The story of dragonfly

…contd….

It so happened that the next one to go turned out to be the ‘smart one’. He eventually climbed the lily stalk and out of exertion fell asleep. He had never been exposed to sun. So much light was too much for him. He went into long sleep. He got after long spell of time and he didn’t know how long! But he found himself being sticky and unable to move his limbs. He kept trying and after long struggle say feathers came out of the sticky substance that was all around him. He tried moving and to his surprise, his wings moved and he was air-borne in no time. He enjoyed the flight for sometime and then suddenly he remembered ‘his promise’. To fulfill that he had to go under water and so he dived into water. The moment he touched water he was pushed back. He saw his reflection in water. With feathers and all, he no longer looked his previous self. He found this change pleasant but couldn’t understand it. He tried diving into water again and again only to be disappointed.

Atlast, out of exertion he sat on a twig and went through the entire events one after the other. He told himself “now I don’t have the form that I had when I was under the water. So I can’t get in and even if I do, no one would recognize me now in this new form. It’s so beautiful out here. Even the ones under water would know that one day when they would come out of it. Then they’ll know why I didn’t and couldn’t keep up my promise. They wouldn’t be angry with me then. They would understand me then. So long folks!” so saying he left his old world behind. This dragonfly could never be the part of his old world ever again but he was happy with what he had and where he was!” our Guruji finished her story.

....contd.... 

The story of Dragonfly

…contd…

Time passed slowly and silence further reduced its speed. When I thought I could take it no more, I heard Swetha say “She is crying since two days and has hardly touched food. Her exams start from tomorrow and hence I brought her here so that you can put some sense in her”.

“But it was my best friend. How can I not get affected with her death” shouted back Sweety in between her tears. This girl was hardly in her teens – just around 12/13 years of age. Poor girl! How can one console her of her lose? We all were moved. Not that we haven’t seen or experienced death before but because here a small sweet kid was taking it and we knew her suffering and couldn’t see her suffering. That’s all!

But Guruji’s face showed no such emotion or feeling. Smiling she asked Sweety ‘can I tell you a story?”.

Sweety looked surprised through her tears but managed to say ‘only if you tell me where my friend is now and how is she?’

‘Done’ said our Guruji and continued ‘In a certain water body under the water lived lots of ‘water maggots’. But of late, they noticed that one among them would become slowly depressed dull and silent and would slowly move away from the colony. Then after few days that person would climb the stalk of lily flowers and keep climbing it. after climbing these maggots never came back. Where and why they went to place that they went, no one knew. Others were getting worried and confused. So they all called for a meeting and the smart one among them said ‘let’s make a promise today. Whoever goes next would come back to tell all others about the place that he went or visited and why no one came back.” All found it good and hence everyone made a pact.

...contd..... 

You can listen to this telugu song 'ekkado doorana' from the old film 'devudamma' 

The story of Dragonfly

Me, My Guru

On Death!

It was more than a fortnight since we were introduced to the way of life of ‘Il Dolce far Niente!’ Surprising! How fast time flies? When it was decided then that we meet after a fortnight to exchange our areas of application and our experience, fortnight looked too long a wait. But here it was and seems like time has just flown 2 weeks. May be this is what our Guruji always hinted at that time that time reflects our state of mind and nothing else! For eg. It looks soooo short when we are happy! But in actuality times has its fixed movement, yet it is felt different at different occasions.  I smiled as I understood this point today. 

I was walking towards ‘her’ place and all I could be excited about was to listen to other’s experience with regards to ‘Il Dolce far niente’. Yes I found this happening often with me. whenever I was going to her place all my thoughts revolved around ‘her’ or ‘her teachings’ and I hardly could think about anything else – be it personal or professional. It didn’t happen so when I was going to others places. Odd – I thought! My expectations of receiving some understanding or knowledge always excited me to heights. Though my realization did not match my expectation, I still loved to be in this space. It was intoxicating and I always looked forward to it.  Today I realized I liked her not that much for what she was, but what I was in ‘her’ presence.

Yes, I liked myself – the one excited, happy et al in ‘her’ presence. She sort of helped me to be in love with myself. She was instrumental in me experiencing varied emotions and that was good about the whole part. I found it funny but not weird…..

As I opened ‘her’ gate I found that all were seated in the hall. Inspite of it being summer, it was drizzling since morning and that must be the reason for all to be in hall and not under the tree in her front yard. I washed my feel and joined all. I saw ‘Swetha’ with her daughter Sweety crying sitting beside Guruji. Everyone was silent with head bent. I sat like-wise.

...contd.... 

This song says it all.....

 

on social etiquettes

…contd….

 ‘Not only would your external chatter reduce but it would automatically reduce the chatter in your brain. That would in return help you to be more peaceful. This would lead you to more energetic life” added Prakash.

“Now don’t you exaggerate. What has less talk got to do with our energy levels?” I asked.

“See it’s all very simple. All the fatigue that one feels because of energy being used by way of actions and talking and thinking being the major factor of usage of energy, when that usage decreases down, automatically you energy is saved. Saved energy means you’ve more energy and that in turn means you are leading an energetic life!” Prakash answered.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Are we really wasting our energies with so much of chatter? So sad! Yes, now it seemed more relevant ‘not to ask or answer such irrelevant questions?’ Now it’s no more about etiquette or social norm. It’s a call for survival and to lead a healthy life-style. No doubt, all religions and Gurus, why even Gandhiji recommended and practiced ‘mounvrat’ (practiced total absence of speech i.e. not speak the entire day or abstinence from speech for the stipulated time) once a week. This way I would be contained within more and would be less outside. That means more energy is contained within. Got it?”

It all looked very rosy and romantic. But these were old habits that’s become our reflex action. It would take lots of alertness on our part to break this habit. But certainly one that can be applied though it may take some time.

But,

Poem on keep going on………

(Just practice it 3hrs once a week. Pick a day and time so that we can make it a habit that all of us together can practice at that given time!)

...concluded.....

On social etiquettes

…contd….

“Can you think of such irrelevant and baseless questions?” Sethu asked.

“Oh! They are in scores.

A  Seeing a person at hotel/cinema hall/park and asking “What are you doing here?” I always feel like saying something like “Came to purchase grocery/vegetables or came to bury my dead uncle”. Isn’t the answer obvious? Then why do they ask?

B.      ‘So sad! So you both are staying alone now?’, ‘how come two people can be staying alone?’ such stupid statement or question.

C.      Calling someone in the mid-afternoon or late in night and asking ‘are you asleep?’, then why did you call?

 All started laughing out loud. Infact our stomach started to ache. 

Yes, it sounded funny now that we listened to these questions clearly! Oh God! How many times we could have parroted these ‘stupid questions?’ We asked him to stop. We got the picture. With tears rolling down our cheeks, we decided to listen to our own questions and stop ourselves from asking these questions. We wanted to take that initiative to stop asking such stupid and irrelevant questions.

“Then we would automatically talk so little” laughed Sethu. “Yes. True! And when you talk it would be on a sensible topic or subject. Something would come out of such topics then” replied Ramana.

‘Not only would your external chatter reduce but it would automatically reduce the chatter in your brain. That would in return help you to be more peaceful. This would lead you to more energetic life” added Prakash.

“Now don’t you exaggerate. What has less talk got to do with our energy levels?” I asked.

...contd....