Undercurrent

Unwrap joy and love
within each moment for me
Help me remember You
are there with me, each step I take
Hell too, I will pass through unscathed

The Murmur

As days roll over in a year,
And moments in a day,
See if you feel the murmur -
The murmur of love in your heart
This slightest feeling,
This feeling of pain and joy
entwined inseparably and excitingly,
Where every beat responds to life around,
The beat which tells of larger life,
The beat which longs to crack open,
The skinny surface to see what is beyond
The beat that inflicts pain with knowledge of limited,
The beat that oozes joy with a glimpse of the unlimited,
This micro beat this moment,
If it beats of love, Of pain and joy,
If it bears the agony of another as yours,
If it bears the ecstasy of another as yours,
If it can hold the tears of another as yours,
If it can look through the eyes of another
and long to be one with the other
Ah, this micro beat,
Ah, this micro beat
Then Is a window
To the heart beat of the absolute!

Sona

Full of life and love,
A recipe most of us forget here
A privilege watching you it was,
With misty, wonder-filled eyes
It took some one as you,
to remind how to be this moment
Laughter, I will add to the concoction
Blame you I will not for missing out!

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This post is a tribute to "Sona", a golden retriever dog that a meditator-couple brought to the volunteer games @ Besant Nagar Beach today. It was a real joy watching her play, full of love and exuberance, with anyone who cared to be with her that time. She even took the opportunity to take an extended-dip in the waves. Watching her, on the verge of tears, it was again mind-boggling how often we get muddled up in the process of life. We forget the simple innocence of living and loving moment-to-moment. Sona was an excellent mentor in the current context. Too bad, I did not have a camera(-phone) at that time! :)

The Parting

Living I was,
Shallow yet settled
A glimpse you gave,
of something larger
A flower I was,
Absent in memory of
the fragrance I beheld,
Another flower,
The fragrance so gently,
tips open my heart,
Oh! the pain of parting,
so lodged in my spine
Too much to bear,
Tears have dried up even
Make me not,
long for spring to shine,
Rather, make me the spring,
So I can be You at all times
Undo my ignorance,
and point me there all the time,
Bring me back,
When I have wandered too long,
I know not what I am doing,
All I want to be is with You
All I want to be is with You

Darts

Seething darts only wound the dart board
The air they pass through, resists them not

Fortress in the Ocean

Accountant he is,
Counts money to the penny,
Watches for recognition, Gloats in pride as they pour in,
Driven by ambition,
He waits for trickle food to satiate his stomach,
Marches on, does he, to the elusive bay of relaxation

Lover she is,
Pours her heart into the tiny blades of the grass shoot by her feet
Smiles does she, as they point their fingers at her in knowledgeable mockery
Driven by passion is she,
Helplessly fails to tackle the deluge

Accountant he is, defined by purpose
Till his head bleeds, he will realize not,
Hammering the walls of purpose don't break it
Long shall be the time that will pass, or not, until he sees the
Lover she is,
In the ocean of purposelessness,
Purposeless she is, boundless!

Sadhana

The entanglement that disentangles.
Shambho!

The Highest Choice

The (in)famous experiment involved simulating a prison situation in a controlled environment. A group of students played prisoners and a group played guards. Eventually, the experiment backfired so badly (the guards and prisoners roles assumed real propositions) that the experiment was shutdown in six days. Read the FAQ if you are not aware of this experiment.

The brain behind the experiment, Philip Zimbardo, wrote a book about it titled "The Lucifer Effect".

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Why am I writing about this?

The experiment happened nearly thirty five years ago. The outcomes of this experiment could have been used as telling evidence to predict the Abu Gharib nightmare. Basically, the situation is where too much power is vested in the hands of individuals without consequence. By consequence, I mean social consequence. Spiritual seekers and Masters will tell you there is always a karmic consequence. But not all people are blessed with the awareness of such fine degree. It will be difficult, or impossible, to perpetrate so much with the awareness in background.

Once Abu Gharib incidents were uncovered, there were a lot of finger pointing at the people involved. My thoughts are the following:

1. What about people who placed them there? Why was the political agency allowed to go scotfree?
   
2. A guard was later interviewed who described the situation there. An absolutely monstrous place where the mind just disintegrates daily with what you see on a moment-to-moment basis. In his experience, his actions were almost inevitable!
3. With point 2, I don't agree it is inevitable. But place yourself in the guards shoes. How many of us can walk our highest path when placed in such a nightmarish situation? In our day-to-day life, which is in no way even closely resembles such extremes, how many compromises do we make? Close your eyes and give it a thought. If you had unlimited power (in some context) and you were absolved of consequences of exercising this power, wouldn't you want to take advantage of it? Not everyone will exercise it to the same degree - but there is no doubt about the presence of the tendency or temptation. It takes a totally different kind of person - to say in such situations, no matter what, I am still going to walk my highest path despite where I am now.
   
4. The truth is all of us are capable of making either choice.
   
5. But if we do not make this choice in a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis, how will this nature come to play in an extreme situation? Today we do not make that choice at all times.
6. People who are into some Sadhana are a privileged lot. It provides an excellent context to walk the highest path in a tangible way. Situations like these can be used to push the intensity of Sadhana up by one more notch.
7. For people who are not into any Sadhana, the only way out is love. If you are not loving or not part of creating a loving situation, you will invariably be in the other gang. The way I see it, there is no neutral gang. One of the two is happening in a much lower scale that we do not pay attention to.


What are we creating today in our local environment? Abu Gharib or Tapovan?