depends on you whether you grow or you don't. It is your choice -- and each moment the choice has to be faced; each moment you are on the crossroads. Millions of people decide not to grow. They remain seeds; they remain potentialities, they never become actualities. They don't know what self-realization is, they don't know what self-actualization is, they don't know anything of being. Utterly empty they live, utterly empty they die. How can they relate? It will be exposing yourself -- your nudity, your ugliness, your emptiness -- safer, it seems, to keep a distance. Even lovers keep distance; they come only so far, and they remain alert to when to turn back. They have boundaries; they never cross the boundaries, they remain confined to their boundaries. Yes, there is a kind of relationship, but it is not that of relating, it is that of possession: the husband possesses the wife, the wife possesses the husband, the parents possess the children, and so on and so forth. But to possess is not to relate. In fact to possess is to destroy all possibilities of relating. If you relate, you respect; you cannot possess. If you relate, there is great reverence. If you relate, you come very close, very very close, in deep intimacy, overlapping. Still the other's freedom is not interfered with, still the other remains an independent individual. The relationship is that of I-thou, not that of I-it -- overlapping, interpenetrating, yet in a sense independent. Khalil Gibran says: "Be like two pillars that support the same roof, but don't start possessing the other, leave the other independent. Support the same roof -- that roof is love." Two lovers support something invisible and something immensely valuable: some poetry of being, some music heard in the deepest recesses of their existence. They support both, they support some harmony, but still they remain independent. They can expose themselves to the other, because there is no fear. They know they ARE. They know their inner beauty, they know their inner perfume; there is no fear. But ordinarily the fear exists, because you don't have any perfume. If you expose yourself you will simply stink. You will stink of jealousies, hatreds, angers, lust. You will not have the perfume of love, prayer, compassion. Millions of people have decided to remain seeds. Why? When they can become flowers and they can also have a dance in the wind and the sun and the moon, why have they decided to remain seeds? There is something in their decision: the seed is more secure than the flower. The flower is fragile; the seed is not fragile, the seed looks stronger. The flower can be destroyed very easily; just a strong wind and the petals will blow away. The seed cannot be destroyed so easily by the wind, the seed is very protected, secure. The flower is exposed -- such a delicate thing, and exposed to so many hazards: a strong wind may come, it may rain cats and dogs, the sun may be too hot, some foolish man may pluck the flower. Anything can happen to the flower, everything can happen to the flower, the flower is constantly in danger. But the seed is safe; hence millions of people decide to remain seeds. But to remain a seed is to remain dead, to remain a seed is not to live at all. It is secure, certainly, but it has no life. Death is secure, life is insecurity. One who really wants to live has to live in danger, in constant danger. One who wants to reach to the peaks has to take the risk of getting lost. One who wants to climb the highest peaks has to take the risk of falling from somewhere, slipping down. The greater is the longing to grow, the more and more danger has to be accepted. The real man accepts danger as his very style of life, as his very climate of growth. I ask me : "Why is it so difficult to relate?" It is difficult because you are not yet. First be. Everything else is possible only afterwards: first be. Jesus says it in his own way: "First seek ye the kingdom of God, then all else shall be added unto you." This is just an old expression for the same thing that I am saying: First be, then all else shall be added unto you. But being is the basic requirement. If you are, courage comes as a consequence. If you are, great desire for adventure, to explore, arises -- and when you are ready to explore, you can relate. Relating is exploring -- exploring the other's consciousness, exploring the other's territory. But when you explore the other's territory, you have to allow and welcome the other to explore you; it cannot be one-way traffic. And you can allow the other to explore you only when you have something, some treasure within you. Then there is no fear. In fact you invite the guest, you embrace the guest, you call him in, you want him in. You want him to see what you have discovered in yourself, you want to share it. First be, then you can relate -- and remember, to relate is beautiful. Relationship is a totally different phenomenon; relationship is something dead, fixed, a full point has arrived. You get married to a woman; a full point has arrived. Now things will only decline. You have reached the limit, nothing is growing any more. The river has stopped and it is becoming a reservoir. Relationship is already a thing, complete; relating is a process. Avoid relationships, and go deeper and deeper into relating. My emphasis is on verbs, not on nouns; avoid nouns as much as possible. In language you cannot avoid, that I know; but in life, avoid -- because life is a verb. Life is not a noun, it is really "living" not "life." It is not love, it is loving. It is not relationship, it is relating. It is not a song, it is singing. It is not a dance, it is dancing. See the difference, savor the difference. A dance is something complete; the last touches have been made, now there is nothing else to do. Something complete is something dead. Life knows no full point; commas are okay, but no full points. Resting places are okay, but no destination. Instead of thinking how to relate, fulfill the first requirement: meditate, be, and then relating will arise out of it on its own accord. One who becomes silent, blissful, one who starts having overflowing energies, becomes a flower, has to relate. It is not something that he has to learn how to do, it starts happening. He relates with people, he relates with animals, he relates with trees, he relates even with rocks. In fact, twenty-four hours a day he relates. If he is walking on the earth, he is relating with the earth... his feet touching the earth, he is relating. If he is swimming in the river he is relating with the river, and if he is looking at the stars he is relating with the stars. It is not a question of a relationship with somebody in particular. The basic fact is, if you are, your whole life becomes a relating. It is a constant song, a constant dance, it is a continuum, a riverlike flow. Meditate, find out your own center first. Before you can relate with somebody else, relate with yourself: that is the basic requirement to be fulfilled. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible. My mind is still .. The hunger only broadens with every journey to know more I must rest now.. Ratin

Fearlessness..The True Religion

Many moons later I return with a question from a dear friend that sends me gallopping on the stride of thoughts. 

 I am asked "so what is religion"??

 And I ponder, taking my usual walk looking up waiting to receive the answer and then it all gushes like a torrential wave....

Well here is my understanding of the question.. 

 A real religion gives you fearlessness: let that be the criterion. If religion gives you fear, then it is not really religion. Unless religion is personal, unless religion is not abstract but real, deep in your roots, deep in your guts, unless it is like blood and bone and marrow, it is futile, it is of no use. It is the religion of the philosophers not the religion of the sages. The real religion is not imitation of anybody else, it is a search to find out your own authentic self, who you are. Real religion is always a process of unguilting; false religions are always a process of guilting. They try to make you more and more guilty: anger is there, lust is there, sex is there, greed is there, attachment is there, hate is there, love is there — and everything is condemned. 

You become guilty, you start feeling wrong; you are wrong, you start feeling condemned, you start hating yourself. If you start hating yourself you will never be able to find God, because He is hiding in you. Whatsoever you ask is really irrelevant. I will answer the same because I have got only one answer. But that one answer is like a master key; it opens all doors. It is not concerned with any particular lock — any lock and the key opens it. Religion has only one answer and that answer is meditation. And meditation means how to empty yourself. Be happy! and meditation will follow. Be happy, and religion will follow. Happiness is a basic condition. People become religious only when they are unhappy — then their religion is pseudo. Try to understand why you are unhappy. 

All people who are creative are close to religion. Religion is the greatest creativity because it is an effort to give birth to yourself, to become a father and mother to yourself, to be born again, to be reborn through meditation, through awareness. Poetry is good, painting is good — but when you give birth to your own consciousness, there is no comparison. Then you have given birth to the ultimate poetry, the ultimate music, the ultimate dance. This is the dimension of creativity. On the rung of creativity, religion is the last. It is the greatest art, the ultimate art — that’s why I call it ‘the ultimate alchemy’. Meditation or religion is a totally different world: it is relaxation, it is let-go. The whole work of religion, of meditation is to make you aware of all that is mind and disidentify yourself with it. 

Life exists without rules; games cannot exist without rules. So real religion is always without rules; only false religion has rules, because false religion is a game. In the West theology has overpowered religion. When theology overpowers religion, then religion is nothing but philosophy. And the philosophy is also not very philosophic — because philosophy can exist only through doubt, and theology bases itself on faith. So it is impotent philosophy, not even philosophy in the real sense. Religion is not based on belief or faith: religion is based on awe, religion is based on wonder. Religion is based on the mysterious that is your surround. To feel it, to be aware of it, to see it, open your eyes and drop the dust of the ages. Clean your mirror! and see what beauty surrounds you, what tremendous grandeur goes on knocking at your doors. Why are you sitting with closed eyes? Why are you sitting with such long faces? Why can’t you dance? and why can’t you laugh? I don’t want you to drop your personality forever; I simply want you to be capable of putting it off when it is not needed. This is the whole art of real religion: to teach you how to put the mind off and how to put it on. The very courageous, the really strong people, the really adventurous, become attracted towards paths of self-realization or paths of self-transformation.

 Religion is the greatest adventure there is. Going to Everest is nothing, going to the moon also is nothing; going to the highest peak of your being is the real task. Because in the first place, we are not even aware that the peak exists. In the first place, we are so unconscious that we don’t know what we are doing. We don’t know what we are doing with our lives. A real religion is always of meditation. What type of foolishness has settled in the human heart? When the flower is there, you avoid; and when only the emptiness is left, then you worship. You are afraid of real religion. That’s why you become a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian. This is a trick of the mind, a deception. This is a way to avoid religion, because religion will transform you. 

Religion will destroy you as you are, and religion will give a new birth to you. Something unknown will come into existence through religion and you are afraid of that — of dying. of being reborn. So you belong to old traditions. What to renounce? For what reason should you fast? Celebrate and dance! A real religion is celebration; a false religion is renunciation. A religion is alive in the heart, it has nothing to do with temples and churches or gurudwaras. If you are moved, if a rhythm arises in you, if you start dancing seeing Krishna or his statue, suddenly the flute on his lips is no longer just a symbol to you, it has become a real dance. You can listen to his tune, you can hear his tune. Real religion consists of becoming utterly silent, unconditioned, unhypnotized. It is going beyond mind, beyond ideology; it is going beyond scripture and beyond knowledge. It is simply falling into your own interiority, becoming utterly silent, not knowing a thing, and functioning from that state of not knowing, from that innocence. 

When you function out of innocence, your actions have a beauty of their own. That’s what virtue is — AES DHAMMO SANANTANO. 

Live and cherish yet be poor in spirit. Have the least materialistic attachment and then you shall have an ocean space to seek the divine truth. 

In a reverb and ponder, 

I sink into thoughts again to breathe from breathlessness

 Ratin...