It has been quite some time since I wrote about synchronicity in my life and before I could even think about it, it happened when I opened the Facebook app today a while ago.
The first image posted by a dear friend and colleague was this: I responded in the comments column as “It happened to me as you well know.”
The background to that comment – After almost a quarter century of working with one employer, I decided to quit due to differences with the top. I quit and moved to Pune, where I have lived for the past thirty-two years and it has been the only place that I would want to stay all these years.
The next image that was posted by another friend in Facebook, was this: Yes, the life here has had its ups and downs and it has most certainly made me stronger.
The last image that I came across that sums up everything is a post from a friend of twenty two years from the same city where I live, who too has seen a lot of ups and downs and has shared those experiences with me as, I have mine with her.
This story has its beginning a few weeks ago. I had asked my cousin who now lives in Tamil Nadu, the length of a South Indian dhoti to compare it with what we get here in Maharashtra where I live.
Instead of answering, he simply ordered me to accept two dhoties as gifts from him and that he will arrange to procure them and send to me. Naturally, I was delighted and gratefully accepted his gift which duly arrived.
During the same conversation, he asked me if I had an image of our Kuladeivam (family deity) in my puja alcove. I responded with a no. He did not mention anything further but, I felt that now being the head of my rather dispersed family, I should have the same in my puja alcove and found a studio in Tamil Nadu who was capable of making one to my liking.
I ordered four of them to be sent to me, another cousin now resident of Maharashtra, my sister in Bengaluru and for the cousin who had asked me the question which led me to this activity. On being advised about this, the last on the list regretted that he would not be able to accept the gift as he already had one and had limited space in his retirement home. I therefore got left with one extra to my need.
Yesterday, I was in one of my periodic streamlining exercises and decided to part with a rare PDF spiral bound printed version of a very popular prayer. I offered it to a Vedanta classmate of mine who can read Tamil and she promptly accepted it. While I was getting it ready it occurred to me to ask her if she would like the spare deity too and she was overwhelmed. It turned out that we shared the same family deity and she too did not have the image in her puja alcove.
I sent both the PDF and the image to her earlier this morning and she is simply ecstatic.
I have been left wondering about the sequence of events that led to this development and can only come back to my favourite explanation “synchronicity”.
Today’s topic has been suggested by the youngest member of our group Sanjana who still has many miles to go before she sleeps. The rest of us six, except Maria who too still has some catching up to do, are all past or are on the proverbial three score and ten land mark and perhaps have other thoughts on the matter. Sanjana is also likely to write on technology and science, where there perhaps the sky is the limit whereas for me having been there and done that, goals are different and perhaps for my readers and fellow 6/1 bloggers, exotic. Maria is new to the group and it will be interesting to see her take on the subject.
I am a Vedantin. The core idea in that school of thought is “Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya, Jivo Brahmaiva Naparaha.” as so beautifully explained by Adi Shankara.
If you have gone to the article as given in the link you would have seen that Brahman is limitless and the Truth and that the Jiva, that is the individual is not different/apart from Brahman and therefore he too is limitless. The goal of the individual in this life is to ultimately REALISE that truth and be free and limitless. I have capitalised and highlighted the word REALISE to explain that it it the process of making something real that is only conceptual to start with. This is a matter for understanding.
This is my take on this week’s Friday 6 On 1 blog post topic. The other five bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are Maria.Sanjana, Padmum, Raju, Shackman and Conrad. This week’s topic was suggested by Sanjana. Please do go over to their respective blogs to see what they have to say on the topic. Thank you.
I am a practicing Vedantin. I am also in the stage of Aantara Sanyasa. That blog post was written almost a year ago and since then I have only firmed up on my practice and can affirm that I hardly ever worry now. I am also blessed with an innate happy frame of mind that I inherited from my mother. For me, this topic is a living reality. I hope that this blog post will inspire my readers to also not worry and be happy.
This is my take on this week’s Friday 6 On 1 blog post topic. The other five bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are Sanjana, Padmum, Raju, Shackman and Conrad. This week’s topic was suggested by me. Please do go over to their respective blogs to see what they have to say on the topic. Thank you.
A very interesting question raised by my fellow 6/1 blogger Conrad.
In my not so humble opinion, the answer has been staring at our faces for decades. None of them work in the long term. All of them have been tried and found wanting. The human being is simply not willing to bring about a world that can live in harmony with all members like other species do.
The nearest society has come to some kind of a Utopia is when it engages in totally spiritual approaches to life. This simply means that we let what is innate in us to operate freely so that superimposed value systems of superior/inferior, good/bad, etc be replaced with what Frans de Waal calls our greater powers of abstraction, and involves “a move toward universal standards combined with an elaborate system of justification, monitoring, and punishment.”
At this point, for most people religion comes in as religion and morality has been inseparably enjoined since long. Oxford English Dictionary defines religion as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. This is not what will bring about morality in our lives but I strongly believe that spiritualism will certainly do. OED defines spirituality as “Relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.”
Quite how a spiritual life can be inculcated in us is something that I am not qualified to suggest. I however think that small beginnings made in our schools right from the childhood can and does bring about this as, I have personally seen happening in many of our schools that teach our children good values from the beginning. For those interested, here is one such school and I reiterate that, there are many thousands more in India and hopefully, in the next couple of generations, at least in India, we will see a society that will be harmonious with sound moral values.
This is my take on this week’s Friday 6 On 1 blog post topic. The other five bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are Sanjana, Padmum, Raju, Shackman and Conrad. This week’s topic was suggested by Conrad. Please do go over to their respective blogs to see what they have to say on the topic. Thank you.
The image is of a Cricketing batsman anticipating a delivery from the bowler at the other end of the wicket.
This topic has been suggested by Shackman for our weekly Two On One Friday Blog Post. Please go over to his blog to see what he has to say on the topic.
“anticipation
a feeling of excitement about something that is going to happen in the near future: As with most pleasures, it’s not so much the experience itself as the anticipation that is enjoyable. The postponement of the film’s sequel has held cinemagoers in eager anticipation for several months.” ~ Cambridge Dictionary.
Having no wild or even tame oats to sow any more, I have little to look forward to in my life in anticipation for something that is likely to happen in the near or distant future. On a daily basis I have three things that I anticipate and I have one long term anticipation.
My day inevitably starts with anticipation for the arrival of the daily newspapers. Once I have organised myself comfortably and settled down to read them, the mood changes to various emotions. Disgust, happiness, anxiety, pity, sorrow, joy etc, depending on what the contents convey. While I am going through all those emotions for about an hour and a half, there is an undercurrent of anticipation for the settling down to solving my daily quota of crossword puzzles.
The next thing I anticipate is my afternoon siesta with the hope that I do not get disturbed by visitors or telephone calls. By and large I am satisfied with the time I do get for it but, occasionally, courier delivery men will disturb and that disturbs my equilibrium somewhat.
The last thing I anticipate is a good night’s sleep and I inevitably get it.
In the long term, I anticipate a simple death having already lived eight years beyond our national average life expectancy for men, and I regularly use two Vedic prayers.
Om Tryambakam(pronounced as Trayambakai) Yajamahe Sugandhim pushtivardhanam; Urvaarukamiva bandhanaan Mrityormuksheeya maamritaat.
“We worship the three-eyed One (Lord Siva) who is fragrant and who nourishes all beings; may He liberate me from death, for the sake of Immortality, even as the cucumber is severed from its bondage (of the creeper).”
Meaning : Requesting Lord Shiva to kindly grant three wishes:-
To give a peaceful death without any bodily troubles to me or others
A life without any trouble for the basic needs
Total Bhakti to Lord shiva.
Some three decades ago, my Guru instructed me on Action and Outcomes. The gist is that there are four possible outcomes for any action taken – 1. Get what is expected; 2. Get more than what is expected; 3. Get less than what is expected and 4. Get something totally different to what was expected.
The trick in living a life of balance and comfort is in accepting that any of these four outcomes are possible and accepting whatever comes out of our actions as what we deserve at that particular point of time.
This clip explains that well and it gives me great pleasure in sharing it with my readers.
I responded in the comments column as “It happened to me as you well know.”
Yes, the life here has had its ups and downs and it has most certainly made me stronger.
